The Last Week of February...

...was maybe the craziest, busiest week of my life. The Wednesday before was the Pinewood Derby that I was in charge of, a whole story by itself so I had already had a crazy week. But this week? This one takes the cake. I had bought fabric to make Zoe's baptism quilt when we were in Albuquerque for New Year's. I knew my sewing machine was broken but didn't take it in to get fixed until February. I waited until February 20th and called to find out if it was ready and they said the computer was broken and it wasn't worth fixing. I posted on facebook to ask if anyone had a machine I could borrow and my sweet friend Bethany came through for me--and had the exact same machine as me! It was totally meant to be, I was so grateful I didn't have to learn how to use a new machine at the last minute.

I cut all the fabric on Saturday and decided I would start sewing on Sunday if I had the chance. Now most people can probably sew while their kids are awake, but I am not one of those people. I literally can't leave Finn and Jonas alone for a second (not even when I use the bathroom) or Finn will hurt him, so if my attention is diverted by sewing (which really takes all of my attention) it will be a disaster. So I could either sew when Dave was home or sew when they were asleep, those were my only options. That's what made this week so crazy I think.

I had sharing time in February and Finn is struggling as a new Sunbeam, so each week was just brutal. Sunday was no different and I finally asked the other counselor if she could take him to Dave and as she was pulling him out he was screaming "Help meeee!!! Help meeee!!!!!" It was just ridiculous! Sunday was insane. Zoe had a talk and her baptism interview. I had a primary teacher training immediately after church. Dave had to help with the stake mission prep class that day. He and Isaac had a fireside that night. Needless to say, I didn't get a chance to start sewing. My new friend offered at church to do my quilt edges for me--always the worst part for me. She said she sews a lot and would love to do that for me. I was thrilled and told her I'd try to get the quilt to her by Thursday so she'd have a few days to work on it. Go mode.

I took my kids Sunday clothes to the dry cleaners on Monday so they'd be pressed and nice looking for the baptism without me having to do it. Then I went home and brought Bethany's sewing machine out and found that the thing the thread sits on was broken off in the box. She said I could try super gluing it back on, and luckily that worked.

 I laid the quilt out on my bed and sewed as much as I could that day, and got all the rows done. I realized that night that I'd made a mistake and wasn't up to fixing it that night and gave up for the day.

Tuesday morning I went to Walmart to get stuff for Zoe's birthday and baptism and while I was there I got a phone call from Isaac's school that I accidentally declined. Dave called a few minutes later to tell me the school had called him because I wasn't there for my IEP meeting with Isaac's gifted teacher. I had known it was that day but when we initially scheduled it I told Dave I needed him to either stay home with the kids or go to the meeting because IEPs with Jonas and Finn are a nightmare and I've done too many of them to try it one more time. We didn't talk about it again and I put it out of my mind completely. Ugh. So Dave ran over to the school and did the meeting thankfully while I finished up at Walmart. Later that morning my friend Lacie just showed up at my door, sewing machine in hand. She helped me fix my mistake and then we sewed like crazy. Her daughter Mimi was here to play with Finn which was exactly what I needed. When I left to get my kids from school, Lacie stayed (her daughter goes to the school next door) and kept sewing. When we got back she was just finishing up--the whole top! It was done! I was so insanely grateful (especially when I found out later that she got super sick that evening and threw up all night. I felt awful but I'm still so grateful she was there to help). Zoe normally has tumbling on Tuesdays but my friend Tania was leaving out of town so this was the only day we had to take her baptism pictures. I hurriedly curled her hair and got her dressed in her baptism dress and left to meet her just as Lacie was leaving. I left Finn home with Noah and took Jonas with us to the pictures. Zoe hates having her hair curled and her picture taken and she was missing tumbling so she was super grumpy. I finally told her I would buy her Fratelli's if she would smile (and she thought I meant I would buy it that night) so she finally smiled once. Jonas didn't have shoes so I was carrying him through the dirt bike park trying to get Zoe to smile...not my favorite night.

After we were done with pictures I took her to the later tumbling class (15 minutes late!) and went back to Tania's to pick out pictures for her to edit and email me. Dave called (no dinner at home, ugh) and started making dinner, then I picked up Zoe at 6 and we went home. Dave took Noah to scouts and tried to drop off Zoe's girl scout cookie money. He's had a really bad/crazy few weeks at work and was super stressed and I felt so bad I was adding to that. Tania finished editing the pictures late that night and sent them to the Costco in St. George to get printed. My dad picked them up for me and brought them down, so we even had pictures of her at the baptism! My parents are the best. So is Tania.

Wednesday my sweet friend Bethany offered to have Finn over to play for the day so I could sew. She has a brand new baby and I was hesitant to take her up on it but she promised it would be fun and helpful. Then as I drove into her driveway she called and said her son had just thrown up at school and she had to go get him. She was still willing to have Finn, just warning me. I was torn because Finn was sooo excited to play and I was excited to have some sewing time but I didn't want anyone to get sick this week and be a burden to Bethany. I told her we'd run some errands and I'd let her know. We picked up the dry cleaning, ran to the store, and got some breakfast at McDonald's. Finn kept crying because he wanted to play with Jude so my selfishness won out and we took him to play. Jonas and I came home and I laid out the white fabric for the back on Zoe's quilt to cut and sew together and realized it was NOT quilt material. It was like sheer curtains material--it was all Walmart had when I went to buy it on Saturday and I didn't notice. So Jonas and I hopped in the car and flew to Gallup Service Mart for some $10/yard white fabric. Oy. We flew back home, I put Jonas down for a nap, and had to make a treat for the Priesthood/temple prep class that was that night at 7.  I also made the programs for the meeting that night.

Then I started cutting and sewing the back together (it was a pieced back because Zoe wanted some flowered fabric we'd found in Albuquerque but it was super expensive so I couldn't buy enough for the whole back--turns out it would've been cheaper to buy that because of how much money I wasted on the white fabric from Walmart and the expensive stuff from GSM). Jonas only slept for 45 minutes so I didn't get too much done but once the back was done I laid the quilt out and discovered I didn't have enough batting. OYYYYY!

I had measured initially but when we finished the top on Tuesday Lacie and I decided it wasn't big enough and added four more rows...making my batting too small. I called my friend Mikelle and she had some batting I could have so I drove to her house to get that, drove to Bethany's to get Finn, then picked up the elementary kids from the school.

Finn had so much fun at Jude's house he zonked on the way home!

We came home, I sewed the pieces of batting together and then I pinned it all together. I made dinner and some frosting for the brownies then Dave had to leave early for Priests presidency meeting. He had scheduled a baby-sitter to come to our house at 6:40 so Isaac, Noah and I could be at the church by 7:00 (Isaac is the Deacon's quorum president and had to speak and Noah turns 12 this year so he was supposed to be there, and I'm in the primary presidency and we were in charge of the whole meeting, Dave is the YM president so he had to be there too). We live 15 minute from the church and the sitter hadn't showed up so at 6:50 I loaded the kids in the car because we really couldn't be late. As I started driving away the brownies started sliding off my plate, all over Isaac's freshly dry-cleaned clothes (remember he was speaking that night? Yeah. Covered in chocolate frosting).  I told him I would hold the plate but that didn't make much difference because then they slid off all over me. I pulled over and opened the door and the brownies fell out on the street. I threw them back in the car and we kept going. Isaac and Noah ran in to the chapel while I tried to salvage the brownies that had been all over Isaac, all over me, all over the street, all over the car, and now all over the church parking lot. Dave came out while I yelled at him (not his fault, but man was I stressed) and took Zoe and the little boys to the nursery. I carried the demolished brownies in, cleaned up and finished setting up the decorations I had brought and just bawled. I kept thinking "I DO EVERYTHING RIGHT, WHY IS MY LIFE SO CRAPPY? I JUST NEED FAMILY HERE THAT'S ALL I NEED I JUST NEED TO LIVE NEAR FAMILY I HATE MY LIFE." So yeah, a bit melodramatic. I finally made it in to the meeting (Zoe "baby-sat" for me) and loved all the talks and the spirit that was there, especially when sweet Rhyan spoke about how I was feeling that night and made it all better (she didn't know, just the perfect talk for me). I took the kids home, put them to bed (Finn threw a tantrum and threw his bottle of chocolate milk which opened and spilled EVERYWHERE), and then quilted my quilt together. I was so relieved to be done so I could get it to my friend to finish the edges.

Thursday morning I called my friend and left a voicemail that the quilt was ready to bind and I could drop it off any time. I did some grocery shopping, then cleaned like a mad woman (my parents and 3 siblings were coming into town on Friday). I cleaned my fridge, did all the laundry, changed sheets, cleaned bathrooms, mopped floors. I took Zoe to tumbling, Dave had presidency meeting that night, and when I still hadn't heard from my friend I decided I had to just do the edges myself. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the back was not big enough to fold the edges over like I'd planned...but didn't realize until I'd already started doing it. I also cut the fabric several times when I was trying to trim the batting. I officially ruined it. It was so bad and I cried. I also poked my fingers a thousand times with the pins and bled on the quilt a few times. Gross. I had spent so much time and money and I wanted it to be decent, but at that point I decided I just wanted to finish it. I did my best but it really looks awful. SO embarrassing.

Luckily Zoe hasn't seemed to notice (yet).  I finished that night around 11. Dave decorated the house for Zoe's birthday and I wrapped her presents. I'm genuinely embarrassed to post these pictures but how can you talk this much about a quilt without actually showing it? The green is on the back. Oh my gosh the puckering. The PUCKERING! IT'S AWFUL!

Friday was early-release so we had Zoe's birthday party that afternoon. Sweet Dave took the day off and took Isaac to his dentist appointment for me that morning with the boys while I finished up cleaning and making Zoe's birthday cake. He brought Zoe, Noah, and Rozlyn home. Lamece's mom dropped her off here, and we did cake and presents then I took them to see Peter Rabbit while Dave stayed home with Jonas and Finn. Salma's mom dropped her off at the theater so we had 4 girls plus Noah. It was heaven to just sit for a bit. The movie was hilarious! We came back home, I ordered pizza for dinner and the girls left. The pizza got delivered at 5 and my parents and siblings showed up around 5:30. We ate, opened presents, and talked and laughed while the cousins played. I was so happy to have them here. That night I hand washed her dress because the bottom was so dirty from the bike park. I couldn't believe how dirty the water got, it didn't look that bad at first. I'm glad I thought to do it before Saturday morning!

Saturday morning Dave had to go clean the church and he was the only one that showed up. He did the best he could. I printed Zoe's programs for her baptism and we had the baptism (more on that later) that was awesome. Look how good her quilt looks, all wrapped up with ribbon. Ha! Looks are deceiving!

We had ice cream then everyone came back to our house for a few minutes. Dave had to stay because there was an Eagle Scout court of honor at 5 (3 boys received their Eagles). We did a little jamming with Charlie on the guitar, Sara on the piano, and Alex singing along. Everyone was hungry so the grown-ups and teenagers went to Genaro's for dinner. Unfortunately it was dinner time and my little kids hadn't eaten yet and Dave wasn't here so I couldn't go (they won't eat mexican food. Isaac offered to watch them but he's not the best with cooking/feeding them dinner). I was super sad and cried for a minute thinking "I DO EVERYTHING RIGHT, WHY IS MY LIFE SO CRAPPY? EVEN WITH MY FAMILY HERE MY LIFE SUCKS I HATE MY LIFE." Yeah I don't handle stress well. Then I went "Oh yeah. I'm the youngest. I'm the only one with little kids anymore and this is just a times and seasons thing. NO big deal." And then I was fine. Delos and Misty left Bekah here and Charlie stayed with Isaac. My parents took Noah back to the hotel with Rachel and Lizzie to swim so I fed the kids here. Sweet Sara brought us back some dinner and Dave and I ate at home. After everyone left I realized we needed a few things at the store for Sunday. I took Isaac and Charlie back to the hotel while I went to the store, then went up and hung out in my parents room for a bit, said good-bye to Delos and Sara's families, and came home.

Sunday my parents came with us to Sacrament meeting and Zoe and Lizzie had so much fun writing messages to each other and being so cute. I was so sad they had to go but was so grateful that they came at all. I know it's a huge burden to my mom to travel and it was so meaningful to have her there. She brought Zoe fancy scriptures with her name on them, and even got her a teal scripture case and some marking pens (she was the most excited about those, of course). When they were leaving my dad said "You guys are doing great. I'm so proud of you. You're stronger than you know." And I was thinking "boy if you had seen my scream thoughts this week you might not think so!" Heh heh. I was so relieved when the week was over. There was no school on Monday so we literally did nothing that day and it was heaven.

And that was the busiest week of my life. I could not have made it without my amazing friends and family and Dave especially. I don't know how he puts up with me. But it was all for Zoe, and she is 100% worth it.