The Dress

I met the person named Dovanna in a very strange way.  I had a house with three bedrooms and one roommate.  A friend came to me and told me that she had a friend that needed a place to live, could she rent the other bedroom.  I agreed to meet with this friend and see if she might be a good fit for us.  She came to see the house and to meet me, and she brought her sister (and it did not take long for her sister to remember that she knew me from a previous place that I had lived).  Her sister did most of the talking for the hour long tour and "interview."  But though she did not say much Dovanna seemed nice enough, I would have her as a roommate.

I am so glad that I did.  She was a wonderful roommate.  She also became a great friend.  The type of friend where you go years and moves from country to country without talking, but when you do reconnect it seems as if no time has passed :)

I had not really talked to Dovanna for probably 4 years, then out of the blue she calls me up one day in May.  She wanted to catch up but more importantly she wanted to know if I was given white material would I be able to design a dress of my choice without a pattern.  She had seen me do this while we lived together.  I said probably and that is where the conversation pretty much ended.

A month later she calls again and asked if I remember her asking about the dress.  I responded yes, and asked if there was a need for a white dress to be created.  She said yes, she just got engaged that weekend.  Would I make the dress for her?  I thought and thought.  I went back and forth on the idea (since she lives 3 hours away and fittings might not be too easy).  I told her to look closer to where she lived.  Then I finally told her, it would be an honor.  I would love to do it!

We originally thought of designing a dress for her.  So I was coming up with ideas and sending them to her over e-mail.  And she was sending me numerous e-mails of pictures and patterns that she liked.  After about 3 weeks of the back and forth, I pointed out to her that every e-mail of pictures that she liked included one pattern.  And with that pattern she always wrote something along the lines of "I really like this one."  So I pointed this out to her and asked if she just wanted me to make this dress.  She agreed and off we went.

She bought the material and all that was needed and we spent the first fitting getting sized, buying extra notions that might be needed, and just talking and giggling the entire time.

Now let me just say, this is not a typical wedding.  She is getting married in her parent's back yard with only immediate family there.  They will have two receptions afterward, but since it is an outdoor wedding in the fall, and she is just a wonderfully unique person...she did not want a typical wedding dress.  But I must say, this dress is "her."  It fits her body type, her style, her personality, everything....just perfectly!

It was a challenge to make at times, and it included a lot of trial and error.  But in the end, I can say that I did my best and I think it looks wonderfully (she says the same.)

Without further ado.  Here is the picture of the dress:

I still feel very honored to be able to be involved in her wedding in this way.

Rearranging the Downstairs

 Grace is staring to eat more and more on her own.  That means messes under her chair (and yes, I know that you can put a plastic mat underneath the chair to catch the messes but I am certain this girl is talented because each time I have used it, the mess goes everywhere BUT the plastic mat.  Then after the meal she promptly picks up the mat and drags it around like a superhero cape....) and carpet is not a good mix for that.  Also Grace is getting more and bigger toys.

Put the two problems together and what do you get?  Well, I personally get a weekend of moving everything around in the house.  Matt and I decided to put our kitchen table in the breakfast nook that we have in the tiled kitchen.  But first we had to rebuild his plant shelves and clean up that area.

Then we put all of Grace's toys (or at least most of them) in the former dining room which is now her playroom.

 

Then we moved things around in the living room because we lost some shelving due to the new plant shelving in the kitchen.  So in the move we made Grace's desk available.  She loves it!

 

She spends at least 10 minutes each day coloring or pulling out her crayons and putting them back (and yes, we have already had a drawing on the wall situation.  Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are amazing!)

It was a lot of work.  It was a lot of mess.  We are still not done.  But I am so happy with the changes that we have made in this house.

Sleeping Beauty

On the way home from Harrisonburg once I looked back to find this...

How adorable!

Iowa Vacation (Part 6)

In which, it is Friday.

We ate breakfast and flew out on this day.  Not much to say except that Steve and Sue joined Chris, Katie, Ellie, Matt, Grace and I for one last breakfast during this vacation.  The flight was fairly uneventful.  So I will get on to the other reason for the post....non-day-specific activities :)

 Grace and Ellie loved the toys that were available to them at Steve and Sue's.  They had Duplos, wood puzzles, and cats to name a few items :)

 But the best was when Grandma Sue got down on the floor to play with the girls.

 Some days it is just a two pacifier day!

 Grace, shoes go on your feet...not your hands!

 Laser lights, hours of entertainment for cats, children, and adults alike.

 Grace attempted many times to put Ellie's socks and shoes on her feet.  Only a few times did she succeed.

 Grace loved to feed Ellie.  The trick to this game was she would let Ellie have one tiny bite of the cracker, then she would eat the rest of it.  She chased Ellie around the house trying to feed her that one bite.

 My beautiful little girl.

 One night we went bowling.  It was fun to play, and to chase the girls around the alley.

Grace loved to touch the balls.  Fortunately they were too heavy for her to pick up or do anything with.

It was a fun vacation.  I am glad that we all got to spend a week together and make these memories!

News For Today

It Is A Boy!

Glen Matthew
Due January 4th

According to sonogram...
healthy and very active!

Iowa Vacation (Part 5)

Thursday morning we woke up early and dressed for a long day of trips (some we knew about, and some were a surprise to us).  Had a breakfast at IHOP which actually was a very good thing since Grace was not quite in the mood to eat at the moment, I was able to take her pancakes with us and feed them to her on the road.

Chris and Katie drove separately, so we all piled into our respective cars and headed down the road to a location unknown to us.  After about an hour of driving we began to see signs of "Welcome to the Field of Dreams."  It was not until we were turning into the parking lot that I realized that we were at the movie set location of Field of Dreams!

 

Now we realized one more reason why Steve and Sue wanted to watch Field Of Dreams earlier on in the week.

We all got out of the cars, but the surprise did not end there, Steve went to the trunk of the car and pulled out three baseball gloves a bunch of baseballs and two soft nerf-like balls for Grace and Ellie.  And off we went to play baseball on the movie site :)

 

 Grace and I chased after her ball, but more than anything we ran the bases.  We also went to the cornfield and took a step or two in, but we did not disappear into the corn like the players do in the movie.... :(

Yes, that is the house and the bleachers from the movie!  I think that was the neatest surprise that they planned for us.  Very unexpected and very memorable.

Following the trip to the Field Of Dreams, we piled into the cars once again and this time our car (Matt, Grace, Steve, Sue and I) went to Backbone Park for a picnic lunch while Chris, Katie and Ellie headed back to Waterloo for Ellie's nap (and unknown to us all at the time...to change rooms at the hotel).

There were not many people at the park at all so we had the playground structures all to ourselves and Grace loved it that way.  She ate on the run (literally).  She went up ladders, down slides, back and forth on the swings, and chased bubbles.  It was a great time and a wonderful end to a great day trip.  

 

And to finish off (a quote from Field of Dreams...a good one to end today's post with)

"Is this heaven?  No, it's Iowa!"

Iowa Vacation (Part 4)

Wednesday we woke early and all got as spiffed up as we could.  This is because we were going to have family pictures taken for the first time in three years!  We all piled in the van, drove across the street, and went to the Sears Portrait Studio.  The pictures turned out great.  The girls did not want to cooperate at the same time (so a picture of them together was a challenge, but for them both being one and a half, I think that they did pretty well.

As you can tell, Grace had fun at the photo shoot dancing and laughing.  I think that we got some great family pictures.

After pictures we went out for a quick bite to eat, then to see Sue's work place.  We got the full tour of the law offices and most importantly Sue was able to show off her beautiful grandgirls to everyone.

Then we headed straight to the Grout Museum.  The name of this museum was the source of great laughter from Matt and I earlier in the week.  We were trying to imagine a whole museum dedicated to grout.  Different colors of grout, different tiles that you use grout with, ways to clean grout...you get the idea.  I am still not sure why it is called the Grout Museum but it has nothing to do with what is between tiles.  It is a collection of 3 or 4 museums.  We went to one that focused on pioneer, multiple wars, but the upstairs was  world war II, and some of wars of today (I may be missing some, but those were the focuses).  There was a large exhibit of the Sullivan Brothers.  These brothers were very famous because there were five of them who enlisted all at the same time.  They chose to serve together during the war.  They also died together during an attack on their ship.

The museum was very nice and also a good cool place to go during this very hot week.  But by the end of the second floor of exhibits I was very tired and Grace was too.  So we went back to Steve and Sue's place to rest and relax.

That night we went out to a very nice restaurant.  Grace would only eat if she was climbing the stairs up and down and up and down and up and down.  But at least she ate and she was happy!