Duck Blanket

I have been dying to post pictures of this....I finished it up Sunday, but the baby shower wasn't until today. It's for my friend Larissa and she reads my blog. She is such a stinking cute little pregnant lady. I just realized I didn't get a picture with her. :( I meant to.....



I made Joseph hold him so you could see him a little better. I stole this idea from a blog online....I changed it a bit. The lady on the blog put the duck head in the middle; I thought it looked better in the corner. Here's her link:

http://nikkidwright.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/fast-easy-crochet-baby-gift/

She cracked me up...you have to read it.

I hope Larissa liked it. I worked on it for about a month. With work and school, I do a few rows at night and get a little more done on the weekend. It's my fifth baby blanket.


This is the first and second blanket I made....the first was for Jennifer King, my senior at work. She is a spunky, fun girl and she has a special place in my heart. I liked this blanket so much that I made it again for my friend Katelyn. Her little Lily is so stinking cute.


This is the third blanket I made for my beautiful cousin Lindsey. She had a little boy Boston. She has another child, her little girl Avrie, but I didn't know how to crochet when Avrie was born.

I just made this blanket (number four) over Christmas break for my friend Danielle. She hasn't had her baby yet but she is due pretty soon.

I have tried my hand at baby booties but those are a little harder than blankets. I have been meaning to try a little baby sweater....My only apprehension for clothes is that you can't really tell what size it's going to be. Depending on your yarn and what size hook you use, it can be too big or too small.

Joseph is such a sweetie when it comes to my craft supplies everywhere. I have stamp/scrapbooking stuff taking up space in his office and my yarn and sewing stuff in the closet. He is very supportive when it comes to my projects. When I was buying all the stuff for my clay class, I asked him if he minded that I spent money on my little hobbies (especially since I was worried I might not be any good at clay). He told me that I need to explore and grow, and live life, and if I wanted to take my classes it was ok with him.

Love my handsome boy Joseph.

Phoenix Rain

I hate the rain. I think I am one of the only person in Phoenix who does. All the rest of the crazies think it's some kind of treat.

Ha.

One thing that drives me crazy is fact that everyone complains how no one in Phoenix can drive in the rain.

Isn't it funny how everyone thinks everyone else is the problem.

I'll come right out and say it: I drive slow in the rain. Especially when it's dark. Rain decreases visibility, and I have a hard time seeing the lane lines. And the fact that Phoenix roads are not built to handle the water that builds up freaks me out a little. Driving into a pond and splashing up a wall of water is not fun for me.

Not to mention the fact that my truck has a leak somehow, and when it rains, water drips on my gas-pedal foot. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that people use that as a form of torture. If they don't, it's a pretty effective idea.

Stupid rain. Give me my sunshine back.

Clay, Football, and Statistics

My email buddy Keeley doesn't have internet right now and I find myself getting a little pent up. Who knew what a venting outlet that was?

The thing that stinks about a blog is that I like sharing things with people, but I definitely have to edit. I can't just start talking about work....I'm definitely paranoid that these things can be monitored. I guess I could put it on private but that's way more restrictive.

Anyway, what is happening in the life of Deidre:

I have enjoyed my time off from school for the holiday but I need to get back into the swing of things. I managed to get an A in my Finance class but it almost killed me. I totally earned that A. There aren't many classes I can say that for....But now I am taking an information systems class and I have to write a paper every week. Groan. I have five classes left...the last three are my "core" leadership classes and I'm doubling up two of them, so I have four eight-week sections left. I am officially counting it down.

I signed my sister Steph and myself up for a clay-making class. You have to buy the supplies, but I was thinking, "Clay? That shouldn't be bad, right?" Oh no. You need shaping tools and cutting tools and 50 different kinds of clay and glaze and paint....argh! It got a little expensive. This has better be something I am good at for the small investment I made! But it will be nice to spend time with Steph. I have been trying to get her to dress a little more....differently than she currently dresses, so I offered to give her an American Eagle coupon I had if she would buy their blue jeans (love their blue jeans). She told me I had to take her. Alright. I'm totally going to get in trouble because my monthly allowance is already gone (and it's only halfway through the month!) but I will try very hard not to look at the clothes.

I am excited about tomorrow. My baby brother the Marine is back from Iraq and he is in town. We are going to my nephew Matt's football game (that kid is almost taller than me and he's only eleven. I know his foot is bigger than mine). After that we are going to the Home and Garden show....Joseph just tore up the backyard and it is looking kind of bare....and weed-infested. Saturday night we have a housewarming party for my friend Adam. I am really looking forward to hanging out with him. We used to hang out all the time but then life happened.....and he moved to Surprise.

Here is something that cracked me up today:

Abraham Quincy Penberthy: Don't start making up statistics. I was just going to do that.

Hehehe. We were having a conversation about stereotypes. I said something about how you can't apply a stereotype to the other 40% of people just because 60% act that way. Totally pulled that one out of my butt, but it was intended to illustrate a point, not to be accurate.

Do you know why I know his full name? Because during a team building exercise he introduced himself as such, and then paused with an expectant look on his face. But he failed to recognize that no one in a professional setting is going to laugh at your name. So there was an awkward pause.

I rather enjoy awkward pauses.

I crack myself up

When someone says something funny that really cracks me up, I write it down.

I love re-reading something and cracking up all over again.

I thought I'd share a few with you:

Joseph (to me): Are you being a stinker in your head?

(He said something I didn't agree with, and I didn't say anything, but he could tell by the look on my face exactly what I was thinking!)

Breezy: Jim is short for James? I thought Jimmy was short for Jim.

Deidre: I am only being nice to you because it's your birthday.

Joseph: I know, I can see how difficult that is for you.

Deidre: Oh, you'll be hearing about that tomorrow.

(This is a picture of Rosco Biggs peeking under the bathroom door at Dano)

Joseph: What's the point of having someone if you can't sniff them?

(My Mom thinks we're all nuts)

Deidre: I want to see his truck.

Jared: No you don't. Some things can't be un-seen.

Joseph: I don't need kids. Some of your facial expressions and what you say is just like a little kid.

Deidre: Nu-uh.

Dano (after a chair was broken into pieces): I think it's fixable.

Breezy: I'm scare of being buried alive, burned alive, and dying alive.

Sean: Are you not a cracker? (After I cracked my back)

My beautiful mermaid

My darling husband told me I could do whatever I wanted in the guest bedroom. So, of course, it has a mermaid theme. I really wanted a mermaid painted on the wall but I have no artistic talent. Enter: Stephanie. My little sister Stephanie is very talented. Check out these pictures and you will agree with me.

The outline.

I had an idea of how I wanted the mermaid to look; I found a picture online so that's my Macbook open to the picture.

I love her hair.

Steph worked really hard on my mermaid and you can tell. She did a some different color blending and shading and it really pops. If anyone needs something painted on a wall (nursery?) she's willing to charge like $50. That's ridiculously low if you ask me, but she's still in college, so I think it'll help build up her portfolio.

Christmas lights and the toilet

I had some time off and was able to cross quite a bit off my to-do list. One thing Joseph and I had yet to tackle was hanging Christmas lights. I knew we were going to install a new toilet Saturday, and then the Holiday party for work was Saturday night, so I decided to surprise Joseph and hang the lights myself on Friday. Luckily, my sister Steph offered to help me out.

Hanging Christmas lights.

Steph up on the roof.

The Christmas lights was a fairly easy project; there wasn't really any large disaster....other than being unable to find the lights I wanted. But the next day was Toilet Day.

I watched a video online about how to replace a toilet....it looked super easy. The video was a minute and a half long. Piece of cake, right?

Uh-huh. Because my projects always go just how they should.

The old toilet.

We got the old toilet up and I told Joseph, "We have a problem."
The flange is completely rusted.

I cut myself pretty bad ripping out the old flange.

Joseph screwing in the bottom.

New toilet.

I'm not even going to go into everything that went wrong on this project. I just hope we installed it correctly. My biggest fear as a homeowner is that I have mold growing in my walls or some slow rot somewhere that I won't be able to see until my house collapses.

But let's think positive.

If something is missing....

I had today off from work, and I got to spend some time with my Mom, Grandma and Dano. It was a fun day; we went to World Market, Pier One, Styles for Less, and Walmart in the little shopping center by my house.

At Walmart, my mom picked something up (I cannot tell you what it is because Santa is going to be bringing it for the Nelsen family) and Dano and I said, "I thought you have one of those."

Nope, she gave it to Megan (sister Megan, lives in Texas).

I said, "Didn't you need my scotcheroo recipe because you gave the cookbook it was in to Megan?" We are noticing a pattern.

A couple minutes later we were walking through the seasonal area, and I noticed a train set. I said, "Mom, whatever happened to your train set?"

Dano said, "She gave it to Megan."

Dano was joking, my mom just can't find it....it might be in the garage or the black hole she calls a closet, but the train set hasn't been seen in a few years. My mom just cracks me up; she will give you the shirt off her back if she thinks you want it.