One Hand, One Heart

In honor of Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day, I am including my current giveaway! But to sweeten the deal, I am now adding another prize. Second place is now a child's apron with a matching doll-sized apron in your choice of color! First place is still the Moda Bake Shop ensemble. Third is now a gift box of goodies from Creations Gallery, my mortar and bricks store in Colby, Kansas. And fourth place is a good chunk of fabric from my personal stash. Whoo hoo! Merry Christmas to you! The winners will be chosen at random from random.org. I am extending the giveaway to midnight on Sunday, December 6 and will draw on Monday the 7th. Just leave me a comment on this post. Don't leave it on today's or you won't be entered! Just click the link, or scroll down two posts to the one with all the comments already. Good luck! I'm having so much fun hearing from everybody.

Here is my new matching child and doll apron:

Although a bit big for my sweet little Anna, isn't this so cute? It's completely reversible and has two pockets. So is the doll's.

So, today is my 9th Anniversary! (well, almost today as it is the 1st when I'm writing this) I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Three completely horrible pregnancies with wonderful outcomes and a six year house building project later, here we are. It hasn't been ALL good, but most of it has.

I was thinking of the funniest thing that's happened in our marriage. It sure didn't seem funny at the time, but now it does. Well, we had just moved in to this house, which means we had been working on it for a little over a year. We were worn out. Worse, Todd hates spiders. Earlier that day, he called me over because I don't get too worked up over spiders and showed me on in our window well the size of his hand.

This is not the spider, but a similar one I found at http://www.arachnology.be/pages/wolf

Anyhoo, he was already worked up. Then this awful smell started emanating from our basement. It was the first of many times this happened. I went down to investigate. (It turned out our plumber -- one of the few people hired to work on our house besides us -- had forgotten to glue the pipes together and sewer gas was leaking from the vent pipes. This is beside the point and took many years to figure out. We had to tear down finished walls to fix this. Auggg!) So, Todd was worn out. I had just gotten six-month-old Nathan to sleep. I tiptoed down to the basement in my bare feet and pajamas. And in this dimly lit room, I see something HUGE and furry moving. It's not six feet away from me, the HUGEST centipede I have ever seen. I am barefoot. In my quiet not to wake the baby but fully terrified voice, I scream-whisper for Todd. He is irritated but comes down and is nearly as freaked out as I am, but does manage to kill the beast.

Again, not us. It's from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4201634.stm

I actually think ours was bigger. No joke.

Did I mention that our dog Ralphie was sprayed by a skunk that week and came streaking through the house. Anyway, Todd, overcome with emotion, says, "Let's get out of this Jurassic Park!" Oh, I still laugh thinking about it. And we did get out. For three days we lived with my in-laws while getting the courage to go back to Jurassic Park. Or possibly because of the smells. We sort of disagree on that. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

I love you, honey. Thanks for putting up with me all these years. Especially all the sewing. And the store. And when I can't get pictures to work and stay up late working on them. You are truly the best thing that's ever happened to me and my best friend as well.

Love,

xoxo