The Sewing Mom

Since moving to Texas, we’re all ready having to think about sun care, it was almost 80 today and I couldn’t get over all the people working in their yards outside! Not to mention, I’ve been considering going some place warm and sunny for Spring Break in a few weeks.

My daughter came home from school this afternoon and was chatting with a friend on her cell phone when, due to lack of a good sunscreen, her lips did something really funky. I decided to grab the video camera to capture it on film. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! You might want to check this out so the same thing doesn’t happen to someone you love.

I’ve decided to enter this video in the Spring Break contest, the Xtreme Spring Break Challenge, sponsored by Ocean Potion. The Grand Prize winner will receive either $5,000 or an Xtreme Dream Vacation, I could use either one of those prizes! They really do carry some terrific sun care products, after sun care and tanning lotions, even for kids. They even carry a self tanner. Their products contain high SPF’s and aloe vera for skin conditioning, plus, all of their products are PABA free.

If you have an interesting tanning story, you may just want to enter this contest yourself!

I want to say that I am very sorry I haven’t been posting much about sewing over the last week or so.  I’ve been so busy trying to get tax paperwork done, health benefits updated and generally managing my daughter’s Destination Imagination team, I haven’t had much time to sew.  In fact, I’ve had no time to sew.

I did make it to the fabric store last Saturday and stocked up on thread, it was all half price.  That’s the closest I’ve come to fabric or anything sewing related in almost two weeks.

I am attending a class this Thursday to re-familiarize myself with the embroidery function on my machine.  Hopefully that will motivate me to get busy.  I’d really like to make some shirts for the DI team to wear to the tournament, which, by the way, is less than two weeks away.

I’m rambling here so I will end this post, but I wanted to say that I hope to get back to my sewing very soon and will have more to post on that subject when I do.

I finally got myself started on sorting through all of our tax information, I’ve been procrastinating. I just have to organize it, fill out our tax questionnaire and then send it all off to our accountant. Every year, I think I have everything ready and then it happens, I have to go digging through my files for something else. This year is no different.

As I go through the questionnaire that our accountant sends us each year, I ensure I have all the back up documents. As I check things off, I make a list of missing paperwork. This morning I was doing my search for the missing papers. Probably the most important document that was MIA was the closing document from the sale of our home last year. I know it was provided to us by the title company and I was sure it was with our home sale documents. I just had to sort through to find it.

In the state of Illinois, home sales are handled by real estate attorneys, but the closing documents are prepared by the title company. In Texas, closings are handled without the attorney, everything is taken care of between the mortgage companies and the title insurance companies. Either way, I think that besides handling a home sale closing, it’s important to have title insurance on any property that you own, don’t you? It ensures that nobody is going to come out of the blue and try to lay claim to your land. Title insurance policies can be interesting to read if you live in a location that has any history. I remember our title policy on our home in Houston had a lot of facts regarding oil claims. It really was a fascinating read!

Anyway, I did manage to find the necessary document this morning and I am getting closer to being ready to send it off to the accountant. That will be a big weight off of my shoulders. If you’ve never actually read your title insurance policy, you might want to some time, you just never know what interesting facts you’ll find in that document.

I was tagged by Angela at Unexpected Art for this 4×4 meme. I’m a little bit slow getting this one up, but I like the idea of it and wanted to get it going. Basically the meme is answering 4 questions on 4 topics (thus the 4×4) and then tagging 4 people. So, here it goes.

4 Jobs I’ve Had in My Life

1. My very first paid job (besides babysitting) was working in a dry cleaners. This was an interesting job, but I have to say, I did not enjoy the smell of all those dirty clothes!
2. In college I worked two jobs, but my favorite was probably working in intramural sports. I was a referee for volleyball, assigned racquetball courts, and checked out equipment. I got to do a lot of studying while getting paid!
3. I have worked at all levels of retail, sales associate to store manager. I would have really enjoyed my last retail position as Operations Mgr. for Old Navy had the General Mgr. not been such a complete ass to work for. Let’s just say it really peaked when he wanted me to come in and work while I was on maternity leave!
4. My most recent job was working as a classroom and one-on-one aide in our school district. I learned a lot about autism and I gained a lot of respect for school teachers.

4 Shows I DVR (TIVO)

1. Lost
2. Las Vegas
3. The Apprentice
4. Desperate Housewives

4 Places I’ve Been

1. Kenya - I got the rare opportunity to go on a photo safari with my parents many years ago. I have and will never forget it. I hope to be able to do the same thing with my daughter some day.
2. Switzerland - This is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I would love to go back someday.
3. Niagara Fall, Canada - One amazing trip, and the first real vacation we ever went on with our daughter, she was two at the time.
4. The Grand Canyon, Arizona - We were fortunate enough to travel with my parents in their motorhome and traveled to the North Rim. This side of the canyon is less crowded with tourists and it was a beautiful drive from the south side

Now, I have to say that is was very difficult only choosing four places that I’ve visited. My parents lived overseas when I was in high school and I was given the opportunity to travel the globe. I filled up 2 passports with visas and entry/exit stamps. I would give anything to give my daughter the same opportunity.
4 Favorite Foods

1. Seafood - In particular, I have to say that I love shrimp and fish.
2. I love all things Mexican, especially cheese and chicken enchiladas.
3. Pasta - Who doesn’t love pasta?!
4. My mom’s beef stew. I’ve come close, but no matter what I do, my beef stew isn’t quite the same as hers. I usually ask her to make it when she visits. It’s my comfort food.

4 People I Tag

1. As someone who recently made the decision to try to make a living online, I know he is wanting to build traffic, so I am tagging The Random Forest and hope you will go visit him.
2. I’m also tagging Laura’s Daily Life because I know she enjoys telling us stories of her children and I hope she will enjoy telling some things about herself.
3. I would also like to tag fellow stitcher and crafter extraordinaire Fatiah at Sew My Name who also has taught me a thing or two about blogging!
4. And last but certainly not least, I am tagging one of my newest blogging friends, Ellen, from All In A Day who is not only a fellow blogger, but a fellow crafter as well. She has some wonderful bags for sale at Etsy.com so be sure to check out her blog and her shop.