Hello

Have you ever had one of those days where you just feel large? Like a bass that ate too much and somehow managed to flip yourself out of your favorite spot in the river, and now lie on the river bank unsuccessfully gulping for air?

I sort of feel like that today. Large and tired. I'm sure being 20 weeks pregnant doesn't help anything either. I need better pants that let it all hang out -- my current pants kind of hold me in. Makes it a tad difficult to breath. Or overeat.

Anyway, more doll updates soon. I finally have a head that works, and I'm experimenting with embroidering the face. It has worked pretty well on two of the heads that didn't work for the doll -- so they're kind of this decapitated doll head with a bit of a cheery/smirking face. They don't understand that they're missing bodies. Silly stupid doll heads.

More later.

Later.

Goodbyes

My grandmother's funeral was last Thursday, and I was given the opportunity to speak.  Here is my goodbye letter:

Dear Grandma,

I have learned so many things from you throughout my life. When I was little you had patience enough to teach me to crochet, and since then I’ve used the skill to make blankets, toys and doll clothes. I love telling people my grandma taught me, and have to apologize when they ask me to teach them, because I don’t have your patience to sit and show them how. Yet, from watching your example I have always tried to be patient when it’s truly needed. I listen to friends and family with patience, I love with patience, and I learn with patience.

You have always been there for me, with kindness and love in your heart. I could visit you from a long week at university and immediately fall asleep on your couch, because I knew I could lay my burden down. Being in your presence has always allowed me to relax, to shed whatever worries drowning me. All I would need is a look from you to know that everything would be all right. You posses this overwhelming power of understanding, so easily expressed in your eyes, a hug, a touch from your hand. It’s like standing in sunshine.

You faced many challenges and tragedies, but you had sense enough not let them drag you down and own you. Whenever I face something emotionally difficult I think of your strength. If you could live 89 years with joy and forgiveness, I can follow your example and do my best to love and accept all people, and to strongly bear any burden life or God throws my way.
You also taught me your biting sense of humor. It’s always best to laugh when things are hard, or when they’re easy, or to laugh always. The only thing that really matters is to look good while doing it. I still struggle with it today, but having observed your style and the pride you put into your appearance, I dress to impress you.

Thank you so much for supporting me and being my best friend. I don’t want to say goodbye, because I know you will be near in spirit. You will be with me, locked safely in my heart and in my memories. As promised, my children will learn of you and you, and we will continue to celebrate your life and all you have taught me. I will treasure you all my life.

Grandma

Genevieve Hegsted Twitchell Wayment

OGDEN –Genevieve (Gen) Hegsted Wayment born May 14, 1919 in Joseph, Oregon, died at her home in Ogden with her husband and family at her side November 28, 2008.

As a little girl Gen moved with her prospector father and family from Joseph, to Lewiston, Idaho to Quincy, California then to Ogden which she loved.

Gen was married to Ernest Twitchell from 1936 to his death in 1968 and was married to Rollo Wayment from 1983 till her death, two wonderful marriages in one beautiful lifetime.

Except for some colorful years living in a sheep camp or on railroad sections in Lucin and Lakeside Utah, her married years were spent in the same lovely and charming Ogden neighborhood.

Friend, Wife, Sister, Mom, Aunt and Grandma, Gen was a poem of womanhood, old school tough as nails and loving, tender and spiritual in all her thoughts, ways and actions.

Gen, one of our best examples of the greatest generation, forged in the great depression, case hardened by conditions we cannot imagine, lived her life in every measure at a level above and beyond our common understanding of duty and devotion, whether caring for members of a large extended family, tending a dying aunt or brother, donating to the needy, or thrilling at the site of a quail in the front yard.

Gen worked in canning factories, in several of Ogden’s stores, in the hospital as a nurse’s aid, and at HAFB from which she retired in 1985.

Consider yourself fortunate if you knew Gen, or someone like her, because they enrich your life.

Preceding Gen in her death are her first husband Ernest Twitchell, a great-grandson, Cort Elliott and her brothers and sisters Marie, Kenneth, Josephine, Neilsena, Keith, Carl and Melvin.

Surviving are Gen’s husband Rollo Wayment, sister Lorraine Garcia, daughter Tamara Twitchell and her daughters Amber and Tiffany, son Roger Twitchell and his wife Kara, their daughters Marty Elliott and husband Chris, and Carley Reynolds and husband Alex. Marty is the mother of Gen’s great grandson Wyatt (4yrs old) and is pregnant with Gen’s great-grand twins; Carley is pregnant with Gen’s next great-grandchild and by late spring Gen will have four great-grandchildren on the Twitchell side. Rollo is blessed to have five surviving children who have also been Gen’s children for the past 25 years, Steve Wayment and his wife Noreen, Dave Wayment and his wife Jillene, Bryan Wayment and his wife Linda, Lynnette and her husband Sheldon Harris and Craig Wayment. Rollo’s children are blessed with many children, grand children and great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. at Myers Mortuary, 845 Washington Blvd. in Ogden. Friends may call at Myers Mortuary on Wednesday, December 3rd from 6 to 8 p.m. and on Thursday from 10 to 10:45 a.m.

In lieu of flowers please donate to the Humane Society, 4242 South 300 West Murray, UT 84107, www.utahhumane.org. Adopt a pet, or feed the birds this winter.

Internment, Ogden City Cemetery.

Tagged, yo

Mindy tagged me for this one word thing, but I'm a bit of a rambler so we'll see just how well I do with that.

Where is your cell phone: desk

Where is your significant other: Work

Your hair color: Blonde

Your mother: caring

Your father: musical

Your favorite thing: Brian/fetus

Your dream last night: strange

Your goal: teach

The room you're in: office/pinball/sewing room

Your hobby: procrastination

Your fear: failure

Where do you want to be in 6 years: teaching

Where were you last night: couch

What you're not: tan

One of your wish list items: life

Where you grew up: Utah/California/Nevada/Idaho

Last thing you ate: chai

What are you wearing: pajamas

Your TV: big

Your pet: sleeping

Your computer: black

Your mood: relaxed

Missing someone: yes

Your car: Jetta

Something you're not wearing: socks

Favorite store: Night Flight

Your summer: fast

Love someone: duh

Favorite color: all

When was the last time you laughed: an hour or so ago

When was the last time you cried: Friday

And TAG: Lianna, Starlynn, & Jessica

Pregnancy: 15 1/2 weeks and counting...

So I woke up at three AM last night and couldn't fall back to sleep.  I originally woke up because the warning bells of "if you don't pee now you'll poison yourself" went off, and when I laid back down I realized I was starving.  STARVING!  At freaking three in the morning.  I tried to just fall back to sleep, mainly because I've never been one of those who can get out of bed and make herself a sandwich...

But I noticed that my cat, Mael, was shivering on my pillow.  I stared at him for about twenty minutes, his giant gold eyes staring back.  Shivering.  My dog kept sticking her head out of the covers and looking at me, so I took her outside so she could pee.  Got back in bed and was so hungry (like starvin' Marvin) that I had to go to the fridge and eat two fat green olives.  I inhaled them.  And, yes, they are a large part of my diet -- the green italian olive stuffed with various whatnot allows me to curb a weird salty craving I've been having.  

I bought the big jars at Costco last week, and one of them is almost gone.  

My favorite part of the olive is that after I eat a few I want a cookie, or something sweet.  Then when I burp it tastes like vanilla ice cream.  It's sort of creepy.  Yet delicious.

The most annoying thing about being pregnant, thus far, is that anything can give me gas.  Something as innocent as water can make me burp for twenty minutes.  Or worse, but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that.  

At least the morning sickness is mainly gone -- after this next week it's supposed to be absolutely gone, but who knows.  Out of all the pregnant women I know mine has been the worst.  This is most telling when they say, "What, you actually puked?"  Yes, and there were some days when I would puke twice.  Thank god for nausea medication -- I only lost four pounds due to being sick.  It was much worse last time, but maybe more on that next time.  But at my last doctor's appointment I had gained five pounds -- so overall I'm up one pound.  Woo-hoo pregnancy weight.

One more thing, we watched I am Legend last night.  I really liked it, which surprised me.  But, how can you not like Will Smith?  Come on.  He's attractive AND talented.

Laziness

When I'm not in the "fragile state" of being pregnant I'm pretty good at organizing my thoughts and getting things done.  With Brian, I'm altogether a moron.  I know there are things I should be accomplishing (oh, I don't know, homework, cleaning, finishing that freaking doll) but instead I lay on the couch in my basement and watch TV.  Evil TV.  I know that as soon as I turn that damned thing on I'm stuck, but I still manage to sneak down there on a daily basis and come up with same lame excuse that lets me turn it on.

"Look, I'll only watch Weird Science and then I'll turn it off and start writing my English method papers."

The movie ends (which is more sexist, racist, and awful than I had remembered it... that John Hughes was messed up... also there was a strange mix of homoeroticism, with the young boy characters sitting around without their shirts on, and wearing women's underpants) and then I thought, I can watch the last thirty minutes of this mummy movie on SciFi, this could be interesting.  NO!  IT'S NOT!  

To say the least I never got around to starting my assignments last night.  Even now, as I type this post, I know I am procrastinating.  I would like to think that I'm burned out.  There are only three or so weeks left of school, and I'm kind of done.  But, mainly, it's this laziness that has kindly draped itself over my eyes and made me apathetic.  

Oh, I also took two PRAXIS exams over the weekend.  This is the test that lets you have your teaching endorsement in a certain area, like English and Biology.  I didn't study.  I spent 10 of the last 14 weeks being incapable of thinking or eating (due to Brian), and never took the time to study.

Bleh.  Are you sick of listening to me yet?  I am...  Okay, I've go to read about how to help teens read and write, then write two 2-page papers on it.  I don't want to go to class today.  But that's my fault, not Brian's (though I will continue to point the finger at him... it's easier that way.)

Fun with Fetus'

This image was created by Dylan Meconis.  This is definitely how I feel about Brian -- I mean, it's great having a fetus.  I'm at 12 weeks now, so the morning sickness (which is more of a nightly thing lately) is supposed to start becoming less of a problem.  

Last night Halloween was a bit of bust.  We had 7 trick-or-treaters.  Oh, you heard right, 7.  Last year we had something like 60.  We figure the trunk-or-treat going on at the church up the street killed the fun for the night.  We even dressed up!  We forgot to take pictures, but I was a skeleton zombie and Alex was creeping death.  I mean, we had masks and everything, and freaking Utah parents decided to kill Halloween by carting their fat kids from trunk to trunk in a parking lot.  Halloween is about WALKING house to house and asking strangers for candy!  It's kind of scary!  But mostly it's fun!  But, oh no, parents around here....  I'm so mad about it.  I bought 10 lbs of candy to give out, and now I'll have to take half of it back to Costco today to return it.  Boo!  Alex and I decided our kids will definitely go out for candy, and they can eat it until their sick.  Because that's what Halloween is about.

Plus, you see, I grew up in tiny Rigby, Idaho.  There were many Halloweens where we would trek through the SNOW, our costumes mostly obliterated by warm coats and shoes, to get candy. Now, If I had fun trick-or-treating in 20-30 degree weather, other kids would have loved last night when it was 70 degrees and warm.  Utah parents are such weenies.  

Boobs

My. Boobs. Are. Huge.  But, I don't want to wear bras... which seems kind of illogical, right?  I just feel like the bra straps them in and makes them more sore and uncomfortable than they were before.  It's like trying to contain two small watermelons in small plastic cups.  The melons can't be contained!  They must roam free!  But then there are other issues with going braless in public with such "hooters," but I won't go into detail because I can only imagine who I would make uncomfortable.  Basically, before pregnancy my boobs were sweet kittens, content to stay out of sight and out of mind.  But, now, they prefer the spotlight and will do practically anything to gain it.

Therefore, I wear very thick and oversized sweaters.

Ugh

I have grown increasingly lazy, tired, and a bit grumpy.  I think about doing stuff, but then feel overwhelmed by what has to go into the stuff to get it done.  Hey, I was really pleased with myself this last Saturday when I finally laundered my whites... clean socks!

I do have a ton of homework I should be doing/reading.  Yet, I put that off until the last minute because I don't understand it until three hours before it's due.  I'm a grad student, a very sad, pathetic grad student.  I went to observe in a Jr. High on Friday, that was fun.  It's a little weird, because some of the kids (8th grade, I think) didn't understand that writing a letter is not the same as texting a friend.  You really cant write, "hey u i like ppl & go to ur scool."  I had to remind several that it's a good idea to write out your words when writing a letter to the principal about cell phones.

I nap all the time.  I don't have a job anymore so it's really easy to make excuses as to why I can put off homework until later.  I have a bunch of stuff due today, and I've only kind of sort of started on it.  

I do have a relatively good excuse though... I'm nine weeks pregnant.  I'm sick most of the time and my attention span can't make it through an episode of The Office.  I'm hungry, but I don't actually want to eat anything.  My favorite thing right now?  Hot water with half a lemon and a spoonful of sugar.  And licorice nibs.  Cereal is okay, but for some reason I puked that up last night.  Booger.

Okay, back to my lesson plan.  Have a good day.

No progress

I have made no progress on the doll.  The head I originally made is too small, and trying to come up with new one has been stalled because my hands ache and I haven't been able to pull my head out of this book: Bone,

It's very enthralling.  I've been trying to make myself pause long enough to get homework done, you know, for that masters degree I'm pursuing... But, when you're only 300 pages (because it's a 1,300 page behemoth) from the end, it's really hard to stop reading.  And I have two projects due soon.  Hmm, oh well.  

I have been making hats.  The first one is a pattern I made up in a moment of sweet clarity, and one that Alex said, "Are you really going to wear that out of the house?"  The answer is yes, as some of you may have already seen it.  Okay.  There's your update.

Watch this

You may or may not have ever heard of Chris Ware, an artist who created Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid in the World (which is a fantastic and appallingly brilliant graphic novel). Well, whilst trying to find out more about Chris Ware I found this cartoon he animated for This American Life.

It's about kids, a playground, and the video cameras they made. It's slightly disturbing. I strongly recommend you click here which will take you to the video so you can watch it... because, I am not tech-savvy enough to put it here for you...

Dude.

POST UPDATED -- Click HERE for the link to the video

Disturbing Head

I tried messing with the head tonight, to see if I could get it to work the way I wanted it to.  I had thought I made it too small for the body... and I really did.  I figured I should needle sculpt it anyway, get some more experience making a face look like a face.  I drew on it with the awesome blue marker... but it looks so skewed and funky, not to mention too long in the wrong direction.  It's not wide enough either.  I'm in between being irritated with it, and accepting of the fact that the first head pattern I designed simply didn't work out.  It's okay, really.  So, now I'll probably have a doll head laying around until I make a better body for it later.  It's even funnier looking on the body, but that will be the next post since blogger doesn't seem to want to work with me tonight.  Poop.

Doll Arms, Doll Legs

On the right is the muslin as it originally came out of its tea-bath, and on the left is the arm turned right-side-out. It's three (?) shades lighter turned out, and I first I wasn't sure if I liked it -- but with everything stuffed it really doesn't look that bad.

The torso, arms, and legs all turned out fabulously. It's one of the first times I've designed a pattern and had it turn out the way I wanted it to. The torso shoulders are a bit pointy, but they may work out just fine once I've got the arms attached.


I sewed the knees for "joints." I was going to do it on the sewing machine -- yet that is somehow too complicated for my head to understand... So I sewed them by hand. I know, it takes longer but I had total control of where the stitches went.

I plan on tying the elbows by wrapping a string or something around them to create a joint. I'm not quite sure how it will look. But I didn't want to stitch the joint there too. It just seemed like too much.

The head pattern could use some work. It came out a bit too flat, so the face looks long and thin. It looks fine on the doll, but I'm going to take some time this next week and make a few head patterns, make them, and see what works out better. I think the nose worked out well. I want really big noses on my dolls, it just feels like it gives them more personality. I kind of have a big nose, so I definitely have an affinity to pass that bit on to the stuff I make. That just sounds strange.

Hopefully I'll have this put together by the end of the week. It may take longer since I want to try out different heads... Who knows, you'll just have to check back, yo.

Questions

Part of me really wants to hang this in my future classroom, the other part tells me that would be a very stupid thing to do. I'm torn. What do you think? Would high schoolers find this funny or offensive? And how much time should I spend caring about their "feelings"?

Progress: Warning Detailed crafting info follows...

Progress made! I've never used one of those markers that you can wash away with water, but it was awesome. I prefer to trace patterns directly onto the material I'm using (usually muslin) so that as I'm sewing I can follow it exactly. Otherwise I'm all over the place and it doesn't look the way I want it to.

In the past I've used color pencils or regular pencils, which (of course) always left anger-inducing stains on the fabric -- which is part of the reason I usually paint it after it's stuffed.
This time, I just ran the pieces under water and the blue line disappeared! I'm such a moron for not using it earlier, as many of crafters I follow use it. I'm just a slow learner.

After rinsing the blue marker away I deliberated on what to do about the color. Plain muslin is great to work with, but makes for a pasty sad-looking doll. Believe me, I have one, and it makes me gag with disgust everytime I look at it. I had tea-dyed an earlier tiny doll I did with chai. It made it smell really good, and the color turned out great. I used it on a larger doll too (which I'll try to post photo's of later) but ended up painting it ... long story. I'm sure it's too boring to tell you about now.



Anyway, I went the tea route again. I used 3 English tea bags and soaked the pieces in it all day. Now they're hanging up in my bathroom to dry. I'll iron them tomorrow to try to lock in the tea "stain" and then I'll stuff it all. I'm thinking I should have those photo's up later this week. And maybe my post will be more interesting then...

Slowly, maybe surely

I have been wanting to make my own doll pattern for quite a while. I doodled something (because I don't draw, not well anyway) in class a couple months ago that I really liked and figured I would go after it.

I drew up the body, messed around with my sweet new compass, and then hesitated on the rest of it for a long time (read months). This is the head to the left. I literally had to talk myself into cutting the pieces apart today because I really like the design and didn't want to mess with it. Which sounds really silly, since I have to cut it up in order to use it. You may ask why I just don't trace it onto the fabric... well, my brain doesn't quite work that way. I like to put the pattern pieces on the fabric and use a pencil to trace them on -- from the thick edges of the pattern. Because I HATE tissue paper patterns.

I always feel like I can never use them again, and then what is the flippin point?

Anyway, I told Alex to tell me to get over my strange phobia and cut the head pattern already. So, I did. You can see the pieces here. It's going to be a relatively simple doll, and I'm thinking
the chicken fabric (behind the pattern) for the legs. I bought this forever ago because I thought it was hilarious (hello, chickens saying "bonjour") and haven't been able to cut it. Because I'm obsessive and neurotic. But, I know for a fact that other fabric hoarders do the same thing. You can love a fabric so much that you never bring yourself to actually use it. It's sad, but true.

Anyway, I hope to get started in earnest on this in the next week. I will get some more photos' up to show progress, so if you don't see any in the next few days -- please PLEASE nag me about it. I need that.

She so totally captured it...

Dylan Meconis is a cartoonist/artist that I've been following (read blog-stalking) for a little while. She posted about how seriously a trip can get messed up and posted the following toon:Click on it to make it bigger (or this).


This also captures the way I felt when Alex and I missed our flight home from Oregon. So ANGRY! Plus, the Delta "customer service" lady didn't help at all. She repeated several times that they had overbooked and oversold every flight, so we couldn't wait stand-by for any flight home. They could, however, put us on the plane leaving the next morning if we were willing to shell out $1200 -- seeing as how they would have to charge us $100 for transferring our original tickets to a new flight, and $550 each to upgrade our seats to first class. As those were the ONLY seats available on the freaking plane.

Lianna told me I should have taken a picture of her to post here, but I was so angry at the time I wasn't seeing straight.

So, we had stand in line at Southwest to buy new tickets for $500 to get home the next day (which was a Monday, and this all happened Sunday, July 27). Southwest was awesome. They were all polite and helpful, and more than willing to offer us the help we needed. Fly Southwest, screw Delta. Seriously.


Okay, that should be the last any of you hear about Oregon, at least for a while.

Random Post, because I can...

this is me scratching myself in the eye after missing our first airplane home from Oregon. I am an unhappy lady in this photo. I hate Oregon so much. Can you tell? Dude.

PT Cruisers are AWESOME!

So,whilst in Oregon we had to rent a car to get ourselves around (and away). We paid EXTRA to get this electric (what Alex calls "make me puke") blue PT Cruiser. Yup. Okay, no, that's what Abbey said we should tell people when they asked us why we were driving around in something the Baby Boom generation considers awesome, but everybody else doesn't. Well, it's mostly the color of the car -- which I chose by the way. Alex wanted the white one, and I had to go for the "make me puke" blue.

It was a good car to drive around in at least. The sound system wasn't great, it only got 21 MPG, and made us look like morons, but it got us where we needed to be. These pictures were taken in Newport, which is kind of a... um... dank and crowded little place. I guess? It is where we caught the video of the crabs eating each other (see below), so that was sweet. But later in this same day I took a four hour nap and missed the logging festival. We did get to see Ripley's Believe it or Not, the Wax Museum, and Undersea adventure (crabs). They were all strange. But at least I got my picture taken with a celebrity:
His face seemed a little squished, and I didn't understand the bandanna wrapped around his wrist, but I guess that's Johnny Depp for you.

I have that presentation today, oh man it's so bad. Oh, well, cognitively I can't come up with anything better than a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of my cats. Oh man.

Morgan is hilarious

My little brother-in-law is a pretty funny guy. To emphasize this let me share a video with you. Now, in this video a couple crabs are eating one of their brothers -- I know, awesome-- and at the very end Morgan says something. Turn the volume up! I tried to get it louder, but this was the best I could do. Laugh and be merry, yo.

Ha! Made you look!

So, remember how I told you that we went to the Portland Art Museum? This was one of the best pieces we saw, because it was so REALISTIC. So much so that Alex and I hesitated in approaching him. We didn't was to bother a guy posing naked in the middle of the gallery.
We also worried that while looking at him he'd jump up and yell, "Ha! Made you look at my bits!" That would have been embarrassing.

Now, mind you we didn't read that we weren't supposed to take pictures until we had had our fill of it all. Whoops.

Frustration just doesn't sum it up...

So, I first created this blog so I could share my crafty side with others who are obsessed/compulsive with fabric and such. But, since I haven't touced this thing since... November? I'll just go ahead and write whatever I want, much like my good angry friend Stephanie. You should really read her blog, it's a laugh.
Now, getting back to why I'm here (typing) in the first place. I had one of the worst weekends in quite a while. My lovely sister-in-law got married this last weekend in Portland, Oregon. See?

Isn't she beautiful? Now, Sallee and Nathan got married in the Temple, so Alex and I couldn't even go in to see the wedding, but I guess the guy leading the ceremony talked about earthquakes and people being crushed under an overpass. What?! you may ask, well, to be honest, I don't know. I only heard about it. I wasn't there. Anyway, we went to Portland for her wedding, and we had good times Thursday when Alex and I were on our own. We went to the Portland Art Museum and had a pretty good time... until I touched something. Of course, just when I touch it one of the curators walks past and says "EXCUSE ME!" I immediately felt like an ass... but, in my defense I touched a "fabric" sculpture, because in my brain when something is made of fabric you NEED to touch it to truly experience it. How was I to know that touching it would make a piece of it tumble an inch? It was not an attractive piece in the first place, and then to discover that it was put together shabbily made me lose respect for the artist. Really, if you're going to display something, don't you make sure that it's solid? When I make things, dolls, toys, whatever, I try to make it solid enough that anyone (including KIDS) can touch it, play with it, to get the full experience. Otherwise, why work with cloth? Anyway, we went driving afterward and got a little lost. Here's Alex looking excited about it: Then we drove to Salem. Um, I think Alex's sister Abbey summed it up best when she called it the "West Valley of Oregon." It was just kind of trashy, and the house we stayed at had a sunken living room. I hate those things, what's the point? I FEEL like going UP and DOWN three steps so I can be in the same room, but LOWER! Stupid design. And Alex's family was on pins and needles, grumpy and complaining about everything. These are optimistic fun people, but in Oregon it's like the lack of sun sucked all of their goodness out. They were kind of more rotten than normal. Well, they're never rotten, so being around their grumpy versions through me for a loop. Plus, I was supposed to be reading 3 chapters for classes, and creating two presentations, so my stress levels were through the roof. Like, right now I should be working on one of those presentations, but my working memory isn't really working anymore. So I'm doing this instead. One more picture, and then I'll try to start working.

We walked around the university in Portland. It was pretty. Okay, better pictures coming soon. I may even look angry in some of them... actually, I can guarantee it.