Crocheting Dilemma

First, of all, thank you for the cooking stories, except-two people?  Only two people commented and left stories.  Seriously, what happened to all of you?  I am certain that there are many more awesome/horrible cooking stories out there.

So, this past Thursday I went to a baby shower.  That baby shower caused me so much frustration and grief, and I'm sure that the person the baby shower was for would be very upset if she knew that.  I've mentioned her before.  She's Kip's wife and they have an adorable almost 3 year old girl that I babysit all the time. They live super close so all I have to do is walk on over there to babysit.  And she used to be a YW leader, but she got released because she's moving soon. :( Which I am really sad about.  So, because I've spent so much time with her and love her so much I really wanted to crochet her something special.  Oh, and she's having twin boys so that meant I had to make two of whatever it was I was going to make.  I started probably three weeks before the shower, by googling 'baby boy crochet projects' just to get some ideas.  I found an adorable picture of brown booties with a white stripe and a little football.  But it was on pintrest and since I don't do pintrest I couldn't look at the pattern.  So, then I decided to google 'baby boy booties' and finally found a website that just had links to a ton of different patterns online.  There were some really adorable ones, but my favorite ones were some little sneakers.  So, I printed off the pattern and started figuring it out.  It didn't take long before I realized something was wrong.  Some parts were way to big and it got to the point where I seriously did not know what to do.  I ended up undoing it and redoing it, I think, three times, trying to get it right, before I gave up.  I have a book that has patterns that have always worked out and it had a pattern for some high top booties.  They looked adorable, so even though I wanted something a little more creative I thought that at this point I couldn't really be picky.  So, I hurriedly made the first booty, assuming that it would work out because this book had been great so far.  Somehow, the ankle turned out a little smaller than my fist.  That was not going to work.  I'm pretty sure that this was the Sunday or Monday before the shower.  Mom told me that she got some burp rags with a crocheted edge as a baby shower gift and that she always loved them.  So, on Tuesday at WISH I talked to someone in my ward who crochets (she actually teaches a crocheting class) about how to crochet on fabric.  She researched it, sent me a link on how to do it, and gave me some fabric that she had on hand.  I spent my time alone while Mom was at dance with Anna and Gracie, looking it up, finding a pattern for burp rags and cutting the fabric.  To do it, you basically just poke a hole in the fabric with your hook.  It does work, but it is hard and gets more and more frustrating with each hole.  I couldn't actually start until the next afternoon after my sewing lesson because I needed to serge the edge and my sewing machine was at my sewing lesson.  So, I had to poke holes into the fabric for each individual stitch with a dull metal hook and my already barely big enough burp rags became kind of small.  The holes were uneven and the thick yarn I used for the edge just seemed bulky.  I hated them, the project of making them and the entire situation by the end of it, but Mom said the were cute and the woman a gave them to liked them and the color.  I finished them about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for the baby shower.  The whole thing was a nightmare and as it went on it just got worse because the shower was getting closer and I was getting so frustrated.  The woman from my ward who sent me the link helped me the best she could the whole way.  She didn't have a good booty pattern either and tried to find one for me and she was really very supportive the whole time.  She's going to help me crochet an afgahn for a Personal Progress project.  I'm excited. :)

After this whole thing I thought that I really needed a book full of patterns for things for babies.  Today I went to Micheal's and found an entire section dedicated to crocheting books and half of it was dedicated to crocheting for babies.  I was so excited and looked through almost all of them individually and a couple more than once.  I didn't look at them as long as I would have liked to, though because I was there with a friend that only came with me because we finished book club early (another subject).  There was one book that was awesome.  It had tons of stuff, except it was mostly sweaters and vests and only had three pairs of booties and three blankets, which is probably what I would crochet most.  There was another little book that had 9 pairs of booties that were all completely different and adorable.  I really want that and the other book, but both of them would be about $30 and you can't use coupons on books.  I'll have to figure that out.  But I want them so bad and am getting so excited that I can't think about anything else!  It's such a dilemma. 

A Few Things

Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to blog about.  I had a bunch of random things going through my mind a while back, but of course now I can't remember them.

I went to a mutual activity that was all about Personal Progress and I'm going to start a project as soon as I can.  I'm going to crochet a square quilt with the value colors for my bed.  Right now I'm focusing on making two pairs of baby booties for a baby shower for some twins.  I'm really frustrated with booties.  I can't seem to get a pattern that works.  I had to alter a pair I made recently to make them smaller.  I thought it was because the hook I used was too big, but the hook I'm using now is the right size and it still seems a little big.  I just need a book full of good patterns for babies.  I have already made so many things for baby showers that I could really use one.

I had an idea for story and wondered if I could ask you all for some help.  I can't say much about the story because I don't really have much of a plan, but I need some cooking stories.  Some great and funny stories about messing up or burning the food of yourself or serving food that was messed up and you didn't realize it.  And details about the circumstances and who you were serving the food to would be great, too.  If you could email me I would be so so happy about it!  I need to start writing more and so I'm jumping at this idea I got when I was sweeping the floor the other day. :)

Seminary and Flipped

Okay, it has been so long!  Seriously, I don't know how it happened and there is so much to catch up on.  But my last few posts don't have many comments even though my blog says it has views.  I did send out an email.  We'll see, guess.

First, seminary!  I really have been excited about seminary, but then the time went from 6 to 5:45.  5:45!  I could not believe it, that is just so early!  We have some kids in our seminary class that have a 0 period at 6:45.  They are amazing, I don't know how they do it.  When they lean their heads on their desks I do not blame them.  I really don't.  Anyway, it started at 5:45 and then Mom set up for us to bring someone to seminary every morning so that means I have to get up and out of the house even earlier!  Buuuut, despite all that, I love it.  I absolutely love it.  We have a great teacher who really loves seminary.  He's been teaching it for three years so I hope he doesn't get released soon, but because of that he knows all and loves all the kids really well and loves being with us every morning.  He helps us with scripture mastery first thing every morning and is always changing the method so it's not just the same old thing.  I am so surprised at how many I have already passed off!  I'm great with memorizing songs, with all the repition, the music and singing along, but memorizing scriptures has always been hard for me.  Of course, there are still kids in the class ahead of me.  I guess some just like to memorize them on their own to get it done faster.  I really want to actually remember them, though so I'm not doing that.  We only have about 15 kids and that's two whole wards combined.  And there's only 4 or 5 young men.  It's really sad.  But we don't mind.  Once, we were talking about missionary work and our teacher asked, "So, would you like more YW and YM in your classes on Sunday?"  We all said, yes.  "And more kids in seminary?"  Silence.  No one said yes, some even said no.  We just like it the way it is.  So, overall, I love seminary.  Hopefully, my excitement doesn't wear off.  My dad says he loved seminary all 4 years.

Anna's already blogged about Flipped.  I don't know all she said, though.  It's pretty bad.  We were so obsessed.  It's starting to wear off.  It started when I borrowed the book from a friend of mine in the ward.  I read it in 2 or 3 days and would not rest until we got the movie.  It had the movie website on the back of the book and I got on it and watched the trailer at least 5 times over the course of a few days before we got the movie.  When we did we watched it while Mom was gone.  After it was over, I think Anna, said she wanted to watch it again.  Gracie agreed.  So, we watched it again. And again.  And again.  And again.  Only twice in a row, but we watched it about once a day for a week.  We still have it actually.  Mom and Steve were gone basically all day Saturday at a Dave Ramsey thing and we watched a lot of Avonlea.  When Anna left for an activity days swim party Gracie and I thought that the best thing to watch would be Flipped because she had definetly already seen it.  She walked in about one minute before it ended and demanded we watch it again, so we did.  I went up to my loft and did  something else, but it played again, at least.  Then, a few days ago Gracie asked me to read it aloud to them.  So, now I read it aloud everyday and everyone loves it.  It motivates Anna and Gracie to do chores better than anything else.  Mom loves it too.  She laughs her head off during the boy's chapters and almost cries during the girl's.  They alternate perspectives.

Well, I don't know what else I should blog about, but I need to go, anyway.  Please comment!  I'll email you!