A link to Ollie

Zac said it best on our way to a very late dinner last night "Ollie is really cute and your sister looks great, like she just got off of work not like she just pushed out a baby."  It was a very good day and now here is a link to Annie's blog to see some very good pictures of our very happy family.  Enjoy our newest addition!

 

She is here!

It is official!  Ollie Faith has officially joined the world.  She was born about 15 minutes ago and we haven't gotten to see her yet but we have seen one, single picture and she is big!  We were expecting a dainty little girl, a five or six pounder but no....she is 7lbs 10 oz.  She was pink and has a chubby belly and arm fat rolls which is exactly what we were hoping for.  We don't have any other details to share but we will!  In the meantime HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLLIE!

Prayers

I got this e-mail a few days ago from a dear woman named Marty.  This is what she wrote....

Hi Abbie,

I was in Maggie's shop today and she said Ollie will enter into this world Thursday February 10, 2011.

Hallelujah, a miracle child from God!! Thank You Lord!!

I will be traveling when Maggie sends me the news, but I want you to know I'm believing in Divine Intervention for Ollie. I know all of you are too. Most of the time we have to fight our battles on our knees. I will be on my knees for baby Ollie. We serve a mighty God who answers prayer. May the Lord of Hosts be with you all on Thursday when you meet baby Ollie, and may you all praise him for the gift of life.

She will have a mighty testimony for all the world hear!!!

The enemy may have had different plans, but our God is bigger and mightier than he............

May the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings Bless you and your family abundantly,

In Christ's Love, Marty

 This is the kind of support my family has been getting from people all over.  It's really been amazing and uplifting.  I hope as you read through her note you said a prayer for baby Ollie.  She will be here anytime!


P.S.  Annie is dilated to a 1, they've got her epidural in and the pitocin flowing!  She will be here before we know it!

The countdown

Baby Ollie finally gets here tomorrow!  She makes her big debut to the world.  I, of course, am working the whole day and stupidly scheduled my last patient of the day at 5:15.  I gotta hit the road ASAP and rely on my ever-present lead foot to get me there "quick, fast, and in a hurry" as my family likes to say.  I am just sure Ollie will be there before I am, so I'm hoping she's all cleaned up and I can walk right in to kiss her pretty face and force whoever has her to hand her over.  I will also get to see Zac for the first time since very early Monday morning and will hopefully get  a nice dinner date with him too.  Say prayers for Ollie and the family as we travel and put in lots of time in the waiting room.  Oh, and remember, GET EXCITED!  You will get to see pictures of her very soon, like tomorrow soon!

Netflix and subtitles

I just want everyone out there to know, I LOVE NETFLIX.  Trust me, if I were a product/service as well, I would marry it.  I was sent home early from work on Monday and told not to come in yesterday due to the "storm of the century" central IL was supposed to get (which has been more of an ice storm and considerably less snow than I expected).  I did not fear for I knew there was a variety of T.V. and thousands of movies waiting for me.  I never wish I had cable instead.

When I wrote my blog about my quirks I realize I forgot to add a multitude of things, but the one I'd like to mention today.  I LOVE SUBTITLES!  I know, it's weird.  Who seriously watches movies with subtitles on when they have no hearing issues? Me!  I actually prefer to watch with the volume slightly low and the subtitles on.  

I just can't help myself subtitles are so great!  It is the only problem I have with netflix...no subtitles :(  Oh what to do, what to do?  I guess I just need to take a break from reading my movies.  

  

I can do things

Occassionally I decided that I know how to do things.  Things that I in all actuality don't know how to do.  Maggie and I have an on-going debate about me believing that I can just do things (and I WILL play you a song on a piano one day) and so a couple weeks ago I decided that I could sew well enough to sew a quilt.  Not true, but I decided to go through with it anyway.  I had ordered fat quarters online from a lady on Etsy and spent a few hours on my day off cutting the fat quarters down into 4x4 squares.  It took forever because I made a pattern out of a piece of cardboard and scissored them all. Since then, I got a rotary cutter and a cutting mat which makes things so much easier but hey, ya live, ya learn.  

So, I went to town, cut all my squares, then put together a pattern that I liked.   Steps 1 and 2 done!

The next evening I decided to start sewing.  Like I said, I have never sewn a quilt before, so I don't know that this is the way to do it, but I started with my 4 squares right in the middle and worked around them sewing together 4 blocks at a time, then the small blocks into big blocks.  This was the quilt top after I finished it up.

After that I ironed it all flat (as flat as I could since I didn't sew my seems all the same direction), then laid it on top of a minky fabric and cut the back. 

Once I had the back cut to size I started sewing.  I ran along all 4 sides and left a spot just large enough to flip the quilt inside out, like you would if you were making a pillow, then hand stitched the little bit closed by hand.  This is the quilt with the back on.

I messed it up a little.  The minky fabric has a little bit of stretch to it, so I cut it a little wonky and it wanted to pull the top funny so I learned my lesson there.  Since I don't know how to hand quilt, I decided to just tack each square to the minky fabric and make it a tied quilt.  I just used embroidery floss and tied the center of each square.  This is the finshed product.  I was happy that my lines were so straight except for one spot....where I sewed in a set of blocks upside down and then was so frustrated with myself that I couldn't bring myself to seam rip it and do it over.  

So....that's my first attempt at quilt making.  I love that quilt.  It's just pretty.  I made it for Miss Ollie who will be here shockingly soon.  I've just finished my second quilt for Maggie's baby.  I'm sure hoping it's a boy because the quilt is definately all blue and red.  I'll throw up some pictures of it soon.  I hope you like it too!  And remember, I CAN just do things.  You can too. 

P.S.  I forgot to mention that I know very little about sewing machines....what type of needle should I be using for this kind of project?  My thread keeps breaking on me at random so I have changed my tension to be tighter and looser and that didn't seem to help so I thought maybe it's my needle.  I suppose I could read the instruction manual but come on...who wants to do that. 

A visit to Carbondale

When I was in Carbondale I moved around a lot.  Like moved every 6 months for awhile.  The second group of people I lived with were 3 girls (first was 4 boys) named Jodi, Chelsea, and Becca.  Chelsea and I were fast friends.  I thought she was so funny, still do really.  She dated a guy named Andy for years (before and after I lived with her) and is now married to him.  Andy happens to be from the same home town as my husband.  Funny how things work out huh.  Chelsea and Andy are still in Carbondale as he works on campus and finishes up his grad school work.  Every so often we still take a little time to get together and last weekend was one of those times.  I drove down Friday after work and got in around 8:30, just in time to change clothes and head out for a bit.  

We ended up in a run down bar called Key West.  It's where people who are actually from Carbondale tend to congregate.  We got lucky....it was karaoke night.  We got a couple beers and sat down for the show.  People karaoked, we played pool and it was an all around good time.  Eventually I decided to do something out of character, even ridiculous.  I signed up to sing a karaoke song.  And the song I picked.....wait for it.....Snoop Dog, Gin and Juice.  I, of course chose this song because he didn't have Warren G, Regulators.   Get a chuckle out of that one guys.  Turns out, I inspired the movie 8 Mile  We ended up staying out way too late, like 2 o'clock late.  We slept til about 8 then next day and spent the entire morning trying to logic out how we could ever think that we A. have a tolerance for alcohol and B. should ever sing in public.  We were super lazy the next day.  Just a dibby dab of shopping, then we were supposed to go to a friend's house for a party that evening.  We decided to recognize that none of us had the will power or the desire to leave Chelsea's house.  We ended up watching 3 episodes of Hoarders and chit chatting into the wee hours.  Aren't old friends great?  I'm just thrilled to know that I have picked friends that cheer me on when I rap and will also not be upset in anyway when I tell them I think we should skip out on their previous plans, to watch in shock and awe as A&E reveals just how filthy people are.