Well, we still have power

...though we did lose it several times last night. It always came back on in a few minutes though. The wind hasn't been that hard, and mostly it's just been a continuous rain. Last night I took these photos.
That's the swamp in front of my neighbor's patio. They always get it the worst.

And this is the puddle on our side. I was genuinely concerned about the water piling up and spilling over into our patio.

This is the water before I went to bed.

This is over on the other corner of our apartment, and you can see the water all running out into the street. So the water never got high enough around our apartment to be a danger.

And this is this morning. The rain is still going, but it's not very strong. Still not very high winds. And we still have power! We're supposed to get rain all day, and winds too, but I'm not expecting the crazy gusts that I was before. But we have lots of flashlights and water if we need. We even filled both bathtubs up!

Last night there was a tornado warning, but the tornado was northeast of Philadelphia, so I wasn't worried. I kept waking up last night and went out periodically to check on things. I know we lost power once because it rebooted the computer right next to me.

Flooding should be the worst problem in our area, but I don't think will directly affect us. However, all the water in the pictures went somewhere, and I know the ditch where it went. The people with apartments closer to it might have problems. We don't have church today, so I bet we'll go out and do some exploring. :]

Funny Katrina-isms

I let Katrina play with her dress-up clothes, and when I came back, she had redecorated her rocking horse.
Katrina is super tired in the morning and when she wakes up from naps (on the occasion that she actually takes naps!)

Daniel, on the other hand, is bright and happy (or screaming in impatience because he wants food) after he wakes up.

Last week we moved Daniel into a big boy bed. He loves it! It has excellent jumpability, and both kids things it's awesome. A few nights ago though, we sent Katrina to bed and forgot she had peed in it during her nap earlier. Gross, I know, but she doesn't normally pee during naps and we got distracted by something. Anyway, she decided it wasn't very comfortable, and joined Daniel in his bed. Later on the night, we heard Daniel crying. We went in and found him on the floor, while she slept peacefully in his bed! We moved him to hers, and everyone was happy.

So Katrina has been saying some funny things lately, and I wanted to record some of them.

Today we were on the way to New Jersey, and she was eating a pretzel. She ate everything except the triangle at the bottom, and then asked me if she could pour me some cream. After I put out my hand and she "poured," she said, "don't spill your tea!" I have no idea where she got that!

Later on, we turned the radio to classical music because she said that "music makes me sleep." After she heard it, she smiled and said it was "ballet music." Then she changed it to "princess music."

Katrina and Daniel have a game where they play with my measuring tape or a ribbon or bias tape, and Katrina runs around with the front while Daniel holds the back. She says to him, "Pome on, little, little doggy! Pome on!"

There was something else really funny, but I've forgotten it. If I remember, I'll come back and edit.

Hurricane coming!

Not only have we lived through an earthquake this week, which was strong enough to rattle our apartment pretty good and definitely rattle my nerves, but we also happen to be in the path of the oncoming Hurricane Irene! Now, we don't seem to be in the direct path, but all the little maps and scenarios online point out the heavy rains and probability of high winds and possibly power outages.

I had a goal this year to do something for emergency preparedness each month. In January we created a pretty awesome car kit. In February our extra funds dried up. Money had been oh so up and down and exciting this whole year, so emergency prep has gone out of my mind. We have plenty of flour and rice! And we have a nice little supply of canned fruits and veggies. But our preparation ends there.

So tonight we'll be heading to the store to stock up on flashlights, a lantern, and possibly a camping stove. My other major concern is water. I also plan to stock up some more on snack-like things for the kids.

Funny story: I was explaining to Katrina that we are buying flashlights tonight, and I told her what a power outage is. She ran into the other room and told me the power was out, and got her flashlight (she insists on going to bed with a flashlight). I explained that if a light was on in one room, then the power was still on. On cue, the lights flickered, and then went dead. I just had to laugh, and said, "Now that's a power outage!" Thankfully the lights came back on within ten seconds or so, and Katrina immediately wanted to call Adam and make sure he hadn't gotten scared at work. :]

Ruffle"Mullet" Dress

I was moping around last night after the kids went to bed because I didn't feel like doing anything, but didn't want to just read like I had the rest of the evenings this week. I hadn't sewn since Tuesday when I finished my bedspread, and normally I sew every day. On Sundays I don't sew for my Etsy shop, but I do like to sew things for the kids or for the home. So last night, on a whim, I decided to make a new dress for Katrina out of some old t-shirts. I used this tutorial.
The main part of the dress is a navy blue shirt. I picked off some lace from another shirt and used that around the waistband. I used that same shirt for the neckline. This dress is a little big around because I used a size 4T dress of hers as a pattern, and she's really a 3T, so I might add on some straps so it can tighten.

Very simple, very easy. This is the "business in the front" part. :]

And that's the "party in the back!" Rows and rows of ruffles. I used three different shirt for this. Actually, most of the dress is from shirts from my brother that I used to make his t-shirt quilt. He wanted me to have fun with the scraps, and I sure did!

Katrina thinks it's pretty awesome. She's recently had a growth spurt, and many of her dresses are too short, perma-stained, or shrunk in the wash right after I bought them, grrr.

I think this one was definitely a success. :] I kind of want to make myself a skirt in the same style!

Bedspread in progress

I finished the top of our new bedspread. I tried to take some pictures, but it was a bit hard to get good ones.
I still need to buy fabric for the back and also batting. I bought this fabric online, and if I did it again I would probably buy fabric in person so I could get shades that I liked a little better. I also might switch the gray and white so that the main colors were white and yellow with gray accents. However, these are the colors I went with, and grey will probably be better than white with two little kids around.

I'll be making coordinating pillowcases eventually too.

So what do you think?

Chilling together

My kids are getting to the point where they are starting to be buddies. Sure, they annoy each other as much as anything else, but they also like to interact and have fun together. Over the last few weeks I've snapped some cute pictures of the two of them.

Over the weekend Daniel became really proficient at climbing in and out of our dining room chairs. We decided to try out normal chairs for mealtimes, and he really loves it. Family meals are so fun with everyone in a chair, and the room seems so much more spacious with the high chair folded up in the corner now. I love my kids getting more independent!

On Sunday Adam needed to deliver a huge ice chest to someone, so he had to take the carseats out of the car. We still have them in the house because the covers needed to be washed, and so yesterday Katrina spent as much time in the chair as she could. I pulled Daniel's chair over and they chilled out in front of the tv for awhil.e

My kids are both thumb-suckers. Katrina only sucks hers through her blanket, and Daniel loves to hold the tail of his turtle while sucking. It's pretty cute!

So here's a funny story: Last night Katrina watched Dora before bed, and they were singing some little ditty that sounded a bit like "Pop, goes the weasel." Katrina kept singing it as she was getting ready to bed, with various syllables, but her favorite was, "Doomba, doomba, doomba!" Adam asked her to say the prayer. For prayers, she repeats after us still. Well, this time she added something in to each phrase. It came out something like this: "Doomba, doomba, doomba! Dear Heavenly Father doomba. Thank you for this day doomba. Help us to sleep well doomba . . . . Amen, doomba, doomba, doomba!" I was trying so hard not to laugh!