the grundi

Success! Knee Boots for Jill

2010-11-08T07:37:00.004-06:00

Well, the fourth time's the charm. After many failed attempts, I designed my very own pair of boots for Jill that she absolutely, guaranteed, CANNOT kick off. And they are totally cute! The sole/vamp construction was inspired by the Bitty Bootie tutorial. But the shaft and lining is all me. It's the first thing I've ever designed!

The soles are faux suede. The outer is cow print Minky. And the lining is a cuddly soft sherpa. I added a piece of elastic between the liner and outer at the top of the boot to keep them on her legs. They can be worn folded or unrolled. They extend up to just below her knee. These are sized for a infant size 2 shoe. If you used a sole material with grippers, you could make them larger for walkers. The best part? They are SO warm. No socks needed!

hats! (and kick-yo-booties)

2010-10-19T11:38:00.005-05:00

A fall project round-up:

Bootie-Licious

First - rad kicks for Jillian, which after I created them turned out to be just a tad too small. So now they are rad kicks for Baby Healy (go babies!). These are lined with sherpa and the outer is uber-soft minky. The soles are a heavy faux suede. They are SO cute and so cuddly soft. But, they don't stay on quite as well as I hoped. I'm going to sew these again, a size larger, and try to make them more into calf-boots so they are un-kick-off-able. Stay tuned!

Every-day Stripes

You may recognize this material from Lucy's pj pants. I had some extra and thought I'd copy a cute hat I had from H&M. The problem is (as you'll see in the other hat I made for Jill below) I just can't figure out the logistics of creating a cuff with the finishing done correctly. Booo! Anyway, it's just a baby hat. One day I'll figure out how to do the cuff without raw edges.

Fits her like a box

I saw a super cute tutorial on making a fleece bonnet. I'm not really a bonnet type. But this seemed so doable and more sporty. I had these bits of fleece around in my bin. Turns out this looks more like I cut the hood off of a sweatshirt and applied a ruffle with a terrible fit. I give this project a "W" for "wadder" (i.e. wad that sucker up and throw it in the can) Also - I sewed the snaps on wrong three times in a row. The last time I just said, forget and decided it was fine if the strap was twisted. Also, I sewed the ruffle on wrong twice and cut the strap too short the first time around. (I make a lot of mistakes.)

Little Lamb

I found this cute hat tute in a book somewhere along the way. I used an old tshirt of mine - and thought I was being very thoughtful by retaining the shirt's hem at the bottom. Alas, I just am ignorant when it comes to making finished cuffs. So you can see the hem on this. (also, I sewed the back on backwards, so the "backside" of the shirt fabric is on the outside.) Did I mention I make a lot of mistakes? This really is a cute hat. When I do this again, I'll add some interfacing for the ears so they stand up more. (and I'll sew the fabric on correctly, too.)

Fleece hat for Lu

Finally, I wanted to try my hand at making winter hats for myself and Lucy. Lucy got the first go-round. (directions on the hats by Martha herself.) Pretty cute, over all. And super easy. I'll be creating a yellow one for myself.

The trials of sewing with stripes

2010-09-06T11:24:00.004-05:00

I thought I was ready for this. Turns out, I wasn't. Picked up a super sweet knit stripe that would be perfect for Lucy's pjs. Time to learn how to line up a stripe. The stripes on the sides of the legs are perfect, but don't look to closely at the center seams. As long as she wears a long tee to bed, they are impeccable! Also added a cute fluffy heart on the front so she could tell the difference between the back/front sides.

Hmm. Maybe it's time to invest in some cute custom tags for the things I make?

Free-hand sheep on a quicky nighty

2010-08-23T18:57:00.002-05:00

I whipped up a cute nightgown for Lucy with this cool pink, double-sided knit. First time sewing a collar and first time with knits. Turned out okay -but it was bland and needed something to spice it up.

Enter the sheep. Cute, right?

Sewing Tutorials and References

2010-07-22T16:31:00.004-05:00

Upon request, here are a list of sites I use to find new ideas, tutorials and directions on general sewing techniques. Happy browsing!

TECHNIQUE SITES:

TUTORIALS & IDEAS
>> For Kids

>> For Me

BOOKS I'VE GOTTEN FROM THE LIBRARY

Sew Liberated
One Yard Wonders
Multiple Amy Butler books
The Best Apron Book Ever (it's a bit of an overstatement in my opinion!)

Sewing makes me happy: retro housewife apron

2010-07-22T07:16:00.004-05:00

My first project postpartum is complete: a cute retro apron (including brick-a-brack!) This adventure was filled with roadblocks and it made the whole experience that much more gratifying.

A summary:

I broke my machine during the bobbin winding process and then stumbled on the fixit by unscrewing, rattling, banging and then rescrewing the stop motion arm a few times.
I sort of liked the original pattern design, but wanted to swap out the skirt design add a pocket and use more fabric contrast than specified.
I accidentally bought too little fabric (thanks to the skirt swap) and found a way to squeeze out a few more inches from a single yard.
I had to find a way to include brick-a-brack in the finished project (can it be called a retro apron without it?)

Over all, I think this apron is a smashing success. The finishing details are completely hidden except for the late entrance of the b-a-b and the button at the pocket closure which I didn't add until the apron was finished. If I had to do this again, I'd add them both before sewing on the lining so all seams would be hidden.

Market Skirt

2010-05-02T09:23:00.005-05:00

Found this online tutorial last week and had enough scrap fabric to whip one of these cute skirts out for Lucy. After I finished it, it seemed like the tank needed a little bling so I tried my hand at making an applique to bring the two together. She wore it to The Rock last Friday and I had a few say it looked "store bought" which I guess is a pretty high compliment for something homemade!

The skirt is comprised of rectangles - no pattern needed. And it can be sized up or down. The top is a simple elastic waistband and the skirt is heavily gathered so it's fun to twirl in. I finished the skirt in about an hour. The gathered pocket and applique took a little more time, but not much. Seems to be the perfect length for climbing and running about - the undies remain mostly covered :)

More pics coming of other finished sewing projects.

Bias Fears

2010-04-27T08:04:00.003-05:00

I'm T-minus 1.5 weeks until this baby is due so my thoughts have turned back to sewing for my own body again. I've had my eye on this pattern for a year and took the plunge yesterday.

This is Retro Butterick pattern B4919 - and what makes it special is how the bodice goes together. It's a simulated halter with the back looking more like a high-neck tank top. The back of the bodice has long "wings" that you wrap and tie in the back to create a very defined waist. I'm making the shorter version in a casual, bright orange dotted Batik cotton.

Okay. Here's the trouble. The entire dress is cut on the bias. I've never done that before - the cutting layout is so crucial. I did a little research online and found how critical the cuts are. Because the bias of fabric isn't even, right and left pieces can have a different stretch if they aren't cut correctly to allow for this. Geh! The pattern said it was "Easy"! I think it might take me twice as long to cut this out than it will to sew it.

Any tips on bias cutting from the pros out there?

Dress form?

2010-04-25T07:49:00.002-05:00

I'm just 2 weeks from due date and already my thoughts are turning back to sewing for myself. There are SO many cute dress patterns out there, though my disaster "wadder" dress from last summer is making me nervous to attempt another one. I really have trouble fitting the bust.

I did make a duct tape form, but never took the time to build out a stand - and the weight of the stuffing and tape pulled the whole thing out of shape and tore it apart. So that became "wadder" number two in my sewing annals. Plus, it wasn't cost free. Duct tape is really quite expensive.

So I was thinking about saving some dough to buy a professional dress form. Anyone have any feedback on that? Brands? Adjustable or non-adjustable? Tips on how to fit to a dress form?

The siren's song

2010-04-13T14:00:00.004-05:00

Tim's working on a foreclosure house out in Excelsior. The first day he worked there, he came home talking about how incredible it would be to own: what a great place for house church, what a great place for Lucy to run. I laughed a little and didn't think much about it.

Yesterday, he had to work late and invited us to come have dinner with him out at this house so he could work and still see us. This house: it's a siren's song. It's set in a deeply wooded area off of Highways 7 and 19. Ridiculously far away from everything, including the constant drum from the MSP airport.

It's about 3500 square feet set back on a corner lot. The yard is MASSIVE and bordered by evergreens and neglected, but beautiful landscaping with a huge fire pit and room for major garden beds. A double car garage and a long (flat!) driveway.

Split level entry - the basement main room is as big as our whole first floor with a fireplace and beautiful woodwork. Two bedrooms and a bath in the basement. Upper level has a long winding living room, a formal dining room, a casual dining room and a big kitchen - all open floor plan and leading out into a ridiculously large "sun room" that has an 8 person hot tub. The sun room is also bigger than the first floor of our home. Back down the hallway are two bedrooms and a bath, with master suite that is equally out of proportion to normal room sizes.

Now, the place has been trashed. Water was left in the hot tub to rot. No fridge. All the bathrooms are terrible and smell. The carpet is icky. There's all sorts of weird paint going on inside. And some water damage in the basement from backed up water over the winter.

At first, I walked in and thought it was nice, but nothing to be excited over. Then Lucy and I explored the yard and she was in total bliss. And every time I stepped into a room I couldn't help but plan how we would use it.

"This would be lucy's room. This would be the baby room. This would be our office. This room would be just for guests. Tim could have his office downstairs. how would I arrange our living room? What would we put in the basement room? We could use this room for house church. How many chairs do you think we could get in here?"

Every minute in that house and my heart got more and more entrenched. Finally, I kissed Tim goodbye and told him I had to go before I got completely insane. At first Tim and I both started thinking how we would serve the church and Christ with such a property. But quickly it became about filling it with things, remodeling, design, furniture, big tvs and sectional couches. The truth of the matter is living in such luxury and space would divide our hearts-- make us more likely to skip church and meeting together with those we love and serve with. It's a truly American siren song.

As I drove home, I tried not to think about how wonderful the place was and how much fun lucy had at play in the backyard. But instead focused on the long commute back to the big city. Pulling into our cracked and weedy driveway, I was glad to have this space be my home. It's tight and a little uncomfortable to live here. We are piled on top of our neighbors. Planes fly over every 10 minutes. We have about 40 square feet of grass. And a block full of psychotic squirrels that literally have chewed holes THROUGH the city's plastic garbage bins. But it's home and close to our dear family in Christ. And here we will stay.

(But is it too much to wish for a fenced in yard and a 2-car garage??)

Rag Quilt - Finished!

2010-02-09T20:16:00.002-06:00

The quilt took about 7 yards of fabric and cost me around $20. Surprisingly, it didn't take much time to put together. Cutting out hundreds of 6" squares isn't a pleasant prospect. With all the "services" you can pay for these days, someone should open a quilt piece cutting service. Surely there are people out there who would pay someone else to do their dirty work.

The only other challenge with this was clipping all the raw edges. Geh. The sewing took two nights of work tops. The clipping took me 2 weeks to finish. My hands were cramping up and I went through two pairs of scissors. Next time I make this one, I'll invest in one of those sharp little spring-loaded sets.

Until I sent it through the wash I wasn't sure I really even liked the quilt that much - especially given the massive time and effort the clipping took. But a simple trip through the machine fluffed up all the seams and made it really cute.

Contrasting fabric on the back -

Detail so you can see the motion quilting I chose instead of doing boring "x" quilts on each square. I used stars, hearts, swirls, lazy patterns and wrote in cursive on some of the blocks.

Rag Quilt

2010-01-19T16:41:00.005-06:00

I haven't finished my post-baby robe. I know I should just bite the bullet and figure out the arm scye issue. And probably tear out the hood and resew it with a lining. And then tear off the pockets and resew them in the right spot. But is that fun? Is that fulfilling? I just can't get the energy up to get it done... especially since I spotted a cool maternity/nursing robe at the store for just $20. Hard to swallow that when I spent $30 on a robe that still isn't right. Don't go thinking sewing is going to save you money. The poor kids in China can sew better and less expensively than you can.

And no - I haven't whipped up the maternity jeans yet either. But I have what I need to do that project. So as soon as I have a free night, I'll tackle it. Husband, will you be around tomorrow night?

In the meantime, I've been thinking of making a quilt for baby 2. Lucy got one and it is the best blanket for floor play. It doesn't shift around on a hard floor like other blankets do. I've never made a quilt before, and there seems to be a number of pitfalls surrounding quiltmaking. But how about a rag quilt? The edges are all raw and face-up (fun for a toddler to fiddle with), and seems relatively failproof.

Now I just need to find some cheap fun flannel quilt fabric for this project. Why is it that starting a new sewing project (sounds a lot like child-making) is so much more fun than finishing one?

Update on sewing projects

2009-12-01T07:38:00.003-06:00

Nursing Cover
finished!

Kimono Robe
Geh. What a disaster this one has been. I'm blaming it on the pattern selection. Stupid McCalls. First of all, they had me sew on the pockets FIRST. And I matched the dots. But now that the robe is together, the pockets get completely covered up when you wrap the robe. So I need to tear out the seams and move them to where they should be.

Second, the directions have you attach the hood first, and then attach the lapels. But in the photo and drawings, the lapels are BETWEEN the hood and the bodice portions. Now how could that be? If I sew the hood to the bodice first and then attach the lapels, how on earth would the lapels be under the hood?? I had to goof it a little and make my own modification on it. But it's a robe, not a dress for the Govenor's Ball, right?

Third, I should have thought through my fabric selection a little better. I forgot that the underside of the fabric would be face-up on the hood. Duh. In the photo they give, they used fabric that doesn't really have a "wrong side" - but my cotton print is definately ugly on the backside. Shouldn't they have designed the pattern so you'd line the hood to avoid this problem??

Finally, I'm stuck on the arm scye (for the sewing impaired, that means the arm hole - why don't they just call it an arm hole??) This is the first time I've sewed a sleeve, so I may be ignorant. But it seems like the sleeve is much larger than the arm hole - requiring a gather to make it fit. I'm not sure I'm a puff sleeve type of girl. Do I trust this (already proven to be terrible) pattern and sew it the way they intend? Or do I trim the sleeve down to fit as it should without a gather? I'm deciding to put this on hold until Christmas when my fab sewing mom can help me with the problem.

Overall though - I think this robe will still be cute. I've been trying it on as I sew on the pieces and it's coming together well even with all these hang-ups.

Maternity Jeans
Haven't started, but I have good intentions and a massive lack of pants that aren't constricting. I wish I could just go without pants like the models for North Face (who are dancing around their store windows with a pair of furry boots and a puffer jacket sans pants). Alas, my husband would prefer pants. So I need to move this project up a little.

Christmas PJs or a Tree Skirt
I was ready to start making three pairs of matching jammie pants for us for a christmas tradition. But I got sidelined with a better idea. For six years, we've gone without a tree skirt, just using the plastic bag that comes with the tree to cover the stand. This year, I think I'll make us a tree skirt.

My idea is to use a plain, light colored fabric for the top and a colored fabric for the back - trimming the edge with ribbon. Then each year, Lucy and our subsequent kids will use fabric paint to print their hand and name along with the date along the edge of the skirt. Instead of having a generic store-bought skirt, ours would become a family heirloom.

I have an old cream colored sheet and a couple yards of fabric on hand. Just need the ribbon. And the paint. And the time.

I have a lot of ideas. It's a burden I bear.

Grunditz version of christmas stockings

2009-12-01T07:28:00.003-06:00

Every year we're gone for the 24th, so the whole stocking thing really is a waste of time for us, and we usually skip it. This year, as we hung up our stockings by the mantle I came up with a new idea to repurpose them. Instead of leaving them empty all month and filling them the night before christmas, we're going to sneak treats, notes and goodies into each other's stockings all through the month.

It's especially fun for lucy who is really into leaving "notes" for daddy in the mailbox or at his desk. Once a day, I think I'll remind her to find a treat to put in our socks - and it will be fun to find little goodies around the house to tuck in there for lucy AND tim. Then, we can dig through the treasures together. Not so much about stuffing our stockings with things we buy, but making treats and finding treasures to share with each other.

Kimono Robe - modifications

2009-11-20T07:03:00.004-06:00

Here's the fabric I picked up for a robe pattern. The idea here is to take a knee-length kimono robe design and modify the closure to be more appropriate for the days in the hospital and weeks post-baby. Most robes tie at the waist and fall open at the bust. My modification will have this one will tie under the arm across the left side of the body, more like an empire waist.

Shopping for a pattern, the one I picked out was uber-expensive. No good. I ended up buying this very cheap pattern by McCalls - but making some concessions on the design.

One, I wasn't in love with the idea of a hood. Who needs a hood on a robe? And a major second, what's up with the layers of ruffles? I'm not really a ruffle type. The hood will probably stay, because it seems like a lot of work to modify that portion since the hood is a part of the front design. But the ruffles have to go.

Question:

I was toying around with the idea of doing a two-tiered cuff just like you see with the ruffles, but having them be flat instead of gathered. Kind of a twist on the standard robe cuff. Will that be cute or wonky?

I'm cutting the fabric now. I'll post progress as I get there.

Nursing Cover-Up

2009-11-19T17:11:00.005-06:00

I picked up this fabric for a steal at mill end. The nursing cover up is designed by this fine lady and is constructed with D-ring straps and a bit of boning in the middle to help it stand away from your body so you can fuss with the kiddo while remaining discreet. Altogether it went together easily. My biggest frustration came with the thread! I needed to fill two bobbins and my thread (cheap stuff) kept breaking mid seam. Something to consider when using contrasting fabric: how to maximize thread color so you don't have to keep switching back and forth.

Finished project!

Am I making you angry?

2009-11-19T07:35:00.004-06:00

I'm pregnant and christmas is coming, which I think is sending me into nesting over-drive. My dear sweet single friend told me (in laughter) that my nesting projects are making her angry - baking bread, sewing - all this seems like too much to live up to. Honestly, I don't know what has come over me. I am infatuted with sewing. But I have noticed a pattern here--I have a tendency to be full of zeal for new endeavors.

For example, I decided one day to run a marathon. At the time, I'd never run further than 3 miles, and never run even a mile outdoors. I researched and trained and ran the stupid thing twice. (Took me two times to accept that marathon running is no gift of mine. I'm a little thick.)

For the record, I have not put the rest of my life on hold to sew. People ask how I could have the time for such projects. Honestly, we stopped watching TV. You'll find LOTS of time in your day if you no longer sit for hours at a time staring at a TV screen. In fact, you'll be searching out things to occupy your hands and mind. Tim and I have started to talk each night before bed instead of zoning out in front of the tube. These nights leave me the room to cut, sew and iron my projects.

They've also helped us go to bed earlier, which means I can actually get out of bed at 5 to read and pray and work BEFORE my child wakes up. And life with limited TV has allowed mental space to think on the things of God, the things of marriage and parenting, and the things that inspire creativity.

I have four exciting new projects I'm beginning. The next posts will have pics of the process, fabrics and notes on the mistakes and misteps of a sewing novice.

Maybe I'm an extremest?

2009-11-12T14:43:00.002-06:00

LEG WARMERS
In the previous post, I wrote about making homemade baby leg-warmers. I attempted my first set this week and it was unbelievable how simple they were to make. Start to finish it took maybe 5-7 minutes. Generally, I make things and have high hopes which promptly go right in the can because - duh - sewing requires some skill. It's an easy concept, but the details usually do in the whole project. Not so with the leg warmers. This is a perfect project for someone with zero sewing talent :)

As I was whipping the first set together, Lucy asked if they were for her. She tried them on and loved them. Later that day we went to target together and picked out a few more knee high socks. I sewed up 3 more pairs in about 20 minutes. She loves them and asked to wear them today! Yahoo for one success in this sewing adventure. (Pics to come)

BREAD
A few of my good friends have been enjoying the fruit of fabulous fresh bread daily via the brilliant cooks at Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I took the plunge this week and I'm in love. I've made a loaf every day and still have enough for one more in the fridge. It really does take 5 minutes. You don't need any special talent for this, I promise. It's easy and the results taste better than any thing I've ever had from a bakery (at $5 a loaf!) This is doughy and moist bread with a crispy, french crust. They've got a recipe in the book for chocolate bread and all sorts of variations on the standard dough. And the authors have recently come out with a new book for baking healthier, whole grain bread daily. Plus, the writers are Minneapolis natives. The only hiccup I've found is in forming the loaves. I must not quite have the method down because when mine bake up, they have wierd projections. Thank God I'm pregnant and am not concerned about my carb intake. Fresh bread IS better than dessert.

SEWING EXPO
Last week I took classes at the Sewing and Quilting Expo - I was certainly one of the youngest there, and at 31 that's saying something. Many grandmotherly types approached me and thanked me for coming and my interest in sewing! Apparently, I'm single-handedly keeping the sewing movement alive in my generation.

The big take-away for me was Paper Piecing: a "paint-by-number" method of quilting that is about as no-fail as it gets. You literally sew right through a paper pattern to guarantee that the seams line up. As long as you can count and sew on a line, you've got it. I'm thinking of starting a baby quilt for Grunditz babe #2. If you want to learn more about paper piecing, I'd love to show you how it works. This is the vendor I took the class from - they've got a bunch of patterns on their website. And I'm willing to pirate a few of the ones I have for you if you are really interested in trying it for yourself.

Baby's Got Legs...

2009-10-27T15:33:00.004-05:00

Warning: this is a combination baby post and sewing post. Men, please clear the room.

I've liked the concept and ease of baby legwarmers (such as agoo or babylegs) but they seem rediculously priced (10-15 each). Gosh. Couldn't a crafty girl just figure out how to make those on her own?

Glad you asked. This awesome lady did - and she provided photographs on how it's done. Turns out you just need a cheap pair of socks and a sewing machine. I think I might have my staple baby shower gift figured out for the next dozen Rock babies.

I repent! Or: My treatise on the many uses of vinegar

2009-10-22T09:49:00.005-05:00

After a staunch stance against cleaning with 'green' products in favor of BAM! CLR! and BLEACH! I may have just been converted to vinegar.

So what if my house smells like a pickle jar?

It began on the advice of my doctor who recommended a bath in water plus 2 cups of white vinegar to help with an ailment I was having. The same day, we got delivery on our new washer/dryer. The washer smelled like moldy butt stink, so I threw some vinegar in there too. Might as well right? I had a gallon. Then I mixed up a spray solution and used it to spray down the inside of the washer and the soap container. Worked great. Clean, fluffy clothes with no smell.

After my bath in vinegar - I found not only did it cure the problem, but it also sloughed off my rough foot skin (Take that Heel-tastic!) AND it made my skin quite soft. Though - I do smell like pickels.

Next, my kid peed in her bed during a nap (a rare occurance these days). Out came the vinegar spray.

And for the final nail in the coffin, I cleaned the entire kitchen - including the windows and floors - with my spray solution. I might be completely converted.

Except for the stink. Any options to enjoy the benefits of vinegar with out the "I just dyed a dozen eggs" smell?

Stereo Console

2009-10-20T07:32:00.002-05:00

Now that the house is off the market, I've found a renewed sense of nesting rising up within me. Move over sewing machine! My latest project: finding a cheap or free retro stereo console to renovate into a cabinet for our stereo system.

Since we put the house on the market, our large stereo components and monster speakers have been relegated to the storage area. But I miss having music on throughout the day. And now that we are able to have fires in the fireplace, Tim and I are missing our records. So here's the plan:

Find a cool retro stereo console piece that is in good shape (nice finish - retro not 80s!)
Tear the guts out completely.
Rebuild shelves inside to house our turntable, radio tuner and cd-player.
Open up the speaker area on the sides (usually covered with some type of mesh) and fit that area with small shelves to hold new, compact speakers with guidance from our good friend and audiophile Mike B.
Use the rest of the speaker space as a house for all of our records and cds.
Shake your groove thang in our cool retro but modern and useful stereo console.

So does anyone have an old stereo console unit they'd like to donate to my new pet project??

Small Group: what's the point?

2009-09-21T07:04:00.003-05:00

Small group season kicked off last night, and this year will be my 10th group. I have to admit my excitement has dropped over the years for group, as I've lost sight of the reason for joining a group in the first place. Who needs more meetings? Who needs more "friends"? I'm all full up, thanks.

This morning I read:

Share each other's troubles and problems and in this way obey the law of Christ {side note, the law of Christ is to love others as he has loved you} If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody. Galatians 6:2-3

Then it really hit me: the reason for small group isn't for me to build relationships and get deeper with other women. The point is to share each other's problems and troubles and in this way love others as Christ commanded me to. I was only fooling myself. I'm not too important to help someone in need. I haven't out-grown this command.

Straps stink

2009-09-19T20:15:00.005-05:00

I'm working diligently on the second dress of the same pattern as dress one (but an alternate design). I picked the wrap bodice that has separate straps thinking, "Gosh. I did this once- I bet number two will be a breeze!"

I got hung up for almost a week on how to attach the straps to the bodice. Sweet Maren gave me some pointers, but it turns out, I really did need to lay them like back-to-back "C"s and then cut little slits every inch or so and painstakingly pin the dastardly thing - then sew. Then rip out the seams because there were puckers. Then re-pin and re-sew. Ha ha! Success!

I got a little cocky and decided to sew the back bodice without reading the directions. Which led me to ripping out those seams and resewing them--only to discover I had forgot to put one of the sections "righ-side to right-side" and sewed them inside out. (I do this more than I'd like to admit. Again, might be related to that D in sculpture class.) So I had to rip it again and resew it again and finally attach it. All this ripping and resewing took me about 3 precious hours and was peppered with lots of "stupid!" "poop!" and "dumb thing!" explicatives while Tim dozed and watched the Gaters game.

I finished up by assessing the fit first on my dress form and then on my own hot body. I'm not convinced the fit is going to be any better on this one. I might need to take a break from wrap bodice styles for a while. I've had it!

Geometry issues

2009-09-16T20:08:00.003-05:00

So, I'm beginning sewing dress #2 tonight. I thought this was going to be a breeze, since I've sewn a dress from this pattern before. But there is a really wonky thing going on with the shoulder straps. I find the toughest part of getting this stuff to work correctly is begin able to see in geometric-3d-spacial awareness. And anyone who has seen my legs, and the many bruises on them, can attest to the fact that I do not possess spacial awareness. To prove this point: I would have had a 4.0 in my major in college but for that stupid sculpture class in which I finished with a D! I just cannot see in 3d. It's a handicap of mine.

All of this to say, I have curving shoulder straps which attach to the curved edge of my bodice. I'm supposed to sew the right sides together but when you put a curved edge together - it seems to be going in opposite directions... i.e. more like two "c"s back-to-back rather than laying on top of one another. (Is that making sense?) Am I doing this right? Somebody who is advanced in 3d thinking, can you figure this out for me?

p.s. I stuffed the body form with fluff and taped a cardboard bottom on. It really does look like my body! It's so cool; I can't wait to try it out! And an extra bonus: if I'm out of town and Tim is missing me - he could dress up the body form and invite it for dinner, watch a show, and hit the sack. Hee!

Clone Yourself in Duct Tape (try it!)

2009-09-11T18:07:00.009-05:00

Dearest Jamie came over and wrapped duct tape around me until I couldn't sit, bend, walk or pee. All in an effort to be a cheapskate and fit dresses better to my form.

Complete directions are here.

You start at the bottom wrapping horizontally up to the bust. Then make a big asterick shaped star to get the form right over the boobage. Take it up to the collar and the arm holes.

You do another layer going vertical. And then a third layer going horizontal again. Finally, mark bust, waist and hips on the form.

At the end of it all, your dear sweet friend will need to cut you out of the wrap up the back and tape it back together once you're out. The link has directions to make a stand - but you can leave it on a hanger if you wish. Just need to stuff it with batting and put a cardboard cap on the open ends.

Clone Yourself in Duct Tape

2009-09-01T15:01:00.002-05:00

So now that I've made my first dress ever, I have realized the trouble in fitting. It's hard to use a thin sheet of paper to fit each curve and shape in your own body. If anyone else out there is a budding sewing nerd, check out this link showing you how to make a body form duplicate out of duct tape, of all things.

What happened?

2009-09-01T07:22:00.002-05:00

I think I got dumber in the last year. Perhaps I can blame it on Facebook and texting--shrinking my thoughts down into 160 characters. I have abandoned posting on this blog since January. Yesterday I picked it back up to chronical my sewing experiences. And while there, I read over some of my old posts in the "other stuff" category.

Hey. I used to be funny and aware of a wide variety of subject matter. What happened?

Sewing Adventure

2009-08-31T07:38:00.004-05:00

My Facebook friends are probably groaning now - since last Thursday I've been completely obssessed with sewing. Googled for a pattern and found my inspiration in this wonderful sewing blog.

Well, I've completed New Look pattern 6774. My very first ever wearable sewing project. Experience is limited here - with a few blankets, mending and other miscellaneous entry-level projects under my belt. It's so much fun to find a cute pattern and in a day or two have something to show for all your hard work. (Pic coming soon for the finished product. Below are process photos.)

Ready to sew up the back:

Bodice attached:

Bodice sewn:

Pieces cut:

Found this fabric for .99 a yard!

Um. Lady, can you close your mouth when dancing with the President of the Free World?

2009-01-21T07:20:00.003-06:00

Saw the little clip of Obama dancing to Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". Anyone else notice the horrible clash of Obama dancing with the middle aged white people? Seriously. This picture says it all.

guilt

2008-12-11T05:57:00.003-06:00

So I have this issue. I had messes. I know. It's ridiculous. But nothing makes me crazier than a whole bucket of toys dumped around the room. Lucy loves to dump toys and it makes me temporarily insane.

Last Friday, just before heading out to The Rock, I'd had it. I'd hit my limit as a mom. Lucy grabbed her bucket of toys and started to dump them. Without thinking, I said, "Lucy, so help me God, if you dump those toys I'll throw every one of them away."

Yes. Stellar mom. Right there. I deeply understand why my dad threw out our Lite Brites as a kid. Tim shot me a look and I think even said, "you're being a bad mom right now." I got the idea and backed off.

Okay. Flash forward to this week. I was switching laundry downstairs and Lucy had been upstairs watching tv (next to aforementioned bucket of mayhem). I heard a big crash up there. A few minutes went by and she came down the stairs and said:

"Mommy, I have a question."
"Yes, honey, what is it?"
"I don't want you to be an-gy." (she can't sound out that 'r' sound yet)
"Oh honey, it's okay. What do you want to ask me?"
"I dumped out the toys and didn't put them away."

ACK. Straight to the heart. She's not even 2 and a half yet! There is no kind of conviction like the kind that comes from your child. She sees my failings and my flesh like no one else. And is often on the receiving end of it.

I sat down right there and apologized to her. Asking her to forgive me for being "fussy" *(how she'd read my mental breakdowns). I told her it was wrong for mommy to behave that way, and she agreed!

There's a line from the Bible that goes: "train your child in the way he should go and when he is grown, he will not depart from it." Funny, you read that in good times and think about how you can train your child in good things. But in this context, you can train your child in your bad behaviors too, and when they are grown--they won't depart from it, either. It's so critical to grow in self-discipline (and humility when I fail), otherwise Lucy will grow up seeing me as a hypocrite. Lord, help me grow in humility!

Poetry Series: This Is Just to Say

2008-11-20T15:11:00.004-06:00

Alright. If you've looked into any poetry at all, you probably know this one. I'm aware it's been around the block a few times. But it's good. And it's real. And it's the only poem I've memorized in its entirity just because it's good and I find it useful in every-day life. And there's something about it that runs around in my brain over and over like a few lines of music. (And if you've never read it before, there's a big unwritten message here: he's not sorry about it at all. Maybe you've not been sorry about something you've done lately? Maybe you could write out this poem and leave it for the one you've offended so they understand why you're not.)

This Is Just to Say
By William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Poetry Series: Song of Solomon

2008-11-18T13:11:00.005-06:00

Not a usual pick for poetry - I was listening to a song on the treadmill this morning that had these lines. They are full and true. I've seen more marriages than I can count on one hand dissolve into flames in the past few years. I read these lines as my toast at a wedding of one of those dissolved marriages. It rings out both a warning and a hope that love will burn its mark into me.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;
It's flames are flames of fire,
A most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can floods drown it.
If a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised.

Poetry Series: Open House

2008-11-17T14:03:00.005-06:00

I remember my poetry professor describing Roethke as a 'fabulous drunk'. (Which was really saying something coming from him.) Roethke had a manic, tortured life--in and out of the hospital for mental breakdowns and manic depression. I love the way he writes. It sings with power. Like he's sitting next to you drumming out the words on the table as he speaks. I can feel the vibrations in the lines.

Open House
Theodore Roethke
My secrets cry aloud.
I have no need for tongue.
My heart keeps open house,
My doors are widely swung.
An epic of the eyes
My love, with no disguise.
My truths are all foreknown,
This anguish self-revealed.
I'm naked to the bone,
With nakedness my shield.
Myself is what I wear:
I keep the spirit spare.
The anger will endure,
The deed will speak the truth
In language strict and pure.
I stop the lying mouth;
Rage warps my dearest cry
To witness agony.

Poetry Series: Lake Isle of Innisfree

2008-11-14T13:01:00.004-06:00

A while back, I started posting up poems. So we return.

Once, somebody came to me with this poem. He held three or four poems in his hands--all to estimate the various aspects of a possibility of a relationship. After reading each one, he came to this one: Innisfree, an image of how it could have been were circumstances different.

It was incredible at the time (the meaning of it all) though ultimately the whole relationship-- if it could be called that-- was a complete fiasco. But I still think back on this poem and it carries so much weight. It calls me back to that moment and the fullness it held. All the promise and dream of going up together.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree - William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Template discovery

2008-11-05T13:35:00.001-06:00

Thanks to my friend Genny, I found this neato template. But it's a little hard to organize. So I'm probably going to be switching around a little till I find something I like. Sorry. I know that's irritiating.

Prepare yourself for a discussion about excrement.

2008-11-05T12:41:00.004-06:00

In the two short years of parenting I've got under my belt, I'm pretty sure potty training is the absolute hardest thing I've ever done. We're making small strides here at the Grundi household. But it's tough. I'm realizing I'm a control freak. I do not like feeling out of control of poop and pee.

To the uninitiated: when potty training, you let your kid run with just underroos or spankin-naked through the house. This is best done outside where it's okay to poop on the ground. But alas, it's fall and I don't have that luxury. So Lucy pees all over the house. I've learned that when she pees on the floor, she gets upset and then holds the rest in. So a little pee goes on the floor. Then about 10 minutes later, she does it again. And maybe one more time, 10 minutes after that.

So that's a grand total of three pairs of socks, three underpants, three pants and sometimes three shirts, depending on how long it is. Plus some wiping, crying and puddles tracked all around.

The toughest thing is the poop. I know I shouldn't do this, but when she poops in her underpants, I'm totally stunned. I don't know what to do. So I just throw the whole thing away. Underpants and all. I realize they could be salvaged, but I just have no idea how to clean them out good enough to even consider putting them in the machine. So they go right into the can.

By the end of the day, Lucy's pretty frustrated when she makes a mistake and will sometimes cry. Then we go back to diapers because I don't want her to start feeling down about it. And also, for my sake. After a full day of peeing on the floor, I'm tired of worrying about it.

There's been some major successes though. This morning she peed two times in a row in the potty. Then she peed on the floor. Twice. So it goes with potty training.

Halloween

2008-10-31T06:50:00.002-05:00

Look for the family of animals coming down the hall tonight at The Rock. Lucy determined a couple weeks ago what we should all be for Halloween. She's going to be a lion. I'm a rabbit. Tim's a giraffe. Came straight out of her little psyche, no help from mom on this. The tough one was getting Tim to be a giraffe. But we found a shortcut. Photos coming later from the Rock's kids party.

House Frenzy - it's a long one!

2008-10-27T06:41:00.004-05:00

Tim and I decided it was time to start preping the house for sale. For lots of reasons: cost of living, getting free from debt, an ARM loan that will adjust in about a year, etc. But, to undertake such a task, we need to get the house in sell-ready shape.

This past weekend, we had about 20 people mostly from our North House church come to help us paint, remodel, trim up and slim down the house. In what amounted to a single day of labor (give or take a few hours on either side), we accomplished:

living room painted
dining room painted
lucy's room painted
1st floor bathroom primed and painted
entryway primed and painted
master bedroom wall painted
tons and tons of white trim painted
tons and tons of 'touch up' in all rooms painted
demolision of the kitchen
tiling a hearth in the livingroom
trim tile in the 1st floor bathroom
adding molding/baseboard to - entryway, 1st floor bathroom, master bedroom, stairwell, sunroom
adding shutters outside
adding a bit of stucco in the back of the house
painting the exterior stairs
caulking the master bathroom

Yes. That all got done mostly in a single day by mostly inexperienced volunteers. One of my friends commented that she didn't feel she had done all that much to help out. But that's just what made the whole thing work! Everyone had a job to do. It wasn't too big or overwhelming. Each person did their job and before you know it, the entire house was humming.

What a picture of how the church body works under God's plan! It's amazing what can be done in a short amount of time when we all just do our small part. It was such a blessing to be on the recieving end of all this help and love from our church. Makes me feel so lucky to have people like this to depend on.

So what do we have left?

The kitchen is currently a big hole. You can see the roof while pouring the morning coffee. But we're in the planning stages of putting in new cabinets and completely reworking the design of the space. That takes money more than anything else, so we're going to finish that in pieces as we have the funds available.
Refinishing the main level wood floors.
Touch up in the bathroom and entryway.
Another coat of paint on the master bedroom radiator.
Trim painting in the entryway.
Staining/sealing new molding in the stairs, sunroom and entryway.
Grouting the new tile in the 1st floor bathroom and hearth.
Prime and paint the front door when the weather permits.
Paint the basement stairwell.
Paint the sunroom floor.
Stucco repair on the exterior 2nd floor window.
Add handrails to the master stairs and the basement stairs.

I know that list might sound like a lot, but compared to what was accomplished this weekend, it's really a VERY light load. Much of the painting can be completed in an hour or two while lucy naps or after she goes to bed. After this big push, we're energized to complete the work ahead of us.

Last year at Faithwalkers, Tim felt God calling us to get out of debt as quickly as possible. This summer during a prayer retreat, I felt God calling us to sell the house. And as we near the close of this year, it's possible that God could accomplish both tasks right before our eyes! What we felt was an impossible thing, is happening right now.

Reminds me of this totally obscure verse from Zechariah:

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.

Stuff white people like

2008-10-21T20:35:00.003-05:00

Since registering for Facebook, I've been ignoring blogger. Sorry blogger. you're much more work and not nearly as fun. To even the score a little, I had to post a link to my favorite new reading spot: "Stuff White People Like".

Read an excerpt from this awesome page of awesomeness (white people like the word awesome):

PEA COATS
As the temperature starts to drop, many white people are forced to start wearing winter coats. Though many will simply don outdoor performance gear, a great number will turn to the #1 white winter jacket of all time: The Pea Coat.

The Pea Coat was originally worn by sailors and members of the European Navy. If you think about it for a second, this means that the coat is European, Coastal, and Vintage. Three of white people’s favorite things.

Another common characteristic of the coat is that white people will write their names n the label inside the coat. This is not done for fear of theft, but rather as a necessary precaution against party mixups. You see, when a white person attends a party in the winter time they will often be required to put their jacket in a room with literally dozens of other pea coats! Since these coats often contain ticket stubs to the same concerts and identical Trader Joe’s receipts, it can be impossible to find the original owner without a name written inside.

Like with sweaters, the process of acquiring a Pea Coat is almost as important as the coat itself. Fashionable white people can purchase designer pea coats for well over $1000, but the top ranked white people purchase their at Army Surplus stores. This makes them feel better than the white people have spent thousands of dollars on an identical piece of clothing.

But perhaps the greatest value of the pea coat is its ability to help you determine which non-white people have been accepted into the ranks of white people. It is not known if the coat is given to them in an elaborate ceremony or if they buy it themselves, but in either case by wearing the coat they are telling the world that they have white friends.

Long story short, if you want to increase your popularity with white people this winter, get a Pea Coat.

Coffee Update

2008-09-16T12:44:00.005-05:00

The hand of God was apparently at work in the DeLonghi maker. Yesterday, I got the thing all set up, ran two pots of water through to get it ready for brewing, and put together a test pot to give it a whirl.

The first pot was good. Not spectacular. And I realized it's major downfall. Instead of a regular hour/minute button it just had a single "clock set" button. You have to cycle through the entire 24 hours to get to the right time, minute by minute. I cleaned it out and went on with my day.

A few hours later I noticed the display went to three hyphen marks and then started flashing. Delonghi had a brain siezure, also.

Into the box it went, and back to the store we go. So I bought the not-nearly-as-fancy and probably a terrible purchase that I'll regret: a Black and Decker. It was affordable. But can anything good come out of Black and Decker?

This morning, Tim and I tasted the coffee with trepidation. It was okay. Not terrible. Definately not the Grind and Brew. But what can you expect for $39.99? Tim and I decided on a test run. If in the next day or two we decide it still stinks, we'll return this one too and pick up the pot I REALLY want: The Krups Moka Brew. It not only drips water through the coffee but uses steam to pressurize the brew process. It's incredible (so I hear). And $100 more than Mr. Decker's pot. It'll be a test of our contentedness...

Death in the family.

2008-09-15T13:49:00.002-05:00

This morning I rose late at 5:38 AM. Excited for that great smelling first cup of coffee waiting for me downstairs, I hopped out of bed. That's weird, no smell?

Got to the kitchen to find the Cuisenart Grind and Brew had a brain seizure and never woke up. This is big news in the Grundi world. That was the singularly best coffee maker on the planet. Rest in peace Grind and Brew.

We're trying out a budget model as a replacement: The DiLohngi Coffee Cafe with a special "Aroma" feature. I'm a little skeptical. How can it possibly measure up?

Watch out, Peter!

2008-08-25T20:45:00.003-05:00

We're potty training. Body fluids have been found throughout the house. Peter, there might be another good picture or two for the blog.

Pan-Sexual, Heteroflexible, Bi-Curious?

2008-08-25T07:26:00.004-05:00

In a ironic twist on social sexual norms and the 70s women's lib movement, girls these days are behaving just as the "liberated" women hoped: more sexually free than ever-- and yet these 'liberated' girls are more enslaved than ever by men's desires.

What kids these days are up to:
Since its been nearly 12 years since I left high school, a lot of things have changed. I hate to admit it, but I am rapidly losing touch. Turns out that the new rage in high school parties is girls making out for the sole benefit of attracting guys.

This article on the Strib site details the new fad, linking to a few mainstream magazine articles and a hot pop song. Here's an excerpt:

Young women whom Salon.com interviewed about the girl-on-girl trend said they had initially kissed other females to get a free beer at parties or on a dare from guys. But they soon saw it as a way to signal to males that they are "sexually open and adventurous."
"It was like, look, I'm the center of attention!" recalled one 16-year-old.
...
This is the brave new world that the sexual revolution unleashed. Has it liberated our daughters, as originally promised?
One young woman interviewed by Salon says that, for her and her friends, it comes back to an age-old desire to be cherished by a man.
"A lot of girls who do want long-term boyfriends will still settle for the hookup [triggered by girl-on-girl kissing] because it gives them that temporary feeling of being taken care of and being close to someone," she said.
"It's sad to see that this is what it's come to -- that guys will raise the bar and girls will scramble to meet it. Women just want to know what they have to do to get these guys to fall in love with them."

Though behaviors have changed in the last 100 years, the motivations simply haven't. Girls tend to be sexual outside of marriage primarily to "fall in love" as the article notes above. And that's just a simple outworking of Genesis 3. One of the unique curses we women deal with as a result of The Fall is a desire to have power over men. And the best way to have power over a man is simple: sex.

Maybe I'm not so out of touch after all.

Wordl

2008-08-19T12:29:00.001-05:00

This is literally a word picture of my blog. A neat little time waster for people who like design gadgets: wordl. It takes a website (or a selection of words) and creates a word cloud for your viewing pleasure. It's neat! Give it a try on your blog.

Not Martha

2008-08-19T06:53:00.004-05:00

I keep trying to invite people to eat sushi with me to no avail. Every one I know hates sushi.

In Mexico, the Bibelheimers, Tim and I thought of a great idea: an American Sushi place designed for red-blooded, manly Americans. (Name options: Faux-shi, American Sushi, Him-shi)

Instead of raw fish in cute little medalions, what if it was a bit of hamburger and pickle rolled up in a circle of white bread and finished with bacon? Instead of ginger and wasabi, how about mustard, ketchup and jalapenos? For dessert, we thought rice pudding would make a great base. Then you could add bits of chocolate or dried fruit to the middle and wrap the whole thing up in a fruit leather.

Then I came across this site. We might have a little party for the Beebsies with Hostess Sushi.

Como se dise "embarrassed"?

2008-08-13T07:02:00.003-05:00

The Grundi made it back in one piece (mostly) from our trip to Mexico. I have pictures to share...but the camera is somewhere between here and Houston. Our bag never made it through customs, so it was abandoned there. Continental is shipping it to us, but who knows when I'll have deoderant, my makeup, or a good selection of summer clothes to choose from. For now, I wear Right Guard and smell like a man. It's the only spare one we have.

I'll share one funny story from Mazatlan:
The third day at the resort, I'd been wearing my favorite red suit and feeling confident and a little tanner than my usual shade of transluscent. At the end of our pool day, Tim and I were getting into the elevator when he gasped, "Honey! You're butt is hanging out!" When we got into the hotel room I turned in the mirror and realized the material had literally worn through. My entire butt was visible through sheer red fabric. Sweet. Sorry, kids, for the show.

The song about love

2008-07-29T11:56:00.003-05:00

Lucy's down for a nap, or is getting there. Our usual routine includes prayer between the two of us and me singing three songs to her before bed. She always asks for "the song about love" which is the hymn "I Love You Lord."

Lyrics:
I love you Lord
and I lift my voice
to worship you.
Oh my soul rejoice.
Take joy my King,
In what you hear.
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

I started singing this to her as an infant because I didn't know any kids lullubies. It's recently become one of her favorites.

So I'm in on my computer for her nap, and I can hear her gibbering away before she falls asleep. She's singing "I love you Lord" to herself. It breaks my heart and fills me with pride to hear her singing in her monotone robot voice "oh my soul rejoice!"

It's a party

2008-07-29T06:48:00.004-05:00

So Lucy turns two on the 4th - but since her parents will be away, we had a little beach party at Lake Nokomis on Sunday. Major highlights included all of her friends (and mine) being there and the cupcake. Pretty sure the cupcake might have been the biggie. Here are a couple shots, with more in our photo album link to the right>>.

Checkin' out her new swimsuit.

Cupcakes with Avery J

Cool DC kicks just like Daddy's!

Small things

2008-07-15T06:15:00.006-05:00

The best thing about being a parent of a toddler is watching them learn about life's little joys. It's like I get to learn about them for the first time, too -- just watching her go through it. Here's a short list of favorites:

Lolipops and ice cream cones

How do you teach a kid to lick and not bite? Or lick super fast to catch the drips? And then what's this madness about eating the cone? What other food item can you eat the dish it came in? Lucy didn't buy it. She refused despite the prodings and encouragement from her parents. (The bites you see out of the cone came from daddy.)

Rolling down a hill

We tried this at Jeromy and Gretchen's on Sunday. Tim did it first to model the procedure. Then he laid her down and tried to physically roll her over. She resisted of course. So then Tim tried to dump her over and over. Lucy dug in her heels and ended up with her face going the wrong direction. This just did not make sense to her. Why would anyone purposely try to fall down?

Steering a bike

It really doesn't make sense at all. Turn the handles and the whole contraption turns? Lucy will lean on one side and then just go in circles. Which is pretty fun all in itself. But mom and dad insist on coaching her through it. Mostly, we lift her and turn her ourselves.

Not Drinking Pool Water

This is just incomprehendable for Lucy. She can't imagine why you shouldn't swallow pool water. Water's water, right? Every 30 seconds I have to say, "Close your mouth, Lucy. Don't drink it." She does anyway.

Milk Madness

2008-07-11T14:24:00.006-05:00

Anyone else noticed the insane prices on milk these days? This week I bought a gallon of 1% for $4.59 at Cub. If it wasn't for the ravenous milk monsters in my house, I'd boycot the whole thing altogether. Powdered milk anyone?

On another note, see how cute my kid is?

P.S. I Love You

2008-07-08T13:03:00.006-05:00

Seen this? I watched it last night and had the first really good movie cry since "The Notebook". I had the pleasure of watching Notebook with Angela - we sat and cried all the way through the credits.

"P.S." has all the makings for a total chick flick. I know. And it doesn't up the quality of the movie if I tell you that I cried...no bawled.. through 70% of it. (No spoiler here: the husband dies of a brain tumor in the first 10 minutes of the movie.) But I would like to argue that it isn't a chick flick at all, but a picture of grief and moving through it.

It's been four and a half years since my dad died, and the pain of losing him is lessening. I can go weeks sometimes without thinking of him. And if I do, they are joyful memories and thankful memories that I had a father like him. The older I get, the more aware I am of how rare it is to have a father that bandages your knees and tucks you in bed and whistles while he cooks in the kitchen. But I can't tell you how long its been since I cried over losing him. Six months? Maybe a year?

And the dreams...
If you've ever lost someone so close, I think you've experienced this. There are these three dimensional dreams that come every night at first, then a couple times a week, then slowing down until you don't have them at all. I can smell him, touch him, feel his hair, his hands. He talks with me, he listens. He's really there. Then he reminds me that he's dead, and I wake up in tears, sobbing but thankful that even in my dream I got to be near him again. It feels for a moment like he was never gone.

So I cried all the way through the movie and then later in bed when Tim came home from softball. I told him about the movie and cried again. Then I layed in bed and cried just thinking over it in the silence. Then I asked Tim if I should post a video of me crying on YouTube like this lady. We laughed and then fell asleep.

Emergency Help Needed!

2008-06-06T12:29:00.003-05:00

Tim and I are planning a serious, long over due date night for Saturday. I want to do more than hit Olive Garden. I'm thinking great atmosphere. Music, but no so loud we can't gawk at others and make up stories about those around us. Someplace we've never been before. Not too pretentious. We like it a little on the weird side rather than the fancy-pants stuff (i.e. Psycho Suzies vs. Zelo)

Quick! Got any suggestions??

Poop

2008-05-03T13:57:00.003-05:00

I'm going to have to make this a new category. Kevin and Peter: you are right. We're obsessed with poop over here. It runs in our gene pool.

Last week, Lucy and her two cousins were playing in the backyard. I was sitting in the sun, enjoying the weather. Lucy and Annessa were each holding a baby. I asked Annessa, "What's your baby's name?" And Lucy replied before she could answer.

(This is a direct quote, and as a mom, I did no prompting on this one.)

Lucy said, "Baby name, Poop!"

Yes. She has a horse named Boobie and a baby named Poop. That's my girl.

Anyone?

2008-04-29T19:46:00.002-05:00

I'm missing $17. Did you see it? I had it in my back pocket on a walk around the lake--earmarked for a special mommy/daughter treat. (I know. $17 is a little excessive to buy a treat for a 20 month old. I wasn't going to spend more than two or three. But I brought it all anyhow.)

So now I have no dollars. If you find it somewhere around the Nokomis marsh, maybe you could be kind enough to return it to me?

detours and crabby wives

2008-04-25T21:57:00.003-05:00

The fam and I are up in Sodak (that's south dakota for the uninitiated) for the weekend. We drove up here last night so Tim and I could be at a meeting with leaders from his dad's church. They are planning to implement house churches similar to how the rock does them, and it was really cool to connect with their leadership team, answer questions, and hear how God is growing the people at their church.

It was a certifiably terrible ride up here. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be posting this, but I'll throw caution to the wind. For starters, we were an hour and a half late getting out the door and Lucy was high needs and wearing me down--I was impatient to leave (read: mommy was crabby and just wanted to strap her girl into a chair for a while.) Daddy was crabby, too. He just spent the whole day trying to cram in work and then cram in office work so we could get out on the road.

We made it as far as 494 before we hit a major detour and spent the rest of the trip on 212, which I guess has a small town every 5 to 10 miles. We were stopped by the cops TWICE. Yes, TWICE for speeding. And miraculously (*really* this is a definite sign of God's infinite grace) we got just a warning for both of them. Half way into the trip, my contacts started freaking out and I had to ride the rest of the way with my eyes shut. And Tim was hot and I was cold--pretty much the constant state of all married couples-- and so the temp. in the car was set at 63 and I was freezing. All the stops and detours led to an extra hour on the road. Which was followed by a terrible night of lucy waking up, crying, waking up, crying, wash, rinse, repeat.

So... back to the meeting. We drove there in 45 mile an hour winds with an inch of pure ice on everything. After the meeting, the snow was flying hard. It's been driving down ever since and the snow is piling against the house. It's up to my knee against the sliding glass door. It's a full scale blizzard out here!

For all the hassle and terribleness of the drive up last night, I am SO thankful we didn't come today. We never would have made it. In the mile and a half drive back from the church this morning we passed three cars in the ditch and one right outside of Tim's parent's house.

We're supposed to drive to Aberdeen for a wedding tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we make it with no speeding tickets and no trips through the ditch!

See mommy. See mommy's nose job.

2008-04-21T12:13:00.003-05:00

This is ridiculous. Apparently, so many moms are having plastic surgery, that they need to write a children's book on how to explain this to the kiddos.

"Hey there sweet daughter, mommy feels ugly in her own skin, as you likely will when you are mommy's age. So I'm going to waste thousands on a new nose and tummy tuck. If you save your allowance, we can fix your nose, too!"

Put on the list for Mother's Day gifts this year, kids.

Super-Jerk

2008-04-17T12:45:00.001-05:00

See Ken Jennings's post today for a glimpse of Superman as Super-Jerk.

Don't Listen

2008-04-17T12:17:00.007-05:00

"Stop listening to teaching that contradicts what you know is right."
Proverbs 10:27

Women around the country, this one included, just love to read magazines. I don't know where the fetish comes from, but I suspect it's the same place where the male drive to study sport stats comes from. Any magazine, of any sort is a treat for us. We get excited, even to the point of shouting "yahoo! my magazine is here!" We don't care if the magazine is 2 years old, ripped, dog-eared and coffee-ringed. It's still worth a look--just for the hairstyles and fashion tips, of course.

I recently came into a cache of Us Weekly, People, and OK! magazines. I had maybe 30 old ones, dating back to Brittney's first breakdown. My husband came down, saw the stack, and said, "Did you ask Amber if you're allowed to read those?"

Side note: At Faithwalkers, Amber and I both conceded our desire for magazines was detrimental. I find my self esteem dropping as I flip the pages of Cosmo, et al. Amber agreed, and we decided not to read them any longer.

I reasoned back to Tim that these magazines were okay because they were just celebrity gossip magazines and not fashion magazines. These ones didn't make me feel bad about myself. The next time we hung out, I told Amber and Mel about it and asked their opinion.

LIGHTBULB.

Mel said, "Well, it's gossip, isn't it?" These magazines make their money by sinning. Flat out. End of discussion. No debate, no rationalizing. This is just pure blatent sin!

Geh! How is that I never noticed it before? For goodness sake, their called gossip magazines.

The three of us tried it at every angle. We couldn't think of a single magazine that was good or helpful. Even seemingly benign magazines (rachel ray, better homes and gardens, martha, etc.) all lead us to feel discontent with our food, our bodies, our homes, our money, etc. We couldn't think of a single magazine that didn't promote something that leads to sin or a temptation to sin.

Lucy Update

2008-04-14T12:56:00.002-05:00

We're hitting the terrible two's. But along with that comes some really fun stuff. She remembers fun things and tells me about them even a couple days later, for example: She'll talk about going to the park or the childrens museum, mentioning "slide, bridge, swing, puppy, etc."

She asks to be tickled and plays dress-up. She LOVES hats and glasses and purses. Her favorite toy currently is Mr. Potato Head, followed by every stuffed animal in the house, though nobody is as cool as Boobie and Elmo.

Last night at house church, we were singing worship. Each time we do this, I try to explain why we sing (to show Jesus that we love him), how to do it (raise your hand and sing real loud!), and try to get her involved as much as she'll allow. She blew me away last night. I had her on my lap. It was the last song and we were singing "Praise God" by Steele. She sang along: a bit behind the crowd I and the people around me could here a tiny toddler voice singing "PRAISE GOD!" She finished the song by clapping and saying "YEAH!" It was a sacred moment for me, hearing those words come out of her mouth without my prompting--- just on her own initiative.

Here's a few recent pics. More on our photo site.

Do I kill it?

2008-04-14T12:44:00.004-05:00

I've been debating for the past few weeks about killing the Grundi blog altogether. I've been really swamped with work and Whole 9 Design-- so every minute I'm on the computer is devoted to work (and iTunes). But I got caught up and so many things have been developing on the home front, I just have to keep plugging along. I'm going to type up a bunch of posts and just get a whole slew of new stuff up here. On with it...

MOVIES
The Grundi are blessedly free from cable. What a hideous invention. The trick is that you feel you could never do without it. When it's gone, you are praising God. You realize life is just as full even though you missed the finale of Project Runway and the entire fifth season of CSI. So. Since we're back to rabbit ears, we've cut down on the tv watching and prefer to see movies. Enter Blockbuster Online. Here's a rundown of the last few movies we've seen and my brief critique:

Bruce Almighty (terrible. geh, Jim Carrey.)
Evan Almighty (really funny, maybe I was overly tired but I really did laugh until my sides hurt. I love Steve C. and the way he played the outworking of faith.)
All About Eve (Wow. If you haven't seen this 1950s era movie, rent it. Fantastic.)
The Prestige (Interesting plot line, way too slow, a little odd. Sort of like The Village but with bird mutilation.)
Shooter (Terrible. Like Rambo for the new millenium.)

I've got the following on the way. Anyone seen these?

The Sentinal
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Ice Harvest

Thanks Karl!

2008-02-06T11:21:00.000-06:00

At our last communications team meeting at work, Karl recommended we install "Adblock Plus" on our Firefox browsers. It filters out all the banner ads and irritating flashing banners on every site, no strings attached. Yahoo! It really works. Firefox users, you must get this add-on.

Back from beyond the grave

2008-02-05T13:18:00.000-06:00

This blog is not dead, yet. I've been unmotivated and busy with an overwhelming work/baby schedule. Excuses aside, here (Peter) is an update to the baby blog.

See Lucy's favorite stuffed pony, which she named on her own:

See Lucy giving her Mimi (read: grandma) kisses long-distance:

And check out some new cutie pie pictures on our gallery:

Lucy 18 months

Marathon pics

2007-12-18T12:26:00.000-06:00

I finally picked up the photos from Walgreen's and they are here for your viewing pleasure. These were all taken with a cheap little disposable, and I'm pretty impressed with the quality. Much better than expected, especially considering it survived multiple rainstorms and unspeakable body sweat. Enjoy! (Complete photos are on our Picasa site, link to the right.)

At the start line. The race began with a canon blast and fireworks.

Running downhill. Can you see the crowds? Must be around mile 7 or so.

Cheese pose. I just finished applying vasaline to my many blisters in this shot. The race organizers picked up all that trash with snow shovels, which is weird. Why do they have snow shovels in Hawaii?

Tim and I around mile 23 and Diamond Head Crater. We're pretty sure this is outside of Magnum P.I.'s house.

Getting close to the finish line! About mile 24.

No finish line pictures. Instead, enjoy this one of my husband's best side. This is the North Shore.

Tim snorkeling in Shark's Cove on the North Shore. While snorkeling, an eel popped out of one of the rocks and chased him out of the water. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the snorkeling. This was the day after the marathon and my feet were full of blisters. The rocks (lava) are sharp and were impossible to cross with my bum feet. So I sunbathed and watched the surf crash over the rocks.

This is Tim's brother Joe.

Marathon hijinx and other news from paradise

2007-12-12T13:00:00.000-06:00

This is the best picture I've got so far. I did bring along a disposable camera, so I'll have some better shots soon. I think this is crossing the finish line. I ran across and fell straight into the outdoor showers. Here's my marathon recap:

THE RAIN
We started the race in a torrential downpour. I mean rain forest sort of rain. Big fat drops falling so fast it's almost blinding. It rained like that from the canon blast that started the race through about mile 11. Shoes, socks, everything was soaked.

The upside was it was cooling. Downside: 90% humidity and blisters from one end to the other. Tim brought me socks at 11, but no good. My shoes were soaked so it didn't take long for the socks to be wet again. I stopped twice to put Vasaline on my toes. Still ended up with blisters on most of my toes and chapped and chaffed feet. One teammate had to leave the finish line in a wheelchair because her blisters had gotten inflamed.

THE JAPANESE
This marathon is the 3rd largest in the world. 3o,000 people and about 70% are Japanese. It's weird to be in America and feel foreign. Much of the race literature was in Japanese, not English. The Japanese have a much different take on the race. They care a lot less about time. And view the whole thing more like a parade, I think. Costumes (little red riding hood, the wolf, traditional kimono ...and WOODEN shoes! Christmas elves, slutty santa's helpers, little girl outfits, loin cloths and leis, bride and groom) were all over the place. I saw at least half a dozen racers leave the course and hit McDonalds, then return with an Egg McMuffin.

THE SIZE
30,000 people. That's the size of my hometown in Nebraska. Imagine the entire town out walking around a city street at the same time. There was no spot where we weren't battling the crowd. I'd say the vast majority of the race was walkers. And they were lined up all over, front to back, side to side. There was just no way to get around all those people. No matter how far you went, you were always walled in by walkers. 26.2 miles of zig zagging around people is a giant waste of time and energy. One of my teammates was hoping to qualify for Boston. She got so jammed up behind walkers she had no chance to hit her time.

All in all, the race was really beautiful. Pictures of that to come. And my knees and legs really felt pretty good. My feet hurt like crazy and every step was like walking on hot coals. I got pretty discouraged and weirdly emotional. I think I cried three or four times during the race. All the stopping for vasaline, the 30 minute porta-potty stops, the weaving around tens of thousands of walkers, the intense pain from the blisters. These things put our time WAAAAAY back. I finished in 7 hours and 2 minutes. But I finished. And though the pain was intense, I never wanted to quit. I just couldn't always muster up the guts to keep running. Though I ran that last stretch into the finish line and collapsed into tears in the showers.

Honolulu, here we come!

2007-11-29T16:39:00.000-06:00

*obligatory apology for not posting last month*

Training has ramped up and ramped down. Looking at my last long run this Saturday for 8 miles only! Good thing too, because the snow is starting to fly here. Running in 20 degrees is one thing, but I'm not hardy enough to run outside when it's 8, as it has been the last few mornings. The ice is starting to form on the lake, and the grounds keepers are flooding the outdoor rink in preparation for the skating season.

We're off to HI next Thursday. I honestly can't believe it's already here. It really has blown by. After the Twin Cities Pageant (which was a fantastic success!) and a few other surprise donations, I've got $643 left to raise. I can't believe I've raised over $4,000 with your help. Though our deadline was this Monday, I can still raise funds through January 9th.

God has really shown himself to be FAITHFUL. Tim's been challenging me to pray for things specifically. I started to pray over a specific amount. This morning I opened up my email and found a donation receipt for $100 from a perfect stranger living in California--Mel.

Turns out she's been following McKenna Johnson's story through her CaringBridge site and was moved to find a way to donate. She Google'd McKenna's name and my blog came right up. From there, she made her way to my active.com site and made a donation. We've gotten in touch today. Mel's attending a church out there in California, and is planning on running a TNT race this spring. Isn't that crazy? God really does care about the details in our lives.

I'm feeling strong, feeling healthy. Ultimately, feeling optimistic about the race. I'll be taking tons of pictures while we're down there. And I'll probably have a camera with me on the race route. Look for a blog entry in two weeks with all the grueling details...

Run update and baby blog

2007-10-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

We're up to 17 miles on our long runs. I get nervous for every long run, even when we started back at 6 miles. But this weekend's run has me especially nervous. I briefly struggled with Achilles problems. That has been addressed, but my knees still hurt.

We're gearing up for Halloween at the Grunditz house. Lucy is going to be an angel. Here's a preview. She's carrying her toothbrush around, which I suppose makes her a tooth fairy instead of an angel. She's come a long way in a year. Last year she was a sweet pea.

She's getting so grown up. She colored her first picture this week. On her own request, too. She was playing with a pen, drawing on the ground. I swapped it out with a crayon and paper. Her artwork is proudly displayed on our fridge, the first of many.

Dressed as an angel, she walks over to the mirror and kisses herself. She's got great self-esteem. She's a total girly-girl. She loves to wear my necklaces and scarves. She loves to put on hats, bracelets and sunglasses. I just wish that hair would start growing so we could do some cute pigtails.

Mr. Twin Cities

2007-10-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

Mark your calendars for a can't miss night. Ann R. and I, in effort to raise the last couple thousand bucks for Team in Training, are hosting a Mr. Twin Cities contest. Guys, we need you!

We're getting a fabulous prize pack for the lucky winner, full of manly gifts from manly restaurants and shops.... places like Buffalo Wild Wings and REI, and batting cages. If that doesn't entice, what about an adoring audience cheering your name??

Categories include: evening gown, swim suit, interview and talent, with a bonus point awarded to the audience favorite.

You can get tickets from Ann or I, and guys, you can register to compete, but we need you to sign up by Nov. 2nd.

Vacation

2007-10-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

First of all, you co-bloggers need to get on the ball. I checked my Google Reader and even Adam only had two unread posts last week. Yahoo to The Farside and Number 9, with the chart topping 5 new posts last week.

The fam spent a week away from technology at a cabin we found on Craigslist ironically. There was much sitting, much eating, more sitting, then some reading, and a few naps sprinkled in for good measure. I did find time to squeeze in a four mile run, not nearly as exciting as Ann's was last week. But I did get to do half of it as a trail run through the Sibley State Park system. That was fun, and added a little danger: would I fall and twist my ankle? Would a one-armed ax murderer pop out of the woods and demand my arm?

We have a ton of cute pics of lucy, of course. Posting those later this week when I have time to download them and clean off the red eye.

In running news, I go to the dr tomorrow for my first therapy session. If you read that in Ann's blog, you might have been wondering what sort of therapy I'm getting. It's not for my head, it's for my knees. I have no idea what I'm in for. Maybe lots of prodding and poking and pushing. Some electric shocks.

Thanks to so many of you who supported my race! I am officially at 54% for my fundraising goal. That's the first major hurdle. Now it's time to start planning our fundraiser event. I'm working on a location. A post about that event is coming soon.

Training Update #6

2007-09-19T20:17:00.000-05:00

Ran our 5 mile weekday run tonight. Holy cow! I am so sore. My knees are killing me. Just off the run 30 minutes ago - so my brain isn't totally functional. I started to check email when I got home (a great after-run task) and saw this note from our team coordinator about our team honoree, little McKenna. She's only 9 and has been fighting Leukemia for 7 years. She's just had her third bone marrow transplant this month.

Here's a note from her mom to our team:

To all McKenna's Team In Training Teammates;

Thank you for running and raising money and awareness for Leukemia and Lymphoma research. My little girl has been fighting for over 7 years now and we are praying that she has finally been cured.

Although I wish, hope and pray daily that no other families will be affected by these cancers, I know it's going to continue to happen. Please run because you can....but especially because there are so many who can't. Like McKenna, stuck here at the U of M Hospital. It's a struggle for her just to walk 150 feet. I'd love to see her run! Train hard and remember we are with you, cheering you on, every step of the way!

My little cramped knees are a small price to pay. It's hard to read such an email and feel anything but gratitude that we are able to be a part of helping McKenna beat cancer, even if it's an indirect route.

I'm still $800 short of my 50% goal--- which is coming up in just 10 days! I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to bring that in quickly. But if you've been thinking of contributing, this would be a great time to do so!!

Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement on a super fun fundraising event that you definitely won't want to miss...

Training Update #5

2007-09-11T08:05:00.000-05:00

I hit the orthopedic dr. on Friday and found out a few fun facts about my knee issues.

First, I can blame them squarely on Lucy. I guess it takes months after you quit breastfeeding for your ligaments and tendons to go back to normal. (During pregnancy, they get all loose and flowing so you can push out a watermelon.) Plus, my muscular system got all wacko and didn't move back in the same place after I shrunk back to normal human size. So now my tendons are loose and my muscles don't know where home is. Therefore, my kneecaps are moving all over the place and not staying in their pre-approved track. Hence, it hurts.

The good news is, as my dr. put it, it won't do lasting damage. The worst that will happen is I'll be so sore, I won't be able to walk. Oh, no biggie. She set me up with some physical therapy that is supposed to help me recover.

RUNNING
But, the show must go on. So today I run 4. Tomorrow I run 4. Friday I run 3. And this weekend I look forward to a nervy 11 mile run. Poor Ann has to run that alone since she's going out of town. Hopefully when our group runs on Saturday I'll have a turtle to run with. Most of our group is much faster than I am, and I just can't imagine running 11 miles at a fast pace. Though, overall, I have fallen back in love with running. It's the best mood-altering drug out there.

FUNDRAISING
On the fundraising front, I'm encouraged. I've gotten a number of checks from family, friends and co-workers. I've got about $3000 left to raise, about $1400 done. So if you're thinking of donating, I could really use the boost! (Check out the TNT logo up top) I'm looking forward to a fun dinner at the Gasthof this weekend and silent auction. Any takers??? Last chance to drink from the boot and eat a lot of schnitzel for a good cause!

Shorpy

2007-08-31T14:55:00.000-05:00

Next to The Dude's blog (linked here), this is my favorite new blog. Shorpy (named after Shorpy Higgenbothem a 'greaser' in a 1900s coal mine) is dedicated to publishing vintage photographs.

It makes me stop and consider just how far humanity has come in 100 years. The lifestyle that these people lived is completely foreign to me. Most of them would likely have been considered third-world living conditions by our current standards. Yet that's the sort of life our grandparents and great grandparents knew.

A few favorite posts:

I want food
My wife's accident made me happy!
Purdie Family: 1911
Ozark Mother: 1935 This one is particularly striking. Look how old this lady looks, and I bet she's younger than I am now. What a life. What a terrible time. How spoiled are we?

Attacking blanket!

2007-08-28T11:22:00.001-05:00

I set Lucy down for her nap yesterday. She cried and cried. It got quiet for a while, so I assumed she was asleep. Ten minutes go by and suddenly there is a heartbreaking scream from her bedroom.

I went in to see her standing up, her cozy-soft blanket over her head like Charlie Brown's Halloween Special. I picked her up and tossed off the blanket.

Eyes full of tears, she turned around and with pointed finger, yelled at the blanket, "Do! Do! Do!" (In baby language 'do' is a four-letter word.)

Seven days a week

2007-08-27T09:16:00.000-05:00

Life has been a little wild for us. I've been trying to keep you updated on my running progress, but daily life has been too much to sum up in a blog post. We're spending most of our time finishing up the basement apartment for my in-laws. They move in this Thursday! Yahoo!

I'm so excited to have them here. My sister and brother-in-law have two kids, and Lucy just loves to play with them. I'm a little lonely at home--working and raising the kiddo--while Tim has been working 80-90 hour weeks. Can't remember the last time he had a day off. Having Karale here means I'll have somebody to talk to, somebody to go on walks with or to take the kids to the park with.

If any of you have seen the progression of our basement apartment, you won't believe what it has become. It's really beautiful. Tim designed a custom entertainment center to top off the living room. It's so cool. Hard to believe this neat little room used to be our garage. It's got elegant French doors and brand new everything. We had to contend with a bizzare concrete ceiling in there-- Tim's mom came up with a great solution. She put up a cool texture using tissue paper! It looks like a plaster ceiling. I'll see if I can get some pictures together so you can see the progress.

Training Update #4

2007-08-23T12:08:00.000-05:00

Hills!

We braved the intermediate training calendar last night and ran hill training instead of the usual 3 mile run. We ran at Lock & Dam 1 under the Ford bridge. It's about a 45 degree incline - maybe 1/3 of a mile one way. We ran that sucker five times. It was definitely one of the harder things I've had to do. I didn't stop and walk it. Or give in. Or even poop out. And after I had the biggest adrenaline rush. It may be crazy, but I think I want to do those again! What a great feeling.

Got a couple more checks in the mail. I'm up to $726.20. Only four thousand left to go! :)

Cool quote of the day:
The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.
– Chinese proverb

Why, aren't you a fine piece of firmware...

2007-08-22T14:41:00.001-05:00

Thank you Adobe!

They asked me to fill out a product survey (which I always do, especially as a member of the marketing community) with the offer of a $250 gift certificate to two of the survey takers. Yeah, right. Nobody ever wins those things.

Ha ha! Guess who is now the lucky holder of a $250 gift card to Amazon.com?

Actually, I'm the holder of a $47.29 gift card, minus the cost of a rockin' 4 gig Ipod Nano and sports arm band. I've been pining away for an ipod of my own---but too cheap to buy one.

Thank you, Lord! What a great gift, what a super blessing as I'm training for a marathon and spending plenty of time on the road.

Now what should I fill it with? Got any favorite running tunes? My top spot goes to The Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" The beat makes my feet move even when I don't want them to.

Training Update #3

2007-08-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

I got my first check in the mail today! Yahoo! I just have 46 more checks to go...

The new shoes seem to be helping the knees. Still a little pain, but not as bad. Just read an article about chronic knee pain/swelling. Says I need to take anti-inflammatory meds for 3-7 days continuously to interrupt the cycle of inflammation. So I'm going to try that.

Training Update #2

2007-08-16T10:37:00.000-05:00

Holy Cow! Was that a streak of lightening passing me by, or was that Kathy?
- as heard from a passer-by around Lake Calhoun last night.

Yes, fellow readers. I have broken the sound barrier. We did our timed mile. Despite nerves and a little rumbling in the bowels, I finished a cool two minutes faster than expected!

A little background: I'm a slow runner. Really. I know everyone says that. But I really am. In high school, I WALKED the mile. I hated running eternally. Mostly because I felt like a lead-legged mammoth. I'm not coordinated. I'm not lithe and thin. This Germanic body was definitely not made for speed.

My usual time on a 3 mile run is about 11 or 12 minutes. When I'm fully trained, I can shave that down to a 10 minute mile. But I've NEVER broken that.

So last night, when I came hurdling down the straight-away and sprinted into the finish with my team cheering me on, I felt a little downtrodden, expecting to hear "10:35" from the timer. My run coach called out "8:29, Kathy. Good job!"

I had to stop, catch my breath, and ask: "Are you sure? Did you make some mistake? Seriously?" It literally made my night. The rest of our training run was a blur. (Because of my blinding speed, of course.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can say I run an 8:29 mile. Yes, ma'am. That's me. Under double digits. Oh yeah.

Training Update #1

2007-08-14T15:54:00.000-05:00

We've been at this for three weeks now. So far, we've had nothing but easy runs. Short distances by marathon standards. Even so, my knees have been screaming at me. After our 6 miler on Sunday, my knees have been swollen. I can't bend them completely without pain. After narrowing down the different issues, I'm counting on the shoes being my problem. Picked up a new set yesterday. Trying them out tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I hear we are doing a timed mile. I'm having flash-backs to my freshman year. I think I threw up from anxiety thinking about the timed mile. And my running buddies won't be there. I'll be facing it all by myself!

On the fundraising front, I got all my letters out in the mail. If you are one of my 116 friends/family, you'll probably be getting one in the mail this week. (Hey, if you're not one of the lucky 116, why don't you visit that dandy TNT logo on the upper right?)

In addition to letters, I'm going to be working at the Metrodome for this Saturday's Twins game, flipping hot dogs and 3-2 beers for charity. We're also going to be having a fun buffet dinner at the Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit next month.

Photos from the first year

2007-08-08T11:41:00.000-05:00

Enjoying spaghetti.

The best time of the bath.

Daddy-daughter book time.

One Year

2007-08-08T11:31:00.001-05:00

It's happened. I no longer have a baby. She's officially a toddler. I don't know exactly when she switched. But baby dreams are a thing of the past. She's learning so much and makes me laugh with how much she understands. A few highlights:

When I tell her "no" I must unknowingly shake my finger at the offending object. Now she affirms her understanding of the command by shaking her little finger back at me, or at the object, or at the cats, or when I'm changing her diaper, or when I give her food she dislikes.
She can say "puppy" "kitty" "nap" "hat" "momma" "dadda" and we're working on "ball" "Jake" "Josey" and "Grandma".
New-found loves: cold pepperoni pizza, cold spaghetti, peanutbutter toast, mint chip ice cream, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cupcakes.
New-found hates: carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas, broccoli, avocados, really anything green.
She likes to poke our cats in the nose. They tolerate it. She also likes to rest her head on their furry bodies. That is less tolerable. She loves it when Jake punches her in the head. It makes her laugh uncontrollably. The head-punching usually comes when she is overly pokey or when resting her head on his body.
The best part of a bath is when the water is coming out of the tap. A baby-sized waterfall.

Photos in an upcoming post....

Say what?

2007-07-31T16:47:00.000-05:00

I'm taking on one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced. Bigger than child birth? Bigger than marriage? It feels that way. I've decided to raise almost $5,000 and run another (yikes!) marathon. (Faithful Mrs. R readers are already wise to this news. I've been a little slow in posting lately.)

THE DEAL
Mrs. R and Gretchen D. are joining me in this crazy endeavor (any other takers??). We're beginning to train with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Started the schedule on Saturday.

Our goal is to raise at least $4700-- of that, 73% goes directly to funding the research programs. The rest pays for the program and our flight and hotel to the marathon. Did I mention that the marathon is in Hawaii? Oh, gosh. How silly of me! Yes, we're running the Honolulu Marathon on December 9th.

THE REASON
Lots of them, really... running a marathon again, being in the best shape of my life, going to Hawaii, visiting my brother-in-law and his family. But the best reason is to run for those in my life who have fought cancer. My father died in 2004 from esophageal cancer--just nine days after my wedding. A close friend of ours has successfully beaten non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I'm fortunate to be a part of funding research and support for cancer survivors.

GOING FORWARD
Expect regular updates on our training. Funny stories from our runs.... (ha ha Ann and Gretchen!) We already have a funny story, but I can't share it online. You'll have to ask about in person.

Lots of you will probably get a support letter in the mail shortly. If you'd like to help out, send me an email. Even $10 is one step closer to making the goal! And you can always click the banner on the right. You can stop by my training site to see how the funding is going or to donate online.

Love Song - Poetry Series

2007-07-20T17:10:00.000-05:00

As requested by Unspar!, below is my favorite T.S. Eliot poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Reading it again, it reminds me of Adam O. (except for that whole bald spot reference).

It's a long one, but I promise it is worth the full read.

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
By T. S. Eliot

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats	5
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …	10
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,	15
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,	20
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go	35
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—	40
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare	45
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,	50
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all—	55
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?	60
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]
It is perfume from a dress	65
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin? . . . . .
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets	70
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. . . . . .
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!	75
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?	80
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,	85
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,	90
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—	95
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,	100
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:	105
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.” . . . . .	110
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,	115
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old … I grow old …	120
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.	125

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown	130
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Poetry Series - Richard Hugo

2007-07-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Hugo was my professor's mentor - his professor back when he was in college. I had a weird relationship with my professors. Small college, so if you were into the subject, you got lots of attention. There were five or six of us undergrads that were big nerds. And we'd hang out with two or three of the professors. Anyway, this one is for Dr. McCrann who recently died of cancer. Reminds me of my college town, or South Dakota, or any small town, really.

Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg
By Richard Hugo

You might come here Sunday on a whim.
Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
you had was years ago. You walk these streets
laid out by the insane, past hotels
that didn't last, bars that did, the tortured try
of local drivers to accelerate their lives.
Only churches are kept up. The jail
turned 70 this year. The only prisoner
is always in, not knowing what he's done.

The principal supporting business now
is rage. Hatred of the various grays
the mountain sends, hatred of the mill,
The Silver Bell repeal, the best liked girls
who leave each year for Butte. One good
restaurant and bars can't wipe the boredom out.
The 1907 boom, eight going silver mines,
a dance floor built on springs --
all memory resolves itself in gaze,
in panoramic green you know the cattle eat
or two stacks high above the town,
two dead kilns, the huge mill in collapse
for fifty years that won't fall finally down.

Isn't this your life? That ancient kiss
still burning out your eyes? Isn't this defeat
so accurate, the church bell simply seems
a pure announcement: ring and no one comes?
Don't empty houses ring? Are magnesium
and scorn sufficient to support a town,
not just Philipsburg, but towns
of towering blondes, good jazz and booze
the world will never let you have
until the town you came from dies inside?

Say no to yourself. The old man, twenty
when the jail was built, still laughs,
although his lips collapse. Someday soon,
he says, I'll go to sleep and not wake up.
You tell him no. You're talking to yourself.
The car that brought you here still runs.
The money you buy lunch with,
no matter where it's mined, is silver
and the girl who serves your food
is slender and her red hair lights the wall.

Almost walking!

2007-07-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a little video of Lucy and her walker. She's getting close to walking on her own. Maybe by her first birthday?

New Series - Poetry

2007-07-18T07:46:00.000-05:00

I'm starting a new series. I've been wishing it for a while now. Ever since Carl Sandburg and his Chicago. Seems like a lifetime ago I moved to Minneapolis to get a master's degree in Poetry--- even took the GRE and applied to a few schools before God took me in a different direction.

Way back, I wanted to eventually get my doctorate an be an English professor. I fell in love with it in my undergrad days. I used to hang out with a bunch of English nerds, and we'd trade poems and make little jokes from them, and talk about why we loved this poet more than that one. Now, I don't have any English nerds to share good poems with, so my attraction has slowly starved.

So now we'll share good poems together, you and me. I have so many stored up, this could be a very long series. We'll start of easy.

This is Just to Say
By William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Holy Cow!

2007-07-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

On a whim, I decided to plant a garden (mini garden) in the bed along our side stairs. It's pretty narrow. And it's usually just a bed full of weeds. When I picked out flowers, I noticed vegtable seedlings were only .50 each, so I figured I might as well grow something productive. You can see below from the top down I planted zucchini, green pepper, tomato and cherry tomato plants.

They've been slowly taking over the steps, and I had the sinking feeling that weeds might have been better. At least you can walk through when weeds are growing. I keep having to prop up the plants with sticks to clear a path. The zucchini had flowers, but nothing else. The pepper plant is being choked by the z. And the tomatoes have a zillion little babies, but they are all green. I water daily, but don't pay much attention to these guys.

This moring, Lucy and I were out watering the flowers as is our routine. I splashed the veggies and this monster caught my eye. HOLY COW! Where did you come from?

It's almost as big as Lucy! I think it must have grown over night. Tim though I bought it somewhere. I guess he checks the veggies every day, too and hadn't noticed it quietly growing into a two foot monster.

Yahoo for gardening!

Garage Sale

2007-07-15T21:24:00.000-05:00

The Grundi are having their first ever garage sale in a couple weeks. Spent all weekend gathering stuff up to get rid of. I love tossing things out. It makes me feel so good.

Is that normal? I feel so much lighter without it all the extra junk. I gave Ann all my plants because I'm tired of taking care of things that don't give back. Actually considering getting rid of the cats... (gasp!) I love looking around and seeing bare spots where stuff used to be.

I'm tired and a little sore, but so happy. I am going to slide between my sheets tonight and just dwell on that huge pile of stuff in my basement just waiting to be picked up and driven away. And we still have a whole two weeks before the sale. Which not only makes me happy because I always procrastinate, but also because I still have two whole weeks to find more stuff to get rid of.

I've got some friends bringing their junk over to sell, too. And I need their moral support. My neighbors are a little frightening, and it makes me feel sort of naked for them to come over and dig through my stuff, likely judging me based on it.

Any of you like to garage sale? This is our first one, and I don't know the ropes. Got any tips?

pink boxes

2007-07-13T11:32:00.000-05:00

We closed our date night last night with a rerun of The Office. It was Michael's birthday and he got himself a box (in the traditional Hollywood pink) of doughnuts to celebrate.

Every show on television shows bakery items in a pink box. I could off hand name three separate Seinfeld episodes featuring the pink box (the black and white cookie of peace).

I've always wanted a pink box full of baked goods. For all the pastries I've ever purchased they have never been delivered in a pink box. Is this an urban legend put forth by producers? Will archaeologists in the next millennium think pink bakery boxes must have gone extinct? Have you ever received a treat in a pink box? Where can I find such a thing.

My friends

2007-07-11T09:48:00.000-05:00

As requested, I made Adam a Simpson. So much fun, I thought I'd show you some other good friends, too.

Here's my good friend Amber Beebs and her husband Mike.

Who else should we Simpson-ize?

How about Ann and Seth?

City of Big Sholders

2007-07-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

Just returning from one of the best vacations of my life. Spent four days in Chicago with Amber and Mel. So good we almost forgot we had babies at home. But not quite. (Amber almost forgot she doesn't have babies at home.) I kept referring to this poem by Carl Sandburg "Chicago". Nerds, see below.

We learned a few secrets about each other. Mel can get it done, and I don't care what 'it' is. She got it done. She was our trip pimp. More on that later. Amber agrees to do anything, even if it's horrible. And I secretly a very high maintenance girl.

A few items in brief:

We were stars. It's the motto of our hotel, The Hotel Allegro Chicago. Dressed in velvet and lush colors, the whole place feels like a nightclub. They serve free wine and beer for an hour each day. The concierge hooked us up with cool VIP parties. We got almost everything Mel asked for---except for the limo to our night club. She did get the hotel manager to go out on the street and hale us a cab, though. The bellhop got us free leftover dinners from the closed restaurant at 2:30 AM. Again, because Mel asked for it. She gets things done.
Over all, the coffee was terrible. Even Starbucks.
Amber (again, due to Mel!) got to play five songs on stage at a local night club because one of the bands didn't show. Turns out it was a talent competition. She won the night and is invited to play again at the end of the month to win $1000! The whole place was silent while she played. A guy dropped $10 in a hat for her, which paid for our cab ride home. And people were waiving lighters! Holy cow it was so cool.
Mel, though she does get things done, did not get her Chicago-style hot dog. Amber crushed her dreams saying, 'That's gross!"
We met the actual DJ from Studio 54. Did I mention we were stars?

A few pics from our trip:
Our only picture together.
Amber rockin the club!
Lake Michigan was so pretty. Doesn't it look like there's a pole going through Mel's head?

CHICAGO By Carl Sandburg

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders;

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your
painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have
seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women
and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my
city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be
alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall
bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted
against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Bulding, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his
ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked,
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

The Grundi

2007-07-09T10:29:00.001-05:00

Thanks Jon for the reference. This is the Grundi if we appeared on The Simpsons. No option to make babies (hee). So Lucy is pictured here as a five year old.

A Lucy Update

2007-06-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted about Miss Lucy, certainly not for lack of material. She's really hitting her prime, a week short of 11 months old. She's crawling like mad now--she zooms around the house about as fast as the cats (thankfully for them, not quite as fast). She learned how to clap a couple days ago, which is her new favorite thing to do. She can go up stairs and down (but down is head first).

For a while there, she stopped talking altogether. I hear that babies regress in some areas while learning new things. They're all or nothing creatures, I guess. But now that crawling is old hat, she's back to babbling all the time. Sadly, "momma" is not on the horizon. It's all "kitty" and "dada".

She loves to swim. She loves baths. She loves to splash me during both. She loves terrorizing Jake. He's begun to hit back, punching her in the melon when she gets too close (don't worry grandparents, Jake is without claws.) which she thinks is hilarious.

She's also gotten to be a little opinionated. She pushes away when she doesn't want me to hold her. She cries if we kiss or hug too much (the first of many, I know). She sort of hits you (if a ten month old can hit) if you are in her way. She tests the boundaries all the time. The word "no" is a lot more common.

My camera has been on the fritz, so not much for pictures lately. But here's the last good one I got. Next week, we'll have a ton since Lucy will be spending some time with her aunts and grandma. They've been commissioned with the task of teaching her to feed herself and to start her on table food. I think when I pick her up next weekend, she'll have left babyhood behind.

Help! We're on the verge of a toddler! I'm not equipped for toddler! I only know how to do baby and cats.

Notes on a Scandal

2007-06-29T23:27:00.000-05:00

Has anyone else seen this movie? Spent a late night on it, hoping to be tired enough to drop to sleep without noticing Tim is away. What an incredible film. Some of the most compelling acting I've seen in a really long time. A number of really good 'sound byte' moments. I tend to think of things as some sort of moral lesson, and there are dozens in here.

The only negative comment I have to share (besides the moral content of the primary narrative) is the casting of Sheba's (Cate Blanchet) husband. I really can't see a relationship between the two of them. And his acting wasn't the best either. He seemed sort of like the dippy counterpart.

The dude abides

2007-06-21T09:59:00.001-05:00

I always liked Jeff Bridges, especially in Mirror Has Two Faces--one of the few movies I actually own and watch repeatedly. (Men, please keep your stones in hand. For some reason, this movie always reminded me of dating in the early years at the rock.)

At any rate, as a web designer and general nerd about graphics. You MUST take a quick ten minutes and run around Jeff's site. It's so non-tech and still completely unlike any website I've ever seen.

Dad said

2007-06-18T08:17:00.000-05:00

Happy father's day! Lucy got Tim a new American flag (with complimentary golden eagle on top). Daddy likes being the only house in a five mile radius showing patriotism. It's really popular in our neighborhood.

On Post Secret today, they posted secrets relating to dads. There was also a long string of replies where people shared the things dad used to tell them. (Appended below)

What silly thing did your dad tell you?

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 5:12 AM

My dad used to say that inside of the car's air-bags was uncooked popcorn. When you wrecked the popcorn would pop and you would have a snack until help came.

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 6:13 AM

When I was little, my dad told me ATMs worked by having little monkeys inside them. I believed that for years. Now I work in a bank, and wish it were true!

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 6:55 AM

My dad told me the worst swear word you could possibly say was "Bostonian". It meant "someone who has no private parts." My brother and I used the word until we were teenagers and my father giggled every time we said it, right before he sent us to our rooms.

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:29 PM

when i was little my dad told me that polyester was a small animal in australia & they would kill it to make clothes. that night i sat in my room reading the labels on my clothes for hours & threw all of the polyester ones away.

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 10:06 PM

When I was little my Dad told me that the tune played by the ice-cream van was the ice-cream man letting everyone know that he'd run out of ice-cream.

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 9:56 AM

When we'd approach exits or toll booths, my father told me the sound the car made when it went over the rumble strips was the car getting angry because I had been bad. I still sit up a little straighter when I hit a rumble strip.

A whole generation has grown up without him.

2007-06-14T08:40:00.000-05:00

I got a new realization of how old I am. Thanks to Ken Jennings, I found out that Mr. Wizard is dead. (Side note: ever notice that you get sad when some old famous person dies, but you don't mind when they are alive and just old and sick and unfamous? Why do we only care after people die?)

I loved Mr. Wizard (btw did you know he was a Waseca native?). He gave me hope that science could be fun. Though it didn't help my math/science abilities much. I guess the DVDs are out of the series, and it would be fun to rent a few. Mr. Wizard and McDonald's cheeseburgers: they are the taste of childhood.

If you want a few more tastes from childhood (at least if you parent's had cable) check out this blast-from the past show listing... yahoo, Double Dare!

Buttery Buns

2007-06-13T07:35:00.001-05:00

Until last night, I had a trade embargo with Culver's, the restaurant that touts their famous butterburger on the basis of health considerations.

I've asked around. Nobody seems to know for sure what 'butterburger' means. The front running guess is that they cook the burgers in butter, or the raw meat is mixed with butter before cooking.

So as we pulled around to the pick-up window last night, I leaned over Tim, the driver, and asked, "So what does the butterburger thing mean, anyway? Are they cooked in butter?"

The cashier looked frustrated. "What? No, it just means the buns are buttered." SLAP the door slams shut.

I guess they're a little touchy about that. I recommended the marketing team rethink their slogan. Or at least clarify. I hardly think adding butter to toasted buns makes something a butterburger.

911, What is your emergency?

2007-06-08T12:34:00.001-05:00

Well, I broke a new family record. I was the first to call 911 to the Grundi household. And no, it wasn't because I pass out.

Yesterday we had a full day of meetings. 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM. My 3 o'clock was with Maren and Jemima. It's quarter to, and Lucy and I are rushing out the door to a steaming hot car. I'd guess at least 110 degrees.

I have my purse, the keys and Lucy. In the struggle to buckle her into her seat, she was playing with the keys and must have hit the lock button. I tossed the keys onto the driver's side, as usual. Finished strapping her down, threw my purse in the back and shut the door.

The door.

Locked with my keys, my baby and my cell phone all inside.

I rushed around the car, like a dummy, trying all the doors as if by magic they'd open up. Realized I was screwed and ran to my neighbor's house. Retirees, they are always home in the afternoon. They told me to call 911, which I did. They said they were sending out a truck.

We rushed back to the car and put blankets over the back window to keep out the sun. Lucy was fine at that point. Beads of sweat coming up on her nose. After ten or so minutes, the fire department roars into the block. And down they come, rushing into the alley.

And who should be on the crew but The Rock's favorite fireman, Ryan Herrington. (my hero!) Unfortunately, they couldn't do anything. So we called a tow truck. Meanwhile, Lucy's starting to get very upset. Ryan and the guys are trying to jimmy the window open so they can open the doors. Lucy's screaming. She's bright red and sweaty. Been in there about 30 minutes at that point. The guys assure me that if she goes into distress, they'll bust down the windows.

Finally, the guy from Bobby and Steves comes by and gets the door open in about 30 seconds. Lucy comes out bawling and really hot, but fine. We douse her with water and sit in the shade. Next thing you know, she's eating strawberries out of my neighbor's garden and happy as can be.

Took me a good two or three hours to settle down. I missed Maren altogether and made her go to the MOA for no reason. The good news is the guy from Bobby and Steves didn't charge me. Everyone should go there and get an oil change in appreciation.

Rerun on Thelma Clark

2007-06-05T12:40:00.000-05:00

A while ago, I recommended an mp3 from Faithwalkers 06. Thelma Clark's session about the Word. I've made my eighth or twentieth re-commitment to working out, recently. So, Thelma's been coming up on my player a lot.

I have to reiterate what an invaluable message she shared. I've listened to her stories six or seven times and what I'm most left thinking about isn't necessarily the bits of wisdom or the verses she shared. But that overall, she made it her habit to read even just a verse or two throughout the day, each day. At all times of her life, from single to empty nesting and all the way through. She had a bible in the bathroom!

She'd be frustrated, bored, complainy, hopeless, or confused. And whenever there was even a sliver of time in her day, it sounds like she'd take it to read a verse, even one if that's all the time there was. She'd hid it in her heart, and because of it--had open lines to God. She was open. That's it.

Last night Tim and I were talking about reoccurring sin. Stuff that is compulsive sin behavior. Stuff that we do almost without even knowing it, or knowing why (i.e. anger, greed, harsh words). We're studying Colossians 3. There's a section in there that reminds us about our part in change.

...strip off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Of course Christ has all the power to do this for us, but he doesn't! He worked out our salvation, now it is our job to physically take off our old self and put on the new man. What does that look like?

We talked a lot about the practicality of it. And all I can think of is Thelma's message. If we again and again hide the Word in our heart, it will change us because it is living and active. God promises that the Word has the power to change those of us who believe in Him.

10 months around the corner

2007-05-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

A lot has been going on around the Grunditz house. I just haven't had the time to put it up. Lucy has begun crawling, which means life is changing in a hurry. Seems like she got bigger all at once. This weekend she ate an apple off the core! She thought it was the funniest thing ever. She kept holding it up for us like a trophy and laughing.

She also recently discovered her diaper. Last night was so hot we had her running around naked. She'd grab the front of the diaper with both hands and PULL with all her might, grunting, growling, even a shriek or two, all in the hopeless effort of pulling it out from under her little butt.

Thanks to Belle Heldt, she learned all about swinging on the big girl swings. Also a big hit. Belly laughs galore.

At any rate. Sorry for the long hiatus here. Enjoy these photos as my penance.

Catching bugs in the buff.Drinking water with Mimi.

Holdover from Easter, but cute anyway.