Saturday, April 11, 2015

Baptizing my Baby Girl

Scarlet was baptized April 11, 2015.  We were so lucky to have a lot of family and friends come to celebrate with her.  

But before we could baptize her, we needed a wardrobe.  I made her baptism dress, here is the almost totally finished product I wrapped up during conference.



I started with a sleeveless satin dress I found at a garage sale.  I decided I wanted a lace overlay, but white lace is crazy expensive.  It cost more for one yard of fabric than it would to just buy a dress.  So I almost scrapped the whole thing until I found a wedding dress on ebay for $10.  Yup, $10.  It would give me more than enough lace for the dress.

Of course when the lace arrived, turned out their definition of white was a little different than mine.  After a few rinses of RIT color remover, we were as close to white as we were going to get.  I used the basic cut of the dress as the sleeves and then fitted it into a wraparound style dress over the top layer.  I then added some pearls to the neckline.  Scarlet and I were really happy with the finished product.

I thought my sewing contributions were done.  She was going to be baptized in the jumper that my mom made for my sisters and I and it was hanging happily in the closet.  I finally got around to having her try it on a week or so before the big day.  And thank goodness I did.  It was way too small.  The biggest problem was the torso length. I probably should have just had her get baptized in one of the outfits the church has on hand, but it just seemed so fun to have her baptized in my same jumper.  So I cut open the crotch and added some more fabric.  Close up, it is not a great fix, but nobody could tell and the jumper was much more comfortable for my tall little girl.


Her Grandpas gave the talks for the meeting and they both did a great job.  The grandmas gave the prayers.  Kylie and I sang "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" for Scarlet because we love her.

Funny side note:  There were three other kids getting baptized that day, but because we scheduled first, we were in charge of the whole program. Hope the others didn't mind!


Scarlet had a great day.  She has a beautiful glowing smile through the whole day.


 Such a great group of people supporting Scarlet!  The Stouts drove in town for the occasion and her friend Sofia came.  She also had her primary president and first counselor.  We had both sets of grandparents and almost all of my siblings.  We missed Kristy  & Trevor and our missionaries.

The baptism turned into an extended weekend.  We played, swam at the hotel pool, ate delicious food (pat on my own back there) and had a great time.








The water was pretty cold... Jude was unhappy.





My Scarlet girl is a joy to my life.  She reminds me so much of myself as a kid but an even better version.  She has so much creativity and zest for life.  This girl turns everything into a project and throws herself into it until it is done.  This year she has really discovered her talents and is not afraid to show them.  She is such a great student and is so smart.  She is a wonderful singer and dancer and loves to perform.  She has such a sweet loving patience for her brothers, especially Jude and really takes care of them.  Scarlet has a style all her own and loves to express herself.  She says thing with such a matter of fact tone that I have to remind myself all of the time that she is still eight years old and not sixteen.  I love this girl so much.  I tell her all the time, if we get to be the only girls in the family, at least we have each other.  I can't wait for all of the adventures ahead with this fireball

Monday, April 6, 2015

The Car Story



So one day I was talking to my dad and he told me a story about a car.  He had taken a car he had bought for Kendall and sold it to a lady who needed a break.  She gave a small down payment and was supposed to pay monthly from then on.  She did not do so.  She left town and didn't ever send any more money.

But she kept in touch and frequently promised that money was on its way.  Somewhere in this process, my dad learned that she didn't have the car anymore.  An ex-boyfriend had taken it and the car was now in Fresno, CA.  He was also able to get an address.  So he tracked down a guy in the area to see if he could get the car back.  He couldn't.  So he hired a repo company to get the car.  They did.

So now there is a car sitting in Fresno that my dad would like to claim back.  The car was not in great shape and at this point not worth very much but... you know principle.

So I bought a cheap one way plane ticket to Fresno.  A young man my dad had found to try to go repo to car picked me up from the airport and drove me to the repo lot.  The car was pretty bad.  One of the tires was completely flat, the interior looked like someone had pulled all of the fabric loose and then tried to tuck it back in.  And it drove pretty badly.  But it drove!

I picked up the keys and headed for the first gas station I could find.  My new friend helped me fill the tires and I headed to the closest Les Schwab.  The car needed new tires and new brakes.  Then hopefully it would be working well enough to make it the long drive from Fresno to Vegas... by myself.

I was at Les Schwab for about 2 hours but they got it done.  I must say there are worse things than being able to sit quietly with a book with free popcorn and cold water bottles.  I hopped in the car ready to take off for my long journey home (it was about 6 pm).  My phone was low on battery so I plugged in my car charger... except for the electrical outlet in the car didn't work.

So I was about to drive into the middle of nowhere California by myself late at night with a cell phone that was just about to die.  Obviously, unacceptable.  So I pulled off in a tiny town, found a little Greek restaurant, plugged in my phone and hung out with a delicious plate of food and my book.  Again, not too shabby.  My drive time was getting later and later.

With a half a battery, I hit the road.  The audio book did me well through my journey.  It was an easy drive and the car made it home without trouble, thank goodness.

We found a happy home for the car after making a few more repairs.  And that is the car story.