alycia sanders: i think i'm funny.

woe is me.

alyciasanders — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:24:40 +0000

I’ve been a stay-at-home-mom for a little over 4 years now. In the midst of a few of those years I was a full-time student: applied mathematics and computer science. Yep, that was me ——> one with the nerd herd: hanging out in the math lounge, telling (lame) math jokes, laughing hysterically at said lame math jokes and hoping to hear more. Spending hours, yes HOURS, and sheets and SHEETS of paper on ONE problem, being so enthusiastic about finally solving it and having a huge surge of FUCK YES! flow through my body when my answer was riiiight biatch when compared to the one in the back of the book. That euphoric state of mind was soon relinquished when realization set in: I still had 12 problems to go. *%$@$@%$$@!!!

Anywho, where I’m going with this is that I haven’t been a student for over year. I miss school. I miss learning. I miss having deadlines and due dates and socializing with uber geeks of a like mind. I miss doing something more than the monotonous routine my life has settled into: feed children, dress children, entertain children, cleeeeean the fuck out of my house, feed children, clean children, LOVE CHILDREN. Repeat. Don’t get me wrong–I love being able to stay home with my girls. These early years are important and I am grateful that I am the one establishing the foundations of their little beings. I love being a mom. I just miss having more to my daily routine. And so I’ve been working on something. Hopefully something big (to me) that will allow me to express myself through my talents, make some money AND continue to stay home with these gorgeous little girls I have.

More to come when I know more. =)

The magnifying glass.

alyciasanders — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:17:02 +0000

The other day the girls and I were at the root-of-all-evil (WalMart) when Terrance happened to notice on the white tile floor a very little clear plastic thingy (how she saw it is beyond me) that happened to be (as she pointed out) in the shape of a magnifying glass. She carried it around the whole store and brought it home with her and as I was standing in the kitchen she came up to me and very seriously said, “Mom, if you need to take a closer look at something you can use my magnifying glass.”

Two seconds later she turned around to run into the living room, magnifying glass in hand, and as she flailed her arms wildly the magnifying glass was flung into the heating vent to then be lost forever. *sigh* Later that day we made a new magnifying glass out of a a piece of thin plastic cut into a circle and a tongue depressor. She of course offered it to me: “Mom, if you need to take a closer look at something you can use my magnifying glass.”

I love her.

The woes of Motherhood: early mornings.

alyciasanders — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:33:04 +0000

At precisely 3:35 a.m. Addison woke up. After an hours worth of attempts of trying to get her back to sleep for more than five minutes at a time I gave up. We came into the living room, turned on the lamp, turned on the TV and got the girl a saltine cracker–late night snack of choice for the littlest bug. We sat and rocked for an hour longer, me catching up on DVRed epsiodes of Sex in the City and her nibbling on crackers. We moved to the couch, laid down and with her head on my chest she finally went back to sleep. At 6 the husband got up, the baby went back to her bed and I made a very, very strong cup of coffee. Thank goodness for her she looks like this:

the shoes.

alyciasanders — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 01:15:09 +0000

So, on Halloween night when T went trick-or-treating she wanted to wear her coat because it was cold and wet and really, what more could we expect in the Pacific Northwest? Joe took her because again, too cold, too wet for the littlest bug to be out and about and it was her bedtime. Anywho, at first Joe was disappointed because T was wearing her coat and no one would see the costume that I had worked so hard on and no one would know who she was.

It turns out that even without seeing the Tinker Bell dress they still knew who she was because of those signature shoes. Cool, huh?

as usual:

alyciasanders — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:49:20 +0000

In my lame blogger form I’m just now getting to posting anything about the very anticipated Tinkerbell costume. So here it (with a sort of Tinker Bell shoe Tutorial):

These were T’s very well worn and LOVED black shoes that she refused to part with. Oh, and they’re a size too small BUT because she wore them religiously every chance she got (even to bed sometimes) she’s strechted them out enough to still be able to wear them comfortably, so she says.

I slapped a couple of coats of white acrylic paint on them…

Then green paint…

GLIIIIIIIIIITER!!!

And then out of felt and some left over batting I had I made giant pom-poms and embellished them with a cute little satin something which pulled it all together.

And they were perfect

I knew when I started them that they’d be cute but I didn’t think they’d turn out as good as they did. As for the matching dress, here it is:

Front and back.

And it fit her perfectly.

I did make wings for the costume and they were–well–less than impressive. Don’t get me wrong–shape and size wise they were perfect–ability to not flop over wise not so perfect. And as much as I’d love to tell you how I ended up buying two yards of fabric and cutting six pairs of wings before I found a way of stiffening the fabric that I thought would acutally work (though it really didn’t)–I just don’t have the energy. But I will say that I learned something–next time, buy the effing wings.

Before I forget….

alyciasanders — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:32:35 +0000

as a last minute addition to T’s Tinker Bell costume today I made her a little bag for pixie dust. When I told her what it was for she got really excited and kept asking me about the pixie dust and when I was going to get it and if she could put it on her wings by herself and yada, yada, yada. This went on all day and she would ask me repeatedly if she would be able to fly and I told her no, that she’d just have to pretend and she would give me some response that made me think she understood.

So tonight after bath time we were sitting on the couch discussing the pixie dust yet again and she goes, in the sweetest most genuine voice, “I can’t wait to fly.” And Joe and I looked at her and then at each other and back at her and she was just delighted–she really can’t wait to fly.

The news.

alyciasanders — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:14:27 +0000

Okay, so maybe it’s just big to me and it requires a back story: This year after much thought and a few mind changes T finally settled on wanting to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. And I thought, “I’ll make the costume!” I got online, looked at the various Tinkerbell costume patterns available, settled on this one, ordered it and when it arrived opened it with GUSTO! Thinking, “I am making this costume!” Five minutes later after failing miserably at trying to comprehend the instructions I folded everything up, slid it back into the envelope and decided the whole “sewing from a pattern” thing wasn’t for me.

I decided to just wing it, go with it and somehow design and create my own Tinkerbell costume. And the news is that I actually did it. It’s got a cute little fitted and tailored top with a sweat heart neckline and the attached skirt is made up of leafy looking pieces. And, it’s all sewn out of a grass green sparkling satin. I finished sewing it today and when I squeezed T into it, literally, she exhaled and said, “Mom, you made it too small with the sewing machine. Make it bigger.” *sigh* So, I may or may not post pictures of the costume–it’ll depend on whether or not I can bribe T into squeezing back into it. And I have to make another one. The good news is that I learned a lot during the process (mostly having to do with measuring) and I’ll be able to execute this one a bit more flawlessly.

I have big news. Big.

alyciasanders — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:43:00 +0000

Stay tuned.

this girl.

alyciasanders — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:50:48 +0000

Oh Addison, the youngest of the love bugs. Where has the year gone? Seriously–Where the hell did it go?! Weren’t you born yesterday?

Okay, so maybe you weren’t born yesterday. Maybe it was more like 11 months ago that you were born at 11:11 am after 11 hours of the most horrendous and nauseating pain of my LIFE. Literally. *sigh* But then you were there, in my arms all purple and cone headed and I was so in love. Here it is almost a year later and you’ve out grown the purple cone headed thing, thankfully, and grown into an amazing baby girl who fills our home with joy.

Seal Rock vacay part 2.

alyciasanders — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:46:11 +0000

After getting no sleep on the rock hard bed (which is my only complaint about the beach house) I got up made breakfast for the fam and then we headed to the beach. Addison did her thing.

T did her thing–which did not include Addison-notice the back turned to the little sister.

–
And after a bit of beach combing we went back to the house for lunch and smores (which were T’s favorite part of the trip). When Addison woke from her nap we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium which we really thought T would love. Turns out the only thing she did love about it was the children’s play area located at the ass end of the tour. We spent more time there then we did walking through the entire aquarium–go figure. Joe and I, on the other hand, loved it–just wish would have

This guy/girl? was my favorite.

The night cap was dinner at an awesome diner and then a run on the beach.

An epic second day with our little family. That night once the girls were in bed Joe and I played chess for three hours–which was awesome.