Zombies in the Rain

So, the base held a Zombie Run.  I had every intention of going.Joshua was suppose to run with the Cross Country Team in Leiu of the Meet they cancelled (because some idiot scheduled them an away meet over Homecoming weekend).  Sadly, the morning was cold and rainy.  Not drizzly, but pouring rain.  Delaney had her heart set of running in it and condescendingly told me "I'll be wearing a poncho!" when I suggested she may not want to go out.

Dan bravely took one for the team.  While I went to finish my laps for the swim challenge, he took Delaney and Rylee and Joshua off to the Zombie run.  My lovely friend Michelle sent me these photos of them.  While I'm sad I didn't get anything with the Zombies, I'm grateful she thought to take these.

It turns out none of the other Cross Country kids showed up, so Joshua was the only one representing.  Yeah, my boy is hard core!  He had a great run, and especially enjoyed finding out that he could outrun full grown men dressed as Zombies who really were trying to catch him. 

Oh, and he came in second place.

Checking his finish.  That bin is full of "life Belts".  Kind of like flag football flag belts, if you lost your flags you were "dead".  Except this was put on by the Red Cross, so to get your life back you had to answer some first aid questions.  Then you could continue. 

Rylee and Delaney were wet and cold and miserable.  Dan had to carry Rylee the last half, and Josh came back to encourage them home. 

Rylee was not happy to be cold and wet.  Delaney was shocked that her poncho did not actually keep her warm and dry.  She was especially unhappy that her feet were freezing and numb.

 

Medals went to the top 3 and the last runner.  Rylee was pleased to win for being last.

These were the cool Medals.  Joshua got one for his awesome second place finish as well.

Mini Marine Corps Ball

 They put on a pretty awesome event each year.  They do a Mini Marine Corps Ball.  It is just for the kids (ages 5-12) and it pretty much identical to the real Ball.  No parents.  The kids get escorted in by Marines in full Dress Blues.  They sit at tables and have a Pageant and Cake Ceremony.  They get dinner (buffet style for them), cake and dancing.  Delaney and Rylee really wanted to go this year, so I got them tickets and they were excited!

Delaney is her gorgeous Ball gown.

Rylee being silly. 

They wanted matching fancy hair and chose this. 

Rylee chose this dress.

Delaney was SO excited! 

Her fancy hair. 

And the back. 

I could not get good photos- too many people, too dark and too fast. But here is Rylee, getting escorted in, 

And Delaney. 

She went in with her friend Serenity.  It was so fun!

I didn't know I was allowed to go in, so I snaked the rest of the pictures from friends.  The cake ceremony. 

Just like the grown-ups Ball!

And the oldest and youngest KIDS got the first slices of cake.  Such a cool thing.

Sadly, Delaney was upset by several things. It was super-noisy (well, with 400 kids, I guess so!) and she couldn't see or hear any of the ceremony.  I also didn't think to feed her before they left and didn't realize dinner wouldn't be for another 2 hours after the event began.  So she was starving and grumpy about it.  Then she had to wait in the buffet line for-EVER and she was SO hungry.  Plus, apparently she asked a boy to go and he refused to dance with her.  "He DUMPED me!"  So her expectations were not met and she called me in tears to come and get her.  She never even got cake.  The thing I am saddest about is how awesome my kids are at being photo-ninjas.  2 separate professional photographers took and shared about 500 pictures each and not a single one has either of my girls in it!  How does that even happen?!  Hopefully next time will be better.

Making a Kimono Scarf

I really like video tutorials, because they show me what to do.  Except I couldn't find one that does this exactly the  way I do it!  I did like these tutorials though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLZPZCahKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyCWbe0Xfc
So you can check them out and have a good jumping off point. You can use it for other ideas or you can just do it that way.  There isn't really a wrong way!

 For our tutorial today, we will start with the kimono itself.

So pretty!

So, I have two complementary colored kimonos to pair up. 

Pull out the seam ripper and slide it in. I only cut a few stitches. 

So I have room to grab and gently rip by hand.  Easy peasy.  

Well, the first ones took me an hour or two to pick apart, but now I rip them apart by hand in under 5 minutes.  The seam ripper gets me started and I use it for the few reinforced spots, but mostly it just sits there. Mostly.  Sometimes there are kimonos with stronger stitching and weaker fabric, then you have to be a bit more careful.

This is the finished product, all picked apart.  It unpicks into these lovely long strips, and the pile of darker purple and white is the lining.  I typically just throw the lining away unless it is silk or I have a specific purpose for it. The colored silk lining makes for good scarves.

For this scarf, I pulled out the longest strips of the widest fabric strips, to make a wide scarf.  I like it to be about 2 yards long and this one is about 13 inches wide and 60 inches long.  So, I find matching pieces in width and length.  Iron them. 

I lay them down front sides together.... 

And sew the long sides only.... 

..... Leaving a one to two inch gap in one of the sides.  

So, no sewing the short ends together, and leave a 1"-2" gap anywhere you want. 

Pick an end, then reach your arm down through the fabric tube to grab the other end and pull it through, but do not turn it entirely inside out.  You want both ends to be together. 

Like this.  

Then, rotate the inside fabric so the opposite fabrics face each other, like this.  Line up the seams, and pin them to keep them in place.

Now you sew the short ends together.   

This way makes the inside nicely hollow. 

Once you finish that, find your 1" gap and pull the scarf right-side out through it. 

Now it looks like this. 

I iron the seams/edges flat and neat.
(Why is my picture upside down?!)

Then go back and re-find the gap.... 

And stitch it shut.  I am not a good hand-sewer, so I just stitch with the machine.

You could stitch the entire border, but I haven't tried that yet (mostly because I'm lazy).

 If I am really good, I'll actually find matching thread so it is pretty invisible. 

And here is the finished product. 

Just so you know, I don't usually make them that wide.  I typically do a thinner scarf- around 6-8" wide. To do that, I take the wider fabric strips that are shorter, 

And cut it in half down the middle.  Sew the two strips together (on the short ends) to make a longer strip  that's about 8" by 64".  Then I do the same thing as with the wider scarf. Really, you just need a strip of fabric that's about any width you like and 60-70 inches long.

This is the thinner style scarf.  It was a bit longer than I meant for it to be. (It looks wider, but it isn't.)

But it wrapped around nicely 3 times. 

(Callie was my photographer of these!)

And, just for funnsies, I'm going to leave a link to another tutorial right here.  I'm planning to try this method soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IS2HFLH6U

Marine Corps Birthday Swim Challenge.... Completed!

 The pool here does a Marine Corps Birthday Swim Challenge every year at Birthday time.  The challenge is to swim the number of (100 meter) laps that the Corps is celebrating.  This is the 241st birthday, so you had to swim 241 laps, and you had to do it between Oct 10 and Nov 10. I planned to swim 12 laps 5 days each week to get it done.

Well, this year there was a bit of an extra challenge. The pool heater broke. And the water was cold.  And getting colder.  It was 76 degrees the first week, which is when I learned about the broken heater and the complexity of getting it fixed.  Realizing that the pool was not going to get warmer any time soon, I had to decide if I was going to try to get it done as fast as possible, or call it quits.

I decided I was going to get it done till the temp went below 73.  The Lord smiled upon me and it held steady at 74 degrees the entire second week, and I swam like I never had before.  Coff, coff.... Despite the doctor telling me I ought to cut back because my shoulder probably has an overuse injury.  Motrin was my friend.  I got it done on Saturday of the second week.

The top 25 get a free T Shirt and bragging rights.  I was finisher #8.  Whoo-hoo!

Me at the pool, ready to swim my last 20 laps, and not excited about getting in the cold water.

Here is my lap count sheet.  I just want to be able to look back and say, yeah I did that!

Homecoming Parade

 We may have a small High School, but they do a cute parade at Homecoming.  The girls were very excited about it and due to construction, it came right past our house.  The girls had a blanket and chairs set out well ahead of time and were all ready. They even had loot bags for the goodies that were tossed.

Callie was insistent that Levi got to join us. The neighbor girls hung out with us as well.

My cutie-patootie, showing her school spirit, and her newly lost tooth. 

Here it comes!  Led by the JROTC Color Guard. 

8th Grade float.  Their theme was "The Little Mermaid".  (The gal in pink is Marian's friend Angel.  We think she's awesome!) 

The Girl Scouts.

And the Senior Class had the coolest float!  An X-Wing! And Darth Vader. 

You gotta admit, that's pretty fantastic!