Upholstery Class!

I've been wanting to take an upholstery class for a while now, and when I received our school district's Continuing Education course catalog I found what I was looking for.  A 10 week class every Wednesday for $75. I called my sisters and we're now done with our second class.

My first project is this sad rocking chair with tons of potential that I got at the D.I. when I was still pregnant with Jackson.

Here it is pictured above in Jackson's "bedroom". Jackson has been living in our back room/dining room/baby room for a while now. The good news is the basement is thisclose to being finished (this close means we just went to Home Depot and bought all the doors. DOORS!) and then we'll have enough bedrooms for him to have an actual bedroom. Also, being in an open area like this has made him a great sleeper.

Here is the chair, which I will from now on refer to as Gertie, in our classroom/dungeon.

 

And here is Gertie dismantled.

 

Staci and Heather are in the class too!

 

Can't wait to show you the finished product!

Kwanzaa

A few weeks before Christmas Jasper came home from school and said "We need to celebrate Kwanzaa. Can we do Kwanzaa this year?"

I had to admit that I knew very little about Kwanzaa. He said "I learned about it at school. Its for African Americans.  So we need to celebrate it." David and I said we would do some research about it first and then we'd talk about it.

We learned that Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring African heritage and culture. There is quite a bit to it really. I was initially worried that it was a celebration to replace Christmas, but actually (according to the Kwanzaa official website) "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture...Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything."

Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles.  This year as our first year of celebration (and kind of a last minute decision) we decided to focus on just one of the principles, Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

We also decided to learn more about Jasper's father's country, Central African Republic . David taught us all about its history, and I showed us where it

was on the Map. 

 

 

Jasper was in charge of a family night.

 

Next year will do more and learn more. It is an exciting new tradition!

2010 Goals

• Get organized
• Have a finished basement (by March, by March by March - power of positive thinking).
• Get more food storage
• Follow a budget better
• Get in shape. This is a must since I will be doing the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay in June. Basically me and 11 other teammates will run from Logan to Park city in 24 hours (188 miles).Yep, I'm that crazy.
• Do more with friends
• Get this guy to like the snow:

 

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was quite the party - we stayed up and watched 2 movies, all the way until midnight. Jasper took some pictures,

Midnight!

David!

Me in my Snuggie!

and we yelled out the door, "Happy New Year!"

It was the party of parties, I bet none of you could top!