Quilted "Thank You" Card

This is the "Thank You" card I made for my mom's co-worker, Susan. Susan is one of the coders that works with Dr. Muhlestein, the doctor that my mom works with. She is the one that originally got me interested in coding. She was such a tremendous help to me while I was trying to get certified. Any questions I had about homework or the certification test she was there to help me. I even texted her a couple times during boot camp for help with practice questions. After all her help a thank you card was the least I could do.

Full Time at Shop-tical

"Shop-tical" is what Matt has started calling Shopko Optical. Coming up in August one of our full time opticians will be leaving for a new job and another one of our full time opticians will be going part time when school starts. I've expressed to my manager there that I would like to go full time (which is 32-40 hours a week) and quit Home Depot altogether. I have been looking for a job that could take the place of Home Depot for a long time now. I feel like Home Depot has nothing to offer me anymore other than a good hourly wage. Lately Home Depot has been scheduling me more and more hours (even though I've told them multiple times I don't want the hours) which makes it almost impossible for Shopko to schedule me. It has been nice having the extra money but working over 40 hours a week, sometimes 9 days or more in a row is no fun. Even though I desperately want a coding job; for the time being I wouldn't mind working full time at Shopko while looking for a coding job. At least it would get me out of Home Depot.
Hopefully I hear back soon and I can give Home Depot my notice sooner rather than later. Keep your fingers crossed!

Kimber's Fourth of July Dress

Lately I've been trying different sewing projects so I can learn different techniques and become a more skilled seamstress. My latest project was a dress for my niece Kimber. I've heard many different names for the style of dress I made but I call it a "shift" dress. I found some adorable fabric at Walmart that's light blue with blue and red stars. I decided since she loves to run around and play some matching shorts were also necessary. The shorts are just plain dark blue. Even though I took her measurements and followed the pattern the dress came out too big. Sigh.


I didn't get any pictures of it on her but here is the finished product!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's birthday! I love birthdays! Even if they are not mine, for some reason I just love birthdays. Matt and I are very different in that regard. Growing up his family never really made a big deal about birthdays and they still don't. With this in mind I tend to spoil him probably more than I should and definitely more than he wants. Since I had to work a split shift on his birthday I decided to give him his presents early. The first one he got was new bracelet. A couple years ago I made him a "friendship" bracelet out of embroidery thread. The original one broke a couple months ago and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make him a new one. He really wanted this DVD set from Hastings called "Ultraman". It's some sci-fi show. I don't really know what it's about but he really wanted it so I got him that. He also had his eye on these folding camp chairs that Home Depot has this year. So I got him one! He has replaced his old plastic chair on the deck with the new one and seems quite fond of it. Last but not least. Matt wakes up all the time with a sore neck. Almost every day when he wakes up he tells me that his neck hurts. Shopko had some memory foam pillows on sale for 50% off plus my discount so I got him a really nice, pretty expensive pillow for not very much money. I hope it is comfy for him and helps alleviate his neck pain.
Yesterday morning when I came home between shifts I stopped and got him some of his favorite coffee from our favorite coffee place in town. I think that was a nice surprise for him. Happy Birthday my love!

Matt is officially signed up for classes!

Yesterday Matt was able to make an advising meeting with someone at the college. Based on the results of the Compass test and the degree Matt has chosen they were able to put together a schedule for him for the upcoming semester. He has chosen to do Network Administration. Although he knows a lot about computers and the components, networking is not his strong point. I am very excited for him to start learning more about things he is interested in and also for him to start earning his degree.
There are a few classes that we think he will be able to "challenge". What that means is instead of having to take the whole class he can attempt to test out of it. For example, one class he has to take covers the basic components of the Microsoft Office suite. Which Matt is already pretty familiar with. He can challenge the class and take a test that sees how much he knows about the program; if it's enough he automatically gets the credit for the class. I hope he can test out of at least a couple classes to save both time and money. I can't wait for him to get started!

The Compass Test Is Done!

Matt went to the school yesterday and finished the Compass test! Unfortunately a lot of material we went over that we found on online practice tests were not on the actual test. Boo! Regardless, he did very well in English and in pre-algebra. Not so well in advanced algebra though. He will have to take an introduction to Algebra class and an introduction to college writing class. Tuesday he will be meeting with an adviser and hopefully get a class schedule set up for the fall semester.

Jeremy's Graduation Present

Last year for Bart's birthday Matt and I made him a custom DS case with the Misfits logo, the Crimson Ghost and his nickname "B-Movie" on it. I bought a plain black DS case and used white vinyl to make the decals. Ever since I made that one I've been wanted to make more. Recently my good friend Jeremy Hovden graduated from Carroll and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make another one.
For Jeremy's I decided to do a green DS case and black vinyl to make the Tiger Army "tiger-bat". I found a neon green DS case on eBay for super cheap. When I got it in the mail it was a much lighter green than pictured, it was more pastel than neon. Not very psychobilly. I wasn't going to settle so Matt and I had to spray paint it a brighter green. Since we don't have a garage it was kind of a pain to get the painting done having to work around Montana's "Spring" weather. It gets kind of windy by our house, not the best conditions for spray painting.
My original plan was to do the tiger bat and Jeremy's nickname "Jerbehr" just like I had done on Bart's but I just wasn't feeling it and we decided to put "Never Die" instead. (Tiger Army's "motto"). After we got it all painted, got the decals on and finished the clear coat I tried it out on Matt's DS to make sure it fit and still functioned. Of course the Snarr luck came into play and the two posts that hold the top cover and bottom cover together, snapped. It took Matt and I about a week to come up with a solution to fix it. Thank goodness for scrapbooking, we used black brads to replace the broken posts and it looks awesome! I'm glad it's finally finished and I hope Jeremy loves. Congratulations on graduation! You've definitely earned it!

Here is the finished product.