This is Just Riddiculous

I'm a big supporter of the environment and I have serious concerns about global climate change, but sometimes, I think some things qualify as "going too far.”

I was reading an article in the Oregonian today. Apparently, for consideration during February's 1-month special session of the Oregon legislature, Representative Mark Hass of Beaverton has introduced a bill to ban the use of plastic grocery bags in Oregon.

Talk about ridiculous!

Much as I hate plastic bags,
And I wish that stores would stop using them,
I don't want legislation on the use of plastic bags!

In my mind, this kind of thing goes well beyond the purview of government. To borrow a phrase from N8 -- a phrase that usually irritates me -- I don't wants to live in a "Nanny State". I don't need my government to protect me from the evils of plastic bags! I am an informed citizen, and I know how bad the bags are for the environment, and I choose not to use them. I would love it if other individuals would also choose not to use them, and if stores would choose not to supply them.

Ideally, I'd love it if stores went to a European system and charged people for each bag they use. (They already do this at Ikea stores here in the U.S. It's another to LOVE Ikea.)

For now, I think we have a great system in place. People have the option to choose paper, or plastic, or re-use a bag. And MOST STORES give you a DISCOUNT for each bag you re-use. Some stores will also give you a discount if you don't use a bag at all and just carry out your items. I think it's a great incentive-based system. It leaves people the freedom to choose, and keeps government out of areas that, frankly, I just don't think are in their domain.

Now, in all reality, the bill probably won't pass. The legislature doesn't have time in their short session to get into the whole plastic bag issue. But I still don't like that that our government, that my government, thinks it is okay to legislate my grocery bags, even though I hate plastic bags.

"Oh my gosh, it's beautiful!"

That's the phrase I expect to hear when you see the results of our latest remodeling project.

But before you can say that, you'll want to know the story...

There's a room off the front of our kitchen. We've generally referred to it as The Nook. I don't mean to indicate a dining nook, as it's too narrow to comfortably fit a table; rather, it's just an extra room. A cubby-room. A nook.When looking at it from the kitchen, it use to look like this:


And when standing at the end of the room, looking down the length of it, the room looked like this:


Disgusting elements I would like to point out:
- Dark wood paneling
- Dark, unattractive, stinky-smelling cabinets with old-school hardware
- The light fixtures. omg.
- Permanently stained carpet (which was baby blue and matched nothing)
- Wood shutters for...
- The completely mismatched windows.
In fact, from the front of the house, you kinda felt like the room was winking at you because of the funny windows:

One thing you can't see in the pictures of the room is that the floor sloped. Over the 8-foot width of the room it dropped 1.5 inches (which is a pretty drastic, obvious slope).

So the floor needed to be leveled, and everything in it had to go. We wanted to use the space as an office for now, and someday turn it into part of the kitchen. BUT the project wasn't a priority - just something to work on in our (ha!) free time.

Meanwhile, Nate moved his computer into the living room so we could slowly demolish the Nook. No big deal... until Mike and Amy moved in, and Mike's computer desk (et al!) was added to my living room. Suddenly the Nook remodel became priority #1.

So we set to work. Leveled the floor. Replaced the two crazy windows. Paint. Trim. Carpet.

I should have taken more in-progress pictures. I've got quite a few good ones. But I will spare you...

The outside of the house, which is not quite done, now looks like:

And the INSIDE of the house, in the room formerly known as the Nook and hereafter called the Front Office, now looks like...drumroll please...

O Christmas Tree

Well... we finally did it. Our fourth Christmas as a married couple and have our first (and last! ha!) tree. Here it is:

The ornaments on the tree were gifted from one of my great aunts. (I can't remember which one, as they came to me through grandma; my mom hypothesized that it was aunt Sharon.) They are in very good condition and I'm grateful that I don't have to buy my own this year, since I've already spent my "decorations allowance" for a few other items. But I would like to buy some ornaments. The current ones don't feel like they are mine (mostly because they are not my style).

I was at Walmart with Amy recently and I noticed that they have packs of cute, matching ornaments. At first I fell in love with the blue and silver ones. While they are still my favorite, I think I would rather have red and gold ornaments for my tree. They would match better with my living room! (Target has similar packs of ornaments.)

I hope I can get some of the cute ones on sale after Christmas. I know I'm being cheap, but I figure, since I already have ornaments that were free, I can use them for this Christmas and maybe I can buy some I really love after the holidays for a little less cost. Worst case scenario, I buy some next Christmas when I have more decorations allowance.

Also, one last note about ornaments... (Are you bored yet? Are you still reading? :o) ... my mom has decided to downsize her collection, so she's going to bring her ornaments to our big family Christmas and let me pick out some of them for myself. I'm actually very excited about this. I would love to have some of my childhood ornaments on my tree!

Anyway... that's enough about ornaments! ttfn!

YW in Excellence: Follow Up

Sigh.

Last Wednesday was Veteran's Day, meaning I didn't have work and the young women at church didn't have school, so I took the opportunity to schedule some extra practice for YW in Excellence. Instead of spending 8 hours in the office, I spent 8 hours at the church building, meeting with each one of the performers in the afternoon and then all of the girls in the evening.

Thursday morning I woke up feeling just a little ill. Next to me, Nathan woke up feeling a lot ill. I decided to stay home from work and take care of my house. Mike promptly swept Amy in the car and took her away so she wouldn't catch anything from us. All good decisions, as it turns out. By Thursday afternoon I was full-blown sick. Fever. Aches. Fatigue.

Yuck.

The illness persisted. I did work from my bed or the couch, and I continued coordinating YW in Excellence. I firmly believed I would recover by Sunday and thus still perform my role in the awards show.

I was wrong.

My fever broke by Sunday, but a cough and a sore throat developed. My loving fellow leaders in the YW program noted that this development made me "sound like a man." They weren't wrong, but I definitely didn't need to hear about it. Especially because it meant the death of my acting career.

So when Sunday night came, one of the other leaders filled in on stage for me, and I hunkered down behind the scenes, plotting how I could write this tragety into the script for next year.


Oh! And even without my sparkling presence on stage, the show was awesome.

Young Women in Excellence: Baby, Look at You Now!

Some background: Our church has a very active youth program. Nate works with the young men (YM) and I work with the young women (YW). Kids in the program are age 12 to 18.

Both the YM and YW have a program to help them develop spiritually. The programs are basically a series of goals; things like reading scriptures, doing acts of service, learning new stuff, etc.

The young men's program is called Duty to God; for the YW it's Personal Progress. Once a year, the young women have an awards ceremony as part of Personal Progress where they receive awards for completing their goals. The name of the awards ceremony is Young Women in Excellence. This year, our ceremony has the theme "Baby, Look at You Now!" We've decided to do a fancy ceremony -- dresses, glitter, dangerous shoes, cake, black table cloths... all the works! I'm pretty excited about it (and not just because it's an excuse to get fancy, although I totally love that part).

Somehow I managed to end up being in charge of the script, and by association, apparently I'm directing a lot of the activities. It wasn't my goal to run the thing; I just had some ideas I really wanted to use for the program. But, alas! Be careful! Sometimes you get more than you bargained for!

So far my responsibilities have included a lot of writing, hand wringing, hair pulling, a few nighs of tossing and turning...
Sharing my closet of gorgeous gowns, going to the dry cleaners, doing some sewing, borrowing stuff from my mom and grandma...
Printing reams of paper, buying folders, sending emails, setting schedules, making more phone calls...
And on and on!

Do I love it? Absolutely.
Will the young women love it? Oh man, I hope so.


There's more to come on this topic... probablly after it's all said and done.

My mom has a blog!

My awesome mom reads my blog and my work blog, and sometimes she leaves comments on them. She left a comment on my work blog last week, and I happened to click on her user name. (I was trying to figure out if "Julie" was my mom or someone else named Julie.)

Lo-and-behold, clicking on her name led me to a blog. To her blog! Apparently my mom has a blog! And there are two, not-quite-an-actual-post posts on her blog.

So, world: Go visit my mom's blog. And encourage her to use it.
www.JulieBike.blogspot.com

Mom: Blog!!!

Making a dress?

My mom is pretty cool.

A few weeks ago she emailed me some dress patterns to get my opinion. Apparently she went shopping at the department stores, couldn't find anything she liked, and decided to make something for herself. She's a great seamstress, so she'll whip out a fabulous dress in no time. I admire the way she can just shrug off the store and do her own thing.

I was in the fabric store last week and saw some great fabric that was on sale. I knew it would make a cute dress, and I had an idea of what kind of dress (although I didn't have a pattern). So I got the fabric, and now I've got to figure out what dress I want to make. Granted, it's not going to be nearly as well-done or creative as my mom's dress, but I'm pretty excited about it!

So here's the fabric:

Obviously you can't tell from the picture, but it's stretchy and light. I have a dress out of fabric like this, so I already know that I love the way it feels.

Here are some patterns I am considering:

I think the first pattern is my favorite. I like the design on the left; I'd use black around the neck/waist/sleeves. I might also add a black trim on the bottom, like the picture on the right.

But I also like the waist and the tight, 3/4-sleeves on the other two patterns.

Hmm.