right brain - what's left

So it's been awhile since I've updated the blog, but we've had a few things on our plate. Mom moved into our place after surgery, and we began the process of trying to squeeze the joy out of every moment even more than usual.

A few weeks into mom's stay at Club Culbertson, patient #2 came to join us. My grandparents had been taking care of my dad (with autoimmune hepatitis) since my mom had been in the hospital, but my grandma hurt her back and needed time to rest. So we picked up another patient, moved the girls downstairs and turned into a full time care facility.

Since I last had a moment to blog, mom finished her six weeks of radiation and chemo with very few side effects. She still hasn't had any pain, just a little more loss of mobility from the radiation fatigue. We've had the first two (of three) appointments with the University of Washington to get dad on the transplant list. So far we haven't had anything to disqualify us, which is really good. It's quite a process just to get to the board that decides if you will qualify for the list. Hopefully in the next couple of months we'll know if he made it. It's a long wait for a liver, but it's nice to have a little hope on the horizon there. The Navy has been gracious enough to keep Stan home (stateside) for the time being. It's a tremendous blessing to have my rock here at home.

I'm sure there is much more that I could add to this update, but whenever I sit down to write I draw a blank. So I'll add some captions to a few pictures and call it good. Thank you all for your prayers through the last few months. God is good.

"Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in the small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

-Mother Teresa

 Part of the family in our "team jackie" shirts from CustomInk
(I even got an email from them, and the company making a donation
toward my mom's medical bills! Thank you CustomInk!)

Mom with three of her four kids

team jackie

the shirts

after waking up several mornings with gobs of hair on her pillow,
Stan assisted the chemo with the clippers

dad shaved his head in support of mom

opposites attract.

if you can't beat them, join them

my mom and dad

mom's first look at the new 'do

my mom and dad

i'm a lucky girl.

Refashioned Shirt: Take Two

After my first attempt at refashioning a shirt out of hand-me-downs and outgrown clothes, I decided to head to Ross to look for some cheapie tshirts. Following another tutorial from Tea Rose Home I made a second shirt as a gift for a sweet 16 birthday. The pictures aren't great, but they get the general process. I really liked how this one turned out (and it looked super cute on, too). Happy Sweet 16 Kylie! :)

The finished product.

Cut the down the sides and remove the sleeves from one shirt.
You should end up with two pieces that look something like this.

Cut on the diagonal to make long strips 2.5" wide, do this on both pieces.

Round the edges of each strip.
Cut each strip with a wavy edge on one side. (I didn't get a picture of this step,
but you can see it here on the tutorial I followed.)

Run a straight stitch using a wide stitch down the straight edge of each strip.
Pull one thread to ruffle the strip.

Ruffle all remaining strips.

Using one of the smaller strips, pin and sew it on the collar's left side.

Continue pinning and sewing strips, folding and overlapping them.

Once you near the bottom of the left side, repeat starting from the right side of the collar.
I kept most of my strips toward the left side, overlapping my first set of ruffles.

The finished product. :)