About Time for a B.O. Party

B. got her braces off today!!!  Hip hip hurray!  To celebrate we are having a B.O. (Braces Off) Party with the goodies B. has gone without for the past 2 1/2 years--popcorn, Doritos, Fritos, gum, Snickers, Butterfingers, Skittles. Anything crunchy and chewy she is sinking her braces-free, appliances-gone teeth into. Of course, we are "helping" her celebrate. We don't want her feeling lonely eating all those goodies.

She will get a bit of a break before the braces go back on all her teeth, and we move forward toward the next bit of mouth work. For now, B. is reveling in the smooth feel of her beautiful teeth. She had a pack of gum she's been saving for months; she's chomped through most of it already!

In other news...
A. helped with the 11 year old Scout Camporee by playing the victim for the 1st Aid part of the competition. She and another victim had driven a car into a tree.  It was really parked by the tree, but just use your imagination. The boys were to assess the situation, use their first aid skills, and "help" the girls by transporting them to a marked area.  The girls were dropped a couple of times and CPR was suggested by some of the boys although A. had tape stuck to her stating she was BREATHING.  (Leaders helped steer the rescuers in another direction!)  She had a fun time.  I was thankful she was so willing to help.

All made up and ready to be wounded. That's a gut wound and a compound fracture on her arm with a real bone (chicken) sticking out of her arm. She was also unconscious (in the scene).

A. with her make-up artist, K, and her fellow "victim" A who was suffering from a severe burn on her hand, bleeding, and shock.  

Aren't they cute!

 B. and A. have been busy working on Personal Progress, a church program for young women with a focus in developing character values through goal setting, prayer, and scripture reading.  B. was working on Knowledge and learned some basic sewing skills. She picked out fabric, helped cut blocks, and sewed it together. We had help from our good sewing friend too.

Miss A. had a school assignment to write a figure of speech on a t-shirt and illustrate it with an example. She had 'Pun' and her example was: "7 days without pizza makes one weak!" Very appropriate for her.

 She also made that jean purse. Cute!  We cut off the legs of old jeans with cute pockets and sewed the bottom closed. We added the strap, using the hem part of the jeans.  It turned out rather cute, I think. A is always wanting to create and do new things. She keeps me stretching.

I have been learning about quilting (again from my good sewing friend).  I wanted to try free-motion quilting which is sewing designs on the fabric while moving it around yourself (usually the machine feeds the material through--feed dogs).  It was a little tricky trying to go the right speed AND move the fabric AND sew a design (I drew it on) AND get the stitches the same size.  Once I stopped sweating, I started to enjoy it. It was like scribbling on fabric with a sewing machine.  I really like the way my runner turned out.

 A close-up of the design. 

Of course, this "news" has been over the course of the last few months. Don't go thinking we've done all this in the past week, because we haven't.  I've just been a little lame about updating the blog.