4th of July

I truly have been occupied since the beginning of July. Branden spent much of that first week in Idaho, getting his company set up. He came home to spend the 4th with me. It also just happened to be our anniversary 0n the 6th. Since I had a ton of homework, we went ahead and celebrated it on the 5th (also, because I made a mistake and thought it was the 5th for the longest time).

I must say, I really enjoy having our anniversary close to independence day. It makes it really easy to give themed gifts. While Branden was in Idaho, I got a sewing machine from DI for $15, about $60 worth of fabric, and $20 worth of batting, and destroyed my living room for a week. However, in that week I made an entire queen size quilt and kept up with my classes. I'm seriously so proud of it.

I looked at some quilt patterns, drew my own graph paper, used that to customize my personal pattern, and got my first batch of fabric. I didn't know how I wanted to lay it out, but I knew about what size I wanted my squares to be. I began cutting, and after about three more trips to the store, I finally figured out what I needed.After my sewing machine broke half way through the front, I borrowed one from my great friend Nicki, and finished it up. 9:00 the night before Branden came home, I went to the hardware store and got some 2x4s to make a frame. I spent the rest of the night stretching the quilt and sewing the buttons on. It was kind of funny. I actually tilted the frame up against the side of an apartment, right under a light and worked all night. I finished that around 6:00 am, I drove my roommate to the airport and then braved the hour-long drive home.

July 4th was pretty interesting too. My car "broke." Turns out it wasn't my car. It was my car key. It no longer starts my car, but I didn't figure that out until I had spent almost the whole day trying to figure out what was going on (my oil had been low by the way). I tried to get some snacks to the Sailing Club for the race that was going on, but I had a 5:15 commitment, and they were still running races at 5:00. So, lets just say that I ended up buying myself a whole lot more food than I had wanted.

Branden, Aaron, and I went over to Seth's house for his barbecue. Turns out there were about 8 of us, but it was still fun. Afterward, Aaron brought us over to his brother's mother-in-law's house. We had carne asada and hamburgers. That is one very patriotic Hispanic family! They even taught me how to light fireworks and not freak out. One of the quilts that they had was gorgeous too. I only half remember what it looked like now, but that's life. Then, we shifted over to the field across from the MTC for fireworks. They were fun, but I think I'm more of a fan of the intramural fields. In any case, we pulled my quilt out and had enough space for at least 5 adults to lay out on it and stare up at the shimmering blasts of light in the sky. It was awesome!!!