The Caucus

We are so excited about the elections this year! Obama won in Washington's caucus today and we are thrilled. Today was really exciting. Rob, myself, and Jasper all attended our very first caucus. It kind of has the feeling of a community meeting, where all our neighbors got together, discussed politics and candidates and then voted. There was a very neat energy about the whole thing. People (myself included) were SO excited about Obama and the hope for the future he is bringing people.

We met lots of our neighbors!

Shut out

Sara has been really excited about the Obama campaign, so when she heard that he was coming to Seattle before the Washington state caucuses she immediately said, "We're going!" - meaning she and Jasper.

I decided to skip out on research at school and to join them. I was waiting at my bus stop at 11:10 this morning (doors were to open at 11:00am) and talking with Sara intermittently about how the line was going. She decided to wait for me at the front of the line for me.

Two minutes later she called back to say that the doors had been shut and they were turning people away. They were full! I feel terrible because had she not stopped in line to wait for me she could have gone in to see one of the three people (all in Seattle/Tacoma today) who will most likely be the next US President.

So instead she is spending the afternoon with Jasper at Seattle's Children's Museum. Museum employees told Sara that people began lining up at 8am! She commented to me that she thinks Jasper would enjoy the museum more than thousands of people crowded into a basketball arena for a rally. While talking to Sara on the phone, I think I heard Jasper say, "Speak for yourself, mama. Vote Obama!"

Picture of rally via Northwest Progressive Institute's blog.

Teething

Who would have known those two little teeth could cause so many sleepless nights...

Regardless, we love this little guy more than anything.

Tell me if you think this picture is inappropriate...

How to sew Book of Mormon scripture totes

I am posting this project because I tried to find directions online and couldn't find any. Now, if someone is interested in doing a similar project, I hope they will find this helpful.

I work with the children in my church's primary. Every year we have a theme and this year it is "I am a Child of God". We wanted the kids to understand that they can learn about the plan that God has for each of his children and about how much he loves them by reading the scriptures. The other women that I work with and I thought it would be great if each child had their own Book of Mormon that they brought to church each week and could have at home to read. We also thought it would be nice for each child to have a case or tote to carry their scriptures in.

I used dark denim material (works for both boys and girls) which was on sale at the time at Hancock Fabric.



Decided to give each child one of the very inexpensive ($2.50), soft cover Book of Mormons that measure 8" x 5". Cut a rectangle piece of denim at 16" x 9" (planned to double over the top seam, but not the side seams).



Folded in half and sewed up the top and bottom, leaving one of the 9" seams open:



Squared off the bottom two corners to create a sqaure bottom tote:



Folded the open edge under twice, ironed, and sewed:



Now it's time for the handles. Cut a piece of denim that was 3" by 9".



Ironed and sewed:







Measured so that each handle was evenly matched up on each tote. Sewed the handles on by sewing around in a square pattern.





Here's a shot of the squared-off bottom of the totes



The Book of Mormons fit perfectly into the totes. If you want to be able to carry a larger, triple combination, you would need to cut the fabric about an extra 2 inches on each side and square the bottom of the tote larger.



Here's a few of them finished. I forgot to get a photo of all 20 of them done!