Argh... I'm about ready to push my sewing machine to the floor, and jump up and down on it several times. I'm having trouble sewing the little shoes I'm making for my nephew Jordan. It started out great. While I was disappointed that the teflon foot I borrowed from my mother in law didn't fit, everything else was going well. I picked up some nice heavy duty thread at Jo- Ann's while I was out running my assorted errands after Church and soon after I finished taping the little skull and cross bones to the feet, I was ready to begin. It went beautifully at first. I had no trouble with the leather feeding, and it was all nice and smooth. But when I was half done with the applique, the machine started going wonky. Thread started snarling and breaking, it started tangling itself around the bobbin case. I would find out that the thread had made itself into a huge snarl when the needle would suddenly decide to stop moving and wouldn't go up or down. So I would have to tear everything apart, cut out the snarl, pull up the needle, etc. I think the hook timing is off somehow but I'll be darned if I can figure out why. :( What should have only taken two hours at the very most, still isn't half done and I've invested about six hours into it. Sigh...... I'll try again later.

Other than the sewing snafu, yesterday was nice. I wound up going to Church with just Kitty. Charles was sick so Carey decided to stay home with the kids. The service was rather cute. It was done by the youth group; each one talked about a UU principle. I wound up missing half of it since Kitty decided that she wanted to talk. So I spend some time talking with one of the other members about various subjects, including that mornings meeting about the problems with overcrowding, the length of services, etc. Most people complain that the first service isn't long enough. However, lengthening it poses several problems, one of which is even more work to the choir (they're there for at least three hours every time they perform at a service). Another problem is that the majority of the people choose the first service so there is major overcrowding in the children's religious classes. Because of this mess, several people are choosing to just not come any more, which is unfortunate. The best solution for this mess is just to build a new church. However, that is many years and a lot of work away and that doesn't help us at this time.

When I did finally wander back upstairs to the sanctuary, it was just in time to see the closing song being put on by the youthgroup. This comprised of a flashy little number that was quite cute. And I mean flashy. One of the boys had bright blue sparkly shorts on. It was hilarious, although unfortunately two of our guests didn't think so and left before it was over. I'm sorry that they chose this weekend to check out our wonderful congregation, as it isn't always like this. But I quite enjoyed what parts of the service I did see.

After the service, I got to run my errands and it was nice having only Kitty with me. So I wandered through Ross to find a pair of shoes for Charles. All he has is rain boots, cowboy boots, and his nice shoes. It's just not practical to wear those shoes all of the time. So I picked him some athletic shoes. He was excited when he saw them and insisted on putting them on immediately so he could go outside. I also stopped at Jo-Ann's to get my thread, where I felt quite embarrassed because I had to ask what thread would be the best for my project. There were just too many choices and I was totally lost.

And to top it off today, all three of the kids are sick! So not only did I have to cancel James' appointments, but this also means that I don't get to go to my group. If Carey comes straight home from work, I might possibly be able to go for a little while.