This week she said here are some pictures I’ll explain them next week:

The top picture I’m sure is a picture of her new companion that she just started training, I know that because when a Missionary is assigned as a Trainer the Mission President sends out a letter to the Parents letting us know, how good she is doing, that she is doing so well that she has been trusted to assign to train a new Missionary. The rainbow is just pretty. And the last picture well I can explain that one also, remember last week’s picture of her leg? Well she had made the statement that her back tire was so wobbly that it was making a loud noise and everyone could hear them coming down the street.

So I guess she hasn’t sent her bike to the repair shop yet. My child the procrastinator. I hope that her riding on the bike in bad shape doesn’t make whatever is wrong with it worse.

I will tell you that that grin is an “I’m doing the best I can to not yell at anyone, while I’m feeling frustrated” grin.

Can you tell what your child is thinking by their facial expressions?

~Sonia

We tipped it on it’s side:

I built a frame around it:

I made sure to leave openings where maintenance may be required in the future. And closed them with doors.

I decided to stain the main wood, to have a two tone look.

~ Randy

This is not the first of these pictures that I’ve received just the first one I have dared to post. She has crashed her bike several times. I think by the time she is done with her mission I will have paid out more in bicycle repair than I have in food. Well you all know my saying “Oh well, such is life”.

At least she had a great Birthday, it is clear that she is surrounded by wonderful people,

That really know her, look at all that junk food, I didn’t send that.

I sent her healthy items, and some wood toys that Randy made (I always send my kids toys, that may be why they never grow up.) I told her that she didn’t have to keep them that she could give them away and she replied “How cool I know just who to give them to, he doesn’t have any toys.”

All I could think was what the heck, You are in the state of Washington in the United States of America what do you mean you are serving in an area where there is a kid that doesn’t own any toys????? (That reminds me, Send more toys!)

We don’t have much time to email back and forth so all I could do was say a little prayer for the kid and keep talking to my kid. And feel extremely proud of the fact that she chose to do the Lords work.

… is so not my forte! Well at least in the blogging world. Even Though, I do have a consistent monthly record of at least 10 post a month, They don’t have anything else in common.

I do have a bad habit of put up 6 posts at a time, why because they pile up in my head and then I finish them all up in one day. Because the days that I’m talking about have already passed I retro post them. Is that even a term or did I just invent a new blogging term, which I hope no one else will ever use because why in the world would you want to back date your posts.

I do mostly because they have to do with Steph’s mission and I would like to keep them in order but why I do the other posts, who the heck knows.

I do hope that you at least know that I will be here consistently month after month, one day of the month there are no post and another day there could be 10.

~Sonia Barton

She’s showing us she got toothpaste in her eye.

Seriously I don’t think my kid is ever going to grow up. When you are raising them you don’t really know what they are absorbing and what is just going in one ear and out the other. With the last name of Dickerman I had to teach her very early on to not care about what other people said or thought about her. I think I may have gone a bit too far with that, because really would you take a picture of yourself like the one above and post it on the internet and not care??

I don’t but I would have really hoped that my child would have a little bit more class, I don’t know where I expected her to pick it up from because it was certainly not taught at home. Oh well such is life.

What was taught at home was a love for animals, and here she sits open-legged shoes off sitting on the floor playing with dogs.

Oh well who says you can’t be a little bit redneck when you are out on a mission. It’s what’s in the heart that matters!

and I had told myself to take pictures the next time I do another one, because someone had asked how to get the ruffles on. As I started to make the bag I realized that I hadn’t written down step by step directions, so I had to reinvent the wheel. So as I did this bag this time, I posted the step by step directions to Instagram. I’m sure that annoyed a few people. But I knew I wasn’t going to lose them if I posted them to the internet hahahaha

Cut one piece of Canvas 18 x 19 on fold.

2 canvas strips 5 x 26 for straps. And

2 four inch strips on fold full width of fabric ( per ruffle).

Sew the side seams of the Canvas bag and finish the edges. You can either serge or zig zag to prevent the fabric from fraying.

Sew two pieces of the ruffle strips together at the side seams, to make one large circular piece of fabric.

Serge or zig zag the top of the ruffles circle, to prevent the fabric from fraying.

Sew a hem or you can also zigzag the bottom of the ruffles circle.

Place pins at the quarter marks of the full circle of the ruffle.

Sew a gathering stitch in each of the quarters that you marked. Leave long threads for gathering.

Match the quarter marks of the ruffle with the quarter points of the canvas bag. Pin it in place.

Gather the fabric by pulling on the bottom thread of the gathering stitch, until your quarter of ruffle matches the quarter of the bag.

Pin in place all the way around.

In order to be able to sew the first ruffle in place you are going to have to scrunch up the canvas bag and carefully work your way around the bag as you sew.

Pin the second ruffle in place and do the same as before. Match the quarters and then gather the ruffle, and then sew in place. Sew as many ruffles as you decided you wanted to put on the bag.

Serge or zig zag the top hem of the canvas bag. Then sew your straps or add your webbing. I fold my strap under the folder down top hem. So that I can catch the raw edge of my strap inside the top hem of the canvas bag.

Sew two rows of Stitching around the top of the bag, one along the very edge and one on the edge of the hem. This makes for a sturdy bag and sturdy handles.

And there you have it. That’s how I put the ruffles on a Ruffle canvas tote.

Let me know if you have any questions???

~Sonia

As soon as I walked into the house the dogs started going crazy, crazier than normal. I didn’t get it at first and then realized they could smell what was in the box. The little one started pressing his face against the box and going around in circles the big one just pounced on it and broke the top open. All I could think was ‘if you silly dogs think the Stephanie is in this box, you would have killed her by now.’

I started pulling stuff out of the box, and Bo took one of Stephanie’s scarves and went and curled up on the couch with it. I really hope that Stephanie didn’t want it back, because I couldn’t get it back.

Then on Monday, someone rang my doorbell (no one rings my doorbell for fear of being shot, I sleep during the day). It was Bro. & Sis. Hollaway again. Sister Hollaway had left her scriptures at church and wanted to know if there was anyone that could let her in the building. I made a few phone calls before realizing hey I can let you into the church house. I don’t have a Library key but we could go look in the building. Off we went, as they started talking all about what Stephanie was doing in Cheney. It turns out that the area has a large Migrant worker population and they have a program that teaches them English. Stephanie was asked to help Bro. Hollaway teach because she was Mexican (hahahahaha that kid hasn’t spoken Spanish since she was 5 years old). From what Bro. Hollaway says she stepped right into her shoes and filled them really well. So well that there were times when Bro. Hollaway wasn’t able to teach the class and make the appointments and Stephanie did it.

When we arrived at the church house I didn’t expect to find Sis. Hollaways scriptures since there were two other wards that met after we did. So we went in and walked around, nothing. We walked over to the Library just to see if the door was open, it wasn’t. Then Sister Hollaway looked down and said ‘here they are’. They were right outside the door, I completely forgot that our library has two doors.

On our way back they talked more about all the wonderful stuff my kid had been doing, how much help she was and how grateful they were to have her. Now I know why God kept her in Cheney for 6 months. When we arrived at the house my mom was pulling into her driveway and he said “that’s your mom!” I said yes. “I want to go talk to her, Stephanie talked a lot about her.” Ok.

Brother Hollaway walks up to my Mom and starts talking to her in very very good Spanish. She is a little shocked at first until I explain that he is one of the Brothers that Stephanie was working with up in Washington. He proceeds to tell my Mom all the wonderful stuff her granddaughter is doing. My mom perks up like the great big hen and says “she calls me Ama and calls her mama, she doesn’t call me grandma. She lived with me for a long time, but she wouldn’t speak Spanish when she left, I told her to come over here with me and practice but she didn’t.” Then brother Hollaway made her even prouder than she already was. He said “She is speaking very good Spanish and she now knows and has lessons to teach English and she can teach you. I think that she finally has the desire to learn and speak the language of her culture.”

I’m grateful that they were able to come and spend some time with us and let us know what Stephanie is up to. Stephanie keeps asking me if I’m going to drive out to pick her up when her mission is done, and I’ve always said no. But now I think I might want to go and be among and talk to the people she is serving. Except for the fact that she will be done with her mission in Dec. December in Washington State, Spokane Washington I still don’t know it makes me shiver just thinking about it.

~Sonia

This poor lady ordered a Diaper envelope from me on WhoopdWhoop over a month ago, I sent it to her but she never received it. After weeks of fighting with the post office I finally gave up and just decided to make her another one and send that.

Yay, I did it. And she received it this time! If you would like a FREE Diaper envelope pattern visit my Craftsy store you can get one there. ModestEve Sewing Studio Craftsy Store!

I looked down at her and reminded her that 3 days earlier I had put them all in the pack and play and she had taken them all out to put them back in the closet. So I drug out the pack and play again and put them all back in there, Marley didn’t try to take them out this time. She actually looked relieved. She sat under the pack and play for a couple of days and would only go in when she needed to feed them. The smallest kitten looks exactly like Marley, and she seems to take care of that one more than the others.

They lasted all of 2 days in the pack and play before they started trying to escape. The light grey one has always been the biggest one and the first one to do everything, open his (or her not sure yet) eyes, start walking, start escaping…

After a day or so he made it up and over.

and took the rest with him.

I can’t believe how fast animals develop. In a couple of months they won’t be kittens any more.

It’s fun to watch them play. I had to buy them some toys because they were eating my cords.

Mom would try to correct her, but the little one just wasn’t listening. The one thing I have really found strange in this whole thing is that when Marley wants to correct them, she bites them. Pretty hard sometimes. It really scares me when she pins them down with her mouth around their necks, and I have no clue what the little kittens did wrong?

All the animals we’ve ever had have always been several months old before we acquired them, so this is a new experience for me.

~Sonia

So when all of a sudden I add in the $ 60 and $80 dollars I send Stephanie each week, I know I will be in the red. Yet I’m not. Miracles will happen like…a Check from the insurance company because last year I paid too much or a check from SSI because last year they didn’t give Randy his full amount. Strange weird and explainable but yet not explainable things.

Like why in the world would SSI start giving Randy $10 less each month, crazy. Even crazier have I been so out of it that I didn’t notice that Randy’s pay was short.

Anyways this isn’t about my foggy head, I’ll have to figure that one out later. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father loves my daughter so much that when she needs it, the money is there!

Stephanie and her new Trainee…

~Sonia