Messenger Bags

Making Christmas gifts is hard, because it is difficult to try and figure out what would be good for them. I found this fantastic tutorial online about making messenger bags. I decided that I would make Patrick, Megan and Jason each a messenger bag and fill it with"adventure items" I have completed the bags and they have turned out adorable, I am just waiting for the "adventure items" to come in the mail. I will be placing binoculars, magnifying glass, small flashlight, notebook with pencil and a clip compass. I am covering the notebook with fabric and putting a little pocket for the pencil on it.

I am so excited about this project. I am using fabric that I bought at the thrift store (so it was about $2) and I bought all of the other items through oriental trading company. I can't wait to see the look on my kids face when they open these bags. I am sure they are going to want to start checking out the yard right away.

Jason's bag

Patrick's bag

Megan's bag

I left the front flap blank, and I need to put in the fastener, but for the most part they are done. The bag goes together easily and quickly I finished 2 bags in an hour. Cutting them out was harder because I never know what kind of fabric I want to use (indecision always rears it's ugly head)

Once again....I have been hunting down patterns when I happened to come upon this site. This boasts to have over 100 purse patterns. I checked it out, thought it was cool and decided to share it with all of you. Enjoy.

Aprons - Aprons - Aprons

I found this website that has 52 free apron patterns. I am always looking for apron patterns, I think they make great Christmas gifts. I loved this website as it gave so many different options, that I just wanted to share it with everyone. Enjoy.

I don’t know if this happens to most kids, but my parents were always paying us to leave the house. It always happened in the same way...My father would come up to me and say “Hey Jen, don’t you want to go see a movie today? Why don’t you take your brother’s. "

My response was always " Uh...I don't know, Dad."

"How about I give you $40 and you take your brother’s to the movies” he would say.

“Uh, sure Dad” I would reply

We’d call the movie theater find a movie that was starting soon and go from there. At the time I had a sinking suspension that my parents wanted to have “Mommy and Daddy alone time”, but wasn’t entirely sure. They were old…maybe they didn’t have those feelings anymore….lol.

The year was 1989 it was Thanksgiving Day. My Dad had come up to me with $40 and the line about all of the kids going to a movie. We decided on Back to the Future 2. I didn’t realize that it was opening week for the movie, so the theater was packed. In fact right after we bought our tickets, it sold out.

We bought popcorn, soda and candy, we were lucky enough to find seats in the center of the theater, center of the row. I remember sitting right in the middle of my brothers. Josh, John, Me, Jason and Nathan. That is how we were sitting. Time was really dragging…it seemed like we had been sitting there forever listening to people chatter, popcorn crunching, the rustling of candy wrappers.

Jason stood up and I immediately moved me legs up so he could walk by, but he just stood there. I waved my arm at him as if to say “hey…go ahead and pass”. He grabbed my hand and started singing “You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling”. I was mortified. The entire theater went still and quiet. My jaw dropped and I started to slide to the floor. Jason however, was very strong and he kept hauling me up so that I wouldn’t hit the floor. He sang the first verse with the chorus. When he finished the theater exploded in cheers and claps. My face must have been purple…it had gone beyond red. The house lights started to dim, the crowd came under control and the previews started. I watched the movie kind of slouched down in my seat. After the movie we were milling out of the theater and people would come by and smack Jason on the back – congratulating him on his singing..

I was embarrassed – mortified – worried about what people would think. I think back on it…and it just makes me smile.

Patrick and Megan decided that they needed hair cuts. We told Patrick that this would be his last buzz cut of the year. For fun, I decided to give him a mohawk. He liked it so much that we allowed him to keep it for the last few weeks. You would not believe how many people come up and touch his head.

Megan having seen Patrick's hair cut decided that she needed a hair cut as well. So now she has a cute bob.



For Halloween this year, Megan is going to be Rogue from the X-Men. She saw the first X-men movie and proclaimed that she needed a Cloak with a hood if she was going to be Rogue. I finished it yesterday and she has been wearing it everywhere since.




She is so funny....we went to the Grocery store this morning and when she didn't want to talk to someone she just hid her head in the hood.

Life at our house right now.

This is the side of our house. What happened you say? Well the county has decided to put water and sewer lines down our little peninsula. Which is great because then I don't have to worry about my well working or my septic over flowing. WHEW!! But between my property and the property next door (which is just a forest and pond) there is an old county road. They are using that road to lay pipe to get to my house and some neighbors behind me. So needless to say it has been very loud outside my bedroom window for the last few days.

Here is the back yard and what they have done there. There is a boulder sitting on the grass by the pipes. That is a small one that was pulled out of the ground next to the house. The largest one was 5 feet long by 5 feet wide and 1.5 feet tall. HUGE!! It was awesome watching them pull it out of the ground.

Here they are tearing up the street to lay the pipe in front of my house. They have us coming and going right now. My dogs have gone horse from barking at the workers. It is hilarious they can barely bark, so now they just lay next to the house and watch the CAT work. The one nice thing about them tearing everything up is they will level the ground and reseed the side and back yard. YEAH!!

Megan is my little artist. She is constantly coloring, painting, cutting out to make things. This is a picture of her "Coraline". She dug out some card stock paper and created a Coraline using tape, buttons, elastic and paper. It is adorable. She is so proud of it that she carries it with her when we go out.

Another view of Coraline - if you look closely you can see some tiny yellow square cut outs on the "jacket" those are buttons.

I know I told you all about "Element" the kitty, but she came to a tragic end. She escaped the garage and walked into the yard with the dogs. I found her laying next to Bessie. I figure she ran herself to death. It was horrible. Megan was devastated. We immediately got another cat, but this one was a street wise cat. His name is Logan and he lives in the back yard. He is the best cat I have ever had. He is loving and sweet, but he likes his space and wants to run around the back yard.

Here they are - Belle (white) and Bessie (dark) our dogs. They have been wreaking havoc on the construction workers because not only are they annoyed that they are there, the girls are in heat and the boy dogs won't come by because of the construction. Poor Girls.

I guess that is it for now. I am sure there has been a lot more happening, but I can't remember what it is just yet. Started Home Schooling again with the kids yesterday. Two days in and going strong. WHOO HOO!

Congratulations to Holly on the birth of her beautiful baby boy.

My everyday fairy wings

I made a set of these for Megan about 2 1/2 years ago. I agonized over it because she is such a tom boy that I was afraid if I bought her those gorgeous nylon wings, we wouldn't have them around for Halloween. It took me about a week to figure out what I wanted to do, and I made them. I really haven't thought anything about them until a woman stopped me and told me how she loved the wings, where did I get them.

I of course told her I made them, and then I told her the best part...they can be washed and dried!! I am selling these in both my Etsy and ArtFire store. Well, at least I am selling a PDF pattern with instructions on how to make them.

Megan has been wearing wings everywhere since I made 2 sets for my PDF pattern.

This set was made with a cotton poly blend and it took me about an hour. I love the way they stand up. TOO CUTE!!

Megan lost her first tooth

Megan has just been dying to lose a tooth. And, being as she is 6 1/2 it is about time. As soon as she could wiggle her tooth, she worked on it endlessly. I will never forget, her Aunt Tracey was visiting with her children and Megan came into my bedroom and asked if she could have an apple. I said sure and didn't think anything of it.

She came back in with an adorable grin and said "Mommy, my tooth is gone"

Okay...I kind of freaked because I thought she had hurt herself. But there she was with her apple and her little tooth stuck in it. She loves that she was the one to get it out, and she is already working on another one.

Forgive my picture, but she just couldn't keep her eyes open and her mouth opened at the same time. That is entirely too much work.

Going to the Lake

It has been very hot in Missouri these past few days. So hot, that with heat index it has been close to 100 degrees. YUCK!! Anyway, Jason had spent the night and we were all kind of stuck in the house when Chris said "Hey, let's take the kids to the lake"

I said "Okay" and we decided to go. We told the kids that they could walk along the shore of the lake, but to not get themselves or their clothes wet. Wishful thinking on our part.

Here they are completely content at the Lake. The Lake is a half mile from our house. If you go down our street, you will run into the lake.

This is Megan, she has "fallen" into the lake. Yeah, right!! You can't go to the lake unless you wear your pretty pink high heel sandals.

Okay...this is the three of them complying with our wishes by not getting into the water.

Patrick is trying to coax Megan into the water - like that was a hard sell.

A complete and total disregard for what we said. Oh well, they're kids, what can you do?

We had an unexpected visitor today...William came.

He played very hard with Patrick and Megan.

At one point he chased Patrick around the house with this hatchet!!
Okay, it isn't real...it's just plastic.

My favorite was watching him chase Patrick around with a Power Ranger gun. I hope you can see this, but I don't have a camcorder and the only thing I have is my stinky camera with no sound. It is grainy, but you can see William chasing Patrick and then Patrick dying. Gotta love it.

"Element"

Well, it has finally happened....Chris went to the grocery store and there was a box of kittens. He immediately called me and said "There is a box of kittens here at Country Mart, what should we do?" My sweet reply was "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

Let me go back. Megan has been begging us for a kitten. So much so that it had begun to get silly. Chris is highly allergic to cats, but I assured him if we ever picked out a cat it would be an outdoor cat. So...going back to the grocery store.

"There are two kittens in the box" Chris says.

"Okay." I said.

He hangs up.

He calls me 20 minutes later saying. "Okay, I got one. We are in the car port, have the kids meet me in the garage."

I grabbed the kids and brought them to the garage. I told them Daddy had a surprise and they had to wait. My kids are so cute, they stand still and hold each others hand in anticipation. Daddy brings the kitty inside and Megan almost swoons she is so excited.

Chris tells them we need to think of a name. Before he can get any farther with that line of thinking Megan pipes up and says "Element" the kitty is Element. She wasn't hearing any other name options I felt like I was in the movie the Ten Commandments with Charleton Heston. When Yul Brenner says "So let it be written, so let it be done."

So, now we have a 6 week old kitten named Element.

Megan took this picture while Element aka "Ellie" was sitting on her lap.

Here she is in her box in the garage. Megan doesn't know why Ellie can't just sleep with her.

Patrick is pretty excited. He goes into the garage and talks to Ellie during the day.

Another picture of Ellie on Megan's lap.

All Photos were taken by Megan Gaines age 6. She is turning into quite the photographer.

UP

We decided to take the kids this weekend to see "UP". We are huge PIXAR fans, and we just couldn't wait to see it. Of all of the movies that PIXAR has produced, this was their finest. I cried at the beginning and again at the end. It was moving, touching, beautiful...I just can't say enough about it. If you decide to take your kids to see a movie, I highly recommend "UP".

We decided to spend the extra money to see it in 3D, and it was worth it. The beauty of this movie is beyond compare. The story is heartwarming and special. The characters memorable and lovable. I can't say enough about it.

Auditioned for Wheel of Fortune

Hi Family and Friends.

Last Saturday I dropped the kids off at my Mom and Dad's and auditioned for Wheel of Fortune. I love that show!! Anyway, during the first "show" audition at the Welk Theater in Branson my name was chosen to go up on stage. YEAH ME!! The theater holds 2300 people and it was standing room only.

Of the 2300 people waiting they only had time for 33 people. I was one of the lucky 33. I will hear if I make it to the next round of auditions in a week or so. They are supposed to be held at the Welk Resort in about 3 weeks. Being called up on stage is no guarantee of being called back to the second audtion, but I'm hoping that I am called back.

Funny thing: When asked about my family I said "I'm married to an adequate husband and two so/so kids." Then I yelled "My husband owes me $10" Crowd laughed. I was asked what my hobbies were and I said "I hang out with my kids, sew and sing." He then said "Did you say you sing" and my reply was "No!!" He then asked if I would sing and I said sure and sang "Twinkle, twinkle little star" I did this to hopefully stand out. When I finished singing the emcee said that I should be auditioning for "America's Got Talent". I bet he tells that to all the girls.

Anyway, I have had some people call and ask about this, and I thought - I know I'll put it on my blog.

If I get the E-mail invitation, I will post again about this soon.

Jen

My Birthday Present from Megan

So, here it is...Megan made my bed this morning. She was so excited!! I was making breakfast and she comes running in and says "Oh, Mama! I have the best surprise for you on your birthday" She then said "Follow me, and close your eyes"

I followed her, but didn't close my eyes because the last time we did that she ran me into a wall. Anyway...I look in my room and lo and behold she has made my bed. She tried so hard. It was the best present I could have gotten.

My bedspread is usually the color of the bed skirt, but I was going to wash it so we were using our yucky blue blanket. Basically we were using the second string bed wear. LOL!!

Megan's Art

A few weeks ago we took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was cute, but not a keeper as far as I was concerned. Anyway, Megan really enjoyed it. We were eating dinner last week and she was quietly working with her vegetables. I didn't think anything of it, and just allowed her to play. When she was done, I asked her what she had made. She said it was Gallaxar from Monsters vs. Aliens. I had to take a picture of it. She did pretty good with the veggies she had on hand.

Kids are getting better...

So, I took the kids to the doctor last Monday. I guess when I take my kids, I am kind of like a battle axe because I wasn't going to leave until I got what I want. Chris had told me that there was a possibility that they would send me home with no medication because the kids could be classified as a "Cold" . So...my "I'm not going to leave until the outcome is favorable for me" gene rears it's ugly head.

I took them to Urgent Care because their doctor couldn't see them both and I needed both of them to be seen.

I told the doctor right away that I don't bring my children to the doctor lightly and in their lifetime, Megan had 2 doses of Amoxicillian (sp) and Patrick had had one dose of Zithromax (sp). I told him I felt that they needed antibiotics and cough syrup. Well...guess what, I got prescriptions for an antibiotics and cough syrup.

He was very nice, checked the kids and immediately wrote me the prescriptions. I guess I know that he was going to discover that they were sick, but I wanted him to know that I knew what they needed and after examining them he concurred.

I guess I am writing this because before, I just blindly went with whatever a doctor told me, and now I don't. I question why and for how long and side effects.

After I had Megan, she had been home a week I started to hemorage. I had to have a D & C some of the placenta was still inside of me. After I made it through, the Doctor told me that he wanted me to go on birth control (I had never used birth control in my life), he suggested I go with Depo Provera. Quick easy shot every 3 months. Little to no Periods...won't get pregnant. I thought, well maybe that is for the best, I had Patrick and Megan 14 months apart. Doctor says I need it. Okay. I got my first shot in the hospital. I gained 10lbs. Got my second shot 3 months later. I gained 10 lbs. Got a third shot, I gained 15 lbs. Got a fourth shot, lost 3 lbs, but then gained 10 lbs...all on top of the baby weight I had already gained. I was to get another shot, but something inside of me said not to do it. I didn't. I stopped gaining weight. But I couldn't lose it either. I was not producing estrogen. 3 years after I stopped taking the drug I had all of the symptoms of pregnancy - breasts hurt, lactating, puffiness. So I went to the doctor - not pregnant. It kept up, went to another doctor - not pregnant. That is when I decided to park in the office until someone gave me some answers.

I know what pregnant feels like and this feels like pregnant. The Doctor was impatient - wanted to get home and wasn't really interested in what I was feeling. It was the end of the day and he got short with me saying it was probably something I did. I told him I wanted another doctor. He changed his tune. His voice softened and he asked me if I had been on birth control. I told him that 4 years ago I had been on Depo Provera, but I only took it for a year. He asked if I had had any periods. I told him No...I hadn't had a period since right before I found out I was pregnant with Megan. That was almost 5 years - No periods.

He told me that the reason I was feeling like I was pregnant was that hormone was starting to come back to my body and I would probably start having periods. He said that they could put me on Hormone Replacement Therapy in order to move it along. I declined. I had already screwed up my body putting a synthetic drug in it, I wasn't about to try to fix it using the same method. This was a known side effect. But my doctor had pushed it on my anyway. I wish now I would have pushed and asked more questions, but I followed blindly what had been told to me.

I don't know why I felt the need to share this...I am usually very private about me. Right now I have had periods for a little over a year, my body is starting to regulate itself and I am just now starting to lose weight. I am not anti-medicine...just anti-blindness.

What would a 6 year old take pictures of....

The other day Patrick asked if he could use my camera. I said sure, he wanted to take some pictures of some toys that he had. Megan came running in and asked if she could use it after Patrick. "Sure, just don't fight over my camera" Secretly I am trying to get my camera broken so I can buy a new one. HAHAHAHA!!

Anyway, I was surprised at the pictures that Megan took. She has a huge fascination with "Bolt", last year right before Christmas we took them to the Disney Store and they both picked out a Bolt Stuffed Dog. When the Movie Bolt was getting ready to come out on DVD, they started playing with their dogs again.

Here are Megan's important pictures...

Bolt - Super Dog

The all important Lightning Bolt!!

Our dog Belle who looks kind of like Bolt.

Self Portrait after eating chocolate cake.

Bolt and Megan together at last.

I was surprised at how well she did with my camera. Believe me my camera isn't great, but she did well. Especially for her first time.

The kids are sick...

Well...it has happened. My kids aren't feeling well. I guess it has to happen sometime. We have always been very fortunate. I might take them to the doctor once a year. Well, I guess that time is here. Both Patrick and Megan have persistent coughs, and have for about a week.

I am a firm believer in letting things run their course and going as natural as possible. Too often children are given medicine they don't need without letting their bodies just work out the illness by itself. Now understand...I don't feel this way until they are over 2 years old because their bodies are fragile. After that I just let them work it out. Giving them Tylenol for discomfort. But 9 times out of 10, my kids don't get sick.

But, about a month and a half ago, I got sick (I never get sick). I was sick for a week and a half where I couldn't get out of bed and thank heaven Chris was home because he took care of the kids. I was then up and to the couch for about 3 or 4 days before I was actually cooking and taking care of the house again. I have never been so ill, and the kids sound like they are getting what I had. I know how sick I was and I don't want them to have something that lingered as long as my illness did.

Oddly enough, I read this thing on the internet about putting Vicks on their feet and putting socks on before they go to bed. It is supposed to help them stop coughing without using OTC cough syrup. I thought....sure that's gonna work. Well, I have to say, that it does work. I would do that and their coughs would be about 90% gone. AMAZING!! So, at least they are getting restful sleep. And...no drugs. YEAH!

Anyway...we are going to the doctor tomorrow (I just love going to the doctor...NOT) and we are probably going to get some Prescription cough syrup and maybe some antibiotics...fun. And, I just wanted to share my misery with everyone.

WHOOO HOOO!! Okay...I am pushing it now.

Anyway...for those of you wondering - we did not get any snow. We were supposed to, but nothing happened. Thank heaven. I am going to be planting my garden this week, and I didn't want to deal with a frozen dying garden.

Alright...now I am just rambling.

I was wondering...does anyone read my blog. I write things about what is going on with my family or store or whatever, and I never get any comments. I am just curious. I guess it doesn't matter all that much. I am going to keep it up...I was just curious.

Third Child Out!

Two little boys who love to play, but sometimes a little girl gets in their way.

One little boy, the oldest of them all doesn't think the girl should play at all.

This little boy, so cute and so sweet, thinks girls are stinky and not a treat.

This little girl in order to feel good - was given a princess dress and she finally understood.

She could play near them and not care what they liked, because she was beautiful and they were just things that went bump in the night.

Patrick gets a haircut

The End Result



Halfway through



Before the great chopping!!

Patrick has been begging me to Buzz cut his hair since November. Well, today was the day. He is so happy about it, but still doesn't understand why I didn't do it sooner...Kids!!

Old High School Dance Picture

Oh my gosh...a friend of mine found this picture in his High School stuff. It makes me feel old. But I love it!! Just wanted to share it with everyone.