happy halloween

Trick or Treat for us was Sunday for us but my inlaws town goes out tonight so we’ll take Kate. Aleah and I are sick. Isaac is too old for trick or treat so he’ll be handing out candy again. Aleah wanted to hand out candy too. I was bummed that our church didn’t do a fall festival this year. We were looking forward to that for a halloween alternative. ahh well.

As usual we love carving pumpkins. Mine is the owl. Aleah did a skull (yes still pirate fans in this house), Isaac an eye, and Kate the cat sitting on the moon.

Ooh and I just realized, I haven’t shown you all how cute Kate is in her new glasses. She got them last week. She fusses about wearing them but it’s getting better.

Total cuteness!

This is what happened today…

Kate got this bike for her birthday at the end of May. She’s worn down the training wheels and the back tire. We’ve noticed recently that the training wheels are titled in a way that she was really not using them much. We started mentioning to her that she didn’t need them. Put in a plug that her friend Emma doesn’t use them anymore either. That got her interest. ha ha Our house was reroofed the last two weeks and the roofers even told her she didn’t need them anymore. So yesterday Eric had to replace the back tire and we decided to take the training wheels off.

When Eric got home today he took her out to teach her. I decided to grab a snack and come outside with the camera to watch. Before I even got my snack Eric returned to tell me she was done. But she is struggling to get herself started. I’m certain by tomorrow afternoon she’ll have figured it out. She LOVES her bike.

if you like pina coladas…

We were *sort of* caught in the rain today.  The kids had today off from school. That means the house was trashed. sigh… But this afternoon we took a walk to the library. It was so sunny and beautiful. But on the way home, darks clouds began to roll in but never OVER us.  We felt some sprinkles and decided we should hurry but then we passed an evergreen bush with red berries (I just googled this, it’s called an english yew) on it and Kate and I got distracted. We both pulled a berry off. She’s so like me. HA HA And we squeezed them. Let’s just say our new name for them is snotberries eeewwww!  So as we are wiping our hands off we look down the street where we just walked and the rain is pouring down. We get a little sprinkled on but it was quite refreshing. We turn and walk down another two blocks. Turn around again and see the rain followed us again. Just raining where we had walked but not ahead of us. It was such a delightful thing. The kids felt so magical like the rain was walking behind us.

Then we got on a conversation about clouds. I love the way kids think. They were thinking about the feel. Aleah noted that it’s just water. Then Isaac speculated on the taste. Again Aleah pointed out that it was just water so they must taste like water. Kate’s thoughts were cotton candy. And Isaac wishes clouds tasted like vanilla milkshakes. I LOVE taking walks with my kids!

**~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~**

In scrapbooking news… deja vu right?!  Sad to say the Digi Shoppe store is now gone. No end of the month like we were told. Gone.  I still have not made plans.

**~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~**

Drawing class. Who would have thought I’d have more difficulty with the images that aren’t supposed to look realistic than I would doing realistic still life images?! Crazy!  The last two days we’ve had to do contour drawings. We’re not to look at our paper while we draw. It’s really tough to do. My brain wants to see what is going on and I really want to erase!!!  Which reminds me, I’m going to need to buy more erasers. I’m wearing them out fast.  But all in all, I am surviving. Having nightmares of me drawing on HUUUUUGE canvases. But surviving.

look at me posting 2 days in a row ;)

We went to the pumpkin patch last week with Aleah’s girl scout troop. Kate was very agreeable about getting her photo taken and really enjoyed looking at the pumpkins. We compared all the sizes, shapes, and colors. She also enjoys crunching leaves right now. I’m 30 and still enjoy it. I find myself just watching the leaves drift down from the trees so gently. There’s a beautiful bright orange and yellow changed tree across the street. I admire it every year. My favorite season and my husband calls it “death”.  He doesn’t have an appreciation for the seasons that I have. I love snow. I just prefer to think that if we didn’t have winter, we wouldn’t appreciate the warmth and sunshine of spring!

anyway… some photos of K at the pumpkin patch…

*~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~*

In scrapbooking news

Word is getting around that The Digi Shoppe will be closing at the end of this month. Sad and shocking news.   Thank you for all the notes today. I’ve really appreciated your concern. At this time I do not know what I will be doing. I’ve considered no longer designing for a while now. I haven’t put out much. Kind of designers block I guess. I haven’t scrapped much either. School and being  a good mom are keeping me busy. I also feel a need lately to get out of the house more and destress. Love these people but I could really stand to get away.  So, the news is no news. If I make a decision I will post it here.

My best wishes to all the talented designers at TDS!

bossy face

I desperately need to organize my photos. I have about three months of photos needing to be tweaked. I THOUGHT about doing it today and instead decided I’d share a few photos from the kids swimming in August. Sorry, no Aleah because she is going through a phase of not allowing me to take her photo. When I do, she looks miserable! I’ll never get why people who don’t want their photo done will make a real ugly face. yeah… real smart!

So first, I finally got a photo of Kate’s bossy face. She’s a little general sometimes. Get me THAT and NOW.

Isaac on the lobster float. This is the float I told Kate I’d buy her if she’d please OH PLEASE stop screaming and crying at the beach because mommy is really embarrassed! And it turns out she won’t go on it. Oh brother <rolling eyes>

and one more for today as we finally say “see ya next year summah!”

My son is 11!

Isaac turned 11 on Saturday. He’s currently grounded and we let him off restriction for the day. He was happy to watch tv and play some video games after over 2 weeks without! My parents, sister, Eric’s mom, and Eric’s grandma came over to celebrate with us. Dinner, dessert (his request was triple chocolate cake. LOL), and present opening and some games with my family afterward. My family sure can have a blast playing bingo! HA HA I’d say Isaac got just what every boy his age wants for his birthday… a wad of cash, a drill, and money to go buy a new bike!

So eleven years! My kids birthdays always have me reflecting on them as babies. In general, I have no desire to go back to those days. It’s much easier now and I enjoy the things we can do together without crying, diapers, and spit up. Isaac was my easiest baby. He was always so pleasant. He demanded a routine … more like rituals and that was fine since he was my only child to give attention too. He still eats up all the attention he can get!

Some baby facts: He hated to be laid on his tummy. He slept through the night at 5 weeks. He laughed at 11 weeks from Grandma Rachel kissing his tummy. He took his first step at 9 months and was walking within a week. His first word was “rockbye”. He loved to sit in the little kiddie rocking chair and go “rockbye”. He was a pacifier kid and he’d stash one in his crib between the mattress and railing! ha ha

ahhhh… sweet sweet memories!

why it took so long to write…

As I said yesterday, I thought a lot about blogging the last month but just never did. Part of it was I had so much to write and nothing to write at all. Does that make any sense?!

I’ve been reflecting on my life this past month of going back to school. It’s an interesting thing that happened to me. Part of it is mourning. I never planned to go back to school. I really do love being a homemaker. It’s challenging, exhausting, rewarding, frustrating, sad, happy… emotional. It’s a sacrifice I wanted to give to my children. So facing that I’ll be going to work next year when the last of my little birds is off to full time school has just sort of put me in a state of mourning. I know our family needs the help financially and I have hopes of digging us out of our hole and being able to do good things for the kids. But I need to let go of the vision I had of our life with me at home for them.

And a second interesting thing has happened. I’m really reflecting on who I am. My authentic self vs. the person others have shaped me, forced me, and expect me to be.  The honest ugly truth is I daily feel like I am not myself. I do not feel comfort in my own skin. I have lost touch with myself! I live for others not myself. Once in a while I do what I like and makes me happy and all too often I get laughed at for stating my view. Then I think, ok Jen, just be quiet. Just don’t say anything. Just hold it in and wait to be yourself. It’s like there is this internal dialog inside myself that I didn’t even realize was going on. But going back to college has opened this box and inside is my former self. The person I was before I became a wife, mother, fat person, and more responsible. When I graduated high school I fully intended on getting a degree and going out into the career world. I was so excited and optimistic about my life! I dropped out of college after three days when I realized I was not in the program for interior design which was my interest. And then…life happened. I had to go to work because Eric and I were newly married and struggling. And 6 months after we got married, I got pregnant. Please do not read that wrong, I am thrilled with my kids but it changed things. I was sick for years. Eric and I struggle so much.

So I boxed myself up basically! And now I am dragging myself out of the box and memories, hopes, and dreams began rushing out!  And it’s exciting and alarming all at once! I don’t know what to DO with these emotions. I don’t know who I am! ACK

School has me exploring interests of mine. Trying new things. Hopefully finding myself AND the important thing, liking what I find. Standing up for who I am and knowing that it’s ok. I can be my own person.

Lately, my mind is racing.

I don’t know if this means anything to anyone. If you read this far, I’m impressed. I just wanted to journal this for myself. It is what it is.

Remember me?

I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long without blogging since I began 2 years ago.  I thought about it the past month but just never got around to it. I have officially completed my first two classes with The Art Institute online. Let me tell you, you might think going to school online is the easy way out but it’s not. I had assignments due just about daily including weekends and you must read your classmates assignments and respond. Also, you are in a sense teaching ones self. The materials are supplied but I had to read and try new software and techniques out through trial and error. A student tutoring line is available and I’m sure I’ll need it in the future.

This week I began drawing class. What a fright! Before today I’d tell you that I couldn’t even draw a stick person. I did drop out of college the first time on day three because of drawing!!!  HELLO!  ha ha  But our books claim to be able to teach anyone to draw. They say it’s not all about talent. So today I drew my first still life of three simple objects. I had to do two sketches. It honestly wasn’t so bad. A good, easy start.

Ok so in bigger news, Kate started preschool a few weeks ago. it’s only 2 mornings a week. I was bummed about that at first. I wanted to see how she’d do 5 half days a week because next year she’ll be in full day kindergarten. But this might be a good start for her.  I will begin teaching her to read at home this week. She’s really excited and is reading some words already.  In her spare time she is a webkinz junkie (like her mom!). She is on the computer often and I’m amazed at how good she’s gotten at getting around.

More soon!