miss, hit, sunk ...

One of my favorite things about weekends is the time we have to slow down and play. Saturday afternoon, Jaiden challenged me at several games. He loves to play any games but this particular afternoon it was two rounds of Sorry with me losing both times and one very intense thinking of locating each other's battleships!

sewing bug...

I have been doing a bit of nothing lately or so it feels like it. I sort of feel like the dog that continues to chases and barks at its own tail sometimes... thankfully I don't bark but I do run in circles more than I would like. And similar to last year's new year's resolution, I want to be organized. I want to stop having more ideas and doing nothing with them. Or worse, starting the idea only to never finish it. I want to get rid of the UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) in my life. I want to create and I have the bug to create - to sew or as Alyssa and I now say 'mama said sew!'  

For the past two weeks, I kept looking for a small laptop bag to put my Mac in for when I go to the Apple store for one of my classes, or maybe I want to take my laptop to a scrapbook weekend... hmmm, haven't done one of those in .... 2 years or has it been 3? Yikes! Guess I will add that to the resolutions on-going list. I wasn't, of course, looking non-stop but anytime I was in a store I'd check to see if there was anything I fancied. I did spend a considerable amount of time on ebags.com looking at some lovely and fashionable bags, and then last weekend it bit. I could just make one. One that I fancied. I had no pattern and came up with the best plan I thought would work for me. I decided to opt for no zipper because I hate sewing those and I needed some handles but not too long. I also opted for no pockets because I want it to be easy and light, not something I can load up with more stuff so here is what I came up with.

Upright, which obviously it won't sit like this with the computer in it, or maybe it would but I am not going to try. I didn't think through the handles until I was already in the middle of it and went with an off-black scrap I had left over from a cute spidey centerpiece (did I show you that?) I did last October. If I had thought it through better, I could have got a nice deep gray but in person, I love how the off-black looks and I am glad to have used up the scrap!

This photo has the computer in it, not that it matters but you can also see how thin it is and not that I type this, I wonder if I shouldn't include this photo. Mom or Betty might notice I didn't match the pattern on the seams... oops! 

Looking in. I love the lining. It has a bit of shimmer to it but it is the perfect color somewhere between aqua and light blue. I think I should have bought the whole bolt.

And it wouldn't be a good post if I didn't share a little love! Love from Alyssa!

I stepped away for a minute and was going to post this entry when I came back, I had this lovely little heart with an angel on my keyboard. I love, I adore how she does these little drawing and leaves them all over the place for me to find. I hope this phase doesn't pass for a long, long, long time.

check plus

Wow, I think this may be the lowest amount of posts in a month, I am really sorry about that. I have thought of it many, many times but I obviously haven't come here in awhile. So today's story is actually a bit of a story that covers the past few weeks... it all started January 8th when Jaiden and I sat down to do the last part of his homework... the really hard part.

The really hard part involved writing how to solve an equation and then drawing how you solved it. I will spare the details of that but to say the least we managed to muddle through it with only a few tears... and Jaiden thought my way of doing it was easier than the way his teacher had taught him so this was good. Homework... check.

Then January 9th, Jaiden came home from school elated and talking a mile a minute about how he got 100% on his math test all because of mommy's trick. Not only did he get an EC ticket but he got a lollipop and only 5 kids got 100% and he was the only boy and everyone clapped for them. Needless to say, we were very excited for him yet I wondered what was my trick?! So Dennis asked and Jaiden said "mommy's trick was to draw out how I solved the problem first and then write out step by step how I solved it." Hmmm, that sounds like a good trick but it wasn't really meant to be a trick just an easier way to approach the problem!

Next week, the exact same thing happened and he again said it was because of mommy's trick (yeah, go me! ;) hee hee) so here is those beautiful tests posted on his school work bulletin board at home.

Aren't they beautiful?

Then today in Thursday's folder, I opened up to find these...

WOW! 8/8, 15/15, 5/5, 7/7 and 10/10 and two check pluses!! 

Go Jaiden go!

ps. we still have a few tears over homework but his confidence is high!

finally...

it is official... Alyssa joined the two wheel club! Despite the fact that she has had her training wheels off since last December (2010, see this post), she required me to have my hand on her back at all times. She's been riding on her own for several months but the minute I would remove my hand, she'd scream, veer off and then crash in the grass. This week we did it!

She graduated on her own and just like her brother, it was only a matter of time that she gained the confidence to zoom around with me running to keep up... mind you, I am not a runner nor do I want to be! But today, after 3 days on her own, she allowed me to grab the camera and photograph, which I must add is difficult when running after her. I have several more photos to share but we are off to Granny Suze's for a slumber party and I really wanted to share this!

More later...

big sister watching?

This morning, as I was doing computer work for this salary survey, Alyssa was sifting through my tin of buttons. We had a short little conversations about the buttons and how many she might need. Then silence. Then the following conversation...

Alyssa: Mommy, I have a good idea for my dollhouse!

Me: What is it?

A: I am going to install spy cameras in case anyone is smoking.

story nory

Once upon a time, there was a princess who was walking along and wanted to plant a seed. She planted it and then a long flower grew right up. A bee came to suck the honey. She was like "oh no, this summer we are never going to have honey. Oh bee, oh bee... give us some honey please. And could you please come down here I need honey for my family." And then the bee gave her honey and she put it into a jar and then she climbed the flower and saw a giant. And then the giant snatched her away from home. Then the kind was coming to get the princess for breakfast and then the bee told him the giant snatched the princess. The king was very upset by the giant and the giant got a big spanking. And she was saved by the king. She ate her breakfast with honey. She loved the honey. The End.

 Alyssa's work space in the office. This is where she sat, colored, drew, cut out, and created her story boards while I worked this afternoon. It was so sweet and then she interrupted me briefly to tell me the above story. It was just enough for me to type fast enough to capture this story.

This next photo is what we did yesterday afternoon...

... walking her new "bionicle dog", Sweetie. I think it took 30 minutes to walk the block but Alyssa was entirely content.