Pride. . .

I know as a parent, we all think that our own kids are the best. But feeling proud of you children is something they have to earn. I am so very proud of Taite. Last Wednesday he had weigh-ins for football. I think they divide the teams up after knowing the sizes of the kids, which seems fairer than how they did basketball (all the kids on the traveling team were on the same team, which was coached by the guy who put the team together. . .). Chris also said he would help coach and they were telling the guys who volunteered for that that there would be a form coming via some sort of mail and if they really wanted to be a coach, they had to pass the background check ~ sounds good to me!! So, anyway, back to my pride for my son. . . Chris told Taite that to get ready for football, they should start conditioning. So every morning since Thursday, Taite has woke Chris up at 6:30 (today was 7:30 ~ slept in by Chris' request) dressed and ready for their workout together. They both come in sweaty, but feeling good about themselves. Taite asked if he needed to exercise to lose weight, but I told him, his heart and lungs need to work up to the ability to play football for a long time. I know people think we are crazy, but being healthy should be a lifestyle for us and our boys and they're already champs at eating their fruits and veggies. Besides, this isn't any different than if they were having phy-ed at school and it's too easy in the summer in the country to sit in front of the tv (speaking from personal experience). So, I'm proud of Taite's drive and his pride in himself for losing a pound (added bonus) :~) He weighed in at 100.7, which surprised me, but I had no idea what he weighed.

So, obviously I haven't been in on these workouts so you are wondering what I've been doing. (maybe, maybe not, but I'm going to let you know anyway) I've been sewing. I still haven't finished my mini-laptop bag and after looking at it, couldn't believe I put a price on it so high. Anyway, I'm not worried about that ~ I found a new purse pattern and fell in LOVE with it. The pocket on the outside of the bag is like it was made specially for my phone! I also would like to show you what a difference some good matching fabric can do. This is a purse that I threw together but didn't have enough of the main fabric (it's cute coffee fabric). Ever since I finished this bag, I hated it. I hated the color around the top and the handles were too short. I hated to throw it all away because I love the textured black on the bottom (perfect for not showing dirt), so I took it apart all the way back to one of the first steps so I could replace that gaudy fabric on top! So, here is my new bag now. I found some fabric that matched the coffee fabric perfectly (AND I didn't even remember to bring the coffee fabric with me to match it!) and I made some new longer handles and used my favorite stitch on them and now I LOVE this bag and I used it the other day and got a lot of comments on it.

I still don't have a cute name to put on some business cards (in case people comment on my purse ~ I'll give them a card) so if you have something, let me hear it! I just don't want a name that says what I do ~ I want a catchy name and then I will put in the description that I create custom bags and purses. Speaking of custom bags, I also met with Monica about our camera bag adventure. I am psyched to get one of those done and on display :~) (she's also the one who was giving me a hard time about not updating my blog ~ hehe) The most difficult part about creating bags for someone else, though, is trying to figure out the fabric! I pretty much have the plan in my head and on paper of how I am going to construct the bag, but I don't want to put it all together and have her hate the fabric. Oh well, that is an easy enough fix.

This weekend was Byron's Good Neighbor Days. It was a terrible weekend to be so dang cold!!! My cousin, Rhonda, came home for a week so she could go to her class reunion and coming from Hawaii, she didn't have any warm clothes! We found some and sent them over with Sandy so that Rhonda wouldn't have to buy so many, which I was glad to do because I would hate to have to do that! Friday night we went to the parade in town (I got to use my new purse for the first time ~ the new pattern one ~ the old/made new one I used garage saling that morning and got comments!) The boys were upset because we told them we were going to send the large bags of candy they still had from the parade on the 4th to Grandpa's work, so they decided they just wouldn't pick up much candy. The reason we were giving away the parade candy is because sometimes when we are just going over to the office for a short time, they boys are okay to stay home (it's only 2 miles away and they have our phone numbers and the dog I don't think would let anything happen to the boys!). Chris discovered the other day that when the boys are home alone, they've been attacking the gummy worms that they got last Halloween ~ yes, they've been up in the cupboard ~ a lady that dad works with lives at the end of their street and she always has a HUGE bowl of candy for Trick-or-Treater's and they don't get any! Just our boys go down their long driveway and then she always lets them pick from the bowl AND she gets them something special too! One year it was gummy bugs with a light up tweezers thing to eat them with. Well, last year, she got them each one of those huge tubs of gummy worms and sour worms! I mean, these things remind me of when we used to go fishing on Memorial Day weekend (when I was a kid) and at the resorts in the Lodge, they would have candy to buy and you could get like 2 gummy worms for a nickel, well, that's how big the canister thing was that the boys got. So anyway, before I forget my point, the boys had been eating the gummy worms like crazy and they were almost all gone (like within a week or so. . .). Taite said they didn't know they couldn't have them, but when I asked if they ate them when we were home, he said 'no', so then I asked why he didn't eat them when we were home, if he didn't know it wasn't okay. . . no answer.

Last night we took the boys to their first Demolition Derby. They had a blast and LOVED it!!! I took some pictures on my phone and they are supposed to put them on their blog, but I haven't seen Taite smile that much for 3 hours ;~) Chris said he'd like to take them to the races in Kasson sometime, but I said we could camp in Racine and the races are right there OR we could camp up by Elko and go to those races because I've heard they change it up a lot up there and would have other things that would interest the boys. It was very crowded, but the boys thought it was the best thing they had ever been to!

I suppose you are wondering what Brayton is up to ~ playing his GameBoy. On Friday when I stopped at some garage sales, I found GameBoy Games!!! They are so rare to find and then I got a good price on them too. I picked up Yoshi World (Super Mario Bros ~ I thought I'd like to play that one ~ hehe) and Warioland 4 (also another SMB character) for $3 each (these games aren't made anymore and to buy them at Gamestop, they get $20 - $25 each still!!!) And then I found a PayDay, Life and some other board game for the GameBoy for $1!!! This was exciting because Brayton's favorite game to play is Life and I'm the only one who will play with him and I don't like playing that game :~) So now he can play Life anytime he wants!! He was as thrilled as I was LOL

Chris has been busy trying to sell stuff. He decided he wanted to downsize and thought we'd camp much more if we had a pick-up camper with a generator. After discussing it (I still don't think we'd have enough space) I thought it's only fair since I have had my dream camper, he could get his and we'd see which one sucked less (LOL). Our current camper is too long and to get into some campgrounds is impossible (well, not impossible, but it's very trying to get it maneuvered into a spot sometimes). Chris had dreams of driving up to Northern Minnesota and upon finding some inviting spot, just parking it and camping :~) Unfortunately, no one will take our trade in (well, they will, but we might as well look for an old pickup camper and just have 2 for the loss we would take on a trade) and to get the size of pickup camper that is most commonly for sale, we'd have to get a long box truck too :~) Since we had the camper updated with stronger axles and tires (most campers are under-equipt with that and we got Pilgrim to replace ours) Chris has been trying to sell those on CL. EXCEPT, he just found out how cheap steel is, so now he's thinking he will use them and build a trailer. . . It changes almost weekly what he is doing LOL He did decide to buy Greg's old Saturn that was headed for the junkyard and that will be our little beater car ~ well, it'll be Chris' little beater car since he told me he likes not having to worry about being all greasy and dirty after working somewhere and then hopping into a vehicle. I, personally, don't like driving in "work" vehicles because I don't know what the backside of me looks like once I get to where I'm going!!! (Dad's truck is one of those such vehicles) :~)

Well, I suppose, I had better do something productive and I will let you get on with something else in your day too ~ hehe! Hope you have/had a good one!!