Nick Had A Great Day

Yes, you saw it first. Nicholas had a great day in school yesterday and got all of his work finished in school. That is his first totally good day in school in weeks. We are hoping for another today, but I must say he was rather crabby when he left for school, so that does not bode well. It has been suggested tyo us that he may possibly have some sort of mood disorder. We will talk to his psychiatrist about this when we see him next week. Nick's skill builder, Ken, came yesterday after school and they went up to "High Hurtles", which is where Nick went last November for therapeutic horseback riding. We have signed both Brad and Nick up for 6 weeks of therapeutic horseback riding beginning April 8th. This date is also highlighted on my calendar because it is the day my brother Joe is turning 50. Joe and I are only 10 1/2 months apart in age so from April 8th until May 26th we are the same age. Needless to say it is a great feeling that I won't be alone now being 50! LOL

The virtual magazine I mentioned yesterday, which features all kinds of recycled items notified me that my "Spring Break" bag was one of todays featured recycled items. Here is the addy if you would like to take a peek. There are some really clever items featured on there. The one that impressed me the most was the bag made out of orange construction fencing which was recovered from fields and abandoned buildings. Take a look. http://www.artsyrubbish.com/

It must be my day to get some of my work featured, because I noticed that the CABTeam featured "Blimey Limey" items today. Two of my bags were featured today in this catagory. There are other really cute lime colored bags and pouches featured in this post. http://www.carriedawayteam.blogspot.com/

I wonder if any of my readers have been watching the new t.v. show "Castle" which is on ABC on Monday nights at 10 pm. We have been faithfully watching it and really enjoying it. It is about a famous mystery author who has teamed up with the police to gather information for his next book. His presence in not appreciated by the women detective he is shadowing. Castle jumps in and helps solve the cases. Very good show. If you haven't seen it, you might want to watch it next week. :o)

Tired

Just let me begin this post by saying that it is not a great idea to stay up until after 1 am reading a book, no matter how good the book is, when you have to get up at a little after 6 am. Ugh, boy am I tired. LOL

Rachel decided to head back to college this morning in time for her first class. I was wrong by the way, the ice cream place does not open on April 1st like I stated in a another post, I think it is the 18th. Anyway, Rachel won't be home this weekend because she has to work at Old Navy. I think she got some hours at the day care this week too.

I got an interesting e-mail this morning from someone who has a virtual, magazine publication devoted to recycling. She wanted to know if she could have my permission to put one of my creations in her magazine. I told her I would be honored to have the "Spring Break" bag viewed in her publication.

Nick had quite a few melt downs yesterday. I sure wish we could figure out why he goes off the deep end so easily. Today is the second day in a row that Brad has not earned Game Boy time. Some days he can keep it together and other days he just doesn't. I am looking forward to starting "The Ticket Game", with the boys. We are still working out the details plus we forgot to buy a roll of tickets when we were at Walmart. Other families who have used this game have said it is the best behavior modification tool they have ever used and how well it works. We have to pick about three target areas that each boy needs to work on. We decide ahead of time how many tickets each skill is worth. If Bradly gets 5 tickets for instance on Monday for bringing home his agenda from school with the correct signatures and assignments and he forgets on Tues., then he owes us 5 tickets. We will have a chart featuring what can be purchased with the tickets they will be saving. It can be things like so many tickets to pick and watch a movie, or so much time on a video game, or a trip to the dollar store to make 1 puchase or even an hour at the park, ect. Each child will have a contract to sign and have imput into what behaviors we chose to target. As they achieve control in some areas we can add another. Steve and I have to be totally dedicated to this plan too and be sure to carry through. We are hoping the tickets and prizes will be enough to get some of the negative behavior under control.

As I mentioned yesterday, we were shopping around for a game system so we could get a Guitar Hero" game for the kids to play (maybe us too). We got a great deal on Ebay yesterday and purchased a brand new Wii which comes with 2 controllerS and 2 numchucks which normally only comes with one of each. This bundle has the console, plus the 5 sports games (bowling, tennis ect), as well as the 9 game disc and the Wii fit package. It also has a Mario game with 2 wheels. We are quite excited about getting this and plan on setting it up in our spare downstairs bedroom. We are hoping that earning tickets to play on the Wii will be a very positive incentive for the boys. Rachel is quite psyched about the Wii fit program and I am going to try to do some of the exercises too. I think this will be something nice for the whole family. When everyone is home for holidays and such, they will have a lot of fun playing "Guitar Hero" I am sure. :o)

The Glasses are a Battle

Well, the novelty has worn off and we are having problems getting Nick to wear his glasses. He gets mad and doesn't treat them very well. If he breaks them I fear I will really come unglued..LOL He is wearing them now and sad to say I had to bribe him with gummies and the promise of more later if he keeps them on. That probably makes me a bad mother, but I am hoping the more he wears them he will get used to them and we won't have these problems.

I am shopping around for a WII or an Xbox 360. Yes, I have surprised myself, but I would love to get "Guitar Hero" for the family. I started thinking about how much the boys would love it, and truthfully Steve and I would probably have fun with it too. Rachel plays alot with her friends and Megan and Scott love playing it too. If we got a WII we would also be able to do other things like bowling ect, which would be good excercise. Mmm...decisions, decisions. Anybody have any thoughts on this, I would love some imput from those who have either of these game systems.

Puppy potty training is not going well. Yesterday she didn't have many accidents, but already this morning she has had quite a few. It is depressing. The trainer where Megan works says they should be pretty well trained by 14 weeks with just a few minor accidents. She is now 12 weeks, so we keep telling her she only has two weeks left to get her act together..LOL

We are having strip steak and a large chef salad for dinner. For breakfast we had vanilla yogurt sweetened with Splenda and I added some banana slices and slivered almonds. Following this eating plan has really become a way of life, but I do not fool myself about how easy it would be to fall off the wagon considering how many times that has happened int he past. :o)

Up Early

Can you believe that it is the weekend and both boys are still sound asleep, but I am up at a little after 7 am because the puppy wanted to get up and whined until she got to get up. Now maybe some of my readers (like my mother) think that staying in bed until 7 am is sleeping in, but I do not. It doesn't seem like Saturday unless I get to stay in bed until at least 8 am. Oh well, at least all this peace and quiet is very nice.

Yesterday I did finish the custom order I was working on and I must say it turned out really cute. I sent a pic to the customer and she loves it. I hope to be shipping that purse out today, plus the second place winner of the "Big Bag of Luck Giveaway", has chosen my shop to pick her prize from. She has to let me know what she wants and I will ship her bag out today too.

Today I want to get some cleaning done and I am hoping it will be nice enough to take the kids outside for awhile. Yesterday was beautiful and it sure would be nice if today would follow suit. We got a note from Nick's teacher that he did get angry and threw his new glasses across the room a couple of times yesterday. The glasses are fine, but we need to get him to leave the glasses out of his anger issues since we really can't afford to have to buy him another pair. I let him leave them off after school because he said his ears were a little sore from the glasses. I know it will take a while to get used to them.

Rachel got home from Megan's house a little before 10 pm last night. They had a great time together. Now Rachel is here until Sunday evening or Monday morning at which time she has to go back to school. She will be done in May, but she will be home weekends from now to then as "SMILES" ice cream shop is opening April 1st. She has committed to work there 40 hours a week this summer and weekends until she is done with school. Rachel started working at "SMILES" when she was still in high school. The owners love her and visa versa, so they are always thrilled when she says yes to working for them another summer. We enjoy taking the boys and getting a treat while she is working. This won't interfer with our diet as they sell sugar free ice cream and toppings. By the way, I lost another pound yesterday when I weighed. :o)

The Weekend is Upon us

It would be wonderful to have a good weekend with the kids. Today was "Career Day" for Bradly so he had to dress up for school today. Thankfully his dress pants and sweater vest still fit him. He did have to wear his sneakers though because his dress shoes were too small. He looked quite nice when he left for school today. This is Nick's first day at school wearing his glasses. I did some pre-teaching this morning concerning what will he do if someone makes fun of him or if someone gives him a compliment. We practiced because I would hate for him to have one of his melt downs if some child makes fun of him as kids love to do. Both boys got to take ice cream money today. Friday is the only day that the teacher allows Nick's class to buy ice cream.

I got my new bag listed last night. I just love this smaller size of the same bag that I made for myself. I like the smaller version better. Hmm....maybe I should have 2 purses for Spring..LOL Anyway, I am going to get my custom order done today and hopefully get it shipped tomorrow. I find it quite relaxing to work in my studio.

Rachel will be returning from Megan's tonight. I talked to both girls last night and it sounds like they have been having a nice time together. It makes me so happy that our kids are close, and I hope they will always stay that way. We talked to Steven and he has a new job. He is working for Customs unloading trucks. He sounded quite tired and said he was unloading 40 pound boxes of pineapple onto pallets as well as boxes of tuna and many other things. It was hard on the back, but it is a good paying job and he is hoping that down the road it could work into a better job with Customs. A new job will postpone the trip home he was planning for the middle of April. I told him I would love to come and see him but I can't even imagine a road trip that long with the boys. Steven said it would be great because we could see him and Uncle Eric and Aunt Kathleen and then we could swing through South Dakota on the way back and visit Uncle Joe and his family. It sounds like a great plan, but doubtful it will happen. :o)

Ugh...Mud and Rain

I am in need of more sunshine!! This rain is so depressing and the mud is awful. I hate when the kids and the dog trail mud into the house. Well, I guess it could be worse and be snow. At least the rain and mud mean that we may get some Spring weather soon.

Nick got the cutest glasses. He looks adorable in them. I hope that he will be able to read and write better and that school becomes less frustrating for him. We are just hoping and praying he doesn't break them during one of his meltdowns. He is so excited about them and he picked the glass case he wanted. He says he will take very good care of them....I sure hope he does.

I finally worked in my studio today. I got the cutest purple, turquoise and black skull purse finished. I will probably list it later tonight. This is smaller than the others of the same basic pattern. A customer wanted one of these bags, but made smaller. This was my practice one and I think it turned out so cute. I figured a way to add a closure to this one. I love my bag that is like this, but wish it had a way to stay closed. I think I am going to do this same procedure and add one to my bag. Hopefully I get to work on the custom order tomorrow and get it shipped on Saturday.

I need to go make a cottage cheese salad for dinner. This is a "South Beach" friendly version of a recipe that my Aunt had when I was growing up. I converted it and it is healthy and delicious, but you feel like you are having something you shouldn't have. To make this salad just take 16 oz container of 1% cottage cheese, 1 3oz. pkg. sugar free dry jello (we like orange), and a 12 oz. tub of light coolwhip. Just mix it up and store in fridge until ready to eat. This is the only way I like cottage cheese, unless it has pineapple in it. :o)

Busy Couple of Days

Nick's appointment at the eye doctor was quite revealing. It seems that Nicholas does not see good close up at all, and he sees far away better, but not as well as he should. We have a prescription for glasses that he has to wear all day and an appointment for three months to go back to the eye doctor. I guess with kids they start with a prescription only half as strong as they need. The doctor said that if they were the right strength the kids would probably fall on the floor when he wore them and never wear them again. This way it is a gradual increase and easier for them to get used to. We are hoping that once he can see properly, he will have less frustration doing school work and therefore less behavioral problems.

Today we went to Red Lobster for lunch and used our Christmas gift certificates. Rachel went also as she was headed to Canada to spend a couple of days with Megan and Scott. We really splurged and got the "Ultimate Feast", which consisted of a small Maine lobster tail, crab legs, shrimp scampi and deep fried shrimp. I got asparagus instead of baked potato and I had a garden salad (and didn't eat even one crouton :o)). We each ate the one cheesy garlic roll that we had agreed we could eat. It was an awesome meal and we really enjoyed it. Rachel got the same thing she has gotten since she was like 6 or 7 years old. She got popcorn shrimp and french fries and a garden salad. We had a great time. From there Rachel went to a few stores and then headed north. We headed to Joann Fabrics. :o) :o) Steve found the cutest fabric with little wiener dogs and it was on sale 50% off....I couldn't resist since the little dogs looked just like Karli. The notions wall was 40% off so I go some new pins and some magnetic purse closers plus I got some thread. And yes, I got some other fabric that was on sale.. When you can get half off from fabric, that is the time to buy. I really didn't intend to buy fabric, but what can I say...I am a bit addicted to fabric :o)