Last night Lindsay and I had a spur of the moment Mommy-Daughter date to the movies to see G Force. Save your money and wait until it comes to the dollar theater or even to video. I hate it when I spend full price for a crummy movie. The previews made it look really funny and there were a few good parts but mostly it was a typical, predictable kid movie. Darn it!

I had a great time with Lindsay though. We sat almost to the top of the theater, not because it was full my any means, but because then we had a full view of the whole room. I think that Lindsay was a bit bored too because she kept leaning over to tell me little things that had nothing to do with the movie, like that Jaede'en's glasses broke, that they had a lot of speakers in the room, that she had to go to the bathroom, etc.

On the way home she fell asleep in the car and I, being a nice mom, carried her into the house. I don't know how much longer I can carry her. She weighs 72 pounds. When did my little babies get so big?

Camping near Featherville, ID with the Browers

This picture cracks me up. No, Justin is not sending a text, he's taking a picture.

Lindsay and Bailey were prefectly content riding around and around and around the campground on the 4-wheelers.

Dennis and Rachel (hiding behind Aubrey)

Tyler was dying to be one of th big kids and really wanted to ride the motorcycle. It was a little big for him and Dennis was a bit worried that he was a bit young but in less than 5 minutes he had it down and rode all over the place. What a go-getter!

The Browers had rigged up this bathroom with a tarp and an old bedside commode. This is Justin using the facilities with the door (aka tarp) open.

And he emerges with his riding gear still on!

JJ taught Lindsay how to drive the 4-wheeler and she loved every second of it!

The kids and I were walking down the their "beach" to see what they'd been up to and as we got closer we realized that the sheep hearders in the area had tied up their horses right at the spot where you can get to the river. The horses were tied up but the donkeys were not. When we got closer to them the donkeys came up the bank and stood like this on the trail. I thought it was interesting how they stood blocking the road. I guess that must be part of their job.

Looking across the river you can see some of the ga-zillion sheep that had.

Sage, Savannah and Paige were practically inseparable the whole weekend.

The kids spent lots of time catching these teeny tiny fish out of the creek.

My Sagie

It was so hot and the water was the perfect temperature to cool off in. Looking back it was a little dumb to walk in the river with our camera but I got some cool pictures. Too bad we didn't remember our fishing poles or we would have spent a lot more time playing in the water. When we got home JJ put them in the trailer so we wouldn't forget!

My girls are just so darling...especially when Lindsay's in a funk.

My girls...Take 2. We only got a partial smile out of LouLou.

The sheep fought their way to the water.

This was only a small portion of them. There were TONS!!

I think that one was looking at me!

My darling Sage and her favorite pose

Our campfire

The girls were roasting marshmallows and Starbursts.

Savannah packed away more marshmallows that I ever thought humanly possible. On Friday night she ate a whole bag and on Saturday she stopped at 21.

My hunky.

Me and Bug (notice I'm not even wearing scrubs...Go Mom!)

Dennis, Aubrey and Justin (wearing his mama's shirt)

We had a really great time even though it was so hot. It was nice to get away from town for a while and we all enjoyed riding on the Brower's 4-wheelers, especially Lindsay. That would be a very fun investment. JJ and I went on quite the ride with Dennis and Rachel. We probably road about 20 miles but the view was awesome. I forgot to take my camera but Rachel took a picture of JJ and I overlooking a really beautiful valley. When she sends it to me I'll post it too!

I have a really cool video of the sheep actually crossing the river but I'm having a hard time getting it to upload (it's a big file). I'll keep working on it and hopefully I can get it to work.

This was our first trip away in the tent trailer and even though I thought we'd never make it driving between Boise and Mt. Home on the freeway we had a great time. I learned how to drive with a trailer, which is something I've never done, and I even drove the whole way home. JJ was very patient with me even though I probably drove him completely batty. I am very neurotic when it comes to freeway driving without a trailer, so you can imagine how nervous I was with, but he didn't say a word and was very patient with me. It was good training for next weekend when we head to our family reunion in Eastern Idaho.

Sagie and her friend J.

Sage had a friend over last week and they came up with a cute little skit. I made them do it a second time so I could capture the moment! It doesn't have much of a plot but it had us laughing hysterically. Enjoy!

Interesting Tidbit - Part II

Gastric uclers mimick severe constipation.

Just an interesting tidbit....

We have learned that constipation in children can oddly mimmick appendicitis but happily the child is on the mend..... :)

My Three Fat Quarter Purse (and tutorial)

Here's my new purse that I made out of 3 fat quarters that I already had lying around the house. I'll show you how easy this was to make. It takes no pattern, only minimal skill and an hour or so. Here's a tutorial, please excuse the typos and my nasty ironing board.

First I chose 3 fat quarters. I'd actually purchased these last year intending to make an apron out of them but that never happened.

First unfold and iron the 3 fat quarters so they are nice and flat. The chose which you want for a lining, which for the handle and which for the outside of the bag. I used the flower print for the outside, the brown stripped for the inside, and the brown polka dot for the handles.

Then you take the whichever pieces are the outside and the lining and place them good sides together. You might need to square them up a bit so that the sides are even, forming a rectangle. Then you will need to stich down the long sides and then turn and press it. It makes a tube at this point with the lining on one side and the outside on the other.

Next, find the center point of each of the short sides and iron a small crease. Then place two pleats facing in (or toward the crease you just ironed). I measure or anything I just eyeballed this part. You will need to pin the pleats and repeat this on the other end. Then run a quick stich down each end to hold the pleats in place.

Now onto the trim on the top. You will need to cover up the raw ends that you just stitched. For this part I took the third fat quarter and beginning on the long side, folded it over about 2" and ironed it down. Then I cut it so that I had one long strip 2" wide but doubled over. Then I folded the wrong sides in, ironed and folded the whole thing in half so that I had 1 piece of make-your-own bias. I repeated that because I need two, one for each end.

Now you will need to fit the bias tape over the raw ends.

I basically worked from the middle out and then cut and tucked the ends of the bias tape under and pinned them in place really well. Do this for both ends.

Then I repead the steps for the bias to make the handles. My handles are approximately 1-1/2" wide but I really just eyeballed it again. Working on the long side of the fat quarter, fold of the fabric so that it's double the width you want for the handles and cut it. Remember that it's folded in half so it's actually 4 times as wide as your finished handle will be. Cut two and then run a straight stitch down each side really close to the edge so it's really neat and tidy looking.

Then I zig-zagged down each end 3 times so that it won't fray. This end will be exposed inside the purse. I'm sure that there's a better way to do this but I don't know how.

Now you need to pin the handes on to the inside of the bias tape that you just attached. Make sure that they are even on both sides and make sure that they aren't twisted.

Here's a picture of the inside of the bag after I pinned the handles on.

Run a stitch down each side of the bias to finish off the top and attach the handles. I ran mine really close to each edge (top and bottom) to match the handles. This is what it looks like now. Sorta like a water balloon sling eh? Hehehe

Lastly, I ran another seam up each side of the bag, working really close to the edge and stopping when I got to the bias (only because my machine is weak and won't sew through that many layers). Here's a close up picture of where I stopped the seam up the side.

And here's a close up of the side stich.

This was seriously easy and totally cheap! Enjoy and if you make a bag, send me a picture!

NeoBudget

Over the last several months I've been using a great online tool to manage our finances and we are saving more money than ever before. It's called NeoBudget. Check it out! http://www.neobudget.com/

It's an amazing computer-based envelope budgeting program (which sounds way more complicated than it is). It's super affordable too ($25/year) and just for sharing the info on my blog I get one month free!

If you have any questions....just ask!