Sammie and I have been looking at this really neat book called Junk Drawer Jewelry by Rachel Di Salle and Ellen Warwick. We both love making stuff, and she has been into making jewelry a lot lately. This book not only caters to our craftiness, and our love of jewelry – but, also to my ‘hippie-ness’! You make jewelry from things you find around your house, instead of going out and buying a bunch of fancy-schmancy beads and gems and stuff. I just think that is super-cool! (I think that is my new catch phrase – ’super-cool’ – I’ve been saying it a lot lately. Of course, nothing could replace ‘groovy’! Ha!)

We have just recently brought the computer up from the basement and hooked it up to the internet. The kids have basically done without since we moved out here to Alabama. Having them off of the internet was just one less worry – so now I am back to worrying. Luckily, the other computer is right here in the room with me, and therefore, I can keep tabs on them while they surf. The internet can be a wealth of information and learning for them, but, it can also be a very scary place for them. So except for the fact that Patrick likes to close the Blinds sometimes to block the sun, I am really glad that we put the second computer in the same room with mine. I am going to try to do everything that I can to make the internet a fun and educational place for them, but, make sure they stay safe. They are just going to have to deal with “Nosey Mom” or completely give up internet time.

I think that a career in psychology would be very rewarding, and it would be really cool if one of my children decided to go that route. There is a really nice school from which you can get your psychology degree while you are still working – their college was actually designed for working people! It is the Chicago School Online, and yes, you can do distance learning through them. That is a new part of their program that they have implemented this year. The school was started in 1979 by practicing psychologists who wanted to start a not-for-profit training center for those entering the field. The school has a large focus on diversity and multicultural studies, because, they believe that multicultural awareness is so important in psychological therapy. It sounds to me like a really great school and an even better community – and I would just love it if my kids, or one of them, wound up there!

I absolutely LOVE Halloween! We all have so much fun every year – even my hubby! And now we live right next to a neighborhood that goes absolutely Halloween-CRAZY! It is the coolest Halloween neighborhood I’ve ever seen! Just about the whole town is out and about in this neighborhood on Halloween night – we even ran into the kids teachers! And oops! Hubby was going around scaring people with this creepy mask on – and he accidentally scared our daughter’s teacher – it was embarrassing and hysterical all at the same time!

My family and I just love Halloween, though! We always have a total blast that night! And I, for one, always come home that night feeling more connected to my community – in all of the communities that we have lived. That is a cool thing.

And I love Halloween so much that I’ve made four Squidoo lenses all about Halloween!

Check them out:

Kids Love Halloween

Kids Love Halloween Crafts

Kids Love Halloween Parties

Kids Love Halloween Costumes

I am just so excited! I have a friend back in Texas, who I’m sure is already decorating! You should see her house when she gets done with it – it looks amazing! If you’re in Waxahachie, Texas in the next few weeks, just drive down Main Street – you won’t miss it!

I think I’ll definitely ask my husband to get down the Halloween decorations this weekend!

And I’ll be sure to tell you about the great Halloween books I run across, as well!

Some of you know me well enough to know that I love blogging. It is my new passion – I just completely love it!

Well, just this morning, I’ve discovered that Judy Blume is blogging – she has her very own blog on which she, herself, is talking to us, sharing with us, and interacting with us!

Is that cool, ya’ll, or what? She is one of my favorite authors from elementary school! I am totally so excited about this! I mean, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was so much a part of my elementary-school life! A friend and I pretended we were the characters in the book and the books that followed it. We did this for years – we even would tease each other in high school about it! I know he ‘was’ Fudge, but, I can’t remember who I ‘was’. And as my friend became a very accomplished and very handsome young man in our high school years, I took great joy in calling him “Fudge”! (Not to mention, it gave me reason to talk to this now-very-good-looking young man!) I guess I must’ve been Sheila, the neighbor, and star of her own book,
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great. Oh – I just loved that book, too!

And the funny thing is, I was just thinking about my friend, “Fudge”, yesterday! I might have to look him up and see what he is up to!

You can find Mrs. Blume’s blog at: Judy’s Blog And just in case you forget where to find her, I’ll add her to my blogroll here on this site!

And actually, I just noticed that she has comments turned off, so that is kind of disappointing, but, I imagine it would be a full-time, and then some, job, to monitor them. I hope that she will find a way to be able to turn them on, so that we really can interact with her. That would be the coolest!

Now if we could just get Beverly Cleary blogging, my ‘elementary school years’ heart would just be bursting at the seams!

That is what we are supposed to be memorizing tonight. Well, Shawn is supposed to be memorizing tonight. Yikes!

I knew 19. No, that is not – ‘19 of them’ – that is …. number19!

Hey, as far as I can see, that is a REALLY good one to know! And after having seen Iron Jawed Angels with Sammie and having a very good friend with a ‘Women’s Suffrage’ tattoo on her chest – I ought to know that one! (Yes – the tattoo is beautiful!!)

Iron Jawed Angels is such an amazing movie – if you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. I plan on watching it with all my kids again, soon! There are so many things in this country that we all take for granted, and this movie really helps us to connect with the fact that people worked really hard, and even suffered, for us to be where we are today.

The rest of those amendments, though, I’m sorry to say, I just couldn’t recite to save my life! So I’ve been reading over them at Wikipedia – I love Wikipedia! Here’s the link: Amendments to the United States Constitution

There are 27 of those buggers, you know! That’s a lot to memorize! I hope this boy has it down. He seems to really have such an understanding of this type of material – so much better than I – even now – that I think he will have no problem with it.

So, what about you? Do you know the Amendments?

My sweet boys are turning 13 and 14 next weekend, and I can hardly believe it! It really blows me away, that the time went by so quickly! I adore my children, and I love to watch them grow and mature and experience ‘big kid’ life, but, I dearly miss those early years. There is something so amazingly sweet about being pregnant and being the mom of babies and toddlers. It was so hard and physically exhausting, that I had no idea just how much I would miss it, but miss it, I do!

And the slightest thing will set me off to crying and being all sappy (and having a houseful of teens laughing at me!). For instance, yesterday, I was thinking about how I was going to preserve Shawn’s ‘blankie’ that he got when he was still in my belly. It came from my aunt, and she gave it to me at my baby shower for him. And then I was off thinking about my baby showers and how sweet they were! And I was getting sappier by the minute!

Baby showers and first birthday parties – they are so special, and I bet lots of moms out there, just like me, run across an old napkin, or an old decoration – and just swell up with those sweet, loving feelings! Those occasions should definitely be treated very special, so that you can hold on to those memories forever.

A nice place to shop online for such occasions is PartyPail.com.

One of the big reasons that I like their baby shower party supplies so much is that everything is themed together and geared towards helping you preserve the memories. Their packages have various things, but, some of them have baby shower game books, and shower registries, and they match the theme of the party. So this is a great way to preserve your memories of the party. But the coolest part, is that some of them have matching scrapbooking supplies – so you can fully embed that theme in your memories.

This is so cool, because the more ways that you can connect with the party in your memories – the stronger the memories will be. Like with me, I bought Patrick’s first birthday party supplies at a local party store in the town where we lived. And every time we would go in there, for years afterward (for Halloween costumes, party gear, or whatever) I would see that exact same theme of first birthday party stuff, and I would just feel all of those awesome feelings all over again. If I had had something like the products at PartyPail.com, that would be so cool! They just offer you all that many more ways to preserve those memories of that special time! I love that!

I really like the Mod Mom baby shower theme that they have! The sweet, pregnant mama under the pink umbrella is so cute! And the text that goes with it is so sweet:

“Booties and bottles, diapers and pins, this is where the love begins.”

And the cool thing is the way they have bundled some of their products up into ‘kits’, so that you can just buy what you need without having to really think about putting it all together. Then if you need more than what is in the kit, or any extras, you can add those on, too. It can be really confusing trying to plan a party and figure out what all you need. So this extra bit of help you get from their prepackaged sets is awesome!

And they have these party-planning PDF worksheets on their site – for free! That is so cool! So you can just go and print them out, and plan your party like a pro! They have a budget worksheet, a birthday timeline, and a shower timeline. When a company offers free things to customers that are helpful, that is a big plus in my book! I feel honored that Party Pail sponsored this review, so that I could tell all of you about it!

Yesterday afternoon, I was on Skype with one of my favorite bloggy-friends, Loretta. She wanted to share some ‘bookworm-y’ news with me – all about her sweet bookworm, Ethan, and his new favorite book! I love ‘bookworm-y’ news – Loretta sure does know what makes me smile!

Then we got to talking about the book fairs that the schools have and I was telling her how I didn’t really like them, because there are too many ‘trinkets’ on sale. Not to mention, the $30 books that Shawn always picks out! I know, though, with a $30 book he is getting his money’s worth.

Those darn ‘trinket’ combo things drive me crazy! They sell a really cheap toy, and a really cheap book – package them together and then mark the price up, because, you are getting a book and a toy! HA!

And Shawn used to be such a sucker for these! It used to drive me crazy! One time, he bought a combo set that was about airplanes and jets. If it was just a book, that would be awesome for a young boy to get excited about reading! But – he wound up with a really flimsy, cheap-o book, and these little bitty cardboard airplanes! It was awful.

And the thing is, that more and more of these things are making their way into the book fairs. And then the Scholastic team can pat themselves on the back, thinking they are getting kids excited about reading. I have to say, though, I don’t think Shawn – who is a voracious reader – even read that silly airplane book!

Then Loretta and I switched gears a little bit and began discussing the book orders. I told her that I do like those. There seem to be some really good deals in there, quite a bit more than at the book fairs. And I know how much the kids love ordering the books – it is so exciting for them when their books come in!

I remember very well ordering books when I was in elementary school and how totally awesome that was! (I don’t remember if we used Scholastic back then, though – I’ll have to ask my mother if she remembers.) And in the fourth grade, we had a behavior system that was based on points, but, instead of points, you got what we called ‘mula money’. The mula money was little pieces of construction paper with different amounts on them, that we had all helped to make at the beginning of the year, if I remember correctly. And on the week that our book order came in, on that Friday, in the afternoon – if you had enough mula money, you got a special treat. You were allowed to find a comfortable spot anywhere in the classroom that you wanted and read your new books. And – you could bring a snack – any kind of snack. It didn’t have to be healthy. If you wanted to bring a Snickers and a Coke, that was fine! Oh, how I loved those Fridays!! And what a wonderful memory to have!

Back to my Skype chat, though, Loretta and I were still chattering on and on about the book orders and the book fair, when Sammie’s bus pulled up outside the house. She came running in the front door shaking some papers at me, “Momma! I got a book order!” She was so excited, and probably wondered why I was ignoring her. It was because I was so busy laughing and typing to Loretta what Sammie had come in saying! It was so funny!

You guys that have been reading for a while know that just over a year ago, hubby and I loaded up our bookworm clan and moved to Alabama from Dallas – leaving my folks behind.

Well, let me tell you – my folks are the Ultimate Bookworms! And we sure want to be able to keep in touch with them, as easily as possible! I think I may have found just the thing to keep all these bookworms talking to each other! Have a look at this:

Does that not look like the coolest phone ever? I would say that Grandma Bookworm could even read us a story or two on that thing! Totally awesome!

It is a VoIP phone from Packet 8 Internet Phone Service, and they do have another one, but, I really love this one! It’s the Videophone DV326 and I think it would be so much fun! It is almost like, with some of this ‘newfangled’ technology, that the Jetson’s have come to life, isn’t it?

These phones work over any broadband Internet connection, and they save money on the telephone bill, because they are much cheaper than typical landlines. Which, in turn, is another good thing for my sweet bookworm family, as we had our landline cut off months ago – because it was too expensive. And let me tell you, it is no fun dancing through the house spouting, “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” I mean, if I want to dance with my mother, I’ll fly home and dance with her! But dancing with her every night on the cell phone is just not going to work!

The list of features on this phone will just blow you away – the more I read it, the more I want one! It can even be used for surveillance applications! Wow!

It’s very simple to set-up and to use, and I’m pretty sure this will be going on my Christmas wish list – after books, of course!

GO READ A BOOK!

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and I just loved it! Every week when it would come on, it was like I was there with Laura, and it was so amazing – it was such a different time. A couple of years ago, my son started reading the books and became totally hooked on them! And now, my daughter is doing the same thing!

And Sammie is always begging me to take her to see Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. That is the house that Laura and Almonzo and Rose lived in and where Laura wrote all of the books. There is a museum there now, and almost all of Laura and Almonzo’s possessions are there and you can go through and really get a feel for what it was like to live in their time. It would be so cool to show my kids the 19th Century furniture! There is a cypress stump table made by Almonzo. There is a lapdesk that Almonzo made for Laura, in which she had hidden the $100 for the down payment for the Rocky Ridge farm. There also is a clock that Almonzo had given to the family for Christmas, 1886 – that he wound every night before he went to bed.

The more I tell you about it, the more excited I am getting about it! I would so love to take the kids one day, and I sure hope we get to!

GO READ A BOOK!