We finally caved

After years of telling our kids that we will not buy them things on infomercials, from AquaGlobes to the Vidalia Onion chopper. From the Gold Claw to sending our gold to some stranger in the mail. We have purchased Mighty Putty. They are delighted. They even wanted their picture made with it! We are going to save the world with this stuff!

Your tax dollars at work, folks

Yeah, but can your kid do THIS?

What's going on???

I have been so bad about blogging for the past month. What have we been up to at the Patterson house? Well...

SCHOOL
The kids have been in school for 6 weeks now and we are settling into our routine. Tyler has more homework this year and fights it...he loves his free time after school. He has a really great teacher that is really encouraging his creative writing and we are loving reading the things he writes. I laugh so hard when I read his journal that I cry, but only after he goes to bed. Emily is loving kindergarten and being at big school. She thinks she runs the place and is always telling us stories about how she runs errands for her teacher or who she sees in the hall. She writes her sight words countless times everyday and keeps us in stitches singing songs that she has learned.

I am in my 5th week of school. I have a smaller class this year and that has taken some adjusting. Plus, we don't have anywhere near the strong personality clashes that we had last year. Very little drama, that's for sure. I am really getting to know the kids and love them dearly. It is such a sweet, easy group. I do struggle with being away from home, though. I stayed home for 6 years. I worked very hard during those years with embroidery and sewing, more so than I work now, but it is just different. I just want to come home and crash after school, but I can't! I always feel rushed and like nothing is entirely done, like the laundry. I have Mondays and Fridays off, so that is nice. I try to stay at home one of the days and run errands and eat lunch with the kids the other one. I don't know what the answer is to me feeling this way, but I do feel that I need to be teaching at this point in my life.

CHURCH
Brent and I have moved from teaching the teens on Wednesday night to being small group leaders on Sunday morning. I have the 10th grade girls and I just love them. I am partial to them anyway, since they have been my favorite group since they were in the 6th grade. I know I am not supposed to have favorites, but I do. We are loving our new preacher, who is like a breath of fresh air for us!

SEWING
I am missing sewing. I am making some dresses for Em for the fall and winter, but she is just getting too big for the cutesy stuff I used to do for her. And I just don't have time to sew like I used to when I stayed home. Kathy had her sweet baby boy 3 weeks ago and I sewed up a storm for him, so I did get a little fix this month!

WEDDING
Oh my word, I totally forgot this sewing project. I am reconstructing a dress for Emily to wear in Becky's wedding. We had picked out a ready made dress online, but I found a dress at the clothing sale. It just called to me! I have no idea how old it is, but it was very dated. It is ivory raw silk with a smocked bodice. It had red bouillon roses on the bodice when I bought it. It had a big lace collar that I have removed and I also but out all of the bouillon roses and am in the process of hand embroidering dark purple flowers in the place of the red roses. I still have not decided if I am keeping the sleeves or not. I need to try it on Em again and see what I think. Plans are going well for the wedding. We met with the florist Monday and that was the last of the really big things to take care of. We have flowers, pictures, dresses, a cake, a church, and a preacher. Everything else is just a bonus!!! Showers are about to start and that is the fun part!

NO SOCCER OR DANCE
We made the decision last spring that this fall there would be no extracurricular activities. That has been wonderful. We are all at home together at night after crazy days out in the world. We do miss some aspects of it, but we have enjoyed the break so much.

Do you bloggers ever hit a blog wall? I am a big "night thinker" and I lay in bed at night and just think about things. I am always thinking about things that I could blog about, but then when I have time to sit down at the computer, I just don't feel like blogging. Maybe I need to have subjects to blog about like Danna. Any ideas?

Internet woes

We have been without the internet for a few days so I haven't updated. Now that I can blog, I have nothing to blog about.

Is it odd to you...

...that we both do this when someone puts a camera on us? Some sort of genetic flaw perhaps?

The party

To celebrate his birthday, Tyler had 2 friends spend the night and then we went to Incredible Pizza for lunch on Saturday. Here are some shots of all the fun.

I have an 8 year old?

How it is possible that this child is 8? Wasn't it just yesterday that he was my big-blue-eyed, shiny-bald-headed, knee-sock-wearing baby boy? He was up at 6:20 today, so ready for his birthday. He got to open Emily's gift, which was a goldfish Webkinz. He named it Swimmer, but spelled it Swimer when he registered it. He doesn't get his bad spelling from me! He also doesn't get his crazy math skills from me either...he is a whiz at math. Brent's got him doing some pre-algebra stuff, and he LIKES IT. He is such a good boy. We went and ate lunch with him today and he just sat there and chowed down on his Happy Meal while wearing the goofiest birthday crown I have ever seen, just hugging and kissing all over us. He doesn't care what anyone in the world thinks...he's just his own person.

On a side note, Brent and I snuck the kindergarten hall to peek in to see what Emily was doing. I promise, the door was opened 1 inch and somehow she saw us. Mrs. Driskill was in the middle of teaching and Emily yells out, "CAN I GO SEE MY MOM AND DAD?"

Leg, anyone?

I have a weird problem with eating meat off a bone. I grew up eating fried chicken, but somewhere in my adult life, I developed a yucky feeling about this. I vividly remember the first time I saw someone at Magic Kingdom gnawing on a giant turkey leg. That just repulses me. Now I have a new spine-tingling image burned into my mind. As I was leaving Sam's this afternoon, I looked over at a family sitting at a table. They actually had gone back to the rotisserie and bought a chicken and were sitting right there in the Sam's food court dividing their spoils. I nearly died.

Military BRATs

I had the opportunity to meet 2 girls today at church that are Navy BRATs. I don't run into many people in this area that are, so we had a nice little talk. (These were teens visiting our church this morning and just happened to be put in the small group I was leading.) The opening question for our group this morning was "To understand me, you need to know___________." At first it seemed we had lots in common. The older of the sisters started out by talking about moving lots, etc. and I really related to her. But the more she talked, I realized how bitter she was. She very much had the attitude of "Why bother with anything? It will all change." Granted, her family moves tons more than I ever had to, but it really took me by surprise. I have been thinking about my experience in the military and how it shaped me.

Although my dad was in the Navy when I was born, he took a few years off and then reenlisted when I was 6. We moved from Alabama to Pensacola. We stayed there for 2 years, then moved to Charleston. We were there for 5 years, then moved to Huntsville, which was home anyway...just a lucky break. We got to stay in Huntsville for 5 years, then moved to Memphis. I got to experience finding the joy in all situations. While I learned to mourn old friendships, I also learned the art of making friends quickly. I learned how to visit churches and find a church home. I gotten to see worship in all kinds of places, and see the differences in churches, and appreciate those differences. I have friends all over the country. I think our family was closer than some, because in some instances, we were all we had at times. It is pretty easy for me to be out of my comfort zone, because I had to do it so much. I am so thankful for the opportunities it gave me growing up. We never lived on base or went to base schools, and I feel that probably made my experience more positive than some.

I hated leaving friends and church homes, but it made me cherish every moment that I have in all situations. I hope that is the difference between those girls I met today and me.

Cha-Cha-Changes...

Kindergarten has brought about many changes with Emily. Some I love, some...not so much.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT KINDERGARTEN
1. The baby talk Emily did all summer has stopped.
2. Tyler is more eager to share his day since Emily shares hers so openly.
3. I really like the new kindergarten curriculum...and I can already tell
Emily is learning lots more than she would with the letter books.
4. Her confidence is improving each day.
5. She has made friends quickly.
6. She really likes to buy her lunch, unlike her brother.
7. Tyler and Emily miss each other so much during the day that they can't wait
to be back together at the end of the day.


THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT KINDERGARTEN
1. New phrases, such as "She was all up in my face." Nice.
2. Bows are for babies.
3. Shirts with an applique that match your shorts are forbidden.
4. The kids' lunch schedules are an hour and a half apart...no going to eat with both of them.
5. Emily sharing her mom's opinion openly with all that will listen. (Concerning Bratz, immodest dress, etc.)
6. I miss Emily being with me all week long. My ride to and from work is so quiet!


All in all, we are having a great experience with school for both kids. Macon Hall is a great school and we are so thankful to be a part of it.