*Journey of a WAHM*

I had a most enjoyable “staycation” with the hubby this past week. Our wedding anniversary was Friday. 5 years married and 13 years together. (hubby says it’s 13, but I thought it was 12, lol) Who cares cause it’s doesn’t really matter. So we just had fun around town, just spending good quality time. Amber watched her lil brother so we could go out for dinner & a movie. So we saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice & had Ruby Tuesdays. The movie was AWESOME! I loved it, and was the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. I got my Hoopnotica Travel Hoop, which I love & is so pretty I fear to over use it so it won’t get all scratched up! LOL, so I’m still using my practice hoop, which is scuffed up bad now. But I think I’m getting the hang of it.
Then lil man starts Pre-K on August 4th. I am SOOOOO nervous & a bit sad. I may not get much of anything made the next few weeks until then…but once he does go, I know I’ll be sewing up a storm to make the time pass faster until i have to pick him up from school!

So I admit it, I’ve been having a bit of sewers block for a few weeks now. When I start feeling burnt out on one art, I switch to another to give my brain a break. Later when I go back to sewing it all flows well again. Now most of the time I feel like my brain is overflowing with ideas…random ideas but still so many of them. I keep notebooks around the house so I can try to capture those thoughts down before they are pushed out by yet another one. Some are sewing ideas, some garden, going green, building (architecture), drawing or plans for future projects…yes, I am unorganized in that as well. But they are great for when it does stop and I “need” one of those ideas to get me going. I just flip through until I see something I want to turn from idea into reality. Anyway, this past week I have been back at working with clay. An idea I had a few months ago, and I must say, so far I’m pretty happy with the results. These will be great for any business owner so I think they should sell okay. If not, they will be terrific gifts. Today I’m going to attempt another project, inspired by what I made last night. I’m going to TRY very hard to stock these before the weekend if possible.

My cousin, Danny Louis McGowen is currently at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was blown up by a bomb in Afghanistan almost 2 weeks back now. Another GA solider lost his life that day. He was in hospital in Germany for 5 days before he was stable enough to be moved to the US this Friday. I was told his whole left side is riddled with shrapnel, his face is disfigured, he’s going to required several more surgeries to remove the metal the bomb left. But our family is strong, they are fighters…I know he’s gonna come out of this…he just has to. I mean, to go through all that & live, he’s just gotta make it.
Now, this has mixed reactions (the war) with my friends & family. A majority think- hey, no war, war’s bad (and it is), and my favorite “they knew what they were signing up for when they joined”….well, SOMEBODY has to protect our freedoms, our land, our LIVES…so be glad they decided to.

My 4 year old son has become quite obsessed with the Toy Story movies. I had the original & 2nd movie on VHS from when his sister was little. And now that we’ve seen Toy Story 3- which in this mama’s opinion was really good, even got me a bit teary at the end- we cannot wait for it to come out on video. Then I may get all 3 on DVD. A suggestion though to Pixar & Disney- not all movies have to be 3D, it’s not like little kids are going to wear those giant movie glasses the entire time…think about it. So anyway, Kayden loves him some Toy Story. And why not? It’s got action heros, dinosaurs, parties, adventure…stuff for boys and girls. He got a TS3 shirt from his papa & grandma (my folks have come in for the Independence weekend). He also made his first big purchase- he wanted a Woody doll (I thought he’d want the Buzz, but nope- he went with a cowboy). He’s saved his money to get him, so I cannot complain, though grandma came to save the day since we we’re a few bucks short. I’m not usually into buying mass produced toys, but this one has certainly sparked some new imagination with Kayden. And he starts school in a month. So I’m feeling nervous about that. I’m really glad I’ve took this bit of break to spend the summer with him. There will be time for serious sewing in the fall…

Our dog, Angel, passed away yesterday morning while we were on our way to the vet office. She would have been 10 years old in 2 more weeks. To say I’m emotional right now is a huge understatement. I have been unable to control the little crying episodes over the past 2 days. We all slept most of yesterday. Our other 2 dogs do not seem to have noticed her gone yet and lil man is unable to understand what has happened. There is no other way to express how I feel, I’m so sad that she’s gone, so angry at myself that maybe I should have noticed something sooner. I worked at the vet for years before having Kayden & starting J Tribe.
To tell her story I must also tell of our other dog- When I first saw Angel, she was with her littermates, being “donated” to the humane society I worked at off the back of a pickup truck. Being so tiny, cute and lassie looking- she was the first to be adopted. She was “Wilma” and our dog Bongo at the time was named “Fred”. As you can guess the others were Flintstone names as well, LOL. I adopted Bongo from the shelter as a pup because I grew so attached to him that I didn’t want someone else to get his scrawny goofy looking self. He grew to be a beautiful & extremely intelligent, well trained dog. When he was about a year & half old- “Cassie” was returned by her owners to the shelter because they were moving out of state and could not take her with them. She was also heartworm positive. We adopted her and treated the heartworms. Though she’s had the occasional problem through her life she was a happy dog. A bit shy, LOVED to fetch. I mean, she would fetch all day long when she was younger. It seemed like that anyways. Oh man…I miss her so much. You never know how much pain the loss of something you love can be. Honestly, I don’t feel like don’t much of anything right now…but my folks are down for the holiday, so gotta do that this weekend.

I am extremely upset today. My old dog Angel has been acting weird last few days. Yesterday she didn’t even touch her food, but drank at least 3-4 gallons of water. This morning she could barely stand. So Dwane took her to work with him. They’ve done a full workup on her blood, x-rays, she’s on fluids & sedated but her kidneys are going. I guess I should be thankful that we have access to good vet care, of the time we’ve had with her. But chances are she’s not going to turn around from this.

This weekend I attempted to arrange a meet-up with friends down at the Greenway park at our local river. We called it “River Jam”, because everyone was going to bring an acoustic instrument & we’d all play together. Though not everybody showed, it was just a few compared to those invited, it still turned out pretty good. But the heat drove us off after a hour or so- and the “Jam” was taken back to our house that contains one of the greatest inventions of mankind- the air conditioner! At least to us southerners! ha-ha.
I also got another chicken, bringing our total back to 3. She’s bigger than my other 2 and was not getting along yesterday, but today they seem okay. I’m still trying to crank out the barefoot sandals, and am now selling them locally at my MIL’s shop by the lake. I want to sew, but have had a bit of a sewer’s block…lol…I think I need more fabric to get inspired.

In a couple of weeks it will be mine & hubby’s wedding anniversary. He’s taking his vacation that week. Unfortunately we will not have any money to go do anything so it will be another Stay-cation this year. We are going to the river this weekend & meeting up with a group of our friends for an outdoor acoustic jam session. Plus a friend is supposed to come show poi & we will be attempting to teach other to use devil sticks (or flower sticks, gravity sticks, whatever you prefer). Yesterday I sold half of the barefoot sandals I had made (not complaining though!) and need more beads now! Yeah!