Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
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I have NOT had a pretty cruddy week. It did NOT start out pretty good and then quickly go down hill from there! It is NOT finally starting to get a little better this morning.

The week was NOT cruddy because all three of my boys were NOT sick. They did NOT run a fever, cough, throw up, and just plain old act sick for the majority of the week. We did NOT stay in our PJs all day at least twice last week. And we did NOT stay in the house for three days straight except to go to the mailbox!

On top of all three boys being sick, I have NOT been having a major flare up with my RA. My hands are NOT the size of King Kongs right now from all the swelling and inflammation! I have NOT been a little concerned that if the swelling doesn't go down, I may have to cut off my wedding ring!

I did NOT spend a while looking around at Target {during mine and Karen's SUPER fun mini girls night out!} for foods that are supposed to help with inflammation. I did NOT come home with some yummy orange juice and a bag of scary looking flaxseed {which Karen thinks looks like something birds would eat}. I am NOT completely lost as to what I can do with the flaxseed other than sprinkle it in my yogurt or cereal.

We did NOT have a very busy 4th of July despite all the cruddiness! We did NOT see almost every single person that we are related to {my family and Jason's} at least once over the long weekend. That did NOT seem to make the weekend even LONGER!

We did NOT have two BBQs, go swimming, watch fireworks, and go to two birthday parties in just three days....there is NO way that we would try to cram that much stuff into one long weekend....especially when the boy and I are not feeling our best!

I am NOT feeling a little better today, and I am NOT hoping that this week is a little better than last week!

I am NOT going to remind you to enter my GIVEAWAY for a free 3 month JumpStart membership and one of my SUPER cute personalized towels!

Applique Towel Tutorial

I have been having a ton of fun with appliques lately.

So I thought I would share some of my {non-professional} techniques, so you can make your own SUPER Cute Personalized Towel!

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Start with a towel of your choice! I made one for each of my boys.

Henry's towel is blue

Grant's towel is green

Eli's towel is orange

Using my computer, I found a font that I liked and printed out an H, G, and E. {You can make the letter as big or small as you want.} You can use any font you like, but the simpler the font, the easier it will be to cut out and sew onto the towel. I cut out the letter, traced it onto some interfacing, and cut it out again.
Then I used spray adhesive and attached the cut out interfacing to my fabric of choice {make sure to attach the letter upside down so that the fabric will be on the top and the interfacing on the bottom}.
Next, I cut out the fabric letter and use more spray adhesive to attach the letter to the towel. This helps keep the letter in place so that it doesn't move around while you are sewing! The next step is to sew the letter onto the towel.
You can use either a zig-zag stitch or a straight stitch. I have tried it both ways, and they both work pretty well...it is really just a matter of preference. The zig-zag stitch is a little harder to master, but once you finish sewing you are basically done. If you want to do a straight stitch {which I did on these towels} you will have to wash the towel after you sew it, and then trim up any of the frayed edges with some scissors.
Basically with both stitches, you just follow along the outline of the letter to attach the fabric to the towel.
And you end up with a SUPER Cute Personalized Towel!
I hope this was helpful and maybe inspired some of you to get out your sewing machines! If you have any questions or need {non-professional} help with anything just let me know.

Photo Story Friday: Camp Out In

Last weekend the boys had a camp out....except they were really camping in the playroom!

We started the afternoon with hot dogs on the grill. It was SO hot outside that we decided not to build a campfire, so we just made our dinner and dessert on the grill instead. Jason cooked some hot dogs and sausage for us and we had a nice dinner outside on the patio.




After dinner, we made S'mores! The boys used some wooden shishkabob sticks and held their marshmallows over the grill. Not quite as good as a campfire...but it worked good enough to make a few ooey-gooey S'mores!

Jason helped Henry and Grant set up their tent in the playroom and they got out their sleeping bags and pillows! They had a great time camping....{even if it only lasted until 10 pm because they still weren't asleep when Jason and I were ready to go to bed}!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Fun

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Mom!

And don't forget to enter my JumpStart giveaway....you could win a SUPER cute towel like Eli's!

JumpStart Review and Giveaway!

I have to be honest...my boys were never really big computer/video game players. They have an educational game console and handheld educational video games, but they never really got that interested in them. And to be honest {again}, it never really bothered me that they weren't that into computer/video games.

Well, it didn't bother me until we went to Kindergarten pre-registration with Henry earlier this year. One of the teachers mentioned that the kids have computer time throughout the day, and I thought....Henry doesn't know how to do ANYTHING on the computer! The computer at our house is reserved for supermom {blogaddict} and superdad.

Computer time was just for the adults, until my boys discovered JumpStart!

We got the opportunity to try out a 3 month membership to JumpStart's virtual world of educational games. And now my boys are LOVING the computer!

Here is a little information about JumpStart from their website:
JumpStart is an award-winning adventure-based 3D virtual world that is super-personalized, wildly imaginative and really fun, but don't let that fool you - it also teaches math, reading, and critical thinking skills so kids get a real jump start in life.


Sounds pretty good! Award winning...personalized...and really fun! Plus the kids will be learning too! What's a kid {and a mom} not to like! Storyland is an area on their website that is made just for kids ages 3-5, so I figured this would be good for Henry and Grant!

The boys sat down to play with Jason while I was cooking dinner the other day. They had a great time playing all the games in Storyland and learning how to work the computer! Henry caught on really quickly, and after a little help from Jason, he was moving from game to game figuring out how to play them on his own! He really liked the Learning House and enjoyed playing Puzzle Surprise and Matching Duckies! They also like going down the slide and listening to the animals sing! They were both laughing and having a great time!

Jumpstart.com also has a ton of resources for parents. There is a blog that has all kinds of great information about the website as well as learning tips on how to make the most out of Jumpstart! There is also a Discussion Board where parents can post questions and look for answers to any questions that they may have about the Jumpstart 3D Virtual World.

My boys have had a blast with the JumpStart 3D Virtual World. I would recommend this website to anyone with kids who like to play computer/video games. And especially for kids who are getting ready to start school in the fall like Henry is!

And now for the Giveaway part of the post:

JumpStart has agreed to provide a free 3 month trial for one of my readers!

I am also adding in a little bonus for you mom's out there....because while your kiddo is quietly playing on the computer, you will be able to relax and soak up some rays on your SUPER Cute Personalized Towel! That's right, the winner will get a 3 month membership to JumpStart and one of my lovely towels to go along with it!

So here is how to enter:

For your first entry leave a comment telling me who you want to win the 3 month membership for!

For one extra entry, follow me and leave a comment telling me that you do.

For another entry, put my button on your blog and leave a comment telling me you did.

For two extra entries, blog about my giveaway linking back to this post, then leave two comments telling me you blogged.
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This giveaway will end Friday, July 10th at 10 pm Central time and the winner will be announced Saturday, July 11th.