Monday, January 10, 2011

All things LEGO, all the time!

LEGO

Photobucket
With one of his Bionicle

You have seen me post many times The Boy's love for all things Lego. We have so so many and whenever he receives his allowance or money as a gift, guess what he wants to buy?

The Boy and The Girl have been spending all of their weekend playtime in their bedroom, building Lego cities, a Lego "Disneyland" (complete with The Boy singing It's a Small World on a loop), and a Lego air/land/sea vehicles which they fly all over the house (and attempt to "fly" down the stair rail).

Photobucket

Please click on any of the LEGO links on my blog to go directly to their shop. If your kids didn't receive enough Legos over the holidays (and really, can you ever have enough?! The Boy would say NO!), this site is having a 50% off sale which includes Duplo for toddlers, Bionicles for as low as $3.98 and Star Wars figurines.

Photobucket

Scoop up some Legos (click the link at the top of this thread or on the right hand bar) and let the kids go wild with their imagination, they always know exactly what to do with them!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Midnight Conversations

Photobucket

This is me, back when I was more well-rested. Little did I know what was in store for me after the honeymoon...

Photobucket
You are looking in the eyes of a sleep talker.

I have a history as both a sleep walker and talker. There were stories told to me as a child, like yelling, "Let's Play!" in the middle of the night and falling out of the upper bunk at camp (and onto one of the poor moms who was sleeping in a cot alongside my bed). However my husband says he's not heard me talk, probably because he's hogging all the midnight conversations for himself!

My dad is also a sleep walker and talker. My grandma told me how shortly after my dad started working at the grocery store, she found my dad taking food out of the fridge in the middle of the night and loading it into the open oven! My mom said shortly after they got married (and he was a police detective at this point) my dad tried "fingerprinting" Mom in his sleep. She said he was starting to get frustrated too, grabbing her hands and telling her to relax!

Now, my husband is not a sleep mumbler, everything is loud and clear (may I emphasis again, LOUD!). He's also not just an occassional sleep talker. This is an every night, all hours of the night kind of thing.

And I'm kind-of exhausted!

Samples of sleep talk I've heard:

"Multiple choice. A, B, C or D?"

"Guess what?" Then a long pause in which I say, "What?" and then he says "Magic!"

"Who's there? Who is that?!"

"Too close! Too close!" and then a loud, "Shush!!!!!"

"What did you say?" - of course, always when I haven't said a word.

And there is always a lot of him asking me, "Whatcha doin'?" or "What's going on?" To which usually my weary answer is "I'm just trying to sleep!!".

Last week for about a half-hour he went on and on nonstop like a one-sided phone conversation, saying "Uh-huh, yeah, mmmm, ohhh, huh". I tried rolling him over, talking back to him, rubbing/slapping/punching him in the arm to wake him up or at least stop the broken record. But this guy sleeps like a log and there was nothing doing, he didn't stop. I finally fell asleep, bored of the repetition, I guess!

Last night within about 3 minutes, he sat up and said some random word that I can't remember (something odd and complicated, not a word that anyone would just say everyday). I wish I could remember because it was so obsurd and funny that I laughed out loud. About a minute later, he said softly, "Oh, that's good!" and I started giggling again. When he heard me laugh he said, "You drinkin' water?".

Oh my goodness, the randomness makes me laugh! Fortunately I'm not a totally light sleeper and once I fall asleep, I don't really wake up much. But initially he's always falling asleep before me and then chatting like crazy so I have some trouble falling asleep quickly like I used to.

He has a great sense of humor about the sleep talking and always wants to know what he said so we can have a good laugh about it. Sometimes he says he remembers it. I just wish it had an off-button!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Get Organized!

It's only been a month and a half since we've been in the new house and I was very careful to organize things as I went along, putting things where I wanted them to go as I brought the boxes of stuff over from my parent's house. Fortunately my parents have allowed me to keep most of my stuff at the old house and move things over as I need them, want them or have a place to put them. I know that quite a few of the things I have at the old house won't ever make it to the new house and will end up donated, and that's just fine with me. It's important that I not be overwhelmed with "stuff".

I still have a far way to go. The dresser in the kid's room is not being utilized to its full potential & takes up too much space. They also don't have a bedside table yet so the lamp is on an overturned storage basket (not only unsafe, but also I need that basket back it place to hold toys!). The bathroom cabinets are neat & tidy, thanks to some plastic drawer organizers I bought at Target. The closet also looks pretty decent, though Danny needs to figure out a better arrangement for his work clothes than just stacking them on the upper shelves. The dresser top is a disaster. This weekend, I need to sort through what all is on there and find a home for the lost socks, jewelry, papers and junk that have been piling up.

The sewing room is a complete and total mess. Other than me going to Ikea and buying some storage boxes, putting away some scrapbook paper in the closet and color coordinating my sewing thread on a rack, nothing has been done in here and it's very frustrating. I'm trying to get some things up on Etsy in the next few weeks and cutting out & sewing in here has been more of an annoyance than anything else. I don't have an ironing board or spare table so the floor is subbing in and that just doesn't work at all (and my back is aching from it!). I promise that by the end of the month this area will be on its way to organization and I'll have some Etsy items in my store again to show for it!

Let's start off the year in an organized manner...Check out the FIVE FOR FRIDAY this week.


Photobucket

olliegraphic

I am so buying one of each of these chore charts for The Boy and Girl! You can personalize & customize them with the look of the child you want and they are so cute to display the weekly chores. Print them up as you need them. You just have to look around the rest of the shop too for the personalized & customized plates and Valentine's cards.


Photobucket

pearl25

Even if you aren't a seasoned seamstress, everyone needs the proper tools to sew on a loose button, patch a hole or snip stray threads. And especially if you aren't a regular with a needle and thread, you probably don't have these things easily accessable. For me, I keep most of my regular tools in plain view on my sewing table, but for those who only occassionally pull out their sewing projects, this little organizer is perfect. Slide in your own tools and you can keep this set in a handy place (or even in an office desk drawer or in the car glove box for real wardrobe emergencies).



Photobucket

shabbyvintagemom

If ever my husband will let me nail a hole in the wall, I'd love to put up one of these whimsical cork boards. Bright and fun and just on the smallish size to hold important notes, recent photos, the week's dinner menu, whatever.



Photobucket

ladesigns2

One of my most favorite Etsy/Ebay gals, LeeAnne makes the yummiest baskets around! Not just for Halloween or Easter, pick up a few baskets to hold your towels in the bathroom, your knitting project in the bedroom, remote controls in the living room...you get the idea. These are just so beautiful & well made!



Photobucket

lolamonkey

I admit, since we have a little girl in the house now, I've gotten a little wild with the hair accessories. I've kept them in a rather smallish box for a while but I think it's time to admit that the box isn't cutting it. I have been sorting through the bows each Sunday and taking out the ones that she'll wear for the week and separating them into another box. It would just take too long on school mornings to sift through everything and find what we need for each day. Isn't this a sweet and expressive way to organize the bows? Little girls love personalization (judging by how many of the appliqued name shirts I've sold!). And it's wall art, too!

2010 - A Year in Pictures



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Monday, January 3, 2011

Birthday Boy

We have two birthday boys in our family in December, both my son & nephew.

Photobucket

My nephew's birthday is two days after Christmas but my sister-in-law and brother are always really good about making sure he has an appropriate birthday separate from the Christmas celebrations. Unfortunately I didn't have any birthday wrapping paper at the new house, so he had to deal with Christmas paper on his birthday present this year!

Photobucket
Check out the writing on this cake from the bakery, what an attempt to squeeze everything in!

Photobucket
With Grandma

He received a Wii for Christmas so I bought him a new game.

Photobucket

Photobucket
Isn't a cutie pie?! Errr...I mean...a grown-up six year old boy?!