Random Wednesday

My new Shutterfly calendar

1. I always make Shutterfly calendars for the family each Christmas but this was the first time I'd actually made one for my OWN house! I opted for this spiral-bound version that stands up. No space inside to really write but it's nice to look at for reference. I still need to buy an actual dayplanner though for keeping important dates. Betcha they have those at discount at Barnes & Nobles right now, though!


Yo! We are lacking in photos up in this joint, mama!

2. I still don't have a computer set up at home yet, so my blog posts are usually written in two parts. I upload pics at my parent's house when I go after work to pick up The Boy, put the image links into a blog thread and then finish writing the post and publish it on my lunch break at work. Pretty irritating not to have my images on the same computer I'm writing the post with, but I'm trying to make it work. But that would be why my images are lacking lately.

3. Another reason why pictures are slow coming is that it's still fairly dark outside when I leave the house and starting to get dark when I get home at night. I'd like to take some photos of the new place but it will have to wait for a bright and sunny weekend when I remember to take them!

4. Danny bought me some of those toning shoes for Christmas. They aren't the funny looking ones, but they are just normal looking athletic shoes, New Balance ones. Very comfy and boy, do they kick my butt! Seriously, they are working! I've been trying to exercise more (about 3+ times a week, just fast walking and some jogging) but even when I just wear the shoes while out running errands, I can definitely feel something going on in the butt & thigh area. Yesterday, I went up to the top of a very steep hill behind our house. This is about the fourth time I've done it. The first time I thought I was going to die, seriously. This time wasn't too bad at all...I mean, I was huffing and puffing but I was able to walk all the way down through the neighborhood to the dead-end this time and had energy enough to run down the hill home. Lost a few pounds already, I think. Not really sure because we don't own a scale but I can feel it.



This is a man who would eat tuna fish and protein shakes every day for the rest of his life if you let him.

5. I'm crabby this week. I think it's the lack of fast food grease. Truly, I've been so used to picking up fast food for lunch for the longest time and my parents aren't really big on cooking so they always used to get fast food. Danny, not so much. He'd be happy if he never had to eat in another restaurant for the rest of his life! He likes it simple (I think I've mentioned that before) and home cooked. So, I've been cooking every night. Nothing fancy, he doesn't want fancy, so it's been brown rice, something with protein (either chicken breasts or pot roast) in the crock pot and a veggie. I'm bored with it. And crabby. I think it's my body telling me it needs a little something greasy...I think, so, don't you?


The Boy eating a chestnut over Christmas vacation, he wasn't really feeling it. That's about how I'm feeling about all this healthy eating lately! Bring on the cheeseburgers!!

I Heart Faces - A Fairly Big Smile

I chose this photo to enter of my little boy at the County Fair this past summer, not only because of the enthusiastic smile on his face at the thrill of this ride but because of the smile it puts on my face everytime I look at it!

All things LEGO, all the time!

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).



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.



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!

Midnight Conversations

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


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!

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.




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.




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).





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.





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!





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