The Escape of the Keys

I know that there is rarely an easy day where everything goes perfectly and smoothly.  But do some days really have to be so stupid?  And why can't your brain just recall whatever you want it to?  Our brains remember everything we ever hear, read, and see.  We just don't have the recall capability.

I woke up this morning tired.  I really didn't want to get out of bed, but the kids are always up no later than 6:30am.  I wasted a lot of the morning sitting on the couch, trying to talk myself into getting up and getting something done.  It wasn't going very well.  I was just about resigned to spending the day on the couch until Kenny started wailing from their room.  The worst case scenario sprang to mind: He hurt bad, there'll be blood, broken bones, missing teeth he just grew in.  I get back there and Kenny's just sitting in the floor crying.  Connor has destroyed their room with toys.  So after I get Kenny calmed down I figure I might as well stay up on my feet to get some things done.

I go get dressed and start picking up each room.  I'm going along fine, watching the clock because nap time has to be right around the corner.  I make it to the kitchen.  There's a check laying there that I know I better put in my wallet to deposit in the bank tomorrow.  So, like always I open the back pocket of my wallet and put the check in.  In the back pocket of my wallet I keep extra keys.  But they've in there so long I can't remember what they fit.  So I thought, "I'll get my keys and compare them.  I'll know what these go to if they match any of the keys on my key ring." that's where my trouble started.

We keep a key hook in the laundry room.  It's really in a dumb place.  It hangs on the wall right over the garbage can.  When I go to get my keys, they're not there.  Okay, if they aren't on the hook, they have to be in the diaper bag.  I checked that diaper bag three times.  Then I dumped everything out and came just short of tearing the lining out, convinced those keys HAD to be in there.  They weren't.  My  darling hubby is always fussing at me to always hang them back up so I thought maybe he hid them to 'teach me a lesson'.  (He's did that with something else....once)  I called him to ask and he said he hadn't seen them.  Of course I got the speech on how if I would just hang them up every time I wouldn't be trying to find them now.

I go through my purse, I go through pants pockets, I go through the kids toy boxes, I look under my bed.  I called Wal-Mart to see if anyone had turned in lost keys, I texted my preacher's wife to see if I had left them at the church, I called my mom to see if they were at her house, I walked over to my mother in laws to see if they were there, I searched the car, the grass around the back porch, I backed the car up to see if they were under it, I even looked inside the shoes that sit in the laundry room.  Nothing.  They were just gone.  I just know if my keys could talk they would've been laughing at me, mocking me.  I wonder if Kenny ate them, since he seems to eat anything he can get his hands on.  I wonder if Connor flushed them like he did my MP3 player that one time.  And of course the whole time I'm looking for them Connor and Kenny are right underneath me.  Connors want to play a game, then he wants a drink, then he wants a snack, then he's had an accident in his undies, then he wants to go outside and catch bugs.  Kenny just wants to be held.

Then an awful thought hit me.  What if they had fallen off the hook and into the garbage that my husband had just sacked up and taken out to the big can last night.  I really didn't want to have to dig through the trash.

Well, by this time it was lunch.  I'm fixing lunch for the kids, thinking of any other place they might could be before going through the trash.  And while I'm pouring Connor some tea, I happened to remember that I had dropped some keys into the little bag I keep my Bible in when I go to church on Sundays.  I went to look and there they were! I was so happy at not having to go through the trash I was dancing around in the living room with Connor giving me a thumbs up and telling what a good job I had done!

So my keys are safely hung back up....over the garbage can. We really need to find a new place for the garbage can, or the key hook.  It's amazing how one discovery (keys being missing) can really throw your day out of whack.  I still feel befuddled.  Of course that could be Connor in there saying "Mario Galaxy" over and over and Kenny turning the DVD player on, which turns Connor's game off, which makes Connor fuss, which make Kenny laugh.  So yeah.  If my biggest accomplishment today is that I found my house keys, I'm good with that.

Cleaning House? That's a Joke!

Ever heard the saying "Cleaning your house while you have kids is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing"? I don't believe there has ever been a truer statement made!

I have been putting off my house work because I simply don't like doing it for a couple of weeks now.  I was keeping the laundry and the dishes done and that was about it.  The dust was actually starting to look at me as I walked past.....staring....with little beady eyes.....accusing me of being a terrible house cleaner.  The weird thing was when it talked to me, I heard my mother's voice.  Let me tell why this is such a big deal.  I come from a line of OCD neat freaks.  It's getting less with each generation so I'm not as bothered by a messy house as my mother or her mother.  My grandmother's house is immaculate every day, all day.  You could literally eat off her floors.  My mom's house is nice and neat and 99% of the time picked up and clean.  My house is liveable.  But I have two small children.

So back to my messy house.  I decided Monday I had to get some cleaning done, I couldn't take it anymore.  Then something else happened.  I think my grandmother somehow possessed me and I decided to clean out closets, drawers and cabinets because we had way too much junk.  I started in my bathroom.  I got the bathroom clean and opened up my walk in closet that was no longer walk in.  I started pulling out clothes, shoes, purses, and hats.  Just as I get my closet all torn apart, that point-of-no-return, the nine month old decides he's going to through the biggest fit he's ever thrown.  I pick him up and he hushes.  I get him calmed and then set him down.  He looks at me, his lip quivering, tears in his eyes, but he's quiet.  I get back in my closet, he starts all over.  For two hours, while I'm sorting through clothes that are too little or that I don't wear anymore, he's screaming.  I'm doing my closet as fast as I can, but he just kept screaming.

I finally get done with the closet and get him settled down.  So I tackle the drawers and cabinets in the bathroom.  This doesn't take me as long as my closet, but while I'm going through this stuff, Connor comes in and thinks all the stuff I have in the floor is for him to play with.  Every time I go to look for something or put something back, he's got it, pretending it's a race car or a monster he has to kill.

By the time I'm done with the bathroom (that's the closet, three drawers, three cabinets, the usual scrubbing down of the two sinks, the tub and the toilet, then vacuuming) it's lunch time.  Usually I can do both the boys lunch and nap at the same time.  But after Kenny's big fit, he's sleepy, so I feed him and get him down for a nap before Connor.  By the time I wrestle lunch down Connor, get him down for a nap and eat my own lunch, Kenny's ready to get up.

I spend the rest of the day and evening doing mine and my husbands bedroom.  Dusting, straightening up, cleaning out our bedside tables and vacuuming.  The entire time having to deal with the kids and the dog right up under my feet.  Because Connor likes to chase the dog and the dog will run to me for protection.

Tuesday morning I decide to tackle the dining room.  I've got a cabinet and a hutch that needed going through and cleaning out.  Luckily my mother in law was home and let Connor play at her house while I worked.  (She lives right beside us)  But Kenny uses me as a jungle gym while I'm in the floor cleaning out the hutch.  I'm able to get the dining room and part of the kitchen clean before lunch time.  This time lunch goes smoothly, which is rare.  I don't question it, I just enjoy it. I get them down, eat my lunch and enjoy a few minutes of peace before getting back to work.

By this time the need to clean out cabinets, drawers and closets has left and I'm done.  I decide to do just my regular cleaning and continue the cleaning out some other time.  I do dishes, scrub down the counters, dust off my pretties, or as we say here in the south, my purties, and make tea.  The next room on the list is the small laundry room at the back door.

By this time the kids are up and right up under me again.  We keep an 'outside toy box' in the laundry room that holds all the toys the boys are only allowed to play with outside: sidewalk chalk, bubble blowers, basketballs, soccer balls, and the quilt we use for picnics.  Somehow the bigger things have ended up on bottom and the smaller things are falling out the top.  So I pull everything out to get it back right and here comes Connor again.  "Can I play with that? Can I play with this? Oh, this is my favorite, I want to play with it!" I calmly (because they haven't driven me nuts yet today like they did yesterday) tell him, "No, those are only for outside." So you can guess his next question, "Can I go outside and play?"  again, calmly, "No, I'm cleaning right now and it's cold outside." So he starts whining, a new things he thinks will get him his way, even though it never has he keeps employing it.  I tell him to stop whining he's not going to go outside.  He keeps on until I finally shout at him to go play in his room before he gets in real trouble.  He disappears.  The whole time this went on, Kenny's snuck up behind and is playing with the 'outside' toys.  He's learning how to use his brother as a distraction to do what he wants.

I get everything put back, straighten up the shoes and start to sweep.  Kenny's sitting in the middle of the floor grinning at me.  I pick him up and move him out of the laundry room and before I can get back in the there, get the broom and start sweeping, he's back, grinning at me.  He thinks it's a game.  I move him again, run in there and sweep as much as I can before he's back.  We don't have a baby gate any more and I keep forgetting to pick one up.  I'm regretting this as I move from sweeping to mopping.  Because now every time I move him, he starts crying.  I get finished in there only to come find that Connor has destroyed the living room.  I think he was trying to see if all his toys would fit in the living room.

So today I'm working on the rest of the house.  Hopefully I can get most of it done today if not all and rest the next few days.  So far I've been able to keep the rooms I completed picked up and clean.  But I know they won't stay that way.  Usually when I get done with the last room, it's time to start all over again.  See, shoveling snow while it's still snowing.

Getting Ready to Go Anywhere: Before and After Kids

The other day, my mom and I decided to have a shopping trip.  Usually when we do these it means taking the forty five minute drive out to the Wolfchase area where there is a mall and lots of shopping possibilities.  Our interests lie in wherever we can get scrapbooking supplies: Archivers, Hobby Lobby, and sometimes Michael's Arts and Crafts.

Now, before my two wonderful sons came along and we'd plan these outings, I could sleep until about an hour before we got ready to go.  I would get up, stretch, look out the window and think, 'oh, what a lovely day for shopping!' Then I'd go take a nice, peaceful shower, wash my hair, enjoy the hot water.  I'd dry and fix my hair, which usually didn't take me that long, riffle through my closet to find the just right shopping outfit for the day, and decide on a pair of shoes.  After that I'd enjoy a bowl of cereal, brush my teeth and still have a few minutes to sit down and read or watch tv before my mom arrived and we could leave.  We'd spend the day lazily browsing through the stores, taking our time to see everything and whether or not we really needed it.  It was nice, enjoyable, peaceful.

Then I had kids.

Now I'm up every morning between 5:30-6am whether it's a shopping day, a week day, a weekend, doesn't matter.  Forget looking out the window to see what kind of day it is out there.  I'm too busy trying to start the day.  First I have to try to get the oldest one to eat.  That conversation usually goes like this:
     Me- "What do you want for breakfast?"
     Connor- "I'm not hungry."
     Me- "You have to eat something, what do you want?"
     Connor- "Cereal,"
     Me-"Fruit Loops or Corn Pops?"
     Connor-"Fruit Loops."
     I get out the Fruit Loops and almost get them in the bowl
     "No, Corn Pops!"
     Me-"Are you sure? Corn Pops, not Fruit Loops?"
     Connor- "Yeah, Fruit Loops."

So I pour the Fruit Loops. While he's munching on those, spilling milk on top of the dog because the dog is waiting for the fruit loops to hit the floor, I'm getting the littlest one a bottle.  Which by now he's screaming of starvation because he didn't get his bottle first.  By the time I get sit down and the bottle in the baby's mouth, Connor's 'done' with his cereal, (by done I mean he's ate maybe half the bowl.  Although there are those few glorious morning when he eats it all and drinks the milk from the bowl)  Then he starts, "I want to play game! Can I play Wii? Can I play Sega? Huh? Come on, please."  I agree because it gets him out of my hair for the moment.

The baby gets done with his bottle and I set him down in the floor to play, but this is the morning he doesn't want to be set down in the floor, he wants to be held.  So as soon as his little hiney touches carpet he starts bawling.  I figure while Connor's busy with the video games it'll be a good time to take a quick shower.  So I tell Connor to just stay where he is and play his games.  I take Kenny into the bathroom with me and shut the door.  So the whole time I'm in the shower, going as fast as I can, Kenny's crying because he can't see me.  Then I hear the door open.  Crap.  I forgot to lock the bathroom door.  Connor comes in and informs me that he has to poop. Of course he does.  Ok, we have two bathrooms in our home, (He's in mine pooping while I'm in the shower.) In our bathroom the toilet is in this little closet like area with a door so you can close off the rest of the bathroom.  So while he's in the toilet-closet, I finish rinsing all the soap off me, jump out, grab my towel and wrap it around me.  I get him wiped and out and try to focus on getting myself ready.  Kenny's still in the floor crying.

I open my closet, grab the first pair of pants and shirt my hand falls on and jump in them.  My hair's still wet, but I'm starving at this point and need a quick bite.  I finally pick Kenny up and we go to the kitchen and fix myself a bowl of fruit loops.  I inhale these, because most of my time is gone and it won't be long before my mom will be here ready to go.  When I get done I go back to bathroom and brush both mine and Connor's teeth.  Then I realize the kids aren't dressed yet, they're in diapers and pull-ups.

So I'm in their room now, my hair is still wet, and I'm trying to get them some clothes out.  Kenny is easy to pick out clothes for since he's nine months and the only word he's got down pat is Da-Da.  Getting the clothes on him is a different story.  First he needs a fresh diaper.  I lay him down, pull off the wet diaper and away he goes! He twists like an alligator, escapes my hold and is crawling away in nothing but his birthday suit!  I grab one leg as he giggles and pull him back.  I roll him back over, try to hold him down and get the diaper on him.  You know, if evolution was true and man did evolve from monkeys, then mothers would have evolved to have more than two arms and hands.  Because you cannot put a diaper on a nine month old with only two hands.  Sometimes knees have to be involved.  Ok, so ten minutes and one wrestling match later, he's dressed in everything but his shoes.

I wipe the sweat of my forehead and turn to the oldest, who has watched all this with his brother in mocking amusement.  I pull out a pair of jeans and hand them to him.  It's wonderful when they can put on their own pants.  But then we start on shirts.  "I don't want to wear that one" is heard four or five times before we finally hit on a shirt he likes.  I get him dressed in everything but his shoes and then go back to my hair, which is almost dry by now.

I run my straightener through it.  (Now I know why they say don't use a straightener on wet hair: For one, it sizzles and hot water droplets will burn your neck.  For another, it just doesn't straighten.) I get it halfway decent, at least it's all laying in one direction and think "Yay! I'm ready."

Oh wait, the diaper bag.  I get the bag and transfer the few things from my purse I need into the bag and then think through my process.  I think of Kenny first, what does he need: Diapers, wet wipes, bottle, formula, snacks, extra clothes. I have to stop with the bag and go see why Kenny's crying and Connor's telling me "don't worry, he's okay!" That's never good.  Once I get Kenny calmed down and the toy golf club away from Connor, I got back to the bag.  What does Connor need (besides a spanking): Pull ups, extra clothes.  I get all these things packed down into the bag, which now weighs more than the baby and set it by the door.

I hear my mom pulling in.  I feel accomplished that we're ready on time!  Then I notice they don't have their shoes on yet.  But it's too late to get them on before Mimi comes through the door.  Darn it.  Almost all the way ready.  Oh well.  I run my fingers through my hair.  It's still wet in spots.

And that's just getting ready to go.  I will tell you what it's like actually shopping with these kids some day.  Sometimes it's just not worth a shopping day unless you can find a babysitter.

Books Versus Movies

In 2009 I started college, I was going for my Bachelor's in Music Education.  Of course you don't just get to take the courses you want, you also have to take general education courses.  One of those courses was called Oral Communication, or rather speech class.  It was class that taught you how to make good speeches, how to do research, how to include your research in your speech, and to talk well.  I'm from the South, where ain't and y'all are actual words, so this class didn't do me a whole heck of a lotta good! Besides, I hate talking in front of a bunch of people.  But there was one speech that I did enjoy giving called Books versus Movies.  I love to read, and I love movies.  And when one of my favorite books gets turned into a movie, I get really excited.  In fact, I'm going tonight to see The Hunger Games.  Which brought this speech to mind and I would like to share it:


How often, when enjoying a movie, is this response heard? “The book was better.”  It is good to enjoy the pleasures of both worlds.  Although most people have probably seen way more movies than they have read books, reading a book can be better than just watching a movie.  Books provide more information than the related movie can give, books can make the reader feel more connected with the world and characters, and reading books can increase ones intelligence and literacy.

In a landmark 2004 study, the National Education Association (NEA) found that the percentage of the adult population that regularly reads literature has dropped from 56.9% in 1982 to 46.7% in 2002, a decline of about 20% in 20 years. The NEA report declared: "Reading is obviously related to the literacy of a nation, which in turn is related to the quality of life of its citizens. If literacy is the baseline for participation in social life, then reading and reading of literary work in particular is essential to a sound and healthy understanding of, and participation in, a democratic society (NEA)”.  The study also reported, “Americans are not just reading less, they are reading less well when they do read. Between 1992 and 2005, the percentage of 12th graders who read at the proficient level declined from 40% to 35%. Any decline in reading ability indicates a corresponding decline in overall academic accomplishment. (NEA).”  Some people may say “in such a busy life style, who has time to sit down and read a book?” In fifteen minutes, a good reader can read twenty to thirty pages.  That is an average of two to three chapters in most books.  If a book has twenty chapters, then it can be finished in about two weeks, just by reading fifteen minutes each night before bed.

Reading can also increase imagination, especially in children.  Children in today’s world do not use their imagination enough.  Movies tell people what to see, the video games tell people how to play, even the toys tell kids how and what to play.  For example, a few years ago one could buy a box of Legos, different shapes, sizes, colors.  It was up to the child to figure out what he or she wanted to build and how.  Sure, some of them came with booklets of pictures of different things to build, but the child did not have to use it.   Now Legos come in kits.  Only one thing can be built by these Legos and only one game can played with them.  Movies and books work the same way.  The books tell a story, it is up to the reader to imagine pictures to go along with the words.  What the character looks like, what the background looks like, what kind of place, buildings, rooms, how the scenes act out, is all up to the reader to imagine freely.  Movies show exactly what the people look like, where they are, what is happening, leaving the watcher free from using their brain.  Society is not creatively and imaginably engaged when watching a movie.  Otis Kramer and Geraldine Wagner state in their article, “Pleasure readers must actively engage their minds in imagining these important details while reading a book. The words on the pages of every copy of a novel are identical, but the characters that inhabit the imagination of the reader are unique. Reading a book is emphatically not the same as watching a movie based on that book (Kramer, Wagner).”

And then there is the purely aesthetic side of books and movies.  A lot of readers claim the movies do not do the books justice.  For example, in a book, there may be two to three paragraphs of what a character is thinking, or feeling.  But in a movie, there will only be about three seconds of a confused look from a camera.  There is nothing in that three seconds that tells what the character is thinking or feeling besides confusion.  Granted, movies do a better job at some things.  Like fight scenes, or chase scenes.  Fast and the Furious would not have made a good book because of all the car races and chases.  In 2009, there were around 40 movies made based on popular books including New Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Princess and the Frog, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Sherlock Holmes. One of the reasons these kinds of movies do so well in the box office is that the people who watch them have read the books and are excited to see these characters come to life on the big screen.

Even though in today’s busy world, people should take at least ten minutes a day and sit down in a quiet place and escape into the timeless pages of a story.  It can be any story, fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, comedy, suspense, fantasy, pick your poison.  Readers get so much more from reading a story than watching a movie.


So there it was, my speech on why we as a society should read more.  But I'm not bashing movies, I love movies.  Although I am a bit apprehensive about seeing Hunger Games, the movie is 143 minutes long.  The book was not that thick and very simply written, so I'm wondering how they got a 2 hour and 23 minute movie out of it.  This is one instance I'm hoping the movie is better than the book.

Shopping With My Parents or How I Got My Charm Bracelet

Earlier this week I got a call from my momma saying that the air on her car had gone out.  Since their car was still under warranty they were going to take it back to the dealership to have it fixed.  She suggested that while her car was getting fixed I could meet them out there and go shopping while they waited.  I love to go shopping, and with my mom shopping means Hobby Lobby and Archiver's, my two favorite scrapbook stores!!  So I agree and eagerly await Friday.

The only hitch in going shopping that day was no babysitters.  The two tornadoes, Connor and Kenny, would have to go with us.  But there would be three adults and two kids, one of which can't even walk yet.  So Friday morning comes, we get up and immediately the chaos starts.  Kenny wants a bottle right then and Connor doesn't want any breakfast at all.  When I finally talk him into something to eat, he decides he wants a ham sandwich, his new favorite food.  So I fix him half a ham sandwich to the soothing sounds of the eight month old screaming of starvation.  Connor takes one bite of his sandwich and he's done.  Typical.

I finally get them fed and wrestle them into some clothes, get myself ready and we leave.  It's a good forty five minute drive from my house to where the stores are and surprisingly they're really good on the drive.  I turned on some music, me and Connor sang along and Kenny slept.

I called my mom when we were pulling in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby and I see them parked right in front and my mom is waving to me while we're on the phone.  Of course I wave right back, we're silly that way!  What I didn't think about with the whole three adults versus two kids, was that they would pretty much be in the sole care of my dad while me and my mom shopped.  We put Kenny in the stroller and gave Connor strict orders to stay with us.

So me and my mom are on the scrapbook stamp aisle and we here Kenny laughing behind us.  We turn around and my dad is bouncing the stroller really fast, making Kenny jiggle.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or have that frozen look of terror on his face! Then we hit the paper aisle and me and mom are pulling out different papers, oohing and aahing, gathering up papers we must have in our collection because we never know what project we'll find on Pinterest to use them for, and we hear Kenny and my dad talking to each other.  Yep, the eight month old and the fifty eight year old are carrying on a conversation. (I think it was a conversation, it could've been an argument)  Kenny would make a sound and Granddaddy would make a noise back at him.  My mom and I just looked at each other, shook our heads and went back to the paper.

Well, then my mom wanted to go look at the jewelry stuff because she had just bought herself a charm bracelet the other day and wanted to see if they had a certain charm.  We should've never gone to that aisle; all sanity was lost on that aisle today.  We start looking at the charms and I'm thinking how cute they are.  Then we see the sign: All Charms and Jewelry Fifty Percent Off! Really? Alright! I grabbed a bracelet, and started picking out charms.  All the while Kenny started getting restless in the stroller and Granddaddy gets him out and stands him on the step at the bottom of the shelf to let him play.  I picked out several charms and realized I would need spacers to go between them.  So I start perusing through the different spacers and not being able to find anything I really liked settled on some plain bead spacers.  While I was looking through those I kept hearing raspberries from below me.  I looked down and Kenny's attempting to turn the floor of Hobby Lobby into a pool with his slobber by blowing raspberries at my dad.  And Granddaddy isn't doing much to stop him, instead he's blowing raspberries back at him.  What a sight, the baby and the grown man blowing raspberries back and forth at each other.

So I pay for my 'some assembly required' charm bracelet things and we head out to go eat lunch.  We eat at Steak and Shake where they give the kids hats and paper cars that has to be put together.  So before I can even look at the menu I'm having to put Connor's car together then Kenny's because Connor informed me that Kenny wanted his too.  Apparently toddlers speak baby talk because he's always telling me what Kenny wants.  So I get the cars together and finally get my food ordered.  While we're waiting I decided to make up Kenny's bottle.  I get it all together and set it in front of him, turn back to my bag for something and when I look around Kenny has his bottle laying on its side on the table and he's sucking it down for all he's worth.  Mimi (my mom) rescues him and helps him get his bottle.  He downs it, we get our food, start eating and I give Kenny his little car to play with so he doesn't pull my plate off in the floor.  What does he do? Throws it in the floor....repeatedly.  I must've picked that thing up twenty times before we were ready to go.

Ok, we got through our meal and have one more stop, (or so we think) Archiver's.  I've been waiting for this because Tim Holtz, the king of distressed scrapbooking, has brand new markers out that match his inks!! The clouds parted and I heard heavenly music! Again we turn Granddaddy into babysitter and we hit Archiver's like there's no tomorrow!  The sales lady told Connor he could go back to the crop room and color.  He was all for it.  But I don't think he actually colored any.  Somewhere between finding the new markers and looking at stamps I lost my mom, I wasn't really worried until I heard her shouting my name across the store.  She was back in the crop room trying to change Kenny, who magically turns into a crocodile when changing him, he had peed all in his clothes.  Good thing I had an extra set in the car.  We get him all cleaned up and changed and go back to shopping.  Then Connor comes to me and says his pull-up is wet.  Well, at least he told me before his clothes were wet, it would be really hard to carry our entire wardrobe with us when we leave the house.  I get him changed and back to my dad and go back to shopping.  We make it over to the paper and I start hearing Connor calling for me.  Was it bad that I pretended I couldn't hear him and hid in the aisles?

Once I made the final decision on which markers to buy, I made my purchase and went back to the crop room.  When I go in, I see my dad and Kenny in some sort of wrestling match.  My dad looks at me and says "It's like wrestling an alligator!" I nodded in sympathy and sat down with my charm bracelet from Hobby Lobby.  I really wanted to get it together and wear it.  I get the bracelet open and the charms and come to heart sinking realization.  The little bead spacers and the charms won't fit the bracelet.  Which makes no sense to me because they're all the same brand and was hung altogether on the shelves, I assumed they all went together.  While I'm discovering this my mom again rescues Kenny from Granddaddy, gets him laid back, his pacifier in his mouth, and Kenny immediately goes to sleep.  My dad just stares in wonderment.  He said he had tried to do that, but Kenny just fought him and when he tried to put the pacifier in his mouth, Kenny shot it out across the room.  Moms and Grandma's just have that special touch.

So back at Hobby Lobby, my dad decides to just wait in the car with the kids while my mom and I go back in to get the stuff we need.  I found some jump rings for the charms and some bigger spacers and we're ready to go.  See how easy that was without the kids?!

Once we make it back to the house I can't wait to put my bracelet together.  I gave Kenny a bottle and then sat down with everything.  I start laying out the charms in different orders to see what I liked best, because me OCD won't let just start throwing charms and spacers on willy-nilly, they must be carefully planned and symmetrical!  I spend half and hour trying to get it just right, ranting to my mom on the phone about how it's not working, until I finally hit up on a combination I really like.  I get three charms on and I hear Connor, "Momma, I'm through pooping!" which really means come clean me up.  I get him all cleaned up and go back to charms.  I get a few more and hear crying from the boys room.  Kenny now has a massive blow out in his diaper and before I can get it cleaned up it ends up on his hand, his knee, my hand and my wrist.  I get it all cleaned up, get a new diaper on him, wash my hands and go back to my bracelet.  I finally think I have it when it slips and all the charms hit the floor.  YARGH!  I calmly pick them all up and get them back on the bracelet.  Finally, finished.  Then I set down to write this story.  Between the beginning of this post to now I have dug four pieces of dog food out of Kenny's mouth, mopped up a spilled drink, dug bread out of Kenny's mouth, and washed Kenny's hair in the sink because Connor put hand sanitizer in it.

So all in all it's been quite an interesting day.  I had a lot of fun being out with my parents, and I like spending time with my kids out like that.  But it's like once they get home, all bets are off and they go insane in an attempt to drive me insane.  However, I do have a brand new shiny charm bracelet where every charm says something about me, two new stamps that my mom bought for me for my birthday coming up in April, new Tim Holtz marker and a pack of Tim Holtz paper!

Two Projects In One Post

Today is a twofer.  You know, two for one, or what me and my mom call: a twofer.  Two projects in one blog post! This is what happened.  Monday and Tuesday I spent all day both days furiously cleaning my house.  I'm not much of a neat freak, but I do get into these spells where I want my house spotless and tidy.  Over the weekend the inside of my house was hit by three tornadoes I was powerless to stop.  They were named Kenny, Connor, and Brad.  I've completely given up trying to do anything cleaning on weekends, it's like nailing jello to a tree, it's not going to happen.  So, after two days of the marathon cleaning I decided Wednesday I was going to do nothing except what I wanted.  I wanted to finish two projects I had started.  And that's what I did!

Project One: A picture of my boys.  There's really not a whole lot involved in this project.  Just picking out pictures, paper and any embellishments.  I got the idea from my mom, who got the idea from Pinterest.  She had shown my her completed project that was just adorable and I wanted to copy it.  Mine came out different than hers, but still the same basic layout.

So that was project one.

Project Two: Menu Board
Remember how much I love chalkboard paint? Well, I got it back out and made a menu board.  I was tired of calling my hubby and asking what he wanted for supper and getting one of two answers: 1) ah, I don't know, it don't matter (and then whatever I cook that wasn't what he wanted) or 2) I'm not really hungry, I probably won't eat. (Then when he gets in he's starving and wants some big supper) So I told him we would start working out a menu for the coming week, I would buy groceries accordingly and there would be no changes.  He agreed and I started looking for something I could use as a menu board.  Also remember how I'm a boarder line hoarder? Yeah, so I found the perfect thing that Brad has had since 2003.  Don't judge me.

This is a 2003 Thomas Kincade Framed Calendar.  It had six sheets you could slide in and out to change the months.  I had thrown the sheets away since they were out of date and Brad didn't want them anymore, but I hung on to the frame thinking I could use it again for something.  See, sometimes it's good to hang on to something for a while.


With it being so long and skinny I knew it would be perfect for a menu board.  So I painted the front of it with the chalkboard paint.  But it left a hole at the top where the sheets were slid in and out.  I want to fill that hole, it was driving me crazy.

 So what I did was pick out a font I really liked and printed the word Menu on a piece of paper

Then cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the hole.







Then I put the two pieces on my light board, the printed piece under the scrapbook piece.







Then I traced the letter onto the scrapbook piece.  I love light boxes, they sure make thing a lot easier.

So now I have this:

After I glued it to the back of the board to fit the hole, I have my finished project:

 Now we have a menu board and we've already worked out our first weeks menu.  By the way, those round magnets you see are part of my grocery list.  I'm still working on those and plan for those to be another project post.  But each one has the name of something in the fridge, when we run out, we move the magnet to the front of the fridge so on grocery day I can just write them down on my list instead of pawing through the fridge to figure what's missing.  Currently I have ten done, but plan to do more!

I hope you enjoyed this project twofer! I love making things, and sharing them with all of you! I hope you can use this to come up with your own ideas on something.  Until next time, Happy Crafting!

My Childhood Meets Today

Today's post is brought to you by my sister and our childhood! 

I was sitting at home, watching tv, keeping an eye on the children while they played because if my attention is diverted for even a second something bad usually happens: a crash that means the room has been devoured in a wave of toys, a thump that means somebody has fallen and have every bone broken until the ice cream comes out, or a scream that means some one is dying unless I get there in time to give the toy back to the first owner.

My phone rang and the caller i.d. shows it's my little sister.  Ok, I can answer it, I haven't talked to her in a few days and it would be nice to catch up.  Of course being on the phone means I have to pay extra attention to the kids so one of the above doesn't happen.  She was telling about her day and how she, my mom and my grandparents had gone to see the our cousin's new baby girl.  Then she asks me which Nintendo 64 games I have because she has some of mine. Uh.......I'll have to go look.  It's been a good while since I've played Nintendo 64.  It was our game system of choice when we were teenagers.

I get up and go look.  They were stuffed in the bottom of the entertainment center (such a good place for games) in our bedroom.  So I drag out the games and we start talking about which ones we have, which ones we want to trade and remembering when we would play them.  Then I get curious about the Sega that's also shoved in there too.  I pull it out and look through the games, still talking to my sister about all of this.

But I get the brilliant idea that Connor, almost 4 years old, would love to play these old games. Yes, old, the Sega Genesis was released in 1989 and we got it in 1992.  Which, funny story on how we got it: My sister was getting ready to start school and she failed the vision test because her peripheral muscles were weak.  The doctor said the best way to strengthen them was to play video games.  My dad was fist pumping the air at that point.  So what did we get for Christmas that year? A Sega!!  Then N64 came out in 1997, I believe that's the same year we got it.  That's 23 years of gaming for us.  Anyways, I think it would be so much fun to hook these games up and play them.  First I hook the N64 up in the living room. I scrounge around behind the tv, grunting, because if it's one thing I learned from my daddy, it won't work right if you don't grunt while you're doing it, and I get it all plugged in and switch it on.  Success! The grunting worked!

So I go back in the bedroom, get the Sega and all it's cords and get behind the tv in there.  This one didn't take as much grunting, but I grunt anyways for good measure.  I flip the switch and again, success! They work!

Connor immediately picks up the Sonic game because he recognizes Sonic.  I stick it in and I'm immediately transported back to my childhood with the theme music.  I think this will be easy for Connor, all you do is move Sonic around with the D-pad and jump with the buttons.  Easy.  What I didn't think about was -Connor is used to playing Wii.  Do you see the problem? He picks up the controller that's attached to the game system by a cord, which he's never been used to, and starts tilting it back and forth trying to get Sonic to move.  I didn't realize I would have to teach him how to use a controller all over again.

So then he wants to play the N64 in the living room.  He picks MarioKart cause he's played it on Wii before.  And again the game starts and he's trying to steer his go kart by tilting the controller.  So I'm laughing while trying to show him how to hold the controller.  You remember the N64 controller? What three finger alien freak designed these controllers? Do you know how hard it is to make a 4 year old understand to put his hand on the middle part? He still doesn't have the hang of it.  But he's smart, he'll figure it out.

It's funny, when we got the N64 we were in awe over how much better the graphics were over the Sega.  Even though everything was squared off, it still looked pretty good.  But after playing them again after years of seeing the newest graphics of games where sometimes you wonder if it's real or digital, they seem almost laughable.  But that won't stop me from playing them again.  I used to love playing these old games and can't wait to relive that.  Now all I need is my dad to play with me.  We would get him to play shooting games with us because he was so funny.  He never knew where he was in the level, he could never find a gun, and when he had a gun he didn't know how to load it.  Oh, all the good memories we have, all of us piled up in front of the tv, just playing.

If it hadn't been for my sister's call and her curiosity over the games, the Sega and N64 would still be shoved down in the bottom of the entertainment center.