Should I Be Worried...

that my daughter begged to wear this to school today?

Ugly Christmas Sweater to the power of at least 3, maybe 4, with a reindeer head out the front and a reindeer butt (presumably belonging to the same reindeer) coming out the back.

(terrible picture quality, I know. The flash didn't go off and there's only so much photoshopping can do with too little light)

Merry Christmas to all! May your cocoa be hot, may your family be crazy, and of course, may your sweaters be ugly!

Well THAT'S Not Good Advertising..

I stumbled across a mom question/answer site in which a person had asked if the "My Baby Can Read" program was any good. From the following reply I'm thinking, probably not (unless baby's a genius and it's just mom who's an idiot)

Not So Smart Person - posted 6 days ago
I recommend the program 150% I had it used it luv’d it!!! Unfortunately it got stolen & I have to replace it!!! If u use it rite it is an amazing tool young minds especially in the first 3yrs r so eager to learn. Iv seen it used with a couple children and it really effects every aspect of their development, how they behave and handle them selves is amazing. My son is constantly learning and using the skills “My baby Can Read’ at hme & in the out side world. He new how to read Nose, mouth, teeth ECT new where they where on his face and other ppls face’s along with animals faces before 6mo. His vocab is very high thanx to the programs tools!! He loves the video’s books, flash cards he brings them to me. He helps other children learn and which way to read left 2 right, very cute.. U will here 4rm ppl that it’s a scam yadda, yadda, yadda but that’s because they dnt have it!! Some of the bad things ppl… who haven’t used the program. seem to always resort back to it’s just memorizing. Well sorry no it’s not just memorizing, and yes to a point memorizing can be a little harmful and that is because young brains are taking in so much input that they have to prune out other skills that they r not using and that’s where us as parents come in and support them by providing a balance so they are not pruning out skills they need. & really come on we all start of learning something by memory and then we build of it. Ppl say that it doesn’t teach phonics yes it does with r help try it and then say that phonics isn’t being taught!! Great program as long as us as parents us it correctly. Also I really recommend Leap Frog Letter Factory!! It really helped my son learn his ABC’s and their sounds.


I think I lost count of the grammatical, spelling, and other errors somewhere around 33 (ok, I counted obvious abbreviations, but they were annoying). Methinks she did not do that company any favors!

Stuff, etc.

A lot has been going on around here lately, but no one thing seems blog-worthy, so I decided to combine a bunch of tidbits together and maybe I'll end up with something substantial.

Eden - 10 months old today - she had another urology appointment and kidney ultrasound. Everything looks good, and she hasn't had any bladder infections for a while so we're hoping she's on her way to a healthy urinary tract!

Claire makes me laugh. Everyone is getting a version of this for Chrismas from her:

They're scraps of fabric taped together into animal shapes. This one is for Sophie. It's a giraffe - can't you tell? If you want one too, I can let her know and I'm sure she'd be happy to make more.



This is what I spent my morning doing with her:

I forgot how much fun it is to play with Barbies! My favorite was this:

We had a Ken that had lost his legs, so she decided it was Casey McAllister (which won't mean much to those of you who don't know him), and she put him in a wheelchair/stroller :) I sure hope that's not offensive...

At church a couple weeks ago Claire wanted to share her testimony -which she did- but I wish she'd done it the way she told it to me:

"I know Heavenly Father and Jesus love me... Oh! And Santa."

She had an eye appointment recently and there has not been any significant improvement in her eye alignment. She will probably be needing surgery again in January. Hopefully this time it will take.

Last week we accompanied Todd to Tillamook for the day. While he was in court we went to a Pioneer museum. It was pretty fascinating! I was quite impressed by all the things Claire had learned from Disney movies. In a display with old instruments I pointed out and told her about the mandolins. "Oh, like they play in Freaking Booty?" "Yeah, like that" (the scene where the servants or some people are getting drunk and falling asleep while the kings are arguing). Then later was a display of the evolution of washing machines. I showed her the washboard and tub and told her how they were used, but she already knew. "Like in 'The Little Mermaid' when Sebastian is stuck in the clothes they're washing?" Right again!

Brooke and Janelle have been taking an afterschool class called "Taiwan Buddies" where they learn about the culture, language and history of Taiwan. They are also going to get a chance to meet a student from Taiwan and communicate with them via Skype. Wow - isn't technology amazing? There was a limited number of students who got in so Janelle missed out until another kid dropped out and she was able to drop in.

Sophie just had her first band concert last night - definitely the best first year band I've ever heard play. It was pretty impressive what they've all learned in just a couple months, and they did a great job staying together as a band and all that.

I've run out of steam, and probably more importantly, money, on all my home improvement projects. But since it's Christmas time I would've had to take a break on it anyway. When I get a chance after the holidays I'd still like to put up crown molding, re-decorate the dining room and do all kinds of things in the family room. I got a bunch of fabric to do crafts with as well but my sewing machine broke and I can't get it fixed anywhere that doesn't charge more than it originally cost, so those projects are on hold too.

Two crying kids is my cue to go, so bye till later!

$2.99 Entertainment

We found the game Balderdash a few years ago at Goodwill ($2.99) and recently decided to give it a try with the kids thinking they might be old enough for it. It was amusing at times, impressive at other times (they fooled me more than once!), and overall a good entertainment investment. Some of the most memorable definitions made up by various family members were the following:

whisternefet - to let one fly at the dinner table
skimmington - the lovely town where they go skimming

calipee - to urinate in California

grimalkin - a legend in which there is a giant named Grimalkin

Macula - the dorky cousin of Dracula

pipsissewa - gome (she just made up a word!)
funkify - to bully by sticking one's face in the trash can
nictitate - the joy a wife gets from scrubbing the streaks out of her husband's underwear

hoitzitzillin- to stick one's finger so far up one's nose so as to touch one's brain

hodad - a couch that has been gassed on so many times that a distinctive plume of odor is released when it is sat upon

lycanthropy - the unique ability of the digestive system to sort feces according to vegetables [which skill Eden seems to have...she ate a soup with mixed vegetables and the following day had three poopy diapers, one with corn, one with carrots and one with peas! TMI, I know]

Tringle - a person who typically walks nude from the bathroom to the bedroom after a shower, an who has a firm set of buttocks [changed from the previous, less flattering definition, if you were so fortunate as to have read it before I changed it].

I love my family...Tringles and all!

Two Down, Still Going...

Garage door re-do is finished! (ok, it's ALMOST all the way finished - I still need two more handles for the second side, but True Value was sold out and I have to wait till more come in)

Before:

After:

Custom made hinges, made exclusively by me...out of paint stir sticks :)

(and front door is painted black to match, but it still needs some touch ups, so it's not photo ready)

One Down, A Bunch Still To Go

Bathroom is done! Well, except for the chair rail which will be done shortly, and the toilet tank lid that broke not 5 seconds after I took the "after" picture when the shelf above it fell (because my anchors didn't really anchor). But anyway, it's (mostly) done!

Before:

After:

Ooooooohhhhhh, Aaaaaaahhhh

Bee in My Bonnet

Whenever I feel the need to start a project (or twelve), I get sort of obsessed with it and everything else falls apart around me. Such is our life right now. We're scrounging every night for dinner and I haven't done the laundry in a while, but I've got a bee in my bonnet, as Todd likes to accuse me, and I want to complete all these ideas I have floating around in my head while I have the motivation to do it. I haven't completed all of them, but here are some before and afters of my plans, photoshopped with my limited skills to give me an idea of what it'll look like, and so I can sell the idea to my husband who would kind of prefer I leave everything alone so I have more time for him :) I'll post pictures of the finished projects if they don't turn out crappy and if I ever actually get them done.

Garage door as is:

Garage door makeover with contrast trim and gate hardware for the "carriage door" look. It's a trick finding hardware, particularly hinges, that will work since the door still needs to bend to go up and down. I'm thinking I may have to fake it with thin pieces of wood painted glossy black cut to the size I need. I hope it works!

Outdoor curb appeal: here is the house as is:

Outdoor makeover: Besides the garage door, we added window boxes, will need to replace the tree that died this summer and will need to do some minor landscaping.

or maybe with black doors? any opinions?

Bathroom (one step past "before" as I had already started to re-do the countertop before I took the picture)

Bathroom black and white makeover with black paint (I know, BLACK?! - but it's just paint, and I think I really like it), a chair rail with white on bottom and a zebra print rug which I plan on taking back from Todd's office.

Dining room as is:

I've decided it's time to lighten things up a little with a chair rail and frame moulding on the bottom of the wall and a light aqua color on the top. If I can find a salvage chandelier I can fix up I'd like to do that, and I have some orange-ish chair cushions I'm coveting right now, although they probably won't become a reality for a while as they don't fit into the super-cheap redo category.
This is a little project I did last week since I already had all the stuff I needed on hand and I was antsy to get something done. No before picture, but it was just a plain white door out to our garage, which just so happens to be where we keep our food storage, so it made sense to do this pantry chalkboard here:

and a close up:

In addition, we've been shampooing carpets, touching up trim throughout the house, repairing little things that happen with a pile of kids, and rearranging rooms (we kicked Claire out of the office, so it could just be an office again, and we gave her daybed to Sophie and turned Sophie's into a trundle bed for Claire.) Phew!

What I really need though, are some good ideas for this room:

I don't really love the wood wall or the brick hearth (or the mess, but you have to look past that) paint or don't paint....what to do???