The Crafts

Rather than making our usual appearance at the LPC Aquatic Center yesterday we stayed home. I made the girls a  drop box inspired by the play-at-home mom blog. We filled colored bowls with coins, magnets, potatoes (yes, potatoes) and cut out shapes. They simply dropped the random items into the holes. I sat the box atop a baking sheet so each time an item was dropped through one of the holes it made a fairly loud bang. They played with the box for ONE WHOLE HOUR?! Say what? Uh-huh, I ain't lying. Love for me! And love for them! The drop box was perfect timing since I desperately needed to wash some running clothes. The BIX is Saturday. So excited!!!! And I'm almost as excited for The BIX as I am for "bad couponing!" ********************* This past weekend's ads had the typical lovely lady statue and playful kitten crystal balls so I skipped taking pics of those. Seriously, they are a dime a dozen except they don't cost a dime. Some cost around $30 others a

I was reminded yesterday that school is set to begin in four short weeks and a feeling of panic came over me. Not because Kate will be going back to school (4 year old preschool) or that I haven't completed any of the necessary paperwork (which I have not) but because we haven't crossed many things off our summer bucket list. In past years Kate and I have created a bucket list of things we want to accomplish over the summer. And I of course blog about that bucket list. Except for this year. This past May I sat down at the dinner table with the family and said, "OK gang, let's all say what we want to do with our summer!" I was ready; colored paper and marker in hand. We were going to plan out an awesome summer! But then everyone poo-ed on my excitement by dully mumbling things like... *eat supper* - yah, we do that everyday *watch cartoons* - yah, I guess we do that everyday too *read a book* - again, everyday *go golfing* - yep, almost everyday (well at least M

It is a given; the day of the week I take the girls grocery shopping is also the crappiest day of the week. It is a scientific fact. It does not matter what goes on at the store or what store we visit or the time of day we shop, I am always left crabby. I was an economics major in college. One of my professors taught us about heteroscedasticity. He said, "Remember the term and it's definition and you will always have entertaining material at cocktail parties." I've never used the term at a cocktail party or any other kind of party for that matter, but I can say the term is applicable to my grocery shopping experiences. In my example, grocery shopping is the constant. The store visited, food purchased, keys lost, carts chased, blood spilled, bathrooms locked during emergency, tears shed, screams released, headaches resulting would be the random variables. If each of our shopping experiences were plotted as a dot on an X and Y graph you would notice an invisible st

Friday night Matt and I had zero weekend plans. By Saturday morning things had changed a whole lot. We went from thoughts of lounging at the pool with the girls and a Saturday night video to... laser tag * dinner out alone * a movie in the theater * staying up waaay past our bedtime * playing in a golf tournament ...all of which took place without the girls. Weird. It felt like a whirlwind vacation. Fun and unexpected and very, very, very much appreciated. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) So while we were out acting young again the girls were whisked away to 'Build a Bear.' None of us have been there before. And yes, Kate has already asked to go back. But that's Kate for ya. When we picked the girls up Sunday night CJ greeted us with her new stuffed friend, Gunner. CJ is simple, wild, a little tomboy-ish, I suppose. She loves rocks and dirt and running away from authority figures. We weren't surprised to find that CJ chose a dog with a gentle bark and didn't want any clo

This has been a L -- 0 -- N -- G week. A week of staying indoors, and any parent knows what that brings out of their kids and themselves.   But Friday is here and this week is almost nothing more than a memory. Phew. To celebrate the week's end and the weekend's beginning I bring you... bad couponing. It puts a smile on my face. ********** Obviously lovely lady statues and Snoopy adult size watches wouldn't be mass produced if the masses weren't purchasing them, right? Am I offending you? I hope not. I guess when I open the coupons I expect coupons.  You know, discounts on milk, chips and shaving cream. In that order, of course. I have seen dozens and dozens of 'coupons' for various statues. This one is no different. However after examining this coupon I've noticed something that stretches beyond the lady statues.  It spans cat statues and dog statues and sometimes those 12-prong bra coupons. The common bond among the majority of 'bad coupons' i

...she's going to want some milk to go with it. Did you get my reference to "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?" If not, then you should check it out at your library sometime. Great read. If you are like 8 and under. The girls and I made cookies this morning. 5 1/2 dozen to be exact. I'm not sure why the double batch made 5 1/2 dozen instead of 6. It could be that we made the cookies too large, or the fact that CJ tried to eat her weight in dough. She's never said the word dough until this morning. And now she says it a lot. The cookies are molasses. I've never had any interest in molasses cookies. Molasses to me looks like crude oil And why would anyone want crude oil in their cookies. Despite my distaste for the looks of molasses Matt has carried on for years about the molasses cookies his Grandma Pat used to make and his mom now bakes sometimes. So I bought a jar of molasses and let it sit in the cupboard for about three years. When I finally found the courag

It is hot out, obviously. Like I need to tell you that. Our almost 100 year old, historic house has steamed over windows. Honest. When you wake in the morning you cannot see out the windows because of the steam. As I stood in line for ice cream today you could see the heat vapor (or whatever it is called) rising from the concrete. But it won't last forever. Soon enough I'll be whining about the cold. Due to the heat, the girls and I have been staying indoors a lot...unless we are going to, coming from or swimming in a pool. These long, hot days indoors are a harsh reminder of winter madness. You know, those days when you are physically stuck inside and the kids' natural energy builds until it bounces off the walls and into a migraine? Thankfully, we've found a few ways to have some indoor fun. First I let the girls make popsicles. Pink lemonade popsicles with a strawberry frozen in the middle, to be exact. Kate poured the lemonade into ice cube trays, CJ stuffed in th

Both of our vehicles have been in the shop this week. That always means big bucks. Of course, I tackled all of this before I went for my girls' shopping weekend. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I should have waited until the week after so I didn't feel guilt spending money on my mini-vacation. Don't worry, I somehow saw past the guilt. To top it off, the day after I returned home from the mini-vacation I broke our laptop. Sigh... On a happy note, this past weekend my mom, sister and I went to Des Moines for a girls' weekend.   It's generally a good idea to comb  your hair before getting your picture taken. Lesson learned. The three of us shopped and ate and drank and shopped and ate and drank. We had a great time. Me and a margarita on the left. Me and maple bacon ice cream on the right. We hit up the East Village, the Farmer's Market, Trader Joe's, Homemakers and Jordan Creek Mall. No store was left unexplored. No credit card left in the wallet. (Just kidding Matt

Do Sunday ads ever disappoint? Not when you are hoping for the worst ads ever. And this Sunday was for sure not disappointing. ********* Sure, little dogs are cute. Big dogs can be, too. If you are a dog person, that is. But if this were my real dog sitting in my teacup, I'd be angry. It's bad enough we have a cat who hangs out on the top of the dining room table when we go to bed, I sure don't want a ceramic dog with sparkly, faux gems collecting dust on my bookshelf. But it is a limited edition. I better think about ordering one. "Kittens are irresistible - even when they invade your kitchen!" Say what? That one cat is standing on a pie and the other is sleeping in the silverware drawer. For $60 these cats too can 'leave paw prints on your heart.' Who doesn't love The Peanuts. I still watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" every winter. I'm not, however, about to buy myself some Peanut watches. I really could see people who are big Pe

Several weeks back I decided it was high time to upgrade my music. I am historically a 90's rock girl and I've always stuck with that. One morning in the car I switched the radio channel, heard some Pearl Jam, rocked out to a little 'Betterman' and then realized the station was flipped to 'the oldies.' Uh-oh. At that moment I knew it was time to find some new tunes to dig on. Sometimes I trick my girls into eating healthy. I gave them a couple of apples and say, 'let's play Snow White!' Works like a charm! Snow White falls into a deep sleep after one bite of the poison apple. Thankfully 'Prince Charming' is available to kiss Snow White awake. I promise we dress CJ each and every day but somehow she is always naked in pictures. One of my new favorite songs is "Good Life" by OneRepublic. I listened to it several times during today's early morning jog. With the lyrics pumping through my earbuds, the sun shining on my face and

I am thankful for the rain today. Our lawn has taken on the golden hue of straw, yes, but the rain has cured our need to run, run, run out the door. Our schedule has been jam packed. It is mostly our own doing. Our week days are mostly filled with trips to the pool and the residual bathing suit and towel laundry that follows. I like that kind of laundry. It's my rainy day, bed head waiting patiently for breakfast. After another fun packed weekend and a whirlwind Monday of continual in-and-out I took a moment to look around the house. I wondered how it took on such a mess with no one here to mess it up. And then I felt thankful the rain allowed me a day to put the pieces back together. We celebrated my dad's birthday this weekend. The girls helped open his presents and Kate dressed herself that morning in a black sweater and tights. She refused to wear the skirt. Playing in Grandma and Grandpa's basement. This weekend I realized Matt and I have crossed through anot

Today was a big day in Kate's world. I was actually a wee bit nervous for her. The girl doesn't like to lose or fail or get left behind. She calls herself, 'best girl ever." No shortage of confidence from this one, I tell ya. This morning was Kate's last day of level 2 swimming lessons. Anticipation was high as Kate awaited the results: pass or fail. We are proud to say she passed and will be moving on to level 3. Quite an accomplishment for a 4 year old. But she probably just takes after her swimmer mama. I couldn't decide which picture I liked best, so why not include them both? ****************************************************** Our house looks forward to the Sunday morning paper. We read aloud the baby names (and sometimes laugh at them), guess people's career simply from their engagement or wedding photo (strange how easy it is to guess right) and we of course read the actual news articles. But I also like to dig through the Sunday coupons not beca