Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lots of Random

This will be a whole lot of unrelated random stuff ...

I never got around to sending Christmas cards since I didn't have a recent picture of all of us and whenever anyone was around to take one, someone was missing. So they have turned into New Year's cards. But I still need someone to take the photo. Anyone want to come over and hold the camera? It still counts as Happy New Year if I get them out before Valentine's Day right? Edited 1/26/08: The cards are out! I mailed the last batch today. So look in your mailboxes loved ones!

And speaking of Valentine's, we got all the Christmas decorations put away and while I was at it I took the opportunity to put the boys' special ornaments into their own boxes with labels saying when they received them and from who. They got a lot of ornaments before they were even born! Then I figured I may as well reorganize all the other holiday decorations. The basement was full of things I hadn't put away from autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving and Easter was mingled in with St. Patrick's -- in short, the kind of task I love. The kind that is relatively unnecessary in the large scheme of things and therefore must take precedence over everything else. So now every event has its own little home. And I see that for an irish girl I am pathetically deficient on St. Patrick's Day decorations, but if I even think about acquiring any more Easter stuff you should cut off my marshmallow peep supply. I put up the Valentine decorations yesterday (you know M. was happy!) and even found some nifty blinking heart lights to put in the front windows. They look really neat at night.

We still haven't figured out what to do for M&P's birthday which is fast approaching. They have been to a few birthday parties for classmates at bounce houses and those kinds of places and I know they really want to have a "friend" party rather than the big family party we usually do (which considering it's mostly our friends that come I can totally understand). Most of the places I've checked into are reasonable in price if you break it all out but still more expensive than I was expecting. Or they have a big minimum to meet, like 15 or 20 kids. We could easily meet that if we invited everyone in both classes but do I really want to be in close proximity to 30 six-year-olds on a sugar or adrenaline high? We could do something at home with fewer kids. Or take a few kids to an activity like bowling. They seem to be happy with either option so long as there is cake, ice cream and friends. What to do, what to do?

Still working on getting the blasted wallpaper off in the hallway. Scraping it with a razor blade is the only thing that is getting it off so it's slow going. Now I wonder if we should keep going or just put up 1/4" wallboard over the whole thing or wainscoting or something. And if I even mention putting wallpaper up in the next 50 years, you have permission to make me eat paste.

Have you heard about one little word? This is something that Ali Edwards started a few years ago on her blog and it has caught on with a lot of people. I was intrigued by it and thought about what my word for the year should be. Possible candidates were joy, love, share, create & simplify but I think my word is going to be BEGIN. Kind of a strange word to focus on for the year I know, but my reasoning is that a lot of what I want to accomplish doesn't get done because of my tendency towards procrastination. When I finally get started (wallpaper notwithstanding) I find the task I've been putting off takes a very short time and I'm left wondering what took me so long? So this year I am going to remind myself to just BEGIN. Even if something takes a long time to complete, it'll never get done unless I start. So whether it's laundry, losing 30 pounds or organizing the closets, this is the year that I am going to take a deep breath and just get started. Wish me luck!

There is also something called the 365 photo challenge, which is basically taking one photo a day for an entire year. I'm intrigued by this too, but not going to do it this year. Maybe I'll try and commit to doing a whole month first...

I've been participating in the Layout a Day (LOAD) Challenge over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Due to a bout of stomach flu and other stuff I haven't been posting or even doing a layout a day, but when I get going I scrap 8 or 9 at once so I'm still caught up. There are more than 2000 scrappers participating and 14,000 (yes you read that right!) layouts posted to the gallery. As a relatively new scrapper, I haven't done this many layouts ever, never mind all in one month. And I'm trying very hard to use the supplies I have already acquired and not buy anything new except adhesive. So far so good since I got a new goodie fix due to a Christmas gift from my niece. Thanks H! I'm having lots of fun with this and getting a lot of ideas and inspiration as well, so thanks to Lain for doing this for all of us! If I figure out how to post a separate photo album on here, I'll put up some photos. Edited: There is now a Flickr badge to the left! And here is a link to the photo album there if you want a closer look.

My new-to-me tv find is Heroes. Love it! I could have done without the graphic violence in the first few episodes though. I love how with each episode there are twists & turns -- "he's a bad guy, no wait, is he a good guy, no, maybe he is a bad guy, just what is going on here?!" What super power would you like to have? I think I'd like to multiply myself to get more done and still be able to sleep 12 hours a night :-D

Speaking of sleeping, did you ever have one of those nights where you keep having bizarro dreams and end up awake imagining all kinds of scenarios that will never ever happen but that you now feel prepared to handle? It's not just me, right?

Swimming lessons started up again last week. P. is in his element, so excited when he realized where we were going. They are "lobsters" this go round which means that they are in the pool on their own with the instructors and Mom & Dad do not have to get in the pool. (Yay!) And they both did a very good job listening to the instructors so that was a big sigh of relief for us. We were running late (as usual) and halfway across the parking lot I realized that P. was missing a shoe. Ok, that's not uncommon, he takes his shoes off all the time. At least he kept the sock on. We go back to the car and I can't find the shoe. Thankfully there is no snow and it's relatively warm, and hey, we've already been across the parking lot once, so we just go in without it. Once D. arrives and they have started their lesson, I go back out to do a more thorough search. I find several empty Tim Horton bags, lots of broken crayons, a full juice box, some knights that have been missing from the castle playset and lots of dried up raisins. No shoe. Now I am panicking a bit. They are brand new and cost $55! Where is that shoe? Would Stride Right possibly let me buy a left shoe for half price? He couldn't have thrown it out the window because now that he's figured out what that button is for I have the parental window lock on. I search the cargo area of the car and find several dirty socks, some empty plastic bags, lots of emergency gear, and the container of dish detergent I forgot to bring in from the last trip to BJs. Now I am questioning my own sanity and powers of memory, did I even put the 2nd shoe on him? D. thinks I am a nut and volunteers to go look for the shoe since he often finds the thing I swear is lost forever. But he doesn't find it either. All the way home I am going a bit loopy thinking about the shoe. M. suggests I pray to "that saint guy." What the heck, we all say the poem and ask St. Tony to have a look-see around and get back to us. When we get home, there is the shoe, tangled up in the hallway rug. It must have come off as I herded everyone towards the garage. Where was it that I go to apply for the "most observant mother" award?