Fun around these parts

We recently went to the town celebration at the library. John made the bell ring, Natalie caught some coupons, we dressed up in silly props, and caught some candy from the bucket truck.

 

I took some pics of our YW during Mutual, and before hand tried out some poses on Natalie. She’s always willing to smile (or make funny faces, or hug a tree) for the camera.

 

Leo’s got a bucket on his head…

Natalie was taking pictures with my camera yesterday. It was on rapid mode, so she took about 200 in about 20 minutes. Pictures of all kinds of exciting things, like the bathroom and a magnadoodle, and pictures of princesses on her walls. Here’s our 4:05 happenings yesterday, from Natalie’s perspective:

Hooray for Stylish and fashionista bus stops!

Theme Dates

As mentioned in the last post, we had a robot date for Valentine's day.

Here are some other theme dates we've had in the past:

A Roman Date

Movie: Ben Hur
Food: Drumsticks and fruit on a fancy platter
Set the mood- Sit on the floor on cushions, eat reclined, feed each other grapes, wear togas?

Chess Date

Movie- Watch Finding Bobby Fisher or the first Harry Potter movie with the Wizard chess scene
Food: Play Checkers with Oreos or ELFudge cookies (you get to eat what you conquer). Or have funny dares or questions underneath each piece, when you conquer you have to do the dare or answer the question.

Pirate Date

Movie- Pirates of the Carribean
Food- Carribean Jerk Chicken, Sweet potato carribean salad, rice and beans, pineapple or coconut anything

Fun Present- Download mid nineties computer game "Pirates Gold!" and pretend you're 10 again. (I did this for John b/c that was his favorite game from his youth. You have to download a
program to slow down your computer for it to work)

Set the mood- (We didn't do this, but I think it would be hilarious if your husband has a sense of humor) send him on a treasure hunt, then have the final destination be the bedroom (with an x on your backside- get it? X on your booty?. If that doesn't fly, there's always coconut bras.

Arts Date

Activity- Go to a museum of art. Draw pictures of each other. Or sculpt playdough of inside jokes.
Dessert- Carve ice cream sculpture and use candies for decoration (we did this on a date in college)

What about you? What's your favorite "just for fun" date?

How to tell if you're friend is pregnant

Ok, so let's say your friend does not look
like this quite yet..But 5 bucks says she feels like this. .

So you have a semi good friend that you talk to all the time...or she rambles about her life on her blog or facebook. She seems like she might be gaining a few pounds, and you're sure she wants to be preggers, but not sure if she is? Here's some tell tale signs. As in, real thoughts or comments from the past 2 months...

1. "I want mustard for dinner...what can I make that involves mustard..."

"Today I heard the song Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne. And thinking about that girl looking up at the guy she missed out on dating because she was so shallow...made me cry."

"The soft pretzel shop in the mall is like a siren song to deter my shopping odyssey"

"We are buying a minivan! Just so I don't have to bend down and buckle in my kids anymore"

"Totally tried salt and vinegar chips on my turkey sandwich today. It was the best."

"My kids voices seem to have gained a 3 decibel higher range overnight."

"Kids, this is mommy's bowl of buttered popcorn (huge mixing bowl)- and this is your bowls (normal sized bowls)...now no sharing, we don't want each other's germs....(as in, I'm not going to share with you!)"

"Barbie and the Island Princess...instead of laughing at it's ridiculousness, I cried. Hard."

"Ugh there is nothing to blog about...except the foods I'm obsessed with"

In my case, they suddenly need another hair tie for their pants as well as their ponytail....and they want maternity clothes for Christmas.

So be on the lookout....there are pregnancy clues looking everywhere!

p.s. That picture is me three years ago it was Christmas and I was 8 months pregnant. I was tired. Very very tired. But I strained a smile for posterity's sake. Hooray for me.

Calling, Car Crash and Cool Stuff...

On Sunday, I received a calling into Young Women's. I'm still getting used to the idea. Whenever I get a new calling I feel an increased need to be very consistent with my scripture study and more strict with obeying the commandments. Less tv, more reading. But maybe pop culture is needed to understand young women? Probably not.

This morning I was driving to a visiting teaching appointment and my car didn't feel like turning with the road, and I ran off into a small ditch. We're all ok, the car had a flat tire and some bumper damage. Looks like we'll be walking until we get it fixed or buy a new one...Cash for clunkers anyone?

We also received a package from my mom with Alaska presents, so the pic is for my mom. Natalie is all about the silly faces.

AND I got 10 bucks back from Target yesterday, because I bought some items last week, and they went on sale this week. Brought in the reciept, badda bing badda boom, 10 bucks back.

That's the latest news from the Daley household. I'm still in the midst of decorating, hanging pictures and keeping these kids happy....

Still Alive

Hello Faithful Readers- all half dozen of you!

I am still alive. Worried, weren't you?

We've spent the last three weeks setting up our house, playing with our family, making new friends and laughing at rambling sob stories connected to furniture listins on craigs list. And let me tell you, there's no shortage of those.

We're unpacked for the most part, but we're still in need of furniture for our living room. And a decision about window covers. It's exhausting. Talk to me in 6 months and I might have a house that's kind of put together.

I've discovered a house really affects the way you live. This is probably a no brainer to most of you.

For example...

I now have space to dance in my kitchen. Now I wanna listen to music instead of boring npr.

I also can see most of my backyard from my kitchen. So the kids can play while I make dinner. Life changing.

I now have a bathroom I can see a computer from. Yes. I can watch youtube while I go. (Jealous?)

Our computer is also very far away from the playroom (unlike in Va, where it was around the corner). So I'm on it less. Which is good.

The distance from our parked car in the garage to my fridge is about 10 feet. No more punishment for humongous shopping trips.

My tv is also very close to our kids rooms, so I have to watch it at night with closed captioning. I think the close captioning edits out profanity. I'm even more sheltered than before.

And last but not least, big house equals better games of hide and seek.

So now you know. And the more you know, the less you don't know.

Quizzer

So you think you're bored now, because you've got 15 minutes of free time, so you're cruising the blogs?

Sign into facebook and take my quiz then!

Then you'll have something to show for your 15 minutes of slothfulness.

Now, go be awesome and take my quiz!

Why I do declare...it's quite delightful...

This week has been busy in ways I didn't expect last Sunday, but I'll post about that later this week. Here are some things that have earned my admiration recently...

Did you know PBS airs their Masterpiece Theatre for 6 weeks after it airs? I watched Tess of the d'ubervilles a few months ago, but found it incredibly depressing. This whole weekend has been wrapped up in Little Dorrit by Dickens. It',s you know, only 5 and 1/2 hours long...so my kitchen's really clean as I watch it and make food. It's available until...today. But the next one, the Old Curiosity Shop is available for longer. I would highly reccomend this movie if your library has it or it's on your local PBS. Love, secrets, social connections, family pride...so good. I just might want to read it, Dickens is usually hard for me because I'm just trying to figure out what's going on, much less see his social messages. So movies first are good. Is it wrong that I enjoy movie versions more than books lately? Especially from this time period, I love the look of the dresses, the rooms, the lighting and set contrasts....not to mention hearing the British and French accents firsthand.

Also, I've been loving this cheese lately. Always have loved it, but I finally bought some. John isn't a big fan. Natalie likes it though. Yesterday John thought Natalie might have spit up or burped because he couldn't place where that nasty smell was coming from...then we realized it was her cheese breath. Note to self: Brush your teeth after the soft ripened cheeses have terrorized your mouth freshness. Where's those disturbing orbit commercials when you need em?

And I've always been looking in awe at the cuteness found in this book:

These stacks go on sale for 9.99 often at Jo-Ann's. I've made some fun things with it this week, that I'll post next week when I get around to it. So hold on, ok?

Yesterday we went here...Gardner's Frozen Treats in Christiansburg

Their italian ice was different than Ritas, more fluffy and sorbet like, rather than slurpee like Ritas. I think it's more true to the way Italian's do it...but they're both great so I'm not complaining. It was a fun little outing.

Eureka!

This week has been great.

First, there were the flowers. Blooming all over the place.

I love the way the petals are tossed all around the apple tree, looking like someone just had a wedding in my backyard.

There's such promise in a whole field of dandelions, just waiting for a 4 year old to come and pick, or blow their seeds.

Then this week at Joy School we did things I never do with my kids, like foot and fingerprints, profiles and glitter glue (but not all together). I love it when the Joy School includes activities like that, it makes it worth it. And makes me feel not so lazy. Because sometimes having certain experiences or lessons with your kids is appealing, but not convenient. Hooray for coop preschools!

The girls after their footprint path, soaking their feet in warm water.

Also, I started running again, which I put off for a few weeks, but it's been really energizing to get up at 6:30 am and be wide awake before my kids. There's something so empowering about knowing you can run 3 miles to get medicine for your kids if your car broke down. But not more than 3 miles, then I'm exhausted and we'd need a relay of some kind.

Natalie's been super tricky lately, and after being told that meow blankie couldn't go outside because it would get too muddy, she found a way around. That I never would have thought about. (That's a plastic mega blocks bag big enough for her blanket). Lesson for me- always tell your kids WHY they can't do what they want. They either will agree with you, or find a way to please you and still get their way.

One dark cloud over our week has been getting the kids to bed before 10. Some nights they did, some nights they played until then. We've figured out if they fall asleep in their beds without us in the room, they sleep all night long. So that's what we're working towards.

This weekend we've got nothing spectacular planned except buying yeast at a local health food store and a girl's night out. I think I'm going to bust out the Nacho Libre this weekend, I've been missing Ignacio.

What was so great about your week?

Just do it...

"Find something you love and do it"

I love this message from Amy Smart, a guest blogger on Design Mom this week.

So many parts of it resonated with me. First, that we need to use our hands and do hard things to keep us sane in the midst of the hard and mundane parts of life. I often feel antsy and restless until I have another project to think through, imagine, work out or plan for. It was validating to know that others feel the same way, and make their creations in the midst of their children's chaos, and not feel bad about it.

Second, I was thinking about how much variety there is in this quest- Knitting, Baking, Party planning, game making up, kid playing, marathon running, tower building, teaching lessons, music making, etc. That we should all admire and respect each other's creations, but not make it a race.

Amy says " [Be creative] Not because you want to get a bunch of new comments on your blog, or because you want to become the next Martha, or because you want to win a blue ribbon at the state fair. But because it feeds some part of you that needs feeding. "

When I first joined facebook I felt lame. Everyone I graduated with was getting their masters degree or going on exotic study abroad vacations and I had just had a baby and felt like I had nothing to brag about. I felt like I had to be the coolest in order to compete in some kind of sucess race via facebook.

I feel the sense of this race when it bugs me when others appear to excel beyond me. When someone expresses that someone has the best pizza, and I think in my head "I bet mine is better." Sometimes it's just hard to accept that your best is great, but someone else can do it differently, and to be content, and to not covet a little bit the admiration or creativity or ingenuity of another. I don't think our society's use of superlatives help in this..but that's a story for another day.

Ok tirade over.



Along this topic, I got some enlightenment yesterday.

Scene: Girls playing dressup, Sophia convincing Natalie to put on a dress.

Sophia: Ok Natalie, you're going to be the most prettiest princess today

Me: Well we're all pretty Sophia, in different ways.

Sophia: Uh, no Mom. We're not all pretty when we're naked. We have to put on Beautiful romantic dresses, then we're all beautiful.

So young, yet so wise.

{The picture above is Natalie and Sophia pretending to be snow white, and Sophia is in her "most beautifulest gown ever" which happens to be the "gown" I despise. I just think it's ugly. But I've never been super into polyester with silk screen on top. Just me I guess.}

A case of the Uglies

So doing some etsy searching today. Found some GREAT gifts.

Who wants these in their easter baskets??


15.00 for a centerpiece. And some of the ones for sale were sold.


Some accessories for the little Punk Toddler in your life. The bows on the skulls make a nice feminine touch, not to mention the gymboree coordinated corkscrew bows.



And a good scripture, with some great accents and detail.


And in my searching, I've found a few blogs dedicated to the hunt for the next ugly thing on etsy. Blogging is so pointless sometimes. This post, case in point.

Multiple Holiday Personality Disorder

Defined as a decorating disoder, in which you switch holidays decorations too frequently, or in my case, combine holidays all at the same time.



Can you spot all four holidays in our dining/living room?

This post is dedicated to target after holiday sales, which provide such valuable savings that we can celebrate ALL YEAR LONG.

How to be awesome.

First, How to make your kid eat raw vegetables: Ranch Dressing.

Second, How to make your kids want to do anything- Tell them they can act like Santa as they do it. And call it a party. Potty party, Laundry party.




Third, How to keep your kids from crying when Daddy Awesome is gone. Home made Playdough.



Fourth, How to get off your butt: Look at this poster.

Now, go and be awesome.

So this is love...

John's been out of town. But as he was leaving the Charlotte airport, he got me a present.



I think I'm in love.



Go out of town anytime honey; 3 days with the kids alone, is so worth it for that Jamba.