Stinky!

For the last couple of weeks, whenever I would leave our apartment and then come back in I would smell moth balls. I kept looking for the source and could never find it! On Saturday the smell was stronger and so I started a massive hunt because, frankly I don't want my home to smell of moth balls....

I finally narrowed the smell down to the hallway next to our room. After tearing apart the cupboard in the hall and not finding one single stinky item, I had the sense to look up.  The filter for the air and heat was right above my head and when I tilted my nose in that direction... bingo! Like a dork I pulled a chair over and got up closer. OH MY GOSH! I almost lost it! 

Yesterday the maintenance guy was supposed to come but didn't show up.  I called the apartment office this morning and said that it smelled like there was a dead animal in the air vent and would some one PLEASE come out today to change the filter?? I figure that the idea of a dead rodent or other small animal festering in our air vent would make someone come as fast as possible.

Ding Dong, Avon Calling...

Since I am officially selling Avon products now, every once in a while I'll post about some of the products that are either a really good deal or that I personally love.

This blog entry is to highlight a couple of good deals and nice "pampering" type items that are fun to have around.

The first one is a portable pedicure set that is a brilliant idea in that it comes with an inflatable tub for foot soaking! No big pedi tub to store under a sink somewhere.

The next is Mandarine and Jasmine body wash for 2.99. It is designed to hang in your shower over the shower head. This one is a really good deal!

Lastly a Plump and Pout lip gloss which is normally 7.00$ but is on sale for 2 for 8$. I love the colors in this gloss.

As you know I love products! I've always liked Avon because they are so affordable and have a ton of different kind of products. So this is a natural step in my search of the right product as well as share them with others!

Shorn

Today I broke down and cut off my little boys curls once again. It is always SO sad to see those little golden bits of sweetness fall on the floor. But come on even with the peanut butter on his face and the mess of toys in the background isn't he stink'n cute?

ABC 123

Yesterday I found some really fun web sites for practicing letters, numbers and shapes with Anders. I have been wanting to start introducing him to what letters look like and what they are called as well as teaching him to recognize numbers up to 10 (at least for now). Of course this is about a 2 and a half year plan since I'm mainly doing this to get him ready for school. 

Here are the links to the websites which are great for pre-school through Kindergarten. Have fun!

Literacy.net

Abclearningtime.com

Abcya.com/kindergarten

Vocabulary Lessons Needed

This morning Anders crawled up on our bed and was jumping around and saying "Arrrggg matey!" Then he launched into a round of "hellooooo! Hellooooo!" Next it was "Oh Shoick" (not sure where that one came from).

Chris pointed out that maybe we should teach our child something other than catch phrases. I'm thinking that he's right.

Living The Frugal Life

I just added a new link under Frugal Resources. My friend Josie told me about a great site called Money Saving Mom that is a fantastic resource for those wishing to economize.  Check out her site and let me know if you found any great ideas to pass on.

One of the ideas I got from Money Saving Mom, was to see if you can go one week without shopping just by living out of the pantry. We've done that a couple of times and it is a great way to use up overstocked canned goods and frozen fruits, veggies and meats that may have been hiding out.

It has really challenged my creativity and I've had fun trying to come up with healthy and desirable meals.  If you get a chance try it out for fun! 

*****Update on the church story*******

I called the church office this morning to share my experience and how it made us feel as "new people".  The secretary on the line thanked me for my observation and explained how important the curriculum was to the children's time and how there shouldn't be any interruptions after a certain time..... (don't forget we were talking about a two year old classroom....) All I could think was, wow, I'm glad that this experience isn't what would make or break my desire for church fellowship. And how sad that "program" comes before people.

(Luckily this is the first experience like this in all of the 32 years of attending church. I know that this experience is not a normal one thus the blog dwelling on it.)

Trains and Friends

                                                              CHOO CHOO!
One of our new favorite places to visit is the Travel Town museum at Griffith Park in L.A. Here we are with my good friend Rachel and her little chickens Jett and Liberty and another good friend Josie who we are lucky to have around since she and her husband and their little guy Dietrich normally live in Ukraine as missionaries.
Such fun friends to spend the morning with.  Dietrich has had a bad lingering cold so he had a hard time enjoying himself at first. But eventually he started having fun. Who wouldn't with all those trains around!!

Liberty was having a bad moment but she looked so cute I had to post this picture. Of course Anders was so excited to be there and to see his big kid friend Jett! 

Unprofessional Family Photos And Church Rules I Don't Agree With.

So tonight we had some fun with the digital camera. Anders was in rare form and willing to make silly faces as well as show a little smile. So here is our "not so professional family photo shoot". 

On another note, last night we had the idea to try a church that we had heard was quite good and had a fabulous kids program. Since we never get to sit together in our current church situation (Chris is the sound guy), we thought it might be fun to attend a Saturday night service  together if we could find a good church.  Saturday is usually a nap day and this was no exception. I finally got a dinner packed for Anders, made myself somewhat presentable and helped Chris find socks. We hurried out the door knowing that it would take us a good 25 minutes to get there and we would be pretty late.

The service started at 5:30 and we didn't get there until 6:00. We parked in the visitors parking right in front, outfitted Anders with his "diaper/snack backpack", and quietly made our way into the lobby.

Right away we spotted the children's sign in area as it had a big sign that said "DISCOVERY LAND!" All jungle themed and very nicely painted.

There was  a surly looking teenager leaning on  a desk so I asked him if this was where we signed our child in?  "Uh.... you're too late... the sign-in ended at 5:45... so... yeah. Sorry."  I of course pushed the subject. "So you're saying that because we are late we can't leave our child in kids church? We've never been here before and we didn't know there was a rule....". "Yeah, sorry." Ugggg.

We wandered around the church to see what it was like and we found a sympathetic staff member who reiterated the rule but was willing to give us a more extensive tour. The kids area was pretty darn nice and looked well run. There were lots of good programs and family events. The sermon sounded pretty good from the lobby, too bad we couldn't bring our squirmy, talkative two year old in...

After the tour we high tailed it to our car where we discussed what had happened. I had a pretty strong reaction to the situation and was disgusted, annoyed, righteously perturbed etc... Chris on the other hand was more level headed and somewhat sided with the church rule.

But come on, what kind of church turns away completely new people for being late? Really?? In the end we decided to go for fish'n chips. That we could agree on.

Nascar and Monorails

Yesterday Anders informed me that he wanted to eat lunch in his "monorail".  Lately he has been slightly obsessed with trains, monorail's, and broken tracks. Oh, and I can't forget broken tires as well.

He is pretty  much into fixing things and all that goes along with that. We're thinking he may have a future in the automotive business as a mechanic or in the rail road industry as a "track fixer" or an engineer.... time will tell.

We also found out that our child really likes Nascar.... yes it's true. This morning while changing the channel on t.v. Nascar came on and Anders was pretty much glued to the t.v. until I decided that Nascar had to be done. There was a meltdown and a lot of  "MORE NASTY CAR!!!"

Suggestions Please

So, what does a mom do with their active toddler boys while the mom is sick? Yesterday my throat felt raw and by today I had a full blown drippy, stuffy, sneezy cold. All I want to do is lay in bed with a whole box of kleenex stuffed up my nose. Slight wrench in the works was my wild boy who wanted to chase, run, build, climb, and wreak havoc. I did a little chasing but mostly let him watch Noggin all day.

  We "worked" on potty training since we are almost out of diapers and pay day is tomorrow. So in the name of conserving I let him run around half naked and set the potty up in the living room in front of the t.v.  It brought me some amusement to see his little bum with the round "potty ring" running around. 

So, if you've been in this situation (and I know many of you have) I'm open for suggestions for the next sick day where all I want to do is crawl under my pillow and sleep.

Shameless Product Plug

I had to shamelessly plug a product that I have fallen in love with. I know that the 4 readers of this blog will find this very useful..... well if you have really dry skin and need a lotion that will give a fabulous sheen without being greasy then you will find this useful.

This product is marketed to a mostly African American base, but I love it! My elbows were pretty dry and no matter what I put on them either it wouldn't go away or the dryness would be back the next day. Ambi is an olive oil, shea butter base and the scent reminds me of a Jafra product that my mom used to use. It's clean and slightly lemony smelling. The absorption is quick but you will feel the moisture all day.

As a side note, I won't review a product unless I have used at least more than half the bottle and really know if it works or not. This one is a major favorite!

Doll Progress

Yesterday my parents came out to visit (and get a haircut). My mom brought two boxes of fabric scraps which I was more than excited to search through. I found some really fun vintage scraps as well as a this bright polka dot fabric. Needless to say I was eager to dress this doll. I'm still not quite finished and can't move on to a new project until this one is done. She is officially my practice doll and I'm learning as I go.

The yo-yo's on the dress were pretty fun and I haven't attempted these since a Christmas many many years ago when my sisters and I helped my mom make a ton of them to cover our stockings. We still have those stockings and I love looking at those little yo-yo's and remembering the fun we had "helping" make our own stockings that year.

Questionable Crafting...

 ((Warning)) If you're afraid of dolls close this page immediately! 

I am not a crafty person. I like to draw occasionally and dream about things I might like to do if I had the patience, money, time, talent etc.... So when I realized that I was DYING to sew something it surprised me! I haven't had any desire to sew since high school sewing class, 14 years ago, when I attempted to make a pair of blue corduroy overalls with sunflower buttons.... I almost went crazy and completely lost my desire to sew.

A while back I picked up a small (very small) sewing kit for button repair and such. When the desire to sew something came back to me I was so grateful for that little kit! I scrounged around and found a pillow case and some sturdy paper and began to draw a pattern for a doll. Yes, my first project is this doll. I guess I figured it would be an easy instant gratification project with little complication. 

It has been fun and slightly frustrating due to the fact that I've had to hand sew everything and I've never made a doll before. There are many things I will change for the next doll. Yes, there will be another doll at some point. This one needs some clothes and a few other details but overall it has been extremely gratifying and inspiring to actually use a needle and thread to create something.

The only drawback to making dolls is Chris' reaction. Tonight he came in after work, admired my handy work and then said "if it comes after me with a knife in the middle of the night, you know that I will have to burn it...." Of course, I would have no objections at that point.

"Dr. Laura Say It"

O.K., I was just talking to sister Heidi and I told her a story regarding Anders and his using the word Damn. She said that I really should blog this one. (Yes I'm going to write the whole word out in this entry.) We've almost eliminated the word completely although every once in a while he'll decide to say it and see our reaction. Very enduring....

So, one day I'm driving in the car and listening to Dr. Laura on the radio. I usually have her on if I'm in the car between 12:00 and 3:00. I know that Anders can hear the radio but I didn't think he paid much attention to it.

At one point in the show, Dr. Laura used the word Damn. Immediately Anders laughs and says "Damn-it! Dr. Laura say it!!" Oh darn.... I didn't even know he knew Dr. Laura's name! 

Now when he says that word I say "How about using some nice words instead" (happy cheery voice). So Anders says loudly "darn-it, shoot, poopy cow!"  Hmmm, I guess I need to continue working on what "nice" words are.

Oh, and I probably need to work on curtailing my own exclamations!

So Lately we've had fun watching a couple of movies with Anders. He is at the age where he will sit through a whole movie and remember it later. The two favorites are Cars and Wall-E.  Every once in a while Anders will reach over and hold my hand and say "Eve-a". It's pretty darn cute. Of course I have more fun watching Anders and Chris while they are watching a movie.

Eventually it will be fun to go to a Theater and we are really looking forward to that!

Happy Purim

I was doing a little research about the holiday of Purim, which falls today on March 10. It's an interesting holiday because it is based on the book of Esther which is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

If you are interested in the traditions of this holiday I'm posting a link for more information.  I'll be rereading Esther today and thinking about the bravery she had and how that bravery saved a whole nation of people. 

My sister Heidi's church celebrated Purim on Friday with a traditional play which will be re-shown tonight at 8:00 Texas time or 6:00 Cali time. Here is the link to her blog

Beach Day

Here are a few pictures of the hour we spent at the beach today. It doesn't help that Chris is almost albino and neither  of us has seen too much of the sun lately, we had to call it short so that we wouldn't be burnt to a crisp. The weather was sunny, breezy and almost cold. But it felt so nice to be outside soaking up some Vitamin D. 

No Friends

Today while Anders and I were playing on the floor in his room, the song "Lonely Girl" by Eddie Holman was playing in the back ground. I was singing along quietly "hey there lonely girl, lonely girl...." and Anders decided to join in singing. Except he didn't quite know the lyrics so he sang "no-oo friends, no-ooo friends....."

A Good Man

Tomorrow is March 4th. Three years ago Chris and I made the final decision to "march fourth" and begin a life together. We started out our marriage with a major life change ahead of us. We only had three months of married life before our little preemie Anders joined our family. Since then it has been a whirlwind of activity and responsibility, of changes and constants.

 Although sometimes it has been trying and more than a bit tiring I wouldn't change our life for another. Chris has been a faithful provider, a loving husband and father and I am so thankful for a man who has embraced the challenges of family life so well. So, thank you Chris for sitting with Anders when he needs to "work it out", for bringing home the bacon, slaying the dragons and for staying mostly sane while doing so.  I truly look forward to many more years of marching forth together.