I heart spray paint

I might have a new love.

spray paint!

I’ve had some plans cranking away in the works, and a random one bubbled it’s way up to the surface today.

I have all these random baskets. I kind of shuffle them around and use them for different stuff. there’s one that lives on the dining room table that we store napkins in.

it’s ugly. the kids have gotten marker on it a few times, blah blah blah… whatever. so I suddenly decided to paint it!

now normally, gold is NOT my color. BUT, I decided to use it for 2 reasons: first, it was in the garage. shane used it to paint a pinewood derby car a few years ago, and it’s just been sitting there since. second, I thought it would look FAB with my christmas tablecloth, filled with red napkins, in about a month. we shall see.

but anyway, it was too much fun. too easy. and I have too many more plans!

<insert maniacal laughter here>

L.O.V.E.

so mary has been posting little design type things that have caught her eye lately. I’m not really trying to steal that… it’s just that I saw this and fell in love.

must share.

I think I must have a thing about fall.

I also have a thing about vintage 60’s looking fabrics and prints. I’m still trying to figure out where I could get my hands on that awesome yellow and orange mushroom wallpaper a couple friends had in their kitchen in their college apartment… but I digress.

found this at a site called somewhat simple that I might love:

here’s the tutorial… I might actually do it.

some day.

but in the mean time, I’ll just sigh and think how beautiful it is and dream about some day actually doing cool crafty stuff like this that I like but never do…

sigh…

halloween!

first off, I apologize for the extremely BAD job I did of photographing this whole deal. where was my brain?

halloween started for us on thursday, with a MOMS club playgroup. layla was super excited to get to change into her cowgirl costume when she got home from school. I had gone to target earlier that day to pick up some pink boots to complete the look.

micah refused to put on his costume.

I forgot my camera.

friday, was layla’s class halloween party, so she got to wear her costume to school. then micah and I joined her for the party.

micah refused to put on his costume.

I forgot my camera.

friday night, there was the ‘monster mash’ at the school. shane offloaded himself to a friend’s house, and dave and I took the other two to the school. there was bingo and ‘dancing’ (aka: running around like crazy people hopped up on sugar in the gym), food (aka: sugar), and fun times seeing all the kids in their costumes. dave managed to stuff micah into his costume this time, but…

I forgot my camera.

sunday, there was a ‘harvest party’ after church, with food and games and costumes and such. shane decided to put on his (cop-out) costume; dave, once again, managed to stuff micah into his costume; and…

layla refused to put on her costume.

I, however, REMEMBERED my camera!

superman, fishing for pumpkins:

non-costumed layla, cutting out her hand tree:

superman, still fishing (he did this for at least 10 minutes!):

#8, practicing soccer moves on a pumpkin:

superman, checking out one of his prizes:

superman, sampling a sucker and showing off his face paint:

layla, playing bingo (she was kind of confused, you think?):

and then, finally, trick-or-treating. everyone wore their costumes, with no major issues. the weather was perfect – no rain, not freezing, even got to crunch through piles of leaves on sidewalks!

of course, it didn’t occur to me to take any pictures until after it was all over and we were back at my parents’ house. they were all crazy-like, but hey, it’s a picture, right?

I’ll do better next year…

further purges…

okay, the rest of this week has been not quite as impressive as the earlier part, but there has been much in the way of nailing down times, places, prices, etc. I won’t go through my whole list again, because it’s long and most of the stuff on it was already blue, and therefore GONE. but several more things are gone and/or arranged, so I will report on those.

1. cloth diapers, etc.: have arranged a meeting next friday afternoon!
2. train table: GONE! picked up about 30 minutes ago!
3. travel system: friend wanted the stroller, so I’m splitting it up. stroller going to church w/ me on sunday for sale. car seat going on craigslist alone, but most likely getting donated.
4. tie-dye inventory: nothing major to report, but I did have the idea that I might be able to take the infant/children’s stuff to some local consignment shops. need to make some calls.
5. star stacker: in bag, by the door, ready to go to church w/ me on sunday.
6. homeschool/preschool supplies: packed a grocery bag and took to layla’s teacher today. still more stuff that would be better for preschool, so need to organize that and take it in.
7. bibs: packed in the latest bag to go to goodwill.
8. chewbacca costume: taken to it’s recipient yesterday!

there were a few other things I found homes for too…

1. race track play rug: dropped off at a friend’s house on wednesday.
2. farm play rug: taken to it’s recipient yesterday

I also have a big black garbage bag of this and that that I’ve picked up here and there around the house that will go to goodwill as soon as it’s full, which will be soon. I’m glad it’s black so the kids can’t see through it!

and then there’s the craigslist fail. I had 2 bites on my pack n play on tuesday morning. emailed back and forth a few times w/ the first one and arranged a meeting for wednesday morning. went there and sat for 20 minutes but she never showed up. BOO! so I went back home and called the second lady who had wanted it, and she had just finished purchasing a different one that morning. double BOO! so I re-listed it and hopefully will have more bites, but nothing yet. might have to lower the price, which ticks me off, since there were two people apparently willing to pay the $40 I was asking, and now there’s none. grrrr…

oh well. more sorting and such to do…

I’ll take “Things your big brother might do to you” for $200, Alex.

I heard hysterical giggling from down the hall when shane was supposed to be getting ready for band at the crack of dawn this morning….

in the words of the LITTLE brother:

“look at layla. she’s all jammied up!”

that she is.

repeats

moved the following two posts over here from the homemaking blog… mainly because they belong here, not there… and because I don’t like that blog.

Purge Progress.

In the last 24 hours, I have made MAJOR strides in attacking my list that I posted yesterday. The blue stuff is GONE. The purple stuff has a home and just needs to get there.

1. 6 sippy cups have a home and will be delivered on Sunday.
2. 3 mugs actually turned into 4 and have been dropped off at Goodwill this morning.
3. margarita glasses: Goodwill
4. plastic margarita glasses and pitcher: Goodwill
5. million baby spoons: some are going with the sippy cups, the rest went to Goodwill
6. 6 plastic cups: Goodwill
7. watermelon placemats: Goodwill
8. pacifier keeper: w/ the cups and spoons
9. citrus zester: Goodwill
10. orange peeler: Goodwill
11. tea ball: Goodwill
12. Spaghetti Factory glass: Goodwill
13. still need to connect w/ puzzle person
14. cloth diapers: have a drop off person, just need to set up a time
15. couch still here – need a non-rainy day
16. train table: still need to clean up and photograph this for friend
17. Pack N Play: got 2 bites on this this morning from craigslist. Hopefully meeting someone tomorrow morning. Just waiting for confirmation.
18. Stroller/Travel system: Stroller may have a home w/ sippy cups, et. al… waiting for confirmation. Then will relist car seat on Craigslist solo.
19. Crib: still no idea.
20. crates of clothing blanks: no idea
21. tie-dye inventory: nothing to report
22. powdered dyes: nothing to report
23. puppet theatre: GONE to a friend who picked it up this morning.
24. Star Stacker: need to put in a bag to take to church
25. scrapbooking supplies: my SIL might want a few things, need to go through
26. homeschool/preschool supplies: sent an email to layla’s teacher to see if she’s interested in a few things – waiting to hear back.
27. box of stuff to Goodwill: Goodwill
28. bag in garage: Goodwill
29. diaper bag: Goodwill
30. spice rack: forgot to pack it in the car. oops.
31. frame backpack: Goodwill
32. ring sling: SIL taking – will mail soon
33. bibs: forgot to pack – will take them with next trip to Goodwill
34. Crib bedding: Goodwill
35. screen door: haven’t seen the people next door in a few days.
36. wading pool: nothing yet, but garbage day is tomorrow, so I better get on it.
37. toy trucks: not yet.
38. media cabinet: not yet.

I also took to Goodwill:

1. 3 lunchboxes
2. set of Christmas pancake molds (sorry Trudy, they always stuck.)
3. Mariner Moose backpack
4. CM album tote I don’t use anymore

A friend has also claimed:

1. Chewbacca baby Halloween costume

So, needless to say, I am VERY excited. All morning long, I had this giddy feeling of anticipation about dropping the stuff off at Goodwill. It was almost like it was Christmas or something! The guy at the Goodwill drop-off place thanked me for my stuff, and I felt like throwing my arms around him and saying, “NO. Thank YOU!!!” I resisted.

So, Onward and OUTward… Hopefully I’ll have more to report tomorrow!

purge.

I have a major fear of being a pack rat. I definitely have the tendencies, and that paired with the domestically challenged aspect makes me a prime candidate to wind up on that disturbing show ‘Hoarders’. What’s worse, I see these tendencies in my son as well. Yes, The Pack Mule, could easily become The Pack Rat.

At any rate, I’ve been doing some major purging this past week. I really don’t like that we’re the kind of people who just don’t get stuff done. You know what I mean. There are the type of people who, upon getting an idea, or seeing a need, immediately take the steps to make it happen. Not us. We’re the type of people who sit on stuff.

But… I’ve been doing really well, and I’m quite pleased with what dave and I have accomplished. Yes, I’m prodding him into this too.

Here is the list of what we’ve gotten out of our house so far:

1. 2 old mattresses (To the dump. They’ve been sitting in our garage for at least a year. That’s what I mean by not getting stuff done.)
2. 1 HUGE back of clothes and such that has been compiling in my bedroom for several months (to a Goodwill drop off station)
3. 1 HUGE shopping bag FULL of kids’ books (also to Goodwill. I pulled at least half of our kids’ books. Mostly ones that annoyed me .)

Then there is the stuff queued up to leave the house next:

1. 6 sippy cups (sent out an email. If no one wants them, they’re going to Goodwill).
2. 3 mugs
3. 4 glass margarita glasses
4. 5 plastic margarita glasses + a matching pitcher
5. a million baby spoons
6. 6 small plastic cups that used to have sipper lids, all of which fell victim to the dishwasher
7. 5 vinyl watermelon placemats (don’t say you’re not jealous!)
8. 1 pacifier keeper
9. 1 citrus zester
10. 1 orange peeler
11. 1 metal loose-leaf tea ‘ball’
12. 1 Old Spaghetti Factory Italian soda glass
13. 2 really simple 4 piece plastic puzzles (have someone who wants these, just have to connect)
14. 27 or so cloth fitted diapers, 7 covers, and 5 hemp doublers (also have someone who wants these and need to connect)
15. couch (all vacuumed out and ready to go to goodwill or some other donation site)
16. train table (my kids build their tracks on the floor now – have a friend who wants this)
17. Pack N Play + 3 sheets (posted on Craigslist – waiting for bites. May repost at a lower price.)
18. Stroller/Travel system (same as Pack N Play)
19. Crib (No idea what to do with this. Can you donate these? It’s a drop-side, and with all the recent recalls, I have no idea if it is one of those or not, but I assume no one will want it. Ideas?)
20. 4 HUGE crates of clothing blanks leftover from my tie-dye business. (NO idea how to get rid of these. Don’t want to just give away because it’s worth many hundreds of dollars.)
21. All remaining tie-dye inventory. (I’ve unloaded a lot of this the last few years at the MOMS club garage sale. I guess I’ll just keep doing it until it’s mostly gone and then just donate what’s left.)
22. Several partially used jars of powdered fabric dyes (I’m thinking Craigslist or Ebay. Not really sure.)
23. Table top Puppet Theatre (my kids don’t use this because they have no puppets. And, no, I’m not going to get them some for it, because that would defeat the purpose of what I’m trying to do here. Think I might offer this to friends by sending around an email.)
24. Star Stacker baby toy (offered this to friends at church – we just haven’t connected. I think I’ll put it in a bag and take it there and put their names on it for them to take whenever they might see it.)
25. A Huge crateful of scrapbooking supplies from my Creative Memory business (again, no idea. My advice to you: don’t EVER get involved in ANY business venture that requires the keeping of inventory!!!!)
26. Several shelves and a crate full of homeschool and/or preschool books, guides, art supplies, games, etc. (might drop some off at the preschool I used to work at, or more likely, Goodwill)
27. A box already packed full of stuff for Goodwill – random baseball hats, a camping lantern that we can’t figure out what’s wrong w/ it and don’t have the patience/desire to investigate further, an old laptop, a toy fire chief’s truck, several cloth diaper/burp rags, a couple crip sheets… maybe more. Can’t remember, I’m not going to dig in and look either. Once it’s packed, it’s packed.
28. A bag in the garage w/ old tie-dye clothes that didn’t come out quite right.
29. 1 diaper bag
30. 1 spinning spice rack w/ one missing bottle
31. a frame backpack (the kind you put your kid in – we got a different one)
32. a ring sling (might send an email around about this one too)
33. a bunch of bibs
34. Crib bedding (Goodwill for sure!)
35. Old screen door (we have some ‘metal collectors’ across the street. I think I’ll ask if they can take it.)
36. Old plastic wading pool (I think I just need to rip it into pieces and dole it out into the trash for a few weeks.)
37. 4 big toy trucks (tried to sell them at the garage sale, and was stupid enough to bring them back home when they didn’t sell. Goodwill now!)
38. Media cabinet (Goodwill, I guess. But first I need to get all the VHS tapes out of it and (I guess) get rid of those… especially since we don’t own a VCR!

Holy Cow! I’m sure there’s more too. What makes me mad is the fact that the reason I still have any of this stuff is not because I need it or use it, but because it’s easier to live with it than it is to do something about getting rid of it. Seriously. How pathetic is that?

Well, enough wasting time writing about it. Time to find a box to fill!

micah turns 3!

3 years ago:

2 years ago:

1 year ago:

today:

my BABY is 3! THREE!!!!

happy birthday, micah!

fall, glorious fall…

okay, I know I make a BIG stink when it stops being summer around here. it just seems to happen so fast. one day you’re in short sleeves, a pretty skirt, and flip flops… the next you’re digging out sweaters and cursing as you stuff your feet into socks and real shoes. it wouldn’t be so bad, except, around here, you know you may as well pack that cute summer stuff away until next july. there’s no point in holding out hope. it isn’t going to be warm anymore.

but, that’s not to say the weather can’t be nice here in the fall. we’ve had a lot of really nice days lately. nice = mid-60’s and sunny. very pleasant actually, assuming you’ve got a sweatshirt.

but really, I do love fall. what’s not to love about trees changing into their autumn colors, set against a gorgeous blue sky? water droplets on spiderwebs in the mornings… driving down the road through a leaf storm…

now that I’ve settled in and come to terms with the fact that it’s no longer summer, I’m okay with it. of course, this helps a lot:

trader joe’s spiced cider. OMG! there is nothing like it. it’s a seasonal item, so every year, some time around mid-september, I remember this stuff and start to get antsy for when they’ll get it in. I found some last friday and it totally made my day!

happy fall!

snifflesniffle, coughcough, ACHOOOOO!!!

ugh.

we’ve been hit.

first cold of the fall.

micah started it a couple days ago. yesterday my throat felt a little scratchy, and by dinner time, I had to declare myself officially SICK. I passed out on the couch last night while dave was watching the giants game, and when I woke up, I made some announcement about how much my throat hurt, and he said, ‘yeah, me too’. so he’s down. and then shane woke up this morning not feeling well.

LAYLA, however, is just fine. believe it or not, my child who picks up cold viruses like a magnet is the only one without a cold right now. I’m completely flabbergasted by this, but I’m certainly not holding my breath. I am really kind of astonished by the fact that she hasn’t gotten sick yet. school started over a month ago and, given her track record, I kind of expected to have to call her in sick the second day. but no. she’s been FINE.

hopefully it’ll stay that way… maybe the school environment has kicked her immune system into hyperdrive or something and the rest of us are just being complacent. who knows. at any rate, I’m not really complaining. when layla gets a cold, it’s not just a cold. it’s like she got ran over by a locomotive… usually involves a fever, projectile snotting for a week or more, much red blotchiness, and possibly an infection of some sort of related member (eye, ear, sinus), and a trip to the doctor…

so anyway, for now, I’ll sit at home and enjoy the fact that I have a legitimate excuse to not watch soccer in the rain. bad mom, I know…

knitting and reading, here I come… oh, and the 4+ loads of laundry that need to be folded. ugh.

another tooth bites the dust

layla’s second tooth finally came out last night!

I’m not sure what was up, but every picture I took of her looked like she was staring into a shiny christmas ball and her face looks all weird. she cannot pose for pictures. ugh. major weirdo-cheesyface.

but anyway, there’s hole. the top ones are a tad wiggly too, so check back in a month or two… we take our time with these things around here!

cyclocross!

today, 3/5 of my family participated in their first cyclocross race! dave, shane and layla all raced.

dave’s race was at 9:15, so we hauled our butts out of bed at a crazy hour and headed over to south seattle.

here’s dave getting ready to warm up in the rain.

riders have to dismount and run up hills or over obstacles – carrying their bikes with them, then remount and ride on.

just crossed the finish line. the race was 30 minutes long – 4 laps. dave placed 58 out of 63. not bad for a first race AND, more importantly, not last!

the muddier you get, the better.

next up, was shane’s race. for whatever reason, it took FOREVER for them to start this race. it was at least 15 minutes late starting… layla and micah entertained themselves by running around in the mud.

there he goes – red shirt.

shane had no trouble with the obstacles, even lugging his *heavy* non-road bike over… the kid on left, however…

all done, and nice and muddy too. he came in 13 out of 35 and was pretty jazzed about that. can’t remember how long the race was. maybe 20 minutes? it was 2 laps. I missed the end of the race because, since it started so late, it overlapped with layla’s race. I love having to be in two places at once!

here is layla, lining up at the start. she’s only had her training wheels off since wednesday!

she had a little bit of trouble, since she’s not used to riding on the grass and around sharp turns, but still, pretty impressive for a new rider!

it was definitely a lot of fun. I’m very proud of my riders!

more soccer… not so many more pictures.

BAD PHOTOGRAPHER MOM!

I totally forgot to take a single picture during shane’s game today! grrr! I don’t know what I was thinking. oh well, I have like 10 more opportunities…

it was a good game. they wound up winning 1-0. the weather was fabulous – considering that we’ve had really crappy, rainy weather lately. I really hate watching soccer in the rain… but it was warm enough to only need a sweatshirt. there were vending machines right behind our field, and micah entertained himself by trying to get them to give him a bottle of water. he even came and pick pocketed me… he was completely convinced that the penny he took out of my wallet was going to buy him that water! yet another thing I should have taken a picture of…

anyway, when the game was over, was when I remembered my camera, so we have pictures of this:

and this…

if you blow up that bottom picture, you can actually see shane’s back. he’s #8.

awesome job, mom.

soccer… and then more soccer coming soon!

layla had her first soccer game on thursday. it was a success! there are 6 girls on her team, 5 of them are in her kindergarten class, and the 6th is in the all-day kindergarten. it’s fun for her, and for me, to get to know some of the kids and moms in a couple of different venues.

coach dave with the ‘diamonds’.

because the other team was also in red, the girls had to wear pinnies. kinda lame for their first game. one was going to refuse to wear it, but mom stepped in with a firm ‘put it on’, and that solved that problem. then they all admired their neon green dresses.

the actual game-playing portion of it was rather amusing, as I expected it to be. the team is split between those who want to go after the ball and those who want to do somersaults… I’d call layla a daisy-picker, except that they play on a turf field… her first turn in the game, she spent most of the time high-fiving a teammate. she even put the ball in the wrong goal once! but hey, it’s a goal, right? gotta love U-6 soccer. she’s also convinced that she’s the fastest one on the team… uh. yeah.

poor micah, he has major little brother syndrome. thinks it’s terribly unfair that he doesn’t get to be on the field. he entertained himself by jumping over cones and playing around with another little brother on the sidelines.

and being cute.

shane’s first game is today (well, minus the tournament they played in august), so I’ll have to take some more pictures and do another soccer post… U-12 is just a tad different!