5 Things Meme

I was tagged by The Reluctant Housewife. Thanks! I havne't done a meme in a long time. This should be fun!

Five Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:

Working at Wal-Mart (uber fun!!)
Living with my Parents
Going to college
Being Single
Dating

Five Things On My To Do List:

Make Bread
Finish Crocheting Garland
Proofread something that I retyped
Measure Doodle for a dress for a future niece
Write in my journal

Five Things I Like To Snack On:

Peppermint Ice Cream
Cheese Cake
Mentos
Heath Bars
Reese's Pieces

Five Things I Would Do If I Was A Millionaire:

Pay off bills (mortgage, student loans, etc)
Buy more yarn and books than anyone should ever have
Add on to our house and yard
Pay for my kids' college and missions
Help others (friends, family, random strangers)

Five Places I Have Lived:

Apopka, Florida
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Pullman, Washington
Where we just moved from
Where we live now

Five Jobs I Have Had:

Wal-Mart Associate
Subway Sandwich Artist
Newspaper delivery person
Mommy
ChaCha Guide

Five People I Am Tagging:

Juli
Laura
Mimi
Tearese
Hairy Shoe Fairy

Brownie Points

I was "cool" with the young girls at church! I wore this:

It came with my new jeans. Part of me liked it, but I wasn't so sure.

I have such horrible fashion sense that I love compliments from those who know what they are talking about!

Packratitis

Do you suffer from packratitis? The symptoms can be deceiving. If you never look at your stuff, is it really there? Do you keep something in the hope/delusion that you'll use it again, so you shouldn't throw it away? Do you keep every scrap of fabric, paper, yarn or any other craft item that comes your way, thinking you'll use it one day? Do you keep things that have no sentimental value, but still take up the space in your basement? Do you look around at your stuff and wonder who brought it all in, because it definitely wasn't you!

I think there is value in keeping some things. If you will use it, if it isn't broken, it may have a use in your home. If you don't or won't, why bother having the wasted space? Sentimental items are in a whole other category in my book, too!

I cleaned up the basement so that the kids had more room to play, especially when there's snow on the ground and it's hard to go outside. I put all of the toys downstairs. The kids are welcome to bring them up to play, but their home is the basement. Most of the toys have a box or tote that they live in and they can be brought up and easily cleaned up. It has made the whole rest of the house so much tidier. I love it! Now, the basement holds the mess, but at least we don't have to clean it up all the time if I don't want to. I don't have to trip over the mess, either!

I found this this article about clutter. I think it has some good points to make about the things we keep around!

We may be recovering from this dreadful disease, but we still have a lot to go through. I think we've gotten better about what we keep, but we still have the years of back-up to get rid of. Wish me luck!

Friends

The kids and I just got back from a great day! We got to visit some old friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. And, no, I didn't take out the camera. I did better than usual--I actually took it on our adventure, but I need to be a better blogger and take more pictures--for you!

Anyhow, we met about 4 1/2 years ago when we lived next door to each other in an apartment building, here in town. I had to move soon after due to the presence of my run-in with a certifiable crazy woman...that is a whole other post! We have been able to keep in touch after several moves and now we are living about 30 minutes away from each other. I'm so glad they live so close! I have trouble finding "bosom friends".

We let the kids play and we just talked for 3 1/2 hours! It was really nice. We are planning to have them come visit soon, so that they can see our new house, too!

I hope we can always keep in touch. I just love her and our sons are great friends, too. (The girls are too young to care beyond that day!)

Gardening Humor (?)

Have any of you seen this? I'm just surprised that they did so many!

Biting

Doodle is a biter! I'm getting a bit worried. She likes to bite down when she is done eating and it hurts really bad, especially since it is coming from gums with no teeth! I don't know quite what to do with her. She likes the sounds I make when she does it and thinks I'm being funny! This doesn't bode well.

At least my kids have gotten teeth really late...

Wearing

Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing is having a contest! To win something from Nonny and Boo!

It's International Babywearing Week, and I thought I'd join in.

I thought I'd share this babywearing picture of someone much cuter than me! Princess is wearing her Jojo doll. I made her a little sling from an old t-shirt and she loves to be like me. She will carry around one doll or another like this and has a great time!

I really enjoy using carriers for Doodle! Princess is still small enough, too. Doodle loves to see everything I see, so she loved it when I put her in a wrap facing out. She also does well in a sling, but I am still learning that one. I usually only wear her when we are out and about, but sometimes it comes in handy at home, too.

I have three carriers that I actually use. I made the wrap and sling and bought my mei tai. (There are tons of patterns out there to help you make your own wraps.) I love all three and use them for different occasions. I like the mei tai the best, but Doodle isn't big enough to wrap her legs around me and thinks she should stand up when her legs are tucked under her. (I think she's going to be an early walker...the other two were.) So, we mostly use the wrap. She loves it as long as she isn't hungry. I haven't figured out how to nurse at the same time.

I have posted here and here about babywearing.

I also really like the carry in this video:



Also, to use a wrap as a sling, you can tie this bowline knot and you're ready to go. (That is what Princess is wearing.)



Almost every time I'm out and wearing Doodle, I get compliments on my wraps and people want to know more. I love it! It is fun to talk about it and help others learn more.

Love Journal

Many of us use a blog as a journal, me included. It is a great place to keep things as long as you back it up, to make sure it doesn't get erased. I haven't had this happen, but I know many who have. I also love to write in a paper journal. I've done it off and on since I was about 10 years old. I love to be able to go back and see what I was thinking (or not thinking) about. I also like to be able to get the memory boost. I have a horrible memory, but if I know about when something happened, I can go and hope that I wrote about it. It is really fun to look back at the same time in different years to see how my life was changing.

Captain Marvelous and I started a "Love Journal" several years ago. It is a place for us to write love letters to each other and leave them on the pillow or somewhere the other will find them. It is a great way to remember how we feel about each other and read about how much we love and appreciate each other. Just as long as we don't loose it for several years!

Making History

If you didn't see the speech, you should go watch it now! I think Barack Obama has what it takes to be a great leader! He wants to pull this country together! I love that he wants us all to work together, he isn't just making promises to do things for us, he wants us all to try to do the things we can to fix our problems!

It Really Helps to Unpack When You Move

We have started to miss some things that we had before we moved. I guess the whole "move when you're 7 months pregnant" thing made it hard. I organized things, but then I stopped when I just wanted to clear the floor. I ended up with several boxes that just got mixed in with other random things. So, this morning I went looking for the hair drier (I rarely blow dry my hair, so it wasn't missed until now.) and some Christmas decorations. I found those and some other decorations. (I should have missed them by now, but I still haven't gotten around to decorating this house--we've been here for five months!) I also found some books and memorabilia that I had forgotten about. I'm now going to start reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to the kids. I'm excited! It's been many years since I've gotten those out!

So, I feel good about the progress in the basement. Right now, it looks worse than before I started, but there is a lot more order than before. At least I know where things are and they are together. I just need to do a lot of sorting and purging to have it to the point I want it. I'm tired of it for today, so it will be there waiting for me tomorrow!

Pressing Flowers

A couple of weeks ago Princess needed something to do. I also wanted to preserve some of my favorite cute little flowers.

What you'll need:

A very cute assistant.


Check!!

A cute basket (if you're going to take pictures) or whatever you want for carrying the flowers and keeping your assistant occupied and helpful.

Scissors for clipping the flowers.


Flowers that will flatten well. I used pansies, but you can use almost anything that will lay flat and allow a book to close on them. Make sure the flowers aren't wet, or you could end up with moldy flowers rather than dried, flattened ones.

A phone book or other book that you don't mind getting some possible staining on. Or you can be fancy and use some blotting paper. Newspaper between books works well, too. Just don't use paper towels. They leave bumpy marks all over the flower petals. Lay the flowers as flat as you can get them and be careful as you close them in to make sure they stay the way you've placed them.


Lots of big heavy books to put on top of it all.


Two weeks or so to wait depending on how thick your flowers are.

Check on them and when they are completely dry, take them out of the phone book. Be careful of how much you handle them. They will be fragile.

These are dry, though in the picture they don't look all that different from the just picked ones.


Now you are ready to get creative! I got out my laminator.


I made little bookmarks for myself and a few people who I have yet to decide on. I also made a larger card for Princess to play with. Now, she can play with flowers when the ones outside are covered with snow!


Have fun! I'm excited for spring, so I can do this again when I have more flowers to choose from!

Fall Pictures

We are having a fun fall. I have mixed feelings about the coming of winter, but I guess I can't stop it, so I'll have to embrace it!

The kids had hours of fun in the leaves. We re-raked several times, had leaf fights, leaf parties, burying in the leaves, swimming in the leaves, hide from the passing cars behind the leaves and many more games!



Not to be excluded. Doodle didn't care much for the leaves or maybe it was the grass. She also got lots of leaves when the others threw them close to her.


For Halloween we had Commander Cody (Clone Trooper), Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh and Indiana Jones!!



The spider pumpkin turned out great! Thanks Cap'n Marvelous!