Wrinkled?

Today I am writing over at Mile High Mamas, I am thrilled to be contributing to this wonderful Colorado Mom Blog, which is the parenting blog for the Denver Post - so Click on over there and read away, if you like what you read leave a comment - I would love to hear from you!



Wrinkled?

Sorry Ladies I am not here to talk about an amazing product I found to stop the formation of the hideous ones around my face...

Do you remember this I love Laundry? Well then here goes:

I am here to talk about the ridiculous ones in my daughters sheets. The sheets on our bed are fine and wrinkle free but they only make them in fancy, deep, boring old adult colors.

READ ON at Mile High Mamas

Books books...everywhere books

Amending the previous post:

Imagine my dismay when my friend Bonnie mentioned this in her comment "I thought maybe you were going to tell about her "organizing" her books." OH MAN, I totally meant to and I totally didn't. Do I have a brain?

Then, to top it off another blogger commented that she liked our bookshelves because her books are EVERYWHERE...

Well, now it is time to Share the story of Lauren "Organizing the bookshelf" and time for me to come clean about books at our house...

It starts like this: When I clean up the books I arrange them Left to Right, Tallest to Shortest taking great care to make sure they line up width, height etc...so...when Lauren cleaned the playroom she also "organized" the bookshelf. I went to put a book on the shelf and was SHOCKED to see this

As you can see...they are not organized by height or size at all. I stood there silent for a moment and Lauren very proudly announced "I organized the by Alphabetizing them, well only by first letter not all the letters but the A's are together and the B's are together you know what I mean mom"

Mom takes a deep breath and beams a BIG smile and says "That is GREAT Lauren, wow that was a lot of work" I find a place for my book, leave, turn off the light and start to contemplate how long I have to wait before I redo it! Oh Lauren, I love you dear! I love you I love you I love you but...I can't do alphabetized bookshelves for long!


Now for the confession. Books, neatly on the shelf, Well yes...but you have to see it all...

In the play room we have the above now "alphabetized" book shelf as well as these two very cluttered shelves:

This shelf is mostly for Holiday books but also stores some "to do" books!

This shelf is mostly EDU Books (homework helpers!) - Oh shoot I forgot to get a picture of the shelf with the encyclopedias from the 1970's on it...oh well..if you look at the previous post they are at the top of the built in shelves!

In Lauren's Room we also have these shelves with books on them:

Junie B Jones, Beverly Cleary, Box Car Children, Heidi and more

American Girl, Russian Ballet Diaries

Shell Silverstein, Charlottes Web, Giant book of Madeline and more...

Just books, I have no idea - one looks like it is American girl though!

Right across the hall in Hailey's room you will also find these books:

IN A BASKET ON THE FLOOR

IN A BASKET ON THE DRESSER

(ok, think bah bah blacksheep now...)

Ma Ma Dear-est have you anymore? Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Three bags full:

Three big bags stuffed full, tucked in the corner of Hailey's closet

because I can't find anyplace to put them...

Down the hall a little further you can find a some books in my closet (and under the bed but it is too dark down there for pictures:

I think this shelf was meant for Sweaters or some other wonderful item of clothing but instead it houses books, some of my books!

Now, for the grand FINALE - My favorite place in the whole house to keep books. I can't believe I lived 35 years without this awesome book storage spot...

I LOVE MY Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
! I have read 27 books on it since June and look how much space they take up! You just can't beat that. There are books that I will still buy for me because I want to have hard copies but NOT MANY!

OK - so that is it...for now. Lauren IS amazing - cleaning, organizing, whining, picking fights with her sister, helping mom in her times of need!

My Books are not that organized no matter what my 8 year does...we have books EVERYWHERE and probably always will!

Thanks for reading!

What was I thinking?

What was I thinking when the vacuum wasn't working well and I thought it needed to be cleaned?

I was thinking I could take the whole thing apart, use the air compressor and blow all the nasties out. That is what I was thinking...when over an hour later (and help from daddy) I thought to myself..."Hmmm, I wonder about the roller brushy thing on the bottom" so I pull the freshly blown out vacuum out of the closet again to turn it upside down and EWWWWW. OMG there was so much hair wrapped around the roller brushy thing you couldn't even see the roller brushy thing - no wonder it wasn't picking the big things up anymore! It was just skating right over them on a smooth bed of hair. So I set out to give the Dyson a Hair Cut.

45 minutes, gross dusty fingers and a bag full of nasty girly hair later...The Dyson is like new again...so what do I do? I vacuum. Dirty it all up and wait to repeat the process again in a couple years.

What was I thinking when I set out to make my own Christmas Cards?

I was thinking that even though I never had a single artsy fartsy bone in my body with the help of Archivers I could do anything.

That is what I was thinking...When 3 trips to the store, 2 color choice replacements, a very sore shoulder from the stupid little rub off things that come with Popsicle sticks, a little help from Lauren and yet - still I sit here defeated...staring at a really pitiful effort at card making wondering what on earth I will do with all the supplies?

What was I thinking when I decided to blog about what I was thinking?

I was thinking that if I wrote it all down perhaps it would make it all better? Perhaps the Christmas cards would magically get done and look just the way I wanted them to. That is what I was thinking.

When 10 minutes later I sat typing on the computer thinking I should probably end my pity party, pick something better to do and move on.

So for now, I am moving on. Archivers and I have a date tomorrow at 9:30 to find out if I can salvage this mess, the Dyson is still working well, and now I will blog about the things you care about - Lauren and Hailey and all their adventures!

Thanks for playing,

Supposed to be a lovely day

Wonder if we will get smacked with wind again? I shouldn't complain as some are getting hit with earthquakes and tornados - but I really don't like the wind! Anyway, hoping to get outside with Hailey some today! I also need to do some cleaning in the basement - namely clearing off the stairs - Everytime something needs to go down it seems to only make it halfway then the stairs get super cluttered! My own fault, Bummer.

Hailey stayed up late last night. She was in her bed but she was AWAKE. She was "reading" books, singing (at the top of her lungs) all songs started with 5, 6, 7, 8 .... it was pretty cute! She also tried to "WILL" her door open - "when I say OPEN you open" funny thing is it never opened - guess she does not have any special powers!

Lauren has a social studies test tomorrow - she is determined to get an A on it. She has a B+ in social studies and she does not like that....the problem is the tests are hard and as previously stated expect people to just blurt what was in the book - even if they get the concept they can get the answer wrong - to me concept is more important than a sentance from a text book.

Speaking of text books - I saw this on and EDUBLOG last week...now seems the perfect time to share:

The Need for Textbooks
I was troubleshooting a computer today right next to a poster with our tornado instructions on it. As I was waiting on a reboot I started reading it and this paragraph jumped out at me.
If there is not time to move rooms, students should assume the duck and cover position under tables or desks in the room. If tables or desks are not available, students should hold textbooks over their heads.Ahhh, now I finally understand the need for textbooks in K-12. Somehow, "duck and cover" and "hold[ing] textbooks over their heads" struck me as particularly appropriate descriptions of some of the issues facing education.

it sparked a pretty good comment section on the blog most completely agreeing with the statement - only 1 defending the use of text books. My favorite comment was the one that said - I have to ask, in what situation would desks and/or tables NOT be available or have those been cut from many budgets too?

Well, enough for now. Happy Tuesday All.