Thanksgiving Recap and Christmas Decorating

I love Thanksgiving.  It is a great day to eat some good food and spend a lot of time with your family.  However, when all your family lives 2,000 miles away, all you are left with is a day of good food- and that is not that exciting.  Thanksgiving is probably the hardest time I have being away from family and it has become not my most favorite holiday.  I really miss our family and look forward to the boys being old enough to travel at the Thanksgiving holiday (when everything is crazy and it all can go wrong) so we can once again spend the day with our family.  We did cook up the whole meal, like we do every year, but I only took this one picture of Rob with the persimmon pudding he made.



On to happier things- like decorating the house for Christmas.  During the summer of 2011, we picked up a Christmas tree at a neighbor's estate/moving-into-retirement-home-and-downsizing sale.  It was a good deal at 5 bucks and it was a good test to see how we felt about going from the real tree to an artificial tree.



I was very anti-fake tree but I found myself growing to like the fake one.  It holds up better with the boys, no watering or drying out, very little needles come off the thing and I can put it up the day after Thanksgiving and it will look the same on Christmas.  To solve the smell issue, Rob found a candle for me that makes the house smell like Christmas tree.  Now I was sold.  The only thing is that I was wishing it had clear lights and was taller.  I started scanning craigslist and waiting.  I missed out on one so I waited a bit longer and found a really nice looking one at a really nice looking house.  I went to peep it out last Friday and it was awesome.  AND it was only $50.  That thing must have cost at least $300-$400 when it was new.  The owner was meticulous about taking care of it and storing it and it is in fantastic shape.  I brought it home and we set it up right away and decorated it.



Most of the decorating around the house is done now, including putting the lights and garlands on the exterior of the house.  I still have some more to do, like decorating the tree in the family room but I need to go shopping for some Rex-and-Wyatt-proof decorations because they destroyed the ones I had on it last year.  I love Christmastime!

Thanksgiving Prep Part 1 - Crafts

Rex had a Thanksgiving feast at school today.  They ate a lot of food, decorated their own placemats and made special headwear for the occasion.



I'm not real sure how this would rate on the politically correct scale for Thanksgiving attire but I think I made something like that when I was in school 30 years ago.  I was planning on having him make something similar for our own Thanksgiving dinner as seen below.

Source: celebrations.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I don't know if I can get Wyatt to do it but I might try.  Rex and I could always make one for him if he isn't interested.  Because even if he doesn't want to make it, he will want to wear one on Thanksgiving if his brother has one.  The decorating placemats thing is a good idea too so now I'm trying to think how I want to do that one.  This idea looks pretty good.

Source: jennwa.blogspot.com via Shelby on Pinterest

That is probably too much for Wyatt so maybe this one is a better idea for him.

Trying to paint his little hand will be tricky, for sure, but I think we could manage.  I've only got two days though so I better get on it asap if I am going to get placemats and turkey hats ready in time!

Snowball Jamboree

Last night was our town's Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and festival in the downtown area so we made plans to go check it out.  Rob asked me what it was called and I told him, "The snowball jamboree or something.  I don't know."  I knew it started with snow but couldn't remember the rest- I think it is actually called Snow Magic Festival but I could still be wrong.  Anyhow,  I love that our boys are getting old enough to go out and do those kinds of things.  A lot of the shops and businesses had refreshments and activities as well as a trolley ride and kiddie train ride.  Rob had to work a little late so we missed the tree lighting ceremony which I realized wasn't so bad once we saw the tree.



We passed by a tree with lights a few blocks away, in front of City Hall, when we were arriving and Rob wondered if that was the tree.  I told him no, that I thought the official Christmas Tree was on Main Street in a little plaza area.  Well, I was right- that's where we found that tree.  It was a little strange though because the one in front of City Hall was way bigger and we thought it was kind of puny.  I think the biggest thing that I'm having trouble with is why there are no decorations on it.  What's up with that?  Hmm.  But they had a sign and stage and microphone all set up in front of this tree so I'm sure that it was the one.  The tree may have been a disappointment but everything else was great, especially the kiddie train ride.





The trolley ride looked like fun too but with our late start, we were running out of time.  We stopped in at a few stores we'd never been in before and found one we will be returning to a lot, I'm sure- the fancy candy store.  Not one with like jellybeans or bottlecaps everywhere but like seriously good chocolates.  They also had gelato but it wasn't really the night to try that.  It looked delicious so we will have to try it another time.  It may have been a little strange to have all the Christmas stuff starting up before Thanksgiving, but with the weather here I understand why.  It wasn't bad at all out there and in another few weeks, it could be mighty cold.  I am so ready to get Thanksgiving over with so I can really start up with all the Christmas decorations and activities!

Where were you before, Monroe Bisque?

When we first moved into our house 5 1/2 years ago, everything had to be repainted.  The living room was peach, some of the bedrooms were pink and yellow and everything just needed a freshening up.  It also seemed like a good idea to keep the colors consistent in the house.  So everything besides the bathrooms is either Churchill Hotel Vanilla (love it) or  Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe (not a fan).  Here is the taupe living room right after it was painted.

I kept hoping I would like it but I have just never warmed up to it.  I was so scared of picking a tan that had too much pink or peach in it that I ended up with one that was basically gray.  And now I know that "taupe" is the codeword for "gray".  Lesson learned.  And it is all my fault; I picked it so I hate to ask Rob if we could repaint it.   So last May, while Rob was in California for a little racing mini-vacation, I thought I would attempt to paint our living room and dining room and the two adjacent hallways myself.  It would be a nice surprise and I didn't figure I would be sleeping much at night without Rob home and I would have time then to paint.  This is how much I got done.

I got my little tester spot on the wall and verified that I loved the new color.  It is perfect.  It has more of a yellow-y undertone that looks a thousand times better with our trim. Where were you before, Monroe Bisque?   After I got the boys to bed the first night, I realized what a large space this was that I was attempting to paint all by myself.  I also realized how tired I was after looking after the boys by myself all day.  Uh oh.  I knew where this was headed- there was no way I was getting any of that painting done.  New Plan- Rob will paint when he gets back to thank me for looking after the boys for several days while he went to California and raced with his buddies.  Rob apparently wasn't on board with that plan because that wall has looked like that for the last 6 months.  Now that it is getting cold, I know for sure that the painting won't get done for another few months until it is warm outside again.  Rob took the old paint to the hardware store and got it mixed up really well and today I covered over my sample.

I was so resistant to painting over it because it feels like I am losing ground in my quest to get that room repainted.  Eventually though the big splotch on the wall was just too much to handle and it needed to get covered up.  I will just have to be extra nice to Rob over the winter and make sure that when the temperatures go up, my Monroe Bisque paint makes its way out of the basement and onto the walls.

Hulk Get Sleepy

I am the first to admit that my boys get a little wild sometimes but when it comes to bedtime and even nap time, they are the BEST.  Often times, they come up to us and tell us when they are ready to go to bed.  Usually it is Rex but sometimes Wyatt does it too.  It is so awesome.  Like tonight, it was about 8:30 p.m. and Wyatt told me, "Let's go bed" and Rex chimed right in, "Yeah- it's time to go bed now.  Let's go."  Well, okay I guess!  What kids do that??  We are really lucky and we know it.  So we washed them up and put them to bed as requested.  They don't always make it to bed though before they crash out.



That's Rex asleep on the couch.  That was late yesterday afternoon, after his scheduled rest time.  He doesn't have to take a nap anymore but he has to spend an hour in his room, playing quietly.  He usually reads his V-Reader or plays with his Mobigo.  He does pretty good though sometimes it is challenging and we have to keep battling the whole time about why he needs to stay in his room.  Anyhow, he probably should have taken the nap yesterday because this was no place to sleep.  A few minutes after I took that picture, little brother got up and immediately began harassing Rex until he woke up.

And while we are on the topic of sleeping and beds, Rex recently realized he is strong enough to move his around his room.  Wood floors + bed on felt pads = easily maneuvered bed.  So he pushed it over to the middle of his room.



Sorry for the poor quality- this is another one of my terrible pictures from my phone.  (Side note- don't buy the Samsung Stratosphere.  It has been nothing but problems for me and nothing works good on it.)   I was wondering what he was up to and it didn't take too long to figure it out.



With the bed right in the middle of the room, he could now pull the chains on the fan/light to operate it. Oh my.  He treated us to a very short light show before we got him down and put the room back together.  The kid is huge and strong like bull.  And way too smart.   We could be in for it with that guy.

Parent Teacher Conference Number 1

Yesterday was my first parent teacher conference. It is kind of a crazy thing for me to think about. I am a parent and I go to parent teacher conferences at my kid's school.  The teacher was still meeting with some other parents when I arrived but she had the kids make a little book with a page about each of them that we could read while we were waiting.  Rex's was great and was just so Rex that I had to get my phone out and take a little picture of it.



Apparently he wanted to be a doctor that day.  He says that a lot but he comes up with all kinds of jobs from garbage truck driver to bank teller to fireman.  He does love to pretend he is a doctor though and work on all of us so I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is what he grows up to do.  Anyhow, Rex may have picked an actual job but some of the kids, not so much.  I wish I had more time to read them all because they were cracking me up.  There were some policemen, firemen, and astronauts in there too but the two funniest answers were a "fish" and a "green batman".  It makes me laugh again right now just typing it.  A fish and a green batman- kids are so funny!!

Rex's teacher said he is doing really well.  He plays good with all the kids, his writing is coming along, he knows all the letters and sounds great but we need to help him with the counting a little more.  She showed me lots of different things he has been working on with the letters, drawing and even how well he is using scissors.  The one thing everyone at the school (so she says) loves about him is how happy and friendly he is and how he is just so excited to be there everyday.  It is all very true- that kid loves people and loves to go to school.  It makes this mommy proud to hear how well her son is doing and it was just nice to have that time to hear all about his school experience and see what he has been working on the last few months and how much he has progressed.  Yay for the future Dr. Rex!

Tasty Weekend

I can't think of much else we did this weekend besides eat.  Not me so much- thanks Weight Watchers- but the boys were grubbing all weekend.  I wasn't feeling well on Friday so Rob made dinner for himself and the boys that night which included sweet potato pie.  I did try a little of that and wow, it was so good!  Last night I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Now I know that might not excite everyone, but we all love it so it was a good night for us.  Tonight Rob cooked up some Italian sausage and peppers and was pretty proud of himself.

He is going to make someone a nice little wife someday!  Rex had been asking me earlier today if we could make "muffins" and I finally figured out he wanted cupcakes, not muffins.  So it turned out my two boxes of cake mix were past their expiration date- not much of a cake maker around here, especially from a box.  I asked if we could make cookies since I wasn't feeling the from-scratch route and he was okay with that.  Then I remembered I had a couple of old bananas that we needed to make banana bread with so we finally settled on that and got to work on our banana bread after dinner.




It turned out we had a guest helper.  I tried to get Wyatt into it too but it is a little hard to find things a wily 2 year old can do.  He was so excited with what he got to do though.  He kept telling me, "I helping!  I helping!" which was so adorable.  I kept getting him a chair to stand on but every time he would use the chair to get on the trash can and then stand or sit on it.  I thought it was so funny so I took a photo of that too.



Speaking of taking photos, sorry for the poor quality of mine lately.  I was already missing a screw from my camera (my fault) and then on the trip to California, I lost another one at some point.  So the camera was literally falling apart and I had to hold the pieces together whenever I wanted to take a photo.  Thankfully that all happened towards the end of the trip at least.  I brought the pieces home in a ziploc sandwich bag and they are still there now.  Fixing cameras isn't on my list of things-I-do-well so I have been waiting for Rob to fix it for me.  Since I am blogging so much right now, I think I better ask him real nice to fix that for me sooner rather than later!

Photography Class

Last Sunday, I led my first photography class.  I should probably be in one myself, not leading one, but this was something even I could handle.  I'm sure I know more than my 4 year old son about taking a picture.  Here is what my student's photos typically look like-



Not so good.  He just randomly snaps photos, usually while still moving and never, ever gets a decent picture of anything.  He has had the camera for at least a year and it is always the same blurry mess.  Nanette blogged last week about taking her daughter on a nature walk/photography session and I thought that was such a great idea.  I also realized the reason Rex always takes bad pictures is probably because I have never really spent any time with him to teach him how to take a good one.  Hmm, bad mommy.  It was time to to fix that so we bundled up and grabbed his camera and headed out.  It took a few seconds for him to find his first subject



It was still a little blurry because he didn't stop long enough to snap the picture.  But we went over the basics and tried again.



Much better.  We headed to a nearby park- apparently I haven't learned my lesson about parks and photography sessions (we took some family photos at a park in CA and Wyatt was a hot mess the whole time because he just wanted to play on the playground and wanted nothing to do with getting a picture taken).  So Rex got this one picture and then it was time to play.



The playing didn't last too long though.  It had been raining earlier in the day so everything was wet and Rex jumped on the slide before I could stop him and this is what he looked like.



Oops.  He played around a little more but we had to head back home pretty quick since it was cold out and his pants were soaked.  He got one more picture on the way home and it was his best yet.



So thanks to Nanette for the inspiration because we had a great time on our little field trip/learning session!

The Belle of The Ball

Being a female registered voter with no party affiliation living in Iowa has certainly made me popular for the last month or two.  I can't even tell you how much mail I get, people knocking on the doors, emails, everything.  I have never registered with any party because I don't really feel like I agree with anyone enough.  Maybe someday I will, but this has worked for the last 17 years and I think I will keep it that way.  But that is enough about me and my views.  It is very interesting living in Iowa when it comes to politics, especially a presidential election.  With being a swing state and the first in the nation to caucus, politics are a big deal here.  We have had political ads on the tv for the last year and a half.  Let me tell you, that's a long time.  I heard on the news last night that the last ad is scheduled to run at 5:26 pm tonight.  It can't get here fast enough.  I do enjoy but I'm also ready for it to be over.  I like feeling like my vote actually matters.  When I lived in California, it always felt like voting was useless because you know all the electoral college votes would be for the democratic party.  It makes voting a lot more enjoyable when you feel like you are having a say in something.  I cast my vote early this morning on my way home from the gym.  It took about 25 minutes to get through there so not bad.  I won't tell who I voted for- not because I am ashamed or anything just because people get brave online and feel free to leave rude comments.  I hate talking politics with anyone, even my husband.  By the way, my degree is in Political Science so I do like the subject matter, I just don't want to talk about it with anyone.  Even grannies get crazy about their politics so I prefer to keep my mouth shut.



So get out there and vote everyone and no spitting!

The Art Studio Is Now Open

So I've already missed a day.  Oops.  That didn't take long.  I was even going to blog this morning and this evening to make up for it but that didn't happen either.  It seems it is always busy around here and sometimes it is just hard to find that 20-30 minutes to myself for blogging.  And sometimes when I can find the time, blogging isn't on my list of things I want to do with those precious few quiet moments.  But I'm back on track now and will try to finish up this NaBloPoMo without any more misses- but don't be surprised if I fall off the wagon again!

Yesterday we spent some time setting up an arts and crafts area in our basement, in the kids' play area.  I've been wanting to do this for some time but I had to take down the tent in order to do it.  The boys love to play with the tent and we will still use it, we just can't have it set up all the time now.  Rob started building a table for them to use then realized it would probably be a lot easier to just use a folding table we already had.  We also had 4 IKEA chairs, 2 of which Wyatt had already colored on, so we didn't need to spend any money on that either.  My favorite part is the light fixture above the table.  I got the clamp/shade part at a yard sale and we just had to get a light socket piece from Ace to make it into a pendant light.



We have two bulletin boards to hang on the wall above the table and I bought an oil drip pan from Wal-Mart to use with magnets (inspired by this pin- and yes, it did only cost $12 and it is huge) that will also have to be hung somewhere.  The set-up didn't cost us much but I have spent some money on supplies.  We had an okay stash of art and craft supplies but now we are getting to look like a mini-Michaels.  With all the new and old supplies, it was time to get it all organized.  I cleared out a shelf in their toy closet and designated that space for art supplies only.



With that shelf so nicely organized, now it makes me want to clean up the others!  Another day, I suppose.  Rex is really loving the new space and couldn't wait to use the new stuff.  Glue stick? Check.  Feather? Check.  Wood sticks? Check.  Markers and paper?  Check.  And that is how a 4 year old comes up with this.



Not real sure what is going on there other than an overload of new things and the burning desire to use it all.  That took place in the afternoon and so after dinner we tried again and had a little more success with our turkey project.



And today they both colored, play-dohed, and I was even brave enough with Rex to try a little painting while Wyatt was taking his nap.



It is so nice to have a designated area to do this kind of stuff in and have all the supplies lined up and ready to go.  Yay for basements!!

Let's Try It Again

Back in 2005-2006, I very successfully followed the Weight Watchers program (on my own) and lost about 65 pounds.  I didn't have a scale for about the first two weeks, so I'm not exactly sure how much it was but somewhere around that number.  I did fine with my weight all the way until after Wyatt was born and wow, has it been a struggle since.  I don't have as much to lose as I did before but I still would like to get back to where I was pre-babies.  There was a brief period of time when Wyatt was about 2 or 3 months old that I tried the full Weight Watchers experience and though I was successful, I ended up quitting.  Between trying to get along with a newborn, a 2 year old and going through our DIY family room remodel, working hard on a diet and trying to find time for exercising was just more than I could handle.

A little after Wyatt's 1st birthday, life calmed down enough to try the dieting and exercising thing again.  I tried all kinds of things- Weight Watchers' online version, bootcamp workouts, personal training and even counting calories using just a little spreadsheet I made up myself.  While doing a little reflective thinking over the last few weeks about all my weight loss attempts, I came to realize a couple of things.  First, my exercise routine is fine.  I like to go to the gym and sweat it out so I don't need to spend extra money on a trainer or bootcamp classes.  Secondly, I realized that the diet part was where I struggled and that nothing worked for me as well as the Weight Watchers did two years ago and way back in the day when I did it for the first time. So this past Thursday, also known as payday, I signed up again and went to my first meeting this morning.  The plan has changed a bit since the last time I tried it which I think will be much better at getting me to eat healthier.  I don't really want to share what my goal is but when I am done, I will be happy to announce how much I have lost.

I am not sure if I would have shared all this if I wasn't trying to blog every day- it was the only thing that came to mind about what is going on with me right now.  Maybe the accountability of putting it out there will help me to do well.  So here's to the new PointsPlus program and hoping I do as well this time as I did 7 years ago!

Date Night

When you live very far away from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and basically all your family, finding time to get away from the kids can be really challenging.  And even when you finally find a babysitter you like, it is expensive so you can't afford to be going out all the time and leaving the kids with a sitter.  So Rob and I really, really, really appreciate getting out and enjoy ourselves when we get a chance to have a date night like we did last night.

Someone offered us two tickets to a women's college basketball game.  The seats were outstanding and we've been before and have a good time so we were happy to have the tickets and see the girls play some hoops.

It was pretty fun to hear all the conversations amongst the coaching staff and hear what was going on during the time outs.  We may not get seats that are this great again, but we would definitely go again.  I'm also hoping we can make it to a men's basketball game this year too because I love the college basketball.

We also went out to dinner first at a new restaurant in town and were simultaneously impressed and not impressed.  Some of the food was great and some of it was not so much.  And anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE eggs.  Loathe, despise, gag-at-the-sight-of, can't-even-stand-the-smell-of those nasty chicken placentas.  I rejoined Weight Watchers just yesterday morning and had to have a salad for dinner.  Every single salad at that place comes with eggs on it.  I made it clear (without being a jerk) that I really hate eggs and please make sure none are on my grilled chicken salad (the "Which Came First?" salad).  My salad also had a little jack cheese (white) on it so it made it hard to tell if there were eggs in my salad or it was just some of the cheese.  Of course, I ended up eating a little piece of egg and then finding more in there.  I don't think anyone put it in there, I think some probably just snuck over into another container where they put the salads together.  It was so disgusting.  So my dinner was over at that point.  I drowned any remaining egg taste with ice cream at the basketball game- ice cream 1, Shelby's willpower 0.  To wrap up this long story about the dinner, I would go back but I would never, ever order a salad from there again.  Which is a bummer because what I did have of the salad was really good.

Despite the problems with dinner, we both had a great time just spending time with each other and having a little peace and quiet for a few hours.  Can't wait for the next date night- hopefully to see Skyfall or the last of the Twilight movies!

NaBloPoMo

I'm such a bad blogger, that I'm not even sure what "NaBloPoMo" stands for.  I think maybe National Blog Posting Month?  Anyhow, the goal of it I do know and that is to blog every day for a month.  Now since I have been such a terrible blogger for 2012, I'm going to challenge myself to do this.  I tried before and failed.  But any increase in blogging productivity would be good and hopefully I can do this for the entire month of November.  Challenge Accepted.

Last night was Halloween and we were so ready.  Rex has been talking since November 1st 2011 about how he wanted to be Handy Manny.  We got him all dressed up and he looked awesome.



The t-shirt wasn't quite right but I had a hard time figuring out how to get the two-tone green shirt like Manny wears since it isn't for sale anywhere.  I finally had some ideas yesterday with using fabric paint but by then it was too late.  I'm still very happy with how it all turned out though.  AND everybody knew who he was supposed to be so that made me feel good.  Wyatt was a whole different story.  He dressed up as.... a crabby 2 year old who wouldn't wear a costume but still wanted candy.



He loves all thing "fiderfiders" (firefighters for those of you who don't speak Wyatt) so I got him a firefighter costume for Halloween, thinking he would be totally excited for it.  It turned out, I couldn't get him near the thing.  I tried all day.  Rex tried.  Rob tried.  He wouldn't listen to any of us.  Rob and Rex left to go trick-or-treating and then the real meltdown started.  He had his blue pumpkin bucket and he wanted to go out with his brother and get candy.  Thankfully, I had the skeleton hoodie that I coaxed him into so he was a little Halloween-ish even if he wasn't wearing a full-on costume.  I called Rob on the phone and he stopped back by to pick up Wyatt and then took both the boys out.  My husband is awesome- it couldn't have been easy managing those two.

We had lots of trick-or-treaters stop by.  It is amazing to me how many of the kids, mostly the older ones, don't even say trick-or-treat.  Or thank you.  Or anything at all.  Just ring my doorbell, wait for the candy and then take off.  It is a little bit irritating.  The little kids are pretty good at it because they have their parents there coaching them and even if they didn't get it all right, who cares?  They are little kids and are trying to figure it all out still.  Eh.  I do love Halloween and seeing everyone get dressed up because the kids are just so darn cute.  The first one we had last night was a little Captain America.  How does that not make you smile?

I guess that's it for today.  Until tomorrow...