Recent Reality TV

I swear I am going to post pictures of our playdate on Thursday but I had to get this off my chest.

Do you watch the reality show on Bravo called The Real Housewives of Orange County? I used to watch this show consistently but now that the 4th season is over I am a little behind. What I do know is that I cannot stand Vicki or Tamra. Vicki cannot own a single issue she has, she is not to blame for a single dang thing. She drives me to insanity. I watched the final episode and the reunion show and just shook my head the entire time. I told JT it’s like a trainwreck, you can’t seem to look away. The only one on the show that I like is Jeana. She seems more down to earth than the rest. Or at least she is nicer than the rest.

On last night’s reunion show they showed these t-shirts and I really want one. They are hysterical. It’s not a shot at real boobs it’s just a shot at the women.

At $29.95 a piece I probably will resist the urge but I think they are funny.

Have you seen the New York version? Wow they are even crazier. I have to admit that Simon and Alex are huge weirdos but I don’t watch this show too often. So I don’t really have a lot of opinions on it.

I have to admit I am looking forward to watching the season finale for The Girls Next Door. I am addicted to this crazy show. But I guess I just don’t get it. This is also like watching a show full of crazy things I would never do. Like flashing the captain of a boat or flashing Britain’s Parliment. It’s just not in me. They did a final Playboy cover shoot and inside I guess there’s an article on the girls. I have to admit I am tempted to purchase my first Playboy magazine just to read the articles (how many times have we all heard that).

Funny Things They Say 6

On Wednesday I was room mom for L’s class. They sitting around and eating their snack while her teacher walked around and asked them a question.

The question that day, “Who is our president?” L looked and me and whispered, “Mom, is it Oprah?” Trying not to laugh I said, “No baby she’s not our president” she looked at me and said “oh that’s right it’s Barack Obama”.

What I wanted to say… No baby no matter how much she thinks she is she is not the president nor is she god.

Things I Love Thursday – Finding Old Friends on Facebook

Ever since I started on Facebook I have run into two very dear friends. Mrs. Ritz and my photog friend (clearly these are aliases). Mrs. Ritz and I have gotten together several times to do “girly and couple stuff” and she joined my book club – YEAH!!! So we are starting to spend a lot of time together and it’s great (and no this doesn’t mean the marathon she is desperately trying to get me to train for). Then my photog friend and I were best friends in grade school and good enough friends in high school but have since discovered that there was a reason we were so close in grade school. We have SO much in common and our kids are the same ages, or close enough. We have had two playdates and each time we have a blast. We can sit and talk for hours or just be in the same room and be totally comfortable with the silence. We were talking today about how easy it is just get together. I love it when friendships are easy. So defintely Facebook is one of my favorites things.

As a sidenote though it does have it’s downsides… like for instance ex-boyfriends who drive by your house (um… yeah that happened yesterday. Nice huh? But for the most part I love Facebook. Are you on there???

For more TILT check out The Diaper Diaries.

Hobby Hump Day – Some layouts

Getting into the mood to scrapbook again lately. I am very excited the new 2Peas Super Sketch class will have a new sketch today so I have to go check that out but here are two layouts I have done recently.

This is a picture of JT doing a cartwheel in the park last fall. Since I lost all of my October pictures I am happy I at least printed this one out beforehand. This was a really fun day at the park.

This pictures is definitely one of my favorites. His eyes, her shirt and her headband all seem to be the same color.

That’s it for today. I am always working on more….

Works For Me Wednesday – School Paper Storage

The school papers are were totally overrunning my house. We have a small house/apartment and we are currently at max capacity in this space. There isn’t room for a second filing cabinet or a bunch of binders… I was telling my mom this exact same thing the other day and she came up with a great solution. See she can sew and she made these for me before Christmas.

They are fabric pouches. A purple for L and a red/yellow for J (they match their room colors). We placed velcro on the back of their doors and have velcro on the back of the pouch. The sides velcro all the way up so if your project is large you can remove it and lay it on the ground before placing it in there. They are washable which can be a godsend when you are talking about glitter and paint. When they bring home any papers that I am considering keeping they go in the pouch – I can revisit the papers and projects later and decide what I really want to keep at the end of the school year. Perfect for us and our small space. If you want directions on how to make them just leave me a comment and I will get directions from her.

Here are some pictures:

 

 

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips visit our new home base www.wearethatfamily.com.

Birthday Party Dilemmas

Today I called to schedule L’s birthday party (not until beginning of April) but I wanted to get it on the books. I was on their website and was filling out the “form” when it came to picking the date and time the website told me that there weren’t any times available. After calling customer service they have placed their store into hibernation. Meaning they are decreasing their stock and won’t be able to host parties anymore. She is extremely disappointed and now I have to come up with a whole new idea.

I love to plan parties that’s not the problem. The big problem I don’t have any room for a party here in my house and I don’t like having it in other people’s homes, it hasn’t really worked very well in the past. So I am always looking for places to have a party. I thought I had it taken care of for L’s birthday but apparently not. Back to the drawing table.

I did find a local company on-line that will do a Fancy Nancy party for a little more money so we will probably do that, (besides she is in love with everything Fancy Nancy and she can invite more friends) so she’ll have a bigger party and like two presents. Which I think is fine. The experience is more fun and memorable sometimes than the actual presents they open. I really don’t know what I am talking about anymore, I feel as though I am rambling.

What do you do if your child wants to invite friends from class but you can’t afford for all of the little girls to come just a few? Do you privately contact the families? Then there’s an age limit so all of the siblings of the girls her age won’t be able to come, this includes cousins. How do I handle that one? What are your thoughts? Please share I could use some tips.

A Little Bit of L

I have so many cute pictures of L lately so I thought I would share them in one post. This post is mainly for the grandparents enjoyment. I am still compiling one for J, there’s no nepotism in this house.

L with her new constant companion. It used to be her kitty that would go everywhere with us but it’s apparently been replaced.

Pretending to read her new favorite book  series Junie B. Jones.

All dressed up in her sports attire for Dad’s Night at school.

Doing her hula dance in one of her “hula skirts” – O she LOVES this skirt.

Such a funny little thing and last but not least a video I shot of her dancing, she had no idea I was taping her. While watching HSM 3 she had to also listen to the sound track on her iPod. (I muted the TV in the beginning because I didn’t want to subject you all to Troy having a tantrum.)

Beads for Life

I was invited to a BeadsForLife party today by my friend Heather. I had a great time #1 and was extremely touched by the whole thing. Ugandan women take recycled paper and make beads that they place sealant on and put out on a line to dry. The necklaces, bracelets and earrings are amazing and beautiful. I know that she will probably post something on her blog about the party but I was just so impressed and will now be hosting my own Bead for Life get together that I couldn’t wait to tell you all about it. Straight from www.BeadforLife.org:

BeadForLife began with a chance encounter between a Ugandan woman, Millie, who was rolling beads near her mud home, and the founders Torkin Wakefield, Ginny Jordan and Devin Hibbard. Stopping to admire the beads, the women learned that there was no market for their jewelry, and that Millie worked for a dollar a day in a rock quarry crushing stones in the hot sun. They admired her paper beads and bought a few, never realizing that their lives, and the lives of so many impoverished Ugandans, were about to change.

When friends at home admired the beads, the three women realized that there might be a market after all. Torkin returned to Uganda, and Devin and Ginny began to develop a marketing strategy. In Uganda , Torkin held classes to improve the quality of  the beads and develop several styles of necklaces and bracelets. Soon women in the US began to hear the stories of the beaders and buy their jewelry.

It’s not your typical home party. You aren’t expected to spend your money. You sit and listen to their stories and experiences, which will touch your heart. You listen to Ugandan music which some of it they have written for BeadForLife. If you do choose to purchase one of the beautiful pieces of jewelry than you are helping a woman across the world feed her children and build them a home. Simple as that and know that 94% goes to the ladies in the village. With all of this said…. I can’t wait to show you what I got today. L of course will be modeling some of the jewelry because she claims that “we are sharing it”. It’s not the case but we’ll let her think that.

I bought this beautiful 3 strand black necklace.

I also bought the brown 3 string necklace that L is wearing and I did purchase one thing for L… the blue pastel bracelet she has on ($5).

Here’s one more of her modeling just because I think she is so stinkin cute.

So this is to my family, friends and my cohost Mrs. Ritz ;)…. know that when you receive an invitation to attend this party (Aprilish)  there will be wine and food but also a sense of doing something bigger and greater for the women of the world. There’ll be more to come later. Thanks again Heather.

Things I Love Thursday – Our new shuffle

   Who in the world doesn’t love winning things. Since I started blogging I find more and more free giveaways on other’s blogs and sometimes I enter sometimes I don’t it just depends on the number of comments (if there are too many I don’t enter) and the obviously the giveaway. When I do reviews sometimes I am even entered into drawings. Once I won a Delgo notebook for doing a Delgo review, which L loves and three days ago I received an e-mail saying that I had won an iPod shuffle. Seriously!!! An iPod. How cool is that?? I won the iPod for doing a review for Qlubb courtesy of Team Mom. I was really excited.

The next morning our doorbell rang super early – it was FedEx with the iPod already. Sweet – talk about service and here I was just bitching about customer service the other day. It is so cute. It’s a tiny little RED shuffle.

So here comes the shocking news… we gave it to L. I downloaded all of her High School Musical cds on to the shuffle and purchased her some new headphones (the earbuds are too big for her little ears). She knows how to use it easily and JT has my old iPod Touch, I have an iPhone, L has a shuffle and the spare Nano we have will be given to my brother. Wow we have a lot of iStuff. She loves it, she listens to it all day while she colors and carries it around in her purse. So funny. I know that a 4 (almost 5) year old does not need an iPod but I didn’t have to buy it so why not. She is one happy little girl but it’s a good thing that J hasn’t figured out how cool it is to have your own iPod.

For more Things I Love Thursday, check out The Diaper Diaries.

Wordless Wednesday – A Model in the Making

Posing for the camera in her new Fancy Nancy costume. I know it’s not one but I couldn’t decide.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday or my picture blog for more pics.