nifty newness

My old phone worked fine... really... I mean just because I couldn't always hear the person on the other end wasn't a big issue... unless you were said person, in which case you probably only knew I couldn't hear you if you really paid attention...

Anyway Lady D got sick of me saying "say that again, I didn't hear you".. that or she got sick of hoping I wasn't faking hearing her. I suppose that could make you paranoid, knowing that the other person had only a 50% chance of hearing what you're saying and that they wouldn't always admit it to you when they didn't.

So, she sent me and the Man a new phone for Christmas. Some might say it's a self serving gift... (saving her sanity etc). I say it's a blessing!! I'm so excited to have a new phone. And apparently she listened every time I b*tched and moaned about my current phone and all the features I would want a new phone to have if I were to ever win the lotto and go buy myself one. It had to have speaker phone in the hand sets (not just the base unit). And it had to have intercom capabilities so that two phones could be used at once on the same phone call. Cordless, with a phone book feature, and answering machine. She went above and beyond and got me one where the ringer volume can be adjusted, plus the ringer can be a song not just a boring ring (helps with the stress level when it's Mozart and not the obnoxious "ring ring ring" sound). AND it's expandable so when I do someday win the big pot of gold and buy the 4 bedroom mansion I can purchase two more handsets and have one for every room. Nifty cool eh?

So don't mind the clutter, and check out the phone. It's hooked up to my wonderful fabulous Beamer video phone which I adore and don't get to use often enough. It's beautiful and silver and I adore it.

oops forgot one

Christmas Videos

It's Monday!!

Well the Holiday Weekend is over. It was a very nice weekend and The Kiddo really enjoyed his Christmas! I took a couple videos for you all to enjoy. Unfortunately I left the camera with the Man so we have four photo's of the stocking (two of which I took) and two pictures of him opening a present (both of the same present). That's it, that's ALL the pictures I have of the day to share with you... Lets just say I'm less then impressed with his photography skills... ...

Wednesdays Photo Prompt

Father Christmas: The fastest delivery man on the planet! Find Father Christmas in your space!

I thought he was rather appropriate considering the weather most of the country has been getting lately. Heck it even snowed in VEGAS!! Of course we happen to be located in a valley, surrounded by mountains.. but are just far enough from the mountains that we miss the snow while the city next to us gets dumped on. Party of me is cranky about that, and part of me is glad. And, the final note... this is the only Santa representation I have that the Man actually likes. Maybe because he's not wearing red?

Tuesdays Photo Prompt

Cards: A traditional way of wishing people Merry Christmas in writing. Show us Cards in your space today. We've all got a Little Angel In Us

Mondays Prompt: Tree

Tree: A perennial plant with a single stem or trunk and closely associated with Christmas.

I'm still not a big fan of my tree. I don't like the wide spacing between the branches. I shouldn't complain, it was free, but I still gripe about it every single year.

It does look pretty good once it's decorated though. And I like my colors, which are, rather strictly, blue, silver and white. I like how it sparkles with the lights (white and blue). The good thing about having specific colors is that in a small apartment it can get rather cluttered looking with to much.

Lady D has her tree up in her place as well, I like it, it's a beautiful tree. I love how it looks against her green walls and with her tile flooring. She is far to busy this time of year to put up her own pictures so I'll post this one for her so everyone can see it. I like her style of tree so much better then my own. But I wonder how it would go trying to string two strands on lights on it? Perhaps I should just be happy with my own little charlie brown Christmas tree and stop coveting others?

Sunday SOS (a little late)

Sundays photo prompts are SOS (Show Off Sunday) which could prove to be fun I think. Yesterday they did a sunset. Some people did sunsets, some did sunrises or just general 'look at the snowy day there isn't any sun at all' type pictures. They were all beautiful, I decided to use my most recent 'good' sunset photo.

Saturday SPS (a little late)

Saturday photo prompts are SPS or Someones Portrait Saturday. I am taking the easy road this week (expecially since I'm playing catch up) and using the Kiddo. He LOVES watching the fish swim at Cabellas so after visiting Santa we went and watched them for a bit.

Santa

So Yesterday we went to see Santa. All morning the Kiddo was talking about how he loves Santa and we were going to go see him, and his friends, and give him a hug. I have to say I really really love the Santa they have at Cabellas.. he's perfect! He looks exactly the way he should look, and he's amazing with the kids. Somehow, no matter what expression the kids happen to have on their faces when the camera clicks, he manages to have one similar (big grin, well then he's smiling big, little half smile, then that's what he does). Anyway, the Kiddo just wanted to play with Santa's bells, which is why he wasn't quite smiling when the guy snapped the picture, but he did have a short conversation with Santa and it was really nice. I'm so glad the weather gave us a break so we could go!

For those of you on my Christmas card list you are going to be getting happy seasons cards instead... that means don't be checking your mailboxes for cards this week... with the Santa visit so late in the month there was no way I could do cards on time and have the usual pictures in them so to avoid the stress (and ensuing melt down) from trying I will attempt to get cards sent out sometime next week.

Friday photo prompt

Fridays photo prompt word was food... holiday food. I thought and thought and finally gave up. I don't know if I have any good pictures of yummy food in my easy to get to photo library, and I know I don't have any food lying around the house that induces feelings of holiday spirit. .. .. The moral of the story goes something like "ask and ye shall receive". We went to visit the inlaws yesterday evening and the Mans mom had made us some really adorable (I think) snowmen cupcakes. Oooh I thought to myself, ah HA, a food picture just waiting to happen. Don't they just make you want to bit their noses off?

Food: Christmas is traditionally a time for food aplenty, show us festive food in your space today.

Todays Photo Word: Glow

I took a picture of an angel, with a light under her, glowing in on my livingroom bookshelf. But decided to go with this photo of a clay oil warming pot instead. The hardest part of this was taking a picture of something that glowed that wasn't something already done, that ment no christmas lights.

Glow : To give a steady light without a flame.

Mondays word: Bauble

Bauble: A small trinket for christmas tree decoration.

A New Project

Two things. First I haven't posted enough non kiddo related postings lately (I have a meme courtesy of my bro that'll get posted here sometime soon). And Second I need to stretch myself a little... I'm happiest when I'm creating something artsy be it a drawing or something sewn and I haven't done either in awhile.

Anyway that said EpiJunki over at Pink Warm and Dry posted a link to Her Space My Space His Space .. There they are doing a daily photo challenge (you check the word of the day, make a photo to match the word and post a link to your pic in the comments). I figure why not, especially since it's winter AND Christmas time... the world is chock FULL of amazing beautiful things just waiting to be photographed.

Todays word is Tinsel.

I'm doing both yesterdays and today to catch myself up a little. Throughout the week I will try to catch up on a few more of the photo themes (posting one catch up shot in addition to the daily word shot). I can't wait to see what tomorrows word is.



Yesterdays word was Gold.

The Alphabet (part 2)

Up above he names all the letters but I realize that some of you might think he wasn't really recognizing them but just saying his ABC's while looking at them... sooo we tried a mixed up letters version... unfortunately the kiddo had to leave mid way through, but I think it proves the point. He's a smart kid!

The Alphabet (part 1)

an ornament family

The tree is about 95% up. I still need to put some of the ornaments on it (the round bulbs). The Kiddo got to help me put some of the ornaments on. He had so much fun. We talked about how only one ornament goes on each branch and he has to look for a new branch each time. He was doing great so I was really confused when he started putting two big blue balls on the same branch, then he got one of the tiny blue balls and set it in front of them. I asked him what he was doing and he said "it's mommy, and daddy, and 'me'". He's right I suppose, it's a little Christmas tree ornament family, I love his creativity.

He pulled the ornaments off the tree (so the family could play) before I got a picture of it so this is my re-creation. His arrangement was better looking.

more snow

More snow over night, and the weather people are calling for snow through the next several days. At least it finally feels like we live in Utah!

The funny thing... The night before last somebody took our driver side windshield wiper and our antenna! The Man can't get over why they would take the antenna and then the wiper off the opposite side of the car.. since wipers are good for either side. Maybe they just weren't smart enough to know that? Fortunately for us he left for drill before the snow started yesterday, and he came home after it stopped. We had to make a quick run to the store to pick up new wipers after he got home though.

The other funny thing, his units Christmas party last night was canceled (they did it because the roads would have been really slick and dangerous). . Which isn't funny in and of itself. It's kinda bah humbuggy. No the funny part is it was a pot luck party and the Man had signed us up for rolls. We now have a hundred rolls sitting on the counter that I have NO idea what to do with. I need extra big freezer zip lock bags or something so I can freeze them and pull them out every time we're invited over to dinner at the inlaws. That way I can always cheerfully volunteer to bring bread *chuckle*

Snow Snow Go Away...

The weather decided to finally get into the winter groove. We haven't had any snow since the last time I posted about it. That was November 5th and it lasted all of a day. Now the weather people are calling for continual snow accumulating 2-5". Normally I'd just make the Man drive us down to Cabellas to see Santa anyway but the fates are really working against us, he's got drill this weekend. I guess we'll just have to wait to go see Santa next weekend. It's making me cranky.

Out with the old...

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up some of the Kiddo's old things. It's time for me to bit the bullet and sells them. I really don't want to, these things have history. His pac and play (he slept in that thing for very nearly the entire first year of his life!!). His highchair (he adores it, when I pulled it out of storage he got so excited he was almost crying, "my highchair mommie, it's my highchair!! do you see it? Oh highchair I love you!". He had to help me clean it he was so excited.

His car seat he just wants to play on... he likes to sit in it and kick his feet, like it's his very own reclining chair. It cracks me up.

We're also going to see if we can sell his einstiens play mat and his crib mobile.

It really breaks my heart. The man doesn't understand why I would get so upset... the reason is twofold. First of course is the memories and the history.. and the fact that I really wanted to pass these things along to Kiddo #2 if they ever show up. Reason number two directly relates in that by selling these things I'm admitting defeat, I'm saying that we aren't going to have a kiddo #2 so I don't need to keep the stuff. Dang womanly emotions anyway. I suppose at least we'll have money to buy the Kiddo christmas presents.

Tuesday

Yesterday the Man came home sick. He NEVER comes home sick from work. I was immediately concerned. He threw up most of the afternoon and slept the entire rest of the time. The Kiddo and I skipped off to the store and bought several little cups of chicken noodle soup and some saltines. I also bought me a couple cups of tomato (so of course the Man ate the tomato). He has yet to wake up today (yeah, he took today off work, another thing he NEVER does) but I'm really hoping that when he does he feels better then yesterday. I'll keep you updated.


While we were at the store I remembered that the kiddo needed some new breakfast cereal. Now usually I buy him Cheerios, Chex, or Kix (he actually prefers his cereal without the funky fruit flavors or too much sugar). This time, as I was walking up and down the isle I couldn't seem to pick one. Finally after I had given up and decided not to buy him cereal at all I saw the bright blue Alphabits box!! I didn't even know they made these things still. The Kiddo was so excited he sang the alphabet song all the way to the car. I let him have a handful of them as a snack and he named almost every letter! I knew he could name about 1/3 of the alphabet but I'm starting to think maybe he can do more then that. Smart kiddo.

Festival pt 2

At the Tree Festival they also had a pretty decent row of Ginger Bread houses. The kiddo kept saying "I want to eat that". Of course then we got around to the second side, from there he could see over the houses and to the stage where some dance company or other was doing a Christmas recital... immediately all he had eyes for was the kids dancing, and he desperately wanted to go join them. Maybe he has a little of me in him after all ?

Festival of Trees

The Festival of trees was a lot of fun for us. It was 4$ each to get in (which was half of what I had prepared myself for) and worth it. We spent 3 hours walking around and looked at every single tree. The Kiddo rode in the stroller for the first half but he kept wanting to turn around and tell us something so finally I carried him for the second half (he is getting sooo heavy, he weighs 30 pounds now!!). We saw a half a dozen Utah Utes trees (at least) which the Man thought was pretty cool.

We also saw more then a few trees that made us cringe. I took pictures of a few of the trees for you guys to look at. Hmm, I hadn't realized that the ones I took were all white. A white tree properly decorated can be really really pretty. A white tree improperly decorated can be extremely NOT pretty. I think I still prefer a green tree though, it's just looks classic.

Monday morning catchup

Our weekend was very busy. We spent Friday hanging out at the in laws, they have computer trouble sometimes and the Man is the on call fix it guy. Which is extremely ironic considering our computer is really messed up and we haven't got a clue why or how to fix it.

Saturday we went and let the barber school cut the Mans hair. If you'll remember I mentioned last week all the money they made that day went to Primary Childrens. So, in the spirit of giving, we let them attempt to give the Man a high and tight... um yeah we'll probably be using our own clippers to 'adjust' the results later this week. We also had them pretend to trim the Kiddo. He didn't need it, but it was only 5$ a haircut and we wanted to give more then just one haircut worth.

Saturday we also went to the Festival of trees (a post on that, with pictures, later today). All the proceeds from the festival go to primary Childrens as well. I fought myself for awhile before deciding that the money for us all to get in was something I could spend w/out feeling guilty (only 11$ but still). It's been hard for me to get into the holiday spirit this year but the Kiddo is in full swing with Christmas lights and I knew he'd love it (he did).

Sunday my Mother in Law took me (and the Mans sister) to see a movie. The last time I saw a movie in a movie theater was two years ago!! It was really nice. I left the Kiddo with Grandpa and the Man. They had a "boys day" in which they hung out and the Man taught his dad how to burn music onto cd'd. When we got back from our movie they were all in a very good mood! It's always nice when the Man and his dad get to spend a little guys only time together... it was extra nice that they included the Kiddo and they all seemed to really enjoy it.

That was my weekend... now that you're caught up I'll see about posting something more interesting. I took several pictures from the festival of trees, and I've got a very cute picture of the Kiddo... stay tuned.

Thinking outside the box

I stole this from Lisa over at Looking For Lisa... I played it and now feel like an idiot, the curled up in a corner rocking back and forth kind of idiot. Soooo I thought hey, why not share the oportunity to feel this way. Though I'm pretty sure at least a few of you are gonna be way WAY better at this then I am.


Basically you use a pencil to draw shapes and force a little ball to capture a flag. It's physics 101... and um er ahem, hilarity insues when you've got a three year old telling you where to put the shapes.

Magic Pen Game

Positive Thought...

Insomnia IS good for something.

I've had a terrible time sleeping lately, it's been at least two weeks since I've been able to go to sleep any earlier then 2am. And it's not because I'm sleeping in to late... Not only does the Mans alarm wake me up at 3am every day, but then the Kiddo gets up at 730.

Aaanyway, the whole reason for this post is not to whine about my lack of sleep... rather it's to share a fun little fact I learned last night while flipping through the two channels we get (no cable + rabbit ears = very little tv).

Shaving cream, spread on you bathroom mirror, then wiped off (just wipe at it with a paper towel till it's gone, don't use cleaner)... equals a fog free mirror!! The Man doesn't use shaving cream, he uses gel but it worked just the same.

Sooo if you have a little bathroom and the mirror gets all foggy and drives you nuts... give it a try, then my sleepless nights will have been worth while!!

decisions decisions

I've been letting the Kiddo grow his hair out for the past several months. Generally I keep it high and tight, he enjoys having the same haircut as his dad and I like how it looks. I keep seeing really adorable little boys though with longer hair so I thought I'd give it a try.

Yesterday he had a bath and I brushed his hair. Considering how long it's been growing it isn't very long at all and mostly just looks messy. So I've been trying to decide if I shouldn't just cut it... after all, Santa pictures are coming up (next weekend) and I'd like him to look his best for them. Plus I heard yesterday that one of the barber schools here is doing 5$ haircuts this weekend AND donating ALL the proceeds to buy presents for the kids at Childrens Primary Hospital. I know for sure that the Man is going to get his haircut there and am fighting with the decision.

So the question is posed to anybody who feels like giving me their two cents. Should the kiddo go back to high and tight? Or should I keep letting it grow.

The planets align...

I've been having a bit of writers block. Which is silly all things considered. Still, every time I sit down to add a post I get the bla's.

Speaking of ... did any of you happen to catch the planets lining up last night? I'd love to say I was on the ball enough to see it but that would be a lie. I had NO idea it even happened until the guy on the news started talking about it. Which is extremely ironic considering I was outside at sunset. The Kiddo and I had just walked out of the grocery store and I pointed out how beautiful the sky looked, all pink and blue and purple (it was a very pretty sunset). He, as is his habit, found the moon and we talked about how small a sliver it was. But then we went home, inside, and totally missed the big event. Ah well, they say it will happen again next year.