war games

I took Little Man over to the Dollar Store today after I picked him up from Pre-Kindergarten.

I gave him his money and told him he could pick out one toy. It only took him about 30 minutes.

He ended up picking out a camouflage-colored play machine gun (I know, I know...GASP!) I told him he could get it, as long as he only used it to 'shoot' pretend monsters and didn't point it at people. He agreed that that was what he will do. So far, he's only been shooting into the air. It makes kind of a ratcheting noise and I guess that is the appeal.

A friend of mine won't let her kids have any kind of play gun, not even a squirt gun.
But I saw them every day playing shooting games using their hands as play guns, so kids are going to play like that I guess, no matter what you do. Kids will find 'weapons' in nature too. My husband grew up in Savannah, and there are small, tight cones that come off a tree there - my husband and his brothers would snap off the little stem on the end and pretend they were grenades.

I advise Little Man repeatedly to only point at play monsters and such, and never at people. Any toy needs parental involvement. All my kids have been taught to never pick up guns (if they ever found anything that looks like a gun).

leona helmsley's will leaves 12M to dog, zilch to 2 grandkids

Just more proof that you can have "everything" but still have nothing of true value. You have probably heard the Bible quote that money is the root of all evil. People get that a little off...it was actually "love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Tim 6:10)

Leona Helmsley leaves $12 million trust fund for her dog, Trouble and leaves nothing to two of her four grandchildren, for "reasons ... known to them."

This situation makes me think that Leona Helmsley was the type of person who would hold her money over her family member's heads, in order to get their attention and love. It's really sad. Major control issues. She had to get that one last 'stab' in to her grandchildren in her will. Hopefully, they don't want her money anyway.

I feel sad for this woman. She had a "successful" life by worldly standards, but based on what really matters and lasts, I feel that she cheated herself.

CNN NEWS STORY LINK

to do list by email

I used to work with a lady who would call her home number and leave herself a reminder on her own answering machine. We thought that was pretty funny, and a clever time saving idea. At least, it was neater than my reminder method - I'd tape a Post-It note to my purse!

But today I realized I can do a high tech version of this. I have an old Yahoo email account that's full of spam, so I hardly ever use it. I wrote myself an email, Subject Line of "TO DO LIST: Week of August 28th" and organized my list by what needs to be done this week, then a section of what's coming up, and then a section for longterm or goals. I then sent it from the Yahoo account to my Gmail email account. When it arrived in my gmail account, I put a star next to it, so I can locate it all through the week.

Each week, I can find the previous to-do list, cut and paste it and then edit it by removing everything that's been done and then adding what needs to be done for the new week.

I'm kind of being my own personal assistant. We'll see how it goes.

I hope your list this week is shorter than mine!

back to school groove thang

I'm happy to report that we seem to have gotten into the back to school groove now.
It only took two weeks, but now it seems like everyone is used to the routines.

Little Man (age 4) is finally potty-trained! I still use the timer to remind him to 'go' if he's doing an activity he becomes engrossed in (like playing a game on the computer) but otherwise he isn't needing the timer to prompt him.

I'm starting Little Guy into potty training (he'll be 2 in October)
I bought him some Pull Ups type training pants and getting him used to the idea.
I do not want him waiting until age 4 to be potty trained!

My daughter is sunburned pretty badly from the birthday party events a couple days ago.
She's also lost her voice and is running a low grade fever, so she'll be missing school.

I was in a lot of pain yesterday from the rock climbing (I thought) but the aches and pains got worse as the day went on, which was really strange. Turns out I have a little case of the flu or something like that.

But there's no rest for the weary. Little Guy has just issued a challenge to me to fight him with toy foam pirate sword and I must go to battle!

my purse runneth over

We went out to eat lunch yesterday and took the boys with us. I fixed Little Guy a sippy cup of milk and popped it into my purse.

I forgot to put the valve thingie in it that keeps the milk from dripping out. We sat down to eat, and I brought his cup out and was surprised that there was only about an inch worth of milk in it, when I could have sworn there was at least four inches of milk in it before!

Slowly (much too slowly really) I came to the realization that my purse was full of milk now.

Luckily, my wallet was okay. That huge wad of Kleenex I had jammed in the bottom of my purse, and the extra diaper I had tucked in there caught a lot of it. Definitely sounds like a mom's purse, doesn't it?

But I've decided my bag has seen better days. It was a bargain a million years ago at Target anyway. I'm going to splurge and get a new purse. I just thought you'd want to know.

did something I've never done before

This photo is similar to what I climbed on, but not the actual one.

We went to the 12th birthday party of my daughters' friend today and I tried rock climbing! It's not an actual rock, but one of those tall, simulated rock things with the hand/foot grips on it.

I didn't get very far up, but I did better than I thought I would. I almost didn't do it. The negative self-talk of "oh, I'll make a fool of myself" came into play, but then I asked myself, how would I feel when that thing is packed up and gone and I didn't even try it just a little to see how I could do? I knew I would regret it if I didn't give it a shot.

I didn't even consider going all the way to the top - I decided to just take each bit at a time.
I tried it about 3 times. On the third time, I did the best I had so far, and I decided I would stop at a good ending.

I definitely would consider doing it again. It was pretty fun! It works your brain and your body.

There will probably be some pictures later on!

by jove he's got it, a blog post not for the squeamish

My oldest son started PreK last week on his 4th birthday, then he got sick and missed school on Thursday and Friday (cold, a bit of fever.) So I used that impromptu 4 day weekend to do a crash course in potty training. By jove we think he's finally got it.

He had a good day yesterday, stayed dry at school all day with lots of teacher reminders, but then last night when he was playing on the computer, he just whizzed right there on the floor. Ugh!

I use the kitchen timer to remember to remind him at home, and obviously I messed up that time! We are only doing paper pants at nighttime. He has some new superhero underwear. Lord it will be nice not to buy those expensive Pull Ups anymore!

My youngest son will be 2 in October. He's going to go to church preschool 2 days a week for 3 hours each of those days, starting in September. I'm really going to be driving a lot then - delivering kids and picking 'em up but it's going to be nice to have some time to myself.

He is so cute. Every day he asks (er DEMANDS) that I read Hop on Pop, Ten Apples Up on Top, Goodnight Moon, and the Gingerbread Man. I have them memorized. He has a head cold too now, so he has both nostrils running most of the time. (lovely)

Today at naptime, he woke up due to a number two, and apparently was feeling around in there to see what kind of prizes he could find. He had a poopie ball in his hand (and residue...let's not go there) and he was totally freaked out about it and was screaming. I got him cleaned up and he had to be comforted from that mean old poop ball attack.

What am I going to do when these boys are grown,
and I no longer have pee, snot, and poop to deal with?

I don't get grossed out anymore, I just laugh about it all.

There really is an opportunity here for an entrepreneur who could invent a non-permeable, non-staining clothing line for moms.

File under Really Cool

I really love this site, they have belts made from car seatbelts and bottle caps, and purses made from license plates. Check out the Pro-FAN-ity line of NFL licensed purses (made from NFL license plates)

Back To School Drama - Shows Daily!

We are having the usual school re-entry turbulence.

Having struggles to get our 13 year old twin girls to do the most basic things...for instance, they're supposed to pick out their outfits the night before but this morning one of my daughters was in a panic because she couldn't find 'anything' to wear. All I know is, I spent about $200 on back to school clothing for each girl. How can she not have ANYTHING to wear? This is ridiculous. Oh the angst and the drama...(Oh I wish they'd just go to uniforms at public schools!!!)

My daughters also seem to oblivious to alarm clocks. Maybe it's an allergy.

Either it's 'someone else's' responsibility to get up and turn off the alarm clock (if they do hear it) or they don't hear it. I start out gently saying "wake up, it's time to get up"
then I talk in my Medium-sized voice and say "Get up, time to get UP!" that fails, so I say in my big bad voice, "GET UP! This is the THIRD and FINAL time that I will be coming in here and telling you to get up!! If you don't get up in time and are late for school, it's up to YOU NOW! Then they finally get up and grumble that I'm so mean. Well I started out in the nice voice, they just worked that nerve until I had to use the Big Voice.

The daughter who doesn't have anything to wear, finally gets dressed and looks like a supermodel. She's stressing out about school. She thinks she looks awful. I tell her she looks great, but you know they can't believe what their MOM tells them, Mom looks at them through the eyes of love. I can tell she's having a panic attack, so I make her lie down, hands open at her sides, and I taught her some calming breathing exercises. She panicked even about that, and protested she didn't have time for that. Yes you do have time for it, I told her. What you don't have time for is running around the house in a panic! So after she did that, she seemed to calm down, ate a bowl of cereal. You couldn't pay me to be in junior high again.

Now have 3 minutes to make the 10 minute drive to my son's Pre-K.
He suddenly thinks he needs to go #2 in the potty. This is something I want to encourage, because I don't want this to happen in his pants at school. If he accidentally makes a mess at school, I am branded "The Bad Mother," a total failure to get my child to commit to The System and completely conform. The attempt at poo is unfruitful. He wants it to happen, but as he says, "my poop won't do it." Okay it's the poop's fault now.

At this point I have even less time to get him to school on time, and my oldest daughter appears with hair elastic in hand, and asks if I will put her hair in a ponytail. Sorry can't do it. Child needs to do her own hair. If she wasn't in a constant war with her twin sister, she could do it for her.

Zip out to the car, take son to school. When I arrive back home, my daughters are still waiting for the bus. What the hey, I still have shoes on, so I take them to school.

Come back home.

Breathe.

At least... until the pickup cycle and rushing around to finish homework, cook dinner, and clean begins this afternoon.

Cycles to be repeated.

Okay, I admit, I am also having re-entry turbulence.
This week, the rules are going to be laid out and these situations corrected.

Um...riiiight.

Step by Step How to Draw Hair in Pencil

Instructions on how to draw human hair or animal fur in graphite pencil.
LINK

FREE: your choice of art catalogs

Get your free catalog of art/craft supplies from Dick Blick today:

Free 624-page Art Supply Catalog!

Phil Hanson's Art Comes to Life on the Internet

Unfortunately, I didn't have this info on Phil Hansen in time for Art Inspiration Week, but I do have it now, so why not post it?

"Phil Hansen is not only tearing down the “gallery” walls that keep many people from seeing and enjoying art. He’s also showing us how it’s made -- all on the Internet"

You can read the article but also view 3 videos of Hansen creating.

LINK

PhilInTheCircle.com - Phil Hansen's Website...get the pun?

Time Lapse Video of Phil Hansen painting on his chest.
Unfair to women, I say! I would be limited to mountain regions but he has a flat canvas. WAH.

Pencil Removed from Woman's Head after 59 Years

A woman in Germany has had a pencil lodged in her head most of her life, and was finally able to have it removed. See the story here: LINK

The Duggar Family Welcomes Baby #17

The Duggar family of Arkansas added their 17th child, a little girl, to the family today.
All the kids' names start with J. The Duggars would like to have more kids.

They added up all her pregnancy time, and she's spent 10.5 years of her life pregnant.
Sounds like not enough time for 17 pregnancies, because it's not. They had two sets of twins.

You can check out this interesting story on CNN and the story includes 3 photos from the Associated Press. LINK

Art Inspiration week; Day 5 Revisited, LEGO Portraits by Sean Kenney

I needed to make some changes to the previous post about LEGO, and the blog template/editing thingie just refused to cooperate, so I am having to repost it, sorry for the re-run, but at least it's right this time! :) Darla
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I had the very nice experience of being able to correspond with today's artist by email recently.

Sean Kenney is a Certified LEGO Professional, one of only 5 in the world!

Sean is a full-time LEGO artist who creates LEGO sculptures and events at a commercial art studio in New York. He creates works for museums, galleries, famous toy stores, TV, magazines, corporations, schools, celebrities, and more

Additionally, he offers portraits in LEGO brand blocks.
After looking at his site, I wondered if he built the portraits as mosaics of sorts, and then took a picture of the portrait and what the client would get was a print. I was incorrect, so I was glad I emailed Sean to get more details. Customers do receive the actual LEGO blocks in portrait form - Sean glues and mounts them to a base and then mails the portrait to his customers. Sean explains, "It's sort of like ordering a cross between a tile mosaic and a painted portrait."

The artworks in LEGO can be framed, hung directly on the wall as they are, stood on an
easel, or so on.

Sean summarized by saying "I am very much a perfectionist and I hope this shows in the professionalism and quality of my work."

Visit Sean's website here: LINK

Here's a YouTube video of Sean being interviewed, and you can get even more views of his wonderful creations. LINK

Just make sure you come back to my blog tomorrow for more neat art stuff! Don't end up on a tangent watching ALL the videos on LEGO on MySpace.com like I tend to do!

I'm kinda bummed out that the only LEGOs I have here at home are the really large LEGO set. It's made for ages 1-3, but I did successfully create a bulky robot once. The problem with that is that I set a precedent. Now my boys request, nay - demand that I produce Mr. Robot again, and I cannot find the piece of LEGO with the eyes on it. We'll need to go sofa diving to find it, I think.

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