Day 17 I dreaded... "repair and wear". I don't sew... so repairing sad, put to the side articles of clothing was not top on today's to-do-list. But I DO have a lot of jewelry that has strangely enough, been broken by each one of the boys when they were little babies (so some of these items have been bagged up for almost 5 years now!). Most necklaces I have just tossed and had a moment of silence over... but there are a few I have held onto to hopefully one day give a second birth to.
So did I do that today? Not really - instead I organized each broken item, made a note of what was needed to repair it, and this weekend I will head off to the craft store to finally fix them.
In the mean time, I realized even greater then the few broken pieces of jewelry was the state in which all my accessories were in. This was truly a system I needed to "repair" so I could "wear" better. Am I stretching this a bit... oh well. I think it works. So I set off to Ikea to get a few storage containers, organized and set aside what which items I could donate if I didn't seem to be wearing them enough or anymore, and cleaned up my accessory drawers. I hope this will help me wear more of these items - rather then always turning to what is on top of the pile or my "safe" pieces I always wear.
So does that count for my "repair and wear" challenge, if even in a very abstract sort of way?
I hope so, cause the day has come to an end.
Okay, this day might have been a bust for me. It was hard. The only mens vest I own, I found at a thrift store, and well, it is still a little too small (Or am I still to chubby? Don't answer that). And I have a pair of suspenders but after Cash has been playing with them, I couldn't find them anywhere. So I resorted to stealing something from Ry's side of the closet. He has all these great western shirts, so I just picked my favorite color and belted it up to be slightly a dress. It's still too bloody hot, but I think some boots and a chunky sweater with this outfit would be killer for fall.
Ryan is starting to slowly come down from the high of recording all weekend. Being home at 3 in the morning each night might also have something to do with it. Everything I have heard is amazing and I can't wait for it to get mastered. It's nice to have him back home. He was gone to Folks Fest for 9 days, then only home a few days before he had a Lower Lights fireside and then onto the four days of non-stop recording. It feels like we haven't had any down time together in ages. So what did we do on our big night back together... don't worry, this is a family blog - we tended my nieces and then Ryan watched me do my yoga. Not very romantic, but I'm in a routine now since he has left me so many nights alone, and if I stop it takes me days to get back in the rhythm.
I spent most the day running Cash to and from preschool and prepping more of Jack's decorations for the big party. He is super excited and I'm trying my hardest not to become one of those moms who goes completely overboard. Ryan and I have always discussed how I would need to tone it down once I was a mom. Being a designer - I just like making things look put together and extra cool, and usually I go over the top... I have already been told I cannot help with any of their science projects. I think I am keeping it to a minimum, (kind of). We are making super hero caps and masks (thanks to my friend Holly's great idea and use of her son's cape/mask to use as my template), setting up an obstacle course for the kids to run through and be superheros, and then it's cake and presents. What more do you need? Run around the yard a bit, get sugared up, tear apart some presents. Sounds just about perfect.
Welcome to day 15: Do something different with you hair and plan an outfit around it. I'm not sure how my hair inspired this outfit, but I was just happy my hair was long enough to give a little curl to it. I am also head over hills for this dry shampoo my friend Katrina gave me. It has saved me many a mornings as well as adds a great amount of texture to my other wise extra fine hair. Between that and Bumble & Bumble's Surf Spray, I am nothing without those two products.
Then as my hair grows out more, this is how I'd like it to timeline out the styles and length. I absolutely love this first one:
2 posts in one day required because of my need to respond to new friend "nicola". So here is another. Bad photo, but you get the idea. Day 14 was to copycat a look. I love this one from JCrew, but was missing a neutral scarf to wear on the waist. My wedge strap shoes also just gave up the ghost last Sunday, so I'll have to keep an eye out for both items so I can complete the look in the near future. I love wearing socks with wedged sandals though. I think it is very grandma chic. Plus I got to use this shirt again making it officially one of my remix items.
Thank you for your unbiased review of your product, my parenting skills, and my overall "magical" use of the English language.
Please be advised that when I referred to my husband as "insane" (see day 13 blog as reference), I did not mean it in the medical or legal sense of the word. He is a very good father and is overall confused how he got dragged into your review. I have submitted a formal apology his way for suggesting such unfit parenting skills as you so clearly pointed out.
Now, may I take this time to thank you for becoming a follower of my controversial blog. I'm so happy to have you. I know my future "magic" words will bring you ample critiquing, to which I looked forward to.
I know your company puts a suggested age for each Lego set, which up to this point we have ignored. Jack has been putting his own Legos together for some time now... and can you believe he doesn't fall under the suggested age! Blasphemy! When I help my younger son though, which you so strongly discouraged, I thought we were having a bonding moment. We both seemed to be having a good time. I didn't know I was doing such a disservice. What a freeloader I have been raising. That will change, don't you worry!
I will also let both boys know that I am not letting them get off easy anymore. I didn't know I could ask my kids to clean up after themselves? What a novel concept. You have opened my eyes and I see the light! Even the 9 month needs to start pulling his own weight I'd say.
I apologize when I disgusted you with my description of how "sick" I was to find out the value of one Lego set. But let's both be honest. Your product has gotten pretty pricey over the years - and can you imagine how many other Lego boxes we would have purchased for Jack for the price of the one Batman set?
I see now, my so called magical words were confusing to you... I was not literally sick, mentally or physically. I was just amazed that such a small box could have produced so many other boxes at the same price that he would have equally loved and adored. I forget words can mean several things. I will take your advice with my future blogging and use my words more carefully. Especially now that I know people, whom I do not know, somewhere out in the internet universe, are taking them so literally and judging me over every line. You should be commended for being able to call me such a bad mother with such grace and ease and without any way of me to know who you are, or see your own blog.
Tune in next week when I discuss how I hate letting my children open their own bananas because of the way it smashes the top into banana goop that makes me gag a little. Imagine all the lost moments of invested child dexterity on that one!
Now I could do without all the snow... but watching these live feeds of the Lower Lights doing their Christmas album has me aching for the holiday to be here. I am so excited for this new record. It is going to rule.
The boys and I spent the day being lazy and mostly playing with Legos. We spend all kinds of hours building spaceships with crazy morphed Lego men that are out to defeat all villainy. Ryan and I somehow introduced our kids probably too early to the world of Legos... now they rule our house. I can't vacuum a day without sucking up some sad missing arm or helmet visor that is camouflaged into the carpet. And I know it drives Ryan INSANE to see all the parts everywhere and mismatched. It takes us forever to build these masterpieces when we first buy them, and then seconds for the boys to destroy and loose most their parts, but I love how creative they get with them after they have joined the box of mass Legos. Jack spends all kinds of time creating these Lego forces of ships and cars and while I'm not sure yet how to keep Max from eating most these tiny parts, I just really like that the boys are into them as much as they are. My mom had a box of batman Legos that she originally bought for one of my nephews just as he lost interest in Legos. So she held onto and many many years later, gave it to Jack for Christmas. Of course he went insane over it - and the batmobile maybe lasted 2 weeks assembled. You cannot imagine how sick Ryan and I were to find out that, that very same box of Batman legos was going for over $450 on ebay. The Batman figure alone was $50. I think that is what pushed Ryan over the edge. We almost considered packaging the whole thing back up and selling it as "slightly used", but couldn't bring it upon ourselves to take it from Jack. Oh well.
I tried to organize myself for Jack's first official "friends" birthday party. Up until now, we have just always done it with family and cousins... we spent a good time at the party store drooling over all sorts of treats and surprises for the party. Jack couldn't decide between Batman-themed party and Spiderman-themed party, so I think we are going with an all over "superhero unite!" themed party. My friend Holly did this amazing superhero party for her son and lent me some of her supplies to possibly copy a few things and make some of my own. I just love the photos of the fan blowing the kids capes back. Hilarious.
Day 13 of the challenge was to wear neutral with a pop. Max broke my "pop" colored necklace within about 2 minutes of me wearing it, so I then turned to these kelly green/gold earings that I adore. I also love just to wear vibrant red lipstick as my color against a neutral. I think the more subtle you are, the better sometimes. I'll have to admit, if I hadn't been doing this challenge today, I would have been lazy in jeans and a worn out tee... so maybe this is doing something for me.
Well, I'm off to make cookies and kill some time before I need to feed Max again and since Ry won't be home until the wee hours of the morning, cooking is my way to keep myself company.
The Lower Lights are back in the studio to record not only the second album, but also a Christmas mix, boohyeah! You can watch a live feed of all of this and much more then I'm sure you want to see here. I've been singing along to them all morning.
I'm going down there tonight with some of the other wives to hang out, be a groupie. I'll be sporting day 12 of the challenge... dress up your jeans. Today's wear made me realize I haven't taken the dry cleaning in this week. I had only one non-tshirt option left to doll up. Glad I remembered before the weekend.
So posting pictures of myself is getting old fast... and since I think only three people actually read this blog, I am sure you are bored out of your mind, but here it is none the less. Day 11, skirt or dress day.
This was an easy one for me. I LOVE skirts. I wear them constantly. They are my staple item truth be told. And this one is my favorite. It can be worn higher on my waste with a great tucked in blouse or layered up casual style as seen above. The material has a slight stretch to it, but still holds a shape and form of almost a loose pencil skirt (the wind blowing doesn't help show any of this, sorry). I will wear it into the ground and then cry the day I can wear it no more. I love you gray skirt. Please don't ever leave me.
In other news that actually matters, the boys and I headed up our first official ever "back-to-school" night. It seemed so strange that Jack will be riding a bus, and going to school with double the amount of hooligans, and just growing up on me. I'm scared out of my mind. The whole night I kept scoping out the other parents and kids, trying to come to terms that my soft and sweet-hearted Jack won't stand a chance. He's just too nice. And there are so many mean kids out there. I know I was judging people wrongly and completely based off their looks, but I had my concerns.
Then I got to the kindergarten room and realized all these menacing-looking kids were older then Jack (Jack is SO tall, sometimes I forget most kids his height are two years older then him), and so maybe I could put off my fears and paranoia for another year until he hits the big halls and first grade.
I am super excited for him to start school. He is excited - I love that he will have all these little new friends. I will just be saying my prayers that he will not pick up "baby talk" from some kid on the first day. I really hate that more then anything. It always happens on the first week of preschool or summer camp. Then takes me about 3 weeks to get it out of their system. There is always that one kid... and I want to sucker punch them for teaching my kid how to talk like that. Other then that... and me learning how to not follow the bus every day to make sure Jack made it to school okay, I think we are golden.
Today was day 10: closet orphan. Find something in your closet that has lost your love. You don't wear it for what ever reason... and today was the day to let it have it's moment in the sun. I was surprised to have quite a few of these in my closet. Poor things. I think most of it is because I have been pregnant, or still chubby from being pregnant, or cause I was/am still nursing and needing all tops to immediately turn into a milk train station at Max's every whim.
But today I chose this orange striped number. Not sure why it gets pushed to the back, but I actually liked it again, so I might wear it more often.
Max is sporting is wild mane that causes people to stop us in the grocery stores so they can pet it and laugh at his puffy mohawk. I just love this little meatball.
And here is my man Ryan's song from Folks Fest. What a songbird.
So I caught this on one of my girl friend's blogs; the 21 day wardrobe challenge. I'm coming into late, but I'm still going to try it and then catch up on the days I missed in the end. I'm not too hip about posting 21 pictures of myself, but I am bored with my closet choices as of late, so hopefully this will help revive some old numbers for me.
Today was Day 9: wear something monochromatic. I love this idea. Did you ever pay attention to the wardrobe on the counselor from Glee? I just started that series, and think she's always sporting the greatest stuff.
Today the boys and I joined up with other friends and families for the annual Walk to Cure Diabetes for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at Wheeler Farm. Jack's good friend Avery has diabetes and we walked to support him and such a great cause. There was music, games, food, and enough bouncy slides to keep us entertained for hours. But most important of all... Mr.Avery was there. Jack met Avery at Preschool this last year and they have been best buds ever since. I wish I wasn't so hot and sweaty after the walk, or I would have remember to take a picture of Jack and Avery together.
Have you ever tried the Macadamia Salted Carmel Clusters from Costco? They must have been made by the devil himself they are so good! It takes all my will power not to buy them each time I go.
I just finished the last one in the container tonight, and I'm a little sad I can't eat five more.
You must try.
Just a snapshot of my awesome moment with Max at the grocery store. The picture does not do this justice, I couldn't quite get it all in.
I got half way through my shopping before I reached down and felt, with horror I may add, that wet green poop had exploded out of Max's diaper while I had him strapped in the baby backpack. With each leg pump he had pushed more and more of it out and all across my stomach, down my pants, and then his little leg had spread it down to almost my knee. He was covered. I was covered. It was amazing.
I stood there - captivated by how fast he could create such a devastating mess, the whole time giggling while he did this, and also a little frozen trying to decide what to do next. Do I just give up, leave the cart and head back home? There were too many refrigerator items... Do I haul everyone back out to the parking lot (grocery shopping with three kids is the worst), change the diaper and head back in to finish?
Several other shoppers eyed me wearily as I stood there, motionless in the middle of the aisle, staring at my custom painted outfit. Finally I decided to head to the baby aisle, grab a pack of wipes and try and clean us up a bit. Half a pack of wipes later, we were back to finishing the shopping. I was still covered in green stains - fearing at any moment the diaper could send a second wave, but figured I'd left my pride somewhere back on aisle three, so who cares.
Thanks a lot Max. Giving you life was not enough. You had to take my dignity as well I suppose.
This weekend we had Ry's company party up at Snowbird. It was actually a good time. They had all sorts of carnival rides, bounce houses and slides and other such things for the kids to do. There was all you can eat snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn... and "the candy castle" which was a tent with a massive table of all the candy you could grab, eat, and stuff in your pockets for later. Despite Cash's face (he's trying to look cool in his new sunglasses he got in his gift bag), the boys had a blast and never wanted to leave.
Cash was just about excited to go to preschool for the first day as Nemo was. Bouncing around the house all morning, backpack on as soon as he woke up, asking every ten minutes if it was time.
As long as he still wants me to "cozy him" on the couch during a movie and at night before bed, I can stay calm over this whole growing up thing. It really does go by in the blink of an eye.
Last night I finished The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Oh, I loved it. It is such a great book... I highly recommend. The movie comes out this Wednesday I believe. I hope it is as good - such a sweet story. Let me know what you all think.
Our boys have been pretty good sleepers for the most part. We still can't get Jack to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without first hopping around in our room telling us he has to go, to which we announce, "Okay, then go" and he runs off and does his thing. It is a very strange ritual he keeps up, but I suppose I'd rather be woken up to his declarations of bathroom needs over the alternative, to which I would be changing the sheets.
But this last month Jack began to experience his first signs of nightmares, and being completely terrified of the dark. The first few nights, we took turns (multiple turns) each night putting him back to bed, calming him down, and getting him back to sleep. But night after night it continued.
One night, it was three bloody a.m. in the morning, and I had yet to go to sleep because I had been getting up and down with him so much. I finally convinced Jack I had a bottle of magic good dream spray. I would spray it on his bed, and all his bad dreams would go away, and he would only think of happy things. I pulled out the Febreeze, ceremonially sprayed his bed, his blankets, his favorite stuffed animals and sure enough, he fell asleep. Genius move you are thinking? Oh no. I created a magic spray monster. Not only did I have to spray everything every night, but Cash as well wanted in on this just to be included. On top of that, Jack would then continue to wake demanding more spray in the middle of the night. Ryan wanted to kill me.
In desperation, I was more complaining to my older brother of my sleeping woes then getting advice on what to do - he having older children and full of all kinds of wise advice - when he came up with this master plan.
He told me I should get the boys some type of stuffed animal that could only stay with them if they stayed in their beds. If they continued to get up, the animals would have to go live somewhere else. I was trying to think of what would be good enough to keep Jack in bed? One of those annoyingly overpriced pillow pets maybe? Ryan was wary of the idea all together since the Febreeze disaster. But then that night, we came home to discover my brother had secretly set up something for the boys while we are out.
Waiting for them were the two largest bears the boys or I had ever seen, as well as the following letter:
"Dear Jack and Cash, We are MAGIC bears that have been sent to your home to be your bedroom buddies, and to watch over you while you sleep. We are really good at making sure you sleep safe and sound and helping you have good dreams.
We have a secret though. We can only stay with you in your home as long as you are good boys; do what your mom and dad tell you to do; and MOST IMPORTANT, that you stay in your bed and in your room during the night. If you get out of your bed and your room a lot during the night, we will miss you WAY too much, and we will have to go to another home to find other bedroom buddies to watch over.
Please take good care of us and love us by staying with us each night!! If you do, we will be such good friends.
Love, The Bedroom Bear Buddies"
Jack made me read the letter about twenty times, and was totally convinced. More importantly, he has slept through and stayed in his bed every night since. I owe my brother big time. The only downside? Having to carry two massive bears down each morning to watch cartoons.
Jack and Cash's cousin Tanner is here from California. These three are inseparable once they get together, and there is nothing I love more then seeing them immediately dress up into superheros the moment they are reunited. Although it took everything in me to not laugh at Cash's SnakeMan meets Wolverine get up. He's always taking it to the next level.
The boys swam all day, saved the world from evil robots and super villains, made mom super-happy by eating all their spaghetti, ran through the sprinklers in their tighty-whiteys, then ended the night by sharing a big blanket on the couch together while watching the 1960's Spiderman series.
I wish we had Tanner here more.
And being young enough to almost think you are a real superhero is just about one of the greatest moments of childhood I think.
I love rainy days. I love the smell. I love how green everything looks against deep gray clouds. I love the sound of it on the windows and the sides of the house. I love umbrellas and rainboots and watching the boys splash in puddles.
Add summer to the mix, and it get's even better. Summer rain is heaven. I hope it rains all day and night.
