The Completed Toy Box

There it is. Finished. It's cool to have something in our home that Brandon and I worked on together to make for Calvin.

remote difficulties

Ever since we moved to our new place the remote for our dvd player no longer works. Since the dvd player has only 3 buttons on it that has left us reliant on our universal remote to do anything more than press play. However, finding the correct code has been tricky. For now we are working with code 1087, which makes our dvd do things, but not what the buttons say. (see post-it) We feel like we are at full functioning level with the remote and can select any option we need to with our code sheet.
For example, last night we were watching a movie that was a little hard to understand. No problem, we pressed left arrow and subtitles showed up. If someone walked in and said, "hey, I missed chapter 17, can we go back?" to which I would reply, "why, of course" and hit 5 and then 1. Piece of cake.

Layers of Learning

I have a friend that participates in this great blog where some home schooling and education minded moms share ideas of how they teach their kids in creative ways, including how to elaborate on the ideas depending on how much you want to get into the subject. I really liked this video they posted a little while ago about government.

I don't do a whole lot of teaching, but I have been tutoring a couple girls in a few subjects, mostly math. They both struggle with fractions (who doesn't?) so I have been looking for ways to make it visual as my friend suggested.

I made some pie crust that we rolled out into several small circles and would use a pizza cutter to divide them up and I would ask her questions about the fraction, have her write it out, and then add some of them together, etc. She had a lot of fun with it so I felt pretty successful.

The next week we made pizza because I knew we would need a lot of fractions to work with the recipe. As she added ingredients I would ask her about the different measurements and how to get the amount we need. (ie: 1/4 tsp. to make 1/2 tsp.)
After it was cooked we cut up the pizza and I asked her more questions about how the slices in terms of fractions.
While the dough was rising we went over some concepts using this site and then she played some games on the computer from this website. Some of them were too complicated. She did really well with the balloon game, the flower game & the butterfly game was her favorite.

So if any of your kids have a hard time with fractions this year, there are some ideas for you. And LOTS of ideas at layers-of-learning.blogspot.com

Successful partying

On Saturday night we went to Brandon's work party. It was a nice dinner and live music and lots of awesome prizes, like a plasma screen or a foosball table. Brandon even won something! A crock pot. ooooh. Although the crock pot isn't that exciting, it was still cool to win.

Selfish

I'm not sure if I understand selfishness. I feel like everything I do is coming from a selfish perspective, even the stuff that seems like I'm doing service or being generous. I don't think I would go out of my way to help other people if I felt lousy for it. Even if the task is a miserable one, I still feel better about myself for being a good person. I can't think of anything I do that doesn't have a selfish intent. Or anything anyone does for that matter. There must be something I'm missing.

Jackson Hole

We just got back from a fun vacation to Jackson Hole with Brandon's family. It was a surprise vacation for Brandon's dad to celebrate his 70th birthday with all of Brandon's siblings and their families. We stayed at an awesome house and did lots of great outdoor stuff. Great weekend.
And as far as I know, that is the last of our many vacations this summer. It has been awesome. New York & D.C. with friends, then the ocean in Washington with my family, Jackson Hole with Brandon's family. I have a feeling next summer might be kind of lame compared to this one.

Trouble

We are loving our new apartment. However, there are always some things that aren't exactly the way you'd like them, right? For example, the fixtures around the place are new and nice, but the door handles are a PROBLEM. They are so convenient to open, so convenient even a one year old can open them! It takes some effort, some standing on his toes, but he has opened a few doors now and he loves it. And I don't.

Brick, Wood, Sheep, Wheat, & Ore

Some of you may remember my post about Cupcakes of Catan awhile back. We had some friends visiting from out of town and it seemed like a good occasion to make it happen. You might be wondering - did it make the game a little tricky? yes. did it take awhile time to make? yes (which was fun as well). Was it worth the extra effort? YYYYeeeesss!a few added notes: If you can't tell from the pictures, it's graham crackers for wood, twizzlers for brick, & neccos with red gel icing for the numbers. I had an old art board I threw some paint on for the water. We used skittles for houses, gummy bears for cities, cut up air heads for roads and a picture of a thief on a toothpick for the robber. Good times... if only we had won!

Broiler Bandits

That is what Brandon has named us, with the plan that we will accidentally take the broiler pan from the oven out of every place we ever live in. Right now we have three broiler pans. Although I plan to return one to the apartment we just moved from. Hopefully we'll get by okay with just the two.

non-blogging

We just got back from a great time at the ocean with lots of family, and to keep things interesting, this week we are moving. It's a whole 15 minutes away from where we live now. So who knows when we'll be internet ready at the new place? Blogging may or may not be scarce...
In the meantime, here is a great site that I am very attached to financially: mint.com It's a website that will connect to all your financial accounts, like banks & credit cards, and instead of going to multiple sites to try and keep track of what you spend where, it tells you in nice little charts and graphs. It can even send you emails when you go over the budget you set up. Love it.

Sewing

I recently borrowed my sister in law's sewing machine for a little bit and I was able to cram in all kinds of mending. Pretty much the entire pile that we have accumulated since we got married almost 3 years ago. One pair of pants turned to shorts, long skirt turned to a short one, 5 long sleeve shirts turned into short sleeves (Brandon always busts out of the elbows somehow), 4 pillows covered, 3 sweaters with holes patched, a skirt & shirt re-hemmed, one skirt turned into a bag, and I sewed a small bag for Calvin since he always tries to carry around my purse and the diaper bag, etc. Now he has one his size, that of course he has no interest in.

Toy Box paint options

Here are some of the things we put in Calvin's room, so whatever design we choose for the toy box it will be in these kind of colors. This is what I have so far, try to image them in more accurate colors and a lot nicer.

Toy Box style A:
Toy Box style B (aquarium):
Toy Box style C:

Feel free to voice your opinion on the poll ->

Special Popsicles

I bought some plastic containers to make homemade popsicles. You know, pour in some OJ or yogurt, etc. However, the company seems to be advertising for use of green pepper popsicles. Seriously? Who designed their packaging? The person was either confused, thinking perhaps the pepper was a lime?? Or maybe they only had two images available on their computer and decided apples and green peppers look appealing enough. I guess it works. I bought them, didn't I? Maybe green pepper popsicles are better I think. Green eggs and ham, right? Can't knock it 'till you try it? ....no, I don't think so.

Done

Brandon proved us all wrong and finished the toy box in a week. Now how long will it take for me to paint it .....?? I'll post some samples and maybe take a poll on some ideas.

Time to draw

Since Calvin is one now and has enjoyed playing with his friends' magna doodles, I figured it was time we got him one of his own. Sometimes I forget it's his toy though and he has to pull it out of my hands. He will be starting art lessons soon...

Chicken pox?!

Calvin woke up this morning with spots. Gradually more & more have appeared and I was thinking it was some kind of allergic reaction, I mean, kids these days get vaccines for chicken pox, right? So they don't get it anymore? Then my friend reminded me that they get the vaccine at their one year appointment - which was last week. And it takes about a week for it to show up. They said it's common to have a "reaction" to the vaccine. The "reaction" is the chicken pox.
It's suppose to be less contagious getting it from a vaccine and it's suppose to be more mild (let's hope!). It should be gone in a few days or so. However, the time he was most contagious was before today and guess who has never had the chicken pox - Brandon.
UPDATE: So the spots kept getting worse & worse and started looking more bizarre than chicken pox, so I took him to the doctor and it's not chicken pox, just some virus he most likely got from one of his vaccines. It doesn't change much besides the fact that he's not contagious now, and he is going to be looking a lot worse than chicken pox.

Toy Box

We have been looking around for a good deal on a toy box and Brandon has decided to make one for us. He says it will be really simple and then I can paint it and make it look cool. My only question is: Will Calvin still be playing with toys when this project gets finished?
You can make your guess at the poll on the side ->

Sweat Fest 2009 Champion

Sweat Fest was a big success. A lot of us slacked off towards the end, but the ones that stuck with it lost some impressive weight. As a group we lost around 185 pounds. The winner was our friend Reid who lost 14% of his body weight! It was great to be part of something that helped my friends & family & me to be healthier.
Maybe we'll have to do the competition again sometime. Or another sort of competition. Any ideas? What else would be a fun thing to compete in?

Morning run

This morning when I was running by this old guy he pointed to where I was coming from and said, "Someone called and they want you to start over!" You could tell he thought he was pretty funny and says it to every runner that looks exhausted. (as I most definitely did) Still, I laughed and it made me stop thinking of the misery of running for a little bit.
Later I ran by this guy & girl outside some very nice apartments getting ready to start a run together. I swear that guy had just put on cologne. He must have been a little too worried about how he was going to smell once he started sweating. Face it guy, that is NOT going to help.

1 year old!

Our baby is one today! Several pictures can be seen here.