Sentimental value

Here's the crew of cups.  Aren't they a funky bunch!

Am I the only one who keeps coffee mugs and towels for sentimental value?  I swear, I have more coffee cups on a shelf in the garage just "because I gave it to my dad for fathers day in 1802" than I have tools!  I just can not bring myself to get rid of them.  We have small cabinets and we like to keep an actual set in there that all look the same.  We do have two or three in the back that I use, but if I kept all of the sentimental ones in the cupboard it would look like we were the neighborhood Goodwill.  Is this weird?

Now isn't this one a beauty?  This came from my Grammy.  I always loved this set when I was a little girl and she remembered that!  The last time I went home she gave me her cups!  I actually do use this one a lot.

Now, before you say that I could reuse them for other things, know that I have.  I have used one as a pencil holder for years and I don't even use the pens or pencils in there!  It's just an excuse to keep the cup around and out in the open!  I used another one for toothbrushes, hair elastics, flowers, loose change and as Christmas decorations!  So, I know that I can reuse them, but when you are trying to go for the decluttered, minimalist look, random coffee mugs don't make the cut.

This one cracks me up.  I think my sister actually got this for my dad. Classic!

This next one might be even more weird. Towels.  I have a ratty old bath towel that is from 20 years ago.  It is the only one I have from growing up.  It has millions of holes in it and is fraying, but it is so soft and just makes me think of when my dad would get out of the shower and have it wrapped around his waist.  I can picture it now...walking out of the shower with the vanilla colored towel wrapped around his waist, a cotton swab in his ear and smelling like Old Spice and Irish Spring.

Here it is in all its glory!  My husband helped me figure out the best way to show you it's ridiculousness!!  He calls this "the ghost"

Most of the towels I keep are beach towels.  My sister has all of our beach towels from when we were kids and I haven't gotten the nerve to ask her for one because maybe she is keeping them for the same reason!  Beach towels meant a lot in our family.  It was a BIG THING to get a beach towel because we only got the REALLY NICE ones.  Ya know, the super soft, thick ones with your favorite Disney character on them?  I know my sister got one of Shamu, the killer whale and I was SOOO JEALOUS because it was so vibrant and beautiful.  I had a mickey mouse one and I think the other one was just blue with dolphins and beach balls on it.  They remind me of the best time of my life.

Every year my dad took us to Old Orchard Beach (OOB) in Maine (where I grew up) for a week, usually for the 4th of July.  We stayed in cheap hotels that were so cool.  They were basically a step up from tenting out.  We would go to the beach and play for a bit, but then we got so spoiled.  We played games and won cheap stuffed animals, ate cotton candy, fried dough and french fries with vinegar on them until the cows came home and had a blast on all of the rides.  The Matterhorn...that thing was so scary and hurt so bad.  My sister had to go on it with me and she'd get so mad that I was touching her!  How can you NOT touch the person you are getting smooshed into while centrifugal force is at its peak!?  Then we'd go back to the hotel, or sometimes little one bedroom cottage and light up sparklers and morning glories and eat s'mores by a fire-pit.  It was fabulous!  I think my parents saved all year long just so we could go nuts and live large at OOB.

OOB July 4th 19??

Outside one of the shacks we stayed in.  Love my sweet perm...

So, I guess it is just hard for me to throw those things away.  I don't have much from my childhood.  No toys, no clothes and only a few pictures, so I like to hold on to what I have. When I'm 80 and have dementia, maybe that one beach towel or a drink from an old coffee cup will bring me back to reality!

What things do you have that you just can't force yourself to give up?  Do you think mine are strange or is this the norm? I'd LOVE to hear what you have as sentimental value from your past!

Bath time burn out

While I was pregnant, I, like most pregnant moms, read "What to Expect The First Year."  In it, it told me that I should establish a "night time routine."  So, I decided that every night we would eat, take a bath, put on jammies, read books and go to bed.  Fast forward 3 years and my son was STILL doing this routine.  My son and I do not like change, but COME ON!  Three years of consecutive baths!  That's got to be a Guinness world record.  I got to be so bored with baths.  I dreaded it and would try to come up with a reason why he didn't have to take one!  Everyone told me to just go clean the house or do something else, but I had it in my head (and still do) that I had to be in there with him.  I have a fear that he'll drown, even at age 3, so I refused to leave the room.  This is probably why I loathed bath time so much, but still, my son liked me to play bath power rangers or bath pirates and if I even were to leave the room, I'm sure I'd be beckoned back in anyway.  

Alas, my son turned 4 and BAM! he thought big boys didn't have to bathe!  So he went from taking one every single night to NEVER wanting to take one.  I was happy at first, but then it got to be a little crazy.  You would think that we were putting him in acid.  He screamed and carried on, so we gave sponge baths!  It is summer time, so we ended up filling up the inflatable pool and putting his Johnson's baby soap in it.  We figured as long as he did that every other day we were good!  Well, now pre-k has started and we can't let him be "smelly kid in class!"  Well, off to the dollar store to try to find a plethora of new bath essentials to entice him.  He's over the colored bath fizzies and destroys the crayons in one bath.  They didn't have much...new Mickey Mouse soap and a wind up boat.  I was looking for that mouse type stuff, but they didn't have it.  Bath toys are SO expensive!  At Target, one of those flute things is $12.99!  He did a single bath flute for his birthday but after a couple uses, he was done with it.  I mean, to come up with something new and different EVERY other night for a bath is going to be difficult!  Oh, we did the glow stick thing, too!  

Whoa, I got a little sidetracked there.  The point I was trying to make was that now that he never wants to take a bath, I treasure looking at his bath toys all over my tub.  (He decided that our bath tub was more exciting than his).  So, here my husband and I are taking showers with Captain America and Jake The Never land Pirate because I'm so happy to see his toys strewn about!  Of course, now that he doesn't want to take one every night, I miss seeing all of his stuff all over the tub!  I walked into our bathroom one day to clean up and I couldn't bring myself to do it!  I wanted that picture to be in my head forever...so I literally took a picture!  

I want to remember my tub exactly like this forever!

close up of the cute toys all lined up :)

So tell me if your kids balk when you announce it's bath time and how you keep it fun and exciting?

I'm back in action

(Here is a pic of us in front of our new house.  You can barely see our dog by the tree on the right.  We've done a lot of work to the outside so it doesn't look exactly like this anymore, but you get the gist!)



It's been far too long since I have blogged!  I missed it so much.  Now that we are settled into our new home in Florida and my son is in Pre-k, I have more time to do what makes momma happy!  Something about just seeing something on the web that I created is just satisfying.  It's something concrete that I can say I did and that makes me happy....that, and the sound of computer keys is music to my ears. 

I can remember for the longest time, before I could type, I would just type away, not knowing what I was typing, but it sounded so neat and busy!  I was born to be a data entry person, I swear! haha. I do not enjoy answering phones or greeting people, but boy do I love to type! 

Anyway, I am working on revamping my blog, but I wanted to get a post out there first.  I am reading a ton of books on how to make my blog represent who I am more, instead of just using the "grassy look" template I found.  So, I will be playing with fonts and headers and siders, oh my! 

Stay tuned my friends!

The interest in Pinterest!

I haven't posted in a very long time.  I found that I wasn't using my blog for anything positive and that bothered me.  I think that after brainstorming with my friend KJ, I have found a couple of positive outlets for the blog. 

Our first project is going to surround the "interest in pinterest" as I like to call it.  Pinterest is all the rage and is blowing up on every one's radar.  Some people say it is just another way to waste time, but it has made my life and my toddler's life, very enriching.  I don't just sit around pinning things.  I actually DO the projects that I pin and I would like to share what has worked for us, our favorites and things that didn't work out so well! 

We do a Pinterest activity, craft or recipe every day (as Ben wakes up he says, "so, what project are we going to do today?") and I thought I would post it on here with our thoughts on it.  I wish once you pinned something there was a spot to put a check mark so that you could cross it off your list of pins!  I love crossing things off my "to do lists" and get the same satisfaction from completing a pinned project!

Do you ever find yourself starting out on Pinterest and before you know it you have navigated so far from Pinterest that you don't even know how you got to where you are?  It is such a great place to lead you on to other things that are so helpful and unique.  There are so many hidden treasures out there on the web and by some grace of God, I stumble upon the most lovely recipes or stories about how families have come together through crafting at home with their little ones or how a frugal mom has saved so much money by making her own decorations or dog biscuits! 


**You can follow me at Pinterest a thttp://pinterest.com/goldilx  if you one of the chosen peeps!  It's an elite club isn't it?!  If you need an invite just holla!**

                                   Here we go..........

HEART CRAYONS from broken crayons: 5 STARS
Recommend to a friend?  YES
 This one turned out great and was super easy.  It is so much fun to color with a multi-colored heart!

SPINACH BALLS: 2 STARS
Would I recommend to a friend? Yes

We tried the spinach balls one night.  The prep work for the spinach was kind of long and messy and if we ever do it again we will use fresh spinach that we chop up in the food processor or loosely cut it up.  The frozen, chopped spinach it called for was long and stringy...and as one of my best friends pointed out, "no one likes stringy balls!" HAHAAHA.  They were tasty and filling and went great with spaghetti sauce as a dip!

CLOUD DOUGH:  1 STAR
Would I recommend to a friend? NO

I didn't manage to get a picture of the "cloud dough" that we made with flour and baby oil, but let me just say, NEVER AGAIN!  It smelled good and was soft, but it made the biggest mess and we are still suffering from its effects!   We did it outside and the flies LOVED it.  If it spilled on the ground it became impossible to get rid of.  We had to throw out two outdoor rugs and had to dig up the grass where it fell.  I tried to wash it away with a high powered hose and it just got all goopy and did not budge!  If you have a super contained area and clean up immediately than sure, give it a go, but we left it so we could play the next day and it just got out of control messy!

Well there we are!  I would love any ideas of ways to improve this blog so let me hear what you think!
I think we are all loving this pinterest thing because it is such a positive outlet for us.  We all have creativeness inside us just waiting to be brought out and this makes it 1) easy 2.) accessible & 3) acceptable!  There are so many different interests, so whether you want to sew, bake, cook, , read or just brainstorm ideas, this is THE place for you!  Now go get pinning/repinning and sharing!! 

Goldi and her lil bear

What really chaps my derriere

I have a lot of pet peeves.  I think a lot of people do.  However, some things I just can't wrap my head around.  Some things just don't make any sense to me and I wonder how they make sense to others.  If you read any of these and care to explain them to me, please do!  I'd love to cross off some pet peeves!

 

1.  I don't understand the Facebook app that says, "FINALLY! You can see who has looked at your page."  I get so worked up about this that I find it hard to explain!  Who cares who is looking at your page...that is what it is there for, TO LOOK AT!!  That's the entire point of facebook!  It is a social networking site and you do not need to leave a comment on someones page in order to catch up with them or see what they have been up to, are interested in, are employed, etc! I want people to look at my page, that's why I have a facebook profile!!

 GET OVER IT!

 

Awesome! You can finally find out who has looked at your page!

Find out who stalked you!

Catch who sees your profile!

2.  Shoes at the park.  Why oh why are there so many shoes left at our park?  If my child came home without his/her shoes on, I'd make him/her march right back there and get them.  These shoes are never recovered.  They sit there and rot for months.  There are new shoes, old shoes, baby shoes, teenager shoes and expensive shoes.  Why would one want to walk home without shoes on?  Do people have so many shoes that they won't miss the pair they left at the bottom of the slide?  Are children not informed of the many dangers that lurk in a playground in Hawaii?  Centipedes that bite, splinters from the new wood chips, fecal matter from the dogs and cats and probably even humans that get on the ground, swings, slides...  I just do not understand this one at all. 

3.  So, let's pretend we are at a dog park.  It is obviously full of sand and mud and dirt because it's a dog park and dogs run around constantly, making little room for grass.  It is a park for dogs to be free, to run around, to socialize.  So why is there always that one chick who apologizes OVER and OVER again when her dog runs up to me just to say hi or sniffs my dog?  I don't apologize when Sammy (our dog) does this to you.  This is what she is there to do!  All I hear for the hour that I am there is, "sorry!, soooorry! oh, sorry! oh, I'm so sorry!"  dear lord woman, take a pill!  I expect to get dirty. I don't go there in my Sunday's best, looking to leave unscathed of dog germs!

4.  People who don't stop and think about where you are coming from (mentally).  Sometimes I ask something because I want to know that very second.  Sometimes I get a very nasty response with a lot of attitude.  Sometimes it goes like this, "just google it Dawn!!"  Sometimes I get, "your husband is in the Army isn't he?"  Sometimes I am too tired.  Sometimes I am busy.  I am a good mother and do not spend my entire day online.  If I am asking something, it is because I want many recommendations, advice and/or quick response at a one stop shop.  Sometimes I am on my phone and can't "google it" because it takes too long, I only have a few seconds to get online, and at times I am literally too brain dead to think for myself!   So please, please, leave the sarcastic, rude remarks and either ignore me or just answer the dang question!

*Deep breath*  ahh, I feel better. 

Ben's Busy Book

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about a book. "The Toddler's Busy Book" that every parent should have if they have a toddler. Well, Ben and I tried a few of them and they were epic fails.  For example: 1)poke a couple of holes in a 2L soda bottle and use in bath tub 2. roll marshmalows in crushed up graham crackers and 3. dry beans in a bowl w/spoon were just a few of the things we tried that Ben was not a fan of.  Actually, let me rephrase that one...Ben LOVED the beans in a bowl.  It was mama who was running around picking them up because he was eating them and throwing them everywhere and decided that was not going to happen EVER again! 

So, Ben and I decided to make our own "Busy Book for Toddlers."  Here are some of his ideas:

He likes to move the chair to the sink, roll up his sleeves and play with the cups and spoons in there.  I actually find this quite boring because I have to just stand there next to him making sure he doesn't fall. 


Fortunately, the time he spends up there on the chair has decreased considerably each time!

a straw, a solo cup and bubbles...he's a genius~

and bubble bath in the OUTSIDE pool is great fun!

painting and drawing on the patio with water

are we seeing a theme here with Benjamin? 

Water, Water, Water! (although he doesn't really like to swim at the moment...)



Top 10 Reasons Living in Hawaii is not Paradise to Me

10. The beauty in Hawaii lies in the head of the vacationers.  What you see as a vacationer is very different than what you see as an Army wife stationed on base.  Yes, of course there are gorgeous views of mountains, ocean and sunsets, but there is also trashy huts as houses, girls peeing on buildings in broad day light and negativity all around.

9. If you are not Hawaiian AND in the military...watch out!  You are looked at with hate.  You are treated as though you are here to do bad things to the island and the rules that are in place are only for non Hawaiians, military peeps!  They call white people "haole's" pronounced "howl-ees" which has been explained to me to mean "white person," but it seems to me and many others to mean "white trash."

Example:  If there is a sign at a beach that says, "No Alcohol, Pets or Food" then it really means, "if you are Hawaiian, please bring your dog, beer and BBQ, but if you are a haole, you will be ticketed!"

8. Their commercials are SOOOOO cheesy!  AND a tie for #8 is the Red Dirt here that stains everything.

7.  Their language makes them sound very ignorant.  "Ya, I like da kine." = "Yes, I like that kind" 

6.  Hawaiians have bumper stickers with machine guns on them that say, "protect against" (protect against what I ask?) and " Keep the Country Country," (which means, "stay out of our land non Hawaiian people!)

(one of the stickers says, "slow down, this aint the mainland)  Hawaiians drive about 10 MPH UNDER the speed limit.

5.  They let Hawaiian people ride in the back of pick up trucks, but they have a "strict" "click it or ticket" law...hmmm, figure that one out for me

4.  They have told me more than once that I am over qualified for a job and that they can hire a Hawaiian to do the same job and pay them less and that "Hawaiians have been on the island looking for a job longer than I have, so it wouldn't be fair to give it to me."  YUP!  that's great.  I will now make my resume false and say I only have a high school diploma and am Filipino.

3. The Shaka.  If you give this signal to someone (hold out your pinky and thumb) you can do whatever you want to a person: ie; Cut me off on the road, but give me the Shaka and everything is just peachy keen!  The think this is "driving aloha" and they frown very much on honking!  I have honked twice and I thought I was going to get shot at!  So basically, they want you to live aloha (be nice) to them, but they don't have to live aloha back.

2.  They don't stock anything!  On Thanksgiving Tom and I heard, "oh, we only got 4 cans of pumpkin pie this year."  Last week at the PX (the military version of a walmart) "oh, we only got one shipment of Christmas Tree stars and Christmas tree skirts and they all went the first week and we won't get anymore in."  Seriously?  There are more than 4 people in Hawaii!!  Get more shipments!! 

1.  It is the furthest state from MAINE and the East Coast where my family is...where ALL the love is! 



We are at our 12 month count down until we can PCS to the MAIN LAND again!!!!!