Needed more seating

Want to see my awesome Friday morning yard sale find? Of course I was late getting to work but it was so worth it. There has been a shortage of seating around here and 

Super Table (Above) just isn't cutting it anymore.

Way wasn't too happy about bringing home "junk" but it's for me, practical, functional, and paintable (below).

New pine bench with storage in the dining room $20.

The dinner party movement!

Are you tired of dining out and blowing $60 - $100.00 a pop for casual dining?

Are you tired of meeting with friends or family at crowded restaurants only to sit next to two people the whole time and only have conversation with only them or worse...

Tired of going to really loud restaurants where you can't hear anything anyone is saying?

How about being rushed through a dining process? Arrive, be seated, order drinks, order food, eat food, pay, and "get out".

Well, I'm certainly tired of having to order LARGE portioned meals and paying for it.

Hosting dinner parties is the answer! Once a week or every two weeks depending on a persons lifestyle, we should be hosting a dinner party! In return friends and family will send a reciprocal invite and there is your quality entertainment, variety of foods, a chance to show off awesome bargain decor just like women (and men) used to do and socialize. Not mention skip a night of cooking, cleaning, and spending when going to a dinner party. Of course it is polite to offer clean-up help.

I didn't have to be sold on the idea because I love to host! However, I have a lot to learn. I've found some great sites with tips to help plan and eliminate hosting anxieties.

http://www.celebrations.com/dinnerparties

http://www.divinedinnerparty.com/

http://www.thedinnerpartyplanningsite.com/

I know it may be easier for some than others, especially if you can't cook or don't know how to cook for a lot of people. What better time to learn?! A huge pot of easy stew or chili on a cold day will suffice and offer a great way to be creative (if desired) with an age-old meal. The budget for either meal to feed 10 people is about $20.00. Tell me where two families can go for $20.00?

I'm expecting more people to jump on board because this is a no-brainer!

only 1 out of 5?

Elaine is the only kid in sight for another couple of days. Wow! We went out to eat and did a little shopping, some cleaning and now blogging?! Oh yeah did you catch that? There are 5 now. Our newest addition is my dear sweet cousin Isabella aged 10. She will be living with us starting Friday. We are looking forward to having her and sharing our lives with her.

December 27th 2010 Islands of Adventure Harry Potter's Hogwarts

Happy 1st Birthday #2 Elaine!

As promised here are the birthday pics. It was a small bash but Elaine seemed to have gotten everything she wanted and it shows. Money (Great Grandma Paxman), Baby Building Beads (Mommy and Daddy), a puppet (Gretchen bought for her with her own babysitting money), shoes, clothes including glow in the dark skeleton PJ's (Aunt Shelley), a pull behind puppy (Aunt Kendall and Family), a lovely card designed by Mona and Sonny, and her own Bitty Baby American Girl Doll (Grammy). And of course the terrific Radio Flyer Nana and Grandpa got her for her 1st Birthday #1! Thank you Everyone for making it special!

 Cooool!

 Yeeaaaah!

 Mine. 

 What else?

 Um, it's ok. I'll just have a little.

 Well, I couldn't possibly... ummmmm. No, I really don't want any, ummmmmmm.

 Oh my gosh! What have I done!

Saaweeeeeet!

I almost forgot about these party crashers! Just kidding. This is the best bunch of siblings Elaine could ask for.

Elaine is turning 1 already!

Elaine is such a sweet soul that we couldn't imagine life without her. 

She has touched our lives with her tiny growls and her incessant "Hi. Hi. Hi.".

She's so big and looks like daddy  now more than ever!

  Her curiosity and love of nature may get her into trouble at times but it is important to let her explore.

 I taught her to water the herbs this morning so... 

...she watered the pavement.

"Maybe I'll stop to taste this bit of moss."

"Come on Dad, I'm totally ready for a run! Pleeeeeeease take me."

Even though we aren't ready for her to turn 1 we are looking forward to another year packed with love, learning, and excitement from this tiny miracle.

Work work work.

clean clean clean.

cook cook cook.

drive drive drive.

wash wash wash.

spend spend spend.

go go go.

goodnight-kiss goodnight-kiss goodnight-kiss.

I do it all for my 3 girls.

Who does this child look like?

She resembles someone new everyday couple of days. I still think she looks like Sonny. I finally replaced the camera I sold earlier this year so look out blog.

Elaine at almost 9 months

Elaine on Gretchen's Birthday with avocado on her shirt.

i promise to blog soon. i promise!

31 days left till we are UT bound. All heck will break loose I bet. We can't wait!

Modeling?

I've always said Brielle knows how to work the camera and look where it's landed her!

http://www.ocls.info/ - Front page of the Orange County Library System website
(top right: pictured Brielle Roberts)

Web Log neglect

Sorry. I know they say being a stay at home mom is difficult and a full time job yada yada yada. I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings here but man was it easy to stay home with the baby. It's not like I've never worked before but I can't seem to find a minute for myself most days. I tried running with Way but I think I did it wrong and now I have sharp pains in my knees that won't go away. I used to read before bed but now the thought of losing 20 min. of sleep is unbearable. Up at 5:30 am down at 12:00 am usually. Tonight. Tonight is different. It's 10:28 pm now and I'm crawling into bed as soon as I hit the publish button. But not before I post an Elaine video. Of course.

What's the deal?!

Yep. She crawls and pulls herself up to stand! She is almost 6 months and thinks she's 14. I guess it's time to start baby proofing. I've been putting it off.

Love you Nana and Grandpa!

Paxman/Roberts Update.

Elaine has grown so much. It's sad to think she's almost a toddler and I will never have another infant. She has been very grumpy lately because of teeth and growth spurts I think. She has been waking up several times a night and I'm exhausted. Between working and fighting off two colds in two weeks I'm not doing so well. I admit I was conflict seeking yesterday with my other half and I had to apologize this morning when I felt better (that doesn't happen very often).

Gretchen has grown so tall so fast that her fat cells need to catch up. Any aspiring supermodel would be envious.

She is now facebooking for those that don't know her well and she has quite the sense of humor. My kids usually annoy me with their goofy jokes and stories but Gretchen's humor is maturing and I find myself enjoying conversation more and more with her.

Brielle is so excited about her science project on gravity. She longs to do well in school but it is such a challenge for her. As a matter of fact she has been off her meds since Christmas and we haven't had any behavioral issues since February. I think holding her accountable for her behavior is giving her a life long lesson of self discipline and she's maturing too. Getting her to do her work isn't the problem. It's getter her to do it right that's like pulling teeth. She'll come around though, she's just really busy like me. Always looking for something new to try.

Grant is not with us very often so it's hard to give an update without being vague. I saw him at dinner tonight and just before bed. He went to cub scouts this evening and seemed to have had fun. He told me he took some poems Gretchen wrote out of her trash and was planning to bring them to his school to show his friends what his sister is like. I said told him even though they were in the trash they weren't for him to take and if he asked her she might have given them to him. I didn't make him give them back though because I didn't see the harm since they don't go to the same school.

I'm looking forward to meeting with one of my friends on Monday about a photo shoot. It turns out she and her husband have a photo studio in their house! I've been wanting portraits for our walls for a long time. Plus we need pictures to frame with Elaine in them.

What else? Oh I could go on for a while longer but wont because It's 11:00 pm and Elaine has been asleep since 8:15. She's bound to get up soon and I need my rest to get through my day tomorrow.

Why does Elaine make so much noise every time she eats?

fresh out of the bath and drying her pits.

Easter 2010

My mini-me ain't so mini anymore.

What's up with that grin Lainie?!

oh wait. It matches Grants grin!

Brielle is always ready for a camera.

I only have 2 min. to blog

I started work yesterday and I literally only have 2 minutes to blog about it this morning. I will be spending the next couple of days being crammed with information about insurance services and how TPA's (third party administrators) work. Not very interesting stuff but I have identified about 5 issues they are in need of correcting immediately other than what I was hired for. I think I could stay busy there for quite some time. Everyone is very nice and my hours are from 9 - 2:00 with 1 hour for lunch if I want it. Well I'm off to get dressed, drink my coffee, wake up the baby for her feeding, drive the girls to school and drop Elaine off at the sitter's (this will be her first day since Wayland stayed home with her yesterday) and go to work. Now that's what I call a Soccer Mom... but without the soccer.

ScanLife

Create JPG codes on ScanLife.com to post on websites for contact information or website addresses or twitter crap. Snap a picture of the images with your camera phone after downloading the free application to automatically call or browse the site. The images scanned by your phone are digitally encrypted. It's new technology and fun. The code below contains information for the ScanLife website. Awesome.



below will create a menu to either send a text to my phone or visit my blog.

Shout it out from the roof tops!

I'm so excited!!!! I start work next Monday! This is the company I will be joining as their newest web application programmer and software developer:

www.midwest-ins.com

They will bring me on for 20-30 hrs a week for 30 days and then we will discuss going to full-time and what benefits I'm interested in (perrrrrrfect! I get to be with Lainie for a little longer). They operate out of an office that is 1.3 miles away. I pass by Gretchen and Brielle's school to get there. Could it get any more convenient! My prayers have been answered. I get to begin the career I've worked so hard for.

Grammy insisted we post

Last night. Ready for bed.

This morning. Dumping out all the toys for inspection.

Almost done but...

I bought the headliner fabric and spray adhesive today. Note: Make sure you buy enough headliner fabric to cover the whole headliner. Measuring the headliner first is recommended. So I only bought 1 1/2 yards but I needed at least 1 & 3/4 yards 2 would have been better. I stretched as much as I could and grabbed some black vinyl I had laying around and improvised the last 4 inches. I managed to squeeze the freshly covered fiberglass headliner back into place and I started re-attaching the visors and dome lights. It got dark around 6:45 tonight so I stopped to take the kids out for Pizza. I noticed the lights weren't working and neither were the windows. THE WINDOWS WERE DOWN! I went to get the Mag Light out of the trunk and it wouldn't open! Why ME?! The kids were really cold while we drove to Ci Ci's and I reviewed my Jetta manual at dinner. It told me nothing. I assumed it was a fuse so when we got home I found a few forums that talked about this issue. Some said if the dome light bulb weren't seated properly then the fuse could blow. It also said it could continue to blow. If so then the dealership could correct the issue for about $400.00. OMGosh this can't be happening. I replaced the fuse after I climbed through the back seat into the trunk again to get the Mag Light and voila the windows went up. Then I tried to re-seat the dome light (it is hanging for now because it is too dark to try to screw it back into place) then I tried the widows. Nothing. I blew the fuse again. I hung my head and went inside to blog about it. I'll try again tomorrow with a box of fuses and patience. I hope once I get all the parts back on the ceiling, that this issue will go away (fingers crossed).

Please stay tuned for finished product pictures.

Remember to stay tuned for my next project on leather seat repair.

To DIY or not to DIY? That is the question.

Some know my car was practically totaled when one of the calipers broke. The repairs were WAY out of our budget so I was without my car for 2 1/2 months. We just had the repairs done last week and now I have my little red beauty back. When I saw her I remembered all the cosmetic things I needed to repair as well and I felt sick again. The trunks latching mechanism broke so I couldn't open the trunk and I was riding on my full size spare since July. The rim was in the trunk...Ugggggghhh! The headliner sagged and flapped in the wind and now bits of the top clear coat of paint are chipping. OK, let's think. I'll crawl in through the back seats, take off the carpet covering in the trunk to manually open the latch. Then I'll duct-tape the broken piece together and have the guy at the used tire place find me a tire for that rim. I've done all the above. I've also started project B: Replace Headliner. The local upholstery place quoted me $275.00. YouTube said $35.00 and some time. I have stripped the old liner off the removable fiberglass headliner and hosed the rotten foam/glue off. It is now sitting in the driveway drying. Tomorrow Elaine and I will visit Joann Etc. to purchase the replacement foam-fabric and spray adhesive. All should go well up until I have to put the sunroof back together and all the ceiling handles, visors and dome lights. Crap! Wayland doesn't know about any of this yet...

IE sucks

http://www.ttbeauty.com/sparkle/site/monkeyheaded.blogspot.com

Apparently nobody else can see my Sephora Glitter Vision. I don't think Internet Explorer is capable of running it. Ooooops. I use Google Chrome and it works fine so I will enjoy my bedazzled site in solitude.