What's happening this week ending August 25th 2013

What happened this week!  Sophistication turned 22 months old!  Where did the time go???  We went to the park on her month day and she LOVES the slides.  She has absolutely NO fear of climbing all the way to the top and then sliding down on her own.  However, Mommy is terrified of this!  Therefore, Papi hung out at the top of the slide and Mommy at the bottom to make sure she made it up and down safely! :-)  My baby is getting to be such a big girl already!

Talking about being a big girl, I French Braided Soph's hair for the first time this week!  WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH :(  

I still can't believe how big she is getting!

This previous week also brought us new kittens that have adopted us.  We have a boy and a girl that look almost identical and are super friendly.   We himmed and hawed if we were going to give them names or not and Papi said we had to call them SOMETHING.  Then he named them Buffy for the little girl and Tuffy for the little boy.  I am surprised that they let Sophistication carry them around so much but they seem to love her just as much as she loves them.  

I wanted to show off this weeks manicure too.  I wore Bondi New York's Brick Road topped by a Wet and Wild orange glitter polish that I have NO idea what it is actually called.  One of my co-workers said this was my candy corn manicure and I completely agree.  Now I just need to find a pearl white to finish it off for a perfect Halloween mani!

I hope you all had as amazing a week as I did!  Enjoy the last days of summer before they are gone, I know I am! 

~ Dee

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Flash flooding August 2013

I have been deciding if I want to blog this at all.  I have lived in my home since I was 6 years old and I have never had to deal with this.  My house has stood here for 65 years.  My grandfather built it!  In those 65 years it has NEVER flooded.  Well that all changed on August 9th 2013.  It was a freak thing.  I had received an alert on my phone that there were flash floods in my area but I ignored it because that is down the road, not at my house, never my house.  I am far enough up the hill that I normally do not have to deal with those things.  

What/How it happened:  I live next to a small creak.  There had been some pretty crazy storms going through the previous few days that made the stream levels higher than normal but that's not what did it.   The rain weakened the side of the embankment right where a large tree grew.  Between the weakened embankment, continued rain and weight of the tree the tree fell into the creek.  Normally that still wouldn't do anything.  On this one day, this one chance tree falling it fell with the top pointed towards the bridge over the stream.  The tree was then pushed into the opening of the bridge and all the branches and leaves blocked the flow of water.  This made all that water go rushing up and over the bridge and road right into my yard, garage and my basement.  My mail carrier witnessed it as it happened right when she was delivering mail.  She said the water was half way up her tires of her SUV.  That's pretty dang high!  Lucky for us she called from her cell phone to have the road crews come unclog the tree ASAP.  She told me that by time she did the next part of her route and came back towards my house the water was gone and she could continue down our road approximately 30 minutes later.  All this mess in such a short time amazes me.

My garage had over a foot of water in it.  The basement flooded and I lost a lot of my Christmas items.  The force of the water and mud was so much that totes that were full were picked up and flipped into the muck.  Other totes had water and mud deposited into them from the top even though they were closed because they are not water proof.  The riding lawn mower moved over 100 ft down the driveway.  Sophistication's Cozy Coupe went from in front of the garage all the way into the way back yard.  We found railroad ties in the middle of our yard as well as a TON of bamboo.  I was lucky.  Even though I am still cleaning everything the important stuff is still there.  My hot water tank still works, the washer, dryer and freezer all work.  My furnace is opened all the way to dry it out so my cousin can come check it out (he works for a company and does it professionally so I'm in good hands).  

Once the house is finished being dried out, cleaned, and organized the yard comes last.  I'm pretty sure that the yard will not be done until next year.  It is a last priority of mine.  Sophistication has somewhere to play out front so the back and side yards can be a mess.  It will get done, eventually.  

In some ways this has been a blessing.  My basement and garage are getting cleaned when I have put if off for years and years and it keeps just collecting junk.  Now I will have a nice, clean, organized basement.  My garage is the emptiest I've seen it in YEARS and it's nice to think I will be able to pull my car in it this winter.  I may have lost stuff.  But that is all it is, it is STUFF!  It is NOT important in the grand scheme of life.  It is all stuff that is replaceable.  

~Dee

Spencer Picnic 2013

This past week was our local fair.  I had to share some adorable pictures that I took the two days that we went.

Sophistication was technically big enough to ride on the rides this year.  However, I did not let her go on any as I was afraid she would try to get out or cry the whole time.  She's not even two yet but she seems like she is older until she doesn't! :-)

She had fun watching all the people, walking around and visiting all the booths and eating some great fair foods.

In the picture at the top, she is eating fluff and trying to get me to eat it too.  I caught the picture just at the right moment that she made a funny face while eating and just HAD to share it.

In the pictures on the right you'll see where she gets the funny faces from.  She's just like her daddy!  She also had a great time hanging with Papi so I could eat.


If you'd like a little history on our town you can visit the official Spencer Picnic website at www.spencerpicnic.com

There is also a video from 1991 that I am in!  I'm not going to tell you where I'm at in the video but I am there!  They need to save it to a different format or load it to YouTube because there is NO skipping ahead in the movie :(  This can be found HERE.

While we were in the park Sophistication found the joy of slides.  I took a short video and some stills because it was just so cute.  I love the look of pure joy on her face.  When we went back a few days later she remembered where the slides were and wanted to keep going down them and even tried to climb the hill to get to it on her own.

We made some great memories by taking a few hours to just stop and enjoy our day with each other instead of stressing over all the little things that have happened this summer.

I hope your enjoying that last few days of summer before the fall hits us.  I know we are!

~ Dee

Citrus Lane August 2013, 28mo girl box

Citrus Lane August 2013 

28 mo girl box

What we got in our box this month!

• Bear on the Go First Puzzle by Barefoot Books $12.99
• Orange Vanilla sanitizing wipes by Clean Well $5.50
• Ouchies Jr adhesive bandages, the world of Eric Carle: The Bear Series $4.99
• Fun Things to Color A to Z from Creativity for Kids $8.99
• Cheddar Bunnies from Annie's $0.57 ($20.36 for case of 36)
• Fab Kids Free Outfit Trial  $0 value as it's a recurring charge if you forget to cancel it and I would, so we won't be using this.  Otherwise they are valued at $39.95.

Total Value of our box is $33.04 and we actually loved it all!

Review of Items:

Bear on the Go First Puzzle by Barefoot Books:  Sophistication already threw these around the room several times.  I keep putting them together, she tears them apart, in the box, out of the box, and right back in.  She certainly loves them.  What I love about them is that they are great beginner puzzles at only 4 pieces each.  

Orange Vanilla sanitizing wipes by Clean Well:  These will come in handy in the coming months as the weather continues to cool and the leaves start falling.  They also smell interesting!

Ouchies Jr adhesive bandages, the world of Eric Carle: The Bear Series:  These are supper cute and Sophistication HAD to wear one today.  When the bandages are gone I'm sure she'll love the tin as well.  I like that her crayons can fit in it and I can toss them in my purse and not worry about them getting broken.

Fun Things to Color A to Z from Creativity for Kids:  The pages are adorable in this color book.  I was worried initially by the markers however they are washable.  The size is perfect for Sophistication's hands at the moment too!  I had to hide this from Sophistication when it was nap time because she wanted to color and not nap.

Cheddar Bunnies from Annie's:  I opened these for snack time today.  Sophistication ate a few then decided mommy needed to eat them instead of her.  When I declined after a few she then fed the dogs.  My personal taste testing; I thought they were ok, however not the greatest taste to me.  I like that they are organic but they have a kind of bland flavor.  

All in all I am very pleased with this months box.  I can see us using these products in the near future for their intended purposes besides what we are using them for now.  

About Citrus Lane

 For those of you that have never heard of Citrus Lane here is a quick overview of the company.

• Citrus Lane provides monthly care packages for children ages newborn to 3 years old.  
• They provide 4 to 5 "best of" products.  
• There is a $25 per month fee with free shipping or packages can be purchased in 3,6, and 12 month gift packages (Ours is a 6 month.)  
• The items are a surprise every month, there are often spoilers on their facebook page and twitter feed.
• Sophistication is almost 22 months old but I have her aged up 6 months to 28 months.  We have been getting boxes for just over a year and enjoy them so much that I stalk the USPS tracking page as soon as I receive the shipping notification!
• Citrus Lane's Facebook page is an awesome resource for asking just about any question to other mom's!

If you are interested in trying out Citrus Lane for yourself Click HERE for a more information.  Also use code "TAKEHALF" to receive your first box 50% off for a month to month subscription.  Multi-month Subscriptions get $10 off by using my referral link HERE.

I paid for this box and have not received any compensation for my blog post.  All opinions are my own and I was not influenced by anyone or anything except a great product and I would never recommend anything to anyone that I would not, myself, use or that I felt was not worth spending money on. 

~Dee

Monster Hand Puppets!

I recently participated in a box exchange on a group I belong to on facebook. Box Love B/S/T is a place where people who subscribe to subscription boxes can buy, sell or trade their items with other people who also love sub boxes! Because we all love getting surprise boxes in the mail every month we recently did a box exchange with each other. One of our awesome group members was kind enough to organize everything by getting our information, what we would like in our box and what we wanted to send out. I was paired with another mom, however most others did not have the same person that had them. I had "C" and she has two little boys. I decided to make them a couple hand puppets to include in their trade box from Sophistication as I have seen so many "Monster" theme'd things this summer that are popular for kids recently.  These are really simple to make whether you crochet or knit.  Take a basic mitten pattern and add extra "thumbs" for the extra arms.  Easy peasy :-)  Enjoy

Summer Project #1: Toy Storage

One of my summer projects was building toy storage for Sophistication.  I am still amazed at how great it turned out!  The final project measures 14"H x 22"D x 48"L.  We decided to do a larger compartment in the middle to hold larger items like Sophistication bowling set, guitar and other toys.  I also thought that this would be good for when she gets older and can be utilized as shoe storage.  Boots and sneakers in the middle, heals and flip flops on the sides, was my thinking.  I cheated by buying pre-sanded wood at Lowe's to save on time and sacrificed money.  The total length was determined by me not wanting to have to cut the wood length by 6 inches to match the book shelf that I wanted to sit on top of the toy storage, also laziness.


List of items I used:
2   4ft x 20inch pre-sanded wood panel:             $15.94 each
2   4ft x 12inch pre-sanded wood panel:             $11.94 each
1   4 ft x 6 inch pre-sanded wood panel:             $9.76
1   8ft x 1 inch interior corner molding:                $2.98
1   quart Mahogany Flame stain (over half left!):  $16.48
1   quart fast drying Polyurethane:                       $10.77
4   Dollar store paint brush 3 pack
     Gorilla Glue (on hand)
     1 1/4 inch screws  (something like this here)  not sure exactly WHAT my hubby used but this is what they LOOK like.

Total cost:  around $100 (due to having NO clue what hubby spent on screws)

I found similar toy storage's for the same or even more in cost.  One here is smaller in length and would not work for what I wanted it to do.  Same with this one.  Even though I paid a similar cost to hand build our storage, it's something that Sophistcation will be able to know as she grows that mommy and daddy made it for her.  Another reason I love our design!

We chose the color to match the book case I wanted to stack on it.  I have had this book shelf since I was a child.  One other thing we have "planned" is to make a flip top lid for the storage using another piece of 4 ft x 20 inch wood (un-purchased thus far) and piano hinges.  I will also need to purchase more polyurethane as we used the ENTIRE quart!    Now your wondering where the second 20 inch width panel went that I already purchased.  Well I had Lowe's cut it into 12 inch sections for the side walls.  My cousin cut the angles on the now 12 inch x 20 inch sections for me as I do not own the tools (also remember above... I'm lazy!)  At this point my husband decided he was going to "put" it together himself so it would be "Our" project and not "My" project.  He pre-drilled all the screw holes and did the "sinks" for the top of the screws.  I MADE him gorilla glue between the panels so no dust and dirt and toy junk would get in between the sections and to make for easier cleaning in the future.  Then one coat of stain, 5 coats of poly then voila! it's done!  I hope you enjoy my little project. :-)

Post contains links to where I purchased materials myself.  Prices and availability subject to change.  I received NO compensation for this post.  IF you stack items like shelves PLEASE remember to use wall mounts so your little one can NOT pull it down on themselves!  Safety first!