Blah, blah, blah, blog...

OK, it's been a long time since I've posted. I'd like to blame it all on "The Dollhouse Project", which indeed take up WAY too much time...but that didn't start until September...so the fact remains that I am a slacker. I guess my life is too boring to write about :)

Anyway...I haven't posted about "The Dollhouse Project", and it's now a month after Christmas, so I guess I should.

I've always loved looking at those make it yourself dollhouse kits. Mom made me one when I was younger, and I've always dreamed of making one for my daughters. I thought I'd wait til they were older and less likely to destroy it...then I started worrying...with the way kids seem to be growing up so much faster (my 6 year old is already graduating into "tween stuff", God help me!), maybe they won't be interested when they are old enough not to destroy it.

So, I found a 40% off any one item at Hobby Lobby coupon, and took the plunge. Got it home, opened it up to look at the instruction manual...and realized we were doomed! We had to build this thing from the foundation up. The main pieces were cut out at least (although, DH had to cut the trim to fit)...but everything had to be painted, and glued, and held into place...3 floors, 8 rooms, and 1000 shingles (which had to be dyed, and individually set into place). We worked on that dollhouse at least 5 nights a week until the week before Christmas...and that was for the outside!

Then, in that final week, DH wired it for electricity (which would NOT have been necessary, but was really cool :) ) and we wallpapered and carpeted. And it turned out rather well I think...and the girls are still spontaneously playing with it, if not every day, at least often enough, a month after we gave it to them...which in toy terms is pretty good!

And now...the not so great pictures of the great dollhouse :) I have photos of the rooms with furniture in them...but I'm frustrated with the adding photos right now, so I'll post them later (and hopefully, it won't be 6 months later!)

Booking through Thursday

While browsing through meme's this afternoon, I came across this one, and since it's Thursday:


Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:

1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by? I have some. Mostly literature books (either text books, or actual novels I read in lit classes), and I have my old French textbooks. I still have some books from a class on Japanese culture that I did in undergrad too. And some miscellaneous literature text books courtesy of a friend who's mom was a teacher.

2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky? Again, mostly lit papers- essays I wrote, and stuff. I've tried to be better about purging notes- the books are harder. I also have a folder of all the old stories and poetry I wrote starting in middle school I think- that's some scary stuff! LOL

Another blog challenge

from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

This one was a quiz to find out what cartoon character you're like. The quiz is here

My score was 37, which makes me:

36-43 points) You are Charlie Brown:
You are tender, you fall in love quickly but you are also very serious about all relationships. You are a family person. You call your Mom every Sunday. You have many friends and may occasionally forget a few birthdays. Don’t let your passion confuse you with reality.

I've been looking around at various meme's and themed blog posts. I have some friends that do the Thursday 13, and I've been thinking about it. Or maybe I'll just do my own themes- something to give me an inspiration to blog on, since my day to day life is so dull. (well, the interesting stuff I can't post about, since it's work related, and the rest of my life is boring :) )

We're going on vacation next week...and then maybe I'll be back blogging...or maybe not, you never know...

A Month since my last post...

I guess my life is pretty boring. Mostly work these days, and when I'm not working or with the kids, I've been obsessively digi scrapping (although, I did get 2 paper pages done today, and am hoping to do another today!).

Speaking of digiscrapping- I have a blog challenge from a site I've just started hanging out at (Sweet Shoppe Designs) that I've been meaning to post on...

If someone gave you several million dollars, what would you do with it?
Number 1: Pay off debt!!!! We really don't have much in the way of credit card debt...but house and car payments...and the biggie, student loan payments!....are just frightening. And then...I'd buy DH a new car- his is about 11 or 12 years old now, and is still running, but becoming more high maintenance. He wants one of the hybrid vehicles...and with the prices of gas these days, maybe that's not a bad idea! Then I think I'd be sensible and invest a lot of it, so I could retire while I'm young enough to enjoy it. (And hey, with all that money, and our debt paid off...I could work part time too!). And, last but not least, I'd take the whole family to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World :) I would LOVE to stay there!

I think our next big Orlando trip is going to be in 2010. I'm so excited about the new Wizarding World plans at Universal Studios!!! Something really exciting to look forward to, after the series ends next month :( (But I'm REALLY excited for the book, anyway- and the movie too :) )

We went to see Shrek 3 last night- the kids did great, especially since it went past their usual bedtime. Rebecca was just laughing hysterically at everything. I wish I'd smuggled in our little video camera, just to capture it (but who knew, eh?). It wasn't as good as the first two...but from reviews, we weren't expecting it to be, so it was a decent enough way to pass the evening. And then today, the girls went to a school friends party at McDonalds. It's kind of sad, they'll all be going to different schools come the fall- who knows whether they will keep in touch, or not?

A Moment of Sheer Terror

We'd just finished dinner, and the girls were playing outside on their swingset (the backyard is just off the kitchen). DH was in the kitchen doing some clean-up (he had his MP3 player on, and the water running) and I was up in the office answering some e-mails (the office is on the same side of the house as the yard, and I can hear some noise from out there). Next thing I know, I hear Isabelle screaming, and I race down the stairs yelling- "Is everything ok out there?". Turns out DH couldn't hear anything, and I was the first to see Isabelle hanging upside down, her foot stuck in one of the rings on the swingset. We raced out there and got her down- no lasting damage done- not sure if she's sprained the ankle or not. When she forgets, she'll start walking/jumping on that ankle- but she couldn't bear weight on it for a while...That was another couple of gray hairs for Mommy!

Almost a month

Since I last posted. Falling back into bad habits again...

Work has been busy but is finally slowing down. I actually got to take a couple days off, once when I went to a scrapbooking retreat (first time I've paper scrapped in a long time!), and then Friday, for Isabelle's preschool graduation. It was very sweet- her whole class got to wear gowns, and the ones who are going on to kindergarden in the fall got to wear caps. They had a program with songs and prayers, and a reception afterwards, with cakes that the kids decorated themselves!

After the graduation, we stopped at a carnival that the school where Isabelle is probably going to kindergarden this fall was having. It was fun...DH put his foot in his mouth when he said "Of course you can do the fishing game" without paying attention to the fact that it was real goldfish that they were giving away. So Isabelle won one, which she named gold. Unfortunately, we just got rid of the old fish tank I used to have...so I had to go out to Walmart to buy one, and some fish food (the cashier said "Everyone is buying fish stuff tonight" LOL). Things were going fine until around noon the next day, when Isabelle came to us, and said "I think Gold is dead"...and sure enough...So now, we've got a tank and no fish...I think we'll have to end up going out and getting another...

Yesterday, we had a sitter over, and went out to see Spiderman 3- I thought it was pretty good (although, the main reason we decided to see it in the theater instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD was to see the previews for Harry Potter, and Pirates 3 on the big screen- LOL).

Today, we went out to brunch, and then shopping- for a combination Mother's Day, Father's Day and anniversary (8 years in June) gift, we're getting a big screen TV! Yippee. (We were going to hold off...but we got a playstation a while ago...and got a wireless controller, so we can sit on the couch...and now it's hard to see the writing on the screen! So we got obsessed again! LOL There are some decent sales this weekend though, and we'll have it for the season finally of Lost! Yay!

Other big news- Isabelle can ride her bike without training wheels, all by herself! She learned how this weekend! Way to go Isabelle! My baby is growing up :(

Appliance graveyard?

It's been a while since I've posted!

I think we've got some sort of evil spirit in this house that doesn't like electrical appliances...Did I mention that we had to replace our washer and dryer recently? I think so...well, about a week ago, the control panel on our dish washer started flaking out...we can now do only quick rinse, or baked on cookware. So today, we went out and bought a new dishwasher- should be here by the end of the week. And shortly after we got home, our microwave started making funny sounds and sparking...we were almost sure we were going to have to go back to the store to buy ANOTHER appliance...I think their may have been a tiny sliver of metal or something in it...after we washed it out thoroughly, it was fine. (Good thing...it's old, as is our DVD player which is starting to be a little flaky...and our computer, which is not old, is starting to run REALY slow! Ugh...when it rains, it pours).

News of note...the weekend before last, we took the girls to the movies- it was Rebecca's first ever movie in a theater. We went to see Meet the Robinson's. I liked it a lot...Rebecca liked the popcorn :) She's eager to go back to the movies (for more popcorn LOL). I think we'll go again when Shrek 3 is out...all of us should like that!

Last weekend...I had to work- DH took the girls to the IL's for the weekend, so it was fairly quiet here. I've recently started beading again (as if I don't have enough hobbies!), and I made 3 necklaces! Isabelle loves them, and makes a point of showing them to all of her friends at school when I wear one.

And this weekend- we learned how to make chocolate martinis! Yum! Godiva Chocolate Liqueur- pricey, but oh so good! We joked about having more today...for breakfast, and lunch... (don't worry, we didn't! LOL)