You've Got a Friend in ME!

Alex burst into song today while the closing credits were playing to the "You've Got a Friend in Me" song on Toy Story 2.
He's never sung it before- and I happened to have the video camera.

He was doing it much more before I pulled out the camera (partially because of the part of the song it was at). I was going to do a reshoot, but my battery died, so this is what you get. Don't mind the red sleeve- I had to kind of hide the camera so that Alex wouldn't focus on that and not sing, which he usually does once the camera comes out.


You've got a friend in me! from Jon M on Vimeo.

So Excited!

Last Saturday we had a fun family day provided by National Instruments as their employee family appreciation day.
First we got to go to The Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun! Alex had a great time playing with the stuff they had there. He was especially sad that we had to go when he could have played on the train table they have there for hours. In fact, we had to take him out kicking and screaming.

Driving the bus

putting gas in the bus



showing him how it's done



alex was quite insistent that I wear this hard hat



Alex and I have small heads



looking at the crane out the window of the little house



keep that hat on!



he was so frustrated when he was trying to move the blocks and his hat kept falling off, so I got to hold it on for him.



and then it was just easier for Mama to wear the hat

He wasn't thrilled with our next museum, the Texas State History Museum. He wasn't in love with staying in the stroller, no food (aka bribery) could be open in the exhibit area, and there wasn't anything particularly interesting for him to look at.

We tried, but we ended up having to quickly scan through everything a leave sooner than we would have had we been there without Alex.

It was totally fascinating to see in much more detail the history of the state that, growing up in Utah, we didn't hear anything about aside from the basics. We hope to go back one day for a date and soak it all in.

Between the 2 museums we went to eat lunch at Wendy's. Alex has a new thing with eating hamburgers and can easily finish off a double from the $1 menus along with french fries. Insane, right?
We finished off our meal with a yummy Frosty. As Jon was sitting down at the table with it, Alex stood up on the bench seat to look at it and exclaimed, without any prompting, "So excited!" followed by a "So yummy!".

It certainly made us giggle.
We've been doing a lot of that as he's talking more and more. What a cute little boy he is. :)

this is him with his balloon dog that we got at the Austin Family Fun Summer Camp thing we went to to finish the day off.

Bloggers Unite - CPSIA

Just copying a lot of good info over from the Etsy forums as part of their united day of blogging to show support of revising the CPSIA.
I know I've already blogged about this before, but it's support day, so here I am blogging again.
If you haven't looked into the CPSIA regulations before, feel free to do so.
I do feel that testing is a good thing- but there needs to be more of a tiered system for smaller companies on the cost of testing. And things that OBVIOUSLY wouldn't have lead in them, shouldn't have to be tested.

Now, do I understand that they probably won't be coming after the little guys with their small 100 person team? YES. However, that doesn't mean that I should have to live with the fact that I'm breaking the law by not testing my fabric made items or not testing those buttons or the metal zipper or something else I may use in a project.

So without further ado- here is the info I got from Etsy.


As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another have been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They're banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we've seen in decades. I'd like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

How will these new laws affect you? Well, here are a few examples:

To the Parents of Young Students:
Due to the new law, expect to see the cost of school supplies sky rocket. While those paper clips weren't originally intended for your student to use, they will need to be tested now that your 11-year-old needs them for his school project. This law applies to any and all school supplies (textbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, etc.) being used by children under 12.

To the Avid Reader:
Due to the new law, all children's books will be pulled from library and school shelves, as there is no exemption for them. That’s okay though, there's always television. Our children don’t need to learn the love of reading after all.
Article from the American Library Association http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1322

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:
Due to the new law, you will now be given a cotton ball and an instruction manual so you can make it yourself since that blanket you originally had your eye on for $50 will now cost you around $1,000 after it's passed testing. It won't even be the one-of-a-kind blanket you were hoping for. Items are destroyed in the testing process making one-of-a-kind items virtually impossible. So that gorgeous hand-knit hat you bought your child this past winter won’t be available next winter.

To the Environmentalist:
Due to the new law, all items in non-compliance will now be dumped into our already overflowing landfills. Imagine not just products from the small business owners, but the Big Box Stores as well. You can't sell it so you must toss it. Or be potentially sued for selling it. You can't even give them away. If you are caught, it is still a violation.

To the Second-Hand Shopper:
Due to the new law, you will now need to spend $20 for that brand new pair of jeans for your 2-year old, rather than shop at the Goodwill for second hand. Many resale shops are eliminating children's items all together to avoid future lawsuits.

To the Entrepreneur:
Due to this new law, you will be forced to adhere to strict testing of your unique products or discontinue to make and/or sell them. Small businesses will be likely to be unable to afford the cost of testing and be forced to close up shop. Due to the current economic state, you'll have to hope for the best when it comes to finding a new job in Corporate America.

To the Antique Toy Collector:
Due to the new law, you'd better start buying now because it's all going to private collection and will no longer be available to purchase. “Because the new rules apply retroactively, toys and clothes already on the shelf will have to be thrown out if they aren't certified as safe.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189645948879745.html

To the American Economy:
Already struggling under an economy that hasn’t been this weak in decades, the American economy will be hit harder with the inevitable loss of jobs and revenues from suppliers, small businesses and consumers. The required testing is far too costly and restrictive for small businesses or individuals to undertake.

To the Worldwide Economy:
Due to this new law, many foreign manufacturers have already pulled out of the US market. You can imagine the impact of this on their businesses.

If you think this is exaggerating, here is a recent article from Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

And for those of you prepared to be stupefied and boggled, The New Law
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Did you know? If this upsets or alarms you, please react.

Ornery

This morning Alex and I were playing with his tractors. He sometimes is a little particular about how they are driven and he happened to crash into me, which is something he doesn't like (except it's usually me crashing into him).
So his crash made him upset and he started to do his run away crying thing, but I stopped him and said that he didn't need to do that and that it was his tractor that crashed into mama.
He came back and sat on the floor and laid back so he was on his back and layed there for a minute. (this is how he tantrums. I don't complain because he doesn't scream or kick. :) ). \

Then he sat up and said, "tractor sad". Pretty cute, so I said, "oh, the tractor's sad? Why?"
Alex replied, "tractor being ornery".

I thought that he was saying naughty which was hilarious as well. After asking him to say naughty and ornery though, I figured out he was saying ornery.

I guess I tell my child to stop being ornery often enough for him to pick up on it. :)

Pink Pop Apron

I just finished this apron for my etsy store. It's made from Heather Bailey's "Pop Garden" fabrics and is adorable!

As a new twist, I made the neck strap adjustable with D rings. Only thing was that at WalMart last night, I couldn't find any D rings (no fabric section).
I did, however, happen to find a package of heart shaped key chains hiding behind another package of who knows what.

Turns out that they look really cute and I'll probably be using more of them!

A first!

So two days ago I popped myself onto our nice little exercise bike and rode 10 miles and burned off 200 calories. (which I then ate way more than a serving of peanut butter chex mix which has 150 calories per serving. It was midnight.)

Jon was congratulating me on my great feat and we realized that I haven't really exercised (you know, with the 120 heart rate for 20 minutes thing) since... oh... 2006. And we're talking like the first semester of 2006 here when my mom and I took an aerobics/yoga course. Oh we were funny in that class. Good times.

And, as per my resolution of exercising every other day, I was back on the bike today.

It was actually an enjoyable experience. I popped in disc 3 of One Tree Hill season 1 (cause I now own ALL of the seasons :) ) and had a great little ride while Alex took a nap. It was pleasant and I feel great. I actually really enjoy exercising. I just don't always like taking the time and effort to do it.

The one thing I am wondering about- does the baby belly that you still have even when you are skinny ever go away? I'm sure hoping so. Because it's just all kinds of mushy/lumpy 2 years after the fact.
Although, thinking about it, I would be really mad to finally get to that point down the road and then have it all messed up again. Hmm... maybe the procrastination of the exercise wasn't the best idea.

Another apron made!

This cute apron is packed up and waiting for a trip to the post office to be sent to my cute friend Jen.

Jen- this apron will look adorable with that cute belly you've got going on!

Apologies for the crappy pictures. I just snapped them real fast last night as soon as I finished the apron

.

I want this!

How fun to be able to screen print t-shirts of your own design at home! I think it sounds fabulous!

Here's the link for it at Joann's

Let's Roll

I was playing cars with Alex before dinner and he piled a few into his Mac truck and said, "Let's roll!"
Totally random because I have never heard him saying that before while playing cars. I *think* he got it from the Cars movie...

Another thing he was doing was pulling up his larger car (it's bigger than matchbox cars) up hood to hood with the smaller matchbox car I was told to drive and would say, "Hi. I'm the big car." "Hi. I'm the little car." After a minute I caught on that the little car line was mine. After I said my line, he would say, "Let's roll!" and we'd drive off together.

We pretty much think that cars and the road rug (from Ikea) is the greatest thing ever around here (both parents and child think so).

Some of my favorite things

Picture hanging strips from 3M.

Now you don't have to put holes in your wall! (This is a huge deal for my dad.)


Granted, I haven't ever removed the strips to see what it does to the paint, but from what I gathered from google, most people say they remove easily.

They are easier to determine where to place than a nail (in my opinion), and you also have some flexibility as to where exactly to put it, which is a very good thing for me. It seems like even though I try, I always end up a little bit off, so these took care of that problem. They also make it really easy to level the picture.

My cordless iron. Today I ironed something on the floor and used the vertical steaming on Jon's church shirt. It is marvelous. I love it.

My rice cooker. I am currently cooking a bit of rice for dinner with some veggies in the steaming basket. Granted, I could accomplish the same thing on the stove, but for some reason I love this. Maybe it's that it's cooking 2 things at once. I don't know, but it just seems like less hassle for some reason.

Some of my 2009 goals

How fun to show off what I suck at!
But Jon will be happy that I am writing these down (and as an added bonus, I have a leg up on him and his ever persistent insistence on writing goals down). AND I have all of your faithful readers to be held accountable to. GREAT.

So why share my goals on my blog? Well, I always find that seeing what other people want to work on inspires me to work on similar things (I don't always do well at remembering ALL of my flaws). So I guess I figure that if I'm sharing, I may be helping someone out in some way or another.

So here they are people: Things I don't want to suck at anymore!


-get in shape. I may be skinny, but I'm so not in shape. It would be nice to be toned and have more endurance!

-be better at keeping my house clean (The Roomba is surprisingly motivating! We cleaned the craft room today just so that the Roomba would have somewhere to vacuum!)

-spend less time on the internet and find other things to do with my time

-make more stuff for the Etsy store on a consistent basis

-take time to play with Alex every day... whatever he wants to do.

-be more consistent with making dinner

-give my day to day life an easy routine to stick to it

-be better at budgeting and sticking to it



So we're 2 weeks into the new year and I've been aware of having these goals, but they haven't really been implemented because they aren't spelled out on exactly how they are going to be accomplished.

So I'm going to lay it out here.

1- fitness. Ride the exercise bike every other day for 30 minutes. And then buy a wii fit and do aerobics :). Or pop in the latin dance VHS (YES! VHS!) and do that some of the days. Either way, 30 minutes every other day.

2- Lay out the cleaning list every day and make sure everything is picked up before I do anything else. Baby steps are allowed.

3-Well the cleaning and Etsy-ing should help with that :)

4-List one new item every week, unless it's a bigger project. Try to log at least 10 hours of making time in per week.

5- twenty minute "special time". I'd like to do this every day sometime between breakfast and lunch.

6- Plan ahead earlier than 5pm. Make a list of meals for the week and post them (and the prep time) on the fridge. Don't fall back on the easiest stuff. Shoot for starting dinner by 4:30ish every day.

7- routine. This is going to be a HUGE thing for me.
Wake up with Alex. (see? I said it was going to be a huge thing for me). Movie for him and 30 minute exercise time for me. Shower. Make bed. Alex and Mama dressed. Breakfast for both of us. House clean up and Alex play with toys. 20 minutes of Special Time. Lunch at 12:30. Nap at 1/1:30. Start dinner prep. Have dinner ready by 5:30/6pm. Clean up dishes. Family time. Bed time. Free time. Start going to bed by 11. (anyone who knows me shocked to read that?!)

8- use budgeting site every day to be aware of what is being spent. Plan larger purchases in advance.

Isn't it romantic?

This is Alex brushing the grass off of my shirt from way back in October when we went to the state fair. I especially love the background music.
AND they had swan boats! How awesome is that?!


Isn't it romantic? from Jon M on Vimeo.

So I'm going to be cutting some corners

Today I got out of bed and there were my curtain rods for my bedroom windows AND the fabric for my valance for my bathroom, staring at me. Begging for me to put them up. I've only had them for, oh, 4 months.
And then I remembered the fabulousness of this blog. Particularly, her "mistreatments". (just skip the first link and go right to the second one!).

Joy filled my little heart as I realized that there was no need for the sewing machine and worrying about straight seams and the inevitable unpicking that would occur and HOURS spent hemming all 4 sides of two very long drapery panels. All I would need to do is pull out my hot glue gun and I could get them all done in one day instead of weeks.

I think my favorite thing about the mistreatment route is that precious fabric doesn't need to be cut into. This is very good if you happen to be moving or just decide to use the fabric from your window for something else. I'm all about preservation of cute fabric so that it can serve other purposes!

So perhaps tomorrow I will get started on my mistreatments so I can have actually drapes in my room after two and half years of living here.

Oh! AND I have some adorable fabric for a valance that I can't wait to get put up in my craft room.
Hmm... I should probably get my other 2 valances for the downstairs up at some point in this window treatment frenzy...

And since I haven't posted enough this weekend...

Here's a link to see pictures from our last trip to Sea World this season. This was I think the first weekend in December. And, no worries, we cut Alex's hair the next week. :)

Oops

I've been meaning to blog this for a while (that statement just made me realize that I'm a bit pathetic...) because of it's hilarity.

After this happened, Jon said, "You know, my mom always told me that would happen but I don't think I was ever sure I really believed her".

Well honey, it's true.

OH! I should add that this was ME and NOT Jon that did this. :) And I was making peanut butter bars. Really? Wire wisks will bend when you're trying to mix cookie dough at high speeds with a Bosch? REALLY? Ya... duh.

I got some new ones for Christmas (and some cookie paddles for my birthday so that this kind of disaster can be prevented in the future), but I'm kind of sad to part with these. It's kind of like a trophy. It reminds me of the tortilla chip shaped burn marks in one of my old cookie sheets that I had a hard time getting rid of as well.

Pillow Fight!

Okay, not really a pillow fight.
But a cute video I found of Alex and Jon when Alex was about 11 months old. I love his little laugh.

It's fun to go back and watch old videos- especially ones I don't remember!


Pillow "fight" from Jon M on Vimeo.

Picture Love

Jon and I have a new primary class, so I was finding some pictures to do a little getting to know you thing for our class to tell a little bit about us.
I found this picture from one of our trips to Six Flags and vamped it up a little.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Fabulous things to come home to after a vacation

So there we were driving on the lovely skinny little road with the annoying stop sign to our house on our way back from Utah when we discovered something wonderful took the place of the stop sign.

One of these guys! Except rotate it 90 degrees cause we're cool like that in Texas.

It was a wonderful surprise! Cars would get so held up there, so it was nice to just zoom on through.
Today I nearly stopped there out of habit, even though the light was green. I guess having a stop sign around for 2.5 years of living here really does have an effect on you.

Other fabulous news:
The Super Target 3 minutes away has an open date of March 8th. YES!!!!
The Best Buy 3 minutes away has an open date of February 27th!
There is an open Carl's Jr. actually in Austin (down in Dripping Springs I believe...)
AND the Carl's Jr. over by Kenn and Amy's house is ALMOST done!!! I have been waiting for this day for a LONG time. Mmm... Carl's Jr. ...
Oh! And they started construction on a beach area and boat ramp on the lake that borders our community. Fabulous! (more draw to move to our community is always a good thing)


Not as fabulous:
24 Hour Fitness 3 minutes away is on hold. Or cancelled or something. In other words, it won't be built until the economy improves.
The movie theater 3 minutes away has experienced the same fate.

Not that we use either of those things, but they would have been good for the area and to help our house value go up.

Ham? Moe Ham?

Here's Alex enjoying his lunch of ham.


Ham? Moe ham? from Jon M on Vimeo.

What the....?

Yesterday Alex and I went outside and played in his sand table for a bit. I happened to look over where he was playing and there was a large sized dog bone, half eaten and full of moisture from whenever it rained.

Uhh.... how did that get there?

Sticker removal

I am reclaiming my cute lapdesk!
(the black and white one. Cute huh?)


The "bravo!", "great", and farm animal stickers my two year old put on it last week on our road trip are coming off. The silly putty egg that is in the cup holder is being put back with the playdoh and both will be resigned back to their places at the kitchen table or the coffee table. Alex's wireless play mouse (thanks to our last bag of crap from woot!) that he likes to pretend is working mommy's laptop is being put back in the toy box.

My cup of Welch's Sugar Free Dark Berry Juice (a new favorite discovered tonight!) is in my mommy cup in my own cup holder next to my laptop without any little fingers trying to type while I am or touch everything on the screen and ask who every one is in every picture on every website on my very own very sticker, coloring, and playdoh free lap desk.

I love bedtime.

You know you're getting old when...

Most of your gifts for birthdays and Christmas's are appliances or other things for your house. And when you actually WANT those things.
I remember getting stuff for my mom through the years... know what genre I remember giving her most? Appliances.

This year I turned 26 (SO old, right?!) and for my birthday I got... a cordless iron! And I was DANG excited about that iron (and love it).

Last year for Christmas I got a new blender (cause mine didn't have enough speeds. It had 2.) and a little vacuum/mop for my kitchen floor.

This year for Christmas I got a new set of kitchen knives and sheets.

And I was EXCITED about all of these.

Whatever happened to the days of wanting clothes, cds/music, shoes (okay, I still probably want shoes), discmans/cd players, hair stuff etc.?

I guess I'm getting old.

Apparently, it's 82 degrees

So here I was thinking that our house was a little chilly at 72 and that it must be about 60 outside or something.
So I got curious and looked at a weather website.

Umm... it's 82 actually.

So alex and I went and sat outside. I think we're going to go on a bike ride in a minute.

I LOVE TEXAS!

Grocery shopping with Alex

Going grocery shopping with Alex is always an adventure.

You have to keep your eyes on whatever he has insisted on holding for the moment so that it doesn't get opened.

You have to keep a constant flow of foods he likes going into the front with him to hold.

Bread has to be last or at least followed by something more interesting.

Grapes are a for sure thing he'll want to snack on while shopping. So either get them first so they are buried (and so he can have a few and be done), or get them last.

I guess the above goes for anything he wants to eat right away.

Don't get too close to either side of the aisle or you will be putting stuff back on the shelf for awhile.

Or you will be buying something that's been opened that you really didn't want to or plan on buying.

Be able to quickly distract with something else we are going to go and find.


It's a good time.
My favorite thing from today was fulfilling Alex's new love of ham. At my cousin Shane's wedding luncheon, they had ham with honey mustard. Alex hadn't really ever eaten ham with enthusiasm before, but the honey mustard must have done it for him. He ate SO MUCH ham that day.
And would insist on more. "moe ham?" It's actually really funny to hear him say it. I'll have to do a video :).

Anyway, so we decided to find some thickly sliced deli ham for Alex to eat since he was such a big fan of ham. We're always happy to find something that he likes to eat these days. We were trying to find the best/least expensive kind and Alex was sitting in the cart demanding, "ham! moe ham!". We finally found the one we wanted and handed it to him and asked him what that was and he said "HAM!" in just the happiest most excited voice.
Who knew ham would be so wonderful.

We also had a good laugh when just as we were walking by an endcap in the frozen foods section Alex shouted out, "PANTATES!". There happened to be a bag of frozen pancakes right there. I don't know if he actually saw them and realized what they were or if he was just doing his usual thing of asking for pancakes every day (he had already shouted out pantates once before in the store).

Our house is once again filled with food and we have all of Alex's favorites to eat again. Yay!

Guess I should start blogging about Christmas...

I uploaded this video last night. We have a lot more videos and pictures to come soon!
I'll work on getting some pictures up, but we have mostly video and we're limited on how much video we can upload on Vimeo.

Anyway, here is Alex riding around on Grandpa and Grandma's awesome wiggle cars. Excuse the whining and orneriness... he didn't get much nap time in that day.


Wiggle Car PRO! from Jon M on Vimeo.

we LOVE and I mean L-O-V-E woot offs!!!!

Let me start by explaining woot.com. They are a website that sells one item a day until it's sold out. And they don't sell anything else until the next day.

At the end of every month they have what they call a Woot Off. For the woot off, they still sell only one item at a time, but when it sells out, they put a new item up. This goes on for at least a day and it's very fun. There is a lot of random stuff that comes up and most of it is stuff for great prices.

Usually, at the end of a woot off, they end with the option to buy a "bag of crap". For $1. And you could get who knows what in it. They usually sell out in about a minute. You can buy up to 3 bags of crap and then it's $5 shipping.

A few months ago, we were lucky enough to score 3 bags of crap. We got the beloved "monkey soap", a Yanni biography that made a great Christmas gift from my dad, various mp3 players etc.
We thought it was a once in a lifetime score of luck.

Until a couple of weeks ago when Jon (and a couple of his coworkers actually... can you tell what they do at work?) scored 3 bags of crap each.

Our box arrived today.
It was quite large and I so wanted to open it before Jon got home, but he made me wait.

Contents:
a camera case
a collectible little lifesavers ceramic box (weird and random)
4 little stick on LED lights that go on the back of a cell phone (also random)
a joystick (cause we are such big gamers around here...)
and...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
A ROOMBA!!!

That's a robotic vacuum people! That we got for $8!!! How sweet is that?!

Have I mentioned that I've wanted one for quite some time? Ya. We are pretty excited!

Even better is that roombas are long running jokes on woot.com because they seem to come up in every woot off.
So when I told Jon that we got a good sized box from woot he was like, "A ROOMBA?!" Without really knowing that it was an actual Roomba.
Good times.

a good report

I am happy to say that the drive back went much better than the first time around.

We weren't as sick (still had some lingering congestion), we took a 3ish hour break to sleep in a hotel parking lot, and there wasn't any throwing up and trying to find an open gas station at 2 am.
We did have some pretty smelly diarrhea from Caleb, but luckily that only lasted for the first day and was better by dinner.

The kids were pretty good and there wasn't as much screaming as last time.

The amount of time to be in the car still sucked. And we decided that it's probably best to stop and stay the night in a hotel to break it up and get a full nights sleep in in an actual bed. It was nice to avoid the extra cost of doing so though.

Thank goodness we don't have to do it again for another year!