Wish I'd Thought of This Today

Today was a rainy day. Cold and rainy. My least favorite type of weather. I'd honestly rather have a blizzard than a whole day of cold rain. Blech.

And I didn't really do anything fun with the kids today (I had chicken stock to deal with, along with some other stuff), so they got to watch some TV and play on their own, which never lasts for too long without someone crying over something. And I remembered (only too late) what fun they had a while back with this:

They built houses (with a little help) out of a set of foam floor padding (which is also really fun to make paths with), and pretended to be neighbors. They had little neighborly feuds, and then were friendly neighbors who visited each other - it fostered such imagination!

I wish I had thought of this today. Ah well, perhaps tomorrow. It's still raining now...

Trumped Up Toy

The boys have really been getting into games lately, and one that we've introduced with decent results is Dominoes. The set we have is made of marble (I think?), and the dominoes are heavy. There aren't a ton of them either, which is fine if you're playing the game, but far from adequate if you want to set up cool domino mazes to knock down. As this was something my brothers and I loved to do as kids, I thought it would be fun to find some that were a bit more kid-friendly.

So when I was shopping for Christmas gifts, I couldn't resist getting some that were Mickey Mouse themed since we were going to Disney World as our big "family gift." And I found this:

Too perfect, right? It is so cute! It was only $5, the dominoes are plastic (there are 140 of them!), Micky Mouse themed, and there is even a cool bridge that comes with it. The boys were excited about it too.

Then I opened the box. The dominoes that I thought were standard sized are, in fact, tiny. Then I discovered that the pictures for said miniscule plastic red rectangles are not actually on them to begin with. Observe, if you will:

I added the Scotch Tape dispenser for a size reference.

They did included a sheet of tiny stickers for lucky parents to adhere themselves. See?


Ok, thought I, not that big of a deal. They are pretty cute. It will take a little time, but for $5 what did I expect?

I expected the stickers to actually stick. But this was not the case. There was no stickiness to these whatsoever. The glue had dried or something and they were just brittle. But, being that Chris had already decided that we should not take it back to the store for a refund, and also because I refuse to let this silly game get the better of me, I decided to use some of my abundant supply of scrapbooking adhesive and stick them on anyway. Take that, greedy corporate Disney marketers! Here's a peek at my process (again, the Scotch Tape was just for size reference):

It took a while, but I didn't really mind as I did it while we watched the season premiere of Chuck. Then I came to the end of the stickers. But I still had a pile of un-decorated dominoes. What the? I read the instruction sheet, and sure enough, there are only 100 stickers for 140 dominoes. I figure that they just don't want to swallow the cost to either include another 100-count sticker page or to create a separate page with just 40. So why not just pretend it was done this way on purpose?

At any rate, the dominoes are ready to play with. I did forget to mention that the aforementioned cool bridge was broken in two places.

Ah, yes, there it is. See how part of Mickey's head is missing? Fresh out of the box like that. I guess you get what you pay for. But we are going to play with this thing and have lots of fun, by golly!

If you're reading this, I hope you enjoyed my complaint.

Random Update

Good grief, it's been a long time since I posted last.  This cannot continue - I must update with some regularity!  I am so behind with all of the updates.  I still need to post about the boys' 4th birthday, and Blake's last checkup, and many other things.  

I'll try to get to that, but for now I'll try to briefly highlight our goings on as of the last week or two:

*We think we found a new home church, right here in Corryton!  We feel very good about it, and we think maybe God led us here so we could become a part of this very special church.

*My parents visited this week, from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning (they left before we got up - boohoo!).  They came here as part of a trip they were already taking to Virginia for a family reunion (which was today, and we missed it for a few different reasons).

*With extra hands and help, we got some more boxes unpacked, a couple of rooms worked on, and most of our garden is planted!  Yes, we started VERY late in the growing season, but warm weather lasts longer down here, so we should get something out of it, anyway.

*We celebrated the 4th by buying and setting off our own fireworks.  We did one batch when my parents were here, and then another one last night (Blake missed the first one entirely).  The big boys are in LOVE with fireworks (who can blame them?).  And the baby?  Not so much.  He lasted about 15 minutes, and then was crying and asking to go night-night. Maybe next year.

I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately, shame on me.  I need to get back into that habit.  I do have some that I need to post, and hopefully soon I'll get to a regular routine.  

We've been spending our time still trying to get the house organized and finish unpacking - it's going painstakingly slow since most of our time is spent caring for the little ones and just doing the daily stuff.  Not to mention all of the other projects we have to do (like putting up the shed, which is going to be a doozy!).  On top of that, we need to find (and go to) a dentist, doctor, pediatrician, dermatologist...all of that good stuff. 

Our first month here was a good one, despite the generous amounts of rain, mass quantities of bugs, and the poison ivy that Chris and I accidentally discovered was growing on the edges of our property.  We have wild blackberries (and a few of my personal favorite - black raspberries) all around here; we see wildlife and farm animals all the time, the scenery is awesome, the people are really friendly, and we love our house.  God has truly blessed us by bringing us here.  Yes, we miss our families, but we feel this is the right place for us for as long as God intends.  

Double Vision

Josh and George have pink eye. Josh contracted it yesterday (Happy Thanksgiving!). It came on fast and furious - I had no idea goop could accumulate so fast in an eyeball! Eww. We promptly got the special drops and began using them last night. And we launched an all-out assault against the potential spreading of this nasty virus. We are washing hands every 5 seconds, it seems (and those little hands are chapped - so now we're trying to manage that problem as well), trying to disinfect as we go, and really trying to make sure nobody touches anyone else's face or hands or stuff. It is not easy.

And this morning, George's left eye appeared to have a sty on it. And later on, the other eye started getting a bit of goop.

Now with regards to administering the drops, I have to use two totally different approaches. With Joshua, I have to tell him that he cannot have any more drops right now, but that he will get more another time (he begs for them). With George, we have to cajole, plead, bribe, threaten and finally hold him down by force (which it takes both of us to do) to get one drop in. And he freaks out the whole time. So it ends up being a process that takes a very long time.

God knew which kid would be able to handle a broken leg and all that that entailed. We call Josh our "good little patient." George on the other hand? Not so much.

Go Fish

So I MUST plug our new favorite music group: Go Fish. This is a trio of cool Christian guys who make kids music that parents can enjoy too. You'll see a new feature on the right side of the page - scroll down until you reach the purple box and click to hear one of our favorite songs by them (a couple of our very favs were not available to link to). Chris and I love when the boys request them because we love to listen to them too! It is now THE music we listen to in the car. In fact, when the boys hear any music other than Go Fish, they will say "No, I want to hear MUSIC!" So Go Fish IS music to them right now.

How did I hear of them, you might wonder? Well, they played at MOPS convention (it was AWESOME) a couple of weeks ago in Dallas (and last year at MOPS they kicked off the first meeting with one of their songs, so that was my true first introduction). Only at one of their concerts will you find thousands of people screaming and rockin' out to "If You're Happy and You Know It." They had a special deal for us MOPS leaders, and I ended up with 4 of their CD's. I don't regret it a bit! I'm really looking forward to listening to the Christmas CD (resisting for now).

Check them out: http://www.gofishguys.com/

I HIGHLY recommend this music. It is fun, upbeat, varied, dance-able, hilarious, cool, and uplifting!