Yard Sale Season

One day when I went to pick up Jared from preschool he asked, no begged, to eat lunch at Burger King. I told him that we couldn't...I didn't have money for that. He cried and begged and my heart broke. Then I had an idea, "Jared, why don't we go home and pretend that we're at Burger King. I'll make a happy meal for you."

I was surprised when his eyes lit up and he said OK.

Once we got home I made a counter between our kitchen and dining room and asked him for his order.

"I would like a cup with juice, a straw, chicken nuggets, french fries, and napkins."

While his food was in the oven I got some card stock and made containers for the fries and nuggets just like they do at the fast food places. I made sure he had some juice with a straw and served it to him on tray. He ate everything! I was going to share pictures of our lunch with all of you but I couldn't find the camera. Dan took it to take picture of the garage clean-up.

Jared enjoyed playing 'fast food' so much that I was set on painting a large cardboard box to look like Burger King for him to play in. Until I went to a yard sale this morning. Here are all of our great finds from this morning...

A McDonald's play set - without the play food - cost $5. A pair of boots for $0.50. Four book that cost $0.80 all together.

Jared has been playing with the set all morning. I can't tear him away from it.

Mystery Reader

This month Jared's preschool had a different mystery reader come to each class and read a book to the children. The mystery readers are the parents of the kids, even the child of the mystery reader has no idea who would be reading. There was no way I was going to pass up this opportunity. I took a personal day from work and prepared myself for the reading. I knew one of two things was going to happen. Either Jared was going to be excited to see me there and yell, "Mommy!" or he was not going to be happy that I was at 'his' school and yell at me to "Get out!"

After he went into his classroom (never looking back mind you), I waited in the lobby for the teacher to come and get me. Now, I talk in front of over 100 teenagers everyday without a second thought. That's no problem at all. But, as I stood there waiting I started to get butterflies in my stomach about reading to a bunch of three- and four-year-olds.

Finally Miss Donna comes to get me and tells all the students to close their eyes. I walk into the middle of the circle and sit down. "Okay, everyone open your eyes!"

Jared looks up at me and yells, "Mommy!"

Whew! As soon as I started reading the butterflies flew away. I have to tell you , if you ever have the chance to read to preschoolers jump at it. They are so lovable.

My Husband's New Parakeet

Here's a story that my husband shared with me and I knew I had to pass this gem along....

My husband was about 10 years old and at that time his sister was 7 and his brother was 5. Their maternal grandmother had a parakeet that she no longer wanted. So, she asked Dan and his brother and sister if they wanted said parakeet. They were ecstatic. My husband remembers thinking that having a parakeet would be so cool. Just think about it, he would be the only kid he knew that owned a parakeet. All his other friends only had dogs or cats.

It was all set then. His grandmother would deliver the parakeet on her next trip to town and bring the parakeet. A few days later as promised she brought the parakeet. Dan went with her to her car to receive his new responsibility with much anticipation. However, instead of opening the back seat of the car as he assumed, his grandmother walked around to the rear of the car to the trunk. My husband thought this was unusual but didn't give it another thought. She unlocked the trunk to reveal... a dead parakeet. The poor thing died of heat exhaustion. Well, that's what they assumed, they didn't have a autopsy performed.

Me? Run?

I've never been a runner. I was even on the basketball team in high school and even then I didn't think I had any running skills - nothing that I could hold out for any length of time.

I started to get inspired last year while watching Invincible. I did blog about that movie earlier. You can read about that here. The movie isn't about running, it's about football. But there's this scene where Vince seems to be running away from the past and toward the future and I remember thinking...ah, that would be so nice...just to run.

So, I consulted with colleagues who are runners to get advice and tips. You know what I found out? Runners are the nicest people, the want to encourage you to run, they want you to succeed. I never got the impression when talking to them that we were in competition. I was further inspired to join the community of runners.

I started out on my treadmill and was doing well (for my standards anyway). So, I upgraded to the high school track that is about one block from my house. I ran about 2 or 3 days a week until I had company. I will admit this....I have trouble running in front of other people. Typing this I can see how stupid and childish I sound. When I went to the track and was met with stares of teenagers that I didn't even know, I lost my nerve and didn't go back. I'm a coward. But, I plan to be a coward no more. When I put myself outside the situation I realize that no one cares if I run or not.

Sooooo....I've started running again...on my treadmill. Once track season is over I will venture over to the track and not be afraid of a few imagined stares from teenagers.

Bella's Lullaby

As you know, I'm crazy about the Twilight Series. I've been trying to find sheet music for Bella's Lullaby. It's wasn't too difficult to find...for about $15 for a movie score. Then my husband lost his job and I had to improvise.

In the back of my head I heard a colleagues advice from a few months back, "You can learn songs from youtube". So I gave youtube a quick search and not only did I find a tutorial on Bella's Lullaby, I found sheet music. I've been playing the piano since I was in 2nd grade and I am not one to memorize. I need to see the music to get through piece. So, seeing someone else play a song on youtube didn't sound like something that would be easy for me. But, sheet music...oh, I can play if there's sheet music.

Check this out:

The Bad Guys

My little boy is all about the bad boys. He likes to roll play and every character he pretends to be is a bad guy. Like Swiper or the Grumpy Old Troll from Dora, Brutus and Victor from Geo Trax, and the Dirty Bubble from Spongebob.

Tonight our free fun thing to do was to watch Spiderman. Jared has never seen this movie before and we thought it would be fun. During the scene where the Green Goblin makes his debut, the scene at Times Square, there was a lot of mayhem...police officers are injured, a little boy was almost crushed, Harry was knocked unconscious, and MJ almost fell from a fatal height. At the end of this scene Jared looked very concerned about what he just saw. He looks over at Dan and me with one of the saddest faces that he is capable and asks, "What's the matter with the Green Goblin?"

Fun for Free!!

So, as you know my husband is out of work and I have this challenge in front of me to find fun free things to do. I love a good challenge. My first idea was for the whole family to take a trip to the library. I realize this book is a little out of season but I read Glenn Beck's The Christmas Sweater. I wanted to share a few lines with you from this book...

Life is what you make of it. There's always fun and laughs right under your nose if you're willing to open your eyes to see it. Most times we're so focused on what we think we want that we can't appreciate how happy we already are. It's only when we forget about our problems and help others forget theirs that we realize how good we really have it.

I'm sure we've all been there, feeling sorry for ourselves when it really wasn't necessary or even justified.

Anyway, about the fun right under your nose part...

As you know today is April's Fool's day and every year I place a rubber band around the sink spray hose to get my husband or he does it to get me. This is such a great prank because it's the same one year after year. This year was no exception.

Before leaving for work this morning I put the rubber band in place and was on my merry way. Once I got to work I realized I had a voice mail from Dan. hee hee I got him! I was so excited and pleased with myself. To make a long story short - he didn't call about the prank and I spoiled it by reminding him what day it was.

My husband more than made up for it. While at his parents' house he placed a rubber band on their sink spray hose (tee hee). My father-in-law was the first victim. But instead of taking the rubber band off, he let it there for my mother-in-law (tee-hee-hee). However, he forgot it was there and became a victim AGAIN!

So, while he was all pissed off from pulling the prank on himself he yelled over to his wife, "Donna get over here a look at this!!"
"I'm busy! You're going to make me get up now!"
So, she walks over to the sink and he tells her, "Turn on the faucet!"
And she does, but instead of turning the water off right away, she jumps back allowing the water to spray all over.

I am practically doubled over in laughter. It doesn't get any better than that - and - it's FREE!!