86 Percent

Sigh....Let's get this 30 by 30 thing done with already, shall we?  Considering I was completely bored with half the things on my list by the time I finished writing it (what can I say, I'm fickle!)  completing 86 percent of it is pretty good.  The four left uncompleted places me solidly in "B" territory, and I have always been a "good enough" kind of girl.  So really this 86 percent just sums up my entire life.    Here's what we still need to cover.

7.  Read a "classic" book...One I haven't already read.  Again, I am open to suggestions if you have any you liked.

I'll give you a hint as to how this one went.   When I started the book it looked like this outside---

And when I finished it, it looked a lot more like this---

I'm just going to have to say it.  I might not be a Jane Austen girl...Please still be my friend.  It just took me a long time to get into it.  Like 300 or 400 pages.  But when I was finished,  I rewarded myself by watching my favorite movie (inspired by this very book).  

#7 definitely wins for taking the longest time to complete.

9.  Make 72 hour kits for my family.

Done and done!  The biggest thing keeping me from it all this time was the logistics of it all.  So once I gave up on that things went pretty smoothly.  If I have to get out of dodge on foot I am pretty much out of luck. But, let's face it, with two little ones, if I had to get out of dodge on foot I would be pretty much out of luck anyways.  All this junk now resides in our garage.  Except the food, which resides under our bed.

10.  Learn how to properly clean a bathtub.  This is one household chore that continues to best me time after time.

Pinterest taught me this one.  That dish scrubber is filled with dish soap and vinegar.  Between that and a little  magic eraser action I think I finally have it figured out.  Although, still looking for advice on how to complete this chore without getting soaking wet.

11.  Stay at least 50 dollars under my grocery budget one month.  Right now I pretty much go over every month, so heaven help me with this.

You guys, I killed this one.  Here's how.  I switched Harper to the Costco formula and kept my sorry behind out of Target.  Boom.  Problem solved.  That 83 dollars saved was in addition to the $50 I was trying to stay under.

13.  Make my passwords more secure.  I am currently probably asking to get hacked...Dear Internet creepers, I am doing this one soon, so don't get any ideas.  Thanks.

Hopefully I actually deterred the internet creepers from hacking me, because despite what I claimed, this one was almost the last one to be completed.  No pictures of this, because, well,  you know...

14.  Finish organizing my photos.  I got a good start earlier this year, and then gave up halfway through.

Hands down the most time consuming (completed) thing on my list.  Those black books now hold all the photos we own..  Don't judge the empty spots on the bookshelf.  The photos have been done for a while, the shelf holding them all is new and still in need of tchotchkes.  

19.  Cook a ham

It was edible.  It might take a few more tries to make it delicious.  I may or may not ever try that hard.

25.  Learn how to cook an artichoke.  Those little poke-y vegetables intimidate me to no end.

While we're discussing food related tasks...
I'm adding artichokes to the "more trouble than they are worth" category of food.  This category includes, but is not limited to, seeded watermelon and corn on the cob.  And now artichokes.

26.  Complete this 30 day Mom Challenge. 

This little list helped me survive some of the toughest months of Holden being three.  I plan on pulling it back out every time I need a little perspective.

28.  Put aside enough money for a car rental/gas for our Hawaii trip.  (Probably around $500).

Done. And booked!  In case the creepers are still reading I won't disclose when this delightful event will be taking place, but you better believe you will be hearing about it after the fact.

30.  Set up a chore system for Holden.  Besides me begging him to help me pick up and him saying  "I will just watch you do it."

Simple concept.  He looks at his chore cards.  He finishes his chores.  He gets a punch.  He fills his punch card, he gets a prize from the bucket.  (All crafty related items purchased on Etsy, and not at all made by me.)  Some punch cards are completed more frequently than others (neither of us are big fans of afternoon chores), but overall the system is working well!

 

 

We even threw in a bonus card for good measure.  It also has a hit or miss track record.

Ok.  Let's quickly gloss over the failures:
12.  Buy a good pair of jeans.-- I couldn't commit.  For reals.  Those things are pricey and I didn't want to risk getting a dud.  I'm still open to completing this one though, any fave brands?
17.  Complete a Couch to 5K program.  Given my current situation and my overall laziness, this is probably the most unrealistic goal on the list.--  See?  I knew it even back then. I'm having some weird foot problems that made this tricky, and also I hate running.  I did lose all my baby weight anyways, though, so if I cared about stuff like half credit, I would totally give myself half credit for this one.
18.  Fix the giant hole in the bumper of my car.--Sad story.  A series of unfortunate events (ie a hit and run, Holden taking a sharp rock to our window tint, and the ever encroaching demise of Reo's car) has made us determine that keeping my car nice is a pipe dream, and the money for fixing the giant hole is being squirreled away in the new car fund.  Because quite frankly, the giant hole is the least of my poor car's problems at this point.
22.  Get CPR/First Aid certified. No excuses.  It was expensive.  I am lazy.  The dummies freak me out.

Aaaaand there concludes the (hopefully) most narcissistic post I will ever write.  Let's just all forget this 30 by 30 thing even happened.  And while we're at it, we can all just go ahead and forget that I'm 30.  Thanks tons.

So, Thanksgiving Happened...

And I managed to take exactly one picture.  It was of the pie I made.  Shows where my priorities are.  At least it was good pie (Pssst: Hannah,  here's the recipe.)

All sorts of other fun things took place that long weekend.   Here's what my camera missed:

Harper had on a super cute outfit.
We had a visit from our Christmas Elf (he's a once a year deal and he almost forgot to come, so kudos to you elf on a shelf people).
I saw an Oscar winning movie (30 by 30!!)  and quite possibly the opposite of of an Oscar winning movie.  It was Rainman and Breaking Dawn Part 2, in case you were curious.)
We decorated our tree.  Probably good that we don't have pictures of that.  Our tree is more fitting for a college dorm room then a legitimate family house.  I've got big plans for the after Christmas sales.
We did lots and lots of Black Friday shopping.  On the internet.  That counts, right?

Hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was just as wonderful but more documented!

Things I Learned At Disneyland

1.  There is no one I would rather spend time with than these three.

2.  That being said, when it's Disneyland, the more the merrier definitely applies (that is not even close to being all of my family, you guys..There is getting to be a LOT of us!)

3. Who needs the gift shop?  All I had to do was raid my kid's closets to outfit them both in Disney paraphernalia for pretty much the entire trip.  For Harper, this even included her pajamas.

4.  Holden enjoys characters just the right amount.  This means he was more than delighted when we saw one, but didn't necessarily need to stand in line to meet them all.  I'm afraid next time we might not be so lucky with this little one.  You can't tell, but she was pretty smitten....

5.  I never would have thought that in November we would have to use the "resort to watching Muppet Vision 3D to escape the heat" technique, but it was pushing 100 degrees a couple of the days we were there.    I love the heat, so you didn't hear me complain...Much...

6.  Favorite Rides--

Reo-Space Mountain

Me- Tower of Terror

Holden- He will tell you it was The Little Mermaid, but that wouldn't explain why we went on Pirates of the Caribbean 4,000 times.  Or why during Star Tours you could hear him screaming with glee "Ahhh!!  Darth Vader!! Ahhh!!  This is awesome!! Ahhh!!"

Harper-  The Tiki Room.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that NO ONE's favorite ride is the Tiki Room.

(Not them on their favorite rides, but they look cute!)

Also, if you ask Holden what his LEAST favorite ride was he will say "I'll give you a hint" and start singing "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah!"  Splash Mountain was the only ride he went on that he would not be convinced to go on a second time.

7.  Speaking of Splash Mountain--in my opinion, the ONLY time to go on Splash Mountain is right before the park closes.  You ride it over and over again with no line, can immediately go back to the hotel and change out of your wet clothes, and no one is around to judge your dorky pictures.

8.  Cars Land is awesome.  And Radiator Springs Racers is worth the wait.  Same goes for Peter Pan.  But the longest line I waited in was for the Nemo Submarines.  They were not at all worth the wait.

9  Holden makes a pretty lousy Jedi.  But it makes for lots of one on one time with the Jedi Training Academy guy.

10.  Not to brag or anything, but I pretty much became an expert at taking pictures of myself on rides.  Too bad they all look the same from that angle.  This is Big Thunder Mountain in case you were curious.

11.  You can always count on Reo to crazy eyes a perfectly good picture.

12. I love Disneyland Food.  I also love taking pictures of it.  A lot.

Despite all the delicious food, Holden played the typical four year old card and wanted the one item that least resembled actual food in the whole park.  He later declared this cookie disgusting.  I could have told him that.

13.  Disneyland is exhausting and neither of my kids has slept a whole night since we got back.

14.  But it is still one of my very favorite places ever.  Despite some very Un-Disneylike experiences (ask me about it if you ever want to make me cry), we had a great time, and as Holden said 

"Disneyland is just a magical place, mom."

My apologies for the picture overload, but when you spend 5 days at Disneyland and have about 500 pictures to show for it, it can only be narrowed down so much.

Also, 30 by 30 alert!

13 Days Of Halloween

So, remember last year, when I was all sick and pregnant and failed Halloween big time?  Yeah, me too.  This year I was determined not to repeat history.  I mean, really.  How often do you get to be the parent of a four year old during holidays?  Hardly ever.  I wasn't about to waste this.  So, I decided we would do a Halloweenish activity for each of the 13 days leading up to Halloween.  And we did, but I am sure not going to blog about it all.   It gets one photo collage, and that's it.

I spy with my little eye:  

Multitudes of Halloween baked goods, crafts and games.

Halloween Party with friends (sidenote:  We were Saved by The Bell characters, but apparently we were the only Superfans, because no one recognized us, even with our Bayside Tigers T-Shirts.  Oh well, still counts as coordinating Halloween costumes.  Also, if you look really, REALLY close you can see that I did in fact put blonde back in my hair.)  

Pumpkin picking AND carving...And a little Hallo"weenie" dinner to go with it.  

Celebrations at Preschool, Grandpa's office and the trunk of our car.

Also, regular Halloween happened.  Harper was not having her costume.  She wouldn't even be photographed in it without sitting on Reo's lap.   Holden loved his.  He insisted on being a zombie from Plants Vs. Zombies, even though I was quite sure no one would know who the heck he was supposed to be.   I was about half right.  Both of them loved their skeleton jammies.  What's not to love?  We've all been loving Holden's Halloween candy.

Pheww.. Halloween is exhausting!
Also, full disclosure, I still didn't decorate.

More About Four

Three was hard on this family.  It was so super awesome, but it was hard.  Holden's third year brought a new baby, a new house, and new expectations on bladder control (I seriously don't want to jinx it, but you guys, I think he finally has it down.).  It's enough to make anyone act, well, like a three year old.
 
I was promised by many that my heart would grow enough to love a second child as much as I love Holden. This is true.  I was not warned about the fact that unfortunately, my patience would not automatically double in size along with my heart.  Holden most often takes the brunt of this, and he takes it in stride.  If I was half as patient with him as he is with me we wouldn't even have an issue, and I love him for that.  When I apologized to him after a particularly rough day, he told me "no harm done."  I really, really hope that's true.

All that being said, I could not be happier to have a four year old.  Although I still have days where I chain drink Diet Coke and text Reo cryptic "I Quit" messages, I am pleased to say those days are few and far between.  At least relatively.

Because really, this child is an angel.  40.5 inches (56th%) and 39 lbs 8 oz (78th%) of pure angel.

He's my sidekick.  He relays me my text messages and lets me know when I write something on the wrong day on my calendar.  He saved me from completely forgetting his preschool birthday treat.  Basically I have my own, much needed, personal assistant.
And also, he says funny things.  Some of these I've been saving up in the unreliable archives of my brain for awhile, so they desperately need to be documented before I blink and he's 15.  Plus, everyone likes to hear about funny things kids say, right?  Right??!?!  Here goes...

** "Either I peed, or I am just sweaty...Oh, good.   I'm just sweaty."

** "MOM!  Look at that cool van!  I have always wanted a van!"

** Me:  Look how well you drew that H!  Let's try another one.
    Holden:  (Draws a circle)  How about I draw a big rock instead, because I looooove big rocks!

**(Talking about holidays)
    Holden:  Do you know what comes after Memorial Day?
    Me:  Fourth of July!
    Holden:  No, Tuesday.

** Holden: (singing loudly)  Mom, this is a microphone I am singing in to.
     Me:  I know, I can hear.  It's very, very loud.
     Holden:  Yes, that's because concerts are very loud, mom.
 
** "This is a girl song....Let's listen to ABBA instead."

** "Mom, I am really impressed with that guy's beard!"

** Holden: Oh NO! A natural disaster just happened to me!
     Me:  What happened?
     Holden:  I spilled my milk!

Heads up:  You better believe there is still one more birthday related post heading your way.   You lucky people, you.

Best Of: Going Unplugged

I spent a good portion of last week "unplugged."  That's a big fat checkmark on #4 of my 30 by 30 list.  Three days with no internet, TV, movies or games on my phone.  Surprisingly, the internet survived without me, and Friday Night Lights was waiting for me on Netflix right where I left off.  So you could say it went off without a hitch.  I MAY have planned the blackout for a few days when I had lots of fun stuff planned anyways to make the withdrawal a little less severe, but that's not cheating, right?

Oh, also?  I kickstarted the whole event the night before by completing number 16 at this restaurant with one of my favorite people who has the nearly psychic ability to call me whenever I could really use a friend.  

Some highlights:

Annual trip to Pineview Reservoir.  This trip always makes me remember that I can never spell reservoir correctly on the first try.  Or the second apparently.  Holden spent the bulk of the day building pirate jails on the sand.

Conning Reo into taking a day off of work for a "Family Fun Day,"  complete with ice cream for lunch, visiting Grandpa's office for a little game of chess, and impromptu bowling when it rained out our afternoon swim.  Harper was there, but hanging out in your carseat all day doesn't result in many pictures apparently.

And of course, we hung around the house, playing with toys and attempting new hairdos.

After feeling pretty darn proud of myself for my accomplishments, we capped off the weekend with our new favorite tradition of Reo and Holden watching America's Funniest Videos, which they both enjoy way too much.

Pinterest Day!

So, we all love Pinterest, right?  If not, it's quite possible you aren't doing it right, because it is awesome.  Just saying.   Anyways, I try to keep my Pinterest boards as realistic as possible.  You know, stuff I may actually utilize someday.  Well, someday became Thursday.  I had two slimy, not quite sick but definitely snotty, kids to entertain, so I declared a Pinterest day, hoping to knock off some of the stuff I had pinned but hadn't gotten around to trying yet.  You will see that most of our activities involved food.  That's because most of my Pinterest boards involve food.   But hey, whatever gets us through the day, right?  Here's how it went down...

The day started with this lime greek yogurt.  Super easy, and super delicious.  Holden even declared it his favorite pin of the day at bedtime, so take that for what it's worth.

Then we moved on to this (sourceless?) activity of food colored vinegar and baking soda.

It's supposed to keep your kids occupied for hours.  My kid has zero attention span for most things, so it wasn't quite that long.  But it was long enough for me to take a Diet Coke break and make my grocery list, so I was a happy camper, because holy cow, being a fun mom is exhausting.

Lunch was these Hillbilly Snack Teeth, shown below alongside evidence of the sliminess I was talking about earlier.  Holden thought these were fantastic and screamed "now I only have three teeth!, now 2 teeth!" and so on.  And yes, that's all he had for lunch, don't judge.

The afternoon brought homemade fruit snacks, and proof that I do indeed have two children.  Also, that I take a lot of blurry pictures.

They were okay.  Holden was a fan, but they mostly tasted like super concentrated and chewy jello.  And I am pretty sure the Star Wars fruit snacks I buy from the store are cheaper.  I did enjoy using my tiki man ice cube trays from Target, though.

Since I couldn't go to the store, I settled for some online shopping.  I pinned these shelves for Harper's room back when we were semi-homeless and Harper's room was a figment of my imagination.  Affordable shelving is hard to come by, so I am a big fan of this (local!) designer, for solving my problem.  And also for the photo since my shelves aren't here yet, and then most likely won't get installed for another few months, seeing as Harper's crib is still in the box.  That should probably take priority.  Maybe.

Dinner was  some yummy grilled chicken.  I didn't take a picture, but it looked like grilled chicken, so use your imagination.
Also, these baked potatoes.  Yes, I pinned how to bake a potato.  It's tough stuff, and THESE potatoes tasted like the potatoes at Outback Steakhouse, which are pretty much my favorite part of going to Outback Steakhouse.  Plus, it taught me how to smoosh the potato up all pretty.  At least it tried.  I'll get better.

After Offspring #1 was put to bed, I accomplished one more pin.  And I am super proud, so don't make fun of how easy it was.  Promise?  Okay.  It was this headband.

Sad story, when I clicked on my pin to get the tutorial for this, it was gone.  Disappeared into thin air.  Not to be deterred, I tried to make it without instructions.  And I pretty much did.  This is huge, people.  HUGE.  We all know my challenges in the domestic crafts arena.  I even enjoyed it so much I made three more.  AND, it totally counts as making something for baby, therefore I totally get to cross number 5 off of my 30 by 30 list.  Two birds, one stone.

So, there you have it.  Sicko kid day turned super fun day.  I had so much fun, this may not be my last Pinterest day.  And you should do it too.  And you should tell me about it.  And also pretty much tell me about all your successful pins, because clearly, I like to talk about Pinterest, judging by the most massive blog post ever.  Also, if you'd like to give me some praise, I wouldn't say no to that either....