A Little Bit Rock and Roll

I mentioned in my last post how Lizette has been on a rock and roll kick lately. I think it started when she was watching Nick Jr. and the Fresh Beat Band came on singing something about a Rock Star. So now, this is what she wants to be. She said she might take up ballet again later, but for now she's a "Rock and Roller."

So yesterday I told her that if she was really serious about rock and roll, she needed to hear the King of Rock and Roll sing. She was so excited to hear that rock and roll actually had a king. It was so funny. I turned on Elvis and we jammed for much of the afternoon. Every time a slower song would come on, she would say "Mom this is more of a ballet song, and I can't dance to this." Then she would wait for the next rock song and dance all around the house. She tried to teach Lexi some moves too.

She now wants her room decorated in a rock and roll theme. She has it down to a guitar shaped pillow and everything. I told her we would have to wait until she earns enough chore money to pay for all of that. By then, I'm thinking she will have moved on to the next stage.

She has decided that only certain friends will qualify to be in her rock and roll group. She said they will have to like rock and roll as much as she does. I wonder if this means that our garage is going to turn into an air band studio.  :)

Mama, 1,2,3, and White Collar

Just some quick tidbits...

Lately Lexi calls me Mama and says it in the funniest way. No matter what she is asking for, she always ends by very sweetly saying "Mama". "Cheese please, Mama?", "Go play, Mama?", "My turn, Mama?", "Love you, Mama!" The way she says it always melts my heart. 

I've discovered the power of counting to three with my kids. If either of them are doing something they shouldn't be, or not doing what I've asked them to do, I start counting to three. Usually by two they scramble and do what I've asked. I don't remember when I began doing this or exactly how they figured out that there would be consequences if I got to three, but it works! Usually I don't have a particular plan in mind of what I'm going to do when I get to three, but I guess my acting skills are pretty good because they think I have a plan. 

They love jumping on the trundle mattress together and I caught a couple of pics of them playing on it today. I love listening to them play. Lizette is always in charge and has the plan for what they are going to play. Lizette has been on a Rock and Roll kick so they are playing that today. She is giving Lexi Rock and Roll lessons. I hear lots of singing. 

And have you seen White Collar? Thayne and Angel recommended it to us and we're addicted now! It's on Netflix so we can watch several episodes in an evening if we want. The thing is, we watch it so much that it has sort of become a reality for me. I'm always thinking about agent Burke and Neil Caffrey. I think it's a well written show. It's suspenseful, but also funny. Thanks for the tip Thayne and Angel!

Have a great week!

Valentine's, a graduation, cute girls and jewelry...

I've got some updating to do! I'll try to keep this short and to the point since I have much to blog about. (Oh, who am I kidding? When do I ever keep my blog posts short and to the point?)

Let's rewind back to Valentine's Day first. I think we have begun a tradition at our house. We all celebrate Valentine's Day together with at least two essentials, balloons and chocolate covered strawberries. The girls were also thrilled to get their annual cards and treats in the mail from Grandma and Aunt Abby. So, the build up of excitement for Valentine's Day went on for several days. Lizette was very concerned with what all of us were going to wear. She was not happy that I was planning on wearing jeans and a red shirt. She really wanted us all to wear dresses in pink, red and purple colors. I negotiated jeans by promising to wear lots of make up and jewelry. She and Lexi wore matching outfits which pleased our little event planner. 

Early in the day, the girls and I went shopping for our Valentine's necessities, which included balloons, chocolate, chocolate covered strawberries, steak filets (Daddy's request for dinner), and some pink plates. Once we had the balloons, we went to Daddy's office and took him the two that the girls had picked out for him. We got to parade around his new office and meet his new team. It was like trick or treating for the girls because several on his team gave them candy. They were in heaven. Lexi was not shy at all about taking it and began to expect it as we would go to each new desk. After eating lunch with Jeff, we got the rest of our supplies and went home to begin decorating and preparing for our Valentine's party. It was a fun night!

    

To top off the day, Jeff treated us all to candy from Goody's candy store. Yum!!

On February 17, Lizette completed her reading lessons out of this book:

I was so proud of her! This was sometimes a very grueling process for both of us. With many stops and starts, interruptions with things like Summer when neither of us had any interest in doing reading lessons, I consider it no small feat that we finally finished! She is doing great too and I think she actually enjoys it now. Being able to read sentences and often being surprised at the words she just knows now has been fun for her. To mark this event Lizette and I went on a date yesterday morning. Our first stop was Krispy Kreme, then on to Wal-Mart to pick out a few treats for her. We were going to get pedicures but she said she would rather have a blanket instead. We ended the date at Craft Warehouse. We were going to end with lunch but she decided she wanted to go straight home and work on her craft.  It was fun to have some one-on-one time and celebrate something that we had worked on together. Love this little girl!

Enjoying her Krispy Kreme with sprinkles and at home with her  new dress and blanket.

And on to more about the girls. I love watching them interact. Lexi is still the aggressive one, but so loving at the same time. It is so funny to watch them play. Lexi wants to do everything Lizette does. She tries to copy most everything she says and does and where ever Lizette is sitting, is where Lexi wants to be sitting...right next to her. Lizette sometimes loves this and sometimes not so much. I love that they have a true love/hate relationship like most sisters do. They love each other more than anything but get so mad at each other too. It's hilarious.  I'm trying to cherish all of the little moments with them. The time is going so fast. I can't believe Lizette is going to kindergarten next year! She keeps talking about when she is going to get married and move out. Already?! 

And finally, more about my new jewelry adventure. :) In the last week and a half, I have gone from just signing up to sell the stuff to pretty much having a full on jewelry and accessory store in my home. I now have an inventory of jewelry and hair clips with more on the way. It's a little crazy, but so far a lot of fun.  It's sort of like being a kid in a candy store with all the fun accessories I have access to. Jeff built me some displays so that I can use them at parties and when I do fairs and other shows. I was experimenting with how to display the jewelry on them and I pretty much just made a little display that has now taken over part of our living room. It looks a little tacky right now with my hot pink tablecloths, but I think Jeff did a great job on my displays. He's been helping me figure out the actual business side of things too. I'm glad to have him on my team. I've never been good with money or business matters. But I love the cute accessories. I've been wearing them and getting compliments on them too! I went to Goodwill the other day to look for jewelry hangers to use in my display. The lady checking me out complimented my necklace, so I told her about my business. She asked for a card and of course I didn't have one, but then she took my phone number down. It made me feel good that my necklace spoke to her. :) 

So, some time in the next couple of weeks I will be having my first open house and you are invited! I'll post details when I get the actual date in place. Since this is a new product to Boise, I'm excited to show it to people. I think their stuff is really great and especially for the price. Am I sounding like a salesperson? I have to say that talking about accessories comes a little more natural to me than talking about plywood or glulam beams. I'm actually really excited about doing this. I love that I can do it on my own time and that it's a fairly new product to this area. I love that it is affordable so I don't feel like I'm asking people to spend a lot of money on something they don't need. And honestly, who doesn't need jewelry? It really is a need. And for $5, it's a great deal! Okay, now I sound like a salesperson. :) 

Signing off for now...

A little organization

I've been brainstorming a bunch of organization projects lately because I am still really wanting to someday become a professional organizer. I want to put a bunch of things to the test, try things out and have a good working knowledge of how some of the organizing products out there can actually benefit a home. We have a large home and I would say it is pretty well organized, but I feel that if I am going to be a professional, I need to take it to the next level. 

I talked Jeff into building some pull out shelves for our bottom kitchen cabinets. He did a fantastic job and so far I love them. It is way more convenient to get things out from the back of the cabinets and I think it makes the kitchen way more functional. 

He did a good job, don't you think?

Then, like almost every other person in the online world, I have been on Pinterest gathering a ton of ideas. I feel much the same as my friend Becky about Pinterest. Who has time to do all this stuff?! And there is no way that everything can be that perfect about every facet of our homes and lives! But there are some good ideas and this is one of them: Lazy Susans for the fridge!

I put one in our fridge this weekend and now I want to buy another one. I hate it when there is stuff in the back of the fridge that you have to move stuff to get to and then it ends up going bad because you forgot it was there. I think this is a brilliant idea and so far, Jeff and I are liking it a lot. I think if I were to change anything, I would have gotten a bigger one to take up the whole shelf. I think the next one I buy will be bigger and I'll see how that works. I'll let you know...

Dear Pinterest: Yes, you do drive me insane with all of your perfectness that I will never attain, but I do like the ability to gather so many ideas from one place. I forgive you for making me feel so ordinary compared to the rest of the Pinterest world. I know your intentions are good. And I do like that Lazy Susan idea.

Paparazzi!

I have a little news that may surprise some people. I am in the jewelry business! Why you ask?

A couple of months ago I received an invitation to a Paparazzi Jewelry party. The invite said that everything was $5.00 and I was intrigued. I took Lizette and it was super fun. The jewelry was very cute, the atmosphere was low key and no one asked me to book a party or become a consultant. It was a nice experience. Since then, I've been invited to a couple of other jewelry parties. They were super fun too, but the jewelry was expensive. Lovely and very cute, but expensive!

I kept thinking back to the Paparazzi party and how it would be nice to have an alternative for those of us who don't want to spend a lot on our jewelry. And since I am not exactly a fashionista, I sometimes don't know which accessories will go the furthest with my wardrobe, or which colors will look the best, etc. So my wheels have been turning...

I have loved the pieces of Paparazzi I bought at that party I went to, and I wouldn't mind buying more since it's only $5.00. If I buy a super cute green and silver necklace and discover that it only goes with one outfit, oh well. It was only $5.00! So I started Google searching to find out who the Paparazzi reps are in Boise. And low and behold, one of my friends, Cindi Morgan, is selling the stuff! So I contacted Cindi and signed up to become a consultant. The funny thing about it is, no one approached Cindi about selling it either. She felt the same way I did after seeing the product and wanted to sell it too.

I like the Paparazzi company's approach to sales. They encourage their consultants not to pressure people to have shows or become a consultant. They want to provide trendy, affordable jewelry to women, but at the same time not subject them to a high pressure sales experience. I like that very much because I am not at all a fan of high pressure sales.

So in the coming weeks I will be putting a website and Facebook page together and probably holding my first open house! I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Dora, Dora, Dora!

I just have to type this real quick before I forget. Today Lizette begged to watch the Christmas Dora movie. She has sort of gotten out of the Dora kick, but for whatever reason she wanted to watch it today. Early on in the movie, Dora said something about the best part of Christmas is being able to give gifts, not receive them. Lizette yells at the TV, "No Dora, that is NOT the best part of Christmas! The best part of Christmas is that it's Jesus' birthday!" Then she turns around and says "Dora was WRONG mom!" I don't know if I've seen her give quite a reaction like this before. I'm glad to know that she feels that strongly about why we celebrate Christmas.

She also told me that when she gets married, she wants to get married in the temple and I can wait outside with her kids.  Hmmm....

Chores

I think I mentioned that I made a chore chart for the girls a few weeks ago. I feel like it has been a good tool for them. They love the stars they get when they get their chores done. Lizette has a chart of extra chores that she can do to earn money. I pay her $.25 for every bigger chore that she completes. I don't think I will be giving my girls allowance, but I do like the idea of having them earn things. Last week Lizette was able to buy her first toy with her chore money. Along with her chore money, she had saved up some other change that I think Aunt Abby may have given her on one of her visits. So, she was able to purchase a small Strawberry Shortcake doll for $5.00.

In the process of counting her money to see if she had enough for her toy, I used this as a teaching moment about tithing. She thought tithing seemed like a pretty good idea, so she set that aside. Maybe next time I will try to throw in a lesson about saving.

I've been feeling pretty good about this whole chore thing because when we go to a store instead of asking for things, she will say, "Mom if I save up enough chore money, can I get that?" I like this kind of talk.

Yesterday, we ran into a little hiccup. I was out shopping for shoes for the girls...

By the way, I hate shopping for shoes for the girls! Why is it so hard to find cute, sensible shoes? I don't want bling or pink on every part of their wardrobe. Just some plain old Mary Jane's is all I'm asking for. Even my favorite shoe spot, Target, had nothing I liked. Ugh!

...Okay, back to my story. So as we were shopping Lizette kept finding things she wanted and I think it clicked that it is going to take a ton of chores to buy every last thing she wants. As we get in the car to head home, she started to complain. "Mom, other kids get to buy things without having to do chores!" I explained to her that number one, she has a TON of toys and should not be complaining, and number two, all kids have to do chores and they don't just get everything they want all the time.  Well, the ride home was kind of quiet, but by the time we got home she had decided that she wanted to do more chores so that she can earn that Hello Kitty doll she wants.

I hope that I'm on the right track here. I've talked on here before about how hard it is for me to not spoil my girls. I'm trying to reign that in at least a little and I'm hoping the chores will help them learn something.

I do have to say that Lizette is an excellent duster of baseboards. I give her the Swiffer and she goes to town! Now if I could somehow teach her to clean showers...