Favorite Things Friday: Ezra's Favorite Books

Ezra is now 3 and a half and loves to read.  Just like Mama.  He has tons of books.  They overflow out of the 2 shelf bookcase I've had since I was a kid.  Pretty sure my dad made it once upon a time.  Ezra wants 2-3 stories before bed every night, and these are a few of the ones he requests over and over.

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I Love You Through and Through 

by Bernadette Rosetti Shustak - Illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

I got this for Ezra on Valentine's Day 2011 and it's been a favorite ever since.  The illustrations are adorable, and Ezra insists they're pictures of him.  The words are simple and rhyme and he loves to "read" it to us by looking at the pictures.  

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Llama Llama Red Pajama

by Anna Dewdney

I think it's a toddler prerequisite to love this book and to love Elmo.  This one is adorable, and Ezra loves when the Mama Llama gets upset and raises her voice at Llama llama.  He always gets a twinkle in his eye and looks at me when we get to that page.  I make it extra dramatic for him.  I think we have 3 copies of this book.  We had a hard cover that was a little cumbersome for reading with a wiggly toddler on your lap, so we found one at a second hand store in town that was a smaller soft cover.  Then we got a 2nd smaller one in the mail through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which is an amazing program through the United Way that sends kids a book each month until they're 5.

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Ten Tiny Babies

by Karen Katz

This is a bedtime favorite.  The book starts with one baby and adds one per page until "all ten babies are fast asleep" at the end.  I've read this one so many times I could probably recite it aloud.  I even wrote an email to Karen Katz telling her now much Ezra loves the book.  I was shocked when she replied and thanked me for emailing her.  It was a really nice email reply that I could tell she wrote herself.  This book came from Ezra's great-grandma Peggy.  Do you remember this one, Grandma?  :)

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Lost and Found

by Oliver Jeffers

Oh this book.  It is so adorable.  This one is a recent addition - I got it for Ezra this past Christmas - but it's become an instant favorite.  There's no denying Ezra loves penguins.  And this story is so simple, but it evokes emotion.  Ezra says "awww!" every time we read it to him.  The next time you're in a bookstore, look for it and read it.  It's so cute.  And the illustrations are out of this world.  I know a certain little boy who will probably getting another Oliver Jeffers book for his birthday.

Have you seen any books that we should add to our collection?  I'm a sucker for a good book.

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Laundry Things

I love doing laundry.  For real.  No sarcasm.  I enjoy it.  Frank says I fill the loads too full.  I say he doesn't fill them full enough.  When we lived in an apartment and had to bring our laundry down 2 flights of stairs to the 3 washers and 3 dryers in our building of 27 apartments... didn't so much love it then.  But I did love the days when we would take 4 baskets to the laundromat and get all the laundry done at once.

Anyway, I enjoy doing laundry.  So, mostly I do the laundry at home.  Frank likes to cook, so he does most of the cooking.  It works for us.

Because of my affection for doing laundry, I have opinions on laundry products.

Here are a few things I like.

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My favorite laundry baskets are these Sterilite ones from Target.  You could probably get them other places too, but I got mine at Target.  They're sturdy and heavy duty, so they can get pushed down stairs, dropped onto concrete and used as a "car" while filled with pillows, blankets, and a 3 year old.  They're about $10 a piece, but totally worth it.

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I love these babies.  They're little beads that you add to the wash to make it smell good.  That's their entire purpose.  The bottle is like the size of a 20 ounce soda, and one bottle lasts me over a month.  You just put in how much you want... for me, that's enough to barely cover the bottom of the lid.  It makes the clothes smell delicious, but not too pungent.  There are a couple different scents, but this one is my favorite.  And with this stuff, I can just buy the Purex or whatever super cheap soap is on sale this week.  I used to buy Gain and Tide for the smell... but I don't have to anymore.  The only thing that drives me nuts is how "Unstopable" is misspelled.  There should be 2 p's.  But they probably did that to trademark the name.  Oh well, it's a silly thing and it doesn't have any effect on the product.

Please excuse the terrible quality of this picture.  It was taken using my phone.  Any guesses?  Yep, it's a laundry chute.  I had NO IDEA how much we would love this baby.  It's in the hallway right outside the bathroom and the 3 upstairs bedrooms.  It is so handy.  Frank and I even said if we ever build a house, it will definitely have a laundry chute.  It's only as thick as the wall, so we have to carefully feed our jeans in from the feet and slide them down, same for towels and anything else bulky, but it sure beats lugging piles of dirty laundry down stairs.  Not to mention the fact that we don't need to have a laundry basket in our room or Ezra's for dirty laundry to bring downstairs.  It's wonderful.

Don't worry, this isn't a picture of our laundry...  but the final thing I like about our laundry situation is how we sort it.  We tried several ways before coming to a solution that seems to work for us.  We each have a laundry basket in the laundry room plus one for towels and sheets.  One of Lenon's chores every day is to sort the clothes from the laundry chute into our baskets.  We've found that once we have our dirty laundry sorted by person it's much easier to locate things.  Say I'm doing a load of jeans... I can grab a pair or 2 of jeans from each basket and know everyone has a pair, rather than having to look at size tags or dig through one massive laundry pile.  Also, we always know when someone needs clothes.  If Ezra's basket is full, I toss in a load of just his stuff, which makes it really easy when it comes to folding and putting away.  It works for us and we like it.

I've found a few recipes for making my own laundry soap.  I'm tempted to try it.  Most of them have little or no scent, which is find thanks to those Unstopables, and the cost difference is amazing.  Maybe when we run out of laundry soap I'll make some of my own.  If I do, I'll try it for a while and do a review and let you know how it goes.

Do you have any tricks or tips for laundry?

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Some Blogs I Read

Probably a dozen times a day I start a sentence, "On this blog I read..." or "I read on a blog..."  I say it so much that Frank just smiles and nods, because he's so used to it.  (Or sometimes it's, "I found this idea on Pinterest...")

Anyway, I decided to make a short list of my favorite blogs.  Ones I check and read religiously.  Ones that are so good I'd be really sad if they decided to stop blogging.  So in no particular order, here are my top 4 favorite blogs:

Young House Love is a home improvement blog.  John and Sherry, the adorable couple who write it, are so completely normal.  Plus funny.  They post several times a week and give real, usable information about projects they're doing.  They're so inspiring.  For real.

Raising Colorado is a real life blog.  Zakary, the lovely and hilarious woman who writes it, shares stories about her kids, shares recipes, and other funny things.  I've been known to read entire posts aloud to Frank because she's so funny.

Make It and Love It is a crafty blog.  Ashley is a mother of 3, two girls and one boy.  It's so refreshing to have a craft blogger be a mother of a boy.  There are SO many blogs with pictures and patterns and ideas for girls, and significantly less so for boys.  She has amazing ideas and has tutorials on almost everything she makes.  It's a total time suck though... you'll find yourself clicking on tons of links, because you'll be saying, "Ooo!  Look at this idea!"  Trust me.

E Tells Tales is written by Elizabeth.  She's a teacher and a mother and an Etsy phenomenon.  She makes the most beautiful crib bedding I've ever seen.  Her blog is updates of her life as a teacher and mother and a tutorial or two thrown in there.  Her writing style is so easy to read.  I look forward to every post.

I hope you take a few minutes to read a post or two.  They're truly my favorite.

Do you know of any blogs I should read?  If so, please share!

-Kara

P.S.  I have strep throat and have been struggling to stay awake once I get home from work.  It's really wiping me out.  So that's my excuse for not posting more this week.  I'm in the midst of writing up 4 book reviews, so look for one this weekend.

Ezra-isms

I've been trying to write down silly things Ezra says, because I know I'll forget them.  Frank and I still talk about some of the funny things Lenon used to say, but I know we don't remember them all.

Here's the latest installment in Ezra-isms:

Dinosaur Rex

• Pretty self explanatory.  This one means Tyrannosaurus Rex.  He first started saying this after watching the Toy Story movies.

Sam-a-wich

• Sandwich.  He's very deliberate with his enunciation.  

Sumberine

• Submarine.  Did you have to take a second look at that one?  It's pretty close to submarine, except he swaps the b and the m.

Lath

• This one means last.  He hardly says this anymore, but for a while it would make me giggle.  I know it's terrible, but I hardly correct him when he says things wrong.  It's just too cute.  And he eventually corrects himself.

Hoog

• Hood.  Like the hood on a coat.  He will tell us that he wants his "hoog" up when we go outside.

Chocolate milk and milk

• This is when we make chocolate milk using chocolate syrup and milk.  For some reason he thinks the chocolate syrup is called chocolate milk.  But he also knows what actual chocolate milk is.  

Jack and the Beanstoff

• Jack and the Beanstalk.  I found a Little Golden book 1972 version of Jack and the Beanstalk at a thrift store and it's quickly become one of his favorites.

Tomorrwhoa

• This one is one of my favorites.  Tomorrow.  He's starting to really understand the concept that things can't always happen immediately.  But he still has zero concept of time.  So he'll ask us if we can do something "tomorrwhoa" instead of today and it makes me smile.

Hope these entertained you for a few minutes.  Someday I'll get him on video saying funny things and post it.  I never think of it until he's in bed though.  Oops.

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Clever Ideas I've Found Online

Sometimes I see an idea and I wonder, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?"  Well, let's be honest, I see these ideas quite often and am sometimes embarrassed that I've been doing it another way that makes much less sense.

Here are a few things I've found online that I've actually used and I'd recommend.

from Real Simple

Okay, so having long hair means shedding.  Shedding means hair all over the floor.  Embarrassing amounts of it.  (And why is it that hair is so gross once it's fallen out of your head?)  So my vacuum ends up getting tons of hair wrapped around the roller.  When I saw this idea I was like, "No way!" and then I immediately tried it.  No joke.  Immediately.  And it works like a charm.

from Real Simple

Lamp shades get dusty.  Using a feather duster or paper towel on a lamp shade is for the birds.  It totally doesn't work.  But a sticky lint roller... yes, it wins.  Granted, it doesn't make the shade look brand new or anything, but it does take off the majority of the dust and fuzz off of it.

from Life Hacker

I always end up with either a ripped fingernail or frustration when I have to add a key to a keyring.  But almost everyone has one of these staple removers and using that bad boy to open up a keyring is genius.  

from Life Hacker

When I have a cold I always tend to have a pile of icky Kleenexes surrounding me, so this is so smart.  We almost always have an empty box somewhere in the house and it makes it much less icky and germy if they all end up shoved in a box rather than floating around the house or sitting on the couch.

from Real Simple

I've had a paper clip cup at work that's been empty for like 4 years.  I've had bobby pins floating around on my desk and in the drawers for longer than that.  It's like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercial... "You got peanut butter in my chocolate!"  "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!"  Anyway, the bobby pins met the paperclip cup and it's been butterflies and roses ever since.  I also have a travel Advil container (you know, the ones that are about the size of a chap stick?) that's filled with bobby pins in my purse.  In case you need a bobby pin ever... I'm your girl.

Well, that's my list of things.  I've seen tons more, but some don't really have an impact on me at this point - lots of them about when you own your house and we don't.  

Do you have any little cheats that you've been doing that you'd like to share?

-Kara

Book Review #1: Ten Tiny Breaths

Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Dates Read:  December 26-27

Rating:  4.5 stars (out of 5)

Cost:  $2.99 (Kindle edition)

~ ~ ~

"Ten tiny breaths," my mother would say.  "Seize them, feel them, love them."

Twenty year old Kacey Cleary was left orphaned when a car accident kills her parents.  She and her younger sister, Livie, are sent to live with their aunt and uncle... yet the uncle proceeds to lose all their inheritance at the blackjack table and attempts to molest Livie.  To free themselves from the aunt and uncle who are doing a terrible job of raising them, Kacey and Livie escape to Miami and begin a new life.

In Miami she meets Trent Emerson who also recently moved into their apartment complex.  She feels an instant attraction, but he has baggage of his own.

~ ~ ~

This book was great.  It sucked me in from the start and I could hardly put it down.  I thought about it whenever I wasn't reading, and actually ended up going over my break time at work because it consumed me.  I ended up figuring out some of the details along the way, but the delivery was not how I expected it.  Kacey was likable even though she had a rough exterior.  Trent was equal parts intriguing and confusing.

There's buzz about the story continuing, and I'm really really excited about that.  This was a great book that I'd definitely recommend.  I didn't give it 5 stars, because it wasn't a "knock-your-socks-off" book, but it was really great.

Favorite Things Friday: My New Nerdy Glasses

Like I mentioned in my Goals for 2013 post, I decided that I needed a new look.  We have great insurance and every year I get new glasses...  I got my rimless glasses shortly after Ezra was born.  Then I got sunglasses the year after that, and a pair of cute (but terribly uncomfortable) purple frames the year after that.  I went in and had the purple ones adjusted a couple times, but they just didn't ever feel right.  Sad.  So, during all that time I've just been wearing the rimless ones, since I loved them... but they started falling apart.  The screws were coming loose all the time and I had to get one of those eyeglasses repair kits and fiddle with them a couple times a week so I wouldn't lose that teeny tiny screw.

It was time for new ones... and my vision insurance goes from January 1 through December 31 and was about to expire.  (I'm such a good procrastinator!)

So I went in and found some frames that are the exact opposite of rimless... they have thick plastic frames around the whole thing.  It's taken a little getting used to, but I'm surprised how easily I'm adjusting.

Anyway, here they are!

Do you love them?  I sure do.

-Kara

Goals for 2013

Frank is a smart guy.  He decided that instead of a single grand (and usually incredibly hard to keep) resolution for the year he'd have 13 (smaller and more attainable) goals for 2013... and I totally copied him.

But he said he based his idea on my 30 before 30 thing (which I failed at miserably).  And really, I got the idea from reading other people's blogs, so whatever.

Anyway, here's my list.  I'm quite excited about it.

1.  Build something.

I'm not sure what I want to build, but possibly an upholstered headboard that I've wanted to build for almost 2 years now.  Or a microwave stand for our behemoth of a microwave.  See, we have a really tiny kitchen.  Like super tiny.  And almost no counter space.  So right now we have a dresser in the kitchen along one wall and it houses the crock pots, some baking dishes, and other whatnot, along with being the extra counter space needed for our microwave.  It sounds trashy, but it doesn't look trashy.  Regardless, that was not the plan I had for that dresser so we need something to replace it.  I've been looking all over creation for a semi-attractive alternative and have had zero luck so we've decided that we probably need to build something to house it.

2.  Read and review 52 books.

I clearly have no trouble reading books.  In fact, I got a Kindle Fire from my parents for Christmas and since I've had it (it actually arrived December 4) I've read 12 books.  I've been obsessed with it.  My previous Kindle stopped working in late summer last year and I was lost without it.  I think I only read like 4 actual paperback books in the 3 months I was without it, and 3 of them were the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series -- which was SO good.  But I couldn't keep up.  Paperbacks are so expensive and I couldn't read the cheap, self published books I'd gotten used to.  But anyway, all that is changed now that I have a Kindle again and instead of just reading books I'd like to start including a weekly review of a book I've read.  I've had lots of people ask me for recommendations, and honestly, I read so many books sometimes they run together.  So, be looking for a review this week sometime.  And I have one to make up for last week, so you might get a double-shot this week.

3.  New look.

I've had the same hairstyle for like 10 years.  I've had the same glasses for about 3 years.  I'm tired of both and I need a change.  Coincidentally, just today I went and picked up my new glasses.  I love them.  I'm officially on the "nerdy glasses" train.  They're taking some getting used to, since these have plastic frames all the way around the lenses and my previous glasses were rimless.  Nevertheless, I love them and I'm excited for them.

4.  Find my niche.

I really want to make some decisions on an Etsy shop.  There are so many things I like doing and so many hobbies I've started.  I have boxes of beads and stuff to make jewelry.  I have tons of fabric.  I have a love of thrifting.  I need to decide which direction I want to go and go there.

5.  Blog at least twice a week.

This one should be easy.  I want to continue with my Favorite Things Friday, my thrifting posts, and have a book review once a week, plus do updates on the kids (I have a stash of cute Ezraisms), and other stuff... so, this one should be easy.  We'll see.

6.  New camera.

I'd like to save for, buy, and learn to use a new camera this year.  I have my eye on this one.  It's gotten great reviews (thanks for making me a researcher, Dad!).  But it's pretty expensive.  I'm already setting money aside for it.  Hopefully we won't have to use that money for something else.

7.  An overnight away with Frank.

I wanted to do this in my 30 before 30 list, but it didn't happen.  This year, Frank and I decided that we are going up to Minneapolis to hit IKEA for my birthday.  That involves a 3.5 hour drive and an overnight stay.  We are also going to see if we can fit in some live music while we're up there.  All depends on who is in town.  We're keeping our ears open.

8.  Make some original art.

I'm going to create a gallery wall in our living room and I'd like to have pictures of our family, things that are important to us, some art work, etc included in it.  And years ago I loved to paint.  So it makes sense to create some original art rather than buying something from someone else.  I'm excited to get working on it.

9.  Enjoy some live music.

This one is something Frank and I are both excited about.  There are lots of opportunities to hear live music in Sioux Falls, but in the last couple years we haven't done much of it.  We vow this year to go to at least one concert this year, but hope to hit several.  With Saturday in the Park in Sioux City, and Jazzfest and Downtown Live in Sioux Falls, we shouldn't have any trouble penciling in one or all three of these things.

10.  Learn to knit.

I've wanted to learn to knit for a while now.  I found some tutorials online and some links to Youtube videos and I'm looking forward to getting started.

11.  Family pictures.

We haven't had family pictures taken since Ezra was like 18 months old.  It's time for new ones.  The end.

12.  Seriously consider writing a book.

I have written about a dozen story beginnings and never finished anything, but with the ability to self publish on Amazon, I'm thinking about working on an idea that I've had in my head for a few years.  It seems pretty easy to do -- I've done a little reading up on it.  We'll see how it goes.

13.  Purge and organize.  

This one goes without saying.  We have so much "stuff" and we need to get rid of some of it.  I plan on having at least 2 garage sales this year.  Last year was quite successful, and it felt good to mark things to sell and not mark them to deal with negotiations.  Toward the end of the last day I was giving stuff away, including a Spiderman comforter to a 7 year old boy who was so excited he almost cried.  Plus, with living in a smaller house, we don't have as many places to store things.  So they're getting out of here.


There's my list.  It's ambitious, but not overwhelming.  I have a good feeling about this list.

Stay tuned for updates!

-Kara

Get With It and Follow Through

The title of this post says it all.  Those are my main goals for 2013.  They're pretty self explanatory.

Get With It

I need to do the things that grown ups do... make sure bills are paid on time, write thank you notes in a timely fashion, keep up on housework so we aren't scrambling when someone announces a surprise visit, etc.  They aren't hard things, but I need to stop using the excuse that I'm busy.  Everyone is busy.  Being busy doesn't make me special, it makes me normal.

Follow Through

This one is harder.  I have good intentions.  I really do.  But it's hard to complete things.  It reminds me of when Lenon was about six.  He was always forgetting things, mittens at school, picking up toys, brushing his teeth... but instead of saying he couldn't remember, he told us, "I'm just such a good forgetter!"  I feel like I'm such a good procrastinator.  But I want to work on it.  For real.  It feels so good to get things done and I really want to do better.

I'm going to be sharing some of my other goals for this year in subsequent posts.  Frank had a great idea to have not just one but thirteen goals this year.  And we are both being less ambitious and more real with our goals.

Do you have a resolution this year?

-Kara

I'm back!

We finally joined the land of the living and got our internet access up and running again.  We had planned on just forgoing it during the summer -- the plan was to encourage us to do things outside... or basically, do anything but sitting with the laptop on our laps or wasting hours in front of Netflix.

Yeah, that didn't really work out.  With moving into the new house and being busy, we didn't really do anything this summer.  Well, it feels like we were busy, but we didn't really do much worth mentioning.  Frank went camping with friends a couple times.  Lenon spent a week (or so) with his mother and her family in Rapid City in June.  And Ezra ran through the sprinkler a few dozen times in the back yard.  I mostly read during my spare time.  

Sounds like a hoot, huh?  We didn't even spend time at the pool because it was so dang hot this summer.  

I feel like we are finally getting into our schedules since school started for Lenon.  He walks himself to and from school, which is really nice.  His middle school doesn't start until 9 am so we are gone by the time he has to walk to school.  We were nervous about that... but he's done really well with it.  He hasn't been late and remembers to lock the doors when he leaves.  He's done with school at 3:45 pm and gets home around the time Ezra and I are getting home.

Ezra is now almost completely potty trained.  There are still a few accidents and he still sleeps in a diaper, but most mornings it's dry.  He has moved to the "Robins" room at daycare - one of the 3 year old rooms.  His good friend Olive is going to be in the Robins room starting next week and he's pretty excited about it.  They're going on a field trip next week on a bus, which he's really excited about.  I can't believe that the teachers are willing to take a dozen 3 year olds to pick out pumpkins and out for pizza after.  I'm going to go along... the teachers said parents are more than welcome to come. :)

This weekend I'm going to get started on Ezra's Halloween costume.  He's waffled between wanting to be a hero, a tiger, and a spider... but he's pretty sure he wants to be a spider now.  I'll be posting pictures when I'm done with it.  I have big plans...  Which reminds me that I never posted the details of his Woody costume from last year.  He still wears the hat and vest around the house sometimes.

Before this becomes a ridiculously long post, I'm going to sign off.  But be looking for updates in the near future.  I've been doing some thrifting and I've made a handful of things in the last few months that I'll be sharing.

-Kara

Hello again

The move was successful.  We got everything moved in 1 day thanks to Frank's parents bringing up a huge trailer for us to move.  We had some great friends help too.. Couldn't have done it without Matt, David, and Jason... And Stacy for watching Ezra ALL DAY!  All it cost us was some pizza and beer. :)

We are slowly getting unpacked.  Ezra loves his new room and had no problem adjusting to life in a new house.  Slept through the night every night since we moved.  When I pick him up from daycare he asks if we are going to our new house and when I confirm he shouts, "Yay!"

Lenon has his room all set up in the basement.  He loves his freedom.  :)  He only goes to his daycare/summer camp 3 days a week so the other days he gets to hang out at home.  We don't have our cable or internet hooked up at the house yet, so he's been going through movies like crazy.  I did remind him that he has plenty of books to read... He sort of curled his lip up and said, "Oh, yeah..."  Clearly he doesn't want to spend his summer reading.

That's all that's new with us.  I just thought I'd check in.  Hopefully in the next week or so we'll get our internet back up and running.  We have been spending our spare moments unpacking so perhaps in a few weeks I'll have some photos to share.

OH!  And Ezra turns 3 in July... which seems so crazy.  But I'm getting started on planning a birthday party for him.  We have a cute little yard and an air conditioned house so now I need to get working on it.

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Assorted "beauty" products

I'm not sure if one would actually categorize the following things as "beauty" products, but I wasn't sure what else to call them.  But they're staples in my daily life and I love them so I thought I'd share.

First up...

Goody Rectangular hair clips AKA "gymnastic-y clips"

buy them here

It took me a couple years to find these babies.  I had 3 random rectangular clips that I had been using (two were purple and one was gold -- ick!) and I couldn't find any more of them anywhere.  I didn't want the tapered end ones you can buy anywhere - I wanted these rectangular ones that are the same width the whole way across.  Here's why... I do the bang bump.

See it?  When my bangs aren't cooperating I brush them back and bump them up a little and clip them.  I don't like to use bobby pins for this because it always ends up falling out.  And I don't like the tapered end ones because... well, I just don't.  So with those rectangular ones I pull out that little "stay in place" plastic thing and throw it away --- because it just gets in the way --- and then I do the bang bump.  

Are you wondering why I called them "gymnastic-y clips"?  Growing up we loved watching the Olympics, especially the gymnastics portion.  Those girls always had their hair so tight and filled with so dang many of those clips that they became "gymnastic-y clips" whenever we needed to talk about them.  Which really wasn't very often, but whatever.  They got a fun name anyway.

Remember those, Erica and Holly?

Next up...

Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment

buy it here

For a long time I was a Chapstick Medicated girl.  That's what I always used and that's what I liked.  I'm not sure how I eventually converted to this kind but it was Frank's preferred "lip stuff" so I tried it and was hooked.  I have 1 in my purse, 1 in the diaper bag, 1 in my desk at work, and 1 in a mug on top of my desk at work.  Sometimes they even come in a handy 2 pack.  Plus they make your lips shiny but not sticky like lip gloss.

Next...

Neutrogena Eye Makeup Remover Pads

buy them here

These are by far the best eye makeup remover things I've ever used.  I tried them once and loved them. The pads are really soft - not scratchy like the cotton rounds you can get at drug stores.  Plus the liquid in the eye makeup remover doesn't sting your eyes when it (inevitably) gets in your eyes.  You get 30 in a jar - so they last a month.  Target and Walmart both have them for about $5.99.  It's totally worth it.  You should try them.

And finally...

Shea Cashmere Hand Cream in Secret Wonderland

buy it here

I don't really shop in Bath & Body Works anymore.  Maybe it's because at one time I had 13 bottles of lotion or body spray in my bathroom cabinet and Frank put his foot down.  In all honesty, I ended up throwing most of them out because I either got sick of the smell or they got all separated and runny.  But this smell is SO GOOD!  The first little bottle of this was used up completely.  And when I say completely, I mean it.  I even cut the end off and scraped the last little bit out of the bottle.  Spending $10 a bottle for 3 ounces of lotion is pretty unheard of for me.  So I was delighted to find a coupon so I could get 2 bottles for the price of 1... so 1 lives at work and the other is in my purse.

Do you have any favorite products I need to know about?

-Kara

Like all my FTF posts, these opinions are my own.  I was not compensated in any way for my review.

We're Moving!

At the end of the month we'll be moving to a new house.  It's another rental, but it doesn't matter.  We are so excited.  We are moving from a huge (and totally inefficient) house built in 1917 to a 1960's ranch.  There will be less square footage, but all the good things outweigh that.

We'll have central air, a 4th bedroom, a finished basement, and an almost totally fenced backyard complete with two lilac bushes.

We can hardly wait.  I hope to document the transformation of each room on this blog so everyone will get a complete house tour by the time it's all said and done.

Here's a preview.

P.S.  The blog will retain the name Life on Ninth Avenue.

Favorite Things Friday: A Memorial

I didn't love the Beastie Boys until I was 22.  In fact, I had only heard Brass Monkey, (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party), Sabotage, and Intergalactic up to that point in my life.  The very first band Frank asked me if I liked was them... But I misheard him and thought he said the Beach Boys.  To which I said an adamant "No!"  He couldn't believe it.  And I couldn't believe that someone under the age of 50 actually enjoyed the Beach Boys.

We got it sorted out shortly after and I admitted that I had never heard much of the Beastie Boys so I didn't really have an opinion.  Coincidentally, the Boys had an album that came out the year we met (2004) so we bought it.  It only took a few songs and I was hooked.

Sadly, today Adam Yauch (MCA) died of cancer.  He was my favorite.  Something about his rugged voice was so fantastic to me.  When Frank told me, I got choked up.  I didn't have any idea how sad I'd be.  He seemed like such a good guy.

source

MCA, you will be missed.

You can read more about him here.

Almost Deal Breakers...

Do you have things that you believe so completely in your heart to be true?  And what if someone you were really close to disagreed with those things?  What if that person was your boyfriend/fiance/husband/spouse?

I have two of those things with my husband.  They're almost deal breakers.

Okay, so these things are sorta petty...  Well, not sorta.  They're totally petty.  But it's hard to be serious with someone who believes the complete opposite thing you do.  And so adamantly!

Do I have you on the edge of your seat?  Can you hardly wait to find out what my silly, petty deal breakers are?

They're two men.

This delightful fellow is man number one...

O.J. Simpson

source

Before you go and say "Oh, no you didn't!" Let me tell you something.  Frank and I fight about this TO THIS DAY.  I assume anyone who reads this will agree with me.  Because I'm right and that's all there is to it.  

Me:  GUILTY!

Frank:  Not guilty.

WHAT!?!  Yes.  For real.  He thinks The Juice didn't kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.  

I can't believe I married a man that thinks this guy is not guilty.  Sick.

Ready for fellow number two?

John Travolta

source

Do you like him?  Would you categorize him as one of your favorite actors?

I know, me either.  He's terrible.  That's where Frank and I disagree.  He thinks John Ravolta is good.  Like, really good.  

Sick.  He's terrible.  Worse than terrible.  

Do you have any silly, petty things that you and your spouse disagree on?  I'd love to hear it.

-Kara

Busy Tray

I've found hundreds of things on Pinterest that I'm dying to try.  I have a whole board dedicated to creative things to do with kids and this was one of them.  The idea comes from In Between Laundry and I think it's brilliant.  She used an old cookie sheet as a magnet board.  What a great idea!

I had Frank get a cookie sheet at Dollar Tree for... you guessed it, $1.  It's a little one.  Only 9 x 13 but it's big enough.  Then I found some magnetic letters at ShopKo for $1.49.  

Clearly Ez was delighted.  And all for $2.49.  He played with it for a good half hour.  

His daycare has been teaching the kids the first letters of their names.  He points out "O" for Olive, "A" for Alex and "S" for Saul as well as his favorite... the "E" for Ezra!

I also plan on making some magnets for this tray, too.  I've seen people use sheets and decorate them and cut them out.  Ashley of Make It and Love It made some paper dolls for her daughter and a cute little cover for her tray.  And she had a great idea about a pirate scene or maybe I could make dinosaurs.  Or perhaps The Wiggles since Ez is so crazy about them.  

He told me that "E" was first... I placed the "Z" and the "R" and on his own he added the "A".  

My child is a genius.  For reals.

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Random Things

I like a lot of strange things.  Perhaps not "strange" things, but things that people may not even consider if they were making a list of the things they like.  I decided this was the post where I'd include some of those things.  I'm guessing this will become a series of posts because I do have several things I'd like to include.

1.  Peanut Butter

When Frank and I were first dating we asked each other all those random "get to know you" type questions.  He asked my favorite food and my reply (without hesitation) was "Peanut butter."  He was surprised and even laughed like I was kidding.  I'm not.  I truly love it.  But this is one thing that we NEVER buy generic on.  It has to be Jif and it has to be the reduced fat one.  We always have a jar of peanut butter in our house.  And if we didn't, I'd be driving to the grocery store to buy some.

2.  Making lists

My love of lists is definitely from my mom.  We would wake up during the summer and go downstairs and there was almost always a list on the kitchen table.  It always had hand drawn check boxes with initials in each box indicating which sister was responsible for which chore.  This clearly rubbed off on me.  I make check box lists ALL THE TIME.  I have no fewer than 3 in my purse at this exact moment.  One of my favorite things about making lists is going grocery shopping with one.  We know our HyVee store so well we have our list written in the order of the aisles in the store.  We even have subcategories within the list:  "Dairy corner," "Meat counter," "Frozen," etc.  When I go grocery shopping I also round to the nearest half dollar and put the price next to the item when I cross it off the list.  That way I can add up my total so I know the approximate damage before I get to the checkout and she tells me "167.41" or whatever it is.  It's much less of a shock that way.

3.  Pajamas

Some women love shoes.  Some women love purses.  I love pajamas.  I think the reason why I love them is because I can't love shoes... not with a size 12W.  Try finding cute shoes when your feet look like skis.  It's not possible.  And purses are too expensive to hoard.  So I hoard pajamas.  Two of the five drawers in my dresser are filled with pajamas.  I have like 10 shirts that are solely pajama shirts, about 6 pairs of pajama pants, 4 pairs of pajama capris, and 4 pairs of pajama shorts.  So clearly, I have myself covered no matter the weather.  The one thing I don't dig are the dresses.  They always get all tangled up and twisty.  No thanks.  Not for this girl.

4.  Smooth sheets

This might be less of a "favorite" and more of the opposite of a pet peeve.  (Did that even make sense?  Who cares, I guess)  Bottom line, I HATE wrinkled sheets.  To me, the act of washing and drying sheets is completely worthless if you can't immediately fold them into perfect squares right after they come out of the dryer.  I've been known to re-wash the whole load of sheets because they were forgotten about in the dryer overnight.  We have the oldest washer and dryer known to man, so we don't have the steam wrinkle releaser thing that some fancy dryers have nowadays.  This also goes hand-in-hand with an unmade bed.  I detest an unmade bed.  I've even overstepped the line and made my friend's beds if I happen to walk past their room and their bed isn't made.  It drives me nuts.

5.  The sound ice makes when you pour water over it

Weird?  Maybe.  Okay, yes, weird.  But it's such a great sound.  The next time you get yourself some ice water, listen for it.  The crackle and pop of the ice cubes.  It's a great sound.  There's just something about it that is music to my ears.  So now, if there ever was a doubt that I'm a little out there, here's your proof.

Do you have any random things that you love?  Did you go try the ice water thing and now believe me?

-Kara

Lenon-ism

Here's a snippet of a conversation we four had at the dinner table the other night whilst enjoying a pizza dinner...

Lenon:  "Can I have some marijuana sauce?"
Frank:  "Um, what?"
Lenon:  "Marijuana sauce.  Can I have some with my breadsticks?"

Frank and I exchange a curious glance.

Lenon points at the counter.  "That red sauce.  Can I have some with my breadsticks?"

Frank:  "OH!  Marinara sauce! Yes, you can have some."


No, our child is not on drugs.  This was shortly after a drug talk at school.  Clearly he had "marijuana" on the brain...  but not literally, because our child is not on drugs.

Favorite Things Friday: Books from my Childhood

Growing up we always had books.  Tons of books.  Berenstain Bears, Little Critter, Busy Town, you name it.  About 7 years ago, when my parents moved from the farm house where we grew up my two sisters and I had a draft of sorts.  We filled the kitchen table with our childhood books and each took turns picking the ones we wanted to keep.

We all had to make sacrifices for our favorites.  Someone ended up with The Easter Egg Artists (which is selling on Amazon for $159!) and it wasn't me.  :(  But I did end up with some gems.  

But... I haven't shared any of my books with my children.  They're still in a box in the basement.  It's terrible of me, but I'm afraid they'll get stepped on or ripped or discarded like the Kleenex that's crumpled up on the floor next to my child at this very moment.  So I keep telling myself that I'll share them "soon" but I'm not sure when "soon" is.  Ezra is getting much better with books.  He carefully turns the pages and doesn't pull and thrash like he used to.  We'll see...

buy it here

This is my favorite favorite favorite book ever.  The pictures are so simple and the story is pretty basic.  But there's something about it that I just love.  I think it might be the "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk" that made me love it so many years ago.  

buy it here

I'm not sure why we all loved this one.  The pictures are okay.  The story is okay.  But it was so great.  Maybe it's because they all give him hand-me-downs and we did that, too.  Maybe it was the cat.  Who knows, but this one is one we fought over.

buy it here

This one was another one I didn't get.  It's a story about kids who go to school and no one is there... so they tell everyone they meet that there's no school today!  But it turns out they're just early...  Poor kids.

buy it here

I barely remember this one.  I just remember that I loved it.  Clearly other people do too because they're basically asking for your first born for a copy that's in decent shape.  What I do remember about it was that it wasn't a typical happy story.  It was a mystery!  And that was mysterious!

buy it here

Oh, Caps For Sale.  You and I are BFF's.  I'm pretty sure I have 3 copies of you... you know, just in case.  It's partly because I was afraid of how this one would fare with Ez and partly because the thrift store was having a book sale and ALL their books were 10¢ a piece!  

buy it here

Of all our Berenstain Bears books, this one is my favorite.  For years we used the names of the junk food in this book to name any junk food we ate.  Choco Chums and Sweetsie Cola were our favorite names of junk food in this book.  

I could list several more, but I'll spare you... or maybe keep them for another post.  

What's your favorite book from your childhood?

-Kara

Favorite Things Friday: Office Products

I could never wait until "back to school" time at stores.  All the aisles of pens, pencils, markers, tape, notebooks... I was in heaven.  I still have a love for office products.  I've tried almost every pen there is.  I've purchased notebook after notebook, filling each with doodles or class notes or the beginning of a story or a combination of those.  I loved organizing my art box, knowing that in a few short weeks it would never look the same.  I still have a box in a closet with pens and markers from school.  They're probably all dried up by now.

Working at an "office" so to speak, I get to use fun office products all day!  Well, not really.  Only if I buy them myself and take them to work.  See, we are provided with plain, boring pens and yellow stickies.  And they're fine.  But anyone who knows me, knows my inflection on fine.  You know, I sorta make a face and shake my head.  Meaning they're just "ehh, fine" not like "yeah, they're fine".

So I buy my own and bring them to work.  Colored pens are delightful and they make my day.

These are my favorite colored pens

buy them here

They're smooth writers.  None of those missing ink problems like you get with plain old pens on the upcurve of your "O" or whatever.  Plus the colors are so fun!  PINK!  PURPLE!  GREEN!  None of that boring black or blue for me with these guys.

Here's my favorite black pen

buy them here

These are my absolute favorite.  They're a gel pen without the smearing!  For real.  No smearing.  Even you lefties can use this guy and not have to worry about an inked up hand (unless your hand is tattooed).  The cap is completely removable - none of this clicking to operate for this girl.

And one of my favorite parts of this pen... get ready... you ready?  The cap makes a "click!" noise when you open it and put the cap on the other end! ...I'm waiting to hear some excitement, people...  Anyone?  No?  Oh, guess it's just me that loves that part.  

But you really have to watch out with these babies... cause they disappear.  And they're expensive.  So you might have to lock them in your desk at the end of the day.

Post-Its.  

buy them here

I love them.  They're great for writing lists or... you know, notes.  And the boring yellow ones are so boring.  So I try to get colored ones that aren't quite so boring.  I recently won a pack that looks just like these during our work Bingo game.  One of our managers calls 5 numbers a day.  It's pretty fun and I've won several times.  People think it's rigged.  Nope, I've just been lucky.  

Amazing Correction Tape

buy them here

Have you seen this stuff?  It's amazing.  And SO much better than the liquid that certain teenage girls once used as nail polish... It's so slick and you can write over it immediately.  What a great invention.

Colored Staples!

buy them here

It might seem silly, but I love my colored staples.  I've had all of these colors except the grass green.  (Which I think might be next on my shopping list.)  They're way more fun to use than the regular silver ones.  Just a cute little pop in the corner of your sheaf of paper.

And last but not least...

SHARPIES!

buy them here

I'm particularly fond of these ultra find point ones.  They are so fun to draw with.  And they work on darn near everything.  I have a sketch book full of drawings done with these guys.  I have a million colors of them and they're all so pretty.

That rounds out my favorites.  

Do you have a favorite I should know about?

-Kara