What's been happening at 523?

Hi sweet friends!!

Where's my cape? 

I have been really absent from the blog these past couple weeks.  We have had some family things going on that had me all over the place, but then we really started in on the remodel of Caleb's playroom.  We dove in head first with replacing walls, painting walls, replacing electrical outlets and then finally replacing the flooring!!

I am so stinking excited to be replacing this flooring.  We are also going to do the living room and hallway but that will start right after Easter.  But I wanted to show you what fantastic work the hubs did on the flooring.

Caleb couldn't wait to play on it. :)

Didn't he do a stellar job?!  I am so ridiculously proud of how beautiful the floor looks and what a fantastic job Brad did.  I can't wait until it's time for the living room and hallway.  Caleb wants to do a birthday party at our house, so we have until July to get the rest done.  

So, I have a huge light at the end of my tunnel on my floors....a tunnel that has taken 15 years to get through!! 

Since I have been so non-existent on the blog, I wanted to at least pop on here and tell you that all is well....but all is VERY busy.  :) 

We still have Caleb's First Communion to get ready for and of course Easter is always hectic.  I am really swamped with the PTA commitments at Caleb's school, my own school work and Caleb's schedule of stuff that we have to do for Cubscouts and birthday parties......

Whew!! I'm exhausted just thinking about all of the stuff going on here.  But I haven't forgot about my blog...at least not yet anyways.  But unfortunately for now I might have to be absent from it until all gets back in order.  

It's a crazy life, but a blessed life I have right now.  

So that's all I have for today.  Until next time, take care.

-Kim

Just a ramble

And here we begin another week.....my heart is still reeling with pain from losing my grandmother.  I have been so distraught that I can't seem to function in my daily life.  Thursday night was terrible, I just went bat crazy on Brad (the hubby)...and while at the time, I felt as though I had good reasoning...I didn't.  Then Friday morning, I had no school uniforms for Caleb to wear....apparently I hadn't washed any laundry in well over 6 days by now.  I woke up an hour before us leaving for school, which is very late for me, and was rushed to wash a school uniform for my sweet baby. 

I almost forgot his lunch (fortunately I didn't), I forgot to pack him an after school snack for extended care (this is an after school care for the kids), to be frank, I forgot to tell him he was going to be staying in extended care.  For his homework he has to complete one hour of a math computer program each week and I didn't remind him to do any of it.....I think he maybe finished 15 minutes total for the week. 

After getting to work and just crying my eyes out from being a complete and utter failure of a wife and mom, I felt a little better when the hubs called and talked to me a little bit.  He apologized for not stepping up and doing more.  Granted, I will agree....Caleb and I were very close to my grandmother and this really threw both of us out quite a few notches.  So I do think that it would have been good for Brad to have stepped up and helped with Caleb's homework, laundry, etc.  But to be honest, the fact that he even noticed on his own what he could have done and apologized for it...well I can't be mad at him.  Of course, the forgiveness was really given after he came home and did 5, yes I said FIVE loads of laundry while I sat on the couch and ate Girl Scout Cookies into an oblivion. 

Caleb and I took Saturday to rest and recoup from the week and did absolutely nothing, which was good being that I had to recover from my sugar induced hangover.  But it was then that I decided  enough was enough.  While the pain is excruciating still, I know that my Granny is watching down on me and she wouldn't put up with me acting this way towards my family.   

So this morning, I got up and forced myself to be productive.  I was up at the usual 5:00 am, doing laundry, unloading dishwasher, getting dressed and actually applying a full face of makeup.  I only did bare minimum, which was foundation and my eyebrows, nearly all last week, except for at the funeral.  I figured there was no point in putting on makeup if it's just going to run down my face when i cried.  I also fixed my hair this morning, but the rain screwed that up...but hey, I did at least try. 

Caleb had lunch, snack and breakfast this morning.  He completed his chores and he was excited to get a jump start on his math program with Brad's help this morning. The grieving may not be over completely but, I can't continue to ignore everything in my life because of it. 

Well, that's my ramble for today.  It felt good to get it out of my system and into words.  I know this isn't my usual makeup post, but I think this helped me clear my head a bit.  I will be back again on Wednesday with a real makeup post.  I have a couple of reviews to do for you on a foundation and an anti-wrinkle cream that I have been using for about 9 weeks now.  Do you think it worked?  I will let you know soon.

Thanks for listening and I will be back again really soon.  Until next time, take care.

-Kim

My tips for surviving Elf on a Shelf

Here we are again, one sleep away from the arrival of the Elf on a Shelf.  Some parents are excited and some are gloomy.  I'm kind of in between.  While I sometimes wonder what I was thinking when I agreed to have the elf come visit, I sit here typing this out and am giddy with excitement over his arrival tomorrow.  Does that even make sense? LOL 

It makes the season feel like Christmas all month long for my son.  Instead of anxiously waiting the one day of the month, he gets excited about every day of the month, now that we have the Elf on a Shelf. 

While it can be a daunting task for me, in the end I am really happy I chose to have the elf.  However, I do know it can be a source of stress for parents too.  So, today I am going to give you the run down of what our elf on a shelf, Jingle Bells, will be up to this year along with some tips that I learned last year.  And a few photos of last years elf movements.  This will hopefully give you a few ideas as to what you can do with your elf. 

First up, to make things a little easier, I started out with a very important rule for the Elf.  I stated that he was not allowed to go in any room where people were sleeping...so that meant that nothing will happen in Caleb's room or bathroom (since the bath is connected to his bedroom). 

I don't want any slip ups during this whole thing and because Caleb is a very light sleeper, tip toeing through his room is not a good move.  So stating this rule out loud, Caleb won't be expecting Jingle Bells to show up and be in his room during any of this.

That's the only rule I have, so now let's get started with the rest....

So these are divided among a few categories.  The "arrival and exit of the elf", "elf fun during the week", "weekend elf adventures" and finally "elf emergency movements" for those times when you need a quick movement in an emergency situation.  We all have those, so it's best to be prepared.

First up is The Arrival and Departure of Jingle Bells the Elf:

• For the arrival this year, Jingle Bells will show up at the house on the mantle with his new found pet (the St. Bernard) and the movie "Santa's St. Bernards Save Christmas"  This one is easy because it will have the elf's arrival letter and the dog.  If you are doing the movie, I'd let your child wake up to the movie on a weekend, so you can have a family movie night that evening and watch the Elf and Pet movie together.

• The elf's last night with us will be a letter saying good bye and then I found a Pez candy dispenser that has an elf on it for a going away present for Caleb from Jingle Bells to remember him by.

Elf Adventures During the Week: 

This will be easy movements from the elf that can be quick to execute and fun for my son when he wakes up in the morning.  Caleb is in the 2nd grade, so we have to get up and get dressed for school, so I can't have him spending thirty minutes looking for a hidden elf, but I have to get up early so I can't stay up late either, waiting on him to fall asleep for the elf to move.  So that's where the following movements will get me the best of both worlds.

• I bought two outfits for Jingle Bells at the Liberty Trade's Days, last weekend.  One is a sweater that has a Pikachu (Pokemon) face on it.  And since Caleb is really in to Pokemon, I will have Jingle Bells and his new sweater sitting amongst all the other collection of Pokemon's that Caleb has.  

• The other outfit I bought for the elf was a taco costume.  This one caught me by surprise, because I wouldn't have thought of such a cute costume....but we have our Taco Tuesday nights about every other week...so this one will be saved for Caleb to wake up to on a Tuesday morning, with the elf in his taco suit sitting on top of the taco shells in the kitchen.

• An easy weekday movement this year will be that Jingle Bells will fill up Caleb's school shoes with Hershey Kisses.  This just makes me laugh when I think about how Caleb will react to this one....I don't know why, but I just giggle from thinking about it.

• Since we will have the St. Bernard dog with us this year for the Elf, I have decided to have him eating out of our dog, Scooby's, food bowl.  This also sets me up for tomorrow night.

• The next night I will have the elf and the dog both taped to the wall and a note that reads "Scooby did it" as a punishment from Scooby for eating his food.  Be sure to use painters tape so it won't peel any paint off the wall when you remove it.

• Again, I will be set for night where the Elf gets down the dry erase board from the fridge and writes "good list and naughty list" on the top and continues to list each member of the family under the "good" section and Scooby (the dog) under the "naughty" section

• I found the Sno Ball Cupcakes from my local grocery store last week so this will be set out on the table as a snow ball breakfast for Caleb from the Elf.  Of course you don't want your kid eating a bunch of cakes for breakfast right before school, so he can share one with mommy (or if your kids have siblings they can split one and share) and then have their regular breakfast waiting for them.  It's a fun and unexpected treat that only and "elf" would think to give for breakfast. :)

• I like to do some of the elf movements in our hall bathroom in our house.  A couple different reasons for this, first off, it's not the bathroom that Caleb uses so he won't come here when nature calls during the "movement of the elf" and second, you can lock the door and do the setup for elf fun in privacy.  So that's why I will have the elf and his dog set up with silly string sprayed all over each other and a can set up next to each one, so it looks like they have been having a silly string fight.  The bonus with the bathroom is that it will be an easy clean up because there isn't much to ruin in our hall bathroom

• Another easy bathroom one will be to have "Elves are Awesome" written with dry erase marker on the bathroom mirror.

• One last bathroom one would be that the elf and dog are playing tic tac toe on the mirror with dry erase markers.  Again these in the bathroom are good because you can lock the door for setup.

• If you have those gold star stickers or any stickers you find in the school supply section of your store, you can have your elf look as though he has stuck them all over himself.  This will make for a simple and funny movement for your child to wake up to.  

• We love books in this house, so Caleb will most definitely be waking up to our elf reading a new Christmas book and a note suggesting that this was the best book EVER and Caleb must read this tonight.

• One night I will take the photos out of two frames and have the elf and dog sitting behind the frame as though they are the pictures.  

• Another simple weeknight one will be to have him set up playing the Xbox in Caleb's play room or you could have him sitting on the couch with the remote control watching tv and eating popcorn (I'd pre-pop the popcorn or buy it in the bag.  Anyone else come running when they smell fresh popped popcorn like my family?)

Let's talk about the Weekend Elf Fun:

These will be more advanced thought and prep that are great for the weekends, when you don't have to get up early, you can stay up a little later and really set the elf up for success the next morning.  These are also going to be things that may take longer for Caleb to find or do, so he can take his time and not have to worry about being late for school.

• The first one for the weekend will be that the elf leaves a gingerbread house kit for Caleb to decorate.  If this comes on a Saturday, he won't have to wait until after school to decorate it.

• Hide and seek candy canes are another fun one.  Just hide 6 or 10 candy canes in one room of the house (or more areas, whatever you feel is good for your kiddos) and write a note saying that they are hidden and to find all of them.  This again would be difficult to do before school so I save it for the weekend.

• Toilet papering the tree would be a good one for the weekend.  It will take a little extra time to accomplish so you can do that after the kids go to bed and then not have to be pressed to wake up early and be productive the next day.

• Another one that Jingle Bells is doing on the weekend this year will be to put crepe paper strips and tape them across the door way.  If your child has his door closed at night you could do this on the outside of his door.  But this will excite Caleb when he busts through the crepe paper to get out of his room or down the hallway.

• One that will need a bit of prep ahead of time, will be to have paper snowflakes cut out (save the scraps) and set the elf up as though he cut a bunch of the snow flakes out himself.  Have a pair of child scissors, the snowflakes and paper scraps all around him on the table.  

Let's talk about the conundrums that can come with these elves.  Sometimes I can stay up later than Caleb and put the elf in fun places, but this isn't always the case.  So last year, I decided to start keeping the elf in my room in a drawer each night so when I got up in the morning I could move him to wherever I needed him to be.  I will be doing that again this year too.  

But there were times that Caleb would wake up before me and I'd still have this elf in my room and no place for Caleb to find him.  So I devised up a plan for times such as these.

• The first one is to have him hanging from a light fixture or door knob of some sort.  This was my "go to" plan for when Caleb woke up before me and the elf was in my room instead of his hiding spot.  Our laundry room is right outside out bedroom so when Caleb couldn't find the elf, and came to my room, I ushered Caleb out of my room and told him I'd "help" him look for the elf. I told Caleb to look in the play room and I'd look in the kitchen.  I then ran to the room, took the elf and hung him on the door knob in the laundry room, which is right off of my bedroom.  

• Another time last year, I had just ran completely out of ideas and was too tired to think of anything.  So I stuck him up against the wall with the Highlights magazine opened and had the "hidden pictures" page open and the pen in the elf's hand.  

• This year's spot will be hiding in the wreath in our kitchen.

• I have also decided a backup one will be to have both the elf and the dog sleeping in our dog, Scooby's, bed.  You can't get much easier than that. 

• One last quick one will be to have him hanging from my rear view mirror in my car.

While these aren't as fun as the Hershey kisses in the shoes or the Christmas book, it will still give you a break from this elf and it will give you a peach of mind knowing that you have a plan B ready to go for anything that comes up.  And to me that peace of mind is worth a million bucks in my book.

And there you have it....my ideas for the arrival and departure of this year's Elf on the Shelf.  I hope you found it useful, even if it's one idea, I hope it works. I think with a little planning it will be fun for your children and you as well.  

I wish you and your family the happiest and peaceful of holidays this year.  

-Kim

Life of a regular mom....camping with the boys

Hi everyone, and happy Tuesday to you all.  Today's post will not be my regular post of affordable makeup and tutorials...instead I'm just in the mood to ramble a bit....I hope you don't mind.  So here we go with what's been going on in the life of a regular mom.

First up, I'm so excited!!! I got a 100 on my very last computer assignment!! While that news is awesome, I am more excited over the fact that I am DONE with that course.  I think I'd rather go back to Psychology and study that course over the computers.  I am computer stupid, I really am...despite my good grades in the course. :)  I would write to the professor and question the grade.....um or her sanity perhaps, but I'm smarter than that.  LOL  There's my stab at college humor, any good?  :)

Anyways, how was your weekend? Mine was absolutely fantastic!! The hubby, my sweet baby cakes and I took the trailer out to Texoma for the long weekend and had a blast.  They had different things going on at the resort for the kids to do.  There were water slides, golf cart parade, slime making and then there was a band on Saturday night.  We didn't go to see the band because we were all exhausted, but we did take part in the rest of the fun festivities.  But before I get too far, I wanted to show off the new bed set I got for the master bedroom of the trailer. 

I originally found it on Amazon for $90 and I had decided that I wanted it put it on my Christmas list.....I had it listed in my Amazon Cart for future purchases and then saw it was gone from it's original seller.  So I just started scrolling around the web for it again.  I found it on Overstock.com for $45.  I quickly texted the hubs and told him how much it was and eagerly awaited his reply.  I don't have to run purchases by my husband but out of respect and because I'd like the same respect shown to me, I typically will run them by him.  Well, except for makeup purchases....he doesn't need a text every other day I find myself in the makeup aisle.  So back to the set....I had this puppy all set in my cart, debit card entered and ready to hit "submit" for when he text back to say "get it coming our way".  When it came in, he surprised me by putting it all together on the bed in the trailer.  I was smitten with it. 

Okie dokie, so for this past weekend.....Brad (aka: the hubs), Caleb (aka: my sweet baby cakes), Scooby and myself all headed out for a weekend getaway for our Labor Day holiday.  We spent the entire weekend at Lake Texoma.  We arrived on Friday, the boys got there right after Caleb got out of school and Scooby and I arrived right after I got off from work.  Then Saturday my little sister and her two girls came up to stay the rest of the weekend with us.

We had such fun playing on the playgrounds and doing the kids craft of slime making.

We went down to the beach and played in the water and sand all day on Sunday....Scooby even took a dip in the water, which was shocking to see. :)

I kind of get carried away when it comes to beach settings....even if it is at our local lake. 

Like I was saying, it was a bit shocking to see that Scooby even wanted to take a few spins in the water.  But the part that got me was that each time he came out of the water, he would roll around in the sand and would coat his entire face and body in it.  He was a sandy mess to say the least.  I'm still trying to get sand out of his coat.  But as you can see on his face, he thoroughly enjoyed it. 

 We did a few rounds of putt putt golfing during our stay....my nieces (baby Ellie and big sis Abby) were having a great time with it as well.

We also went to the pond and fed a few of the ducks that flew in, and of course as true campers do....we had to make S'mores!!! Does anyone go camping and NOT make smores? Do you consideration camping if you don't have them?  LOL

Now it's your turn....do you consider camping in a travel trailer "camping"? Or do you prefer to do the tent?  Do you have traditions when you go on trips with your family such as smores making?  Tell me all about it in the comment section below.  I'd love to hear how your family's version of camping it.

But that is all the ramblings from this regular mom for today.  I hope you enjoyed a quick glimpse into the ordinary but extraordinary thing we here at 523 call "life".  I hope you will all come back and visit me again here at 523.  I will be back with more affordable makeup tutorials next time.  Until then, take care.

-Kim

Happiness is just a Post-It note away

There's no denying that I absolutely ADORE our son, Caleb.  He is the absolute light of my husband and my life.  I am sure that I could have lived a good and fulfilling life if we had never had children but I am so un-believably grateful that we did.  He was a life changer for sure. :)

I always worry about my parenting skills and whether or not Caleb will be in a psychiatrist chair when he's thirty rehashing every bad decision made by his mom and how it scarred him for life.  I am being brutally honest here, I am scared out of my wits about this.  But for the most part I know that I am doing the best that I can, and I feel pretty confident (most of the time) that I am doing a somewhat decent job.

(this was Caleb's post it notes to me)

I often wonder about how you can tell if a child has a good parent(s).  Is it by watching the parent or is it by watching the child?  I like to think that when I see the sweet and kind actions performed by Caleb it is a reflection of my husband and myself.  I have no clue if this is the case for anyone else or even true, I am just a mom and not any sort of child specialist.  But its just what I see in our son.  Of course with that said, I am blatantly aware of the fact that my beliefs on this would justify that I also agree that anything that my son does that isn't so sweet and kind would also be a reflection of my husband and I.  As much as I hate to admit it....

I have been looking back on this past year and really watching Caleb and all he has accomplished in his little life here on earth.  I have realized that, while I always strive to be better, that I can actually pat myself (and the hubs) on the back for a job well done with our son.  We have instilled in him a belief in a power much bigger than him and us (we are Catholic, fyi), he is so secure with telling us when he has messed up in school, even when he knows that he will be punished for it.  Most importantly, Caleb is accepting and compassionate towards other children and adults who look, act or speak differently than he does.

I love to watch the things that he does and his thoughts he has.  When Santa came this year he laid out all the gifts under the tree and on the floor in front of the gifts he sprinkled little plastic snowflake confetti all over the floor.  (A magical touch, I thought.) When Caleb awoke on Christmas morning he saw the confetti on the floor and decided to clean it up before coming into our room to wake us up.  He said that Santa had made a mess on the floor so he decided to clean it up so I wouldn't have to.  

I don't know what Brad and I have done, exactly, to make Caleb be this wonderful of a person or if its even us that inspired him to be this way.  I sometimes think that he was given to us by mistake because surely I don't deserve such a loving and kind little boy like Caleb.   Whatever the reason may be, I am just so fortunate that I have him.

-Kim