sittingonanoak

Bookshelve Mayhem

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:30:00 +0000

It isn't all nice and pretty...

Sometimes the girls think it would be fun to make it as messy as humanly possible

In the spirit of "Playing Library" I let them...

They put them all in stacks in alphabetical order by book title...

They wiped out this shelf completely

and when it was time to clean up - they all went back on in classic Lauren style...if you are not familiar with that you can find it posted it here...

It'd Be Nice

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:36:00 +0000

It'd be real nice if you would help me help a real good friend of mine help some real good friends of his....

All you have to do is go vote for this duo that has been nominated for the Academy of Country Music’s Top Duo Award.

The determination of the winner is decided by anyone who votes for the artist.

Their name is Joey and Rory Feek, and their website is www.joeyandrory.com. When you go to vote it will take about 2 minutes...you do have to give your name, email and Zip Code - but I am sure you have done that 1000 times before so what is one more?

Wordless Wednesday

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:22:00 +0000

Much Like Legos...Matchbox cars are not just for boys!

A Heartfelt Apology

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:09:00 +0000

What I learned this week is hosted by Jo-Lynn at Musings of a Housewife

Last week I jumped on this blog carnival to post about some Simple Pleasures...

I had heard a bit on the radio that radio about how the tiniest of things can make your day and wanted to share some of mine. I loved that part of my post. However, after having a SNAFU in the kitchen the night before I added 1 sentence to the beginning of my post without even considering the repercussions of what I was saying.

To back peddle...Let me just say I am NO COOK, I stink...I have to follow recipes pretty much to the "T" or the dinner has NO chance of being edible. I followed this recipe and though I did double the recipe I did not double the salt because at the time it called for 1/4 cup. The soup was too salty and my whole family laughed at me all night long.

We had salt soup.

We plan to eat this soup again tonight cutting the salt to the normal amount and we know it is going to be wonderful. We know this because under the salt we all said the soup would be great without it.

That said, I inadvertently posted that sentence with NO background information and linked to the recipe and then went on to post my simple pleasures. The Recipe came from a WONDERFUL blog that I had TOTALLY forgotten was dubbed "simple pleasures" - OMG - I am such a HEAL.

I meant no harm, I meant no disrespect and I am TRULY VERY SORRY JEN! I love your blog and though it may be hard to believe right now I would never do anything so heartless on purpose.

SO...I learned a BIG BLOGGY LESSON last week...and I will never again hastily post and link before really thinking it through...and you can all call me out if I ever do!

Let there be hope...

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Remember my Word of the Year?

It was HOPE.

I am still doing a whole lot of hoping and praying and feeling and trying and caring and sometimes crying but I can stand up and shout for Lauren today because for her there will always be HOPE!

School A still has Lauren on their waiting list but School B has come through and given us reason to not just hope but to celebrate!

To be honest the ONLY downside to school B is that it ends in 8th grade and we will get to do all this again in just 2 short years...but it is an EXCELLENT place for Lauren on so many levels I can not tell you how happy we are that she can go their next year!

Way to Go Lauren - as always YOU ROCK!

Sisterly Love

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Hailey wanted to give Lauren a "cheer up" card so we wondered the isle at King Soopers - I tried to steer her in the direction of the "friend" type cards but she was dead set on finding a card with a cat on the front...

Hailey ended up with a CAT card. A PINK cat card. A pink cat in a TIARA card. A pink cat in a tiara BIRTHDAY card.

And even though Lauren doesn't like Pink, or Tiaras and it is NOT her Birthday - I let Hailey buy it and I didn't even tell her it was a birthday card...

Then Hailey Wrote on it in the car while we were driving to pick Lauren up from school and this is what Lauren ended up with (edited a bit for safety)

The Printed Card Says:

You're the Birthday Princess

You're the Birthday Star

Everything that's sweet and nice

is everything you are

Hope your day is a Royal Treat...

In Hailey's Writing it says:

Dear Lauren

I Love you

I know you want to go to (School A)

and she drew Harry and Hermione in the middle...

And it is sweet, and kind and a little off on occasion but who cares...

wordless wednesday

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:28:00 +0000

Chocolate Reviews are coming....

(see here if you missed the first post)

When good kids feel awful

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:47:00 +0000

What a week, I tell ya.

Lauren has been marking the days on the calendar waiting for her letters from the schools she applied to.

The letters came today.

They did not have as good of news as we had hoped. Lauren was devastated.

Though she was placed in the wait pool at the school of her choice she felt rejected. Unfortunately the letter caused Lauren to question herself and her abilities and no words from mom were going to change that. What do you do when good kids feel awful? You try to say all the right things, you give them time to "let it all out" and then you try to switch the focus, for a little while anyway.

It is such a difficult and devastating process for so many kids, it makes me wonder if it has to be so?

I don't know, I'm just a mom and I hate seeing my little girl so sad.

UPDATE: I have to add that I am so proud of Lauren - she is a wonderful young lady and was able to recover well, continued with her day, polished off all her homework, played a game of scrabble, wrote a ton in her journal about her journey through private school and her feelings and she is now ready to face the Wait Pool with courage! She has made me promise to drop off the wait pool agreement tomorrow (and of course I will) -

What I learned this week...Broccoli Salt and Simple Pleasures

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:37:00 +0000

What I learned this week is brought to you by JoLynn at Musings of a Housewife

This week I learned that Broccoli Cheese soup can be completely RUINED if you follow the recipe and use 1/4 cup of salt. YES, 1/4 cup - OMG - it was horrible.

I have also spent a little time compiling a list of "simple pleasures" and I would love to hear some of yours! Do tell, do tell...

A Full Tank of Gas

A Sharp Pencil

My Favorite song on radio
Chocolate
Smiling at anothers good news
Cuddling up with a good book
Big snowflakes
Chocolate
A thank you wave from another driver

A Note in the mail

No dirty laundry
Chocolate
Bowl of hot soup

Chocolate

Swinging on a swing set

When your jeans fit

Chocolate

A drink with an umbrella in it

Chocolate

It is organized. For Now.

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:26:00 +0000

Last Monday I posted a bit about the mess sitting next me...I am sorry to report I did not take a before picture but I can tell you that most of what you see here was actually on the floor by my side...

and now it is not. But I can also guarantee you it wont stay this way for long!

DOOMPADAH DEE, If you are wise you'll listen to me

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:46:00 +0000

Ooompa Loompa Doopity Doo...

I have a blog post I must share with you

I received word from Nestle (the makers of the world famous Willy Wonka Candies) that they are launching some Scrumdiddlyumptious New Candies!

As early as March First you can find these mouth watering chocolate bars on store shelves and make sure you are super careful when you tear off the corner of the wrapper...

you could be one of 10 lucky people
to find a GOLDEN TICKET!

Ten WONKA Golden Tickets can be found in WONKA Exceptionals chocolate tablet bars and bags of minis • Lucky Golden Ticket holders (and their loved ones) win a Grand Prize of a trip around the world • Each Golden Ticket Grand Prize is worth up to $40,000 • Promotional WONKA Exceptionals tablets and bags are marked with a Golden Ticket promotion “burst” on the front of the wrapper! Thousands of secondary prize Purple Tickets can be found in WONKA Exceptionals chocolate tablet bars and bags of minis • 3,919 Purple Tickets offer instant wins of various “ticket”-oriented prizes, such as $500 airline vouchers, $50 ticketmaster Gift Cards, $25 movie theater gift certificates, and free WONKA Exceptionals chocolates

Visit

http://www.wonka.com/Chocolate.aspx

for all the exciting details

Equally as exciting (if not more for those who don't love chocolate - wait who doesn't love chocolate?) is the upcoming launch of the new Fruit Candies...with exciting flavors and drool worthy appearance I can not wait to try these!

Wonka Fruit Marvels

Hard candies with soft centers, delicately sugar dusted. Available in Clementine Orange, White Grape and Pomegranate.

Wonka Fruit Jellies

Fantastically flavorful soft jellies dusted with sugar, available in Grapefruit, Red Apple and Goji Berry.

Nestle is going to send me some samples of these scrumdiddlyumptious candies and I can't wait to rip them open, taste them and share my opinion with everyone! Those who know me well, know I LOVE MY CANDY!!!

In the meantime I thought it would be SUPER fun if those of us in bloggy land started our own little Candy Carnival... I will set a up a Mr. Linky on the Candy Review Post and anyone who purchases a Wonka Exceptionals Candy Bar and wants to photograph or video the opening moment, the search for the golden ticket, the anticipation (and probably disappointment) and blog about it can link up! I am seeking a cute Carny Name for this project and am totally open to Wonka esque suggestions!! Let me know what you think!

The Way Things Work

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:02:00 +0000

Just dropping in to tell you this is a TOTALLY COOL GAME!

Lauren and I have played a few times and while we are still in Level One we are super looking forward to the next two levels! The Way Things Work has a funny way of making even smart people feel, well - not quite so smart but the way it is designed and how it is played is so much fun and each card explains the answer (that you probably got wrong) in full so you "get it" and will learn while you play!

So needless to say I am fully recommending this game for any of you curious types with kids above the age of oh probably 8 (box says 10...but I disagree)

I realize that I end up reviewing a bunch of stuff we love on this blog - I decided I should probably start talking a bit about the products we purchase and aren't really very happy with...so next week...Paperoni....

Wordless Wednesday

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:18:00 +0000

Hailey Art...

The Stand

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:20:00 +0000

The stand

You know the stand. The stand that became a part of your life right around the time you had your first child. The stand that shows no signs of leaving your life anytime soon if ever.

The stand is the one you do when you reach the top of the stairs and you stop, and you stand and you stretch your brain to the limit trying desperately to remember why you went up the stairs in the first place.

Or perhaps you stop mid stride in the kitchen while preparing dinner and you stand in confusion as you stretch those brain muscles again trying to recall what you were going to do next.

Today, for me I stood in the garage. At 530 in the morning wondering why in the heck I wondered out there.

Orange Juice. That's why.

So mom, stand, think, and be thankful that the memory does come to you because the day may come where it doesn't and let's just hope those children we are busy raising will be nearby to remind us why we are standing!

So so much, yet so little

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:14:00 +0000

There is so much I could post about today..

I could post about the progress on the Lego Carousel

I could post about Pre Easter stuff

I could post about Safari Sally

I could post about the gigantic mess next to me right now

I could even post about life, love and the pursuit of happiness...

But the fact of the matter is -

I am too lazy to go pull pictures off my camera to post about the Carousel

I am not feeling witty enough to pull off a decent post about Safari Sally

I am still a little unsure about which direction said "pre" Easter post is going to take

The mess next to me is not going to clean itself up just because I post about it

and life, love and the pursuit of happiness....well - no one really wants to read about that anyway.

So instead - I will just say "HAVE A GREAT WEEK" and maybe I will get these posts up!!!

Lego Minstorms NXT meets Science Fair

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:40:00 +0000

After much ado...the final post is finally here...Lauren began work on her Lego Mindstorms Robot back in January - this robot was also to be used for her science fair project due Feb 16th. She had to come up with a question for the project so she wanted to know if the Intelligent Brick called the Color Sensor could create a rainbow and if it could not could it at least detect all the colors of a rainbow?

In order to accomplish this she not only had to build the Humanoid but also learn how to program him and ultimately learn the "whys" once here questions were answered. She had checked out several books from the library but it didn't surprise me much when the only place we were able to find the answers, explained in terms we could all understand was in a couple of my favorite Usborne Books...

Illustrated Dictionary of Physics

Science Encyclopedia

The Humanoid could only display 3 colors so she set out to test the Rainbow theory. Lauren (with some help) was able to program her Humanoid to walk across the poster board and "sense" the colors before he moved on. Since he was unable to sense 2 of the colors she recorded her own voice telling why and programmed that into the robot for those 2 colors. He is not without fault, he walks a bit crooked at times and if the conditions are not perfect he has trouble "seeing" the colors but here is a snippet of Lauren's Humanoid....You might have to turn your speakers on really loud to hear this...

Monkey See...Monkey Do...

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:16:00 +0000

Today Lauren had her salon appointment and after much agony on her part she also decided to chop a chunk of her beautiful golden locks right off...My little girls are growing up and it is so fun/hard to watch!

Instead of rushing home to brush her hair she went to ponder it in the mirror...

Ultimately she is very happy...she had been "growing it out" but now she is not.

and of course it looks ADORABLE on her...

Even when she is posing next to a bag of trash...

and The girls...4 1/2 and 9 1/2 are starting to look a little less like kids,

starting to have their own opinions on what they look like....

and the mom will secretly go shed a few tears in the closet....

Magnetic Mosaics

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:03:00 +0000

One of Hailey's Christmas Presents was this Magnetic Mosaic Set...

It is really kind of fun and fairly self contained. Each of those squares is a small foam block (not intended for kids who might swallow them of course) and the foam blocks all have a thin sheet of Magnet on the back. It came with 20 design sheets that are kind of reminisent of Paint By Number...and you place the correct color block on the correct number and watch a great picture unfold!

Hailey has enjoyed this toy very much and to be honest I kind of like it too!

Big Hair Day

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:44:00 +0000

A while back Hailey started begging to get her hair cut short. I was not real keen on the idea nor was her hairdresser...I even posted about it here.

Well, after several months of listening to her beg I finally decided to cave. I made the appointment a couple weeks ago and listened to her ask daily if it was time yet...during the wait she let loose the information that she "wanted it cut short so she could get it cut more often" (diva in the making I know she just loves the salon)...

I tried to convince her that I would take her more even if she left it long...but failed and I knew the right thing was to let her cut it!

So, today was her big hair day...I snapped a quick phone shot of all that beautiful (albeit wet hair)

Just before she starting taking off a solid 4 inches of those golden locks... It was all I could do to hold back mommy emotion and smile the entire time..

but I did and

the minute we got home Hailey came ran straight up to her bathroom to brush her "new hair"

and ultimately I have to admit, it is pretty stinking cute!!!

Wordless Wednesday

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:50:00 +0000

The otherside of the Science Fair Prep...

Stay Tuned the Fair started yesterday and I should have the final Humanoid Post ready later this week!

Teach our Children Well...

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:22:00 +0000

Whitney Houston said it best when she sang these beautiful words...

I believe that children are our future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Teach them well and let them lead the way - I believe this, oh boy do I believe this.

So I ask you today -

Should we pull our hair out trying to make the environment that surrounds our children safe for them

should we simply teach them to be safe in their environment?

You see, while I agree with the first sentence in this sign - I think parents and faculty should be careful when opening this door...I completely disagree with the second sentence.

Perhaps children should be taught not to run in the halls

Perhaps they should be taught to be conscience of their surroundings

and perhaps they should even be taught to shut a door that may pose a threat to another child...

That said, I will in fact close this door when I leave the restroom because I do in fact want to create a safer environment for the children - HOWEVER, I also think the children should be held accountable for their movements!

Super fun Toy Alert

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:47:00 +0000

So I have heard a lot about these crazy new Bouncy Balls...and how much fun they are. We finally broke down and purchased some to have on hand for an upcoming hopping holiday if you know what I mean...

Then I thought after last years

Talking Easter Eggs

this years find might not be quite as COOL, but I also know the kids will love them!

These have been hard to find in stores but Amazon has two different brands available...it is my understanding that the

Mondo Hi Bounce Diamond Air Ball is a bit better

than the Maui Toys Sky Ball but both are very cool

They all retail for about $10 bucks each from what I can tell...the kicker is that they are suposed to bounce up to 75 feet in the air! They are helium filled and though they may not go that high they are sure to bounce WAY UP THERE!!!

Rounding off the weekend..

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:40:00 +0000

On our final day in Beaver Creek it snowed...

it was beautiful! The girls still got to play in the hot tub...

they also went sledding with Gramps but mostly we stayed inside and watched it snow! We played scrabble and Yahtzee and built with Legos and made beaded necklaces and...

we worked on this puzzle but it is kicking our hineys - we did not finish it and will have to pick it up again next trip!

We also watched some of the Olympics this weekend, the opening ceremony was beautiful! Both girls are interested in watching the Figure Skating and Lauren wants to see some Luge while Hailey wants to see some snow boarders! Hopefully the Tivo will serve us well!!

Valentines Day...But Also

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:42:00 +0000

That is right...if you could decipher today is also Hailey's HALF Birthday. We don't celebrate them but we do acknowledge and mention the fact that we have reached that halfway point. This past week when I told Hailey she was going to have her Half Birthday on Valentines day she asked if she would get presents...to which I had to reply "Well, no. You will get Valentines though!" Then in perfect Hailey style she said

"Can I at least get a Half a Cake?"

Happy Half Birthday Hailey (this is all you get!) and Happy Valentines day to all!

Another fun filled trip!

sittingonanoak@gmail.com (Terra) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:24:00 +0000

Immediately upon arriving in Beaver Creek on Thursday the girls talked Grandma into making a tent to hang out in...

Hailey, being a somewhat gassy child was given some firm instructions on what she could NOT do in the tent...and of course that quickly became a topic of conversation, giggles and false attempts to replicate the action.

The evening was rounded out with some games (after Hailey was already snoozing) there was a game of Scrabble a game of Chess and a game of Rummy...

Friday started out with Hailey's first game of YAHTZEE! Love that game! She rolled and I scored as we played against Lauren. It was super!

We also discovered that Hailey is just as tall as the counters

Then the girls had a little time to paint in the kitchen....

After lunch we went skating...

We tried to go fast...

We fell

We smiled

We got serious

but most of all we had fun!

Right now the girls at at their favorite "fancy" resteraunt with Grams and Gramps...I am sitting home relishing in the silence, putting up this post, updating my ipod, transferring photo files and waiting for them to come home! We have one more day here...I wonder what we will get into next?