Today around 5, I got a call from the school that Olivia had a fever and that I needed to pick her up right away.

When I got to the school, poor Olivia was very happy to see me.  I carried her into the big girl class to get Madeline.

On our way out of the school, right there in the lobby where all the moms were congregated, Madeline asked, “Mom, do you have any money?”

“Yes, honey.”

“Oh good!  So we can take Owidia (that’s what we call her at home) to the doctor?”

“Yes, honey.”

So we came home and got some medicine and some Dora on the television.  I went to change clothes, and this is what I found when I came back to the living room.

It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.

You’ve probably already read the “top 10 people to follow” articles, and those Pinners are great – but how do you find the people who like the same things you like?  It’s really easy.  Here’s how to do it:

I love tree houses and I’d really like to have one.  (It’s going to be a challenge because I have no trees.  None.  At all.  But a girl can dream, right?)   To get my tree house dreams in high gear, I can search on Pinterest for tree houses by using the search box in the top left corner.

Pinterest will show me a bunch of tree house pins.  But to find other people who love tree houses like I do, I need to click on the BOARDS link shown here.

If you click on “BOARDS”, you’ll be shown a list of Pinterest boards devoted to your search term (in my case, “tree houses”).  Amazing, right?  These pinners love tree houses too, and I can follow their boards with one click.

From then on, when those pinners add new tree houses to their tree house boards, their new pins will show up in my “Pinners you follow” feed.

That’s it.  With this trick, you can load up your Pinterest feed with the content YOU really care about.

I’ve seen tips on how to do this on other blogs, and I did exactly what they said and it didn’t work.  I took my iPad in to my office, where a ton of brilliant software developers (including iOS developers) work, and asked a few friends to follow the same instructions.  No success.  I cried a few times.

Then, one of my super technical and very patient friends figured it out!  Yay!  These steps actually work, and I’ve tested them on several iPads.  You are now free to pin to your heart’s content on your iPad!  I consider this a major contribution to humanity  

How to “pin” to Pinterest from your iPad

First, make sure you’ve got the Pinterest app installed on your iPad.  Get it from the app store (it’s free), and log in with your Pinterest user name and password.  Pinning through your iPad works via the Pinterest app, so you’ve got to have the app installed.

Next, open this page from my blog in Safari on your iPad.

Next, select the text below and copy it.  Make you get the start with the first “j” in “javascript” and copy everything through the last “;” after all the crazy parenthesis.

javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement(‘script’);e.setAttribute(‘type’,'text/javascript’);e.setAttribute(‘charset’,'UTF-8′);e.setAttribute(‘src’,'http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r’+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());

Next, Create a new bookmark in Safari on your iPad.  It doesn’t matter what bookmark you create because you’re going to change it.  But, remember what bookmark you created and put it somewhere you can easily find it.

Now, in your bookmarks, find the bookmark you just created.

In the bookmarks window, tap Edit, then tap the bookmark you just created.

Now, enter a name for the bookmark.  I used “Pin it!” but you can use whatever you want.

In the URL field (where you see the web address for the page you bookmarked) clear out anything that’s there, then paste the text that you just copied in step 2.

<WARNING:  Make sure you copied and then pasted the entire script.  I had a few tests where the script was cut off when I pasted it, and I had to go back and copy/paste again.  Just verify you have the whole thing in place, or this whole genius plan won’t work for you.>

Tap Done, then tap Done  again.

Now, browse to any page that has an image you’d like to pin. Open your bookmarks and tap the one named “Pin it!” (or whatever name you used.)  A new window will open where you can select the image to pin.

Your Pinterest app will automatically open with your pin, so you can give it a description and assign it to a particular board.  Now, if you’re on Pinterest a lot, you already know that the mobile app is a little janky sometimes.  Real janky other times.  I’ve had it say “could not pin” for no apparent reason, and then pin it just fine 30 seconds later.  So who knows, and I’m confident Pinterest will fix all of these issues very soon.  But meanwhile, working with the Pinterest mobile app requires a little patience.  It’s cool, though.  I love Pinterest enough to cut the team some slack.

Sweet success!!  Dance a jig, spread this awesome news by pinning the graphic below on your Pinterest boards so other pinners will see it, and follow me on Pinterest!

I’m addicted to Pinterest.  As an almost exclusively visual person, Pinterest is the way the Internet should have been for me all along.  So I’m pretty jacked up about it.

I’ve been learning as I go, but I wanted to share how I find what I’m looking for on Pinterest.

Obviously, when you first log in, Pinterest will show you the pins of those people that you follow.  But if you want to broaden your Pinterest horizons, you can search for anything you want.

There are two ways that I know of to search on Pinterest.  First, you can use the “Search” box there in the top left hand corner of your screen.  There, you can enter anything you want and Pinterest will show pins related to your search.

Second, you can click on the “Everything” link right under the Pinterest logo and you’ll see a list of popular categories that you can browse in Pinterest.  It’s definitely a work in progress, and you might get some strange results with both search methods, but I’ve found some really amazing things by accident.

Here’s a handy screenshot to show you the two search options.  If you know of other ways to search, please let me know in the comments.

If you need an invitation to Pinterest, hit me up.

We decided it’s time for the girls to share a room, so we got them some very cute bunk beds.

On saturday night, while they were at their Mimi and Poppy’s house, we set their new shared bedroom up. When they got home on Sunday, we started up a game of hide and seek. They finally got around to looking for their Daddy in the new bunk bed room, and they were very surprised!

Here’s the big reveal:

So last night, they slept in their new room for the first time. I could hear them talking in there on the baby monitor, long after they were supposed to be asleep. They talked about books, their blankets, cupcakes, and birthday parties. Finally, I heard Olivia say, “Night night, Sissy”. Then Madeline said, “Night night, Owidia”.

Jason: Molly, did I show you these pliers I got today?

Molly: groan…. Those are gorgeous. Truly the nicest of all your pliers. And, if it’s okay, thats really all I’d like to say about that.
Jason: by that, do you mean thats all you’d like to HEAR about them? cause if I could just explain the compound hinge system in these… (blah blah plus 5 mintues.)
Molly: Those are very powerful. thank you for sharing this with me. (exits garage, but secretly loves him a tiny bit more.

I’m not even a tattoo girl, but this is just dead sexy.  Saw it on a girl in a diner in Oklahoma.

Turns out, this resume was sent to a software company from that company’s CEO as a joke.  But this shit is funny… 

Don’t ya’ll see how much fun we’d have if I were filthy rich? I’d have these treehouses up immediately. We’d throw an end of summer party, where we’d release a million fireflies. Lots of fireworks. Jason would design and construct a grown up obstacle course, a la “Wipeout”, and I’d get Eric Richardson and Sean Shiplet to do color commentary on the new jumbo tron in our backyard.

Our faces would ache from laughing.

This morning, I took my two girls to meet Nana and my neice, Claire at Hafer Park to feed the very hungry ducks.  Nana has a stash of stale bread that she keeps in a duck tote so her granddaughters can make sure the ducks at Hafer Park have full bellies.

In order to preserve the fun, keep little girls out of the pond, keep big girls out of the pond, and ensure an overall enjoyable experience, there are a surprising number of rules and regulations in effect for this outing.  They don’t really adhere to the rules.  

There are a surprising number of rules and regulations we have to enforce for safety and to preserve the fun. We're not supposed to throw the whole loaf in the pond. Just tear off a little bit at a time, please.

No! We don't eat the stale bread! You're going to be sick. Quit that!

What's, that, Madeline? You're not eating the duck bread? Where did those crumbs on your face come from?

We can count on Baby Olivia to follow the rules. Good form. Stand behind the retaining wall. Don't lean too far over. Throw small pieces at a time so the ducks don't fight. Good job, Olivia.

No no, Olivia! My goodness! You're leaning too far. Get back from there.

No sitting on the retaining wall. No putting a stick into the water. She's testing me, isn't she? That look in her eyes scares me to death. I will be scared every time I see it for the rest of my life. I bet I see it thousands of times. Shit.

No one fell in this time. But since they show total disregard for our rules, something is definitely inevitable. I hope to get pictures of it when it happens.