Friday Favorites

Both of these videos make me laugh. They are unrelated. Obviously.

Call First.

If you're coming to our house, you should call first.

If you don't call first, we won't know you're coming.

If we don't know you're coming, there won't be anyone waiting anxiously at the door.









You wouldn't want that, would you?

Zoo!

If there's anything worth documenting for posterity, it's Ben's first trip to the zoo, right???

I suggested getting a zoo membership as a Christmas gift for Ben, but Tim insisted Ben is still too little to appreciate it. When one of our friends invited us to go along today, I was anxious to go and see what Ben would think of the whole deal. Plus, I was pretty anxious to get out after being couped up in the house, covered in boogers and snot for four straight days.

One of the things that has really surprised me about parenthood is all the childhood songs I didn't realize were tucked away in my brain. I remembered one this morning and sang it to Ben the whole time we drove to Fort Worth.

I'm going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too
I'm going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

Ben liked my song.

Here he is while we're waiting to get in. Can you sense the excitement?



"Okay, here, you can chew on your sunglasses." Much better.



It turns out Tim was right (as usual). Ben really didn't understand what he was supposed to be looking at. Instead of watching the elephants throw dirt all over themselves, he wanted to try to stand on the wooden safety rails.

Here are Ben and Brayden "enjoying" the meerkat exhibit.

"Hey dude, sweet ride."

"Thanks, man. I like yours, too."



Regardless of the fact that Ben didn't seem to appreciate the elephants (or the zebras, or the rhinos, or the coyotes, or the hippos, or the gazelles, or the flamingos, or the alligators) Bethany and I had a great time walking and talking and soaking in the beautiful 74 degree day (January 6th, WHAT?!?). The perfect weather made me a little nostalgic about living in San Diego all those years ago.



Despite being less than enthused by the wildlife, all the fresh air wore our little boy out.



Thanks, Bethany and Brayden, for a fun day out!

Pinterest Party

A few weekends ago I had my very first Pinterest Party! I sent an evite to some friends who are on Pinterest and asked them to come over and bring the supplies they would need for a project so we could craft together!

I'm always up for crafting. I also needed a good excuse to make this cake:

It was delish. Really, really delish.

After I'd eaten a piece (or two... or something close to that) of cake, I got started on the mobile I made for Ben's room. I found the tutorial on pinterest (via this blog) and although it was a bit more tedious than I imagined (apparently I'm not great at cutting out circles) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.



My Mom had the embroidery hoop, and I already had the ribbon and all the leftover fabric from Ben's bedding, so the only thing I had to purchase was the HeatnBond, which was about $2.50. Not bad!



Erica made a wrapped "N" like this one:



Lauren painted some canvases for her dining room, and LynnAnn made an adorable birthday banner for her little guy's upcoming party. I wish I'd taken some pictures, but we were just too busy crafting!

The party kicked off at 7:00, and I figured everyone would finish up about 9:00. Wrong! We had such a great time (and spent so much time gabbing) that we were just wrapping up around 11pm. As a matter of fact, while we were crafting, the Texas Rangers were on TV losing the World Series in the 7th game of the series, and we were so distracted by our crafting that none of us cried. Not even a little.

Side note: Perhaps if Tim began hosting craft parties during Cowboys games, Sundays wouldn't be so painful for him? I'll have to remember to mention that to him.

In short:

1) If you love crafting, you should throw a Pinterest Party

2) You should have at least one, if not two (or three) baked goods at said party, because, well... why not?

3) Allow plenty of time for gabbing and crafting

4) Make sure you have lots of space for everyone to spread out and work. (I covered my kitchen table and kitchen island with butcher paper).

5) Send me pictures of your crafts. Did I mention that I love crafts? I did? Okay.

Dishes.

This is what our kitchen looks like:


Okay, well not exactly like that, but our dishwasher is broken. I would like to contend that one really doesn't realize how many dishes one's family uses on a daily basis until one's dishwasher is broken.

Tim spent about thirty minutes doing dishes yesterday. I did today's batch while Tim dried. I broke a sweat. I don't know if that says more about how many dishes I actually washed or about the kind of physical shape I'm in.

My hands were getting pruny while I scrubbed dried salsa out of a bowl. The longer I scrubbed, the more sorry I felt for myself and my poor, miserable, desperate lot in life.

By the time I moved on to the coffee mugs, I'd managed to end my pity party and shift focus to what a spoiled rotten brat I am.

Instead of complaining about my broken dishwasher or the cost we will incur to fix it, I with be thankful for:

- The dishes
- The friends who bought us the dishes as wedding presents
- The hot water I am washing the dishes in
- The food we ate off the dishes
- The friends we shared the meal with
- The sweet husband who would dry dishes next to me any day of the week

My Happy Place.

Seriously, what's not to love? Thank you, Pottery Barn, for this Christmas inspiration.

That is all.

Except... I will say that that I don't think November 2nd is too early to begin listening to Christmas music. If you begin singing, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," on November 1st, you have approximately 55-ish days to sing and celebrate, which seems about perfect to me.

That is all.

The Very Scary Monster.

Ben (the "very scary monster") is celebrating his very first Halloween this year!

We attended First Fest at First Baptist Arlington with Mom and Dad. The event kicked off with the Pumpkin Run, which was Ben's very first 5K race!

Mom ran the 5K, too!

Ben spent some time flirting with is friend Ava before the race began.

Daddy and Ben made a great team! They finished the race in 28 minutes, even with the jogging stroller and lots of hills!

In order to ensure that I didn't actually lose any weight as a result of the run, we finished the race and went straight to the food tents for hamburgers and funnel cake. This was the first festival we've attended as a family of three, and as Tim so aptly put it, "What's a festival without a funnel cake?" Ah, one of the many reasons I married that man.

We had a great time, and left with a very tired little monster.

"Cinderelly, Cinderelly, Night and Day it's Cinderelly..."

While perusing Pinterest a few weeks ago, I came across this cute weekly chore list. I pinned the list and labeled it, "Could I and would I keep up?"


Although I'm home with Ben practically all day every day, I'm still amazed and slightly puzzled by how little I actually accomplish in the way of housework.

Inevitably, by the end of the week, the only things I've managed to do are the really crucial things ("Um, Meagan, do I have any clean underwear?") and I frantically try to play catch-up all weekend. My current system certainly doesn't lend itself to relaxing weekends. I really love that this list divides all the mundane tasks throughout the week and leaves weekends for family time. Plus, it seems that splitting things up and doing a few things a day will be more manageable and less overwhelming.

Still, I'm not as ambitious as this list might suggest. For example, I'm all about clean baseboards, but there's no way I'm cleaning the baseboards in every room once a week. I can't remember the last time I wiped down the walls. And vacuuming the curtains seems like an "as needed" chore, not really an "every Wednesday" chore.

I cut down the list and made it my own.


I decided I'd rather tackle chores for the whole house instead of room by room. For example, I'd rather vacuum the entire house while I have the vacuum out instead of dragging it out to do a different room every day. Same with the bathroom cleaning supplies and the dusting.

I'm going to try it this week and see how it goes. Having everything listed on this pretty little sheet makes cleaning the bathrooms slightly less yucky.

If you'd like a template to make your very own super-duper handy-dandy never-seen-anything-like-this-before chore list, Amy made one that you can find here.

Also, when will Ben be old enough to vacuum?

Sadly...

I am at the point in my life where my wildest fantasy now includes a cleaning lady.

Ben's 1st Halloween

This is Ben's first Halloween and I'm feeling tons of pressure to find a great costume for him.

This the scariest thing I can come up with:



What do you think?

Oops.

Dear Mom,

Thanks for babysitting Ben last night while Tim and I went to the movies.

This morning, I found a pair of my underwear behind one of the pillows on the couch. I'm afraid you may have happened upon the underwear last night and decided it would be less awkward for everyone if you just pretended not to see them. I want to assure you the straggling skivvies were simply overlooked when I was folding laundry the day before, and that nothing scandalous has gone down on our couch recently.

The next time I see you, I'll be able to look you squarely in the eyes without blushing, because that's the truth.

Please don't be afraid to babysit for me again.

Love,

Meagan

The line.

I would love to be thinner, but not if it means limiting my ice cream intake. Everyone has to draw the line somewhere.

Suckers

To all of my friends who have taken in a pet because it is good "practice" for having a child: Just wait.

Intruders

It all started last week. While I was working on the computer in our office (read: surfing decorating blogs), Tim and Ben were snuggling on the couch in the living room. Suddenly, Tim calmly said, "Meagan, will you please come grab Ben so I can kill the lizard that just ran across my face?"

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

I ran in and grabbed the baby and Tim took care of the intruder. I'm not even sure how he caught it or what he did with it. The details seem fuzzy. I might have blacked out.

It took nine days before I could sit on the couch without freaking out every time my hair brushed my shoulder. Nine days is a long time to be jumpy. Tim tried to convince me that this was one very lonely lizard who lost his way and ended up in our living room. He had absolutely no lizard friends or family within a mile of our house. I wasn't convinced. Ben and I spend an average of three hours a day parked on that couch while I nurse him. Nurse the baby, and lookout for lizards. Okay, technically it was a gecko, but let's not lose perspective here, people!

I realize that not everyone is as offended by these little intruders as I am, but they completely creep me out. There's nothing cute about them. Maybe it's the fact that they don't have any eyelids. Maybe it's the way they can climb across ceilings, or the way you can see through some of them. Someone once told me geckos can make like a skunk and spray some gross smelling junk on whatever is threatening them. I'm not sure how true that is, but I DO know they can drop their tails when they feel threatened. I've seen it. Ew. Ew. Ew. I don't care how many mosquitos or bugs they eat, they simply aren't welcome in our home.

Just when I was beginning to drop my guard, it happened again. I moved a box in the foyer yesterday, and another of those disgusting (and fast!) little creatures came running out from behind it.

PANIC!

All I could think of was Antoine Dodson. Hide your kids, hide your wife... and hide your husbands.

My first instinct was to kill the thing. Then, it occurred to me that cleaning up gecko guts would be quite a bit grosser than spider guts. I decided to try and trap it in something until Tim got home. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the first two tools I could find. A spatula and a glass pyrex bowl.

I made my way back into the foyer, passing Ben in the living room on my way. I think he either sensed my panic or the impending danger, because he started screaming.

I used the spatula to knock the gecko towards the front door, but after multiple attempts, it kept turning around and running back into the house. Ben and I were shrieking in unison. I pictured the way this would play out and realized that I couldn't throw the glass bowl down on the floor, and the gecko was too fast to catch any other way. I didn't have a non-breakable bowl that would form enough of a seal on the tile floor to trap the gecko inside. I didn't know what to do. I called Tim at work. No answer. DOESN'THEKNOWTHATINEEDHIMSOMETIMES?!?!?

There was only one thing left to do. I called my mom, who lives a block away. My dear, sweet mother wasn't really dressed to leave the house, but the combination of the panic in my voice and my child screaming in the background led her to the quick conclusion that I wasn't handling this one very well on my own. "I'll be right over."

Mom used a dust pan and broom to woosh the intruder back out the front door. She's braver than I am. I couldn't have gotten close enough to use the dust pan. I don't know what I'd do without my mom.

A few hours later, when Tim returned my phone call, my heart rate was still slowing to its normal pace. I told him the whole story. "That's two of those things that have somehow gotten INTO our house in the last few weeks!"

His response?

"Yea, and I killed one in our closet this morning, too."

I'm calling a realtor.