[ NEAT FREAK!!! ]

sooooooo... i have been untidy all my life. i walk into a place & create a mess! i won the 'messiest desk' award at work, it's my creativity! a brain can't be creative & tidy... well that's my excuse & i'm sticking to it!! now... add 2 young boys, a husband, a dog, 2 cats, a bird & fish to the mix & why am i surprised that it isn't any better!!!! i would really like to get organized, i don't want one of those houses where when i sit on the couch & try to make myself as small as possible because i feel like i'm making the place look untidy just by being there ~  well lets face it even if i did want that it would NEVER happen! i came across a local 'organizer' online & got quite excited! my friend, jackie, said save your money, she'd help me ~ i'd love that but i'm scared we have a big 'girl fight', hair pulling & screaming, over what i should throw away. [ whenever i think about women fighting, which isn't that often, it's always in the 70's, so maybe we should be wearing flared catsuits & flicked back hair...] when my mum came to visit me, i asked her to help me declutter. (everyone in my family is SUPER tidy... except me) i'd read that when you go through clothes you should bag up what you don't want & put them straight in your car to take to the donation drop off. i did that but couldn't sleep that night, thoughts of what my mum had bagged were racing through my head. before my mum got up the next morning i'd gone through it & pull some things out... it took about 3 months to not be stressing over one pair of baby trousers i'd got rid of... when we talk about people being tidy everyone mentions OCD... but i looked up the definition & i have it!!!!!! extensive hoarding!! how do i change that to have a pinch of the tidy stuff? i'd like to think that once i've got things sorted they'd stay like that, i need a system, i'm just clueless how  ~ i just must have been having coffee when they gave out this kind of info. soooooo... i love to hear all your de-cluttering, organizing, tidying tips please!! the best books you've read, ANYTHING!! maybe we'll all get something out of this! you can do it anoymously if you like, but please be nice :) here's some of things that bamboozle me! what on earth do you do with: ~ all your old greeting cards? (i keep mine in a box!) ~ odd socks, where on earth do the other ones go? (i keep these in a box!) ~ bills... & papers in general! (i keep mine in a box! ~ i'm sensing a pattern here...) ~ most of the stuff i put in boxes breeds. ~ keep the shoes tidy? you get the picture!!! jackie... just say the word ~ i'll dig out my curling tongs! i emptied out my bag the other day... as you can see i have all the essentials!! including the 'must have' acorn...

[ pass the popcorn... ]

sooooooo... my husband, mike, & i decided to take our boys to the cinema between christmas & new year. mike read reviews. gulliver travels, we decided, would be a bit old for them, sadly, as it's starring jack black ~ who is on my top 25 people that i wouldn't mind getting stuck in a lift (elevator) with!!!


to tell you the truth there wasn't a lot to choose from... we went for 'tangled', a disney adaptation of rapunzel. of course lets see it in 3d, 2 adults, one 3 year old & a 5 year old please ~ that will be $54. sorry i thought you said $54! oh you did!!! do i sound like a really old person complaining about cinema prices??


so we settle in to watch & i have to say i really enjoyed it, i even shed a tear behind my 3d glasses! basically the queen is going to have a baby (rapunzel) but is very sick & needs the power of a golden flower to survive. this crazy lady has been hiding the flower because she's using it to keep her young. but it gets found, cures the queen & the flower's power is now in rapunzel's hair.


the crazy lady tries to cut some of rapunzel hair but when cut it dies & won't grow anymore... so she kidnaps the baby, locks her in a tower & uses her hair to stay young blah blah blah.


in the end rapunzel has fallen in love with a guy who got in the tower, the crazy lady stabs him & he's going to die... rapunzel promises that if she can heal him (her hair heals too) she'll let her stay young & remain her prisoner forever...


but just before rapunzel gets to do this, the guy cuts off her hair, so there's no power left...


the reason i'm telling you all this is because mike and i spent a long time after the movie 'discussing' this (& we still don't see eye to eye on it!!!)


i said it's a shame he cut off her hair before she healed him.


mike thinks that that wouldn't be right because she had made a promise to the crazy lady....


yes but that promise is to someone who had her locked up in a tower for 18 years!!! & once her hair was gone the old lady wouldn't need her anymore.


i can't believe how long we discussed this for!! how we are both adamant that we're right & that i'm now blogging about it!!! not to mention the reckless way he cut her hair (it won't grow anymore) ~ so she's stuck with that 'do' forever...

[ elf on the shelf ]

sooooooo... first of all i can't stop myself saying shelf on the elf, it's driving me nuts!!!! my friend, jackie, has 2 elves on the shelf & when she explained how they worked i kind of fell in love with the whole thing!!

here's my version... basically they watch you & report back to santa. you can talk to them & they get moved around the house (by adults) & i think there's a book that comes with it too.

i went online to look at them & to tell you the truth i couldn't see any i liked...

this morning oscar & flynn were in our bedroom & flynn asked who that was on my shelf. i told him it was yoda. (it was a pre-kid present to my husband, mike, who loves star wars).

oscar asks if he is king of the elves? i quickly thought 2 steps ahead & said yes... & that he's watching you guys to see if you're being good.

this is such a magical age!! they TOTALLY believe!! it's wonderful!!

so i have been moving yoda around the house today... the boys are just amazed by the whole thing!! when he's not where they last saw him they search & then start yelling with excitement, i've been chuckling to myself all day!!

oscar swears he saw him walk a little!! the only thing is it's freaking me out a bit!! oscar keeps asking me if i can see yoda behind him... & then thought he saw him behind me!!

so yoda is our elf on the shelf!!

'good relations with the wookiees, i have.'

[ gobble gobble! ]

sooooooo the teachers & kiddies did a fantastic job, very very proud!! pass the tissues!!

[ can anyone hear me? ]

sooooooo... I'VE LOST MY VOICE!!!! [ has anyone seen it??? ] but seriously i have ~ this has never happened to me before. yes i've had colds & sore throats that have affected my voice but never like this.  i have to yell to get even a pathetic whisper sound out..

it was pretty bad for a couple of days ~ then absolutely no sound... :(

as thanksgiving was coming up i thought i best go to the dr's as if i do need antibiotics i'd rather get them sooner than later ~ i mean what's the point of prolonging the suffering?

the dr said it's better to try & talk normally instead of whispering... you think? i wanted to say 'listen lady I AM NOT WHISPERING, I'M YELLING' because I was!

anyway she pronounced laryngitis & that was that... no magic pill, just ride it out...

i have to say not having a voice is like having a power cut... you keep forgetting & constantly try to 'turn on the light' or in my case 'answer the phone' then get hung up on because no-one can hear you!

people react really weirdly too... a lot of people want to ask a million questions & the last thing you want to do is talk! or they think you are stupid & talk to you really slowly... or they start yelling at you!! THANKS!!

I found this GREAT butcher - but that's a whole other blog right there, they couldn't hear me so i was having to write things down... one butcher wrote me a note back, thinking I was deaf too!

i can't believe how much I take my voice for granted! the boys were playing up, fighting mainly, so i was trying to stop them without any voice... mmmmm that worked not! after about 20 attempts i just yelled! nothing came out but ~ then 'chewbacca' type noises ~ in random volume! the kids just looked at me as if i was nuts!!! for about 2 hours after that episode i had NO sound at all... i think i set the healing back a week :(

after a whole day of this i began to stop fighting it & started to accept, or surrender to, what was going on. the only thing i was really scared of was what if one of the boys ran out in the road (not that they ever do that) & i'd yell & be mute ~ like one of those crazy horrible dreams.

skype chat is great! no one knows anything is wrong...

hey voice ~ i miss you!! come back soon please!

[ can someone let james brown in...? ]

 

sooooooo... this is how james brown (one of our rescue cats) lets us know he'd like to come in!  he hangs on the door, by his front claws, meowing as if his tail was on fire. we open the door, cat always still attached... he jumps down & then very slowly saunters in, in a very cool manner, like only james brown could!

[ more costen library! ]

sooooooo... i know i've blogged about the costen children's library, before... ( previous post )

but... i can't get enough of this place!! & felt compelled to share my sons latest creations! i'm thinking of making this a permanent spot & for all you brits i'd like you to have tony hart's gallery music playing in your head as you peruse these master pieces!

i do have to fess up though, that i think i get the most excited (out of everyone in the whole library) when dr dana reveals what we will be making after she's read the story! the week it was the puppets i'm pretty sure i let a gasp! hahaha. i wonder how long it will be before the boys won't want to come... so i'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

october 22 2010 ~ monkeys with matching tee shirts

october 15 2010 ~ super hero puppets