Here is a little picture blog from when Tommy and I went to South Dakota to spend time with my parents.  Tommy and I drove to South Dakota on July 3rd.  It was a pretty uneventful trip, except we had to come back home after we had left as I forgot my nebulizer.  I couldn’t take a chance of being out of state without that!

We got to my parents in time for supper.  We also went to buy some fireworks and shot a few off before going to bed. 

On July 4th we headed out for a walk.  We went for a walk at least once a day, but generally more than once.  Tommy needs to be pretty active.   We stopped at my uncles house on our walk.  He lives two blocks from my parents.   He has an organ and Tommy LOVED playing that!!

Tommy on the piano at my Aunt and Uncle’s house. 

Tommy, Me and Grandma while visiting my aunt and uncle.  Tommy started getting pretty goofy and naughty after this and it was time to leave.  He definitely had more energy to burn off!

After lunch we went to my other Aunt and Uncles house.  They live outside of Aberdeen and we could shoot off our fireworks at their house.  We all sat outside and enjoyed Tommy’s fireworks and chatted.  My uncle took Tommy to meet the horses out behind his house.  It was so incredible and I wish we would have had a camera with us.  The horses just loved Tommy and would both nuzzle up to his neck.  When we were done there we headed to a play at Storybook Land.

Over the weekend it was just Tommy, Grandma and I.  My niece was at my brothers for the weekend.  We went fishing and Tommy caught his first fish, but was quickly bored with holding the fishing rod.

 Wylie park has a kiddle pond for the kids to fish.  There were many little fishes nibbling at Tommy’s line.  You can barely make out that he even has a fish in this picture.

Also during the weekend we went to the movie and saw Kungfu Panda.  I guess it was an ok movie and I stayed awake for the movie!

Over the weekend we also of course went to little bookstore and the library!  You know I have to fit in reading and book acquiring in my vacation somewhere.

We also  tried to make it to the park a number of times!!  The park is only a couple of blocks from my parents home. 

Finally on Monday, Susan and her boys had returned to Aberdeen from visiting her parents.   Tommy could not wait for them to return.  They had stopped over to say Hi on their way out of town on July 3rd. 

Monday, Susan (my niece), her boys (Gracen and Samuel, my mom, Tommy and I went to the local water park/pool.  It was so much fun for the boys.  We spent about 4 hours there and they Gracen was not really interested in swimming anymore.  He just wanted to run and have us chase him.  So time to go! 

We had supper together and then the boys played for a while. 

Tuesday – We took all the boys to watch a play at Storybook Land.   I can’t remember the name of it.  It was about a shoemaker that made shoes for everyone from the Fairy Tales.  The boys all sat so well through the entire play. 

We spent some time walking around Storybook Land.  We visited Tommy’s favorite, the Wizard of Oz.  Tommy and Samuel held hands and headed to follow the Yellow Brick Road. 

The boys found Dorothy and Toto.  She was waiting for us at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road.   This picture took a few tries to get them all standing there!!  LOL!! 

We even found the Tinman further down the road.  We went to Long John’s Silvers for Lunch and then everyone went home for naps.  Later that evening Susan and I tried to take the boys fishing.  That didn’t’ work out all that well.  Gracen wanted to run and try and get into the water.  Samuel’s fishing line got snagged and he lost his hook on his first cast.  Susan ended up taking the boys home.  Samuel was not happy about that. 

 After fishing for a bit, Tommy, Mom and I stop by the park to play before heading home.   It was a nice park and we enjoyed the time playing there. 

Tommy even got me out there playing with him!!  That was a thigh workout!!

That is all I have time for tonight!!  I am getting pretty tired.  I hope you enjoyed the peek into our vacation! 

 TO BE CONTINUED…………..

Jen C

Good Bye to the baby’s nursery.  What a sad moment for me.  I literally cried while I was painting over the honey tree and pooh!!

The first step was to take everything out of Tommy’s room and deposit it into the living room.  ARGH!!  That simply drove me nuts!! The clutter drove me nuts and the added fact that you couldn’t walk in the living room wasn’t helping. 

Before I say good bye to the nursery, I thought I should give you a tour.  This is the Honey Tree in the corner.  I have this great picture I have to find of Tommy sitting as a baby under it with all his giant Winnie the Pooh Characters.  This entire room was painted by hand by my neighbor as a baby shower gift.   Before Tommy was born I sat in this room on the rocking chair for hours enjoying the room. 

Shelf with his Pooh Characters.  Notice the Pooh light switch cover?? 

Mural that was over the crib of Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. 

The coat rack to hang Tom’s coats and bags.

Above the door it said “Tommy’s Room”.  Did I mentioned I just loved this room!!

DURING THE PAINTING PROCESS

The painting started with my little helper.  We first covered the tree up with a tinted primer.  Since we wanted the blue to be very bright we had to use the tinted primer.  It was so incredibly sad to paint this, but Tommy was very happy.  He was excited to have a big boy room!

Here you can see the difference of the primer blue and the final coat which is a very bright blue.  It was my hope for it to be the color of the ocean. 

Tommy took this picture….Mommy’s feet??? 

The final color!!  Now time to move all that junk back in!  Argh that is a huge job!

AFTER THE PAINTING WAS DONE:

Most of the toys are out of the living room.  I still have the three bin rolling cart full of workbooks and things to go through.  The bookcase with the lamp on it is also from Tommy’s room and needs to find a new home. 

Tommy’s bed with his new over head lamp mounted to the wall.  Now he is able to turn off his lights by himself at night. 

This is the corner where the Honey Tree was.  It is now shelves to hold all of Tommy’s books and toys.   I told Tommy it fits on the shelves or we just have too much things and need to donate some things. 

I painted Tommy’s coat rack black.   I am going to find some pirate theme stickers to put on it and clear coat over them. 

The lovely shelf was also painted black.  He has his pirate money bank on it.  When we go to Duluth I am going to this one gift shop that I know has alot of Pirate things to look for a pirate chest and ship.  I might also put some stickers on the shelf.  The light switch plate was changed to look like a slate of rock.  You can’t see it well in the pictures!

As you can see I am not done yet.  I want to buy a bulletin board for above his desk.  I need to buy material and sew curtains.  Tonight I ordered the first of two paint by number murals that I will be attempting to paint on the wall.   I am going to start with the smallest/cheaper one first.  So I will be starting on the Pirate Skull and Crossbone Sign Mural once I receive the transfer pattern in the mail. 

Well I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little man’s room.  Yep, it is becoming a big boy room!   I will take more pictures as I make more progress on the room. 

Happy Monday!

Jen C

I am not wanting to face Monday.  I am wanting to spend my time surfing the net.  I am finding some great blogs and am loving to read them!!  On Mondays I always love to look through some of the Menu Plan Monday posts on I’m an Organizing Junkie.  I have been struggling at what to make for supper, so this really helps with my inspiration.  But I really do need to get things done around the house as I am home today.  

Today, Ashleigh is off so I went into work on Sunday so I could be home when Erik gets home today.   This should be the last day I have to do this for a few weeks.   We have hired a second staff to cover when Ashleigh is unvailalbe.  Billy will hopefully start training this week and begin filling in by Friday.  We will see if his paperwork clears by then or not. 

I will be doing some big time mountain climbing today!  Mt. Washmore needs to be conquered and eliminated.  Yes, my laundry room is out of control once again.  I would show pictures, but it is just too downright embarassing.  Hopefully I will make some huge progress on that today!

TODAY’S TO DO LIST:

Shower and Do Morning Routine – DONE
Load Zune with Books on Tape – WORKING ON
Laundry – WORKING ON
Wash Dishes  – DONE
Revise Erik’s Budget to accomodate the additional staff hours for August
Finish listening to The Gathering by Anne Enright
Scrub Floors  – DONE
Finish Cleaning up Tommy’s Room
Update Kitchen Calendar  – DONE

FUTURE BLOG TOPICS:

Blog Organizing
Getting Ready For School
Great Uses For Composition Books
Calendar Basics
Grocery Shopping/Tips
Book Series for Boys
New Websites of Interest!
Share Pictures of Tommy’s Room – DONE
Share Pictures of Our Trip to SD

Enjoy your day!   I am sure I will be checking back as I can!   Anything to avoid doing what I should be doing seeems to the theme of the day.  

JenC

“Delight in the Simple Things “

JULY 15th

Cub Foods – $40.81
Walmart – $64.15

JULY 26th

Bread Store – $5.15
Walmart – $61.58
Cub Foods – $43.21
Aldi – $ 126.47

JULY TOTAL = $341.37
Avg = $85.00 a week.  

I would like to keep my weekly average to be under $80.00 a week.  Maybe next month will be better.  I am needing to feed Erik, his PCA and Tommy lunch each day during the summer so I should anticipate a bit higher grocery bill.  

I will not be buying Groceries until August 10th.  What I bought today should last until then!

I heard about this website on the radio this morning.  I plan on checking it out some tonight prior to making my grocery list.

http://www.couponmom.com/

Picking hubby up from the airport today!!  We are all happy to have daddy home again.  Tommy woke up crying in the middle of the night two nights ago as he was missing his Daddy.   So Tommy and I will head to the airport to get Daddy this afternoon.  

Hubby is gone on business so I have the whole house ripped apart.  What was I thinking???  ARGH!!   I started by just wanting to put new shelves into Tommy’s room.  Well Tommy has been asking for a while to have his room repainted as it is till decorated as his winnie the Pooh nursery.   He is a big boy now!!   So with a very heavy heart I painted over the winnie the pooh murals on his walls.  They were a gift from my neighbor for my baby shower.  It was amazing.   I was young and didn’t have much money when Josh was born so I didn’t have a nursery for him.  We actually shared a room.  So with Tommy my hubby blessed me with the dream come true nursery.  I loved it!!

I will add pictures later as they are one Josh’s computer and he is still sleeping.  Hubby took my camera to Memphis with him so I don’t have it and I can’t get Josh’s camera to let me upload the pictures onto my computer. 

THE BIG BOY ROOM:

Tommy requested a blue room with a Pirate theme.   So that is what we are doing.  I came up with some great ideas and am excited about completing this project.   One entire wall in Tommy’s room will be floor to ceiling bookcases.  He has a very small room and no storage!   So he will only have a few things in his room now all toys and books must fit onto the shelf system.   And when he no longer in this room the shelves will be my library.  I bought some quality Ikea shelves so that I will be able to use them years from now. 

Don’t ask to see a picture of my living room right now!!  ARGH!!  ALl of Tommy’s toys and furniture are in the living room.  you can’t even walk.  I have to get his room all put back together today.   I am finished painting I think.  I painted one coat of tinted primer and one coat of paint.  I think it is pretty good. 

This fabric was the catalyst to the wall color.  Tommy’s walls are painted the color of the water in the fabric above.  This might cause a problem for what I want to do for a mural, but we will see.  I found this great website that sells paint by number murals to put on walls.  (you can find anything on the Internet, right??)  I plan on painting a treasure map on his wall  by his bed.

Doesn’t that look cool!!  This might be stretching my abilities, but I want to give it a try. I used to be pretty artist years ago.   I might have painted the walls too dark of a color to paint the mural so it might take alot of coats or I can paint white primer in the area I need to put the mural.  I am not sure I will figure that out when I am at that point.  

If the map works out ok, Tommy would like to me paint the Pirates only Sign as well. 

I also want to paint some letter and spell Tommy above the door.  I am going to try to paint something similair to these.  There are too expensive. They wanted $20.00 a letter, which is CRAZY!!

I am not sure which fabric I will pick for the curtains.  I am afraid if I use the blue fabric that there will be too much blue in the room.  I plan on painting his little knick knack shelf black with red pegs. So maybe one of these fabrics would be a better choice. 

What do you think????  

NEW XANGA MEMBER………….

Hey everyone I am so happy to introduce you to my niece, Sus.  She just started a blog and is new to xanga.  Stop by and say hi!   It is so nice to have a niece you can call your friend.  She is a wonderful mother of two little boys and an elementary school teacher.  During my vacation I was able to spend alot of time with them.  I used to care for her alot when she was little so it was so wonderful to see her parenting her sons.  It was so very nice and now I can continue talk with her and hear about the boys!   And she even likes to cook!!!  

Stop by and visit, samnsus!!   I hope she will enjoy blogging and the xanga community!

I am off to pull off the painter’s tape, scrub Tommy’s floors and start putting his room back together.  This will probably be an all day event!  

Hubby is gone on business so I have the whole house ripped apart.  What was I thinking???  ARGH!!   I started by just wanting to put new shelves into Tommy’s room.  Well Tommy has been asking for a while to have his room repainted as it is till decorated as his winnie the Pooh nursery.   He is a big boy now!!   So with a very heavy heart I painted over the winnie the pooh murals on his walls.  They were a gift from my neighbor for my baby shower.  It was amazing.   I was young and didn’t have much money when Josh was born so I didn’t have a nursery for him.  We actually shared a room.  So with Tommy my hubby blessed me with the dream come true nursery.  I loved it!!

I will add pictures later as they are one Josh’s computer and he is still sleeping.  Hubby took my camera to Memphis with him so I don’t have it and I can’t get Josh’s camera to let me upload the pictures onto my computer. 

THE BIG BOY ROOM:

Tommy requested a blue room with a Pirate theme.   So that is what we are doing.  I came up with some great ideas and am excited about completing this project.   One entire wall in Tommy’s room will be floor to ceiling bookcases.  He has a very small room and no storage!   So he will only have a few things in his room now all toys and books must fit onto the shelf system.   And when he no longer in this room the shelves will be my library.  I bought some quality Ikea shelves so that I will be able to use them years from now. 

Don’t ask to see a picture of my living room right now!!  ARGH!!  ALl of Tommy’s toys and furniture are in the living room.  you can’t even walk.  I have to get his room all put back together today.   I am finished painting I think.  I painted one coat of tinted primer and one coat of paint.  I think it is pretty good. 

This fabric was the catalyst to the wall color.  Tommy’s walls are painted the color of the water in the fabric above.  This might cause a problem for what I want to do for a mural, but we will see.  I found this great website that sells paint by number murals to put on walls.  (you can find anything on the Internet, right??)  I plan on painting a treasure map on his wall  by his bed.

Doesn’t that look cool!!  This might be stretching my abilities, but I want to give it a try. I used to be pretty artist years ago.   I might have painted the walls too dark of a color to paint the mural so it might take alot of coats or I can paint white primer in the area I need to put the mural.  I am not sure I will figure that out when I am at that point.  

If the map works out ok, Tommy would like to me paint the Pirates only Sign as well. 

I also want to paint some letter and spell Tommy above the door.  I am going to try to paint something similair to these.  There are too expensive. They wanted $20.00 a letter, which is CRAZY!!

I am not sure which fabric I will pick for the curtains.  I am afraid if I use the blue fabric that there will be too much blue in the room.  I plan on painting his little knick knack shelf black with red pegs. So maybe one of these fabrics would be a better choice. 

What do you think????  

NEW XANGA MEMBER………….

Hey everyone I am so happy to introduce you to my niece, Sus.  She just started a blog and is new to xanga.  Stop by and say hi!   It is so nice to have a niece you can call your friend.  She is a wonderful mother of two little boys and an elementary school teacher.  During my vacation I was able to spend alot of time with them.  I used to care for her alot when she was little so it was so wonderful to see her parenting her sons.  It was so very nice and now I can continue talk with her and hear about the boys!   And she even likes to cook!!!  

Stop by and visit, samnsus!!   I hope she will enjoy blogging and the xanga community!

I am off to pull off the painter’s tape, scrub Tommy’s floors and start putting his room back together.  This will probably be an all day event!  

Want to Purchase???

http://www.organizeitmom.com/grocerylist.html

Check out this site to motivate you little ones to clean their rooms!!

http://www.housefairy.org/

I need to redo Tommy’s bedroom before school starts.  It looks like a hurricane hit it and there is absolutely no storage in it.  It is also still painted like a nursery so he wants to be a big boy now!  Josh and  I are going to hit Ikea this afternoon we will see what we come up with.   That will be my project while hubby is out of town!

This morning I am packig up and heading back to Minnesota.  We have had a very nice visit with my parents are sad to be heading home.  I think we both wouldn’t mind staying a few more days.   I will post pictures tomorrow when I return home i guess.  I never got around to it.  I spent most of my free time reading….

I read three books during my time here:

The Stones Diaries – Carol Shields – 3/5

The Septembers of Shiraz – Dalia Sofer – 4.5/5

Daughter’s Keeper – Ayelet Waldman – 4/5  (This book got me to shed a couple of tears.)

Well I better get busy and pack up my stuff and hit the road.  Later!!!