Random Facts

I recently read a blog post in which the author talked about a couple of her pet peeves.  She concluded with the question, "What are your pet peeves?"

Each of her posts has, on average, over 100 comments.  I read through the 50 or so already published, and started typing mine.  My pet peeves were different than those expressed by the other commenters.  In fact, I think many of my pet peeves are fairly unique.  I started thinking about what my pet peeves must say about me.

I deleted my comment before I ever submitted it.  I decided that there are much better and more positive ways to express some of the unique qualities and idiosyncrasies that make me me. 

So, rather than tell you everything that annoys me, I thought I'd share some random facts about myself.  I think most of you know things like I'm addicted to coffee, love chocolate, and enjoy crafts of all sorts.  I'm so used to being me that it's hard to pick out what would be interesting to share, but here are some random facts about me.

1. I'm terrified of spiders.  I don't know why.  I just can't stand them existing.  I can't kill them either.  They frighten and paralyze me.
2. I love organization.  I think organized things are beautiful things.  Matching bins, printed labels, and color-coded systems make my heart skip a beat.  Despite my love of organization, I have no idea how to make my house organized.  I need a professional organizer to come in and show me how.
3. I am a rule-follower.  I love clear boundaries and appreciate when everyone plays by the rules.  I have a difficult time figuring things out on my own because I'm so used to following instructions and going by what I've been told.  Most of my crafts are really just me following someone else's directions for a project.  I rarely come up with something all on my own.
4. I really enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, and variety puzzle books.  I do not like Sudoku.
5. I have no idea how to choose my own makeup.  Seriously, am I Buff Beige or Neutral Nude?  Do I match my cheeks or my neck?  And what about the fact that I have both acne and fine lines?  
6. I don't like making phone calls to non-family/friends.  That means I dread calling the doctor, any customer service, or even just to order a pizza.
7. I think DVR is an amazing invention.  Commercials are for chumps.
8. I secretly really enjoy certain reality TV shows.  Others I find so annoying that I can't even stand to watch their commercials (you know, when I'm watching TV live like an animal).
9. I don't like animal prints.
10. My sense of direction is non-existent.  I would not be able to make it outside my city without a GPS or my phone.
11. I can't whistle.
12. After 6 months of exercising consistently, I still loathe it.
13. My favorite colors as a child were pink and turquoise.  My wedding color was "Tiffany blue."  Over half of my house is some shade of aqua.  And I still love this color, no matter which name you call it.
14. I've never been pulled over by a police officer.  I hope I didn't just jinx myself.
15. I would much rather be cold than hot.
16. I love modern interior design.  I also like some vintage stuff.  I really like nearly anything that's classified as "mid-century modern."
17. Anything with strawberries on it makes me happy because my grandma collected strawberry stuff for her kitchen.  However, I don't love eating strawberries.
18. I have an uncanny ability to kill any plant.  I try very hard.  I follow all directions for care (see #3 above).  But plants do not thrive in my care.  This might impede my dreams of someday growing my own produce and having a gorgeous rose bush garden when I'm retired.  I always joke that I only know how to keep children alive, so I can't have plants or pets.
19. Freshly painted nails make me happy.  Sometimes when Jared is gone on a long trip, I buy myself a new shade of nail polish to cheer myself up.  The downside is that my life is hard on my hands and nails, and I can't stand having chipped nail polish.  
20. I hoard things.  Food, fabric, craft supplies, empty boxes, office supplies...pretty much anything that I think I might be able to use at any point in the future.  {Jared's mansion in heaven is going to be HUGE...and free of clutter.}  This hoarding behavior is only perpetuated by the occasional times when we need something and I happen to have the perfect thing on hand.
21. When I'm washing just one load of laundry, I almost always forget to switch it to the dryer.
22. I am a night owl.  I hate giving in to sleep.  Sleep is what pulls me from my independent "me" time and thrusts me back into Mommy World, where I serve meals to picky eaters, clean other people's feces, and work tirelessly to keep my house looking mediocre.

What are your idiosyncrasies?

Jessica 

Marshmallows & Toothpicks

This activity is so simple.  It's Summer List item #69:  Build stuff with marshmallows and toothpicks.  I found this idea somewhere in the midst of my endless hours of searching the internet for activities to do with my kids.  But I have to confess that I can't remember where I first saw this idea (and I didn't bookmark the site).

I bought regular marshmallows and mini marshmallows from Deals, and I found these gigantic marshmallows at Walmart.

I had the toothpicks on hand, but you can buy them at any grocery store or dollar store.

The kids sat at the kitchen table.  I gave each of them a handfull of toothpicks and put the marshmallows in the middle of the table.  I gave them no directions at all, just told them to build stuff.

Nolan made two types of snowmen:

In other news, Nora lifted her 6-month ban on ponytails.  I'm one happy mama!

Griffin kept doing funny stuff with his tongue while he was super focused on building stuff.

Nolan made Joshua and the wall of Jericho:

Nolan said this was a duck in a pond:

Griffin built the Great Wall of China:

Griffin said this was a big fire (the marshmallows were logs):

Nolan said this was Jesus on the cross:

Griffin made the sun:

Nolan said these were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place podiums and the toothpicks were the people receiving their medals:

Wolverine claws:

A sleeping snake:

The snake is awake!

Do you wonder what Nora was doing while the boys were building creative things?  Well, most of Nora's "creations" were suckers, popsicles, or something else that she could eat...

This was super fun and super easy!  I highly recommend this activity.  My favorite part was that I didn't give the kids any direction, and I got to see their imaginations at work.  It wasn't messy (slightly sticky) and wasn't complicated.  We will definitely do this one again!

Jessica

Water Balloon Wars

The summer heat has been killing us.  We recently had our niece Layla over to spend the night.  One a weekend where the temperature was 107 degrees.  And our air conditioner stopped working correctly.

So, I thought this would be the perfect time to put on our swim suits and have some water fun.  I had purchased this container of water balloons at Walmart:

It came with two adapters for filling up the balloons.  I was hoping they would fit on a sink faucet inside the house (not that it was much cooler in there), but it actually only fit on our outdoor spicket. 

This was very helpful because we turned on the spicket and then used the lever on the adapter to control the flow of the water.  This way we could put on a balloon, turn the water on to fill it, turn the lever off, and remove the balloon.

Layla and I were a well-oiled water-balloon-filling machine.  My kids were too young to fill and tie water balloons, so they helped by handing Layla empty balloons and taking finished balloons from me and putting them into the bucket.

My fingers were so sore from tying all the balloons! 

Once we had the bucket filled with full balloons, we started the fun. 

At first, the kids just attacked Jared with water balloons.

Next up:  Water balloon baseball!

And all sorts of water balloon fun.

 

 

We played "Duck, Duck, Goose!" with water balloons.  It was fairly obvious when the person stopped and tried to burst a balloon on the "goose's" head!

Nolan and Layla played catch with a balloon to see how many times they could throw it back and forth without breaking/dropping it.

We made quick work of the first bucket of water balloons, so we had to pause to fill up more.  I made Jared help me tie them this time because my fingers were so sore. :)

Griffin wanted to try something...

Then we got out the hose.  First, the kids wanted a drink.

Then they filled the bucket and dumped it on each other.

 

 

Griffy got into the bucket.

Nora wanted a turn in the bucket, too.  These pictures crack me up.

Then we put the spray attachment on the hose and had fun with that.

See the rainbow?

Finally, we busted out some water guns and water ball slingshots.

 

We had tons of fun, and we were able to cool off.  And we have plenty of water balloons left to do it all again.

I used some of the photos from this activity to try out a few new Photoshop actions I recently downloaded.  Photoshop actions apply a series of effects/edits to your photo all at once.  I love the look of one called "Seventies" that I downloaded from Pioneer Woman.

Here are some enhanced photos of my kiddos:

 

 

 

 

 

We successfully completed Summer List item #12.  I hope you're all staying cool in this summer heat!

Jessica