Seeking Imperfection

I love the idea of this hand quilt. Very cute!

I love the idea of a Halloween Advent calendar! Oddly enough, I saw one at Target today for the first time and thought it was such a cute idea. It had a piece of gummy candy in each little box - that part didn't excite me that much, but I was toying with the idea of hiding other things in it.

I want to make some pumpkin rocks!

Very yummy looking - baked French Toast.

I'd also like to try these Faux French Fries.

I like this color mixing activity - it looks a lot like some of the Montessori type water transfer activities I've seen online, but also has a color mixing lesson!

Look at these cool juice box crayons!

Tonight was good.

No elaborate plans tonight or anything, but the evening made me happy nonetheless.

Roland made dinner (he's the cook in our home) and we gathered around the table to eat. This isn't a habit we had at our old house, and I've really enjoyed our dinners together, for the most part. Paige often complains about sitting and doesn't eat, but tonight she slurped up her "yummy noodles" (aka Ramaan Pride) and was pleasant.

After dinner, we cleaned up the table, and all of us, Momma, Daddy, Paige-Girlie, and Aunt Michelle worked on our Unplugged Project. I really enjoyed having a family project.

Then I gave Paige a bath and we used out this new cup thing that Michelle bought to help keep the soapy water out of her eyes. It worked wonderfully and it is the first bath in a long time with out screaming and/or tears about soap in her eyes.

Then she got in her Ariel jammies, watched Charlie and Lola and ate goldfish while I combed her hair.

Sometimes simple is so good.

Sometimes simple makes me smile.

Well, this post is a few posts late, but I started it and kept it in draft, adding to it here and there for a week or so! I'm not sure how interesting it is, but here's my list of 100 Things About Me.

1. I was born in Burlington, VT, but I grew up on Cape Cod, MA.
2. I am a big sister to one younger brother.
3. I was the third generation to graduate from my high school. My mom and grandmother graduated from the same school, although it was a different building when my grandmother went there.
4. I do not like hot dogs.
5. I do not like potato chips, although I will eat them with onion dip, which I do like.
6. I don't really like pie, because I don't like crust. I do like most pies that are made in a graham cracker crust, though.
7. I met my husband on AOL. My best friend, Michelle, "saw" him in a chat room and thought I'd like him, so she talked to him a bit. At the time we used to "talk" to all the same people online.
8. My favorite place to be is at the ocean. I always have this sense of "coming home" when I'm at the ocean. It is very relaxing and peaceful to me.
9. I love to swim - in the ocean, in a lake, in a pool, whatever.
10. I took swimming lessons as a kid and there was a picture of me during a swimming lesson in the paper. I think my family still has a cut out of it somewhere.
11. However, one of my biggest fears is drowning - or dying in any way that involves not being able to breathe.
12. I was a girl scout for many years - up through 8th grade.
13. I had braces for several years.
14. I am afraid of spiders, even though I know it isn't logical. They just creep me out.
15. My friend Michelle and I have been friends since we were in high school - 17 years ago.
16. My favorite color is blue, although as a kid I would say my favorite color was gold just to be different from everyone else.
17. I HATE the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
18. I love office supplies. I like to browse stores like Staples.
19. I used to think that since I like office supplies, I'd like working in an office.
20. I didn't. I worked for seven years doing data entry for a health insurance company, and I hated it.
21. I LOVE working in an elementary school. I love school assemblies, book fairs, and things like that.
22. I love to read out loud.
23. I love calendars - I enjoy picking out new calendars, and love turning the pages each month.
24. I've had a problem with car sickness since I was pregnant with Paige.
25. I don't drink coffee - I've never liked it.
26. The summer before my senior year of college I was in a bad car accident and my car was totaled. I was told that the seat belt saved my life.
27. I always wear my seat belt and am a seat belt advocate.
28. I have no tolerance for drunk drivers. Roland was hit by a drunk driver when he was a teenager, and to make a long story short, his left arm is paralyzed and he's lucky to be alive.
29. I once saw Jack Wagner in concert.
30. I went to middle school in the 80's, but I was very into 60's music and culture at the time.
31. I used to love the Monkees and recorded every episode.
32. I remember being made fun of for wearing my Mom's peace symbol earrings to school.
33. I could never tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi until I met Roland, who had strong preferences!
34. Now I'm a Coca-Cola girl. :)
35. I found my engagement ring in the refrigerator tied to a bottle of Coke.
36. Dolphins are my favorite animal.
37. My wedding ring is a dolphin - it is made out of a dolphin charm.
38. My main requirement for our honeymoon was that I got to swim with the dolphins.
39. I got to be in the water with the dolphins in Mexico, and then swim with them in the Florida Keys.
40. I drove (well, actually rode) across the country from Boston, MA - San Diego, CA with Michelle's mother in a week.
41 I want to drive cross country again - I'd love to do it sometime when I can take as long as I want and stop wherever I want.
42. I dream of going to Hawaii and Australia.
43. I love to travel.
44. I have gone on two cruises. One with Michelle, and one with Roland on our honeymoon.
45. I learned to type in typing class in high school - on an electric typewriter, even.
46. People get annoyed with me because I can type one thing while looking at someone and having a conversation with them about something completly different.
47. One of my favorite TV shows is Friends. I have all of the seasons on DVD.
48. I have been compared to Chandler Bing more than once.
49. We took the Friends season where Rachel was giving birth to the hospital with us when I was having Paige, to play on the laptop. We thought that since the show always makes me laugh, it might distract me from being in pain/uncomfortable.
50. I have always loved to read.
51. As a kid, I used to spend a lot of time in the library during the summer. I used to enter contests to see who would read the most books, and I remember winning at least once.
52. Summer is probably my least favorite season because I hate heat and humidity.
53. Ironically, I have seasonal affective disorder. I hate daylight savings time because I miss the sun.
54. Fall is my favorite season.
55. October is my favorite month.
56. I love the smell of sunscreen.
57. I dehydrate very easily, and often.
58. My wallet has Tigger on it.
59. I've had the wallet longer than I've had Roland.
60. Roland and I have been together for 11 years.
61. Roland and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on September 7th.
62. I have a cat named Fidget.
63. For my undergraduate degree I went to a small college in New Hampshire that since has closed.
64. I double majored in English and Communications.
65. I interned at a radio station in NH.
66. I got into a car accident in Boston while driving the radio station's van. I had to call them and have them send a tow truck and bring me back to NH.
67. When I was in college, I had a radio show with a friend.
68. I have always wanted to be a stand up comedian, but am too scared to try.
69. When I was in college, I used to read my poetry at a coffee house some weeks.
70. I was the copy editor of the college newspaper for awhile.
71. I love to read and collect recipes, but I rarely try to cook anything.
72. I scrapbook.
73. I like to do yoga. I mostly enjoy the yoga class at my gym, but I have a hard time motivating myself to go.
74. I often have months that I pay for my gym membership but have not been to the actual gym once.
75. I like to do suduko puzzles.
76. I have been a bridesmaid at a wedding at Walt Disney World.
77. I have never been very good with math, and math and money easily cause me anxiety.
78. I love learning about different religions and cultures.
79. I love the show, The Amazing Race. I wish I could travel around the world.
80. I have sprained both of my ankles before.
81. I fell down the stairs at my mother's house and sprained them both at the same time. We speculate that one may actually have been broken, although I never went to the doctor. As a result, my right ankle bothers me sometimes.
82. I didn't get the chicken pox until I was in middle school.
83. I didn't get my driver's license until I was a freshman in college.
84. I used to do a lot more writing. Growing up, I wanted to be an author. I haven't written anything in a long time, and I miss it, although I've had a hard time coming up with something (other than blogging) to write.
85. I take my showers at night, before bed.
86. Roland and Michelle tease me about how fast I shower, which is ironic, because I used to have a college roommate who would give me a hard time about how long I was in the shower.
87. Christmas is my favorite holiday, although Halloween is a close second.
88. I think my favorite thing about Christmas is the Christmas tree.
89. I am a pack rat, although we got rid of lots of stuff when we had to put our stuff in storage. I am trying hard to learn not to keep every little thing.
90. I have what I consider to be "OCD Tendencies." Sometimes I'll have to check and recheck things, sometimes several times in a row, like if I turned off a light, or turned off the stove.
91. Weird, quirky things happen to me. Roland and Michelle call it the "Only You Factor."
92. My first job was working at a movie theater.
93. I like video games, although I don't often have time for them - I have played almost all of the Spyro the Dragon games. I even have a stuffed Spyro.
94. I love the Scholastic catalog. One of my favorite things about becoming a teacher was being able to order books through Scholastic. I send the fliers home, but often I'm the only one who buys books every month.
95. I have just started Eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.
96. I tend to be great at brainstorming and coming up with ideas for things, but I'm not always great at following through.
97. I have had migraines (and headaches of other varieties) as long as I can remember. I remember having them in elementary school.
98. I have a Happy Bunny watch and sweatshirt that says, "Cute But Psycho. Things Even Out. (When I was pregnant with Paige, I bought her a onsie at Hot Topic that said, "Cute But Stinky. Things Even Out.") I use cute but psycho to describe myself a lot. Roland usually calls me a "Cute Butt Psycho." I was wearing this watch every day up until we moved to my in laws...I think the watch must have ended up in the POD.
99. The watch I'm using right now has Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas on it, and has a couple of little skulls that move around inside it. Nightmare is one of my favorite movies.
100. I hate moving.

Last week's unplugged theme was sand. Paige loves sand, so I knew she'd enjoy pretty much whatever we did. We actually didn't do much of a project - I just used it as an excuse to try a new product that I thought she'd like, Moonsand. Turns out a little container of it is just over $3, and it comes in a color called Rocket Red. Red is her favorite color and the color of Rocket on Little Einsteins, whom she loves, so that was good enough.

I gave her the container of sand on Saturday morning and she went to town with it. She asked for it several times over the weekend. She seemed to like dumping the container upside down so the sand would come out molded, like a sand castle. She said it was a cake, and then she'd cut the cake with one of her knives from her play kitchen. She loved this game.

I also got a new camera this week, so I played a lot with my new toy while she played with hers. :)

This week's Unplugged Theme was soft. I decided I'd like to try a project that I've been wanting to do with Paige - make soft pretzels. Paige loves playing with any kind of dough, so I thought that she'd enjoy doing that. However, I didn't get my act together early enough to find a recipe and ingredients. However, Roland had some pizza dough, so we made fried dough instead.

The perfectionist in me kept thinking - Fried Dough is a silly project for "soft," but I had to convince myself to let it go - after all, weren't we going to be using dough either way??

Roland helped me with this project. He opened some premade pizza dough - Pillsbury, I think. He gave Paige a piece to play with and told her to flatten it out.



First she made it into a ball, but we eventually got her to roll it out. We don't have a rolling pin here and I couldn't find a can, so I gave her a jar of peanut butter to help her roll it out. :) Then Roland put some sugar and cinnamon in an old spice container and let her mix it up, while he fried the dough. When it came out and was cool, we sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on and enjoyed them!

Not a huge project, but it was fun, and yummy!

I don't remember if I've mentioned Make Something Monday before, but I really like the idea of setting aside a little creative time each week, and I really like this idea too!

These french toast kabobs look like fun!

I've been following along with the Unplugged Projects, just not posting them during my little bloggy hiatus. I'll have to post what we were up to for rough, hot, and cylinder later. This past week the theme was insect.

Paige is like her mom and isn't too keen on lots of bugs. So we went more of the cutsie route, and made a caterpillar project I saw on No Time for Flashcards. Paige seemed to really enjoy this. She helped me use a cup to trace the circles, and tried doing that for the first time. She also tried to help me cut out the circles, although I generally had to finish the cutting for her. She was able to make the P for her name, and then her A came out like an H, so I made a little curve on the top to turn it into an A. She made the I, and together we made the G. She made the line down for the E, and then I told her where to put the the other lines to finish the E. She also drew the smilie face on the caterpillar. She helped me put the glue on the backs and place the circles on the background. I do admit to a little bit of perfectionism, turning the circles the right way so you could read the letters - but I tried not to put in too much more of my input! LOL She also picked out the different colors for the different circles. My pictures of this project came out pretty bad - I'll have to try and take a better picture of the finished project, maybe in some natural light.


Later, I pushed past my perfectionism to try my hand at making a game. It is more or less my idea, but with a little inspiration from this fishing game and a paper plate alphabet caterpillar from here. I cut out a lot more circles, and made an alphabet and number game. I made a caterpillar face on one circle, and then made a capital letter of the alphabet on each circle, so you could make a giant alphabet caterpillar. Then I made another one, using the lowercase letters of the alphabet. I made the uppercase and lowercase letters the same color, so that she could match the uppercase and lowercase ones, and it would be sort of "self-correcting" that way because the colors would match, as would the letters.

For the number caterpillars, I made one that had a number 1-10 on each circle, and then one that had the number word one - ten on each circle. I also made sure the number word that matched the number were the same color, just like the letters. Then I showed her what I'd made, and how the letters and numbers matched, etc. So far she's enjoyed playing with the uppercase letter caterpillar. She likes to put out the letters and we come up with words that start with the different letters. Last time she put them away she made sure the P was on top - for Paige, of course. It'll be interesting to see how she likes these games as time goes on.

A few pictures of the uppercase game:





I was thinking that maybe someday I could make this into a magnetic game with a fishing pole too - we'll see if I ever get that far.

Amusingly enough, as I've been typing this, Paige has been watching Charlie and Lola on DVD. She started yelling, "Mom, there's a ladybug on the tv!" She showed me, and sure enough, an actual ladybug was crawling around the tv screen, so we took a peek at it. It nearly gave Paige a heart attack when it spread it's wings and flew off - I don't think she was expecting that! So much for being completely unplugged around here - apparently even our insects are plugged in!