Throwback Thursday: Birthday

This weeks Life of Bon Throwback Thursday is birthday party.

I have mentioned it before but I am pretty sure this would be better with pictures but I am so old they didn't have film back then. Sorry

I don't have a certain birthday that stood out to me. My mom always had great parties for me. I always felt bad for friends when I would go to their parties because mine were so fun. 

I had a couple at McDonald's. Yes, you read that right, McDonald's. Back in the early 80's McDonald's had birthday parties. They would block off the back part of the restaurant and you could have a party. There were a few games, Happy Meal's, and a Ronald McDonald cake. Yep, they did cakes, too. 

My mom even let me take a couple boys to Showbiz Pizza in Indianapolis one year. I think it was my 13th birthday. I was so excited to be able to take boys with me. My boyfriend went :)

One year I had an awesome Muppet's party. I LOVED the Muppet's!! I even had these Miss Piggy invitations:

By the time I hit the high teens I wanted low key celebrations. Just a few friends and not partying with my parents! For my 18th, I spent it with a few close friends and my parents even let me stay out past curfew!

Sometimes when you are up there in years like I am it is hard to remember specific details about something that happened so many years ago. Hope you liked my lame walk down birthday memory lane!

Just a boring summer!

I haven't blogged in a few days because I just didn't have anything to say.

Summer for me is relaxing but in the process of making it relaxing, it seems boring to outsiders. I don't do much during the morning, my afternoons are spent by the pool, and evenings are spent with the family and/or at Eve's softball games. Boring, right? I don't care if it's boring because I know I only have 10 short weeks to be off then back to to the grind.

On Monday, I babysat. It was kind of a busy day. We picked Xander up from golf, went to the pet store, went home for lunch, went swimming, and then their dad picked them up. The evening was spent eating a nice family meal and watching some Doctor Who on Netflix.

Tuesday was a little more low key during the day. We relaxed, had lunch, swam, and then Eve had a softball game in the evening. Her team lost their first game of their double elimination tournament. This was shocking to the girls because their team was #1 in the regular season, having only lost twice when 2 good players were injured. We play again tonight, if they win hopefully it will lift their spirits!

Central Indiana was expecting rain this afternoon so we opted out of swimming. Eve and I priced some rummage, cleaned the kitchen, did one of our Disney crafts, and now she is playing on the computer while I blog while listening to the Music Choice "hit list" channel on my TV. Xander is, of course, playing video games.

The Disney craft we worked on was our pressed penny tubes. We made some last year, to get the full instructions go here. Last year we used the short tubes because I thought it would be easier and cheaper since I was making 3. This year I decided to use the long tubes. The amount of money needed for the long tubes is $15.50 in quarters and $.31 in pennies. I got the labels here (I printed the big tubes with the 3x5 option on my printer thru Picasa and printed the short tubes with wallet size). I think my next project from her site will be the tip envelopes and the mousekeeping envelopes. 

Both of my kids love Epcot, so they wanted the same label. My mom gets the laundry money tube.

My next "project" for this week and next week is to learn how to use this bad boy:

It's the hubs camera and I am terrified to use it. He tells me all the time to use it but knowing me I would drop it. I am curious as to what kind of pics I can get with it, once I learn all of it's functions.

I am still learning about pic editing for my blog. Recently I started using PicMonkey to help them look better and to add the daisy. I would then add "Mendy the Crazy Daisy" at FotoFlexer. This got old fast so I decided to just use PicMonkey, they have some fonts and I will just use one of theirs, I also shortened my labels from "Mendy the Crazy Daisy" to "Crazy Daisy." I hope that is enough of a label.

I screwed up!!

I screwed up and I am not afraid to admit it.

I booked my Disney vacation several months ago so I could start paying on it and then when they offered free dining I was going to call back in to change my reservation. We have been going to Disney over fall break for the last 4 years. My kids love it and we always seem to get a "free dining" flyer in the mail (like last year here). Usually when I get the flyer is when I call to book but this year I thought I would book early, stupid on my part. All of my friends have received flyers but not mom and I. I have called Disney twice over the last few weeks to see if their was a PIN attached to our names and there isn't :(  Does their computer recognize that we are already booked so they aren't sending us one? That's my guess!!

The part I hate is that I now have to wait until they offer it to the public. By that time some of the resorts could be booked for the promo. I don't want to lose our resort. We are so excited to stay at Port Orleans Riverside, they have that cute little murphy bed that Eve is wanting to use in the worst way. 

Hope for the following for me:

1.  I get my flyer soon with my PIN code 

OR

2.  They open the promo to the public soon AND they have my resort still available OR

3.  There is a moderate resort available that we will like

I guess only time will tell!!

It's the little things that crack you up

The little things always seem to crack me up. Whether it's something funny someone said or they did, I can't stop laughing.

My poor sweet doggie gets stuck under the couch sometimes. He barks and growls until we lift the couch up to help him get out. I'm sure he goes under there to itch his back and then can't get out but when he chases a ball under there he has no trouble getting out. He woke me up from a nap the other day by barking, he was stuck again!

I have a friend that has kids named Ireland and London, both very cute names. She said if she ever had another baby she would give it a country name, too. Please tell me you get the humor in this!!

I have a friend that calls this woman Geneibee. I'm pretty sure they put her name on the screen every time she is on TV.

I have a co-worker, who is a smoker, but when offered a soda she replies with "no thanks, I don't want all those chemicals in my body." Seriously crackin' up.

This commercial cracks me up every time I see it. I end up saying "hump day" over and over again for hours!! Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike....

It cracks me up when bloggers don't have a way to follow them on their sidebar. Seriously? If I read your blog and decide I want to follow you what am I supposed to do? Usually, I just leave without following.  I realize I am not an awesome blogger but I do have several ways to follow me on the tippy top of my sidebar so it's your first thought to click one of those buttons!! This is one of the first things I learned when I started blogging.


And because you should always find time to laugh at yourself, I have been the biggest idiot of the week. My dog has been itchy and so I found out that I can give him Benadryl. I had some liquid Benadryl in the cabinet so I researched how much I could give him. Armed with that, I set out to figure out what to mix it with. He doesn't like peanut butter so I had some other ideas. I tried applesauce: NO, ketchup: nope, lemonade: NO, water: NO, milk: NO!! WTH?? He's a dog, he eats from the trash and litter box but won't eat some stupid liquid with a little Benadryl in it. At dinner that evening I decided to try queso, because he LOVES cheese. Winner, winner chicken dinner. He took his medicine and it helped a little. The next morning I tried the same thing, he sniffed it and walked away. What was I to do? After sitting and thinking about it is when the dumba** part comes in. I remembered that I had 2 freakin' cans of dog food from when he was sick and wouldn't eat hard food. Of course, I gave him a big spoonful mixed with the medicine, he practically licked the bowl clean, and took a nice itch-free nap. Why didn't I remember that the day before, if I would have it would have made my day a lot easier. Poor puppy, mommy's an idiot!!

Throwback Thursday: Elementary school crush

It's time for The Life of Bon's Throwback Thursday Link-up. This week it is Elementary school crush.

I, of course, had several elementary school crushes. The main one for several years was Rich* (name changed). He was soooooo cute, quiet, and clean. Even at that age we look for clean, haha. I remember inviting him to my birthday party in kindergarten and he didn't come. I was so sad. I asked him why he didn't come and he said he didn't go to girls birthday parties. Later I found out that he really didn't go to girls parties. I think it was a shy thing because he was super shy. I think his shyness was part of the appeal, he had a majority of the elementary girls crushing on him but he never had a girlfriend. He ended up dating some girl in junior high and are STILL TOGETHER. I guess he only wanted 1 girlfriend. 

This crush lasted until junior high, when our 4 elementary schools combined into 1 junior high. With the addition of 3 more elementary schools brought the addition of several more boys for me to crush on. I moved on and never looked back.

The funniest part of my whole story is that his son is in the same grade as my daughter and he is JUST LIKE HIS DAD, cute, quiet, and clean.  My daughter thought he was the cutest thing in kindergarten (funny how history sometime repeats itself). We went to their house one day when she was 5 and asked me where we are going. I knew if I said the parent's names she would still ask so I said "we are going to Billy's* house." She answered in a fascinated voice with "Billy, really?" like we were going to Brad Pitt's house. She talked about that trip for days. Since she is now 10, I think she has moved on as well. She did mention one day last year that she didn't think he was cute anymore because he talks too much. I guess he isn't like daddy after all. 

Hope you have enjoyed my 2 stories of 2 generations of crushes. I'm sure pics would have been great with this post but I couldn't find mine or Eve's yearbooks from kindergarten, they must be packed away somewhere.

DIY hair ties

My daughter is going through the ponytail stage. Every day, a ponytail. Even though it is driving me crazy, I support her decision to be who she wants to be which means buying unlimited hair ties. If I don't keep her stocked up she steals all of mine :(

I decided to start making my own after purchasing some at Justice. The ones I bought were super expensive (because it's Justice, of course) and naturally they were all "lost" pretty quickly, as hair ties usually are.

I searched around and found this seller on eBay and I bought 8 yards of 5/8" neon colored fold over elastic for $7.60. Their site says that it will glow under a blacklight, super fun!

2 yards each of neon green, orange, yellow, and pink

DIY Hair tie:

Step 1: cut elastic 9 inches long

Step 2: fold it over, shiny side out

Step 3: tie it in a knot

Step 4: trim the ends at an angle and you get your finished product

Pretty simple, right?

The headbands are the same instructions except you cut it at 19 inches, a little more or less depending on your head size.

Out of 8 yards of fold over elastic I got 15 hair ties and 8 headbands. Pretty good for less than $8.

Here is the length comparison with a hair tie and headband.

Here are the finished colors.

This is a super cheap and easy DIY that both you and your daughter can do. Eve did have a little trouble tying the knots so I did the knots while she cut the elastic.

New front door

One of the projects that we did this weekend was to paint our front door.

It was painted red several years ago and although I loved the color, I was ready for something new.

I wanted something bright and different so I gave my family some blue options. They chose the blue they liked best, which we call Tardis Blue because it reminds us of Doctor Who's Tardis. It is actually Valspar "Deep Space" at Lowe's.

The hubs and Eve got busy painting and here is what our process looks like:

I never buy drop cloths, I use old sheets!

Now side by side:

I decided I wanted the white window frames painted this time and I am glad I did. I will tell you though, that they are plastic and the paint had trouble sticking. Looking back we should have primed them first.

 We love how it turned out. The color is so bright and changes the appearance of our front porch. It's amazing what a little can of paint can do to change how your house feels and looks. 

 I made the wreath a few months ago, you can find out how to make it here. 

Mesothelioma

I was contacted recently by Heather to ask if I would share her video about her battle with Mesothelioma. 

I responded with a quick "yes!" I will tell you why:

In the fall 2010 my father, then 78 years old, was feeling "under the weather." He was tired a lot and just not quite right. In December he started getting severe low back pain but he just thought it was his age. January 2011, the pain got so severe that my mom took him to the ER of our local hospital. They were more concerned that he had taken a Lortab for his severe pain and thought he was a drug seeker so they didn't do much. Two days later, he couldn't stand or sit with out severe pain so my mom took him to the same ER. They were still concerned about his Lortab use but did a CT scan anyway. They told him that he had a colon blockage and he just needed to have a bowel movement. Another 2 days go by and the pain is worse (after using the bathroom) so my mom drove him 40 miles to another hospital, they did a scan immediately and found several lesions. Most were in his bones. He did have some in his lungs (he has never smoked, even cigars). They were most concerned with the ones on his spine because they were close to his spinal cord. They did a biopsy and it came back as a rare form of sarcoma usually only found in children. 

His surgeries started in mid-January. They did surgery on his spine to try to get the lesion off to at least make him more comfortable. Over the next 2 months he had several surgeries. When March hit so did his first chemotherapy treatment, which threw him for a loop. We are not sure if it was the chemo, his age, his weight (approx 140 pounds), or the combination but he was in the hospital for 1 month after only 1 treatment. He got to go home in April after having treatment #2. Sadly on May 12, 2011 his heart stopped and due to him being so weak, they were unable to revive him. 

These last 2 years have seen my mother battle the US Government. My dad served in the US Navy in the 1950's and was on a naval ship. After several physicians (family physicians, oncologists, and pathologists) reviewed his medical records they have determined that his primary cancer site was his lungs and that it was mesothelioma. We have read several medical reports that listed the asbestos and chemicals on his exact ship and it has been determined that that is more than likely where the cancer came from.  Hopefully some day this whole situation will all be cleared up. 

I told you my families story so you could understand why I think it is important to share Heather's story. She is trying to bring more exposure to this awful cancer and I will gladly help her. Here is Heather's story:

You can check our her website here to see what you can do to help.

OMG Confessions

OMG, I use my Comforts of Home bean pot more for desserts than food. Is that bad?

There's fudge marble cake in there right now!

Hey large women with large breasts at the convenience store, OMG wear a freakin' bra with that tank top. No one wants to see that crap. (Disclaimer: I am a larger girl and my twins are ALWAYS held in place with a bra).

OMG, people stop texting and calling me at 8am. It is my summer break and I want to sleep in!!

OMG, I FINALLY remembered to label my pictures and I figured out how to make them look better. It's about time!!

OMG, something is beeping in my house and I can't find it!

OMG, my allergies are KILLING ME!!

OMG, I only have 129 days until my Disney vacation.

OMG, I love Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.

OMG, yesterday was my 15th wedding anniversary!! I guess since we have made it 15 years, I will keep him for another 15 :)

OMG, thank you Lord that my teenager doesn't post stupid things on Facebook like "inbox me a number and I will rate you" or "inbox me if you think I'm cute." He also doesn't do selfies!!

OMG, the house is so quiet when Eve isn't home.

OMG, my mom just got lost going out of town to someplace we went every year for my childhood! I even programmed the TomTom for her and she still got lost.

Although I think Adam Levine is super hot, OMG his voice is AWFUL!

Throwback Thursday Link-up

I have decided to do a link-up with The Life of Bon, it sounds like a fun one: Throwback Thursdays.

This week's throwback is a memory of learning to drive, your first car, or early driving days. 

Seeing as I was 16 so long ago that I learned how to drive on a Model-T, I don't have any pics of my first car (did they even take pictures back then?). My mom might have pictures of it but I'm sure they are in storage somewhere and this link-up needs done this week not in 2014. 

Here is the story of my first car:

My first car was a 1986 Plymouth Duster. Just so you will be jelly, I found this picture on the internet:

Freakin' sweet right? Mine was gray (severely faded on top) and had burgundy interior. I turned 16 in April 1992. I got this awesome car in October 1992. Sadly, it only lasted until January 1993. I was so excited to get a car that I drove everywhere. I always volunteered to be the driver. The problem with the car is that it would NEVER start. I could go somewhere and I would spend FOREVER to get it started back up when it was time to leave. My most influential memory of it was, a friend and I took my car to a school dance. We got bored and decided to leave the dance early to go cruising in town, haha. We left early but by the time the stupid car started the dance was over. I complained to my mom and said "I was the first one out of the dance and the last one to leave the parking lot." She thought that this was so funny that she still says it.  I do have lots of good memories in that car. One memory is that every time it would freeze outside my door locks would freeze and I would have to crawl through the hatchback to get in my car, which would not be fun now but was hilarious when I was 16. After only a couple of months my dad finally got frustrated that I didn't have a safe car so we traded it in and I got a 1987 Chevy Cavalier (which was an awesome car). I didn't miss my poor little Duster because the Cavalier had a removable sunroof!!

Hope you have enjoyed my pathetic first car story. 

Hop on over to The Life of Bon to check out some other bloggers links.

What I love about summer

There are a lot of reasons to love summer, swimming, sunshine, no school/work, long lazy days, etc.

But I love summer for another reason: I have no idea what day it is. This conversation actually happened at my house last week:

Xander: Mom, what day is it?

Me: I don't know, Wednesday?

Xander: No, I mean the date.

Me: I don't know, June?

Needless to say he was frustrated. Looking back I should have told him to just look at his phone, which is a main reason to love smartphones because you always know the date and time.

Another thing I love about summer: I go on a makeup and straightener strike. It may sound silly and if I go someplace nice I will wear makeup and straighten my hair but why not? It gives my hair 10 weeks without the straightener, which will help not damage my hair any further (cuz let's face it that straightener is our hair's enemy!). As for the makeup, I don't care if I frighten small children, my face just needs moisturizer and sunblock so it can help be healthy, as well. 

What weird things do you love about summer?

Father's Day gift idea

It's time to make Father's Day gifts!!

Mine was pretty simple to make. My hubby LOVES gummy bears. My husband eats gummy bears like its the zombie apocalypse and he won't ever be able to eat them again. I'm pretty sure when the zombies attack, he will be driving across the country like Woody Harrelson looking for not the last Twinkies but the last Black Forest Gummy Bears. Seriously, our local convenience store can't keep these things in stock. We will all gladly tell you that Haribo is overhyped and too tough!

The problem is that most gifts I found on Pinterest were of gummy worms. This father won't eat worms only bears. So, I had to use my imagination to come out with an idea. 

I bought the bears in a 3lb bag at Marsh Supermarket for $5.99. The jar was $3.99 at TJ Maxx, it came with the cute little chalkboard sticker on it and 2 pieces of chalk.

Here is the finished product!

Here is the cute tag I made for it on Picasa. (The border came from here). I used some yellow ribbon to hold the tag on. 

It says "We Love You Beary Much Happy Father's Day"

After I put the gummy's in the jar and wrote "Dads Treats" on the jar, I decided it would be super cute next to the dogs treat jar which is where it will live once he opens his gift.

Pretty sure that in our house these bears won't last very long and I will be driving out of town weekly to refill the jar. Maybe I should order a case from Amazon!

Organizing the kids bathroom

I took some time to organize under the bathroom sink in the kids bathroom.

I used to store all of the twin sized sheets under the sink and then had a basket on the sink to store things like deodorant, hair gel, saline, etc. This worked but it's a lot of clutter. I decided to put all of the twin sized sheets with my queen sized sheets after down sizing. I had tons of both sizes but some pieces were missing. Why was I keeping partial sets? I took the partials to the garage to use as drop cloths for painting and/or shop cloths. 

I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 2 baskets, different colors, and got little tubs that were 3 for $1. Eve's basket has deodorant, fingernail brush, dental floss, acne cream and Noxzema wipes (in the little tub), and a cup with her toothbrush and toothpaste in it. When going through the cabinet to find cups to use for rinsing, I couldn't find 2 alike that I already had and liked until I ran into the boot cups from the Dixie Stampede, haha. Xander's basket has hair gel, body spray, deodorant, saline, contacts case, dental floss, acne cream and Clearasil wipes (in the little tub), and his boot cup with his toothbrush and toothpaste in it. 

Now for the inside of the cabinet doors, I put their travel bags. We keep Eve's packed with a brush, travel toothbrush, travel toothpaste, and a glasses case for sleep overs. I have kept these on a hook on the back of the bathroom door for a long time but it just didn't look good so I bought 2 hooks and hung them on the inside of the cabinet doors. Now they are out of the way but still handy for when we need them quickly.

Now for some pics:

Before: top of sink, see that annoying basket!

After: no more basket!

Before: under the sink with all the sheets.

After: Xander on the left and Eve on the right. Much neater now!

Eve's travel bag

Xander's travel bag.

That look's so much better. Now to get the bathroom repainted and looking prettier and neater!