entertainment coordinator and some movie reviews….

I have given the title of entertainment coordinator to Mr. Strate. He has always chosen what we watch from TV to movies and usually he has done a great job, until now!!  I have recently let him sign up for Netflix, I am now wondering if this was a good idea. Not due to anything on their end, their process is flawless and speedy but due to the fact that they have anything you could possibly want to watch I have been torched with a few of the worst movies on the planet, ok maybe not that bad but I am going to warn you.

First up, the Informant with Matt Damon. At first I was intrigued, but this movie is SLOW, Matt is not a hottie in this show and we turned it off half way through. This was  a first for us but I just couldn’t bear it. Mr. Strate said, now I know why they gave it ONE star!!! I just glared.

Next, Bad Lieutenant, Nicholas Cage, BAD from the beginning. The whole movie is about him doing coke and having “S” I am not prude but this was over the top!!! Again we turned it off half way through.

Last night, Gerry, again Matt Damon (I think Mr. S may have a man crush) a second Damon film in three rentals?? Anyway, 20 minutes into the show the only thing that has happened is two guys are driving, to where, I have NO idea. They start walking, where? no idea? and there has only been about 10 words exchanged the whole time and I have no idea the characters names.  A THIRD time we turn it off, this time not even half way through. I asked my husband why he rented this, he said because I have already seen it and wanted to see what you thought?? Are you serious! I may finish it just to see what he is talking about but  I will let you know.

*** Mr. Damon if you happen to stumble across my blog, can you make a movie that you are still a hottie in, isn’t to artsy and will hold my interest? Because I do love you. And to the blogging world, take these three movies OFF of you Netflix queue.

what do you think??

Have I mentioned that I am a tad OCD? Well, I am and going back to things that bother me about our house, this is in the top five.

our chandelier…

this is a fine chandelier but this my friends is the chandelier of my dreams…

(photo courtesy of Pottery Barn)

at the time of our remodel I had made so many of the decisions (mostly because of the OCD) that when it came to lighting I let Mr. Strate have the final choice.

So the question is, do you think I could marry the two together by replacing the glass with the mini lamp shades and keeping the existing body or would it be too much?

I found some inexpensive shades at the local hardware but I think if I am going to change them out I will splurge and get the one’s like my dream chandelier. But at least that gives you an idea.

one step forward, two steps back…..

Payne and his bed have a real love hate relationship.

 

We decided that the only way to get him in was to be stern and persistent. He has not been allowed to sleep in Wylie’s bed for about a week now. Each night starts the same way a story to coax him in a little chit chat and then I try to leave. Of course this is followed by a melt down and I give him the choice,  you can sleep in this comfy bed or on your floor. Those are his only options. The first night was LONG, but he did it. The second night I thought was a success until I woke up to check on him and found him in Wylie’s bed, I put him back. Third night his own bed all night, again last night started in his bed but once again found him in his brothers room. Last night he asked nicely if Wylie could come in his room and sleep in one of the bunks, I negotiated that he could come in and watch a movie for thirty minutes. It seemed to help but this is getting old and I am thin on patience. I hope we have success SOON!!

hoWdY, paRtNer!!

Payne was invited to his friend’s birthday party a couple of Saturday’s ago and boy did he have a  root in’ toot in’ good time. As always I was a little over the top and he came dressed as a “real” cowboy, which made him so excited and made him the perfect partner in crime to the birthday girl.

He said that it was the best birthday party EVER! I would have to say it was pretty fun. They played pin the tail on the donkey, had horse races with their cute stick horses, decorated goodie bags, played a game of bean bag toss and there was even a piñata!! Followed up with everyone’s favorite, cake and ice cream.  Her mom made the awesome cake and the whole party was perfect for a little cowgirl.

first crushes…

I had gone to Wylie’s school awhile back to help out and some of the kids were talking about “girlfriends and boyfriends”  I asked him if he had a girlfriend. He said no, but he confided in me that he has a crush on a girl at school. I thought it was very sweet and he swore me to secrecy.

For the last week or so Wylie has brought up a new girls name quite often and has started riding his bike down by her house to “hang” out with the kids over there. I asked him if he liked her, since the other kids were quite a bit younger than he is, and she is the reason he is going over there.  He blushed and of course said, NO!

Well today he came in my room and announced that he is “over” the first girl, cause she is totally weird (boy does he have a lot to learn about women) and does in fact think the girl down the street is “cute”. I would agree, she is sweet, cute and has great fashion sense at such a young age.

With that face I am sure there are to be many heartbreaks for young women all over our town (LOL)

This whole conversation makes me feel OLD, I remember sixth grade and the boy I totally had a crush on.  Oh the innocence of young hearts ;)

thankful Thursday,

 

 

(I think these two are pretty thankful for each other, Payne and my niece Laney at her birthday last year. Do you like her brother behind plugging his ears?? I would say he is not thankful, at that moment!)

I know today is Friday, but last night I got in bed and my husband was watching, 5 yrs. after the Tsunami on TLC

It was the stories of 2 families that had lost a child in the disaster and a young married couple who survived.

The first couple had lost a teenage daughter, they had gone out fishing in the sea and when they got back all they saw was the aftermath of the disaster. Their first thoughts were we HAVE to find our kids. They found their son the next day at the hospital and when they asked him where his sister was he told them, you wont find her. They identified her picture the next day on the list of the deceased.

I didn’t catch all of the other couples story but they had lost their 5 yr old! 5, sometimes in stories like this I forget everyone who has been affected.  He father had to identify the body, his recollection was hard to watch, you can still see the immense pain that these people are going through.

My heart sank and tears flowed throughout the entire show. I was reminded how precious life is, how fast it can be taken. With our new list(see  and my previous post) and this hitting home. I am going to try a LOT harder to be a better mother, wife, friend and person.

FamiLy MeeTing

Tonight I called a family meeting, usually these are called to decide where we are going to eat but tonight we needed to discuss real things that have been happening in our house.

I decided that this was needed after the day that I had. I went to lunch with my mom and the whole time I spent going in an out threatening Payne if he doesn’t stop whining he is going to have a time out, can’t play with Syd, can’t this and that……. Then we got in the car and I lost it. I don’t like when I react like that, there is nothing positive that comes from it and usually I over compensate for being so impatient that the point is lost.  We are all having some issues so I felt this was necessary and long overdue.

First up I laid down some basics:

RESPECT- You show respect, you earn respect

LOVE- We are a family we are supposed to love each other, even the ugly stuff. We should always show each other love!

LANGUAGE- using negative words, yelling, complaining, whining!!

Then I asked each person what I or someone else could do to make their day more positive (I think staring off with, “what can I do for you” really helped)

Wylie- asked if we could be nicer, general but a start

Payne-asked for more playtime, I thought it was sweet that he tried to be involved and maybe this is what he really needs, our positive attention, after I thought about this request maybe it is the reason for all of the whining??

Me- Help around the house. We are not a family with chores, I mainly take care of all the “house” stuff. Initially because I have some OCD issues but now everyone just expecting it. So I nicely explained that if each person help me for 10 min. each after dinner that is 30 more minutes I have to spend time with them (I think a light went off)

Mr. Strate- asked me to answer my phone when he calls, I have a problem with turning my phone on silence. (again it’s a start)

Next, I went through what was expected out of each person and then I asked them what they expected from me.

I think that this was a VERY positive exercise. It opened a lot of doors for conversation and gave some insight to my kids feelings that maybe they were a little afraid to share.

We have made a list with all of our personal goals and expectations on it and it is now posted on our fridge so that we will be gently reminded :)

*** a funny side note, Payne insisted that I add to his list

Payne loves Lucy

I was happy to do so, since he wanted to be involved.

calling in sick!

The other day, I thought to myself , I wish I had a vacation day/sick day I could use. Well SAHM don’t get that benefit and my heart goes out to all of you, cause ladies I need a day off.

Maybe somewhere like this!

But this morning at 4:45 to be exact. I heard a little tiny voice say “mommy, my belly hurts.” I asked if he was just hungry since he didn’t eat much for dinner . He said, “yes”. So we went in the kitchen to make a waffle and some chocolate milk. While he was waiting he said, “I am going to throw up” and low and behold he did followed by the other “stuff.”

So today is my sick day, lots of laying around, lots of cartoons and maybe some time for me to get caught up on things around the house, on second thought scratch the getting caught up idea.

POST EDIT: the day did not go as glorious as planned, there was a LoT of demands, whining and flat out boredom. Payne did not have any other symptoms or episodes so by 2:00 I started getting caught up on house stuff and sent Payne out to play. A girl can always dream, right??

a little face lift…

I feel like being at home a LOT more, I notice all of the little things about my house that bother me. Starting with our kitchen tile back splash. It was never finished the way that it should have when we remodeled three years ago.

 

(notice before, there was an outlet right above the stove, it was such an eye sore!)

I decided to finish the tile up to the bottom of the cabinet and FINALLY have it grouted. When I told my husband that they were coming tomorrow to do that he said, “what about the under cabinet lighting.” Oh, yeah... We’ve always had that on our to do list.  So our little “face” lift snowballed to complete madness to get the wiring where it needed to be for the lights (thankfully we have some connections with a good electrician)

 

(no more outlet!! The first picture is a little more true to the color of the tile. )

I turned out exactly as I had hoped. I am soooooooo happy with the finished product, I smile each time I walk in the kitchen!

oh, the joy’s of owning a home

This is how our spring projects began….

A fence that fell over on our boat, (for the second time) thankfully there was no damage.

 

Next up a sprinkler valve broke, good times with water in the basement and waiting for someone/anyone to come fix it!!

After getting the concrete cut to cement the posts in, to fix the fence, we discover there is another driveway under the existing one. Now we need is a jack hammer.

In all of the commotion we decided to cut down two GIANT pine trees, which I will never regret, so that we don’t have to rake pine needles EVER again!!  But why stop there, this was the year we had planned on filling in the beds we cut out two years ago, hence all of the tree buckets and now we need to move some sprinkler heads around. The fun never stops around here :)

So here is my advice to all of you longing for that big purchase, make sure your husband is skilled in all area’s of minor home improvement/repair projects, surround yourself with as many skilled people as possible and have a small amount of savings put way for the unexpected.

Check back to see our “new” back yard soon!!

what’s cluttering your life??

Last week as I was putting my morning “tools” way. I had to move stuff around to make everything fit and thought to myself, I really don’t need most of this stuff and it spiraled into a de-cluttering frenzy.

These are only a couple of the pictures but our whole house got cleaned out. 

I kept to my usual rules….

-what purpose is this serving

-has it been used within the last year.

I have come to the realization that….

-I have an obsession with any type of  lotion, hair product and jewelry. This surprised me since I have a pretty simple beauty regimen and I really only wear jewelry that has a special meaning.

-I love to buy decorations for our house. Some I’ve never even used most I don’t even need ( I am still trying to part with a few) I didn’t say this was easy.

-My kids have WAY to many toys. (again still working on that, they have issues too!)

So here is to my newly de-cluttered house, before I purchase I am going to decide if what I am buying is a real need and is going to serve an immediate purpose. I really want to make our lives a little simpler :)

dOmesTic III..

all about the babies…

I think I have been filling my desire for a baby with making things for babies. It all start with one simple little baby gift and has exploded in my kitchen to blankets, burp cloths, car seat covers and appliquéd onsies with no where to go, hopefully they will have a home at the Saldivar’s SOON!!;)

I also made the duvet covers for Payne’s bunk beds, which he slept in last night!

**please note the deer on the car set cover was done with a special request from my nephew( not really my thing)