Half-Pint House

I won something AWESOME.

I got a phone call this morning from Tanya from Blogsvertise. She called to tell me this:

 

So. I'm a little excited. Just a little.

Thanks, Blogsvertise!! I mean it!

Candlelight

I'm not Jewish, but this song cracks me up and I can't stop watching it. So funny.

Kids Music Suggestions that Won't Drive You Insane!

With some help from friends, I pulled together a list of ten kids music suggestions that hopefully won't drive you completely insane. It's included in a round-up of reasonable Christmas gift suggestions over at Beck's new blog.

Don't miss the round up of favorite things pulled together by several of us! Check out part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4!)

This whole round up got started after Beck did her annual mocking of Oprah's Favorite Things. Be sure to check that one out too. Hilarious.

December Photo Project 2011

Yep! It's getting close to that time of the year again. Go here for details on how to join the December Photo Project, courtesy of The Tredways. And new this year, go "like" the DPP Facebook page.

Weird Dream, Take 2

Okay, so if my dream about Jack Black wasn't weird enough, last night I had another one. Not about Jack Black. This one was about Ann Voskamp.

And real quick, for the record, I'd like it to be noted that while I can't prove it, I'm pretty sure this might be the very first time the names Jack Black and Ann Voskamp have appeared together in the same blog post. I'm all creative and interesting like that. *groan*

In real life we have new neighbors who moved in across the street and they are all kinds of awesome. We're enjoying getting to know them bit by bit. This information is important to this story because in my dream Ann Voskamp and her entire family live in this house WITH my new neighbors.

They don't exactly live together, but the house is split like a very large duplex. My new neighbors live on the right side and the entire Voskamp family live on the left. I have no idea how long this situation has been going on, but in my dream it was as though it had always been this way. Ann Voskamp lived across the street from me and I didn't know her very well. I saw her hanging out on the front porch one day and walked over to have a chat. We hadn't really done that before even though we lived across the street from each other. She was awesome and invited me into her side of the house. Details get fuzzy at this point, but I'm pretty sure I helped myself to the inside of her fridge and fixed lunch for my whole family while she watched. She then had another friend drop in - one she was expecting. She also took an important phone call. I never got the hint. I kept hanging around in her kitchen waiting for her phone call to end so we could continue talking. I might have sneaked a peek down the hall as well. I was curious as to how they all fit in that half of a house.

When I finally realized I was, you know, in the way, I thanked her for the sandwiches and walked across the street back into my house.

Now then. Wasn't that strange?

Because Friends are Friends Forever...

You know that saying about man's best friend and all that? Peaches has taken it one step further. Step away from the Smitty-loving-doggie. That's all she has to say about that.

Weird Dream

It should be noted that the fact that I even had a dream I actually remembered the next day should go in a category of some kind of amazing feat in and of itself. It's been so long since I have remembered a dream. I have no idea how long it's been.

Anyway.

I believe I've mentioned I have two days "off" a week now that my kids are in school on those days. I have yet to figure out how to be okay with actually taking some time OFF. So I'm really working my tail off while everyone is gone and it's been good in a "get the laundry done and maybe change somebody's sheets" kind of way. I've been getting up around 6:30 to pack lunches and help get everyone out the door on time. On Tuesdays everybody gets home close to 5:45, we have dinner, then clean up before hosting our City Pres City Group at 6:30. By the time the day is over, I'm pretty trashed. Last night, I was in bed by 9:45. This is not normal for me, but I'm not complaining.

So last night I got about ten hours of sleep. I woke up just as I was putting Jack Black's can opener back in his kitchen cabinet. Wait...What?

It was the weirdest, shortest dream I think I've ever had. I needed a can opener and so Craig and I decided to walk over to Jack Black's house to see if he would let me borrow his. He was happy to. He showed me to his kitchen and then he went outside with Craig where they played football together in his front yard while I helped myself to his awesome kitchen. He had really cool stuff and I was really impressed with his style.

Just as I was wiping down the can opener and placing it back in his cabinet, I woke up. I will never know if the inside of his fridge is clean or not.

And I just thought the rest of you needed to know that. *giggle*

 

Yee Haw, Nate Berkus!

You know how Facebook groups your activities together sometimes? I just scrolled down and saw this on my page:

I'm guessing Nate Berkus has never been associated with the Oklahoma State Fair before. Cracked me up this morning, it did...

The Angry Birds Jedi Master

For the past two nights the girls and I have been having a shared Angry Birds round robin competition with Angry Birds, Rio. Actually, nobody is keeping score, but we're all crammed together on my bed with the iPad. The girls take turns having a round of five with me on whichever level we're on. We trade back and forth until her five turns have been completed and then she switches places with another girl. Sometimes the levels are really hard and we go through almost all of them before winning that level. Other times, the level gets mastered on the first try.

When this happens, it is almost always E7 who does it. She's pretty amazing. In fact, the last round we did went through me and C10, me and K9, and me and M12. I had just called it over for the night, but then said, "Hey E7, come here a second - I just want to see what you can do with this one." She came over, watched me do it once (and fail) and then took her turn. Bam, bam, bam. She nailed it on her first try.

All hail our 7-year-old Angry Birds Jedi Master. Do you have some pesky monkeys hanging around? E7 knows what to do.

Cube Dog Awesomeness!

I'm not sure if my one week silent treatment here on the blog has been sufficient proof that we moved last week or not, so I thought I'd break my internet fast tonight to tell you it's true. Last Sunday we left St. Louis for Oklahoma City. We're still finding our way around in every sense of the phrase. The people we are buying our house from (we still haven't closed on the house yet even though we HAVE moved in) still have a lot of their things in the house until they get their own situation figured out. Among these things are their dog, Boomer, and their cat, Lloyd (if you don't get the significance of those names to the geographical area then go brush up on your OU trivia...). 

We've been enjoying Boomer and Lloyd very much even if Peaches, our own pooch, doesn't care so much for Lloyd and C10 and I have had to break out the Zyrtec again due to cat-induced allergies.

However, the girls and I are back on the road this weekend. Half of us are headed back to St. Louis to gather up the rest of our own things we left in what is now no longer our house there in Maplewood. We can't take Boomer, Peaches, or Lloyd with us, so we're going through a kind of canine withdrawal tonight. 

Enter the Cube Dog. The Cube Dog is a new app for the iPhone that is seriously fun. And by seriously fun I really mean hilariously fun. I'm going to make a dangerous confession to you and let you know that two of my kids know my iTunes password and every. single. time. I get my phone or iPad back from one of them they have downloaded some new game. Keep in mind, they are only allowed to download free things and have to ask permission before upgrading anything, but the free apps they come across boggle my mind. 

Tonight I was able to boggle theirs as I introduced them to the awesomeness that is the Cube Dog. Check out this short video explanation first:

 

It really is pretty cool. You can create your own unique cube dog by choosing a variety of parts and colors. There are 3D graphics and the ability to rotate and zoom. There are also high-quality 3D animations. This app is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch 4 with camera.

The basic level is free and there are currently three upgrade options. Yes, my kids talked me into getting the complete parts upgrade for $0.99 and one of the animations packs. What can I say? I'm a sucker. A sucker who loves her kids.

 Here's some of the fun we had with our cube dogs tonight:

This dog is texting, according to my 10yo. I think he looks like he's changing the channel on the television set.

This dog got put on my head and I'm trying to figure out why he's there.

This dog is getting his ninja on. Can't you tell? My girls thought this was hysterical.

The cube dog I created was hungry. He kept staring at this bag of doggy chow.

Anyway, thanks, Cube Dog, for providing some distraction in the midst of our transition woes. We'll be sure to take your photo in St. Louis this weekend. 

Be sure to check out Cube Dog on Facebook and keep your eyes open for a fun contest they will be running all next week, June 13-17.

While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I've expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.