and FOUND

My wallet has found its way home via the US postal service. Someone put my wallet in the mail box and my mailman delivered it to me today. Of course, I had to pay $2.25 in postage. The money was gone, as was the bag it was in. But, it did make it back and I take comfort in knowing that my ID isn't being used by someone. I looked at my wallet and wanted to know the story behind where it had been and who sent it back! I will never know!

Lost

Has anyone seen my wallet? It is gone. Yesterday, when walking to Gavin's school for a teacher meeting, I lost it. I think it fell out of my stroller, or blew away. I was caught in a huge storm, the rain was pounding down on me, and the wind was blowing hard and it nearly knocked me down. All I know is I pulled out a snack for Eli at some point along my journey and the bag has not been seen since. I am still holding onto hope that someone will mail it to me. It is possible, right? I hope the $100 is helping someone in need.

GAMES

Gavin and Eli have discovered games. It has been a fun afternoon winter activity almost everyday. His favorite right now is Zingo, but he plays chess with his dad, Jenga, Go Fish, and Old Maid. Eli is surprisingly pretty good at most of them. I have always loved games, so I am excited that my boys love it too!

Toy Monster

When I was a young girl in the middle of a older brother and younger sister, my mom created the toy monster to help control the mess around the house. She would give us warnings to pick up our stuff. If we didn't pick it up, she would come around as the toy monster and put all the toys that weren't put away into a bin. We wouldn't see those toys for a week.

In an attempt to control the messes around the house, I brought the toy monster to our house. I have changed things up quite a bit. I first mentioned it to Gavin when I warned him several times to pick up his toys. I told him the toy monster would come if he didn't pick things up. I explained that the toy monster comes around and takes toys we leave out. He took it very seriously. He asked me several questions, like "What does he look like?" and "Where does he live?" I wasn't quite sure how to handle these new questions. I didn't want him to be scared. I told him that the monster lived in the closet in the living room. He went and looked in the closet immediately. Great. I came up with the idea that I would go into the closet and come back out as the toy monster. They loved it. So, now every evening, I set a timer. The boys have that amount of time to pick up before the toy monster appears. The alarm goes off and the boys go crazy. I go into the closet and come back out as the toy monster. I go from room to room as a monster. They do a really great job picking up, so the monster only eats a few things. Eli even gives it a few toys because he loves to see it eat the toy.

It has been a fun game for the boys and and has really motivated them to clean up when I ask. I usually help and work on my own messes. We have had a pretty clean home as a result. We'll see how long it lasts.

Not as bad as you would think

We have been in need of a new computer for a while. But, we have been putting it off because we weren't sure what what to replace it with. Boyd was going back and forth between a pre-built HP and just putting one together himself. I have to say that I was hesitant when Boyd suggested the latter. I had visions of parts all over our apartment for months and all kinds of troubleshooting. Needless to say, Boyd decided he wanted to put together his own system. He hinted that I needed to be part of the process, so I can know what to do in case he got hit by a bus. So, last Friday we received all the parts and our date night was putting it all together.

Here are pictures of the tower before we started

Proof that I helped.

My hero

Finished product (well, before we put the cover back on)

Can you believe the computer started up perfectly on the first attempt?

The whole process wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. It was even kinda romantic, in a way.

Putting a banker to work

Every New Years we gather up all the change we have been collecting and take the family to the penny machines at the bank to count it all up and cash in. We then buy something fun for the family with it. We haven't decided what we are going to get. It has proven to be a good little savings program. This year Boyd decided to take all the quarters out and find 2 sets of all the 50 state coins. I think he was at it for about 2 1/2 hours!

You're never too old for a sleepover

Boyd has been off for a week and half and it is has been so fun. We have had 3 sleepovers in the last week, and believe me, we are still not too old for a sleepover.

Sleep over 1: West Virginia

Boyd's sister and her family have moved to West Virginia. We are very excited to have more family (Boyd's brother and his family are in Boston) here in the East. We decided to take a little road trip down to see them. It only took us 6 hours. Our kids never got out of their car seats.

We were there for one night, but we had a great time playing music and games!

Sleep over 2: Columbus, OH

The second part of our road trip was to Columbus, Ohio. Why Columbus, you ask? We decided to meet our dear friends who left NYC 6 months ago half way to have some fun. We found an affordable indoor water park, called Ft. Rapids and made it our meeting point. Jane and Gavin were so happy to see each other. During our first dinner together we would find them deep in silly conversation. Our rooms were connected and we put the kids down in one room and we played games, caught up, and ate in the other room for a good portion of the night. It was fun to catch up with the Brunson's. The water park was perfect for all. Gavin was finally tall enough and brave enough to go on some of the bigger slides. The ride home was difficult and it included throw up and a detour in Newark, but it was still well worth it. We had a blast.

Sleep over 3: New York City, NY

Our New Years this year was very low key, but was so fun. We went over to our friend's apartment. They had the most delicious spread of cheese, meat, and chocolate. I can't claim any credit, since it was so last minute, so Thanks Lynda! It was the best fondue I have ever had and decided it would be a fun New Years tradition. The kids had a great time playing together. We decided we would try and put our kids down there, so we could play games and celebrate the New Years with them. We ended up playing games and the wii and talking until 4 AM, so we decided to just stay the night. It was a bit rough the next day, but it was still worth it!