Something from Sara

Well my little sister wanted to hear about the book party that I had at Chelsey's house the other night. It went really well, we had about 7 or 8 people come, which I felt was a great number considering that the party started at the same time as a viewing for a local man who died in a tragic car accident. Anyway, my sponsor came and brought her two little girls who had the time of their lives playing with Hallie. She also brought her books for me to borrow and display. She really has hundreds of books and I am so grateful that she will let me use them until I can get some more inventory. It is so fun to just come to the party and see all of the books, and read them and wish that they were yours. (I'm so addicted to children's books, I thought that I had a problem before I started selling them, but now I just sit and wait until I can make enough money to buy more.) Anyway it was fun to visit with Shane's cousin Courtney, and I visited with Chelsey's mother-in-law Robin, and Jill, and I thought that it was a real success. And now I am going to tell you about a really neat book called "The Baby and Toddler Treasury." My Sponsor Natalie told me about this, and she was so excited because in the back is a little scrapbook for your baby. It has a place for footprints and handprints and a family tree and pictures and stuff. Which is a cool selling point. Well at the party she actually brought the book with her and I got to see it for the first time. I have to say, that I was not as excited as she was about the book...until I saw it. The book itself has bedtime stories, nursery rhymes, activities for kids to make and do, little hand action games (like pat a cake, and five little monkeys). Natalie is always telling me what a cool baby shower present it will make, and now I have to agree with her, because as a new mom, sometimes you wonder what kind of things you are going to do next. And I know that with Tyler I would start to sing a song to him from my childhood and then I would forget the end. Thank goodness I had Susie who always seems to remember every word to every song that she has ever heard. Most moms don't have a Susie to help them though, and that is where this book might come in handy.

Well today was Tyler's Kindergarten Interview. I didn't really know that they did these until I got the letter in the mail. I guess that is one of the downsides of having the oldest grandkid. But we went and he did really great, they really test them on a lot of things and he was able to answer most of the questions correctly. Then they tested his hearing which is remarkably accurate, although I still can't get him to respond when I ask him to do (or not to do) things. At least now I know. I think that he had a pretty good time there at the school. I also found it interesting to know that the secretary is the same one that was there when I went to school, and that she reads my sister Rose's blog...regularly. Anyway, the rest of the day has been pretty uneventful, except one minor speeding ticket (14 mph over) on the way to the kindergarten...
Well that takes care of any commission I made at my book party last night.

She always loves it when I really dress her up

Lately, she has really been funny with her binky

Here she is playing in the towel cupboard

She's cute isn't she. Last night just before bed, I was in the bathroom changing Chris. I heard Shane out in the living room talking to Brooklyn...Here's how the conversation went:

Shane: Brooklyn, what have you got?

Brooklyn: I don't know.

Shane: What is that? It looks like cake. Where did you get cake?

Brooklyn: Darby. (this is how she says garbage)

Tyler (who has gone to investigate): Dad! she's been in the garbage! It's your old birthday cake!

Some of you might remember George Costanza from Seinfeld. I think of the episode where George eats the eclair out of the garbage...because it was right on the top. Well Brooklyn is a regular garbage eater. Borderline bum I'd say. I'm not sure what to do with her. I usually keep the kitchen garbage locked in the pantry, but then I find her in the bathroom garbage taking out used cups and dipping them in the potty for a nice cold drink. (She was really proud of herself on that day...What a great idea)

Last night on the news they spotlighted this lady who had a blog. She and her husband were both able to quit their jobs and live off the income that the blog generated...a mere $40,000 a month. All she did was sold some of her space to advertisers. I have the whole left side of my blog available if there are any takers. Anybody? Anybody?

Okay, so Tyler loves to draw, but he very rarely draws people. That is why I thought that this was extra special. He came in and told me that he had drawn a picture, and I had to come in right away to see it. When I went in to his room, this is what he had drawn:

He told me that it was his Great-Grandma Jean (Sargent). Then he asked me: "Do you know why I drew a picture of Grandma Jean?" and I said "Because you miss her so much." and he said "Yep, and because I love her so much."
It's only been a year since she died, and I am just so thankful that Tyler got to meet her and know and love her. He has always had such a soft spot in his heart for all of his great-grandparents. What a special kid.

Well today is Shane's 30th birthday!! Happy Birthday!! Since he is a twin, that means that it is also Josh's birthday, Happy Birthday Josh!! And my sister's husband Jeff is 30 something today (I've lost track), Happy Birthday Jeff!! And our little niece Madison is turning three today, Happy Birthday Maddie!!
I thought that it was funny, we had some friends over last night and we were talking about birthdays and they asked Shane how old he was going to be and then they asked me how old I was, and I said that I turned 28 in February. And our friend said "I thought that I was older than you. I'm just turning 28 in a couple of days." And as we talked and figured out that I was born in 1980, and she was born in 1979, and she was in fact turning 29 in a couple of days...she was really upset because now she had just lost a whole year of her life. What a shocker for her.
Well anyway, I hope that all the birthday people have a great day!

Well my whole family just got home from Portland. The report...it was really cold there, and WET. They of course left Erica and Landon again, and today she will probably cry. Which is OK. They did however, bring the cold and wet weather home with them. It will be 20 degrees colder today than it was yesterday, with a chance of showers, which sucks. I am ready for SUMMER! I want it to be warm and not windy. I want it to rain and not snow.
We spent the day in the city yesterday. It started out good, but for all of you out there who have ever dragged two 20 month old babies from store to store to store...you know that after about two stores, they are cranky, and then Chris thought that it would be funny to throw his binky out the side of the stroller, but I didn't see and we strolled away. Then I had a cranky baby who was yelling "Bink!" at me.
We bought more at Target, which only made Brooklyn mad because she didn't get any new binkys. She doesn't take a binky, but we had to buy more for her to keep her from screaming at the top of her lungs right there in the middle of Target.
Lets not forget to mention the humongous goose egg that Chris got in Old Navy when he tripped and fell on the cement floor, which caused him to scream, again.
Needless to say, Shane won't be getting exactly what he wanted this birthday.
Sorry Honey.

Many of you know by now that I have signed up to be a consultant for Usborne Children's books. So yesterday I went to a meeting about the books. I got to meet some other consultants, but more importantly, I got to see some really cool books. I am so excited about some of them and I kind of think that my website doesn't really do them justice, so today I am going to tell you a little bit about one of the books that I saw yesterday.

The book is called "Big Book of Playtime Activities." It is so much fun because it is actually five books is one. It includes the books: I can crayon, I can cut and stick, I can draw animals, I can draw people, and I can fingerpaint. Each of the books are $4.99, but the combined version is only $17.99 so you save like $7! I love it. It is perfect for someone like Tyler, who loves to do all of these things and it would give him a few projects that he could work on in the summer. And yet I know that I would like to use this book for times when I break out the tub crayons for my kids and they want me to draw them things like horses, and giraffes, and stuff that I have no idea how to draw. The instructions are very simple and the drawings are sufficient to make your kids happy. I was really impressed with this book. I was going to post a picture of it but I couldn't get it to work, so if you are interested in what it looks like go to my website and type in the title in the search and it will pull it up. http://www.sarasbookshelf.com/

Next week I think that I will review another book, so stay posted!

Well a couple of Saturdays ago, the family was headed out to Wal-mart and I was in the house trying to get it all cleaned up before we could go. I was vacuuming as fast as I could, and Shane was outside and he came in and was telling me that I should hurry up so that we could go. So I informed him that if he would put coats on the kids and load them in the car, that we could leave sooner, because it was one less thing that I would have to do. Well he didn't like that idea, so he volunteered to finish vacuuming and I could get the kids ready. That was a good deal for me, so he started to vacuum.
Now a few years ago, I noticed that our carpet wasn't as fun to vacuum. It wasn't getting the vacuum marks like it did when it was brand new. Especially in the high traffic areas. I wrote it off as the carpet was getting old and that I would have to eventually replace it.
A few minutes after Shane starts vacuuming he starts yelling to me that something is wrong with our vacuum. It is sucking, but the brushes are not spinning. I say, "I think that the brushes don't spin, you just have to run it along the ground and then they move." (by the way, this is what I really thought, but it is wrong)
Shane then tells me that I am wrong, because the brushes are moving, but if he touches them they stop. He then says that we need to buy a new vacuum at Wal-mart. So I said can't we try to fix this somehow. Shane says that he could check the belt if we have a new one. (which I had two new ones that came with the vacuum 7 1/2 years ago). He changed the belt, it took five minutes, and now my carpet is beautiful. It doesn't need to be replaced, it was the vacuum the whole time!
The moral to this story is that if Shane would have attempted to vacuum sooner, I would have got my vacuum fixed sooner. So ladies, every once in a while, let your husbands vacuum, it may solve some of the mysteries around the house.
P.S. I love to vacuum my carpet again, it looks so nice when it is all freshly vacuumed. And this week I used the carpet cleaner and got out all of the really bad stains, it looks really good.