You may want to check the number...

A funny thing happened to me yesterday, and since it keeps running through my mind I thought I'd share. First you'll need a little history to understand the whole story. I am the President of our school's PTO, called C.A.R.E. We recently were given the opportunity to purchase a large amount of soda, bottled water, candy etc. from a teacher at the high school to sell at our concession stand at track and field day. That teacher's name is Loretta, and she has a daughter named Ali. We had planned to meet Wednesday right after school for me to pay her and pick up the concessions. The following texts were exchanged just before I left my house to meet her.

719-***-**** Have to go to Pueblo with Ali tonight. Can we find some time before Saturday evening?

me: Yes. Tomorrow after school or Friday anytime.

me: Or I can leave and be there by 3:30 today of that works better.

719-***-**** Gotta take Ali to Pueblo for sleep study at 7:30. So I'm leaving in less than an hour. Waiting to hear from Wilson on tommorow or Friday.

So I got to the school, got my kids from the bus and decided to run inside to find the secretary. On my way in I ran into this teacher. Confused, I asked her why she was still there, I thought she was leaving for Pueblo. She looks back confused, says no, to which I show her the texts. She laughs and says "nope." Hmmm. I can't think of anyone else I know with a daughter named Ali.
So we get back in the car and I text this mystery individual back:

me: I'm sorry, I believe you have the wrong phone #. I thought you were someone else and your texts made sense until I saw the person I thought you were at the school and she had no plans of taking her daughter Ali for a sleep study. So you may want to check the number.

719-***-**** This is the greatest wrong number notification I've ever gotten. Have a great evening!

I don't know this woman. But I'm really glad I text her back and let her know that the individual she was intending to text wasn't getting them. And I'm relieved that I had the decency to be polite. I even wanted to continue our text conversation. I've been to Pueblo with one of my own to have a sleep study done, so I almost felt a connection with this mystery woman. I'm not sure why this keeps going through my mind, I guess I just feel flattered that is was her greatest WRONG NUMBER notification ever.

When we're helping...we're happy!

I am a control freak, and I know it. I don't know if it's because growing up I always shared a room with at least one sister, or why, but I like things done my way. Which is why I have a nearly TEN year old that has done the dishes a handful of times in her LIFE!!! But I am coming to realize that I'm not doing my kids any favors, or myself, by doing it all myself. Or maybe all the little tricks we've tried in the past have just been more hassle than anything. So when I came across this idea on a blog, I HAD to try it. An added plus was the fact that I didn't have to go out and buy anything...I had all these materials around the house. So......

The Clayton Family Chore boards

I used some frames that I had in boxes from our move 5 years ago. I painted them brown and sprayed to seal. I just used cardstock and my cricut to create a cute background that would be easy to read over. Stapled some ribbon to the back...this makes it easier to write/erase without knocking them off the wall. Then hung them up. Now I have dry erase chore boards. I write their chores for the day on the board, the have to have them all crossed off before going to bed at night. I read in The Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey) that kids should be paid a "commission" instead of allowance. I give them 3-4 chores each day. I watch to make sure all chores are done each day. If they are, then they get $5.00 at the end of the week. If not, then they don't get any money...not a single dollar. We'll use the envelope system to help them learn how to save, spend, and give their money wisely. I'm really excited, and I LOVE how it looks on my kitchen wall!

No more messy pumpkin carving here!

I LOVE the holidays! All of them! And I LOVE to decorate for the holidays as well. So when I came across this little idea, I HAD to try it! It's just some used jars, (like from pickles or mayo, the kind you can't re-use for canning food), tissue paper, mod podge, black cardstock, and fabric. That's all.

Just cut your tissue paper into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide, and tall enough to reach from the bottom of the jar to the lower edge of the jar top. (What's that called anyway!) Then a little at a time, just brush on the mod podge and lay the strips down and press as you go. Allow that layer to dry while you make the faces/design out of cardstock. Then glue them on (I used stick glue, it seemed to work the best.) and then mod podge over the top. Allow to dry, then wrap a piece of torn fabric around the top and make a bow/knot. And it's done. Add a little tealight candle or some lights and you're ready!

This is my creation in the daylight.

And this is at night with the candles lit inside. I'm gonna go find my Christmas lights tomorrow and put them in, I think they'll shine brighter. This is also a great craft for kids.....it's messy and easy, what more could you ask for???

The Bench

This bench has been in my dad's family for YEARS! I remember it being in my Great Uncle's house when I was a kid and I loved sitting on it and listening to their stories. So for Father's Day this year we were cleaning out my dad's loft in the garage, and found it, and I immediately staked my claim. It was in bad shape, pretty gross. Nothing a little soap and water and paint can't fix. So I brought it home........

It actually had some really old vinyl over it, the gray kind that is meant to look like marble but really doesn't. So I took that off, washed what was underneath (like I said, GROSS!) and then.......

spray painted it....and WAALAAH! I was in a hurry, which is why I used spray paint. Next time I will use real outdoor paint. Then I distressed it and stuck it out on our front porch. PERFECT place to enjoy the evening air and stars!

Springy Fun Flower Centerpiece

I found this idea in both the Martha Stewart Living and Better Homes and Gardens magazines for March. It's just a branch, cardstock and hot glue. I used the template in the magazine for dogwood flower, cut them out, used markers to add detail in the middle, then cut out some leaves and glued them to the branch. It was an easy and FREE centerpiece for our table. Then I added some small rocks to a vase and stood the branch in it. A few days later we noticed there were buds forming, so we added water and now we have real leaves. So Chris didn't love it so much, but the kids and I did. In fact, each of the older three kids made their own for their rooms.

Happy Valentines Day!

I walked through the stores this year and looked at the Valentines, and was so disappointed. I knew that we could come up with something better....so I started looking and found this idea at http://www.familyfun.com/. My kids LOVE their mp3 players, and I knew this would be a hit with any kid. And I was right. I showed my kids and they were sold. The only bad thing about them is that they took about 5 hours to put together. (We made 70 so maybe that isn't so bad.) And the only thing I had to buy was the heart candy, which was $2.00 for eight boxes. My kids told me they were the hit at school too!

So if you're thinking ahead to next year and like this idea, here's the materials.

For each mp3 player you will need:

1 box conversation hearts

red or pink cardstock

printouts of playlist/mp3 buttons

yarn

Rolos candy

glue stick AND hot glue

They have a sample playlist at http://www.familyfun.com/ that can be modified with songs of your choice and then printed. The only problem is that you can only print one per page, which wastes alot of paper. I just made my own using my scrapbook factory program on my computer and thought it looked great. Bailey searched on Napster and found the song titles.

Anyone who knows me knows how much of a perfectionist I am....so it was kinda hard for me to let my kids put them together by themselves and seeing that they weren't perfect. BUT, they did an awesome job and I realize now that my kids are pretty good little crafters!

(Note: I didn't let them do the hot glueing...I did that part. But they did the rest. Hot glue is only used to glue the yarn to the box and to the Rolos.)

Best Snack Idea EVER!!! Apple Smiles

I was asked to bring the "nutritious" snack for Ryan's class's Halloween party. So I start thinking....Halloween.....Kindergarten.....candy....who is going to want a nutritious snack??? But I found this idea in some papers that I kept from a very awesome Enrichment Meeting when we lived in WA state. It's just apples, peanut butter and marshmallows. I sliced the apples and then dipped them in orange juice to prevent browning. Then I spread each slice with some peanut butter and put two slices together with some marshmallows in between to look like teeth. These were a huge hit with the kids, as well as all the staff!!!