The letter G

I was driving to work after dropping off the kiddos at school and I got thinking about the letter G.  I can’t quite remember why this popped into my head.  The letter g at the beginning of a word typically has a ‘guh’ sound not a ‘juh’ sound.  So tell me why George is not spelled Jorje?  Girl, grill, great, golly, gorgeous, gallop, gumption, great, giggly, etc, all ‘guh’.  Now let’s try to think of ‘juh’ sounding g’s… George, Georgette.  It’s the only one I can think of.  Any other ‘juh’ g words out there - please stand up. 

And the Hubby wonders why when he asks me what I’m thinking about (obviously he can tell I’m in deep thought) that I say “nothing”.  Because why go there when the thought on my mind is about the way letters sound.   It’s not like there is much conversation to go with the thought.  But obviously I thought it was a blog worthy.  Speaking of blogging.  Ray said something the other day and I said – “oh, that is so bloggable”.  Me thinkith I’m getting a little carried away-ith. 

Oh, thought of one more- giraffe. 

Putting it out there for all to read...

 My newest purchase and it was a bargain :)

With upcoming weddings in the next couple of years (possibly) that I will be a part of (probably), I have made it a goal to lose weight.  Fifty pounds.  Sounds like a huge number - and it is.  But I figure that I have until at least the end of 2012 to reach this astronomical goal, so by my calculations if I can lose FIVE little ol' pounds a month I can reach my desired weight.  I figure by me putting it out here for all the world to read, hopefully it will be motivation enough to get busy.  Here's the thing.  I LOVE food.  I work at a desk eight hours a day.  I'm not at that age that you can just eat anything and it has no effect, sadly.  My weight has creeped up and up over the last ten years unfortunately.  Needless to say, I have a difficult time losing weight.  Not any more.  I say that with determination and a fierce growl, lol.  I will document at the end of the month how much I've lost.  Now I definitely will have to work hard because I don't want my whole two blog readers to call me out on it!  (This is secretly the real reason I started blogging) Hahaha.  So knowing I needed to pick up my exercise practices, I turned a corner of our basement into the "exercise room" or Ray's "fun new place to swing from things room" while I "esersize".  

I have big dreams for this little space.  Here it is as of right now, not a pretty site, but it has potential... at least I think so.



Let's see... we've got the gazelle, ab lounger, treadmill, stair stepper and the bike.  Need just a few more things to make it complete.

So, once its at least 50 degrees outside I can clean and seal up those unsightly walls.  I'm thinking about painting the floor and putting up a bunch of length sized mirrors, though why I would want to watch myself exercise is beyond me, but I want to do it anyways.  Possibly put in a drop ceiling or something and there we go.  Exercise room complete.  Now I just have to use it!  Which I have been, but I need to be a little bit more faithful to it.  Plus in addition to my room - my darling sister Victoria showed me that I have exercise on demand on my TV.  OHHHHH sooo fun.  So many exercises to choose from - a lot of dancing exercises like latin, hip hop, bellydancing, bollywood, even urban strip dancing.  I've tried two of the above... can you guess which two :) ?

I'm not going to say what the starting weight is but at end of March I will tell you if any pounds were lost.  If you care to know anyways.  Even if you don't care, if your on here reading , you're going to find out, lol.   Here's to saying goodbye to the first five... sayonara! 

 



Picture Day

Lets discuss school picture day.  It stresses me OUT! 

Ray being glamorawesome

The first set of pictures around the beginning of September, no problem, it's expected, they wear their uniforms, all I need to do it comb the hair.  Piece of cake.  In the last couple of years they have now sprung spring (like that?) pictures at me.  We never had this when I went to school.  And not only do they surprise me with it two days before the event they also say they are welcome to wear whatever they want (within their guidelines).  Now let me clarify this is not a public school, so jeans - not in guideline.  I flirted with the idea of foregoing these spring pics to save on money and stress, then I felt bad because frankly you can not have too many pictures of your kids. Or as Ray would say "I am not a kid, I am a child".  So... too many pictures of your children.  For Ray the only stress is her hair.  Its crazy, I'm just saying. (By the way I'm just saying is a phrase I'm not entirely thrilled with that I say all too often).  Ray's clothes, not a prob, she doesn't really care what she wears except for the occasional times she might think she looks weird like the time I tried sending her to school wearing a Bengals jersey.  COME ON RAY!  What is weird about that!  I thought she looked glamorous :)  Or it could be that I just think the Bengals are awesome- even when they're not.  And Ray is always glamorous.  So add Bengals + Ray = GLAMORAWESOME!  So back to picture day, I throw a decent shirt and some black pants on her - totally within guidelines and then comb her hair to the best of my ability especially after waking up 45 minutes later than normal (adding to the stress of pic day). 
Mariah?  I asked her if she wanted her picture taken and she said she has nothing to wear.  Which I believe, because in reality she has uniform pants and jeans that's about the extent of it.  And besides a uniform shirt she has no normal shirts that would go with the pants.  Needless to say, to avoid an inevitable argument an undue anxiety I let it go and decided the pictures she takes of herself on her IPOD will work for a spring picture.  I am fully intent on blowing one up and framing it. TEEHEEHEEEEEEE.  I just have to figure out how to get it away from her and then how to get the pic off it.  Such a weird thing to be stressed about... Picture Day.

Possible spring picture minus the friend? LOL

Blue Paint and blog post turned blog story

Mariah's been begging for months - if not years to paint her room.  Months and months of picking up paint samples and bringing them home for her to tell me over and over that those weren't exactly what she had in mind.  Finally I took her to Sherwin Williams last weekend and let her pick out the blue of her little hearts desire.  Capri is what she came up with:

Color:Capri

So we brought home a little sample of the paint and experimented with it on all four of her walls- because we just couldn't stop with one wall.  I say its because given my vast knowledge of the best way to choose a wall color- you have to see it in all lights and at every angle. Teeheehee. (I can't remember the last time I painted)

Don't look at the mess...

Or this one either...

Feeling inspired by this bright bold blue and determined to be the next diy wonder mom, I felt the necessity to makeover the old-stain covered-ugly pink-was going to the dumpster at work-thought I'd bring home anyway- office chair.  It went from ewww to beastly - but in the good way:

Even Mariah said, "Mom I am so proud of you!"  YAY, my heart leaped and a happy dance resonated in my head.  I almost broke out into the running man.  I did that once to show Mariah that it was very similar to some new dance that's out now - the jerk, its just backwards from it...kind of... WELL she almost keeled over from laughter.  Now I try to keep my dance skills to myself.

SO, Friday after work I set my goal to get her room painted.  Stopped at Sherwin Williams and bought Capri in eggshell Sherwin Williams' Harmony.  The man very convincingly told me it was low in odor.  Score.  I was already plagued with an irritating headache so I was hoping to not add to it with overwhelming paint vapors.  With materials in tow I headed home looking forward to a productive night and excited to see the end result.  Then I got home.  I started pushing and pulling and stuffing things out of the way of the walls.  I was ready to start painting above the trim and along the windows and ceilings.  I thought that I'd try it without taping it all off.  I hate taping things off.  I also hate going along the trim wiping away all the paint I got on it - which is what I ended up doing 20% of the night.  Anyways I was all gung ho and ready to go when in comes the kiddos.  Ray being the rambunctious 4 yr old that she is was being...normal.  Wanting to help paint and take a few spins on the beastly chair and grasping at all her older sisters cool but yet prohibited stuff, such as the fair sticks that she is never allowed to play with because she instantly turns them in to swords.  This set off the 13yr old.  Horns came out and attitude reigned.  She was not going to paint with Ray in the room and Ray was not going to be anywhere besides the room where all the fun was going to happen.  Hubby thankfully bribed her with the promise to turn on Icarly.  YAY hubby!  However Mariah had already declared she was not painting and set herself to win the pouting with the most attitude trophy.  So it looks like I was painting all by my lonesome for the night with the occasional visit from Ray to take a few spins on the chair and roll the spare paint roller on the wall.  I was not entirely opposed to going at it alone. It was keeping me from going ballistic on how absolutely absurd Mariah was being and I was fully preparing a 'she's grounded for the rest of her life' punishment slowly turned to I need to turn this into some kind of a life lesson slowly turned to I think I should make them share a room to force them to get along with each other then came to my senses and though that would make it worse not better.  An hour and a half into it Mariah came around discarded the attitude and horns and put on her humble sweet hat and came in to help :)  Life lesson speech saved for another night.  By now the room looked like this- almost ready to roll:

 Now: bring on the roller and let's knock this baby out!
Wall one, DONE.

 Ray did a happy dance- while I was taking the picture.


Wall two, then wall three, DONE.

Even Frank got in on the paint action:  

Mariah finished up wall four, DONE.  Room = DONE.  With painting anyways. 

Still on list: paint desk, paint dresser, crown molding, maybe take out carpet and refinish wood floor, make curtains and a headboard, decorate and maybe a fun chandelier like this one here, though out of my price range or this one here which would soooo go with the beastly chair. 

Rolled right over corner of closet

Hit the ceiling

So the night ended with one raging migraine (though not from fumes) and a capri blue room with only a few oops-a-daisies:

Mariah dropped roller on the floor

Stay tuned for more of Mariah's room list being crossed off.