Motivation

Well I think it is time I get up and start doing something positive about my weight. So on my trip to Arizona, Jen & I decided to join forces and motivate each other to lose weight. As much as I hate how I look, we decided we needed a picture to motivate us. I am tired of looking this way. So we are counting calories. What an eye opener. Can't believe how many calories are in things and how small an actual serving size is. I also thought I would fess up to how much I would love to lose. See my ticker on the side bar.

Just for Fun

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
Fritz Walnut Ridge

2. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your middle name)
M-Lyn

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Manatee

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Lynn Washington

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of father’s middle name)
Lew-Mi-Sh

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The”, your favorite color, favorite drink)
The purple diet coke

7. NASCAR NAME: (the first name of both your grandfathers)
Frederick Sheldon

8. FUTURISTIC NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne and the name of your favorite kind of shoes)
Oscar De La Renta Flip Flops

9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father’s middle name)
Sue Sheldon

Friendship Adventures

What do you get when mix best friends, strawberry dacquiris, a hot tub, a scorpion hunter (aka Bill, Jen's smarter half) and his prey? A great time! This was just what I had in mind when I planned a little me time in Arizona.



Jen & I spent several hours sitting in the hot tub, only the third time for her here in Arizona, and oddly the second time for me in her hot tub. What fun to sit drinking dacquiris and having great in-person conversations.

We had even more laughs when Bill came home & joined us in the hot tub. Too bad for him that we drank all the dacquiris before he got home. Heidi, the poodle, interrupted the fun when she started limping around. It immediately sent Jen into a panic about scorpions. Thankfully we had the Scorpion Hunter by our side. With the help of a black light and some expert hunting skills, we found a mama scorpion carrying her babies on her back. She met her demise on Bill's weapon of choice, the bottom of Jen's flip-flop. (I'll rotate this when I get home, can't figure out this iMac stuff) I didn't think until afterwards that I should have captured it, froze it and brought it back to Ohio for Show & Tell.




Tomorrow Jen & I are off on another adventure! This time it will involve our next favorite activity. It ranks number 2 behind talking to each other. We are planning on leaving at 6:45 a.m. for this adventure. Stay tuned for more of Jen & Michelle's Excellent Adventure!

I learned something new

Hannah had a Brownie outing at the Metro Park on their Monarch Day.
While there we got to do butterfly crafts, see a puppet show and even hold butterflies.
The exciting part was being able to hold a butterfly and see them close-up. At the end of the event, the Monarch Butterflies were all released to begin their journey.

I never knew that the Monarch Butterfly will migrate to Mexico beginning now and will arrive in Mexico around Thanksgiving and stay there for the winter and then cross over the border. They better watch out for Steve the Border Patrol agent! :-) They will lay eggs in Texas and then die. The new butterflies will then fly north for the summer. I never knew they lived that long or anything about them migrating.

Hannah took her friend with us on the excursion. Hannah at first was afraid that the butterfly would hurt her but eventually warmed up to letting it crawl on her. Parker seemed to like having the butterfly walk on him.


It was a neat learning experience and Hannah will also get to earn a Girl Scout Patch for it. The only sad part was that the butterfly we were given to release probably won't make the journey to Mexico, as he had a damaged wing.

Will it be Broadway or bust?

So school has been back in swing for a few weeks now. Now the activities are all starting into full swing. This year Hannah is taking 2 dance classes (tap & jazz) and Parker is taking his first ever dance class (Tap). Parker ended up with one of Hannah's favorite instructors from last year, Miss Holly. Not sure how Parker will end up doing in class. Outside of class he does many of the things and is always excited to go to class but once there he spends a lot of time sucking his thumb and just watching, although in fairness it has only been 2 classes. Right now there are 3 in his class, but another is joining next week, so there will be 2 boys and 2 girls. It ought to make for a really cute recital dance.

Hannah has been trying out various classes but not by her choice. The jazz class on the night we wanted only had her in it, so now we are deciding what nights to do which class, so we have been busy this week trying out various ones. Her friend Connor is taking Tap with her, so we are trying to work out a schedule that they can still be in class together.









Doubt either will ever be dance sensations on Broadway, but you never know. For now we are having fun and that's what counts.

Names

So I'm reading through the SBA Blog Ring and noticed two different posts regarding names, so it got me thinking about names. The first was about how common your name is. When Michael & I had kids we wanted names that weren't common, yet not weird. So here is how we did.

Hannah is the #367 most common female name.
0.045% of females in the US are named Hannah.
Around 57375 US females are named Hannah!

Lucas is the #381 most common male name.
0.031% of men in the US are named Lucas.
Around 37975 US men are named Lucas!

Parker is the #878 most common male name.
0.006% of men in the US are named Parker.
Around 7350 US men are named Parker!

This is coming from two people with common names.

Michael is the #4 most common male name.
2.629% of men in the US are named Michael.
Around 3220525 US men are named Michael!

Michelle is the #21 most common female name.
0.519% of females in the US are named Michelle.
Around 661725 US females are named Michelle!

If you want to find out how common or uncommon your name is, visit http://www.namestatistics.com/.

The other post was regarding nicknames. For the most part I don't mind nicknames.
In fact you can tell when someone has been around my family too much. They begin to call me Shelley. Didn't mind that as a kid, but somehow I just don't feel like a Shelley anymore. The kids' names for the most part don't have "traditional" nicknames with the exception of Lucas. I loved the name Lucas but almost didn't name him that because I didn't like the name Luke. He's 11 now and for 99% of the world, he is still Lucas. A small part of my dad's family will sometimes call him Luke or Lukey (yuck). There has been also an occasional coach call him Luke, but I quickly correct them on that. If you want him to pay attention when he is halfway across the field, call him Lucas or he won't respond.

Hannah occasionally gets called "Hannah Banana". At her current age, that is okay. If you had called her that 2 years ago, she would have politely asked you to not to call her that as her name was "Hannah" not "Hannah Banana". Her daddy and I sometimes call her girl-zilla. It can match her temperament at times.

Parker sometimes is "Buddy Boy", but for the most part doesn't have a nickname. He affectionately calls Lucas "Bubby" and Hannah "Sissy". It is sad though as he gets older, I hear him say Sissy less and more of Hannah, although I still here a lot of Bubby.

So how common is your name and do you have a nickname?

Just not the same

Well hearing Jen always talk about missing Pittsburgh and watching the Steeler game last night makes me think of home. Unlike Jen, I don't want to move back there but wish I would visit more often. I sometimes feel that even with how close we are to Pittsburgh (3 hours drive), that we live in a different world. Here you need to be a Buckeye fan or people think there is something wrong with you. Sorry but don't think I'll ever get into college football being someone who grew up watching the Steelers. Hate that we don't get all the Steeler games here but we are often pre-empted by Steeler rival games like Cleveland or Cincinnati.

So being in the mood I was today, I decided to let Parker wear his #39 shirt that I had made for him last season. Nobody even said anything and I'm sure they just thought it said Parker because that is his name. So how many people would know that this is Willie Parker's # here? Wonder too if Willie feels tired like my Parker today.

Well wish me luck as Michael & I are off on a date to a Buckeye vs. Texas football party tomorrow. Guess I need to go shopping for some scarlet & gray. After six years, I can tell you their colors, the coach's name and that shopping during their games is the best time to go as the stores are empty, except for the grumpy cashiers who had the misfortune of working during the Buckeye game.

Well its not the same as Pittsburgh here but it is our home now!

So I wonder, what happens when you mix scarlet & gray with black & gold?

Jinxed

I should have known the second I let it come out of my mouth I was in for trouble. Today I ran into my next door neighbor at the store and we were talking about how life changes for a person when they have a baby. She commented that you never get a good night's sleep again and said of how at how her kids (ages 3- 9) are up throughout the night.

My fatal mistake - Saying I'm fortunate that all three of my kids once we finally get them to sleep, will sleep through the night without getting up.

Result - I checked in on the kids before heading to bed a little after midnight. Parker is laying wide awake in his bed telling me about a guy on his ceiling fan. I turned it off to show him there was nothing there and try to get him to go back to sleep. Then closer to 1:00 a.m. when Michael & I have both finally fallen asleep, in walks Parker. I think Michael was up about 3 times last night with him.

Lesson Learned - Keep my mouth shut! The 4 hours and 45 minutes of very interrupted sleep is going to make for a very interesting day,

Can't wait for more!

Looking at this picture makes me happy and sad. Happy in the fact that the kids and I got to spend a few hours with my brother Steve before he headed back to Arizona. I hate that he is so far away. As adults we can communicate in various ways but for a kid, nothing beats time spent together. As I watched Steve play with all the kids, I was both happy and sad again. I love the goofiness of their interactions, something Lucas and Hannah expect from being with Uncle Steve. Sad in that Parker hasn't had much time to spend with Steve to build that kind of relationship. He really enjoyed though playing with him and spoke several times today about Uncle Steve. I'll be really happy when Steve and Jennifer can move back to the east. He wants back in PA but I think it would be even cooler if they moved near me in Ohio. Can't wait for them to have more times getting "knuckle sandwiches", throwing walnuts at trees, hanging shoes in trees and just having fun together.

Labor Day & a Labor of Love

Well as many of you know, we undertook the project of redecorating the kitchen in mid-August. It has been quite laborious at times ranging from removing 2 layers of wallpaper, to Venetian plastering for the first time with its many steps and then to the debates over room decorations. For the most part the room is complete minus some finishing touches but wanted to post on the progress. Once my order comes from Ebay and one other major item is changed, it may become a success.

Before I proceed further, I have to thank my dear husband for putting up with all my craziness on this project. I finally put the finishing touches on my scrapbook inspired table project late yesterday afternoon and he carefully polyurathened it for me. Last night before going to bed we were looking at our nearly completed kitchen. I'm surprised he didn't shoot me when I said that I didn't like the table in our now classy looking kitchen. Would he be upset if I used it in another room and get a new table instead? So he was fine with that, even though I had spent countless hours on the table and had ordered 6 new chairs in order for our family of 5 to all sit in matching chairs. So the table will now be relocated to another room, either the scrapbook room or the dining room. I feel another redecorating project in the making if it goes into my currently mauve and wine colored dining room.


He also has put up with my countless trips to the store for decorative items. But then again I put up with his idea to put lights above the cabinets, which I love but it was a large debate to find the right lights for the vision. We also had great ideas that seemed great at the time, but later weren't totally to plan. You can visit his blog he just started to find out more about that. Be warned that he is new to blogging but also a bit of a geek, although a wonderful geek that I am so fortunate to have as my husband. http://live2model.blogspot.com/

After much debate about my found metal words in copper tones, we followed a wise woman's advice and hung the 3 words I currently had instead of 13-15 different metal words all in different fonts and sizes I saw on Ebay. That is what I was trying to figure out in the picture with the pieces of paper stuck to the wall. Thanks Kathye for the great advice. Don't particularly like the word spirit, so I am in search of a replacement word. Got a Meijer in your area? Please look for me or if you find cool metal words somewhere, let me know.



So here is the transformed kitchen from wallpapered, birdhouse, Pfaltzgraff Naturewood inspired (see earlier post) to Venetian plastered, glass bottles/vases and grapevines. I've already swapped out a few pieces from when I took these pictures this morning, so if you want to see it in its current state, then stop by for a visit. I remembered this morning on my way to visit my Grandmother that I had a few wonderful glass pieces that she had given me that I would love to showcase rather than some meaningless but pretty pieces of glass.

Still need to get 2 new bettas for the island bowls, paint and decorate my altered bulletin board, repaint some hanging half-buckets to use for mail, get a new table and possibly new chairs, a new throw rug, paint the word family in black, fiddle with getting the curtains/scarves to hang appropriately, get my ebay shelves and hang them in the connecting hall and decide if the wall of doors both near the laundry and the 3 on the opposite wall need something to break up the sea of green. Any suggestions, please offer them.


My favorite areas of the room are above the cabinets, the cool copper cross I hung in the window and the actual curtains (not thrilled with the way they are hanging yet but help is on the way this week). One other thing I love about my curtains are that they remind me of my best friend. Why you ask? Well I am talking to her on the cell phone while shopping and she tells me that she finally found curtains for her living room. Can you believe they are the same exact curtains I had in my hand at that very moment? So I think these curtains were meant to be my daily reminder of her even though she is thousands of miles away.


Close up of curtains:









Close up of Venetian plastering (or at least my version of it):

The pictures don't truly show the beauty of pieces above the cabinets. I'll try and take some better ones soon. Too tired to do that now. Thanks for letting me share yet another redecorating project. Not sure what has gotten into Michael and I, but this is now the fifth of 12 rooms in the house that we have redecorated in 2006.