Jenn's Journal

Race

More giveaways added for the Third Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange!

I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating and gives the back story for my question, so here it goes.  Every year we take two kids off the Salvation Army Angel Tree.  We started when we were trying and failing to have kids and then had a miscarriage.  That year we bought for a kid in memory of the one we lost.  We had another miscarriage the next year and now we always get two kids off the tree to buy for.  As the boys start to understand, we'll include them in the tradition and try to pick kids close to their age.  I usually try to pick girls off the tree to satisfy my need to buy pink frilly things.

Each tag lists the child's first name, their clothing sizes, and three toys or gift ideas.  One of our girls this year wanted a bike, scooter, and a Dora doll and stroller.  Bike and scooter not really in our budget, but a Dora doll and stroller and a few other toys are.  The other girl wanted a bike, dishes set, and a doll.  No bike, but I did find a cute dishes set, so that leaves the doll.

Now, growing up, I almost always had dolls that looked more like me.  And most of my friends did too.  My white friends had mostly white dolls and my black friends had mostly black dolls, though it seems like my black friends had more white dolls than my white friends had black dolls.  But that's filtered through 20 years of memories, so may not be entirely accurate.  When Cabbage Patch Dolls were all the rage, I had one with blond hair, my sister had one with red hair, and my cousin had a boy doll.  All closest to what we looked like. 

So I'd like buy the Angel Tree girls dolls that look like them.  But I don't know what they look like.  So I ended up standing in the doll aisle wondering which doll to get.  If I can get a character doll like Dora, great.  If I can find a doll that has medium tones and could look like a big range of people, great.  But usually the choices are, well, black and white.

Am I just over thinking this?  I mean, I certainly don't care what doll my kids play with as long as it's not dressed like a $10 hooker.  Do you tend to buy dolls that look like the kid you're buying for?  Do your kids have a range of different looking dolls?  Should I just stop worrying about it and pick a doll already? 

Hmmm

Decapitated dolls. Merry Christmas kids!

Giveaways!

So for the Third Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange, these are the giveaways that will be randomly drawn from everyone who participates by midnight (EST) on December 12th.

For linking to this post about the cookie exchange before December 12th to help spread the word, you'll be eligible to win The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Cookies cookbook.  Be sure to let me know you've linked so I don't miss anyone.

 

Ebeanstalk has offered this CUTE Stacking Toy and Ball Game for one lucky participant.  If you've never checked out ebeanstalk, you really should.  I know what my own kids like, but this year I'm buying for three year olds for the Angel Tree and I have no idea what three year olds are into.  You can search by age, but even down to like 2 and 3/4 years old.  Plus they have this cool "Head-to-Toe System" that points out which skills the toy helps with.  For example, the Stacking Toy and Ball Game focus on dexterity and locomotion.  That came in handy when I was looking for toys that focused on speech and language when I was worried about the boys.  There just isn't junk on the site, there are high quality toys that serve a purpose.  I like it.  The end.

  I have two cards that contain 10,000 Bear Bills and a free virtual ride of your choice at buildabearville.com which I confess to know know nothing about.  But what is also included that I DO know something about is a $10 Donorschoose.org gift card.  You can go to the Donorschoose.org site and pick which project you'd like to help fund.  Teachers of in need students make proposals for things they need or want for their class.  You can help fund basic school supplies, art supplies, classroom furniture, field trips, almost anything you want. 

Bangerang Bake Shop has generously donated one Cupcake in a Jar™ plus shipping.  Seriously.  Look at those flavors.  Drunken Johnny™ -Rum cake with Rum Glaze Topped with Rum Buttercream.  Sunshine Gingerbread Gang™ -Chocolate Gingerbread Cake Topped with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting.  The New Nut Job™ -Chocolate Cake layered with peanut butter buttercream, topped with ganache and chopped roasted peanuts.  Ok I have to stop; drool is collecting on the keyboard.

One batch of the recipe I added on the First Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange, Grandma Chip Cookies.  Fresh from my kitchen to you. 

A 100 piece cookie cutter set.  You know, so you have no excuse for the Fourth Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange.

That's all for now, but I'll be updating as more come in.  Anyone interested in donating a prize, email me.

The Third Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange

It's that time of year!  The Third Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange will take place on December 12th.  That should give everyone plenty of time to find a favorite cookie recipe.  Plus this year, GIVEAWAYS!  I haven't decided what yet (any sponsors interested in donating a prize, email me!), but there WILL be prizes awarded via random drawing from those who participate.  My hope is to make this one even bigger than the First Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange.

To participate, post a cookie recipe on your blog on December 12th and link back here or the post that will go up on the 12th.  Pictures aren't necessary, but always welcome.  Leave a comment on this post if you plan to participate so I can start looking for your posts.  If you want to post early, awesome, just let me know via comment or email that it's up.  I'll link all the recipes in a post on December 12th. 

To get us started, you can win The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Cookies cookbook for linking to this post on your blog.  Just let me know you've linked and I'll randomly draw a winner on the twelfth.  So go forth, link, and bake!

Now THAT'S dinner

Happy Thanksgiving

While I'm not thankful Nick walked in on me in the shower, I am thankful he is too young to be permanently scarred by it.

Embarrassing Moments in History, Part Three - The Final Frontier

So I was in the band front.  Some call it color guard or flag corp, we called it band front.  The part of the marching band that twirls the flags during the halftime show or in parades.  This increase my nerd factor 200 percent right there. 

We had some pretty damn ridiculous get ups.  Like the head to toe yellow spandex with gold sequins that we wore for Fourth of July parades.  Do you know how HOT spandex is when the only part of your body not covered in it is your head?  Or the time we had to dress like cowgirls and used American flag patterned windsocks in our routine.  There was the Aladdin pants and the trench coats for theme song from James Bond.  So I guess I really should be thankful only a four pictures survived this era of shame and humiliation.

 

If you can believe it, we were happy to have these outfits.  Happy!  They replaced the aforementioned yellow sequined numbers.  I don't know what the deal with the boa is.  I've probably blocked that out.

 

Ah yes, the tuxedo outfit.  Black knit pants with a tuxedo shirt is never complete without gold sequined suspenders and a bow tie.  And the suspenders never stayed in place because we had boobs.  And the lovely gold lame flags.  Gold lame is a little too light of a material and sometimes when we tossed them up in the air, the wind would catch it just the right way and take off without the weight of the fabric to pull it down.  I think I only really clocked one band member.  Oh and in that one, the photographer wanted an "action shot".  Thanks.

 

The annual Christmas parade.  What you can't really see is that the gold star is made out of a pipe cleaner.  The ornaments are red fuzzy pom poms and the beads are only attached on the ends.  The Christmas tree is detachable and every year we had to baste it onto a white sweatshirt.  The holly leaves on the skirt were pinned on with a safety pin.  So you always had the vague feeling that your entire outfit could fall apart with a strong gust of wind.  And as if that wasn't bad enough:

Don't forget the elf hat with jingle bell.  Merry Christmas.

Embarrassing Moments in History, Part Two - Mile High

Middle school.  Blech.  Did anyone anywhere actually enjoy middle school? 

As you can see the beginnings of the bangs started here.  A little high, but not quite mile high yet.

I was totally rocking that glitter sweatshirt and the laser beam background. 

Like, totally thrilled to be at the first school dance.  As if.

Ah, here we go:

Careful teasing, then smoothing, then hairspray, then smoothing, later, rinse, repeat.

Then I must have come to my sense in eighth grade (about the hair, not the wardrobe, fuchsia fishnet top???  Man I loved that shirt though):

But fear not!  Because high school brought a resurgence of the bangs!

Oh yeah.

Again I came to my senses (again, with the hair, not the wardrobe, this is my prom dress):

I ended on a high note I think, but had bangs for the next 10 years.

Part Three tomorrow.  I was in the band front.  Not the band, the flags.  Those pics deserve their owner post.

Embarassing Moments in History, Part One -The Early Years

Since I promised some pictures of me with mile high bangs, I was flipping through our old family photo albums the other day.  So now I have not only a couple of pictures with mile high bangs, but many bad pictures to share so you can feel my pain.

Let's start of with the early years:

Awww.  That dark area on top of my head is actually a birthmark.  It's under my hair but goes all over my scalp down to the back of my neck.

I didn't have much hair when I was born, but I soon made up for it:

Which pretty much set the tone for the rest of my life with my hair and will play a recurring role in the photos.

Elementary school was pre-mile high bangs, but you can see why my hair plagues me.

Why, yes, I am holding my breathe above water.  In a wading pool. 

  

Fifth grade brought a new hairstyle.  One I'm obviously thrilled with in the second picture.  I think it was supposed to be feathered.  Feathered bangs and curly/wavy hair do not work well together.  And yes, it was the eighties. 

Tomorrow we'll go to middle school where mile high bangs make their first, but not last, appearance.

Sleeeep

We have been in a vortex of sleep issues around here this week.  The boys were sick, coughing and congestion kept them up.  William willingly takes medicine and even enjoys it I suspect, so between a rotating schedule of Tylenol, ibuprofen, Benadryl, and honey, he got some decent sleep.  Nick, on the other hand, I couldn't convince him to drink medicine or honey if the fate of the world depended on it. 

We were able to use Fever All when we HAD to, as fun as that was, but nothing else.  No Benadryl for the congestion, no honey for the cough which were his main issues.  Eventually after going in his room more times than an Obama is the Anti-Christ email gets passed around, we gave up and brought him into bed with us...after taking an oral syringe and trying to force some benadryl in him.  It sounded like he was snoring when he was awake.  But it wasn't in his lungs, all upper.  He fell asleep and we moved him back to bed finally at 2 am. 

And then last night happened.  We had a busy day.  My mom will be out of town on Thanksgiving, so we had a big dinner there.  This meant the boys got a nap in the car on the way there, which was only about 15 minutes.  Dave sat out in the car with them once we arrived to let them sleep some more, but it was cold and that didn't last too long.  So no real nap.  Then we were out sort of late, we got home about eight.  They went right to sleep without a peep. 

Until 11pm.  William slept, but Nick, Nick was up and crying.  Dave went up about 50 times and tried to settle him down.  At this point it was more whining than really crying so we tried leaving him alone.  That didn't work.  Finally at 12:30 am we gave up and brought him to bed with us.

Now, I don't have problems if other people choose to co-sleep.  Great!  Fine!  I'm all about whatever gets everyone the most sleep.  For me, I don't sleep well or at all with a kid in the bed.  And not only was Nick in bed, he was clinging to me like a baby monkey.  Even when I turned away, he burrowed into my back, I can only assume to try to meld with me because it felt like he would crawl into my skin if possible.  Last night was a little better with less melding, but still, he's there.  I need more space.  At 2 I got up and transferred him to his bed.  Where he slept...

Until 3am.  Then more crying/whining and wondering if he could sleep out on the deck so the rest of us could just GET SOME SLEEP ALREADY.  But no, crying/whining for another hour. 

I don't know what the problem or solution is.  I can't think about it too much because I'm so tired.