NEW MOON=NO; MICKEY & CO. = YES!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or simply don’t care (possible), “Twilight Saga: NEW MOON” comes out nationwide tonight at midnight.

I have 2 tickets to see it, but decided not to go and brave the Teen/Tween/Extreme TWIHARD Masses. I don’t think I have it in me to A) Park 5 miles away (b/c I’m sure it will be packed and B) Get there extra early to find a good seat. I’ve been getting my fill of all things TWILIGHT anyway w/their press tour and talk show tour.

My SIL and her family are here visiting from Texas and have graciously offered to watch the girls so we could watch, but A) They’re here visiting!!! B) That’s just rude that they’ll be sleeping over and we won’t be here to entertain them and C) They’re here visiting and we’re going to make them babysit? NOT!

Instead, we will go as planned to Disney on Ice with our girls and the Texans will sleepover and we’ll have movie night! I think that sounds more fun than dealing w/teens, raging hormones, sitting elbow to elbow, etc…I’ll either catch NEW MOON in a couple of weeks when the hoop-la dies down a bit OR wait for it on Netflix – which is the higher possibility. Do you know that the last movie we saw in a theater was a Harry Potter flick in 2007??? I think it was “Order of the Phoenix”.

Feeling….ACCOMPLISHED!

NOTE: This post is both embarassing and fulfilling. I can’t believe we were living in such a cluttered mess!
About a month ago, I got bit with the cleaning bug. Not just the ordinary, dust and vacuum kinda bug, the serious one. The one where I empty everything out, declutter, scrub down, etc. I entered my MAGDA mode and am loving the results. Now, I didn’t clean every single day this past month, but sometimes, it sure felt like it.

I started with our “office” area, dining room, kitchen and living room. Papers were shred, old toys put away, countertops cleared off, etc. However, I didn’t clean out the pantry or all the other cabinets, not yet anyway. Still, it’s nice to be able to see the dining room table and shiny countertops and the house not looking like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse all the time.

I moved on upstairs to our bedrooms. We only have a 2 bedroom house, but it still took forever to clean them. I had to keep reminding myself that it didn’t take a day, a week or even a month to pile up the mess, it’s not going to get all nice and clean and pretty in a day or week either…But, I do believe I did it in less than a month so that’s got to account for something.

I’m actually embarassed to post the BEFORE pictures, but I feel like they will make you feel my pain even more

See this mess? This is the girls’ room.

They “share” a room. And by share, I mean they have their clothes in there. They don’t sleep there…all 4 of us sleep on our bed (no comments about co-sleeping from the Peanut Gallery. It’s what’s worked for us so far). So, what happens when summer’s over, birthday presents pile up, Halloween costumes need to get put away and you’ve got 2 girls’ clothes to sort through? This…where you can’t even see the floor anymore.

And this, after weeks of sorting and piling and hanging/folding clothes and organizing…this? This looks so much better! I can even see the floor! However, no more mess = more obvious that the furniture is all mismatched. Hey, at least we have some, right? The closet still looks messy, but believe me, that’s TONS better than it was. AND, all their socks are organized and paired up (except for those stragglers probably stuck in the washer/dryer somewhere).

Beans LOVED it when she saw it and now has been sleeping there again! Who knew that’s all she wanted? Just a side note though, Beans stopped sleeping in her room BEFORE the mess piled up so it’s not that we were trying to make her sleep and find her way to her bed by going through an obstacle course. I think what happened was that she got sick and wanted to just lay in bed with us and then that was that.

Now, see this mess? This is our room. Bins have been sitting in there where we switch out our summer/winter clothes. Once the switch was done, the bins were supposed to go in the attic. However, they’ve just been sitting there and next thing you know, it was time to switch the clothes around again. They became permanent fixtures in our room and we would throw our clothes on top of them b/c our closet needed to get cleared out/organized or we were in a rush when changing or whatever.

I decided that with organizing, you need to spend money. The economy sucks, we got a 4% reduction in our pay (pDaddy and I actually work for the same company), but to get organized, you need to spend on organizational what-have-yous. As for us, I hit Target and got a couple of 3 shelf cabinets we could stick inside our closet for more room to store clothes, sheets, etc. I assembled the cabinets myself, thank you very much.

It’s still not where I want it to be, but I’m waiting for the cabinets to go on sale again and we need to take another trip to the attic to put up the rest of the summer clothes I found. Still, again, I can see the floor!

I’ve also decluttered and scrubbed down the bathrooms. Next stop? Kitchen pantry and cabinets!

Boots!

It’s been crazy around here so posting has been put on the back burner. BUT, I just wanted to share the fact that I finally found these boots! These boots that I’ve been drooling over since I saw them at Target and on Target’s website.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, I’ve banned myself from Target. I went there once to get fish food which cost about $2.50. I left that day with my receipt showing $249+. That same week, I went there 3x and spent way more than I should have…Between getting things to organize around the house and clothes for me and the girls, it was just too much and NONE of that was for Christmas shopping (I still think it’s too early, though I’m getting bit by the bug slowly, but surely).

However, I saw these boots in the store and I just had to have them! Unfortunately, they didn’t have my size in the store (7) and since I couldn’t try them I didn’t want to buy them online in a smaller size. They only had 5, 5.5, 6.5 and 11 available online. I was going to buy the 6.5 online, but didn’t want to bother with shipping (they’re $49.99 so it doesn’t qualify for the “spend $50 and get free shipping special) and having to possibly return them, etc.

Yesterday, the girls & I met up w/my SIL and my niece because I wanted to get my niece the same dress and boots as my girls so they could match on Thanksgiving (I’m weird like that…totally taking after my mom who used to dress my brother/sister the same and my cousins and I the same). While going to get the boots for my niece, I decided to look at the Women’s Shoes and lo and behold, there they were. Size 7s! I tried them on and they were too big!!! I started to frantically look for a 6.5 and again, lo and behold, there they were on the top shelf (almost missed it).

How cute are they? Totally would go so nicely with some dresses, skirts and even jeans! I cannot wait to wear them! They’re not as comfy as the reviews on the website said, but I think that’s because my right foot is a bit bigger/wider, but whatever…I don’t plan on walking miles in them. I also scored on some clearance dresses and so I think I have my Thanksgiving outfit ready…

I just love that Target has so many cute clothes now. I don’t even really hit any other store for my fashion choices. I’m frugal like that, but I just need to remember to buy in small doses!

Wordful Wednesday – Halloween

I know, I know, I’m late. But, just like Angie, I can’t upload pics fast enough!

If you’ve been reading, you’ll know that we have been planning a birthday party for Beans on Halloween. It was the first Halloween Party ANY of our family members have ever thrown and it was a doozy! It wasn’t as I expected, but hey, those Halloween decorations could add up!

I wanted to decorate my parents’ house with one room all pumpkin-patchy like and another more dark and haunted, but, kids…I didn’t want to scare the kids too much NOR could we afford to go all out with decorations.

Anyway, decorated to the nines or not, it was a success! Exhausting, but successful nonetheless We had BEAUTIFUL 70 degree weather during the day and the rain held off for the most part until night. We had kiddies/adults dressed as the White Ninja (Strom Shadow from GI Joe), Cats, Wondergirls, Groovy 60s girl, Simba, Pumpkins, Fairies, Batman, Pregnant Nun, Priest, Dead guy, Superwoman, Tinkerbell, Snow White, a Knight, Pocahantas/Native Americans, etc…I’m not going to post all their pics on Flickr b/c I didn’t ask their permission. Trust me though, it was awesome and fun to see almost everyone in costume.

The following are pictures from Halloween…aka Beans’ 4th Birthday Costume Party…aka Pumpkin Picking Just like Angie said, better late than never (To see more participants for Wordful Wednesday, check out Angie’s blog).
Beans was Cinderella and would be a Diva w/a costume change later on.

Razz was Minnie Mouse.

pDaddy was a Clone Trooper while I was a Pirate, Wench or “Deck Hand Darling” (as the costume description said).

Here are the 3 of us – minus Razz because she decided she didn’t care too much about the party and wanted to nap for 3 hours instead!

Cake was made by my MUM especially for Beans. Cinderella and a Pirate theme all-in-one – talk about custom made.

Here’s a pic of Me & Little Me after her costume change My eyes are closed, but it’s the only picture of the 2 of us in our matching attire. It was around 8pm already. Her party started at 1pm and she had NO nap.

We didn’t get pictures of the goodie bags, but we did them like Razz’ – brown paper lunch bags w/die-cuts on them. This time, instead of apples, we had die-cuts of pumpkins, ghosts and skulls.

To see a few more – check out my Halloween 2009 set over @ Flickr.

Eleven-Eleven

Today is Veterans Day. We should all take a moment in our day to thank and pray for our troops out there fighting for our Freedom and those who have fought for our freedom.

It’s sad to say, that sometimes, when they come back from the War, they have not much to start with, are disabled, etc. Can you imagine coming back “home” with no one or nothing to care for you? Where your hospital and regular bills just pile up b/c the government is trying to find money to pay you?

I always get calls soliciting for donations whether it be to support some organziation dealing with cancer, the police, the firefighters and of course veterans. A few weeks ago, I posted about these solicitors and I was a bit on the angry side of things. I just don’t like getting calls starting at 8am all the way until almost 9pm. Send me something in the mail, you’ll have higher chances of me donating instead of calling me everyday.

Thanks to Miss Zoot, I am donating online to Eleven-Eleven.org. All they ask is that you donate $11. If you can’t, just pass it along so others may…Let’s support our brave men and women who have given, and are giving, so much to protect our right of Freedom!