Christmas Ornament Swap Sign up

Time for a Christmas Ornament Swap!

The rules will be simple because as I have said before.... I'm a simpleton. But I'm cool with it. Anyways here they go {and I'm hardly an expert at this so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to email them to me}

Rules for the swap

*leave a comment if you want to participate, make sure you either leave your email or have a link to your email on your blogger profile page. {Basically I need a way to get a hold of you to send you your partners info.}

*you can either MAKE or BUY an ornament, however there will be a $10 dollar limit. And if you find a cute one for less go for it. {I think the art of bargain hunting should make a comeback.}

*Ornaments should be mailed sometime in the beginning of December. If you and your partner work something else out, good to go, but the whole point is to have this ornament BEFORE the holidays. {However I know I'm organizing this late... my bad}

*You can sign up for the swap until Monday night {November 23 6pm} My goal is to get the names and emails out to you all by Weds. morning.

I hope we get a good number of people participating, this could be a lot of fun, a neat way to spread some Christmas cheer for not a whole lot. Oh and if your into holiday baking feel free to toss in some cookies in your box. Whoever gets me will be getting some kickass eggless chocolate chip cookies and some cranberry white chocolate cookies (those have eggs but they are delish!)

And please, spread the word on your blogs, the more the merrier!

Ornament swap

Christmas is coming.

Let's here a collective HOLY CRAP!!! I'm seriously lagging. And well.... I figure rather then get my nose to the grindstone I'll find more ways to be less productive around here and do what I enjoy....

Crafting. And everything that is Christmas. {Except standing in lines at w*lmart with a bunch of crazed shoppers. Baking, decorating, crafting = fun all the other stuff = not fun}

Allison is doing a secret santa for us bloggy folks (see the post below for the link) and I'm doing an ornament exchange and a craft exchange and I'm excited. I already have an idea for both. So I figured why not see if anyone else was interested in doing a ornament exchange. I found out about the one I just signed up for it on the last day for signups so why not host one here?

The rules could be simple, everyone is paired with one person, you can email them and check out their blog to get a feel for them and try to figure out what would be cute for them. Or then again you could give them a totally random ornament that you crafted or one from the base your stationed at, endless possibilities folks.

You're all thinkers, I have faith you can figure this out.

But it wont work unless folks are interested. So if you think this would be something you'd like to do leave a comment and if it seems like there are enough interested then I'll put up a clearer post about it in the next day or two.

And folks {ahem} after the post where I asked you all to come out of the woodwork I know there are a fair number of you reading.

Think about it and lets spread some Christmas cheer dammit.

Monday randomness and pictures (even of the flyboy)

Some random things that need to be addressed....

* my laptop, I'm sad to report, has bit the dust so to say. It had a nice run, it was flyboy's old one that we got before his first deployment waaaaaaaay back in the day seven years ago. Apparently it just wasn't meant to fall two feet and bounce back anymore. Sadly until I replace I will no longer be blogging in my jammies from my bed.

{sigh} that sucks.

And for those who were wondering which of the dash brothers just {might} have had something to do with this little fellow my darling dash 2.
* Allison at I heart change is doing a blogger secret santa. Sounds delightful right? Go over and check it out she's got the details and the sign up. Click here!

* At S*m's Club today I saw the biggest dbag in the parking lot. Well I didn't see them but I saw their car. Everyone saw it or rather noticed it.

They parked half in a spot that wasn't even a spot. It was the cart return but yet they just helped themselves and had their car hanging out half in the aisle. I'm puzzled as to what their thought process was.

"Hey here's a great spot, I mean only half the car will fit in it and it's filled with carts, and there is a sign that says something about a cart return here but surely they weren't talking about me. They probably put all that up to throw everyone else off the scent and to save this great spot for me. Yeah that's it...."

And in case you were wondering, no, no the parking lot was not even half full.

* People a couple houses up the street got a memory foam mattress. I don't know them and I don't know why they got it but I saw the box by the side of the road and I wanted to pass on the knowledge to you guys.

I'm a sharer what can I say.


* Oh and the picture of flyboy I promised in the title.


Trust me he's there. He's the big one they are jumping over. That's my boys in their natural state.... wrestling.


* Last week young dash 1 had to have a tooth pulled. His front tooth to be exact. His front tooth that we had already spent several hundred dollars on. But there was a chip and nothing more could be done so out it went.

He's smiling now but trust me. It was traumatic. And of course.... flyboy was away.

Show n tell the mrs' way

Sometime flyboy and I wonder why our kids are so strange. Lately we've been starting to think that we *might* be the problem.

First we are too sarcastic, second we like to tease, and most important, we don't think being kids exempts them from either of the just mentioned things. In fact it kinda just makes it more fun.

Take for instance show and tell. Show and tell is big. Very big. Lots of thinking and anticipation goes into it, after all dash-1 likes to tell me with glee that you get to sit in the middle of the circle and everyone *has* to listen to you. Just has too!

So he had show and tell today for the letter T, in case you need it explained to you like my husband did the item needed to start with the letter T. So of course when flyboy came home this weekend we did some brainstorming with dash-1 about what starts with the letter T.

He was a little slow on the uptake with this, he wanted to take in his bouncy ball collection and sadly I just couldn't figure out a T twist for it so that was a no go.

Here's what I mean about how we might be the root cause of our children's strangeness...

Our suggestions for T items were.... a copy of the Treaty of Versailles (what a success that was right?) now we don't have a copy but you can damn well guarantee that I would have searched one down for him to take it in.

And I'll have you know flyboy and I laughed for a while over that one. We still can't figure out what would be funnier a little four year old standing up proudly displaying his treaty or the look on the teachers face as he was doing this. Priceless. Shoot I'm laughing just typing this.

We also suggested
-a turtleneck (again how funny would it be to just be standing in the middle of the circle time rug with a boning turtle neck?! Who brings that in. Also priceless)

- a chunk of an Iraqi tank that flyboy brought home from one of his deployments over to the sandbox. (Perhaps on a military installation school this wouldn't have been so odd but as the only military kid he definitely would have been an oddball with that one)

- a tightrope (we let this one go pretty early on because we didn't think we'd have time to teach him how to perform on it)

- and the most inappropriate one.... which to our defense we only brought up to each other when the kids were in bed

*drumroll please*

a poster of the most wanted Iraqi terrorist that flyboy got during his first deployment. Complete in whatever language they speak/write in over there, Farsi I think, with big ol red X's over the faces of the people whom have already had the pleasure of meeting America's finest.

See.... I'm almost certain, flyboy and I are the problem here.

Oh and he ended up taking in a truck. How lame. The treaty would have been way funnier.

Walmart you're a tease

I was catching up on laundry today, I don't mind doing laundry because its a chore that can be done watching tv. I make my big old king bed, toss a couple of loads on there and sit away and fold. And in case your wondering the older boys are usually getting into some sort of trouble in their playroom and the little one is propped up on the laundry pile supervising.

My tv watching has lead to this post. I would like to take issue with a few things.

Ads.

First and foremost, W@lmart. I saw your ad wally world with the nifty jingle bells and the checkout lights coming on, all to tell us, the haggard Christmas shopper, that you will have more lines open for the holidays. I remember this same commercial last year. To you, Wally World I have this to say: LIAR!

LIAR LIAR LIAR!

Quite a few times (ok daily) I found myself in your store and there were only two lines open. And often some stellar employees standing around just staring, I'm sure they were working on fusing atoms or something who knows.

Look I go to W@lmart because of cheap prices, not superior service (and certainly not clean restrooms) but really, don't make something the central point of your ads if you aren't going to deliver. It's just mean.

Although on another note, W@lmart, I saw your ad thanking the troops for helping us all live better.... very nice.

Toss open another lane or two and you will have redeemed yourself in my eyes.

And another commercial. Or two.

First that insurance one with the stack of money with the eyes that follows people around. What idiot came up with that one and how much did they pay him. I'm wondering if his company is hiring. It's about time the dash brothers got a job. And judging from that ad they could work there.

And the Glade candle one. How stupid.

I mean really who is that worried that their friends will find out their candle isn't a designer one. I get it I get it, the whole point is that you can fool people but really, they woman just looks like a ninny. I'd like to think that most of the world has better things going on in their lives to concern themselves with a candle.

Of course I've just blogged about commercials so what's that say about me?

I know I'm leaving out some priceless commercials... feel free to add to the list.......

Happy Veterans Day!

To all who have served and continue to serve... THANK YOU!

Looking good for 234 years old

Whether you go by devil dog, leatherneck, jarhead, gyrene, or Marine, happy birthday!

2007- Parris Island