The Toy Box Years: 2011-09-18

First Day of Fall!!

>> Friday, September 23, 2011

I am such a happy girl! Today is the first day of fall! You can feel it in the air -- the cooler temperatures at night....the crisp cool air in the morning. The days still fluctuate with warmer temperatures right now -- but hey -- I'll take what I can get!!

Last night I started on a new craft project. My vision isn't complete yet, but here's a sneek peek --

I made this from these:

Plastic megaphones - found in the $1 section of Michael's -- on clearance for .09/each!!
AND they are a LOT cheaper than the floral foam cones!

I have to admit that it didn't go as smoothly as I expected at first. The yarn kept slipping until I pulled out my handy-dandy glue gun and strategically placed strips of hot glue around it. I still have about 3-4 to make!

I also pulled out my fall decorations this week. This year, I opted to lighten up on the Halloween decortions and stick with a general "fall" theme.....that way I can just keep them up through Thanksgiving.

1st living room endtable

2nd living room endtable

Kitchen table
(Pumpkins courtesy of The Dollar Tree)

Kitchen window sill

Power room - #1

Power room #2
(I still have to finish up the project with the black and orange cauldron)

How do you bring in the fall?

Wordless Wednesday - Ready for Off-Roading

>> Wednesday, September 21, 2011

DIY Peg Number Boards

>> Tuesday, September 20, 2011

While searching for a birthday gift for Nudgie, I came across these at Lakeshore Learning....

I LOVED the concept, but didn't love the price ($34.95). I started searching for a cheaper version, and in the end, decided that I would make my own.

I was lucky enough to find some scrap wood at a local garage sale for free. (I'll admit that it was actually in a paint bucket that she was using as a trash can. So does that make me an official trashpicker now??) We had the paint already and the only thing I ended up buying was a bag of golf tees for $3.

My Marine graciously cut the wood down to size for me and then I pulled out my favorite power tool (my sander!) and got to work!

Once sanded and all cleaned up, I then put on a couple coats of paint. It was a nice day, so fortunately, they dried pretty quickly too!

After they were dry, I started to put the numbers on, but the stencils I had were too big. So I went online, found some numbers and printed them out. I then reduced them on my copier, cut them out with hubby's Exacto-Knife and then painted them on the boards. (I apologize because for some reason, I don't have a photo of these being painted!)

Once those were dry, I pulled out my second-favorite power tool - the drill - and drilled the holes in the board. My Marine did a great job of setting up the drill bit so that the golf tees fit perfectly. (And I only drilled completely through about 4 holes!)

All done!!

And that was it!!! Now it was time to play!!

Total Cost to Make: $3

Wood - Free
Paint - Free
Stencils - Free
Golf Tees - $3

Much better than $34.95 (plus shipping!), I'd say!!!

Anxiety, Friends and The Odd Girl Out......

>> Monday, September 19, 2011

I don't make friends easily. There, I said it.

It's hard for me to make friends. Inside, I'm a very shy, insecure person and the thought of walking into a room full of people I don't know -- or don't know well -- sends me into a major anxiety attack. Not sure where this all comes from, but I've been this way for as long as I could remember. But because of that -- it's very hard for me to approach people -- to try to put myself out there and make new friends.

Oh sure, I've got "friends" -- I've made a lot of friends through college, through work, through the military. But the one thing I've been missing is the "Friend".......you know the one.....the Friend you can call any time to share any thing. The Friend who knows you better than you know yourself. The Friend who knows your deepest darkest fears and secrets and loves you just the same. The Friend who knows exactly what you need when you need it.

Even within my group of "friends" - I've always felt like the odd one out -- the third wheel so to speak. You can sense the closeness that the others have....but I feel like an afterthought. Oh yeah.....let's include her too and I feel like the tagalong.

And when those feelings come up - I tend to pull back....pull away.....withdraw.....back into my shell, back into the safety and comfort of my home.....my kids, my dog, My Marine. That's safe. In my comfort zone, I don't have to put myself out there and risk getting hurt or exposing myself. Because exposing myself means that I won't be liked.

I want to have deeper friendships....but doing that means I have to open up.....and to open up means I have to expose all my quirks and imperfections.....but I can't do that because I need to keep up with the facade that I am perfect wife and perfect mom......and because I'm not the perfect wife and perfect mom, then I can't be the perfect friend either......so if I'm not the perfect friend, why would anyone want to be in a friendship with me.....so let's just withdraw.....if I don't expose myself, then you can't hurt me.

What a vicious circle of thinking, don't you think?

Kind of feels pretty silly to be worried about something like this so late in my life. Most women, by this point, are incredibly secure with themselves and their thinking and their friendships. I suppose that's why I love blogging so much....it just gives me the chance to express, vent, share something that I probably wouldn't even DARE talk about with an "in-real-life" friend.

I guess you could say my blog is my friend. :-)

So....pardon my random thought process this morning. I think I'll go schedule another appointment with my therapist now! Ha! Ha!

Menu Monday - 9/19

Menu Monday

I had to do a little adjusting last week due to some late night flying on My Marine's part. A couple meals I didn't get to make, so they're being recycled into this week!

So, here's our menu for the week of 9/19!

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Monday - 9/19

Chicken breasts in crockpot (2 envelopes of onion soup mix & 1 bottle catalina dressing)
Mashed potatoes
Green beans

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Tuesday - 9/20 (Night flight)

Chicken nuggets
Rice

Broccoli

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Wednesday - 9/21 (Night Flight)

Grilled cheese
Tater tots
Green beans
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Thursday - 9/22

"Literacy Night" at Nani's school - Dinner provided

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Friday - 9/23

Nachos
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Saturday - 9/14

Potato soup with ham, cheese & corn
Homemade yeast rolls

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Sunday - 9/25

Crockpot Parmesan Pork Roast
(I'm stilly DYING to make this recipe!)
Rice
Broccoli
Rolls and butter

*********************************************Happy Eating!!!

Tot School - A Little of This and That

>> Sunday, September 18, 2011

(Nudgie is 38 months old) (To see what others are doing at Tot School, click on the "Tot School" above!) **************************************
So, we're getting back into the swing of Tot School. I'm still trying to find the right schedule for us. Last week, it seemed like I ran errands every single day and didn't get much schooling done at all. This week, Mother Nature decided to be generous and grace us with a glimpse of cool, fall weather. So we spent a lot of time outside playing!

I did change out her Tot Trays this week, but we really didn't spend too much time on them -- we preferred being outside! So I'll keep the trays for the upcoming week.

We spent a lot of time outside playing with our number peg boards. I made these out of some scrap wood that I picked up for free at a garage sale. (Full post on this coming soon!)

We moved her little play kitchen outside and she had a blast cooking up a storm in her outdoor kitchen!

On the one day where it did rain, we stayed inside and baked some lemon blueberry tea bread to take to a coffee playdate, read books, colored and watched a little Sesame Street.

During Nudgie's nap time, I pulled out some foam sheets and shape stickers that I had and decided to make some pattern sheets for her to work on after nap time.