I should have known better...

...than to volunteer my husband for something with out talking to him about it first.

I'm sorry that the last post of yesterday never got posted. Hubs worked late, then brought dinner home and we all sat in front of the t.v. watching "White Christmas" while we ate. After the kids were in bed, hubs and I were up talking for a while and then we went to bed.

This is horribly anti-climactic after the blog teaser I left you with yesterday but because I don't want to keep you waiting any longer here goes:

Hubs is now a New York Life Insurance Company agent! We are really excited about this new career and will fill you in on all the details soon!

Bridget

I know it's not actually Christmas time yet...

But I've already got my Christmas decorations up!!

My entryway: I've used blue as my main Christmas decor color for five Christmases now and I still love it!

I bought this grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby on my Dallas trip. It was 50% off. Originally $5 I got it for $2.50 but even at $5 it's definitely worth the money. Then I just spray painted it blue. I was planning on adding a bow and other fun stuff but after I got it painted I liked it plain.

This is the decor on my coffee table. The glass vase was a gift for my 30th birthday and it's from Pottery Barn! I filled the bottom with crushed sea shells (from the Walmarts) and then put small sparkly ornaments in it. I actually leave the sea shells in it all the time and just change out what I put on top. Before the ornaments it had fake flowers in it. The big black rock is a lava rock some friends brought back for us from a volcano they stopped at on their way to Wyoming. And even Better Homes and Gardens thinks blue is a great Christmas color!

I actually love that blue is a popular Christmas color this year because I've been able to use magazines as decor. They match so nicely!

I also love using Snowmen because they can stay out all winter. Multitasking decor. That's what I'm talking about!

I didn't do much in the dining room this year. This nativity was the only thing. Not only is it beautiful but it uses all my colors! Brilliant!

I made our stockings last year. I am silly about things looking cohesive. They don't have to match perfectly... I just prefer them to make sense. Having a mostly blue tree and other decorations and then bright red stockings wasn't working for me. These need to be ironed really badly but my iron is very dirty and I don't have any iron cleaner so that is having to wait for another day.

My Mema got us these precious stocking holders. Love them!

I've put a bow on top of our tree for as long as I can remember. This year I did buy new ribbon and made a new bow. The background color is the same as our kitchen color and then it has sparkly accents that match the accent wall in our living room. Can't beat that!

This is one of my favorite ornaments. An angel surrounding Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus with it's wings. BEAUTIFUL!

Nana made this ornament for us. She has given us many ornaments over the years but this one she made herself. I'm pretty sure most everyone got one from her the year she made these. I'm so glad I have this memory. That's one of my favorite parts of decorating my tree. My MIL and my grandmothers get us ornaments every year. Decorating our tree is taking a walk down memory lane.

This is another fave. Santa kneeling at Jesus' feet.

I also bought these big snowflakes at Hobby Lobby in Dallas. They came in a package of six and I'm only wishing now that I would have gotten two packages.

Our tree in all it's glory!

Husband bought a screen saver DVD a few years back for us to take to a Christmas party for a white elephant gift. We liked the idea so much that we stole the gift and no one stole it from us. Now, since we don't have a fireplace we just put in our screen saver DVD, choose fireplace, and voila! It's almost like the real thing!

Thanks for humoring me while I show you and talk about all my Christmas decor. Now that I have other people posting on the blog I can't seem to stop myself from talking about decorating.

But don't worry...on Friday I plan on doing a homeschooling update and showing you some of our projects we've been up to. I'll give you a decorating break.

Bridget

The Case of the Pink Diamond

The day that Andrew solved the cobra case was only yesterday in the city of Oklahoma City, OK. His friend, Nicole, lived right next door to him. Since he has solved the case, he set up his own detective agency. The first customer that day was a kid named Jack Kiks. “I have a case for you.” said Jack.
“What seems to be the problem?” said Andrew.
“This kid said he has a pink diamond and that a pink diamond is the most valuable type of diamond there is.”
“What is the kid's name?” asked Andrew.
“The kid is named Don Monymaeker.” said Jack. “He's planning to sell it to the highest bidder at the school.”
“Let's go.” said Nicole. “It'll be fun.”
So the group went to the school and found a crowd of kids gathered there. In the middle of the crowd was Don. He was about to make his speech. “Come, one and all!” said Don. “Prepare to be amazed! You are the luckiest kids in the world to see the first pink diamond! I will show you the most valuable diamond there is!”
He pulled the diamond out of the box the he had held it up to the sun. The kids saw their reflection in the diamond. “I am starting the bid at one dollar!”
Before the kids started bidding, Andrew said, “Don't waist your money. It's a fake!”
Why did he say that?

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the answer tomorrow evening!

Bobo

Bombardment

Hello all you Babione6 blog readers!

So very sorry for not holding up my end of the bargain and posting on Tuesday. We also let you down and didn't get Bobo's mystery post up on Monday. SO SO VERY SORRY.

We know how important your dose of Babione6 is. Hope you made it through ok. (that was sarcasm, fyi)

So to make things right here's our plan:

Bobo is getting his hair cut right now. As soon as he gets home he will post his mystery. Say...by 1:00. Then I will get on the ball and take the pictures I need to take and my post will be up at say...4:00. Then-yes there's more-Hubs will put his normal Wednesday post up at say...7:00.

Is that a deal? Ok, so you might be a little hesitant to make a deal with me again after I let you down last time but trust me. We won't do you wrong this time.

Also, make sure you come back at 7:00 CST because Hubs has a really cool, important post that you won't want to miss!!! It's a big announcement and NO I'M NOT PREGNANT!

Yes, that's my blog teaser. =)

Bridget

A Tale of Two Tables

Like the title, honey?

Hubs loves alliteration.

So here is my tale: Over a year ago I took a trip with two friends to Dallas. Can you guess where we went? Nope. We didn't go there. We went to Ikea. Hello!?!

If you were reading this blog around that time you probably read this post and possibly this post and then maybe this post where I finaly showed you my coffee table. Suffice it to say (what does that mean really?) that the coffee table bought on that Dallas trip was everything my heart desired. Unfortunately, it wasn't everything my children couldn't destroy. Four busy, active kids had finally rendered that coffee table inactive.

Enter table 1.



This bueat came from a family friend that had it hanging out in his garage. The positive points are: it is solid wood, the drawers pull out on both sides (STORAGE!), and it has the simple clean lines I like with just a bit of detail. The negatives points: U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi! You UGLY!!! Luckily, I can work with ugly.

Enter table 2:


Removing some unnecessary items and all those drawer pulls (what was that?) and then adding some TLC in the form of sanding, priming, and painting along with fewer new drawer pulls and voila! A brand new table.

I chose to paint it the same color as my kitchen walls. I was tired of painting all my furniture white and I love it. It is a fun shot of color smack dab in the middle of my living room. And since we have our computer hooked up to our tv, the keyboard and mouse vanish so nicely into one of the drawers. Brilliant!

Isn't she lovely?

Bridget

Don't forget to check out the solution to The Case of the Missing Cobra directly below this post.

The Case of the Missing Cobra: The Solution

And now....the moment you've all been waiting for:

The Solution to the CASE OF THE MISSING COBRA

The thief, Andrew realized, was the manager. He would have gotten away with it only if he hadn't made a mistake, saying he had seen through the window of the reptile room because there wasn't a window, and if he hadn't held the hat barely when the wind blew. That showed Andrew that he had something in his hat, but he didn't know what. That was until he saw the hat shake. Then there was a hissing sound. Then the manager said,”Oops, forgot to take the kettle off the oven.” Impossible! How can you take a kettle off the oven? You take things out of the oven, not off it. Stoves are what you take things like kettles off. Also, all the windows and doors were closed. How could the manger hear with all the doors and windows closed? Trapped by his mistakes, the manager confessed, and gave back the stolen cobra that was in his hat.

Everyone who guessed the manager got it right! Thanks for participating. I'll see you next Monday with another Andrew Miles case.

Bobo

Midweek Movie Review

My wife has asked me to contribute to the blog. I have quite a bit I could talk about, but I just can't talk about it yet. So, today, I shall do a Midweek Movie Review. Here we go:

This week's movie: Star Trek (2009)

Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content.

Brief Synopsis: Writer/Director J.J. Abrams (tv's Alias, among others) beams the Star Trek franchise back to the beginning and sets his phasers to stun. As in, he stuns the audience with brilliant storytelling, subtle and not-so-subtle tributes to the original series, and flat out cool action and adventure.

The opening sequence rocks the audience to it's emotional core and pushes it to the edge of it's seat with some high drama and intense action. Then, it just gets better from there.

It seems, that in the future, Ambassador Spock doesn't quite make it in time to save the planet Romulus from destruction. A band of Romulan survivors, led by the menacing Nero, follows Spock back in time through a black hole and ends up annihilating a Federation starship helmed by George Kirk, our beloved James T. Kirk's dad, on Jim's actual day of birth. This sequence of events effectively alters the Star Trek universe as we know it, and allows Abrams to tell a new story with the same characters without completely changing everything we know. The longstanding Star Trek universe still exists, but we are now following this new set of events and new stories. (You've got to really see the movie to understand it.)

We see some scenes from both Kirk's and Spock's childhood, as each deal with his own set of circumstances. We then flash forward roughly 10 to 15 years where the original crew of the USS Enterprise meet up at Starfleet Academy. The whole thing drums up nostalgic memories for Trekkies, as the cast of this movie does well, in my opinion, in capturing the essence of the characters played by the original actors.

The main tension comes when Starfleet receives a distress call from the planet Vulcan. The young cadets are assigned to the newly built Enterprise under the helm of Captain Christopher Pike to investigate and conduct a grand rescue mission. From there, the action gets even better with hand to hand combat, space monster chase scenes, and epic space ship battles. Through it all, the new series of events have to unfold in a way, with the help of Leonard Nemoy (the original Mr. Spock), that sets our original understanding of the Star Trek universe at ease with some form of familiarity.

Overall Thoughts: This movie is extremely fun. I got a kick out of watching these old friends meet for the first time. Abrams brought some serious creativity to the sequence of meetings that, for me, stayed true to each character, as I remembered them. I know this movie was received well, both critically and popularly (is that a word?), but I don't know how the true, hardcore Trekkies would deal with their universe being altered. I think if they could keep an open mind, they would actually enjoy the movie. Also, you don't have to be a fan of the original Star Trek to really like this movie. It is a good movie.

I took my 1o year old son to see this movie in the theater back in May. He handled it well, but be advised there is a brief scene with Kirk and a green girl in their underwear. Uhuru comes in and undresses to her underwear before Kirk pops out from under the bed and Uhuru rushes him out. My kids love the explosions and lasers and sci-fi fantasy violence. There is no major cringe factor due to language for me, but there are plenty of d***s and other variations scattered throughout. I don't remember the Lord's name being taken in vain, but it doesn't mean one couldn't have slipped passed me somewhere in there.

We have a ClearPlay DVD player, if ever they will send me my replacement unit, and that would be the only way I would be really comfortable allowing my children, even my now 11 year old, to see Star Trek. Clip out that 60 to 90 second scene, and mute some of the language, and I would gladly allow my children to watch it. Over and over again. Just like I plan to.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I have now devised my own rating system for movies and other media that I may or may not ever review:

Pre-order - worthy of putting money down in advance to secure your ownership

Immediate Buy - worthy of buying the day it comes out

Eventual Buy - worthy of owning, but it can wait a few days/weeks/or months

Five Dollar Bin - worthy of owning if you can find it for $5 or less

Acceptable Gift - worthy of owning if somebody buys the movie for you

Don't Bother - not worthy of owning - EVER

My Rating: Immediate Buy - I actually had thoughts of pre-ordering this one, but I just couldn't do it. Honestly, it would have been the first time I ever pre-ordered something. Maybe that's why I had a hard time pre-ordering it. I did, however, buy this yesterday, the first day it came out. I loved Star Trek. It is my latest favorite movie.

Tune in next week, as I review something else. Or, maybe I'll have opportunity to talk about other stuff. Or, maybe I'll give my critique on my wife's decorating. Or, maybe I wish to continue living in my house.

Later,

R.C.