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

To see other people's Christmas decor check out the Nester's Christmas Home Tour.

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.

Pillow Talk

This past Saturday I went to Dallas with "Quotesy". We went to Ikea, Red Lobster, Joann's, Starbucks, Hobby Lobby, the gas station, and McDonalds. It was wonderful.

The reason for our trip was two-fold. 1. I needed some pillows. Not the sleeping kind. The decorating kind. You see, last spring my MIL and I also took a day trip to Dallas and went to Ikea. MIL was purchasing new furniture for her bedroom and I got to tag along.

While at Ikea I saw some 20" down pillow inserts for $6.99. To those of you unaware, down pillow inserts at a fabric/home decor store run around $18 a piece. And I needed four. Plus, the two fabric/home decor stores in Lawton don't even carry down pillow inserts. Just fiberfill ones.

Suffice it to say I was thrilled. However, I wasn't at a place to purchase them yet. So I've been waiting for these pillows for months now. MONTHS. But thanks to husbands junior high football announcing check I had a little extra cash on hand. And husband was willing to hold down the fort for the day while I got out and about without kids in tow. It was a beautiful day.

Introducing my new pillows:

I found the blue fabric at Joann's in Dallas on clearance for $4.50 a yard. Not only is it the perfect color, but it is an outdoor fabric and therefore able to withstand the abuse from four children. Brilliant.

I am so pleased. You can see the before here. Sad little pillows.

I also snagged a new light fixture for over the dining room table. The first one I had was also from Ikea so really I just got a new cover and not a whole new fixture. It is much more sleek and simple. Love it.

The before:

The after:
The light cover was $13.00! You just can't beat that.

Reason #2: "Quotesy" had never been to Ikea and both mamas needed a day away. Loads of fun was had by all.

Bridget

Bobo is now a weekly contributor to Babione 6. He will be posting every Monday. Don't miss his first post! It's right below this one.

Case of the Missing Cobra

Yes, I know it is Monday and I said I wasn't going to post anything except on Tuesdays and Fridays. That's why Bobo is posting something today. So, please welcome Bobo as a contributor to the Babione6 blog.
Bridget

Case of the Missing Cobra

One day, a boy named Andrew Miles went to the zoo. He went with his best friend, Nicole. They both dreamed of becoming young detectives one day, they just didn't know it was today.
When they got there, they saw a commotion. The zoo keeper, the guide, and the manager were talking to the police. Andrew overheard the zoo keeper tell the police,” What do you mean this isn't police business! It's completely police business! An $1,000 cobra was stolen!”
“What's up with him?” asked Nicole. “It looks like he got shot with an anger dart.”
“ I heard that he has just lost an expensive cobra.” said Andrew. “He's contacted the police about it.”
“Let's go check it out !” Nicole said.
So the the two friends headed toward the scene. When the police saw the the children, they told the children to move back. So the friends stayed back. But they were close enough to hear what they were saying about the robbery. Andrew spotted the reptile room that had no windows. The zoo keeper told his story, “Well, I was doing my duties, then I heard the alarm ring, so I ran to find out what was going on, and I saw the manager run out the door of the reptile room. He was holding his hat.”
“No I didn't!” said the manger. “ I was checking to see the snakes through the window. When I heard the siren I went immediately went to the center of the zoo, because that where you're supposed to go when the siren goes off.”
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew and the hats of the men were nearly blown away. They all held their hats but the manager held his barely. The hat shook. Then there was a hissing sound. “ Oops, forgot to take the kettle off the oven.” the manger said. He headed toward his house that he lived in near the zoo. All the windows and doors were closed.
Andrew suddenly said, “ Wait! Don't you want to hear who the thief was?”
The manager said, “Oh, so you think you know.”
“Yes I do. The thief is.....”

Please leave your guess in the comments. I'll post the answer on Thursday!!

Bobo

You Probably Thought I was Exaggerating.

Since I posted pictures of my entry, living and dining rooms some changes have been made. I was serious, people.

Here's what happened: about a month ago, hubs and I took the two little ones to Wichita Falls while the two big ones were at a birthday party. While there we visited the lovely little store Hancocks and I found the fabric for my living room drapes. They are the perfect colors AND they were on clearance. People: I got upholstery fabric that is usually $19.99 a yard for $2.30 a yard!!! Crazy!

So anyway, once I had them sewn and hanging I knew I didn't like them with my old dining room curtains. I love my dining room curtains, but they are cotton quilting fabric that is usually $6.oo a yard and the look of them next to my new curtains was cheap. Maybe it was all in my head, but frankly, I have to live in my head so I wanted to do something about it.

When we went back to WF for the Sesame Street Live show husband graciously let me run into Hancocks again to see if they had any of the fabric left. Well, of course they didn't. Not when its on clearance for pennies.

So I figured my head was just gonna have to be unhappy for awhile.

Then, my SIL* helped me out by moving into a new house on Saturday and having her first baby on the very next Wednesday. While she was in the hospital I left my kids with my mom and went to help my MIL* and FIL* unpack my SIL's house. Because of all the dirty laundry and gazillion other things that needed to be done, MIL and I decided to take the dirty laundry to the laundromat to wash it faster.

*sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law

This has a point, I promise.

When we pulled up to the laundromat what did we see just a few stores down in the same shopping center? I'm sure you guessed it. Hancocks. And a big beautiful one at that. After getting the clothes into the washing machines we headed that way. And I'm sure you guessed it again, They had my fabric!!! EXCEPT: it wasn't $2.30 a yard. It was marked down to $8.50 a yard. Still a good deal but I needed 7 yards to cover both my dining and kitchen windows. 60 bucks people.

Not chump change in my world. If I spend 60 bucks on unnecessary fabric it means I DON'T spend 60 bucks on necessary things. Nope, I couldn't do it. I did, however, find some fabulous sheer fabric 1/2 off to cover my lampshades with. And my dear, sweet MIL bought it for me. Check it out.
The before:

The after:

The full monty:

Fabulous, right! I'm so pleased. And of course, in true Bridget fashion, when I'm done with these colors, the ribbon and fabric come off and my plain white lampshades are back. Yeehaw!!

So, on with my story. When I got home from my weekend away, I told hubs about finding the fabric. He then told me that while I was gone, he received his check from the school for announcing the junior high football games. And then my perfect, wonderful, handsome, funny, smart, precious husband told me to call his mother, who happened to still be at his sister's house, and ask her to go get my fabric. I couldn't be more in love.

Yesterday morning my MIL delivered my fabric to me and I sure did have those new curtains sewn and hung by the end of the day! And they look wonderful!
The before here

and the after:

Other changes were made as well. I used my handy dandy photo editing software to put pink numbers where changes were made. (Don't forget that you can click on the pitures to enlarge them.)

No. 1: New curtains.

No. 2: new fabric covering the chain for the light fixture.

No. 3: new flowers on the table

No. 4: moved china cabinet

No. 5: rearranged top of china cabinet

No. 6: new paint on walls

No. 7: replaced the decorative paper in my brown frames

I'll talk about no. 6 in a sec. First, my mom had the art teacher at her school draw these pictures of my children for us for Christmas two years ago. I love them. Sometimes I go temporarily insane and put something else in these frames, but luckily it is only temporary.

I'm one of those people that loves symmetry and balance so I love having these pictures on either side of my china cabinet. And putting the cabinet back on this wall makes the dining room feel bigger. I seriously can't remember why I didn't like it this way the first time. Must be more of that temporary insanity.

Honestly, I didn't need to put this picture in here, but oh well. I still love my tile floors.

Now about no. 6. when I originally painted my kitchen blue I told husband that it wasn't quite right and that I planned on tweaking it a bit. I lived with it for quite a few months, but this past Sunday I just got the fire in my belly to paint something. My kitchen is small and can easily be painted in a day so I got to it.

As you can see it is only slightly different. A little lighter and a little greener. (The new paint is the paint around the edges.) Now it's perfect.

And I mixed my own paint. After you amass all the paint that I have you can do that quite easily. I just bought a gallon of white satin paint and mixed in very small amounts of a color I had out in my garage. I love the way it looks after just a few swirls.

And as more proof of my sickness, Sunday was the fifth time I've painted my whole kitchen in the two years we've lived here.

I put this picture in here because I was able to take this picture without a flash and using the natural light from my window. I wanted you to get a better idea of the true color of my walls. It's light and icy and wonderful and NOT the color you see in the other pictures!!!

I've actually been making more changes in other rooms but this has gotten very long and I really need to do something else, like vaccuum my floor and brush my teeth.

Bridget

Sniffles and Smiles

I don't feel well. It's not sickness, but allergies and they are bumming me out.

It's the usual stuff. Stuffy nose, itchy-sore throat, watery eyes, sneezes, stuffy ears, sinus pressure. No big deal really, but it's made me think of all the people that suffer from chronic pain. Not feeling well on a day to day basis really does make life hard.

And that makes being in a good mood hard.

I've been stuffy since last Thursday. I had finally found something that actually helped, but when I went to Walgreen's on Friday to get some more I found out that the laws in OK have changed and I can't buy any right now. And I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to get some again.

Oh well.

However, this morning made me smile. The designated morning chores have been changing lately. The kids are growing and can do more so now Popeye empties all the trashcans every morning and then helps Bear sort the laundry. Bear sorts the laundry and feeds/waters the dog. While Bobo empties the dishwasher and loads any dirty dishes in, then after everyone has brushed their teeth and fixed their hair he wipes down the bathroom: mirror, sink, and toilet.

Also, they have to wipe down the dining table and chairs and move the chairs into the living room every morning after breakfast so I can sweep. But all of them do this together.

Anywho...this morning Bear asked if he could wipe down my bathroom like Bobo wipes down theirs. Of course, I said yes. Remember: I'm trying to say 'yes' to my children as much as possible. =) So Bobo showed Bear how to do it in their bathroom and then helped Bear wipe down mine.

Not only do I now not have to wipe down my bathroom every morning, but I just love it when I see my children helping each other. Particularly when they teach each other. I didn't ask Bobo to show Bear what to do. I was planning on showing him myself. But they took it upon themselves to work together. And it blessed my heart.

And my aching head.

Bridget

Aunt Soda and Uncle Pop

That's right, folks! Hubs and I have a nephew!!!

JD (blog name) was born on November 4 and weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long!

He and mom are doing great. This is our first nephew (we don't yet have a niece) and our children's first first cousin.

We are all so excited about our new family member!

Bridget

Bad Blogger

Hello all! I'm so sorry that I didn't get anything posted today. I have a really good excuse I promise!

But I'm not gonna tell you what it is till Sunday.

So come back in a few days and I'll spill the beans!

AND NO I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!

Love you all,
Bridget

Our Halloween Weekend

On Saturday we had tickets to see Sesame Street Live. Even though it was more for the little ones we made the big ones go too. They actually enjoyed it.

We had really good seats and there weren't many there.

Took this during intermission. Sesame Street Live has an intermission. For selling balloons and cotton candy. These people are brilliant. Take a 15 minutes break to parade balloons and cotton candy around right in front of all the little children. Getting past all the over-priced, completely unnecessary stuff out in the lobby is one thing. Telling your children no when all the other children around them are getting things is something else entirely. But no worries. Hubs and I stood strong. Plus, we were going to Chuck E. Cheese after.

Hubs didn't want to be left out.

At Chuck E. Cheese. It really is crazy that I have an eleven year old. It used to be just me and him every day. Well, at least till Hubs got home. He was my little guy. Still is.

Of course, Hubs got in on the action too. We let the big guys run around together and we took the little ones around with us. It is really nice to be moving into that stage of life where our children are becoming more and more self sufficient. It makes things fun in a completely different way.

Big guys on their own.

Can you guess how many tokens she spent on this horse? Four the first time, but only because I made her get off because another little girl was waiting for a turn. Then she spent her last two on it. This girl loves horses. Particularly ones that really move.

They didn't wear their costumes till Sunday. Grandma made sure they had Halloween goodie bags full of candy. Once we got home and they saw the bags they were perfectly fine with not trick or treating.

It really is all about the candy.

Bridget