Adventures in La La Land

1. Birthday week! I actually didn't do anything too fun and exciting because I'm an adult and have bills to pay. Boo. But I think I only made dinner once, so that's a win. And I definitely treated myself to restaurant food and thrift shopping throughout the week. Sadly, I spent much of the week cleaning as well. On Sunday, my nephew and his wife moved into their new house . . . well it's new to them. It's a very old, very dirty house. Sunday happened to be Ty's birthday and all he wanted was help cleaning the nasty new house. So I headed over and helped scrub the kitchen. It was pretty gross and we kept saying, "How can people live like this?" The house wasn't abandoned before Ty bought it. People lived in that filth. It actually inspired me to look at my house with an outsider's eye. If we unexpectedly sold this house tomorrow and didn't take the time to clean before we left, what would people think? That thought compelled me to deep clean...

1. I've never tubed behind a boat.  2. I've never TP'd someone's house. 3. I've never broken a bone (although I've sprained my ankle a few times). 4. I've never been out of the country - not even to Canada. 5. I've never had a real job with coworkers (other than a 3 month stint as a receptionist over summer break one year. Even then, no one really interacted with me. I sat at the front desk and directed calls.). 6. I've never shot a gun. 7. I've never been on a roller coaster scarier than Zach's Zoomer or the Corkscrew. 8. I've never given birth without an epidural. 9. I've never played a sport. 10. I've never been skinny dipping. 11. I've never smoked anything. 12. I've never been pulled over. 13. I've never had braces. 14. I've never had a real massage. 15. I've never bought an alcoholic drink at a restaurant. (Not because I have scruples about such things. Just because I love Dr Pepper more than alcohol. Plu...

1. I don't have much written down for this week. Uhhh, here's a link to the shower game I made up that I referred to last week: Bridal Shower Meme Game .  2. I taught Levi how to play Uno on Friday. We played for hours.  3. I had a really rough morning with Lucy on Wednesday. It inspired me to reach out for counselor recommendations. I researched a bunch while the girls were at school. And then Lucy came home from school acting totally normal. She got her tablet taken away for the morning's shenanigans, but didn't even care. I'm less likely to pick up the phone and make the dreaded phone calls when she's being pleasant. Also, she's told me before that she does not  want to go to counseling, so I'm not sure how effective it would be. Maybe I'll call during the next outburst. . . 4. At my last chiro appointment on Thursday, he said my pre-paid plan is over and he's ready to do another nerve-scan thingy to see how much I've improved in the 9 wee...

I'm always on the hunt for original bridal shower games. Everyone's played "Who Knows the Bride Best" or "What's In Your Purse?" or "Toilet Paper Wedding Dress." My goal in finding games is something different, something that doesn't put a huge amount of pressure/attention on the bride, does not involve doing anything embarrassing, and can be done sitting in a chair (no relays or charades). And when I inevitably can't find anything that fits those parameters, I make something up! This year's game was inspired by another game I bought on clearance at Meijer called " What Do You Meme? " It's essentially Apples to Apples, but with memes.  I looked up a meme generator   and chose a few basic memes I thought would work. I created each meme to say "That Moment When . . ." and then I spent hours  coming up with phrases to complete the meme. The hardest part was coming up with enough that each guest would have option...

1. What a crazy week. I'm a stay-at-home mom with more free time than ever thanks to Levi starting school, so when people need something done, I'm usually a pretty safe bet to help out. And I love doing it. But this week was the perfect storm of a bunch of those things colliding and demanding my attention all at once. My mom, sisters, and I threw a bridal shower today. I'm the OGC (Official Game Coordinator), and of course I can't just print off a word scramble or something. I have a reputation now for creating new games or putting a spin on old ones. So I created a fairly labor intensive game that required a lot of my attention this week.  2. Then we decided it was time to do our annual Christmas name drawing with my family. We've been using Elfster the past few years, and since I started it, I'm the admin and the one responsible for re-creating it every year. This year, we changed a few things and I messed a few things up and had all kinds of problems with it....