PSA: donating items

I am becoming a master at finding charities who need the random things we need to give away -- for example, old towels, bathmats and empty pill bottles - animal shelters can use them!  

It makes me happy when I can find an organization that needs items that we no longer have use for.

Please consider local charities when cleaning out your belongings....I'm trying to reduce what goes to Goodwill and find more direct use charities, there are so many out there that need help.

I haven't talked much about it publicly, but we moved my parents to an assisted living facility towards the end of last year and have been dealing with how to work through the belongings they don't want anymore at their last home, it made for a different sort of holiday but was the best move for them, really for all of us.

Happy New Year!

We're already 10 days into 2016, where does the time go?


We rang in the new year at our neighbors' house, sort of a progressive party to the other two townhouses in the complex, it was great!  We even ran back home to get a card table that was needed, so convenient and no driving.    I was able to snap one photo of us both with our party hats!


I'd like to say I'll post more in 2016, but that is not likely to be true, but I can give you another blog you should read...my coworker posting about her adventures, including many photos of her almost 2 year old, its called Momma is thinking.

So that they are more public, I will  go ahead and post a few of our resolutions here:

• travel outside of Texas
• 
  
• incorporate more vegetables into our diet -- plan: try 1 new recipe each week for a veggie dish/side dish
• one week in: success -- we tried glazed carrots

• take break from alcohol - no alcohol the month of January (joint resolution with Kev
• one week in: mixed success, Kevin has amended to refraining from hard liquor; and I had 2 drinks on Friday 

Belated Christmas

Merry Christmas (a few days late)!   We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family and food.  We were able to spend Christmas day with ]my husband's side of the family, including his grandmother and husband who flew in that day.   We received wonderful gifts and yet my favorites were seeing the kids' reactions to their gifts.    I think we finally nailed the gifts to niece and nephews (only took 10 years!).  

Our niece recently discovered pop-up books so she received two totally different pop-up books -- one about a ballerina since she loves to dance and the other the more classic story, Little Red Riding Hood.  She "read" them both to us that day.

For our two older nephews, we gave them each a toy car that the hood and doors open and Roblox gift cards, do not ask me to explain Roblox -- I don't get it - but they LOVE it.....I saw them playing it and it looks like a facebook world....I wonder if that is how my parents felt about Nintendo?

Youngest nephew received clothes from us, he's only 3 months so we'll give him clothes until he can complain :)

The other most fun gift to buy was for Kevin's grandmother, a self-proclaimed chocoholic, so we had to go to The Chocolate Bar - that is the BEST way to go there, you can browse and pick stuff out and know its a gift and not for you...we got her a 'chocoholic' mug and an assortment of delicious looking chocolates.

Smokey had a much calmer day (at home) and the picture above is the look he gives me every night when he wants in my lap...how can I say no?   For some reason, "he sees your when you're sleeping" pops in my head whenever I see that photo.

We were also able to show the grandparents our new home over the weekend, and took them to eat at a great place we have been wanting to check out, Grace's.  So good, and the atmosphere is great, the whole place looks like one big living room.....we will go back.

Smokey in Pajamas

A radio commercial worked on me......a while back I heard a commercial for 'pajamagrams', and looked at them for a laugh and ended up ordering a pair for Smokey.   Let me tell you that measuring him to figure out the size was a comedy of errors.

They came in the mail and we've put them on him most every night since.   They look really cute and I think he is liking them (putting them on him is definitely getting easier).    I'll take it as a win that he hasn't eaten them (unlike the long awaited jersey we got him years ago)....I wish the neck hole was a bit smaller, but we needed a large enough size to get around his barrel chest and they assume the neck is larger to match the other dimensions -- just like me his body is different sizes all over....

I did NOT getting matching pjs for us.

For your viewing pleasure, Smokey in his pajamas -- the design is 'dancing penguins'.  

We do take them off of him before we go to sleep, I think he'd get too hot and we don't want him wearing extra stuff when he's unattended, for safety reasons (and so he won't eat them).

Jeopardy audition

I did well enough on the Jeopardy online test to be invited for the in-person auditions!   I have been looking forward to this since I found out I made it to this stage of tryouts (first time for me).    A couple of times I tried to study (but failed) but I did read a bit about what to expect and I'm glad I did.

On the day of, I was excited and nervous, and when I found the room there were several people outside already (we were all a little early), they were talking about past tryouts and their knowledge of current champions and I was like, wow out of my league.  A guy there said, "nah they just take it too seriously"..that really made me feel better, since I was really just "happy to be there" and just wanted a photo of the sign -- got it!

The crew that we worked with put us at ease, they had to really warm up the room.  The day consisted of - tips of how to play the game (timing on buzzing in is HUGE), another high speed test, a mock round of the game (with real buzzers and competition with 2 others), and a brief interview.    I am not sure if I did well enough on the test but did feel pretty good about the mock round and the interview (I was SOO nervous about the interview),   We also met a member of the Clue Crew, Jimmy.

They really have the process down, there is no real down time -- when he was speaking with us the other staffers were sorting through our information and putting us in some sort of order for the mock round.  

It was a fun experience, and as chaotic as this last few weeks have been I thought the timing couldn't be worse, but really it was a great time to have a few hours to do something just for me and just for fun!    Kevin would've come with me, but guests wouldn't have been allowed in the room, so unless he wanted to wander the Galleria for hours he'd have just sat outside....

Now I need to watch for my fellow test-takers to see if I see any of them on tv!

I also love my swag --- earbuds in a bag and a pen that we used as a practice clicker.....

If you get the opportunity to try out --- do it!!