Friday Funnies

In an effort to get back to the lighter side of life here on my little blog, I thought I'd share a few fun things to make you smile. Then again, it's Friday, so hopefully you're already smiling!

First up... click on this link and watch this short "campaign" video. This might be my favorite thing that the Daily Show has ever done:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-9-2012/exclusive---barack-obama-attack-ad

Next... please enjoy this video of Jake's rendition of the Black Eyed Peas's "I Gotta Feeling." Yes, my son is awesome.

And lastly, how about a dose of double cuteness... there is no more fun toy than a big, giant box.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!  Check back on Monday for the weekly Reflections topic (and trust me, it will be sunshine and rainbows after last week's!) and some pictures of Jake's first day of pre-school. I'm not sure yet if that's going to bring tears or squeals of joy... from me, not him. I'm pretty sure he's not going to miss us AT ALL, so we'll just have to wait and see how I handle it!

Happy Friday!

Dear Pinterest,

Let me just start by saying that I think you offer a really neat concept... I really do.  I mean, how else would I ever know how unorganized I am or what to do with all of the mason jars I have stored in my pantry?  And even though I think you're great for some people, I just want you to know that you and I will never have a relationship.  It's not you, it's me....

Some people, well, are just born with the gift of craftiness.  Me?  Not so much.  Because of you and all of the fantastic craft ideas you offer, I have more scrapbook paper and acrylic paint that I know what to with, but even more half-finished DIY projects that all look like they were done by a kindergartner.  My mother-in-law may never receive the semi-completed and already very late Mother's Day gift I have been working on due to the fact that I am too frustrated to even finish it.  And while all of these ideas are beautiful and look simple enough on your online pin-boards...

I, for one, just lack the skills required to pull off such things.  In fact, I'm too embarrassed to even post pictures of what I've attempted (much less completed) for fear that my crafty friends may judge me.  Plus, there is a 99% chance that if I attempt a craft involving glue, paint, or sequins, I could find my 9-month-old covered in said materials due to a mischievous 2-year-old who lives here.  You can do better than me... we were just not meant to be.

Also, before you came along, I was perfectly happy with the way the inside of my pantry and bathroom cabinets looked.  Putting my things on the provided shelves seems pretty logical and organized, but then I see things like this and feel, well, inadequate.  Lining my shelves with wallpaper?  Wow... that takes some time and money that I simply do not have!  It's beautiful, yes, but how many people actually even see the inside of my pantry?  Should I be including this on the tour of my home?  Did I miss a memo?

Not to mention the pictures upon pictures of homes that I will never be able to afford.  Do I want my laundry room to look like a place I need to wear a dress and heels to enter?  Sure I do.  Sorta.  Or do I?  See?  I don't even know what I want anymore thanks to you.  I never knew I needed frosted French doors on my closet or striped walls in my mudroom or floor-to-cieling windows in my master bedroom, so thank you for bringing that to my attention.  Last I checked my dream home was the one I was living in, because my family is here inside of it, but apparently my decor is not quite up to par.  And clearly spending hours online finding pictures of said dream home to pin is a means to get me there.  What?  It's not a pay-per-pin thing?  Oh.  Well now I'm just confused.

Lastly, while I find your clever ideas on what to do with my toddler on a summer day fantastic, I realize that all my 2-year-old really needs is to be stripped down naked and set free in the backyard.  It's a "Lord of the Flies" type thing that seems to work with him, and all males I'm sure.  While I appreciate your suggestion that I should spend some more of my time making his lunches into clever shapes and taking him on a nature hike, chances are the most joy he's going to find all day is when he plays in the toilet bowl when I'm not looking.  And oddly enough, I have not seen any of those suggestions on your site. 

Listen, I'm sure you're not all bad and I know a lot of people really enjoy you for lots of reasons, and that's okay by me.  To each his own.  I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings between us because quite frankly, I just don't have the time or energy for you.  Even as I type this letter I am thinking about how messy my living room is and how there are two loads of laundry that have been sitting in baskets for four days now... in a laundry room that is filled with unpacked boxes because we don't have enough storage space in this house.  Or maybe the storage space that I do have is just not organized correctly into brightly painted shoe boxes or something like that.  What I'm really trying to say is that you are exhausting.  I don't have time to pin things that would make my life "easier" but in essence depress me because I don't have the time, talent, or resources to make it happen.  So how about this?  Someday when I find that I have plenty of disposable income, all the time in the world, and have moved into my my perfectly organized dream home decorated by the beautiful crafts that I have made, we can try to get along.  Can we make that work?

Thank you for understanding and for allowing me to distance myself so that I can feel like I'm not a complete failure at life.  If you would like to create an online space for me where I can post pictures of all of my failed attempts at crafting and cooking as well as pictures of my messy house, that might be something I can get in line with.  I think I'd find comfort in networking with others who like me did not get any of those necessary genes.  Until then, I think it's best that we see other people.

Thank you for your time... that you apparently have more of than I do.

Sincerely,

A very busy mom

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Pinterest or anyone who uses it.  I do see its merit for some things, but this answers the "why don't you use Pinterest?" question that I'm asked on occasion.  Just FYI!


PS - I probably should have included the sources for these photos but I honestly do not know where they came from.  Ironically, they were swiped from (gasp!) Pinterest since those of us without accounts can still get limited access.

Easter Post Addendum...

I forgot to include this year's best Easter egg hiding spot (drumroll, please)...

Sadly your eyes are not deceiving you.  That, my friends, is part of our Christmas tree.  And that, my friends, shows that we "might be a redneck."

Nostalgia

Having a child stirs up all kinds of childhood memories and favorites that have long been forgotten.  These memories are still there, somewhere deep within our brains, and all it takes is for one little thing to trigger them to come back.  For me, one thing has led to another here lately and I have thoroughly enjoyed these small reminders of way back when.  But let me back up... here's how it all started:

Three weeks after Lilly was born, my sisters had a "Welcome Lilly" shower and invited family and friends.  While I was opening gifts, I came across one with no tag.  "Who is this from?" I asked to which my Aunt Karen responded, "It's from Kim."  I must have looked confused because she reiterated, "It's from you, Kim."  I still did not understand what was going on, but I opened the bag and upon removing some tissue paper I got the biggest smile on my face.  Here is what I pulled out first:

Believe it or not, these were my CareBear toys from my childhood!  Many of our toys got passed down to my cousins Hillary and Erin who are a few years younger, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that they'd still be around!  I kept digging around and felt another familiar object.  Before I even pulled it out I exclaimed, "You have got to be kidding me!"  It was none other than the CareBear Cloud car, a little yellowed, but still in working condition:

But that wasn't all.  At the bottom of the bag was a bigger item, and until I saw it I had forgotten that it even existed.  A collector like me would of course have a carrying case to house my bears, right?  Hands down this was the best gift of the day... toys that Lilly will someday play with not knowing the true value of where they came from.

And yes, those are 2 of the CareBear cousins mixed in! 

For some reason these old beloved bears really stirred up something within me... or maybe it could be attributed to the millions of times we've viewed Toy Story 3 here lately.  You see, I was a kid who truly loved my toys.  I was the kid who (like Andy in the movie) believed with everything in me that my toys had feelings and interacted when I was not around.  Getting rid of a toy was impossibly hard, as I felt like I was saying goodbye to an old friend and even worse, hurting its feelings.  I can even remember saying my bedtime prayers and after listing the members of my family for God to bless, I would list all my stuffed animals by name.  I could play for hours upon hours by myself and never get bored, even prompting my mom to come flying up the stairs when she'd hear my Little People character me shouting, "Mommy, Mommy!" due to some Little People emergency.  I would argue that there was no need to clean up my room because I "wasn't finished with the story yet."  Yes, I was that kid.  So when I saw these bears, I had visions of my old room growing up and all of these "forgotten" toys.  And then, I found myself on eBay.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.  If you ever want a trip down memory lane, eBay is the place to go!  Little People were by far my favorite when I was little so I found myself searching "vintage Little People."  Go ahead, try it!  Before my eyes everything came back all at once!  The barn (which we still have), the camping set, the ferris wheel with attached record player, the school bus, even the Sesame Street playhouse was there (and selling for a whopping $495)!  Main Street was even there, which was the item that I always wanted and never got!  Just by looking through it all I could feel the innocence of those days come back to me, when I didn't have a care in the world and could escape to these fantastic, imaginary places whenever I wanted to.  I had no idea that just seeing pictures of it all could do that.

And then I got even crazier.  As wonderful as these things from my childhood were, it made me start thinking about the simple pleasures of childhood such as bike riding and Saturday morning cartoons.  I thought of my favorite childhood shows and before I knew it, I was Googling "Dumbo's Circus," "Welcome to Pooh's Corner," and "Mickey's Mousekersize."  And thanks to the good Americans that held onto their VHS tapes and have too much time on their hands, YouTube provided me with a little glimpse into that part of the past as well.  I have to be honest, it's all much hokier than I remember (since it was probably AMAZING technology at the time that made all this happen!) but it was all so familiar and comforting to see.  For a moment, I was five years old, sitting in our wood-paneled family room in Louisiana, enjoying some entertainment in my ET pajamas.  Yep, the good ol' days.  Check some of this stuff out for yourself:

• Dumbo's Circus
• Pooh's Corner
• Sadly I could not find any footage of the old-school Mickey Mousekersize show, but I did enjoy seeing a few familiar faces on the New Mickey Mouse Club... that's fun to look up, too!

Sometimes I watch Jake sit and play with his toys and can't help but smile to myself.  He can be all alone in a room and he is completely content pushing his trains along or driving his modern-day Little People cars around.  He jibber-jabbers and choo-choo's all the while, and even holds his Buzz and Woody dolls close to his mouth and shares secrets with them.  I'm not saying that I had the world's biggest imagination as a child, but I do feel proud to know that he gets a lot of that from me.  My heart swells to think that over the next few years he, too, will escape to wondrous places and make new friends in these worlds.  He'll create stories with plot twists that only a child can think up, no matter how ridiculous they may be.  And over the years as I find what toys are his favorite, I will make sure to pack them in a box and put them in a most special place, ensuring that he'll be just as surprised as I was to rediscover them.  I am so thankful to my aunt for holding onto such a precious treasure.  She probably just thought that she was passing down an old favorite toy, but she has given me so much more than that.  I was reminded that sometimes we need to throw our worries out the window and just look at the world through those innocent eyes again because if we don't, we just might miss something magical.

And in case you're wondering, used CareBear figurines sell for about $5 to $8 a pop on eBay these days.  But don't worry, mine will never be for sale!