go visit and movie monday #16

I have a guest post up at iDreamofClean today on how I deal with laundry. Go check it out!

Now if you're here for Movie Monday, welcome and sorry I'm late. Grab the button on my sidebar and/or click the button below to play along.



Shrek Forever After: Rumpelstiltskin tricks a mid-life crisis burdened Shrek into allowing himself to be erased from existence and cast in a dark alternate timeline where Rumpel rules supreme. PG

I've heard great things about this movie and we were so excited to see it. I'll be honest. I wasn't incredibly impressed. It was good. but not THAT good. A bit of advice. Do NOT see it in 3D. It costs extra and it totally wasn't worth it at all. No special effects whatsoever and those glasses got really annoying. I would definitely recommend the movie cause c'mon, it's Shrek, but don't expect a whole lot. I hardly laughed at all. Donkey wasn't even that funny which was really disappointing. Otter laughed a lot so maybe they used more kid humor this time that was beyond my realm. Hubby really liked it. The movie actually teaches a great lesson and it's a great ending to a great story.

baby shower success and top ten

My bff's baby shower was a smashing success. I received a ton of compliments and it really couldn't have gone any better. Yay me! Here are some pix of the lovely event. I made the diaper cakes and won all the favors {cake toppers} and bottle cookies from My Precious Arrival.






And now for my Top Ten!

I'll admit it. I LOVE shower games. Thankfully my Mommy-to-be does too, so we had tons of fun. The top four are the ones we played, but I love all of these and it was super hard to choose! I had the guests sign a scrapbook page as they came in. Another great thing to do at showers is to give each guest a thank-you card envelope and have them write their address on it so Mommy-to-be doesn't have to!

1. Matching: Give the guests a paper with baby names on one side and their meanings on the other and have them match the name to it's meaning. Can also do the same thing with the word baby in different languages and the countries it comes from. I gave these to the guests as they came in and they worked on it while they chatted and ate.

2. Baby Shower Poem: Give the poem to one of the guests and have them read the first line. Each person that receives the poem thereafter must read the next number and follow its instructions. The person who ends up with the poem gets a prize.

3. Baby Gift Bingo: As the guests arrive number each gift. Give each guest a square card with 4 or 5 squares across and down and have them fill the squares with the numbers of the gifts. Have the Mommy-to-be announce the number of each gift as she opens it. The first guest to get a Bingo wins a prize. They LOVED this one! It was a great way to keep them involved as the gift opening can get boring.

4. Never Say Baby: Give each guest a beaded necklace and explain that they aren't allowed to say the word "baby" during the shower and whoever hears it from a guest takes that guest's beads. The guest who winds up with the most necklaces at the end wins a prize.

5. Clever Memory: Have Mommy-to-be walk around and show a tray filled with baby items to each guest. They will begin to try to memorize what's on it. Then have Mommy-to-be leave the room and tell the guests to write down what she was wearing, NOT what was on the tray! Bwaahahahahahaha.

6. Napkin Baby Shirt: Give each baby shower guest a napkin and have them hold it behind their back and make a baby shirt by tearing the best they can. Once they take the napkin from behind their back, they cannot do anything else. Have Mommy-to-be decide who made the best napkin shirt.

7. Decorate Wooden Letters and/or Onesies: If you know what the baby's name will be, have each guest paint/decorate a wooden letter from the baby's name to hang in the nursery. The other guests can paint/decorate onesies.

8. Blindfold Diapering: Break the guests into teams and give each team a doll, blindfold and diapers. Have guests place the blindfold on, take the current diaper off the doll and place the new one on while blindfolded. After the first guest finshes diapering, they run to the next team-mate who places the blindfold on and has to do the same. The first team to finish diapering wins!

9. The Pacifier Pass: Break up into 2 teams have everyone stand in a line facing the person in front of them. Have the guests put their straws in their mouths and put a pacifier on the first guests' straws. They then have to pass the pacifier to the next person by letting the pacifier slide down their straw on to the other person's straw with no hands or other contact. Everyone on the team passes the pacifier from straw to straw. First team done wins.

10. Guess the Baby Pictures: Ask for everyone's baby pictures prior to the baby shower. Have all the pictures in a collage and have the guests write down who they think the pictures belong to.


This is usually hosted by Oh Amanda but she's gone so It's Come 2 This is hosting this week.

bloghernot 2008 and nipple nibblers and my disability to say no

So I was reading McMommy's post and totally cracked up on #4. A while back I had a Passion Party for a friend. (They sell sex toys and other fun stuff like that.) Well the party was FABULOUS and I got lots of free stuff. I've never laughed so much in my life. There's nothing better than looking at different sex toys with friends, laughing, and drinking tropical orgasms. Ya, I meant there's nothing better, not even USING the sex toys. :)
Anyhoo, I got several samples of "nipple nibblers." Yes, you can use your imagination. Funny thing, I discovered they made GREAT lip glosses. The party was well over two years ago and I still have yet to use them for their true purpose. I would TOTALLY recommend hosting a party if you have a consultant in your area. I don't anymore otherwise I'd make it an annual, or bi-annual, or semi-annual event.

P.S. McMommy's right, Lansinoh does WONDERS for chapped lips, while leaving a glowing shine at that. I had a little trouble putting it on my lips as I couldn't get past the smell reminding me of rubbing my bleeding nipples.

Moving on, I am attending BlogHerNot this year, and probably will be for years and years and years to come. Unless my blogging world takes off and someone will sponsor me to get from Nebraska to SF? Um....unlikely.

I've discovered I'm in Stage 4 of San Diego Momma's 5 stages of blogging, but slowly moving into stage 5. I grow bored with things quickly. When I decided to start this blog I didn't take too much time to ponder a name. Now I want to change it. Is that allowed? Seriously, is that allowed? Please comment!

My town's having this HUGE event this weekend. (I'd tell you what it is but then you'd know where I live!) I planned a getaway to escape having to help. Perfect plan, right? Remember how I'm the woman who can't say no? Well the coordinator person called yesterday to see if I could help tonight. Great planning on his part. Well it just so happens that we're not leaving until tomorrow, so I FREAKIN said YES!!! Can you believe it? I SAID YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I better end up having a good time or I'm gonna be so pissed. Someday I will learn how to hurt people's feelings. Or learn that it doesn't usually hurt people's feelings when I say no. One of the two.

Have a GREAT weekend at BlogHerNot 2008!

when in doubt, JUST TAKE IT

We got back late last night from our 1-day trip halfway across the country. Otter's appointment went great and we will begin weaning him off the Zonegran this week. We also found out that if things continue to go well, he can start coming off the diet in May of next year!!! Now, I'm letting you in on a little personal info here because I want the best neuro in the world to be recognized. We see Dr. Kossoff at Johns Hopkins. I found him on the internet and he is WONDERFUL! He's surpassed every possible expectation! He returns all my emails within the hour, even on weekends! What doctor does that? He cares so much for Otter and we are so blessed to have found him. He is our miracle!

We didn't take Raven on the trip, but I think we're going to for our next trip in November. We're planning on making that trip more of a vacation instead of a fly-in fly-out.

Now, if you recall, we left on Sunday and I hadn't yet packed as of Sunday morning. I haven't mentioned that although I'm the best procrastinator, I work very well under pressure. I'm not one of those last minute procrasties who does poor work. However, I do tend to over-pack a little. My theory is: when it doubt, just take it. I'm sure that every single time I've decided not to take something I always end up wishing I had. I have yet to take my own advice.

Hubby and I went rounds before we left because I wanted to take the umbrella stroller and he didn't. He thought it was just something extra to tote around because Otter can "walk just fine." I say why worry about where he is every 5 seconds and just put him in the flippin thing. So I said I would put it in the trunk just in case, and I actually let him talk me out of it! The stupid thing weighs like 2 lbs. It wouldn't have hurt anything in the trunk. And you'll never guess...ya, we pretty much needed it EVERYWHERE we went, but Hubby still wouldn't admit that I was right. However, I was sure to remind him at every available opportunity. In conclusion, (of this paragraph anyway) when in doubt, JUST TAKE IT! You're better off taking it and not needing it than not taking it and needing it, right?

The hotels, good, except that my presence apparently made the lights go on strike. We stayed in two hotels and at LEAST half the light bulbs were burnt out at each one. Just my luck.

The plane rides, good, except for an hour delay on the flight home. (It's ALWAYS the flight HOME.) And a slightly embarrassing moment when my son laughed and yelled, "Hehehe, that tickles my wiener," during take-off. (I asked Hubby and apparently it really does.)

The rental, a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe, GREAT, it's always nice to pretend to own a vehicle we can't afford.

Now it's back to life, back to reality, but FIRST I'm gonna take a nap, (ya know, before I do the laundry...)