Possible secret?

I came in to work on Friday and worked out in the fitness center. There are lockers provided in the locker room, but nobody is allowed to leave their clothing or other stuff in there - you are supposed to use the locker for only the time you're working out.

This really is a pain, but I think it led me to come up with a potentially good hypothesis on Friday at lunchtime.

I was putting away all my stuff and making sure that the locker room was the way it was when I got there. I turned off the fan and diligently put all my stuff into my bag and got ready to leave. And then a weird thought entered my mind - maybe the secret to being organized and staying organized is to think of your own house as somebody else's house. I was cleaning up the locker room and putting everything back the way I found it because it's not my space.

I would never treat someone else's house the way I treat my own. I leave crap out all over the kitchen counters, thinking that "tomorrow, I'll actually put the stuff away". I leave things out after I use them (like wrapping paper, for instance) because I just can't be bothered to put it away immediately and I'll get around to it sometime.

And then, when we have people over, or when we get into a "cleaning mode", I get so frustrated and angry that the house is the way it is, that I fly into a complete rage at whoever happens to be standing closest. (which is usually my husband)

I get mad because the nanny can't be bothered to actually put things away instead of stuffing everything into a box for us to eventually put away. I get mad because there are piles of papers all over the house that the husband and I both create because we still don't have a filing system.

And I feel like all of this stuff around the house is piled up because "people" in the house are not being respectful of "us" and our desire to have a clean house. Finally, I'm realizing that I'm one of those people who is not being respectful of myself. If I were to just treat my own things as someone else's, maybe I would be able to force some sense of order. ???

Well, I took a step towards being respectful of myself this weekend. I cleaned out all the crap that was under my bathroom sink and left only the things that I use regularly and I cleared out the spot for my "toiletries caddy" again. I usually leave it out on my counter all week - only putting it away on cleaning day so that the cleaning lady can clean off my bathroom counter. Today, however, is not a cleaning day and I put it away! Let's see how long this lasts...

The Great Butterfly Release of 2009

As promised, here are the pictures from The Great Butterfly Release of 2009...

I didn't get a good picture of the butterflies on the flowers after we released them, but they seemed to be very happy and were both sucking up nectar from the flowers. It was really pretty cool to watch them.

Halloween

Ok, I finally got the pictures of both Halloween and The Butterfly Release of 2009 from the husband. I'll wait and post the butterfly pictures later, just to keep you in suspense - I know you're waiting anxiously for them!

We spent Halloween with some friends and trick or treated around the neighborhood. I think since it was on a Saturday night, everyone else got out earlier than us, but it was still good. The kids succeeded in getting plenty of "non-approved" candy, which I then replaced with "approved" candy and all was well.

We also attended a Halloween costume party at a friends' house the night before Halloween. The whole family had vampire costumes, but then the husband ended up being out of town. We still got a picture of me and the kids, though. They're really enthused.

And here's a pic right before trick or treating...

That's a light-up bat headband that you can't see on her head.

Started yet?

So, has everyone started their Christmas shopping already? I've been quietly saving Gift Ideas to my wishlist.com for everyone in our family for the last few months. Now it's time to start ordering! I'm bound and determined to be like Courtney and get all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving this year! :)

Today at lunchtime, I worked out and as I was showering and getting dressed, a couple of ladies came in to do their lunchtime workout. Which, I think, included just as much chatting as "working out". They were talking about the Christmas shopping they had already done. I wish I could make this an audio blog, but you'll just have to take my word for it: Never before has a locker room been filled with so much southern drawl from two grandmothers talking about the clothes they've already gotten for their grandchildren.

About two weeks ago, though, the locker room (approximately 10 feet by 15 feet) was filled with towels when I was in there.

This is the normal place for the towels.


Occasionally, they also get piled onto this bench, too.


This was new...

Not really going anywhere with this, but I laughed quite a bit when I saw them stacked all over the place. Time to go home...

Another and then I'll stop. Maybe.

Been a busy week. Had a meeting today about some really interesting stuff that I'm excited about, but it's all confidential-type stuff and can't talk about it. And actually, if I told you about it, you'd probably fall asleep because sometimes I talk in generalities about the stuff with other people and their eyes glaze over. Which I think is probably not a good sign.

Anyway, I have one last picture of a butterfly to share with you. This is from one of the caterpillars that we gave to the Preschool class. When it emerged, one of the teachers took it out to their garden and the husband was there to capture the moment. :)

The Karate Kid

Movies from the 1980's. Wow. It's really amusing to watch them now that digital animation has outdone any special effect from the 80's.

We were looking for something to watch on Saturday after a really busy day and instead of watching Monsters Vs. Aliens for the 14th time, the husband suggested that I check out the movies available on our Video on Demand channel.

It took me just a few minutes to settle on The Karate Kid for $2. (Ralph Macchio is so young in it!)

We knew the kids would like the movie, but, oddly, we weren't expecting the all-out karate assault on the couch and air that went on for the entire movie. Fellan can't just watch a movie - he BECOMES the movie. Luckily, he didn't break anything...

The husband ended up having to rush out of town last night to try to fix a problem that developed on his current project, so we watched it again late yesterday afternoon.

Fellan has now decided that he must wear one of our cycling headbands on his head at all times, bow to me when accepting instruction from me, and call me "ma'am". I'm wondering how long I can milk this.

Another one

This morning as we were all having breakfast Marxo looked in the butterfly cage and said, "Um, guys, you're not going to believe this, but my butterfly just hatched!"

Yep, another one of the butterflies emerged this morning and we all got to watch it as its wings slowly uncurled and it tried to get fully out of the chrysalis. So cool!

We filled up another "flower" with some sugar water to see if either one will drink fresh sugar water.

And then we had to race out of the house and to school/work.

Butterfly!

There was excitement in the house this morning - when I went downstairs to the kitchen and glanced over at the butterfly cage, there was a butterfly hanging upside down next to an empty chrysalis! Way cool!

I yelled up to the kids that they needed to get dressed and come downstairs to see something. Finally, Marxo meandered down the stairs and discovered the butterfly.

She and I got some sugar and put it into one of the floral tubes and mixed up some sugar-water for him/her. I'll be really impressed if it drinks from it.

Here are some really bad pictures that the husband took with his phone that he hates.

Ouch

I fell down the stairs last night.

I was headed down our carpeted stairs and almost to the bottom, but I had to step over some dirty clothes that had been left laying on the stairs from swimming lessons. When I tried to put my right foot down on the step below the step I should have been stepping on but couldn't because it was covered with dirty clothes, it got caught on the hem of my left pantleg and pulled it off the stair. This rendered both feet useless and I quickly found myself sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

I sat there and took stock for a couple of minutes before answering the, "Are you OK? Are you OK?" questions coming from my husband.

My right hand is bruised, my left elbow is bruised, my right foot toes are in pain (I guess they got twisted or pulled somehow), my right shoulder hurts, and my back has carpet burns.

So, this morning, I saw that my glasses had fallen off the bedside table and I thought I'd better pick them up before they got stepped on. I bent down and *WHACK!* I hit my eye on the corner of the bedside table. I suddenly felt like I was in some kind of slap-stick comedy!

I eventually made it to work this morning and had to go to a meeting. As I was sitting down, I involuntarily groaned, which prompted my co-worker to ask me if I was OK. So I relayed the whole slap-stick story and we had some good laughs and the meeting started.

Every meeting at our company starts with a "Safety Moment" to try to make sure that safety is always on everyone's mind. The safety moment for this morning? You guessed it: Trip and Fall Accidents.

Awesome Camping and Mountain Biking

I got our camping pictures and I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! The camping was actually very good - especially since we were camping with good friends, but I just can't tell you how cool it was to get the kids out on their bikes on the trails!

Marxo was unable to start herself on her bike when we got there, but after about 10 minutes of my helping her to start, she was off and riding on her own with all the big kids. She was so proud of herself and rightfully so! (I'm a little proud, too, in case you can't tell.)

We still didn't have our hopes up too much for the trails, though. In most of the state parks, they don't allow biking on the hiking trails and we figured that these "trails" would probably be more like gravel pathways through the park.

We were so wrong.

These were taken on the widest part of the singletrack.

(We really need to get him onto his "big" bike - but it has hand brakes and he's been too afraid thus far...)

And a picture of the master mountain bikers. I was truly impressed with them both. The trails don't have many hills, but Marxo climbed them like a mountain goat and Fellan easily went down them, too. (we made Marxo get off her bike to go down some of the hills) Neither of them were concerned with the tree roots or the bumpy surfaces - it was like they had been doing this all their lives.

This opens up a whole new world for us. I can't wait! :)