My Big Family Michigan Wedding!

Posted by Ethne~
 
As I type this, Thrifty Nana, the kiddos and I are driving across Wisconsin, headed for my cousin, Z’s wedding in Michigan!  I can’t wait!  TN is chugging down the Mountain Dew Throwback (unheard of!!); I’m drinking my standard McDonald’s unsweetened iced tea with light ice.  Dalish.


We just put the girls in pull-ups, which they haven’t worn for two years.  But hey, we’re driving through the night in hopes that the monsters will sleep through a large part of the 12 hour drive.  We’ll see…and if sleeping through the night means we tell them to pee their pants so we don’t have to stop at midnight, I’m down with that.  Does that make me a bad mother?  Heck no!  A crazy one, maybe.

I am posing with Aunt Pam, Grandma and TN - girls took the pics
No make-up = long drive from home to MI

I haven’t seen all of my cousins, except my bff cousin-sister Nicole, for 3-1/2 years.  It’s about time.  We’re all grown now, with children of our own, but there is something about being with your family.  And mine are awesomely crazy, just like moi.  It’s in our blood.  It will be like no time has passed at all.  Maybe we’ll start noticing each other’s wrinkles, but we won’t say anything.

Nicole - one of my best friends

The matriarch of the family is Grandma Lucille, 87 years young.  I told my mom that Grandma’s too busy to get sick and it’s God’s Honest Truth.  She’s got too many trips to the casino left in her.

Grandma and my cousin MN

At Z and K’s wedding we cousins will line up for the cousin picture, oldest to youngest, like we’ve always done.  I think we’ll only be missing three of us.

The traditional cousin line-up, oldest to youngest; everyone cooperates
even after all these years

So tomorrow, I’ll be LIVE FROM MICHIGAN!  Aunt Pam is making the wedding cake, so I’ll document the making of that masterpiece as well as I can.  I’ll try to get Grandma to make some German potato salad, and I’ll enjoy watching Aunt Pam and Uncle Brad bicker over whether you put yellow mustard in it; and I’ll watch Thrifty Nana and Grandma debate how strong to make the coffee.  It’ll be a zoo and I will relish every minute of it.

Z and K cutting their cake.  I promise there will
be adorable pics of them to come.

In the meantime, TN and I will drive through Chicago and Indiana and up into the mitten.  Maybe we’ll rock some Eminem and perhaps some Twilight book on CD.  Juxtaposition much?  I’m willing to bet Eminem is a closet Twilight fan.  He does have a tweenage daughter after all.

 

Editor’s Note: I’m back home in big city, MN, now.  Grandma didn’t have wi-fi which I didn’t figure in to my ‘Live from Michigan’ equation.  Sorry we were down Friday and today.  Anyway, things were a blast and I’ll tell you about a few more of them this week.  In the meantime, these were my aspirations and a few pics in preview.  xoxo

Amazingly the girls made it through
the whole wedding ceremony!!

RIOT GIRLS: PLAY IT OVER…AND OVER!

Posted by Lori~

Recently my sister turned the BIG 4-0!  LOVE HER AND THE REST OF THE 4-0 PARTY WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED TOMORROW!

Steve and I of course attended the party and of course had to take control of the music at the bar.  Like most bars, Super 8 Lounge had the up-to-date music system that is all digital.

Unfortunately, the system was no longer accepting money, so we no longer had control of the tunes.

That is until, a friend of Lisa’s told Steve about a new I-Phone Ap, My Touch Tunes.  And they also had it for the I-Pad.  Basically you can select the bar you want and control their music FROM ANYWHERE!

Steve basically turned into a DJ for the night…people would give Steve their selections along with a few dollars and he would play their songs.

The system is simple…you load money.  To pick a song it costs 50 cents…to play it immediately it costs $1.00.  So actually you are saving money too.

And the best part, you can literally take control of the music from anywhere.  And so WOMS---consider high-jacking a jukebox near you!  Consider blasting ACDC over and over and over again! 

This definitely has major RIOT POTENTIAL!

Organization: Bathroom!

Posted by Ethne~

By pure coincidence, it is organization week on one of our fave blogs, younghouselove.  The reason it's coincidence is that it is *forced* organization week in the D household since we just moved.

You know how when you move you realize you have waaaay more things than you ever thought you did?  I didn't think this included me since we lived in a condo and had pretty limited storage space.  And Shaun keeps things fairly organized (shelving in the garage, etc.).  Well, let me tell you, I am totally in the way-more-stuff category.  And then some.

This shoulda been my first clue.

I promised Shaun, myself and God that I would de-clutter my house - which means mega-organization and lots of getting-rid-of.  Friends, let's just say that starting May 1, 2012, I am a WOMAN ON A MISSION.

As I said in yesterday's post, I was pretty sick and a lot of the organization occurred with my blessing, but without my help.  Kinda makes you realize how much your family loves you when they take on more than their fair share of the moving process.

My sis, Heather, is worth her weight in gold.  4 reals.

One place I played very little part in was my bathroom.  Shaun gets his own bathroom now, so this one gets to be all me, but mine is the bathroom on the main floor, so I want it to be really nice.

And are you with me when I proclaim that bathroom stuff can get out of control in a flash?  Holy cow.  I thought I knew where everything was, but I could tell things were piling up.  One example: feminine products.  Evidently I kept buying and stashing and buying and stashing, and never USING UP said products.  Not thrifty AT ALL.

My sister-in-law, Mel, came to the rescue.  She sorted everything into categories and assigned each a coordinating storage container.  She then pulled me into the bathroom and told me to pick 'X' number of lotions, for example, to put in the assigned container.  If I had two of one product, like lotion, she consolidated into one bottle. 

Mel, my mad organizational mistress

Mel threw everything that was past expiration date, even before I saw it.

Any product I did not keep, but which was not expired, I donated to the students at my mom's school.  The girls in her classes love the Bath & Body Works type of products.

Sometimes a little tough love was required.  Mel let me keep 2 body washes in the shower (since I go with the scent that suits my mood) but she didn't allow me to keep two others in the closet then too.

Here's how the containers came together (a big hoorah for the designer of the storage space in our house - we have a TON):

Emergency items (those sit closer to the front)

Band-aids have been found

Medical items (those were given a larger container)

Underneath the kleenexes and advil, it's all lined up

Daily items (divided into a couple of sub-containers including my contacts stuff; face lotions, hair brushes and deodorant; and daily make-up)

Littler items up front

Nail polish (I have a lot)

 Other make-up (I have a lot, don't judge - it's organized and either gets used or shared on a regular basis)

Girls bath stuff and hair stuff

Feminine products

A basket in the back to spare.

Didn't she do a great job?  Mel and my mother-in-law (Mom D) also decided to pull out some of the towels I've had since college and they either became donation or rags.  And then Mom D bought me a new green rug and coordinating green and taupe towels.  This is a new color scheme for little old me.  I'd always leaned toward purple, blue and pink in the bathroom before (mainly blue in deference to Shaun) and now Mel, Mom D and my other sister, Heather's, style of natural colors like greens, taupes, chocolates and gray-blues are rubbing off on me.  I'm hip now.

New color scheme

Last but not least, check out how I organize my curling irons: it's an old dishwasher silverware basket.  If you put the iron end down into the basket and wrap the cord nicely so it's not getting tangled, it's the perfect storage solution.  That's all my creation.  Impressed?

Ok, this isn't a great picture, but each iron has its own slot

And one last thing - sweet kitty Theodore was not forgotten.  He may have gotten into a small hole and stuck between the flooring/ceiling at the condo, and I may have had to lure him out with treats and then the scruff of his neck (no other way to grab him) BUT he got a new collar out of the deal and one of the old comfy purple bath mats became his new luxurious rug leading to and from his litterbox.  He loves purple I'm sure.

My baby Theodore