Nothing Wasted: Life With a Packrat

I got my new camera yesterday, which was much earlier than expected. Yay! Unfortunately, we didn't have much going on yesterday, so there was nothing thrilling to document in photos. Therefore, to put the camera to use, I decided to document a glimpse into the life of one little packrat. We'll call her "Bennett."

Everything is a treasure to Bennett. She sees purpose in the most undesirable of items. Here are some samplings from her bedroom, a vast collection of crap, I mean treasures. First off, "Wait mom! Don't put that cardboard, Williams-Sonoma soap caddy into the recycling tub! Let me recycle it for you...in my room!" Here we have a gift container turned rabbit care caddy. There is room for a bunny or two and all of your rabbit grooming supplies. Of course! Why didn't I think of that!?

Aunt J. so kindly thought of Bennett when she was at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. She brought Bennett a sweet Abe Lincoln keychain. It came in an Abe Lincoln plastic sack. Keep the keychain, toss the sack right? Wrong! Keep them both. Put the keychain on your backpack and put the bag on your magnetic dry erase board as a piece of wall art. And again I say, well of course! Makes complete sense!

And remember this fake mustache Dad sported back in December. This should have made it's way to the trash can immediately. Not surprisingly, it was rescued...

...and it now serves as a fur wrap for Bennett's prized Egyptian princess. I personally find this gross and creepy, but hey, who am I to judge. I must admit that living with a child who turns trash into treasure is entertaining. I just hope we can encourage creativity, yet guide and set boundaries so that she doesn't end up on the hit show, Hoarders, some day. It's a fine line.

More Photo Rewind

Well, we're still waiting on the new camera to arrive. I love Amazon's prices, but their free, super-saver shipping sometimes leaves much to be desired when it comes to speed. It will only be a few more days. In the meantime, more photo rewind! Today's rewind highlights Dad's fine work when it comes to fun food. He is quite the artist, and here are some of his masterpieces. Above we have the sodium-laden lunch meat, pickles and black olive men!

Now this photo isn't a work of art visually, but rather one for the taste buds. Bennett and Ainsley will tell you that Dad is the one and only "chalsa" maker in our family. Chalsa is his term for cheese and salsa melted together, or queso basically. His formula is perfect every time and we all love it!

Toast, anyone? But not just boring, old toast. On this particular day Dad made some Evil Knievel, ramping motorcycle toast!

And finally, the item that Dad is most famous for...the cheese creation! He has created many of these, but here is one of his finest. I think this one was referred to as the Iowa Hawkeye, Tyler Sash cheese creation. If you look closely you can see the football in the players grasp. Simply amazing work from one amazing dad!

No Camera = Photo Rewind

The camera broke and the new one is on its way! In the meantime, here are some of my favorite pictures from the summer of 2008! Dads are brilliant. They really are. It was the dad in our family who thought of this fun outdoor activity one summer afternoon. We were getting rid of several cardboard boxes and he decided they should become our Barbie three-wheeler's demolition tower!

Ainsley, about to take out the leaning tower! She was so little back then!

Good thing Dad remembered the importance of bike helmets for this activity.

The front view. Notice the determination of the tiny demo girl. Ah, these photos make me antsy for warm, sunny weather!

Fujifilm FinePix...R.I.P.

Well, after a few months of dwindling photo quality, the beloved Fujifilm FinePix has kicked the bucket. I could handle a bit of blur on one edge of my photos, but the blur is spreading and the camera is making strange noises. Time to bid it farewell. Unfortunately (for Grandma D, our biggest blog fan) this means a delay in photo posts. The plan is to do a bit of research and make a purchase before the sun sets today. As soon as I get a new camera in hand, I promise to resume posting, Grandma! Maybe you better loan me your camera for a few days, you know, to avoid blog withdrawal on your end! Just kidding...but more serious, if anyone has any camera recommendations, send them my way TODAY!!!

No Ordinary Notebook

Bennett has many a notebook. She writes and draws and stickers them up all the time. Every now and then, Grant and I enjoy browsing through one of her notebooks, just to see what's been going on in that little mind of hers. Ninety-eight percent of the time, it seems that the contents of her mind and her notebook are complete and random craziness. The above scene, found in a notebook from about a year ago, illustrate my point. Grant and I ran across this last night and got a good chuckle out of it. CATS ARE INVADING THE NATIVITY!!!! We especially like the little gray/tan kitty who is sitting with Baby Jesus in the manger, pawing at his head. This must have been what it was really like on that very first Christmas night. What a silly, silly girl we live with!

Christmas, Finally! (A.K.A. The Longest Picture Post Of All Time!)

For those who have been patiently waiting (my Mom) here are SEVERAL photos from Christmas! We started celebrating with Dad's side of the family. The theme, chosen by Uncle B. this year was "An 80's Christmas." Here we are in our 80's attire. I personally love Bennett's glasses, which were mine back in 1987 or so. Nice!

I just had to post a couple of pictures of other family members in their attire as well. Uncle B...so regal!

And Chaps...hilarious! Nice tapered, gathered slicky pants and matching wind breaker. He also had a nice sweat band on his head most of the night.

Here is the gang in all of our throw back glory!

Here are some gift highlights from our Christmas with Dad's fam. Bennett LOVED her horse sweater from Grandpa and Grandma!

She also loved these crazy interchangeable figurines. Who wouldn't want a lion-robot or a frog-raccoon in their collection of play things???

It was Ains' year to receive something special from American Girl. She chose the Bitty Twins! Meet Evelyn and Elliott!

We had a fun extended family Christmas with Grandpa L's side of the family. The girls enjoyed time with cousins.

Christmas morning at home was not picture perfect. Instead it was all about puking. Both girls woke up not feeling well, and both tossed their cookies mid-gift opening. Here they are up and ready to roll with puke buckets nearby.

We did manage to make it through the morning. No illness could wipe the smile off of Cardboard Brian's face. He was thrilled with the new set of cardboard tools he received!

After puking had ceased, Grandpa C/Santa stopped over for his annual visit. He brought the girls each a can of soda, as always! This year...Coca-Cola Classic! Yes!

The next day, when all were well, we headed to Mom's side of the family for Christmas partying. Here are the girls in their ugly Christmas sweater t-shirts!

Cousin A. and Ainsley are two peas in a pod, with very similar interests. They both love to dress up, and Grandma D. got them matching play dresses.

Dad got a very cool gift this year...a 1979 Vespa! He is more than a little excited about this!

The girls had playhouse Christmas with the cousins again this year. It was very fun, but the only bummer was that Cousin S. missed it, as he went home early with a terrible cough. I don't think I have one picture of him with the girls this holiday. Boo! The girls still had a fun time.

Ainsley got...you guessed it...more dress-up clothes at the playhouse party!

On New Year's Eve, we wrapped up Chrismas celebrations with some Minute To Win It games, also in honor of Uncle J's birthday. Here are Aunt L. and Grandpa C. looking crazy, trying to swing a banana to hit oranges into a hula hoop.

More Minute To Win It action...Uncle C. getting ready to swing the panty hose on his head around. He looks so serious with his Christmas mustache and all. We had a great couple of weeks celebrating!

Christmas Teaser

So, I am a bit overdue with a blog update. Christmas came and went and was great fun. It was spread out over the course of a couple weeks and I've been busy trying to stay on top of the post Christmas mess, getting new toys and clothes put away, keeping the house clean, etc. I have not taken the time to upload and organize the Christmas pictures yet, but I'm about to! Here is one little teaser photo from the holidays, mostly to hold my mom over. (She sees us the most often, yet I think she also checks this blog most often, so here you go, Mom!) Dad and Uncle C, with bananas dangling from their waists while Uncle J. takes measurements alongside some oranges. Hmmmm...what could this possible have to do with Chirstmas??? Stay tuned!