I'll take common knowledge for $300 Alex.

What happened to common knowledge? Does it still exist? I know what everyone thinks they know - politics, Hollywood, technology. But what about what we used to know?

Think of all those test you took in school on psychology, geometry, and social studies. Sometimes little things that I remember surprise me. Homeostasis, the Pythagorean theorem, how to calculate the weight of the protons of an element, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But then I can't believe the things I've forgotten. One of which hit me last night . . . .

I can't remember the capitals of all the states anymore. I was sooooo unbelievable proud to know them all when I was in high school, but somewhere between now and then I've forgotten quite a few. Granted I still know all the states, but when I tried to mentally add their capitals, I blanked on more than one or two.

This isn't really a big deal, except when I add in the fact that I can still remember the lyrics to all of the Disney movies I watched growing up and all of the New Kids on the Block songs, A.K.A. useless knowledge.

When did our society's priorities shift in such a different direction for what is important to remember? Why is it not important to know what country your family originated from, and the roots of our nation?

I can't even list the first 10 presidents anymore, let alone tell you when the last 5 were in office.

But I can play six degrees to Kevin Bacon and hold my own!

I would say I can play six degrees with the best of them, but I've tried that and failed miserably. They were two guys from college and they pulled out names like directors who appear in one movie as a walk on role.

P.S. Here's a small Wordless Wednesday pic for you Mel.

The big white dress.

Saturday found my family waking to a light dusting of snow on the yard. It was enough to send me in a panic about . . .

Holiday shopping! The weather made it feel like I needed to run to the crowded mall and search high and low for a perfect gift. To remedy this, Jeff and I sat down to talk "money." This is a huge thing for us, because for most of our relationship, I never had any $, Jeff had plenty of $, so when it came to finances, Jeff ran the show. I finally got tired of conversation that started with "Don't spend any money until (insert date)," "We can't afford that right now," and "What did you buy?"

Things have been a little tight for the last few months because of hospital bills that seem to just keep coming (seriously, why can't there just be one bill?) but not uncomfortable by any means. I'm looking forward to that magical time next year called tax returns when someone pays us because we have two beautiful children and because we have the heart to donate. Sometime mid next year, we should be able to redo the baby room.

Any who,
Saturday afternoon found us at the State Capital Building for a wedding. It was pretty cold, and we didn't know that the wedding would be outside in one of the courtyards. It was a beautiful place for a wedding and the bride was stunning.

Enter our new wedding expert, Alaina.

As we were treking out the door to go to the wedding, Alaina stopped and in a shocked voice stated,
Wait! I wanted to wear the big white dress!

Oh hunny, the bride wears the big white dress.

But I want to wear it!

hunny, only the girl getting married wears the big white dress.

Okay, I'll marry daddy.

Hunny, you have to be all grown up like mommy and daddy to get married.

Ohhhhh -kaaay

Then at the courthouse, she announced that Mommy and daddy needed to dance with her.

And where did she become the wedding expert all of a sudden?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on last week and I let her watch the wedding scene, Then when she started to connect the dots, I showed her our wedding album, Aunt Angie and Uncle Brett's wedding pictures, and even pulled out my wedding dress. (which by the way, still needs to be dry cleaned, oops.)

I did promise her that if she wants too, she can wear mommy's big white dress when she gets married.

Potty Mouth

Well, it happened.

I was sitting on the couch nursing Kayla, and Jeff was flipping channels. He stopped on "My name is Earl" and then got up to use the restroom.

Alaina was running around playing, but she stopped to watch the tv for a bit. I've never seen the show so I wasn't quite sure what it contains, but I should have been smart and changed it.

Two minutes after Jeff left the room, Earl learned a shocking fact and to express this he uttered one phrase before the commercial break.

Alaina parroted it right back to the tv twice for good measure.

"Son of a B*tch."

"Alaina, he said a bad word. Mommy doesn't say that word. Daddy doesn't say that word (yeah right) and if you say it at daycare you will get in really big trouble. So lets not say bad words."

"Okay Mommy."

We'll see if that lesson sticks.

Kayla the Tiny

Happy 4 months! Kayla turned 16 weeks yesterday and she is tinier than ever!

I can't believe I have a child with an 18 percentile head size. . .granted that's only 1 1/2 inches smaller than Alaina's at the same time, but sheesh! Grow already! Shots went well and we are headed back to see Jeff's parents this weekend.

Here's to hoping they fix something I can eat.

In four weeks I get to try adding a little soy to my diet . . .we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of eating, Kayla has been enjoying squash, against the recommendations of our pediatrician. (Wait until six months to start feeding MSPI babies, they say) She's starving and desperate to taste everything, so why not try some food? Its been over a week and she's still doing fine.

Well that's about it, sorry for the disjointed thoughts. Much sadness today, but trying to feel joy for him getting to be at peace. (If you don't know, I'm not going to be the one to break the news, cousins. Call your mother.)

My Sister, the finder of cool things

MBG just has the knack for finding the perfect gifts. I don't know how she does it . . . but she does.



But I'm still in awe of this one.



I've been struggling with the whole MSPI and still trying to nurse thing, so when this card arrived in the mail, I couldn't stop laughing.

Talk about summing up my life in a Hallmark greeting card! I can't believe you found this sis!

Not so Wordless Wednesday.

So remind me that I need to tell the story of Alaina's first retail meltdown, but I wanted to start with this one.

Everyone has seen those little neck pillows shaped like the letter 'C' that you can get in adult or kid sizes right? Have you ever noticed that they are the same shape as a boppy pillow?

I didn't, but Alaina did.

I was scolded for being too loud while she 'fed' her baby. (I was laughing) I reminded her that only mommies were able to feed babies from their chest.

And you know what her comeback was?

"That's okay, I'm a Grandma."

Oh dear.

But at least if she does it in public, no one will think to ask be if I'm nursing.

Org Roundup - Command Center

So I've been desperately trying to get back into the Org Junkie Challenge, but I haven't seemed to have the time to get the first, ummmm, eight months done before the deadline to post, if it even gets done at all. You would think I was busy having a baby or something. ; )

But lo and behold! I managed to get this one done, by the skin of my teeth. This challenge had to be done for many reasons, the biggest being that I didn't have a command center before this. And the biggest pain in the rear reason is my husband complaining about how the mess builds up on the island by the door and takes over the kitchen every afternoon.

See? Yikes!

So I decided to migrate the mess to the corner of the kitchen where my dust collectors, a.k.a. my mixer and blender, live. They got new homes and I hauled all of the stuff that had squatted there to better places.

Disclaimer: I did not decorate my kitchen! The previous owners tried to disguise the ugly brown tones of the 70s tiles with ugly wallpaper from the 80s. You should see the duck border that runs around the entire room at the ceiling. Blech!

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

The bottom shelf has room for the diaper bag, by pumping supplies, reusable grocery bags, and my travel coffee thermos that I fill everyday for work!

The second shelf is for my purse, our lunch boxes, and seasonal needs. Finally on the top I have my coupon and receipt files, things pending a trip to the basement/car, and my library books.

Since my decorating scheme is so advanced I thought I would shake it up a bit with the Husker board - Translation: I couldn't find another board that didn't cost an arm and a leg, plus this plays the Husker fight song!

But my favorite pieces are these adorable little fluer-de-lis hooks that you just hammer into the wall, only 2.64 for a package of 4 at Target!

We'll see how this works for a while. Maybe when we can finally afford to gut the kitchen, I might have a better idea of how I should lay it all out not to mention the fact we can tear down the time to make more room for shelves.