November Roundup

I have been trying to get more of our own families memories together.  One thing I saw over at The Scrapbook Lady blog is a Monthly Roundup... what a great idea!

So here is my roundup for this month:

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I am not a huge reader. But now that I am getting back into the gym and walking on the treadmill I like to read and listen to music - which means the book has to be pretty general.  I started the month out reading Raising Puppies and Children Together but then stopped reading that when I realized most of this should be read to the kids as well and the kids were not keeping up their end of the bargain for getting a dog.  So then I got out a book I bought at Time Out for Women last year (2009) called Time Starved Family from DeAnne Flynn which is what I am reading now. Some very good points and reaffirms why my girls are not doing any extra stuff. The one day a week soccer that finished the first week of November was ENOUGH!

Each night we read to the girls. Adam has been reading Wizard of Oz to them and I read a few Junie B. Jones books as well as a Magic Tree House book.

2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

We went to see Tangled as a family this month (Black Friday actually). It was a very cute movie. Adam goes to the movies pretty much weekly but it was fun to go as a family.  Earlier in the month we also saw MegaMind. Even though we have a brand new super nice theater really close to us we drive down town to go to the old theater... saves us $20 each time.  Before 6pm movies are only $4.50 each (I think).

3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

We had a good month focusing on the family and doing family things. I spent some much needed time with my mom. We got to chat when doing a booth for Shelf Reliance at the Arts & Craft show at the Antioch fairgrounds.  The girls got to spend time with Adam during those two days.  We went to Chuck E Cheese once just for fun in addition to testing out new parks and visiting "old" ones.  Plus we saw two movies as a family. I started back to work on the 24th so our family time will be cut a little bit. The 21st was Mimi (my grandma's) birthday and we celebrated over at my aunt's house.

4. What gifts did I give and/or receive?

No gifts were given this month, except the gift of love to our family!  Mimi insisted no gifts for her party.

The girls are always giving us gifts - fun little things they make doing their "crafts"

5. What special or unusual purchases did I make?

The last significant purchase I made was … well if we are talking what will make the biggest impact (and I guess it combined is our biggest recent purchase) is the organization furniture we purchased from IKEA these last couple of weeks. Our upstairs hallway was needing much more storage, so we went to IKEA in search of a entryway bench with storage (we have LOTS of clutter to hide... working on getting rid of the clutter but until then -- let's hide it!), additional storage for our family room (mainly for my husbands hot wheels - please tell me I am not the only one with a husband who plays with hot wheels!), and something for the hallway upstairs.  We found something that will work perfectly for the hallway and got additional Trofast units for by the TV and the item we wanted for the bench by the front door was out of stock the first time. We immediately started putting it together and realized one of the units for the upstairs hallway was damaged. Since we had to go back to IKEA (almost an hour away) for the other item anyway we decided to take this back and get one that was not broken.  When we returned the damaged one... they didn't have another so we are still missing one part of the hallway upstairs but we are able to get more organized everywhere... which is really nice and has had a huge impact on our house!

We also got a few things on Black Friday... gifts for the girls for Christmas (not many - they don't need anything) but the matching pajamas we always get them to open on Christmas Eve before going to Nana's and we got Rebecca a NEW big girl bike. She finally learned to ride without training wheels. (shhh....)

I also got myself a new electric blanket... I can NOT fall asleep cold and since the surgery I have been FREEZING!

Will continue with Part 2...