lego my messy legos

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, knowing I would be too busy to blog for awhile. The table's been finished for almost a month now, and we are still loving it!

if you have boys, then you know what i'm talking about. legos have taken over our lives here. my 8 year old son LOVES them, asks for them for every birthday/christmas. the problem is, with so many different sets, how do you find the teeny tiny specific piece that you need when making a particular project?

you dump out all 240,000 legos all over the carpet in your bedroom and dig through them. then when your mommy comes in and says it's time to pick up and get ready for bed, you cry because you just spent the last 6 hours hunting for that piece and still didn't find it, and now you have to pick them all up and start over tomorrow.

my kids may tell you differently, but i really am a compassionate person. i TOTALLY understand the frustration of not being able to find something when you need it. believe me, a good portion of my childhood was spent searching for things and then giving up on whatever game/craft/school project i was working on because our house was a black hole.

this boy is so creative and i don't want him to give up on that. coming up with a lego solution was on the list, but lots of other things were coming first, until my friend Kathleen needed to go to IKEA and even though i didn't need to, i went along (because i can always find something to buy at IKEA) so the project began, even though it was probably not as urgent as some other things on the list.

here's how we did it:

i bought two TROFAST units in pine and primed them.

eric and i went to Lowes' and got some 1/2 inch MDF and 3x1 birch boards, and built a top for the tables.

then we painted the TROFAST units black using a gloss latex enamel and a sponge roller (and lots of Flotrol)

two coats

he spray-painted the table top - it needs to be a bit more durable.

we sorted all of the legos by color, as well as people and wheels, and any other categories that make sense to the kids. (there is room for 18 small bins)

Eric went to the Lego store and got some of the flat gray base pieces. he was going to glue them down, but then we wouldn't be able to use the table for games or other stuff, so they are just sitting on top.

i made some labels using clip art from Just Something I Made, cut them out and taped them on with packing tape.

the kids were thrilled, and I love that the legos get put away! there is a huge resurgence of creative building in our house thanks to this simple and awesome organizing tool!

"Beautiful Place"

when we moved here, we were excited to be so close to so many historic places, and swore we would take weekend trips to see some of them. this is the first time we've ever gone to Nauvoo, and we met Eric's brother John and his wife Tina and their kids.

we had so much fun! we realized when we got there that we had only had to stop once on the 7 hour trip, thanks to the fact that we no longer have any babies! Yay! no diapers or car sickness or feedings! it was great! and thanks to movies, pretty uneventful.

the weather was cold. i thought it would be perfect, seeing as how it was the second weekend in may, but it was in the low 50s and windy. brr. and i had a touch of the flu on the way out and that evening, but thank goodness, no gross stuff. just a fever and tummy ache.

what an amazing place! it's hard to believe that the early saints built it and then left it in a manner of a few years. at one time it was the second largest city in the state, after Chicago.

its so fun how they have these cute missionary couples running everything. we made rope, saw demonstrations on candle-dipping, weaving, barrel-making (did you know that Joseph Smith, Sr. was a cooper - made barrels), baking (got a sample!), brick-making, wagon-building, horseshoe making, gun-smithing. all taught by these wonderful senior missionaries. i think it would be a fun place to serve a mission, but Eric says no, and here's why.

thursday evening we got to see a show - "Rendezvous" - which is put on by the missionaries. the senior missionaries. it tells the story of old nauvoo in song and acting. a little cheesy (to quote a song, "willingly, because we have to") but fun and well done. and EVERY missionary participates. even if they don't do that sort of thing. so, Eric's hoping that when the time comes, his mandarin chinese fluency will get us sent somewhere else.

the temple was amazing. i can't believe the hard work it must have been for the early saints to build the original, only to have to leave as soon as it was done.

we saw Joseph and Emma's home, their store, and many other buildings. we walked down Parley Street to the river, which is where the wagons lined up, waiting for their turn to get on the ferry and go to Iowa. it was cold, but the saints left in February in zero degrees, without enough food, clothes, etc. to make it through the winter, let alone across the plains to salt lake they had had to leave their homes so many times before. i'm sure it took a tremendous amount of faith to leave everything and start over again.

we stopped at the Carthage jail on our way back, but it was closed so the missionaries could attend church. we'll go back this summer to see it.

our weekend in Nauvoo was a much needed spiritual boost - i'm so thankful for the sacrifices those early saints made.

these are not my pictures - i forgot my camera. i found them on the internet.

Happy Late Mother's Day

many of you may not realize this, but I was adopted at two weeks old. i 've always known about my adoption, in fact, my brothers were adopted as well, and it just seemed normal to me. i would laugh when people would say that i looked like my parents or my siblings.

so, (even though i'm 2 days late) i would like to honor my mom today. thanks, mom, for taking me (even though you thought you wanted a boy) and for loving me and raising me.

thanks for showing me the beauty in the world, in the sunset, in pebbles, in the flowers in the yard, the color of someone's eyes. thanks for noticing details and pointing them out to me, so that i learned to notice them, too.

thanks for teaching me right from wrong. for setting the example in how i should talk, act, dress and treat others. for stressing the importance of following the prophet, reading the scriptures, praying and serving others.

thanks for teaching me how to sew, how to cook, how to wash clothes, iron, clean a bathroom, feed a baby, mop a floor and all of those other things that i needed to know to prepare me for the calling that i have now.

thanks for showing me how to be a good wife, to support my husband, to love him unconditionally and appreciate all that he does for me.

thanks for being a good mom, so that i could follow your example.

i fought the law . . .

and I won! at least for now. i had a meeting with the IEP team regarding C, I had a feeling they wanted to take away his IEP (he has met all of his goals for speech, and they took OT away in the fall.) i felt sick after signing that paperwork in october, i knew it was the beginning of the end.

i convinced them to put him back on OT consult. since january or earlier, we've had problems with strange noises (self-soothing) and the finger-sucking has reared it's head again. i'm sure this has to do with no OT help - no more squishy balls and clay, or pokey seats to sit on. mostly, no quiet room to go to when the classroom is crazy and certain people there make him crazy. i hope this helps.

we went back and forth for over 2 hours (in what was supposed to be a 30 minute meeting.) i explained that in the past, transitions have been very hard on him, sometimes causing huge backslides, and if we move, i would rather have an IEP than a 504 to take with me. after calling down to the district office, they decided to finally let me have my way (i'm not sure what the consequence is for the other team members if i don't sign off on the change, but check that i disagree. apparently, not good.)

i hope you don't get the impression that i have had to fight with these people for the last 3 years over services for my child. i haven't. ever. i have never been involved in a school district that has demonstrated more caring and concern for a child of mine than i have here. the attention and services he has received here has been phenomenal, and the changes and growth that he has gone through as a result has been huge.

it's obvious that these people care deeply about what they do, and who they do it for. i had a much different experience in california, and with some of the teachers in utah. that's probably what makes changing to a new school district so scary. and i feel that i need all the ammo i can get in my arsenal, to make sure we have the same experience when we go to a new place.