The Man Room

We recently did a little home improvement project in Dwayne’s Man Room. Yeah, I let him have a room all to himself. I say he is lucky. I would have otherwise turned it into a playroom. I really wanted to get some new bathroom furniture, a bedding set or repaint the kitchen but the Man Room project won.

So the Man Room project was to replace the old carpet with new flooring and we opted to go the frugal way by doing the work ourselves. We went with a higher end vinyl tile (self-sticking) since the base of the floor is concrete. Dwayne let William help with the rolling of the first few tiles. Don't laugh at the rolling pin, I did say we were doing things frugally!
When the boy started doing wild things like this it was time to send him upstairs to his sisters. Things started to get rather sticky (literally) It took us about 7 hours since we had to cut all the detailed edges and corners. Those were the moments I wanted to jump out the window. I could not wait to be DONE!
We were both is so much pain we could not believe it. Your boy Dwayne behaved like the usual fool and I did have to say a few (dozen) choice words. Let's just say he likes to try some really dumb things instead of doing it the proper way and I have to get on him. Thankfully we made it through and it came out really beautiful~ besides his wall art. His favorite stuffed bass. People always ask him if he caught it. He tells them "Sho nuff, caught it at an estate sale!".
I am kind of jealous now. I think this color is so nice with his custard colored walls.

Now we are thinking about the next project.... Who knows what the next Shelly & Dwayne adventure will be!

Celebrating excellence

The Ismail family went out to Red Robin for a special lunch in honor of Chardie and Brie. We wanted to celebrate their excellent report cards. They both got all A's and 1 B. Brie's one B was a 92 (an A is a 93) so she was very annoyed. Chardie was expecting to have 3 B's with how tough her college level classes are in combination with the volleyball season. She was able to pull it off and she currently ranks #4 in her sophomore class. We are so proud of both girls for being such diligent students and all around sweet girls. Now we can't leave little William out, he is doing a great job with his "school" time at home. He is making great strides daily and we are very proud of him. Here are a few photos of our lunch out...

Dwayne took this photo (the reason why he is not in it). I love these 3 sweet children!
Brie did not want to be in this picture because Daddy was being aggravating. The girls warned him before entering the restaurant- NO talking, NO foolishness, NO singing, NO drawing attention to any of us. Of course he broke at least 3 of these rules!!
We seldom go out to sit-down establishments to eat but this was a pleasant experience. William really behaved well and enjoyed his 'bottomless' fries!

If you have never had a burger from Red Robin I would recommend the Mt. Olympus Burger. It was divine!!

Flashback Friday

This was about 3 years ago when I was in early pregnancy with Will. I used to drink strawberry milk out of a wine glass to make it taste better. Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Who needs toys anyway?

Will and I were going to pick Brie up from school and he stopped and screamed out leaf! leaf! I had trimmed off the old leaves from one of my houseplants and he decided he wanted to keep it as a toy. He picked that over a truck or book. These days his favorite "toys" are leaves, grass, pine needles, flowers and stems. I guess there could be worse things he could play with!
What are some of the oddest things you have seen your kid play with?

My boy loves Dora and friends

It is amazing how much little William LOVES Dora the Explorer. He is always requesting to watch Dora and Boots. He is lucky that we can watch it On Demand through our digital cable. It's neat when you hear your toddler counting in Spanish from 1-10 and saying words like mountain, crocodile lake, rain forest or even "We did it!"

I think Dora the Explorer is one of the best preschool programs on television and I was thrilled to receive a complimentary copy of the new Dora the Explorer magazine! I love the fact that all of Dora's friends are featured, giving it a more gender neutral feel. The issue is filled with fun activities like coloring pages, matching games, puzzles, stickers and more. William sat down quietly and went through each page thoroughly and I was taken back by how much he knew. I admit, I did remove the stickers and hide them because I don't want to see what he might try to "decorate" with them :)

He was really into this particular page. He loves telling me what all the objects are. He is enjoying his magazine! I think that if he was a year older he would be able to do more of the activities in it. It's a great magazine and I would totally recommend it to any Dora fan.

WTH? Wednesday

I don't I have days anymore that something does not jump out at me and make me say WTH?!

~ So I watched last night's episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta to see what all the hype it about and all I kept saying was...um well let's pretend I was saying WTH?! I know a lot of you love that show but I just keep shaking my head. I will leave that one alone.
~ WTH is up with everyone putting their calls on speakerphone?
~ WTH is up with teenagers always taking pictures of themselves with their tongue sticking out to the side?
~ I ordered some 5x7 greeting cards the other day for the husband's business. How about the company sent me 4x6 envelopes. GRRRR!!!
~ I'm such a grumpy, mean mom this Halloween. I really don't care. There will be no candy. No rubber hand in the punch. No eyeball cupcakes. No tricks. No treats. The end.
~ I just sent off some blog related things in the mail yesterday and how about I receive my business cards TODAY. Nice huh?

OK, it's your turn. Share your WTH moments with us in the comments.