te goat rodeo and te case of te missing letters

do yo notice someting missing?  does tis post ave a certain, "je ne sais qoi?"  Maybe it's more like, "Je ne sais qoi in te world yo're trying to say."

earlier tis week, kids spilled water on my keyboard.  My entire first two rows don't work along wit a few letters and nearly all pnctation.  

It's an expensive wireless Mac keyboard, so we can't jst pick a replacement p at te trift store.  I oped it wold dry ot and save me sixty dollars on a new one, bt anyone wo tries to read tis disaster realizes tose letters and nmbers appear to ave taken a permanent vacation.

O yes, tis is te glamoros life of a blogger.  

The Goat Rodeo entourage got a little bigger

Well, my dear sweet readers, you met "Dobby Dog" in a previous post.  He's a very protective, high strung, ankle-craving, not at all social 5-year-old Chihuahua.

That dog FLIPS OUT when anyone comes into or out of our house (or even approaches our home from a 5 block radius).  He's a sweetheart, but he's not that bright.  He failed puppy class because the only behavior he learned there was to CLIMB UP MY SHOULDERS and perch there shaking because he was so terrified of the other dogs.  An owner of a (gigantic) dog in the class laughed while my dog scaled my shoulder and said, "That's not a dog.  That's a squirrel."  And that's how the dog got one of his middle names (his full name is Chiawoohaha Hurley Squirrel).  

Chi aka "Dobby dog" on his hind legs staring at the neighbors
because my kids dared to leave the house and he seems to feel he is single-handedly responsible for their safety.

He was sweet (to us and us alone.  Everyone else who exists in the world is a deadly predator in his mind), but not that bright to begin with.  It appears our 5 lb, barking, shaking wonder canine left what little brains he had somewhere along the way during the move.  I suspect that, scattered along rest stops between there and here I'll bet you can find the last of this dog's brain cells.

Upon arrival at this house, he decided to try to play leap frog  and red rover with the cats who have claws and very little patience.  Being the dog of little brains that he is, he didn't get the message.  He did, however, get attacked again and again and again.

We thought, perhaps, a friend would help.  After taking into account all his quirks and special needs, we came up with a list of things we wanted in a new dog and headed to the shelter.  Then we headed to the next shelter.  And the next.  After shelter-hopping for a while, we found a very sweet 4-year-old female chihuahua this past weekend.  She was spayed yesterday and we picked her up yesterday evening.

We discussed a long list of possible names (all Harry Potter-related, of course) and settled on one.

And so, I would like to introduce:  Mischief-Managed

Mischief-Managed

Note that, in the background, you can see Peek-a-booDuck, one of our cats, who tells me she will never forgive us for bringing another dog into this house.

Am I the only one who gets the urge to adopt ANOTHER dog just so we can name it I-Solemnly-Swear-I-Am-Up-To-No-Good?

And Ode to Harry Potter

We LOVE Harry Potter here at Chez Goat Rodeo.

Our Harry Potter Purim was the best Purim ever.

We plan to decorate our basement to look like Hogwarts (I kid you not).

I even scrapped about the final book.

My middle daughter knows every single little detail about these books.  Seriously, it's scary. It has gotten to the point where I'll say, "Well, I thought I remembered X, but she's saying, 'Y," and it's her after all, so I'll go with Y."

One of her camp counselors last year posted a status update about how he was never going to argue with his campers about Harry Potter again.  I replied asking, "What did my daughter do now?"  Sure enough, she had argued with him and SHE WAS RIGHT.

She's read all the books at least 3 times each.

Our Chihuahua's nickname is "Dobby Dog."

My children commonly run around the house shouting spells at each other.

Yet, through all that, we never even considered going to the movie premier early this morning.  #1.  We have the rule that you must read the book before you see the movie.  My oldest has yet to read the 7th book.  So she couldn't come with her twin sister to see the movie.  I wouldn't leave her behind and only take one.  #2. While I was a night owl back in the day and still stay up pretty late now, the thought of having to give up those few hours of sleep--precious wonderful gorgeous sleep, was not something I could stand (most especially because the youngest has decided sleep is for the weak, or more precisely, not for me, over the past few nights).

So, we didn't go.  I noticed a number of my friends complaining that they, too, weren't able to go last night.  So we're banding together and forming our own little group scattered all over the country, where we go next Saturday night instead.  That should give the oldest time to finish the final book (please, G-d!).

I've never been a huge fan of the movies, but still, this is the absolute end.  This is it.  It's over.  I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it all the same.

Wordless (day before) Wednesday: Nightstand redo

I'm horrible about getting my WW posts up in time, so I'm doing this the day before Wednesday in hopes of FINALLY having one up for Wednesday.

When my daughters wanted a nightstand, I decided to find one and redo it for them.

The end result isn't anything I'd pick for myself, but it's what my girls wanted and they love it.

I used the turquoise paint we have for the youngest's room because it goes well with the pink in the big girls' room (I also used it on their dresser which isn't quite done yet).  We scoured the scrapbook aisle for papers they liked and I cut those into squares and decoupaged the top and side with Mod Podge (inspired by this adorable dresser I found through Pinterest).  I used the leftover paper scraps and the same dark pink paint I used for table accents on this "Magic" canvas I made for their room.  Somehow, I screwed up and got paint drips on the top, so I covered those with butterfly wall stickers from the Dollar Tree (which are also on their dresser).  I sanded down the edges to distress it.

After

Before

During

side

Top

I'm not happy with the handles, but I just painted and reused the existing ones for now.  Anyone have any ideas for alternatives?  It's so busy that I'm not sure what to do.  I'm leaning towards these.  I saw a turquoise painted dresser on pinterest with these black half-circle pulls and I loved the look.  What say you?  Do you think they'll work?

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Wordless Wednesday

Things I Love (day after) Thursday: Magic, Creativity and My Kids

I'm a day late, but I'm still hopping on the Things I Love Thursday train at The Diaper Diaries.

I'm missing my girls something awful this week.  This is the first time I've been away from them this long and it's the first time they've been completely without either one of their parents.   I know they're having a blast and they were absolutely ready for camp.  I, however, am adjusting.  

Since we've been busy working on other rooms in the house, we haven't even begun work on the girls' room.  Our goal is to have it finished by the time they come home from camp.  

I have a number of different pictures, posters, and quotations saved on Pinterest as inspiration for ones to make for their room.  While unpacking, I found our large canvases (that I found on sale at Michael's last year super cheap) and headed to my board for an idea.  This one spoke to me the most.  And so, I created that canvas up there.  

It's not perfect.  I see lots of little things I would change if I hadn't rushed into it.  Still, I like it. It's far more sparkly than it appears in this shot.  The background paint and the paper used for the letters is the same paper I used to decorate their night stand (that's another post for another day).  

I'm going to hang it in their room if we ever when we finish it.

Decorating: You Can Go Your Own Way (Wordless Wednesday)

Click to enlarge.
Of course, in true Oy Vey That Boy fashion, he had to be in the picture, even if he was already in jammies.

The corner before (with the last owner's stuff)

I got hooked on Pinterest months before we moved.  So, I had more than enough time to collect decorating inspiration for the new place which existed only in our dreams.

I created an "Oy Vey That Boy" folder full of inspiration for my son's room.  After toying with super heros, monsters, dogs, and other animals, I found this inspiration.  That did it.  I LOVE that sentiment and I love the colors and shapes of maps.  I love the sentimentality of maps from our past just as much as I love the potential contained when we grip a map to a place we've never been.  I showed my son some of the map ideas I found and he loved them.  I knew I wanted to wallpaper one of his (dreary brown) walls with maps (I've actually wallpapered 3 walls).  I found a great collection of websites where I could request maps and I did.

During the actual move, whenever we stopped, I searched for maps.  If I found some freebies, I grabbed two or three.

When we arrived here at the new house, we found our map collection was woefully inadequate.  "What if we ask people to send us maps from where they live," my son asked.  And so we did.  Through Facebook, I asked friends to send maps from their home state, their current town, countries they visited, their favorite amusement park, etc.  Some did just that.

For those maps we didn't get, Tour Guide Google helped.  I found pdf files of maps from zoos that were near and dear to us.  I found links to tourism departments for states/countries where our friends and family live and requested those.  I was able to search through gorgeous vintage maps from places not so near, but very dear to us.

In this past month, my son has received more mail than he has in all his 5 and 1/2 years combined.  Friends and family addressed their maps to him.  I purposely requested maps in his name from the tourism departments.  He LOVED it.

Just last week, I found we had collected enough maps to begin the project.  Initially, I used wallpaper adhesive to attach the maps to the wall.  I started with some of the larger ones, and filled in with smaller ones.  I found many maps have smaller maps of various areas on the back of the large map.  So having two or three copies came in VERY handy.

I purposely tried to position important maps at what will be his eye level when in bed.  So there, you'll find a map of the state where he was born, a small map of the town where we last lived, a map of Israel, a map the kids used in a school project about our heritage (yes, it's the actual map from their display.  I found it during the move and took it apart) and a map of his favorite zoo.  Our change of address cards have a map background and one of those is up there too at eye level.

Great Grandpa's St. Louis map

He has the neatest collection of maps.  There are maps sent by friends from their home states.  There's a giant world map that used to hang in his grandmother's office.  There's an old St. Louis map that once belonged to his great grandfather.  There are gorgeous maps I found from the Graphics Fairy.  When I came across a map of the route of the British Royal Wedding, I had to grab that and put it up.  There are 21 year-old maps from DisneyLand (the last time I was there).  There are maps from all the places dh and I have lived.  I came across a few cool maps in magazines and saved them.  They're up there too.

Over the window sill

Oh yes, it's Hogwarts.

Royal Wedding procession map

Neat map I tore out of the last Woman's Day magazine.
You can tell I couldn't get it exactly right.  Note the great state of Tes. 

Before we moved, a friend gave us a whole host of toys for the ride (which helped save my sanity).  Among them was this puzzle along with that note attached.  I damn-near giggled with delight because I already knew I wanted to go with the map theme.  I purposely saved the note.  I figure we'll put this together, seal it, hang it up and keep the note with it on the wall.





The thrift store fairies worked their magic a few weeks ago.  I saw this super cool puzzle at the thrift store.  I adored the colors and the fact that, HELLLLLOOO, it's a MAP, but I worried it wouldn't all be there.  Opening it up revealed that it's still sealed in the bag.  This is actually a personalized puzzle someone purchased this past Xmas for a family member (the receipt was still in the box).  You can have a map made of any address.  Apparently, the recipient didn't like it, but I sure did.  By that point, though, I had a bunch of maps and figured I didn't need any more.  We left without buying it, but that entire weekend, I was mad at myself for doing that.  When we returned the following week, not only did I find it again, but it was half price, so I got this for a whopping 98 cents.  I will not ignore the thrift store fates when they damn-near toss this into my hands.  I bought it that time.

It's still a work in progress.  My mother recently grabbed a magnetic knife rack at Ikea which I'll put up in his room to hold his cars.  She also grabbed some spice racks that I'll paint and put up to hold his books (his baby sister will get some too).  His sister's old Finding Nemo desk will be covered in maps (just the Nemo portions.  I'm actually leaving the blue and orange because I think they'll work well with the map colors) and moved into his room.  You can see in that shot that he's still in a toddler bed.  We need to get him a new twin bed and pass that down to his baby sister.  I have an old scratched up dining room chair that I want to paint, recover and put in his room.  If you look through the Oy Vey That Boy folder, you'll see some of the other ideas I'm considering for his room.  Right now, one large wall is still brown.  I'm not going to cover that, but I'm strongly considering painting it turquoise.

Oh and did you notice the parachuting monkey between the windows?  That was $1.99 find at Michael's.  They have wall stickers on clearance and I had to grab that.  It was too stinking cute.  Nothing completes a travel-themed room like a parachuting monkey.  ;-)

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Map to Your Heart Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

Wordless Wednesday

Metamorphosis Monday

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**

It's that time of year again.  The sun (or complete lack thereof),  the hiking, swimming in the lake, the complete lack of parental supervision, the posing for pictures while flashing ridiculous-looking peace signs (in every single freaking picture even though your mother BEGGED you to resist the urge) or somehow managing to hide every time someone with a camera is near so that there's little to no evidence of your existence, the shabbat services in a pretty dress and muddy sneakers (because they won't let you wear your shower flip-flops and that's your only other option).

My homegoys (tm) may read that and scratch their head, but it is, in fact, Jewish overnight camp time.

Generations of Jewish mothers have sent their children away to Jewish-themed camps every summer only to sit back and freak the hell out  um...er...lose their ever-loving minds worry too much while their kids are gone.  This year, I joined their ranks for the very first time.

Our move worked out just in time for the big two to head to camp for the first time.  So, this past Sunday, at an insane hour of the morning, we herded the goat rodeo to the synagogue parking lot where a huge bus picked up our teeny tiny girls and started off on its journey, SIX HOURS away from us.

We greeted friends, we took pictures, we loaded bags crammed full (of some things we'll probably never see again), we kissed them, hugged them, and the huge bus pulled away.  I immediately turned to my husband and asked, "What did we just do?"

Funny thing is, I remember asking that exact same question when we dropped our 3-year-old twins off at Sunday school for the first time.  Granted, Sunday school wasn't SIX HOURS away (yes, I must type that in all caps every time I write it.  It's required).

I'm left to ask, how the hell am I going to send them to college*?

*They're 9.  


**I tried and tried and tried to concoct a witty title for this entry.  This one is the best portrayal of my actual thoughts and feelings on the topic.