Helping Out Dad..A Guest Post

Helping Out Dad

Thanks for the guest post by Bradly Watkins

I wanted to help dad out but it was tough since I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on him and barely enough to keep myself afloat! I wanted to figure out what I could do for him but I didn’t really have any great ideas. I heard about texasElectricityProviders.comfrom a coworker of mine and told my dad about it and that seemed to help a lot with his weekly bills. I also talked to his doctor with dad’s permission to make sure everyone understood exactly what was going on with his medical issues. I know he really counts on me to be the best son in the world and I try my hardest to be exactly that but it’s tough sometimes when I’m working 60 hours a week and he lives miles and miles away from me. There are just some things you have to take as they come and dad getting older is one of those things…no one can prepare you for what it’s like to have an ageing parent!

Challenge #4 Accessories

Everyone knows that accessories are the icing on the top of your outfit cake. For women, shoes, belts, handbags, and of course jewelry are the stars of the show. Men don't have a ton of options except when it comes to ties! My husband is required to dress in a shirt and tie everyday so his tie collection is quickly rivaling my jewelry one. A few months ago I put a hook into the closet to hang all the ties on...  

This was working..for a while..Now more often than not this is what ends up happening...

So, new solution..

I bought this nice tie rack from Target for under ten dollars..

Now they all have their own non-slip hook and plenty of open ones for new ties to come!


Now over to my problems... jewelry

As you can see I have been housing my precious jewelry in several different make up bags, boxes, and purses. As you can imagine this makes it pretty difficult and time consuming to locate and untangle when getting ready.

I untangled and sorted through it all, laying it out onto the bed into categories..

I then utilized yet another organizer purchased for cheap at Target..

Everything slide perfectly into the little pockets {45 total} and since they are on both front and back, I have a few left open in case I acquire some new jewelry {hint hint hubby}

Getting Around

With August coming to a close here in South Florida, cooler days will be upon us soon..sigh of relief. This also means lots of walks for us on the golf course, the beach, and parks. We have gotten a lot of use out of the travel system stroller we got as a gift at my baby shower {almost 4 years ago,yikes} but with baby number 2 coming in January I have been looking into some new options strollers.

A much smaller Isabelle

I love the jogging strollers {but who am I kidding I don't jog} so I think the ones with the ride along area for big kids would be the most practical for our situation. What do you all have?

Sunday Not So Funday

About twice a year, there is a Kids Expo at the South Florida Fairgrounds.http://www.adayforkids.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=palmbeach.main&x=2301151

There are tons of people there! They have lots of giveaways to enter into, live characters to meet, bounce houses, cotton candy, and a lot more! We went to the last one they had and Isabelle LOVED it http://seeoursweetlife.blogspot.com/2011/04/family-fun-day.html
so when I found out it was going on again this weekend, I knew we had to go.


This time Isabelle was excited to meet Strawberry Shortcake, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and The Bernstein Bears who she missed last time.


We got in the car right after lunch and headed that way...Bad idea. If you know Isabelle well, you know that sleeping in the car is her favorite thing to do. I literally cant make it to Wal-Mart without her falling asleep and the fairgrounds are about 20 minutes away so she never stood a chance. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot she woke up and informed us she had a bad dream..about Sponge Bob...who was there.


She clung to her daddy most of the time we were there but did get down to do one thing and one thing only..

Isabelle loves a good doll house and bad mood or not she was going to elbow her way in and play..I dont like crowds so much and this was a very tight area so I hung out with a friend in the corner..

They gave us a catalog, which made Isabelle's day of course since she is a magazine freak, and now she of course wants said doll house..

Which costs 133.00 without any accessories, although Isabelle insists it only cost a dollar.To be a kid again..Kids Expo was a bust for us this time around but hey, everyday cant be perfect right? 

Challenge #3 Toy Storage

 So, for my third organizing challenge, I am tackling Isabelle's toys. If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I have actually already done this. Prior to the news of baby number 2, I moved all of Isabelle's toys into one room and her bedroom into another. Now that we will be needing the other bedroom, I needed to try to rework the toys so they would all fit into Isabelle's closet so there would be plenty of room for her bed, dresser, etc. This is how the closet was before...

Everything was pretty much grouped and put away, but some of the containers where too large, too small, and were all un-unified in color and shape. I dumped everything into the middle of the room and started sorting.

My plan of attack was categorize and containerize! I bought several different containers. Plastic shoe boxes with lids for smaller toys like Polly Pockets, My little Ponies,etc. Open buckets for Happy Meal Toys {we have too many} action figures,etc. Then larger crates for Barbies, Mr. Potato Heads, and animals.

After everything had a home, I made up a label for each container listing its contents. Isabelle cant read yet, but for now this helps us know where is belongs and Isabelle can practice her words.

In the end I was able to fit twice as many toys into the closet once everything was properly organized and containerized...sigh..onto the next challenge!

Out On The Town

Every Friday and Saturday night Cityplace has live music. We had our friend Jodi over for a bit, had some snacks, then headed down to check it out..

We needed to run into the bookstore {again} while we were there so we hit Barnes and Noble first. I found a Tori Spelling Motherhood book on clearance for 5 bucks and also nabbed a Mom Bogging for Dummies book :)    Isabelle of course found a sticker book for herself...

Then we ran into Sloans to get ice cream but it was packed..

So we went to Italy and got gelato instead..

Then I got hungry and had some Penne Pomadoro...

Isabelle loved the music and was super tired but the time we got home..All and all we had an awesome night...

Challenge #2 Bathroom Cleaner Caddys

Here is another one of my super exciting organizing challenges {slight sarcasm}...I keep a bottle of window cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, a roll of paper towels, rubber gloves, scrub brush, extra hand soap and a magic eraser under both of my bathroom sinks so I don't have to drag out cleaning supplies from my kitchen every 5 minutes. This has been a great idea for me so far, but I also keep other things under my sinks and everything was falling all together so I did my new favorite thing...put it all in a container...

Since Isabelle is the only one who uses the bathtub, this is what it looks like most of the time..

I went ahead and threw them all into a bucket also...

Now everything is tucked away and right there when we need it...

Mail Call

Isabelle was very happy to see the mail man today! He brought her a package from her G.G and Pop Pop...

Checking the mail to Isabelle is almost the equivalent of Christmas morning in her opinion. She loves to get packages of course but also loooves magazines. She will spend hours looking through mags...

Got some art clips and clothes

This was one of my all time favorite movies when I was a kid..

Isabelle's two biggest interests at the moment...Fairies and Horses...

Thank you G.G and Pop Pop..There were also lots of super cute clothes for Isabelle and baby Jude in the box :)