Alaina's Room Continued

The view into Alaina's room as you walk down the hall, through the door. You get a good view here of three of the four silhouettes. The fish bowl will probably be filled in three weeks (or less). I told A that she had to wait till we got back from the cruise before she bugged me about it again.
Instead of a dresser, we decided to use Alaina's old shelves with baskets. That way she had room to store socks, undies, etc and display her things because, even though A is growing up, she still loves her collections and things. Since A hasn't asked for a letterman's jacket yet she decided to hang her patches in a shadow box. Pretty clever if you ask me.
Alaina insisted that we find a place to hang her map. I left that off the list of "REQUIREMENTS". Apparently, she had a dream about being trapped in a foreign country and needed to find an escape route. Luckily, she had a map hanging on her wall.

IKEA had a very clever little board that allowed A to organize her jewelry and purses. Too cute! and practical too. I wanted to put a full length mirror here and have a bit more space for organizing accessories. This is one of those compromises that I did not win.

I am just realizing that I should have done this "last" post, first and posted the other one about her room after I posted this one so they show up in the blog in the correct order. For some reason I was limited as to how many pictures I could upload tonight. There may be a way to switch them around, but it's late, church is early and I am tired so I'm going to bed. You'll just have to read these two posts out of order and figure it out for yourself.

p.s. as a reward for reading all the way to the bottom of these postings...I am having a contest to see who can find the item that does not belong in Alaina's room. It is sort of a "where's waldo" contest. Identify what does not belong in her bedroom and you will win a prize!

Alaina's Grown-Up Room

Let me take you on a little tour of Alaina's newly redecorated bedroom. She has been planning / designing this for months now. The end result required a bit of compromise between the two of us but we are both pleased with how it turned out.

She had some "REQUIREMENTS" which included having her easel set up and useable in her room, a place to display her Lion King collection, and keeping her large desk, as she likes to spread out while doing homework.

She also had a "WISH" list which included a small sofa for her friends to hang out on and a place for her fish to live.

Thanks to IKEA and Benjamin Moore we actually pulled it off. We also found a charming little fan at Home Depot (just the right size for a bedroom). Rob was a sweetheart and installed it for us. It made such a difference in keeping her room comfortable that I can't believe we haven't gotten around to putting one in her room before now.

Moving around her bedroom counter-clockwise....

The Lion King Collection and the Infamous Couch!

Alaina was so excited that we finally agreed to get her the couch that she took the box apart and carried it, piece by piece, upstairs to her bedroom. I had told her we may have to wait for her dad to get home from being out of state before we got it upstairs.

The Art Corner

The work corner

Look Em! The directors chair that we found at World Market fits fabulously in the room too. Apparently, this chair reminds random teenagers of a certain "Nancy Drew" computer game. Hmm, we may have to check it out sometime.

I love how the clock in the Big Ben clock tower turned out! My daughter is so creative!

The bed and dressing area

This made my day

So when I came home from the seminary faculty meeting last night Alaina was anxiously waiting to hear if we had been given our class assignments. I LOVE teasing my kids so I had to drag out my answer just a little bit but finally, happily, told her that I was going to be teaching the juniors again. She cheered and immediately whipped out her cell phone and started texting madly.

By the way - I am so jealous of my kids' mad texting skillz. I try, but just can't keep up with them.

It made me happy to hear Alaina's reports as the texts came back with positive remarks. I should have her forward some of those texts to me so I can save them (and savor them) next February / March when it is cold and dark and hard to get up.

Yes, sometimes even grownups need a pat on the back.

Meet Meredith

I would like to introduce you to my friend, Meredith Jacobs. She was Alaina's seminary teacher last year and we have gotten to know each other through teaching early morning seminary.

Meredith and her husband Shane are wonderful people. They love the gospel, they love serving and they love each other. They would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to be parents, but need help in achieving that goal. They are humbly reaching out to those who know and love them; asking for help to spread the word that they would truly love to have a child to raise and to love and to cherish.

If you know of someone who is facing an unplanned pregnancy, or anyone who might have a connection to a mother who is considering placing her baby for adoption would you please help me introduce her to this wonderful couple. Here is a link to Meredith's blog which also links directly to their LDS Family Services profile.

As President Spencer W. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”

Maybe one of us can, through our connections and through the miracle of this newfangled internet, be a small part of a miracle in the lives of the Jacobs family.

Seminary Assignments

We had our 1st faculty meeting tonight for the upcoming school year. I was excited to hear that I have been assigned to teach the junior class again. That means I get to have Alaina and her friends in my class! My team teacher remains a mystery for a while longer though.

The Griessmeyer's had everything very well organized and we had a productive meeting. The biggest news is that seminary will begin this year at 5:55 am instead of 6:00.

When I heard that I (quietly) whimpered to myself.

Well, maybe it wasn't really quiet and maybe it really wasn't too myself.

Oh, okay, I whimpered loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.

I am not a morning person. Never have been and it's not a secret to anyone who knows me.

I do love being with the youth though and I enjoy associating with the wonderful teachers that are also appointed to teach at the 95th Street building.

We were talking about different ideas of how to get the kids excited, enthused and encouraged to show up five minutes earlier this coming year and Sister Kling (the Joliet Stake seminary supervisor) suggested reading the 5th book, 5th chapter and 5th verse in the New Testament at the Seminary Sundae (which is going to start at 5:55 pm instead of 6:00 pm). Kayoko handed her a Bible and she looked it up and read it out loud.

Want a laugh? Look it up!


p.s. Can anyone teach me how to link to the scriptures on LDS.org?

Get out the Broom

CUBS WIN!This is the 14th straight win at home for the Cubs. The last time they did that was in 1936.

I have, surprisingly, listened to or watched the last six or seven games so I may actually begin to consider myself a real fan.

It's Sunday, so it must be time to play

It is Sunday - we are done with church and dinner. We had no choir practice today, no SED, no home teachers or any other visitors. What a nice change of pace. We are grateful that we have the ability to open our house and share, but it is also nice to have a quiet day just focused on our family.

Alaina asked if we could play Mario Party and even offered to play one of the older versions which made me happy (because I just don't like Mario Party 8 - it's harder and I don't like the way you can be doing so well and then suddenly lose everything....it's too much like gambling I guess).

So, we are playing Mario Party 7!
Wanna join in the fun? Live Updates to Follow...

While we were waiting for the game to start Dad said, "Maybe we should buy Mark & Em a Wii so they can play Mario Cart with us." Don't be holding your breath though because Mom (the practical one) responded with, "They can just go to Matthew & Kristin's and then they could All play with you."

Of course, I can't play unless I take Dramamine first.

Our first mini-game was a mic game and Rob and Alaina acted like they had no idea how to play. You drive the little car through the gas cans by giving directions and I smoked them all during the practice which meant that I, of course, lost by a mile once we got to the actual game.

I just had a great turn though. I got to purchase a Flutter Orb for ONLY 10 coins (Dad & Alaina are so jealous)! AND I got to take a Gondola ride all the way across the board so I am super close to the STAR space.

Dad says his goal is to finish the game without any stars! Ummm -- doesn't that defeat the point of the game? He's TRYING not to be a bad sport about losing though it does get a little challenging.

Alaina and I both had to fight a mini-game against Bowser to keep a star. Guess who won their game (and their star) and guess who lost? I don't know why A is so gifted when it comes to Mario Party.
She's reading a book and just won the last mini game. The score was 5 5 5 & 12!

Then in the next mini game Dad & I practiced twice so we could gang up on her (and we happened to win both practice games) and she still ended up blowing us both up before we could get her. AAARGH.

Alaina, THIS is why Daddy & I create alliances against you when we play RISK.


So, the end results. After all the bonus stars were awarded and coins counted....

1st is YOSHI (Alaina, of course)
2nd is LUIGI (Dad, of course)
3rd is PEACH (Me, of course)
4th is Toadette, who is the computer, who nobody cares about unless you are misfortunate enough to have her on your team during a mini game.

All in all, not a bad way to end a Sunday...Nintendo and mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Now we are going to watch the 3rd game in the Cubs Sox series

and hope for a sweep!

"Go Cubs, Go! Go Cubs, Go!

Hey Chicago, What do you say?

Cubs are gonna Win Today!"