PSA-The Obsessive Loving Grandmother Epidemic

This is a public service announcement alerting all new moms about the threat and danger of "OLG" Syndrome.

Here is Jessica's story:


This is a picture of my mother and me hours before I gave birth to my first born child. Little did I know that this is the last picture of my mom before she came down with OLG. Her symptoms were acute and immediate and the unfortunate thing is once diagnosed with OLG there is no cure. We still work everyday to subside the side effects of OLG but we have our good days and our bad.

What is OLG Syndrome?

OLG Syndrome is the acronym for Obsessive Loving Grandmother Syndrome. Affecting mostly women, OLG Syndrome's onset is upon arrival of a woman's first born grandchild.

Presentation:

Immediate symptoms are usually crying and smiling. The OLG usually has no cell phone battery life because she snaps about 1,000 pictures and videos of the new baby hourly. More symptoms include but are not limited to:

-Taking the blankets off of the newborn to check fingers and toes
-Saying immediately which relative the child looks like
-Telling the baby's nurse how to do their job
-Taking more pictures
-Rocking the baby
-Rocking the baby some more
-Walking around the room talking to the baby
-More rocking
-Following you home from the hospital or in some cases waiting at home for you to arrive
-Staring for long periods of time at the baby and then crying
-Frequent calling to check on the baby

Unfortunately, symptoms only continue to evolve and worsen as the child gets older. The Obsessive Loving Grandmother begins to:

-Come to your house at unexpected hours and investigate when the child has last had something to eat or conversely, when the child last had a bowel movement
-Call to check and see if you need anything in order to come over and see the baby or child
-Reminds you constantly that when they had children they didn't have the computer to "look up all the answers" on the internet
-Begins to stash large amount of candy and doughnuts in her purse
-Also, tends to frequent Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target toy aisles searching for on sale toys that she just couldn't pass up because the child needs them
-Doubts the reliability of a "fancy" video monitor



Treatment:

When the OLG arrives confiscate anything that resembles candy or doughnuts as well as toys. Allow the OL grandmother to speak her mind, listening and nodding during OLG Syndrome "flair-ups". Warning, DO NOT roll your eyes at the OLG, this only worsens symptoms. The OLG tends to improve when the actual daughter or son of the OLG calls the OLG for support and advice. Symptoms subside when the OLG has ample amounts of time with the baby or children.

An update on Jessica's story:

She reports that while her mother's symptoms of OLG continue, she is actually blessed and extremely grateful to have a mom that suffers from this syndrome. Jessica states that, "My mom is the most self-sacrificing woman on the planet with a heart as big as Texas!" Jessica knows that OLG is genetic, and one day....when her children have children....she too will suffer from OLG syndrome.



I love you mom. You are the best.

"Jessa"

Artwork on a budget!

So after we bought the new couches we needed an easy, large, and CHEAP piece of artwork to balance out the wall color and the couch color.

Here is my solution that costs about $35-40 total: Cheap Buffalo Art
It took one Saturday night after the kids went to sleep to complete so about 2-3 hours.



Here was my solution:

Step 1: Buy 3- 24"x 24"x 1" Plywood boards. I got these at my local Home Depot for about $8 each.


Step 2: Paint them using whatever leftover paint you have! Here I used a small "sample" container of Behr Cottage White.

Step 2: Draw a template to create a stencil (I didn't want them all exactly the same but I did want them to be close to the same size.)


Step 3: Carefully use an Exacto or razor blade to cut over your pencil lines.(Use caution!)


Step 4: Use a pencil to trace the image onto your painted boards.


Step 5: Next, use a small brush (I used my daughter's Crayola paint brush and leftover Rust-Oleum black enamel to paint the design on. Don't get too perfect the imperfections make it ART!!!!!


Step 6: Paint the edges of the board black or any contrasting color!

Last....attach a picture hanging kit. I got mine at Home Depot.

AND....here it is the final project! I was skeptical at first until we hung them all up! Now both my husband and I love them. Charli even says the buffalo are like her and her two sisters! So cute.




I don't know why I love them so much! But I do! You could do so many other designs or images! They are not perfect by any means but they do the job and the nice thing is you can repaint them and change them if needed!

Happy Painting!

Rooms TOE Go

On New Year's Eve my parents took Charli for a few hours during the day. Troy and I got a wild hair to drive up to Rooms To Go and look at furniture. We have been wanting a new couch and thought we would browse their big sale. Mistake.....



Side Note: About three days before this Troy was going outside and opened the back door on his big toe, ripping his toenail almost completely off. Initially, when he fell to the floor in pain I couldn't help but snicker because I always reference him as the "Bull in the china cabinet" and he is always hurting himself. But it was actually pretty bad so we wrapped it up and went to sleep. The next morning he ended up having to remove his entire big toe nail and he has been taking care of it ever since religiously to prevent infection.

Here is the actual original picture of the ripped off toenail: BRACE YOURSELF FOR QUEEZY FACTOR!!!! YUCK!!!!!


Well, the day of Rooms TOE Go, we get the twins ready, packed, and loaded in the van. I even created a shoe that Troy could wear in order to "air" out his injured toe. I take time to feed the twins on the way to make sure their tummies are nice and full so they will be on their best behavior. We arrive at Rooms To Go and unload them into to the double stroller. They look so cute and innocent as we are pushing them into to the store.

We didn't even make it down one aisle before the girls started screaming! I have to pull out my Secret weapon: Candy Canes. I give each girl a candy cane and we are back to tranquility. Or at least for a little while.



We found a really nice set we liked and had a nice salesman so we decided to buy a leather sofa set.


Everyone else shopping just kept looking at the twins and I just ignore it now because everyone looks and points and says "Twins!!" but then I looked at the girls.

Their faces were covered in RED STICKY OOEY GOO!!!! And super mom had no baby wipes with her....dang!

I made my way to the bathroom and Josi started trying to grab the furniture with her hands and it's literally a scene out of a movie things started sticking to her! I made it to the bathroom and get them both clean.

I headed back to Troy and the salesman. Troy looked at the twins with that Hey-I'm-such-a-cool-dad-that-doesn't-realize-what-I-am-about-say-is-crazy says, "Just let them out."

Well, the twins understand the meaning of "out" and start chirping at me like the birds on Finding Nemo that say "Mine, Mine, Mine!" But instead they are saying, "Out, Out, Out"


I let them out...


and then begins my own version the T25 workout [Twins 25] for the day which translates to me chasing the twins around Rooms to Go for 25 minutes. I am at the end of my workout and we are finishing up but the sale guy needs us a little longer so Troy is holding Josi's hand and she decides she wants to throw a fit (She is the queen of the throw herself down, roll around, kick and scream fit)

Well, she threw her fit.....on Troy's toe

She stomped once wearing her cute glitter boots, and then threw her entire body weight onto the toe by sitting down! For all you Shaun T fans...she really Dug Deep! ;)

(Don't forget the toenail was "airing out" so it wasn't bandaged!!!!)

He looked at me in horror. His fear of leaving the house because someone may step on his toe was made real by his sweet Josi Mae!


I knew what I had to do. I picked her up and started to push the stroller. I left Libbi with Troy because she was still somewhat in good spirits. Upon leaving Josi decided she wanted to stay and started trying to throw herself down and flop backwards out of my arms, ripping at my shirt and my hat. The sales guy didn't have to say a word, he just immediately went to the door and opened it.....He must have kids....

Our furniture arrived today and I at least have a great memory for the day we purchased it.


And here is the update of Troy's ripped off big toe: [WARNING STILL QUEEZY!] But looks way better! I can't even post what it looked like after Josi sat on it! It looked MAD!!!!

Disney Movie "Up" Inspired Birthday Party

For the twins' first birthday I chose to do Disney's "Up" as the theme. I personally love this movie myself and let's face it moms we get to choose the first 2 birthday party ideas anyways so why not indulge in what we like!



I started about a month in advance searching the Target "Dollar Spot" for those seasonal mailboxes they carry. I was lucky to score just enough for the amount of party-kiddos. So I snatched them up.

I didn't know yet what I would store inside but did some Pinter-searching and some brainstorming and created some "Snipe-Food" and bought Hershey bars since Snipes eat chocolate! I then wrapped them with simple copy-paper that I created a Snipe-Food label on. It's amazing what you can do on PowerPoint with some simple dimensions, googling some movie clip art, and adding word art over the top. I can post instructions if someone comments.


I made the Up Party invitations on PowerPoint too! So easy and saves you a ton of money!!!!!!! Just cut and use store bought envelopes.



I bought kid's 3D movie glasses on Ebay for $5 and then popped the lenses out to create the "Up" eye glasses.

I used acrylic paint to paint the names on the mailboxes, but in retrospect I think colored Sharpies would do the trick.


As you can see it's inexpensive, simple and I think really cute!

The Up party-favors were placed on my entry way table with a sign I cut and made out of paper-bags. You simply cut the triangles all the same size, hole punch the corners, and use a black Sharpie to write, "Spirit of Adventure" on the flags. I borrowed my classroom globes and brought them home as party decorations!



Of course for the movie "Up" lots of BALLOONS are essential so I ordered 3 dozen multi-colored.

I used my daughter's quilt to be the table cloth which goes along with the "Up" picnic scenes. I also used Dollar Tree green plastic Easter grass and silver metallic tinsel to fill the vases in the dining room. I used left over balloons to blow-up and create my table-scape.

I also used an old map I found in my classroom from the teacher before me to back-drop the twins' eating table.



Again, my cake-lady did a fabulous job:



A teacher friend of mine made the twins' shirts she has an Etsy page and she is SUPER creative!!!!!

Her shop on Etsy is KellyPaige Creations! www.etsy.com/shop/KeLLYPAiGECreations
Kelly Paige Creations


Here are some pictures from the party! It was a beautiful day filled with family and friends! We are truly blessed!!!!



P.S. I love Troy's face while he is holding the twin's while I open up presents. This is the most stressful part of birthdays for one year olds and it truly ends up in the mom sweating her butt off to open presents while wrestling the children to try to get them to open them up! Troy had to help me corral the girls this year!!! and you can tell he is enjoying himself huh? :)

Happy Party Planning!