What On Earth is a Bilibo?

I wondered the exact same thing once!

All I knew was that in Googling "the best toys for 3 year old boys," these funny little gizmos just kept popping up. So I researched a bit further.

Everywhere I looked I found RAVE reviews! Five stars pretty much across the boards!... And the Independent Sunday Review gave them the #1 spot in their ariticle "50 Great Ideas For The 21st Century!"

With no lights, no batteries and no moving parts they are labeled "The play shell with a smile that turns into anything and everything a kid wants it to be!"

So with my twin grandsons' birthdays coming up, and having been guaranteed by their mom that any toy that I bought them would not be played with in the way intended, these just seemed sort of perfect! And then the YouTube Video sealed the deal!

And they came in so many different fun colors!

So I ordered the green one for Everest...

And the red one for Calder...

...all the while trying to ignore the ONE negative review about them I had found on Amazon (which, by the way is hilarious and I would highly recommend reading it if you have the time!)

So anyway, I guess we shall see what comes of this. If all turns out well I hope to be instrumental in the development of a couple of future geniuses.

UPDATE...

Just getting warmed up I guess...

Bilibo on Pinterest

Bilibo on FaceBook

Christmas Cookies...

I have been way behind in my musing! It's already January 4th of a completely New Year!

But I didn't want to let any more time go by without publicly sharing one of my primary resolutions for 2014. (And if not in 2014, then the next year, or the next, or maybe even the year after that, until it finally happens.)

And that resolution is...

..to be able to finally spend a Christmas with my grandkids! So that I don't have to keep missing out on things like this year after year after year!

AND, maybe even one of these years, to be able to have all six of my Christmas Cookies on the very same plate at the very same time! Perhaps that's a little too much to ask for and not sure if THAT will ever happen... but the idea of it sure does sound yummy!

In the meantime, I am totally relating to Rachel!

Continuing Yard Care Woes?... or just Suspicious Yard Care Service?...

Just when I thought I'd finally whittled so many of my home ownership headaches down to a minimum... I took these beautiful pics of my yard to send to my girls last weekend (Saturday, September 28th to be exact...)

A pretty ok and decent looking yard, right? I thought they turned out really nice!

Then the very next Monday, (September 30th to be exact), my lawn service (who's name I won't disclose at the moment) dropped by to apply my early fall healthy lawncare application.

Here's a partial copy of the note they left on my door along with what they about my lawn diagnosis:

Sorry we missed you. Garage was locked so went through neighbors yard to get to your backyard. Liquid fertilizer was applied. Brownish areas in lawn due mainly to drought/stress.

(Huh? I don't remember seeing many brownish spots in my yard yesterday. I saw a ton of mushrooms *due to moisture* that I mowed over just on Saturday. Other than that I thought my lawn looked really, really great and healthy!)

Now is the best time for seeding. For best results keep seeded areas moist. Between rain and sprinklers lawn needs 1" to 1 1/2 inches per week. Use a tuna can or cat food can to measure...

Whatever...

Anyway this is what my yard looks like today. Just four days after my "healthy lawncare application"... Seriously, I've taken care of this yard for 20 years, been through PLENTY of "droughts" yet have never quite seen anything like THIS!

A lot of leaves have fallen in the past few days and it's kind of rainy out, but still.

This seriously doesn't look like a matter of "heat stress" to me.. More like a case of a BOTCHED healthy lawncare application.

Nice!

It had better recover, that's all I have to say!

On a brighter note... Isn't this gorgeous?

Fly-By Summer

It's impossible that Fall is only a week away!

Last time I blinked it was June and summer was just beginning. School was out, mornings were bright and sunny and my drive to work was stress free. Evenings were long with so much time after work to accomplish everything that needed to be done. But then on June 21st the days began getting shorter! I find that weird somehow. Because, I mean, afterall, on June 21st summer has just started...

But it's September now and school's back in session, along with darker mornings and a more stressful drive to work.

Can you tell that the seasons have alot to do with my driving state of mind?

Anyway, I feel like I did absolutely nothing this summer. When in actuality I guess I did a lot.

For starts... Does anyone remember those two horrid and dead pine trees on the east side of my house that I had cut down last fall and then had no idea what to do next?

It looks much better now.

And then there was that equally horrid planter in back of my house that never seemed to do what I wanted it to do. Probably because I always thought I'd remember exactly the way I wanted to split, move and transplant my plants once they were either dormant in the fall or little sprouts in the spring. That never works! So I got smart this year with some help from PhotoShop!

Let's see what else?

I had my first succesful garden. Hard to believe that two little raised beds could have produced all they did.

My first harvest!

And of course with all those pickles I had to learn how to do THIS...

And THIS...

Just kidding... However, I DID use my cucumbers in my California Rolls. Learning how to make sushi was definitely one of the highlights of my summer!!!

Let's see, what else?

Somewhere in there I got my hair cut (even though I really, really need Daryn to fix it now...)

Oh yes! Got the fence fixed! (the fence that has been precariously leaning into my neighbors yard for the past two years...)

And I can't forget about the two months it took me to nearly rid my woods of this culprit!

As for the grand finale, which is probably the main reason my summer flew by as quickly as it did...

I went through every single nook and cranny of my home in an effort to clean out and downsize. One closet or drawer a night, one room a week, all summer. It was the HARDEST THING EVER to part with so many things that have always just been part of my life. I made sure not to get rid of anything that my kids were passionate or sentimental about and sent them THIS LINK in order to choose. (So anything you said you wanted is still safe girls! The rest of it has either been sold or donated... :( But my house is now SO CLEAN AND ORGANIZED!!!)

That said... I will never do another garage sale EVER in my life again... WAY too much work! Garage, consider this your last party on my watch.

Even though it was very successful overall!

I even had some old friends drop by.

It would have been SO great if both my girls could have been here too!

Anyway, as difficult as this is to say... "Bye Bye Summer, you steamy beast!" I know I'll see you again before I know it.

Canstruction 2013

So we do this every single year at work.

It's called "Canstruction" which is a nationwide effort to help with hunger across America. Our specific efforts go towards helping the needs of many local food banks supported by Access of West Michigan... which every year around this time is supported by the WZZM 13 "Food For Families" food drive. Each department raises funds to purchase non-perishable food items and then decides how best to display those items in a unique and artistic way. And every year, Catherine Behrendt from WZZM comes out with a crew to not only tally and accept the donations but to judge and award the top trophies to our final creations as well. It's all in good fun for a great cause!

And every year each department comes up with some very creative ideas!

These were this year's entries and winners!...

Gold Trophy

Hunger Is Despicable... :)

Silver Trophy

Hunger Bugs Us...

Bronze Trophy

Operation Zap Hunger...

And there were so many other creative ones as well, such as:

Fishing for Food (Which included about a hundred cans of tuna fish.) ~ Wow!

I'm Grouchy When I'm Hungry ~ Cute!

Racing Against Hunger ~ (Channeling the Fifth Third River Bank Run and displaying structural integrity to the max!)

R2D2.. Forcing Out Hunger ~ Adorable!

And then there was ours... the I.T. Department's... or rather mine and Renee's, I mean. But after 8 years of doing this, we'd sort of run out of ideas... Still, that didn't stop us. Because there are ALWAYS ideas to be had...

Don't Let Hunger Get You Down... ~ haha

But then we got a little nervous that we might get marked down about not keeping within the spacial confines of the allotted blue taped border...

So we rearranged the border...

And even though we didn't win (heck we didn't even place!).. it's really all about the food donations that matter in the end, right?

Anyway, together we helped to raise nearly 7,500 lbs of food for the cause while enjoying a a ton of smiles in the meantime.

This link from WZZM may not last for long, so catch it while you can. While you CAN... Get it?

From 0 to 86 in Three Days on ALOT of Wheels... (Aspen Grove)

Don't ask me to explain the title. It was really just the first thing I came up with...

Anyway, just returned from a fun filled weekend in Provo Canyon for the Salisbury reunion at Aspen Grove!... sadly minus the patriarch. :(

We've had several family reunions and attempted a ton of family pictures but this one was pretty amazing in that only two of our family members were missing and then (unfortunately) only three who had actully been there are missing from the photo...

But still, what a great photo!

We had a wonderful time and I had the opportunity to get a glimpse into just how incredibly awesome and FUN my parents' progenitors actually are!

Of course I've always KNOWN that about mine...

Me and My Girls

My Top 10 Memories...

• Everyone arriving!
• Calder calling me Jannet. Yes, just Jannet...
• The view from my window!
• Mini-golf and Shuffleboard.
• Jade at 3:00am saying "Grandma I can't sleep! You're being too noisy!"
• All the Dining Hall antics.
• Rachel chasing the train... (pricless!)
• The view from the pottery studio.
• Apples To Apples, Pictionary and Rummikub
• Zumba at 7:00am on the badminton court.

Not to negate at ALL all the hugs from my grandkids (and kids!) and watching the kids play while also seeing watching their parents enjoying a few rare moments of alone time...

And did I mention how great it was to be able to finally spend some good quality time with my mom? (Thanks for the help Aaron!)

I'm being completely serious here. She had SUCH a great time! And so thank you to everyone who helped make that possible! She'd been planning this reunion for such a long, long time! And overall, I think it turned out to be absolutely perfect! Everything she'd dreamed of. And I dare say that goes for the rest of us too...

You can see the rest of the reunion pics here