Clothing Swap Out

Every six months I swap out the clothes, trading the winter and summer clothing.  Being May already, I decided it was about time the summer things came out!  This is always quite a task - especially as we get more kids in this house!  It doesn't help either that we have three girls, all born in different seasons, so it ALL gets saved and handed down.   We keep the tubs of clothes in the basement.  AJ is kind enough to drag up the tubs for the sizes they have outgrown, and the tubs for the sizes they are moving into and we set up a staging area.  I create a big pile of all the clothes that need to be put away.  I open up all the lids and do a quick sort, tossing the clothes into the correct tub for the size. 
Then after that I close up the lids on the sizes that I don't need, and then start sorting out outfits for the sizes we do!  I never pull out all the clothes.  I only take out about 10 outfits for each person - some more, some less.  That kind of depends on how old they are which has a direct relationship to how dirty they tend to get during the day.    I also go through and pull anything that needs to be thrown out or donated.

I still find myself surprised every time that there is *something* we need to go out and buy still!  For example, I discovered this year that Idgie need shorts.  You would think with hand-me-downs from two older sisters, 3 cousins, and a few friends, that we would be in need of nothing - yet I had to go buy a few pieces to augment what was there. 
Generally the task of going through the clothes is tedious, but what does make part of it fun, is seeing old "friends".  I can pull out a shirt or a dress and it brings back memories of when one of the girls wore it and what they were like.

This picture doesn't do it justice of just how full my living room felt - but here it is.  The girls' tubs are lined up by size in front of the couch there, and you can spot two of Lincoln's tub there in the back.  Then that pile of clothes opposite the tubs, is everything that needs to be put away before I can pull out the new stuff!

Rating:  3 Lollipops

Morning in the City

New York is so different than where I'm used to being. So many people, and they are all in a hurry. It seems no one stops to enjoy what's around them - though, I guess that's probably true of most people/places. Anyhow, on the way to the office this morning, I caught this out the corner of my eye and had to take a picture:

And in the last post of sights I've seen, I don't think I did my view justice. The images below still don't do it justice, but they are closer:


Again, the crane at the top of the tower in the middle of the picture is on top of 1 World Trade Center. It is about 64 floors high now, and they are building up to 101 floors. A ways to go yet.

Oinky-liana's Pizza Party

This is a tale of Oinky-liana. Oinky-liana is a friend of Daddy, and they like to do things together. Really though, Daddy's little girl Liliana sent Oinky-liana to watch over Daddy and make sure he comes home safe. One evening, Daddy and Oinky-liana decided to go on a walk. They walked for awhile and noticed that it became more and more crowded the further they walked. Suddenly, there were in the middle of Times Square! Oinky-liana thought all of the signs were very bright.


After the long walk to Times Square, Oinky-liana and Daddy were very hungry. Along the way Oinky-liana had seen a pizza place that looked very yummy, so they decided to give it a try! They bought some pizza slices and took them back to the hotel.


Oinky-liana thought the pizza looked very yummy and wanted it all to herself!


Daddy reminded Oinky-liana that they had to share. Oinky-liana decided to try a bite of the Supreme pizza first.


She then decided to try the pepperoni and mushroom pizza next.


Oinky-liana liked both kinds of pizza! But her favorite was the Supreme pizza. She began finishing her slice of pizza.


When she was done eating, Oinky-liana was very, very full.


She went right to bed! The next morning, Daddy told Oinky-liana that it was the last day of their trip for that week, and that they'd be going home that afternoon! Oinky-liana was very excited. On the way to the office, Oinky-liana saw a very tall building. It was the Empire State Building! She wanted to have her picture taken with it so she could remember the last day of the trip.

Some New York Sights

Being in New York so often is giving me a chance to see a city that I had only been to once previously. When I was in college, a roommate (Hi JJ!) and I went to the East Coast for a few days to visit various friends, and we spent a day in New York. I didn't have a camera at the time (which makes me sad), but we had a lot of fun on that trip - we even went to the top of the World Trade Center.

Now that I'm here regularly, I'm having fun exploring the city a bit. Last week, there was some cloud cover one afternoon, and I was able to snag the Empire State Building in the low clouds:


Later that same night, walking home from dinner, they had the lights on. It looked amazing!

I'm also doing the whole "cube rat" thing in New York. I'm on the 21st floor of 2 Penn Plaza, but, I have a great view out my window. On even hazy days you can easily see the Statue of Liberty, and the building in the center left, with a crane at the top, is the new 1 World Trade Center.


I wanted to go to Ground Zero and see what was there (or wasn't, as the case may be), as the last time there I was at the top. There's still a large pit where one of the buildings was. However, construction is progressing rapidly on the new building. I've seen them add 3+ floors to the top since I've been here. And they're only a little more than halfway done.

Oinky-liana

Once upon a time, there was a very pretty girl who had a Daddy who loved her very much. This little girl said to her Daddy, "I have a new friend! Her name is Oinky-liana. Take her on adventures!"

And so the father did. And what an adventure it was! Oinky-liana flew with Daddy from the little town to the Big City. Their airplane looked like this:


Oinky-liana and Daddy had a splendid time on the airplane. Except for the part where the pilots didn't show up. But that didn't stop them from getting to the Big City! They arrived at the Big City and found a nice place to stay. Oinky-liana settled right in for a cozy night:


During the night, the people next door made lots of noise! They forgot that at night time you are supposed to sleep. Oinky-liana was very sad to have not slept well. When Daddy said it was time to get up and go to work, Oinky-liana made a very sad face:


But she decided to go to work anyway. At work, Oinky-liana helped Daddy a lot! She liked to sit on Daddy's desk and help.


But the best way she could help, Daddy said, was by looking out the window and telling Daddy about everything she saw:


After a couple of days at the noisy hotel, Daddy and Oinky-liana decided to try a different hotel; maybe one that wasn't so noisy. Sure enough, they found a very nice hotel! Oinky-liana wanted to try out the bed first!


After a hard day at work, Oinky-liana was very, very tired. She decided it was time to go to bed. Good night, everyone!

The Way to Not Start a Week

So, as many of you may or may not know, I've been having to do weekly travel to and from New York for work. Typically everything has gone relatively well, but this week has started off rough:

1. Once the airplane was fully boarded and ready to leave for New York, the flight attendant informed us that the aircraft didn't have a crew, and likely wouldn't for at least another hour, and that we were welcome to deplane. I just chatted at Bethany on my iPod.
2. When I got to the hotel, I was informed that the company I'm contracting to neglected to fax in the payment authorization. I had to convince the desk clerk that payment information would be forthcoming early in the morning.
3. When I arrived at the office building, they wouldn't let me past the front lobby as the area I'm in forgot to inform building security that I'd be a guest this week.

Traveling is an adventure more often than it should be. And I won't mention the mouse I saw running around the concourse at La Guardia.

Spaghetti

I haven't been blogging often enough lately about the random thoughts in my life.   I was putting dinner away tonight and had a few random thoughts - about spaghetti.

1) How come they don't put enough sauce in a jar to match a 1 lb. box of pasta?  It is like the annoyance of the unequal number of buns to hot dogs.

2) Why do kids prefer the spaghetti noodle so much?   It has to be the #1 favorite shape - it is with my kids!  Put the same sauce on a rotini - and they barely touch it.

3)  Spaghetti will stain your baby's face orange.

4) The spaghetti spilled all over your floor by your baby, is most easily cleaned up by letting it remain on the floor overnight.  It dries up and then all you have to do is sweep it up.

Rating:  1 Lollipop