Sorry for the interruption but I was out of town for most of the holiday (we left the 26th for Chicago, but thats a whole post on its own!). I did however, want to brag about some of the Christmas Gifts that blessed our house this season though.

Amy’s big gift this year is to have the Master Bath and Bedroom repainted. When we bought the house from her parents, we inherited the DEEP red color of the bath and bed room. Its a dark red (think maroon) that is hard to match colors with. Now we’re going for a lighter, beachier look and are painting them Beachnut (its a lowes color). The master bath is done (Amy found some Votive candle holders at a store in Nashville), next on to the bedroom!

Grace had a very Hannah Montanna Christmas. She got a Hannah Montanna Guitar Game (like Guitar Hero) that plugs in to the tv, a Hannah Costume, and doll. Its pretty cool and she likes pretending to be a rockstar. Maybe someday. I like playing her game (since I haven’t bought Guitar HEro World Tour yet) and she’s getting better at it.

Mose got a Trampoline. One of her favorite things to do is jump. We’d wake on Saturday mornings to the heavy thud of emma jumping up and down in our door way. Now she can do it all she wants and it doesn’t make the house shake. Its pretty cool and Grace and Emma take turns on it. Amy wanted to try it out, but its for people under 80 pounds (and neither of us meet that requirement!

The girls also got some tinkertoys, and some other little odds and ends that they like to play with, but the coolest by far is my Ultimate Wall-E Robot.

We saw the movie in the theaters and we’re big fans (mose loves him). We had seen the Ultimate Wall-e at the Disney Store but we weren’t going to get him because of the price tag. Needless to say, Santa found him on Sale and he was wrapped and under the tree for me on Christmas morning. He has fun dancing, chasing the dogs around and just exploring on his own. If you haven’t seen one yet, I’ll work on some video and see if I can get anything posted. Its pretty cool though and the way he can respond to voice commands or find his own way around the room is fairly smooth.

Was there one gift that you prized more than the others??

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The bathroom Sink! Ever been some where and you weren’t impressed until you saw the bathroom sinks? Like a restraunt or a hotel or even your friends house? Often time we think little of them. We go to the bathroom, do our business, wash our hands and leave with out thinking about it. But they have some really cool sinks these days. My current favorites are the ones that are big cereal bowls with water pouring in to them from a different type of faucet. I really like that look. I don’t know about the fish tank though… thats a little too weird. Have you seen a sink somewhere that you like? Tell me about it. Please?

Georgia, like most of the south east is hurting for water. So much, that we’re under a complete outdoor watering ban for residential areas and the Governor has asked everyone to take shorter showers (Boortz thinks “Shower with a friend” would be more fun). Its time for everyone to do their part in conserving water and one of the easiest things to do is to change out your shower faucets and bathroom sink faucets for ones that are conservation friendly.

Some of the other things you can do to conserve water is make sure you’re using the right shower faucet. Faucet.com has good prices and are ready to ship new units out at the drop of a hat. Put a bucket or another collection device in the shower with you when you shower and use that to water outdoor plants. stock up on deodorant and don’t shower (not recommended for most people).

Like I said on Friday, we went to Stone Mountain for the Pumpkin fest. gruntled did something a little more adult with his weekend but then again his kids were off visiting grandma and grandpa. We got there around noon thirty on Saturday (Grace had dance in the morning) and we ate lunch. Luckily we were able to park near the reeds so we met up with them fairly easily. We made our way in and through the line to get our tickets and we were in the fun.

They’ve done a lot to the area around Stn. Mtn to make it more family friendly, there’s a ropes course, tree house and foam play house for the kids and most of the stuff at Pumpkin fest is included in the price of an admission ticket or a season pass which was cool. We rode the train, saw a movie played in the woods, painted pumpkins and faces. We did everything you should do in the fall. Except take a nap. None of the little ones (except baby will) took a nap until we hit the car at 7 for the ride home to dinner.

It was a good day and a lot of fun for the little ones, but I was worn out and it was hot. It should be cooler in October…

Its about to happen! At the end of the month, the in-laws will be in town to go through their stuff and clean out whatever they don’t want and take the rest back to Chicago with them! YAY. we might actually get our basement and garage somewhat cleaned. The only problem is that they recently bought almost all new Bush furniture so they may be leaving some of the larger pieces behind. Anyone need a HUGE desk? I might put it up on craigslist…

The iPod, iPod touch, nano, iPhone, swizzle stick all of them, important electronics that almost everyone has these days (even Amy has a shuffle). We go through great lengths to protect things like our cell phones or laptops what about the iStuff we own? Do you give it a second thought when you toss it in your backpack or slip it in your back pocket? Chances are no. You don’t. Well, now you don’t have to with some of these awesome ipod accessories from the pdo store. Pdo Store has some really cool accessories (like silicone skins) for your iStuff and they have pretty good prices too. Check them out and pick up a case for your iThingy before it becomes an iBrick!

The first Malaysian spaceman is getting ready to launch from some where in the former Soviet Union. While i think it is extremely cool that they have a space program in Malaysia, I have to ask if its worth it. I mean, really. Malaysia? Space program?? Also on board the Soyuz rocketship is an american woman (set to become the first woman in control of the ISS) and a russian cosmonaut. Not sure if its a good idea to have a woman in charge of the space station, I imagine the next time they send people up there will be doilies and pot pouri every where…

Looking for a way to win ten grand towards college? Check out the Gallery Collection business christmas cards scholarship contest. Open to teens and college students ages 14 and up, this contest is an easy way to win $10,000 for school. All you have to do is design a Greeting Card you think people would like to see, upload it to the site and let the judges do their thing. Easy as pie.

And its a good way to get your art work out in to the market as well. The judging will be done on several criteria including: