THE COST OF FREE

Since I have fixed up the backyard, I have been on a quest to find toys, ground cover, etc. to make the outside area a little nicer. Two of the parks that we frequent are covered in wood chips and I thought that would be perfect for our backyard. We don't get much sun back there because of the large trees so grass doesn't grow.

This was my goal

I priced the cost of wood chips and since our yard is pretty sizeable, it would have cost about $300 to spread a good layer of the store bought wood chips back there. So what do I do!?! I hit craigslist. Low and behold there is a company that advertises free mulch. Not bad; perfect price. This is probably around March when I found this website. So, I go online, fill out the form, and then wait. The website site they would contact me via email or telephone before the delivery was made. They didn't.

Fast forward to May; it was the Tuesday after Mother's Day.

Kielle and I were out and about doing our normal running around and I pull up to the house singing Alphabet Al's Name Game song. Screeeeeccch. I can't pull into my driveway because there is a huge dump truck in my driveway unloading TONS of wood chips. What in the world!!? I jump out the car and run over. Dude says to me "I can't stop mid load" What!?! Um... I sit and watch as the pile gets higher and higher. This is a HOT mess. Realization sets in - these are the wood chips I ordered... back. in. March.  Awwww hell. When he finishes he locks up the back and drives off. I'm stuck staring at a mountain of wood chips. Literally a mountain. The mound was so wide I couldn't even pull  my car all the way up to the house.

The wood chips were taller than the car

I was so overwhelmed I grabbed Kielle and just went inside. I didn't even look at it.

Now, before I go on let me just state what my intentions were... We needed to get our back fence replaced so my thought was that I would have the truck drive to the back of the house after we had taken down the fence and dump the chips. But since I did not receive any notification that the truck was coming, I wasn't able to pull down the fence. Now as a reminder, because we live in a townhouse, in order to reach the backyard, you have to go through the house. How was I going to get all of this mess from the front of the house to the back? After a quick snack and peering at the mound from behind the curtains as if it would disappear, I decided to man up and start hauling.

I grabbed the recycle bin, yes that small bright blue bin, and started filling it with chips. I had transported about 4 bins when I realized I needed to memorialize yet another "This can only happen to me" moment so I grabbed my camera and took a  before photo.

I worked pretty much all day Tuesday from about 2pm to 5pm in the sun. To be honest, I was pushing hard because I sooooo didn't want to hear hubby's comments. I don't know how much I thought I would get done, but needless to say - no headway was made, None. My neighbors saw me struggling, this was during the 90+ degree days we were having and I started getting some supplies. I got a shovel and most importantly... a wheel barrel!

Y'all should have seen me struggling with this thing! It was comedy. After a quick tutorial on how to load it and transport it through the house safely, I felt like I was starting to make progress. I was up against the clock, because it was scheduled to rain on Thursday and I didn't want those wood chips to get wet... and heavy. I convinced a few neighbors to put the chips in their backyards and around their trees and even Kielle got in the spirit and helped me a little bit.

After day one this is where we were; we got about half way done. We put up our tools, got washed up, and prepped for dinner. I also waited to see/hear my husband's reaction.

After work, the hubby came in and didn't say anything until dinner. Then he says, "See this is why you need an office job. When you're home stuff like this happens." hahahahahahha I was rolling... because it is sooo true! ahhahaha. Khyri just kept saying, "Look at the mountain of mess. Why are all of those wood chips in the front? What did you do mommy?"

The next day after the men headed out for the day, Kielle and I went to work again and within 2 hours we had completed the yard. The wheel barrel saved us for real! We went to The Home Depot and got some 6 foot treated wood slats, that would normally be used for a fence, to set down as a border. I think the end result turned out great.

The kiddos love using their shovels to move the wood chips around. I left part of the yard plain dirt because I know the kiddos like making mud and planting flowers, etc in the backyard. So now we have a good variety back there - wood chips, forest (in the right hand back corner) and dirt - a munchkin's paradise.

Wouldn't it be nice if the story ended there?!?! It would be... but it wouldn't be my story. After we finished the backyard, there was still a mound of chips left out front. We had used maybe 1/3 of the wood chips. So now I had to figure out how to get rid of the remaining stock. I called to some junk removal places and they wanted $300 to $550 to haul it away. If we bagged it up that would bring the cost down significantly; that still wasn't enough for me though. This stuff was free. I'm not gonna pay hundreds of bucks to remove free wood chips.

I called the city of Smyrna and they said they don't haul wood chips. Blah Blah Blah... I want my taxes back hmph. I thought I was slick and tried putting the wood chips into black garbage bags and putting them in the trash. Do you know those super smart sanitation engineers cut the bags open to expose the wood chips and nicely left the full garbage can by my mailbox on collection day! Can't pull one over on them. grrrrrrrr... I needed a new plan.

My new neighbor is doing a lot of work on her house and she has a "fix it guy" that comes around every so often. I asked him how much he would charge. At first he said $150 to to bag it and haul it. I said, "Well if we bag it up, how much?" $60. So the hubby called in a favor from his Masonic friends and we bagged up all the wood chips that weekend; there were 42 bags in all. The guy hauled half of it off, but then as most "neighborhood fix it guys" do, he asked for more money to finish the job. This left a bad taste in our mouths, so I asked my neighbor for advice. She said that most probably the guy was just dumping the bags at his apartment complex in the dumpster. So what do I do?!?! I find an apartment complex with a dumpster. We still needed to get rid of about 15 bags so I went back to the source - craigslist. I sure did. Maybe my mistake can be someone else's good fortune :- ) I posted that I had wood chips for the taking already bagged up free for the taking. Some nice man came while I was out with Kielle and scooped up 12 bags! That left 3; I can see the finish line. Since I had already scoped out a dumpster at a nearby complex, the hubby and I packed the car with the remaining yard waste bags and headed over to dump them. This was Tuesday - exactly one week after they had been dumped literally on our doorstep.

Calculating my time, worry, stress, and money spent for removal, I'd have to say that that free was actually more like $275.99 :-) hahahahaaha all I can do is laugh.

SPRINGTIME = CRAFT TIME!

I think we have finally left behind the cold weather. YES! Now its time to start the season off with some crafts :-)

I was asked my Khyri's teacher, Ms. Khalilah, to make a birdhouse for the classroom. I headed off to Hobby Lobby and grabbed some supplies. I grabbed a few paintbrushes with the full intent on letting the munchkins help me with the birdhouse - that was a waste of money. ahahahhahahah.

Once I started there was absolutely no way these children were going to touch my masterpiece! ahahahah. I think I have issues. ahahah. I decorated the birdhouse in the Little Apron Academy/ The Home Depot colors, orange and white. I cut up my parking pass and mod podged it onto the house. I think it added an extra flair ;-)

I presented the birdhouse to the Pre School 4 class on Friday. We talked about what new animals we will see in the parks now that it's springtime and also talked about the parts of the house (roof, walls, etc.) to reinforce what we talked about three weeks ago. I really enjoy going to talk to the youngsters. At this age they are so inquisitive!

Once I got the mod podge bug I was off and running. For Christmas Khyri received a lot of Thomas the Train engines and they were being left all over the house. He needed a container to put them in ASAP. A simple box would have sufficed, but why do simple... when you can do AWESOME :-) hahahahha So I purchased a storage container, whipped out the mod podge, cut  up some of Khyri's old Thomas the Train magazines and went to work.

The result was fantabulous!

I left one panel of the container blank so that Khyri could look inside the box without opening the top. Kielle was interested in reading the numbers on the top of the box - now will Khyri actually share the trains inside the box with her?!?! not yet. hahaha

Two crafts down, I had gotten past my selfish "me my mine" craft issues and decided to actually let the munchkins help me build and decorate a birdhouse for the backyard. I enlisted Kielle's help for my - I mean our - birdhouse.

I, uh I mean we,  started with an empty plastic salsa jar. We then covered most of the jar in construction paper and paint. I left the front blank so that we could see into the birdhouse if bird's decide to nest inside. We decorated the jar upside down because I knew I wanted to be able to remove the top and clean out the birdhouse after the summer. Now all we have to do is unscrew the top and clean it out.

Some people, Kielle Elaine, were not truly about the business of designing the birdhouse *sigh* She doesn't understand the seriousness of crafts just yet... I'll give her a few more months... then she'll need to respect the  glue, paint, mod podge, etc. ahhaha This is not a game. hahaha

After everything was decorated, we put mod podge over the outside to seal it and make the birdhouse waterproof. After a quick trip to grab some birdseed from PetSmart , aka the bootleg zoo, we were ready to hang our birdhouse.

Of course once I get started with something  I get carried away. The very next day what do I do!?!? I go to Michael's and snag these...

In my mind the whole Mosley Mob is going to participate in a birdhouse decorating night...

If not, I can always decorate all of these birdhouses myself...  I'm sooooooo NOT kidding! hahahaha

SHOW & TELL: MOMMY'S THE STAR

Everyday Khyri's teachers send out a .pdf recap of what has happened in the classroom that day. One Tuesday I glanced at the "What in the World Happened Today" email and came across this:

The kids were looking at floor plans as they worked on their number skills. Whaaat! How exciting?! In my mind the mommy signal (ala the batman signal) was being flashed in the sky. hahahhaha Clearly they were calling for me to come talk to the students and of course I had to answer the call :-)

I spoke with Khyri's teacher, Mrs. Khalilah, about coming in to talk to the students about being an architect and since it was during black history month I wanted to note some black architects as well. After getting the go ahead I set out home to get my materials together.

It was intense.hahahahah. You would have thought I was presenting at some fancy schmancy professional conference. I was rummaging through the storage shed looking for old models, flipping through magazines for inspiring pictures, and gathering my tools (t-square, sketch book, portfolio, etc.). I even took time to lay out three different blazers to make sure that I got the perfect "kid appropriate" professional look.

The big day came and I arrived 10 minutes early with a smile and full of confidence. I started setting up my displays and Kielle ran straight to the toy. Uh uh.. this chick is trying to steal the show. Time to call the hubby. Kielle was promptly removed and got to go visit Hubby's office. Good she's gone; there's no way she would sit still and listen to my presentation. Since she was a distraction - she had to go. On with the show.

The "lesson" stated a little rocky because I wasn't prepared for how quickly the kids could get off tangent. I started by naming a few black architects and showing them pictures. At one point we were talking about the walls of the classroom being white and the conversation spun to "Ms. Kahlillah I have white shoes." "Ms. Kahlillah I have a white shirt." "I have white socks." ahhahah. Ok folks.. time to reign this back in. I got control of the situation and forged ahead...

I was ON FIRE! hahahahah It was sooooo much fun. The children were asking me tons of questions and really taking in the information I was presenting. We talked about how I build buildings - just like Bob the Builder! Khyri, of course, was sitting with his teacher, Mr. Jason, looking extremely bored with me. hahahahha. I guess I can't win over all the kids :-) I started by showing the kids my t-square and demonstrated how to use it. I then took out my sketchbook and portfolio and let them look at some drawings. After we talked about what an architect does and how the word is spelled, we moved to a little table where I laid out pictures of architectural elements. This was a great because everyone was able to get their own picture and say what it was. There were staircases, houses, skyscrapers, roofs, etc. It was a lot of fun. I also passed around four tiny models made out of cardboard for the kids to play with.

To wrap up the "lesson" I read the book Walls by Henry Pluckrose. We discussed the different parts of the classroom like the walls, doors, windows, floors - everything. They were really engaged. It was awesome.

I "taught" for 45 minutes, but I swear it felt like 3 or 4 hours. Kids have so much energy! Hats off to preschool and elementary school teachers. I waited until 5 to see if I would be mentioned in the day's "What in the World Happened Today" and to my surprise I had a FULL PAGE spread!!! I couldn't believe it - I was a Little Apron Academy star! hahaahah. Mrs. Khalilah and Mr. Jason have no idea what they have unleashed! hahahahah

The highlight of my experience was when one of Khyri's classmates, Mason, said, "Your other job is Khyri's mommy. I smiled and responded, "You're right Mason. That's my favorite job!"

GROWING UP TOO FAST

This is a short post, but I need to document this tomfoolery. hmph. Khryi is becoming a little man and I cannot handle it. ahahhaha. Here's a recent convo between the two of us:

A regular day with the guys heading out the door to go to school and work.

Me: "Have a good day at school sweetheart."

Putting his hand out like he is a Heisman trophy winner and shooing me away

Him: "Nooooo. My name is Khyri."

Clearly I heard him wrong. He didn't just say what I thought he said, did he? Nuh uh. Hold up I need to get some clarification.

Me: "Huh? What? I can't call you sweetheart?"
Him: "No."
Me: "Wait, I'm sorry. I don't understand. I can't call you sweetheart?"
Him: "No. My name is Khyri, not sweetheart."

Whhaaaaattt? My eyes are getting wide? This can't be happening...

Me: "Can I call you Pug?"
Him: "No."

Oh he has lost his mind.. I've been calling him Pug since Hour 1! He's taking everything away. He's leaving me with nothing. nada.

Me: "Can I call you baby boy?"
Him: "No."

Wait - he's saying "no" to everything... Maybe he doesn't understand what I'm asking. Hold on. I'm gonna give this one more try.

Me: "Can I call you Khy Khy?"
Him: "Yes."

Oh he knows exactly what I'm asking... and he's putting his foot down. As I stood with my mouth wide open and tears welling up in my eyes, the hubby busted out laughing. Really!?!?! This is funny?! My first born is already trying to set some boundaries and you're laughing?!?! bad move hubby. bad move. We've gotta stick together. *sigh* This is the beginning of the end.

Whatever PUG. hmph.

PARTY? I'LL TAKE TWO

To celebrate the munchkins' birthdays we decided to have a joint party this year. Kielle turned 2 and Khyri will be 4 in March. Since the share the same friends, one big ole shindig was the perfect way to go. There is a traveling gymnastics class that comes to Khyri's school once a week called the tumblebus. We didn't sign Khyri up for the classes at school, but I thought it would be a great idea for their joint party since both of them love to climb on everything!

The tumblebus pulled up at 10:45am and we loaded the kiddos on at 11. Talk about having the party come to you - it pulled right into my neighbor's driveway.

The bus was loaded with everything a toddler loves - a slide, a trampoline, a tunnel, and rings.

Neither of the munchkins got on the rings. hahahah They were all about the slide which, for the record, there is a bigger free one at the playground up the block... *sigh* ahhahahaha

 Would you believe they even had a zip line!??

Each gymnastic athlete got a gold medal for their time on the tumblebus. It was awesome!

The bus stayed for an hour and the kiddos got good and tired. We moved inside for some lunch followed by free play time.

 Then we brought out the cake and cupcakes - yummy!

 We knew we'd have a lot of cards since it was a double birthday party so we decorated the wall with their birthday cards!

Both munchkins got some presents and toys, but the best gift of all was playing with friends!