A new window for less than $20.00

I found this site, wallies.com, that has all of these fun designs you can put on your walls sort of like wall paper. I thought the fake windows are the best. There is a fancy word for it that I don’t know how to spell (tromp loy). I think they are very fun. I especially thought of my Dad who has an office in the basement with no windows. What do you think? Which one is your favorite? I think I like the Tuscan Arch best.

Nobody Likes Me

I came across this book Nobody Likes Me Everybody Hates Me a while ago. I don’t remember how, or why I bought it, but in unpacking I came across it again. I thought it might be a good thing to read now that the kids were starting a new school and might need some extra help in the friendship department. I started reading through it and it has some really great information. There is a discussion about the importance of friends and peers to children, and then there are short chapters on issues that your kids might have that make friendships difficult. Some of the chapter topics are: bossy, bullied, cliques, insensitive, left out, new kid, teased, too competitive, too sensitive. She gives tips for parents and teachers and offers skill building activities or conversations you can have with your kids to help them on their “problem” areas. I think anyone with kids in school would find something in this book helpful. There are also resources listed where you can learn more about a topic.

That is what lead me to the book I am reading now, The Highly Sensitive Child. I am about half way through it, and it has some very interesting information as well. I have always been wary of labeling one of my children with some sort of letter abbreviations and went into the book highly skeptical. I don’t agree with all that the author has to say, but it has been a very helpful book. There is a little quiz in there to help you figure out if your child is an “HSC” and her statistics say that one in five children are. There is also a short one for adults to see if they are an “HSP” (highly sensitive person) for which there is another book of course. She compares the brain of an HSC or HSP to an orange sorting machine that has several chutes to distinguish different sizes or weights of oranges. The sorting can be done fairly quickly with three chutes, but when there are 15 chutes things can get jammed up if the oranges are coming too fast. An HSC often has trouble making decisions or taking risks because they think about every detail before making a choice. According to the book, I am an HSP and I think many other people I know are as well. The highly sensitive person is not only emotionally sensitive, but physically as well. This person will often have some of these characteristics: get stomach aches or head aches in response to stress, very aware of the temperature of a room, the spices or textures in their food , loud noises, bright lights, flinches at being touched, tend to reach a breaking point and throw a tantrum or rage about things that shouldn’t cause such a strong response. I’m still not sure about her advice on dealing with people with this personality trait. Spends a lot of time talking about how most people label HSC’s as not normal, but I haven’t found that to be true in my experiences. So, if you are curious about this topic, read the book and let me know what you think. When I finish it, I’ll give you my final thoughts.

My Favorite Show

If you haven’t discovered the TV show “30 Rock” yet, you should check it out tonight. I think it is one of the funniest shows on right now. Rob and I totally laugh out loud at it. It’s got subtle little jokes that carry throughout the show, and it’s got interesting characters that have real personality. Now that I’ve posted for you all to watch it, it will probably have a gross story line and everyone will turn to me and say, “Nice show Amy!” Oh well, I’ll take the risk. I think you’ll laugh.

A Good Article for this Time of Year

I just read mom’s latest article and it has a lot of good information. Many of you live in places where it gets very cold in winter, and all of us rely heavily on electricity. Here are some things to do if you lose yours.

She makes a reference in the article to when we were living in North Carolina and an ice storm knocked out our power for four days.
Our yard looked a lot like this picture, and we used our gas stove for cooking and heating the house kitchen. It was a bit miserable, but also makes for fun stories.

Like getting Hunter and Emma out of their beds and bringing them into our bed with us in the middle of the night. We started to hear the crash of trees falling all around us, followed by flashes of blue light from the wires they took down with them, and couldn’t leave the kids in their room, even if they were sleeping through it.

And having a family come over to take showers at our house by candle light (yes, I know it should have been by glow stick light) because their well wouldn’t run without electricity.

And having ice cream for breakfast, and chicken nuggets for dinner. I was most surprised at how nicely the chicken nuggets turned out by cooking them in a frying pan! I have some great pictures of the huge pine trees that fell literally right next to the house, one taking out our fence, and one breaking it’s top off when it hit our roof. Unfortunately, that was before the digital camera, so I can’t share them…

By the way, Utah clan: Has there been any talk of exchanging names for Christmas? If so, we want in!

Welcome to Polka Dot Island

I am now ready to officially sell my bows! Rob has helped me out a lot by setting up this website for me. We decided to call it Polka Dot Island because I have always loved polka dots, especially for kids; And I also love the ocean and beach. We had the logo designed by gotlogos.com, and for just $25.00 I was really happy with how it turned out. I’m planning to try to get into some of the children’s boutiques close by and this website store would be a sideline. But who knows right? I have a lot of ribbon colors on the “Color Board” page and can make a bow on a clip or headband to match any outfit. I’m also working on an idea for boys. It’s harder to find fun accessories for boys, so I’m giving myself that challenge.

Go take a look and tell me what you think. It is still under construction, but I just couldn’t wait to share what we have so far.

She’s Famous

My mom is now a published author. She has written an article for the online magazine Meridian. Meridian publishes articles for an LDS audience, but there are a wide variety of subjects to read through. She will be submitting preparedness columns regularly and I am working with her as an editor. Go check out her article, there is a lot of good information there about getting started on your 72 hour kits!