Day 8 of 60/300

This weekend is quite busy, and requires my house be in semi-order. On Saturday we are celebrating Charlie's 1st birthday with a small BBQ at the house. His birthday is on Friday but it makes more sense to celebrate it on Saturday. I can't believe my baby is turning 1, this year has flown by. So my house needs to be presentable for the party and since I've torn it apart at the moment it is anything but presentable. On Sunday I am having the first Yard Sale. I'll probably do an additional one at the end of the 60 days, but I have so many things I'm getting rid of I need to do one now. So I have to finish purging the major areas to prepare for that. My room and the Master Closet are nearly complete and today I organized the linen closet. I shall take a picture of that tomorrow. It used to be overflowing to the point where it was hard to shut the door, but I'm getting rid of so many linens that there is a completely empty shelf now. I wish I had remembered to take a photo prior to the purge.

So today I organized my room some, completely moved out most of the non-bedroom furniture that was residing in there, put back together most of my closet, cleaned out the linen closet, scrubbed the kids bathroom completely clean (it took me an hour of scrubbing in there to get it to my liking), and began purging the books. I have decided I'm also getting rid of my craft table/coupon table/sewing table and buying a desk instead. I think a desk would work better for me because it would have storage areas. I tried to go to Goodwill and Target today but both were closed. As we don't celebrate Easter this kind of surprised me. I hate shopping at Walmart and I wasn't desperate enough to try there so I'll make my runs tomorrow.

And finally - the crayon caddy is a hit.

The pencils are the "Handwriting Without Tears" pencils and there are so many so it takes up two pails. I may include a pair of scissors but I'm debating if I want to give the kids that much freedom. We don't do markers well in this house, the kids lose the tops so quickly we throw away so many.

This is their new art center. Prior to this it was one of the three drawer containers from Target and it was constantly falling apart, papers were spilling out, ect. It was a huge mess. The shelves were in my bedroom along with a lot of other office type things to hold all the homeschooling materials. As I'm purging my bedroom of non-bedroom furniture I figured I'd turn this shelving unit into their new art center.

The green basket holds their coloring books/work books. The three boxes are some of the stuff left over from the Pre-school homeschooling materials - such as puzzles, and lace cards. Missing in this picture is their "Handwriting Without Tears" wood pieces that are assembled to create most of the uppercase letters. It fits perfectly on the bottom shelf.

And finally - just because - this is a picture of a blanket bag I bought from the Bon Jovi Concert I went to! This held the blanket we bought Charlie since it was his first concert. When I was purging my closet I came across it and I don't want to throw it out but I have no use for it. My good friend Elaine, who is a beast with a sewing machine, is going to take on the challenge of turning it into a purse for me. It needs to be stiffened, and I'd love some more pockets on it. I can't wait to see how it turns out, and I promise to blog about it when it happens. I may have her write a post about how she did it!

Bon Jovi!!!!

Last night I attended a concert I've been wanting desperately to see for a good decade now.  I got to experience, in person, the awesomeness of Jon Bon Jovi!  Bon Jovi is really the only concert I've ever really desperately wanted to attend, I like music but his music is especially special to me.  It really got me through some really tough times and some tough years.  When I found out he was coming to Omaha I literally screamed and called Chris and begged him to find some way to get tickets.  I've never been able to go because I've always had a young nursling at home who I couldn't leave for any length of time - so the timing this time was just perfect.  

As frugal as I am I still wanted some Bon Jovi merchandise, regardless of the insane prices.  I wanted to get myself something and I wanted to get Charlie something since this was his first concert.  I ended up getting a pink Bon Jovi hoodie for myself, and Charlie ended up with an amazingly soft brown Bon Jovi blanket.  I wanted a medium hoodie since hoodies can be worn larger, but they only had small and larges left.  The small was already big on me, so there was no way the large would remotely fit.  I'm not sure how much more wear I'll get out of it this year, but I will definitely wear it next year!

The opening act was DashBoard Confessional, which was a little strange.  They aren't bad, but they aren't really the same type of music as Bon Jovi either.  

The concert itself was AMAZING!  Absolutely amazing.  It was everything I was hoping it would be.  He played a good mix of his newer stuff and his older stuff.  I had told Chris that it be a sign, a great sign, if he played "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night".  It's not one of his more well known songs, or his more popular songs, but it's my absolute favorite song and really means a lot to me.  Chris told me not to get my hopes up, but towards the end of the concert he began playing it. I squealed and sang along as loud as I could.  I was one of the few singing along to that song, but I was thrilled he played it.

"Someday I'll Be Saturday Night lyrics
Hey, man I'm alive I'm takin' each day and night at a time
I'm feelin' like a Monday but someday I'll be Saturday night

Hey, my name is Jim, where did I go wrong
My life's a bargain basement, all the good shit's gone
I just can't hold a job, where do I belong
I'm sleeping in my car, my dreams move on

My name is Billy Jean, my love was bought and sold
I'm only sixteen, I feel a hundred years old
My foster daddy went, took my innocence away
The street life aint much better, but at least I get paid

And Tuesday just might go my way
It can't get worse than yesterday
Thursdays, Fridays ain't been kind
But somehow I'll survive

Hey man I'm alive I'm takin' each day and night at a time
Yeah I'm down, but I know I'll get by
Hey hey hey hey, man gotta live my life
Like I ain't got nothin' but this roll of the dice
I'm feelin' like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday night
Now I can't say my name, and tell you where I am
I want to roll myself away, don't know if I can

I wish that I could be in some other time and place
With someone elses soul, someone elses face

Oh, Tuesday just might go my way
It can't get worse than yesterday
Thursdays, Fridays ain't been kind
But somehow I'll survive

Hey, man I'm alive I'm takin' each day and night at a time
Yeah I'm down, but I know I'll get by
Hey hey hey hey, man gotta live my life
I'm gonna pick up all the pieces and what's left of my pride
I'm feelin' like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday night

Saturday night Here we go
Some day I'll be Saturday night
I'll be back on my feet, I'll be doin' alright
It may not be tomorrow baby, that's OK
I ain't goin' down, gonna find a way, hey hey hey

Hey man I'm alive I'm takin' each day and night at a time
Yeah, I'm down, but I know I'll get by
Hey hey hey hey, man, gotta live my life
Like I ain't got nothin' but this roll of the dice
I'm feelin' like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday night
I'm feelin' like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday night
Saturday night __,all right, all right
Saturday night __"

The bolded are the lyrics that really mean the most to me and have gotten me through a lot of tough times.

At the end he played a song off his new album and left the stage.  A bunch of people started heading out and I told Chris they were dumb - that he hadn't played "Wanted" or "Livin' on a Prayer" yet and there was no way he wasn't going to play those two.  Everyone was doing the cell phone light up thing waiting for him to come on, except those who left.  Sure enough a few minutes later he ran back on stage and played, "Runaway", "Wanted", and "Livin' on a Prayer".  He played all my favorites except, "Love Song" and "Bed of Roses" so I was totally stoked.  

My hands are pretty much in the most pain I've ever felt today.  I kept forgetting my pain and clapping and then remembering.  Hopefully in a few days they'll be better.  I hope I can see him in concert again before he retires!