I need a Haircut.

Dear Readers-
In the midst of going on tour, coming home from tour, decorating for Christmas, prepping for my sweet mother-in-law to stay for a month, a nephew being born and making presents…I have neglected something far too long.

And I think it’s about time you knew. This is getting absolutely ridiculous. I need a haircut.

This lady on my left is my BFF Cynthia. Even she said that I need a haircut.
But I still think I could go another few months, perhaps.
It is obvious that I need something to help with my frizzies, I know. I received many great ideas in my post, Hair Issues.

So, ignore my weird arm positioning and the frizzies-to focus on the length of my hair….any thoughts on that?

Love-Rebekah the hairy one.

DIY Family Board Game

Our families both appreciate hand-made gifts for Christmas-especially if the gifts are not of the socks or underwear variety.
So, when it came close to Christmas, Biceps and I decided to make a DIY Family Board Game for each side of our families.

The family loved it-who doesn’t like to hear questions asked about themselves?-and it has become a tradition to play our game together, adding new cards each year. I’ll show you around the game and then give you a step by step tutorial on how to do it yourself!

 

We personalized the entire game by creating question cards that pertain specifically to our family using old stories, funny memories and anything that might embarrass each one of us.

 

We harvested old family photos and glued them to the board, using street names from our hometown to guide the way around the board.

 

We also personalized game pieces that are meaningful to our family-my dad swears every year that the Christmas tree grows on the way home from the forest and he also can put away two ginormous bowls of popcorn in one sitting.

 

We then decorated the box with stickers and photos, recalling yesteryears of campfires, sleeping bag rides and such other childhood awesomeness.

 

And of course, a very specific set of rules was implemented by the one and only rule giver-Biceps.
I don’t need no stinkin’ rules.
The rules are pretty simple-divide into two teams, one team draws a question card, but only one member of that team gets to answer the question. If they answer correctly, they roll the dice and move that many spaces. Then the next team goes.
BUT-if you land on a “Launchpad” (a photo along the path), you get to double your roll the next go around.
Pretty simple. Except Biceps threw in a bunch of more rules…he is such a rule monger…

 

It was a rather simple process to make the game and a bonus was the miniscule financial investment. Like $4.00 or so. The whole idea was a real win-win.
Now since you have witnessed all of this DIY Family Board Game-let me tell you how I made it!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own board game:
An old, neglected board game (I don’t understand Parcheesi, so it was sacrificed)
15-20 sheets of Card Stock (for the question cards, I used gray)
4-6 Sheets of Card Stock (to cover the board, I used a light tan)
Rubber Cement
Markers
Old Family Photos
Stickers (optional)

To play the game:
Game Pieces (I used a mini tree and popcorn box I already had on hand and hot glued it to a penny)
Dice
Timer (I bought mine at a educational supply store for $3)
Playdough (not pictured-it dried out because of inadequate lid tightening and I need to buy some new ‘dough. Deal with it.)

 

Rubber Cement the card stock to the game board. Pay heed to the folds in the board and cut your card stock accordingly.

 

Once the board is covered and the rubber cement is dry, cut out family photos to decorate the board with. These photos became our “launchpad”-meaning, if you landed on them you got some sort of bonus roll/move.

 

Glue your photos down, making a definitive “START” and “STOP”.

 

In between the “START” & “STOP”, create a meandering and colorful path around the board, spicing up the path with the occasional photo (Launchpad).

 

Now, paint, cover with a fabric or whatever decor you desire to the outside of the game’s box. Add additional stickers, sayings, or more photos that mean something to you and yours.

 

Here is an example of our rule sheet printed out on card stock. They are your typical multiple player board game rules with specifics thrown in for our family.
You may copy these rules for yourself, make up your own, or just make them up as you go along-that could get exciting.

 

Up until now, things have been smooth sailing for you. Now comes the slightly more difficult task of creating questions. We tried to make sure our questions had a specific answer, were known by most family members, and slightly obtuse.
For example, instead of: “What is Grandpa’s first name?”
Asking: “What was Grandpa called as a boy following a disturbing fishing incident?”

We also added another twist-kind’ve a “wild card” known as “Sock-Fight!” on my family’s side and “Breaker-Breaker!” on Bicep’s side. These “wild card’s” cause a head to head challenge with the other team. If you beat them at a skill; drawing, sculpting or charades, you get to go again. If you don’t beat them, you loose your turn.

We spent a long time collaborating on the questions, re-wording, re-writing, making a template on my computer and then printing them off onto the card stock. (Someone is a perfectionist-but I won’t name any names). I then skipped over to a copy center and used their cutting machines to make each card precisely the same size- 2 1/4 x 2 1/4.

 

And that, my dears, was our DIY Family Board Game. The family loves it because it’s about them. I love it because it’s become a family heirloom that is added to each year with a marriage, a birth, or just another embarrassing moment.
As far as homemade gifts, this one was a dead-ringer.

They grow up so fast…

I have known this lovely lady since she was at the tender age of five. She used to draw pictures of me-usually sitting atop her favorite animal-a horse. For some reason, I always had a really big head in her pictures….maybe she was on to something.

But now, she is graduating from high school and has on more than one occasion reaffirmed that I am old.
Of course she’s joking, because I’m obviously not old.
I gently remind her that I am just older than she is-which means that I am wiser than she is.

 

She was a pretty easy subject to shoot-which made my photography day.

 

I love when my subjects can be easily directed, have no skin flaws, and laugh at all my stupid jokes.
This was my favorite shot of her, because it was so her.

 

She could then turn on a dime and be super serious and pensive. She was good at the pensive shots.

 

Mom, Dad, and the little lady were happy with the outcome of our last minute photo shoot.
Now, if only I could get her to draw me one more of those big-headed pictures of myself, sitting atop a horse. My fridge has been bare for awhile and it would make my day.
Hint, hint, little lady. Hint, hint.

Pruning and Growth-Ouch.

Dear Readers:
Have you ever had everything pruned from your life all at the same time and totally out of the blue, causing you to wonder, “What the heck just happened?!”.
(If so, I would love to hear about it. I think it’s encouraging sometimes to know that you are not alone in the stage of life you are in.)
However, one thing that I have learned-just like in the world of gardening-pruning creates growth.
And, I want to grow.
But sometimes, I don’t enjoy the growing pains. There’s a reason they’re called “pains“.

The first major change in my life this year was losing this guy-Cowboy.

It may be just a cat to the rest of the world, but he was my buddy for eight years. Cowboy rode on my shoulder as I: did the dishes, folded laundry or talked on the phone. He looked for me and would make ewok sounds if he couldn’t find me. He slept on top of me most nights and lept into my lap as soon as I allowed. He passed away too early.
I really didn’t think I could miss an animal this much, but I do.

 

This is not our old church-it’s some Catholic church somewhere..
After attending our church for the last ten years, Biceps and I knew it was time to leave. That meant, the end to him drumming every Sunday morning, the end to us teaching the youth, the end to mowing the lawn and caring for the church’s general overall cuteness factor.
And it also meant the end to our relationships with our pastors and many of our friends.
It was weird to quietly fade into the night. We are presently living in the “Bible belt” so finding another church isn’t a problem. We just want to be at the right one. There are a lot of weird ones out there.

 

Biceps has pretty much quit doing this (kicking butt on stage) for over fifteen years. I have been to thousands of his shows, toured for years with him and his bands, sold merch, drove the bus, did the accounting, wrote the thank-you notes and ate the crappy food.
This life as the band wife has been wonderful and exhausting.

 

But presently, he has started doing this.
No, not serving chili…being a fireman and serving chili at the Firemen’s Chili Feed.
I know, he looks good doing both things, really.

 

And then lastly-my lovely Iweb site crashed earlier this year-leaving me stranded for months without the ability to blog. I lost contact with almost all my blogging buddies, missed out on fantastic link parties and had to rebuild my readership/friends/followers. (Won’t you be my friend, please?)
The Iweb pruning caused some major growth within me.
And while I watched my friend’s blogs grow and grow, I was forced to sit back and save my pennies, waiting to hire someone to rebuild my site in a better platform. This new site is much better, but I am still dealing with the repercussions of being out of the blogging community for almost 8 months.
Unexpectedly, the world didn’t end without my blog up and running.

With each passing year, I gain the growth from pruning-along with a few gray hairs. But isn’t that why gray hairs are referred to as wisdom?
But each trial, each pruning session, has brought me closer to the fact that I know nothing, and reconfirmed that everything I own could blow up and I’d still be ok.
So, with the pruning there are the “pains“.
But, I suppose what I’m saying is that I can survive the pains.