You Asked, I Answer

Answering some recent blog-comment questions...

Nancy Drew: All hail the Nancy Drew lovers of the world! My blog post where I stated I loved reading the original Nancy Drew series when I was a girl, received many comments from others who also loved the books. Awesome!

Webster: Yes, I totally remember the freaky/scary "Webster" episode with the empty rocking chair. I had forgotten this episode... I just remember thinking the secret passage behind the clock was cool in general. I had forgotten the creepy, scary component. ACK!

"Up" Movie: Yes, Emma did like it, and she SAT through the entire movie. Movies are hit-and-miss with her. If she loses interest, she has "ants in her pants" and wants to stand up and move around much to her mother's irritation rather than sitting. But she watched the entire movie. "Up" moves at a decent pace, which helped, I think.

B.arbies:
--Does Em play independently for 2 1/2 hours? This is a tough one. She plays SOMEWHAT independently. It goes something like this:
Me: Able to read half a page of my book
Em: "Can you help me get this dress on?"
Me: Put down book. Help dress Barbie. Pick up book. Resume reading. A few words paragraphs later...
Em: "I can't get this Barbie's shoes on, can you get them?"
Me: Put down book. Help with shoes. Continue reading. A few paragraphs pages later...
Em: Plays for a little while. Then, "Did you see what I did? The baby was acting silly while the Mommy made dinner."
Me: "Ummhmm."
Em: Plays some more. Then, "Did you see how I set up the room? I don't like the pink bed, so I'm just using the purple bed."
Me: "O-kay."
Em: Plays a little more. Then, "I'm lonely. Will you play B.arbies with me?"
Me: "When I finish this chapter."
Then 10-20 minutes later, I'm playing B.arbies WITH Em. Though I do have to say, she played for 35 minutes ALONE yesterday. I was excited, and able to read a LOT! :)

--I guess I should also add this part of the conversation:
Em: "I didn't like this B.arbie's bangs, so I cut them off."
Me: (Thinking, at least it was the $1 clearance B.arbie) "WHAT? Why did you do that?"
Em: "They were prickly and I didn't like them, so I cut them."
(She's right, they were super glued hairsprayed so that the "bangs" would stay in their permanent B.arbie curl.)

--B.arbie DreamHouse: Yes, mine was the 3-story one with the elevator. (As an aside, I have a fond childhood memory of the Christmas morning when I was 6 or 7. Going downstairs and seeing the large B.arbie house with my stocking....pure bliss!) (Oops...according to g.oogle images, I had the "Town House," not the "Dream House.")

--B.arbie prices: I agree, I can't believe how expensive some of them are!! I've been meaning to ask my mom... Surely they weren't this expensive when I was younger? (I will say that "Santa" found a few at B.ig L.ots for $5 last year. Yea!)

--As I was nearing the end of my childhood B.arbie phase, I loved the Day-to-Night Barbie. Just found this pic on g.oogle:




The gist of this B.arbie is that she had a business suit for "daytime" work. Then you could remove the suit jacket and the skirt was reversible with a fancy "night time" party-type skirt. I SOOOO LOVED this B.arbie! The website I found this pic on said she is from 1985, which means I was 10. Ode to memories. (I still have the B.arbie, hat, purse, and briefcase...her suit was ruined when my parents' basement flooded a few years back. Sighs.)


If I recall correctly, I received the B.arbie for my birthday in April, and then this for Christmas:

The home/office. LOVED it. The "home" side had a bedroom for B.arbie, complete with bed, wardrobe, and vanity. I loved the B.arbie-sized brush, perfume, photo of Ken, etc. it came with.

The "office" side had a desk with computer, telephone, business-type newspaper, office chair, and other work-related items.

Yesterday when I was playing with Em, I decided to get my old B.arbie Home & Office out of the garage. She was tickled to see something "new" as I unveiled it. When we opened up the house, and Em unfolded the B.arbie's bed, the old foam mattress and pillow had disintegrated. There were teal "crumbs" all over my living room. As we have beige carpet, this was not good. I vacuumed today...not all of it came up. I think some of the pieces are down in my carpet fibers.

DH went and bought new vacuum bags, so I'm hoping when I re-vacuum tomorrow the rest will come up. If not, I'll have to post pictures...there are 9 teal blotches throughout our living room. (Why? Because I made the mistake of handing the leftover B.arbie mattress remnants to Em and asked her to put them in the trashcan. She meandered through the living room dropping pieces as she walked to the trash can. UGH!)

NOTE to anyone storing old 1980's toys: If they have FOAM parts, REMOVE the foam prior to storing. (For example, old F.isher P.rice hospital and/or house beds had foam pieces in them, my old F.isher P.rice Doctor's Kit had foam in the stethoscope---these foam things have also disintegrated over time. Maybe it's due to being stored in our garage in the Florida heat? I dunno...but I'm praying the teal foam B.arbie bed remnants come out of our carpet!)

Swimming: The town I grew up in has one large city pool. My parents always had a "family membership" for us to use each summer when we were growing up. I don't remember the $$, but I know there was also an admission fee for those without memberships. I've been in Jacksonville for 11 years now. And though the pools are smaller (and don't have concession stands) than the one in my hometown, they are FREE, clean, and nice. And like I said----we hit pay dirt this year. I've learned that 3-5 p.m. is the "golden ticket." The summer camp kiddos have left by then. Many of the evening crowd aren't home from work yet. When Em and I were at the pool yesterday, there were only 6 other people there. It was awesome!

Zoo: We're zoo members, because our local zoo is only 10 minutes from our house, so we go several times a year. With that being said, sometimes I take Em knowing that we may only go for a few hours if it is toooooo blazing hot out. I was VERY surprised yesterday. I thought it would be much more crowded, as it is summer time. It was NOT crowded at all. In fact, 2 different zoo workers mentioned that when it is in the 90's, there tends to be low attendance.

This worked out great for us, as we had close-up views of the jaguar and bonobo monkeys. Em was the ONLY person on the carousel when she rode it. We didn't have to wait in line for lunch. The water park area was a little crowded, but still not as congested as I've seen it before. We were very pleasantly surprised!

Crying at T.arget: Okay, so this wasn't a question, but I'm going to share anyway...

On Sunday DH, Em and I went to T.arget. As we were walking through the store, DH was pushing the cart, as Em and I walked behind him. For some reason, Em went up behind DH, stuck her hands in both of the "butt-pockets" on his shorts, jumped up in the air, and then HUNG on his POCKETS. You can imagine what happened next....Emma nearly fell over. DH's pants dropped to his knees. DH turned around and quickly pulled his pants up.

Being the kind-hearted wife that I am, I started laughing hysterically. Hunched over, side hurting, tears rolling down my face laughing. I still don't know why it seemed so funny to me. Maybe it was the "Oh shit!" look on DH's face?? Maybe it was seeing his entire butt in the middle of a somewhat crowded store? His bum wasn't exposed---he was wearing underwear, but his entire underwear-covered butt was OUT for a moment. Giggles. Truly....HILARIOUS!

Whew! I think that's all for now.

This post has been brought to you by the letter B and the number 10. :)