jennifer
When I was in high school and college, my sister and I kept a quote book.  It was full of things people around us said that--when taken out of context--were hilarious.  It wasn't where I thought it was in our house (although I did find some old journals, and oh my, super embarrassing), so maybe it's at my parents' house.  If I can track it down, I'll share some of the better ones in a future post.

It seems like we constantly have hilarious interactions in our home and I'm always sad when I can't remember them later.  Last week I decided to start trying to write them down and make them into a blog post.  So, here we go...

At dinner--
Me: Cliff, what would you like to drink?
Cliff:  Pepsi.  And 28 Dos Equis.

A "Finley is two" moment--
Eating spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, Finley would only eat his meatballs if they were cut into fourths and served in a tiny ice cube tray out of our mini fridge.

In passing (can't remember what I was really wishing for)--
Me:  I wish...
Cliff:  You had married better?

Another "Finley is two" moment--
Finley insisted on sleeping the entire night with his brush clutched in one hand and his comb clutched in the other.

After all of Cliff's hunting gear was stolen out of our truck in our driveway, and several annoyances at work, Cliff won a DWI case and we received a call that the Sheriff believed our items had been recovered and suspects were in custody--
Me:  Well life is improving greatly!
Cliff:  Baby, life improved greatly when I married you.
{Ha. Ha. Ha.}

Another "Finley is two" moment--
In a meltdown moment, Finley could only be consoled by being able to hold a toy tow truck. (And the meltdown did not involve the toy tow truck so this concerns me a little about his future career endeavors.  Probably more so because Cliff and Jacob often hope that Finley grows up to own a salvage yard.)

Out of nowhere--
Cliff: I want to do a twit.
Me: As in "an obnoxious little twit"?
Cliff:  No, as in that bird thing everyone is doing.
{Turns out he was referring to Twitter.}
(I really wish I had asked him what he wanted to "twit" because I'm sure it was a doozy.)

After I mentioned something about Finley's box of musical instruments/toys, which Cliff plays with a-LOT  (he's really good at playing the d*** recorder by ear)--
Cliff:  That box of music toys should really be mine, not Finley's.

I'll leave you with these entertaining videos.  Just ignore our disaster of a house.  And Cliff's overalls.  And Finley not wearing pants.  And then join me in concern that this terrible music really moves Finley to dance.













jennifer

By now it's no secret that my husband isn't the stereotypical attorney.  At the office he's not holier than thou, he's not a know-it-all, he's not a know nothing, he's not a do nothing, he's not a bull in the china cabinet, he's not an ambulance chaser, and he's not a sneaky snake (although I can't count how many times we've listened to that Tom T. Hall song.)   Outside of the office he doesn't drive a BMW, he isn't rude, he isn't a liar, and we don't have a yacht and summer home in Greece.  But, his most shocking hammer to the lawyer stereotypes, is that he wears overalls.  He doesn't just wear them to load out cattle a couple of times a year, he wears them like 61% of the time outside of the office.  He has no problem dressing "normal" but when we are just around the house he prefers to wear overalls.  I can't say that I blame him, because I've been guilty of throwing on a pair a couple of times in my life to paint or work on a messy project, but when people find out this little secret about him, they usually can't believe it.  
Until last year, he had stuck strictly to regular blue denim overalls.  You may remember my post about homecoming in Warrensburg last year and my brother's over-the-top shopping trip.  Well, during this male spending spree, Cliff and Jacob both purchased a new pair of blue denim overalls
AND sprung for the hickory stripe also.

All I could think of was Christopher Walken in Joe Dirt.
Or just about any character in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

But then, while they were in the dressing room, I saw an ad for Round House overalls that was totally based on sex appeal.  It was a man and woman in a steamy make-out session, with his pair of hickory stripe overalls half off.  I really wish I had gotten a picture of it because I can't find it online anywhere and I'd like to reassure myself that the poster wasn't some figment of my imagination to ease my concern about the apparel purchases.

The good thing is, Jacob and Cliff can both joke about their love for overalls.  When we got home, we did some research on the hickory stripe bibs and found that they were the "fancy" version of overalls.  Of course then the constant joke was that they should be able to wear their hickory stripes out in public, like to weddings and funerals, because they were "dressy."

The Round House website actually still has them listed as "stylish uptown overalls."

And then I was reminded that Miranda Lambert, Neil Patrick Harris, Jennifer Aniston, and Jessica Simpson have been photographed or filmed wearing Round House overalls.  Plus, I like the fact that they're still made in the USA.  Fashion points for Cliff.

But then I learned that Donald Trump was also photographed wearing them.  Loss of points.

Then I found them in a size 2T and that made them so much cuter.  Fashion points on the rise.

Cliff and Finley have been known to wear matching socks...
and now they can wear matching overalls, too.
And then Andra Day performed the National Anthem at the first NFL game this year wearing none other than a pair of hickory stripe overalls.  Even though fans hated on her outfit, I had to give Cliff some fashion points for this one.


And then Cliff and Finley went to a hunting event this past Saturday and found another twinsie.  And all of Cliff's hard earned fashion credit went right down the drain.


jennifer
It has been a few weeks since my last post because I've been waiting around to grab pictures for this one.  The bonus is, you get several Mason jar/handprint projects in one post, so let's agree that will make up for the missed weeks...yeah, that sounds good...
Grandparents' Day was a few weeks ago.  Grandparents have been so important to Finley, so we always celebrate with a homemade gift.  This year, we made our annual handprint gift for Finn's grandparents.  This one was super simple.

I had already painted these Mason jars a flat gray.  I actually used spray paint instead of chalk paint just to experiment and it worked really well.  Then, we added Finley's handprint in white (which he loves to do now) and painted on his name and the year (which I didn't love to do because I had a horrible brush.)  Doesn't his hand look huge now?  It looked so much bigger on the jar than it does in real life.
In 2014 we did a clay footprint and handprint in a shadow box.  I bought specific clay for making handprint and footprint keepsakes and they have not held up, which makes me so sad because those newborn hands and feet were SO tiny and adorable.
In 2015 we did a handprint flower pot.


One other handprint gift we've done is this tea towel, which is probably my favorite.



So those Mason jar DIYs required Finley's help.  This one went much smoother without his help.
You need:
a board (you can use an old board or stain and distress a new board).
I actually used a weathered board we saved from the original garage that was here, which we tore down to build our current garage/shop.
large hose clamps
screws
Mason jars
a drill
a screwdriver
hanging wire

I started by measuring out and marking where I wanted my jars to hang on the board.


Then go ahead and measure, mark, and attach your hanging wire on the back.  It's easier to do this now than to try to do it after you have your jars on the board.

Then drill a hole and screw the hose clamps into place.  Cliff had to drill a hole through the clamps too.  For some reason, I was completely incapable of doing that.  I fought and fought with the drill and those clamps and finally gave up and got help.  Then Cliff made it look so easy. 

Then add your jars and tighten the clamps with a screwdriver. 

Then hang it and fill the jars! 


We added ours above our changing station in the bathroom and I love how it turned out.
(By the way, that changing pad is one of my favorite baby purchases.  It is completely wipeable, so you're never washing a pad cover, plus it's made in the USA.)