It's been a year since we posted the kids dancing to The Cosby Show theme song. We thought it would be fun to see what happened if we added Selah to the mix.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Electronics Giveaway
We had a great response to our recent kitchen giveaway--now let's see if electronics are equally popular. Please leave a comment to claim an item. Free delivery to Sacramento area residents only.
Aiwa stereo (CD/dual cassette/radio).Works great but the connection for one of the speakers needs repair.
Two 35 mm film cameras and one digital one (3.2 megapixel)
Electronic dartboardBy the way, these lamps are still available.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Kitchen Stuff Giveaway
Time for some spring cleaning! The kitchen items pictured below are taking up space in our house for no reason at all, as it's been years since we've used them. One or two of them were possibly wedding gifts that we never used at all. If any of you could put any of these items to use, please leave a comment and you can have them for free. Free delivery to Sacramento area residents only.
Rival 8 Quart Roaster Oven
George Foreman Grilling Machine
Sunday, March 15, 2009
M&Ms, Baby Giraffe, Rain and Self-Portrait by Eliana
It's been nearly six months since Eliana's monster drawings. Not to worry, she's still putting her artistic talent to work:
Monday, March 9, 2009
While the cats were away...
A quadruple thanks to Lila and Amy for so lovingly and graciously watching the munchkins while we were away... The kids had a blast! I don't think they missed us a bit!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Great Lamp Giveaway
"Great" as in two. We have two lamps we no longer need. Both work fine but have taken some abuse from the kids over the years. These lamps are free to a loving Sacramento home where they can once again shine in all of their glory. Just leave a comment to claim one or both!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Rug Giveaway
Some of you may remember our last rug giveaway. Rest assured, this time we're not giving away anything with bad odors! This @5x7' rug previously provided a play area for our children in their bedroom, but we no longer have need for it. We are offering it for free (no, we don't sell items on this blog...contrary to whatever you may have read recently elsewhere in the blogosphere) for anyone in the Sacramento area who would like to provide a new home to this rug! Be the first to leave a comment claiming this rug and it's yours.
Monday, February 16, 2009
ScholarShare College Savings Plan
We opened accounts for the kids last time this deal was offered, so we can vouch that it's not a hoax. Given how much lower the stock market is these days, now might be an especially good time to consider opening one of these accounts for that special youngster in your life. (Of course, that $50 Target gift card is a pretty nice incentive in and of itself.)
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Diapers for One
Well, about a year ago, after Selah was born, with no end in sight to the large range of diapers we were buying on a regular basis, we switched locations of our blog temporarily to diapers4four.blogspot.com. Then in March, we posted that Eliana was well on her way to being potty-trained before college and we returned to our current blog location.
In October, a bit before I was ready for it to happen, Mikey decided that it was time for him to enter the big-boy world. At the time, I made the mistake of mentioning that we fully didn't expect to potty-train any more children in the near future and that we should have three in diapers again this Spring.
Well, Danny decided a few weeks ago to take me to task on that assumption. He's been pushing to potty-train for a while, but since, at least compared to my other two when they potty-trained, he's so young, I've been holding off on him... not to mention the fact that I didn't really want to be cleaning up accidents after more than one kid at a time.
So, Danny has been in pull-ups for a few weeks now and this week, after considering the fact that I really don't worry too much anymore about Eliana or Mikey having accidents, I decided to go ahead and put the kid in underwear on a regular basis. And yesterday, he had his SECOND ACCIDENT-FREE DAY! Pretty impressive, that kid is.
Now if I don't do it, David will leave a comment saying something about "Blah, blah... all the kids still wear pull-ups at least at night, blah, blah... so still have four in diapers... blah blah." So there it is. And I do admit that we are still definitely in the stage where potty-training Danny is more work than leaving him in diapers. But nonetheless, in my estimation using the regulations previously determined on this (and our other temporarily used!) blog, Danny is no longer in diapers.
And I'm left trying to figure out how to reorganize a room and drawer that used to be stacked full of four different sizes of diapers and now has an array of diapers, three different sizes of pull-ups, and three different sizes of underwear. Good thing we're expecting a second diaper wearer to appear in a few months... Otherwise, I might find myself getting bored! (Hah!)
*Before you can ask, no, we will not be changing the location of the blog. Because I said so.*
In October, a bit before I was ready for it to happen, Mikey decided that it was time for him to enter the big-boy world. At the time, I made the mistake of mentioning that we fully didn't expect to potty-train any more children in the near future and that we should have three in diapers again this Spring.
Well, Danny decided a few weeks ago to take me to task on that assumption. He's been pushing to potty-train for a while, but since, at least compared to my other two when they potty-trained, he's so young, I've been holding off on him... not to mention the fact that I didn't really want to be cleaning up accidents after more than one kid at a time.
So, Danny has been in pull-ups for a few weeks now and this week, after considering the fact that I really don't worry too much anymore about Eliana or Mikey having accidents, I decided to go ahead and put the kid in underwear on a regular basis. And yesterday, he had his SECOND ACCIDENT-FREE DAY! Pretty impressive, that kid is.
Now if I don't do it, David will leave a comment saying something about "Blah, blah... all the kids still wear pull-ups at least at night, blah, blah... so still have four in diapers... blah blah." So there it is. And I do admit that we are still definitely in the stage where potty-training Danny is more work than leaving him in diapers. But nonetheless, in my estimation using the regulations previously determined on this (and our other temporarily used!) blog, Danny is no longer in diapers.
And I'm left trying to figure out how to reorganize a room and drawer that used to be stacked full of four different sizes of diapers and now has an array of diapers, three different sizes of pull-ups, and three different sizes of underwear. Good thing we're expecting a second diaper wearer to appear in a few months... Otherwise, I might find myself getting bored! (Hah!)
*Before you can ask, no, we will not be changing the location of the blog. Because I said so.*
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Irrational Exuberance
I know I'm a few years late to the party on this one, but I finally got around to checking out Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller, a book I've been wanting to read for some time. Shiller has earned quite the reputation in recent years by being one of the first economists to point out speculative bubbles in the both the stock market and the real estate market--before they burst. That gives him a lot more credibility in my mind than the average talking head on television.
I'm about 100 pages in, and so far I've found the book to be accessible and packed with helpful and thought-provoking historical data. Here's an interesting excerpt from the book (as republished in this interview):
Schiller has been updating some of the data and graphs from his book at http://www.irrationalexuberance.com/. It's fascinating to see where stock prices and housing prices are now in relation to where they've been over the past 100 plus years. The image below is his updated graph of real home prices through mid-2008.
I'm about 100 pages in, and so far I've found the book to be accessible and packed with helpful and thought-provoking historical data. Here's an interesting excerpt from the book (as republished in this interview):
It is true that, for the United States as a whole, real home prices were 66% higher in 2004 than in 1890, according to the index my research assistants and I have put together. But all of that increase occurred in two brief periods: the time right after World War II and since 1998. Other than those two periods, real home prices overall have been mostly flat or declining. Moreover, the overall increase, including the booms, is not very impressive — 0.4% a year.
Why then do so many people have the impression that home prices have done so well? People remember the prior purchase price of a home from long ago and are surprised at the difference between then and now. In closing out the estate of an elderly person, one may be surprised to see that he purchased a house in 1948 for $16,000 and that the estate sold the house in 2004 for $190,000. The appearance is that the investment in the house did extremely well. But the consumer price index rose eightfold between 1948 and 2004, so the real increase in value was only 48%, or less than 1% a year.
Schiller has been updating some of the data and graphs from his book at http://www.irrationalexuberance.com/. It's fascinating to see where stock prices and housing prices are now in relation to where they've been over the past 100 plus years. The image below is his updated graph of real home prices through mid-2008.
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