How to Fix Broken Eye Glasses

Well, the Cozy Nook is back after a seven year hiatus.  I know you were clamoring for all of my wisdom for the last seven years. It has taken me a minute (or seven years worth of minutes) to try to get this single mom thing down enough to have a second and write, and truth be told is that I still haven't figured it out. But here I am, offering my wisdom to the world, which is scary in and of itself.

Here is today's nugget: If your child decides to place his glasses down in the middle of a baseball field so he can wrestle his brother and said glasses get stepped on, the best way to fix them is with masking tape.

I have tried all of the tape combinations that one could think of, and rest assured, masking tape is the best. 

 You see, scotch tape is not sturdy enough.   Packing tape is not pliable enough and cannot be wrapped around the periphery of the frames. Electrical tape has a desirable color if you have dark frames, but alas, it lacks the adhesive property to tape the ear piece to the lens piece. 

Thus, masking tape gives the desired stickiness, sturdiness, pliability, and range.  Its only downfall is that is mostly comes in a manila color which does not match the glasses.  But it should be noted that one may remedy this with sharpie.

If anyone has any questions about the best wrapping method, brand of masking tape, or time of day in which to conduct this operation, please feel free to contact me via email, text, or comment.  I have much experience in this area as I have mended glasses on more than one occasion in this fashion.  

Note: it is best to model the glasses while chewing ice cubes.  

 

Tutus Rock My 32 Year Old Dance Party

When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with tutus.  In fact, I even begged my mom to join a dance class just so I could have a tutu.  (I didn't particularly love the dance portion of the class but was pretty obsessed with the fun sparkly outfit part.) I remember a green mermaid tutu from an old dance recital from cousin Jill in Michigan, a red and gold sequin tutu, and a white, blue, and pink tutu.  These were worn for many occasions like the grocery store, play dates on the corner, and the occasional Art's Grocery Store run.


Now that I am an adult, I have come to find out that I can still indulge my tutu obsession, thanks to Alaina Barcello and her amazing Etsy account.  It turns out that Alaina, who is the third grade teacher organizational Goddess, is also a tutu making queen.  She makes these fabulous items for all shapes and sizes.  My small people could sport them if they wanted to, but wait, I could as well!

Click here to see more of her amazing creations:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MoreTulle?ref=hdr_shop_menu

I have ordered a tutu for the upcoming Dr. Seuss week, and I am very excited to sport it around my classroom in the upcoming months.  What color will I wear as a 32 year old woman? you ask.  Well,  you will just have until March to wait and see!

The Before and After of My Kitchen Table

The Before Table:

Okay, everyone, brace yourselves.  I have embarked on a DIY fiasco courtesy of Ikea, which just so happens to be a short fifteen minute car ride from my house.

 Now if you know me and Do-It-Yourself projects, then you can picture me wrestling around on my kitchen floor with boxes, screw drivers, bolts that look like flowers, and screwy things that you need to bite in order to fit them in the tiny holes.  Yes friends, I was attempting to put together my new and improved Docksta Table.

I will show you the steps I took to put this incredible table together three times.  Yes, I took it apart and redid it three times, and it is still wobbly wobbly.

Step 1.  Drag your children to Ikea and attempt to lug huge boxes around the store.  Get exasperated when Eli throws his pacifier on the floor twenty times and then screams for it.

Step 2. Unload the huge boxes at home and drag them into the kitchen.

Step 3. Try to comprehend the wordless instructions on how to put the dang thing together.

Step 4. Call Gerardo and ask if I have a tool for the flowery looking bolt that I need to tighten.

Step 5.  Call Gerardo again and ask if I have a wrench somewhere in the house.

Step 6.  Place tube looking thingy into other long white section. Perfection.

Step 7.  Tighten everything with the squiggly line tool.  Bite the white plastic things so they go in the little holes.

Step 8. Flip super heavy thing over to examine my handwork.

Step 9. Realize the thing is wobbly wobbly.

Step 10.  Take apart and redo.

Step 11. Redo again. It is still wobbly wobbly.

Step 12. Figure it is as good as it is going to get and ask someone (aka Gerardo) to look at it next time he comes over. Stick flowers on it in the mean time, and add the mint chairs that were painted with toddlers.

Step 13. Wonder why the kids have been so quiet the whole time. Oh yes, they were throwing all the folded laundry all over the family room.

Makeover Session

Do you ever have one of those days when the alarm goes off (or your toddler is poking your face) and all you want to do is roll over and pull the covers on top of your head and never emerge? Well, I had one of those days this morning.  I could not muster the strength to greet the day.  But then I remembered... today was makeover day! Hollar!

My wonderful neighbor Kim is an official makeup seller/kindest person alive connoisseur.  She sells Younique Makeup because she fell in love with her skin after using the moisturizer and loves the natural feel of it.  Kim offered to show me her wonderful stash of makeup for my "night on the town" (okay, really Safeway) and I quickly took her up on the opportunity. Now I am hot to trot, or really I just drink that wine; I am not sure which.

Any way, we took some awesome (scary beyond all possible reason) pictures of me sans make up first. Then she used  cleansers that made my face squeaky clean, and it looked like silver fun.  Finally, we applied the best two products of my life.

Product 1: Magical Mascara from God (AKA Younique 3D Fiber Lashes) 
Okay, brace yourself and look at my lashes in the before pics.  I know. You can't see them, because I pretty much don't have any.  I inherited the shortest.lashes.on.earth gene from my dad who got them from Grandma.  Anyhow, my lashes are not great. But the tricky thing is, if you look at the after pics, you will notice that I actually have eye lashes. They grew, but not really.  The Magical Mascara from God (Younique 3D fiber lashes) actually made them appear to be longer but I didn't have to stick cruddy false eyelashes on me.  Super exciting for me and super amazing.  This is totally my favorite product ever.

Product 2: Sexy Eye Shadow
Yes, it is actually called Sexy. Who wouldn't want sexy eyes? I know I like them, but the color "Sexy" looks amazing in the dark or light. (We were doing this at dusk, so I got to experience all lighting scenarios in case you were interested.)  Anyway, I love Sexy.  Enough said.

Okay, I will stop rambling and show you the before and after pics now.

Before

After

If you are interested in buying the best mascara known to man, or selling this product too for some extra cash, then you can go to Kim's website: .

Okay, at the end of my photo shoot, I felt the need to take some glamour shots and hideous selfies. Enjoy making fun of me for eternity.

You Know You're A Momma of A Toddler When....

1.)  You know you're a momma of a toddler when you pull diapers, pacifiers, and toy cars out of your purse before your keys, lip gloss, and wallet.

2.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when your car has become the endless pit of no return for toys to go and die.

3.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you can't remember the last time you peed alone.

4.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you listened to the book I Stink or the "Caspar Babypants" CD so many times in the car that you know all of the words, and you have never even heard the new Beyonce song called "Drunken Love" or something like that. (See, I don't even know the title because I have not yet heard it.)

5.)  You know you're a momma of a toddler when your lunch consists of left over baby carrots, bits of turkey, and Carpi Suns.

6.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you can name every character on Sesame Street and wonder why they changed Elmo's World to Elmo the Musical?

7.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you wake up at 6:30am on a Sunday to a small person poking your face and asking for donuts downstairs.

8.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you say things like, "Please make a good choice" to the grumpy person in line at the grocery store who is holding up the line for ten minutes because a single egg is broken out of the dozen she purchased last week.

9.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you have to do your hair in five minute chunks in order to referee fights between siblings and restore order to the household.

10.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you cannot leave the house without bits of food and random smears across your clothing.

11.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you see the mini carts in Bartells Drugs and know they are the kiss of crazy toddler grab-and-go mania death, rather than a cute play toy for kids.

12.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you pick up the same.dang.toys up 10,000 times a day even though your toddler picked them up 10,000 times too.

13.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you wake up and a little head (or two) is sleeping soundly next to you, but you have no idea when or how he/they got into your bed.

14.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when the mall is synonymous with "fun indoor play thing/fun place to play hide and seek or tag" rather than a fun shopping experience.

15.) You know you're a momma of a toddler when you wouldn't have it any other way.

Putting Our Art Skills to Work

I was raised in a very artistic family.  It goes way back to my Grandma Nickels. I blame her for my "creativity." You see, my Grandma Nickels took art classes at the local studio when she was younger.  She often brought her family a beautiful still life complete with organic flowers, landscaped scenes with sunsets and running water, and the occasional nude portrait (which is another story).  But the point is, Grandma could paint and did so with a flourish.

Then she taught my mom about art.  Mom has bright and vibrant paintings hanging all over her lake house.  They are all  fun, whimsical, and  interesting to look at.

So, it was only natural that I would be interested in taking a class or two in college, which brings me to the Payne family Saturday evening at the lake.  What did we do you ask? We spent the evening exercising our artistic skills.

Our medium of choice was not acrylic or oil. Oh no. It was bic; as in bic pens.  Yes,  hours and hours of prep were spent to get our artwork in order. Our subject of choice was portraits. But not just any portraits. We drew each other.

Please scroll down to see our wonderful finished products showcased on this blog.

 Here is Ben posing for his masterpiece to be completed.

Please note the random tooth protruding from Ben's lips in his picture by Laura.

This is a portrait of "Man in Trench Coat," who happened to join Twitter last night with the help of sister Laura.  Don't worry he took notes, so he knows how to operate his Twitter handle.  If you would like to follow him, click here:  https://twitter.com/Manintrenchcoat

This is the family portrait that "Man in Trench Coat" completed.  Can you guess who is who?

I decided to do this interpretation of Laura in a Napoleon Dynamite style.  Note the wonderful nose on Laura 

Here is Ben's picture of mom.  Yes, she is still recovering from nose surgery. Hence, the glasses taped to her forehead.What? You thought a night with the Paynes would be "normal?" 

Laura drew this pic of me.  I guess I need to start using eye opening eye shadow.

I would also like the readers to take note of the artistic choices of varied line usage and the positive and negative space on all of the portraits above.  We all really thought about proportion and used the rule of threes quite regularly in each picture.  They will be selling for $500 a piece and you can make a bid on each via my new Twitter account at: https://twitter.com/stephscozynook.

I would just like to put a shout out to Ole here because he was my 5th follower.  I now have 15 followers, which is kind of exciting.  If you would like to also follow me on Twitter, you will find live action thoughts and pics of my life in real time.  I know you cannot even comprehend the entertainment that awaits.

Thank you. 

Inner monologue of a mom at the splash park

 My failed attempt at a pre-splash park pic of the boys.

Arrive at the splash park, unloading the car:

Shit. Why did I bring all of these bags for a morning at the park? Did I pack enough snacks?  I hope Eli doesn't poop.  I am glad Kim has sunblock.  I haven't had time to buy any yet this summer.

"Carlo please sit down until I unload everything.  Don't turn any dials in the car."

 Remember when I had that sun rash when I didn't put any sunscreen on? I don't want that to... Eli is sleeping. Damn.  Why does he always fall asleep five minutes before we arrive at the park? Should I wake him?

"Carlo will you get the towels?"

"Eli, wake up buddy.  We are here at the park."

Crap. Now I need to figure out how I am going to carry all this stuff to our area. Should we sit in the shade? That would be cooler. The shade is too close to the road. The kids could get hit by a car and end up in the ER. I don't want to end up in the ER.  We need to sit on the grass.  Where is Carlo? Did he run into the parking lot. Parents drive fast.

"Carlo, please hold my hand buddy.  Let's walk to the park."

At the splash park:

Man, I really packed too much stuff.  I can't believe I am in a bathing suit. Super uncomfortable.  How does that mom over there look so hot? She has three kids. I need to lay off the carbs.  Even the pregnant mom looks awesome.  Note to self: hit the gym tomorrow. Buy wine tonight.

"Carlo and Eli, do you guys want a fruit snack?"

These have tons of sugar. Maybe I should give the kids fruit instead. It might ruin their lunch. I am probably "that mom" who feeds her kids crap.  Where is Eli? He's right by my leg. Should we go to the park part first or the water part first? Did I leave the towels in the car? Here they are. Kim looks so calm and put together. I have lost my marbles. Where is Carlo?  Do they have enough sunblock on? I wish I had a margarita right about now.  What am I going to make for dinner? I have a ton of laundry to do again.  I am sweating. Did I put on enough deodorant?

"Eli, do you want to go to the squirting whale? Carlo are you going to get wet? Fun!  Yeah!"

There's the hot mom again. I hope she stands somewhere else, and not next to me. Gym tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Eli is now crying. Why are they going back and forth from one park to another? How can I watch them both at once? Where is Carlo? How did I lose my kids at the splash park? There he is, right behind the turtle. I am having a heart attack.  Too many people. Too many kids here. This is bonkers. Why is Eli crying?  I have to go pee again.

"Come on boys. It's time to go.  Let's all go potty.  Wasn't that fun?"

We made it.  Done with the splash park.  It was fun to see Kim and the girls. I wish I could have talked more to them.  We will have to come back here again.