Round Up

I was going to link to Five Favorites over at Hallie's but I dithered around so long, I'll add two items and call it Quick Takes.

1. Check out Quizlet.

From their website, "Quizlet is a free website providing learning tools for students, including flashcards, study and game modes. It was created by high school sophomore Andrew Sutherland in 2005 and now contains over 400 million study sets. All of the material is user-generated."

For example, you can search Sadlier Vocab Level E Unit 8, and up will come vocab words, quizzes, and games. Students can generate their own quizzes as well. Kolbe has cranked out some Latin in the past month, and all credit goes to Quizlet for making it challenging and fun.

Hat Tip goes to my sister, Kate, who discovered this little gem. Check it out!

2. Then head over to Aldi.

Bring your own bags, make sure you have a quarter to rent a cart, and get ready to see your grocery bill drop. Among the better deals:

Milk - $2.69 per gallon
Bread - $1.29 (for the loaf that runs $3.69 at Kroger)
Eggs - $1.29 per dozen

3. Have a dressy affair coming up?

Clip on tie rolls right off your screen!

While Walmart is not my favorite store, they earn high marks for their Shirt in a Bag. Preparing for Confirmation, I took Tim to an upscale department store to get a shirt and tie. The saleswoman measured Tim's neck and pointed us to young men's department where we found an Izod Shirt in a Bag for $40 marked down to $28. But wait! There was a door buster special! So the total wound up being $22.

Got it home. Tried it on. The neck was gaping.

I picked up Walmart's Shirt in a Bag and, get this, the shirt both looked and fit better. And the price? $10! The downside of Shirt in a Bag (at either store) is that even size 18 comes with a clip on tie. An enormous clip on tie, but still a clip on. Tim and I shared a laugh about that.

4. And still more on clothes . . .

While we're on the subject of clothes, I am thrilled that Tim now enjoys dressing up. He, in fact, wants a bow tie (which, sort of like a bikini, costs a darn fortune for an awfully minute piece of fabric) {not that I would for love or money would buy a bikini no, no, not even}.

Tim was not always interested in fine clothes. Boys' clothes are sort of like girls' hair accessories  You gotta start young and just insist. For perspective, I offer this brief photo essay told from a boy's perspective.

Here we have clothes:

And dress clothes:

And cruel and unusual punishment:

And just to give my northern readers a laugh, this
would be a winter coat:

5. On a completely unrelated note, here is my attempt to snap a sweet picture of of the little people:

This one's better, but I could not for the life of me get them to actually look straight into the camera.

6. Our next door neighbor, affectionately known as Grandpa Jim, turned 91 either Sunday or  Monday. He was delivered at home by his grandfather who was a doctor. When Gramps filled out the paperwork a few days later, seems he penciled in the wrong date. Grandpa Jim discovered the error when he joined the Navy at the end of World War II. He's been celebrating two birthdays ever since.

We love Grandpa Jim!

7. Grandpa Jim's daughter, Anne, showed Ainsley her doll house and oh! was I ever inspired. Electric lights, a cat drinking spilled milk, a piano -- love it, love it, love it! A for real doll house is right up there with The Easy Bake Oven and Little House on the Prairie on the list of Things I'll Be Enjoying with my One and Only Daughter.

Head over to Jen's to add your Quick Takes. She's home from the hospital with her sweet baby.