Betty's Command Center-Stage 1

So... On my list of intentions for 2011 I said I wanted to let Betty, my inner neat freak, out of her cage.  Well good grief it's time already!  Geesh!  I'm such a freaking perfectionist.  I've been planning and thinking and planning some more on just what I should do first?  How should I get the kids involved?  How do I make this as painless for all of us as possible?  I sought advice from seriously organized humans - our own Drazil among them.  Finally I decided if left to my own devices I would plan for it for the whole year without doing a god damn thing.  So... I (and this is big for me) decided to just do it.

I decided to just start with something knowing it may very well - in all probability will - change in form and function along the way.  But - stage 1 was to get a central place up and functional where some key things for our family are posted.  A calendar, a list of chores for my far-too-spoiled kids, and a whiteboard for those staples we need at the store (I totally stole this from Drazil).  Have I mentioned recently, Draz is 'da bomb?  And, since I feel fairly confident this will change, I decided to not go all out and create the world's cutest yet most functional thing ever seen (I was really contemplating whether painted or stained wood would be best for the box I was going to build.... and other stupid things of that nature.)

Without further ado - here is stage 1 of Betty's Command Center.

The little red paper has a list of chores that alternate between weeks; A-week and B-week so the boys trade chores each week - this is going to be such a pain in the ass getting Teddy on board with this.  He says he's ready, but man, he's the laziest thing - it's a good thing he's cute.

I was worried about where I'd put such a thing because there are very few walls in my kitchen, well really on the first floor, but then I thought... d'oh.  What about the little hallway-ish between the kitchen and the rest of the floor - it's sort of partly in the kitchen and it's totally a wall AND!!! you see it when you walk in the house through the garage which is how we walk in.

This is from the mudroom (between garage and kitchen).  Why it never occurred to me to use this wall before I have no idea.  I think Teddy is playing on Facebook, I can't believe I have a kid old enough to have a facebook account.

The boys immediately LOVED the idea of having somewhere to write what we they needed wanted at the store.  As you can see, my boys are extremely health conscious.  The 1st four and last items are from Ted (I wonder if he's looking for sausage flavored gushers) and the middle three are from Jack (Marshmellow Fluff!!!!!  - Jack comes by his inability to spell and his love for exclamation points honestly).

And really, just because he was there - here's Teddy wondering if this whole Betty thing is really a sign that I've finally completely lost my mind.  Because first I've created an alternate identity for myself which I've totally named, and now I'm taking pictures of it to show to people.  Seriously, he's worried.

As I was trying to get a picture of him I liked, my phone's flash went off on one of them and I thought it did a decent job of showing how wildly green this boys eyes are and thought I'd share.  One day he's gonna be a killer - I pray he stays total nerd boy for as long as possible!!!

And last but not least...

If you look closely behind Teddy's head in that first picture of him you can see the kitchen Christmas tree box and tree.  Which is because the tree WAS STILL UP,  standing in the corner.  Yes, I know it's February.  (I swear it's down now.  If the box is now in the living room instead of the garage - well that's just a little detail, right?)

Oh and there was a message on our answering machine last night when we got home.  It was from Ricky, my mother-in-law.  She was trying to get a phone number in Virginia.  Somewhere between the dialing and the bringing the phone to her ear, she forgot she dialed the 11 digits of our number in MD and thought she dialed 411.  And I guess her son's voice on the recorded message did not dissuade her from that belief.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.