Pinewood Derby

Last night was my son's last pinewood derby.  I am both saddened and relieved.  He is very proud of his cars, and his 3 year old brother is convinced it was his car too. (he even has the trophy to prove it!)  This year we went with a zombie theme and were able to take 2nd place for the pack (about 45 kids!)

My 3 year old got a participation trophy that was left over.  He really believes that he won the trophy because it was his car too.

My Webelos 2 with his 2nd place overall win and his ZOMBIE car!  

I have always managed to do OKAY with helping build a car, but I can definetely tell you when he was just a TIGER ready to race in his first derby my only thoughts were HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO THIS?  Now I find myself helping other kids. But I have a few observations and helpful hints to pass along before I am done with derbies.

1. It's about the kids.  Everybody says that, but it really is.  It is super easy to get caught up in making a car just PERFECT and not letting a kid help.  But let them help.  It is their race.  
2. DON'T let the kid do all the work.  Aside from using power tools at way to young of an age, the cars where the kids had to do it all by themselves never seem to do as good.  And all the kids tend to look dissapointed.  The method that I used was simple at first... I will buy all the stuff you need, you worry about how it looks and I will worry about how to make it fast for you.  I had him sand it (I touched it up when his 1st grade arms couldn't take it anymore) he painted it (I added coats when necessary while he was at school WITHOUT changing the paint colors or placement).  The next year I had him start to help me with the speed tricks.  But it was still a mostly you make it look cool and HELP me make it fast.  Same thing went for his 3rd race.  His 4th race was all up to him, he told me what he wanted to do and I bought the stuff and helped him (he even remembered the speed stuff), same thing for his 5th year.  
3. KNOW YOUR WEIGHT LIMITS AND RULES.  Even in my son's last year, weight was something I was pretty much in charge of.  He knows we need to add weights, and know's that it needed to be 5 oz.  I got that car weighed a bunch of times and got the weights for it and left it up to him how to place them.  A basic 2.3 oz set was recessed in the bottom of the car of course, but we still needed to add .3 oz and I gave him a selection of weights that added up to .3 oz  and let him choose how to incorporate it.  
4. Stickers are your friend.  As are scrapbooking supplies.  And Dremel Tools.  I am not a master painter.  My son isn't either.  We have used stickers in combination with paint, and have raided my scrapbooking supplies to MAKE stickers out of random images.  If your son has a theme in mind go for it.  My son never wanted to make a car that looked like anything other than a car (no hotdogs, skateboards, army tanks, wii remotes, guitars, etc) but plenty of other kids did.  Be sure to check the sticker section of your local scrapbook store for stickers that fit the theme.  
5. Know how your race will work.  Our race has each kid race in 6 heats, with one race in each lane.  Always against different cars.  There are complicated brackets and race formulas for this, but I never worried about this.  I knew that trophies were awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd out of the pack (overall) then after those kids got their trophies, the fastest car in each DEN that didn't win a trophy got a Fastest in Den (all 5 ranks with Webelos 1 and 2 being seperated) then the committee members voted for a BEST IN SHOW of the cars that didn't win a trophy yet.  Then all the other's got a participation trophy.  After our first race, my son decided he had a better chance of winning a speed trophy than best in show.  So we focused on speed vs. looks.  It seems in our pack the cars that LOOK like something other than a car win Best In Show every year.  

So how do we make it fast.......

1. Bake the block of wood.  Put the wood in a 200 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.  Watch it to make sure it doesn't burn.  This helps to dry the wood out and make it as light as possible.  
2. Check that the axle grooves are at true 90 degree angles.  If not, fix them now when it's easier to fix (the wood is still a nice square).
3. Choose and Cut your basic shape.  We usually do a modified wedge shape that is thin in the front and thicker in the back in kind of an S curve shape.  Do NOT go too thin in the middle and back but definetely get alot of that wood out of there. 
4. I use a Dremmel tool to cut a recess in the bottom of the car to hold the weights.  Nothing fancy, I just set the depth collar thingy to the same depth as the weights.  Then I trace the weights onto the bottom of the car making sure they are set as far back as I can get them.   This often means that I have to break the weight bar and put some weights in the back behind the rear axle and the rest in the middle of the axles.  You always want the weight in the rear of the car.  I always cut a channel for the FULL bar of weights and we remove weights later to get the car to make weight.  The weights are removed from closest to the front axle so that the car is lightest in front.
5. Sand that car and sand some more.  Start with 60 or 80 grit sandpaper and move to 120, then 220 and keep getting finer.  The smoother you get your car the nicer the paint job will look.  Wipe the sawdust off the car with a tack cloth (or old sock in our case) to remove the extra dust that gets all over everything.  You can do a lot of shaping with a piece of sandpaper.  The most important thing to remember when doing this is that the cars will rest on 2 pegs at the top of the track, and you don't want to NOT have a place for the car to sit against the pegs at.  If your car comes to a sharp point, it will be harder for the track officials to get it on the starting peg, and you want it to be sitting right when they release the pegs to let it zoom down the track.
6. Rub some rubbing alcohol on the car and let it dry.  This helps to raise the grain on the wood.  Then you can sand it off with very fine sandpaper.
7. PRIMER IS YOUR FRIEND.  When we first started, I didn't think to primer the car.  It really helps the paint look good.
8. Paint it.  We have used acrylic paints, TESTOR's model car paints, and spray paint.  Of theses, the paints you have to apply with a brush were very difficult to keep the brush marks out of paintjob and the paint looked bumpy-ish.  The TESTOR's paints gave the car a very authentic car paint color.  They looked like real cars paint jobs, but they were slow to dry.  The spray paint has been our best results.
9. Add your decorations.  Stickers, little guys, the body details or metal pipes or whatever.  Actually if you are adding the plastic fenders or whatever add those before you primer and paint.  Glue those down and sand the glue to look smooth.

NOW COMES WHAT I THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A FAST CAR AND THE PART THAT I HANDLED FOR MY SON FOR THE EARLY DERBIES HE WAS IN.

• I gathered my axles and put just the pointy tip into a dremmel tool and turned it on.  I was looking for axles that didn't vibrate or wobble too much. I choose the straighest 4 axles that I had. 
• Once I had the straightest 4, I remounted them in the dremmel tool with just the tip in the dremmel. I cut 1//2 inch strips of 220 grit sandpaper and soaked them in water for 5 minutes.  Then I took a strip and sanded the shaft of the nail until it was smooth,  I also made sure to sand the under side of the nail head.  I got some pumice powder and made a paste and used that to further polish the axles.  REVEL sells a kit with these things and instructions in it.  USE IT!
• After I did the axles, I moved on to the tires.  I bought a wheel truing mandral from REVEL and mounted it on the dremmel with the tire on it.  I spun the tires looking for the MOST ROUND least WOBBLEY tires.  I selected the best 4 and then sanded them.  Just the surface that touches the track and only until they weren't shiny anymore.  You want to smooth the surface and make racing SLICKS.  But you DON'T want to  alter the tire, just true it up.   Start with a coarse sand paper and work up to a finer grain and don't press hard, the sandpaper just needs to touch the spinning tire. 
• GRAPHITE PACKING.  Most packs don't allow the use of liquid lubricants and dry graphite is all you have to work with.  Graphite is awesome if you use it correctly.  Rub it into the car where the wheel will or could overlap the car.  Rub it into the tire surface.  There is an instructional video I found that shows how to PACK the wheel with it HERE.    I didn't use the tool but the concept is pretty good.  You mix graphite with rubbing alcohol and pack it into the wheel where the axle goes thru.  Blow dry it to evaporate the rubbing alcohol, and BAM! You have a wheel and axle full of graphite powder.
• I have also seen people use a dot over the axle head stuck to the tire that was filled with graphite so that the graphite can 'feed' into the tire as it spins down the track.  I am too clumbsy and would probably stick the tire and axle together to do something like that.
• Mount the wheels to the car and be sure to keep a slight gap between the tire and the body of the car to reduce friction.  Nothing really big so that the tire will wobble, but 1/16 of an inch or so.  
• Make sure the car rolls straight.  Adjust the axles as necessary.
• Puff dry graphite into the gap between the car and the tire.  Puff it into the wheel where the axle goes. Puff it under the head of the nail against the tire.  

Our first car, a spiderman theme, complete with a spiderman driver.

He won fastest in his den this his tiger year.

Our first car was a preshaped body kit car, because I was overwhelmed and had no idea how to cut or shape a car.  It was made at our kitchen table and we used a knife and sandpaper to round it out.  I hacked the wood out with a butcher knife on the bottom for the weights.  It was probably the most fun of all our cars to build, and I will never forget it.

He won the Fastest in his den that year.  And it was a HUGE den.  Something like 12 or 15 boys.  Large enough that the following year we split the den into 2 separate dens for
managability.

For his wolf year, he won 3rd fastest in the pack!

The BATMOBILE!

This year we won 3rd In the whole Pack.  He was so impressed.  This year was the first year we messed with the axles and wheels.  And the first year we used a dremmel tool.  And the first year we went to our DERBY WORKSHOP.  Our pack holds a workshop with ban saws and sandpaper and paint, so that every boy can show up with the block of wood and leave with a car that is ready to slap wheels on.  It was awesome for us since we didn't have a saw to cut our basic shape.
Our Batmobile car was made from the pinewood derby block of wood with the batmobile add ons sold at Michaels. The add on kit had a pattern for us to cut the block of wood, and plastic fenders, and a batman rubon decal.

The red car in the middle is his car for his Bear year.  He drew the skull himself and used a sharpie to draw it on the Testor's paint job.  The paint color was beautiful, but we learned a hard lesson this year about Testor's needing a LONG time to fully dry and the paint could easily be 'dinged' by touching.  Also, the weight's on the outside of the car were a necessity to get it to 5 oz.  The whole car was really thin, and we didn't have room for a bunch of weights on the underneath. Which I think effected our placement, as we didn't get a big trophy this year.

Another shot of our car on the upper right with the pink sticker

We were fastest in the den this year.

For some reason I don't have a picture of the car by itself that I can find from his Webelo 1 race.  But his is the Blue thunderbird car on the bottom right hand corner.  It was a super fast car.

Our car was the blue one on the lower right with the pink sticker on it.

Another shot of the car, this time from a side angle.  His car was cut from wood ourselves, then we added a spoiler and fenders from a plastic add on kit.  We painted the windows ourselves too.  Very angular this year.  This was a TESTOR's paint paint job.





He got fastest in his Rank this year.  For some reason they had the Webelos 1 and 2's race as one group this year.  He came so very close to a bigger trophy.  They had to do 2 raceoff's to determine the final placements.  A car had jumped the track and hitched a ride with his car down most of the track this year resulting in his only low placement.  Otherwise he had 4 1st place heats, 1 2nd place heat and 1 4th place heat that he had a hitchhiker for.

And of course our Webelos 2 car was the best placement yet!

This year he wanted a zombie themed car.  So we downloaded a picture from DEVIANTART and warped it down to 7 inches by 2 inches.  I had it printed at walgreens and peeled the paper backing off the photograph.  I used some scrapbooking glue to adhere it to the car.  We put the least amount of effort into decorating this car, but I guess after all these years of practice, we knew what we were doing.  He finished 1st in all 6 heats and had to do a raceoff for 1st in the Pack!  He unfortunately lost that raceoff by a 2 tenth's of a second and finished in 2nd place overall!

Exciting week!

So much has been happening this week, it's hard for me to focus on any of the things I said this blog was going to be about.  So I want to get the exciting things off of my chest so I can settle back down and get to working on those projects and resolutions I said I was going to do.

1.)  I just hired an attorney.  A good one too!  I seriously LOVE him.  I liked him quite a bit after the initial consultation, but now that he is hired, MAN!  he is awesome.  I have no doubt in my mind that he is the right man for this child support/custody/paternity thing I have going on.  If you are in the St. Louis area and need a lawyer for family law, I highly recommend Bruce Eastman of the Eastman Law Firm.  He has very reasonable rates, and a wonderful sarcastic bulldog type of attitude that kept me grinning throughout the appointment and made me feel very confident in my case.

2.)  The kids on my new bus route are not too awful.  (except the middle schoolers, but that is typical, and even they aren't too bad.)  If you wonder about why middle schoolers have such a bad reputation, let me tell you about the safety training meeting I attended this summer hosted by GRAYRAM TACTICAL.  They told us that a study was done about school violence and it was determined that most violence was committed by 12-13 year old boys (middle schoolers!) and it was statistically more likely to happen on a Wednesday in the month of October and was most likely going to involve fist fighting.  But really, Middle school kids do not have the more adult common sense of high school kids, and are not as afraid of getting in trouble as elementary school kids are, and are trying to make a name for themselves and to get attention.  It's like in Middle School they are on a bus for the first time, and they think they are grown, and MAN!  It can be a bad combo.  Luckily, I know they just want structure and are only trying their limits and things will settle down soon enough.

3.)  My husband has never met his BIO dad.  And for years genealogy has been a hobby of mine.  It has always aggravated my COD (that's OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order the way they are supposed to be!)  that half of my kids family tree looks like it was hit by lightening and just stopped growing.

This is really what their family trees look like... a huge chunk is missing!

     So I have been hunting for anything about this man who is my husbands dad.  All I had was his name and that he had been in trouble (read: gone to jail at least once).  I was able to find a birthday for him thru the free court search site here in Missouri.  It's called CASENET and can be found HERE.  Most states have some kind of free judicial lookup of court records somewhere if you are willing to dig.   Anyways, I posted on ANCESTRY.COM a message seeking information about the bio dad (we will call him Gary) parents.  I made it very clear that I was not trying to stalk or harass a person who didn't want to be found or who didn't want contact, and that I really just wanted to know Gary's parents names so that I could flesh out a family tree for the kids.  After a year or more of no responses, I got a reply from Gary's niece.  I was able to call her and get a TON of information.  And she seems like a pretty cool chick on top of it all.  So I am hot on the case of investigating all of the new family members and that whole branch of the family tree.  

4.)  I had an IEP meeting with my stepson's school.  Hopefully now the testing will be able to help us help him better.  I have hated to see him struggling like he does, and I don't want to get angry with him for not trying or whatever if he is physically UNABLE to do so.  Now finally, the school district is on the same page as we are, and we are going to be able to begin the evaluation and referral services.  

5.)  The mother of the Stepson (who is like my real son anyway) has lost custody of her youngest and the only remaining child that she had custody of.  If you are counting that makes 3 kids, 3 different dads, that she has LOST custody and visitation with.  I am slightly worried that she will do something stupid and I will have to explain adult problems to a kid who is just starting to settle in here.  I just don't want her to kill herself or something (overdose!)  I am sure she loves him, but needs to get help so she can effectively parent her child.  I don't want him to lose a mother without having the chance to understand that she isn't doing things to HURT him, she just has an addiction and it isn't his fault.  I think right now he is too young to understand that whole aspect of it, and it troubles me that she may force me into having to try to explain that to him.  I don't want him filled with anger at her or at us for any reason.  It's sad really.  However, I am glad that her youngest child is now away from her, for the child's sake.  

Teach your kids some RESPECT!

So I really wish parents would teach their kids a little respect.  Just a little.  Because a little goes a long way.  On my new route I have a middle school.  And it is the common knowledge of all bus drivers that middle schools are the work of the devil.  These kids got so angry that I was driving the bus route home the way the transportation department laid it out (instead of the 'shortcuts' that they wanted me to take) that I was called a BITCH, a FAT WHITE HO, and about a dozen other nasty names.  I started by telling them I was going to drive it the way the route sheet dictated.  That is when the name calling started.  Then I had to pull the bus over and inform them in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be called a BITCH and that they would have some RESPECT... respect for the bus, for themselves, for other people, and for the neighborhood.
One little girl said she wished she would have recorded my little rant.  But sure enough I asked the kids if we were clear, and wouldn't leave until I got a yes Ma'am.  (it took a little prodding).  But the very next day, the kids were polite and behaved much better.  Maybe they were only trying me, but really folks, raise your kids better than that.  Teach them to be appalled at NOT treating others with respect.  It would make the world a nicer place.

Oh the DRAMA!

So much for resolutions!  I had the best of intentions about this blog, and then life got in the way.  First week back at school, I had my seat crew work to do.  Not a big deal, but still less free time for me.  On a side note, KIDS REALLY TEAR UP SCHOOL BUSSES... I don't know why some kids think they can draw giant pictures of men's genitalia, or write some of the profanity I have seen written on seats.  Or rip, tear, pick, or stab a seat with a pencil 100's of times.  They would never do that crap in their parents cars.

So as soon as that week was over, I had a minor incident with a light pole.  Nothing serious, just a headache of drug testing.  But as soon as that was over, I got served with custody papers from Co-Co's dad.  He is 11 years old and we haven't seen a dime of support from him since he was 2.  He never even put his name on the birth certificate.  I have had an active case open with Child Support Enforcement since 2004.  They have not been able to locate him.  Then WHAMMO!  out of the blue he wants to get 50/50 custody, pay no child support, and have his name put on the birth certificate without a DNA test.

I of course am less than thrilled.  It comes out now that my FAMILY has been hanging out with him and getting free tattoos from him for years now.  But no one could speak up and say where he lived.  And my DS didn't even know that his step dad wasn't his Bio Dad.  That was an interesting conversation to say the least.

So my last 10 days or so have been spent interviewing lawyers to see who I liked and who could do what I want them to do, etc.  Begging my parents to loan me the money for the retainer (of course the putz filed right after we splurged and blew the Emergency Fund on Christmas presents).  And as luck would have it, my parents have an IRS thing that they are dealing with, so they just dropped 10 grand on a tax attorney.  So I am tapped out, but stuck trying to figure out how to come up with a retainer to get some legal representation during all of this.

I have been emotionally drained.  I wonder at times if keeping the putz away from my DS was the right thing to do, but then I am reminded of the physical violence that the relationship had, and although it wasn't directly aimed at my son, it was done in a way that my son was witness to it, or could have been a victim of it as an innocent bystander.  So I know I did the right thing.  Now if I can get a lawyer to help me convince a judge of the same thing.

I also bid for and got a new bus route.  Goodbye 51!  Hello 117!  It's a good bump in hours so that is nice, but it will be all new kids to learn and a whole new area to learn to drive.  I hope that it goes well.

I have briefly thought about some of the tools that I will be using to get my life on track as a grownup.  LOL!  I am a grownup but BOY would it be nice to have a safety net of cash to fall back on, or to be more organized.  One of the things I have seen is the 52 week Money Challenge.

It's a pretty simple concept really... you just start with $1 and add $1 to the total deposit each week... and you make the deposit and not touch it for a whole year and end up saving $1378 in a year.  I know the idea is saving some money each week and this is a funish way to do it.  My only hangup right now is that the December weeks (the last 4 or 5 of the year) you have to depost about $50 a week.  I get paid every other week and with 4 kids living at home now and 1 living at her mother's house it is an expensive holiday season for me.... that's 5 kids Christmas gifts, PLUS 2 birthdays in December alone for me.  I don't think I can save $50 a week.  Or $100 out of every check.

I have seen some people do it backwards, which is easier, but still rough for me right now with the need to pay the lawyers retainer.  I am giving it some thought about how to stagger the payments to work with my bi monthly payday's and my family finances.  I will let you know what kind of savings plan I come up with.  But I think my best bet is going to be working the keep the change savings plans, and the $5 plan, in conjunction with this one.

And as scandalous as it sounds, I would need to do this behind Big Daddy Woo Woo's back.  He is a hoarder and a spendaholic, but in a cheap way.  He will spend a few dollars at every thrift store and garage sale in the neighborhood if he knew we had the 'extra' money somewhere.  Saving money isn't his way.  I know he wants to get a house, or a 2nd vehicle, or even a motorcycle, but I am more on the school of thought that we should have a backup fund and get out of debt before we get MORE debt, expenses, and stuff.  Maybe that is why we are such a good balance with one another.... we both can go to extremes but they are separate extremes.

Weekly Wrapup and a birthday gift

I didn't get much accomplished yesterday, aside from looking everywhere for some hair chalks for my Neice's 14th birthday today.  I know she will love them, and I will still be the cool aunt.  I mean who wouldn't love wild hair color (it washes out easily so her mom will be happy too).  I found THESE hair chalks listed online and that is what gave me the idea.  A bit of google searching and I discovered that they are available at Beauty Brands.  There is a Beauty Brands store close to me, so off I went.
When I got to the store, the clerks had no idea what I was talking about.  Even better, they asked the stylists in their trendy onsite salon and none of them had ever heard of hair chalks.  Seriously?  A fat uncool soccer mom like myself knew about something before them?  Not Good.  So I went to Sally's Beauty Supply and they had a different brand but at a much better price than the $12.50 that the other chalks were.  I got Beyond the Zone Color BUZZ for $5.99 each on sale.  She got pink, blue, purple, and red (because the only other color was orange, and orange is kinda a crappy color.

Beyond the Zone Color Buzz hair chalks.  Isn't the giftbag sweet?  It was a Michael's fun find for just $1.50!

We are supposed to be heading over to my sister's house later tonight to have cupcakes and celebrate.  Should be there around 4 or so (since tomorrow is the first school day back after a LOOOOOOOONG 2 week winter vacation it has to be an early night)  I hope she likes them.

Overall, this week hasn't been too bad.  I have:

1. made Seth a cover for his Innotab
2. taken all the Christmas stuff down
3. tagged all of my MP3's correctly (and had to add music to the kids MP3 players)
4. started and kinda fizzled on the FLYLADY system.

Seems like I should have gotten a lot more done after looking at the list of the major stuff. 

I have a ton of household chores to get done today to get us all back on track from the winter vacation, and a few ideas about what I should work on this week.  So far on my upcoming to do list for the week:  organize my photo collection, backup all of the photos and music onto my backup hard drives, clean out my purse/driver bag and restock it with the stuff I need while I drive, weed out some baby toys from my living room, get some storage cubes for the bookshelf to organize the kids toys, try once again to organize the laundry room, and of course some kind of craft project.  

I haven't figured out what my craft project for the week will be yet, but I do know that my scrapbook page for the week will be of my Great Grandfather Andrew Mavros.  

Baby Blues....

Or so I would like to believe.  I once again spent another day doing absolutely Jack Shit.  I think I need some kind of plan to get going.  I mean other than the whole FlyLady thing.  I know there is a ton of stuff on my TO DO list.  But I am a great list maker, and a poor list doer.

I did put all the Christmas crap away though.  That has to count for something.  Besides another item to do on my 'list'.  (clean out shed)

I also finally threw away my old baby bottles.  It was kind of a sad moment for me.  Almost bittersweet.  I am glad to have the cabinet space back, but it was like the end of an era.  I had my tubes tied about 18 months ago, a few months after the birth of my 3rd bio kid (a girl!).  I loved being pregnant.  I wish I could be pregnant now.  But that is normal.  My doctor told me that the number one complication from a tubal was regret.  I thought I was above it.  But I regret it.  Kinda.  I mean, I don't like closing the door on that part of my life, but in my head I know that I cannot rationally afford anymore kids.  But I miss the CHOICE.  I don't know if that makes sense.  Its sad to accept that I will never have another FILL IN THE BLANK of first moments once my daughter does them.

If I was a wine drinker, this is where I would pour myself a nice glass and drink my troubles away.  But I don't drink, or at least I don't drink more than once or twice a year.  So I am stuck trying to forget about it.  I don't know why a part of me wanted to keep those faded beatup bottles.  Maybe it was like holding on to a part of my babies even as they are growing up around me.  Ahhh... the joys and sorrows of motherhood.

I hate file maintence

I have around 1600 songs on my computer.  Maybe I have a few more, maybe a few less, but 1600 is a good estimate.  I don't bother to keep a whole album if I only like a few songs.  I just download the stuff I actually like.  Problem is, some, or most of it was downloaded from the internet.  And most of the tags were off.  I don't mind windows media player, but the tagging/find album info feature SUCKS.  So alot of my tags and album art was massively screwed up.

Thank god for MP3tag.  It is easy to use, and allows you to save and tag and correct until you are sick of it. And trust me I am.  But I can check off the box under my New Years Resolutions for clean up my music collection!

So far the FlyLady system has me shining my sink (did it last night, haven't done it tonight yet) getting dressed up in lace up shoes, and reading her blog.  Well, tomorrow will be the challenge.  I have to write down the negative thoughts I have and say something positive to counteract them.  WOOHOO!  Touchy feely crap.

I am jubilant!

a lazy day and a rant about the economy

After feeling like I finally got something accomplished yesterday, I flopped today.  I spent the entire day playing around on the internet and being reflective.  So many mixed thoughts are zooming around in my head.  Maybe this year will be my year.  I guess I need to check with FlyLady and see what my mission for tommorrow is.  Or maybe even get off my butt and shine my sink tonight.  I guess so that I will keep on my getting things cleaned and organized mission for the year, I should find something simple to do.  Like cleaning the papers off of my fridge and the 3 clipboards hanging on my wall next to my dry erase calendar.  That ought to be a fast one.  And should make a difference.  Now if I could only get the motivation up to do it.

On another note, my aunt just called and told me about a house that is a 5 bedroom with a basement and 1.5 baths for sale for 48xxx and it's not too far away, and wouldn't be a bad change in schools for my kids.  If only I had the credit for a home loan.  But then I would have bought the house I love that used to be a daycare and is NO change of schools for the kids and is only 38xxx.  At least it's still on the market.

I can honestly say that I hate this economy.  After 2 years of drawing unemployment, I am blessed with a GOOD JOB.  And I am grateful everyday that I do have a job.  I wish it was more hours, but I am still low on the seniority list.  But I hope the crappy housing market hangs on until I have my credit sufficiently repaired to obtain a home loan.  The deals in my neighborhood are just too fantastic to pass up.

So this is what my 3 year old has done almost everynight since recieving his Innotab 2S.  I really love that he loves it so much.  One night as he was laying in bed playing with it (well, watching movies Daddy put on there for him) he even spontaneously told us he loved us.  Actually it was "Mommy Daddy Seth Loves"  but we knew what he meant.  I began to worry that he might break it and since he loves it soooooo much I have been checking every store I can think of for the case that Vtech makes for it.  Unfortunately it is sold out of everywhere and I am impatient.  I remembered THIS PIN on a DIY Ipad case and thought I could do it.

I gathered some of my kids books that they tore up.  Well, all their books are tore up, but these 2 were the most tore up with the sturdiest covers.

I measured 2 panels like a front and back cover and 1 spine.  I just used the innotab 2 as a reference, no specific measurements.

 My 11 year old is really rough on his pants, and I had stashed these aside after he TOTALLY blew out one whole leg from the knee all the way down.  I really like denim and figured I would use it someday.  So I cut up the inseam to open them up.

I opened them up so that I would have a large enough area of flat material to work with.

 I broke out the iron and the spray starch for the first time in at least 3 years and ironed and starched the pants front and back since you know how denim gets all wrinkly if you don't fold it right out of the dryer.

 After I ironed and starched them, I decided on which area I wanted to be the 'outside' of the case and used spray adhesive to stick the pieces down (remember the outside should be facing out....)  I left a smidgen of room between each of the 3 pieces so that the thing would close.

I folded the excess over and stuck it down with even more spray adhesive and used clothes pins to hold it in place.

 I cut pieces from another book that were a bit smaller than the cover pieces I just covered.  These are for the 'lining' of the case.  I eyeballed some elastic strips to be corner loops to actually hold the tabtop in.

I used more spray adhesive to hold the loops in place on the back side only.

 I forgot to take pictures of covering the inside panels, but it's just an old baby tshirt that the kids can't wear anymore.  And I covered it the same way as the cover.  The only difference was cutting the holes in the tshirting for the elastic loops to go thru for the spine side of the loops.  Then I glued the whole kit and kaboodle together in a stack....

 This is the outside of the case.

And this is the inside while the innotab 2 is in there.

And since I love denim so much and hated to waste it, I cut the pocket from the other side of the jeans and used the spray adhesive to stick it down on the inside cover.

So that was my craft project for the week.  If I had to do it differently, I would have used an adult sized pair of pants so that I would have more room to work with.  I have some bulky edges because of the seams in the blue jeans.  A bigger butt area of blue jeans would have given me less seams to have to fold over.  But over all, I like it.  And it will do the trick for Seth's TabTop.