"i claim...."

if you are sick of picking up EVERYONE'S stuff in your house, then this will apply to you too....

1 spaghetti sauce sized jar for each member of the family.... (excluding babies, since they can't pick up after themselves)....

so i got three empty, clean spaghetti sauce jars.... let each family member decorate them however they'd like, or you decorate it for them....

purchase some poker chips or dimes or whatever you want to use. heck, you can even use quarters if you want!

each person gets 10 pieces of whatever it is in their jar.

the first 10 are free....

put the jars somewhere visible.

ours will be going on our mantle.

if i find an item of taylor's (i.e. a piece of clothing, a piece of paper, her plate after dinner, her rubberbands or headbands, ANYTHING of hers) lying around. i pick it up and say "i claim" and i get to take one of her pokerchips, or dimes or whatever it is in there, i take one out of her jar and put it into mine....

i set her article back down, and if she doesn't put it away immediately, then daddy gets to come along and pick it up and say "i claim" too.... and he TOO gets to take one out of her jar and put it into his....

i haven't yet decided the rewards for whoever has the most "money" or pokerchips or whatever yet.... i think it'll be at the week's end, whoever has the most, gets to keep the money.... if taylor runs out of "money" then she has to do 10 minutes of work to earn 1 pokerchip or dime back. okay maybe 5 minutes. if dad runs out of "money" then he has to buy them back.... and whoever has the most money at the time he must purchase, gets the money.... i'm thinking 1 dollar will buy him 10 dimes, or whatever... you get the point?

i wish i had the stupid thing to connect to my computer so that i could upload the pictures onto my computer from my camera. doh! the pictures of our jars sitting up on our mantle.... well it's cute. the look on their faces when i told them what the decorated jars were for.... HAHAHAH! even better. ever since we moved, i haven't found it, (the camera card reader thing) or some framed pictures, or a gift certificate that i'd received for Christmas (which was for VS).... so unless jason wants to cough up what he hid (or likely threw away), i will wear grandma panties (ones that go halfway up my stomach).... this should bribe him into either 1. "finding" the box of mysterious disappeared belongings or 2. taking me shopping for new underpants, after all he agreed that i should not wear the same underwear i wore while pregnant, AFTER lewie was born, because that's just not sexy. (or it could just mean that i stayed the same size the entire time.... but the pictures kind of prove otherwise. see below.)

this was on my birthday.

i still had 7 weeks to go before i was due. of course i only made it 3 more weeks.... and the wonderful surgery was performed to free my insides from being smashed into each other, and quite possibly becoming MUSH.... yes, i didn't think i could stretch that much, but it's possible (and is likely the reason my belly button is still half hanging out) did that make you gag? cuz i'm not gonna lie, i kinda did (and it's MY belly button; how do you think i feel?)

anyway, i TOTALLY got way off from the original topic.... "i claim".... new game in our household to help relieve me of being this house's SLAVE!!!!

to all my fellow women (well the one's who feel like slaves in their own home).... i suggest you start this game at your house too.... decorate jars.... don't tell them what it's for.... let them decorate it all up and then give them 10 dimes, and THEN spill the beans.... ;)

i guess this picture will have to do... it's a horrible "mobile" picture (from my cell phone.... bad lighting, but that's our mantle and the 3 jars (and that super cool picture above our fireplace? yeah, that's my studly husband shaping surfboards.... how lucky am i? he's such a stud)....

i'm certain our house will be a LOT cleaner these days.... or it'll backfire horribly.... i'll keep you posted....