A SPECIAL TOUCH AT THANKSGIVING.

This year my kids and I added a special touch to our Thanksgiving table.

When I was setting up the table I realized I still had the cloth napkins in the laundry basket (we did a rehearsal Thanksgiving Dinner last week) so the napkins were all wrinkled.

I had to use paper napkins. I hated it because they look so cheap and cheesy especially when you are using expensive china from Europe. I needed to do something to

make those paper napkins look a little more exciting.

That’s when I came up with the idea of making a turkey napkin holder. I grabbed the construction paper and scissors and started cutting. I needed seven so I started making an assembly line.

It was really easy and it probably took me a total of 15 minutes to make all seven.

Here’s what you need:

Construction paper (orange, pink, brown, red, yellow)

Staples and a stapler

Black marker (to draw the eyes)

Check out the picture that I posted along with this blog so you can see what I cut out. It’s really easy and they’re a hit.

My son wrote the name of each person on the turkey. It ended up being a place card as well and then at the end of the party grandma and grandpa took them home as a souvenir. They loved it too.

MONEY! MONEY! HELPS WITH MATH SKILLS.

I have bought my kids “play money” several times but as you know toys now a days don’t last very long in a home. It has nothing to do with the way they are made… it has to do with the way kids play with them, they’ll either break them or get bored because there’s another toy that can replace that toy, and another toy, and another toy. Basically, there are too many!

Anyway, my kids love to play “store”, the other day they were playing store and they were pretending to have invisible money. I saw that and decided to surprise them.

I went and got some construction paper and made some play money for them. It was nothing fancy. (I knew it would end up in the garbage after they were done playing “store”. The point was for them to have fun.) I cut out some rectangles and wrote the numbers on the bills. I used different colors too.

They loved it!

Again it wasn’t fancy but it’s ok, it served its purpose and it didn’t cost me any money! Plus the kids had a blast playing with it.

Playing with play money will help kids master basic math skills. It helps kids learn how to count, add and subtract. They learn about the different denominations of paper bills, as well as how to use these to make purchases.

I didn't make coins... but you can also use the construction paper to make them.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE COSTUME

Nicole wanted to be strawberry shortcake. The costumes I saw on the magazines were very cute but Nicole would freeze. That’s the problem with the majority of the costumes; they are cute but not really made for October weather. And if you are wearing a coat then what’s the purpose of having a costume on if no one can see it?!

I decided to make Nicole’s costume just like we did Jerry’s. I printed a picture of Strawberry shortcake and took it with me to the store to buy the materials.

And, let me point out… I am not a seamstress!!!

Figure out how much fabric to buy. I didn’t measure… I just guessed! Went to Joanne Fabrics and looked through the entire store for any fabric that had strawberries on it. I also bought a package of ½” wide elastic.

I had never made a skirt before!

Here’s what I did:

1- Fold the fabric short end to short end (unfinished end to unfinished end) with right sides together. I sewed them together. This seam goes down the back of the skirt.

2- Make the elastic waistband casing. Turn down the top edge of your skirt 1” and sew. (Do the same thing to the bottom edge of the skirt and sew.) Don’t forget to leave a 1” opening at the back seam to insert the elastic through.

3- Stretch the elastic and measure the waist. Cut it, and then attach a safety pin to the end of it. Thread the elastic through the waistband casing. Overlap the ends and then sew them together. Sew the opening in the casing shut.

The skirt was done… now I needed to do the shirt. Again I had never made a shirt before. Nicole is always cold when we go trick-or-treating so I decided to use both the polyester fleece for the main part of the shirt and for the arms I used the same material as the skirt.

So here’s what I did:

1- I went in Nicole’s closet and picked a shirt that fit her to use as my cutout pattern.

2- I folded the fabric in two pieces. Then I traced the shirt and then cut out the pattern piece. (I traced the sleeves separate then the chest and back because I used two different types of fabric)

3- Sew the chest and the back parts together. I used my sewing machine. When you sew make sure you do it inside out so you don’t see the sewing lines after.

4- Sew the arms to the shirt (I can’t really explain to you how I did it because I had to keep trying until I got it right. I got it wrong a couple of times.) (Next time I’ll do a video clip so you can see me doing it.)

5- Hem the bottom of the shirt.

6- I used elastic to make cuffs on her sleeves.

Once I finished the skirt and shirt I decided to add a strawberry to the shirt so it wouldn't look so plain.

I made the hat the same way that I made Jerry's Mario hat.

HOW TO MAKE A MARIO HAT

Daddy and I decided we were going to make the kids costumes this year. Lil’ Jerry wanted to be Mario from Super Mario Brothers.

Daddy had the brilliant idea to go to the Salvation Army to look for the pants and shirt. There we found blue jean overalls and a red turtleneck. It all cost about 5 bucks.

Then we went to Joanne Fabrics and bought red polyester fleece. Daddy also got a white wood circle and traced an “M” on it, which he glued to the hat.

Daddy cut out the hat and I sewed it with my sewing machine. Here’s how we made the hat:

Fold the fleece in half so that you are cutting out two pieces at a time. My husband used the lid from a 5-gallon pail to trace a circle on the fabric.

Cut out the two circles and keep the corner that is left over - this is going to be the bill of the cap.

Round off the corner and cut off the thin ends.

On one of the rounds, trace a smaller circle. It should have about a 4.5″ diameter. This is going to be the head hole. It seems small, but fleece is stretchy.

These are all the parts cut out.

Sew the two rounds together about 1/2″ from the outer edge. Sew along the outer edge of the bill.

Turn both pieces inside out.

Place the open edges of the bill along the edge of the small circle and stitch all 3 layers together. 


ONLY MY NICOLE!

Do you remember your parents telling you stories about the old days when teeth were extracted by pliers… well my Nicole must have thought that was a good idea because today she ended up with pliers in her mouth...not for her teeth though!

Before I explain what happened let me ask you this: “Did your kid ever get his/her lip stuck in a marker?” Yup, “their lip stuck in a marker? Probably not right?

Well, my Nicole did! She was watching Toy Story with her brother and sister. Somehow she ended up with her lip stuck in a ZhuZhu Pets marker.

Her dad and I were going through the black Friday fliers looking for deals when Nicole all of a sudden comes crying holding a marker in her mouth… we were looking at her with a big question mark and wondering why she was crying. That’s when I noticed that her lip was stuck in the marker.

“ARE YOU FOR REAL?” I said. REALLY???

“How did you do that Nicole?” we asked.

My husband had to get a needle nose pliers and another set of pliers to get the lip out of the marker.

Once we took out her lip from the marker I just couldn’t stop laughing because - how do you get a lip stuck in a marker?! ONLY MY NICOLE!

Has your kid ever done anything like this?

USE THEM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

When the silly bandz craze started the first thing I thought was: “Why didn’t I come up with this... it’s just an elastic band.” Kids were going nuts over them, you couldn’t find them anywhere because stores couldn’t keep up with the demand.

My kids thought they were cool and because their friends had silly bandz they wanted to have silly bandz too. I checked them out and found them at the dollar store.

I decided to use the silly bandz to my advantage… as a reward system. I told my kids that they would earn a silly band for good behavior and that they would lose one every time they did something bad.

It worked! My kids were too funny. Nicole and Jerry were competing with each other to see who would end up with more silly bandz. They even started asking us to give them chores, like washing dishes and cleaning so they could win a silly band. My daughter Nicole has almost 200 silly bandz.

The silly band reward system lasted about 3 months.

(Now… apparently grown ups are using them to flirt in bars (as a pick up line.) The NY Daily News has an interesting article on that.)

Do you use a reward system? What is it?

TRY EXPLAINING IT TO A 3-YEAR-OLD

“Break a leg” is an idiom in theatre, which means “good luck”. It is typically said to actors and musicians before they go out onto stage to perform. The expression reflects a theatrical superstition in which wishing a person “good luck” is considered bad luck.

Well, try explaining that to a 3-year-old!!!

I went and auditioned for a show this week and when I left home to go to the audition my husband wished good luck by saying: “Break a leg.” Well, apparently, as soon as I left the house 3-year-old Isabella gave daddy a hard time.

“Daddy, you gotta tell Mommy sorry." daddy asked why. She said: "Cause you told her to break a leg. That's not nice!"

Daddy explained to Isabella and her brother and sister what "break a leg" means, but Isabella was not satisfied with the explanation.

Can you imagine what was going through her head.

HAVING FUN WITH DOUGH...

You must try this project, it's so much fun. My kids had a blast and I did too.

Yes it is a little messy but who cares. It’s fun and it’s flour, you can easily clean it up. I would recommend doing it in the kitchen though.

I discovered this project because my little man brought home a book called “Salt Dough Fun.” The book is so cool. Besides teaching you how to make the salt dough it teaches you how to shape the dough into different animals.

I’ll write up the recipe for you and then just let your imagination go wild. I made a hamburger and a pizza. I was really into the dough. LOL. Little Jerry challenged his creativity; he made a Puffle from Club Penguin. Kids loved this project.

You try it and share your experience on my blog.

Things You'll Need:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour

• 1 c. salt

• 3/4 c. water

• Mixing Bowls

• Acrylic Paints

Instructions

Step 1
-Mix flour with salt and water in a deep bowl.

Step 2
-Knead it until it's doughy.

Step 3
-Make shapes by hand.

Step 4-Dry the objects in the oven at 200 degrees F for about 10 minutes.

Step 5-Paint them.

QUICK, EASY AND AFFORDABLE DINNER.

Who doesn’t like spaghetti and meatballs? My kids love it.

Don’t even say you can’t cook. I met a mom last week who said she can’t cook, she said she doesn’t know how to.

It doesn’t get easier than spaghetti and meatballs.

I buy them at BJ’s. They come in a frozen bag fully cooked and you get about 160 meatballs. It costs about $14 a bag. My kids eat about 6 meatballs each.

All you have to do is put some red sauce in a pan and put he meatballs inside. Let them absorb the sauce for about 10 minutes.

In a separate pan, I cook pasta.

About 15 minutes later it’s done. Grab a plate, scoop out some pasta and plop the meatballs on top. There you go!

Kids love it!

What do you think?

ARE YOU RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS?

If you are running out of things to do with your kids this summer check out this book: “501 TV Free Activities for Kids.” by Di Hodges. I got it from the library but I saw it at Barnes and Noble last week for $5.50.

The book has every activity that you can imagine. From cooking to playing outside, there are lots of party, family and group games. Remember playing “Humpty Dumpty” when you were a kid? It’s in the book, pretty cool.

The first activity that my kids and I chose from this book was the “Finger Puppets”.

What You Need:

-Old Gloves

-Permanent felt pens

-Strong Glue

-Wool, sequins, small buttons, other decorations

-Shoe box

What To Do:

Cut off the fingers of a pair of gloves (I found a pair in my garage that I thought were old, until daddy saw them. LOL. Oops.) Use the felt pens to draw faces or glue on small buttons or sequins for facial features. Make beards with cotton wool.

We had lots of fun with the details. My kids wanted to make aprons.

Once you are done you can get a cereal box or a shoe box and perform with the puppets. Cut out a window near the top for the puppets to perform in. Have your children decorate the puppet theatre too.

It’s lots of fun. Check out our puppets. Don't they look cute?

MOMMY I GOT A BUG IN MY EYE!

Since my girls are already on vacation from school I decided to bring them to their brothers Morning Program at his school. On our way back we stopped at the park and the girls were having a blast until…

Nicole started panicking and screaming that there was a bug in her eye. I thought it was probably nothing because Nicole tends to exaggerate a little.

OH MY GOD!!! When I looked at her eye, there was this huge green bug in the corner of her eye. I immediately tried to take it out but because Nicole kept closing her eye, the bug just kept getting in further.

Nicole kept screaming really loud. I had no tissues, no water, nothing with me. I felt helpless. I looked around to see if there was anyone near their house so I could get help but there was no one around. So I grabbed her in my arms and started running home…(Must I remind you- I also had my 3-year old- Isabella. I told her to run as fast as she could and follow mommy.)

I couldn’t breathe when I got to my house. I opened the door still with Nicole in my arms and rushed to the bathroom where I immediately started to splash water into Nicole’s eye. It wasn’t working. So then I went and got a Q-tip and gently tried to bring the bug up but it wasn’t working either. The freaking bug went under her lower eyelid to the point I couldn’t see it anymore.

OH CRAP!

I got the girls in the car and rushed to the doctor. I called them on my way to tell them Nicole had a bug in her eye. When I got there they immediately took us in the room but then… we waited… and waited…. and waited. I asked a nurse walking by the room if she could get the doctor because my daughter had a bug in her eye and I was afraid it was causing harm and getting deeper. That didn’t really make a difference. We were still waiting… There was no urgency from their part!

Finally about 15 minutes later, the doctor came in and when I told her Nicole had a bug in her eye she was great. When the doctor lifted her lower eyelid… there it was… big ugly green bug.

The doctor and her nurse laid Nicole on the bed and the doctor gently grabbed a big Q-tip and water and got the bug out. She checked the eye and told us to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn’t get infected.

Ok now I can breathe and…. I think I’ll have a panic attack later!!! All I wanted was to have a fun morning by bringing the girls to my son’s morning program.

Oh well, I’m thankful we had a happy ending and Nicole is happy again and doing great.

Do you have any bug stories you want to share?

(If you are wondering what's next to the bug, it's an orzo noodle, it's so you can see how big it was.)

MOMMY YOUR CUPCAKES ARE THE BEST!

Today at my daughter Nicole’s school the teachers decided to celebrate summer birthdays. Nicole was thrilled with the idea. (I think it’s a great idea and all teachers should do it)

Her brother and sister always get to celebrate with their friends at school, but Nicole’s birthday is in August. Jerry’s birthday is in January and Isabella is a September baby.

I asked Nicole yesterday what she wanted to bring to school to celebrate her birthday and she said cupcakes. I asked her if she wanted us to buy them or if she wanted us to make them. She said:

“Let’s make them together mommy.”

After baseball we asked daddy to go to the store and buy a box of cake mix and two containers of white frosting. The plan was for us to make the cupcakes after dinner.

Well…Nicole didn’t make it that far. She fell asleep during dinner. She was beat. Her baseball game just took all the energy out of her.

Daddy put the kids in bed and I made the cupcakes.

I like the white cake mix with rainbow colors inside. Makes the cupcakes more festive. Plus kids like finding the little pebbles inside the cupcakes. I divided the white frosting into 5 containers and added color mix to each one. I made yellow, pink, blue, green and orange and I topped them off with rainbow sprinkles. (My kids love sprinkles)

In the morning, when Nicole saw the cupcakes she had such a big smile, she was so happy. She said:

“Thank you mommy, you are the best!” (I hope she still thinks that when she’s 13)

She was very protective of her cupcakes. Even when I was driving her to school she kept telling me to be careful because of the cupcakes. She didn’t want anything happening to those cupcakes.

She also asked me how many teachers were in the building and if there were enough cupcakes for everyone. I told her mommy made extra cupcakes for the teachers and Mr. C as well (Mr. C is the director of the school). When we got to school she was telling everyone she had cupcakes. She was very excited and proud of her cupcakes.

Well, apparently, when Mr. C told her he was going to eat all the cupcakes (of course he was joking with her) the teachers say Nicole got really protective of the cupcakes. She kept hugging the platter to make sure the cupcakes were safe from Mr. C.

When I picked her up from school she was walking around with 4 cupcakes on a plate. I was surprised there were 4 cupcakes left because those were the extra cupcakes I had made for the teachers.

“Look mommy I got 4 left! I had to keep them away from Mr. C. He said he wanted to eat all of them. I had to protect them away from him.”

Too funny!!! All day she thought Mr. C was going to eat all of her cupcakes and the funny part, the teachers told me Nicole asked a teacher if she wanted a cupcake, and while Nicole was asking the teacher if she wanted the cupcake, she was licking the frosting off the cupcake that she was offering. Too funny…. Of course, Nicole ended up eating the cupcake herself. (Maybe that’s what she had in mind in the first place. LOL)

(silly girl)

And… she didn’t even offer a cupcake to Ms. Mourice, who is her favorite teacher. I was shocked. Wow, she was really protecting her cupcakes. (This was unlike Nicole because she is always so kind and caring)

When we got home Nicole said:

“Mommy I have a bellyache. I think I ate a lot of cupcakes. Mommy your cupcakes are the best!” (Too sweet)

MOMMY YOU ARE ALWAYS ON THE PHONE!

Being a mom and being on the phone is not a good way to multitask!

One day my 7 year-old brought me a surprise from school, something he had made for me. He had it inside a paper bag that he had designed. The paper bag caught my attention because I saw something on it and couldn’t understand why he drew that.

On that paper bag he drew a heart, a picture of me, a telephone and wrote a message:

“I love you mommy. You are the best.”

It was so sweet but I didn’t get the connection with the phone?! So I asked him:

“Why the phone?”

He replied:

“Mommy I drew the phone because you are always on the phone!”

Wow! That moment was a reality check! It was like a wake up call. I knew I was spending too much time working. But I never thought my kids would notice that.

Since then I have left my job. I wanted to spend more time with my family. Some weeks I would work 45 to 50 hours and then after getting home my boss would call all the time. I would either be getting ready for dinner or putting the kids in bed. I didn’t have the guts to tell my boss to wait till the next morning when I was back at work.

My New Year's resolution was to spend more time with my family and that’s what I am doing. I have made a deal with myself. When my children and hubby are home I will not answer my cell phone or even get on the computer to check email or facebook. I have also asked my hubby to do the same. It’s really hard sometimes just because of the world we live in but you have to keep reminding yourself of what’s more important in your life.

In my life there is nothing more important than my little family.

I found this interesting article a couple days ago in the New Jersey Real Time News about adults being on the phone too much and how it affects children. It’s a great article and I recommend you read it because we are so busy with our everyday lives we don’t even realize that such an insignificant thing like being on the phone can cause so much damage for our little people.

"Too much cell phone use by adults can lead to problems for kids”

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/too_much_cell_phone_use_by_adu.html

How many hours are you on the phone, or working from home?

DO YOU WANT TO BOND WITH YOUR FAMILY? TAKE A ROAD TRIP!

If you haven’t seen the movie “Vacation” with Chevy Chase, you must rent it! It was out in 1983. It’s a funny movie that follows the Griswold family on a road trip. I have seen it about 6 times and it never gets old.

This year, I decided my family and I needed to do something crazy and fun that would allow us to bond, spend quality time together and not break the bank!!! So I told my husband that for Spring Break I wanted our family to drive to Florida. He embraced the idea with excitement (we like to do crazy things with the kids- sometimes I think we are the “Griswold family”)

We started to plan our road trip. It was funny seeing the reactions on our friends faces when we told them we were driving our minivan to Florida with the 3 kids. Most people said we were nuts and would end up turning back half way… some said I would be the one saying: “Are we there yet?” and then we had those people that told us they did that as a child and still remember the experience as if it were today. That’s what I wanted: that memory!

Once we decided what day we were leaving, we put together a daily schedule. We mapped it out so that we would get the most out of the week.

DRIVING SCHEDULE:

Friday- Leave home at 8 p.m.

Saturday- Arrive in NC- go to Carowinds Theme Park- Stay at Hyatt Hotel

Sunday- Arrive in Florida- Stay at Royal Plaza hotel- Go to Downtown Disney

Monday- Go to MGM Studios in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night

Tuesday- Go to Universal Studios

Wednesday- Go to Universal Islands of Adventure

Thursday- Go to Animal Kingdom in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night

Friday- Go to Sea World- Leave Florida and start driving back home

Saturday- Arrive in Williamsburg, Virginia – go to Bush Gardens- Stay at The Historic Powhatan Resort

Sunday- Drive all the way home

Very ambitious isn’t it?!

We spent lots of nights on the computer looking for hotels. My hubby did an amazing job booking the hotels. The rooms were huge and the prices were very affordable. He booked them through Expedia.

INSIDE OUR MINIVAN:

We packed everything and anything that we thought we might need. We bought a big cooler and inside it we had salami, turkey, ham, cheese, and bread to make sandwiches enough for lunch for the week. We had a pack of cheese sticks. We had diet soda for daddy, water for mommy and juice boxes for the kids and Yohoo boxes. We had snacks: cookies, chips, chocolate covered blueberries, M&M’s, fruit, gum for mom & dad and gumballs for the kids.

In a big paper bag I packed plenty of coloring books, crayons for each kid, paper to write on and notebooks. We had books for the 7-year-old to read as well as LeapFrog Tag reading books and the pen for the 5 and 3 year-old. We also packed their DS games and the kids packed their own stuffed animals and the toys they wanted to bring along.

Our minivan does not have a TV so we packed our small flat screen TV and attached a small DVD player to it. We packed lots of movies.

On the IPOD daddy loaded lots of kids songs and for mommy and daddy we had comedy shows and lots of music. Daddy also loaded on the IPOD music themes from old TV Shows, which made for a cool guessing game and brought back cool memories of those old TV Shows- and since I grew up in Portugal and missed a lot of those 80 shows my husband told me all about them while we were driving. Daddy also downloaded the Harry Potter audio books.

We had a pillow and a blanket for each kid. In the trunk we had the suitcases with our clothes and a stroller.

Lots of wipes, tissues, napkins and 4 trash bags.

It was a blast!!! My husband and I took turns driving. When one would get tired the other would take over. The comedy shows were a great entertainment as well as the Harry Potter audio books.

We had a very ambitious schedule but we did everything we had planned. It was awesome! The kids had a blast and were so well behaved in the car. No one was screaming or crying. They were very happy.

The driving wasn’t bad at all…It was neat seeing all the different billboards and signs along the way as well as the different speed limits. At one point it went from 55 to 75 so weird.

The best part of the trip though… The bonding. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. It was precious and I would do it all over again.

I WANT MORE DRUMSTICKS PLEASE!!!

If you are like most parents, I’m sure you’ve had one of those days where you wish you had a maid because you either hate cooking, or you are just running out of ideas on what to make, or you simply can’t afford to spend a lot of money on food.

On today’s blog I want to share what I am making for dinner tonight. It’s a great deal, a great meal and a time saver. On top of it my kids LOVE IT!!!!

I went to the grocery store and bought a pack of 24 drumsticks for $10.36. (They were 99 cents a pound) They come in pouches with 4 drumsticks in each. I have a family of 5 so I usually use 2 pouches for each meal and I freeze the remaining pouches.

I marinate the drumsticks in the morning (sometimes with barbeque sauce, other times with teriyaki sauce… you can use whatever you like, really. I leave them in the fridge so they can soak up the flavors). When it’s time for dinner I boil them until I see no pink. I take them out of the pan and marinate them again (I like the meat with flavor) I turn the grill on and put them on the grill. (I used to cook them only on the grill but because they are so thick they would take forever to cook and they would burn… boiling them for a couple of minutes makes it go a lot faster, the meat comes out tender and juicy.)

While the chicken is on the grill I make french-fries (sometimes I make mashed potatoes or rice) and boil some veggies to go along.

In about 30 minutes we are all eating dinner, the kids love it… and it costs about 5 to 6 bucks to make.

Do you have a quick, affordable, and yummy meal you want to share?

YOU BETTER LOVE THOSE SKECHERS!!!

Everyday for two weeks my daughter Nicole kept asking me if I could buy her a pair of skechers. (Nicole is my middle child and she's such a good kid.) As a reward for her great behavior I promised to buy her a pair of skechers. I had no idea what they looked like or how much they would cost.

I made it a mommy daughter shopping day. I took her to JC Penny (because they always have buy one get one for 88 cents so I was hoping I could knock two bird with one stone) Nicole had good taste, they were unique, pink with designs and a little rose hanging on them, they were very stylish… until I say the price tag!!! 40-dollars!!!. I immediately thought “Oh man my husband is going to flip out when he sees the bill.” (We never splurge with anything that we buy because we just can't afford it with the 3 kids.) I don't even spend that much on my shoes. I tried to convince her to get a cheaper pair for 12 bucks but there was no way, no how. Her mind was made up. After 30 minutes I gave up, I couldn’t get over the price, but I had made her a promise. When I got in the car I asked her if the reason why she wanted those is because her friends at school have the same kind. She said "NO, I saw them on TV." Oh did I feel like a sucker.

And yup, daddy did freak out when he saw the bill.

Funny thing though, and the point that I want to make with this blog about the skechers- today when I dropped her off at school and the Director greeted her, he looked down at her skechers and said: "There you go Nicole, that's an easy way not to have your shoes untied" I quickly thought: “Oh no, he thinks I took the shoe laces off!!!” I quickly replied: "Mr. C don’t you know they are skechers, they don’t have shoe laces!"

Ok besides them being wicked expensive and giving my husband almost a heart attack now the Director thinks I took the shoe laces off.

I just can't win!