Okay, that helped a bit. As soon as I posted my last entry I grabbed my Harry Potter towel (no, really) and ran to the bathroom. I had a quick shower and finished it off with a blast of cold water to try to wake myself up a bit more. I think it worked, though I’m going to make my second coffee soon. George has gone to do something for a couple of hours with a friend so time should pass quickly for a little while between making sure I post on time, commenting on other blogs, taking care of the kids, and all the other daily stuff. I’m trying not to sit here too long in between posts because I know I’ll be doing that a lot tonight.

Okay time for that coffee then I’ll have to get my blowdryer before my hair dries funny. Too bad I’m not intending to get a picture of myself with my hair wrapped up in a little towel. 🙂

Also, greetings to Jim, my Blogathon monitor!

I explained in four-year-old terms how I am writing on my blog all day today and tonight to help raise money for refugees who have no homes or family or belongings. Then I asked her if she had an idea for something I could write on my next post.

She’d like to contribute by saying that she is sad for the refugees and that we are very lucky because we have a home, lots of food, and she has lots of toys and movies.

Hopefully she can remember all that when she’s complaining that she doesn’t have anything to play with or that we have “nothing to eat”!

Yesterday, George took Hayley over to our friends’ house to go swimming in their pool. Unfortunately, they were leaving right at the time Breanna needs her nap. I was momentarily tempted to go anyway but I know what happens when she doesn’t nap – she freaks out and falls asleep at 5 or 6 for a few minutes, gets really cranky, and then she gets so overtired that her night time sleep is crap. So, in order to be responsible, I stayed home.

When she woke up an hour later, it was really hot in here even with the A/C blasting. We shared a popsicle to cool off a bit.

That was only a temporary relief though, so then I took one of our big Rubbermaid containers, dumped all the toys into another toy box, and filled it halfway with cool water. I carried it out onto the balcony, coated Breanna with sunscreen, and voila, apartment-sized toddler swimming pool.

Sometimes it just takes a bit of creativity when you live in an apartment, you know? And even when Hayley’s here I could still do it and they could at least play in it with cups since they can’t both fit in it together.

And me? Well, I stuck my feet in for a bit, and then I sat and enjoyed the breeze like the dork I am:

Yay, wireless.

(Psst, I’d love if my Blogathon monitor would say hi so I know who you are!)

I’ve already given some thought to what I’ll do tonight in the later hours. After George goes to bed I’m on my own to keep myself awake. I can’t let myself get too comfortable or I risk falling asleep, so I’ll stick with using my desktop since my office chair is okay but not super cushy, or I’ll take my laptop over to the dining room table. That gives me the bonus of a hard chair plus the A/C blowing straight at me.

I’m also going to make myself a coffee sometime in the wee hours, and I’m going to either get George to pick me up some chocolate later or I’ll go get some myself (I can walk to the store and back in 15 minutes so no worries about missing a post!). I’ve also debated putting the Harry Potter movies on which will be entertaining.

If you’re also ‘thonning, how are you going to force yourself to stay awake tonight?

Yawn. Good morning! I’m up. Actually, here’s Murphy’s Law for you – some days both kids sleep in a bit and let ME sleep until 8:30. This morning they both woke me up a little before 7:30. It may be a long 24 hours!

Still, I’m here with my cup of coffee and a bit of breakfast and I’m ready to go!

Right. So the Blogathon starts on Saturday morning (at 9 am my time, which is Eastern time, Canada) and I suddenly realized I have NO idea what to post about. I’ve been having trouble posting regularly here some days, how am I going to post every half hour for 24 hours straight?

Good thing I at least made out our grocery list which now includes coffee and chocolate. That’s better than nothing.

That being said though, I am now opening up the opportunity to make this really interactive. I may occasionally post something about my chosen charity (the UNHCR, that is) but beyond that, what would you like me to write/post about? This is a chance to ask me questions or request photos of things you would like to see. Keep in mind that I reserve the right to refuse to answer questions if they’re too uncomfortable, and if you’re making a photo post request, remember I have to be here to post every half hour without fail so it can’t be something too far from home. Photos of stuff you might find indoors would be best.

In the meantime, as you may know, I write for PittWatch, a Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie fansite, and I mentioned the Blogathon over there as well. As a result, considering it’s a fairly popular site, I am currently extremely grateful to have over $1200 in pledges. Seriously. However, if you’d also like to sponsor me (even a dollar is fine and it never comes to me in any circumstance, always directly to the UNHCR), you can do so here. And if not, please keep me company when you can by leaving comments and sending emails. They will be much appreciated!

In the meantime, ask and request away and I’ll file them away for use during the Blogathon!

Fun! A simple three-step tutorial for using photoshop to turn your family photos into a personalized colouring book for your kids!

I’ve done the water in two pots transferred with a ladle thing on the balcony and Hayley is a big fan of playing in the sink, but I love this idea for setting up a water play area for people like myself who don’t have a yard.

1. I am getting the redesign bug again and have uploaded several new themes to play with so if you come by and everything looks all crazy, don’t panic. This is a good time to be reading me via feed reader so you don’t have to see any explosions.
2. A kind, wonderful, amazing reader sent me – no kidding – a laptop that she no longer used. Tonight, a fairly hot and humid night, I am not sitting in my corner at my desk, sweating. Instead I am sitting directly in front of the air conditioner that sits over the dining room table and I am quite comfortable. Laptops are the bomb. I still can not express enough thanks to the wishes-to-be-anonymous person who actually gifted me with this. Because I am an enormous DORK, my shiny black laptop is called Severus Snape. No, seriously.
   
3. I am seriously considering re-reading the last Harry Potter just because I read it too quickly.
4. I wrote up a book review on my review site that you should check out if you are a parent with an alienated relationship with your older teen/adult child.
5. It is amazing the weird and funny stuff that you can find on the Internet, but it has been a long time since I have been so in awe of something as I was when I saw the 1500 Filipino prisoners re-enacting the dance sequence to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Holy crap it is awesome.

I believe that is all.

After much anticipation, I spent the vast majority of my weekend reading the last – very last, sniff – Harry Potter book. Although I’m sad that the series has come to an end, I totally loved the book and was very satisfied with how JK Rowling wrapped everything up. I was pretty tired today because I was up late on Saturday night reading and then last night I had to stop reading at 3:30 am or risk falling asleep in mid-sentence. I only had a hundred pages to go but there was no way I could hold out so I finished them today.

Now I’m debating how long I should wait to re-read it. I’m sure I read it a bit too fast (though I find that I’m not as fast a reader as I used to be, likely due to having kids!) and missed stuff.

Now I have to figure out what the hell I’m going to read now.