Pages

Thursday, March 31, 2011

let the games begin

I have a new challenge for myself, besides getting my house in tip top shape and keeping it that way of course.  I've been known to start a project here and there never to finish it.  My weakness is knitting, but I have other crafts that have been lost in the depths of my closet too.  Please excuse the lack of sheets on the bed, I promise we do not sleep without sheets.  This is a pet peeve of mine, I see people on tv without sheets and I'm floored.  I'm washing the bedding for the record.
This should be a  pair of these once completed.

So here's how it works, in writing to hold myself accountable.  I'll complete one unfinished project a week until the end of the year. 
A quilt I started YEARS ago, I would like to finish it for my niece now.

 There are projects that I have going that are definitely going to take more than a week to finish, I'll work on these at the end of the week if I have time left once I've finished the weekly project.  
Also started years ago, for my Brother and Sister in law's wedding present.  They now have a 4 year old, maybe if I finish the quilt above for her it will make up for them never receiving this.

I'm not going to limit myself and say I won't start anything new, because well frankly that isn't going to happen.  
Socks that I told my neighbor I'd make into leg warmers months and months ago.

I see things every day I want to make.  I start something new once a week but the plan is to actually finish it once I start.
This one isn't entirely my fault, I was waiting to get different needles for my sewing machine.  I dug through the closet today and found what I needed, so maybe it is entirely my fault.  I had the great idea to make Cohen some blankies so I wouldn't have to pay 40 bucks for one online.  I instead paid 60 bucks for material.

I'm sure there will be things along the way that I don't want to finish.  It happens, things don't turn out the way I want or my mood changes, hello it's been years since I've started some of these things, and I just don't like it anymore.  I will rip it out or toss it, decisions will be made.  Either way no more unfinished whatnots taunting me.
All I have left to do is weave in the ends and make a pom pom, really there is no excuse that it isn't finished.  Of course I do also have to make one for my niece once this one is done.

It is such a waste to have so many things unfinished, a waste of materials and a waste of what could be.  I would love to have all these things around my house, and the houses of those who I'm making them for.  However this isn't the reason for creating the challenge, no the real reason is I want my closet back to some sort of normalcy.  It's awful.  I can't even describe how bad it is and I'm too embarrassed to put up a picture.
Just one of many baby blankets I have in the works.

So there you have it.  The who, what, when, where, why, and how of it all.  I hope you enjoyed my parade of failure.  This isn't all of it, this isn't even half of it, hell I haven't even scratched the surface.  I can assure you this though, the next time you see these items, you'll be looking at them in their completed form.  I mean if I don't finish I won't be putting up a picture, do you really think I'm going to do another parade of failure?  So of course if you see them again they will be completed otherwise you won't be seeing them.  And so it begins.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

hello my name is grill master

Blog world meet our new grill...

meet the hub's ass...

meet the chops and veggies we christened aforementioned grill with...

meet our dentist...
hey you gotta use who's in the network  

meet the best hubs and son a gal could ask for...

milestone monday

Or rather memory Tuesday as is should really be called today.  Slacker alert, right here.  Anyway even though it's a day late I'm still posting it this week, that should count for something shouldn't it.  And while we're on the topic of slacking don't ask about last week's Project Simplify.  It's somewhat done.  

So enough rambling.  The kid and the memories that's why we're here right?  You may remember how I started wondering if the kid was switched at birth back when he decided to fall asleep during Tabatha, my choice of reality tv at the time.   I said it then and I'll say it again, no child of mine could pass out when trash reality is on the tube.  I really started questioning his genetics, you would too.  Well yesterday he proved me wrong.  We had some errands to run and even though I'm shredding it up for 30 days I decided to finally cave to my desire of an overpriced cupcake.  The place opened up a couple months ago and I have been wanting to scarf down check out their cupcakes ever since.  We walk in, wait patiently, ok not so patiently behind the folks who walked in before us and can't decide what they want.  Come on people get with the program.  So after a few we decide screw them, I mean we decide that it won't be too terribly rude to walk around them and hop up to the counter.  This is where I knew Cohen was all mine.  His face lit up, a smile formed ear to ear I tell you, upon seeing the cupcakes.  God I love that kid.  He may not have gotten the reality gene but he definitely inherited the sugar gene from me.  We got 4 to go, 2 for me and 2 for the hubs, turns out at this moment Jody only gets 1.  Cobra and I took out two yesterday and finished another off today after lunch.  What can I say we love our sweets.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

planes and cars

4 down 26 to go...

Now that I got that over with we can get on to more important things.  I've managed to pick up the Organized Simplicity book again.  I'm really loving it.  So far we've covered finances, time, and family purpose statement.  Do you guys have a family purpose statement or ever tried to write one?  I've heard of this idea before and loved it ever since, but I just don't know what ours would consist of.  I really don't know what our purpose is other than to make it through life in one piece.  A day that is finished with fewer than 3 bruises, less than 2 broken objects, and one in which a path remains to each of the bedrooms is a good day in this house...seriously.  I know the purpose statement is bigger than that but I still don't know what ours is.  This is something I really want to wrangle the hubs into figuring out with me.  I want focus, I want to be able to instill our purpose into Cohen, I want us to move toward one common goal.  Back to the book, so I've just started the section in which you get your house cleaned out in 10 days.  I think I'm going to start this....sometime.  I would love to start it tomorrow, but since I have procrastinated on this week's project simplify of getting the kid's stuff in control, I need to do that.  I don't know we'll see.

Monday, after I looked at this week's hot spot, I went into the little guy's room and stood in front of the open closet dreading every minute that it would take to clean it out.  Actually I just did this not to long ago so it's not too bad, it's just that while we have days where the temp reaches 80 we also have cold days too, so I don't really know what to put up and what to keep out right now.  I mean if I put it up I'm saying we're done with this because chances are he's not going to fit into it this fall.  I want to get every possible bit of use out of his clothing, yeah I'm cheap like that.  So to the point, while I was standing there moping about what was to come I found a toy I had been storing in the back until Cohen was old enough to play with it.
My grandmother used to make stuff with yarn and canvas for all of us.  I don't even know what it is called, but we all got tons of it, and there were a lot of us, her kids and grand kids and I can only imagine her friends and neighbors received it as well.  I had an entire house full of furniture for my barbie dolls.  Oh yes my barbies had custom furniture, right down to the side table and lamp.  How many of you can say that?  I still have it by the way, in my attic.  Organized Simplicity would tell me to get rid of it, but I can't, I might have a girl some day and her barbies will then rock the customized furniture.  So the above toy is one I asked for.  It was one of the last things I remember her making me.  It's just the niftiest thing and I knew if I had a boy one day I wanted him to have one.  So I asked, she gladly obliged, and I have saved it all these years.
So Monday I pulled it out, and even though he's still a bit young to really play with it, the two of us sat on the living room floor and played.  Well I played he just kept putting the cars back in the box.  As I sat and played I realized just how glad I am that I asked for it, that Cohen will have something that my grandmother, his great grandmother made.

Monday, March 21, 2011

milestone monday

This time it's all about me.  What possible milestone could I have achieved you ask.  No I didn't take my first steps.  I started the 30 day shred.  I actually started yesterday...ok ok I started Friday but between the fact that it kicked my ass from the start and Cohen not participating, I don't know why I thought I would be able to get a workout in while he was awake, I gave up after only a measly 8 minutes...this included the warm up.  I know sad right?  We were pretty busy Saturday, what with a birthday party, a family nap time, and dinner out followed by ice cream, so I didn't get around to it.  We were pretty busy yesterday but I knew I would always be busy so I made the time.

The hubs actually did it with me, I don't know which of us sucked more, all I know is we both sucked pretty bad.  He texted me around lunch with "I'm sore".  I love it.  My reply, "Me too".  As I sit here I am sweating from today's workout.  I still sucked not quite as bad but pretty close.  2 down 28 to go.

Friday, March 18, 2011

whoop whoop

One of our dogs died last Sunday.  Yeah I know what a depressing way to start a post right.  Anyway so because of this it left our lab up in the fence by his lonesome self.  We decided it was time to make him an indoor/outdoor dog.  As of today he has taken a liking to sleeping in our bathroom for some reason.  I'm almost to the point of this story, here it goes...so as I sit down to start writing I hear the hubs yelling "oh no, no, no, no, no, no.  you have to get out".  He had gone into take a shower and left Buckwheat in the bathroom with him and apparently Buckwheat has noticed that he's a bit smelly, we've been saying this all week he must have finally caught on.  So after typing this out I realize it's not going to be as funny to anyone reading it as it was to me sitting here listening to it, oh well.

Now let's get this party started. whoop whoop.  First off let me say that I don't think I'm the only one who put this week's hot spot off for as long as they possibly could.  There are 77 people that have already posted.  Last week I came in at 115.  Now I know that I haven't yet posted so I could very well be around or even after 115 again, but I'm posting later than last week  but yet possibly coming in earlier in the numbers so...there.  Why does it make me feel better to rationalize that it is ok that I procrastinated cause all the cool kids did too?

I know you can't see it here but under all that mess you will find my new copy of Organized Simply.  I brought it in here when I was working on our budget earlier this week.
Ok seriously this is why I procrastinated...
I know it doesn't look like a whole lot here.
But it turned into this...
What that doesn't look like much how about this then...
That's right an entire bag of shreds.  I had to dump my shredder three times and continue to cram it down into the bag just to make it all fit.
Hey there's the book!
So I completely did away with all our filed bills.  We've been discussing this for a couple months now.  I mean, while we don't do all our bills online we are starting to do a lot more, and if we did them all online we wouldn't have a paper copy to save so whey the hell are we saving the paper copies now?  The short answer, we aren't...anymore.  I kept one file...I will repeat that for all of you who don't believe me, we kept one file.  In it will go one month's bills, all of them.  The next month as long as the bills show that we paid the previous month correctly, the folder gets emptied and then the current month will go in.  That's it, one month's bills.  I had water bills from 2008.  Why?  My mother.

I also took care of the magazine basket, but don't have pics of it, it was pretty boring.  And I handled my stack of newspapers.
  I finally pulled the coupons out and did away with the newspapers, not before I washed my windows of course.  What you don't wash your windows with newspaper?  Oh it is the only way to go my dear.  Newspaper and vinegar.  You don't waste a whole roll of paper towels and your glass is sparkling.

Buh bye kissy mark that my rug rat made or some other random rug rat.
And just because I have to, here's my helpers hard at work.

Here's to next week.  I'm still holding out for the attic or basement, of which I have neither, so my procrastinating self can have a week off.  Check it out, you know you want to.

oh and whoop whoop, I came in at number 81...take that last week's 115.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

is that kid still wearing his pj shirt?

My gal pal from Georgia came over this weekend.  And like we always do, we had to get our shopping on.  I decided I would treat myself to a little something.
I LOVE it!!  
Now I've only used it twice, and neither time with a total success but it just makes me feel like a real cook.  I haven't put it up since it arrived in my house.  It has sat upon my stove for all to see, never mind the fact that we rarely have visitors.
I have been scouring the internet looking for recipes.  Something simple enough, I might like to pretend to be a real cook but I definitely am not.


On another note, I decided to give Cohen a break from the potty this weekend.  The end of last week he would cry every time I put him on it so I decided what with gal pal and the shopping going on it would be a good time to slack up a bit.  Today we started back.  He has proudly earned his potty prize twice today.  I also decided I would put his little tush back in cloth.  
He hated it.  He has a bit of a raw spot on the inside of one of his legs, I'm thinking the cloth is rubbing on it.  We may have to hold off on the cloth for a couple days.
I have to say I think it's pretty darn cute to see him running around in cloth.  I figured maybe all that washing will be the motivation I need to make sure I stick to the potty training, which I haven't started, not yet, not officially.
But I mean come on, how can you not love monster trucks and a pj shirt?!?  What kind of mother leaves her kid in pjs until noon...this kind.

Ok well I'm off to finally get this paper clutter under control, if you don't hear from me within a couple of days you may have to send in the authorities.

Monday, March 14, 2011

milestone monday


Cohen is a runnin'!  He has been for maybe a week or so, I guess he could pick up the speed before that but nothing like he does now.  He also knows when he is doing something he shouldn't be.  Put the two together and it makes for an interesting day.  At first you think he's sitting on the floor playing quietly then a few minutes later you decide maybe he's playing just a wee bit too well by himself.  So you get up for further investigation and notice that the tot has two DVDs.  He of course sees you coming and sprints across the room, tossing the DVDs on the ground as he kicks up the dust.

He has officially gotten the cup thing down.  He's been drinking out of a cup for a couple months at meal times, only water no milk...milk would be too hard to clean.  Hey if he spills water the table and floor get a mini cleaning it's a win win.  So anyway, now that I'm saying this it's going to happen tonight, but he hasn't spilled the cup in at least a week.  He still enjoys sticking his hand in as well as dropping random bits of food into it but no spills.

Oh and I almost forgot Friday was his 15 month check up.  He's 25 lbs. and 32 inches tall.  I know he's in the 75 percentile on weight.  I can't exactly tell you his percentile on height I swear the Doc said 75-90 percentile, which seems like a pretty big gap there, so I'm just going to go with 75 percentile because that's what he was last time.  Supposedly he's right on track, even though the nurse and Doc kept saying 5-10 words at this age and kept acting like he could say that many when in fact the kid knows 2 words, momma and dada, and we told them this numerous times.  And for the record I haven't heard dada in a while and he uses momma for everything.  For yet another record I'm not concerned I was just sayin'.

Go check out Project Simplify and get ready to get all that paper clutter taken care of for good this week!


Friday, March 11, 2011

project simplify round uno done

Ok so remember how I mentioned project simplify in the last post?  Why am I linking my last post, I mean you know how to use the scroll oh well annnyway...  Well closet clean up is complete.  Wow is all I can really say.  Mr. and I finished it up last night.  I'm thinking it was more geared towards clothing, hence "wardrobe" but how can I go through my clothes without taking care of the rest of the closet too?  I didn't get a shot of my the closet before I sorted through my clothes, I was so eager to start that I totally forgot until I was putting the last handful of clothes back in.  

Yes we are a total redneck family complete with bows hanging in our closet.  What you don't see is all the shotguns and rifles hiding behind the door.  The sad thing is I can't even blame the Mr. for it, one of those bows as well as one of the rifles belong to yours truly.  I can still blame him though, I had no interest in anything like this before I met him.

Like I said no before shot of my clothes, it may not appear so but my clothes are already sorted out in the above shot.  However, I did get these...
These are my old clothes from the closet that are getting donated.  I don't have a picture of it but I finally got around to taking my maternity clothes out of the closet too.  Oh yeah that's right King Cobra is 15 months old and I'm just now getting them out.  Slacker I tell you.  With both our piles of clothes and the stuff that we let go of we have two big over flowing laundry baskets to be donated.  Who needs 4 sets of sheets?  I mean ok ok some people actually make use of more than one set, and I did actually keep an extra set in case of an emergency but generally speaking I take the set off the bed, wash them, and put them right back on.  I like the smell and feel of sheets straight out of the dryer.  So needless to say I came to my senses and tossed 2 sets in the ol donate box or rather donate laundry basket, they haven't made their way into a box yet.  I still need to photograph them and make a list for write off purposes.

So what's next?  I know...

Before and after shots of one of the dressers.  This holds my shorts, tank tops, and pj pants.  I got rid of half the drawer.  The drawer above this belongs to the hubs, generally speaking he's neater than I am so it probably didn't need going through, although I didn't look it's not my drawer and he's a big boy.  Oh and please ignore the crap under and on the dresser in the first shot, hey you said to clean out my wardrobe not my bedroom.  No really it came out of the closet and most is stuff that is getting donated.

All in all I was pretty proud of myself.  Not for getting the closet cleaned out but for letting go of a significant amount of clothes.  Given now that I have received the book and am reading through it (only a few chapters in), I'm a bit ashamed that I didn't let go of more...baby steps, it will come in time.  Like I said in my last post its hard for me to let go of clothes (as I'm sure it is for most people) so I'm proud, because I really did get rid of things that I've been holding on to for far too long.  So without further ado here is a few more of the after shots...the closet in all it's cleanliness glory.
I made use of those wicker baskets that had collected in the floor.  And while you can't really see it the huge leaning tower of jeans on the right (beside where the top wicker basket it) is gone.  Oh yes they made their way into a cozy drawer.
My shoes all nice and neat, and yes that is a basket of dog toys.  I figure I'd rather keep it here than in the living room.  It's not the best of spots but it will have to do for now.
CDs on the left DVDs on the right.  All alphabetized and everything.  I debated on getting rid of the CDs, they take up too much room and we don't use them often but...another day I guess.
I have baskets like this along the top of both sides of the closet, holding various goodies.  These are mainly our bedding:  heating blanket, duvet for the down comforter, extra sheets...the extras and off season stuff.  you can also get a better view of the DVDs, see how pretty and straight they are, again alphabetical order people!
And last but not least, my clothes.  So pretty.  I didn't organize by color, I normally break it down into categories (long sleeve tee, short sleeve tee, button downs, etc) then colors, but I didn't do colors this time.  No reason, ok fine there is a reason...I alphabetized the CDs and DVDs, that was enough!  Did you see how many CDs we have?

So far I'm enjoying the project and am glad I stumbled onto it.  Even more I'm enjoying Tsh's book.  I'm only a few chapters in but I would totally recommend it.  I found it at a great time.  We just finished our taxes and got smacked in the face with reality because of this we were already getting serious about our money and reading through the book and her budgeting ideas really got me thinking about ours.  I've come up with a couple really good ideas we're going to start implementing (actually have already started) and without the book I don't think I would have.  So we're on the right track in the Hickey Long home.  And for now I'm waiting until Monday to find out what week two will bring.


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

my poor cluttered closet

I find myself blog lusting a lot lately.  Sunday I stumbled across one that pointed me to project simplify.  
For five weeks, we’ll work together and tackle different areas of our homes. Be encouraged and inspiredknowing that there are other families around the world rolling up their sleeves and working alongside you!
Yesterday it started, so being a good little projectee I went to the site.  Master closet was the first up.  Now when I first read it I thought the closet would be day one of week one, and assumed that we'd probably be working on the rest of the master bedroom later this week.  Well when I went back to the site, in the middle of cleaning out the closet (apparently I need inspiration, I don't know, don't ask me) I realize that no in fact we have a week to clean out our closet.  I immediately huffed at the thought that we needed a week to clean out one closet.  OMG I might need two.  Our closet is the biggest area for storage in the entire house, we do have a garage but that doesn't make my point so just forget we do...anyway since it is the biggest it ends up being a dumping ground for stuff that doesn't have a home elsewhere.  Where does the humidifier go?  In our closet.  Where do the Mr. and my bows go?  In our closet.  Where does the footlocker full of banks of pennies go?  What you don't have one of these?  In our closet.  Drawing materials that the hubs is never going to use?  That's right, in our closet.  


Put that on top of the fact that I have an attachment to my clothes and you have an overly stuffed closet that is going to take two weeks to finish, especially now that I know we have an entire week not just one day so being the procrastinator that I am I will put it off until Friday.  So the whole attachment thing, it's not so much an attachment as much of a fear of letting go...same thing right?  ok ok attachment then.  I have clothes that I like that are just too small and I feel that if I get rid of them it's admitting that I'm never going to be that size again.  I'm sure this is fairly common, maybe not.  However yesterday I started with my clothes and got rid of a lot that would fit into that whole admitting failure category.  I'm proud of myself, I have to say.  I just kept telling myself, it's a shirt I can buy a new one, no biggie.  I did keep a few things that were still too small but not a lot, as a goal.  


My clothes got organized and our DVDs, that's it.  It doesn't seem like much but it was two naps worth of work.  I also ordered her book, Organized Simplicity.  I'll let ya know how it is when I get it, it should be here in a couple days.  It has tons of good reviews on Barnes & Noble, so we'll see.

Monday, March 7, 2011

milestone monday

So I'm totally cheating here.  I didn't get time...scratch that, I didn't make time to post yesterday on Monday so I'm going to back date this...I'm so bad.  

Yeah so anyway, what's the little guy up to these days?  I can already see that milestone monday isn't going to happen each week.  It's tough to find something new each week, I mean sure my kid is a genius but come on.  I will try though.  Anyway so we are working on using a potty.  Notice I didn't say I'm working on potty training, I'm not...not officially, not yet.  I decided about a month ago that since Cobra takes a bath right after dinner, where he would have been downing liquids, it would be a good time to start setting him on the potty, which we did.  The first two days the "pee pee" was a no show but on the third day it made its appearance, genius kid I tell you.  So gradually I've been increasing the times we've been going potty throughout the day.  Most days he will use it 3-4 times.  Now the fams, they think I'm crazy for trying to potty train a 15 month old, but I'm not trying...not officially, not yet.  I'm just getting him used to the idea, and hoping maybe he'll make a connection before I start trying, which I'm not...not officially, not yet.  This summer, I'm going to start potty training the kid.  I will then get regular undies, and give it the ol college try.  Until then we're really ho hum about the whole thing.  Set him on there, see if he'll go, give him a potty prize (a mini m&m...ok two mini m&ms) if he does.

He has also conquered chairs.  He can climb onto our dining room chairs, which means he can also climb onto our dining room table, yeah it sucks.  The nice thing is that I now pull a chair into the kitchen, toss him up on it, and I have a helper...
...or a strawberry thief.
Caught him red-handed

I ordered this handy dandy contraption that goes under a chair to raise it up so that when a child is sitting at it they are up high enough to the table.  Aka...no booster seat.  It arrived Saturday, yeah that's right on a Saturday, nice huh?  I was impressed.  So now not only can Cohen climb on the chairs he sits on one at meal times like a big kid.  Ok ok about 40% of the time he sits, about 50% of the time he stands while we yell ask him politely to sit down, the other 10% is that time in between sitting and standing where he is squatting trying to decide if he'll listen and actually sit down.  Maybe the booster seat would've been nice for a few more months.


Friday, March 4, 2011

.my soundtrack

So I recently stumbled across a blog (hopefully she doesn't mind me linkin' it up, if so let me know), when I was again blog lusting, and loved...well many of the things she's doing, but one in particular...30 days of lists.  LOVE IT!  So here's today for me...
Some of these, ok most of these are on the ol playlist at the bottom of my blog (at least right now they are).  If we had a family sountrack there are some on here that would definately make the cut.  There are others that aren't on this list but would be on our soundtrack as well.  When I hear a song playing I like to decide whether it would make the cut or not.  Or I picture our life as a movie and the song playing is playing in the movie.  Yeah dork moment right there, but come on I know others do it too. 

We always have music playing in the house.  Even when we're outside.  With the nice weather, I've had the windows open lately so I'll just crank up the music and we can hear it outside.  Cohen loves music, and I love that we've (so far) taught this to him.  At supper he will dance, aka bob his head, to the music and look at us to make sure we are dancing it too.  Going into the grocery store he will often hear the music and start bobbing away in the cart.  That crazy kid.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

peanut butter pudding

This was a completely chill weekend, and it was just lovely.  It was one of those weekends where all that you really accomplish is making a batch of cookies.  Peanut butter was my cookie of choice this weekend, and I didn't even finish baking the entire batch.  That's right that's how chill we were this weekend, there's still a half of a batch of cookie dough in my fridge.

Since Cobra doesn't go to daycare he doesn't come home with artwork for my fridge, so this Momma decided maybe she was brave enough he was old enough to try our hand at some crafts.  After I decided coloring wasn't his thing, all he wanted to do was pick up all the crayons and hold them, I brought out the pudding.  Oh it was on baby.  Pudding finger painting, that is.
We quickly gave up on this as well and decided maybe eating the pudding was truly the way to go.


I also finally learned how to use the remote that I bought...oh about 4 months ago for my camera.  I figured before I gave up on it, I honestly thought it didn't work, that maybe I better hop on the ol internet here and get to lookin'.  Guess what I found?  Apparently I was one of the many ignorant people who choose not to look through my camera's manual to see how to use the remote.  I mean come on the least Nikon could do was stick a small piece of paper in the box that said consult your camera's manual to figure out how to use this remote you moron.  That's right there was nothing in the remote box except the remote and a canvas type holder.  So considering that and all the people on amazon who gave reviews saying it worked "straight out of the box", what am I to think.  Well I'll tell you what I thought, that as soon as I pulled it out and turned on the camera (oh and pulled the tab out from the battery compartment, but any idiot could figure that out), that I would be able to start snapping away.  NOPE.  Apparently you have to change your settings so the camera knows that a remote, not the idiot behind the camera, is going to be setting it off.  Well this idiot knows now.
You don't have to be jealous of our darn near professional family photo, depending on your camera you can simply get a remote yourself.  They're super cheap mine was less than 20 bucks.  So get yourself one and start taking these wonderful family pictures.  For the price I would recommend one, now that I know how to use it, over the timer, no running from camera to posing zone.