Clean as a Whistle

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MySignatureMove #CollectiveBias

I don't get out much.  I take the kids out to the bus stop, maybe go to the grocery store, drop off my wife's dry cleaning, really not much else.  I'm not one to make plans with other stay at home parents, so the only person that I am really trying to impress is my wife... and my wife travels a lot.  When she is out of town on business there is NO REASON for me to take a shower.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just that if my stench gets too bad to where even the dog won't go near me, I'll just load up on some deodorant and I'm good for another day.

Some days my smell is too much and the boys plug their noses

If I know that I am going to run into someone, or I have to go to the kids school for an extended period of time, or my wife is coming home, THEN I will jump in the shower.

I always have a hard time figuring out what brand of soap and shampoo I should buy. I don't want something too girly that I am going to smell like rose petals, I don't need anything peachy, and I certainly don't need to smell like an ocean breeze.  More often than not I'm grabbing whatever my wife uses and I will smell like lavender for a few hours until my natural smell takes over.

These are usually my choices. Who wants to smell like a fluffy cupcake?

I get weirded out buying shampoo and soaps.  It's like if I make the wrong decision then the cashier is going to judge me.  She will give me that weird stare like she's asking me if I'm sure that's the kind that I want. Buying them is kind of a big deal.  I mean, this is what you are deciding that you want to smell like for the next month at least.  One wrong purchase and you could end up smelling like someone's 95 year old grandfather instead of a clover filled meadow.

I usually head to some big box retailer like Wal-Mart and get my shampoos. Since I am so concerned what people will think of me about my soap purchase, I will buy 15 other things that I don't need to disguise that one thing.  I never walk out of there spending less that $100 and the only thing I went in there to buy was shampoo. Fortunately today I knew what I was looking for.

I went in looking for Irish Spring.  Every now and then I get that old jingle stuck in head.  The old commercials are classic.  It's usually some guy walking down a dirt road in the middle of Ireland whistling and then someone whistles back.  That was me today in Wal-Mart, except nobody whistled back.  They kind of looked at me like I was nuts.  Irish Spring could not have been easier to find.

Since my wife is back from her business trip to Florida, today is the day that I had to shower. Between you and me... I hadn't showered since Saturday, but nobody else needs to know that. So I grabbed all of my soaps including the exfoliating scrub and the signature body wash.

To the shower I went.  

This wasn't any normal lathering.  I grabbed the "man sized" exfoliating scrub and dumped a half gallon of the 3-in-1 Signature Body Wash on me and it seemed to do the trick.  My boys were no longer holding their noses and the dog actually wanted to play with me.  Most importantly though, my wife enjoyed the smell.

Clean as a whistle!

Not that I would ever force you to buy a certain body wash over any of the others... I know how picky we can all be, but I think I have found one that works for me AND my family.

Purchase one of the new Irish Spring Signature products and get $5 off a VUDU purchase! Take a picture of your receipt and then go to http://cbi.as/3boj to upload your receipt.

So how long can YOU go without showering before you can't stand being around yourself?

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

The Simple Way to Change Lego for the Better

My family is a huge Lego loving family.*

Since my oldest was 2.5 years old he has been putting together Lego sets geared towards much older kids.  His (my) obsession began simply with a few Lego City Fire Truck sets.  We would spend hours putting them together and playing with them and hopefully not breaking them.  He's 10 now and while he doesn't play with Lego as much as he used to, he still enjoys them... we all do.*

I had never really given much thought to how Lego was marketed.  As far as I was concerned they were just the perfect toy to play with, with my kids. It never concerned me that Lego seemed to be very much a boy toy and not something that was marketed to girls.  I have two boys, so seeing things from a parent with a girl's perspective was just not something on my radar.

Then the Friends line came out and everyone seemed to be in an uproar.  Why was this new pink and purple packaging marketed directly to girls showing characters running a beauty salon or a frozen yogurt joint?  It still didn't dawn on me why people were upset.  A lot of people questioned why there were different Lego sets for seemingly different genders.  Why couldn't the normal (let's face it, the Friends line looks weird) sets appeal to boys AND girls?

Sure there are female characters in a lot of sets like Hermione, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Poison Ivy; but there aren't any sets where there are female police officers or female astronauts... but there can be pretty easily.  Here is what I propose for my (kids) favorite toy. Instead of just having one head and one hair piece, why don't they offer two?  Include a male face and hair and a female face and hair.  They don't even need to make two heads just have one side painted like a girl and one side painted like a boy that way the child can choose the gender of their mini figure.  I have plenty of head pieces that have two faces on them depicting different moods, why not two different sexes?  Then the only thing that you would need to add is ONE hair piece for every mini figure... including the bad person that robs banks.  Because if a girl wants to be a police officer, she has to be prepared to be in jail too.

Criminals

Police Officers

Motorcycle Cops

Kid Soccer Players

What do you say Lego?  Can we make this happen?

*not my wife

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Friends

One of the saddest things about the boys growing up is that they look at the world differently than when they were little.  Back then they didn't look at people think about what race they were or how old someone was; people were judged on whether you played with them or not. There was no talk of whether someone was Asian, black, or white.  You were a person and that was it.

Somewhere along the way that changed.  I can hear my kids talk about "black" kids or whether someone is gay or not.  It's pretty upsetting actually, especially since that is not the way that I talk around them.  I stress to them all the time that it doesn't matter how someone looks or whether they are gay or straight.  What matters is what type of person someone is.  Are they someone that they would like to be friends with?

Everyone is different, and that is what makes everyone and everything AWESOME.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Bus Stop Pajamas

There is a growing problem in this country.  It doesn't involve poverty or lack of clean drinking water or even climate change.  The big problem with society now is that some parents feel it is OK to wear pajamas to the bus stop. It's not.  Wearing pajamas out of the house sets a bad example for the kids.  I have stopped countless teens at the mall that were wearing pajamas and asked why they feel it is OK to wear them out in public.  Their overwhelming response is that if it's OK for their dad to take them to the bus wearing pajamas then it is OK for them to wear them when they go shopping.

Pajamas at the bus can be blamed on many things.  It caused the downfall of the Mayan Empire, wiped out the dinosaurs, and was even the reason why World War I started.  Franz Ferdinand brought his son to the bus stop one morning wearing his pajamas and the next thing you know he gets assassinated and war spreads throughout the continent.

Pajamas at the bus stop are bad, and they just look ridiculous.

Where do you stand on this issue of great importance?

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

How to Store Legos… for easy access

If your family is anything like mine, your kids got MORE Legos for Christmas.  Just when I thought that my kids were done playing with them, along comes The Hobbit and my house is a complete mess once again.

I don't think that I have ever had a clean dining room table in the nine years that I have lived in my current home.  A dining room is one of those things we look for when we are buying a house with the idea that we will have family dinners there every night.  What we really want the room for is a place to dump everything that we don't use anymore so the rest of our house isn't a complete disaster. THAT is where we play with Legos.

I have vowed to get that room in order though.  Not because I want to eat in there, but because it houses the nicest furniture that we own and I would like to see it.  It's kind of crazy that we have this beautiful dining room set, and it's covered in Lego body parts.  I clean that room every now and then when I know that we are getting a new batch of Legos.  Usually around the holidays and birthdays I clear out space so we can go through the motions all over again.

So what happens to the Legos.

For the most part they get shoved in plastic bins and get put away in the closets in the basement never to be heard from again.  I am starting to run out of room and am thinking about adding an extension on my home just to house the hundreds upon hundreds of mini-figures that I own.  I guess I could stop buying Legos, but where is the fun in that?

Let's be honest though, once the Legos go into a bin in the closet they get forgotten about.  Nobody wants to take out one of those bins and dump it onto the floor because it's just too much of a hassle to clean up again. You can't play with them in the bin because you can't spread them out to find all the pieces that you are looking for.  It's such a pain.

When we go to my moms house she lays a blanket on the floor and then dumps a bucket of Legos in the middle of it for the boys to play on.  It's actually quite ingenious of her and it keeps the mess at bay. BUT its not the easiest thing to pack up at the end of the day and you can't really carry it anywhere so it hasn't been something that we have used at our house.  I of course would need about 17 king sized blankets to store them all in.

I recently found a product that I absolutely love and it solves a lot of our Lego cleanup problem and gives us easy access to play with them in the future.  It's called Lay-n-Go.  It takes a lot of what my mom was doing with her blanket idea but perfects it.  Lay-n-Go does exactly what it sounds like it should do.  You can lay it on the ground and spread it out giving you a giant mat to play on, or you can pull the draw strings together and turn it into a bag that you can go somewhere else with.

It really makes the whole playing with Legos thing that much more enjoyable, because at the end of the day you can clean up your mess in a matter of seconds and take the bag wherever you want to go.

The only problem with the product is that there isn't one big enough to store ALL of my Legos in.  Of course there probably isn't anything that could do that anyway.  The five foot wide LARGE one that I used was very capable of holding a lot of Legos.  Probably as many Legos as the average person owns, but my house is anything but average.

The fine people at Lay-n-Go were kind enough to let me use one of their products to try out.  They have also been so generous to offer you the chance at owning one as well.  Their Lite one is perfect for building a set on or carrying a bunch of action figures around, all you have to do is enter for your chance to win below.

For more of their products, please check out their website layngo.com or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Even though I was supplied with a Lay-n-Go bag all opinions about this product are my own because it's a great.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

What Color is Santa Claus?

Not surprisingly a TV anchor put her foot her mouth by telling the world to just accept the fact that Santa Claus is white.

There are obviously some that will believe her and say that she is right.  Myself I have never seen a Santa at the mall that was anything other than caucasion, but that doesn't mean that I don't think that Santa could be any other race.  It's really a stupid thing to say to tell someone what they should or should not believe.

Some might think one way, and others might think another way.  As for my kids, their thinking is entirely different.

Whatever color your Santa is, Merry Christmas.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Jeans For the Modern Man… Starring Legos

I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about fashion.

I will put on a pair of jeans and wear them for weeks on end without washing them.  I know it sounds disgusting, but I like the feel of dirty well worn jeans more than I do a pair that has spent time in dryer somewhere.  Honestly, as soon as you wash a pair of jeans it takes a couple of days of wearing them until they feel "right" again.

Certainly I am not alone and since I do the laundry in my house, I can make that decision.  If my wife did the laundry, perhaps my jeans would be clean all of the time and none of them would fit.

Lee jeans may be the pants I'm looking for

I have tried all different brands of jeans… Old Navy, Levis, Wrangler, and now Lee.  I am admittedly cheap when it comes to buying a pair.  For years I would only buy Old Navy jeans because they only cost $19.99.  I was never concerned about how they looked (my wife hated them) or how long they lasted.  They would usually fall off of me and be torn to shreds in less than a years time.  All of them are now covered house paint because I wouldn't want ruin a good pair.

So I have been on the look out for a new brand.  Admittedly there are few styles that fit.  I have bigger thighs and a small butt so all of these straight leg kinds are out.  Nobody I know wears skinny jeans and I hope to never meet a man that does.  Relaxed fit is my jean of choice, but not the tapered leg variety because once again my wife does get her say every now and then.  What is the phrase, "If you look good in jeans your wife won't be so mean?" Something like that.

I was approached by Lee Jeans to give their pants a try.  I was a little skeptical at first because I automatically flashed back to elementary school and my first thought was that people were going to come up and "brand" me.  It's all I could think of.  I would walk around and people would come up to me and poke my Lee Jeans with the sound of a branding iron.  I only assume that you get that reference.

But I was also intrigued.  Maybe I was being to harsh in my assessment of the old brand thing and Lee Jeans would be just the pair of pants I would want to wear.

The Lee Modern Series might just be the style of jeans that I am looking for, but the truth is I won't know for sure for some time.  I need to wear them without washing them for a few more weeks.  I'll keep you posted.

Lee was kind enough to offer me a couple of pairs of jeans to try out in exchange for this post. Now they want to give you the opportunity to try them out for yourself.  They are being kind enough to give away any one item of your choice from Lee.com.  All you have to do is enter below.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Lee compensated me for this post, but all opinions are my own unless my wife tells me otherwise

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

The Royal Baby (Exclusive Photos)

I know that you are all waiting anxiously for pictures of the royal heir.

I have been given exclusive access to the hospital and am here to share with you photos that I have taken of the happy family.

Enjoy!

William and Kate entering the hospital

Our first look at the Royal Baby

Elton John visits

The Spice Girls show their support

David Bekham and Harry Potter stopped in

President Obama cleared his schedule

Finally the Queen interrupted her vacation to visit her Great grandchild

 We hope to be given this kind of exclusive access in the future.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

(Le)tting (Go)

For the past six years they have meant everything to my two boys.

Now I don't know what will happen to them.  My kids are growing up and they seem to moving on from something that has really become a part of our family.  

Legos.

They are part of our family

Thousands upon thousands of little plastic bricks and hundreds upon hundreds of minifigures just sitting by waiting for their turn again. But will it come?  The truth is my boys go through phases like I'm sure a lot of kids do and we as parents have fed their obsessions.  Whether it's been Toy Story, Star Wars, or Cars my kids get so wrapped up in it, that that's all they ask for for Christmas or their birthdays.  While some things have come and gone, one thing has remained constant... Legos.

You could always count on the boys to ask for them as gifts and I was always happy to oblige.  But things are starting to change.  Carter didn't ask for any sets for his birthday; he only wanted things that involved basketball or football.  I don't know how much he actually liked playing with them from the start, they sort of frustrated him. But Tyler was different, he could sit for hours and pretend that these guys were his friends.  

In many ways they have been. 

Tyler's birthday is this weekend and he is turning nine(!?) and this is the first birthday since he started to ask for presents that he hasn't asked us for Legos.  I knew that this day was coming, but I don't think I was fully prepared for it to arrive.  I could always count on going to the store and picking up a few sets as presents, but now the Lego aisle is starting to be one that I skip, just like the ones that have all the Star Wars, Toy Story, and Cars toys in them.

His latest obsession is baseball and more specifically the New York Mets.  While I am thrilled that he is able to find new things to love, especially something as fun as baseball is, I just wish he wouldn't move on from things from his past so soon.  

If it is so easy for him to let go, why is it so hard for me?  

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

The Graduate... Starring Legos

It's really hard to believe how big my kids are getting.

No sooner do you blink and six years passes right before your eyes.  My youngest has gone from this little tiny baby, to this smart, funny, energetic big kid.  Yesterday was his Kindergarten graduation. While I am not normally a fan of these types of ceremonies, it really is a time to look back at what your kid has become and where he is going.  He started the year off worried that he wasn't going to be able to read, he knew his ABCs but didn't know the entire order that they went in.  He couldn't add one plus one, and now he is basically multiplying three digit numbers together.  His growth has been amazing. In every way.

Not sure I am quite ready for that yet.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Poison Ivy... Starring Legos

I get poison ivy all the time.

I swear all it takes is for someone to say those two words and I will get a rash all over my body.  You just said it, didn't you?  For the most part I can tolerate the itching.  The problem is that it gets on your hands and well, your hands touch everything.  Your legs, your arms, your face, and well you know the rest.  There is one product that I have found works to relieve the itching for me, but it happens to be the most expensive thing on the market.  That's annoying, but not as annoying as getting poison ivy to begin with.

So I guess from now on either I go outside with a full body suit, or I hire someone to do the work for me.  I've had enough of this stupid plant.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

The Worst Pain... Starring Legos

It seems that not a day goes by that I don't see some joke about how much it hurts to step on a Lego.  Facebook is filled with pictures that people made about how the worst pain in the world is stepping on a Lego in the middle of the night.  It might have been cute the first time I saw one of those jokes, but after the 17,896th time I have grown tired of it.  I might be the only person that just doesn't seem to find that sick kind of humor very funny.  Then again, I may be looking at things in a different way.

Why don't we all STOP making these dumb jokes and just clean up our Legos.  It will be much safer for everyone.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Life Without Dad

I don't know how it happened, but somehow my Lego doppleganger got lost.  I am usually very good with these little guys and sometimes treat them nicer than I do my own kids.  Well I clean them off when they get cream cheese or food on them anyway, that is more than I can say about Tyler and Carter.  Needless to say it's been a rough few days around here.  When dad vanishes, things just aren't the same.

Hopefully we can find him soon before, the rest of the house starts to fall apart.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

This Old Lego

Like a lot of men, I like to build things.  Also like a lot of men, I am not one to admit defeat when I can't do something.  A simple project that should take no more than a couple of hours turns into a three day ordeal.  I like perfection, and when it isn't happening, I get frustrated.  Some times I give up and move on to something else, leaving the project to sit half done.  I have a lot of projects like that around my house, just waiting for the finishing touches.  I decided that my last project would be to finish a closet that houses my computer.  My wife had been asking me for a long time to do something with it, but I kept putting it off knowing that it wasn't going to be the easiest thing to do.  I am happy to report that the closet got finished, but it wasn't without a little outside help.

If only they could come to my house and finish all of the things I started.  A man can dream right?

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

How to Be a Dad

Over the summer you might recall I started a Lego Blogger Series.  Well I kind of ran out of time as summer flew by and I didn't quite get to everyone that I wanted.  Like a of things the blog takes a backseat to life. Now that the winter doldrums are upon us, and my house is somewhat clean, it's time to revisit some of the people that kick butt in the blogging world.

Nobody does it better than the boys at How to Be a Dad.  I don't think they really know how to be a dad, but then again does anyone?  I will say that having read their blog, they have the same struggles as I do, but sometimes they make it look so easy.

Don't forget to check out their amazing blog.  Howtobeadad.com is the gold standard in the "daddy blogger" world.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Cold Weather... Starring Legos

I have to say we have been pretty lucky weather wise these past two winters.  Aside form one snowstorm a week after Sandy hit, we haven't had any meaningful snow since LAST Halloween.  Normally I wouldn't complain as I am the one that goes outside and shovels, but the kids want snow.  It's not like we live in an area that doesn't get any snow, two years ago we got record snowfall.  It was almost TOO much to play in and certainly way too much to go sledding.  I know that we are now in the heart of winter but I can't help but think spring is right around the corner.  All I ask is for a little snow, for the kids sake.

I don't think that is too much to ask for.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Lego Gun Control

Say what you will about the tragedy that happened last Friday, but the bottom line is that it was a GUN that killed those poor little kids.  Sure someone could inflict harm with any weapon that they choose, but you just don't hear about mass killings with baseball bats and knives.  Spare me the idea that we should outlaw cars and kinds of other nonsense that people have been coming up with since the day of the shooting.

I don't want to take away someones right to own a gun, but there at least needs to be a conversation about gun control in this country.

It seems I can't go anywhere around here without seeing some mention of a gun in society.  Whether it's in movies or video games they are all too present in front of our kids.  Just yesterday I was checking out some video games for a new Xbox that the kids got for Hanukkah.  I was hard pressed to find a game that didn't have some sort of violence in it.  Video games are not alone, in fact it troubles me that my FAVORITE toy could very well be the largest producer of firearms in the world.

I know that it is up to us parents to control what our kids see and do, and it's not one thing that is a factor in how our kids behave.  It's not the music, it's not the video games, it's not the movies, but it is a combination of everything.  The truth is I have always realized that Lego had a lot of guns in their sets and it did trouble me, but not enough to really do anything about it.  I mean I must have over 300 guns in my house ranging from shotguns, to assault rifles, to pistols, to laser guns, and canons.  It's a lot of weapons.  Fortunately they won't actually kill anyone like the real ones do. 

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

Wednesday's Window

I am going to let you in on a little secret... I kind of have a fascination with Legos.  I know that was a pretty shocking revelation but I just had to get that off my chest. Fortunately for me, my boys do too.  So where is the one place that you have to go? Legoland of course.  We have been fortunate to have gone to the one out in California a few times and we absolutely love it.  But we don't have much reason to get out to San Diego much anymore, so lucky for us they built one in Florida.  Since we go to Disney more than most people go to the bathroom it's great to have one so close to Orlando.  It is about a 45 minute drive from Disney and it is well worth the trip.  There aren't a ton of rides and it's not really geared toward the older crowd, but if your kids are like mine, they will love it... especially Miniland.  I hope you enjoy this weeks Wednesday's Window.

We are heading in!

The Capitol

The Mall on Washington

Iwo Jima

One of the eight million mini golf courses in Florida

Florida State Capital

New York Hotel in Las Vegas

Capital Hill, Washington

The White House with the Obamas standing by.

Washington, DC

Tampa, Fl

San Francisco

I believe this is St. Augustine

A smarter man than I built this

The place is amazing.  I tried to sneak out the Space Shuttle, but they wouldn't let me.  

You can see more pictures like this is you follow along on Instagram. 

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________