Miss Kitty Fantastico

Oyster going to read this post?

2008-03-21T14:26:00.001-07:00

"What did the clam say to the oyster?"

"Is that a pearl in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

Hardy har har.

If you actually laughed at that, I'll be amazed, because I made it up myself.

But seriously, this post isn't just about lame jokes. I wanted to pass along some important information that I was recently reminded of. This isn't a big deal for me now, since I decided to go Kosher-style a few years ago and give up treif, but it could definitely impact a lot of my friends.

There are some important rules about seafood consumption that not everyone knows about. If you are going to eat raw or undercooked Gulf oysters, then you need to know what the risks are. A lot of people can do this (it's considered a delicacy) without any problems, but if you are in an at-risk group, you should think twice before risking your health. The Web site can tell you what all the at-risk groups are, but for now, I'm just going to talk about one in particular. Pregnant women.

I went to a barbecue at a co-workers house when I was about 14-15 weeks pregnant. Most people knew because I'd announced it by then, but I wasn't quite showing obviously yet. I looked bigger, but it could have just been me gaining weight. A woman I didn't know very well had brought some oysters and they were cooking some on the grill, but also eating them raw. It was almost trusth-or-dare style, one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen adults do. Trying to intimidate people who thought it was gross into trying them. And of course, when I politely declined, they started razzing me too.

I didn't feel like they deserved an explination. It wasn't their business why I didn't want an oyster and I didn't deserve to be peer-pressured by 40 year olds. How lame. Anyway, I got pissed off enough that I just left and went inside. Later, the woman who brought the oysters came and apologized. She said she had no idea that I was pregnant and I was right not to do it. Raw oysters are bad news for the unborn. I gave her a look and didn't say much. I just wished that people would mind their own business at that point.

But I'm passing this information along because it occurs to me now that maybe she really thought she was helping. For all she knew, I was refusing because I thought it was gross and then would get brave later and go try them just to make a point. So since I never told her "I'm not eating them because I'm pregnant" she felt she should make sure I knew it was unsafe.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about sleeping on your back while pregnant too, which she didn't know was unsafe, so I figured I should go ahead and pass this along. Maybe I'll save a baby today :-)

A little lonely

2008-03-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

So even though a large percentage of my friends have said that they think the lj boycott (yes, I agree that "strike" is the wrong word for many reasons) is dumb, I decided I would stay away today. There are two reasons for this.

1. I do remember the uproar about lj banning nursing photos as user icons and am very upset that they are contributing to our society's disgusting and incorrect view that breastfeeding is sexual or something you should be ashamed of and keep hidden.

2. Even though for the most part, the new changes don't affect me and aren't my cause in particular, I'm being repectful of the people who are affected. It's like I'm not striking myself, but am just choosing not to cross the picket line. I mean, c'mon, it's only 24 hours, I'm not going to die from lj withdrawals. Right? Right.

The one sport that makes sense

2008-03-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm not exactly what you would call a sports fan. I mean, basketball is a bunch of sweaty guys jumping up and down, football is a bunch of freezing guys jumping on top of each other and wresting is a bunch of naked guys trying to kill each other. But even I have to admit that Amercica's favorite passtime, baseball, can be pretty fun to watch. It's easy to understand and relatively non-violent. The year that the Mariners were doing so good that they made it to the playoffs (the lost to the Indians) I made sure I was watching baseball.

But there are people who are so into baseball that watching the real thing isn't even enough for them. They also play fantasy baseball, which is, as far as I can tell, pretty impossible to win. But a lot of people are VERY into it, and spend large chunks of their time online trading players, etc. At least now there is Web-based software that helps you keep track of all the decisions you've made. You can access it from anywhere, not just your home computer (good news for all those guys at my old work who spent large amounts of time playing fantasy baseball after deadline was over) and it even comes equipped with artificial intelligence that makes mid-season projections.

Apparently the reason we should all care about this nifty tool is that there is a significant amount of money to be made in fantasy baseball. Now that I did not know about.

If any of you are into fantasy baseball and want to sign up to use this software, you can enter the promo code BMC200 and get $10 off. Ta-da! Pass it along :-)

I'd like to purchase a time machine

2008-03-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

The only good news I can report at this particular moment is that Ben went to bed at the fantastically beautiful time of 8:15. And that's not down to bed at 8:15, that's ASLEEP at 8:15. I've seen nothing like this in months and months and months. But at the same time, I haven't had a day like today in um, ever?

Our day started well. I woke up and we nursed. My alarm went off and I actually was able to get out of bed, so I scooped Ben up and carried him upstairs, stripped him down fast and put him on the potty. Ta-da!!! Dry diaper, overnight :-) That's right, I'm a potty-training genius. Yay! I suddenly felt a lot better about the $7 I spent last night on an online potty training course. (I wouldn't recommend it if things are going fine, but if you're having problems, it does have a few good tips. Probably worth about half of what I paid for it, but hey, $7 is not that much to begin with. Since a lot of things on the Internet turn out to be a scam, I'm happy that it was useful at all. It's actually one of the ads on the top of this page "potty training in 3 days" so check it out if you're interested.)

Anyway, I digress already.

He peed, we watched Backyardigans, we went to art class. It was an Easter-themed day, and I even thought about not going, but decided we'd paid for it and he'd have fun. He doesn't know bunnies and eggs have anything to do with the J-dude. So we did some fun projects and when class was over, lo and behold, he was still dry!!! Yay again. We went to the public restroom but he was too distracted. So I bribed him with candy to stay dry all the way home. He did, we made it and he went in the potty again!!!! A potty-training goddess, that's me.

Then we had lunch and nap. I set a nice alarm so I'd know what time to go get him to make sure he made it to the potty in time (if he wakes up naturally, he never makes it) Well, of course, he woke up 3 minutes before the alarm. And wet his pants. Ah, well. To be expected.

The next pee was when we were outside playing in the yard. We of course tried to go before playtime, but he didn't go. So I set an alarm on my cell phone for 3:45 to try again. Every 20 minutes until they go. Want to know when he went? Three mintues before the alarm went off. Great.

So now, it's late afternoon. We watched some tv. We did some potty sits. Nothing. Time went by. He got up a lot. More time passed. The more sure I was that he had to go, the more he refused to even sit at all. We tried the big potty. We tried the little potty. He screamed, "No potty!" Oh dear. I saw the carpet accident coming a mile away and had no idea what to do.

But thankfully we figured it out. I put on Penguin Movie which we haven't seen in eons. He peed right in the potty before the previews even STARTED! Yup, sure you didn't have to go. But what I can't understand is why he hates the potty later in the day. Seriously, each potty visit is harder than the last and by the end of the day he basically refuses to go at all. Our last accident was actually when Stephen was watching him and he was sitting on the massage table. Stephen actually got a little mad which is kind of unusual for him.

Le sigh.

By the time I got Ben to the bath, we were all insanely tired. He'd been screaming and getting into things and making a big ol mess of anything he came near. We get into the bathroom, and he goes for the toilet paper. About a third of a roll in .5 seconds. And then he threw a bunch of it in the bath. AGHHGHGHHGHGHHHHHH!!!

Things were better in the bath, he calmed down some and did some listening. All was going well until we got out. He tried to get back in, with his towel and I told him that bath was all done. So he bolted straight to the toilet paper. Double handed unrolling. And as much of it as possible into the draining bath. In an instant.

So. Onto the title of this post. I thought to myself while nursing Ben to sleep, what happened to my baby?

This lead me to two separate trains of thought. Why on earth would I want ANOTHER child when I'm so close to strangling this one? What makes me think that I could watch two? And live? They'll tag team me ... one will destroy things while the the other cries and then I'll go to clean up the destroyed stuff and someone will bite or pinch or cry and then I'll lose one and I just can't imagine what the hell I'm thinking.

But I really thought about why it is that I want another baby. Not just the two kids was always the goal in the long run. Not just so much that I want a daughter so much that it physcially hurts me to think about it for too long. It's that I want my baby back. And since Ben will never get younger, the only way to recaptures those wonderful sweet little newbaby moments is to have another one.

I wondered if people would have so many kids if there were time machines and you could just go back and visit your first at any age. Hmmm.

Cause seriously, if Stephen came to me and said "Throw out your pills! Let's make a baby tonight!!!!" I'm not sure I could do it. I am THAT tired.

I spent the whole six and a half hours that I slept last night dreaming about potty training. That's right, dry pants are so much a part of my life now that they're infecting my dreams.

I just want a little break.

PS: the newest good news is that it turns out that not only did he go to sleep at 8:15, he did it BY HIMSELF with zero get ups. Wow. That's one tired kid.

Gaining exposure

2008-03-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's kind of ironic to me that back when I was working, I was in journalism, which I was always very careful to explain to people was completly seperate from advertising. But now that I'm at home, my extra income comes from writing ads, which is kind of what I said I was "too good for" when I was working. Ha ha ha. I guess that just goes to show you that you should never say never. After all, even when I worked at the newspaper, I was totally dependent on advertising. I mean, that's where my paycheck came from, right?

Ads are responsible for sponsoring a lot of things that we use every day that are "free" to us, like large portions of the internet. And since people buy stuff online all the time, it works out good for each Advertising Agency as well, because they want to get their names out there, gain some exposure and make some new business. Somtimes I click on various ads I see at the side of people's Web sites, especially if it is something I'm interested in, because you never know when you're going to find a good deal that you wouldn't have even thought to look for. :-)

How many flavors was that again?

2008-03-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

To motivate Ben with his potty-learning, I've been giving him treats for two reasons. One level for staying dry, and one level for going in the potty. I read once that just giving reinforcement for going in the potty doens't get the whole message across. Then they get the idea that it's good to go in the potty, but not that they have to do it everytime. Just when its convienient for them.

Rewarding for dry pants is a completely different mentality. It's not saying "You have to use the potty" it's saying "Mama likes dry pants." It's hard to explain why it works differently, but it does. If you do this technique completely the way its recommended, you're not really supossed to make a deal out of using the potty at all. Rewards are for potty sits (trying, regardless of success) and for dry pants. This is supossed to keep him from feeling pressured or stage-fright or whatever. But I can't help but get really excited when he pees in the potty, so I'm kind of doing a combo approach.

Anyway, I decided to go out and get some special potty treats for dry pants. Out of nostalgia and a general good memory of them, I went with a box of Jelly Bellies. A pre-mixed set. Like 40 flavors.

And do you know the problem with Jelly Bellies? You can't tell what you're getting (yes, even if you pore over the little chart thing that they include) until you put it in your mouth. It's the worst guesing game ever. Will it be chocolate pudding? Or will it be root beer? Ewwwww!!!!

Ben asked for a "black one" the other day after using the potty and I gave it to him, warning him that Mama doesn't even like black ones, and that if he didn't like it, it was OK.

I seriously should have taken photos. I've never seen him so confused. He's like "It's candy. I like candy. But it's bad!!!! What's wrong with the candy? Why is it broken?"

Ha ha ha. I'd give up on the Jelly Bellies completely except for one problem. What's that? Juicy pear. OMG, if you've never had juicy pear Jelly Bellies, it's worth going out and getting a whole box just to pick out the pear ones. Mmmmmmm. Pear.

Thankfully, I like more than just the one flavor (I really like the popcorn ones, which I've heard makes me weird/rare) and interestingly Ben likes a lot of the ones that I don't, like Tutti Fruiti and Orange and Lemon-Lime. Ha ha ha.

Houses on sale

2008-03-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

One of the things that's always been hard for me to understand about economics is the whole buyers market/sellers market thing. Like if the rates are low, then it seems like people would want to look into purchasing homes. But at the same time, how are they going to sell their previous home if rates are low and there are so many homes to choose from? Does that make any sense?

Not to mention, if rates are low, that means things aren't going so well in the economy. Which means no one has any spare money, and everyone is looking into mortgage refinancing. People can't afford to move, so they hope to just save money on the place they already have.

I know that if Stephen hadn't gotten that new job, that's what we'd be doing about now. And we actually got some pretty good mortgage rates when we bought our house about 18 months ago. Seriously, the highest rate we're paying right now is 7 percent and that's on a loan that we used for home improvement.

Playing ain't what it used to be

2008-03-12T15:20:00.001-07:00

Do you know what would be a cool job? Designing children's play equipment. See, from what I was able to dredge out of my ancient brain, when I was a kid, a jungle gym was a jungle gym. You had your basic monkey bars, a slide or two and that was it. If it was a good park, there might be some swings or perhaps you'd hit the jackpot and there would be a tire swing.

It is my personal opinion that all the tire swings are now gone from the world because a park designer actually witnessed them being used once. This then caused that person to say "Holy crap, what were we thinking?!?!?!?"

Tire swings were one of the most deadly things ever invented and marketed toward children. I don't know what you did on a tire swing when you were a kid, but I know that I would pile on it with a whole bunch of other kids, WAY more than the recommended number, which I believe might have been three, and some big huge kid in junior high that was technically too old to be getting his jollies at a park anyway would push the big ol' hog pile of kids up into the stratosphere. Whoever was the littlest on the swing would get scared and start crying, which always made the big kid push harder. This continued until somebody fell off and bit it in the sawdust or little pebbles or whatever else they thought would be a "safe" landing zone for little kids being launched at a velocity of 238 miles an hour off of a tire swing.

It always ended in blood. And not once did it ever occur to us not to get on the damn thing, because hey, everyone else was doing it and didn't it look like so much fun? So I'm very glad that I've never seen one in all the parks I've ever taken my son to.

So clearly, somebody came through in the past 15-20 years since I was a kid and remodeled all the parks to take out the death traps for children and replace them with newfangled high tech, specially enginerered developmentally formulated fancy play equipment 3000.

The stuff they have at parks these days is beyond anything my poor little raised in the '80s mind could possibly dream of. There are bridge and weird step things, and seesaws that are fun without being launch pads for the smaller child. There are 543 kinds of slides and 83,434 things for kids to climb up and on. And somehow, they've kept the fear of death right there on the surface of the equipment (because that's what little kids want when they go to the park, right?) but taken the actual RISK of death down to a reasonable .5 percent or so. I mean, nothing is perfectly safe, and you have to just assume that if your 2-year-old is playing too close to a snarky 7-year-old that pushing could happen at any moment. But seriously, they guard rails are better, the materials are better (no more splinters from wooden equimpent, or burns from metal slides) and the creativity is better.

All this stems from my taking Ben to a park in Renton that I used to go to as a child and being bowled over at what has been done with the place since I was last there. They had two play structures, one that was labeled "Appropriate for children ages 2-5" and another that was labeled "Appropriate for ages 6-12."

Want to guess which one Ben wanted to play on? Thankfully, it was during school, so there were no actual 6-12 year olds to mow him down, but I was up there with him, standing behind him every step of the way, because there was some scary looking stuff up there and I didn't know what to expect. My child has been known to pull a "Chuckie" every once in awhile, and I figured I should be around to help him find his way down.

To his credit, he was amazingly brave. The thing that struck me the most about this play structure was they had a place up high where there were some stairs that had gaps in between them. You could see ALL THE WAY DOWN and of course the gaps were small enough that the worst that could happen is Ben's foot could get caught or maybe he might fall all the way to his waist. That would take some effort though. But to my toddler, it looked like THE BIGGEST SCARIEST THING HE'D EVER SEEN!!!!

He had both hands superglued to the vertical handrailing (like crib bars) as he carefully placed one foot on the first step. I verbally coached him through it, telling him to move his hands to the next blue bar while putting his foot on the next step. There were six total steps and when he made it to the top without my having to help or even hold his hand, I gave him like 20 highfives and a big hug and told him how proud I was. He was beaming.

And then I cried because I know it's moments like these that I'll think back to when he's adjusting his tie on his wedding day and asking me how he looks. The answer?

Absolutely perfect.

(boy, this post ended up in a completely different place than it started out, huh?)

Seeking buzz?

2008-03-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get a little more exposure for this blog, so I submitted a post to Buzzfuse.com, which is supossed to distribute your material to a large group of interested people. I have no idea if it will work, but it was really easy to sign up. The downside is that they wouldn't let me market my first post without sending an email invite to at least five friends. So if you are one of those friends and you're not interested in this, let me know, and I'll take you off. In my opinion, that wasn't realy the point. My friends already read my stuff. I'm interested in meeting NEW people, you know? But I guess even if I get just a few new readers from doing this, that's better than nothing, right? I mean, it's free, so what have I got to lose?

Tattletale

2008-03-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Joe and I had a nice talk the other night. I told him that if no one else was going to talk to him about sex than I would. He interupted me to say "Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't do it." And I said that I was a teenager once and am not going to just say don't do it because that's how dumb things happen. I said that he could talk to me and if he needed anything but was too embarassed to go buy it, then I would go for him. I know that teenagers are going to have sex when they're going to have sex regardless of anything any adult says, so he might as well be protected. The last thing we need is 16-year-old Joe becoming a father. I shudder at the thought.

Anyway, at this point, he admits that Harley is on bc and she already has condoms for if they need them. They haven't done anything yet though. I'm glad to hear this, as they haven't really been together for very long, but I can see it coming a mile away. He loves her already, and I think maybe she loves him too. She's quite a catch and I just hope that neither of them end up with an STD or a broken heart.

So I've been feeling pretty close with Joe recently, and things have been looking up. But then, I found a bunch of ASH in the car I'm sharing with Joe. (Actually, Ben found it, as it was all over his carseat and he decided it looked yum yum yummers. Eww.) So I called my mom to ask if she knew of any reason there might be ash in the car. OK, mostly, I called to whine and complain about it because I was bitchy and it made me feel better to know that Joe was going to get in trouble for whatever the hell he did that got ASH in the car. I mean, he's not really my brother, and I could care less what he does as long as he stays out of my way and behaves himself (as in, not doing stupid illegal things like driving with Harley in the car or anything else dumb like that.)

But in order for this to occur, he would have to stop stealing all the gas I put in the car, which has been happening more and more recently and be straight with me when I ask him questions like "Why the hell was there ash all over the inside of the car?"

So I ratted on him. Big deal. Seriously, teenagers NEED someone to keep them from killing themselves or else they'll just keep on getting into more and more trouble. I should know, I was one.

Anyway, as we aren't really siblings, it's kind of weird having this relationship where it feels exactly like having a whiny kid brother who I love and care about, but still have the urge to shout "MOM!!!!!! Joe got ash in the car and owes me at least $15 in gas money."

Sometimes living here really feels like getting the childhood/teenagehood that I never got to have due to whatshisbucket ...

Shiny and clean

2008-03-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

I am not a particularly vain person, but I do love my hair. Most people who met me briefly probably wouldn't think much about it, because I usually just throw it back in a ponytail. But the thing about ponytails is that then the hair is there when you need it. You can do it up or let it down or curl it or straighten it or whatever you feel like doing. Sometimes, I do my hair nicely just to remember what it looks like, since mostly it's just wash and go.

I was happy to receive natural shampoo and conditioner samples in the mail because I am a total hair product junkie. The idea of a natural shampoo that is good for both my hair and the environment is very appealing. I have to admit that my first concern was, would it work? I mean, those pesky chemicals are there for a reason! To scrub out the other crappy chemicals like hairspray and gel and whatever else. Also, applesauce. (I'm a mom, what can I say?)

Thankfully, I had a rich lather instantly, and my hair came squeaky clean. But that was just half the test. For me, the real reason I've tried practically every single hair product out there is because I'm in an eternal search for conditioner that will weigh down my frizzies. Thankfully, the naked naturals conditioner did a great job of making my curls separate and look cute.

See?

(Of course, I never really look like this because my 2-year-old doesn't let me do my hair. So normally I'm either wearing a towel on my head, or I've got my hair shoved in a sloppy ponytail.)

The best part about the free samples is that they came with a $1 off coupon for the product. Oh, and the part where my hair smelled like lavendar. Mmmm. Nice :-)

How embarassing

2008-03-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

I posted a cool poll on my livejournal about cleaning and privacy, and I'd just like to say that it is apparently time for me to hide under a rock and die. Or something. No, really. All those "You're supossed to do that?" answers were mine. And the "When company is coming" type answers. Especially the sheets and the bathroom. Le sigh. At least I'm lucky enough to be married to someone who is the same way as I am. I mean, maybe my house would be cleaner if I married a neatfreak, but he'd probably be really grumpy with me all the time.

And as for the other questions, they were mostly inspired by learning that my BIL and his girlfriend (they live together) leave the door open when the use the potty. And have conversations! While pooping!!!!! This horrified me. I have major stagefright and won't go any kind of potty in front of anyone. Well, Ben in an emergency, but it's really not my preference.

Le sigh. Thankfully, you're not required to disclose your own answers if you don't want to :-)

Help and support for paid bloggers

2008-03-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

The paid blogging industry is something that has a lot more layers than you might thing when you first sign up. I learned about writing sponsored posts from someone I didn't even know in the breastfeeding community on livejournal. I was asking questions about egg donation because we were so desparate for a financial solution. So before I knew it, I was working for payperpost and writing sponsored posts for a few extra bucks. I've since joined a few other outfits like Smorty and SponsoredReviews and really put my heart and soul into this work. It's like a JOB for me, and it's really made a huge difference.

But apparently there's like politics involved, and all sorts of changes keep on coming about. First there was the pagerank issues and then the realrank stuff. Plus there's the fact that ppp seems to deeply dislike all free hosts, but livejournal in particular. More than anything, it really helps to talk to other posties (people who write sponsored posts) about what's going on and how to do better. I am really proud of how far I've come in the sponsored post business, but let me tell you, none of it would have been possible without the help of both friends and strangers who have done it all before and had some wisdom to lend me.

Seriously, before I started doing this, I didn't know ANY html, not even a simple href. Now I know how to embed photos and video and all sorts of cool stuff. How? By asking around. But eventually, you run out of friends, or everyone gets tired of hearing the same stuff. I mean, my blog is supossed to be for and about ME, you know? It's frustrating enough to read through all the sponsored posts without having to read a bunch of posts ABOUT them as well.

Anyway, I found this really awesome Web site that provides support to posties (from all companies, but especially ppp) and a place to complain and vent in a free place. It's not owned by any of the sponsored post companies, but still moderated to keep things ontopic. Everyone I've met there has been really nice and helpful, and of course it's free to joing. Go check them out!

Sick again

2008-03-02T23:14:00.000-08:00

Everyone at my house has been sick in the last three weeks, so I wasn't surprised when I started feeling ill last Saturday. I didn't figure I'd be lucky enough to escape. But how come everyone else got off with a sore throat and cough and I had to end up puking in my friend's toilet? Huh? Could someone please explain the fairness of that? I mean, our trip was meant to be for Stephen's birthday so he could have "adult time" and sit down and play a game and talk and stuff, and I managed to be all ill and lightheaded and go to bed early and ruin it. Nice. Good thing I didn't crash the car or anything too ... wait ...

Calling all procrastinators

2008-02-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

So I was shopping around on the Coupon Chief Web site today, laughing about all the last minute Valentine's Day deals they have going right now. But I can't laugh too hard, because it's not like I've done any of MY Valentine's Day shopping yet. Whoops.

But Valentine's Day is like the one time that you're allowd to procrastinate, because who wants week-old droopy flowers? I'm sure my mom with much prefer the shiny fresh ones that I will be picking up for her tomorrow.

But if you're the kind of person that buys actual gifts for Valentine's Day, you should check out these Target coupons because Target rocks and has the best stuff ever. It's probably where I will be picking up a card for my husband. (At this point in our debt-paying existence, I really shouldn't get anything more than that.)

But if we were in a good place financially, do you know who'd be getting Valentine's Day love? BEN!!! You should see the awesome Children's Place coupons and the adorable stuff they have. Simply adorable.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone

Learning heaven

2008-02-13T21:38:00.001-08:00

I found this store downtown today with a ton of stuff for kids. It's almost a toy store, but more like a learning store. It had art supplies and books and puzzles and toys, but only good ones. Lots of Melissa and Doug stuff. I think it was like a homeschooling supply store or something I don't know. All I know is that Ben sat and played with a wooden Thomas the Train set for like 20 minutes without getting into trouble while I shopped and drooled all over everything. He also found a little wooden tool/peg set thing that he played nicely with.

I finally chose my purchase, a pack of three books about numbers with a dry erase marker, crayons and stickers all included. It also has a cd with more stuff to color. I guess you put it in the computer and then print out more coloring book pages. That's pretty awesome for $10. We were happy campers.

And the sticker book was a huge hit! We spent about 25 minutes putting stickers in the book this afternoon. And if you know my son, you know that anything that causes him to sit still and do one thing for that long is a miraculous invention.

Save some money

2008-02-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

It was about a year ago when my husband convinced me to at least let him call and check if we could save some money on our car insurance. We were previously with progressive and I was pretty loyal to them, but I said, hey, money is money, right? So he called some little company that I'd never heard of, and sure enough, they saved us a TON of money!!!

I was shocked! The price was seriously like 1/5 of what we were previously paying. I highly recommend getting quotes from anyone and everyone who is selling car insurance. I mean, what do you have to lose?

We've been visited by a fairy

2008-02-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Last night, Ben was up from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and it was horrible and we all wanted to die. I knew he'd been teething for quite some time now, from his finger and clothes chewing. We even went out and bought him some popsicles the other day because he's been so miserable.

Obviously, popsicles weren't an option in the middle of the night, so I went ahead and gave him two tylenol meltaway tablets. (He calls them "medicine candies" and was happy for the idea.) STILL no luck. Finally, Stephen took him out of our bed and layed down with him in his own bed and he went to sleep. At least he managed to sleep through the rest of the night from that point until 8:45 when we got up.

This morning, I found out why the medicine didn't work. He spit it out!!! Both tablets were in the bed smooshed under the sheets. Well, no wonder! Grr. I'm so frustrated because we were pretty harsh with him by the end, assuming there was no way he could still be in pain and was just being obnoxious. Why would he spit it out? He begs for that stuff. Mmmm grape.

Anyway, as we were laying down for our nap (this is a completely different story that I'll have to get to later) he said, "Mouf no more ouchie. Mouf all better." And he even let me look. Sure enough, the first of his four 2-year molars has finally broken the surface.

Hallelujah!

Time to be proactive

2008-02-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to think of myself as an adult, you know? I mean, sure I'm married and have a kid, and am closer to 30 than to 20, but some things, like retirement, seem like things that only GROWNUPS have to worry about. But I've seen those articles that state how much money you'll have if you invest $5,000 at various ages. The main point is the earlier you invest, the more your money can do for you. On this NewRetirement Web site, it explains a lot of the things you need to know in order to be prepared for your future.

I wish we were in a position to actually follow all these suggestions, but its so hard with the amount of debt that we have to justify not putting every extra penny toward reducing it. I mean, with the interest we're paying, we're really got to get this stuff paid off before we can even think about future plans.

Now or never

2008-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of. We're going back to Aberdeen tomorrow (Ben will stay with Grandma) to meet with ANOTHER real estate agent about the house. I mean, sure it's lame that the market sucks and it probably won't sell right away.

But it CAN'T sell if its not listed. Ignoring our problems until they go away on their own hasn't really worked out for us in the past, so I'm proud that we're learning and growing and aggressively pursuing this, you know? It's nice at my mom's house, but I don't want to live here forever!!!!

Wish us luck :-)

How many cars do we need anyway?

2008-02-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to move back to Puget Sound where there is nice public transportation and lots of city type things within walking distance. But then my mom offered to let me use Joe's car while we lived here, and I have to admit, now I'm kind of spoiled by being a SAHM with my own car.

I know that it makes no financial sense for us to be a two-car family once we don't live here anymore. But it doesn't stop me from browsing the internet, looking at Car Prices, wondering how horrible a person I am for wanting a family car when we don't even know how many kids we will be having yet.

I mean sure, if there are three, then I can see that we would need one. But only two? And a gas guzzler? Not a good plan. But its so NICE having so much room in my vehicle for the dog and groceries and stuff. Oh well.

Waste not, want not

2008-02-06T10:43:00.001-08:00

I heard a factoid in 8th grade that has stuck with me throughout my life. "Your garbabge disposal eats better than half of the world's population"

At the time, I didn't really understand it. I thought, why would people want to eat orange peels and egg shells. But once I did get it, I strove to make sure it wasn't true. If I didn't finish my meal, even if it was only by a few bites, it went back in the fridge.

The same held true for Ben, and since he's a baby, this obviously happens a lot. He doesn't eat a whole yogurt, he eats like 1/5 of it. So I usually put the rest back and he finishes it over the next couple days.

Well, my mom took one look at how fast her fridge was filling up with open yogurt and cans of peaches and half-eaten string cheeses, and she snipped at me that this wasn't going to work.

So now I'm stuck with either finishing everything that Ben doesn't eat (yipes! that will make me fat quickly) or throwing it away. That's pretty sad too. I've already thrown away pieces of hot dog bun and smashed banana. And I know I'm not really stealing food from third world countries when I do it, but it still sucks.

The big V debate

2008-02-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

My husband goes back and forth on his opinion of the big V day. Sometimes he thinks its a capitalistic evil trick designed to make men look bad. Other times, he's disgruntled because he thinks that he should be allowed to do sweet things for me whenever he wants, and doesn't need a special day with "expectations" surrounding it. But other years, things are good between us and he's feeling laid back and romantic. Then I get stuff.

Chocolate, flowers, dinner, a movie, a massage, whatever he can think of. He sometimes gets original things, like a painting for the wall, but most of the time, I think he understands that a cheesy holiday equals cheesy things, like these pink gifts. Would I buy any of these things for myself? No way! But if he came home with something like this for me on V-day, would I be happy? You betcha! With our history, I'm happy for his thoughtfulness. Besides, everybody likes pink stuff at least one day out of the year. ;-)

Clean again

2008-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

I was just talking today about how nice it feels to be warm and not have to worry about how much every degree is costing, but there's even more than that. I was in our "apartment" with Ben, letting him have some free play (it's almost toddler proof!) while I put laundry away. I was folding some of his older T-shirts, which are now only used as pajamas because they're so gross. I don't know if you've ever smelled a shirt that has been constantly drooled on, but it really is gross. Most of Ben's shirts smell like dishrags.

So we get him new clothes every so often (thankfully, this has so far corresponded approximately with when he would outgrow things anyway) and make his old clothes for sleeping only so that no one thinks he's gross for smelling like a dishrag. It totally ruins the sweet smell of his soft skin and freshly washed hair.

Anyway, I was folding the shirts, and noticed that I didn't notice the smell. So I bravely pressed my nose into the collar of the T-shirt. Mmmm. Detergent.

!!!

Who knew that all this time, our discount detergent was the cause of Ben's clothes not coming clean? Our clothes came clean just fine, so I always thought that it was just some sort of toxic toddler goo that didn't come out. Nope. Mom's super pricy stuff did the trick. Man, it sure is nice to have luxery stuff around without having to pay for it ourselves!

teh cute

2008-01-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

It is really too bad that the bottom half of this picture isn't useable because Ben looks so adorable dancing in my nylons and shoes. But at least you can see him for the ham that he truly is in this now completely SFW cropped photo.

That's my boy. One of these days, I'll have to put a video up of him dancing to "Penguin Movie" (Happy Feet) because he just goes crazy during the part where Mumble is dancing alone on the hilltop. He likes to say "be himself" outloud with the movie too. I swear, it's the cutest thing on the entire planet.

The doctor is in

2008-01-25T12:34:00.001-08:00

I am so grateful that after her car accident, my grandmother didn't end up needing hip replacement surgery. She did break her hip, but she has healed and is on the mend. It's harder for her to get around and do things these days, but my uncle lives with her and takes good care of her. I can't even imagine if she had to go through complex surgery and heal while living alone. I do believe though, that if you need any type of invasive surgery, it's best to do your own research on various doctors. I wouldn't just trust whomever the insurance company sent me to. That's scary. Check out this Web site and see for yourself the ground-breaking work this doctor is doing in managing joint pain. At least he considers other options before just telling everyone that they will be needing surgery.

My cross-dressing kid

2008-01-23T12:22:00.001-08:00

After coming home from "going to work together" last night, Ben decided that he needed to go to work too. In order to go to work, first we have to put on our "nylon socks" and then we need our shoes.

Time to go to work Mama!

(you can see the white socks he was previously wearing on the ground, as well as the animals who are both always around whenever pictures are being taken.)

Phew. Hey Mama, did you know that working is hard work?

The most amusing part about all of this is that he isn't wearing a diaper underneath that super-big T-shirt (when he goes pee-pee in his potty, he is rewarded with some diaper-free time which he is always thrilled about) and there's one picture where you can see. Sadly, it was the very best picture because he was dancing in the nylons and shoes and looked adorable. But I am not the kind of mom who would put photos of her naked baby on the internet. That's not a good idea for a phethora of reasons. :-)

Fantasy house for sale

2008-01-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

The money we put into the house was mostly on repairs, but some of it went to things like the plants you see in the pictures. I can't believe how much they help it to look nice. You would live here right? It looks shiny and happy and pretty and artistic and romantic and dreamy.

The one thing I have to say though, after putting in probably more than 60 total hours of cleaning, I'm frustrated that a few things ended up the way they did. When Dan came to take the photos, he had us take the dog dishes up off the ground, and so I put them on the counter that was behind him while he took it, so they wouldn't be in the shot. Well, I guess he came back and shot it again from a different angle and didn't bother to either move them or ask me to move them. So you can clearly see two dog dishes on the counter looking weird and cluttery.

This is insanely annoying if you knew how much stuff was previously on our counter and how I killed myself to get it PERFECTLY CLEAN!!!! He also had us take the magnets and photos off the fridge, which I can't believe didn't occur to me. (It was probably the saddest thing I've done thus far. Having Stephen gone is hard enough without taking all of our family photos down. They are like lovies to Ben. We sit and look at the fridge and talk about all of our family members at least once a day ...) Anyway, now I don't even have photos of papa around that we can say goodnight to. :-(

Anyway, back to yesterday. I took them down, but didn't do the ones on the side of the fridge because he was standing in the main doorway and you couldn't see them in the shot. Well, guess what. Again, he must have come back later, shot another photo from a different angle and all the remaining clutter is clear as day. Le sigh. And if you ask me why we didn't just do it all before he came, I will seriously have to jump through the internet and strangle you.

Getting our house to look this good nearly killed all of us, especially Ben, who kept inventing new levels of trouble to get into in order to get some attention. It was murder on Saturday. By the time it was crunch time, (like after 7 p.m. on Saturday and we still had to drive all the way to Kent so Stephen could get up and go to work first thing in the morning) we were all about to lose it. There were definitely some tears shed trying to get a few last minute things done and keep everyone from melting down. There was literally no time left to do any "one last thing." We didn't even take the time to eat a family dinner. Ben snacked on weird things and then started refusing to eat anything because his blood sugar was low and he was tired and cranky. We ended up going through the drive-thru on our way out of town and letting Ben eat some chicken nuggets in the car. He was a lot happier after that.

But luckily, when Ben and I got back to Aberdeen yesterday at around 2 p.m. (he napped in the car like a champ, yay!) the weather was nice (what? no, say it again) so we were able to spend some time doing some last minute weeding. About 20 minutes of yardwork made a tremendous difference and Ben was as good as gold for all of it. He used a screwdriver to dig in the dirt and helped me put the pulled weeds in plastic bags. What a sweetheart :-)

Our house:

From the front

Stained glass window, close up

From the back, with the hot tub sort of showing. I would have liked to have washed the cement a little, but it's January and we ran out of time. Oh well.

Upon entering. This is one of my favorite shots. Man it looks good in there.

This one came out pretty good too. See how the fireplace looks just fine without the glass panels?

Kitchen. YAY! This is what sold the house to me.

Kitchen. Too bad you can see a few dishes in the sink. I offered to take care of them really fast, but he said that he'd shoot it over them so they wouldn't show. Hmm.

Dining room and part of the kitchen. This is the one that shows the less clean part of the kitchen, which is frustrating because it WAS clean until I had to move things around for other shots that he didn't even end up using.

When we bought the house, this floor wasn't even there. Surely someone will fall in love with it in all its splendor and offer us a gazillion dollars, right?

The downstairs bedroom, which is technically the master, but we use it as our guestroom. (I can hear all of our previous guest complaining that it didn't look like that when they stayed with us. Sorry you guys! :-)

Our room. The shelving was $600 and Stephen screwed it into the wall, so its staying. It was a great idea since we lacked closet space, except that we never used it because I got dressed downstairs as to not disturb Ben and Stephen while they were sleeping. Oh well. Sometimes you just can't forsee these things.

(Oh, and if you look really closely, you can see Trick-or-Treat Bunny sitting on the shelf in the corner. Why he didn't move her out of the way before taking the picture? The world may never know ...)

This is Ben's room, which is really a lot cuter than is shown here. The things on the wall above his bed are glow-in-the-dark stars, and we also have wooden letters that say "BEN" but those aren't in the picture, for obvious reasons. :-)

Want to buy our house? Know someone else who might? It would make a great family home or a rental, whichever.

Here's the official listing ... fair warning. I did not see the text before it was posted, otherwise I would have copy-editted the hell out of it.

"Has a functional Hot tub, Nice back patio and deck area for BBQ or hanging out and entertaining."

Oh dear. Well, hopefully, people who are looking to buy homes aren't picky about things like appropriate capitalization and such.

It's also up on craigslist, which he swears is effective, even if there's no Aberdeen listings and it has to be lumped in with Seattle, which is two hours away ...

Oh, and of course there are two classified ads set to run in the paper tomorrow. I got them both for free :-)

Cute specs

2008-01-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law used to work for a glasses store, and she had this amazing knack for looking at a person for a few seconds and then pulling a pair of frames off of the shelf that looked perfect on them. She was paid on commission and was very good at her job, because everyone left happy. One day, just for fun, I had her do it for me, even though I don't wear glasses. Sure enough, I looked super cute! But because she worked for a big box store, the frames all had high prices. This is great for people who have insurance that will buy them a new pair of glasses every X number of years no matter what they cost, but a lot of people have to pay something out of pocket and would benefit more to shop on a budget.

If I ever end up needing glasses (which is starting to look more and more likely as each day goes by) I would have her help me pick out some frames and then try to find similar ones at an online store.

This Great Discovery: www.ZenniOptical.com has a lot of different choices, but I thought these ones were kind of cute. If I ever get around to getting my eyes checked again, I'm sure I'll end up with something like this. That is, if my sister-in-law approves. :-)

It's so hard to say good-bye

2008-01-11T12:25:00.001-08:00

Stephen and I both agreed that after the storm, we'd lost a lot of the attachment we'd previously had for our house. When we got home, it was trashed and cold and stinky and just so empty. It wasn't home, it was a big nagging chore.

We think that this was one of the main factors in encouraging him to go ahead and apply for out-of-area jobs. Sure, it would be a big deal to move, and a big deal to sell, but a manageable deal. No longer the emotional heartache that it would have been when I was in love with our house and dreaming of never having to move ever again.

But, first things first, in order to get other people to actually want to purchase your house, it can't be the pit of despair. So we've been pouring lots of $$$, as well as blood, sweat and tears into making it nice. Not just nice. Beautiful. The house I fell in love with. BETTER than the house I fell in love with.

For example, we boarded up the fireplace last winter (or was it fall?) when baby Benjamin, who was just learning to cruise, broke one of the glass panes. When we looked into having it repaired, we learned you couldn't buy that sort of replacement part and the whole fireplace front would have to be replaced — and a new one was $600 or so. We thought about it, but then just decided to leave it boarded up. And somewhere in my mind, I equated "boarded up fireplace" with "fireplace is broken." It had a bandaid for its ouchie, you know? :-) And soon, I pretty much forgot we had one at all. It just blended into the background.

It was actually Stephen's dad who pointed out that the doors just unscrew. There is still a metal screen behind them, and a perfectly functioning fireplace. The house flippers said they've sold many houses that just have the black screen and no glass doors. So we took them off, cleaned up the whole thing and had a fire, just for the hell of it. It was so bittersweet, I can't even begin to explain. Here I was, sitting in my beautiful house, in front of a roaring fire, cuddling on the couch with my husband for pretty much the last time ever. Sniff sniffle. And the worst part is, it was never really broken. We could have enjoyed our fireplace for all this time, with the help of a simple screwdriver and some dust rags.

It sucks that all the things we're doing to make our house sell make me want to stay. The emotional attachment is coming back worse than before. But if we don't do them, then we'll be stuck with the house! Who cares if I'm not emotionally attached to it if we can't unload it on someone else?

Anyway, it's starting to look really smashing. About $200 on repairs and accessories has really gone a long way. And I think it's a great investment, because not only are we going to get a better price for our house, we get to take a lot of the stuff with us. Yay!

I should have photos to post of how it all turned out sometime early next week. Stay tuned!

Keeping track of people

2008-01-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

A friend of ours was also our real estate agent when we moved to Washington from Idaho in 2006. He was very kind, personable and easy to work with. In fact, since he and my husband were friends from childhood, we kind of tried to renew that friendship after we got settled, especially after we learned that he and his wife were expecting their first child. Well, it didn't take me long to quickly conclude that perhaps they weren't as interested in that idea as we were, since they didn't bother to follow up with us or return our phone calls after their baby arrived. I purchased gifts for them that were never given because I assumed they were not interested in having any sort of relationship with us.

Imagine my surprise when, out of the blue, a few days ago, we get a call from him asking "how we are." My theory originally was that my mother-in-law mentioned to her close friend (this person's mom) that we were moving again, and she mentioned it to him and he thought, "Oh, I should call them!" But my husband claims this is not the story he got. I guess our "friend" claims he lost our phone number and meant to return our call after his son was born, but was really busy, and then forgot, and you know the drill. New baby = no spare time. So it was actually his boss who learned that he'd been doing a shoddy job of keeping in contact with all his former clients and made him go look up the numbers in the computer system and check to see how everyone was doing. My husband says that the best word to describe the tone of the call was "sheepish." Yeah, I'll buy that for a dollar.

I don't know if I buy the whole story, especially because if our phone number was in the computer system the whole time, why didn't he just look it up while he was at work? Hmmm. Sounds suspicious. Perhaps his computer ATE the phone number, and then miraculously it reappeared.

Anyway, I thought of this story while reading about real estate software because I was imagining purchasing some and sending it to him as a kind of light-hearted joke with a point behind it. Like, "look, now you don't have any more excuses!" Ha ha ha. As if I had an extra $150 lying around to spend on a sort-of friend ... but if I actually were a real estate agent and needed the software for my job, I'd get it in a heartbeat. That's a pretty good deal, considering there's no monthly subscription fee to operate it once it's purchased.

Why is growing up so bittersweet?

2008-01-05T20:16:00.001-08:00

Ben did not nurse tonight while I was home on my dinner break. This should be good news. Wasn't I weaning him? Wait. Why was that again?

So, first I wanted to get my fertility back, I guess to see if there was anything wrong with me and to start charting. I thought it would take months and months. Well, that's taken care of.

Next, I wanted to learn to chart, but know that being new, there could be an accident. Previously that was OK with me. What's the difference if things happen eight months earlier than we planned? It's just a few months, right? Well, Stephen's new job won't provide us with health insurance until he's worked there for six months. So now, that six months is vital. There can be no accidents. So, in our best financial interests, I switched back to the combo pill, knowing its a lot stronger than the mini pill and we'd be much safer from accidents.

Can't chart on the pill. I mean, you could, but it'd be silly. So really, I'll take the pills up until the insurance kicks in and then start charting, I guess.

I knew that the combo pill makes your supply tank. That was OK with me, since we were weaning.

Now, I have a period, I'm taking combo pills, and we're moving. Ben is having a really tough time with all of it. Especially the moving. The house is different. We're always cleaning. He can't make messes any more. His stuff is rapidly disappearing. OUR stuff is rapidly disappearing. To a 2-year-old, this is his whole world turning upside down. He has already regressed a ton with his potty training. He refuses to go pee-pee in his potty now. He will sit on it for awhile, but only goes in his diaper. Stephen took the diaper off and kept putting him back on the potty over and over today, about every 20-30 minutes or so. Nothing. Finally, he goes into the corner and pees on the carpet. And then he says outloud, "No pee-pee on carpet!" and tries to clean up the wet spot WITH MY PURSE!!!!!!!! Le sigh.

I didn't make a deal out of it. I told Stephen just to let the potty thing go. If our house in upheaval is already traumatizing him, I can't even imagine what it will be like when Stephen leaves, and then when we live with my mom, and then when we live in a whole new place ... of course he's going to regress. We're kidding ourselves if we think anything otherwise.

So wouldn't it make sense to just put all the weaning plans on hold, since he will clearly be needing to nurse more for security as all these changes happen in his life? Of course it would! And I really have no other reasons for weaning at 2 other than the ones I mentioned. (I'm ignoring the mounting family pressure. Really, I swear.)

But I think it's too late. The pills have tanked my supply. Now I literally have just a few drops when I used to have ounces and ounces. He gets this sad look on his face when he nurses. He latches for a very short period of time and then asks to switch sides and then is done. I know there isn't milk. He knows there isn't milk. He's hanging on for the closeness, but I think he's starting to realize there's not much of a point. And all this crazy life stuff is happening and I wish I could take it back. But I can't. Really, in the grand scheme of things, I think him weaning at 2 is better than my accidentally getting pregnant before Stephen's health insurance kicks in.

I know it is. Ben will be OK in the end.

I just hate to see him go through the in-between.

It's not "stealing" its "borrowing"

2007-12-31T15:27:00.001-08:00

We've sunk lower than low. We have a bunch of medical bills we've been ignoring that are starting to charge interest that we need to get paid. There are huge changes coming up soon in our lives, so I'm not worried about being able to pay the money back in the long run, but for now, we've decided that the best course of action to avoid increasing interest and borrowing more from credit cards that we then will not be able to pay down as fast because we're messing with our balance transfer interest rates is to use Ben's birthday/Hannukah money to pay down our bills. :-(

We both truly believe with all our hearts that it is his money, and we will be returning it ASAP and keeping it safe for him until he's old enough to choose what he wants to do with it. His grandpa has created a college account for him (I honestly have no idea how much is in there) but since none of the givers of this money specified that it be earmarked for college, we aren't going to add that requirement ourselves. It's Ben's money, to do with as he sees fit, as soon as he's old enough to understand there are other aspects to money besides "quarters for balls." We imagined how long he'd stay and play Skee-Ball at the arcade if he had 1,200 quarters and the answer is probably the rest of his life. :-)

Yes, we’re alive

2007-12-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

I haven’t been updating this blog much recently because life has been so crazy for the past week. We do finally have power back at our house, but haven’t returned yet because its going to be so much work to clean everything up that we just don’t have the energy to go tackle it yet. We are staying with a kind friend in Olympia who has opened her home to us and been a life-saver during this trying time. We are so blessed to know her and her family.

Read more about what happened to our family during the storm and after the storm on my livejournal.

Coming soon, to a theater near you

2007-11-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

You know the movie guy? The one who talks on ALL the trailers that Hollywood has ever produced ever? Ever wonder how he got started? Who wakes up and says, "I want to go into voice-over acting"? Personally, I think it would be kind of cool, as I am much better at talking than looking good. It would be fun to do your work in your pajamas as well. If you are interested in Voice Over Training, you should check out this Web site to see how to get started. They have a weekly podcast to help out newbies as well as veterans. It features voice-over coaches from the U.S., Canada as well as around the world, giving expert tips on marketing, acting techniques and more.

Mostly I think this is something for other people, for those who live in Hollywood and have a life-long dream of making it in the entertainment business. But then there's a teeny voice in my head that remembers that my friend Kiki got her son a modeling job when he was 6 months old. And they are just regular, non-Californian people. So if she can break into show biz, so can I, right?

Are we done yet?

2007-11-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

My wrists hurt because my mouse at work is broken and I have to move the whole mouse around to navigate my screens rather than just my finger on the roller ball. It's mega frustrating and I'm so glad that Stephen is good at fixing me because I've seriously been into physical therapy for less pain than this in the past. Sadly, I'm not done with all my work yet and can't go home until my pages are read and I make my corrections. Sigh.

I spent a ridiculously long time both yesterday and today fixing all my previous sponsored posts in hopes of regaining my google rank. Yes, they finally found me too. But thankfully, I learned a trick to recover it at the exact same time that it crashed.

I found out about the trick from several sources, but they all heard it from the same source, a source that would have reason to benefit from us doing it, whether or not it really made a diference. But my new friend Barbara is the one who first confirmed that it DOES work, even though it took several hours, it's worth doing if you want your PR back.

The trick is ...

oh, and she has another site, Shades Of Melancholia here on blogspot. I am so glad to hear from her that it works to do this, because I don't think I would have bothered otherwise.

Support your local artists

2007-11-23T21:11:00.001-08:00

I am getting so frustrated with the rat race and commercialism and manufactured Made In China products. Learning to knit has really put me in touch with the amount of love you can put into a handmade item. When something is made by a person, it's not only more honest, its one-of-a-kind. I would really like to do more of our holiday shopping at places like the St. Augustine Artwalk, where arts and crafts are sold by the people who made them and are just trying to make a living doing the thing that they love to do. These are the kind of people who need our support this Christmas, not the big box stores of the world.

I think the fact that this town has a First Friday Weekend Art Walk every month is absolutely awesome. Around here, the most I can hope for is to hit a few of the holiday bazaars while they last. We as a nation really need to start supporting locally made things. If I were in Florida, you better believe I'd be at this event. The only thing I love more than pretty artwork is pretty original artwork. :-)

Deal or no deal

2007-11-23T18:02:00.001-08:00

Stephen had this brilliant idea that we should shop around for a good deal on a laptop this morning since we were already in civilization for Thanksgiving. He wanted to get up early and shop with the crazy people! Dude — there many reasons why that is not a good idea. Here are a few of them.

1. My mom would have to be in charge of watching sleeping Ben, and they'd be on opposite ends of her ginormous house with no monitor. So realistically, one of them would have to wake up and move. Neither of them would really be thrilled about this.

2. I am working tonight until 1:30 a.m. Getting up at 4 and staying up until 1 equals death.

3. I am really hoping to either get a laptop for Christmas, or at least use the money we get to buy one in January. I do not want to buy it on credit unless its a really good deal.

So as a compromise, we decided to go window shopping for laptops with my mom and Ben at about 10 a.m. We figured most of the sales last until noon or 1 p.m. Well, we didn't find anything under $600 and I know I can get one online for $500 easily, and maybe even $450. That's the lowest advertised price that I've seen. Anyway, we gave up and went home. I had to work at 3 p.m. so we wanted to leave my mom's house by 12:30, just in case we hit traffic. (And we did! Everything was fine until the last 10 minuts of the trip, which ended up taking about 45 minutes!!!!) So we arrived in town exactly at 3 p.m., and they just dropped me off here. About 20 minutes later, Stephen called me ranting and raving about something.

Apparently, our local Staples had laptops on sale for $350 until 10 a.m. Here! Not in Kent.

He was mucho frustrated :-(

Scary is not for me

2007-11-20T22:10:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons that I really don't like horror movies (or "suspense" movies) is that they are often too true for comfort when it comes to revealing human nature at its ... uh ... finest. I spent a ridiculously long time trying to think of a memory of being in a "threatening situation with others," just like in the movie The Mist, but to be honest, I tend to block out those types of memories. But I do know that when you have hard choices to make, and no matter what you decide, everything could go wrong and someone's going to be mad, it can be so overwhelming that it seems like the easiest thing to do is just do nothing.

When Ben was 4 months old, we flew to my friend's wedding for a long weekend. When we arrived back in Idaho, it was past midnight by the time we drove the two hours from the airport. Stephen had left his car at his work (I can't remember why — see? Blocked it!) and I was supposed to drop him off so he could drive it home. I knew that both of our phones had dead batteries, so made sure he had the key while we were still en route. By the time we got there, baby Ben had woken up and was crying to nurse. We were only 5 minutes from home, so it seemed silly to sit for 20 or 30 minutes to nurse him in the back of the cold car. So I dropped Stephen off and drove home as fast as I could to nurse the now screaming baby.

When some amount of time passed, I thought, "Maybe he decided to pick up some groceries, since he knows we have nothing in our fridge. That's sweet." When more time passed, I thought, "Something must be wrong. Why hasn't he called?" I double checked to make sure that my phone was plugged in and on. I knew that his phone was dead, but surely he could find one to use somewhere. When even more time passed, I assumed he must be walking home. But soon, two hours had gone by. If he were walking, he'd have arrived already. I started to really freak out. Ben was asleep and so I called my friend (who also happened to be our neighbor) to come over and stay with Ben (he's a night-owl, I knew he was up) while I got in my car and prayed I found my husband alive and in one piece.

As I was about two minutes onto the road, my phone went off.

"Are you going to come get me now?" was the snarky greeting of my husband.

"Yeah, I'm on my way, where are you? Are you OK?"

"What took you so long?"

"Why didn't you call?"

And on and on the fight went. The circular logic is not even explainable here, but we were both exhausted, upset and very sure that the other person was the one who had messed up big time. I wouldn't say that the situation brought out our "true" nature, as we love each other very much and usually don't have very many big fights, but it certainly took what would normally be considered manageable feelings (worry, fear of abandonment, etc.) and magnified them big time. Because I was scared and didn't know what to do, I just waited and thought, "Surely this situation will work itself out." The problem is, my husband did the exact same thing, and so we each were hoping the other one was going to save us. Sometimes you can't depend on others to save you. Sometimes you have to go out and do the saving.

I am not planning to see The Mist by Stephen King because I have enough stress in my own life. I don't need to go pay money to get even more emotional. But I know there are plenty of people who do like horror movies, and even find them to be somewhat therapeutic. And if other people want to learn life lessons from those types of movies and pass them on to me? Great. Just leave out the grisly details please.

Oh noez! Another etiquette question ...

2007-11-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

The last one didn't go over well, but hopefully I won't get in too much trouble for asking about birthday party etiquette for a 2-year-old.

We decided that we wanted to have Ben's birthday at the Olympia Chuck E. Cheese for a number of reasons. It's not as far for everyone to drive. Ben and the other little kids will have a better time with something fun to do than just running around our teeny tiny house. My dad and step-mom are allergic to cats and couldn't come if it were at our house.

But just yesterday, it occured to me that we are probably expected to pay for everything. Isn't that how birthday parties work? The parents bring their kid with a present for your kid, but you buy their kid food and pay for some tokens? Stephen flicked me for not having thought of this. I already told a bunch of people that it was going to be there too, so I can't really back out now. Gulp. Maybe I'll ask my mom to get Ben a birthday party as his gift. (She won't want to. Her style is to get something that will continue to be used every day for a long time so he'll always remember that it was from Nana.)

Pain relief that works

2007-11-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

My step-mom, Laurie, has suffered from back and shoulder pain for years. She also has fibromyalgia and lots and lots of trouble sleeping. I don't know if Freeze It would help her, but she's definitely the kind of person that would rather try something natural and topical before taking a bunch of drugs for her pain. She's lived with it for this long, I just wish there was something more we could do. Because my husband is a massage therapist, I'm used to him being able to "fix" (he's technically not allowed to use that word, but I do anyway) almost anyone. The problem is, when he tries to work on Laurie, she hurts so much that he can hardly do anything. She has to ask him to use less pressure or stop completely.

Here is a photo of her from a few years ago (it's all I could come up with on short notice) with my kid brother Daniel.

I think she would really benefit from my winning a year's supply of Freeze-It, because she isn't the only one in that family that suffers from muscle pain. My father has actually had surgery on his lower back because he has had so much pain in the last few years. I know that Freeze It Gel can't replace medical treatment, but it would sure be awesome if he could find a little relief. Between the two of them, someone is always hurting in that house. They could take turns applying the Freeze-It for each other and then lie there in a big mushy puddle and be happy together. They've been married for 10 years now, and I think they deserve a little destressing time.

Freeze-It can also help with arthritis, joint pain and muscle sprains. I know that when they sent me a sample a few months ago, I was very impressed with the product. It penetrated WAY below the surface of the skin and really helped to relax my muscles. It's not for people who don't have serious pain, because it is super intense. They aren't kidding when they say this stuff really works.

Here is the commercial where they explain it more.

Cost me all of 50 cents

2007-11-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

After procrastinating for way too long, I finally dragged Stephen out today to pick up some invitations for Ben's rapidly approaching 2nd birthday party. We are mega-busy and now is not a good time to do this, but if I wait until I actual have the time, it will be like three days before the party and then I'll be sad when no one can come.

Anyway, I asked to go to Staples because I remember them having some really nice stuff and I wanted the invites to have a nicer, quality type appearance. Well, strangly, they don't have birthday invitations. They have thank you cards and baby announcements and baby shower invitations, but no birthday ones. Lame.

So, since there's really nowhere else to go in this little town, we ended up at Mal-Wart, again, and I picked out some invites that I liked. They were $6 for 20 invitations, which I thought was pretty fair. (Hopefully I don't need more than 20, yipes!) When we went to pay for them, they rang up for $0.50. They were clearance.

Sweet!

Travel the world and the seven seas

2007-11-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

It's fun to dream about what you could do with money if you had it. I like to think we'd travel all over the world, but of course, always shopping for deals and grabbing the cheap flights when we see them. A lot of companies have holiday offers going on right now that I'd love to take advantage of if we had the extra funds. But even better than dreaming about what you would buy for yourself if you had money, is dreaming about what you would buy for others, especially at this time of years. When I saw cheap flights to Christchurch advertised on Dialaflight, I thought immediately of my mother-in-law, who I know would be so very touched by such a gift. Someday I'd love to be able to return some of the kindness and generosity that she has bestowed on our family over the years.

Made with love

2007-11-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Somehow, (I'm still not sure exactly what happened) my SIL's offer to teach me to knit cost about $15. She claims she wasn't meaning for me to buy circular needles (straight ones are only a couple of $$$) but she did insist that I get a book in case I needed some help when she wasn't around. I don't really learn well from books, but it's there for emergencies. My husband was not thrilled about the whole knitting thing though. ("Let's see, you spent money we don't have to take up a new hobby that's going to take up time that we could either spend together or use to be productive.")

OK, so our house is trashed again/like always, and I never clean anything much. I realize this. But previously I spent the time that he was putting Ben to bed reading or on the phone, and he didn't object to either of those things. I guess that might be because they don't cost any money. I read books I already have or I get them from the library. I tried to tell him that knitting is not expensive ... you only need to buy the needles once, and the yarn is like $3 for enough to make a ton of stuff. AND, I can make stuff that we need so we don't have to buy it. Not to mention the awesomeness of homemade items vs. made-in-China crap that supports our disposable society. I want my son to own clothes (are scarves considered clothes?) that were made with love. It really makes a difference, just like buying whole foods and home cooking them vs. buying frozen/processed crap in boxes and cans.

So now its my goal to be sure and actually FINISH a scarf and have it be useable this winter so that we don't have to buy him one. Plus, I thought it would be really super cool if I was fast enough to get one done before Christmas, I could give it to my nephew Cameron and then do one for Ben and they could match. I would love love love to make my own gifts. It's not only less expensive, it's more personal.

Worth 1,000 words

2007-11-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

One of the coolest things about posting the video of me and Ben cooking the other day was that it reminded me of the fact that our camera takes videos as well as pictures. I ignored it for quite some time because I didn’t have any way of getting the photos and videos off of the camera, so I figured, “Why bother taking them?” (How dumb is that?)

We are lucky that we got our camera as a gift, but if we didn’t already have one, I’d check out these Nikon D3s. One of my blogging friends was telling me the other day that if she wanted to share old pictures, she’d have to pull them out of albums and scan them. I wish she would — cause I’d really like to see them — but understand that it’s pretty inconvenient to have to do that. I’m so glad almost all of our important memories are in digital form.

Music to my ears

2007-11-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

Ha ha. I started out yesterday talking about the $4 video we got for Ben at Ross and ended up talking about why we got a new one but never actually explained what it was.

It’s like a knock-off Baby Einstein type product (which I do not approve of for babies, but think is fine for 2-year-olds) about the four seasons. It’s mostly real film of things like flowers, kids at the park, kids at the beach, fireworks, kids at a pumpkin patch (dressed up in costume — so cute) kids playing in leaves, kids sledding and some holiday lights. They even include a menorah, which makes me smile.

The whole thing is set to classical music so you can have it on while you do the dishes in the other room and not have to pull out your hair. At the very end, it switches to the ABC song (so you know its almost over and your kid’s gonna start looking for trouble) and amazingly, it seems to be teaching Ben his ABCs even better than Elmo. He knows about 1/3 of the letters now. A-H, and then O-U ish. And Z. Sort of. I think he thinks the letter is named “and Z” because he always says “and Z.” It’s too totally cute. Definitely worth $4.

Bed from heaven

2007-11-12T15:08:00.001-08:00

When I was pregnant, I admit that it was nice to have a massage therapist for a husband. But what I really wanted was a new bed. Our mattress was ancient and sagged in the middle. I used a body pillow from like week 10 and on, but it wasn't enough. By the time I was about six months along, my back ached more and more each and every day, no matter what my husband did to fix it. We decided that we would use my birthday money to get ourselves a new mattress.

While shopping, we had a chance to lay down on lots of different kinds of mattresses, but we both agreed that we liked the tempurpedic mattresses the best. Sadly, they were WAY out of our price range (we've pretty much always struggled to make ends meet, even then) so we went with a regular mattress with a memory foam topper. It was very awesome — a huge improvement from what our bed was before. But sometimes, I still wonder how blissfully happy we'd be now if we'd gotten the tempurpedic mattress. Seriously, it was like laying on a cloud.

Ka-pow = oh no

2007-11-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

So even though we’re still struggling with the $$$, I approved of spending $4 on a new video for Ben. He watches a movie everysingletime he uses his potty, which is basically all the time now. As long as we’re home, the pull-ups are just catching accidents. (And poo-poo, but boy is that another story.)

Anyway, I wanted him to have a new movie because he was (or maybe Stephen was) getting tired of just watching Elmo all the time. First, Stephen put on Cars for him, which I was OK with, because it was rated G and really cute. But next, it was Powerpuff Girls, which is PG. OK, fine, because they were just watching the opening scenes where the girls are born and then go to Kindergarten and then play tag. Well, then Stephen kept letting him watch a little more each day and it was getting more and more violent. You knew it was bad because Ben was acting scared at the movie. So what do we do? Turn it off? Well, that’s what I wanted to do, but Stephen was talking him through it, helping him to feel excited instead of scared. And it wasn’t long before I found myself doing it too. We were trying to cheer him up by desentizing him to the violence.

“Ka-pow! Go Powerpuff Girls! Get those bad monkeys! Yay, Powerpuff Girls save the day!”

And sure enough, he wasn’t bothered by it anymore. And even surer enough, it was only a few more hours before it occured to him to take a pillow off the couch and attack Blinx with it. “Bad kitty! Ben-Ben get you!” I pulled the pillow from him, told him he could hit the pillow with his fists or yell into it, but he couldn’t hit the cat with it. I turn around 30 seconds later and he’s hitting Blinx with his fists! Dammit.

What frustrates me the most is that Stephen just doesn’t seem to see this. He thinks, “Oh, he’s being a boy. All boys go through this type of stage. We teach him that kitties have feelings and put him in time-out if he does it again and he learns what the rules are. No biggie.”

And I guess those things are fine enough, but why set him up to fail, you know? We show him videos of little girls beating up on monkeys, we cheer them on, and then we tell him he can’t beat on his cats? Why aren’t we cheering for him? You get the idea. Whoever thinks violence on television doesn’t cause it in kids clearly never sat down and actually paid attention to their kids. It’s quite obvious to me.

Get a garage makeover

2007-11-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

We don't have a garage, so this wouldn't really help us, but my mom does and it's totally gross. It's a detached garage filled with a bunch of junk that mostly not even hers. If it were up to me, I'd go in there, and have a huge garage sale (get it? ha ha ha) and then trash whatever didn't sell. Then she'd have room to put both her car and Joe's car in the garage. And if she got some garage flooring it would keep everything from getting so dirty again. There are oil stains and dust and dirty and all sorts of gross things on the floor of that garage. I think the black and white checkerboard pattern is pretty cute. Better her garage than my kitchen, anyway.

Buried in bills

2007-11-11T14:09:00.001-08:00

I thought for sure we'd be able to survive until January because November is a three paycheck month and we've got plenty of gifts not only already purchased, but even already paid for. But that was before the mail came yesterday and we have not one, but TWO huge bills. One was for getting Stephen's "suspicious" mole removed, which was $400. Guess how much insurance paid? Go on, guess. That's right — $0. Why do we have insurance again?

The other was the last dental bill from all the work I had done last summer. That one was $800, and $300 was covered by insurance. Why just $300? Well, obviously because I've already maxed out all the benefits I can get for this whole year. Horray.

So, I guess all that money I was thrilled about making the other day will just get thrown into bills. And we'll probably still have to make payments on them. Why not? We're making payments on everything else ...

Getting back on track

2007-11-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

All it takes is one little disaster, one unexpected issue, and suddenly you can be flat broke. For us, it was having our son in the NICU for the first eight days of his life and finding out that our house was rotting underneath our feet. But whatever it is, once you're stuck in a cycle of not being able to afford your life, it can be so hard to get out.

Nothing quite as brilliant as the typical theory of only lending money to those who can prove they don't need it. That's why there's now bad credit loans for people who might have fallen on hard times and just need a boost to get out. This site lets you compare a lot of different offers and choose the one that is the best fit for your situation. For example, if your car breaks down beyond repair, but you have to have a vehicle, you can get an autoloan. As long as you choose one with payments you can afford, and remember to make them on-time, you will be able to build your credit back up again. And by the time you can qualify for a regular loan, hopefully, you won't need one anymore!

These boots were made for splashing

2007-11-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

I insisted on celebrating last night, even though it would make more sense to celebrate making money by not spending it, that isn't how I work. So we went out to dinner at Happy Teriyaki and then did a little shopping. It was mostly necessary shopping though, I swear! We got more pull-up ("Carrots still there, bunnies on 'em") diapers and a really cheap movie. (Seriously, this is what Ben says to differentiate between the pull-ups and the old baby diapers. Unless he uses one and then it's "Carrots all gone, bunnies on 'em") We also got him some new shoes to replace the ones we ruined. I know, poor people should not ruin their child's only pair of shoes, but we didn't do it on purpose!

We'd gone for a walk in the rain the other day and managed to get all the way to the school (they have a covered play area that both the kid and the dog really appreciate visiting when it's raining) and most of the way home with no incidents when Ben took off running and started stomping in a puddle. His shoes were soaked all the way through, but we still had to go grocery shopping that day. Since they are his only shoes, our options were: Go another day, bring him without shoes, have one of us stay home with him and the other go alone, or try to dry out the shoes. We chose option 4, try to dry out the shoes. We propped them up by the heater vent and turned it up full-blast. Well, the shoes were dry in about 15 minutes but the little liner things in the soles shrunk up and fell out. (They were $10 shoes from Payless. Why spend a lot on shoes he's just going to outgrow?) Well, we'd only had them for a few months and they were still a little big on him ... so we were very sad. Stephen said we'd just make do and have him wear them anyway, making sure that he always has socks on (he hates socks and usually doesn't wear them). This worked OK I guess, but I just feel like a bad person. They can't be comforatable with no cushion under his feet. If I'm bringing in all this extra money that we weren't even counting on, surely we can afford a new pair of shoes for our son.

So we shopped around and I didn't really like anything that we saw. Everything was either ugly or expensive. Some pairs were both! So we headed back to Payless. (It wasn't THEIR fault that the first pair fell apart, you know?) We tried three pairs on him, the $10 pair were kinda cute, but wouldn't really go with very many of his outfits. The second pair, $17, were pretty cute, and actually looked a lot like the pair we were replacing. We were just about to get them when I saw a pair of brown boots — also $17 on sale. The giant sign on them said "WATERPROOF" and I heard the cheesy little "Hallelujah" chorus in my head. Brilliant! All children's shoes should be waterproof.

We bought them and he wore them out of the store. He wasn't thrilled, because they are heavy and clunky and slow him down quite a bit. Plus, he likes to take his shoes off in the car and he was extra grumpy that he couldn't kick these off. (They are tie shoes, but have a secret zipper on the inside for easy on and off for parents. Again, I restate that these are awesome shoes!) So when I got up this morning, I was happy to see that it had rained last night. We'll be sure to go for an afternoon walk today and I'll show him that it's OK to jump in the puddles now because new boots protect our feet. After that, I bet he'll take to them just fine.

Strollin along

2007-11-08T14:26:00.001-08:00

When Ben was a little baby, I believed in baby-wearing with all my heart. I alternated between two slings and a front pack whenever we went out. I tried to keep him as close to me as possible because he used to cry if he thought he was being ignored. We got the best use out of our baby carriers when he was about 8 to 15 months old. But the older he got, the more he objected to being carried. Plus, he was getting heavy! So my husband dragged out our old stroller one day when we were planning to go for a walk, and I thought, “This will never last. He’ll be begging to get out in a few minutes.” Well, that walk lasted for more than an hour and that’s when we knew that he was finally old enough and secure enough to just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Of course, that doesn’t mean its that easy on us parents though. The stroller is a hand-me-down and the steering is atrocious. It’s awkward to push and really bulky to store, even when it is folded up. I would have replaced it, except that I figured that one stroller was as good as another.

Boy did I have no idea. Talk about being on the edge of trendy! This company Mutsy, has created a truly innovative new stroller design. They convert from a bassinet style to a car seat holder to an upright stroller for an older child. They almost look like a luggage cart with a baby seat attached. The style seems like it’s right out of a futurist movie like “I Robot.”

I really like the college navy and the college khaki (whether they are implying that its for college student moms or college-bound babes, I’m not quite sure, but they are still really stylish.)

You have got to be kidding me

2007-11-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is just not OK.

Date rape drug found in children’s toy

I know we’re having money problems. And the shiny made-in-China stuff at Mal-Wart sure can look tempting. But I am just not OK with the industry regulations right now. I am this close to limiting Ben’s new toys to solid pieces of American wood, carved and sanded by myself or my husband only. We’ll do it in our own house and make them into cute shapes like teddy bears and trains. That’s a toy right? I’m sure kids got along fine before brightly colored plastics and battery-operated light-up things were invented.

I mean, a choking hazard is one thing, and if these kids swallowed small toys that were meant for older kids and choked on them, I could maybe see blaming the parents a little more. You know, like the toys have an age on the outside of the package for a reason. You don’t sue the bleach company if your kid drinks bleach and dies you know? It’s bleach, it’s SUPOSSED to be toxic.

But when toys for kids of any age contain the date rape drug and kids who eat the toy go into a coma? There is something majorly wrong with our world. It’s almost like someone is doing this on purpose. And seriously, I don’t care how much you hate Amercia, you just don’t target children. You just don’t. And if its not on purpose, but just people being lazy and trying to cut costs to drive up profit margins? Well, shame on them. They certainly won’t be making any more profits now, huh?

Tourist alert

2007-11-08T13:18:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love to travel and I loved the time we spent in New York. We went to the The Metropolitan Museum (and spent several hours there, hypnotized by the beautiful and intriguing artwork) and to Bloomingdales (I got socks because its all I could afford, but I still wear them and think "These are my New York socks, yay!") and out to eat a lot. We wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty but there just wasn't enough time. We settled for looking at it from the mainland. As for the Empire State building, well, I think we might have seen it from the cab! There was so much to see, but it was all so expensive and we were only there for a whirlwind 24 hours.

I know that if I ever get a chance to go back, I'm going to insist that we take our time and actually see the sights. In fact, I'm going to insist that we each get a New York CityPass. They are $65 for adults and $49 for youths age 12-17. I'm assuming that maybe kids are free? The site had some tips for dealing with kids' short attention spans when it comes to museum viewing and such, so obviously its not that they aren't letting you bring them. Anyway, the pass gives you admission to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the new Greek and Roman galleries, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Guggenheim Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. And you get to go to the top of the Empire State Building and see the observatory and take a Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise. Wow. All this would cost $130 if the tickets were purchased individually. The winter special is good from Dec. 15 to March 15. If you live within day-trip distance of the city, the deal is even better, because you really have the whole three months to use up the six tickets. Seems a little more peaceful than cramming it all into one jam-packed vacation.

Achieve it

2007-11-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

You know that cheesy old addage, "Anything you can conceive and believe, you can achieve"? That kind of inspriational message is usually found on posters in the guidance counselor's office at a high school. And even when I was IN high school, and like the cheeriest, giggliest girl you could ever imagine meeting, those posters made me want to barf. There was one of a bird trying to eat a frog and the frog was already in the bird's mouth but he used his froggy hands to squeeze the bird's neck closed and the text read, "Never, ever give up" or something like that. It's kind of a nice idea, but even then I knew that there are some things that you should just give up on.

Take me for example. A realistic dream was to be a journalist. Everyone told me that I was good at writing, I seemed to enjoy it, and I really loved layout. But if my dream was to be a singer, a la Carrie Underwood? There are not enough voice lessons in the world to fix the fact that my tone is bad and when I think I'm matching what I hear, I'm actually painfully flat. (I can hear this quite clearly when listening to myself played back on a tape. Just not while I'm actually singing for some unknown reason.)

So the dream I entertained as a child of being a rock star was out. Just plain out. No amount of dreaming and believing was going to make it happen.

Well, what about my current dream? To be at home with my kid(s) and maybe someday train to help and support other nursing women? With our family's finances? How will we get by without my steady income?

For awhile, it felt like that dream was too far on the rock star side of things. I struggled to earn a few extra $$$ here and there. I was thrilled to make $5 every few days. And now? With hard work, perserverance and some dumb luck, I really feel like I am starting to turn my life around. We had problems and I said, I will not let these problems stop me from following my dreams. I found a solution and I worked at it, HARD, for a very long time. And now everything looks so rosy I'm starting to wonder what else I could accomplish if I set my mind to it. I am very stubborn, you know :-)

Reach out and help someone

2007-11-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again when we are stretching our budgets to the very last dime that all the heartstrings tend to get pulled the most. There are so many important causes out there and you just can't support all of them, no matter how much money you have set aside to give, it's never enough. Usually, I let my son put loose change in the Salvation Army cans and that's about it. We are just so strapped at this time of year that we can't really afford to do much more.

That's why I thought this Web site was so brilliant. Everyone is out shopping for the perfect holiday gift, and a lot of us tend to shop online. It's just less frustrating than going out to real stores and waiting in lines. Well, what if I told you that there's a way to shop online and directly benefit Alzheimer's research at the same time? By purchasing heart of care jewelry for someone you love this holiday season, you're not only getting a beautiful gift, but showing your support for this important cause.

My husband's grandmother didn't have her mind for the last 10 years of her life and it was really hard for everyone, especially my mother-in-law, who took her into her home after she couldn't care for herself anymore. I have to say, even though I didn't even know her that well, it is really hard to see a grown woman lost in the abyss of her memories and past without knowing who she is or what she's doing. She used to get up in the middle of the night to shush us while we were watching movies, thinking we were her own children and the whole thing was taking place years and year ago. I have never experienced anything quite like speaking with someone who doesn't see you for who you are. This disease is so heartbreaking for everyone involved, but especially the person's loved ones.

We recently saw the movie "The Notebook" and they did a really good job of depicting what it's like to love someone who is suffering from memory loss. Hopefully, a cure can be found soon. Please take a moment to visit these sites and give if you can.

Late for my life

2007-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

I came in to finsh up a few things at the office really quickly and got majorly distracted. It's a good kind of distracted, but seriously, I've been here for way too long and I'm sure my son is crying for me because it's getting pretty late. Have I mentioned how hard it is to balance work and home life so that I don't feel like I'm failing everyone around me? Everytime I try to get a special jump on one, the other suffers.

I am tired of trying to do it all, be it all, to everyone all of the time. Here's a special treat for those of you who read this blog instead of just my lj. Stephen applied for a full-time job this week. That was why we dragged the computer out, to get his resume information off of it. It's a massage job at a medical practice. It has benefits. I am practically drooling over this prospect. I don't know how we would make it work, but I am ready to make it work.

Wish him luck!

Happy teeth

2007-11-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

I have major issues with my teeth. Thankfully, I've never lost a crown, but I have chipped a filling. If it had been in the front where people could see, maybe I would have been motivated to get it taken care of right away. But instead, it was way in the back and I just ignored it. That allowed the root to get infected and lead to my eventual root canal. It was expensive and painful and just plain stupid of me to let it get so bad. I do still have dental fear, but it's getting better now that I've learned about the drug that helps you sleep through the procedures. Now, I know that if I were to chip another filling or actually lose one of my crowns (I have three now, yipes!) I'd be smart enough to go in right away.

But that's sometimes easier said than done. Dental emergencies don't just happen from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, you know? So in the meantime, I happy to see that there's a new product out there called Dentemp OS which will help manage the pain of a chipped filling until you can get an appointment to have it repaired. It also works as a paste to help cement a crown back on should it pop off at some random time. (This has happened to my mother and she couldn't eat for days!) I'll be sure and let her know about this temporary dental repair product. It sets in just 30 minutes and then you can even eat on it and everything. It's obviously not designed to hold as long as real dental work, but it will sure get you through in a pinch.

Two to three

2007-11-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

The difference between three and two is most obnoxious when dealing with six.

Huh?

Well, say you have a package of six hot dogs. If there are only two people, then you get three meals out of them. But if there are three people, then they only last for two meals. And sure, Ben doesn't always eat a whole hot dog (sometimes he does!) but you can't just cook half of one, and so we end up finishing his food. This means we eat more than we would have if he weren't here, AND all of our food doesn't last as long.

We went to the farmers market this afternoon to try and get enough fresh fruits and veggies to keep us from having to go to the regular grocery store this week. Their stuff is better, and cheaper, and we don't come home with a whole bunch of junk food. We are really trying to eat better, (whole foods) and watch our budget at the same time. (Yeah, I know, but they are all natural 100 percent beef hot dogs with no nitrates, Ben loves them and they were on mega sale last week, OK?)

So tonight's dinner was: leftover mac & cheese made with real cheese, hot dogs, yellow squash, crackers and freshly pressed juice. Weird, but sastifying. And we successfully avoided my Happy Terriyaki craving. Now we just have to keep on having days like today and maybe we'll make it to January in one piece!

Mix it up

2007-11-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

I’ve always wanted one of those pretty mixers that you put on your counter and push a button and it does the rest. No fuss, no muss.

This Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer fits the bill perfectly. It was awarded a “Best-Buy” rating by two different leading consumer magazines and it comes with a three year limited warranty. I tend to gravitate toward companies that stand by what they make. Seems less likely that you’ll end up in the middle of a recall.

The Eclectrics® Mixer comes in lots of colors, and at first I couldn’t decide at all. I narrowed it down to the sterling color and the sugar color. The sugar would probably match our black and white kitchen a little better, and interestingly enough, it seems to be cheaper. $200 isn’t bad for such a fancy mixer. This thing can mix the dough for nine dozen cookies at once! It’s definitely tougher than any job I ever see myself tackling in our homely little kitchen.

But the most exciting thing of all is that Hamilton Beach® is giving away a free Hamilton Beach® Mixer to the top ten bloggers who post the most creative videos. I would absolutely love to win this contest because we currently only have a little hand mixer. It’s also a Hamilton Beach® mixer, and has lasted us a long time. But it only works for little jobs, and we often make a mess with it. I’ve been very sastified with the brand, but would love to get a big countertop mixer as well.

They are also offering free shipping throughout the month of November. Go check it out. Even if I don’t win, maybe I’ll throw it on my Christmas list. My mother-in-law loves to get us kitchen items.

Holidays hit us hard

2007-11-07T12:16:00.001-08:00

The AP has moved a wire story about how to cut your budget around the holidays that I pored over with much enthusiasm, until I realized that it was filled with useful tips like, give to charity throughout the year instead of a bunch at the holidays and limit your outings to just one or two special plays like "The Nutcracker." Hmm.

The only tip on there that I considered useful for lower/middle class us was try making more holiday gifts this year and offer to see a friend and go out for lunch and a movie instead of swapping gifts, as your time is more precious than stuff anyway. I totally agree with the sentiment of this idea, but in my book, lunch and a movie is still quite expensive.

We most certainly won't be spending that much on any one person on our list. It's so huge that we're trying to keep it between $5-10 per person, but it's getting hard. I've spent $15 on my mom, and I still feel bad because I'd love to be able to afford to get her more. There's a DVD out there that I know she'd love ...

Never buy a car the same day you start looking!

2007-11-06T15:10:00.001-08:00

We realize now that we were pretty dumb to wander onto a new car lot after we'd been married for just two months. I was still in school and my husband was working full time, and had just gotten another job on the side. Our "just looking" trip ended with us buying a brand new car. We didn't know what we were doing at all. We didn't haggle the price, or even try to walk away. We let them bully us around and then we had car payments we couldn't afford. Thankfully, we at least like the car! That was five years ago, and our car is still providing everything we need. But we often think to the future, when we will have another baby (or two!) and our little Mazda will be on its last legs.

We both know a lot more now than we did then, and there's no way that we'd pay full price for a new car ever again. I mean, for one thing, you can do some shopping on line and come up with a Honda Car Quote so that you can at least walk in there and say, "Well, I saw that exact same car online for this price" and then you'll know if they are trying to rip you off. We also might just go with a used car next time. Especially if we can find one for cheap that will serve our needs. I shudder to think of myself driving some sort of gas-guzzling mini-van or SUV someday, but it may be unavoidable. If we end up with three kids, we just won't all fit in a Mazda Protege anymore.

Toddler talk

2007-11-06T14:18:00.001-08:00

Ben is starting to try to talk in the beat and structure of adult conversation, but he has no idea what he's doing, so you get things like this.

"Mama lap hold you pick up you computer time mama you play please"

Even if you translate every you to a me, it still is iffy on the making sense scale. I mean, his meaning is clear: "Mama, may I sit in your lap and play on the computer please?" but he's got a long way to go before the grammar, syntax and agreement are all there. And its not like I'm complaining that my not-even-2-year-old son doesn't speak in perfect English. It's just funny to leap from baby talk "Mama up peese. Computer peese" to the rhytem of adult language. I wonder what inspired him to start trying so hard to talk like us? Regardless, its totally cute.

Show your smile!

2007-11-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

My history with my teeth is shady at best. After having more fillings than I have teeth (some on baby teeth and many teeth have been drilled more than once) three crowns and a root canal, it’s a wee bit of an understatement to say that my teeth are sensitive.
I don’t bite popsicles or ice cream and I most certainly can’t chew ice the way my husband does! (Not that it’s something I aspire to do anyway.)

And to make my story even crazier, I hate mint. Yes, that’s right, every time I go to the dentist’s office, I have to put in special requests for bubble gum flavored polish and cinnamon floss. I’ve spent my whole life wishing that they’d make some sort of toothpaste that isn’t mint flavored, but also doesn’t come with a bunch of cartoons on the container.

I was thrilled to try out Biotene’s new toothpaste, if not a little concerned about the taste. Imagine how thrilled I was to learn that it really has no flavor at all. After I finished brushing with it, my teeth didn’t taste like anything in particular, they just tasted clean. I’ve used other sensitive toothpastes before, but tend not to keep them around the house because they have all these drug warnings on them about not letting children younger than 12 use them at all. But this Biotene product is just as safe as a regular toothpaste. The back just says supervise children ages 2-6 to minimize swallowing and only give them a pea-sized amount.

Considering how often my (nearly) 2-year-old gets into the toothpaste drawer, this was good to hear. He loves to use Mama’s toothpaste as well, so I will be happy to share this one with him. It doesn’t even have a strong flavor or scent that might turn him off.

As for my teeth, they feel happy and clean, but without any funky chemical aftertaste. I liked this toothpaste so much that after I use up my sample tube, I will go out and purchase more. It is really hard to live with sensitive teeth. Biotene doesn’t just mask the problem, it helps resolve it.

But my kid is so smart!

2007-11-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

My stepmom sent this to me. It's been bugging me all day, in that I feel frustrated and defensive but can't see why I should. I mean, I want to be like, "Dude I was reading at age 2 and I turned out great!" but that's the dumbest thing in the world to say. I was also formula-fed, and that doesn't mean that its OK just because I got lucky and didn't suffer any problems. I am the first person to research these types of thnigs, cosleeping, nursing, letting little kids be little and all that jazz. But I'm so freaking proud that Ben is so smart and that he is not even two and knows so many letters already: B, o, f, and sometimes a and n. We read to him all the time. Isn't that what ALL the experts say? Read to your kids? Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is like his favorite book on the planet. I mean, I'm all for creative art play and playdough and stuff.

I dunno. I think I'm feeling this discontent because she's probably right and I'm probably not going to change anything which is going to make me feel guilty in the long run. I guess.

letter:

Hi Suz,

I found the information about early vs later reading. It basically has to do with where the child is developmentally. Young children are very imaginative and think in pictures – if you cut this short by moving too soon to reading and other ‘left brain’ activities, then you start losing some of that lovely, imaginative quality to their lives.

What I have found is that parents should ‘follow’ their child, just like you did with breast-feeding; wait to ‘teach’ reading until he is developmentally ready.

Here is part of the article about Waldorf education, and more importantly, about what is going on with kids at what age. Of course, they also don’t have kids watch any TV until I can’t remember – 7 or 8?

It is your decision of course – I just wanted to make this material available to you and Stephen, because the culture around us all tends to say: ‘teach em early’. Just like it says ‘put them in their own bed from day 1’ and other stuff.

An Introduction to Waldorf Education
Don’t Rush the Young Child
Storytelling, songs, rhythmical games, handwork, painting, singing, and lots of free play with toys that lend themselves to many uses, help to develop both imaginative forces and social skills. A child lives with a constantly growing mastery of the physical world. In these early years, a young child’s thought has a pictorial and dreamy quality, quite unlike the thinking of an adult. Formative forces are still working to mold the young body and brain. At about age seven, these forces are freed to develop memory and intellect. Prematurely awakening a child’s intellect by asking the child to focus on academics in what should be the imitative phase, means that full development of imaginative powers will be hampered. The child will become less truly himself.

The value of early academics has never been proven, but its harm has been clearly documented by such internationally recognized psychologists as David Elkind and educators such as A. C. Harwood. No two children are alike in the way they learn. Reading, like walking, speaking, and thinking, appears when the child is mature enough to integrate all the skills needed. True, reading can be hurried, but there is a cost: emotionally, psychologically, and/or academically.

A study by the Gesell Institute measured reading skills of children who began reading at age 3 to 5, against the skills of children who began reading much later, at age 6 to 8. The study found that by the third grade both groups of children had similar skill level, but the children who began reading later had a much greater interest in exploring reading.

Waiting until a child is in first grade before starting academic work has obvious advantages for an average or slow child who needs the time to gain maturity before beginning reading or math. But what to do with the bright child who wants to start writing or reading at age three or four? Here is a chance to share their excitement and declare “You will be able to learn all about that when you get to first grade!”. You need not sit down and give the children formal lessons at a young age, merely because they are interested in letters and numbers. There are many letter and number games for young children that can provide satisfaction. Songs with rhymes counting can also be an endless source of delight to the young child.Tell a story or read from one book at a sitting, allowing the child to fully enter into the mood of each story.

I'm floored!

2007-11-01T11:15:00.001-07:00

I am so impressed with iFLOOR for offering a $1,000,000 warranty to protect customers who have had problems with their flooring and were told that the warrenty didn't apply because they purchased the flooring online! I would be so mad if something happened to our brand new bamboo floor and we were told our warrenty didn't apply. We did not get our floor online, but I do get a lot of other things there. It's scary to think that a big purchase would be excluded because of where you shop. It's the exact same floor, you know? This press release explains how iFLOOR is going out of their way to protect their customers. Good for them!

iFLOOR, America's largest online flooring retailer, today announced a $1,000,000 limited warranty designed to protect its customers from predatory manufacturer policies that exclude warranty coverage from online purchases.

The policy, which goes into effect immediately, offers up to one million dollars of coverage in the event that a customer's warranty claim is denied specifically because they made their purchase online. It is complimentary for every iFLOOR customer, and protects the buyer under the same terms as the original product warranty.

iFLOOR, Inc. CEO, Steve Simonson, came up with the program to combat "scare tactics" used by manufacturers of hardwood floors and laminate flooring. "Their idea is to discourage you from buying at a discount!" wrote Simonson in his blog "It's About Flooring". "This is not right! You deserve to save money! So we're going to take care of this problem once and for all."

And it would appear that federal law is on his side. Section 108 of the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Act, states that, "In general, tie-in sales provisions are not allowed. Such a provision would require a purchaser of the warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular company to use with the warranted product in order to be eligible to receive a remedy under the warranty."

Under iFLOOR's new warranty, a key provision allows for iFLOOR to "seek justice" on behalf of the customer in the event of legal action. According to Simonson, "I'm putting iFLOOR's money where my mouth is."

About iFLOOR, Inc. *Since 1998, iFLOOR.com has been the leading online and retail flooring company, with 36 local retail stores nationwide offering more than 70,000 products, including hardwood floors, laminate flooring, bamboo flooring and cork floors. iFLOOR.com is the largest online flooring retailer according to Internet Retailer Magazine, and was named by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States for the past three years. Committed to quality customer service, superior selection and friendly expert advice, iFLOOR.com enables customers to buy flooring both online and in its retail stores at a substantial savings over traditional retailers. For more information about iFLOOR, please visit www.iFLOOR.com.

###

I am taking the afternoon OFF!

2007-11-01T11:02:00.001-07:00

I'm burning up my overtime, which is sad, because if you're going to work 9 and a half hours on a Saturday, it might be nice to get paid for it. But at the same time, if I put 11 hours or more of OT on my timecard, work would flip, and I did miss out on spending that Saturday with my family. So instead of two weekend days off, I got Sunday and Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. Sometime having the afternoon off is better anyway, because it feels like you're playing hooky. My husband suggested to me that if I went in early (ensuring I'd be done soon enough to take the afternoon off) I could take a nap with Ben. But then I decided to get coffee this morning (mmm ... pumkin spice! and I don't even have to feel bad financialy because I got a ton of Starbucks giftcards for my birthday) so now I'm not really that tired. Plus, I went to bed early too. It's really really nice to not be tired. So I will be enjoying the afternoon with my family. It's hard to be poor, but its also a balance. No one has to be poor if they're willing to sell their souls and become workaholics, but then what's the point of the money, you know? You have to have the time to enjoy yourself and raise your kid too.

:-)

I prefer my own ... mostly

2007-10-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

I go back and forth on my opinions about plastic surgery. In some ways, its an important medical field that can really change the lives of accident victims and cancer patients. But I hear India Arie singing "Video" in my head.

"Don't need your silicon, I prefer my own — What God gave me is just fine." I love her message and always sing that line louder than all the rest. I am against superficial plastic surgery to take something that is "just fine" and make it fake and unreal. But I also know that there are people who look in the mirror and hate what they see every day of their lives. Some are born with huge blotchy birthmarks or with moles they find unattractive. No matter how many times I sang "What God gave me is just fine," I was still horribly self-conscious of the raised mole on my belly button throughout my pregnancy. My sister-in-law wanted to take some belly shots of me and I wouldn't let her (unless I had my hand over my belly-button) because I hated that mole so much. Now I feel like I've missed out on an important time that I'll never get back.

I know that there are women who feel this way about various parts of their bodies, like their noses for instance. (Trust me, I'm Jewish, I know.) And sometimes it doesn't seem like the worst thing to get a little confidence boost if it really makes that much of a difference in how you feel about yourself.

I can't help but think that if I were to get that mole taken care of before it was time to get pregnant again, I'd be a lot happier. It's a little disappointing that I can't really go to this place though. Plastic Surgery UK because if I'm going to do something scary to my body, it might as well be done by people with a good reputation for knowing what they're doing. Maybe they'll open an American branch sometime soon ...

My perfect little pumpkin

2007-10-29T12:09:00.001-07:00

During my break from work on Saturday, my husband dragged me to a garage sale at our neighbor's house. There was something I had to see, which is pretty unusual. He's not normally into garage sales and the like. Anyway, we got there and this woman was selling a ton of kids stuff, including (bum bum bum ... ) HOMEMADE Halloween costumes! She had a fuzzy pumpkin one that fit Ben perfectly! I'm so glad that he's not going to be a Mal-wart Elmo.

Seriously, we do not need to support them and we do not need to have him dressed like every other kid in this teeny tiny town. (We were back there on Sunday picking up pull-ups and the Elmo costumes were sold out anyway, so we got doubly lucky!)

I'm glad to help out this woman who had all these costumes she made for her kids and grandkids just hanging around, and I'm glad to buy something made with love instead of mass-produced in China. And I'm glad that it was only $5!!!!!!!!

We are on our way to escaping this rat race, I just know it.

Uptown Saturday nights

2007-10-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

I am so jealous of this awesome event in downtown St. Augustine, Fla. It's called Uptown Saturday night and its always on the last Saturday of the month. That means one just went by on Oct. 27 and there will be another on Nov. 24. It runs from 5 to 9 p.m., its totally free to go,(even parking is free!) and they have all sort of nifty entertainment like shopping, live music, book signings and more.

The thing that caught my attention the most was the fact that many shops will hold an open house with wine tastings and refreshments. You seriously cannot tear me away from free food. I would also love to look around at the St. Augustine shopping because I have such a soft spot in my heart for antiques. My husband and I fell in love with an antique bud vase in Ellensburg a few years ago and I absolutely had to have it, never mind the price. (For some reason, I haven't been allowed to look in antique shops since then.) But not all antiques are expensive, and even the ones that are pricey are worth it, because by buying things that already exist, you're helping keep down the amount of new crappy, made-in-China junk that is shipped out to big box stores every day. If we stopped consuming so much, they'd have to stop supplying so much, you know?

I think that Uptown Saturday nights is a brilliant way to revitalize a downtown that needs a boost, or to just bring even more attention to one that's already thriving. Really, all you would need to get something like this going is the participation of the shop owners. And what shop owner isn't interested in attracting more business to their store? Once you have a big event going on, and everyone's talking about it, people start to remember that the downtown shops are there, even during the weekdays. My town could really learn a thing or two from St. Augustine.

Letting the baby drive

2007-10-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

After we went out to breakfast this morning for my birthday (paid for by very generous friends, yay!) we weren't sure what to do with ourselves. It was 9 a.m. on a Saturday and we were already out, dressed and fed. Nothing here is really open that early, so Stephen decided to offer to let Ben choose what we would do. He asked him if he wanted to go home or on a drive.

He picked drive. And then, just for fun, we went ahead and let him choose where we'd go. Not like, "where do you want to go?" but like, every time we came to an intersection, we'd say "left, right or straight?" and he'd pick. And amazingly, in a slightly, but actually not very roundabout way, he started heading the car straight for the mall! Ha ha ha. We warned him that the mall doesn't open until 10 a.m. on Saturday, but that we would look just to be sure. (That way, we weren't the bad guys by saying "no") and sure enough, Penny's was having a special early bird promotion. Every thing in the store was super on sale. We got holiday gifts for my mom and his mom, and still had $10 left to spend to get a $10 off coupon. So basically, we were shopping for free at that point. Stephen found the clearance rack in his section and picked out three really nice polo type shirts that were on sale for $2.97. These were $30 shirts!!! Not like he needs shirts, but we got three nice ones for free, so hey, who can argue?

Next we went out into the mall, (it was 10 a.m. by now) and were planning on letting Ben do what he wanted, but then we saw that the liquidation store had closed for good and was putting shopping carts out front of their leftover merchandise, marked FREE.

Holy crap! We got lightbulbs, several books, some clothes, an Easter basket for Ben and some kale seeds for next spring. Actually, we got more than that but I don't remember it all. A Halloween mask, I think. Anyway, our Penny's receipt said we saved $150 and who knows how much all the free liquidation store stuff was worth. All because we decided to let Ben drive. :-)

That's why they call it VIRAL marketing

2007-10-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Carrie at Rantings of a Woman. I freaked when I saw how long this meme is, but realized that it's for a good cause. In fact, its the best one I've seen. It's kind of like a chain letter for adults, except we all benefit right away. Plus, it's a great way to make a bunch of new friends really fast!

*Start Copy Here*
This is an open meme. You do not have to be tagged to join in. All you have to do is follow the rules.Please let me know when you have added your site by leaving a comment on “Complete List” with a link to your post. This will insure an up-to-date list, giving you even greater distribution. You then have the option of copying the growing list back to your siteRules:
Create an inventive post titleWrite a brief introduction to the meme.
1.Copy from “**Start Copy Here**” through “**End Copy Here**”
2.Paste into your post At the end of the “*list*”, before “**End copy here**”,
3.please add your name, site name (with link), a very brief description (2-3 sentences) of why you blog, and your most important, most representative, or most relevant post (with link.)
4.Tag at least 5 others to participate.
5.Leave a comment and a link to your post on “Complete List”
My name is Mel and I am the Author of Attitude, the Ultimate Power, aka Monday Morning Power. I blog because I am passionate about happiness and living in the moment. I want to spread the concept that we are in control of our own lives and can choose how we act and react. My site is focused on the Pursuit, Capture, Care and Feeding of a Positive Mental Attitude. One of my most representative posts is “Happiness Vs. Human Nature.”
I am Max and I offer weekly articles on MAX. Why do I blog? I do it because I want to share my thoughts with you guys. I present a new and interesting way of transmitting philosophical thoughts: funny, engaging and intriguing! My funniest, yet intriguing, post is "Don't you just love People?"
I am the Great and Powerful Baba Doodlius. My 100% factual blog The Thoughts and Sayings Of Baba Doodlius is intended to educate all of you curious readers about the Truth behind the Great Secrets of the Universe. I have the Truth! Can you handle the Truth? For a sample of my powers of enlightenment, read my Revelation of the terrible secret of Bigfoot, aka Don't get stepped on.
My name is Amelia and I am the Author of Amel's Realm. I blog because I need to voice everything in my world so that I won't explode. My site is all about thoughts, experiences, fears, problems, misadventures, hopes, and dreams of an introverted tropical girl in a foreign land (Finland). One of my most representative posts is On Trust and Relationship.
I am Geoff of Geoffandcarley.com and I blog for reasons as diverse and as fickle as my moods. Mostly I blog because I'm firmly convinced I've figured a few things out and that the world will benefit from my experience the same way I've benefited from others' experiences. One post that I feel captures my emotional involvement and my ire (but not my humor as much) is Decision time.
My name is Judy and I am the Author of ~~Sugar Queen's Dream~~. I blog because it's cheap therapy and I have something to say. I feel my most powerful post is called “The Myths of Smoking......”
My name is Sindi and I have written a blog entitled Life is a roller coaster!. My blog is based on the ups and downs of everyday life. I started blogging because I was going through some hard times and I wanted to meet new people to talk to. I like to write and was hoping people might enjoy reading what I have to say. I think the most inspiring post I have written to date is We Effect So Many.
People call me the Midgetmanofsteel (although I’m neither a midget, nor made of steel). I am the sole author the blog Mental Poo: a mostly true and humorous account of things that have happened to me, are happening to me, or are just filling my head and taking up valuable space where images of women should be. You can get a sneak peek into my mess of a brain by reading “Raisins are People” – a true account of my son’s first field trip.
My name is Sandee and I have a blog called Comedy Plus. My blog is just for fun, and I started it to poke fun about everyday life. My reason for blogging is to have fun and meet new friends. I have done both beyond my wildest dreams. I have posted lots of jokes, but when ask what my favorite joke is, I always pick Anger Management.
My name is Lynda. I blog to as a way to expose my writings and to spread my knowledge on the subject of love. My primary blog (I have 15) is lynda's loft. My favorite piece would be I LOVE..... I have over 300 original poems and posts dealing with the wonderful and painful world of love. I love love!
My name Adrian, although most of you probably know me as the Mighty Genie King. I am the author First Time Dad. I started blogging as a way to document my growing up pains as my wife and I raise our daughter. I hope that one day my daughter will be able to look at this and get an idea what life was like "back then". Now I blog about everything but the main focus is still the same! One of my favorite posts is Goodnight Sweetheart! Hello Basil! Eh...Who's Basil...
Hello, my name is Ann and I'm the author of A Nice Place in the Sun. I blog because I care about people and want to make them happy. My site is focused on humorous, inspiring, and nostalgic posts about life, children, and memories. My most representative post, or the post where I'm most myself is "The Craziest Experience Of My Life."
We are a team of writers, and everyone calls us NAFA, so that would be our name. We are the proud authors of NAFASG©™ - United And Dedicated Behind You™. Blogging, to us, is a form of spreading useful information and sharing our knowledge to every part of the world in order to contribute to the betterment of our global community. The post that we feel would be representative of our blog and the global community at large is The Sociological Interaction.Hola!
This is Mariuca and I blog because writing is what makes me whole. I write about anything under the sun from life, love, friends to cats and work. I tend to write best when under pressure and my personal favourite post from Mariuca is Love in Disarray.
My name is Susan and I am the Owner of ~~Wake up America ~~, which is a political, right leaning blog. I blog because I believe we need more voices out there to separate fact from fiction, to support our troops and to high light the lack of ethics from journalists today. I feel my most powerful post is called "Are You Proud to be an American......""Here I am :-)
My name is Mauro and I'm the author of 1 Million Love Messages ... maybe the biggest love challenge in the blogosphere. Why I blog ??? Because I believe that bloggers can make a difference in the world. That's my challenge! My favourite post it's (for sure) Adam Donkus & Lizzie's Love History."
Hi there World I am Aussie, the author of Little Aussie Cynic and I want to Breathe among others. I was recently asked:"Why Do you Blog?" this takes me back to the beginning... I started blogging in an attempt to get people thinking, using my cynical humour as a tool to make people laugh, think and at times get the blood pumping.... Each of my Blogs takes in a little peice of my varied personality but the one which discribes me best would have to be There is Always a Natural Way the latest edition to the Aussie Cynic Family...
I am Zubli Zainordin, in Total Happiness, I organize the Book Project blog and co-author Santa's Community Blog and Hall Of Fame Blog. I blog with the purpose of documenting about my self for my own reference, my future generations and friends who prefer to know me. I also share vital and valuable information entirely on total happiness. I believe in Santa Claus and I share the Spirit of Christmas within this Blog World. In addition I promote bloggers, their blogs, and invite them to share their blogging experiences, and together with Shinade, I review their blogs and award them with the Zubli and Shinade Recommended Read awards. Those who continuously show continuous blogging improvements shall be residence of the Hall Of Fame blog.
I'm Holly from Mama Pajama. I am a stay-at-home mom to my two year old son, Cameron. He is such a joy in our lives. I just stumbled across blogging after watching a television show. I wish I had found it sooner, as it has been so much fun meeting people all across the globe. It's my own place to share about my family, interests, likes, dislikes, etc. I love that I've found my own little circle of blog buddies that will read the stuff I have to say....as mundane or silly as it might be! LOL It's fun leaving others comments, and knowing that something I post or comment just might make someone smile that day. I'm already having a hard time turning off my computer at night, so I'm hoping to keep this blogging addiction under control. My favorite post so far is Lucky Girl.I'm Kathleen of Invisible Keepsakes.
Well, I blog because if I don't, I'll go mad and get very hard to live with. I need a tableau for my creative endeavours. I write poetry. That is to say, I am a poet. I'm not a great poet; nor am I a deep poet, but I love wordplay and creating images and entertaining people with my ideas and interpretations of events and news and random topics. I've written quite a lot of poems, some have even been published, but I think the one I would have you read is Bad Dawg #7 because I feel so strongly about it.
I am Beth or Skipper - whoever you are most comfortable with, and I author My Life Starts at Forty Two. I am really trying to turn my life and myself around - and become the best me that I can. It is not always easy with family, illness, etc, but I refuse to give up. This is my journal of journey. One of the best posts that I can use to describe me is The Decision.
I am Delirious the creator of Lifeonalimb. I always wished I could have my own little newspaper and write all of the columns myself. But since I probably wouldn't make enough money to pay for the paper to publish it, I decided to go the "free route" instead. I don't think this is my best post, but probably one that most people would enjoy; death-defying Stop in, check it out, leave a comment, then go get therapy.
I am Bridget from "And Miles To Go Before We Sleep" I am a stay at home mom of five young children, ages 1-12, three of which have special needs. Two of my boys are afflicted with Autism so it is a very busy household. I started bogging because our family moves around a lot and we ar very far away from our families and this was a great was to stay in touch with them. I met so many great people through blogging and I enjoyed it so much that I now feel like it's another job (one that I enjoy). My favorite post so far has to be The Old Tree In The Middle Of The Dry Desert.
My name is Winsome Gunning and I am an artist who started blogging about `The Creative Process’ and `The Power of Listening to Silence’ on Winsome Gunning Art Walk. From my own listening to silence came A New Green Earthmy personal voice for green change. About Dioxin About Simple Ways and A Green Earth are also my voices for green change. On these two blogs I publish contemporary green news from around the world.
I am the wily Blogolope, and I blog for fun and to get things off my chest and hopefully be funny.I created Blogolope because I thought it would be fun, simple as that. Blogolope to Assist Santa, Elves if a funny post. is an example of the issues about which I have felt compelled to write.
Hi, My name is Janice Ng & I'm the miracle mum from "This is a miracle". I started to blog to document the foot steps of my 2 boys : Amos & Zachary. With this blog, they are able to look back what they have been through: their joy, excitement, laughter, fighting, crying, screaming... etc when they grow up. One of my favourite post is "The loving brothers" on how the 2 brothers showed they tenderly care through a piece of strawberry cake!!
My name is Stine, a Norwegian mother of 6, and I blog at Mother's Home!. I have recently created another blog/site, Mother's Got A Dot Com. Why? First, for my own enjoyment. I've gotten to "know" so many lovely people since I started, and blogging has become an addiction (Sound familiar?) Second, I'm continually amazed that I can actually earn a little extra doing what I enjoy so much... I also get to let out some steam sometimes, as in Stage Mums.
My name is Misty Dawn, and I blog from the middle of nowhere, at My Dogs Keep Me Sane. I began this blog at the advice of one of my best friends. It's purpose was to give me a place to talk about the frustrations of moving to another state and moving away from my family and friends. Now, it has become so much more than that. Blogging has become an addiction for me. I now use my blog to earn income; I have met so many fabulous friends; I share my writing and my photography; I share my stories, whether they be funny, serious, or sad; I can share my frustrations and my emotions without worrying about being judged for what I say... There are no words to encompass what blogging and the people of the blogosphere mean to me... and that is why I blog. My favorite post would have to be Rough Tough Farm Gang because it is a fun post that will make people smile. I'm not saying it is my best or most thought-out post, but it is my favorite.
My name is Tammy and I'm Mom Knows Everything. I don't pretend to know everything, but I tell my kids I do. I started blogging when a friend suggested it. I have found that not only is it a great way to relieve stress, but also a great way to feel better about myself. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I think my favorite post would have to be My Dad And John Wayne. It may not be the best post or the one that got the most comments, but writing this post really helped me deal with the death of my father.
My name is Carrie and i am keeping busy raisig my four children and trying to keep two blogs on the go. Rantings of a Woman and Jabber Jaws. I first got started with blogging when I was seeing how much fun my friend was having and to be honest the money was really starting to sound nice. Now it has become so much more than money with all the new friends I have been making. A couple post that I find myself thinking back to is first Baking Cookies with my 3 year old son, sometime it's the little things that matter the most and Helping a Friend, she is so dear to me and I would do anything to help her out. Kim you've got my vote!

My name is Suzanne and my blogs are Miss Kitty Fantastico and The Synergizer's Journal. (I'm working on coming up with better names!) I started blogging back when it was called journaling. I was a newly wed and needed an outlet for my thoughts and feelings. Later, I became hooked on comments and started meeting a lot of new people. One of my favorite things about meeting friends online is that you get to talk to people who you probably wouldn't meet in real life. Now, I'm a working mom and have started blogging for money to help make ends meet. My favortite post (at least in recent memory) was a Mama Talk column I wrote about my husband for Father's Day. It's called Priorities change when husbands become fathers.

End Copy Here**

I tag:

Kate at http://cominguprosemary.com/

Kiki at http://kikifitz@livejournal.com/

Jodi at http://sm00bs.livejournal.com/

Melissa at http://www.bibliotica.com/

Ami-Chan at http://ami-chan.net/

Music meet-up

2007-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

I bet most of you have heard of the band Death Cab for Cutie, right? They were on the 2007 Grammy CD, so if you haven't heard of them, you're kind of behind the times. Well, did you know that they started out as an indie band in Bellingham, Washington? They were playing all the clubs when I was in college, and yes, I knew the name back then, but sadly never made time to go out and hear them perform.

(Now that I live in Aberdeen, I’m always hearing from people who knew Kurt Cobain and wish they’d gone to one of those house parties and heard him perform in his heyday.)

Anyway, it’s pretty rare that indie bands and/or “garage” bands see that kind of commercial success. And honestly, a lot of them are fine with that. One of my college friends was a Cutie fan and was disappointed when they became more mainstream. Indie music is like a secret cult, you know? It’s just not as fun if everyone knows your secret!

Of course, indie music isn’t any fun if NO ONE knows the secret either. No band wants to perform in an empty venue. There’s a very fine line where the bands want to stay — attract fans of your particular niche, but not become so popular that you lose yourselves and start conforming to the mainstream.

This Web site, IndieMV - Musical Intercourse, helps Indie bands, both new and thriving, do just that. Fans and bands can connect with each other and just hang out. Bands can post videos and blogs, as well as win a chance to play at a Unite Against AIDS concert in Montreal! Wow.

Fans can also use a personalized option called “sliders” that allows them to search for bands on a very detailed level. This custom option helps the fans to connect with performers who play the music that they most want to hear.

Flip that profile

2007-10-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

I was stuck for an idea for quite some time, but then my husband suggested that I do my next profile on these house-flippers that we met at an open house the other day. He is obsessed with real estate and anything to do with buying, selling, improving or renting houses. Basically, if it involves making money, he wants to do it.

To be honest, the whole idea kinda scares the crap out of me because I’d hate to be left in the lurch if he dropped the ball on fixing it or finding renters or whatever, and suddenly we’re saddled with two mortgages instead of extra income. But one of the reasons that I’m excited to do this profile is because I want to talk to real people who’ve suceeded at this business in our little town and see what their experience has been. Plus, house flipping is incredibly trendy right now, so I bet a ton of people will read the profile. And maybe we can even make some new friends when I’m through with the business part of the deal. They were really nice.

Check out these deals!

2007-10-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

I am really excited about this new site I found with a ton of Online Coupon Codes. They have hundreds of merchants, they update on a daily basis, and they are really easy to navigate. There are coupons from quite a few respectable companies that I haven't seen on any of the other sites. You should check out some of these BabyUniverse coupons and Gap coupons.

Considering this is the first year I have a paypal account and I now have the inside scoop on how to save money by shopping online, I'll be surprised if I even set foot in a big box store this holiday season. I'm glad too! When you shop online, you don't have to listen to nauseating Christmas carols on repeat. Plus, you can do it in your pajamas :-)

Worth the wait!

2007-10-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's been almost exactly a month since Ben moved into his new room.

Here's how things have been going:

1. He sleeps through the night about once a week, give or take. The heater seems to have a good effect, but its not the only factor. (He slept through Saturday night, and I slept from 11 p.m. to 7:50 a.m. Wahoo!) The other nights, he usually wakes between 2 and 4 a.m. Once as early as midnight and several times as late as 6 a.m. It's pretty awesome. I wonder how long it will be before I am able to sleep through the whole night again ... I also wonder how long it will be before I no longer feel like sleep is the most important coveted thing in my life. My husband gives me a hard time about still being obsessed with sleep now that Ben's been sleeping well for about a month, but I was sleep deprived for 21 months before that. I don't know how long it takes to build back such a huge deficit, but I know it hasn't happened yet. Yesterday, after sleeping in until 8 a.m. with that huge block of uninterrupted sleep (not that I still didn't wake up briefly a few times anyway) I also took a nap with Ben from 1 to 2:15 p.m. and went to bed at 11 p.m. AND, I was exhausted!

2. Ben doesn't seem to have an opinion about the bedframe vs. mattress on the floor. He needs a step stool to get up into bed, but that doesn't seem to bother him either. He doesn't sleep any better or worse on the raised bed than he did on the floor, although I think it's cuter, more comfortable and warmer. It also makes the whole room feel more open, more like a child's bedroom. Sadly though, last night at 1:30 a.m. Stephen heard a big thunk and soon Ben was in the hall crying. So he might have fallen out of bed. :-( Hopefully, it only takes the once before he learns not to do it again. The strange thing is, he's been sleeping on a tall bed for basically his whole life. We had our mattress on the floor for a few months when he was like 9 to 12 months old, but that was a whole year ago. He's been sleeping alone in tall beds since then (minus the time we had his mattress on the floor) and never fell out. Maybe its just that his bed is a twin instead of a queen ...

3. We're working on making his room look more attractive and inviting. We got some wooden letters and painted them orange. So now the wall says "B E N" and he likes to point at it. He's learned to recognize a capital B in almost any context because of this idea. Totally cheap too, about $2 a letter and $1.50 for the paint. Well, it worked out so well, that we went back to the crafty aisle and picked up some wooden stars. (Ben is currently obsessed with stars.) I painted them white (isn't that what color real stars are anyway? Certainly, they aren't yellow ...) and am outlining them in glow-in-the-dark puffy paint. It's time consuming so it might be awhile until I'm ready to put them up, but I'm sure he will love them. He loves having stars to say goodnight to and is always so sad when its cloudy and there aren't any outside. (Which is getting to be always, because its fall ...)

4. The dresser is still sitting there, brown and ugly. I kind of figured this would happen. Oh well. His bed is nice white kid furniture style and my mom saw how bad the dresser looked. Maybe she'll get us a better one.

5. Oh and uh, let's just say its been nice having our bedroom (and our privacy) back after all this time. I'm still a proponant of sleeping with babies, and will be definitely be doing it again with our next child, but I am very glad that there's going to be a decent break inbetween sleeping with Ben and sleeping with baby number #2. I also get a whole lot more backrubs than I used to. :-)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how everything has been turning out. I've even put him to bed all by myself a few times in this last week. I won't say that was fantastic, but I did it. More on that another time.

Tool solutions

2007-10-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

Every single time my husband works on a project around the house, he leaves his tool box out and our toddler gets into it. He pulls out nails and hammers and screws and the power drill and whatever else he can get his baby hands on. Then he runs off with it, hiding screws who knows where, so that later I'll be sure to step on one with bare feet. Ouch. I've been telling him that he needs to put the tool box back right away, but he never does. I know it's heavy, and that he goes nuts if he puts it back and then 10 minutes later finds something else that needs to be fixed, but this has got to stop.

I was browsing this Web site that features gifts for him and saw that they sell tool carts which would be perfect for our situation. That way, the tools would be not only high up, but also on wheels, so it would be easier to put them away. What a great idea!

this is a sponsored post

An uh-oh

2007-10-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

I wrote this woman after seeing this article linked in the breastfeeding community on lj.

I said:

"Dear Jeannie Babb Taylor,

I loved every last word of your article on breastfeeding. I write a column called "Mama Talk" for the newspaper I work at in Aberdeen, Wash., and occasionally mention that my 22-month-old is still nursing. No one has specifically said that they have a problem with my writing about it, but I know I get funny looks sometimes. And outside of the office, coworkers occasionally say things like, "Oh, that's right, you're still nursing ..."

I am so glad that someone educated and respectable has spoken up on this vital topic. Your column was filled with more than just the grim statistics, but witty observations about why it is that this problem persists even though, especially as a society, we all should know better. Thank you so very much for becoming a voice for all of us underground "boob nazis." (Maybe someday, that horribly offensive term will be replaced with something that mainstream America can embrace.) Your article was an inspiration and I plan to spread it as far as I can reach."

What I meant was linking it all over the intrawebz, but I didn't realize that I had accidentally written her from my work email. (I clicked on of those "contact the author" buttons and that's where it took me. It was late at night and I wasn't paying much attention. Opps.)

Well, she wrote back,

Suzanne, thank you so much for the encouraging email. Congratulations on nursing your little guy for 22 months. That’s wonderful! My children have nursed anywhere from 14 months to 4 years. Did you know some women have begun calling it “full-term breastfeeding” instead of “extended breastfeeding” -- to get away from the idea that they are extending (dragging out) the breastfeeding relationship. I really hope that we will see breastfeeding normalized, as you say. It should be bottlefeeding that is exceptional, not breastfeeding. I’ve heard worse terms of address than “boob nazis” – How about “nipple nazis?” Personally, I prefer lactivist!

Anyway, thanks for writing! It’s always exciting to hear from other columnists.

Oh, I see that you are also an editor for the paper. If you’d like to use the article as a “guest columnist” submission, I’d be honored to send you the Word file.

Sincerely,

Jeannie Babb Taylor
www.OntheOtherHandColumn.blogspot.com

Yipes! Do I tell her I meant to contact her as a fellow blogger and not as a fellow journalist? Do I actually bring up the idea of running the column with my bosses? (They're all guys!) or do I tell her we're not interested. We are! I am , anyway. I guess I could just not reply, but that seems lame too. Man, I so did not mean to mix blogging and work like this!

Take your best shot

2007-10-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

When we were dating in high school, my husband tried to explain to me all about how much fun it was to go paintballing with his friends. Well, I remained skeptical, and believe me, I was horrified the first time I saw what he looked like when he got back. I asked him how on earth paint could leave welts on his body and he explained to me its because you use paintball guns to shoot the paintballs at very high speeds at your opponents. Oh. And this is fun, because?

He then went on to explain that its like playing spy games, and way more fun than laser tag or other painless sports because its the risk of getting hit that makes it such a rush. I drew the line at letting him get his own paintball gun, because I didn't want him going all the time, but we do have a paintball course nearby, and he hasn't been once since we've moved here. There's part of me that feels bad that I made such a deal over it when we were younger. Now, I kind of get the idea of why you would want to do something so crazy and exhilarating. It brings excitement to an otherwise mundane existence. Maybe I will get him some paintball supplies for the holidays. This Ultimate Paintball Web site has pretty good prices, and I know it would be a huge surprise for him. I always get a ton more points for gifts that are completely for him and not something that I will be using too. Can't imagine why ...

this is a sponsored post

Discipline 101: Maintaining an even keel

2007-10-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

You will never meet anyone more vocally against corporal punishment than I am. I don’t hit my kid, period. No matter what he does, and no matter how many times he does it.

With all my heart, I believe that even if it seems to work, spanking teaches children “valuable” life lessons like “Pick on people who are smaller than you” and “When you’re mad at someone, you should physically hurt them.”

I know that not everyone agrees with me. And I’m not here to start a big fight about it.

But I can admit that sometimes my 22-month-old son really pushes my buttons.

In fact, he’s found buttons I didn’t even know I had.

Attention please
My goal was to read about an eighth of the Sunday paper so I wouldn’t be in the dark when I showed up to work on Monday morning. I knew I was ignoring Ben, but he seemed to be OK playing by himself in the kitchen. But it didn’t take long before he grabbed a few pellets out of our dog’s dish, showed them to me and said “No Holly-dog food. Time-out” and then burst into hysterical tears before I even picked him up.

Clearly, he was seeking out my negative attention. But even prior to this incident, I was not feeling comfortable with the way he was reacting to his time-outs. They only caused him to cry and they did NOT stop him from repeating the behavior.

Something needs to change
I decided to get a few books from the library for tips and suggestions. It didn’t take long before I figured out what my husband and I were doing wrong.

Basically, we were letting him go too far, giving him too many warnings and second chances, before finally getting angry and sweeping in with a punitive time-out. “That’s it! You’re going in time-out!”

Instead, we’re now trying to do the time-outs earlier, with just one warning, and be much less emotional about it. “I’m sorry you chose not to follow that rule. Now you have to have time-out.”

After the time-out, we used to go through a complicated apology ritual that I thought was helpful, except that nothing was changing. So now, when time-out is over, he gets nothing but love at first.

Later, when he’s calm, we can talk about why he got the time-out and think of ideas together about how to avoid another one. (If you think a 22-month-old is too young for this, you’ve never met my kid.)

“Ben, I see it’s hard for you to leave Holly’s food alone, even though you know the rule is ‘No dog food.’ What do you think would help you to follow this rule?”

“Holly dog food pick up please”

So we picked up the food. Problem solved. During Holly’s meal times, we explained that Holly had to have her dinner now and maybe it would be easier to leave her alone if we went and played with blocks upstairs.

Consistency is the key
Obviously, adjusting to this new regimen was hard for him. It was hard for me too, as I am used to being more lenient with him because I don’t have the energy to go through the time-out ritual every single time he does something wrong.

By the end of the first day, he was clearly exhausted, frustrated, angry and sad that his whole baby world was being turned upside down.

You could tell he was thinking, “What do you mean I get a time-out for taking a box of Cheerios off the counter? I ALWAYS do that!”

But soon, he was telling us when he needed a time-out. It didn’t stop him from crying about it, but things were better. We gave him choices. “Do you want to walk up the stairs or do you want Mama to carry you? Do you want time-out in your room or Mama and Papa’s room?”

Of course he still cried, but they were manageable tears, not hysterical tears.

The differences we saw in his behavior were clear. When we finished his bath, I told him it was diaper time and he laid down in the diaper changing area on his own.

(Previously, we had to chase the naked baby around the house for a few minutes to get him wrangled down for a diaper and pajamas.)

When it was time for stories, I told him, “This is the LAST story. After this one, it’s bedtime.” And when it was over, he said “Night night time!” and marched up to bed.

How awesome is that?

Yah, so normally i don't put mama talk here, but i wasn't wanting to put this one on lj for lots of reasons. one of them is that quite a bit of this column is lifted word for word out of lj entries! that's not something i've really ever done before, but they asked me to write it on an off-week with very little notice. so you gotta do what you've gotta do. i don't think i can get in trouble for plagerizing myself :-)

It's called the WORLDWIDE web, right?

2007-10-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that one of the problems with google is that it tends to be quite U.S-focused. What if you wanted information on a company in another country? Well, I just found this cool Web site called masterseek that lets you research a huge database of global businesses. You know a site is really international when you can chose from 20 different languages to display the text.

It's free to view company profiles and learn about their products and such. Companies from more than 75 countries have signed up for this service, so it looks like if you want worldwide attention, this is a good place to start.

Round and round

2007-10-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

I typed up something for my husband while I was at work today so that he'd be able to work tomorrow. (It's the disclaimer form you sign saying yes, i know a massage therapist isn't a medical doctor, etc.) I emailed it to myself so that I could print it out at the library. I just don't just the work printers not to accidentally print a copy of it two hours after I've left the building. Anyway, now I'm at the library but can't get it open because apparently the library computers won't let you open attachments, only save them to a disk. That's right, a disK not a disC. Who the hell has disks anymore?

So I tried to call Stephen to tell him what the problem is but he doesn't have his phone. Oh well. He and Ben can play in the kids section while I make a few quick $$$ and then hopefully he won't be too mad that I will have to stop by work at some point before 12:30 p.m. tomorrow to print this thing out for him. Hopefully. :-)

2007-10-04T13:05:00.001-07:00

New friends, yay!

2007-10-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

I owe my new friend a big thank you because I found out that there was more money to be made out there on the interwebz than I had previously thought. I had helped her out before and just now (bad me!) gotten around to doing a link trade with her.

I was thrilled when she wanted to friend me (I get absolutly giddy over new friends!) and decided to backread her blog a little to learn more about her. I found out, among other things, that she got married the day before my son was born, and we have another friend in common, besides Kiki, who "introduced" us. (She didn't really do anything, but she was nice about it when I started trolling for links in her journal, so that's got to count for something, right?)

So yay for new friends and lots of link love and a little more money for my poor family.

Holiday wish list

2007-10-03T12:35:00.001-07:00

About five years ago, money was tight and so my husband and I agreed not to spend more than $10 on each other for the holidays. It was one of my favorite years ever because we got a chance to really be creative. To get my idea, I paid attention to what he complained about more than anything else. It didn't take a genius to realize that he was pretty miserable about how cold it was in our Bellingham apartment. So since I had an Old Navy coupon, I got him a pair of pajama pants. They were $9.99 and therefore I didn't break any rules. (We hadn't discussed tax!) He was absolutely thrilled. They were the first pair of pajama pants he'd ever owned (no joke) and I just got him to get rid of them a few months ago. Due to being worn all the time, they had a few hundred holes in them. He's gotten other pairs since then, but those first ones were always his favorite.

Well, the holidays are racing up on us again, and of course, money is still tight, but I really want to get something for Ben. He will be 2 by the time Christmas and Hanukkah roll around and I believe he will be old enough to appreciate a gift from his parents. (Last year, we figured everyone else got him so much stuff we didn't really need to get him anything.) But since it will most likely be on video as well, I am wanting to get him something meaningful, something he'll remember. I am leaning toward just using these Petsmart coupon codes to get him a goldfish, because I know that is something that's pretty affordable and he will really love. My only concern is do I get a cheap one and replace it every time it goes belly up in the bowl, or do I get a more hardy, but less interesting Beta? Stephen is leaning toward a regular goldfish because Ben likes them a lot and they move around constantly, which is much more exciting for a toddler than a fish that just kind of sits there.

Regardless, I know that wherever I do my shopping this year, there's a ton of ways I can save money online by shopping with coupon codes. This is one of my favorite sites, because they are constantly adding more coupons from stores I shop at anyway. And plus, when you do your shopping online, you avoid lines and crappy customer service by over-worked and under-paid employees.

Everybody likes new stuff

2007-10-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ben used his potty once on Monday and again yesterday. This is a relief because a few months ago he was routinely using it about three times a day, and then all of a sudden, he would have nothing to do with it. And we didn't change what we were doing either ... weird. Anyway, Stephen suggested that we get him a better one and it might encourage him to stay with it this time. I admit, the old lame boring white one that my mom saved from when I was 2 years old isn't that fantastic. It falls apart easily and isn't attractive to kids. So I agreed to go to Mal-wart and look at singing potties. Well, the one we were wanting to get was sold out (the next one up was nearly twice as expensive, yipes!) so we left without one. We did get a few pairs of pants and some polo shirts on clearance though.

AND, we got a big wooden B, E and N, as well as some orange paint. Now his room walls won't be so bare. I was going to get started last night but accidentally fell asleep with him when putting him to bed while Stephen was at choir. Opps. Oh well. The extra sleep was nice, anyway. Now that he sleeps through the night, I've been pretty lazy about getting to bed at a decent time. I mean, when you've been waking up every two or three hours for nearly 22 months, sleeping for six or six and a half hours in a row feels like a dream! It's only after a week or so of this that you realize you do actualy need at least seven and a half hours on average to not feel lethargic at about 2 p.m. and beat at about 9 p.m.

Live and learn.

There must be a better way!

2007-10-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

It used to be that the most frustrating thing about traveling was having to make Hotel Reservations. I know this, because I worked in a hotel when I was in college. They put us through rigorous training on how to up-sell the rooms and the hotel and give the customer a big story about why it was taking so long. First, a customer would call and say "What are your rates?" We'd say, "Well, what dates are you looking at, because our rates change depending on when it is." (That was only barely true. We charged a slightly lower rate on the weekends, but that was the only difference.)

Then we'd ask them what kind of room they wanted, smoking or nonsmoking, two double beds or a queen, and if they were interested in one of our suites. (The purpose of this was to make sure that the type of room they wanted was actually available on the days that they were looking at. We did not charge a different price for different types of rooms. We were not allowed to tell them that, though.) Then, (this was always my favorite part) "Let me tell you a little bit about our hotel while the computer brings up your rate ... (the rate is sitting right there on the screen while you do this.) "We have an outdoor pool, room-service from Mitzel's American kitchen, a conference room and a business center. (We were only required to list two, but it was just as easy to say them all)

THEN, we were allowed to tell them that the rooms were $88 per night. Some people thought this was a great deal and others said "No thank you" and hung up. The point of the long to-do over it was to make sure that they knew it was a NICE hotel so they didn't wig out about the rate right away, and also so that we could say "Would you like to make this reservation now?" and if they said yes, all we needed was a credit card number and the room was already booked for them, since we checked availability beforehand.

And the worst part was we had to do this every single time ANYONE asked about our rates because we got secret shopped by our own company all the time. If you got a perfect score, including answering the phone correctly and saying thank you at the end, they gave you a $10 bonus. Which was awesome, but frustrating because they'd typically only call once a month and we'd get rate requests like 10-15 times in an eight hour shift. Most people put up with the crap we gave them, but a few got pretty mad about it. I have to admit, I'd be frustrated too, if I were calling eight hotels in an area to find the best rate and it took more than 5 minutes per call! That's like 40 minutes just to save a few $$$, are you kidding?

Thankfully, these days, most people are smart enough to book their hotel rooms online. A Web site like HotelReservations.com can tell you all about the pool and room service that each hotel offers should you be interested, but if you just want the cheapest rate and that's it, they can do that. And its a lot faster than doing it yourself!

Would you like mayo on that?

2007-10-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

I drempt that I was pregnant and all I could keep down was mayo and I was eating it out of the jar. Just so you know, I hate mayo and woke up very grossed out, and yet for some reason was compelled to put some on my turkey sandwich at lunch today. What?!?!

Do you know how much trouble I would be in if I were actually pregnant? Dude, next summer is going to come along soon enough. We just got Ben sleeping in his own room, he's still nursing, though much less than before, and I haven't even started sleeping through the whole night yet myself! The last thing I need is to have to force wean or deal with the creepy crawlies that come from nursing while pregnant.

So why the mayo? I could not even begin to tell you.

Say cheese!

2007-10-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

For my 21st birthday, I'd asked for a camera. My husband bought me a digital one and I was disappointed. I thought I'd never learn to work the thing and that it was a passing fad anyway. I mean, how was I going to make pretty photo albums if my pictures were stuck in digital form? I was seriously upset with him about this for several months. A side note: He used the camera that he'd just purchased for me to take this shot (my avatar) of me while we were walking to the bar in downtown Bellingham. Once he taught me how to upload it to the computer, I decided to make a user-pic from it.

Well, that was almost exactly five years ago! I'd had my lj for just one month at that point, and no one really knew it existed. I was using it more as a personal diary than a way to communicate with friends and family. Now, I'd be lost without my digital camera! (We got a new one for the holidays last year.) How else would I share cute photos of my son with everyone I've ever met? Photo albums do still have their place, but in today's online world, I'm glad I finally let my husband teach me to work the camera. Sure I'm not an expert, and I occasionally still take pictures of my feet while trying to figure out if it's on the right setting, but my favorite thing about digital pictures is being able to immediately erase the bad ones. I can't even believe how many pictures in my childhood photo albums feature me with my eyes shut!

If you are one of the few people left on this planet who doesn't own a digital camera yet, you should check out these Nikon cameras. You can get a slender one like ours for about $120. I'm considering suggesting it to my aunt, who never knows what to get for her pre-teen daughter. Marissa will be 13 this November and is very interested in photography. I know it's a present she'd love.

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It's my party, I'll micromanage if I want to

2007-10-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

I know I said I was much more excited for Ben’s birthday than mine but that was totally back in September. It’s only 25 more days until my golden birthday! (Ever since a friend called it that, I’ve been way more giddy about turning 26 on the 26th.)

It looks like we are going to have a party of some sort. I would like to invite a lot of people, so it’s like the cool parties at Jessi and Jerry’s house. I wish I knew how to phrase things correctly though.

Here is what I want to say on the invites, but I probably need a better way to say it then this:

Suzanne is having a golden birthday party! She is turning 26 on the 26th and thinks this is the greatest thing ever. She also thinks you are a cool person and are therefore invited. Feel free to bring your spouse or partner. The party starts at 5:30 p.m. and kids are welcome.

Here comes the tricky part

However, please plan to either lay them down or leave the party when they get cranky. Suzanne cannot stand to listen to tired, crying children, especially on her birthday. It’s hard for kids to behave themselves when they are tired. And when tired kids cry and then get in trouble for doing things when they can’t help themselves, Suzanne has to go into the bathroom and cry too.

If you have reason to believe that your kids will have trouble going to sleep in a strange place and are interested in socializing with adults and having a few drinks in the later hours of the evening, please get a baby-sitter.

I know its my party, and I could just put a hard and fast rule, like many brides do, that says something like “No kids after 8:30 p.m.” or something. Or worse, “No kids at all.” But that’s hardly fair because Ben will be there until his bedtime. People will be mad if I say they can’t bring there kids and ours is there, being a ham.

Plus, I have some out of town friends with kids. I’d love to see the kids and have them hang out with Ben and stuff, but if I tell them they have to ditch at 8:30 because they brought their kids, they probably won’t come at all or won’t bring their kids at all. That’s sad. I want the kids there, REALLY! Those people are welcome to lay their kids down if they are cranky, or something.

Maybe I could hire a baby-sitter to watch all the kids together ... though that still doesn’t eliminate the cranky problem. Seriously though, when people have their toddlers up past midnight and then spank them for doing things like climbing on the dining room table, I really do have to leave the room and go cry in the bathroom. I know it’s their choice to parent however they want to and not any of my business (hense the not saying anything at the time) but I do not want it happening on my golden birthday.

Suggestions are welcome.

PS: This is an open party. If I know you, even just online, most likely you’re invited. Drop me an e-mail if you really think you might be able to come. If I know you, but you live very far away, I won’t hold my breath, but you’re still invited. :-)

It's about health

2007-09-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Technically, my father's cousin would be my first cousin once removed. But she is like a sister to my aunt, and therefore more of an aunt to me than a cousin at all. I care about her a lot, and it was hard for me growing up because she was a smoker and very over-weight. I was concerned about the choices she was making with her life because I loved her very much and wanted her to stick around for a long time to come, you know?

When she told me a few years ago that she had quit smoking, I was thrilled! This was a huge step for her and I couldn't have been happier. Unfortionately, she already struggled with her weight and quitting smoking was not helping things. After another year or two, she decided to have obesity surgery, which kind of took me off guard. I had always thought that was for people who were horribly vain (like movie stars) or people who were so obese that they couldn't even walk.

My cousin was neither of these, but her doctor agreed it would be in her best interests to do something about her weight. Extra weight creates a ton of health problems and risks, like heart trouble and such.

It was another year before I saw her again (we were living in Idaho when all this happened) and I couldn't believe how amazing she looked! Not model skinny, but huggable and rounded, instead of well, fat. I hate that word, but that's where she was headed before she decided to take charge of her health. It's now been several years more and I'm so impressed at how healthy she looks and how she's managed to keep the weight off.

Trust me, I learned from my cousin, the doctors can give you the starting point you need, but YOU are the one who has to do the hard work. Watching what you eat becomes vital when overeating causes you to throw up and get really sick. This is not something you want to be trying to do on your own. So if you're obese and are looking into getting surgery, check out this Web site, which offers support boards, insurance information, recipes and more.

A head start

2007-09-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

After writing about holiday shopping yesterday, I got to thinking. The holidays hit us so hard financially because we have to pay for like 25+ presents all in one month. And every January, I tell myself, "that's it. I'm starting my shopping super early this year. Surely we can afford two presents per month. We'll just work them into our budget and then we won't go broke."

And then of course, its November before I realize that yes, the holidays are the same time this year that they are every year, and we haven't done any shopping yet and we'd better get started. So then we have the time crunch problem too. The later in the season it gets, the more likely we are to just grab something stupid or lame or OUT OF OUR PRICE RANGE, because there's just not enough time left to keep looking.

Add all of this in with the fact that a liquidation store at our mall is going out of business (we're sad, cause we love it there) I decided that we should do some holiday shopping today. Yes, in September. So now, we've spent about $50 and we have about 1/3 to 1/2 of our shopping done. I am so totally not kidding. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could spend my Black Friday wrapping instead of shopping? Horray for not procrastinating!

Pingo phone home

2007-09-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

I've had my cell phone for about four years now, and have been land-line free for about two of them. It definitely works well with our lifestyle. There's just no reason to pay $30 a month for a landline when we can make all of the calls we need to on our cells, and they don't even charge for long distance. The only problem we've run into is that you can't make international call on a cell phone. At least not without paying like $5 a minute or something horrible like that.

So, when we've had to make international calls (usually to Canada, but once or twice to France and Australia as well) we've gone out and purchased international calling cards. Previously, I bought them at grocery stores, as I didn't really know where else to get them. But I just found out about Pingo, which has some great deals on all sorts of calling cards.

One of the things I thought was really generous of them is that they are offering a special discount for my readers! They are already selling their $25 calling card for just $17, but if you guys are interested in buying a Pingo card, just follow the links and put in the code ppp3 for and extra $3 off. That means you can get a $25 card for just $14. Plus, Pingo is going to give you five hours for free just for signing up. That's a lot of talk time. They don't have any hidden fees, and their rates are quite competitive. They do charge $1 per month to maintain your account, but if you talk on the phone like I do, you'll still be saving money.

Even if you don't know anyone in another country, you can get a long distance phone card for your home phone. Or, keep one in your wallet for an emergency. If you ever end up stuck somewhere without your cell (or the battery is dead) you will have a way to call home or maybe a tow truck. :-)

Seems like a great present for a teenager. Then you don't have to worry about "I would have called, I swear, but couldn't get any reception on my cell!"

Time to relax

2007-09-28T16:51:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's Friday night and I'm done with work and our house is clean (OK, mostly clean) and we're not going out of town or expecting overnight guests from out of town or anything!

We are actually going to RENT A MOVIE tonight, which is something we used to enjoy doing a lot but had significantly cut back on to save on the $$$. But this is a celebration of my great day. I even finally talked to my boss about a raise!!!! He said it was already in the works, as was my very tardy review, but did not give me an acutal number. Oh well. At least he didn't laugh :-)

Black Friday without the lines!

2007-09-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you guys, but I am absolutely allergic to going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. It's true that you can get some great deals, but I seriously just can't handle that kind of crowd! Two years ago my husband made us get up at the horrible hour of 5 a.m. so we could hit all the sales. I was nearly 34 weeks pregnant then and swore at him the whole time we were shopping. But he pointed out to me that we couldn't really afford the holidays if we didn't shop the sales.

Unfortunately, that's still true. But I recently learned that you can still get good deals by looking at thanksgiving ads online! I'm all for saving the kind of money that you do by shopping on Black Friday, yet not having to go out into the chaos at the mall. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of Target deals I can get, because Target is one of my favorite stores ever! And if I shop online, I don't even have to worry about the fact that the nearest Target is about an hour away.

Another cool thing about this Web site, is that if you can get email alerts to let you know when new Black Friday ads have been posted. They feature a lot more stores too, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Old Navy and Kohls.

Poor and perfect

2007-09-28T15:16:00.001-07:00

When we were at Baskin Robbins a few weeks ago, I didn't pay much attention to who else was there. I did remember the family with the beautiful children who reminded me of my friend, but no one else really stuck out. A couple days after that trip, I was working late and the janitor asked me if Ben had liked his ice cream cone. Well, I had to think fast, because at first I thought maybe I had written about it in a Mama Talk. But no, I hadn't. And then, to my horror, I wondered if this woman had been reading my blog? No, that's too crazy for words. Couldn't be that. So she must have been there. And, bless her heart, she was kind to me when I admitted I hadn't remembered seeing her. She told me where she was sitting and that Ben had walked right up to her kid and said "Ice cream peeese" and thankfully, I remembered that.

Well, I was in here working late again last night and she came by with her daughter in tow. Little girl of maybe 4 or 5, very shy. She smiled at me when I talked to her but hid behind her mom. She was yawning and rubbing her eyes a lot, but she still helped her mom collect garbages. By the looks of how good she was, she's been doing this for awhile. It was all I could do not to start crying then and there. Can you imagine supporting your family on janitor's wages? Being so poor that you can't afford anyone to watch your kid, so you have to bring her along to work with you? It was very late and this girl was very little, but what else was she going to do? And though it may be against child labor laws to have her help, I understand that too. The sooner they're done, the sooner they can get home so said little girl can go to bed. It reminded me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, except that Katie quit the school janitor job and changed to one in her apartment building so that she wouldn't have to have a baby-sitter.

Poverty is so poignant when you put a face to it. Much more so than reading in the paper a percentage of people in our county who live below the poverty line. I don't care about them. They are just numbers to me. But I care about this sweet little girl with long black curly hair and a missing tooth.

For some reason, the fact that her mom took her to Baskin Robbins even though she clearly can't afford it is what is resonating the most with me right now. I'm so glad. She's been working hard, she deserves it.

Share and share alike

2007-09-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, someone I didn't know contacted me after reading my post about the Joss Stone concert, because he wanted a copy. Well, I made him jump through a lot of hoops first because I didn't want to get in trouble or anything. But once I chatted with him for awhile and established that he was a real person and not looking to sell the concert for personal gain, I decided, hey, why not? I can do a nice thing for someone I've just met. How else are you going to make new friends, right?

Well, luckily he knew what he was doing, because it was, of course, too big of a file for me to email to him. So he told me about file sharing, which is where you put your file up on the internet and then tell the other person where to go to download it. It's kind of like hosting your photos on photobucket or flickr, but for large files such as a Joss Stone concert. I really appreciated that he taught me about this, because now I can share files with all my friends. Driveway.com is a really easy site to use, and its free! You can get up to 2GB of storage and even install a widget on your blog. I really liked using this service. Trust me if I can figure out how to work it, anyone can figure out how to work it.

YAY

2007-09-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Nearly a month, to the day, after I thought this blog would be approved for ppp, it finally is! I'm so excited because I will either be making even more money, or spliting posts up between two blogs, as to uncrowd things a little. Logically, the next step would be to go trolling for links again, as we all know that a PR0 blog isn't really all that profitable. But part of me thinks that the immense effort it takes to get a 0 up to a 1 would be better spent trying to get thesynergizer up to a 2 instead. It is my main blog and something tells me it will be easier to get it to a 2 than to get this one to a 1. Or maybe I'll just relax and leave things as they are for the time being. Anyway, regardless, this is a financially exiciting day.

Ben's room!!!

2007-09-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

So while I was at my in-laws this weekend, I uploaded a ton of photos. But rather than bombblast them all up at once in a day-in-the-life kind of post (not that I didn't think it was a cool idea, just that the ones I took don't really tell one long coherant story) I'm going to put them up in smaller groups over a longer amount of time. Since I've spent a lot of time on this blog writing about Ben's room, I figured those ones should go here.

Oh, and Ben slept through the night on Friday night while I was working. All the way from 8:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. Wow! Of course, we couldn't get him back to bed at 6, but that's OK. Saturday night, he slept until 6 a.m. again, even at my MIL's house while sharing the bed with us. We weren't quiet either. We came in, we moved him, we got up again, we talked, and he slept through it all. AND he went back to sleep after he nursed at 6 a.m.

Yesterday night he only slept until 3:30, but still, I never thought I'd be saying he only slept until 3:30, you know? I mean, prior to moving him to his own room, I pretty much expected him to wake up before midnight (usually before 11 p.m.!) every single night. For months. Possibly even for the last YEAR. And now, he is sleeping so well! Yay. The only thing is he's still having trouble making it all the way to our room. He's suceeded at this only once, the first time he slept til 6 a.m. All the other days, he cries at the gate. And strangly, he usually cries for Papa. Once he gets in the room he wants to nurse and says "Mama otherside peeeese" but out in the hall it's "PAPA!!!" Weird.

Pictures, yay!!!!

Here is Ben asleep on Friday afternoon during his nap.

Here is what Ben looked like when he heard me enter the room and take his picture. He was not thrilled to be woken up. (Don't worry, it was time for him to get up anyway.)

Here is what Ben looked like after he settled down to some Mama otherside, which always improves his mood greatly. Notice the firehose leg in the air. This is clearly because the milk comes out so fast that it shoots all the way down to his toes and makes them fly around all crazy-like.

Here is how cute and happy we are after he is done having his otherside. Yum yum yummers. Note how ugly the wooden dresser now looks next to the painkasaurus brown walls. We tried shopping around for something to replace it with, but everything either wouldnt' work or was way too expensive. So even though its nice wood and hearing this would probably give my mom (who is a big fan of nice wood) a heart attack, we're probably just going to paint it white. It's quite old anyway, and has several stains on it. So I'm not too sad about it.

Here are a few more shots of the rest of the room. The walls used to be white and the doors used to be wood-colored.