In honor of Labor Day!

Rocks In My Dryer is doing a special Meme in honor of Labor Day, and it looked like fun.

So here are my answers.

1. How long were your labors? Not completely sure but...

I think Hunter's was about 20 hours from the first contraction, but only because the lazy a$$ dr. on call wouldn't interrupt his sleep to break my water.

Rylie was about 4 or 5 hours I think- over a week of contractions, and finally my dr had me lie my way into getting admitted. From the time I went in to the time I had her it was actually about 8 hours.

2. How did you know you were in labor? Um, I didn't really (I'm sure I'm not the only one). With Hunter my contractions started (10 days early)and just progressed until I called and they made me come in to the hospital, more because of the long drive I think.

With Rylie I convinced my dr to basically induce me (4 days early).

3.Where did you deliver? Hospitals (2 different ones, yeah, I get around...)

4.Drugs? Definately, since I had Pitocin with each one. I think it's a dirty rotten scam for the dr.s to convince you to get an epidural. I think I would have at least tried not to get the epidural if I hadn't had the pitocin. I had both babies within an 2 hours of my water breaking. Hunter was less than an hour, and I think Rylie was just over an hour.

5.C-section? Neither one

6.Who Delivered? My OB dr both times. I lucked out and my water broke with Hunter just minutes before she came on call, I wound up having to stop pushing to wait for her to get there.

With Rylie, they broke my water and about 30 minutes later the nurse came in to adjust the monitor, I was feeling pressure, so she checked me and I only pushed 2 times.

If you'd like to share your story go on over to Rocks in My Dryer and link up!!!

Giveaway!!!!

I've got a new special over on my other blog.

I'm also having a GIVEAWAY!!!!

Go on over, check it out, and find out how to enter!

It's Real Life Part 5

Jessica is back at it with her It's Real Life Carnival! This weeks theme was How I Roll.

I thought I would do something a little different, seeing as how I drive for my job, and I spend more time in my work vehicle than I do driving anything else. Before I get started though, I want to let everyone know, especially Krystyn who commented about my pictures the other day, that we rural carriers get a whole 30 minutes for lunch, and since I wait until I get home to eat lunch (and I don't smoke), I usually have a few minutes to spare for picture taking.

So without further adieu, here are my pictures and commentary of how I roll....

The first picture pretty much speaks for itself, just exactly what you would see if you saw me driving down the street.

Wash day was on Monday, it rained Tuesday morning, so it's all covered with mud now, which is how it usually goes. It will be wash day again in another week and a half.

It's kind of hard to see, but the window is only halfway down. I learned early on that halfway is as far as it should go. You can read a little about that on this post, #20.

And there's the door latch that I have a love/hate relationship with. It loves to stick out that far, and I hate it that I have permanent bruises on my right arm from falling into it all the time. And also notice the Avoid Backing Whenever Possible sticker. I usually back up avoid backing about 12 times each day to manuver around people's cars and trashcans. So to avoid backing, I just curb my wheels, put it in park, set my brake, turn off the ignition and take the key out, take off my seatbelt, unlock and open my door, and get out to put the mail in the box. Then I get back in, put my seatbelt on, shut and lock my door, put the key in, start it, take the brake off, and put it in drive. Sounds like a lot, huh?

Here's what it all looks like when I've got it all loaded and ready to go. This particular day was exceptionally light on mail, so it doesn't look like I have much to deliver. It takes me between 2 and 3 hours to run my route. Usually closer to 2.

There's a 2 part seatbelt, you can un-latch the part across your chest so it doesn't choke you when you lean way far out the window to reach those pesky boxes that are just too far away.

And last but certainly not least, the answer to the ever burning question in everyone's mind..."Do you have air conditioning in that thing?"

No, but I gotta fan that will dry the sweat before it runs into my eyes. The trick is to blow enough hot air at you that the sweat just evaporates. We once had a guy who took a thermometer with him and according to that, it's about 8 degrees hotter in the vehicle than outside. So when it's 110 degrees out here in the summer, it's an oven in there.

So there you have it, that's how I roll, in a hot metal box with no air conditioning and no radio, just my thoughts of blogging delivering the mail to keep me company.

And when I go to the grocery store after work, while Seth stays home with the kids to make it easier on me, this is how I roll....

Gift Theivery...

I mentioned this a couple of times lately, so I thought I should probably get to it. The unfortunate thing is that I'm having a bit of trouble with the exact terminology to use. I don't want to offend anyone, but I also don't really know the best and most politically correct way to describe a person such as the one in my story. So, let's make a deal. I'll refer to her in whichever way I decide, and no one will be offended because I'm talking about one specific person, OK?
Disclaimer: I had no direct contact with the subject, so most, if not all, of this is just third-party information, except for the stretcher incident I witnessed firsthand.

I have to go back a few years for this one. They hired this girl as a sub, and coincidentally she was subbing for Seth's aunt. She had this look about her. A look that made you think that she wasn't playing with a full deck. I think she was probably missing about 25% of the deck, maybe a little more. I heard from more than one person that when they'd talk to her she would look at you and just stare (sometimes there may even have been a little drool).

Needless to say she wasn't one of the better subs they had hired, but in the usual way of the post office, they had let her get past her 90 days, I think. Seth's aunt had a fair share of customer complaints about mis-deliveries, mixed with more than a couple of complaints that they had ordered stamps but never received them. Most of the time when a stamp order comes up missing it's because either a.) the customer put their check in a white envelope, in the box with a bunch of other white envelopes to mail and the carrier didn't see the envelope, and/or b.)they missed pulling out the envelope and it went on down to get filled at the main post office and would come back later. Not the case with these. Eventually they would find out that she was taking the checks out of the envelopes and taking them into other post offices to buy stamps with them, and then selling the stamps for cash.

Then there was the time she "fell" while casing her route up. Suspiciously no one heard her hit her head on the counter, which she said she did on the way down. Believe me, she was a hefty girl, so there would be sound effects. They wound up calling 911 for her, and they took her away, neck brace and all, on a stretcher. It was pretty comical really.

The funniest thing of all had to be the time she stole a package, Hillshire farms or something similar, with the summer sausage, cheese, and other stuff. She actually opened it up, took stuff out, and then wrapped the box up and gave it to one or more of the supervisors as Christmas gifts. Sucking up...OK, but sucking up with stolen goods...not so much.

She, of course, got caught as most people do who are thieves. Now she's just one of the many people who's been fired from the post office over a lousy few bucks.

Disclaimer #2: The vast majority of the people who work for the post office are hard working, honest individuals. It's unfortunate that there are people who get hired, hate the job, become really crappy employees, and (sometimes) wind up with union protection that they don't really deserve. Those are the people who give the post office a bad name, and it's sad that more people (customers) don't share their good experiences instead of their bad ones, but that's the way of the world. Most of the stories I share come from a "stupid criminal" sort of standpoint, because I just can't believe the things that people do. It is not my intention in any way to make the post office look bad.

My favorite kind of day...

Since we live in a place that is sunny almost every day of the year, yesterday was a rare day, especially for summer, where it was cloudy and rainy. (Well, it was really sunny until I was about halfway through my route, that's where I took these pictures of the storm moving in, with my phone.)

The first one is on the first street I have on this one section of my route, where the streets all run parallel, and are all cul de sacs, running East and West. Each street took me about 5 minutes or less, and there are a total of 6 streets.

This second picture is 3 streets later, and you can not even see the mountains anymore because of the rain.

On the next street after this one, I was sitting at a box when I saw the flash of the lightning, at exactly the same time that the thunder cracked so loud, sounding like it was directly above me, my heart jumped into my throat. I have never felt so close to a storm before, and it wasn't even raining on me yet. Just imagine how loud thunder can sound when your sitting in a big metal box with nothing to muffle the sound.
The last picture was on the last street that I have on that part of my route. Just two streets after the second picture, that's how fast our storms move here. I didn't wind up getting more than a few sprinkles, even on the last part of my route which was even closer to the area where it looked like it was raining.

When I say that it's rare, I mean it's rare to get rain during the day in the summer. We get monsoon storms for a couple of months where it will rain every night for a week, but that's usually not really helpful during the hottest days.

I have gotten pictures of the monsoon late it the day. Last year I was leaving Wal-Mart to come home and I got this picture...

If I was only a better photographer....

Top 5 Tuesday

It's that time again! And this week's Top 5 comes from my East Coast friend, Rachael over at Mommy Learns to Blog, everyone make sure to thank her. She very graciously decided to help out this friend in need...my brain is on the least level of function that is possible. In addition to that I've been a procrastinator for a week or so. My reader is backed up right now, I actually haven't even looked to see how bad it is, since I got home today. Today just in the 6 hours or so I was at work there were around 26 posts! Can you see how bad this habit is that I've gotten started? There are simply not enough hours in the day to keep up on the blogs I like, work, take care of my kids, cook, clean, visit with friends and neighbors...is your head spinning yet? Mine sure is.

This weeks Top 5......

What are your Top 5 Hobbies/Things you like to do when you're not blogging?

I think mine fall in no particular order. (See, I can't even make a concrete decision, let's hope no one has a life or death emergency that depends on my nonexistant decision-making skills).

1. Read a good book. It's not very often I get to do this though.
2. Watch movies...at home on my couch. I'm not a huge fan of spending a fortune just to say I've seen the newest movie out there.
3. Scrapbooking. Another thing that I rarely get to do. I have too many little hands that want to "help" me, and until I decide to invest in a little scrapbook kit for them (that you know they'll never use, cause it's just not as good as mommy's), it's going to have to be a rarity. That's why I love my blog, because I can still preserve my memories, and hopefully when I go back to do my scrapbooks I will be able to use some of this nonsense to remind me of things.
4. Bake/cook. I've always enjoyed cooking, my mother taught me well. I hope one day I can enjoy spending time cooking with my kids (Hunter "helped" me bake cookies yesterday, and it was bordering awfully close to fun).
5. Paint/ crafts- I don't know exactly what you'd call it, I like to sew, paint things, decoupage, just get creative in general. Yet another "thing" I don't get to enjoy much. I guess I just don't have the patience for cleaning up messes that my kids make while I'm trying to work on something. I also hate to start something that I can't finish (all at once), it's just one of my many quirks.
6. I had to put one thing that I actually get to do often, which is watching my kids sleep. No explination needed.

So now it's your turn. Let us in on the things that make your life worth living (besides blogging of course). And as always, if you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your 5 things in the comments.

Me and My Man

Krystyn tagged me for the meme about my man. Since I really haven't said a whole lot about him, I thought you'd like to get to know him better.


What is his name? Seth


Who eats more? Me, sadly

Who said, “I love you” first? My memory fails me, I'm sure it was at least 12 years ago...

Who is taller? Him, by about 7 inches

Who drives most when you are together? Him

Who’s more sensitive? I think it's a tie

Who does the laundry? both of us

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? he does

Who pays the bills? him

Who cooks more? me, he does cook on the grill sometimes, and if I ask him to help me in the kitchen he will, I'm just really picky about my kitchen, and I think he knows to stay out of my way for the most part.

Who is more stubborn? him (he would probably say me)

Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I think me

Who has more siblings? He does, sort of. He's got 2 half sisters, 2 half brothers, and an adopted sister, and I just have one brother and one sister

Who wears the pants? Um, him, I guess

What do you like to do together? golf, movies, mini golf,

Who eats more sweets? him, I think

Guilty Pleasures? he likes to go play golf whenever he wants, and since we have a membership, it's a good guilt free thing, except that I get the kids most of the time.

How did you meet? I was seeing a friend of his, and when we went our separate ways, Seth called to ask me out for a different friend, and I wasn't interested. So eventually we started hanging out, and he wanted to be my boyfriend, but I made him get "points" which is a whole post in and of itself.

Who asked whom out first? He asked me out

Who kissed first? He kissed me

Who proposed? Him again

His best features & qualities? Best feature, his eyes, and his sense of humor. His best qualities...he's a very hard worker, he taught me what a work ethic is, he's honest, and a great dad (and he cleans).

I'm in a funk....

...and it's a weird funk. I'm not sad, angry, depressed, or even irritated. I almost feel like I have nothing to write about, but I do, and thinking about all of the things I have to write about is almost overwhelming. Maybe that's my funk. The opposite of writers block.

I started out the last week with a Sunday of all day cleaning. You name it we cleaned it. I spent the rest of my week trying (and was mostly successful) to avoid the computer, and keep the house to a reasonable level of cleanliness. Not to mention attempting, and failing miserably, to keep some control over my kids. Apparently, I actually need to watch Supernanny, or Nanny 911, to see how it works, because this whole "wing-it" thing just isn't working for me.

One morning I went and woke Hunter up, went to finish getting ready for work, and when I went back to find out it he had gotten dressed yet, found him with a 10" serrated bread knife in his room, that he had hidden between his fitted sheet and his mattress pad. I still don't know if he had it there all night, or had managed to get it and hide it just then, but I suppose I'm going to have to lock my kitchen stuff in Seth's safe, along with the medications and other dangerous objects. Thank goodness we still have room. It's not just a matter of putting things out of reach for this kid. And forget about child locks, I think I established in my earlier post that he has already figured out how to get those unlocked.

When I cleaned out my cabinets a few weeks ago I had taken all of the medications out of the cabinet and put them in the safe. I left the vitamins and less dangerous things up in the cabinet though. This week I found out that Flintstones Vitamins have a cap that should be labeled "Not So Childproof" since my 3 1/2 year old can get that cap off in less than 30 seconds.

And, I can't forget my younger child. This week she did this, for a laugh. She has also figured out how to completely scale the counter-height kitchen chairs, and from there usually ends up on the table. Lucky for me she figured out how to get herself down yesterday, so now I don't get the desperation "help me, I'm stuck" scream every 5 minutes, which was actually part of the reason I've been avoiding my computer this week. She also has a new word, and that's what I'm going to call it, a word. You may not think pfft is a word, but to Rylie, it means HOT. I finally figured it out, she has been making that noise whenever I put her in the car, or give her food, and usually I say HOT as I'm doing that. And since it sort of sounds like she's blowing on her hot food when she says it, now it's a word. Another thing she's figured out, is how to take her very own diaper off. She usually takes it off when she's a little wet, and promptly throws it in the trash, (and then sometimes immediately pees on the floor). I've got news for her, we're not potty training now.

I also managed to make it to our district union meeting on Wednesday night. All I can say about that is- it seemed to me like a colossal waste of time, and it just reminded me why I sometimes wonder why we even have a union. For a minute I thought I was at a meeting of Congress and the Republicans and Democrats were having a standoff.

I also guest posted for Patrice this week, as she's starting college and having all kind of new adventures that I'm completely only just slightly a little jealous of.

We had a visitor on Friday. Well, not really a visitor...it didn't even bother to knock and ask for permission to come into our backyard. Seth saw it as it was making it's way towards the front of the house on the wall outside our living room windows. The darn thing was moving too fast, so I only got this one picture of it....

We also saw it again today, on the wall going to the back, and by the time I grabbed the video camera it had jumped into the neighbors yard. We have guessed that it must be a female peacock, and one of the neighbors thinks it belongs to someone close by.

That pretty much sums up our week here. I know I have a lot of things on my to do list. I have a meme or two to do, I haven't forgotten those. I also sort of promised to write a post about a girl who once...ummmm, kind of...sort of...stole a package, and gifted the contents to the big bosses at work. Yeah, I haven't forgotten that one either.

P.S. I've also got to come up with something for this weeks edition of Top 5 Tuesday...I'm taking suggestions, feel free to e-mail me if you have any ideas (preferably sometime before 8 pm pacific time Monday). They really don't all have to be about movies, music, tv, or that sort of thing....something of a different subject matter would be more than welcome. Even if you don't have a blog, I'll still consider your topic, and you can post your answers in my comments, I'm very flexible that way.

That silly girl....

I caught Rylie doing this the other day. It was so cute I just had to capture it. She spilled the cat's water bowl on the floor and was practicing blowing bubbles in it. I think she was pretty proud of herself.

Yes, I was pretty grossed out, but, I'm sure she's been into worse things.

Detour...

Patrice over at Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman has invited me to guest post for her today. So if you would like to read all about my near death experience this week, head on over and leave me her some comment love there!!

Top 5 Tuesday

I think Patrice was a little busy this last week, so I went ahead and came up with a topic, and I'm going to keep it open for her to let me know whenever she thinks of one.

I was listening to my iPod the other day when I came up with this one. Do you ever watch a movie because you just love the music so much? Maybe I'm strange, but I really like movie soundtracks, the ones with the actual film scores. I mean, I like movies with great songs, but I also like the background stuff. I wanted to do something really cool and add a music player with my favorite songs from my top 5, but I just am not that good with technology yet I guess.

So my top 5 this week is...

Top 5 Movie Soundtracks

1.My first one is Robin Hood Prince of Theives. One of my all time favorites. I just love the music, and I'm not talking about the Bryan Adams song, although I did listen to that one about 8 million times, or until the tape wore out. The song I really like is the main theme song.

2. Castaway. Again, I love the theme music. At the end of the movie when he's visiting Helen Hunt's character the music is playing when they are outside in the rain.

3. City of Angels Alanis Morrisette, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Sarah McLachlan, what else do I need to say there.

4. Dazed and Confused. Great movie (even though I was never a rebel stoner) and an even better soundtrack.

5. Backdraft. Another one with a really awesome film score. I don't know what it is, but I can listen tho the entire CD over and over.

Sorry my answers were so short, I'm trying to get this done so I can get to bed at a decent hour and still give everyone time to come up with your answers. As always, if you don't have a blog, feel free to list your favorite's in the comments, and to those of you who have some serious problems limiting yourselves, by all means, go for 10! Have fun!

My new Blog

I did this post a while back, and I finally made a decision on what to do with it. I made myself a separate blog just for this. I'll probably be posting about once a week, if you are interested you can subscribe to the feed and if you see anything you like you can place an order.

I figured I can do virtual Mary Kay parties, or at the very least I can do my product showcase, without interrupting my normal flow of things, because I know it can be distracting.

Here's the link, it's so brand new that I am probably going to change the title, but the web address is http://mkskinshop.blogspot.com/ . Leave me a comment over there and let me know what you think.

A Battle of Epic Proportions....

Hunter has a new friend...

They were introduced a couple of days ago, and have only been allowed to play while Rylie is sleeping. Until today that is. We had the Legos out last night, and he slipped this guy past me when we cleaned up. He let Lego man watch him eat lunch (his mouth wouldn't open so he could taste it). Then he decided he needed to take all these pictures of him. Pretty amazing pictures from a 3 year-old.

All day we kept having fighting over this 1 inch tall dude. He finally had to ride around in my pocket for a while. I can only say that for someone so small he sure had my two kids fighting dirty trying to get him.

The best part of my day....

Sometimes I'm so relieved when the kids are finally in bed and all is quiet in the house. I think that's one of the reasons I've started to become more of a night person.

I've always been a morning person as opposed to night. When I was younger I couldn't even manage to stay awake for any of the late shows. I think 10 o'clock was always the limit for me. When I was pregnant with Hunter I would often be in bed as early as 8:00, but usually around 9:00. When I was pregnant with Rylie, Hunter started a new phase of being difficult to put down to bed at night. I got into a really bad habit of laying down with him to put him to sleep, and I would usually wind up falling asleep with him.

Although it's quiet at night, and that is something I wish for many times during the day, it's still not the best part of my day.

I love going to get Rylie from her crib in the morning. She is usually smiling the minute she opens her eyes and sees you there. Sometimes she wakes up and just hangs out until one of us comes in to check on her. This is completely opposite of Hunter, who used to cry as loud as possible so we would know he was awake. As much as I love to see that smile, it's very close, but still not quite the best part of my day.

After work we go straight to daycare to pick up the kids. Sometimes, like yesterday, Seth goes to play golf and I pick up the kids by myself. I walk in and sign them out. I go through the first door into the 4 year-old room, and then on to the door to Hunter's room. As I open the door I see him sitting at the table next to the door that leads to Rylie's class. It's snacktime and the kids are all waiting patiently for their snack. Hunter sees me and his face lights up and he comes over and gives me a great big hug. He's always so excited to see us when we get there, and I'm always excited to see him and Rylie. Yesterday, since they hadn't had snack yet, I told him we could wait so he could get his. He asked me to sit down in the chair next to him. Poor kid doesn't realize that I would break that flimsy little chair if I did that, so I sat on my knees next to the table while we waited. After he got his snack I went on in to Rylie's room.

I love how she just drops whatever she's doing and runs over to me. She always has the biggest smile, and when I pick her up she gives me the biggest hug that her little body can manage. She grabs on to me and waves bye-bye to the teacher and other kids, and off we go.

Once we get in the car we usually talk about what they did that day. Hunter chatters about his friends and we usually can't understand more than 5 words, but he's getting better. He loves his teachers and he talks about the things he and his little friends did, even if he had time out.

In the space of that 10 minutes, picking them up and driving home, that is the best part of my day. Mornings are usually so crazy that we don't even have time for breakfast. I miss them so much when I'm at work, all I can think about is what we could be doing at home. And after about 5 minutes at home, I'm wishing I was back at work because the whining starts almost as soon as we walk in the door.

They say you should teach them young...

I was doing laundry last night, and Rylie just HAD to help me.

I got a little on video, but the sad thing is that while I was thinking how cute it is that my 16 month-old likes to help me do laundry, I was also secretly thinking, "Darn, if we hadn't gotten the pedestals to make the washer and dryer taller, then she might actually be able to do this by herself." Does this make me a bad mother? Would it sound even worse if I was wondering whether those pedestals come off?

It looks like my video just won't post, I've been waiting for about 3 hours, it's just not gonna do it.

Little bits of randomness

Do you ever have those times when you write something, and even though you spelled it right, it looks wrong? Or when you say a word and it sounds weird?

There are some words I don't like to say out loud. And by asssociation, I try not to even use them when I write. Some are the typical, you say tomato...you know the rest.
I'm not sure why I have this word aversion. Maybe it's from growing up in the midwest, where we say pop, not soda.

Other words are just uncomfortable for me to say. Some names too. I'm not really a nickname person, unless that's how we're introduced.

I can't stand the word panties. Don't know why, I just prefer underwear.

I'm sure there is a ton more, but it could get old real fast, and I seem to have forgotten most of them at the moment.

On to a more interesting topic...web search. I have seen people do this and I thought it might be fun and interesting. Here are the top 10 search results that have gotten people to my website.

1. Purple Ribbon Month
2. Tax Trivia
3. Az Pipers blogspot
4. supernanny
5. supernanny where are you blog
6. supernanny updates
7. stupid trivia
8. supernanny game
9. 2008 amazing dog rescue
10. 100 random questions

Those are the top 10, here are some of the really strange ones

62 year old in a bathing suit (really, who wants to see that???)

administering an enema to a child that is sick (eww, I'm sorry)

anthony james water accident in arizona-never heard of it

it seems a lot of people want to know if they would get paid to be on the supernanny show- they won't find out here

dog eats corn dog stick (Owwwww, I bet that was an experience)

missed trash day smell (I guess our neighbors were trying to figure out if they could get us fined for our nasty smelling trash)

nursemaid elbow t shirt - a band maybe????

supernanny pee outside pictures - um, gross!

even more people out there wanting to find out how to cheat at some supernanny game- come on people stop cheating and just do it honestly!

there's also "what to do while travelling"- I wouldn't know, I visit family, but you will find out what NOT to do.

and yes, someone actually found my site by searching for a penis razor, nice.

I think they only actually list the ones that are searched for in the Google search engine, because I also have that little feedjit thing that shows where people are from and how they got here (keywords also) and I remember seeing that someone searched for how to use a penis razor one time. Yes, I was a little grossed out.

Moving on, I was thinking about the new fall season of tv, and also something made me remember this video that a friend shared with me, about the time he also got me hooked to 24.

Even if you're not a 24 fan, you will still get it, and you will still laugh...

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1788161

I also need to apologize to my favorite blogger from overseas, Carol asked me some questions for my 100th post and I somehow missed them.

Here's what she wanted to know:

What is your favorite post you've written? I think it is (currently) going to be the one about our smelly trash.

When you're going to have more kids? Jury is still out on if or when.

#1 celebrity heartthrob as a kid? I don't remember, but how about I just say Mark Walburg, cause he's still really hot.

A different perspective....

I always heard "Life's not fair." I know it definitely is not. Sometimes I just want to stomp my feet and throw a nice big tantrum.

I'm not usually a grudge-holding person. You have to do something seriously irritating or mean to really piss me off. Most times when I get mad about something I'll tell at least 12 3 people whatever it is, and then think about it for about 20 more minutes, and then I move on. I rarely think about things for more than a day, or two.

What I'm going to write about now is not necessarily a grudge about anyone in paticular, just some things that have bothered me since I became a mother. I'm not even sure it's "about" anyone else besides my little family, consisting of just me, my husband, and my 2 kids. If you read this and it strikes a nerve, well, it's not exactly my intention, I just want you to think. It's just my personal perspective on life in general, but if it does strike a nerve, try looking at things from my perspective for just a minute before you yell at me and never talk to me again. (And if the shoe fits.....wear it, by all means.... or get a new shoe.)

When I was younger I wasn't so sure I wanted to have kids. I like kids, sure, but I just didn't have that thing that said, I definitely want kids. Because of this fact, I made sure that I wouldn't "accidentally" get pregnant before I was ready. Call it being responsible, (I do). Also I knew that there was a certain "place" I wanted to be in if I did have kids. Not really anything I can put my finger on, but something I just knew. Eventually, Seth and I got married, talked about having kids, and we decided to wait a little while. Then, by the time I actually got pregnant, we had been trying for a year and a half, which was just about perfect, because by then I absolutely knew it was what I wanted. Now, I have two full time jobs, by choice. I work during the day, and then I go home to my other full time job where I rarely get a break, and sometimes I have to let a little of the steam out before my head explodes. (That's where my blog comes in handy!)

I'm not sure if any of this is going to make sense, but I think of myself as being pretty level headed, and a planner. I'm a control freak. I don't like it when things are just on autopilot, and I see so many people who seem to live like that and it gets on my nerves a little bit. I know things aren't always as they seem, but this is all about my perspective.

Oh, how I would love to tell some people what I think. But then I always bite my tongue. It's usually because my opinion is just that, my opinion. Most things that annoy me don't even directly affect me, but they indirectly affect me, and then they drive me nuts...but I still can't say anything. I know that voicing my opinion is usually something best not said, because I often suffer from foot-in-mouth disease.

One example of annoyingness would be of one of the families that go to our kids' daycare. They started a couple of months after Rylie was born, and the family had a little boy in the infant room, so I would wind up seeing the mother sometimes. I eventually learned that they also had boys in the next 3 classes consecutively. They're all about 10 months apart. Then I found out that this woman is pregnant, again. I started to get a tad bit irritated. Something about the mom just annoyed the crap out of me. I know for a fact that these people pay a minimal amount of money for daycare, because they don't make a lot (indirectly affecting me). Ok, I have no idea how much money they make ( I have a pretty good idea), but I do know where they live, and how they live, and it burns me to see someone living in a craphole with 5 kids, a $30,000 truck, a newer minivan (to haul all those kids) and they get virtually free daycare!!!! I get that some people don't make a lot of money, but I just see a lot of people that look like they do the minimum amount of work so that they can let the government pick up the slack.

Even if I wanted to have another kid I'd have to wait a while, we pay a lot for daycare and the added expense would just be too much. I freaking hate the fact that I pay as much as I do for daycare for my 2 kids (plus my taxes are paying for their's too), and my kids are on half time days, so we pick them up as soon as we leave work (6 hours or less), which of course we should because they are our kids and our responsibility, while the people who's kids I'm paying for with my tax dollars let their kids sit at daycare for 12 hours. We both work 6 days a week, so this means we have to have a babysitter every single Saturday, outside of daycare because it is virtually impossible to find a place open on Saturdays. I know that this fact is entirely because of the choices we made for our profession, but most people just don't understand what it's like. Neither one of us graduated from college, and we have good paying jobs, it is possible, so I hate people that make excuses for why they don't make much money. If you're a hard worker, you'll make it, period. Short term assistance is one thing, but when it is your primary lifestyle, it's a problem.

Another thing that occasionally bugs me is the fact that I hear so many people my age out there talking about how they went to this party, and that party, and away for the weekend, and so and so had the kids, so we did this. I hear it in such a way that just makes me want to scream at them, and say "You were adult enough to have these kids, so take care of them!". I didn't grow up spending weekends at my grandparents house, or even overnights once in a while. It was a rarity, and I don't feel like it was a bad thing. Maybe it's the control freak in me, but I just didn't really like staying at other people's houses, even sleepovers. To this day I'm not that comfortable staying with anyone else other than my parents. Just because people don't say no to watching your kids, doesn't mean it's ok to leave them all the time. Necessity because of work, yes. Friday and Saturday night every week, not so much.

Since Seth and I have been married we still have not had a vacation with just the 2 of us. It's like pulling teeth to get approved for time off from work, which causes way too much stress that I wind up saving for when we go to visit our families. Also, I pretty much burned up all of my vacation time with my 2 pregnancies and run of the mill, daycare induced, childhood illnesses. Don't get me wrong, I love to work, this is sounding a little like I hate my job, but it's just difficult.

Since Hunter was born he has only spent the night at his Grandma's house (close by) one time, as a reward for potty training. This is the same Grandma (and only local grandma) that watches him every Saturday while we work. We depend on her more than we are really even comfortable with, because of work. We've offered to pay someone to watch the kids once in a while to give her a Saturday off. To us, it falls under the category of our responsibility. They are our kids, if they get sick, we should be there to take care of them (which is going to be tough in the future unless they can spread out their sickness a little more). Just because the kids have a Grandma around shouldn't mean that she is taken for granted. Since she is the only Grandma close by, we try not to take advantage too often. We both feel that if we want to go do something without the kids, we're being somewhat selfish, and it should be something we only do on "special" occassions. We also try to give her a little extra at Christmas and bitrhdays to help show our gratitude. We don't really know anyone else locally that we'd be comfortable asking to watch our kids, I guess we should try, and eventually find someone for backup.

I guess my point to all of this is that I just don't understand how some people can just take advantage like they do. I know, all they have to do is say no, but really, some people can't say no, and they need respect just like anyone else. How can people out there lack the personal responsibility that is having kids. There are people out there that would do anything to have a family, and then on the flip side, there are people who have the kids, only to let them sit at daycare for 12 hours a day because it's free. Or, they go off to do whatever they please, while someone else watches them without being paid. And, people who give no thought to what someone else might have to do with their day, and then get mad when that ruins their plans.

And I forgot to mention...If you are still a child yourself, and have a kid, and live with your parents, it's still YOUR kid, so act like it! It seems like the new trend for kids having kids, to live at home and let their parents raise their kids for them. Just because there's other people around don't assume they will take up the slack for you. Especially if you are rent free, then they're already doing you a huge favor. Have some respect!

So, next time you decide to just go off and leave your child with someone (without them asking or you paying them), family member or other, think about how lucky you are to have this person, or people, in your life. Think about how much you owe them for keeping your child safe, it should be beyond what you could ever repay.

Sorry for the crazy mom post, I just had to get it off my chest. Like I said, please don't take offense, it's just my personal opinion and I will keep it to myself. In the end I know that I am trying my hardest at this whole parenting thing, and I hope my kids will reflect that.

I promise my next post will be less dramatic, K????

Top 5 Tuesday Preview

I decided to start a little something new this week, so I e-mailed Patrice over at Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, and I asked her what she would like to see for our Top 5 Tuesday question. I am thinking I will start sending random e-mails to my past participants to ask them once in awhile, so be on the lookout...

Since I was a little late deciding on this she had a hard time coming up with something on the spot, so I'm going to give her another chance for next week.

This week is going to be ....

Name your Top 5 reasons you love to blog.

1. I get to be completely narcissistic if I want.
2. I love getting comments.
3. I love when people agree with me (since I know I'm always right)
4. If someone doesn't like what I have to say they can just not come back, as opposed to saying something mean (of course, I know that's not necessarily true).
5. I have someplace to store my memories for my kids, and it looks good, unlike a boring WP program.
   

Now it's your turn!!!! Show me whatcha got! As I've said before, you can either create your own post and link up, or just leave it in the comments. Thanks for playing.

I am a hypocrite!

Do you remember this post? The one where I mention my extreme dislike of texting. Well, I have to come clean. I went and bought a new cell phone the other day because my old one was looking like this...

It is a little hard to see, but right above the phone there is a little round black thing. It came off of the hinge. I came upon my 16-month-old with that little tiny piece of phone in her mouth. For some time the battery cover has been falling off if it gets dropped even the slightest bump. I really didn't have any complaints with my Razr. We have our service through Verizon Wireless and have not had too many problems with service, dropped calls, or even minute usage.

My new phone is super cool, with a full keyboard for texting. Hmmm. Well, part of the reason I hated texting was how insanely long it took for me to write a text, and I'm sooooo limited for time. So this full keyboard thing is starting to look pretty good. It started looking even better when I asked about adding unlimited texting to our plan and found out it would only be about $10 more a month than what we had been paying, and that was for both phones.

Finally, I just added it. I figured Seth would be happy. He was. I didn't know how incredibly jealous he would be about the phone I got. I guess that's why they call it the enV2. The guy at the store gave me a really good deal. I walked out paying $50 and I got the phone, a case, a memory card, and a car charger. Seth has the second line, so I had to pay a little more for his phone, but he still got a pretty good discount. I also had to wait and order it online, and we're still waiting for it to arrive. It looks like it got mis-shipped and wound up in TX.

I guess Hunter picked up on the jealousy. He still keeps asking me where my phone is and telling me my phone is tired, it wants to take a nap, and sleep with him. He also likes me to put it in the case and clip the case on his shorts so he can carry it around. It's pretty cute actually.

Here's a picture of the phone: It didn't look like anything special to me at first glance, but the more I use it, the more I like it.

Supernanny's Barking Mad Dinner Party!

There's this awesome blogger out there, in case you didn't know, her name is Audrey, her place is called Barking Mad. She has the most wonderful blog, and she had an awesome idea. In an attempt to help bring together the blogging community, she's decided to host a dinner party, and invited everyone else to throw a party of their own. For those of you who don't blog, you may just skip the rest of this post if you're so inclined, I'll understand.

The point of this dinner party is to get to know some of the other bloggers out there, and hopefully allow them to get to know each other better. She referred to it as a big link fest, which I'm sure it will be. I hope you all will join with me, and Auds and maybe even throw your own dinner party, it will be a blast (or at least I'm sure hers will be, mine.....mine may just be really lame, because of the lack of alcohol, and I don't permit drunk dialing)

So, you would like to see my guest list, eh? Let me tell you, I had a lot of trouble narrowing it down. I'll get to that in a minute, first let me tell you a little about the party. I hope you don't mind a dirty house. It may look clean at first glance, but my children have a habit of destroying rooms immediately after they've been cleaned. The menu, well, that's up to you, because I'd like everyone to bring their absolute favorite dish, that way we can get to know you even better. this is a kid friendly party, there's going to be a couple of babysitters to entertain the kids in the backyard with a magician, some games, and all kinds of activities to keep them busy so we adults can have a nice time.

I decided to invite a few people that I've "known" for years. When I got pregnant with Hunter, I joined a little online message board for first time pregnant moms. To this day it's a place I go to keep up with everyone and find out what the other 3 1/2 year-olds are up to. Over the years it's been very interesting to see the similarity and differences of each one of the kids behaviors and personalities. It helped a lot since none of us have a clue what we're doing in this parenting thing.

So without further ado, my invite list includes...well, everyone. I'm going to invite all of you and you can bring a friend. I'm going to have a few people headline, so you can get to know them a little better.

Carol at Siswick Construction Zone. This girl is going to be the life of the party. She is one of the funniest bloggers I know. She's from England and has to wonderful little boys that keep her on her toes. I love reading her blog because she is able to accept the mistakes she may occasionally make in parenting, laugh at them, make them funny, and just over all she is so entertaining. Imagining an accent while you read would just make it even funnier.

Next up is Rachael over at Mommy Learns to Blog. We have recently started getting to know each other even better, and I feel like she's my long lost sister. If we were to sit in the same room, I think we could talk for a week straight and still have things to talk about.We are definitely in trouble at this point because we just found out that we have the same cell phone company so we can talk whenever and for as long as we want!!! I hope she can make it to the party, and maybe learn something while she's here.

I also want to invite Shannon from Simply Shannon. She has come a long way in a very short time with her blog. She's changed her name, layout, and has started writing for herself and showing the world her true colors. I definately want to get to know her better in blogland.

Of course the topic of conversation is going to be centered around blogging, I'm sure. I have some people in mind that can hopefully make us all better bloggers.

I would like to introduce you to the wonderful Krystyn who designed my cute layout for me. She is amazing. She has a wonderful personal blog which I have been failing to comment on as much as I really should, but she's in my reader and I read every post. Her personal blog is called Really are you Serious?, and her blog design site is Krizzy Designs. She did an outstanding job putting my design together for me, and I just wish I knew half as much about technology as she obviously does.

Someone else I just love to read is a fellow Arizonan from the Midwest. She's currently on vacation back home and making me jealous with all the pictures she's been posting. Her name is Kristen, and her blog is called Loving Our Simple Life. She always makes me smile, and I am in awe of her picture taking skills. She definitely makes me want to learn to be a better photographer.

I'm sure my next guest has no idea who I am. Ok, I think she may have commented once or twice, but if so she had probably forgotten. I love her blog and the stories she tells. To me she's one of those celebrity (she has been on tv) bloggers who has a million readers (and yet she is so down to earth) but can't possibly even have time to read everyone and comment, so I'll understand if she has other invites to attend to. Her name is OHMommy, and her blog is Classy Chaos.

Bejewell is one of those bloggers who's got it, but doesn't know it. I always relate (too closely at times) to everything she says, and I know I couldn't say it better than her. She has the nerve to call out people and she doesn't take crap of of anyone. I am a bad commenter sometimes, so I don't know if she realizes that I read every single post. She just moved her blog, and is still setting up house. I think she can totally use a dinner party about now.

Am I starting to look like a sexist here, since it's all women. Well, to add a little spice I'll invite Jim from the Busy Dad Blog. This guy can hold his own in a room full of women, he even went to the BlogHer party! He's really funny, and he gives advice. His other blog is called Stark Raving Dads where readers ask questions of him and Mr. Lady.

If I invite him, I also need to invite her, they are a pair. Mr. Lady's blog is called Whisky In My Sippy Cup. I think I roll on the floor laughing every time I read this chick's blog. Seriously, I don't get to read or comment near enough, but I am adding her to my reader so I can get to know her better.

And finally, I would like to invite Auds. I know, she invited me, and it probably a little redundant to invite her back, but I just can't get enough. She knows just what to say and how to bare her soul in a way that just makes your heart bleed for her. And I do hope she can bring her little Imp, cause I think she would get along very well with my two kids.

If you'd like to come, it's very simple, just leave me a comment so we can get to know you. Also let me know which dish you're bringing, if everyone brings something than we'll have plenty. If you don't feel like cooking, by all means bring a favorite drink.

If you'd like to have your own dinner party, go on over to Auds place and link up with Mr. Linky!

Kitchen Nightmares

Have you seen these cupcakes?

You put the batter in the ice cream cones, and then bake them.

Looks good.

Sounds easy enough.

I'm a pretty good cook.

Really, I swear I am, just ask my mom.

Well...ok, just ask anyone who eats my food (since I rarely cook for my mom).

I decided I would let Hunter make a huge mess help me make the cupcakes.

He couldn't have been more excited.

We washed our hands.

I got him a chair to stand on.

He helped me pour the water in the bowl.

He helped me pour the oil in the bowl.

He LOVED helping me crack the eggs, and he was actually doing really good.

He helped me pour the cake mix the rest of the organic ingredients in (it's possible to make organic cupcakes, right? Oh, well we can pretend, it's my story...)

Then he helped me stir it all up.

I got out my handy scoop.

We filled the ice cream cones.

I guess when they say 3/4 full, they mean draw a line, and be absolutely accurate.

I didn't. We put too much in.

Who knew they'd turn out like this...

(sorry the picture isn't the best, I took it with my phone)

Would you be even the slightest bit suprised to learn that Hunter didn't even care?

He still ate one.

And asked for another one.

Because really...

Who cares what it looks like?

It's the taste that matters.

Would you be interested....

Would anyone be interested if I did a product showcase of Mary Kay products?

My idea is, every other week I will show you one product, and tell you why I like it, what it does, and you can have an opportunity to buy it at a great price.

I love Mary Kay products, I just don't have the time to do parties, and with my job, and the consequential face melting, I'm rarely able wear makeup to work (although in my experience, the foundation usually does NOT melt off, which is pretty impressive). They have such an excellent skin care line aside from makeup, which every woman needs.

If you're interested, leave me a comment, or send me an e-mail. If no one is interested, I will just forget it.

Crime and Punishment

He's a quick one...I think this was all in less than 5 minutes.

You should ALWAYS test out the fingernail polish on the sink so you can pick the right colors.

Toothpaste always tastes better after it's been dried out for a couple of days.

He had to try out my mascara, also testing on the counter first, my lipgloss, and eye primer. I guess he didn't like the eye primer to much.

I think he got a little carried away with the powder, and mineral foundation. I would guess he thought the shakers were really neat.

As if all the squeezing was just not enough...we found him squeezing a trial sized tube of conditioner onto Rylie's head.

This was his punishment.

The other DUI

I've started noticing a trend lately.
People laugh about it.
I thought I was the only one to see someone do it.
Until I heard someone talking about it at work.
It's name is catchy.
It sounds funny when you say it.
It may even be funny if you're the one doing it.
Lucky for you, you won't remember in the morning.

Your victim will certainly remember, if they were sober.
They may even change their opinion of you.
They may have found out more about you than they really wanted.
They may have had a spouse sitting right next to them when it happened.

It happened to me once.
I was minding my own business when it happened.
My phone rang.
The voice on the other end was a friend coworker.
I was actually a little flattered.
To think, someone out there besides my husband thought I was easy worthy of their attention.
It was a bet.
Apparently, I'm worth $10,000.
I am, really.
I was invited out.
I respectfully reminded this "friend" that I'm married, and no, I'm not that kind of person.

A few minutes later another coworker called to fill me in.
The original caller was a little bit very drunk.

He had won some money in a poker game.

He must not be that good of a gambler.

He gambled on being able to sleep with me.

I guess he was so drunk he forgot about my husband.

And my morals.



I've heard, and seen more stories lately of people Drunk Dialing.

It's not pretty my friends.

I believe we could attribute the rise in popularity to the increase of cell phone use...after all, they don't even have to remember phone numbers anymore. (Why the hell not? Cell phones are to blame for everything else that's wrong with the world today...I'm just saying...)

I think we should start a movement.

Sort of goes along with having a Designated Driver.



the Rules:

If you've had more than 3 drinks, hand over your phone to the designated dialer.

If you don't have one (a DD), just put your phone in the car, with the keys and lock the doors.

Make sure you have a ride home first though.

And a spare set of keys (or roadside assistance).

If you're a friend who's not drinking (or not drunk yet) and you see someone who's about to drunk dial, please, please, please, stop them.

You could save them from a ton of embarassment.

You could also save the person who they're dialing from a rude awakening if it's late.

This goes for texting while drunk too.



This concludes my Public Service Announcement.

I'll leave you with a picture:







(don't you think this would be a good Make a Difference Monday post, over at Daily Mish Mash?)

Top 5 Tuesday

I've decided to do a bit of a different topic this week.

What are your Top 5 Favorite Places to Shop? ( I hate shopping, so this is a stretch for me).

1. Target. What can't you find there? I like their clothes, affordable, and stylish. It's so much cleaner than that other store that I'm forced to shop in because of my after-work appearance. I'm hoping the one right next to us will be opening early next year, then I can shop there because it's closer.
2. Kohl's. More affordable and stylish clothes. They have really good sales, and there's one really close to my house.
3. Michael's. I can spend hours just looking at stuff at Michael's and getting ideas for craft projects. We've never had a Hobby Lobby before, but they are building one on the corner, right by my neighborhood! I'm thinking I'll have a new favorite if this place sells fabric.
4. Home Depot/Lowes. I could literally spend a fortune in either store.
5. Barnes and Noble. Who doesn't enjoy going into a bookstore with all of the potential stories there on the shelf, just calling your name to come and read them.

Now it's your turn. I want to know. And if you don't have a blog, just leave me your list in the comments, (this means you mom, wink)

100 Random Questions From Readers

I'm hoping this is going to work as expected. Wendi and I were trying to coordinate our 100th posts. I hope she was able to get hers up before she left for vacation. Go over and see, she's very entertaining, I promise. I had to adjust mine a little. It was supposed to be 100 random questions from my ever faithful readers. Instead, I answered 23 questions and realized I probably shouldn't continue down that road, or you could be here way too long. So I'm going to finish it up with 2 last questions, and leave it at that. Sound good. I promise you won't be disappointed. If you are, I can do another Q&A later on.

1. If you could have lunch with anyone, who would it be and why? I think I would like to have lunch with my Grandma Helen when she was 50. Does that make sense? So I would like to go back in time and be the age I am now (knowing everything I know), but have lunch with my grandma when she was younger. There's so much I would ask her. I would probably spend hours asking her about how life was when she was growing up, and the hardships she had to deal with. I remember when I was pretty young I did an interview of her for school, with a tape recorder, I have no idea what happened to that. As I've said, I have the worst memory, so I think I would take a video camera to the past too. She is an amazing woman, and I only hope that I can be half the woman she is.

2.What is an appropriate amount to tip our mail carrier during the holidays? Well, if you really like him/her then you have to decide. Some people give bottles of wine, I've gotten a $20 gift card to Olive Garden, and anywhere from $1 to $20. I know of people who have gotten a lot more. I've also gotten little gift sets, a gingerbread mix, and other similar things. If you know your carrier, get him something you know he likes.

3. What was your wedding like? Me, Seth, his mom, $50, a Judge, and a woman who just got married signed as a witness. Simple but great! We haven't had a honeymoon...yet. We did have a reception in IA with our family there. The way we got married was the simplest solution in regards to location, when tha family is so spread out. I have no patience for planning, and arguing.

4.How did you and Seth meet? We met when I was dating a friend of his between my Junior and Senior year of H.S. It was fate.

5. What made me move to Arizona? I like warm weather. I wanted to go to school at ASU for landscape architecture, and I needed a good job to get me through until I was a resident so I could save on tuition. We both got hired at the post office, and the rest is history.

6. When did you know Seth was "the one"? I think I just knew from the beginning. We had a lot in common and became best friends. When we started living together I realized we were complimentary to each other.

7. What is your favorite memory with Seth? Probably of him trying to change Hunter's diaper in the middle of the night when he had his first poop in the hospital. I was in the bathroom and Hunter started crying, so he thought he could handle it (with no light and no contacts or glasses). Let's just say, tar-like poop was everywhere.

8. What do you remember most about your birth experience with Hunter? They had the epidural so high that I couldn't feel or move my legs.

9. And Rylie? How fast is was after the Dr. broke my water.

10.How did you come to work for the post office? Seth's mom worked there and helped us get signed up for the test, and with all the applications and stuff.

11.Is your eye color for real? Yes 100% , and they seem to change depending on what I'm wearing.

12.What would you do if you had an entire day with no kids and no husband around? Wow, what wouldn't I do? First I would have to get hypnotized to forget to worry about them. I guess I would read, or sew, or scrapbook, or just blog the day away.

13. What is your favorite chain restaurant? Texas Roadhouse, and Boston Market ( sorry I had to cheat.)

14.Favorite meal? either steak or turkey with mashed potatoes (no gravy, I like creamed corn on my mashed potatoes, mmmmmm) and homemade rolls.

15. Do you think you'll ever move back to Iowa? Maybe eventually. Sometimes I wish I lived there now, and other times I think maybe I would like to just have a vacation home there.

16.What is the most romantic thing Seth has ever done for you? He sent me flowers my senior year at school in December just because he loves me. It meant a lot, because since my birthday is Valentine's Day I feel cheated most years.

17.And you for him? Not sure, does cooking his favorite meals count?

18) What is your fave thing about blogging? Getting comments!

19) Would you rather eat dessert or dinner? Dinner

20) What is your most embarrassing mail delivery moment (if you have one)? I was fairly new, and I was pulling out onto a 4 lane street, making a right turn, my window was down too far, I stepped on the gas too hard, and a tray of mail flew out the window in the middle of the street.

21) Most embarrassing public moment in general? I have way too many to pick just one. But did you read this post?

22) What 5 male celebrities would you most like to "have coffee with"? Have coffee, really? Don't you mean something else? Is this code? OK, well in code (since I don't drink coffee), let me see....Matt Damon, David Duchovney(yeah, he's a little old for me, but it's just coffee right?) Milo Ventimiglia, Kevin James (again, just coffee, because I would probably laugh till I pee my pants) and last but certainly not least, Mark Wahlberg.

23) Do you want more kids? Right now, no, but I reserve the right to change my mind.

24. Are you a morning or night person? I've always been a morning person, and I think my kids inherited it. I've been becoming more of a night person lately, since it's the only time I have to myself.

25.That's it, I just couldn't do anymore!

A Meme, a Top 5 Tuesday Topic, and and awards post, all in one.

Ok, I was mistaken the other day. Carol tagged me for a meme.

4 Places I go over and over

1. Work


2. Daycare


3. Wal-Mart (I know)
   
4. Fry's (grocery store)
   

4 people who e-mail me the most

1. Blogger comment notification



2. My Mary Kay director



3. Babycenter



4. various porn/penis enlargement spammers

4 of my favorite foods

1. Mashed potatoes


2. steak


3. Pete's chicken pot pie


4. cheese pizza
   

4 places I'd rather be

1. sleeping


2. visiting family
   
3. on a cruise...to anywhere warm


4. Hawaii

4 movies I can watch over and over again

1. Save the last Dance


2. S.W.A.T.


3. Speed


4. Sweet November
   

4 places I have worked

1. a telemarketing place



2. a golf course



3. target



4. the post office (and that's it!)

4 places I have lived

1. a small town in Southern IA



2. Mesa, AZ



3. Queen Creek, AZ



4. Mesa, AZ...again, that's it.
   

4 tv shows I love

1. LOST



2. 24



3. HEROES



4. Friday Night Lights
   

4 places I have vacationed

1. The Lake of the Ozarks



2. Colorado Springs, CO



3. That same small town in IA where I grew up



4. Des Moines, IA
   

4 of my favorite dishes

1. Scalloped potatoes and ham


2. Pete's chicken pot pie


3. Rotisseri turkey


4. Lasanga
   

4 sites I visit daily

1. Blogger



2. google reader



3. twitter



4. g-mail
   

4 people I tag

1. Bejewell@ the Bean



2. Krystyn @ Really are you Serious?



3. Kristen @ Loving Our Simple Life



4. Patrice@ Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

Ok, now that's done.

On to the Top 5 Tuesday topic: this week is going to be...Your top 5 places to shop, and why of course.

Awards time!

Carol reminded me that it was Rach@Mommy learns to blog(sorry Rach it's been a long hard week) who gave me my award, along with Wendi, at Because Wendi Said So!.

Ironically, they gave me the same award on almost the exact same day! I guess great minds really do think alike.

So this award....it's the Arte y Pico award.

It has rules.

Here they are:

1) You must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, based upon creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogger community.

2) Each award must have the name of the author with a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Award-winners must show the award and put the name and link to the blog that awarded it.

4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize must show the link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) These rules must be included in your post.

Now I have to choose 5 people. I'm not even sure it's possible to find 5 people that don't already have this award (believe me I've looked).

Here they are:

1. Beth at A Real Anti-Supermom


2. Wendy @ Let the Dog in


3. Auds @ Barking Mad


4. Kelli @ Writing the Waves of Motherhood


5. Monica @ The Barnes Bunch

Well, blogger jacked up my post while I was working on something else I had to add, so I'm out of time. I will have a suprise for a couple of other people coming up soon, but now I have to go to bed!

I really do need supernanny....

I'm at my wits end.
I have a 3 year old who...
has forgotten how to be potty trained, after a full year of hardly any accidents.
He's also figured out how to open the cabinets with the child locks.
We have toothpaste and fingernail polish all over our bathroom sink.
We also have unraveled toilet paper.
And a door full of pin holes, ink pen, that is.
And suppository (you know, the ones I bought to help him poop) gunk all over the inside of the bathroom cabinet.
He's also decided that I MUST be trying to poison him.
He won't eat any of the food I give him.
He will only eat the food I have on my plate.

He also...
says he loves his mom and dad...even when he's in trouble.
Still loves Spider Man.
Tells Rylie, "It's ok Rylie" if she's crying, and pats her on the back.
Always amazes me with the things he knows.
Likes to sing "the wheels on the bus"...and it's cute as hell.

My daughter....
Loves to smack my laptop whenever she can get near it.
Also loves to instigate fights with her brother by smacking him too.
And hates to have her diaper changed.
And is ALWAYS hungry.
Has learned to bite.
Has also learned to scream...LOUD!

She also...
Has the most beautiful smile.
Has a laugh that is unbelievable.
Has recently started saying, "Hi" loud and clear.
Loves her rocking horse.
And wearing our shoes.
Also tries to sing "the wheels on the bus"...only it's more like humming, and it's even cuter.

Did you know....

There's something I noticed recently, and I want to share.

I use feedburner.

Sometimes it makes me mad (like the other day when all my subscribers disappeared, luckily they showed up later).

In other cases I think it is the coolest.

I'm addicted to finding out how many people are subscribed to my blog, I have to check everyday.

There are some other cool features.

I didn't know how cool until tonight.

I'm having problems with my internet explorer.

I've been pretty lazy about blogging lately and I've been reading my favorites in google reader.
So tonight I was using my reader and then going to the sites to comment. It can get a little time consuming waiting for pages to load and stuff (because I just don't have the fastest internet out there).
But I'm a patient person....that is, until I got error messages that said unable to load the page. WTF!
I thought it was just one specific blog, and I really wanted (I mean, NEEDED) to comment. So I went to my e-mail and just sent it that way.
So then I go to check out Carol's blog, because she tagged me for a Meme, and also gave me an award this week, so I NEEDED to go there and collect. Imagine my frustration when I couldn't open her page either! AHHHHHHH!

Then I remembered feedburner.

I remembered that when I was messing around with my feedburner account there was this one page.

(If you use feedburner, I promise this is really super dooper easy, and it will save so many people a lot of time, and possibly get you more comments. I know I am going to start looking for it on the feeds I read in reader.)

On the optimize tab click on FeedFlare.

Then pick the options you want.

If you use blogger you can add a comments count.

When people view your feed with google reader (if you have mine in your reader you can look at it for an example) at the bottom of the post there's a link that will say, 6 comments (or however many) and then the reader can just click on that link to leave their comment.

So no more visiting their site (unless you just love their layout, like I know you love mine so much) just to leave a comment.

Now, doesn't that sound easy peasy??????

Try it, you might like it!

And let me know what you think of this little tip!