Awards from 2007

In an effort to get my blog to load more quickly, I have moved most of the awards from the front page. All of these awards should be on this page, with the individual posts telling who gave them to me and who I passed them to, but I thought I'd just copy all of the awards from 2007 to this one post, so they can all be displayed in one place. Pretty, aren't they?

My Shrinking Husband

Jeffrey has been watching what he eats ever since Thanksgiving. He's slowly but surely losing weight! I'm happy to see him do it, and I'm really glad he won't have to resort to something like lap band surgery. The LAP-BAND System is the safest, proven weight-loss surgery available today and it is the only weight-loss surgery that is completely reversible and adjustable – for life. Still, I'd rather see him control his own eating.

I'm glad dieting is working for him. Actually, it's more like eating sensibly than it is actual dieting. For some people dieting doesn't seem to work. For them, lap band Houston might be the right choice. Besides the surgery, they also offer extensive follow-up, aftercare, and support. I guess I'll have to be Jeffrey's support - without being pushy. That's the hard part, standing back and letting him do it because it's something he wants to do.

brought to you by JourneyLite

Before and After

We were out the other night picking out new glasses for Jeffrey. While we were there, Cory got a hair cut. (Not at the glasses place - at a haircut place a few doors down) He's been begging for a while, but he didn't want anyone here to do it because we don't know how. Our idea of cutting the boy's hair is to get the clippers out, but he doesn't want his hair like that any more. So, since we were out, it was a good time for Cory to get the hair cut.


Before (note the curls):

After:

He looks much better now!

Looking at 2007

I saw this on a couple of blogs, so I thought I'd try it. I'm not sure I'm doing it exactly the way they did, but, here's my year - the first sentence from the first post of each month.

Cory and I had some fun with a camera and Photoshop tonight. We got the kids' report cards last week. We went to the bank this afternoon and set up a checking account and a savings account for Beth. Yesterday, I spent all day at school selecting artwork for the calendar. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. It will be time to start shopping for school clothes soon - after the kids get paid for their work at the fair, of course. Every once in a while Jeffrey mentions going back to school or at least taking classes so he can get his CPA (Certified Public Accountant), or maybe CMA (Certified Management Accountant.) Being in a resort area, we have plenty of gift shops just begging us to come in and spend our money. I just got an email letting me kn0w that I'm now on the front page of TopMomma.com!!!! Last year on December 1st, it snowed.

There you go - my entire year in one paragraph! If you happen to count the sentences, You'll notice that there are only 10. I skipped a couple of months back in February and March.

---

Also, to go along with looking back at 2007, I was tagged by Tammy from Mom Knows Everything to share my memories of 2007.

~Start Copy ~

Rules :
1. Copy from "Start Copy" until "End of Copy".
2. Before "End of Copy", share your best memories of 2007 include your name and your blog URL.
3. Share this tag with your friends.

For me, the year 2007 had a lot of happiness (and hope for 2008). Happiness because i see my son, grow and grow day by day. I have a great husband. I met lots of new friends from around the world via blogging ^_^ - Juliana RW

The year 2007 has been a good year for me. Me and my husband had our 10th anniversary, my children are healthy, I got a new great-nephew, and I made a lot of new friends through blogging. ~ Mom Knows Everything

2007 has been an interesting year. My daughter got her driver's license. My son started high school. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! I have now been married to my wonderful husband for more than half of my life - as of 7/22/07. This year, through my blogs, I made a lot of new friends from all over the world. I am really enjoying getting to know them. ~ Anna - Beth & Cory's Mom

~ End of Copy ~

What did 2007 mean to you, Deb, Vic, and Holly?

Sky Watch Friday (#3)

I started taking pictures of the sunset on Tuesday. It's amazing how much the sky can change in a little under an hour!

At 4:53pm, this is what I saw when I looked down the street:

Then, at 5:12pm, I looked out my back door:

About a half hour later, at 5:40pm, it had all changed again:

If you enjoy watching the sky as much as I do, you'll love visiting other Sky Watch Friday participants.

This Popcorn Will Actually Be FREE

My friend Elizabeth is sponsoring a giveaway - one amazingly awesome giveaway, if you ask me! While I don't like the idea of being required to buy popcorn if I want good movie seats, like I said last week, I always want popcorn when I'm watching a movie. And what could be better than FREE popcorn? FREE movies, too? Yep, that would be it. The winner of this giveaway gets a 12-month supply of Orville Redenbacher’s Natural microwave popcorn (no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives), and a 12 month Netflix subscription (two DVDs at a time), which normally costs $13.99 a month.

I'm hoping I win this one! If I don't win, I'd love for it to be one of my friends, so head on over to Table for Five and see how you can enter. The winner will be chosen on Friday, January 5th.

Personal Injury Lawyers

I think it's a shame that insurance companies don't pay when someone is injured in an accident. At least that's the general impression I get. Unless the injured person hires a bunch of Jersey lawyers to get them the money they deserve, they could be fighting the insurance company for years.

Sometimes I wonder which came first - insurance companies dragging their feet, or lawyers fighting for payment. Of course, it doesn't matter now. That's just the way it works, and it's good to know that there are lawyers that will fight to get you what you deserve if you're ever injured. You know they're going to work hard, because they don't get paid unless you win. Also, that means anyone can hire a lawyer, and not just the people who can afford one.

Sleeping In Because That's What Teenagers Do

I know. I should have made her get up sooner, but I didn't. Usually when the kids are on break from school, I make them get up if I haven't seen them by 9 or 10. Today I just let them stay in bed as long as they wanted to - just to see how long they would actually stay there. I can't remember what time Cory got up. Yeah, I was paying close attention - some experiment this was. It wasn't too terribly late, and he had sort of been up earlier, long enough to let the cat into his room when she wanted in.

Yesterday he got up really early because I let Tillie into his room before I left to go walk. When I got back, they were both up. Today I let her in with him before I left. When I got back, Tillie was up, but Cory was still in bed. I don't think Tillie understands vacation. She thinks everything should work the same way it always does. She wants to get up first thing in the morning, say good morning to me, grab a quick snack, and then go wake Cory up. Cory doesn't want to wake up? Tillie doesn't care. She still wants to go in there. This morning I was just going to leave her out in the living room when I went to walk, but she started down the hall, all the time looking back to make sure I was coming. When she got to Cory's door, she stopped and just looked at the door, waiting for me to open it. So I did. How could I not? Cory didn't mind too much. He just snuggled her a little and then let her out when she wanted out, instead of getting up with her.

That's OK, because, by the time I got back in the house and finally sat down with my coffee, she was ready to snuggle me. Anyway, back to Beth. I thought I heard her moving around, but I was busy so I didn't check. Finally, I decided to check on her - at 1:30! No, there had been no moving around. She was still in bed. How can anyone stay in bed that long? She didn't even work very late last night. I hope she enjoyed it, because I am going to have to make sure she gets up at a halfway decent time for the rest of break.

Community Search Revolution

I think we're all in agreement that one company shouldn't control the Internet. The World Wide Web belongs to all of us, right?

With that in mind, Earthfrisk.org is launching the world's first Hybrid Meta-Community search engine on Monday - but you can go check it out now. They bring together all of the best results from all the big search engines, because no one search engine has a monopoly on the best results. Even better than that, they intend to improve on those results by letting the community submit sites, comment on sites, and vote on the results. The idea is that people matter again, and eventually soon what real people think about real websites will matter more than the linking schemes and spam you get with many search engines.

Earthfrisk.org will also be introducing their new ratings system, called Color Value (CV) ratings, which cannot be manually altered by any one company.

brought to you by Earthfrisk.org

Late Night Father/Daughter Adventure

It really did end up being a good thing Jeffrey didn't have to work today. Beth had to work until 11:30, and I knew we weren't going to get to bed very early. She called from work letting us know they were walking out the door. When they close the store, they all walk out together, I guess so no one gets to leave early while the rest of them have to do the work of straightening up the store. Either that, or they want to be sure no one gets locked in. Either way, she called to say she would be on her way home soon. The weather was rather nasty, with snowing and blowing, so we like to know when she heads this way.

She got home around midnight and said the roads were better than they had been when she went in to work. We were just happy she made it home safely. Then, as we were getting ready for bed, she realized she couldn't find her cell phone! She checked her coat pockets. She checked the car. She called Tim to see if it was in his car. (He met her at work, supposedly because he was already in the area shopping. She sat in his car while hers warmed up, and then he followed her home, to be sure she made it OK) Nope - no cell phone in Tim's car.

So, Beth and Tim wanted to go back to Marshall's and see if they could find it. No, we really did not want our teenage daughter out after midnight with her boyfriend. Instead, Jeffrey told her that he would go with her. We figured that if she had dropped it somewhere in the parking lot, the chances that it was still there and hadn't been run over were better right then than they would be in the morning - since the store was closed and there probably wouldn't be anyone driving in the parking lot. So, they left at 12:30am to go look for the cell phone.

They got back about an hour later. No, the phone was not in the parking lot. However, they did see something silver on a chair inside the door of the store that could have been the phone. Beth was sitting on that chair when she called to say she was heading home, and then she thought she put the phone in her coat pocket... So, there was nothing they could do about it then, and they came on home.

This morning early, Beth called the store, and yes, it was her phone. They found it and put it somewhere safe for her. So she got it back when she went to work this afternoon. I guess she lucked out there. I also think she owes her dad big time for going out with her and looking for that phone.

Earn Money Online

The question is: How would you like to earn an extra $100, $500, or even $1000 every single day by working 15-30 minutes a day? Well, honestly, who wouldn't?

DataEntryCompany.com claims that, by following the easy directions you too will make money from the comfort of your own home, using your computer and Internet connection. It sounds easy enough. Once registered, you can select companies to work for, and then you type ads for them in online forms. Each form takes about 10 minutes to complete, and you can do as many or as few of them as you want. According to the imformation on the page, Vipul Gupta, who came up with this system, made over $50,000 in one month. I have no idea how many forms he was filling out.

There are claims that you can set your business up and make money on autopilot - even while you sleep. I'm not sure how that works, and of course they won't be sharing that until you sign up. Now, it's not free to sign up for this, but they do offer a money back guarantee. If you don't make money, they will refund your money. It's supposed to be really easy to understand, and you get all the support you need to make it work for you. The member testimonials all make it sound really good.

I am going to admit that having to pay to sign up for something like this kind of bothers me. Right now though, the lifetime membership fee is $47, which is $50 off. There are no recurring monthly fees, just the one. The idea of a full-time income with only part-time work is intriguing. I especially like the idea of not having to leave the comfort of my own home, unless I absolutely want to.

brought to you by DataEntryCompany.com
- this is a limited opportunity

It's All About the Books

Karen @ A Deaf Mom Shares Her World tagged me a while back for a book meme. Sorry it has taken me so long! Books are a very big part of my life. They have been for as long as I can remember. I feel lost if I don't have at least one book going. Cory is like that, too. He's always reading something, and he remembers everything he reads. So, for the meme:

Total Number of Books on my Bookshelves: Too many, probably. I am so bad at guessing these things, and I'm not going to count them. I actually don't have enough shelves for all the books, so quite a few of them are in boxes.

The Last Book I Read: I'm currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and Creation in Death by J.D. Robb.

Last Book Bought: I really can't remember. I usually buy several books at a time when our library has a book sale. I find it hard to resist when I can get a bag of books for a buck!

Five Meaningful Books:

1. the Bible - It actually contains quite a number of meaningful books.
2. Miracle and Power of Blessing by Maurice Berquist
3. God is in the Small Stuff and It All Matters by Bruce & Stan
4. The Lord is my shepherd : healing wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm by Harold S. Kushner
5. Light a Single Candle by Beverly Butler

I'm tagging the following to play along: Tammy, Misty, Carrie, Jenn, and Holly.

Bogger Comments, Revisited

Did you happen to notice that you can once again leave your url when you comment on Blogger? I'm not sure when they fixed it, but I just noticed today. Now, when you choose 'nickname' you can not only leave your name, but there is a box for your url, too.

Also, Hootin' Anni posted instructions for fixing the comment pop-up problems some of us have been having when using Firefox. You know, when the comment box is about 1 inch wide, and you can't even see the box to enter your comments? Very frustrating, but it can be fixed! I followed her instructions, and now I can comment on her blog. She has right-click disabled, so I couldn't use my fix - which is to right-click and open the comments in a new tab.

This has nothing much to do with comments, but do you know how hard is is to type anything when the 'l' key refuses to work on a regular basis? I have to sit here and hit it repeatedly until it finally decides to give me an 'L' - that's why my title says "Bogger comments" instead of "Blogger"

DonorsChoose.org

I saw this on 20/20 tonight. Unfortunately there are many teachers in this country who lack basic supplies in the classroom. A teacher featured on 20/20 had to use her old socks to erase the board in the classroom because she didn't even have erasers. While many teachers are creative and resourceful, this lack of supplies does affect the education their students receive. Now, what if there was a way to connect classrooms in need with people who want to help? There is! It's called DonorsChoose.org.

Teachers submit proposals for projects they want to do with their class. They detail the project and all the supplies needed. The projects are then listed on the website. People can search through the projects and choose to fund all or part of the projects that interest them. Once a project is funded, the people at Donors Choose package all the supplies and send them to the teacher, along with a disposable camera for him or her to document the project as the students learn. At the end of the project, donors who either give a partial donation of $100 or more or who made the final donation to complete a project receive a feedback package that contains thank you cards from the students, pictures, and an impact letter from the teacher, to see just how their donation helped that class.

It's sad that schools and teachers don't have all the supplies needed to provide their students the best education possible. I think this is a great idea that will hopefully make a difference. So far, 50.961 donors have funded 39,360 classroom projects and supported 892.775 students. (See Detailed Results)

DialaFlight, Take Me Away

A high resolution, aerial photograph of the Vancouver International Airport. Taken from a Vancouver-Victoria sea plane.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After dealing with a teenage daughter I just wish sometimes I could throw up my hands and just forget about it. She thinks she's so grown up and should be able to make her own decisions and do whatever she wants without asking for permission or even keeping us informed. Since I don't do anything around here anyway, I ought to look into some flights to Vancouver and just get away from it all. DialaFlight has cheap flights, and I can book the flight and the hotel all in one place. How convenient is that? I think I 'll look for a hotel with all the amenities and just let them take care of me. I found the perfect hotel right on the front page. It's called Sutton Place. It's a luxury hotel with a spa, sauna, and indoor pool, and it's got a AAA Five Diamond rating. Yeah, that sounds nice. I really will sit around and do nothing - or I could go sight-seeing. I hear Vancouver is really pretty. This hotel is close to the arts and entertainment districts, and steps away from some great shopping.

Actually, I wonder if taking a vacation with the daughter would be a better idea than taking a vacation from the daughter?

brought to you by DialaFlight

So, I Really Don't Do Anything Around Here

Yes, according to my darling daughter, I just sit around all day. I just sit here with my computer on my lap and do nothing. She does more in one day than I do in a whole week. Where she gets her ideas I'm not sure. I think she is really starting to realize that life is not just about fun and games. She goes to school all day. She's been working until 10:30 or 11:00 a couple nights a week. She doesn't think she should have to do anything around here. When she's not in school or working, she thinks she should be out doing something fun.

She probably has never done enough around here. I am home. I have never really expected the kids to do a whole lot. They're in school. They have activities, so I do what needs done. Both kids have one night a week that they are expected to wash the dishes. One night. When Beth was working 4 nights a week, and even since she's been working at Marshall's only a couple nights a week, I haven't even expected her to do that every week. I know she's busy.

The other night, though, she didn't have to work. She had also brought a bunch of cups and glasses out of her room. These were cups and glasses that had been in there for I don't know how long. For some reason she collects them in there, and who knows what is growing in them. I really don't want to deal with them. On the other hand, I don't really trust her to get them clean, either, but since about half the dishes that needed washed were hers, I figured she might as well wash them. It was her night, anyway. I told her that if she got busy and washed them before dinner, she wouldn't have to wash as many because there wouldn't be any dinner dishes yet.

That's when I got the whole tirade about how she shouldn't have to wash the dishes because she never uses them - no matter that I pointed out that all those cups and glasses were hers, and she had baked cookies before I got home from the grocery store. She ignored that part - she doesn't eat here (not my fault - she hates everything) so she shouldn't have to wash the dishes. She went on and on about how she does so much every day, and I don't do anything and she shouldn't have to do my job. Oh, and besides that, I'm never happy with the way she does the dishes anyway so why should she bother? I can't explain that to her. I've tried. Hello! They're dishes. They need to be clean. Period. If they're not clean, I'm not the only one who won't be happy.

She was impossible to talk to. Finally I just told her that she would not be going anywhere if she didn't wash the dishes. She refused to do them. She did not go anywhere. I had to wash them yesterday because I needed room on the counter so I could cook. She thinks she's going somewhere tonight. I guess she won't be happy tonight, either.

Domains for Sale

I suppose you noticed I got my own domain for this blog. Not that I said anything or put a big announcement at the top of the blog or anything. I know some of you are thinking about getting yourself a domain, too, so you might want to check out Sticky Web Domains. It's a new domain selling website that has lots of one word and common phrase domains for sale. Perhaps you'll find that perfect Top notch Domain you were looking for.

brought to you by Sticky Web Domains

Sky Watch Friday (#2)

I was hoping to get some new pictures, but I didn't. That's OK, because I've got plenty of sky pictures on my computer that just need to be shared. This one is from my morning walk - taken in February. I don't always take my camera when I go for my walk. This time of year it's dark anyway, and I end up freezing my fingers if I try taking pictures. February was pretty cold, too, but it's hard to resist such blue skies, clouds and sunrise.

Be sure to see more at: Home of Sky Watch Friday

He Used to Hunt

Speaking of that cute guy I married, back when we lived in Illinois he used to like to go hunting on the weekends. The only problem was that he had to go so far from home and be gone all day long, from early morning to night. Now we live in Wisconsin, right on the edge of the State Forest, and he doesn't hunt any more.

He still has a lot of his hunting gear, so he could take it up again. Of course, he'd probably need some new stuff too. Hunting & Recreation Business Mall specializes in top quality outdoor sports products. He can download the new 2008 Texas Hunter Catalog or order a Deer Feeder or Deer Blind. All products are factory-direct and new.

brought to you by Hunting & Recreation Business Mall

Who's Jeffrey?

Come back, Hootin' Anni, this one's for you!

You guessed right. That guy I met when I was 12 years old, and he was 16, is indeed the guy I ended up marrying. It seems like most people can remember meeting their spouse. For us, it wasn't at all memorable. The only reason we know we met then is that we went to the same church, and that's the summer his family moved into the area. It would be interesting to look back and remember thinking he was cute, or something. But I don't. And, since he was 16, and I was only 12, he probably didn't even notice me at all!

Skip forward a few years, and we became really good friends. It seemed like we'd always known each other. When I was 16, he told me I was too young for him. I supposed he must have been right, since he would've been 20 then. It does make a difference when you're that age. A few years later, though, and it didn't matter so much. We got married when he was 25, and I was 21 - almost 9 years after we met. Now we've been married 21 years, so I've been married to him for over half my life, but I've known him a lot longer than that.

Oh, and I do think he's cute!

Phone Calls for Your Website

This is interesting. Now companies can add a link to their site that lets their customers call with just one click. Customers simply enter their phone number, hit 'call' and they are connected with the company.

The service is targeted to companies, but I'm wondering if it's something we could use for the live cybercasts we have for church. We have a chat room on the page so people can comment and ask questions, but some people just don't feel they can type fast enough to join the discussion. We haven't had much luck getting them to pick up the phone and call, either. With this service, all they would have to do is click to call. That might get more people involved.

Anyone looking for a way to easily connect with their website visitors ought to check out Ifbyphone - free phone calls from your web site. They have several different plans - starting with the free 100 minutes per month plan.

Press Release:

Ifbyphone Releases revolutionary Phone-Me-Now: the world’s first Zero Configuration Click to Call With 100 free minutes per month Phone-Me-Now

Promises to be biggest Killer App of 2008

Chicago, IL: December, 2007 - Ifbyphone, a voice infrastructure and applications development company providing enterprise class services to Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMB’s), has just released a solution destined to revolutionize the web to voice space: Phone-Me-Now, a zero configuration click to call application. To introduce Phone-Me-Now to hundreds of thousands of businesses that will be able to use it as a sales tool, Ifbyphone is making it available free of charge for 6 months and providing the first 100 minutes per month of usage for free as well.

This patent pending solution can be integrated in less then 60 seconds into any website, email or hyperlinked document and requires no experience to configure. It’s literally the Internet’s first instant voice mash up tool.
"While many companies provide click to call services we were troubled by how complex they are to use. Users had to cut and paste HTML or javascript, rendering these services outside of the technical reach of thousands of businesses. Once we designed this patent pending solution we configured our existing smart click to call services to work with the Phone-Me-Now interface." says Irv Shapiro, Founder and CEO of Ifbyphone. The zero configuration Phone-Me-Now service is literally the Holy Grail of web to telephone integration and ease of use.

Using Phone-Me-Now is as simple as typing:

www.phone-me-now/your-business-number

into any web site, Word Document, Powerpoint Presentation, Spreadsheet, PDF or email. When a reader clicks on the link they are prompted for their telephone number and the Ifbyphone systems call your business, calls the reader and conferences the call. Phone-Me-Now works with any telephone number you register on your Ifbyphone account.

"We wanted to eliminate any barriers to basic click to call, and know that Phone-Me-Now will immediately set an industry standard for rapid deployment. If the Internet is all about speed and response, what could be a more appropriate Killer App for 2008 than Phone-Me-Now, which puts a business owner in instant voice communication with their customers," adds Shapiro.

Free Phone-Me-Now accounts can be updated to additional Ifbyphone packages that include:

- Click to Call with Custom Dialog Forms
- Integrated Call Routing and Reporting
- Find Me
- Virtual Voice Mail
- Virtual Receptionist
- Outbound Voice Broadcast
- Web Configured Voice Dialogs (Hosted IVR)
- Call Recording
- Backend Database Integration
- A Complete Call Management API

All Ifbyphone solutions work with any telephone system and are fully portable if a company moves from one telephone transport vendor to another.

# # #


About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone is a hosted voice application and platform company with a simplified approach to the deployment of stand-alone and web-integrated voice services for small and medium sized businesses (SMB). Combining advanced telephony and web services, Ifbyphone's web-integrated voice applications turn the small business telephone into a powerful tool, increasing lead generation, improving sales conversion and enhancing the customer experience. Ifbyphone makes it easier for customers to connect with you from online and off. All of Ifbyphone's applications are accessible via a click on a Web site, an inbound call to a toll free number, an outbound call or with the help of a programmable API. Our configuration and deployment tools look and feel just like Web applications, and require no previous knowledge of telephony programming or terminology.
Previously available only to large enterprises, Ifbyphone is delivering these converged voice and web solutions at affordable monthly fees, with no major upfront costs. The company's services are available online and through a network of SMB value-added resellers.

Heads or Tails - Memorable Gift

Barb over at Skittles' Place has started a fun meme called Heads or Tails. Every week she calls heads or tails - HEADS we get to write or post whatever we want about her chosen topic - TAILS we have to do just what it says.

Today it's TAILS - tell about a Memorable Gift.

One of the most memorable gifts I ever received was when I was 12. I wanted to go to summer camp, but there was no way our family could afford it. Then some friends from church offered to pay for me to go. Because of their generous gift, I got to spend 3 wonderful weeks at camp in Minnesota learning to water ski, play water polo, volleyball, and basketball, learn archery and cheerleading, and many other things. I made lots of new friends and had the time of my life.

Then, some time after I returned home, I met Jeffrey - though neither one of us remembers it.

Check out other Heads or Tails participants

Heat in an Emergency

After reading Misty's account of their ice storm experiences and lack of heat due to the power outage, I'm wondering if there is some kind of heater we could get to prepare for such a thing. We lucked out last week and got more snow than ice, but such things can happen here, too. If the weather is really cold and the power goes out, what will we do? My parents heat their home with a wood stove, but we don't have anything like that. We either need to hurry up and get a fireplace, or we need to find a heater that doesn't rely on outside electric power.

I found some natural gas room heaters on the Desa Online Outlet website that do not require electricity to operate. Exactly what we would need - even if only one room was warm. We could all camp out around the heater, until the power comes back on. Family togetherness is good.

These heaters might even be good for regular use, considering how high our electric bill was last winter when we had the electric baseboard heat turned on in the basement. It might be worth changing them out just to save some money on the power bill. They say you can save 15% on home heating this winter.

They also have gas garage heaters that would make it more comfortable for Jeffrey to work out in the garage - even in the winter.

brought to you by Desa Online Outlet

What Time is Bedtime, Anyway?

It's a good thing there's no school next week. Beth came home from work last night and said she got her schedule for next week. Usually she works from 2-9 on Sundays. Actually, they don't quite get out of there at 9, but it's not too much later. Next Sunday she works 4-11:30. It's also a good thing Jeffrey doesn't have to work Monday or Tuesday. I know she's 17 and all, but we don't end up going to bed until Beth gets home from work, just so we can see her and be sure she's OK. She says we don't have to, but we do it anyway.

If Beth works until 11:30 and doesn't get home until midnight, that means no one, but Cory, will get to bed before midnight. That would make getting up the next day extremely hard. Since there's no school the next day, Cory will probably stay up, too.

And you thought having babies and little kids makes it hard for you to get any sleep.

Free Online Greeting Cards

It has been ages since I've sent a letter by regular mail. Once in a while I send a card, but that doesn't happen very often either. Why should I go to the store, buy a card, and have to buy a stamp to mail it when there are so many great FREE online greeting cards? They're so much more fun than those static, printed cards, too. A lot of these cards are animated and have music. Also, you get to add your own text, instead of just trying to find the right card at the store.

One thing I don't like about some greeting card sites is they offer some free cards, but want you to pay for the ones you really want to send. I hate that. Kisseocards is different. All of their over 1000 greeting cards are FREE. They have cards for every occasion and even let you send cards in other languages. Since Cory is taking French in school, I'll bet he'd get a kick out of sending some free online greeting cards - in French. I'll have to send him the link.

brought to you by Kisseo.com

Free Popcorn?

"Popcorn, get your popcorn here"
Originally uploaded by ladyphoenixx_1999.

Beth had to work this afternoon at 2:00, but the rest of us went to see I Am Legend. Beth didn't want to see it anyway.

We went to the new Majestic theater. We've been going there ever since it opened for the Spider Man 3 opening weekend. We like to see the movies on the Ultra Screen, and we've been paying the extra $1 for the reserved VIP seats. It's nice, especially on an opening weekend, not to have to wait in line and hope to get good seats. We know where we are going to sit.

Friday Jeffrey was looking the movies up in the paper and noticed that they now have free popcorn with the VIP seating. He thought it was some kind of incentive to get people to use them. Free popcorn sounds good. So we went this afternoon and they had reserved seats available, so we bought the tickets. The total came to $34.50 - which sounded high at the time, but I didn't take the time to do the math in my head. We went and got our free popcorn - a medium popcorn for each of us. Then I got to thinking about it. There were only three of us. That was over $10 per ticket - for a matinée. We pulled the tickets out and looked at them. Printed right on the ticket was the price - $6.50. How does 3 times $6.50 come out to $34.50?

Jeffrey went to talk to someone who works at the theater to get it fixed. What did they tell him? Now, when you get the reserved VIP seats, popcorn is included. No, the popcorn isn't free. The cost of the popcorn ($5) is included in the ticket price. So, instead of paying an extra dollar to get reserved seats and then being able to buy our own popcorn if we want it - usually the large combo with a large popcorn and two large sodas with refills - now, if we want reserved seats, we are required to buy the medium popcorn. No drinks included.

They said there are signs posted. We checked on the way out. There on the price list, it does say that VIP reserved seats are $11.50 and include popcorn. It doesn't stand out. There is nothing calling attention to the change. When we bought the tickets, no one explained it. Of course, if they had, we would have bought the regular tickets. There were plenty of seats available anyway. They certainly won't be catching us paying for their stupid VIP seats and required popcorn ever again.

No Surprises

Sometimes life throws little surprises at you, and you need some money fast. For those kinds of surprises, people sometimes turn to Payday loans. You can get the money you need to carry you over until your next payday. What you don't want is a big surprise when it comes time to pay that loan back. Having a handy loan calculator will help to avoid that big surprise. Find out how much interest you will pay if you borrow that $500 for two weeks, and then decide whether it is the best thing to do or not.

brought to you by Payday Loans & Quotes

For All My Christmas-Crazy Friends

Here's an offer you might be interested in, and it is only available for 48 hours starting at 12:01am tomorrow - Free Christmas Music:

Starting December 15th (Saturday) and running for 48 hours only, you can download a free copy of Seriously West Coast Volume 2: Happy Holidays from the canada.com website (the Vancouver Sun). This is a collection of modern pop/soft rock/Christian Rock songs by artists such as Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, and Jars of Clay. To repeat: this freebie is only available for 48 hours, so download it within that window starting December 15th.

I found this at Free Sample Forager. It was started by a guy named Dave, who started his 'free sampling hobby' in January. He spends hours scouring the Internet for legitimate offers of free samples - offers with no commitments and no strings attached. And then he shares them!

I downloaded a song by Brad Paisley and a Bruce Hornsby album from other offers listed on the site. And, it's not just about music and downloads, though. It's real offers for real products you can get mailed to your house - like magazines, posters, cat food, calendars, books, and more. I like free stuff, so I'll be checking it out periodically.

My Living Will

Last night my sister and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, 'I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.'
So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine.
She's such a b***h.

Sky Watch Friday (#1)

Sky Watch Friday! I've been seeing this on Misty's blogs (My Dogs Keep Me Sane and Misty's Words), and I thought it might be fun to join in. After all, I'm always taking pictures of the sky. I have plenty of them on my computer, and I'm always taking more. This is from a while ago.

sunrise from my driveway

See more at: Home of Sky Watch Friday

Are You Styky?

When my kids were in elementary school, I used to volunteer in their classrooms and in the school library at least once a week. One year one of the teachers gave me an address book as a thank you gift at Christmas. It's a beautiful address book, but I've never used it. I have good intentions for using it to keep addresses and phone numbers in - as a backup to my cell phone. If you're anything like me, you don't write anything like that down anymore, either. We have technology, and we use it!

Now, what happens if I lose my cell phone? All that information stored in there will be gone forever. Or not, because now there's Styky. It's a new service that lets you backup your mobile contacts. Then, you can easily access, manage, and even update your contacts from any phone, on the styky website, or on Facebook. I've been playing with Facebook. There are a lot of interesting applications you can add over them. Some of them are fun. Some of them are just plain silly, but this one sounds useful. If any of your friends on Facebook already have this application, you are linked automatically. It also lets your friends add their numbers to your contacts, upon approval. I like the idea of that - less work for me.

One of the Styky features that really interests me (surprise!) is what they call $teals. They're like special coupons that you don't have to clip. They come to your phone, and you just have to show the Syky $teal on your phone.

Did I mention that the whole thing is FREE? Now, to see if my phone is supported...

brought to you by Styky

Chocolate and Basketball

If someone comes to your door selling Seroogy's chocolate bars, you are going to want to buy some. These things are amazing! So far I've had all of a dark chocolate bar, and shared a mint one with Cory. Beth had peanut butter and almond, and she gave me a taste of both of those. Wow! Good chocolate. It could be dangerous having all these boxes of candy bars in my basement. Except for that whole sugar gives me a headache thing.

I do wish some of these band students would start picking them up and selling them. I finally got a call last night from one of the moms. Her daughter needs two boxes. It's a start, anyway. There's a concert Monday night. I should probably take some boxes of candy bars, just in case someone wants to get some to sell. Oh, wait - I just checked the calendar, and it's a middle school concert. I don't have to go to that one. I do have to go to the basketball game tonight because Cory has to play in pep band. Maybe I'll take an extra box or two - besides the ones for the lady who called last night.

Sorry, I don't have any Seroogy's coupon codes. I wish I did. Just saying, because I came first on a Google search for 'Seroogy's coupon codes' - and I never actually used those words together - until now. Of course, there are only 6 items on the page, but still. I'm also the only non-sponsored results on the Goodsearch page.

Using OpenID for Blogger Comments

I found out about this on Lady Banana. You can set up your blog so that people who leave comments can sign in not just with a Google/Blogger ID, but with AOL, LiveJournal, Typepad, Wordpress, or any OpenID. You have to sign into Blogger in draft and enable the comments there.

Here is the explanation at the Blogger in draft blog. My first question is why they changed things while they are testing something new. Several people have been very upset at the change in the way comments work now - not letting people leave their name and url the way they used to. It bugged me, too, so I've got the OpenID thing set up for comments. I also looked into OpenID a little more and found out that it can be set up to link directly to a blog or website. I hadn't actually tried it, but I got a comment on my post - someone trying it out, and it works!

Sure, maybe Google will eventually be ready to release the OpenID comment thing to everyone, but in the meantime, try this.

Subscribing to My Blog

Recently I've had a couple people try to subscribe to my blog by trying to 'add a subscription' from within their reader, and it didn't work. They got back an error message saying no feed was discovered. Tonight I think I got that fixed. I was updating my blog at blogcatalog - to update my new url - when I noticed that it said my last post was on Thanksgiving. That's been a while, and I know I've posted since then. When I tried to get it to update my feed, I noticed that it came back saying:

Feed URL:

None

This isn't good! Luckily, in the same place they told me I had no feed, they also told me that BlogCatalog uses Autodiscovery to determine your Blog's RSS Feed. So, I clicked the link that said Autodiscovery, and this is what I found:

I sometimes see web sites or blogs that have RSS feeds, but fail to include the one line of HTML that enables RSS autodiscovery....

...Adding that one line of code to your template will make it easier for people to subscribe to your RSS feed. Here's how:

< link rel="alternate"
type="application/rss+xml" 
title="RSS Feed for petefreitag.com" 
href="/rss/" />

The above link tag should be added inside the head tag of your HTML document.

You will of course need to change the value of the title and href attributes to fit your needs.

So, I added the code to the head of my template, and now, when I go to Google Reader, select 'Add subscription' and type in my url, I get a feed! Hopefully this makes it easier for anyone who is trying to subscribe to my blog.

Sometimes I Change the Rules

While I was shoveling the driveway this afternoon, it occurred to me that I did that 'simple' game of tag wrong. Something so simple, and I couldn't figure it out. What does that say about me? I can only handle the hard, technical stuff?

Anyway, the original instructions (see, I changed them) said:

When you get tagged, you have to add your name next to the person who tagged youand add your site at the bottom of the list. By doing this you are letting the list grow. Then tag 5 others and let's see how big this can get!

I got to the part about adding my site to the bottom of the list, and I wondered why I needed to add my site. It was already there. Yes, I copied the whole post, including the ones Holly tagged. There they were at the bottom of the list, and I just left them there.

Oh well, I like them there. The rest of you who are playing along, you can do it how you want.

I Could Get Into Beach Culture

After shoveling the driveway twice today, I am thinking maybe I should live somewhere warm, somewhere on a beach. Yes, that would be nice. I do believe I could get into the beach lifestyle, at least the part where I lay in the sand, read a book, and work on my tan. That's not really true. I also like playing in the water and diving through the waves, and I would really like to play some beach volleyball, if I could find a swimsuit I'm not afraid of falling out of. Maybe board shorts and a t-shirt?

SurfExpo.com is a new news and community web site based on the surfing, skateboarding, wakeboarding, bikini, fashion, apparel, and beach culture markets. The web site is brought to you from Surf Expo, the longest-running surf trade show in the world. Surf Expo holds two shows a year in Orlando, Florida.

I've already admitted that I never had a chance to learn to surf. I don't know how to skateboard, and the only place I wear a bikini is in my own backyard. Still, I'm enjoying being able to browse this site. There are some rotating slides of featured products. Some of those look really interesting, even for people who don't surf, skate, or even live near a beach. There is some UV swimwear for kids, that will help ptotect kids from the sun, while also being fun to wear. I also like the looks of the rebagz recycled handbags. Clicking on the picture takes you to the product's web site for more information.

Along with information about new products and companies, there is also an interesting section with news from the world of board sports, photo galleries, and blogs written by Surf Expo staff members. It's a good way to learn any and everything there is to know about the world of surfing, skateboarding, and beach culture.

brought to you by SurfExpo.com

Snow Day

Or should that be termed 'wintry mix day' or 'freezing icy slush day'? Whatever it is, the kids don't have school today. They're forecasting either 1/2" of ice or several inches of snow, or both. We're right on the line, so it could go either way. Practically every school in the area is closed, even MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools) and they almost never close.

Of course, my husband still goes to work. He doesn't care what the roads are like. Well, maybe he cares, but he does it anyway. I got up this morning and shoveled the driveway off so he could leave. It wasn't like the snow was all that deep. It was just wet and heavy, and I like to get it shoveled before he drives on it, because then the tire marks are packed and really hard to shovel. It was raining/sleeting/icing - something - while I was shoveling, so there was already a thin layer back on the driveway by the time I finished his side. Then, when I came in I realized that I was soaked. My jacket and my gloves and my hair were just dripping.

Jeffrey called me when he got there. He had an eye appointment before work so he called me from the clinic. Twenty minutes later, the eye clinic called to say that the doctor he was supposed to see wasn't going to be there because of the weather and her kids being home. I told the lady on the phone that Jeffrey was already there, so they needed to find him and let him know. I have no idea why they were calling here. Of course, I have no idea what time they open, so maybe he was sitting in the parking lot waiting and hadn't checked in yet. I guess I'll have to ask him about that one.

The kids are still in bed. Typical teenagers - they'll stay in bed as long as I let them. And, since it's nice and quiet here, I'll probably let them, for a while.

Heads or Tails - In the Sky

Barb over at Skittles' Place has started a fun meme called Heads or Tails. Every week she calls heads or tails - HEADS we get to write or post whatever we want about her chosen topic - TAILS we have to do just what it says.

This is a true HEADS or TAILS week as the choices are HEADS - Anything in the sky or space *OR* TAILS - Anything in or under the water. I'm posting very early because the rest of the day is going to be busy!

I chose HEADS.

I always seem to be pointing my camera at the sky. There are these amazing things up there that never cease to amaze me. Amazing things that amaze me. Yeah, that's deep. Anyway, I'm kind of obsessed. I have a folder of pictures on my computer that is just for pictures of clouds. There are only 411 cloud pictures in that folder.

Here is one of my tabblos, all clouds: (Click for a closer look)

• Here's another one
  
• and another one
  

Check out other Heads or Tails participants.

Tag, You're It!

Tag, You're It!
Originally uploaded by Dave Schreier.

I was tagged by Holly at Mama Pajama for a Simple Game of Tag.

The rule: When you get tagged, you name the person who tagged you then tag 5 others. Copy the entire list into your post, and let's see how big this can get!

Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas
StylewithPassion
Chinneeq
Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks
Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
I am Dzoi
Hobbies and Such
moms.....check nyo
Choc Mint Girl
Amel's Realm
My Thoughts
Rusin Roundup - Mel
MondayMorningPower
Comedy Plus
Mama Pajama
Beth & Cory's Mom
A Bit of Me
Cherished Moments with my 2 Angels
My Dogs Keep Me Sane
Skittles' Place

my tags are:
Mom Knows Everything
Cariboo Ponderer (at her new place)
Mom of 3 Girls
Rantings of a Woman
Mom Reviews

I Finally Did It

I've been toying with the idea of getting my own domain for a while now. When I asked for suggestions, no one came up with an amazing domain name, so I just had to come up with one on my own. By the way, Tammy, yours is available, so you better go grab it!

I finally came up with www.alwaysbcmom.com

I figured this would work for a couple of reasons - partially because my kids are teenagers now, and before I know it they'll be all grown up and off on their own. But, no matter how old they get, I'll always be their mom, and there's nothing they can do about it!

Besides that, almost every time I have signed up for anything online - from email to free online storage, I have used bcmom or some variation of it as my user name. So, quite simply, I'm always bcmom - unless someone got there before me and took my user name, and then I'm bcmom2 or bcmomtoo, or bcmomtwo!

Anyway - new domain for me, so, if you've linked to me on your sidebar, I'd really appreciate it if you'd update your links to point to www.alwaysbcmom.com
Hopefully I will be able to get my Technorati Profile updated and start building that up again.

Thanks!

How to Get Beth to Read

I've said before how Beth 'hates' to read. Because I've always enjoyed reading so much, it is really hard for me to understand. Once in a while she finds something that captures her interest, like the Harry Potter books. She's read every one of those. She also likes the Alex Cross books by James Patterson. Other than that, I've tried suggesting books and tried getting her interested, but I haven't had much luck.

The other night, she came home from work and showed me how much she had read. Yes, she took a book to work and read while she was at work. Her job is to stand in the fitting room and wait for customers to come in and want to try clothes on. Between customers, she's got nothing to do, and it gets really, really boring. She was talking to someone at work who used to do the exact same job, and she mentioned that she used to read. As long as Beth doesn't ignore any customers, no one is going to mind. So, she grabbed a Jeffery Deaver book I have around here and took it to work. She actually read a book! She got pretty far, too, and I think she's enjoying it.

She forgot to take the book to work today, but I think she'll be taking it in the future. You know, she's been bored in the past, and I suggested reading. For some reason, she didn't listen to me. Typical Beth. It always has to be her idea.

Book Giveaway

My friend Deb over at Mom of 3 Girls is giving away a once-read copy of Dangerous Admissions by Jane O'Connor. I am not familiar with any of Ms. O'Connor's children's books, so I probably would not have given this book a second look. After reading Deb's review, I am very interested in reading it, so I am entering her contest. However, I realized that I left my comment telling her that I would like to win, but I forgot to do as she asked and tell her what I am reading now. It's not a hard question. I am always reading something. I just forgot.

So, since I'm heading over there anyway - to follow the instructions this time - I thought I'd go ahead and let you know about the giveaway so you can enter too. And, in case you're interested, I'm Currently Reading
Outlander
By Diana Gabaldon


The contest will end at midnight Eastern time, next Friday (December 14th) and the winner will be notified the next day.

I Need a Screenwriter for My Life

Cory and I talked about going to see The Golden Compass this evening, but by the time I decided we might as well go, it was really too late. Jeffrey didn't want to see it, and Beth wasn't too interested since she's never read the book, and I just didn't get motivated to go. I do want to see it, because I enjoyed the books. I just didn't want to leave at the last minute and get there just in time to buy tickets, walk in, and hope there's someplace to sit. So we stayed home and watched Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End, since it just came out on DVD this week. Check out that website - it's very cool. Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. We saw it twice in the theater, but there were things I had forgotten, and I still laughed out loud and cheered and all that good stuff.

Jack Sparrow: Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness.

As we were watching the movie, I caught myself thinking that I need a screenwriter. You watch these movies, and the people in the movies always know what to say. Whatever happens, they have a script. Something like that happens to me, not like anything like that ever happens to me, but just suppose, and it takes me until next week to figure out what I should have said. Or at least the car ride home.

Also, even though Orlando Bloom is totally and completely hot, 10 years is a long time.

They Said to Blog About This Song

I don't do everything I'm told. Really I don't.



I just saw this last night, and I thought it was fun. From the Richter Scales: Men Who Sing.

Friday's Feast #171

Friday's Feast is a meme of 5 questions cooked up by the chef every week. Enjoy!

Appetizer
What was the last game you purchased? Mancala, so I could play with my niece - who ended up beating me! Then we played online, too. This Mancala Snails game was fun.

Soup
Name something in which you don’t believe. I don't believe in recreational sex with everyone who comes along. Sorry, I have a teenage daughter whose friends believe that is what high school is for. And I don't believe in disposable marriages.

Salad
If you could choose a celebrity to be your boss, who would you pick? I pick Oprah! She really seems to care about the people who work for her.

Main Course
What was a lesson you had to learn the hard way? Having just one best friend and excluding everyone else is a bad idea. When that best friend isn't there any more, you've got no one. Besides, later on, when I got to know all the people she was always talking bad about, I found out that they were really nice people. My 'best friend' was just trying to keep me away from them. I think that if someone feels threatened if you have other friends, then that person isn't a very good friend.

Dessert
Describe your idea of the perfect relaxation room. It would be a cozy room lined with bookshelves. There would be a fireplace in the corner, comfy chairs for curling up and reading, and soft blankets to wrap up in.

Be sure to check out other Friday's Feast participants.

We Want Our External Links Back

I'm sure by now you've noticed the change in the way Blogger handles comments. First they added the 'email follow up comments to me@myemail.com' option, which is good. Then they went and changed the 'Other' option, which let visitors input their name and the link to their blog or website when they left a comment. That change isn't so good. I even used the 'Other' option sometimes so people would know which blog I wanted them to visit. Now all visitors who don't have a Google/Blogger identity have a choice of either leaving a 'nickname' or posting anonymously. Truthfully, though, what is the difference? Whether you enter a name or let yourself be known as 'anonymous' - if you can't enter your link, and I can't visit you, you really are anonymous. You could be anybody. You could claim to be anybody.

as Captain Lifecruiser said in her article Blogger sucks more than ever not allowing extern blog links:

A big part of the blogging pleasure is to get responses on your blog posts and visit each others blogs and this is hindering us to do that easily. I’m not saying this only because of the link backs, but because I want the process to go SMOOTHLY.

So, if you don't like the change either, here are a couple things you can do:

• Tell Google/Blogger that you want the external linking feature back in comments - and then tell them again. Scroll down the page and select 'suggest a new feature' to tell them you want it back.
• And in the meantime, do as some bloggers have started doing, and ask your visitors to leave their link in the comments so we can visit them back.
• Those of you who don't have Blogger blogs, please keep visiting. Please keep commenting, and you can tell Google you want the external links feature back, too.
  

Look, No Gears

Now that it's winter here in Wisconsin, the best form of exercise seems to be shoveling the driveway. Jeffrey has shoveled a couple of times, but it usually seems to end up being my job - mostly because I get up first in the mornings, and I can shovel the driveway while Jeffrey gets ready for work and the kids get ready for school. Cory used to get up and help me, but that was before he got into middle school and had to leave the house earlier in order to catch the bus. Now it's just me.

When there's no snow to shovel, I still walk my two miles every morning, unless the wind chill goes lower than -20°. Then I stay in. Otherwise, I walk two miles every weekday, year 'round.

A few years ago Jeffrey bought himself a new bike so he could start getting some exercise. Of course, it wouldn't do him any good in this kind of weather, but he really hasn't ridden that bike in quite a while. I even got a new bike so we could all go for bike rides as a family. The kids already had bikes. We did go for a few family bike rides. Actually, Jeffrey, Cory and I rode our bikes, and Beth came along on her roller blades. It was kind of fun, but I am going to tell you that I'm still not completely comfortable on my new bike. It has gears, and I have to understand how and when I'm supposed to shift those gears. It's a little more complicated than any bike I've had before.

I probably would have been happy with one of these beach cruisers. Look, no gears, and no hand brakes. These comfortable, sturdy bikes are available for under $100 and can be personalized with custom design labels, too. Once I started looking at the bikes, I did get a little distracted. I started looking past the bikes to the beach. Can you really blame me? It's cold here in Wisconsin. I would love to be somewhere warm, close enough to the beach that I could ride my bike there and maybe even ride it along the boardwalk. I remember watching people skate at the beach, but I never thought I could do that. I'd be too afraid of falling down or falling out of my swimsuit. Riding the bike, though. I could handle that. Beth will do the skating.

I'm Never Doing That Again

That's what Beth said when she got home last night. It took her quite a bit longer than normal to get home from work, but she did make it home OK. It didn't sound like fun, though. She said the roads hadn't been plowed, and it was really hard seeing where she was on the road. I know what she means - and I avoid driving in those conditions as much as possible. It's bad enough driving at night and especially hard when you can't see the white line on the edge of the road. Unfortunately, she's probably going to have to do it again. That's just what happens when you live in Wisconsin. She works again Thursday night, and it's supposed to snow again, at least a little. Even though I know she can handle it, I'll still worry until she walks in the door. According to the news, there were quite a few people who didn't do so well last night and ended up in the ditch.

The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department reported that since Tuesday afternoon, more than 50 vehicles were in ditches and several others were involved in minor accidents.

story from WISN.com

People forget how to drive in the snow over the summer. I remember how. I just don't want to do it!

Driving in the Snow

It's snowing tonight. It started this afternoon not too long after the kids got home. It didn't look too bad when Beth left for work. She had to be there at 4:30. I told her to be careful and especially when she got off work at 9pm. Shortly after she left, Cory and I went to the library, and the roads were already covered with snow. I really wouldn't have wanted to be driving very far, and my teenage daughter was out in it! Before she got her license, we made her drive in all kinds of conditions, so I know she is a good driver. Still, I'm her mom. It's my job to worry.

When I got home from the library, after dropping Cory off down the street at Pam's house, there was a message from Beth letting me know she made it - because I told her to call. Since I wasn't home, I didn't get to talk to her and see how the roads were or how she did. She's supposed to call when she gets off work too, so we know she's heading this way.

Heads or Tails - Three

Barb over at Skittles' Place has started a fun meme called Heads or Tails. Every week she calls heads or tails - HEADS we get to write or post whatever we want about her chosen topic - TAILS we have to do just what it says.

Today it's HEADS - Three (3)

I started trying to figure out how or where the number 3 has played a significant part in my life. Let me see... I would have had three kids, if I'd had one more. My mom had three kids by the time she was 25, and then about 6 (2x3=6) years later, she had another one. When she had that last baby, that meant I had three brothers, and not one single solitary sister. It's quite interesting when you look at the number of kids my mom and her three sisters had. My mom, the oldest, had a girl first (me) and then three boys. The next sister also had a girl first and then three boys. Of the other two sisters, one had four boys and the other had four girls, until she got remarried and had one more girl. If you take those girls and those boys and add them together, you get nine - which is really just three times three!

I'm really stretching here... Go visit some other Heads or Tails participants.

Win Shrek the Third on DVD

Elizabeth at Table for Five is giving away a copy of Shrek the Third on DVD. To enter for your chance to win, head on over, read about the DVD, which sounds hilarious, and leave a comment.

For two entries, leave a comment and subscribe to her blog - or, if you're already subscribed, like me, get two entries by commenting and linking back to the contest.

This contest runs for one week, from today until Monday, December 10th at 9:00 AM EST, when Elizabeth will use random.org to determine the winner.

I haven't seen this movie yet, so I'd really like to win.

I Forgot the Sticker!

Saturday we were getting ready for people to come over. The house isn't too bad, but there always seems to be some kind of clutter. One of the things I wanted done was for Beth to clean her stuff off the kitchen counter. We have a breakfast bar where the kids used to eat breakfast and lunch when they were home. Now it just collects their stuff. Beth had quite a bit of stuff collected on her half of the counter. One of those things was 1/2 a bag of microwave popcorn. I can't remember how long that bag has sat there - while I waited for her to take care of it.

Finally Saturday I tell her she needs to take care of it because people are coming over, and she proceeds to claim that it is not her popcorn. Well, it wasn't anyone else's popcorn, and she is the one in the family who gets all kinds of snacks or sodas and then never finishes them. Since I can't remember exactly how long it has been there, I can't specifically tell her when she popped that popcorn and left it there. The only popcorn she would claim was the bag in her room. Now, did she pop that bag before or after she popped the bag on the counter? Either way, she didn't finish either bag, and the popcorn is no good any more, so she's just wasted it - whether she claims it or not. She never did admit that the bag on the counter was hers, but she did go ahead and throw it away.

This reminded me of another time we had the same kind of issue with putting the peanut butter away. OK, we have the same issues other times, but the issue with the peanut butter was one time I actually posted it. I just re-read it tonight and realized I was planning to place stickers with her name and the date on things that she leaves laying around, so I can know exactly when she left it there, and she can't argue that it's not hers or her responsibility. Of course, she'll still argue, but at least I'll have proof.

I honestly don't think it's too much to ask that people around here take responsibility for their own things. Really, I don't.

Optics Planet - Something for Everyone

Last week on CSI they were trying to solve a murder that was committed in this restaurant where people dined in total darkness. It was all about experiencing the tastes and textures of the food without any distractions, but it seemed there were plenty of distractions. And someone had some night vision goggles to keep an eye on things. I have no desire to go out to eat in a restaurant like that, but I think it would be fun to play around with the goggles.

OpticsPlanet.com has plenty of night vision goggles, scopes and binoculars to choose from. They also have a huge selection of binoculars, telescopes, sunglasses, and other optical items. They've got a few things Jeffrey might be able to use to improve his golf game, too. There's a golf range finder and a swing speed radar for golf and baseball. I bet you could find something for everyone on this site. They've got MP3 players, weather and marine instruments, and these digital camera binoculars that I still think are amazing. They've got great deals, a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, and FREE ground shipping on all orders of $29.95 or more.

brought to you by OpticsPlanet.com

December 1st = SNOW!

You've Got to be Kidding
Originally uploaded by bcmom.

Last year on December 1st, it snowed. It started sometime overnight and then snowed all day. I got up early and shoveled Jeffrey's side of the driveway, because he always goes to work, no matter what the weather. The kids didn't have school because of the snow, so when it finally quit snowing sometime in the afternoon, Cory and I went out and shoveled the driveway - so Jeffrey could get back into the driveway and the garage after work. I shoveled Jeffrey's side of the driveway again, and it wasn't quite as deep as the other side, but there was still a lot of snow. I finished my side first, and Cory tried to talk me into helping him with his side, but I didn't do it.

Today, December 1st - it snowed again. But I haven't been out to see how much there is. Not as much as last year, but sometime in the afternoon it turned to sleet, so everything is iced over. I'm just happy not to have to go anywhere. Hopefully the weather and roads will be cleaned up by tomorrow afternoon when Beth has to go to work. I know she's a good driver, but I still worry.

In honor of winter and snow and all that good white stuff, I added some snowmen on the left. I stole them from Jaye's blog.