I Got Some Awards

I've been extremely remiss in acknowledging some of the awards I've received in the past few weeks. I could probably come up with some good excuses, but instead I'll just list the awards and say that I am extremely grateful to everyone who gave them to me! It's always nice to get an award and know someone thought of me.

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My friend Deb, Mom Of 3 Girls gave me this Blogging Star award.
(This award originated from Skittles' Place and it has a special meaning. This award is for bloggers who shine their light throughout the Blogosphere. Some do it with humour, others with creativity, and others with their kind and thoughtful natures. We all know more than a few of them so why not give them some recognition?) Thanks, Deb! I think you're a real star, too. I love reading your blog. I'd like to pass this award to:

1. Bridget at .."And Miles To Go Before We Sleep.." because I love her blog. She's got great recipes and family stories. Check it out if you haven't already.
   
2. Bradley of the Egel Nest - his blog is so much fun to read, and he came up with the next award I received.
   

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My friend Tammy of Mom Knows Everything fame gave this Egel Nest Blog Award. Thanks, Tammy! I really must go do some research to find out what she means by my blog has been hatched, don't you think? I do know that the award originated with Bradley over at The Egel Nest and must have something to do with hatching ideas, since that's what he does over there. I looked through his blog, but I couldn't find any explanation of the award. I'm sure there is one, so, Bradley, when you read this could you please explain the award?

ETA: Bradley has been kind enough to explain the award:

The idea for the Egel Nest Blog Award was just to recognize outstanding writers that I found on the blogosphere...but then it started getting passed round which is wonderful...At last count, it was on over 1,000 blogs! Can you imagine!

I always say it is given for blog "eggsellence" :)

The whole hatching thing..."Your blog has been hatched" just means it has been recognized for "eggsellence" :)

I'd like to pass this award to:

1. Vic Grace of Cariboo Ponderer. This award will fit in just perfectly on her blog! She has some really great ideas, and I always learn something new when I visit.
   
2. Becca from BeccaA's Buzz - I just found her blog, but I can tell that I will be going back, and because she just gave me this next award!
   

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My new friend Becca from BeccA's Buzz gave me the You Make Me Smile award. (This award was created by Bridget at .."And Miles To Go Before We Sleep..") Thank you, Becca! It's nice to know I can put a smile on someone's face. Reading Becca's blog makes me smile, too. If you haven't visited yet, you should.

I'd like to pass this award to:

1. Rachel at Heart of Rachel. Yes, she does make me smile.
   
2. and Jaye from Just a Mom. Her comments and her blog make me smile.
   

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I think that's it. If you gave me an award, and I missed it, please nudge me! I'm trying to get better organized so I don't lose any of these wonderful awards!

Heroes and Villains

Cory really likes the Marvel Comics characters, mainly because of the recent movies featuring them. You know - Spider Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the one we watched just the other night, Ghost Rider. I'm pretty sure he's read the comics, too. I think Spider Man is his favorite, but I'm just guessing that because of all the Spider Man t-shirts he has, and wears constantly. Except that he was really excited about the last Spider Man movie because his favorite character Venom was in that one. Never mind that Venom is a villain! That's another character he wanted to dress up as yesterday.

Today I saw this Marvel Heroes vs Villains Pinball Machine. Isn't that every guy's dream, to have a pinball machine in the basement? At least I thought it was at one time, however, I really don't know if Cory likes pinball games or not. I'm guessing that if he does, this one would be perfect for him. It does look like he would have to play on the side of the good guys, though - which I'd prefer. I mean, who really wants their teenage son pulling for the villains?

This pinball machine is on sale right now for $199 - that's marked down from the regular price of $399 - so it would be a good time to get it, if we're going to. Even if Cory didn't like it, I bet the other guy in the house would. He always used to like going to the arcade, and this would be practically like having your own arcade in the basement - or at least a pinball machine. That's like part of an arcade - with all the beeps, lights, bumpers and spinners.

Friday's Feast #164

I've missed a few Fridays. This is my 5th Friday's Feast.

Appetizer
When was the last time you were surprised? Last night when I realized there was toilet paper all over the house. Really, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.

Soup
Fill in the blanks: My eyes are ________, but I wish they were __________. My eyes are open, but I wish they were closed. Why does morning come so early?

Salad
If you were a Beanie Baby, what would you look like and what would your name be? I want to be a frog - green and bright orange. My name would be Belize.

Main Course
Name two things you consistently do that you consider to be healthy habits. I walk two miles every morning, and I brush my teeth- though not while I'm walking.

Dessert
What brand of toothpaste are you using these days? Do you like it? Why or why not? Aquafresh. I like it. It tastes good.

Friday's Feast is a meme of five questions cooked up by the chef each and every week. Enjoy! Be sure to check out other participants.

Button Maker

I made the buttons tonight. That button maker is really neat, and easy to use. I think the buttons look really good, too. I guess we'll find out tomorrow night when we sell them.

After doing this and seeing how it actually works, I think I will definitely need to make my images in circles from now on. Really, they are going into round buttons. Of course they should be round. Also, while looking to see if I could find an example of the button machine the Band Boosters have, I found this template for button sizes. I could've used that before! I downloaded it for future use.

Eventually I will get it all figured out. We'll have this button machine for a while. Last year we borrowed one from a church, but decided it was a good way to raise money so we wanted our own. Cory will be in school and in band for two more years, so I'll be involved with it for at least that long. By the time he graduates, I ought to have it all figured out.

Free Toilet Paper

More Homecoming shenanigans tonight. I was washing dishes after dinner when I became aware of some odd noises outside. They were kind of like little thumps. Not real loud, so I don't know how long I was hearing them. I opened the door out to the garage to be sure the garage door was closed. It was. Then I went down the hall and peeked out Beth's window. There were several kids out in the yard, and I saw some trailing toilet paper. So I told Jeffrey that he ought to go out the front door and see what was going on.

There was toilet paper everywhere. We don't have any trees to speak of, so they were just throwing rolls of toilet paper up and over the house in an attempt to drape the house in toilet paper. There are some bigger trees at the back corner of the yard, but they left those alone and just draped some on the small trees. After Jeffrey had chased them off, he and Cory went out and cleaned up. They threw away most of the toilet paper and collected all the partial rolls scattered all over the yard. They collected a plastic tub full - see picture.

A little later in the evening, we started hearing noises again. Either the same kids or someone else had done it again - not as bad this time, but still...

When Beth got home from work, she seemed to think that they shouldn't have cleaned it up. Umm, right, just leave it all out there to get all soggy and nasty and gross. Then we wouldn't have all that free toilet paper!

I said they should have at least left some for her to clean up, since they were most likely her friends.

Web Hosting made Simpler

I've been working on a web site with a friend for several weeks now. When we first got into it, we weren't really sure where the current site was hosted or how much it was costing. In a effort to find information about web hosting, I started looking for information about what was out there - how much it would cost, what kind of services were offered, and things like that. Luckily there are sites like Top 10 Web Hosting that compare all this information together on one page. Not only do they give the information, but they rate them, so I don't have to try to figure out all by myself which package or plan is the best. That's a good thing, because I've never purchased web hosting, but only used free hosting or published to a server that someone else arranged the hosting for.

We've got the hosting for this web site figured out, but I'll probably keep looking. Maybe one of these days I'll be ready to purchase my own hosting package, get my own domain, and all of that good stuff. Thanks to comparison websites like Top 10 Web Hosting, the hardest part will be figuring out what domain I want.

Making Band Buttons

Last year the Band Boosters made buttons to sell. I took pictures of the kids in uniform, resized them, had them printed, and then one of the other moms made them into buttons. We sold them to the parents (and some to the kids) for $2 each. Everyone seemed to really like them - though there were kids who didn't want their pictures taken. Some of the parents even ordered more once they bought the first one. So, this year, we decided to do it again.

The buttons are all made, with the pictures of the band members we have. Some of the kids weren't at the rehearsal when I went to take pictures, so hopefully we can get them this weekend. We wanted to sell them this weekend at the Homecoming game, but those just won't be ready. What can we do? If we can get the pictures, we can probably have them ready for State competition next weekend.

In addition to the picture buttons, I've been trying to put together some images for other, more generic buttons we can sell. Ones that aren't just for band members and their parents, so I came up with these pictured here. Note this is not an actual button. I uploaded an image to CafePress so see what the buttons would look like.

I just picked up the button machine - so tonight I get to make buttons. It looks pretty easy. I'm also thinking that I might change the way I do the pictures in the future. I've been sizing them down into 2.5" squares - so they can be cut down and used for a 2.25" button. I'm thinking that I should be creating them as circles to start with. That way there should never be any white showing ever - especially if I make the circles a little bigger than they need to be. The trick is just making sure the actual part of the picture that we want, mainly the kid's face, is the right size to fit on the button without getting cut off. Actually seeing the circles and how the whole button making process ought to help me better understand what I'm doing with the images. Last year I just guessed. It seemed to work, so I pretty much did the same thing this year.

Costume Day

Today's theme at school is costume day. Cory wanted to dress up as some Manga or Anime character, but he didn't have a costume. Since I have no idea what such a character should look like, I obviously couldn't help him. Besides that, I 'm really not all that creative. If my kids are going to dress up, ready-made costumes are the best bet, though, as you already know, I am extremely cheap and hate to spend more money than I absolutely need to.

If we'd had time, we could have browsed this Halloween Costume Shopping Guide and probably found something they both would have liked. Even better? Enter coupon code scary15 for 15% off orders over $100. (Excluding closeouts and shipping) I'm not sure if they have the costume Cory was looking for - because I don't know what to look for, but these sexy Halloween costumes are a lot like what Beth put together for herself. Not exactly, but she dressed up like a cowgirl - short denim skirt, button down shirt, boots, hat. Cory called her a 'hooker cowgirl' - but that's a brother for you! Actually she looked quite cute.

Homecoming Week

Friday night is the Homecoming football game, and the dance is Saturday night, so the whole week at school is Homecoming week. What does that mean exactly? Every day is a special day - like color day, where each class is supposed to wear a certain color, crazy day, costume day, and school spirit day or something like that. They count the number of students in each class who participate and keep track of who wins - Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, or Freshmen.

Beth seems to think that it doesn't really matter what they do or whether they participate. She says it's rigged and the Seniors always win. That doesn't seem right! Still, she's actually been participating, at least some - and she's got no school spirit at all. I thought school spirit was contagious or something, but she doesn't seem to have caught it.

Another side benefit of Homecoming Week? Kids are out at night stringing toilet paper from the trees in their friends' yards and other fun things. Last night Beth went out to tell Tim goodnight before he left, only to find that someone had wrapped plastic wrap around her car and painted questionable things on it. Now wouldn't that security camera I was thinking about the other day have come in handy?

Luckily she noticed the car last night and had time to clean it up, because she was rushed getting out of the house in time for school today, and she would not have had time to do it this morning. Cory got to the car first this morning and realized that they had also put Vaseline under the door handles, so he had to wipe that off.

I really don't understand the point of all of this. I don't know if they did this kind of stuff when I was in high school or not. Maybe they did, but I missed it.

Home Drug Testing

Some of Beth's friends take drugs, and, no matter how many times we've talked about drugs and what a bad choice they are making, she still defends them. In her mind, it's a choice they have a right to make - never mind that the drugs are illegal. For her part, she does seem to at least be smart enough to never want to become addicted to anything. I still worry sometimes, though, realizing how easy it would be for her to get drugs from her friends.

I admit I have gone online and looked up home drug testing kits, wondering if it would be a good idea. The tests I saw before were to test the urine for drugs, but apparently that is only accurate for a few days after drug use. Today I was reading about one I hadn't seen before, the Hair Confirm Home Drug Testing Kit. By testing a hair sample, they can get a 90-day drug history. Even occasional drug use will show up, where random urine testing might miss it. This ought to work as a pretty good drug prevention tool. If kids know the test will show any drug use in the past 90 days, they will surely think twice before even trying drugs - knowing they can't get away with it. Still, I'm torn over whether testing my kids for drugs is the right thing to do, unless I start seeing signs that really make me think they are taking drugs.