Monday, June 7, 2010

Unemployment

Let me preface this blog by stating that unemployment extensions will not help me and mine in any way. My husband is currently working, and we went through our benefits after our shop closed. So this is not for personal gain.

I am horrified by the actions of the Senate towards the unemployed in America. Twice now, rather than discussing an extension they’ve gone on vacation. Paid vacation. By the way, Someone in PR was not thinking when they used the word vacation, seriously. Way to taunt the unemployed.

I understand deficit spending needs to stop, but why draw the line in the sane when for once congress can help actual individual people instead of say... wall street, which by the way, screwed over our entire economy and everyone who actually made the mistakes kept their jobs.

There is so much wasteful spending going on that no one will EVER touch, but they’re going to let people starve. Unemployment helps the economy. It keeps people spending when they have no jobs. Also, people seem very confused by this bill. It is not granting more benefits. It is allowing benefits that are already in place to continue. People throw around words like “99 weeks” as though they know what they are talking about. Let me explain.

Most people are not awarded the full amount possible for unemployment, which is I believe 350 dollars a week for twenty weeks. Most people are given between 150 and 250 for 15 to 18 weeks. Then the next tier gives you a fraction of that, and the next tier is a fraction of that fraction and so on. It is constant uncertainty as to whether there will be a next tier, so no, it is not a disincentive to work.

In any case, unemployed americans are not where we should start making our budget cuts. It doesn’t cut enough to be helpful first of all, and it will hurt the economy. The point of this post was to lead up to.... this thing I wrote

We the People: By Kaitlin Bevis

We the people of the United States of America are enraged! As you take your paid vacation on the taxpayers dime we sit unemployed and frightened. We are in a great hour of need and you sit idly by and do nothing. The time has come to say enough!

What made America great was that we were not ruled by a King in a far off castle untouched by his citizens troubles. We chose our leaders and they lived down the street. What made our country great was that we could walk into the White House at any time and demand to see the President we put into power. What made our country great was that once upon a time a man could write a hand written letter to the Supreme Court and change the nation. Our Country was great, and now it is desperate.

As you sit upon your thrones in your mansions we lose our homes. As you take your vacations on our dime and eat like Kings, your subjects are starving. While you rest assured of your children's health and future with prepaid college plans and free insurance, we are spending our children's hard earned college funds just to get by.

There will always be those who take advantage of the system, just as there will always be Senators, Representatives, Governors, and other public officials who consistently vote against their citizens wishes to help the corporations. Do we take away all of your jobs because of a few (haha) bad eggs, no. We continue to pay your ridiculous salaries, your private healthcare, your children's college funds, your golden pensions, and your ever wish and whim, yet you would look down upon us from your mighty throne and declare that we are not working hard enough, trying hard enough, looking hard enough. You accuse us of taking advantage? Of increasing the deficit? Every dime you make comes from money our nation no longer has.

If you really wanted to help your citizens, you would refuse your mansions until each of your citizens had homes. You would not take paid vacations until you were assured there was a job available for every single citizen under your care. You would not accept your benefits until you were sure each and every citizen had healthcare and retirement plans set into place. You would not send your children to college on our dime until you could promise every child in the United States would have an opportunity to make the best of themselves in a college campus somewhere.

You would not shout socialism and big government as you lived of our dime. You would NOT bail out the banks responsible for sending our economy down the drain, you would have given that money to the people to pay off their houses and credit cards, which would in turn give money back to the banks. You penalize companies that give their jobs to anyone other than American Citizens. You would not vacation while our troops are fighting a war you seem to have lost interest in. You would not rest while our oceans and coastlines are being destroyed by corporate greed.

We the people of the United States of America are Unemployed, We are Hungry, We are Homeless, We are Frightened, but we are not Helpless. We say enough!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Cloth Diaper Giveaway!

My friend over at raisingmyfoursons is giving away one kisuluvs all in one, one size cloth diaper. I love that name don't you?
If you're on the cloth diaper bandwagon, or are considering diapering this is a great chance to try it out.

Cloth Diapers


Ok, I've been converted. A lot of my friends cloth diaper, and I've been curious, but not really wanting to go through the hassle. But our savings account is dwindling down, and I'm feeling less confident about our finances. (The summer is always tight, its the longest distance between semesters) so I figured, why not give them a try. The independently owned diaper store here offers a trial program, so there's no financial risk in trying, and even if there was, I can buy all the diapers I need for a few months worth of disposables, so if nothing else I can tough it out if I just hate it.
I tried fuzzy bunz one size diaper, and I love it. I like the snap closures, because I've witnessed enough bib chains in the laundry to not want that to happen with my diapers. I like how much you can adjust the size, you can change the leg size, the back size, and the front size by adjusting the elastic inside the diaper. I would prefer an all in one diaper as opposed to having to stuff her inserts in the diaper, but not enough to sacrifice any of the other features I like.
I put the diapers on, and remove the inserts and toss them both into my wet bag when shes done. About once a day I have to rinse off a diaper for the obvious reasons, but thats not really that bad. Half the time those diapers leak when I use disposables so I'm used to rinsing things off.
The diaper feels damp when shes used it, but like like leaky damp, it just feels cooler, so I know its time to change her. I haven't noticed any leaks, and they look so cute on her.
I bought eight diapers, and a wet bag. I want twelve diapers, but I've spent my budget, so my next few blog posts will be diaper giveaways.
Enjoy :)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

amazing


whoops! I posted the wrong link for D beauty, the correct one is here. I also corrected it in my review so you can click there as well. http://www.dbeautyshop.com/
Its not like I forgot, but lately, I've been so amazed at my daughter. I know she's wonderful, and perfect and cute, but somehow she still manages to blow me away with her sweet smile, or a cute hug, or falling asleep in my arms. I don't know what I did to deserve her, but thank goodness!
I'm going shopping for a wedding tommorow. I need a dress, cause the only nice one I could wear is black, and thats taboo. So wish me luck in finding something cheap and nice. I hate clothes shopping. I loved it when I looked better, but now its just kind of demoralizing.
I'm working on getting back into shape. Bella and I have a picnic lunch and walk it off in the park every day. I'm watching calories, and all that boring stuff. I haven't seen any improvement from it, but hopefully I will soon. I blame breastfeeding for now. The good thing is if Bella's with me, no one looks twice at me cause she's perfect :D
The husband has finals next week, so things are about to become very fun in my house. Stressed out daddy's + teething baby makes for an irritable me.
Wish us all luck

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Radiant Writing

Be sure to vote for my entry of radiant writing! I could win a critique of my work from Melissa Marr, the writer of Wicked Lovely, which you can still download for free on amazon.com kindle. I would also win all four books in the Wicked Lovely series autographed, and win a twenty five dollar gift card to apple :), which will go towards my i-pad fund. If I win, my ipad fund will go up to... $25 dollars :D
(I'm sort of hoping to get one for mothers day, but kind of doubt it will happen unless my bank account grows discretionary funds between now and then)

Bella is doing wonderful. She went to her friends birthday party the other day, and tried some cake frosting. Unsurprisingly, she loved it. I was pretty proud of the gift she gave her friend, who was turning one. We got the leap frog counting candles birthday cake, and Where is baby's birthday Cake by Karen Katz.
I've started to plan Bella's birthday party, I just couldn't help myself. I hear people planning things and start wondering what I would want, and then before I know it I have a two page list of ideas and pictures of birthday cakes saved to my computer.
My idea so far is to have her birthday party at the wow playground, which is this great playground that looks like a castle, and has a separate area for toddlers to play in. It will be princess themed, with pink and purple for the colors. I'm thinking mostly purple because thats a the royal color and what not. I'm going to decorate her high chair like a throne, and get her a little crown birthday hat.
I haven't chosen a cake yet, but I'm leaning towards another 3d teddy bear cake, like I had at my shower, but this one decorated like a princess instead of a baby. Yes I have gone off the deep end. Care to join me?

Colored Contact Lenses




The wonderful people at D'Beauty were kind enough to send me a pair of colored contacts to review. They came in the mail on Saturday, and was I excited. I chose a blue pair of contacts, which is a nice change from my plain jane brown eyes.
I had fun being blue eyed for a day, and I still have the contacts to wear on special occasions. The blue is kind of hard to pick up in the pictures, but its a nice dark color blue, like my moms eyes are naturally.
The contacts are prescription strength, but can be ordered at zero strength for anyone who just wants to change their eye color for fun. They have lots of cool designs and colors. Check them out, it's fun :)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Ok, so that didn't work

Ok, I love iweb, really I do. I'm going to continue to post on iweb as well as here, because Iweb is missing one component, google friend connect does not work on iweb. So no followers, and no comments :( Hopefully that will change one day, and I'll be able to move everything over.
Also could not figure out how to get the domain name to work right.
I'll be posting on here again, and tommorow you can expect a review of some colored contact lenses :)

Friday, April 16, 2010

Rates

A word to the wise. Babysitting or nannying is not the cheap alternative to daycare. It never will be. The babysitters who are willing to charge the same rates as daycares, run in-home daycares with 7-10 kids in them. Better ratios than daycares, but if you are looking for individualized attention for your child, be prepared to pay at least minimum wage for it, and I would think a little more.

The people I’ve been interviewing with who are looking for full time care for their infants, seem really surprised when I don’t jump to meet the daycares $100 dollar a week rate. Ideally, I’d like to make $250 a week. Add in a sibling, and I’d like to make that $300. Is that expecting too much? I’m really curious here. What would be an acceptable rate if you want something better than daycares?

Should I lower my price and take more kids? No... I’ve already decided the most children I would take is three, and that’s only if there are siblings involved. One to two children (again with the sibling clause) full time, with one position available for part time kids. Like this adorable two year old I watch for a few hours on Tuesdays. I can hold out and wait for the right people. I’m in a position right now where I can wait for the right person. So I will. Maybe once fall rolls around, and all the teenagers and students looking for extra cash drop off the radar, I’ll be able to find the right client for me.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Wicked Lovely

Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr is available as a freebie on amazon.com, and that is so exciting! I’m only about halfway done, but I’ve been dying to read this book since I first heard of her. It’s the best of The Moor Child, and Tithe.

I’m also loving having a form of transportation. I’ve been going to every kid event in Athens and having a great time. I need to find a Baby Signs class for Bella, but there doesn’t seem to be one in the area. I’m signed up for Mama-Baby Yoga and Gymboree right now, but I’m thinking next month I may just do Gymboree. I love mama-baby yoga, but you only go once a week, as opposed to gymboree’s one class a week with two playtimes a week. Mama baby yoga is more for me than for her, but I can do yoga at home with my wii.

I don’t think I’m going to do Kinder music. There classes are like $95 for six weeks, and again, its only once a week. Bella learns a lot of songs at the free infant playtime. I would sign her up if it had the baby signs class. Ah well.

I’m writing again, and I have a fantastic idea. I want to write a series rewriting the Greek Myths. I can set it in modern day, start with the myth of Persephone, and have her meet all the people from the real myths in the underworld. I could call it the Eleusinian Mysteries (google it, and you’ll get it), rename Persephone Cora (her name changed from Core to Persephone when she was abducted) and go from there.

Very excited.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

mobile

I had a great weekend! I Went to Columbus and had a fantastic time. I saw Clash of the Titans (was underwhelmed) and took Bella to the easter bunny. Bella got mum-mums in her basket, and loves them, and I can now drive my car :D. Financially that may not be the best thing for me, lol. When we got back to Athens I went grocery shopping, bought Brandon a present, and have been going to baby places hanging up babysitting flyers today, and consequently buying stuff! I need to stop that right away!

I bought Bella new nail clippers (we lost her old ones) new hangers, and a mirror for the car. (It’s so cute, its shaped like a puppy and now I can see her when I’m driving.) Then I went to gymboree and got her a bubble blower, not to mention the cost of printing the flyers, and buying the gas, and all of that good stuff.

Ah well, I promise not to buy anything tommorow :0

It’s been a great day, heck, its been a great week. I wrote a poem in my poetry class that my teacher said was exceptional, and I taught a poetry workshop at the elementary school tonight. My house is clean, I have three babysitting interviews scheduled this week, and things are looking up :D Now if I could just win the lottery so I could buy the rest of the things in those stores....

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

And The winner is.....

To find out who won, visit my new blog at http://web.me.com/bevis1/Kats_Cradle/Kats_Cradle/Kats_Cradle.html
This is where I will be posting from now on. Please update your following information accordingly by clicking follow when you go to my site. Thanks :)

Winner!

Welcome to my new site! I decided to make the most out of my mobile me account by creating this little website. Let me know what you think :)

The winner is comment number 1! T, you win! Enjoy your yogurt and goddess kit. This winner was generated at random.org.

Regular update tommorow :)

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Yoplait Greek Yogurt Review and Giveaway!

Want to nourish your inner goddess? Try Yoplait's greek yogurt. Did you know that Dannon and Yoplait were the same company? I didn't. Huh.

To celebrate its new Greek yogurt and to encourage women to nourish their inner goddess, Yoplait has teamed up with actress Izabella Miko, who plays Greek Goddess Athena in the Clash of The Titans. (I can't wait to watch this! I will be in Columbus next weekend for anyone who wants to go with me.) Check out this cool trailer.

Anyhow, the people at yoplait and MyBlogSpark, were kind enough to send me a goddess kit, that you can also win. I tried to yogurt, and found it to be rich and thick, and yummy. This greek yogurt is to regular yogurt what custard is to ice cream. Thick, creamy, and delicious.
Only unlike custard, this yogurt has no fat, and is 120 calories per container.
There are three different flavors of Greek Yogurt from Yoplait: Strawberry, Blueberry, and Vanilla. My favorite was the vanilla, which surprised me actually, but it was really good. The strawberry and blueberry were also very good.
I normally eat the yoplait whips, raspberry flavor, so this yogurt was a complete different experience for me. My husband also enjoyed them, though his favorite flavor was strawberry.
Want a coupon? Visit this link to save .30 cents on Yoplait Greek Yogurt today!
Want to win your own goddess kit?
Tell me in the comments which flavor of Yoplait Greek Yogurt you are most likely to try, and tell me how you get in touch with your inner Goddess.
I was not paid for my review or give away of Yoplait Greek Yogurt, I only wish I was ;)




Wednesday, March 24, 2010

So busy!

We've been super busy moving, but I have something I just have to blog about.
Mama-baby yoga, at athens regional medical center, is awesome. I just got back and am feeling GREAT and ready to start unpacking boxes!
In case I didn't say or wasn't clear, the water from our ice maker line in our old apartment, kept leaking to the downstairs apartment. They would complain, the apartment would fix it, and then it would break again. After the last fix, our downstairs neighbors moved... so no one to report leaks. Whoops!
They inspected the apartment prior to some new person moving in, and discovered major major issues with the ceiling, and in order to fix it, we were relocated, and upgraded to another apartment in the same complex. We weren't supposed to be upgraded, but the husband and I discussed it and decided the difference in rent was equal to what we paid to use the apartments washer and dryer, so we upgraded. I managed to negotiate rent down for the inconvenience and now we are actually saving money! It's more than our old one, but less than cost of laundry.
We were reimbursed for movers, so they got everything over here, now it's just a matter of putting everything away. Our couch did not survive the move :( It was DOA anyway, one seats been broken for awhile, but the husband was content to sit on a pillow, so we are making use of our seldom used love seat until it sells on craigslist, and our new couch (also from craigslist) is being delivered in two weeks.
It's pretty, its a brown leather like couch, its really vinyl, but its in great shape, and I can wipe it off when Bella spits up :D
Our washer and dryer is coming up soon, and then we will be done with the moving thing. We put a few things in storage because Bella is getting ready to crawl and when I babysit I don't want the kids to be cramped, so our coffee table, and some shelves that never really fit in these apartments after we moved from Sandy Springs are now out of the way. I wanted to keep them because they're so pretty, and one day we will have room for them.
I feel kind of bad for the husband. I get everything I want. I've been off doing new things, and we moved, and I got my new couch, and so on, and the poor guy has wanted a flat screen/big screen tv for SO long, and it's never even been debated whether we can get it or not.
It's too much, and our other tv works fine (unlike the broken couch) it's never been and will never be a priority :(. I wish I could get it for him, and one day I will. It would be ideal to babysit 40 hours a month to repay a little borrowed savings, pay for the couch, washer/dryer transport, and the difference in rent + storage, as well as some other expenses I'd like to take on. Once basic expenses are covered, and Bella is covered (baby gates, new car seat (love the old one, but she will outgrow it soon), convertible crib, baby sign language, maybe gymboree, things like that) then I am going to try to get him the TV. I'd like to get it for him for Christmas, or maybe his birthday, but I doubt it will happen. I've been saying I'd like to get it for Christmas or his birthday since 2005. Ah well, he will surely get it for himself once he gets out of pharmacy school.
In the meantime, I need to do something special for him. He's been so great, and schools been hard. Must think of something....



Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Home

I had a great time in Columbus. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, but the trip reminded me how important it is to make more frequent trips home.
Also, I have made a decision regarding work.
I'm going to try the babysitting thing, and wait on work until at least fall, if I ever go back. My baby is only a baby once, and I just can't stand the thought of missing it. My mom worked tons, but she had to. I always said if I had kids I would stay home if I could. So it may make things a bit harder, but since it's not an absolute must, I won't do it.
So I've put an ad on craigslist, I'm going to post notices every kid friendly place I go, and at my apartment complex, and I've posted a website, put myself on google, yahoo, and everywhere else. It's a little bit of overkill, but I have all of this web stuff just hanging around from when I had my business, so why not use it?
Hopefully I will get some business soon, and it'll be great. I'll have all summer to figure out the financials and decide whether or not I absolutely have to return to work.
Wish me luck

Friday, March 12, 2010

Going to Columbus

Well it's not the beach, but it is a vacation! I'm heading to Columbus for the weekend for a much needed break.
Meanwhile, I have some things to think over.
I have decided to start a babysitting service. Why not? I've taught preschool, I have a baby, this way I could stay home. I have one potential client for Monday's, and I've already gotten a response to my craigslist ad for two more potentials earlier Monday-Friday.
With this in mind, and the fact that our current apartment has some unfixable issues and our apartment is sorry about that, so we're getting upgraded to another building. Next weekend. Yay! This other apartment is a little bigger, and much more suitable for babysitting. People can pull right up to the door, you don't have to go upstairs to get in, and we have a washer dryer connection and a little patio.
So I thought I had it all figured out, when suddenly a preschool I put my resume in at earlier called and offered me a job starting asap. Bella can come, but she has to stay in the baby room, and it's an eight hour day. State funded, so state paid, which means a decent salary, and its a contract job meaning I'm promised the job for at least a year.
Great! Except fort the ASAP thing... Bella's no where near ready for daycare. She won't take bottles, she's been held by me like 24/7, and she doesn't sleep well in cribs, we co-sleep most of the time.
They need someone now, the state requires they fill the position within 15 days so they stay in ratio. I'm all for starting in the fall, they may have a position for fall, I should know Monday, but starting Monday.... I couldn't. Fall would give me time to prepare Bella a bit better. And besides, over the summer this babysitting thing could really take off... I'd much rather stay home with the baby. It looks like a great preschool, and the baby room is great, but... I want to be with her all day. It's just a thing, I've always said if I have kids I want to be a stay at home mom. And yes, when my husband finishes pharmacy school that will be a much more viable option.
I can get by till fall, honestly I can get by until my husbands done with pharmacy school. It would just be safer to have a job. More steady... and in this economy stability is a gift. I'm so torn!
So off to Columbus for a weekend to clear my head and think things through.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Monday, March 8, 2010

I hate Dell

I forgot my anger at dell briefly, until I read this blog by momma such, and remembered I've told everyone in person about why they should never buy a dell computer, but I haven't fulfilled my threat to the dell company after my horrific experience with them two years ago by spreading the word online. Yes, I hold a grudge, mostly because my dell computer is broken, has always been broken, and they refused to take it back, fix it, or even answer the phone for hours at a time, keeping me in an infinite phone loop until I sent my mobile phone bill to them in response to a customer satisfaction survey.

Yes I hold a grudge, but I swore to them I would tell every person I knew and every person I would ever meet that they should never get a dell computer. I don't go back on my word.

I HATE dell. We used to love dell, my mom got a new dell every year for work for like five years in a row, and it was fantastic, but between 2005 and 2006 something changed (outsourcing?) and our last dell computer came to us with a broken fan, which resulted in a three hour long phone call before they finally sent somenone to fix it, the fan broke four more times that week! a bad harddrive, a non-working monitor, keyboard, and a faulty graphics card. Each problem meant hours of hold time and having people who couldn't understand me mad because I couldn't understand them. They tried to tell me they couldn't help because I didn't pay extra for help, and I told them the computer is brand new and has NEVER worked, send me a new one. They didn't, they just kept sending replacement parts, and the darn thing is still broken, but we waited past thirty days so tough luck.
I am NEVER getting another Dell again, and it has become my mission to warn every person I've ever met not to buy a dell. In fact that reminds me I haven't blogged about this yet, so I'll copy this response to my blog.
I'm an apple girl now :) They have stores, with people, that I can visit

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Spring Break!


Alright! The hubby is on spring break (me to incidentally), but my classes are fun book club like classes and writing workshops. His classes are a little more intense. I was hoping we could go somewhere beach like for the vacation, as was Bella, but the hubby really just wants some time at home relaxing and doing nothing. I figure a few days of that and he may be bored enough to head to Florida with me :). I've got plans this week anyhow. Tommorow is baby story time at the Library, and Wednesday is mommy-baby yoga. I'd rather go out of town at the beginning of the week but the end, but what can you do. The hubby needs a break. My idea of a break is sipping Pina Coladas on a beach somewhere, while the baby plays with sand in her cute cute swim suite and ordering room service for two to three days, his is sitting at home and sleeping in. Poor guy, Pharmacy School must suck really bad for you to be exhausted enough to skip the beach.

So I've been home hanging out on the couch with the hubby. I watched a few movies over the weekend because we had free blockbuster rentals. I watched Bride Wars, which was actually pretty terrible, Speak, which was good, but sad, and Where the Wild Things Are, which should have been called where the sad things are. Seriously, the movie was a sad sad depressing movie. The English Major in me loved it, full of symbolism and artistic stuff, and pretty music and visuals, but the people were sad. I know Max was dealing with anger in the book, but such depression?

I also read another amazon freebie called Primitive, which was about crazy hippies who kidnap a model and make her live in their green cult place and use the publicity to tell the people of the earth about the danger of methane.

It was exciting, but gruesomely descriptive, and personally I'm tired of hearing about the environment. I do my part to be green, but seriously, stop shoving it down my throat you know? Use all the money that's been poured into preaching about how we're the worst things that have happened to the earth and go save a rainforest somewhere. Just dial it down a notch is all.

So hopefully later this week I will be on a beach somewhere enjoying the ocean. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Free Kindle Books


A quick update: Bella had a doctors appointment and got two shots :( she is not very happy with me. However she forgave me after we went to story time at Barns and Noble this morning, and then went to get her bows and tights from Target (along with any bright starts pink toy I didn't already have for her) why bows? Because in the last three days, fifteen different people informed me that HE is a beautiful baby. WTH? He? She wears girl clothes, with pretty flowers on it. One woman looked right past her playing with her pink bright starts car seat bar and said how beautiful he is. If you don't know, say "You have a beautiful baby." Baby is a gender neutral word. Unlike HE.
Seriously, have you ever seen a more feminine looking baby?

I rest my case. Bows

Also I have spent an ungodly amount of time reading kindle books lately. (Take that BarnsnNoble! j/k I loved story time, even though I pretty much missed it thanks to the twenty minute wait for a bagel at the B&N cafe)
Kindle has a lot of freebies, they change week to week, so I'm doing a review on the ones I've read that are still free.
Here goes

My Soul To Lose: By Rachel Vincent
This is more of a novella, but it was awesome. It's a prequel to her Soul Screamers Series. Technically a young adult book (those are my favorite) this story stars Kaylee Cavanaugh, a sixteen year old who suffers panic attacks. The source of her panic attacks, creepy shadows that surround a person and give her the impression they are going to die. No one but her can see the shadows, and the shadows frighten her so badly that she can do nothing but scream and scream and scream. A shadow surrounding a young boy at the mall launch one of her screaming panic attacks, and consequently she ends up in an insane asylum. She spends the rest of the story trying to convince everyone to let her go home. She receives help from an unexpected ally who knows more about the shadows than she does.
The story was well written, and creepy. I, being the advertisers dream, purchased the next two books in the series after this. I can't say anything about them without giving away vital plot details, so just download the book. You don't have to have a kindle. You can download the books to desktop software, or to your i-phone or blackberry.
Serial by Jack Killborn and Blake Crouch
Another short story about two serial killers who meet up with each other and try to kill each other. I didn't care for it. Not much in the way of a plot, just gruesome descriptions. Also hard to care about either one being in danger when they both need to die... which was kind of the point, but it doesn't make relating to the characters any easier

Daring Chloe by Laura Jensen Walker
This one isn't free anymore, and man did you miss out. Awesome book about a bookclub that does adventures from every book they read, ending with them visiting Paris after readers "French Women Don't Get Fat." You have to read it

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
I've actually been wanting to read this series for awhile, so when I saw it free I jumped on it. The first in Kim Harrison's Hollows Series, features a world where vampires and shapeshifters, and fairies are common place, and not kept secret (yes, like true blood, but ever so much better)
anyhow, Rachel Morgan, a charms witch quits her job and ends up with a hit on her. She teams up with a vampire and a super buff pixie and starts a detective agency. First case: Find out who wants her dead.
Good story, good characters, will buy the next one when my bank account recovers from my bow, toy, and baby book buying today.


Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
Andrea Hampton is a young business woman whose impractical grandmother and sister decide to open a bed and breakfast out of her childhood home. When her sister is injured in an accident, Andrea must journey back to her hometown and help her grandmother open the bed and breakfast. Someone is trying to stop them from opening the B&B, and vandalizing and threatening them at every turn. Can Andrea and her cute neighbor solve the mystery and save her grandmothers business and get her back to her business world?
An intriguing mystery, and written well enough to keep me reading despite my many problems with this book. So the main character is this fiscally responsible business woman who wants nothing more than to not get fired from her job. She is willing to help with the family business (new family business) and telecommute, but that doesn't stop judgmental neighbor boy from guilt tripping her every step of the way about how she puts her job before her family. Really? She visits often, talks on the phone often, and came when there was a crisis? What more do you want? Apparently for her to quit her stable job and help her grandmother on this risky business venture, cause thats what families do. Its like the opposite of all of those stories about the family that wanted their son to go into the family business but he really wanted to be a doctor, and everyone grows and learns that he should be able to follow his dream too. This wasn't just one characters opinion, it was the morale of the story. WTH?
Saving Sailor by Renee Riva
A very sweet and funny coming of age novel about an italian ten year old girl who wants nothing more than a southern accent, and her dog. For once a coming of age novel doesn't have to be sad. Read it, it'll put a smile on your face.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

contest entry

This is the prompt and story I entered to win my Reckoning Arc

Contest time! Is there a “haunted house” in your neighborhood? In your town? Tell me a bit about it in the comments!The house next store to mine doesn't like people. It would go through a new set of owners every 3-5 years. It's a beautiful house, all brick, nice porch, at the very end of a culdesac. It's lake front, with the woods off to one side and a field off to the other. We were on our third set of new neighbors when the incident happened. My friend was spending the night and we were watching the craft and gossiping. We were only about 10, so my chief complaint was my neighbors. The youngest boy had been chasing my dog up and down the fence the other day trying to spray it with wd40. The oldest threw rocks at me while I jumped on the trampoline and tried to shoot the side of the house with a bbgun, and the parents were always drinking and yelling. Knowing the houses creepy history of getting rid of neighbors ( the last set had moved after their toddler crawled under his parents bed and found a rattle snake, the couple before that moved because they swore up and down ab aligator lived in the lake and sunned in the yard (man made lake, actually just there to collect rain water, doesn't even have fishies) ) we decided to help it along. We went outside under the plum trees and performed a little craft ritual asking to get rid of the neighbors. Moments later we heard them arguing, then screaming, a shot was fired and my friend and I ran inside and hid under the bed vowing never to play witches again, and promising to go to church the next morning. For months no one saw the neighbors, they're lawn grew so high the neighborhood council worried about wildfires and snakes that may be living in the grass. My friend and I told no one what we heard so no one thought anything was amiss. A few months later when my dog got out it ran to their backyard. We followed. It pushed open their back door (evidently unlocked and ajar) and ran inside. We were scared but I loved my dog an couldn't just abandon it. We went inside. There were toys on the floor, shoes by the door, everything in place except a shattered glass figure by the wall. The kitchen window was broken from the inside, the glass spilled onto the porch. The bedrooms were a wreck, clothes thrown everywhere. We fully expected to find bodies but the house was empty. Grabbing my dog we ran home and never did find out what happened to those neighbors. A cranky old couple lives there now. Thus far the house has made no move against them, I figure it's because they're so close to joining the spirit world on their own, but you never know.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

baby update

resting and feeling better (I hope) still the cutest baby ever

The Reckoning


Yesterday I received my advanced readers copy of Kelley Armstrong's, The Reckoning. It could not have come at a better time. The husband and I are both sick with a cold that we caught from the baby (go figure, no clue where she got it), who is of course miserable and also teething. Bella is taking her illness like a champ though, we get the occasional tears, but for the most part she just doesn't want to sleep. Her dad and I have been taking turns sitting up with her in the rocking chair, and reading this book made my shift so much better! I needed a treat, and man did this provide it.
So how did I, a lowly blogger in Georgia get ahold of one of the New York Times best selling authors latest installment to her young adult series? I won a contest in which I told the story of my neighbors creepy house. (I'll be posting that later, all true, I swear). Kelley Armstrong is exactly the type of writer I hope to be should I ever get published. She has a great website a myspace page, a face book page (why does blogger acknowledge myspace and not face book in spell check?) a twitter page, and a page for her young adult series here. Technically the myspace page is Chloe's. Anyhow, she interacts with her readers, and has contests, and proofs their work if they request it, and has a message board where you can ask her questions, and actually responds to her emails. She's amazing, and her books are great... and now I'm sounding like a creepy stalker fan, so onto the review.

THE RECKONING
is technically the third book in her young adult series, "The Darkest Powers." Young adult books are different in degree not kind, so grownups like myself are not too good for this series :), its just like her adult books (Bitten, Stolen, and other women of the other world books) only with no sex, which to me isn't a drawback. My husband even likes her books, I read them out loud to him on our many trips to Atlanta (sans the sex scenes cause MAN, would that be awkward to read out loud to my husband as the baby plays with her toys in the backseat). Anyhow, the series stars a young necromancer named Chloe Saunders who is just coming into her powers and gets shipped off to a group home for troubled teens. At this home she discovers other supernaturals like herself, and discover that she is part of an experiment to produce better supernaturals, only problem is it worked too well and the children of the experiment are more powerful than they can handle. You can read the entire first book online for free here along with fairly large excerpts of her next two books. Plot wise, this is pretty much all I can tell you without giving away any details, and that just wouldn't be nice to do when Kelley Armstrong included such a nice note asking me not to divulge any plot details online. So what you see above is less detail than is written on the back of the first two books.

What I thought

Most trilogies follow a formula. The first book is generally the best, it can stand alone, but it does leave you wanting for more, traditionally on an upbeat note as the heroes venture off on their adventure. The second book typically has all the action with a tragic death and ends on a note of hopelessness, and the third book wraps everything up nice a neatly, but typically can't live up to the hype (note that star wars did a reverse of this in episodes 1-3) This doesn't exactly follow that formula. In a good way. The protagonist wants to write screenplays when she grows up, so she's fast to point out how their situation would play out if it was a movie, then explains the more realistic approach they took. I love that, its funny, tongue and cheek, and very accurate.
A striking contrast between this book and its prequels was the steady scenery. The characters stay in one place for awhile, and its a change. The characters suffer cabin fever, and we get to see different sides of them then we have in the past.
I was a little worried about the pacing, it wasn't moving slow, but I shouldn't have, the book read perfectly, it wasn't moving too fast or too slow, and while the grand finale was action packed (as grand finales should be) that wasn't every bit of action for the book.
Three things happened in this book that I cannot disclose.
One I guessed would occur, but thought would be a much bigger deal plot wise. I appreciated that it wasn't, it was one of those "In real life as opposed to movie," moments.
One I knew would occur, and made me smile
And one thing I really really hoped would work out but can completely understand why it didn't but hope to see more of in the future (vague enough for you, lol, sorry, I'll clarify after the release date)
The ending was typical for Kelley Armstrong, and well done. Things wrap up but it has that moment of "well in fiction things would have ended up like a, b, and c. Have I mentioned how much I like that aspect of her books?
A character I'm surprised I like, Tori. I hated her in the first book, she was mean, but she grew on me, and one thing that helped is that no one has forgotten how mean she was. Armstrong doesn't pull a lost and go, "No, Ben has never hurt a fly. Why don't we trust him?" No one has forgotten how Tori acted in book one, and they won't let her forget. The characters inability to move past it helps me move past it because I don't feel like I'm being manipulated into liking this character. There's an element of poor little rich girl there, but it doesn't excuse what she did.
A character I would like to see more of?
Simon. Don't get me wrong, he was in every scene, but with so many strong personalities its kind of easy to forget he's there. Every now and then he'll speak up to agree with Chloe, but mostly it was just supposed to remind the reader he was there. It's not a flaw in the writing, his character is a well developed, easy going, easy to get along with guy in a room full of opinionated people. He's just going to put his two cents in and then remain silent. My husband does the same thing when my brother, cousin, and I argue politics at Thanksgiving dinner. (Maybe that's why I want to see more of Simon, lol, his personality is a lot like my husbands.) He has a large number of solo scenes with chloe, in fact the solo scenes with Chloe were very well balanced between the three main characters, but I wanted more interaction between him and everyone else.
My favorite character?
chloe, I'm jealous, if I had been that level headed and intelligent as a teen... well I wasn't really ever in a situation where it would have made much of a difference, but still, she's smart, and resourceful, and exactly the sort of book protagonist young girls should be reading about. This is not a girl who is going to fall into a deep depression if her vampire lover leaves her randomly in the forest. (I like the twilight books, I just hate Bella Swan, my Bella and I are going to have a long talk about healthy relationships versus unhealthy relationships when she's old enough to read them) this is not a girl who would be ok with being stalked, threatened, and belittled. She has her own mind, thoughts and opinions, and they will be heard. It's well balanced though, because she's wrong for every time she's right.

I haven't said much about Derrick. He reminds me of Clay from the Men of the Otherworld stories. He's not a carbon copy by any means, the similarities have a fairly strong reason behind them. He's a great character. He's the sort of guy that I would have thought was amazing when I was actually the target audience for this novel. Back when I thought that if two people argued enough it meant they had strong feelings for each other (well watch any chick flick, tv show, read any book, or heck, watch children's cartoon and tell me there's anything other than a love hate relationship out there) He's protective, and sweet while fierce and smart, and all of that good stuff. Also he has the ability to admit when he's wrong (take notes hubby). I have no complaints or insights regarding his character, just a well done.

Overall a very strong plot, strong characters, and great pacing. I could only hope to write this well.

You know what job I want? I can't find it anywhere, I don't know if it's actually out there. I would love to just read arcs. Reviewers do it, presumably someone in the publishing industry reads the books to see if they are worth publishing. How do you get that job? Heck, I'd do it free. I'd pay to do it. Especially for Kelley Armstrong books, if I could be one of her advanced readers for all of her books... well that would rock.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Couponing

So I went to a mommy meetup yesterday and learned all about couponing from one of our moms who saves like a hundred bucks every time she goes grocery shopping. See, I suck at coupons, I'm an advertisers dream, when I get a coupon I buy an item I wouldn't normally buy, or buy a brand thats more expensive than my norm. But I think I may do better now thanks to this website. I can use a manufacturers coupon, a store coupon, and a competitors coupon for the same item! Also publix buy one get one free items are actually just half off both item, so if you have a buy one get one free coupon its like 1/4th of the price. My head is spinning with all this information, lol, so I'm going to work on my grocery list, and let you know how it goes.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Babies, Babies, Everywhere

Both of my former neighbors had their babies this week. Bella, my husband and I will be heading to Atlanta on Friday night for a Valentines dinner at the Melting Pot (we go Friday so we don't have to buy the $200 valentines meal) and drop off baby gifts quickly. I say quickly because I remember how much I resented anyone entering my space for any length of time during my first two weeks with my daughter. It was very confusing because I was also grateful, so we're just avoiding that altogether by taking a quick peek at the baby, congratulating the parents and moving on.
Bella will be with us, but I think she's going to stay strapped in her seat to avoid giving the new baby germs. Though is she old enough for that to be a concern yet? She played with some babies at the library this week and had a blast (well until an adorable six month old stole her rattle, and now she's super possessive of everything she owns) In any case, Bella will me meeting her future best friend, and future boyfriend ;) fun times

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Leap Year

I saw Leap Year this weekend with my Mil, and let me tell you how happy I am that I waited until it was in the dollar theater. It was terrible! I love chick-flicks, but this was the slowest moving, frustratingly pointless movie I've seen in a long time. Amy Adams was in it, so I know it wasn't the fault of the actors. I think it was just poor writing. Pretty scenery though.
The whole premise is this uptight girl who plans everything through wants to marry her fiance so she goes to Dublin to propose to him on leap day. Warning, spoilers abound.

Her trip to Dublin is cursed from the get-go, bad weather makes her plane touch down in England, and she gets to Ireland eventually, but is a good days drive away from her destination. She finds someone to drive her, a bar/hotel owner/cabbie, who hates her right off the bat for no apparent reason. He gets plenty of reasons soon enough, but the hate at first sight was a little off-putting. They run into all sorts of obstacles prior to making it to Dublin, the largest being that his car went off the road making him useless for the duration of the trip.
Seriously, she's paying him $500 euros to take her to Dublin, and she walks halfway, and gets a bus the rest of it. Why is he being paid?
Apparently to follow her around and make snide comments about her fiance. But everything changes when they're mistaken for a married couple, and all of the sudden theres this romantic tension. Why? I have no idea! He's been mean, she's been atrocious, and they have zero common ground, but apparently this is enough to make her question her stable relationship of FOUR YEARS. Granted, the guy is kind of a jerk, but no worse than her, and certainly no worse They had no chemistry, and every line of dialogue was followed by long pauses to infuse some sort of meaning I guess, but mostly just made it sound clunky and unnatural.
Blech, Thumbs up for the scenery, but since I can get a post card with the pretty pictures of Ireland, I give this movie a star.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

So much to do

I've been busy lately, and its been awesome. I think I crave time where I have nothing to do. "If I had more time I'd... paint, write, whatever," I wouldn't. I would sit and do nothing and sleep all hours of the day, sad but true. It may be different if I had the car all day, but I don't, so... sitting and doing nothing for me.
I'm so glad I'm taking these classes in school, I dreaded it, but they force me out of the house twice a week, and better yet force me to use my brain and think and write. I've also been working hard to stay on top of the housework, and lately been working on my business taxes with Turbo Tax... I should be done with that tommorow. Then I can do personal taxes.
I've been doing a lot with the mommies group, and that's been a blast. Having people to talk to is great, and getting out of the house for some "me" time is just what I needed.
I've also been drinking three bottles of water a day, which almost gives me the 8 glasses of water I need. I'm thinking of upping it to four bottles, since you're supposed to get an extra 8 ounces for every 25 pounds you're over weight, plus extra if you're exercising, which I have been lately... so maybe. I'm trying to take it slow, because I've made efforts to drink more water in the past, and I always start out strong and then just... dwindle.
I'm not seeing much of a difference though. My skin is still dried out, which is new for me, I typically have normal to oily skin, but since I've had Bella I've been getting dried patches. I'm not dropping any weight, and my lips are still dry. Maybe I should add that other water?
It is my goal to exercise 30 minutes every day, and eventually do a yoga routine when I wake and before bed. Right now I'm adding the 30 minutes, and that goes all right most weekdays. Weekends I'm lazy with my husband. I can do my thirty minutes on the exercise bike while watching grays anatomy on the computer :) It makes me happy.
I've also been making healthier choices food wise.... well snack wise at least. Apple bars, fruits, wheat thins, and fig newtons (which are not the cookie I remember... there's another cookie out there that looks like them...) No change yet, but its early yet.
I've been spending lots of time with the baby and been doing more listening to my husband, its been going great.
I do spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about things I can't change. I play this game in my head where Im granted 3 wishes and I go back and rewrite my life. I'm happy with my life, its just nitpicky details, I end up in the same place (well, ok, in a house in atlanta, but close enough) with my husband and my baby. Nothing actually changes, but I would have graduated sooner, not had debt... ect. Then it gets bigger, well if I could change anything would't I be rich? And all the things I would do with the money, but nothing major changes. I used to do this same game when I was younger, I'd take these classes in school rather than those, and then I'd graduate early, I'd make this grade.. ect. It's not healthy and I need to stop

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Introducing Solids


I'm not a patient person, so when the doctor told us at the last check up that she could start solids between her fourth and fifth month, I bought a high chair, and Bella sat in said high chair every time my husband and I sat down for a meal.

Then I let her play with her baby spoons and bowls, and bottle that she wont drink from, to get her used to having her own eating utensils.

This bought me about a week and a half before I decided to buy her baby food... just to have on hand.

Well last night I cracked, five days before she turns four months old we tried solid foods. I think it went well, I have two videos below, one from her first attempt, and one from her second the following day.
Check it out. anodynes are the answer!

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Man Flue

This article posted today on MSNBC states that the "man flue" is a myth.
"While the stereotype that men moan and groan more loudly about their symptoms than women persists, at least one recent survey, however, exposes “man flu” as a myth. In a 2008 poll of more than 2,000 British adults, 85 percent of female respondents admitted they exaggerated their flu symptoms to gain extra compassion compared to just 76 percent of the men surveyed. About one third of the women also acknowledged feeling “more emotional” when battling winter sniffles as compared to just one in 10 men."

Having just suffered through a stomach bug only to have my husband catch it two days later can I beg to differ here? They asked the question wrong. Actually asking the question at all is useless.
Men don't think they are exaggerating. In my experience men truly believe their cough or cold or fever or stomach ache is that bad. Bad enough to where if I was feeling as bad as they claimed I'd be in a hospital or unconscious. Is that enough to get them to take a Tylenol when they have a headache? No, its apparently not that bad.
Men just seem to have no concept of pain. As a woman who has gone through labor (yay! I can use that now... yes I was drugged, but that still puts me ahead of any man on the pain scale) I can honestly say I have never complained or felt "as bad" as my husband when he gets a headache.
He was in fact shocked that labor didn't seem "that bad." (This earns him a glare, because while it wasn't as bad as I though it would be, it was easily the most difficult and painful thing I have ever done. I just handled it well.)
The frustrating thing, if he was to answer this survey he would say "Ah, I don't get sick much, but when I do it's no big deal." And answer no to the do you ever exaggerate question. I love how he is exponentially sicker depending on who is in the room.
He had pneumonia last year while attending school and fraternity events out of town. No one even knew he was sick. Later while home for vacation, he had a standard cold, no fever, just the sniffles and a headache, not even a cough and spent the whole time telling me he felt like death. If his mother happens to be up for a visit, heaven help us all, because he won't just feel like death, he will be having death throws.
If I mention it to him later, "ah, I wasn't that sick, what are you talking about."
Let me be clear, my husband is not exaggerating, or trying to get attention that he knows of on a conscious level. He really thinks its that bad. And later he really believes it wasn't. This is why the survey failed.
Are your husbands the same way

Sunday, January 24, 2010

My new haircut

I've been spending frivolously the last few days and loving it. I've gotten my hair cut, ordered contacts, and bought a few new clothes. The spending must stop... tommorow, but in the meantime I'm feeling a lot more human. I forget how much I don't like wearing glasses until I have contacts. They make my face feel oily where the little nose holder things are.
As for my hair, I didn't actually want to cut it. It was down past my bra, and looking pretty long, but the ends felt like straw, so it had to be trimmed. The trimming took it to three or four inches past shoulder length... upper mid back I guess, but it looks so much healthier!
The eye doctor let me try on all the colored contacts. I'm really considering ordering a box of blue contacts, but its so much more expensive for such a small cosmetic effect. Contacts I can order without feeling too bad, but colored contacts... meh
The biggest spending I did was the most needed. I got mirena. I needed to before I switched insurance, and since my deductible has been met with Kaiser we are all cramming as much medicine as we can get until the first. My husband and I both had our physicals, the baby is scheduled for her checkup, and there will be no more babies for at least five years. We also have dental cleanings and eye exams (hence the contacts) and everything else our insurance offers us a discount on.
I feel so old, getting excited about eye exams and physicals.
If it's not raining Bella and I will be going to infant playtime at the library tommorow :D

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Insurance

Well we are not renewing out insurance with Kaiser. We are having to seek another company. The rates just rose too much and we can't keep up. I'm surprisingly sad about this. I mean I knew I loved that insurance, and the doctor and everything about it really, but still, it's not like we're going without.
Kaiser has been good to me, but it hasn't been exactly honest. I said nothing when their 100% maternity coverage charged me one-thousand-five-hundred dollars for the hospital room, delivery, doctor, and anesthesia, because I was so impressed with the whole experience. Between different family emergencies I've spent a lot of time in hospitals visiting over the last few years, and I've never seen a more positive and responsive staff as I had. It was worth it.
I do take issue with their "free coverage for children under age 2." It says on my plan my daughters well baby visits are free and her regular checkups are $25. What they don't tell you is that it's "free" after you add your child to the plan, boosting your premium up $150 a month.
With that added charge, and the $100 rise in the premium for this year, we couldn't renew.
The facilities and staff are wonderful, the language is a little tricky, but I should have known better than to take what was written at face value, and read deeper into the plan. It's actually worth the money, we just don't have it.
I wish we did. Now to hunt for another doctor for my baby.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mom's Groups

I finally did it. I went on meetup.com and found a local mothers group in athens. I'm so glad I did, I went to my first meet up today and I had a blast. It was just a playgroup at one of the mothers homes, the kids played with play dough and water colors, Bella was of course too young to participate but she watched with avid interest.
I got to meet more mothers and have grown up conversations :) Maybe even go see some chick flicks with other women.
Incidentally I saw Sherlock Holmes this weekend, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The entire time I was watching I kept thinking "wow, the characters remind me of House and Wilson," which means the writers of House modeled him very well. I enjoyed this fresh take on the adventures.
Sherlock Holmes the books were interesting but very very dry. I much prefer modern day adaptations, which I suppose makes me a bad English Graduate. Meh, I'll survive the shame. Classic literature is written in boring classic language. Half the challenge is reading it well enough to understand the very interesting plots. If people rewrite or rework it in a way that captivates the larger audience of today like it once captivated the larger audiences of a hundred years ago, power to them.
There's modernizing, and then there's destroying. Sherlock Holmes modernized, Ella Enchanted destroyed. (Evil Uncle? a snake? can they even pretend its the same story? It wasn't a bad plot movie wise, but it wasn't Ella Enchanted.) The writers of this film understood the difference.
Also read a new book this weekend. Angelic, by Kelley Armstrong. It was more of a novella, but very well written with a cohesive and fun plot. Overall I've had a great weekend :)

Friday, January 15, 2010

My Pal Violet


I'm not getting paid for my opinion, I wish I was. I wasn't even asked to write these reviews, I'm just doing it for fun. Bella has tried a lot of new things in the last three months, and I'm going to spend the next blog or two talking about them.

Most recent toy is Violet. Violet is technically intended for 6 month olds, but Bella loves Violet. Violet was plugged into our computer and given Bella's name, favorite color, favorite food (milk is sadly not an option) and favorite animal. Violet talks, sings, and plays with Bella using a variety of personal information. You can print off coloring sheets and activities for violet online as well.
Bella stares and stares at violet. She tries to eat her, coos to her, and grabs at her. It's the most I've seen her interact with a toy... ever.

It's awesome

Bella's other top rated toys include:
Tummy time mat, by bright starts, its actually more of an activity center shaped like a flower with the arches of toys over it. Bella just stares and stares at the big yellow flower that sings, and rolls over to see it.
Winnie the pooh swing. She loves the mobile, and she falls asleep in like a minute. I love the different speed settings on the swing, and its very sturdy.
Bright starts car seat toy bar, Bella bats at it the whole trip. I think she's playing with it... I hope she's not just annoyed that its in her face

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Sick

I had a great weekend... up until I got sick. My mil came to town, so my husband and I got to go see a movie and go out to dinner. We saw avatar in 3d. Awesome movie, btw. My husband didn't care for the environmentalist overtones, but conceits that it was a great movie despite them.
He's being silly. There weren't many, and they were unique to that planet.
We're not anti-planet. We like the planet, we recycle, and take the bus when possible, and even have those twisty light bulbs. We could be considered green, we're just tired of hearing about it.
We still remember the global cooling scare (mostly thanks to outdated text books in elementary school) and we have a fairly decent science background, and even if we didn't, all of the movies, and products, and talking to death, and lets not forget the hyper expensive green baby movement (really?) just make us tired of hearing about it.
Anyhow, it was a great movie, everyone should see it. In 3d it was amazing. It had a concise and well designed plot, good character development, and was very well paced.
I also got a rocking chair :)

Then I got super sick. Now, when I'm sick, I google what's wrong, and and read everyone else's graphic accounts of it, so I would like to return the favor. The following will be TMI
You have been warned

I felt very full the night before, but I had eaten a lot and didn't think much of it. I went to sleep and woke up the next morning feeling queasy. I woke my husband and asked if he could get me a small glass of soda to sip on so I could feel better, and I finished feeding the baby. By the time my husband got up, I had run to the bathroom and thrown up more than I remember throwing up in awhile... I was pregnant 3 months ago... I've thrown up within the last year, this was worse.
I brushed my teeth and rinsed with mouthwash and stumbled back to bed, where my husband whisked the baby away and after a brief "are you pregnant?" discussion, gave me my soda to get the taste out of my mouth and left me to get back to sleep.
I remember optimistically thinking that at least it was over and attributing it to too much excitement and junk food as had often happened in my teenage years, and going back to sleep.
15 minutes later I was up again violently projectile vomiting the soda. I almost made it to the bathroom, made it to the door in fact, and then it came.
I didn't know such force was possible. There was soda dripping from the ceiling. The wall was covered, the toilet actually had a fair amount in it, which considering I was across the room when it happened was kind of impressive. I was just glad it was soda, soda is possibly the only thing I've ever drank or eaten while sick that doesn't come back up completely disgusting.
I mean don't get me wrong, I wouldn't drink it, but its a welcome relief after throwing up popcorn, you know?
Anyhow, I stripped down, and used my clothes which were fairly covered to wipe up most of the mess and grabbed my handy dandy clorox wipes and wet swifter to handle the rest. I took a shower, braided my hair, and used my automatic shower cleaner and bleach spray to take care of the shower, just in case.
I've never been so glad to have that stuff
Then I went back to bed
and was up about every fifteen minutes either throwing up, experiencing diarrhea or both simultaneously (fun). I had a new experience, waking up to diarrhea, uncontrolled... yuck. I went through two sets of sheets and thats all I will say about that, except that it freaked me out enough to call kaisers advice nurse who told me that was common with this bug and to drink lots of fluids and have faith it will pass.
I had a fever of 101.7 despite 2 Tylenol every 4 hours, and was throwing up constantly from 8 am to 3 p.m., then the diarrhea lasted until about 6. After that I still felt sick but was recovering.
My husband stayed in the living room with his mom and my baby, feeding her pumped milk. He brought me drinks every so often, and after much begging got me some Gatorade from the gas station. (we had only milk, soda, and water, none of which are great while sick. ever throw up water? not fun) He volunteered to go right away, but remember the now means now conversation? I asked at 12, he got it for me at 2. I felt like I was dying of thirst. I've never been so thirsty before, ever. Not even in labor, and I was super thirsty during labor. I compared the whole experience to labor, and actually if you ignore the pushing part of labor, (you know, the painful part) this was worse, and I had back labor... drugged back labor, but still.
My mil left about when I finally got some sleep in, so I missed her going. I felt sorry for myself for awhile, everyone visiting out there, and me stuck in my throw up room. I missed my baby. I cleaned up, and went out to the living room a few hours later and spent some time with her, feeding her so she could get the anti bodies, and snuggling with her more than I should have.
Still feeling rough two days later, and now my husbands sick.
I feel bad really, but is it wrong that I'm sort of happy that he's thanking me so profusely for getting him Gatorade (asap) and telling me he had no idea it was this bad? Meh, maybe a little. I think pregnancy numbed him to me being sick, he saw me with morning sickness all the time, and I was always up and ready to go shortly after.
Now he knows better




Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sorry for the nonupdates, sick as a dog... Will write when I am feeling better... Can't wait to be feeling better

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Now means now

My husband doesn't understand the word now. It didn't used to bother me, but then I didn't breastfeed every other hour before and now never mattered as much as it does now. When I'm hungry, I need to eat, now. So I get up to make a sandwhich, "Oh don't worry about than hon," he'll say, "I was going to make us dinner."
Awesome. Super sweet, and very thoughtful, so I'll start to clean up the house, or do some other item on my to-do list. If it's something he can help with, he'll tell me not to worry about some part of it, like putting away dishes, or taking out trash, he'll do that.
Great, very thoughtful. I love my husband. I'll go do some work, and he'll mention that he's about to make dinner, why don't we just eat together. Fair enough, let me change the baby, nah, I'll do that, I haven't gotten to spend much time with her today.
But before he gets started on any of that, he has to finish exercising, or fixing something, or studying. And before you know it, the baby wakes up hungry, so I go change her, and feed her, and while I'm feeding her he finishes dinner and I can't eat for another thirty minutes because I don't have free hands. Then I eat cold dinner, and he hangs out with my while I eat, and then we go to sleep, leaving the house to be cleaned up for tommorow, so then we have two bags of trash, and no clean dishes, or laundry, or whatever. This can go on forever! The kitchen can be full of trashbags, there can be dishes all over the place, he'll let the baby sit in a dirty diaper for hours and hours. When I'm not home and he watches her, he'll go the whole time without feeding her or changing her sometimes when he gets sidetracked, and be shocked when I get home that so much time has passed.
I love my husband, and I hate to complain, but when I need to do something, it's now. My blood sugar has been going nuts while breastfeeding. So what I should have done is just made my sandwhich, cleaned the house, and finished my work, and changed the baby, and then fed her. Then instead of stressing about everything I didn't do while my head is pounding and I'm getting a shorter and shorter temper, I'd be able to relax.
But then his feelings are hurt if I say no thank you. I've tried just saying, oh, I'm getting a snack or something, but he maintains he's about to make dinner right now. He doesn't get that time passes while he does stuff. It never mattered before, but babies don't wait. He generally eats twice a day, and never gets anything done around the house because he gets so wrapped up in whatever it is that he's working on. I can't do that.
I hate to say this, but I'm so glad school starts for him tommorow. Having him home completely throws my schedule. I know he's trying to help, but how can I turn him down without hurting his feelings? How can I get him to understand how this whole baby clock thing works?
She doesn't always eat every other hour, sometimes its 3 or 4, but I have to assume its every two. It gets really frustrating when we have to go somewhere. I'll get her ready, and fed, and while I'm feeding her he'll get started on some other thing that he just has to finish before we leave, and then our outing gets cut short, because the baby is hungry again, and my husband doesn't understand how that happened so fast. Clocks are meaningless to him, because it doesn't feel like time passed. I remember life being like that, it's not now though, and I don't know how to get him adjusted to the change

Monday, January 4, 2010

Dog Poop

I never have inbetween neighbors. My neighbors either always suck, or are the greatest people ever. Two of my former neighbors from apartments we've lived in are great friends of ours. Both are expecting new babies in February, and we visit both everytime we go through Atlanta.
Before that we had the crazy cat lady who would come to my shop every day and ask for office supplies, the couple who lived below us who called the police every night because we were too loud walking from one room to another (even when we weren't home) and had us terrified to turn on the television because if conversations and walking were too much, god forbid we actually have music playing or watch a movie in our living room, and the neighbors who lived in the haunted house next to my mothers (each resident left under mysterious circumstances, more on that later)
Here, we have a whole new catagory of crappy neighbors. There's the college kids who live below us, who play drunk tag on the staircase at 3:00 am, and listen to the radio in their car loudly at night, but then bang on the ceiling when the baby cries in the am hours.
There's the people who live across from us who lock their 2 year old outside when he's bad, and listen to him pound on his door screaming for an hour (most likely only 10 minutes, but it feels like an hour) and there's the dog poop lady who lets her dogs pee on our rug, and poop on the stairs, and sidewalk, even though there are bushes right by her door, and a whole wooded area five feet away that the dog can happily poop in without getting in anyones way. The same dogs who are in a cage all day or something because every minute they are inside howl, and the same woman who listens to loud basey music at all hours of the night, and always parks in the front parking spot.
I think there is a special place in hell for inconsiderate neighbors. If I believed in karma and past lives, I'd wonder if I was in that special place right now, and what I ever did to deserve these people to live on my planet, much less in my building?

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Mea Culpa

I have spoken to the commenter in the previous post who works for autozone, and have learned that autozone does in fact sell used batteries for $20, legitimately. The employee I spoke to was either joking, or it is highly likely I misunderstood entirely. My apologies to autozone and autozone employees.
The keyboard for my mac is no longer functioning, so I'm not going to be able to put more photos of Bella up until we buy a replacement.
My husband has spent the last week doing his mandatory volunteer work for pharmacy school with the red cross at various blood drives. The last two, on New Years Eve, and New Years, were at the mall of Georgia. Bella and I accompanied him for his shifts and spent the last two days shopping. Well window shopping, as we can't afford to buy much, but I did purchase two baby books by Karen Katz at the Waldenbooks that is going out of business.
I hate it when bookstores close :( It makes me feel guilty. Guilty because most of the time I go into book stores, browse for books, and sit in the coffee shop with a snack and a hot chocolate and read my iphone's kindle application.
I love books, but they take up so much space, and are several dollars more than the kindle versions. We're planning on moving summer of 2012, and then again in 2013, so I'm very aware of how much space things are taking up. Everything in the storage closet is already packed, boxed and labled, and next year as we use things (Holiday decorations and the like) we will be packing those up. As is my books take up tremendous ammounts of space, and I can't justify taking up anymore.
Bella's books I can justify. She's a baby, she can't read kindle yet, but when she can, she'll get kindle books. It's just easier. I've spent the last year donating books I'll never read again to the library, keeping books I want for Bella to read one day and packing them up, and replacing any torn or worn books on my kindle, and replacing any books I have with free kindle downloads. I've cut my bookshelves down from three shelves to one. One shelf was broken so we got rid of it, and the other we use for Bella's books and toys. I've kept anything autographed, and sentimental, other than that my bookshelf is getting slimmer and slimmer. I have to keep evaluating my book shelf, because my husband keeps getting textbooks from pharmacy school that he needs to keep. It's been going great, and there is so much less clutter in my house already that it's amazing. I like packing as we go.
But I still feel guilty when I'm at bookstores. I support their coffee shops at least, and their childrens sections, but how many other people like me are switching to electronic readers? I was sad enough watching the downfall of the independant book store, but bookstores in general? It's depressing.
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