9 years.....SERIOUSLY?

I'm sitting here watching Letterman (it's a re-run from like a couple months ago). Letterman is talking about how it's been 9 years since he had his heart bypass surgery. NINE YEARS! What the heck! Seriously...I would've sworn it was only like 3 or 4 years ago. It's so weird to me to hear stuff like that. It totally makes me wonder where all the time has gone.

9 years ago I had one child and she was only a year old. My son wasn't even a glimmer in my eye and I was living with my hubby and little baby girl in our rusty old single wide mobile home.

9 years ago I had only had an email address for like 2 years and my first email address was for the job I had just before I became a mommy. Personal emails were few and far between and were actually mostly forwards.

9 years ago I read EVERY forward, passed it along, and wondered why on earth other people didn't do the same! (I NEVER read forwards now...and don't pass them along either)

9 years ago I had just gotten my first cell phone and had finally ditched my pager.

9 years ago we were just getting ready to open our first Quizno's. (our first of 3...and now we've sold them all and own NONE!)

9 years ago I was on the computer once in awhile and I was very rarely on the internet. It took so long anyway because we were on dial up!

9 years ago I had absolutely NO idea what a blog was and even now I have no idea if blogs even existed way back then!

What were you doing nine years ago???

(this post would've been way better last year when it had been EIGHT years! LOL)

I've got a client on my design schedule and I'm super excited to do her blog because she is selling the most FABULOUS BIRTHDAY COLLECTIONS EVER!!

You simply MUST hop on over to her etsy site and take a gander at all her wonderful party goodies! This girl totally speaks my party language!

Visit her etsy site www.polkadotsandpirates.com

Bachelor Party Anyone?

This is a shout out to my locals.....
I'm thinking about having a Bachelor Party at my house....NOT THAT KIND OF BACHELOR PARTY! The Final Episode of "The Bachelor" is on Monday, as well as the "After the Rose" show. With all the hype about the dramatic ending I thought it would be fun to get some gals together and share in the DRAMA! LOL

Who wants to come? Let me know! Bring a snack to share!

Just Booked it!

Thank goodness for timeshares that are paid for and companion tickets!!! My hubby and I will get our alone time this year afterall! It's in a couple months.....so that means I better WALK WALK WALK....cuz my hiney definitely needs to get smaller now!

A Fresh New Look for ECD

I just finished the redesign of my design site. I wanted to streamline it to make it easier to read, understand, purchase, and get questions answered. Hop on over and have a look at the new ECD!

Get Informed! Fight for what's Right! Sign the Petition!!

Below is an open letter highlighted on the Fight FOCA website linked above:

_______________________________________

Dear President-Elect Obama,

A 14-year-old girl walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati, accompanied by her soccer coach, John Haller. He was 21 years old and had initiated sexual activity with the girl when she was 13. Now that she was pregnant, Haller wanted her to have an abortion.

Rather than calling the parents as required under Ohio law, Planned Parenthood called the soccer coach’s cell phone and failed to verify he was the parent.

Planned Parenthood turned a blind eye . . . and performed the abortion. Afterward, they provided the girl with a bag of condoms and a Depo-Provera shot.

Thirty-six states across the country require some form of parental notification or consent prior to an abortion involving a minor child. And these laws are supported by 80% of the American people. In addition to the obvious reason that parents need to be involved when their child undergoes a medical procedure, these laws also protect young girls from sexual abuse. Research shows high percentages of teen pregnancies are fathered by adult men and a relationship between early teen sex and coercion.

President-Elect Obama, why do you oppose these parental involvement laws that protect our children from sexual abuse?

Despite Planned Parenthood’s actions, the parents of the Cincinnati teenager found out about her abortion and the sexual abuse perpetrated by her soccer coach. Eventually John Haller was convicted of seven counts of sexual battery and served three years in prison.

President-Elect Obama, the mainstream media refuses to ask you these questions, so we will:
Why have you promised Planned Parenthood that the first piece of legislation you will sign is the Freedom of Choice Act, a piece of abortion legislation which would eliminate ALL of the common-sense parental involvement laws across the country?

Sincerely,

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.
President and CEO, AUL Action

Does this concern anyone else?

I'm going political today............
Seems to me we are having enough trouble taking care of our own right now....so why should we be paying 20 million of taxpayer money towards the settlement of a group of people in which 30% of them would vote in terrorist leaders. This doesn't make sense. It's just shy of a month....and I don't like what I'm seeing from our new president. This is a recent Presidential Determination that Pres. Obama signed:

____________________________________________

Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009
Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza
Memorandum for the Secretary of State

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the ``Act''), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, January 27, 2009

___________________________________________________

A little info about the terrorist regime that exists among the people in Palestine:
(and yes...I know they aren't ALL terrorsits....but can we really afford to let one...two...five...eight....ten....of them in? How many terrorists did it take to carry out 9/11?

Since June 2007, Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Canada,^[29] the European Union,^[30][31][32] Israel,^[33] Japan,^[34] and the United States.^[35] Australia^[36] and the United Kingdom^[37] list only the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization. The United States and the European Union have implemented restrictive measures against Hamas on an international level.^{[38][39]
(from wikipedia)}

A random sample of almost 1200 Palestinians, carried out between 29 and 31 January, has Hamas in the lead for the first time against Fatah across Palestine. Almost 29 percent said that, if legislative elections were held today, they would vote for Hamas (from www.enduringamerica.com)

Are you kidding me?

What the heck is ER doing? They brought Carter back and now he is sick? Did they bring him back just to kill him off? I don't want to watch that! That sucks! I was all excited for the oldies but goodies to come back, but I'm not liking this storyline very much. I know ER is good...their writers are the best! But why oh why must they pull at our heartstrings like this??!! We already had to watch Pratt die this year! C'mon writers.....give us a break!

oh, and about my last post.....
I honestly cannot believe that more of you did not comment. who knew ya'll would be so private. I really thought people would be willing to share a story like that. I figured we could all look back and laugh about the fights that were over those silly kinds of things. But apparently.....I was wrong! WAAAY WRONG!

Sometimes it's the little things!

Somehow my friend and I got on the topic today of the worst fight that we had ever had with our husbands. We were laughing at how the biggest fights are over the littlest things! Hers was over who was going to grate the cheese for tacos and mine was over who was going to carry the room key in their pocket. SERIOUSLY!

This was several years ago.....
We were on a vacation in Mexico with my hubby's brother and his wife. We had all spent the day by the pool lounging around and we were totally relaxed. We decided for dinner that we were going to take the shuttle buss and go to a restaurant at a nearby hotel. So off to our rooms we went to get all gussied up. As we left the room I had the room key. It wasn't one of those cards, it was an actual key with one of those big room number key chains hanging off of it. I had shorts on and they had pockets, but as we girls know...things in our pockets just make us look bulkier. So I went to hand my hubby the key so he could carry it. We proceeded to the elevator and into the main lobby continuing to "discuss" who should carry the key in their pocket. It escalated to the point where I threw the key on the floor across the lobby and walked off!

Yep....that really happened! I really did that! We really argued about a key!
Oh my poor brother-in-law and his wife! They had only been married for 6 months and this point and I'm sure they were thinking that we had totally lost it and they were pledging to one another that they would NEVER end up like that!

I look back now at how much we've grown since then....and I'm thankful. But I think it's completely hilarious that we actually argued over the carrying of the room key! It's very funny how the smallest of things really can turn into the hugest of fights!

So, what about you? What's your small thing....huge fight story?

**UPDATE**
WOW! I can't believe this has been up all day and only one person was willing to share! I totally thought this was gonna be a good post with lots of hilarious comments! C'mon people! Spill the dirt!

Here's an Idea that worked for me!

Does your child wake up waaaay too early.....or have they decided that a 10 minute nap is a real nap?
I have an idea for you!

I know I've shared this idea with lots of my friends before, but I don't think I've ever shared it with blogland. When my daughter was little she was a very early riser. I however AM NOT an early riser. I am a night owl! I am in NO WAY a morning person....AT ALL!! So the combination of me being VERY CRANKY in the morning and my little girl standing by my bedside at 6:45 am was not a good one! At around this same time she was also getting to the point where she wasn't really wanting to take naps anymore. I would put her down and 10 minutes later she would come out and try to say she was awake now! This was not working very well for me either since I was very used to having a little time to myself during the day while she took a fairly long nap! So I devised a plan....and it worked!



I took a simple $5 clock from wal-mart and stuck it up on her wall. Then I took a piece of paper and drew a matching clock on it (ok, I made mine on the computer....but not everyone can do that...so just draw it). The clock on the paper showed 8:00 am. I told her that she was not allowed to come out of her room until the real clock matched the one on the paper. She also knew that coming out before that meant she was disobeying and there would be a consequence. I had already established a pretty firm understanding of obedience and consequences with her and so that is one of the reasons this was able to work well for me. In fact it worked like a charm!!! She was 4 yrs. old at the time.
Then I decided to implement the same idea at naptime. I figured even if she didn't sleep, an hour of alone time was good for both of us. So I would put her down and draw a clock for whatever time she was allowed to come out...an not before. IT WORKED!

Eventually it was easier to just buy one of those cardboard play clocks from the dollar store that you try to teach kids to tell time with. That way I could just move the hands around for whatever time I needed it to be.

You could also start this even earlier than 4 years old if you just put an alarm in their bedroom. Set the alarm for the desired morning time and teach them that they are not allowed to come out until they hear the alarm. That's the way I did it with my son.

It's a good plan altogether because not only does it give you the time you need...but it gives them time to develop some good independant play skills!

And if you want an idea on how to dress up that $5 clock from wal-mart then visit my friend Beckie. You could even maybe get your child in on this!

I'm not who I thought I would be

I always imagined when I had kids in school that I would be the ULTIMATE classroom mom. I figured I would get involved in the PTA, help in the classroom once a week, help with all the class parties and be all buddy buddy with the teacher. I thought when the parties came around I would make really special treats for the kids to take.

Well, I've got two kids in school and I can completely say that I'm not who I thought I would be. As of this year I'm not helping at all in the classroom, I haven't helped with a party yet this year, I have NO desire to be on the PTA and special treats are nowhere to be seen.

When my oldest was in Kindergarten I helped once a week in the classroom. Then the next year I started helping...but some major stuff came up in my personal life and I was way too overwhelmed. Then the following year I just did office stuff twice a month for the teacher. Then the next year after that the teacher had too much help and didn't need me....which leads to this year....NOTHING!

There are days where I'm convinced all of this makes me a bad mom and other days where I don't think that at all. I don't know what I think today. I just know that I'm not who I thought I'd be. But I guess we all had our ideals of what we thought marriage and motherhood would be like....and well ALL know that those ideals aren't always a reality.

What about you......are you who you thought you would be?

The City.....anyone?

I admit it. I love reality shows. I also tend to like the shows that are supposed to be for teenagers and college kids. I love watching the Hills and now I'm watching The City. For many of you this is probably a meaningless and ridiculous post. But to those of you who DO watch The City........

can we discuss OLIVIA? Oh---MY---WORD! WOW! I'm not sure I knew people like her really existed. There is soooooo many things that I could bring up......but please share your thoughts!!

'Cmon...I can't be the only one who is watching!

My Magaizine File Makeover

We all dream about having not only an organized space to work in, but we want it to be beautiful too! The problem is....money! Organization that is pretty generally doesn't come cheap. All those fabric covered boxes and magazine files cost a pretty penny!

So, what's a girl to do? Go to IKEA! They have all sorts of boxes and files there and you can cover them, paint them...whatever! I bought these magazine files from ikea. They are just cardboard with a nice brown floral design. It's not bad...but it didn't go with my theme...but if the price is right....I'll take it and work with it!


Sorry, I wasn't smart enough to think to take pictures of the actual process. But basically I just recovered the boxes with scrapbook paper that matched my room theme. The boxes that are on the end of the row...I covered the whole thing. But the boxes in the middle I only did the back/exposed side and just wrapped it around the edge about an inch or so. And this was my result!



VOILA! Magazine files that match my room....and it was WAY cheaper than buying the fancy fabric covered ones!

I've been nominated!

Tip Junkie is announcing the nominees for all the different categories on the Annual Tip Junkie Awards. I was informed that I've been nominated for "Best Organizational Tip" My husband thinks that is pretty laughable....in reality it kind of is! I'm really good at coming up with organizational concepts and ideas, but I STINK at maintaining them.

Here is the post with my idea for trying to help organize your kids as far as school papers, chores, etc. This is one of those posts that always seems to pop up on my site meter referral list. People find it through google searches, or tip junkie and then they post about it and link to the post. Oh the good old days.....back when my blog was actually full of ideas! Remember that? Probably not! I'm sure all of those readers have long gone away! LOL!


I posted this more than a year ago. I still use the ones for chores...but I've totally slacked on the other ones. Anyway.....you can hop on over to Tip Junkie and VOTE FOR ME..... because I do still think it's a good idea AND I WILL WIN SOMETHING!!! Don't you want to help me WIN? You know you do!

Blog Fodder

What is Blog Fodder? An interesting idea, story, or link. Referred to as blog fodder when your first reaction is to use it in your blog. "I'm sorry your day sucked, but between the car wreck, the kiss off, and the layoff, at least you've got some real blog fodder." I currently don't have a lot of blog fodder...unless you count the fact that my fabulous new purchase of the Adobe CS4 Design Premium Creative suite is on it's way to my house!! I'm so excited! This opens up the door to new design possibilities for me!! And I'm going to a workshop in March! Can't wait! But other than that....not much! So, my sister has an interesting post right now. But because she neglected her blog for so long....nobody is looking! So I'm stealing it! Sorry Sis! LOL! Let's play a little game of "Would You Rather....." Would you rather....... Have to publish your private diary........OR.....make a movie of your most embarrassing moment? Would you rather.... Have sand in your shorts......OR.....water in your ear? Would you rather..... give up email.....OR.....give up your phone? WHICH would YOU rather?

New Freebie!

February's free background is ready for download