The Daily Dribbles

Looking for Me?

2010-10-06T06:30:00.000-04:00

The Daily Dribbles is now a "dot com." I've officially made the switch to Wordpress.

My new URL is http://thedailydribbles.blogspot.com

To get my new posts updates, you need to paste this feed url into your reader, or go into Blogger, under the tab of "Blogs I follow", click Add, and paste this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheDailyDribbles

Once you do that, you should get all my new posts!

I did post yesterday...Part 2 of my Sophomore Year, high school series.

I also have a fabulous guest poster today!

Monday Minute: 10/4/10

2010-10-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's time for another Monday Minute with Cristy, from Is There a Doctor in the House.

(1) What's your biggest pet peeve?

I have a lot of pet peeves. Actually, I've blogged about some before, here and here. However, my biggest pet peeve ever is people that sniffle instead of blowing their nose. It drives me up a wall. I will literally give a stranger a Kleenex because I can't stand to hear them sniffle.

(2) Describe your first kiss.

I actually just blogged about this one too. My first real kiss happened when I was a freshman in high school. I was "dating" a guy from another school. It was after a football game, while we were waiting to be picked up by our parents. He went in for the kiss and I was expecting something soft and gentle. I got the complete opposite. I wasn't expecting tongue and I got a whole lot of it. I honestly almost gagged.

(3) Describe the drunkest night of your life (or at least, the drunkest night you remember).

Oh wow. I don't often get super drunk. There were a couple times though. One of which was on our honeymoon. We went to a Sandals resort, so everything was included and when you're not paying, you drink a lot more. One night, we were chatting with a couple from England at an outdoor bar. I was drinking wine and not paying attention. I'm sure the bartender refilled my glass quite a few times. As the night went on, I realized I couldn't see very well, but I thought it was just because I was tired, as it was after 2 a.m.

When we finally got up to head back to our room, I almost fell down. That's when I realized I was drunk. I had a BAD case of the spins. Jdaddy told me to put my foot on the floor to help "ground" me. However, Sandals has those super high four poster beds, so there was no way my foot was going to touch the ground. Jdaddy then suggested that I just lay there with my eyes open until I fell asleep. I did that, only to wake about an hour later because he left the TV on and some obnoxious show came on. Upon waking, I proceeded to puke my guts out. I blame Jdaddy for making me sick. Had the TV not woken me up, I probably wouldn't have gotten sick. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

(4) What's the last movie you saw and what did you think of it?

We got Hot Tub Time Machine from Netflix. It was okay. I wasn't really impressed. There were a couple funny parts.

(5) Do you prefer to take a bath or a shower?

I prefer showers for my day-to-day routine, but if I'm stressed out or sick, I love to take a really hot bath.

Seventh Generation Diapers: A Review

2010-10-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

I'm ashamed to admit that prior to just a few months ago, I wasn't a very "green" person. I'm still not excessively green, but I'm trying.

We switched out most of the lights in our house to CFC bulbs, we started recycling (beyond our pop cans and bottles) and I won a Seventh Generation cleaning products giveaway, so I started using some green cleaning products.

I have to say it feels good. It feels good to do something that makes a difference, even if it's only a small difference.

Last month, I was given the opportunity to try Seventh Generation diapers. I'm always a little leery about trying different diapers because we've been through a lot to find diapers that work for us. But in the spirit of being "green", I accepted the opportunity.

Seventh Generation diapers are free and clear of latex and fragrances, 100% hypoallergenic and chlorine free. While they aren't biodegradable, being chlorine free means that there are NO toxins emitted into the landfills where garbage is buried, and that's a good thing.

The only downside to the diapers are that Buster missed the prints and colors that are on the diapers we typically use. Otherwise, they were extremely comparable in terms of fit and absorbency. And to be quite honest? I would have loved to have these diapers when doing newborn shots for my boys. The plain tan color is much more camera/photo friendly!!

Whether you're a "green" family or a family just trying to be a little "greener", I would recommend Seventh Generation diapers.

Seventh Generation diapers are available in both the United States and Canada.

Disclosure: I was provided with Seventh Generation diapers for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. All opinions are mine and mine alone.

Week in Review: 10/2/10

2010-10-02T08:00:00.002-04:00

It's finally Saturday!

Of course, I don't have much exciting going on this weekend, so I guess what I'm really looking forward to is sleeping in, if the kids will let me.

I went and saw my BFF and her baby boy last Sunday. He is so so sweet. All he wanted to do was cuddle and sleep. I miss the snorts and grunts of the little babies. Now all I get is screaming and back talk.

My truck. *sigh* The recorder, even though it was attached and worked properly, could not diagnose what is going on. Jdaddy met with someone this week at work and they agreed to take the truck back as a trade in, as is. They will give us fair market value for it even though the issue has not been fixed. So...we have another truck with our names on it. This should happen pretty quickly, so I could be driving my new truck around within a week or two. Even though we could have lost money on this deal, the interest rate is lower right now than it was when we financed our current truck, so our payment may be lower. That would be awesome.

There is a lot going on with the property we considering purchasing. The land is currently owned both by a couple and an estate and any purchase is subject to probate court approval. In other words, this is MESSY. I spoke with the broker (incidentally, the broker goes to church with my parents, so after our disappointment with the realtor earlier in the week, my mom called him) today and he is working with the sellers on trying to get it all straightened out. It still looks promising, as in we want it...but it's just a matter of time and if the land is buildable. It needs a perk test for the septic system before it can be deemed buildable. Those aren't cheap!! They run about $500, so the broker is trying to convince the land owners to pay for the perk test.

Bow hunting season began yesterday. Jdaddy is up at the hunting land, so it's just me and the boys this weekend. They haven't seen him since Tuesday night, and won't see him until Sunday. Have I told you all that I hate hunting?? Hate it.

This next week is going to be busy for me. I am heading to a work conference on Wednesday and will be there until Friday. I'll be staying here.

Photo Credit

Isn't it beautiful?? I get to go here every October. The best part is that I go with a coworker and we always have a great time together.

On Friday, Jdaddy is driving up with the boys and we are going to spend the weekend at an indoor water park, Avalanche Bay. The boys have no idea that we're doing this. I know they'll be ecstatic.

So next week, I'll kinda sorta be MIA. At least at the end of the week. Fear not though! I have two awesome guest posters lined up. On Wednesday, Kris, from Pretty All True will be gracing my blog. I'm so excited to have her come and post for you guys. She's a different kind of blogger than me...quite a bit bolder. But she is an amazing story teller. She is a master at imagery. And funny. Super, super funny.

On Friday, Shell from Things I Can't Say will be entertaining you with some of her writing. I love Shell. I think most of you who read my blog know who she is. She's one of the sweetest bloggers out there.

And last, but certainly not least, Julie from Foursons has graciously agreed to guest host TYVM for me next Thursday. Participation has been down, but instead of canceling it for the week, I'm glad one of my favorite bloggers can help me out and host it!

So that's about it from my neck of the woods. If I don't post on Monday, it means the boys have taken me hostage. Send help!

Have a good weekend!

Letter of Intent: 10/1/10

2010-10-01T08:04:00.000-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear School,

I don't have much confidence in you when things like this are sent home:

OTCOBER? Really?? Jdaddy told me to give you some slack, as you probably had a volunteer make the flyer. However, I can't. I tried...but I can't. Why? Because proceed are to "help fund school Literacy Projects." LITERACY projects. Are those projects for teachers/volunteers or students??

- Sassy Kmama

* * * * * * * *

Dear Woman that ran into the other car that I witness yesterday afternoon,

I cannot believe you didn't see the bright red car in front of you, stopped to make a turn into the parking lot where I was sitting. Perhaps you didn't see it because you were going about 50 mph through the intersection. And no, she (the other driver) didn't hit you! YOU hit her.

I'm not quite sure if you were drunk, lying, or just really confused. Maybe you were all three combined. However, I find it interesting that you told me you were looking for your perfume, but told the police officer that you were trying to turn into the parking lot. There is no way you were trying to turn into the parking lot. You were going at least 45 mph when you hit that lady, as evidenced by your completely demolished front end.

I'm so glad I was there to witness everything and set the record straight.

- Witness to your major crash

TYVM: 9/30/10

2010-09-29T22:00:00.004-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To my truck, which continues to have problems of which, no cause can be pinpointed, thank you very much! Two separate episodes were caught on the recorder last week, yet the recorder showed no issues.

- Thank you very much to the realtor that has listed the land we are interested in purchasing. I really appreciate the fact that you know NOTHING about this land. As if we would ever utilize you to write up an offer. We're already researching other realtors. You don't deserve the commission.

- To Buster's daycare, thank you very much for always allowing him to find the (according to you) one mud puddle on playground and jumping in it. I was so freaking happy to pick him up yesterday and find him soaked to his calves (shoes included).

- Thank you very much to my stupid dog. Stepping in a pile of crap outside and then running sprints through the house as soon as Buster opened the door did NOT make for a happy mama. There's nothing like cleaning up poop spots all over your hard floor and carpet while still in your work clothes.

How about you? What are you *thankful* for this week? Type it out and link 'em up, or leave me some in my comments.

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink (the really long link you get in your address bar when you click on the post title), which takes us right to your TYVM post.

Engulfed in Panic

2010-09-29T08:05:00.001-04:00

Panic. According Merriam-Webster online, panic is defined as: a sudden overpowering fright; also : acute extreme anxiety.

In most cases, I'm pretty calm. I don't tend to panic over minor things. Even when Buddy was very young and had a temper tantrum (the first of many) that caused him to pass out after holding his breath from crying so hard, I didn't panic. Sure, it upset me...but there wasn't panic involved.

When Buddy ingested sesame at daycare, of which he is highly allergic, I didn't panic. I just followed the protocol until everything was under control and I was sure he was okay.

I didn't even panic when daycare called and said that Buster took a header off the climber and landed on his head. I figured if they were calling me and were calm, I should remain calm as well. And when I picked him up that evening and he couldn't turn his head, I still managed to remain calm. The calmness continued the next morning, as I drove him to the ER to get x-rays and CT scans because even something as simple as turning the car around a corner caused him to yell out in pain.

So it might seem as though I never panic. But I do. And I have.

On Saturday, I posted about how Buster almost got hit by a car in the parking lot at his daycare. The fact that I couldn't seem him and knew there was a car coming and yet I couldn't do anything but scream and run, induced panic in me. I rounded the corner of my truck, expecting to see the worst. My heart was in my throat and my stomach was at my knees. In a matter of 2, maybe 3 seconds, I was sweating and sick and my heart was beating uncontrollably. Thank goodness I did not see what I expected. Thank goodness, at hearing me scream, Buster stopped in his tracks and ran to other side of the truck. Thank goodness the woman driving the car was paying attention and stopped. Thank goodness he was okay.

And in a matter of moments after that incident had passed, and while my adrenaline peaked, I was suddenly brought to a place 2 years, 5 months, and 28 days prior. The worst day of my life.

On April 1st, 2008, Buster had his first noticeable seizure. Only we didn't know it was a seizure. What I did know was that my almost four month old son, who had just been sitting on my lap, cooing and giggling with me, was then staring at me, eyes wide open, completely unresponsive and limp. And he quickly went from that to a child who was turning a dusky blue color, indicating that he was not breathing. The instant I realized that he was no longer breathing, a million and one thoughts ran through my head...the worst being that my child was dying on my lap, right at that moment.

The panic I experienced is indescribable and will haunt me forever. The next few minutes were a blur as we attempted to get him breathing again, and once he was breathing, we literally ran out the door and flew to the hospital. My panic only lessened once he was in the arms of doctors and nurses and started to respond to stimulus.

For the next few weeks, my panic waxed and waned. Buster, diagnosed with ALTE (apparent life threatening event) at the time, was sent home on an apnea monitor. In the beginning, every single time that monitor alarmed, panic would surge through my body like a lightning bolt. I remember being in the shower while Buster was sleeping, the first time that monitor went off. I didn't hear the monitor at first, but what I did hear was my husband running in a full sprint across the house and up the stairs to Buster's bedroom. I knew the alarm was going off, and I was engulfed in panic.

It was a false alarm.

The false alarms and non-responsive episodes continued, until he was finally diagnosed with epilepsy. A diagnosis I could live with. A diagnosis that was not life threatening. A diagnosis that saved my sanity.

This post linked to Shell's Pour Your Heart Out over at Things I Can't Say and Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop at Mama's Losin' It.

Sophomore Year: Part 1

2010-09-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to another episode of "My High School Years". If you missed last week's episode, Freshman Year, you can find that HERE.

There was a lot that happened in my Sophomore year, so I'm breaking it up into two parts. I hate reading super long posts, so I thought I'd do you a favor. Plus, for some reason, this post was really difficult to write.

I last left you here:

We moved over the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years of high school. We lived in a duplex in a neighboring city while our house was being built. A city where I didn't have any friends. That was a long and lonely summer.

If I were to describe my sophomore year in one word, I thing "change" is the word I would use. That year was filled with a lot of change. Two different homes, a new school, new friends, new boys, a new me.

Moving while in high school is challenging. Moving over the summer when you don't know anyone pretty much sucks.

We were building our new house, and due to the timing of it all, we had to move out of our house and into a rented duplex for a few months until our house was done being built. I have many, many duplex stories, but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say that duplex living is a whole 'nother world! My mom and I said we could write a book about all the craziness that transpired.

That summer, though I was bored to tears most days, I did have some opportunities to interact with other kids through driver's education, little league softball, band camp, and basketball camp.

Driver's Ed was fun. I passed with flying colors (of course), but that one girl that hit the fence? And the other girl that ran into the gas pump? Umm, I'm not so sure they passed. Hahaha. However, if it were up to my mom, I'm not quite so sure she would have let me pass. During that summer, my mom's employer had me work as a fill-in receptionist from time to time, so my mom and I would drive to work together. She had a Crown Victoria, V8, rear-wheel drive car. One morning, she said that I could drive. While we were waiting for traffic to clear, she spotted an opening and said, "You better step on it." Well, "step on it" I did. The car lurched forward and we damn near got into an accident. I begged her not to tell anyone at work, and she replied, "Well, okay. But if anyone asks why my eyes are bugged and my eyebrows are permanently raised, I'm going to have to tell them." Nice, mom. Nice.

I attended basketball camp only to decide I wasn't good enough (in my own mind) to play at the new school. Most of the girls had played on the local AAU team and were great offensive players. That intimidated me. I was much better defensively than I was offensively. So against my parent's advice, I decided not to play.

I also decided not to cheer, and I didn't want to do band anymore. That last one didn't fly. My parents told me that I couldn't drop out of everything so I either had to stay in band, or take private lessons on my own time. Umm, I chose band. Band at CHS was a lot different than band at RHS. Band at RHS was more military-like, with a iron fisted band director. Band at CHS was more laid back and camp was held at the school, versus at an away camp. I made my impression at band camp though...I won all the marching contests held. Hello. My name is Kristi. I'm new here, and I'm a band geek. [insert goofy smiley face]

The most memorable thing that happened that year at band camp occurred early in the week. We were outside, marching in the parking lot, practicing. Have I mentioned before that I lived in the country?? Well, as we were practicing, a big truck/tractor went by with a load in the trailer. At first, it smelled sweet, so I took a deep breathe in. Oh, that was probably the biggest mistake I could ever make. That smell? Was not sweet. It was manure. Rank manure. I started coughing, then gagging. My eyes were watering and I thought I was going to pass out. Everyone was looking at me like I had two heads. That's when I learned that you never, ever take a deep breath in the country.

My new school was a lot different from RHS in more ways than just band camp. At RHS, I had 7 classes a day. At CHS, I had 3 "macros" a day and my band class. Students could choose between band, choir, orchestra, year book, the television studio, or a few others for that fourth class. After the second marking period, we would switch classes, just like you would in college. Our "macros" were an hour and thirty-five minutes long. It was difficult to get used to the long classes at first. The awesome part of CHS was that it was more focused on projects and group learning. Being the social butterfly that I am, group work always appealed to me.

That year, there were two other girls that were new to CHS. We instantly bonded and found our "clique." While that clique wasn't the one I would stick with my entire high school career, I considered those girls good friends. We helped each other through a rough time, and had a lot of fun too.

The second half of my sophomore year was much more fun and interesting than the first. When we moved to the country, I anticipated good things, but I had no idea what was to come.

Sophomore Year: Part 2 will be continued next week Tuesday.

(I wrote a fictional piece for my blog last year. The piece focused on creating a new identity and was loosely based on my real life experiences as I moved from one school to another. If you'd like to check it out, it's HERE.)

This post linked to True Story Tuesdays, hosted by the awesome Mr. Daddy and Rachel at Once Upon a Miracle.

Monday Minute: 9/27/10

2010-09-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

This week I'm linking up with Cristy, from Is There a Doctor in the House, the new host of Monday Minute.

(1) What’s the last restaurant you went to and what did you order?

I took my BFF to lunch yesterday for her birthday. We ate at Grand Azteca, a Mexican restaurant. I ordered a ground beef chimichanga, no beans, with rice. It was really good, but I was surprised at how small the chimi was...it was more like the size of an enchilada.

(2) What's your greatest phobia?

Heights. I can do roller coasters and stuff because I enjoy the thrill, but if the roller coaster ever broke down and they made everyone climbed down, I would probably die. Seriously. The thought of climbing down would probably induce a heart attack.

(3) On a scale of 1 to 10, how hot are you?

I've never been described as "hot". People usually use the word "pretty" to describe me. That said, I would say I'm probably about a 5. I could up the "hotness" if I lost some damn weight.

(4) You just found out you (or your partner) are having a baby. What's your reaction?

Happy. Very happy. Right now we're still trying to decide if we're done having kids, so having that decision made for me would be awesome.

(5) You just won a free vacation to anywhere in the world. Where would you go?

Lizard Island in Australia. It's an expensive trip, so if someone else was paying, I would choose to go there.

Week in Review: 9/25/10

2010-09-25T07:00:00.002-04:00

I am so thankful it's the weekend. It was a crazy week!

Last weekend was rather uneventful. We had a lot of family time, which was nice. Of course, a lot of family time means that I'm always anxious to get back to work on Monday. ;-)

Tuesday night, we had a huge storm blow through. While there wasn't much rain, we got hail, a ton of wind, thunder, and a ton of lightning. We live in a two story house and I woke up and saw something fly by my bedroom window. That really shocked me!

On Wednesday morning, I dropped Buddy off at his before care school and headed off to take Buster to daycare. As soon as I pulled into the daycare parking lot, I realized something wasn't right. Daycare didn't have power, and the power company said it would be at least 4 hours before they got it back on, so I headed home with Buster. Normally my parents are my back-up, but they lose power if someone sneezes, so I knew that they wouldn't have power, plus they had a doctor's appointment later that day.

When we got home, I changed into my comfy clothes and Buster and I decided to have some cereal. As soon as I sat down, the phone rang and it was Buster's daycare saying that the power was back on (this was only a half an hour later...so much for four hours!) and they were open. While I was on the phone, my cell alerted me to an email. I checked my email and it was from Buddy's school district. HIS school was without power and they were sending kids home on the bus at 9:15. I guess it was meant to be for me to stay home that day!

Wednesday night, my father in law took Buddy to hockey (Jdaddy had his first Wednesday night class), so my parents came over and we went out to eat. That's the night that I had the raw chicken debacle. Thankfully I never got sick!

On Thursday, Buster nearly gave me a heart attack when he was almost hit by a car in the parking lot at daycare. We were walking to the truck, and as we got close, I let go of his hand. I veered toward the passenger side (where his seat is) and he took off towards the driver's side. Prior to us reaching the truck, I saw a car coming and a lot of times, parents don't pay attention, or enough attention. As soon as I realized what he did, I SCREAMED his name and told him to stop. I ran to the back of the truck expecting the worst, but the car had stopped (THANK GOD!!), but Buster wasn't there. There was someone coming out of daycare that saw it all and she yelled to me that he was back on the passenger side. Apparently he stopped in his tracks when I yelled and came right over.

I grabbed his hand and marched him to the back of the truck and pointed at the car and told him he could have gotten hit and that he is NEVER to run in a parking lot, and on, and on, and on. He didn't cry, but he whimpered and was quiet the whole ride home.

I cried the whole way home. I still tear up thinking about it. It brings me back to the day when he had his first seizure and he stopped breathing. Those are bad memories.

My truck freaked out twice this week and it was captured on the recorder. The engineer came and removed the recorder on Thursday and hopefully we'll hear something on Monday!!

Last night, Jdaddy and I went and looked at some property near us. We think we might have found some that we like! I am so excited. We'd love to purchase some property and pay on it, and then in a few years, once the market recovers a bit, sell our house and build a brand new one. The property looks decent, but we have some more investigating to do. We need to find out if the property has been perked and if it has a natural gas line, or if we'd have to purchase propane. I hate the idea of propane. It's so expensive!

We had a major milestone last night. Buster FINALLY pooped on the potty at home. I was so freaking excited. I happened to buy him a book from the dollar section at Target yesterday, so I pulled it out as a prize for pooping on the toilet. And then I did the "poop on the toilet dance". I asked Buster if he wanted to join me and he looked at me like I had two heads and said, "No." Well fine then.

Today, Buddy's friend is having a birthday party at the bowling alley. After bowling, we're all going over to the friend's house to eat and hang out. I'm sure there will be some drinking by the adults while the little ones play. One of Buddy's friends is going to come over and spend the night at our house. It's the first sleepover we're having at our house. Hopefully the kids will be so exhausted they'll fall asleep right away. I know. Wishful thinking.

We also have to take Buster to get his picture taken and apply for his passport. We already made our first payment on our Cancun vacation. It's still just under 5 months away, but I'm so excited.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my BFF to take her to lunch to celebrate her birthday. It's a tradition for us. I also get to see her sweet baby boy, who is already 7 weeks old. I haven't seen him since he was a day old. I'm so excited.

So that's about it. Have a great weekend!

LOI: Dear Photobucket

2010-09-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Photobucket,

All I want to do is change my username on my account. That's it. It should be any easy fix. The key word in that last sentence is should. Apparently, it's not a fix that can be made. According to the prompt (thank you) reply I received to my inquiry (by the way, I just happened to run across the email address to contact you with a question...it was not easy to find!):

Usernames cannot be edited or changed. If you would like a different username you must delete your current account and register a new account.

I don't want to delete my account just to change my username. That's all kinds of backwards. I have many, many links to those pictures out here on my blog and by deleting my account, POOF, the images will be gone. And while I could back up all those photos and save them on my hard drive, only to transfer them back to my new account, I'd have to go in and fix all my links. NO THANK YOU.

So therefore, Photobucket, that is not a good solution for your customer.

- Irritated

* * * * * * * *

Dear Flickr,

Since my account with you does not contain my name, but rather my "ID number", you will now be my photo storage site of choice. Thank you for helping to protect my privacy.

- New Flickr member

* * * * * * * *

Dear Blogger,

I love the new editing screen, especially the enhanced preview screen. Unfortunately, it's too late. I already purchased my Wordpress Thesis theme this week and the designer is beginning work on my new site shortly. So while your editing function has frequently been the subject of my frustration and blog material, it will no more.

- Excited and Nervous about the switch

TYVM: 9/23/10

2010-09-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To the restaurant I ate at the other night, thank you very much for not cooking my chicken all the way through.

- To the same restaurant mentioned above, thank you very much for making sure it was almost the last damn piece of chicken I ate, so I have no idea if I ate any raw chicken.

- Thank you very much to the billions of boxelder bugs, and thus, spiders that want to eat the box elder bugs that are found on every square inch of the outside of my house. You all creep me out and I prefer to walk around without bugs flying and jumping on me.

- To the monstrous storm that came through Tuesday night and knocked out power all around us, thank you very much! I'm truly thankful that we didn't lose power, however, having both boys' schools being closed because of power outage and thus having to take a forced vacation day was not cool.

- To the TV writers and producers who have created so many new, great shows this season, thank you very much! I don't need to add any more shows to my line-up, but seriously, almost every new show I've watched has captivated me.

Phew. Now that I've spilled my guts, I feel better. How about you? What are you *thankful* for this week? Type it out and link 'em up, or leave me some in my comments.

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink (the really long link you get in your address bar when you click on the post title), which takes us right to your TYVM post.

A Buster Fix

2010-09-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

I feel like I post about Buddy a lot on the blog, and not so much about Buster. It's probably because Buddy is so photogenic and actually asks me to take his picture. It also helps that he's older and has a lot of activities, and he interacts with us more.

I haven't updated on Buster's epilepsy in awhile. He's doing awesome. We haven't had to adjust his meds since the initial dosage he was prescribed back in April. After a few rough days, his body got used to the medication and he was pretty much back to normal. We haven't seen any signs of seizures since he went back on the medication, so we are extremely grateful for that.

Starting next week, Buster will officially be moving up to the preschool room at his daycare. My ~~little~~big guy is growing up. He is learning at such a fast pace. Last night, while I was reading to him, he pointed at the alarm clock (it was 7:37 p.m.) and said, "Mama, there are two sevens in there!" If you ask him if he's smart, he'll reply with an emphatic "yes!". Love that boy.

For the most part, he's never really entered the "terrible twos". Until now. With less than 3 months left at 2 years old, he's now started throwing temper tantrums. Lucky me. Looks like it's going to be "troublesome threes" once again (Buddy was more trouble in his three's than he was in his two's).

Last weekend I really worked on potty training with Buster. I set the timer on our stove and made him go potty every 45 minutes. 45 minutes seemed to be his limit before he would pee in his diaper. After the timer went off, each time he would say, "I juss already went." Not, "I just did", or "I already went", but "I juss already went." So sweet.

And I'll end this with a funny: The other night, my parents came over for dinner. Buster looked at my mom and said, "Grandma, you're a bad word" and then ran away. I laughed so hard. My mom commented that we probably shouldn't ask him which bad word he had in mind. I just love his personality.

This post is linked with Wordful Wednesday at parenting BY dummies. Yes, Wordful Wednesday has a new home and it's at the awesome Dumb Mom's house!!

Freshman Year

2010-09-21T07:00:00.008-04:00

So here it is. The first installment of my high school years series. In case you missed it, the series was prompted by a post I wrote last week, titled My Inner Nerd. On Saturday, I mentioned that I would be using the self-reflection paper from my high school portfolio to start off each post and then fill in some blanks. I'm deviating from that plan...only because my self reflection paper was long in spots and I want to tell a story, rather than give you a summary.

My freshman year was pretty typical. As discussed before, I was a nerd. I had classes like Geometry, Honors English, and my elective was band. I was in two different bands...the Concert Band and the Wind Symphony (membership by audition only). During marching band season, I decided to join the color guard (flags) instead of playing my instrument.

In addition to the academic stuff, I played basketball in the Fall, cheered in the Winter (I know...I still can't believe I was a cheerleader), and played softball in the Spring. I was busy. And I loved it.

The year was filled with ups and downs. The high was my softball season. My coach was a former baseball coach and he taught us a lot of tricks to use on the field. I was always a good base runner, and quite fast, so my stolen base percentage was pretty high. I'll never forget the time my coach bumped chests with the opposing team's coach (who was at least twice as big as my coach) and then punched the ground (and thus, broke his hand) after a bad call. Good times!!

The low part of that year involved the color guard I joined during marching band season. I had a tyrant for a "captain" and all she was good at doing was telling other people what they were doing wrong. She spent so much time criticizing us that she never learned the routines herself. I remember it all coming to a head one day, and mild, meek me blew up and screamed at her in the band room, while the assistant band director stood there and watched me go off. She let it go on for awhile, I think because a), she was surprised by my outburst, and b), the captain deserved it.

Of course, there were embarrassing moments as well. Like during Spirit Week, when the kid I liked (who was in 10th grade) picked me up and swung me upside down and some, umm, feminine products fell out of my shirt. I had put them there on my walk to the bathroom because my pants didn't have pockets. Totally and utterly embarrassed.

Oh, and some shameful moments, like starting the rumor that my English teacher was pregnant. Oops. She had gained weight and had taken some time off from school. I wondered out loud if she might be pregnant and that rumor spread like wild fire. I felt so bad when my teacher had to address her classes and announce that she was not, in fact, pregnant. Double oops.

My freshman year brought me my first, real kiss. It was memorable, but for the wrong reasons. I don't think I really even liked the guy all that much. The kiss happened after a football game, while waiting for my friend's parents to pick us up (gotta love not being old enough to drive to functions!). We were outside, and he made his move, going in for the kiss. In my head, I was imagining a sweet, kinda lingering kiss. In reality? ALERT! ALERT! There was tongue. Forceful tongue, and I almost gagged. That was not supposed to happen that way!

All of my favorite memories from my freshman year of school included my then best friend, Katie. She and I had gone to school together from 6th grade on, but we never really connected until 8th grade. She was a nerd like me, but cooler, if that makes sense. We spent nearly every weekend together, hanging out, crushing on the same guys (why do young girls do that? It's apt to end in heartbreak for someone!), and acting silly in her basement.

My freshman year was also the year that my family decided to move out of the school district. I had lived in the same house all of my life, so you would have thought I would be sad or angry at the idea of moving, but I wasn't. I was excited to move away and start something new. I was sad to leave my friends behind, but I figured that if they were good friends, we'd find a way to stay in touch.

We moved over the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years of high school. We lived in a duplex in a neighboring city while our house was being built. A city where I didn't have any friends. That was a long and lonely summer.

Part 2, Sophomore Year, will be posted next Tuesday, September 28th.

This post linked to True Story Tuesdays, hosted by the awesome Mr. Daddy and Rachel at Once Upon a Miracle, as well as Wednesday's Walk over at The Goodwin Family.

Monday Minute: 9/10/10

2010-09-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I lied when I said that it was the last week Ian would be hosting the Monday Minute. Sorry about that. I blame Ian.

Anyway, this week is his last week hosting. Co-hosting this week is Laura, The Purseblogger.

Have you ever lied on one of your Monday Minute answers?

No, I have no reason to lie.

What is on your bedside table?

A book, a piece of cardboard that I put my nightly glass of sugar free Tropical Fruit Punch Kool-Aid each night, and a lantern in case the power goes out. Oh, and of course, my alarm clock.

Lose your sight or hearing?

Both would be extremely traumatizing for me. I honestly can't choose. The thought of not seeing my children's smiles makes me tear up. Likewise, the thought of never hearing the sweet voices of my children ever again breaks my heart. If I were absolutely forced to choose, I guess I would choose to lose my hearing.

Would you rather give up all kinds of sexual contact for one full year or give up your DVR for three months?

A full year? That's easy. It would have to be the DVR.

and finally...

Name one thing that you are proud of that you've accomplished in your life.

I'm actually proud of a lot. But topping that list would have to be that I have an amazing family.

I Heart Faces: Smirk

2010-09-19T15:17:00.004-04:00

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Smirk.

Below is a picture I took of Buster about a year ago. It's a great shot of him and his personality at that point in time.

This photo also linked to Monday Mugs at Oswald Cuties.

Week in Review: 9/17/10

2010-09-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

It's the weekend!! Hallelujah. And? We have no plans. Can I get a double Hallelujah??

Aside from the kids trying to make me go insane, life is pretty good.

Some of you have asked about my truck. It hasn't freaked out since the engineer re-installed the recorder. Of course it hasn't freaked out. That would just be too easy. I'm starting to wonder if it was the really hot, humid weather contributing to the problems. Since the recorder was re-installed, it's been a lot cooler around here. I wish it would act up though, just so we can finally figure out what is going on.

It was another week of insanity. Wednesdays and Thursdays are the craziest days. Buddy has hockey practice on Wednesday nights, so he and Jdaddy go to dinner and then to practice. That leaves Buster and me to figure stuff out on our own. As soon as Jdaddy and Buddy get home from practice, it's time to get ready for bed.

Thursdays, Jdaddy has class, so I have to leave work exactly on time in order to pick up both kids from their two different daycare locations before I start being charged insane amounts of money as a "late fee." I don't usually get home until at least 6 and with bed time starting at about 7:30, we typically pick up dinner that night.

Next week, our schedule will be changing. For the next four weeks, Jdaddy has a Wednesday night class as well, and then when that's done (at the end of the semester), he'll have another Wednesday night class. My FIL has been so kind as to volunteer to take Buddy to dinner and hockey practice on those nights. Thank goodness!!

I wrote a post early in the week about My Inner Nerd. I was surprised at the number of comments I received, and also surprised at the number of people who could relate. At the urging of Ian, I'm going to start a series of posts about my high school years (and possibly college years).

In that portfolio I blogged about, I had to write a self-reflection paper for the four years of my high school career. I had one or two paragraphs for each year. I'll start the post with those paragraphs and then fill in some of the blanks.

I plan to publish these posts on Tuesdays, linking up with Once Upon a Miracle for their True Story Tuesday meme. I hope it's entertaining. If not, tell me!

I'm still loving my Droid X. I need to find a mirror app for it though. Can anyone recommend one?

Have a great weekend!

LOI: Dear ConAgra Foods

2010-09-17T07:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Kid Cuisine/ConAgra Foods,

My kids are big fans of your Kid Cuisine frozen meals. And let's face it. I am too. They're easy, they're quick, and they have both veggies AND a dessert. What's not to love?

Well, there is ONE thing not to love. That protective film you place over the tray is never sealed as well as I would like it to be. In most cases, it's sealed, but it feels weak. That has always bugged me, but up until last week, I never felt the need to tell you about it.

Now I feel the need, and I'm telling you to fix it.

Last week, I pulled a Pop Star Popcorn Chicken meal out of the freezer and opened the box. The seal between the film covering and the tray was broken and the meal was freezer burned. I was frustrated, however, I knew I had another in the freezer so I pulled it out. I opened that box only to find that once again, the seal was broken and the meal was ruined. Luckily for my by then super disappointed son, I found another Pop Star Popcorn Chicken meal in the freezer and opened that meal, only to realize, once again, that the seal was broken.

So to recap, I wasted my money on three different meals because of broken seals. Seals that are supposed to keep the food from getting freezer burned, but obviously can't work if they aren't applied correctly.

I'd like a refund and I'd like you to fix your sealing process.

- Freezer Burned

**UPDATE**

I sent ConAgra Foods a message via their "Contact Us" option on their webpage yesterday. Within an hour (AN HOUR!!) I received this response:

Dear Mrs. X,

Thank you for your email concerning our Kid Cuisine® Popcorn Chicken, a product of ConAgra Foods.

We sincerely apologize for your experiences. We stand by the quality of our products, and want you to know that this matter has been taken seriously.

We will also be sending you free coupons via regular mail that are valid for nine months. Please allow 1-2 weeks for receipt.

Thanks again for your feedback. We're listening!

Now that is GREAT customer service!!!

TYVM: 9/16/10, Motorcycle Edition

2010-09-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To the idiots on the motorcycles that hand signaled no less than three times for turns, and never turned, thank you very much

- Thank you very much to the moron on the crotch rocket that flew up behind me (going at least 90 mph) and weaved in and out of traffic. I never saw you coming and you scaring the sh*t out of me. Good thing I hadn't changed lanes right at that moment.

- To the dumba$$ on the motorcycle that pulled into the road from the convenience store parking lot and stopped right there, thank you very much! By witnessing you (meaning, I had to stop and wait for you) get off the bike and push it back into the parking lot entrance, it was obvious you do not know how to ride your bike.

People, I seriously try to be extra vigilant and considerate around motorcyclists. A family friend lost their son in a motorcycle accident a long time ago, and ever since then, the stupid bikes scare the hell out of me. It makes me IRATE when I see motorcyclists that have no business being on bikes.

- Thank you very much to Buster, who confirmed that he will only poop at daycare when he said, "I poop for Miss Sonia. Not at home, at school!" I also *really* enjoyed it when I, in exasperation, said, "Buster, why won't you poop at home?" and you replied with, "No thank you Mama." I guess, as Daddy pointed out, at least you were polite about it.

- And one more for Buster. Thank you very much for acting like a maniac when I took you out to dinner. Not listening, running around, and then climbing into the drivers seat as I was trying to get you in your car seat is NOT acceptable. Of course, it was kinda funny. STOP making me laugh when I try to discipline you, you little punk!

Ahh, I feel so much better. Now it's your turn! What are you *thankful* for this week? Write a post and link it up, or just leave me some in the comments.

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink (the really long link you get in your address bar when you click on the post title), which takes us right to your TYVM post.

My Inner Nerd

2010-09-15T07:00:00.002-04:00

I have a serious case of blog block. For a few weeks now. It sucks.

So tonight, in the hopes of finding a remedy to this conundrum, I drank my favorite white trash drink (Smirnoff Ice), had a Lil' Drum drumstick ice cream thingy, and went through my high school portfolio.

What is a high school portfolio? Well, I'm so glad you asked.

Back when I was in high school, Michigan implemented the idea of a high school portfolio (along with a stupid High School Proficiency Test that you had to pass in order to receive a state endorsed diploma). My high school decided that, as of my senior year, High School Portfolio's were mandatory for graduation. The portfolio basically consisted of examples of your work, along with a written analysis on how that work would help you in the future. There were "required enclosures" that consisted of things like your transcripts, ACT (like the SAT, but specific to Michigan) scores, a resume, my "future focus", etc.

Incidentally, my future focus stated that, in response to the question "Describe the lifestyle that appeals the most to you":

I would like t work 5 days a week and to be home with my family (2 to 3 children and a husband) on the weekends. I also would like to have an active role in my children's lives.

Well, that's pretty dead on! Except I have to wonder why I ever wanted to work 5 days a week.

While reviewing my portfolio, one thing became painfully clear.

I was a nerd.

It's obvious just looking at my transcripts, band awards, reports, etc. And the fact that I was one of only 10 people in my school that passed all four sections of the high school proficiency exam the first time doesn't help either.

Jdaddy has spent a good time laughing at me tonight. Good thing I can laugh at myself. And good thing I'm not still such a nerd. Stop it. I'm NOT.

I'll leave you with a poem I had to write in the style of William Wordsworth. I said shut up!

"The Man"

He showed up in my dream one night

his name I shall not say,

but oh how I adored his sight!

I wish there was a way

To view this man who's in my dreams

and always on my mind,

It's been so long and now it seems

this man I'll never find.

But if in contact I should come

I'll know if he's for me,

or if he's just another bum

and it will never be.

On the upside, I think the jokes on Jdaddy. The rebel jock married a nerd.

I Heart Faces: Vroom Vroom

2010-09-14T21:04:00.004-04:00

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Vroom Vroom. Your picture had to incorporate some sort of vehicle and a face.

The picture I chose is from my oldest son's 3rd birthday party. He was so excited to get his very own John Deere ride on tractor. This is my first attempt at using textures as well. I think it turned out pretty good...but that's my amateur opinion!

Mabel's Labels Mama Cards: A Giveaway!

2010-09-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

CONTEST CLOSED. Congrats to Michelle from Momma's Pixie Dreams, #32!!

Have you heard of Mabel's Labels? Their tag line is "Labels for the stuff kids lose." And kids certainly lose a lot of stuff!! Us moms know that!

Mabel's Labels sells a variety of products on their website, from sticky labels and clothing labels, to bag tags and stationery products. If you're a wannabe organized person like me, Mabel's Labels is the answer to your prayers.

One of the stationery products they offer is called Mama Cards™. Mama Cards™ are the perfect way to exchange contact information with other moms. I ordered my Mama Cards™ with my name, my kids' names, my phone number, my email address, and a listing of Buddy's allergies printed on them.

Mama Cards™ come in five colorful designs, and can be used for more than just your contact information (business cards, blog cards, etc.).

Want your own Mama Cards™? You can order them at Mabel's Labels. They are $29 for 100.

You can win your own set of Mama Cards™ right here at The Daily Dribbles!

Mandatory Entry (Please leave an email address with your comment if your email is not linked to your profile): Visit Mabel's Labels and tell me which Mama Cards™ you would choose if you won.

Additional Entries (Please leave a separate comment for each entry):

- Follow Mabel's Labels on twitter and leave your twitter name
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- Follow The Daily Dribbles on Google Friend Connect
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Contest ends Tuesday, September 21st at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org and notified via e-mail. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize. Contest open to US and Canada residents only.

Disclosure: Mabel's Labels provided me with a complimentary set of Mama Cards. All opinions expressed are 100% mine and mine alone.

Monday Minute: 9/13/10

2010-09-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm linking up with Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality for his last Monday Minute. Next week it will have a new home.

Co-hosting this week is one of my favs...Michelle from Momma's Pixie Dreams.

1 - Who is your favorite childhood superhero?

I guess it would be She-Ra, the Princess of Power.

2 - List something you have done for pure shock value.

Oooh, well, I, uh, flashed some dueling piano players in Toledo, Ohio one night, many years ago to get them to play the University of Michigan fight song. We put money in, but then the people from Ohio kept giving more money for the Ohio State fight song, so after refusing to give more money, I flashed "the girls" at the piano players, and well, Michigan won. ;-)

3 - What is the most recent thing someone has said/done to you that left you picking your jaw up off of the floor.

I was at the grocery store, putting my groceries in my truck when a woman and her young daughter (approximately 2 years old) came up next to me to unload their groceries. The little girl had a cookie and told her mom she was done, after eating half of it. Her mother told her to just "throw it on the ground." I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't say anything, but I sure did give her the stink eye.

4 - Do you have a moment where you gained clarity about your life?

I don't know. This is a hard one to answer. I went through a really rough time after Buster was diagnosed with epilepsy. My employer was giving me a hard time about taking time off and it felt like the weight of the world was taking me down. I can't remember the exact moment, but there was a time when I finally said "screw it. I'm not going to let this beat me." and was able to move forward.

5 - What are you doing to achieve your biggest dream?

I'm not much of a "dreamer". If I want something, I usually just do it. But, to answer the question, you could say that I'm currently living my biggest dream. I have two amazing little boys, a wonderful husband, and an awesome job. You can't ask for much more than that.

Week in Review: 9/11/10

2010-09-11T08:15:00.000-04:00

For being a short week, this past week sure has been LONG. I am so thankful the weekend is here.

Buddy started school this week and so far, everything is going great. (Pics HERE) He likes his teacher and he has a few friends in his class. He also started back with hockey this week. So now, every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, he will be at hockey.

Buster is getting prepared to move up a room at daycare, into the Preschool Room. He'll be 3 (sniff, sniff) in December, so they are planning on moving him sometime in November. He's ready. The kid LOVES to learn, and I think this next room will be so good for him. Right now, he's the oldest in his current room, and starting to pick up bad behaviors from the younger kids!! We do NOT need regression. This week, he spent some time in the preschool room and he was so excited.

For the past week, Jdaddy has been driving around a Camaro. Once a quarter, he gets to "borrow" a car from the pool for a weekend. Well, since it was the holiday weekend and no one was at work Monday, he got to keep it until yesterday. He's so sad to be driving the Grand Prix again. Our anniversary is in November, and we're going up to a local casino/resort to spend the night. Jdaddy has already reserved a Corvette for that weekend. I can't wait!

After complaining about my BlackBerry for so long, I can finally stop. I got my new phone, the Droid X on Thursday evening. So far, I love it. I just can't get over how big the display is on it.

We have a party to go to this afternoon/evening. It's at the house of one of Buddy's friends. It's been great making friends with Buddy's friend's parents, as most of our friends don't have kids. It's nice when we can get together and the kids can go off and play on their own and we can have adult time. I'm really looking forward to this evening.

Thank you so much for your supportive comments on yesterday's post. I really blew it with Buddy, and I hope that I never forget the way he looked at that moment, and how that made me feel because that will hopefully keep it from happening again.

Just a reminder that you can enter my Nestlé and Walmart Back-to-School giveaway HERE. It ends Monday evening.

Have a wonderful weekend!! Oh, and only 15 weeks until Christmas!! ;-)

Devastating Explosions

2010-09-10T07:00:00.003-04:00

I wake with a start. It's late. 20 minutes later than my normal wake-up time, 30 minutes later than I wanted to be up. I jump out of bed, cussing at myself for being so stupid to have hit the off button instead of snooze.

I stumble around, banging into things as I attempt to rush through my morning routine. I realize that I won't have time to wash my hair. My blood pressure begins to rise.

Buster wakes, screaming out. Who knows why. I hurry to finish applying make-up before getting him. His cries get louder, more insistent. My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I swoop into Buster's room and get him out of his crib. I dash into Buddy's room, waking him. He doesn't want to get up. Doesn't want to go to school. My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I take both boys downstairs and got them dressed. Buster doesn't want his diaper changed. Buddy doesn't like "those" pants. I forgot Buster's socks upstairs. My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I put everything in the truck, and usher the boys upstairs to brush their teeth. Buddy doesn't want to brush his teeth. Buster wants to lay on the floor and brush his teeth. Buddy doesn't like Buster laying on the floor to brush his teeth. My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Buster...get up!"

"Buddy, it's okay. He can lay there. Let's hurry."

My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"BUSTER! Get up!!"

My blood pressure rises. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Buddy! I said it's okay. I don't care as long as he brushes his teeth. You need to worry about yourself."

"BUSTER!!!! GET UP!!!"

And...

I explode.

I'm standing behind Buddy, combing his hair while he brushes his teeth. During my explosion, I see the reflection of his face in the mirror.

His face says it all.

Devastation.

His head slowly slumps forward, and he begins to silently sob, strings of toothpaste dripping from his mouth into the sink. His body slightly shaking with his sobs.

In that instant...I am sick. I am heartbroken. I am ashamed. I am devastated.

How could I do that to my son? How could I break him like that?

I instantly wrap him in my arms and apologize. Over and over again. We cry together. And in a couple of minutes? We are okay.

Well, he is okay.

At bedtime, I again apologize for yelling at him. He doesn't remember.

As for me? I will never forget.

I am devastated.

TYVM: 9/9/10

2010-09-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

Wordful Wednesday: Back to School 2010

2010-09-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm linking up with Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday in the name of Back to School.

Yesterday was Buddy's first day of school. He is repeating Kindergarten this year, and after many concerns about "forcing" him to repeat Kindergarten when he so badly wanted to move on to 1st Grade...

He was so excited to go to Kindergarten this morning. Compared to last year, he was excited, but exuded confidence and seemed much more relaxed.

Jdaddy picked him up today and said that Buddy was beyond excited and said he had a "great day." I'm thrilled.

And now for the obligatory first day of school pics:

I adore this picture...as Buster adores his big brother

Definitely not my baby anymore

Brothers gotta hug

It's been a great start to a new year!!

Feeling Random!

2010-09-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm trying something new this week. I'm linking up with Keely over at The Un Mom for Random Tuesday Thoughts.

- I love long weekends.

- I hate long weekends.

- I'm always ready to go back to work after long weekends due to the behavior of my children.

- Buster makes me laugh hysterically. Especially after yesterday's antics. Jdaddy was getting into the shower and bent over to pick something up and right at that moment, Buster barreled into the bathroom and ran smack into Jdaddy's butt. I was brushing my teeth, so even though I could see what was going to happen, I wasn't able to say anything. It was quite a shock for both Buster and Jdaddy. I laughed hysterically.

- I went shopping with a friend this weekend and actually bought some stuff. I'm usually too picky and/or cheap to find anything. I got myself a pair of black pants, three shirts for work, and a casual shirt. I was ecstatic.

- I'm watching Hoarders on A&E while I type this (Sunday night). I'm beyond flabbergasted. I'll have a post about this coming soon.

- I really want some ice cream right now. But I don't have the motivation to drive to Dairy Queen to get it. I'm going to settle on drinking a Smirnoff Ice instead. ;-)

- Buddy starts his second year of Kindergarten today. He looked soooo cute in his back-to-school outfit. (pics tomorrow)

- Jdaddy and I talked Buddy into getting a non-character backpack but lost the battle when it came to getting a lunch bag. He chose a Star Wars lunch bag.

- Thermos' cost $15 to $21 each. That's INSANE. However, I'm too afraid to buy an off brand because Thermos guarantees things stay hot for 5 hours.

- My Droid X is supposed to be delivered on Thursday. I'm so excited. Even more exciting is that Jdaddy will be in class that night, so I'll get to play before him.

- I'm sometimes immature like that.

- Did you see my Nestle giveaway I have going on?? It's awesome. Be sure to enter!

- I like Random Tuesday Thoughts!

Nestle Back-to-School Giveaway!

2010-09-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

CONTEST CLOSED: Congrats to Shell, #11, for winning the Nestle and Walmart Back-to-School Giveaway!

Once again, I'm so excited to work with Nestlé Family. If you remember, I've hosted two very popular giveaways in the past. They recently contacted me and offered me the opportunity to give back to my readers in the name of Back to School!

Nestlé has partnered with Reading is Fundamental to offer this giveaway. In addition to the giveaway I'm offering to you, my readers, I wanted to let you know that Nestlé Family, in partnership with RIF, is sending me $50 worth of books to donated to a local RIF school of my choice. How cool is that?? I love it when companies give back to the community!!

Now, moving on the the giveaway. You actually have two opportunities to win. Before I get to the giveaway here at The Daily Dribbles, let me tell you about the HUGE contest going on at Nestlé Family.

Nestlé is hosting the Happy New School Year Sweepstakes! This is an awesome contest. You have the chance to win $5,000 worth of back-to-school essentials plus a $2,000 Nestlé Literacy Grant for your school, as well as daily prizes from Crayola. Click HERE to enter the Happy New School Year Sweepstakes. *The sweepstakes ends October 15, 2010.

And now for the prize you can win here at The Daily Dribbles! The giveaway includes :

A $25 gift card to Walmart to help with school supplies

A Nesquik® lunch box

Products from Raisinets®

A mix of free coupons from Nestlé® Pure Life, Ovaltine®, Toll House®Refrigerated Cookie Dough, Toll House® Morsels, Nesquik®, Coffee-Mate®, Drumsticks®, and Carnation® Breakfast Essentials™

How to Enter (you must leave an email address with your entry if it is not attached to your profile):

Mandatory Entry: Follow The Daily Dribbles publicly via Google Friend Connect and tell me you are.

Additional Entries (one entry each, leave a separate comment for each entry please!):

- Follow me on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your Twitter name

- Tweet this contest (One tweet per day, please leave a comment for each tweet)

- Like me on Facebook (widget is in my sidebar)

- Post my button on your blog

- Blog about this contest (please leave me a link)

Contest ends Monday, September 13th at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org and notified via e-mail. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize. Contest open to US residents only.

Disclosure: Nestle is providing me with product samples as part of this contest. All opinions expressed are 100% mine and mine alone.

Week in Review: 9/4/10

2010-09-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Saturday!! I am so thankful for the long weekend!! I really need it.

I've been exhausted this week. It seemed like we had something going on every single day/evening, and we never really relaxed until bed time.

Last week I thought I was getting Buster's cold, but it passed as soon as it came, so I'm not sure if it was a cold or allergies. Yesterday, I woke up exhausted, with a headache and sore throat. It was a struggle to make it through the day. I'm hoping that whatever this is, is short-lived.

Buddy spent all week with a friend of his. He had a blast not going to daycare this week.

We had Kindergarten orientation on Wednesday night and met his teacher. She seems very nice. I was surprised to find out that she did indeed work at the same school last year, however, she got married over the summer, so her name changed. She's young, but obviously not a brand new teacher. It will be a different experience for Buddy this year, as his teacher from last year was seasoned, and actually, retired at the end of the year.

As of Wednesday, Buddy has 26 kids in his class. The week prior, there were 20 kids in his class and 19 in the other Kindergarten class at his school. I guess there were hoards of parents signing up kids for school this past week. I have no idea where they're all coming from!

We bought booster seats for Buddy last weekend. He's so excited to be a "big kid." We traded in Buster's old car seats to get 25% off the booster seats and moved Buster into Buddy's old car seats. It worked out great, and getting 25% off was a bonus! Oh, and Buster loves his "big boy" car seat too.

Oh, BIG news!! Jdaddy and I purchased the Droid X phones for us this week!! They aren't in stock anywhere, so we are supposed to receive them on 14th! I can't wait!! As luck would have it, as soon as we ordered them, my phone started behaving...like all week long. I started to second-guess our purchase until yesterday, when it refused to work again.

We don't have a whole lot planned for this long weekend. We do have some friends coming over this evening though. I'm hoping to catch up on some rest and hopefully kick whatever bug/allergies I have to the curb!

Oh, and last little tidbit. Please make sure to come back on Monday, even though it's a holiday! I have a giveaway I'll be posting. It's similar to a popular giveaway in the past, so you don't want to miss it!

LOI: Dear Truck

2010-09-03T08:01:00.001-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Truck,

I find it amazing that you can continually fail while I'm driving you, yet your "maker" had you for 2 full weeks and could never reproduce what happens to me almost daily. And even more mind boggling is the fact that, less than 24 hours after getting you back from your "maker", you went ahead and pulled your infamous tricks again.

And yesterday, when the engineer working on you actually paid me a visit at work so we could take a drive and you didn't pull your tricks?? Well, that was just dirty pool!! You're making me look crazy. People now think that I possess some sort of super magnetic force field/energy that causes you to only freak out when I'm driving you.

You and I both know that's not true.

This time though, I might be the one with the last laugh. When you freaked out on me the other day, there was equipment attached to you. Equipment that will hopefully tell us what it is that you are doing, and lead us to finally fix you once and for all.

In any case, please, please please give me a break already.

- FRUSTRATED

TYVM: 9/2/10

2010-09-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To Neutrogena, who has so kindly discontinued the facial cleanser I just got used to using, thank you very much! Seriously. It must be a conspiracy. This is the second facial cleanser I've used that has been discontinued (in addition to everything else I complained about recently that has been discontinued)!

- Thank you very much to our neighbors, who have installed a hideous wood fence right next to their house, ON the property line. Doing so, has left a skinny area between their fence and our house, essentially creating a bowling alley that looks like crap.

- A huge thank you very much to the crappy economy and even crappier housing market that ensures we will NEVER be able to move away from crappy neighbors. Crappy, crap, crap.

-To my coworker, thank you very much for having a large candy jar filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups sitting about 15 feet away from me. I have no willpower.

>- To whomever it was that kept farting during kindergarten orientation, thank you very much! Sitting in a hot, crowded gym was miserable enough without your odiferous contributions.

- And finally, to Buddy's school, thank you very much for scheduling all the PTA meetings for 3:15 on a weekday. Way to make it impossible for working parents to get involved.

Alright, now it's your turn! What's happened this week that has left you anxious to thank someone/something? Leave me some thank you's in the comments or link 'em up!

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink, which takes us right to your TYVM post.

Wordful Wednesday: 9/1/10

2010-09-01T07:00:00.003-04:00

A pic of Buddy when he was 3 1/2 years old.

I recently signed into my MySpace account to look at my old blog. I found this post from approximately the same time frame as the picture was taken.

* * * * *

Buddy has been cracking me up lately with the things he says. Some of my recent favorites:

- (looking at a gibbous moon) "Mom. Look at the moon. Someone broke it!"

- "My pants are sticking down!" (after he got really upset I realized he meant they were falling down.)

- "This is my dammit train"

"Buddy, don't say that word. It’s a bad word"

"What word? Dammit train? This is my dammit train. Mom, this is my dammit train!"

- (After Grandma asked him where Grandpa was), "Grandpa’s outside dealing with the damn dogs."

- And my favorite (I was nursing Buster the day he was born when Buddy came to see me): "Mom, what’s he doing? Baby! Stop eating mama!!!!"

10 Things to Smile About: August

2010-08-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm linking up with Emmy over at Emmy Mom - One Day at a Time for her 10 Things to Smile About. According to her, 10 Things to Smile About is "my and your chance to look back at the month and find the good things, the funny things, the things that just make you smile. Life often is hard and it is easy for those little things to go unappreciated, so now is your chance to remember."

What a fabulous idea!

1. Buddy turning six. He's growing up so fast, and it makes me both sad and so proud of him

2. Newborn babies and their grunts and squeaks and sighs

3. Parents (both sets) celebrating long-term wedding anniversaries

4. Promotions

5. 2 year old sons that refer to me as Kristi instead of Mama because they're teasing

6. 2 year olds that know how to tease

7. Boys that say inappropriate things at the doctor's office

8. Back to school shopping

9. Finding, at the last minute, some kick arse shoes for back to school

10. Memories that will last a lifetime

Monday Minute: 8/30/10

2010-08-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm linking up for another Monday Minute, hosted by Melissa from Day to Day Living and Heather from In the Land of Crazy. Also, co-hosting this week is Jessica from Stilettos & a Fishing Pole.

Who was your high school Sweet Heart?

I actually posted about him last week (HERE). We started dating our senior year of high school and dated into our junior year of college. We basically grew apart. From what I understand, he's happily married with a little boy.

What is your favorite vegetable to eat?

I really like vegetables, so it's hard to just pick one. I love green beans (but those are the only beans I'll eat), broccoli, squash, zucchini, and I'll even eat brussel sprouts if they have enough butter and salt on them.

Do you plan on dressing up for Halloween, if yes, what do you have in mind?

I don't think so. We usually go to our neighbor's Halloween costume party each year, but I don't think we're going this year. Last year, the hubs and I went as Drew and Mimi. Pics are HERE.

Are you a reality show junkie? If so, what is your guilty pleasure?

Umm, I like to watch reality TV, but I wouldn't say I'm a junkie. I'll admit this though...I love to watch COPS. I know. That's terrible isn't it??

...and finally

What year did you graduate high school?

1997

Week in Review: 8/28/10

2010-08-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a banner week for our household.

Between Buddy's marathon doctor's appointment and all the issues that came out of that (which you can read about HERE), and then Buster getting sick that same night, I have missed quite a bit of work this week. Thank goodness it was a slower week for me.

Buster is still trying to get over his cold, and he managed to pass it on to me. Gee, thanks! So far, I don't seem to be as bad off as he was/is, so I hope it stays that way!

This week was Buddy's last week at his summer camp/daycare. They are closed next week to prepare for school starting (it's run through the school system). Next week, he'll be hanging out with a good friend of his, as his friend's parents and us have decided to share a baby sitter. It's a win-win for all of us.

We also found out this week who Buddy will have for Kindergarten this year. Both Kindergarten teachers are new, so we don't have any idea about their personalities or teaching styles. Our district changed the Kindergarten program for this year. Instead of doing full-day alternate day Kindergarten, they went to a full day, Monday thru Thursday program, which left them significantly short on Kindergarten teachers. They hired quite a few this year, and from what I understand, because they had so many applications, they hired the best of the best. I hope that's true!

I'm throwing a shameless plug out there for myself. I wrote a post on Wednesday, linking up to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, and I happened to think it was some good writing. However, for whatever reason, that post didn't get much attention. In case you want to read it [In other words: READ IT!! Please.], it's right HERE.

Yesterday, a miracle was performed by yours truly. I finally convinced Jdaddy that we need to upgrade our phones now, versus later. So...we plan to hit the Verizon store on Sunday to check out the new Droids and order (or purchase if they're in stock) our new phones.

Tomorrow we're taking Buddy out for back-to-school shopping. Buster will stay with my parents so we can give Buddy some one-on-one time. We're all looking forward to it.

Well, that's it. Another week of 2010 gone. Do you realize we only have 17 weeks until Christmas???

To Me, This is Summer

2010-08-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm entering Dumb Mom's "End of Summer Photo Contest for Awesome Pictures That Are So NOT dumb" Photo Contest.

Following the rules, I'm allowed to enter up to FIVE photos. You'll notice I am entering four, because I just couldn't choose.

Up first, Buddy on the beach in Cancun at the age of 2.5. So much attitude.

Second, here is Buster rocking our blow up pool. Such an innocent little face.

Third, here are my boys being themselves this summer, again, rocking the blow up pool. Blow up pool = summer. RIGHT???

And finally, this next picture may not scream summer to you, but it's an old building, on the ocean in San Diego. And water/beach = summer in my mind. (look at that whale on top!!)

Dryel Starter Kit: A Review

2010-08-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was complaining to Jdaddy about how I hate dealing with dry cleaning. My clothes don't necessarily have to be dry cleaned, unlike some of his clothes, but washing and hanging them to dry and then ironing them isn't on the top of my list either.

Then, like magic, I was given the opportunity to review the Dryel® Starter Kit. Talk about perfect timing!!

Dryel® and oneCARE sent me the Dryel® Starter Kit to try out.

Dryel is a convenient at-home Dry Cleaning system that safely steams and cleans soils, stains, and odors while removing wrinkles and saving considerable time and money. In fact, Dryel cleans 10 garments for the cost of one dry cleaned garment, and it works great on all your clothes...everything from sweaters, blouses, and blazers to dresses, slacks, and vests.

Using Dryel is super easy too! Money-saving and easy? That's right up my alley!

I've used other Dry Cleaning systems in the past and disliked the scent of the cleaner, so I was a bit skeptical about Dryel. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The Dryel® Starter Kit comes in a Clean Breeze scent, which is nice and light, and actually smells good.

I tried Dryel out on a suit (jacket and pants included), a sweater, and another pair of pants. I had a small food stain on a pair of my pants, so I used the Dryel On The Go™ instant stain remover pen on the pants before throwing it all into the dryer. After 30 minutes, I took out my clothes and hung them up to help the wrinkles fall out. They were perfect! They smelled great and the stain was gone from my pants. Laundry done in thirty minutes? Now that is awesome!

The Dryel Starter Kit includes 2 ultra-concentrated cleaning cloths that will care for 2 dryer loads (up to four garments in each load for a total of 8 garments). Each kit also includes:

- Dryel On The Go™ Instant Stain Remover Pen

- 2X ULTRA Concentrated Refill Cloths

- Re-usable Fabric Protection Bag (designed to last up to 50 loads)

- An instructional pamphlet including coupons

Get your own Dryel® Starter Kit!

Beginning in late August, Walmart customers will be given the chance to try the Dryel Starter Kit and refill packages for free via rebate, so keep your eye open for that in your local Walmart!

Disclosure: This is a Mama Buzz review. The product reviewed was provided by Dryel® and oneCARE. All opinions are my own.

Dryel On the Go & 3-In-1 Touch Up Spray: A Review

2010-08-27T00:01:00.000-04:00

When I was provided with the opportunity with products that could help make my laundry chore easier, I jumped at the chance!

Dryel® and oneCARE sent me two products to try.

First, the Dryel On The Go™ instant stain remover pen. How handy is this? If I'm anything, it's clumsy, and I often spill food on myself. What? I take after my mother! Thanks for passing that lovely trait down to me mom! The Dryel On the Go™ instant stain remover pen helps remove fresh stains, and it's even safe on dry clean only clothes, delicates, and hand-washables such as wools, silks, rayons, linens, cottons, and other special care fabrics.

I was able to test that bad boy out the same day I received it, having spilled some spaghetti sauce on my pants. It worked like a charm!! I now keep it in my purse so I can whip it out whenever I need it.

Next, I tried the Dryel 3-IN-1 Touch Up Spray™. It's specially formulated to safely care for your everyday and dry clean clothes. It's used to extend the time between cleanings. Something to make my life easier? Oh yeah!! The Dryel 3-IN-1 Touch Up Spray™ is like a fabric refresher and a wrinkle remover in one. I simply had to spray a light mist on my fabric, then use my hands to smooth away the wrinkles. After that, you either place it in the dryer for a few minutes or hang it up to dry.

The Dryel 3-IN-1 Touch Up Spray™ is awesome. I don't know about you, but I hate to iron clothes, especially my boys' clothes. Being able to just spray them quickly and let them air dry for a few minutes is such a blessing! And the scent is nice and fresh. As much as I love to eat out (boy do I love to eat out!), I hate coming home smelling like a restaurant. The touch up spray worked fabulously to eliminate the restaurant odors and leave my clothes smelling fresh!

Dryel® has become a household staple as far as I'm concerned!

Disclosure: This is a Mama Buzz review. The products were provided by Dryel® and oneCARE. All opinions are my own.

TYVM: 8/26/10

2010-08-25T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To Buster, thank you very much for yelling out not once, but TWICE, "Mama. He's has boogers!" while pointing at the poor kid while we were in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

- Thank you very much to Buddy, who upon inspection of his "manly bits" by the pediatrician, loudly proclaimed, "I do that to myself sometimes too." and continued to carry on even after I told him to zip it. While Dr. D got a kick out of it, it thoroughly embarrassed me!

- Once again, to my POS BlackBerry, thank you very much! Having to pull the battery or do the "alt-shift-delete" to restart it once is too much, let alone three times in one day. Why can't I grow a money tree???

- Thank you very much to everything and everyone in my house that conspired against me and ensured that I would get no more than one hour of sleep at a time on Tuesday night. Sportin' bags under my eyes is not a good look for me.

- To my internal thermostat, thank you very much for not working. Being freezing one second and hot the next (over and over again) throughout the day and night is not cool. Not cool at all.

Alright, now it's your turn! What's happened this week that has left you anxious to thank someone/something? Leave me some thank you's in the comments or link 'em up!

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink, which takes us right to your TYVM post.

Holding On to Nothing

2010-08-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

I was holding on tight but...

But it was over. It had been over for a long time. A very long time.

I wasn't ready to let go yet. I wasn't ready to say goodbye. He was my first love. My first real boyfriend. My best friend. And as pathetic as it seems to me now, my life. Everything I did, or didn't do, for the past 3 years revolved around him. My friends? Were his friends. My hobbies? Were his hobbies.

Perhaps I was scared. Perhaps. But I think it was more that to end the relationship meant, in my 21 year old eyes, that I had failed. And failure just wasn't an option.

So I hung on. I hung on for dear life. I couldn't fail. I loved him! Why was it so hard? How could I love him so much, yet not love myself enough to allow me to be happy?

One night, on our way home from congratulating our friends on getting engaged, he turned and said to me, "When...I mean if. If I ever propose to you..." And quite honestly? I don't know what came next because I was hung up on that two-lettered word, uttered with such disregard for me and my feelings, that I couldn't think about anything else.

You'd think that would be all it took for me to say goodbye, right? But alas, no.

It was a few weeks later, when I received an email from him that said "We need to talk. I'll call you tonight." Right then and there, I knew it was over. I didn't wait until that night. I picked up the phone and made the call I had been dreading, but knew was inevitable.

The call was brief. We both cried. We both agreed it was time. We both promised to stay friends. And then we hung up. I cried. It was a big ugly cry.

After I composed myself, I felt sadness...but also, a strange sense of relief.

He had been brave enough to do what should have been done a long time ago. He, as much as I blamed him for all of our issues, had freed me from what was certain to become a life of unhappiness and disappointment. And so for that, I thank him.

In the end, I was holding on tight....

to nothing.

This post inspired by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, prompt #2, "I was holding on tight but..."

Not Just Your Normal "Check-up"

2010-08-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I took Buddy in for his 6 year check-up. The appointment was at 8:30. I assumed it would be a quick in-and-out appointment, and told my employer I should be in before 10.

You know what they say about assuming right???

Yeah, I made an ass out of myself.

I came strolling into work at 11:45. Awesome.

The appointment started out with the nurse taking his pulse two times. And confirming it was low. It was at 70 beats per minute. Last year, it was at 120. Hmm, weird.

Then we moved on to the hearing test, which he failed three times. After examination, he has so much wax build-up in his ears, that it's impeding his hearing. The doctor said, "He has enough wax in there for the whole office." Awesome. The doctor attempted to irrigate his ear to flush it out, but it wasn't working. I have some home treatments I need to try to get that figured out.

After that, I spoke to the doctor about Buddy's right ankle. For whatever reason, it turns outward when he skates. It's not normal. For that, we got the name of an orthopedic doctor. He has an appointment on October 15. This will be the second time he's seeing an orthopedic doctor. He saw one shortly before he turned 2, because he always walked on his toes and we have a slight case of cerebral palsy in my immediate family. Just another thing to worry about.

The next thing the doctor did was to check Buddy's "manly bits". Upon inspection of his scrotum, he noted that it felt "veiny", and that was "not good." Since our pediatrician is in a medical building, he had the urologist from down the hall come and take a look. It turns out that it wasn't veiny, but that he has a hydrocele, which is basically a fluid filled sac alongside his testicle. 10% of male babies are born with this, but most spontaneously resolve by their 1st birthday. Because we are just noticing this now, it either has gotten bigger, or it's new. We have a follow-up in 3 months to check it out. If it gets smaller, we can probably leave it alone and just practice watchful waiting...but if it gets larger or stays the same, he may be looking at surgery to remove it. I don't even want to think about that.

And finally, someone screwed up and he got his 2nd Hep A shot too soon, so even though I told him he didn't need a shot at this appointment, he had to get a shot. He CRIED like a baby for about five minutes before settling down. After he was finally calm, he got the shot and didn't even flinch.

So much was going on, and we had been in there for so long (not to mention the boys making a few TYVM-worthy statements that thoroughly embarrassed me), that I forgot to ask about the low heart rate. Figures.

As soon as I pulled into daycare to drop Buddy off after the huge ordeal, I realized I left his lunch at home, so we had to run home and get it.

And the icing on the cake today? I picked Buster up from daycare and he felt warm and had glassy eyes. The kid had a 101.5 fever. Awesome.

Monday Minute: 8/23/10

2010-08-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm linking up for another Monday Minute. Only, Melissa from Day to Day Living and Heather from In the Land of Crazy have taken over the Monday Minute duties. Also, cohosting this week is Not Your Average Single Momma.

What is your favorite 80s flick?

That's easy! The Breakfast Club for sure.

"Eat...My...Shorts."

One genre of music needs to be banned. Which genre?

R&B. It's all just a bunch of whining and I can't stand it.

What is your all time favorite candy?

Gummy sour patch kids. I CRAVED it when pregnant with both of my boys and would buy it in bulk from the grocery store.

How 'flawed' is your driving record?

I think I have one accident on my record...but other than that, not bad at all. Only 2 tickets in my life.

What was your high school mascot?

Well, I went to school in a town called "Caledonia." Caledonia means "little Scotland", so we were the "Fighting Scots." I just went to my high school website and learned that they updated the mascot. I am seriously embarrassed.

and finally...

What color socks are you wearing?

Tan/khaki...nothing exciting.

Week in Review: 8/21/10

2010-08-20T13:57:00.004-04:00

So here we are, more than half way through August already. Next week is Buddy's last week of summer camp (daycare) and then we have to find somewhere for him to go the week before school starts.

We made Buddy repeating Kindergarten official. I informed both the administrative office, as well as his school, that he will not be moving to 1st grade. My heart hurt a little for him as I made those calls, but I really think we made the right decision. Buddy doesn't seem to be "fighting" us about it as much either.

My truck went back to the manufacturer on Monday. They are driving it around with equipment attached to it so that they can try and figure out what in the world is wrong with it. I'm driving Jdaddy's car...again. *sigh*

Buster has been cracking me up with the things he says lately. Between telling me that his eye is broken and that he doesn't like my new haircut, he also says things like, "Mama? Buddy play soccer in da house. That's not a good choice." Apparently they are working on making good choices at daycare.

Thursday night, some severe weather rolled through. We didn't get much, but there were a lot of downed power lines and trees. My father-in-law called and said that a house in his neighborhood was struck by lightning and was on fire. How scary!

Yesterday I was in a foul mood. I haven't been sleeping well and I think it just caught up with me. I woke up wanting to stay in bed with my laptop and just watch TV and nap. But of course, I had to go to work. I love my job, I really do. But I'm working on some not-so-exciting things right now, and with my lack of motivation, it's just a recipe for very long days.

However, my mood significantly improved after getting some Chinese take-out for lunch. It is soooo sad that food can turn my bad day into a good day. No wonder I'm overweight!

Last night I got together with a friend and we went out to dinner and then rented It's Complicated, with Merryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. It was a cute movie and a nice way to unwind after the long week.

It's supposed to rain all day today, but if it clears up, we may head out to the festival in town. I didn't get to people watch at the carnival earlier this week, but the festival portion may make up for that!

Have a good weekend!

LOI: 8/20/10

2010-08-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Friends,

I only had five (well, six, but one wasn't real) link-ups for TYVM yesterday. Has it maybe worn out it's welcome? I'm happy to continue hosting it (easy Thursday post for me!), but if it's time to move on...I get that too.

- Wondering

********************

Dear Motivation,

Hell-oh-oh? Hello? Anyone home?

I didn't think so.

- Lacking

********************

Dear Mother Nature,

There is no way on God's green Earth that you were a mother. No mother would ever make it so that thunderstorms only occurred in the middle of the night, which is, for many mother's, the only time they get some peace and quiet all day long.

- Seriously doubting your name

********************

Dear Buster,

Between you and your brother, I've heard some really good reasons for why you are sleeping. But "my eye is broken" is perhaps the best (craziest?) one so far.

- Mom says GO TO SLEEP

TYVM: 8/19/10

2010-08-18T22:00:00.001-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

-Thank you very much to whatever it was that caused me to wake up choking and gasping for air the other night. There's nothing quite like that kind of wake-up. Of course, then it took me forever to fall back asleep.

- As I mentioned late last week, another HUGE thank you very much to my truck which liked to pretend that it was fixed for a whole week before it started acting up again. I'm now back to driving Jdaddy's car, and I want my truck back!

- Thank you very much to whatever is wrong with my BlackBerry/Facebook connection which makes it impossible to upload pictures to Facebook from my Blackberry. Grr. Jdaddy...it's time for my Droid X!

- To the new bike route I took the other night that somehow was uphill both ways, thank you very much! I know I'm out of shape, but I swear it was uphill BOTH ways and I'm not just exaggerating ~~much~~.

- To everyone (hubs and kids) that decided to go to the carnival without me because I had a hair appointment, thank you very much! I couldn't care less about the rides, but man, that one event is the BEST people watching event of the year! And I missed it.

- And, last but not least, a nice big thank you very much to Buster, who upon seeing me with my new haircut said, "What you do?" And then later, "I don't like haircut Mama." Nice!! Nothing like your child's honesty to ground you.

This isn't a great picture, but it'll have to do for now:

Alright, now it's your turn! What's happened this week that has left you anxious to thank someone/something? Leave me some thank you's in the comments or link 'em up!

Please, please, PLEASE don't link up unless you are participating in Thank You Very Much in one form or another. I don't want to have to delete your link. Also, please link up using the permalink, which takes us right to your TYVM post.

A Little Healthy Competition

2010-08-18T07:00:00.001-04:00

As the youngest of 4 kids, and the only girl, I'd have to say I ended up being pretty competitive. I mean, in order to be heard or to eat, I had to compete with my loud, rambunctious brothers. So yeah, I'm competitive.

You know who's also competitive? Jdaddy. Two competitive people in a relationship can either be a recipe for disaster, or extremely comical. In most instances, it is comical. For example, we aren't allowed to play Yahtzee in the house anymore, because I always win, says Jdaddy. Bitter much?

Want another example? Umm, the first time Jdaddy and I went golfing (actually, I think it's been the only time we've golfed together), I quit after the 7th hole because I was golfing terribly and I was over it. This pissed Jdaddy off. He was incredulous that I would just quit and not keep going. I effectively ruined the game for him. Whatever.

One more example, because this is fun...at least for me. On our honeymoon in Jamaica, we played ping pong. A fun game, right? I mean, who can get upset at ping pong?

Apparently Jdaddy.

You see, I miraculously was able to, time and time again, hit the ball so that it just barely hit the edge of the table, making it impossible for Jdaddy to return. So time and time again, I won. (YAY! Go me!!). This pissed Jdaddy off, and each time I did it, he got more and more angry. Me? Oh, I just laughed harder and harder. It was great fun. Seriously.

So remember I said that two competitive people in a relationship could be a recipe for disaster? It can, and has. Enter our first born, Buddy. The most competitive child in the universe.

At first, it was awesome. We could get Buddy to do things without a fight. Something like, "Last one upstairs for bed is a rotten egg", could get him up those stairs much faster than any coaxing ever could. And things like, "I bet you can't run and get me my shoes from upstairs before I count to 10" always comes in handy.

But the disaster part? That occurs when Buddy can't get his car seat buckled before I get Buster buckled in, or when we are all headed home in separate cars and whoever has Buddy doesn't make it home first. I can't forget about any game that is played. Buddy MUST win, or he will dissolve into little angry snarling bits of meanness. In those instances, competition sucks.

In the interest of sparing him from a life filled with disappointment, we are working on this with him. Constantly reinforcing that not everything in life is a race. That he can only win sometimes, and he has to work hard to win...and even then, he may not ever win. We tell him not everyone can win...and winning isn't everything. It's more about how you play the game that determines the true winner.

I thought we might be making progress.

I thought wrong.

The entire time he and I were racing go-karts at his birthday party, I kept reminding him (as we lapped his friend and his friend's mom) that winning isn't everything, and that he was not to say anything about winning, because it's not nice. We weren't racing. It was just for fun.

As soon as we exited the go-karts? Buddy proclaims loudly, "WE WON!!!! WE WON!!! We were the fastest!", with fist-pumps galore.

What I said, through gritted teeth, "Shh! I told you that's not very nice."

What I said in my head, *fist pump* *fist pump* "Hell yeah! We won!"

What?!?! It's just a little healthy competition.

PINT: 8/17/10

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling random, so I decided to link up with SupahMommy for Post it Note Tuesday.

How's that for random???

Buddy's Bodacious Birthday

2010-08-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

The weekend was all things birthday. I.am.exhausted. But, we had a great time. And my first born is now six years old. I don't know how that happened, but it did. It seems like just yesterday I was lying in the hospital bed for 45 hours (yes, I did say 45 hours!!) trying to birth him. You can read all about that here and here.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures, and as promised, Buddy's 6 year Photo Show at the end.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Week in Review: 8/14/10

2010-08-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Saturday!

Last weekend, we were super busy. We tailgated in style outside of Comerica Park, where the Detroit Tiger's play. Here's a picture (sorry for the picture detail...it's from my BlackBerry) of how we were set up. On the other side of my POSSESSED truck (yes, again!!!!), we played Bagg-o, which is like bean bag toss.

We had a great time tailgating, however, the game was a bust. The Tigers were down 10 to 1 in the sixth inning, so we left. We walked over to the casino and played for a bit. A young kid next to me wanted to know why his machine was "broken", however, it wasn't. He had just won $3,000. I wanted to be angry that he won and I didn't, because he was so happy. It was so awesome to see someone get that excited.

Jdaddy and I quickly realized we didn't feel like gambling, even though I won a little bit of money, so we found a place to sit and people watch. Man, that was the best part of the day!! I laughed so hard.

Sunday, we visited family friends and their new baby, who was just a week old. It was so nice to hold a newborn again!!

On Monday, my BFF texted me to say that her water had broke early that morning and she was at the hospital. I was completely shocked because she wasn't due for another 3.5 weeks!! Baby boy was born Monday evening and was perfectly healthy. I went to visit them on Tuesday and got to love on him and take some pictures. He's absolutely adorable!!

This week has been filled with preparations for Buddy's two birthday parties this weekend. Today is his friend's party and tomorrow is a family party. I can't believe my baby will be 6 tomorrow!

As I mentioned above, my truck is apparently not fixed. I found a door lock issue this morning, and when that happens, it usually means everything else will happen. Apparently, turning a corner while I was out during my lunch was too much for it and the radio decided to turn off again. *sigh* This is getting really, really old.

In other news, Jdaddy has guilted me into working out and eating better along with him, so I'm doing it. I'm not happy (at all), but I'm doing it. Don't be surprised if I start whining here on my blog or via twitter.

That's about it. I'll have some pictures from the birthday parties to share next week. Have a great weekend!

LOI: Dear Bloggy Friends

2010-08-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Bloggy Friends,
I have a conundrum. Conundrum. Don't you just love that word?? I know I do.

Anydork, I have a conundrum. I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored next week and I'm debating between continuing to grow it out and cutting it shorter again, back to my normal in-between-my-chin-and-shoulder length.

Here are two pictures. The first being the length I normally keep it at, and the second being where it is now (please excuse the poor quality of the photo...I took it with my phone). P.S. I'm not sure why the first picture is so small, but I'm too tired and annoyed to do anything about it.

Right now, it's just past my shoulders and my goal was to grow it out about another three inches. But I need opinions. And Jdaddy is no help. He says that he likes my hair in whatever way makes me happy. Blech.

What do you think? Shorter? Longer? Keep it where it is? Oh, and my hair is naturally curly, so this is how I wear it all the time...or in a pony tail when it's driving me nuts.

Thanks,
Undecided Kmama

********************

Dear Murphy's Law,

Yeah, YOU! Thank you so much for ensuring that whatever product I decide to like will, sooner rather than later, be discontinued. Within the past year, not one, but TWO razors and blades that I liked have been discontinued. Add to that, my Dove facial care products, and now, most recently, the shower soap that I use. COME ON! Give a girl a break.

Sincerely,
Murphy's Law's favorite victim

********************

Dear Stupid Photo Story Program,

WHY NOW? Why do you decide now, 2 days before Buddy's birthday, to not work?? I now have no way to create his photo story and save it to a DVD without paying. GRR. Don't you know I'm already stressed out trying to prepare for two parties this weekend?

Signed,

Stressed out Mama

TYVM: 8/12/10

2010-08-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- A big thank you very much to the pain pills which appear to work well enough to make my dog *want* to run around, and thus, her leg has not healed and we pretty sure we need to do surgery for her before her other ACL tears.

- To my dog who only likes the *chewy* bits of food in her reformulated dog food and now spits out the hard pieces on the floor, thank you very much! I have enough stuff to do around the house without having to pick up kibbles of your food.

- To MckMama, my BFF, and another family friend for all having newborns within a week of each other, thank you very much! Nothing like seeing pictures of and holding newborns to kick that ache for another baby into high gear.

- My truck is finally fixed. They replaced the door module, which appeared to have been the cause all along. That said, thank you very much to having to replace the door module. Even though my seat setting was saved, it was saved in the door module and was reset when the new one was put in. I can not get comfortable in my seat now.

- To the guy who was not paying attention yesterday while driving? Thank you very much for almost causing me to rear end you as you slammed on your brakes...unfortunately too late for you as you rammed into the car in front of you. A sincere thank goodness that I *was* paying attention.

So there you have it. What are you thankful for this week? Link 'em up or leave me some in the comments. Everyone can use some free therapy, right??

How Time Flies

2010-08-11T07:00:00.002-04:00

Time flying seems to be the theme this week over here at The Daily Dribbles. With Buddy turning 6 this Sunday, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

Every birthday, I put together a photo show for the boys to capture their year. As I was working on Buddy's tonight, I decided to view the first show I ever created for him. After I was done crying (dang! why do they grow up so fast??), I decided it would be a good one to share. His up-to-date photo show will be shared next week.

I'm also linking this up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, which is usually on Thursdays, but since I have my own meme on Thursday, I never get to play along.

The prompt I chose was:

3.) The most unbelievable blue eyes you’ve ever seen…

Buddy, by far, has the most amazing blue eyes. Buster's eyes are beautiful as well, but Buddy's are indescribable.

It's long, so thanks if you decide to view it all. (and just pretend you don't see my belly in the first few seconds, kay?)

**I just noticed that it downloaded in a loop, so it's really not 13 mins long...more like 6.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Big Dreams

2010-08-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

The other night, I was playing around with Buddy and he was standing in front of me and put his hands in mine, interlacing our fingers.

At that moment, I realized just how small, and how fragile his little hand feels. It felt odd to hold his hand in mine, knowing that at any instant, I could squeeze and crush his hand. But yet, he trusted me to continue playing with him, to continue the joy.

When the days drag long and my patience wears thin, I often forget how much those little hands depend on me and how much they trust me to take care of him and protect him.

Feeling Buddy's hands in mine took me back to when I was little and would place my hands in my own parent's hands. I enjoyed feeling the enormity of their hands wrapped around mine. It was safe and comfortable. I trusted them. I knew those hands would take care of me.

I have big dreams for Buddy's little hands. I know that someday, they will be larger than mine. Some day, they will be rough and callused, like his daddy's. The calluses and scars representing years of fun and hard work.

I love those little hands.

A handprint left for me on a freshly cleaned mirror

Monday Minute: 8/9/10

2010-08-09T08:02:00.000-04:00

It's time for another Monday Minute, with Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality. This week's cohost is Kendra from Baby Bits.

- What was your "oh no, I'm turning into my Mom/Dad" moment?

Umm, probably when we were in San Diego and my friend's mom saw me for the first time in years and said, "You look JUST like your mom!". Oh gee, thanks. (Just kidding Mom!)

Umm, honestly? It was a couple months ago when the boys were fighting and I picked one up and put him on the couch. I picked the other one up and put him on the chair. I looked at both of them and said, "Now you sit there and be quiet. No talking, no yelling, no crying, and don't you even think about looking at each other!" My mom always did that with my brothers. For the record, it works.

- What current commercial do you find the most annoying/funny?

Most annoying definitely goes to the Quizno's commercials. Seriously. They have a bad track record with commercials. Remember those singing rats or whatever they were from years ago?

I couldn't think of anything for funniest current commercial, so I'm going to list a few that I found funny in the recent past: The Betty White snickers/football commercial from the Super Bowl; The E*Trade baby commercials; The McDonald's singing fish "Give me back my filet-o-fish, give me back my fish." I know. Lame.

- If you could only eat one color food for the rest of your life what would it be?

I thought long and hard about this one. Beige. Beige would include pasta, bread, and cheese (some cheeses at least). Those are my favorite foods.

- What is your current Facebook/Myspace/Twitter status?

Facebook: The Detroit Tigers suck tonight, so we are off to the casino. Maybe I can win enough to pay for my dogs ACL surgery. #wishfulthinking

Twitter: So the young guy at the slot machine next to me wanted to know why his machine was "broken". It wasn't. He won $3000. He almost walked away.

- F, Marry, Kill from this list below. Women pick from the men, men pick from the women.

* Snookie (from Jersey Shore), Ellen DeGeneres, Betty White
* Regis Philbin, Justin Bieber, Perez Hilton

I knew Ian was going to do this type of question in the coming weeks, so I was kind of dreading it. But seeing the people in this list, I got this one!

F: Justin Bieber. Not that I'm into that kind of ~~kid~~ guy, but that would be my chance to be a cougar. RAWR

Marry: Regis Philbin. And that is my final answer! He can't have too many years left right?? I mean, who doesn't Want to be a Millionaire?

Kill: Perez Hilton. I don't think this needs an explanation, do you?

Week in Review: 8/7/10

2010-08-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

In one week and one day, my Buddy boy will be 6 years old. SIX years old. I can't believe. It seems like just yesterday I was both anxious and cranky about his impending arrival. My best friend is preparing for the birth of her baby, due in just weeks, so I feel almost like I'm reliving history what with her nesting, baby showers, and sleepless nights.

Buddy didn't lose any more teeth this week (thank goodness!). However, his new permanent teeth are already starting to make their way in. It seems like overnight, one of his front teeth has made an appearance in a big way. It's crazy how quickly they can grow in. I'm not ready for him to look like such a big boy.

Buster is making strides in his potty training this week. He had been going half days at daycare without any accidents. I have to keep reminding myself about how well things are going...especially when I was scrubbing poop out of his undies the other night. Blech. His little potty chair, which he never really used, now has a home in our family room just in case we have an emergency and can't make it to the toilet.

The boys (knocking hard on some wood right now) have been getting along much better lately. Actually, since we've been back from our vacation. Don't get me wrong, they still argue and push and scream at one another, but they've brought that down a few notches and I'm so grateful.

The other night, Buddy was playing a video game and something happened and he said, "What the!" and Buster finished up with "heck!" without missing a beat. It was so cute and funny at the same time.

School starts on September 7th for us. That means we need to start school shopping pretty soon. Buddy grew some over the summer, so he's in need of some clothes. We are still trying to get him to accept the fact that he'll be doing Kindergarten again this year. Our plan is to take him out to lunch (just Jdaddy, Buddy, and myself) and explain to him that it's not up for discussion and he is doing Kindergarten again. To soften the blow (which I'm not really sure will be that much of a blow...I partially think he's fighting us on this because that's just how he is...stubborn), we plan to take him shopping to pick out a new backpack and lunch bag afterward.

Today Jdaddy and I are leaving the boys with my inlaws and we are heading down to Detroit with three other couples. We are going to spend some time downtown and then go to the Tiger's game that evening. If we are all in good shape after that, we may hit the casino.

Have a good weekend!

LOI: 8/6/10

2010-08-06T08:03:00.000-04:00

It's time for another edition of Letters of Intent, courtesy of Foursons.

Dear Contacts,

I cannot stand wearing my glasses for more than a couple of hours at a time, nor can I drive without sunglasses and I don't have prescription sunglasses, so PLEASE, for the love of all that is holy, start cooperating and not killing my eyes. I am tired of blinking every two seconds and having people think there's something wrong with me.

Sincerely,

Sore Eyes

********************

Dear Bloggy Friends,

Thank you so much for all the kind comments you left me on my "Tears for Sheba" post the other day. The comments were so sweet that I teared up over a lot of them.

Much love,

Emotional Me

********************

Dear Designers of Boys Tennis Shoes,

I'm about to start my hunt for new tennis shoes for the boys. Please be kind to me and let me find a pair on the first trip out, rather than making me search high and low for a decent looking pair of shoes. And by decent looking, I do not mean brown, black, or silver tennis shoes. I'd like to find a pair of shoes that match more than one or two outfits.

Regards,

Hater of boys shoe styles

TYVM: 8/5/10

2010-08-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

Image via google images

- Thank you very much to the driver's ed teachers in Michigan. ALL OF THEM. Because apparently it's some sort of entertainment for them to not teach the new drivers how to merge into traffic on the highway. Newsflash. It's NOT funny. It's so not funny.

- To the random few followers that have unfollowed me within the past week, thank you very much! I know, at least for me, my blogging joy doesn't come from the number of followers I have, but for those bloggers that interact with me and leave comments. That said, I sure would LOVE to finally reach 500 followers. Seeing it go up and down by one or two each day is torture!

How's that for random? Now it's your turn. What are you thankful for this week? Leave me some in the comments or feel free to link up!

PYHO: Tears for Sheba

2010-08-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

This week, I'm once again linking up with Shell for Pour Your Heart Out.

Last week, I was lying in bed, watching Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D List on the recommendation of this awesome blogger and this awesome post. All of a sudden, it stopped being funny and turned into sad. At first, I couldn't tell if Kathy was fake crying, or real crying, because it was this really weird, awkward cry. And then I started to understand what was going on. She was crying because her dog was really sick with lymphoma and passed away.

I cried. And not just normal "tears running down your face" crying. I sobbed. I sobbed in a big, ugly way. I sobbed because, right at that moment, I realized that I had missed the anniversary of the death of my dear Sheba, who also suffered from lymphoma. I felt terrible. How could I have forgotten after only a year?

Early in July of last year, the 8th to be exact, we had to put her to sleep. It was seriously one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. It was only a few weeks earlier that she had been diagnosed with lymphoma, so having her go from what we thought was normal to having her be on her death bed was very hard for all of us.

Sheba and Buddy in 2005

Sheba was a rottweiler/pitbull mix. She was a big, intimidating dog, but she was also the sweetest dog ever. I know what people think about both of those breeds, but honestly, Sheba thought of herself as a lap dog, and never, ever, EVER showed a violent side toward a human being. A pat on the head and a scratch of her hind quarters was all it took to make her happy. Of course, food and treats helped.

July 7, 2009

Everyone in the family continues to miss Sheba.

July 7, 2009

To add to it, on Tuesday we learned that our other dog, Zoey (the idiot super dog) has partially torn the ACL in her right knee. For now, we are going to try two weeks of pain meds to hopefully get her to relax enough to let the tear heal a bit. If that doesn't work, we are looking at surgery. A very expensive surgery.

On one hand, it's crazy and somewhat insane to think that we'll be spending over $1,000 to make sure our dog can walk, play, and live in comfort. A dog. But on the other hand, that dog has brought us so much joy and entertainment. That dog is part of our family. And if any amount of money would have saved my Sheba, I would have paid it.

Zoey and Sheba, Christmas 2006

*Please excuse the various sized photos. They were obviously taken throughout the years.

Hippos and Gas

2010-08-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

I've recently tried the deliciousness that is the fiber bar.

Seriously, those things are scrumptious. Beyond scrumptious. They are scrumdiddlyumptious. And even better? They fill me up and curb my hunger. No longer am I craving a mid-afternoon snack. It's awesome.

Not so awesome? The side effects. Holy effing moly. Have you had a fiber bar before? And don't say maybe, because you would know if you had a fiber bar.

In fact, the new fiber bars that I bought come with this handy dandy little label on it:

"NEW USERS: Increase your fiber intake gradually. Gastrointestinal discomfort may occur until your body adjusts.”

A warning label of sorts??

I find so many things wrong with this. First of all, "new users"? Since when did eating something make you a user? I feel like maybe I shouldn't be eating something if I'm now labeled as a "user" of the food. What happened to "consumer"? Marketing fail??

Second, any food that comes with some sort of warning label can never be good. Can you name any foods with warning labels that are good? I certainly can't. Remember WOW chips? They contained Olestra and caused all sorts of unpleasant side effects, namely abdominal cramping and loose stools, as the warning label proudly pointed out. Ooh, sign me up. Or not.

And third, I think "gastrointestinal discomfort" is a misnomer. How about we call what it is...

GAS.

The most obnoxious sounding, horrendously LOUD, laugh inducing gas ever. Ever! You will be shocked and confused at the noises your body can make. SHOCKED! I mean seriously, if you want to laugh your abs into shape, eat a fiber bar.

While laughing your abs into shape is a good thing, passing hippopotamus-sized gas at work or in public is not so much of a good thing. However, the fiber bar people of the world claim that things get better as your body adjusts. The jury's still out on that one.

Would you like a fiber bar?

Monday Minute: 8/2/10

2010-08-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Monday Minute is being co-hosted this week by Ian, from The Daily Dose of Reality, and Jenn from Brown Eyed Girl.

- Describe your life in one word.

Good.

- Is there something you wish you had learned how to do as a child?

The only thing I wish that I had done was to take gymnastics lessons. I was pretty lucky in that my parents allowed me try out a lot of things as I grew up.

- Who has been the biggest influence on your life?

I think overall, it would have to be my mom. By example, she's taught me how to be a good mom, a good person, and a hard worker. She taught me it's possible to be a career woman and also be a good mom.

- What is your greatest dream/hope/aspiration?

To serve as a role model for my children. When I look at everything that I could answer this question with, it all boils down to me doing the best I can for my children. Being a good mom, providing for them, helping them, and teaching them. I can say that everything I've ever gone through was worth it if I can make my children proud.

and finally...

-Do you believe you have reached your potential? Why/why not?

Nope, not yet. I will always be striving for more, and to think that I might have already reached all I can be, well, that's just depressing. So no, absolutely not.

Week in Review: 7/31/10

2010-07-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe that tomorrow begins August. Ugh. Where is the time going?? Buster's already asking when it will be his birthday, and I keep saying "not until December", yet that's just right around the corner!!

This week was a little less eventful than last week. There weren't any bee stings or doctor's appointments...thank goodness! However, Buddy did lose TWO teeth in the same day. One on the top and one on the bottom. He is now currently missing 4 teeth, and two of his permanent teeth have come in. It's so weird to see him like that...he looks so much older.

Last weekend, Jdaddy and I had dinner with some friends and then went to a bar for a few drinks. It was a really nice evening.

Because Jdaddy's birthday was this past Wednesday, we ate out for dinner twice this week with our parents. I love eating out. I love having a big menu in front of me, from which I can choose whatever I want. I made Jdaddy a cake for his birthday. I felt like a total failure when I offered Buddy a chocolate covered beater and he wasn't sure what to do with it. I realize that we don't make cakes often because of his allergies, but how could I have failed to teach him the wonderfulness that is "licking the beater"?

My truck is still being looked over. The engineer was on the phone with Jdaddy when the horn honked...ON IT'S OWN! They recognize that there is definitely an electrical problem, but they can't find the source. For now, Jdaddy is enjoying driving around in the manufacturer provided crew cab truck. I'm stuck with his Grand Prix until my truck is fixed. Grr.

This weekend will be pretty laid back. I have my BFF's baby shower tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to that. Maybe I can get some organizing done this weekend. Maybe.

Have a wonderful weekend!

TMI Friday: Bathroom Blues

2010-07-30T07:00:00.002-04:00

I'm linking up with The SuperMom Blues for her TMI Friday. The rules are simple:

1) Write a TMI blog about anything bizarre, weird, or just plain gross that's happened to you (keeping it family friendly!).
2) Take the TMI Friday button and post it into your blog to link back, and
3) Sign up on the linky

I loathe public bathrooms. I'm not really a germophobe, but there is just something absolutely disgusting about public bathrooms. Maybe it came from when I worked in a grocery store and had to clean the bathrooms and I realized just how disgusting people can be. I don't know. But what I do know, is that I loathe them.

The first thing out of my mouth when I walk into a public bathroom with my children is "Don't touch ANYTHING!" That and it's cousin, "Don't touch THAT! Stop!! No!! I said don't touch that!" are often repeated the entire time we're in the bathroom. I usually get smiles or snickers from other moms, because they understand.

With as much of a hater of public bathrooms as I am, you would think that I would have the "hover" mastered, right? Yeah, no so much.

As a child, my mom taught me to cover the toilet with a generous coating of toilet paper. She also taught me to sit sideways on the toilet, so that I could more easily balance myself without touching everything. It worked well, until, well, I got too old to continue sitting sideways. It was at that time that I figured I needed to learn to hover.

For whatever reason, instead of practicing at home, I decided that the first time I would try this new "trick" was when we happened to be at McDonald's on a pit stop during a road trip from our house to my cousin's house 2 hours away.

So...into the bathroom my mom and I went. She went into her stall, and I went into mine. I surveyed the toilet. I gave myself a little pep talk. And then I got myself into position. Ready, Aim, FIRE!! Oh crap!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently my aim was off. Instead of peeing into the toilet...I peed directly into my underwear. I have NO IDEA how that happened.

If I remember correctly, the ensuing conversation went a bit like this...

"Mom!"

"What?"

"I, uh, I, umm peed in my underwear."

"What?!?! You did what??"

"I peed in my underwear."

"How in the world did you manage to do that??"

"Well, I was trying to hover and well, it just went right into my underwear instead of the toilet."

*Snort, giggle, snort*

"MOM!"

*Snort, giggle, snort* I'm sorry! *snort, giggle, snort* "I can't help it."

And that, folks, was my first and last attempt at hovering.

TYVM: Buggy Edition

2010-07-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To Jdaddy, who laughed hysterically when I found a beetle-type bug in my hair as we were driving down the road, thank you very much! I realize my screaming and hyperventilating was probably funny, but you could save your laughs for later!

- Thank you very much! to the nerves on my head that keep twinging, making it feel like I have more bugs crawling around on my head and thus leaving me paranoid.

- To the show "Monsters Inside Me" on Animal Planet, thank you very much! You now have me beyond freaked out, assuming that any bug that touches me is going to somehow get inside me and wreak havoc.

- A big old thank you very much goes out to the weather, which has led to the creep crawlies entering my house. I am not impressed with the ants that have taken up residence in my living room. Although, it is a *teensy* bit humorous to watch a team of them attempt to carry a small piece of dog food across the house.

- To the moon, or whatever it is making people act crazy this week, thank you very much Is there a full moon? Because I swear some of the craziest stuff is happening this week at work. (UPDATED: I just checked and the full moon was this past Monday. Apparently the people I work with didn't get the memo and are enjoying a full moon "week").

- Thank you very much to life, which just seems to keep getting busier. I have almost 200 emails in my inbox which are waiting to be answered. So sorry if one (or more) of those is your email/comment. I'm betting it is.

Looky there! I have six this week. I guess that makes up for only four last week!! A quick update on my truck...it's with the engineers this week and they called Jdaddy and said there is a definitely problem (See, I'm NOT crazy!!). They touched a screw somewhere and all the doors locked. I'm hoping to get a fixed truck back this week!

So now it's your turn! If you want to play along, type up your Thank You's and link them up with the linky down below, or leave me some Thank You's in the comments. Please be courteous. Use the permalink to link up, and only link up if you played along. Thanks!

P.S. Did you see the two giveaways I have going on right now? Links to both are up by my header!

Crazy Critters and Bark Off: A Review and Giveaway

2010-07-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

CONTEST CLOSED. Congratulations to #6, Janna Bee, from Janana Bee!

If you have a dog and you're like me, you probably ~~like~~ love your dog~~enough to keep it alive~~. And part of that entails entertaining the dog. Because I'm too ~~lazy~~ busy, I don't often have the time to walk my mutt. Therefore, I have to find other ways to keep her active (otherwise she runs laps around the house at night keeping me awake).

When I was given the opportunity to review Crazy Critters, I jumped at it. Crazy Critters are a stuffing free, flat, plush toy with squeakers at both ends, and the toy is guaranteed! I was so excited to give a stuffing free toy to my dog because she is known to ruin toys in a matter of hours.

When the toy arrived, I took it out of the box, cut the tag off, and gave it to my dog. I think it might be safe to say that she hasn't put it down. In three weeks. It's her new favorite toy. She carries it wherever she goes, "just in case" it's time to play.

I was slightly disappointed in the fact that she was able to put a small hole in one end and get the squeaker loose after about a week of playing with it, but I guess the good news is that since it's stuffing free, it hasn't made a mess at all. Furthermore, the hole has not gotten bigger, nor has it deterred her from playing with her Crazy Critter!

Buy it: You can purchase Crazy Critters for $10.00 plus S&H (right now they are having a special where you purchase one, get one free!) at www.getcrazycritter.com.

-OR-

Win it: One lucky reader of The Daily Dribbles will win their very own Crazy Critters, as well as Bark Off, which is a handheld size ingenious, ultrasonic training aid that allows you to take control over your dog's nuisance barking. More info on Bark Off can be found at www.buybarkoff.com.

-How to enter-

Mandatory Entry: Follow The Daily Dribbles on Google Friend Connect (must be GFC, Google Reader does not count) and leave me a comment letting me know. If your email is not attached to your profile, please leave your email in the comment.

Additional Entries (leave a comment for each entry):

- Follow me on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your Twitter name

- "Like" me on Facebook (in my sidebar)

- Post my button on your blog

- Blog about this giveaway (Please leave the link)

- Tweet about this giveaway (One tweet per day. Please leave the link to your tweet)

Official Rules: Contest ends Wednesday, August 4th at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org. Winner will be notified via email and also posted on this original post. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize. United States residents only.

Disclosure: This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by: TeleBrands. All opinions are my own.

Total Pillow: A Review and Giveaway

2010-07-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

CONTEST CLOSED. Congrats to Tracie, from Stirfry Awesomeness, the winner of the Total Pillow.

My family has been cursed with bad necks, shoulders, and backs. I'm serious. My mom, brother, and myself all have bad necks and shoulders, and my dad has a terrible back. My husband seems to have somehow miraculously inherited his bad back from my dad. I know, miraculous, isn't it?

Insert The Total Pillow, "The Amazing Versatile Pillow that Cradles You in Comfort". According to the website:

Most people spend approximately one-third of their lives asleep on their pillow, however the new Total Pillow has uses for the two-thirds of time spent awake.

There are pillows for all types of issues but no one pillow that bridges all conditions, until now. The Total Pillow™ is for use overnight, on the couch, sitting at your desk, driving, while on a plane or train, in college dorms, or just while watching television. This donut-shaped pillow transforms in just seconds to more than five supportive shapes for customized relief. The patent pending locking technology enables the Total Pillow to support the neck, lower back, ankles and knees.

"Consumers own many different pillows for different applications, identifying the need for a multipurpose pillow solution." said Steve Heroux, CEO of Hampton Direct. "The Total Pillow transforms into five different shapes to answer a wide range of conditions."

The Total Pillow's ergonomic design allows your body to be cradled in support whether you're a side sleeper and like support between your knees and/or ankles or are a frequent traveler. It's also great for the businessperson, who needs lumbar support for the long periods of time spent seated.

Hampton Direct, Inc. is a leading international importer and distributor of consumer products. The Vermont-based company's offerings include common household problem solving products that includes the As Seen On TV Wonder Hanger®, Twin Draft Guard® and Total Pillow®.

Needless to say, I was so excited to have the opportunity to review The Total Pillow. I even knew exactly what I was going to do with it when I received it. Being the awesome daughter I am, I handed it directly over to my mom to review. With her unbelievably bad shoulder and neck, I figured who better to review it than my ~~invalid~~ mom.

According to my mom, The Total Pillow lives up to it's claims. It is highly supportive and comfortable, and extremely versatile. She has been using it almost non-stop since I gave it to her. My dad even stole it for a bit to try out for his back and he said that it offers great lumbar support, which he was pleased to find.

I can only imagine all the uses for The Total Pillow. In the car, on an airplane (do I ever wish I had it for our flight back from San Diego earlier this month!), for that uncomfortable chair at work, for your children napping in the car, etc. The list goes on and on.

Buy it: You can purchase The Total Pillow for $19.99 plus P&H (right now they are having a special where you purchase one, get one free!) at www.shoptotalpillow.com.

-OR-

Win it: One lucky reader of The Daily Dribbles will win their very own The Total Pillow.

-How to enter-

Additional Entries (leave a comment for each entry):

- Follow me on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your Twitter name

- "Like" me on Facebook (in my sidebar)

- Post my button on your blog

- Blog about this giveaway (Please leave the link)

- Tweet about this giveaway (One tweet per day. Please leave the link to your tweet)

Official Rules: Contest ends Tuesday, August 3rd at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org. Winner will be notified via email and also posted on this original post. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize.

Disclosure: This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by: Total Pillow. All opinions are my own.

Monday Minute: 7/26/10

2010-07-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

This week, I'm once again co-hosting the Monday Minute with Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality. Make sure you link up with one of us!

1. Who is your "what-if" person?

I don't really have a "what-if" person. I know I ended up with the right person. I do sometimes think about what life would be like if I had married the last serious boyfriend I had before Jdaddy, and let me tell you, I am soooo thankful that I didn't marry him.

2. What is your nickname?

Growing up, my family would teasingly called me "Krispy Critter" (remember that cereal?) and I was also called Punkin' Doodle, Pookie Doo, and Missy Lou. None of which are even close to Kristi.

3. If you could choose how you died, how would you like to die?

When I wrote this question, I thought it would be interesting. But now that I think about it, I think everyone will probably say "comfortably", "quickly", or "in my sleep". That's not very fun or interesting, but that's certainly how I'd like to go.

4. If you could have named yourself, which name would you have picked?

For years and years, I was so mad at my mom for not naming me her other choice, Lori Kay. I thought that was such a better name than Kristi. Now, I think I prefer Kristi...although, it sure will be weird being an old grandma with the name of Kristi.

5. Who were you named after or for what reason did your parents choose your name?

I wasn't named after anyone. Referring back up to #4, my parents were going to name me Lori Kay...but at the time I was born, there were at least three other babies being born with that name (ironically, one of which I became friends with in high school!). Add to that, the lady sharing a room with my mom was CRAZY and she was naming her child Lori Kay. Hence, Kristi.

Tooth Soap: A Review

2010-07-25T09:30:00.000-04:00

I did it. I finally bit the bullet and tried out Tooth Soap. I had seen other bloggers doing it. I had heard it's rave reviews, and about it's "acquired taste", but I hadn't tried it. Finally, an opportunity arose, and I jumped at it.

Let me just say that I'm so glad I did!

I was sent Tooth Soap and Tooth Swish in Spearmint, as well as the Tooth Soap Tooth Brightener. I was so excited to rip into the package the first day I received it. I tried out the Tooth Soap that evening and was pleasantly surprised. The taste was different, as Tooth Soap is free from the sugars (why would we want to brush our teeth with sugar if the whole purpose of brushing our teeth is to clean them?) that most commercial toothpastes add for flavoring, but it wasn't off-putting.

I brushed and brushed...enjoying the bubbles that formed while I brushed. In my opinion? The best part of Tooth Soap was the feeling I had after I brushed. It was that after-the-dentist-clean feeling. The feeling that you never get with traditional tooth paste.

You can purchase all the Tooth Soap products at www.toothsoap.com, as well as found out more information about the innovative product.

Thank you, Tooth Soap, for allowing me to review this product.

Disclosure: For purposes of this review, I was provided Tooth Soap, Tooth Brightener, and Tooth Swish for free. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

Week in Review: 7/24/10

2010-07-24T07:00:00.002-04:00

I don't know what is was about this week, but I'm so glad it's Saturday. So glad.

Last Saturday, I had my spa day. It was magnificent. After said spa day, Jdaddy and I had dinner with some friends. We went to Bar Louie's for the first time and it was really good!! I will definitely go back there again.

Sunday was laid back, as usual. The boys and I spent some time at my parents and then did some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping with two kids is such a blast. I have to admit though, I got smart. I let them both pick out a cheap toy prior to hitting the food aisles, and that kept them entertained for most of the time.

Earlier this week, I mentioned on Twitter and Facebook (did you know The Daily Dribbles has it's own page now? And apparently a profile attached to the page, and I don't know if I'm supposed to and I'm so confused and can someone PLEASE help me?? Anyway, you can "like" me in my sidebar) that Buddy was stung by a hornet. This was the third time he's been stung in his life, and this is the only time we got concerned about an allergy. He immediately started rubbing his eyes and scratching his head and chest. I was moments away from taking him to the ER when he finally stopped that. Except, then his ankle started to swell. It was pretty swollen when I put him to bed that night, but nothing compared to the next morning.

When I got him up, he had a freaking tree trunk for a leg (at least in my opinion, because he's still under the 10th percentile for his height and weight). Here's some pictures.

The leg got worse throughout the day and I had to leave work and take him to the doctor. He was put on oral steroids and an antibiotic to ward off a bacterial infection (both grandfathers get cellulitis from bee stings). He is doing MUCH better now, thank goodness.

The rest of the week went quite smoothly. I even only had four things on my TYVM on Thursday. That's unheard of!

Oh! The truck. Well, the truck is still stupid. However, having connections is nice. Jdaddy is taking the truck to the electrical engineers that design it and they are going to look at it and FIX it next week. We will also be getting a loaner for the time being. And...our trade-in value is pretty high on this truck, so we may also be getting a brand new 2010 Suburban in August, if we can figure out all the logistics on how to pay off our loan and sign on the new loan.

The sky last night was amazing. Beyond amazing. I looked out and saw bright yellow, and then it turned to a bright blue, almost purplish haze. Here are a few pictures:

I will definitely be playing with those photos in photoshop!!

Jdaddy's birthday is next week. He did me a huge favor and picked out and purchased his gift this week. He bought an autographed Steve Yzerman retirement banner for himself. We need to get it framed, but it's just another item to go into the basement once it's finished. I mistakenly thought this basement was for the kids...it's turning into Jdaddy's sports bar.

In celebration of Jdaddy's birthday, we have plans to go out to dinner and then either to a movie or out for drinks tonight. I am so looking forward to dinner...and the kids are excited for our babysitter to come over. It's a win-win!

Have an awesome weekend!

LOI: 7/23/10

2010-07-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's Friday, which means that I get to type up some awesome letters, courtesy of the wonderful Julie from Foursons.

Dear Zoey (the idiot super dog),

As much as I ~~kinda~~ love you, please be advised that play time does not begin at 12:30 a.m. I do not want to hear you running laps throughout the house and running back and forth along the front of the couch. Furthermore, you shall ALWAYS go potty when we let you out before bed making it unnecessary for me to ever again have to get up and let you out during the middle of the night. Oh, and your crazy wild eyes when you are hyper are super creepy, so stop it.

Love,

Your Human Mom

********************

Dear 原秋原秋,

Please stop spamming me. What good does it do to spam me on every single post in Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese/Foreignese, if no one else can read it?? KNOCK IT OFF already.

Sincerely,

Annoyed

********************

Dear Buddy,

The other night when you said what I thought was "Daddy, you're the stinky finger man. You have stinky fingers!", I absolutely lost it. I realize that was not good mom behavior, but it was soooo funny. Thank goodness you didn't actually say that, but instead said, "Daddy, you're the sticky finger man. You have sticky fingers!" Phew.

Love,

Not-a-good-role-model-Mama

********************

Dear Buster,

My sweet, dear Buster. It is not okay to call me and daddy upstairs to only deposit boogers into our hands. That is gross. While I appreciate that you're not smearing them on the wall or eating them, let's just refrain from picking our nose to begin with, mmmkay?

Love,

Grossed out Mama

TYVM: This is Getting Old

2010-07-21T22:00:00.000-04:00

PYHO: What Happened to Ethics and Morals?

2010-07-21T08:05:00.000-04:00

I'm once again, linking up with Shell over at Things I Can't Say for Pour Your Heart Out.

In my opinion, Jdaddy and I are pretty good people. We're hardworking, law-abiding citizens who pay our bills, take good care of our children, and xxxx.

So when I hear about people, people we associate with, walking away from the homes they can afford and others making false claims on their home insurance, it makes me beyond angry.

Whatever happened to responsibility? Just because you don't like the house you're in and you know you can't sell it in this down economy doesn't mean that it's okay for you to walk away from it and purchase a different house before foreclosure sets in. And just because your house will probably need a new roof in the near future doesn't mean that it's okay to claim that tree fell on it.

Jdaddy and I would love to move. We could afford so much more of a house right now...even build ourselves a new house, but we can't sell our house. And we don't think it's okay to walk away from house just so we can get what we want. We need a new roof on our house within the next year or two, but we sure as Hell aren't going to make a false claim to get our insurance company to pay for it. That's just not what you do. Or I guess people do it, but it's not something you should do.

There are so many people out there, struggling to make ends meet...Struggling to make that mortgage payment or to put food on their tables. And they are doing the right thing. When people who HAVE money cheat the system, it makes me sad and angry and frustrated. Guess who pays for their lack of responsibility? We all do.

What happened to morals and ethics? What happened to fulfilling your responsibilities? When did just because I want it outweigh doing the right thing?

Stouffer's: A Giveaway

2010-07-20T07:00:00.003-04:00

CONTEST CLOSED! The winners of the Stouffer's Family Dinner gift pack are #48, Blueviolet, and #24, Julie! Congrats!!

My ~~favorite people in the whole wide world~~ friends from Stouffer's (a Nestle company) have done it again! They sent me a coupon for a free family-sized dinner from Stouffer's, as well as a Family Dinner Box of Questions to get all of us talking, and the limited-edition Let's Fix Dinner book by award-winning artist and author Todd Parr.

Stouffer's wants to help families get closer through regular family dinners. They also realize that this is nearly impossible to accomplish this without reliable housing. Therefore, Stouffer's has generously offered to donate 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of Let's Fix Dinner of each book purchased to Habitat for Humanity.

Of course, I love the Stouffer's brand in and of itself, but when I heard about what they are doing for the community, I fell a little bit more in love.

I was so excited when I received my package last week. I immediately went out to the store and purchased the Stouffer's Grandma's Chicken and Vegetable Rice bake. With our schedule's being so hectic, being able to cook something like this is so convenient. All I had to do is tell Jdaddy which day we were having it and he popped it in the oven so it was ready when I got home. And oh was it good!

And the Family Dinner Box of Questions? Genius. Each round card has a different question on it designed to spur discussion at the table. Some of the questions were too advanced for my boys, but we just dug through them until we found some that would be age appropriate.

My boys love the Let's Fix Dinner book that accompanied the coupon and questions. It's filled with colorful illustrations that humorously describe what things can keep families apart at dinnertime, but also explains what kind of wonderful things can happen when families eat together.

Buy it: You can reserve your own copy of Let's Fix Dinner here, for $7.99 plus $2.99 shipping and handling.

Win it: Two lucky readers are going to win the same package that I received (a coupon for a free family family-sized dinner from Stouffer's, the Family Dinner Box of Questions, and a copy of Let's Fix Dinner).

How to Enter

Mandatory Entry (please leave your email address in the comments if your email isn't linked to your profile): Tell me how your family typically eats dinner, be it all together in front of the TV, all together at the dinner table, separately in different areas of the house, etc.

Additional Entries (Please leave one comment for each entry):

- Follow me publicly on Google Friend Connect (Google reader does not count)

- Follow me publicly on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your Twitter name

- "Like" me on Facebook (widget in far sidebar)

- Post my button on your blog

- Blog about this giveaway

- Tweet about this giveaway (one tweet per day, please leave a comment for each tweet)

Giveaway Rules: Contest ends Tuesday, July 27th at midnight. Winners will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org and notified via e-mail. Winners have 48 hours to claim prize. Contest open to US residents only.

Disclosure: Stouffer's has provided me with product samples. All opinions expressed are 100% mine and mine alone.

Monday Minute: 7/19/10

2010-07-19T08:13:00.003-04:00

I wasn't even sure I was going to have a post for today, but thanks to Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality and his Monday Minute, I can easily do a last minute post. Ian's cohost for this week is Michelle, from Mommy Loves Stilettos, so make sure you check her out too!

- What's your real name?

Kristi

- Have you ever fabricated a story or anything on your blog?

I don't make things up. Everything is based on a real story, beliefs, feelings or thoughts. I tend to be more descriptive when telling stories though, as I think that helps the reader to really "be there" with you.

- When in the car do you listen to the radio/CDs/iPod/etc?

I mostly listen to the radio...as in 99% of the time. If nothing good is on, I'll listen to a CD.

- Describe the 'sexiest' item of clothing that you own

Hah. I'm a mom of two kids who could stand to lose a good bit of weight. Not much "sexy" going on for me. I do have one tank top/cami that I wear under cardigan sweaters that plays up my cleavage. I'm sure my hubby likes that one. Aside from that, I think all the lingerie I got for my wedding is in a storage bin in the basement.

- Would you be willing to breastfeed your friend's three year old child?

Absolutely...NOT! Sorry. It was a chore for me to breastfeed my own child, let alone someone else's. And, that doesn't even touch upon the "eew" factor.

Week in Review: 7/17/10

2010-07-17T09:25:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can't believe July is halfway over. On Thursday, I realized that Buddy is only a month away from turning six! I need to start working on his Photo show. Here's last year's photo show if you're interested. Maybe one day I'll convert his first year one over...but I don't know. I still get choked up when I watch it!

My truck came back from the dealership yesterday. Once again, they couldn't find anything. They did reprogram the computer though, so hopefully the cruise control and radio will start behaving themselves!

We started making plans for our trip to Cancun in February of 2011. Buddy has been there twice before (at six months and 2.5 years), but Buster has yet to go there. We are all soooo excited.

Last night we had another surprise birthday party for a friend. I love surprise parties!

Guess what I'm doing today? I'm utilizing my Mother's Day gift. Jdaddy and the boys bought me a spa day! I'm going with a friend to a nice spa for a mani/pedi, facial, and full body massage. Afterwards, we are eating dinner with friends. It should be a nice day!

Have a good weekend!!

Mom of the Year? Who Me? Not Even Close

2010-07-16T08:20:00.001-04:00

Okay, so...Wow. This is really hard for me. Okay. Here we go. Wait. I need a minute.

[big breath in]

I'm...well, I'm...[sigh]. I, uh, I...I'm not perfect. There. I said it. What? What do you mean you already knew that? Kmama is perfect. My blog let's me be perfect. I only share what I want to share, and I mostly share stuff that portrays me as perfect.

Except, Kmama is not Kristi (I mean, yes, I am both Kmama and Kristi) and not everything is good. I am FAAARRR from winning a Mom of the Year title. So when I heard that Mary from The Mommyologist and Tina from Life Without Pink were hosting a contest for the Not Mom of the Year, I decided to come out of the closet (where I was hiding and eating the candy I told my kids they couldn't have) and share why I deserve the title of Not Mom of the Year.

Perhaps I could tell you about the time that I heard my son make weird noises in his bedroom, but decided not to check on him (because I was afraid I'd wake him), all to my demise the next morning. And by demise, I mean puke and poop ALL over the place, both old and new. But, I mean, all mom's do that right? Right?!?!

Or maybe about the time when my then 7 week old all of a sudden started sleeping 11 hours at night, when prior to that, he was only sleeping 2 hours at a time. Rather than check on him, I stayed in bed as long as I possibly could because I didn't want to risk waking him. Later we learned he was sleeping that long because he had epilepsy and was having seizures at night, causing him to fall into a post-ictal (very deep) sleep.

There's also the fact that I use my oldest son's eczema as a reason for not bathing my kids more frequently than every 3rd day unless they are visibly dirty or stinky. Hey! I also blame the doctor for giving me that excuse.

I probably shouldn't mention that on Valentine's Day, I took Buddy to school and realized I was short about 5 Valentines for his classmates. Instead of explaining to him that some of his friends wouldn't get Valentine's, I high-tailed it out of there without mentioning it to anyone. Oh, and to rub salt in the wound, I learned that Valentine's Day isn't about Valentine's anymore. You're not cool unless you bring treats or pencils or stickers. [sigh]

A Mom of the Year probably wouldn't blog about how much of a chore breastfeeding was, would she?

All of the above is fine and dandy, and could probably win me the title of Not Mom of the Year without too much effort, but the next one is the icing on the cake.

Back when Buddy was just a wee little one, we had some new neighbors move in next door. They were the same age as us, and had some little rugrats of their own. We really enjoyed spending time with these neighbors, but because we both had little kids, we couldn't often do things after the kids went to bed without hiring a babysitter. And because we were all poor-like, we couldn't afford a sitter anyway.

One night, before the kids went to bed, we were all lamenting the fact that once again, we couldn't do anything. All of a sudden, I had a good idea! We could put Buddy to bed and bring our monitor over to their house and play cards! Yes!! It was a perfect solution. So, we did. We put Buddy to bed and waited until he fell asleep and then packed up some beverages and took our monitor over to their house. Just in case you think I'm not only Not Mother of Year, but also a terrible person you are going to report to CPS, I did make Jdaddy run back home and go up into Buddy's room and make some noise so that I could be sure we could still hear him. We could.

Ahh, so there you have. I'm definitely Not Mom of the Year material.

TYVM: 7/15/10

2010-07-14T22:00:00.000-04:00

- To Buster, who insisted on being awake from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. the other night, thank you very much! You can stay awake all you want, but I want no part of it. Crying and yelling for me is NOT COOL.

- Thank you very much to the teachers at Buddy's daycare who do not listen to me. I love when I tell you over and over again that the director (who isn't there anymore...and has no replacement) said that Buddy could choose which room he wanted to be in because he has friends in both rooms. That did NOT mean that his choice was a one-time thing and he's now stuck in the "wee kids" room. He's almost 6 for Pete's sake.

- To my coworker for asking me to do something for her and then changing it eleventy billion times, thank you very much! I am a quick worker, which means that I do things when I receive them. Please stop changing your mind/adding new things so that I have to keep redoing my work.

- Thank you very much to the neighbors who invited Buddy over to swim *after dinner* and still hadn't shown up to get him at 7:15 p.m. He starts getting ready for bed at 7:30-ish. Because I couldn't bear the thought of breaking his little heart (he had been in his swim suit for over an hour just waiting), I had to extend his bedtime and deal with a crabby child the next morning.

I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. Now it's your turn. Link up your thank you's or leave me some in the comments.

Linky Rules: Please post the permalink to your TYVM. Also, any link not directed to a TYVM will be deleted. Please either email me or leave me a comment if you are having linky issues.

PYHO: Excuse Me?

2010-07-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Okay folks. I'm linking up with Shell over at Things I Can't Say for her "Pour Your Heart Out" meme. And I'm talking about rudeness and vaccinations. I'm going to try to do it without getting controversial. I'm not entirely sure that's possible, but I'm not really good with controversy or confrontation, so I'll try to keep this mild.

A funny thing happened over the fourth of July weekend. We were out at the lake, visiting with some friends, and an acquaintance we hadn't seen in awhile showed up. I was talking with him and somehow, we landed on vaccinations.

Quick background info...Acquaintance, who I will call "P", is unmarried and has no children. He's in his late 30's or early 40's, and is generally a nice guy.

Out of nowhere, P states that all of Buddy's allergies are because we had him vaccinated.

I was completely appalled. First, P had no idea whether or not we had Buddy vaccinated (we did), and second, nothing like blaming a parent for their child's food allergies. Thank you very much.

As I mentioned up top, I'm not great with controversy or confrontation, but I was really offended by his statement. I tried to be polite and at first ask him what knowledge he has of this, especially since I had never heard of anything along those lines...but anything's possible and I try to keep an open mind. P explained that he belongs to a "group" and peanut genes are being added to vaccinations causing peanut allergies (last I checked, Buddy was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, oranges, sesame, milk, coconut, and eggs...so are all those in vaccinations too??).*

After his statement, I said something silly like, "Well, I believe vaccinations are necessary." Oh boy did that elicit a response. He very adamantly said, "NO THEY ARE NOT!", and by adamantly, I mean, loudly and forcefully.

Normally, I would just stop right there. But for some reason, I couldn't. (Maybe it was the couple drinks I had prior to this conversation??) I attempted to point out to him that yes, vaccinations are indeed necessary. Because most of us are vaccinated, we have given those that choose not to vaccinate, the ability to exercise that right. If only the minority vaccinated, we would be in a very different situation.

I cannot be convinced that vaccinations aren't necessary. Diseases like polio, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis, etc. are very real, and very scary. They still exist today, but we just don't really hear about them, again, because the majority of people vaccinate.

After that, we were interrupted (thank goodness). I walked away from the conversation bothered. Not because he has a different opinion than I do, but because he was trying to jam his opinion down my throat and force me to agree with him.

Parenting is hard enough without people constantly telling you you're doing something wrong.

*I do realize that eggs are in some vaccines, particularly the flu vaccine, and we have always avoided that vaccination for Buddy.

TST: The Buster Boy

2010-07-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

In honor of True Story Tuesday, hosted by none other than the fabulous Rachel and Mr. Daddy of Once Upon a Miracle, I decided to share some recent stories about Buster because ~~I can't think of anything else to share~~ he has been so funny lately.

- While we were in San Diego, my mom reported that upon hearing a nearby train while playing outside, Buster raised his arms to the sky and said, "Lordy, Lordy, Lordy." No, I have no idea where he got that from. Yes, I do wish it was captured on camera.

- One of Buster's favorite books right now is a book about using the potty. Totally appropriate since we are starting to work on potty training. Anyway, in the book, they show a potty and teensy-tiny bit of the inside. Every.single.time we open that book, Buster says, "Can I see it?" and proceeds to press his forehead on the book trying to get a glimpse inside the potty. It cracks me up.

Here's a brief video of him doing this:

- We have reached the phase where the litany of "why's" are asked. On Sunday, after a particularly LONG stretch of why's and answers, I finally said, "Buster? Why?" and he responded with "Because."

- Buster nailed his head on the cart at Home Depot this weekend. It started off as a really small blue bruise. Monday morning, it was darker blue and had a goose egg to it. And by Monday evening, it was dark blue with an even larger goose egg. It looks like we took a ball pein hammer to it...BUT! He never once cried! Everywhere we go, people gasp and ask what happened (it looks much worse in person). I feel terrible!

Now don't forget to head over to Once Upon a Miracle for some more great letters!

Monday Minute: 7/12/10

2010-07-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

This week, the Monday Minute is being hosted by Jen, from A Daily Scoop of Chaos. Congrats on winning this honor, Jen!

1. Can you burp the ABC's?

Nope. I can burp with the best of them (courtesy of growing up with three older brothers), but I cannot burp the ABC's

2. So lets just say you have a 9+ hour drive ahead of you would you consider wearing Depends so you didn't have to stop multiple times?

Nah. I like stopping to stretch my legs. However, when the hubs was talking about wanting me to sky dive, I told him I would have to wear Depends because I would surely pee and crap myself.

3. Would you rather...run your tongue down five feet of a NYC street or press your tongue into a strangers nostril?

Really Ian?? Both of these options are so freaking disgusting. But I guess considering that NYC streets are likely to have way grosser things than boogers, I guess I would choose the stranger...as long as I got to pick the stranger.

4. If you had an envelope that contained the date you would die would you open it?

Probably. I love surprises, but I'm terrible about having to know something once I know it's out there. I still fight the urge to search for my Christmas presents.

5. Which one song describes your sex life best?

I'll leave this to your imagination.

Week in Review: 7/10/10

2010-07-10T10:45:00.000-04:00

What a week!

We spent all last weekend, after getting home, at the lake. It was wonderful, especially considering it was so hot. We stayed out late and the kids slept in late. It was great.

Like I said, it's been HOT. Like 90+ degree weather with 90-ish% humidity. It's terrible. We had heat advisories this week stating that kids should not play outside. Therefore, the kids have spent most of the week inside at daycare and inside at home. We are all a little bit stir crazy!

I am slowly transitioning into some added responsibility at work. Right now, I do a lot of Human Resources related research and special projects, like researching benefit plans and implementing those plans, completing surveys, doing market research on compensation for certain positions, etc. I'm slowly adding in some employee relations related work, which is great, because I have a lot of interest in employee relations. Of course, it's added work...but I think I'm up for the challenge!

My brother, sister-in-law, and their daughter are in town from North Carolina right now. We met up with them for dinner on Wednesday night, while my parents watched the kids. It was nice to have some adult interaction (and good food!).

Last night we had a surprise birthday party/dinner for my dad. All three of my brothers and their families were there, as well as a few aunts and uncles. It was a really nice time and my dad was really surprised. We are so thankful to have him with us, after the massive heart attack he had back in 2005 (click HERE to read a post about that).

One of my brothers and his family stayed with us last night. We are planning on doing something fun today. Maybe mini golf and go karts...but it might get too hot. We also talked about going to the community center to use the pool. The only problem with that is that the pool is indoors. It might be even hotter in there!

Have a great weekend!

LOI: 7/9/10 and BFF

2010-07-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

After a brief hiatus, I'm once again linking up with the fabulous Julie from Foursons for her ingenious Letters of Intent. Make sure you pay her a visit and read all the other fabulous letters!

Dear Weather,

I realize I was complaining last week that it was too cold and cloudy while I was in California. Can I take it all back?? After almost a week of 90+ degree weather, I'm ready for a bit of a reprieve. The 91% humidity yesterday morning was the nail in the coffin for me. Not only was it pointless for me to wash and do my hair (sometimes I really hate naturally curly hair!), it was also pointless for me to shower and apply make-up.

I'm so glad that we are supposed to have a cool down tomorrow...all the way down to 85 degrees. Woo freaking hoo.

Sincerely,

Hot and sweaty

********************

Dear Dad,

Happy Birthday! I can't believe you are 70 years old. For what it's worth, you don't look or act anywhere close to 70. I hope you had an awesome birthday and that you are super surprised tonight at your party!!

We are so lucky to have you in our life. Keep on keepin' on!

Love,

********************

Dear Readers,

Today I'm being featured over at Shell's Things I Can't Say blog. I'm her Blog Friend Feature. I actually wrote something serious and heartfelt. I know you don't often see that side of me, so go check it out!

Happy Friday!

TYVM: 7/8/10

2010-07-07T22:00:00.000-04:00

A big thank you to Heather, from Oswald Cuties, for graciously hosting TYVM for me last week!!

Without further ado...

- To the electrical system in my truck, which has once again decided to get funky, thank you very much! A working passenger side door lock is pretty important...as is my cruise control.

- Thank you very much to whomever it is that convinced Buster that his bedroom door should remain open until he falls asleep while we were on vacation. He is a LIGHT sleeper that continuously wakes up when his door is open. But also now FREAKS out if we shut it. Grr.

- A big thank you very much to myself and Jdaddy for thinking that "whoopie cushion whistles" were a great souvenir for the boys. OH EM GEE. I might have to "lose" them one night while the kids are sleeping.

- To the people on the plane that sat behind us, thank you very much for talking non-stop. Your three young children sitting across the aisle were quieter and behaved better than you.

- To Delta for designing a touch screen in a headrest, thank you very much! While the games and overall idea might be great, having someone repeatedly "punch" the screen behind your head is not so comfortable. And listening to a particular someone complain about his head bopping around isn't so much fun either.

I feel so much better now that I got that out! It's your turn! Link up your very *special* thank you's, or leave me some in the comments so we can all commiserate together!

San Diego...in Pictures

2010-07-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

Alright, so here are some pictures of our trip. Nothing too fancy, just a few neat shots.

Jdaddy took a tour of Petco Park (where the Padres play), and got some cool pictures. You'll also notice our hotel in the background (The Omni). The two are connected by a walkway.

Jdaddy also took a tour of the Midway while I was at my conference.

I love how the wings fold up so you can see the bombs!

This one looks like a bug to me.

This picture was taken at Seaport Village, which is a cool little seaside area that had shopping and restaurants. This particular place is called the Pier Cafe. I love the whale weather vein on top. It was a photo that was begging to be in black and white.

A few pictures from our trip to The Del on Coronado Island. That place is magnificent!

Love these chairs. They make me feel like Edith Ann, the old Lily Tomlin character from Laugh In.

And here are a few from the Meditation Gardens in Encinitas.

I absolutely love this shot. Bugs are so fascinating!

And finally, just a seaside shot.

Oh, I lied. One more. This is the ONLY shot I really wanted to get, but never managed to get it. This photo courtesy google images.

If You Go to San Diego, You Might...

2010-07-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

It is so hard to wrap up seven wonderful days into a post, so I thought I would hit the highlights.

If You Go to San Diego, You Might...

- Get delayed because a couple on your flight was running late and then further delayed because the wonderful Michigan weather decided to produce lightning, hail, and tornados.

- Get hit on by a suuuuuper duper drunk guy (who happened to be good looking), while you are sitting next to your hubby.

- Get a text from your hubby while being hit on laughing about it.

- Take an extra suitcase just so you have room for souvenirs.

- Get upgraded to an amazing suite without asking. (yay!)

- Realize that the amazing suite has a sucky mattress. (boo!)

- Trip eleventy billion times while walking around. One *might* occur as you are smiling at someone and you almost land on your face. The someone *might* just act like nothing happened and not ask if you are okay.

- Walk eleventy billion cajillion miles for the conference, and another eleventy billion cajillion miles after the conference each day.

- Make jokes that only you and your hubby find funny, over and over and over again.

- Sit in the hot tub six times in the six days that you are on vacation. One of those days might have included sitting in it two separate times.

- Eat WAY too much, including Italian, Mexican, Cheesecake Factory, The Melting Pot, and banana raisin flambe.

- Walk 2 miles out of your way so you can get your white trash Smirnoff Ice and then carry it two miles back to the hotel.

- Leave a Padres game early because some little kids sitting behind you kept chanting "Let's Go Padres, Let's Go!" And then get pissed because you realize it's already too late to sit in the hot tub.

- Run into your boss only once during the conference (there was almost 12,000 people there though).

- Enter to win no less than 30 iPads. No news on if I won any of them.

- Convince yourself that if you could increase your salary by 3x, San Diego would be an excellent place to raise a family.

- Not wear shorts the entire vacation.

- Wonder how "sunny southern California" could be so cold and cloudy.

- Miss your kids terribly, but also not want to go back home for fear of them "making you pay".

- Remember why you love your hubby so much.

For those of you familiar with San Diego, here's a quick list of actual places/things we did (or that hubby did while I was at the conference):

- Midway

- Tour of Petco Stadium

- Seaport Village

- Shopping in Gaslamp Quarter

- Coronado Island (brunch at The Del with mimosas!!)

- Took a trolley to Fashion Valley Mall

- Padres game

- Horton Plaza

- Meditation Gardens in Encinitas

- La Jolla

It was a wonderful vacation and we'd love to go back with the boys. It's good to be home. Now to just get back into our routines.

Monday Minute: 7/5/10

2010-07-05T11:38:00.003-04:00

Hey everybody! I'm back!!! Before I get into posts about the trip, I decided to go easy and play along with Ian's Monday Minute.

Who of all your blog friends would you like to meet and/or who have you met?

Honestly, I can't say that there's anyone I wouldn't want to meet. I've met online friends before, so it wouldn't be a first for me.

What kind of vehicle(s) do you drive?

I drive a 2008 Chevy Suburban (LOVE my truck) and the hubby drives a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix. It's all paid off and we're driving that until it dies! I hate having a car payment.

What kind of cell phone do you have?

I have a Blackberry Curve. We are due for an upgrade, but hubby wants to wait until the Droid X comes out.

What's the most annoying thing you wish bloggers would stop doing?

Hmm, I think being a no reply blogger is the most annoying (you can click HERE to learn about no reply and how to NOT be one), but I also dislike giant paragraphs and bad grammar.

What's the one thing that you still have on your bucket list to do before the year is out?

Only one thing? LOL I guess the biggest thing would be to lose some weight. But more realistically, it would be to get Buster potty trained.

The Big Toy Book

2010-07-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

I am so excited to share some news with you. Have you heard of The Big Toy Book? Well, if you haven't, it's an awesome website that has tons and tons of toys and games for your child(ren).

Right now, The Big Toy Book is launching a new site and holding a private sale. A private sale for me and YOU, because I have the hook-up!! All you have to do is go to www.thebigtoybook.com/privatesale/ and register as a member. You'll have to be "approved", but it doesn't take much time at all.

With this offer, you will access to sales of up to 50% to 70% on products from:

- Melissa & Doug

- Pawparazzi

- Citiblocs

- Cloud B

As stated before, this is a PRIVATE sale, but by using the promo code THEDAILYDRIBBLES, you'll have access to these great deals!

And there's more great news. With your membership and promo code, you'll save an additional $10 on your first purchase. Tell me that isn't awesome!!

This offer is good through July 9th. Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me at dailydribbles (at) gmail (dot) com if you have any questions.

Happy shopping!

Every Little Bottom

2010-07-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

We are a Huggies family. We switched to Huggies when Buddy was still just a little baby, and Buster started out in Huggies from birth and we haven't switched. I trust and like the Huggies brand. Therefore, when they contacted me about their Every Little Bottom program, which is designed to give back to the community, I agreed to help them promote it.

Diaper shortage is a growing problem in the United States. 1 in 3 American moms struggle to provide their babies with diapers. As a result, 79% of moms have had to choose between diapers and other necessities and 82% have had to cut back on food.*

Huggies has recognized the need for diapers in the U.S. and plans to donate 2 million diapers to a number of diaper banks across the country to help families in need. And Huggies is asking for your help.

You can help by donating a package of diapers to one of the Huggies diaper banks (click here for a list), through an Amazon.com wishlist (click here) or to one of the organizations in your local community such as the United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, or even food banks.

For more information about Huggies Every Little Bottom commitment, you can click here.

*Source: http://www.huggies.com/en-US/promotions/everylittlebottom/the-diaper-need

TYVM: 7/1/10

2010-06-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's Free Therapy Day!! For this week only, you will need to link up your TYVM with Heather from Oswald Cuties. Heather has graciously offered to host TYVM this week for me while I'm on vacation because I knew that I wouldn't be able to make a visit to your blogs and read your TYVM's.

The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, and then link up with Heather so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To the couple that arrived late to the airport and thus delayed our plane while we waited for them to board, thank you very much!

- To the weather in Detroit (hail, lightning, and tornado warnings) that prevented us from deplaning our first flight, and thus, delayed our connection, thank you very much! I loved sitting in the airport for 2 hours when I knew that my vacation was being shortened by those very same two hours. Oh, and in case you wondered, had we not been delayed waiting for the couple in the first TYVM, we WOULD have been able to deplane rather than sit on the runway like a huge lighting post.

- To the weather in San Diego for breaking records this week for being so cold and cloudy, thank you very much! Nothing like going on vacation a place that is colder and more miserable than back home.

- To the little kids directly behind us that incessantly chanted "Let's Go Padres, Let's Go" for at least an hour at the game we attended Tuesday night, thank you very much! You made it so *enjoyable* for us that we decided to leave at the top of the 9th inning. Oh, and a big thank you very much to your parents for being completely clueless at everyone turning around to stare at the super annoying children.

I know, I know. I shouldn't be complaining. I'm on vacation!! Don't forget to head over to Oswald Cuties to link your TYVM's up!!

Vacation- Supah Style

2010-06-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody! I'm on day 4 of my vacation, which means I'm officially half way through it and am closer to coming home than I am to the beginning of this vacation. *Boo hiss* Today is the final day of my conference, so from 12 p.m. Pacific time until we head home, we are officially free to do as we please. WAHOO!

Before I left for vacation, I kidnapped Supah from Adventures of a Wannabe SupahMommy, and told her that if she ever wanted to see her family again, she needed to write me a guest post for this week. You know what she did? She laughed in my face and told me to keep her forever. After you read her guest post, you'll understand.

Vacation- Supah Style

Hey ya'll! It's a party up in HERE-AH! KMAMA is away and Supah is going to play! Who's in !?? I'll bring the KEg ! Someone bring the pretzels! None of those GENERIC BRANDS !! I'm high class and I can do a KEG STAND!! I'm Princess Diana meets Dana Plato.

I JUST need a few burly men to ...... heave HO! No. Not HEave a ho!

So seriously we just stepped foot into our home after a lovely "thisissoooonotavaction." vacation...

QUESTION: Is anything easy with KIDS?? ?

ANSWER: NO. MA'AM

Especially driving vacations.

My family is PRIME birth control for ANYONE considering

a. marriage

b. a child

c. two children

d. more than one children.

We will SCARE THE BURRRITOS out of them! ESPECIALLY my poor sister who just kinda " stares" when she gets to the point of no return with my kids and I.

She and I sit side by side on her neat beautiful non milk stained couch - and just stare ahead. While the 15th hour of chaos ensues around us. We just stare.

Blankly. Ahead.

And I say to her :" This is insane. "

And she says. " Yes. It. Is. "

I say "It will get easier right?"

She says: "nothing "

Tell me friends of older children. Does this get easier? I would like you to pass down the holy grail- and TELL ME IF THIS GETS EASIER?

Will it always be chaos?

Will someone always scream I POOPED MY PANTS at 5 AM in the small apartment of your sisters?

Will I always have to say: IT'S JUST POOP DUST - at 5:01 AM in the small apartment of my sisters?

Will we always have to make 67 stops on the "route." All for peeing?

Sides of the road: included.

Will my untrained road side peeing daughters- ALWAYS pee directly into their CROCS or will they master this skill?

Will my children always immediately leap from bed to bed in the hotel- out of sheer "I AM OUT OF THE CAR JOY" .. and then promptly crack their chins on the edge?

Or will they master the leap?

Will my youngest child ever EAT when WE want to eat- like say at a buffet we paid 50 extra dollars for? or will I always be forced to let her walk around like she owns the place with her fat little thighs-. just so she doesnt' scream like a maniac in her highchair.

Tell me sensais.

I am your grasshoppa.

*bowing*

xoxo

supah

Enjoy your vacation * BWWWWW AHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA* Kmama!**

**What Supah doesn't know is that my vacation is PURPOSELY kid-free. The laugh is on her!! ;-)

The Will to Win

2010-06-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

Ian is in the house! Wait? What did you say? "Who's Ian?" OH COME ON. You know Ian. I've only linked to him eleventy billion times on my blog!! He's the master mind behind The Daily Dose of Reality. Ian is funny, smart, caring, and maybe just a wee bit crazy, and well, he agreed to guest post for me today so you have something new to read while I'm enjoying my time in sunny California. I should probably stop rubbing my vacation in your face, shouldn't I? Eh. Maybe tomorrow.

So sit back and enjoy, and then go pay him a visit, or at least leave him a comment here. Please.

The Will to Win

Here's a story I'd like to share. It's about the will to win...or the stupidity of some or the Carnival of Idiocy...or whatever you want to call it. I call it the inability to take control of one's life. Read on.

Went to get some Mega Millions tickets yesterday and saw the epitome of dedication. This chick in front of me who reeked of alcohol and cigarettes was buying what turned out to be, her daily routine of lottery tickets. She was probably in her 50s, but maybe in her 40s but given the fact that she looked like crap and was wearing open toed shoes that glorified her chewed up, athlete's ridden feet, who knows. Anyhow, she had given the clerk what appeared to be a handful of scratch off tickets she was redeeming. I thought, that's cool maybe she won alot. $25. That's all and she gave the guy at least 15-20 of these things. Next she goes onto her purchase of mammoth proportions. In case you don't know, Maryland does a Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawing twice daily, and that's the main reason she was there. The price for each, depending on how you want to do it, and I won't get into specifics, is 50 cents or $1 each. So she starts with the 50 cent tickets for the morning draw. The $25 credit goes away and she now owes around $10. Um, let's do some simple math shall we? Yes my friends, that's 70 tickets. 70 times she rattled off 3 or 4 digit numbers. Next she went up to the $1 tickets and rattled off a few more numbers. The register now said she owed in the $40 range when she said the following: "...did you get that? Ok, good. Now can you do the same exact thing for the nightly draw?". Myself and the people behind me were like WTF? Are you friggin kidding me? To spare you the details she got new tickets for the evening rattling off numbers yet again...and once finished the register said $85. Are we done? No, most certainly not - we aren't done! Next she asks for a $25, $10, three or four $5, and at least ten $1 scratch offs bringing her total close to $150 or so. She then takes the stack, and I mean stack - an inch thick of these tickets and she said "I'm going to check these". Say what? You cannot possibly remember all the numbers you rattled off. Now I have no idea what you get when you hit the numbers, and yes, you have to hit all 3 or 4 numbers to win, but that was just friggin crazy.

I understand how people get addicted to things such as gambling. I, myself was addicted to cigarettes whether most know it or not from the time I was 16 to about 24 or 25 or so. I stopped cold turkey when I was 22 but I still smoked here and there without many people knowing until around 24-25. In terms of addictions, smoking ranks right up there with drugs, alcohol or even gambling. But what this chick needs to somehow realize is that spending $150/day and getting back a mere $25 isn't getting you anywhere. I ain't here to tell anyone that they have to lay off the booze or alcohol or the gambling, but c'mon now. At least be a productive member of society or at least productive to yourself before you fall into that deep dark hole that this chick apparently has fallen into. Thinking about yesterday and her I, in some way feel for her. She's trying to apparently further herself by winning a couple thousand dollars by putting up $100 on a daily basis. Here's hoping that one day she'll realize the err of her ways and stop the throwing away of her money. She epitomizes so many addicts I've known, seen, and heard about in life. It's such a shame that there's so many of those types of people around who can't help themselves rid themselves of whatever reason(s) they have to act in the way they do. It's destructive behavior to it's core and only they can understand, and finally do something about it.. as always.

Monday Monday

2010-06-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday!!!! What's that you say? I'm too chipper for a Monday morning?? Well, you might be too if you were on vacation (without the kids) in San Diego, California!!!

I know, I know. I'm so mean.

While I'll be semi plugged-in during this vacation, I may not make it over to your posts or respond to comments like I normally would. Please forgive me!

I have some guest posts coming up this week by the ever insane, but lovable Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality as well as the one and only Supah, from The Adventures of a Wannabe SupahMommy.

Thank You Very Much (TYVM) will also run on Thursday, but will be hosted by Heather from Oswald Cuties. I'll have a link to Heather up on Thursday so you know where to go and leave your links. I know how important TYVM is to my your sanity, so I couldn't let you go a week without therapy.

Oh, and one final thing...I'm being featured TWO places today. Check me out over at Laura's blog, The Purse Blogger. I'm her Favorite Lady of the Week. Thank you Laura!! I'm also being featured over at Friday Follow today. I brought a favorite post of mine back out of the archives, so check it out if you haven't already.

Happy Monday to you all!

CSN Stores: A Giveaway!

2010-06-27T09:45:00.001-04:00

This contest is now closed. Congrats to #10, Oka, who won the $60 CSNstores.com gift card!

Oh Happy Day! When CSN contacted me last week and offered me the chance to be a "Preferred Blogger", I jumped at the opportunity.

If you're not familiar with CSN stores, they offer over 200 stores online, featuring items anywhere from headboards to kids toys to women's shoes. It is truly an amazing website. So amazing, in fact, that when I get to the website, I'm not sure where I want to go and browse first!

As a Preferred Blogger, CSN is allowing me to give you, my readers, the chance to win a $60 gift card to use on any item at any of their stores. You can check out their stores here: CSNstores.com.

- HOW TO ENTER-

Mandatory Entry: Go to CSNstores.com and tell me which CSN store you would spend the $60 gift card at if you won.

Additional Entries: (Please leave one comment for each entry. Please also include your email address if it's not attached to your profile.)

- Follow me publicly on Google Friend Connect

- Post my button on your blog

- Follow me on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your twitter name
- Tweet this giveaway (one tweet per day. Please leave a comment for each tweet): @dailydribbles is giving away a $60 CSNstores.com giftcard. Go here to enter: http://ow.ly/23Ncw Please RT.
- Blog about this giveaway (please leave a link)

Contest ends Sunday, July 4th at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org. Winner has 48 hours to respond to my email. Contest open to US and Canadian residents only.

Week in Review: 6/26/10

2010-06-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a week, that's for sure.

We started out this week with Buster getting the stomach flu. There is nothing quite as fun as cleaning up puke in the middle of the night...twice. Oh wait. Maybe walking into the bedroom in the morning and finding a puke-covered kid and crib is more fun. Buster went 36 hours without puking and then decided to do it again at night and to just go back to sleep in it. Ugh.

In some good news, Buddy lost his first upper tooth this week. I think he looks adorable, and I especially like it when he tries to say the "th" sound. He realized early on that he couldn't say it and he hasn't stopped trying since.

As you all know (because I won't shut up about it!), I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow. Today will be filled with laundry, cleaning house, and going grocery shopping. Oh, and I can't forget packing. That will be interesting. I'm normally an over-packer, but when you consider that I need my work clothes, evening clothes (warmer, as it will be cool) and then casual clothes for the days that I'm not at the conference. I will be packing a ton of stuff. We may need a third suitcase.

Speaking of packing and suitcases, is anyone else appalled at how effing expensive it is to bring a suitcase with you on a trip? $25 a suitcase ($23 if you check-in online beforehand), and $35 for a second suitcase. Now, if you go over the 50 lb limit on a bag, it's $90!! What the hell??

Enough of that.

Make sure you come back tomorrow. I have a CSN gift card giveaway starting. And don't forget about my Alternative ABCs giveaway, here.

Have a good weekend and a good week!!

Friday Follow: Building Friendships One Blog at a Time – June 25th

2010-06-25T00:01:00.001-04:00

It's finally Friday!

[cue confetti, balloons, and noise makers]

This week I've been lucky enough to be selected as a host for Friday Follow and I'm soooo excited!

Welcome to The Daily Dribbles. I'm Kmama, a 30-something mother, wife, and career-woman. I've been married to my best friend, Jdaddy for almost 8 years now, and we have two adorable little boys. Buddy will be 6 in August and Buster is 2 and a half.

I like humor, and sarcasm, so you'll find a lot of that over here at The Daily Dribbles. I also like to overuse punctuation and emphasis on my blog, by bolding, italicising, and capitalizing things. It's a sickness. I can't help it. I have one of my favorite posts being featured on the Friday Follow blog next Monday. For some other great posts of mine, you can click on the "Best Of", up there in my navigation bar.

One thing to note...I'm leaving on VACATION (bold, capitalized, and italicized...NICE!) this weekend. Yes, I said vacation. A real vacation, to lovely San Diego, California. I'm beyond excited. Just my hubby and me, and well, my work. But only for half of the vacation. The second half of the time, it's just me and the hubs. I tell you this to ~~make you insanely jealous~~ let you know that I probably won't be able to visit everyone in a timely manner because I'll be too busy ~~at the convention learning~~ drinking and shopping and eating and enjoying my vacation. So please bear with me.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little piece of the blogosphere. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and an awesome weekend!

Welcome to the 5th Friday Follow hosted by our awesome hostesses, Kmama at The Daily Dribbles, Elizabeth at The Crafty Charlestonian, and Brittany Ciara at Not Your Average Teen. Thank you ladies for being willing to host! Please stop by and see these awesome ladies.

We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to find many interesting blogs that you like. This is all about sharing and having fun.

We expect you to be on your honor and to have fun. These are only guidelines to make it more enjoyable for you. Here’s how YOU can join the Friday Follow celebration:

Link up your blog below.. One Link per blog

Grab our Friday Follow button include on your side bar, or post.. grab the linky information if you want it

Follow the Friday-Follow blog and the hostesses in slots 1, 2 & 3 that have volunteered today to host

Follow the blogs you want, leave comment saying you are from Friday Follow – use common courtesy

No spammers, or xxrated blogs - family friendly

If you need more guidelines about following see Friday-Follow.com

This list is new each week and closes on Saturday at 11:59pm EST. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

Congratulations to our first Three Friday Follow Winners!!!

Going Green with Noah

Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy!

Lucy’s Reality

Each week we will randomly draw from three (3) blogs from the links for the next week’s Friday Follow, and each blog chosen will be placed in the highly coveted number #7, #8, and #9 position on the blog hop. The first blog chosen will also be given the option of doing an interview which will post on Friday-Follow.com on Thursday the next week. We love your participation and want to give back to you! You could be next!

This week's Friday-Follow sponsors is Kim from Whimsical Design.

Kim is offering a blog design giveaway to one (1) lucky person/flyer. Thanks Kim for your support. Please be sure to stop by and say hi!

Want to Sponsor a Friday-Follow and be seen by thousands? Click here

Want to advertise on our site and be seen by thousands of people? If you sign up TODAY Advertising is $5 per spot. You must sign up today to qualify. This offer expires at midnight CST. Ads normally cost $10. Find out more information.

Spread the word about Friday Follow by grabbing our button for your blog and linky and come celebrate again every Friday. Feel free to also send out a tweet, blog, stumble or share the news in your own special way!

If you are interested in being a sponsor for Friday-Follow, please fill out the sponsorship form here.

Thank you for joining us. Have fun!

Happy Flying!!

TYVM: 6/24/10

2010-06-23T22:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure what the deal is with Mr. Linky today, but it's making me cranky. Feel free to leave your links in the comments.

It's Free Therapy Day!! That's right, it's Thursday, which means it's the Thank You Very Much day. The way it works is that you take out all your frustrations on people/things that peeved you off during the week and thank them in a very sarcastic way, for being who or what they are/doing what they did. I know everyone can use some free therapy, so go ahead and type yours out, grab my button from my sidebar, and then link up with me so that we can all share in each other's therapy.

- To the insurance company for never getting back to me, requiring me to make a repeat phone call, thank you very much! Oh, and a HUGE thank you very much to that same insurance company who is now playing the "blame game" and refusing to even consider my appeal on them covering the stupid $25 copay.

- To myself for being stupid and eating pizza last week Friday, thank you very much! The resulting 4 days of pain that it left me in was certainly not worth it.

- Thank you very much to Buddy's daycare for not telling us that he needed water shoes/sandals for playing outside on Tuesdays and Thursdays and requiring him to wear his socks and tennis shoes in the water. Nothing like soggy feet for the rest of the day. Seriously? Use your brains.

- To the stomach bug that attacked my poor Buster in the middle of the night this week, thank you very much! We do not need to start the "merry-go-round" of sickness right now.

- To the major storm that rumbled through during the middle of the night earlier this week, thank you very much! I so enjoy sharing my bed with children and listening to my dog pace around the room. Grr.

So now, what are you thankful for this week? Post 'em and link 'em up, or leave me some in the comments.

I'll be on vacation next week. Heather from Oswald Cuties has graciously agreed to host it next for me, so look for instructions on how to link up on my TYVM next week.

Alternative ABCs- A Review and Giveaway

2010-06-23T07:00:00.001-04:00

This contest is now closed. Congrats to #12, Tiffany, who won herself a copy of Alternative ABCs.

Last week, AMMO Books sent me a copy of Alternative ABCs to review.

About the book: It's an alternative ABC book for hipster, urban moms and their cool little youngsters. With pages like "B is for Boombox", "E is for Earth Day", "K is for Kicks", and "U is for Unity", it grabs the attention of it's reader with bold and colorful designs.

About the authors: Southern-California based designers Dave Parmley and Eric Ruffing, of 13THFLOOR craft handmade lettering, illustrations, and logos for the worlds of Action Sports, Motorsports, and music and entertainment industries. Clients that seek their services include Hot Wheels, Harley-Davidson, Oakley, and Nike.

My take: Alternative ABCs is vivid and fun. I wasn't sure if Buster would like it because he's not familiar with some of the words used in the book, but he took to it immediately. In fact, he's asked to read the book at least once every single day since we received it. And when I say "at least once", I mean multiple times per day. He'll even grab the book and sit and read it to himself for awhile. The graphics are amazing. This is definitely not your typical ABC book!

Buy it: Alternative ABCs is available for purchase at ammobooks.com and via all major bookstores in more than 20 countries.

Win it: Today is your lucky day, because AMMO Books has provided me with one copy to giveaway to a lucky reader.

-How to enter-

Mandatory Entry: Follow me publicly on Google Friend Connect

Additional Entries (Leave one comment per entry. Please also include your email address if it's not attached to your profile):

- Post my button on your blog
- Follow me on Twitter (dailydribbles) and leave your twitter name
- Tweet this giveaway
- Blog about this giveaway (please leave a link)

Contest ends Sunday, July 4th at midnight. Winner will be chosen amongst valid entries utilizing the random number generator at www.random.org. Winner has 48 hours to respond to my email.

Disclosure: AMMO Books provided me with one copy of Alternative ABCs in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are my own, well, and my son's.

TST: Parking Puzzle

2010-06-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

Last week, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Pretty All True, and I seriously laughed out loud at this post, Park Here Now. (Laughing out loud at Kris's posts is not unusual. She is hilarious. And serious. And honest. And brilliant.)

Anyway, as I was laughing, it all suddenly seemed a bit familiar and then I remembered our own parking puzzle.

It was January 2, 2007, the night that the spectacular Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings was to retire his #19 jersey. Jdaddy had scored some awesome, yet completely overpriced tickets to the game. We were lucky enough to find a sitter for Buddy, so I could go too.

The tickets came with free VIP parking in a lot close by to the Joe Louis Arena.

Being a hockey family, we were beyond excited to attend Stevie Y's retirement game, and having VIP parking was the icing on the cake.

We live a little over an hour north of Detroit. Life in Detroit is different in many, many ways. Whereas we live in a little podunk rural town, created with straight lines as the roads had to go around the farms, I can't say the same for Detroit. Lanes just disappear, roads will be going North/South and all of a sudden turn into an East/West road without notice, and the most fun of all? Two-way streets sometimes become one-way streets, again, without notice.

All that said, we weren't too worried about finding the parking lot. We had the address, it was close to Joe Louis arena, and we are familiar with the area surrounding Joe Louis. It should have been a piece of cake.

Should have been.

At first, we could not find the street where the parking lot was located. We drove around the same block probably three times until we figured out where we needed to be. I should mention right now, that the same block involved those disappearing lanes and one-way streets, and it was also rush-hour traffic time in a major metropolitan city. I should also mention that Jdaddy has absolutely no patience whatsoever when it comes to driving. None. I thought I was bad, but if you looked up "road rage" in the dictionary, his picture would probably be there.

So, like I said, it was on the third loop around the block that we figured out where we needed to be, however, we had passed it, so around we go again. All the while, I'm biting my tongue because not only am I finding this absolutely frustrating and ridiculous, but it's becoming comical. I know, however, that should I laugh, I would be walking my sorry butt to Joe Louis.

On this fourth trip around, we see the road, we are heading there...oh no! What's that? We're in the WRONG EFFING LANE, and we are now headed to underground parking.

Did you hear that? Tell me you just heard the expletives coming out of Jdaddy's mouth so that I don't have to type them here.

Around the block we go again. And this time around, I couldn't help it any longer. As we passed what could now be considered a "landmark", I busted out with "Look kids. There's Big Ben...Parliament!", perhaps the most famous line from Chevy Chase's European Vacation.

Much to my surprise, Jdaddy began to laugh. And we laughed and laughed and laughed, the crazy laugh like Chevy Chase at the end of the clip.

We finally found the street and parking lot, although because of our multiple trips around "Big Ben", we were late to the retirement show.

I'm not sure what I remember more about from that night...Stevie Y's retirement show and the Red Wings game, or our "parking puzzle".

For more great stories, make sure you head over to Once Upon a Miracle.

Monday Minute: 6/21/10

2010-06-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm linking up again with Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality for his Monday Minute.

1 - Have you ever had any feelings towards one of your teachers back in the day?

No, I never had teachers that were young and good looking. I got screwed.

2 - What's the most embarrassing thing that happened while at work? (If you never worked then make something up)

There have been a couple. One time, I was getting out of my car and it was icy out. I fell and literally slid under the car while a bunch of my coworkers stood by.

Another time, I went to sit down in my chair and completely missed it and fell on the ground. That gave people a good laugh for a long time.

3 - When was the last time you crapped yourself?

Not since I wore diapers (thank God!!). My mom said that once I went into underwear, I never had an accident.

4 - What is one thing you have always kept a secret and why have you kept this a secret for so long?

Umm, I used to be a man. KIDDING. I honestly don't have secrets of my own. I'm pretty much an open book. Now, I do know secrets of others, but those aren't mine to share.

and finally...

5 - What's your best advice for us habitual coffee drinkers as to not have to poop right after drinking it?

How's about you stop drinking that nasty stuff?? It's so disgusting.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

First came this:

Immediate following the ceremony

And then came this:

Jdaddy and Buddy

And then came this:

Jdaddy and Buster

But none of that would have been possible without this person:

Me and my dad

Or, this person:

Me and my father-in-law

Happy Father's Day to the three best dads that I know!! And a Happy Father's Day to all the other dads out there!!

**This post is also linked at parenting By Dummies Old School Photo Friday.