I was just checking the online news and was very surprised to see that Chattanooga is expecting snow in the early morning hours tomorrow. 1-2 inches of the white stuff.

I don’t have a lot of hope for this to become a reality. Because we live in the shadow of a mountain, certain weather systems seem to bypass us and are diverted northward toward the Cumberland Plateau or Soddy Daisy. Sure, the mountain might get something, but my little neighborhood? Well, I will believe it when I see it.

(P.S. Damon is still outside working on the front porch. I think it is time to convince him to come inside. Paul Barys says the temp is close to freezing.)

Today at Mom’s group someone asked me how it was going and if I had any plans. I told her that we are just trying to get a routine/ schedule down and that I plan on working more on writing and blogging.

Since jumping into the blog for money game I have been getting a real education in things like SEO, keywords, monetizing, and other topics in the blogosphere. I plan on taking time during Fuller’s nap to get an even better education on what I need to know to do well in becoming a blogul.

One site that has been helpful has been the Apogee Search site. They specialize in Paid Search Management, have been recently certified in Google AdWords.

But my favorite part of their site is their glossary. Since I am such a newbie to this game, it has been an invaluable resource that I return to time and time again.

Last Saturday Damon got the decking for the porch but was unable to purchase the deck fastening system he wanted. So he went online, ordered it and paid extra shipping so it would arrive on Tuesday. He also paid the extra shipping because his wife was very upset at the thought of canceling another event at our house because of an unfinished house project. (No, I have not had my birthday party yet.)

The deck fastening system arrived Tuesday and I have to say that the UPS guy is awesome. We didn’t expect it to arrive until the evening, but it arrived in the morning when we were gone. And the UPS guy left the box on our porch. Which is funny because we didn’t have a porch on Tuesday. We had boards set up for framing and somehow the UPS guy put the box in the middle of the boards. It cracked me up.

Last night Damon worked for many hours in the cold. And this evening he is bundled up and working some more. Our friend Dave is helping and they have made some headway. Wanna see?

Continue Reading »

I have a new bathing suit. Pretty funny to get one in January, I know, but this one is from Land’s End Overstocks and it was such a good deal I couldn’t pass it up. I love Land’s End bathing suits.

I’m kicking myself right now because I forgot to go through my ebates account to place the order. I could have gotten 3% rebate for the $30 bathing suit. I really need to download the Moe Moneymaker to remind me to use it when I shop online.

I love ebates, we have been using that site for years. When I got my laptop from Best Buy I also used ebates to get 1% back. They have over 800 online stores that I frequent all the time. They even have rebates to the apple store. (1% at the store, 3% for apple itunes!)

Ok, I need to go download Moe now. I can’t keep missing 3% rebates on music. This is rick-dick-u-lus.

Sometimes I think I am a little slow, and today I think I made a realization that I think I should have made before today.

Fuller doesn’t like to eat when there is company around or when he is visiting others.

The whole time my mom was here a lot of the conversation was revolving around how much Fuller did not eat. Sometimes he would sit at the table long after we were finished, nibbling here and there, but not really interested. If he could have skipped the whole food thing, he probably would have.

This happens when we travel as well. When we go to the lake or to Ohio and Fuller doesn’t really eat well there either. Sure, he will eat sweets but I am not the type of mother to let her son exist on a diet of Oreos and ice cream. I could exist on that diet, but not my son!

We went out to dinner last night, over to Macaroni Grill. He ate a lot of bread and some bites of pizza, but the rest of his 10 inch pizza made it home in a cardboard box.

My mom left around 10 am and since then Fuller has had 6 chicken nuggets, 4 pieces of pizza, and lots of juice. I think he is making up for lost time.

It has been a long time since I have attempted a writing assignment, and this post brought to you on behalf of MindComet, but it is a good one so I thought I should take it.

Assignment: If you could get hold of one email address, whose would it be and what would you send them a message about?

Since this is a post on behalf of MindComet, it probably has something to do with Email Marketing and here is my message… to my 15 year old self.

Continue Reading »

I asked my mom to stay with us after I finished work so that she could help me get a move on for cleaning up and getting ready for Saturday. It’s not that big a deal, this brunch, but it is something that is important to me- having people in our home. And having someone along side me to help get things more livable here has helped.

My mom left today, but she left knowing she has participated in making my house cleaner and more organized. She even found a packing slip I have been needing in order to return some gosh-awful boots. She helped me recover my dining room chairs and now they look as awesome as the rest of my dining room.

Mom kept mentioning staying an extra day to help me finish cleaning up. I had to tell her that the house really is fine and that her idea of “clean” isn’t really the same as my “clean” and really, we are good here. She got into the truck and left, a little reluctantly, but I think she thinks I am a grown up and can keep a house. Sort of.

I guess it is that kind of thing about being the parent of an adult, knowing when it is ok to let go. And on the opposite end of that thought, as the child I have to find that balance of when it is ok to accept her help and suggestions. I may be an adult and a mother, but I am still a child and a daughter.

The fact that mom got to spend time with Fuller on his own turf was an added bonus. She got to know his schedule, some of his mannerisms, watch him play at Kindermusik, and see him not eat. It was special.

I feel like I have a clean slate to jump start this new arrangement of ours. Since I don’t have a ton of stuff to wade through,it won’t be hard to leave the housework to do other things like blog and crochet. I still have a bunch of stuff to go through (paperwork and clutter) but it is contained and not exploding all over our desk and countertops.

Now, if I could just teach the dogs to wipe their paws when they come in, then we would be in business.

Saturday afternoon and evening we hung out with Esther, Luke, and Ben. While we were there Esther had the opportunity to feed Ben. Since Ben is a preemie it takes a little bit to wake him up and get him interested in actually eating.

Esther’s a great friend who doesn’t mind my questions about breastfeeding and pumping. She rented a pump from the hospital so that her supply would stay up. She said the lactation consultant said the hospital pump was better than Esther’s Pump in Style because the Pump in Style was meant to be used in conjunction with a fully breastfeeding baby and the hospital pump was meant for women who are exclusively pumping.

When I have the chance to do it again, I plan on getting a Pump in Style of my own. Even though the price is high, compared to the amount of money we used on supplementing with forumla, I think it is worth it. (Aside to Sarah-Ginny: that is some unsolicitied advice I just gave you. It is worth the money to spend on a good pump.)

Continue Reading »

Ok, not really.

I had a really good time with Fuller and my mom at Kindermusik yesterday. It was fun to move and sing with my son. And last night we practiced with slow (Fuller: looowwww) and fast (Fuller: ast!) and he really seemed to get his slow and fast on. It was great.

The part that sucked was coming home to a message on my answering machine from my dad! Kindermusik made us miss a call from my dad! I was so sad I almost cried.

Daddy has finally made it to Kandahar and apparently his email access is currently limited because we haven’t heard very much from him since he made it to that final destination. Just hearing his voice on the machine was really great.

In other SAHM news: I finished washing and drying all the clothing in the house. Today we do towels and blankets. Very exciting stuff, I know!

My mom and I worked on cleaning Fuller’s room- weeding out old toys, straightening shelves, and there has been discussion about actually vacuuming in there. I guess if I am going to be Suzy Homemaker I need to get used to words like “vacuum”.

My kitchen looks great too. We organized the recylcling, cleaned out some shelves and stirred up lots of dust. I have a little bit of an allergy thing going on right now.

Today’s SAHM activites include my mom, Fuller, and I heading out to Bennett Salvage to see about getting a new area rug for my living room. The one we had in there is now in the dining room. It looks like after 7 years I am finally setting up house, not just playing in one!

Yesterday was good. Today should fun filled with activity. As Albert says, “This is the life.”

Where wool comes from (found via Crochet Me).