Have Stroller Will Travel

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have these TWO amazing Valentines.

Picture Pages (6/52)

2012-02-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Best of Books 2011

2012-02-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

Nook Addiction. Check.

I have always loved books, but now with my Nook I am constantly on the prowl for new things to read. On Facebook, on Twitter, at work... I am always asking for recommendations of new things to read. My Nook has a backlog of books downloaded and at the ready.

Here are some of my favorite reads from 2011.

Shade It Black: Death and After in Iraq by Jessica Goodell

A story of a young female soldier who volunteers to serve in the new Mortuary Affairs department of the military. Jess recounts her tales of dealing with with the fallen and the struggles of being a female soldier.

PunditMom's Mothers of Intention: How Women & Social Media Are Revolutionizing Politics in America by Joanne C. Bamberger

How is it that once a woman becomes a mother, somehow her voice is considered less? Yet, many women become even more political and vocal after starting a family. A fascinating read with lots of external voices sharing their stories on everything from the most recent election to the highly controversial partial birth abortion.

DIY Blog Critique: A 43-point Guide to Take Your Blog To Awesomeness by Melissa Culbertson

In this fun and well written guide Mel takes you on a journey to make your blog the very best that it can be. While she does weekly critiques on her blog, this book allows you to give your blog a makeover one step at a time as quickly or slowly as you'd like. The DIY Blog Critique doesn't stop at being a 43-point guide, there are countless additional tips and links nestled throughout. A must have for any blogger.
(My review of the book.)

UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. by Scott Stratten

Any business be it a blog or a Fortune 500 company needs to read this book on effective engagement of customers in the flesh and online. Not your ordinary business book, you won't be able to put this down until you reach the end and then you'll be wanting more (which is good because he has a new book out in September). Lots of great real life stories are sprinkled throughout that really bring the book home.

The Submission: A Novel by Amy Waldman

A fictitious account of the building of a memorial after the 9/11 attacks. Amy does a tremendous job of capturing the passion, hurt and frustrations of all parties involved from the illegal immigrants working in the towers, the firefighters and those in charge of planning the memorial.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

You don't have to be unhappy to want to be happier. Over the course of a year Gretchen sets out to make herself happier by setting a new "happiness" goal each month. In this book you get to be the "fly on the wall" that sees the ups and downs she experiences on her journey to a happier self. I've started my own Happiness Project and I must admit some days it's quite the challenge to stay on task.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

A book about all the little things NASA doesn't want you to know about the space program. Things like how the toilet in space has evolved (with photos), astronaut selection, sending cadavers into space and more. Fabulous read, I couldn't put it down until I was at the last page and then I wanted more.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This book brings all the can't-look-away-from-the-train-wreck elements of a good reality show to the page. A fascinating look into one mother's approach to raise perfect children. The book revolves around her relentless music lessons/practice for her children and her distaste of Western parenting among other things.

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich

Did you know someone stole moon rocks from NASA? I didn't and I'm not sure how I missed it, but this can't miss TRUE story tells all the sordid details from the first inclination, the spectacular heist, to the later attempted sale and arrest.

What fabulous books did you read last year?

How To Manage Your Business Cards At A Conference

2012-02-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

Can we really say blog conference season is here again?

At this point it seems like it never stops. At last count I knew of 54 conferences held sometime from January to October of this year. Add to that the blogger outreach from brands for local events and I think it's a safe bet to assume you should always have a media kit and business cards at the ready.

Having been to professional conferences before I came to the wonderful world of blogging, I have to tell you that business cards are currency at blogging conferences in ways that they just aren't at other conferences.

You. MUST. Have. Them.

Keeping that in mind, here are some helpful tips to managing your business cards (both those you give away and those you receive) while at a blog conference.

One.

My advice is to keep YOUR business cards in one pocket and those you collect in another. Personally I put mine in my left pocket and those I collect in my right. I used to do just the opposite, but have since found it advantageous to put my cards in my left pocket, allowing me to grab one while simultaneously shaking a hand.

If I'm wearing a dress or skirt I put MY cards to the outside of my purse pocket and those I collect to the inside.

Thus, making sure I don't hand someone a card that isn't mine and it helps me know when I need to replenish my stock

Two.

Go with a standard size card. While there are adorable mini-cards and lots of fabulous larger size cards that will allow you to put a ton of information on them, most people stack their cards up all together and those that are larger or smaller have the unfortunate possibility of being lost or worse thrown out by bloggers and brands alike.

If you really want to customize your card, add color, round the corners, or publish a vertical card--but keep the size traditional.

Three.

While we all love a beautiful and snazzy card, keep in mind that they really are there for the receiver and not the giver. Add a photo if you can, often it is difficult to remember where or how exactly you met someone at a conference and a photo will go a long way to jogging a memory. Put down the essentials for contacting you, but don't go overboard. And, try to steer yourself away from a double-sided glossy card. It makes it very hard for bloggers/brands to make notes on. Speaking of which, you should always carry a pen with you, so you can make notes of a meaningful conversation or about how/where you met.

I also like to keep my cards in the order that I collected them. I find this incredibly useful in placing people and conversations after the whirlwind of a conference is behind me.

Four.

Lastly, how do I keep my cards organized after returning home? As often as I can during the conference I punch a whole in each card and place it on a ring. After arriving home, I finish up with any cards I might have missed and add them. I have one such ring for each conference that I have attended. It makes it a cinch to follow up with brands and bloggers after the conference and doesn't take up any space in my office.

What tips do you have for organizing your conference business cards?

Disclosure: Tiny Prints compensated me for this review. However the opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Tiny Prints. I wouldn't have written about them if I didn't love them.

Picture Pages (5/52)

2012-02-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

2012-01-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, no contest.

I've always loved the festive nature of it from the tiny conversation hearts that I used as part of my wedding vows to the fact that my mom used to wake up extra early to set out a red placemat for each of us with some sort of trinket and candy playfully displayed on.

For my husband I realized that could be a lot of pressure and so I've planned a lot of our Valentine celebrations from fancy dinners out to cozy relaxing nights in.

As a mother I am now excited to share this holiday and new traditions with my son. We've been cranking out the Valentine's Day crafts, we even made our microwave smoke one day (whoops-a-daisy). Among the crafts and chocolate, I've been inspired to think about sending out Valentine Cards instead of Christmas cards next year. A little less hustle and bustle for us, and an unexpected bit of fun mail for our family and friends. We'll see if I can part with the Christmas Card tradition when the time comes, I suppose.

In the meantime, here are a bunch of super adorable Valentine's Day Greeting Cards I'd love to personalize from the fabulous folks at Tiny Prints and hand out to Liam's class this year.

You know every boy in his class would swoon over these! Every Monday on our way to the nature center we have to build in at least an extra 45 minutes to stop at two separate construction sites to watch the diggers, dumpers and cranes do all of their magic moving, lifting and dumping. In fact at the Type-A parent conference last year I caught myself strolling past a construction site and (gasp) waving at the guys out of habit. They must have laughed about that "crazy lady" all day.

Batman is our little guy's favorite and I think he might just decide to keep all of these cards to himself. A little boy down our block is often out and about in full Batman regalia and so Liam would very much like his own superhero wardrobe. These cards would most certainly top his list.

Dino-love! When it rains on a school day, Liam gets to go out to lunch. Some weeks this gets a little pricey, but it's a super fun tradition. A pizza place that he often chooses has the little toy machines where if he eats his meal he is rewarded with a quarter or two to spend at his discretion. Most weeks he chooses a dino of one sort or another, one that we affectionately call "baby dino" gets toted around to and fro routinely. For something so tiny, I can't believe we haven't lost it yet.

And, one last card to make the parents swoon with nostalgia. The kids might pass this one by, but I'm sure it would bring at least a small smile to most of his classmate's parents. Perhaps that smile will distract them from the sugar I gave their child with the Valentine.

Don't miss a bit of Tiny Prints awesomeness by following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Disclosure: Tiny Prints compensated me with 50 cards for this review. However, the opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Tiny Prints.

Picture Pages

2012-01-31T10:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos from the last week of prompts from the #JanPhotoADay meme that I participated in this month. I plan to continue on with the #FebPhotoADay meme on Instagram as well and would love to see you there.

Weekly I will be publishing seven photos on Saturdays (not necessarily from the meme prompts). Keeping with this theme I will be posting little if any commentary and just showing you a peek into my life.

I've been meaning to take more photos of my life. More photos of the extravagant and the decidedly unextraordinary and this will help me get there.

Cheers!

Day 25: Something You Made (with Liam)

Day 26: Color

Day 27: Lunch

Day 28: Light

Day 29: Inside Your Fridge

Day 30: Nature

Day 31: You. Again.

How To Fail As A Mother

2012-01-25T09:56:00.000-05:00

Some days it would seem that I alone could write the handbook on how to unexpectedly scar your child for life. Earlier this week a bit of slightly funny UN-awesome smacked Liam right upside the head.

It all started a bit like every other Monday, a swing through a fast food place for Mamma's liquid happiness (a la Diet Coke), a stop at a construction site (too frozen and icy for any work to be done today), a drive through the trailer park (this needs a post all of its own) and a trip to the nature center for story time.

Our morning routine complete I asked Liam what he'd like for lunch, 99.99999999% of the time this results in "GO HOME! I'd like a jelly sandwich." Today, however, he asked to go to the "peanuts place"--a local burger chain where you order and then wait and take a seat all the while noshing on the free peanuts they have on hand. Free peanuts that one day not too long ago I noticed he was eating with the SHELL ON.

That my friends is a protein & fiber, one-two punch.

Needless to say we stopped, ordered, bumped into a friend from school (they made googly eyes at each other across the restaurant), and I plopped him down at a table while I went to get napkins and ketchup and the like. Unbeknowst to me at this same time he decided that he needed to use the potty and decided that the best place to stand to let me know this was directly behind me. So when I took a step back from the ketchup pump with two FULL containers of ketchup they fell and spilled all over...

his head...

and face...

and neck...

and shoulder..

and arm...

and chest.

The entire restaurant gasped and then gave me their saddest look-what-just-happened-to-your-kid face.

He screamed (I'll give him that one), I would have screamed too.

The rather unfortunate part of this is that they only have napkins at the front of the store, so we had to parade him past all the "sad" onlookers to get to the napkins, to try to at least contain the mess.

He was leery of condiments before this episode, I'm pretty sure he'll stay away from there from here on out.

Snap, Snap, Glimpse

2012-01-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

Another week of January gone.

Here's my attempt to catch a glimpse of 2012.

January 18: Something You Bought

January 19: Something Sweet

January 20: Someone You Adore

January 21: Reflection

January 22: Shoes

January 23: Something Old

January 24: Guilty Pleasure

What photos would you have taken in response to these prompts?

Neon Green, Naked Ladies and Me

2012-01-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

As evidenced above, my son's room could also double as a green screen. The next time you need to shoot an Attack of the Zombies vlog or a faux weather report, just give us a call.

Three weeks in and I've learned a lot about shooting video already, many lessons were learned from the shoot today and well...I'm going to save all those gems for the end of this series.

I love the Barenaked Ladies and was so glad to see one of their songs not only in the running, but to come away with a win as well. My absolute favorite is Call and Answer...but it's fun to hear Liam sing "Million Dollars!" all day long too.

A few years ago BNL did a series of YouTube videos called the "Bathroom Sessions" and I wanted to make an ode to that with this, but we couldn't get the video just right. Maybe another time...

For now here's my rendition of If I Had $1,000,000.

Cheers!

Five Days of Snapshots

2012-01-17T21:57:00.000-05:00

Amazingly life proceeds on without regard to our ability to capture it in with words or photos. It is easy to think that life, everyday life, is too busy to capture. However, I love the moments when I take the time to make a record of not only the big celebrations but the everyday.

January 13: In Your Bag

January 14: Something You're Reading

January 15: Happiness

January 16: Morning

January 17: Water

Who Knew Justin Beiber & Miley Cyrus Sound Exactly Alike?

2012-01-16T23:37:00.001-05:00

Week two and here we are at the eleventh hour...again.

I'll be honest and let you know that until about 6 p.m. tonight I had another song planned entirely. Then, I remembered that this one was in the queue and it seemed a perfect fit for MLK day.

Aside from the great lessons of humanity that apply to MLK day, I also love this song because when the rap kicks in 3/4 of the way through L.i.am starts to break out his own rhymes.

(Which is eleventy thousand kinds of awesome.)

The song is a bit lengthy and the intro makes me want to break out into jazz hands and/or spirit fingers (for those of you who have seen Bring It On) or something for crying out loud.Thirty plus seconds is a loooong time to stare lovingly into a camera.

Hope you like it.

Cheers!

Capturing January One Photo At A Time

2012-01-14T10:43:00.000-05:00

January is flying by.

I'm working a lot, which is awesome, but which also leave very little time for blogging. So while I haven't been doing much to capture the month in words, I have been playing along with Fat Mum Slim and her January photo challenge on Instagram (I'm @AlissaEnders) called #JanPhotoADay.

Check out the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram to see some wonderful photos. Here are mine, with the daily prompt below each photo.

January 1: You

January 2: Breakfast

January 3: Something You Adore

January 4: Letterbox

January 5: Something You Wore

January 6: Makes You Smile

January 7: Favorite

January 8: Your Sky

January 9: Daily Routine

January 10: Childhood

January 11: Where You Sleep

January 12: Close-Up

Me, Adele and A Bloggy Musical Throwdown Begins

2012-01-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

And, away we go...

Here is the first song (at the 11th hour) in the #BloggyMusicalThrowdown, Rumour Has It by Adele. I love this song and all things Adele. I came to know her music only recently when Liam literally swooned each and every time her music came on the radio, in a store, anywhere. I tracked her down and was delighted to like each and every track on her 21 album and to see a concert of hers on DVD while visiting my folks over the holiday.

I was rocked by one illness or another this holiday season and so I am a bit behind on making the videos for this challenge. I had had great plans of filming in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other fun sites along the way, but it wasn't meant to be.

I hope these videos, the making, the editing, the syncing, and the signing will only improve over the next 7 weeks. For now though, I hope you'll enjoy this fun bit of self expression.

Cheers!

I Resolve.

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

I resolve to dance more and sit less.

I resolve to be happy more and frustrated less.

I resolve to write more and sleep less.

I resolve to focus on the good more and the bad less.

I resolve to say YES more than I say NO.

I resolve to be more.

What are your resolutions this year?

Best of HSWT

2011-12-27T16:39:00.000-05:00

Not quite the end of my second year of blogging (that happens in February) and just shy of 600 posts, here are some of my favorites from the past year.

Thank you so much for reading, commenting and coming along on this journey with me.

January: I Am Angry
February: Reframing Life and Bump in the Night
March: 10 Vehicle Colors for New Parents
April: Ultimate Blog Party
May: You Know You're Dining With Toddler Moms When...
June: Vintage Me (Links for whole series listed.)
July: 10 Things To Keep In Mind for BlogHer '11
August: My Music Video Debut
September: Where were you on 9/11? (Links for whole series listed.)
October: A "Week In My Life" Starts Now (Links for whole series listed.)
November: Candle Wax, Footprints and One Dirty Deed
December: Best Damn Cookie Recipe, EVER!

This post would be incomplete without mentioning the Circus Porn post that I wrote earlier this year. The reason I mention it is that 25% of the visitors to my humble little blog each and every day arrive here by typing that little phrase into Google. TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT!

For those new to this space here is my Best of 2010 post.

What were some of your favorite posts of the year?

Santa Came Early and He Brought His Awesome

2011-12-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

Liam is the perfect age for Christmas this year. Every Santa sighting is magical, every moment a perfect time to talk with him about the wonder of the holiday season--it's been awesome and we've loved sharing every minute of it with him. So when our box of toys arrived, courtesy of Chris Byrne aka The Toy Guy and his list of Top Holiday Toys it was like an early Christmas for all of us.

We had the privilege of checking out the seven toys included and below is our review of each.

As a family our absolute favorite was the Lazer Stunt Chaser from Thinkaway Toys. Each of us tries to find a way to wrangle this toy for ourselves, because YES it's just that cool. The car comes with a rechargeable station that you can use to make sure your car is full of "juice" and then you use the remote to point the laser in front of the car where you want it to go. Liam's favorite thing is to point it between his legs and then the car will go in circles through his legs to get to the laser.

Cracks him and us up every single time.

We all also really enjoyed the Perplexus Rookie (easy) and the Perplexus Epic (challenging) 3D maze balls. After getting the metal bearing in the right place you have to work it through this maze turning and flicking just so to not knock you ball off the track and have to start all over. It's a good challenge and the perfect thing to have around the house during the holidays. I know it would go from person to person in our families as everyone tried to make it all the way to the end.

I love Hexbugs and the Hexbug Larva that we received is no exception. I don't know what it is about these little guys but I just can't get enough. Our new Larva is black, and he gets along just fine with our other Hexbugs wiggling to and fro in their giant habitat.

Liam loves the Zhu-Fari Pets that we received. It's a little habitat for a faux hamster and he loves making the animal squeak, roll and explore the remote regions of our living room and kitchen.

The 3D BreakThrough Puzzle (Spiderman) was a big bit too. Liam is really really into puzzles these days and never does a day pass that we don't talk about some sort of superhero as well. You can make this puzzle over and over again or make it into a mask (glue included) and mount it on your little person's wall.

The Redaki card game that was included was a little old for our kiddo (geared for ages 6+), but it would be a great trading card game for slightly older kids. Each player becomes a character and then also acquires a set of attack and monster cards that they can then use to attack their opponent's character with.

Want to win ALL of the toys above?

______________
To Enter: (Please leave each entry as a separate comment to increase your chances of winning.)

Leave a comment, any comment.
Does your family play games during the holidays?
What's your favorite or your child's favorite game/toy?
Do you have a "go-to" game/toy that you like to give children?

Winner will be selected at random on December 26, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by The Toy Guy. The Toy Guy provided me with product for test/review purposes and agreed to provide one lucky reader with one of each of the toys listed above. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by The Toy Guy.

Your 5 + My 2 = 7 Weeks of Fun

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Whew!

After some great suggestions and two rounds of voting here are the FINAL 7 songs that will be signed in A Bloggy Musical Throwdown starting January 9, 2012.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Groove is in the Heart by Deee-Lite
If I Had $1,000,000 by Barenaked Ladies
Rumor Has It by Adele
We Are The World (Remake) (Official Version)
We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
What's Going On? (All Star Tribute)

What do you think of the TOP 7?

Did your song make the list?

Best Damn Cookie Recipe, EVER!

2011-12-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't heard, Christmas is right around the corner.

In fact we're hosting an intimate Christmas party here this evening.

With a gazillion things on your schedule this season and holiday parties a plenty, you must find time to make a batch of these delicious cookies.

My mother won a stove in a cooking contest with them for crying out loud.

Honest, they're awesome squared. In fact, maybe that's what we should call them from now on.

So without further ado here is the recipe for my mother's award winning Carmelitas.

Carmelitas

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1 1/8 cups brown sugar
1 1/8 cups caramel ice cream topping
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup margarine, melted

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and margarine to form crumbs. Press half the mixture into a lightly sprayed 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and nuts. Mix the caramel ice cream topping and flour and drizzle over the top. sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for another 15 to 20 minuets. Chill and cut into bars.

Enjoy!

The Final Countdown...

2011-12-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

Here we are, the final stage of voting in the Bloggy Musical Throwdown. Below you will see 11 selections of which you may choose 5.

A second round of voting (the finals as it were) will open today and close on December 18 at 9 PM (EST).

The FIVE songs selected by you, and two by me will be signed by yours truly for SEVEN consecutive Mondays starting January 9, 2012.

What say you? (Scroll to see all choices.)

free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Vote Or Die!

2011-12-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

Drumroll please.....

Here are the selections offered up by YOU.

Now it's time to vote.

This first round of voting that will remain open until 9 PM (EST) on December 14.

A second round of voting (the finals as it were) will open December 15 and will close on December 18 at 9 PM (EST).

The FIVE songs selected by you, and two by me will be signed by yours truly for SEVEN consecutive Mondays starting January 9, 2012.

What say you? (Scroll to see all choices.)

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

The Unexpected Shattering of My Heart

2011-12-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

It wasn't quite I HATE YOU, it was almost worse.

Is there worse than hearing your kid say I HATE YOU????

Lord, knows I said it to my own mother more times than any heart should have to bear.

A lovely day spent in the city with an old friend who hadn't seen us since he was a baby.

We played trains and make-believe and chase until it was time to go.

A quick drop off and we were nearing home when I heard....

Him: "Mama, I need to tell you something!"

Me: "Sure, what's up?"

Him: "Mama, I don't love you...in fact, I never did."

He's three.

He broke my heart into a million pieces.

It took a moment before I composed myself and told him that it was a shame that he didn't love me anymore.

It took a moment before I told him that my love would never falter, come what may--part of my heart was marked forever his.

It Was The Worst Of Gifts...

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

While reading the BEST of gifts was fun, the true fun starts here.

It Was The WORST of Gifts...

‎"2005 or 2006. My first birthday with a new boyfriend, he got me the DVD of the first season of Family Guy. I had never seen the show, and all I could say was,"You obviously got this for yourself. Why even pretend that it's a gift for my birthday??". (He got the point, and subsequent gifts were better.) -Mindy

"Worst? A blue, glass ashtray with the Last Supper on the bottom. From an aunt who was clearly misguided (for many reasons, one being I didn't smoke)." -Natalie

"The worst gift I ever got was a ceramic teapot of a little boy on a sled... and the little boy's head came off to get the water in. It took me a long time to get rid of it because it came from one of my favorite relatives. :)" -Vanessa

"The worst gift I ever got was an umbrella for Christmas when I was a kid. It was solid blue, so it didn't even have a cute girly design or anything. I was 10 at the time and thought... WTF? Don't you give a kid a toy at Christmas? Haha." -Mary

"Worst gift...a remote car starter that my step-father, brothers, and husband tried to install for me. The gift was great BUT it activated the anti-theft system in my car. We had to get towed to the dealership so they could fix it (by removing the remote car starter)." -Jodi

"Worst gift was an 6ft x 4ft giant clown blanket." -Crystal

"Worst gift I ever received? My Godmother gave me a doily-shaped angel sweatshirt... with a doily collar two years in a row. I was 15 & 16. Yup." -Kelli

"I've gotten bad gifts here and there but I'm not sure I could pinpoint the worst. Unless it was the time my grandmother got me a pair of pants for Xmas so large I could fit both legs in one leg hole. When I was 11." -Audrey

"The worst gift I ever received was 3 bars of Slim Jim's (even worse was my friend received the same gift and she is a vegetarian!). -Alisyne

"I'm lucky enough to not have had many terrible gifts, though my then-mother-in-law did buy me baby gifts as Christmas presents about 3 years before I was pregnant." -Judi

"Worst gift? Definitely a toilet brush holder in the shape of a cat. Return!" -Leigh An

"The worst gift would be a mop and bucket! Thanks A LOT... :)" -Anash

"I know of a man who gave his wife a can of beans as her only present for one holiday. And while they weren't rich they also could get beans when needed or wanted." -April

"When we were first married, he bought me an outfit that made me look like a boy. I only kept the shoes & he hasn't bought me clothing since!" -Julia

"My family has a tradition of husbands giving wives "thoughtful" presents that the wives never asked for and didn't really want. My grandfather gifted my grandmother with a wheelbarrow to make her chores easier. My father gave my mother a self-propelled lawnmower for the same reason. My beloved husband narrowly avoided death when he heard me recount this story and scooted off to the mall to return the blender he had gotten for me. He replaced it with the best present I ever got from him: a leather jacket that looked like the one I had in high school and adored. It fit and he got it on sale! -Andrea

"While opening wedding gifts L A T E at night (no guests in the room): A poorly decoupaged bible-shaped clock with Jesus' head facing off the right side. I exclaimed gleefully upon opening, "Look, honey, a clock for the garage!" -Jennifer

"The year I was pregnant with Dean (he was born 10 days after Christmas, so you can imagine how enormous I was), my MIL gave me a size XS brown velour jogging suit. I was not a size XS before I was pregnant. I opened it and she yelled, "It's for after you lose the baby weight!" And then I cried." -Jen

Wishing you NONE of these under your tree this year!

Happy Holidays!

It Was the Best of Gifts...

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Do you love how Twitter and Facebook have an answer for just about everything?

I do!

So I asked little Ms. Social Media what were the best and worst gifts she has ever received.

Sit down with a GIANT Diet Coke (as Liam calls them), put your feet up and enjoy!

It Was The BEST of Gifts...

"Mother's Day 2011. (My 2nd Mother's Day ever.) My husband took the baby out visiting the entire day so I could sleeeep and be utterly lazy for the first time in 2 years. No flowers, no candy, no dinner...just sleep. It was glorious. It was beautiful. BEST. GIFT. EVER." -Angenette

"Best? Tickets to see Keith Richards & the Expensive Winos. I L-O-V-E Keith Richards!!!!" -Natalie

"Best gift I ever got was my husband and kids. Corny, I know!" -Mary

"Hmmm . . . Barbie townhouse when I was about 8 was pretty cool. I spent many hours with that - especially liked the elevator! The piano (real one - not a Barbie one) was great . . . although I didn't think that practicing was so great at the time." -Kristen

"Best gift? A white-gold sapphire & diamond ring the hubs surprised me with for our 5th wedding anniversary." -Kelli

"My favorite gift - New Years Day '10 I had my daughter.. Otherwise I'd say my stamped necklace from The Vintage Pearl." -Carla

"I've had many wonderful gifts. I remember getting quints, makeup, and a Cabbage Patch Doll for Easter as a kid (stuck with me all these years so must have been a really good gift)." -Alisyne

"Best? I would say my engagement ring." -Leigh An

"My Camera from Seth :) It inspired me to pursue my passion in photography! Definitely the best. present. EVER!" - K.C.

"My husband gave me a membership to Brick Bodies. Initially I was mad because I didn't want to spend the money but I love it there." -Julia

"I always appreciate socks..." -Anna

"Best gift--My husband bought me a killer red dress for my birthday one year. He saw it in a shop window and went in and bought it. I had a special event coming up, so I had something gorgeous to wear." -Jen

"My first Schwinn bicycle when I was about 12. Also, Rich once gave me a live lobster wrapped up in a box for my birthday...laughed until it hurt." -Janet

Check back tomorrow for the WORST gifts!

There are some doozies!

Putting The "Magic" In Christmas

2011-12-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

It is impossible to leave Gaylord National Resort's "Christmas on the Potomac" and not believe in all the magic and wonder that is this time of year. We were fortunate enough to attend a fun-filled day of magic and delightful mischief in and around the Gaylord Hotel and ICE! Show featuring the the whimsical ice styling of Merry Madagascar.

Our most awesome journey began with a few tasty morsels and three Shrektastic size glasses of Ogre milk. Yum! After gazing outward at the gorgeous Potomac river vista from the all glass front of the hotel's lower atrium and spotting a few of our most favorite Dreamworks characters, we decided to make our way to down to meet them in the ~~flesh~~ fur. A bit timid, Liam didn't make it up and into any photos with the animals, but make no mistake about it his eyes were as wide as saucers as he saw Po from Kung Fu Panda martial art'd his way over to give us a very enthusiastic wave. After saying hello to Gloria, Alex and King Julien from Madagascar as well as Shrek, Po and Puss in Boots we put on our jackets and made our way across the parking lot to the huge dome that houses the incredible ICE! show.

Once inside the enchanting ICE! tent we found ourselves watching a short video featuring a bit of the Merry Madagascar tale and showing us how the sculptors (from Harbin, China) made this winter wonderland out of ice in just 30 days. When the video was complete we were whisked away to don our blue parkas that we wore over top of our winter coats (you need two jackets when it's 0 degrees inside) and then we were off.

The sculptures inside ICE! were incredible and awe inspiring. Full of light and colored ice to make each and every sculpture come to life in its own unique way. Instantly we were transplanted to the warm tropical island that the movie was set in, even though we were double parka'd up.

With our trip to ICE! complete, we ventured back over to the hotel where we engaged in a scavenger hunt put on by none other than the incomparable Puss in Boots. It had us searching high and low for each of the clues that in the end spelled out a magic phrase that garnered the little Mister some fantastic Dreamworks loot. With our recent foray into geo-caching Liam was most excited about this part of the day and even wanted to do it a second time.

Instead though, we hunkered down in the middle of the lower atrium for the nightly (FREE) Christmas tree lighting, complete with fountains choreographed to Christmas tunes, indoor snowfall and the entire Dreamworks cast listed above. This show is available nightly for free and starting yesterday you can meet the characters in the lobby for free too. Wahoo!

A super special THANK YOU to MomzShare and Gaylord National Resort for bringing this amazing Christmas experience to our family. We hope that you'll take a day this holiday season and go see it for yourself. As a parent there are only so many opportunities to share magic and this is most definitely one of those experiences...it's not to be missed!

Disclosure: MomzShare and Gaylord National provided my family with a private cookies and milk reception, tickets to ICE!, ice skating, meet the characters experience and parking. All opinions are my own.

A Bloggy Musical Throwdown

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

You know how Jack Nicholson is all "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!!"

And, Tom Cruise is all "Nuh-Uhh, I Can Too!"

And, then Jack Nicholson starts sweating and he's like "You Can Not Say No To The Jack!"

You do?

Cool.

This is sort-of-nothing-like-that, but I'm glad I got your attention.

This is more along the lines of Bobby Flay and what I like to call the Blogger Throwdown.

You lay down the challenge (songs), and I'll rise to it (sign 'em).

So let me lay out the particulars of this little shindigy.

Remember this past August when I did a little signy-signy in this Clever Girls video?

Yep, that's Momma Needs A Beer flaunting her lip-syncing too, 'cuz we're rad like that!

Now it's your turn to...ahem...have your way with me.

(Get your minds out of the gutter!)

You pick the songs, 5 of them and come January 2012 I'll sign 'em.

You have from now until December 11 at 9 PM (EST) to submit as many songs as you like.

Then, there will be a first round of voting that will open on December 12 and remain open until 9 PM (EST) on December 14, a semi-finals of sorts.

A second round of voting (the finals as it were) will open December 15 and will close on December 18 at 9 PM (EST).

The FIVE songs selected by you, and two by me will be signed by yours truly for SEVEN consecutive Mondays starting January 9, 2012.

*There are no restrictions of song, artist or genre.*

**And, uh..yeah this is kind of like a popularity contest in high school. Those with the most votes win. In the event of a tie, I'll write them down on a sheet of paper and let Liam pick.**

Bring. It. On.

You Collect Shoes, My Kid Collects Toothbrushes

2011-12-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

Do you have a collection? Do your kids?

Maybe you have 12 pairs of shoes and 1 toothbrush?

My kid has just the opposite, one pair of shoes and more toothbrushes than you can shake a stick at.

My son's obsession is the toothbrush. He has close to a dozen in rotation at any given moment.

I mean, how can a kid know if he'll feel like Batman, Dora, Lightening McQueen or Winnie the Pooh?

A little dude's gotta have choices.

And, you know that we are movie addicts around here. I'm pretty sure Liam has seen more movies in the theater this year than a lot of adults. It's a passion of mine and we love to share in the popcorn, delicious drinks and cinema together.

So, when Mommy Parties asked if I would be interested in hosting an Oral B Stages party for a few of Liam's closest friends, I. Was. In.

Toothpaste, toothbrushes, balloons, some awesome Winnie the Pooh bath wash, popcorn and Winnie the Pooh movie were in store for our regular play group.

The kids couldn't wait to peek into their goody bags and Liam has been a brushing machine since the party. He loves the Winnie the Pooh toothbrush and the Lightening McQueen toothpaste. The other children were excited to find Lightening McQueen, Toy Story or Princess toothpaste in their bags along with age appropriate toothbrushes.

The moms were glad to see their kids excited about brushing with these awesome products. Tooth brushing can be a challenge in the easiest of homes, so anything that makes it an easier task for a mom to check off is a blessing. Thanks to Oral B for making brushing a breeze!

Disclosure: Mommy Parties and Oral B provided a toothbrush, toothpaste, Disney Lavender Wash, balloons and popcorn for each guest in attendance (myself included) and a copy of Disney's Winnie the Pooh movie for us to enjoy together. All opinions are my own and were in no way influenced by Mommy Parties or Oral B Stages.

WE Have The Power To CHANGE The World

2011-12-01T23:04:00.000-05:00

Six days after I arrived in Washington, DC in 1999 I participated in the AIDS Walk. As we walked with thousands of others committed to help find an end to this disease and to honor the millions of lives it had taken too early, I also learned so much about this fabulous city that I would call home.

The following year I participated in the AIDS marathon fundraising program and ran and completed the Marine Corp. Marathon.

It's World AIDS Day today.

Please take a moment today to remember all those who have lost partners, parents, children and friends to this disease.

Peace!

Pay It Forward {Day 30/Year 2}

2011-11-30T21:21:00.000-05:00

Huzzah!

30 days of blogging...DONE!

30 days of finding some way big or small to pay it forward to someone somewhere.

Some were folks I know like my favorite bloggers, my son and my husband.

Others days were to incredible organizations, random people behind us in line and in ways that might never actually get noticed.

My favorites were always the ones that involved seeing the joy Liam gets in giving freely and unconditionally to others.

Last year, I felt inspired and invigorated by the challenge each and every day. There were days when I almost jumped out of bed in anticipation of finding a way to pay it forward. This year was much more challenging and I'm not sure why.

I'll be honest, there were many times this month when I thought of throwing in the towel and then I'd get an email, tweet or Facebook message from one of YOU telling me how this has inspired YOU to do do something kind for a stranger.

Your kindness overwhelms and excites me.

I had planned to write a post this evening about how I didn't think I could muster all that it takes to do this for 30 days straight next year. And, then I started linking back to those posts up at the top and I fell head over heels with the idea again.

Just because this year was different from last year doesn't make it worse, just different.

I'm left inspired and wondering what a different world we could have if we all gave more, not just once a year at the holidays, but everyday.

What if we not only took care of ourselves, but woke each day looking to take care of each other too?

It doesn't have to be monumental or monetary or take an entire day. Sometimes a simple smile or hello is all it takes to change someone's outlook for the day, week or month.

Thank you for taking this journey with me again.

I am so lucky to have each of you as a reader!

Peace!

(My pay it forward was social media based again today as I decided to close out the month commenting on blogs, tweets and status updates.)

Pay It Forward {Day 29/Year 2}

2011-11-29T22:04:00.000-05:00

I'm not very crafty.

I'm easily, dare I say, very easily distracted.

I find it difficult to buy gifts for people and not give them to them immediately.

.............

Why do I choose to raise Liam almost entirely outside of our household?

Because it keeps me honed in, it keeps me present--in the moment.

A skill that is almost beyond reach for me within the confines of our home.

Here there always seems to be a phone call to be made, a text to zip out, an email to write, a room to be tidied, a fridge to be inventoried, a load of laundry to be put in...the list goes on and on and on.

Yet, from the moment I made the decision to stay home with Liam I knew that to me there was a difference between a stay-at-home mom and a homemaker. I have no problem with either title, but homemaking has never been for me.

So in order for me to be present in raising him, often that means we go out to learn.

Liam loves home though and he is expressing that more and more these days, so I've been making an effort to respect that.

On Black Friday I bought over a dozen craft projects for him for Christmas, and then today we did at least 7 of them.

We stayed home, I stayed present and we crafted together.

They are meant for 6 year olds (aka...they are about my speed), but he does well with them.

We worked together. We laughed together. We took pride in our work.

My Pay It Forward today was to honor that his preferences are sometimes simply different than mine and to make space in our lives for both of our natural inclinations.

Pay It Forward {Day 28/Year 2}

2011-11-28T22:41:00.000-05:00

It doesn't cost a dime to say THANKS and yet if you are anything like me you are far more likely to send a note when things go wrong than when things go right.

It's easy to ask for a manager and compliment someone, but writing a nice letter about extraordinary customer service or kindness is really great too.

We love the local nature center.

We go there often for everything from camping and campfire tales to weekly storytimes and craft hours. Every week the programs become stronger, more diverse and engaging. So, today I wrote a letter complimenting one of our favorite Naturalists. She's great with the kids and always greets Liam with such warmth and love. A few weeks ago when we were geo-caching there I ran into the loo, when she fond out he was outside she ran out to chat with him before leading a canoe tour.

I love that she goes the extra mile not only for us, but for everyone who visits the center.

Pay It Forward {Day 27/Year 2}

2011-11-27T22:48:00.000-05:00

Sometimes helping others doesn't have to involve money or even leaving your house.

Sometimes it's as simple as logging on to a website and playing a few vocabulary games. Good for bloggers and interpreters, for kids and parents alike.

Tonight I donated 2,000 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme by testing out my knowledge of some English vocabulary words.

English not your thing?

They have six broad genres with fifteen sub-categories that you can test your knowledge in. For every right answer you give, the sponsors of FreeRice.com will donate 10 grains of rice. It's a great way to kill some time while waiting at the doctor's office, for your flight to take off or just chilling at home with a nice glass of wine...or Diet Coke as the case may be.

Take a minute or two or thirty this holiday season and donate some rice to some individuals in need.

Connect with Free Rice at the link above or on Facebook or Twitter @freerice.

Pay It Forward {Day 26/Year 2}

2011-11-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

I'm giving you fair warning, I'm going to whine just a little.

We had the flu on Thanksgiving, sore throats and the sniffles yesterday and today we have the whole ungodly cold in all its glorious forms.

I've got to be honest, it's not pretty here.

Regardless, the awesome Shae from Macaroni Kid gave us tickets to The Festival of Trees which Liam and I love to attend together every year. I had promised him and had been building it up all week, so we went. It's a great charity event for the Kennedy Krieger Institute who brings awesomeness to sick and injured kids all year long.

We had a tremendous time and spent more money than we should have after my Black Friday Extravaganza, but it was all in the name of charity and paying it forward.

Happy Holidays!

(I'm off to a NyQuil fueled sleep filled with dreams of feeling better tomorrow.)

Pay It Forward {Day 25/Year 2}

2011-11-25T20:30:00.000-05:00

Black Friday is the perfect day to Pay It Forward. For me it's the perfect storm of shopping, deals and people watching. I woke with a sore throat and the sniffles after having had the flu yesterday, but little can deter me from the magical beginning of the holiday season. Christmas songs on the radio and an old friend coming up to spend the day together catching up and walking more than our fair share of miles was just what I needed to spring from my slumber at 3am.

By 4 I was merrily making my way into a parking space, when I decided to yield the super close spot to the person coming the other direction. See you easy that was?

Then, it was off to score my holiday loot from the first store, and I was able to allow someone to go ahead of me in line. Zing.

A glorious lady at my 4th store went and scored me a bag for the awkward items I was holding. (What goes around, comes around.)

My favorite part of the day was when I brought six "20% off your entire purchase coupons" to a place I knew that would honor them in addition to the great discounts today. I gave out the extra five to other shoppers, two of which were VERY stoked to receive them. (We were able to give out some extra coupons in a few other stores too.)

In another store, someone gave us a 20% off coupon and we in turn gave her our frequent shopper punch card so that she could combine it with hers for a super awesome discount on her next trip there.

I purchases lunch for my friend who made the trek up to visit.

All in all it was a wonderful day of both giving and receiving, just like it should be.

Happy Holidays!

Pay It Forward {Day 24/Year 2}

2011-11-24T18:22:00.000-05:00

The little Thanksgiving that didn't.

That was the theme of our celebration today.

At about 1am Tim and I woke to each other shaking, not because of an earthquake or other worldly disturbance, but because we were both frozen...fever. The fever morphed into insane nausea, compounded by a lack of ability to breathe without coughing up half a lung.

It was official, we had both been hit by the flu on Thanksgiving. Total bummer.

We tried to go on about our merry way this morning and make Thanksgiving dinner for Liam, but the smells from the different foods sent us to immediately toss our cookies and so we called a truce on the Thanksgiving meal.

We spent the entire day being kind to one another, napping in shifts and Liam has been an angel about it all day.

We did wish him a Happy Thanksgiving and he responded that it couldn't be if we didn't have turkey. It's amazing how quickly they learn of traditions.

I am thankful today for a day of paying it forward to each other with naps, movies and taking things slow. I am also thankful that the flu is the worst of it. (knock on wood)

Hope you had a more magical Thanksgiving.

I am thankful to each of you for reading.

Pay It Forward {Day 23/Year 2}

2011-11-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

All Hail, Day of the Kiddo commenced today!

Last year, I did a day of Pay It Forward to Liam and I knew I wanted to include it this year as well.

The day started with a Jelly+Fish=Jellyfish sandwich. You know, jelly on the new Pepperidge Farm fish shaped bread.

Then we were off to the library where he picked up the same 'pocket video' that we returned last night. Because we wouldn't want to go more than a day without Art Dog would we?! Apparently, the answer to that is a loud resounding NO!

After securing not only Art Dog, but a Diego book on CD we zoomed over to eat burgers and fries with his good buddy for lunch before meandering back in the general direction of our house.

Once home, we settled in for a little Word World, and then the best part of letting him make the choices today, we watched the trailers for all the kid's movies out right now and he settled on Arthur Christmas. As soon as Dad got home from work, we headed out and gave dad a little free time of his own--ya know, to prepare for our company tomorrow.

I'm going to admit that I thought I was going to simply endure Arthur Christmas for Liam and I came out with a new favorite kid Christmas movie.

And, then he rewarded me for letting him take the helm of this ship all day by choosing to go to bed a whole HOUR early.

Whoa.

If you have a chance to let your kid(s) make the decisions for the day or even the afternoon this holiday season, I'd highly recommend it.

'Tis the season for making magic happen!

Pay It Forward {Day 22/Year 2}

2011-11-22T22:03:00.001-05:00

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you have been a student in a classroom at least once in your life before.

Then, I'm going to assume that at some point you have had a really sucky teacher or two or three.

Am I right?

But, I'm also willing to bet that at some point in your tenure as a student you had one or two or three supremely amazing teachers.

I know I did.

Now, enter Katie Sluiter of Sluiter Nation. You might remember her from when she posted her 9/11 story here a few months ago. Not only is she an incredibly talented and awesome blogger, she's also a teacher that goes above and beyond to give her students amazing quality experiences. She is one of those amazing teachers. So when you go out shopping this holiday season be it on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday or any day between now and the end of the year why don't you pick up a little something off her list here or here (scroll to the Ss).

She's not asking for a million bucks. She's asking for simple things like boxes of crayons/markers or scissors and glue sticks.

Katie's making a difference everyday in the lives of young people.

Take a moment and pay it forward to her and her students this holiday season.

I know I will be.

Pay It Forward {Day 21/Year 2]

2011-11-21T23:18:00.001-05:00

Living with our families far away from us, we don't get out on dates very often these days. Today I used my pay it forward for my marriage. A few months ago I bought us tickets to a four part storytelling series put on by NPR called Stoop Storytelling. I wasn't sure how we would find a sitter for each of the evenings, but I knew we needed the time to connect and decided we'd just have to find a way to make it work. Good friends of ours who have a boy the same age as Liam graciously agreed to watch him tonight AND they gave us a gift certificate to use in Little Italy beforehand. It was very much appreciated and we are really lucky to have great people like them in our lives.

Today is also my birthday and the hubs surprised me by taking the day off so that I could sleep in.

Best. Present. Ever.

I also took a nap before we left for the show.

So good.

Now off for a slice of pumpkin pie before saying good-bye to a super awesome birthday.

Hope you can find a little time to pay it forward to your spouse today. Taking care of your marriage does good things for you, your kids and the karma of the universe.

Pay It Forward {Day 20/Year 2}

2011-11-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

10 days left!

Are you excited to have me back to my usual writing shenanigans soon?

Or will you miss Pay It Forward month?

Honestly for me it'll be a bit of both. I hope that before November of next year I will blog more about Paying It Forward than I did this past year.

Tomorrow's my birthday and the boys let me sleep in today which was awesome and wonderful all by itself, but even more so since I was/am feeling a bit under the weather. That was the best pay it forward/birthday present I could have asked for. Then it was off to an early birthday lunch and a trip to the grocery store for our Thanksgiving day meal before heading back home for the rest of the day.

In other news, our neighbors added a new baby girl to their family about three weeks ago, so in addition to raking all of our own leaves this afternoon--we raked their entire yard too. It created an extra awesome pile for Liam to jump in and it felt really nice to help out a family that has a lot of growing and adjusting to do right now. I remember those early days and raking the lawn was the LAST thing on my mind at the time.

If my arms are not too tired perhaps we'll rake our other neighbor's yard tomorrow.

Twenty days in have you found a way to pay it forward yet?

Pay It Forward {Day 19/Year 2}

2011-11-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

Patience.

In large part his was my pay it forward today.

I was patient and did not turn around and speak to the little girl who kicked my seat HARD all throughout our viewing of Happy Feet Two (You should totally go see it.) tonight.

I did not tell the woman who used her cell phone to play a word game for 20 minutes during the movie to turn. it off.

I was patient as I was told a whole bunch of nonsense from a customer service representative on the phone tonight. Because, while I didn't like what she was saying, she doesn't make the policies. She's just doing her job on a Saturday night and she's probably not compensated well for enforcing their (insert your favorite expletive here) policies.

I just want to spend my money with your company, please make this easier. Thank-you-very-much!

In addition to practicing my skills in the 'being patient' department I also spent an hour commenting on Facebook tonight. I'm not on all that often any more and when I am on I often opt for the lazy "like" option instead of a full blown comment. Tonight, I took the time to be...well....SOCIAL.

It felt good to connect with people that I am connected to in one way or another in real life. Different from blogging or Twitter or even my blog Facebook account...I have met every single person on my personal Facebook account and it was nice to see what is happening in their lives in this calm before the storm that is the soon-to-be whirlwind of holidays.

Have you gotten into the habit of just clicking the "like" button in lieu of comments on Facebook?

Pay It Forward {Day 18/Year 2}

2011-11-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaaaaaa!

Tonight was our community's Christmas tree lighting and hot dog we won tickets to sit on the patio of the micro-brewery that shares a plaza with the Christmas tree. This is super awesome because it meant no fighting amongst the masses for a good spot.

We got to simply sit back, relax and enjoy the show with complimentary cookies and cocoa for Liam.

To pay it forward we invited another family that was planning to attend anyway to share our table and premier viewing spot. Yay!

We also brought a tube of glow sticks for Liam and his friend and three additional tubes for him to hand out just because. He loved having that honor of giving them away and we talked about how nice it felt to just give.

Unfortunately people are pretty skeptical of free and fun just for the sake of it so it took some serious convincing that yes they could have them and no we didn't expect anything in return.

*In other news, after I took loads of photos this evening my camera phone failed...perhaps permanently. So, this stock glow stick photo will have to do for now.*

Have you found a way to pay it forward yet?

Pay It Forward {Day 17/Year 2}

2011-11-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

Today was brought to you via the pint size pay it forward.

My goal for the day was to teach my son the lesson of paying it forward.

We pulled into a new-to-us nature center this morning, and with no prompting from me he shouted, "Who are we giving chocolate to here?"

He's been learning some by osmosis it seems, but we set off to the mall playground with the intention of teaching him a bit more directly.

After a romp or two around the whale and bridge and 67 games of hide-and-seek with a new friend we set out to find the candy machines. Normally they are right next to the play area to maximize profit, but as there are a lot of new kiosks for the holiday season they had been relocated. We went in search and I let Liam have one quarter worth of candy for himself and then we placed quarters in every single machine on the kiosk for the next people.

After lunch I let him stop by the local candy shop in the mall and get one chocolate for himself and one for his dad. He had fun wrapping up the chocolate and we wrote "To: Daddy, Love, Liam" on it. He had fun picking out just the right one for himself and for his dad. He's a giving kid and shares easily, it something I really admire in him.

Although when he did give it to Tim, he really thought that Tim should share half of it back with him.

Chocolate is so hard to share, isn't it?

Pay It Forward {Day 16/Year 2}

2011-11-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

I've crested the half way mark in a month of Paying It Forward. Wahooooo!

It feels good.

Today was easy, I pledged $25 in support of Scary Mommy's incredible mission to make sure families, in particular mothers, can put a nice meal on their table next Thursday.

"I’d like every Scary Mommy out there to be able to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. To be able to cook a meal for her family without worrying about the cost, or making sacrifices to do so. To sit around a table, dining on good food with loved ones and toasting to an easier year to come." --Jill Smokler, Scary Mommy

As of this posting 883 people have commented that they are in need or are able to help a family. How totally incredible is that?! Incredible. It's the ultimate in paying it forward as she spends her entire evening matching up donors with recipients and helping to remind us all how much we truly have to be thankful for.

If you have $25 to spare or are in need of a little help putting turkey or tofurkey on your table this year, go check out Jill's post before midnight.

Pay It Forward {Day 15/Year 2}

2011-11-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

Today involved Random Acts of Chocolate, how fun is that?

My inspiration for today's Pay It Forward came from Jen over at Hey Y'all (who is also participating in NaBloPoMo) and this Random Acts of Kindness post that she had come across.

I decided to up the ante from candy canes to Ghiradelli chocolate and only this morning before we left for Liam's school did the "melting" factor of my idea occur to me. Fortunately for us it ended up staying cool and very cloudy all day today.

We decided to drop off our little bits of sweetness on the way home from Liam's school. While it would have been easy to just go down the row of parallel parked cars I decided that doing so would have limited the geographical scope of goodness, so we spent 30 minutes driving around different neighborhoods and sliding the treats under windshield wipers.

*I also volunteered in his classroom today which I think counts as a Pay It Forward as well. It helps the teachers to have another set of hands and the students to have someone else to help them out when needed too.*

Capture the Everyday: Sign of Fall

2011-11-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

Capture the Everyday: Sign of Fall

Perhaps you were thinking of leaves or children going back to school?

Apple cider donuts or bonfires in the back yard?

Two words: Hooded Sweatshirts!

I have a serious addiction as this is only a partial representation of my collection. You know how Amanda from Parenting By Dummies was on What Not to Wear or how Stacey from Tree Root and Twig would like to be? Yeah, well... I'd like the new duds, but not enough to trash these bad mama-jamas.

So I'll just have to roll around with glee in them like this!

(He told me he couldn't lay still for this picture because his "pistons" kept moving.)

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Tuesday, I’ll issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then I’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

Pay It Forward {Day 14/Year 2}

2011-11-14T22:28:00.000-05:00

Inspired by one of my most popular posts from last year's Pay It Forward month and BlogHer's "Own Your Beauty" campaign I decided to do a repeat with a little twist.

The basic premise is to leave inspiring and uplifting notes on the mirrors in public restrooms. In addition to the mirrors I also left notes on the inside doors of the stalls and an extra special note inside public changing tables.

So far I have left 75 notes of inspiration on mirrors, doors, etc. and 75 more just inside changing tables.

Pay It Forward {Day 13/Year 2}

2011-11-13T23:24:00.000-05:00

This my friends is the most exciting day yet.

Two folks who are recent followers of mine on Twitter will be getting a nice surprise in their mailbox approximately Tuesday or Wednesday.

I will be mailing them two Starbucks gift cards each. One for them to keep and one for them to use to Pay It Forward to another blogger or person of their choice.

Now, it's possible that they'll choose to keep all the caffeinated goodness for themselves, but I hope they won't.

I've included the gift card and a stamped envelope for them to Pay It Forward with, so the only effort they'll have to apply is addressing the envelope. If they'd like to pass on a gift card of their own for that person to pass along, that'd be great--but it's not required or expected.

Wouldn't this be nice if it took off?

Then, randomly at the most unexpected of times, a small gift card that could be used for a coffee or soda or cookie would just arrive in the mail?

I hope you can find a small way to Pay It Forward to someone else this week. If you do, I'd love to hear about it.

**As a side note "spell check" asked if I meant decaffeinated. Silly "spell check"!**

Candle Wax, Footprints and One Dirty Deed

2011-11-13T22:42:00.000-05:00

Mess.

Second only to "No whining." and "I love you." in a mom's daily vocabulary.

However, "mess" can define itself a lot of ways over the course of days and weeks and months in the life of a mother.

There's this kind of mess: The hey-mom-I-just-threw-a-citronella-candle-all-over-the-floor kind of mess that masquerades itself as a you-can't-get-angry-because-at-least-I'm-okay kind of mess. But for the love of all things orderly this was a pain in the you know what to clean up.

And, then there is the "embarrassing mess". That my friends goes a little something like this.

Since Liam was born we have gotten together at least every two weeks for a play group with the folks from our childbirth group. It's pretty neat that these kiddos have known each other since they were in our bellies. For the first year we met at the weekly hospital luncheon, then the second year it was at our place because we live a hop, skip and a jump from the hospital and then this last year we have taken turns rotating it at one another's house and taken turns being the "lunch lady" as it were.

Cue 6 weeks or so ago when we were at a friend's house who has a gorgeous modern home where everything has a place. It's a lovely relaxing place to visit and Liam always enjoys going to everyone's house because of the wide variety of different toys, this one in particular has a trash truck that speaks to him on a I-must-have-this-or-I'll-die-level.

Anywho, lunch was done and we had moved to their giant basement that doubles as a super cool play room so the kids could play and the moms could talk. Liam set up shop at the train table, as he is wont to do and we chattered away when slowly but surely the scent of poop filled the room. As each mother checked her child, it was ME who had apparently hit the "britches are full" jackpot.

The problem? My kid was in underwear NOT a pull-up. So as I took him to the bathroom to change him and chatted with him about how the toilet might be a more appropriate place--I noticed "dirt" on the bathroom floor. Oh no! My kid had been tracking mud in their house??

So, in the midst of trying to change him I took off his sandal and YES you guessed it. He pooped, it rolled out the pant leg of his underwear, he stepped in it and had been trotting it all over their WHITE carpet for who knows how long.

I emerged from the bathroom, MORTIFIED.

Um, yes...it was Liam...and...um....he has a lot of poop on his shoe. (hides head in shame)

And, then I looked down at the carpet and it was EVERYWHERE.

I have never been so mortified.

That my friends is my biggest mess...what's yours?

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

Pay It Forward {Day 12/Year 2}

2011-11-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's not as easy to pay it forward as one might anticipate.

With two exceptions, every single time that we have gone to an event at the Maryland State Fairgrounds someone has walked down the line of folks waiting to buy tickets and given us free passes. This thought crossed my mind when I bought our tickets to the Irish Festival, but I went ahead and purchased them online anyway.

I mean, come on, this can't continue forever, right?

As we were pulling into our parking spot I pulled up the Twitter feed for the event to see if there was any additional info on the children's area and saw a contest for a couple of tickets. Wouldn't you know we won them?! Thanks An Poitin Stil!

We thought they'd be the perfect gift for a couple that has graciously watched Liam for us a few times as of late and will be watching him again in a few weeks. No dice, they have plans tomorrow. Then, we thought perhaps another couple with young children would be interested. Nope, their youngest is getting baptised. And, down the list we have gone...seems we know a lot of very busy people. We are waiting to hear from two more sets of folks before we look to pass them on to someone else.

It's fun to think about winning tickets with the sole intention of giving them to someone else.

It is however a challenge in our over-scheduled world to find someone who can use them.

Doing good for the sake of doing good feels nice.

In other news, there is still an XL shirt up for grabs from yesterday's post.

Have you had a chance to pay it forward today?

Pay It Forward {Day 11/Year 2}

2011-11-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

Remember pop up video?

Maybe you're too young?

I just found out it's back, so maybe I'm older than I thought.

Anywho, this is like pop up blog.

Here I am and I am giving four lucky readers a prize.

No crazy rules, I paid for this stuff myself so no disclaimers needed.

I have 3 "No Niche is the New Niche" (Medium, Large, XL) t-shirts from my old shop here on the blog and 1 XL iBlog hooded sweatshirt.

I'll mail them to the first person to respond for each.

One per person please.

Pay It Forward bloggy-style.

Pay It Forward {Day 10/Year 2}

2011-11-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

Intention.

Do you have a list of intentions somewhere?

Perhaps along the lines of I'm going to send Suzy Q a thank you card? And Johnny...and Margaret...and Sofia?

Ooh and I need to pick up a congrats card for Michael...and Sebastian....and Donna?

A list of handwritten things or small jobs that you need to accomplish that you continually push to the very bottom of your "to do" list?

Not really intentionally, it's just that more pressing issues in life trump their place on the never ending "to do" list.

It happens to me more often that it should and certainly more often than before I had kids. Most definitely even more now that I have a kid who doesn't nap.

So today I drafted some notes and cards in my own handwriting and put them in envelopes and I'll send them on their merry way tomorrow.

There is something more awesome about a handwritten note than an email. It's nice to get mail as an adult that isn't a bill and it's nice to know that someone sat down and took the time to write it. I hope that in some small way this brings a smile to the recipient's faces and that it adds some levity to their day that they might pass on to others.

Do you write handwritten notes any more?

Pay It Forward {Day 9/Year 2}

2011-11-09T23:12:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by Liam today.

I was inspired by his awesome heart.

He gets it and he's three.

He gets this whole pay it forward thing not just in November, but always.

And, that my friends nearly brought me to tears.

Our day opened with nothing on the schedule, a rare but welcome occurrence these days.

Mid-morning we decided to head to the mall playground via the JCPenney's entrance. Just as we approached the door a bus full of disabled seniors arrived and Liam rushed to be able to hold the door for these ladies who were being dropped off for a day of shopping. He gladly held the door for quite some time as it took considerable effort for each of them to come down from the van lift. When there was a long lull in the middle of off-loading about half of the group I asked if he wanted to go ahead and go in, he said he'd rather wait.

Once we were inside we went looking around the store and he fell in love with an outfit for one of his yet-to-be-born baby cousins that he couldn't part with. She just "has to have this!" Then he found a pair of slippers for his other yet-to-be-born cousin. He asked if we could make four small purchases today, none of them were for himself.

Some days I wonder if we are doing anything right. Today, I saw that we must be doing something right. I was incredibly proud of him.

Also, a big shout out and thank you to all the positive and uplifting comments and emails to my post yesterday. You all warm my soul. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your day to connect.

A bit of bloggy pay it forward. Check out this article. I saw it yesterday and it spoke to me--it's about our responsibility as bloggers to our communities.

Pay It Forward {Day 8/Year 2}

2011-11-08T21:44:00.000-05:00

Eight days in and I'm not sure I'm going to make it this year.

It's more taxing than I remember or perhaps I am less inspired. That's kind of sad to say...to say I am less inspired to do good, be good, pay it forward, think of others, drop random acts of kindness as if my soul is on fire...but it might be true. And, that my friends might make me saddest of all.

There is a lot going on in my life, I hope to have the courage to talk about it here someday...but I'm not sure that I will.

That said, we did pay it forward at Liam's school today. They are taking up a collection of non-perishable food for the local food bank and we took a giant bag full. Liam held my chair steady while we rooted around in the cabinets to find things we could share with others. Oddly enough he had a hard time letting go of about six of our gazillion bags of Ramen noodles. But, he did it and I am proud of him for that. We also added some cans of beans, lots of box mixes and a few large boxes of noodles. I hope that it makes things easier for some hungry families in our community.

If you have a chance come next summer, remember to donate then too. When I went to visit a local food bank this past summer they said it was the time they were most in need. Since folks think about giving at the holidays and not in the spring and summer they find their shelves to be more bare than they'd like in the warmer months.

I'd also like to pass along this post about Gratitude from Megan Jordan of Velveteen Mind. It really spoke to me and to my mission this month.

Capture the Everyday: Something You Collect

2011-11-08T20:49:00.000-05:00

Capture the Everyday: Something You Collect

Straws.

Origami.

Strawgami.

I can get Liam to kill any number of hours in the car by simply giving him a straw. Sure toys are nice, but he tires of them quickly.

A simple straw he uses as a tool with which to create endless art.

(bend, crinkle, crinkle, bend) Mamma! Look, I made a house!

(bend, crinkle, crinkle, bend) Mamma! Look, I made a fish!

(bend, crinkle, crinkle, bend) Mamma! Look, I made a motorcycle!

...and so on and so on and so on.

So, I make sure to have lots of them in the glove compartment for when he feels inspired to create.

What do you collect?

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Tuesday, she’ll issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

Pay It Forward {Day 7/Year 2}

2011-11-07T22:10:00.000-05:00

We love the nature center! We go there almost every single Monday for their preschool story time and we often hit it at least one additional time every week just to check on the animals and walk the trails. Over the course of the last year their programs have become more rich, the animals more diverse and the trails better cared for. It really is a tremendous addition to the community.

Over the course of the last few months Liam has fallen in love with the tiny "coloring" station they have in the back section of one classroom. Often they have puzzles or interesting books laid out and they have a giant barrel of crayons that you can use to color a "page" while you are there. Our home is now overrun with a variety of cricket photos and I decided that we'd print out some other animals and just drop them off in the folder of "coloring pages" to give the room some diversity and as a small thank you to the center for providing such an awesome place for us to visit.

Perhaps some other moms will be so thankful that they doesn't not have to "ooh" and "ahh" over yet another colored cricket that they too will print out some pages at home and bring them in as well.

As luck would have it I didn't have to work tonight, so we surprised Liam with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese in our version of Pay It Forward (toddler edition). We have only taken him one other time and it was when schools were closed last winter (I wouldn't suggest that.). The moment we mentioned it he amazed us with his recollections of the place and the games. It's fun to be surprised as an adult, but there is something truly magical about surprising a kid. I think it's good for the soul. It was a great night as a family...and hopefully he'll feel so happy about the event that he'll pay it forward in his own preschooler way to another little dude or dudette at school tomorrow.

Have you found a way to pay it forward yet this month?

Whoooo Whoooo Hootch Owl {Review/Giveaway}

2011-11-07T09:04:00.000-05:00

49 Days Until Christmas!

Looking for something unique and fun for your favorite adult?

Or perhaps for that person who has everything and could use a little something with pizazz?

I've got just the thing for them.

Historically, I haven't been much of a wine drinker. Admittedly, that was before I met and fell in love with Missouri Wines at BlogHer this year. Since then I've been slowly exploring the world of wine. I've found that I really like Port and we have a local winery that makes some really great stuff.

After opening a bottle or two here, it became clear that the wine openers we had on hand were very lackluster and certainly not very engaging for entertaining. Enter the adorable Hootch Owl wine opener from Red Envelope. I love having it on display on our wine shelf and using it is a breeze. It makes opening wine a breeze and makes for a great conversation starter at the bar.

In addition to this great wine opener that I'd highly recommend, check out their great bar gifts (like the owl bottle stopper and personalized bottle openers) and Christmas gifts for husband (like the wide variety of cuff links, everything from panic buttons to superheroes) for lots of great ideas this holiday season.

Want to win a one-time use $100 gift code to use at Red Envelope?

______________
To Enter: (Please leave each entry as a separate comment to increase your chances of winning.)

Leave a comment, any comment.
Do you have a favorite go to place for unique gifts?
What's your favorite kind of wine/beer?
What was the best/worst gift you have ever received?

Winner will be selected at random on November 11, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Red Envelope. Red Envelope provided me with product for test/review purposes and agreed to provide one lucky reader with a $100 one-time use gift card. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Red Envelope.

Pay It Forward {Day 6/Year 2}

2011-11-06T23:15:00.000-05:00

365 days ago today I chose to Pay It Forward via the blogosphere and social media. In the on-line world "engagement" is the currency of choice. While it is all sorts of awesome to have readers, subscribers, followers, likes, etc. the real "high" comes from comments and responses to a status update or tweet among other things.

A few days ago I didn't have work in the evening and thought I'd spend the evening checking out blog posts, tweets, whatever folks had to recommend. I tweeted out that I was looking for stuff to read several times that day (someone even retweeted it to their followers), posted it on my personal and blog Facebook pages and got one reply. One.

In lieu of suggestions, I decided to go back and see some of the things I did last year and stumbled upon the fact that one year ago I did my pay it forward by visiting every blog on my blogroll and commenting.

This year I did that, checked out lots of posts (and commented) from the BlogHer NaBloPoMo website. Made sure I was being good about following people back on Twitter, engaging back on Facebook via my blog page...being a good steward of social media.

Go out today or tomorrow and throw a blogger or ten a comment. Be generous with your retweets. Find ways to connect, engage, be "social".

If there is something you think I should read, someone I should follow, etc. Leave the link in the comments.

I've also added a Linky to this post. Feel free to link up one or two of your best (as judged by you) posts.

Today, it was pay it forward blogger style.

Pay It Forward {Day 5/Year 2}

2011-11-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday I was at a conference all day today. The day was filled with small moments of paying it forward.

Like collecting all the voting cards from our table at the business meeting and grabbing a few that were lying here and there on other tables as we made our way to the door.

Making a few introductions for people who wanted to meet.

Picking up someone's trash for them and taking it to the proper receptacle.

Updating someone who couldn't attend on the day and what was discussed.

I also volunteered to review the meeting minutes after the conference concludes. It's a small thing, but something I do every year I attend.

I promise to look for ways to spice up my pay it forward project when the conference is done and the work week begins.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out Jen and Heather who are participating all month long in NaBloPoMo as well.

Pay It Forward {Day 4/Year 2}

2011-11-04T23:32:00.000-04:00

It's tempting to try and plan out ways to Pay It Forward every day, but I remember from last year that sometimes it's best to just be on the constant lookout for the opportunity to "do good". I noticed several times today how good it feels to be looking for opportunities to pay it forward. It's one of the chief reasons that I decided to do this again for a second year. It just changes ~~your~~ my outlook for the better.

All that to say, that while I had an idea in mind for today I did look for other opportunities as well. A good friend of mine has been working tirelessly on the committee for a conference that I will be attending this weekend, she's even had to back out of some really fun things--(because she's awesome) and really did some amazing work on this conference.

She was really intrigued by the candy infused vodka that I made last weekend, so I made hers look a little more refined in these fancy flat mason jars and took it to give to her at the conference.

After about 30 minutes we finally saw each other and I held out the gift bag. Initially she asked if the bag was something someone else had asked me to drop off. When I told her that wasn't the case, she asked if there was any chance that it was candy infused vodka....and voila. Yes! Yes it was!

I was glad to bring a little sunshine to her stressful day and to see her enjoying some of it before the night was over.

I have also been meaning to give a shout out to Kelli over at Momma Needs A Beer who saw on Tuesday (the first day of my Pay It Forward project) that I was two followers away from 1,000 on Twitter and she very kindly tweeted out for her followers to give me a little "follow love" and help me break the milestone. Sure enough, buy the end of the day I was at 1,002. Thanks, Kelli!

The rest of this weekend should be a challenge as I am at non-blogging related conference and will be in sessions most of the day. I look forward to the challenge.

Pay It Forward {Day 3/Year 2}

2011-11-03T22:53:00.001-04:00

Three days in.

Twenty-seven left to go.

Today Liam and I went out to one of our old favorite trails. It can get quite muddy out there in the fall but we decided to give it a whirl anyway. We brought along two plastic grocery bags and thought we'd pick up a little trash along the way. Because paying it forward doesn't always have to involve money.

Liam loved this! He loved having a task (shouting TRASH when we saw some) and a responsibility (holding the bag while I collected the discarded items). He loved it so much that he lasted THREE hours on a hike. Awesome!

It gave us a great opportunity to talk abut taking care of our environment and taking care of the messes we do create. He couldn't understand why people didn't just "throw it in the trash can".

We collected two full bags of trash and found two more full of picnic trash left out at the rocks in the river. It was interesting to note that the trash all but disappeared 45 minutes into the hike. As if that is the magical time frame where the careless hikers/walkers ended their trip and the "leave no trace" folks began.

It was also very disheartening to see the scores of plastic bags in the trees. We saw no less than 60 or 70 of them strung out and twisted amidst the branches of the trees. It would seem that a fair amount of them got swept up in the trees from Hurricane Irene. Some the regular plastic bag from the grocery or department store and others full size trash bags. Several adults could have spent whole days out there cutting them down with ladders.

Have you found a way to pay it forward yet?

Pay It Forward {Day 2/Year 2}

2011-11-02T22:32:00.002-04:00

Baltimore trash collectors make an Olympic sport out of discarding trash containers at the curb. Some day I think I shall video tape these heroic clashes of man and trash.

For today, I will simply tell you that someone in our neighborhood took the time to collect our lid from who-knows-where and our can from some other far flung place and to put the two together and upright out on the curb. While not a monumental act, it did take some time and energy and they did it knowing that we'd probably never know who to thank. Just being neighborly for the sake of it.

Gotta love that!

For my part, I decided to take action. I have been meaning to give to a particular charity for some time now and have just allowed it to not occupy the number one place on my priority list. I took all of the advertising revenue from my blog last month and donated the entire amount to Life Wrap in hopes that my donation does a small part to save a woman's life.

Some facts from the Life Wrap website:

"The leading cause of maternal mortality (deaths from pregnancy and childbirth related complications) is obstetric hemorrhage in which a woman bleeds heavily, most often immediately after giving birth. A woman somewhere in the world dies every 4 minutes from this kind of complication." The LifeWrap (generic name: Non-pneumatic Anti-shock Garment or NASG) is a first-aid device used to stabilize women who are suffering from obstetric hemorrhage and shock. It is made of neoprene and Velcro^TM and looks like the lower half of a wetsuit, cut into segments. This simple device helps women survive delays in getting to a hospital and getting the treatment that they need. It can be applied by anyone after a short, simple training. To date, it has been used on over 2000 women."

"American women have a lifetime risk of 1 in 4800 of dying from childbirth related complications... Afghan women have a 1 in 8 lifetime risk of maternal death."

Take a moment. Pay it Forward.

This Little Pumpkin Of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine

2011-11-01T22:50:00.000-04:00

We had our 5th Annual (BYOP) Pumpkin Carving party this year and NO ONE brought pumpkins to carve. Great people, great conversations but I have to admit I was really bummed out by the whole thing.

The next day we rallied and cut them ourselves (Tim, Liam, my mom and I). Can you guess who carved which ones?

On a fun note, we did make candy infused vodka (a la Scary Mommy) favors for the adults to take home. The Jolly Rancher ones were the first to get snatched up.

Then in an effort to keep the festive spirit about us I made Liam "Haunted Ham" for dinner before we went out trick-or-treating.

Here's the Diego you've been waiting for all dressed up with somewhere to go.

Hope you and yours had a very Happy Halloween! Liam yawned as he went to each front door and as he walked back to the main sidewalk from each house.

It kept us laughing all night long.

Pay It Forward {Day 1/Year 2}

2011-11-01T22:13:00.001-04:00

8:56 a.m. Driving my son to school. It's the first time today that I've thought about the fact that I'll need to Pay it Forward at some point today. With my mom still in town until early evening, I'm not sure how I'm going to make it happen. But, I will.

I remember somewhere around Day 17 last year hitting this stride of sorts where it was the very first thought to enter my mind...and it felt good. There is something good for the soul in having your first waking thought being about how to do something good for someone else.

On the way to drop my mom off at the airport, my husband informed me that the tolls that we had to pass through had raised their rates by 50% effective today. Whoa! Pretty quickly thereafter I realized that for a lot of people this was going to be a bummer of a day when they were informed of this change and the immediate hit to their pocketbook.

So on the way home, we paid for the car behind us. Kinda like Julia's Starbucks experience.

Having had a very busy two weeks with both my mom and mother-in-law having been down for a visit, we decided to stop off at a local micro-brewery. Kind of our version of Cheers. (Did you just start singing the theme song? I did.)

Tim usually pays for meals out and I pick up the grocery store tab. I surprised him by taking the check only to find that our server didn't charge us for for Liam's juice or my Diet Coke. So I tacked the price of those two items on to her 20% tip.

Nothing earth shattering today. But, when you look for it--there are so many small things to be done.

Things That Make You Say Yum! {Review/Giveaway}

2011-11-01T21:00:00.001-04:00

Hershey's.

Candy.

Halloween.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

Not quite in time for Halloween, but just in time for Christmas Hershey's is adding a new candy to their Hershey's Pieces
line...this time crunchy candy coated milk chocolate covered almonds (in stores December 2, 2011).

Who can't get behind that?

These are perfect to leave out while you're getting ready for the many upcoming holiday activities. A bit sweet, I find one or two to be more than enough to satiate my sweet tooth. One or two are just enough to give me that little chocolate boost and not inflate my waistline as the season of the sweets is upon us.

Since the bags come re-sealable I think they make a great companion on road trips as well. We find ourselves driving across multiple states in the span of 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday and I love having something on hand that I can keep fresh for the whole trip.

Check out Hershey's Facebook page for new product updates and trivia.

Want some delicious Hershey's Pieces with Milk Chocolate and Whole Almonds for yourself? (3 winners)

______________
To Enter: (Please leave each entry as a separate comment to increase your chances of winning.)

Leave a comment, any comment.
What is your favorite kind of chocolate? Milk, white or dark?
What are your go to sweet treats for long car trips?
Do you have a candy that is just for you? (No kids allowed.)

Winner will be selected at random on November 6, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Hershey's. Hershey's provided me with product for test/review purposes and agreed to provide 3 lucky readers with some delicious Hershey's Pieces as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Hershey's.

NaBloPoMo, Yo! (aka The 30-Day Pay It Forward Challenge)

2011-10-29T08:34:00.002-04:00

In 3 days I will again begin my participation in the epic blogging event that is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Each day in November (all 30 of 'em) I will again be looking for ways to Pay It Forward. At the end of each day I'll come back here and report out on how I was able to do something for someone else with only the hope that they'll be inspired to do the same for someone else. If you find moments throughout the month when you feel inspired to do the same, please leave a comment--I'd love to hear.

Just last week someone posted this on Facebook and it made my day!

"I was in the Starbucks drive-thru & the lady ahead of me, total stranger, paid for my order. Remembering my friend Alissa & her Pay It Forward series on her blog, I paid for the order behind me. That made me the 300th customer & I got a survey for a free drink." --Julia S.

You can search for last year's series by using the search box and typing in PIF. Unfortunately the comments are no longer there as I have switched commenting programs since then.

Also, make sure to check out Heather from Cafe Smom and Jen from Hey Y'all who will be blogging all month as well. I can't wait to see what they choose to share from their own lives.

Don't Drink The Water

2011-10-26T05:57:00.001-04:00

Holy Mother of Procreation!

It seems every time I turn around a new friend or family member is pregnant.

Like this one...

or this one...

The whole "It's in the water." mantra couldn't be more true these days. I think we have about a dozen close friends or family members who are currently planning to add another little dude or dudette to their personal entourage.

Who knew that 2011 was the year of the baby?

In light of all this baby fever I thought I'd share what I think are 5 Newborn Essentials. Read it and then rush out and buy all these super fab things for the pregnant women in your life.

She'll thank you for it!

5 Newborn Essentials

When my husband and I first signed up for our baby registry at a giant baby goods box retailer we had to leave shortly after the second aisle when my husband had a near panic attack in the nail clipper aisle due to the endless variety of choices. I think his rant shortly before our exit went a little something along the lines of, "How am I supposed to know if I need a micro flashlight or a magnifying glass or who knows what else affixed to infant nail clippers?!?!?!!!!"

Psst...you probably don't, but they'd sell less if they told you that ahead of time.

Our son is 3 years old and as we reflect back on the massive lists of "MUST HAVES" from every website, parenting magazine, and in-store circular ...we realize they duped us with massive overkill. We have since decided that everything you really need for your baby starts with the letter "B".

1) Bjorn: We loved this! There are lots of baby carriers on the market, and we had purchased several varieties on the advice of the aforementioned "lists". But all three of us loved using the Bjorn the best. We purchased the "active" style with extra back support (spend the money, it's totally worth it).

We wore our little dude everywhere. We danced around the house with him (okay, maybe that was just me), took him on long walks around the neighborhood to break the monotony of being home all day, to festivals--everywhere we could "wear" him we did.

It's one of the things I miss most about him babyhood.

2) Boppy: Single-handedly the item that garnered us the most bang for our buck. Initially we used it for its intended purpose, breastfeeding support pillow. As our son grew up and stopped breastfeeding we put him on our lap (facing outward), wrapped it around both of us and used it for reading at nap time/bed time. This allowed us plenty of support for our arms for our reading marathons and a place for him to set his lovey, pacifiers, blanket, etc. while we were reading.

And, in the last four months as we have transitioned him to his big boy bed he has chosen to use it as his favorite pillow. He places it on his bed in the "upside down c" position and nestles himself in the middle, letting it cradle him with comfort as he drifts off to dreamland.

3) Bundle Me: This wonderful wool lined sack fits safely and snugly in an infant car seat and allows the baby to stay safe and warm without the rigamarole of trying to corral the extremities of a limp newborn's arms into a jacket. Also, since it has zip sides you can partially unzip them if you feel like your baby is getting too warm. These things get super toasty. Alternately if you live in an exceptionally cold climate this would easily provide an additional layer.

4) Bubby (aka pacifier): Our little guy has taken to calling his pacifier his "Bubby" which is my affectionate name for him. We were very anti-pacifier before we had him. However, due to a long hospital stay where they nurses gave him a pacifier round the clock, it didn't really end up being our decision to make. I do think that we would have come around to it anyway since it provides him with such comfort. Growing up I was a strong loyalist to the thumb-sucking movement, so maybe he comes by it genetically.

My suggestion is to have a few packages from different brands on hand for when your little one arrives. Keep the receipts and if you don't end up using them, take them back. However, if your little bundle of joy is like ours and would really benefit from the comfort that they can provide then you'll be equipped. I suggest a few different brands as babies have their own preferences about these kinds of things too.

5) Baby Monitor (video): Admittedly, these little pieces of technology are pricey, but well worth it in our humble opinion. Ours has brought us so much joy, peace of mind and SLEEP.

You can't argue with that!

The joy of watching our guy is awesome and comforting. Every time my mom comes to visit she watches him and narrates his entire sleep cycle to us. We also get/got great peace of mind, especially in those early days where we could check on him any time we felt like it to see that he was breathing okay, comfortable, and sleeping like a champ. It also helped us be able to spot his "Bubby" before we went in when he needed a little help relocating it. It was also awesome and comforting to see what all the little noises coming from his room were, be they a hiccup, a cough, sneeze or something else. We could always take a peek without opening his door to see that all was well.

What are the things you absolutely couldn't have lived without when you were first home with a newborn?

Week In My Life: Recap

2011-10-25T12:23:00.003-04:00

They say better late than never, no?

Here's what I learned from the Week In My Life experiment I did a few weeks ago.

Documenting an entire week in my life was a lot more fun and a lot more exhausting than I though it would be.

I'm glad I did it. I can't wait to see how different my life will be next year. Mel, you will be doing this next year won't you??

It was a good primer for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) which I will be participating in again this November. (More about that later.)

The late-night-end-of-the-day blogging came back to me all to easily.

I used my camera more. All but one day I took our DSLR with me (that I don't really know how to use). Taking my "big" camera with me everywhere was less cumbersome than I had imagined. I learned how to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer, a skill that I had obviously been putting off for years. It was way less painful than I imagined.

I learned that "Have Stroller Will Travel" is the mantra of my life, but not so much of my blog. I'm not quite sure why that is or how exactly it happened--but I know I don't want to blog that way. I've purchased a few domains and have big plans for the New Year. I've been talking about change for some time and yet I've been slow to move as I didn't know which way to focus myself. I feel clear and positive about where I am headed now.

My husband immensely enjoyed the series. I hadn't expected the reaction from him as he IS part of my everyday. What I/we had failed to see is that in our "transfers" of child care duties there was a lot of the everyday that was getting lost in translation. I'm so very glad that he got to see our daily lives on a granular level. For that I am incredibly grateful to Mel for hosting this project.

I learned that although I hadn't been taking my daily wake-up calls for granted, I should treasure them more. It was by and far YOUR favorite part of the project. I will not take them lightly. I will pause and savor the moment. I will realize that this too shall pass. And, I'll remember that I wouldn't trade "now" for anything....not even a few extra zzzzs.

Capture the Everyday: Love

2011-10-25T00:01:00.003-04:00

Capture the Everyday: Love

I had an entirely different ~~shot~~ series of shots prepared for this week and then serendipity smacked me upside the head with this mural.

I first heard about the Baltimore Love Project during its infancy and I'd thought initially about intentionally going out at looking for the murals. Then... I stepped back from it and decided I'd find it much more enjoyable if I just stumbled upon one.

While this might seem sort of impractical for most people, with my job and Liam's various activities I am constantly exploring and falling in love with new parts of Charm City.

Sunday as I left a job a little later than I hoped and began to think about all the things that would need to be done this week as Tim's mom left and my mom made plans to arrive...I looked up and there it was. I immediately pulled over and took a shot with the only camera I had (my camera phone, of course).

When I got home I remembered the prompt from this week and decided that nothing else would be acceptable.

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Tuesday, Melissa will issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

Are you wrong?

2011-10-24T08:08:00.004-04:00

Cue Music.

Cue eyes the size of saucers as his little voice calls out,

"MAMMA! It's YOUR song!"

That's right, it's MY song. (Back off Pink!)

M-I-N-E!

Every time this song comes on in the car, a store at home he lights up.

I'm pretty sure he thinks I sing it. Which is all sorts of awesome since I sort of sound like a duck being run over by semi-truck when I sing.

Fast Forward to this past week when the two of us had a dance party in the basement. There was a lot of the Diego theme song, a little Mickey Mouse clubhouse and then I turned on the Clever Girls "Raise Your Glass" video and yeah...totally MY song.

The big exception this time was that he really started to pay attention to the lyrics, and he was all --

"Raise Your Glass if you are wrong in all the right ways."

Then he paused, looked at me and very seriously asked...

Liam: "Mamma are you wrong?"

Me: "Sometimes, buddy."

(long pause, then very conspiratorially)

Liam: "Do you raise your glass?"

Me: *Fits of Laughter*

I. Love. This. Kid.

Week In My Life: Sunday

2011-10-16T23:22:00.000-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

Tim and I were so tired last night that we came home and quite literally fell into bed. I threw on a pair of pajama bottoms, but left my tank top on from the comedy club. So, Liam came in and woke me up by telling me, "I really like that 'dress' you're wearing."

After we all got up and going we went to work on a Halloween gingerbread house that he was been dying to get into all week. We've learned from the ones that we did last Christmas that they really need two adults to do them well and this was our first opportunity. (The soup cans are for support when the sides are drying.)

After that we went downtown to participate in Free Fall Baltimore again, this time at the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI). We love it there and haven't been since 2009 and they have really made some great improvements to the museum in that time.

I love seeing all the great things that have been invented here in Baltimore. This shot of the guys in the phone booth was a lot of fun.

Liam doing some "old school blogging".

After we left my mom called to say she was coming in for a visit over Halloween weekend. Wahoo! Tm's mom comes this weekend, so Liam will be sufficiently spoiled come November. :)

My favorite event of the fall is making luminaries for Halloween at the Creative Alliance. Traditionally they have been bamboo lanterns, but this year we used recycled plastic bottles.

Side note: They had also moved to gender neutral restrooms this year. Makes going with a toddler MUCH more interesting.

Here's is "Liam's Flying Express" (in pink of course).

Daddy made "Ponyo". (A favorite movie character of theirs.)

The kids flying them around when they were all lit up.

We did pizza for dinner and then Tim and I parked ourselves on the sofa for Amazing Race and Pan Am. Both were highly enjoyable tonight.

That was my Sunday. How was yours?

*** I plan to post a recap with my reflections on the week-long project later on Monday. ***

Week In My Life: Saturday

2011-10-16T21:18:00.001-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

No cute wake-up call this morning as I woke up for work before he popped open his peepers. (The alarm clock is way less cute.) It was rough to wake up as it was the first really truly DARK day. Finally I forced myself out of bed and made my way to work. I love days when the moon is still out at dawn, that with the cooler temperatures made my grogginess a little easier to bear.

Since as interpreters we can't really talk with our co-workers, we use a notebook to communicate. This is our notebook, my team's phone and my peanut M & M's. They kept me from falling asleep while flapping my arms around.

When I came home there was a Halloween package at the front door from my Mom for Liam. It had all sorts of fun stuff in it and he loves to get some mail (just like his parents).

I napped for a bit, thanks to my super awesome husband before heading out to work at a Comedy Club. It's my absolute favorite kind of work. There is no bringing your "B" game when you share a stage with a couple of comics. Really good times!

We shared a sitter with friends of ours and they came along with Tim to the show. Afterward we had time to catch a bite and some drinks at a nearby watering hole. It was a really incredible night.

That was my Saturday. How was yours?

Week In My Life: Friday

2011-10-15T08:39:00.000-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

My wake-up call this morning was a little less adorable than the others this week. In rapid succession he turned every light on full blast on the upper level. Not quite the same as being smacked in the head with a stuffed animal, but every bit as jarring. He thought it was hysterical, I groaned. It worked out though as there wasn't much time for any snuggling as we needed to get up and at 'em for his school field trip.

It was raining out, so in addition to everything else we needed rain coats and at his insistence his new-ish umbrella. And we were off.

Oddly enough we ran into another friend of his who was there with her school, small world. Anywho we waited and checked out the pumpkins and tractors and killed a little time since we RSVP'd to meet at the farm instead of caravan with the folks from school. Finally we asked if the farm had heard from the school and they had canceled and not called to let me know. (Insert Frustrated Mamma Here)

So we drove all the way to school (he was about 90 minutes late) and in the end somehow I didn't end up on the email alert list letting folks now that it was canceled. Apparently they had let people know as early as Wednesday that it was likely to cancel.

I decided to stay since there wasn't enough time to go home and they were supposed to have a fire drill. I'd stay more often, but it messes with Liam.

Which bring me to my favorite part of today. As we were walking out of school Liam's pants fell down. As soon as they reached his ankles he looked at me and said, "PUMBA, Not in front of the kids!" We laughed and laughed. This kid, he's got good comedic timing.

On the way home, we saw some cows off to our left and went to investigate. We got one to moo, but another one stuck his tongue up his nose and that sent Liam into fits of laughter over and over and over again. Toddler laughter is really contagious.

After lunch we worked on a project for our Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Liam picked out the ribbon, I picked out the bags and together we were a mad gluing machine.

Shortly after Tim got home from work, Liam insisted on playing "baseball game" to get one of us to sing him the National Anthem. We "play" this a couple of times every day, but it's the first time that we've done it when Tim's been home.

Just as I was leaving for work, the boys set up the tent in the living room for a little camping action. It's always easier to leave them for work, when they are up to something fun.

Then it was off to work for me. Fortunately no clients showed up and I was able to come home much sooner than expected. We watched a little Top Chef Desserts and hit the hay since Liam had us up all night long the night before and we were both exhausted. We should have been cleaning for Nana who comes next week.

That was my Friday. What did you get up to?

Week In My Life: Thursday

2011-10-13T23:01:00.000-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

My pint-size wake up call set the tone for our day. Very gently, very quietly he climbed on top of me...forehead to forehead, nose to nose, mouth to mouth and set himself on me in full on plank and laid there absolutely still until I woke. Then he gave me a kiss and climbed down and asked if he we could have breakfast before we got dressed.

We had a casual breakfast of mini-cinnamon raisin bagels while reading High Five magazine. You'll notice he's naked except for the unicorn tattoo from Sparklecorn at BlogHer.

Then we worked for a long time on some workbooks. Counting was the theme today and I learned that he had no idea that thirteen and fourteen weren't the same number.

I'm a cash girl. I can usually break a $20 into any set of alternate denominations that you want. I do better balancing my budget with cash than credit. We made a quick trip to the ATM since my wallet was bare.

As a mom of a little guy that is obsessed with anything with wheels, particularly trash trucks I couldn't help but take a picture of our "sighting".

It's been raining a lot this week, so we went to the library and the play area was full...of course. So we played some games on the computer first.

Here's the awesome "town" called Storyville that is located inside the local library.

He put on a little play for me.

Read his baby a book.

And, then we had to leave because (Big.Fat. Sigh.) he peed. I am convinced that he will NEVER be potty trained. He could care less that he's soaking wet or soiled. The hidden joys of parenting, no?

Then we went to the grocery store. I love these mini-carts. Grocery shopping went form something I had to fit in after work when I was exhausted to a really fun thing to do together. It takes a couple of hours with him, but it's like a game to him and we can knock it out during the day.

Then I thought Liam might take a nap again and I took full advantage of it. He did (Sorry, Tim!) and I woke up just in time to put on my work clothes and slip out the door. It's pretty easy to get dressed as an interpreter...black on black on black on black.

Then it was off to work where someone asked who the first President of the United States was and three grown adults answered Abraham Lincoln. #TrueStory

That was my Thursday. How was yours?

Week In My Life: Wednesday

2011-10-13T00:01:00.065-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

As I went to bed Tuesday night, I had a small freakout when I realized I had nothing planned for Wednesday. That is unlike me, but it happens from time to time.

Liam woke me by getting inches from my face and asking me "How's your day going so far?" He's done this a few times in the past few months since he embarked on this mission of finding a different way to wake me each day and I love it. How can you not say your day is going pretty well when you have only been awake for 1.3 seconds??

He said he just wanted to hang around at home today, so that's what we did...mostly. We watched a little PBS as there were a few things I had to attend to for work.

He really wanted to use a new glitter pack that we purchased last week and I really wanted at least 30 minutes out of the house, so I convinced him to take a trip to Michael's for some craft stuff. We tossed one of the never ending loads of laundry in before we hit the road.

As I unbuckle him from his carseat he always tries to steal a sip of Diet Coke.

We picked up a few craft items, none of which went really well with the glitter. A big one I hope we'll get to tackle as a family before the week is out.

We made a dash over to the nature center which is a huge part of our life. We usually go on Mondays for the Preschool Story Hour, but they were closed for the holiday this week. So we stopped by today for a quick visit. We would have stayed longer if I hadn't forgotten a jacket for myself.

Then we started on the turkey craft we picked up earlier, which was a hit. He did really well with the glue, I attribute that to the large amount of crafts they do in school.

Then he stamped with some old gooey markers we found while I put the stamps on our Christmas cards.

Played for a bit before heading up stairs to read some stories.

As luck would have it we both fell asleep, not a good thing, as this meant when I got home from work at almost 11 he was still up and at 'em. Although he did fall asleep in my "nest" which was awesome.

I woke just in time to head out the door and into traffic.

That was my Wednesday, short and sweet. What did you get up to?

Week In My Life: Tuesday

2011-10-12T00:01:00.123-04:00

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

Today I was woken up by a toddler nudging my midsection like a goat. Using the crown of his head he just keep pushing and headbutting me until I woke up. See how this whole finding a new way to wake me up every day thing is kinda fun? No. Ah well, it works for us.

After we got ready for school, both of us, since I was the room mom today, he bolted for the front door as he does every Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Seeing the trash/recycling guys come are the best part of his morning both days.

Of course I left enough time to grab the bold, the beautiful, the tasty Diet Coke on our way to school.

Then it was off to school. Unfortunately the other two moms who were to be working alongside me today had sick children. So I was needed to do more than the usual and Liam really struggled with it. I do think it was good for him to really have to "share" me and I worked to find a few moments of quality time with him amidst the chaos.

Then it was off to a quick lunch (mostly for the Lion King lunch bag) before heading downtown to the B & O Railroad Museum.

A little side of Murphy's Law kicked in when my kid who won't nap for anything anymore, fell asleep a few minutes out from the museum.

If you are looking for a cheap vacation with your family, I'd definitely suggest Baltimore in October. The city puts on Free Fall Baltimore and there are literally hundreds of events that have free admission during the month. Everything from museums and shows, to exhibitions and concerts...with a little of just about everything else thrown in as well. We went to the museum today for FREE as part of this program.

We ran into a good friend down there. Always a plus.

He both took and orchestrated exactly what I should look like in this shot.

A little love action. It should be noted that today one should not "love him more than cookies and banana creams". Today you should say, "I love you more than bubbies (pacis) and blankies." Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Thought we had a flat, but it just turned out to be really low tire pressure. Whew!

Needed a thing or two from Target. So we took a leisurely stroll thru the toy section to test out everything that had a button you could push. This is one of our favorite things to do, especially on rainy days.

Around St. Patrick's Day I had tweeted out a message soliciting ideas for things to do with a toddler and @danielleliss responded with "shamrock hunting". How fantastic and FREE is that?! So we use it at every holiday. Currently we are "Pumpkin Hunting" while we drive places. If you are the first person to find them you can yell out a "WOOT! WOOOT!". Be careful though as Liam does not tolerate exclaiming that way for anything other than pumpkins or Halloween decorations.

Then we came home to make mini-pizzas, which turned into the nightly battle of "I-Don't-Care-If-You-Make-Me-Sit-Here-All-Night." "I'M-NOT-EATING!!!!". #Ugh

After I tucked him in I watched the second episode of New Girl via On Demand.

Tuned into #weekinmylife over on Adventuroo's blog and I am proud to say that I have commented on almost every post. I have them all open in tabs and will get to the last few before I open "Tuesdays" posts.

That was my Tuesday in a nutshell. What mischief did you find?

Week In My Life: Monday

2011-10-11T00:25:00.000-04:00

Let's dive right in, shall we?

All this week I'll be doing my best to show you what a week in our life looks like on a day-to-day basis. Come play along by linking up over at Adventuroo. (She's the mastermind behind this.)

I'm not sure when or how it started, but sometime after Liam transitioned to his big boy bed in mid-June he decided that he'd find a new way to wake me up everyday. And, aside from yesterday when he smacked me with a stuffed animal with huge plastic eyes...which felt like being slapped across the face (Mamma didn't take so kindly to that.) it's a really fun part of my our day.

This morning he woke me by telling me that he loves me more than cookies and banana creams. Later in the day he told me that if I really REALLY loved him I would never say I loved him more than anything other than "cookies and banana creams". Noted.

So we got ready in our usual whirling dervish fashion (but not before decorating his legs and playing in the car)

and zipped on over to the mall for a little indoor playground action.

Followed up by a zip around the pint-size carousel,

a few wishes in the fountain,

a quick sit in the photo machine (they didn't turn out so well today) and then to Red Robin for their opening day for lunch.

After that we thought we'd grab a little time at the beach. I love the beach in the fall and I just learned this about myself this past weekend.

No one is there this time of year and there are gigantic pieces of drift wood from Hurricane Irene that were a blast to discover and create with.

We left the beach to discover this recycled tire playground created by an Eagle Scout in 2004. We both can't wait to get back there again. Liam really fell in love with the accessible swing before we had to leave.

We bopped back to the house just moments before Tim got home and we sprang a surprise on him. Liam went over to his friend's house for the evening and Tim and I went out for a date. We've been on less than a handful since Liam was born 3 1/2 years ago and it was really nice.

The date was attending the Stoop Storytelling event at Centerstage here in Baltimore and we had a really really lovely time.

So that was my Monday. What did you get up to?

A "Week In My Life" Starts Now

2011-10-10T05:00:00.002-04:00

Have you ever taken the time to document an entire week of your life?

Imagine how much fun it would be to look back on it in 1, 5, 10 or even 15 years?

Think of all the things that will have faded from your memory by then.

Just a few months ago I was thinking about all the things Liam and I did before he was 2. Things that for the most part I imagined we'd never stop like library story times, Barnes and Noble story hours (twice a week), kiddie concerts at the mall, our playgroup (which we still do and have been doing for 3 years). I'm sure there are other things that I have simply forgotten entirely about.

So this week, I will be taking the time to document my life for 7 days. From today Monday, October 10 - Sunday October 17 I'll be jotting down stories, taking pictures (hopefully with more than my iPhone) and maybe even taking a few videos and then posting each days activities bright and early the following day.

I love that I'll have this small snapshot of our life to look back on. When Liam is older, I hope he'll love it too.

If you'd like to join us, or simply want to "drop-in" on the lives of others (This is sort of like Blog Reality TV isn't it?) you can mosey on over to Adventuroo and check out the Linky at the end of each of her posts.

If you'd like to participate you can do so for as little as one day, or jump in feet first for the whole week.

I'd love to see your day-to-day!

The Week In Review:

Week In My Life: Monday
Week In My Life: Tuesday
Week In My Life: Wednesday
Week In My Life: Thursday
Week In My Life: Friday
Week In My Life: Saturday
Week In My Life: Sunday
Week In My Life: Recap

Capture the Everyday: Cars

2011-10-06T13:38:00.001-04:00

Capture the Everyday: Cars

With a freelance automotive journalist for a dad, this is just a tiny sampling of the "cars" that are slowly taking over our home, vehicles...life.

And, don't confuse a VW with a BMW or a Lamborghini with a Porshe. Little Dude knows the difference and will politely correct you.

He also insists on you telling him the make and model of nearly every car that we walk/drive past.

It's all well and good until you step on one of these bad boys. It'll bring a grown woman to her knees.

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Thursday, I’ll issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then I’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

7 Reasons Co-sleeping Doesn't Work For Me

2011-10-04T10:53:00.000-04:00

Ten Tiny toes tucked between my shoulder blades.

One not-so-small head aggressively pushing itself into the base of my spine.

A miniature hand "hugging" my throat.

A belly fetal positioned on top of my head, over my face.

Two pointy knees kneeding my chest.

Legs that warp them themselves around my feet like ropes.

And, dude Mamma needs more than 5.264 inches of space to sleep. So S-C-O-O-C-H yourself over!

I Spy With My Little Eye

2011-10-03T13:48:00.002-04:00

Every year at Christmas my family would make the long trip south from Michigan to Missouri to visit my mom's parents. We'd have an early Christmas with the local grandparent and then head out bright and early the next day for our trek south.

My parents would wake us up in the wee hours of the morning having already removed the back row of seats in our Ford Econoline van. Then, they'd lie us down in our sleeping bags and set off. Once we woke up we'd amuse our selves with a number of "car games". One of the best games was the old standby I Spy. It's a never ending game and can be played anywhere by all ages.

Liam stumbled upon an I Spy book in our local library somewhere around his 2nd birthday and he was hooked. He loves to check them out and we can easily spend 30-40 minutes with a book looking for things by color, shape, etc. We also play this game endlessly in the car. Once he told us he was looking for "a red eyed tree frog in a purple tree". Nothing like being very specific, eh?

With that in mind, you can just imagine the squeal that was heard around our neighborhood when BRIARPATCH sent us the I SPY BINGO game to test out over Labor Day weekend. It was a very very happy day in this household!

The game is for 2-6 players and is intended for children ages 4 and up. Although our 3 year old really enjoys playing it. On occasion we even play it multiple times in a given day.

Each player is given a bingo board (two-sided for beginning and advanced play) and inside each square on the board are several items to find. Using the cards provided (also two-sided for beginning and advanced play) each player takes a turn choosing a card and an item from the card for other players to find. The first to collect four in a row shouts B-I-N-G-O!

We love that this game teaches problem solving, letter recognition, and can be used as an early reading primer or just for fun.

This is the perfect gift for the little ones in your life. And, BRIARPATCH is giving TWO winners a chance to play this game with their families. Perfect to surprise your little one with or to save up for the upcoming holidays.

______________
To Enter: (Please leave each entry as a separate comment to increase your chances of winning.)

Leave a comment, any comment.
"Like" Briarpatch Inc. on Facebook
What was your favorite game as a kid?
If you have kids, what is their favorite game?

Winner will be selected at random on October 7, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Briarpatch. Briarpatch provided me with I Spy Bingo for test/review purposes and agreed to provide a game to TWO lucky readers as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Briarpatch.

86 Shopping Days Until Christmas

2011-10-01T16:30:00.001-04:00

86 shopping days left until Christmas.

There, I said it.

I love this time of year with the anticipation of numerous holidays upon us. It's a super-fabulous time to be a mom in my opinion. And, I love shopping for other people. Holiday shopping is one of my favorite times of the year. I love finding just the perfect thing and then keeping an eye on it throughout the season to see if it goes on sale. My most favorite things is Black Friday, but that's another post all of its own.

Although I do love this time of year, as the Yuletide season gets ever nearer, it seems the length of my to-do list gets ever longer. In an effort to keep myself as stress-free as I can and to keep the holiday spirit about I try to tackle my Christmas cards (at least a little) in October. I always try to have them addressed and stamped by October 15, leaving me only to find the perfect picture or two to tuck inside and a brief note to write in each. If I don't start then, I'd never get them in the mail "on time" (which I always send out the day after Thanksgiving).

Photo cards are great and I love seeing folks and their families (big and small), the kiddos, the fur-friends, etc. But, I never know what to do with them after the holidays. Because while I think the picture of little Johnny is adorable. I am probably not likely to keep the photo of him hugging a candy cane on my 'fridge all year. (A few of you might have a coronary here, but I do not keep Christmas cards.) Mid-January they all go to the happy recycling center.

Instead of a photo card I usually choose to include a pic or two inside that granparents can tuck into their wallet or showcase on their desk at work.

That said, this year Tiny Prints has a few of each (regular cards/photo cards) that I just can't resist.

This is the card I think you'll find gracing your mailbox come the end of November. I just can't get enough of it. I love the sweet little sleeping partridge and I love that it's not in your face Christmas-y...at least not to me. I also love that its size is just a hair off the traditional holiday card size.

This card is a very close second. Apparently I like things to be sleepy on my Christmas cards. I might even order half of my cards in the partridge one above and half of this one. I love it's simple design and color palette.

What's not to love about this card? I think we could definitely find a few naughty and nice photos in our house. What a fun way to add a little bit of mischief to your holiday cards!

If this had been around the year that Liam was born, I'm pretty sure I would have boycotted my photo card rule and sent this out. It's absolutely precious. It makes me smile every time I look at it and I don't even know the kids in this card. Imagine what it would do if I did?

Disclaimer: Tiny Prints provided me 50 holiday cards in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own and were not influenced one way or another by Tiny Prints.

5 Beverages

2011-09-27T21:25:00.002-04:00

My "5" lists used to always be a big hit.

Sort of my version of a Wordless Wednesday.

It's probably been at least a year since I've done one.

So here goes.

My 5 favorite drinks

1) Diet Coke, yo!

2) Iced Tea (unsweetened)

3) Peach Flavored Water

4) Hot Apple Cider

5) Pineapple and Vodka

Do tell.

What are you 5 Favorite Beverages?

The Most Awesome Bugs Have Invaded My House [Review/Giveaway}

2011-09-26T05:00:00.001-04:00

What do you do with your kids when it's raining? You're bored? You need to blow the stink of a cranky kid or two?

We go to the Kid's Section at Target and push buttons and check out each and every toy on the shelves.

It changes both our moods almost immediately as we both go to visit our old favorites. As the stores start ramping up for the holidays there also seems to be something new to discover each and every week.

Maybe you're wondering at this point what my "go-to" toy is. I love the HEXBUGS. I watch them jiggle and dance and crawl all over the in-store habitats until Liam begs to go to another section. Not that he doesn't like them, it's just that I could stay there all day.

Something about them is so tranquil and yet so fun to me.

In fact as another blogger and I were talking at BlogHer and she mentioned that she had no need for a HEXBUG I whipped out my puppy dog eyes and asked if I could have hers. She graciously left it for me at the desk. Thanks, Tara.

Here at home outside the confines of the store habitat Liam and I have been competing for time with the HEXBUGS. We even built our own habitat out of an old shipping box, but maybe if I'm a good girl my guys will get us a real habitat for Christmas.

These are a perfect stocking stuffer for the holidays and make for easy transporting as they barely take up any space if you are looking for good toys on the go.

Want to win a HEXBUG Nano of your own?
______________
To Enter: (Please leave each entry as a separate comment to increase your chances of winning.)

Leave a comment, any comment.
Do you love or loathe the toy section at the department stores?
Do you have a favorite toy from your kid's stash?

Winner will be selected at random on September 30, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

**This giveaway is open to US residents only.**

Disclosure: This review was made possible by HEXBUG. HEXBUG provided me with two HEXBUG Nanos and a HEXBUG Original for test/review purposes and agreed to provide a HEXBUG Nano to a lucky reader as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by HEXBUG.

Capture the Everyday: A Laugh

2011-09-22T00:01:00.001-04:00

One of the chief reasons I married my husband is because we don't just laugh well together. We laugh awesome together. A few shots from the day we said "I do!"

I made him throw back his head in laughter during our vows. I consider that a #WIN.

Public displays of affection makes me giggle every. single. time. and this caught me by surprise.

It is my single favorite picture of us.

I should carry this picture with me always. I have laughed to tears a half a dozen times while posting this tonight. My brother thought they were testing their cameras and didn't realize they were actually taking shots.

My wish for you in 2011. May you laugh so hard, for so long, that you simply fall down and give in!

*We purchased the rights to all our photos, but unfortunately I couldn't find those when posting. I had to pull from the sample CD. I promise it's legit.*

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Thursday, Mel will issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

School Year Mornings

2011-09-20T10:04:00.001-04:00

BuZzZZzzZzzzzZZZ.

Slam. Pound. Slap. Slap. Fidget.

It has been so long since I have had to use an alarm clock in any sort of reliable way that I can't even figure out how to turn the damn thing off anymore.

My alarm clock for the past three years has been a tiny little boy who squawked into the monitor and who now climbs on top of me, throws a ball at my head or stands inches from my face with a snack in hand begging that I open it. All of which are more gentle than the loud persistent buzzing of an alarm clock.

When Liam started school last year, he was waking up on average at 5am and so there was no need to have an alarm then. But, this year--he's not really napping any more and so he is sleeping well past 5am these days (knock on wood) and two days a week I have had to set the dreaded beast.

I try hard to wake up before it goes off, because in my blind no-glasses stupor I seem to endlessly flop my arm in the general direction of the alarm clock with no real accuracy. And, once I do locate it I can't ever seem to remember which of the dozen or so buttons turns the thing off.

I guess it's just slowly preparing me for the days when I'll have to wake him up from a sweet slumber to go to school.

This morning no alarm clock was needed. He came out of his room, crawled into bed, wrapped my arms around him and asked if we could just snuggle all morning instead of get up for school.

Oh how I longed to say YES!

How Do You Live A Flavorful Life? {Review/Giveaway}

2011-09-19T22:49:00.004-04:00

*Find out how to enter by watching the video above.*

Winner will be selected at random on September 23, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Zone Perfect. Zone Perfect provided me with a box of cashew pretzel bars and a box of trail mix bars for test/review purposes and agreed to provide a box of cashew pretzel bars, a box of trail mix bars, a reusable shopping bag, and a t-shirt to one lucky reader as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Zone Perfect.

Capture the Everyday: Everyday Color

2011-09-15T22:16:00.003-04:00

Oh baby! I'm back Capturing the Everyday, albeit at the 11th hour.

This week's assignment is Everyday Color.

My little dude loves these cups. I'm convinced at this point in time that if I had to give him liquid medicine he might entertain it if I gave it to him in one of these snazzy animal cups complete with lid and bendy straw.

Our house is full of black, grey and dark blue -- a very muted color scheme and then B-A-M here are these cups chock-full-of-color waking you up and smacking you upside the head with their brightness each and every day.

Where's the color in your house?

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Thursday, Melissa will issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

Up Close & Personal With Bugs {Review/Giveaway}

2011-09-12T05:14:00.025-04:00

If it were left to my husband, a former Eagle Scout, we would go camping in a zillion and a half feet of snow for our vacation every year. We'd stand around the makeshift campfire with industrial grade thermal wear and toast some sort of extra crunchy fibrous meal before we tuckered out in our snow cave.

If it were up to my son, we'd collect snakes and bugs and invite each of them into our house to make as many babies as possible. We'd tell them how nice, cute, fun they are and live happily every after.

These scenarios are NEVER going to happen.

Mamma has to lay down the law somewhere.

Now, I don't mind run of the mill camping or examining the finer points of non-poisonous bugs...like ants, flies or moths.

Thanks to Backyard Safari we can have a little adventure, while mamma retains her sanity. And, if the boys want to go off and pretend to be pioneers they can bring along these super durable products too.

The two products we tried out were the Campfire Glow Lantern and the Lazer Bug Vac.

They arrived while I was out of town at BlogHer and all I heard from Liam for a week was the whir of the motor from the bug vac.

For a week every time I called it was...

...whirrrrrrr...
Do you want to talk to mamma?
...whirrrrr...
NO!
...whirrrr...
I'M
...whirrr...
BUSY
...whirrr...
VACUUMING
...whirrr...
BUGS!
...whirrrrrrrrrrrrr.

He had a serious crush on this bug vac and it's easy to see why. It comes with its own bright red laser light, a practice bug (butterfly) and two interchangeable "capture" tubes complete with magnifying lens to see your bugs up close and personal. Loads of fun!

The lantern has been a big hit as well. He loves to use it just about everywhere from outside on the deck to homemade forts. We can't wait to take it camping at our nature center the first weekend in October. It has a very bright LED lantern light up top and a much softer "campfire glow" that you can toggle to on the bottom. Just right for those that are a bit scared of the dark. It lights up the tent without disturbing your nearby campers...or at least we hope so.

I can't say enough great things about these products or this great company. My little guy plays with both products multiple times EVERY day.

You can enter below to win BOTH the Lazer Bug Vac and the Campfire Glow Lantern.

__________________
To Enter: (Please note bundling comments will only give you one entry to win. Please leave separate comments for each item to increase your chances of winning.)

1) Leave a comment.

2) What's your favorite outdoor activity?

3) Do you like to camp?

Winner will be selected at random on September 16, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Backyard Safari. Backyard Safari provided me with a Lazer Bug Vac and a Campfire Glow Lantern for test/review purposes and agreed to provide the same to one lucky reader as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Backyard Safari.

Carmen's Story: Where were you on 9/11?

2011-09-11T09:11:00.006-04:00

Secondary Affects of the War on Terrorism on Military Families

I'm writing this post in a haze because I have been at the hospital all night. For weeks I had been thinking about how to write this post with grandeur, wit, and emotion, but somehow all my ideas always fell short.

As a military wife, there are numerous ways 9/11 has impacted me and my family. I remember sitting in front of the television in the common hall of my dorm room in college when I watched the second plane hit. It was like watching a movie, almost too unbelievable. My husband, then boyfriend, enlisted soon after and has been deploying as a bomb tech, taking apart IED's for the last 5 years. It has been one hell of a ride.

Last night I was in the hospital because my niece landed in the hospital after a routine check up. Low hemoglobin. Possible cancer. Severe Anemia. Her mother gave birth to a new baby brother 8 weeks ago, and daddy is in Afghanistan.

I saw my little niece sitting on that bed, terrified. Her hand bandaged up to keep the IV in her hand and an oxygen tube in her little nose. All she wanted was her daddy - yet he is still halfway across the world, helpless, and at that time unknowing of the danger his little girl is in.

It it wasn't for 9/11, her daddy would be home. It it wasn't for 9/11 he would have been there 8 weeks ago for the birth of his son. If it wasn't for 9/11 MY husband would have been home for the birth of OUR second child. I wouldn't have widow friends raising kids on their own and I wouldn't be writing this post.

10 years sounds like such a long time - yet it feels like nothing has changed. I still feel the turmoil first hand. I am still confused, angry, bitter, and frightened. It is so hard to be so esprit du corp when I see my little niece sitting on the bed wanting her dad. It puts a lot into perspective, yet everything is still so unclear. How can it be both at the same time?

10 years and there is still no real focus. I am exhausted. I know our spirits will rise when our little girl gets better and the strength her mother has gained will be invaluable for her survival in the future. It is strength none of us want, but we all have. We have it because 9/11 gave it to us. We send our out loved ones and pray they come back. It feels like jumping off of a cliff, and praying we'll land on two feet.

Carmen is a military spouse and mother of two boys. Her husband is a bomb tech that has been fighting the war on terrorism for almost 6 years now. She writes a blog for military wives called SpouseSprite.com. Connect with her on Twitter @spousesprite.

Jen's Story: Where were you on 9/11?

2011-09-10T09:11:00.005-04:00

I had been out of grad school for just over a month and was working at my first “real” job, which moved me to Ithaca, New York, just a few hours outside NYC. That morning, I got up very early (for a theatre person, anyway), grabbed the first t-shirt my hand hit when I opened the drawer, made a cup of coffee and headed to my car. I had an 8am design meeting for the production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof I was working on at the time. The meeting lasted longer than usual, about 2 hours. Afterward, I got back into my car to go home and shower before heading back to my office for the day. I turned on the radio when I got in the car and immediately changed the station when I heard talking instead of music. I did this 6 times. Only then did I wonder “Why are none of the radio stations playing songs?” I paused. I heard. The news shook me to the core. Just 2 weeks earlier, I’d visited New York and had coffee in the World Trade Center. It was full of people. FULL. I couldn’t process this information. I ran into my apartment and turned on the television. The images I saw, two planes crashing into the WTC, will be forever burned into my memory. I called my mother, who was frantically trying to get in touch with me. I called my grandmother, who thought at the time that the entire state of New York WAS NYC. She kept asking how far my apartment was from what was happening and I finally convinced her that I was a couple hundred miles away and perfectly safe.

I hung up the phone after checking in with my family and started making a mental checklist of my friends in the city. I tried to remember where each of them worked, how close they lived to downtown, and whether or not I’d be able to get in touch with them any time soon. I looked down and only then realized what I was wearing. The first t-shirt my hand had hit that morning just happened to be my 4th of July Old Navy American Flag tee. An eerie coincidence.

I showered and went to my office where my boss, co-workers and I sat huddled around the radio. I had only worked there for a few weeks and I already felt comfortable, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that THIS was the day I became a part of the theatre family at Cornell. Students poured in and out of our office, some flabbergasted, others very quiet. A couple were from NYC or DC and just needed a safe place to sit for a moment while they processed this information. We counseled several of them over whether or not to go home. A coworker’s fiancé lived 2 blocks from the WTC, so we helped him make arrangements to get to her as soon as possible to help salvage what was left of their apartment. (Their building was, ultimately, condemned, collapsing just a week after the attacks.)

My husband’s father, retired from Homeland Security, worked for a private security firm and spent at least one day a week in the Pentagon. I remember getting an email from Marcus (we weren’t together at the time) asking everyone to pray for his father. His parents live just outside DC and he was not able to contact them for nearly 2 weeks.

Mostly, I remember the fear, the sadness, the anger, the desperation and the confusion. Never had I had so much pride in my country or felt more American. And never had I wanted to help so badly. As soon as things calmed down a bit, my best friend and I grabbed a bus to NYC to do the best thing we could think to do as theatre professionals—we spent the weekend watching plays. We’d read how Broadway shows were starting to suffer because people feared gathering in big public places. You could get tickets for next to nothing. We took a Friday off work, headed to the city and poured as much money as we could afford into New York. I’ll never forget Linda Lavin’s curtain speech after The Tale of The Allergist’s Wife thanking us for allowing them to tell us a story for two hours. I was reminded what a great escape theatre can be, even when you’re at your lowest point.

As we stood at the top of the Empire State Building looking at the void that used to be the Twin Towers, my friend and I held hands and cried silently. I think that was the moment I knew I needed to be an official New Yorker someday. (And I would become one, just 2 short years later.) Hardly a day went by the entire time I lived in NYC that someone did not reference 9/11. Every time I met a new friend, it seemed we would soon reveal our own 9/11 story. That day changed that city like nothing ever has or ever will. New York will never be the same and neither will its inhabitants, old or new.

Jen blogs at Hey, Y'all and Food Lush.

Tim's Story: Where were you on 9/11?

2011-09-09T09:11:00.009-04:00

Everyone has their own story of 9/11 - where they were, what they were doing, and how it affected them. My story, when taken in view of the whole of things, is really pretty ordinary and unremarkable. I was one of the “lucky” ones, if the word “luck” can be applied to anything that happened that day - I didn’t have any family or loved ones in New York City or at the Pentagon. I didn’t even know anyone who was flying anywhere. I was, like on any other morning, in my office. Someone, and I forget now who it even was, came in to the room and said something about an airplane and the World Trade Center in New York. Then they ran off down the hall to the next room. Everyones heads started popping up above the cubicle walls, and we all just sort of looked at each other with shrugs and expressions of confusion on our faces.

Then someone else came in to the room and said that we should all come out in to the hallway and look at what was on TV. One by one, we got up and filed out of the room, and down to the TV that was mounted high up in the corner at the end of the floor. We all know what we saw, and it was horrible. Everyone had that look of silent disbelief as we sat there watching the smoke pour from a giant gaping hole in the North Tower. Words like “accident,” got thrown around, but I am pretty sure someone said “terrorist” at one point. Then a few minutes later it happened again, and after that “terrorist” got said a lot more. Then the rumors started flying around, and everyone had heard something from someone else who knew a guy who saw something, and it was hard to know truth from fiction. Half an hour later, when someone heard that “something happened at the Pentagon,” and then CNN showed the burning hole in that building, “terrorist attack” became the words of the day.

It may be hindsight, or memories clouded by 10 years of time passed, but I distinctly remember standing there in that hallway, mouth agape, and suddenly having the thought that there was no way that those two buildings could stay standing after having something like that happen. I think it was about five minutes or so before the South Tower collapsed. The images of the falling buildings, the clouds of dust sweeping down the streets of Manhattan like some sort of Biblical storm, and the people.... the people, first running in terror and then wandering aimlessly through the ashes and rubble with vacant, shocked faces will stay with me forever. I will also never forget the image of a thousand thousand pieces of paper being wafted through the streets on the wind. Pieces of paper that had, just a few hours before, been the focus of someone’s day, someone’s job, someone’s life. Now they were just more detritus, being blown about by the winds of destruction, and drifting slowly to rest on the streets of New York like some kind of horrible grisly confetti.

Those memories, and a hundred more, will be with me until I die, and each of us has our own set of images and experiences that we will carry with us, always. I remember sitting down for a meal with a few friends a day or two later, after the initial panic had faded, after the phone calls to family to make sure everyone was ok, when it was finally starting to feel all right to stop and take a breath. The conversation around the table was about the obvious subject, and I remember saying to someone that the morning of the 11th of September, 2001 was going to be our generation’s November 22nd, 1963. Everyone in my parents’ and grandparents’ generation remembers where they were and what they were doing the morning that they heard that Kennedy had been shot, and all of them have their stories of that time. Likewise, I said, all of us are going to look back on this in 10 years, or 20 years, or 30, and say “I remember where I was when...” Like the November day in Dealey Plaza, the September morning in New York would change the world for a generation.

Now, after 10 years, I think I was at least partially wrong about that. Oh, we all remember where we were and what we were doing that Tuesday morning, and we always will, (and for many, the world did change forever in all too concrete a way that day) but I was a little off about being able to “look back” on it in quite the same way that people look back on Kennedy’s death. None of us around the dinner table that day knew that President Bush would shortly be announcing the start of a war. Even if we had known, my generation certainly couldn’t have imagined that 10 years later, we would still be fighting that war. Wars, to us, were quick things - the invasion of Panama, or the first Gulf War - you went in, you showed everyone who was boss, and then it was over. Yet here we are, after a decade, still embroiled in the same conflict.

The very fact that a whole generation is now fighting a war that began when they were 8, or 10, or 12 years old will change our country forever, and in a much more wide reaching way than just the events of that morning in isolation did. One day the fighting will be done, the rifles laid down, and the men and women will come home to their parents, spouses, and children. They will take off the uniforms and take up the lives that they laid aside when duty called, and I think that it is what we do now, and what we will do then, that will define what the events of September 11th will mean to history. The echoes of that morning will ring down through history long after the buildings are rebuilt and countless anniversaries have passed. We as a country have faced a myriad of choices and branching paths in the 10 years since that day. Some of them I think we’ve negotiated pretty well, and others perhaps we could have done better with. I hope and pray that we can all keep our eyes fixed on what is important so that in another 10 years, or another 10 after that, our children don’t have to have their own day to remember.

In addition to being Alissa's husband and Liam's dad, Tim is an IT engineer and an automotive journalist who writes for websites such as Kilometer Magazine and VW Vortex. He loves European cars and motorcycles, but not nearly as much as he loves his family.

Katie's Story: Where were you on 9/11?

2011-09-08T09:11:00.007-04:00

I graduated with my teaching certificate in 2001. That fall, I had taken my first teaching gig as a long-term substitute for a middle school Spanish teacher teaching introductory Spanish classes to grades 6-8.

I was young.

I was full of energy.

I was going to change the world one student at a time.

September 11, 2001 was the second week of school and I was starting to actually feel like I was gaining their respect.

It was also my baby brother’s 16th birthday.

During second period, I was reviewing the Spanish alphabet with the class of 2007 (seventh graders at the time) after teaching them the word cumpleaños (birthday).

We were tossing the Nerf ball around the room reciting the Spanish alphabet when the assistant principal called me to the door.

“There has been a devastating accident. A plane has hit one of the World Trade Center towers. Please do not mention anything to the students or turn on any televisions.”

I’ll be honest. I only had a vague idea of what the World Trade Center was, but I knew enough that a plane hitting a building was devastating.

I went through the rest of second period in a daze.

My next two classes were sixth graders that were unruly, didn’t care about Spanish, and had no idea that my brain was preoccupied with what could possibly going on in the news.

At lunch, my team of teachers—the electives—gathered together in one of the art rooms to watch the news. Obviously by that time both towers were down and they knew it was terrorists.

I had one class of eighth graders after lunch and then it was time to go home.

But first I needed gas in my car.

Like, I legit needed gas…I wasn’t one of those people who drove to the gas station because they were afraid that gas would suddenly be unavailable due to the terrorist issues.

So I waited in line for 30 minutes, ran out of gas, had to get help pushing my car up to the pump, and then filled up.

I immediately drove to my boyfriend’s house since he worked third shift and had been sleeping all day. He missed the entire thing.

I woke him up and turned on the television.
Later that night my family went out for my brother’s 16th birthday.

We had to pull my sobbing mother away from the television. She was sure the end of the world had started.

The televisions at Applebee’s were filled with terror and death.

But we tried to enjoy our family dinner.

And each other.

While I tried to figure out what I would say to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders tomorrow when learning Spanish would be the farthest thing from their mind.

Katie Sluiter is a wife, a mother to a two-year old son, a high school teacher, and a writer. She lives in West Michigan where she devours books and writes her fanny off. Her blog, Sluiter Nation is where she is trying to find her voice in this crazy world. Life has not always been easy, but she and her family find the joy anyway. She also reviews books at Katie’s Bookcase and is part of the leadership team at Write on Edge, a virtual writer’s workshop.