On a hiatus

I am not currently writing. On vacation, visiting family and looking for a job!

Too busy and will be back shortly!

My Children's Book Recommendations

I am sorta a children's book freak. I even sell Usborne Books as a home business and I love to collect children's books and read them to my children. I even aspire to write one or two in my lifetime. (BTW, the first one is written. I just need an illustrator! Any takers?)

Anyway, school is back in or starting soon and I thought I would kick-off the school year with my children's book recommendations. See my sidebar to the right for my list! (They are not Usborne books in case you were wondering.)

The kids and I have been frequenting the library every week this summer and coming home with at least 5 books and 2 DVDs each time. I am glad the library finally got some new children's books in! Three years ago when I moved here the selection sucked! I even took last summer off from visiting because I was discouraged. We have been very satisfied this year!

I hope my kids will love the library as much as I did as a kid. My girl is getting into it. My boy is too young but is starting to really enjoy looking at books. As a kid my mom took me to storytime every week at our local library. When the county built one within bike riding distance from my house imagine my delight and guess where you could find me on hot summer days! When I could drive and had my own car I would drive to the main county branch and spend HOURS there just perusing, reading, looking at everything. It never got old for me!

I guess I was kinda a nerd . . .

So tell me! What's your favorite children's book?

Experienced parents need reply

Ok. So my husband ran into a dilemma today that I didn't have a good answer for him when he asked how to handle it. He was at Wal-Mart with both kids. 4 year old daughter needed to go potty. They do not have a family restroom. He said the men's was incredibly disgusting and there was no way he was taking her in there especially since she had to sit. And he couldn't go in the ladies room with her. So he left the store and brought her home to go potty. What should he have done? He considered asking another mom to take her in for him, but he is very protective and said he didn't see someone he thought he could trust around to help him. So, I ask you experienced parents, what do you suggest?

Also, my son is cutting lots of teeth as I write this. Is it possible i could be feeling his pain? My teeth (especially in the back) have been hurting the last few days. Kinda like men who experience morning sickness when their wives are pregnant? Possible you think?

Be heard!

Lo-Down on McDonald's

We stopped one hot day for an ice cream at McDonald's and found out that during August it is by one dessert get one free. So it was 59 cents for two cones!

Also in August (not sure if all locations are participating) is $1.00 large soft drinks and sweet tea. And from 4-9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays happy meals are $1.49.

I am not a frequenter of ole' Mickey's, but I thought those sounded like good deals.

Also, while there I noticed the nutrition chart on the back of the tray liners.

Healthiest Sandwich = Tie between a plain hamburger and the chipotle snack wrap (grilled) - 9 and 8 grams of fat respectively.

Healthiest Salad = Premium Ceasar Salad with Grilled Chicken - 6 grams of fat

Healthiest Dressing = Newman's lowfat balsamic vinaigrette - 3 grams of fat

Healthiest breakfast item = Plain egg mcmuffin - 12 grams of fat

Healthiest dessert = Apple dippers- 0 gram of fat add caramel dip .5 grams of fat.

BTW, the ice cream cones are reduced fat and 3.5 grams of fat each.

Now that you are in the know, try not to go too often!

It's HOT HOT HOT!

My hubby took this shot of the temp on my rearview mirror in my car. I think it was 2 days ago.

Nude Housecleaners Needed!

I was thinking of getting a job and found this on Craigslist.org. Heck! It pays well!

Need housekeepers for nude house cleaning business. All ethnicities and body types encouraged to apply. Will clean houses in lingerie, topless, or completely nude depending on what you want to do. Nothing sexual, only cleaning. Asking for males and females. Send a pic, contact information, and a short bio in reply. I'm easy to work for and pay is good...

Location: Greater New Orleans
Compensation: $30 and up per hour depending on situation

Snoballs - A New Orleans Tradition

Ok. I am from Ohio and we called them Sno Cones. And they basically came in a handful of flavors - Grape, Cherry, Watermelon, Lime. They were usually found at carnivals or the concession stand at the ball diamond.

I move here and there are Snoball stands? huh? On just about every main road. Yup. There's one. Oh. There's another over there. Look mom! There's a snoball stand there too.

So I want ice cream one day and wonder "Where in the hell are the ice cream stands?" Nope. don't have 'em. Oh you have ice cream shops in selected strip malls or maybe a pizza joint happens to serve soft serve on the side.

So what's the deal? After 3 years here I finally figured it out and have become addicted myself. Recently having my husband join my daughter and I in our addiction.
(I even got my mom into snoballs when she was visiting.)

See, we have had a snoball here and there with some friends. But recently we decided to stop by our nearby joint which is ALWAYS PACKED to see what is up. It was scorching of course and dang it if the damn thing didn't drop our body temperatures 10 degrees and actually make 99 degrees and 100% humidity seem, well, comfortable!!!

Then there is the whole flavor thing. My girl and I are on a mission to try a different flavor each time we visit. Now, there are like 100 different flavors to try so we got too late a start this summer. But, it might just be our goal next year! (Do we get a shirt of something for our accomplishment?) Also, the whole condensed milk thing is a little strange to me. I don't get it and haven't had the desire to try it. I DO LOVE MINE STUFFED THOUGH! (For the non-locals - that means with soft serve ice cream in the middle!)

We have tried cream soda, chocolate, nectar, lemon-lime, watermelon, strawberry cheesecake, wedding cake, ice cream, blackberry, mango, bubble gum, candy corn, silver fox and lemon.

New Orleans takes their snoballs seriously. So we are taking suggestions on which flavors to try! What's your favorite?

A vacation by myself!

Yup! You read that correctly. This momma is taking a vacation by herself. No, that does not mean me and the kids. That means JUST ME! Alone, on a plane for the first time in . . . oh say . . . 5 years? Maybe more. The last time I traveled alone on a plane was when I flew to Atlanta and Chicago to do user testing for a startup web company I was working for. I think that was 2001 - ok 6 years ago. I might actually be able to read or sleep!

I am flying to Florida to visit my best friend for 5 days. She is taking off work and on one day we are hitting the beach (just her and I) while her kids are in school. All day on the beach by ourselves! Whooeee! No watching kids, playing with kids, feeding kids, wrangling kids. NOthing. Just us with our suntan lotion, beach chairs, cooler and lots of conversation and sunbathing!

So you are probably wondering about my kids. Never fear. This was my hubby's idea and he will be spending 5 fun-filled days with our 2 kids under 5 by himself. He has never done it before but claims if I can do it, he can do it. It should seem that way. I expect several phone calls. ;-)

I am going to try to get him to cover my blog so WE ALL can read about his days with the kids. Should be interesting!

Southshore businesses head north

For those of you who don't know New Orleans geography allow me to explain something real quick. There is a Southshore and a Northshore in the Greater New Orleans area. The southshore is what the rest of the world knows New Orleans to be and is basically south of Lake Pontchatrain. The Northshore is a bedroom community located (you guessed it!) north of Lake Pontchatrain. There is a very nice 25 mile bridge that connects the southshore to the northsore. Pre-Katrina, the southies (as I like to call 'em) thought the people on the northshore lived in another country. Of course they thought the northies to be crazy to commute across that dang bridge everyday!

HOWEVER!
Post-Katrina, many a southie has made the northshore their home and they seem to enjoy life over here in this other country and don't think us so crazy anymore. Ok. Well, maybe a little crazy . . .

Anyway, my point. . . .

With our new residents, I am happy to welcome all the new businesses that have found their way north too! Like the new Cafe Du Monde with a drive thru window! My friends Laura and Shannon want everyone to support their old favorite that just arrived R&O out on 190 in Covington. Can't forget Randazzo's bakery and Vic & Natly's both in Covington. I am sure there are many more. I am sorta a newcomer so these businesses are all new to me even if they did move north. Welcome!

Everyone is moving

Since Katrina, I have had 9 of my friends move out of state. None because of lose of house. One because of lose of job. The others, mostly job changes. That is how this area I live in is. Transient.

I am sad to say that another one of my good friends moved today. She moved to the Atlanta area. I am probably most sad for my daughter. She is at the age now that she really cherishs her friends and 2 of her best friends - the ones she begs to have over daily - have moved out of state in the last month. Yet, she doesn't understand moving. She keeps asking why and if I know how to get to their new house. She even asked me why they don't take their house with them and didn't seem too hot on the idea that someone else was going to be living in their house now. She then asked if we were moving too. It was sorta sad. She cried a little but I still don't think she gets it. Heck, she thought they lived out of state just because they lived on the other side of town. When returning from their house we would get to a certain intersection and she would say, "Are we back in Louisiana now?"

But I know for sure she understands friendship and will miss them dearly. And so will her mommy.

Fleur de Lis Fore!Kids

Own a little piece of New Orleans! See my post on PNN about this!

Scared -y Cat (er) dog

ATTENTION:The following is not for the faint at heart. It requires some somewhat disturbing discriptions about an animal. Proceed with caution!

My dog is a gentle 11 year old Golden Retriever. She doesn't do much at all during the day. Think yellow dog from the movie Funny Farm.

So here is the problem. She is scared to death of thunderstorms. She has done more damage to our home than both of our children combined! She's torn up trim thoughout the house but the worst was when she actually ripped the bi-fold doors off our laundry room. 2 sets to be exact. After ripping them down, she ripped of the trim. All in a matter of maybe an hour while I was away from the house and a suprise storm blew through.

We medicate her during the storm seasons with tranquilizer but that hasn't consistently worked. We built a pen out back under a shaded area and she ripped the metal fencing down and escaped. So we have recently tried medicating (1/4 of a pill to take the edge off) and chaining her to our carport steel pole with nothing within reach to destroy. It has worked better until yesterday . . .

I didn't medicate her before we left because we were only going to be gone about 30 minutes and there was no chance of rain or storm within site. It never rained while we were gone or even threatened to. We returned home to find our dog covered in blood! She apparently tried to dig a hole in our concrete driveway and ripped all her toenails out of all four feet! She was limping and barely able to stand anymore. After a thorough bath and inspection by my hubby he found she basically ripped some out and ground the others down until they bled. She also wore the pads of her feet off! Disgusting.

Hubby doctored her up with the help of our 4 year old soon to be nurse!. We heavily medicated her (whole pill - ok'd by vet) so she would sleep and be pain free throughout the night. She is ok today, but it is difficult for her to walk. So I have been giving her children's aspirin.

This dog has been with us forever, but she is becoming more of a problem then a pet!

sorry haven't written

It has been awhile since I have posted and might be longer. Hopefully I can post tomorrow. It is 11:00pm and I am beat. My 1yr old is teething something fierce. That on top of work demands and family obligations - this mom is going to bed!



Quote of the day:
"You can do it all yourself or you can make enough money to pay people to do it all for you." - My hubby (the dreamer)

What I want to be when I grow up?

The ladies at Crazy Hip Blog Mamas have a collaboration blog going about childhood dreams and it made me do a low in the gut internal chuckle and had to participate.

In 6th grade I was going to be an author. I attended a young writer's workshop at the local university. With the help of my wonderful 6th grade teacher I even wrote, illustrated, laminated and bond a book for my parents for Christmas. Then I hit 7th grade and my english teacher slaughtered everything I wrote because my grammar sucked. I still want to publish a book someday. I just want to shout out to all english teachers - go easy, don't squash dreams of creative writers with technicalities like grammar. That is what editors are for! At my second job in the real world it was at a city newspaper (but I wasn't a writer) and someone there told me that "Those who can't write, edit."

In 8th grade we were required to take a computer class. It was at that point that I vowed to NEVER have a job where I sat at a computer all day!

Around 9th grade I was going to be a Marine Biologist and actually even got certified in Scuba Diving. Then, I found out you have to take a lot of science classes. To this day I love everything water, ocean, fish, shells, boats, etc. As an adult I was in Cape Cod on vacation and watching a marine biologist pull out and tag a huge horseshoe crab. I will never forget standing there kicking myself for never pursuing that career choice.

In 10th grade my bio in a high school musical program said I could see myself barefoot and pregnant living in Maine in 15 years.

At one point I even considered becoming a pilot, but that went nowhere. Too expensive to even make it a hobby!

So what did I end up doing? I got a journalism/advertising degree and worked as a web designer and consultant for many years. I sat my rump in front of a computer all day! And still do . . . I became barefoot and pregnant but in a different state!

4 year old says . . .

Tonight at bedtime my daughter said,
"Daddy is the smartest daddy. He can make anything. Well, not one thing. He can't make a fanbut."
"What is a fanbut?" I ask.
"A fanbut is like a smokehouse."

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Today my mom called and said my dad wasn't feeling well because it was hot at work and he might be dehydrated. She told the same to my daughter on the phone when she asked about Papa. So this conversation happens later.

"Honey, hurry up into the car."
"Why?"
"Because brother is sitting in the cart and it is hot out here."
"What will happen? Will he get dehydrated?"
(We get into car and I start the car.)
"Mommy, turn the air on higher. I am hot and getting dehydrated."

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"Mommy why do you always go to the gym"
"Because I need to workout"
"Why? So you can get a flat stomach like mine?"

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