Blogger Discovery

I discovered a new feature available to Bloggers . Its these free backgrounds that make them look like scrapbooking pages. I could have searched them all night, but then I realized that I'd forget the ones I liked after looking at 50 pages, so I settled on one and went with it.

Of course, it comes with a permanent advertisement for the site, smack-dab on your page. I guess that's ok. That's how I found it anyway. I'm not one of those who won't carry a Louis Vitton bag because there are LVs all over it. I don't carry them, because I don't see spending that much money for a purse that I don't have the money to carry in it.

I love my new background. I'll try not to obnoxiously change it every other day.

There will be times like this...(a.k.a. the poop posting)

Overall, I love being a mom. I can have the worse day and his face just lights me up like a warm, cozy fire during a blizzard.

And then there is tonight. Tyler had his first bout of real constipation at 2 3/4 years old. It was the most heart wrenching thing to have sit by and watch. He screamed as if he was in such sharp pain. His entire little body arched. I watched him, leaning over the edge of the sofa, bent doubled, toes so raised that he was barely on the ground at all. He looked at me in terror, eyes wet, screaming, "mommmmmeeeee, I have booboo in my diaper!".

I was pained.

He looked over at his grandmother, pleadingly, "Nana! I haaaaave booooo booooo!" She looked pained. She offered to take the boo boo away so that he wouldn't feel it. I would have gladly.

The end result is, we had to go get him medicine and insert it. That wasn't fun. He didn't like it either. He was so sad, just laying on us between excruciating screaming. And, finally, he got relief.

I guess my lesson in all of this is that there will be more. This is the first of many times where he will be upset or hurt and we will not be able to take it away. It will rip at my heart and I will want to step into his skin, or into his head and take it away. But I will have to sit back and let the pain ride its way out of him. And each time, it will be sore.

Thats all part of what I signed up for.

Renewal - Day 1

I thought I'd blog about my Renewal experience. But if the rest of my days are like this one, it will be a snore of a read. Thank God that Thanksgiving is coming up, otherwise, I'm afraid that my rapidly spreading butt would be fused to the sofa.

Today I napped for 3 hours. No baby (he was in daycare). No guilt (I can do it tomorrow - clean, cook, email, rake... whatever).

Then I spent... oh.... the rest of the day on FaceBook. I think I played Word Challenge. I'm pretty sure I played Word Challenge. I played Scrabble. I didn't even get up to eat lunch.

Overall, Renewal is a wonderful thing. You get 4 weeks off and they encourage you to add at least one week more. You are not allowed to check email or voicemail. You are not to have contact with co-workers unless its just for fun. Its great. When this was announced, people did wonderful, soul enriching things like working as missionaries in Africa, build homes in Habitat for Humanities, help rebuild New Orleans.

Me? I plan to clean out my basement. I have a couple of side things planned like going to see Thomas the Tank Engine with my family. But, mostly, non-lofty plans. How lame.

But I'm ok with that. I think this time is for me to do what I want, and I'm going to do that.

:)

Grammaticalifragilistic Expialidotious!

For some reason, this year I've suddenly lost the ability to determine which words I use in what instances.

I'm not a complete dolt. I still get the your/you're, there/they're/their and pair/pare type of uses.

But suddenly - and its truly suddenly because I swear, I knew last month - I can't tell you if I'm 'lost' in the woods, at a 'loss' for words, or should I use 'lossed' - er... Is that even a word? Maybe. Maybe not. I have no clue anymore!

And to 'insure' my continued confusion, I was 'ensured' that this may be all a part of Mommy-brain. Great.

I know the definition of these words. And I'm fairly certain I know the context to use them. I friggin graduated at the to 5% of my class for Pete's sake. But as soon as I go to put fingers to keyboard, its gone. Gone like a Snickers bar left in front of a fat kid on the playground. :::Poof:::

Mommy-brain sucks. I don't have the energy to explain Mommy-brain for all of you who don't know. Maybe that's for another blog entry - could be, but I'll forget, I'm sure.

If Brunetta sees this, she'll say it's payback for relentlessly making fun of her when she told me to 'bare' right to get to her house.

SomeEcard... responses

Based on my last posts, Chris sent this to me. LOL
It cracked me up so I had to post it.

Pre-Renewal

I'm going on Renewal next week. This week I've been breaking out in hives. Renewal is 4 weeks of continuous paid vacation for working here for a long, long time. Its a perk, definitely. But the weeks leading up to it are stressful as anything.

I just spoke to someone in sales who went on renewal. She said, "what stress?"

She didn't have to set up staff to do her job while she was out. She must not have had to create documents and processes in place in order to go. She probably didn't have to constantly hear how her leaving was going to be such a hardship on everyone else (even if it wasn't true). She just turned off her voicemail, set up her out of office and left.

I have had hives for the past few days. I'm stressing about everything and the people at work aren't helping. They probably don't realize they're being unsupportive. Or maybe they're jealous that they aren't going - though I doubt it, they'll have their turn. Maybe its me. ?? Maybe I should just chuck whatever doesn't get done and not worry about it. Let the chips fall wherever they land.

It just sucks that I have to be this stressed out in order to have the bonus weeks off that everyone here is entitled to at this point in their jobs. And the thing that really sucks is that, from the people I've spoken to, they aren't. Maybe they just don't work in my department. lol.

Maybe I just need to go play Word Challenge and stop thinking about work so that I can stop these welts of hives that are erupting on my arm.

Linda is

When Alana showed me her 'wall' on FaceBook, I thought, "how strange that this guy speaks of himself in third person - what kind of weirdo does that?" Apparently, ALL the weirdos, since that's how their site works.

So, here is a list of things I'd like to post on MY wall, but thought... Hmmm, I'll really sound like a crazy person now- but just mentally add LOL after each. and to cover myself further, none are meant with any malicious intent:


Linda feels a little like a serial killer speaking in third person.

Linda doesn't get; L'il Blue Coves, Rainforest, pillowfights or pokes. (Or any of them, really).

Linda just burst a pimple in her earlobe that's been killing her.

Linda got her period.

Linda doesn't want to meet you for lunch/dinner/drinks/shopping because all she wants to do is catch up on sleep.

Linda doesn't get people recommending Friends when the recommender isn't friends with that person.

Linda doesn't have a clue who these people are who're requesting Friend(ship) but in the spirit - what the heck?

Linda feels a bit like an old lady playing on her kid's site.

Linda is checking status so much that the computer is now logging on all by itself.

Linda DOES use LOL too much. (This one may go up there for real).

Joined the Social Networking Wave

True, the wave has pretty much slowed to a swell (to continue the lame metaphor) but it took me years and a lot of resistance. Even when all those around me flocked, I kept blissfully ignorant of the inner workings. I didn't want anyone IN MySpace, nor did I want to be Twittered, nor my Face on any Book, and who needs one more Friend(ster)?

Well, I succombed. Alana came over and showed me the joys and perils of the social network experience, and I'm now horribly addicted. Much of this I can do anywhere else, but somehow, this crazy Facebook just pulls me in. Its hypnotic.

It started innocently enough. I wanted to FaceDouble* my husband because people always stop us to tell him what celebrity he looks like. (Well, more so before he shaved his head). And you had to join to FaceDouble. So I did. I FDed everyone I had photos of. From every angle.

Then it moved to checking notifications (and if you're not on, none of this means anything to you - count yourself lucky), creating and scanning Flairs, Word Challenge - oh the addiction of WC - yikes (WC may require its own blog entry). Now I'm going on every few hours to see if any of my Friends have put in their words in Scrabble.

Oh, look, I can FaceBook on my Blackberry. Great :::I say this dripping with sarcasm, but we both know, in my heart, I'm more like: GREAT!:::

I'm probably going to require an intervention to get me off.

*Note: since this original posting, I found out that you can just go to the FaceDouble site. Who knew.