We Need New Furniture

The Rooster and I are not shoppers by nature – we go when we’re absolutely forced to and even then, it has to be a desperate situation. But as we were sitting here on Sunday relaxing by the fire, I realized that our sofa just isn’t as supportive as it used to be. Meaning: I get fanny fatigue just sitting here and that’s pretty sad.

We’ve been putting off buying new living room furniture for a long time. We’ve had this set for 10 years and it was his folks before we got it so, we’re looking at a set that’s at least 13 years old.

But we hold off and will keep holding off as long as possible.

Why?

Well, if you look at the other side of the chair’s cushion, you’ll see a lovely brown paint stain that was put there when Mackenzie was 4 years old. We had refinished a bureau and – silly us – had left the can of paint out which was discovered by Mackenzie bright early the next morning. 4 year old.. parents asleep.. what else would happen but half a gallon get spilled on the chair?

If you look under the skirt of the sofa, you’ll see one of the legs is actually several cut up 2×4′s that have been fashioned into a leg to keep that corner off the floor. Culprit? 3 little  monkey’s jumping on the sofa. And catapulting. And flipping and whatever else it is that hyper kids do.

And then, there’s this little beauty:

This, friends is what I cleaned out of the lining of the chair a couple of years ago. Not under the cushion, mind you but INSIDE the lining where the springs are. Those scissors? Had been missing for TWO YEARS! The remote? 6 months. And since today IS Mardi Gras, I think I spy a strand of beads in there! It was like a bad infomercial digging that crap out.. “But wait! There’s more!”

So I ask you.. how could I possibly get rid of this furniture? It’s like a treasure trove of safe keeping and memories all loaded in the springs.

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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It Is Winter, Right?

This has been the mildest winter in a long time. I think the coldest stretch of weather we got was back in early November. We’ve average mid to upper 50′s consistently and hitting upper 60′s hasn’t been a far shot either. And, as much as my power bill thanks Old Man Winter for forgetting we were here, I like seasonal temperatures so the fact that I haven’t worn any of my sweaters (I rely on them for extra padding.. they’re half my winter wardrobe!), haven’t broken out my ugly UGG boots and have barely worn a coat.

So when I finally tuned into the weather late last week to hear that it was going to be 65° on Saturday and snowing on Sunday, I was stoked. I laid the groundwork for “I’m not leaving this house” by going to the store on Saturday with all the crazies and came home to wait for the #snOMG event to happen. I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but around here you just mention snow and you’d think it was blizzard in the making. The shelves get stripped of bread, milk and eggs. Every. Single. Time. I don’t know what people do with all the bread, milk and eggs but seriously, how much french toast and grilled cheese sandwiches can one eat during a 12 hour event? It kills me.

Anyhow… Sunday was an a great, lazy day full of hanging out in front of the fireplace.. played an exciting game of Monopoly (of which the Rooster kicked our tail as he usually does), made some vegetable beef soup, brownies and of course the obligatory bowl of snow cream. Considering this will probably be our only blast of snow from Old Man Winter, it was definitely a very good day!

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Mayberry RFD

There’s a snowmageddon apparently coming tonight so yesterday, we decided to take advantage of the 65° weather and head out for an 80% family day. Since 20% of our group is in Vail, it couldn’t be a full family day.. it was hard to have fun, but we somehow managed.

We loaded up our sad little selves and headed North to a town called Mount Airy: population 9,000.

This little town we know as Mount Airy is known to the rest of the world as Mayberry. You remember Mayberry? It was the background star of the Andy Griffith Show which ran from 1960-1968 (but still lives in syndication today) The town that Sheriff Andy Taylor ran while his boy Opie ran around and his sweet Aunt Bea baked fresh apple pies? Yep.. there’s a real place. Once a year they have a big festival called Mayberry Days which we’ve never been to but I hear it’s amazing and like a trip back in time.

They’ve done a good job with keeping the town similar to the feel of Sheriff Andy Taylor’s time. You can still get your haircut at Floyd’s City Barber Shop, grab a bite at SnappyLunch and see Otis at the City Jail. You can get a tour of the town in one of the old squad cars or by a mule drawn carriage. There’s the Andy Griffith Museum as well as the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History which is where we spent a portion of our day. We walked around and saw all the shops but a lot of them were closed – including the barber shop and the city jail which was disappointing but we enjoyed buying penny candy at Opie’s and buying fresh apple turnovers at the bakery.

On the drive back home, we drove to the top of the “knob” of Mount Airy for a quick view of the world below with a promise to return back in the Spring for a hike and picnic lunch.

Sitting here in sweats watching the cold rain condition the area for the #SNOmg event to come, I am really glad we got outside for some family time. Even if we were only an 80% family.

Sounds like Mackenzie is  having the time of her life (as expected) in Vail and survived her first day of ski school with only a bruise or two on her butt. She’s heading back for another full day of it today.. I had to laugh at her “why is it SO cold here” text last night.

Make it a good one and if you’re in this area, save some bread and milk for the other guys would you?

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Saturday Snippets – February 18th

Can’t believe it’s Saturday already! Bonus points for it being a 3 day holiday weekend! We’re heading up to Mt. Airy today which is commonly referred to as Mayberry since it’s the town that the show was centered around. It’s such a cute little town and a total trip down memory lane.

1) The eldest left on Thursday for Vail, CO for the trip of a lifetime with our best friends. They go every year for President’s Day week and asked if they could start “rotating” and take one of our girls with them each year. I love them for that! While I’m a little sad we’re not doing it together with our family unit, I love giving the girls a chance to experience new things. She’s going to have the time of her life! I’ve loved getting her pictures texted to me and I can tell she’s already relaxed and not worrying about the stupid drama BS that she’s been dealing with at school lately. I told her before she left that it was going to be nice for her to get away from all of that and just be happy.

2) I did it!! Shorty Award’s nominations closed at midnight last night and thanks to some amazing friends – both local and in cyberspace – knocked Britney Spears out of the running! WootWoot!! Just for bragging rights I was determined to be a finalist. I took out the Bieber’s mom and then took out the Britney Spears. All I can say is that I could never be in the position where I had to really rally for votes. That’s hard! And unfortunately, there were a lot of bugs in the system so sometimes votes wouldn’t take and I would have to go and ask for people to resubmit their votes which meant I had to feel dirty twice. The final announcement will be next week so now I’m left hoping they don’t find something wrong with the votes that I did get. Not sure what the next step is in actually “winning” the award but I hope it’s not begging people for votes again. In the meantime, heres’s my moment of glory

3) It was Valentine’s Day this week and as usual, we spent the day as we normally do.. shuttling kids around, homework, etc. I’m one of those that would rather the Rooster show me his love throughout the year.. not just on one day. However, he did go the extra mile and made an amazing seafood dinner. Hope it was a special day for you and yours, too!

Hope you all have a great weekend!! We’re off to see Aunt Bea, Opie and Andy!

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Things I Love – Day 5: Amazing Bloggers

If you look on my blogroll, I have quite a few blogs listed, all written by some amazing authors. Every day, it seems I find another new one that I add to my Reader and most will eventually land on my blogroll. In the world of Twitter, Friday is known as #FF or Follow Friday, so thought this would be a great close to a week of Things I Love!

Here are a few of the blogs (in no particular order) I read daily and a little reason why you should, too. Some are personal blogs, some are business blogs. If you’re not on here, it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.. you’ll be there another time, I promise!

A Bittersweet Existence – Dawana teaches Elementary school out in Colorado. That alone is reason enough for me to follow her. Well, no not really but still.. teachers go under-recognized so thought I’d try to give her a plug. She packs a punch, is funny most times – poignant the others. Love her “Weekly Hate” post that she does on Fridays. Bantering back and forth with her on Twitter always makes me smile.

A Little Something For Me – Kristen is a former teacher who now is a SAHM to her 3 kids. In her blog, she chronicles her very busy life that includes a son with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome of which she’s a huge advocate for. She blows me away with the wide variety of her writing and if you read no other post on her site, you should read this one: Lesson 1: Domestic Violence. I only hope that my girls are lucky enough to end up with an educator like Kristen.

Chow and Chatter – If you love food (especially exotic food), you must follow this blog. I’m lucky enough to live in the same town as Rebecca and she amazes me with the amount of information that she puts out about food. She’s designed TWO iPhone apps and is one of the most delightful, charming people that I know.

Kim Williams – Another local blogger and a person that I’m honored to know. Kim is a former Preacher-man turned eternal Sage. While he may not be on the pulpit anymore, have a conversation with him and you’ll walk away feeling completely at peace. There are few people that I would put in the “mentor” category but Kim is one of them. He can offer a perspective on things that I usually wouldn’t have thought of.

Part of the Plan – Yes.. another Kristen! How can you go wrong with a Kristen? This one is the cutest little thing with a sense of humor that is sharp as a whip. She’s frank and honest about her life in motherhood and has recently been hired to write for Curvy Girl Guide which is a huge accomplishment and I’m long-distance proud of her for that!! You go girl!!

Spin Sucks – This is one of my favorite business blogs. Led by Gini Dietrich and her smacktastic staff, I’ve yet to find one of her posts that I didn’t learn something from. She’s down to earth and is more “tell it like it is” than Dr. Phil ever was. One of my favorite things that Gini does is her “Facebook Question of the Week” which is (almost) always a video. She’s kind and always gives back to the community. If you’re in marketing or are serious about marketing your blog, you must follow Gini’s blog.

{Grow} – Here’s a little story. A few years ago, when I first started my business and was getting serious on Twitter, a kind “stranger” reached out to me and offered me 30 minutes of his time. That man was Mark Schaefer who, in my professional world, is an industry leader and demi-God. Mark was gracious with his time and spent well over his promised half hour with me that day and has continued to be a mentor to me and a go-to person if/when I have a business question. I finally got to meet him in person last year when he was the Keynote speaker at a local conference which I have no doubt, he did more as a favor to me.. He’s written two books – The Tao of Twitter (I’m in it!!) and the soon to be released Return on Influence. If you can’t tell, I. Adore. Mark.

Stephanie Wonderlin – I swear to you, I don’t know how I first came across Stephanie but believe me.. it was destiny. She is another one of the most gracious and kind people that I know – and yes.. I have never met her in person. If you’ve ever considered Vlogging, you MUST follow Stephanie. She has an amazing YouTube channel called Tweetheart TV where she covers all the latest and greatest in technology and social media. She has a never-ending supply of energy and has to be one of the most positive people that I’ve ever come into contact with. I will FINALLY get to meet her AND Gini in person in April when I attend Social Slam which is hosted by.. Mark! Don’t you love how all this comes together for a clean close?!

Again.. this list is by no means exclusive OR inclusive… there are so many amazing bloggers out there. Maybe I’ll start devoting Fridays to talking about my favorite bloggers..

Who should I add to my blogroll? I like them funny, insightful and helpful so let it rip!

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Things I Love – Day 4: Twitter

In honor of Valentine’s Day being this week, I thought I’d spend some time talking about things I love. It might be a person one day, a thing the next, a place another day. I hope you spend some time this week thinking about the ones that mean the most to you. It doesn’t have to be your partner – it can be the BFFs you’ve had forever.

If you know me, you know I’m an avid, voracious and passionate Twitter user. After a pretty funny exchange with one of my new-found blogger friends Suzanne (aka @tangledlou) over at Periphery where she and others expressed some “uncertainty” about Twitter, I promised to do a 101 on it.

So, gather up your notebooks, kids.. here we go. I’m going to give you the basic info you need to make Twitter your friend. I’ll agree that Twitter can be a little daunting, so I’ll break it into smaller pieces. Next week, I’ll be a little more detailed about one area and continue from there.

Twitter Terms:

• Retweet (RT) - When someone “repeats” your tweet. Get it? Retweet.. Repeat… If someone RTs your stuff, thank them!! This is the ultimate goal of Twitter.. to get your stuff retweeted. It’s like a megaphone. You tweet your stuff to your followers but they retweet it to THEIR followers. And they told 2 friends, and they told 2 friends…
• Direct Message (DM) - This is a private message between 2 tweeters. The only 2 people who can see it are the sender and the recipient. In order to exchange DMs, the twitter relationship must be mutual. Meaning, you can’t send a DM to someone who isn’t following you and vice versa.
• Hashtags (#) – This is to track a trending topic. Sometimes they’re legit – #POTUS (President of the United States) and sometimes they’re silly – #IToldYouNotToo

Twitter Etiquette:

• Follow back – For the most part, if someone follows you – follow them back. If someone walked up to you at a party and introduced themselves, you wouldn’t ignore them woud you? I draw the line on this one at blatant spammers, skanks and MLM-ers.
• If someone “talks” to you, “talk” back to them. This is what Twitter is all about. Engagement. Think of it this way – if you were at a party and someone walked up to you and started talking, you wouldn’t just stare at them or walk away would you? No. Ignoring a tweet directed at you is exactly the same thing. I’ve unfollowed many a tweeter for that. Some of them are considered “a-listers” in the blog world.  I don’t care. It’s rude and why should I give you my audience if that’s the way you’re going to be?
• Don’t just push out links to your posts. <<Yawn>> While Twitter is a GREAT way to get traffic to your blog, if that’s the only thing you’re tweeting, you’re not going to win any friends or gain many followers. Did I mention the word engagement yet?
• Don’t protect your tweets. What’s the sense in it? If you don’t want people to follow you then don’t be on Twitter.  If there’s a little “lock” on your profile, that means your tweets are protected. Go into setting and un-protect them.
• Using an auto-DM is not encouraged. This is something you set up that automatically sends a DM when someone follows you.  While it may seen like a “nice” thing to do, the person on the other end will look pretty foolish if they respond to your (seemingly) personal DM and it won’t go thru because you’re not following them back.

Okay.. I think that’s enough for today… in my next post, I’ll go into using services like HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc to make Twitter much easier to manage.  I’ll also cover more detailed ways to make Twitter work for you such as searches, lists, etc.

The most important thing about Twitter is to not give up. Get in there and just do it. I promise, within a few weeks you’ll wonder how you ever blogged or lived without it!

If you have specific questions you’d like me to answer, leave a comment and I’ll either answer them with a reply or roll them into the next Twitter post!

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Things I Love – Day 3: St. Maarten

In honor of Valentine’s Day being this week, I thought I’d spend some time talking about things I love. It might be a person one day, a thing the next, a place another day. I hope you spend some time this week thinking about the ones that mean the most to you. It doesn’t have to be your partner – it can be the BFFs you’ve had forever.

Thought this would be a good one to do for (almost) Wordless Wednesday.

This is a photo the Rooster took our first trip to St. Maarten. We’ve joked that he should sell it to Presidente Beer so they can use it in their ads it’s almost that perfect.

We’ve been to St. Maarten twice now – each time on a cruise and it is the one place we’ve put on our bucket list to go back to and spend an entire week.  The locals are as warm and welcoming as the sands of the beach. The shopping is amazing and the water so many beautiful colors of blue and green. I often daydream of selling everything we own and moving there. I mean.. if they have Wi-Fi, the Rooster and I can both still work, right??

Where would you move to if money were no object?

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Things I Love – Day 2 – The Rooster

How can I not post about the love of my life on Valentine’s Day? The biggest problem is how can I possibly convey all the things he is to me in a short post? Obviously, I can’t but will give it my best shot. The Rooster (aka Steve) is not just my husband and best friend, but he’s an amazing human being. Which is why I want to dedicate this post to him and the love that I have for him.

Why is the Rooster amazing to me? Let me count the ways…

1. He is the nicer, kinder one of the two of us. Whereas I may be the one who sets up the social situations, he’s definitely the one who steps up to the plate once we’re there and brings it home.
2. He’s never missed a birthday. Whether it was one of the girls or mine – he’s always been home. This past year, he was in Florida helping a friend recover from donating a kidney. He was supposed to be home on December 22nd but managed to be home the day before my birthday which was on the 17th. This may not seem like a big deal, but birthdays are a big deal in our house (because I insist on it) so it’s important to him.
3. He’s hardly ever missed one of the kid’s games or performances. There have been a couple of exceptions to this, but not many. He knows the girls count on us to be there and it’s important to him. No matter how “small” the activity is, it’s important that we’re there as a family to support each other. The ones he’s missed, I know have really bothered him.
4. He doesn’t miss family and friend’s milestones. He doesn’t limit it to “just his kids”. If there’s a celebration for our friend’s kids, he’s going to be there if at all possible. There have been times that I’ve given him a kitchen pass and he’s still chosen to go. He doesn’t consider it a chore or a hardship to go – he enjoys spending the time celebrating the occasion with our friends because to us, our friends are our extended family.
5. He’s an amazing cook. Not only does he love to cook, he’s amazing at it. We don’t have a lot of time during the week to do it but come the weekend – it’s on. He relishes taking on the challenge of new recipes and believe me, we love the results of the challenge!! Fact: as odd as it seems, I never liked ribs until he came up with his own special version. Oh. My. God. They’re amazing and I still haven’t had any that are as good as his. Same goes for Philly Cheese Steaks.
6. He’s quite possibly, the most patient and giving person I know. At least with me. Sometimes his fuse is short with the girls but hey… he’s way out-numbered, who wouldn’t lose it now and again. You have to understand me.. I’m sporadic, spontaneous and a liberal free spirit.  He votes Republican, I vote Democrat. When I have one of my moments that I lovingly refer to as my “Lucy” moments, he’s right there to support me. He’ll play Devil’s advocate if he thinks it’s warranted, but for the most part he just lets me roll with it. And for that, I’m grateful.
7. He’s funny. He’s always joking and always has a funny line to throw in the mix. Our poor kids aren’t always sure if he’s serious or if he’s kidding. Sometimes, neither am I. He can take it as well as he can give it, too. It’s easy to be a prankster but you have to be able to be pranked and laugh about it, too.
8. He loves making memories and traditions. He gets this from his mom. This is important to both of us. For him, it’s because his family did and for me it’s because my family really didn’t. He’s the one who started our annual Gingerbread House party – not me. I am always finding little pieces of paper tucked in his drawers where he has written down funny things the kids say or funny moments that happen on vacation. Usually it’s the Moms that do this stuff but not in my house.
9. He works his ass off. There was a time, several years ago when we were going thru a pretty tough time financially. He was doing an appraisal apprentiship in NJ, it was closing in on Christmas and things were just really, really tight. Bills don’t get paid and kids don’t get fed on pride so in addition to the daytime job he was working, he went to work for Target 3rd shift to help make ends meet. I think he went for 6 months with little to no sleep and it was hard on everyone. But, he never complained (well, no more than the normal person would) and we made it through. I’m not sure if he will ever know how significant that move was to me.
10. He’s a softie for his daughters. Steve would rather spend time with us than anyone else. If one of the kids wants to play golf, he takes them. Football or tag in the yard, he plays. Sometimes things don’t get done around the house because of it and no matter what I may say, I’m okay with that. He’s involved in their homework, grades and discipline. He may not always stick TO the grounding which puts him in the “softie” category and therefore, again, makes him the nicer of the two of us (see #1).

We all think our husbands are spectacular but I don’t think we always let them know. This, Steve Daukas, is my Valentine’s Day gift to you – that you know how much I love you.. more today than yesterday.

But not as much as tomorrow.

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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Things I Love – Day 1

In honor of Valentine’s Day being this week, I thought I’d spend some time talking about things I love. It might be a person one day, a thing the next, a place another day. I hope you spend some time this week thinking about the ones that mean the most to you. It doesn’t have to be your partner – it can be the BFFs you’ve had forever.

My first post for “Things I Love” has to start off with what I hate in order to appreciate what I love.

I. Hate. Socks.

They smother my feet, make them dry and if I have to wear them, I don’t care if it’s 30 below zero, they’re coming off as soon as I hit the back door. I will go to whatever extremes I can to wear shoes that don’t require me to wear socks. Think faux-shearling lined clogs, UGG boots, etc. If it gets to the point where I have to wear socks, I made a promise to myself that I would never wear “normal” socks. If I have to wear socks, they’re going to be fun. Like a party in my shoes, kind of fun.

Which is why the only socks that I will wear are Little Miss Matched Socks. I was first turned on to LMM socks back in 2005 when the bestie wrote a review on our joint “baby” blog. For a trip down memory lane, you can read that post here. Since I can’t assume that everyone knows about LMM, let me enlighten you.  The reason they’re called Little Miss Matched is because… well.. they don’t match. On purpose, they don’t match. But they do coordinate! Every pair of LMM socks comes in a pack of 3 so you can mix and match as you feel fit. Black, white and gray are the basic color families and from there you choose different lines to fit your personality (I like the Zany line, naturally!). They offer sizes from baby up to adults and it’s not just socks. They have broadened their selection to include accessories, toys, gloves, clothes and their room decor is to die for.

The girls have a couple of pair of LMM socks but this is one of those little special treats that I reserve for me. Plus, I can quickly tell when they’ve stolen my socks… no denying it when you get busted with Mom’s LMM socks. The last time we were in NYC I was so excited to hit their bricks and mortar.. talk about a kid in a candy store. The wee hens got some awesome gifts from there (and so did I). My somewhat conservative mom even took a shine to my socks, so this year for Christmas I started her own LMM sock collection which came in a very cute plastic container. I haven’t seen her wearing them yet which  just means I’ll score more socks as soon as she turns her back.

As a side note, I’m currently waiting to be notified by Little Miss Matched’s corporate offices that I am, in fact, the grand prize winner in their most recent sweepstakes where the grand prize was this amazing Zany bike. And yes, that would be mine too.

Just so you know, I was in no way compensated for this post. But, I wouldn’t turn down some Little Miss Matched if it came my way..

Hey! If you leave me a comment (and why wouldn’t you??) PLEASE make sure you include your website/blog so I can come and visit!

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