Mrs. MandyPoo

Month recap

2008-07-22T11:24:00.007-04:00

Since I have left you all out there with no word from me, I'll fill you in on what's been going on...

We had a Happy July 4th.

We celebrated Skittles' 27th birthday.

John Marc has decided to run for our local school board, so we've been busy trying to drum up a brochure and some ~~followers~~ (...I don't know if followers is exactly the right word...it's not like we're leading a cult...) supporters.

Eli is now sitting up all by himself and is scooting all over the place. He will get up on his knees and rock...but won't crawl. He knows that the scooting gets him whereever he needs to go, so he doesn't even bother to try to crawl. Eli also pulls up onto his knees and tries to pull himself up to stand already! Here's a cute, recent video for you...

Other than that, since the paid posting thing sort of "dried up," I decided to try other avenues to make/save money. SO, I've been buying and selling on e-Bay and I've joined several panels to do paid surveys. The e-Bay thing works so long as you have good items to sell (obviously), and the paid surveys have really turned out to be unpaid, in my opinion. The ones that I'm involved with basically just give you a certain amount of points based on the surveys that you do, and then you can redeem your points for "prizes" onces you accumulate enough. The items to choose from are actually pretty good, though, so I've kept on trucking with it. (It only takes 5 minutes or less per survey so it's not like I'm wasting a whole bunch of time completing each survey).

Anyway, that's basically where my time has gone this month!

Happy Blogoversary to me!

2008-07-22T11:19:00.004-04:00

Saturday, July 19, 2008 marked exactly one year of blogging for me!

While I realize that I have been ~~somewhat~~ quite neglectful recently, I do plan to continue blogging.

So happy one year blogoversary to me!!!

Not enough indians

2008-07-08T11:16:00.006-04:00

Have you ever heard the saying that there are too many chiefs and not enough indians?

When I cheered in highschool, our coach used to tell us this all the time. I became very acquainted with the phrase when I cheered, and even more acquainted with it when I became captain my senior year. Having been on the "chief" side my senior year, I got to understand how frustrating it is when everyone else who is supposed to be an indian tries to run around acting like a chief.

WELL, now that I am in the workforce, I've found myself back on the indian side (joy). It's not always bad. In fact, it's not normally bad. But recently I have been getting extremely frustrated at work. Let me explain...

When I first starting working at my firm, there was one attorney and two paralegals (me being one of them). That makes one chief and two indians. Last year my boss hired an associate attorney. Technically speaking, since my boss still owns the firm and employs three people, that should be one chief and three indians (or maybe more like one chief, one sub-chief, and two indians). Instead there are two chiefs and two indians, and the two chiefs can't get their guidelines together. It makes me think of the movie, "Office Space," where the guy is trying to submit a report but each boss wants it in a different format. Pretty soon I'm going to take the computer equipment outside and smash it into peices. (Okay, I probably won't, but you get the picture).

I just wish that if there has to be two chiefs around here, they could go by a uniform set of rules. That's all.

Does this happen to anyone else at work? I'm sure it happens in companies that are bigger alot, because there are a lot of middle management positions in larger companies. I guess I should be thankful that I only have two chiefs!

It happens to the best of us...but why me?

2008-07-07T13:24:00.013-04:00

I'm supposed to be cool.

Life happens to everyone. We all get old[ish]. I just didn't anticipate it happening to me yet! But I realized it has indeed happened when I could no longer follow the conversation between a few "tweens" as I like to call them. ("Tweens," for those of you who may be even older than me are 'kids' who are in be'tween' the single digit ages, 0-9, and the teenage years, 13-18). So, for the older generation (myself apparantely included), here is a short translation list for you:

"A minute" no longer means what it has been used for decades to mean. That's right, people -- a minute is no longer just 60 seconds. It is now approximately a few years long. Example: I haven't seen you in a minute, girl!

Bay. Nope, it's not just a body of water anymore. It's short for "baby." Personally, I didn't realize that "baby" was that long of a word, but apparantely it needed to be shortened. Hence, the word "bay."

NSFP. I remember when I was a tween, I used all kinds of abbreviations (like lol, rofl, a/s/l, and more that I can't remember) when I was IMing my friends...but there are sooo many now I can't possibly keep up. And who can, really? Other than the tweens themselves, of course. Anyway, NSFP apparantely means "not safe for parents." Those darn tweens are smarter than I was!

AH. This apparantely means "butt-hole"...only in the donkey kind of way.

ASAFP. Yes, they have even taken a few common acronyms and added a curse word in them. ASAP is now ASAFP. Apparantely this is needed...but I'll beat my child's (_!_) for typing that out on the computer. (And for those of you who didn't follow that last sentence, please see the next one...)

(_!_) -- This is a butt. Crafty, huh?

SHICPMP. Not all of them are bad. This one, for instance, is quite comical. "So happy I could pee my pants." I think I'll start using this one.

OFS. Frustrated with someone? Just give them the "One Finger Salute."

Four-Eleven. Apparantely the 4-1-1 didn't provide enough information. Now it's the 4-11.

And last but not least, this one simply cracks me up...

Wangsta. Obviously, this is a white gangsta. Get with the show, people.

And no, I did not make any of these up. There must be a thousand more out there...just go Google (or Dogpile, Yahoo, AskJeeves, or whichever you prefer) some teen slang. You'll get quite a laugh...and an education.

Eli is 7 months old!

2008-07-06T21:23:00.003-04:00

I've been busy updating Eli's blog recently, but I've neglected this one...call it a summer hiatus if you want. :) Anyway, visit Eli's blog to see what he's been up to recently.

For those of you who just want a small sample, here's a video:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

An odd tribute

2008-06-20T15:09:00.005-04:00

I was driving down the road the other day when I saw this:

This just seems like a rather odd tribute to your son...Why would you call your son your "problem child" and then plaster it on the back of your vehicle after he had passed away?

I just don't understand what goes through some people's minds.

(And yes, I obviously changed the poor guys name. I mean he's already having his named bashed all around town as his parents drive around. I wasn't going to do him the same injustice all over the internet).

What happened to Mommy?

2008-06-10T16:11:00.004-04:00

I've been an avid reader of MommyGetsPaid for some time now, but recently her postings just suddenly stopped. She used to post every single day and then on May 11...nothing. And she hasn't posted anything since. In fact, lots of people have commented wanting to know where she is, and we have gotten no response. Normally I would just think that whoever quit posting because they got bored, lost their internet service, or something to that affect. But not Mommy.

It's just weird.

Does anyone know what happened? Or know how to find her based on her site? I've been searching through all the sites she's linked to, but I haven't been able to come up with anything.

Any ideas?

Long time no post.

2008-06-09T14:59:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so it's been a while since I posted last. (Sorry.)

I think I've come to a new phase in my blogging 'career.' I've decided that if people want to read, then great. If not, then oh well...for now, at least. I was spending all this extra time going to posting boards, subscribing to all kinds of software, programs, widgets, etc. etc. that were supposed to increase my readers...and I have to say that it did actually work...for a while. The problem is that I just do not have the time between work, home, my personal life, and Eli to try to maintain a large volume of readers.

So, on post number 280, I've finally decided that it is completely okay with me to not have hundreds of readers, because I love the few dedicated readers that I do have.

Maybe when I have more time to myself, I'll work on increasing my readers again. Until then, my fabulous few readers, read on!

Will work for gas.

2008-05-27T15:49:00.004-04:00

When I pump gas, I always watch the people around me that are pumping gas into their own cars. I do this mostly because I just love to "people watch," but also because these days everyone's eyes seem to get larger and larger from disbelief as the pump keeps going...sometimes reaching the triple digits.

While "people watching" at the pumps, though, I've noticed that I do something every time I pump that I have not seen anyone else do. I'm trying to decide if this is a smart and savvy thing that I'm doing...or just plain dumb...

After I'm finished pumping gas, and I've turned the pump off, I always shake the nozzle inside my gas tank so I can be sure that I get every last drop of gas that I paid for. I've done this since the first time I ever pumped gas, but I really shake it now that gas has reached over $4.00 where I live. (It was $4.01 last week!!!)

SO, am I really the only shaker out there? Or do other people do it when no-one is looking? Surely I'm not the only one...

PLEASE look behind your vehicle!

2008-05-22T10:20:00.005-04:00

Steven Curtis Chapman, a popular Christian music artist, lost his five year old daughter last night after she was run over in the family's driveway when their teenage son was backing up. He was driving an SUV (or a large vehicle of some sort) and could not see her behind the car. (You can visit Chapman's official site for more details or go to the site set up for Maria to leave your condolences). (Also, the song "Cinderella" was written by Chapman for his daughter Maria a few years ago).

This is an absolute tragedy and I just cringe thinking about how many people drive these large vehicles and possibly don't take the time to make sure no one is behind them before backing up. You can't always see what is behind you just by looking in your rear view mirror, and unfortunately, the amount of money it costs to put a back-up camera in your car is too expensive for some (myself included).

This tragedy reminds me of a story that I heard on a local radio station about a month ago. An 18-month old named Lilli Grace was run over in her driveway when her father was leaving to go to work. (He had actually gotten out of the car to make sure she wasn't around the vehicle before he pulled out). If you go to the memorial website that has been set up for Lillie Grace, you will be amazed at the way the family is handling the situation, and how they are using the tragedy to help others.

Please, please, please, people -- make sure your children are not around your vehicles when you move them!

Hmmm, my last count was 50.

2008-05-22T10:14:00.002-04:00

Seriously?

P.S. -- Here are the answers to the riddles in my last post:

What food do you tear off the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, & throw away the inside? Corn on the cob. Good job Skittle!

What needs light to survive but dies if light touches it? A shadow.

RiDdLe 4 u!

2008-05-21T15:36:00.005-04:00

John Marc came home yesterday and asked me this riddle. WITHOUT using Google, see if you can answer it. Whoever guesses right first gets...bragging rights, lol.

What food do you take off the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, and throw away the inside?

And if you are a smarty pants and already know the answer, then try this one...

What needs light to survive but dies if the light touches it?

Anyone???

P.S. -- For the answers, see this post.

She wore WHAT?

2008-05-21T15:26:00.003-04:00

I consider myself to be somewhat fashionable, in that I at least stay with the times and don't wear items left over from the 80's or 90's (which coincedentally enough, appear to be coming back in). I don't rush out and buy the latest fads, mostly because I don't want to pay that much for something that will be back "out" in two more months, but I do at least appear well dressed. I also would consider myself a fairly good authority (of sorts) on items that do and don't match, or articles of clothing that you should or should not wear.

However, if I am ever in doubt, I will call someone to find out that what I'm planning to wear is acceptable. (Don't I, Skittle?)

Apparantely, Sarah Jessica Parker didn't have a friend to tell her not to wear this when she put it on:

And YES, it IS real. This is (unfortunately) not a photoshopped image.

Mother's Day Tornado

2008-05-12T12:42:00.005-04:00

Happy 1st Mother's Day to me! Do you know how we celebrated it where I live?

An F2 tornado hit our town and the surrounding towns, causing extensive damage wherever it went. Luckily, it didn't come near my house and none of my family or friends were injured. But several of my friends and family's houses and businesses were destroyed, so please keep them in your prayers because rebuilding everything is going to take time and patience.

My brother-in-law was sleeping when he heard the tornado (he heard the typical train sound that everyone talks about). He immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the hallway bathroom. No sooner than he was in the tub, a tree fell through his house and directly onto his bed, splitting in in half. Then two other tress fell on other parts of his house. Thankfully he wasn't injured!

As soon as the storm had passed, John Marc went to pick him up and then got called in to work to start cleaning up some of the trees. He was at work until about 8:00 last night, and I'm sure he'll be working late this whole week. (It's good for the pocket book, but not too much fun for him).

Anyway, I'll never forget my first Mother's Day, that's for sure!

Mom of the Year I'm not...

2008-05-06T15:31:00.000-04:00

I just ran across this article on AOL. It says that breastfed babies tend to be smarter than those babies who are solely formula fed, or even those babies who get half breastmilk and half formula. Don't get me wrong...my head hasn't been under a rock. I've heard of this before, but this particular study tested something like 12,000 mothers and babies. AND, they did the study in such a way that it esentially eliminates the argument that the breastfed babies are only smarter because the mothers who choose to breastfeed are typically the mothers who tend to spend more time with their children, teaching them and such.

Well, I guess I'm not getting any mother of the year awards since Eli is breastfed and formula fed. But that wasn't exactly my fault. You can't always make your body produce what it refuses to - even with modern medicine.

With my second child (MANY YEARS from now), I fully intend to breastfeed...as long as my body permits me to because there are alot of benefits to baby and mom. BUT, I think that when studies such as this are published, it makes alot of mothers question what they are already doing. I just want all Mommies out there to know that whatever choice they made for themselves and their babies is okay as long as they made it with the best of intentions.

And thats all I got to say about that.

Eli is not a fan of cereal!

2008-05-06T15:26:00.004-04:00

If you want the detailed version of what's going on in the life of a 5-month old, check out Eli's blog!

New Theme

2008-05-06T11:59:00.004-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been super busy and, as you can tell, I've been working on a new theme. I am really liking this theme more than my past ones...What do you think about it?

Do all my links work? Can everyone view it okay? (I tried to make sure it was viewable in IE & Firefox...)

I'll try to get back to my posting soon! First I really want to work on getting all the kinks out of my site!

New Year's Resolution in April

2008-04-24T14:44:00.003-04:00

I've started going to a ladies gym on my lunch hour in an attempt to lose my last 5 post-preggo pounds. In all actuality, though, I'll probably wind up gaining weight because I'll be making muscle and I don't have a high fat content to lose. I don't really mind what my actual weight is though...it's just a number. I just want my body to resemble what it used to BEFORE Eli came along. (He's totally worth it though).

I've been going to the gym on my lunch break because it only takes me about 3 minutes to get there. The gym is set up similar to Curves, where you stay on each machine for approximately one minute and there is a recording that plays music and tells you when to change machines. If you do all the machines and the in-between station stair-steps or joggers, it only takes 37 minutes to go all the way through. That leaves me enough time to get there, change clothes, do the work-out, change clothes, and get back to work with about 10 minutes to spare. SO, I even have time to eat a sandwhich, too!

So far, Skittles has joined, and our oldest sister went with me today! Now we are trying to get my Mom on board. Also, one of the girls I work with is thinking about joining next week, too. It is so much easier to get motivated to go when you have someone to go with, so I am super excited that everyone else is joining too!

YAY for mid-year resolutions!!! Has anyone else made one?

Grey's Anatomy?

2008-04-23T09:40:00.003-04:00

The writer's strike is over. They have returned to work. Other shows have already started airing again. In fact, they started airing a few weeks back. But there has been no sign of Grey's Anatomy. WHY?

I keep seeing previews on the TV, but I've been seeing them for weeks now, and still no new show. I'm getting very tired of waiting. I almost hate to say this, because you no how deep my love for McDreamy runs, but if they don't hurry up and air a new show, I'm going to find something else to watch during that time slot. Sheesh.

MeMe Fun!

2008-04-18T14:51:00.011-04:00

Shana tagged me for two MeMe's, and although I have done both of these before, I'll play along again since Shana was kind enough to remember my current blogging plight...so here we go...

MeMe #1:
Here are the rules...
1) Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
2) Open the book to page 123.
3) Find the 5th sentence.
4) Post the next 3 sentences.
5) Tag 5 people.

Well, I'm at work and there isn't a book around. The closest thing I can find is an Office Depot sales catalog, so it'll have to do!

Elastic cord keeps contents secure. Available in 10 per box. Contains a minimum of 30% postconsumer recycled content."

MeMe #2:
The Rules:
1) Link whom you tagged and list these rulers on you blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving a comment on their blog.Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Since I'm hungry, I'll devote these random facts solely to food.
1 - I don't like cheese (unless it's on pizza...but even then I don't like it gooped on...just enough to hold my toppings on will do).
2 - I don't like seafood. AT ALL.
3 - I will only eat butter on my bread if the butter is melted. (And the butter has to go on the outside crust of the biscuit...not the inside doughy part).
4 - The first time I ever went to John Marc's house his parents had spaghetti. It made me sick. Really sick. And when John Marc called me later that night to see if I was okay, my Mom informed him that I wasn't okay because "she's sick out both ends." Way to go Mom.
5 - Even after the aforementioned spaghetti mishap, I still eat spaghetti. Even at his parents house!
6 - I don't like anything that goes in a salad...except for croutons and bacon bits, which aren't really a part of the salad. They are more like toppings, I think. (I'm more of a meat & potatoes girl...you can have the rabbit food for yourself).
7 - I still eat ABC 123's. I think they are great!!!

I'm not tagging anyone this time since I've already done both of these before.

I can't wait...to see you again. (bleh!)

2008-04-18T14:47:00.000-04:00

There is a song on the radio that makes my skin crawl every time I hear it. And wouldn't you know they play it at least 50 times a day.

Let me break it down for you.

Miley Cyrus acting...good.

Billy Ray Cyrus acting...good.

Billy Ray Cyrus singing...good. (Yeah, I went old school on this video).

Miley Cyrus singing...um, no. (And the dancing in this video isn't much better).

Is it just me??? Maybe it is...

Then & Now #6

2008-04-18T14:46:00.002-04:00

Lack of Motivation = Lack of Blogging

2008-04-15T12:09:00.002-04:00

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I haven't blogged alot over the past few days. I've just lacked the motivation. I haven't had any topics that scream to be blogged about and I don't want to write about nothing just to be writing. That just wouldn't be very entertaining for you or me...

But I'll try harder this week!

I think it's just my lack of sleep...Eli has decided to boycott eating cereal. The cereal was my attempt at making him sleep better. I think he picked up on this and decided to show me who's boss by getting up every two hours (and sometimes more) for almost the past week...I am in desperate need of a good night's rest!

Uh oh, I'm getting political again.

2008-04-11T13:55:00.003-04:00

I have received this e-mail numerous times over the past six or seven months. While I realize this it quite controversial, I am choosing to post it anyway because I really want to hear everyone's thoughts on the subject.

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:

The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal.... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA??

I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet... do it!

If you think I am crazy... I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the "unknown" candidate.

As I've said before, I'm not voting for Obama. BUT, my posting this has nothing to do with the fact that I may or may not like or trust him. And I'm not trying to sway your vote if you are voting for him. I'm simply asking what you think about the e-mails, etc. that are going around.

What are your thoughts??

Overheard at my sister's house

2008-04-11T13:47:00.004-04:00

Imagine an almost 4-year old playing the piano and singing words she's making up. (And I use the term 'playing' loosely)...

Abby: I wanna' sister. I wanna' brother. Watcha gonna give me? I wanna' sister. I wanna' brother. Watcha gonna give me?

Jessica (Abby's mom): Abby, what are you doing?

Abby: I'm talking to God.