My Name Is Leslie And I’m A Guest Blogger.

I sat eating breakfast with a heap of bloggers recently.  One asked of another, “What kind of blog do you write?”

“A humor blog,” the blogger replied.

“Oh yeah?  Well, say something funny.”

She didn’t.  Instead we observed a moment of silence during which no one breathed or made eye contact, which wasn’t funny at all.  It was just kind of weird and uncomfortable. 

Last week, Leah wrote, “I also have the author of  My Mommy’s Place who is stinking hilarious,” in a post outlining the guest blogger schedule.  

Stinking hilarious. 

Wow.  I loved that compliment.  But I’ve been avoiding eye contact with my guest post ever since.  And I fear this post is going to be like that long, silent moment over breakfast. 

Are you breathing?

Fribble.

(That’s the funniest word I can think of.) 

I’ve got stage fright.  I’ve been trying to imagine all of you in your underwear, but I don’t know what you look like, so it doesn’t help much.  And when I imagine funny-looking people in their skivvies, it’s funny, but also unseemly.  I can’t imagine it does much for you, as the picture lives in my brain and I’m a terrible artist.

So, instead of trying to be stinking hilarious, I’ll just share with you what’s in my heart today.  The tune my heart loves most to sing is haiku and my darling daughters are my muses.

Your smile is sunshine.
Your laughter, like air. I breathe.
Life is new again.

And when it is dark,
my chest is tight, I hold you.
I give back the light.

I give you my breath.
All that I am is yours, Dear.
‘Til you smile again.

Your smile is sunshine.
Your laughter, like air. I breathe.
Life is new again.

That haiku is called Watching The Sunrise, Again. Gah! Teething SUCKS!

Camping Adventures and Summer Fun

Ah. Hello Today. I still haven’t decided what to blog about, so hopefully it will type itself out. Hmm. Maybe I’ll blog a LeLu and Cootie story to get things rolling. I’m trying to blog the ones I have pictures for because pics are way better. Some of you have heard of the world’s best camping adventure, but if you haven’t or you’d like my take on it here you go! For the record, these are just the way I remember it. It might have happened a bit different or maybe not.

In the summer before grade 11(I think, maybe 12) LeLu’s parents took us camping. I don’t think they really knew what they were getting into when they decided to bring a friend along for LeLu. I’m not normally the worlds clutziest person (although I have my moments), but I spent the majority of that trip hurting myself or doing something rather dumb like spilling food ALL over me over and over. In light of that, I’m surprised that LeLu’s parents actually let me climb Perkins Peak, wade in a river, and use their canoe.

At the base of Perkins peak is a glacier lake that is as cold as Antarctica itself. After climbing a mountain, teenage girls can be a bit, well, stinky. So Other Mom says “Jump in and de-stink” or something like that. So we jump in and immediately get hypothermia and lose digits to frostbite. As fast as we were in, we were out. Apparently that was too fast because Other Mom says jump back in for a picture. So we jump back into lake frigid for another photo op.

I think the funniest thing I remember about our trip aside from casting and catching a Toyota 4Runner on a bridge, is a quick trip up a dirt road to look for grizzly bears. We saw several that week. They are HUGE! Anyways, at one point I was sticking my head out the window and looking back at a grizzly when I turned around to see an aspen sapling right close to the truck. It smacked me in the face and I pulled my head back into the top of the door and then accidentally grabbed the rose bush that was next on the road of “attack Cootie”. Other Dad had to pull the truck over so everyone could finish laughing at me. Including me. Oh and Leah and I may have used the facilities on top of a mountain. Hehe. Its awesome that LeLu can’t see this till after it’s posted.

*I miss that stupid hat*

So, for my portion of the blog I’ve decide to include a couple of my favourite summer activities for pre-schoolers. Easy ones, that are cheap or free.

1. Garley! You take 4 small containers or ziplocks of barley and put a few drops of different coloured food colouring in each. Shake them up until the food colouring is not leaving anything wet. Then mix them together. Put them in a pan on the floor or outside and you have yourself a Garley table. My daughter took a bit to say barley, but Garley has stuck. This is good for a rainy day for you coast peeps.

2. Painting the Deck. My DH thought of this one. He gave my daughter a margarine tub full of water and a paint brush. He sent her out on the deck and told her she could paint whatever she likes. I didn’t think it would last, but she keeps on painting. The best part is that by the time she gets to one side, the other has dried, so we do it all over again.

3. Making lemonade or ice tea or muffins or anything else. I put my apron on my DD and let her help with most of my baking or stirring or pouring. She loves it. It took me a while to get used to letting her help because it takes me way less time and she’s not always very food safe.

4. My DD’s very favourite thing is her pool. You don’t need the huge fancy pools with slides and sprinklers, cup holders or koolaid fountains. The smallest pool is $12.95 at Toys-r-us. That’s the best $12.95 I’ve spent in years. She just brings her bath toys out into the pool and we are good to go for the afternoon. Then I even bring the baby bath out onto the deck and we have 2 bathing beautiful tiny tots.

How to Sneak Into a Concert With Your Teenage Daughter

By Guest Blogger, Jennie C.   (big big big sister to The Informal Leah)

1. Take your teenage daughter to the beach.
2. When teenage daughter takes off her beach wrap, check for inappropriate body art. If you notice a tramp stamp on her lower back, thank the Lord it’s only a temporary tattoo and order her to wash it off right this minute.
3. When teenage daughter is spotted rummaging through your picnic basket remind her that she may NOT give her number out to a random boy she’s just met.
4. If teenage daughter is spotted talking to a random boy she just met, glower intimidatingly at random boy. It may even be helpful to snarl or growl a bit … depending on first impressions, your present mood, etc.
5. When random boy telephones your home the next day (“I don’t know how he got my number, Mom … perhaps from Cody’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin?”) question him suspiciously until you hear he has free tickets to a concert and then act gracious and excited and give him a convenient time to call back.
6. Inform your teenage daughter that the word hypocrite (along with the word gullible) is not in the dictionary.
7. Add new rule to teenage daughter’s policy and procedures manual: Teenage daughters can’t go anywhere with random boys unless a parent chaperones. Review the new rule with daughter, have her repeat it back to you, and discuss the rule ad nauseum until you’re sure that she has sufficient knowledge and understanding of this new edict to lie convincingly when questioned in the future.
8. Supervise the next seven phone calls to ensure that the evening’s free concert tickets are secured.
9. Meet random boy and his friends at the afore agreed upon location (back door of concert facility).
10. When random boy makes up a convincing story about the location of so-called free tickets, wait patiently, chat up the security guard, wait some more, watch concert musicians walk in under your daughter’s nose and enter through the back door. (“Oh, was that him? Hee hee.”) , and then wait a bit more for random boy to try and find mysteriously absent tickets.
11. When random boy gestures secretively from a different back door, follow innocently, act like you’re not doing anything wrong, skirt around back stage equipment, fumble with enormous black curtain and dart quickly out into the audience.
12. Wait patiently (some more) while random boy tries (unsuccessfully) to get into secure areas and locate mysteriously absent tickets.
13. Find a lowly populated seating area, with terrible sound, and sit possessively in an empty seat.
14. Tell random boy to quit running around and just sit down before we all get kicked out.
15. Try and enjoy the concert while surfing the Internet on your BlackBerry, looking for an appropriate charity to donate to in order to assuage your guilt for the evening’s escapades.
16. When teenage daughter disappears, hunt her down and drag her back to her seat by her ear, hissing more spur-of-the-moment edicts about random boys and tattoos and sneaking around.
17. Blog about the experience so that other parents of teenage daughters can learn from your experience and perhaps even pray for you and your sanity.

The above How To may or may not be the result of personal experience. I’m just saying.

How much corn could a corn-cob shuck if a corn-cob could shuck corn?

Okay, Courtenay requested I write about Cornelius (and cornelius consented)…AKA Corno, Corn-cob, Corny, Corn-row, con, con-man, etc etc.  He prefers Cornelius though unless you are close.

Cornelius is my one and only, my onesie,  my first and last born, my son.  We planned on having  3 or 4 children, but stopping at one  just felt right.   I do get the odd uteral twinge when I see a mother and daughter walking hand in hand down the sidewalk in matching pink crocs,  however, I am more than satisfied with the child I have. 

Like the thoughtful little boy he would turn out to be, Cornelius came on his due date, and he only put me through about 7 hours of labour.  I had one of those ridiculous labours with no back pain, no major complications, it was pretty easy as far as labour goes.  It was much harder on his Father than me.  I plopped the whole situation in God’s hands at about 2 months gestation and haven’t taken it back yet.

Don’t get me wrong, I take full responsibility for the care, love, guidance, and nurturing of Cornelius.  But, I don’t own him.  He is his own person.  His successes are his own.  I am blessed to have a small part in them, blessed to have him in my life.  He makes me smile more than any person I know.  I feel like I know him so completely and at the very same time, not at all.

I have only ever had one expectation of Cornelius, and it is that he is respectful (not that either of us are %100 of the time, good grief, we’re human after all)   Respectful  to himself, his family, his friends, his home, his school, his earth.  Respect covers it all, any deed or mis-deed can be brought back to this amazing virtue.  Having a child allows us the good fortune of examining ourselves.  Seeing or hearing our children mimic what we say and do, and they will, tells us what kind of person we are or aren’t…very humbling.  There is nothing worse than hearing your two-year old murmur “god-dammit” under his breath as his block tower crumbles to the floor and nothing more powerful than seeing your child comfort a friend who has fallen. 

I can’t even begin to describe this incredible little lego building, joke telling, movie loving, dragon hunting, book reading, mud slinging, mommy cuddling, empathetic, articulate, and kind little man.  I was laying on the beach yesterday, Cornelius was in his typical flat-footed squat at the waters edge, building little rock towers and watching the waves knock them down and singing, always singing, aloud the song in his head.  I had an overwhelming feeling of admiration and love.

Cornelius, no matter where you are or what you do, you will always be the song in my head.

Thanks for reading

Jill

The Man I Married

I don’t talk much about my husband, I don’t know why…I guess he’s not around when all the stay at home mommy action happens.  I need to tell you about him for once.

Meet Brent…

Brent first attracted me because he was one of those people who looked you in the eye when you talked and seemed truly interested.  Now I know he most likely did that because he wanted to make out with me…but at least it hooked me in right?

Brent is probably one of the most selfless people I know.  I’ve gotten used to the selflessness and sometimes I wish I was more grateful about it.  I whine that I’m thirsty and he’s handing me water.  I tell him I’m tired and he tells me to go lay down.  I want a Mars Bar and he’s in the car going to get me one.  He’s always giving me the last bite of his food and when we share something to eat I swear we cut the last piece of food in half like 8 times before one of us forces the other to have the last bite.  I hope I never take advantage of him…sometimes I wonder if I do though.

Brent is definitely the strong silent type.  Sometimes I wonder what’s going through that man’s brain.  He’s typically even planed, strong, steadfast, etc.  There’s never any surprises with him.  He never yells…EVVVERRR.  He’s slow to anger, and fast to forgive.  We’ve never yelled at eachother…not once.

Brent is terrible at finding things.  I swear he gets finding anxiety and gets tunnel vision and can’t actually see anything.  He’ll look for 10 minutes for something that’s out in the open, right in front of his nose.  It’s hilarious.

Brent is an incredible worker.  You give that man a job and you’ll never ever ever want him to leave.  He went from a general labourer in the construction world to a full fledged site manager in 2.5 years.  From knowing nothing about construction to being a boss of trades people who had been doing it for 30 years, partially in charge of a 30 million dollar build.  He took the homes after the drywall was up and saw them through to finish.  He is an AMAZING worker.  I swear on my life that he can do ANYTHING he wants.

Brent is extremely affectionate with me and the kids.  He’s right in there snuggling and smooching and loving on them just as I am.  He adores them (and me) SO much.  His eyes light up when he talks about our kids.  He’s such a snuggler with me too…I love it.

I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on about my husband.  Before I make my siblings barf all over the floor, I’ll wrap up.

I seriously think I married the best match for me.  He’s an INCREDIBLE person who I admire and adore.  I love his gentle spirit and he’s hot to boot!

It`ll Grow Back.

Hi! For those readers and lurkers who don’t know me, my name is Courtenay of CourtenayMomma.com. Leah and I have known each other since about grade 2 or 3. Our paths crossed so many times that eventually we became the best of friends. I’m very excited to be a guest blogger for the next four weeks. I’ve always thought that I’d love to write a newspaper column or a reoccurring magazine section or something, so I’ll treat this like my first shot at it.

To kick this off right, I’d better tell you a couple of Leah stories, or LeLu stories as I know them. Leah is being brave by letting my write whatever I want on here, so I’d better write something at least a bit funny before we get on with the bloggedy blog.  Maybe I’ll write a short LeLu story at the beginning of the blogs.  Just to set the stage, I earned myself the nickname Cootie, so we were LeLu and Cootie.

One of my favourite stories with LeLu is actually a reoccurring story. Every few months Lelu and I would decide we needed to dye our hair or cut it in some random fashion. LeLu cut my hair from grade 10 on.  Let’s just say it was a good thing I had the motto “It’ll grow back”. LeLu and I would sit in this back room in her house, share one bottle of bleach and saran wrap our heads. We were never a substance abusing pair, but the fumes from the hair dye cut it close. We would then play guitar or tell silly stories while we waited for our hair to get tragically damaged and bleach out. I think the best part of the story is that I still prefer to have LeLu cut my hair over anyone else. Now the things that make this story best are actually the picture evidence, which I happen to have.

I have 2 girls who are 3 years and 10 weeks. I am a student in the Speech Language Pathologist Assistant program, but I’m on a break for the summer. So I am a SAHM until September when I become a SAHM (Student at home Mom).Today,  I thought I would share a merch posting with you. These are the things I would be sad to parent without. Some of them I would be fine without, but some of them I find amazing.

The first thing I love is a good swaddle blanket. We watched “Happiest Baby on the Block” and learned some great trick about swaddling. I watched LeLu swaddle her boys up real tight and I’ve used the same technique. This is the swaddle blankie we have and I absolutely LOVE it.

The second thing I love is Power Oatmeal. This is another thing I learned from LeLu, but we have changed the recipe a bit to make it fit our Fam.

Start with a small bowl of oatmeal, raisins or blueberries. After it’s cooked we add ground flax, probiotics, and wheat germ or bran. But from there we have tried a scoop of nut butter or sun butter (peanut free option) and banana, maple brown sugar and bacon bits (don’t ask) and any of the unsweetened applesauce flavours are yummy too. My 3 year old loves it! Next time I go to the store I’m going to pick up some pumpkin and try that in it with cinnamon. I’m pretty sure it’ll be fabulous!

The third thing I love is my iPod touch! I know, I’m a bit of a tech nerd and that doesn’t sound like a parenting thing, but I think it is. It’s nice to be connected to other parents and parenting websites to start with, but I find it’s the added applications I love.

I used “Nine Months- Contractions and Movement” when I was on bed rest and needed to keep track of contractions and baby movements.

I used “LittleStar baby tracker” to keep track of the time between feedings, changing’s and things.

I use “iNeedMilk” to keep track of which side I breastfed on last. I have a terrible memory with lack of sleep.

I use “Free RSS” to reed other Mom blogs and get encouragement.

I used “Baby Aide Lite” to keep track to wet/poopy diapers for the first few weeks.

I have tons of other favy app that help with things like grocery list, to do lists, killing time etc… I even have a few that my 3 year old can play that are good for Fine Motor skills and Language development.

I think I’ll write one last favy and carry on from where I left off next Thursday.

The fourth thing I love is actually several things. Both of my girls were preemies, so they didn’t breastfeed right away. My oldest never did figure it out. So I’ve had to use a breast pump for both of them.  I love the Medella Pump  in-Style Pump. I got one off Craigslist because I’m thrifty and I don’t mind that it’s used. With that, I bought a Pump Ease Hands free bra! And some special ice cube trays for freezing milk. I mention those things because lots of people don’t know that there are things to help you out if breastfeeding takes a while to get figured out or if it doesn’t work at all, so you don’t have to switch to formula. There are lots of options and I loved being able to do that for my girls.

Ok that’s enough for now…See you next week.

What It’s Like to be the Infertile Big Sister of a Very Fertile Little Sister

Hi all. I’m Jennie, Leah’s big sis. Her big big big sis. As in, she has 3 big sisters and I’m the very most oldest one. A few times people have asked if we’re twins, which is hilarious because I’m 13 years older than her. But we look a lot alike. I’m the one with the wrinkles and grey hair. It’s coming Leah!

I don’t know why I’ve picked such a big topic for my first guest blog appearance, but I think it’s just something I’d like to get off my chest.

My hubby and I started trying to get pregnant almost 10 years ago. It hasn’t happened. “Unexplained fertility” is what it’s called. How can that actually be a medical diagnosis? So irritatingly unhelpful. We’ve tried a few different treatments, but due to a combination of ethical concerns (that deserve a blog all their own) we’re only willing to go so far down the assisted fertility path.

As you may guess, this has been painful (could that BE any more understated?). I’ve always always ALWAYS wanted to have a baby. Many babies. I’ve been planning for it since I was 9. I’ve had names picked out since I was 11.  I was the go-to-girl for babysitting in my neighbourhood.

I think pregnancy and birth and breast feeding are the coolest miracles ever. In high school, I missed the life education class where they showed a baby being born. Everyone told me I was lucky to be sick that day. But I hunted down the video and got permission to watch it during a lunch break. All by myself. With a box of tissues. I sobbed. I always sob when babies are born (even when Phoebe Buffay gave birth).

I’ve never given up hope that I’ll be blessed with a birth child. Girlfriends would get pregnant and be nervous about announcing their pregnancies to me. But it didn’t bother me. Other women suffering through infertility would avoid Mother’s Day services at church – but that didn’t bother me either. I could cuddle babies without a twinge. “I’m handling this surprisingly well,” I naively thought.

And then one day my baby sister got pregnant. Just a few months married … and then pregnant. La dee da … oops I’m pregnant *giggle*. I think my bucket of infertility pain had already been filling slowly, drip-by-monthly-disappointment-after-monthly-disappointment-drip. Drip drip drip.  At a pace I was coping with.  But when my baby sister got pregnant without even meaning to, the sorrow and pain faucet got stuck on full blast and the pain bucket poured over and splashed all over everything.

I think I’ve blocked out the actual memories of how agonizing it was, but I remember that I could hardly bear to be around Leah. I didn’t want to see that marvellous life growing inside her and I didn’t want to feel it kick and I certainly didn’t want to hear about the back aches and nausea and leaky breasts. “How dare you complain around me,” I raged … mostly to myself. The pain I was experiencing was awful, but the distance it put between me and Leah and the rest of the family was excruciating. I couldn’t talk myself out of it or through it or around it.

I was angry and bitter and sad. I’m typically such a practical person, the anger really threw me for a loop. Who was I angry at? God? The universe? Not really. Yes. Maybe. I didn’t want to be angry; I wanted to be with my family, enjoying the journey together. I don’t think I was jealous. Of course I was jealous.

I think I tried to explain to Leah. I can’t remember what I said. I know I asked her if she could be more sensitive about complaining about the pregnancy discomforts. And she respected that. Gosh, that poor pregnant kid was going through enough of her own – I’m sure my big sloppy bucket of pain was fairly incomprehensible to her.

My crazy baby sister wanted her whole family with her when she gave birth. WHO DOES THAT? But we’re a family who loves popping zits and pulling out splinters and removing stitches – so everyone planned to be there to watch our wacky sis/daughter push a life form out of her nethers.

Then the big day came. And I was in such a panic.  I didn’t think I could handle it (my own baggage, that is – the birth would be a piece of cake … for me).  I made excuses throughout the day while she breathed and focused and had attention lavished on her (as she should).  Mum and our sisters kept me posted via text messages and phone calls. I couldn’t figure out what to do. *deep breaths* panic *more deep breaths* (who exactly is in labour here?) And then THE phone call happened. I can’t remember who called me (Jules?), but I could hear Leah … um … labouring in the background. I remember asking, “What’s that sound?” duh. “It’s Leah,” came the reply. The tears welled up and a wall of panic hit me. Oh no, I’m going to miss it!

My poor husband, he didn’t know what hit him. I went from humming and hawing and avoiding and whatevering … to a turbulent whirlwind of GET OUT OF MY WAY I NEED TO GET TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW MY BABY SISTER IS IN PAIN AND I NEED TO HELP PULL THAT BABY OUT OF HER!

And I made it. With plenty of time to spare. But Silas’s delivery is a whole different story. Leah gave me the best gift ever when she allowed me to be there for it. Despite the fact that I wasn’t there for her through her pregnancy.

So, now I’m 39 and Silas is 3 ½. I love that clever and nutty little fellow SO much it hurts. But it’s a good hurt. I popped in to Leah’s last night and he leapt into my arms and gave me the most adoring and enthusiastic, “HELLO JENNIE!” It melted my heart and made my day.

I’m still working through the infertility hurt and in some ways I’m looking forward to being done with my so-called fertile years, because then I can get therapy and mourn and move on. But just writing that last sentence made my stomach flop and twist, so I guess I’m not yet ready to let go of the hope.

Thanks for letting me spill.

Bloggers Block!

okay, that “blah blah blah” was just a test/accident. 

This is my first blog, and I have that sick gut rot anxiety that I use to have leading up to writing a paper or going for a job interview or getting three wisdom teeth pulled at once.  For the last week, I have been thinking about what to write and have come up with about 50 partial topics, but nothing terribly interesting.  I love writing but am very out of practice.  When I was young my Mom had, and by had I mean forced, us to write thank-you cards to family and friends which gave me an awareness of what it took to just put pen to paper and write for someone else.  For years now, for as long as I can remember, my Auntie B has sent me a card for every occasion…birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s day, Thanksgiving, you name it, she has a card for the occasion.  She writes a letter in many of them.  Auntie B has made me realize what a wonderful pleasure it is to receive a piece of writing that someone took the time to write especially just for you.  I don’t remember enjoying writing though, and by enjoy I mean avoid at all cost by cleaning, preening, exercising, etc,  until I went to college.  I really do love it once I sit down and do it, the anticipation is what gets me.  I do not, however, tend to share what I write with  many people, whatever it is.  Doing this blog for Leah is a big stretch for me.  And this isn’t like writing a letter to one person or a paper for one instructor; it is a performance of sorts.  So to alleviate some of the anxiety that knowing many people are going to read this is causing me,  I am implementing the strategy of picturing all of you, the audience, naked.  (not really, but just writing that made me feel better)  

Now that I am not nervous anymore I will tell you who I am.  I am Leah’s older sister Jill, guest blogger #1, ugh, the pressure.  We are ten years apart, but it doesn’t seem like it.  That is the nice thing about getting older, those numbers don’t really matter anymore.  I am a Preschool Teacher.  My husband and son and I just moved from Calgary to the Okanagan.  I guess I’ll do one of those silly “10 things about me” lists to start us off. 

“10 things about me that you didn’t know and how could you, as you don’t even know me”…maybe not 10 things, that’s a lot of pressure.  Let’s just see how the it goes.

#1 – I’m 36.  okay, you may have already known that if you were REALLY paying attention to Leah’s blog.

#2 – I’m passionate about teaching children, especially the ones no one else wants to teach.

#3 - I pretty much despise marketing to young children and teens.  it’s irresponsible no matter which way you spin it.

#4 – My favorite movie is “Blue Sky” with Jessica Lange, not sure why…

#5 – Favorite book “Even Cowgirls get the Blues.”

#6 – Favorite singer/group is a toss up between Suzanne Vega and The Indigo Girls.  Those gals have taught me a lot.

#7 – Favorite food, home-made glutin free pizza.

#8 - I think there should be a new party in the house and it should be called “The Respect Party.”

#9 – My favorite person in the whole world is my son.  i promised him he could review anything i wrote about him first, so that is all i can say about that.

#10 – I’m the type of person who will start her day knowing something is just not right, but won’t figure out the cause of her unease until she is walking down a crowded aisle in superstore and a bunched up pair of undies falls out  the bottom of her pant leg.

The End

Day One!

So today is day one of the 4 week no computer challenge!!  I’m obviously not actually typing this on the computer on this day, I’ve pre-done a bunch of posts for you and I have some FABULOUS people lined up to write some blogs for you so keep coming back!!  Don’t stay away on my account.

I have two of my sisters who’ll be writing a blog once a week, Jennie and Jill.  Both of them are WAY better writers than I am and I’m SO pleased they’ll be doing 4 blogs each.  I also have the author of My Mommy’s Place who is stinking hilarious.  If you don’t read her blog, well…you should, so exciting.  I also am SO happy to have Aspie Teacher writing for me as well.  I met her on Twitter and found out that not only does she have Aspergers but she ALSO has hyperlexia which is what Silas has….aka his amazing ability and fascination with letters and numbers.  She’s read my blog and has confirmed that he “totally has it”.  I cannot WAIT to see what she has to write!!  I’ve also talked my husband in to doing a post as well!  He doesn’t even read my blog…so we’ll see how THAT goes ha ha.  Courtenay is also blogging for me she knows me TOO well.  My best friend from highschool.  I’m slightly terrified about what she’s going to say ha ha ha.

Gosh, I’m probably going crazy today.  The computer is my line to the outside world.  It’s where I do most of my communicating.  It’s where I entertain myself.  But gosh it distracts me.  But really, my purposes for this are mainly spiritual.  You know, growth through restraint.  I wanna see who emerges from inside of me when I’m not zombie’d out on the computer all the time.

It doesn’t matter that I have a laptop, a desktop distracts me just as much.  I just like computers sooooooo much!!  Ahhhh.

Hopefully after so much restraint, I’ll be able to have more willpower when it comes to using the computer.  The emails aren’t going anywhere, neither is Facebook or my blog.  I don’t need to check it all the time!!

Anyway, I’m so excited about my guest bloggers and I’ll make my husband read the blogs to me every night.

If you know me and need to talk to me…PHONE ME!!    The internet makes it too easy to connect superficially and I’m really seeing it’s effect on my relationships…CALL ME!

So Long, Farewell!!

This isn’t the last you’ll hear of me in 4 weeks, but it’s the last I’ll hear from you.  I’m excited about this and horrified at the same time.  But so excited to see what comes out of me when I’m not distracted by the computer.  I hope I don’t go NUTS!

Ok has anyone noticed the Reece’s peanut butter cup commericals lately?  They aired one a while ago with the slogan “to die for” and then recently they said “it’s like going to Heaven…without the awkward dying part”.

Isn’t that SLIGHTLY insensitive seeing that people do DIE from peanuts??  I think they’re doing that on purpose.  Why would they mention it twice??

I dare say, they do taste amazing and every time I see them in the grocery store I pine for them as I pick up peanut free Mars bars or Smarties.  But…hmmmm….couldn’t they be slightly more sensitive to those people who WOULD die from it?  Easily?  In like 2 minutes?  I’m just sayin.

Holy cow I’ve had too much coffee and I’m quivering.

Annnnnyway, today we went to the lake with the boys, luckily they’re still completely passed out after that.  Silas is getting so good in the water, he just smiles and tromps around in it.  He’s ok with all the kid screaming and splashing around him.  It’s nice.

I’m sorry, but you know that overloaded coffee feeling where you can’t hardly think straight?  Ya that’s me.  I’ll see you folks Monday, well…you’ll see me, I wont be seeing you!  I’ll miss you all!!  There’s some awesome bloggers lined up in the next 4 weeks, I’m so excited!!