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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

~~When We Were Kids~~


I loved this when I saw it here and wanted to add my two cents worth and share it with you.
Congratulations to all the kids who were born in the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They had no clue that Folic Acid was a must and vitamins were taken only if they didn't cause more heartburn or nausea and you could afford them.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, drank Diet Pepsi and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. Our toys had corners, paint, strings and small parts and most of us lived through it.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, knee or elbow pads, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Actually the only seat belt I remember was my mom's arm coming at me 30 mph when she slammed on her brakes and if I was lucky she missed hitting me in the mouth.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. Riding in the back window of the car was an every day occurrence and if she hit the brakes then you would be hurled into the seat back, jump up and want to do it again.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents because that is just what they were- accidents, not someone trying to make a quick buck off of some misfortune.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! We had sleepovers and camp outs in the backyard. We never worried about anything except waking the neighbors while we toilet papered their house. I am sure there were freaks around back then, but it was so random it just wasn't worth worrying about. We had FUN!!! We made our own fun!!

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We built clubhouses and played in the creek. We played games in the streets without fear of some jackass coming along 30 mph too fast and killing someone. We watched out for each other and for each other's kids as we grew older and had families.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! You can bet they all tried harder the next year!

We worked!! Starting as young as 5 years old sweeping, watching the babies, hanging out clothes on the line, helping in the kitchen, helping out on the farm with planting and feeding the animals. In fact the animals always got fed before we did at our house and CPS wasn't called out even once because of inhumane treatment!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! And some of them even called the town sheriff themselves to teach us a lesson about right and wrong. We learned how to go out a cut a willow branch for Granny to whoop us with and for some of us it took longer to realize that the little ones hurt the worst! We learned respect and honor. We learned to treat each other as we would like to be treated. We learned to love and how to be loved.

We learned to save for a rainy day and to do without sometimes. We learned to share what we did have with friends, family and those less fortunate.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Geez I miss the "good old days". How will my kids ever make it through this world in one piece?? Waitress bring me my Xanax Martini now please!!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

~~ Super Saturday Giveaways~~

Here are some of the great giveaways I found today!!

A great hand made necklace of your choice at Etsy it Up.

A wonderful Baby & Mom pendant at Playground for Parents

Great tile necklaces at Painter Mommy

A super cute pair of Shoo Shoos at Momma in Flip Flops

$50 worth of product from Bug & Pickle from Piece of Me.

Great pairs of Top It Off Flip Flops from The Funky Monkey

$5000 outdoor play ground made by Kids Creations and a Canon Power Shot camera from Dad Blogs

A stuffed animal by Zoocchinni from Kid Buy Products

A pair of kids Kushies sunglasses from Inside Out

A Kimochis doll of your choice from The Funky Monkey

The chance to win one of the cutest shirts I have ever seen. They are Temporary Language shirts from Baby Loving Mama

Vinyl Wall Art made by Visions in Vinyl from Ladybug Soup.

Fuzion scooter offered by The Mom Buzz

A Shrunks Ududoll offered by The Mommy Diaries

There are soooooo many more at Mommy Giveaways. Go check them out!!!!

~~Super Soft Giveaway!~~

This contest is over.


This blanket is the softest thing I have ever felt. It is made by Kids Line and is actually carried by Shopko. They have several you can buy that come in complete crib sets. I chose this Snug as a Bug one because it is pretty much gender neutral.
Now, down to the "rules" for entry. Since there isn't a sponsor on this one all you have to do to enter is leave a comment. BUT you can get an extra 2 entries for blogging about it and linking back to me. Also if you follow me you can get an extra 5 entries. Good Luck!! We will choose a winner next Saturday!!

~~Lucky Winner!!!~~

Amber stirred up the names:

Closed her eyes and drew out:


And they won:
For those of you with eyes like mine who could never see my "perfectly focused" picture, the winner is YZgirl4. Congratulations!! I will be sending out an email today. My next giveaway also starts today and will end next Saturday so check me out later today.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

~~Safekeeping the cat or Why I dislike Evil Kitty~~

Let's start off by saying I am not really a cat lover. Kittens are cute, but they grow up, nuff said. Sorry, I know that will piss somebody off, but that is just how it is. I don't go out of my way to run over them, but I am not going to be the crazy cat lady either.
When my daughter and her husband moved in with us in January they brought with them their reptile, their Chihuahua and one very neurotic cat. The thing is NUTS!!! It torments the dogs and brings home friends after she goes outside~~ not a good idea in my house. It lurks around the house at night and scares the bejesus out of me more than once in a while. I swear it can be right on top of you before you even have a feeling that it is there, must be part tiger or something, who knows. The point to this little story is that the damn thing is sneaky and quiet!
So anyway, I opened up our rather large safe one morning to get some things out before we left for a weekend getaway with some friends. Apparently the cat decided to see what was in there and being the stealthily being it is, I didn't notice it. Around 9PM my daughter called in a panic and said she needed to get in the safe. After a good 5 minutes of panic she got out that she had been looking for the Evil Kitty (not its real name) for quite some time and after crawling around the basement following sounds she had discovered it was now being housed in the safe. Now mind you, she is pretty level headed and doesn't panic easily (she lost a wheel on the freeway and held it together, that's another story, but you see she can be poised in an emergency), but she was concerned that the cat was running out of air and I was out of town with the key needed to unlock the dial before the combination could be put in. She was crying about calling a lock smith and wanting to use a cutting torch on the safe door. I am not really sure why she was so upset, I don't think she even really likes Evil Kitty very much, but what the hell, it is her cat so instead of playing with her little mind like I had initially thought of (yea, I'm kind of mean like that sometimes) I told her where to find an extra key and walked her through the combination, which took several tries in her state of mind. Finally I hear the door crack open and the cat meows like she is stating just how pissed off she is, she came shooting out of the safe like her ass was on fire, scratching and screaming and then made a beeline for the bedroom. Funny, or so I thought. I got home Sunday and opened the safe to put things back and to my surprise I found that apparently the cat had been trying to dig her way out and had ruined the carpet inside the safe, tore up important papers, knocked some guns over scratching them, boy was hubby happy! I guess I should be happy the damn thing is trained and didn't leave me a little present in there.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

~~The Wind Has Attacked~~


So a week or so ago I was having a usual complaint day and mentioned that the wind had blown over our playhouse, among other things. Now keep in mind, it hit and dented a car, it destroyed a battery operated VW bug that belonged to my 4 year old-(you can kind of see it there in the pictures), it broke a part of the tree, it fell on the snow blower and who knows if it will ever work again, but I bet you can't guess what the most important thing that got ruined was??? No guesses?? Amber is butt hurt and heart broke because her little pink plastic picnic table got a leg bent.

Just picture her in her best whiney, I am the Princess voice saying "Well exactly what am I suppose to do now when I need to eat in my club house?" I explained to her that we needed to reset some type of anchors in the ground so it wont tip over again and then she can play out there when she wants to, but she is so worried that it wont all be the same without the pink table. She feels slighted somehow, like the wind hurt her playhouse and table on purpose. I am really considering putting her in some kind of theater or drama group instead of dance because she is quite the little actress and can turn on the tears at the drop of a hat.
She has now decided that we will be going shopping this coming weekend because she just can't be without her playhouse "for another minute!!" I think she has taken all this princess stuff to heart because she really thinks she is one and should be treated as such! (and who am I to say she isn't??) What in the world have we created?? Jeff thinks we have spoiled them too much and thinks they are naughty a lot of the time. I think they are spoiled, but they have such cute little personalities and I love to see the girls showing them off. My older girls tell me that I let them get away with too much and that I never would have let them get away with things that I let the little girls do. But I think I have just grown a little more patience and mellowed as I have aged. I don't let things upset me, noise and a little mess are not worth getting a headache over. Their imaginations are great and they tell me the funniest stories (remind me one day to tell you about when the shark went into Libby's room and bit her on the leg so she couldn't clean her room). Do I think I overindulge them?? Of course. Do I think they are spoiled? A little. Do I think they get away with things I didn't let my older girls do? No I think they are just jealous that I don't get grouchy any more over silly things and I will be the first to admit I used to go off over almost nothing at all (so they may have a legitimate case!!) So this weekend we will be off to ToysRUs to get a new pink picnic table and all will be well in the perfect little princess world.

~~The Next Super Give Away!~~~

This contest has ended. Please chek out whatever I have up for grabs now!!
I had so much fun doing the Spring Fling give away I decided to do another one this week. Kristy at Toywrangler.com sent me the cutest Toy Wrangler to share with one of my readers. In my opinion it is the best thing invented in a long time. It attaches to your car seat or stroller and then to a bottle or pacifier and your baby cannot throw them out as you are going along. Saves you from the "I will throw it and mom will pick it up" game when you attach it to a high chair when you are out eating and then you don't have to run off and wash the nipple before giving it back to baby so you can eat your whole meal before it gets cold.

The cloth end works great for cups, and larger toys. You just clip the linky to the stroller or shopping cart, or the handle on an infant car seat, and you have a holder for a bottle or a cup! Or, you can use the stretchy end and attach that to something, and the linky part can hold a pacifier, or you can attach at smaller toy to it
I can't say enough about this so follow the rules and enter to win this great product.

1. Go to Toywrangler.com by clicking here and check out their site. Come back, leave a comment and tell me what you think is the best feature of the Toy Wrangler.
2. For an extra entry become one of my followers.
3. Blog about this contest and link back to me for another entry.
That is 3 chances to win this great product so jump over there now and get started!
I will draw the winner 3/28/09 and post it here, so stop back by to see who wins.
I also have a couple other things to offer later this week so keep visiting!!
**Ladies I also still need 2 more people to sign up for the Pay It Forward program. Please scroll down and check it out!!**

Friday, March 20, 2009

~~Featured Blogger~~


I was a featured blogger by Jen here. How cool is that?? I joined the SITS group (The Secret is in the Sauce) and they are a great bunch of bloggers. Lots of contests, lots of blogs to read and people to meet. Hopefully I can live up to their standards in blogging and make a good member of the group. Jump on over to SITS and see what it is all about and also remember to go visit Jen and show her some love for featuring me!! Then go here and enter to win a toy wrangler if you haven't yet!! A new giveaway will be listed this weekend so make sure to come check it out!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

~~Have you entered???~~

Don't forget to go here and enter to win a Toy Wrangler.
And I still need one more for the Blogger Stimulus Program. Have a great day!!

~~Hello World~~

Hi... Yes I still exist!! Yes I know that nobody cares, but shut up, I am trying to make myself feel better. I have neglected the blogging world this week because the baby was back in the hospital again with a staff infection. Makes me wonder if all the holes they poked in him at Primary Children's caused it?? Who knows? Anyway he is coming home today and I wanted to share this picture of his little hospital gown and pants. Just like the big ones, only miniature. I am sure most of you have seen them, but whenever we have had a baby in the hospital they both just wore diapers before and I think these are so freaking cute!!!
Hope everyone is having a beautiful day like the one we are having here in Utah.
Remember to check all the give aways (mine & others) and enter, enter, enter!!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

~~Don't forget to enter! Don't make me beg, it might not be pretty!!~~

Please go here and sign up for the Blogger Stimulus Program!!!
And don't forget to enter to win this!
More to come soon so stay tuned!!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

~~Not Me Monday!!~~


Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not spend $300 on tickets to take my 4 & 6 year olds to the Jonas Brothers. That price is not outrageous!!

I did not spend $250 10 minutes later to buy my husband the concert tickets he wanted so he couldn't complain about the others I didn't buy!! Yeah, I'm sneaky like that!!

I did not actually get all my laundry done on Friday so I had nothing to but relax all weekend. No, I am not that organized!!!

I did not have 3 sick kids to take care of all weekend. Guess that teaches me to do things early- they don't like me to have any extra time and I should have known that!!

After 2 weeks of it I am so not tired of puke and poop!! I did not completely tear down their beds and Lysol everything to try and kill the germs. I do not think that would be some kind of germslaughter or something.

I did not shamelessly send out 75 letters to companies asking them for items to do blog giveaways with.

I do not absolutely love my daughters new car.

I do not wish I was getting one!!

I have not felt like I am coming down with something all day long and my throat is not killing me.

I am not going to go to bed now and end this Not Me Monday!!!

Don't stop scrolling here!!! Keep going, the next 2 posts have lots of stuff to give away!!!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

~~Cool Blog Giveaways~~

Go see Jen's blog here and get involved in this super fun Flip Flop Find contest.

Then go to Jeannie's blog here and here for even more.

Then to Mamarazzi's site for a really cute thing to win.

Also go here to Callapidder Days to see what Katrina is offering.

And then to hereand find some more!!

What a great bunch of bloggers!!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

~~And The Winner Is...~~~

Thanks for all of the entries for my Spring Fling. The winner is:
True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 48 Result: 14 Powered by RANDOM.ORG
MyLinda at Our Crazy Life
And although the names are both "Our Crazy Life" we are not the same person, nor do I know her. Congratulations to her and keep watching because I have a few more about ready to go!!!

And for Tammy~~~ I have 5 of the little buggers so we could really have a contest!!~

~~Pay It Forward...Repost~~

Come on ladies, someone has got to be first on here. I promise you will be getting something really cute!!!!!











Tammy at Queen Sized Funnybone did a "Blogger Stimulus Program" and I signed up. Yesterday I got this beautiful handmade bracelet and super sweet card from her (don't know why I can't get the picture to turn the right way). I am thrilled with it and have already argued with Libby because she is such a little Diva that she thinks all jewelry in the house is for her.
So now it is my turn, these are the rules copied from her blog:
"Pay it forward...
Baseball Mom has a really cool pay it forward contest going on at her blog...the rules are simple:
Be one of the first three commenters on this post, and i will send you a small, awesome, craft or gift that I, personally, have made. Post on your blog, and use the same rules, then pay it forward to three more commenters. You have 365 days to do this, and you are also promising, by participating in this contest, that you will keep your blog open for as long as it takes to complete this task! The prizes can be from any price range. In case I left anything out, you should go to her blog and check out the rules, then be one of the first three (shouldn't be hard) commenters."

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

~~SITS Spring Fling Give Away~~

The girls over at The Secret is in the Sauce are having their Spring Fling give aways. Go sign up and enter a few contests.

NOW...... In honor of my sweet little Zoe, the cutest Chihuahua in the world I am giving away this DVD of Beverly Hills Chihuahua:


Make sure and leave a comment to be entered. Winner will be announced Wednesday. Good Luck!!!!

Monday, March 9, 2009

~~Not Me Monday~~


Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not have Libby get in bed with me in the middle of the night because I was tired of putting her back to bed and she did not promptly throw up all over my sheets.

I did not sneeze and wet my pants~~~~ twice.

I did not search for over 2 hours looking for house in Springville where I needed to pick something up, only to find out the next day the house is really in Spanish Fork.

I did not buy ALL the Pepsi at KMart on Saturday because I found a good deal. and I did not have to find a place to put 40+ cases of Pepsi away. (No I really don't drink it at all it is for other people in the house and boy does that take up a TON of space!!)

I did not spend all day Sunday reading and watching true crime TV. I also did not let Amber stay in her PJ's all day and watch cartoons in the kitchen and Libby lay in my bed all day watching cartoons. That would be close to child neglect or something wouldn't it?? Wouldn't happen here!!

I did not recieve a great Pay It Forward or "Blogger Stimulus Plan" gift from Tammy at Queen Size Funny Bone and it is not really pretty!!

I did not sleep through the alarm today and since I wasn't already late, I did not take my time to get ready. Nope, I would have hurried to get there because I love going to work so much!

My husband did not get my wood floors in my dining room and they are not wonderful!!! I am not so happy I am married to a man that can do or fix ANYTHING.(This picture shows only partially done, but they are finished and look great!!)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

~~ Life Sucks or Does It??~~

The last few days my life has really sucked!!! I lost a good friend because of an argument, I had my life threatened by someone I don't even know and who doesn't know who I even am, my computer has been acting up and I lost a ton of cute pictures we had just taken of Trey and now I feel like I am getting the flu and feel like death warmed over. Work has really sucked all week, my house is tore up because I am having wood floors put in, the wind blew so hard yesterday that we lost shingles on the house and the playhouse blew over on the Explorer (that is sitting in the back of the driveway not being used and thus has no insurance on it). Everyone in the house has been grumpy all week (10 grumpy people does not make for a fun time)and I got a $350.00 electric bill for last month (my God would somebody turn off a damn light????)
I hate that life can't be all Mai Tai's and beaches. I hate that when I get angry I say things that I would never believe I would say, I hate that I take things so personal, I hate the wrinkles on my forehead, my gray hair that multiplies nightly and everyone knows how I feel about my big butt.
But then after an extremely rotten day, I get to come home to this:


And everything is wonderful again!!!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

~~My daughter is on the Meth pipe.~~

Positive for Methamphetamine???

The meds taken by my daughter, who has MS, include Percocet for pain, Soma and Robaxin for the muscle spasms, an anti depressant, etc, etc, etc… I’m not saying there is A LOT, but well if the prescription bottle fits……
Anyway, the reason I am telling you this is because she went to the doctor today. Our doctor does random drug tests for anyone using narcotics for any reason just to cover his ass. She was the lucky one today and she was picked for a random drug test. Yeah, she is lucky like that!!!

So her drug test came back negative for all the meds she does take, but positive for Meth. METH?!?!? Seriously?!?!?!? Not her, no way~ no how!!

First of all there is no way in hell she is using Meth. She already takes a pharmacy load of narcotics to help her with the pain she is in every day. And even more important, she loves her baby way too much to use anything that is going to chronically be killing her in a slow nasty way. Her older brother is a heroin addict and she has seen first hand what it can do for you. Lose your job, spend time in jail, lose your kids, lose your home, LOSE YOUR LIFE!!!!!

So after being extremely upset even after the doctor told her that he believed that she wasn’t using illegal drugs she called me crying. After I listened to her story I started laughing. Not a small giggle, but a gut rolling, loud as hell belly laugh. Which upset her more and she began to vehemently yell at me saying she doesn’t use Meth. After I got myself in control I told her the reason I was laughing wasn’t because I didn’t believe her, I wouldn’t even begin to have the slightest thought that she would use Meth. The reason I was laughing was………Are you ready???? Can you guess???? What would make me laugh about my daughter’s drug test coming back positive for Meth??

Can you imagine the face of the person who switched the urine with one they were expecting to be clean??? They now have to explain why they are taking several narcotics, antidepressants, MS medications and hormones. I hope at least that it was a woman so the hormones aren’t so hard to explain away.