Lil' Mootz's TC Of The Month Contest Winner!

Lil' Mootz has a winner for this month's Top Commenter of the Month Contest:

Drumroll, please....




Alicia over at It Ain't Easy Being Cheesy!

YAY! Congrats Alicia! (I'm feeling incredibly lazy right now, plus I'm ready for bed, so I'll send you an email tomorrow to get all your info, so I can send out your awesome prize.)

Thank you to everyone for leaving all your awesome comments. Lil' Mootz and I quite enjoy all the bloggy love!

Obama Was Born...Where?

Oh right! Hawaii, the 50th state of the United States of America!

You know what I'm so sick of? This whole debate about Obama and his birth certificate and whether or not he is eligible to be President.

I came into work this morning (at 5 friggin' 30, none-the-less), checked my email and read this article: Ermey Says He’ll 'Square Away' Birthers

If you are a soldier and you are in this group of "Birthers" you need more things to do. Go do some PT or practice grenade throwing or just wash a Humvee or something. Seriously, go ask your Platoon leader if there are weapons you can polish.

Birthers, we live in a country that has one of the best intelligence agencies...ever. Within the past decade there has been serious debate over whether or not "Big Brother" has too much insight into our private lives with that little thing called The Patriot Act.

Don't you think that something as minute as a birth certificate was verified, like, the day the man THOUGHT about running for the Presidency?

Move. On. The man is our President and your boss. Deal. With. It.

And if you're arguing that Obama can't deploy you - please, just do us all a favor - shut the hell up, shoot yourself in the foot and take an extended vacation to Canada.

Great Deployment News

The awesome news has started rolling in: PA. Guard Unit Arrives

Stonewall's unit, unfortunately, was not among those who arrived in Ft. Dix. However, he is not far behind and within a few weeks he will be back in this most wonderful country. Not in the same beautiful state as me, but within a two hour drive.

My cousin, Mike, on the other hand, was among those to return today! That's one family member down...one more to go.

Saving The World From Stink and Bulge

When this article was brought to my attention, my first thought was that this was a perfect "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." post. However, it didn't take me long to realize that this was not a thing to make one go, "Hmmm..." but rather a thing to make one go, "Hell, YAY!! When is the US going to jump on board with this one!?"

The British have decided that B.O. (body odor) is a no-go in their theme parks. Apparently, there were too many icky smelling guests stinking up the park. Thorpe Park now has a rule called, "Say no to B.O." Anytime the temperature reaches 77 degrees F or higher, park goers are not allowed to raise their arms on the rides.

Another British theme park, Alton Towers, banned Speedos. They decided that this particular swimwear was not family friendly and possibly even frightening to kids.

You can check out the article at Gadling.com: Smelly theme park guests told to keep their arms down.

The post author at Gadling.com has labeled these new rules "silly."

Silly? I beg to differ. Try "Brilliant!"

Unless your B.O. smells like daisies and cupcakes, I don't want a whiff. If showering and using deodorant are not a part of your daily routine then you need to steer clear of the public especially when the public is congregating on a hot day and sweating is inevitable.

It does kind of stink (no pun intended) that those of us who do smell just fine and dandy can't raise our arms. Really, though, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to save my up-chuck reflex when the person in front of me on the roller coaster smells like a gym locker.

Then we have the Speedo rule.






What more do you need to prove that this rule is absolutely necessary.

Weekend Review: Massages, Jewelry, Tea, and Rearranging

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My weekend was excellent and I got a lot accomplished.

Friday afternoon my mom, sister, and I went to a spa and got massages. For my birthday (way back in January) my mom and Meg told me they would take me to get a massage and pedicure at one of our favorite spas. Well, at the time, with a c-section only a week before a massage was kind of out of the questions. Last weekend (after the yard sale) I was just like, "I WANT my massage. NOW!"



And it was HEAVEN! I am so getting a massage once a month.

Meg's birthday is next Friday and we celebrated on Saturday by going to our favorite Tea House. And what would a visit to the Tea House be without the HATS?!







For her birthday gift I made Meg two necklaces. I've never made jewelry before, but they didn't turn out too shabby for my first try.

I call this one "Lucky To Bee In Love."


And this one is called "The Secret Garden." (I got this one out of a jewelry making book, so it's not an original. Well, I did have to modify the one part because I didn't like the way the book said to attach the key.)


Last night my mom and Barry babysat Lil' Mootz. I missed my little man, but it sure was wonderful to have a night off and sleep in until 10:00AM.

After catching up on "Property Ladder" this morning I decided to take on my own house. The rooms in our house are pretty small. Our bedroom seems especially small because our bedroom furniture is HUGE. I hated the set up, so I did some rearranging.

The before photos (ignore the mess, please):

The is from the foot of the bed.


The is from in front of the closet.


This is right inside the door. What you can't see is that just to the right of the photo and at the end of the bed is an armoire. It's a very cramped walkway between the two.


As you can see, not much space in our bedroom. When we moved in I was very against putting any furniture in front of the window. I've since changed my mind because I think we would have much more room if we utilized the window wall.

After four hours of moving furniture and dusting and vacuuming, we have the lovely after photos:

This is from the same angle as the first photo in the before pics.


This photo was taken from the corner I'm taking a photo of in the second before photo.


This is the same angle as the third before photo.


I've very very very pleased with the new set-up of our bedroom. We have tons more space. The only thing I'm not too pleased with is there is no bedside table on Stonewall's side of the bed. The one we have is too big to fit in the space, so I'll have to buy something smaller before he gets home. Oh well. The only thing he ever really used it for was to hide cigarettes from me, but he said he quit, so I guess he won't need the drawer space.

How was everyone's weekend?

Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

I have a little Jiminey Cricket figurine hanging in my car.

I'm a pretty conscientious person. The angel on my right shoulder is about the size of Paul Bunyan and the devil on my left shoulder is about the size of Thumbelina. Needless to say Angel Bunyan wins out ALOT more than Thumbedevil. The thing is though, sometimes it's just ridiculous.

I was at Christmas Tree Shoppe's a few weeks ago. I had a bunch of things in my cart, including a wooden chest and a pack of tape rolls. I paid for everything, but when I paid I didn't take the chest out of my cart and the cashier rung it up using a handheld scanner.

I took everything out to my car and loaded up my car. Well, I realized then that the pack of tape had slid under the chest and I hadn't paid for it.



I've never intentionally shoplifted. I'll feel guilty for hours if I get home and realize the cashier didn't ring up on of the t-shirts (or whatever item) I bought. I'm definitely no saint, but shoplifting was one of those things I could never do.



So I stood in the parking lot of Christmas Tree Shoppes and debated with myself over what to do with this $1.50 roll of tape. On the one hand, I hadn't paid for it, so to toss it in my car would be stealing and I would feel guilty about that. On the other hand, it's only $1.50 and it didn't set off the sensors when I walked out the door, so even CTS wasn't worried about people stealing their tape rolls.

Then the paranoia set in. This is why I've never shoplifted. In my head, big brother is EVERY WHERE. If I shoplift THEY will see me do it and I WILL get caught. So THEY will see me take the roll of tape out of the shopping cart and stick it into one of the plastic bags.

So what did I do?

Did I just toss it in my car? Did I go back into CTS and pay for the tape?

My silly self did neither. I left the tape in the cart and put the cart in the cart return for the next customer to either pay for or steal.

The Movie of My Life

Yesterday my SIL, Danielle, told me I had to see "Julie & Julia". Not only because it was a good movie, but also because the main character, Julie, was basically me - messy, wanna-be-writer, loves to blog, wants more out of her job. I was just like, "Great. My life movie was made and I was not consulted."

That inevitably led to, "Who would you want to play you in your life movie?"

Well, let's see...hmmm...

My top three choices would be Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, and Scarlett Johannson.







They're all cute enough to play me :)

Then for Stonewall in MY life movie...

It would be a tough choice between Zac Efron, Josh Hartnett, and Jake Gyllenhaal.







But let's be honest. If Zac Efron was in my life movie and was playing my husband, the dude movie-me gets to make out with, I would totally play myself.

So who would be your movie-self?

Things That Make You Go Hmmm: A Guy Walks Into A Bank...

So a guy walks into a bank in Alaska, gives the teller his real name, his real account number, and shows his real ID. Then he hands the teller a note, "I have a gun. Give me all the money in your drawer."

I can't make this crap up: Read the story here. Unfortunately, there are people out there who are just that stupid.

How do you think his planned worked? If his account was above $200 he was just going to hand over a note asking for a withdrawl in tens and twenties, but when it was under $200 he handed over the other note?

I'm sure we've all imagined what it would be like to rob a bank. Who couldn't use all the money in a bank vault? However, my elaborate and fool-proof plan has never included showing my ID.

My Little Monkey

Among other things, Carsley and I share a love for Halloween. It was absolutely no surprise to me when Auntie Carsley decided Lil' Mootz needed his costume now. To make sure we have the cutest little man come Halloween Auntie Carsley sent Lil' Mootz's his costume yesterday.

Our little monkey is all ready to collect his candy!











And yes, Momma does need to take at least 20 pictures of her Lil' Mootz looking basically the same in all of them. :)

Miley Cyrus: Teen Idol or Male Plaything?

Has anyone seen the most recent Miley Cyrus porn - oops, my typo - I mean, music video? I guess it's not really a music video, but it's a video of her performing music at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards.

Check it out.



Let's just completely skip over the whole pole dancing part. And we'll also just ignore the fact that it was HER FATHER who choreographed that little number with the phallic ice cream cart. And finally, we'll just give a brief mention only to that little teeny number - 16 - the age of Miley.

What I'd like to discuss is Miley's outfit or rather her PROSTITUTION get-up.

Sweetie, I know you're only 16 and you want to look cute and teeny-bopperish, but you missed the boat with that outfit. In fact, you missed the whole damn ocean! Those clothes would help you earn $300 on Saturday night down on the corner of Beaver Street and Walnut Avenue.

Let's compare, shall we?

Miley...


Prostitute.


I do believe those are the same shorts. And hell! The prostitute is wearing a shirt that covers her bra!

Billy Ray, is it really so shocking that your 16-year-old daughter has been the center of several inappropriate picture scandals? I've read that it's been rumored that for months now you were looking for expand Miley's audience. Well, it looks like you accomplished it. Miley can now headline at the "Pussy Cat Club" on Fridays. The over 21 drunk males will certainly appreciate it.

Random Ramblings On A Sunday

The annual yard sale is over.

Thank goodness!

Yard sales are hard work. If you've ever had one you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't...well, take my word for it. Believe it or not, but a lot of work goes into dragging your junk out of your basement and setting it up in your driveway/yard.

Our hard work paid off though and we raised $1500 to put towards our Hawaii trip. Everything we didn't sell we donated to my Grandma's church, Dress for Success, and an Economy Store with another church.

It was a long two days, so I'm glad they are over. Both nights I came home and was very tempted to put Lil' Mootz to bed at 6:00PM just so I could get some sleep. He was having none of that though, so we watched some movies and played with toys instead. To make up for it he was good enough to let me sleep into 9:00AM this morning, so I feel a bit more rested this afternoon.

Today Lil' Mootz and I are hanging out in our PJs. We're catching up on episodes of "Flip This House" and "Property Ladder" - our favorites. Okay, MY favorites, but Lil' Mootz doesn't complain. I love those shows, especially "Property Ladder." I don't have experience in flipping houses, but some of the stuff just seems like common sense. People thinking they can flip a whole house in 4 weeks with no hired help or hiring contractors BEFORE they even secure a loan to pay the contractor. Then there's the people who buy a house in a rundown neighborhood and think just because they're flipping this house buyers will pay an extra $50,000for it. My favorite though, are the flippers who decide they're going to sell the house for whatever ungodly amount, but then they buy the cheapest, crappiest materials they can get their hands on and they think potential buyers won't notice the shoddy work. *eye roll*

Lil' Mootz and I also watched last week's episode of "Drop Dead Diva." Overall, I like this show. It's funny and cute and often has little, "Awww, so sweet," endings to each episode. The only thing that kind of bothers me about the show is the assumption that fat girls live this miserable, unfashionable, nonsocial life and they need a skinny girl to help fulfil the voids in their lives. Maybe that wasn't the message the writers, producers, directors, etc., were going for, but every now and again I think that's what the show is saying.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-losing a few pounds. In fact, I would prefer it. However, the 190lb me isn't more miserable and less fashionable with less friends. Except for more life experiences, the thin me and the fat me are basically the same person. I'm sure there are overweight women out there who are just as happy as the thin women.

Lil' Mootz is napping right now. He was getting fussy a little bit ago and driving me nuts. Nothing was calming him down. Finally, I just put him in his Pack N' Play and let him cry himself to sleep. I hate just letting him cry, but sometimes my sanity requires it of me.

Oh! It's almost dinnertime and I'm getting hungry. I'm making fish sticks, peas, and mac n' cheese - one of my all time favorites! What can I say? I'm not much of a chef. Luckily, I don't have fancy tastes :)

Enough of my random ramblings. Back to my Sunday of doing absolutely nothing.

TC of the Month Update

Yesterday I update the TC of the Month contest and when I went to save, the save failed and deleted all the changed I made.

UGH!!

Well, long story short...my system of keeping track of all the comments made during the month was messed up.

Double UGH!!

So, I went back and tried to update the list again and I hope, hope, hope I didn't miss anyone's comments. This mainly applies to people who left a comment this month, but the comment was left on a post that was NOT written during this month. If you think I messed up and the numbers are wrong, let me know, so I can double-check.

However, if you just want to have a little fun and make me double-check for no reason at all, Lil' Mootz will disqualify you because you're taking away from his Mommy time.

K? K.

High Heels: To Work or Not To Work?

On my way to work the other day there was a discussion on the radio about banning high heels from the workplace because of injuries one sustains while wearing high heels. On the other side of the debate, high heels should remain in the workplace because, in a nutshell, high heels give women more respect in the workplace by making them taller and therefore, more aggressive and confident (so say the women who want to wear high heels).

I just want to point out that this debate is in the UK, not the US. However, that doesn't mean that it's not up for US blog fodder.

I don't think the issue here is whether or not high heels should be banned from the workplace, but whether or not hoover boards should be mandatory in the workplace. Most of us have twisted an ankle, limped from the pain of a blister, and/or had our heel catch in a crack or loose carpeting while wearing our heels. We can't all be Carrie Bradshow and strut our stuff down NYC sidewalks (or office corridors) like they're the Versace runway. However, is it really so far-fetched to think we could all be Jane Jetson, moving from office to office on moving sidewalks all for the sake of beauty, respect, and a profit-margin?




And finally, why are we, as women, using high heels to gain respect in the workplace? That's what boobs and cleavage are for!

Making Grocery Store Parking Lots Baby Friendly

I never realized how inconvenient parking lots at stores with carts were until I had a baby. I'm talking grocery stores, Target, Walmart - places many moms go often and so should be more mom-and-baby friendly. If any of you are planning on opening any of these stores or similar stores in the near future, I have some suggestions for you.

All parking spots directly adjacent to the cart returns should be for those who have a child/ren in a car seat.

In case you haven't heard people get pretty up in arms nowadays if a mom or dad walks more than 13 inches from their vehicle while a little one is strapped inside. While I'm not all about shopping with Lil' Mootz still in the car, I feel I should be able to walk from my car to about 3-4 spaces away to return my cart. Other people, however, would feel this is neglectful. Never mind that at this exact moment I am about double that amount of space away from him while he is sleeping in his room and I am typing on the computer, but whatever.

Also never mind that Lil' Mootz was born in the dead of winter. So my newborn child would not freeze to death (because I'm pretty sure that would be considered neglectful as well) I would put Lil' Mootz into the car immediately following shopping, load up my car, get Lil' Mootz back out of the car, so I could walk my cart back into the store or to a cart return.

How much more convenient would life be for those parents if the spaces right beside the cart return were reserved just for them? How lovely would it be to be able to put your kid into the car instead of having them sit in the cold/heat, load up your groceries, and then return your cart never having to leave your child and vehicle?

I'll tell you how lovely - VERY LOVELY!

My next suggestion: Put little brakes on the carts.

Since I can't put my child in my own personal vehicle unless I want to pull him out again in three minutes (and it takes that long to strap him in), he sits in the cart while I load my purchases into the car. The problem - parking lots are not always level. You know what I'm talking about. How many times while you're trying to load up your car does your cart just keep drifting away? I'm thinking allowing my child in the cart to just drift into parking lot traffic is also considered neglectful.

Put little brakes, just something similar to a stroller brake, onto the carts. Voila! No more drifting! Stores can put those little "Don't cross the yellow line" anti-theft brakes on their carts, so putting on child safety no drifting locks shouldn't be all that difficult. And really, isn't a child's life more important that not having your carts stolen?

Think about it.



PS. The baby photo is just a random photo from Morguefile.com. I don't have a pic of him in a cart, so don't think you're losing it if you can't figure out why Lil' Mootz looks so different :)