2008 January

Birthday presents plus a request for votes!

January 31, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 8 Comments

Thank you so much everyone who commented on yesterday’s birthday post! You made this old lady very happy you know

Despite school being cancelled and having an extra kid here all day, the day was pretty good. My Lost Season One box set came in the mail, and I’ve already watched both parts of the pilot with the commentary on. I can not wait for tonight’s new episode!

I also was thrilled by this package that arrived from the equally wonderful and lovely Mrs. Fussypants-see how pretty?

And inside was this beautiful pair of blue glass bead earrings! Soooo pretty!!

I also got a very cool Senseo coffee machine in the mail for a product review, which will be up at MomReviews shortly, and Ryan and I went and saw “Juno”. So all in all, a pretty good day

Now, will you please do me another favor? I know, so demanding. It’s just that I’m nominated for Blog Of The Day at Santa’s Blog of the Day site, and it would be nice to at least get a few votes! Click this badge to vote:

That’s all from me, I’m eating dinner and then getting ready for tonight’s new episode of LOST!!!

Filed Under: Personal · Tagged: birthday, fussypants, lost, santas blog of the day, senseo

When I woke up this morning I was 41.

January 30, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 73 Comments

Feels no different than yesterday! Good morning my dears, how are you all? I am 41

The entire state of Michigan was coated in a thick sheet of ice while we slept, so my boys are home from school today and my husband is working from home. They will hopefully not drive me completely insane. I was supposed to go out for lunch with my parents, but that will depend on whether the roads get cleared by afternoon or not. After I post this, I’m going back to sleep for a while, even though Kaitlyn started pouting when I told her Daddy would get her Cheerios for her.

So. What do I want for my birthday? Well, I bought myself the first season of “Lost” on DVD from Amazon, it’s supposed to be delivered today. I’ve been hearing the boys “whispering” about something, hopefully they are making me homemade birthday cards. Besides that, all I want for my birthday is 41 comments on this post! Thank you in advance to anyone who leaves a comment, you are lovely and kind

Filed Under: Personal ·

You can make my birthday special!

January 28, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 10 Comments

Yes, YOU! How? Easy peasy lemon squeezy, my friends. My birthday is Wednesday, January 30th. I am turning 41. And all I want for my birthday is 41 comments on Wednesday’s post. I will skip Wordless Wednesday for the occasion, and instead give you something brief and hopefully not too morose, and all I would like is 41 comments.

Now, I know there are 41 of you reading this blog, but many of you are too shy to come forward and say anything. And it’s all right, I completely understand. But on Wednesday, if you could please just tap out a quick “hello”, or “happy birthday”, or “damn, woman, you are OLD”, I would really appreciate it.

And if you wanted to really, REALLY make me happy, you could write your own post asking your readers to please stop by and leave a birthday salutation, or mention it in an email to your Grandma or whatever. Last year? I asked for 40 comments and got 126!! But I’d be happy with 41, really

Thank you, my sweeties! I know you will be here on Wednesday to put a big birthday smile on my face! Mmmwaaahhh!

Filed Under: Personal ·

“The Game Plan”-I liked it!

January 28, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 5 Comments

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard of the movie The Game Plan, I was highly doubtful that anything starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could possibly be funny. And then I watched it. And I liked it so much, that I watched it again, by myself.

If you are looking for a true family film, The Game Plan fits that description perfectly. It has a great plot, charming acting, a happy ending, and is appropriate for viewers of all ages. It really doesn’t get any better than that!

Johnson stars as Joe Kingman, a self-absorbed quarterback who lives only for himself and for the game of football, until one day a little girl shows up at his door introducing herself as his daughter. She claims that her mother dropped her off in a taxi before catching a plane out of the country, so he has no choice but to keep her with him. Madison Pettis, who might be known to your children as Sophie on “Cory in the House”, is absolutely captivating as Peyton, a pint-size powerhouse who doesn’t care who her father thinks he is, she is determined to make a Dad out of him. They clash over everything from what to eat to what she can touch in the apartment, but she is just so darn cute about it.

Johnson’s agent is played by the always-terrific Kyra Sedgwick, and the stunning Roselyn Sanchez (I remember when she was Pilar on As The World Turns!) plays Peyton’s ballet teacher who talks Johnson into a part in a ballet performance that is hilarious and sweet. A bit of drama ensues, a slight deception on Peyton’s part is revealed, Kingman has to make a tough choice, but the movie is fast-paced enough that it never drags. It was just so refreshing to watch a fun movie with my kids that we all enjoyed.

Rent or buy The Game Plan to watch with your family, or heck, even by yourself. I really think you will like it.

Filed Under: DeeVeeDees ·

Too little, too late, Mr. President

January 28, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 7 Comments

I rarely get political on this blog, not because I don’t want to be controversial but because this is not a political blog, if that makes sense. But tonight the President is broadcasting a State of the Union address, and when I started thinking about what he was probably going to say, I found myself getting more and more steamed up about it.

If you haven’t heard, the economy is tanking. You probably already know this if you’ve been laid off, or have seen businesses in your area closing their doors, or have tried to find a new job. In an effort to bolster the economy and, I suppose, make us all feel better, the President has decided to give us all some money. That’s right. He’s going to give us some money so we can go out and spend it and put it back into the…economy.

Here’s an idea instead-why doesn’t he give businesses better tax rates so they can afford to stay open? Why doesn’t he create new jobs? President Roosevelt did just that during the Great Depression when he created the Works Progress Administration. What if that is where we are headed, towards another Depression? It’s terrifying.

And by the way, Mr. President, here’s another idea-figure out a way to lower gas prices. Do whatever you have to do, but get the price of gas down. In my opinion, it works like this:

*The price of gas goes up
*Companies have to pay more to put gas in the tanks of the trucks that deliver everything
*Therefore stores have to charge more for everything
*The prices are going up, but our paychecks aren’t
*Small businesses start losing customers who can’t afford the high prices
*Even if we can afford the higher prices, we can’t afford to put the gas in our cars to go shopping

So while it will certainly be nice to get a check this summer, is it really going to fix the economy?

I don’t know what is on the agenda for tonight’s Presidential address, but I’ll be listening. And feeling very worried for the immediate future of this country.

Filed Under: Stuff I think about ·

Sundays with Kaitlyn, or, the mind of a 2 year old

January 27, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 5 Comments

Kaitlyn was in fine form this morning while lounging on the bed with Chris and I. Or more like, we were lounging, and she was jumping around like a bunny on espresso saying the cutest darn things. She first announced that she was going to be a princess, live in a town, in a “tassel” (castle).

Next she sat on Chris’ legs, and imitated her favorite part of Dora the Explorer, which is when Dora gets into any kind of vehicle and says “let’s put our seatbelts on so we can be safe”. Kaitlyn sits on Chris’ legs, pretends to pull a lap belt across her lap, and says, “seatbelt, so safe!”. It’s adorable.

And then, Chris was laying with his head on my chest and I was rubbing the top of his head and his forehead. Kaitlyn started rubbing his forehead too, and then she started reaching behind her to pretend to scoop up “lotion”, which she then pretended to rub into Chris’ forehead. After a few pretend lotionings, she said “Mama, you have some”, so I held out my hands and she wiped the pretend lotion on my hands so I could rub it on Chris’ head. This went on for a good five minutes at least.

The richness of her imagination amazes me on a daily basis. She pulls things she has seen on TV, bits from fleeting conversations that I’ve forgotten about, and her own imagination together into an adorable sense of make-believe. I haven’t even introduced her to crafts like finger-painting or gluing paper cutouts to construction paper yet (because of my own hatred of messes, not because she wouldn’t like it), but I can only imagine how much she would like that too.

And dress-up: I wish I had a closet of old dresses for her to play in, but I don’t, and I’ve never been a bridesmaid either, so I don’t have anything to cut down for her. But I hope I can find some things at thrift stores to help spark her imagination because I can’t wait to see where it will take her.

Filed Under: Being a Mom, Photos ·

What was the sweetest Valentine you ever sent or received?

January 25, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 22 Comments

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, which means Target has been selling red and pink-wrapped candy since the end of December, and the stores are filling up with paper heart cutouts, boxes of chocolates, and greeting cards for the occasion. If you have kids, and they like Fruit Rollups, I have a giveaway for you! Surprise a special kid this Valentine’s Day by giving them a Fruit Rollup Valentine!

At My FruitRollups, you can personalize Fruit Rollups with text and images, and then order a box of 30 for $29.99. OR, you can enter my giveaway and win a box for yourself! But you have to hurry, because in order to get the boxes delivered by Valentine’s Day, they have to be ordered by January 29th.

The one I made Nathan looks like this-and I didn’t realize until after I placed the order that the lettering was cut off on the sides, but I doubt he’ll notice. I thought I had chosen the smallest font, too. Oh well. I found the “You So Rock” message in the “Start with a Picture” section. You can choose how many sections of the Rollup have a message or picture, I just chose 4 to keep it simple.

The three winners of this giveaway will each get a Promotional code to purchase a box of THIRTY customized Fruit Rollups! That’s a value of $29.99 plus tax. Here’s how this giveaway is going to work:

I want you to leave me a comment telling me what the most sweetest Valentine was that you ever sent, or received. That’s it! I’ll choose the three that I think are the sweetest, and send Promotional codes to each of the winners. January 29th is next Tuesday, so put on your thinking caps and think back to the Valentine you sent or received that you thought was the sweetest, and tell me about it in my comments. Good luck everybody!

Filed Under: Contests and Giveaways ·

I’ve got a really cool plugin running

January 24, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 6 Comments

I’ve installed Lucia’s Linky Love plugin, and so far, I’m liking the way it works. First, it allows me to control how many comments someone has to leave before their comments start to be “followed” by Google. Right now, it’s three. So if you have left at least three comments, every comment you leave after that gets you a backlink from this blog.

Second, it lets me display how many comments you have each left. I don’t know how far back it scans, so hopefully it’s accurate. I used to have the Top Commentator plugin that did the same thing, but it hasn’t been working since the last WP upgrade. I do like to see how many comments some have you have left though-you guys rock!

So I’d like to thank Lucia from Big Bucks Blogger for creating this plugin, and I encourage WordPress users to get it for themselves by clicking this link. Lucia isn’t paying me to say that, either, I’m just helping out a fellow blogger

Filed Under: Born to Blog ·

CSI & My List of Five

January 24, 2008 · by Elizabeth · 16 Comments

When I can’t sleep, I stay up way too late watching TV, and sometimes I watch old episodes of CSI. I saw an episode where this woman had been kidnapped, put in a box and buried alive. They found her by flying over the desert with an infrared scanner and looking for body heat. They were able to find her even though she was in a box and underground.

Which begs the question-how come when Sara Sidle was lying under a car in the desert, which they knew because of the miniature model, how come they didn’t fly over the desert with the infrared scanner and look for her body heat? Instead, she stumbled through the desert for who knows how long, with Grissom and Catherine following her trail of stacked rocks.

Did they forget about the scanner thingy? Couldn’t they have found her much quicker that way? Or did the writer of that episode not see the buried-alive episode and therefore not know about the scanner thingy?

Continuity errors drive me nuts. Can you tell?

Oh, and P.S. Gary Dourdan? Totally on my List of Five. Because damn. The other four?

Jake Gyllenhaal
Matt Damon
Rob Morrow
Skeet Ulrich or Chris Noth (can I have both?)(at the same time? )

in case you were wondering

C’mon, ‘fess up. Who’s on your List of Five?

Filed Under: I Like TV, Stuff I think about ·