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Giveaway Time –> Happy Blogoversary to Moi!!!

Posted on January 28, 2008 9:17 am by TheAngelForever

Welcome Bloggy Giveaway participants and everyone else! (Details of my giveaway below)

February 4th marks my 1 year Blogoversary! It is hard to believe that a year has passed since I became ~~sucked in~~ ~~addicted~~ welcomed to the wonderful and wacky word of blogging.So much has changed during this year. I am no longer teaching, I am a stay at home Mommy to my two little boys (NHL 4 and JSL 8 months). This has changed my life the most. I am not stressed like I was a year ago (the stress is just different now). I have time to spend with my boys and I enjoy doing things that I want instead of lesson planning and correcting papers in my spare moments outside of school. I do miss the kids and my fellow teachers, but at this point in my life this is where I need to be – with my husband and two boys.

I am going to take a minute to thank some important people. Please excuse me if I forget someone, it is not intentional. Very little sleep this weekend can cloud my memory banks –> teething is EVIL I tell you!

Laura – thank you for helping me to set up my original LJ blog. I kept reading yours and wanted to try something to release my stress from life at that time. So now you are technically to blame for the blogging addiction and the renewed knitting fascination.
My Porkloving Cousin – you may not know this, but you were a HUGE inspiration. I used to squeal when I would read your latest entries. I can not wait to read the book that you author someday. I expect an autographed copy when it comes out – do not forget that!
JL – my husband and webmaster all in one! Thank you for putting up with my blogging craziness. It is too funny how we now look at each other when something happens and say "BLOG!" I love you and am so thrilled you made me jump ship from LJ to my own special place. I owe you big time — *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*
All of my S3Mommy, May07 and Local Mommy Group friends with blogs (Sandy, Nancy, Renee, Kmelion and others) – You read, you commented, you helped me to explore my writing style. . . you are the best!
Kim – Thank you for introducing me to the Swaparooni group. What fun I have had with this amazing Flickr group thanks to you telling everyone all about it.
Mrs. OMSH – the founder of the Swaparooni group who helped me to make some amazing bloggy people (CityStreams, Airing My Dirty Laundry, Coolbeans, Bethany Actually, SAJ, Dutchblitz and so many others). Heather, you have inspired me with your fun, fresh and real blog to be myself and let my sarcastic and fun side show. Plus I have to include lots of photos of my kids and things. Thank you for being an inspiration. You and Jessica are two of my mentors (there are others too – so no hard feelings for not mentioning all of you now).
My boys – for giving me things to write about, photos to take and being super cute subjects for Mommy to use on her blog.

Why I am hosting a Giveaway:

While roaming around the Blogosphere I have found so many other blogs that I try to read daily (thank you Google Reader). There are too many to mention here and I am working on a new blogroll to give everyone some linky love. One of these blogs is Rocks In My Dryer. Shannon has another blog that showcases giveaways – perfectly titled Bloggy Giveaways. This fall she helped to arrange the Fall Y’All for people. This week she is organizing a Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. The timing is perfect with my Blogoversary so I am joining in with my first giveaway!!!!

My Giveaway Details:

I decided to put together a cute package to help busy people to have things on hand for when they actually need to write and not e-mail someone. Yes, some of us still do that from time to time! So without further babbling, here is a photo of my goodies:

Included: (1) A sheet of custom made address labels. I will put whatever you would like on them – you do not have to use Blue the dog. (2) A package of 10 blank note cards (3) A little memo pad with a pen (perfect for keeping in a diaper bag or purse to capture bloggable moments). (4) Magnetic Listpad (5) Gold and Silver metallic gel pens. (6) Valentine froggy magnet (7) $5.00 gift card for Target to get a little something special for you. Other surprises may get tossed in along with these, but these are definite.

Now for some rules/details of the giveaway (this is the teacher in me doing this):

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment. Only one comment per person and please tell me something about yourself. Do you blog? If you do. . . why did you begin? If you are not a blogger – why not? Come on you know you want to blog – see peer pressure exists even in the Blogosphere!
Any duplicate entries will be deleted and not eligible.
Please be sure to leave your e-mail address and/or blog so I can contact you for your information when you win.
A winner will be randomly selected from all of the comments by Random.org (no trees will be killed in the making of this giveaway).
Entries will be accepted until Midnight EST on Saturday, February 2, 2008. I will announce the winner here and post it on Shannon’s website during the day on Sunday, February 3, 2008 (the day before my 1st Blogoversary).
Unfortunately, due to being a SAHM and living on a budget, I must limit entries to people who are living in the United States and Canada only. Sorry to my other international friends, but man shipping charges are just crazy these days.

With that I hope you enjoy this and look forward to meeting new friends out there in this fun filled Bloggy world that we live in.

Comments closed 2-2-2008 . . . winner announced very soon!!!

Categories:
contests family friends fun interesting looking back me moments

Baby wrangling at the gynecologist – a new sport!

Posted on January 14, 2008 1:26 pm by TheAngelForever

On Friday I had a 9:30 appointment for my 6 month follow up to the 6 week after baby/surgery exam. Get that?

JSL went with me and chatted up a storm as we waited. I was finally called back to a room and at about 10:30 the nurse practitioner. I opted to see her since she saw me most of my pregnancy and I really like her. So I was told what to do and left JSL in his stroller while covering myself with the "fun" paper sheet around my waist.

Don’t all of you ladies out there just LOVE that sexy paper sheet?!?!

JSL was not happy being in there and when the NP came in he got very defensive when she was doing my breast exam. Ya know – he does not like it when other people touch his food – LOL!

So she asks to pick him up and put him on my chest. Then she tells me to get ready for my "fun" exam.

***Note to those of you out there – man is it a ~~bitch~~ pain in the rear to move on the exam table, while wrangling a crying almost 8 month old on your chest, and having the paper sheet under your booty stick. That just did not work. The NP saw me struggle and took JSL for me to move up into position (UGH – nightmares of the last exam and what the doctor said). Then she gave him back and he cried and wiggled the entire time.

Ummmm. . . hello I am the one with well you know what, you know where and he was crying – typical male!

Luckily things are a-ok and I was given information to look at and call back when JSL is weaned and/or my period comes back and I want to investigate other options if my endometriosis acts up again.

Aren’t you glad I shared this with you – LOL! Now if all goes well I will not go back for a year – doing my happy dance.

Categories:
doctor interesting jsl laughs me moments

Louder Than Words – Book Review

Posted on January 13, 2008 12:09 pm by TheAngelForever

If you watched any talk or news shows this summer then you probably heard about the book Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy. As I sat nursing my infant son and worrying about my just 4 year old son with special needs, I listened over and over again to McCarthy explain about her experience with her son Evan’s Autism. The book details from the start her battle trying to find out what was wrong with her son as he had constant seizures, was always ill, would not verbalize, did not socialize with other children and had other "strange" behaviors (arm flapping, watching things go in circles to calm). This book shows how she along with medical professionals (this is key) helped Evan to come out of his shell and heal with his diagnosis of Autism.

I will admit when this hoopla was out in the media, I sat there wondering is my son autistic? Is this why he is having such a hard time with things at school?

Was I freaking out for no reason?

The answer to the last question is YES, but mommies do that from time to time. I even blogged in my hysteria about this in a strange cryptic way. I will definitely credit my fear with finally making an appointment to take NHL to see a developmental pediatrician. If anything at least I would have peace of mind and know what made my child tick the way he did. When we went to our doctor we figured out how NHL is wired. He is a very emotional little guy that often does things his own way (just like his daddy). Thankfully he is not autistic.

So you may be wondering, why did I read the book?

As a mother and educator, the huge increase in autism in our country alarms me. I have met, taught and personally known several autistic children (and parents with children that have this). I wanted to read what McCarthy had to say in her book after hearing so much about it in the media.

Here is the key in reading this book – McCarthy is not a medical expert , this is her story about the journey she went on with her son Evan. Every child is different and what she did that is the most important is to be not on the biggest advocate for her son, but she educated herself and found the best medical professionals to help them. She and the medical professional watched her son and figured out how to treat him. She did not try much on her own without supervision and lab tests.

The scary part with this book (Laura and I have talked about this for a long time) is that MANY people are using Louder Than Words as some sort of Autism bible. That is dangerous to do and should NOT be done. Medical professionals are still unsure as to what is the cause of autism and why the numbers are drastically climbing in recent years. Hopefully with time and money to do further research we will some day know the answer and not have to wonder.

Categories:
books health awareness interesting real world news

Calling all lurkers!!!

Posted on January 10, 2008 10:51 pm by TheAngelForever

Thanks to Angella I now know this week is National De-Lurking Week. You know that means that people who lurk and read blogs are supposed to leave comments to let others know the are out there.

Come on people show me some comment love. I thought about doing a comment giveaway like Loralee and Angella, but do not want to copy these fine ladies. Plus, I am still trying to think of something to do for my first giveaway in honor of my Blogoversary (February 4th).

Photobucket

So jump on into the comment area and say hello. Give me some ideas on things to do with my 4 year old son, tell me how to stop going stir crazy as a SAHM this winter, make some suggestions of things too do to celebrate my Blogoversary and most important let me know that you are out there reading and tell me something about yourself.

Categories:
contests interesting web fun

Where O, where O, where is JL?

Posted on December 27, 2007 11:57 am by TheAngelForever

This morning JL left for work and I tried to call him on the cell phone to remind him to take his boots. We are supposed to get 1-3 inches of the white stuff today at about the time he will be leaving to come home.

Anyway, he did not answer his phone. The odd thing is I knew I did not hear his car go. So I went flying out the door and saw JL on the ground with his camera out looking at a tree across the way.

*gasp*

Shocked aren’t you that he had his camera ;)

When he went outside he heard a bird calling from across the way and saw this:

As he stood there he heard something calling back to the bird seen above. JL wanted to get closer shots, so he used the great zoom on his camera and was able to get the following pictures to help us identify what we suppose is a hawk here in the middle of the city.

Check out this BIG/SHARP beak:

And man these eyes are certainly made for hunting:

Sitting and waiting for an answer from it’s bird friend:

Maybe this "little" bird will help to control the squirrel population or even the crow troubles the area is having. I just hope it stays WAY up there when we are outside.