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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Autumn Leaves

We don't have seasonal changes with leaves changing color in South Florida. So I'm enjoying my last day of Fall weather before coming home. I've even collected a few leaves for Charlotte and Sam. So pretty.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Rest

When I booked my trip I thought it was a really wacky plan.  Fly into Baltimore, have family pick me up, drive to our home town of Hagerstown, spend the night and drive to the conference the next day.  Why not just fly into Harrisburg like I did last year but I needed rest and thats what I got at my mom's house - 9 hours of sleep AND she made breakfast and lunch.  Even as an adult it's nice to be someones kid and be taken care of.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Allume


One year ago I attended a little blogging conference in Harrisburg, PA.  It was a lovely weekend with new friends and serious workshops teaching how to do this thing called blogging better.  And now the time has come for the same conference and I can mark my place in time with what I’ve accomplished since the last conference.

One whole year later, for an overachiever and big thinker you’d think I might have a litany of things to write about but this year didn’t happen as I had planned.  No, this year was filled with unexpected medical issues and expenses that delayed our moving plans.  This was a year filled with more stress then I’ve ever had in a lifetime.

I should be excited because I love this blogging event but I’m exhausted, my shoulders ache with stress.  On a random side note, I’m still breast feeding 6mo old so on this trip I’ll be pumping and my stress level is so high I just pumped 1.5oz, that’s about 25% of what I normally pump at work.

My husband says to me, “if you have too much on your plate then pray about it”.  I have and it seems more is piled on every day. 

Last year my only objective at the conference was where to take my blog in 2012 and I got very useful advice that I’ve steadily implemented over the past year, I think it’s quite lovely now.

This year I’m only looking for rest.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Enjoying Fall

Random Tuesday ~ Halloween Plans

Halloween - I don't have time for you this year!  It's up to Husband to pull this one off.  Our 4 year old has very clear memories of last year so expectations are high.  She started with the idea that she wants to be a ghost, then Jessie (from Toy Story) and I'm sure some combination of Fairy, Princess Pink Unicorn has been mentioned along the way.  But we've bought her ghost costume so it's settled - an X-Large t-shirt from Micheal's for $2.00.  When she wears it the shirt comes down to her feet and she's adorable when she says "I'm going to be a nice ghost".  I love the fact that it cost $2.00.

Sam will be Woody (from Toy Story) because he loves Woody!  We have a pair of jeans, a costume belt/holster and a hat so far.  We NEED to get Woody shirt fabric, cow print fabric to make the vest and something to make the Sheriff badge - oh and some boots.  Wow this sounds elaborate.  So you might wonder, why didn't we just go out and buy a pre-made costume?  Because they are really strange with all the parts sewn together and after working with Disney properties for 12 years I just thought we could do better.

I've contacted my work's plush factory in Asia for the custom printed Woody shirt fabric - because I can't find it online - anywhere!  I've ordered cow print fabric from e-bay - the only place I could find it and I just need a flat gold sheet to make a Sheriff badge - or I'll just print the actual art on stiff paper.

Violette, will be a fairy pumpkin because she has a super cute orange outfit and we happen to have a pair of fairy wings that are just her size and I know Charlotte will squeal when we put them on her baby sister.  We just need to cut the top off a pumpkin to make her a little hat.

I think in total, we've spent about $20 on costume pieces which is right where I wanted to be.  The average price is $20 per costume so we've saved $40 by making our own.

I'm going out of town for 5 days so it's up to Husband to pull off this plan!  Good luck!  I'll be back on Monday to inspect and provide valuable insightful commentary.

Stacy

Friday, October 19, 2012

I love you daddy.


Spirit Day - say NO to bullying

Today is Spirit Day - sponsored by GLADD.  Oh, we're Christians over here at Occasional Boredom, isn't being gay against our Christian religion?  Wait, did you say Spirit Day is about BULLYING of gays?   Not gay rights, just bullying of gays for being gay.

But Christians don't participate in bullying so why would we care?

I care because a bully labeled me as GAY in high school and taunted me relentlessly.  WHAT you say?  Not Rachel, she's straight as an arrow, married to a wonderful man and has 3 kids!

But it DID happen and it made me angry, resentful and very miserable.  Much how I imagine someone who is really struggling with being gay might be feeling when they are taunted.

It all started in my freshman year of high school, 13 years old.  I was sitting alone in the chorus class waiting for class to end.  While staring out the window my eye caught a group of girls chatting, they were obviously old friends from middle school and I choked back a sob at missing my friends from Truth for Youth.  She caught my eye and gave me a dirty look, then the whispering started.  The next day I was labeled a "girl watcher".  This same girl was also in my Foods 1 class and got another boy at her table to sing "I'm a girl watcher" to the tune of Wheel of Fortune - oh you don't remember that tune, it's here on You Tube if you want to refresh your memory.  That boy also rode my bus!

See once you start the bullying and encourage others to do so, it takes on a life of it's own.  That boy would sing that song every single day until I finally had enough and screamed at him that I'd have my brother beat him up if he ever did it again!  He stopped.

By Christmas I had learned to ignore this girl and never look in her direction.  Right before we left for the holiday's, the music teacher gathered us to say my tormentor was leaving because her father, a PASTOR, was being moved to another church.  My jaw hit the floor.  She was the child of a Christian!

Christian friends, I cannot say how badly you damage the reputation of Jesus Christ when your children behave cruelly towards others.  Where do you think she learned that behavior?  Did her parents sit at home and bash the gay lifestyle?  Did they teach her to not LOVE others just as Christ loved first?

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The Bible teaches LOVE your neighbor as yourself!  That means love your GAY neighbor and I promise you, they will love and respect you in return.

In summary, I'm glad this happened to me.  It's made me extremely tough but also very empathetic to other's for being different.  My life has been surrounded by beautiful people who were not loved by society for being different and I know that God has gifted me with the ability to look past what society would label as strange.  But then again, I'm the lucky one for putting such a spin on this.  There are others who don't survive and commit suicide because they can't handle the emotional abuse.  I'm here to tell you that demonstrating Christ's love is the most important thing you can do as a Christian.

Be kind people, be loving, you never know who's watching.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

When your baby is in the 0% for weight

At Violette's 6mo appointment we learned she had only put on .4lbs in the past 2 months putting her current weight at 11.9lbs.  This puts her in the 0 percentile for weight.  Her sister was 11 percentile and dropped as low as 4% up to 3 years of age so we are not freaking out - but it is really concerning.

I thought I was doing the right thing by exclusively breast feeding her for six months and only recently she started taking in bigger bottles then what I was pumping so we realized she probably needed more and started supplementing with formula.  Trying not to blame myself.

Her 6mo chart says "failure to thrive".  Those words are horrifying to read and quite honestly if I hadn't already raised one light eater to the age of 4, I might be having a severe meltdown.

She's meeting all other developmental milestones, including standing with support!


So deep breath, know that God is in control and shove as many calories into that tiny girl as possible!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Random Tuesday

Hmmm, what is the deal with Facebook pages?  I found myself with 111 likes and decided to pair it down because there were a number of pages where the owners have stopped posting updates!  I'm now down to 76 pages.

Speaking of FB pages, have you all noticed the recent change where you see your friends page like updates?  I have a friend who likes Country Outfitter so every Saturday there's a big old photo of cowgirl boots and a giveaway.  It's so random because every weekend I find myself saying - I don't recall liking this!  I'm here to tell you that this can be fixed!  I have my "likes" set up for ME to view only, that way my friends are not inundated with my likes!!!  Instructions:
  • Go to your profile page (top right corner)
  • Right under Activity Log should be your "Likes" section, click on this 
  • Click on the edit button
  • Scroll down to "other pages you like", note the little icon to the right, it has a drop down menu that lets you select "me only"!
  • Walla!  No more bugging your friends with your preferences.
Oh by the way, I now have a Facebook page for this blog!  I'd love for you to LIKE my page - yes I do have a secret agenda, I'd like to reach 50 likes before I attend a conference at the end of this month :)

In other random news, I found this nifty ad for eggs.  That's right, I said EGGS.  In an age where everything is branded and promoted, EGGS are trying to become a FAD with boosters and labels (picture from the back of Reader's Digest).  What happened to good old fashioned simple EGGS???

 Happy Random Tuesday!!
Stacy 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Pumpkin Patch 2012

I've been a fan of Pumpkin Patches ever since 2009 when I got some awesome photos of Charlotte.  She was wearing really gorgeous polka dotted dress from Gymboree and for once it was actually cold enough in South Florida to wear long sleeves!

In 2010 Charlotte revolted and refused to smile.  But I was so determined to have happy photos at the Pumpkin Patch that I made the entire family try another one and we got cute photos.  Two years old is a tough crowd to please!

In 2011 was hot & miserable.

All that history to say this year I don't give a hoot - well not too much.  I let the kids run wild while holding Violette (dad stayed home) and I managed to get this shot and had to edit Sam into the photo through Photoshop because he was too busy getting his foot stuck in the wooden pallets to bother posing - again 2 year olds!  Pffft!


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Nick Nick Nickelodeon - Hotel

Knowing I'll be away the last weekend of the month, I was reluctant to do a work trip to Orlando for three days. So I took the entire family with me!

Rates are rock bottom because school is in session so we snagged a room for under $100 per night! Sweet!

Nick hotel has a mini water park in the center complete with slime dump every day at 4:45!

In the first evening (after my work meetings were complete) we got to meet SpongeBob! Charlotte was so thrilled, afterwards she claimed "he is so handsome"! I wonder if that's a first for SpongeBob. Albeit her compliment skills are limited but we thought is was cute.

We attended an evening session of Double Dare! I was clearly more excited than the entire family. I remember dreaming of being on this show when I grew up with my brothers!


The water park turns into a major slime zone at 4:45, Violette and I watched the family get slimed!


In summary, it's an extremely fun hotel to leave the family for a few days.  I had all day meetings so it was nice to leave them somewhere fun.  I highly recommend this hotel for the fun stuff AND the staff was super cool and nice.  

Saturday, October 06, 2012

Six Word Saturday


Learning to love Ebates!

Last year my Poorganic friend Katrina introduced me to Ebates and I must confess, even though I've tried to use it a few times, it hasn't really stuck.  They promised a $10 gift card to Target when I signed up and for some reason it didn't arrive until today - which is okay!  It just suddenly reminded me of their lovely site and that I really should be using it more often.

I'm also reminded that I bought $100 worth of contacts from Vision.com recently and forgot to start my purchase from Ebates :( - queue wompwomp music.  There are other online purchases that I completely forgot to route through Ebates and thus my annual reward is less than $5.00 - boo hiss!

But there is hope for me!  I can be taught, even if it takes an entire year to change my habits I'm now fully aware that every time I pull out my credit card to make an online purchase, I must go through Ebates first!  

I will use Ebates, I will use Ebates, I will use Ebates.  Say it with me.  I WILL USE EBATES!  

Thank you, that's all.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Random Tuesday - a rant about breast pumping at work

I posted this on Facebook and terrified all the guys, I say this because I received 11 likes and 9 comments - all from women!  Of course the subject is a rant about breast pumping in the office!  But made even funnier to me that no men dared to comment.

When I'm at home, it is a guarantee that the moment I sit down on a toilet someone will fall and crack their head.

In the office, seconds after I close my office door and turn on my breast pump a knock on the door or a phone call is guaranteed asking when I will be done because someone wants to send a fax, or scan something or look at the wall they've covered with papers detailing a well thought 
out operational system that promises to save us all tons of time someday and they couldn't find a bigger wall elsewhere.

Today the knock was because they wanted to present boss with an animated birthday card they worked on all morning instead of doing real work.

Like I care!

Leave me alone to breast pump in silence people! If my door is closed, I don't care to know that you exist. I'm in my cone of silence and your pithy matters are of no concern to me! And if you've managed to crack your head in the office, drive yourself to the ER or call an ambulance!

Cone of silence people. Respect the door!

Your loving office mom,
R.
Stacy