TV catch up

It's just suddenly dawned on me today that I have not watched Bones since the middle of last season! I love that show! I even loved where I left off, but I just got really super busy somewhere around the middle of Season 5 and never watched what was on my DVR until it was deleted to make room for something else.

TV had never been a huge priority of mine, but the new season is already in full swing and here I am left in the dust! I am going to have to try to catch up via netflix if I want to even think about watching the new season before the videos expire online!

Another show that I need to catch up on in Supernatural. I am not as involved with Supernatural, but I'm not as far behind either. I have only missed a couple of episodes this Fall and so it will be easy to catch up.

Guess I know what I will be doing tonight, watching TV. OH! And I will be doing it in my living room with my newly cleaned carpets! That's right! I had the carpets cleaned! They look sooo good too, and it was FAST. Super fast actually, and they even pre treated my stains! So I am highly recommending D&H carpet cleaning in the Vancouver, WA / Portland, OR area. The dude was super friendly. We started off on the right foot when I told him that I had already moved all of the furniture out of the way and he said, "Oh, thank you!" so sincerely I think he might have had to move a waterbed at the last place! Check 'em out, they are awesome!

Who Wants to Be a fat Chick?

It's no secret that I have been unhappy with my weight. I blog about it on here all the time. I am always trying to do this or that and it never seems to work. The very first blog post that I ever wrote was about losing weight and guess what? I'm the same weight. I've heard about this new diet called the HCG diet. It's not the kind where you have to inject anything, believe me, my friends and coworkers already jumped all over me about that.

This HCGis just a few drops under the tongue, no prescription required, and it has a money back guarantee. Money back, that's how confident they are that you will lose weight and be satisfied with the results. Even more impressive than that is the claim that there is no hunger on the HCG diet.

Not being hungry and still losing 1-2 pounds per day? Sign me up! You don't have to see a doctor, and they still offer one on one support as often as you need it. The shipping is free in the US and they will ship to you next business day.

There are testimonials at http://www.facebook.com/yourhcg.
Or you can visit http://www.yourhcg.com to learn more about the offers. I'm going to become a fan on facebook so that I can see what others are saying about this product. I always recommend that you do your research on everything, and this looks like a winner to me!

Baby Lily!

I'm very happy to say that my new little niece, Lily Mai, was born on Friday. She was 8.8lbs and 20.5 inches long. She is such a little cuddle bug and a very well behaved baby! Her mama says that she is eating well and that she falls right to sleep afterwards. Lucky mama!

Congratulations to my brother Brian, his wife Bethany, and their 21 month old daughter Victoria. They now have a new addition to their family and I'm sure it makes it complete!

The Other Guys

Last night Shawn and I watched The Other Guys and we laughed our rear ends off! Neither of us were expecting the level of campiness that this movie had to offer. It was a cop movie, poking fun at cop movies, without calling out certain titles specifically. Instead, the entire genre is slammed in this fast paced and witty comedy.

This movie is simply ridiculous. The only thing that could have made it any more over the top would have been if the actors made eye contact with the camera Ferris Bueller style. If you are think that you'll be able to take a single scene seriously, think again.

I love watching cop movies like Bad Boys, but I also love to poke fun at them while I watch. They are full of stereotypical characters fulfilling stereotypical scenes. The honest cop who cares too much about doing the right thing and blows up too many cars and buildings along the way is outrunning a fireball. Can I even count how many times I have seen this happen?

Marky Mark and Will Farrell worked fantastically together. I could easily see a long line of buddy films bud from this movie. I felt as if they had a lot of chemistry, and I would have loved to have seen them together on the set. Typically, when think of Mark Wahlberg, I remember him as the guy in baggy jeans from the poster in my preteen bedroom. Any other time and I am thinking of him as a brooding good hearted cop with a troubled past. Man, does he do a great job of making fun of his own stereotype!

I'm giving the movie 4 stars. I can see it as a staple in my movie library that I would watch over and over again.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hell's Kitchen

I'm smack dab in the middle of the second hour of Hell's Kitchen tonight. The girls just finished dinner service on the second night. As far as I can remember, that's pretty impressive. I think normally it takes them a few more episodes before groups normally accomplish that.

I can't quite decide if Raj is a real person, a character, or a plant. Did the producers just throw him in there to see what would happen? He's got a personality ala Windy City Heat. It's just too awkward to be real. On one hand, he only drags the team down. On the other hand, he's darn entertaining to watch.

Oh my, and can we talk about Vinny for a moment. Yeah, yeah, he over stepped his bounds when he told customers they shouldn't order sides. What I really want to talk about is his John Stamos hair. Seriously, all I can think of is Uncle Jesse.

In past seasons, Chef Ramsay has shown that regardless of team harmony or personal vendettas, he has always been concerned most with the quality of the chef. I have noticed that this time around he is keeping folks although personally, I think they are of little to no value as a chef. Instead they are volatile, vindictive, clueless, and irritating. Seems as if they are staying in the game to make the show more appealing. As if the cry baby contestants needed anything else to stress them out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Heater Won't Turn Off!

The heater won't shut off at work and the temperature has been climbing all day long. We close in 15 minutes and we are at 79 degrees. I wonder if we will make it to 80 before we go home.

I have worked in places where the air conditioning goes out and that is bad enough. But to feel the hot air blasting you in the face is another story. It's almost nauseating.

Hopefully, they get someone out here to fix this FAST! Otherwise, I'm going to be one cranky workbear.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tivo: More Than a DVR

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of TiVo. All opinions are 100% mine.

Recently, I had lunch with a friend and we were talking about which TV shows we have been watching. Since I have been missing the South, I have been watching Swamp People on the History Channel. She has been watching Glee and Modern Family.

I had meant to watch Glee since it started. Then, I meant to catch up on it. Now, I'm just so far behind that I'm pretty much lost. The ads for the new season of Modern Family have really appealed to me lately. It's another show that I am thinking about getting into. Bleh, but catching up is such an investment.

"Just Tivo it," she told me.

"Well, yeah, I can record it, but I still have to find the past episodes, get them on demand, find time to watch them, blah blah blah."

"No, TIVO it." I almost asked what the difference, but then I realized something...

In order for a noun to become a verb, it has to be pretty special. "Google it," for example. Yesterday, a customer was telling me how her 5 year old grandson told her, "Just Google it, Grammy!" It's because Google has changed the way we look for things online. I think that Tivo has changed the way we watch TV, but it you haven't tried it, then you don't know.

Tivo makes recommendations for you, based on your favorite actors, genres, and more. If I had Tivo oh so long ago, I wouldn't have missed the first two seasons of Angel when it spun off of Buffy. Tivo would have recommended it to me. Then, I wouldn't have missed the first 3 seasons of Bones after Angel ended. Tivo would have seen that David Boreanaz had a new project and would have not only made the recommendation, but would have recorded for me and saved it until I was ready to give it a try. Your DVR won't go out of its way like that!

So if there is anything new coming out this year for Fall TV, your Tivo will let you know about it so you won't miss out.

If you're even remotely interested in trying Tivo, now is a great time. They are giving away their newest product, a slide remote, everyday until Sept 22. If you don't know what a slide remote is, think if a smart phone and a remote control had a baby. Best feature possible on any device ever? Full keyboard! I'm all about Qwerty! If they put a Qwerty on a Casio watch, you know I would rock that. You can also check out a picture of it on the Enter to Winpage. You can also check it out on their Facebook Fan Page. I suggest becoming a Tivo friend on FB so that you can learn about the newest promotions fast.

iPhone Crashed After Stupid Update

Arg! I was using my iPhone as a modem tonight when iTunes prompted me to update my phone. I chose to download only and not to update. For somes reason, when the download was complete, my iPhone went into restore mode. Since you can't restore your iPhone without the internet, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. My only option was to use my husband's netbook to restore my phone. That means that I will have to restore to factory setting and lose EVERYTHING on my phone!

Fortunately (debateable) Appled juiced me for $99 this year for mobileme. I'll be able to get all of my contacts back through a wireless sync. Also fortunately (confirmed) I did a hard sync to my laptop today, so I will get all of my stuff back on my phone in a few hours. Still, ARG!

Not a great time for this to happen to me as I am deciding between an iPhone 4 or a Captivate. I am pretty sure that the Captivate is a better long term investment. I will probably give it another 6 months before I decide... Unless this happens to me again.

Party Prep

Caleb is really excited about his party on October 2nd. He keeps asking me to go to the computer and show him to picture of the skeleton cupcakes we are going to make. I can't really blame him either, they are so cute.

I got the recipe from the Woman's Day website. They also have a recipe for a sherbert punch. My mom used to make this for all of our parties when I was growing up and it was a favorite of mine. For Caleb's party, we are going to add dry ice for a smokey effect.

I'm also going to make deviled eggs for his party. At first, I wanted to decorate them with little horns. Then, I decided that it would be easier to place one sliced olive on top to make them look like eyeballs. My mom is making a veggie tray and we are putting the dip into a hollowed out gourd. This is another idea from Woman's Day magazine, but I'm not using their recipe.

Today we started making homemade decorations. It might sound cheap, but it is great fun to do crafts with him, and I love to use them for seasonal decorations. There is nothing more precious than a handmade treasure from your little one. We cut out orange circles from construction paper and glued on cut out triangles to make jack o' lantern faces. We also cut out bats to hang from the ceiling. Another decoration to hang from the ceiling are little spiders cut from paper plates with pipe cleaner for legs.

It's hard to say which was his favorite to make. First he liked the spider the most because he got to use the pipe cleaner. Then, he liked the pumpkins the most because he got to use the glue. After that, he was mostly into the bats because he wanted to cut with scissors.

Halloween Party

Caleb's "So Long, Sucker" party, which celebrates his one full month of not using his pacifier, is coming up in two weeks. Today, he said, "Mama, my party is coming up. My party is in two weeks." The funniest thing is that he has been saying his party is in two weeks for the last two weeks. This time I was able to tell him that he was right on the money.

Today, I decided to introduce the idea of a Halloween party to him. He remembers last Halloween, but at the time he didn't understand what was going on. He will talk about how he dressed up as Yoda, stayed up late, and people gave him candy. Now, I am able to tell him that was Halloween and that we are going to do it again this year.

I showed Caleb some of the treats and decorations that he could have if we chose a halloween theme and he is SO excited! His favorite are the Skeleton cupcakes.

Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Woodrow Wilson. All opinions are 100% mine.

I just learned about an interesting program called The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship. It provides recent college graduates and career changers in STEM fields with a $30,000 stipend to complete an intensive master’s degree program at a participating university.

If you're wondering what "STEM" is, it stands for science, technology, engineering, math. So, if you have recently graduated college in one of these areas and would like to obtain your master's degree, this program may interest you. I have just been at their website http://www.wwteachingfellowship.org looking up information.

It seems as though the goal here is a noble one. To ensure that we can fill our schools with high quality teachers, and to ensure that schools in need get the teachers that will help them to flourish.

Competitive candidates will:

• Have completed an undergraduate degree in a STEM field by June 2011.


• Have graduated with a 3.0 GPA or higher.


• Demonstrate a commitment to the program and its goals.

Fellows will:

• Complete a field-based master’s degree in teacher education.


• Commit to teach for at least three years in a high-need school.


• Receive intensive support and mentoring in the classroom.

As you can see by the required list, an applicant has to maintain a certain grade point average and really prove that they are devoted to the program. I can think of so many people who would be perfect for this teaching fellowship. People who truly care about the state of our country's education system. People who want to see the youth of today succeed in being the hope for tomorrow.

Date night with my hubby

Thanks for the article from Jermaine Haynes

I always enjoy myself on date night with my husband. Getting out of the house, just the two of us, is important. Since our daughter was born, we've rarely gotten time to ourselves; finding a babysitter is sometimes very difficult.

Lately, my husband's Mom has become more available so we can go to a movie every couple weeks. So we pack up our daughters things and get ourselves together, set the home security alarm and get into the car, check here for more information. After dropping her off at Grandma's house, we are off to the theater.

We both share an interest in similar movie genres; action, comedy, and thriller. Most of the times, I get to pick the movie; luckily he'll likely enjoy my choice.

My favorite thing, aside from watching a great movie on the big screen, is getting the popcorn at the theater. I always ask for the bag half-filled so that I can put butter and salt in the middle. It's awful to get to the middle of the bag in the middle of the movie and have it taste so bland from no seasoning.

Another great part about these dates is spending time with my husband sans child. I love my daughter more than the world but we need our time too.

It's Still Summer

Ya know, somebody should tell September that techincally, it's still Summer for another couple of weeks. Ever since September hit, it's been raining. We had two nice days, and granted they were on the weekend, but I think we deserve a little more love in the PNW.

We had the rainiest Summer I have ever experienced. So far, this is the rainiest year since 1944; I think I've mentioned that before. I was really hoping that since Summer took so long to get started that we would have warm weather stretch a little further into Fall.

No such luck. September was right on cue. As soon as the calendar switched to September 1st the rain started. One thing about September this year, it's on the ball. No wasted time.

I don't have anything against September in particular. In fact, Autumn is my favorite season. It's the rain that I have a problem with. I love a crisp, cool Autumn morning. Breathing in the air is like biting into an apple. It's refreshing and invigorating; there isn't anything like it. The rain, on the other hand, I can do without.

When it rains in the Pacific Northwest, it doesn't stop for days. The rain pours without ceasing until the ground can't take it anymore. The soil stops being about to obsorb the downpour and then the water starts to rise up from the ground. The beautiful Autumn leaves that have fallen to the ground are soggy and rotting. Freezing cold water slushes over the tops of your shoes and the rain from the sky feels like little ice bullets.

That's how it is today already. If I have to suffer through all of this rain, and I dont get to see any snow, I think I will go ahead and try to move when my lease is up.

Missing Mississippi

These past few weeks, my heart has been longing for home. Even though my family left Mississippi when I was 6 years old, it still feels like home. It's not that I don't feel at home here in the PNW, but there is something magical about the South.

Most of all, I miss my extended family, but also, that dirty water, those cypress trees, the spanish moss, and the food. I started a garden this year, just so that I could have some fried green tomatoes. Back in MS you can buy those in the grocery store, but not here. Here, the only okra you can find is frozen or pickled, and not even everyone knows what it is.

The problem is that I don't want to just visit Mississippi, I want to live there. There are some things about the South that I detest. The heat is number one, the bugs are a close second. The heat comes in 3rd again. I don't like way that hardly anyone spays or neuters their pets, no matter WHAT Bob Barker said.

There are things about MS that you can't find anywhere else. It's true what they say about Southern Hospitality. Even the punk, snot-nosed teenagers have respect for their elders. The food is beyond compare. People aren't afraid of pitbulls. Everyone is close to their family, and their friend's families, and their friends' friends' families. People sit outside their house on their front porch drinking iced tea all day, so if you drive by, you know they are home.

Other things I love about the South include:

• Chicory Coffee


• Casino Boats


• Party on the Shrimp Boat!


• Fishing off the Pier on the gulf and watching the pelicans dive against the sunset


• Crawfish Boils - fun even though I refuse to eat the nasty-looking little things.

Master of Arts in Teaching USC

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine.

A friend of mine recently went back to school and received her Master of Arts in Teaching. Originally, she majored in English and Art when she was in college. After she graduated, she made her living painting. She was commissioned to make several different types of artwork, and I really love her work.

As time went on, she realized that while she loved paint, she wanted to do something more fulfilling. She enrolled in an accelerated program and earned her Master of Arts in Teaching in about a year. She worked a part time job while she was going to school, but because she was taking her classes online, it was easy to manage her time. Studying online allowed her to have greater flexibility with her work, school, and free time.

The USC Rossier School of Education’s MAT@USC program is an innovative combination of highly interactive online learning with field-based experiences in your local area. Benefits include full USC student status, participation in commencement ceremonies along with free lifetime Alumni Association memberships.

USC has a 100-year history of educating teachers. This program has received awards for its innovative use of technology in education. It seems like an obvious choice. Teaching is a fulfilling and rewarding career. You have the opportunity to teach others and to enrich their lives.

We all have a favorite teacher. From preschool to college, everyone has at least one person who has touched their life in such a way that it will never be the same again. Now my friend has the chance to be that person for someone. She teaches art class at a public school in Ohio. She looks at her students and remembers a time when she and I were young and the a world of possibilities were open to us. She is not only teaching her students art, but she is encouraging them and motivating them to follow their dreams and to reach for the stars. It seems almost magical to think that her students will look back at their time spent with her and remember the way she made them feel. That the support and confidence she is giving them can make a difference in them for the rest of their lives.

If you're an aspiring teacher, check out this website for program information.

Muchas Gracias is People

Last night, Shawn went out to procure a little late night meal for us. He went to the Muchas Gracias on East Mill Plain blvd in Vancouver, WA. This Muchas Gracias Mexican Food restaurant is 24 hours. We used to go there quite a bit when it first opened up because we just lived down the street.

We each ordered a breakfast burrito with bacon and eggs. I got mine with potatoes, and Shawn got his without potatoes, but with extra cheese. Shawn said that his was delicious, except for that he didn't feel like there was enough extra cheese. Mine was amazing... Or so I thought.

So, I'm grubbing on my totally yummy breakfast burrito and the first thing I notice is that the potatoes are cooked perfectly. Sometimes they are in a hurry to get the food out and the potatoes don't get cooked all the way through. I was excited that things seemed to be going my way.

The next thing that I noticed was that the chunks of bacon were huge. It wasn't made with strips of bacon, it was made with big ol' honkin' pieces. This could possibly be the best breakfast burrito in the history of the world.

Thrilled, I took another bite only to find myself with a gigantic piece of something yucky in my mouth. It was about one cubic inch in size and even though I didn't bite into it, it tasted really bad in my mouth. I spat it out and saw it was a large piece of pork fat. Very firm, and with no meat attached. Hey, it happens; I tossed it to the dog.

After two more bites I found another piece, just the same as the first. All white, no meat, very firm, and straight up nasty tasting. I threw it to the dog. What the heck? Is there no quality control at this place? Two really big pieces of fat? They didn't notice that when they were prepping, or at least while they were cooking the food?

A few bites later and I found a third piece just the same as the other two. "What IS this?!" I exclaimed. I was beginning to question if this was an accident - and even if it was pork! Are the people at Muchas Gracias trying to dispose of a body by chopping it up and slowly adding it to breakfast burritos?

It's not as far fetched as you would hope. Serial killer and rapist, Bill Suff is thought to have cooked his victims up in his award winning chili and serve it up to the same police force that was trying to hunt him down.

Even more eerie is that directly across the street from this same Muchas Gracias in question is a building that used to be a Mongolian Grill Restaurant called Gengis Khan. It's a different place now, but when it was the Mongolian Grill, Amy Weir used to work there. After she killed her boyfriend, she cut up some of his remains and systematically took them to the restaurant to dispose of them in the dumpster.

A few years ago, another Muchas Gracias patron found a swine heart valve in his carne asada. He tool a picture of it and an article was written about it in a local newspaper. I don't think it was the same location that I am speaking of, if memory serves me right.

So, I'm calling Muchas Gracias out. Are you killing people and feeding them to me like in Soilent Green? If so then I think you're the best Mexican Restaurant in town and please don't kill me and feed me to people.

Seriously though, I won't stop eating at Muchas Gracias; they're just too good. I will probably just stop taking such big bites out of my breakfast burritos after 1:00am.

Mobilty is Freedom

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NMEDA. All opinions are 100% mine.

My grandma is disabled and has been for quite sometime. While she isn't able to drive now because of her state of mind, it was something that she had to give up too early. I say too early because it wasn't something that had to be forfitted. These days, there are a lot of different ways for persons with disabilities to get around.

No two people with a disability are the same, and the people at NMEDA know that. NMEDA is a non profit trade associate that specializes in promoting safe drive and equipment for people with disabilities. They have a personalized “in-person” evaluation (their quotation marks, not mine) in which they customize a driving solution taylored to your specific needs.

There are several premodified wheelchair vehicles sold over the Internet or through catalogs, but these are like a one-size fits all type of solution. NMEDA has Dealers AND Quality Assurance Program (QAP) dealers. The Quality Assurance Program (QAP) is the only nationally recognized accreditation program for the Adaptive Mobility Equipment Industry.

Anniversary Bummer

I'm super bummed out! Shawn just told me today that he wasn't able to get off of work or our anniversary weekend. I was really looking forward to surprising him with our trip to skibowl.

I told him about what I had planned and he said that it seemed like something he would really enjoy. It was sad because there really isn't another weekend that we will be able to do it. It's about to get cold on the mountain and the adventure park will close down and the ski area will open up. Plus, Oktoberfest is only that one weekend.

Hopefully, we will be able to find another weekend to go away together. I really want it to be soon, but that means it will be more of an autumn/winter get away. I'm sure I will be able to think of something, but I would prefer it to be something Summer. Maybe I am still in Summer mode. Perhaps Shawn would like to go snowboarding this year instead. That would be a pretty good surprise.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Buttpaste

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boudreaux's Butt Paste. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was pregnant with Caleb, I asked everyone for advice. I asked one friend to count how many diapers she used in one day with her infant, I asked another to write down her son's nap schedule, and I asked everyone for reviews. I had people suggested everything from shampoo or toenail clippers.

When it came to health care and hygiene items, I went straight to the experts. Pediatricians and Pediatric nurses. One thing that was the same across the board, no matter who I asked was that Boudreaux's Butt Paste was the best product for the diaper area. It was recommended to me by my pediatrician, the nurses in the maternity ward, and even by my midwife. They all said the same thing, "The name is funny, but you'll love it because it works!"

"It works" was the clincher. Every person would throw in their own 2 cents of course. "It doesn't stink," "I saw it on Oprah," and "It cleans off easily" were pretty common. But the one thing that every person said without fail was, "It works".

When it comes to your little babies most sensitive areas, you want to know that the product you are using is going to work to soothe and heal them, and you want it to work FAST! Boudreaux's Butt Paste does just that, it works and it works fast. Not only did it sooth and heal diaper rash, but it helped to prevent diaper rash as well. If Caleb drank a lot of water before bed, I would smear it on him at bedtime. That way, if he filled his diaper in his sleep and didn't wake up, I knew that his skin would be protected through the night... of course he usually woke up and let me know all about his wet diaper!

I also used Boudreaux's Butt Paste on hot Summer days. I could only just imagine what it would be like to be a cute, sweet, innocent little baby on a 100 degree day. That diaper is meant to hold in moisture and they don't seem to be very breathable. I would put Boudreaux's Butt Paste on Caleb to protect him from heat rash or diaper rash from sweat.

Long car rides is another time I would use Boudreaux's Butt Paste. If he had to sit in the car seat for a long time, I was worried that he would sweat or get uncomfortable in his diaper. I would usually change him every hour or so, even if his diaper was dry, just to freshen him up. The idea of sitting around in a diaper sounds very unpleasant to me, and I wanted to keep him as clean, fresh, and comfortable as possible. Boudreaux's Butt Paste helped me to do that effectively.