Randoms Thoughts and Observations from Today...

Today was the deadline for w-2s and 1099s. I got a gazillion texts and emails. Have I replied? No. Will I? Yes, at some point.

When I got gas (on my way to meet a Huntsville client at County Line Road. Talk about full service accounting), the attendant said I had a cheerleader face. I have no idea what that means, but it made me feel happy. I never thought of myself as having a cheerleader face...even when I was a cheerleader in junior high. I was the dowdy one.

There is chicken in my hair. I didn't notice it until after I had been running around like a crazy lady. I might have been eating lunch while processing w-2s and 1099s. If you get yours and it smells slightly like Steak-Out, my bad.

I think I have suffered catastrophic deodorant failure. Nuff said.

I took my shoes off because the heels were killing my feet. No one seems to have noticed that I am three inches shorter...and walking around the office in trouser sock feet.

I missed the Spirit of Athens awards luncheon due to the deadline craze. :( That made me sad, but I know that working a lot during this tax season means I will have more time to devote to things like Spirit of Athens after April.

 My pantry is dangerously low on food. The codependents have begun to act like feral children as a result. Layton may have tried gnawing on Ella's thighbone to get some nourishment. She's a wiry thing, so he's still hungry.

There might be a half eaten apple under the driver's seat of my car. At least, I hope that smell is an apple and not something far messier to clean up.

I have become irrationally boundary free on the blog.

Definitely Not My House...

This picture was definitely not taken inside my house, but I wish my house looked more like this. :)

Silly Face...With No Teeth...

I know a woman who moved here from St. Louis. On her last day of work near the Gateway Arch, her coworkers threw a going away party for her. The gifts she received included an empty shoe box and an empty tube of toothpaste. Living in Alabama requires no shoes or teeth....at least...that's the perception in other parts of the country. :) Ella has recently started to embody the Alabama stereotype.

Sunshine Daydream...

The weather here has been crazy lately. For about two weeks I thought we had moved to Seattle. It was rainy and dreary like you would not believe. It's been cold. Warmer. Cold. Warmer. An absolute nightmare to plan for clothing wise. Take yesterday. It was freezing when I got up to go to work. Then by the time lunch came around, I met up with Jay and the kids and was fine without my coat. By the time the sun set, I needed my warm coat again. I have no clue how to properly dress the littles for school.

I am feverish for some good weather. :) How about you?

Eating Bread...

These chickens are a lot like me.

They eat a lot of bread. :) I have always been a sucker for bread products. I love a roll. Oh, biscuits. Oh heaven, yeast and white flour. Word to ya motha. I love some carbs. I could eat Layton's weight in Logan's rolls. I could eat 15 biscuits for breakfast. I think I did yesterday. Luvici's serves their dinner rolls with honey butter. Don't even ask how many I ate the last time I was there. It was ugly.

The thing is that all of the carbs I love are off limits to Layton. Being a gluten-free person can be tough. I know I shouldn't eat as much enriched flour as I do, but it's like I can't make myself stop.

Do any of you have any food addictions?

Straight Up in Love...

I am completely obsessed with these Tory Burch boots. 

The Selma.

I will not, however, spend $495.00 on a pair of boots. That's just a little too obscene for me. So, I looked around on the interwebs (hoping to find a ridiculous sale) for a while and came across ioffer.com. Is this website for real? Because some man  in China is willing to sell these boots for $120.00...at least that's what his history says. Surely not. Right? They have to be knockoffs. $120.00?? Seems too good to be true. I'm a somewhat naive person in a lot of ways. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I'm always shocked when I find out that someone I know doesn't have a moral compass that points North. As J would say....I am allergic to seeing bad in other people. That's precisely why I will end up chopped to bits and left in a ditch someday after stopping to help change a tire.
So......
I come to all you, my faithful readers (Hi J). Have you ever ordered anything from ioffer? Have you ever sent a money order to China? Does China even accept money orders?

Warm Glowing Lights...

These warm glowing lights have me dreaming of Spring. My favorite time of year. I love it when the weather is not too hot for a camp fire but not too cold for short sleeves. MMMM. Yes, I am ready for Spring.

UPDATE....Since no one really entered this giveaway, I'm going to extend it until Monday, January 30th!!


I have been using this blog as a way to scrapbook our lives for quite some time now. I just never thought of myself as someone who was good at scrap booking, so this seemed like an easy alternative for me. I'm short on time because of work and the demands of having three children in school with after school activities. About a week ago, I discovered digital scrapbooking software. It seemed like something I might be able to do, so I investigated further. I took about 10 minutes to draft a sample page.

It was so easy! There are tons of backgrounds, templates, fonts, and more to choose from. Even an accountant like me can come up with a beautiful page or album. I'm so impressed with the software that www.mymemories.com has available that I'm going to give away a copy of My Memories Suite! Well, actually, Liz at My Memories gave me a copy to give away!

Do you love to scrapbook and want a chance to win? Or are you looking for a way to keep a record of your family's activities but don't know where to start? Let me help... :) It's easy to enter this giveaway. Here's how:

1. Go to www.mymemories.com and pick your favorite album template. Leave a comment letting me know which one you liked best.

2.Become a follower of this blog. I'll see your pretty new face right over there---------->>>>>


3. Like My Memories on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593 Leave me a comment letting me know you did.



That's all there is to it! You can enter as many times as you'd like until Monday, January 23, 2012. I will pick the winner randomly the next day.

And just because I am feeling extra warm and gooey (translation: the nice people at My Memories said my readers deserved it), I'll give you $10 off any purchase you make from My Memories...



Promo Code: STMMMS74707
Enter in above code during online checkout


Good Luck!!!!!

O Holy Jeans...

All of Layton's pants look like this...

He has managed to blow the knees out of every pair of pants he owns! He has even blown out the brand new ones I bought him a few months ago. I'm not entirely sure what it is about little boys, but they seem to get rougher as they get older. Layton never used to have holy pants. In fact when he went two years without growing, his pants never got holy....that's how sweet he was on his clothes. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I get the price tag trimmed off a pair of pants before the holes appear.

Other Moms of little boys.....I ask....

Do you have a holy jeans problem too?

No Relaxation Was Not a Good Idea...

Ella took me for a long ride....

She drove me all over the farm while I sat and relaxed and took pictures. :) 

The Shoes Are Made for Relaxing...

I sat around with my feet on the dashboard of the RTV. I relaxed and took pictures. I shouldn't have been. You can almost see why in the reflections. Care to guess why I should not have been relaxing?

Fuzzy Feet...

Fuzzy Ella had Who-Hair.
Fuzzy Ella was not a bear.

Oops. I seem to have reverted to grade school for a moment there.

Just for Jim...

MEEEEEEE-YOOOOOWWW. ;)

Sweet Child of Mine...With No Curls...

Layton's hair has gotten particularly wild and out of control lately. He's been wanting it straight, but this is the best I could do.

The longer his hair gets, the harder it gets to control the fro. No amount of gel or brushing will make the ends straight on the days he wants to have straight hair. I love the fact that he tells me every morning whether or not he is going to let the curly flag fly.


So....we took him to get a shorter do. It had gotten so long that the woman had to use the clippers and then go back over the whole thing with scissors after that. Whoops. At least Layton's wild hair is a money saver. We only have to pay for semi-annual haircuts.

His hair looks so much darker when it's short. I don't think he's blond anymore; he's getting brown on me. Awwwww. Sweet little man.

I Gotta Feeling...

I gotta feeling that Hadley is going to do some wonderful things with this.

She got it for Christmas, but I still haven't previewed any of the pictures she took. Maybe I'll get around to that this weekend.

My Memories...Yours Too...A Giveaway....

I have been using this blog as a way to scrapbook our lives for quite some time now. I just never thought of myself as someone who was good at scrap booking, so this seemed like an easy alternative for me. I'm short on time because of work and the demands of having three children in school with after school activities. About a week ago, I discovered digital scrapbooking software. It seemed like something I might be able to do, so I investigated further. I took about 10 minutes to draft a sample page.

It was so easy! There are tons of backgrounds, templates, fonts, and more to choose from. Even an accountant like me can come up with a beautiful page or album. I'm so impressed with the software that www.mymemories.com has available that I'm going to give away a copy of My Memories Suite! Well, actually, Liz at My Memories gave me a copy to give away!

Do you love to scrapbook and want a chance to win? Or are you looking for a way to keep a record of your family's activities but don't know where to start? Let me help... :) It's easy to enter this giveaway. Here's how:

1. Go to www.mymemories.com and pick your favorite album template. Leave a comment letting me know which one you liked best.

2.Become a follower of this blog. I'll see your pretty new face right over there---------->>>>>


3. Like My Memories on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593 Leave me a comment letting me know you did.



That's all there is to it! You can enter as many times as you'd like until Monday, January 23, 2012. I will pick the winner randomly the next day.

And just because I am feeling extra warm and gooey (translation: the nice people at My Memories said my readers deserved it), I'll give you $10 off any purchase you make from My Memories...



Promo Code: STMMMS74707
Enter in above code during online checkout


Good Luck!!!!!

Hold This...But Only for One Week of the Month....

This picture got me thinking. The comments on this picture really got me thinking. Why am I still carrying a tampon case from 1985? Wouldn't it be easier to buy a new one that is slightly more stylish? I love having a case because I work with a bunch of men. I've always tried to be discreet about things like having a tampon-9-1-1. It really shouldn't be anything to be embarrassed about, but for some reason, I'm not about to walk to the ladies room swinging a tampon as casually as I would swing a bag from Tiffany's. 

So, I googled tampon case. My, my, my. Haven't things gotten stylish since 1985? Here's the proof.

Ooooo, this next one isn't a tampon case. It's a tampon clutch. 

The word clutch just makes that time of the month seem so much classier than the word case, right?

And now I present, the tampon wallet. Making periods richer one gal at a time. 

I totally stole this pictures off Etsy. Since I don't have a huge blog following, maybe no one will turn me in. I did link to the actual products though as a show of good faith. And yes, I actually put one in my cart. These things are WAY cuter than the plastic container I've been carrying for a decade. Maybe the next time there is a link up regarding purse contents, you'll get to see which one I upgraded to.

My Bag of Tricks...

So, Becky is interested what products we women think we need/want in our purses. I sort of resisted linking up at first, but I decided to go ahead and do it. I'm not at home with access to my decent camera or the ability to create an interesting backdrop, but I can still embarrass myself from work during my lunch break. :)

I have not been thoughtful and labeled each product. No, I'm not as clever as Becky, so you'll just have to deal with my crappy navigation skills on this one. 

Things from inside my purse...work your way from left-ish to right-ish...

Checkbook

gum

wallet (has so many pennies in it that it no longer zips. Yes, only pennies.)

dental floss (I never leave home without it.)

manicure kit (at least this one item is Vera Bradley and cute)

1985 tampon holder (no clue where this bad boy came from, but it's been in my purse for like a decade), Mary Kay compact (complete with powder. Color? Casper the Friendly Ghost White)

lip gloss and lipsticks in various shades

Ella's Epi-Pen (I'm convinced that if I leave home without it, she will eat a peanut and die.)

Purell

sunglasses.

Whoops, I forgot to point out the lotion. I keep a small tube of lotion in the ole handbag. Here's the kicker. I edited the contents. Extreme edited the contents. If you were to look inside my purse without all of the above goodness inside, the bag would still be full. Of what? Crap. Receipts from the grocery store. An EFTPS printout in case I forgot to give one to the client. A notepad. Two meal replacement shake packets from Advocare. Those have been there a while. Might oughta take them out. Advil. And all sorts of other garbage. Ziploc bags of miscellaneous items the children have given me. Evidence of the bacon Layton didn't eat for breakfast. He's not real good at using the garbage can. Sometimes, Mommy's purse or pocket seems like a better place. The rebate paperwork for Hadley's most recent contact lens purchase. A grocery list from two months ago. You know, the kind of stuff everyone keeps in their purse. 

Are You as Ready for Spring as I?...

Observations from the Dental Waiting Room....

Random thoughts and sights from this morning's lovely trip to the dentist...


-If your child is nine and you still carry a diaper bag, you might need to perform a reality check on yourself and cut the cord. The child in question clearly has no disabilities and is potty trained. She went to the restroom while we were waiting. I just gotta ask. Why is Mom still carrying the diaper bag with the kid's name monogrammed on it? Yes, the big kid. Only child. Totes eavesdropped on that conversation.

-If you have converted the aforementioned diaper bag into your purse, you might be a freak. And you might really want to wash that bag before carrying it in public....not to mention the fact that it is obviously a diaper bag....baby blocks embroidered on it alongside your child's name. Look, I am in favor of being thrifty, but when you are still toting a bag from when your child was an infant....yeah, you get the point.

-If your child is better equipped to handle checking in at the dentist and dealing with the insuranace card, you might have issues....wait....issues discovered....see next item...

-If you confess to the receptionist at the dental office that you are too hungover to deal with any of this, you might have a drinking problem. Or maybe you have a gaggle of kids whose energy and whining leads to you wining. And maybe I am wondering where you live, so I can join you later today. Nope, another only child....single mom....Ahhhh...I'd drink too sister; I just wouldn't confess the extent of my hangover out loud...in public...in a room full of strangers....all staring at my bloodshot eyes....Woah now, Fundie over in the corner looks like she might be ready to gather up an angry mob of conservatives to have this woman lynched...or made into a headline on Nancy Grace.

-If your young child weighs more than I do, I am probably judging you for not feeding your child healthy food. Your child depends on you to be responsible. Allowing your 5 year old to be obese is not responsible. In my opinion, it's abuse. It is one thing to be overweight as an adult. I can abuse my own body all I want. But to let that happen to your child? Here's an idea. Instead of having Michelle Obama try to convince children to get up and exercise, why don't we start prosecuting the parents who let their children eat twinkies three meals a day? Truth be told, slapping parents with fines and possible time in jail for child abuse would probably be less expensive than the "Let's Move" initiative. How much money do you think has been spent on...

Michelle Obama Obesity Campaign Components

Let's Move has four areas of focus:

1. Healthy Choices: better nutrition labeling, a revamped food pyramid, and regular monitoring of children's BMI
2. Healthier Schools: reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act for improved school lunches; expansion of the Healthier US Schools Challenge
3. Physical Activity: modernize the President's Physical Fitness Challenge program and increase participation; partner with professional athletes to encourage 60 minutes of active play daily
4. Access to Affordable Healthy Food: Address the problem of "food deserts," urban and rural areas without access to affordable, nutritious foods

-The initial budget was upwards of $10 Billion dollars just for school breakfasts and lunches. No joke.
Michelle Obama can talk all day long about being active. She can make commercials that I have to sit through while my children watch Disney Channel before falling asleep. My children's school can offer whole wheat hamburger buns all day long. BUT. Until there are immediate consequences for unhealthy eating habits, no one is going to care. The threat of developing Type II Diabetes in 20 years really doesn't make a child want to put down the chicken nugget. The threat of having knee replacement surgery in 40 years doesn't stop a child from wanting 3 cookies instead of 1. Anyone who has ever taken a psychology class is familiar with punishment theory. To deter a particular behavior, the consequences have to be swift and certain...and the punishment has to be for the adults supplying these children with junk food. Airing 100 "Let's Move" commercials during Saturday morning cartoons isn't likely to reach the parents. The offenders.


-If your breasts are overflowing the neckline of your shirt, the man next to me will stare. He's a total perv. Someone should either hide the boobs or point out to him there is also a flat panel tv to watch. On second thought, why has this woman left the house with half her bust literally hanging out of her shirt? I would take a picture, but I'm afraid that it would classify as pornography. Does this woman even have a child with her? She looks more like she's trolling for a man.

-

-Oh good lawd. Will I ever get out of here?

Where the Wild Thing Is...

Layton is so wild. He's all jacked up on steroids and such, so his energy level is somewhere between crack-addict and 100 Red Bulls. When he finally does crash out for some sleep, it will be wherever he is at the moment. Kitchen floor? Oh yes, I have found him asleep there. Coffee table? Yep, there too.

He likes to curl up on the sofa with his pillow pets and gee-gee and play DS or watch a cartoon. He passed out on the sofa not too long ago, and I couldn't help but notice how adorable he is.

I didn't bother moving him from the sofa. He was covered up plenty, so I let him sleep there. Of course, he was up and bouncing off the walls before the sun came up. 

Lawdy, I am a Failure as a Parent...

I try so hard to keep my children safe... To teach them how to protect themselves... To teach them not to cross the street without looking both ways... How to call 911... That they should scream if anyone ever tries to take them.

Then, I look out the window at the farm, and I see my precious child has climbed atop an RTV and is posing just waiting for me to see him. Seeing as how I was relatively far away and had the camera in my hand anyway, I snapped a picture and motioned for him to climb down.

Oh my word! What am I ever going to do with him?

I Love a Fire...

I love sitting by a fire when it's cold outside. I love it when it is so cold that you periodically have to turn around to warm the other side of your body by the fire.

I also love to warm my feet by the fire.
This picture is slightly deceptive though. My feet really weren't that close to the fire, but it looked like I was practically resting them on the embers. Maybe we'll have a fire this weekend, and I can enjoy the warmth some more.

How about you guys? Do you love a big ole fire outside as much as I do?

Subscribe and Save....I'm Totally Obsessed...

Layton follows a very special diet. He jokingly tells people he's on a diet. That gets a rise out of servers when we take him out to eat. They look at me like I am the worst mother on the planet for putting a small child on a diet. Ha! I always try to explain that he follows a special diet for medical reasons, but I'm not entirely sure they believe me.

Anyway....

His food can be quite expensive (understatement of the year. M&Ms for him are $10 a pound) and difficult to come by in a small town in Alabama. A lot of his food I buy at Earthfare or Whole Foods. Neither of those stores has a location here, so I have to travel to buy groceries free of gluten, corn, carrots, chicken, peanut, walnut, etc. There is a Whole Foods a few interstate exits away from the Vanderbilt exit, so when I take him to see the doctor(s), I try to stop and shop. Or when I go to Huntsvegas, if time permits, I stop and shop at Earthfare. It's not always possible to make time each and every week to shop for him, so I try to stock up once or twice a month.

It occurred to me that I might be able to order some of his favorite foods from internet sites. His favorite cookies aren't always in stock at the store because they are seriously yummy gluten-free cookies. Don't judge. He also needs to consume high fat foods, so I do give him cookies and milkshakes. Woah, that explains the 20 pounds I've gained since his diet began. I got on Amazon and found that I could order the cookies in a case of eight packages.

Then....

I noticed the most awesome thing ever. On the right-hand side of the page for ordering the cookies had a "Subscribe and Save" box that I could check. Say what?!?!?!?!!! Yes, it was in my power to have the food auto-ordered at various intervals, and by doing it that way, Amazon offers a 15% off deal on every order and includes free shipping. Um, Hello, best thing ever for me! I don't have to lift a finger, and a variety of Layton's food will show up on my front porch once a month or every other month or whatever schedule fits me best. Plus, the savings really adds up. When you're buying $7.00 bread, getting 15% off is so righteous. Think about how much gas it takes to drive 160 miles round trip for me to go to Whole Foods. Subscribe and Save just may be the best thing I have discovered this year.

There are lots of other products that are eligible for it too. Food, diapers, formula, detergent, shampoos....all on the Subscribe and Save program. If there is anything you use on a regular basis but don't always have time to shop, check out Subscribe and Save. It just might change you life too. :)

Shabby Chic....

Okay. I have never been much of a dress girl. I have stuck to slacks, jeans, and other types of pants for the majority of my life. It's because I have cankles. I do in fact have cankles. Can't help it. Born that way. My fear of anything shorter than 2 inches too long only got worse after I got married and heard the hubs and Cody ragging on chicks with cankles like you would not believe. It was then that I realized I never wanted anyone to see my cankles ever again. My legs have been in hiding for more than a decade now. I even wear jeans at the beach. Pardon the French, but no shit, I wear jeans at the beach. See...

On the rare occasion that I do decide to rock a dress, it has to be a good one. A really good one. My dress of choice? Shabby Apple.

I have the Cleopatra, and it never fails to get a lot of compliments. I also have one that they don't make anymore, but it looks a lot like the Martha's Vineyard dress. I have it in navy blue, and I think it was called Ahoy Mate.

I have been thinking that I might need to invest in a dress or two for tax season. Shabby Apple came to mind. I opened my email this morning, and wouldn't you know it. Shabby Apple is having a terrific sale! 20% off everything on their site if you use the code NEWYEAR at checkout. There is also free shipping on orders over $100.

You will love these dresses!

The Next Julia Child in the Kitchen...

Oh Ella, you are just about the sweetest little girl ever. I love the fact that the kitchen is so important to you.

Proof That I'm Not Always the One Behind the Camera...

It's true. 99% of the pictures on my blog are taken by me, so there is rarely evidence that I exist. This, my friends, is proof that I am not always behind the camera. I give you me....making a goofy face behind Sam...

Yeah, I should probably spend my time behind the camera. :)