I need advice

I need some advice.

I was cruising around Facebook this morning and saw a comment by a former acquaintance from college. Her comment was (names changed to protect the innocent) " So glad that Jill and Tom's baby is going to be ok". Well Jill was a really close friend of mine in college. We lost touch after graduation when I got married and moved to a different state. We reconnected a few years later for her wedding but then lost touch again. I didn't even know she was pregnant/had a baby...

I want to reconnect, make sure everything is ok and catch up. I am not sure how to do it or if I even should. She is apparently going through some stress right now and I don't want to add to it or come across as a bottom feeder.

Any suggestions? She isn't on Facebook so I would have to try the cell number I have for her or email.

I am back and I am RANDOM

So, this week has gone by in a blur... So much for Random Tuesday, this is Random Friday....

It is officially summer, ONE has practically moved into our backdoor neighbor's house. I am not complaining but I don't want to be thought of as a sponge or bad mother in the new neighborhood.

The local pool is ridiculously expensive--there go my summer plans with the girls. Worse yet, because our neighborhood is still under construction we haven't been annexed in to the town, so we would have to pay the "non-resident " rate.

By the way, I hate the construction. They are working on 6 houses across the street from me. All I hear all day is the sound of trucks backing up and hammers. I wish they would just finish them up all ready.

TWO, my fearless and independent child, has developed this weird fear of the water. She likes to play next to the wading pool in the back yard. She even dumps water on herself but screams like a yetti if you put her in. What is that about?

The job hunt continues. I am waiting to hear if I get an interview at my dream job. Great if I do, but then I have to worry about childcare as my babysitter found a summer job. How thoughtless is that :).

Randomness done for now I guess. I am happy to have my computer back. It is nice to have the use of the "s" key again. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Appologies in Advance

My hubby has gone out of town for work. He took with him our laptop that I normally use to blog. This leaves me with the 5 year old laptop that has several issues. This being the case my postings for the next week will most likely be weak if at all.

Sorry, see you later when my baby (I mean computer) returns.

My Very First Blogging Award

I have been a bit slow to pass this one on, but it doesn't devalue how much I am honored. On May 22nd, The Knutson Update gave me my very first blogging award. I have spent the better part of the holiday weekend mulling over who I should pass this award on to. The idea of this award is to pass it on to 8 people and include the following:

"These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

So after much deliberation, I am passing it on to these eight blogs that I have grown to love - who's writings and insight help keep me sane and smiling.

Confessions of a Semi-Slacker Mom

Soccer Mom Says...

Boogers, Screams, Headaches and Dreams

Small Town Mommy

Born2Impress

Critical Mass

J. Leigh Designz

Mad Hatter Mom

At the Ball Park

One of the things my family enjoys doing is going to minor league baseball games. For less than it costs to go to a movie we go to a game, sit in the grass and have a lot of fun. Friday night we went to see the Salt Dogs in Lincoln, Nebraska. I don't know how much watching of the game we did (they gave up 11 runs) but we all had fun and got to see our first fireworks display of the year.

Holiday Weekend Blues

I had such high aspirations for this weekend. Oh well, I should know better.

First I wanted/planned to go strawberry picking. That would give me a long weekend to process everything, make some freezer jam and maybe a strawberry pie. Called a few strawberry farms in the area and I found out that strawberries won't be ready until next weekend. Grrr!

Then we planned to check out a few farmer's markets on Saturday morning. TWO woke up with a fever. There goes Saturday... I think she is teething but she is consistently warm and only has energy for a few hours at a time so at home I stay.

I didn't make any additional plans for today. Good thing. TWO is still warm (although happy to play) and DH is feeling tired. So we will take it easy again.

Here is to the holiday weekend. Hope you are having fun!

A Castle?

This is a picture of the capital building in DesMoines IA. We stopped here a few months back on a visit back to the Wisconsin/Illinois family. Our hotel was only blocks away and ONE insisted that we check out this building. It was a nice day so we humored her.

If you didn't already know, let me tell you about the capital building as I was informed by ONE...

ONE: Mom, Dad...can we go visit the castle?

Me: The castle? Do you mean the capital building down there?

ONE: No the CASTLE! The Queen of England lives there with her Prince Charming when she visits the moines in Iowa.

---She even showed me which window was the Queen's bedroom---

So next time you find yourself in DesMoines, don't forget to pay your respect to the Queen and make sure to say hi to all of the Moines there:)

Wordless Wednesday--5 going on 25

For more Wordless Wednesday go here

My dream job has called....

Well the job I have been dreaming about called me! Now everyone relax! We are only interviewing and we are still early in the interview process but they have called me to set up another phone interview (we have already done one mini phone screen and an application). This is a process I know is going to drag out forever as I have already been informed that the top candidates will have to fly to their corporate headquarters (not in a swanky town but small city in the Midwest which means flight times will suck) and also interview at their local facility. So that is two or three weeks beyond this phone interview. Maybe if I am good I will have a job here by July.
This job is everything that I am ready for in my career with a reputable employer. This is why I am excited, but... it is a title that has eluded me and I fear that this position will as well. Maybe my self confidence has just been killed due to over a years worth of rejection on the job front. Well time to pull myself up by my boot straps and prepare to shine. Thursday is the big day and I want to knock their socks off.

Home Improvements

I love our home. We are settled in now that we have been here for 6+ months. This isn't the first home (or only home) that we own so we knew what we were getting into. Now that the spring/summer is officially here we have pulled out our list of things that need to get done around the house. Unfortunately we are not the handy sort of people so most of our major projects require us to hire professionals. Since I am unemployed, these projects have been put on hold. This absolutely sucks! I want my house to be finished but I need to be patient for the $$$ to come in. Our larger projects are truly large including finishing our basement and building a retaining wall in the front yard, my husband wants to tile the master bath and kitchen but I think this may be out of our skill set so we will see how that gets accomplished.

So we are appeasing ourselves with the smaller projects we can handle such as landscaping, landscaping, and landscaping. I am trying to get the gumption together to tackle the painting projects but struggle to find the time (no kids around when I paint) or the motivation to do so. I need to figure out what colors to paint. Once I do start painting I know that I will need several coats of primer as the current colors are dark and disgusting.

What projects are you working on at home?
Is a home ever really finished or will there always be these projects looming?

Yeah!!! New Template

I cannot say how happy I am. Thank you Semi-Slacker Mom for opening my eyes to Leelou Blogs (see link at the top of the page). I got this great non-sterile template for FREE!!! My Blog Envy has been satisfied (at least for now). It was sooooo easy. Cut and paste some code and you are done. I will be playing with this for days. Maybe I can get a fun button (I don't have one yet).
I feel like it is Christmas.

Blog Envy

I have been looking around the blog-o-sphere and I am jealous. I have a sever case of blog envy. Some of you have some truly awesome blog lay-outs and designs. I only wish I had the talent to pull this off.

Blogging is a hobby for me. Yes in the past I have lamented that I do not have a hobby but this is one that has developed. As a hobby it's role is cheap entertainment to keep me occupied during my unemployment. We can also call this therapy. In this role, I have no $$$ to put into making this pretty and I don't have the technical skills to do it myself. So until I am employed or my blog starts producing serious $$ I will have to learn to be satisfied with what I have.

So I am moving forward. I am going to try not to be jealous any longer. Instead, let me point you to some blogs, in no particular order that I have come across recently that I love the aesthetics (I like the content too but that is a different story). I apologize that I don't have a cool button or award to give, but I hope you visit them to show your love as well.

1.Two of a kind, Working on a Full House

2. Boogers, Screams, Headaches and Dreams

3. Catch the Drift with Mama Snow

4. Frugal Mommy of Two Girls

5. Look its Megryansmom

I know there are more blogs out there that look fantastic. Feel free to let me know which blogs you love the most (for the looks not the content). I am always looking for ideas as I dream of my perfect blog.

Outdoor Living--Is Rain bad for Upholstery?

I know that a recent post showed my weakness to this season as I have been held low by my allergies. There is nothing I enjoy more though than enjoying great weather in my yard. I enjoy working in my yard (even more watching my husband work) and enjoying the haven I hope to create. The new house is a blank canvas and I can't wait to make it fantastic.

I wish the weather was better you know, 100+ days of sunny weather (I so wish we had a streak like Arizona seems to pull off every year). It is the weather that is killing me. Today is 60 (not bad) but ever looming gray skies with the threat of major storms. I would love to be able to put an "outdoor living room" in my back yard like this one, but I don't know if it would hold up to our Midwestern storms. Rain seems to be a bad thing for upholstery.

If only we had weather like Arizona, I could have the outdoor furniture of my dreams, but I fear I am left with my plastic that can stand up to it all. Oh well. Back to my dreaming.

http://www.pathwaylandscape.com

What to do with gift cards?

I am looking to my readers and followers for some ideas. This past year for Christmas we received many gift cards. Most were generic/VISA cards that can be used at any retailer. Well we have used most of them but now have random amounts left on each card. I am talking four cards with less than a dollar on each.
I am a frugal person by nature and I hate to just throw this money away but I have no idea what to do with it?

I have been silenced!

No my silencing has nothing to do with my lack of recent posts.

I am talking about my allergies. I thought I had escaped this season with minimal discomfort from my allergies even though they are bringing hubby low with sinus pressure and headaches. I was sadly mistaken. I woke up yesterday with a mild scratchy throat. By last night I was ready to kill the person who let a cat use my throat as a scratching post.

Today, I woke up and I have been silenced. It is to painful to speak and when I do it is barely understandable. This should make for a very interesting day in SAHM land! Either the kids will take pity on me and be angels, or they will realize I can't yell so all hell will break loose. At least I don't feel awful, so I can still chase them all over.

Gross Food--What do you eat?

Small Town Mommy has me thinking...It is dangerous to think but I am blaming her. She was just assigned a post on gross food by a blog group she is in. So what foods do the fam and I like that others would consider gross?

I grew up in Wisconsin. So I enjoy my cheese curds. I don't think many people would find this gross unless they actually know what cheese curds are (and the process in which they are made). I think they are even better deep fried. I don't get to enjoy these delicacies much anymore as the curds need to be so fresh (think buying them at the dairy) that they squeak when you bite into them. I am just not located for this freshness anymore and I don't trust the fast food variety that is available.

My husband likes "soft toast" I don't know if this is a real food or something made up by his father but when he was sick as a kid his dad would take a burnt piece of toast and soak it in warm milk, then they would eat it. Can we say ewwww!

ONE is a picky eater so nothing she eats is all that gross. The worst thing that I can think of is grapes dipped in ranch dressing (don't ask). TWO is at the stage where she will eat anything that doesn't bite her back so everything that she eats could be classified as gross.

Other than that, I can't think of anything we eat that others would think was gross but it is all in the eye of the beholder. What do you eat that others may think is gross?