I went out to walk my daughter to the bus stop. We had a two hour delay this morning due to icy road conditions. My first thought was, wow these administrators love to steal more time from the school days, until I saw my mailbox. My cute little mailbox was lying in a snowbank just underneath where it once stood proud. At first, I thought how awful to hit and run my mailbox, but my whole way of thinking can be warped because by the time I got back into the house from the bus stop, I was feeling bad for the person that did it!!

Now mind you, there are two mailboxes right next to one another, and the neighbors mailbox was still standing. Considering it’s been hit 3x’s already I decided to go online and cheer myself up. I went shopping for a cute little mailbox. I love the custom mailboxes.  I am a sucker for sunflowers so I had to get this one:

http://www.mailboxandbeyond.com

Isn’t this cute?! Now I couldn’t stop at the mailboxes.  I was on a mission to cheer myself up, so I got browsing the site.  And I had to purchase myself the cutest little welcome doormat.

I really had to stop there, as I didn’t want to dig any deeper into my bank.  But I already have my next purchase for a doorbell all picked out.  I’m a birdlover, and hey have a cute doorbell “plate” that I fell in-love with.   They were sold out at the moment, but I will definitely be going back there shortly.

I love that today, we don’t have to leave our homes to get that have to shop bug out of our systems.  I shopped way too much, but I didn’t have to deal with the bad roads, cold weather, etc.  Love that site! Can’t wait to get my order now!

When my first daughter turned 12 months she started to walk.  She would get into EVERYTHING.  I could have walked behind her and just cleaned up and didn’t teach her that.. “no, no” or Hey put that back!  She would have never learned that what she was doing was wrong.

As soon as that same child is old enough to use a big bed instead of a crib, that child is old enough to learn how to make their bed.  Of course it’s not going to be made as nicely as if you were to do it yourself, but the habit of making their own bed is instilled in them real young.  Dont regret it just because your too anal and want to do it yourself.  Don’t.  Just bite the ullet and learn that any way they do it is a blessing.

My two and a half year old would actually help me with the dishes.  When the dishwasher finished, I’d just start unpacking it.  She’d toddle out to the kitchen and want to help.  I handed her the basket of silverware and she could hardly see inside the drawer, but now she is amazing! She’s 3 years old now, and knows when I’m unloading the dishwasher what her job is.  She immediately grabs the basket on her own and puts away all the silverware.  It may not sound like a lot, but it’s a BIG help! She does a great job now.  She’s not yet in her own bed, but when she does get put in her own bed, just to pull up her comforter back up to the pillow will be sufficient.

My other 3 kids know what they need to do.  Everything goes back when they are done eating, playing, showering, etc.  They make their beds the minute their feet hit the floor in the morning, and my 14 year old and 7 year old are professional bedmakers.  My 4 year old is getting better, and as mentioned my 3 year old is not yet ready to make her bed.

Why feel like you have to do all their cleaning for them? You have to teach them responsibility.  Do it right from the beginning.  Goodluck!

Maybe you’ll have the same success, goodluck. Use at your own risk!

When I look back at this time in my life, it was tough but definitely wasn’t the toughest I had ever been through. At that moment it was like my life was going to end. Of course it didn’t. I had to find strength to go on for my kids sakes. They were my world and they meant everything to me. I love and adored them. My ex-husband surprised me and shocked me, but he felt that we came from two different cultures and since I wasn’t willing to live his culture, he wasn’t willing to live mine. So he left. He really did me a favor.

Today after 3 years, I filed for divorce. In these three years we have had no intimate contact, and actually lost those feelings over time. I can’t say it’s been 3 years that I haven’t wanted my soon to be ex-husband, but it’s been a long time. It’s been over 2 years. I went through a healing process where I had to grieve and then I started to hate him. Now we are just good friends for the kids sakes. We do actually get a long pretty good. I still feel I know him better than anyone does. He knows that is the truth. He still calls me for EVERYTHING. People think it’s crazy that I do things for him still.. but it’s a give and take situation. We are friends for our kids sakes.

My boyfriend is wonderful about our relationship. He totally understands it and actually encourages it. He really is not jealous in the least bit, and will invite him into our home any time. He has gone out of his way on MANY occasions to extend his hand to my soon to be ex-husband. This is the way I hope it stays forever. These are two men in my life that I need. I need my ex, for my kids, and I need my boyfriend cause he’s just a wonderful guy. I am very thankful for them both.

I wish more people could get a long as well. Trust me things aren’t always honky doory but usually they are. Nine times out of 10 they are great!

Toss everything and anything you can imagine.  You will be so happy when your done.  I promise!

http://www.my-junk-drawer.com/2008/11/win-mia-bella-products-in-my-first-ever.html

Tell her, Jen sent you.. *Smile*

The pc-libary.com is an amazing site when you can’t seem to figure out an error message or what port it’s pointing to.  I kept getting an error message pointing tcp udp port 9200. I searched and searched till I realized that PC-library is the place to go. It’s a great directory of all the corresponding ports, the error messages, etc. This site is any geeks dream. It can even tell you what software might be using what port! Now thats exactly what I need!!

We may be intelligent with computers and stuff, but we don’t know everything. So with more sites like pc-library at our fingertips the faster we can get our jobs done too! I definitely give this site two thumbs up.

The only thing I don’t like about birds is cleaning their cages.  Sammy is a big bird, so he’s got a big cage.  It’s a pain to clean it, but what I do is get out the vacuum, newspaper, old rag, and a basin of soapy water.  I put Sammy out on his playground and I get to work..Takes 5 minutes.  I take a rag and put it in the soapy basin and wring it out.  I would then wipe down the whole cage.  For tough areas like under his perch I will just soak it a little more.. more soap and water in that area.  Then put that back into the basin, grab the newspaper and garbage out of the bottom of the cage.  (Tray pulls out on all birdcages) Wrap it up, toss it in the garbage, and then I wash that out with the rag.

I then go and get the vacuum the floor, and take the reach part of the vacuum and vacuum out the corners of the cages that I couldn’t get with the rag.  I also vacuum all this toys in his cage, and switch them out monthly.  I know this seems like a lot.. but I’m done.. I throw down a thin layer of newspaper into the bottom of the now air dried tray, and put sammy back in his nice clean cage.  I grab his dishes and throw them into the basin of water and head off to the kitchen where I drop off the bowls. And head to the bathroom to dump the water and clean out the basin.  I would replace the bowls on my way back through the kitchen.   Takes me 5 minutes to do the entire cage.  We aren’t talking about a small cage either. It’s all about routine.  Get faster as you go.  The more often you clean it the easier it is to clean each time.

Get ready toy toss!!!!! How much can you toss?