My Single Mom Life: The Categories

May 24, 2009

Catching up on my sleep.

I had been awake for about 3 and a half days with only about 5 hours of sleep during that whole time, so I finally went to sleep on Friday night around 12:30am, and slept through until 10am on Saturday morning.
I stayed awake for a couple of hours, long enough to make the teens some lunch and then start watching some old, but fun and cheesy movies, on a new station that we have here with the digital tv thing.
We have a station called This, and all it does is show old movies, classic tv shows like The Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show, and Mister Ed, in the early morning hours, and the childrens' shows like The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Wimzie's House, until around noon, and then they show all of the old movies for the rest of the day.

It's a pretty decent station, so my plan was to try and catch up on some more rest by laying on the couch and watch Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III, and then Once Bitten, and then wake up and make dinner.
Well that didn't quite happen.
I fell asleep about 1 quarter of the way through Poltergeist 2, and woke up just as Once Bitten was ending.
By the time I had woken up, the teens had already made themselves some dinner.
They decided to just let me sleep because they knew how long I had been awake, and there was plenty of easy things for them to cook for themselves in the NuWave.
They didn't make a mess or any noise, so it all worked out ok.
Around 9pm, we decided to take a walk to the store to get some more food, we were out of lunch meats and needed some more milk for breakfast.
I'm still not totally caught up on my sleep, I feel like I need at least one more really good nights sleep, and then I'll be ok.

During my wide awake for 3 days and my sleep on Friday and Saturday, it seems that all of the blogs that I follow decided to do a lot of updating.
A whole lot of updating.

It's either going to take me a very long time to catch on on all of those, or I'll end up marking them all as read because of how long it would take me to read through them all.
But while I was doing a quick scan of my feeds to see if there was anything that I should definitely read first before marking them all as read, I did notice that one of the female bloggers that I read, had a post all about shoes.
I saw a wicked lot of pictures of wicked cool looking women's shoes.
High heels, low heels, flats, chunks, flip flops, oh so many cool looking shoes that I will probably never be able to wear again.
I've been stuck wearing flip flops for quite a few years now, and it's starting to get very depressing.
I miss wearing heels so much, and chunks too.
I still have 3 pairs of my fave shoes just in case I can ever wear them again, but it's not looking too much like I will.
*sigh*

Kat posted at 02:50 AM on May 24, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

May 22, 2009

Insomnia! Leave me hangin' on all ni-ight! oh-oh-oh, damn insomniaaaa!!!

So uh, yeah, I've been up all night with insomnia again.
I did finally get some sleep yesterday afternoon, I was able to sleep for about 3 hours, and then I just woke up, and was totally ready to go again.
It's now a little after 4pm, and while I'm tired, I cannot sleep.

I had so many things that I wanted to do today, I have all this work that I wanted to do, I wanted to get it all done, but did I do it?
No-o-o-o!
I spent like the entire day just answering emails.
The whole day, answering emails.
That is not what I wanted to do today, but that's what I did.
I kept saying to myself,
"Self, as soon as you get done with this email, you need to get crackin' on all of that work that you need to get done or it's never going to get done."

And I would even answer myself,
"Self, I KNOW that I have work to do, but these emails, these are important, they must be answered. These people took their time to email me, the least I can do is take the time to email them back. As soon as I get done with this one, I will get started on the work that I need to do."

But then as soon as I replied to that email, I got another one that my insomnia deep-fried brain told me was just as equally important as the previous 7 emails.
So no, I did not get a single thing done today that I meant to do.
But I do feel like I accomplished a lot though.
It usually takes me like 2-3 days to answer emails, and I did them all today, so that in itself is a huge accomplishment.

All of the stuff that I needed and wanted to get done today is all work I can do on my computer, which is a good thing because my arthritis is flared up today big time.
My right knee is HUGE, it's all swollen and sore from the arthritis, I have been limping around all day long every single time that I needed to get up and pee or get a drink.
Owie wowie, painful.

I am really hoping that I will still be able to get at least some of what I want to get done, done, but I don't know for sure if I will be able to.
Dustin and Stacey are supposed to come over tonight for dinner and a movie, and then when they leave, whatever time that ends up being, I hope that I'm going to be somewhat coherent enough to get some work done.
I have a couple of product reviews that I need to write up, not telling you what they are for yet, you'll have to come back to find out, but I can tell you that none of them will be weight loss pill reviews because I haven't been allowed to take any weight loss pills since the beginning of September.

Ok, I need to get off of here for just a little bit.
I need to pee again, (damn blood pressure meds make me pee like a racehorse on lasix), get another drink, (that could be contributing to the pee thing too, hrm....) and call Dustin to find out what time they are coming and ask about what they want to eat for dinner, and also fold the last load of laundry in the dryer.

Ok, really gotta go now.
Later days!

Kat posted at 04:02 PM on May 22, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

May 21, 2009

Toofs, food, and freebies.

Last night my sister and my girls (my nieces) came over for a little while, and my sister had called me on the way to tell me to have my camera ready for when they got there.
She said that Susan had a surprise for me, so I made sure the camera had freshly charged batteries, and we all went outside to wait.
Just about 5 minutes later, they pulled under the carport and they all unbuckled, sis told Susan to get out and to "Go smile for Aunty Kat!"
So Susan got out of her big girl seat and out of the car, and as she made her way to me, she was giggling all of the way.
When she got close to me, she stopped, and sis had motioned for me to be ready, and then Susan smiled a huge smile.
This is what she had to show me!

She lost her front tooth! Her first big girl lost tooth!
She was so excited about it, and then told me that mommy gave her $1 for putting it under her pillow last night. (Sis is also an atheist, and we both have raised and our raising our kids without made-up stuff, if you don't believe in 1 fairy tale, you don't believe in any of them)
Sis and the girls also stopped at McDonald's to surprise us with dinner, and the teens were totally happy with that, even though they also wanted what I was going to make for dinner.
When I went grocery shopping the other day, and Mark and I got to the meat department, Publix had packages of huge turkey legs on sale for just $1.99 per pound, so I bought 2 packages with 3 legs in each package, and my plan was to cook them up in the NuWave for dinner.

Well sis brought McDonald's, so I left the turkey legs in the refrigerator and planned on cooking them tonight, Thursday.
They were perfectly fine, as a matter of fact, they were still frozen solid.
My sister and the girls left around 6:45pm, and almost an hour later, Mark asked if I was going to cook them up.
I told him that I could, but they could handle being in the fridge for 1 night and that I would cook them Thursday night.
He gave me the ol' puppy dog, please mom, I'm gonna starve to death if you don't cook those look, and he really didn't have a huge meal like he usually gets when he goes to McDonald's with George or whoever, so I agreed to cook them up.

The NuWave comes with 2 racks, a 6inch that flips over to become a 1inch, and then a 4inch rack, so I grabbed the 4inch rack, and placed all 6 legs on it.
They were packed on a bit tightly, but they all fit in there.

I set the power level to high, and pushed the timer button...

Because they were still frozen pretty darn solid, I set the cooking time for 30 minutes per side, for a total of 1 hour of cooking time.

I didn't even think of wrapping the bony end of the legs in aluminum foil like I normally do when cooking a whole turkey in the oven, I don't know why I didn't, you can use aluminum foil in the NuWave.
As a matter of fact, you can use any type of utensil, foil, parchment paper, or cooking pan in it as long as it fits.
If it fits inside the dome, you can use it in the NuWave.
But I forgot to cover the bony ends of the legs, so of course the skin and meat pulled back, but they still came out so freaking good!

Look at that gorgeous golden brown color!
I didn't eat any, and neither did Sebastian, but Mark took 1 and we will reheat the remaining 5 for tonight, and I will also make the mashed potatoes and gravy that is supposed to go with it.
I took a tiny piece of meat off of Mark's so that I could see how it came out, and it was super awesomely good.
The meat was cooked to perfections, and totally tender and juicy.
I swear, the NuWave is actually making me be a better cook...hahaha

One of the benefits of cooking with the NuWave aside from how quickly and perfectly it cooks everything, is the fact that it drains off the fat.
The infomercial makes a claim that I didn't believe, I know, infomercials are all hard to believe, and I fell hook, line, and sinker, for the NuWave. (But the NuWave really does do what the infomercial claims as far as cooking goes!)
But they claim that if you cook with your NuWave at least 3 times per week, that because it cooks and drains all of the extra fat, greases, and oils out of the food, that you will lose weight and lower your cholesterol.
I've now had the NuWave for 4 months as of today, I received it on February 21st, and I have monthly doctor's appointments where they put me through the wringer and test for everything under the sun.
I'm always being weighed, measured, and tested for all kinds of things, so anyway, because I have only been cooking in the NuWave, and have not used the regular oven even once since getting it, my cholesterol has lowered, and I have lost 12lbs.
I think if I could get my hands on the most perfect and best diet pills for me and my body type, and continue to use the NuWave for every single meal, I bet that I could lose even more weight.
I was shocked when my doc told me that I had lost 12lbs.
She weighs me every single month, and sometimes she tells me if I'm up or down, but she usually holds out for a significant change before saying anything.
12lbs is pretty dang significant in my opinion.
W00t!

And I've been up all night again, insomnia, again.
So I made myself useful while I was up.
I went through the fridge and took out all of the food that was in there in its original packaging, not sealed up good, and was going to spoil if I didn't get them packed up correctly, and so I packed everything up nicely with a whole bunch of my new Rubbermaid storage containers.

I put the deli ham, cherry tomatoes, salsa, the sliced cheese, the block of extra sharp cheddar cheese, the leftover salad from Tuesday night, the tortilla chips, the Werther's caramel and chocolate candies, the leftover sour cream, everything that needed to be sealed up and stored better, into the new Rubbermaid storage containers.
Doing this had an added benefit.
The fridge now looks all nice and organized.

If you're new here or haven't heard about it yet, in the post directly below this one, you can enter to win your very own 20piece set of Rubbermaid storage containers.
Entering and getting extra entries is really easy, so if you would like your own set of Rubbermaid containers, go read the how to enter rules and enter.

And now I think I'm finally tired enough to go to sleep.
If you do enter, I will verify your entries when I wake up and send you a notice that you've been entered.
Please do make sure that you do the required entry or I'll have to disqualify you.
I am only saying this because I've now had 3 people fail to do that 1 thing, and it has disqualified them.
I was even really nice about it and emailed them letting them know that they needed to come back and do that 1 thing.
Oh well.
Good luck and later days!!

Kat posted at 08:54 AM on May 21, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

May 19, 2009

Rubbermaid giveaway!

I'm having another giveaway here on my blog, and while it's not a piece of Wilmington NC real estate, it is something with 20 pieces!

Back in January, I won a 20 piece set of Rubbermaid's Easy Find Lids storage containers, and when I got them, I posted about them here on my blog.
It was a 20 piece set, 18 regular pieces, and 2 Produce Savers containers.
They are so great!
They are all stack-able, and because the lids all fit together, you can't ever lose a lid, the big lids fit all of the big containers, the small lids fit all of the small containers.
The lids all snap together, and then the lids snap to the bottom of the containers, I haven't lost or misplaced a single container or lid yet because of this, it's an awesome set!

I use the Produce Savers to store fresh fruit and veggies so they don't go bad.
The design of the Produce Savers does a fantastic job keeping everything nice and fresh.
I use all of the various sizes of the Easy Find Lids containers for snacks like potato chips, candies, salsa and other dips, because let's face it, the packages most of those foods come in, are not really made to keep the food fresh once you've opened them up.

I also use them for any leftovers that we may have, (Ha! With 2 teen boys, leftovers are only a dream! They may get leftover and placed in a storage container for about 2 hours before 1 of the teens polishes it off!) and they are microwavable and dishwasher safe, (I don't have a dishwasher, but it says they are dishwasher safe) and they are pretty stain resistant.
So far, not a single container has a stain in it.
I love my set so much, I use them for everything all of the time, and when Rubbermaid contacted me about another set and hosting a giveaway, I said heck yeah!

This is a different 20 piece set than the 1 I won in January.

This is exactly what is in the set that I am giving away!
The winner will get 2 Produce Savers in various sizes, 3 of the Easy Find Lids containers in various sizes, 3 Lock-Its in various sizes, and 2 of their Premier containers.

This is the exact set that 1 lucky winner will receive!

The prize:
Rubbermaid has offered up 1 of these awesome 20 piece sets to 1 lucky winner!

Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States bloggers, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is only open to people who have blogs, this is a blogger only giveaway.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+ only.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday May 31st 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Monday June 1st, and email the winner and they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.

How to enter:
The required entry:
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you use your storage containers for the most often.
Do you use them for food only?
Or the kids crayons?
Or arts and crafts supplies?
Tell me how and what you use storage containers for the most!

For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be disqualified and deleted.

1.
Blog about this on your blog and leave a comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.

2.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a Rubbermaid 20piece set! Go enter for a chance to win! http://bit.ly/XkVO4

3.
Follow me on Twitter.

4.
Follow Rubbermaid on Twitter.

5.
Follow RubbermaidTwo on Twitter.

So there ya go, that is the prize, and it is an awesome prize, and what you need to do to enter, and what you can do for extra entries.
Please follow the rules, and good luck!!

Kat posted at 11:17 AM on May 19, 2009 || Comments (74) || Link || Food

May 17, 2009

A little over 1 month to go.

The last few days have been absolutely horrendous for me.
We're beginning the rainy season, and so my titanium rods just do not like the rainy weather at all.
I have been in incredible pain from my tail bone all the way up.
Yesterday was absolutely miserable, and today when it rained again, I just felt like screaming.
I couldn't get comfortable in bed, on the couch, in my chair here, anywhere.
And I couldn't eat either.
Being in that much pain makes me not want to eat, so taking any of my diet pils or something like nuphedra wasn't needed at all this weekend.
The smell of food seemed to upset my stomach, so I've barely eaten anything since late Thursday afternoon/evening.

In yesterday's mail, I got a letter from Cindy, my surgeon's nurse.
The letter stated all of my pre-surgery dates, and the date of surgery.
I'll be having my pre-op testing and meeting with the anesthesiologist on June 10th at 9:30am, and then I have to go back to my primary care on the 17th, and get surgical clearance from her again even though I already got clearance from her, they want some more blood work done from her, and something else.
My surgery will be on June 29th, and I need to be at the hospital at 6:30am with surgery beginning at 7:30am.
It's all scheduled and happening, so I need to start prepping myself physically and mentally for this.
I have just a little over a month to go before I go in, so I need to get myself ready.
I have no idea how long it will be after the surgery before I can come home, and then how long it will be before I am able to get back up and blogging full time again.
Mentally, I am not ready for this one, spine fusion number 3.
My brain is having a really hard time accepting that I'll be in the halo brace for anywhere from 3-6 months, and the possibility of a trach tube.
And I'm afraid that this surgery will cause even more hair loss.
I lost a lot of hair after the last surgery in September, it's very thin these days, and so knowing that they will be shaving off a lot of hair underneath up to the middle of my skull, and also shaving off some spots in 4 places at the crown so they can attach the halo brace with screws, has me a bit worried that I'm going to lose a lot more hair, have it just fall out.
Maybe I should just shave my head before I go in, that would make it a lot easier on the surgeon I know, and it would also make trying to care for my hair much easier after surgery, I have no idea what trying to brush my hair with that brace on will be like.
Naturally curly and long hair gets tangled very easily, so that brace might just make it even more of a pain in the butt.
It's something to think about anyway.

Oh, if I owe you an email, I'm trying to work on it.
It's still raining here off and on, and I'm hurting pretty bad from just sitting here typing this post out, so I think I need to lay down for a bit again.
Later days.

Kat posted at 07:31 PM on May 17, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

May 13, 2009

Free chocolate Fridays!

Every Friday from now through September 25th, the Mars candy company, is giving away 500,000 coupons for a free candy bar!
All you have to do is go to the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act every Friday at 9am, enter your birth date, then email address, and then complete the registration form within 5 minutes, and they will snail mail you a coupon for a free candy bar within the standard 4-6 weeks.

The legal notice:

Offer valid from 9:00:00 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET on the Friday only of each week beginning 5/8/09 and ending 9/25/09 ("Offer Period"). Offer fulfilled as a coupon ("Coupon") redeemable for consumer's choice of one (1) single-sized package of any M&M'S® Brand, MILKY WAY® Brand, SNICKERS® Brand, 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand, TWIX® Brand and DOVE® Brand product (together, "Participating Products"). Offer good while supplies last. In order to claim your Coupon, you must submit your complete and correct name, address and email address ("Registration Information") within five (5) minutes of receiving the on-screen message requesting your Registration Information. Failure to submit your Registration Information within five (5) minutes will result in your Coupon being forfeited. Limit: 250,000 Coupons per Friday during the Offer Period. (They raised the limit from 250,000 to 5000,000 after the 1st Friday resulted in the site being bogged down by millions of visitors) Allow approximately 6 weeks for delivery of Coupon, which will be sent by US mail to the address provided as part of the Registration Information. Limit: one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.

I absolutely love this idea!
A free candy bar?
Free chocolate?!
Yay!

It really is easy too, I got through last Friday, and all you have to do is go to the site at 9am on Fridays, enter your birth date, and then email address, and then fill out the registration form with your mailing address, and then they will send you a confirmation email letting you know that you got in, and they will be snail mailing you a coupon within 4-6 weeks.
Yum!
I love chocolate!

Kat posted at 12:08 AM on May 13, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Freebies

May 11, 2009

Single and happy.

I've been wanting to write about this particular subject for some time now, but things in my life just kept coming up, and so posting it would have just felt like the wrong time.
It still does feel like the wrong time, but enough procrastination.

I'm part of this huge community of bloggers, all bloggers, and then we get broken down into groupings, and my particular grouping is the single mom bloggers.
But I don't seem to really fit with most of them either.
Almost every single mom blogger I know is either currently dating, looking for a date, dating multiple people, using online dating services, living with a boyfriend, looking for a boyfriend, just looking for mr. right.
And I'm not.
I'm not dating or looking for anyone to date.
I haven't been looking for that for a very long time, and guess what?
I'm happy.
I'm happy being by myself, I don't feel like I need someone to complete me, to fix my broken and single life.
I don't need any diamond rings, I don't need a piece of paper, I'm really quite happy being single.

I've been raising my sons on my own for 15+ years now, and we're all doing ok.
We've had our share of hard times and bad times, the teens have wanted me to be with someone so that I could be happy, but I always have told them that I am happy.
I enjoy being single, I can come and go as I please, I sleep on whatever side of the bed I want, I don't worry about having to please someone else, I don't worry about breaking up or doing something that would cause someone to break up with me, I am just truly happy being single.

There are other people out there who are happy being single too, not feeling like we need to be partnered up like society tells us that we need to, and there's a website that's just for those happy single people, Single Edition.
It's not a dating website, it's just a site for happy singles.
There's articles on travel and leisure for singles, expert advice, tech and gadgets, shopping, money and careers, and single living.
It's a really good site set up for truly happy singles.
There's life beyond dating, living life on your own terms, you are not defined by whether or not you have a partner, you are defined by who you are, as an individual.

Who said that we have to be with someone?
Who decided that we have to be a couple, that the only way to true happiness is by being partnered up with someone else?
You can have a truly happy and meaningful life being single and living life on your own terms.

Kat posted at 10:42 PM on May 11, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

May 11, 2009

Thought about it for 2 seconds.

Like many other bloggers, I've thought about calling it quits, shutting down my blogs, quitting working online, just getting off of here and not coming back.
Every blogger who quits has their reasons, but the most stated reason is that other bloggers had finally gotten to them, and they just couldn't deal with it anymore.

Lately I've been under some fire, some pressure, from various people, other bloggers, because of how and what I post here on my blog, and how I do my job on a forum.
I've read the criticisms about my blog, and while I don't agree with everything that has been said, I do agree with some of it.
I know that I post TMI (too much information) sometimes, I know that I post things that other people would never post about, but I also have my own fine line that I never cross.
Believe me, I've come very close to posting certain things about myself and my life, and then I realized that I was at my own line and decided to not cross it.
What my line is isn't important, but I do have one.

I've been upset for the last 24 hours or so because of some things that are being said by another blogger who knows absolutely nothing at all about me, doesn't even interact with me on those forums, but she's got a bee in her breeches that she has me all figured out.
She seems damn proud of herself at the moment too, she is under the impression that I am committing Munchhausen by internet, committing emotional fraud, always looking for attention, and that I'm always on that forum saying "Look at me! Look at me!" because I post a lot.
I wrote about this yesterday, because like I said, it is bothering me, but not for the reasons people may be thinking it is.
I'm not upset because gosh darn it, she's got me all figured out, that I'm always wanting attention and dying for people to notice me, that I've put myself in a position of authority because I want or like the attention, no, I'm upset because that's what she thinks, and that's not what the facts are.

I didn't put myself in a position of authority, I can not put the name "moderator" under my own name on those forums, the owners of said forum put that there after asking me to do that job.
It is my job to interact in the threads where people are asking questions, where people want an answer to a question.
It is my job to be there on those forums and respond to people.
Does anyone think it's easy being the only person on a forum with the mod title under their name?
Does anyone have any idea how hard it can be?
I have to deal with all of the questions, all of the problems, and I have to try and get answers to those problems, try to get answers to those problems day after day, week after week, and sometimes the answers I'm given are the wrong ones, and sometimes the answers I post are the wrong ones, and I try like hell to correct the wrong answers when I can, when I've learned the right answers.
I have to deal with angry people, upset people, people who think they should get their problem dealt with before everyone else, people who complain, and so on.
But yay, now she knows, now she knows that I'm committing emotional fraud, that I'm a sad, pathetic, wannabe center of attention, and now she feels sorry for me because now it saddens her, and now she'll be more thoughtful, suspicious even, and more understanding in the future when she sees me post in every thread.
And now she'll probably delete that post too.

I know that by posting this I stand to get some flack, some more heat, may have more people angry with me, but I'm tired of people making assumptions about me, tired of people saying untruths about me.
Instead of thinking I inserted myself, why don't they just ask the owners who asked me to do the job, if they did ask me to do it.

Kat posted at 09:18 PM on May 11, 2009 || Comments (6) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

May 7, 2009

Food, gack, and email.

I can once again put my search for the absolute best weight loss pill on hold for a little while, especially after today.
I spent the entire day, from like 2am until about 4pm, just gacking up my entire insides.
It wasn't fun at all.
When I finally stopped puking, I felt like I was going to die.
After hours and hours of puking, your body is just worn the heck out man.
No clue what brought it on, but I'm glad it stopped.

The teens just got back from going to Publix to pick up some Totino's pizzas, there's simply no way that I can cook or eat.
Yuck.

If I owe you an email, I'll be getting to it after I take care of some must-do stuff that I have been unable to do for a few days because I didn't have everything I needed to do it, but now that I do, that's my priority, and then I'll take care of all the emails.
Later days!

Kat posted at 06:26 PM on May 7, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

May 5, 2009

Purex Complete 3-in-1 laundry care review!

A few weeks ago, I saw a thing to sign up to become a product tester for Purex, the laundry detergent, so I signed up.
I never heard anything else about it, so I assumed that I didn't get in.
Today, the FedEx guy knocked on the door and handed me an envelope that said "TOP SECRET", so I opened it up and was blown away by the incredible smell.

I read the letter, and it said, "Congratulations! You are 1 of just 200 people in the whole country who get to try a great new product from Purex to simplify and revolutionize laundry care! You're a Purex Insider!"
See, here's my cute little badge.

So what is this new product that will simplify and revolutionize laundry care?
It's called Purex Complete 3-in-1, and what it is, is 1 single sheet that is laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static control, all rolled into 1 easy step.

This is the basics of it,

I admit, I was so totally skeptical.
1 single sheet could clean, soften, and keep everything static free?
"Yeah right!" I thought.
But I gave it a try.
I took the load of dirty towels from the teens taking showers, some of their shorts, and their smelly t-shirts, and started to fill the washer and dropped 1 sheet into it first.
This is what the sheets look like;

The blue part of the sheet is the laundry detergent and some fabric softener, and the green stripe is heat activated by your dryer, and is also fabric softener and static control.

After you run your clothes through the washer, you move them and the sheet, into the dryer, and that's it, no cup of detergent, no cup of fabric softener, and no static control stuff either, just 1 easy step.

After the dryer stopped, I opened the door and was once again blown away by the incredible smell of the Purex, it really smells great!
I reached in and grabbed a towel, and it was sooo soft!
It wasn't sticking to anything else, and it was just incredibly soft, smelled so good, and was really clean.
I was very impressed, but wanted to try it again, so I did another load of clothes! LoL
The second load came out just as great as the first, clean, soft, no static, and smelled fabulous!
Why didn't someone think of this sooner!?!?
This really does simplify and revolutionize the entire laundry process down to 1 easy step, just 1 sheet does it all, and it does it really, really well.
I absolutely LOVE it!
I have a coupon to get a starter kit absolutely free, and I also got to share it with 3 friends after completing a short questionnaire, and so those ladies will be getting their starter kit free coupons in the mail very soon too.
I can't wait to go get the kit at the store, may have to wait a little bit, they aren't on sale until sometime this month!

Kat posted at 12:57 AM on May 5, 2009 || Comments (5) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

May 1, 2009

Tired, really, really tired.

I don't know what's come over me the last few days, but I could just sleep and sleep.
I have no appetite at all, and when I do eat, everything tastes weird, like bitter and spoiled.
I'm eating the same foods the teens are, and they say their food tastes just fine, but to me, it all tastes bad and I'm not sure why.
I'm just exhausted, and all I've been doing is sleeping and laying down, and I just haven't felt like blogging much, and there really hasn't been much to say anyway.
Meh.
Sebastian is off with my sister tonight, she'll bring him home sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Mark is in the other room playing WoW of course, and the kitties are all sleeping in various locations.

We've been watching some movies in the downtime, like last night, we watched The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke.
It was a really interesting movie, a good human story.
I felt so bad for the character, wrestling was all he knew, all a lot of them knew, they still lived in their glory days of giving people a good show.
Rourke was incredibly good in it, he was believable right from the start, this was his role to play, he was the wrestler.
The supporting cast was excellent too, Marisa Tomei, wow, probably the most gritty and realistic role I've ever seen her do, was also very believable, I know a few strippers, and so yeah, an excellent portrayal of their lives.
When the screen faded to black, we all sat here in silence, and slowly each one of us said wow, tragic, but how he wanted it to go.

Tonight we watched The Burrowers, a horror movie set in 1879 in the Dakota Territories.
When a family goes missing, the hostile Indians are immediately blamed and hunted down, but it's not Indians doing the kidnapping and killing at all, but almost vampire like creatures that live underground, and have the ability to paralyze their victims, then bury them alive so they can come back and eat their rotting organs later.
Another group of Indians, the Ute, know how to destroy the creatures, but an over zealous military leader played by Doug Hutchison, kills the last Ute Indian who knows how to make an antidote for the poison, and our main character has figured things out and can save the lives of other settlers with that Indians help, but it's too late.

This was a straight to DVD release, but worth checking out, just like a lot of straight to DVD releases are.
Most people don't give those films a chance, but The Burrowers is one of those movies you should definitely check out.
They only had a budget of $7million, but it's a very good looking film with some major players in it like Clancy Brown, whom I've loved ever since Highlander.
The scenery is gorgeous, the colors are muted but fabulous looking, and the acting, terrific.

A funny happened while we were watching The Burrowers, a couple of our cats, Nova and Shahiro, kept hearing the noises the creatures made as they were stalking their prey, and they did the same thing they do when I put the cat video on.
They start trying to climb up on the tv stand and tv set, to catch them.
It was amusing to me to watch them do that, trying to catch the creatures in the movie.

Kat posted at 11:26 PM on May 1, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 29, 2009

Blood drippings and cat water.

Yesterday, Mark* donated blood during a blood drive at school.
It was his first time donating blood, so he was really excited and nervous about doing it.
He said it wasn't bad, didn't hurt, although the pin prick to the finger to test his iron levels and get his blood type, didn't feel quite so good.
He had a much older nurse, and she just "sorta jabbed it and then squeezed the crap outta the middle finger", he said.
They had a hard time getting his vein to pop up, so they had to tighten the tourniquet and make him squeeze the ball a bit longer than usual, but they eventually got their pint of blood.
Then they gave him 2 16oz Gatorade's, a Rice Krispie square, a chocolate chip cookie, and a bag of hot fries.
They also gave him a t-shirt and his blood type card.
He's O negative and RH positive.

I knew he was RH positive because I'm RH negative, and he's my first born, so I had to get a shot in my ass to prevent RH disease at 28 weeks and 34 weeks, and another shot right after he was born, like immediately after he popped out.
So there I am on the birthing table, legs spread, getting my episiotomy stitched up by the doctor, and a nurse is jamming a needle into my ass.
The epidural had long worn off, so this was not a pleasant experience.

All of the students who had donated blood, were allowed to be dismissed early, so a lot of the seniors signed and lined up to donate. haha
He got home before I left for my appointment with the cardiac doc, and he was looking a bit pale, so I took him with me.
But now that the blood bank knows that he's O negative, he'll be getting phone calls every few months asking him to donate like I do.
And even though he's a match for my blood type, he can't ever donate to me if I ever end up needing blood during one of my surgeries because he's RH positive, it's non-compatible.
Oh well, I'll just have to self donate again if they tell me I need to.
1 pint a week for 4 weeks, it's rough I tell ya.
Your body just recovers from losing that much blood, and you gotta do it again.
They gave me this huge list of foods to eat to boost my iron and protein back up, I swear, I never ate so much peanut butter and broccoli in my life.
Not at the same time of course, that would be gross.
_______________________

I also wanted to say thanks to Joy for sending the cat water dispenser for my kitties.
It is so perfect for us.
With 4 cats, we were constantly having to wash the water bowl and fill it, sometimes twice every day, and it was this huge mixing bowl that I no longer used, but man, those cats can drink.
So this water dispenser is perfect, it allows just the right amount of water into the bowl, and it keeps the rest of the water free of hair and any other gunk that used to get in the big water bowl.

So thank you very much Joy, it is most appreciated!

And yes, that is cat food on the floor.
Carmine likes to scoop the food out of the bowl with his paw, and then eat them off of the floor.
Weirdo kitty.

Continue Reading �

Kat posted at 06:15 PM on April 29, 2009 || Comments (7) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 29, 2009

Permission, not humiliation.

I totally understand how other people see that post, I knew there would be people who did not agree with the post, or that I'm so open with my sons and tell them all of the things that I do.
I made a joke in the post about hoping that my sons don't find that post, but for the last 7+ years now, I haven't posted anything about them without their express permission.

On the walk to the barber shop where they were laughing about it, I said I am so blogging this, and they both said go ahead.
I asked them twice more if it was really ok to blog it, and they again said "go ahead, it's funny, post it up mom", so I did.
They both read the post today and laughed, so I am really ok with other people feeling the way they do, but if my teenage sons tell me that I can post something, that I have their permission, then I do.

Every single post that I write about them, is done with their permission.
I write up the posts, save them in draft, and wait till they come home, read them to them, and they give me the yay or nay.
Hasn't anyone noticed how late in the day, or the next day, that things get posted?
I'm not angry or upset by anything that anyone thinks about the post, I knew there would be people who didn't like it, thought it to be humiliating, whatever, but again, it's all done with their (my sons) permission.
Every post about them is either approved or disapproved by them, and I respect their decisions.

As for teaching them about trimming things up, my oldest son came to me, told me he was having an issue, said that his brother was too.
I asked him what the issue was, and he told me.
He then called his brother into the living room and asked him if he wanted to talk to mom about it, he said yes, so we talked about it.
I also remembered a post on the local area forums where the male members had started a thread about that very subject, my sons and I sat here and read the thread, read what the guys had to say about it and the advice some of the guys gave the other guys about how to deal with it, and the clippers were what they advised.
My sons asked if we had any clippers and if we did, could I explain how to use them so they didn't get cut.
I didn't have any clippers so we went out and bought 2 sets, 1 for each because sharing clippers for such an area is gross.
I posted this information in the extended entry of that post.
And as for the words I used to speak of their private areas, that is what they call it, every single term I used in the post and in the extended entry, are words that my sons have used to describe it, so I posted them.
If those words offend anyone, don't read them.
I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth about living with, raising, and having very honest discussions with 2 teenagers who are almost adults now.
These aren't little kids, these are 1 who is almost 18, and the other is set to turn 16 in 1 month, I'm not having these talks with 10 year olds, I'm having these talks with 2 very mature young adults.
I'm not crossing the line of parent and friend, I'm being the parents, both mom and dad, having to do what dads would and should do, and because I am, my sons don't do drugs, they don't drink, and neither of them has had any kind of sex.

I'm extremely lucky that I have an incredible relationship with my sons, they come to me about everything, they are open and honest with me, and I in return with them.
There aren't too many parents out there who have such open relationships with their kids, most of them don't even have a clue what their kids are doing and who they are doing it with.
Because of how open and honest I've always been with them, I know everything that goes on in their lives.

Back when my youngest son, Sebastian, was in the 6th grade and rode the bus to and from school, he saw a lot of behavior that would make the parents of those kids have heart attacks.
I mean, here's some kids in middle school between the ages of 11/12 and 14/15, who are riding the bus to and from middle school, and having sex in the back seats, girls giving blow jobs to boys.
My son came home and told me that a girl gave one boy a bj, and then another, and then another.
On the bus, a moving bus, with an adult driver who either ignored it or pretended to not see it.
And then she asked him if he wanted 1 too.
My son declined her offer because of the talks we've had.
Maybe the parents of those boys and that girl should have had some talks too.

My oldest son sat next to a girl all year this year, who told of her sexual exploits on a daily basis, in class, and the things that she allowed the boys and men to do to her.
She didn't have a steady boyfriend, she was basically passed around by the men in her life and used sexually, but she said that they all loved her, they told her they loved her, so she saw absolutely nothing wrong with them inserting beer bottles in her vagina and anus.
Yes, a call was made to the school guidance counselor about seeing if anyone can help that girl who is so obviously being sexually abused.

The world is a much different place than it was when I was growing up, teens just weren't so openly doing and discussing these things with other kids on the bus, in school, and in class, but it's a whole new ballgame folks, totally new.

Kids are having all kinds of sex at school, in empty classrooms, in bathrooms, in the closed off hallways where repairs are being done, and they don't care who sees it or who knows about it.
But I'll tell ya, their parents must not know, if they did, they'd be doing something about it.
At least I would hope they would be doing something about it.

It's a frightening world out there now, I almost don't want to ask my sons how their day at school was because of what they come home and tell me.
I get sick to my stomach over hearing about what goes on, how sexually aggressive some of these kids are, and I feel nauseous when I hear about oral sex taking place in the bathrooms, right in the stalls, but it's happening, if you think it's not happening at your kid's school, I got a surprise for ya.
And this isn't happening at a bad school in a bad neighborhood that's just full of poor kids and the stereotypical kids that might be doing these things, nope, the school my sons go to is one of the better high schools in the city.
It's the school where most of the wealthy people from the city have their kids go, this is not the high school in the ghetto, and it's not the massive high school downtown where they have metal detectors installed and a cop in every hallway.
This is a 5-star rated high school in a very nice neighborhood, it's the school that gets most of the funding, the football team is in the top 3 of the state, the band is the number 1 band in the state who have won a ton of awards, this school has money, and so do the majority of it's students.
And there's exactly 1 school cop.
These things are happening, the students are having sex and oral sex at school, all over the school, and most of the teens (my sons) friends have either had sex or oral sex.
Most of their friends drink and do drugs or have tried them.
One of their friends caught gonorrhea from the girl who has offered oral sex to Sebastian twice.
One of their friends lives with his grandparents because his father is long gone from his life, his mother is a junkie in jail for the next 3 years, and this kid comes and goes as he pleases, smokes pot, and is verbally abusive to his grandparents on a daily basis.
Mark's best friend since first grade switched schools at the beginning of this year, he goes to the school in the ghetto because they have a massive tv/movie department, and the school administrators promised him and his parents that he'd get the best education in this department and move on to the tech college where he'd be ahead of the other students.
In November, he dropped out of that department, started failing all of his classes, started drinking and smoking pot, has been caught having sex at school, and punched his father in the face after an argument over grades, moved out, and then dropped out of high school in February.
At age 17.
My sons get up at 5:45am every morning, shower, go to school, and come home.
They argue with each other non-stop, but they are home every night, they don't want to go hang out with any of their friends or other kids from school, they don't want to go to any of the parties because of the things they have heard happen at these parties, they don't drink, they don't do any drugs, they don't smoke, and neither of them have had any type of sex.
Mark's Big, George, is always asking him if he has a girlfriend or a girl he likes, and Mark always tells him no because most of the girls at school are sluts.
Sebastian has no interest in any of them either, for the same reason.

So people may totally disagree with how I'm parenting my sons, they think I've crossed the line, that I tell them too much, and that's fine with me, everyone has a right to their opinions.
I was told that the post was, let me quote it so I get it right, the post was "TMI personal information about your sons personal anatomy to be shared with the Internet. If any of their friends and god forbid girls got a hold of this information they would be humiliated. They would learn that not only do your boys have hairy sweaty balls, their "mommy" is telling them how to deal with it, oh and how to trim their hair ball area as well."

The humiliation? I asked my sons if I could post about it, they said yes.
I typed up the post, put it in draft, read the whole thing to them later and asked if it was ok to post, did they want it changed, did they want anything deleted, they both said "no, it's good, post it."
The friends? They and their friends talk about this same stuff and many other subjects that would make most parent's ears bleed, or they'd die from the shock of hearing what their kids are really doing in school.
The girls? Did you read what I wrote about the girls at their school? Neither of the teens want anything to do with any of the girls because of how sexually aggressive and sexually disgusting they are.
The pubic hair and sweaty balls? They came to me and asked for my help. I helped them because I'm the parent, that's what I'm supposed to do.
I'm not angry or upset about what other people have to say about the post or any other post that I've written or will write.
I didn't take anything anyone said as mean spirited, not at all, I actually laughed because everyone just thinks I'm writing all of these personal stories unbeknown to my sons, when half of the posts I write about them, they're the ones who told me to write them up, and the other half are only posted if I have their permission.

I'm really not going to apologize, and this post is not an apology, it's an explanation, making it very clear how the posts get to be posted here, and if the posts here offend you, if any of the words offend you, make you feel squeamish or uncomfortable, that's on you.
I have nothing to do with how you feel, but I'm glad that you're feeling something.

Kat posted at 04:14 AM on April 29, 2009 || Comments (14) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 25, 2009

Saturday Six, a meme 'cuz I'm killing time.

Saw this on another blog, I need to kill some time, so I'm doing the Saturday Six.

1. Do you find you don't have as much time on your hands as you used to?
It seems that I have far more time than I ever used to.

2. Are you a "Clock Watcher?"
I can be if I know that I have to be somewhere or something like that.

3. Do you think that Time Travel is actually possible?
I would like to think that at some point in our existence, that someone will figure it out and it will be possible. But I also think that if someone does figure it out, that our government will take it away from that brilliant scientist, call it a dangerous tool for the average citizen to use, and they will use it for things they want to change about the way things have happened in history.
Like, they'll go back and fix all of the bad things and screw ups they've made, which of course, will completely change the history of the entire world, and the result will be another country also developing or stealing the technology away from us, and then they will go back and change it all again so that they can rule the world.

4. If you're late, do you let people know you are running late?
Absolutely. I hate it when other people are late on me, so I always make a point of letting them know I will be late.

5. Do you spend more time on the Internet or away from it?
More. I am extremely bored most of the time, so I spend a great deal of the time surfing the net for cool and interesting things.
Stumble Upon is awesome for not only wasting time, but for finding some super cool stuff.

6. Do you think that as you get older the days, weeks, months etc go by quicker?
Yes I do. It feels like only yesterday I was the young mother of 2 tiny baby boys, and now they are huge grown up young men. Not only that, but I look back on my 1st spine fusion surgery in February 2006, and that I had to wear a turtle shell brace for 6 months, and then again in September 2008, I spent 5 months in a neck brace, and it honestly did not feel like that long, like half of a year, the time just flew by in a blink. I am absolutely amazed at how fast time goes by.

Kat posted at 07:07 PM on April 25, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Memes

April 22, 2009

Food, computers, and stocking up.

The other day, I said that I was going to make my own video of how to cook with the NuWave Oven Pro, and post it here and on youtube, and maybe get NuWave's attention, so I can get the new pizza kit they have. (Hey, it could happen)
Tonight, I made a 5lb chicken in only 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was perfect, I put bbq sauce on it for the last 10 minutes of cooking time, and it came out incredible, tasted way better than those rotisserie chickens you can get at a deli, super yummy.
My video was so packed full of info too, I even got the names of the 3 ways that it cooks correct from memory, not having to read them this time, conduction, convection, and far infrared.
The last 2 times someone asked me how it cooks, I kept forgetting their actual names, and said conduction, infrared, and the circular heat cooking method.
haha
But I really did pack the 4 minute video with a ton of information, instructions, and even rattled off some of the foods I've made in it since getting it.

Anyway, I made videos every step of the way, I edited them in windows movie maker, it was a really kick ass video, and then I screwed up.
I wanted to name the video the same name as I had saved the first part of the videos I had made, and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I deleted all of the smaller video clips I had used to make the final video, and even deleted them from the recycle bin.
I tried 3 different programs to restore all of the clips, but nope, they were already being overwritten by my computer.
Sometimes, not all of the time, as soon as you delete a file, and also delete it from the recycle bin, your computer thinks that it's freed up space, so it starts overwriting the space on your hard drive.
I did find all of the video files, but they had already been destroyed and partially overwritten.
*sigh*
I'll just have to do again the next time I cook something in it, which will probably be tomorrow night.

With hurricane season coming up soon on June 1st, I've begun stockpiling our supply bins.
I start getting a ton of canned foods that can be eaten cold, plastic utensils, paper plates and bowls, batteries, water, snacks etc.
I think I may have gone a bit overboard last year though.
When I opened up the bins that I keep in my closet, I found some stuff that I left in there.
I have quite the surplus of toilet paper and baby wipes.
I have 10/4 packs of toilet paper, and 10 refill packages of baby wipes with 1 brand new container of wipes still wrapped in the plastic.
Well, at least I won't have to buy any of that stuff this year, now I just need to cross those items off of my shopping list so I don't buy even more of them.
I just need to find my list now.
Hrm.

Kat posted at 11:27 PM on April 22, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 22, 2009

Flips are all the rage.

I keep seeing and hearing people talk about those Flip Video cameras, and how much people love them, everywhere!
I was watching The View yesterday, and Joy Behar was showing clips of her trip to Washington DC, the White House, and some of the other things she did on her trip, and the videos weren't bad at all, and she used one of these Flip Video cameras to do it.
You can watch some of those clips on their video page.

People everywhere, are talking about them, raving about them, and posting video clips like crazy because of those things, and Buy.com has refurbished ones on sale right now for just $79, the normal price is $179.00, so that's an awesome $100 off!

They do look pretty cool, and they have some great user ratings, mostly 4, 4.5 out of 5 stars, and customers are saying things like;
"Purchased a "reconditioned" flip ultra; it arrived in a sealed package and worked with no major problems."
and..
"I used the Flip 5 minutes after opening the box."

My friend Charlotte, actually bought 1 of these and posted a review on her blog about it.
I also have several other friends who have bought and love their Flip Video cameras too, so it's a cool and cheap camera if you are looking to get 1.

Kat posted at 02:29 PM on April 22, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Computers and technology

April 22, 2009

Paying it forward giveaway.

My good friend Jenn is having a giveaway for a gorgeous (I know this personally!) diamond journey necklace from Gem Affair.com, on her blog.
She's calling it the pay it forward giveaway, and you can go enter at her site and read the rules on how to win a ladder diamond journey necklace.

This necklace is absolutely beautiful, I know firsthand, because I own this necklace.
I won it from Gem Affair back in January.
And Jenn was the winner of my birthday giveaway that I had here on my blog back on March 1st!

This is a picture of the diamond journey necklace that Jenn is giving away, I took a picture of mine and posted it to my blog on the day it arrived.
You can click to see it bigger.

The rules to enter Jenn's giveaway are really pretty simple, and I am posting them here so you can see what you have to do and decide if you want to enter.

1. Leave me a comment telling me one positive thing about your fabulous-self. It can be about friendship, the work place, parenting or just the first thing that comes to mind when you think about "you." This is a requirement.
2. Since we're going to try and keep paying it forward, we ask that you please have a blog as the winner will be asked to then hold a contest themselves (however they prefer) promoting the notion of paying it forward. This is a fun way to spread some positivity throughout the blogosphere, because way too often we get caught up in our busy lives and forget just how wonderful we all really are.

It's that simple!

I LOVE the idea of paying it forward, and I am thrilled that Jenn has decided to do this giveaway like this.
She's right, we do get too far caught up in the bad things in our lives, and we tend to focus on the negatives about ourselves, (I did this earlier today. I was having a moment) so to enter her giveaway, you have to leave her a comment saying something positive about yourself.
I am not entering her contest, I am just spreading the word about it, but I really do think it's an awesome thing to do.
Spread some positivity throughout the blogosphere, we can all use a little pick-me-up right about now, so head on over if you have a blog, and leave her a comment saying something that you like about yourself.
It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is about you, and it's a positive about you.

I have known Jenn through blogging for quite a few years now, and I was really touched by what she said about me in her post.
Like I mentioned, I was having a moment today, a moment of self pity and some self loathing, so when I read her words, I immediately felt better, and so thankful to have such good friends.
I always find it a bit odd or weird, when people say they admire me, tell me how strong I am, and other things like that.
I don't feel strong all of the time, I'm not always positive, things are very hard for me most of the time, but I have to keep going, I don't really have a choice in that.
There are times, like today, when I just fall apart, when I feel like I simply can't go on another moment, and so when I come across the nice things people say about me on their blogs as I'm reading blog feeds or Twitter, I feel better and humbled at the same time.
I am truly greatful to all of the friends I have online and off, who care so much about me, it's a really good feeling to know that I am thought of and cared about, so I thank all of you who are in my life, and like Jenn, you all have changed my life in ways I can't even tell you.

Kat posted at 01:33 AM on April 22, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Friends

April 17, 2009

A lot of awesome sale items this week.

I've become like addicted to checking out Buy.com's weekly deals to see what they have on sale, and I am rarely ever disappointed with their great deals.

This week they have the same mp3 player that I have and love, the SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 gb mp3 player, for only $14.99.
It's normally $69.99, so that's a huge savings of $55.00!
It is a reconditioned one, but it's a really great mp3 player, so being reconditioned is not an issue in my opinion.
I absolutely love mine, I use it all of the time, every night when I'm laying there not sleeping due to insomnia, I listen to it off and on all day long, I just love it!

It plays mp3, wma, secure wma and audible audio file formats, and it also has an FM tuner with 40 preset channels, but it's really easy to set it to your radio stations, it has up to 15 hours of play time, and recharges using a usb cord and your computer.
You can also use it to record yourself notes with a built in microphone.
I haven't used that feature on mine yet, but I'll probably play around with it at some point.
It can hold 250 mp3s, and 500 wmas, that's a TON of music.
It has really good user ratings, and like I said, I absolutely love mine, it's so easy to use and has a very bright display, you can set it to shut off after so many minutes too, which makes it perfect if you use it to fall asleep like I do, it just shuts off.
Just don't roll over on it like I did one night and then not be able to figure out why it needed to be reset.
Oooops!
Anyway, it's a good deal on a good mp3 player, so if you need one or know someone who wants an mp3 player, you should check it out.
It's as good as those bigger name brand ones that cost a whole lot more.

Kat posted at 11:26 PM on April 17, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Shopping

April 11, 2009

Friends, computers, and fun.

A couple of my friends came over tonight, Dustin and his girlfriend Stacey, and we all just hung out and talked for a few hours about all kinds of stuff.
Stacey is a total sweetheart, she came in and marched straight to my kitchen and did my dishes even though I told her like 6 times not to.
She said she wanted to help because Dustin told her what a totally crappy week I've had with the AC and the heat.
Dustin and I talk on the phone several times a week, he has been giving me rides to some of my doctor's appointments and stuff too.
Even though I told her not to do them, and she did them anyway, I really did appreciate her doing them.
The kitchen is just way too hot without the AC, and I tried to do the dishes, but just couldn't.
It was so hot in there, I gave up after just 3 bowls and 1 cup.

Then we sat around my computer and I showed her how to do some stuff.
She really wants to get better at the internet, so I helped her with her myspace page, showed her how to add some stuff to it, how to save pics and then host them so she could post them, and then we're going to slowly do some more stuff together so she can set up her own website.
She has some ideas for what she wants to do, and she brought over a whole bunch of pictures on her flash drive that she wants to have on her website when she gets it up and running.
She wants to start her own dance/exercise studio, teach women how to get in shape through dancing.
She's been a dancer for 17 years, and she's in incredible shape, dancing is all she does to stay in shape, so she wants to teach other women how to dance to get in shape, and how much more fun it is than regular old boring exercises like sit ups and crunches, lunges, and stuff.
I think it's a great idea, and there aren't any of these types of fitness places around here, so I think she's got a really good shot at making it work.
She already has her studio planned out and is meeting with the property owners about monthly rental costs in a few weeks.

Dustin went absolutely nuts when he saw the giant box of Tootsie Roll candies I have...LoL
I swear, no mater how old a guy is, they all act like little kids in a candy store when they see that much candy.
His eyes lit up, he asked how I got it all, I told him I won it, and he was like OMG! You so rock! hahaha

We're going to plan a night of movies and dinner for like next weekend or something, pick a good movie, plan a good meal, and just hang out together.
The teens like the both of them, they showed Dustin WoW, and he was amazed.
He said he had heard about the game from friends, but had never seen it, so he was all "Wow, this is so freaking cool!"
Both he and Stacey like to play video games too, so when they saw that the teens had Resident Evil 5, they said after dinner and the movie, they want to play that game even though it scares the crap outta Stacey, she loves to play it and be scared.
I'm the same way, I love to play it even though it totally creeps me out. hahaha

So anyway, that's how our night was, I have some stuff to catch up on, and even though it's late, I'm still going to try and get some of it done.
I'm wide awake again.
Might have something to do with the amount of sugar I ate today...hahaha

Kat posted at 01:46 AM on April 11, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 10, 2009

Stolen credit card numbers and people really suck.

I've been watching my Amscot credit/debit card account like a hawk for a few months now, I kept seeing all these "test" charges showing up, $1 here, $1 there, for things like iTunes, Napster, and today, Snapfish.
I don't have an iTunes account, I don't have a Napster account either.
I do have a Snapfish account, but I haven't logged into it in over 8 months, until today that is, after I saw the above 2 charges.
I wanted to see if they had like a service charge for having the account that would explain those 2 charges, but no, they don't, AND I have never used my Amscot card at their site.

I called Amscot a few minutes ago to have this card canceled and get a new one, I was prepared to have to pay the $25 fee for closing this card and getting a new one, but the customer service agent told me that I didn't have to pay the fee because they were switching things up, and all I need to do is go in to my local branch to have it all taken care of.
When I go in, they will take this card, give me a new temporary card, transfer my balance over, and in about a week, I'll get my new card in the mail.
I will need to contact SSDI and switch over my direct deposit information because it's not just the card being swapped out, it's the whole account, they are changing everyone's accounts to the new system.
He said the new system will be a lot better, it will stop all these fraudulent charges right away, it will have text capability to check balances, less fees for transactions, a whole bunch of new features he said, so I need to get up there and take care of this.
I have a check from the Airborne class action suit to deposit anyway, so yeah, I need to try and get up there as soon as I can.

Kat posted at 08:20 PM on April 10, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Customer service

April 10, 2009

16lbs of candy and some yummy soap is here!

The FedEx guy pulled up today and brought us that huge box of Tootsie Roll brand candies that I won from Lisa Reviews, and he asked if we ordered it.
Sebastian said "No, my mom won it!"
The guy told him he was a lucky kid and to not eat it all at once.
Sebastian couldn't wait for me to open the box so he could see everything inside of it, and of course, dig in...LoL
This is what was in the box;

Two Tootsie Roll banks, lots of Tootsie Pops, Andes Candies, Junior Mints, (which are in the freezer) Fluffy Stuff cotton candy, Frooties, several different kinds of Dubble Bubble, and a TON of all different kinds of the candy that Tootsie makes.
Sebastian was totally excited, and when Mark finally woke up, he was like "Wow, that's all ours?!"
So he was a bit excited to have a ton of candy too. hahaha

The mailman also brought the soaps I ordered last week (after paying off all of my bills from my income tax return) from my friend Lara's homemade soap and candle shop, The Sage Grove.
Lara had made a very specific scent of soap I had told her about, and so when I had the extra money, I bought 3 of the 4 remaining bars she had for sale on her site.
I thought it would have been really mean to buy all 4 bars and not leave at least 1 for someone else.
It is so wonderful!!!
I took a shower with it just a few minutes ago so I could cool off and also wash off the days nasty sweat, and OMGosh! It's amazing!
I love jasmine and pink grapefruit soap!
I used to buy it from another blogging friend who made it, but she hasn't made any in a long time for personal reasons, and so when I was telling Lara about it, she said she'd give it a try.
After she made it, she told me that it smelled "divine!"
Yes it does!
I absolutely love the smell of this soap, taking a shower with it today was awesome, it lathered up really nice, it smells so incredible, and the scent lingers on your skin for hours after showering with it, you don't need to wear any perfume or anything else, the scent is simply scrumptious on it's own.
I still would love a perfume or body lotion made from it some time, I think that would become like my 'signature scent' if I could get it in a perfume.
Lara also packed in the box for me, a bar of Vanilla Sugar soap, a bar of Oakmoss soap, and a bar of Citrus Sherbet soap.
ALL of them smell so so good!
If you love great smelling and homemade soaps, please go check out her shop, her soaps are just awesome, I'll have to try her candles some time when I get some money again some time.

Ok, I guess that's all for now, I need to go eat something for dinner now that it's a bit cooler.
I can't eat when it's so hot out, it makes me feel sick to my stomach, blech.

Kat posted at 07:14 PM on April 10, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

April 8, 2009

Unemployment and education.

On the local forums I sometimes play on, a lot of the discussions lately have been about politics, news, unemployment, money, and what to do about all of it.
One of the hot topics today was the fact that unemployment benefits for a lot of people, are going to run out before the second half of the year.
They are rough estimating that about 700,000 people will lose their benefits before the second half of the year, and with more and more companies and businesses closing, the hopes of them finding a job are not good.
Just in March 2009, 663,000 jobs were lost.
That's more people going on unemployment, and those people will probably also run out of unemployment benefits before the end of the year as well.

So what are people supposed to do?
That's the questions everyone is asking?
One of the really smart guys on the forum, a guy whose posts I always read and try to take his words seriously, had a lot of advice for people today.
What to be doing right now, things to do to prepare for when the economy gets even worse, and it will, and how to possibly avoid being one of the millions out of work and with no income at all.
One of his suggestions was to get further education and training in fields that are needed right now, and will be needed heavily when things start getting better again.
One of the fields he sees being needed in great demand are business and project managers, and so a Project Management certificate may be a really good idea for people to look into if they are already in any of the fields listed at this link.
If you're in any of those fields, get further education in those fields, you're going to need it to be able to compete with the millions of people looking at the same jobs that you are.
If you are fortunate enough to still have a job, you can further your education online at St. Joseph University, and get your certificate in any of the fields that you may be in and needing to make yourself "better" and more prepared for the demands of the job when the time comes.

Things are going to get better, but they are going to get a whole lot worse first.
It's time to really start preparing for the worst of it, and to also be prepared when the upswing begins so you can be ahead of the fighting for the best jobs.
There are a lot of people out of work, more going to lose their jobs, and when things start to get better, it's going to be a fight for jobs at any places that have any openings at all.
You are going to need to stand out, and have more to offer than the other guy.

Kat posted at 02:47 AM on April 8, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || School

April 7, 2009

16 pounds of candy!

On April 4th, I was entrant # 301 and #302, out of 607 entries, to win 16lbs of Tootsie Roll brand candies.
Today, Lisa told me I won.
I won!
This is the pic from her site, but when I get the box, I will take a pic of exactly what all was in the box that we get when it arrives.
Lisa said we should probably have it by the end of the week because she sent them my address as soon as I emailed it to her.

Tootsie sent Lisa her own big box of candy to try out, and she was thrilled to get it, and also to be able to have a contest to offer another lucky blog reader of hers the chance to win their own box.
I only did 2 of the things you can do to win, and I was totally surprised and shocked that my number got drawn when she pulled the winner today!

When I got her email telling me that I won, I screamed out "Yeusss!", and Sebastian came running to ask what was up.
When I told him that I won 16lbs of Tootsie Roll brand candies and showed him the pic, he spotted the Fluffy Stuff cotton candy right away, and started screaming himself...LoL
I love regular Tootsie rolls, the Caramel Apple Pops, I also really like the fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls called Frooties, and just like Lisa, I also love and remember the Tootsie Roll banks.
A big Tootsie Roll shaped bank filled with Tootsie Rolls, and when they are gone, you can use the can as a coin and dollar bank.
I loved getting those from my Grandfather as a kid, he would get me one of those every year for my birthday along with a new doll or something that I wanted.
I have such great childhood memories attached to Tootsie Rolls, they just always make me smile, so this is a really cool prize to win.
16lbs of candy is a lot, and Lisa asked me in an email just a few minutes ago, to make sure and let her know exactly how long it actually lasts in the house. hahahaha
I told her, "Mark is not a huge candy eater, but he does like Tootsie rolls and some of the others we saw in your pic, so he will eat some.
I'll probably set some aside, and only put out a small bowl of it to be eaten freely, and fill it back up slowly.
Sebastian will be going to the dentist over the summer, getting his teeth cleaned, getting any cavities filled etc, to start working on getting his braces finally, so I'll have to make him eat the stuff slowly, and to also brush his teeth more frequently.
But I'll hazard a guess that it will last until school starts in August."

How long would 16lbs of candy last in your house?

Kat posted at 09:26 PM on April 7, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

April 3, 2009

Cut back and be greatful.

I'm not a big fan of her, but Suze Orman was on the Oprah show today, and she had a recession rescue plan for people, because things are really starting to get very, very bad for everyone.
She says to be greatful for what you have, not what you had.
That you need to really cut back on your expenses in order to survive this crisis.
Cable? Gone.
Cell phone? Cut those bills as much as possible.
Home phone? Ditch it if you can.
Eating out? Stop doing that, and so much more words of advice.
I really recommend you read the article I linked if you're starting to feel the crunch, or worrying about when it's going to hit you, and it will hit you.

Oprah had people on there today who had done everything right, had savings and retirement plans, kept their bills low, only used credit cards for emergencies, paid those cards off as soon as they got the bills, paid more on their mortgages, and paid all of their bills in full every single month.
Then the husband got laid off.
Then the wife.
Neither of them could find another job in their field or any job for that matter.
One of the husbands even tried to get jobs at all of the fast food places in town, and none of them would hire him, too over-qualified, plus, they couldn't afford to hire anyone else and were letting people go themselves.
Both the husband and wife had now been out of work for 1 full year, had gone through all of their savings, were having to dip into their retirement accounts, using their credit cards to keep the lights on and buy groceries, and now were in debt to their credit card holders.
And they had done everything right.

Those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, man, we're gonna be screwed when this gets worse, and Suze is convinced it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
She had been on the show in 2007, and told Oprah then that it was coming, start prepping, it's coming, and she was right.
Now she is saying "Things will get better, get worse. ... [In] the next two or three years, it will start to turn around," Suze says. "But I'm so sorry to say it will be, in my opinion, 2015 until every single person feels hopeful again."
That is a wicked long time friends, it's really time to get serious about this.
She says that we need to start living on half of what we bring home, that means really cutting out all of the extra stuff, cable, extra cell phones and cut those bills down, eating out, hair cuts, manicures/pedicures, going to the movies, cut all of your expenses down to half of what they are now, stash the other half, and don't use any of your credit cards, use cash for everything.

This is something I already do.
I don't have cable, I have a pre-paid cell phone that I only add money to it when I need it, I don't get hair cuts, I rarely ever get manicures, once every few months I'll get a pedicure because I can't take care of my feet myself, we rarely ever eat out, like maybe once a month, and I have cut down on all of my bills.
I am so strict with the teens about water and electricity usage, I make them take shorter showers, turn off all lights, computers and video games, fans, etc, when they leave rooms, there's no long distance on my home phone, only have it because I have dsl, but my expenses are super low.
I'm paying my monthly bills right now, and my water bill is $22.71, I got my electric bill down to $119.24, my phone bill is only $12.71 because I cut out all extras, my dsl bill is $28.95, I still can't pay that one online, but oh well.
We do have Netflix for entertainment, $14.99 per month, I pay for Xbox live which is $50.00 per year, and I also pay $14.99 per month for the teens to play WoW.
My total bill expenses are $217.75, that's not too bad at all.
Then I have all of the other stuff, cat food and litter, toiletries like toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, soap, dish soap, laundry soap, etc etc.
I probably spend about $375.00 a month in bills and household expenses, plus my rent of course, I'll figure it all out to the penny using the monthly expense calculator from Suze Orman, which once you fill it all out honestly, it will give you advice on how much money you need to put away every single month in order to have at least an 8 month emergency fund for when things get really bad.
I plan on sitting down and doing this, getting all of my bills together, all of my income together, and figuring this out.
I don't want to be one of those people, one of those families, who are now living in tent cities because things have gotten so bad.
I really am worried about this stuff, I'm disabled, a single parent, I don't have a whole lot of income coming in, I wouldn't survive in a tent city with my health the way it is, I have to get a handle on my finances and really prepare myself for whatever is to come my way.
I don't like being a worry-wart, but things are bad out there people, and single moms have it even harder, we're doing this alone, we don't have a partner to get out there and try and find a job, that extra person's income to sock away for the emergency fund, it's just us, and it's frightening.

Kat posted at 01:50 AM on April 3, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

April 1, 2009

iTunes has crappy custome service.

See that?
That is a $1 authorization charge on my credit card for Apple's iTunes. (scroll down to the $1 charge FAQ)
I DON'T HAVE AN iTUNES ACCOUNT!
I have never had an iTunes account, the teens don't have an iTunes account, they also use a totally different computer, no access to my credit cards, and no access to my computer's saved information, this is a fraudulent charge.

So, I try and contact Apple from the 866 number you see on the charge.
It's a recorded message that tells you to go to this support page for Apple iTunes.
As you can see, that page says support/itunes/store/creditcard/.
They don't have a live person you can contact for support, you have to use their chat window, and talk to people who type slower than molasses on a cold winter day.
It took 10 minutes for "Tremain" to finally type out the number to speak to someone in Apple's fraud department.

I called that number and got a recorded message saying that it could take several business days for someone to call me back regarding the fraudulent charge on my card.
Actually, not someone, just 1 someone, a man named Robert.
1 guy handles ALL of the fraud issues for credit cards and Apple iTunes.
1 guy.

So I called my credit/debit card holder, Amscot.
I asked what I should do, I explained everything, and the woman I spoke to said the only thing that we can do is to cancel that card.
I can't cancel it right now, my SSDI gets direct deposited to it at midnight tomorrow night, I have all of my rent and bills to pay, plus my doctor co-pays and prescriptions.
Then I asked how long it would take to get a new card sent to me after this card gets canceled.
7-10 business days.
I asked if they had like a rush delivery service, to get it overnight or much faster, she said yes, but it will cost me $26.00 to get a new card in 4 days.
The number on the card will change, but my checking account and routing number will not change, which is good, because I have money that gets direct deposited to it every other week and once a month.

A few months ago, this same thing happened but with some other online company, I think it was Best Buy and some promo they were doing, but a ton of credit card numbers had been stolen from compromised data from a grocery store.
I think that's what happened with this one too.
And guess which store I shopped at within the last month?
Sweetbay.
Sweetbay is the same store that my PayPal debit card got compromised at, I don't shop there all of the time, but about 1 month ago, I went and did some light shopping there because I was at the CVS picking up Sebastian's medicine for his migraines, and didn't feel like going all the way back to my Publix.

So now I have to get an all new card.
I'm tired of having to do this, and if I find out that it is because of Sweetbay not protecting their data again, or some Sweetbay employee stealing credit and debit card numbers, I'm going to be pissed.

Kat posted at 12:13 PM on April 1, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Customer service

April 1, 2009

Useless internet day.

The teens are off to school, Sebastian has his note to get out early because he has his neuro appointment this afternoon, and poor Mark had insomnia again all night, yet had to go to school by law because we are still waiting on his graduation test results.
It is SO stupid that he has to go, sit there, and do absolutely nothing all day long.
It infuriates me.

Today is April 1st, April Fool's day, and the internet is officially useless today.
Youtube is showing all videos upside down, Google's Gmail is doing their usual stupid April Fool's Day jokes, people are linking to the usb pet rock, again, this year, and I'm sure there will be many more absolutely stupid jokes posted all over the internet by major sites, blogs, forums, and whoever just thinks they are oh so clever.
I can't stand it.
I absolutely hate stupid humor, I can't watch Will Ferrel movies because of all the stupid humor jokes and such.
Today on the internet, is going to suck for me and people like me who just hate the dumb jokes.
It is officially useless internet day.

Kat posted at 07:34 AM on April 1, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 31, 2009

Redesigned badly.

I went to check on my child support payments, nothing so far this week, and then I wanted to check the balance on the State of Florida child support card that I never wanted to begin with anyway, and found that they redesigned the site.
Badly.
It doesn't work in FireFox, only IE, and it's just done really stupid.
Type in your username and hit submit.
Taken to a page where you have to enter your password, type out your own security question and answer, pick a picture, name the picture whatever you want, type out the security code captcha, and hit submit.
Except when I hit submit, nothing at all happens.
Nothing, it just sits there, the task bar says done, yet nothing happens.
But go over to IE, and it works, takes you to your account so you can check on deposits and balances.
Like I said, it doesn't work in FireFox, only IE, which I hate using, but entering all that stuff every single time you use it?
I have to type out a security question and answer every single time, pick a picture and name the picture anything I want, every single time, and then the security captcha every single time too.
I can see having to answer the security question, and then entering what I named the picture, and the security captcha, but doing it all every single time?
What the hell was the designer of that system thinking?!
I could write a different question and answer every time, I could choose a different picture and name it something different every single time.
I just don't understand how they think that's secure.
Idiots.

Kat posted at 05:24 PM on March 31, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 28, 2009

Boredom, death, and movies.

It's very boring when you can't do anything but lay around with your foot up, I should be used to it by now, so many surgeries and recovery time laying down, but gah, the boredom gets to me after awhile.
Not being able to do much of anything drives me nuts.
I have tons of dishes to do, but can't.
Must stay laying down with my foot up, so sorta as a joke, but kinda hoping someone would say 'hey! I could use $50 bucks!', I posted to Twitter that if anyone in Sarasota wants to make $50, they could come do my dishes.
So far, no one has tweeted back.
*sigh*
The way I'm going on with my health these days, 2 major surgeries, tons of colds, quite a few illnesses of unknown origin, another surgery coming up, and now I'm starting to randomly break bones just by moving, I really think it's time for me to seriously look into getting some low cost term life insurance.
I am always saying that I'm going to do it and I never do, but it's starting to be one of those things I really need to do, like right away.
I mean, what if my next trip to the bathroom results in some sort of freak accident, and I end up dead?
And don't say it couldn't happen!
Kali (1 of the kitties) is always following me in there and tripping me up.
Just last night, she followed me in there, and when I started to stand up and get off of the toilet, she practically threw herself at my legs, causing me to plop my ass back down on the seat, grab the sink counter with my right hand, and the towel rack with my left, to prevent a fall.
All 4 of the cats are always getting underfoot, and let me tell ya, they are not fond of me walking with my dragon cane at all.
I think that may be the cause of the increased underfoot-edness since yesterday morning.
All 4 of the cats have been following me around when I get up to use the bathroom, go into the kitchen, or in to see how the teens are doing, and each of them has been rubbing on my legs, or dashing directly, like within an inch, of me as I walk. .
Damn cats are trying to kill me!

I got our new Netflix movies in today's mail, I hope they will relieve some of the boredom for a few hours at least.
We have, Punisher: War Zone, the teens wanted to see that one, and Twilight, so I can see what all of the fuss is about.
I never read the books, and I know, the movie is not the same as the books, and I did watch a copy of it online, but it was really grainy, it was skipping, all pixelated, and the sound kept going in and out, so I didn't really 'see' it.
I'm sure that as soon as I put it in, the teens will haul ass to the other room and shut the door.

Both the books and the movie have been all the rage with like every single girl at school for a long time, and the teens are totally fed up with it.
They make fun of it at every chance, so I'll either get to watch it in silence by myself, or they'll be out here giving their play-by-play sarcastic commentary as it goes along.
But hey, at least I won't be bored anymore.

Kat posted at 04:08 PM on March 28, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 26, 2009

Answer me if I ask.

I don't like it when people try to pull the wool over my eyes intentionally, or claiming ignorance, that they didn't mean to beat around the bush, so to speak.
The economy is in the crapper, we all know it, it shows signs of wanting to get better, the DOW has been slowing climbing, but millions of people are still out of work, many more are still losing their jobs, homes, cars, etc.
I mean, what kind of crazy is it that a car company is advertising a "deal" that if you lease a car from them and lose your job in any time during the lentgh of the lease, that they will let you out of the lease, no questions asked, no money owed on the contract?
Yeah, it's kinda crazy, scary economic times.

So yeah, I don't like it when people try to get me with stuff.
I received an email in the wee hours of the morning, I was still awake, (still am too) and it was a very brief email offering me nothing at all in the way of information other than an opportunity for me and my blog readers, and other single moms, we'd all be helping each other.
I'm always on the lookout for my fellow single moms, and the email was very brief, the person wanted to set up a time to speak with me by phone, so my skeptic alarms are going off already ya know?
Any time someone says something like opportunity and speak by phone in the same sentence, you can pretty much bet on it that money will be involved, either them wanting to sell you something, or get you to sell something.
So I emailed back a very detailed list of questions that I wanted answered before I agreed to any kind of phone call about this way to help my single mom readers.

The reply I got back was just as short as the first, and just as I had suspected, it was an opportunity for "affordable life coaching for women".
You can either be the person needing the coaching for a monthly fee which goes from $19 per month, $39 per month, and $59 per month, I almost needed some adult diapers when I read those fees for it, or you can be the one selling these monthly life coaching packages to other women on commission.

I had asked about 10 very specific questions, none of them were answered in the reply, not a single one.
That upset me greatly, it was a waste of my time to even write out those questions even though the first email they sent said that if I had any questions, to ask.
I don't like having the wool pulled, and I don't like having my time wasted.
But the person did include in the second email, a link to their site, and from there, I found a link to the site for the life coaching.
I had to click around to find the information that this person should have told me.
If they were looking to make money, they should have at least answered my questions.
I know they probably do their best work verbally, and that's why they wanted to pitch to me by phone, but I never give out my phone number to anyone I don't know, first of all, and second, until I know why I'm giving out my number, I need to know why my time is about to be spent on the phone.

After getting the second useless email, having to go searching for the information myself, I was kind of irritated.
I really felt that my time was wasted by someone who is obviously wanting to make money either by selling these coaching packages, or by getting a commission for getting new sellers to sign up, yet they offered me absolutely nothing in the way of information about this supposed grand thing that they wanted me to post about here on my blog for my readers, and really push it to my single mom readers.

I wrote back after that second email and having to spend time to learn what it was all about, how irritated I was, and what a crappy job they had done trying to sell this to me, probably wanting to sell me a life coach package, and also getting me to post about it on my site for free for them, and even after my semi-scathing email, they still had the nerve to ask me to post a link to their main website.

That pretty much appalled me, and I'm so steamed at this point, that I have not even replied to that email.
I can't.
If I do, every word I type will be every not-so-nice word that I know of.
It would be a very ugly email, and even Great-Gram who has said some pretty vile words in her days, would probably fall over dead reading the words I want to say to this woman.
She wasted my time.
She didn't answer a single question I asked, yet wanted to sell me, and get me to sell, her product for her.
And then she had the nerve to ask for another free link to her site.
Yeah, not a happy Kat right at the moment.

Kat posted at 11:33 AM on March 26, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

March 18, 2009

Movies, music, and hospital stays.

I just got back from doing my CT Scan so that my surgeon has the most recent images of my neck for when I see him next Wednesday, and he can decide how to proceed with the next surgery.
I see my new pain doc on Monday, and hopefully everyone will be on the same page and we can get things going in the right direction for the next surgery.

Being in the hospital is boring, once they wake you up from the medically induced coma anyway.
The rooms are blank and boring, and the only form of entertainment is the tv.
It's usually on a wall across from the bed, and the channel changer and volume controls are in the control box on your bed.
The control box makes your bed go up and down, and it's also where the speaker is for the tv.
I'm mostly deaf in my left ear, so having to try and listen to the tv through that little speaker is kind of a pain in the butt.
I have to either lay it on the pillow next to my right ear, or hold it there.
Now, I've been giving some thought as to how this next one will go.
I'll be in that big halo brace, screws and metal attached to my skull, I have no idea how much movement I'm going to have, or how painful it will be to try and hold things, and yeah, holding that speaker control box up to my ear might be hard.

I was looking over the weekly deals that Buy.com has on sale this week, and I found this.
An 8GB MP3/MP4 1.8" Media Player, for just $39.99, normally $149.99, that's a huge savings, and it just might be what I could use.

It's called a V-Bop, it's like an mp3 player, plays mp3, mp4, WMA, and WAV files, and it has 8 hours of playback time, just like the better known name brand (think of the fruit) mp3/WMA players, do.
I've compared the two, Buy.com actually has both on sale this week, the V-Bop and the Apple iPod Nano, and while the iPod can hold 16GB and the V-Bop only 8GB, they actually do the same exact things.
Both charge through a USB flash drive, both last for 8 hours, both play the same formats, except the Nano doesn't support or play WMA files.
It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the Nano does, but it does basically the same things, play music and videos.
The Nano is normally $194.99, on sale for $169.97, and as I said, the V-Bop is normally $149.99, on sale for just $39.99.
If you're just looking for a very basic player, then this is it.

If Buy.com still has this on sale next week when I get paid, then I'll snap one up so I can take it with me to the hospital because then I could watch movies on it and use my earbuds with it, I'd be able to hear everything really well.
Yeah, it's a small screen, but I could prop it up on the blankets and be able to be entertained while I lay there instead of straining to see and hear the tv.
And most of the stuff they have on tv is boring anyway.
The hospital I was in last time, had a channel that did nothing but show the hospital's church room.
Seriously.
I'd fall asleep watching one thing, wake up, and someone would have switched it to that channel.
Kind of annoying that they did that, and I know it was a religious hospital, St. Josephs, but still, if I fall asleep watching watching the sci-fi channel, leave it alone.
There's nothing creepier than waking up to some guy preaching.
With this, I could load it up with some movies I like to watch and music I like, and not be bored.
I did use my mp3 player the last time, it totally helped pass the time, but being able to watch movies and hear them would be really great too.

Kat posted at 11:37 AM on March 18, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

March 17, 2009

When to censor our blogs.

A couple of days ago, Rachel from Single Mom Seeking, asked if we mom bloggers ever censor our blogs when it comes to talking about our kids, does their age have to do with how much you say, and do you worry about your kids finding your blog if they don't already know about it?

I left her a comment about what I've done, what I still do, but I wanted to talk about it a bit more.
Here is some of what I said;

I've been blogging since 97', Mark was 8, Sebastian was 6.
I posted photos, stories etc, and as they got older and started becoming their own people, I started asking them what was ok to post, both photos and stories.
They are now 15 & 17.
Every single post I write with them as center figures of it, is written entirely with their permission.

When Mark came to me a few years ago, I think he was about 14 or 15, and said he didn't want any more pictures of him put on here, and to not post so much about him, I had to respect that, he was growing up, becoming his own person, so I respected his decision, but we had a long talk about it all, because this is my blog about being a single parent to him and his brother.
I asked if I could still blog about him, but with his permission, like if something happens, can I go to him with what I want to write, run it by him, and get a yay or nay on it.
He agreed that that would be ok to do, so that's what we've done since then.

I really think as soon as your child says to you that they don't want you to blog about them anymore, to not post pics anymore, that you need to respect that decision, but also talk to them, find out what would be ok to post, when it's ok to post something, and work with them when it comes to their being a part of your blog.

There's a ton of mommy bloggers out here now, we are all sharing our lives with the whole world, some of us use fake names for all of our family members, and some of us use those abbreviations like DD#1 (darling daughter #1), DS#2 (darling son #2), DH (darling husband), etc.
I personally don't like the abbreviations, it gets far too confusing for the blog readers, especially if the blogger has several children, or if you read a couple of blogs that use the abbreviations, and when you go to leave a comment, the stories from one kid or 1 blog to another, get kind of confusing.

But anyway, we are all out here blogging about our lives, our kids, the daily ins and outs, the good, the bad, and the downright dysfunctional.
Once you put something on the internet, it's on here forever.
That's why it is so very important, to me anyway, to respect our kids when they come to us and tell us they want us to stop blogging about them completely, or only post about them with their permission.
All of those funny stories about your 3-4 year old son running around the house in a fireman's helmet and nothing else, or your 5 year old daughter singing "Single Ladies" in the bathtub, are super cute, but they are on the net forever and ever, and someday those posts, pictures, and super cute stories, are going to be found by them or their friends, and it could end up being very embarrassing for them at some point down the road of life.

I also think that if your child doesn't know that you have a blog, that you need to tell them when they get to an age when you think they will understand it, so that when they get older they can make that grown up decision to either let you keep posting stories about them, or not.

There's a lot of things that go on here at our house with the teens that I don't post about because they've asked me not to.
I run almost every single post where they are the central figures by them, so they can decide if they want me to post it or not.
I probably have about 30 or so posts in draft status, stuff I've written over the last few years since the agreement was made and then read out loud to them, they gave the thumbs down, so I didn't post it.
I kept the posts in draft status though because this is my blog, my journal, and someday I may want to print it all out, 2 copies, 1 for each of them, because this blog is all stories about them, me, our lives together, and so it's like their own personal history book.
But I respect them far too much to just post every little detail of our lives, of their lives, and share it with the world.
I hardly ever post their pictures anymore because they've asked me not to.
It's totally cool with me too, I don't mind it at all, I respect them and the really cool young men they are becoming, and 8 out of 10 times, they tell me that I can go ahead and post what I wanted to after I tell them what I wanted to blog about.

So what do you do?
Do your kids know about your blog?
Do you plan on telling them, showing them, and if they ask you to stop posting about them, will you?

Kat posted at 03:27 PM on March 17, 2009 || Comments (7) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 16, 2009

Sleep and pain.

I finally got some sleep after about 6 days of getting approximately only 5 hours of total sleep during those 6 days.
It was really awesome to catch up on my sleep finally.
I fell asleep this morning around 8am, and then slept the entire day away, and woke up around 3pm.
Yeah, the whole day was pretty much wasted, but at least my body decided that it had enough and let me sleep.
I'm really hoping that now that I've caught up, that I can get back to working, get back to doing the things I need to do.
When you aren't getting any sleep, your brain is in like a constant state of confusion, a fog, you can't think straight, so trying to blog, trying to write, just wasn't happening for me.
I'm really hopeful that things get back to some sort of normal with me so I can get stuff done.

Neither of the teens went to school today, they both woke up in massive pain this morning, so I couldn't make them go.
Sebastian woke up with a blinding migraine again.
I went in his room and woke him, his face immediately grimaced, he asked me to shut off the light, he put his hands over his eyes and head, I asked if it was bad, he said yes, so I got him a drink, his morning meds, and a couple of Tylenol, and sent him back to sleep.

Mark was going to try to go even though it's pointless for him to go because there's nothing for him to do at school, the teachers aren't giving him any work, even if they did, it wouldn't count, because he's taken his graduation test, he's done with school, so he sits there all day doing absolutely nothing but taking up space.

But that's not why I didn't send him.
Yesterday morning when he mowed the lawn, he pulled something in his middle back.
He complained about it all afternoon yesterday, I kept giving him Tylenol, rubbed some Cura-Heat on it, but this morning when I woke him up, he was crying the pain was so bad, bent over, tears falling, crying from the pain, and Mark never, ever cries, so I knew that it was bad and he wasn't faking how bad it was.
I had him take a hot shower, I rubbed on more Cura-Heat, gave him more Tylenol, and sent him back to bed.
When I got up this afternoon, I gave him some more Tylenol, more Cura-Heat, and am just trying to keep him from doing anything more to his back.

I need to get him in to see the doc about his back soon.
Scoliosis is genetic, it can be passed down parent to child, and boys can get it, too, even though girls seem to get diagnosed with it more often than boys do.
I'm not sure if he has it, but he does complain about lower back pain every few months or so, and sometimes it looks like his shoulders aren't level, an almost sure sign of scoliosis.
I absolutely hate to think that either of the teens may have it, everything I have been through because of it, years of pain, all of the treatments, the surgeries, I know that it is genetic, it would not be my fault if they end up with it, but I know I will blame myself if they do.
It wouldn't really be my fault, genetics are genetics, but I would feel responsible for it, so I need to have him checked again, and then again a year from now.
I have both of them checked at least once a year, and his last check was about 10 months ago, but with the pain he gets every so often, and now that he's pulling muscles, he needs to be seen again.
To help with his back and keep him from slouching (a very, very bad habit) when he plays video games, I make him sit with pillows behind his back on the mismatched discount dining room furniture chairs they use in the game room.
The chairs that went with my dining room table were cheap miserable things, fold up wooden slat chairs, no cushions at all, just absolutely miserable, so I bought some mismatched ones a few years ago at a store that was having a showroom sale.
I got each of the 4 chairs, none matching, for $10 each.
Hey, at least they were all the same color, not style, but same dark cherry color, and they all had seat cushions.
Before bed tonight, I'll give Mark some more Tylenol and slap on some more Cura-Heat, and hopefully by morning he'll be feeling well enough to go sit there at school all day even if he's not doing anything.
I really need to talk to the school and find out what can be done to stop wasting Mark's time, the teacher's time, and taxpayer money by making a kid sit there all day doing absolutely nothing at all.

Kat posted at 10:42 PM on March 16, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

March 13, 2009

I HAVE to say this.

As I said below, I try not to judge people, but ya know what?
I AM a judgmental asshole.
I am constantly flabbergasted by things other people do.
I just read something that simply stopped me dead in my tracks, I read it 3 times, I read a particular sentence quite a few times, and then I was like, WTF?!

A woman was in a sorta relationship but not really, she admits it, she also admits that they had unprotected sex, is now 5 months pregnant, the sorta relationship didn't work out, she's now all alone and pregnant, about to be a single mom in a few months, and she's dating.
Dating.
DATING.

Am I the ONLY person who thinks this is so NOT the time to be dating?
That NOW is not the time to be looking for a new man?
Is there something wrong with me that I just don't get this, that I am simply not ok with this?!
Am I just really old fashioned?
Am I just old and don't understand all of these new relationship rules?!

The sorta relationship failed, you are pregnant, you immediately want a new man?
You want a new relationship with a man for what reason?
That the new guy will be by your side all through the rest of the pregnancy, hold your hand, go with you to Lamaze class, tell you to push during labor?!
In the hopes that he'll step up and want to play the part of daddy in the families 2009 Christmas portrait?!?!
What?!
For what reason do you think that NOW, 5 months pregnant, is the time to be dating?!?!

What about giving men a break for awhile, how about just taking a big huge break, and taking care of you, your body, your baby, planning for the baby that IS coming, getting your priorities in order, and let me tell you, dating right now, at 5 months pregnant, is NOT a freaking priority!!

Please, someone tell me the new rules, explain to me how this is ok to do, how it's the right thing to do, why someone would do it.
I do not understand it at all.
I get loneliness, believe me, I understand loneliness better than anyone should, but wow, dating while pregnant is not something I could ever do, I just couldn't.
There would be a life inside of me, needing me, my body needing rest and nutrition, a home that needs preparing, things to figure out and plan, and getting a new man wouldn't be on the top of the list, it wouldn't even be on the list.
I really don't understand how a woman can go from dating a man, getting pregnant, un-dating that man, and starting to date a new one.

I am getting old and I am a judgmental jerk, I admit it, but wow, this made my stomach turn.
Go ahead, call me names, tell me I'm a horrible person who "just doesn't get it", tell me I'm an asshole, just tell me how this is ok because I really don't get it.

Kat posted at 03:49 AM on March 13, 2009 || Comments (9) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 12, 2009

I have enough of my own drama.

I try to stay out of all of the "blog drama", I really do have enough drama in my own life, but some of the drama on other blogs has been totally unavoidable the last few days.

I may not have been blogging a lot due to pain from my fall and feeling like absolute crap, which caused me to reschedule the MRI was supposed to have yesterday, but I would hop on, check out the work forums, read some blog feeds, check out Twitter, and so the drama was kinda unavoidable.

There was the battle of the bloggers who went to some blogging convention, and 1 mother whose baby was at home and she forgot her breast pump, breastfed another mother's baby who was hungry.
Accusations were thrown out about drug abuse, HIV, and some other stuff, but apparently the 2 mothers in question had spoken about it, questioned each other, asked questions about health issues, drug use, etc, and so they felt it was ok to do this.
It may not be something that I would do, or you would do, but breastfeeding mothers know about this sort of thing and so they did it.
It really angered some people, a lot of nasty things were said, feelings hurt, and the blogger's readers on both sides went out and left comments on the other bloggers posts, which creates even more drama.
After reading it all, I was like *phew*, so glad I am so not a part of this stuff, glad I don't go to these blogging conventions where people are there to learn about blogging, and making money, and being the best blogger possible, but it turns out to just be 1 giant gossip fest ya know?
Every single time people go to these things and then come home and blog about it, there's always some drama to be had.
Someone breastfed another mother's baby, someone got too drunk for someone else liking, someone cried, someone ate too much for someone else liking, someone sat with or talked to a blogger that someone else doesn't like, gossip, gossip, gossip.
If I ever went to one of these things, I'd be the woman sitting out on the patio furniture smoking and drinking, just watching it all.
I would be far removed from it, not talking about it, in no way shape or form any part of it at all, because I absolutely hate it when people do this kind of stuff.
By "stuff" I mean, put their opinions and lifestyles onto other people, expect other people to live exactly as they do, behave exactly as they do.
People are different, we all live differently, and I for one am glad for it.
What a boring world it would be if we were all the same way.

*yum. I have a big piece of pink cotton candy. *

I do find myself sitting and judging people sometimes too, I am far from perfect, but I try so hard to not be mean about it, I try to be constructive.
I failed at it this time.
A woman fooled around with a man who doesn't even live in her country, he only goes there to play in his extreme sport and womanize.
The woman admits this, she knew what kind of man he was, she also admits that she wasn't on any birth control.
She and the man decided to fool around anyway knowing the risks, and yup, she got pregnant, he doesn't want anything to do with her or his child, and while I do support her, I do know what it's like to be a single parent, been doing this on my own for 16 years this coming June, all I could think (and say) was wow, that was stupid.
It was 1 of those gut instinct comments, it came out, I said it, no excuses at all, I did say it, because well, it was, stupid.
Other people call it careless, and so yeah, if we're going to go with that word, it was very, very careless.

We've all (women) made some stupid mistakes before when it comes to men.
We've been drawn to those bad boys, we've all had unprotected sex at some point in our lives with someone we shouldn't have, and a few weeks later, we are all greatful when Aunt Flo comes to visit.
We can all say after the fact how stupid it was, and when I read her story in her own words, I saw the warning signs, she had known him for 5 years, had known that he's a womanizer and sleeps around, hated the fact that he was a total womanizer, even told herself to stay away from him, but in the end decided to fool around with him anyway knowing full well that she wasn't on the birth control pill.
After the fact, we can all say things like, well, knowing what she did about him and his ways, and knowing for herself that she wasn't on birth control, why did she fool around with him without some other form of protection for 5 whole days?
There are many other methods of birth control out there, the easiest being condoms, which would have not only been some sort of protection against the pregnancy, but also against STDs, which according to her, were a very real possibility because she admits he was a total dog, slept around, a complete womanizer.
That fact alone sent shivers up my titanium spine.
A man she knew who slept around with a lot of women, she slept with him with ZERO protection for herself against any diseases he may be carrying around, not just zero protection against pregnancy for 5 whole days of very careless sex, but nothing, nada, zilch, zippo, nothing to protect her from anything he may have had.
And people said to me, well you know how guys are about condoms, it's a battle.
And I said I know, but no glove, no love, especially with a guy who is a known womanizer.
All I can think is eww, gross, ack, awful, how could she?!
And that is how I failed.
Instead of being sympathetic to her plight of now being a single mother, I judged her behavior and actions.
I think the whole reason I judged is because it wasn't just a 1 time, 1 night fling with this dog, it was 5 whole days of unprotected sex with this dog, totally careless, stupid, irresponsible behavior for 5 whole days.
Part of me can see the 1 night "ooopsie', because oops, many, many years ago, long before I was married and had kids, I had a couple of 1 night ooopsies, but never a 5 day spree of oopsies.
I do feel for her, I am sorry that she is now a single mother, it's hard, it's the hardest job I've ever had, I do wish her all of the best, and just like the rest of us single parents out here, she will get through this, it will be hard, but she can and will do it, she has to, she now has a tiny little person depending on her to do it.

But I still failed at being constructive, failed at not judging, and so I am not perfect, I am not immune from the "blog drama" at all.
I left a couple of comments on a blog post that was already full of drama, and I threw my 2 cents in the hat.
I have apologized for offending her and anyone else who may have read or will read my words, but I still feel like it was a very careless, very stupid, big bad ooopsie, with a man who was a known womanizing dog for 5 whole days.

Kat posted at 06:26 PM on March 12, 2009 || Comments (7) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

March 10, 2009

FCAT, tests, and vacations.

Sebastian has FCAT testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then he can stay home Friday because the higher grades have FCAT testing that day, and the teachers have nothing at all for any of the other students in any other grades to do.
That's pretty stupid in my opinion.
It's not like his grade teachers will be doing the testing for the higher grades, so why are there no lessons planned for Friday?
Oh I know, it's because the less students they have in school, the less work they have to do, so they told their students that they don't have to come in on Friday because there will be nothing to do because the higher grades are testing and the school needs to be quiet while they test.
Yuh.
Suuuuure.
Mark is basically finished, so he doesn't have to go to school at all Tuesday and Wednesday, and Friday.
Why he has to go Thursday, I have no idea.

In other news, my brother, niece and nephew, and sister-in-law, Jenna, have booked their upcoming Orlando vacations for this year.
Jenna has MS, and I blogged in the 2007 blogathon for The Montel Williams MS Foundation, and raised a decent chunk of money basically, because of her.
I saw her go from a vibrant working mom with a ton of energy, to a vibrant mom who gets super tired, has really bad days, has days where the effects of the MS completely wipe her out.
She was diagnosed 12 years ago and is now in the secondary progressive stage, but you wouldn't know it talking to her.
She loves life, she lives it, and that's why she's always going and doing as much as she can every single day.
When making their vacation plans, she worked closely with her travel agent, made sure that every bit of their trip would be handicap accessible, they will have someone at the airports to assist with changeovers and transfers, their hotel room will have a roll-in shower, and she made sure that every question she asked, she got an answer to.
I know that they will have a great time on their vacation because Jenna took the time to organize and plan, wrote all of her questions down, asked those questions, made sure that her travel agent knew exactly what her needs were going to be on every part of their trip, and that those needs will be met.
I hope to be able to see them when they come in October, I'm not super far from Orlando, but depending on when my surgery is, recovery and all of that jazz, I don't know if I'll be able to meet up with them.
My sister might be able to take the teens, but we'll have to wait and see if I can go too.

Kat posted at 02:22 AM on March 10, 2009 || Comments (3) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

March 4, 2009

Maybe someday again.

I have a friend through my blog, Kelli, who was asking me just the other day about ellipticals and which ones were the best in my opinion.
Well the only one I have ever used for any length of time is the one I own, and it's a Nordictrack, and I love it.
I haven't been able to use it since June 2008, but man, I freaking loved it when I could use it every day.
I was doing so well, I was working out for an hour every single day, I was losing weight, I was toning up my leg and arm muscles, as well as my back muscles which definitely need to be toned up and worked on.
I was having massive pain in my left shoulder for months, and while searching for the answer as to why, they found that whole thing wrong with my neck, told me I absolutely had to stop working out, and that I had to have surgery ASAP.

I do hope to get back to my elliptical someday soon though, I plan on asking my surgeon about it when I see him on the 25th, asking him if after this next neck surgery, if I'll ever be able to use it again, because honestly, the elliptical was the only real exercise other than walking, that i have been able to do since my first spine surgery in February 2006.
It's the best too, I loved it, I really did love it, still do love it, miss it, so I hope that he'll say after the next surgery, that I'll be able to use it again.

Kat posted at 10:38 PM on March 4, 2009 || Comments (3) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

March 4, 2009

Stressful days just fly by don't they?

I've had one of those days where the stress level has been so high that I've totally forgotten to eat anything at all.
I don't need to buy diet pills when I'm just a huge ball of stress, I completely forget to eat!

Why have I been so stressed out today?
Because a nosy busybody has been reading my blog and taking extremely innocent posts that I've written, and totally twisted them around to hurt a family member.
I had to stop this from happening, so I spent a better part of the day learning how to block an entire range of ip addresses using .htaccess.
I can't go into any details just in case I didn't do the .htaccess right, I won't know for a few days I suppose, I'll have to watch my stats and see if the person is still getting through, but I do know that blocking that whole range has blocked someone else out.
But it was the only way that I could do it, and I hope that the other person will understand.
Nasty, cruel people bother me, and this has had me so upset today, a totally innocent post, not having anything to do with anyone at all, was twisted around so maliciously, and intently, to hurt someone close to me.

My family member understands that this is my blog, my place to write and vent, share the good and the bad, they don't want me to change anything at all that I do here, so I had to find a way to stop this vile person, and I so hope that it works, I really do, because the thought of them reading any more of my posts and using them against anyone else, or taking any more innocent stories and twisting them around to become horrible and terribly untrue stories, makes me sick to my stomach.
I'm so sick and stressed over this I couldn't eat if I wanted to right now.
Just please let it work.

Kat posted at 03:52 PM on March 4, 2009 || Comments (3) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

March 1, 2009

It's my birthday! Jenn's the winner!

There was a total of 515 entries including all of the bonus entries, in my celebrate my birthday contest, and Random.org chose comment number 144, which was Jenn!
Congrats Jenn!

I have already emailed Jenn, she has 48 hours to respond or I'll have to draw another winner.
Katy and Gem Affair will mail out the necklace to Jenn as soon as we get her address.

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was by far the biggest amount of entries in one of my contests ever, a great turnout.

Kat posted at 10:37 AM on March 1, 2009 || Comments (7) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

February 22, 2009

NuWave Pro Oven product review.

Like I posted yesterday, I received the Nuwave Pro Oven as a gift from some friends, and I used it to cook our dinner tonight.

I had a really good reason to test it out tonight, we had a bit of an accident here at the house.
I had posted to Twitter how good I was feeling so I was going to do some house cleaning.
It's been awhile since I've felt good, so I wanted to do all of the dishes, the laundry, and vac the carpets.
Within minutes of posting that, the bathroom flooded, which subsequently had spread to the back bathroom and hallway.
The landlord is trying to fix up the duplex apartment next door after the old neighbors moved out about 6 months ago.
He's had to do an insane amount of work, they really trashed the place.
He had torn up the carpets and decided to never put any back down again after what they let their pets do to every full room of carpet in there so no other tenants do that again, and today, he decided to power-wash the terrazzo flooring in there.
He hooked up the power washer to the sink or tub faucet in the bathroom, and proceeded to wash the floors, suck it all up in a wet vac, and he dumped it all down the toilet drain and then left.
This old duplex is still on septic, it can't handle that much water going down the toilet that fast, and so, it all backed up into our side of the duplex.
I spent the entire afternoon soaking up water with towels and then doing all of laundry, having to wash all of those towels.
So by the time the teens and I had finished cleaning the house, it was nearing dinner time and I was no longer physically feeling so great.
My back, neck and shoulders were fried, and not to mention, I was so busy cleaning up the watery mess, I had forgotten to thaw out the frozen chicken breasts for dinner.

The NuWave Pro Oven says that it can cook from frozen in less time than thawed or fresh, in a regular oven, so I decided to test drive it tonight.
It's all digital, you just place your food inside, check the chart for cooking times, set the temperature and time, click start, and it cooks your food.

I got it all set up and placed the frozen chicken breasts on the cooking rack making sure the drip pan was beneath, and set the cooking temperature to high power (350degrees) which was 1 button, set the time for 16 minutes which was 3 buttons, and clicked 1 button to start.
A total of 5 button pushes to make dinner.

Within just 3 minutes, they were thawed and starting to cook!

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They were starting to turn a nice golden color at about 8 minutes.

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And just like the infomercial says, all of the fat and grease drips off of the food and into the drip pan below, making your food healthier because it's not sitting in it's own grease.

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At 16 minutes, they were completely cooked all of the way through, but the teens wanted some BBQ sauce on them, so I opened up the NuWave, poured some on, and set it to cook again for just another 3 minutes to bake the yummy sauce onto the chicken breasts.

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I made a side of Pasta Roni fettuccine alfredo to go with it, and wow, it was so good!

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When the infomercial says that your food cooks in less time, has less fat and grease, and the meat is tender and moist, they are NOT lying.
The chicken breasts were so full of flavor, they were tender and juicy, and was definitely done in far less time than if I had cooked it in a regular oven.
If I had cooked them in the oven, it would have taken about 45 minutes, the whole house would have gotten hot, I would have had to bend over and keep checking to see if they were done, which stresses my neck and back out, turn them over so both sides could get brown, and then I would have had the baking sheet to clean up which is always a mess after making anything with BBQ sauce.
BBQ sauce sticks to the baking sheet something fierce, and I usually end up having to soak it for about an hour or two in order to get it totally clean.

When dinner was over, it was time to clean up and wash the NuWave.
It was SO easy to clean!
The top dome comes off of the digital cooking head simply by turning it counter clockwise, and the dome itself doesn't get dirty because the food didn't splatter at all, it simply had some condensation in it, so I just rinsed it out under the faucet head.

The drip pan was also super easy to clean, just a few wipes around with my dish stick, and all of the fat, grease, and BBQ sauce drippings just came right off.
No sticky mess!

The baking rack was also wicked, wicked easy to clean because I had given it a light spray of no-stick cooking spray, so again, just a few wipes over the rack grids with the dish stick, and it was totally clean.

Overall, the NuWave Pro Oven is awesome!
It is super easy to use, cooks in less time than the regular oven, really easy to clean, and the food comes out moist and full of flavor, just really, really great.
I absolutely love it and can see us using this for everything that we would normally cook in the oven.
It is so easy to use that the teens will not have any problems at all learning how to cook with it, so when I do go in for my surgery and begin recovering at home, they will be able to eat food that is good for them.
No more take out, junk food, no more microwave meals, no more cold lunch meat sandwiches or subs every night for months on end, they will be eating good and tasty food that they cooked themselves.

Kat posted at 11:06 PM on February 22, 2009 || Comments (10) || Link || Product reviews

February 21, 2009

Friends, food, and cooking.

I have had a day here and I can't stop crying.
Ok, I sorta can.
I've been crying off and on since this morning over all kinds of things.
I'm like a pressure cooker right now, slowly letting out steam every 20 minutes or so.
A few days ago, I blogged about all of the stress and other things building up in me, my lost trust in people, my lost faith in people, I felt like I was losing my mind.
I still do sorta feel that way.
It's just one thing after another, all of the little and big things keep piling onto all of the things I already am trying to deal with.

Today though, some of my faith in people has been restored.
Through kindness and generosity, true caring from friends, and that set me off crying again.

The teens and I walked to the store late this afternoon, and when we returned home, we found this big huge box at the front door.
My son Mark brought it in, we put all the groceries away, and then I opened it.
It was the NuWave oven I've been wanting to get to help make it easier for my sons to cook and eat good food while I'm having surgery and after.
After both of my last surgeries, they ate nothing but junk food, microwave food, take out, cold lunch meat sandwiches day after day for months, except for a few meals that Mindy brought over, and a few times that my sister stopped by with some stuff that didn't need any cooking too.
The teens fear getting burned by the regular oven, they are getting a little better about it, but they still are afraid to reach in and take out hot items.

There was no card inside the box, only a packing slip with one person's name on it, so I emailed her and asked her why as well as to say thank you.
I asked why because I know that when I blogged about losing my trust and faith in people, I had written even friends I usually could trust and talk to, and I know that it hurt her.
I was in such a bad place last week, I was angry, hurt, felt betrayed, and I lashed out at everyone, and I know that was wrong, but shutting down and shutting off from everyone was the easiest way for me to handle what I was dealing with.
I didn't know any other way to deal with it than just shutting down and blocking everyone out until I could sort it all out.
I did apologize to the close friends who I know I hurt with my words, but I was and still am, feeling very badly about hurting them simply because I couldn't figure out how to deal with any of what was happening.

But the NuWave wasn't just from her, about 12 people all pitched in and bought it for me and the teens, to help us all out when I have the next surgery, so the teens will be able to eat real food, not all of the junk food and microwave crap that they ate after both of my last surgeries.
I would link to them all, but I don't know if they want me to do that, they know who they are, but I want to say thank you and thank you, and thank YOU, and thanks to the woman who thought the whole plan up, contacted others and got it all going.
It was wicked nice of her to be thinking of me, wanting to do something to not only cheer me up, but also help the teens and I after the next surgery so they will be able to eat better and easier.

It is the NuWave Oven Pro, the exact one that I wanted, it came with all of the things that the infomercial and website says it does.
The instructional DVD, the pizza flipper, 25 recipe cards, 2 recipe booklets, the extender ring kit, 2 cooking racks, a round baking pan, and the Twister blender.
I can't wait to try it all out, I'm sure I'll do a product review of it, I love kitchen gadgets as most people know, and this really is going to help make it so much easier for the teens to cook good meals for themselves after my next surgery and during my recovery.
It's not big and scary like the oven, fits perfectly on the counter top, and from reading the instruction manual, seems very easy to use.

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Kat posted at 11:05 PM on February 21, 2009 || Comments (9) || Link || Friends

February 17, 2009

Migraine migraine go away.

All day long I've been dealing with a massive migraine, it's probably from not sleeping all night, but I did sleep today.
I went to sleep on the couch around 9am all wrapped up in Sebastian's big and cuddly Sferra comforter, for about 4 hours or so, woke up at 1pm.
I took my pain meds and decided to try and sleep off the migraine, but it was still with me when I woke up.

I'm still working on getting all of the contest entries numbered and published, so if you are looking at the comments and don't see yours yet, it will be posted soon unless you didn't follow the 1st rule.
A lot of people are not doing the very simple 1st rule, and sorry, if you can't follow the entry rules, you won't be entered.
I also have to clean up some of the contest entries, people decided to number them themselves, or say things like +5 for doing a blog post, yet they don't even have a blog, and others are numbering their own +5 for subscribing to my RSS feed, yet they didn't actually subscribe.
I can check it ya know. *wink*
It seems there are people who will do anything to try and win even if that means cheating on the entry rules.
I'm checking each and every entry, verifying everything, so don't say you follow me on Twitter if you really didn't, or follow me long enough to think I verified it, then un-follow me.
Those entries won't count folks!

Ok, off to do more work and verifying entries.
Later days.

Kat posted at 07:03 PM on February 17, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

February 16, 2009

Converter box coupon exchange program.

The government estimates that there are still about 6.5million households in the US who are not ready for the digital tv switch.
They don't have cable or satellite tv, can't afford it, and they don't have a digital tv, can't afford 1 of those either, and now the government has run out of money to supply those households with a digital converter box coupon.
The households who received their coupons but they expired due to retailers running out of the digital converter boxes, will be able to get a replacement coupon, but not until the program receives more funding.

The DTV Delay Act will allow the Coupon Program, upon request, to offer replacement coupons for those which have expired without being redeemed. However, this program change will not take effect until the Coupon Program receives additional funding.
For this reason, the Coupon Program cannot accept requests to replace lost, stolen or expired coupons at this time.

Retrevo wants to help match up people who need coupons, with those who received the 2 they were offered through the digital converter box coupon program, but didn't use both of them.

Here's how it works;

It's very simple, if you have an extra coupon that you are willing to mail to someone or have them pick up, provide us with your email address and zip code and we'll hook you up with someone who needs one. If you need a coupon just give us your email address and zip code and we'll try and connect you with someone who has an extra coupon.

What will they do with your information?
We will need to share your email address with the person donating a coupon or the person needing a coupon, so the two of you can make arrangements to exchange the coupon i.e. mail or pick up. Other than this one person, we will not sell or share your information.

The coupons are for the value of $40, and the digital converter boxes cost between $50-$90.
There are many people who simply cannot afford to spend the full amount on the converter boxes, the government knows this, plus, this whole switch to digital is their idea, they are forcing it on everyone because they need the analog signals for emergency broadcasting across the country.
Basically, they need the analog signals for public safety communications such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads.
They will also auction off some of the analog spectrum to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband).

Tomorrow, February 17th 2009, was supposed to be the deadline, the full switch over was supposed to happen, but because so many households are not ready, the government has delayed the switch until June 12th 2009, so that everyone (hopefully) will be ready, and you can help.

If you applied for and received your 2 $40 digital converter box coupons but only used 1, don't need the other 1, you can go to Retrevo and enter in your name, email address, and zip code, and they will match you up with someone in your area who needs 1, and put them in contact with you so the 2 of you can make arrangements to either mail them the coupon or meet somewhere to pick it up.
You'd be helping someone get ready for the mandatory switch so that they can still watch tv after June 12th without having to try and come up with the money for a brand new digital tv, or have to spend a lot of money every month for cable or satellite service.
_______________________________

Since hooking up the digital antenna to the outside of my house and to the converter box, we are able to watch the digital tv stations which are in full digital broadcast already.
We have about 8 different PBS stations now, our local channel 8 NBC, comes in crystal clear, and they also have an added channel, 8 Prime, which is all retro tv shows, which is kinda cool.
We have 3 Fox channels, 2 CW channels, 4 ION channels, and 2 channels that broadcast childrens programming 24 hours a day.
We do have 1 ABC station out of Tampa, so I can still watch Desperate Housewives and some of our other fave shows.

We still cannot pick up any of the CBS stations, and WWSB ABC 7 is STILL NOT broadcasting a full digital signal, and their weak signal which they are broadcasting in, doesn't work either.
It still cannot be picked up by the converter boxes, and cable customers are still reporting it as coming in very badly when it does come in, but some cable customers cannot pick it up at all.
WWSB ABC 7 had this to say on February 5th, and nothing new has been said to the viewers since that date;

FYI - ABC 7 in Sarasota is only temporarily broadcasting its digital signal at a lower power. This is expected to last for a couple of weeks until some technical and mechanical issues get resolved. This process was approved by the FCC. However, now that the government has since pushed the digital transition date back several months, the entire situation is up in the air. Stay tuned for further developments on this situation. In the meantime, the top stories of every ABC 7 newscast are available for viewing on the Local News page of mysuncoast.com.

So basically, WWSB ABC 7, is going to continue delaying broadcasting in full power until June 12th.
Each station has the option of going to full digital power as of tomorrow, or waiting until June.
They (WWSB ABC 7) are still working on their digital transmission towers, they aren't done with it, and broadcasters have known about the switch since 1996, and were told to begin their digital switch in 2005.
They have had 4 years to finish the transmission towers, and they still aren't done.
They will be lucky if they still have viewers and advertisers when they do start the full power signal.
I have to wonder if any of their advertisers even know that customers cannot watch the station at all, so advertisers are basically spending money for nothing, no one can see their commercials.

Kat posted at 09:58 PM on February 16, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Entertainment

February 15, 2009

Snackage, money, and diamonds.

These Chex Mix chocolate chunk snack bars are awesomely tasty.

I bought them because they were on sale and I had a $1 off coupon, so I only paid $1.50 for them,
I would never have bought them otherwise, no matter how much Sebastian begged me to get them.
When he saw them on sale today, and then he dug through my coupon envelope, he said; "Mom, you gotta, you said if they were ever on sale you'd buy them, plus you have a coupon. Pleeeease?"
So I bought the 1 box, and they really are pretty tasty.
I don't like regular Chex snack mixes, they are too dry and have some weird stuff in them, but these have chocolate, and chocolate makes everything taste better.

I didn't do too bad shopping today, I saved $87.50 using coupons and in-store specials, and sale flier coupons.
I would have liked to have done a little bit better, but eh, that wasn't too bad.
My total bill before the coupons was $226.50, and I got it down to just $139.00.
__________________________________

I am slowly working on numbering the entries for the contest, to make it easier when I draw the winning comment number on March 1st.
So far, there are 109 comments, but not all of them are entries, there are a few comments from myself and Katy from Gem Affair, so I'm only numbering the actual entries.
You can still enter to win the diamond necklace, so go leave me a comment and enter to win!

Ok, off to number some more entries, (I only got up to #50 last night) and then read some blogs and stuff.
No school tomorrow so we can all sleep in.
The teens are wicked excited about that especially after having to carry home a ton of groceries today.
The cloth grocery bags were loaded to the top and wicked heavy, but we all made it back home in 1 piece despite the teens saying they felt like their arms were going to fall off.

Kat posted at 08:34 PM on February 15, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

February 14, 2009

Just kidding!

The last few days have been pretty stressful for me, I've been shown, once again, that there are people who are just terrible human beings.
I don't sleep much anyway, been battling insomnia for years, but the last few days, I've barely slept at all, barely ate at all.
Who needs diet pills when you are so stressed out and sickened that you can't even eat.

I have lost trust in people, I don't know who to trust, who not to trust, I am lost.
I am hurt, angry, feeling completely betrayed, and I have this absolutely horrible pit-of-my-stomach sick feeling that someone pretending to be my friend, is a part of what happened.

I know that by blogging, by being online, I have put myself in this position of being a target, but at the same time, I always try to believe that people will be good to each other, treat each other right, fairly.
People often tell me that I shouldn't put so much trust in people because most people are only in it for themselves, would trample you in a heartbeat to get for themselves, that I shouldn't take anyone's word for anything, that people are liars, thieves, just all around rotten people.
But I always want to see the best in people, I always want to look past whatever mistakes people have made, and try to find the good in them.

But now?
No, I can't do that anymore.
I *know* I am being lied to by someone who is claiming to be a friend, there's just too many coincidences in timing, in things said, in their behavior, and it really saddens and angers me that they were a part of this plan to hurt me.
I have lost all trust in people, I am completely lost here.

I am also very upset with myself, to be feeling this angry and having intense feelings of revenge.
I am NOT a mean person, I am not the type to seek out revenge, intentionally hurt people, but I am feeling that way and I hate it.
I hate that I feel like this, I hate that someone spent almost 2 years hating on me because I post a lot, post to my blog, post to forums, and when push came to shove, they claimed it was all a joke, "Ha ha, just having some fun, never meant to hurt you, just kidding Kat, just playing around."
Just kidding for almost 2 years?
I don't think so.
You can't have all that hate for someone for that long, and then turn around and call it a joke when the center of your hatred finds out and handles it through legal means.

I talk a lot, I post a lot, sorry if that bothers people, and if it bothers them now, just wait.
The revision surgery I'll be having may make it so that I can't speak at all for a minimum of 3 months.
I'll have a trach tube in my throat, and a feeding tube in my stomach.
I won't be able to eat, drink, or speak.
I won't be able to even talk to my own sons for months, all communication even within my own home, will be done through text.
I have a lot going on, and maybe that's why after several emails back and forth last night, they took it all down, they removed everything they said, they felt guilty for doing it, but still, calling it all a joke, a 2 year long joke?
No, you don't get to play that card.
And you don't get to call yourself my friend.

Kat posted at 02:21 PM on February 14, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

February 12, 2009

My morals are good thanks.

I want to get away, or maybe send other people away, maybe to the Outer Banks or the far outer limits of space where they freeze up and die a painful death.

I just don't understand people sometimes and it frustrates me.
I don't understand the violence and abuse people do to each other, the neglect, the hatred, the killings, any of it.
I don't get it.

I'm often accused, because I'm an atheist, that I live my life without morals, that simply because I don't believe in a god, that I must believe in doing whatever I want whenever I want, hurt people, steal, kill, cheat on my significant other, all kinds of things, simply because I don't believe in a god.

But I do live my life better than most people do.
I don't lie, cheat, steal, kill, I don't intentionally harm others, I don't just live my life freely doing whatever I want whenever I want, I actually take other people into consideration.
I consider their feelings before saying or doing anything.
I spend countless hours worried about other people, wondering if they are ok, wanting to help them in some way, not just a thought or prayer saying I'm thinking of them, but really wanting to help if it's within my abilities to do so.
And it bothers me so much when other people don't, when all they care about is themselves, when they don't care who they hurt or trample on in an effort to the make themselves feel better.

I've spent hours tonight being hurt, being greatly upset by the actions and statements of others.
I try so hard to be a good person, to help people.
Sure, I talk a lot, I can't help it.
I've been unable to work outside the home since 2001, my kids are at school all day, I have no spouse or significant other to talk to, my blogs, the internet, forums, are ways for me to talk to people, so I am not so alone, not feeling so alone, and there are some out there who see that as a great fault, as something to attack me over, and say other things about me.
But it does bother me, and if that's what they were hoping to accomplish, I hope they are happy, that they will sleep better knowing they hurt someone.
I am upset tonight, hurt, but tomorrow, after I get home from the docs, I am going to do what is needed to put an end to it.
I allow myself some time to go through all of the emotions, and right now I'm a combo or hurt and angry, but mostly angry, and mostly determined to fight this crap.

It's all just so wrong, and it's cowardly, it's petty and childish.

Kat posted at 01:04 AM on February 12, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Religion

February 11, 2009

Working on my taxes.

I'm working on getting my tax stuff all sorted out.
I've finally separated the 2009 receipts from the 2008 receipts, and now I just need to get all of my prescription receipts printed out.
Most of the receipts in my 2008 taxes box, are for prescriptions and doctors appointments.
All of that medical stuff can be written off, so I need to get everything printed to make it as easy as possible to get my taxes done.

Walgreen's allows you to print your payment receipts for prescriptions from home over the internet from their site, so I printed those out, but I've also used a few different branches of Walgreen's, and for some reason, they are not included in the ones I printed out last night.
And then there's the other pharmacies I've used, so I need to physically go to each of them and ask them to use their receipt printer to print out all of my 2008 prescription receipts.

Hey, all of that stuff is a tax write off, and considering how many meds I take and how much they cost, you can bet your butts that I'll be printing them all out and writing them off to get a decent tax return.

Kat posted at 01:09 PM on February 11, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

February 9, 2009

Celebrate my birthday contest!!

**EDIT**
Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm EST Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.
_____________________

My birthday is coming up on March 1st, and I want to celebrate and share my birthday fun with my readers.
So, I'm having a contest to give 1 lucky reader a present from me and Gem Affair, to help celebrate the big 39.
Yup, I'm going to be 39 this year, I'm seriously thinking this will be the last birthday I acknowledge, at least publicly.
I'm not growing old as gracefully as I had hoped, and just thinking about my body getting worse with old age, makes me cringe.

So anyway, I want to celebrate it up big and I want to share my special day with you.
Katy and Gem affair have so awesomely agreed to be my contest sponsor.
The winner will be selected randomly using random.org, and this is what 1 lucky reader will win.
It's a diamond two-piece oval pendant with an 18-inch chain.

It comes packaged beautifully in a gift box, and will be shipped directly to you from Gem Affair, it will be gift wrapped and include a note.**

I won 1 of the Twitter contests that Gem Affair had, and I absolutely LOVE the diamond journey pendant that I won.
It is sooo beautiful, and it fits me perfectly both in actual fit and style.

So now that you know what the prize of my celebrate my birthday contest is, here's what you need to do to win!
For each 1 of these that you do, you NEED to leave a SEPARATE comment for each.
Each 1 of these equals 1 entry, but the first one is a must do.
The more you do, the more chances of winning you have!

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. Please give me your username so I can verify.
4. Follow me on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.
5. Follow Gem Affair on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.

EDITED**
For 5 additional entries for each, do one or both of the following, and leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do, I will add your +5 entries to your entries.

1. Blog about this on your blog linking back to me and 1 link to Gem Affair.com. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Subscribe to this blog using my RSS feed.

The winner will be drawn from all of the entries on Sunday March 1st, my birthday.
So come celebrate with me and you could win this beautiful diamond pendant!
The contest is open to both US and Canadian residents only.
______________________________________

So that I don't run into a snafu with my winner, and don't like being called a liar, thief, and criminal, here's the skinny:

Giveaway is open until midnight, February 28th, 2009.
Winner will be chosen at random and announced on March 1st, 2009.
Winner will be contacted by email and/or Twitter and will have 48 hours to respond.
Please use your real first name and a valid email address when entering.
I am not responsible for incorrect contact information.
You must respond from the email you used to enter in order to be eligible to win!
If I contact you through the email you used to enter, and it bounces back as invalid, I will choose a different winner, so please make sure that your information is correct.

Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.

Continue Reading �

Kat posted at 09:08 PM on February 9, 2009 || Comments (453) || Link || Holidays

February 6, 2009

Smooth Away product review.

I wrote up a review of the Smooth Away hair removal product on my other blog, so if you're interested in how it works, you can go to my other blog, KatScan, and check it out.

Kat posted at 07:08 PM on February 6, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Product reviews

February 6, 2009

I'm a kitchen geek.

Remember how I told you I won an 18-piece food storage container set from Rubbermaid and the Graco Baby Blog?

Well anyway, Lindsay Lebresco emailed and said she was sending them out, that it would here on Friday, today, and man, she's good!
They showed up this morning, FedEx delivered them right on perfect timing like Nixon watches keep perfect time.
I love it when companies keep their word and do things so perfectly and you get the things you ordered or won in this case, exactly when they say you will.

It also wasn't an 18-piece set, it turned out to be a 20-piece set.
18 regular pieces and 2 fruit and veggie crisper containers.

The fruit and veggie crisper containers come with a special vented lid and a special insert to help keep the food from turning brown and going bad.
There's 1 large and 1 medium lid and insert, and they fit into any of the large and medium containers.

All of the lids do snap together so you don't lose them, and the lids also snap to the bottom of the containers, making it super easy to store and stack them so none of them get misplaced.

It's a really great set, I love this kind of stuff, I know, I'm a total kitchen geek, so when it got here, I went in my cupboard where I keep all my storage containers, and tossed out all of the old, stained, lost lidded containers, and the lids with no containers, and put all of these in there.
They are all in the perfect graduated different sizes, but they all stick and stack together, so it's wicked easy to keep them in the cupboard above the stove.

So thanks again Newell Rubbermaid and Lindsay for holding the contest!

Kat posted at 05:34 PM on February 6, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Customer service

February 5, 2009

Masters in nursing from home.

I've had so much done to me medically, I know more medical terms and names of tests, and what all of those tests do, and had big huge surgeries, and know how all of them went step by step, that I know more than some of the doctors I've seen.
I've actually been in the ER and seen a few doctors who didn't even know that the things I've had done, could be done.

Since all of this stuff started, I've become rather interested in all of this medical stuff, mostly by need, because if a nurse or doctor didn't/doesn't know, I need to be able to explain it to them so they don't try and treat me the wrong way, do tests to me that I can't have done.

I think once you're in the medical profession, that you should constantly stay abreast on all of the latest medical advancements as you can, so that you can provide your patients with the best possible care.
At ST. Xavier's University, nurses can get their MS nursing degree, a masters of science in nursing, online.
In order to qualify, they must already have a bachelors degree from a regionally accredited college or university, for admission, but they can do this from home, on their time.
Nurses are very busy at their jobs, they probably see more patients than the doctors do, so they need to know a lot, but time to get an education and work at the same time is difficult.
That's why being able to do it online can help.
They can get their masters in nursing at their own pace, day or night, and then do one weekend of applied campus experience, and they will have their masters degree, make more money, and be able to help even more patients with their more advanced knowledge.

My surgeon's head nurse, Cindy, is currently getting her masters.
She works with him 5 days a week all day long, and then leaves at 3pm 3 days a week, to attend classes at USF right down the road from his offices.
She is doing this so that she is better prepared to handle all of his patients, be able to do more in the operating room, and take better care of the thousands of surgical patients they see every year.
I think it's pretty awesome that she is continuing her education like that, and if a college wasn't as close as it is, knowing that an online college is there to help her get her masters if she needed it, pretty cool.
I adore my surgeon and his whole team, so yeah, knowing that they are always on top of everything new in medicine and continuing to educate themselves, makes me feel a whole lot better when I have to get on that table again.

Kat posted at 11:02 PM on February 5, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

February 4, 2009

What to buy?!

Due to a mix-up and a misunderstanding on a purchase I made at an online retailer back in December, Buy.com's customer service department has been in touch with me regarding that purchase and the snafu.
It's a major long story, but Buy.com wanted to make sure that I was happy with my purchase and their company, which I am, I've been shopping with them since 2004.
So anyway, their customer service department sent me a gift certificate today for $30.00 to buy anything I want.
Yay!
So now the question is, what do I want to buy?!

I've been going through all of their weekly deals and sale items, and they have so many awesome items on sale, and at first I didn't think they had anything this week that I wanted, but then my friend Holly pointed out what she was getting from her husband for valentine's day, and now I'm all oooohhh, I want those too!

They are some Altec Lansing MUZX MHP 206 Stereo Earphones, some pretty little sparkly earbuds that I can use with my mp3 player.
Aren't they pretty?

They are normally $59.99, but Buy.com has them for just $17.99, so that's a savings of $41.96!
Yeuss!

They have precision-cut crystalized Swarovski elements in the jeweled flowers on the earbuds, and on the butterfly on the on the choker.
The "Snug fit" design provides passive noise reduction, which makes it so that you don't have to turn the volume up so high to get great sound quality.
They come with 3 different sized ear tips, small, medium, and large, so I'm sure to find 1 of the 3 that will fit my ears perfectly so they don't slip out when I'm moving around and going for walks like my current ear buds sometimes do.
And they got some great reviews too, so it looks like I'm making a good purchase, a good deal on the price, and they are not only beautiful, but have good sound quality as well.

Now I'm going to look around and find one more item to go with them so I can spend as close to the gift certificate amount as possible, and then I'm going to buy them.
When I get them, I'll be sure to let you know how they are and write my own review!

Kat posted at 09:22 PM on February 4, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Customer service

February 3, 2009

Live on a porch?

I've been not feeling too well the last few days, it was the weather affecting my joints and the titanium, and my body freaking out because of the rainy and cold weather, and it all was making me feel like I had the flu in a bad way.
I wasn't sleeping very well because of this, so when I did sleep, I had wicked bizarre dreams.

I had a dream that my landlord was selling this duplex, but he wanted to keep us as tenants because we've been living here for 11 years at this unit of the plex now, he likes us, trusts us, we're really good tenants.
So he had another property, it was a 2-story unit, and he had porch like apartments, all open floor plans, windows on all sides, super small efficiency kitchens, stand up showers, no bathtubs.
It was really weird, it was like they were porch apartments, all of the windows that went all the way around the big rooms, all had bamboo blinds on them, the light coming in was absolutely blinding to me.
I just couldn't see us living in one of these weird porch apartments.
I asked him if he had anything else, we do love him as a landlord, and he kept saying no, this was it, just give it a try, live here for a week and if we really hated it, he'd see what he could do.

Well after a week of completely open floor plans, no actual bedrooms or walls to separate us from each other, the cats all clawing and chewing on those blinds, I had had enough and had to get out of there.
He finally said that he just bought another duplex, the sale of this one we live in now went through, so he showed us the new duplex he bought, we loved it, and he rented it to us at the same price we pay now.
But it was soo much better than this one!
A one-story duplex, all brand new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, huge bedrooms, a huge bathroom, the master bedroom had it's own big bathroom and an enormous walk in closet, it was so much better and more beautiful than any house I've ever rented, and I was shocked that he was going to rent it at the same price we pay right now.
I must have asked him 3-5 times if he was sure on the price, and he kept saying yes, we're good tenants, he didn't want to lose us.

And then I woke up in a wicked sweat again, knees and ankles, as well as all of the joints in my hands just swollen and stiff, and I came out to the living room, looked out the front door window to see more rain, sighed and opened the door.
It was another windy, cold, and rainy day here in Sarasota, so I took one of the new pain pills, and laid down on the couch to try and sleep for another 15 minutes at a time again.

Kat posted at 08:26 PM on February 3, 2009 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

February 2, 2009

Do guys know how to shop for jewelry?

With Valentine's day quickly approaching, there's sure to be a lot of guys out there looking at rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, but do they know what to look for beyond that?

At Bella True, there's a whole section just for guys, to help them make a good decision when they go to buy jewelry.
There's a section that tells them what to give and when.
A section on the "Big 4", a section on engagement rings, rings for the "big day", a section to help them say I'm sorry when saying it isn't really enough, and special days, anniversaries, and shopping for gemstones.

A gift of jewelry does send a message, so guys need to make sure they're sending the right message.
You don't want to buy a ring that closely resembles an engagement ring if you're not thinking of getting married to her, or at least not married to her yet.

Guys also really need to know the woman they're with.
Is she the type that would love to rock a HUGE rock?
A recent conversation among some girls I know, produced the following statements about big engagement rings;
"I could wear a big ring for sure", and "I am all about a big ring, not gonna lie."
Some other girls said they would be totally happy with a small ring, or whatever their man chose for them as long as he picked it out himself.
A man who picks out the engagement ring himself, and truly knows his girl, will win her heart simply for the fact that he really knows her, her style, her likes, her finger size, her favorite colors and shapes, her favorite material like gold, sterling silver, platinum, white gold, and some girls are really liking the new titanium rings that some jewelry designers are producing.

Yes, guys, engagement ring center diamonds, can come in several different shapes.
There's round, princess, emerald, asscher, marquise, oval, radiant, pear, heart, and cushion.
So yeah, know her style, check out her rings that she wears all of the time, when you see a diamond or jewelry commercial come on the tv, find a way to ask her what shape she would love to have if she could have any diamond in any size, shape, and color she wants.
She more than likely has been thinking about it for a long time, so her answer will be easy to tell you.
Make a mental note if you think she's the one for you, and then when you get that feeling to 'pop the question', start digging out those mental notes to help you pick the perfect ring for her.

Jewelry can be for just about any occasion, but it usually does send the message that you are serious about this relationship, so be careful what you buy unless you're really looking to commit to her and your future.

I myself am the kind of woman who loves jewelry, but not into huge rings at all unless it's cheap costume jewelry.
I could never wear a huge diamond engagement ring on my hand for the rest of my life, I actually do things with my hands.
I'm not the 'dainty-get my nails done-wash dishes in the dishwasher-hire a maid for everything' type of woman, I actually enjoy working with my hands, so a big rock would simply get in my way, and it would be on my dresser or in a jewelry box most of the time.
A total waste if a man spent a lot of money on it.
I also prefer sterling silver jewelry far above gold.
Every time I see a gold necklace or gold ring, all I can think of is some big flashy gold digger type, a Guido, big fake boobs, a hairy chested, speedo wearing, fat Guido, so yeah, no gold jewelry for me, ever.

If I really had a choice in my ideal engagement ring, it wouldn't be a diamond at all.
I love the color of my birthstone, and would want that as my center stone.
This is beautiful, this would be perfect, very close to my ideal ring, unless of course I see a different aquamarine ring that I like better sometime, but this is really damn near perfection for me.
Totally my style, something I'd happily and proudly wear every single day, and even though it's not sterling silver, white gold is close enough.

It's far cheaper than a diamond engagement ring too, none of that two months salary thing needed to make me happy, if I was given this ring and asked, I'd be all "Dude, you totally get me! Of course!"

Overall, I think Bella True's Tips for Guys section is done really well.
The navigation is easy, the subjects are well thought out and thorough, and everything is explained in very simple terms so it makes shopping for jewelry by guys a whole lot easier.
The pricing they have is comparable to other online retailers of fine jewelry as well.
So if there's any guys out there looking for jewelry for this coming Valentine's day or that special day soon, check out Bella True, read the tips for guys section, and make a well informed choice for your purchase.

Kat posted at 12:31 AM on February 2, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Site reviews

January 30, 2009

Blogs, books, single parent dating.

I won a book from Ms. Single Mama's blog a few weeks ago, called Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex, and Love When You've Been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted, it came in today's mail, so I'll probably start reading it soon.
I really don't want to start dating anyone, no desire to, especially not with how my body currently is, more upcoming surgeries and stuff, it really wouldn't be fair to anyone, but it did get me thinking about all of that relationship stuff, "getting back in the saddle" as they say, and whether or not I even feel comfortable enough with my body to get naked again or even wear some sexy lingerie.
I have so many scars now, over 28 inches of scar running down my back, a 12 inch scar on my stomach just to the left of my belly button, a scar on my left butt cheek from the bone graft, and a scar under my right breast from the chest tube when my lung collapsed during surgery.
And then I think about the upcoming surgery, and all of the new scars that will be added.

Not exactly attractive ya know?

Anyway, I was on Twitter last night checking out what everyone was up to, noticed I had some new followers, so I went to check them out.
I check out every single new follower, I read their bios, I click on their links, check out their sites or blogs, whatever.
I came across one that sorta annoyed me, so no, I didn't add them back.
It was a Florida divorce attorney, sorry, too late, I'm already long divorced, but as I was checking them out, reading some of their tweets, I saw a word that was just like the final straw for me.
"Momflict."

I am so sick of these types of stupid words!
Momflict is NOT a word, conflict is, but no, momflict is not a real word, and I'm tired of seeing people use made up words to describe their or someone else mommy blogs or problems.
I see the stupidest words on people's blogs and on Twitter all of the time, made up words, and it annoys the crap outta me.
I get it, momflict, it was used to describe a problem a mom is having, but it's not a real word, and honestly, when people use these types of stupid made up words, I am immediately turned off.
I don't know why, maybe it makes me think they are stupid, they probably think they are being super clever or something, but it's not clever, it's stupid, and I refuse to add people who use stupid made up words.

Kat posted at 05:03 PM on January 30, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

January 30, 2009

Is there any hope?

The news has been so depressing lately, all the lost jobs, companies closing, people losing work and homes, and some people so desperate, they take their lives or the lives of their families.

I read that there's been something like 11 family murder-suicides since this whole thing started, and another one happened in Ohio the other day.
It seems the father's are falling apart, the men, the heads of households are crumbling under the weight of this crappy economy.
A father in Ohio shot his wife and 2 small kids, and then himself, over being unemployed but got his job back anyway.
Was the burden of the building debts far too much for him to deal with anymore?
That's what they're saying about the family out in California, that the father simply couldn't handle the amount of debts, and killed his 5 kids, wife, and then himself.

And then I'm surfing around today, and I see this site, Director of Fandemonium, it's a job search site, they say they have over 330,000 jobs, 100,000+ employers, so it got me thinking.
Are there really no jobs left out there?
Can a company say the have work, say they can help you find a job, if there really aren't any?
Are people panicking so badly that they don't even try to see if there's another job that they can do?
Is the stress of listening to the nightly news and reading the newspapers, which are laying people off left and right, just too much for people to deal with?

I watch the news every single night, and even though I don't own my home or have an outside the home job, I sit here watching with my heart racing, listening to Brian Williams tell it like it is, (with a little spin of course) and think to myself, no wonder people are freaking out, I'm freaking out.
All I can do, all any of us can do, is hope that things turn around and get better.
Soon.
I look at the new stimulus plan, and all I can think is how it's not going to work.
If you give people money in this economy, there will be some who spend it on frivolous crap, but most people, smart people, are going to hang onto that money, stick it in the bank, because things are way too bad to just go buy something that you don't really need, not when we're watching more and more companies laying people off and closing up shop.
And then I think, instead of taking our money and then findng ways to give it back to us to stimulate the economy, why not take less of our money, take less taxes away from us, let us keep more of our paychecks so that we have more money to pay our bills and buy things.
We'd be able to stimulate the economy naturally if we had more money from our paychecks to do what we need to do.

I've been told that's crazy thinking, that the liberals see handing people more money is far easier to do than to take less away from us.
That just doesn't make sense, my brain doesn't register that as a logical thing to do at all.
Take more money away, then give us more money that they took away because they all screwed up and realize that they need to give us more money.
Just take less away from us to start with, and there will be none of this taking and giving back.

Kat posted at 02:32 PM on January 30, 2009 || Comments (3) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

January 29, 2009

Spinning my wheels.

I feel like I have just been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast for the last few weeks.
Everything always happens in groups when it happens around here.
My life is basically boring, it's generally the same thing day in and day out, but once 1 thing happens, every other possible thing that can happen, happens.

As I've posted about, Sebastian has been getting some really severe migraines.
The medicine to try and help control them, Fiorinal, isn't really helping him all that much.
He's supposed to take 1 every 6 hours as needed for the migraines, but they don't last a full 6 hours, so I called the doc and he said he can take 1 every 4 hours as needed, but no more than that.
Well they still don't help him much, they wear off rather quickly, but if he could take them at school, maybe he'd be ok.
The problem with that is the school's zero tolerance policy against drugs, even prescribed drugs, they said he cannot have them at school.
Not even in the nurse's office with her dispensing them as he needs them.
They do not allow any type of narcotics, even prescribed ones, to be on school property at all.
Heck, students aren't even allowed to have Tylenol at school.
I argued with the school nurse for over an hour on Tuesday morning when they called to tell me they were sending him home due to his migraines.
We went back and forth over the issue, it's a prescribed medication, he has a script, a note from the doctor, he has to take them, he will be seeing a neurologist after February 16th, please, please, make an exemption, or tell me who I have to speak to about getting an exemption.
They said I'd have to take it up with both the principal, and possibly even the school board, if the principal feels the medication is too strong.

Here's what Fiorinal is:
Aspirin, Butalbital, and Caffeine.
That's it, that's all that's in it, but because the main ingredient is in a class called barbiturates, the school will not allow him to have them.
If he takes even 1 pill to school in his pocket (because they won't allow them in the nurse's office under her supervision and dispersion) to take when a migraine comes on, and he gets caught taking it, he will definitely be suspended, and possibly expelled due to their zero tolerance policy.
Even though he has a prescription and they will not let him have them in an adult's care.
It makes me absolutely furious that he is suffering and has medication that helps somewhat, yet they will not allow him to have or take them as medically prescribed.
So tomorrow, I'm going to call his doctor and see if he can help me force the school to allow him to have his medicine when he needs it.

The way they are handling it is, if his migraines come on and get too bad for him, to where he's putting his head down, near tears from pain, they are simply sending him home so he can take his medicine at home, but not allowing him to return for the rest of the day.
He's sent home, so it's an excused absence, but how ridiculous is it that they would prefer to send a student home for the day rather than give them their prescribed medications?!?!

Today I had my appointment with my surgeon, and once again, it's all really overwhelming news, more than I even want to think about, but I have about 2 months to think and decide how I want to proceed.
My quality of life now verses a possibly even more degenerated medical state, or a possibly better medical state.
But we won't really know the total risk percentages until a few more specialists have been spoken to, ideas talked about, all of the pros and cons gone over with a fine tooth comb.

But man, getting there today was the pits.
We (Mindy and I) left here at noon, usually takes about an hour and 30 or so minutes to get there, but I blinked and missed the exit which caused us to be just 2 exits off, but with no turn around area, and in a city that does not have cross over roads to get back to where we needed to be.
So I called people for help with directions.
I called my sister who got us much closer, then I tried to call my friend Jimmy who drives a truck for a living and knows that area of Tampa/Hillsborough/Pinellas County/McMullen Booth Road very well, and when he didn't answer, I tried another friend who lives out in the Wesley Chapel area and drives to and from the Tampa area all of the time, only to have him text me rather than call me back, and then when did, he said he never travels on McMullen Booth Road because it's "scary."
So then I called my friend Tina, who practically lives near my surgeons office, drives to and from work up and down McMullen Booth Road twice a day, who couldn't tell me actual directions because she uses landmarks, not street names, and between road signs that pointed us the wrong way, bad directions, roads not even marked, and construction and digital signage pointing us in all of the wrong directions, I was over an hour late for my appointment, my blood pressure was through the roof, it was hot, I was sweaty, we had been in the car for 3 hours and 15 minutes, both of us having to pee like race horses, and it just made me absolutely crazy.
I was on the verge of tears at one point, laughing so I wouldn't actually start crying.
The stress of everything over the last few weeks is just building in me, and then to get the news he gave me, blah, my day was just absolute crap.
Mindy is like a total saint, she didn't get frustrated once, and if she did, she certainly didn't show it, she even joked about how we had now taken the scenic route and how we both should know the Tampa area a little better now.
Ha ha. eh.

There's another cold front coming through, so it will be another few days of being frozen from the inside out, which my surgeon says other patients also report feeling, trying to get Sebastian some help, and trying to teach him some relaxation techniques to help him cope with the migraines.
I know how he feels, I get them as well, so I'm trying to teach him how to calm himself down, to breathe slowly, to take his mind someplace else, trying to deal with the school's idiotic rule about medicine, trying to get all of my health stuff sorted out, trying to deal with work, and people who lie and cause problems, hypocrites, and more.
I wish I could open people's eyes, help them see, but people choose to see what they want, they believe what they want, and nothing will change that for them until they get burned, again.
That bothers me, a lot, because I don't like seeing people I consider friends get burned by other people's lies and hypocrisy.
I need to remember that I cannot take on the weighty problems of others, I need to remember and keep telling myself over and over, that I cannot make others be logical or think logical, that they must get there on their own.
I cannot reason with people who cannot see reason, people who are continuously blinded by empty promises.

Kat posted at 01:34 AM on January 29, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

January 19, 2009

Teenagers will be the death of me.

It was a long terrible weekend here at casa Cooper.
I woke up on Saturday morning with a fever of 103, I was feeling absolutely miserable and things just got worse.
Teenagers suck the very life right out of you man.

Sebastian had a friend sleep over on Friday night, on noon Saturday, they went off to play with another friend a few streets away.
Around 5pm, I get a call from that kids mother that the boys got into a fight and Sebastian had threatened to come back home and throw out all of the kids things.
Sebastian came home, started yelling and screaming about the fight, I told him to go back to the kid and sincerely apologize.
Instead of doing that, he went up there and said, "I'm sorry I guess, but let me tell you my side."
That's not a sincere apology, that's being disrespectful and also disobedient.
So I grounded him for his disobedience.

Things simply escalated from there.
The yelling got worse, things were said, it was complete chaos here for hours and hours.
Finally, around 9pm, Sebastian left the house with no shoes and no jacket, it was cold out, and he went to another friends house.
That kid's father called me, said my son was there, they saw him standing in their yard just crying and shivering, so they let him in.
Sebastian begged them to not call me, but the dad said if it was his kids, he hoped that another parent would call anyway.
I agreed and explained what had happened.
He said he'd bring Sebastian home in a few hours, it was far too cold and too dark for him to walk back home.
I can hear this father's kid in the background spouting off, and the father yelled that if he ever puled this stunt, he'd kick his ass.

So Sebastian comes back home around midnight, he's still yelling and screaming, we go another few rounds, it's awful, I'm just not getting through to him about respect, obedience, greatful, thankful, he just doesn't get it.
Mark is upset because I'm upset, he tries talking to Sebastian, doesn't get anywhere with him either.

Sunday morning I wake up and take away all the video games and disconnect the internet from their room.
I decide to teach them about respect, about being greatful for what they have.
No, we aren't rich, but they have a lot more than they should have, they get a lot of things, I never go to a store without buying them something, yet I rarely ever hear a thank you uttered.
Their rooms are a disaster, they don't do their chores the first time they are asked, so I tell them that today this house will be cleaned top to bottom by them and them alone, it will be done to my satisfaction, they will learn to respect what they have, what they get, and the home we live in if it kills me.

They clean everything, they spend hours upon hours cleaning it all up, taking care to put items on shelves, folding their clothes, doing all of the things they should have been doing all along.

Anyway, almost the entire weekend was spent arguing and fighting, and cleaning, and telling them about being respectful and greatful, and I don't know if it sunk in or not, I just don't know, but I tried, I'm trying.
And I still feel like shit.
I'm behind in my work, I still have a screaming migraine, and I'm still doing everything else that I always do for everyone else.

I apologize for not being around, or being short in my replies, but I was dealing with home life and that takes a front seat to everything and everyone else.

Kat posted at 03:40 PM on January 19, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

January 16, 2009

My winning streak continues!

I have been on a winning streak lately!
First, I won a diamond pendant, then I won 4 more pieces of jewelry, and now I won an 18 piece food storage set from Rubbermaid!

I had entered a scavenger hunt on the Gracobaby blog, and had a choice of 4 different products.
The teens and I don't like omelets enough for the pan, I don't need a humidifier, and as cool as the Dymo label maker would be, I just don't have enough use for something like that, even in my "get organized in 2009" state of mind.
So I chose the cheaper but far more useful to me, 18 piece set of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids prize they offered.

With 2 teens, I've lost quite a bit of storage containers and lids.
I currently have a whole bunch of containers with a whole bunch of non-matching lids, so getting an all new set is a much better prize for me.

There are many companies on Twitter these days, and if I hadn't been following the Rubbermaid people, I would have never found Lindsay Lebresco and the Gracobaby blog where she posted the contest.

So thank you to Newell Rubbermaid, Gracobaby, and Lindsay, for the fun contest.
I enjoyed playing it and really enjoyed winning it!

Kat posted at 06:10 PM on January 16, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

January 14, 2009

Best blog for coupons and freebies.

As I've talked about, I'm really trying to get my finances, and my life, better organized and on track this year.
I'm paying down old debts, keeping a very close eye on my finances, keeping my urge to splurge in check, and using coupons every single time I go grocery shopping.

I always try to use coupons every single time I go grocery shopping, there are times that I forget to grab them, get home and kick myself, because right there on top of the microwave in my coupon holder, was a coupon that could have saved me $2.00 on an item that we use all of the time.
We don't get many coupon booklets in the Sunday paper here, my mom sends me a lot of coupons, and at least once a month, I get an envelope jam packed with tons of coupons, and I use every single one, and if I can't, I give those ones away to someone who can use them, or I leave them with the item on the store shelves.

But one of the best coupon and freebie finds in the last 3-4 months, was finding the Cheapsk8mom's blog.
She is constantly posting links to either print or get snail mailed awesome coupons, sales and shopping club cards for stores like CVS, the best weekly sales at Walgreen's and WalMart, Target, pretty much every single store, she knows what's on sale and how to get the absolute best possible deal on those items because she even matches up the coupons for you!
She also posts all of the best freebie deals you can imagine, like a free Chipotle burrito, free Starbucks, and coupons to get free hair care products like this one that just started today at 12:01am, for a free bottle of Suave Shampoo, Conditioner, Hair Spray, Styling Aid, Body Wash, or Body Lotion, and save up to $3.00 by mail.
I saw that one in my feed reader, and immediately signed up at 12:12am.
Hey, if it's free, it's for me..hahaha

But seriously folks, if you're trying to stretch your families food budget farther, health and beauty dollars farther, and even those splurge items like expensive Starbucks coffee, you totally need to add Cheapsk8mom to your feed reader, your blogroll, and your bookmarks, whatever way you remember to read blogs by, because she posts the best ways to save money for your family.

I sign up for almost every single by mail coupon she posts because Publix doesn't take computer printed coupons due to people printing thousands of fake ones, but if Cheapsk8mom posts a link to print one, she almost always prints a link to get it sent by mail too.
I absolutely love her site and her for doing this, finding the best deals and the best coupons.
In today's mail, I got a coupon for $2.00 off Velveeta, a coupon for $1.00 off some Lindt chocolates, and a whole bunch of other ones that I had signed up to get too.
I'm planning out my weekly menu and shopping list, and coordinating it with this weeks sale, and from the looks of things, I'm going to save a really big chunk of money.
So thanks Cheapsk8mom!

Kat posted at 12:50 AM on January 14, 2009 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

January 13, 2009

11 years and counting.

I was just checking out when my hosting account is due, and saw that I need to pay it on February 16th, 2009, and that made me remember just how long I've been doing this whole blogging thing.

I moved here to Florida from Maine on June 1st 1997, Sebastian's birthday, and when the boys and I got our own place, for my birthday that was coming up on March 1st, my sister bought me my first brand new computer and internet connection on dial-up in January 1998.
I started a blog on Tripod on January 11th, 1998.
I've been blogging for 11 years now.
Blogs had just begun, the term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997.
Very few people were doing them, I didn't even call what I was doing "blogging", I hadn't even heard the term or seen it, I was just writing to my "diary" on Tripod.
It was free, I hand coded the whole thing, but the name was always My Single Mom Life.
I started the whole thing as a way to have a cheaper way of keeping my parents and friends back home in Maine, updated on how we were doing down here.
Calling from Florida to Maine was too expensive, so I started an online diary talking about the ins and outs of our lives, my job, and the boys at daycare and summer camp, and starting to go to school.
I didn't even have comments on the thing, and because it was all hand coded, I had to start each page moving my older entries down by hand so it would be in descending order so the newest entries would be at the top.
It took a bit of time to do that every day.

I started seeing more and more people doing the same thing but calling it blogging.
They had actually started before me, long before me, but they called it blogging.
I was fascinated and absolutely hooked.
One of the very first blogs I ever saw in real blog format was TampaTantrum.com, it now resolves to Robyn's Shutterblog.com site where she talks all about her photography work.
Another was Promoguy.net, and through his comments, I met Rain-Cloud, who gave me some space on her hosting and gave me my first MT blog.
The Blog Tree.com lineage of my "parent bloggers" has currently exceeded it's bandwidth, but I'll keep checking it.
They were my parent blogs, they all took some time to explain things to me, teach me how all of this worked, and I've been hooked ever since.

I missed my own blogiversary a few days ago on January 11th, but that's ok.
Over the course of the years, I've had multiple hosting, the Tripod thing, then my first MT install, then some free hosting on a site that shall not be named, then paid hosting with a reseller who shall not be named, (it all went very very bad with all of the blogs being shut down with less than 24 hour notice) and then I finally went and bought my own domain name and hosting on February 17th 2004 with ICDSoft.com, and have been using them ever since.
I pay $96.00 per year, but it's worth every penny to me.
There's no downtime, ever, except the few times that I have screwed things up and ran to their help desk begging them to fix my mistakes, which they always do with the absolute best customer service ever.
They answer support tickets within 15 minutes, keep you constantly updated, and in 24 hours, they contact you again to make sure that it's still fixed and working right.
The one time it did go down and wasn't my fault, was because of a massive ice storm in the north east, and they posted to their main site every hour on the hour with status updates, and they rented some servers from another company to get us all back up and running within 8 hours.
They didn't charge us any extra for any of that, they are constantly giving us freebies like more space, more bandwidth, all for free, I love them, so when the 16th rolls around, I have no problem paying to renew my hosting.

11years doing this.
I can't believe it's been that long, and blogging is so popular now, it seems like everybody is doing it, and everybody has their own unique way of doing it, and it's still as fascinating to me today as it was when I first started.
So happy blogiversary to me, even if it's a few days late.
But today is someone else blogiversary, Julie of JuliesJournal.com, has been doing it since October 2004, so hop on over there today and wish her a happy blogiversary too.
I think she's still doing all of the blogging conventions that are going on in Vegas right now, but I'm sure she'd like to get some happy blogiversary comments.

Kat posted at 07:56 AM on January 13, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Site stuff

January 10, 2009

I'll pay for this mood later on.

I'm in a cleaning mood, part of my get organized in 2009 mood, and so I finally put away all of the Christmas decorations, took the ornaments off the tree, packed them all away, put the tree away, and started in on other projects.

I've got the laundry going, I did most of the dishes, cleaned off the coffee table, and I'm about to dig into my desk.
I really need to go through it and throw away all of the useless crap that is outdated, not needed, broken, the scraps of paper, old memory sticks, old hard drives, and about a gazillion manuals to computers and parts that I don't even have anymore.
I swear, I keep everything for years and years, and then forget that I even have it all.

And in between all of this cleaning and stuff, I've been blogging, reading and replying to forums, checking in on work stuff, reading and posting to Twitter, (follow me dammit ha ha)and trying to get Sebastian and Bobby to get back here to the house before it got dark because this street is so dangerous to walk on during the day and it's worse at night.
By the time I get done with all of this organizing my life in 2009 mood cleaning, I'm going to need like some sort of Seattle injury lawyer to sue myself for totally over doing things today.
The good thing to come out of all of this is that the house is getting clean, things are getting put away, and I'm doing all of the things that I should have done as I went along.
It's like 10 times more work to have to clean all of this stuff months later, in some cases, years later.

Kat posted at 06:52 PM on January 10, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

January 8, 2009

Picture project!

As I said in the post below, I would love to have some nice scrapbooks of the teens, but I suck at that kind of stuff.

Both Leeanne and Christine offered to scrapbook some pictures for me, and I appreciate the offers so so much, but I know Christine's scrapbooking work really well, and we've known each other a very long time now.
Every year for my birthday, and the teens birthdays, and holidays, she has made us THE most beautiful handmade cards, I've kept each and every one of them and so have the teens.

Anyway, I've known Christine for so long, (online now for something like, oh gosh, 7 years. I've been blogging since 1997 as of this month on the 10th, so 12 years blogging for me, and I met her through blogging shortly after that when she started blogging in 2002) and I know what kind of scrapbooking work she does not only because of the cards she has made for us, but I've seen her post many of her works on her blog, and she's even been featured in scrapbooking magazines like this one she did of her beloved Squeaker kitty who sadly passed away.

So anyway, we are going to start doing 2 scrapbook memory books for the teens.
She's going to get 2/ 12 x 12 inch screw post albums, in each, we will have layouts for each year of their lives, from birth on.
At least one two page (facing pages) layout for each year.
So what my part of the project will be is to go through all of the pictures of the teens, (there are so many!) and picking out the 2 best pictures from each year of their lives, scan them at high-res so she has the best possible images to work with, and tell her a little bit about each picture so she knows what kind of pages to make for each picture, and then I'll email the pictures and details to her, and she'll make the pages and memory books.

This is going to be a huge project for both of us, and lucky for me, Christine loves to scrapbook and she's so good at it.
She said it's a lot of fun and that she'd love to do it for me and the teens, so yeah, I'm totally taking her up on the offer.
I will be paying for the albums and any other supplies she may need to get, and if she'd take it, I'd pay her for doing it, but I know she won't take my money, but it won't stop me from trying to give it to her...LOL

So beginning tomorrow, I'm going to go dig out all of the photo albums, boxes, the suitcase, and all of the various packets of photos that I have around the house, and get started sorting them out by kid, and then I'll go through them all and find the best pictures from each year of their lives for their memory books.
This is going to be a lot of fun, but I'll bet you anything that as soon as I start going through all of the baby and younger year pictures, that I start bawling my eyes out and wondering where all of the time went.
I was looking at some pictures the other night and got all teary, so this is going to make me need to stock up on the kleenex. haha

Added some samples behind the cut of the many cards Christine has made and sent us over the years.

Continue Reading �

Kat posted at 11:53 PM on January 8, 2009 || Comments (4) || Link || Pictures

January 7, 2009

Wake Up Your Life book review and tour.

I am always thinking about how to better myself, how to be a better mother, a better friend, a better human being.
I have faltered at times throughout my life in all of those areas.
When I first got divorced and became a single mom, I didn't think I could do it on my own, I thought the boys needed a man in their lives, their own father didn't want much of anything to do with them, he was far too busy with his band and his groupies.
Heck, he still is after 15 years, but the boys needed a man, or so I believed.
I went from one failed relationship to another, repeatedly.
I then thought I had found a really great guy, we spent 2 amazing years together, he loved my sons as his own, he called them his, they called hm "Daddy A". (Name withheld for privacy)
Then one night he didn't come home.
For 3 days I panicked, worried, freaked out, had my friend with contacts at the police and fire departments make some calls, he wasn't dead or locked up, so where was he?
It seems that he had gone out that night after work and had one of those love at first sight experiences that everyone talks about, and that's why he didn't come home.
When he did, he was there to pack his things.
He apologized like crazy, told me how sorry he was, how much he loved me, but this woman, he knew that this woman was his soul mate, he had to go.

I was really angry at first, then it hit me and I fell apart.
I was a giant heaping, sobbing, destroyed mess on my kitchen floor.
Another friend had been trying to call me, it wasn't like me to not answer the phone, so she came over and found me on the floor just crying uncontrollably, my sons in their high chairs eating hot dog and french fries, scared.
Mommy was on the floor, crying, babbling, a mess.
My friend picked me up off of the floor and took me to my bed and tucked me in it.
She got my boys things together and took them to her house for the night so I could rest, cry, slam things, whatever I needed to do.
What I ended up doing was calling my sister here in Florida and asking if we could come live with her, if there was work, help me, my life has fallen apart and I can't deal with it anymore, help me.
I ended up having a yard sale in which I sold everything that I could move from the third floor apartment down to the driveway, bought 3 one-way plane tickets, and left, all in a matter of 3 days.
I ran from my life there.

In "Wake Up Your Life", Doris Roper shares how 1 woman interfered in all of her major relationships, and how it became her wake up call to change her life.
She chose the moment that her life came crashing down around her to do something about it, to look inside herself to find out what it was about her and her reactions to things that played a part in what had happened.
She didn't run from it, not like I did, she looked inside and made the choice to change how she reacted to things in her life, she woke up.

I love reading these kinds of books because they really do help me see all the mistakes in my life, the times that I took what was happening to me and the things that hurt me, and how I allowed myself to run from it instead of taking that pain and changing how I dealt with it.
Doris Roper talks about how to take those rejections and turn it into redirection, change how it affects you, and redirect it into something positive, how forgiveness can release the power in you to be something better.

I am not at that place of forgiveness yet, I'm almost there, but I have a lot of hurt to still deal with not only from that relationship that caused me to run away, but from my failed marriage.
I know now that I was young, it was a stupid thing to do, and I know that at the time I had alarms going off like crazy, and I completely ignored them.
I don't regret my marriage, without it I wouldn't have the 2 most amazing sons a mother could ever ask for, but I know that I ignored all the warning signs that the marriage was doomed from the start.
I thought love could conquer all, love could make it all better, but that only works if both people feel the same way, want it, and are mature.

I will probably read "Wake Up Your Life" a few more times, the words in it are really hitting home for me, helping me wake up and see how I sabotaged myself and still do.
I totally recommend it for any woman who is limiting themselves, ignoring their own inner voices, and wants to change how they react to what's going on around them to help make better choices, better reactions to what may feel like the end of the world.

For more information, you can read more about this book on Amazon by clicking here.

I am so very pleased to be a stop on author Doris Roper's Virtual Blog Tour.
Each time a visitor comments here or on any or all of the other blog stops, they will be entered in a random drawing for a 6 month Gold membership to The Smart Woman's Success Connection.
This membership has everything one needs to know for money management including information about having a financial plan and starting a business, and includes a copy of her book in audio and PDF.
Please share your thoughts and comments today with Doris.
She will try to check in throughout the day to answer questions.
To purchase her book please click here.
For more information about Doris Roper and her virtual tour, check the schedule here.

Click here to Digg this post.

Kat posted at 12:22 PM on January 7, 2009 || Comments (8) || Link || Entertainment

January 6, 2009

6th picture folder meme.

Belle didn't actually tag anyone for this one, she said You, you, and YOU, so I figured she meant me, so here's the rules and my 6th picture folder picture.

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder and then pick the 6th Picture.
3. Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes with the picture.
4. Tag 5 other glorious people to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog telling them about it.

Here's mine:

7yearoldroses%20001.jpg

These roses are 7 years old, I know, they look like it too...LoL
They were given to me by an ex-boyfriend, and they were so pretty, that when they started to die, I couldn't stand the thought of losing them forever, so I saved them.
I went out and bought a can of Aquanet, and then hung the roses, the whole bouquet, upside down, and once a day every day for a week, I sprayed them with the Aquanet.
As they died, the hairspray kept them from falling apart, no petals fell, no leaves, the babies breath didn't fall apart either.
They are still in pretty good shape, I dust them off once a month with my blow dryer, and the petals and leaves still don't fall off.
That's probably because I soaked every single part of each flower with the hairspray, they are stiff, so nope, they aren't budging.

I kinda think they are even prettier all dead than when they were fresh.

And like Belle, I'm not specifically tagging anyone, so like she said and I'm quoting, "I'm tagging you, you, you, you, and you. Yeah, YOU! And be sure to let me know if you did it!"

Kat posted at 04:51 PM on January 6, 2009 || Comments (8) || Link || Memes

January 5, 2009

It's almost here!

That's the UPS tracking for my new monitor, it will be here today!
The Acer 17" flat screen LCD monitor I bought, will be here sometime this afternoon.
I'm so excited!

When it gets here, I'm going to shut down, unplug this one and remove it from my desk, clean off my desk, all the dust and whatever else fell behind this one, and get my desk all pretty looking for my new one to get set up and settled into it's new home.
Every time I would watch the teens play WoW on theirs, I was so jealous because it has awesome colors, good refresh rate, just looks and works amazing, but today mine will be here.
Yay!

Come on Mr. UPS Man!
Hurry up!
I can't wait to get it all hooked up and play Sims 2 on it and then Sims3 when I get it in February!
*Squueeeee!*

Kat posted at 12:35 PM on January 5, 2009 || Comments (1) || Link || Computers and technology

December 31, 2008

Last post of 2008.

So many bloggers out there are doing their end of the year posts, stating resolutions and goals, tallying their yearly blogging income, and all the rest of that stuff.
I don't do resolutions or make lists of my best posts of the year, and I never do blogging income posts.
I'm not going to get into what was good or bad about my blogging year, I'm not going to make a list and link back to my best posts, I'm just going to keep going.

I've been through a lot this year, but who hasn't?
I just don't see the need to dwell or beam on what has already happened, it's in the past, done and over with.
I prefer to just keep going.
I have no idea what all is in store for me and the teens in 2009 aside from another surgery.
I don't know where this blog's direction will go, I don't know anything beyond what I know right now, and right now all I know is that I will keep going.
I'll keep going and doing the day to day, I'll keep trying to be a better version of me, I'll keep trying to be a better mother to my sons, I'll keep trying to be a better friend to all of the people I care about, and I'll keep trying to just be a better human being.

That's all I know right now, and that's good enough for me.
Have a happy New Year, see ya in the morning.
Later days!

Kat posted at 09:42 PM on December 31, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Holidays

December 29, 2008

No sale on the Twin Draft Guard.

I asked in the entry below about buying things from the As Seen on TV website or calling the 1-800 #, and said how I was interested in the Twin Draft Guard they sell.

When my post showed up in my Twitter feed, BJByrne said;

@mskat do a google search for a review on anything you are looking to get. A lot of the "as seen on TV" is not the quality you expect.

I was seriously thisclose to purchasing the Twin Draft Guard, the commercial makes it look like it works really awesome, fits any door, only needs like 2 seconds worth of adjustments to make it fit your door perfectly, and the blow dryer test they do really had me convinced that it was exactly the draft dodger that I have been searching for.

But I took BJByrne's advice and did a Google search for "Twin Draft Guard review", and came upon many, many unsatisfied customers.

I also did a search for "Infinity Razor review", because while I was on the As Seen on TV website, they had some special savings if you bought certain products, and one of the deals was like $5 off the Infinity Razor.
I had both items in my cart, ready to purchase based solely on the uber convincing commercials I had seen and the product information on the website, but after doing a search on the razor, I found that it too, is a complete piece of craptastic shit.
They claim that the razor is super sharp, that you'll never need to purchase another one, but I read quite a few reviews from people saying that the blades show up dull fresh out of the package, that it takes 4-5 hard strokes to get even a halfway decent shave, and most people ended up having to use one of their old razors to finish the job.

So I dumped both items from my cart.
I'll have to keep using my caterpillar stuffed animal for a draft dodger for now, and I'll have to keep buying blades for my Venus Embrace razor.
So far, the Venus Embrace razor for women is the best razor I have found to use since having spinal fusion.
The handles are slightly longer than most other razors, men and women's razors alike, and because I can't bend and reach as far as I used to down my legs, can't bend and reach as far as most other women, a longer handled razor is a must.
I even tried duct taping a long wooden ruler to my razors to help me be able to reach lower down my legs, but the tape gets wet and softens after just 2 showers, and the wood also gets wet and softens, and then breaks, and then you get splinters in your hand as well as nicks on your legs because the ruler snapped in half and caused you to slip when the splinter jammed into the palm of your hand.
So not fun at all.
I was hoping the Infinity Razor would be true to it's claim because the handle looked like I could tape a round wooden spoon handle to it, and also because for awhile after surgery I have trouble going shopping for replacement blades, (hell, I have trouble going shopping for anything after having surgery) so the "blades never dull" claim sounded like an awesome thing for me because I have another spine fusion surgery coming up again.
I'll just have to go stock up on Venus Embrace cartridges before I go in for surgery.

Anyway, thanks BJByrne for reminding me to do product reviews first.
I usually do, but I guess the commercial for the Twin Draft Dodger had really permeated every inch of my brain after seeing it a million times, and I was all gung-ho to buy it without question.

Kat posted at 12:48 AM on December 29, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Shopping

December 23, 2008

Yay for free Dr. Pepper!

Awhile back, Dr. Pepper announced that if the Guns n' Roses album Chinese Democracy came out in 2008, they would give one free bottle of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the United States.

Well the album got released and Dr. Pepper kept their word.
Now either it was the bad economy or people just like getting stuff for free, but when the day finally came to sign up for it, the website couldn't handle the load of people trying to sign up for their free bottle.
Dr. Pepper ended up having to run the promotion for an extra day, add some new servers, and at one point, the whole website was nothing but text on white with the links and sign up form being the only thing you could access.

I did manage to get through after a few tries, and I had actually forgotten about it.
In today's mail, I got my coupon for my free 16oz bottle of Dr. Pepper.
Yay!
So later on when Sebastian and I head out to the store, I'm going to let Sebastian have it, he likes it way more than I do.
But anyway, if you managed to get through and sign up, your free coupon should be on the way too.

Kat posted at 12:57 PM on December 23, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Freebies

December 23, 2008

More xmas 2008 cards came today!

I got just a few more cards today, I love getting them, seeing what kinds of cards people choose to send.
Everyone has sent such lovely cards again this year.

I got one from Lattegirl from all the way up in Canada,
I got one from Lisa and her family, such cute kiddos she has!
And one from my Aunt Kathy, I was named after her and another aunt.
And Christine sent the teens gift cards to Best Buy because she knows how much they love shopping there, and also a card to let me know she got me a subscription to Everyday Food magazine.
That was so wicked nice of her!

I love cooking just as much as she does, although I am positive just reading some of the recipes she posts, that she is a far better cook than I am, but I watch the show on PBS when I can tune the channel in.
Sebastian also watches the cooking shows with me on PBS, he loves to see all the yummy foods they cook up, and we have even made quite a few of the recipes, so having the magazine every month will be a totally awesome and welcome addition to my cookbooks and cooking magazines that I already have.
I get the free quarterly Kraft Food & Family magazine, and we have made tons of recipes out of that one, and they now post the magazine contents online so you don't have to sign up for the magazine if you don't want to.
I like getting the hard copy though so I can just have the recipes handy right in the kitchen while I'm cooking.
But I'm sure that many, many meals will be made from the Everyday Foods magazine too, it looks like they have a ton of very easy to make meals.
Thank you Christine!

Kat posted at 03:25 AM on December 23, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Holidays

December 22, 2008

I won 3 pairs of Ficklets!

Back on December 7th, I posted an entry about how I had entered a contest at Lisa Reviews to win some Ficklets for my niece Susan's glasses.
Ficklets are cute little clip-ons for the ear pieces of your glasses that make wearing them fun and stylish.
I entered the contest because my super duper adorable niece Susan wears glasses, and I know she would love to have these for hers.
She's very good about wearing her glasses, but these will make it even more fun to wear them all of the time.

Lisa drew the winners for 3 of the contests she was running, tonight, and one of the extra entries I had put in to win, was drawn.
I won the Ficklets!
Yay!

Lisa emailed me to ask which 3 I wanted and for my mailing address so they can be shipped to me.
Susan loves bugs, flowers, and anything blue, so I chose the following 3 sets for Susan
Aqua cutsie worms,
Blue and yellow smiley face daisies,
and Blue sparkle stars.
I know that she will absolutely love to wear them on her glasses.
I can't wait to get them and give them to her!

Kat posted at 10:43 PM on December 22, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

December 20, 2008

Beyond the age of building.

I am so glad that my kids are beyond the ages of toys that need to be built for Christmas presents.
You know, like bicycles, swing sets, rocking horses, doll houses etc etc.
I remember the year I had to put together 2 bicycles, I was up all night swearing and telling myself never again.
Screw A never quite fit the hole it was supposed to go into, I always managed to somehow get the pedals on backwards, stuff like that.
Christmas is easy now, video games, computer stuff, cash and clothes.
Done deal baby!

I got my nieces a few small things too, I can't wait to give it to them, but we will be celebrating Christmas with them after they get back from visiting Mom and Dad up in Maine over Christmas day.
I won a bunch of DVDs to give to them too from The Life of a Home Mom.
There's some Christmas classic cartoons, and then all the new ones.
Included in the list are; Gumby, Fat Albert, Casper, George of the Jungle (all the new ones) and Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus, etc.
Maybe they will be here by the time sis comes back, they aren't coming back until the 28th or 29th I think, so it would be cool if they were here by then, if not, that's ok too, the girls will still love to get them whenever I give them to them.

And they are coming over tomorrow!
I can't wait to spend time with them, I very rarely get to anymore because sis works a lot and they live so far from us, so getting to spend a whole afternoon with my girls is going to be awesome!

Our Charlie Brown tree lit up at night.

Kat posted at 10:19 PM on December 20, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Holidays

December 19, 2008

No Christmas cards this year.

Money is so super tight for me this year, as well as many, many other people, with the economy being what it is, and my time away from being able to work due to surgery.
Even if I got a huge chunk o' money dropped in my account tonight, I'd have to be like Sonic the Hedgehog and get all turbo-charged up to run around mail them all priority to everyone.

I feel bad that I can't send out cards this year, I always want to, I always plan to, but all my plans and wants went out the window in September and October when I had to take so much time off from blogging and working to get cut up and then recover.

But I have gotten some really awesome cards from friends and family, and friends from around the blogging world, and I love each and every one, so I want to give a shout of thanks out to all of you who sent me a card this year.
You've all been added to my list for next year, and addresses saved, so I can get a head start and (hopefully) send cards next year,

Mr. Fab,
Solonor (my blog daddy),
Robyn,
Tina,
Christine,
Jen,
Kirsi,
and
Karen,
Great Gram,
Letty,
George and Amy,
and my attorney Brad, who wrote, "Try to stay out of trouble this year."

Kat posted at 08:20 PM on December 19, 2008 || Comments (4) || Link || Holidays

December 18, 2008

Must be both interesting and frustrating.

I've always wondered how someone goes about getting PR type admin careers, like doing PR for a company, contacting bloggers like us, and coming up with creative ways to market a new product, website or idea.

I imagine it's both fun and frustrating though, everybody is different, has different styles, ways of thinking and doing things, and you don't always get the results you want.
I get contacted quite often about doing book and product reviews, and I absolutely love doing them, it's so much fun to test out a new product, really give it a good go, and then be able to write up your opinions on it.
There have been a couple of times that the PR person wasn't so pleased though.
They wanted my honest opinion as long as it was honestly positive apparently.
I always tell the person when they contact me, that I will give my honest opinion of the product, it doesn't matter if they let me keep it forever or even pay me for the review, I am going to review it honestly, yet the few times a product just really didn't quite live up to the hype, I was honest about it and they were not happy.
I know this has happened to other bloggers as well, and it's just as frustrating on our end to be told to be honest, but when we do and our review is less than stellar, they get upset.

But I made a promise to myself and my readers, to always be honest about anything I get to review, I could never let myself live it down if I lied about a product just to make an advert happy.
Sure, I may lose that advert, but it's better to be totally honest.

Kat posted at 08:20 PM on December 18, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Product reviews

December 17, 2008

Free Shipping Day Thursday December 18th 2008!

Tomorrow, Thursday December 18th, is Free Shipping Day for a whole bunch of online retailers.
You can find the list of retailers participating at that link, and most of them guarantee not only that you will get free shipping, but that you will get your orders in time for Christmas.

*Minimum order requirements may apply. Location restrictions may apply. Please visit the participating websites for complete requirements and restrictions.*

Some of the participating retailers are:
American Eagle Outfitters
Apple Store
Apple Store Canada
Bloomingdales
Brookstone
CaseLogic
Coldwater Creek
Dell
Disney Store
EB Games
GameStop
Kohls
Kmart
Macys
Nordstrom
Office Depot
Office Max
Overstock.com
Sephora
Target
Toys R' Us
Zappos.com

And many, many more!

So if you're a last minute shopper and want to save money, (shipping costs can raise your total by up to $100 or more depending on what you purchase) take advantage of Free Shipping Day and all of the awesome retailers who are taking part in it!

Also!
Today is the LAST day for super saver shipping at Amazon.com
* Wednesday, December 17th is the last day for Super Saver Free Shipping on orders over $25.
* Thursday, December 18th is the last day for Standard Shipping.
* Sunday, December 21st is the last full day for 2-Day Free Shipping Delivery with Amazon Prime.
* Tuesday, December 23rd is the last day for one-day shipping. Cut off is 3pm PST.

Kat posted at 12:44 PM on December 17, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Shopping

December 7, 2008

Win a set of Ficklets at Lisa Reviews!

You're probably wondering what Ficklets are right?
Ficklets are small clip-ons in cute assorted shapes and designs like bugs, pets, flowers and more, for the frames of your child's glasses to help make wearing them fun to do.
They even have some really stylish designs for older children or adults.

(Gif from Ficklets.com)

nov112007%20018.jpg

This is my super duper cute niece, Susan, and she has been wearing glasses for awhile now, she's really good about it, but I know that if she had some cute little Ficklets on her glasses, she would love wearing them even more.
I've entered a contest to win a set of Ficklets for Susan, and if you have a child of your own who wears glasses, or a niece, nephew, or even yourself if you would like them, (they fit adult sized glasses too) you can enter the contest that Lisa is having over at her review blog, Lisa Reviews.

To enter the contest, you need to follow the really easy entry rules that can be found on this direct link to her contest post titled Ficklets Giveaway, and make sure you tell her which set you'd like to have in your comment and not forget like I did when I entered.
D'oh!
You can see all of the cute Ficklet styles on their site, Ficklets.com
I chose this pair of Aqua cutsie worms for my niece, because I know she loves to be outdoors and look at little bugs, she loves that color, and also loves caterpillars, so these would be perfect for her.
I hope I win them!

Kat posted at 12:45 AM on December 7, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

December 2, 2008

Queen of the Road- book review and blog contest tour!

I meant to post my review of this book yesterday, but I am still battling the trail end of the nasty flu I had, so I spent most of the day laying on the couch, my sincerest apologies for getting this blog tour contest post up a day late.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own is a true story written by Doreen Orion about her and her husband's journey across the country in a converted bus.
They run into all kinds of issues like fire, flood, a robbery, and even a stop at a nudist RV park.

This book follows the true story of Doreen and her husband Tim's, journey across the country in a converted bus.
I have to hand it to her, no amount of prodding from a loved one could ever convince me to spend an entire year on a bus driving across the country.
I am not a camping type person at all, even if it has a bed and a toilet, the close confines would make me psychotic by day 3.

I liked how every chapter starts off with a cocktail recipe which tied into the story you were about to read, I thought that was very clever.
I also very much enjoyed that she included a bit of history about some of the stops they made.
I really enjoyed the part about the nudist RV park, it was hilarious, and I could totally relate because I've had the opportunity to stay at a nudist resort once, and I chuckled at how she described it because I too had those same experiences and thoughts.

The tour is about far more than Tim's inner nerd wanting to do this, it shows Doreen what is really important in her life, that spending time with loved ones is what is really important.
It's not the gadgets, clothes, and shoes, it's the time we have to share with others that is the most important.

I thought this book was a great, fast and fun read, and I think that if you love to read, that you will absolutely love reading this tale of traveling and what's most important.
I want to thank the Family Review Network for including me in this blog book tour, I really enjoyed the book and reading the reviews of the other bloggers participating.

If you buy this book, Doreen has offered to send you a free signed bookplate, all you have to do is click here to get the how-to on how to get it for yourself!

Now, on to the blog tour contest part, this is huge people, read on!

As a thank you to those who are learning about Queen of the Road through the book blog tour, a great prize package is being offered. There will be one prize across all the book blog tour stops. Everyone who leaves a comment here on my tour post will be entered to win!

One lucky winner gets all this:

* Mom Logic Tote bag, eye brightener and mouse pad from momlogic.com
* Wrist water bottle from swiggies.com $13 value
* Gift certificate for free flashcards from goosiecards.com $29 value
* Rose Pin ($10 value)
* Natural, dye-free dog tug from Purrfect Play purrfectplay.com $18 value
* Book, "Uncovered" by Mark Goldwich $13 value
* "Attitude of Gratitude" Tank Top Med from empoweringthings.com $19.39 value
* "Be Natural" tee shirt from jb-justbe.com $15 value
* Cats on Cards Pet Rescue Stickers from purrfectplay.com $7.95 value
* 2009 Park-It Guide for NYC from parkitguides.com $13 value
* Total Value of Prize: $130.00+

To enter just leave a comment below and tell us if you would ever consider taking such a trip around the country. Don't forget that your email needs to be in your profile or in your comment to be able to win. Make your comments before 12/17 to be entered.

For more chances to win be sure to visit the other stops on the book blog tour for Queen of the Road:
Nov 28 Dorothy - Robyn - Louise
Nov 29 Christine - Beckie
Nov 30 Michelle
Dec 1 Tara (blog 1 blog 2) - Stacie (blog 1 blog 2 blog 3) - Ginny - Kat
Dec 2 Julie - Angela - Wendy (blog 1 blog 2) - Elizabeth
Dec 3 Renee - Christine - Dennise
Dec 4 Kimberly
Dec 5 Alisa - Aimee - Toni
Dec 6 Connie - Jackie
Dec 7 Cathi - Sheena - Laura
Dec 8 Maria
Dec 9 Jane - Lisa - Yvonne (blog 1 blog 2)
Dec 10 Kailani - Tara

So come on! Leave a comment on my post and then go leave a comment on the other blogs tour book stops, make sure to use your email address in your comment or you will not be entered to win!

Kat posted at 11:03 AM on December 2, 2008 || Comments (4) || Link || Entertainment

November 21, 2008

Gmail themes fun.

Google's Gmail released themes this week in small releases at first, and then a general release to every Gmail user by the end of the week.

I chose the Tea House theme, I am also using it on my iGoogle page, and just think it's cute to watch it change throughout the day and night, and the one on iGoogle is different than the new Gmail Tea House theme.
I had wicked insomnia again last night, so as I was checking my emails, I also decided to check on the little fox in the tea house.
The screen shots are all clickable for bigger if you want to see what happens in there while you are asleep.
Around 2am or so, some fox ghosts show up and play mahjong in the garden.

Around 5am, a turtle sneaks into the garden.

In the early morning, the little fox and some bunny friends, walk into the garden for some morning tea.

After tea, he does some gardening.

I found it cute and amusing to see what happens in there overnight.
I'll have to check out the other themes when I have insomnia again, and see what they do overnight.

Kat posted at 07:36 PM on November 21, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

November 13, 2008

Poo and pizza.

As I said earlier, both the teens are sick, they've been laying around most of the day coughing and feeling miserable, and I am super tired just from taking care of them and doing various things around the house.
One of them took a dump earlier and clogged the toilet, they couldn't unclog it with the plunger, so I had to, and now I'm just worn out.
I hate plunging the toilet, it's one of those tasks that just really suck to have to do.
I need like a super easy plunger thingy, so I sat here thinking of what might a super duper plunger be called if anyone has invented one so I could look it up and try and find one the next time I'm out shopping, or have to order it online if that was the only way.
I was thinking of one that had like a spring in it, so your one push of the plunger would cause it to spring back up and down again on it's own, so you didn't have to.
So I typed into Google, "spring plungers".
Nope, no toilet spring plungers, it seems those are car parts or something, I really have no idea.
I know there's some sort of super plunger out there, I've seen commercials for them, but I can't think of the name right now.
What I really want though is for the teens to finally learn to not use so much toilet paper.
Then we wouldn't have to get a super plunger to make it all go down.

So anyway, I'm too tired to make dinner so I decided to order out.
I decided to order from Pizza Hut tonight, got some of their Tuscani pasta, the chicken alfredo, because the last time we ordered it, it was really good, and some wings.
That should be good enough for everyone for dinner tonight.
I'll make the spaghetti I was planning on making tonight, tomorrow night.
I'm just too tired and sore to do it, so I'll let Pizza Hut do it for me.

Kat posted at 05:52 PM on November 13, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

November 12, 2008

Can't sleep? Do some holiday shopping!

It's another sleepless night here, so I figure why waste all this good insomnia energy, and I deide to go do some of the Christmas shopping for the kids.
I got the girls the dvd I talked about, a couple of cute little dolls, and then I started looking for stuff for the teens.

They are easy, and not so easy, to buy for.
They love to play video games, but only certain ones, they like electronics, but only want certain things, they need new clothes again, but they need to pick them out.
The same with shoes, the same with sweatshirts for winter, and so on.
They are picky, but it's because they are older now, they know what they like, and not little kids anymore who wore whatever I helped them put on in the morning.
I kinda miss those days.
It was easier.

Kat posted at 04:46 AM on November 12, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

November 5, 2008

Schoolhouse rocks!

I was sitting here yesterday watching some Schoolhouse rocks videos with Sebastian and it hit me, what a perfect Christmas gift for my nieces!
I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons in the 70's and during commercials, we not only saw all the toys we would later beg our parents for, but we were educated in 3 minute segments by Schoolhouse Rocks on a number of subjects like grammar, spelling, science and history, and many other subjects too.
Both of my nieces love music, and the songs in Schoolhouse Rock are short enough with easy lyrics and memorable tunes that they would sing along to.
Susan is in kindergarten and she knows all of the songs her teacher teaches her, she sings them all of the time my sister says, and it is really too cute.
About a month ago when they came to see me, she sang some song she learned in school, and oh how I wish I had videotaped it.
And Skye, Skye sings in the car all of the time!
They both love this kind of stuff so I was thinking about getting them the Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition) for Christmas.
It has all 46 of the Schoolhouse Rocks songs and cartoons.

Those of you who grew up during the 70's and early 80's, I know you know all of these, you can probably still sing along to them too.
All of the following links are to the videos on youtube, sing along, I bet you remember them all too!
We learned how bills become laws because of "I'm just a bill", we learned the preamble to our Constitution, we learned about conjunctions, nouns, interjections and adverbs, and so so many more things.

I think this dvd and a few little baby dolls or something else, will be my gift to the girls this Christmas.
It will be fun music they like to sing, and educational at the same time.
I know that I learned about taxation without representation from the "No more kings" one, and it is still one of my favorites.
I just watched Sufferin' Till Suffrage and wow, that was really educational.
Essra Mohawk is who did the singing on that one and many of the other Schoolhouse Rocks songs, she went on to work with many legendary artists like Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, and also wrote songs for artists like Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner.
Pretty amazing lady who taught us about history and science, and has many, many accomplishments under her belt.

What was your favorite Schoolhouse Rock song?
It's really hard for me to choose, I love No more kings and the adverb song.
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your adverbs here,
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, got some adverbs here.
Come on down to Lolly's, get the adverbs here!
You're going to need
If you write or read,
Or even think about it.

Kat posted at 02:37 PM on November 5, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

November 5, 2008

People are idiots.

All of the sore losers who wanted McCain to win, are spouting off on the local forums today about when they can expect to get all of their stuff paid for now that Obama is president.
They said that he promised to spread the wealth, so can they now stop paying their mortgage?
Can they now stop paying their loans off?
What about their home and auto insurance?
Can they just stop paying for it all because of his socialist plans for America?

It is ridiculous how they are calling him a socialist, he's not.
He's going to try and make things right, lower taxes for the poor and middle class, give tax breaks to companies that keep jobs here in America which come on people, we need jobs here in our country, we need to have jobs so we can can get back to work rebuilding the country.
A few idiots are even calling the USA the new socialists republic of America, like we've suddenly become communist.
They actually equate socialism with communism, but Obama is not a socialist either.
Man, people are idiots.

Kat posted at 12:45 PM on November 5, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Politics

November 3, 2008

It's clean again!

The landlord finally found the clog and cleaned it all out, and then the clean-up in the house began.
The teens and I started picking up all of the towels, moved my bedroom dresser to get all the water out from underneath it, mopped the floors, and started running all the towels through the washer with hot water and double laundry soap.
Twice.

Mindy made the mistake of saying she'd come clean the tub for me, so I took her up on that.
She came over with some of the all green natural cleaning products that she uses for her cleaning company, and within minutes my tub was spotless and smelling oh so clean again.

It looks so good in there! And it smells awesome too!
The cleaning supplies she uses actually work really awesome compared to some of the "green cleaners" that are sold in stores.
Like that Clorox green cleaner, blah, doesn't work good at all.
But Mindy's stuff works awesome.
It actually removed the soap scum that was in my tub buried underneath the septic sludge.

So thank you Mindy for coming over and helping me by cleaning the tub.
It helped me so so much.
The teens could have done it, but they are boys and I would have had to go in and do it after them. hahaha
Mindy saved my back from bending over to do that when I had already been bent over for 24 hours sopping up wet towels and trying to clean up all the water messes that had happened.

Kat posted at 06:57 PM on November 3, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 29, 2008

Ever think about the history of something?

Have you ever thought about the history of a product?
Like for example, band-aids.
Ever think about how those came to be?
Johnson & Johnson has been at the head of
healthcare innovation since the 1800's.
It was in 1920 that one of their employees thought up and developed the first ready-made adhesive bandage that people could apply themselves.
Before that, people had to make their own from cut cloth and tie them on.
The very first band-aid went on the market in 1921, and people have been using them since.

In 1887, they came up with the very first sterile surgical sutures.
When you think about that, you have to wonder what doctors had been using to stitch people up back then, and how many infections people got and died because of it.
But because J&J came up with sterile stitches and dressings, (bandages) the survival rates increased and many more lives were saved.

In 1893, they developed baby powder.
In 1898, the came up with dental floss, and it was made from leftover suture silks.
In 1897, they developed sanitary napkins. An invention that literally changed how women handled their feminine hygiene needs forever.
They created Listerine mouthwash in 1879. Another invention that changed personal hygiene needs for people, keeping their teeth and gums healthy, and also bad breath.
The first-ever first aid kit was sold and marketed in 1891 under the famous Red Cross logo and trademark.
In 1955, they made Tylenol elixir without aspirin for children, it was available only by prescription for 5 years, and then it was available over the counter, and has become the #1 pain reliever recommended by pediatricians.

Johnson & Johnson have been the innovators for so many products that we use every single day.
They are the ones who made disposable contact lenses which I use and love, birth control in 1931, and RhoGAM for babies of mothers who are Rh-negative like I was, they made the first hip and knee replacement implants, and they made the first test to detect the spread of breast cancer into the lymph nodes which got their test named GeneSearch, named as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2007.

Johnson & Johnson has been at the forefront of medical and personal hygiene breakthroughs for over 120 years, that's a long time, and they are the most trusted company and brand for millions of people.
They care about the human community and the environment by not only complying with regulations, but reducing their environmental impact in the communities in which they work.

I needed to go get a band-aid for Sebastian, he had a blister and it hurt, so while I was getting one out of the first-aid kit and bandaging him up, when he asked how they made band-aids.
I honestly and no clue, so I decided to look it up.
I had never really thought about it before, like most of us do with stuff we use every day, so when I looked it up and learned about how long they have been in business, all of the things they invented, and what they do every day to help people have better health, I was impressed.
I mean, something as simple as a band-aid was brought about by the need to prevent people from getting infections and dying, and now we use them all of them time.
Imagine if they had never been invented?

Kat posted at 08:40 PM on October 29, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

October 28, 2008

Wii and cheeseburgers.

Mark called me from school today to ask if he could go to his friend Jeff's house after they got out, and if Jeff's grandmother could give Sebastian a ride home.
I said yes to both, and so Mark went to his friend's house, and Sebastian came home.
When he got here, I needed him to run up to the ATM for me and get me $20 because I have to go take care of some stuff tomorrow.
So he went and did that, I let him buy himself a soda and a snack for doing it, and then he played some video games for a couple of hours before our old duplex neighbor called.

Bobby (my ex-neighbors son) wanted Sebastian to come to his house and help him install WoW on their computer, do some of the updates after the initial install, teach him how to do the rest of the updates, and while they are waiting, play some games on his new Wii.

My old neighbor, Letty, loves to play the scratch-off lottery cards when she has the extra money, so yesterday she had $10.00, so she bought a $10.00 scratch-off and won $1,000.00.
Yup, $1,000.00.
That's not the first time she's won big money on those things either.
One time, she bought 1 of the $20.00 holiday cards, it was last Christmas, and she won $2,000.00.
She's won anywhere from $1.00 all the way up to $2,000.00 on scratch-off lottery cards.
Every single time she buys a card, she wins something, I've never seen her get a bad card in the years I've known her now.

So anyway, she won $1,000.00 yesterday, and because Bobby has been wanting a console game for the longest time, all he's ever had is one of the first generation PS2s, and she bought it at a yard sale, it only worked for a couple of months before it died, so she asked him what system he'd like to have, he said a Wii, so she bought him a Wii.
It was a pretty good deal too.
She went to Wal-Mart where they have all kinds of video game bundle deals for Christmas, so she got the Wii and a whole bunch of games and different controllers in the bundle pack for a little over $500.00 she said, because she also got another Wii fit game for them to play.
Letty said she was so happy that he chose the Wii console because when they were at a friend's house for dinner one night a few weeks ago, they all played their Wii after dinner, and she absolutely loved the Wii fit games, she could actually play them and it made her feel good to be active and having fun, so now that they have one, she can do some "exercise" and play video games with Bobby.
There are no kids at all in that neighborhood for him to play with, so now she can play with him, he won't be quite so bored anymore, she won't have to listen to him say he's bored, and she won't feel bad that she moved him away from Mark and Sebastian, he misses them so much she said.
I told her once again that he's welcome here on the weekends, he can come spend the whole weekend anytime he wants to, and vice-versa, Sebastian can go there too, which is what they are going to do this coming weekend.
Sebastian is going to help him finish the WoW installation if he hasn't completed by then, teach him how to set it up right, and give him some of his gold, and teach him how to be a gold farmer or something like that.
I have no idea, I don't play the game.

Later on when she was bringing Sebastian home, it was about 8 o'clock or so, Sebastian called and asked what Mark and I wanted from McDonald's, (Mark had come home around 7pm) and I told Sebastian that I didn't have money to spend on hamburgers, I have to do other stuff with my pay this week, and he said no mommy, (he still calls me mommy..LoL) Letty said it's her treat and she won't take no for an answer, so what do you want?
I could hear Letty in the background saying "Tell your mom if she doesn't tell me what her and Mark want, I'll just get them what you tell me they like to eat. I'm not taking no for an answer, we're already in the drive-thru line so she better hurry up or they're both gonna get quarter pounders!"
So I said ok ok! and told Sebastian what we wanted, and about 10 minutes later, they were here, and that's when she told me about buying the Wii and all that, and then her and Bobby went home, we ate, the teens took the trash to the curb, played video games, and I watched Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill and stuff.

But it was wicked nice of her to buy us Mcky D's and have Sebastian over her house most of the afternoon and evening.
The teens are in bed sound asleep, it's after 1am, and I'm still wide awake.
Insomnia again.
I never frigging sleep.

Kat posted at 01:20 AM on October 28, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 26, 2008

I love kitchen gadgets!

I do, I love kitchen cooking gadgets.
If it's some sort of machine that can cook, chop, blend, deep-fry or whatever to food, I am all over it and I want it.
I have a sandwich maker, I WANT an Infrawave Speed Oven, I have an older model George Foreman grill and am getting a new one, I have a mini-chopper, a Betty Crocker Bake n' Fill cake pan set.
I have entire sets of some of the best bakeware you can buy, I love Corningware products like their casserole dishes that can go in the fridge, freezer, microwave and oven! I have a bread machine, a sno-cone maker, popsicle makers and all kinds of things.
I want one of those Bullet blenders and any other kitchen appliance you'd see on late night tv! So when I saw that eBill me was having a shopping confessions contest to win prizes, and all I had to do was confess a shopping addiction or tell them about an item that I have to buy all the time, I jumped at the chance.

My shopping confession is my love of kitchen cooking gadgets.
I covet them, have to have them, I stay up late at night and watch all the infomercials about them and just drool over the gadgets and all the super cool and yummy amazing foods I could make if only I had the latest one!

Do you want to confess a shopping addiction?
All you need to do is head over to Shop and Confess to register, (It's Free!) and then
please add my blog's URL (just right click and copy link location, and then right click and paste it in. http://www.mysinglemomlife.com/blog/) where it asks you for a URL.
That's how they will know that I referred you** to enter this contest, and when you are done registering, tell them by text or make a video of your shopping confession.
That's it!

eBillme is giving away $33,000 dollars in prizes to maybe do some holiday shopping, and YOU could win some of that simply by registering, using me as your referral, and then either write out your shopping confession, or make a fun video and upload it to youtube.
That's it!
Don't believe me?
Just check out the contest video and see for yourself!

** details are below, click

Continue Reading �

Kat posted at 03:47 PM on October 26, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 26, 2008

They love you no matter what.

Mark was sitting out here a little bit ago while I was doing some Google searching for weight loss product reviews, and so he asked me what I was doing.
I told him that I was searching for a review of the current product I'm using, and all I'm finding are reviews of other products or places that have weekly meetings.
Tons and tons of search hits were coming up for Hydroxycut reviews, and places that help you track your points, or prepared meals, or drinks and shakes, but nothing for the one that I am using, and it was starting to frustrate me.

Mark said to me that he knows how much it bothers me having to be so still, that all these past years of not being able to work, having so many restrictions on what I can and can't do, and how hard I struggle to just move my body normally to get in and out of bed, stand up from sitting, or to lay down on the couch, and how much it bothers me that I struggle to lose weight, but he thinks I look just fine.
He said, "You may feel like you are really overweight, but you don't look it mom. You look good to us, not fat, you have a belly but you've always had a belly, but you've actually lost weight since being in the hospital, but maybe you can't see it. We can though, and you shouldn't worry so much, just do what you can, keep eating what you have been, the weight is coming off, you just don't think it is."

Kids are good like that.
They love their "mommas" know matter what, and they always seem to know what to say to make you feel better when you need it.

Kat posted at 01:07 AM on October 26, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 25, 2008

Late night commercial fun.

So I had insomnia again last night, and Mark wasn't tired either, so he stayed up playing WoW, and Sebastian and Bobby (ex-neighbor kid slept over again) fell asleep by 1:30am after we finished watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So anyway, Mark is in the other room playing WoW, Sebastian is on one couch, Bobby is on the other, and I'm sitting here at my computer blog and forum surfing because I couldn't sleep, and I also have the tv on tuned to like channel 38 or something, just for the noise really.
So the tv is on showing some old cheesy 80's horror movies and stuff, and breaking for commercials about every 7 minutes, and the commercials are just cracking Mark up from the other room.

There's those commercials for Live Links with the hot chicks, and the gay mens version of Live Links with the Latino guy with the lisp, and then commercials thrown in the middle of them for things like Relacore, some special green bag that keeps your lettuce crispy for like 6 months instead of regular plastic wrap, that annoying but super rich guy Billy Mays selling all kinds of products, the latest is some hand-held clothing steamer or something, and I swear to you, Mark was just howling with laughter in the other room.
He was doing impersonations of all of the voices and products he was hearing, and then cracking up over his own impersonations.
I can't even write some of what he was saying because it was bad, oh so bad, and half of it I could barely understand because he was laughing and doing it at the same time, and snorting with laughter too.
I really wish I had gotten up and taken my camera in there to film him doing it, it would have been hysterical to show off.

Kat posted at 10:20 AM on October 25, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 24, 2008

People take their online gaming a bit too seriously.

A 43 year old Japanese woman became so involved and eventually enraged from playing an online game called Maple Story, that she ended up "murdering" her online husband.

The woman is now jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data of her online husband.
She used his username and password to login to his Maple Story account and "kill" her now online ex-spouse, so the now online ex-husband, called the police to have her arrested for hacking.
The 33 year old man and the 43 year old woman, were once happily married in the game, and for an unknown reason, the man decided to divorce her character.
The woman was quoted as saying; "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry."
Perhaps she was upset that the online divorce would force the couple to divide up all of their online assets that they had built up during their game play, and she would lose the car, half of the "bank account", maybe some of the furniture, and probably either divide or completely lose their massive Tea Collection they had gotten from their virtual trips around their virtual world.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.
She was arrested on Wednesday, and then taken 620 miles across the country from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sappporo, where the man lives, the official said.

This isn't the first time that a crime has been committed because of a virtual game.
In August, a woman was charged with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through "Second Life,", and about a year ago, a woman filed charges with police because her character was raped in Second Life, and she was unable to close out of the game and felt like she was being violated because of it.
In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in a role playing game, by changing another player's account portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

I know that virtual games are very addictive, I love playing with my Sims when I can, and am completely stoked about the Sims 3 coming out in 2009.
My sister, her husband, my teens, and millions of other people, are completely addicted and involved with WoW, and that's like all they talk about, but I do believe that this is the first online murder of a spouse done by hacking another players account because the virtual relationship ended.

People need to not take these virtual games so damn seriously.
It's a game people, only a game.
If you are feeling extremely strong urges to murder an online game character, it's time to shut down the computer and go outside and get a real life.

I am really excited about Sims 3, and I promise, I won't make any Sims that look like real people that I know and dislike immensely, and then kill them by drowning, or fire, or a satellite falling from the sky and slamming into their heads!
Well, I can't really promise you that, but I'll try not to do that.

Kat posted at 12:42 AM on October 24, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

October 22, 2008

Looking at all of the information.

I'm still looking for information and trying to find the very best diet pills out there to help me lose weight.
I have found a product, not a pill, that I've been trying for a few weeks now, and I'm almost ready to start posting about it on KatScan.

It's so very difficult for me to lose weight with my health the way it is.
All the titanium installed in me, the inability to move like normal people, the pain that doing things causes me to be in, so I will always need help losing weight.
I try so hard to eat right, I do really good some days and totally awful on other days, but it comes down to not depriving myself of the foods I crave.
If I deprive myself, I end up going on a binge and gaining more weight than I lost.
It's a vicious cycle with me, and probably a lot of women.
But I keep trying to eat right, to walk as much as I possibly can which is none at all right now.
I'm pretty unstable on my feet lately due to my neck surgery.
Anyway, I will be posting about the new product I found really soon.

Kat posted at 01:01 AM on October 22, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

October 14, 2008

Need a man?

I have noticed a trend in post subjects on a lot of single mom blogs over the last few weeks.
The man posts.

I saw one that said it was time to ask a man out, another that asked about the one that got away, yet another asked if they needed a man to tell them everything was going to be ok in this current period of crisis our country was in, and another that posted about finding an old boyfriend on chat, and now she wants to date him again because of how good they were together.
10 years ago.
There were many more posts on many more single mom blogs too.

I'm all for finding love again, I'm all for getting back on the horse and giving it the good old try, but ~~some~~ a lot of these posts talked about needing a man.
Need a man?
And no, not just for the physical needs, some of these moms feel like they really need a man to either make their life complete, or to "be ok", or to provide the family life instead of the single mom life, to their kid(s).

How can a man make you feel complete?
If you don't feel like a whole person on your own, you're certainly not going to be completed by adding another person to your life.
They are bringing their completed person to the table, and you are incomplete, it won't really work.
It will be a relationship of depending on him to feel ok about yourself.

To be ok?
Again, depending on someone else to make sure that the bills are paid, that someone will take care of you and your kid(s) when the shit hits the fan.
Single moms are some of the most resourceful people I know, they provide for their families on way less money than anybody should ever have to, and they make sure the bills get paid, there's food to eat, and that everyone is ok.
Will a man make it more ok?
Maybe financially he will, but that's not a guarantee.

And doing it to provide the family life is not the right reason either.
You already have a family.
Sure, it may just be you and your kid(s), but is that not a family?

It may be just me and the teens, but we are a family in every sense of the word.
We all do our part to make sure the home is taken care of, we eat meals together, we laugh and play together, we talk about everything, and I can't see myself needing a man to make it a family, we are already.

I don't know why so many women, single moms and single women in general, feel that they need a man, that somehow a man is going to complete them, make it all better, make them feel normal and ok.
If you can't feel complete, normal, and ok on your own, be happy with yourself completely, then how is adding someone to you going to change that?
You are still you, you just added someone who cannot complete you as a person, no matter what the cheesy romance movie says.
You have to be happy and complete first, before you can be happy and complete with someone else.

Kat posted at 10:41 AM on October 14, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

October 13, 2008

WalMart Canada has strange idea for feminine hygiene.

I don't know how long before they figure this out and fix the image, but this is supposed to be for Summers Eve feminine spray

What the hell is that?
A hedge trimmer? LOL!

*UPDATE*
Mindy's husband says, "That is a pressure washer! and it should work too!"
Bwahahahahahhaa!!!
Oh! I can't breathe!! LMAO

Kat posted at 07:38 PM on October 13, 2008 || Comments (8) || Link || Funny

October 13, 2008

ICDSoft.com is truly the most kick ass hosts ever!

As I said in my post below, ICDSoft.com sent out emails because MySQL4 was being discontinued, there would be no more support, so we needed to update our databases to MySQL5.
I have never set up a database before, have no clue how to, and even using their tool, it was like trying to learn a whole new foreign language.
I sent in a support ticket to them, they always answer like within 10 minutes, I've never waited longer than 20 minutes in the 5 years I've been with them now.
I now have two accounts with them, a business account and a personal.
But their customer service is seriously the most awesome ever, they go like way above and beyond for their clients.
As usual, they answered my totally pathetic support ticket within minutes,

Subject: mysql5 help?
Oct 13 2008 16:32
Q: kat cooper
Hi,
I got the email about switching over to mysql5, the problem is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in there, even with your tool.
I'm not the one who set up the databases, so I really don't understand this, and I'm terrified I'm going to screw it up and break my whole site.
Is there anyone who can do this for me, or do I need to find someone who can?
Ack! I don't want to break my site. hahaha (see? Pa-thet-ic!)
_____________

Help?
Oct 13 2008 17:50
A: Support2 Hello,
We completed the migration to MySQL5 and updated your MT configuration script. Please check if everything is working properly.

Best Regards,
Support
____________

Oct 13 2008 18:08
Q: kat cooper Thank you so much!
Everything is working fine so far, thank you.
You guys really are the best hosting company, you're awesome.

Thanks again, and you can close this. :)
_______________

Oct 13 2008 18:11
A: Support2 Thank you for your high appraisals! You are always welcome!

Best Regards,
Support
____________

They did not need to do it for me, they could have told me to go hire someone to do it, but they completed the migration to MySQL5 for me, updated everything in there, and even updated my Movable Type configuration scripts so everything would work right.
They could have told me to do that last part myself too, but no, they did it for me.

This is how they are all of the time, if you need help and don't know how, you ask them and they do it.
They go above and beyond.
Beyond.
They've upgraded their hosting plans a couple of times without upping the prices on their customers.
And last year, they upgraded me to the business plan for 1 whole year, absolutely free.

There's never any downtime unless it's something stupid that I've done, and they always found my mistakes and fixed them for me within minutes.
All of my attempts at trying to do stuff in my control panel, and screwing something up, they've always found it and fixed it, and they've never made me feel stupid for screwing it up.
They've always explained what happened, and how to fix it if it ever happens again, and they are always just so nice and helpful, I can't say enough good things about ICDSoft.com, they really are the best hosting company I've ever been with since I started hosting my own blogs back in 2000.
If you are looking for a new host, or need to switch, or are just starting out with your first blog, go look at their plans and packages, and give them a try, you will not be disappointed at all, they rock!

Kat posted at 02:34 PM on October 13, 2008 || Comments (3) || Link || Customer service

October 13, 2008

MySQL5 and World of Warcraft.

First, the site stuff.
My hosting company, which is totally awesome by the way, ICDSoft.com, sent out an email saying that MySQL4 is no longer being supported and we need to change to MySQL5.
I know NOTHING about how to do any of that stuff, even if they do provide a little help tool.

We urge you to migrate your MySQL4 databases to MySQL5 as soon as possible, using the automated tool we have provided in the Control Panel (MySQL section)

MT users!!!
Do I need to change anything in my MT templates to say MySQL5?
I can use the tool, I think, but if there's a template in my MT templates I need to change, please someone tell me, I'm scared to use that tool until I know.

Now for the World of Warcraft stuff.
I have to go in and clean out the boys pc, scandisk, defrag, all that stuff, to get it ready for the installs of the WoW games.
The teens and my sister, my own sister, conspired together to get me to agree to letting them have WoW.
And no, not wait for the game discs to get here, but to download the free 10 day trial today.
So I need to get my butt in there and start the cleaning.
The boys gave up 2 other game subscriptions so that I could afford to pay for the WoW subscription.
They will be as addicted to it as my sister is.
But some pretty serious rules have been laid down for them to have it, there will be no getting around that stuff either.

Kat posted at 11:28 AM on October 13, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Computers and technology

October 12, 2008

It was a kid filled weekend.

On Friday afternoon, Bobby, the boy who used to live next door to us in the duplex, called and when Sebastian answered the phone, he asked if he could speak to me.
I hopped on and said hey Bobby, what's up?
He said, "Hey Kat, I was wondering, I was hoping anyway, that maybe I could come over and spend the night? Would that be ok?"
I said of course, you're always welcome here, we miss you guys.
And it is true, I do miss them, Bobby and his mom anyway.
Despite all of the drama and problems during the 4 years they lived right next door, he and his mom were good people deep down, they tried to be anyway.

He told me he had to go help his mom do some shopping and then he'd be over.
When he got here, he told us that he and his mom hate the new house, he hates it the most.
There are no kids at all in the neighborhood, not even babies or toddlers, no older kids, no one at all for him to play with, and how much he misses the teens even though they used to get into fights all of the time.
I told him again that he was welcome here, he can come back on the weekends and spend the night, no biggie.
He was so happy.

So the teens and he laughed and played all night, and then on Saturday, Mark went with his Big George, and Mindy was taking me grocery shopping and to get my meds, so we took Sebastian and Bobby with us to help pick up all the heavy stuff that I can't.
We got back home and pulled in the driveway, and Mark and George pulled in right behind us, so now I had 3 teenagers to help carry all of the groceries in the house.
Yay!

Sebastian and Bobby were having so much fun, they asked if he could spend the night again, I said yes, and so they all continued playing and having fun.
But having 3 teenage boys in the house means that it's loud, very loud, so I didn't get any rest at all, no lay down time on the couch for me, and both nights I had terrible insomnia.
I'm completely wiped out today, probably why I screwed up and posted the post below to this blog and not my other one.
I've been doing so good keeping my health issues off of this blog, but after so many years logging in here to blog, mixed with tired, I just started posting here again.
I would have deleted it, but the RSS had already picked it up, so I just left it.
Oh well.

Bobby went back home this morning, and he gave me a hug before he left.
There was a small hint of sadness in his eyes, he really does miss the boys, miss living here, and I think he finally realizes that all of the lying he did, all of the problems he created between his mom and me, may have played a really big part in his family moving away, he's really a different kid, more helpful, more kind, more mature.

Also, having 3 loud teens all weekend, made me unable to keep up with blog feeds and stuff, so I'm trying now to go through them all.
All 358 of them that came in since 3:20pm on Friday afternoon.
Yowza.

Kat posted at 06:45 PM on October 12, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

October 12, 2008

Sorry, that's not covered.

My surgeon sent me a new pain script, so I needed to go get it filled.
I went on line to the site for my drug coverage insurance to make sure it was covered, and it wasn't on the list, so I called the 800-number.
It is the same pain med I take now, but a higher strength. Same name, just a higher dose.
They do not cover it at all, they said nope, but my doc said to switch to this one so I had to go get it, and that meant paying out of pocket.

I've paid out of pocket for this med before, the lower dose, and it really wasn't bad at all.
It was like $60 something for 90 pills, so I was thinking the higher dose, less pills, 60 of them, it would be about the same price.
Oh how wrong I was.

Mindy took me down to the Publix that has a pharmacy, and I put in my script for it and we went shopping.
I came back to get it, and the cashier said $239.80.
My jaw nearly fell, but I paid it, I had to get it, so I paid it.

On Monday, I'm going to call my insurance and ask them why they won't cover it, why I have to go to different pharmacies, because Walgreen's that has my insurance on file, the employees will tell me over and over again that it's not covered, and they won't let me pay cash for it, so I have to go to Publix and pay cash.
It sucks.
I mean, why the hell won't they cover the higher dose!?
What is it!?
A class 30 drug?
A schedule 5?
A CAT5e to the finite narcotic?!
It's only 5mg stronger than the old pain med, same name, only 5mgs stronger, I do not understand why they won't cover it.
Paying that much is simply not right.
I'm going to have to talk to my surgeon about it because I cannot pay that amount every single month.
No way.

Continue Reading �

Kat posted at 04:53 PM on October 12, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

October 7, 2008

Boobies and stitches.

Both Mark and Sebastian were home sick from school today.
Whatever it was that had Mark puking yesterday, has taken a hold of Sebastian today.

I had my post-op stitches out appointment today, and Sebastian didn't want to stay home, he wanted to go with me and take pictures of my stitches coming out, so I let him. (You can read about my appointment and see those pics at the link)
Mark stayed home and laid on the couch watching tv and stuff.
He said he couldn't eat anything all day, and when we stopped for some food on the way home, Sebastian said about 45 minutes after eating it, that he felt wicked sick.
Luckily, he didn't puke until we actually got home though.

Sebastian loves my surgeons offices, it's all modern furniture in black, red, white, and gray.
Very sleek, very simple and organized, he just loves it in there, and I have to agree, it's very soothing sitting in his waiting room and even the patient rooms.
He carried the theme from the waiting room into the patient rooms, and it all just looks very nice, it's calming.

I want to also tell you all that tonight is the very last night for the Boobiethon.
Picture submissions have closed, but they will be there until midnight taking your donation.
That's right, I said your donation.
They are sooooo close to reaching $9,000, and your donation could be the one that gets them to that amount.
So please, please, please, be helpful, be generous, and donate whatever you can to the boobiethon
They have posted to Twitter, that all donations of just $15 and up, will get access to the naked pay-per-boobies page.
That's a helluva deal folks!! And it will end in just a few more hours, help us make $9,000!!

Kat posted at 08:28 PM on October 7, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

October 5, 2008

2 days left for the boobies!

I just wanted to remind you all, that there are only 2 days left for the 7th annual Blogger Boobie-thon.
That means you have 2 days to make a donation, or 2 days to send in a picture, but just 2 days to do something to help fund the cure for breast cancer research.

As of 9:30pm on Sunday October 5th, the boobie-thon reached 100 donors, 150 submitted pictures, and a total of $7,556.00!
We've beat last years total by $1,890.00.
That's awesome!

Over the last 7 years, bloggers from around the world, have raised over $40,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.
It's so amazing that a bunch of bloggers have been able to do so much good and have some fun doing it.

If you haven't donated yet, if you haven't sent in your picture yet, you still have time, not much, we have just 2 more days to go, but there's still time for you to help make a difference, to help fund the cure for breast cancer.

Kat posted at 11:16 PM on October 5, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

October 1, 2008

Do it for the boobies!

The 7th annual boobiethon has begun, and even though I can't help out this year doing photo-editing, I can still spread the word.
So head on over to the boobiethon and give what you can!

Kat posted at 01:22 PM on October 1, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

September 20, 2008

This blog is still on hiatus.

That is my new neck fusion, I just got home from surgery on Tuesday the 16th, and am in the long recovery process now.
I'm looking at a minimum of 3 months to really feel better (fingers crossed), about a month to start feeling semi-human again.

This blog will not be updated regularly at all, maybe some brief things here and there, but if you want to stay up to date with my health progress, you can follow me at my own personal me blog, (this is my "mommy blog") at KatScan.

Kat posted at 09:11 PM on September 20, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

August 20, 2008

Learn something new every single day.

Joana and I were on a forum we both frequent this afternoon, when the subject of Quinceanera came up.
Being from up north, I had absolutely no idea what that was, so I asked.
Joana posted a bunch of information about what exactly it is.

Basically, when a young girl from a Spanish or Mexican family/culture, is coming of age, the family sends out these beautiful Quinceanera invitations to family and friends to come celebrate the girl turning 15, the age at which she goes from being a girl to a young woman.
They are huge elaborate parties, and a special Catholic mass for her, and the whole thing is usually paid for by her godparents.
The girl wears a very formal dress almost as elaborate as a wedding gown with a veil, and she will have attendants, other girls who are also dressed in formal white gowns, and who will lead in for her at both the ceremony and the dance afterwards.
Most of the guests are family, some friends will be invited, but it's mostly a ceremony and function to announce the new young woman to society.

According to the information Joana posted, it's a pretty big deal.
I always enjoy learning new things about people and their cultures, their ceremonies and stuff, so thanks Joana for teaching me something new today.
I would have probably never learned about this otherwise as my sons and I would never have a reason to be invited to something like this.

Kat posted at 03:32 PM on August 20, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

August 8, 2008

I don't need this crap right now.

I am dealing with so much right now, people who are not following links like this one have no idea what I'm dealing with.
But it would be really nice if people would try to take other people's feelings and lives into consideration before they bring someone into something they want no part of, nor do they have time to be dealing with.

But in case people are too lazy to follow links, here's the breakdown.
In 30 days, on September 8th, a Monday morning, I'm having a major surgery.
I have 30 days to get my life in order, to make sure all of my bills are caught up, to try and earn as much as I can so that when I come home, if I come home, I have money to keep paying those bills while I recover.
I have to make plans for my sons to be taken care of, I have to also get them ready to go back to school.
I have to find out if I can have a home health aide to help me so my oldest son won't be leaving school to take care of me because he's worried about me, and failing school again.
I have a mountain of pre-surgical testing to do.
People don't understand that I am way too busy, and mentally, I have so much on my plate I'm going crazy.
Every time I have a surgery, because I'm a single parent, I have to sign a DNR and verify my will in front of an attorney, so that if I die during surgery, my kids will be given to the right people, my affairs will be taken care of.
I have 30 days to accept that my life may possibly end.
30 days to tell my sons I love them.
30 days to make sure that my 38 years on this planet have meant something, that it wasn't a complete waste.
30 days to make sure all my family and friends know how much I love them and how much them being a part of my life has meant to me.
30 days to accept my own mortality.

There are people who need to get a new hobby, take up knitting or scrap-booking, spend more time with their own families, buy some golf equipment and learn how to play, take up bowling or something, just do something else other than drag people into something they want no part of.
I've asked nicely, I've said please, but they don't think it's that big of a deal.
It is a big deal to me because it's over, it's been over with for a very long time, and it's not fair, it's not right, that once again, I'm dealing with that crap.
I have a life I'm trying to live in 30 days.
They should try it sometime.

Kat posted at 10:21 PM on August 8, 2008 || Comments (3) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

August 5, 2008

Some major news.

I have posted some very major news on my other blog, KatScan.
Just click that link to be taken to it.

Kat posted at 10:11 PM on August 5, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

August 2, 2008

Pretty pictures at my fingertips.

I've been randomly surfing around the internet tonight, following links from one blog to a site, then from that site to another site, and then to another and another, and I don't recall what site I was on, but I saw a link for Winter Park real estate, and thought it was for homes in Winter Park Florida, so I clicked on over because it's a really nice area, and if I was going to move to another location in Florida, I'd definitely look there.
It's a nice place.
But the link was for Winter Park Colorado, where it snows, and I don't do snow anymore.
No more cold, no more shoveling, no more trapped in because of a blizzard.
But it looks like a really nice place to live for people who like the whole snow thing.

But I forgot to tell you all that the digital keychain I won from Today's Gizmos, came in the mail the other day, and it's really pretty sweet.

The company that sponsored the give-a-way, Wholesale Keychain, was even nice enough to do custom engraving on them for the winners, so I had them just put my name on it that way no one would want to steal it from me.
Heh.

digitalkeychain%20001.jpg

The menu options look simple enough to use, the screen is bright and very easy to read.
Now all I need to do is load a bunch of photos to it so I can take all of the pictures out of my wallet, and then the next time someone asks to see pictures of my giant teenagers, I can just click and show them in all the beautiful digital glory!

digitalkeychain%20002.jpg

Kat posted at 12:39 AM on August 2, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Computers and technology

July 25, 2008

Silly co-eds.

I've mentioned on here before about the local Tampa crew and their parties, that's the only reason I'm mentioning it here again instead of on my other blog.

The local Tampa people love to play flip cup and beer pong, they have their own custom beer pong tables that they've made, it's an amusing thing to watch.
I myself never partake of either game, but I do enjoy watching people mess up and therefore get completely obliterated while playing.

Well it seems that playing beer pong may be bad for your health.
There are at least 2 unconfirmed reports floating around on the internet, about beer pong being responsible for an increase in herpes, the virus that causes mouth cold sores.

I say unconfirmed because when I did a Google news search and a CDC website search, it showed zero (0) results for these stories that are finding their way around college blogs and forums.
I have a feeling someone at a college got a case of herpes/cold sores and because they didn't want to appear as being careless, they blamed it on playing beer pong.
It's amusing to me how quickly these stories go around the internet with absolutely no credible source links to back up the claims, yet everyone believes the stories.
Until it's confirmed by an actual report on the CDC site, it's still a safe and funny game for my Tampa friends to partake of at parties.

Kat posted at 12:33 PM on July 25, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

July 24, 2008

So that's where all my shirts went!

I decided to start going through Sebastian's clothes first today.
I had to dig through all of the clean clothes piled up on top of his dresser first, then I could get into the drawers.
We ended up with 2 big garbage bags of clothes that no longer fit him, and all of them are still in good shape, so I'll be donating all of those to the Goodwill.

But as I was going through his clothes, I found out where all of my missing company logo shirts had gone to.
He swiped them.
Over the last few years, I've gotten quite a bit of free t-shirts from various blogging companies, a few forums I'm a member of, and a whole bunch of t-shirts with movie and band logos on them.

Every time I did the laundry and *know* I had washed, dried, and folded those shirts, and placed them in my pile on top of the dryer until I would go to put them away, they vanished.
I was never really sure where they went, but I would always see him wearing one of them every so often during the school week, but he would always say he was just borrowing it for the day, he wouldn't take it again once he put it in the laundry basket.
But I never did get them back.
All totaled, I found 17 of my shirts in his dresser drawers.

When I looked at him after adding another one of my shirts to the pile I was taking back, he just smiled and got a little red in the cheeks, then threw his arms around me and said I was his homie.

Kat posted at 09:07 PM on July 24, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

July 13, 2008

Ok, this kind of sucks.

I really wish I could plan and force sleep to happen when I want it to.
Like have some sort of futures broker that I could bargain with, plead, beg, and whine to, when I absolutely have to get some sleep.

This is one of those nights.
Wait, it's not actually Saturday night anymore, it's officially Sunday early morning, and I need to get some sleep and be awake at 8am so that my sister can come over, pick up Sebastian, drop off and leave Skye with Mark and I for the day, and then head to work where Sebastian will play with his friend Matthew, and she'll work till about 3:30pm.

But what am I doing?
Why, I'm wide freaking awake!
I have tried 3-4 times to fall asleep and it's just not happening.
I need to be rested and awake in just under 6 hours now, and I know it's not going to come naturally or make my day easy.

Last night was the same.
I laid awake until almost 5am, then slept until about 9am, and have just been fighting to go back to sleep since.
Today is going to suck.
It's going to be a very long and very tiring day.

Kat posted at 02:13 AM on July 13, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

July 12, 2008

Birthday shopping for Mark.

Mark turns 17 this coming August 15th, it's so hard to believe my first baby boy is almost a fully grown up man.
He's 6 foot 2 inches tall, built like a linebacker, and just a really super awesome young man.
I'm so proud of the person he has become.
He's kind and caring, compassionate, generous, respectful, all the things moms want their sons to grow up to be, I really couldn't be more pleased with who he has become.

I've started looking around for the perfect gift to get him, to let him know how special he is to me, something he can have and use for a long time.
I don't want to just get him another video game, or give him money so he can buy another video game or just blow it on crap like most teenagers do.
So I got to thinking I'd like to get him a watch, a really nice one, not some cheap thing either, a really nice timepiece he can have and wear, and then hand down to his son someday.

So I went on a search for watches finding many sites with many nice ones, and one of my Google searches took me to a link for an AP Royal Oak watch.
I really like the way they all look, but my word, I'd have to win the lotto to ever afford one.
One of the watches I found had a buy it now price of $121,500.00.
!!!
I was all no freaking way could a watch ever cost that much, I know some do, but I just thought that price was far too much money for that particular watch, so I went to the watchmaker's website and I was right.
That watch brand new is only $25,500, and that ebay seller is seriously marking up the price.
It is a limited edition, but if the real site has it for a much lower price, then anyone who buys that watch at over 100 grand, is stupid.

I can't afford an AP watch, but I will find him a really nice one that I can afford.
I think he deserves something nice so I'm going to keep looking.
I know what I can afford to spend isn't really a lot compared to most people, but if anyone finds a really nice looking watch for about $150 or maybe a bit more if it's a really nice one, please let me know ok?
Thanks.

Kat posted at 07:47 PM on July 12, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

July 8, 2008

It's a blog, not a business.

I'm attempting to finish up the child support interrogations, I mean, interrogatories, for the child support hearing which has been bumped until July 31st.
I have to provide all of my personal finance records from 2005-2008, and I'm doing ok.
I have my debit card records which I copied from the Amscot site, they don't do paper bank statements because it's not a savings or checking account.
It's just a card. I deposit money into it so I don't have to carry cash, it's a pre-paid debit card.
So anyway, I copied all of those, I have my tax paperwork from the taxes I filed for 2007, the only year out of the 3 that I've been able to file taxes for so far.
SSDI isn't taxable income, so you don't file taxes on it, and last year was the only year that I earned an income and got 1099's for paid blogging.

Then I got to document question 7, and I'm like what? a business? It's not a business it's a blog, a diary, an online journal and I get paid to insert random contextual links for a couple of bucks each.
They want a copy of how many hits/visits I've had in the last year.
For what possible reason?
To see how many people read my blog?
What does that tell them?
I don't get paid per visit, or per hit, I don't get paid per click.
I get paid a couple of bucks to insert a link into a post.
That's it, but hey, they want it, I took a screen shot for them and will print it out and mail it to them so they can try and say I'm getting paid per hit.
I swear, his attorney is grasping at straws here.
I've been 100% honest about every single penny I've made.
I report it to all the proper authorities every month, it's well documented, so why he wants to see how many people visit my site is just ridiculous.

All I did was ask for my child support to be increased.
It's been at the set minimum wage since 1994, at $21.00 per week.
In the last 14 and a half years, I have not asked for it to be modified.
I have not ever asked him to help buy the school supplies every year, or the shoes they grow out of every 3 months, or the clothes they constantly need.
I have not ever asked him to help pay for all the school field trips over the years, the before and after school child care that they needed when they were younger.
I've never asked him to help pay for the cost of summer child care every summer when they were younger.
I've never asked him for a single thing until now, and his lawyer is treating me like I'm asking for the skin off of his back.

Whenever I've discussed the amount of child support the teens get with other custodial parents, they nearly faint.
The majority of them receive no less than $400 per month in child support.
When they figure out that the teens get $84.00 per month, they simply can't believe it.
I want a reasonable amount.
I want an amount that is fair to take care of the teens since he's never had to pay for anything they've needed over the last 14 and a half years, even though it was court ordered that both of us pay 50% of all of their needs.
I've never asked him, and he's certainly never offered or just sent money and said hey, here's some money to help buy their school supplies and clothes, shoes, or whatever they need.
I don't think I'm asking too much to have it increased after all of these years, and it's absolutely disgusting that they are asking me for all of these documents.
He is the non-custodial parent, it's his income that needs to be looked at and determined if an increase is possible.

It's even more disgusting that they are asking what I might inherit when my parents die.
I can tell you it won't be anything of any substantial value.
My parents are retired, my father is disabled, my mom's health isn't the greatest either, and they struggle to make ends meet every month just like I do.
I know why that's being asked.
During our marriage, my parents always welcomed him into their home, my mother always keeps the home nice and clean, she always made him feel like part of the family, and it looks as though they have money, but that's only because my mother takes impeccable care of what they do have.
Everything is in good shape, things are treasured and taken pride in, but they've had the same furniture for like 20 years now, same with everything else in their home.
What does he think?
That when my parents die I'll inherit the house and what little they do have?
Does he think my parents can take care of my children and I?
They can't, they have trouble paying their own bills, they sit in their house during the winter wearing layers of clothes and covered in blankets because the cost of heating oil is more than they can afford, so they keep the thermostat set around 60, just to conserve what they can afford to put in the barrel.
These questions are sick, and I'm absolutely disgusted that his scumbag attorney would even go there.

Kat posted at 11:19 PM on July 8, 2008 || Comments (7) || Link || Court

July 3, 2008

It's a bit of a challenge.

First, I just want to give a screaming loud shout of thanks to Christine for installing MT version 4.12 for me over on my new blog.
It still doesn't have a name yet, but battles were never won in just a few short hours!

I swear, getting a whole new blog and an upgraded CMS, is like buying tons and tons of discount furniture and trying to cram it all into a tiny little house.
You just had to have it because the price was so dang good, but now it's going to take a few days to fit it all in the house the right way.
Version 4.12 is not like the version of MT this blog uses.
This one is still using 3.35, and I'm completely used to it, it's like a perfect fitting glove.
4.12 does things a whole lot different, and it's going to take me a few days, or a few weeks, to get the hang of just what it is they've done with everything.
For the life of me, I cannot switch up the sidebars.
I messed with it for like 2 hours I think, and got nowhere.
Oh well.
I will have plenty of time tomorrow to learn things.

Sebastian decided to go home with my sister tonight because Matthew has invited him back over to play again tomorrow, and it's just easier for Jo to take him home with her, than it is to try and pick him up really early in the morning again.
He will be home tomorrow night though.

Mark and I went and did the shopping, ate dinner, and watched a bit of tv, and now he's playing his video games again.
It's all good, he earned that play time tonight.
He picked up, carried, and put away all the heavy stuff from shopping, and then he changed out the litter boxes, took out the trash and recycles without me asking him to do any of it, so yeah, play on young man, play on!

Ok, I really need to go catch up on some work and stuff, and then maybe try and learn some more new stuff.
Later days!

Kat posted at 10:56 PM on July 3, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

July 3, 2008

Two thumbs up!

Back on the 26th of June, I told you about one of the office girls at my pain doctors office, and how she's just been melting off the weight.
After doc and I finished going over the results of yesterday's MRI, I asked him about the diet aide that she's been taking because I am just so incredibly impressed with how much weight she has lost.
At my appointment Tuesday, Lacey was the one who brought me back, did my vitals etc, and I really got a chance to ask her what she's been using to lose the weight and how it makes her feel.
I'm sure that many of you older women remember the days of ephedra, and the shakiness and that weird feeling you got in your stomach after taking it right?
It worked killer for losing weight, but it made you shaky and paranoid, and by the 8 or 9th hour after taking it, you'd get this feeling in your stomach that was never a good feeling.
It was sort of a hunger feeling, but more of a sick feeling.

Anyway, she's been taking a product called Zylene 1.1, and he sells it right there in the office.
Lacey has lost 59 pounds since February 3rd, and another office girl, Faiay, (pronounced Fy-aa) has only been taking it for the last 3 months, has lost 22 pounds.
I talked to the both of them again today, and they have both said the same things, no shakes, excellent appetite control, and major energy.
They take 2 capsules in the morning, and it last them all day long, and they have no trouble falling asleep at night.

Doc and I talked about it, I asked him if it was safe for me, he said yes, but he did some tests on me to just have a record of this, and to make sure I was healthy enough to start a weight loss plan.
He weighed me, took my blood pressure, and we already had the results of the blood work they did just a week ago, and so he went over everything and he said it looks good for me to start these if I wanted to.
When I had just seen him on Tuesday and asked about taking a diet aide, he said to hold off on it for now because of the neck issue, but today he said I was ok to go because if I am going to need the surgery, they will probably tell me I have to lose weight first anyway, just like they did 2 years ago with my back surgery.
I asked about any possible interactions with my current pain medications, and he said these will not interact badly at all with my pain meds, and if I have to have the surgery, losing weight is a good thing, and the surgery will probably be months off anyway.

So I bought a bottle of the Zylene and I am going to start them tomorrow.
He told me the bottle says it's safe to take up to a max of 4 per day, but he recommends absolutely no more than 3 per day, but to start off only taking one with breakfast for the first few days, to drink a lot of water, and then if I start feeling like I need a second pill, to take it either mid-day or early afternoon.
He said to never take them past 3pm or else I may have trouble falling asleep at night.
I already have that problem.
I had major insomnia last night, I didn't fall asleep until 6am, and then I got up with Sebastian at 7:30am, and then just stayed awake. I wasn't tired anymore anyway.
I'm very excited to start and try these out, I have medical permission and full medical supervision, so I feel good about doing this.

Annnnnd!
I bought my hosting this morning and set up the name servers this afternoon.
So as soon as I get a blogging CMS installed, katjcooper.com will be the new home of all of my medical posts, and whatever other personal "just me" stuff can go.
This blog is my life as a single mom, my parenting issues, that's what it once was anyway, and when all my medical stuff started, it just sort of took over.
I'm very happy that the two will be separated, they need to be.
Later days!

Kat posted at 03:33 PM on July 3, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

July 2, 2008

Stacey Westfall freestyle horse riding.

I first saw this video on my sister's blog, and it moved me to tears then, and it still does every single time I watch it.
It's Stacey Westfall, and her championship ride at the 2006 American Quarter Horse finals, with her horse Roxy, aka, Whizards baby Doll.

No bridle. No saddle. No reins. No traditional equestrian clothing.
Just her and her horse.
What makes this video so awe inspiring, is that Roxy does everything with just voice commands and subtle hand gestures from Stacey.
Stacey dedicated her run to her father who passed away just 24 days before, and you would have to be a very cold-hearted person to not shed a tear while watching this.
As soon as the announcer chokes up while announcing her, I choke up, and then it's nothing but tears for the entire video.
It is really beautiful and moving.

Kat posted at 10:59 PM on July 2, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

July 2, 2008

Moving on up and to a new blog.

I went and had another MRI today, it was on just my scapula and the area around it.
The new open and seated MRI machines are awesome, but these rods do not like hard and flat surfaces at all.
They had me seated, and then they tipped the whole chair up and then back, so I was completely flat on my back with my knees up in the air, and my feet dangling.
As soon as it tipped back, I was like uh, this is not good.
The tech asked me what was wrong and so I told her that the rods are being pressed down into the hard back and it's hurting really badly, but I'll try it.
A test they told me was only going to be 15 minutes, was really an hour to an hour and a half long.
I lasted in that position for about 20 minutes, and then I was pressing that buzzer like mad.
The rods and my left iliac screw were seriously freaking out.
It was beyond painful.
I made her get me out of it immediately, it was that painful.
So, then we had to try it a different way.
I was now sitting normally, but she strapped this thing around me so my arms couldn't move at all, and it ended up cutting off the circulation in my arms from my elbows down.
By the time the test was over, my hands were all pins and needles.
And there is something seriously wrong with their air conditioning compressor, because that room felt like it was 120 degrees.
The tech was sweating, I was sweating, and she just kept saying sorry, I don't know what's wrong.
Kinda sucked.
Let's hope I'm done with any more tests for awhile ok?

Oh, and I will be starting a new blog soon.
I want to get all these medical and health posts off of here.
I need to look into doing that today.
Later days!

Kat posted at 03:26 PM on July 2, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

July 2, 2008

Ack! I'm running a little late!

Oops! I got caught up reading emails and forums, and then I looked at the clock.
Ack!
I need to get in the shower and get going!
I'll post when I get home.
Later days!

Kat posted at 11:26 AM on July 2, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

July 1, 2008

Entertainment Weekly's top 100 movies of the last 25 years.

I saw this over at Five Dollar Shake a few days or so ago, and kept meaning to do it.
Well, I'm going to do it now.

Entertainment Weekly came up with a list of the top 100 movies of the last 25 years. Bold the movies that you've watched and put asterisks next to the ones you liked.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)**
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)**
3. Titanic (1997)**
4. Blue Velvet (1986)**
5. Toy Story (1995)**
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)**
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)**
9. Die Hard (1988)**
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)**
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)**
12. The Matrix (1999)**
13. GoodFellas (1990)**
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)**
16. Boogie Nights (1997)**
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)**
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)**
20. The Lion King (1994)**

The other 80 are below the cut.

Continue Reading �

21. Schindler's List (1993)**
22. Rushmore
23. Memento (2001)**
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)**
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)**
28. Wings of Desire
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)**
30. When Harry Met Sally (1989)**
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)**
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)**
34. Fargo (1996)**
35. The Incredibles (2004)**
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)**
37. Pretty Woman (1990)**
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)**
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)**
40. Speed (1994)**
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)**
43. Gladiator (2000)**
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)**
46. Children of Men (2006)**
47. Men in Black (1997)**
48. Scarface (1983)**
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)**
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad
53. The Truman Show (1998)**
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)**
55. Risky Business (1983)****
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There's Something About Mary (1998)**
58. Ghostbusters (1984)**
59. L.A. Confidential(1997)**
60. Scream (1996)**
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)**
62. Sex, lies and videotape (1989)**
63. Big (1988)**
64. No Country For Old Men (2007) **
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)**
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)**
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)**
68. Witness (1985)**
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)**
71. Unforgiven (1992)**
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)**
73. Office Space (1999)**
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)**
75. Out of Africa (1985)**
76. The Departed (2006)**
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)**
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)**
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)**
82. Lost in Translation (2003)**
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)**
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu MamÃ¡ TambiÃn (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)**
92. Menace II Society (1993)**
93. Ed Wood (1994)**
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)**
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)**
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)**
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)**
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)**

� Hide It

Kat posted at 09:09 PM on July 1, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Entertainment

July 1, 2008

Rabbit rabbit July 1 2008.

I don't know why I do that some months, maybe I'm hopeful that the first words of the first day of the month, will somehow make me have a great financial month.
Even though I don't believe in superstitions like that.
Heh.

Anyway, I should be asleep right now, I have a follow-up doc appointment in the morning, and here I am, wide awake again.
I didn't sleep at all during the day today, I just laid on the couch attempting to get some rest and not upset my stomach any further.
I haven't eaten a single thing all day.
I'm afraid if I do, it will come back up.
Or come shooting out.
TMI I know, but I hate being sick like that, I have food phobias because of past stomach bugs.
Sebastian does think it was the subs, specifically the Parmesan cheese that were put on all of them.
He said his stomach was a little upset today, not like mine, but he kept burping and tasting the cheese.

I'm really hoping that everything that is supposed to come through for me tomorrow, does.
I have a lot of stuff to take care of, and so yeah, I need those payments to come through first thing in the morning.

I guess I should go and try to sleep, I have a lot to do tomorrow and the rest of the week.
Later days.

Kat posted at 01:25 AM on July 1, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

June 29, 2008

Migraines are truly the suck.

We had a really good time at Mindy's house yesterday afternoon and evening.
Good food, conversation, the kids all played video games while Mindy and I chatted and her husband leveled up on WoW.
I was way stiffened up by the time we got home, and laid down for about an hour or so, then I got up and dealt with emails and stuff.

I woke up this morning with a migraine from hell, and have been fighting it unsuccessfully all day and night now.
So seeing as I was defeated, I just laid around and watched movies for most of the day interspersed with going back and forth with a Bill Keller fan on a websites posting section.
There's nothing more fun than knowing more about the scriptures than the people who claim to live by them.
You all do know that no preacher is supposed to receive any pay for preaching the word of god right right?
Look it up, Corinthians 9:18.
The Keller fan has been refusing to acknowledge that little part of the new testament.
Keller has an income of $1million dollars at the end of the year, yet he tells his flock and tv viewers, that he only takes $60k as a salary.
He's a liar and a fraud, and it's time people start learning the truth about this very corrupt tv minister.

So anyway, today we watched the movie Funny Games (2008).
I just want to warn you that this remake starring Naomi Watts and Eli Roth, is absolute garbage.
I don't give a crap that it's a social commentary on our obsession with media violence, when at the crucial moment of the film, the bad guy picks up the tv remote and rewinds the movie to change the outcome, that's a complete waste of freaking time.

But we did watch a movie that we all really liked on Friday night, Otis, starring Jere Burns, Illeana Douglas, Daniel Stern, Kevin Pollak and Ashley Johnson.

After being captured and tortured by the psychopath Otis (Bostin Christopher), teen cheerleader Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson) escapes and informs her parents (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas), who quickly sidestep the sluggish FBI and take matters into their own hands. But the Lawson's revenge plan hit a snag when Otis's unusual brother (Kevin Pollak) enters the picture. Jere Burns co-stars as the FBI agent assigned to the case.

This was a true dark comedy, so over the top, violence, language, sick demented humor.
Illeana Douglas was just awesome as the mom, a true mama wolf wanting to protect her baby daughter, and Daniel Stern as the father who's a little bit on the timid side, but deep down enjoys taking revenge on the kidnapper who may have de-flowered his baby girl.
It was a bloody good time!

I suppose I should get back to work now.
I have some stuff I need to do before I can go to bed.
I hope when I wake up in the morning this migraine has left.
It feels like my right eyeball is going to pop out any second.

Kat posted at 09:34 PM on June 29, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Entertainment

June 27, 2008

Coral and over cast.

My medical tests went off without a hitch, and much faster than the estimate they had given me.
They said it would take any where from 2.5 hours, to a possible 4+ hours.
I went in at 10:30am, and was out by 12:15pm.
I really, really liked the seated/open MRI machine.
That was awesome.
They had a huge flat panel tv in the room with it, it was on the Fox news channel, *gag* but eh, it was better than nothing.
They did my neck MRI first, then I had to sit sorta sideways while they did the shoulder MRI.
Then I went in for the CT, and when it was done I went out and waited for Mindy to pick me up.

Then we stopped off at Publix really quick so I could get the cat food, toilet paper, paper plates and trash bags I didn't go get yesterday.
Just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon to go, it started raining a little bit.
Rather than risk getting soaked, I just waited.

I took the above picture while waiting at the medical park for Mindy.
These bushes of flowers were all over the place, and they were just so pretty and bright in today's over cast skies.
I love that beautiful coral color of the flowers.
I have no idea what kind they are, but they are just really pretty I think.

I barely got any sleep last night, perhaps 3 hours, my alarm never went off, so I woke with a quick-start panic to my day.
Mindy's clocks at her house were all off by like 20 minutes, so she was running late as well.
We had a good laugh about that though.
It's kinda funny that we both were totally screwed up this morning.

Tomorrow, both our families will be getting together to spend some time hanging out.
Maybe the beach in the morning, a little bbq in the afternoon.
The teens can all drive each other crazy playing video games.
It'll be nice to be leaving the house to do something fun, rather than the usual leaving the house to go do sucky stuff like doctor's office visits.
I need a just take it easy kind of day.
I'm always doing stuff, so it will be really nice to just chill out for a few hours.

Well, off to try and catch up on all my blog and forum reading and stuff I do with those.
Later days.

Kat posted at 05:11 PM on June 27, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

June 27, 2008

This internet is a crazy thing.

A friend of mine on the local forums, messaged me tonight to say thank you.
She said that during all of her recent health issues, all of the pain she deals with, and all the emotions that come from living with chronic and debilitating pain, she had a really bad day a few weeks ago, and I was the only one who responded to her very frustrated post where she was ranting about it all.

She said she had been sitting there that day, was in so much pain, just wanted it all to end, and was seriously considering swallowing all of her pain medications at once and just going to sleep to never wake up again.
Because I replied, because I understood what she deals with and took the time to talk to her, she changed her mind.
"I never wanted to say that I was suicidal before but obviously there were times when I was. And you were the one there one day when I was so close to downing all my pills. You were the voice of reason and you made me feel like I wasn't alone for once.
So for that, I sincerely thank you."

I didn't reply to her that day with the thought of changing her mind, her post said nothing about what she was really thinking, it was just one of those posts where someone rants about how frustrating living with chronic pain is, and I replied because I do understand that.
I deal with it every single day of my life, and years ago, I had those same kinds of thoughts myself.
I didn't say that in her thread, I just talked about living with chronic pain, the medications I take, doctors appointments, the frustration of it all.
It was, I thought, just two people sharing a shared experience.
I had no idea that our conversation was saving her.

When I got her message tonight, I started crying.
I couldn't help it, I thought about how close I was to losing a friend, and what if I hadn't been on line that day, what if no one at all had responded to her, and that I was so happy to read that she had changed her mind.

This internet is a crazy thing huh?
It connects us to fun and games, music, movies, blogs, forums, all kinds of cool and interesting things to do and see, and most importantly, it connects us to other people and has an effect on those people we meet.

Her message still has me shaken up a bit even though it's been several hours now.
I could have lost a friend if I had not been on line that day, and that really is shaking me up.
I am so glad she is still here, so so glad, but wow, this box sitting on my desk, it's more than a toy I play my Sims on, it's more than a keyboard I do work on, it connects me to people in a way I've never experienced before tonight.

Kat posted at 01:28 AM on June 27, 2008 || Comments (3) || Link || Friends

June 26, 2008

W00t! I won!

A little bit ago, I posted my entry to try and win a digital photo key chain from Today's Gizmos.com.

Well I just swung by her blog to check and see if the winners had been drawn yet, and using random.org to choose from all the entries, I was chosen as one of the 3 lucky winners!
Winning it is very cool, I've over loaded my cell phone with pictures of my kids and stuff, so this will be awesome!
It can hold up to 70 pictures, and you just add them to it using a usb cord.
What I didn't know about the contest, was that the winners would also get to add a small custom engraving to it.
Now to think of something to engrave on there.
Hrm....

Thanks again to Today's Gizmos for having this contest, and to Wholesale Keychain for providing the prizes and doing the custom engraving for the winners!

Kat posted at 12:28 PM on June 26, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

June 25, 2008

Remember Wednesday June 25th 2008.

It's time for another round of Remember Wednesday, a new-ish weekly music meme that Jade started.

This week I bring you "You Got Lucky", by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, off of their 1982 album "Long After Dark".
This album went gold by the way.

The song "You Got Lucky" was awesome by itself, but made even better by MTV, who actually played music videos back then.
None of this stupid crap they do now, it was music videos 24 hours a day, and bands outdid themselves to try and out do other bands and artists.
It was a fun time, I loved MTV.
I was awake and taping (on the VCR baby!) the day MTV launched on August 1st 1981, at 12:01am.
My parents let me stay up for that, I was only 11, but I think I begged and pleaded for weeks before it actually happened, doing chore after chore, walking the dog, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, whatever it took to be allowed to stay up and record and watch those first awesome music videos.
I still have the tape too.
I've shown it to my boys who were totally mesmerized by actual music videos, rock music, and the coolness that was MTV.

Today, MTV barely shows any videos at all.
It's all pop and youth culture shows now, "reality" shows like The Hills. *gag*
MTV used to be really great, I wish they would have never left that format, I think bands still strive to make awesome videos, I've seen them on Youtube and other sites like Yahoo video, but MTV was just awesome, ask any kid who grew up in those first 10-15 years.
By the mid 1990's, they had completely changed the format, limiting the airing of actual music videos to just 4 programs.
MTV Live, Total request, Say What? and 12 Angry Viewers.
It officially became the suck after that.

But man, those first years of MTV, wow.
I was introduced to so many bands, so many different styles of music, they played pretty much anything and everything, and in 1982 when I saw "You Got Lucky", I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, and my ears were on fire.
I know the band had been around since 1976, but it was the album Long After Dark, and this video that really got me into the band.
The opening of the video is in a future wasteland where a tent is filled with all the latest technological electronics of the time, so outdated now, tvs, arcade games, jukeboxes and guitars, and the song begins to play, that opening rift, man, it still gets me sometimes.
You'll actually have to go to youtube to see it, embedding has been disabled, but this was just such an interesting and cool video.
Check it out.

You better watch what you say
You better watch what you do to me
Don't get carried away
Girl, if you can do better than me
Go...yeah, go
But remember

Good love is hard to find
Good love is hard to find
You got lucky, babe
You got lucky, babe
When I found you

Kat posted at 11:58 PM on June 25, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Entertainment

June 25, 2008

Do you straighten your hair?

I absolutely LOVE my hair when I straighten it, it is so soft and silky.
It looks awesome!
See, check it out!

Hee hee, I just love how it looks!
Anyway, if you do straighten your hair, what kind of flat iron do you use?
I have a wicked nice one that I find so easy to use, but a lot of the Tampa girls from the local forums, swear by their Chi's.
They all have a one, but a different model number.
So basically one of each of these on this page, http://www.misikko.com/fachiceflir.html.

We have several threads on the forum's 'secret' girls forum, about make-up, girly stuff, hair care items like shampoos, conditioners, styling products and flat irons.
I think I'm the only one who has a flat iron that isn't a Chi, but that's ok.
The girls are always super awesome with helpful tricks and stuff.
When I told them I finally got one, they were psyched to help me find the right styling products for me, because my hair is so thick and naturally wicked curly, they've seen it in real life, and they were always telling me to get a flat iron.
They may all use Chi's, but all the styling products can be used with all models of flat irons, and they gave me some great advice for products just right for my hair.

After they all gave me input on products they use, I went and bought the ones that the majority of them recommended, and tried them out with my hair and flat iron.
The majority of them recommended Chi styling products, and yes, they really did work awesome on my hair.
I'll have to do it again since I bought the stuff and show you, it comes out so much better now than that first time I did it.
So yeah, what kind of flat iron do you use?
Do you have a Chi or something different?
What is the best styling product you've found works best for your hair and the flat iron?

Kat posted at 09:48 PM on June 25, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

June 23, 2008

Here comes the 'he's with Jesus' stuff already.

I am still as shocked and saddened today as I was last night upon hearing the news that George Carlin has died.
Of course, people don't say someone died any more, they say they've passed on.
Carlin said that in one of his skits about words, soft language, it's wickedly funny.

But it's already started.
People everywhere in blogs today, and on the news, and there will be newspaper cartoons drawn up, about how he's in heaven now.
But no, he isn't.
George Carlin was an avowed atheist, and just because others believe in god and heaven, does not mean Carlin is with Jesus now.
That's those people's beliefs, not Carlin's.
People should just take a few minutes and read Carlin's bio.
All those jokes about religion weren't just jokes to him, it's how he felt, he really did not believe in god, jesus, heaven, hell, none of it, and by saying he's with god now is really disrespectful to him as a person.
Just watch this clip where he talks about death, it's not just a joke to him, that is how he felt.

There is no 'up there' he said, he really doesn't believe it exists, he was an atheist.
To say he's in heaven with god now is just disrespectful to him.
I mean, just imagine if after you died, if people started saying the exact opposite of what you believed?
How would you feel about that?
Well, you wouldn't feel much, you're dead, but do you like the idea of people saying the opposite of what you believed your entire life?
You wouldn't want that, you'd want people to remember you as you were in life, to say what you believed so strongly in.
If you believed in god, you'd want people to say that you are with jesus now right?
To be respectful of your beliefs right?
But if you didn't believe in it, you'd want people to say that, to let it be known that you didn't believe if people said you're with god now.
You'd want the truth to be told about you and your beliefs.

I've been reading blogs through my feed reader all day now, and so so many of them think all those jokes were just that, jokes, and they are saying he's with god now, he's at peace finally, he was such a troubled soul but now he's with god, and he'll be at peace for once in his life.
I don't think he was a troubled soul at all, he said exactly what he felt, what he believed.
He was at peace in his life, he battled his drug addictions and over came them without a higher power, he did it on his own.

Why is it that as soon as someone dies, everyone says they are with god now, they'll be at peace finally?
Why can't people respect the person who has died and what they believed in?
It just bothers me that so many people have no respect for his true beliefs.
They want to believe he's gone to the heaven they believe in, and that's not what he believed.
He's just dead.
He was here yesterday, and now he's not.

Kat posted at 02:34 PM on June 23, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Entertainment

June 18, 2008

Snap Capp review.

When I saw the soda can caps, Snap Capp, posted on Dyane's blog, I was like cool, I could really use those.
I buy and drink soda from cans because it is cheaper to buy cans than it is bottles, but with a can, it can lose it's carbonation rather rapidly.
So went to the site Dyane posted, and ordered my own 3-pack.

snapcapp%20003.jpg

The Snap Capps came today, and of course I had to immediately try them out.
The 3-pack we got came in 1 blue, (Sebastian) 1 green, (Mark) and 1 purple, (Me) 1 for each of us.
Click here to see how they work, they are very cool.
It was $9.99 for the 3-pack, and $7.19 for FedEx delivery, (the cheapest on the list) but in the long run it will save money over all because there will be no more wasted cans of soda when they lose their fizz.
You can also buy them at Walgreen's for $2.50 each, and at the official site, they are working on getting the on line ordering page set up.

I know that once my soda loses the fizz, I'm no longer wanting to drink it, I absolutely hate flat soda, so with a bottle cap on it, it stays fresh.
I'll be able to keep a cap on it, it won't lose carbonation, and when I'm ready for bed, I can just make sure my cap is on tight and stick it in the fridge.
Come morning, my soda will still be fresh.
I'm quite impressed with these so far, and knowing that the teens and I won't be wasting any more soda because they lost the fizzy fun, and money, I know that these will be in constant use.
They are plastic and can just be rinsed out under the faucet too, easy to clean!
Oh! And because of having an air tight seal around the can, and a good tight twist on/off cap, they do not spill!
I tested this, and there are no leaks at all, so it's perfect for your kids and teens, no more spilled sticky soda messes!

We've been using them all day since they were delivered this morning, and they really do work.
Not a single one of the 3 sodas I've had today, has lost it's fizz at all.
And maybe I'm just thinking it happens, but the sodas actually feel like they are staying colder longer.
Maybe they are because no cold can escape, and no heat get in.
I dunno.
But I really love these and will probably buy a few more just to have on hand or in case one accidentally gets tossed.
I can totally see that happening with the teens.
So yeah, love 'em, and if you drink soda or heck, even beer from cans, you should try these, they really do work.

So thanks Dyane for posting about these, I would have never even known they existed if you hadn't.

Kat posted at 04:36 PM on June 18, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Product reviews

June 16, 2008

Contest deadline extended for Regalo Boutique.

My friend Mindy and her husband Chris, own an on line store called Regalo Boutique, and they are having a contest for a new sales announcement header for their summer sale.

You have until Wednesday to submit your headliners and the voting will take place this Thursday with the deadline to vote for your favorite until 11:59 p.m. EST.

The Grand Prize: Will have their headliner used in the Summer Sale and will receive their choice of Regalo Boutique (RB) merchandise totaling $50.00.
First Runner Up: Their choice of R.B. merchandise totaling up to $35.00.
Second Runner Up: Their choice of R.B. merchandise totaling up to $20.00.

Regalo Boutique has so many awesome items, and all you have to do to win FREE items, is submit a text header announcement for their summer sale.
Go check out her blog to see the examples that have been done so far, and then submit yours!

I would really like to enter, but I don't want to enter and possibly be chosen as the winner, and have someone say that I only won because Mindy and I are friends ya know?
I want it to be as fair as possible, but if voters choose mine, someone may claim it's not fair.
Mindy and Chris want me to enter because they like my writing style and think I could enter a good one, but I don't want anyone to think anything bad of Mindy and Chris, or me.
Understand?
Maybe what I'll do is just submit an entry anyway, but not actually be part of the contest, just give them more options to choose from without having to award me any prize.

But YOU!
You all need to go enter!
These are great prizes, they are awesome quality and beautiful, you just have to enter!
Go! Go now and enter to win some awesome stuff of your choosing from Regalo Boutique!

Kat posted at 11:34 AM on June 16, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

June 13, 2008

Digital Photo keychain contest!

There's a contest going on over at Today's Gizmos.com, for a very cool gadget!
She is giving away 3 digital photo keychains to 3 lucky winners.
You can read the rules and how to enter, in this post at Today's Gizmos.com.

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I really like this silver one, it has 4.8MB of internal memory, so it can hold up to 72 pictures.
That's very cool.
No more wallets stuffed full of pictures to show people the kids and other stuff, you can just slide through your pictures much like using the pictures folder on your computer.
Wholesale Keychain has tons of cool keychains, digital and car specific to choose from.

I hope I am 1 of the lucky 3 winners, I would love to have a cool digital photo keychain!

Kat posted at 05:46 PM on June 13, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Blogs, forums, and internet

June 11, 2008

Truck driver's family need your help.

The family of the truck driver, Raymond Neumann, who was killed last week in that crash on the interstate, needs your help.

Raymond was a loving and devoted father of three children, he worked as hard as he did to provide for his family that he loved so much.
His oldest son David, has built a website in remembrance of his father, and they are in need of any sized donation that you can give them.
Donations can be made at any Suntrust ATM or Banking center, and must be made out to David or Karen Neumann, account #1000076140832.
You can go to the site and read about Raymond, his life and his family, and see pictures of him and his children.

When David contacted me about the site, I could tell this was a young man grieving for the loss of a man who meant the world to him, and by the way David spoke, I could tell that Raymond was the devoted and loving father that they say he was.
David is a well spoken and articulate young man, his words touched me and brought me to tears, as I read about this so very tragic and unexpected loss.
I think Raymond would be very proud of his son David, for stepping up and trying to do everything he can to help take care of his mother, and his younger siblings in this very sad time.
Instead of just being able to grieve the loss of his father, he's trying now to help take care of his family in his father's absence.

If you are able to help out, any sized donation, or even help by spreading the word on your blog, please help spread the word local Florida bloggers , please give or do what you can to help.

Kat posted at 10:55 PM on June 11, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Locals

June 11, 2008

SEO Optimization and blogs.

It seems like everybody on line knows at least a little about SEO, and those that don't, know they want to because they want to make money.
I'm making some changes to this blog over the next few days and weeks ahead, so I've been doing a little reading on this subject tonight in between doing other things I have to do.
I promise, when I get ready to do these changes, I will let you all know.
I'm not shutting down or going on an extended hiatus, but I'm making some big changes that I think have been needed for awhile.

There are a lot of companies out there I've come across that promise you SEO results, and I know some people who paid a few different companies to increase their SEO, and promised to help drive traffic and sales to their websites, only to be ripped off.
They never saw an increase in traffic, so obviously what was promised didn't work out, and they lost thousands of dollars.
Not even making back what they paid for the service, and feeling very let down.

A way to know if the company you're going to use knows their stuff, is if they offer you a free SEO report, have plenty of information available for free for you too read, and they just have a ton of resources and links on their site for you to check out before you invest.
There's a San Diego SEO Company by the name of Best Rank, that has all of that for potential clients to check out.
Heck, they even have a blog just like most of us have, where they talk about what they do, what they are working on, and even some of the issues they have had while working for a client.
They are honest, which I find refreshing in this industry.
You really should check out their blog and read the June 9th entry.
They had some serious issues with a client's site, and had to really dig deep to find out what the problem was.
Not only was it cool to see how they were honest about the issue, but also how they resolved it.
I learned a lot from just that one entry.

Kat posted at 10:14 PM on June 11, 2008 || Comments (0) || Link || Site stuff

June 11, 2008

Remember Wednesday June 11th 2008.

It's time for another round of Remember Wednesday, a new-ish weekly music meme that Jade started.

This week is all about the Journey.
I've always been a big fan of their music, they are a solid rock band.
Each member a master of his instrument, and when combined, they all come together with an amazing sound.

Back in the early 90's, my friend Shell and I would go down town, down to the beach clubs like Mr. Goodbar's, (where they still play) and a few other bars and clubs, and see a local band called Riot Act.
Riot Act was one of those good-time bands, they played some of their music, but they mostly played covers for the tourist crowds who came in to hear rock music they knew and loved.
Guns n' Roses, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, 80's rock songs mostly, but nothing got the crowd going like when they would play covers of Journey.

The lead singer, Johnny, just had the voice that could pull off a damn good interpretation of Steve Perry.
Put his voice with the very talented members of the band, plus a good Journey hit like "Don't Stop Believin', Send her My Love, or Faithfully, and the crowd would eat it up, the place would be filled, over capacity on most nights, and it was guaranteed that you would have a good time.
They did an amazing cover of Separate Ways, one of my personal favorites of Journey, and wow, it was always so awesome to hear it played live, you'd get goosebumps when Johnny hit those high and long notes.
Shell and I would make a point of being there whenever Riot Act played, or as often as we could.
The both of us were young mothers of young toddlers, but we'd get a babysitter and head on down to the beach for our one night of fun and music, after a long week of taking care of kids and working, and Shell going to college.
We could let loose, and hang out with our friends, have a good time and just rock out with Johnny and the guys.
I think at one point, both of us actually worked at one of the clubs they played at.
I was a waitress at the Whitehall, and I believe Shell was a the only female bouncer at Goodbars.
It was a good time, good memories of being with a good friend.
So here is my Remember Wednesday song for this week, Separate Ways by Journey.

If you decide to play along, make sure you go to this week's post on Jade's blog, and leave a comment so other music lovers this week can come read about your music memories too!

Kat posted at 01:47 PM on June 11, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Entertainment

June 6, 2008

What the heck are you looking for?!

Every now and then I like to go through my stats and see all the various search terms that bring people to my blog.
Here's some of the unusual and funny search terms.

original little mermaid cover (people like the phallic cover)
bbbbbbbbb (um, yeah)
sims having sex (they can and they do)
Las Vegas travel I was going to go to Blogasm '08, but my plans fell through.
mumenshantz. I still have the piece of art Mark made.
check n go florida settlement. This still hasn't been settled yet.
dry nail strip. These really do rock.
the walrus and the carpenter were able to get the oysters to trust them based on promises they made to the oysters then in the end they ate them. like politicians. (Dogma)
ex girlfriend child support maine 2008 may maine may (No, I'm the ex-wife, and the hearing is now July 16th, but thanks for checking on me current girlfriend. That's so sweet of you!)
i believe license plate. Shot down by the senate! W00t!
infant swimming resources. Every parent with a pool should teach their kids to swim.

And curiously, the most searched for keyword coming in at over 100 searches;
stick figures. I have no idea why people search for that so much.

Kat posted at 11:01 AM on June 6, 2008 || Comments (1) || Link || Site stuff

June 2, 2008

Off. On. Off. On.

I have not been and may not be, around much at all.
I am having a really serious issue with my back and shoulder, I am in so much pain I can't even describe it to you.
A trip to the doctor today and an injection of some kind of pain medicine, has not helped me.
A new medicine has not helped me. I am in so much pain, I just want to curl up and cry.
It hurts to type, pee, lay down, everything.
I can't take much more and am thisclose to going to the hospital because nothing is helping, but something is so clearly wrong, this is not normal to be like this.

Kat posted at 04:09 PM on June 2, 2008 || Comments (5) || Link || Health & Beauty & Fitness

May 30, 2008

Attempting to take a day off.

I am so incredibly tired today, just wiped out from doing so much this week.
I keep falling asleep sitting here in my chair.

Mark is playing quietly in the other room, Sebastian is over playing with the kid next door, and the house is mostly clean.
I finally got caught up around here.
I just have a load of clothes to put in the dryer, and then I can chill out for awhile.

I want to either watch the movies I rented, or play with my Sims.
I really just need to have some quiet, yet entertaining, me time ya know?
You ever just get so drained from doing everything that everyone else wants and needs, that you completely forget to take care of yourself until you end up crashing down out of exhaustion?
That's how I feel today, completely wiped out physically and emotionally.
I need to get some rest, a nap or just laying down relaxing, and then spend some time just doing something for me for fun.
All I've done all week is take care of others, and I don't mind it, but I end up doing far too much, and I get drained of all strength and get emotionally exhausted.
I will try to catch up with emails and all my blog reading later on.
I've neglected all the blogs I read all week, I apologize, I will catch up with everyone later on, I promise.

Kat posted at 02:56 PM on May 30, 2008 || Comments (2) || Link || Home, family, kids & finances

May 29, 2008

Save money on your grocery bills.

I was sent this link today for the Grocery Game.

The Grocery Game is a website that can save you hundreds of dollars on grocery bill each month. Log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and you're off to win The Grocery Game!
When you play, you'll get a weekly list (called Teri's List) of the lowest-priced products at your supermarket matched with manufacturers' coupons and weekly specials -- advertised and unadvertised. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, and presents it to you in a straightforward format.

I spent some time looking over the Grocery Game site today, and it does look very interesting and may be worth a try, but I'm not big on spending money to save money.
It's a pay to use site, and this is how it works;
For $1, you can try Teri's List for 28 days.
You can login, see all the coupons, sales, advertised and unadvertised, and if you're not happy, cancel before day 28.

If you don't cancel, you will begin the full membership automatically, and once your full membership is activated, you will be billed $10 every eight weeks for a single store List.
That's only about $5 a month. For each additional List add $5 every eight weeks.

$10 every 8 weeks is not a lot of money at all, but again, I don't like paying money to save money.
You can read all the FAQs here.

Part of how this works, is that the Grocery Game not only finds the sales fliers for the stores in your zip code and matches them up to coupons from say, the Sunday newspaper, it also gives you website links for coupons you can print out, cut out, and use at your grocery store.

My problem is that the Publix where I live closest to, and have been shopping at for years now, does NOT accept any printed from a home computer coupons, due to fraud.
Apparently, these types of shopping helper websites, had so many people printing coupons in duplicate and triplicate, that the vendors were not paying the stores back on ANY of the printed coupons, because people were printing so many of them, and changing the value of the coupons using photoshop and other programs.

One of the managers at my Publix told me they lost thousands of dollars on these fraudulent coupons, so they now refuse to take any printed coupons at all.
It must be an original vendor coupon from the Sunday papers, magazines, or sales flier coupons, or you don't get to use them.
And after skimming the message board at Grocery Game, it seems