5 Minutes For Mom Contest

Wanna win something that sucks? I'm talking about something that suck literally not figuratively...it's a vacuum cleaner from Dyson!! Thanks to Deneen for sharing this one. Just head on over to 5 Minutes For Mom and sign up. You have until Wednesday, April 4^th @ 1pm Eastern, so hurry!!

Random Acts of Kindness

My mind has been under the influence of the wack-o hormones that come with PMS and I've been off daydreaming a lot lately as a result. Last night I thought about a random incident of kindness that happened shortly after Geof was born.

When I became pregnant with Geof we didn't have insurance, so to get the best care for our son I signed up for pregnancy medicaid and along with that, WIC. One evening, Geof and I ventured out to the grocery store for formula....(a little aside here, in today's environment of constant criticisms I feel I must defend my choice to use formula, I've done that in the past so go read it here if your panties are in a wad)...I got the formula I needed and stood in line to present my voucher. I get up there only to find out that the vouchers I had weren't valid until the next day. I didn't have enough formula at home to make it to the next day and by then my boob juice was as dried up as the dunes of the Sahara, and no money. I panicked and started sobbing right there in line. Thank you postpartum hormones! I hate crying in front of people let alone perfect strangers. Luckily for me there was an angel in line behind me. Without hesitation she told the cashier to go ahead and ring up the formula and then she proceeded to pay for it! Formula is not cheap let alone about 4 cans of the stuff. Of course this sent me into even more fits of tears. I hugged her and thanked her repeatedly. I then walked out to my car to finish my crying session.

I haven't been back to that particular grocery store out of sheer embarrassment, but I think about that woman a lot. I'd love to have the opportunity to thank her again. I guess the moral of the story here is the power in a random act of kindness. I had other problems and issues going on at home and in my life that made that act of kindness seem almost like a lifesaver. I've wondered if that lady saw herself in me, or if she just wanted to make the crazy new mom stop crying! At any rate, I'm very grateful and thankful for her. If we all did a little something nice for a stranger, I think the world would be a much more awesome place to live.

Dear Biological Clock...

...SHUT UP ALREADY!!

Holy Shrinking Fat Pants, Batman!!

I sort of expected it and decided not to beat myself up over it should it happen, but it still sucks. Quitting smoking was my one and only resolution for this year and so far, so good. As you can see by my nifty little quitting widget thingy over there-----> I've not smoked 1,472.99 cigarettes, which translates to 7.36495 cartons or 73.6495 packs . That's a lot!! The only real "side effect" I've noticed is some weight gain. I don't own a bathroom scale so I can't give an exact number, but I'm guessing somewhere along the lines of 10lbs, give or take. File this next part in the TMI category, but I'm sitting here in my "fat pants" and I had to unbutton them to be more comfortable!! ACK!! My bloaty-ness could also be due to the impending arrival of Auntie Flo, but she's definitely not entirely to blame. I used to be able to take these pants off without unbuttoning them! Double Ack!! I'm not complaining, really. I'd rather be fat than dead. At least I have the lung power to actually get up and do something about it!

Way To Go, Google!

I joined the money-hungry masses the other day and added some of those Google ads to this blog. They're supposed to reflect the content of the site they're on, but mine seem a little off. As I type this, all of the adds are about drug addiction treatments, bipolar disorder treatments, and eating disorder treatments. Is Google trying to tell me something? I really don't think I've blogged about any of those things and I don't suffer from any of those things....although Nathaniel might agree with the bipolar stuff. Although I may have just sealed my fate blogging about those topics today. Hopefully the ad content will become a little less depressing, we'll see.

In other news, remember when I blogged about blogging for money? It actually works! I got an email the other day saying that the company I plugged had paid me via Paypal. Not too shabby. So I guess you'll be seeing a few more plugs since they actually pay off. I went with Blogvertise, but there are several other sites like it out there. Click the link above to visit the post I mentioned before, I listed the other sites and their links. Hopefully someone else out there might find it interesting and worth while. There's also a blog hosting site called Blog Charm that's powered by Blogger where your entire blog is devoted to plugging companies, products, and services...and you get paid. I don't know how well it works, I can't get their site to open properly at the moment...that might be a red flag right there, but you never know. Just thought I'd share!

Go Shawty, It's Ya Birfday!!

photo courtesy of corbis.com

It's official, I have reached the half-way mark between my 20s and 30s. Does anyone know where the brakes are for this ride? It seems like once I hit 21 things started moving at warp speed. I hate it. I don't hate that I'm 25, I don't really care all that much about the actual number, I just feel like I'm falling behind my peers. Sure I've got the husband and the kid, but I don't have the career. I know, I know no one is ever too old to go back to school, and I fully intend to do just that when Geof starts Kindergarten. I just can't shake this feeling of being left in the dust. When I was younger and thinking about my future I saw myself at 25 with a nursing degree and already 3 years work experience. I'm not even close to that at this point. I'm not complaining about where I am right now in my life, I'm just itching to get my running shoes back on!