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More Ode to April
2008-04-16 18:38:00
From the "That is Just Too Weird" department: Busy Dad (not my husband) has a young man who turned 6 yesterday, too! Oh, and Jay has no idea how dangerous it is to be around me in April . Today is the 10th Anniversary of the tornadoes that hit downtown (has sound) in the middle of the day. It's hard to describe, but that was a day like no other for me, and I'm sure for many others as well.
More About: Parenting

Happy Birthday, Busy D.!
2008-04-15 16:46:00
April 15th. Not only is it Tax Day for America, it's also a special day at our house. You see, six years ago today, I met someone new. How was I to know he'd end up being a blogger since I didn't even know what blogging was then? Yes, your favorite former blogger, Busy D. is six years old! Six years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with the weirdest feeling I've ever had. It seemed the human that was supposed to be surgically removed from my body the next morning was ready to come out. I have c-sections for a reason, this was so not in the plan. So, off to the hospital we went. We called my parents on the way, but of all times, their phone had somehow gotten knocked off the hook and they were unreachable. Many of you know that my dad at least, has enough cell phone issues, so that wasn't an option. The admitting office of the hospital was confused as to why I was reporting in so early for my scheduled procedure, but it was made crystal clear to the young lad...
More About: Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday

She moves her body like a cyclone
2008-04-12 15:53:00
Hey, you know how some talented bloggers carefully craft each blog entry as if it were a column and each piece is a feature that can stand alone and be enjoyed time and again? I'm not one of them. I thought you should know that. We didn't get blown off the face of the earth yesterday, sorry to leave you hanging. I work in a lair, and I can't always tell what's going on outside, so when I went up for daylight and heard the tornado sirens blaring and my pager telling me to "seek shelter" and it wasn't Rolling Stones lyrics, it got my attention. Since my lair is the most secure place on the planet, seems that when the place is locked town in disaster mode, the "safe place" is right outside my office. So, imagine my surprise when I returned to said office to seek shelter, there were 100 or so people right outside my door. I kinda felt bad that they were all sitting in the hallway on the floor and I was returning to my office of luxury. I have 6 guest chairs, so I briefly ...
More About: Parenting , Body , Moves , Cyclone

Land's End Free Shipping Code
2008-04-10 22:16:00
Even though some of you have snow this fine April and others of us are about to be blown off the face of the earth by tornadoes (again), it's getting to be time to think about getting a bathing suit before all the good ones are gone. Land's End is always a great place to get bathing suits, and those good folks at have blessed Busymom.net readers with a Land's End Free Shipping code: Just enter the following at checkout and receive free shipping (on any order, not just swimwear) at landsend.com: Code : SWIM PIN: 530530530 Expiration: April 17, 2008 So, check out all the cool stuff and be sure to get my Mother's Day gift while you're there, OK?

We keep the checkbook in the fridge
2008-04-08 15:58:00
With Confirmation, Busy D.'s birthday, graduation (Mah, baby! Goin' to high school in a few short months!), camp registration, etc. coming up, we're generating a lot more important papers than usual, lately. Sometimes? We're not so good with the 'portant papers. Over the years, we've tried many systems to organize them and keep them where we can find them, but we always end up defaulting to The Pile on the Kitchen Counter&trade filing system. Occasionally, I get a wild hair and I buy pretty containers and baskets for the Pile on the Kitchen Counter&trade, but someone usually comes along and dumps the contents and absconds with the basket. We've tried folders and such, but it turns out that the "out of sight, out of mind" thing is not so good for the paying of the bills and the signing of the permission slips. It doesn't help that Busy Dad and I have competing notions about how to work The Pile on the Kitchen Counter&trade system. He's all about spreading everything ou...
More About: Daily , Fridge

The Saturday Bulletin
2008-04-08 07:34:00
For some reason, this this Saturday Bulletin made me laugh until I had tears streaming down my face.
More About: Funny

Bloggers everywhere
2008-04-08 07:15:00
The lovely and talented Fussypants organized a local blogger dinner, and I had the honor of dining with her and Michelle Smiles, Jordana, and, Meredith of Like Merchant Ships. We had a delightful time talking about you. Yeah, you. They all had important things in common, I felt kind of left out as I was the only one not getting ready to move or who had recently moved. Oh, and they had other big things in common, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say it. I'll survive, though. I made sure to tell them that if I um, "move" I'll hold them responsible. And today I had lunch with Jamie from Blonde Mom and Amy from Milkbreath and Margaritas. That's more social activity than I had in four years of college.
More About: Blogging , Bloggers

I need to be more specific
2008-04-07 19:15:00
Busy Girl was talking about something that had potential to take a turn toward the catty. Me: "Be nice." Busy Girl: "I am nice." Friend in back seat of car: "Be nice to people, Busy Girl. To people. Busy Girl: "Oh."
More About: Kids Say the Darndest Things , Specific

Busymom.net: Now with minerals
2008-04-06 23:51:00
I was trying to buy some makeup and noticed that everyone and their brother's product now has Natural! Minerals ! I know it's due to the wild success of the Bare Esencetuals line, but isn't a mineral "natural" by definition? Why should I be excited about "minerals" on my face all of a sudden? Talc is a mineral and it's typically in powders, that's not new. Graphite is a mineral, perhaps I'll just cut to the chase and do my eyes with a Number 2 pencil. Double the fun, office supplies and makeup in one.
More About: Nothing

They sprung me
2008-04-05 07:07:00
Good news. I did less hard time in the slammer than Nicole Richie thanks to you guys. My special thanks to: Anonymous Anonymous Anonymous A very special Anonymous (You know who you are) Michael Silence Solonor CeeElCee SocalMom Amy Brown Amy at Finding My New Normal You contributed enough to send a child to camp through MDA. I have no idea how they will get home, though. Seriously, I've heard from several of you who've been affected by MD, thank you. It's a worthy cause, but hearing from you made it more personal and I didn't grouse so much about fundraising. I work on the same campus where I went to college. Since I learned I was able to turn myself in to "jail" rather than have someone come get me, I walked over to the fraternity house where it was being held. As I walked past the Greek houses, it was hard to believe it had been 20*mumble* years since I had walked these sidewalks. I had specific memories of where I had gone, things that happened, who I talked ...
More About: Daily

Serving it up
2008-04-03 16:06:00
Busy Girl is currently playing volleyball. It's sort of a big deal because she is going to try out for the team in high school this fall (Mah, baby! High school!). She's a good player, but you never know what will happen because she's just not very big, and high school athletes in all sports these days, are, well, bigger than she is. OK, sixth graders are bigger than she is, but whatever. I am raising a family of medium to small people. Just thought you'd like to know They had a tournament a couple of weeks ago from which my butt is just now recovering. Bleacher ass. It's a real affliction. Won't you help? Anyway... She's got a great serve, but for some reason it left her the second day of the tournament. I'm mean, packed up, forwarded the mail and caught a plane to Rio. It got to where the coach would have to take her out of the game every time it was her turn to serve and then put her back in when it was over. Her serve made a visit home during practice ove...
More About: Sports

A fine line
2008-04-01 16:30:00
I have a lot to learn about this teen parenting thing. My first lesson is that it suddenly got really hard to figure out what is going on in her world. I began monitoring her computer use, with her knowledge to make sure there were no hugely inappropriate things going on in her world. I rehearsed the next level of the drinking/drugs/smoking/sex talks and filed them away, ready to bring them out should anything I read anywhere raise my suspicions. But, not to my great surprise, I'm not finding any of these scenarios. I fully realize that most anything can be deleted, or moved to the phone via text messages, I'm fairly confident that things in these areas are OK for now. What I really didn't think about though, was reading about things that are obviously important to her that she doesn't talk to me about much. I'm still learning about what things are manufactured drama for the sake of drama and which things are truly upsetting. I've been pondering a quote I read last ...
More About: Parenting , Line , Fine

Win one of 3 copies of Turbo Tax Deluxe
2008-04-01 03:35:00
I've got a contest going on for you tax procrastinators. Win one of 3 copies of Turbo Tax Deluxe over at Career and Kids. File your taxes from the comfort of home, it's a $49.95 value. Just leave a comment to enter.
More About: Money

Huggers not Huggies
2008-03-31 22:58:00
Folks on Twitter knew I had a an undesirable official visitor at work for all of last week. (Twitter people: "Um, yeah. She wouldn't shut up about it.") She had a job to do, but to make matters worse, she's just not a very likable person and it was a long week. When she left, she hugged me goodbye. I was a little taken aback, but even though I don't like her, I suppose she's nice enough and this wasn't her first visit with us. Still... I mentioned this to Busy Chatty Employee and she immediately got all skeeved out because she (BCE) "isn't a hugger". Work hugginess aside, I realized that I'm neither a hugger nor a non-hugger really. I don't think a lot about it unless you're an awkward side-hugger. Then, I think about it. BCE is younger than I am, and she offered that her friends are big huggers. They hug when they see you and then again when they leave, even if you see each other every day. I hug my friends on occasion, but mostly it's when I haven't seen som...
More About: Daily , Huggies

Everything will be alright when we go shopping
2008-03-30 23:52:00
Here are some miscellaneous shopping links clogging up my inbox. These are affiliate links, but from time to time I do post other discounts and stuff that aren't that people send me. (Big hint to the Land's End people: the free shipping thing a while back was a big hit) Anyway, for whatever it's worth, maybe you're shopping for graduation gifts (Mah baby! Graduating grade school in a few short weeks!) or getting ahead on a Mother's Day gift, here's some links that might be helpful. Or not. I dunno. Bonus points to anyone who can identify the song in the title. Don't Google it, that's no fun. If anyone enjoys these, I might post stuff like this regularly or make a new page just for discounts. Or, that might be too much work and you may never see them again. Who knows, really? So here ya go:$150 to $200 off select laptops at BestBuy.com. Valid 3/30-4/5. All iPod nano MP3 players on sale at BestBuy.com. Valid 3/30-4/5. Get free ground shipping on all orders over...
More About: Shopping , Alright

Don't let me go up the river
2008-03-28 17:56:00
Seriously, y'all. I'm going to jail next week if you don't help me. I hate stuff like this. Don't get me wrong, the Muscular Dystrophy Association is a great cause, and I'm happy to help, but I really don't relish the idea of the "police" dragging me out of my office in the middle of the day. Here's my donation page. I have no delusions of getting $1500 (their goal, not mine), but I'd at least like to get to $100. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? A huge, HUGE thanks to you who have donated so far!! non-sequitur non-sequitur non-sequitur non-sequitur Also, don't any of you people need wedding invitations? June is right around the corner, ya know. The good people at Wedding Paper Divas are offering you a 10% discount on your order if you use the Wedding Paper Divas discount code BUSYMOM. What about baby announcements and baby shower invitations? Use the Tiny Prints coupon code BUSYMOMREADER and save 10%. Tiny Prints also has birthday party invitations. Both sit...
More About: Daily , River

Wii are so retro
2008-03-26 21:35:00
I was talking with Donna about her Wii (heh, I said "her Wii") when I mentioned that I really, really want one. I'm a teenager of the early 80's before "game room" meant the room in your house dedicated to your PlayStation, your Wii or whatever. If we wanted to play a game, we had to drive to an actual game room, a storefront with video game machines and quarter dispensers, and boy did I spend me some quarters in my day. To this day, I'd love to have my own Tapper machine. The Budweiser version, that is. Yes, I know I can play it online, but it's not the same. Must I have a point, here? Anyway, for someone who loves video games as much as I do, my kids are woefully lacking in game systems. We have a couple of Gameboy SPs in the house and a PSP, and a Game Cube that works on occasion. We need to remedy that, but our TV is so old any new game system would be worth more than the TV. Maybe this Christmas... However, since I never actually grew up, as an adult I got a Ni...
More About: Daily , Retro

Easter and keister rhyme
2008-03-24 20:37:00
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter . We stayed here in town for the first time, I think since we had kids as my MIL decided she had enough of us last week and she didn't plan anything for Easter. My mother always did the egg hunt preparations here, and my MIL did the rest of the day with food and more chocolate and gifts, so imagine my surprise when I awoke Saturday upon my death bed and realized, "Hey, Easter is tomorrow and the odds of my father buying gifts and chocolate bunnies and eggs filled with candy aren't so good." So, at the risk of showing up that Other Guy, I arose and went forth to the Wal-Marts and boughteth stuff for Easter, and all was well except me. The kids are on Spring Break this week, and we have our usual plans of a lot of nothing and I have to work. Poor Busy Girl. I can remember being her age and aching to go somewhere for Spring Break, anywhere. While my friends were going skiing or to the beach, if I was lucky we went to Birmingham to visit m...
More About: Daily

Dispatch the "Wah-bulance" please
2008-03-23 01:09:00
Since there's no one left in real life who wants to listen to me whine, I thought I'd tell you guys that I'm sick. Wah. I did have to rise from my death bed in order to purchase requisite Easter Bunny stuff, and the skank-girly ringing up my purchases says, "Oh, getting things for the grandbabies?" Bitch. OK, I look pretty rough today. But, still... *examines self more closely in mirror, make hair coloring appointment* It's happened to me before when I was with Busy D., but without kids, this was a first. In what I guess was an attempt to recover, she proceeded to get out the latest US magazine with J-Lo's twins and describe every picture in the story to me while she repeatedly insisted, "There's no way those pictures could be 'real'." I thought for sure I was on Candid Camera, but no one ever jumped out to surprise me, so I paid and left. Did I mention I'm sick? Oh, sorry. Guess I did. I was going to write something about all the blogger-PR kerfluffle (look i...
More About: Daily , Dispatch

Mamas don't let your babies make your basketball picks
2008-03-20 20:40:00
I let Busy Girl fill out my handy dandy printable March Madness Bracket sheet. I pointed out today's Kansas victory to her, and said, "You picked Kansas, right?" Busy Girl: "I don't remember." Me: "Well, I'm sure you did, their #1 ranking was right on the bracket there." Busy Girl: "Huh? Rankings? Where?" There goes my 2 bucks and my chance at $100 of glory. 2008 March Madness scores here.
More About: Sports , Babies , Basketball , Make

The world. She can be good.
2008-03-19 22:00:00
I walked into Panera for lunch. There was an older gentleman examining the basket where the bread samples usually are. He was homeless, and I walked by, admittedly kind of lost in my thoughts about getting my food and getting to work using the free wi-fi. My thoughts were interrupted by a soft and respectful voice: "Sir, are you hungry? Would it be OK with you if I bought something for you to eat?" I turned around and saw a young male college student addressing the older gentleman. The older gentleman agreed, and the younger one got in line with him, helped him select his food and took it to his table and they ate lunch together. Don't know why I'm telling you that, other than to report that there is good in the world.
More About: Life , World , The World , Good

BlogHer Ads Survey
2008-03-18 20:13:00
Would you be so kind as to take a moment to complete the BlogHer Ads Survey ? You're very nice, and you look smashing today, I must say.

Happy Santa Patrick's Day!
2008-03-17 15:32:00
Apparently, Santa Claus has taken a 2nd job in the off season: From Busy Dad's trip to England last week despite the "2007" date on the picture. Seems Busy Girl can't be bothered with things like the correct date setting on her camera.
More About: Happy

Hazel's got the music
2008-03-17 14:47:00
Dear Rihanna: Please stop the music (has sound), now. Love, Busy Mom P.S. I know I'm old, but who's 'Hazel"? I know I speak for parents everywhere of teens who force us to listen to Top 40 music, it sure does sound like you're saying, "Hazel's got the music" in some spots. P.P.S. Teens don't think it's funny at all when you sing it loudly that way in the car.
More About: Music , The Music

Remember me?
2008-03-16 16:32:00
Sunday? Hello? How'd that happen? I know how it happened. Busy Dad has been out of the country for the past 10 days. Count them. One, zero days. Now, I'm not comparing my situation to anyone else's, but my situation is the only one I know, and this has been a significant departure from the norm. You see, I've had to make my own coffee, AND turn the flood lights off and on in the morning and at night. How much should one person have to handle, ya know? My 83 year old MIL is here helping, and, while I'm very grateful for her assistance, it's still like having a guest, and it can be a little stressful. Actually, things have gone pretty well despite the ve-ry large part of a tree that fell on the fence in a storm the morning after he left. You may remember our track record with trees. That would be the fence that keeps the Busy Dogs in the back yard. I cannot find the chainsaw anywhere, and, the part of the tree on the fence that's keeping me from fixing said fenc...
More About: Daily , Remember Me

Things "They" should invent
2008-03-12 15:06:00
OK, don't tell anyone, but, I'm going to apply for a few patents: - A car with a trash chute - A laptop that doesn't need a battery and remains powered on and connected to the Internet at all time. - A dog that can serve up his own food, and, write on the grocery list when the food is gone. - Parking space "spreader" attachment for the front of the car. Move those pesky already parked cars to the side, and, slide right in between them. - Ritalin aerosol - A washer and dryer for the back of the car (actually, I think someone may have beat me to that), so you can get a few chores done at the soccer field. - Spray on coating to prevent dead trees from falling and crushing the fence that keeps the dogs in the back yard. (OK, maybe that's a niche item). - Convenient, single serving six packs of STFU - Kids with a working "Go upstairs, put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, and, go to bed" setting Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.
More About: Nothing , Things

Today's headlines
2008-03-10 15:25:00
I couldn't figure out what I wanted to write today, but, then I glanced at the news, and, realized that really, the world provides better fodder than I ever could: Law to make tongue kissing minors a sex offense - 13 year olds, be careful! O.J. Simpson lawyers say robbery trial delayed -He's busy tracking down the real killer, and, won't be back until fall. Rare hippos beat odds by hiding from wars - Someone ask if they've seen Osama Bin Laden. Prescription drugs found in drinking water - Can I take the Prozac water to work in a spray bottle and mist a few offices? Connection between housework and sex - insert your own comment here
More About: News , Headlines

Snow!
2008-03-08 17:58:00
So, we got some snow last night: The media is all abuzz about said snow. We were watching the local news, and, an intrepid reporter was interviewing ordinary looking Joe Commuter, and, he asked Joe why he had driven into town from parts outlying in this kind of weather. Joe Commuter replies, "Well, I drove in to visit my wife at the Women's Prison!" Intrepid reporter: "..."
More About: Weather , Snow

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee
2008-03-07 19:05:00
Welcome new visitors! Would you like some coffee? Because coffee, is so yummy! Like, omg, coffee is totally the best!! Mommies, like you know, love, love, love coffee and stuff! Squee! (Yeah, I know, don't ask. Long story.)
More About: Daily , Coffee

Let's do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel
2008-03-05 21:54:00
I was walking down the sidewalk earlier, and, I noticed some crows flying around, squawking loudly. Another lady noticed them, too, and, she spent a lot of time staring at them intently. I was walking toward her, and, we acknowledged each other and she offers, "I think they're making babies." Being the polite Southerner (and kray-zee magnet) that I am, I responded with something insightful such as, "They sure are loud, huh?" because I was not about to discuss the mating habit of crows with her. She then replied, " I saw two geese this morning." I was waiting for the follow-up along the lines of, "They were doing the 'Let's Make a Gosling' Mambo'", and plotting my escape, when she simply stated, "They were flying east", and, she walked away. Good to know.
More About: Discovery , Discovery Channel , Channel