Wednesday, March 28, 2007

How to Make Your Laundry Smell Like the Elephant Area at the Zoo

I do NOT recommend washing - and then drying - a Huggies Pull-Up.

Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Buy less crap.

I found a link to this site via a newsletter I get (from Chief Marketer - and no, I am not a CMO but I am responsible for certain direct marketing efforts on the part of my company). It links to this article.

I used to subscribe to Utne and Mother Jones, and those two publications put me on a lot of cause-related mailing lists. It turned out to be an overkill of non-profit junk mail - there's no way to give to them all, especially when you've just gone down from two incomes to not quite 1 and a half, and plus you've got a baby....

Anyway, a lot of the non-profits would include freebies in their pieces - wrapping paper, notecards, etc... And then there's the freebies you get for donating just a paltry $15 - free book bag! A free plush baby seal! And so on and so on.... I don't know how any of the money donated actually gets down to those that need it.

Now I think the BuyLessCrap site makes a good point - it's better to directly donate, because instead of spending $30 on a T-shirt and have $5 go to the charity, you go and just donate $30, then obviously that's better. But think of the average American - you might not take the time to donate to a certain group, but hey I was going to buy this (insert product here) anyway AND I can feel good about myself - well, then $5 went to a (hopefully) deserving cause and that's awesome. And I look at myself - I donate to United Way every year because my company makes it easy - it just comes out of my paycheck and it's not even like I really see the money. We're the average American - make it easy and we'll do it.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Nuggets of Bloggin' Inspiration

I've been super busy. Plus, like Angelle, I sometimes "have nothing interesting to say".

It's funny, because sometimes I will get little nuggets of inspiration and write it down. But then I actually have to sit down and find the time and the mood to actually write something. And that can be darn difficult, considering that my most recent call to Dell (don't ask) resulted in Jackson coloring on the back of our couch (thank goodness to Crayola for washable crayons) and touching his own poop (we're hoping this is a sign that potty-training will get better. I did accomplish the art of getting him to pee three times this morning in the potty for a sticker reward).

Anyway, to my nuggets of inspiration:

1. "Minimum Wage" - a They Might Be Giants tune from Flood. I don't remember what I was originally thinking about when I wrote this down. The song is hilarious, because it starts out with a man singing "Minimum Wage!" and a whip-snap, then gears into some Muzak. I wonder if my friend Lynn has heard it, and if so, does it remind her of her days at Bi-Lo, because it's total grocery store Muzak. My first job was at the mall, at a little jewelry store called Afterthoughts (later bought up by Claire's). I worked there for a month, and in that time had 3 different managers. I left due to hours (I was hired in to work 15 hours a week and they cut me down to 3, but manager 3 was "disappointed" when I left to work at Sears for better pay and way more hours. Whatever.). The preteens were the worst part of the job - I think preteen girls may be, in fact, of the devil - they would come through (our store had two entrances, basically serving as a shortcut to the food court) and check things out, knock the hats off the wall, and not buy a dang thing. I don't know how those kinds of stores make money. I was hired as prom season was closing, so there was a good cash flow during that time and then...crickets. It would be a Friday night and I would maybe sell a $3 pair of earrings. The other bad part of the job - I had to pierce ears; it was required. Who thinks it is a good idea to have a 16-year-old girl piercing ears? Not me. I pierced one pair of ears - there's a poor gal out there who's probably just graduating college this year, and likely still curses the day she went to Afterthoughts to get her ears pierced. They were slightly crooked.

2. The Dove ads. I love the Dove beauty ads. I know this got a lot of press about a year or two ago, so I am jumping on that wagon late, but who cares. The most recent one I saw was a magazine ad. It was one of the aging gracefully ads, but the ad showed a woman - nude but covered) - and you can see her, rolls and all. And God bless her, but she looks radiant in the ad. I love it. Having had body issues specifically for the past 8 years or so (OK, well who doesn't have body issues, even if they seem perfect, right?), and finally coming to terms with the fact that I am likely never going to be that size 6-8 I was in early college, and that's OK - I really appreciate those ads. I had a lot more to blog about it earlier - like going into how I gained the weight (I was not a good vegetarian - I ate a lot more Pasta-Roni than vegetables & tofu, like a good vegetarian should. I am not a vegetarian anymore but if you are hurray to you, just make sure you eat those veggies).

It's late but I am trying to upload to Snapfish and order before I go to bed. I have 20 credits expiring April 2 and want to use them! We are so backed up on ordering prints. It's embarrassing so I won't admit how far behind we are, but it's bad. That's the downside of going digital. So I am trying out Snapfish - they seem cheap and I have heard good things. This week/weekend I am going to try to take some portraits of Tucker. It's one of the reasons we went for the big camera upgrade. Poor Tucker doesn't even have any photos on our walls - I need to buy some frames! I can't wait until we get a Walmart in this town.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Lord is my shepherd...


The Lord is my shepherd..., originally uploaded by TNEmily.

Fitting for Sunday, huh?

Friday, March 02, 2007

Need to explain the previous post...

This week has been draining. Tucker has come down with his first cold, but luckily it's been without complications. No fever, so all we need to do is run the humidifier at night and dose him with Triaminic (today was the first day since early Tuesday morning that we have not given him the stuff).

Anyway, so the last post ended the day in which Tucker came down sick (just coughing at that point). Jackson was an absolute little terror (I love him, but he's approaching 3 and it's the truth). Just before A came home, our day capped with me on the phone with the pediatrician's nurse, trying to get the dosage for the Triaminic, when Jackson pulled a poop out of his diaper and showed it to me.

Nice.

Labels: , , ,