Email Icon Generator

Surely you've seen them. But how do you get your own? I'm referring to these handy puppies:

You can make your own here with this Email Icon Generator. There's email icons for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail. Good stuff.

Psst... I found the link on Technical Bliss.

SAHM/WAHM vs. Working Mom

My last entry was Monday and here it is, already Friday. My how time flies. It has been such a rainy week. Rain rain and more rain. Not that rain is entirely bad; the flowers are blooming, grass is growing, green abounds. But there's also brown mud all over, making outside play a bit cumbersome.

Sophia's LaCrosse game was cancelled this week due to rain, and DT's soccer game was also postponed. Which was fine with me because the game fell on a work night for me and I have a much easier time working in the evening if I don't think anything is going on and I'm not missing too terribly much. Although I did miss the boys throwing pies at Awana. Frank kindly took videos of them using his camera phone. After I got home from work I plopped down in my chair and watched the videos, tearing up a bit because they were incredibly cute and I missed it, live, but what a joy to be able to see it regardless.

The jury is still out for me on the SAH/WAHM vs. WM (working mom) front.

I don't know that there is a "better" of the two or anything like that. And each situation is unique. Staying home enable(s) me to have a lot more time with my family. However, my husband's income alone can not support us. We've known that for a while, though. For me it was either get a job, or go back to school. Getting a job solves the immediate need (for money), though, so that kind of won out.

Having some extra money is really very nice. Admittedly, a lot of it has been burnt up on take-out foods. Embarrassed to admit it, but that's the cold, hard, facts. Although, Loo needs shoes and I won't have to charge them or wait for a paycheck for them. I can get them. The problem is finding the time to get them. Heh.

I have to figure out how to manage my time and my money better. That would help some of our situation with unbalanced checkbooks and lack of solid groceries for days on end (because I don't have it in me to go BIG shopping).

Today my goals are two things (beyond my regular responsibilities like work, getting the kids where they need to be):

Grocery shopping (BIG shopping, like enough food for more than a couple days)
Throw some grass seed on the lawn where the bare spots are (that's as close as I get to actually doing anything about grass -- seems to work OK)

Happy Friday!!

Happy Monday

Hello Monday. How are you? I'm tired. Cranky. But loving the wonderful weather. Glad the rain was last night and not today. Looking forward to the kid's soccer game.

Edited to add: You know it is Monday when... You find your computer clock is 15 minutes slow, realize you are late. Then, as you realize you are late and dig for your keys, you can not find your keys. The last person to have them was your husband. He is at work. He has no recollection of having said keys. You have to call your MOTHER to come from across town to pick you up and take you LATE to the job you started less than a month ago. Sigh. 'Tis Monday, yes.

Last night Lootie's team had their first game. They were bumped up a division from last season, and we weren't sure how they would do. Lootie is goalie and was practically clinging to the van when we arrived because the rest of the team was all, they're so big and are you sure they're our age? I had to coax him out of the car. As big a brute as he is, he's also a thoughtful, anxious child. And stubborn. So I had to bribe him. Which is bad. I knew it when he was getting out of the van and I know it now it was bad, bad, bad.

But it worked. So I have to pick him up a little some-some'in today, which I'm so totally kind of kicking myself for doing because the kid is like an elephant and he doesn't forget and won't forget that mom bribed him with a treat to get his goofy butt out of the van an on the field.

Frank, being the man-dolt, went and lent out video camera to one of his friends about a half-hour before the game.

"Was that the smartest thing you could have done, first game of the season and all?"

He initially went on the defensive, but then shut up as he realized the weak excuses sounded, well... weak, and he had done a bad. I didn't ride him too much for it because there's just no point and I figure the fact that he's coaching all these wrangly kids counts for more than the camera and there will be other games to film. I didn't even bother with the regular camera. It is nice to just watch the game, instead of being behind a camera. Chat with the parents, that's always fun. And since one of my favorite girlfriends and other parents I enjoy are on the team, the chatter is always fun.

Work is closing in on me here. Thank the Lord Nacho is soundly sleeping. Puppies are SUCH freaks. It is a very welcomed treat to sit and relax, drink my coffee and play around online for a bit in the morning. I miss that. So here's a Monday Madness meme:

1. Name a song you know most (or all) of the words to.
I know the words to SO many songs it is ridiculous. First one that pops to mind, though... Hmm, how about Push It by Salt n' Pepa.

2. Name a movie that you have watched more than once and would watch again.
There's a few of those, too. Let me see... Nacho Libre. The kids had that on the other night. Cracks me up.

3. Have you ever read a book more than once? Please share.
I actually kind of try not to, because there are so many books out there. The first book that comes to mind, that I read more than once is The Pistachio Prescription. I read it as a teen, but loved it. I can't think of any books in the past five years that I re-read.

4. Share an inspirational quote with us.
One of them I like is by Joyce Meyer. I think I was just watching TV one day and she said it, I wrote it down and stuck it on my wall. Can't find it by Google right now. But it is:

You can either suffer the pain of changing, or suffer the pain of staying the same.

5. What day of the week does (or did) your birthday fall on this year?
Is this something I should know offhand? My birthday is September 20th. Looks like that is on a Thursday.

6. Have you ever bought a book or cd or movie more than once because you forgot you bought it already?
More than once. Recently it was from Paperback Swap and the book was Bridge to Terabithia. But now I have a few copies which is nice if I read to the twins and Lootie, we can all share.

Have a good Monday.

Food Talk

Squid Salad and Purple Cauliflower.

And then, tonight's dinner: Tacos Con Carne.

The weather today is great.

Very spring-like. Kids out playing, birds chirping, annoying little bugs appearing. I did two loads of wash and hung one on the line. The twins played their first soccer game of the season. You could tell all of the kids were pumped about being out in the nice weather. It was a great game to watch. The older three kids stayed home and Frank was at work so it was just me, my mom and Frank's dad as spectators (well, besides the oodles of other parents and grandparents there).

From the soccer game to home, and then to the skatepark. Sugars (one of the twins) wanted to skate with DT at the skatepark and I promised this weekend he could. So they ditched the

I just took the clothes down since we plan to have a fire out back. I love having fires, but I always get a bit ADD with them, enjoying them for about the first 10 minutes, then retreating back indoors. Unless we have company over and we're sitting around the fire, I wig out and run off.

I leave you with Stinky and Nacho. Can't believe this kid was afraid of dogs (and cats) a little over a month ago.

Celebrity Blogs

Celebrity dish? I like it sometimes. Some yummies and links from my recent surfing...

Three of the biggest egos in show business, Tyra Banks, Beyonce Knowles and Kimora Lee (in no particular order, mind you), spent a girls’ night out, courtside, at a recent Knick's game. - link

TMZ is always the dirt
Fatback

And because I'm not an Oprah-minion (and GreasyGuide is da grease)...

While Oprah is a demi-God to some I take her with a grain of salt. I love her charity work, her show topics, and her upliftment of the people. But sometimes she like to sit a top a might white horse and point fingers at people... link

CelebrityPuke will do ya.

I'm not that into celebrities, but I am. But I'm not. If that makes any sense, which I doubt it does. I like reading about it when I want to veg on something useless that doesn't really hold water with me. But I also find the whole "celebrity" and the power it has attained quite sickening, sad and frightening. Maybe it is like drinking a Diet Coke. Totally bad for you, can rot a spoon if you let it sit in a glass filled with bubble brown long enough, but it tastes so good sometimes.

Playing Secretary

Work is going well. Although I'm not sure why I wanted a job. Oh yeah. Money, experience, all that. Yeah that's why. The pastor I work for is great. She's funny, young. A mom. I like her. My hours are pretty cool, with the exception that they eat into my slothing time, which any job would do.

I miss being home. I miss having that time to myself. Being able to get the kids off to school, sit around in my pajamas and just... chill. Watch TV, surf, read. Clean. I'll admit, most of the "my" time, admittedly, was idle time. Which was what got me thinking about getting a job in the first place. As I sat around, debating over when to do X, Y and Z - and then deciding that deciding when to do it was too much work, thus going back to being idle. I have to remind myself that the majority of my time was spent not doing much and then quickly making up for it later. Which seemed to work, for the most part. But somewhere in that "not doing much" time I thought that possibly it was time for me to get a job outside the home.

The picture is of my office about the 2nd or 3rd day that I was there. After everyone had left and I was able to dig around (which I was told to do, calm down there), chillax a bit and just look around going, Wow I have my own desk. Cooooool!! It is a little messier now, but not too much. At the end of each day I kind of shovel everything into a drawer and then bring it out the next day. I always bring my pink water bottle, which you can see sitting on the desk. Got it from Starbucks, the filthy bastages. On sale. It's cute, right.

Slowly I'm getting the hang of things. I've made bulletins (there's a LOT of bulletins during Holy Week, which is when I started), updated the calender, updated all the open building permits, complied a newsletter and yesterday did my first bulk mailing. I enjoy office stuff, computers, the clicking of keys, answering the phone, saying hold please and pressing the HOLD button, stamping things, stapling, filing... I won't even get into my love for office supplies. Honeychile, I have a wicked thing for office supplies.

Company pens are my favorite. I once had a reader send me a manila envelope filled with company pens and I nearly fainted with the sight of it. Staplers, letter openers, clips, markers... just love having them around. One of the first things I did when I got a desk in my own apartment was fill out my office supplies buying way more than any stay at home mother of 17 would need. But I digress. I just can't help it. We get to talking office supplies and I forget all else.

For the most part I feel very adult and responsible, but every now? Between you and me, every now and then I feel like I'm 10 years old again, pretending to play office secretary with my pencils, pens, notebooks and date stamp which I made my mom buy for me because I loved to play office.

I also used to play Seaport Hospital, my good friend and I. Even though all we had for a nurse's station was an old brown dresser in the corner of an upstairs hallway with a bunch of papers and pens and a pretend phone for intercom and calls, my mind remembers our setting as a slick, rounded counter with important nurse stuff (flashy phone, charts), my friend and I with crisp white nurse hats, smooth white stockings and blue sweaters to keep us warm while we did our important jobs. We had clipboards and small sheets of paper, stacks of them, that we spent an entire day preparing, each with the same outline so that they looked like a patients chart, with Seaport Hospital at the top of each one. Words like "STAT" and "blood" filled in the lines and then scribbles for signatures. We had imagination galore.

I was talking with her the other day and told her about how I felt like I was totally playing secretary sometimes and she said, Girl why do you think I became a nurse with all my forms and patients and stuff? Just like Seaport Hospital, I feel like I'm playing "nurse" half the time.

New York and Tango

Do NOT continue reading if you don't know who New York has chosen and you haven't seen the Reunion Show, mmmkay?

So NY chooses Tango, right? He proposes to her. And then there's the reunion. Just like the women in the Flava Flav dating show, (many of) the men are crazy opportunists, trying to act like they're sane for the cameras. Chance is all splayed out on the couch acting hard because he can talk big with the burly security guards to hold him back (in other words, protect and save his skinny butt from getting a beat down). Boston is just Boston. But that weird puppy-lover dude, oh my. That was interesting. New "girl" in his life. Boy, you crazy.

Tango, after hearing what NY has to say about his momma kick NY (word ?) to the curb, surprising the heck outta her. Crazy crazy. And then as the show is closing, Lala's all "I guess you di'in't find love NY, huh?" and NY is all "Um-hmm girl, let's get some dranks after this crazy show." Like we're not supposed to hear all this and as this is going on I'm wondering if VH1 is turning into Jerry Springer and how much of this crap is staged and how much is for real anyway?

I mean seriously. 'Cause they were all leading up to an I Love New York Second series as that show faded to commercial. From Surreal Live comes Strange Love then Flava of Love (1 and 2), then I Love New York and now Charm School. I think they've squeezed the life out of the oddity dating series. How weird these normal people (or well abnormal) reach this... well, surreal state of celebrity. But not because they are glamour fabulous but because they are completely insane and void of switch in most people's head that says I am NOT going on TV, unleashing all inhibition and actin' a fool so everyone and they're stepson can watch. Not only do they do it once, they do it more than once. They're fifteen minutes turning into an hour.

As Pumpkin says, "I don't regret spitting on her (NY) because ya gotta do something to get noticed."

Mmmmm. But noticed as what and by whom? Yeah, you're remembered. For being the girl that spit on that other girl on that crazy VH1 dating show. What's the glory in that?

OY-yoy-yoy. I like watchin' it, I do. But sometimes I feel downright guilty. Like I'm spying in on a group home for socially (mentally) challenged individuals, eating popcorn and cackling at the absurdity.

Nacho Sal

Sal's mask finally arrived. After seeing Nacho Libre about 100 times, he reallyreally wanted a mask for his birthday. We found an ebay seller (well Frank found it, I take no credit) and ordered one, but it didn't come in time for the actual birthday celebration. He handled that pretty well, though. Once he did get his hands on the mask he wore it for nearly 24 hours straight.

Nobody complained. Not even his brothers when he wore it to the outdoor skate park. Weirder yet it that the kids at the park didn't point to him like they do when they wear the Spiderman outfits to the park. Sal strutted around with his mask on and it was as if it were completely normal. He felt pretty cool.

Obsessions

Ms. Robyn tagged everyone on this one, and I'll take that personally.

List five things you are obsessed with, then tag five people to do the same.

1. Curtains and having them juuuust right before I go to bed.
2. Having a clean bathroom (I fail at this sometimes). I don't like to shower or use the toilet in a dirty bathroom.
3. People being on my bed with their day clothing on. I'm getting a little "better" with this, but I don't like socks or day clothes in my bed.
4. I'm a hypochondriac. I don't think I need to elaborate on that one. It is another thing I'm working on, but it has been with me for as long as I can remember.
5. Schedules, lists and the like. I like to know what is going on when and where, but at the same time, will ignore everything because I just don't want to think about it.

I, in turn, will tag everyone. So there.

Anniversary

Sixteen years, I've been married to this man. This morning he let the dog out, made a pot of coffee, got his breakfast. I made my breakfast, enjoyed a cup of coffee (my sweet goodness cafe fair is some good coffee), chatted with some of my daughter's friends (we had 3 kids sleepover last night, 2 of my daughter's and one of my son's). Ate my eggs and bread. And then realized it was the day of our anniversary.

I gave Frank a hug, asked him if I should start calling him "father" or "dad" or something that seemed appropriate to the length of time we have been married. All in jest, of coarse. Me saying something sarcastic and silly and him saying "no" in feigned agony and distress is a common occurrence.

One of the girls asked if Frank and I ate breakfast together every morning, obviously noting that he was in the other room and I was at the table. I told her that we didn't. That, when the kids were in school and it was just us sitting around we might. And my mind flicked to an aged version of Frank and myself, kids grown and moved out, us enjoying breakfast and coffee together each morning like my parents and grandparents do.

It is funny how life doesn't seem like much until you look back on it. I can remember being able to say I was a decade old. How exciting that was; I found a thrill in it. And then two decades old, although the first decade was as a child, the second as someone growing int an adult. And now the third. Seeing kids born in 1985 (I was almost a teen in '85, fully "in" the whole 80's thang) who are young adults. Goodness, it makes me feel old, yo.

Thinking of 16 years together seems like it just can't be. But it is. And wow. I love him still. Have grown into him. Gotten used to him, to us.

We're planning on dinner out with friends. Not sure where to go yet, but have some ideas. There are so many restaurants in this town to choose from. I'd definitely like to try something different, though. We'll see.

Procrastination

Hoy es martes (Today is Tuesday). Which means Tackle it Tuesday. Is anyone else doing this? Or going to give it a shot today? I have much to tackle around here, seeing as I have not been home as much. But I'd really like to make a dent in something, big or small, something that is in front of my face all the time. I'll ponder it. If it weren't a cold and rainy day I'd tackle my yard, pick up the trash, etc. But it is turning cold again here in Wisconsin.

One thing I have to get done is my Spanish homework. I always leave it to the last day because, well, because I can I suppose. If it doesn't need to be done today -- why do it today, right?

Old Telephones

For the record, I want this in pink. If you're feeling the need to play Santa's Elf in April and buy someone a surprise gifty-poo, hey there ya go. Naw, seriously though, I love me some phones. I have a baby blue Princess phone in my bedroom and just lurve to use it. I'd like a wall phone, too and pink feels like the right color to match my pink KitchenAid that I picked up for myself a few years ago on my birthday. Dang I love that beast.

But, back to the phone. It is crazy these phones that were so clunky and basic way back when are desirable now (and are rather pricey, too). Admittedly, I have phone issues. Not as bad as I used to have (at one point as a teen I had 10+ phones in my room, all hooked up with the ringers on -- yeah). But I do like the old, heavy phones. I like those desk phones too (like this, but really desire the wall one.

Anyway. I should get to bed. Work tomorrow. It is going well, busy time of year, though and I put in 2 extra unplanned hours today. The darn copier farted out on me towards the end of the day which sucked because I stayed after typing up a flyer to PRINT OUT when it died on me. I'm getting the hang of things, though. Acclimating to the MAC... sort of. I've never used a MAC, always a PC girl. I know MAC users seem to love them, though, so it is worth trying, learning and familiarizing myself with. I think.

But I'm tired. So I'm out.