advisory blog

Many of my bloggy friends have blogs that people could read for advice on different subjects that directly relate to parenting. (PPD, pre-term labor, even turning 30) I've been blessed enough to not have experiences with either of those things, and my mommy-hood has been fairly typical. I'm not an expert on anything, nor am I just awful at something that I'm trying to improve. I'm pretty middle of the road, in most things.

I don't blog with the hopes of helping others, though that would be awesome if I had something to offer. That line of thought had me thinking, what do I have to offer? Let's see...

How to go to school at nights and weekends, and do just enough work to squeak out a B? Probably not.

Hmm, How to cook mediocre dinners that I generally can't provide a recipe for because my complete lack of discipline doesn't account for structured things like recipes? I'm not a bad cook, 99% of what I cook is good, but it's not spectacular and I didn't come up with any of the recipes.

I could give you some input on speech language therapy, but I don't have a master's degree, and I really only have continuing knowledge in what I'm currently doing which is articulation and pragmatic therapy with middle schoolers. So, ask away about that, but don't expect me to provide lectures anytime soon.

I also have a stereotypical two year old, who throws tantrums I can barely control and refuses to go to the potty. I could give tips on how to keep your face stony when tantrums strike in walmart, but I really think you have to have something internal to manage that. (Thanks to whichever of my grandparents passed that gene down, because it does keep at least some of my dignity intact as I'm marching out of walmart with a screaming kid, when my face is straight and cool.)

I've been married for five years, but again, nothing spectacular. The key to our marriage is good communication, love and admiration, and the willingness to compromise. Nothing much special there, and again, I think it's one of those innate things that you can't really teach, it's just there. No science about it.

So, that's about all I can think of as far as necessary pieces of advice I could give. If you can think of anything I've left out that may be useful, please feel free to offer it up. Other than that, I'm pretty much too vanilla to have any abundance of advice, guess you'll have to just follow my friends. : )

Breast feeding Doll

So many times when I blog, I ask for opinions. This is a time that I'm not asking. I'm just giving you mine. A facebook friend posted a link to this article about a doll that allows little girls to pretend breast feed. There are some oddities with the idea, basically the bra with flower "nipples" that the baby makes sucking noises at. That's a bit much for me, but I applaud the idea of promoting breast feeding. I'm most definitely an advocate for breast feeding, even more so because I wasn't able to as much as I wanted with Archer. I always tell a breast feeding mother that I think they are doing an awesome job, because it's not easy, it's not always fun, and it's most definitely not accepted in most places.

But back to the doll. The comments on said friend's facebook were almost shocking. Here are a few, "That just crazy...... What has happened to this world?" (By introducing a doll that allows a child to breastfeed? Really? It's a natural act. Really?) "Certainly no chance for them to learn about beauty being on the inside. :(" (Since when is feeding your child about beauty? Well, I take that back, it's so very beautiful, and awesome. It's one of the most wonderful things you can do for a baby, and the experience is pretty good too.) Here's my favorite, "The world has gone crazy. Disney teaches our little girls to dress like hookers and now they can nurse a baby doll? Morals have gone straight to Hell!" (Again, what exactly is wrong with teaching our daughters about breast feeding? I'm pretty sure plenty of people could get a good dosing of teaching about breast feeding, so that maybe this wouldn't be such an uproar.)

I don't think the doll is something necessary, as most little girls will breast feed their dolls if mommy is breast feeding a baby anyway, bra and nipples or not. But those comments just really pushed my buttons and I bit my tongue multiple times. Am still biting it at this moment.

PS, is it biting your tongue if you're typing? Or your fingers?


ETA:
Many of the comments on the article's page are mind blowing as well, tying teaching children about breast feeding to teen pregnancy. Really, because feeding a baby in the most natural way possible is a direct cause of teen pregnancy. I don't think a baby doll fed with a bottle is a cause of teen pregnancy, right? The ignorance of some people....

Shameless promoting

A blog I read, just really cracks me up. She's a very funny lady, and the tone of the blog just makes me giggle all the time.

one more bit of honoring

Here is a post honoring a wonderful sweet lady who has been like a grandmother to me all my life. She is my half-sister's grandmother, Mema. She spoiled my sister, and as a result, I got the overflow. She always invited me to her house for holidays, and even got me Christmas and birthday presents.

She is currently struggling for her life in an ICU at a local hospital, and I'm torn between wishing her better and praying for her release to Heaven, where she can be even healthier than she's been in years.

a little hommage

Elizabeth Taylor passed away today, a truly sad thing. My love of Liz has developed much more in my adulthood. I have always loved Cleopatra, but in college and first watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and I fell in love with Liz again. She's so gorgeous and classy. Pretty sure I would have married her, in her prime, given the chance.

Here's to the loss of a Hollywood icon, you will be missed.

(Photo courtesy of GroupNewsBlog)

My kid is what?

After reading a recent news blip in which Michelle Obama gives an anecdotal story about taking her daughter to the doctor only to find out that her daughter's BMI was creeping upward, I wondered how I felt about it.

I'm all about boosting a kids self esteem, and not out-right telling them they were over weight. It just seems...hurtful. But what would you do if your child was creeping in the direction of overweight or if they already are?

I truly don't think this is an issue I'll ever have with my stringbean boy, but I still wonder...I already try not to allow too many snacks, and if he does get snacks (at home) they are usually as healthy as he'll eat. We do a lot of 100 calorie packs of gold fish and cookies. FYI, the 100 calorie pack method is only plausible if you are only giving them 1. : ) A friend told me the other day her sister just couldn't figure out why her daughter was overweight, she only ever snacked on 100 calorie packs of cookies (3 at a time.) He also snacks on pickles, fruit and cereal bars, or chocolate milk. And we only drink 2%, no point in adding extra fat where it's not needed.

I'm all for prevention of becoming overweight, but I guess I'm still stuck on what would you do once you realize it's becoming a problem? Have you already dealt with this, if so, what did you do?

if it's not one thing...

Isn't it always another?

I'm mostly just wiped out from our trip. During spring break, I had two midterms to work on that I of course put off until the last possible moment. I crammed as much into my lunch break and after school on Monday that I could, and scrambled to finish the rest of Monday's that day. And then scrambled to start the second one that night too. Luckily, I had finished a few questions of Tuesdays, so I turned it in at 4 (due at 5).

Since then I've still not had much of a break, and it's nearly impossible to roll of out of bed each morning. And it's not just me. Archer has been a major grouch, who cries every time I leave him at daycare.

Today I am going home after work, taking a short nap, going to my mom's to pick Archer up, and snap a few photos of him in the sunshine. I'm pleased that the daylight lasts longer and that the weather is warmer.

The cool weather in NY really made me grateful of the sunshine and the warmth.

Final Take

So...I went on a trip. An actual trip, no gutter minds here.

Overall, the week was long and tiring. Archer's entire nap schedule was thrown off and we did so many activities that we rarely had time to just sit and enjoy each other's company. I volunteered to be resident chef for the week, so I was busy making dinner each night. It was kind of fun to be cooking for everyone, though I was over it by the end of the week.

The plane ride home was easy and unstressful. Chance commented on how easy it was home as we were stopping a quarter of the way home for dinner. That's where the ease stopped. We had horrible service at Chili's in Gainesville, TX. Then, about 20 minutes after, we sat in traffic for 30 mins only to find out we had another 30 mins of 5mph until we could go again. We detoured off the interstate, and ended up being on the road an extra hour. It was awful.

Once we finally arrived home it hit me that we were actually gone, and Chance would be missing his friend. I hate that he doesn't have any friends close by so I've been chatting with BFF about coming down this summer to see us. He's already lived here once, but we will take him out to do things he never did while here.

Last night was such a late night, I was wiped out. Dragged to work today, and then had a ton of homework to finish tonight. Luckily, I had no class tonight so that really helped. Now it's 11:00 pm and I'm off to bed.

I'll update you on my life in general soon.

The Proverbial Pants

Who wears the pants in your relationship(s)? Notice, I put that (s) there for a reason. There are some people who not only wear the pants in their romantic relationships, but also their friendships and work relationships as well.

My first NY observation is that most of the couples I've seen showcase male dominated relationships. That's just not so common back home, which I think is hilarious. When you consider the much higher levels of education and intelligence the north has...kidding. But really, when you consider the more liberal attitude thought to prevail in the north, you just wouldn't expect the men to think they need to be waited on hand and foot by a woman like the 50's.

Maybe it's just my family, but there are more women wearing the pants, or at least sharing the pants than there are men.

I'm totally ok with sharing the pants, that's what we do most of the time. Well, when we can get them off the kid...But I like his input on major decisions and he does mine as well. It's important to know expectations and rules in relationships, not meaning "I expect you to know the rules in this house are have my dinner ready when I walk in, or have those dishes done before you sit down."

I mean, having a clear cut set of expectations for each other, and not setting each other up for failure. And wouldn't you know, I'm ok with honoring and obeying so much better when I helped create the rules.

Interesting observation for me, because when I picture the over bearing, controlling husband he's a big southern man, red faced from work who's bossing his woman around. Not a professor from NY or Boston.

Take 2

So far the trip has been low key. We spent Friday at home relaxing, mostly because it's too cold for anything else.

Today we had lunch at a little fast food place. Archer and I shared a tasty plate of fried chicken and chocolate shakes. After lunch we went for a cruise around the lake and back home so the boys could play Madden.

This evening we went to the best friend's cousin's house. They all had a blast. Boys ate venison, they liked. Archer found all his favorite toys from Buzz to Woody to a skateboard. He was ready to stay.

It was ok with me, but I'm ready for NYC.

Goin on a Trip: Take 1

Today was hellacious. We got to the airport hours early, as neither of us have flown with the new stringent security measures and wanted to be on top of things.

It took us 20 mins to get through security. Which means we had 3.5 hours to kill....Or so we thought.

Turns out there was flooding in Newark, our connecting airport. Due to said flooding our plane was nearly two hours late. Since we had a connecting flight, the two hours would have made us miss it. Continental offered to let us switch our flight to the next day, until when we went to confirm that option, all flights in/out of Newark got cancelled. Even tomorrow.

After hours of crying, yesterday's mascara I didn't even know was there streaked down my face, etc, the guy at the continental desk transferred us to US Airways.

I was thrilled, even though that meant another hour of waiting. Until I looked down to see none of our seats were together. I had to board early and then beg this guy to switch with me. He did. It was awesome. I owe him.

After that, we sat down on the most cramped, teeny plane seats I've ever seen. I'm not sure if it's passed time or the airline. But I sure don't remember Southwest being this cramped.

Archer stayed awake a few minutes. And now he's currently crashed. Now that you're updated, I think I'll take a nap.

Later.

Reading Challenge

One of my favorite past times has always been reading. Usually when I pick up a book, I seldom put it down until it's finished. Last year, one of my goals for the year was to begin reading again. So I did. I read a lot of stupidly entertaining YA books, that had more depth than I expected. I also read real books, with intensity, life and challenges. It's always so refreshing to finish a book that was truly worth reading. Most of the time, I just can't wrap my mind around how truly awesome it was.

So, my goal this year, is to read thirty books by the end of the year. After the first quarter of the year, I will be at about fifteen, so I might even up the goal!

Anyway, I am going to keep a list here of all the books I've read this year, and will post a short summary of each under the category of Book Review. Eventually I'm going to get around to making a page for it, but right now it's a lot of work.

Here is my reading challenge marker from Goodreads, and you can click on it to make your own if you want!!

2011 Reading Challenge

Sally has
read 12 books toward her goal of 30 books.

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12 of 30 (40%)

view books

Semi-new Blogger Feature

If you will remember, last year, blogger added a new feature. Pages. I posted about my "About Me" page (and here) last year, and pretty much left it at that.

I also developed a photography page.

Since then, I decided to move my Yearly To Do's from the sidebar to an actual page, so it's now up there also. And by up there, I mean, ^^ right up there above this post just below the title of the blog.

Thing is. When I decided I wanted to add the yearly goals page/tab, I couldn't remember how. I asked my friend, who is a top 20 Mommy Blogger, how to do it, because she's pretty awesome at blogger design and html. She's usually my go to person for anything blog design. Anyway, I remembered instantly after I posted on her wall how to do it, but I decided to go ahead and leave the question up for anyone who might not know, and on top of that, I decided to post a little addage here about it.

If you're wanting to add pages to your blogger(blogspot) blog, you simply go to posting, like to post a new blog entry, and right next to it is Edit Pages. In the edit pages field, you have the option of adding pages. Super simple. You can even use html in the boxes to add photos or fancy colors to your text.

That's all I have for now, hope that helps anyone who might have been wondering.

Photo Update

I'm needing to brag a little about my fantastic camera, lenses, and the subject. I took these last month and just love them!

Crunch Time

Ok. Two days out from our trip. Knowing we will be leaving our house for 10 days in less than 36 hours is really daunting.

Most of our laundry is washed, dried, and folded; ready to be packed. I have to stay late tomorrow at work to print our boarding passes. I'm trying to hard to not procrastinate and put things off, but with class and a kid I'm just stretched pretty thin.

One load lifted is my sister has consented to my 18 year old nephew house sitting. I was so worried about my house being open and unoccupied that this is a huge relief. I trust him, he's a wonderful kid.

Even with that weight lifted I'm still at Code Red stress level. I'll be so relieved when we wake up in NY on Friday. Until then...

PS, stayed tuned for trip frustration updates.