Happy Easter means a birthday around here

Holy cow I cannot believe that a) February is almost over; b) March is in two days; and c) Easter is almost here. Where does the time go? What all this means for me is that in addition to getting Easter stuff together, I need also plan for my daughter’s 14^th birthday at the end of April. Wow I’m feeling particularly old right now. Fourteen years old. Gees. I must think happier thoughts. Happy thoughts here I come. I am going to surf the net. I will start with the Happy Easter store and go from there.

Burning Belly Fat

Certainly the best way to burn belly fat and lose weight is to begin an exercise routine that includes an aerobic workout as well as some type of weight training or other muscle toning exercise. However, if that is not working, or one wants to boost the belly fat being burned, then they should check into other methods regarding exactly how to burn belly fat for good results. I have not tried any product meant to burn belly fat, although I did try a product a couple years ago that allegedly curtailed the production of belly fat due to stress. I don’t know if it really worked or not.

Sunset in the scorching desert

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Breastfeeding and milk production

Back when my children were born, I attempted breastfeeding. It did not go well for and after ten days and nearly starving my children, I went with formula. I don’t regret the decision and my children are no worse for it. They are 13 and 11 and healthy as can be. What I wish I had known back then, was that there are ways to increase breast milk production as that was the major problem I had. I had no idea at the time that there were things I could do to increase my milk production or that pumping would help at all. My how the times have changed.

The Four Things Meme

Four Things You Have no Way of Knowing about Me unless you are some weirdo who has run a background on me and thinks that you know me already and if that is the case, you're weird and that is creepy.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Supersonic Car Wash Cashier & car washer chick extraordinaire.
2. 7/11 - It's true. I sold cherry squishees.
3. Waitress - who ordered the poo-poo platter?
4. Pooper Scooper (shut up. I was 12. It was spending money.)

B) Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1. Hope Floats
2. Steel Magnolias
3. Saving Private Ryan
4. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Salt Lake City, Utah
2. West Valley, Utah
3. Top Secret Unknown Location, Arizona
4. Still there.

D) Four TV shows that I watch:
1. Saving Grace
2. The Closer
3. Brothers & Sisters
4. Boston Legal

E) 4 places I have been:
1. Seattle, WA
2. Denver, CO
3. Catalina Islands, CA
4. Ensenada, Mexico

F) People who E-mail me regularly:
1. Her
2. Her
3. You
4. Her

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Salad. Lettuce, red onion, red cabbage, cheddar cheese & a drip of Italian dressing.
2. Asparagus
3. Golden Delicious Apples
4. Coca-Cola. What? It is so a food. And it happens to be made of water so it hydrates mah sexy bodah (insert your best fat bastard voice here).

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Working from home
2. In my car driving home
3. laying in my bed with the dogs
4. At the Arizona lottery office claiming my millions

I) Four things I am looking forward to this year (next 12 months)
1. Passing the life sucking LSAT
2. Sticking to this diet and workout plan
3. Not moving
4. Watching my kids grow

J) Four friends I think will keep this going because it is fun:
1. Her
2. Her
3. oh, her for sure!
4. and yes, even you.

I actually got this in an email. Feel free to use it or answer me in the comments. Lets get to know each other. You know you want to know me. In fact, some of you already do.

Wait a Minute...

Now that I think about it, I know there are some anti wrinkle cream products on the market that are exponentially better than others. However, how is one to know the difference? How do we tell? Who has time to try a cream for a month or two to see if they notice a difference or not? There should be a comparison place with real reviews from real people. That’s what I need.

Wrinkles, Crow's Feet, Laugh Lines, Oh My!

Speaking of the face. I’ve got issues with mine. I realized the other day that I have begun to develop some wrinkles. ACK! No! How did this happen?! It’s true. I have some faint lines that are developing around my cheeks. I have always had laugh lines and even some slight crow’s feet around my eyes, but I never really gave much thought to how my face would age with regard to actual, full on, old lady wrinkles. I’m not happy with this new development either. I am currently checking into wrinkle cream and will be trying one out in the near future. Is 40 too old to start using face cream?

Dark Circles Under Your Eyes?

I know a woman with very dark circles under her eyes. Typically, eye creams are targeted to rid one of dark circles and reduce the darkness and perhaps even reduce the sagging of skin and puffy eye look that accompany dark circles. The skin around your eyes is thin and sensitive and one should take care not to get soap or makeup or other products in the eyes. There are several different products that claim to remove dark circles under eyes vut I would be skeptical before I went out and bought one and I would do a lot of research first.

TMI Tuesday

1. Pancakes or waffles? With or without toppings? Both! Pancakes with butter and a teaspoon of sugar. Waffles with tons of butter and maple syrup. Mmm mmm good!

2. They say, "Way to a man's heart is through his stomach." What is the way to your heart? Sweet ‘nuthins in my ear. Oh, and honesty and trust and dependability and the ability to make me laugh. I need those too.

3. Have you ever gone to a topless/clothing optional beach? If yes, did you participate? No. They don’t have those where I come from. However, even if they did, I might have participated back in the day when I considered myself God’s Gift, but now that I’m older, wiser, and fluffier I am going to lean toward no.

4. What song reminds you of a previous relationship (for good or bad)? Hmmm. That is a hard one. I would have to say Bad Medicine from Bon Jovi reminds me of my first fiancée. He loved that song, I hated it. A true picture of our relationship.

5. When, where and with who was your best kiss ever? Funny you should ask. That would have been in October, 1995, the six months before I got married. I had kicked Mr. Right out of the apartment we shared and we were in negotiations regarding whether or not we wanted to get back together or call it quits. Mr. Right would come over and we would have dinner, talk for a while, debate the situation and he would leave. I was at my wits end and had just about enough of the roller coaster ride that was our relationship and this “separation” that had lasted three months. I told him I was done. He could either marry me or get on with his life. He was having severe cold feet as he had been married before and only divorced for about a year and a half. On this particular night, we were sitting on the couch, he came closer to me and told me he did want to spend the rest of his life with me, professed his undying, never ending love for me, and then he planted the hottest, most sincere and tender yet “I am so not messing around here” kiss I’d ever had. I still remember it like it was yesterday and if it wouldn’t bore you, I could tell you what I was wearing and what I had for dinner that night. It was THAT good.

Ergo Baby Carrier

I will tell you one thing, there is some wicked cool stuff out for parents of babies and toddlers now, that did not exist when I had my kids. /jealousy. Serious, there were no ergo baby carrier contraptions that did not physically hurt mommy and daddy, or that did not put baby in some weird, smushed up position that in no way could have been comfortable at all. There was no “lightweight, breathable materials” or “generous padding on shoulders and waist belt for your comfort” but there was plenty of straps and buckles and sweaty hotness that came with the products of my child rearing days. You parents today, you have it made!

Scary Prospect - teenage drivers

Sadly, while I don’t have to worry about prom this year, or next, I do have the dreaded teenage driver looming on my horizon. With new laws recently in place, the idea of being personally liable for my child driver, even if we have insurance, is a scary prospect. I’ve long considered getting my teenager her own insurance, as well as putting her on ours. I just don’t know if I can do that. To me, it seems logical but to the law makers, maybe not so much. I don’t see the difference between estatecarinsure.com and say an umbrella policy for our family?

Prom Dresses - It's almost that time

As the mother of all daughters, yes you read that right: I have three daughters, no sons, I am no stranger to proms and dances and dresses and shoes and spray on tans and limos and everything else that goes along with the big date night. Thankfully, I do not have a daughter attending a prom this year. I do have a daughter who is graduating from 8th to 9th grade though and she has repeatedly indicated to me that she would like a new dress for commencement. You’d think she was graduating high school or something. So, while I need to buy a new dress this year I do not have to deal with the debacle that will be prom dresses 2011 for so many parents this year. At least for me, I’ve already done it once. One down, two to go.

Health Insurance and Options

Recently my firm renewed our health insurance. The prices stayed pretty much the same, slightly higher than last year, but not so much that it’s unbearable and I need to go get private health insurance. The problem is that insurance is getting so expensive that I worry my company will not continue to offer the packages they do.

Currently, the company pays the employee’s premium. I only pay for my kids and my husband. Luckily, my husband also has insurance so we each host one of our kids on each plan, then cover the other. I think next year we’re going to double up on the health insurance coverage. Our kids are getting older and more active and I fear that means more accidents and trips to the emergency room.

The saddest part of all is the worry that comes with either of our jobs no longer offering reasonable health insurance, because I don’t understand how in this down economy, my company will be able to foot the bill for the employees and I have heard squawk from some employees that if they have to start paying a portion of their own coverage they will look for work elsewhere. I should give them information on private health insurance. See if that helps their decisions any.

IN LAW MEME

I had so much fun with the last one, I thought I’d try another. I found this one at www.squidoo.com/50memes.

How Long? I've known them for 14 years, nine months, 21 days married time, 17 total.

How many? There are two. He’s boring and can tell you what’s planted in a field by driving by; she’s mean and bitter.

His or hers? His mother and step-father.

Favorite? I work every day to get along with them both. I’d probably prefer him.

Copasetic or Tense? Tense doesn’t begin to describe it.

Close by or far away? Luckily, the first 11 years they were far, far away and we saw them for one week per year. Now, sadly, they live 15 minutes away and I forgot to buy a house in a gated community.

Love or Tolerate? Hmm. I’d say tolerate because there seriously is no love there.

Best memory? Wow. Um… lemme get back to you on that one.

Worst memory? Oh to pick only one. I suppose it would be when MIL tried trapping me in a conversation and pitting me against another family member.

I don't wanna live there

I had a friend who lived in Texas for a short while. She decided not to stay because of all the rain she got that year. She was complaining on the phone that she had all kinds of flood and water damage Austin due to a hurricane she had lived through. Coming from the Midwest, she was not used to hurricanes at all!

When I was asking how bad the damage was she said she could not find anyone with knowledge regarding floor tile cleaning tips Austin so she had to resort to calling her mama and asking for tips. This would probably not bother anyone else, except for the fact that her mama had told her when she moved to Austin that she was a) not going to like it; b) she’d be cleaning like a crazy woman because of her OCD and the storms that wreaked havoc on the area; and c) she’d be fighting for bed space with the bugs because they’re all gargantuan in Texas.

I laughed when she told me about the bugs because I had heard the very same things about Texas and while it is absolutely on my list of places to visit before I die; it is absolutely not on my list of places to live before I did. I’ll take the scorching desert where we don’t have hurricanes and I don’t have to spend all day looking for a hardwood floor cleaning service Austin.

Inquiring minds want to know

For a minute once, when I was in my twenties and still didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I thought about being a massage therapist. I decided instead to go with law, and thankfully so, because now I make a crap-ton of money and still complain about being broke all the time. I was talking to my youngest sister about what she was going to be when she grew up, because she is 23 now, and has a three year old daughter, and does NOT have a job, and she really should figure this out before she gets any older and becomes more of a strain on the state of California. Anyway, she said she was looking at college and was thinking of enrolling in a massage therapy program online to get a degree. I didn’t say anything lest she decide against doing something with her life, but I did wonder, how do you learn the actual physical application of massage and therapy, on a computer?

Wow. I haven't done a meme in years! But, in my never ending quest to avoid studying for the LSAT (again), I am doing one now.

Instructions:

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (parts only)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)