Since I hit the halfway to seventy mark, I've been noticing everything that has changed about myself over the last decade or so. I am nowhere nearly as vain as I was in my more youthful days, but some things do bother me. My natural muscle tone in my arms and legs are gone! I have many more grey hairs than I use to. Even my fingernails have changed.
I use to have strong beautiful healthy long nails. Before having children, I spent quite a bit of time every week filing, buffing, and polishing. In recent years, however, I just do not have the time to take care of them as I use to. In fact, I usually keep them short (which is a pain because they grow like weeds). One of the reasons why I keep them short is because a few years ago I noticed that they were beginning to chip along the edges. For some reason, they must have become dry and brittle.
Although I am not ready right now, I am thinking ahead to the future when I will start to have more time for myself. Don't laugh! It could happen!! Well having beautiful nails is something I use to take for granted, but now I might need some help. I've started to look into products, such as Rejuvacote (a.k.a. The Nail Doctor), to give my nails whatever they are missing to be nice and strong again. I just think that having nice nails is not only a way to pamper myself, but it gives the appearance that I actual care about and look after myself. The evidence of that is very sparse right now, but I am hoping that will change in the future.
For this weeks PhotoHunt theme furry, the first thing that came to mind was to post a photo of my husbandwool coat which is covered in pet hair. Then I remembered who was probably really the most furry one in our household . . .
To play along or to see more furry photos, visit tnchick.com . Thanks for stopping by today to view mine!
Take a look at what's new for network television! The Cozmo TV Player is a widget that can be embedded on your blog, Facebook, and Myspace pages. No you cannot catch your favorite ABC Soaps on this widget, but you can find quite a bit more.
If you have tried out this widget, then you already know that there are many widgets (or shows) available within the Cozmo TV Network widget. If you click on the "gallery" button, you can peruse the many widgets available. As you will see, they range from comedic to political and beyond. The one that interests me the most is "Animal Planet." Which one jumps out at you?
If you'd like to try this out, get your own widget here. After you grab your widget and register, you can start building your list of favorite widgets. When you find one you like, you can not only add it to your list of favorites, but you can also email it to a friend. If you don't know what you're in the mood for, you can browse the featured widgets to look for some suggestions.
The neatest thing about this to me is that all this takes place inside one little widget. If they have Animal Planet and Barbie.com as part of their collection, I am anxious to see what other popular shows will be signing on soon. After all, how many hours a day do people spend staring at their blog or their Facebook and Myspace pages? It would be stupid not to consider jumping on this bandwagon.
It is time to determine the winner of the Ski & Stay PA Prize Bundle! The winner will be determined with the help of Random.org . (Please note that the winner of the ParentsDigest subscription will be selected and contacted by the sponsor.)
Out of 110 entries, the winner of this prize is . . .
Here are your random numbers: 95 Timestamp: 2009-01-30 16:09:56 UTC
Just to catch everyone up, we had to figure out how to separate the twins at night. They use to sleep in toddler beds next to each other and Makenzie pretty much tortured poor Luke for hours at night because she wanted him to play.
Well, since we bought the bunkbeds . . . with Jake on top and Luke on the bottom and Kenzie in the enclosure, everything started to settle down after a couple of nights. The twins still didn't sleep through the night, but they would only wake up once or twice which was a HUGE improvement compared to before.
Today, that all changed. Two minutes after I put them down for their naps, these workers were installing something outside our townhouse and they were drilling through the brick wall. This happened to be the wall that Makenzie's bed is against. The noise was awful and it probably sounded like there was a big monster trying to come through the wall. She was bawling and clinging to me and refused to sleep in her bed. I had to put her in with Luke in the bottom bunk for their nap.
So how well do you think it went when we tried to put her in her bed tonight at bedtime? She was screaming and bawling. Both my dear husband and I checked on her to reassure her, but eventually we just had to let her tire herself out. She did eventually fall asleep, so I hope tomorrow night will be better.
To play along or to read more haikus, visit Christina at A Mommy Story!
Meet Rex! He came to join our family while we were trick-or-treating at a nearby mall last October. He was on sale for something ridiculous like $8 or $9 at the Disney Store, so we decided to adopt him.
Rex stands a few feet tall and has lots of teeth. Although I think his grin could be described as "goofy", I think that my cats would beg to differ.
Since Rex is rather large and doesn't really have a permanent place to rest, he often stands on the sofa. Everytime our cats want to venture across the living room floor and they happen to see our ferocious Rex on the sofa, they go into stealth mode. They get really low to the ground and tiptoe (can cat's do that?) across the living room floor without taking their eyes off of him.
I would never tell my husband this because his warped sense of humor would lead him to chase the cats around with Rex in hand. I hope he doesn't read this. Does anyone know how to administer feline CPR?
I know I'm going out of order, but I wanted to start with the "Future." I am very honored to have my other blog A Blog of Goodies be nominated for a Dottie Award in the category of Best Supporting Blogger. So if you should feel moved to do so, you can go vote by clicking the button below. There are lots of great blog that have been nominated in the many categories.
Now for the Past! I have had two blog awards bestowed upon me . . .
This one is the “When Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade Award” and was given to me by the lovely Colleen of The Princess and The Monkey.
The next award is a Triple Award, which includes the award mentioned above plus the Best Friends Award and the Sisterhood Award. This one triple-flattering award was given to me by Snoopygie of This and That.
Thank you so much to both you wonderful ladies! Since the second award includes the first award, I will just be passing on the latter. So this brings us to the Present. I would now like to pass the Triple Award onto the following bloggers who I think encompasses the spirit of each award.
If you have a Silly Monkey Story to share, sign Mr. Linky below with the link to your blog post (not the link to your main blog page). Please do not forget to visit the other participates and leave them comments to let them know you stopped by!
Here are some of the red lucky money envelopes the children received this year for Chinese New Year . . .
Sorry, I didn't see the office theme for this week until it was too late. If you'd like to play along, visit Mary at Work of the Poet. Gung Hay Fat Choy!
In honor of Chinese New Year and Heritage Month at our son's preschool, my dear husband is going to talk about the holiday to our son's class. It will be interesting because my husband is not Chinese and did not grow up with these traditions. He has been celebrating for over 13 years, so I think it will be nice for him to speak about the parts which fascinate him the most.
In addition to ornate red lucky money envelopes with shiny new quarters in them, I thought it would be fun to also offer a craft project to the class. Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year by Joan Holub is one of the books my husband will be reading to the class. In the back of this book I found easy instructions to make a paper bag dragon puppet. I had everything we needed in our home . . . brown paper lunch bags plus red and green construction paper. I thought I would share this easy craft here because it would be a great idea for a classroom project or a fun party activity for kids.
Below are all the components you need aside from markers, scissors, and glue or paste . . .
1) A brown paper lunch bag 2) A tongue 5"-6"L cut from red construction paper 3) 2 antennae about 10"L cut from green construction paper 4) 2 ovals for eyes (slightly wider than the antennae) cut from green construction paper
The basic instructions are easy and then the child can decorate the dragon however he or she wishes.
Step 1: Cut a fringe all around the opening of the paper bag.
Step 2: Fold the bottom corners of the flap under and secure with glue.
Step 3: Draw ovals on the eyes for pupils and a line down the middle of the tongue.
Step 4: Glue the eyes and antennae onto the top of the bag.
Step 5: With marker, add a nose, a mouth, and scales to the body.
Step 6: Glue on the tongue underneath the flap.
That's it! Easy right? I was able to pre-cut all the construction paper pieces and put them right inside the individual brown paper bags to make kits for each child too.
Join in on Mamalicious Monday, hosted by Heather of The Gift Closet, and you will be entered in a drawing to win a great prize each week you play along. All you have to do is post about something related to being a mama . . . which can just about be anything.
I'm sure I am not the only one who went this direction for this week's PhotoHunt theme chipped. I love cookies and I love macros, so this was the natural choice for me. To see more themed photos, visit tnchick.com!
I recently decided to join in on the efforts led by Bloggers Give to give something back to the world through blogging. I have received so much enjoyment and support through blogging that I welcomed the chance to possibly give back to people in need.
Bloggers Give is a non-profit organization. The concept is simple. They are asking bloggers who host giveaways to approach their sponsors to donate an identical (or a different) item to benefit a specific cause. The current charity is The Center for Courageous Kids, but this will change quarterly.
In return for a donation of goods of any size, the sponsor will be featured on the Bloggers Give website during the month they made their contribution, receive a permanent place on the Sponsor Listings page, plus any sponsor whom I have the pleasure to work with on this project will receive a permanent text link on this blog or on A Blog of Goodies.
Congratulations to the winner! I am off to send you a winner's notification via email now. Please respond within 48 hours to claim your prize. And a big thank you to everyone who entered to win this great product!!
