Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’ – Edgar Allan Poe
I ran into a very talkative friend today, as I returned to my office from a meeting. It took me a moment to figure out where he was hiding, but when I did, the picture was too perfect ignore, and I was so happy to have my camera in my bag (yes, the replacement camera, which I’m loving).
(And truthfully, I am pretty certain this was a blackbird, and not a raven, but I couldn’t get Poe’s poem out of my head.)
From our family to your family…
We wish you all a safe and happy Halloween!
Luckily, we had a Jedi Knight to keep the us safe as we trick-or-treated. But, the Hubby was a bit upset that not many people got that he was the Charlie Brown ghost, and I had several people tell me that the 80s called and would like the hair and clothes to return.
Overall, we had a great time. (Just like we had a great time last year…)
We hope you had just as much fun…
And that maybe your weather was a bit warmer than our weather.
Love,
The 8os pop princess, RC
Happy anniversary to my Hubby!
Eight years ago, we began our journey together as husband and wife. We laughed throughout our wedding service and we are still laughing today.
Life has brought us challenges and blessings. The blessings outweigh the challenges by far.
I’m still honored to be your wife and love you with all of my heart. (Now Little Dude says you have to, “kiss mommy,” and you know how cranky he gets when we don’t listen to what he has to say…)
Due to some other deadlines in life, I haven’t been able to follow-up on the contest for the AJWright gift card until now. But we do have a winner!
Because I had so many friends and even a family member entering this contest, I did use random.org to pick the number, after feeding everyone’s names into an Excel spreadsheet, in the order in which I received their entries. (I didn’t want anyone thinking they could bribe me into getting the gift certificate and was a little sad that nobody even tried… Chocolate, please?)
Anyhow, here is what happened. I entered my number of entries into the random number generator at random.org.
Number 24 was selected from the 30 entries I ended up receiving (even though some of my visitors forgot to post on the blog about how they shared the contest on Twitter and in their blogs – but I worked hard to make certain you were all included for each mention!).
I then checked out my spreadsheet and number 24 was Julie Corbin! (And Julie is a non-blogger, who happened to enter the contest at the last-minute and started a Twitter account just to share my contest, thereby proving that the early bird doesn’t necessarily catch the worm.)
Congratulations Julie! Enjoy your shopping spree! I will send you your gift card by the end of this week.
Thanks again to AJWright for the fun shopping experience and for sponsoring my first-ever blog contest.
Have you had a “dog cone” lately? You are not familiar, you say?
Introducing the dog cone.
Or, as the rest of the world knows this popular food-on-a-stick, the corn dog.
The past few months have flown by and I feel guilty for not writing down more of the fun phrases and terms used by Little Dude as he grows and learns. The dog cone is just the latest, and one of the most fun phrases.
Currently, he uses the following Little Dude terms:
- Puckuter – Computer
- Noculars – Binoculars
- Paperizer – Vaporizer
- Lighping – Lightning (usually in connection with Lightning McQueen)
- Hot pool/cold pool – Hot tub/swimming pool (explanation given to us during a recent overnight stay at a hotel)
- Big blue straw – Breathing treatment tube, used during the recent emergency room visit
- Fodder – Father
Overall, his speech and his ability to express himself and converse with us has blossomed incredibly over the last several months. He now tells us, in great detail, everything that happens to him throughout the day.
We have been amazed with his ability to repeat phrases, stories, songs and more.
In other excitement, within the last couple of weeks, he has developed the ability to identify/read and spell the words “go,” “stop” and “up.” He also knows and spells his name, recites his street address and can tell you the first names of his Mom and Dad.
He makes us laugh as he recreates stories using his toys, and we are amazed at how engrossed he can get in some of our favorite shows. At this time, he loves Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny and Super Why (in approximately that order).
His favorite song to hum/sing is “Rondeau,” by Jean-Joseph Mouret. (Yes, I have a classical music lover on my hands.) That being said, he stops in his tracks to listen to “Pressure” by Billy Joel, and rather likes any music. We frequently break into “Jungle Boogie,” by Kool and the Gang, whenever he asks to “get down.”
We created our own version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” and he loves to sing it non-stop, at night. Our version is about his dump truck nightlight:
“Twinkle, twinkle little dump truck, you’re bright and yellow like my duck. Driving down the bumpy road, watch out for that big green toad. Twinkle, twinkle little dump truck, you’re bright and yellow like my duck.”
Our version includes bouncing for the bumpy road, croaking noises for the toad and of course, quacking for the duck.
As for other milestones, Little Dude just went on his first field trip and was delighted to ride the school bus for the first time. I volunteered to chaperon and was thrilled to share this experience with him, even though he informed me he had to sit with his favorite female school companion (an adorable blue-eyed, blond-haired little girl) on the bus, leaving me to sit in my own seat across from them. (Better spot to take pictures of both of them, however.)
Thankfully, in the midst of his growing vocabulary, we’ve only had one word come up that we are working to eradicate – “stupid.” My guess is that he is hearing other kids use this word, as he uses it when he is frustrated with something.
Every day, we are amazed at how blessed our lives have been by Little Dude, and even though the Hubby and I are frequently tired, short on time and energy, and frustrated with “toddler attitude,” we are delighted to have such a wonderful character in our lives. He delights us in so many ways, bringing us smiles and laughter.
Overall, all is well in our household. Except for the death of my camera. Yes, my gorgeous Canon PowerShot A720 IS, my 2008 Mother’s Day gift, has decided to malfunction in such a way that my only options are to replace or send it in for repair. We checked the price on a new one to see what it would cost to replace it, and nearly fainted from sticker shock. They are now more than $600! We didn’t pay anywhere near that price a year and a half ago – it was pricey then, but not that pricey. It appears I will be using a less-expensive point-and-shoot camera for the moment, as we pursue the repair route.
(See? I promised an update in the near future. Now, have you entered the AJWright contest? We’ll be doing the drawing for the winner soon!)
The Hubby loves black jelly beans. When we first let Little Dude try candy, it became apparent that, like his Daddy (and his Grandpa – my Dad), Little Dude LOVES black jelly beans.
One or two black jelly beans is a HUGE reward in this household, and Little Dude knows that he has to eat his quickly or his Daddy may snatch it from him.
This evening, in celebration of a very successful day in using the potty, Little Dude received three (HUGE treat in his mind) black jelly beans.
The result of a toddler receiving three black jelly beans:
Did I mention he stuck two of the jelly beans by his eyes and called them “glasses?” Not that anyone can tell, right?
And does that first picture disturb you as much as it disturbs me? He looks like he just stepped out of the boxing ring. Maybe I should have given him some red jelly beans to add to that look.
My make-up tip for the day: Black jelly beans. The new goth.
And in case you are wondering, there is still time to register for the $50 gift card from AJWright.
Although spending a few hours in the emergency room wasn’t part of the plan for last night, that is exactly where Little Dude, my Mom and I found ourselves in the very early hours of the morning.
The Hubby and I awoke to Little Dude crying, coughing and gasping – something we have experienced with him once before, just under a year ago. Croup.
After trying the at-home remedies (first one being walking outside, into the freezing cold with your gasping child), we realized that Little Dude’s wheezing and coughing were still pretty intense.
In our efforts to keep healthcare costs in check, we have a cost-effective way of dealing with such medical emergencies – call the nurse in the family, otherwise known as my Mom. Upon her arrival, she deemed this situation worthy of an emergency room visit, so off we went – leaving the Hubby at home to try and get an hour or so of sleep, as his day was to begin prior to 4 am.
Thankfully, it is just the croup and the dose of a steroid medication and breathing treatment appear to have made a huge difference. Little Dude did get his first visit to radiology, since the ultrasounds they performed on him at under a week-old (when they ruled out a suspected heart defect). A chest x-ray confirmed he was clear of pneumonia.
As you can see, the highlight of the emergency room visit was the breathing treatment. We passed on the offered mask, and allowed Little Dude to be in control of his “big blue straw.” He did a great job, impressing the respiratory therapist and nurses with his ability to follow directions – okay, there was a little playing around, too.
I know I promised a family update post soon, but as you can see, we have our hands full. Hoping to share the recent happenings soon, but my first goal after playing superwoman, balancing a sick child and work? Sleep!
In the meantime, there is still time to enter the contest for the $50 AJWright gift card!
In celebration of the birthday of the barcode, today, Google featured its name in the form of a barcode. So, for fun, I generated my own name as a barcode.
And then, I generated the blog’s name as a barcode.
I know, I live an exciting life. But it is kind-of fun, if you would like to do one for yourself.
Sharing the birthday of the barcode, my MUCH older sister, Mrs. V, turned 40 today! Please swing by her blog and wish her a happy birthday!
And yes, in the near future, I hope to post a family update. Honest! (In the meantime, I’m off to a work conference for a few days. Hope you have a great rest of the week and a good weekend!)
Remember when I mentioned I might have the opportunity to give one of my readers a $50 gift card to AJWright? Are you interested?
Let’s make this contest a bit fun…
As Little Dude is at the stage where he is communicating his feelings and needs quite well, I asked him what he would like to be for Halloween. His reply? “Little Dude.” (Okay, so he actually said his real name here.)
We talked about how Halloween is when you get to pretend to be something else, so then he said he wanted to be a “big boy.” I assured him he was one, so finally he looked at me and said he wanted to be “coffee.”
Yes, my 2 1/2-year-old wants to be coffee for Halloween. (And since neither the Hubby or I drink coffee, I believe we can thank my mom for influencing him.)
I waited until last night, and sat down with him and the computer. We browsed some of the costume Web sites, where I asked him if he wanted to be any of the costume ideas.
- A lion? No.
- A monkey? No.
- Spiderman? No.
- Superman? No.
- A bear? No.
- Handy Manny? No.
- Rocket from Little Einsteins? No.
- Mickey Mouse? No.
- Hunter? No.
- Postal worker? No.
- Race car driver? No.
- Football player? No.
- Soldier? No.
- Pirate? No.
- Cat? No.
Finally, he saw it.
He wants to be Luke Skywalker. Well, he actually just wants to be something or someone with a lightsaber, so we are settling on a young Luke Skywalker/Jedi Knight.
Then I started pricing the costumes? Eek! More sticker shock hit me when I began to look at adult costumes.
Happily, thanks to Etsy.com, I was able to find a more reasonably priced alternative, and we’ll still be able to create a costume for him. One with pieces that will see more than a one-time use.
So here is the fun part of the contest. If you had an unlimited budget, what is one thing you would buy right now? One item only, though. If you received the $50 gift card to AJWright, how do you think you would spend it?
Here are the rules: (And I hope my blogging friends Kimberly and Maureen will forgive me, but as I’ve never had a contest on my blog before, I needed to use their rules as guidelines – remember to stop by their blogs to enter the contests they have going, too!)
- First, leave a comment here, telling me about the one item on which you dream about splurging. And tell me if you received the $50 gift card to AJWright, how you think you would spend it.
Then, if you do any of the following things, and leave me additional comments letting me know you have done one or all of these things, I will award you additional entries:
-
Blog about this contest with a link to this page, maybe sharing the story behind the one item on which you wish you could splurge, or how you would spend a $50 gift card right now.
-
Follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/rchillsmith)
-
Tweet about this contest and include @rchillsmith in your tweet
I will use random.org to choose the winner on Friday, October 23. All entries must be received by midnight, CST, on Thursday, October 22. The winner will be notified by email and will have five days to respond with a valid mailing address.
Good luck!
(As for me, my splurge would be on a new chair for our living room. Or a painter to help us fix all the touch-ups on our walls. Or a playground set for Little Due. Yes, I’m bad at picking one place to splurge. And as for how I would spend $50 at AJWright? I think I could find quite a few more things.)
Tonight was a blast!
As I mentioned, I was invited, along with some other area bloggers, by AJWright, to come check out a new store opening our area. Since I was unfamiliar with this store, I did a little research and discovered they were in the same family of stores as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls (The TJX Companies, Inc.) – both of which are stores in which I shop.
We received the purple cameras as gifts! Awesome!
This invite included a couple of incentives to encourage us to visit – a $100 gift card and a digital camera/video camera. Sweet, right? How could I possibly say no?
As I know and love T.J. Maxx the best out of that family of stores, I was eager to see what AJWright would have to offer.
Upon arrival at the store, I was greeted by a security guard. He was a bit disinterested in what was occurring in the store, but directed me to go ahead and enter.
Immediately, I met Maureen, who is another area blogger, and her Hubby.
We were soon introduced to one of our hostesses and led back to the employee breakroom and our supper – our choice of lasagna, stir fry and something with cream sauce, as well as garlic bread, a garden salad and a fruit salad. The lasagna and two salads were very tasty.
In the breakroom, we were joined by Colleen, and then one of my long-time blogging pals, Kimberly, and we received our gifts – the gift card, the camera/video camera, a pad of paper, a pen, a calculator and a recyclable shopping bag. Oh, and a green VIP badge to wear. (This last item is VERY important.)
Our mission, should we choose to accept it (and we all happily accepted it), was to shop and record parts of our shopping spree. But first, we split into two groups for a tour of the store.
My first impression of the store is that if you have shopped at a T.J. Maxx, you’ll be very familiar with the look and feel of AJWright. Bright lighting, high ceilings and very nice flow from area to area in the store. An eclectic mix of items is in every department.
Overall, I LOVED the selection of items. However, like T.J. Maxx and other similar stores, merchandise is constantly changing. If you find something you like, it may not be there the following day.
Also, since stock is constantly changing, some days you may find exactly what you are looking to purchase, while other days you may not be as impressed. (We were told that new merchandise is unloaded on Thursdays at this particular store, so that is a good day to find the best selection. Great insider tip!)
I found a good selection in the items I had on my list. I came in looking for Christmas presents (specifically for Little Dude), shoes for Little Dude, dress shoes for me, sweaters/dress shirts for me, clothes for Little Dude, and shirts for the Hubby.
I left with:
- One dress shirt for me
- One sweater for me
- One pair of dress shoes for me
- One pair of dress shoes for Little Dude
- A Spiderman shirt for Little Dude
- A collegiate-team shirt for the Hubby
- Two rugs
- Two sets of unmentionables (which shall remain unmentioned)
- One pop-up Cars-themed tent for Little Dude (Christmas gift and so cool – it has a pop-up of Radiator Springs attached to it, so Little Dude can drive his Cars around the buildings! And if you didn’t understand what I just wrote, you need to watch the movie. You’ll like it. Trust me.)
- Four miscellaneous items for upcoming gift needs
My grand total prior to tax? $109.85.
Upon arriving home, I looked through my purchases and calculated the total cost, had I spent the suggested retail price. The grand total? Somewhere between $245-347, since some items had additional tags originally added by the manufacturer (those tags tend to be higher than the cost at which the items actually retail).
Customer service was good and the staff seemed eager to be a part of this new store. The security guard was a bit bored (as I mentioned above), and I think some of the staff were a bit hesitant about assisting us, since we had two staffers assigned directly to taking care of our needs, but everyone was friendly and smiling.
The store was clean and well-organized. Like I mentioned above, the layout flows smoothly from one section to the next, especially if you are familiar with similar stores.
I noticed a few size jumps on the racks, meaning some sizes appeared to be missing in some styles, but again, I think that is to be expected in these types of stores, where merchandise tends to be bought from overstocked or discontinued items.
My final impression of the store? If I lived closer, I would be stopping by this store every other week. Yes, I am a shopaholic, and it is good I limit my time spent in such stores.
Now for the exciting part… I’ve been told I may have the opportunity to offer a giveaway for a $50 gift card to AJWright on my blog. Is anyone interested? (If so, let me know and more details will be on the way!)
One final note on why that VIP badge was so great. When I came home, I was greeted by one tired Little Dude. He ignored my bags (not noticing the big Christmas gift in the one, thankfully!) and instead wanted my “green square.” That VIP badge and lanyard is now one of his favorite things – especially because it is green, which appears to be his favorite color lately.
And he was especially excited to have his picture taken with his new “prize.”
