How To Find Me At Dragon*Con!

I'm getting ready for Dragon*Con! This year I'll be on a panel as well as live tweeting for GeekMom. You can follow me at @ChaosMandy at Twitter.

On Friday, August 31, I'll be on the GeekMom panel.

It will be at 1 pm in the Kaleidoscope track room (Marriott Lobby: Marriott L405 - L406). The title of the panel is "Are you a Geek Parent?" It should be a lot of fun!

On Saturday, September 1, I'll be in the parade.

I'll have Emily with me and both of us will be cosplaying as Snow White. We will be marching in the Kaleidoscope section!

On Sunday, September 2, I'll be a judge for the Whedonverse costume contest. 

It will be at 4 pm in Westin International DE. I can't wait to see all the shiny costumes!

I'll also have the GeekMom Pony with me - I'll be taking a lot of pictures of her around the con. I hope to see some of you at the con!


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I Miss You, Mom

Me and my mom

10 years ago today my mom lost her two year battle with cancer. I woke up around this time on that day and I just knew she was gone. My dad and her dad were at her side when she passed away.

I miss my mom everyday. Even though I was 25 years old when she passed away, I wasn't really grown up. I had graduated from college less than a week before she died - an event that she managed to attend. She was very proud of me.

But my mom never met my husband - though she was in the same room with him once. My college best friend married his best friend and we were both in the wedding. That was how we met. But we didn't start dating until after my mom had passed.

And of course my mom never got to meet Emily. That probably makes me more sad than anything because my mom was so looking forward to having grandkids. She would have adored Miss Emily.

I am a Christian so I believe that my mom is in Heaven. She does come to visit every once in a while - I feel her presence sometimes which gives me some peace. And I will see her again someday. But for  now, I miss my mommy and wish she was still her.

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Phineas and Ferb Jello!

I have been neglecting this blog, and I'm sorry about that. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to update it more regularly. I will warn you all that there will be an extra amount of Disney related posts since we are going to be going to Disney World next October.

We watch the various Disney channels quite a bit. One of my favorite shows that Emily really likes is Phineas and Ferb. It's one of the best shows on TV.

This weekend, we were doing some shopping in Walmart. I was getting jello to make some for Emily when I spotted a Phineas and Ferb jello mold. It was only a dollar so I bought it. Tonight I made up some jello.

Phineas, Ferb, Perry and Candace

Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Agent P

It turned out great and I know that Emily is going to be so excited to eat some of the jello for snack time tomorrow.

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The Best Present My Husband Ever Got Me

Image: Amazon.com

My husband has bought me a variety of things over our nearly six year marriage. But the best thing he ever bought me was one of the first things.

It was fairly early into our relationship and we were still living in Michigan. And we were still living apart at that point. But we would try and get together as much as possible.

We were in Midland, MI and looking in a store that sold used DVD's and video games. I was really into anime at the time and my husband (then boyfriend) pointed out the first season of Sailor Moon that was uncut.

I had always been interested in watching Sailor Moon. I had seen some of the wretched dub when I was much younger and didn't know what anime was. But by this time I knew that the dubbed version had been really butchered from the original. So when he offered to buy it, I jumped at the chance.

I think my birthday was close and this DVD set became my birthday present. And I watched the heck out of it as the months went on. This was because soon after, my daily chronic headaches started.

I've talked about my headaches before, but I'll recap a little. I got very sick with an ear infection that my doctor misdiagnosed for a month. I ended up in the hospital and permanent damage to the hearing in my right ear. I also had a bad headache. All my other symptoms cleared up except for the headache. I've had that same headache for almost ten years now.

After my headaches started, it was the worst time in my life. I was in constant pain and didn't know how to deal with it. But I would spend many of my sleepless night watching Sailor Moon. It helped me through that really hard time in my life.

We didn't know it at the time, but Todd had bought me something very rare and valuable. ADV, which know longer exists, only released the first two seasons of Sailor Moon uncut. And stopped making them soon after that they were released. So they are hard to find and expensive to buy.

When I went to look on Amazon for the picture above, the prices were starting at $559.95 for new, $210 for used and one collector's edition for $1,500.00! When money has been tight in the past, Todd and I discussed selling it, but I don't think I'd be able to bear to part with it.

So while Todd has bought me many shiny things in the past, including my wedding ring, the best present is my Sailor Moon DVD's.


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Getting Back In The Swing Of Things

Three months ago, I went back to work after being a stay at home mom / college student for three years. I knew that there would take some time to get used to working again, but I never thought it would take this long.

Granted, these three months have been really unpleasant for me thanks to issues in my personal life. But finally I think I'm starting to get back in the swing of things.

I exercised for the first time tonight since I went back to work. I've written eleven GeekMom articles so far this month, which is more like the number I wrote when I was still a stay at home mom.

There is still some things that I need to work on, like my novel which I have barely edited. This blog has been neglected as well. And I do need to find more time to just relax and decompress. It's an ongoing adjustment as I find that groove again.


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Belated Father's Day Post

Making a cake for Daddy!

Sorry about the silence on this blog, things have been a little crazy for me lately. I'm hoping to do a lot better with blogging here, though you can always check out my posts over at Wired's GeekMom too.

Father's Day was yesterday and we had a pretty lowkey celebration. Emily made Todd a card and we got him a present of Magic cards. She had wanted to get him flowers, but I nixed that idea.

We also made him a cake, which Emily was so excited to help with. And I made french toast and bacon Sunday morning as a special treat. Emily also got to talk with her Pop-Pop (my dad) and her Papa (Todd's dad) on Sunday too. She was happy about that, but she is always talking about wanting to go to Pop-Pop and Papa's houses. Alas, we won't be getting to Michigan until (probably) Christmas again this year.

So Happy Belated Father's Day to all the great dads out there! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday.


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Why We Are Ill Prepared For The Zombie Apocalypse

It was a pretty typical Sunday night as my husband and I watched Castle on our DVR. But all of a sudden, there was a whine as all of our electricity turned off.

Todd stumbled to get flashlights while I opened the computer to give off a little light. I got the power bill to get the number to call in that our power was out while Todd went to Emily's room to try our breakers.

We weren't very organized about this and weren't sure what to do afterwards. Emily was a little freaked out so we put her in our bed. I laid down with her but I wasn't tired. Todd headed off to the movies.

The lights came on about an hour or so after they went out. I was very relived since it's been so hot lately. But it also got me thinking about the fact that we, as a family, are so reliant on    power.

If a zombie apocalypse (or any type of apocalypse) were to happen, I think we would be toast. We flailed around with just a power outage. I think it would be worse if the undead were trying to eat us.


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