Birthdays

Most people know that today, July 31st, is Harry Potter's birthday. But there are two birthdays that are much more important to me that happen on this day.

My wonderful husband was born on this day back in 1975. He doesn't really care about his birthday or care about celebrating but I always make a semi-big deal about it. This year, we are going out for Chinese and Emily colored him a birthday card.

The reason I make such a big deal out of Todd's birthday is because he shares his birthday with my mom. She passed away 9 years ago this August 8th, and I still miss her terribly.

This week is one of the hardest of the year because my mom's birthday and death day are so close together. So focusing on Todd makes this day easier for me, though it does tend to be bittersweet.

So Happy Birthday to my beloved husband and my dearly departed mom. And happy birthday to Harry Potter and anyone else who was born on this day.

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CM Punk's New Shirt

Hubby with CM Punk at WrestleMania

I enjoy watching wrestling, both WWE and TNA. And my dear husband loves it, and watches it about every week. One of our favorite wrestles, CM Punk, has been in the midst of a bit of drama. It wasn't sure if he was still going to be with the WWE.

I hadn't seen Raw from this week, but it replays on Saturday nights, so we were just watching it. CM Punk showed up at the end of Raw, and he had a new shirt.

The thing with WWE shirts is that they are usually available for fans to buy. When you are going to a live WWE show, it makes it so much more fun to be wearing your favorite wrestler's shirts. When we were getting ready for WrestleMania, we ordered a bunch of different shirts so we could have them to wear to the actual WrestleMania show along with the days we went to Axxess.

Back to CM Punk's new shirt, it is AWESOME, so I went onto WWE's website to see if they had it in women's style. Their women's shirts fit so much better than the men's so I always get the women's style. And they didn't have Punk's new shirt in women's style. They had men's and kid's, but no women's. I'm pretty bummed out because it's great and I want it, but I don't want it in the men's style.

Not that I need anymore shirts, but we are discussing going to WrestleMania again in the next few years, so I'll need new shirts!
 
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Lazy Saturday

It's been a very stressful week at my house, so I've been trying to take it a little easy today. I have been trying to write paid work, but since it is the weekend there isn't a lot of articles to write.

Todd had to work today, so I napped with Emily. We are now waiting for him to get home so we can go out to dinner.

It has been too hot to go outside because we are still in the midst of this horrible, heat wave-filled summer. I cannot wait until it is Autumn. So Emily has been playing with stickers today while I type, type, type away.

I'm hoping to get more accomplished tomorrow. But sometimes it's good to take a day just to be lazy!

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Book Review - "Clearing the Aisle" by Karen Schwartz

Image: Goodreads.com

Clearing the Aisle by Karen Schwartz is the story of Rachel Silverstein and Dan Gershon as they plan their wedding.

I adore this book, it is one of my favorites. I found it in the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble when I was planning my own wedding. I immediately fell in love with the book and the characters.

After my wedding, I got the urge to read this book again. But I thought I had gotten rid of it for some reason. I was so happy when I found it again, and I've read it several times since then.

It's a pretty standard tale of wedding planning with parent drama throughout, but the characters just seemed so real. Even though I'm not Jewish, I've always found the Jewish culture really interesting, which makes this book all that much more interesting to me. The only downside is that the author only has written this one book. I'd love to read any more stories she'd write.

If you are planning a wedding or feeling nostalgic for your wedding, this is a great book. The characters are believable and the situations are too for the most part. I give this book 5 stars out of 5!

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Talking "Toddler"

Emily and I drove to visit my best friend and her daughter, Kaylee (who is about 13 months younger than Emily). We used to spend a lot of time together when we only lived 5 minutes apart, but the girls haven't seen each other in 2 months, which is a long time when you are toddler.

They did remember each other, and it was like there was no time apart. We went to lunch at McDonald's, and we put their highchairs next to each other. They chatted the whole time we were eating, but they weren't talking in a language the adults could understand. They were speaking "Toddler".

Now both of these girls can and do talk in English, even using sentences. But I guess when you are with another toddler it is easier to speak in your own language. It was super cute!

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Taking the Day Off

Being a Stay at Home and Work at Home mom, I don't often get to take a day off. I even work on the weekends because I can usually get more done since Emily hangs out with her dad and isn't on top of me.

But today I'm taking the day off. Emily and I are heading to the Charlotte area in about a 1/2 hour to spend some time with my best friend. I'm really looking forward to it and hoping that it will be a great day!

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Spoiler Free Review - Captain America: The First Avenger

Image: Wikipedia

I got a chance to go see Captain America: The First Avenger over the weekend and it was an excellent movie.

I didn't know a lot about Captain America before I went into the movie, and I think they did an excellent job of introducing the character. The supporting characters added heart and fun to the movie, though Tommy Lee Jones stole the show. His character was a hoot adding a bit of humor into the movie.

As much as I loved this movie, the best part of it was after the credits. Instead of an extra scene, there was a teaser trailer for The Avengers which looks awesome! It is going to be hard to wait until next summer to see this movie that has been being built up since the first Iron Man came out.

As much as I liked Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger  was my favorite superhero movie of the summer!

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Costuming and Dragon*Con

 

Image: Dragoncon.org

It is a little under 6 weeks until Dragon*Con and I'm getting pretty excited for it. This is the 25th year of Dragon*Con, so this year is going to be legend... wait for it... dary!

I've been so busy that I don't have a new costume for this year, but I'm trying to finish up my Kaylee Layer Cake dress.

The dress was mostly finished for Dragon*Con last year, but I needed a few more layers on the bottom. I didn't buy enough fabric, and it wasn't really a priority to go to the fabric store to get the last few yards I would need.

Since it's getting down to the wire, Emily and I headed to the fabric store this afternoon. It's been about a year since I bought the original fabric, so I was little worried that they wouldn't carry it anymore. But they had it, and it was in the same exact spot in the shop!

I got four yards, since I'd rather have too much fabric than not enough. I probably won't start it tonight, but hopefully in the next couple of days. I really want this costume finished so I can think about a new one to make for next year!

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To my Waiter - We Can Hear You Complaining!

Emily and I went to iHop tonight because I was craving breakfast foods and I didn't want to cook. Plus kids eat free after 4 pm, so it seemed like a good idea.

The place wasn't very full, but the service was very slow. That wouldn't have been a big deal if it hadn't been for our waiter complaining loudly throughout most of our dinner.

We were seated near-ish to wear the kitchen was. Our waiter was up in arms over the fact that another waiter 'stole' his table. We got to hear how our waiter had taken drinks to the table but the other waiter swooped in to serve them because they were his friends.

Our waiter didn't mention this indignity just once but complained about it over and over again in the hour that we were there. Emily didn't mind as she was happy to watch the little girl about her age in the next booth and then dive into her pancakes. My crepes were good, so this was the only issue.

So to any food service folks that might read my blog. Remember that unless you are behind a closed door, your customers can hear you complain. This can effect your tip and leave a bad impression on your employer and yourself.

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The Problem with Max

I abhor the show Max and Ruby and thankfully we don't watch it much. Today we were watching it and I figured out what bugged me so much about this show.

Many people hate the show because of the lack of parents and how damn bossy Ruby is. But what always bothered me was the Max never talked more than one word an episode. And if he uttered more, it was always the same fraking word.

Now, I know that Max is suppose to be around the age my daughter is (according to Wikipedia - he's 3!). My daughter said her first word when she was 9 months old, and has been at least babbling ever since. Now at 2 years and 9 months she talks all the time, even using sentences.

If Max was a real kid (and if he had parents), he'd be on the train to speech therapy. He does not, in my opinion, accurately portray a 3 year old. I know it's not a big deal, but it bugs me all the same. 

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Why Facebook is Pissing Me Off

I've been a big fan of Facebook since I joined several years ago. It was great to re-connect with old friends. It is a great way to promote my blog and my posts on GeekMom. I just adore social media.

But, Facebook has been really pissing me off lately. First there was the chat bar thingee that I was able to get rid of. From the chatter on my FB feed though, many people have been plagued by this chat bar unable to get rid of it.

But yesterday they added something that made me really want to jump ship. Facebook has started putting ads in the middle of the news feed. This is really, really, really annoying to me. My computer is a bit old, and Facebook often freezes. These ads aren't helping this.

I know the folks at Facebook are worried about the addition of Google +, but these additions aren't really making me want to stay with Facebook. I'll stay for now, since most of my friends / family are still on there. Once more people make the switch to +, I'm gone from FB.

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Ode to my Best Friend

There aren't many pictures that have both me and my BFF in them

There has been several folks that I know this week that are suffering from the end of long term friendships. When I say suffer, I really mean that. I've been through the 'break up' of a nearly a 10 year friendship, and it took me a while to get over it.

While I did get over it, and I made some shiny new friends. I also married the love of my life, who makes a pretty good friend most days. But it wasn't the same as having a best girl friend. There are just some things that a husband doesn't really want to hear.

I kind of figured that I wouldn't have a best friend again, since as I grew older, the harder it got to make friends. But then I met Dolli through our local mommy group. We hit it off immediately due to the fact that we were two geeks in a sea of non-geek mommies. Plus she named her daughter after my favorite character in Firefly, so it was bff's at first sight.

We used to live right down the street from each other, but she, her husband and daughter had to move to Stateville a few months ago. Even though the separation has been hard, we've managed to keep our friendship going.

Dolli let me know that our 1 year anniversary of being friends with was yesterday. I knew it was getting close, and I was having a bit of a crisis the last few days that has since been resolved. Even though we can only communicate through FB and email since she doesn't get a signal where her and her family are currently living, she was able to be there for me during a really tough time.

My point is, even if people do leave your life, there can be other, awesome people to enter it. Happy BFF Anniversary, Dolli! Here's hoping it's the first of many years to come!

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The Great Purge

Because I finished my summer semester of school early, I have nearly a month off until the fall semester starts. I'm going to try and put this time to good use by doing a great clean and purge in my house.

I have a ton of things that I don't use anymore, clothes I don't fit into and just junk. We, in fact, have a whole junk room that is cluttered with crap. I would really like this room to be a computer / craft room, but I have to do a lot of cleaning to get it to this point.

It is also not very easy to clean with a toddler who wants to 'help' but I will try and put her on jobs that I know she can do, like picking up her toys.

Wish me luck! It's a big job to do!

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The Diet Saga

I will admit it, I fell off the diet wagon a little. With the end of the summer semester, I've been more than a little stressed out. So I haven't been watching what I eat as carefully. But I haven't been totally pigging out either.

I did weigh myself the other day and I had lost a little, so I'm still on track. I just need to be better about what I eat. That should be easier now that I'm done with school for the semester. I tend to eat worse when I'm not at home, but now I'll be at home or with Emily more since my classes next semester are all online.

Over the weekend, Todd found a Kinect for the xBox 360 with two games for fairly cheap at a local pawn store. He snatched it up, and it seriously was one of the best purchases he ever made. I'm going to do a whole post about the Kinect, but I'll just say that it is so easy to use.

So, by using the Kinect, exercising has been a lot easier. I'd like to start trying to run again, but it's just too fraking hot outside. That's just something that will have to wait until later in the year when it isn't fraking summer anymore.

I'll try and keep my progress post here as a way to motivate myself. I really want to be able to lose some of this weight.

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Almost Done!

Today is my last full day of the summer semester, since I've already finished one of my classes. I will finish the other class on Wednesday after I have a mock interview.

This semester has been trying because I've had school 4 days a week and my school is a 1/2 hour from my house. School has really sucked away my entire summer as we haven't been to the pool at all or done other fun stuff this summer (which is partly because of the heat, but mostly because of school).

Next semester is my last and all my classes are online. I'm really looking forward to being done, but I'm nervous about attempting to enter the work force again. I would much rather write articles from home and get my book published, but we really need to be a two income family again if we ever want to be able to move to Charlotte.

So I'm really looking forward to being done with college again, but I'm nervous that I won't be able to find a job. We'll just have to see what happens in December.

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There is A Ghost in My House

I don't think I've talked about it here, but I live in a haunted house. I've had experiences with ghosts before as I've worked in several places that had spirits in them. And I'm pretty sure the basement of my childhood home had some sort of spirit living down there.

So, I'm obviously a believer. My husband thought I was crazy until he had a run in with the ghost. When Emily was very small, I would stay up with her during the night. I would wake Todd up in the morning and collapse into bed. During one of these mornings, Emily had been sleeping on Todd's chest in the living room and he fell asleep. But he was shook awake, and it wasn't by me because I was still asleep. Ever since then, he's believed in our ghost.

The ghost will go months without making their presence known, and tends to be the most active in the Autumn. A few days ago, Emily tore out of her room all freaked out, and she said it was the ghost. Later that day, the bathroom door slammed shut while Emily and I (the only people home at the time) were in the living room. Our cat, Willow, was caught inside the bathroom and ran out fast when I went to open the door.

As I was in the midst of writing this, Emily wanted to go to the potty (we are in the throes of potty training which is a post for another time). As she was sitting on her potty, she started to insist that the ghost was in the heating grate right next to where her potty is. She started whispering and saying, "Shhh, be quiet" as she pointed to the grate. It was kind of creepy!

The ghost doesn't do much so I'm not too concerned about it. It's just a fun feature of living in my house.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 Review - With Spoilers!

Image, Wikipedia

I'm going to warn you right now that this post does have spoilers of the movie. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, don't continue if you don't want to be spoiled.
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The movie, overall, was amazing. I saw it in the 3D, and the glasses were in the shape of Harry's, which was a neat touch. The theater was packed and I think that helped the whole experience.

I did have a few issues with the movie. I wasn't very happy that they didn't show Fred's death at all. We don't see Percy at all except for a brief flash during the scene after Voldemort is killed. This is all minor to the massive issues with the epilogue.

We get a screen that says "19 years later", and we get the scene where Harry / Ginny and Ron / Hermione are taking their kids to the Hogwarts Express. The problem is that the actors don't look like 19 years have past. Harry and Ron have a little more facial hair, which I guess is suppose to make them look older. Hermione looks no older, and Ginny looks like a kid playing dress up. Also they gave Ron / Hermione an extra kid and Harry / Ginny didn't have their older son, James.

I was one of the few people that liked the epilogue in the book, but the movie version really, realy sucks hardcore. It's just such a crappy end to an otherwise great film.

Now even though I hated the epilogue, the rest of the movie was very good. I think my favorite part was Snape's memories. It was so powerful to see him crying and hugging Lily's dead body to him. It really brought home what Snape was all about.

And I'm so glad that Neville got his time to shine. His killing of the snake and standing up to Voldemort before was brilliant.

I'm still taking it all in and I'd like to go see it again while it's in the theaters. But I really, really enjoyed it.

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Harry Potter Day!

My Hogwarts Costume

I'm ridiculously excited for the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 tonight. I'm perhaps even more excited that the skirt of my costume still fits.

I haven't worn the costume since the midnight book release of the last book, which was before I had Emily. I wasn't sure if my post-pregnancy butt would fit into the skirt, but when I tried it one, it fit just fine.

I'm very thankful that I bought my ticket (for the movie in 3D) last week, because the chatter on my FB page is that nearly all the theaters in the area are sold out. I picked my favorite theater, partly because it is the closest.

I took a nap with Emily this afternoon in anticipation of the late night. since it will probably be after 3 am when I get home. I'm also going to try to stay up long enough to write a GeekMom post about my experiences at the midnight premiere.

Tomorrow is going to be a tiring day, but it will be totally worth it. I can't imagine not seeing the movie at midnight, especially because it is the last one. To everyone who is going to see the movie tonight, have fun! To everyone else, I promise not to post spoilers :D

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House Party

Emily playing with her house on Easter

Tonight Emily and I played "House Party" where all the figures that can fit into her dollhouse came to the front door asking Megamind if they could come in.

Emily was Megamind and I was the rest of the toys. I would ask if the toy could come into the party, and she would have Megamind kiss each of the toys.

While I know she's just a toddler, my adult mind had the thought, "Is this party actually an orgy?"

Despite all the kissing, everyone got to come in for the party, which entailed the toys being stuffed into the front door (except for the Barbie Fairy happy meal toy - she flew up and entered at the top).

It's fun to be able to start having imaginative play with Emily. She has been playing tea party for over a year now, but it's nice to have her expand her horizons and for me to be able to play with her.

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TMI Post for Women Only

This post may be a little TMI for any males out there who read my blog. So you might want to skip this one.
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Is it just us girls? Okay!

I'm not sure if it is just me, but whenever it's that time of the month and I finally start my period I feel two emotions.

1) I'm not pregnant :(

2) I'm not pregnant :D!!!!

Usually the brief sad feeling of not being pregnant only lasts for a moment. We aren't TTC, and the last thing I want right now is another baby. But at that time of the month the baby fever hits for just a minute and I feel sad.

Then I think about Hurricane Emily and how busy I am with school, and article work and GeekMom and trying to work on writing a novel, and then I experience #2. I like my life the way it is right now, and I don't want another baby.

I just wanted to share my thoughts on this - I'm not sure if I'm the only woman who feels like this but I doubt I am. Do any of you have similar feelings?

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"Eat, Pray, Love" - A Spoiler-Free Book Review

Image: Goodreads.com

"Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert is the true story of a woman coming to terms with her divorce, her relationship after her divorce ending badly and just a loss of self.

I've read several reviews of this book, stating that the author is selfish and self-centered in the book, but I didn't find this to be the case.

The book was entertaining and engaging. I enjoyed reading about Liz's adventures across the world as she healed and became her own person again.

I think I was able to identify with her because I went through something similar in my past. I hadn't been married, but I had been engaged. Our relationship imploded in spectacular fashion, and it took me 2 years to get over both him and the loss of this relationship that had been central to my life for several years.

It was a good and easy read, so I'd recommend it to anyone. Though I do have a feeling that it would appeal to women more than men.

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Word Diarrhea

I write a lot during the course of most days. I blog here and at GeekMom. I also do  paid work where I write articles on a variety of subjects. And I'm trying to write my first novel as well. So writing happens a lot, but so does writers block, especially with my paid work.

Some days I just stare at the computer screen trying to force the words out. But today was not like most days. Today, I have word diarrhea, as the words keep flowing and flowing.

I have done more paid work than usual, as I want to take advantage of the word diarrhea while it is here. I'll be doing paid work until Emily is in bed, and then I'm going to try and finish Chapter 8 of my WIP.

I'd love to have word diarrhea more often. It would make my job(s) a lot easier!

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Spoiler Free Review - Green Lantern

Image: Wikipedia

I got to see Green Lantern today and it was fairly entertaining. Though it didn't really stack up to the other movies I've seen this summer. I had a free pass, so it was worth it see it.

For an origin story, it seemed a little light on content. It just didn't seem to flow as well as say, Thor or X-Men: First Class did.

I do think the best part of the whole movie was when Hal Jordan was trying to convince his love interest that he wasn't himself by wearing his mask and costume. She knew it was him almost right away.

Basically, I'd wait for this movie for DVD if you haven't seen some of the other blockbusters from this summer. It was decent, but it could have been a lot better than it was.

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Awesome Husband

I just wanted to sing the praises of my wonderful husband for a minute.

Even after nearly 5 years of marriage, we still get along so well. We do fight, of course, but those fights are pretty rare. We talk about everything and he is so supportive.

Especially right now, he is so supportive of my diet. I was feeling down last night because I had weighed myself and I had gained several pounds. He calmly told me that it may take several weeks to start losing and to not get discouraged. It was just what I needed to hear.

He is also a wonderful daddy, for a man who was on the fence about having kids. He adores Emily and they have so much fun playing together. Her favorite person in the whole world is her Daddy.

I love my husband so much and I feel so blessed that I am married to him. I can't believe that it's only been nearly 5 years since we got married. It seems a lot longer than that (and not in a bad way *L*).

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Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica - includes Spoilers!

Image: Wikipedia

I've been meaning to watch Battlestar Galactica for years, but it wasn't until I became friends with my best friend and she lent me her discs of BSG that I finally watched it. 


It took me several months to get through the four seasons of BSG, partly because this show is not appropriate for a toddler to watch, so I had to keep my viewing of it at naptimes and after Emily had gone to bed.

In general terms, I really liked this series. It was very serious, but that comes with the post-apocalyptic story line. The characters are complex and very real. In some cases, they were too real and it made some episodes hard to watch.

From here, there are some spoilers, so don't read if you haven't seen the show yet.
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One of my favorite characters is President Laura Roslin, but it was hard to watch her succumb to cancer, since she reminded me a lot of my mom (who died from cancer). I was teary-eyed at the end when she finally died on the new Earth.

The end was very interesting with it tying into our Earth, with Hera being the ancestor that we are all descended from.

I even liked the 3rd season that everyone else seems to hate. Besides a WTF moment at the beginning of the season, realizing that a whole year had passed, I really got into the story. This series was so character driven that it was great to see some minor characters get fleshed out more.

All in all, I really enjoyed BSG and I'm glad I watched it!

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Google+

Image: https://plus.google.com/

I was lucky enough to score an invite to Google+, and I've been playing around with it this afternoon. I thought I would blog about my thoughts about this new social networking site.

For something that's in the beta stages, it runs very well. I could even put the Google+ app on my phone. It's very streamlined without a lot of the junk that makes Facebook less than desirable (like there are no stupid games on Google+).

So far, one of the best features that I have seen are the circles. You can put different people in different circles, so you can post updates to only the people you can to see. This is great if you want to put people who have similar interests together, along with separating out people you know in real life from people who are only acquaintances online.

Right now, it's pretty quiet because invites are hard to come by, but I'm looking forward to when it's live for everyone to use. I think it could even possibly knock Facebook off of its throne as top social networking site.

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