11.05.2011

Wait your turn, Santa!

The day after posting my reaction to us already playing Christmas music at work (as of November 1st), I came across this gem of an image on Facebook and had a good laugh!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/316126_10100279236085749_30800316_47043462_2074424292_n.jpg

I don't mean to come off as a Scrooge or anything - I LOVE the holidays, the gift-buying, gift-giving, family togetherness, etc. However, growing up we've always waited until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put up all the Christmas decorations. Granted, with all the Christmas stuff out already, it's been really tough not to start decorating for it now that Halloween is over... but still... Thanksgiving comes before Christmas and this cartoon is quite fitting and my sentiments EXACTLY!

O.B.'s Share It Forward Incentive - Only takes a moment!

I saw this on Melissa's blog the other day (The Mommyhood Chronicles) and thought it was worth the moment it took to do and then share it on.

Apparently a lot of girls in 3rd World Countires are dropping out of school when they come of age and get their periods due to embarrassment because they just can't afford things like pads or tampons to take care of it. When they drop of school and abandon their education they increase their risk of living in poverty and getting diseases such as HIV.

That just seems like such a sad reason to drop out of school, but fortunately there is a VERY SIMPLE WAY WE CAN HELP!

With their Share It Forward campaign, O.B. is hoping to raise $25,000 for Huru International which provides Huru kits to at-risk girls at no cost. Each Huru kit comes packaged in a drawstring bag that doubles as a backpack and includes eight reusable sanitary pads, three pairs of underwear, detergent soap to wash the pads, a waterproof bag to store the pads, educational insert on proper usage, as well as important life-saving HIV/AIDS information.

The o.b. brand hopes to raise $25,000 for Huru International which will translate to 1,000 Huru kits (or 8,000 reusable pads) valued at $25 each. For every user who shares this important message about Huru's important mission, o.b. will donate $1 to Huru's important cause.

So, what do you do? Simply visit and like the facebook page: mighty. small. movement (see instructions below). To do this will take exactly one minute of your time and will cost you nothing but the knowledge that you are helping out for such a great cause.

If you are not a fan of the page:
Step 1: Like mighty.small.movement facebook page
Step 2: Select the state from the drop box (under the green box)
Step 3: Put a check mark next to the box that says you have read the Terms and Conditions
Step 4: Click the pink "Click to Share" button to post the message on your wall
Step 5: Spread the word.

If you are already a fan of the page:
Step 1: Go to the o.b.outreach tab on the mighty.small.movement facebook page
Step 2: Select the state from the drop box (under the green box)
Step 3: Put a check mark next to the box that says you have read the Terms and Conditions
Step 4: Click the pink "Click to Share" button to post the message on your wall
Step 4: Spread the word

Seriously, it only took me a moment to go to the page, quick "Like", check the box, and share it on my Facebook so others can do the same. Please take the time to do this - it's such a simple task that can have such a huge effect for these girls!

11.02.2011

Christmas already??

As usual, today I was running a few minutes late to work (at least now with a kid, I have a legitimate reason for almost always running late everywhere I go!).

I completely wasn't paying attention to any of the Christmas decorations that had gone up in the mall over the past few days since I last worked.

I clocked in and put my stuff away and my nametag on and after having a brief chat with the store manager headed out to the sales floor.

I took 1 step out of the back stockroom and it hit me.

Christmas music was playing in the store!

I turned around and said loudly into the stockroom "Christmas music?! Seriously??"

The one manager laughed at my reaction while the team leader responded "Didn't you notice all the lights and decorations up in the mall??"

I noticed them afterwards on our way (and I believe one of the managers said Santa's supposed to be making his appearance in the next few weeks too, BEFORE Thanksgiving - wtf?? Santa doesn't appear until the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which by the way, I'm actually looking forward to watching it with Jay this year as he'll have my butt out of bed when it's still on! lol...), but for my entire shift tonight I got to rock out to some Christmas poptunes (most of which I got to listen to on repeat while working last year!).

Fortunately, this isn't our full-blown Christmas store soundtrack yet - it still has some of the regular poptunes that were one the previous soundtracks but they're intermixed with Christmas songs by Hanson, other boy bands, and some other poptune Christmas tracks. We predict this year's Christmas soundtrack is going to have quite a bit of the Biebs on it, as he apparently has a Christmas album out this year.

I am looking excited to the She and Him Christmas album though that just came out Monday - while their sound is a bit folks-y, I LOVE Zooey Deschanel and her singing voice is quite pretty (remember her singing Christmas songs in Elf?? And the Winnie the Pooh songs in the recent movie too??). Yeah, definitely getting a copy of that one this year... which reminds me, I should see if it's up on Spotify yet to give it a listen to =)

I swear to God though, it's going to be torture to my brain hearing Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" in all its synthesizer glory every. time. I. work.

I kid you not, I was on the verge of going crazy whenever I heard that one last year, the song drives me sooooo nuts - you know the one, "Siiiiimply, haaaaaaving a wonderful Christmastime!" and its bouncy synth beat and tones. I can't stand that song and I'm pretty sure it's all because of the annoying synthesizer, lol...

11.01.2011

This is Halloween... Jay's 1st Halloween!

Growing up, we went Trick or Treating every year until we were too old and it wasn't cool anymore (then we'd pass out candy). Not that we were celebrating Satan or anything like that, but just as a fun time to dress up with everyone as part of tradition. Every since my sister was too old to dress up for it, my mom has looked forward to making costumes for her grandkids and I admit, I looked forward to dressing my own kids up in cute, awesome little costumes too - especially after seeing friends and acquaintances showing off their kids in adorable little costumes!

While hubby's family never partook in Halloween traditions (his dad absolutely HATES Halloween) let alone any holiday kid traditions (ie: easter bunny, Santa), we had to come to a compromise. Basically, he got his way with us not doing Santa, the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, but my mom and I would get to dress our kids up all cute and take them to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event if they wanted, so long as they weren't dressed as anything scary or evil.

Baby Wicket the Ewok!!
For Jay's first Halloween we dressed him up as the cute and cuddly Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Originally I was thinking he'd make a cute little Yoda, but after watching Return of the Jedi once again over the summer I thought the Ewoks were just too darn cute and cuddly and decided Jay should definitely be an Ewok. Plus, since the costume is essentially a bear outfit, it would be nice and warm with the fur since it tends to always be cold on Halloween around here (I believe this year it was in the 40s!).

My mom's a seamstress so obviously she did the costume for us! And it turned out GREAT! And completely kept him warm too! While I didn't dress up too much, I did find a cream sweater and I did my hair in Princess Leia buns (cuz, ya know, Leia's hanging out with the Ewoks for the last half of Return of the Jedi) - a few people recognized Jay and I as Princess Leia and an Ewok and commented how awesome we were =)


Leia and baby Ewok
We took him over to my mom's for a visit, walked 3 houses over to my old neighbors who had requested we stop by with him and then down the street to my aunt's house to say hi before heading up to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event (it's basically a safe alternative in town for trick or treating as hello - we've been in Forbes' top 10 most dangerous cities for 2 years in a row now and there's lots of areas in the town, especially on the west side and down near the river, that just aren't safe for anyone, let alone kids, to be walking around at night). He really seemed to enjoy it though, as there were so many people dressed up as fun characters.

He got some candy he can snack on too and for his piece tonight he selected a Reese's cup, which he devoured and then threw up 2 seconds later before bouncing around on the couch, lol...

Gotta say, my favorite part of Halloween is the cute, creative costumes people come up! I haven't seen too many people on Facebook post party-related ones (probably cuz most of us are married with kids now, lol...), but at Trunk or Treat I did see an adorable little Spongebob and Sandy the Squirrel!! Hubby also showed me a picture of one of his co-workers who dressed up with his son as UPS delivery men! Hubby said he'd like to do that with Jay one year, which I think would be cute!

Trick or Treating for our city started at 530 and went til 730. We were home til about 645, as hubby had to work til 6 and I wanted Jay to take a little bit of a nap before we went out for the evening, so I got to pass out candy for a bit. Unfortunately our doorbell only ran like 6 times - a few kids solo and a few groups of small kids with their parents (one very little girl - think it might have been our neighbors - was dressed in a cute Eeyore costume!). One kid, whom I would guess as being about 8 years old, was dressed as Michael Meyers - maybe I'm getting old, but doesn't it seem a bit inappropriate for young kids like that to be dressed as serial killers? One girl I know on Twitter posted that one kid reminded her of the infamous Dexter, as his response to her asking who he was was that he kills people! Oh well... we left the bowl out when we went up for Trunk or Treat (which was from 630-8ish) and sadly, when we got home around 9 it looked like no one had touched it! Oh well, guess I know not to get a huge bag for next year!

How was your Halloween? 
What cute/creative costumes did you see this year?

Jay's 1st Halloween!

Growing up, we went Trick or Treating every year until we were too old and it wasn't cool anymore (then we'd pass out candy). Not that we were celebrating Satan or anything like that, but just as a fun time to dress up with everyone as part of tradition. Every since my sister was too old to dress up for it, my mom has looked forward to making costumes for her grandkids and I admit, I looked forward to dressing my own kids up in cute, awesome little costumes too - especially after seeing friends and acquaintances showing off their kids in adorable little costumes!

While hubby's family never partook in Halloween traditions (his dad absolutely HATES Halloween) let alone any holiday kid traditions (ie: easter bunny, Santa), we had to come to a compromise. Basically, he got his way with us not doing Santa, the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, but my mom and I would get to dress our kids up all cute and take them to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event if they wanted, so long as they weren't dressed as anything scary or evil.

Baby Wicket the Ewok!!
For Jay's first Halloween we dressed him up as the cute and cuddly Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Originally I was thinking he'd make a cute little Yoda, but after watching Return of the Jedi once again over the summer I thought the Ewoks were just too darn cute and cuddly and decided Jay should definitely be an Ewok. Plus, since the costume is essentially a bear outfit, it would be nice and warm with the fur since it tends to always be cold on Halloween around here (I believe this year it was in the 40s!).

My mom's a seamstress so obviously she did the costume for us! And it turned out GREAT! And completely kept him warm too! While I didn't dress up too much, I did find a cream sweater and I did my hair in Princess Leia buns (cuz, ya know, Leia's hanging out with the Ewoks for the last half of Return of the Jedi) - a few people recognized Jay and I as Princess Leia and an Ewok and commented how awesome we were =)

Leia and baby Ewok
We took him over to my mom's for a visit, walked 3 houses over to my old neighbors who had requested we stop by with him and then down the street to my aunt's house to say hi before heading up to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event (it's basically a safe alternative in town for trick or treating as hello - we've been in Forbes' top 10 most dangerous cities for 2 years in a row now and there's lots of areas in the town, especially on the west side and down near the river, that just aren't safe for anyone, let alone kids, to be walking around at night). He really seemed to enjoy it though, as there were so many people dressed up as fun characters.

He got some candy he can snack on too and for his piece tonight he selected a Reese's cup, which he devoured and then threw up 2 seconds later before bouncing around on the couch, lol...

Gotta say, my favorite part of Halloween is the cute, creative costumes people come up! I haven't seen too many people on Facebook post party-related ones (probably cuz most of us are married with kids now, lol...), but at Trunk or Treat I did see an adorable little Spongebob and Sandy the Squirrel!! Hubby also showed me a picture of one of his co-workers who dressed up with his son as UPS delivery men! Hubby said he'd like to do that with Jay one year, which I think would be cute!

Trick or Treating for our city started at 530 and went til 730. We were home til about 645, as hubby had to work til 6 and I wanted Jay to take a little bit of a nap before we went out for the evening, so I got to pass out candy for a bit. Unfortunately our doorbell only ran like 6 times - a few kids solo and a few groups of small kids with their parents (one very little girl - think it might have been our neighbors - was dressed in a cute Eeyore costume!). One kid, whom I would guess as being about 8 years old, was dressed as Michael Meyers - maybe I'm getting old, but doesn't it seem a bit inappropriate for young kids like that to be dressed as serial killers? One girl I know on Twitter posted that one kid reminded her of the infamous Dexter, as his response to her asking who he was was that he kills people! Oh well... we left the bowl out when we went up for Trunk or Treat (which was from 630-8ish) and sadly, when we got home around 9 it looked like no one had touched it! Oh well, guess I know not to get a huge bag for next year!

How was your Halloween? 
What cute/creative costumes did you see this year?

Fun with Our Phones Monday #10

 
Today was Halloween and Jay's schedule was a bit off so naturally I'm not getting on here til after midnight - oops!

Here's photos from this past week:

He pulled his blankie off the table and decided to carry it around like this, lol...

Fell asleep in the shopping cart at Walmart

Trying some broccoli and pasta!

I went to pick him up from my mom's after PT and he was konked out on the couch like this
Definitely one of the grandsons in our family - he LOVES Thomas the Train and gets excited when the theme song comes on.

"What's this you've given me, mommy?"

He's been having fun playing with my small pot and other safe kitchen items!

He fell asleep in the car on the short ride from the mall to Target and was still pretty much passed out when I got him in the shopping cart, so to make it easier and let him sleep a bit longer I figured I'd just prop the diaper bag up like a pillow, lol...

He's been a bit of a bookworm this week, actually having an interest in his board books!

Snuggled up with daddy while we wait for a table.

Hubby's birthday was Sunday (28!) and since the Cowboys had the Sunday night game we decided to go out of his birthday dinner on Saturday night, as he wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack in the Chicago suburbs. It was a fun place, with a fun atmosphere, despite getting stuck with a waiter that was a bit of a crab (compared to all the other more friendly waiters in our area).

Sunday after church we went to Texas Roadhouse with hubby's parents. I mentioned early on it was his birthday and before he left they did the "yeehaw!" thing and got him to sit in the birthday saddle, lol... You can see Jay off to the side in the picture too, lol...

Jay's seen his Grandpa J several times lately... he hasn't been screaming his head off at least when he holds him, which is good!

Hubby's getting himself the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which is supposed to be out soon, which is his main birthday present but I had to get him something to open on his actual birthday so I got him a big thing of his favorite brandy and replacement Cowboys lanyard for work as his old one broke.

Hubby's small birthday cake, as he didn't really want a cake but you need SOMETHING for your birthday! So I got him a small, 4 piece cake.

Jay liked eating some of daddy's cake!