{picture removed]

Carson handing the conductor his ticket.  (He’s so cute and serious!  I could cry!)

I may or may not have felt the a lump in my throat and my eyes fill with tears when I first saw Thomas. The sheer joy on Carson’s face combined with my own excitement of seeing a real, live Thomas, made it very difficult not to well up and openly bawl in front of thousands of strangers.  Of course I didn’t actually cry, but I might have felt like it.  Maybe.  (Why do I always feel teary at things like this?  What is WRONG with me?)

The day was mostly meltdown and tantrum free.  I say mostly because there is NEVER a day that goes by with a one-year-old and two-year-old that is tantrum-free.  There were lots of age-appropriate activities and carny food and overpriced Thomas collectibles.  But the arm and a leg that we spent on the tickets, souvenirs, and food was worth every penny.

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Even Ella had fun.  “Look Mommy!  I’m going to put all these little pieces of germ covered Thomas paraphernalia in my mouth and work on building my immunity.”

[picture removed]

The only thorn in my side about our Day Out With Thomas experience was that I was not in charge of taking pictures and therefore I don’t have a decent picture of Carson with Thomas.   In case you were wondering, the “photographer” in charge was the only other adult in my immediate family. *HUFF*

Why didn’t the ”photographer” get THOMAS in the freaking picture WITH Carson??? Isn’t that the POINT of having your picture made WITH Thomas??? Who would take such a DUMB picture! *HUFF!!!*

Next year, when we go back, I’ll try not to tear up AND I’ll be the photographer (hopefully with my new camera.)  (Camera details coming tomorrow…I hope.)

Tags: Little Monkeys, Quirky Me, Uncategorized, confession by Jennifer
58 Comments »

Welcome to week 6 of the blog tip sharing project!  Today’s topic is a continuation of last week’s discussion of blog design.   Let’s talk about your (probably overloaded) sidebars.  I say that they are probably overloaded because, well, most sidebars, INCLUDING MINE, are.  Whether you have one, two, or more sidebars, think about the purpose and necessity of each item you stick over there.

Generally, we want things in our sidebars to entice our readers to stick around and read more.  Your sidebars are also a good place to put information that lets your new readers get to know who you are and who they are reading about.  When your sidebars are too cluttered, INCLUDING MINE, people tend to ignore all of it because it’s too visually cluttery*(new word!) to wade through.

One excellent way to clean up cluttered sidebars is to add pages.  Under my header, there are links to pages that contain information that I previously had in my sidebars.  With a little html/javascript/css knowledge, they can be added to any template.  Just google “adding pages to blog” and you’ll find about 59 million sites willing to help you.

Let’s talk about the MUST HAVES for your sidebar(s). 

1.  Subscribe button

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your feed.  My subscribe button is over there to your left, right up at the top.  Easy to find!  I really like that particular button because it makes it easy to add the feed to any feed reader.  You can get that button, too, at Addthis.com.

(Quick confession, I don’t understand how to use these orange subscribe buttons  I see everywhere.  They just take you to the feed and I can’t figure out a way to add it to my Google reader.  I must have the dumbs.)

2.  Cast of Characters

In my sidebar I have my name, a picture of myself, the names and ages of my kids, and my husband’s name.  This is a CRUCIAL thing to have in your sidebar.  When a new reader stops by, they need to know who and what your blog is about.   If you don’t already have this on your blog, I’ll wait for you to fix that RIGHT NOW.

**taps fingers**

3.  Comment Policy

You need to let commenters know what you do and don’t allow people to say in your comments section.  Be sure to let readers know if you edit comments, delete rude comments, or if cursing isn’t allowed.  Here’s a great explanation of comment policies from The Blog Herald.

4.  Search Box

This is helpful for those who come to your blog and want to search for something specific.  I often use search boxes on other’s blogs when I’m looking for a post that I wish to link.

Those four items listed above are probably the only ABSOLUTELY necessary things you should have in your sidebar.    However, most of us, INCLUDING ME, cannot resist the lure of other widgets and buttons for our sidebars.  So let’s continue to discuss some of the other things that are useful, though not necessary. 

5.  Consider adding the number of feed subscribers to your sidebar.

Ever since adding my feed count to my sidebar nine months ago, I’ve gone from around 150 subscribers to over 600.  Here’s an article from Problogger that discusses revealing your subscriber count.

6.  Blogroll/Google Reader shared items/Blogger’s blog list

Sharing with your readers what YOU read, is not only a great way for people get to know you, it’s also a fantastic way to send traffic to sites you admire. 

Since most people’s blogrolls are hundreds of sites long, I don’t necessarily recommend that you keep your full blogroll in your sidebar.  There are ways you can still have a blogroll, but without so much clutter including having a having a link to a separate site or page that houses your blogroll, a rotating blogroll which shows just a few of the blogs you read at a time, expandable boxes for hiding or showing your blog list (also excellent for hiding awards, buttons, etc.), and scroll boxes. 

(By the way, my blogroll is NOT updated.  Since I use a feed reader to keep track of the blogs I read, the only time I add people to my blogroll is when someone asks.  If you’re not on it and wish to be, please email me and I will add you.)

7.  Archives, most recent posts and favorite posts

Offering these in your sidebar makes it easy for people to nose around your site.   I have archives and most recent posts in my sidebar and I made a page for my favorite posts.

8.  Links to your social networking sites, like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, etc. 

These links let people know where else they can find and “friend” you.  I don’t have links to every site I belong to, but the sites that I use the most.

As I mentioned last week, make sure that whatever you have in your sidebar is not holding up the loading of your page.  Long load times means lost visitors.  Many of the award buttons and twitter widgets cause these slow loading times.  Beware!

I realize that I have many things in my sidebars in addition to the items I mentioned above like ads, a live traffic feed, and (too many) other buttons.  Like my Internet addiction, I’m slowly weaning myself from the lure of excessive widgetry*(new word!).  It’s a work in progress.

I’d love to know what you think is necessary in a blog’s sidebar.  What do you think is unnecessary?

Previously in this series…Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Tags: B.T.S.P., blogging by Jennifer
52 Comments »

Fantasies of this
day have invaded my thoughts
since I learned of it

Priviledge of riding
Thomas, only cost my soul
Carson MUST love it

***

I have such high hopes, hopes that I pray won’t be dashed about our big day of riding a REAL, LIVE Thomas tomorrow when we go to A Day Out With Thomas.  My imagination has conjured up images of Carson’s jubilant response when he gets to see and ride on Thomas.  For years to come, he’ll thank me for enriching his life by taking him to ride on Thomas.  At his wedding, he’ll mention that this ONE day, Day Out With Thomas, helped make him the man that he is and it’s all because his mommy loved him enough to take him. 

Maybe my hopes for the day are a little bit overblown.  A little.  I guess I am sort of worried since everyone I know or have read about has reported less than stellar responses from their Thomas loving tot, whether it be a freak-out session or bored apathy.

But surely that won’t happen to Carson!  He LOVES Thomas, and really any train, truck, tractor, or automobile.  He couldn’t possibly freak out!

Except that he IS a volatile two-and-a-half-year-old who may or may not occasionally exhibit multiple personality disorder unexpectedly.

Hold me.

To play along for Haiku Friday, follow these steps:
1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your generic blog URL). We will delete your link if it doesn’t go to a haiku. If you need help with this, contact Christina or myself. REMEMBER…ONLY sign Mr. Linky if you have a HAIKU POST. Seriously.

3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button above.

Tags: Little Monkeys, Mommydom, Pictures, Quirky Me, haiku friday by Jennifer
60 Comments »

After my post last week where we all fessed up to our serious Internet addictions, I’ve decided to help you in your effort to GET OFF THE COMPUTER and spend more time with your children.  

I know my children would benefit from the attention. *ahem*

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Enjoying some dirt while mommy checks her email for the 20 billionth time.

First of all in order for you to actually DO any of the things on the list you’ll need to prepare.  You’ll want to get one last fix so start by looking at your email ONE more time, checking your stats ONE more time, reading those last few twitters and then *gasp* SHUTTING DOWN the computer.  Simply putting it in sleep mode or shutting the laptop isn’t going to cut it…you already KNOW that you will peek and get sucked right.back.in.  Now.  Once it’s turned off, put the power cord in a really hard to reach place, like in that ridiculous cabinet over your refrigerator or have a trusted neighbor babysit it. 

The power cord suggestion may seem a little much, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“So what am I supposed to DO without Internet access?”  you moan.  Here are a few ideas!

1.  Bake!  Cookies, brownies, whatever.  No, this doesn’t help with losing any extra pounds, but is sitting on your ass twittering really helping?  I didn’t think so.

2.  Water Balloons!  Sure the throwing of water balloons between siblings will cause World War III, but think of it this way…all that arguing is killing time.   Be sure to do this OUTSIDE.  That’s the place on the other side of the door where the sun shines and it’s hot.

3.  McDonalds Playplace/ Chick Fil-A Play area!  The great thing about this suggestion is that it’s really a two-for-one outing because within a week after letting your kids play at a place like this, you’ll be leaving the house again to take them to the pediatrician when they come down with some terrible malady.

4.  Library!  This place is so awesome!  They let you borrow books for –get this–FREE.  That’s right!  FREE!  (Also they have time-limited Internet access there.)  (Yes, I’m an enabler in your attempt to break your addicion.)

5.  Crafts!  You’ll be cleaning up glitter and wiping crayon marks off the walls and cutting glue out of your carpets for MONTHS to come.  Think of all the time you WON’T be stumbling and commenting!

6.  Clean the house as a family!  See above.  (Vacuuming also drowns out crying.)

7.  Use your navigation system to go on adventures!  This suggestion will sadly use entirely too much gas because you are certain to get lost, but think of the adventure!  For extra educational value, have your navigation system speak in a foreign language, I especially enjoy British English.  VERY foreign.

8.  Play Hide and Seek!  You hide in the bathroom (door locked) with some ice cream, OKAY, WINE and have the kids try and find you.  (iPods can drown out the crying in this scenario.)

9.  Take lots of pictures and video!  Let your kids ham it up!  What a great way for YOU to come up with even more fodder for the ol’ blog.  (Me=Enabler)

10.  Go take a walk to get your power cord back from your neighbor!   You’ve earned it with all this “family enrichment” crap.    You can even make it a FAMILY activity to go retrieve your power cord.  Win-win situation!

Tags: Pictures, Quirky Me, blogging, confession, my stream of consciousness by Jennifer
58 Comments »

Yesterday’s post straight out of 1950 where I play the perky, but sometimes discontent housewife got me thinking about our roles as women these days.

Somehow my train of thought led me to start thinking about the wedding of a friend, actually the wedding where I met Tate, where my girlfriend’s part of the vows included saying that she promised to love, honor, and obey her husband.  I remember being utterly shocked.  Obey??  Really?  It was 1998, not 1898. 

After the wedding, (not right after, more like a year or two after) I asked her why they included the word “obey” in her vows.  She said she hadn’t even realized that and joked that really it should have been her husband who promised to obey because we all knew who REALLY wore the pants in that family.

I’m just going to go ahead and throw this out there that this was a Baptist wedding.  Me not being Baptist, I have no idea if this is common practice, or if it’s common amongst different types of Baptists and not others. I also have no idea if other religions include this in their vows, though I’m certain it’s not just a Baptist thing.   My Methodist wedding vows did not include the word “obey,” which is a good thing because I wouldn’t have been cool with saying that.

In my opinion, I cannot fathom vowing to obey anyone.   Conversely, I wouldn’t want someone to vow to obey me.   (Well, okay, I sorta would.)  It seems very outdated and has been outdated since the last century.  I am aware, though I don’t fully understand that the “obey” part of the vows is not only said, but also adhered to for some.  Saying that is in no way meant to be judgmental, but since it is not a part of my reality, it’s hard for me to comprehend. 

I’m curious if your vows include the word “obey?”  If so, what did you think about it?

I know this topic has the possibility of starting a firestorm in the comments because we may be discussing faith based, personal issues, so I just ask that whatever your opinion, please respect other’s viewpoints.

Tags: Huh?, Men?, marriage by Jennifer
110 Comments »

Some days I’m completely at peace with the way things are in my life.  I’ve more or less chosen this life, the one where I’m a stay-at-home mom of two kids and I’m a supportive and loving wife.  In fact, when I imagined my life while growing up, I wanted to get married, make babies, and cook dinner.  My Barbie dolls were forever pregnant, hanging around the Barbie house, driving the Barbie purple corvette, all paid for by Ken.

But with accepting my life the way things are, means accepting that the bulk of home related tasks rests upon my often weary shoulders.  It means that I do laundry, and pick up all the water bottles someone leaves all over the house, I plan the majority of meals, I know when we’re out of diapers and Teddy Grahams and soy sauce.  These aren’t necessarily bad or unfair responsibilities, but things that occasionally make me feel bitter and overworked.

I hear my husband talk about his career and we discuss his plans for the future.  They really are our plans for the future, but with the way things are, it means that I agree to move, uproot our family, and lose my safety net of friends every few years for his career.  In other words, I don’t really feel like I have any control over my own future as it’s completely based on what happens to Tate.  I haven’t pursued getting licensed as a Speech-Language Pathologist in nearly three years because I’ve been the devoted wife who’s agreed to move twice and put my career on hold to raise our children.  But I do realize that the way things are, are because I chose this.

Tate has two business dinners and a softball game this week, which he didn’t have to think twice about since he didn’t need to worry about childcare for his two kids.  Of course I’ll be home to take care of them, that’s what I do.  I stay home and tend to the children.  But when I have an opportunity to go out in the evening with friends or when I plan on going out of town for a little blogging conference, I have to make sure Tate will be home or ask my Mother-in-law to come watch the children.  I don’t get to just make plans and go and be free.

I don’t mean to sound like Tate is a modern day neanderthal that comes home and pounds his chest and demands dinner and his woman stay home, care for children.  It isn’t that way at all.  If I weren’t generally happy with the way things are, he’d be fine with me pursuing my career, though I doubt the household responsibilities and childcare arrangements would change if I were working outside the home.  

This is just one of those days when I have a hard time feeling content with my chosen lot in life, despite it being EXACTLY what I always wanted.  

Tags: Happy Homemaking, Mommydom, Randomness, hole-y matrimony, my stream of consciousness by Jennifer
83 Comments »

Carson woke up around 11:30 last night coughing uncontrollably and crying.  Luckily he was crying for his Daddy  (I knew there were pros to his Daddy favoritism!), so Tate went up to console him.  I could tell by listening over the monitor that Carson was refusing to go back to bed, as he wailed every half hour when Tate would attempt to put him in his crib.

I felt desperate for sleep and hearing Carson carrying on made me feel panicked.

“Tomorrow is going to be a HORRIBLE day!  I won’t be able to do it alone!  How will I ever manage to prepare meals and care for TWO children, one of which is DESPERATELY sick???!!!  I’ll be so exhausted, I won’t even be able to get out of bed.  Oh PLEASE just let me sleep!”

At 3 AM, I felt bad for Tate because (PANIC!) he had to WORK tomorrow and he’d hardly gotten any sleep.  I went upstairs to relieve him of his duties.  He didn’t hesitate to let me take over (DAMMIT!), and quickly left me with the coughing, barrel rolling child in our spare bed.

“I’m NEVER going to get any sleeeeeeep!  Woe is me!”  My mind raced with the thoughts of the terrible day that awaited.

Carson thrashed and kicked and coughed and tossed and turned for what seemed like HOURS.  FINALLY I fell into a oft interrupted sleep as I was repeatedly awakened by jabs to my ribs and back.  The desperate feelings and panic also kept me awake as laid there worrying.

The morning light invaded it’s way through the blinds too early this morning, but found a bright and cheerful Carson.

“Get UP, Mommy!  Carson doesn’t feel shit!” 

I assumed he meant he didn’t feel SICK.

All that panic and worry was for nothing.  Sure I’m a little tired this morning, but really?  Getting all worked up about the unbearable day that awaited?  Slight overkill.

(I think Carson just has a cold, not Ella’s “cock sucky” or “hoof and mouth disease.”)

Oh and one more thing…I’m, uh, expecting a Canon 450D (Rebel XSi) in the mail any day now.  REALLY.  Moral to the story:  Begging works!  Details later.

Tags: Little Monkeys, Quirky Me, begfest '08 by Jennifer
44 Comments »