I had a very productive weekend! We were having a big party for my husband's birthday* - about 18 people, so went spent most of the weekend tidying up and getting ready for the party. In the course of doing all that, we ended up removing a TRUCKLOAD of unneeded stuff out of our house. Yes, a truckload! And when you consider that our house isn't really all that cluttered, that is quite an achievement.

* Note - this was actually about a year ago. But surprisingly, the movie and book shelves still look pretty much the same. Nice & organized.

Here's how we did it. First I organized all the movies. This project has been in progress for a couple of weeks. As we have been repainting our basement, I decided to switch my movies and my books.

Half our books were downstairs in our built-in bookshelf downstairs and half in a freestanding bookcase in my guest room. We had the same thing with the movies - half in the basement and half upstairs. So I decided to switch them and get them all in the same place, so it would make more sense. Here is the final result:


Here's is my husband's shelf. All pretty and organized.

Here's my shelf and all our millions of kid movies!

I sorted out all the movies by category and labeled each shelf to help keep them organized. There are chick flicks, kids movies, westerns (my husband has a whole shelf!), action movies, comedies, and dramas.

As I was doing this, I sorted out all of our old home movies and put them in a special place where they would be extra safe. I also weeded out a large box of VHS movies that were either duplicates, or ones we had taped off of TV. I made a list of those movies so we can work on buying them on DVD a few at a time.

I wish I'd thought to take a "Before" picture, but believe me, it didn't look all nice & neat like this. Movies were stacked up all over the shelves and were taking up a lot more room.

Here is the final result on the books:



Again, a great improvement, though I didn't actually get rid of very many books. I had already decluttered two big boxes of them before we moved into this house two years ago. So mainly, I was just organizing them by type and size and getting rid of a few clunkers that needed to go.

Then I just tossed in a couple of boxes of too-small kids clothing and some toys and shooed my husband off to the homeless shelter. Voila! My house minus an entire truckload of clutter.

Be sure and come back next Monday and Friday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.



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This is my MamaKat's Writer's Workshop prompt. This week I'm writing about good advice I've received.

I honestly believe in the power of words - I think they are literally the most powerful force in the universe. Sometimes that force can have a positive effect, sometimes it can have the opposite effect. That's why you have to be so careful with your words.

I have heard of so many people who have heard an offhand comment about them and it has totally destroyed their self-esteem. I did it to my own son, totally by accident. Years ago, we were talking about the difference between midgets and dwarfs, probably after we had watched Little People, Big World or something. I told him that a midget is someone of short stature, usually under 4'10". However, I left out one very important word - an ADULT of short stature.

Blake's always been a tiny kid - he weighs next to nothing and he's always been the smallest kid in his class. One day, he referred to himself as a midget and I told him not to say things like that. In all seriousness, he said, but I am a midget, I'm under 4'10". Broke my heart. Lord only knows how long he went around thinking he was literally a midget.

On the other hand, I had some good advice that totally shifted my perspective on something forever. A couple of years ago, I worked with a personal coach for a while. It was a great experience for me and I learned a lot from it. The one thing that helped me the most - whenever I was mad at someone or felt that someone had wronged me in some way, she would always have the same question for me:

How can you see them as innocent?

And she would make me stand in that person's shoes and see why they felt they needed to do whatever they had done. No one ever does something that they know is wrong or mean or bad. They always have some excuse, however flimsy, or some reason in their heart that they felt what they did was the right thing to do. You never know what is going on in someone's mind or you never know if someone had a rotten childhood, or just was never taught the right thing, or what.

So if you can give them that little benefit of the doubt, it makes it easier for you. It doesn't mean it's right or that you excuse them for doing the bad thing to you, but it does help.



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Well, I went and did it - I signed up with Pampered Chef! Can you believe it? As if my life wasn't already busy enough. But I've actually thought about it for a long time. I really like their products and it seems like more income for a lot less work than Stampin' Up!

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Well, our boy is finally legal! On Friday, Matt turned 21 and we took him to Wendover (a low budget Vegas that's about an hour a way) to let him celebrate his legality in style. I made a few cracks about his first taste of mild debauchery in the company of his parents, but what can you do? He didn't have any friends who were 21 who didn't have to work and it was a nice night out for us. Matt's not really a big party kid, so I figured he could let lose a little bit and he would be safe because he wouldn't be driving anywhere.

Blake was hanging out with one of his buddies from Scouts and his family, since they were having a visit to the Planetarium in the AM. We thought that was nice of them to keep him for us since our original plan fell through at the last minute. Our other friends who were going to take him had a death in the family, so these nice friends stepped up for us.

So we met up with these guys - my cute niece Kate and her husband Eric. Kate does my hair and keeps me looking nice. We had a couple of discounted rooms and a free buffet at the Montego Bay, so we all hung out there. We all got slot cards together so they could track our millions of dollars in gambling outlays - ha!


Here's our room - pretty nice, though we had to go through about 3 miles of hallway to get to it. This is Matt on the morning after....


I particularly like the big fake palm tree! At least our room was blue. Kate & Eric's was a particularly nasty shade of purple - ew!


The buffet was very nice and Matt got to order his first legal beer to go with his dinner. Then we hit the casino. Penny slots were a big draw for everyone but Tony. He disappeared for a couple of hours and we later found out he'd been playing at the blackjack table. He didn't win, but he played for quite a while on $20.

I knew it was going to be a lucky day for me when I got this fortune in my fortune cookie at lunch:



With a fortune like that, I was thinking I'd need a wheelbarrow to carry home my winnings! However, I had my usual luck. Although I did manage to play the same machine for about two hours on five bucks! In my world, that counts as both lucky and memorable.

Matt, however, had beginner's luck. He won about $300 on a penny machine! So I guess I was supposed to give the fortune cookie to him. I was so happy for him. He'd had a rough week and he needed a good break.

He took it home and bought a new X-Box unit with it so Blake could have his old one if he ever moves out. I was just pleased that he had enough sense to cash out when he was ahead. So many gamblers never learn that lesson.

Tony and I gave it up about 1:00 and went to bed, but the Matt, Kate & Eric hung around playing some more - Kate & Eric won some money too. Matt had a couple more beers and then Kate bought him a shot or two, so this is what Matt looked like the next morning:


Actually, that was just a bad picture. He was just fine the next morning. I was the one who was tired. They all went to breakfast after they finished up at the casino and Kate accidentally "butt-dialed" me at about 2:00 in the morning. I picked up the phone and just heard them laughing and talking over breakfast, but then I couldn't get back to sleep.

All in all, I think it was a good weekend for everyone. Happy birthday son!




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I thought long and hard before posting this post. I usually tend to stick to positive things on my blog, but every once in a while an experience has such a profound effect on me that I have to share it, even if it doesn't present my family in the best light.

What do you think about when you think about shoplifting? Back when I was growing up, it seemed to be a dumb mistake that just about every kid would try at least once. Then they'd get caught, their parents would give them a harsh lecture and then march them back to the store to make things right with the kindly storekeeper. They'd either have to pay for it out of their allowance or do chores to make up the difference.

Yeah maybe back in the 60's or 70's. These days, things have changed a bit. OK, changed a lot, a whole lot!

My son, like a lot of kids, did something dumb. About a year ago, he went to buy an Ipod. He had saved up the money for it over a long time, but he had a friend. His friend told him to come to the place where he worked and he would let him buy the Ipod on his employee discount card so he would save 10% or about $30. Little did he know how much that $30 discount was going to cost him.

Was it wrong? Absolutely. Was it dumb? Definitely. But a lot of people, kids or adults, in the same position would have taken the chance to save the $30.

The result - well, of course the boys were clumsy about it and they got caught. Both of them were taken back into the security area and lectured for half an hour by the security staff. Then they were handcuffed and put into the back of a patrol car and lectured for another half an hour by the cop. Since they were both over 18, they were not allowed to call their parents. Each was charged with a Class B Misdemeanor and required to make restitution to the store before they were allowed to leave - double restitution since they both were required to pay $30. And of course, the friend was fired on the spot.

Now, in my opinion that would have been enough of a lesson for them. However, our lovely justice system was just getting warmed up. They had to go to court and face a judge, never a fun activity. Matt and I both lost a lot of sleep over that one!

The other boy had some previous trouble with the law, so he went with a straight Guilty plea. But Matt had never had any trouble, so after a consulting with a lawyer, we decided to ask the judge for something called a Plea in Abeyance. Supposedly what that means is that the court sets some requirements for you and if you complete them satisfactorily, the charge is removed. But the record of the charge still remains and if you really want to get rid of it, you have to pay a lawyer to get it expunged or removed from your record. However, if you mess up in the slightest way during the term, they pick the book back up and throw it at you.

So here were the terms of the Plea in Abeyance - 1 year's probation with no violations of any kind, even a speeding ticket. Each boy got a $650 fine plus a half day theft prevention class for the cost of an additional $120 (yikes!). Plus, he was not allowed to leave the state without the court's permission for that whole year. Every time we wanted to go on vacation or anything, he would have to go to court and get the judge's permission to go. And at the end of the year, he had to provide his driver's report and his criminal record to prove that he hadn't had any trouble. Fortunately, he was very well behaved during his time and didn't have a whisper of any trouble.

So, here are our costs so far:

$30 restitution
$50 lawyer consultation
$650 fine - paid in $50 payments through the year
$120 class fee
$20 court fee to file the paperwork
$25 to get the DMV report & criminal report
$850 EACH for a $30 theft

Notice I said these are our costs so far. Turns out the justice system wasn't done with us quite yet. The year's probation was just up last week and we hadn't had time to get with the lawyer to start the expungement process.

In the meantime, Matt had just started a new job as a Medical Assistant that he absolutely loved. At double the salary he had been making. He was so proud of himself and we were just delighted. We had even let him buy a new (used) car to get to and from work because his 20 year old Bronco was about to die in our driveway.

Then I got a call from him on Tuesday. You know those calls when you instantly know that something is horribly wrong. Turns out that the HR Dept had gotten wind of the charge and immediately suspended him from work. They said he had lied on his application because he had said (truthfully) that he had never been convicted of any criminal charges - (a plea in abeyance is not considered a conviction, we checked it with our lawyer). They gave him just 5 days to resolve the situation or he would be fired.

At that point, I was freaking out so bad I thought my head would literally explode. I have a history of panic attacks and that is exactly the kind of thing to set one off and my blood pressure was soaring sky high. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to get on the phone immediately and find a good criminal lawyer.

The lawyer saw us the next morning and gave us some options, and a hefty price tag - $750 to write up the paperwork to get the judge to dismiss the case, appear before the court to file the papers and negotiate with HR to try and get Matt's job back. I'm coming back as a lawyer in my next life!

Fortunately, we were able to get the judge to dismiss the charge, so it would go off his record immediately, and we wouldn't have to pay additional fees for an expungement. However, the employment situation is still a crap shoot.

In talking to one of the HR people at my work, she thinks we have about an 80/20 chance of him being able to keep his job, even with the dismissal. The lawyer thinks we have a slightly better chance, but I wouldn't say it's more than 50/50. Once you have any kind of a criminal charge on your adult record, you haven't a snowball's chance in hell of getting a job at any kind of a decent company.

And what's more, this employer is one of the biggest in the state. If he isn't employable with them, in a market like this, it could take him 3 to 6 months to get a job with one of the smaller hospitals or medical offices, probably at a greatly reduced wage. And in the meantime, he's now got a car payment to pay, plus car insurance and medical insurance since I can't have him on my insurance as a non-student adult.

So, if he does get to keep his job, we are looking at the following costs for that lousy $30 mistake:

$850 - original fines
$750 - lawyers fees
$300 - in lost wages for 5 days
$1900 total and that's IF he gets to keep his job.

If he loses his job, I don't even know how to calculate it. We're talking weeks or even months of lost or greatly reduced wages, and he could even lose his car that he hasn't even made his first payment on. Naturally, we'll help him as much as we can, because I think this is so over-the-top for what he did, but sheesh, we're not made of money either.

So, we should find out tomorrow if the HR people are going to cut him a break or not. Ironically, it's his 21st birthday, so I guess he'll either be out celebrating, or drowning his sorrows. Either way, I can guarantee you, he will not be getting behind the wheel of a car. I don't even want to think about what a serious offense like a DUI would be if you get this much of a penalty for a $30 shoplifting charge.

You know, this has been one damned expensive lesson. Moral of the story - stealing is definitely wrong, it hurts people and causes problems for businesses. There's no doubt about that and you want to impress that upon your kids, but the penalties are so severe that you can no longer even entertain the possibility of your kids getting into trouble like this. TALK to your pre-teens and teenagers about this - now. I don't want them to have to end up learning a hard lesson like this one.

Postscript: We got some very good news this morning, just in time for Matt's birthday. Seems like our lawyer earned his fee. We got a call from HR this morning and they are reinstating Matt effective today and are even paying him for the time he missed. WHEW! I'm glad to have a happy ending at last.



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There is something that researchers have discovered that is very important. They call it the "Broken Window Effect" and here is how they discovered it.

They did studies in average middle-class neighborhoods where they would leave something out that could easily be stolen - such as a bike, or an attractive pot of flowers, or a tire pump or something. In some cases, they made sure that the area looked very clean and respectable and in other cases, they would have a broken window or some graffiti on the wall. Then they would watch and document whether or not the item would be stolen.

The results were very definitive. In the cases where there some kind of disarray or where it looked like someone had already broken the law in some way, the item was much more likely to be stolen. But in the cases where the area was looking very nice, the rate of crime went down dramatically.

I have to say, stuff like this just fascinates me and I wish more people took it more seriously. If people really understood all this stuff, Mayors and Police Commissioners would spend more money on clean-up crews in the inner city and less on police and probably end up with a much safer place for people to live. I'd love to be able to try an experiment like that.

If you've ever seen the movie Stand By Me, one of the first things the new Principal does is to eliminate the graffiti and clean up the conditions at the school. This is one of several factors that creates the good behavior in the students.

Now, the question is how can you put the Broken Window Effect to work in your house?

If you leave one pair of shoes in the hall, how quickly are they going to be joined by other pairs of shoes? If you leave one dish on the counter, how likely is there to be a pile of them by the end of the day? I really think that clutter breeds more clutter in the same way that ugliness and urban decay increases crime.

So, what's the solution? I think you might need to implement a zero tolerance policy in some areas of your home.

In my house, for instance, the entryway is off-limits to clutter of any kind. I made a special point of setting up a formal living room right there so that people would see the nicest area of the house the moment they step through the door.

The kids do tend to want to leave clutter there in the form of bookbags, shoes, coats, etc. Or their camping gear when they get home from a trip or something. But it doesn't stay there for very long.

The minute I come through the door, if I see stuff that shouldn't be there, I am calling people to come and get that stuff out of there. And if I get that "in a minute, Mom" stuff, I am not at all shy about removing it to the garage, the front yard, or wherever else I deem appropriate. That's how a zero tolerance policy looks.

I don't think you can manage that with the whole house. Like the old saying goes, you have to pick your battles.

But there's no reason that you can't designate a couple of high-visibility spots to be your zero tolerance zones. It's just a matter of how many spots you have the time and patience to defend. Because you will have to defend it - more frequently at first as the family tries to sound out how serious you are about the new policy.

But if you keep up on it, they'll go along with the program without too much fuss. Try it and see. Then report back here and let me know how it goes for you.

Be sure and come back next Monday and Friday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.



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It's been a long time since I've shared something from one of the dozens of E-mails I get every day, but once in a while, I run across something that is so special, I feel like I need to share it with you.

This E-mail is from Pam Young, one of the original Slob Sisters who first inspired Flylady (if you don't know who Flylady is, you really need to know - go to Flylady.net and find out).

Pam now runs a website called the Brat Factor that is dedicated to those inner Brats in our heads who want to run the show and not do the things we all know we should be doing.

On Saturday my husband Terry and I had the privilege of having Candace Lightner (I think she went by Candy when you would have heard of her) to our home for dinner. Candace is the founder of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

She and Terry were in real estate together in Sacramento when her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a hit and run drunk driver. In my estimation Candice Lightner changed the behavior of our society!

I remember the Oregonian had a front-page story about what she was doing. A grieving mom used her personal tragedy to illicit change in our legal system’s leniency in sentencing drunks who drive and kill. I was dating a lawyer at the time.

“Yikes, this is gonna change a lot of personal behavior in the legal community,” my attorney date said as we sipped glasses of wine in a restaurant in downtown Portland.

“Legal community?”

“Yeah attorneys and judges.”

“How will this change them?”

“Well, just last month I was at the court house at a party, all attorneys and judges and a few paralegals and the booze was flowing and somebody got out a breathalyzer and everyone started blowing into it to see who could get the highest blood alcohol number.”

“And?”

“And, then we partied, laughed, drank more and all drove home."

“Even the winner?”

“Yep.”

Candace put a stop to (or at least a pretty big plug) in that kind of behavior and today most of the people I know are conscientious about not drinking and driving!

As moms we know that Candace’s tragedy is our worst nightmare! I have great respect for what she was able to accomplish and I was happy to meet her and see that she made it through her grief. I can report she was dressed all the way to shoes, had make-up on, cute hair, jewelry, she smelled good and laughed easily (all the things I didn’t think I would be able to do if such a terrible thing would happen to me).

Yesterday was Sidetracked Home Executives anniversary. Peggy and I decided to change our behavior on June 16, 1977 and I am humbled to think our decision has made a ripple in the lives of millions; maybe not the Candace Lightner caliber of ripple, but still a ripple that will continue after we’re gone.

So here is my simplistic estimation of how change happens.

You don’t like your situation: a messy house, a stressful relationship, indebtedness or an out-of-shape body, just to name a few.

First, realize that your situation was created over time and it’s going to take time to change it. Second, in order to change your situation, realize you have to change your behavior that created the situation. In order to change your behavior, you have to change the thinking that was behind the behavior. In order to change the thinking behind the behavior you have to be aware of those thoughts that created the behavior that created the situation.

So, if you want to change your life, you must change your thinking, but by the time you are up to your neck in a situation you don’t like, the thoughts that created the behavior (and ultimately the situation) are a habit and you don’t even realize you’ve been thinking them.

The good news is that you can change a habit (even if it’s a “thinking” habit! Start catching your thoughts before they get you to do something that will sabotage your good intentions. Thought by thought you will gradually get into a habit of new behavior that will produce the situations you dream of.

Please visit our website at www.thebratfactor.com (Soon to be changing to InnerKiddies.com)

Be sure and come back next Monday and Friday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.



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Finally a little something for my Stampin' Up! friends. Can you believe this originally started as a craft blog? But I have the attention span of a gnat, so I got bored of just posting my stamping projects, so I started adding a little extra variety, so then my "real" blog was born. Now I hardly ever post any of the projects I stamp.

Anyway, here are the projects we did this month:



Isn't this color combo neat? I love pairing black and white with bright colors like hot pink or turquoise. Now that I've got this Ornament punch, I'm finding all sorts of ways to use it. And I'm really loving this new border punch. It's so delicate.



We did these cute little flower pots with some of the rub-ons I've got hanging around here. I think they came out really cute. You could fill them with candies or pens or all sorts of fun stuff and it would make a great gift.



Sorry I couldn't get a better picture of this one. I couldn't get rid of the glare. The background and the tag are in Sage Shadow, which makes a beautiful color combination. In fact, one of my ladies had worn an outfit in exactly these colors, so it matched her. I just love this set. It's so beautiful, but I can never remember the name of it. Dream something. Very elegant.


Here's out final project - This one I copied directly out of our monthly demo magazine. I thought this color combo was so beautiful and I love the little watercolor accents on the flower.

Did I mention that this month is our biggest sale of the year? This February and March are our Sale-a-bration months, which means that for every $50 worth of merchandise you purchase, you can get a free stamp set, or one of several other free gifts, including that lovely border punch I used on several of these cards. Just let me know if there is anything you'd like from Stampin' Up! and I'll be happy to hook you up!



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Here's the second half of my organizing kids post. I hope it gives you some good ideas to organize your kids as well as your house.

As the mom of two ADHD boys, I've had to learn to think on my feet when it comes to getting them moving in the morning. When Matt was growing up, mornings used to be my daily nightmare. It was mostly about herding him around, yelling at him, and raising my blood pressure thinking he was going to be late for school every single day. Needless to say, it caused both of us to start our day off on totally the wrong foot.

After some trial and error and reading a number of good books, I decided to revamp our whole morning routine. It worked wonders with Matt and I have been able to carry that same strategy along with Blake. Now our mornings are usually pretty great - well, probably 90% of the time and that ain't too bad!

Here are some of the fixes I put in place.

- Minimize distractions. No cartoons, video games, or even radio, ever. ADHD kids just cannot split their focus between two different activities and really neither can I. Whenever the TV is on, it's like a magnet and it draws everyone in the house right to it, even if there's nothing interesting on. If I find him drawn to books or toys in his room, I will even have him get dressed in a bathroom or the laundry room where there aren't any distractions clamoring for his attention.
- Set a wake-up time and stick to it. This just makes it easier on your body if it knows you have to get up at a specific time. For Blake it is 6:50 (his choice). Since he goes to bed at 9:00 most nights, that gives him enough sleep to function and he likes getting up that early on weekends to watch cartoons.
- This also makes it easy to set benchmark times. For instance, they should be dressed by ___ time, lunch made by ___ time, and ready to go out the door by ___ time. Sometimes it helps to have an extra alarm clock in the kitchen to give them a warning 20-30 minutes before they have to leave. Then they know if they are running behind. (I do this for myself sometimes too!)
- Make kids responsible for getting themselves up in the morning. If you make yourself responsible for waking them up, then you get into the "sneaking back into bed" game and that is just no fun. It just turns into a power struggle and a frustration. Even a six year old can work an alarm clock and they like the feeling of responsibility it gives them.
- If you have a kid who is hard to wake up, get an alarm clock with a very loud alarm and put it across the room from him. If nothing else, "the call of nature" should get to him once he is up and moving around. That's why you put the alarm clear across the room. (For Matt, I got him a "Clocky" which is an alarm clock on wheels. If he doesn't shut it off, it jumps off his dresser and runs around the room beeping like mad - drives the cats absolutely crazy!)
- As a last resort, use a squirt gun. He'll get mad, but he will realize you mean business. Or if you don't want to use the tough love approach, offer hot chocolate or some other treat on the mornings he is successful in getting himself up at the appointed time. It may take a while, but it's important that kids learn to take responsibility for themselves.
- Get your morning routine set in stone. That is the only way ADHD kids can remember to do everything they need to do is if they do exactly the same things every morning in exactly the same order.

One important thing in building this routine is that breakfast is LAST. Yes, he will be brushing his teeth before breakfast and that's a little weird, but it very important for breakfast to be last. Here's why - if he does have a rough morning, I can toss him a piece of toast and shoo him out the door. Obviously, I'm not going to make him go hungry, but if he's a little bit hungry by lunchtime, that's probably a good motivator for him to be better organized the next day.

This way, he suffers for his lack of focus and not me, because I'm not frantically running around trying to find shoes and backpacks and gloves at the last minute. Instead, he's the crazy guy running around trying to grab a bite to eat with the pressure of the carpool honking in the driveway. That's a very good natural consequence and it works very well as a motivator.

Be sure and come back next Monday and Friday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.



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This week, Momma's little darling did a big no-no. I guess Blake was annoyed with us for making him take out all the trash, because at one point, he decided to throw one of the glass bottles at the neighbor's house (sigh). Usually he is such a good kid, but every once in a while, he just gets a wild hair and does something totally bizarre.

Fortunately, the neighbors were very understanding about it and none of the glass got in their tires or anything. Naturally, I marched him straight over to apologize and put him on restriction for a few days, but I could tell he was truly sorry. He gave both of them a nice hug and told them how sorry he was and asked if he could do some chores or something to make up for it. I thought that was a nice touch for him. It was a good lesson, so I'm glad they mentioned it to us, but it was sure embarassing to have him act up like that.

Neighborhood dog - speaking of our neighborhood, we had a bit of a situation here this week. You know that neighbor who has a dog that just wanders all over the neighborhood? I swear, every place I've lived has had a dog like that. We've been here for about 3 years and for most of that time, the people on the corner have let their dog wander the neighborhood on a near-daily basis.

Just for the record, that is SO annoying. She's a perfectly nice dog, but she has chosen OUR yard for her bathroom, and she chases our cats, etc. We've done all the polite things - asked them to keep her locked up, shooed her back home, given them a warning etc. You know, what can you do?

So, we called Animal Control. Not to take the poor dog away or anything, but just to talk to them and remind them of the rules.

Amazingly enough, the very next day, three eggs were thrown at our garage door. Coincidence? I don't think so. I guess people who don't have enough consideration for their neighbors to keep their dog under control would do something like that...

I've been working at the same company for 18 years. When I started working there all those years ago, my new boss had literally been working there since I was five years old. Isn't that a trip?

To think that the whole time you were in kindergarten, and elementary school, and High School, and you get married and you have your first kid, and ALL that time, this guy has been coming to work every single day doing the same thing. It's just mind boggling.

Have you ever driven by a bunch of kindergarteners and wondered which one of them was going to be your boss some day? Chew on that one for a while...

My husband told me he lost 6 pounds this week. That is total BS. He ate like he always does, basically chowing down on anything that comes near his plate. As far as exercise - don't make me laugh! He NEVER exercises. I can't even get him to walk the dog! And in the meantime, I'm killing myself off and I never even lose a pound.

I think it's just water weight or something. I think they should figure "Man pounds" like they do dog years - on a 7 to 1 ratio!



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but you still have to share a bathroom!


This is my MamaKat's Writer's Workshop prompt. I have to write about my current pet peeve.

I would say, my current pet peeve is trying to get along with my husband of 26 years. He's a good guy, but we are SO different. Like the old saying says - Opposites attract, but you still have to share a bathroom. How do you manage when you are living almost your whole life with someone who is your exact opposite in almost every way?

Here's how we are different:

Driving
Him: 12 accidents, most of them his fault
Me: No accidents in 20 years, none of them my fault (OK, a couple of tickets)

Food
Him: Meat & potatoes - as much as he can get. Bigger is always better
Me: Some meat & potatoes, but lots of veggies, and I prefer small portions

Music
Him: Country
Me: Anything but country

TV Preferences
Him: Reruns - watches reruns of the Andy Griffith Show daily, watches the same 10 movies over and over again, sometimes 20 or 30 times. Almost never watches reality shows or anything current
Me: I only like to watch *new* shows and I love any kind of reality shows

Pets
Him: Dogs - the bigger the better. We've had german shepherds, a rottweiler, a malamute, a golden retriever, and TWO St. Bernards. We've never had a dog smaller than 70 pounds.
Me: Cats. I like dogs, but they have a lot of bad habits and they can be a lot of work. I much prefer my cats.

Waking up
Him: Gets up the minute the alarm rings
Me: Drags my butt out of bed as slowly as possible, sometimes an hour after the alarm goes off

Parenting
Him: Too hard - his Dad was an Italian cop and he picked up that tough love discipline
Me: Too easy - I live for my boys and love them to death, including his son from his first marriage and I'm probably way too easy on them

Getting places
Him: On time most of the time and gets really mad when we are late
Me: Almost never on time, but I don't stress out about it

Temper
Him: Flashpoint and then it's over
Me: Slow burn and I stay mad for a long time

Money
Him: Spender
Me: Saver (I can spend with the best of them, but I love to save too)

Education
Him: High School
Me: As much as I can get - 5 years of Jr. College

Reading Style
Him: Reads maybe one book a year, usually The Stand or Harry Potter
Me: Compulsive reader, I usually read 4 or 5 books at once

Computer
Him: Plays the same 2 or 3 computer games, over and over and over again.
Me: I am a power user, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Lots of contact.

Clothes
Him: Grungy jeans, holey t-shirts, doesn't like to shave
Me: Always dress nice with make-up and painted nails, etc.

Housekeeping
Him: Really messy
Me: Messy too, but cleaner than him

Do you see a pattern here? Sometimes it boggles the mind that we've managed to live in the same house for all these years. However, we do have some very important things in common. We both share a commitment to our family, church, and friends.

We both have very soft hearts and are complete suckers for anyone with a sob story or who needs a little help. We love to entertain and we can both talk a blue streak in any situation. And we are devoted to each other, obviously. We may fuss and fight sometimes, but there has never been anyone else for either of us.



Love you honey!





By TwitterButtons.com

I know this is supposed to be a post about organizing your house, but hey, your kids LIVE in your house so you might as well organize them too while you're at it. I'm sure their future wives or husbands will bless you for it and it might help with your sanity as well.

By TwitterButtons.com

One of my friends sent me this and I knew I needed to share it with you. It's pretty amazing.

Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

Now read it again, but in REVERSE.

By TwitterButtons.com

I decided to find something new to play with on my blog. I'm going to start playing Friday Fragments. In case you don't know what they are, these are little snippets of things that happen during your week that aren't quite meaty enough for a full post, but are interesting enough to pass along.

Blake is so funny - whenever he is looking around the house for me, he'll call out "Marco" and I'll answer "Polo" and we'll do that until he finds out what room I'm in - (we have a six bedroom house, so there are a lot of possibilities). They are studying the medieval times in history now and the other day he came up to me and said in shocked tones "Did you know that Marco Polo was a real person?" Uh yeah son, I did know that.

Speaking of world history - Blake has some kind of world domination video game. It's like Risk or something and they have all these countries fighting each other. The only problem is that they have Ghandi leading one of the armies! Um hello? Ghandi??? Did anyone actually study world history before they created this game?

I cracked my boss up yesterday. I had accidentally forgotten my laptop in my car overnight - in 8 degree weather. When I came in, I was a little bit worried about starting it up because it was so cold. I was afraid something inside might have frozen up. So I went to my co-worker's desk and I was using her heater to defrost it. My boss is in Phoenix, so he thought that was about the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

I cracked him up even more in the afternoon when I had to reschedule a meeting because I was taking my son to a casino for his 21st birthday. I guess when you have an employee who is an overweight, grey haired, grandmother who lives in Salt Lake, that's not quite what you expect her to come up with.

Yes, I am taking my son to a casino for his birthday. We had a low-budget version of Las Vegas that's about an hour away and we're going to take him there for a little minor debauchery on his 21st birthday. Now I can see with a lot of kids why you wouldn't want to do this, but honestly, this is the most cautious kid. I think he needs to let his hair down a little, even if it's with his parents! It's funny, when I ride with him, I'm always like "Speed up son, you're not even going the speed limit!"

He's also excited about being able to finally buy his own beer. He's fascinated with beer lately, but you can tell he's just all talk. Once he turned 20 or so, we started letting him have an occasional beer, if we have company or something. We were getting gifts for all the grandkids at Thanksgiving, so we asked him what he wanted. He said a six pack. So we got him one just to see what he'd do with it. By Christmas, he still had two beers left, so I'm not too worried about it. I think the novelty will wear off once he is able to buy it himself.

I'm trying to watch the Biggest Loser this season, mainly because all my Twitter buddies are watching it and it gives me something to chat about. I know a lot of people find it inspirational, but to me it's just a way to torture fat people!

This was reinforced in the opening show when they took these really huge people and slapped them on a bike for a 26 mile bike ride in the first few minutes at the ranch. Honestly, are they trying to kill them off? It seems like the people get bigger and bigger and the exercises get more and more strenuous. At the end of the episode, it looked like most of the people had lost between 25 and 35 POUNDS during the first week. They say that 2-4 pounds a week is sensible weight loss. Losing the equivalent of a toddler during your first week of dieting seems pretty drastic to me. I'll have to stay tuned just to see who keels over during one of those grueling workout sessions!

Matt started his new job this week. He is a Medical Assistant to a Dermatologist. I'm delighted for him, but I was also just a little bit gleeful to see my lazy teenager have to get up at 5:30 every morning to be at work! And I guess this guy really works his butt off. He has patients every 10 minutes from 7:00 in the morning until about 5:00 at night. Matt is scheduled for 36 hours, but he worked 45 hours in his first week. Poor kid was so exhausted, he would come home, take a nap, eat dinner, sleep some more, and then get up and go to bed. Welcome to the real world son!

With Blake, we are having the great snow cave debate. His Scout troop is going snow camping next weekend. He wants to go and Dad wants him to go, but I am not so sure. It just sounds ridiculous to me. I wouldn't mind if they had a cabin or something to go and warm up in, but they are outside in the snow the whole weekend.

You don't see Girl Scouts doing stuff like that - they're too smart! Instead, the kids are supposed to build up a big pile of snow, tunnel a tiny cave out of it and then drag all their gear inside this thing and try to sleep in there. I'm just picturing him getting his sleeping bag wet in the snow and ending up with his little teeth chattering, or wandering off and getting lost, or collapsing the damn cave on himself. He'll probably go, but I don't think his Mama is going to sleep very well that night.



By TwitterButtons.com

There is a bloggers Conference in Nashville in couple of months. It's called Blissdom and I would totally *love* to go to it. I seriously considered it and even tried to talk my husband into it, but by the time I added up the airfare, hotel, expenses, and conference fee, it was looking like a pretty big chunk of change and I decided I'd better look at choices closer to home.

However, there is a little glimmer of hope on the horizon. I have a chance to win a free trip to Blissdom - at least the Conference portion of the expenses, thanks to Blissfully Domestic, who is sponsoring a contest for one lucky Mom.

What I have to do is tell why I would like to attend Blissdom and what I think I would benefit from it. There are two basic things I value the most about my blog - one is the opportunity to express myself and talk about the things that are important to me. Things like my family, my crafting, my goals and hopes for the future - funny things, serious things, silly things. Plus I've now started my Clutterbugs series which will give me the oppportunity to inspire and help my readers on a weekly basis.

The other thing I value about my blog are the friendships. It's kind of ironic, my connections with friends and family is the thing that makes me the happiest in life and that's what I value the most. However, it's the thing that is most absent from my life.

Due to some odd circumstances at work, I have almost no interaction with others during my day. During the evenings and weekends, I don't have much interaction with anyone outside of my immediate family and a few close friends. And since we don't have much in the way of extended family (no parents, grandparents, etc.) - I probably miss that more than ever.

No weekly dinners with Mom & Dad, no grandparents or aunts & uncles at Thanksgiving, no one to call and cry to when you've had a bad day, or no one to cheer you on when you've done something great. No parent to give you advice or a helping hand when things are going badly. It's definitely tough.

So when you are dealing with a reality like that, what do you do? Well, in my case, you make up for it by working hard to build new friendships on-line. I've made some wonderful friendships with people in the blogging world in my three and a half years of blogging.

However, I really took it to the next level when I attended SITScation in October. There is something magical about that in-person connection that really outpaces just the on-line connection. Especially when you are able to come home and reinforce it with on-going contact through Twitter and on everyone's blogs.

That's why, I really want to go to Blissdom. SITScation was only a day and a half while Blissdom is a three and a half days, so I could really accomplish a lot in that amount of time.

Plus you learn so much, about blogging, about relationships, about building your site, and about partnering with companies, about stuff I haven't even thought about. Plus, there's the fabulous Alli Worthington, who runs the whole thing. She's one of my peeps from SITScation and she's amazing. And she has an outstanding panel of speakers all lined up for us.

Wow, I guess I want to go more than I really thought I did. Hope I win! If not, I hope I come into a chunk of moolah so I can go on my own!




By TwitterButtons.com

I've been thinking a lot about expectations lately. I really think that expectations have a greater importance than we realize. One thing that really fascinates me are those stories where you hear about some inner city school that has been turned around in some dramatic way. There have been so many variations of that story, but I think it has some basic components.

They start with a bunch of beaten-down kids that no one ever expects can accomplish anything. Then some leader comes in with a totally different idea than these kids have ever seen. He (or she) has a true belief that these kids can accomplish anything set before them.

Then with a little hard work and discipline, these kids totally kick it into gear and not only outperform their peers, they even outperform the so-called "good" kids.

There have been tons of movies about situations like this - Remember the Titans, Hoosiers, Lean on Me, Stand by Me, etc. No wonder, it's a very inspiring story.

In some way, it's kind of the American story. A bunch of religious rejects come over here in a boat, and 200 or so years later, we're the most prosperous nation in the world. (Yes, even in this horrible recession, we are still the most prosperous nation, we're just dragging behind by a bit!)

In this model, I think the expectations piece is the most important part of the puzzle. The leader has to have that rock-solid belief that the people under his command can accomplish something really wonderful, and he has to believe that strongly enough to make the group believe it too.

So who is the leader in your house? Well, when it comes to house cleaning, you are. Surprise! Right or wrong, the woman is nearly always the one who sets the tone for how the house is kept (or not!).

So, whether you think you applied for the position or not, you are the leader - yes you! So, what are your expectations?

Well, first let's define what expectations are. Obviously, they are what you EXPECT. Not what you hope for or what you are wishing for, or what you are thinking about for the future. In a way they are your standards. They are literally what you will or will not stand for, both from yourself and from others.

So, what are your expectations for yourself? Will you stand for? Will you stand for living in a messy, cluttered house where you're not happy? Or will you be that inspiring leader who expects more from yourself - and others?

Will it take hard work and discipline? Heck ya! But will you end up with something worthwhile in the end? Heck ya!

And what about your family - your kids and husband, if you have them? Do you hold them to a higher standard, or do you just figure that kids are kids, or that all men are just destined to be slobs?

If those are the expectations you have, how likely are these people going to live up to them? Hmmm.

But if you make up your mind that they are bright, capable people who could do a lot better with the right motivation, you might be on the way to having a house full of bright, capable people who might just help you out a bit more around the house.

It's worth a try. Now go and watch some of those movies and get some good ideas - you leader you!

Be sure and come back next Monday and Friday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.



By TwitterButtons.com