Done

I went and left PayU2Blog. That is right. There will be no more sponsored posts on this blog.

Please don't cry. I know you will miss them. ;)

Seriously though, I have struggled for months with the feeling that I had 'sold out'. But then I would get paid and I felt like I could handle being a 'paid' blogger. But in fact I can't. I liked my blog better before it was bringing in money. And I want to get back to that. So as of today you won't see any regular posts about sponsored products.

If I post a link it will be because it is a product I believe in and feel like you all should know about. Not because a company is paying me to link to it.

Amen. ;)

Should have been a clue

While I was laying on the couch willing myself to not throw up last week I would watch t.v. to try and distract myself.

Pretty soon every food commercial became my enemy. I would see fast food commercials which would make my mouth water which would make me puke. I couldn't win.

I should have guessed that I was getting dehydrated when I started seeing the commercials for juice, milk, and wine of the month club because they all looked good. Even the wine and I have never drank alcohol in my life. LOL

I even wanted to lick the snow as I took Jozey to preschool one day.

WTF?

I was watching HGTV yesterday and they had a couple on who wanted their bathroom remodeled because it had pink marble all over in it. They had attempted to make it better by painting the walls a deep green color. Which of course they discovered only made it stand out more.

So the design team came in and instead of ripping out the marble they decided to cover it all up. They put river rock on the counter top and around the tub. And instead of going up the walls to cover the marble they put some black board glued directly onto the marble.

While the bathroom did look good in the end I have to wonder how long that bathroom is going to hold up. Why didn't they just rip out the marble and do the project right? It would have been better than putting in the kitchen faucets and river rock.

Remodeling on my mind

With another baby on the way now we are seriously looking at our house set-up. We had wanted to add two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs in the attic that we are S.T.I.L.L. remodeling. That may have to change.

But I don't want to take out the bathroom from the plan because with 8 kids we are going to need it. And any project that lets me drool over Franke sinks is a project for me.

Of course I have to be able to walk from one room to the next without wanting to hurl first.

Promote YOU

When I was a kid I was always fascinated by personalized stuff. My name was one that was sort of difficult to find so I was always excited to find pencils, pens, notepads, and other accessories with my name pre-printed on them.

Of course now-a-days you can get your name on anything. You just order it online and it is delivered right to your home. While that makes it a little less special it does make running a business easier. Instead of personalized products you can get promotional products with your company's logo or name.

Technology is a good thing.

Know-It-All

I know a little bit about computers. A little. Most of what I have learned has come from osmosis from being around my husband.

He is the real computer savy person in our family but I can fake my way through quite a few situations.

But the other day I was in the middle of a conversation that involved modems, networks, LAN, wi fi, and CAT6. I was hanging in pretty well for quite a while but towards the end I was lost. I decided it was time to bail and let the "experts" finish their conversation.

Then Becca turns to me and says, "What do you think Mom?" Clearly she inherited her Dad's talent.

Old

While I was out at my Dad's he had us go through my step-mom's clothes to get rid of them. Her best friend Claudia was there helping me and my sisters. She is a little ball of fire and it was so much fun to be around her.

After we got through all her clothes Claudia brought out a ziploc bag full of vintage sunglasses. I am not a glasses type of girl but both my sisters are. They had fun trying them on and seeing which ones worked for them. Although a lot of them were prescription glasses or readers so they wouldn't work too well for them.

We had fun reminiscing though. My step-mom was a great lady with an awesome sense of humor.

New Home

A new baby sure brings with it a lot of change. Especially when it is your 8th child.

We have been contemplating many things, one of which is our current housing situation. We don't need to do anything immediately as our babies usually room in with us for the 1st year of their life.

But that doesn't stop us from thinking about it and making plans. I have been checking out several options online but I think for now we are going to stay in our current house and look at the ways to expand it. There are plenty of mortgage lenders willing to lend money for renovations so that may be the way to go for us.

My house is giving me a headache

We have animals. Many. Animals.

And while I love them. I do not love the fur they leave all over my house.

While it is relatively easy to vacuum up from the floor and off of our couches, we have this ONE obnoxious woven office chair that seems to collect fur like a magnet.

I am not posting a picture of it because I would die of utter embarrassment. It is not a reflection of my housekeeping. It is a reflection of the fur's attractiveness to the chair.

The other day a family friend came over and refused to sit on the chair after he pulled it out and saw the mess. I can't say I really blame him as I wince when I sit down too. And then I have to check and recheck my backside to make sure there is no hair stuck to me when I get up. Not that there ever is because this is the magnet chair remember?

I guess it is time to get some new office furniture. Preferably in leather, vinyl, or other non-fur-attracting surface.

It's All About Me

A package arrived in the mail the other day.

But it wasn't for me.

It was for Mr. Bill.

It was one of many personalized books from Kids Personally. I choose the book about dinosaurs for him since he loves to read about dinosaurs. We went to Barnes and Nobles about a month ago and the entire hour we spent in the store he used to read one book about dinosaurs.
But this book is even better. It not only has dinosaurs in it but the book has his name throughout the story. And three of his friends are listed in it too.

When he opened the book he was excited because it was about dinosaurs but when I started reading the book to him he was really surprised to hear his own nickname throughout the story.
He even took it to school the next day and his teacher read the book to the class. He came back with rave reviews from his teacher and his friends.

Of course I now have 6 other kids who think they need their own personalized books. I am sure I will be ordering more. They are too cute and the kids never get tired of reading about themselves.

Home Ownership

As we were out playing in the nice weather today we stopped by the lake. Of course it was still frozen solid so there wasn't much to do there. But there were plenty of new houses going in around the lake. As we walked around we saw one house for sale. Everyone saw the sign and commented that we needed a lake house. I laughed. I can't imagine why anyone would choose to live on the lake. In the winter time the wind blows across that ice and drops the temperature by about 30 degrees. No way I would want to live near that year round.

Becca says, "Yeah. We just need one that we can use in the summertime." Yeah but where do you find that kind of deal. Apparently there is such a thing. It is called fractional ownership. Although with 7 kids owning even part of a second home isn't happening anytime soon.

Bummer.

Organization

This is the longest we have ever lived in one house. We will have been in this house for 6 years in just a week. Which is amazing to me. But also has a downside. No moving, no packing, no purging.

Stuff seems to accumulate in places and we have more stuff than we have places. So in attempt to regain some organization I have been cleaning and purging stuff that we don't need and don't use.

But one area I just can't get under control. The office/desk area. I need much more storage than I have and I need less stuff. I also have three laptops that need a "docking area" other than the end table in the living room. I was looking at some options online and found an lcd mount. That would solve some of our problems if I can clear off some desk space. Although I think I need a closet to control most of our office stuff and computers.

For now I will keep looking.

Faking

For most of my life, memories of my Mom involve her being in pain. She always was complaining of some ache or pain. When I was 12 or 13 I remember it getting really severe.

She went to her doctor. She told us he diagnosed her with fibromyalgia. She began treatment for the pain including new medicines.

A few years later she informed us all that she had been diagnosed with Chrones too.

And then my Mom got the internet. And suddenly every few months she was self-diagnosing herself with everything from post-polio to cancer.

Now after she has passed away, my sisters were going through her paperwork and have found countless doctors letters informing her that nothing is wrong with her. They basically told her it was all in her head. This is something the doctors have been telling her for years but she would not accept it. One doctor recently diagnosed her with Munchausen syndrome. That is basically where they invent illnesses to get attention.

That doctor couldn't have been more accurate.

The scary thing is my Mom had us all convinced for years that everything she had was genetic and we all could look forward to years of pain and misery. It is only in the last few years that we have come to realize it really was all in her head and there is nothing wrong with any of us. Finding those letters really helped us all feel better about our futures.

Finally

Have you seen those commercials that tell us, "Diets Don't work!"? I saw one for the first time the other day and thought HALLELUJAH! It is about time a company gets that and starts telling the consumers as much. I relate to dieting like I do to the top diet pills, if they truly worked no one in the world would be obese or even pudgy.

I am so happy to see business starting to realize that they need to stop making us feel bad about our bodies and who we are. I hope more of them start following suit.

Mock Me

I have seen this recipe for Mock Apple Pie floating around for several years now. I finally decided to try it tonight. It is actually Ritz crackers in a sugar syrup. According to the recipe I found online, this pie was made during the war and depression era when apples or food in general were scarce or expensive.

My husband saw me putting it together and said, "No one is going to eat cracker pie." I said, "Maybe it tastes really good. How would you know if you don't try it?"

It is not like he has the best taste anyway. He would live on spaghetti and mountain dew if he lived alone. Yuck!

Oh and I was in Walmart this weekend and they had all their winter clothes on sale for less than 5.00! I got Becca three pair of jeans for 3.00 each. I love me some cheap clothes. Unfortunately the men's fashion clothes were NOT on sale. You know because men will walk in and buy the first thing they see instead of actually s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g so they don't need to put their clothes on sale.

Confused

We recently took a look at our life insurance. We wanted to make sure we had enough to cover what our kids would need if something happened to us and we wanted to add our new boys to the policy so they would also be covered.

On all our policies, my sister is listed as a beneficiary if something were to happen to all of us. So it was only natural that we would put the new policies in the same format. Only we got a letter in the mail telling us that she does not have an "insurable interest" in the boys and thus cannot be listed as a beneficiary.

At first I was mad. Now I just am irritated. Why does the beneficiary have to have an "insurable interest" in the person. We are paying for the policy, not her. Stupid.

And she would be the one to take our children if God-forbid something ever happened to us. I don't know about you but if someone showed up with 7 kids on my doorstep I would suddenly have a huge "insurable interest" in their kids.

Stupid. Stupid. STUPID.

I got sucked in

I have never been a big news watcher. When I was a kid and my parents turned on the news or any similar show you would hear a big chorus of "Nooooooooooooooo!" It was soooo boring.

And then I became an adult and started realizing I liked knowing what was going on in my community. So I started reading the newspaper. And after a few months it escalated to the 10 o'clock news. And in recent months I have discovered entertainment news.

Some say entertainment news is trash. And while I must agree, I have to say regular news is depressing and negative. So you give and you take. You can read about Britney or Lindsey's latest escapade in drug treatment centers or you can watch the news anchor tell you about the man that murdered his wife and four children.

At least the entertainment news makes me feel more normal.

Frustrating

We finally got the verdict on my Mom's death. After all the testing and autopsy they said she died of an accidental overdose of prescription medicines. That means she took too many of the wrong mix of medicines.

We are not surprised as she was having this problem two years ago when we had to have her committed. I had hoped she would have gotten it under control but it seems her desire for mediciations won in the end. She died on February 21st, 5 days before she was found. That part breaks my heart.

I wish we would have had time to get her into a drug and alcohol rehab facility before it came to this. At least we can say we tried. She just needed to do the same.

Insuring EVERYTHING

I saw a commercial for AIG Direct insurance the other day. It bragged and bragged about how much money we could save if we switched to their insurance. So I went online and did a quote.

It came back 1200.00 for our three cars for 6 MONTHS. Ye GADS! I currently pay 385.00 for all three cars for six months. Clearly this company has lost its mind.

I don't know about you all but I am so sick of insurance companies bragging about how low their rates are and then I go and check it out and find out they really aren't. We have to insure everything nowadays for fear of being sued or something terrible happening. I get calls almost daily for credit card insurance, travel health insurance, and life insurance.

I am thinking pioneer life sounds better and better. They didn't have to insure their horse and buggies.

New Tricks

Even though I am no longer watching Celebrity Fit Club I still think a lot about weight loss. Which is sad because up until 5 years ago I didn't really focus on it much.

But then I heard a news article that said woman who breastfeed their babies give them a much better chance of growing up to be a healthy weight. The researchers now thing formula fed babies grow up to have a much higher risk of being obese. I find this very very interesting especially since the push for many years was to use formula. Is that why we have a larger population of obese or severly overweight people?

Or maybe we are overweight because we use products like diet pills, Orovo, Slimfast, and hoodia. Our bodies are so confused because of the constant swing back and forth that they can't decide what is up anymore.

I would like to find some more articles about this topic. My siblings and I were breastfed and we seem to be able to maintain a healthy weight and all of us are in a normal weight range. I am off to see if I can find out more.