Archives for November 2007

I demanded that God let me keep her!

And He gave in! That’s right – I got in God’s face and screamed at him, “No, not this one, you can’t take this one!!!!” And then I went horizontal for a month – which is no easy task with a 1 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old to take care of – but, I was determined, so we made it work!

Let me back up a little bit here. I had my first child on 9-22-93 and then I had my second child on 9-22-94, pretty crazy, I know. If you were reading in September, you already know all about that. Not too long after my second child was born, though – I had a miscarriage. That was in January 1995. And then in April 1995, I miscarried again.

And then March 1996 rolls around and I highly suspect that I am pregnant. And then the unthinkable happens – I can feel the miscarriage starting to happen. I will never forget sitting down at my kitchen table and yelling at God. I was sitting there yelling and crying – “No God! You can’t take this one!”

And God changed His mind. I believe that with every single bit of me. Some people say that’s silly, that God already has his plans made, his decisions are final. But you know what, my God is my friend, and I think that day we negotiated, and here is the outcome:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Ain’t she gorgeous?? (She was cold, on her way outside to catch the bus.)

So yeah, that horizontal thing – that was tough! I had two little monsters to take care of, not to mention, dishes, laundry, and all that fun stuff. This is what we did. I really did stay horizontal for the better part of a month. I laid around with the boys while they played, even taking them outside, where I laid upon a blanket in the grass. I’d sit up to change a diaper, or I’d get up to go potty myself, but, that was it. I guess I got up at breakfast and lunch and grabbed us a really simple meal. And then Mark did dinner. And he also did all of the other stuff – he went grocery shopping, he did the dishes, he did the laundry, basically, if it was a job that I could not do lying down – he did it.

After that first month, I slowly but surely began to get up more and more. And I eventually gave birth to my precious, 9lb 7 1/3oz baby girl ‘Beauty Queen’. And I fell head over heels in love with her! I was so taken with her. It came as a real surprise to me the depth of my love for her, because, I always knew I would be good with boys – and I just was never sure if I had it in me to raise a girl. I do, and I have, and I continue to do so.

I’ll continue this saga in another post and tell you all about her fun day last week!

Stephen King’s The Mist

The Mist by Stephen King looks so spooky and so good! There is just something so eery about a mist that consumes a town! And if that’s not enough – the mist is not empty! There are very scary creatures in the mist! From the preview, they look to me like giant bugs! Could you get any scarier than that? I’m going to have nightmares just from watching the previews!!

I have such a love/hate relationship with Stephen King’s material – you know what I mean? I go through peaks and valleys with my ‘allowing’ them into my head. Ha! He is absolutely amazing at crafting his stories, though – so amazing that it is truly sad to me to miss one of them. So for those times when I’m ‘sworn off’ – I feel so utterly left out. Then I give in and thoroughly enjoy his latest creation, and am so glad I did, but, have nightmares and ‘scaredy-cat-itise’ for weeks! Then I swear off of him, and the whole cycle begins again! Ha!

I think one of my very favorites would have to be Pet Sematary. In fact, that may just be the one that drew me ‘into the circle’ of fans. Just the title alone I’m sure made me look – I love pets and I love cemeteries. I’ve always been drawn to and fascinated by cemeteries. And who among us has not wished to bring someone, be they pet or human, back to life? That urge is so strong when someone (pet or human) dies, that it, to me, almost feels physical. So that story had many things to help me ignore my fear and dive into the chaotic and creepy world of Stephen King!

My brother was a big Cujo fan and when I finally saw it, I loved that one, too! And I really liked Thinner. It would be cool to have a collection of all of his books and movies, actually!

So yeah, I’m excited to see this latest release – it will be fun – in that, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m nauseous, turn on the lights, don’t leave me!’ kind of way!

Devil Boy Amy


Devil Boy Amy
Originally uploaded by patsmomlisa

My friend, Amy, showed me a really cool new Firefox Addon. Do you see how pretty I was able to make her? Heehee!

My friends and I always try to keep each other up to date on the newest Addons available through Firefox. We are diehard Firefox fans! (Uh-oh, except for Suni, who seems to have defected on us last week. Oh, for shame!)

This addon is called Picnik and their main website is here: Picnik. I have been using Jing from Techsmith for a while now, so it will be interesting to see how this compares. So far, I’m completely thrilled with it. I even see something in there for a post that’s been brewing in my head all morning. So Picnik is on the same page with me – that’s a plus, for sure!

Resolution revolution

Aw, man! Dang me! My resolution here on my computer has completely revolted! Well, ok, it’s not actually the resolution – I know that, but, the resolution was the straw that broke the camel’s back!

Let’s back up a bit, shall we? Ok, when I turn on my monitor, there is a slight discoloration in one of the corners. It’s really a whitening, if you will. As I’ve been through this not too long ago with a TV, I knew the end was near for my precious, dear monitor…

So back to today, I’m working on some design elements that are baffling me on two of my sites, Lisa Marie Mary and Hippie Spelunker – H2. I get in touch with the designer to see if he can help me out, because, I am completely lost. He runs a really cool blog called One Man’s Blog. So he and I are going back and forth trying to see what the other is seeing. And I decide to change my resolution, just to get a different viewpoint, and possibly see it how he sees it.

And then….KABLAMMO!Computer Not Working 3

My monitor now looks like my sons’ monitor, that I had to look at for seven months.

OH NOOOO! Just now, just this minute, I realized that the problem is not my monitor. Oh crap! See, when I was using the boys’ computer, I was using my own monitor, and that goofy thing happened on my own monitor, when using their computer!

The goofy thing is that it almost feels like you are looking at a strobe light. Headache inducing? Why, yes, how did you guess?

Crap – all this time (this past hour since it happened) I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, I’ll have to get a new monitor. But that is not so bad, since I knew it was coming anyways and it’s not so bad, since I’ve been wanting a flat screen, anyways.’

But now – having realized that when my sons’ computer did this, it was actually the computer and not the monitor – well, hell’s bells! I might as well go back to bed.

At the same time this is happening, my brand new ThinkPad is not cooperating.

I think I quit.
Computer Not Working

House full of in-laws, belly full of grease

The in-laws came over yesterday for none other than a fish fry! The food was absolutely delicious, but, there was so much of it! And most of it greasy! I got so incredibly full, that I was hurting long into the night and morning!

We had fried catfish, homemade hush puppies (YUMMM!), potato salad, macaroni, and gosh knows what else! All I know is there was a lot of food to pick from, and it is so hard when there are so many dishes, because, of course, you want to try them all! I’m telling you, eat some good Southern cookin’ too often, and you will not be fitting into any bustiers!

Here is a picture of one of our desserts – a chocolate merengue pie made by Aunt Lisa. (No, not me Aunt Lisa, the other Aunt Lisa. Heehee) Pretty, isn’t it? She wants me to help her do a portfolio of all of the wonderful, yummy things she makes. That should be fun!

Well, we had a fun afternoon, but, boy was it painful! We enjoyed just hanging around and talking with the family, though. And then later on in the evening, it was just a cousin left with her hubby and one of her sons, and we had a fire outside and all sat out there talking and laughing and cutting up. I learned some interesting new phrases that cracked me up! (That, no, I shall not repeat here on the blog!) LOL!

Social Spark – The unveiling!

This is just getting more exciting by the minute. See, the big thing that so many of us were looking forward to at PostieCon was the unveiling of the great big, new, awesome software that would revolutionize the consumer-generated advertising arena!

PayPerPost recently announced it’s ‘umbrella’ company, Izea. Izea is the parent company of all the companies that are a part of PayPerPost. So PayPerPost is remaining as it is, but, this is just an umbrella to catch all the companies in. You can click on that link and see all the companies under the new umbrella.

And the big new thing that Ted Murphy has been telling us about and pumping us up about for months is a super secret software system (say that five times fast) that will make things easier on all of us – advertisers, bloggers, and PayPerPost.

When I heard, about a month ago, that it was based on a social network, I got butterflies in my stomach! Social networks I can totally do! I love everything to do with social networking!

And just now, just this minute – I learned the name for the super secret software system! It’s called Social Spark! And there is an incredibly hot blogger, with a very sweet ass, who has the ROYAL SCOOP ON SOCIAL SPARK! Read it and get excited with me!

And go Digg her post, too! You can do that right here: Colleen’s Social Spark Scoop

Chatting with the Posties

See, here’s the chat:

http://www.meebo.com/rooms

Isn’t that cool? I just realized that I could embed it here!

I wonder what happens to it later, when the chat is over. Or if they delete the room, what this post will look like!

Hmm..

Oh yeah, and you need to go DIGG the live feed – hurry, go now!
It’s right here: PostieCon live video/audio feed!

I’m in Las Vegas in Alabama!

Oh my gosh! Now I’m even more connected to the goings on in Las Vegas! This is so super cool!

PayPerPost is streaming PostieCon live on the internet, and at the same time, they have opened up a chat room to further involve those of us at home! I even got to ask a question to one of the presenters – while she was talking! That was just cool!

So we did have one window open for the chat, and another for the live feed, and we were having to switch back and forth. Then this awesome blogger dude, Andy Beard – mashed them together on his site for us! This is so cool!

I’ve got Twitter open, watching for messages, and I’ve got Skype going with my rockin’ friend, Loretta, and I’m in the chat room/live video feed room – and I just popped over here to blog! This is so much fun! Technology rocks!

My cell phone is next to me and keeps ringing for the kids and annoying me – interrupting my techno-heaven. It is the one gadget I’m not interested in right now! Ha!

Why didn’t you go, too, Mom?!

My sweet, silly children. Two of them asked me that, on separate occasions! They are completely aghast that I would let my friends run off to Las Vegas without me! I wish I could’ve gone! We just couldn’t afford it.

Next year, baby, next year! And I might get to meet up with them in New Jersey in May. *fingers crossed bigtime*

But in the meantime, those of us left at home are having a blast keeping up with everything that is going on in Vegas via Twitter, Utterz, Flickr, and, of course, on people’s blogs. It has been so cool to be completely interacting with them while they are out there. We’ve even helped them hook up with each other, at some points! Ha!

Here are some of my crazy friends the first day out there:

Aren’t they silly? That’s why I love them! And because they are an incredibly supportive group of people! They are all from different states – isn’t that a trip? I just got to thinking how cool that is, that we are all so ‘close’ – and most of us live in different states!

I’ll be dreaming of Postiecon next year, yes ma’m!

Teenagers are buckets of fun

The boys came home from school today and within minutes, were fighting. What were they fighting about? They were fighting over who was going to get to practice their instrument in their bedroom.

One plays the trumpet and one plays the trombone, and they are working on completely different songs. They do not play together. So practicing together would definitely not work.

So there they both were – in the bedroom – one setting up, one already playing. Both being completely stubborn and refusing to even consider any other room to practice in.

I went in there and sweetly and kindly directed Patrick to another room. (And if you believe that, I don’t know what to say! Ha!) I told him that it would be easier for him to move and forced him into my room, exasperatedly closing my door – to which Shawn slams his door.

Fine.

They’re both in a room, door shut – practicing separately.

The lovely part is – they have Monday off, so this is a three day weekend I have to look forward to, with these boys who argue about every single thing they possibly can!

I don’t remember the school board running this ‘Veteran’s Day off’ thing by me! Hrmph!