Social Media Etiquette

I can't believe it has been over two weeks since my last post.  It has been hard to keep this as a priority as Sophie is getting older, sleeping less during the day, and requiring more attention.  I have missed it though.  So, yes, I am still alive!    And, this is a post I have been meaning to do for a long time now... Social Media Etiquette.

There are just some common courtesies that need to be shown on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and whatever other social medias you find yourself involved in.

Number 1:  No mean comments.  If you don't like what you read, don't click on the link, don't "friend" the person, or "follow" them, etc. No one benefits from you leaving a mean comment.  You hurt someone else, and you look like a big fat idiot doing it.

Number 2: Don't correct grammar.  No one needs you to point out that someone used the wrong form of "there," "their," or "they're."  Yes, people should know; but sometimes when you are posting something, you are doing two things at once, or are using shorthand text on your phone so you can fit it all in one post, or are caught up in whatever you are doing/posting about.  If it is a pet-peeve of yours, just make sure you don't do it in your own posts.

Number 3: Pictures are posted to be seen, not taken.  Make sure you ask permission before just taking someone else's picture(s), unless you are in the picture yourself, then an exception can probably be made.

Number 4: Try to at least let your immediate family know about big things going on in your life, before you post for everyone to see... like getting engaged, finding out you are pregnant, etc.  It's just the right thing to do.  BUT, don't get your panties in a wad if you do happen to find out your brother is engaged on Facebook.  Just be excited for him, and happy that he told you at all. (Love you, Ron!)

Number 5: Follow the "Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated."  If you want to share in other people's lives, let them share in yours; if you want people to leave comments for you, then leave comments for others; if you want people to say nice things about you, then say nice things about them.  Pretty simple, right?  This can be used in every area of our life too, not just social media... but that's a post for another day.  It must have been someone pretty wise who came up with that rule... ;)

And last, but not least,

Number 6: Don't drink and post.  Just sayin'... you're going to end up sharing (or showing) something you do not want everyone to know (or see). ;)

What are your thoughts on this?  Are there any you would add or subtract from this list?

Mother's Day 2012

"Look what I got Mommy!"

This year was my first Mother's Day with Sophie actually here to celebrate with me!  It was such a great day!  We had the morning to ourselves as Brian leaves before dawn for church on Sundays.  We made our way to the service and enjoyed celebrating with our church family.  Then after the service, Brian surprised me with gifts (from Sophie of course), and brunch at GrillSmith.  It was such an enjoyable afternoon.  Thank you also to those of you who sent cards, each one was a special gift.  The whole weekend turned out to be pretty fantastic, since we had some family visiting on Friday and Saturday too... we got some fun pictures of all of us that I'll be sure to share later in the week!

Happy Teachers' Day!

In honor of National Teachers' Day, I thought it would be fun to thank a few teachers who stand out as favorites in my mind...

The first one that comes to mind is my first grade teacher, Mrs. Gould.  In her class, you had the opportunity to earn a gold star each day that you behaved, and after ten gold stars you were rewarded with your own bag of M&M's... she knew the way to a child's heart was chocolate.  How could she not be a favorite?

 The next one that comes to mind is Mr. Penny. He was hilarious! But, he also paid attention to his students. I remember getting picked on toward the end of the school year by some kids who kept calling me a "goody-two-shoes." So, for about a day, I was a rebel. Mr. Penny paid attention though, knew what had happened, saw me trying to be "bad," and pulled me aside and had a little conversation with me. Thank you Mr. Penny. :)  That could have been the beginning of a hard road that I never had to take thanks to you.

Another favorite was Mrs. Lllanos. She was my eighth grade English teacher. The way she would read to us, and the songs that she would come up with to help us remember stuff, was hilarious! I still quote lines from some of the books she read to us, and can still sing those silly songs!

 In high school, I of course, loved my math teacher. I had the same teacher for sophomore through senior year. She was good at what she did.  I learned to love the puzzles and problem solving, and the idea of there being one definite answer.  I learned to think outside the box, and to work hard.  It truly helped in every other area of my life.  I learned how to see a problem, and to work hard to find a solution.  I also found that I ran my classroom much like she ran hers, which is interesting.  So, thank you Mrs. Leach!

There are many, many more teachers I came in contact with... Ms. Watt, who used to space out mid-sentence like she drifted back to the sixties for just a few wonderful moments.  She made me laugh!  And, what a great English teacher!  And there was Coach Camp who taught me to be respectful during the Pledge of Allegiance, and to respect the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for my freedom.  There was Ms. Pera who forced me to read and appreciate books like The Great Gatsby, and The Scarlet Letter, and Hamlet... books I may have never chosen to read on my own, but was so glad to have read once I did.  And I cannot forget Coach Fields who basically taught me how to drive!

I wouldn't be who I am today had I not had the opportunity to sit in those teachers' classes, and neither would you... or your children for that matter.  Teaching is a job that really gets little appreciation; I know, because I was one for seven years before Sophie arrived.  The year seems to go by so quickly, and before you know it, another crop of students have moved on to a new teacher and have forgotten about you.  My heart would ache the last month of school, because I always managed to fall so much in love with each group of students, and I knew they would be leaving me soon!  Teachers spend a lot of time with your kiddos, and spent a lot of time investing in you.  Let them know how much you appreciate it!

Happy Teacher's Day!

Chocolate Date Night

This date night idea is a favorite of mine... I love, love, love getting to visit the Russell Stover Outlet store just South of Ocala off of I-75.  If you love sweets, this place is quite a treat!  Just the smell as you walk in is enough to put you in a sugar coma.  They have any kind of candy you could ever want, and more.  If you grab a box of chocolates at your local grocery store, there are only a few in the box that you really like, the rest are kind of just okay... you know the weird orange cream ones you bite into and then put the other half back in the box because it just isn't what you were looking for.  Anyway, my favs are the dark chocolate caramels... and, just my luck, the outlet store sells full boxes of just the kind of chocoate you/I want.  So if you want a whole box of just caramels, you can have a box of just caramels.  If you want a whole box of the weird orange cream ones, you can have a whole box of those too!  Mmmmm.... chocolate... 

Happy Dating,  

May 2012

I have always been a fan of celebrating obscure holidays... you know, those crazy ones that are so much fun that no one seems to know about?  I'd like to start sharing them with you on the first of every month.  Obviously, I'm already a day behind.  I know today is May 2nd, not 1st. ;)  You do what you can, right?

Here are the big and more common ones happening this month:
May 1 May Day
May 3 National Day of Prayer
May 5 Cinco De Mayo
May 8 National Teacher's Day (the Tuesday of the first full week)
May 12 Nurses Day
May 13 Mother's Day
May 16 My Mom's Birthday ;)
May 19 Armed Forces Day
May 28 Memorial Day

Week One: National Postcard Week, and Teacher Appreciation Week (not sure if this is supposed to coincide with National Teacher's Day or not)
Week Two: National Pet Week
Week Three: National Police Week (the week of May 15th)
Week Four: National Backyard Games Week (so looking forward to this one!)

American Bike Month
Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
Asparagus Month (who knew?)
Flower Month
National BBQ Month
National Egg Month
National Hamburger Month
National Mental Health Month
National Salad Month
National Photo Month
National Physical Fitness Month
National Strawberry Month
Older Americans Month
Transportation Month

There are so many more too!  Some of my favorites:

May1 Mother Goose Day
May 2 National Truffles Day
May 4 Space Day
May 5 Children's Day, National Scrapbook Day
May 6 International No Diet Day (I love that this one is world wide)
May 8 No Socks Day, National Train Day
May 10 Clean Up Your Room Day
May 12 Kite Day
May 14 National Dance Like A Chicken Day
May 15 National Chocolate Chip Day
May 18 International Museum Day, Visit Your Relatives Day
May 19 Circus Day
May 20 Peace Day
May 22 Buy A Musical Instrument Day
May 26 Blueberry Cheesecake Day
May 29 Paperclip Day
May 31 World No Tobacco Day

I have no idea how legit these holidays are, I did my research on Google... but who cares?!  Pick a favorite or two and CELEBRATE!  I know we will, and if you know anything about me at all, it will be all of the ones with sweets involved!

Date Night

If you live locally, we recommend a little restaurant called, Rapscallions. It's kind of an older restaurant, but has great seating outside on one of the many lakes in this little ol' town we call Land O' Lakes. Brian and I both had their Cuban sandwich and fries with a coke and diet coke, and it was delicious, and very reasonably priced. We spent $25 which included our tip. They had a pretty good selection of food, and plenty of drink options too. I think the reason we liked it so much was just the relaxing setting outside and the beautiful view. It was a short distance for a nice spot on the water, which we love! If you check it out, let me know what you think!

My Sister's Keeper

  My latest read was, "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult. It was a book I had been meaning to read for a few years now. It is one of the books that the students had to read at the school where I used to teach. Every year I would have students telling me about how great a book it was and how I had to read it!  Well, I finally did!  And they were right.  It was excellent.

When the story begins, you realize right from the start that it is going to be a tearjerker, but until you get to the end, you don't realize quite how sad it is going to be.  I'm debating on whether or not I want to actually see the movie.  I waited because I had wanted to read it first, but now that I know what happens, I'm not sure I would want to put myself through that kind of emotion.  It was that emotional of a book, especially if you have children.  I wonder if I would have cried quite as hard if I had read it pre-Sophie...

As far as a formal "review," I'd give it an A.  It's one you need to put on your list.  It had about half a dozen uses of the "f" word, and a couple of non-descriptive sex scenes, so for that reason, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for younger teens; but for an older teen, it was a good enough book and brought up a ton of great conversation pieces that I wouldn't necessarily put up a fight about my child having to read it in high school either.  I would just read it with her, and actually be a parent and talk about the stuff in the book with her.

  I'll leave you with this:  If you had a child dying of cancer, and she repeatedly needed her younger sister to donate blood, bone marrow, and possibly even an organ to stay alive, would you put one child through that to save another?    

Sunday

One of the reasons I love Sundays is because I love my church. This Sunday's message was good stuff... it always is, but it was especially good for me. Brian has been speaking about the "Jesus Dilemma" we all face. What do you do with Jesus? Who do you say that he is? This week he spoke about the disciples and their passion for expanding the church, and how they were willing to die in order to spread the news of Jesus being raised from the dead... and they did in deed all (but one) die for this cause. Anyway, the piece that really stood out to me was how bold these men were, and how not bold I am. They were willing to sacrifice everything and face death for this cause... am I? Do I spread the word about Jesus being raised from the dead, and how his death was the ultimate sacrifice that covers all of our mistakes making it possible to one day join him in heaven? Do I share about all that God has done in my life? Am I willing to sacrifice anything for his cause? So my prayer this week has been for him to show me where I can be more bold, and show me what ways I can sacrifice more to further his kingdom. Kind of a scary prayer. I think there is a balance between bold and annoying of course, but I am interested to see what he might show me, or lead me to do...

Date Night

This week's date night is actually a date day. Daytime was just more convenient for us this weekend, and it worked well with some friends of ours who are going to hang out with Sophie. We are actually going on a real date! :) It's only our second date without Sophie since she has been born.

So, what will we be doing? Well, we had planned to do something outdoors, but there is now an 80% chance of rain, so our backup plan is to go see Hunger Games. I've really been wanting to take Brian to see it, since there is no way he's ever going to read the book, this is the only way for him to experience it with me. I've heard good things. And, we have a gift card, so it's totally free. Good times! I hope we are at a theater where the arm rest lifts up so we can cuddle. ;)

I've been learning that when kids are involved, you have to be a little more intentional about having time alone together, and take time alone where you can (even if it is just a couple of hours in the morning, or in the evening before they wake up or after they go to bed). If you forget who you are as a couple when the kids show up, then when they leave, you end up with a stranger as a spouse. And who wants that? Not me!

Happy dating,

What Do You Do All Day?

Since having Sophie and making the move to being a stay-at-home mom, people have asked me what I do all day... it always catches me off guard and I never seem to have an answer. So, here it is.

It depends on the day, but this was yesterday: I made sure Sophie was well fed, well rested, clean, entertained and learned some new things; I also made sure Brian was well fed, well rested, clean, entertained, and learned some new things (just kidding... kind of ;) ); I helped Brian film a video; I took the dog to be groomed and got her a new bed, since the old one was pretty nasty; I got some groceries at Target; I paid some bills, and did some book keeping; I did some cleaning around the house; I sent a few emails; I prepared a meal for our NEXT group; I tutored a couple of students for a few hours in the evening; I attended our NEXT group; and I tried to make sure I was also well fed throughout the day, since what I eat directly effects what Sophie eats right now. I'm pretty much exhausted by the time we get Sophie to bed. And then we wake up, and do it all over again with a few changes here and there. Some days are more relaxed than others. I love it, but it is nonstop. I don't get to leave work and come home, my work is my home. I sometimes wonder if I should have kept my job and put Sophie in daycare... but then I hear her chatting away to her friend, Ollie the Octopus, and catch her smiling at herself in the mirror attached to her playmat, or she falls asleep on my chest and forces me to have to be still and just watch her sleep... and I remember again why I chose to quit. I visit the school pretty often, and miss it sometimes, but I think I would miss Sophie more. I am really grateful to have married a man who was on the same path in life as I was, and very grateful to have a God who would make a way for me to be able to stay home with this little cutie.



Loving each moment,


p.s. Check out this article, just for fun http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/05/02/why-stay-at-home-moms-should-earn-a-115000-salary/