Make Memories

Yep you read that right…  This is me time.

I got a few really cool emails this last week. They all had to do with one of my other blogs. I have many websites but my blogs are where I get the most excited.

It started at the beginning of last week when an advertising company that works for a nationwide company asked if they could feature some of my posts in a regular section of a website they are building.  I of course told them that as long as they give me credit and a link with each post like they promised I would allow it. Then I did a happy dance. I will not name the company now because I feel like I will some how jinx it.

Then yesterday I got two emails from a company that I do some reviews for on that same other blog. The emails were to inform me that I got a $25 and a $50 bonus for having the best post on those jobs. Again a happy dance was done.

That brings us to today. I was emailed about another national company that chose that same blog to participate in a fitness challenge that benefits a charity. I am sure a few of you got that same email. It said 100 blogs were chosen but only the first 40 to accept the offer would be able to do it. A few of you tend to get asked by the same companies as me so I hope I replied soon enough. It would be fun to do together. Plus I would love the free pedometer they are giving out.

So yes, like I said this post was all about me.

Poor Neona has had a rough week. Sunday she said that she did not feel well and slept most of the day. By that night she had a fever of 104. Neona hates taking medicine so it has not been an easy week for either of us.

As the week has progressed we have all started to get congested and feel a little sick. None of us has gotten as bad as Neona though. She still has not gone to school this week.

That poor little thing. I feel so bad for her. She has not even been able to really eat. The way this house is set up it has been much easier to just have her in my room. She has pretty much lived in my bed. The kids bedrooms are on the second floor and my room is off of the livingroom.

I have been so worn out today that I have not gotten anything accomplished that I planned on. I will have to really catch up on things tomorrow.

If you have not already heard of this site you really need to check it out. Pandora is not your average internet radio.

As I sat here listening to music, I was trying to think of a post for today. Then it hit me. I should post about the music.

Many sites make you pick through their stations and hope that you like what they play. Other internet radio sites make you pick out your own songs one at a time. Then you listen to them over and over. You also never end up listening to anything new.

Pandora is more like an intelligent radio station. Pandora was created by the Music Genome Project. The project takes songs and breaks them down into “genes”. The different parts of music that make them different from each other.

When you go to Pandora it will begin by asking you for a song title or artist name. Then it begins to make your station. It creates a station just for you. It looks at what you like and then finds songs that would be a good match. Pandora classifies songs by 400 attributes and 2,000 focus traits. Using all of that information it creates your station.

Your station has the ability to learn from you too. As you listen you can give songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. This helps your station become more “you”. It also helps you find new music to love. I have found many wonderful artists this way. You are also able to share your stations with friends.

So what am I listening to right now? I am listening to my Diana Krall station.

As I started the new posts in the Simplify & Save category I had many people mentioning this one. I guess I just never thought of it before. It is a cute idea though.

You are supposed to fill water half way up in a container and freeze it. When it is fully frozen you then place a credit card in the container and fill the rest of the way with water. When you have frozen it a second time you are left with a credit card that can not be used easily.

The idea is that it will stop impulse spending. You no longer have it with you when you are out doing things. You are supposed to take the card out of the freezer when you want to use it and wait until it defrosts. This makes you take the time to see if you really need to use it or if you are just being wasteful.

The Good… Yes, if this is followed exactly you will limit impulse spending. You can use the time to think your spending through. I think it is more symbolic. It reminds you of your goals and to be sensible.

The Bad… You really do still need to have self control for this to work.  The big wasteful spender will still want to use the card after it defrosts. They will also probably feel guilty about using it and buy more to make themselves feel better.

The Ugly… The really desperate person will probably destroy their card by breaking apart the ice, microwaving it, or putting it in boiling water.

Sooooo, depending on what kind of spender you are this might actually work for you.

I have also met someone that keeps their cards in a safety deposit box. This will also limit and delay your ability to use them.

I mentioned yesterday that James has been going through huge work changes. It has been up and down for a long time. As the economy collapses people are not spending as much money any more. This also means that businesses are having an even harder time making ends meet. Businesses are closing down left and right.

James’ work has been going through a process of restructuring changes for a long time. Some have come and gone after they did not work out very well. There were even talks of a take over for awhile. Now as the dust settles and the restructuring should be complete it has brought on big changes.

The biggest changes have been in upper management. They decided to cut back on salaried positions.  They fired people that were not preforming well and moved around everyone else.

So what does this mean for us? James went from running stores in Madison to running stores in northern Chicago. Now instead of a 30 minute drive to work he has an hour drive. We do not want to move since we have moved way too much because of his work already. Plus as soon as we move anywhere there is always talk of another move.

Our hope is that they will see how bad his stores in Madison are doing without him running them and they will let him come back here. Until then we hope that gas prices stay down.

I would like to wish you all a Happy St Patrick’s Day.

As always, life is very busy with our family. There are huge changes with James’ work but that will have to wait for a future post.

The more I talk to people about the principal here the more I am glad that they did not renew his contract. I truly hope the principal next year is much better.

It seems that everyone is excited to see him go. I sure hope no other school gets stuck with him in the future. He must have been a better teacher than a principal.

The weather here has been incredible. I have had the heat off for 3 days. I even had windows open! The weather is supposed to change and be bad for a few days but it was nice for awhile at least. The girls have early release tomorrow so I guess we can catch up on house work. It is hard to convince yourself to clean when you finally have warm weather.

I had on my angry face for a lot of yesterday. It was an early release day so normally it would have been a great day. I was actually really enjoying it until the principal from Noelle’s school called. She is my 13 year old.

He is known for punishing people over stupid things and punishments that are overboard. He started as principal two years ago and the newest rumor is that for some reason or another he will not be returning next year. Everyone is very happy about it.

It all started back on Tuesday. Noelle’s friends have not been getting along all the time lately. As school let out “S” grabbed “A” and slammed her into a locker. When “S” raised her fist to punch “A” in the face Noelle grabbed her arm and stopped her. Then “S” grabbed a handful of “A” and Noelle’s hair. She ripped out their hair, threw it back at them and yelled that she was going to kill them.

The next morning the girls went to a teacher to report the incident since (like always) no school employees saw it. I wanted to go to the school but Noelle asked that I let her handle it. I have for years taught my girls to try to handle things without mommy stepping in and now when I want to help she did not want it. (They grow up too fast)

Well, Friday the principal finally talked to the girls and called me. He called me to tell me that my daughter was getting detention for the incident. We have since found out that it is the same amount of detention as the girl who was actually trying to attack “A”.

Since he started at the school he made a rule that in the case of a fight you are not allowed to defend yourself or try to break up a fight. He tells the students that the only acceptable response is to let the yourself or the victim get attacked and then tell an adult as soon as possible. This sounds insane to me.

He actually got rude with my daughter and said, “You just have to try to be a hero don’t you”. After he talked to me (actually he got yelled at by me)… he then acted as if my daughter made it sound worse than it was. He asked her if she  just made stuff up when talking to her parents to make her school life seem more interesting.

I am so furious with him. I got even more mad when I found out that he  gave the girl that was attacked twice as much detention as my daughter and “S”. I already yelled at him when he told me that he was punishing the other girl. He stated that he felt they were all in the wrong. He must be one of those men that believe that when a woman is beat she deserves it.

He of course would not tell me what punishment the other kids got. It was probably better for him that I did not find out the punishments or what he said to my daughter until after I talked to him. I did however warn him that if something happens again with this girl I will be filing a police report and he can then answer to why he did not handle it properly.

Okay, I feel a little bit better now. I am a very nice person but as you can see I am not so nice when you mess with my kids.

This whole daylight savings thing is really getting to us. Arizona does not do daylight savings time so we are not used to this.

We have all had a hard time falling asleep at night. We are all wide awake at bed time so we have been staying up too late. This of course also means that morning comes way too early. Getting everyone up in the morning has been quite a chore.

The lack of sleep is starting to get to me. I just don’t feel as motivated to get things done this week. I am also a bit more crabby too. Each night I tell myself that I will force myself to get to sleep earlier but I just lay in bed unable to sleep. I hope we adjust to the time change soon.

So does anyone else have these same problems with daylight savings? Is this normal or is it just because we are not used to it? I guess this goes on the list of things I miss about Arizona.