1. In almost a week exactly, I will be landing in San Diego for BlogHer11. I wasn’t going to post about it at all, however curiosity got the best of me. Who’s going? Who wants to try and meet up? It can be hard to find people in a sea of 3,000 people. It was near impossible last year to locate people and it was all in one location. This year, there are people spread out over two hotels and the convention center is in a different location. Basically, what I’m saying is, let me know now if you’d like to try and meet up. You can always DM/Email me when I’m there. I am one with my iPhone.
Last year, I only went to two events the entire weekend. The Voices of the Year and Sparklecorn. I had a teeny love affair with NYC. It was near impossible for me to be in the hotel. NYC called to me. This year, I have sessions I plan on attending as well as parties. So I will be around a lot more. (I love San Diego, but I’ve been there many times.)
My only advice that I’ll give is be you and try to step out of your comfort zone and bit and talk to new people. You never know who you will meet. Most people at BH are super nice. Really? We’re all geeks who spend way too much time online.
I will be the one in capris, t-shirts and flip-flops giving out mini-moo cards with sarcastic sayings on them. Come say hi if you see me. I’d love to meet you.
ps. I will be hosting the Serenity Suite on Saturday from 2-3pm.
2. Last night it came to my attention that I am incapable of re-reading Berenstein Bears books for the third go round. CANNOT DO IT. Reading one last night made me want to gorge my own eyeballs out. With a spork. However, my tiny son has finally grown tired of his Cars, Toy Story and dump truck books. So he started looking around at other things and found a huge stack of the bears books. Those bears have to go. I need to buy him more books though. I’d given away the girls toddler/preschooler books. Or most of them. The bears will somehow be given to my ex. Let him read that crap.
I could really use suggestions on books your kids love/loved at 2-3 years old.
3. At some point in the last month or so, I finally relented and let Morgan put Radio Disney as a preset button on my XM radio. It annoys the crap out of me. Not just the music, but the NON STOP commercials and talking. THIS IS XM RADIO PEOPLE! I pay for it, so I don’t have to listen to that crap. If I wanted to listen to constant talking, I’d listen to REAL RADIO!
It’s a mark that I’m getting more patient and nice though as I age, that I put up with it. The girls have this new thing of constantly asking me if I like an artist. It doesn’t matter which station. They want my opinion. On Radio Disney, instead of saying, hell no this is all crap and it’s making my ears bleed, I say oh she’s okay. Or, I don’t mine this song. See? Growing up. Heh.
4. I am learning something new at work. It’s a challenge to learn new things at times, but I’m sorta happy that I am. Means my brain isn’t as atrophied as I sometimes think it is.
5. One week till vacation. I am taking a week off. BlogHer first and then a few very much needed BFF days after. I truly can’t wait.
I’ve wanted to be in a book club for a long time. I was in one once, a great one online with many people. After a few books though, it got to be too much work and people stopped reading the book. I think that tends to happen over time, especially during the school year.
This being summer however, I’ve really been wanting to join a book club. The problem is, I don’t know many local people. The people I do know are not interested in starting a book club. It kinda bums me out. I have books sitting on my Kindle that I want to read. I want to read new books. I want to talk about books. I love to read. But I sorta feel like I need a push to start reading again. Or well, start reading something besides blogs and Twitter.
Anyway, so I’m wondering if anyone might want to maybe join my book club? I was thinking we could maybe vote on books. Try for one a month or something? I don’t exactly know how we could do it. Maybe a post to talk about it? Maybe we could take over my comments section one night? Maybe there is a way to set up a chat room to discuss it one night a month. There is a way, I’m sure, I just haven’t thought of it yet.
I guess what I’ll ask is this. If you are interested, tell me what book you’d like to maybe read and I’ll set up an email list to everyone. I’ll call it: Issa’s summer book club. (I am all ingenious with names, aren’t I?)
One book idea that I had was Sisterhood Everlasting, by Ann Brashares. It’s something that looked good to me. Although, I promise I’m open to any and all suggestions.
So…..thoughts? Anyone interested in joining? Book ideas?
**Updated with book ideas:
Me: Sisterhood Everlasting Or maybe BossyPants by Tina Fey.
Greis: The Help
Renee: Cutting for Stone
Lex: Hunger Series
Kathy: The Glass House
DawnK: Maine
Marinka: The Weird Sisters
Kirsten: The 19th Wife
Kristen: The Paris wife
This week, as most of you likely know (because I’m a Twitter complainer), I was hacked. Hacked at the server level by a evil blog eating clown. It destroyed my entire blog and corrupted the server database. This was what I found when alerted that my blog was gone on Tuesday:
I hear there was creepy music as well, but since I keep my computer speakers off, I never heard it. That was what was left in the place of my blog.
Gone. In an instant, three years of my life was gone. Every word. Every photo. Every comment. Luckily, most have now been restored. The rest are gone for good. Photos in any post are forever lost. Some comments as well. There is no way to get them back.
After waiting for three days for my old blog host to cough over my corrupted server, my best friend Jenna has managed to resurrect my blog. She is a hero. My own personal savior. I owe her big time. I offered her my first born, but a bossy nine year old with stinky feet didn’t seem to be something she wanted.
It’s not just my words that I lost this week. It was my heart and soul. I pour both into my posts and they felt stolen. I have felt very violated this week. I still do, even though I now have a place to call my home again. It felt like someone came and hacked off my leg. I needed that leg. I need that leg. This has been emotionally and mentally exhausting.
I readily admit to being dumb. I used the same password for years and years and years. It was the same for my blog, multiple email accounts, Facebook and Twitter. I am not kidding when I say years. I’ve used the same password for six years. Now of course all of them have been changed. I’ll start changing them on the first of every month.
However, I didn’t hack myself. Some evil clown did. Just because he felt bored, most likely. I thought my host would protect me. They didn’t. In fact, they hold themselves 100% not responsible. They blame WP. They blame me. They accept none of the blame. Needless to say, I have now switched hosts.
Friends, I want you to learn from my mistakes. Back up your blog. Send a good back-up to your email once a week and keep it. Don’t trash them like I did. Keep them. If you don’t know how and trust me, I don’t either, then please go see this great post by Schmutzie.
Change your passwords every month. This was possibly my downfall. Use something odd. Don’t use your kids names. I thought I was safe by using my kids real names and not their blog names. Yeah. I wasn’t thinking.
In the end, it’s not possible to not be hacked. They, whoever they may be, are extremely good at this. It’s not personal to them, it’s random. I thought I was safe. I thought I was too small a blogger to ever be noticed, much less hacked. I was wrong. So very wrong.
You never know how important something is to you, until it’s gone. I now know without a doubt how very important this site is to me. I’ve been lost without it the past few days. I am so very thankful to have it back.
Please learn from me friends. Please. Protect yourself. Protect your words. Try and protect your heart from what I’ve been through.
**Thank you, thank you times a zillion to the amazing, talented Jenna.
I feel like I was better at this the last time. Maybe I was. Maybe my girls were easier to potty training. All I know, is we’ve only been at this for three days and I’m pretty sure I’m failing at it.
Do I care if he goes to kindergarten in diapers? I am really starting to think no.
My reasoning for starting now was simple. Diapers are expensive. I’m tired of buying diapers. It’s finally getting warmer and I’d like to get this done during a non-layer time of year. I also realized that soon I’m going to have to start buying size 6 diapers for my monster baby and that is just sad. Size 6. That’s as high as they go right? Do you know that I never had to buy size 5 before him? My girls are teeny. They were also both potty trained right at 2 years old.
But here’s this boy. My boy. Boy of a thousand words and ideas. He speaks better than some of the 3 year olds at his school. The same boy who tells me that he is a big boy mama, but my too tiny for dat. Dat of course is using the potty. He’s funny. He won’t use the potty or sleep in a big boy bed, yet he will ride a skateboard, jump off all of my furniture and most of the time refuses to use a cup with a lid. He gave up binkies a few months back, with almost no work on my part. But he refuses to sleep in a big boy bed. He’s an enigma.
On Friday I brought out the big guns. Basically I bought bribes. Stickers for peeing; matchbox cars for pooping. I even bought the dreaded Play-doh (big sets of it even) for a reward for a full day spent dry. Man I hate Play-doh. Yet, he loves it and wants it. When he’s completely potty trained? I promised him a Cars Power Wheels. I printed out the photo of it and put it on his bedroom door. Like I said, big guns.
Friday night we talked about it. He was excited about the big boy underwears. Thank you Cars and Toy Story. Saturday morning, he was less sure. No, my stay diaps mama. No bud, no more diapers. I was a bit less sure too, considering we had to go sit through a graduation that morning. Luckily it was at the girls school, so I knew exactly where every bathroom was. I brought extra clothes and I made him try to pee every 45 minutes.
Then we went to a party. We were there all afternoon. Like I said, I’m rusty at this…I forgot about potty training. Mama, I pwee. Oh yeah dude, looks like you did. Oops. No biggie. Change of pants, all was good. Till he did it again, an hour later. Right after he’d been on the dam potty.
Saturday there were three accidents. Harrison – 3. Mommy – 0.
Sunday went okay at first. We ran errands just fine. Then we got home and he peed in my kitchen. Hey, my floor needed to be cleaned anyway.
Sunday: Harrison – 4. Mommy – 0.
This morning he’s already peed his pants once. It’s not looking good.
Sometimes when he tells me he needs to go he doesn’t. Sometimes he does. When I make him go, it’s the same thing. But I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if he really knows when he needs to go, or not. All I know is, I took four pairs of underwear and pants to daycare this morning. They were thrilled that I’d started this. I doubt they will be thrilled to change his pants all day. They at least are better at this than I am.
So tell me Internet, what am I doing wrong? Is my son the only kid going to college in a diaper?
***Updated because of a conversation of Twitter.
1. What’s the ring tone on your phone?
2. Are you going to BlogHer this summer?
3. If you have an iPhone or really an iAnything, what is your current favorite app?
4. What do you normally eat for breakfast?
5. Can you swim? Can you ride a bike?
*****
My answers: (because people always ask when I do this)
1. Michael Buble, I just haven’t met you yet. And I’m sick to death of it.
2. Heck yes. Can’t wait.
3. Mine is a tie between You Don’t Know Jack and Angry Birds Rio. Rio will win, once there are new levels. NEXT WEEK!!! Ahem.
4. I need something new. I was eating granola and yogurt, but my stomach can’t deal with the heaviness of granola right now. I’ve been making banana bread every week, but I’m starting to get tired of it.
5. Swim yes. Swimming is a must when you grow up in Los Angeles. Bike riding…um nope.
So my cousin, she says to me. It’s been a year. Over a year now. Are you going to try dating?There are great dating sites out there, maybe you should try one?
Um no, I answer. I’m not ready. I don’t care to date. I’m not sure I will ever care.
You know, ever is an extremely long time.
Yes, I know that. I’m just not even thinking about it yet. Can we talk about something else though? What school did Trevor pick?
The conversation easily changes when I bring up her son and his college goals. He’s a high school football champion, getting a full ride. Boy got offered six full rides. Anyway, we talk kids for the next 15 minutes and then we hang up.
A year. It’s been a year. I don’t….
Can I be honest? Are you guys okay with that?
I’m still in love with Logan. Not in the, I’d get back together with him, way. Nor in the, I’m sitting here pining away for something lost, type of way. Those ships have both sank. Dam icebergs.
Yet, I am still in love with him. I’ve never loved anyone else. I don’t know that I’m capable of moving past this. I don’t know how to date. I’ll be completely honest, it doesn’t interest me in the least right now. The thought of dating really hasn’t crossed my mind. Not in a positive way at least. The thought of trusting someone else? I can’t imagine that. He was all I have ever known. Maybe he was it for me.
I didn’t ask for him to leave me. I’d of stayed with him forever, no matter what. I have learned to live without him. Mostly. I’m still working on that in some ways. I have gotten stronger. I do what I want, when I want and how I want. He might have broken me though. Maybe I broke me. I’m not exactly sure yet.
However, I don’t know that I believe in marriage anymore. I don’t know that I’d ever want to do it again. Truly, I can’t imagine dating right now. Maybe I’m just not there yet. Maybe I’ll never be there. Does it matter? Do I fail life if I raise amazing kids and end up alone?
Some days I’m lonely. Some days I wish I had someone there when I went to bed and when I woke up. I had that though and it was amazing. How can anyone ever compete with what I thought I had? Would I ever want anyone too? I don’t have answers. Just tons of unanswered questions.
What I am sure of is this: I am not ready to talk about dating. I am not ready to date. If that means there is something wrong with me as a person, well we’ll just add it to the already long ass list.
I think this is a first. Generally if ‘m going to do a, ask the Internet for help, it’s for me. This time though? It’s for my girls. Although they don’t know, because well…they don’t know about this blog. Anyway, that’s a whole other story. Moving on.
My girls are readers. Big readers. I am frankly running out of ideas of books for them to read. That is where you, my lovely and amazing readers come in. One of the things we do at night, (after dinner, baths and once Harrison is in bed) is read three chapters before bed. Out loud. Morgan reads one, Bailey reads one and then I read one to them. We read from three different books. Which would confuse and annoy some people, but it works okay for us.
Problem is, I’m running out of books.
Morgan can read and comprehend, at a 9th grade level. However, at just turned nine years old, she can’t really handle the 9th grade reading level content.
Bailey is six and can mostly read level 3 on the I Can Read books, but none of those really interest her any more. They are and I quote “so baby boring mom.” She for some reason can’t stand Junie B. Jones books, although a few years ago, Morgan loved them.
We have read all of the Percy Jackson series. Twice. We have just started book 7 of Harry Potter. We’ve read most, if not all of the Ronald Dahl books. We’ve read the Bunnicula series. For some reason, we all like series. I think it’s because we like hearing about the characters. Not that we haven’t read some great stand alone books. But series tend to win out. We have read The Secret Garden, The Little Princess and finished the Narnia series in the past month and a half.
I just downloaded the Boxcar books to my Kindle, in hopes that they like them. But after that? I’m not sure where to go. My mom gave me the complete works of Hans Christian Anderson, which I’m going to start reading to them tonight.
I have no problem buying older books. I’m just frankly drawing a bit fat blank when it comes to ideas. I look at Amazon and I get overwhelmed. We look in bookstores and wind up leaving with nothing, because the shelves and shelves of books overwhelms Morgan and I, while Bailey just wants to buy toys.
We need help.
What are your kids favorites? What were your favorite books at my girls ages? What say you, Internet?
I do. I lie to my kids. Innocent lies mostly. Lies to make my life easier. Lies to try and keep the magic of childhood alive for them.
I lie to my kids about Santa. Or well, I did for years. Now both of the girls know the truth, each told around age six by some punk kid at school. (Harrison doesn’t fully get it yet, but I plan on him believing in Santa as well.) When asked point blank by each of my daughters, I did tell the truth. I also made them swear to keep it quiet for other kids and their siblings. I believe in truth telling, when asked. I do. I find it to be important. You will never hear me tell my kids that the stork brought them to my doorstep.
I have never seen how it’s an issue. I see the distinction. Lying about Santa hasn’t ever been a big deal. It’s believing in what you can’t see. It’s being innocent. It’s believing in magic. How is that bad?
I guess to some people, it is bad. Any lying is horrible. We should all tell our children the truth. All the time. If we will lie to them about Santa, we are setting them up for failure later in life. At least that is what I hear from certain people who don’t tell their kids any lies ever.
Can you imagine that? Never, ever, ever lying to your children? Their are people online who claim they never do. Not about Santa. Not about anything. There were a few people who said as much in this post by Mom 101′s post on Santa last week.
I asked a few people I know locally. I had a woman tell me that she never lies to her kids. She tells them the truth about everything. They know about her budget/money issues. They do not believe in magic of any kind. They will never not know reality, were her exact words.
It was eye opening for me. Kind of sad in a way. That someone’s 9, 5 and 3 year olds should only know reality. Reality seems very harsh for a three year old child. It’s harsh as an adult. Why in the world should a three year old know that yet?
I don’t even necessarily care if you tell your kids the truth about Santa. Some kids prefer to know. Some figure it out. Some are Jewish. Or whatever. There are always going to be kids who don’t believe in Santa. I mean I wish those kids wouldn’t ruin it for other kids. But that’s part of life.
It was the, I never lie to my children that didn’t sit right with me. Really? NEVER?
I’m calling that a giant lie right there.
You never told your kids that broccoli are little trees? That the ice cream is all gone? That you were “wrestling” with daddy? Ahem.
You’ve never told any lie? I just don’t buy that.
Dora is napping. Lucky the dog went to live on a farm. Spotty the fish is swimming to the ocean now.
If you keep rolling your eyes at me, one day they will get stuck up there. How will you feel then?
Oh this? This is monster spray. It gets rid of all the monsters. Milk makes you grow strong muscles like Daddy. Green beans? Oh they make you super tall like Uncle. You want to be super tall don’t you?
McDonald’s is closed today. The park is closed today. Disney World is only open for kids over ten.
Oh that song by Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA? Oh it started skipping badly on iTunes, so I had to delete it.
Oh these Peppermint Joe-Joe’s are spicy son.very spicy. Ow. You wouldn’t like them. Here have a Chips Ahoy.
Some of those are just mine. I am funny, in that, I tell my children the truth on big things. Yet, I will lie to them on small innocent things, as witnessed above. Life is harsh. I’ve explained cancer, death, divorce, suicide, war and the Holocaust all in the past year. I won’t lie on those things.
My children know the correct names of their private parts and we’ve had many discussions about what is okay touching and what isn’t. I will never sugar coat that one. As much as I wish I could.
Yet the small, innocent, doesn’t hurt anyone, yet makes my life easier lie? I’m all for it.
I’m not alone either. I asked Twitter. Here were a few examples.
That was a great one. I need to remember it next summer.
This will come to bite you on the butt in a year or two friend, but I commend you on your answer to a seven year old. Sometimes, they don’t want to hear the truth.
I do this one all time. With Elmo. With Cars. With Toy Story. This is called, sanity saving.
Been there, done that. It only works until they learn where you hide it. Actually then they start using it back on you.
I got a lot of answers like this. I can text, email, call Santa. I myself used it for years.
I love that one. Pretty sure I used it a time or two in the past.
Little lies. Parents….well most parents tell them every now and again. Is it going to make our children all become ax murderers? Somehow I doubt it.
So…what say you? Do you lie to your kids?
Welcome to Wednesday questions, my new posting idea. Which I will likely forget about next week and you’ll never hear of it again. Hey…at least I’m consistent right? Did I tell you I quit 30 Days of Truth? Probably not. I just stopped doing them. But I did quit. I’m very good at quitting. I quit soccer after three practices. Although in my behalf, I have no athletic ability and I literally can’t see a ball coming at my head until it hits me. I quit ballet, gymnastics and swimming, each when it got too competitive. I really don’t have a competitive bone in my body.
I’ve only quit one job. Well, quit with no notice. It was at a movie theater. I lasted one day. The smell of popcorn made me sick. I was 16 I believe. Every other job, I’ve stayed at for years. I’d like to quit the one I have now, but I’d need to find something better first. After New Years, I plan on starting looking.
The thing I regret quitting the most, is the piano. I quit piano at 13, after having played for 8 years. I had to play in front of a large, large group of people at ULCA and I didn’t want too. My teacher stated it was mandatory. So I quit. I’ve never again played since that day. My mother kept the piano for three years after that and I wouldn’t even look at it. I was pretty good too. It’s something I want to get back to some day. When that day is, I’m not sure. But I’ll get there.
So today’s questions for the class are about quitting.
1. Have you ever quit something and regretted it?
2. Have you quit something that you absolutely didn’t regret?
3. If you could quit one thing today what would it be?
4. When you quit something, do you feel guilty? Even if it’s small like a game?
5. Do you think people have quit commenting on blogs, because of Twitter?
**Random photo leftover from my trip last week. It was just a funny thing.
1. Am I the only one who feels like they spend all day saying to a toddler, please use your quiet voice? Even though, you have a sinking feeling that said toddler has no quiet voice?
2. Do I have the only child who says: What??? What? What? all the time? I swear to you, she has no problem hearing. She just says what to me whenever she is trying to ignore what I’m saying. Is this a six year old thing? I have no idea. I do know it’s making me insane.
3. Am I the only one who feels guilty sending their child back to school, after having been home for a day sick (She had pink eye. She’s no longer contagious. I think.), yet also you are overcome with happiness that said child won’t be at home all day? Because holy cow, you nearly had to sell her whiny butt on EBay yesterday.
4. Am I the only one who hears a new saying on Twitter and takes it and uses it on their kids? As an example, I tend to say to my kids, I need you to find your listening ears please. I’ve said it for years. The other day I was on Twitter and QueenofSpain said, I’m really tired of saying, please be a first time listener. DUDE, that is a great line. I decided to steal it. Or well I asked Erin, if she’d like to trade. I’ve only managed to say it a few times, but it’s given them pause. Ha. Might work a little better for a while, since it’s new.
5. Do you actually like turkey?
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