For Mom, for you, for everyone!

I'm teaming up with SanDisk this Mother's Day to offer you one great prize- The Cruzer Gator. This is one sweet flash drive too. The Cruzer Gator is stylish with its mock alligator design and cuts a unique profile in a purse, briefcase or wherever you want to store it. It looks good just sitting on your desk too. It is definitely not your standard corporate flash drive. It's 8GB! So you can upload and store not just documents but a whole slew of photos to share with friends and family for a long time.

So what's the catch?

It's simple really. Just send in your favorite photo of you and your mother (or mother figure) from any time, it doesn't have to be from a Mother's Day past. It can be sweet, touching, wacky or fun. Let us know why you love it too in just a few words. Don't have a photo of you and your mother you want to use? Then send a photo of you and your kids together that you particularly love. The same criteria applies.

There are many chances to win this great Mother's Day prize and I'll be posting up the winning photos on Friday, May 9.


Send all photos to veamason AT gmail DOT com.



Now to get you started is a favorite photo of my own. This is my mother holding a two week old TD for the first time. They kind of look alike don't they?

I Still Need My Mommy

Here I am 31, with a toddler, a mortgage and two cars. No garage. There's even a dog and three bedrooms with actual furniture in them and flower beds. Pretty grown up huh? Heh.

Then the mole happened. The mole with 'suspect' margins. There will be further removal on Wednesday. A nice chunk I've been told. Excellent. There's nothing I like more than having my breast sliced open first thing in the morning. I mean come on! You have your morning coffee, get in the car, and a little while later some humming, chuckling MD is using terms like cutterage and you think, "Wow. I didn't even get flowers or dinner first."

Then your husband has to go away to another state for the day and you scheduled a party with invitations and everything for the very next day. Too late to cancel and bags of products to lug and too much need for too many sitters that you can't afford. All I can say is this, "I want my Mommy!"

So she's arriving today, because frequent flyer miles ROCK. $5 for a flight cannot be beat and she'll be here to take care of T.D. and me for a few days while I moan about my stitched boob and try not to wait too hard for the biopsy results.

Despite a powder room, rec room, and fully stocked fridge, silk draperies, and running a business, sometimes I still need my Mommy.

Oh and did I mention that when I found out that little cancer cells were hanging out in my body I had to literally fight the urge to just claw at my chest and rip them out myself?

Nankeen Style!

Mummy's Product Reviews has new stuff up! Check it out on Friday for Fun Finds Friday too! Beautiful bags and pillows here! Or click on the beautiful link in green to the right.


As an aside thanks to all those of you who pointed out that what my Mom was saying was a compliment. I know. I just thought the whole delivery was funny. Almost a Whew! from my mother as in, "Thank God you are actually talented and not just sitting there at home fooling yourself. I'm relieved." Because until recently I never let anyone read anything I had done unless is was academic.

Overheards

Scene: My house. Me on the phone with my Mother.

Mom: You know that email you sent with the link on that piece you wrote?

Me: Yes....

Mom: Well, it just brought me to the main site. There were tons of them. I didn't know which one was yours, none of them had a name to them.

Me: Oh. I thought I sent a link to my latest article. Just that one. Not to the main site. Hm....I could have sworn...well it was the book review, 'Bright Lights, Big Ass'.

Mom: That one? Oh! I read that one! Well, that one was quite well written! I didn't know you wrote that one!

Me: Thanks! (Mentally banging head down on table or other hard surface.)

The Impossible Dream?

Last year was my first Mother's Day. It did not go as planned. I woke up early and dragged H and a two-month old T.D. out of the house into the early morning fog and drizzle to do a charity walk- The Y-Me Walk to Empower. It's held each Mom's Day in many major cities.

When we got home I was exhausted, cranky beyond belief, and pretty much a massive beast. I only wanted a nap and that didn't happen. I wanted to be alone. That didn't happen either. When it didn't happen I just became more of a wretched evil pain. Why did this happen? It's not because H didn't want to please me, it was simply the fact that I didn't voice what I actually wanted. I felt bad saying, "On my very first Mother's Day I want the house to myself. Go."

This year I have already stated what I want. No cooking, sleeping in, and I may leave the house for a while alone. I will not be cleaning up either. To me, Mother's Day is my "official" day off if I so choose. Same goes for Father's Day by the way if your undies were getting into a "that's not fair!" bunch.

I know for a fact that this is what A LOT of Mom's want for their day. Yet they often don't get it. So I ask you- what it is you want this Mother's day? Put your comments here and we'll see what the consensus is.

** REMEMBER** Friday we'll be having some prizes and a fun Blog Carnival happening here so check back!

Happy Monday!

It's a cold, blustery day and it feels more like January than mid-April. The weather is seeping into my soul making it a gooey, slightly sticky, clumped with allergen inducing dust bunny darkened mess. I lurched downstairs to head to the office, ignoring the howling winds outside my door. My coffee in hand I decided to check out my site meter. I do this weekly just to get stats, see who's reading and who's not, etc. I found a link I didn't know about.
Mothers Day Central and there I was listed as one of the Top 100 Mom Blogs! Seriously!?! ME?!

I mean I like me. Most days. I just had no idea other people liked me like that. It was the push I needed to see and hear. Sometimes I wonder if anyone is really reading this, if I am actually good at this blogging/writing thing, and whether or not I should even keep going. So I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my readers and supporters. I love that you all always know when to tell me I'm doing something good and it's just when I need to hear it.

It also makes me beg the question- who on earth nominated me? Step forward! I wish to thank you publicly. A question that is always on my mind is also who are my readers? I would love to know you better. Drop me a line, check in and say hi, tell me what you like about the site and/or why you read it. I would love some feedback.

Again THANK YOU and it's great to see all my favorite blogs that you can find in my sidebar links also are on the list.

Cheers!

Sitcom Mom

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. I got whacked on Thursday with a flu so vile I had moments of whimpering worse than when I was in labor. "I can't do this, I don't want to do this anymore...sniff, sniff, sob, puke." Oh yeah, it was bad. Luckily for me and all involved in our tiny domain it did not last long. Nor has anyone else been brought down like a sack of bricks by this illness.

I went through Friday recuperating. H stayed home with T.D. to let me suffer in silence on the couch. I creeped around the house through the day feeling like a ninety year old woman who never took a drop of calcium in her life. Saturday however was a different story. H had to leave for the day. I had to be better. I was. Better too much probably. If that is even a phrase.

After trekking through the snow on an early morning Easter egg hunt and grocery store jaunt I decided to attack our house to rid it of its germiness. I felt the whole place was crawling with vermin I could not see. I organized the pantry, cleaned every bathroom, the floors were swept, my dresser deemed too messy to live was ripped to shreds and organized. I dusted, did laundry and dishes galore! I went nuts basically. Plain ol' nuts. I don't know quite what happened, but I was indeed like a woman possessed. What happens after all this zealous behavior? A breakdown of course! A classic, sitcom Mom style breakdown.

Easter Sunday dawned and I was supposed to be sleeping in. I couldn't with the shrieks of Easter joy that were coming from downstairs. T.D. in full on hyper toddler mode was flying around the room as if on some new type of joy juice. H lay on the couch as if dying. He wasn't. I made coffee. We breakfasted. We did the church thing. We came home and I started to feel myself cracking like a week old Easter egg. H made himself lunch while T.D. had a meltdown on the floor. He requested at least thirty minutes of "H time" alone. I abide. Mentally my mind ticked off the missed moments of Avon Walk training I had accumulated, work I don't get to accomplish, etc while he does what he needs to do. Now he wants alone time? I gripped the stove. T.D. continues to meltdown as I try to load the dishwasher, wish my parents a Happy Easter, and feed T.D. lunch. I give up on the first two and end up pushing T.D. in her highchair away from me as she throws her food at me one too many times. She screams, balks, and generally refuses lunch. Wonderful. I begin to twitch. FINE! I'll just clean up then. I'm good at that. As I load the egg encrusted breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and run the disposal a gurgling sounds erupts from the sink. Huh.

The sink is bubbling up some rather disgusting mess. So is the disposal. Huh. That's not normal. It won't stop. I reach into the murky water and find nothing. No clog. I run the disposal and more filth erupts. Awesome. I slam the dishwasher shut, slam the remaining dirty dishes back into the sink, and begin muttering. I grip the stove some more. I twitch. I get all twitchy witchy and find myself talking in a slightly high pitched whisper to the raisins in the pantry. I gather up T.D. and head up stairs. What do I do? Do I have a moment of zen? Do I Calgon Take Me Away with it all? Nope. I put away laundry. I'm a mess. I stalk about the bedrooms with towels and tiny socks. I wonder to myself when I stopped speaking up about needing my own downtime. When did I just acquiesce and say, "no it's ok, that you forgot that we do Easter cards and tiny gifts..."? That was not the old pre-T.D. me. Those things are still important to me. Yet, somehow I've faded a bit. I'm not sure that I like that. I cannot find my voice. I'm a silly parody of a banal sitcom. All "ooh don't go near Mom right now, she's a bit crazy today."

Later that night I am left alone as I "seem irritated" and what happens? I talk to my mom and all my alone time is sucked up doing that. However, I do have a hair appointment on Tuesday and it's pathetically sad at how much I'm looking forward to the fifteen minute car ride I have ALONE.


Now to put things all into perspective head on over to Izzy Mom and watch the You Tube video she has up. I have to say I got a bit teary. Geez.

Road Trip!

My mother called last night. She felt I needed directions of the utmost detail for their new house. T.D. and I are heading out for a few days into a land without internet. I'm scared. I will feel so alone. I will miss you internets. The conversation with my mother went something like this-

Mom: Ok, when you get to this route you will pass the casino. Really pass it. The whole thing. Don't be fooled by the other roads that seem like our roads. They are marked like that. So go pass the casino employee parking until employee lot 10. Lot 10. Employee Lot 10. Ok?

Me: Desperately trying to listen and not laugh as she confuses me with more and more details in what I know is really quite simple.

Mom: The road to our house is really narrow, winding and hilly. So hilly and narrow and winding that sometimes when you are going up a hill you might not see another car and the road is narrow so you have to be...

Me: MOM! I got it!

H: (He can't even hear the conversation but knows without a doubt what she is saying and yells) She's 30 years old and has a kid! I think she can figure it out!!!

Me: Burst out laughing finally and tell my Mom through gasps and guffaws what he just said.

Mom: Oh really? Well tell him I hope his baseball draft this weekend is total crap!

Ah family...

My Mom continued to point out park signs, fast food chains and other obscure tiny roads I should NOT take. I tried to filter it out and come up with a simple- turn right near the donut shop. Easy.

So we're off! T.D. and I head out to lands up north for a few days. Fear not! We'll be back Monday. They don't have an internet connection going yet up in those parts of them there woods. AT&T is slacking I guess. I'll try and post our adventures. For now know I'm probably EZ-passing near your town this week.