What is with the goodie bags?

I know it will come as a shock to most of you, but it's been about 25 years (give or take a few years...take, please) since I've been in preschool/kindergarten but I haven't lost much of my memory yet.  I can not, for the life of me, remember ever getting goodie bags when a classmate had a birthday.  What I do remember was said classmate's mother sending in cupcakes/munchkins and maybe sippys to celebrate the birthday.  Jenna's birthday is in November and the last two years she's been the first birthday of the new school year.  Her first year, I brought in some munchkins and was able to be there when they celebrated.  This year, I bought cookies and sent them in for the class to share.  Well, it seems I am the uncool mommy!  Apparently, I didn't receive the memo about full blown class parties...some with balloons and all!  Some parents are bringing in full sheet cakes, bunches of balloons, presents for the birthday child and goodie bags for all the classmates.  WHAT!?!?!?!  So now we are expected to throw our children 3 parties...one for the family, one for the friends and one for the class?  I'm sorry, but I am sticking with the old school way of celebrating a birthday in class.  Unfortunately, I feel like my children will be the ones to suffer. :(

Click here to vote 

They Like Me...They Really Like Me!

I have been accepted to Top Mommy Blogs.com!!!  Blogging was just something to do to pass the time but I am really getting into it.  To be accepted to Top Mommy Blogs.com is awesome!  It is a viewer voted website that has all Mommy Blogs on it.  I am among a very wonderful group of bloggers and I couldn't be happier!  Please take a moment to vote for me!  Thanks in advance!!

Click here to vote!

Potty Training...FAIL

Emily - 1, Mommy - BIG FAT ZERO!
We were doing so well!  Emily went on the potty 4 times yesterday morning and we were rocking and rolling!  Well, I made the mistake of letting the kids go into the playroom and she had 2 accidents in there.  I put a diaper on her for nap and was hoping for a fresh start after nap.  She didn't go on the potty once after nap...she went on the floor 9 times and on me 3 times! 10 times of that was within a matter of 10 minutes.  I totally thought I was being punked!  I decided to take a break and start fresh this am.  When I put a diaper on her, it was FULL within a matter of minutes.  She woke up with a FULL diaper and went on the potty. YAY!! We were off to a great start.  We hunkered down in the kitchen again ready for a full day of going on the potty.  I had to leave to take J & C to school so my uncle came to sit with Em.  She had an accident but ran right to the potty to finish.  Ok, I can handle that.  She went one more time on the potty and I was convinced we were going to get it right today.  Well, egg on my face.  She proceeded to have 3 accidents within minutes of each other and that was it.  I think she still might be a bit young and I don't want to push her to do it.  She will be ready when she is ready and, I know, she will let me know when that is. 

Potty Training time for Emily

The time has come for Emily to be potty trained...at least that is what I am telling myself.  I am SO done with diapers.  Yes, I know R is still in diapers but I only have to change her 2-3 times a day...that I can handle.  :)  Plus, we got the wrong overnight diapers and Em is soaking through her clothes every night (2 times last night) and I am done with all the extra laundry too. I know, that doesn't seem like a reason to potty train an almost 2 year old but I am giving it a shot.  I am using the same method with Emily that I used with Jenna.  It's the bare bottom method and it worked wonders for Jenna.  The first day was HELL but the 2nd day was heaven (she even took a nap without a diaper) and she was fully potty trained in 3 days! (no diapers for nap or bedtime!) :)  Matt's sister-in-law had trained our niece and was my go to mom with potty training.  I remember calling her after only 2 hours of training Jenna, ready to give up.  She assured me it would get better and it did! :)  Ok, so we are less than 2 hours in with Emily and she has gone on the potty 2 times already!!  WOO HOO!! My only concern  is the whole keeping her bare bottom for at least 3 months.  It's cold out there! We will see how it goes. So far, so good..keeping fingers crossed!

Google that sh**!

I love Google!  I do!  And I'm not even getting paid to say that. :)  I wish I had Google at my fingertips at all times because whenever I don't know the answer to something or need to find some information, Google is my go to search engine.  Matt always laughs at me because whenever he asks me a question about something my answer is, "I don't know...Google that sh**!" :) Come to think of it, I SHOULD get paid for this!

MDE Vacations Update

So I emailed a nice email to the company letting them know of my experience.  Received an email today with a "coupon" for a 5 days/4 night vacation in Orlando.  Of course, they must think I am a total idiot because it requires I take a tour or listen to their timeshare spiel (haven't I listened to enough of their spiels?) or pay $498 to forgo the tour.  Come on now...like I wasn't going to read the small print?!?  This isn't over mde! 

'Tis the Season for Scammers

Now, I don't necessarily know that MDE Vacations is a scam but it's one of those "too good to be true" things.  Matt received a phone call this afternoon from MDE saying they had a wonderful promotion to offer him with a trip to Orlando.  Of course, being the wonderful husband that he is, Matt gives the woman permission to talk to me....whadda guy!  I got on the phone and listened for about 20 minutes to this chick explain the great promotion she had for us.  I am sure she was reading from a script because she took few breaks and just kept the information coming.  I was taking notes the best I could and was planning on asking her to send me the paperwork on this wonderful promotion.  When she finished and explained how much this wonderful opportunity would cost us, I asked her if I would be able to speak with my husband and call her back (since she informed me, in the beginning of her spiel, that they only call once to accommodate all of the lucky people to get this promotion.)  She put me on hold to see what she could do for me.  Then comes Robert, one of the promotional directors, on the line to lower the cost of this wonderful promotion and include another cruise (that's 2 cruises people!) as well as Companion Airline Vouchers (cause how else can we get to these wonderful places?).  That sounded great and I asked Robert if I could possibly call him back after speaking with my husband and he said "what's the issue?  Isn't he there right now?".  I really didn't feel like discussing this with some stranger on the hold.  As I was explaining this to Robert, he hung up on me while I was mid-sentence.  I did not appreciate that.  I called the phone number on the website that Robert had given me when I asked for this wonderful promotion in writing and had to leave a message. Apparently they are a "green" company and do not do mailings. Another one of the Directors called me back within 20 minutes which I really appreciated.  She told me Robert is an exemplary employee and would not hang up on anyone, we must have been disconnected.  I told her she should go back and listen to the recording of the conversation that Robert and I had (which he also told me when I asked for the promotion in writing) because I know when I'm hung up on and I didn't appreciate it.  I told her that Robert, the exemplary employee, did not even know the license number of the company when I asked him for it and he was annoyed when I asked for it.  She said that was a Directorial thing and he has only been a Director for a few months.  All she had was a bunch of excuses and was making me feel stupid.  I explained we would not be taking her up on this wonderful promotion and requested we be removed from their database. Beware of MED Vacations!!  We filled out an entry form at a Somerset Patriots games back in July and the small writing on the back (who reads the back of those things) apparently said they would be calling us. This is sad too cause it WAS a great deal! ;)