Friday Nights...Then and Now

Then: Primping with massive amounts of hot rollers and hairspray began around 5 PM. Much makeup was put on, clothing agonized over, and late 80's to early 90's music blaring from the stereo. My friends and I would pile into a car way too small to fit everyone (unless we took B's "Blue Bomb" or R's "Blueberry") and we would cruise the "strip", which was about a two mile stretch from an empty parking lot, around Sonic (when it was on the other side of the highway) and around Burger King and back. Repeat ad nauseum. Sometimes we rolled yards, kicked light poles to make the lights go off, and sang "Funky Cold Medina" at the top of our lungs. And all of this had to be done before my 10:30 PM curfew.

Now: A much needed long bubble bath while reading Real Simple after a day of cleaning and preparing for Cracked Daddy to come home. Toddler banging on the bathroom door ad nauseum. Pajamas by 8 PM. Cruising the net.

Peep This!

My friend Leigh is giving away a mini Mary Kay Timewise Skincare Set on her blog!! Go forth and have good skin!

Scared Into Action

Have you ever had to make do without electricity, food, or clean water for several days, or perhaps weeks? In February of 1994 our part of the state was hit by a crippling ice storm that left us without power for two weeks. No phones, no heat, most certainly no TV. Just flat out cold, dark, and boring. We survived....gas heated the house and we used it for cooking and heating water for baths. We had food and transportation. It could have been so much worse.

How prepared are YOU in the event of a natural disaster? Do you have an emergency kit stocked with medications, food, enough water per day for your household, and other items like pet food and plastic utensils?

I recently started reading a series of books that have totally snapped me to attention in this area. Besides telling you how wonderful the books are, this is also a PSA for YOU to make sure you are prepared.

The Restoration Series of books by Terri Blackstock are just awesome, awesome, awesome. I'm currently on the second book. There's four in the series, and I'm hoping she keeps them going. The first book, Last Light, begins with a strange global-wide power outage that happens suddenly. Only, it's much worse than you'd imagine. Something about this "event" leaves all cars with computer chips dead (think: you'd better have a bike), no clocks or watches will work, and it shuts down the water supply because no backup generator at a water plant will work. Imagine having to result to methods of the "olden days", like composting, growing food, fetching your water from a lake and having to treat it to clean it, keeping livestock, and digging wells just to survive. This very scenerio happens to a family that's got the world at their fingertips and living very comfortably. It's interesting to see what lengths they have to go through just to get through each day. And Blackstock ties this story up so neat and tidy that you will be rushing through the first book just to get to the next one. Some of the methods of survival this family has to use will also teach YOU a thing or two about unconventional ways of making do IF you had to. I don't want to give it all away, but these are by far some of the best books I've read in awhile.

So on that note, here are some links to help you prepare your own emergency kit for your family.

72hours.org Checklist
American Red Cross Disaster Supplies Kit
NOAA Hurricane Preparedness Kit
Pet Disaster Kit- Pawprints & Purrs
FEMA Disaster Kit

Some of the lists overlap, but some do have things that the others left off.

And lest you think I am a nut case, all I can say is that unless you have had to do without your creature comforts for very long, you can't truly appreciate how much these items would be a huge help until you NEED them.

Dunkin Donuts FREE Iced Coffee Day!!!

Just wanted to let you all know that TODAY, THURSDAY MAY 15 from 10 AM to 10 PM is FREE Iced Coffee Day at Duncan Donuts!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

I got turned on to Dunkin Donuts coffee in college. My very favorite professor was from "Up North" and he had the stuff delivered to his doorstep from the Dunkin Donuts website so he could brew it at home. It smelled heavenly everytime he brought his thermos to class, so I ordered some myself. And I was hooked. And the very best thing is that they now sell Dunkin Donuts coffee in the grocery aisle!! Hallelujah!! Which is really great for people like me who live over 200 miles away from the nearest DD. Which means I won't get the free iced coffee. But, at least I can start my day out with Dunkin Donuts at home, right?

The company anticipates giving away nearly 4 million cups of its award-winning iced coffee on May 15. That means:

Dunkin' Donuts will use more than 88 million ice cubes on Free Iced Coffee Day, and will pour approximately 31,250 gallons of cream.
You could fill 7 Olympic-size swimming pools with the amount of coffee that will be used on Free Iced Coffee Day.
If you lined up each cup of iced If you lined up each cup of iced coffee served on Free Iced Coffee Day lid-to-lid, the line would stretch for more than 236 miles.
If you stack up each cup of iced coffee served on Free Iced Coffee Day, it would reach nearly 300 miles into the sky, the vantage point of a typical space shuttle orbit.

AND...if you have a coffee loving Dad like I do, be sure and check out their Father's Day Gift Box!


OK, so if you get the free iced coffee, be sure to come back here and gloat...um, I mean tell me all about it!

MommyFest

It's MommyFest time! In case you're visiting my blog from the MommyFest linky, welcome!

I'll start my post off with a meme:


1. I have a degree in Political Science, a license to teach three different subjects, and I now work in a Christian bookstore which is totally, totally awesome.

2. Cracked Daddy and I have been married almost 9 years and we have a 3 year old son named EB. That's short for Energize Baby. Because he just keeps going and going....

3. We live in Mississippi.

4. We have two cats, Bonnie and Clyde. They were strays we took in almost 8 years ago and they decided to stick around. I don't blame them...they have it good here.

5. I love reading. I mean, really, really love it. I lose valuable sleep at night because I read so much.

And now.....

Now, of course I love my son and all that mush mush stuff, so I won't bore you with the details of that. But I will tell you some practical things I've learned since becoming a mom.

1. You had better read up on colic and reflux BEFORE you have a baby. It was a huge "welcome to parenthood" loop I was thrown for. Which lead to lack of sleep and mild PPD. At the time I thought I would never survive that stage of my son's babyhood.

2. Baby boys sure can pee far.

3. Don't be so hard on yourself or let others influence your motherly instincts so much. Seriously. So what if you don't breastfeed, have to have a c- section, or don't use cloth diapers? If your baby is being loved and cared for, that's all that matters.

4. Grandparents seriously rock for so many reasons.

5. You'd better soak up every moment of your child you can. It goes way, way too fast.

If you haven't checked out MommyFest head on over!