Monday Madness- My Thankful List

In the midst of all the madness, I still have a lot to be thankful about. Here's just a few...

-The hubs still thinks I'm cute.
-Chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven.
-Witty colleagues.
-Healthy work environment.
-A daughter who cleaned both bathrooms and helped with the kitchen WITHOUT BEING ASKED TO DO IT. (I do believe the heavens parted and angels sang!)
-A paper written by the Z1 listing his favorites. His favorite person? His mom. (Yes, I cried. Shush it, Karen!)
-A business partner who, when we started the business, we swore that we would stay business partners first and friends second. Yeah. Didn't happen. I'm glad friendship wins. :)
-Catching up on my paper mountain.
-Isight catchup with a good friend.
-A sale of something I've been obsessing over for 8 months. Buyer's remorse. A little. But I'm thankful it will go away as soon as the package arrives. :D

Yours, reveling in this crazy ride,

Melissa

Friday Funny- Innate or Learned?

The other day I was recounting to a friend how quiet my son was when younger. He didn't really start talking in longer conversations until about age 4. About that time, my daughter was two. She went from two word phrases to lengthy monologues.

And the question still goes unanswered. . . born that way, or do they learn it?

Yours, wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Melissa

Friday Funny! My Son, the Problem Solver

So Sunday morning I was asleep in the basement. (Not to worry- it's finished. I was not sleeping in a cellar). and I awoke to the sound of the Aflac Duck. Except two octaves higher and five minutes longer. My daughter, Z2, was on the second floor, screaming at her brother, Z1.  Seriously, she sounded like a pterodactyl on attack. Not something you want to hear even on mornings when you have gotten sleep (which I hadn't, but that's an entirely different post).

So I trudge up the stairs and sort it out. Well, kind of, I think. It is hard to remember in my sleep deprived stupor. I feel my way back downstairs into the kitchen where I proceed to grope my way to the coffee maker.  Make some coffee, just getting ready to sit down when my son, Z1 comes up to me with duct tape and scissors.

"Here, Mom," he says. "You can tape her mouth shut. I'll help. I've always wanted to."

I am not even lying!   What the heck do you say to that?

Yours, wondering what day I will wake up and find a tape-induced silence in the house,

Melissa

SASSY PANTS MONOGRAMS & ACCESSORIES

***This giveaway is now closed***

CONGRATULATIONS TO TWINCERE FOR WINNING THE SASSY PANTS GIVEAWAY! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

Sometimes I REALLY wish I had a baby girl. This is one of those times. After taking a look at what Sassy Pants Monograms & Accessories has to offer, I began visualizing a mom (me) putting little bows and headbands on a little girl (oops, I only have boys). Sigh!

(Okay, let me be PERFECTLY clear here. As much as I’d love to dress up and play dollies with a daughter, I do NOT want it badly enough to go for another child. Twin boys is enough for me!)

Sassy Pants has unique Personalized Gifts, Home Accessories, Jewelry, Purses and Baby/Children's Merchandise. They also offer a Monogramming Service to personalize your items, which often times is included in the price! If you can't find what you are looking for, the owner, Elizabeth Wolf, can help you create that perfect gift!. She truly enjoys assisting people in finding unique gifts for themselves and others! And just to add icing on the cake, Elizabeth is a Work At Home Mom of two adorable girls! (Oh, sure, SHE gets to play dress up with her daughters!)

They have an amazing assortment of products. From bows to purses to flip flops to monogrammed cell phone holder decals. Which, by the way, is one of the items that Elizabeth is offering to the lucky winner of our giveaway. You can win either the Cell Phone Holder Decal or the Car Decal.

One of my very favorite products that Sassy Pants offers is the Toddler Interchangeable Head Band. It’s an adorable headband on which you can change out the bows so your little girl is always color coordinated. How cute is that?

GIVEAWAY:

The president of Sassy Pants Monograms & Accessories, Elizabeth Wolf, has generously offered either the Cell Phone Holder Decal (a $9.99 value) or the Car Decal (a $19.99 value). The contest will end on July 29th at midnight CST, when the winner will be picked at random.

HOW TO ENTER:

Primary Entry: Go to the Sassy Pants website to check out what they have to offer. Let me know which product is your favorite.

*This entry is mandatory to allow additional entries!

Additional Entries (be sure to leave a comment for each entry):

• Subscribe to my blog via email
• Join my blog using Google Friend Connect
• Follow me on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway (remember to use @karmelpub when tweeting)
• Blog about this giveaway and provide a link back to here
• Grab our button and place on your blog

This contest is open to US mailing address only.
Only one person from mailing address eligible to win.
(will send out an email to the winner and you will have 48 hours to respond back to me or I will pick another winner.)

GOOD LUCK!

He's a Good Elephant

You all know I'm a musician. One of my current gigs is an Arts School in town and we just finished our production of Seussical the Musical. I somehow managed to talk my husband into bringing the kids last night. We figured it's time for them to be able to start sitting through something besides a TV show or school. And since the musical was a shortened version of the Broadway production (cut down to 1:10 as opposed to 1:45), I thought this might be a good place to start.

I love being a musician and entertainer. At the core of it, I love it because music, theater, art, whatever media you are working with has the inherent ability to move something on the inside of people. And if you are lucky, you might inspire someone or make them stop and think. And if you are really working hard at it, you just might take people on a journey and let them forget life for awhile.

I just didn't expect to get to do that with my OWN kids.

They slipped in last night as the curtain was coming up. From what I gather, Z2 sang along almost the entire time. Apparently she has "relocated" the Seussical CD to her CD player and has learned all the music. And in the scene where Gertrude McFuzz eats the berries from the pillberry bush to grow her tail, Z2 whispered (think soft roar) to everyone around her,"MY mom made that bush! She did! That's her at the piano! See her? That's MY mom!"

Yes, plenty of giggles ensued.

When I got home last night, Z1 was still awake. I asked him what he thought and he said,"Mom, I want to be Horton one day. He's a good man. Well, good elephant."

Yes, the flowers I got last night are beautiful. The applause, I'll admit, I loved it. And it's wonderful to hear how much people liked it and appreciated our hard work. Working with other peoples' kids- mostly rewarding.

But when you make your own kids proud, when you take them on an adventure, when you stop and make them think without a lecture or some form of discipline, when you connect with what's on the inside of them, that's better than anything else I can think of.

Yours, relishing the rewards of such an unexpected adventure,

Melissa