How sweet am I?

I took this test and it said that I was sooo nice and super smart.  Look

Chris, you’re an Observer!

This means you’re one of the more kind-hearted people around. You are unusually intuitive, and you probably understand yourself, as well as others. That also means you’re a good mediator — though you may prefer to spend more time on your own than most.

You are better equipped than many to steer your life in the right direction. Understanding more about the components of your personality will reveal unique information that even people like you might not realize. And the better you know yourself, the more confident you’ll be making decisions that affect your life.

And that’s just scratching the surface!

Doesn’t that mean that everyone should listen to me?  I’m always right?  I’m sure it does.  You can take your own quiz here: http://web.tickle.com/

And let me know what your results are. 

What the dillio is?

 

 

I started a Myspace page a couple of weeks ago.  I’m not sure exactly why.  I think it was so I could look at my friend’s pages that can only be accessed if you have a page.  I’ve heard a ton about it and people have said how it and facebook are so addictive but I just don’t get it.  I keep waiting with a sense of expectancy for something cool and awesome to happen.  Mostly, I just leave funny comments on my friend’s pages because I don’t know what else to do.  I don’t get what all the hype was about.  What is so magical?

I’ll add my myspace link to the blogroll if you want to visit.  Maybe I just need more traffic for the real fun to begin.  When I built my page, it was sort of a joke at first.   I thought I would make it more the ‘hood’ side of me.  Maybe you didn’t know that I have that in me, maybe you do.  My new favorite artist, Lupe Fiasco has a few songs on there.  You should listen to them.  He rocks and he writes intelligently.  Not just the normal songs about crystal and bling, which I thoroughly enjoy too but on a different level.  My 2 favorite songs of his right now are Hip-Hop Saved My Life & Daydreamin in case you only have time to watch a couple, fast forward to those.  You might recognize Superstar too. 

So here is my request, someone tell me what the deal is?  What is so addictive about Myspace?

Immunizations and Autism

Since the debate over immunizations and autism has come up, I figured I would do some research and see what I could find.  Here are some interesting articles. 

http://autismmedia.org/media14.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8336821/

http://www.909shot.com/Diseases/autismsp.htm

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/autismfactsforparents.pdf

http://www.immunizationinfo.org/immunization_issues_detail.cfv?id=140

http://www.essortment.com/all/immunizationsda_rkcd.htm

One thing we know for sure is that there has definitely been a massive increase in kids with autism in the last 20 years.  There has to be a cause of it and I think it behooves us all to ask our governent to make sure that there is no chance that they are related.  Not just that there isn’t any proof that it does cause it.  How about proof that it does not?  We know for a fact that the U.S. government believes that there are negative effects to some children or they would not have set up a fund meant to specifically pay those who have been harmed by immunizations.

Having said that, have my kids gotten their immunizations?  Sure.  They are completely up to date on all their shots and I’ll continue to get them.  But I can’t blame the millions of parents that have autistic kids for asking why there has been a 500% increase in the last decade.  500%!!!!  That’s a terrifying number.  Until we have answers, people need to keep questioning.

Happy Birthday Emilee!!!

This past weekend, we celebrated my niece Emilee’s birthday.  It was her first birthday and a special time of course.  Every child’s first birthday is a milestone and celebrated but as I sat watching her smile and clap, I thought about what a huge blessing this was. 

Take that patience

You know when it’s not ok to back up?  When you don’t have enough room.  I assumed everyone with a valid driver’s license was aware of this but I just met the person that didn’t.

I was at a drive thru window, picking up some lunch for the kids.  I gave the lady at the first window my card and waited as she swiped it.  There were 2 cars in front of me and as I waited, I saw an employee come out with a bag of food and hand it to the Bronco directly in front of me.  The other guy at the window was still chilling there but the Bronco was obviously done waiting.  She started backing up and I say ‘hey, what are you doing?’.  Now, I realize that she couldn’t hear me but talking to other driver’s is a habit that I’m ok with.  The lady working the first window can hear me so she turns and looks as the Bronco hits me.  It wasn’t a massive hit or anything but it was completely obvious that she really didn’t try not to.  If she hadn’t intended on hitting me, she wouldn’t have backed up at all since there was only about a foot of room.  I honk my horn like WTF???  And she gets out (without moving her car forward mind you) and looks at my bumper. 

“Sorry” she says “There’s no damage.  Sorry, he wouldn’t move in front of me.”

Now, I understand frustrating times when you are stuck behind some idiot and unable to move your car.  I think we’ve all had fantasies at those times of ramming them or driving over them.  But I’ve never thought to myself ‘I’ll just back into that innocent person behind me who’s just as stuck as me’.  I don’t know why.  I guess I just never saw it as an option.  If she was so frustrated that she just had to hit someone, why not the person who is causing the problem?  Why hit me?  I know she saw me.  My vehicle is massive.  You can’t not see me.

Besides that, she had just gotten her food.  It’s not like she got her food and then waited another 5min for the guy in front of her to leave.  Her complete time in line was only like 2min so far and as soon as they handed her the food, she threw it in reverse. 

I’m afraid that she was just an idiot.  And it’s sad when idiots get driver’s licenses.  I’m sure she’s the type of driver who just keeps going and going until she bumps the car in front of her while parking too.  Yeah, that jerk.  The sad thing is, some Cavalier almost did the same exact thing on Tuesday.  I don’t know… maybe I accidentally have my invisible shield engaged.  I better hurry up and find the off button.

He works hard for the money

I became a stay at home mom when I lost my insurance driving school bus for Kentwood Public Schools.  At the time, Emma was not even 2 and Gerrit not even a year old.  Money was tight with all the diapers we went thru and learning to survive off of less is a trying time.  So when a friend of mine mentioned that her son did taste testing for a place and received gift cards for it, I was intrigued.  She told me that they went and tried different foods and were given gift cards to a local grocery store for their time.  This sounded like a dream come true to me.  Gerrit’s favorite activity was eating and now he would get paid to do it?  Even better, the place was a few miles from my house.  Wow!

The first time I took him, we had to drop Emma off at Sandy’s house.  I knew this would be difficult since

Spring Break 2008

We may not have had fabulous weather or sandy beaches of Florida, but we did have fun.  I tried to plan a ton of fun things for the kids to do so they wouldn’t notice that Dan was gone again to Indiana.  I’m not sure if I accomplished that goal but at least we had a good time.

Tuesday, the kids went to Emma’s friends (Kyla & Breanna) house.  I had some things that I had to take care of while they played and Nicole (their mom) was great and watched them so I could get it all done.  We all went to Taco Bell for lunch and Emma shocked us all by eating 2, yes 2, whole tacos.  Holy cow! 

Why do I do this?

It’s my natural personality to just procrastinate and wait until the last minute for most tasks.  Order and preparation are not naturally honed skills for me.  I watch “Friends” and Monica just amazes me with her love of cleaning and order.  Yeah, I know she’s not a real person but people like her really do exist.

In the last 8 months, I have tried to learn these skills and utilize them in my everyday life.  My house (for the most part) has been pretty organized (for me at least).  I’ve gone thru all the closets and as they started to pile up again, I’ve returned to strike down the clutter dragon that seems to lurk in them.  I’ve tried to pick up items when leaving the room to stay on top of the toys, books, dishes, stuff that inevitably makes it’s way away from it’s ‘home’ and ends up on the floor and/or the tables/couches.  It really does not take a lot of time before it’s overwhelming to me and I feel like I need massive help getting it good again.  So I’ve tried to learn to do a little everyday and keep it within 15min of being ‘company clean’.  Flylady was a great tool in teaching me the little steps and for those of you who are orderly retarded, such as I, I highly recommend it for at least a couple months.

But every now and then, I get a colossal reminder of the demon that I wrestle with.  Procrastination… ugh!  My nemisis.  How I love to procrastinate.  And I don’t even know why.  Dan always points out that because of it, I am in a feverish panic and often miss out on a decent amount of sleep because of it.  This was a big reason why I tried to stop cold turkey. 

Tax time has reminded me of this awful trait that I carry.  Here it is, a few days from the deadline and I still don’t have it all together.  My appt with the accountant is tonight at 5pm.  It’s 2:45 right now… why do I do this to myself?  Why don’t I learn?  I keep telling myself that next year, I’ll do better but deep down I know… next year will come and I’ll be right here in the same spot.  Frantic, tired and frustrated.