Monday of Vacation

We did a whole lotta nothing on Christmas eve. We ate way too much junk food and laid around on the couch. We played Frisbee golf. That was fun. The weather wasn't too cold like we had expected to it was good weather to run around outside. We really had to trick Daddy into watching Lily because he swears up and down that he doesn't know how to babysit! We put her down for a nap, quickly told him that he was in charge and ran out the door.
I must admit...I am TERRIBLE at Frisbee golf. See, we even have it on video...

All the holes are par 3 and just like regular golf, getting a higher score than 3 is bad. Well, we shot 11 holes. I got a 6, 8, 2 9s, an 11 and the rest were 10s! As you saw in the video, I only could get the stupid thing to go about 5 to 10 yards at a time.

That night we went to the Opryland hotel to wander around and see their Christmas decorations. I don't have any pictures from that either so I'll have to wait until Daddy downloads his camera. At the end we let Lily loose in a hallway of the hotel and she ran and ran until she fell over.

Forgot to post these from the Parade

I just realized when working on my laptop that I had downloaded the pictures from the Candy Cane parade to this slow computer rather than the desktop wher I usually put my pics. So, these are from the Candy Cane Parade that Lily and I went to before Christmas. It is on the beach and was very fun. I don't have any friends with babies so Lily got to hang out with the adults. Tony held her the whole time and we took a bunch of pictures of them together to try and convince his wife (she wasn't there...she had to work) that they should have a baby too. I hope it works.

More Vacation

Once we got to David's house we had a hard time getting Lily to sleep so she slept in between Ross and I. Ugh. I hear about people who sleep with their babies all the time and cannot fathom how they do it. Neither Ross nor I got any quality sleep.


So, the next morning, Sunday, we went to church at Denton's Chapel. My family has been going here for generations and generations. The sister of my great great grandmother Lillian whom Lily is named after, was the first child ever baptised in this church and everyone in my family since has been baptised there too. So, it was really special that we got Lily baptised there as well. Both of my dad's sister came too. We were called up to the front at the beginning of the service and Lily did the funniest thing. She saw the baby Jesus that was set up in the front of the church and kept saying "Bay Bee, Bay Bee" over and over and then started to fuss because I wouldn't let her get down to play with him. Once the minister put the water on her head she froze. She looked right at him in such a serious face and looked as though she was understanding what he was saying. The whole experience was really nice except that Lily was so squirmy and loud during the service that I had to take her out. The church is teeny tiny (42 members!) so there weren't many places to go. We wandered around the big room that they use for banquets and such and it was really neat to see that they still had pictures of my Grandparents on the wall there. They were really active with the church and I know they loved it so it made me smile to see their pictures on the wall even though they both passed away over 10 years ago.
(that picture of the church here is an old one but it looks exactly the same at that)





After Church we drove down the road to see my Grandparent's house. My dad and Aunts sold it after they died and now it is up for sale again. The realtor happens to know my dad and Aunts (everyone knows one another!) and she goes to Dentons, so she offered to let us in to look around. It is the house that my Dad & Aunts grew up in and I have quite a few memories there too. The people who are selling it did a bit of work to the place. they added two bathrooms (there was only 1 before!) and cut out a bedroom. Added a porch and re-did the floors. We went into the basement and saw a beam that had markings of mine and David's height when I was 11 and he was 6. And Brandi, Richard and my height when we were 18, 16 and 6. So, we got a marker and marked Lily's height too.

Then we went across the street to take a look at what my dad calls "the home place" which is the family property that really is still in the family. We lived there when I was 4 but I only really have memories of the place from the outside. All the years growing up when we would go up to visit Ganny & Grandad there were people living there that were renters so we never went in. It is pretty run down now. It needs quite a bit of work if someone were to want to live in it. The funny thing is that I always thought the house was brick but it turns out it is faux. What a let-down!


We got a picture of Lily standing next to her Great Great Great Grandma Lillian's grave


Then on the way home we picked up food from a yummy fattening place called Fat Moes. Mmmmm

Back from Vacation

I am going to have to write about our trip in several posts because I just don't have the time to do it all in one.
I am so behind on work and it just makes me tired to think about how long it will be before I get caught up. I think I'm going to hire a babysitter to come over one day just so I can work.
Anyway. We went up to Tennessee for Christmas making stops in Huntsville and Atlanta.
We left early Saturday morning and flew to Atlanta. Lily was confused about the early wake up but did great on the plane. We got to the airport way early and it was surprisingly empty so Lily had a blast running up and down the long rows of chairs and pointing at the planes outside.
She was squirmy on the flight but it was only and hour and a half so we got through it pretty easily.
Daddy met us at the airport and we loaded in and drove to Huntsville. Lily started saying "Joe" (my dad's dog that used to be mine) within the first half hour of the trip. It was so cute.
Once in Huntsville my whole family came over to Grandma's house to have a little Christmas celebration. It was so fun. It is so nice to be able to be somewhere that I can just put Lily down and know that she'll be ok no matter if I'm in the same room or not. We don't really have that here at this age. Lily ran around and tried to get into as many things as possible. My cousins and Aunts tried their best to kiss her and hug her but she is too much on the move.
Lily must have been very good this year because she got so many great things. She got two new baby dolls, a cool blinky noisy key, a dress and three hats!
We stuffed ourselves and Lily refused to eat anything. Aunt Gertie dipped ice cream cones for all the kids and Lily had her first one ever. She wouldn't eat it at first but then once Ross taught her to put her finger in it then lick her finger she discovered that she liked it.
After the party we got back in the bronco and headed to Nashville.

Lily's new boyfriend

I absolutely love the way Lily says 'baby'. It sounds like "bay bee" with the emphasis on the 'bay'. Any doll or stuffed animal, as well as real children are identified as 'Baby' along with a finger point. So, the other day when I was dragging my suitcase out from the top of the closet and had to move the Gigantic Raggety Ann & Andy dolls (all four of them... for some reason I have Brandi's too) I figured it would be time to let Lily play with them.
Well, Zelda ate the legs off one of them when she was a puppy, so that was the real reason they were in the top of the closet. And, because they are so old and are really really cherished toys from my childhood, I only gave her one Andy doll (Brandi's of course) to play with. She LOVES it!
Every night part of our routine is to pick out a baby from the basket and put it in the bed with her. I have been struggling for three days now trying to reason with a 17 month old about the size of the doll and how a smaller doll would be better to sleep with.
So worth it...
One of my Aunts made these dolls for us. I need to find out which one and see if she still has the pattern. I would LOVE to make these precious dolls.

Man am I irritated! I've either got some sort of bug on BOTH of my computers or all the crazed Christmas shoppers have taken to the internet and slowed my connection to a crawl. I've been trying to upload these damn pictures for two hours now (well not 2 hours straight, but while I work in a seperate window) and they are still not up. Hopefully I can get it to work in the morning.

Getting involved in Politics

I've been trying to decide which political candidate to vote for. I'm still undecided but I am really trying to narrow down my options. Because of the stupid way our system is set up, I had to pick a party in order to be able to participate in the primary elections. Although I still disagree with some of their party values, I've changed my affiliation to Republican. So, also because of the stupid way our elections are handled, I've only been paying attention to the republican candidates for now because I have no say in how the democrats narrow down their choices. I spent my birthday watching the YouTube debate and taking notes. I still need to look up a few more things online but I've pretty much narrowed my decision down to three.

One of those three is Senator McCain. Yesterday I met up with my Aunt and cousins down in Miami to go hear him speak at a town hall meeting. It was pretty cool because the amount of political things I've actually participated in prior to this has been very limited. I had a question prepared and was ready to ask it but someone else got my question before I could get the courage up to ask it.

The only un-cool thing was that most of the questions proposed to him were asked in Spanish. He had a translator in his ear to translate it for him but we just had to figure it out by the answer he gave. Maybe next time I should go to the English speaking one.

Senator McCain was a POW with my uncle and my aunt volunteers for his campaign so he came over and talked to us after the meeting.

We got our pictures made with him. There was some other weirdo in the pic too, but I cropped him out. In the pic: my cousin Sandy, Me, my cousin Pamela, Senator McCain, my cousin Christian, and my aunt Charlotte.

Getting so mature!

Lily's vocabulary is getting so big and she is learning things so quickly. She will say or do things that just amaze me every day. She has turned into quite a copy cat too. Yesterday she came in the bathroom while I was peeing and pulled off some toilet paper, wadded it up and walked over to the toilet and tried to reach in to wipe for me! I quickly stopped her from being so "helpfull" and then she decided to sit on her little toilet and picked up a magazine. I guess she thinks that is where you are supposed to sit to read!
She tells me when she is hungry by saying 'eat, eat, eat' and that she wants juice or a banana. And she tells me when she has pooped too.
They say that putting words together is the next step in learning language so I can now say that she is at step two because she says 'all gone' when she has emptied her cup or finished her plate. Ok, so it sounds more like "gon, go" but I understand it.

Finally downloaded my camera!

Thanksgiving week a few of my old friends from Tally came over for a day and we had so much fun! We all used to work in a bar together and the last time we were all together we were hanging out in a stinky dingy bar with no windows. It was so funny how now we were sitting around talking without beer, without cigarettes, and it was DAYLIGHT and there were babies everywhere! It was great!
Lily and Ana are almost one month apart in age and Dean is only 4 months old.

The video is of Lily during the FSU-Florida game and her best attempt at the Seminole Chop. I've been trying all season to get her to do the chop and she is finally getting it. She's even doing the war chant!

Squirt gun

I have a bucket full of squirt guns and back when David was here he showed her how to use them. Her little hands are too small to pull the trigger without help but there is this little one that is shaped like a grenade that she can manipulate on her own. This is a video of her trying to wake up David.

Charity Auction!!!!

I've got another charity auction up! If you know anyone who may be interested please let them know.

First Lolipop

This was about the week after Halloween but I just haven't gotten around to posting it yet. David and I were standing in the kitchen talking and then all of the sudden I look down to see Lily standing there looking up at us eating a lolipop. I know that doesn't sound strange right off, but she has never had candy before, especially not a lolipop and she is just standing there with the entire thing in her mouth holding the stick just as casual as can be, like she ate them every day.

And the thing is, this was a tootsie roll pop too! Those things are HUGE.

David and I immediately just burst out laughing and I had to get the camera.

I was feeling very generous that day so I didn't take it away from her but I did make her sit down to eat it. I was not about to have to take a trip to the ER over it. So, David dug out the only other tootsie roll pop in the house and joined her ( I was hiding them because they are my favorite and I wanted to save them, unfortunately Lily can un-zip my backback )

Crazy Time

Lily has crazy time most evenings. Before daylight savings kicked in, we used to go out in the yard and play around for a little bit before bathtime, now, it is dark so we play inside. I think that Lily just gets it in her to laugh at this time. It doesn't take much to get her squealing and giggling during this playtime. If no one is playing with her she will just chase after Zelda squealing. I caught this video the other night of a game she and Ross had come up with. If you watch all the way to the end you can get a glimpse of the game she invented that I HATE. The 'let me pull out mommy's hairclip' game. I am growing my bangs out again so if I am not wearing a clip or something than my bangs get in my face and give me a headache. Lily thinks all clips are her playthings and will rip them out of my head.....eeerrrrrrr. Damn me for thinking it was cute to put a clip in her hair!

The cutest thing and then the grossest thing

This morning I've got my laptop sitting on the dining room table so I can get a little work done as Lily plays and she came over to the table and pushed her high chair back away from the table (the tray broke and we've just been sliding it up to the table instead of getting another one....we are so ghetto!) and started saying "eat, eat, eat" then pointed to her mouth. She is so smart! So as I put her in the chair she was saying "ban, ban, ban" and pointing to the bananas. So, clearly she is a girl who knows what she wants!
So, as I was opening a banana she says "poop, poop, poop". So, I stand her back up to see if she really has pooped. Yep, she's pooped all right and although it hasn't happened in a long long time, it was one of those that went all the way up her back. So, in the process of picking her up I ended up with it on my hands! YUCK!
It is such a gross way to start the day but so cute at the same times because Lily is getting so good at talking. When I grabbed a diaper and she said "dipe, dipe, dipe"

This funny little girl!

Lily will be 16 months old this week and she is so fun right now. I totally love this whole parenting thing so far. I am amazed at how quickly children learn and getting to see it everyday is wonderful. There are so many times when I sit down to pay the bills or when I see my friends getting to do things that we can't afford to do, that I wish that I worked a full time job. But then again, there significantly more times that I thank god that I am able to be here every day with Lily.
Lily does so many of the cutest things right now. When I pick her up and hold her in front of me she puts her arms around my neck and then fluffs out my hair saying "hair, hair, hair" which actually sounds more like "ha, ha, ha"
and her word for nose sounds like "nnna"
She is watching us intently. She got my make-up brush the other day and kept repeating 'eye' over and over while she tried to stick it in her eye.
I couldn't find my hair brush yesterday and I asked Lily if she knew where it was and she ran right into the bathroom and opened the drawer where it belonged!
She hugs Zelda and laughs and laughs as Zelda tries to wiggle loose. She picks up people's shirts to find their belly buttons. She moves her little chairs over to sit next to the big people chairs. She hugs her blanket and her babies and says "awwww" when she does it.
Now, there are a couple of not so cute things. She is obsessed with Bananas and will cry and squeal on the floor under where the bananas are kept pointing and saying 'ban, ban, ban'. She has actually pushed a chair over and tried to climb up there for them twice (smart, but too smart for her own good). She also has started to throw tantrums if you have to take something away from her (like that make-up brush she wanted to stick in her eye)
She keeps us all in a good mood right now. :)

I bought myself and early Birthday Gift

I couldn't resist. I had been hinting that I wanted this forever and the other day at Wal-mart I saw it and this model was $50 cheaper than the others I'd seen and it just so happened that I had just finished the most profitable week in my website's history, so....I splurged.

Of course I was immediately punished for my lack of self control.

We got it home and put it together and realized that we were missing the most important piece.... the one that holds it to the bike!

So, we took it all back apart and the next day went out early to take it back.

They didn't have another one so we had to go to another Wal-mart to get it there. Back in the hot no-AC car and back onto the highway and risk our lives yet again because my car shakes like it is going to fall apart the minute I go the slightest bit over 60.

Next Wal-mart. Very friendly guy in the toy department tells me that they are out, but checks the computer and it turns out the Wal-mart that we just left has 11 of them in stock!

Back in the car.

I was not about to go back to the first Wal-mart and deal with that again, so we went to wal-mart #3. So far we had been to Miami, then the Ghetto, and now we are in the Burbs. Well, horray for the Burbs because they have it!

I RE-purchase it and risk our lives just once more in order to get home. By this time it was WAY past Lily's lunch and nap time but she was great. We bought her a giant ball (I have no self controll....I really shouldn't go out in public!) and because of the windows being open it was flying all around the back seat and kept her entertained.

So, get home. Hot, sweaty, hungry and tired. Get Lily fed and down for a nap and start putting this thing together.

Guess what.... NO COUPLER!!! Yes, the EXACT SAME PART that was missing off the first one!

So, I got on the phone with the company and they sent me the part free of charge. I had to wait a week to get it, but it was free none the less.

Not irritant-free... just didn't cost me any money.

So, after all that. Monday we finally go the coupler and we've been riding all over the place for the past couple of days. The weather finally cooled off and it is so perfect right now to be riding bikes.

Lily hates the helmet and it is a little big. Kinda odd that they don't make them any smaller than for a 3 year old. And to think, Lily has got a huge head, can you imagine how big it would be for a normal size kid her age?

There is a space behind the seat that I can fit packages in, so today we rode to the post office and stopped by the park on the way home.

Oh, and Zelda fits in it too! I put both the babies in and off we go.

Halloween

I always used to think that going to the mall to trick or treat was dumb, but that is exactly what we did yesterday. South Florida is lame when it comes to Halloween. This is one of those holidays where a small town would be better. We didn't have any trick or treaters last year, so I figured that we wouldn't again this year either and didn't even bother. Lily wore her costume the whole day and then we took her to the mall after dinner. She was so adorable. There was a little girl there that she made friends with. This little angel walked up to Lily and they just stared and smiled at each other for about 5 minutes. It was so funny. The girl is 18 months old but slightly smaller than Lily. She had an FSU stroller too...how cool!

Lily ran around and looked at all the kids. I enjoyed seeing all the other kids in costumes. I love seeing kids dressed up for Halloween but am disapointed that no one makes their own costumes any more. It has just become so comerial. I know, I'm to blame considering that I sell ready-to-wear costumes, but it just takes all the creativity out of the holiday. We remenisced about some of the great costumes that we had created in the past. David reminded me of a good one he had when Daddy made him a proton pack for his ghostbusters costume.

I was a police officer, Lily was a ladybug, Ross was an old man and David was an inmate. My costume was from my store (I know....no creativity). Ross just pulled together some things from his closet and a shirt from my costume collection. David just threw on a re-run of Ross's inmate costume with a joe dirt wig. I made Lily's out of felt.

Do people REALLY make this kind of money?

I got an email today that just makes me wonder. Really? Is she serious? and ...you have got to be kidding me!

It came in through my website's user form so it had to have been a real person and not a computer generated spam. I copied it here: (and blocked out her email address but not her name because it is posted all over her site anyway)



name = Kelly Neumane

mail = XXXXXXX

comments = I run a blog site fashion and celebrity that is ranked high www.jakeldaily.com. Every week I will talk about one of your items linking it to your site and the advertisement to draw more traffic and more purchases, but not on text link ads.

300 x 75 (minimum flash) $150

300 x 250 (minimum flash) $250

Top Border $350

150 x 7 Link AdPods (left side bar) $125 150 x 200

Blog Ads (left side bar) $120

Text links $50.00

All prices are per month if you wish to advertise I could give you a discount price. Also 12 month text link at $360.00 If you are interested pleasse reply to this email.

Contact within 24hours and recieve a 25% discount.



Sure, I have ads on my blog, and I make a teeny tiny bit off them. (Well, honestly...it is WAY more than I expected, but still not enough to pay for my internet connection) This chick has got to be insane! Well, no, I take that back, She has got to be brilliant if people are really paying these prices! Did you look at her blog? It is garbage. Just posting a photo or two of the latest "super star" idiots that we see too much of in the press anyway. Then maybe a comment or two on their clothes or hair. PUKE.

If she is really making this kind of money from every add she has on her blog...I am doing something WAY wrong!

I'm not the only one in a magazine!

The other day David, Lily and I are grocery shopping and of course in full Carney style, we are playing around and wasting time while we are at it. So, we are in the magazine aisle checking to see if they carry the magazine that I'm in yet (and YES, It is STILL current. It only comes out a couple of times a year so I'm current through the end of the year) and of course, they don't. Oh well, no one cares about ebay stuff except other ebay junkies anyway.

so, I glance over and see a fishing magazine with a chick on the front



Last year Christy told me that she was doing this fishing tournament thing and that she was 'going to be famous'. If you know Christy, I'm sure you never doubted that she would be known, but who would have ever imaged it would be for FISHING? I know absolutely nothing about fishing, but apparently she and a girl friend of hers really dedicated themselves and joined some sort of tournament circuit. Christy told me that they were getting alot of publicity because they were an all girl team. So, being that I saw a chick on a fishing magazine and the cover reads "The girls of GAFF" (I have no clue what GAFF is, but the big fish clued me in that it was a magazine about fishing) I thought of Christy and picked it up.

I flipped in a couple of pages and sure-as-shit....there is Christy! The one my dad used to call "rocket scientist", right there in full color. Of course, after jumping around in the aisle a little and attempting to call her, I bought the magazine.

Oh, and Christy, if you are reading this....I don't have your current number...call me.

Once I got home and read the article I realized that this was the 5th time she and her partner have been in this magazine! Wow.

I was so proud of myself for getting published, but now I am REALLY proud of Christy. I know she feels the same as I do where even though it doesn't pay well, and it is alot of work, it sure is wonderful to do what you love.

Getting Ready For Halloween

As you all might know, Halloween is my favorite time of year. Well, that is until I opened a costume shop. Right now I am so frazzeled over the idiots on ebay! I wish I had kept track of how many STUPID questions that I've received in the last two weeks! I am so behind too because two shipments of costumes just arrived in the last week! Not enough time for me to sell them all, so there goes my idea of burning out the inventory and closing up shop. Now, I'm going to have to spend my entire Christmas season moving the costume inventory that I didn't sell into Addicted to Rockabilly. no fun.
What HAS been fun, is playing with the costumes!



And we carved some jack-o-lanterns. Ross had never done this before so made a big deal of it. Lily didn't really care about what was happening, she just wanted to go to sleep.

Notice that David is using a DREMEL? Can't do anything the old fashion way huh?

And, believe it or not, Brandi was actually here for this event and didn't end up in any of my pictures! This is a miracle because she is usually insistent that she be front and center in all photo ops.

Carpet ride

Lily is into rugs and carpets. She goes around the house dragging them around. She will have the bathmats and the kitchen rug all with her wherever she is playing. I think David's game he invented has something to do with it.

No time....quick post

I am so swamped and behind on my work but I just wanted to add some pics from the last few days. We busted David out of rehab two weeks early. (joking, they just thought he would be better off in an 'outpatient' facility so he is here with us for a few weeks) Nichole came in town and we ran the race for the cure. Well, walked really. Well, the first half we sort of strolled because we got behind some VERY slow walkers. They were wearing jeans and carrying shopping bags so we should have known that they weren't there to win. That pink thing on her stroller is what everyone else wears on their backs. It reads "in memory of" or "in celebration of" and then you write in whatever you want. Lily's said "in memory of my Grandma" and because it was gameday, she wore here cheerleading uniform.

anyway, Lily has been trying on shoes for awhile but when she put on Nichole's she actually went for a walk in them! and we've discovered that she LOVES the sprinkler.

Funny Faces

"Hey look Mommy....I'm soaked!"


I remember doing this at FSU...too bad I never had a cheerleading uniform!





This picture doesn't really show how bad this shiner really is, but you know how Ross hates to have his picture taken. It is way more purple than you see in this picture. and, no, I didn't do this to him, it happened at Rugby. They won so I guess it was worth it.

picture comparison

I have this picture on my dresser so when I saw this one of Lily I thought it was so funny. I took mine out of the frame and my mom had written my age on the back. 14 months! Lily is 14 months (well, only days away from 15, but still!) Funny how much she looks like me huh?

Pictures & David

We went to get our pictures made and Lily was so good. She was laughing and squealing and loving the attention of the photographer. I wanted to buy them but, as I've talked about before...we are BROKE!
Luckily I can look at them online and order more down the road if we win the lottery or something.

I also learned a lesson. Wear sleeves to photoshoots!

I haven't written about it here yet because I wasn't sure if I should or not, but I've decided to anyway because I feel that if people know that they will be more likely to understand what is going on.
I had no idea, not even a hint, until I got a call a couple of weeks ago from my brother's girlfriend. David is an alcoholic. He is now in rehab here in Florida and is working toward recovery. I felt helpless because I didn't know, I didn't see the signs and I am so far away all the time. Sherah and his high school friend Andy helped get him organized and ready to get help. I am so grateful for that. If it weren't for their thoughtfulness I don't know what would have happened.
I've put a lot of thought into this. They say that alcoholism is hereditary and I know it can destroy lives. Ross and I both have alcoholics in our families and through our years and years of working in bars we have seen quite a bit. One thing we are very naive to is the recovery process. Thankfully we have family that have been very supportive and helpful.
My cousin said something to me that really clicked. She said that being an alcoholic is sort of like having a severe allergy. That if you have it, alcohol has a different effect on you. This is an interesting concept to me and I think it makes a good bit of sense too. Ross is allergic to shellfish, if he eats it, he dies. In many cases this is the exact thing that happens to alcoholics.
I am so excited for David too. I feel like he is really at a good place in his life. He is so creative and intelligent and he will discover how much more he will be able to do with his new-found clarity. I am very hope full for him right now.
If you'd like to write to him, or send a card, email me and I'll give you the address.

Little Tykes red car

Week before last my cousins came down for a visit to celebrate a Birthday and they brought Lily a new car. Well, an old car but new to us. It is so funny how this car has the least amount of bells and whistles but Lily loves it best. She can't "drive" it on her own just yet but she will climb in and out of it over and over. Every now and then she can get it to go backward a few feet but I don't think it is on purpose. It is pretty funny how she will get out and push it across the room then get back in.
And another funny thing is how she climbs in backward. She gets in like her granddaddy gets in his Miata....but first.
Here is a video of David pushing Lily around and her backing into the car

So busy

I hate that I haven't added anything to the blog in so long. I have been so busy and so behind on my work that I just never seem to get it all done. And, I think it is a disorder or something because I keep coming up with new projects and new commitments. Maybe subconsciously I don't want to get finished?

Yeah, that is probably it. Having nothing to do would be boring.

I am so annoyed right now!

I have been listening to the stupid paypal info loop on their hold for about 25 minutes now. They updated their site to "offer more to sellers" and although I am very happy that now I can accept international sales from my website and not just ebay, but now my shoping cart isn't working properly. It is giving everyone FREE SHIPPING! I know that is great for my customers but it is eating into my profits. Luckily I've had big enough sales this week that I haven't actually lost money yet.
I'm writing about it now because I think it is funny (and annoying) that the automated thingy can't understand me because Lily is squawking in the background. She is trying to play ball with Zelda and every time Zelda gets the ball she squeals. And everytime she squeals the automated system tells me that they are sorry but they did not understand my response.
oh boy... this is annoying.
Crap.. they finally got a person on the phone and only to tell me that the department that I need is closed and to call back tomorrow....eerrrrr

Oh My Goodness!

I am here at the dining room table working away on my new laptop. I'm getting work done and Lily is happily typing away on the old broken laptop. I set it up on a small table next to her little chair so she has her own little office. And then, I hear that distinct sound of the computer booting up. Hmmm. I go over and check it out and sure enough whatever she did, she fixed the computer! It was on an online screen where she had reported the error! My child is a genius!

Playing with Photoshop

Out with the old, in with the new

My stupid slow laptop finally bit the bullet this weekend. It had been on its deathbed for about a year now and finally decided to quit completely. I bought it in '02 so I guess that is a decent life for a computer. I can sometimes get it to turn on, but only to show the bios screen telling me that the program that is causing the problem is ar5110. No clue what that means! I took it to the shop about 2 years ago and spent about $300 and it never worked right after that so I decided this time to just ditch it and get a new one. I'm going to keep it for Lily to type on though. She doesn't even care if the screen is on, she just likes to type.
So, bargain huntress that I am, I found a laptop for less than $400! Obviously not top of the line and the salesman tried to talk me out of it or at least into an upgrade, but nope, the cheapest of the cheap will do me just fine, thank you.
I'm so excited about it but I don't know how to use Vista yet. I guess I'll figure it out.


Lily has been waking up too early these days and she gets cranky and tired early in the morning and a couple of times has fallen asleep on the floor even before I get her out of her pajamas.


She is very into opening drawers and cabinets these days. This is my mom's old antique sewing machine that Lily is getting into here. It is funny because I've had this for almost two years and never even looked in these drawers before now. Lily keeps bringing me little things that make me reminisce. Mailing labels for our house in Pensacola, to-do lists that my mom wrote, wooden spools of thread, old stamps, etc. This used to sit in the foyer at our house in Pensacola, then it was hidden away and not really used in Atlanta. In Pensacola my mom kept our lunch money in one drawer, stamps in another and various junk in the other two. Now they hold mega blocks, a shoe, and a plastic spoon.

baby Ross

Such a Ross look-a-like!