The Mailman Cometh...

When I was a stay at home mom, the most exciting part of my day (next to naptime) was when the mail would come. I loved running to the mailbox to see if there was anything "good". Usually it was bills or junk mail but occassionally it would be a new magazine, or a letter from a friend. In this high tech, instant gratification world, we rarely send letters/cards/notes to anybody via the mail anymore. I'd like to help change that just a little, for a few of us anyway.

If you would be willing to be a pen pal to another blogger/mom, please leave a note in the comments. I will then randomly pair people up. The only requirements are:
1) no emailing! That defeats the purpose the mail man excitement!
2) you must be willing to mail a card/letter/post card at least once a month. Seriously, people, you don't have to tell your pen pal your deepest, darkest fears, but a nice "thinking of you" or "have a great day" card once in awhile would be great
3) you must come back to me within two months and let me know if you want to continue, how it's going, etc. Just a little feedback on the experiment.

I will have a little goody giveaway to go with this. I will giveaway a set of my favorite pens (which is constantly changing) and a pack of note cards to get you start to one lucky participant. So, leave a note in the comments that you want to participate. Just your name and that you are "in". I'll get addresses from everybody later. I'll take names from today until October 14. Then everybody's names will go into the hat for the goodies and I will start pairing.

Questions?? Comments?? You know what to do!

A, B, C, or D

It's mid term time for most of the Random House. My kids get mid term, quarter, mid term and semester grades. I don't know why we need grade reports every month, but that's what we get. Lyric is having a little trouble with AP algebra. It's the class giving her the most trouble, so it's also the class she is giving the least effort to. Should be the most effort, but when you're 14 and know everything, that's what you get. She's getting A's and B's in all of her other classes. Getting a C in Algebra. Since she has all AP classes, everything is weighted and that C actually is a 3.0 so she could still end up with a very nice GPA for the semester. it's still early so we'll see how it all pans out. As long as I can get her to keep turning in the homework, we are on the right path. I told her it doesn't have to be perfect, but she needs to make the effort to complete it and then turn it in on time. Seems she was too busy with other things at the beginning of the year to turn in homework. Boys maybe?!?

Jazz is loving school and is thinking she might not want to try out for Fine Arts for next year. This is a complete turn around from last year. She's really getting into her groove. Nothing has completely challenged her/stressed her out so far. YAY! She's reading well, doing good in math, and getting concepts in English/Spelling/vocab that she used to struggle with.

I got my first block grade yesterday in my Lit class. Wait,did I even tell you what classes I have this semester?? I have Chemisty (again!) but it's a newer, better, revamped version of the class I had last spring. This class is geared towards allied health majors. It's a step above HS chem, and not as advanced as chem for say, a science major. Anyway, the teacher is great. Knows his stuff but not too informal. Allows time to ask questions and takes the time to explain things a different way if needed. I also have Microbes and Society. This is basically a review/continuation of Microbiology. This class is all online. And finally, I have Non Western Literature since 1900. Sounds lovely, doesn't it. This class is reading books and writing papers. All online. Right up my alley.

So, back to my grades. For the first book in Lit we had to do 4 papers. One about the author, one about the country and two about different aspects of the book. I didn't do so good on the first one of these, but I ended up with a B for this block. Each book is a "block". I'll take a B! In Microbes, we get our grades by unit, so every two weeks she emails us the grade we received on each section (questions, quizzes, discussion, projects). I've been tallying the grade (because I'm like that) and as of the end of unit 2, I have an 89%. That's almost an A! Yay, me! We are half way through unit 3 so I'll have an update on that in a week or so. Going into last night's chem test, I had like and 84%. I'm hoping to maintain that B. I don't think I can pull an A (But I'm trying) but a B will be just fine. I know it's still early. We have 2 plus months left of the semester, but a lot for me is riding on these classes. I wil continue to keep you posted!

Zhu Zhu Pets Winner

Thanks for all the entries. I assigned everybody a number based on comments (first comment, #1, etc) and then went to Random.org to pick a winner.

The Zhu Zhu Pets winner is Anitra and she has been notified.

Look for more fun stuff coming soon!

Text A Thon

Electrolux and Kelly Ripa remain committed to raising money and awareness to support a worthy cause. Together, they are launching another exciting campaign that utilizes a form of communication that many of us use every day - texting! During September, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Electrolux and Kelly are holding a "Text-a-Thon for a Cause" to help raise support for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund whose mission is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for ovarian cancer.


Throughout September, you can donate $5 to the cause by texting "KELLY" to 85944 from your mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) - or logging on to www.kelly-confidential.com. Also, every time you log on to the Web site, you'll be entered for a chance to win an amazing contribution to your home - a luxury front load washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.Also during September, visitors to Kelly Confidential can help spread awareness for this important cause by sending a virtual T-shirt to a friend. For every virtual t-shirt sent, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF. Fashion-forward Moms can also purchase a limited edition T-shirt designed by Ripa; 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts will go to OCRF.

There is a PSA as well, that I will be adding to this post once I get to a computer that will allow youtube. This is a great cause and it truly is a silent killer. Let's do our part to wipe it out.

A little teaser....

This has been running through my head regularly for the past few days. let me know what you think.....

I'm standing in the rain. Kissing my high school sweetheart. Two decades after I kissed him for the first time. With his kids staring at us. With my kids staring at us. Did I mention the rain?? How could I have possibly gotten to this point.

What do you think?? How do you think they got here?!?

And don't forget about the Zhu Zhu pets giveaway . There's still time to comment and get your name in the running.

Zhu Zhu Pets Giveaway

(disclaimer- I wanted to post some photos, but couldn't cut and paste. To check out the items go to www.zhuzhupets.com)

I had the fortune of being chosen for a Zhu Zhu Pets Focus Group. 11 zhu zhu pets and their equipment showed up at my door a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, these toys are a hit with kids of all ages. Even my 14 year old wanted one. I took the bulk of them to the daycare where my youngest goes after school, but I gave one to each of my girls and, my lucky readers, I have one to give away. Not only will you get a super cool Zhu Zhu pet, you will also get a super cool hamster ball for it to run around your house in. That's right. And there's more. Since these are such a hit with the kiddos, the batteries run down fairly quickly. You will also get one set of replacement batteries in your package. I haven't priced it out at the store, but I'm guess this is about a $20 prize package. And I know you know you want it.

What do you have to do, you may be asking yourself- well, you know I dislike giveaways where you have to do five things, stand on your head, twirl in a circle and invited 10 friends to dance in the street. All you have to do for a chance to win this prize - comment to this post. Yup. That's it. Super easy. Even a baby could do it, almost anyway. To make it easy for me to contact the winner, feel free to put your email in the comment. If you are uncomfortable with that, just be sure that your email is on your profile somewhere so I can get ahold of you if you win.

This is not limited to just my regular readers/followers, so if you want to share the chance at this cool prize with a friend, send them on over.

The contest starts today - 9/9/09 and ends 9/18/09 at midnight. Then I will put all commenters names in a really cute basket I found and have one of the kids draw one out.

Good luck to everybody!

Casting for the Movie

I had a quick thought about writing a book before I fell asleep last night, and then dreamed that I was casting the movie version of that story. The basic concept is a Cinderella story but from the male perspective. There's the guy who wants to do theater and drama, but dad forces him to do sports (or tries), the step mom who loves him and tries to udnerstand but has her own sons (twins). And of course, there's the girl who also loves drama and tried to help him persue his goal. Okay, got it?!? So, you wanna know who was cast??

Main male lead, high school, handsome (duh): Zac Efron (this is probably because i watched "17 Again" over the weekend.)
Dad: Rick Springfield
Mom: Susan Sarrandon
Twin #1: Sterling Knight (probably couldn't pick him out of a crowd but my girls say he looks like Lucas Till)
Twin #2: Lucas Till (couldn't pick him out of a crowd either, but see above note)
Girl "friend": Kelsey from HSM (I have no idea what her real name is but she looked great, hair down, no glasses, cute!)

That's really all I got. There was no filming going on, the whole dream was about finalizing casting and all the actors had to come in and read for me and the director (I have no idea who it was), and I remember when Rick and Zac were doing a reading I was thinking "Kelley would kill me if she knew I was in a room with these two and didn't call her" so I called her.

Then I woke up.

Analyze that!