There was a half day of school today so I, like many other parents, took the kids to play at McDonalds. The kids played and I sipped coffee and watched people. Watching people is one of my favorite things becasue I think it gives you incite about yourself. You see someone and think, "Am I like that? I wonder what people think of me." The place was packed so I had a lot to observe. Observation #1 People are nice. Everyone seemed very friendly. We all got smile and laughs from seeing the...

I always thought it was odd when my parents couldn't remember the name of someone they had grown up with. I am 33 now and feel their pain. I grew up in the same small town with pretty much the same people. Their were only 88 people in my graduating class and I had known most of them from preschool on. Back in my school days I thought these people were my world. I can't even remember a lot of their names now! I have been with my husband a lifetime now (as far as I am concerned). We start...

I know Home Improvement has been off the air for some time now (other than in repeats) but it saddened me to find out that the kindly neighbor partly hidden by the fence is now gone forever. Wilson was my favorite character. I just loved his eccentric wisdom. The thought of having a neighbor that always greeted you with a kindly "hidey-ho!" was fun and comforting. I have wonderful neighbors myself. Tim could run anything by Wilson and he would give him a bit of nonjudgemental advice. Wh...

I suffer from chronic sinus pain. It seems like any change in whether causes them to go crazy. If it stays warm, I'm fine. Turns cold suddenly, pain! It stays cold, fine. Sudden warm up, pain! Sometimes they act up for no apparent reason. I even tend to get a wicked sinus infection at least once a year. Thought I was going to die (and kind of wanted to) one time when I had a sinus infection paired with a double ear infection. I usually get a dull pain in above my eyes, under eyes an...

Today I was flipping through the news channels and saw a blurb about how Christina Applegate was chosen to serve on the Richard Blake trial. She hasn't convinced the judge so far that she should be released from serving as a juror but is going to site her busy film schedule as a reason to be excused. If I find out this worked for her I am going to be outraged! I served on a murder trial in Dec 2002. There was a surgeon on the jury that tried to site his busy schedule (of saving lives that ...

Perhaps I am the only one but I was posting articles to the Forum not realizing that it didn't post to my blogs. I now realize that when you post an article to your blog, you can chose to display it in forums as well. This isn't an option vice versa. I guess my rating has been slipping since I didn't realize this. I was enjoying the forums so much that I was spending any time on JoeUser home. I guess I wll just have to come up with some new articles to post to my blog and quit posting to ...

As an overwieght person, I am always intrigued by the latest food options out there. I am interested in the Atkin's friendly sandwiches at Subway. My husband said they are good. I am just wondering how good they are for you. Then there is McD's attempt at giving people suggestions on how to save calories when ordering meals there. One of the suggestions was to get a Big Mac without the special sauce. That may save you calories but if you are on a diet, I don't think a Big Mac is the answ...

Now that my oldest is 7, I know how quickly you can forget the little things. I have been writing things down and taking pictures and video as often as I can to help my memory. On that note, I wanted to share a couple of cute things my 3yr old has said recently: Look at my musmels = look at my muscles I want a bread, bread, turkey = I want a turkey sandwich He is in a regular bed and has been for over a year now but still bellows to me in the morning "Mommy! I want to get up!" A...

I finally have a snow blower this year after 10yrs and I love it! I got up at 6:30AM, put oil and gas in it, plugged it in for electric start, pushed the start button and it started! I had the whole drive, our front walk and the sidewalks in front of our house and that of 3 neighbors done in under an hour. No back ache. No burning lungs and sore hands. No chugging heart. Just a nice clean driveway It is still exercise though. It is a big snow blower but we also have a big drive. I...

My Christmas wish this year was for the family to stay healthy so we could all be together. They are healthy still. We had a wonderful Christmas. The turkey turned out picture perfect. We enjoyed good food, the company of loved ones and thoughtful gifts. Noone could ask for more. The only low part is at the end of the day we got news that my 40yr old cousin was found dead in his bed Christmas morning. The initial report is heart attack. His mother and sisters found him and my heart jus...

My top most wish for this holiday season is for the family to stay healthy so we can visit everyone that we have missed the passed few years. We have cousins that we didn't get to see for the last three years so far due to either our ailments or theirs. The usual culprit being the flu. This year we only had one pre-Christmas get together which involved being exposed to only one other child. We figured that would be a safe bet for a germ free holiday start....wrong! This one child ended up...

I am a subscriber to Woman's Day magazine. It professes to provide information to help women lead healthier, happier lives. I often enjoy recipes, tips and stories they provide. There was an article in the Feb issue that I just recieved that set me off though. The issue I have is women's unrealistic expectations for fashion. The article about maternity makeovers took the women out of tennis shoes and put them in heals...that's right, heals! On what planet should anyone expect a pregnant ...

I recently saw "The Last Samurai" with my husband and friends. It wasn't my first choice in movies because it really didn't sound like my kind of thing. I'm not the kind of girl that wants to see anything Tom Cruise is in. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Tom was pretty much as I expected but all of the other actors were at his level or higher. Even the little boy was a fantastic actor. The scenery was breath taking and the fights were incredible (gorey, but incredible). We ...

My now 7yr old was so easy to potty train. At about 2yrs old we bought a couple of potties and he started playing with them. We then got the "Once Upon a Potty" video. He loved the song and just took to it over night. Our 3yr old is a whole other story. He is hit and miss in a very literal sense. Just the other day he pooped on the floor about 3ft from the potty and said "I missed." I laughed and said "Wow! I guess you did." I was reading one of my parenting magazines and there wa...

I didn't realize how dependent I am on email until I recently lost use of mine. I think I have some kind of virus because Outlook Express and Internet Explorer give me a "program not responding" message every time I try to do anything with them. I spent a good part of yesterday removing hotfixes from my computer to make sure that wasn't what did it. It wasn't. I am using IE from another log on currently. I will have to migrate my email over. Email is such a time saver for a babbler like ...