Small Talk Six at MomDot

It’s another week of the new MomDot meme, Small Talk Six.  The object of Small Talk Six is to give us something fun to blog about on Saturdays that also tells our readers a little about us.  It’s a great way to make new friends and find out things they would normally never share.  I think that whoever came up with our weekly topics must like to show some skin.  :)  This week our topic is:

6 things you would like to do naked if you lived alone

Wow.  I’m afraid that this list might just be short of those 6 items this week because I can’t really think of much.  Hmmm..

1. Getting ready for work in the morning after I take my shower
2. Swimming
3. Sitting in a hot tub (hey, if I lived alone I could afford a hot tub)
4. Okay….Now I’m clueless
5. I really can’t think of more than three things.
6. Does that make me weird?

Want to participate in Small Talk Six? Go back to your blog and answer this week’s question.  Then go over to MomDot and find the Small Talk Six post for today and sign Mr. Linky.

Organizational Idea for Your Purses

CONTEST ENDED

Are you a purse collector? I’ve never though of myself as one, but it seems over the years, I have collected a lot of purses. As a teacher though, I’ve found what has really accumulated are my “teacher bags.”  I’ m not sure what non teachers call these (tote bags?), but I have my bag for bringing student papers back and forth, and then there’s my Saturday debate bag. Of course I also have a current reads bag where I store books I’ m wanting to read and consider adding to my curriulum.  Then there’s the softball mom bag, and I’ve got a Friday Night Football bag too. Seriously teachers have a tote for EVERYTHING, and I can’t seem to get enough. Every time I go shopping, I check out the tote bags if there are any in sight at all.  And if that’s not enough, every conference we teachers go to gives us what? A tote bag, of course.

I’ve transferred this appreciation on to my daughter, Cameron, it seems.  She might have more purses than I do and almost as many bagts too.  Yes, I’ve bought several of them, but not all by any means. When she goes out shopping with a grandmother, it is not uncommon for her to come home with a bag or two. 

There’s only one problem with our collection obsession – storage!  What do you do when you have 20 bags and another 10 purses? Oh and don’t forget your daughter’s similar collection? For us all but the newest ones are stored in suitcases (yes, we have a lot of these too) under our beds.  This means they are out of sight, anhd you know that old saying – “Out of Sight, Out of Mind.” Once we have them shoved under our bed, we forget they exist.  While it’s always fun to “rediscover” them, I’d rather that our purses and bags get more use.

Now thanks to the ingenious design of the Closet Purse Hanger, all of Cameron’s purses and bags are now hanging nice and neat on a closet rod in her room (I have to get rid of some clothes or buy a new closet rod before taking advantage of this with my bags). I was curious to see if my theory of more use would prove to be true, and it has. Since pulling out all of her purses and bags from the suitcases and hanging them in her room on a mobile closet rod, she’s been switching bags every day or two.  They are getting lots of use, and she knows exactly how to put them all up once she’s done. It’s nice with Cameron’s bags too because many of them are small enough that we’ve been able to store 2 or 3 purses on one hook.

I’ve tried my tote bags on the few extra hooks that were left after hanging up Cameron’s bags, and I can’t wait to have room for them in my closet.  We are working on Spring cleaning now, and I hope to have room to start hanging my bags and purses soon because this is such a creative way and organized way to switch out purses and bags to match your mood or clothes.

Would you like to win your own set of Closet Purse Hangers?  Then today could be your lucky day because Shawane, creator of the Closet Purse Hanger, has generously offered a set of hangers for one reader, and this is one prize I can promise you’ll be putting to use as soon as it arrives.

Required Entry:

Head over and tell me one thing about Shawane or the Closet Purse Hanger that you did not find out reading this post.

Extra Entries (required entry must be completed first):

1. Place my button in your sidebar (Grab it on the right sidebar) or add a text link
2. Subscribe to my feed
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this contest out! (you must leave a link to the tweet)
4. Add me to your Technorati favorites (leave your username)
5. Blog about this contest (WORTH 3 ENTRIES – LEAVE 3 COMMENTS) linking to this post and Closet Purse Hanger.
6. Enter my grand opening contests over at A Novel Mind. (One entry for every contest entered)

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Tuesday, March 31 at Midnight CST.
• You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address.
• All entries will be verified before naming the winner.
• Winner has 72 hours to claim prize and then a new winner will be selected

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Looking for Some Music For the Family?

I recently received a copy of In The Nick of Time: Coconut Groove by Nicholas Deysher, and I have to say that I have a love/hate relationship with this CD.  Why? Because it’s so much fun my daughter wants to listen to it ALL THE TIME!  We really only have a CD player and that’s in the car so every trip we’ve taken since this CD came in the mail, I’ve heard, “Can I listen to Hang with Me?” “Mom, how does The Autumn Song start? Can I hear it?”  Not only do I know all the words by heart, but many people that just ride with us from time to time also know the songs.  :)  I have to admit that I enjoy the songs every time we hear them (though I do miss my country music station from time to time).  They are such catchy tunes that everyone in the car is singing along before they even realize it.

I think that it appeals to everyone because of the wide variety of musical styles that his music covers – from modern day (“Sippin on Juicy Juice, laid back with my mind on my tummy and my tummy on my mind”) to a more jazzy style beat when we meet the Old Orangutan.  If you are looking for a great find at a reasonable rate to keep the kids involved and not with a case of the “I’m bored”s then check out In The Nick of Time: Coconut Groove for the low price of $14.97 for the CD or have instant access for 9.99 to the MP3 downloads of the album.

Want to hear excerpts of the songs? You can do that here.

Below you’ll hear one of the songs on the album, “The Dinosaur Song.” Enjoy!

Happy Monday Morning (Meme)

Monday Morning Meme is hosted by WriteFromKaren and is always a set of questions that really get you thinking, and I think that reveal a lot about you to your readers.

This week’s questions are:

1. If a new medicine were developed that would cure cancer but caused a fatal reaction in one percent of those who took it, would you want it to be released to the public? Why or why not? Do you think we’re close to curing cancer? Have you ever lost someone to cancer? If so, please write a short tribute to that person.
2. You discover your wonderful one-year-old child is, because of a mix-up at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake? Why or why not?
3. Do you think that the world will be a better or a worse place 100 years from now? Explain your answer, please.
4. How many pictures do you have on your living room walls? And what are they? (paintings, photographs, sketches, abstract, family, etc). Feel like taking us on a tour of your home? If so, post your video or photos!

And My Answers:

1. Yes, I think I would want it released, but I would want everyone that considered it to be fully aware of the possible fatal reaction. I think cancer patients are well aware of their situations, and they should be given the option of choosing a cure; however, I do feel that they should be stressed over and over about the possible repercussions and maybe have to go through some type of education course to really know what they are getting into.  (No, I’ve not lost someone close to me to cancer)
2. This is a tough one.  Part of me says yes, I’d want MY child – the product of myself and the man I loved, but then I also recognize that there is a lot more to a parent/child relationship than blood or DNA, and I can’t imagine losing “my child” after that first year.  To be perfectly honest, I just don’t know on this one.
3. If we continue as we are, I think it will be worse.  I do not feel that we are on the right track, and unless something big happens, I don’t see us turning it around. Our citizens (as a whole – not everyone) seem to think more and more that they are “entitled” to a good life and all these great things and not that they need to get out there and be willing to work for them – even if they must take minimum wage jobs (or even higher paid jobs that they just don’t want) to have the things in life they feel they “deserve.”  This becomes obvious early on in the school system when they expect teachers to give them good grades, give them longer to do their work, give them, give them, give them.  I’m not sure who is to blame (if anyone) or how to fix it (if it’s possible), but I hate the direction we are going.
4. My house is covered in family pictures – mostly of my girls.  I’m sitting in the dining room right now and looking at 13 pictures. There are even more in my living room.  The bathroom is probably the only place in my house picture free.  Some of my closer friends joke that my house is “wallpapered” in family pictures.

Manic Monday – March 23

It’s Manic Monday time and today’s questions and answers are:

Do you screen your phone calls? Most certainly.  I pretty much answer though if I know who it is – what I don’t do is answer if I DON’T know who it is.  I wait and see if they leave a message and then check that to see who they are.

When was the last time you lost your temper?  Really bad – January.  There was an incident when I thought my students were being mistreated and I was not happy!

When you’re lost, do you ask for directions? Yep, yep. But thanks to Mr. Garmin as we call him in our family, those times are now few and far between.