Ok, I’m a little peeved right now. I entered a contest on Cass Knits in which the prize was a cookbook called Little Cakes From The Whimsical Bakehouse back in February. Now Cass is not entirely without blame here, her description of the cookbook was so good that I had to enter because I really wanted to win. I wanted to eat and I wanted to bake. I WANTED TO BAKE SOMETHING CUTE! (We’re talking red letter day folks.) So I entered and that was that. I didn’t expect to win, because who really ever does expect to win contests anyway. Imagine my surprise when I learned in March that I’d won the contest.  I was so happy, and really looking forward to getting that cookbook with the picture of the cute little cupcakes on the front of it. I checked with Cass later in March and my info had been sent to the publisher.

I checked with Cass this morning and found out the publisher said they sent it out to me. I never got it! I surprised myself when I caught myself feeling really bummed about this. I’m sure if the publisher said they sent it then they probably did. So my cookbook is somewhere in between my house in suburban New Jersey and wherever they mailed it from. Yes, I said MY COOKBOOK. So, since the publisher doesn’t have it and I don’t have it, that means someone else has it.

Someone has taken my cookbook and I want it back. So I’m putting out a request for help to everyone in the blogosphere. I’m asking everyone to be on the lookout for a mail carrier with my copy of The Little Cakes From The Whimsical Bakehouse. Look for him/her in their mail truck, parked behind a shopping center reading my cookbook. Look for him/her in the grocery store, peeking inside a backpack or totebag to check the ingredients they need. Look for a mail carrier continually gaining weight. Look for a mail carrier with icing on his/her face. Look for him/her at your child’s school - if there’s a party and you see any of those cupcakes and they were brought in by a mail carrier, that’s my thief.

I’d appreciate any help I can get with this situation. I want my cookbook. I want to bake cute cupcakes. I want to eat cute cupcakes. If you find the mail carrier who took it, tell them I said they’re mean and to mail me my cookbook.

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I am not into shoes. I hate shoe shopping. The facts that I’m not into shoes and that I hate shoe shopping are both because I have BIG WIDE HONKING HUGE FEET. It is impossible to find anything stylish when shoe companies seem to feel all women wear sizes 6-9. I have had two pairs of leather clogs for about six years now and they’re getting really work. I have had a pair of “deck” shoes for about four years now and they’re shot. Now I’m facing one of the things I dislike the most - shopping for new shoes. The shoe stores in my area don’t carry shoes big enough to fit my big feet. Not the Payless, not the shoe stores, not the department stores, not even Marty’s shoe outlet who carries everything including shoes, sneakers, boots and sandals, even bigger names like Ecco shoes. I’m a little afraid to buy online because sizing varies so much between manufacturers. So if any of you ladies out there have large feet, please help me out and let me know where you shop online for shoes. I’m guessing I need someone with a decent selection of styles, a reasonable return policy in case the shoes don’t fit, and most of all - good pricing. Help!

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Many people have a hard time buying gifts for other people. My sister in law is no exception. She called me recently because Father’s Day is in a month and she wasn’t sure what to get my brother. She knows I used to sell computers and that I am obsessed with finding the best deals possible online when I have to buy something. She asked to help her find a gift for him that he’d want, like and use.

So there we were on the telephone, each of us on our computers. I’m familiar with most of the computer and tech toys that my brother has but I asked her if he’d bought anything new recently. Noone wants to be the person to give someone something they’ve already got, you know. She said he hadn’t bought anything at all lately. I asked her if he’d mentioned needing or wanting anything specific. Aside from the standard silly answers like a Ferrari, a truck and a computer, the answer was no. So I started thinking back over conversations we’d had in the past few months and it dawned on me. On a number of occasions my brother had called me from a job asking me to check something or do something on my computer for him, because he didn’t have what he needed on his old laptop or thumb drive. I knew what she should get him, I’d seen it shown in the weekly deals. She must have sensed I thought of something from the tone in my voice, because she asked what I was thinking.

I told her we needed to go to the Buy.com website. She told me she’d never shopped on Buy.com, and asked me what they sold. Rather than spend a couple of hours on the phone telling her what they sold, I answered “everything”, while wondering how can anyone that calls themself a shopper not have shopped at Buy.com. Anyway. I told her we needed to go to the Computer section of the site. She reminded me they were on a tight budget and couldn’t afford a new computer. I told her I wasn’t going to show her a new computer (although I could because they carry them), but rather I was going to show her something almost as good as a new computer. Wanting to ease her fears, I told her I’d seen a portable hard drive that I thought would make a great gift for him.

She told me he’d looked at portable hard drives before and he thought they were too big and heavy and that one wouldn’t fit inside his laptop case. (It sounds like it’s time for a new case, don’t you think? They have those you know.) I told her in this particular instance size would not matter. I got her to look at the page for the Buffalo 320gb MiniStation Turbo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive, as shown in this screenshot.

320gb. That’s more storage than all of the hard drives in all of the computers I’ve ever owned added up. She’s not a computer person so I doubt she was as impressed as I was. So I explained some of the specs to her.

The amount of storage available on such a tiny drive amazes me. Isn’t that amazing! The dimensions are 5″ wide by 3.3″ deep and the unit is 0.8″ high. This portable hard drive is not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes or a deck of cards. The drive is about the size of the picture on the left, which happens to be of the drive. The drive weighs a minute 0.42 pounds. The more I tried to sell her on this drive the more I wanted one for myself. I mentioned its shock resistant chassis in case it’s dropped, that it connected by USB and that it works in both the Windows and Macintosh environments. This is key because my brother works on computers as part of his job. The other thing that I really thought was great about it is that it’s a plug and play drive, so my brother could use it right out of the box without downloading any drivers.

Finally she agreed with me that it seemed like it would be a good gift for him. She saw the price of $134.99 down from $379.99 and asked me if there was a catch, like a membership you had to buy or a rebate you had to fill out. I was happy to be able to tell her there was not, that was Buy.com’s price for the item. She was thrilled to see that the purchase would qualify for free shipping, and was even happier when I told her she could get another $10 off by using google checkout, which she’d never used before. She was so happy with the hot deal she got that she said she was going to start checking their site first, and that she understood why I liked Buy.com so much. I’m glad I was able to help her find something within her budget that I do think my brother will appreciate.

Funny thing. I feel like shopping now!

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I’ve been blogging for quite some time but have always set certain limits for myself. I notice the posts and blogs I enjoy the most contain true to life personal stories and information. I write about all kinds of things, sometimes I even earn money for writing something. In trying to improve my own writing skills as well as have an enjoyable blog I recently decided to expand my limits a bit. That’s left me wondering if you as a blogger have set limits for yourself on what you’ll blog about from your personal life. I don’t mean the acne treatments and the common cold, I mean the real stuff. Where do you draw the line on what’s ok to write? What’s the most personal thing you’ve written about?

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Some time ago my blogging pal Skeet acknowledged there’s a lot of bad news and sad stuff going on in the world today. At that time Skeet issued a challenge for bloggers to find and Share Some Good Stuff, by writing about a story or some good news in our area on our blogs. She’d go through all of the submissions, in a mini carnival of her own, and recap the highlights. Most Thursdays I do try and contribute to her project because I think it’s worthwhile. The majority of what I find pertains to Down Syndrome and special needs because my youngest son CJ has Down Syndrome. Most of the stories I’ve found have occured in my own area, but this week I found some good stuff to share from Skeet’s own backyard, Hawaii.

I chanced across this article from the Star Bulletin about brothers Javen and Jarius. Their father’s favorite saying is “sky’s the limit”. Javen and Jarius are two of seven children born to Abe and Fran, a pair of educators. These two parents have been known to selflessly exhibit generosity and kindness to others. While not monetarily rich they are rich in the values that they have passed on to their children.

Javen is considered to be one of the best hurdlers in his area. He’s going to college on a track and field scholarship. In the two short years he’s competed in the hurdles he’s won ribbons and trophies. And he attributes his success to his little brother Jarius, whom he calls his inspiration. Jarius has Down Syndrome. He is the only child in his school with Down Syndrome, and my heart lit up when I read that all of the students watch out for him. Javen and his family all take pride in all of Jarius’ achievements, whether they are in the Special Olympics or life in general. Javen carries his sports gear in a Special Olympics backpack as another way of honoring his little brother. Their father Abe credits the birth of Jarius for brining love to their family.

This story once again proved to me that there are parents out there teaching their children values, as well as acceptance and consideration for others. It teaches me to be patient in the hopes that more parents will instill values and teach their children that everyone has a right to be a valued member of the community.

Have any good news of your own? Share Some Good Stuff. Let Skeet know. The sky’s the limit. No matter how big or small we’d love to hear it.

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If you do, you’ve just got to vote in this contest. You may recall earlier this year, in March, I wrote about the Renuzit TriScents Transform Your Home $20,000 contest. If you don’t I’ll quickly fill you in. Triscents transitions a combination of three fragrances that can be customized to offer different scents throughout the day. To enter this contest you had to submit a video or photo essay including Renuzit TriScents about transforming your home.

The entries are in and ten semi-finalists have been announced. No, I’m not one of them. But Renuzit is asking for help selecting the winner. Now I have to admit, when I was asked to vote I almost didn’t go to the site. But I went, and boy am I glad I did. Two of the entries are terrific. They’re so funny I had tears coming out of my eyes and my sides hurt. I actually watched my two favorites twice.

The two entries I like best are videos. One is by Tommy, Judy and Ed Silver and the other features a child named Ashley. The Silver video contains a spoof of a song that was popular a couple of years ago. The song in the background just pulls it all together and makes it pretty humorous. The Ashley video features a three year old rhyming. What more can I say? The rhyming is great and she’s cute. Both videos are very creative. I had to watch both twice and it was still hard to decide. Want to know which one I picked? I’ll give you a hint, it’s one of the two shown in the screenshot I’ve taken. I can’t go giving away secrets now. I wouldn’t want either of them to feel bad. Besides, I can vote every day and who knows if I’ll change my mind tomorrow.

If you want to have some fun then you really ought to log in to the semi-finalist gallery, check out the entries and vote for your favorite. Registered users may vote for their favorite once a day through June 7, 2008. The winner with the most votes will receive a $20,000 home makeover with Tayna Memme. Let me know which one you like best.

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It occurred to me today that I am tired of typing my older son and my younger son every single time I want to refer to my sons. I have found that the boundaries I set for myself when I started blogging have started to expand as my readership grows. With that in mind I have decided to introduce you to my family. Family being the people that share my home.

Hubby. That would be RB.

My older son. that would be TJ.

My younger son. That would be CJ.

The cats are Shadow and Rennie, but you might know that if you’ve seen me write about them on Cats and Coupons.

So that’s my family.

Oh yeah. Someone once asked me why I didn’t tell my name, why I always use valmg.

Hello. My name is Valerie. I use valmg because it’s short and it distinguishes me from the trillion other Valeries. It contains my initials, so for anyone who wondered, valmg is my name.

Now everyone join the circle and introduce yourself.

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The house to our left has been empty for about a year now. The couple split up with the intent of divorcing, so they moved into separate homes. I know the little girl went to stay with the mother. Not much has been happening over there until about a week ago when we saw things being taken out. This morning when I backed out of the driveway I noticed some furniture near the street and I wondered briefly if the house had become a foreclosure due to being empty for so long while it’s owners maintained two other residences. I didn’t have to wonder for very long.

Hubby called me earlier today. “I saw George (the man that used to live there) this morning and they finally sold the house. The closing is later this month. I asked George who was moving in and George wasn’t sure, he only knew it was a couple.”

Me. “Do they have kids?”

“I don’t know. He said it was a young couple so good chance no.”

At this point I wonder what possibly brings him to this conclusion based on the information given but before I get a chance to ask I hear him say

“I hope they like music.”

Oh no he didn’t just say that. Once again I am forced to wonder about this man’s sanity or lack thereof. He’s obviously concerned about his band and its weekly practice, which neighbors have had occasion to have stopped by calling the police. Don’t the neighbors know he’s a star crossed musician and he must practice?! Doesn’t everyone really want to hear loud music from 7:30pm to 9:30pm every Tuesday night? Oh, by the way, they’d keep playing if it weren’t for….. ME. I’m the bad guy who makes them stop at 9:30, for the sake of me and our kids as well as the neighbors. And the picture frames, who surely deserve some rest after two hours of shaking their booty.

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I took my older son to the cardiologist today. His pediatrician recommended it just to be safe after my son almost passed out this past Friday in school. I had called the pediatric cardiologist we take my younger son Friday and they squeezed us in today. My son had an exam, an ekg and a cardiac ultrasound. The cardiologist agreed with the pediatrician that it was almost certainly dehydration and he has given him the all clear to resume all normal activities. I am sooooo relieved. Thanks to those that emailed asking.

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I think the Freecycle program was a great idea. If you’re not familiar with it, geographical areas each have their own message board for posting things they want to get rid of and things they’re looking for. I list things on there a couple of times a year. This past weekend I listed a couple of toys, a couple of purses and some old computer accessories. Well, this time around I had a couple of real doozies. I had stated pickup needed to be made Saturday. I got back email from people asking if they could come Sunday or during the week. That’s not unusual. What was unusual was the email I got asking if I could deliver an item. I emailed back I could not and the person replied that wasn’t very kind of me. Come on! Noone’s asking you to come and check into drug rehab or anything. All you need to do is drive here, ring my doorbell and take the item. Sheesh! What a lot of nerve, to ask a total stranger to deliver something and then seem surprised when they say no.

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With my youngest still potty training we’re in the bathroom a lot. When he isn’t going on his own we’re reminding him or asking him if he has to go every half hour to every hour. I am fortunate enough that my son has a wonderful teacher and support staff at school to reinforce the potty routine. Because this is such a routine for him I worry that it will become a chore he doesn’t like. I received samples of some Huggies CleanTeam products this week to review. We received a box of flushable wipes, as well as containers of hand soap and shampoo. It was very exciting because my son really thought they were fun, so that should help him get in there on a regular basis to do his business and have fun cleaning up afterwards.

The flushable wipes are premoistened and come in a attractive container that looks like it’s almost part of the decor sitting on the back of the toilet. There are 42 wipes in the popup container and they have a blue melon scent. It’s very handy to be able to wipe and flush, instead of me having to take wipes to the garbage in the other room.

Of course, anytime we potty we have to wash our hands. Sometimes we wash out hands for no other reason than we see a speck or spot on them. When it comes to hand washing we kiddingly call our son Felix. The foaming hand soap, in it’s cute purple hippo 9 ounce push top dispenser, became both my son’s and my favorite. I don’t know what scent it is but it smells so good I want to use it myself. My son likes to use it because it lights up. The blinking comes from a twenty second timer designed to teach kids to wash their hands long enough to be effective. this is a terrific idea because we always have to remind my twelve year old to wash his hands for longer than five seconds.

My son has alopecia so he doesn’t have hair long enough to get tangled. But being young he still seems to have a knack of getting stuff in what little hair he has, especially if he’s been eating ice cream or anything with red sauce. The tear free shampoo comes in a 9 ounce bottle with a flip top cap. We know it’s gentle because my son often ends up getting the shampoo all over his face because he loves to play, and his eyes didn’t get red and he didn’t cry when he used this. The shampoo has the blue melon scent like the wipes. I’d buy shampoo for me if it smelled like this.

I liked the CleanTeam products and thought they worked well. My son loves that hand soap. Huggies CleanTeam products are available at many drug and grocery stores, as well as department stores like Target and Walmart.

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In case you don’t know, medical billing is part of my job. Sometimes I speak with insurance companies, sometimes I speak with patients. It never ceases to amaze me what strangers will tell people over the telephone. I asked one woman about her past due bill and she told me about her yeast infection, with descriptive detail. Gross! I would have much preferred to hear about psoriasis treatment or something with a lot less personal information. Why do these people tell me these things? What is the grossest thing someone you don’t know has ever told you?

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My cell phone rang this morning while I was at work. I saw it was a school phone number and I answered it, figuring something was going on with my youngest. It was the nurse at my older son’s school telling me I needed to come to the school. Apparently while in the lunch room my son had what is called in the medical field a near syncopal episode. For anyone who doesn’t know, syncope is basically fainting. Piece of background info, my older son is almost never sick. And he never lies about not feeling well.

According to my son, while he was in the lunch line he got a stomach pain and got really hot, and then felt dizzy. Then he couldn’t see anything for a short period of time, he said everything went sort of black but he could still hear everything around him. Thankfully one of the lunch ladies saw something was happening and got a teacher, who in turn got a nurse. Despite his claims he didn’t need it, my son was helped to a wheelchair. (”Everybody was already looking at me Mom and it feels weird when people are all staring at you”.)  He was given some juice and taken to the nurse. Leave it to my son to be concerned about his social status in the middle of a health crisis.

Our pediatrician is the best, when I called them from work they told me to get him and bring him right over. The doctor waited to go to lunch until after my son got there. The doc is optimistic nothing serious is going on and that it was probably caused by dehydration or missing breakfast, but he asked us to get checked by a cardiologist just to be safe. We already have a pediatric cardiologist for my younger son, so I called them and they’re going to see my older son on Monday.

I’ve asked my son to please take it extra easy, and to stay home and rest, until we see the cardiologist on Monday. I will be a nervous wreck until we have some answers.

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May brings Mother’s Day. This year Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 11. That means there are less than two weeks left until Mother’s Day. I haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing for my Mom this year. For anyone looking to arrange a Mothers Day flowers delivery, you can be sure that 1800flowers.com has something to fit your budget and the taste of the woman your buying for. 1800flowers carries flowers, as you might have guessed. They also carry plants and gift baskets. Does the woman you’re gifting not have a green thumb? Is she allergic to flowers? They’ve got cakes and chocolates. Is she dieting? They’ve got span and candle baskets. Everything they carry looks gorgeous. So. Do you still need to shop for anyone?

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A new blog was announced this week that I wanted to let my regular readers know about. It’s called the New Jersey Moms Blog. It features articles written by a group of New Jersey moms. I’m writing this because I am really thrilled to be one of those Moms and I think I am so lucky to have gotten such a wonderful opportunity. This blog was started by the same women who started the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, as well as the Chicago Moms Blog, the DC Metro Moms Blog and the New York City Moms Blog. The site already has some interesting articles posted, feel free to check it out. One of my articles is already up, look for the picture of bagels.

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