Okay, Okay !

Here is the swimsuit I keep talking about.  I really wish they had a picture of a little girl wearing it - super cute.


You can find it here, ssshh!!

Things That Should Be Cleaned More Than Once Every Few Years!!

I have been putting off cleaning my pizza stone because:
A- A few years ago my oven didn't have a self cleaning cycle.
B-If you leave your racks in duirng the cleaning cycle they change two a blueish color.

So today, I decided to clean my pizza stone because it is black (I am including my oven racks because I can't sit the stone on the bottom of my oven).  My oven was still clean from the last cleaning cycle.  So I popped it in, thinking of how warm and toasty my house was going to be...

Cough! .... Cough!.... Choke!....

Toxic fumes filled my house.  My eyes burned and watered, my nose started running.  It felt like what Jason described about the boot camp gas chambers.  Yuck!!  I opened every window in the house, hid the smoke alarms (remind me to find them again).  The house temperature dropped to 64 before it felt like there was clean air to breathe. 

I guess next time I wont wait as long to clean the stone.  By the way - it is no longer black!

Tip for Cold Season!

It is cold season and I have one.  So I thought I would share one of my favorite tricks.


Whenever you have a runny nose you end up with a red, sore nose.  That eventually gets dry and flaky - eeww gross!

At night before you go to bed and hopefully you wont have to use a tissue again until morning.  Rub on some Lanolin!  You know that big tube of stuff you bought or someone gave you when you had your last baby, that has been sitting there half unused.

Seriously this works!  By morning my nose is not red or sore!  You do have to get over the feeling of putting it on, this stuff is not thin.  Unfortunately the cycle starts again in the morning, but atleast it doesn't get worse and I am not afraid to be seen in public.

It works great on really chapped lips, too. (Feels really yucky on your lips, but I like quick fixes)

If you don't have any get some. I keep it in my medecine cabinet all the time - super great for kids who get really sore noses on top of already not feeling well.

A Form of Identity Theft!!

I recently had a disturbing encounter with Identity Theft and thought I would share what happened and how you can prevent it!!!

Two months in a row my phone bill had been $15 higher than before. The first month I ignored it because I was too busy to delve into it and assumed I had a promotional rate on my Internet that had expired. So the second month I took the time to look over my bill. The only strange thing was a new entry called Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. I thought what the heck new service is this, I did not sign up for anything.

So, I called AT&T (ignoring the number under the charge). I was told that I had authorized some kind of charge from an outside company to piggy back on my phone bill. I was surprised to hear this. Basically I can have other services bill me on my phone bill instead of sending their own bill. Well, I knew this had not happened and explained this to the agent. I was told that I would have to call the number I had ignored to fix the problem.

I called the number and after entering in all my phone number I was transferred to the company where the bill originated. It was an e-mail service. I explained that I had not signed up for a service. They informed me that I had or who ever did assured them they had authorization from me to do it. They had signed up from one of those Internet surveys where you can get a gift card if you fill out the survey and then subscribe to one or more services. I explained to her that my husband and I view those like we do viruses - we don't touch them!! She offered to refund only the last months charge. I said fine. I was sent a confirmation e-mail.

After reading it I was irritated to a whole new level. The only thing they asked for was my name, phone number, and birthday. This is all available on the Internet, easy, easy to find. When you call AT&T you have to have a Social, so why are they not getting more information? I checked the location of the IP address - somewhere in North Carolina. Why didn't they check? So I called back and talked to a supervisor who refunded me the other months charge as well.

They said the refunds could take up to 2 billing cycles - so I am still waiting to see. Once I have the refunds I will then call AT&T and tell them to mark my account as not accepting of outside bills on my account.
So - call your phone company and make sure your account is protected!

Home Remedy

You are about to find out what I have been dealing with for about a week. This is not a topic I like to discuss.

Diarrhea - yuck!

First Grahm and now Charlotte.

With Grahm we just had him wear pull ups, for the couldn't make it moments and adjusted the dose of the children's Imodium. We consulted the local pharmacist who recommended it as well. It is nice to have a husband who knows how to adjust the doses.

For Charlotte I don't like to do that so much. She is so little. So I went to my back up home remedy. We will be in Chicago on Saturday and I really don't want to be dealing with leaks and stomach wrenching smells.

So this is the natural way to deal with (uhm) diarrhea.
You throw some rice in a pot and add double or more of the usual water and cook until tender.

Drain off the water into a bowl (save the rice and feed that to them as well).

Then you can add sweeteners or flavoring. I usually use jello, they actually will drink it. Just be sure to double the water called for or you will end up with jello - too thick for a straw or sippy cup.

I was just thinking you could even freeze it as a Popsicle if you are dealing with sore throats and fevers too.

Continue to let them drink rice water and eat rice until symptoms subside.

I already have mine packed to go with us.


Any other tips?