I was never big on watching news when we had TV so I can’t blame that for me falling even more out of touch with current events. However, I did manage to catch tidbits here and there so without that I really have fallen off the radar relying on my husband to keep me afloat of important things. But the Olympics renewed some interest for me to keep up with things myself so this week I went out and subscribed to a national and local RSS news feed. Just one of each (thank heaven because both bring in easily 50 stories a day each!) and it’s interesting to see what I’ve been missing.

Like today I learned:

I need to save a few more pennies: Maker of Snickers and M&Ms is raising prices.
Just when you think you know it all: Whopping fish declared new species.
Mother’s love can be taken too far: Surrogate mom, 61, gives birth to own grandkid.

And local news is stellar too adding to my knowledge base with things like:

Why I want to drive to school to pick up kids today: Scorching, near record-breaking heat Friday.
Keeping your hands to yourself never grows old: Woman arrested after hitting boy, 6, in head at Tempe Marketplace.
Neither does self-control: Woman attacked officers at kids’ football game

Now I remember why I didn’t watch the news. *snort* But here’s my all time favorite story so far today:
Typo vigilantes answer to the letter of the law. And not just because the title it so witty, but clearly some news worthy crime can be…what’s the word - educational? *giggle*

I hope these things make someone else’s day as enlightening as mine.

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Up to this point in my life, I’ve not really bridged the gap of buying things myself online. I’ve done a few things around holidays. But most of the time I just tell my hubby what book I need for book club and he gets it for me. I’ve never even set up my own Amazon account. There’s a hump you have to get over when it comes to actually buying stuff by clicking your mouse and entering payment information. I haven’t crossed it yet, but it could be on the horizon for me because now he’s come up with this:

I just started playing with the beta version in the past 10 minutes and I could get seriously hooked. The way that it displays great deals, showing your savings is awesome. But the fact that if you just click on the image to get more details, the gadget actually LEARNS what you like - well that’s amazing. That means over time that little baby can be your best shopping buddy, finding deals for you on things you’d actually buy. In 5 minutes I found the new Harry Potter book pre-buy for nearly 50% off cover price, Fillet Mignon packs for 30% off and a tool kit that was over 70% off. That’s shopping power. This could be dangerous!

You can click on the image above to take you to the download page or use this link:
http://www.google.com/ig/add?moduleurl=http://www.instantgadgets.com/gadgets/instantAmazon.google.xml

Go play and let me know what you think! (You’d think he’d not WANT me to shop but when he makes it this easy he better watch out!)

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I really like a lot of Google’s tools. I’ve been converted to Gmail for well over a year now and really have good things to say about it. But I noticed, quite on accident last week, that some e-mails that weren’t spam found their way to my spam folder. I always delete all spam messages on a regular basis and I’ve been doing it without looking for a long time. But after seeing a few that shouldn’t have been there pop up I’ve been double checking my spam folder and continually finding a few that shouldn’t be there. What’s really weird is that some are from the same source like my voicemail service - two messages on the same day and one went to the spam folder and one went to my inbox. But I had been under the assumption that once an e-mail address had been responded to by you and/or was in your contact list it wouldn’t go to spam, yet I found a few of those that were there too. This morning I also noticed that one that I marked as not spam several times kept going back to spam until it finally stuck on the 4th or 5th attempt.

It could be a simple glitch as they test some new configurations or a million other things, but if I’ve missed responding to an e-mail lately it might be because it snuck into my spam folder and I didn’t see it. And if you use Gmail you might want to double check. I told my hubby and he checked his last night and found one or two that shouldn’t have been there too. So it’s worth a double check if you use Google. ;o)

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I just got back from picking up my kids from school. This is a daily activity as the school is in our neighborhood so nothing new, but today there was a little rain when school let out. You’d have thought an earthquake was raging for the pandemonium that was present.

They decided to re-route all the exiting children from the front of the school, which is normally where only the kindergarten and preschool kids wait for pick up. This meant 800 kids in one hallway. Good grief. I was happy to get my preschooler out of the hall and outside where we could wait under the umbrella for his sister. We waited, and waited….and waited. She misunderstood the re-routing instructions and exited with the bus kids going right to the car by the crosswalk. When we didn’t arrive she doubled back to the front of the school where we were waiting for her.

Now here’s the thing. I understand different measures for inclement weather, but seriously this was a little shower - not even a down pour. The kids didn’t need re-routed from their normal exits of the school. That alone would have reduced the mess by half. And drivers, good grief a little rain doesn’t change any traffic or parking laws and it certainly doesn’t give you special license to be an idiot. It’s just rain. On the open road you drive a little slower, remember the wet roads will have an impact on your ability to stop and keep your eyes open. You don’t panic and hit the brakes every two seconds.

What is it about a little rain that opens the floodgates for stupidity?

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This morning I was catching up on blog reading from the weekend. This is a good way to start the week, but as I don’t come online much, if at all, during the weekends, it also means I miss out on some blogosphere stuff that happens then. This morning was full of information! One of the posts and responses this morning caused me to reflect on my…for lack of a better description…Internet growth. And I realized that both my experience and my reliance on my brilliant programming husband are things I’ve taken for granted.
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I’ve been finding a lot of my time in the mornings going to reading other blogs. Last night I was telling my husband how incredible the concept of the blog is. (He’s rolling his eyes because HE’s the one that had to beg, plead and never give up encouraging to get me to start blogging!)

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Who knew raising parents didn’t get easier as you got older? It’s not a job for the faint of heart that’s for sure.

As a child you spend all your time teaching them the basics: play more, enjoy food, express your feelings. As a teen you work on the independent lessons of playing more, diet and emotional release. As young adults you help them master sharing of play, food and emotions. Apparently, middle age is about reverting.

I used to rely on my parents for everything, now they rely on me for many things. I used to be the one who was told when to go to the doctor and to take my medicine, now I’m the one telling them. I used to swear I’d never “do” or “say” that when I was a parent, yet I find myself knee deep in eating my words on a daily basis. I used to get handfuls of advice, now I get requests for advice.

Amazing how much work it takes to get them raised! *wink*

So I was just responding to a blog group about the woes of losing balance this week with regards to computer time and everything else.  I figured I might as well add more fuel to the blaze and blog it too.  That must be the “if you can’t beat them, join them” tip being put to work.

We started preschool this week and we entered our second week of soccer practices for my daughter.  Neither are monumental shifts but my whole balance technique seems to have been rudely knocked off course.  Today I was so nuts after the first couple hours of attempts at making headway at the computer that I just walked away and cleaned.  I felt a little better.

My father in law has always said that if you want something done, ask a busy person.  We’re like moths to a flame.  We clearly have plenty to do all the time, yet we continually add more.  My biggest addition was taking up blogging and getting all my sites streamlined under one umbrella.  I must be insane.  This is a project that will take hundreds of hours and I’m trying to push it into a few weeks.  Bring on the TUMS.

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Just a little vent this morning on the emotional state of drivers in general out there.  It absolutely kills me how so many drivers seem to think they are the only ones with lives and schedules that need to be at a certain place by a certain time.  A simple observation of how many people are on the road with you is a good indicator of how not alone in the traffic world we are.

When I take my daughter to school every morning it is a very in the face reminder of a large group of people trying to get places on time.  There are lines coming from both directions all waiting their turn to reach the drop off point.  Once the gate is opened and kids are let on the school grounds the line moves fairly efficiently.  But waiting for that moment causes a lot of upset people who do stupid things.  It may only be the difference of 3 minutes or less but you’d think it was hours for the reactions.  Some fly past the standing traffic to use the parking lot to drop off instead.  Others try to cut each other off instead of taking turns.  In short, many people are so inconsiderate of anyone besides themselves and it always amazes me.  These people still haven’t learned that even the craziest, fastest driving in busy areas only buys a difference of 5 minutes or less.  However they risk causing accidents which would delay many people for many minutes/hours not to mention the negative impact on another’s life and/or health.

As I was rounding the corner coming back home a car came screaming down the way going the opposite direction.  She was clearly not expecting to have anyone else be at the corner because when I rounded it she started honking her horn and motioning for me to move out of the way. 

I can never find my horn when I want/need it.  The fact that she was on hers and motioning wildly the very moment she saw me tells me she’s quite well versed in using hers.  I hate sharing the road with people like this.  A quick review of my position showed I was on the right side of the road so it must have been a habit based reaction for the other driver.  What a waste of training.

Every mom experiences it.  I even tried to plan for it.  It’s a catch twenty-two situation:  You’re totally excited and happy to see your child grow and at the same time you mourn their growth.

As you can clearly see, my three year old shows pure delight with his first day of preschool.  Mom is sad to realize the end of a season in her life as her baby goes to school - again.

That’s right this is the second time.  There’s five years between my kids so I already did this half day of school every day of the week once when my daughter went to Kindergarten not knowing at the time that she was not going to be my only child.  I felt the same things that day knowing my baby was growing up and there was nothing I could do about it.  It was tough to accept that I couldn’t keep her little.  But you can’t.  Everyone grows, time always passes and we are left to our own devices to deal with it. 

Subconsciously my brain must have been trying to do just that as I had a horrible dream this morning.  I’m no dream doctor but you can read for yourself the many levels of emotions I must have been trying to sort.  I dreamt I was taking my daughter to her first day of school at a new school (which also happened this year) and everything that could go wrong did.  We were frantically trying to get her where she needed to go as doors kept changing on us and bells started ringing telling us we were late.  When I finally got her to her room panic struck as I realized I didn’t have my son with me.  I must have left him in the car!  A search that felt like it lasted all day finally ended with me finding my son in the back seat of the car asleep.  The car was buried under dirt from construction going on and I dug frantically to get to my baby.  I woke up, heart pounding and tears burning my eyes.  It was only 6:00 a.m.  I snuck to the door where my babies lay sound asleep and just stood there for several minutes grateful to know where they were and know they were still my babies.  I suppose in this way they always will be.

It’s not all sad though.  How can you feel sorrow when your child is SO happy and full of joy?  The anticipation of this day has been in motion for well over two months now with the daily question of “Mom, when I go to kools?”  And you can SEE his delight this morning.

Yes, there’s no denying that he’s delighted to be going to his first day of school.  His teacher is so sweet and it sure helps to have this image in my head as I walked away:

He’s in good hands.  I’m sure when I pick him up later today he’ll be full of stories and excitement to share.  He was ready for this step.  Mom wasn’t, but mom will be okay because her boy is taking his first steps to reaching his full potential.  What more could a parent ask for?

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