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Dec 10, 2009

Dear Santa, I Want A New Computer

December 10, 2009 By

OK, I know that’s not exactly an easy request. Your toy factory likely hasn’t fully converted to the digital age of electronics, and what conversions you have made are probably overwhelmed with requests for things like XBox, Wii, and iPhones.

And I know I haven’t been as good of a blogger as I could be, but I don’t think I’m on the naughty list yet. I’m still posting once a week, and I’m doing my best to keep my Bloglines under 1,000 unread posts. (Currently 931!) Work has consumed a lot of my time now, but that doesn’t mean my computer has been gathering dust.

Santa, let me present a few reasons why I need my new computer:

1. I bought this laptop to replace the three-day old laptop that was stolen when our house was robbed in 2006. It’s now over three years old. In laptop computer years, that means it’s practically prehistoric. And I’d still like to move on and forget that traumatic moment in my life.

2. My CD-ROM stopped working over a year ago. Generally not a big deal, but every now and then it frustrates me when I can’t upload a CD into iTunes.

3. About two months ago an intermittent grinding/whining noise started coming from my computer. It comes and goes, but occasionally is loud enough to make everyone else in the room stop and stare, thinking What got trapped in your laptop fan and is dying a slow, painful death?

4. Battery power? Ha. This baby lasts less than five minutes on battery. You can’t even finish the start-up sequence before it gives you the low-battery warning and shuts down.

5. Last month my media card reader stopped working. Instead of popping my SD card from my camera into the media card slot to view photos of my adorable children, I now must go through a series of steps that involves the SD card, Aaron’s computer, a flash drive, and my computer.

6. As of yesterday, the computer refuses to hibernate when closed. Instead, it remains on unless I turn it off completely.

7. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s this:


Did I mention I like taking photos of my adorable children?

So, Santa, if you wouldn’t mind, could I please, please, please have a new computer for Christmas? I’ve already used a backup device to save my files, all ready to be transferred to a shiny new hard drive when the times comes. Don’t leave a girl stranded without her technology, Santa.

(No, I’m not begging anyone in particular, other than Santa Claus. I still believe, Santa!)

Filed Under: holidays, me me me Tagged With:


Jun 26, 2008

Promoting My New Gig

June 26, 2008 By

First off, did you know you’re a really smart bunch of readers? Thank you so much for sharing your frugal tips! There are many I had never thought of, and yet not one person told me to do something like washing out and reusing sandwich baggies. (Seriously? People do that?) I’ll be putting several of those tips into practice immediately, and I’m grateful for all of the advice.

Now, moving on to the real purpose of this post: Stefania over at CityMama is having a contest to help promote the new Being Savvy blogs, and I wanted to let you know so you could enter as well. As I’ve mentioned, I’m the editor of Being Savvy Columbus (hey Columbusites, have you subscribed to it yet?), and I’m really enjoying sharing the best of the city with everyone.

It’s kind of like being paid to go have fun with your kids – I’m required to go out and find the best of Columbus, which means I have to actually, you know, GO OUT and investigate new places to play and learn. Oh, the horrors, right? Actually, I’m finding all kinds of fun off-beat locales and I’ve learned I don’t know as much about my own city as I should. That’s changing, though.

There are several other cities in the Being Savvy blog list, written by some amazing bloggers you may already know, and I wanted to take the chance to mention them all here:

Shawn Burns (Silicon Valley)

Kim Mordecai (Sacramento) (coming soon!)

Jonathon Morgan (Austin)

Caitlin Giles (Chicago)

Mike Adamick (San Francisco)

Leticia (DC Metro)

Rachel Mosteller (Houston)

Casey of Moosh in Indy (Indianapolis)

Colleen (Delaney Diaries) (San Antonio)

Aimee of Greeblemonkey (Denver)

Rita Arens of Surrender Dorothy (Kansas City)

Jenny Ciampa (San Diego)

Bethany Dunn (Seattle)

Kelly Leahy (New Orleans)

Amy Kuras (Detroit)

Nicole Teed (Charleston)

Meredith Pelham (Nashville)

Julie Woo Yang (Honolulu)

Amy Davis (The Lovely Mrs. Davis) (Atlanta)

Becky (Tampa) (Tampa)

Heather Gibbs Flett(Rookie Moms) (Oakland/Berkeley)

Whitney Moss (Rookie Moms) (Oakland/Berkeley)

Kim Prince (San Fernando Valley)

Amelia Sprout (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

Jill Notkin (Boston)

Nina Moon (Los Angeles)

Gwendolyn Floyd (Vancouver)

Katie Mother Bumper (Toronto) (coming soon!)

If your city isn’t represented here, tell Stefania you want to see it in the list. Want to write it? Let her know that, too.

And if your city is here, be sure to check out your local blog. Maybe even talk it up a little, and in doing so enter CityMama’s contest.

Finally, I’ll ask a favor: would you like a pretty shiny button to add to your blog? If so, leave me a comment or e-mail me at amommystory [at] gmail [dot] com so I can send you the code for our Being Savvy buttons. Let me know which city blog you want it to link to.

I KNOW my smart and savvy Columbus bloggers will help me out. Right? Right? I’ll bake you cookies if you add a button. Wait…that’s not really an incentive, is it?

Filed Under: me me me, shameless promotion Tagged With: ,


Mar 3, 2008

I’m Sassy, Hot, and I Make People Smile

March 3, 2008 By

Maybe I should tape that title to my mirror and repeat each morning?

I’m so lousy at blog housekeeping (just like real life housekeeping!) that I forgot to mention that I’ve been given some awards and nominations!

First, Karen decided to announce to the world that I’m sassy:


Geez, Karen, it was a big secret. Now everyone knows I’m sassy! Next thing you know, people will expect me to be witty, too.

As is the custom, I must pass the award on to other deserving bloggers. I’d like to give this one to Lotus, Dana, and Motherbumper. Thank you, Karen!

And then, Mayberry Mom confessed that Jennifer and I make her smile for hosting Haiku Friday:


Awww…you make me smile, too. And keep those haiku coming! Besides Mayberry, there are lots of folks who make me smile, but today I’m going to honor some of the local ladies: Julie, Laura, and Kristi.

I chose Laura and Kristi because whenever we go out for our once-a-month Ladies Night get together, I always leave happy and refreshed and wishing I could spend more time with them (and everyone else – I’m not forgetting you, Chris and Emily!). And I picked Julie because her son is so adorable I want to eat him up, and her crafts are stunningly beautiful. Go see the apron she made recently and marvel at the bazillion french knots.

Thanks, Mayberry – I’m glad you like this little haiku day Jennifer and I came up with.

Speaking of Jennifer, this crazy woman nominated me for two Blogger’s Choice Awards categories awhile back:

My site was nominated for Best Parenting Blog!

My site was nominated for Hottest Mommy Blogger!

I know I don’t stand a chance next to the other fabulous (and hot) mommybloggers out there, but if you’d care to vote for me so I’m not sitting at 0 votes, I certainly wouldn’t object. And be sure to go vote for Jennifer, too. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

Finally, sometime around 6:45pm Eastern time, focus all of your calming energy my direction, would you? Tonight is my performance exam for one of my nursing classes, and I’m already starting to shake from nerves. This is one of those “perform the skill perfectly or you automatically fail out of the program” kind of things, so you can understand why I might be a little jittery.

Edited to add: I passed! Thanks for your well wishes!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,


Jan 10, 2008

I’m Waving At You. How About You Wave Back?

January 10, 2008 By

Apparently today is a delurking day – one of those days where those of us who are out here writing all the time ask you to show yourself.

Bloggers love comments. We have to, or we’d be writing in little paper journals kept in our desks. Feedback is nourishment to us.

So just for this one day, leave me a comment to let me know you’ve been here. I look over my stats all the time, and I know there are more people visiting than commenting. I’m not hurt by that – I’m a secret stalker for many other blogs, and sometimes I read my favorite blogs and don’t have anything to say.

But I do love me some comments. Seeing that e-mail pop up telling me I have a new comment on a post is like getting another fix of my favorite drug. When I get a lot of comments, I’m downright giddy.

You don’t have to be witty, or funny, or philosophical. A simple “Hi!” works fine. Anonymous is cool, too. (Spammers and trolls excluded, of course.)

Or if you want a reason to comment, answer me this question:


You have discovered one lonely cookie left in a bag. It’s your favorite type of cookie. Do you:

A. give it to your child
B. share it with your child or…
C. turn the TV on and hide out in the kitchen so your kid doesn’t see you eat the cookie?


OK, let’s see how many people are out there. I’d love to see over 50 comments. And just to add a little guilt:


PS – Want to really make me happy? There are some blog awards going on right now. And I hear there’s a Parenting blog category. And I’ve never been nominated.

Just sayin’. If you think I’m cool enough and all…

Filed Under: me me me Tagged With: ,


Aug 9, 2007

Laundry Experts Needed!

August 9, 2007 By

OK, Internets, we had a small accident today. Actually, a not-so-small poop explosion. Mira was sitting on my lap this morning, her back against my stomach, and she let go with one massive dump. I didn’t think anything of it until I felt something warm and wet. Yep, it went out the back of the diaper, all up her back and onto me.

I can handle a stain on my shirt, since it’s just your average t-shirt. But Mira was wearing a cute white onesie with pink elephants that Cordy had once worn as a newborn. You know, one of those clothing pieces I planned to give Cordy when she was older to remind her of how small she was, so she could roll her eyes at me and tell me to accept that she’s a grown up now and geez, mom, get over it already. But it was so cute that I couldn’t bear to see it not worn again, and I knew Mira would look adorable in it. Which of course means this had to be the one time she had a massive diaper blowout.

Now, I’ve never been good with stain removal. I had to deal with formula poop blowouts with Cordy, having some success with stain removal, but breast milk poop is entirely different. White onesie + bright yellow-orange poop = serious stain problem.

So to all of you laundry goddesses out there: how do I get this stain out? I soaked the onesie in hot water as soon as I took it off of Mira. I’ve since gone back and rinsed it again and soaked it in fresh hot water with a little laundry detergent. It’s still bright yellow-orange all across the back of the onesie.

I have yet to try any intensive remedies, because I don’t know where to start. But surely someone out there knows the trick to getting breast milk poop stains out of clothing, right?

Help a (domestically challenged) fellow mama in need out, won’t you? I’ll even give you my prized Butterball potholder if you can save this onesie!

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