Just Pure Lovely

If You Would Like to Order Pizza in the Next Town or You Need to Call a Business While Out

Since so many of you liked my last geeky tip (texting Google while out to price compare, get weather info, sports info, stock info...), I thought I'd share one that I've been using for the last couple of years, called Goog-411.  Goog-411 is directory asssistance without the fees and with categories for the times you don't know a business name. 

You dial the number below, state a business name or category, the city and state, and Google will tell you the top results, including street address. You choose one of the listings, and Google will then connect you for free, if you like.

As mentioned in the title to this post, I've used Goog-411 on the road to:

• Order pizza in the next town on the way to the beach ("pizza," "city/state")
• Get the address of a business (I called Goog-411 and named a bowling center in a nearby town, so I could get their address for my GPS)
• Call the dentist to get directions
• Call the ballet studio to discuss an extra fee
• Call the pharmacy to see if a prescription is ready
• Find the nearest feed store while in another county
• ....and for many other calls.

It's very handy when you don't have any idea what the business name is, but know the category, or when you forgot to jot down a phone number on your way out the door.

It does not work on residential numbers; only businesses.  Click below to view a quick video on the service, or to read more about it (or just cal 1-800-GOOG-411 and try it out for real).

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If You Homeschool and Could Use Some Advice From Someone Who Has Been There...

....visit my longtime blogging friend, Drewe Llyn, at her blog, Palms of His Hands.

Drewe Llyn has an almost empty nest and has homeschooled for 14 years.  In two posts, she shares wonderful advice.   I have read her words several times over the past 6 months, until finally realizing I am being completely selfish by not sharing them with you!

What Drewe Llyn would do all over again.

What Drewe Llyn wishes she had done.

I love learning from other mamas, don't you?

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Free 8x10 Photo at Walgreens.com Today (Thursday) Only

I just ordered an 8x10 photo from Walgreens for F R E E.  See?

Want one, too? Just to go to the Walgreens Photo Center online, upload your photo, choose the 8x10 size, and insert this shopping code at checkout:  FREEPHOTO

You don't even need to input any credit card information, if you choose to pick up your photo at a local store and choose "Pay at store."  (should be "pay nothing at store"!)

Sorry about the late announcement on this freebie.  It's for today, Thursday, February 25, 2010 only.

Thanks, Tammy, for letting me know about this!  I had an empty frame just waiting for such a deal.

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The Teen Who Could

On Friday, I wrote on my Facebook status: "Sending our 14yo off to the woods of Alabama again for the weekend. After having a teenagery morning with him, I don't think I'll miss him for the first 10 minutes."

We had just sent our 14yo to a Wing Emergency Services School with the Civil Air Patrol for the 4th weekend of 6.  During these weekends, he has learned to perform different emergency services, like finding "Fred*," a fallen "pilot" who "crashed."  Fred must be found in the dark, using only a red lens flashlight and accompanied by one other cadet (just a kid, too, yikes!).   Our cadet has also had to create a shelter from a tarp and sleep in the woods several nights, something he actually enjoys.

(*Fred, of course, is a stuffed dummy.)

I'd had a rough Friday morning with our cadet before he left on this latest trip.  It's not his fault that I'm becoming less and less intelligent as he gets older (I remarked to a friend Friday that I need a t-shirt that says on the front, "I'm always wrong."  Back:  "My teenager lets me know.")

We get along so well and love each other to bits, but as he gets older, the hair-pulling moments occur almost as often as they did when he was 2.  Our clashes are ridiculous.  Friday morning, the satellite wasn't working.  Frustrated at how long it was taking our teen to find the right cord behind the t.v., I said, "It's the black one. Power cords are always the black ones." He quickly corrected me, "Technically, Mom, they're not always black.  They're sometimes grey or white...."  I wish I had never taught him a word like "technically." 

Our teen has a happy disposition and is quite an easy kid to have around.  Usually.  It's those unusual moments that get me, the biggest that I worry over his seeming lack of motivation.  He has to be told to do the dishes, told to clean his room, told to do his math.  I want him to feel so compelled to complete things that I never have to tell him to do anything!  I worry over it sometimes, worrying over the "what ifs?"  What if he'll become a lackadaisical beggar at 30 because I wasn't there to tell him to go to work?!?  My man, the more level-headed parent in this family, doesn't worry at all, knowing teen boys quite well from his experience as one.

By Sunday evening, when our teen arrived home, I had missed him, of course.  I was so excited to see him that I gave him the biggest of hugs.

He rested, ate birthday cupcakes, unpacked his gear, then finally got around to telling me, quite casually, that he's one of only 2 cadets - out of about 100 - who have completed their tasks so far.  These are tough tasks.  Ones that would require motivation and determination and someone who is not lackadaisical..  Tasks, these tasks:

I'm so proud of him for such a big accomplishment.  I'm not proud of me for doubting him.  So, to myself, and to you, if you're a mama reading this:  Keep going.  Keep assigning chores.   Keep reminding.  Keep praying.  Keep allowing the I-know-it-all comments to breeze by. Keep believing in the kid.

I think our consistency just might be rewarded. 

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7

 
The clock struck midnight a few minutes ago.  Our youngest, our littlest one, is 7 today.  There is so much to be happy for in that, but there is a tinge of sadness in my heart, too.  She is losing her baby face, her baby teeth, her soft baby hands.  As she gets older, it gets harder to shelter her, to protect her.  Right now, Daddy and I are everything to her.  I know we won't always be her everything.

One day recently, she peeked into the room where I was sewing with our 12 year old ballerina, then rushed out.  Our ballerina said, "That's the 3rd time she's done that."  I said, "Yes. She's checking on me.  When you're 6, if mama is okay, the entire world is okay."  Our ballerina said, "When you're 12, too," but I know that is less each day.  One day, hopefully, she'll have a family of her own, with a little 6 year old checking on her.

Even though I'm a bit sad to see her turn 7, I so look forward to the future with her, that I cannot allow that tinge of sadness to grow.  I cannot wait to see where her beauty, her intelligence, her happiness, her natural gift for art, take her.  I cannot wait to meet her children, too, someday.  To her little girl, I will say one day as I said tonight, "Let me hug you extra long tonight.  It's the last hug I will ever have from 6-year-old you."  

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Suave Wash Them Grow Sweepstakes

Pretty much the day I got hurt, we received a package in the mail from Suave.  As excited as the kids were, you'd have thought we received colored cardstock or new pencils... or, even more believable, Valentine's Day candy.   The simplest things make these kids happy!

Here are the 4 products we got to try out:

• Suave Kids Berry Body Wash (perfect for bath time fun!)
• Suave Kids Strawberry Body Wash (also perfect for bath time fun!)
• Suave Kids Free and Gentle Body Wash (dye free and won't irritate your child's skin!)
• Suave Kids Moisturizing Body Wash (perfect for moms transitioning away from baby body wash)

Although they are specially formulated for kids' skin, I can tell you that they'll work on yours, too, if you, you know, keep forgetting to buy your adult body wash.  I know that for a fact.  Ahem.   

The reason I'm telling you all of this is to let you know that Suave is launching a Wash Them Grow sweepstakes. Actually, it has been launched since January 18th, which is about when I went underground thanks to my back injury. 

Still, you have a week to enter, and I'm sure yours will be the lucky winner of one of the weekly prizes of a Family e-Keepsake Kit (that includes a video camera, laptop and digital camera) and the Grand Prize of a family vacation to Orlando!

How do you enter?  Go to WashThemGrow.com and play a fun online trivia game to receive an automatic entry into the Suave Kids Wash Them Grow Sweepstakes.  You may enter daily through February 22. 

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If You Like Texting And You Like Googling....

I was standing in Staples today (yes, standing!  In Staples!  I was feeling a bit better, thank you for your prayers, and went out with my man after a week and a half of seeing nothing but this house's walls.  But it was a big outing for me, so I'm a bit sore tonight on my spine and down my left pinched-nerve arm.  But, still, I was standing and out today!).

So...I was standing in Staples today, grabbing the HP564 printer ink that I need when I had a sudden, "Ugh, what if this is a horrible price?" thought. 

You know that thought? It's the one that comes to you when you're in the most convenient store, grabbing the thing you finally remembered you needed, and you haven't taken the time to price check anywhere. 

I put the box down, thought about waiting, was wondering if I should (gas is expensive, why not just get it?), when I remembered to text Google: price HP564

Within a millisecond (they are fast!), Google texted me back with the three lowest prices on that printer ink.  I found out that Staples was only .02 more expensive, didn't mind losing two pennies (gas is expensive), and left happy that I'd gotten a good price.

So I thought I'd tell you about it, in case you like texting and you like Googling.  To start, you do this (click for more info):

You can also text Google for:

(Don't tell the kids about the calculator one!)

If you're not a texter or a Googler, no worries.  I won't be as geeky next time, okay? 

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Happy Valentine's Day!

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Update on me.

Thought I'd drop by for a very quick update:  My left arm, thanks to the pinched nerve from the herniated spine disc, feels less like it's in a vice and more like it's spazzing out, what with all the muscle spasms and cramps in there. 

Even though it still hurts a lot, "less" is what I'm hanging onto, for, you know, sanity's sake.  Thanks for thinking of me!  I'm typing in a hurry here, rushing to get back under the electric blanket to find the warmth that gives a bit of relief.  I'm in a hurry, too, before the Tylenol PM kicks in.  Those things sure do knock me out!

Oh!  If it indeed does snow here tomorrow night -- something that has not happened in 5 years and 2 months on our part of the Gulf Coast -- I think I will miraculously feel well enough to take some photos of the kids playing in it.  Especially of our little ones, who have no memory of snow.  How sad is that?!

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Pray for me?

Well.  I've been taken down by my back hard enough to 1.) actually admit it, 2.) stop doing stuff, and 3.) ask for a bit of prayer from you all!

I've apparently herniated or ruptured a disc (a gel-like thing in between our spine bones) in my upper back, between my shoulder blades.  It apparently has pinched a nerve that runs down my left arm, making that arm pretty useless and quite painful.

This happened 3 weeks ago, in a ow-it-hurts-but-I-can-still-do-a-thing-or-two way.  Then it started feeling better.  So much better that I started doing more than a thing or two. 

A few days ago, it came back with a little crunch (pop-pop?) as I stretched Thursday morning, and this time, with vengeance.  I can't do a thing or two even if I want (except write you quickly, this Sunday afternoon).

Everything hurts, without exaggeration.  Sleep is accepted in small dozes, whenever I've passed out enough to not notice the pain. 

So, there we have it.  And now, a little pity party, would you please?  A pity party with a bit  prayer.  There's just nothing just, pure, lovely about this....sorry to be so glum!

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