I joined a blog directory after my brother asked, “Have you joined any blog directories?” I’m learning, I’m learning…
Anyhow, after joining Blogcatalog, I’ve found even MORE people like me addicted to lifestyle blogs, crafting, family creativeness, etc. The world is so full of awesome, creative, artistic, life-loving people!
Like this one: http://www.just-spotted.com/2009/05/swanky-paper-giveaway.html
Check out their giveaway! You just might win!
Holy cow!! I met Martha Stewart!!!! *whew* I have to get the rest of this excitement over Martha out of my system.
I took Ollie on a little trip last Friday to Macy’s on State Street… totally last minute decision. Left the house at 10:15 a.m. for her 1 pm book signing.
Got in line at about 12:00 pm where we were greeted by Macy’s staff with bottled water and cookies. The staff was so nice.
We made friends with people in line… thanks to the lady from Scottsdale, AZ for taking our picture. We liked talking with the well-dressed-newspaper-reading guy, too. The Asian lady behind us in the picture had her dog, Emma, in her purse. And we talked about making homemade dog treats.
The line started moving a bit past 1:00 pm. A voice came from beyond a corner, then applause. None of us in line could hear a thing, but oh well, we thought, they’re probably just introducing Martha. Realistically, I figured if we were still in line by 2:00, we would bail because I had to pick up our daughter at school. However, the line was moving at a good pace, and then the skies opened up… a Macy’s staff person approached me and said, “Martha asked that mothers with young children in or with strollers, and disabled people get consideration and be ushered to the head of the line. I already brought up two moms. So, go ahead, go up there and talk to the women at the head of the line, and they’ll get you in the queue.” We love Martha, don’t we? The lady in the bright yellow green sweater was apparently a main coordinator (or Martha staff) and she got us right in.
I’ve been telling people that Martha Stewart is really stunning in person. She’s a beautiful lady… she’s also a powerful woman. I wonder if I admire her more for her lifestyle-crafting-cooking inspirations or her empire building skills? She was very nice, cordial, talked with Ollie a little bit (funny pic in the gallery), asked who the crafter was in our house, what crafts I do (I could have said, “Everything!”, but only told her that I papercraft and sew). For all the things I could have said to her, I basically came up with, “Ms. Stewart, it is such a pleasure to meet you.” She said, “Why, thank you.” Then she said, “Oh, he lets you craft? You have time?” I said, “Well, I sneak in time… but really, I don’t sleep too much,” and she grinned, “Yes, we know about that.” She said, “Very nice to meet you.” to my brother.
There was an older lady whom we met after the signing who was quite upset that Martha was 12 minutes late. She said, “I gave her one demerit for every minute she was late, so that makes 12 demerits…” Wow. Okay, lady, I don’t know how you give demerits, or what they’re going to do for Martha, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t too concerned about you.
The rest of our short visit with the lifestyle maven is captured in pictures…Ha, ha, thanks for the pictures, Patrick! Don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t there!
So, I knew there were lots of blogs out there devoted to saving money, using coupons, stretching your dollars, finding deals, finding freebies… but really, it’s whole community. If you’re interested, here are a few sites that have great information!
http://www.stretchingabuckblog.com/
Had a really nice time at our local Earth Day fair. Look, we took a ride around our nature center park. Made the man work with all of us in the cab! There were more activities than I thought, which was nice for the kids. We also had a great time listening to Rocket J, local band. They covered some oldies and goodies. We KNOW the drummer! So cool. He’s actually the father of my daughter’s preschool friend. Almost needless to say, Ollie rocked out big time. Air guitar and all. He wanted to stay and dance the whole time. Daisy, Abby’s friend, invited Ollie onto the stage, but I don’t think he was quite prepared for that, and politely said, “No.”
We went around and visited the various booths. Here are some highlights aside from the local garden club, soil and water conservation district, National Wildlife Federation and local park district.
Sustainable, handmade paper products, such as wildflower seed notecards, memory books, gift tags, frames and custom wedding invitations at www.womancraft.net,
Soap artisan makes hand made natural Olive oil soaps, body oils and bathing essentials (www.abbeybrown.com),
Fine specialty teas promoting wellness and health at www.senteamentalmoods.com,
Books promoting diversity, creativity and discovery for children at www.readingbarefootbooks.com
Remember the commercial for “the purple pill”?
“The purple pill. Do you take the purple pill? Maybe you’re a candidate for the purple pill? Ask your doctor if you can take the purple pill.”
It’s Nexium. Purple “crack”. I’ve been taking it for a little over a month now. 40mg, twice a day. For acid reflux or GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). Sounds gross, doesn’t it? That’s saying I have stomach acid going up my esophagus and up my throat and irritating the heck out of my vocal chords and sometimes making my chest and upper back hurt. It’s so… annoying! My throat hurts right now, and I’m not even sure what triggered it. I know that it’s partially my own doing. Stress. I’m a wound-up person (not all the time, but a lot), but I mask it and parade around like I’m a totally put together, easy-going gal. I can be. Hey, fake it ’til you make it. 🙂
Back to my medicine cabinet. I also have Pepcid, 20 mg, twice a day. Sometimes I have a little super-extra-strength Maalox cocktail in between if I’m feeling crappy like I am now. I don’t even get heartburn! Just a weird burning sensation in my throat and in between the shoulder blades. Sometimes it feels like I have something stuck or something sharp in my throat, but it never feels like my breathing is blocked.
I know I’ve rarely talked about my little acid problem. Had a bout of this 3 or 4 years ago, and actually weaned myself off of Prevacid (another medication) through stress management and diet. (Update: my ENT doctor diagnosed me with LPR back then, laryngopharyngeal reflux disease. Go ahead, google it.) I took 30 mg of the pink and black capsule twice a day, and then down to once a day. Can’t tell you how excited I was when I stopped. I took the occasional Tums here and there.
So, of course, I totally think I can do it again. That is, wean myself. But, maybe this time won’t be as easy? I totally want to. Nexium: It’s SUPER-EXPENSIVE, like over $150 for 30 pills (that’s with insurance)! For this reason alone I want to better manage my acid. I bought a wedge pillow to sleep on; a nice $24 investment. Here are the kids testing it out. Think it’ll last long? I’ve used it for a couple of weeks now. I always end up sliding down in the middle of the night. Have to work on that.
In the meantime, I’m looking at some interesting book titles: Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Acid Reflux, Spurn the Burn, Digestive Wellness. Some of you know, I really find alternative medicine (or complementary medicine) completely fascinating, so if you know of homeopathic strategies, websites or books, pass them along. For instance, I started taking an organic multi-vitamin with an herbal stress and immune support blend, as opposed to the one-a-day multi-vitamin. I’ll report on this after a month. I’m also on the probiotics kick and digestive enzymes. The digestive enzyme pills are more for anti-inflammatory use because I have a rough time with ibuprofen which exacerbates the acid problem. And, it works!
Alright, enough medical talk with Julie. Enjoy Earth Day… I’ll be chiming in on this later! We had a nice celebration in town, and we were greeted this morning with something funny.
Who reads this blog? Seriously, I can think of less than ten people who I personally know. I do have stats through an application. (I’m just now learning all this. It’s a lot of tech to me.) I don’t know your name or where you live. I’m not that tech savvy, and I don’t want to know. However, whether you stumbled upon julietiu.com through a browser search or your my friend or family, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for taking the time to see what’s happening in our world!
A BIG HELLO to Miami, Seattle, Denver, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Arlington Heights, Dubai, Los Angeles, Montreal, Belgium, Taipei, Maryland, Budapest, Kansas, St. Louis, Kenosha, Arizona, London and San Francisco!
