Today, just a few minutes ago you turned eight. My breath catches in my throat and my eyes tear up a little as I type that. Because I cannot believe that you are actually eight years old.

Eight years ago today you came busting into this world (my water broke) six weeks early.

I had a hard time believing that I could love someone as much as your daddy. But from the first kick, I suddenly understood the true meaning of bonding. And every day as you grew bigger and stronger, I anxiously awaited your arrival.

I was also scared. What kind of mother would I be? How in the world would I change so many diapers? Would I easily be able to breastfeed? If not, would you starve?

I was always confident in the business world. Always sure of myself. This mothering thing had me scared to death.

But you were coming. Although your room wasn’t ready. It still smelled like paint. Your new clothes weren’t washed. I hadn’t even had the second shower that was planned.

But you were ready. And when you set your mind on something, there is pretty much no stopping you.

You were only four pounds and you still needed a lot of extra attention from the hospital so they kept you but they sent me home. I sobbed uncontrollably for almost 30 minutes the day that I had to leave the hospital without you.

There was nothing that this overachieving, workaholic business-minded woman could do. It was humbling.

Although I was so unsure of myself as a mother, I did know that leaving the hospital without you was devastating. It felt wrong. Almost anticlimactic.

You were still in NICU and you would remain there for another few weeks. Your sucking reflex had not developed so you were fed through a tube. You liked to torture the nurses by pulling out your feeding tube almost every night. You were a scrappy four pounder!

The goal was to get you to eat. At first it was something as small as half a teaspoon. That amount seemed so huge to put in your tiny body. Your father and I reveled in every little triumph.

One extra CC of milk in you and we high fived. Leaving the feeding tube in for an entire night and we rejoiced. Breastfeeding for the first time and we were beside ourselves.

Eating on your own was such a huge accomplishment. I felt like I had waited my entire life to help you get there.

A few weeks after your rush into the world, you came home and you made our family complete. Perfect.

I could not be prouder to be your mother. I could not ask for a better, more amazing child.

I love you so much for the little boy that you are and the glimpse every day that I get of the man you are becoming.

I cannot imagine my life without you. I can barely remember my life before you. My life is enhanced because you are in it.

I cannot wait to see what your future holds.

Happy Birthday Huntly!

You sure don’t look like a preemie anymore, my big boy.

Some Most All of us are busy people. We work at jobs that keep us hopping all day long. After a long busy day, most people want to come home and relax, right? Well there are those who come home and get started all over again being busy.

Are you busy because of yourself or your children? There is a difference and there is a solution for both. The results of being too busy no matter what the reason are the same: burnout.

Here are a few tips to avoid extracurricular activity burnout:

If you feel like you are close to going over the edge, re-evaluate the need for all of your extra activities. No one has to be superwoman anymore. If you are a member of one committee at church, you don’t need to chair another. The PTA will survive if you are not on the executive board. Every event that the neighborhood hosts doesn’t need your assistance. Too much to do usually means that something isn’t getting done.

Write all of the activities down on a sheet of paper. Next to each, list the reasons that you became involved in the first place. Be honest with yourself. If it was to impress another person, then say so. Eliminate the ones that were begun for all the wrong reasons.

Choose no more than three activities a week. If you have children, even three may be too much. Being absent from the house every evening doesn’t leave much time for family or closeness with your spouse.

Schedule your activities on the same night that the kids have their practices. They don’t need to be at the same time, but this minimizes the amount of time the family is out of the house. If everyone can take a few days a week for extracurricular activities, then that leaves the other evenings for family time.

If the cause of your imminent burnout is shuttling the kids from one venue to another, get help. Organize a carpool with the other player’s mothers. Each week, take turns carrying the entire group to practice.

If you need to, give your kids a limit on the number of activities they can be involved in during the school year. Too many activities could mean meltdown for them as well. During the summer, they can add on a few extra activities since school will be out.

Sometimes, you may have to say “No” when asked to volunteer in order to keep your sanity and your family. Getting involved in the community is great, but too much of a good thing is bad for anyone. Don’t lose sight of one goal for another.

Learn to balance your work, family, and extracurricular activities.

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I am ignoring my husband as he tries for about the hundredth time to explain the flaw in the logic of the movie The Terminator. I don’t give a crap besides I have heard enough of this story that I know what his theory is.

Still as he tries to explain it to me for seriously the hundredth time, he looks at me in the middle of talking and says, “You know what I mean?” And I in yet another, most likely vain attempt to get him to stop telling me this story say to him, “Honey, really I am not listening. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Now he is not speaking to me.

Ok wait, UPDATE UPDATE – he just read this over my shoulder and yelled, “YOU WEREN’T EVEN TRYING TO LISTEN” and then launches yet again into the story. So I start yelling “PLEASE NOOOOOO. PLEASE NOOOOOO.”

He will not stop yapping. Good God.

But damn in the middle of all this I think to myself that his bizarre movie conspiracy theories cracked me up from the moment that I met up. Who thinks about crap like this that much? When I realized that I did too, I knew that I would marry him. That was only two weeks after I met him and that was over twelve years ago.

P.S. We are watching The Terminator right now and I am covering my eyes over the nasty eyeball scene and husband is laughing.

P.P.S. He just asked me to type that he would be very interested in having me type up his Terminator flaw thing.

P.P.P.S Did you know that there was supposedly a catch phrase from this movie besides the Arnold one? I had no clue. I just saw that part too!

*Thank you to New Baby for donating this VADO camera from Creative Labs to our fun event. Please check out New Baby and consider adding your own vlog!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to meet a wonderful new parenting advice search engine, Mamapedia, and now we’d like you to try the site out for yourself with our new contest, “What Can I Learn Today?” One grand prize winner will win a VADO digital video camera!

To Enter:
1. Visit Mamapedia and ask any parenting question.
2. Choose how you want to enter – or choose all three for more chances to win:

• Comment to this post with your question and the answer you found
• Blog about Mamapedia on your own site sharing the question you asked and the answer you found
• Vlog about Mamapedia and your question/answer at New Baby.

3. Fill out this secure form to let us know that you entered.

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It’s that easy! Then join us for another SiteWarming Party on Twitter Saturday, May 23rd from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m eastern time to find out who won! There will also be several great door prizes.

Good luck!

*This contest is open to all U. S. residents 18 years or older and ends May 23rd at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

*This contest courtesy of Momfluence – Rocking the Cradle and Shaping the World.

Bath time is very often the most exciting part of the day for my children. I mean we have all types of options available to the kids depending on the timing of the bath. There is your standard bath which is about 15 minutes, there is the fun bath which can be 30 plus minutes and the business bath which is a 5 minute bath where either Mommy or Daddy do the quick wask. There are also the same options but with showers as well.

Usually we try to allow enough time for a fun bath. When Daddy is in charge, he loves to make mohawks for the kids. My four year old has very fine hair that is very curly. Here is her latest mohawk.

The fabulous folks from Frigidaire and Mom Central have just made my life a little easier and are giving me a little more time to practice being divine. How? Well I have just been invited to be on Team Fridge. This awesome refrigerator below will be making its way to our household in just a few, short weeks courtesy of Frigidaire.

This month Frigidaire rolls out a brilliant new collection with more than 250 kitchen and laundry appliances, just in time for Mother’s Day! They designed these high-performance products with easy-to-use, time-saving features to give Moms more free time away from the kitchen and laundry room.

Frigidaire recently conducted a survey to get a window into moms’ lives. The Frigidaire Motherload Index revealed that Moms log more overtime than most Americans. The index found that moms spend most of their waking lives – 200 hours each month, in fact – doing the activities we least enjoy rather than the things we love. And yet the majority of us say we “rarely” or “never” feel caught up on our household tasks.

Frigidaire kept all of this in mind when designing their new appliances.  With new features such as a six-minute PowerPlus™ preheat time on their ovens, a Quick Clean dishwashing cycle that cuts the time it takes in half to clean our dishes, the Fits-More™ Dryer that allows us to dry the whole family’s clothes at once, and TimeWise™ technology to make the dryer and washing cycle equal, we can have enough time to watch our favorite shows—or even better—get a manicure!

Frigidaire has so much confidence in the efficiency of these products that they are offering a “More Me-Time” Guarantee: Moms will reduce the amount of time they typically spend on housework by at least 8 hours a month using a combination of three or more select Frigidaire appliances or they can return the appliances to their place of purchase within 30 days and get their money back!

Frigidaire also wants to know what you would do if you had an extra hour of blissful “me-time”.  Starting today, moms can go to Frigdaire.com or to the Frigidaire Facebook page to report the five things they would do with an extra hour each day.   All participants will be entered for a chance to win an entire suite of NEW Frigidaire appliances.  Plus, check out other prizes you can win – like a gorgeous new Frigidaire Affinity washer/dryer.

Follow me here and on Twitter for the next few months as I introduce you to this cool new line of Frigidaire appliances and give you a further glimpse into our lives.

I am a Frigidaire Test Drive Mom and a long time Frigidaire customer.

There are many things that I got from my mother. Some I wish that I hadn’t and others…well you can definitely tell that they came from my mother. I don’t have her eyes. I don’t have her smile. I don’t even have her coloring. In fact, I look nothing like her. I sure wish that I had her legs but apparently I have some Russian bodybuilder in me those came from my dad’s side of the family.

For a long time, there is not much that I would claim came from my mother because for over 30 years, we had a pretty rocky relationship. She was (and still is) depressed. She has suffered from depression ever since I can remember and refuses to acknowledge it or take medicine for it. Although it is her choice, she has tumultuous relationships with pretty much everyone in her life.  She and my sister haven’t really been close in years.

I suffer from depression too. I have had it for years but I take medicine daily and it has changed my life for the better. The medicine puts me on a more even keel. What would before be tumultuous or turbulent is now channeled into passion. Passion for my children. Passion for my husband (we do have three kids). Passion for life. So I thank my mother for that. It is ok that I have depression. I am a normal person and I have learned how to successfully manage it. I like my passion!

Both of my parents have dark coloring with brown eyes and dark brown hair. I have none of these things. I am fair skinned and look almost Irish (which makes sense because we are Scottish). My hair is reddish, blondish brown and my eyes are blue. My sister used to tell me that I was the mailman’s kid when we were young but I always knew that was untrue because the mailman was a female. I actually look like both of my grandmother’s.

My mother is a dreamer and she is always going from one plan to another, one trip to another, etc. My father (they divorced after 30 years of marriage a few years ago) and I used to refer to it as flighty.  She has so many interests that we could never keep anything straight. I am often the same way. I always refer to myself as a serial hobbyist because I go from craft to craft or hobby to hobby and never really finish anything. But I thank her for this because it is this serial hobbyist mentality that caused me to really focus on my writing which then led me to blogging.

My mother is artsy and kind of funky. She and I have very different ideas about fashion but we are from different generations. But it is because of these differences that led to my interest in beauty & fashion and I now write about it.

She has a dream catcher hanging from the rear view mirror of her car. It is teal and huge with a bunch of feathers. I hate this dreamcatcher, I find it embarrassing and I used to always take it down whenever I drive her car. Lately I leave it up because it reminds me of her and makes me smile at how ‘out there’ she is.

I learned a long time ago that she would not change and if I wanted to have a good relationship with her, I would have to change or adapt to the person that she is. Because of this, I am probably closer to her than most people and this ability to adapt has also served me well in the business because I could work successfully with any type of boss.

My mother has handed down many things to me. Although I don’t have her eyes, her smile or even her coloring, I have a piece of her heart. She would do anything in the world for my children and loves them so much. This is one of the things that I really love about her.

So to my not-so-perfect, depressed, flighty, artsy, funky, dreamer mother, I say thank you and that I love you. Happy Mother’s Day! A big part of the person that I am today is because of you and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Blogging Moms-

Are you interested in joining our new Panel of Moms at PTPA Media? I am the Chief Mom Panel Member and there are a lot of exciting things going on at PTPA Media.

Based on incredible demand from our Mom network, PTPA has put together the first Parent Tested Parent Approved Mom Panel and we are now accepting applications!

As a part of a community of uniquely qualified women known as “parent tested parent approved moms,” your experience and recommendations could have a significant impact on manufacturers, the quality of family products and on consumer purchasing choices.

Qualifications for Applicants include the following:

1) An online presence including a blog, and either a facebook or twitter account.

2) Availability to answer emails from interested parents on a weekly basis and participate in product testing and online surveys.

3) Applicant must be willing to commit to the following:

• Monthly surveys regarding products

• Product Evaluations (you get to keep the products in exchange for your honest opinion)

• Blogging about PTPA to help bring awareness of our program and our winning products

• Willingness to display the PTPA Mom Panel button on your site

• Posting the latest and greatest PTPA winners (content and images provided by PTPA)

PTPA WILL PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING:   • Products for you to test • Content for your blog on the latest and greatest products including images • Giveaways for contests which you can offer through your blog to visitors • PTPA button for you to use on your website • PTPA will post your profile including a link to your blog on our Parent Tested Parent Approved Mommy panel page and will announce you as a new member of our panel to our database of 12,000 parents.

INTERESTED? Click here to sign up and leave your email address below so that I can make certain to find your application. Thanks!

The people at Protect-A-Bed have joined forces with bloggers What’s That Smell? and 3 P’s in a Pod to host a pretty cool contest. They are giving away $300 to help with expenses to BlogHer.

I could really use this $300 as I don’t have a plane ticket yet and have been waiting for the fares to go down a little more. Now that the plane fares are down, I don’t have the money.

Since I am fairly new to blogging for myself, there is so much that I need to learn and want to learn. There are many bloggers that I want to meet and most of them will be at BlogHer.

My husband suggested that I sell my ticket toBlogHer but being the eternal optimist that I am, I think that there is still hope to grab a sponsor, donate some plasma or to win this contest.

My entry is a scavenger hunt of sorts. I have hidden it around my blog and to get to the first spot, please go here.

It’s 2:00 a.m. and your three month old is crying…a lot. You’re a first time mother, and while you’ve got a ton of questions, you called your mom at 2:00 in the morning last night about that crazy looking diaper, so you’d really like to get through this one on your own.

“Why does my baby cry so much at night?”