Mama Mia...I Mean, Mamapedia!

I am beyond excited to share that I am a Featured Blogger on Mamapedia today!!

I read a post by the lovely Alexandra, aka: The Empress of Good Day Regular People where she shared oodles of fabulous links to help bloggers (like me) find great sites to submit posts for publication and/or syndication. Mamapedia was one of those links!  Isn't she just fabulous?! I think so too.

One of my goals (notice I did not say resolutions!) for 2011 is to write more and have my work published.  I  joined in on a few new places to help fine tune the skills. A couple that come to mind are the Red Dress Club and MamaKats Writing Workshop. Both provide weekly prompts that help me stretch and get out of my comfort zone and that has been fun and challenging. I have enjoyed putting together posts, but many go unpublished and sit in my computer folder! I have linked up a few times to Mama K's, but I have yet to do so with Red for fear that it isn't good enough...yet! 

So, today feels like a really big day for me. This was my very first article submission and I am so happy that it was accepted!

Please visit and say hello! Share the word on Twitter and Facebook too!

Thank you for your continued support- I appreciate it more than you know.

Top Five Pet Peeves AND Favorite Things

Today's guest post is from our fabulous Blogger of the Month, Alisha of Musings of a Manic Mama. I cannot believe that this is her FIRST guest post! I am absolutely honored that she is debuting on Mom Got Blog...and I know, positively, without a doubt, this will be the first of many that she will share with the blogosphere!!

Kelly asked me to guest post on her blog today. This is my first guest post, so I hope it won't be something awful and plague her blog with some sort of Blog Pox. I apologize in advance for any Blog Pox, Kelly. (I solemnly swear I have not been reading Harry Potter this week. **lie**)


I've been thinking lately about my Top 5 Favorite Things, and along with that thought comes the Top 5 Pet Peeves.

So, we'll start off with the Top 5 Pet Peeves, just so we can wind the post up with a positive note of the Favorite Things. And these aren't your typical things such as “pizza,” “my family,” “God,” or anything else that is a given.



Top 5 Pet Peeves (in no particular order, just things that make me make up my own curse words, such as “doody-fee”, “poopa-caca” and “for the love of Peter Pan Peanut Butter”)

1. People Who Don't Signal While Driving – O.M.G. I'm from the country; manners have been tattooed in my bone marrow. So, how stinkin' hard is it to click the blinker when you're going to dart across several lanes of traffic in front of my car with my children in it? You're a lucky dog that you're going 60 mph. I can't run that fast.

2. People Who Don't Do What They Say – Be it just someone not following through with their plans to come over and we've busted our buns to make the house look presentable, false-friendship, or even worse in my book, hypocrisy. All of these are written on my Black List. Leaving that one alone, since it's a sensitive issue and I don't want to explode on someone else's blog.

3. When My Husband Gets Sick – Yeah, I know, I'm nice. A regular Florence Nightingale. I have 3 boys (4 if you count JD), and I can take a full blown flu epidemic in all of my kids, but when JD gets sick... **wall-rattling sigh** Get me outta here! Pretty much he whines and begs me to do everything but chew his food and sleep for him. And then he tells me he wants me to sit by him, pet him, scratch him, make him feel better, and it's all I can do to NOT get sick. I love you so much, honey, but I really don't want to breathe your infected air, thankyouverymuch. **waves from outside wearing haz-mat suit**

4. People Who Live to One-Up Everyone – You know the kind. The ones where you can say anything from “I love cookies.” to “My dog died suddenly.” and they have some sort of one-uppance to lob at you. Such as: “Oh yeah? Well, let me tell you about MY cookies that I got a letter from the President and the Dali Llama proclaiming them to be the only source of world-wide peace.” Or “Yeah, my dog died, too. My dog was actually the first dog to go into space. I wound up with him because my grandpa worked at NASA, and after rigorous testing and space-walks, they decided he should retire and live out a good dog's life with an owner. So NASA hand-picked my family to take on this dog because we fit all of the requirements for a retired space dog owner.” I have an unexplained feeling to whack someone in the face with a skillet after that.

5. Dutch Ovens – And I'm not talking about the kind that PW gives away and I. Never. Win. We're talking the whole farting under the covers and then trapping a person inside with it. Yeah. I am NOT a fan. Why? Well, partially because it's gross. Yeah, that's a given, but the real irritant is that I'm not strong enough to reciprocate! There's no way I can hold **ahem** SOMEONE under the covers with my Eau de Roses when they're that much bigger than me. We'll pretend we never spoke of this. I do apologize.



Top 5 Favorite Things (In no particular order)

1. Music – If you know me in the blogosphere or in real life, you'll know music is what makes me go. I have a 6th Sense about music that I can't explain. I hear it sometimes and it literally stops me in my tracks and I gasp and MUST learn to play it. There's always some tune in my head, feet always dancing, tapping out a little drum-ditty on my desk. Music is me. I'm designing a music tattoo right now, but don't tell my mom!



2. Reading – I love books. Books are my vice. If there are books for 25 cents somewhere, you can guarantee I will be tossing little old ladies out of the way so I can dive in the pile. I'm drooling over the Kindle right now, but secretly (Shhh! I haven't told my Kindle dreams yet!) I'm thinking about saving up (for 50 years) for an iPad so I can have the Kindle app on it AND get the piano app and other coolio things such as reading my blogs , or checking out one of my fave shows, Ghost Adventures, all at work! My life will then be complete. (This portion of Gadget Lust is brought to you from the person who doesn't even have a SmartPhone, a data package on her phone, but yet works for a well-known cell phone company.) Of course, there are some books I will never do away with owning the actual book. Such as my Little House set and my Anne Of Green Gables set I've had since I was a kid. And Little Women. But I'd like to have all the In Death series all in one place, among others.. And I know poor JD would like to stop tripping over stacks of books in nearly every room. Books are my crack.


3. Sweets – Cookies, candy, brownies, gum, cake, for the love, don't forget the cake! I LOVE sweets. The smaller, more tote able the size, the more I love it. Here is a huge guilty pleasure: I love cookies for breakfast with coffee. I'm sorry, I should go to Food Hell, but I love it. I love cake and coffee. Chocolate is its own food group for me. And if you want to bribe me to help you hide a body or something of that caliber, go for either Lindor Truffles (the red ones) or Sport Bars (the Butter Biscuit kind) or heck, I'll even take a box of Hershey's Pot of Gold. Don't worry, you'll get your money's worth. I'll eat it before we go to jail.


4. Laughing – I love to laugh. Usually it's at myself, but I have this dumb sense of humor that loves the things my kids say, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python (when I'm feeling ornery), Weird Al, and stupid newspaper headlines. I love a good spoof, be it a song, movie, or book spoof. I love to laugh at dumb things. And I snort when I laugh. And then I laugh harder. And snort more. And then laugh at the people laughing at me laughing and snorting. It's a vicious cycle. Poor JD, he has a constant headache from facepalming at the things I laugh at. And I apologize for laughing. “I'm sorry, but that was funny!” And then I laugh more. See, it’s a good thing you don't know me personally. Your head would hurt, too.

5. Friends – The kind that have been there from nearly the beginning. The ones that know way more about you than you'd like, but vice versa, too. The kind that come along later in life that feel like you've always known. Just the little hit-and-run relationships you come across that might be important at some time and flicker and fade out. I love meeting people, getting to know them. I feel like some of the chancy meetings people have that might be discarded when you think about them later. Maybe they weren't supposed to stay in your life, but you put something out there, the both of you, and maybe added something to the others life that you may never know or will find out about later. There's something magical about that.

 
What are your top Pet Peeves & Favorite Things?
 
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It's an AboutOne Snowday...Sort of

I am pulling on my best Eskimo get-up each morning and heading into the tundra of -24 degrees! Yes. THAT cold. Yesterday morning I watched the thermometer read-out on my car dashboard go from 22 degrees (garage temp) to -14 degrees in less than a mile! It was very strange to see the temp tick lower and lower. I don't mind the cold, but this? This is too cold.

Some of the schools had closed yesterday. They could not start the buses as the fuel *froze*! Can you believe that?

I have been really busy behind the scenes preparing the new site! I am so excited to share it with you!! I have a bit of homework to finish before the big launch day- which by the way, has been moved back to early February. My design team has gone on vacation and will be back in a week and we will be doing the final tweaks. It looks awesome! Stay tuned!

I have also been writing like a mad woman!! A lot has been going on with "life" and has given me material to keep me busy until the cows come home.

Some of the articles I have submitted to be published and gosh darn it, if they weren't accepted! Woo-hoo!

I mentioned a while back that I will be a Contributing Blogger over at AboutOne, a fantastic website created to help organize all that goes into managing a household. My first article "Snow Day Makes Great Memories" is running today! I would love it if you would stop by to say hello and leave some comment love!

I will also be featured later this week on another website-I will provide a link soon.

And....this week we will also have a guest post from our Blogger of the Month-a very funny post you won't want to miss.

I wanted to make sure I said good morning and wish you a wonderful day today. Hope it is a little warmer in your neck of the woods.

How Snow and Ice Bring Out the Birds

As I looked out the window, I saw a good 4" of fresh snow and it was still falling at a pretty good clip. School closed. The forecast said sleet and freezing rain to start around lunch time and continue through the day. Great.

My mind raced between "Do I go into work or do I stay home?" My husband had a commitment already that he could not get out of and who knew how long he would be. I just took a whole day off last week for a snow day. What I really wanted to do was stay home, but I felt torn with the feeling of obligation to go into work. I decided to brave it and go in for half a day.

I hate, and I do mean H-A-T-E to drive in bad weather. I seem to instantly turn 190 years old. I'm sure that is what it felt like this morning to the Conga Line of drivers that trailed behind me as I inched my way down the road. I could almost feel them shaking their fists at me in frustration. I don't care. I will drive 5 mph, white knuckles and all for as long as I have to.

Listen up drivers in bad weather: I will get there when I get there...no need to risk my life or yours. Why are you in such a big hurry, tailgating Mr. Dodge Durango guy? I see you have fallen into the ‘false sense of security’ pool, swimming with the belief that because you drive a SUV, you can travel faster than the posted speed limit in Winter Storm WARNING weather. Boy that just irks me.

Ice is ice, Baby.

No way around it, 4WD or not, nothing gets traction on ice. Yet, owners of the SUV seem to feel invincible of this phenomenon. I've seen time and time again, drivers who get frustrated, peel out from behind a slow moving vehicle and within seconds, begin to fishtail, lose control and find themselves in a ditch, the median or god forbid wrapped around a tree. All because of a lack of patience.

So, after a half day of work, I saw that my trip home would be just as welcomed as the commute was in the morning. As I waited for traffic to pass, I saw yet another SUV coming down the road. I thought I had enough time to pull out, since the car would have to slow down to go around the slight curve in the road- you know, because of the good 3 inches of icy slush on the road. I will point out that there was also pa-l-enty of time to take the foot off the gas Mr. Nissan Pathfinder man. But, instead, decided to slide through the turn and get right on my bumper. My guess was so that I could have a nice clear view of the bird he was flipping me against his windshield. I also saw that he had a Handicapped tag hanging from his rear view mirror. I guess his handicap was NOT with his hand.

Seems it may have been his snowy travel decision making.

Then again, who am I to say how one should drive. I guess I should just send out this warning for all on the road.

Keep your flippin’ snow-birds to yourself, sonny, because I will be taking my sweet old time to get to my destination.

How do you feel about driving in bad weather? Do you drive as slow as molasses too?
 
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Blog Boycott Day

There is so much to share with you that I kind of feel like Joe Pecsi's character Leo Getz from the movie "Lethal Weapon 2". Remember how his brain could not process his thoughts fast enough, so he would constantly be saying "Ok. ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok...."

Welcome to my brian.

There is so much whizzing around up here, I am not sure what I should stop first!

Aaaannnnnnnnddddd.....

STOP! Gotcha!

What do we have here....

Ah, yes...this is a GREAT start!

You may have noticed that I did not post very much this past week. Well, there is a reason behind that madness:

Remember I mentioned that I was planning some BIG things for 2011? Like switching up the look of this blog? Making it better? Moving to a self-hosted Word Press home? Well, it is really happening! I cannot wait to share with you all the fantastic changes that have been put into place. I think you are really going to like it!

You may see some minor changes happening on this page....like the missing Google connect box? Yes. It has packed up and moved to the new pad. Not to worry...you can still sign up via email to subscribe to all the latest posts until the move is official! The move is hopefully going to happen in the next couple of weeks! So exciting! Don't you think?! 

I am also very excited to announce that I am a contributing blogger for a new site called About One, where home management has taken on a whole new direction! This site allows you to easily organize your daily home life, photos, appointments, etc. from anywhere with a click a button. I am thrilled to be a part of their team! Please go check out for yourself their great product and then visit me! I'm listed under Contributing Bloggers and my topic is Family Time!

I have written so many articles this past week to help prepare for the move that I need to take a little break today. I am joining a new bloggy friend Liz, over at A Belle, A Bean & A Chicago Dog and linking up with others on twitter for #BlogBoycottDay!





Feel free to connect with me on twitter @Kpugs and join in on the fun!

Good things are on the horizon!! Can't wait!!

Wordless Wednesday:: A New Addition to the "Snow Day" Dance!

I opened my freezer this morning to find this:

Apparently, wearing pajama's inside out and backward, stashing a spoon under the pillow and doing an actual dance is not enough to make sure the weatherman/woman's predicted snowfall guarantees a snow day. Adding an orange in a hat and placing it in the freezer, well, that is the clencher....

As, we are enjoying our first snow day of the season!

What crazy things do your kids do to "make a snow day happen"? Share in the comments below.

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Learning Lessons From 2010

This post is part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. I chose the prompt: "What happened in 2010 that you'd rather not repeat?"



I swear that each morning when I hear the shuffling foot steps coming down the stairs that I will be greeting  my own Jolly Green Giant. I don't know what is in our water, but according to the pencil marks that adorn our basement door, displaying height marks etched for the past 10 years, we should maybe switch to milk. Something to stop this madness!  

I learned the hard way that the side effects of said sudden growth spurts should be monitored with a close eye...because in 2010 I failed in that department. Not once, but TWICE! I sure hope that I don't repeat this in 2011, and I am sure that my son feels the same way.

And here is why:

Lesson One: The Band Concert

My Husband had been traveling quite a bit and I had started a new job. Time was tight when it came to after-school activities and trying to be two places at once. Well, not at once, but pretty darn close to it. Trying to get the household accustomed to the new schedule, I tried my best to arrange our time and places and honestly what I came up with worked well....on paper at least. On this particular day, our son had a band concert and our daughter a track meet. To make sure that my master timing plan would go off without a hitch, I asked our son to lay out his clothes the night before so that I could just grab-n-go that morning on my way to work. So, our late afternoon/evening would run as such:
- Pick up our son a little early from school (which lets out later than our daughter's)
-Meet dad (who just arrived from the airport) at the track meet.
-Cheer on sis
-After meet, dad and sis run to Panera to pick up dinner and meet us back in school cafeteria.
-Between the track and cafeteria, son to do his best superhero and change in the back of the car.
-Have dinner in cafeteria
-Because of being in school already, son is early for pre-prep concert rehearsal.
-Dad, sis and I get seats in the auditorium, affording prime waving and picture taking spots in audience.

Smooth like clockwork....until there was a glitch in the system.

As our son was getting ready in the car, he said:

S: "Mom. You grabbed the wrong clothes!"
M: "What do you mean I grabbed the wrong clothes? I grabbed what was on your bed."
S: "Well, then you grabbed the wrong shirt!"
M: "There was only one set of clothes on the bed."

With that, I looked in the back seat to a kid a shirt size, maybe two, too small. The sleeves barely making it to mid-forearm length!

M: "What the heck?! That is the same shirt you wore to the Christmas concert only a few months ago!"
S: "Can we please go get a new one?"
M: "No. We don't have time. You will have to roll up your sleeves."
S: "I don't want to wear it like that! It will look stupid!"
M: "You CAN'T wear it like that! You are going to have to roll them."

Not only were the sleeves too short, but the shirt was just able to stay buttoned. If he held his breath he would be just fine. How is that going to be possible? He has to play a wind instrument!

It felt like our own twisted version of A Christmas Story...don't breathe or else you will shoot someone's eye out (with popping buttons!)! Should I warn the first row?

Bad Mother of the Year!

Lesson Two: Sneakers

After said band concert, you would think that I would take inventory of any other piece of clothing that may have gotten too small. Nope. Never even crossed my mind.

Fast forward to the last week of school.

S: "Mom. I need new sneakers."
M: "OK. Since it's the last week of school, can we wait til Friday and we can go then?"
S: "Sure. No problem. Thanks Mom."

Friday rolls around and when I got home from work, off to the mall we went to look for new shoes.

We looked through every style that donned the shelves. Finally, my son found a pair he liked and tried them on.

S: "Ahhhhh. Oh, man, these feel GREAT. Soooooo much better. I can move my toes again."
M: "Oh, good. Wait. What do you mean 'you can move your toes again?' What size are they?"

He hands me the box and on his now happy feet are size 11. I grab the tattered shoe that is lying on its side and see on the back of the tongue that is is a size 9. NINE????!!!! His toes must have been folded in half!

M: "Oh my goodness! WHY didn't you tell me BEFORE that these were so small?! How long have they been like this?"
S: Shrugs shoulders. "I dunno."

Another nomination for Bad Mother of the Year! Please don't let these mommy faux-pas repeat themselves again this year! I think I have learned my lesson!

My son can only hope.

Wordless Wednesday:: What My Neck of the Woods is Getting This Week

February 2010
Photo: K.Pugliano

MGB-Blogger of the Month:: January 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It is January 1st and time to introduce a new Blogger of the Month!

I found this blogger last April while participating in The Ultimate Blog Party and this is what I said way back when....

"Musings of a Manic Mama: Get ready to laugh! Alisha is from Texas with an obsessive family dream of moving her homestead to Alaska! Quite a contrast! Her blog draws you in right away and you feel that you are along for the ride as she spins her quick wit around her adventures. From catching a fish to glamour shots channeling Evel Knievel, I find myself going back again and again!"


I have continued to go back to Alisha's blog and I have to say that she is F-U-N-N-Y!!! I love how she makes me laugh with her stories, from her bet with friends to compete in their own Biggest Loser competition, taking out a big snake on the porch (boots and all) to stories from her new job (you have to read it to believe it....and she is living it) she will have you snorting in laughter!

I am so excited to start out 2011 with such a fun Blogger of the Month! Please join me in welcoming
Alisha of Musings of a Manic Mama!!

MGB: How long have you been blogging?

MMM: I started blogging back in July of '09. A couple of my good friends had been talking about their blogs and said I should give it a try, since I've always written here and there, and I thought, "Oh, gosh, WHAT is interesting enough in my life to actually TALK on the internet about?" **snorts** Little did I know my life is perfect for oddball blog fodder. Between my kids, my own craziness, and now my job, I have unlimited fodder, only limited time! But I'm a "by the seat of the pants blogger," meaning, I don't pre-plan. It's all off the top of my head, baby! I obsess over planning and I think it takes the fun out of it. I might say, "Oh, I need to blog about that!" and just note the subject matter or a phrase or 2, but I don't write rough-drafts. I think it takes the "me-ness" out of it.

MGB: What do I love about blogging?

MMM: I love being able to have my own space to say my own thing and let loose with my own feelings and then have feedback saying, "You're not the only one that feels that way!" I LOVE the blogger community! It's like a whole new family all over the world. I have met some of the most amazing people that I am so blessed with their friendships and having them encourage me. I know I wouldn't ever have met them otherwise. I have always had issues with feeling accepted due to my quirks, and it's so nice to know that there are people out there who can overlook quirks and see there's a worthwhile person in there. The blogging community really has shown me that. It's nice to know someone has your back when they've never seen your face.

MGB: You recently went back to work, which has been giving you GREAT subject material! Do you find it hard to balance working, family time and blogging?

MMM: Well, so far it isn't that hard with the family aspect because my husband and I work it the way we need to that fits our family. And if you follow my blog, you will see my blogging has really taken a hit with the work. I might blog once a week, or it could be once a month. And I hate that. I face blogging issues of "Do I really want to blog about my real friends at work? Or will that endanger our friendships?" and "Whoa... is that interesting or **ahem** appropriate enough to add on my blog?" LOL, usually the most interesting things aren't really that appropriate. One thing I've gone back and forth on adding to my blog is the occasional rant. I mean, I really don't want to just gripe and moan on there and toss out negativity, there's enough of that out there already. But I believe it takes from the "realness" of the blog. I know I appreciate seeing the bloggers I believe are their own little June Cleavers in their little Wally and the Beav world, seeing them get PO'd and screw up from time to time. It's nice to know they're human.


MGB: You played and sang a beautiful holiday song for your readers! Have you always played the piano?

MMM: Hahaha! You WOULD bring the music part up! Honestly, I can't remember a time in my life that I didn't play the piano. According to my mom, I would come in from church or VBS when I was around 2 or 3 and say, " Hi, Mommy! We learned this song today. Do you want to hear it?" And I'd run over to the piano and play it. It would kind of freak her out. I did take piano lessons when I was about 7, but the teacher got so mad at me because I went home and taught myself to chord to "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie" over the weekend before my next lesson, and since I didn't do it "her" way, she told my mom that I could either learn it the "right" way or just quit. So, I quit, and I play strictly by ear now. Music is an important part of my life and the singing part is fairly new (as in about 2 years or so). I never thought I was a very good singer and JD (the hubby) snuck in and heard me one day and I was so embarrassed! And he said I should sing for people. And I didn't want to. So to make a long story short, I secretly recorded myself one day and listened to it and well, the dogs didn't howl, so I figured I'd just post it on my blog. I still pop one up occasionally, but there really needs to be a techno upgrade for those videos, lol. I don't prepare a whole lot and it's obvious, but it comes from the heart. And I was given these gifts for a reason (one which I still don't know why, (maybe to entertain myself and the blog world, lol) but I know I enjoy it. It's like it's own emotion for me. Excited? I play. Stressed? I play. Mad at the world? I play. It's a nice way to vent. My poor piano! Lol!


MGB:  Do you have a favorite post? Why is it your favorite?

MMM: Oh gosh... off the top of my head, I'd have to say this one, because I'm pretty self-deprecating in my humor. I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, you have no business laughing at anyone. It's probably my favorite because I enjoyed laughing at myself while I wrote it and I really enjoyed the reader reaction. And I really liked this one and this one because I love the whole reader-interaction thing. It's nice to see people pitch their two cents in.

MGB:  What would you like to see for your blog a year from now?
 
MMM: Well, lol, hopefully, more followers! And that would require more posts from me. And I'd like to kind of reveal the real, too. I've been sticking my toe in the water here and there, but the "OMG! What will they think!?!" thing pops up from time to time about the rants and the real thoughts I keep locked up in my head for the most part. I mean, there are people in my community that read my blog and I know they'll be whispering about it and it could all blow up, but heck, if you can't say your opinion due to fear of "Them," that's not a very free way to be. And I am a pretty opinionated person. But, we'll see. I'm still hemming and hawwing over it. Can the Blog World take anymore Alisha?? We'll see. Probably. 



Go visit Alisha. Follow her. Laugh with her. You will be glad you did! :)

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