Steph in the Cities

The M&M diet

2012-01-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

As someone who has always failed at dieting, I've learned one thing. All diets work great for the first 10 days. Then, something happens. It's too complicated, or I crave a certain forbidden food, I'm at a party and there's nothing I'm allowed to eat. Too much math - points systems or calorie counting.

I figure why not just eat something really tasty for a couple of weeks exclusively and then I'll be so sick of it I'll be able to use restraint in the future.

Hence, I propose the M&M diet. Here's how it works. I eat nothing but M&Ms for 10 days. I will have plenty of energy from the caffeine in the chocolate, (think rabid squirrel energy. I'll get so much done!) And enough calories to keep my organs going.

By the end of the 10 days, I will likely have the runs so bad from having no fiber and will have lost some weight. How much weight? Depends on how many M&Ms I eat each day, I guess. If every day I ate the Costco size bag that comes with it's own ziploc, I probably won't lose any weight actually. Plus, I'd have to spend some serious money to redecorate my bathroom if I was going to spend that much time in it. And get one of those cushioned toilet seats (they still make those, right?).

Hmm. I guess the whole "eat healthy and get off the damn couch" will have to do for now.

Use It Or Lose It

2012-01-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

I have gained and lost many skills in my 41-1/2 years... Spanish, cooking, dance moves.

Well, technically, I still have the dance moves. They're just firmly rooted in the late 80's, early 90's. They really only look great at weddings now since that's the only place to hear songs from that era.

Toothbrush of Doom

2012-01-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

This morning my 7 YO brushed his teeth with The Toothbrush of Doom, ate his Cereal of Doom and got on The Bus of Doom.

Thank you Indiana Jones.

Cooperisms: Chubby

2012-01-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

Cooper (age 7): Mom, I love kissing your cheek. It's so smooth and chubby.

The School Bus Makes Me Cook

2011-09-13T10:59:00.001-07:00

Well it seems it's time for my annual blog post... holy crap. Seriously? A year?! Anyway.So something about the school bus makes me want to cook. Not just like a PB & J or anything. Oh no. I'm talking serious, "other people will want to eat this" kind of cooking. The kind of food I want to eat. Chef food. There's just one problem. I'm not a chef. My husband is, but when he's cooking I'm too busy with a bottle of wine to pay much attention. There's another problem. We have an (almost) 7 year old who is a picky eater. I don't want to eat chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. And I want he and I to eat the same foods in hopes of loosening the picky-eater hold over him. You know, the old "don't make separate meals" thing. I try. So, I've been cooking. And some of it is actually good. Like, really not bad! My plan is share of that here or on another blog. Before next year.

Don't Let Drunk Facebooking Happen To You! - FREE SOCIAL MEDIA SOBRIETY TEST

2010-11-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

This press release came across my desk today.... How long have I needed this, right?

"THE SOCIAL MEDIA SOBRIETY TEST" CAMPAIGN LAUNCH:

Don't Let Drunk Facebooking Happen To You!

November 3, 2010, Boulder, CO -- Just in time for Thanksgiving
vacations, holiday office parties and New Year's Eve celebrations, an
Internet security company and an advertising agency have teamed to
launch a new free browser extension, The Social Media Sobriety Test.
Designed as the ultimate "bad idea" protector, The Social Media
Sobriety Test aims to help stamp out posting under the influence --
and let's face it, anyone who imbibes, regularly or not, is
susceptible to online ruin. The free download can be found at
www.socialmediasobrietytest.com.

The Social Media Sobriety Test is a keyboard/mouse-based social-media
blocker that prevents "under-the-influence" posting on sites including
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Tumblr, as well as
custom URLs (like blogs) and/or web-based email accounts such as Gmail
or Hotmail. Users can customize which sites they wish to block and at
which hours of the night (and following day) are the most personally
vulnerable. For access to their social media, the consumer has to
pass one of a variety of randomly selected sobriety tests such as
"drag your mouse in a straight line," "type the alphabet backwards,"
or "follow the finger."

The Social Media Sobriety Test is the concept of Webroot, a leading
provider of Internet security for consumers and businesses worldwide,
and TDA Advertising & Design, a full-service advertising and design
agency.

"We're working with Webroot to offer this as a public service to
anyone who enjoys beer, wine or spirits but doesn't enjoy the
over-sharing that often accompanies one too many," says Jeremy
Seibold, Associate Creative Director at TDA Advertising & Design, in
commenting about the introduction of the Social Media Sobriety Test.
"In the old days, all you had to worry about was drunk dialing -- a
randomly placed call to an ex was certainly embarrassing but it was
limited to him/her and maybe a few friends. Today, the consequences
of a stupid blog post or an ill-advised photo can be instantaneously
spread around the globe. It's our hope the Sobriety Test will come
to the aid of all who are in need of its protection."

For more information, or to download the Social Media Sobriety Test,
interested consumers can visit www.socialmediasobrietytest.com.
Browser compatibility includes Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and
Safari.

Remember, the stupidity you avoid this holiday season could be your own.

###

What are they teaching him?

2009-11-12T01:41:00.000-08:00

My son goes to a Spanish immersion preschool and comes home singing these cute little songs in Spanish. I've started taking an adult Spanish class through the school to refresh my own Spanish.

Yesterday, he was singing: "quieres pera mi mama", which roughly translates to "pear like my mom".

As he's merrily singing in the background, "I am NOT a pear," I mumble, furiously typing into my Google translator, moving letters over to see if I could decipher this. "Those CAN'T be the real words", I beg.

"quiere spera mi mama?" = my mom wants spera. (That's not it. I don't even know what spera is.)

Then it hit me: "que espera mi mama" = waiting for my mom. Aha! "Do you sing this when you sit on the rug waiting for the teacher to open the door at the end of class?" I ask him. "Yes!" he says. Whew! My Spanish classes are paying off!

So then I made the mistake of telling my 5yo comic genius the real way to say it, and the reason the other way was wrong. He thought me being a pear was hilarious and now sings "quieres pera mi mama" with even more enthusiasm. *sigh*.

Migrating from Blogger to Wordpress with Redirects

2008-12-28T08:22:00.000-08:00

If you know me, you know I also run a travel website. I had started that website using a boring template through GoDaddy's Website Tonight. Being a cheap-ass and not wanting to pay for more than 5 pages, I started a blog on blogger to keep all my travel articles. Then, I simply linked back and forth between the two sites. It worked fine, but looked very clumsy. Once I started to get some regular traffic... 3-4 visitors a day-- YES!... I thought it was time to combine them into one, clean, self-hosted Wordpress site.

So, here's how I did it: Keep in mind, this is a VERY short outline of what I did. I'm happy to reply to comments about specific points in more detail.

First, I couldn't figure out how to do the custom domain on Blogger, but if I had, that could have been my first step. I didn't, and it still worked out okay.

1. I bought a hosting account on GoDaddy... the economy version. I set that up with a domain name I already had. (different from the Website Tonight URL, so I could do step 5) If you don't already have a domain name, you can buy one here, (and save yourself a few steps later on).

2. Found a free Wordpress theme I liked (or you can buy one), and downloaded it to my computer.

3. Installed the latest version of Wordpress on my new hosted account using GoDaddy's one-step install.

4. Used FTP to upload the new theme, then activated it.

5. Copied all my content from the website tonight URL onto the new Wordpress site, keeping all the page names the same. I found this easiest using the control-c/v in the HTML view.

6. Once the new site looked the way I wanted and had all the Website Tonight content on it, I downloaded a backup to my computer, copied all my pages in HTML format into notepad files, and deleted the old Website Tonight account.

7. Then, I went in to the new hosted account and changed the URL to the one the Website Tonight account had been using. (this is the one that has been indexed by Google, and has some link love already, and is the name I really want to use)

Windows and Linux Hosting Configuration 2.0
-Log in to your Account Manager.
-In the My Products section, select Hosting.
-Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
-In the Settings section of the Hosting Control Center, click the Domain Management icon.
-Select your primary hosted domain, and then click Change Primary.
-Enter the new primary domain for your account, and then click Ok.

8. Since WP is URL-specific, this part got a bit tricky... I then had to go in and uninstall WP from the URL I signed up with, and re-install with the desired URL (the one I just changed to). I did have to rebuild all my pages, but it was really easy using control c/v in HTML view. Some of the info was picked up automatically with the new install. So, this only took a couple of hours the second time around. I had installed WP 2.6.5 the first time, and WP 2.7 the second time. If I had done 2.7 both times, I think it would have kept all the info with no extra steps. Or, if I didn't already have an active domain name I wanted to keep using. Live and learn.

9. Next, it was time to import the blogger posts into the new hosted WP site. Do this from the WP dashboard.

10. The fancy, make-it-all-fabulous part is next! This link is the way to go... http://laffers.net/howtos/howto-redirect-blogger-to-wordpress
It says it's for migrating to Wordpress.com, but it worked perfectly for migrating to self-hosted.

11. It's done! The original website and blogger blog are now merged into one, clean, interactive site.

12. Make sure to get in and play with the WP site, check the privacy settings, the default was set to 'hide from search engines', so I changed that!! Then, add some plugins for more personality and functionality.

For you non-bloggers, this is all a foreign language, I know. But, if you're considering making the switch yourself instead of paying $1500 for someone to make the switch for you, hopefully this is helpful. If not, it's a good reminder to me what I did. Good luck!!

Snacks for the Road

2008-12-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

As I'm getting things ready for the road trip to Iowa tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I asked Cooper to remind me to get some snacks for the road.

"Do we put them on the ground (for the road)?" he asked.

And The Evil Mommy...

2008-12-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

My 4yo son wanted me to take him to the sticker book store. I told him, when we went yesterday, to get what you want because we won't be coming back here until at least next week. He's been asking me all. day. long. to take him to the sticker book store (Barnes & Noble) again today. I keep saying 'not until next week'. So he drew this picture of me. Apparently, this is what I look like when I say no. I'm such an evil mommy.

(those are tears, which I didn't start shedding until AFTER I saw this picture and almost peed myself laughing.)
Isn't he a great artist?! I think he captured me perfectly!

Too Much Sap

2008-10-17T07:16:00.001-07:00

4yo son Cooper: Mom, I have sap.
Me: Sap? You mean like sap from a tree?
Cooper: Yeah, but it's nose sap.

Daisy, Dandelion. Same Thing.

2008-05-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

I got my first fresh-picked flower from my 3 year old yesterday at preschool. As he handed me the dandelion, he beamed, "I picked a daisy for you!" (Daisies are my favorite)
"It's beautiful," I gushed, "Thank you!"
On the way home, he pointed out all the houses that had beautiful daisies in their yard. "We don't have any daisies in our yard. We should plant some!"he said.
Yeah. Daddy would be thrilled!!

Got my first official writing job today!

2008-05-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yay!! While Coop was at preschool, I was chatting with the editor for MomTalk.com and receiving my first official deadline as a contributor to their site. I also get to link back to my travel site to help increase my profile. (I also have a friend working on a mom-site that she's asked me to write on, but it's still in beta testing so I can't share the name yet.) So, if these keep up, I'll have my site and 2 mom-sites I'm writing for. Very exciting!!! The nice thing about the mom-sites is that they're run by moms, so they get the whole lack of schedule thing. I'll let you know when I get my article submitted and published.

Plus, last week I received my first payout from the ads on my travel site! So, my goal of being paid for my writing by my 40th birthday has been reached. And my goal of having an assigned article has now been reached. Now, let's just keep it rollin'!!

My 3 year old can read

2008-04-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

I had to bring my 3 and a half year old son with me to my doctor appointment, so I brought some things for him to do during my exam. I brought a dot-to-dot book and a few books for him to read.
I know he can read, he started sounding out words at 2-1/2. By 3-yrs old, he had mastered silent e and was working on vowel teams. He now understands punctuation and how it tells you how to say the sentence. Exlamation points are his favorite. This is no shock to me.
It was, however, quite a shock to our family doctor. She abandoned my exam to gush over his reading skills. She said he's reading at a first grade level... at 3-1/2! Her son is in kindergarten and is an advanced reader, she said. Then added that my son is reading the same level books that her son is... and her son is 5. She kept gushing... "He's gifted! Really! He is! You should look into programs for him."
Of course, I'm proud as a peacock, even though this is not my doing. My son has always been interested in letters... how they sound, and how they work together. My job is to keep it fun for him. We play I-SPY with sight words in a story. I buy books about bugs, Spongebob, and gross body functions... stuff boys like. I'm super-enthusiastic when he gets it right.
I'm a very proud mama today!

Panic attack follow-up

2008-03-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, oh no!! You guys probably think I crashed and are saying little prayers for my family! No, no. All is well. I went driving that day and had no issues at all. Within another week I was back to driving anywhere without even thinking about it. I do highly recommend that panic attack CD from health journeys. If you're on anxiety medication, or have ever had panic attacks and worry that they might come back without warning, I highly recommend this CD. Of course, if you are on medication, don't stop taking it without consulting your doctor, but if it can help you sleep a little better, maybe even help your medication work a little better, why not?
What I like about it is that it's guided imagery and affirmations. Guided imagery helps you create a 'happy place' in your mind that you can 'go to' whenever you feel stressed. Affirmations help give you the power of mind to take back some control of these terrifying situations.
I'll say this. I was listening to the CD in bed when a panic attack struck. With the phone nearby -just in case-, I wanted to ride it out. This CD talked about every piece of what I was feeling, almost in order, and talked me through the whole thing. I have never had a full-on panic attack since. It was simply amazing. From the first initial zap, to the shallow breath, the racing heart, freezing/sweating, and the overwhelming feeling of dread... she talked me through all of it. She taught me how to control my breathing without hyperventilating. That was very key. She taught me that my feeling of danger was an illusion in my overprotective mind. Very true for me. She taught me that thousands of mentally healthy people have these kind of attacks and get through them, never to have them reoccur. Very reassuring. I thought I was going crazy.
I'm so glad I sought therapy without medication. Mine were mild enough so that was an option for me. I'm on my last therapy session, and I feel great. We were even able to touch on some of the issues that may have led me to that scary day.
Side note: My doctor recommended I stop drinking coffee. She said caffeine can trigger anxiety attacks. I have been caffeine-free since January. Turns out I don't need it for my energy level. I'm just naturally pretty hyper. None of my friends seemed surprised. ;)

3 Panic Attacks!!

2008-01-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of Mondays ago, I had two panic attacks while driving. One on the way to where I was going, and another on the way home. This happened to me once this summer while I was on this Prednezone power pack, but never had any issues since. This time was completely different. Not only did I have the two while driving, but then I had another one at midnight at home!!

I was lying in bed when I felt it come on and I felt like I was going to faint, my limbs were freezing, and I started shaking uncontrollably. Since my husband was out of town, I called my in-laws... at midnight. Bless their hearts, they came right away. In the meantime, I called a doctor who did not think I needed emergency care. My father-in-law (a Fire Chief) thought I had exhaustion.

The next day, my parents came from Iowa to stay with me until my husband could come home early. I felt fine as long as there was someone in the house and I wasn't driving. There was no need for my husband to jump on the plane instantly. He cut his trip short by 4 days, which was perfect. In the meantime, I saw a doctor who said I had exhaustion which triggered an anxiety attack. However, he said it was not simply a 'body rest' situation I had, but a 'mind rest' situation. He referred my to a mental health professional.

My first reaction was, "what? my brain is fine." But while waiting for my Dad to pick me up I realized I needed this mental health professional if I was going to be independent and driving again. When I called to schedule an appointment, the first thing they asked me was, "Do you want medication or no medication." No medication, please! So that puts in one-on-one therapy. They got me in right away, first thing the very next morning. I found myself really looking forward to meeting with her.

I got there, the place was packed! A lady who was with me in the elevator and also in line kept talking to me- trying to figure out if I had something worse than her, presumably. Or, maybe I was just self-conscious and she was just being nice. I'll go with the latter.

When I met with my counselor, I think the first thing I said to her was joking, "I should've been here years ago." She laughed. I was uncomfortable at first, but she was very easy to talk to. It wasn't like the movies at all! She interacted, she shared little stories of her own, it was like talking to a friend... but better! This friend could actually help me!
Since I opted for no medication, she prescribed a relaxation & wellness CD from www.healthjourneys.com. I bought the one she recommended and another that was just for panic attacks.

On Saturday, before receiving the CDs /downloads, I tried driving on the highway. My heart seemed to be racing with the speed of the engine. I made it to one exit ramp... about 4 blocks. Then had to take side streets home. See, that's the thing. I'm fine if I'm driving less than 40 mph. It's the highway that was triggering it. Anyway, I couldn't do it. I came home in tears I was so frustrated and angry that my brain would limit me like this!

It's now been four nights of listening to the relaxation and affirmation CDs. I'm going to try driving today. I'll let you know how it goes...

A little help with feeds?

2007-12-27T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty new at this and would love a little help figuring out how to add feeds to my blog.
I did this one for Technorati by adding the code into my post template, but not sure how to use it or others. Which are the better ones to use?

Write regularly and relevantly in 2008

2007-12-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

I turned 39 this past summer. Already people were asking about what I'll do for my 40th birthday. As I looked around, I realized I have Writer's Market books dating back to 1996. Yet, I have never attempted to be published. So this, my 40th year, is dedicated to writing. To see if I'm still good at it.

I'll admit, I have a few distractions. Must be the OCD and ADHD that would explain so much if I actually had. I've also wanted to learn how to build a website, and digital scrapbooking, and how to actually earn a living writing (ideally online), and still be the full-time caregiver to my preschooler, and keep doing the actual job that I have and love- part-time hairstylist in my home, and spend quality time with my husband who travels a lot for work. See what I mean? ADHD for sure. Although, I couldn't survive without it.

In theory, all these things can work together. I may be spreading things a bit too thin, but we'll see which ones stick, I guess.

The website building I have a pretty good handle on now. Last year, my toddler (now a preschooler) and I tagged along on 5 of Daddy's business trips... each lasting between 10 days and 3 weeks. So, to fill the time in the hotel rooms from toddler's 7:30 bedtime until hubby came home from working, I built a website devulging many of the tips and tricks we learned about traveling with kids. You can check it out at www.BestKidFriendlyTravel.com. My friends always ask me what products I use and where to get them, so you'll find a lot of links to that stuff there. I actually made it to the first page of Google for 2 articles!! Without paying for ads!! Yay!!!

Digital scrapbooking just makes so much sense for me! Besides the obvious benefit of documenting my memories; if I learn how to do more of my own creations... make my own embellishments and papers, I can use them in my website/s. I just bought the latest Adobe package with both Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4. I'll let you know what I learn as I go.

Apparently the way to earning a living writing online is to do as my title says... write regularly and relevantly. That's my mantra for 2008. What to write about? There's always more to say about traveling, that's one. Here, that's another. I started a blog about beauty tips... things I learn as a hairstylist. You can check that out at www.dyesandcurls.com. So that's three. Too many? I hope not. We'll see.

I'm always coming up with another thing. It could get interesting as things go on. ;)

Big Tornado in a little town

2007-07-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

In 1979, an F-4 tornado ripped a path through my small Iowa town 8 football-fields-wide. I was 11. I remember the sky turning green, and watching the massive pale wedge turn black after consuming acres of farmland. I was mesmerized. My mother had to pull me in the house from the driveway, only to later peel me from the windows as I tried to keep watching. It really did sound like a train, not the train whistle, just the rhythmic roaring down the track. By the time she got me and the dog into the basement shower, the windows started buzzing. Then everything was silent. Dead silent. Then the roaring and buzzing again. When all was calm, we went outside to see the damage.

Everybody was on the sidewalks in minutes all telling each other what happened in their house. We all needed to know that what just happened really happened. Our neighbors said they looked out the window and it was right above our house!

Just then my dad pulled up in his brown Ford van. After lots of hugging, he said the tornado destroyed the entire truss building except for the small office where he worked. He saw the hail and went to put his van into the garage. When he got outside, the tornado was just a few hundred yards away and headed straight for him! He left the van and ran back into the concrete building and prayed.

Several homes were leveled in that storm, I forget now how many. There were a few who died, mostly elderly who couldn't get downstairs, or who had no basements. Many tragedies come with a storm like this.

But tornadoes do very curious and amazing things also. In our town, for example, there was a house that was picked up, an RV was set down in the basement, and the house was set right back down again almost perfectly in place. In our house, all the siding was sucked out 1/2 inch... just 1/2 inch! We had to pound every single board back in. There was a large piece of corrugated steel laying inches from our car in the driveway, yet the car had nary a sratch. There are so many stories of these oddities that don't get told outside of the locals. But for those of us who've experienced them, they are forever etched in our minds.

This storm created my fascination with tornadoes. If you share this fascination, you may already know about this website featuring some of the best tornado footage I've ever seen. If not, enjoy!
Tornado Videos, Tornado Stock Footage, Storm Stock Videos

2007-07-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon:
This blog will be about my huge variety of interests. I'll post about life observations, eBay, writing, internet marketing, photography, video, YouTube, and whatever else comes to mind.