Archive for Month: March, 2011
Weekly Winners {Little Monsters & More}
“Above all else: go out with a sense of humor. It is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.” —Hugh Sidey
My Time
Thanks to Crystal Light for sponsoring this post. To learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight.
Every day I do something that I love. It’s the one way that I have ensured, over the past couple of years, that I am nurturing my self, my soul, my passion. And, that is photography. When I have a camera in my hand (from my professional 5DMarkII to my starter Rebel Xti to the trusty camera on my cell phone), I am doing what I love. Nurturing this part of me allows my creative spirit to be free, and when this happens everyone benefits. I am happier, and thus my family is happier (well, unless they’re rolling their eyes at me because, really, one more picture?)
There’s something about the whole process of photography, from composing the shot, to editing, to sharing with the world. but the best part about it is how it changes the way you see the world around you. Things you probably wouldn’t notice before your eye is trained to see, pop out at you. Like the way the sun dances on, and through, the weeds. Those very weeds, that most people find bothersome and ugly [to the photographer] are a sea of contrasting earth tones that bend and sway in the breeze, begging for our attention.
Just the other day I was running into Sally’s to find some of that new Crackle nail polish by China Glaze, and as I was jumping over a puddle I quickly noticed the way the sunlight was hitting the water, reflecting, with these beautiful little pink petals that had blown into the pool during the rain storm earlier in the day. I didn’t have a camera on me, but I caught a glimpse of something that I might have totally disregarded before….
Photography has allowed me to see the beauty around me. The beauty in people. The beauty in animals. The beauty in a simple, crooked branch, a puddle of water, a rusty old truck, and so much more. My eye beholds it all; seeing through photographic expression is My Time—M’eye Time.
Remember, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight to learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors. I was selected and paid for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Try Something New
Thank you to P&G’s Have You Tried This Yet? program and Kroger for sponsoring my writing about trying new things and breaking out of my everyday routine.
Click hereClick here to find great savings on high-performing P&G products at a Kroger store near you.
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
******
In 1996, when we moved to New Orleans, I took on the job of being assistant manager at the Clearview Mall, Sears Portrait Studio, in Metairie. The manager of the studio was a woman named Diane. We had a lot of work to do in that studio, which started with firing a whole bunch of workers that were stealing money by processing fake returns. To get the studio back on track we had countless strategy meetings. After going to Steak and Ale one too many times, Diane thought it was time to introduce me to Shogun.
“You need to try Japanese,” she said, one afternoon.
“Uhhhh, I *just* recently tried something OTHER than Sweet and Sour Chicken, Diane,” I dryly responded.
“Well, you just haven’t lived until you try some tempura vegetables or sushi,” she stated.
“Sushi? As in raw fish. No way, that’s pretty disgusting, and I’m sure I’m allergic,” I boldly replied.
“Come on, Mishelle, be brave. Live a little; try something new!” she ordered.
The first time I ate sushi, it wasn’t even the “real” stuff. I tested the waters by trying California Rolls, and I was instantly hooked. From that day on, every time we had a strategy lunch meeting, we went to Shogun, and by the end of my time at the portrait studio I was well on my way to being a full fledged lover of sushi—the “real” stuff. I even introduced Michael to it at the same place that I was introduced to one of my [now] favorite foods in the whole wide world.
A few years later, after we’d moved back to Buffalo, one of the best date nights, in my memory bank,was the night we dressed up—to the nines—and spent a few hours eating various and exotic sushi rolls while enjoying a couple bottles of white wine. When I think about that night, I get butterflies; it was that perfect of a night. A lot of the time we couldn’t get out like that, having three small children, so Michael would pick up a platter of our favorite rolls, and we’d enjoy it after the kids were in bed. We did the same with chicken wings, but the sushi was a whole lot classier. Who cares if we ate them right out of the platter?
These days I get my sushi fill at the Chinese Buffet—which is pretty darn good—or I get these awesome sushi packs from our local Kroger. The selection of the rolls prepared at Kroger is awesome, and when I’m looking for fix without the buffet, it’s the first place I go. The other day I even saw that they sell spicy mayo. It’s my newest addiction.
A while back I even got my mother to try sushi at the Chinese Buffet, while she was visiting. She actually liked it, after years of turning her nose up at it, and now she buys sushi for herself and my father from their local grocery store in Buffalo. Oh, and someone else that I successfully hooked on sushi is our son Mikey. When we hit the buffet, he never gets dessert because he makes sure to save room for a few rolls. That’s mah’boy.
The other day I met my girlfriend Heather for lunch. We, of course, had sushi at “our place”. The time before that I ate sushi with Jim, Lotus, and Vee at Blissdom. Sushi’s awesome, but it’s even more awesome when eaten with loved ones.
Moral of the story: Try something new, because you never know when it’s going to be something that you will ABSOLUTELY LOVE!
Happy Mardi Gras
“A king cake (sometimes rendered as kingcake, kings’ cake, king’s cake, or three kings cake) is a type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras/Carnival [...] In the United States, which celebrates Carnival mainly in the Southeastern region (Louisiana and New Orleans in particular), it is associated with Mardi Gras traditions. The cake has a small trinket (often a small plastic baby, sometimes said to represent Baby Jesus) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations (such as buying the cake for the next celebration).” [via Wikipedia]
We got our King Cake from Kroger, a little while ago, and the kids are anxiously awaiting the moment we cut into it. Davey’s actually right here chirping about “can we cut the cake now, Mama”, and “who’s gonna get the baby, Mama”, and “is it time to have the cake now, Mama?” It’s annoyingly cute, especially when he’s wearing an over-sized gold necklace that was thrown to me, at one of the parades, in 1996. I can’t wait to go back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Someday…
Not only is it Mardi Gras, but it’s International Women’s Day, too. So, to all the women out there, happy day!
On Beds and Kids and Sleep
“The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late.”—Charles Caleb Colton
When Michael and I got married my parents bought us a bedroom suite. It’s beautiful; what’s even more beautiful about it is that we picked it out together. We knew we’d sleep together in it as husband and wife, and we knew that some day we would conceive our beautiful children in our bed. The bed, itself, is even more precious now since we lost Sadie in 2009, because in 1995 she, ever-so the rambunctious and chewing obsessed puppy, put her permanent marks on the headboard. At first it made me upset, but years later I appreciate the marks she left behind on our bed. The other day, while Michael and I were talking about it, we decided that we could never get rid of the bed. We decided that maybe one day, Livey would inherit our bed.
Right now Olivia has a wonderful daybed, complete with a trundle—perfect for sleepovers or when her room is transformed into our guest quarters. Michael’s parents bought her that bed when she was three, and I can still remember how small she looked in it, in our first house, on Oehman Boulevard. She was so tiny that she needed a gate to ensure that she didn’t fall out onto the hardwood floor. Now? She fills the bed, both with her body, and all her favorite Webkinz, pillows, and comforters. Thank goodness for multiple duvet sets. Girls like plenty of choices; you know, GIRLS!
During this time, across the hall, the boys’ bedroom housed a full sized bed and the crib. We actually got the full sized bed when we still lived in the apartment, honestly, because of the great deal, and we figured that someday our little “Irish Twins” could sleep together until we bought our own house. We didn’t know that the “Irish Twins” would turn into [almost] “Irish Triplets”. And, it just worked out that, when we moved into our first home Livey would get her own bedroom while the boys began their journey of brothers—sharing a room. Years went by. Benny grew. The crib went into the basement, and then donated to charity. We simply thought we were done having children. When the factories aren’t permanently closed [you] should never think your done. There’s a name for people that have sex: PARENTS!
When we moved to Winchester we figured the boys would continue to share the full sized bed. That was until my parents came to visit and offered to buy the boys bunk beds. It was a welcomed gift. Not only were they jazzed about the kind of bed they were getting, they were jazzed about how much space they’d have on their floor. At the time they were infatuated with cars and trains. Along with the beds my mom picked up a car mat for them which they played on for countless hours. When we first moved to this house the beds were bunked, but here recently they decided to use them as individual twin beds. Sure they wouldn’t have as much floor space to play, but these boys have grown and play has changed as they have grown. This month Mikey will be thirteen. A TEEN!
I venture to say that someday in the near future the two younger brothers will get use the bunk beds again, allowing the eldest some teenaged privacy. For now Davey sleeps in a really nice twin-sized bed. He never really slept soundly in the crib we had for him, so while the kids and I were on a trip to Buffalo, Michael surprised us buy taking the crib out and putting in the new big-boy bed. His sleep patterns leave something to be desired, but I will say that the bed was a saving grace for me on many nights.
I’m happy with the sleep/bedding choices we’ve made for ourselves and our children over the years.
I’d love to hear how and where your children sleep, and how you came to those decisions!
[Disclosure: I was contacted to write a sponsored post about choosing beds for children. The thoughts and feelings in this post are genuine and purely mine.]
Recent Comments