Help!

I'm pretty sure that Grammy is going to be the smartest kid in her class. I mean she is half Chinese! Plus, she already knows her ABC's and 123's! (Smart parents = smart kid?)

At some point it would make sense to hire her an Innovative Tutor. When she turns four we'll have to look for a Score Learning Center located near us!

Of course, we're hoping that she might be a freshman in college by then.

We can always wish, right?

This post sponsored by: Score Learning Center

I love a good nap!

We just woke up from our Sunday family nap. We're rested and everyone seems happy and good! Of course, Graem still has her cough and doesn't sound too hot but we're hoping that her cough goes away in the next few days.

Looking for a new job?

Recruiting has always been something that I think would be a pretty cool job. You'd be able to meet a lot of great people and build some great relationships.

A.E. Feldman Associates offers recruiting services for both people looking for jobs and employers. They aim to match skills with job openings. They offer a great Executive Recruiting Firm Blog too!

They specialize in risk management and financial placement. It just makes sense to have the professionals in the industry recruit the most qualified candidates for a job opening.

The reality is if you're looking for a job there's no way to get your resume out to every company that might have a company. So the best option is to go through a recruiting firm so that they can help you find the perfect employer.

It's really a win-win situation!

Whiling away the day...

It's now nearly noon, and all we've done is stick Graem in front of the TV. She had two bites of noodle soup and "pork hair" for breakfast. (Pork hair=pork fu, Chinese shredded pork product.)

We're all still in t-shirts and panty-shorts. I suspect showers, lunch and geocaching are in our not-too-distant future. And dropping off some clothes at Trader K's, a local clothing resale shop. Maybe it will pay for lunch...

Bambi 2: The Revenge

Last night we picked up some kid-friendly videos for a fun-filled weekend. At first we were going to get them from Hollywood Video, when Shawna remembered that videos were only 99 cents at Movie Gallery near our house. Especially for "classic" rentals, this is a no-brainer. We would have spent $13 at Hollywood, and instead spent $6 at Movie Gallery.

Anyway, Grammy is now watching Bambi 2. I'm not quite sure what the plot is, but so far it looks like cleaned-up animation, same scary climax, but no deaths. Sounds good to me. Earlier this morning we watched classic Dumbo, which I forgot had a drunken, tripped-out scene of Dumbo and Timothy J. Mouse hallucinating about dancing elephants.

Could you see Tyrone, Tasha, Pablo, Austin and Uniqua smoking up or doing some 'shrooms?

Are you out there?

One thing I hate more than not being able to find something online, is finding what I don't want: a false advertiser. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about: blogs and fake directories trying to build relevance links with advertisers that don't really exist.

When I search Internet Yellow Pages , I want to know that the listings that come up really exist. One way to ensure this is to go through Radiux.com, because their listings require an actual phone number for verification, not just an email address, which can just be automatically generated through a script. Their listings are 14 million businesses and growing, which means it's a sure bet.

Conference!

It's official: I'm going to the ASLA Conference in San Francisco in October! I hesitantly emailed my boss to ask if I could go, thinking she'd say no due to the workload in the office. To my surprise, she said yes, and was excited for me to go. She would like to go as well.

And... if Shawna and Graem behave... it looks like they are both coming with me! Which should be fun. I get to bust ass at the conference during the day, and then come home to dinner with the fam. The best of both worlds.

I went to conference two years ago at Fort Lauderdale, that time without fam. It was hard--Graem was only 10 months old, AND I was still nursing. At least I don't have to deal with that variable.

San Francisco should be even more rewarding than Ft. Lauderdale!

Shoes!

I'm finding that I'm in a huge shoe deficit. Don't get me wrong--I have plenty of zapatos to cover my feet, but none of them seem appropriate for particular occasions. I have one pair of nice dress shoes that I wear to work on occasion, but it always seems that the days I wear them, I get called out to a construction site on an emergency. Likewise if I wear sandals. I only have Tevas left (the Birks died, thank god), so they're hardly appropriate at the office or on job sites.

Then on days I dress down, I inadvertently get called to a meeting, and then feel like a scrub. Maybe if I had a closet at work, then I'd be fine.

Juggling the finances

I can't tell if we're digging ourselves in deeper, with this second mortgage and paying for the refund program for fertility costs.

I've been trying to consolidate our credit cards, since it seems that their rates are getting worse, award programs are a scam, and they want to charge us fees! I've decided that we should only have two cards apiece, and we should close all the excess ones. We're carrying balances on two, but they're both at 0% interest.

One of those is about to expire, so I'm thinking about using CreditCardSearchEngine.com to find and compare credit card offers. One thing I hate doing is filling out those long Credit Card Applications, so it's great to be able to find the ideal card first, and then fill one out. That way you don't ding your credit record with multiple pulls of your report.

Countdown to family reunion!

I'm bummed that we can't be there right now. The first busload arrived last night from Victoria, BC. Dennis is there now, and will be celebrating his birthday with some misua long life noodles. I haven't had those in ages--growing up, when my grandmother was visiting, she would cook us long life noodles for breakfast. We would have them with chopped scallions and crumbled hard boiled eggs. I miss that.

It looks like we'll be heading down on Thursday--which is a little earlier than I had expected. I'm still stressed out about not getting enough hours in at work, which means I will likely be in the office sometime this weekend. We just haven't decided when.

Family reunion will be long hours of loud talking, eating all types of food, and drama!

Just breathe...

With this recent upper respiratory tract infection that we've all been fighting, we've been going through tons of medications. The pediatrician prescribed a quick dose of prednisolone (bubble gum flavored!), and we have a standing order for albuterol and Xopenex for the nebulizer. Adn we've been blowing through bottles of cough medicine.

I'm always wary of the steroids, but as the pharmacist stated, you have to choose the lesser of two evils: 3 days of steroids, or not breathing. When Grammy's cough took a turn for the worst, we opted for the steroids.

Grammy does quite well on the Xopenex. We had originally started with the albuterol, but at the ER, they prescribed the Xopenex because it supposedly has fewer side effects and doesn't make kids hyper. Sounds good to me! We looked at the price tag on it, and it costs about 10x as much as the generic albuterol. Thank god for insurance coverage.

Speaking of creepy insurance companies: when we got out of the ER last time, they called us up (specifically me at work) to "see how Graem was doing." I, ever suspicious, even asked why they were really calling. They said that it was just to follow up and make sure she was ok. I doubt that.

Now if we can just turn the corner on this cough, we'll be fine. I'm hoping some fresh air and sun will help.

Got stock?

Our business has been working on proposals and also some marketing. At some point we're probably going to design a website so that companies can go directly to it to get information and even see our project list.

We will probably never need to do commercials since we don't really do commercial work. However, there are firms that have to advertise in the paper, television, and on the radio.

For organizations that have to do commercials they tend to use hd stock footage. Typically, this is like clip art for the television. In fact, you can even find action shots of people doing gardening without having to go on scene and shoot!

AlwaysHD.com offers a big selection of clips to choose from and the prices are very reasonable.

You're invited!

We really haven't gone to too many weddings over the years. We were invited to my friend Johanna's and our friends L&L's wedding. They sent us beautiful wedding invitations for both.

I know L&L took quite a while picking out the perfect invitation for their wedding. Plus, cost was obviously a factor too. The ones that they liked were really quite expensive and so they had to shop around for invitations that didn't cost an arm and a leg!

When organizing a wedding it's important to watch your costs becauses as much as you want the nicest things everything adds up. I'd rather have a beautiful wedding and reception than spend all of the money on invitiations and miscellanous other stuff.

When I was a kid...

Air Jordan shoes were all the rage! I never had a pair but all of my friends did.

I think it would be awesome if they had the same styles for kids that they had back when we were kids! I remember the pair that I totally wanted was the Air Jordans that were purple and tourquoise with netting on the side.

I'd love for Grammy to have a pair! In fact, it'd bring me right back to my childhood!

Mmm...fruit.

Lately we've had so much fruit in the house. The watermelon this year is awesome and we've also been sucking down the apples, grapes, and pineapples.

When we were at the doctor's office the delivery person dropped off a beautiful fruit basket! Never before had I seen fruit baskets that looked appealing!

My mouth was watering though. The fruit was beautiful cut and actually looked like a huge bouquet of flowers!

GourmetGiftBaskets.com offers a huge line of gift baskets and fruit baskets! Fruit baskets seem to be such a great idea because there are so many people that can't have sweets, don't like flowers, or are on a diet!

Can't stand it.

I'm seriously screwed when it comes to work. I can't believe how much I do and there's just not enough time in the day to get it all done. In fact, if I want to get out of here next Thursday or Friday for my family reunion then I figure I'm going to have to work on the weekend and even stay late next week.

I feel bad because Shawna is going to have the frozen embryo transfer next week and I had to ask our friend Lydia if she would go alone for it. At this point in the game it is what it is....

Plus, it's just like a regular insemination - however, to some extent I might be bummed if this was the time that our child started his/her life and I missed the moment.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

I've never been a big football fan. In part, I just don't understand the sport enough and men in tights kicking each other's butts just doesn't do it for me!

When I was in high school my brother was big into fantasy football. Right now he does fantasy baseball and last I heard he actually did pretty good.

Now AFFL.com offers a great website for fantasy football enthusiasts can get together and play the game - without playing of course.

This post sponsored by: affl.com

I'm a dead man.

This morning I got up and went downstairs for breakfast. Then of course after I had done computer and was about to go to work I always go upstairs and say "goodbye" to the girls.

This morning like so many others Graem woke up. That's right 6:45am. To say the least Shawna's pretty pissed at me because Graem's still sick and she didn't go back to sleep either.

I think I might have to say my goodbyes before I get up to start my day instead of going back upstairs.

I love math!

I've always been good at math and at one point even offered math tutoring to the kid next door. I have a feeling Graem might like math too! She seems really into learning and has been acting like she's reading already when given a book.

Of course, we'll be very proactive about getting Math Tutors when the time comes. We only want her to have the best.

Score Learning Centers offers centers around the world that specialize in offering top notch camps and even tutoring.

It's best to give your kid the tools they need to be successful!

This post sponsored by: Score Learning Centers

No softball for us tonight.

Well, we've decided that we're going to skip our last softball game of the season tonight. Neither of us is playing and with it being so hot, having a sick kid and a partner complaining constantly about her aching back I'm not sure it'd be too much fun for anyone!

On the flipside...we are debating whether or not we are going to coach next year. I'd love to think that we could be very busy with a newborn this time next year but we both know not to count our chickens before they've hatched.

Maybe we should just plan on coaching and then hopefully, we'll end up (somehow) with a baby and not be able to!