Oh POOPIE

Take a moment to read Nesting Place's P.O.O.P.I.E Party! post. Too funny (and true).
Man I do love her new and improved wreath... wish the inspiration it makes me feel outweigh the stress. Ah, oh well. GG how about you make me a wreath like that? I am a good daughter! I will even trade you some free Kashi. Or perhaps one of you readers is crafty and has nothing better to do that make my home Boooteeful ... I will blog brag all about it, I promise!

HEELARIOUS or OVER THE TOP?

Have you seen these in stores or lil tooties in your neighborhood?

What do you think???

Life Takes Visa...

U.S. credit-card debt has increased over 300% since 1990, estimated at almost $1 trillion, a record high. Most Americans carry four or more credit cards in their wallet and use them more than they should.
If today's looming debt crisis is not enough of a problem for the masses the limited regulation of the credit-card industry is rapidly pushing it over the edge for many Americans. Nationwide consumers are being burned by unfair and excessive fees, rapidly increasingly interest rates, and incomprehensible agreements that companies revise at will.
In 2007 credit-card companies collected $18.1 billion in penalty fees that accounted for almost half of the industry's profits.
Credit-card companies insist that with over 6000 card issuers consumers can shop around to avoid fees and penalties but consumer advocates maintain that companies often add new fees and change policies after you sign up and grandly inform you in impossible-to-understand, tiny print at the bottom of your statement.
If you use credit cards be CENTSable.
1) Make sure you're aware of changes in rates, rules and due dates. They can abruptly change from month to month.
2) Inform yourself on your cards policies to avoid extra charges and penalties including fees for balance transfers, cash advances, foreign currency conversion, near/over limit penatlies, paying off your balance by phone, and more.
3) If you decide/need to shop for a new card check your local bank and credit union and be leery of promotional introductory rates. They are usually just come-ons for balance transfers and if you make future purchases they will often accumulate at a higher rate and the payments you make will automatically apply to the lower interest transfer so the higher interest debt keeps building/compounding.
Meanwhile there is hope. Several bills now making their way through Congress are aimed at curbing deceptive card practices - write your congressman! until then, think twice before you whip out a card.

Do you know?

How do dead bugs get into enclosed light fixtures?

Traveling Light

From the New York Post today:

A new fee of $25 for a second bag is being levied by Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways. And low-fare carrier AirTran announced that it will charge $10for a second checked bag.
Airlines have long levied fees for checking a third bag. Some carriers have recently increased those as well, and the fees on the major carriers now run as high as $100.

As for the extra-bag fee, even those who say they pack lightly for their trips foresee problems caused by price-sensitive fliers overfilling their carry-on bags and using large amounts of scarce overhead-bin space.

Here is a great site about traveling light: www.onebag.com

Word Of The Day

flibbertigibbet a noun pronounced [flib·ber·ti·gib·bet]

How are you celebrating?

Exercise!

Today I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. HELLO! If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!
Got ya, Heehee :-)

Two Faced!

A baby with two faces — two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes — was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time."
The child apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. This condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

Dirty Silverware

No not in restaurants (but I admit I am a bit phobic about that)... what I want to know is how in the world does the silverware tray/caddy get so dirty. You unload your clean silver from the dishwasher and you reach in to cook or set the table. Where oh where do all the crummies come from?

To Stay Home or NOT!

Only a very small percentage of SAHM have "rich husbands" and not all SAHM sit and eat bonbons and watch soaps (many surf and blog heehee). Many people make it on minimal earnings sans health insurance you just have to be willing to make it work (I would not want nor be willing to drive a clunker and live in a single wide on a tiny shared lot in a trailer park eating hamburger helper BUT many people do and are thankful for it! I could however give up Starbucks, Sushi and Sirius OMGosh did I say that?). On the other hand if a parent's paycheck barely covers the cost of childcare but she/he wants to work - they should work! (Tell that to my husband ) And if a parent has significant earnings power but as a family they decide for one to stay at home, then they should stay at home! I can think of few better reasons to take a break from the daily work life than to raise a human being. But at the same time, I can think of few more challenging, monotonous, difficult ways to spend a day than raising a human being.
Given the diversity of ways in which people like to spend their time (baking cookies, restoring cars, raising ferrets, racing turtles, winning pie eating contests) it's bizarre that we should expect that all women would enjoy the 24/7 responsibility of raising their children just because they birthed them (and not that long ago had no choice other than to stay at home). The lovely thing about being a human being, after all, is the power of free will and self-determination. (That power applies to more than hair style). This choice should be applied to how we raise families too.
People choose to work, or not, based on many circumstances. Some people just feel they are not cut out to be at home all day, some swear they can't afford to stay home (not recognizing that for most it really is a choice... see above!) others feel it is not worth the stress to work for what little income they will bring in and some stay home because they were meant to (and they thrive at it). I fall in the 3rd group. I have been a SAHM for 8y29d (who's counting?) I am very blessed and most days I would not change my station in life, but the cold facts are that I don't really feel I have a choice.
I had a conversation with my MIL about this earlier today. She thinks I need to return to work for my own peace of mind (among other reasons). Perhaps I do? But it would not be to make $. In fact it would be a financial drain on my family. When I gave birth to C&B I made 43k and daycare cost were $19,240 per year. At that time we chose for me to stay home but we never really crunched the #s... today I did. Lets say for ease of #s I returned to the work force with a 40k salary (you have to start somewhere and seeing that I no longer have a "trade" and have been home for 2,949 days that sounds like a GREAT starting point). I would pay out $17, 840 in daycare (I called several places today to get these #s and this was the cheapest scenario and requires the 3 kids be dropped off and picked up at two separate locations) $11,200 in federal taxes, $3060 in fica/ss and $2483 in state taxes for a net of $5417. From that I would have to deduct $2800-$4500 of my husbands income as together we would change tax brackets and of course there is gas, car maintenance, clothing, more meals out, less couponing... you get the picture... it would cost me $ to work outside of the home (before my youngest starts kindergarten.)
As economist Richard Posner states "From an economic standpoint, women should not be encouraged to enter the labor market unless the social value of their output in that market is greater than the social value of their household production, importantly including their contribution as mothers to their children's human capital (broadly defined)" I am not sure if I am improving my children's human capital (?) but like everything else in life all actions/choices have consequences.
The fact is like the Internet and TV, the #s don't lie :-) All this said, I can not tell you how many times people have quietly/openly questioned the above (always people who choose/chose a different road) "Other people find a way to work". I agree, I mean some one has to flip burgers at the BK right? How they (IE the middle class) do it, I do not know. So today while crunching my #s I googled that too. (I love Google!)
I found some unbelievable suggestions from home equity loans (gasp!) to asking for tax free "gifts" from your parents (can you believe that? crazy!) I found some outdated 2005 Children's Defense Fund statistics that said "child care can easily cost an average of $6,000 a year. In certain areas … families may be spending more than $10,000 a year." (clearly they did not survey parents of 2-3 in Charlotte!)
I found that the national average pay for a nanny is 27k but an Au Pair can be obtained for a mere $269 a week (plus some hefty upfront fees). Finally I found one sight with some suggestions and here they are...
1. Get financial aid. (No not government assistance. Find an employer that offers a Dependent Care Account, Voucher, On-Site facility or a type of Flexible Spending Account. (The latter would give you $600 to $1,200 off your taxes. Whee-ha!) 2. Barter, swap and share (someone tell me how this works!) 3. Keep it in the family (Over half of the children in child care are in the care of family or friends) 4. Flex your schedules. 5. Become an entrepreneur (start your own daycare! sell ToHE or Ebay) 6. Hire a student/AuPair and 7. Someone stay home. So now I am packed with knowledge, and you are too, but nothing has really changed I am still a SAHM. Are you?

Count your many blessings Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you What the Lord hath done.
Osbeck

Men Create More Housework for Women!

According to this sage article (click the title to link it and read yourself) J should do 13 hours a week of housework (heehee, that is funny!)
Now it is not rocket science to know the more kids you have the more work/mess... but who would have guessed single men (boyfriends) do more housework than husbands? I guess I got married too young to take advantage of that lil fact. Bah!
Seriously, I WISH I could blame this mess all on J but it is a "family thing" Perhaps I can blame it on genes?

Are you a Skipper?

When asked if they skipped pages when reading to their children, here's how parents answered...
55% said "never"
26% said "its a trick in my repertoire"
15% said "that's a good idea"
4% said "practically every night"

I will admit I skip pages on Seuss books (luckily those are not as frequent as they were). Don't get me wrong I love Seuss but they tend to drag on at times.
I asked J if he skips. He is the opposite of me... "claims" he never skips with B&C (they are readers now "they would notice") but he frequently skips with lilC.

How about you, do you skip?