When I shop, the world gets better, but then it’s not, and I need to do it again.

-Rebecca Bloomwood, Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Oh I know that feeling. That use to be me 10 years ago. I was at college away from home. With a horrible roommate and few friends. I’ve learned making friend is just not my thing. I’m not a “spill my life to you” bonds instantly with people girl. So to pass the time and get out of my room, I would shop.

And the world seemed better for me. The next day I would walk to class in my new boots or a jacket or a shirt. You get the picture. But then that ueporia would wear off. I’d still be the unhappy girl with a horrible rommie and no friends. Back to the mall.

Then something wonderful happened – I turned 18.

“Would you like to open a (fill in the store) credit card?”

“Um….Yeah”

I finally dropped out of that school and moved home. I wasn’t a deadbeat though. I got a full time job and went to a local college.

I was living at home with the rents. With time and money to spare, I’d float through Hudsons’s (aka Marshall Fields aka Macy’s, but its still Hudson’s in my heart). I could spend hours shopping.

I wasn’t that dangerous since Prada doesn’t exist in my neck of the woods. But I loved my DKNY, Tommy, Victoria Secret matching bras and underwear. I was styling but with a whopping credit card bill.

It took my hubby proposing for me to make a change. I didn’t want to go into marriage with that debt. I cut up the credit cards. I said “No” when they asked me at the stores. I was afraid they would say “Declined” anyways. It took me a while but I paid it off. Well we did. By then I was married.

That how it was for the longest time. I even gave up having a debit card for a while. I had a plain old ATM card. My hubby’s pet peeve about me has to be that I never write anything in the check book. I just let him print off the statement and fill in the blanks.

Watching this movie made me realize I’m still a shopaholic. When it comes to shopping, I’m like the social drinker that occasionally has a binge. I will we fine for a while just the everyday items we need. When I’m down or stressed out, I toss that extra shirt in the cart when I’m at Target picking up diapers.

I’ve been reduced from Coach and DKNY to the shirt on clearance at Target. I justify it that I got such a great deal. Or I would have spent $100 but I used coupons to save $20 so I can get a shirt. Lately its been all about what I can get free or really cheap. We really don’t need that 14^th air freshner, but it was free. My bill started at $40 and I got it down to $7.49. But its still the same.

Shopping is still my Prozac.

Hi, My name is Stephanie and I’m a Shopaholic.

I’ve recently read a number of blog posts regarding mom blogs being taken over by reviews and contest.   As a blog reader I have to agree.   On my reader, probably 8 out of 10 posts are reviews or giveaways.   It was great in the beginning I was entering contests left and right.  Now I’m kind of over it.   Maybe its that I’m home now and my kids don’t give me much time at the computer.   Or I just not that interested.

But in the beginning I thought “oh wow this is great!  I want to get free stuff too!”.   In the mom blog world, there is enormous pressure to have to best products to review and the best contests to offer.   I felt the pressure but never really gave in.   I guess it helps that I’m not a salesperson or fundraiser at heart.  I don’t just ask for free stuff.   Its not in my nature.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to stick with the reason, I started my blog – a place to voice my thoughts.   I’m not going to give into reviews.   If something great comes along that I want to tell everyone about, I will.   But I’m just going to keep this about my thoughts.    If it takes me that much longer to build a community, so be it.  If I never get a community, so be it.   This is me and this is who I am.

Its my blog and I’ll blog when I want to.

This weeks topic at Momdot’s Small Talk Six is “6 things about your children that you are proud of.”

I haven’t done a Small Talk Six in a while.  But as the mom of two wonderful boys this one caught my attention and I had to join back in.

How does the Small Talk Six work? It is simple. Answer the topic with 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, or 6 photos.

Here are my six:

1. My almost 2 yr old is amazingly smart.  Each day he amazes me.  He is always watching what you are doing.   Then three seconds later he is trying it out.
2. My oldest made it through 5 weeks in a body cast just before he turned three.   He broke his femur kicking a ball.  It was a tough time for all of us but you wouldn’t know anything ever happened to him.
   
   
3. My boys are outgoing, personable and definitely not shy.   I love this about them.   They can charm the pants off anyone.
4. Their fascination with the world.   They are so interested in everything.  I love taking them to the museum.
5. Their ability to go from wild and crazy to completely focused on one small thing.   Usually at this point when its quiet that I wonder what they are getting into.  But as I look around the corner into their room, they are lying on the floor completely focused on a couple trains, cars, books, etc.

   

6. Their imaginations.   My oldest will tell you these crazy stories about cutting the moon, spaceships, and races.   They act out stories with their toys.  They dress up as cowboys, pirates or action heros and run around the house.  I didn’t realize how important imagination was until we told my niece “act like your eating a sandwich”  and she looked at us like “you want me to do what?”.  They can have all the toys in the world but imagination is truly a gift.

Five years ago…I married the love of my life.

At this time, I had just gotten ready.

I laughed with my bridesmaids.

Meanwhile, my husband-to-be was nervous…

He really looked nervous didn’t he?

At five o’clock in front of all our family and friends, we said I do

and exchanged rings.

We sealed it with a kiss.

Then we partied like rockstars.

Five years ago on this date, I  married my best friend.

Happy Anniversary to My Husband Paul!

I Love You Always and Forever!

Testing my signature plugin.

So what drive people nuts about you?    Feel free to clarify a little more after the verbs. 

My ____________ (relation) loves/hates when I __________________ (verb), but loves/hates _________________ (verb).    

• My husband hates when I get into bed after he’s been asleep, but loves sleeping next to me.   Let me first clarify that our bed is right up against the wall and my side is up against the wall.  So getting into bed is no easy feat.   I have to climb up from the foot of the bed.   But I have to admit after that I’m not exactly subtle.   I have to have the pillows and blankets just right.  Then just when I settle down I change to the other side.  Then I get hot and kick the blankets off.  
• My husband loves when I cook, but hates cleaning up the dishes.   When he cooks, he cleans as he goes.   I’m not like that.  Plus usually I have two hungry kids that haven’t seen me all day tugging at my legs.   Hubby cooks breakfast on the weekends when the kids are fresh off 10-12 hours sleep.  

Ok and one from my point of view:

• I love seeing faces squished on the door when I come from work, but hate being ambushed when I walk in the door.    Sometimes a girl just needs 5 mins to switch over from working woman to mama.

I can’t wait to see what hubby’s reply will be to this post….

Since I started on my blogging journey just a few months ago, I have become completely infatuated with it.   Just ask my husband.  He probably thinks I’m having an affair.   My reply ”No honey, it’s not another man…I’m just blogging”  He constantly complains that he wants his wife back.   (Right here is where the photo of me hugging the computer monitor and my blog goes)

How infatuated am I?  I secretly go online to blog while working at my full-time job at a loading dock equipment company.  They probably wonder why my productivity is down.   But blogging is my little desert oasis in the land of semi trucks, construction equipment and steel toed boots.

So while trying to balance my family and my job, I’m also going back to school.   Even that’s been taken over by blogging….hmmmm….what class should I take…”oh I need html web design for my blog”….  

Blogging has touched every part of my life.   It’s my social outlet when the kids are driving me nuts.   It’s my sounding board for ideas.    It’s my journal when I just can’t say things out loud but need to get them off my chest.    It’s my Friday night in.   Blogging is driving me to finally finish my college degree.  It’s also driving me to finally pursue other options so I can be home with my children and blog.   

I feel that attending BlogHer would be an eye opening experience.   It’s a chance to focus on one thing I love.   I honestly can’t remember the last time I had time away just for myself.   It must have been over 7 years ago before I got married.    By attending BlogHer it would be great to learn from the best without all the distractions of work and home. 

I also love interacting online with other bloggers, but it would be great to meet these women in person.   You can put names with faces from pictures, but there is something about sitting down and having a face to face.  

I realize I am fortunate that this year BlogHer is within driving distance for me.   But it still seems so far away.   I’m from Detroit and a majority of our business is automotive.   I recently took a pay cut and a couple people were laid off.  So I don’t know what going to happen in the next few months.   I am constantly weight the opportunity of BlogHer and our finances.    It would be great to have that weight lifted off my shoulders!

So pretty please Extraordinary Mothers with a cherry on top – Pick Me!

P.S.  I just thought of one more reason I want to go to BlogHer in Chicago…because since my one and only visit to Chicago developed in to a love/hate relationship, I really want to give it another shot.   For my bachelorette party, we tried to keep it cheap and ended up staying at the Cass Hotel figuring we would only be at the hotel to sleep…the regular rooms were nasty, everyone hated it, we got moved up to the suites on the top floor, the hotel caught fire, I was crying on the street in front of the fire engine, we switched hotels, the first rooms we were given were occupied, then we didnt know you needed reservations for the piano bar we planned to go to, one girl busted her knee when she tripped.   It was just an up and down emotional rollarcoaster.   So I’d love to give Chicago another shot…please send me to BlogHer!

P.S.S.   Our computer is in our basement.   Its freezing…I need a Slanket!

Today I’ve started 2 or 3 different posts, but nothing seemed just right.   I tried to do a Friday Meme and I was totally uninspired.  I thought about doing a post about some items I just fav’d on Etsy, na not right.   So I’m just going to post about what is randomly going through my head.  

• Yesterday was an awful day…I wonder if the doctor/nurse thought I smelled like puke.     The story – Mitchell had a cold/sore throat.  I had to wait for my mom to come over to stay with him so I was late for work.  I shouldn’t have even gone to work because my stomach was doing loop de loops after I ate breakfast.   I ended up going home after lunch, took a nap, then got up to take Mitch to the doctor.   I got him checked in, grabbed the bathroom key and was pulling him into the restroom.   Barely made it, well really I didn’t I got a little on the stall door.   Mitch was looking so concerned as I was hurling in the toilet.   I’m puking as I’m trying not to let him back up into the puke stream on the stall door.   But as a mom does I cleaned myself and the bathroom up, then went into Mitchell’s appt.   Oh yeah and I nibbled on Brocolli soup at lunch.  I must have smelled lovely.
• I keep seeing the twitters & posts from gals at the Mom 2.0 Summit.  I am definately going to have to make it to BlogHer.   I’m trying to figure out how to do it.   The conference fee isn’t the problem.  I’m a student so I could get in for $75.   Hotel is another story.   Hotels run $150-$200+.   Who wants to go with me and split the room cost? Hmm….
• I’m looking forward to an uneventful weekend.   Work on some homework.   Maybe snuggle up with hubby and watch a movie.   Relax is the word of the weekend.
• More thoughts later…

I find it a little funny that Disney will not work with bloggers who use the f-bomb.   I have a concern with the language Disney uses in their movies.   Movies that are created for children.  

The offending movie today…101 Dalmations.  

My mother observed today that Cruella De Vil uses “Idiots” at least a half a dozen times when yelling at Horrace and Jasper.    Hmm…I wonder where he picked it up from.

So this weeks topic is – 6 songs that you love to dance to when nobody’s looking
Kinda bummed since youtube wouldn’t let me embed a couple of these.

1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
   This is my favorite to dance to.   Kinda funny since its also my cell phone ringer
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2. Pour Some Sugar On Me – Def Leppard
   Gotta let your hair down and whip it around to this one
   
3. Any Man of Mine – Shania Twain
   Another one where you definately have to grab the hair brush and sing along
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4. Wannabe – Spice Girls
   
5. Dirrty – Chistina Aguilaria
   
6. Joy to the World (Jeremiah was a Bullfrog) – Three Dog Night
   This might be an odd one but there is a whole dance we do at the piano bar…think boys & girls…