me moments | The Angel Forever

Category Archives me moments

Baby Gifts

Posted on September 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

There are days that I would love to have another baby. I mean we have cute kids and it would be a lot of fun to add more laughter to our family. Then reality kicks me in the rear. I think about being up all night with an infant, diaper changes, and the cost. No, two kids is perfect for our family – we are complete!

Of course, I love making things and putting together gifts for new babies. When my life long friend told everyone that she was pregnant, I waited to find out if she was expecting a boy or a girl. The evening that she announced that it would be a little boy, I ran out to the store to get supplies. I had a mission to start a baby blanket for her little one.

This was THE baby blanket that created baby blanket envy with my boys. In the end the blanket was finished and ready to be part of a present for Baby Z.

Of course, I can not knit a baby blanket for every gift that we need. Here’s another baby gift that we recently gave.

You can see some of my knitted wash cloths, along with some other items that the boys require us to include. Yes, we must have a buddy, and rubber duck for bath time. Plus, I think it is nice to toss in some baby wash since you will be using a lot of that with a new born.

So my question to you this week:

What do you like to give as a gift for a new baby and why?

Pssst . . . if you knit or crochet – I am on Ravelry and have more photos of my items on there.

____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #167

Categories:
Aloha Friday arts and crafts gift ideas knitting looking back me moments photos

The Trip That Never Was Thanks to Hurricane Irene

Posted on August 29, 2011 9:50 am by TheAngelForever

For weeks, I have been writing up posts to schedule. At one point I had two weeks set and would not need anything until after Labor Day. Two guest posts are set for this week alone. I was on a roll, things were flying onto my computer from my fingertips. Then things changed. Our world became obsessed with watching the news, checking on weather reports, and debating what to do.

I should be on the road to Long Island, NY right now (writing this Sunday afternoon). Instead, I am home watching record amounts of water fall outside my home. I am numb. Worry for family, friends, and our own home is not letting all of the reality set in. All I can do is sit here and wait on my bed with power (for now), but no internet or cable

You see, Tuesday morning I should be getting on an airplane. TechyDad and I decided in late July that we were going to just do something crazy. We were going to figure out a way to do a 10th Anniversary trip. We looked at several different options. In the end, we wanted something magical, something that would remind us of our honeymoon. Of course, that was a trip to Walt Disney World.

My in-laws agreed to watch the boys for the first time ever. I was nervous about a quick trip (we booked in the end of July) and leaving the kids to only get back home the day before school started, but they would be fine and we needed this.

Then something happened. Hurricane Irene decided to slam everyone up and down the east coast. My in-laws asked us to try to go on Saturday. I could not do it. The storm appeared like it was going to be so much more in the NYC/Long Island area that I wanted to be at home to keep an eye on things here. Friday night, I was so restless. I tossed and turned. The what if aspect of everything was killing me. Sure, perhaps we would have a flight, but could we guarantee being able to travel from here to there? Right now, TechyDad’s parents have no power. There was no way I could leave two young kids with them for five nights without power. That was not fair.

So, just before noon on Saturday, I made a tough call. It was time to call our airlines and travel agent to cancel our trip. We needed to focus on getting ready for the storm and not worry about how/if/when we could get to our flight. Our airline was fantastic. We are not reimbursed, but have credit that must be used with us back home by a certain date. We can handle that.

When I tried to call Disney to cancel on my own, the woman asked how she could help make my day magical. With tears in my eyes and obvious sadness, I told her she could make Hurricane Irene go away. She immediately got serious and said she was so sorry. In the end, our agent called and we were reimbursed for the package we purchased.

Now, as the storm is likely at the worst. How will this week be? I know I should be thrilled that my family and friends are safe. I am, do not get me wrong. Still, with each passing day from Tuesday to Sunday it will sting. I will think about the meal we are missing. I will morn the special trip that should have been. I will be ok, but it hurts. I shouldn’t complain since the last six weeks of dreaming of the trip helped make the summer bearable. The weeks went by as we planned to meet friends, eat special meals, and more. This last week of summer vacation for the boys is going to be hard. We will be picking up the pieces from the storm, assessing damage in our basement, and wondering how and when we can reschedule the trip that we needed. Yes, I really am ready for 2011 to be over since she has been so very evil in too many ways.

Update from Monday morning: Sunday was a long day here. The rain intense and the wind got worse into the dark evening. We were SO lucky here. Some issues in our basement that we now have to look into, but no major damage. Unfortunately, others within our area were not so lucky. Irene may have only been a tropical storm when she came into our area, but she packed one hell of a punch. Mud slides, dams bursting, lakes in front of houses at the base of mountains – a massive mess. We never lost our power here, but across the street they have none right now. Sheer exhaustion from no sleep for days caught up. I went to a room where I could not hear the howling wind and fell asleep on TechyDad’s chest. Today, he managed to get to work after closed roads leading to Vermont were just reopened. Now to see what we can do around the area to keep our minds busy.

One other thing, I really wish people would stop talking about the over-hyped nature of this storm. Should more people have died? Perhaps they have not seen some of the damage and more that is coming NOW thanks to all of the flooding that is still not at the worst level. I think a lot of people living inland and in parts of South Carolina and Virginia would beg to differ. No, NYC was not destroyed, but lives were forever changed up and down the east coast. The fact that people were safe is not a fail, but something we should celebrate after the mistakes from Hurricane Katrina. We need to remember that less is more in the case of a hurricane – especially when it is not as much damage in some very populated areas. To those with damage and picking up the pieces – my heart goes out to you.

Categories:
decisions Disney family me moments messy photos summer TechyDad vent weather weekend

Conquering Rope Bridges and Crocodiles

Posted on August 29, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

The opportunity to go on the Wild Africa Trek at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was something I could not pass up. As I have written earlier, the Trek is a behind the scenes tour that takes you to places you will otherwise not visit. Friends of mine had gone on media tours of the Trek and reported back with photos, video, and lots more. Of course, everyone spent a lot of time talking about the rope bridges. Even Disney’s own video did. Shannon and I laughed with each other for weeks about the two of us doing this part. Fact – Since I had my kids, I have a slight fear of heights.

So when I last left off we had finished with the hippos and Alex walked up to a skull marker on the path. *gulp* What you can’t tell is that Alex and Bethany are really into their roles. The entire time you go on the trek you are IN Africa – not Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Then Bethany showed us a few more pieces of the puzzle. Check out these pearly whites that belong to some “critters” that we would soon be seeing from way up high.

Suddenly Bethany mentioned that the route that we should go on was not available to us. Instead we would have to be brave and go a different way – over the water. Insert dramatic music here! Yes, this involved heading up onto the platforms to the rope bridges that we had practiced for. I think Alex was having too much fun watching us. Some in the group could not wait to be first, others were just waiting and watching.

Bethany would head across the bridge first to show us how it was done. Conveniently, it would also place her across the way to take some photos of each member of the group as we made it across. This was the view from the top as we stood waiting.

This is a photo of members of our group waiting to be hooked up to the safety lines for the trip across.

I have to admit, I had lost a lot of my fear at this point. My biggest worry was TechyDad’s camera. Recall it was hanging around my neck and the lens cap was way back in the lockers. So imagine me on a slightly wobbly bridge trying not to knock said camera into the side of the ropes (being short it was perfect height for this).

Seriously, the bridges were not bad at all. The only moment I cringed a little was when one of the safari vehicles traveled under me when I was in the middle. Thanks to the vibrations from below the bridge swayed a bit. Here is a view just before I stepped onto the bridge for my second trek across a bridge.

When you travel across the second bridge – these are the critters that are looking up from below.

Here I am almost at the end of the second bridge. My bridge buddy is behind me. You can see I am more at ease now – the camera is going to be ok!

Of couse, I was not nearly as at ease as Alex. I mean check out how much fun he had watching all of us and then crossing the bridge.

From here we went down to wait for everyone to take their gear off. Yes, we no longer needed those contraptions on. We were heading to a safari vehicle for the next part of our adventure into the savannah and eventually to the Boma for a meal.

More about the African Trek coming soon. To read the previous parts of my adventure you can check them out here

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan, it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.

Categories:
bloggy friends Disney DisneySMMoms fun interesting laughs looking back me moments photos

That Thing Called Klout

Posted on August 26, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Klout stormed onto the social media radar not too long ago. Since that time, it has been watched, analyzed, and picked apart by countless people. I am not here to do that. Instead, I want to admit that I am intrigued by Klout and often wonder how and why it works. I have a Klout plugin on my Seesmic Desktop so I can be nosey.

At first Klout was just a number. According to Klout:

Klout measures influence based on the ability to drive action, not potentially misleading metrics like follower or friend count. Klout has analyzed over 85 million people on major social networks, and is used by over 3000 brands and applications.

Then, they started Klout Perks. This was a way for businesses to work with individuals via Klout to learn about new products from their brands. Some companies that have used Perks are Disney, Spotify, Subway, and P&G. Sometimes, Perks are sent to you via a Tweet from Klout Perks, other times they show up in your dashboard.

Thanks to Klout Perks, I have been able to try Spotify, test Secret Clinical Strength deodorant, and, most recently, help with PACE through a Klout Perk with Dick’s Sporting Goods. PACE helps to protest athletes through concussion education.

Klout also allows you to recognize people that influence you. By going to Klout, you can look at the topics that people are influential in and give them a +K. When you give someone a +K, you are able to Tweet it. There is some controversy about tossing this into the Twitter streams. Some people consider it Spam. I tend to agree, so I add a message to the tweet to personalize it. Here’s an example:

It’s like my view of Follow Friday. Rather than a long stream of Twitter people, I personalize it with something that makes them special to me. People have noticed this and several that I know have started this fun new touch to giving +K to people.

So this week’s Aloha Friday question is inspired by Klout:

Have you signed up for Klout yet? If you have, what do you like and/or dislike about it? I would love to know what topics it says you are influential about. Do you have any thoughts on the +K Tweets?

Disclosure: I was given Dick’s Sporting Goods gift cards because I’m a Klout influencer. I was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company. This perk simply worked into my post about Klout in general.

____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #166

Categories:
Aloha Friday bloggy friends interesting me moments photos PSA twitter

Tuesday Tales – Finding Time to Read

Posted on August 23, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

When I was teaching, I was always reading books. Time was spent keeping up on school related items, reading trade books that my students were interested in, and of course reading books for lesson planning. During that period of my life, I rarely had time to read books for pleasure. Yes, I enjoyed the books I was reading – but let’s be honest it was not my first choice.

From the moment my kids were born, books were a huge part of their lives. We have a rather large collection of books. There are books in the book case upstairs, books overflowing in the small book case in the boys room, books all over the living room, and a pile of books next to my bed. Yes, there is rarely a place you go in our house without seeing reading material of some kind.

NHL is now able to read books on his own. This summer was huge for him since he has learned to like tackling chapter books with independent reading. Of course, I can not read all of the books that he is, but try to catch up on some of them to be able to chat with him and ask questions. My dream is to begin a family read aloud of the Harry Potter series since NHL is getting into them. Although NHL loves to read, time becomes an issue. As school begins, time will be crunched even more. I believe once homework is accomplished, reading will be needed to earn time for gaming. I think I will be working on a chart to keep track of this since it will make more sense to him.

JSL adores sitting and “reading” books on his own. He loves to pull out a pile of picture books from our library and sit on the couch to have someone read to him. NHL, TechyDad, and I all read to him and he adores this special time with each of us. At 4, he really wants to learn to read and we are going to work on pre-reading skills at home in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks to reading with the kids so much, I still am balancing the art of reading books for me. During the day, it is hard with work that has to get done. At night, I find that if I settle into bed to read – sleep seems to catch me.

So fess up, how do you find time to read things that you enjoy?

Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.