ShoeGirl Corner

Dentures Part Deux and Camp Adventures

2012-01-26T23:54:00.001-05:00

I went back to the dentist last week to have my permanent crown removed and to have a new temporary put on. The dentist started off with the usual two shots and quickly realized that he needed to give me two more shots. Yes, four shots total. I still had the lump on Thursday.

http://www.eastvillagedental.com/

Despite the pain and the lump I must admit that this temporary crown has been 100% better than the last one. I've been able to eat just fine. I'm kind of disappointed. I was hoping I would lose another 7 lbs this time from lack of eating. Instead I've been able to eat just fine. Not good.

So my daughter left to camp on Tuesday morning and I have now survived 3 evenings without her. I haven't freaked out in worry that maybe I didn't tell her enough or prepare her enough. I didn't want to nag her before going. I wanted to be the cool mom. But as soon as she was gone and friends told me I did a good job with her, I started thinking of all the things I didn't warn her about before leaving. I'm a mom. I do that.

We got a camp update when they arrived Tuesday at noon and then again Wednesday through the bad weather day. Then today we didn't have an update. I thought I had missed it because my work email was down. Turns out they didn't send one out today. Probably because the day was so beautiful.

My daughter promised to write me a letter each night about her trip and what they did. I hope she remembered to do that. That way she'll also record her adventure so she can remember it in the future.

She comes home tomorrow. I will survive the work day before going to pick her up, taking her in my arms, and hugging her tight.

Just Get Me Fitted for My Dentures Already

2012-01-05T20:32:00.006-05:00

I'll never forget when two of my older sisters informed me that my teeth were old now and that I would start getting crowns soon because we inherited both our parents' bad teeth. I promptly had to get my first crown right before I turned 40. Love them!

Image from dentalgiggles.com

Let's start with my molar issues that started a couple of weeks prior to my vacation. Anyone who knows me knows that nothing is ever simple in my life. Just because the first two crowns I had were non-complicated did not mean that they would all be that way.

So my third crown was a nightmare. In a nutshell I had to have 8 shots and finally some gas because I had a little break down and cried because of the stress. (yes, I said cried) Turned out the crack was right on a nerve. So every time the dentist would drill I could feel it and he had to keep giving me more shots. Then I choked on the water and had to sit up and that's when the tears just flew out of my eyes. When I started crying he decided I needed a little gas to calm me down.

After that bad experience the temporary crown came loose two days later and I had to go in to have it replaced. If that wasn't enough it started to crack on the last couple of days that I had it on, but I just hung in there until the appointment when I was having the permanent crown inserted. Even after the pemanent was put it in I didn't feel right. I kept telling the dentist that it didn't feel right.

When I went back in for my cleaning the week I was on vacation we found out that it wasn't the right size. Of course it wasn't! After he gave me 8 shots that first visit my gum and my mouth were totally swollen. I looked like I had been punched in the face that day. (I had to go to Kroger looking like that because it was our turn to provide the snack for M's Odyssey of the Mind meeting and I got all kinds of weird looks.) The point is that if my mouth was that swollen I can understand why he didn't get an accurate mold of my molar.

What does all this mean? I have to go back in now to have it done all over again. This time they are going to have to break the permanent crown to remove it. I am so not looking forward to the torture.

On a good note, I lost around 7 pounds because I couldn't eat. Maybe I'll lose another 7 lbs when I have all this work re-done. That reminds me, I need to call them to make an appointment for next week.

Just When I Thought I Could Have a Life...

2012-01-04T23:14:00.002-05:00

What? One post in one month and then two posts back to back? Yes, I actually have a lot to say now. I've been kind of quiet lately because I was kind of hibernating for the winter. No, seriously, I just didn't have much to say. Yes, me, I had nothing to say, unbelievable I know. I was without words. (So get ready to read!)

annetaintor.com

Now I have a whole lot to say. I actually dared to believe that I could have somewhat of a social life. Yes, I just got back from vacation, where I had a wonderful time and fooled myself into thinking that life could be that simple. I went out a couple of Fridays in a row. No, I didn't go anywhere on vacation. I just stayed at my house and I took my kids somewhere every day four days out of five. We had a great time.

Museum of Natural Science on Monday, Children's Museum of Tuesday, home with play date for my son on Wednesday, Movies and The Menil on Thursday, and Downtown Aquarium on Friday. But in the midst of all my vacation days I was naive enough to believe that I could actually have a social life. Wrong.

My vacation ended on Monday and that's when I was reminded of how crazy and complicated my life is. Just like clockwork my truck started to break down. I had a low oil warning show up on my dashboard the Sunday before going back so I took it in to my oil place on Monday. They told me that I had a leak. So I turned around and took it to the shop because my ABS light also came on. They quoted me $4,000 worth of repairs on Tuesday. No thank you. I need to buy a new car instead. Now I have to start on the car shopping, which I despise.

Next there's the kids. I thought that it would be great idea if instead of paying for After School care I could save money and ask my niece to keep them. The problem is that she's still in San Diego from her holiday visit. So this week two of my sisters helped with them, then I picked them up today, and tomorrow my sister again. Niece isn't back until Saturday so she can't start picking them up until next week. All this with a half working truck.

Tonight when I took Miranda to her Odyssey of the Mind team meeting I was reminded that they are going to start meeting twice a week now instead of only once. Great! No, really great! :-D (I want to be the supportive mom but I'm also the exhausted mom.) So now they are meeting on Mondays and Wednesday evenings. Yes, evenings, as in after work.

And Miranda informs me today that they gave them the dates for their camp trip. I'm happy for her but I'm so nervous at the same time. This will be the very first time she goes somewhere on her own. I don't want to be my parents. I want to be the supportive cool parent and I want for her to go and to have the experience that I didn't get to have.

Last but not least, this is the week that the Vanguard and Magnet applications are due. We have made our choices for the middle schools. Now we just wait to find out if she gets into her first choice.

Yes, I will need a drink on my free weekend. I'm just ready for my next adventure. I'm sure that something exciting is coming my way, it always does. I wouldn't be me if my life was dull.

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-03T14:11:00.001-05:00

Here we are. A new year. New goals, etc... etc...

Annetaintor.com

Now if I could only get my stuff together. Here they are in no particular order. Short and simple.

Teach my children more. Read to them more, do more with them. We are going to start reading "The Catcher in the Rye" together like we read "To Kill a Mockingbird" last year.
Make more money. This will help me achieve the rest of my goals.
Remodel my house. Remodel, remodel, remodel...
Continue on this weight loss and exercise journey.
Edit my novel and self-publish (yet again it's my goal)

So what are yours?

Lazy Blog

2011-12-06T13:50:00.001-05:00

Since it looks like I will never blog again I've decided to bring back an old meme from 2006. Wow! That's almost six years ago. Of course I updated it to what's currently going on in my life today.

I AM: Woman, hear me roar.

I WANT: A lot. I want to travel again.

I WISH: I could get myself organized.

I HATE: mean girls, unless they are really funny too.

I MISS: being a kid with no responsibilities and my mom. Always my mom.

I HEAR: Adele singing “Someone like You.”

I WONDER: what kind of adults my kids will be.

I REGRET: not sticking to Creative Writing or Journalism.

I AM NOT: as crazy as some people think. I’m actually quite normal with just a lot of passion.

I DANCE: like nobody’s watching.

I SING: terrible! One time my step-daughter told me that I sang like I was talking. That bad!

I CRY: at every sad movie and some not so sad ones but touching ones. I cry every time I watch You’ve Got Mail and I see that scene where she remembers her mother twirling her.

I AM NOT ALWAYS: a calm nice person.

I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: Not much. I’m not a crafty person any more.

I WRITE: stories, blog essays, memes, emails, work proposals, and too much other crap besides my book.

I CONFUSE: cars. I never know what car someone drives unless it’s a red Porshe Carrera.

I NEED: to get busy renovating my home.

I SHOULD: Finish editing my book so I can self-publish.

I START: to do things I need to do, but then I’m easily distracted.

I FINISH: Work stuff all the time. I do better with deadlines and pressure.

Failing Miserably at Blogging Daily

2011-11-08T00:52:00.001-04:00

So here we are November 7 and I haven't been blogging daily. In fact I've been failing miserably. So today I'm going to use the writing prompt on BlogHer. "How do I balance my family, work and blogging??"

Magnet design by annetaintor.com

Hmm... I don't. That's the most honest answer I can give. I am terrible at balancing anything. That's why I either don't eat or I exercise. Can't do both. That's why I can't blog, write, clean my house and do all the things I have to do on a daily basis all at the same time. I can either blog, take care of kid stuff, work on my book, exercise after work, or clean my house. Pick one.

That would be too ambitious of me if I did it all. Then everyone would be totally jealous of me and you wouldn't want to be my friend. So instead I just write totally honest blogs like this one. I think people think I'm just joking but I'm not.

Half the time I'm too exhausted to do anything. Some days are pretty calm at work but then I have out of the ordinary stuff happen and it's all kinds of crazy. Here is a good example. Last Friday I so needed a drink by the end of the day.

Before that, on Thursday my daughter told me that she had made enough points to try out for the all city band. Surprise! The only problem was that all the parents had to find their own transportation to the tryouts. I forgot to call a mom to ask her that night and the next day, Friday, I was emailing the group of stay at home moms who I knew would know someone. I received a reply from a mom in the early afternoon that she would take her to the band competition. In the meanwhile I was having a crisis with a customer at work.

So my Friday went like this: Found a ride for M to the band tryouts, worked, handled a problem with a customer, went to a meeting, signed divorce papers in front of notary, delivered papers to attorney, went to see upset customer from earlier call, found someone to pick up son, went to meet daughter at band tryouts (thank goodness it was close to the unhappy customer), got son from my sister, took the kids to ice cream, and went home. I was exhausted by the time it was all done but I still managed to meet my niece out for drinks that night. Priorities!

The thing is that the Tuesday prior to that was equally exhausting and I was at UH recruiting until 8 p.m. The next day, Wednesday, I had to make a presentation at work to a group of customers. I was tired. Thank goodness my daughter didn't have Odyssey of the Mind after school that day because I just wanted to rest. That is what my life has been like lately.

So now you know why when I get home the last thing I want to do is clean or exercise. So the question remains, "How do I balance my family, work and blogging??" I don't. I just take one day at a time.

November is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)

2011-11-04T00:18:00.000-04:00

So here we are. It's time to blog every day. National Blog Posting Month challenges us to blog once a day for the entire month of November. It's a daunting challenge because as many of you know, I don't blog every day. I already got started off on the wrong foot by not blogging on the 1st. I'm more of a 1-2 time a week blogger. Now the big question is, on which blog do I blog every day for the month of November? Part of me says skirt! just because of the community of writers. The other side of me says to do it here because of the crazy traffic that I've been getting lately.

Image from colleenspiro.blogspot.com
BlogHer will even be helping us along by giving us a writing prompt each day. So today I don't have a particular topic except that it's NaBloPoMo, so now you know. More interesting blogs to come hopefully.

"Love and Other Disasters" in My Life

2011-11-03T00:45:00.000-04:00

This has been a pretty crazy week. Crazy in that unexpected things have happened and I've had to think fast.

Magnet by annetaintor.com

We had some changes at work that have made me have to step up to the plate and to take on some responsibilities I didn't have before. I thought I was being proactive and trying to think ahead, but I wasn't thinking far enough apparently. There was more for me to do.

On the home front, I'm working on my restroom remodeling and when the tile man came to start tiling my bathroom last Saturday morning I found out that I only had maybe a fourth of the tile I needed. I had to travel around Houston Saturday and Sunday visiting four different Home Depots to find enough tile. Lovely.

Then, I'm having challenges with my son and school. I'm afraid that on top of his challenging personality he's now being labeled and they are jumping on him for just looking at them cross-eyed. That can be emotionally challenging for him and also for me as the mom.

Finally, the divorce is final in the next week or so. Despite all of our differences, it is so sad to see fourteen years of work and our lives as a family changing. Life is such a series of struggles and challenges. It's how we handle them that makes all the difference.

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment & making the best of it..."- Gilda Radner

I Miss My Funny Blogs

2011-10-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

I've been looking over my blog lately at old posts. It's amazing that I've been blogging for almost seven years. I started when Seth was just a baby. Some of my blogs from 2008 had me laughing. Even the titles are funny. Like Wasp 1, Me 0 (zero), A Black Cloud With a Side of Rotten Meat, Vodka, Kids and check me out on skirt.com and I'm Full of Strep.

It made me wonder what happened to all my funny blogs. Why aren't my titles funny any more and why don't I blog about the funny things that happen to me? I know that I still have funny things happen now and then.

Magnet by Anne Taintor

Like today, I was walking with my son while my daughter was in her Odyssey of the Mind meeting. We were walking along and he looks me up and down and says with a straight face, "You know, you're not really fat. It's just your boobs that make you look fat."

Out of the mouth of babes! I guess I should take that as a compliment because children are honest and he was telling me that he doesn't think I'm fat. He was cracking me up. I love reading back on my blog at some of the other crazy things he has said to me over the years. He's such a boy!

I need to get back to posting funny blogs or at least funny titles to my blogs. I've been busy writing about goals, moving forward, exercise and even some sad pitiful ones like this one.

I feel like I'm past that sadness or whatever melancholiness (is that even a word?) that I've been feeling. Like I said yesterday (actually it was Monday but this blog counted it as Tuesday because it must have been past midnight) Fall is almost here and it's a time for new beginnings. I can't wait to wear fall clothes this Friday when it's cool. And maybe now my blogs will be funny again.

Come Back Fall & Go Away Mosquitos!!

2011-10-25T00:06:00.004-04:00

It's 10:30 p.m. and the kids are in bed asleep and I can write a little. I looked at the weather 5 day forecast and I found out that fall is back on Friday. The high is 71 and the low is 47. I am so excited!!! I love fall!! I have said it before and I will say it again. (I know I say this every single Fall) Fall is the best time of year for me. Fall feels like new beginnings. It's the start of a new school year and football games. Exciting things always happen in the fall when it gets cold. Fall reminds me of New York.

Now if I only I could go to NYC!! "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." - Joe Fox in "You've Got Mail."

I love that movie. I've been thinking of it a lot lately with fall and all. One because I love the quotes and two, because I love NY. I can't wait to go back for a visit. I was meant to live in NY if I had been born wealthy.

I have a busy week ahead. Before I go to bed I need to wash my blender for my protein shake in the morning, wash and set my coffee pot, pack the kids' lunch, and get my gym bag ready. Tomorrow is my early morning meeting day so I need to leave everything prepared to leave at a decent time. I want to go to Studewood Park after work with the kids or maybe back to the bike trail. It's a great walking trail too. We roller skated on it last week. Fun but scary! I kept thinking I was going to fall. I'm not a spring chicken any more. It's the fear of falling that keeps me from really skating like I did when I was young. I need to let go of that fear!

Speaking of when I was young and football games. Oh Lort! I went to the UH Homecoming game on Saturday and we made the mistake of stopping by someone's (who will remind un-named to protect the innocent) fraternity tent on the student side. They gave us a bunch of jello shots to go. The first one I had at their tent wasn't too bad, but the second one I had at our tailgating tent was super strong.

I immediately texted this person and said, "Are those jello shots made with everclear???"

"IDK, I'll find out." Then a moment later, "Yes, and some have 151."

Me, "Argh!"

"Why? LOL"

I didn't tell him that everclear had not been kind to me at 21 and I guess it's still not kind to me at 41 either. No wonder. According to Wikipedia, "Due to its high alcohol content, Everclear is illegal, unavailable, or difficult to find in many areas."

All I had were 2 jello shots combined with my cranberry vodka mix and I was not feeling well for the rest of the night or into Sunday. Hilarious and sad at the same time. Old woman trying to keep up with the young frat boys. Who was I kidding! Ha ha! Needless to say I didn't drink for the rest of the game. How sad!

November is around the corner and so is the real fall. I can't wait! The cold needs to chase away this swarm of mosquitos in Houston.

Random Stuff and I Forgot About Baby Bottle Nipples

2011-10-20T14:29:00.002-04:00

So this blog is going to be about random stuff that has something to do with either reading, writing, blogging, newspapers, NPR, traveling, art museums, spirituality, learning, self-discovery, public education, inner-city living, old architecture, fashion, parenting, gifted and magnet school programs, Nike quotes apparently, and cupcakes at some point.

Defensive Driving has been kicking me in the butt and it really shouldn't have been. It was really really easy in retrospect but I made it really really hard on myself because I could save it and go back to it whenever I wanted. So because of that I would save it and I wouldn't go back to it for days. I started it I don't know, like September 6 maybe, and I didn't finish it until this past Sunday, October 16. It was due to the court today and I turned in everything yesterday. I actually felt like I had been set free from the bonds of slavery when I went to the court house to turn it all in. I felt like it was something hanging over my head that I couldn't get past.

Random art from Anne Taintor to go with my random subject. www.annetaintor.com

The funniest part about all that is that not only did I finish on Sunday, I also had to ask them to FedEx the certificate to me. I was expecting the certificate by Tuesday or Wednesday but mainly on Wednesday. On Tuesday I went to check the mail and there on the sidewalk over the side of my gate was a FedEx package. I do not check the mail every day so I'm so glad I happened to go out there and that I saw it. Can you imagine?? After all that I went through procrastinating to finish it that would have been a tragedy and a comedy too I guess.

Now that I'm all done with that I can move ahead in my life. I can tackle the craziness of my house right now. I have a lot of work to do in that department. That should really be my main focus from now on. I need to proceed with the remodeling.

I also need to get on the ball and figure out when these middle schools are having their tours because apparently I've already missed out on some. I still can't believe I'm doing this. Choosing a middle school for my baby girl that is. The baby I just had 10 years ago. Amazing.

Another interesting package that we received this week came with the baby sock monkey I ordered my son from Amazon. Except that these packages come via UPS and that guy is smart and he knows to put my packages inside the breezeway between my kitchen and the garage. There was another big box there with a little box that had baby sock monkey.

I told the kids to open it and they said, "It's a toilet brush." I came back into the kitchen and looked at the brush and what is amazing is that it took me forever to figure out what it was. I actually had to look at it for a while and I had to re-read the description.

It said it was a bottle brush with a nipple brush. It was the nipple brush part that just totally threw me off. I thought nipple as in "nipple" at first, not baby bottle nipple. Apparently it's been a long time since I had a baby and I don't think I ordered that bottle brush. It was an error on the part of Amazon I think. Now I can't find a phone number on the Amazon page to tell them about it. Maybe they sent it to me as a bonus for the baby sock monkey.

So there you go...random stuff.

What Is It About Nike Quotes?

2011-10-15T19:41:00.004-04:00

What is it about Nike Quotes that intrigues people? So now my two top visited blog entries are the original Nike quotes from 2007 and now my observation that I should just rename my blog Nike Quotes.

So apparently I put together some of the best Nike quotes all in one place. I know because I tried it. If you Google Nike quotes you will either come up with some random blog that has one quote or you will come up with quotes where other people (usually celebrities) are talking about Nike. My blog entries, especially the first one, has an impressive collection of some of the really good ones.

So since most of you came to my blog via the Google search of Nike quotes I am going to try to randomly post great Nike quotes or ads just because I love Nike too.

Here are some ads I found.

Cool Nolan Ryan ad.

Great ad!

Awesomeness!

Updated: Forgot this one! And it was my favorite too.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE

YOUR MOTHER UNLESS SHE IS

WHO YOU WANT TO BE. YOU DO NOT HAVE

TO BE YOUR MOTHER'S MOTHER, OR YOUR

MOTHER'S MOTHER'S MOTHER, OR EVEN

YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S MOTHER ON YOUR

FATHER'S SIDE. YOU MAY INHERIT THEIR

CHINS OR THEIR HIPS OR THEIR EYES, BUT

YOU ARE NOT DESTINED TO BECOME THE

WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE YOU, YOU ARE

NOT DESTINED TO LIVE THEIR LIVES. SO IF

YOU INHERIT SOMETHING, INHERIT THEIR

STRENGTH. IF YOU INHERIT SOMETHING, IN-

HERIT THEIR RESILIENCE. BECAUSE THE ONLY

PERSON YOU ARE DESTINED TO BECOME IS

THE PERSON YOU DECIDE TO BE.

Getting Organized with OCD & Anorexia

2011-10-06T22:13:00.002-04:00

Today's Daily Deal on chron.com was $54 for 3 hours of home organizing services ($135 value). I looked at it for a minute and thought about it. Even IF I bought this deal the organizer would take one look at my mess and would run away. Three hours is not enough time to organize one room in my house. Honestly, I don't understand how people who work full time keep their house clean. I don't. I really don't. (so sad I know)

Emma Pillsbury from Glee

Maybe I missed out on that whole clean gene somewhere along the way. I hate that about myself. It's one of the things I want to change. I've always been kind of messy but here lately it's gotten totally out of hand. Maybe it's the kids. Maybe it's the stress. I don't know but sometimes I wish I could have a little bit of OCD and a little bit of anorexia all wrapped into one. Then maybe I would be skinny and clean, kind of like Emma Pillsbury on Glee. (OK I can see the hate mail now, I know these are serious conditions) Anyway, but I still want them.

Or I wish I could become an obsessive runner. Wish, shoulda, coulda, I need to stop. What I need to do is put on my big girl panties and deal with it. I need to learn how to re-organize my life, I just don't want to pay all that money to do it. And I don't want to put all my junk out on my front lawn like they do on those crazy Oprah shows where people go in to re-organize people's houses.

I just need to rent a big dumpster and I need to work all weekend from Friday-Sunday dumping crap out. Then I can start working from a clean slate. Maybe that's what I'll do.

I need to do something to get my head and life in order. I haven't blogged in a while because my head is all muddled up. I need to clear it and decide what I want to do and how I'm going to do it.

Here are the important questions I need to ask myself and then I need to move forward. Because these questions are what will motivate me to get those things done.

What makes you happy?
Would you like to be happier?
Whose responsibility is your happiness?

Appreciating Life, My Kindle Will Break Me, and Fall Keeps Teasing Me

2011-09-26T00:27:00.000-04:00

The other week I was leaving the building with a co-worker and she asked me how I was doing. I was really stressed out thinking about a number of things but I was also telling myself that I needed to be grateful for the good things I do have in life. So when she asked me how I was doing I told her that I was fine and that I was grateful for many things like my health, my children, a roof over my head. She agreed that we do need to be grateful for the good things.

Then I told her a story about a friend who I didn't know was sick and how I just found out by coincidence on FB. She was so ill in fact that she had an organ transplant. I told my co-worker that I had been thinking about her a lot and what she must be going through. It helped me put things into perspective.

Shortly after that I took a time/life management training class and I was reminded of some really important points in life. One of my favorite quotes I took away was, "You can accomplish some truly incredible things when you have a reason." What is my reason?

All this has led to my really questioning some things in my life.

On another note, I think my Kindle and Amazon are out to get me. They know that when I see a Kindle Daily Deal I won't be able to say no. WHO can say no to a book for $1.99 or worse .99 like the other day?? I can't. If the book sounds just remotely good I will buy it at that price.

Speaking of reading and books, Discovery Green has the coolest Reading Room or Houston Public Library room. It's tiny but it's a library with WiFi and you can check out books or return books. I love it when I see the city promoting reading. It's more than likely the only library branch open on a Sunday. Good to know!

So Fall made a showing for about a week then went away but I have hopes that it's coming back soon. Friday was the first day of fall so the weather is bound to change soon. I am patiently waiting.

Renter, Boarder Issues and Defensive Driving is Killing Me

2011-09-13T23:34:00.002-04:00

First of all and for the record, I will never finish Defensive Driving by the deadline and I'm going to get sent to jail and I'm going to leave my children destitute. Just kidding! I will finish it eventually. I just don't know when. I'll probably end up having to pay again and I'm going to have to ask for them to FedEx me my certificate so I can make my deadline. I tried! I really did! But I'm just not very good at sitting down still to doing the class.

I was having an interesting conversation with Rey and my best friend about why I don't like having people live with me. They had no idea of my "issue." My sister came to visit this past weekend and I told her about it too and she didn't know my "issue" either. We decided that's what it is. One of my many issues left over from my childhood.

As long as I can remember we had people living with us. When I was really little we took in my aunt's half sister who was pregnant. We also had another woman stay with us for a while, who my sister found at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. We ended up with her at our house with her newborn baby. Later we had cousins, uncles, and a boarder. Not all at the same time but at various times in my life, especially during my childhood.

In between my early teen years and my early twenties I had one of the 3 sisters living with me at different times when they were in college, in between houses or husbands. It stopped in my late teens and early twenties, but I remember telling my parents very clearly that I didn't want anyone living with us any more. I wanted to be left alone and in peace for a while.

When I was in my late twenties and about to get married my mom brought a distant cousin to live with us. I was so upset with her for doing this. It was a disaster just like I imagined. The woman was unbearable. I was convinced. Having someone live in your home leads to disaster and unhappiness. I'm sorry, that may sound crazy but it's true.

I have a close relative, who will remain un-named, who always has renters or boarders in her house. Disaster after disaster. Some of her renters have ended up being the center of her marital problems. Watching her suffer through these experiences just reinforces my belief.

I have two children living with me now that will hopefully live with me at least until they are 18. That's a good 11 more years of having someone live with me. After that I want to be "a woman of a certain age" living all alone with my cats. I can't wait!!

I'm Just Going to Rename My Blog "Nike Quotes"

2011-09-01T14:23:00.004-04:00

Seriously! I can not believe how many visits I get to this blog via Nike Quotes. It's always been a lot but just lately it seems like even more. Just today out of my 13 visits, 8 came in through that page. Some days I get close to 50 visits and the majority come in that route. So yes, it should be called "Nike Quotes."

I had no idea when I first wrote that blog entry in 2007 that I would get that many click-throughs or that I would move up so high on Google. Now that I know more about how searching works I realize that you move up in relevance based on how much someone searches for those key words and how often they click to your website.

Everyone just loves Nike. I love Nike. I really do absolutely love their quotes. They are so inspiring and I should probably update my blog to include more. Here's another good one.

But I realized something very interesting today. Amelia Earhart was the original author of the "Just Do It" saying. She said, "The best way to do it, is to do it!" Isn't that interesting?

I have so many things that I need to DO right now. Starting with remodeling the house. Then there's entering a novel writing contest and sticking to a regular work out schedule. I can't say "Later!" like the procrastinator in me wants to do. I have to do it.

Just doing it is always the hardest part. We want to do other things that aren't the one thing we should be doing. We want for everything to come easy when it doesn't. So my goal for the rest of this year is to just do the things I should be doing.

I'm also thinking of revamping my blog. What I'm thinking specifically is that I should stick to a list of subjects that interest me. I don't want for this to be just like any other "mommy" blog. I want it to be a mommy blog with a twist. I've always written about just random things that pop into my head or things I'm passionate about.

I want to write about things of substance too. At the top of my blog I say I'm passionate about reading, writing, blogging, newspapers, NPR, traveling, art museums, spirituality, learning, self-discovery, public education, living in the city, fashion, parenting, and cupcakes. I'm going to make it a point to choose one of those topics each time I write. That will also mean doing a little more research on my theme and I think it will make for a more interesting blog. So watch out for those upcoming changes soon!

My Powdered Wig

2011-08-28T19:31:00.000-04:00

I was getting my pedicure and manicure yesterday with my best girlfriend and her sister (also my good friend) and a reminder popped up on the calendar on my phone that said, "Powdered Wig."

"What the heck is this?" I asked myself. Then I remembered my conversation with my bff the night before when we were coming back from Oporto, a great wine bar in Houston.

Powdered Wig by shadesbreath.hubpages.com

When we were leaving Oporto I saw the M Hair Salon next door and I told her that I've been there before to buy my Bumble & Bumble powder hair spray. I have SUPPPEEEERR oily hair and I can't skip one day without washing my hair. If I do I have to spray my hair with Bumble & Bumble in brown. Sometimes I need to spray it even if I've washed it but I'm still having an extra oily day.

The spray works a lot like baby powder does. When someone has really oily hair they sprinkle baby powder in their hair and then comb it through. The powder absorbs the oil and then the hair looks less oily and is fuller and more manageable. My friend told me it's called Dry Shampoo, I didn't know that. I just call it my spray powder.

Three years ago I read about Bumble & Bumble in Oprah magazine and I decided to try it. LOVE IT! It is so great for those days when I don't wash my hair. I just spray it, comb it through after it sets, and violà, I have semi-non-oily hair again.

I was telling my friend that the only part I don't like is the texture of my hair. It gets kind of too dry sometimes or I have a pouffy feeling. She asked if it felt like a powdered wig and that is EXACTLY what I imagine a powdered wig would feel like.

They say that fashion repeats itself so I guess the powdered wig is back in style only this time it's disguised by the dry shampoo look.

Vacation Was Good and Now We Prepare for School

2011-08-18T18:02:00.003-04:00

Very quick 10 minute blog. Vacation was fabulous with the good, the bad, and the ugly. I fell down twice, don't ask me how. Once I fell all by myself in my kitchen and the second time I fell at Baskin Robbins. Probably a message that I did not need to be eating ice cream.

That makes this Anne Taintor magnetic postcard even funnier now. I used it on my skirt! blog when I was getting ready to go on vacation.

I ran around town with the kids to the doctor, the dentist, the Children's Museum, and the Museum of Natural Science. Then we ended it with a fabulous 3 days at the beach. I absolutely LOOOVED that and will do it again one day. We rented a cute cute cute little hotel called The Breeze on Surfside. It faces the beach and we spent the entire day on Saturday on the beach. I have the tan to prove it.

I came back with a broken a/c in my SUV but that's fixed for now. I also found out that my little one has a bacteria in his tummy. Something we will have to treat for 14 days. FUN!! More on that later!

School shoppng is almost done, at least all the uniforms part. All we need are back packs and lunch kits now. I wonder if they sell lunch kits with a GPS inside for my little one. He is guaranteed to lose his lunch it at least twice in the school year.

This is the last weekend of our summer vacation and our 14th anniversary. Our last anniversary. Bittersweet...We are trying to decide if we should do anything. Maybe dinner with friends on Saturday.

"i carry your heart with me"

2011-08-08T21:08:00.004-04:00

I thought of this poem by ee cummings when I was thinking of writing this blog. I thought it said, "I carry you with me" but it actually says, "I carry your heart with me." Same difference.

(Miranda's Lego Hello Kitty House with tiny Hello Kitties & a tiny purse.)

I'm on vacation this week with the kids. I'm a stay at home mom for a week, but I'm not going to do much cleaning and housework, just cooking for the kids. We have plans every day this week.

Today was my relaxation day. I only planned to do two things. I took my son to the doctor and found out he has acid reflux, my poor boy. He's already a picky eater as it is and now he can't have any carbonated drinks, spicy food, or red sauce. We were also going to go to the library but the library we were going to was closed today while they get on their new schedule. So I came home to relax but ended up doing a bunch of other things, like working.

Later I was forced to play with this Hello Kitty doll house with my daughter. Well, not really forced. I played Hello Kitty's twin sister Mimmy. It was fun. I hardly ever play dolls with my daughter, but I was reminded of how much I used to love little dolls and houses like this one above when I was a little girl.

As a working mom I don't get to spend as much time with my kids so weeks like these are precious as well as exhausting. But even when they're not with me during the week while I'm at work they are with me. Almost weekly I can open my purse on any random day and I'll find a toy that hitchhiked a ride with me to work.

Once a few weeks ago I was getting off my SUV for a sales call and I noticed that the kids left their ruler in the back seat. I grabbed it and stuck it in my folder in case I needed it. In the end I didn't need it, but when I went back to my SUV I glanced down and saw a tiny green monkey stuck by his head in one of the holes a the top of the ruler. I laughed at the thought of what would have happened if I DID need the ruler and I pulled it out in the middle of the sales call. I told the kids the story and I told them that the monkey wanted to come to work with me. It was a crazy looking monkey too, with a little pink tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

That's not even counting all the little toys that stay in the back seat of my SUV too. I carry them to work with me every day and when I see them I'm reminded of my kiddos. That's why I said, "I carry you with me" because my kids are with me in a way every where I go.

This week is our week or as my daughter is calling it, "Mommy Week." We are going do a variety of things that include the museums and then the beach. I'm really looking forward to the beach part! We'll be there 3 days and I'm planning on just lying on the beach with a drink in one hand and a book in the other. I've never stayed right on the beach before. It's a really small motel and all the rooms face the ocean. I can literally walk out of my room, across their lawn and I'm on the beach. I can't wait!

The Remodeling Continues...

2011-07-24T22:31:00.003-04:00

It's Sunday night and I feel like I didn't even put a dent in the cleaning or laundry yet I'm exhausted. Yesterday I offered to help shovel some of the dirt back in the holes around my house. They were from the plumbing work that was done. I only did a little narrow trench that went from the city water line to the kitchen. Just that little bit kicked my butt.

Image from theplumbingworksnc.com

This morning I woke up totally sore and tired but I had to do laundry. I'm having someone come help me with the cleaning this week, but I wanted to at least pick up the trash and junk from all the plumbing work. I also wanted to do laundry so she won't feel compelled to help with that too. Let's just say I had lofty goals.

My feet are killing me from being on my feet most of the day for two days in a row and I think I'm even more sore and tired now. My lower back is hurting too. Now would be a good time to cash in the Daily Deal coupon I bought a couple of months ago for a massage. I need to call tomorrow to make an appointment for this week.

Despite all the work that we are doing now, Rey actually doing the work and me helping out where I can and cleaning, I can really envision what it's going to look like when it's all finished. I'm excited about the end result and I can't wait to post pictures.

My Very Own "This Old House"

2011-07-16T17:32:00.001-04:00

I am finally doing something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I'm starting a home-remodeling project. I feel like I'm in the middle of one of those home improvement shows like "This Old House."

Today is currently Day 3 with no restroom but it's also the day that I'm having my toilet installed in a different spot and I'm getting my wonderful six foot Kohler jacuzzi tub. It's a good day! After those two important pieces are installed we're adding the beautiful new Kohler pedestal sink. Then tomorrow or the day after we are going to Home Depot to buy all the beautiful tile for the floor and walls that we'll be adding this week. I can't wait!

After the restroom we will continue with the kitchen. Now that the plumbing is almost all done we can work on the rest. I want a Mexican Frida Kahlo kitchen. We were looking at pictures today and I'm thinking cobalt blue tile, sunflower yellow, and Mexican tile floor. Pictures of that idea to come later when I talk more kitchen.

Other major future projects will include a new roof, a porch, and fixing all the trim on the outside. After the major projects I can proceed to the smaller ones, like painting all the walls and refinishing my hardwood floors. Yes, a lot of work, but I know that when it's all done it will all be worth the wait.

I love looking at books, like one I picked up for free at work, "Restoring a House in the City." Now that my house is being worked on I especially love looking at ideas. It's almost hard to believe I'm finally restoring my own old pre-WW2 house.

"Keep Moving Forward"

2011-07-03T17:11:00.001-04:00

My kids were watching "Meet the Robinsons," by Disney this morning. It reminded me of how much I love the quote "Keep Moving Forward" and how much it applies to me right now.

http://www.waltdisney.com/

I also realized that I haven't blogged here about my impending change. I blogged about it over on skirt! but somehow never managed to mention it here. I know it's because even though I know it's inevitable, and there really isn't anything I can do, I sill feel a certain amount of guilt bestowed upon on me by society. That feeling that I'm a failure, even if I know it's not true. Yes, I'm talking about divorce- that dreaded word that I haven't used until now.

My days are numbered and although we are getting along just fine right now, very soon I won't be married and I'll be Loida Casares again. It's been almost 14 years since I've gone by that name. I wonder if I still know that person.

As self-reliant as I am, and as much as I believe in keeping my identity, I can't take away the fact that I've been married for that long. In those 14 years I've been a wife and a mother. I believe that when we give birth we give away a little of ourselves, both physically and emotionally. We have to give away a part of our body in order to give life to our child. Then as we raise our children we give away part of ourselves emotionally. As a wife we compromise a little or sometimes a lot. It's part of being a mother and a wife, but now I'm only going to be a mother.

I'm going to move forward with the plans that I have for the house and for the kids. I'll be starting a home remodeling project and I'm going to finish editing my novel for self-publishing. I also have to start working on middle school tours and applications this fall for my daughter. Life goes on and I do know who I am for the most part. The parts I don't know I'll have time to figure out in this new chapter of my life.

Almost Halfway Done

2011-06-29T00:54:00.002-04:00

We are almost halfway done with the year. July 1 will mark that point. A lot has happened to me this year so far. I've only reached a few of my goals, but I'm okay with that. Sometimes I think that we worry so much about the planning that we forget to enjoy the moment. I'm definitely trying to enjoy the moment this summer with the kids.

Image from 215squadron.org.uk

I look back at my Vision Board to see what it is that I've accomplished thus far and one big sentence pops out at me. "HOW TO BECOME THE PERSON YOU WERE MEANT TO BE." If anything, that's the one I've been working on the most. I ask myself this question almost every day. I struggle with what I should do versus the what I want to do.

I've also done a lot of reading and I'm working on my spiritual health as well. There's still a lot of areas to work on, but I'll get there eventually.

In the exercise department I'm trying to do more with my daughter. We've been roller skating and I recently discovered one of our neighborhood pools at Stude Park. I was really impressed with what I found and we are starting weekly swim lessons tomorrow. One of my goals this summer is to teach her to swim properly. Believe it or not, I was on the swim team in middle school. I wasn't great but I enjoyed it. I want to teach her how to do the freestyle, backstroke and breast stroke. I can explain the butterfly to her but it's not a stroke that I can do very well.

Who knows, maybe she can swim on her school team in middle school too. Next year is her last year in elementary school so it would be great if she is swimming really well by the time she starts middle school.

Our exercise routine will fluctuate between walking, roller skating, and swimming this summer. My hope is that I will be a good example to my daughter while getting healthy myself in the process. So then I'm working on my exercise and health goals together with my family goals.

Profile Pictures

2011-06-21T01:20:00.002-04:00

I am about to say something that will probably make a lot of people angry, even some of my friends. But I have to say it and I'm sure many of you have noticed it too.

I don't understand why some people have profile pictures on their social networks of them with their spouse. I can understand if it's their anniversary and they want to honor the memory and all, but that's about the only time I think it's appropriate.

One of my many profile pictures. Me in front of the Municipal Bldg in NYC.

Why do I feel this way? I know you're going to ask. Well, I just feel like the social network is your page, not your husband's page, not your child's page, just your page. Sure, you'll talk about your family. You'll even post pictures of them, so why is it necessary to post a picture of yourself with your spouse? We get it. You're married and you're proud of your family. I do it too. I just don't understand the profile pictures.

Yes, I know it's every person's business what they want to post as a profile picture, so I really shouldn't even be bringing this up, but I wanted to point it out because I wondered if I was the only person who feels this way. Apparently not. I Googled it and I found this article. The couples shot made the list.

I feel like my profile on whatever social site I'm on is about ME, not about anyone else. I feel like as women we lose our identity so often. We become a wife and then a mother so we forget who WE are. We don't live for ourselves anymore, we live for others.

It's admirable and I can understand why it happens, I'm a mother too, but that doesn't mean that I can't have my own profile and my own identity. And I think that's something worth protecting.

Summer Nights

2011-06-13T20:24:00.000-04:00

"Summer days driftin' away, to uh-oh those summer nights.." Summer Nights from Grease

Image from clevelandseniors.com

It's summer and I need to get my exercise on! I failed miserably the first week. I had all these grandiose ideas and then I came home and did something else every day instead. So today I am hell-bent on starting back on my running/roller skating schedule. Every day we are either going to roller skate or we are going to go running at Studewood Park.

I'm starting a row of clothes that don't fit me in my closet so I can view them as an incentive. I have a couple of really cute skirts that I love, but they don't fit me. I think ten pounds will make a world of difference. That's my goal by the end of the summer.

So we've started Week 2. I've been very fortunate to have my mom-in-law helping me so far but I have a feeling my days are numbered because she may end up going back to work. It was great while it lasted. She gets here at 7:30 every morning and starts breakfast while I make coffee. The kids have been eating very well. On their first week with her they went to the library and the Children's Museum. This week they're going to spend the night with her on Tuesday and they're super excited about doing that.

I said in another post that the summer is going to fly by. I really do believe that. I need to use my time more wisely and I need to take advantage of the extra time that I have to exercise and to write. My writing calls and I need to finish editing my novel for self-publishing. I can't forget about that.

So here we go. Week 2: Roller skating today for half an hour.

Slave for Fashion

2011-06-08T23:28:00.001-04:00

You're probably going to say, "Wait, we thought you were a slave for fashion when you named your blog Shoegirl Corner." Well, regardless of what you think I don't have a thousand pairs of shoes or very expensive ones at that. The most expensive pair are by Ann Roth and they are worth $300, BUT I bought them for $98 in a sample sale.

No, I don't have the most expensive clothes, but I do love clothes. Here lately, after I lost enough weight to fit into them, I became a huge fan of Cabi clothes. I have bought so many Cabi pieces now that I should probably start selling it. I think it was because I was so excited that I could finally fit into them. The sad thing is I've gained some weight back and I'm growing out of the clothes. So sad but a goal worth working for.

http://sherrycousins.cabionline.com/collection

I just blogged over on skirt! about the beautiful plus sized models on the cover of Vogue Italia and how much I love clothes, shoes and make up. Fashion is part of feeling good about myself at any size.

So my latest purchase was this really cool skirt (above) that can also be worn as a dress, blouse and halter top. Needless to say I won't be wearing it as a halter. (I can almost hear you sigh in relief.) I will be wearing it as a skirt, dress, and blouse. In fact, I'm really excited to wear it tomorrow to work.

I didn't own a belt and I needed one to belt the skirt to look like a blouse. When I went to Avenue to buy a belt I came out with a really cool pair of shoes too. I bought the natural color below. So now they've become part of my outfit tomorrow too.

http://www.avenue.com/

The jacket in the photo with the skirt above is on back order, but as soon as it arrives I'll be wearing the Sigourney as a dress just like this. I also have a purple Cabi jacket from last season so I can wear it with that one too or when I wear it as a skirt.

Yes, I have become a slave for fashion in my old age and I like it!

Summer is Here!

2011-06-06T10:29:00.002-04:00

I know it's not officially the first day of summer (June 21) but it sure feels like summer. It is HOT out there- 98 degrees already! Plus the kids are out of school! That's the best part.

Image from thebearcottage.com

I can hardly believe that I don't have to wake up early and run around stressing while trying to get them to school early. I can take my time, enjoy a coffee, while I get ready, and then drive 10 minutes into downtown. Yes, I live that close, but I never get to enjoy the short drive because I have to take the kids to school first.

Hence, summer is a vacation of sorts for me too. I have so many plans for the summer, namely getting back in shape roller skating and running with the kids. I want to get an inner loop running club started for moms with kids. I'd like for the kids to start running so they're ready to run in a kids' run by this fall. My daughter wants to join the track team in middle school so I think this will be a good taste of what it will be like. My son needs an activity that will help him burn energy.

There's also summer reading to do. We do the HISD Millionaire Club every summer to encourage them to read. I'm trying to get them to use the library more so I got them both their own libary card.

I'm also thinking about summer vacation, like a lot of parents I'm sure. I'm trying to decide when is the best time to take vacation around my work schedule and before the kids go back to school. I'm also trying to decide what to do and where to go. When I look at the calendar I know the summer is just going to fly by! Let me just savor this moment of the first day before I start thinking about the end already.

Skating and All Kinds of Crazy

2011-05-31T00:23:00.004-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about craziness and specifically the crazy in my life. I blogged about it over on my skirt! blog when I talked about Emma on Glee, my new favorite show and my new favorite girl crush. I figured out that what fuels my girl crushes is the clothes. I am in love with Emma's wardrobe the way I was in love with Carrie Bradshaw's.

I want her clothes! I realize that I can't have the real ones, but I can always search for similar outifits. This website that I found will make it easier! If nothing else I can always mimic the look with other similar pieces. I love the way she wears very bright colors and mixes two colors you wouldn't expect together.

Outfit from http://www.wwepw.com/

On another crazy note, I took up skating again! Yes, like the old fashioned four wheel roller skating. My first day out, last Tuesday was very strange. I expected to just go out there and to start skating like before. Forget that it had been about twenty years since the last time I really went roller skating. I was actually shocked when I couldn't. I refused to believe it.

I even posted about it on Facebook. "I refuse to believe that I don't remember how to skate any more!" I know that sounds crazy and unrealistic, but I guess I thought it was like riding a bike. I thought I could jump right into it again. Wrong. I had to take it very slow at first.
The second time out I did a lot better. I told myself to let go of the fear. It was the fear that was holding me back. At the same time I couldn't get too confident because I didn't want to fall. I had to strike a delicate balance between those two.

I headed off the sidewalk next to my house and on to the street and I found that I could skate. The sidewalk is built in sections and each block is separated by a little wooden line or ridge, so it was actually harder to skate there, because my skates would hit the ridge and slow me down or I'd lose my flow and then my balance. When I got out on the street it was a lot smoother. It was such a great feeling to remember how to skate with the wind in my hair.

When I first posted that I had to let go of the fear in order to skate a friend of mine reminded me that she never learned to skate after she fell when we were kids and broke her wrist. I pondered on that. I also fell and broke my arm skating when I was in first grade. Yet I never let that hold me back from getting back on skates and learning.

Skating is a lot like life. I know the falling down and getting up cliche has been used so many times, but I as I thought about it, I realized that I really have had that "when you fall down, get up and keep going" attitude since I was a kid. I fell down and broke my arm, but I didn't let that scare me. I went right back to roller skating. And my parents never told me not to either. I don't remember them ever telling me that I shouldn't skate again because I had broken my arm. It was just considered part of the deal, part of life.

I feel that way now with my own kids and with me. I'm scared when I watch them skate, but I know that I can't be. This is part of letting go and letting them fly. They are wearing their helmets and pads, not like when we were kids, so I've protected them as best I can. Actually I can't wait for them to be ready so I can take them to the park where we can skate faster and better than we can on the sidewalk next to our house or on the rough street.

I want to be active so that I'm a good example. I love going to they gym while they are taken care of in the Kids' Club, but when I really thought about it, they aren't getting the same physcial exercise that I am when we're there. I want to be out there with them, showing them that I can skate or run with them too. Hopefully when this summer is all said and done I'll look even better in my new Emma Pillsbury look.

I Will Eventually Blog Again

2011-05-26T02:18:00.000-04:00

I haven't had the time, energy, or desire to blog in a while. I can't get any words out. I will blog again one day soon. I just need to find my words again after the storm has passed.

Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After

2011-04-27T00:39:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time I believed in complete happiness and happily ever after. Then I grew up. I learned that relationships take a lot, a lot of work and life is not always as simple as we think it will be.

Image: Snow White by Disney

I also learned that marriages sometimes happen because people were meant to be. I really feel that way about these two children who I call mine.

To say I'm a good mom would be a flat out lie. I consider myself a terrible mom. I know that as compared to a crack addict who neglects her children I am a stellar mom, but I'm not the mom I wish I was. I can never live up to my own expectations in that department. I struggle daily with my own impatience and my temper. I struggle with my tardiness and getting my kids to school on time.

I am not a stay at home mom or even a PTA mom. I'm the mom who forgets to read the flyers sent home or the spelling word schedule and who missed the note that says that the spelling test will be on Thursday because Friday is a holiday. Yeah teachers, I'm that mom you hate.

Yet, every day I get up and I try. I try to be the mom who gets her kids to school on time. I try to keep in regular contact with the teachers, although I'm yet to log on to that system that lets me view my kids' grades online. I try not to lose my temper with my son when he won't get dressed and he makes us fall behind. I try to remember to say positive things to my kids before they go off to school and I try to remember to look in their backpacks at night.

I'm reminded of this as my husband and I help my son work on his project on the owlfly. We want for him to have a great project that he's proud of in hopes that we can motivate him to do more on his own as he gets older. We want to show him that we care about him and his education.

Thank goodness our daughter is self-motivated, but even she needs reminders to work hard sometimes.

I have so many other things that I need to worry about with them too. Their education is just part of a lot more. I ask myself if I can be enough mama for them when it matters most. Most of all, I want for them to believe in complete happiness and happily ever after too.

Wildly Improbable Goals and Helping Women

2011-04-18T23:49:00.001-04:00

I am excited! I am setting wildy improbable goals for myself and I can't wait. First of all I'm setting a definite goal (in writing) to finish editing my novel in the next few months.

Kindle by Amazon.com

This is it. I am self-publishing and then promoting the heck out of it. No more talking about it. Next time you hear me say anything about it will be because it's already published and ready to promote. And my wildly improbable goal is that I'm going to become a successful published novelist. That is on my vision board.

Next I'm looking at making some other big changes in the near future in the house department, but I'm not going to talk about that until I finalize some other details first. More to come on that subject.

I re-read this great article on Wildly Improbable Goals by Martha Beck on Oprah.com and I was reminded of some great points. It's not enough to hope that these WIGS find you. You also need to help them along by writing down what you want. There are some exercises you can do to help you find out what you really want.

While I make some life-changing moves in my life I also want to help someone else make a change in her own life. I'm considering donating to The Girl Effect and giving a loan to a woman trying to start her own business in the U.S. or Mexico through Kiva.

These are some of my plans for the remainder of 2011. It's hard to believe we are a quarter of the way done with the year. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

"So, when did you fall in love with Mexican music?"

2011-04-07T17:12:00.003-04:00

My headline is a play on a line from the movie Brown Sugar. The main female character Sydney always starts her interviews with, "So, when did you fall in love with hip-hop?" The movie features several real-life hip hop stars telling their story and I thought that was a really good touch. But my question is about a different kind of music genre.

Jose Alfredo Jimenez, from Wikipedia

I want to ask a similar question. "So, when did you fall in love with Mexican music?" If you were born into a first generation Mexican family it was probably early on, as soon as you could talk and understand what you were hearing at family parties.

Now, notice something. I am not asking you when did you fall in love with Spanish music or any other specific Spanish music genre. I am referring specifically to Mexican music, the old classics, the mariachi music, the boracho music of our fathers. Well, not my father specifically, but our ancestors.

You see, when I was a little girl my father didn't seem to appreciate Mexican music. I knew that when our neighbors got to drinking and listening to music they would be there late into the night singing. They seemed to be having a good time but my father's reaction made me think that it was wrong and indecent. He would walk around with a frown and would peek out the window at them, while all the while making comments. My father was very religious and very conservative and he didn't find any kind of drinking and singing late at night acceptable behavior. (Now I realize they were just having a great time.)

But then I also heard my parents talk about the great Mexican songwriters. Like the Tres Gallos Mexicanos, or 'Three Mexican Roosters' - Jorge Negrete, Javier Solis and Pedro Infante. They also told me about Jose Alfredo Jimenez, one of the greatest Mexican writers in history, and Agustin Lara. I learned that Mexico had some wonderful song writers and I loved to listen to my mother play Javier Solis songs. That's when I can say I first started to fall in love with Mexican music. The funny this is that I didn't make the connection from that music to the music that I heard our neighbors singing.

Fast forward twenty years to my marriage. My husband was raised completely different. For one, his parents are young enough to be my parents' children so they are more liberal, starting with their age. (Baby Boomer mom) Of course my parents were much much older, but because of that my father was more conservative.

My husband's parents listen to and enjoy all the old Mexican classic music. We often listen to it when we get together at our house. It wasn't until then that I really started to listen to the words of these songs and that I realized how beautiful the lyrics are. True poetry.

Here are some of the words from "Ella" by Jose Alfredo Jimenez.

Me canse de rogarle me canse de decirle, (I got tired of begging her and telling her...)

que yo sin ella de pena muero, (that I would die of grief without her)

ya no quiso escucharme si sus labios se abrieron, (she didn't want to listen to me and when her lips opened)

fue pa' decirme ya no te quiero. (it was only to tell me, "I don't love you anymore)

And that's when I truly fell in love with Mexican music.

I'm Finally Truly Using My Master's Degree

2011-04-03T16:06:00.001-04:00

(Partly borrowed & edited from my Facebook Notes where I updated friends)

I’ve been thinking about work a lot lately and how life works out. Ten years ago I graduated from UH with a Master’s in Communication. I chose the thesis option and I wrote about gender differences among new employees and mentees in an organization. I wrote about their information seeking strategies, supportive communication, and information content. The exact title of my thesis is Gender Differences in Information Seeking Strategies, Supportive Communication and Information Content in Interns' Mentoring Relationships. (yeah, a long title!)

(Image borrowed from gohsep.la.gov)

In other words, when you enter a new organization you seek information from your co-workers and also from your manager. If you’re assigned a mentor you look to your mentor for information about the organization’s culture and acceptable behavior. I wrote about this process and I also took some classes regarding training.

I started back at the Chronicle 12 years ago, (after being gone 4 years) while I was still in graduate school, and I graduated in 2001. But instead of moving into a communication position within the Chronicle, or at another company, I stayed on in sales. I was in an exciting position at the time that I enjoyed and I just went from there.

What's interesting is that after all this time of being back in sales, and 10 years after getting my Master's, I finally get to work specifically in my area of interest. The reason I say truly using my degree and specifically is because I believe that I've been using my communication skills in my career all along, especially working in sales. Now my job is more specifically targeted at a new employee's entrance into the organization.

Six weeks ago I moved over to the training area. I'm working with all the new advertising employees as they come in and I set them up for their training classes. I'm teaching three of the classes for now, but I will probably be teaching four eventually. I'm writing the fourth one on our Hispanic products.

We also have some Hearst Fellows through the sales program at UH and I'll be working with them, going out on sales calls and coaching them. So far I love all six of the girls who are in the program. They are so young and optimistic and they have their whole future ahead of them.

This is such a great combination of my old job as UH ad manager, my ad sales experience at the Chronicle and my education. Working with the students and nurturing them was my favorite part about my job at UH and now I get to do the same thing here for way better pay.

Also, in addition to the training I get to keep one foot in sales by keeping some of the old ethnic ad agencies I’ve worked with for the past six years and some key accounts, so I don’t lose touch with my sales experience. I think it's important to stay in sales too to keep my own sales skills sharp.

So there you go. I’m really excited about my new position and I’m looking forward to working with the sales fellows and new advertising employees. I really feel like it was worth the wait and that this happened at the right time when it was supposed to.

Make an Educated Decision About the HPV Vaccine

2011-03-27T16:02:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time there was a state governor who thought that he was doing his state a favor by making the HPV vaccine mandatory for young girls, the same way that other childhood vaccines are required by law. But the state was up in arms about the entire thing and made such a big deal about it that the governor took back the mandate and said that parents could opt out. However, this is what he had to say about the matter in his official press release.

(Genome organization of human papillomavirus type 16, one of the subtypes known to cause cervical cancer.- Wikipedia)

“Providing the HPV vaccine doesn’t promote sexual promiscuity anymore than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use. If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it claiming it would encourage smoking?"

One of the main reasons that parents were against the vaccination had more to do with sex than any other thing. People argued that giving the girls the vaccine in their pre-teen years would encourage them to become sexually promiscuous. I was perplexed. I knew little about HPV, or so I thought. I wanted to know why parents were saying this, so I did the research.

What I found out was that I was already acquainted with the consequences of HPV. When we were in our twenties one of my good friends was diagnosed with abnormal pre-cancerous cells on her cervix. Our OBGYN, an older very experienced doctor, was extremely pro-active and aggressive with her treatment. He first froze the cells and when that didn't work he went in to cut them off. He was always very honest along the way and told her about her options and the possible consequences. Even cutting the cervix could affect her future fertility. Thank goodness my friend was cured and she went on to have a child in her thirties.

After that scare I never skipped a well-woman exam. I had witnessed first hand what can happen from one pap smear one year to the next. What if my friend had skipped her well woman exam that year? What could have happened?

I don't know for sure if it was an HPV virus that caused my friend's pre-cancerous cells on her cervix, but it very well could have been, because as I did the research now that I'm older I found that this was one of the most common results from the human papillomavirus. As I talked to other friends I found out that HPV was more common than I knew and they too had been affected in some way.

I also learned that "70% of infections are gone in 1 year and 90% in 2 years.However, when the infection persists—in 5% to 10% of infected women—there is high risk of developing precancerous lesions of the cervix, which can progress to invasive cervical cancer." And here is the part that is really significant when we think of young girls. "This process usually takes 15–20 years, providing many opportunities for detection and treatment of the pre-cancerous lesion." This is the reason why it's important to vaccinate girls, and now we are learning boys, before they start having sexual contact.

I also read an article in The Houston Chronicle that a study found that throat cancer was added to list of diseases caused by HPV. I read another article (that I can't find now) about men who were fighting mouth cancer caused by HPV. One man interviewed in the article was not ashamed to talk about it. He said that he wished he had known more about HPV when he was younger.

Think about it this way. You have your children vaccinated for polio, even if there is no chance that your child will ever come in contact with polio in their life. You also have them vaccinated when they are babies so the medication is already in their system and they are protected. You do the same thing for Hepatitis B, even though this is a common disease of drug users.

What about sex then? Even though we don't want to imagine that our kids will grow up and have sex one day the truth is they will. Even if the abstain from sex and don't have it until they get married they will eventually do it. Can you predict that they are going to marry someone who has never had sex before?

Why are we even saying that it will encourage kids to become promiscuous? That just seems completely irrelevant to me. When I have my kids vaccinated I won't explain it to them any more that I explain their other vaccinations. They are getting a vaccine to protect them from a form of cancer in the future and that's all.

Governor Perry also said this, "The HPV vaccine does not promote sex, it protects women’s health. In the past, young women who have abstained from sex until marriage have contracted HPV from their husbands and faced the difficult task of defeating cervical cancer. This vaccine prevents that from happening."

HPV is real and it's out there. Many of us have had HPV and we may not even know it. I personally want to protect my children from having cancer in the future and I want to have them vaccinated. Others argue that Gardasil only protects them from four of the 200 known types of HPV so why do it. Well, if I can protect them from four of the most common known types then that is better than not protecting them at all.

If you have doubts about HPV and the vaccine I encourage you all to do the research. Read all that you can on HPV. Don't make your decisions based on what I say or what the media says. Talk to your doctor, read scientific articles about it, read the research, and then make an educated decision.

Rape is Rape and an Eleven Year Old is an Eleven Year Old

2011-03-22T00:08:00.000-04:00

It's made national news. An eleven year old little girl was raped by eighteen men in an abandoned trailer in Cleveland, Texas last November and it was caught on video and photos. The news appalled me, but not more than the news that followed. Headlines like this one, "Some in Texas town blaming young girl in assault," sickened me. I could not believe that even a New York Times article insinuated that it was the young girl's fault that she was gang raped.

Image from ifshecryout.com

The comments from people who saw the young girl around the Quarters, the neighborhood where the rape occurred, were that the young girl dressed older than her years, wore make-up and had been hanging out talking to boys. They also blamed the young girl's mother and asked where she was when her daughter was out.

Whatever the reason as to why the parents of this girl let her dress older or let her hang around with teenage boys, or in this neighborhood, none of this gave these men permission to rape her.

Cleveland is only forty miles from Houston and it surprised me when I heard that a local activist was traveling there to meet with the families of the young men who were arrested. It actually wasn't until then that I realized that the men being accused of the rape were African American and that the young girl was Hispanic. It was never about race in my book. It's about common human decency.

The activist argued that there wasn't any hard evidence against the young men. "What about the video tapes and photos?" I asked. I don't care if the videos and photos didn't show them raping the young girl. Just the fact that they are there in the pictures, present when a crime was being committed against a child, is enough for me. What about the law that says that knowing about a crime and not reporting it is just as serious as committing the crime?

Then the zinger came when the attorney representing some of the young men actually admitted that the men knew the girl was only eleven. Amazing. So these men knew they were raping an eleven year old little girl. Sorry, but last time someone checked having sex with a minor is still against the law, whether you knew how old she was or not. The fact that they knew makes it even worse.

So once again, rape is rape and an eleven year old is an eleven year old, no matter how much make-up she has on or how she's dressed.

Controversy About Magnet Schools in Houston

2011-03-17T19:27:00.002-05:00

I've been somewhat following all the talk in the news about the magnet school recommendation. The one that the HISD superintendent decided to hold off on until the 2012-2013 school year. I must admit, I didn't attend the meeting with Houston Independent School District that many parents attended to voice their concern over the cuts and changes. But then I read a Houston Chronicle article about the whole situation and I was appalled by the comments that I read from our readers. I wondered how many of them had actually attended, or had children attending, a magnet school.

Image by jacksonville.com

I've written about magnet schools before and I will talk about it again. I didn't attend the town hall meeting regarding the changes but I will write about magnet schools all day long because I totally believe in the program. A magnet school saved my life.

When I was a little girl in elementary school my parents sent me to my home school like so many parents do in this city, especially Hispanic parents that don't know any better. I quickly excelled in school with high reading and vocabulary scores. I was always at the top of my class and struggled very little. Math wasn't my strength, but I really think that was psychological because now that I use math as much as I do in my adult life I do okay.

When I was in 5th grade we had a new principal who took an interest in all of the kids with high test scores and I was one of them. My friend and I were writing and drawing a comic strip about two young single girls and I showed it to her. She was very impressed and she asked my teacher about me. My teacher shared my test scores with her and she recommended me and a group of other students to take the Vanguard test for middle school. And that is where my life changed.

I went to a Vanguard middle school that fell under the Magnet program in HISD. This is where it gets interesting. When I went to Hamilton Middle School I found out how little I really knew. I had always been the smartest kid in my class and now I knew why. I wasn't learning anything!

That is why I know that these schools in the lower income neighborhoods aren't always the best. The kids that had gone to Vanguard or other Magnet elementary schools knew way more than I did. I was perplexed that I never really learned where the equator, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn were. All these other kids knew these things and I didn't. I was embarrassed and I had to work twice as hard than most of my friends. I survived middle school as a B-C student, but it was a great learning experience. On my very last semester of 8th grade I finally made the honor roll. I felt so proud because it took me so long to get there.

This is why when my daughter was getting ready to go to Kindergarten five years ago I planned to send her to a Vanguard elementary school. I wanted for her to have a head start in elementary school and I'm so glad that I did. My daughter is learning things in elementary school that I learned in middle and high school. (I attended an International Baccalaureate high school)

When I was reading the comments from different Chronicle readers I read some from people who obviously didn't have first hand experience with the Magnet program. Some of them said that Magnet schools were for rich white people. That isn't exactly accurate. I wasn't a rich white kid. I was a poor Hispanic kid and I knew a lot of other poor minority kids who were in Vanguard. Magnet programs are for everyone, but they can also be a lifesaver for poor minority kids who wouldn't have had an opportunity to have such a great educational experience otherwise.

Spring Break is Around the Corner!

2011-03-06T15:51:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to get excited. My next vacation is just around the corner. Spring Break! I took the week off this year and I'm planning activities for the children. So far this is the plan.

Galveston Photo from http://www.rentalo.com/

Friday Night, Saturday & half of Sunday- Mine. My sister's in town so we are going to hang out together and go to dinner, drinks, etc..

Monday- Houston Museum of Natural Science
Tuesday- Beach
Wednesday- Relax at home, the park, and go see the Waugh bats at dusk
Thursday- Zoo
Friday- Children's Museum

This schedule is flexible. We don't have to do each activity exactly on that date, but I'll be watching the weather because I want to go to the beach on the warmest day. Last weekend we'll play it by ear or we'll use it to do anything we didn't get done during the week. I'm looking forward to being off. I need the vacation.

I need to include running in the schedule each day too. I've been running a lot and I'm on a roll. I have a goal of losing 7 lbs by March 31. I have my mind set on it and I need to make it happen. It's Goal #1 and then I move on to Goal #2 of another 5 lbs. A little at a time to make it happen. Maybe being active on my vacation will help me. Whenever I stay busy I eat a lot less. I just need to concentrate on the exercise too.

Thoughts on Writing

2011-03-01T14:55:00.000-05:00

My daughter is taking the TAKS writing test today at school and all the parents wrote little notes of encouragement for them and the teacher hung these on the wall outside their classroom.

www.annetaintor.com

As usual, I lagged behind the other parents, especially the stay-at-home moms who get to be cute and creative. (No, I'm not hating!) I knew about it on Friday, the 18th and I had that weekend to work on it. I didn't. I forgot. I didn't remember until the teacher reminded me when I took my daughter to Literacy Night at the school on Thursday, the 24th.

On Thursday night when I got home I went blank and I felt pressured to finish it so I didn't do it. I told my daughter I would do it over the weekend for her to take it on Monday. So what happened? Yep, you guessed it. Another weekend went by and I forgot again. On Monday morning I screamed, "ARGH!" as I drove away from the house and I realized that I'd forgotten again. (Yeah, I suck!)

Yesterday I got home from the gym and that was the first thing I sat down to do after dinner. I already knew one quote I wanted to write, but I came across another quote by Anaïs Nin and Miranda really liked the second one more. I also added a note of encouragement from me, her father and her brother. Then cute stickers of a ruler, pencil, pen, crayon and some really cute button type of "cutie" stickers.

So here they are in order with her favorite first. I had room for one more short quote and I liked that one by Joan Didion.

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." "We write to taste life twice, in the moment & in retrospection." Both by Anaïs Nin and "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." - Joan Didion

She was happy and she carried it off to school today to encourage her along in her writing. And I was happy to finally get it done. :-P
All this talk about writing really got me to thinking about my own writing. Lately I've been going through such a range of emotions that my creativity has been sparked. I have a new idea for a novel. or maybe just a short story, brewing inside my head. I'm itching to get it down on paper. I already started a short outline with the idea. Now to write it! Maybe that will be the next short story that I submit somewhere.

In my search for quotes on writing I came across this one. "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." ~Henry David Thoreau. Beautiful and so true.

Out of the Waiting Place

2011-02-20T14:06:00.000-05:00

I finally made it out of the waiting place! I am on my way to my next adventure that will include a role as a training coach for the new sales people.

The Places You'll Go, By Dr Seuss

I must admit that there are a lot of pluses about my new role and it's great to finally talk about it. I will continue working with our Hispanic accounts, ad agencies and the community. In addition to this I will also help train all of the new sales people and I'll help manage the fellows/interns.

I think this is a great time to bust out some of my old graduate books and to review some of the communication in training work that I did. So this is my new day job and it starts tomorrow. I'm excited to get going!

Regarding my night job, I'm still struggling to do it, to work out, and to take care of all my motherly responsibilities. I need to find a strict schedule that I will stick to so that I can get more writing and editing done. That will continue to be my biggest challenge. To have time to do all the things that need to be done.

OK I Lied, I Can't Stay Away

2011-02-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

I always say I have to take a break to go do something else and I always come back here like a bad habit. My most recent excuse is... well that I can't stay away and I want to keep promoting this site. In order to promote it in other places, like other website/blog directories, I really need to update it at least once a week. So here I am.

http://www.annetaintor.com/

I've been thinking about some things lately. I was told by someone close to me that I'm not "ambitious enough." I know what they meant. What they really meant is that if I really wanted something (ie. publishing a novel) I would be going after it with a lot more gusto and ambition. And it's true. I don't put everything else aside to submit short stories to literary journals, to edit my novel and to promote myself as a writer. Well I haven't promoted myself as a writer mainly because I haven't published anything except for my master's thesis and a recipe. Ha ha!

What I need to do is stop talking and just start doing. Ya! Enough is enough! Just Write It! That's my new motto.

So, what about you? Are you ambitious enough? What do you feel really passionate about? Passionate enough that you show ambition.

I'm in the Waiting Place

2011-02-07T23:33:00.001-05:00

"The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting." - Dr. Seuss

No, that's not for me, but somehow that's where I find myself. Wanting so much and not having enough.

http://www.annetaintor.com/

So here I am waiting for something I really want and worried that I won't get it. And the worst part about it is that I can't really talk about it until it actually happens because it's work related. If it doesn't happen then I have to continue working on getting what I want.

On a good note I started running again today and I am running again tomorrow. I have to get back in the saddle and it's been a month and a week since my surgery so I should be okay now. I did really well today so I'm pretty optimistic. It was a good start back.

On another note, but maybe not a good one, I turn 41 on Friday. It's time to revise my goals. One thing I haven't worked on is my novel. I just finished reading my first novel on my Kindle and I loved it. I'm ready to get my book edited so I can publish it electronically. That is my goal this week, to edit, edit, edit.

That said, when I start editing I may not blog as much on here. I'll probably only blog over on skirt! for a while since I am going to be swamped. We shall see.

With that I leave you with part of one of my favorite Nike quotes.

"Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes....You have nothing to lose and everything everything everything to gain. JUST DO IT."- Barry Sanders

Clothes Makes Me Feel Better

2011-02-04T20:46:00.005-05:00

The Jacket by Cabi

The Sweater by Cabi

The skirt by Target

THE SHOE by Ann Roth

OK, this post is all about the clothes and the shoes. Now picture this sweater closed, under that jacket, with that skirt and those shoes. Lovely! At least I think so. I love neutral colors. I also love that I can mix and match the jacket and the sweater with different things, like jeans.

Lately I have fallen in love with two brands. Cabi for clothes and Ann Roth for shoes. I would look lovingly at the Ann Roth shoes on her website, but I just could not afford them. That is, until she had a sample sale. I was so excited to buy this shoe, that I had admired so many times, at a third of the regular price. It's the perfect height for a heel and it's just right for work.

I also love the Cabi clothes and I've bought them at the right time too, so I've gotten good deals. I am just in love with that fashion line and can't say enough about it- the design, the quality, the cut, etc..And we can't forget about the bags. I have the perfect bag to bring it all together.

I can't wait to put all these pieces together and to wear this outfit. I don't think it's superficial to say that I love clothes and shoes. Ever since I lost weight I threw away a lot of clothes and I had to buy smaller clothes. Of course now I've gained some weight and I have to work to get back into them and some of that clothes is Cabi. They give me the incentive to lose weight!

The reason I say I don't think it's superficial to love clothes is because it's important to care about how I look and what I wear. I think that's very healthy. I have found in my life experience that when women stop caring about how they look they also stop caring about themselves. And it's not even all about weight. I've been overweight most of my adult life, but I have always paid attention to my makeup, hair and clothes. I have seen people that forget about that part about their self and it shows in other areas of their life. I don’t want to be that person so I will continue to love my clothes and my shoes!

My Blog Is Trying to Guess My Surgery

2011-01-31T23:49:00.003-05:00

I realize I haven't been completely clear about what kind of surgery I had in December. It was a feminine surgery so yes, I was vague on purpose. Meanwhile my blogger ads have been desperately trying to guess what it was.

http://www.annetaintor.com/

The ads you see on the right hand side show up according to key words in my blog. So you've seen ads for catheters, surgeries gone bad, laproscopic surgery, sleeve vs. LapGastric and so on. The ads have actually been cracking me up. I always like to see what's shown up next and I arrow through the different ones. It will be interesting to see what will show up after today's post.

Speaking of my blog and how it tracks activity. I've mentioned before that according to Sitemeter my most popular post ever was the one about my favorite Nike quotes. That page gets more visits than whatever current blog is up. For example today alone, from what I can tell, out of 38 visits that I've had, 19 of them were from a Nike quotes search. Go ahead, do it. Go to Google and type in "Nike quotes" and see if ShoeGirl Corner comes up towards the very top.

I decided to take advantage of all the traffic that I get from this one page so I added a little introduction asking readers to bookmark my page and to come by to visit often. I even added a link to my skirt blog. I figured that if that many people come in through that page that I should use it as an ad for my blogs. So yes, now I'm pimping my Nike quotes blog.

Just in case you're wondering, the second most popular blog is Every Princess Deserves a Tea Party! and third is Super Cool Stationary. Apparently a lot of people are planning princess parties and buying stationary, after finding the best Nike quotes to motivate them.

So now speaking of favorite quotes, I'll end with one of my favorite quotes, from Sam Phillips in Walk the Line.

"Bring... bring it home? All right, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or... would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' *you* felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin to do with believin' in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin' in yourself."

That's what I think about sometimes. What "song" would I sing? Not a literal song, but what would be the song of my life? I leave you with that thought.

The State of My Life Address

2011-01-26T10:13:00.001-05:00

We are coming to the end of the first month of the year. How have we done? Well if you're asking me my answer is, "slow start!" It's not that I didn't try to do better. It's that I had surgery at the end of the year so I started the year working out a lot less than planned. But that's okay. I'm here now and I have my health and it feels like the surgery was successful. At least that's what my body is telling me.

http://www.annetaintor.com/

In two and a half weeks I'll be turning FORTY-ONE! I am well into my forties now. It's that time again! Time to review my Vision Board and to see where I'm at on my goals thus far. I still have a lot of work to do. It's time for my own "State of My Life Address."

I feel like I did something proactive by going to see a dietician last week. Now to just follow her advice. I can also start working out harder now and I can even start lifting light weights so the work outs can get back on schedule.

As I get older I think of my mother and my sister who I lost 11 and 16 years ago. At my age my mom had a two year old, me. She was thirty-nine when she had me and she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, just like I was when I had my kids. She wasn't diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes until I was thirteen but she probably had it for a long time. I think about that when I start gaining weight again. I think of the consequences and I ask myself why, if I have even more knowledge about this disease than my mother had, why is a healthy diet and exercise still such a challenge?

I've talked about my allergy to shell fish on here many times. I was just telling my two co-workers about it yesterday and how extremely allergic I am, to the point that I started having a reaction at the allergist's when I was tested. Here is a question I have posed before. I know I am very allergic to shellfish so I stay away from it completely. WHY don't I stay away from sugar and carbs with the same intensity? I need to add that to my vision board. A picture of a shrimp = to carbs. Both can kill me eventually.

The reason I think about my sister too is because she was 41 when she was diagnosed with cancer. I'm that age now and it's weird to think that. I can't even imagine what I would do if it happened to me. When I was younger I used to say I would never put myself through the treatment and prolong the inevitable. That was before I had kids. Now I realize I would do things completely different. Funny how your point of view can change like that when you have children.

I think about my sister and I wonder what was going through her mind all those months in a bed. She had neurolgical damage and she couldn't speak or walk for most of the time before she passed away. What was left unsaid? What was left undone? What dreams did she wish she had achieved?

What dreams do I still have? What do I want to achieve? I'm at a good point in my life to ask those questions and to figure out the answers.

So Then I Ripped Off My Stitches...

2011-01-23T14:12:00.001-05:00

I started off the year pretty slow and I have only blogged once this year so far. Terrible! But in my defense I've had a lot going on. I've had a lot of personal and professional challenges going on at the exact same time and that always seems to happen. Yes, like two things at the same time. Life has a way of doing that and as much as I said that I was going to rebuke all the bad things from 2010 they've somehow tried to sneak their way into 2011.

http://www.annetaintor.com/

So once again, I refuse to have the same year that I had last year. I have a vision board and a vision this year and a plan! By the way, my vision board was featured on Rosie Molinary's blog. She's the author of Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self Acceptance. I haven't read the book yet but have been meaning to get it. I wonder if there's a Kindle version.

As many of you know from my previous blogs I had surgery on December 27. That went pretty well and I went in for my two week check up on January 10. I thought the doctor was going to do a thorough check up, if you get what I mean. In other words, I thought he was going to check where he did the surgery. As it turns out, all he wanted was a urine sample and to talk to me for five minutes. The more detailed check-up was in another month.

I took the opportunity to ask him, "What in the world did y'all do to me? My legs were so sore and I had these two weird welts on the inside of my legs with blood on them, like you all put tape there and it ripped my skin."

He looked at me perplexed and said, "Those were your stitches. It was glue!"

"What?!" I asked even more confused, "Oh...."

He thought that he had explained that part but I swear I don't remember ever hearing him say that they were making any incisions on the inside of my thighs and that there would be glue stitches there. And I in turn didn't tell him that I promptly ripped that "glue" off either the day of surgery or the very next day. I mean, the nurse didn't even tell me to be careful or that when I showered I would have glue/stitches there. Great! I may have just detached what was connected on the other side of those incisions. Hopefully not...because I can't afford to have surgery all over again to fix it.

Then I got curious and I decided to You Tube the surgery I had and I almost wish I hadn't. OR I should have watched the animated version instead of the live person one. I just kept thinking, "Ugh! They did that to me!" Not a good idea. So my advice here is, never You Tube your surgery, before or after you have it. Especially not before because then you may not even have the surgery, any surgery, I'm not just talking about mine.

That was a great way to start off the year! Ripped stitches, less writing, and less exercise. Oh yeah, I forgot that part. I actually went back to exercising a week after the surgery like the doctor said I could, but I overdid it a bit, so I had to take the second week off. When I told the doctor about the pulling that I felt after I went to the gym he said I should take it easier and listen to my body. I went back on the third week a couple of times but I feel like it was minimal compared to what I had been doing before the surgery.

Tomorrow I hit the four week mark so I can go back to running if I wanted to. However I probably can't because I'm going to have to build myself back up to it. I'll probably do the 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds (or more) of walking alternating back and forth. I'm actually looking forward to getting back on track.

I also took a big step and went to see a dietician at the True Results clinic. One thing that always surprised me when I got the lap band a few years ago was that they never scheduled an appointment with a dietician. I thought that was really weird and when I asked to speak to someone they had me speak to their patient liaison that I'm sorry to say doesn't seem to have any real training or licensing. When she told me that she never used weights to work out because she didn't want to "bulk up" it was hard for me to take anything she said seriously.

This time I met with a real dietician and we had a good little visit. I didn't think she was the best dietician visit I have ever had, but it was okay. She gave me some specific advice for a lap band patient and I am going to work on following all of her suggestions. In a nutshell I'm getting a kid's size plate that has the different sections for the different food groups. I have to eat the most protein and I have to eat it first. Then I eat my vegetables and my carbs last. I am cutting out vodka and cranberry juice first and I'm going to try to drink more wine. She said if I must drink I should drink wine so I'm going to try that. If I just make those small changes to my diet, there was a lot more detail of course, she said I will definitely see a difference in my weight loss.

Today I'm about to get a much needed massage. I had a really bad pain in my upper back early in the week and it isn't as bad any more, but I feel like I should address it any way before it comes back. I think it may be my lap top too. I need to get one of those rolling suitcases so I won't have to carry it. I'm already too short and too top heavy. I don't need that added weight.

Other than that I've had sick children for the past few days. My daughter was sick on Thursday evening and my son has been sick since he got back from school on Friday. He's still congested but he's been running fever at night. I need to keep on top of it today so he won't run fever tonight. The challenges of motherhood!

The first month of the year is over and we are really on our way into 2011. Let's see what this week will bring! I have my back-up plan ready.

A Whole New Meaning to the Term, Working Mom

2011-01-09T22:22:00.004-05:00

I sell advertising. Basically that's what I do and when I come across an opportunity I will take it. Very rarely do I have my children with me and that's just what happened to me on Friday.

Image by http://www.thespeciallife.com/

I had promised my kids that we would check out the new ice cream shop across the street from their school. So Friday after work I picked them up we headed over to the shop to get some ice cream.

While ordering some ice cream for the kids I made conversation with the teenagers that worked there. I asked if the shop was corporate owned or a franchise. They told me it was a franchise and that the owner was local, even living nearby. I pulled out a business card and asked them if they could pass it along to him. When I did that they told me he was right there and pointed to a young looking guy. I introduced myself and gave him my card. I asked him if I could leave some information after I ordered my ice cream and he said sure.

After ordering my ice cream I went back out to my SUV to get the information I had promised. When I handed it to the owner he started asking me questions and I found myself explaining how our insert program works. Meanwhile my kids are eating their ice cream and they would interrupt me every so often. The owner would smile, because he knew of course that this wasn't your typical sales call, since I had kids with me and of course kids are his biggest customers.

Then my son had to be the biggest drama king of all. He dropped his ice cream in the trash before finishing it. All he had left was the cone with the ice cream up to the top of that. He'd already eaten both his scoops. Well he cried so hard, big tears and all, that the guy fell sorry for him and gave him a whole new ice cream, two new scoops and all.

Talk about working with children! It was all pretty hilarious. And no, I didn't get the sale there and then. He's doing something at the corporate level right now and won't be on his own for advertising until the spring. He told me to get back with him later so he's a good prospect for either me if I'm still selling then or for someone else.

This is my first blog post of the year. The year has started off really interesting so far. I decided over vacation that I was not going to have the same year I had in 2010. I am determined to make 2011 a better year and I am going to be very proactive to make sure it is. No more sitting on the sidelines waiting for good things to happen.

Or as Garth Brooks would say.

"So don't you sit upon the shoreline
And say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance that tide"

I rebuke all the bad things that have happened to me lately and 2011 is going to be a better year for me spiritually, financially, professionally, personally and in my writing life. I will dare to dance that tide.

End of the Year Recap

2010-12-31T19:16:00.001-05:00

I did a pretty thorough recap of the year on skirt.com, so I thought I’d do the same for Shoegirl Corner, since this is my original blog and my baby. One day soon I will start my own website away from blogger, ShoegirlCorner.com. I’ve owned the rights to that name for a while, but I’d like to take a website building class so I can work on my site myself.

The year started out slow on ShoeGirl Corner since I was still blogging for Hips ‘n Salsa. It was a good effort, but not successful. I didn’t blog at all in January and then blogged on average once a month, but at the end of March I thought I could pull off three blogs. I started blogging more through April. I blogged about: getting my first mammogram, purchasing shoes and art, lost remotes and the differences between men and women.

The summer wore on and I realized that I was in a funk. I blogged about it more than once on Shoegirl Corner and on skirt. Now that I look back at both blogs I realize what a bad year 2010 was for me- personally, professionally, financially, and writing wise. The only good part of the year was that I kept writing and the health of my family. I feel like I spent most of 2010 reminding myself that things weren’t that bad and that they could be worse. I taught my daughter to tell me what my husband tells me, “At least we have the money to pay for it” rather than to lament that we didn’t have any money.

Some time in April people started commenting on my blog in Chinese. I reasoned that they were either Chinese spies or they were people who were trying to communicate with one another in communist China and they were using my blog as a channel. They only stayed for a few months and they either found a better channel or they were discovered and had to leave my blog. I was sad to see them go.

As the year wore on I gained more weight and I realized that I have food and cupcake issues. Okay, I rediscovered this. I finally set some goals for myself and I shared my vision board on my Shoegirl Corner blog too. I shared my goals with the world to help me become more accountable.

At the end of the year I feel like things started to take a turn for the better. I went to my beloved New York for business and stayed over the weekend and did some things I didn't do last time, like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and going to Coney Island.

I started working out on a regular basis. I’ve gone ten weeks straight working out on average three times a week, sometimes more, until I had surgery on the last week of the year. I’ve worked out many times before off and on but this is the first time I think I worked out so many times consecutively. It was a turning point for me. What made it even easier to do was that Rey has been working out too. He has been so happy with his results that he decided to start training for a triathlon. Having him work on a goal to get healthy too has made it a lifestyle for me instead of a chore.

I feel like I ended the year on a good note. I even got a Kindle for $6 and now I can have the experience of reading books electronically first hand. I think that’s important if I’m really going to publish my novel electronically in 2011. I had surgery to correct a little feminine issue that I had and hopefully that’s all fixed now.

I’m looking forward to 2011 whatever it may bring in. I say, "Bring It!" It can not be worse than 2010. Anything that happens will be for the best. I need to get out of my comfort zone. I need to shake things up a bit.

I learned an important lesson this year and that was that it is important to write down my goals. (something I already knew but didn't do for some reason) I will work on spiritual, personal, family and on my writing goals in 2011- all the things on my Vision Board. See you all around next year!

I'm SO GLAD I Don't Need a Catheter

2010-12-29T00:20:00.003-05:00

Wow! I never thought I'd have to say that sentence? But I am!! The best part of my surgery was that I didn't have to take a pee bag with me!! I am so excited! I think that was the part that scared me the most, but as it turns out I only had the more minor surgery and not the more major one that would have required me to bring a companion home with me for a couple of days. Thank goodness!

However, it did hurt a lot more than I thought it would. When I came to in the recovery room I was thinking, "Okay, I'm in a lot more pain than I imagined." The main reason for the pain was that I had a catheter and once the nurse took it out the pain subsided. It got better as time went on and by the time they sent me home it was better. All my feminine parts seem to have been fixed and are back in place where they need to be.

I came home and went straight to sleep for a few hours and as I drifted off to sleep I kept thinking, "What if I would have had to bring home the catheter?" I would have begged to be heavily sedated if that had been the case.

I felt better today and I didn't need as much pain medication and I also had several visitors stop by to see me. Most of them were family, including my dad and in-laws. My mom-in-law was a sweetheart and took one child off my hands to give me a little break. She's switching them out and taking the other one tomorrow. That was really sweet of her and does make a big difference.

What's hard to believe is that I'm only six days away from the end of my vacation now. I go back next Tuesday. I was really hoping to do some stuff with the kids, but I don't think I'll be ready to drive and to be out and about tomorrow. I'll wait until Thursday to take them to the museum, somewhere I can sit and watch them while they play, like the Children's Museum. Provided I'm up to it by then.

The hardest part of having surgery at this point is that I can't exercise for an entire week. I can start walking next week when I go back to work, but I can't run or do the elliptical for FOUR weeks. I really need to practice some self control for real now!

Kindlelicious, Vacation and Surgery

2010-12-22T23:37:00.001-05:00

I'm blogging about the Kindle for the second time this week so I must be excited. I received my second favorite e-mail from Amazon today.

"You can start building your library before your Kindle even arrives by shopping for books, newspapers, magazines and more at the Kindle Store on Amazon.com. Amazon's unique wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet, will auto-deliver your purchases directly to your Kindle. Once you receive your Kindle, you can also shop the same great selection directly from your device."

amazon.com

So here it is. This is the model I'm getting (I think). I do know that I'm not getting the 3G version. I don't need that technology. All I need is the wireless connection.

What amazes me the most is that I wasn't that excited about the Kindle prior to buying one. It's funny what feelings the word FREE evokes. Once I realized I could get the Kindle for only $6 with my American Express Reward points its value and my interest increased.

So tomorrow is my last work day for eleven days. I'm excited about the time off, but not about the surgery on Monday. I know it's a necessary evil but I'm not looking forward to the days as a convalescent or to the crazy little bag I have to carry around with me for a couple of days.

The worst part? I have been working out for ten weeks in row and I've been running for two of those weeks. I won't be able to work out heavily for about four weeks, but hopefully I can start walking in a week. What I'm afraid of is that I'll take a week off and I won't want to go back to working out. That is my fear.

Today I made a huge step. The kids wanted eggnog and we stopped at an Exxon by the gym to get some but they didn't have any. We were almost home when I remembered (or rather they reminded me) so I told them I'd get them an eggnog shake form Jack in the Box instead. I went through the Jack in the Box line and I DID NOT get an egg nog shake for myself, egg rolls or the best part, any stuffed jalapeño. That is when I know that I'm learning self-discipline and that makes me happy.

So Kindle on Friday, last of the exercise this weekend and my surgery on Monday. Two days of bed rest and no driving, a week of no exercise and then back to work after New Year's. I'll use that week off to rest from the surgery and to really rest my brain and to decide what I'm doing in 2011 and with the next half of my life. I turn 41 in February. I am into my 40s now and really half way done with my life.

Where Do the Days Go???

2010-12-18T19:08:00.000-05:00

Seriously, where? I can not believe it's 4 p.m. and I haven't gotten anything written and I haven't cleaned my house.

It all started this morning when I woke up around 9 a.m. and realized that my sore throat had gotten worse. Rey went to play golf and I went back to bed around 10 for a little while, until my father came over and woke me up. I hated myself for sleeping the morning away, but I'm sure I needed it.

I went on with my day after he left but other things kept happening to interrupt it. I said I was going to write and then clean two hours ago and I am barely writing something. The day is gone and I haven't done a thing. Well, I wouldn't say nothing really. My dad was here, we read a Texas Monthly article together. We read my cousin Oscar's essay, "Imaginary Friends." I also told him a follow up story that Oscar told me after the essay was published. When your dad is 86, like mine is, those moments are precious because you don't know how long you'll have them.

I also cooked for my kids and their grandpa brought them "marranitos," gingerbread from his favorite Mexican cafe/bakery. They are gingerbread cut in the shape of little pigs. I used to love to eat them when I was little too, especially the ones my uncle made in his bakery.

I went over to read The Bloggess because I always like to read what's new with her and I was so touched by her blog about people in need and people who reply. What struck me the most was that she said that traffic had not gone up on her blog. Most of the people posting a need and those responding with a gift are her regular readers. I just find it awesome that she was able to create such a great community of readers. I only wish that people were willing to give and to share like this all year long and not only during the holidays.

I'm getting closer and closer to my vacation, which coincidentally is also when I'm having my little surgery. THAT is going to be interesting and painful post-surgery I'm sure with that thing hanging out of me for a couple of days. I AM NOT looking forward to that part of the surgery, but I am looking forward to the results.

On a good note I'll be off from work a total of seven work days with two weekends. That's 11 days in a row to relax, write, and to finish Seth's baby book. Yes, his baby book and he's six, going on seven. That's my life. Procrastinator is my middle name. Hopefully I will catch up on the baby book and writing during my days off.

My Mother's Little Helper

2010-12-09T00:32:00.000-05:00

This may end up as a crazy blog entry so I'm warning you ahead of time. So, you've been warned. And if it doesn't end up crazy then you're okay. I needed my mother's little helper today when I got home from work. Well first I had a nap, something I only do when I'm really tired or down in the dumps.

annetaintor.com

I had a tough day today. Yes, I did. I'm a mother, wife, and I'm an employee. I work full time against my better judgement, but I have to pay the bills. The problem is... do I dare say it here where the whole world can see it? I don't think my heart is in hard selling any more. It hasn't been in a while. I already sold and I'm done with that. I enjoy all of the product development part of a publication a lot more. I enjoy project management.

So I'm at a weird crossroads in my life yet again. There isn't a position like that open at work right now and as much as I really want to do it, I can't convince the powers that be that we need a position like this one, which we do. So I have to keep doing the job at hand because that's the job I've been assigned and it's also the job that pays the bills.

Enough said about that. I feel like my job is like a lot of other things in my life. I ask myself that question that's taped on my computer, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" And the answer isn't practical when you're the mom of two young children.

I just know this that if by some miracle I came into money I would not live in Houston. I would live in a tiny house in the Italian countryside and I would write full time while the kids learned a new language or attended American school, depending on how close we lived to one. I would live a very simple life and I would concentrate on reading and writing all day long.

What would you do? I know I've asked that question before but it's a great one and I need to keep asking it of myself until I finally do something about it.

I Sabotage Myself

2010-12-06T00:46:00.001-05:00

Friday while at the gym I was looking at my reflection in the big mirrors next to the treadmill and elliptical and I thought I looked really fat. My reasonable self knew that I've worked out for seven weeks straight so there is no possible way I can be fatter than I was two months ago. I also knew that I was bloated, particuarly on Friday, so of course my belly was probably portruding more than usual. However, I still looked at myself and I had one of those moments when I thought, "What's the point in working out?" It's a dangerous place for me to go.

Image borrowed from theseanachai.com

I remember coming back to school in 7th grade after working hard all summer on dieting and exercising, yes in 7th grade! And I remember my good friend Aristotole (yes, that's his real name) commenting to his friend Wayne right in front of me that I'd lost weight over the summer. Wayne turned around and said bluntly and matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but she's still fat." I remember that same feeling of what was the use. I didn't even like either boy. I was just a 7th grade girl feeling the peer pressure to look thin. Back then unless you were as skinny as some of the really slim girls you were considered fat. Middle school is definitely the time when girls lose their self-confidence. It's a brutal time.

Now I'm a 40 year old woman. I've survived middle school, high school, college, post college young years, marriage, pregnancies, 20 year high school reunion, and yet here I am, looking at myself in the mirror at the gym and feeling like that 7th grade girl.

And this is when I sabbotage myself. I start thinking like I did in high school and college that I'm overweight anyway and what difference will it do. I stop working out and I return to my same old habits.

This time I'm not. I'm going to take a shower and then I'm packing my gym bag for tomorrow and I'll keep on going. Today starts Week 8 and I already walked for one hour.

Tomorrow morning I'm going into the lap band clinic and I'm getting a long-needed fill. I'll address my concerns about the lap band working or not working, and then I'll be on liquids for two days and soft foods on the third day. This will be a good week for weight loss.

2010-12-02T23:24:00.001-05:00

Testing my mobile blogging!

Next Vacation Four Weeks Away

2010-11-28T15:31:00.002-05:00

Well, a short vacation has come and gone. I worked until 3 on Wednesday, had Thursday off and worked half a day on Friday. I like working the Friday after Thanksgiving because honestly, it's not really a full work day with everyone else on vacation, and also I get to save a vacation day.

This was a good mini-vacation. I've worked out six days in a row, which is a first for me. Now if only I can get my eating under control! If I could get both of those important factors in synch I would be doing good.

Image by Anne Taintor

Thursday we did nothing, absolutely nothing. Friday I was off by 12:45 so we went to the movies and saw Megamind. I don't care what the reviewers have said, it was a very cute movie and I liked it. We were good and went to the gym and then we were bad and we had Chinese take-out, thus the reason I can't get my eating and my working out in synch. Saturday I spent the day doing and folding laundry but I was able to work in a walk with the kids. Once again, bad dinner, pizza...

So what will today bring?? I'm taking my daughter to buy an outfit from Justice, a girl's clothing store. She needs some cute clothes. She's 9 and girls start becoming self-conscious about their clothes at her age. Which reminds me! Have you all seen this great Barbie "When I Grow Up" commercial? We saw it at the movies Friday and then I blogged about it on skirt!

It got me to thinking about what I want to do with my kids to help them even more with their education. Here are some of the things I thought about.

1. I've been wanting to take the kids on a walking tour of Downtown Houston with a history lesson. I need to do it while it's still cool outside. Just walking down Main Street and reading the historic building plaques is an education in itself.

2. At least one monthly visit to a different museum until we make the whole museum circuit and start over. We belong to the Children's Museum so that one is a given. But let's say, start with the Museum of Natural Science, next the Museum of Fine Arts, etc.. Maybe we even hit up the not-so-popular museums too, like the Railroad Museum.

3. A trip to our State capital for a Texas history lesson.

4. A trip to San Antonio for their Ruiz family history. (Their ancestor signed the Texas Declaration of Independence)

5. And finally I want to start taking road trips to different state capitals nearby. We can stop in Baton Rouge on our way to New Orleans. When we get to the other states we'll have to fly. That's a more lofty goal and one we'll have to do when we have bigger bonuses coming in, whenever that happens.

I have five vacation days left and I'm taking them the last week of the year, which coincidentally is also when I may be having my little procedure that I blogged about last time. I'm not looking forward to that but it is a necessary evil.

So here we go, last few hours of freedom for the weekend and we're back to our regular routine. Let's go see what kind of sales I can find.

At Least My Bladder Isn't Hanging Halfway Out of My Body

2010-11-12T00:09:00.001-05:00

I wish I was the Bloggess. I wish I could write about hilarious personal things that are super embarrassing, but that people could actually relate to. But alas, I'm not brave enough, so this is all you get.

Let's just say I went to see a specialist today that had to look at my lady parts and I was all uncomfortable because I've seen the same OBYN for like, almost 20 years. Dr. Miro is one of the best OBGYNs in the world, or at least Houston. He saw me before, through, and after both my pregnancies. I always tell people that he's such a great doctor that even the nurses from the OBGYN department at NW Memorial Hermann hospital see him. That says a lot about him!

So when Dr. Miro recommends a doctor I take his recommendation seriously. That's why I went to see this specialist for a little female problem that I'm having. I think I was in denial that he was going to check me down there. When he told me to undress from the waist down I tried to tell him I couldn't, but he didn't accept my excuse. So there I was naked from the waist down with not only a strange doctor about to peek inside, but also a strange nurse standing by. I've had both the same doctor and the same nurse all of these years. Yes, I'm spoiled like that.

First I was all complaining because I didn't have socks. Every time I go see Dr. Miro I have the courtesy of wearing socks, especially since I've been wearing shoes without socks all day and let's face it, my feet do not smell like roses. I wiped my feet with the Wet Ones I carry in my purse (yes I do) and then I wiped them down with a paper towel, but I was still uncomfortable. I was fine with my lady parts because let's just say, I am a strict believer in female hygiene and Wet Ones. When the nurse went out to check on the doctor I told her to find me a pair of socks too. I think that's when she realized I was a bit high maintenance. The doctor was already coming and asked what I needed and she told him I wanted socks. He looked puzzled at first and then just laughed at me.

Then for the best part, a little bonus surprise. He checked me and then I felt a sharp little prick and I yelped. The doctor said, "Sorry, that's the catheter." What the heck! He sure was good about explaining everything that he was going to do beforehand, with a pelvic model and all, but he never mentioned the catheter.

I'm serious y'all! He had the whole pelvic model and he was explaining how we are made and what happens to our pelvis and other parts when we have children, etc.. He was very detailed and he even drew pictures for me, but he never mentioned a catheter. He was very vague about that part.

I felt so violated! None-the-less, violated or not, he found out what the problem was and it wasn't as bad as he imagined it would be when I first explained my "issue." At first he was all talking about a more extensive surgery and in the end he said he could fix it quickly in a an outpatient visit. So come December I'll be having a little surgery procedure to correct my "female problem." There we go, I guess the catheter experience was "kind of" worth it.

When he finished I said, "Well good, I was picturing my bladder falling half way out of me, the way you described it," and he laughed politely, looked uncomfortable, and got away as quickly as possible. The nurse, an older African-American lady looked at me like I was crazy (she didn't hide it) and she just shook her head and laughed. I figure if he looks at lady parts all day he should be comfortable talking about it too. So there you go.

And the Cupcake Torture Continues

2010-11-03T23:01:00.007-05:00

Thanks for the cupcake ad! This is the ad that showed up on my blog when I opened it today. Wow! Thanks?

These cupcake ads won't take me off my path! I've been working out diligently for three weeks now and what's really helping me with accountability is that I'm posting the week and the day each time I'm at the gym. For example, today I posted Week 3-Day 9. Ever since the kids started back at their after school care I've been very diligent at stopping at the gym on my way home.

I've been using incentives while I work out. One day I looked at a Cabi book at the outfits that I want to buy while I worked out on the elliptical. Then I took a picture of a suit that I want to wear comfortably and I made it the screen picture on my blackberry so I could look at it today.

So yeah, these crazy cupcake ads are mocking me! It's almost like they are laughing at my last post. And no, they won't take me off my path, but that cookie in my cookie jar sure did! I couldn't resist eating just half of this delicious shortbread and strawberry cookie I bought at La Madeline last Friday. I guess if you look at it that way that's pretty good. I've had that cookie since Friday and I didn't break down and eat some of it until Wednesday. That's progress, I'd have to say.

I was so sad today when I read that Sylvia Garcia lost as County Commissioner. I was so excited last week when I saw one of her digital ads running on my blog. I was telling my friend and husband about it on Saturday on our way to the Renaissance Festival. I'm sad because she was the first female and Hispanic commissioner and now she lost.

Speaking of the Renaissance Festival. Wow! There is so much hype around that festival. Yes, it's cute and nice and it's fun for people watching, but that is pretty much it. I'm not sure if I will go back and if I do it won't be with my kids. We spent most of the money on the two of them. On a good note the weather was beautiful.

Winter is finally here! I love the cold weather. Every year I suffer through our summers just to get to this time of the year in Houston. Now if only it will stop raining it would be perfect. Thank goodness I work out inside.

I Still Have Cupcake Issues After ALL these Years!

2010-10-26T02:31:00.003-04:00

A long time ago when I was a little girl I loved cupcakes just like all little kids do. The only difference between other kids and me was that I was made to feel guilty when I ate them. I was told I was too fat and that I shouldn't eat any sweets, so then I wanted to eat them even more. One day I went to the store and bought myself one of those packs of two cupcakes. I knew that if my sisters saw me eating them they would chastise me, so instead I decided to eat them in the wash room away from their judgmental eyes. Of course one of them caught me and that was it. I would be told for the rest of my life, "Remember when you used to hide and eat cupcakes in the wash room?" It became something that I had done all the time on a regular basis and not something they caught me doing one time.

annetaintor.com (By the "we" here I mean me and my sisters)

So here I am thirty years later and I have two kids. My husband goes grocery shopping and he buys the kids cupcakes for their school lunch and I can't help feeling that that's "bad." Worse yet, I wanted to eat one and I didn't want my children seeing me because I didn't want for them to ask for one, so I ate it in the kitchen. (they had already had one) No, I wasn't hiding. Anyone could walk into my kitchen, but yet I felt like I was hiding.

I still have issues after all these years. I can't truly enjoy a cupcake with a cup of milk like a normal kid. Somehow I know deep down that this issue is tied to my issue with food in general. Part of me is still that little girl that feels judged by her sisters and her father. And I'm FORTY years old! Who cares what they think of me, my house, or my children?

I feel like Liz Lemon in last week's 30 Rock show and her issue with Tom Jones. Only I've always known I have this issue and now I just need to figure out how to work through it. I need to start by not giving my own kids issues with food or making them feel judged. Sometimes I catch myself doing that and it makes me mad. There is a fine line between telling them, "no," which I don't have a problem saying to them, and telling them in a way that helps them understand that over-indulgence is unhealthy.

Isn't it lovely how we carry these issues with us for years and years? I laughed when I watched 30 Rock last week but I totally understood Tina Fey's character Liz. Maybe I'm more neurotic than I realize!

So today I had my first meltdown since I'm taking the kids to school now. You can go over and read about that on skirt! I've decided that I need to just stay home and live a stress free life. Oh yeah! I need money to do that and if I stay home I won't have any of that, therefore I'll be even more stressed. So no, that won't work. I think that what I'll do instead is write a blockbuster novel. Blockbuster novel coming up next! It's on my vision board so it's going to happen.

Starting Over

2010-10-18T10:03:00.001-04:00

How many times do we start over in our lives? Thousands probably. I don't just mean big life altering start overs, like starting a new job or getting remarried. There are a lot of times that we start over with smaller things, like with our goals or an exercise routine. Today the kids go back to their after school program down the street from my gym. I'm back on my regular exercise schedule starting today. I pick them up and stop a the gym for at least 45 minutes 3-4 times a week. Do over! Let's see how I do.

Here is the vision board that I created for my goals. You can read more about it on skirt! There is a picture of the first version on there, but this is the final version.

Back to Locker #18

2010-10-12T23:44:00.003-04:00

I wrote this a while back on Hips and Salsa January 5, 2010 and I've gained weight since I wrote it. So reading this today is helping me put things in perspective again. I haven't worked out on a regular basis since the Spring and starting TODAY I am getting back on a schedule. The kids are going back to their 'After School' program down the street from my gym next week so I'll be working out every day when I pick them up. Today I went to the gym while Miranda was in Cheerleading. Tomorrow I am going to take them walking in the neighborhood.

Exercising regularly, weighing myself every morning, tracking my food daily on livestrong.com and trying on small clothes weekly. It is time to get back on track! I wish it was as easy as being a celebrity whose job it is to look skinny, like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, and Courtney Cox. Of course if I was paid millions to look skinny I probably would too.

Original Blog: I have a funny habit I told my step-daughter Mandi about when we were Zumba-hopping last week. She laughed when I told her. I always use Locker # 18 in the locker room. I do this to keep my goal right in front of me. My goal is to weigh as much as I did when I was eighteen.

Okay, before you go thinking that's an unrealistic goal and that no almost-40 year old can ever weigh as much as she or he did in high school, you must know that I weighed a lot at eighteen. I also wasn't a size 6, like some teenagers. But I was comfortable at that size. I was a healthy size for my height and very close to my ideal weight. It's also 40 pounds less than I weigh now. That's not so unrealistic when you've already lost 40 pounds.

I thought of moving around to different locker numbers. For example, right now I would be using #25 because I weigh about as much as I did at that age. Then I would move down to #23 when I weigh as much as I did then and so on until I reach #18. That just seemed like too much work and I decided to stick to my end result goal, #18. I want to weigh as much as I did at my graduation.

It's kind of cool that 99% of the time the #18 locker is available at the gym. When I change in the locker room I put my clothes in my gym bag and I put everything in locker #18. As I lock my old fashioned high school-like combination lock on the locker I look at the number 18 before I head out to run on the treadmill and it makes me run faster.

Stuff That Happened in New York

2010-10-09T23:33:00.001-04:00

Sorry I've been so delinquent in blogging. I have been literally exhausted all week. The New York trip kicked my butt! I ended up trying to squeeze too much into very little time.

First of all I was there for work so I had to do that first. I had a conference on Thursday and sales calls on Friday. The conference started so early in the morning that I flew in Wednesday. I decided to stay somewhere different this time, and close to the conference, so I stayed at the Holiday Inn in SoHo. We were literally steps from Canal St/Chinatown and only blocks from Little Italy.

When we checked into the hotel we realized a large French group was staying there too. In fact, there was quite a large international group at our hotel. Every time we got on the elevator we heard a different language being spoken. The next morning at breakfast we kept hearing French and Rey was quoting Keven Kline from French Kiss, "You people, you people make my [butt] twitch!" I was cracking up.

It was raining on Thursday morning so when I set out to my conference I decided to take a taxi, even though the conference venue was only six blocks away. It was really wet and I was wearing four inch heels and I figured, "better safe than sorry."

Well when the taxi stopped he said half kidding to me, "You stopped me for six blocks?" Only in New York! No, I take that back. They said stuff like that to us in Rome too. I guess any big city.

Friday I had three sales calls and it was raining of course. I decided to act like a New Yorker and I took the subway to all my spots. I felt very metropolitan! and I thought to myself, like I often do when I visit New York, that I could live there.

After my sales call I met Rey at an Irish Bar in the Financial district. It was such an adorable bar, called Killarney Rose with a sweet Irish bartender named Noel. Upstairs in the Hideout there was another Irish bartender from Limerick. Small world! My good friend lived close to Limerick. We had the absolute BEST pastrami there. From Killarney Rose we walked to Battery Park and then to see what progress they've made on Ground Zero.

So the walking started. I have a theory and it's not really a theory, it's actually a fact. I have really skinny ankles for my body. Look at the picture here. And since I have such skinny ankles and my feet hurt SO MUCH after walking a lot. Just think, these skinny ankles have to hold up all this weight!

Saturday was even more walking. We walked from our hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge and then up the bridge to the two towers. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk. We passed some gorgeous buildings on the way, like the Municipal Building in my photo.

We walked back down the bridge and we rested for a bit before taking the Q train out to Coney Island. THAT was a great experience. After buying hot dogs at the world famous Nathan's we went to sit on the boardwalk. We tried to sit on one bench but we got into a fight with some bees who wanted to drink the spilled sweet drink there. They would not give up until we finally moved on to another bench. Even then, one of them went chasing after us. Thus why I never mess with bees or wasps. They are evil!

On our way back up town we decided to rest at our hotel but we probably rested a bit too long because we were so tired. We got back out and went to the Times Square and 5th Avenue area and had Ray's Pizza. We took the subway all of this time, so we were doing a lot of walking. More sore feet and ankles.

Since we were leaving Sunday I wanted to wake up early and to do something, at least one thing, before we left. It was so chilly that morning. We took the train out to the Upper West Side and we went to Zabar's to get coffee. Then we walked over to Central Park to do a little walking and to see that side of the city. I LOVE the Upper West side and decided that even though it was nice to stay in SoHo, next time I want to try the Upper West side. Maybe I can find a good deal there through my corporate site.

So there we go. This was definitely a walking trip and a lot of it was done in just about 36 hours. I really LOVE New York, walking and all.

Recap of New York Restaurants where we ate:
Carnegie Deli
The Original Vincent's Italian Restaurant
Killarney Rose
Red Egg
Nathan's Hot Dogs
Ray's Pizza

Stuff That's Gone on this Week

2010-09-23T00:11:00.004-04:00

A lot of stuff has been going on lately. In exactly one week I leave to New York for work and I am already feeling the stress. And my trip is still SEVEN days away! But I know why I'm feeling stressed. It's that I always seem to procrastinate or have other things come up right before my trip and I end up doing everything at the last minute. I vowed I would not do that this time, but as I look around my dirty house I have a feeling I won't be able to avoid the last minute anxiety I always end up having. (Note to Possible Thieves. My house will be well protected by my in-laws and children.)

Image by Anne Taintor

Of course it would help if I were to get up and do one thing instead of blogging, but I also feel the pressure of posting something, anything, at least once a week.

So here you go. It's not anything of substance, just a bunch of stuff going on in my head and sometimes outside my head.

Dear New York, I hope all those bed bugs are gone by next week. Holiday Inn, please make sure there aren't any bed bugs in my room. This is probably my biggest worry about this trip.

Dear Facebook, Please make sure your time stamp is accurate. Has anyone else noticed this? It always says "about an hour ago," in a very vague way. It's never specific on the time so when you're telling someone you were doing something they'll say to themselves (but not to you, they'll just think you're a liar), "That's not what it said you were doing on Facebook."

Facebook has become the big outer in life now. Facebook has taken the place of that friend who was friends with everyone and somehow ended up telling the same story to two different friends and totally outing one of the friends who lied to the other one.

I've thought of that often. Not that I would lie about my whereabouts, because I'm a pretty OPEN book, I blog for goodness sakes, however I have thought more than once that Facebook keeps us all honest.

I was telling my husband how I think Austin is so beautiful and that if I lived there I would never want to leave. My son was walking by and he just heard part of the conversation. “I can’t move to Austin. I’ll have to start my live all over again," he said.

What the heck? My husband I cracked up. His whole SIX years of life!

So my kids sold their cookie dough for school. NOW that they are done I read the fine print on the cookie dough order form. "Don't ask a stranger to buy... not door to door." I'm such a great mom! Oh well! Once again, at least I'm not making them get the bubonic plague or anything fishing out dead rats.

Which brings me to something else. I had some ads for Rat Traps on my blog because of my last post. Hilarious.

And speaking of advertising. Why do I keep getting ads for Single women on Yahoo? What's up with that? Have I shown a preference for women? That's interesting. They must have heard about my girl crush on Sarah Jessica Parker and Girl in a Coma.

And finally, WHERE did the Chinese people go? Did the Communists find out about my blog and did they shut it down? How will they communicate and send eachother secret messages now?

I'll Either End Up like Psycho's Mom or a Build-a-Bear

2010-09-16T00:14:00.001-04:00

Build a Bear

The other night I was lying in bed with my six year old son and he was playing with my hair, like he often does to fall asleep.

"You're not going to be able to sleep with me any more. You're getting big. You need to sleep in your bed."

"No, I'm always going to sleep with you, even when I'm big."

"Uh, no I don't think so. First of all you aren't going to want to sleep with me and that's just weird if you do."

"Yes I am! When you die I'm going to stuff you with cotton and you're going to be my big teddy bear. And I'm going to play with your hair and you won't even feel it because you'll be dead," he said.

I immediately had flashbacks to Psycho and his mother in her rocking chair and a Build-a-Bear.

I laughed so hard and I went and told my husband what he said.

"Well if he tells us he wants to study taxidermy I guess we should worry," was his response.

Yeah, I guess so.

I've been selling cookie dough with my kids for the past couple of days. My daughter is older and very outgoing, so she had no problem with going door to door. She goes right up to the homes and knocks and does her presentation on her own. Many times I just wait at the end of the sidewalk and only step in if she needs me.

My son was another story. I don't think he really knew what to expect and when he realized what it entailed he had second thoughts. Especially when the first house we walked up to had yappy dogs in their window. He was hilarious! I wish I'd taken a picture of the expression on his face when he realized what going house to house meant. He looked like he hadn't signed up for this.

The second time we went out I was very proud of him. He sounded so cute giving his presentation. I don't know how anyone could tell him no. (which a man did)

"Hi. I'm Seth Ruiz and I'm selling cookie dough for my school."

As his mom I just wanted to eat him up, he sounded so cute. But then again I am his mom, so I'm like obligated to think he's cute.

All in all I think this is really good for them and it builds character. I was just telling someone about my own parents recently. The Bloggess, one of the funniest, and sometimes offensive depending on who you are, bloggers talked about a dead squirrel in her wall and it totally brought back a really bad memory.

STOP HERE IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

When I was a pre-teen my father got the smart idea of killing a rat with poison. Well the rat went and died in our attic and we couldn't get it out. The stench was horrible. I wish we'd had the "rat-sorb" Jenny talks about in her blog. YUCK! Talk about stinky!

Then my father tells me that since I'm the smallest person in the house I should go up into the attic, crawl on my belly, and grab the rat with a plastic bag. Why I agreed is beyond me, but I guess I'm pretty sick too. I don't remember too many details except that I wore a red bandanna across my face and that the rat looked like its stomach was half eaten by maggots. Somehow I grabbed the rat and took it down from the attic.

Now THAT'S character building! George Lopez says that kids couldn't survive being a kid for one day if they had to live back in our time. Yeah, if they had to go get rats out of attics probably not. They would just die of the bubonic plague or something.

So I guess I'm doing good just building character by making my kids sell their own cookie dough and encouraging them to do it themselves. That is much better character building than getting dead rats.

You're Dead, but Are You Up for a Hand of Poker or a Round of Golf? Wish You Were Here!

2010-09-13T16:53:00.003-04:00

Last time I talked about advertising to a target audience. Today I'm going to talk about inappropriate advertising. I just hope that when I die my obituary doesn't have an ad like the one I saw today next to it. (not that I'll know the difference because I'll be dead, but maybe my family will care) I think this was kind of a poor choice, depending of course on who you are and your view of death.

I was reading someone's obituary on a news site, that will remain unnamed, and there was an ad for a casino next to the poor woman's obituary. The first time I looked at it the ad said, "The cards are hot. Wish you were here." I thought that was really ironic that you would have an ad next to someone's obit. Who are you targeting there? I guess old people reading their friend's obit.

The second time I looked again the same casino had a similar ad but this one said, "The Greens are Firm and Fast. Wish you were here."

What if the woman's husband is reading that ad? "Oh yeah, great idea. Let me ditch my wife's funeral to go to this casino instead!" Or maybe they are trying to target those grieving spouses to use their insurance money to go there for a get-away afterwards to grieve. Interesting marketing ploy!

Either way, I thought it was a little weird! I wish I could share the ad with you here, but I don't want to get in any trouble so I'll use an appropriate Anne Taintor comment instead.

Image by AnneTaintor

You never know what you can get in trouble for nowadays and being that I still work full time and for a big corporation I have to tread carefully. It would be fun to say whatever I wanted and to call names but that might be a bad idea. Especially if I want to keep my job and my income.

Hispanic Marketing, Waiting to Exhale sequel and other Ethnic Musings

2010-09-12T19:08:00.001-04:00

I had lunch with the editor of La Voz on Friday and I was wearing a big chunky colorful bead necklace. She asked me where I got it and I told her that, like many of my pieces of jewelry that people often admire, I bought it from a jewelry lady at some Hispanic event.

"Haven't you ever noticed that at every Hispanic event there's a lady selling jewelry?" She had never thought about it but agreed now that I pointed it out.

"You can be at a Hispanic Chamber event, the Latino Book & Family Festival, or the Latina Style event and there is always someone there with a table selling jewelry. The jewelry is always something really nice and unique, very different from stuff you may find at a jewelry store."

"And it probably costs less," she said.

"Yes, exactly. Fifteen dollars for a matching set, necklace and earrings."

There are so many things that I love about being Hispanic and this is one of them. We do things different from a lot of other ethnicities. A friend commented on FB today that there was a band at Fiesta (a popular grocery store in Houston that caters to Hispanics) today playing "La Bamba."

Or when I blogged a couple of years ago that a woman came into a bar around 1:30 a.m. every weekend to sell tamales. I saw all the new non-Hispanic people at the bar buying tamales and very pleased with their purchase.

Of course 37% of Houston's population is Hispanic or Latino of any race. And Hispanics and Latinos constitute 15.4% of the total United States population, or 46.9 million people. Houston is always going to have things that market to this unique audience. So it doesn't surprise us that big US companies are also trying to market to this dynamic group of people.

There's the Lay's Limon, Lay's Chile Limon, Coffee Mate Dulce de Leche, and Kool Aid now has Aguas Frescas, including Jamaica. Progresso is now making new soups like Tortilla Soup, Menudo and Caldo de Pollo, obviously all Hispanic products. Those are just a few of the many companies that have launched a product to appeal to Hispanics.

In the literary market Latina authors took off around ten years ago when all this Latin excitement started. Author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez sold her novel Dirty Girl's Social Club for an unprecedented $500,000. She paved the way for many other Latina authors.

Before the Latino literary movement started there was one book that started it all off for books by non-White authors. She caused such a stir with her book that when Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez came on the scene she was referred to as the Latina Terry McMillan.

McMillan's book Waiting to Exhale, spoke to women everywhere, of all ethnicities. It was even made into a major motion picture in 1995 starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine (from Houston) and other actors. Now author Terry McMillan has announced that Getting Happy, the long-awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale, was published on September 7, 2010. It picks up on the women's lives fifteen years later. I can't wait to read it!

I wouldn't mind being referred to as the Latina Terry McMillan. My husband refers to me as the Latina Amy Tan because my novel is about three women and their mothers. I take that as a compliment. Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors. I've heard her read in person only once before around fourteen years ago. In one week she comes to Houston for the Inprint Reading Series and I get to hear her again. I'm trying to read her last novel Saving Fish from Drowning before her visit, although I think she's going to talk in general and not specifically about that one book. But either way, I want to read her most recent work before going to hear her. Last time she was here she was promoting The Hundred Secret Senses. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Time flies!

In only two and half weeks I'll be in my second favorite city in the U.S., New York. Houston being the first of course and Chicago my third favorite. I can't wait to be there again in the hustle and bustle of the city, riding the subway and taxis, going on sales calls. I love that place! Even though I'm usually there wearing my advertising hat, I can see how writers love that city and feel inspired. I love New York in the fall!

The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Other Reality Shows

2010-09-06T23:53:00.002-04:00

I just can't get into Reality TV. I just can't. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I appreciate the talent and hard work that goes into writing a fictional show instead of a reality show. I can see the appeal and I can see how people get hooked. It's like a soap opera and the people are real people, or actors trying to bust into the business, so they agreed to do a reality show.

Photo Courtesy of tvfanatic.com

There are so many reality shows now that I can't even keep up with all of them. It really does seem that those are the only shows on TV. I know that my friends watch Jersey Shore and the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I enjoy reading their FB posts and I find the stories interesting when I hear recaps about them over lunch from one co-worker to another.

It isn't that I've never seen a reality show. I have actually watched a little bit of The Bad Girls Club and The Kardashians. I found them entertaining, but neither one kept me coming back for more. Maybe you'll tell me it's because it's not Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives show.

I personally prefer the genius of Seinfeld and Tina Fey, talented writers and comics, who create such a compelling story that you can't wait for the next season to find out who Liz Lemon will end up with in 30 Rock. I want to find out what will happen to Gibbs' father on NCIS. Those are writers!

But that's just me. The most excited I get about New Jersey is flying into Newark instead of La Guardia or JFK. It's the best discovery I ever made! Yeah, it may take longer to get there on the train but it takes you straight from the airport to Penn Station.

In three and a half weeks I am going to be in New York and I can not wait! I'm going for work, but I'm staying over the weekend. This time I want to do something different. I've never taken the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty so that's one thing I'm interested in doing. I also want to go to that famous cupcake shop! I always go to Zabar's on the Upper East side when I'm there.

I need to start planning my trip soon! As usual it will be part work, part fun. I'm going to attend a conference on Thursday, sales calls on Friday and then fun Friday evening through Sunday morning. My husband will play while I work, but we'll meet up in the evening and the weekend. We may even have one of our friends join us and if we do that will make it an even better trip because, although I've traveled with her many times, we've never been to NYC together! I can hardly wait! I need this trip in the worse way!

I'll say hi to the real housewives of New Jersey for y'all when I fly into Newark!

Fall is Almost Here, I'm in Love, and Random Stuff

2010-08-30T23:52:00.001-04:00

First and foremost! I am SO IN LOVE!!! I just met these beautiful new shoes by Ann Roth, via skirt!, and I think I'm in love. Not with these shoes specifically, with all her shoes.

This is the Charisma!

These shoes are just amazing pieces of art. I can not wait to afford a pair. LOL! I LOVE shoes, but I can not bring myself to spend more than $100 for a pair. Even $100 is way too much for me. I usually stay in the $80 range.

So Fall is here and I totally do not feel like it. I feel like something is off kilter. I know what it is. I don't feel like it's Fall because I'm not taking the kids to school every day or picking them up. Since Rey is still off, and doing all of that, I'm not following my school schedule. I don't feel as busy as I usually am when school starts, therefore I don't feel as useful. I still feel very lazy. I'm hoping that the start of Cheerleading classes tomorrow changes that a bit. I'm coming home a few minutes early to take the kids to their first cheerleading class. I'm watching this first class, but the plan is to work out every Tuesday while they are there.

That's another thing! I haven't been working out and that has a lot to do with the laziness. Fall always marks the beginning of a new phase for me, like my birthday and a new year. It's a time that I use to reasses my life. It is so hard to believe that it has been 8 months since the start of the year and six months since my 40th birthday. Incredible... I have never felt quite right in these six months. I haven't felt like my life is in order. Something is definitely askew.

Once again I'm also behind schedule. Instead of sitting down to revise my goals for the rest of the year and reviewing my five year plan before school started I am barely doing it this week. I never even made a vision board/bucket list. I kidded that I needed to make a love shrine instead. A love shrine to myself and my life. A definition of who I am and where I want to go. I hate it when I get this feeling that I'm just existing and not living. It isn't a good feeling and I must shake it off.

The 2010 Emmy Awards

2010-08-29T14:02:00.005-04:00

Looking at the Emmy nominations makes me realize how little TV I watch. At first it was a conscious effort and then it just became the norm. I can actually count on one hand the number of shows I have watched on a regular basis in the last twenty years. Currently it's 30 Rock and NCIS. I love both those shows!

I decided to go through the nominees for tonight's awards and I found that I have not watched any of the shows, mini-series, or made for TV movies that are being nominated. I wanted to watch The Closer every time I would watch the commercials at the gym, but I just never did. The commercials make it look really good!

When I was growing up I lived with a sister who watched TV 24/7. I am not kidding. To the point that I did not want to watch TV for years. Once she moved away, when I was around 16, I stopped watching it all together. I read a lot and talked on the phone instead and then before I knew it I started college and I was too busy with studying to worry about it. During those years I probably only watched a Spanish novela or two with my mom during dinner.

The summer I lived in St Pete, Florida while doing an internship I didn't even have a TV in my room. I know there are many people who do the same thing. I often hear people say they don't even own a TV and if they do it's only to watch DVDs.

So this leads me to the question. How does TV even survive? Who is watching TV? With the Internet, Netflix, XBox TV shows, etc... who watches actual television with the commercials and all? Because that's how TV survives; from the advertising. If the advertisers aren't reaching their target audience and they aren't seeing an ROI on their investment (and TV is really expensive) they are going to quickly lose interest in advertising. If TV loses their advertisers they will lose more money and that is not a good thing for any media.

I started watching NCIS at the gym originally. I got caught up in some of the shows and then I saw that I could watch one of the seasons on Netflix without commercials. Since I was looking for a show to watch while I folded clothes I started watching Season 6 online on Netflix. When I finished watching those shows it was time to watch Season 7. And that's how I started watching the show on TV. Now that I think about it, that's how I started watching 30 Rock too. I watched the show on Netflix and then I moved on to television. However, I often DVR the shows and I watch them sans commercials.

So is the Internet actually helping TV or hurting it? I wonder how how many people do the same thing. How many people start watching a show online and then move on to watch it in real time? For some reason the song lyrics, "Video killed the radio star," keep running through my head. Except my question is did the "Internet kill the TV Star?"

I haven't decided if I'm watching the Emmy Awards yet. I may tune in just in time to see if Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin win in their category since they are the only two actors nominated who are in a show that I actually watch.

Where Did the Summer and Thirteen Years Go

2010-08-23T22:15:00.002-04:00

annetaintor.com

In honor of my anniversary!

I may have said this before on here, but I will say it again and I'll probably continue saying it my whole life because I can't believe how much I didn't think about it thirteen years ago. My wedding anniversary will forever fall at the start or around the start of the school year. Yes, today is my thirteen year anniversary and it also happens to be my kids' first day of school.

I was feeling totally guilty for never taking a vacation day all summer long and then in the end I decided to just go ahead and take off the last Friday of the summer. I say I took the day off when in fact I logged on to work in the morning for a little while. After that we took the kids to see Nanny McPhee Returns. Very cute movie but we went to see it for the kids. That wouldn't be my first choice, but they enjoyed it. Then Saturday we took them to the beach and they had a really good time.

I took today off too for our anniversary and for the first day of school. Rey and I decided to go see a movie we both wanted to see. So we took the kids to school, I came back and worked for a little while, took a nap, and then we went to see Salt. Great movie! Action movies with a strong female lead are always a great compromise. We both enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the sequels I'm sure are to come.

Then we had sushi for lunch and I told the Chinese waitress that always sees us there that it was our anniversary, but of course she didn't give us anything, not that I expected anything. But I couldn't help but think how different it is when you go to a nice restaurant and you tell them it's your anniversary. They always give you a little something, even if it's a free dessert. Not so at the Chinese buffet that is a great deal on freshly made sushi. I guess they figure we can just go get some ice cream from the buffet or some flan the Mexican cooks make. Maybe if I told them my blog is a channel for Chinese anti-communists they would have offered me something. I need to remember to mention that next time.

So we've been married thirteen years. We are both very challenging personalities, thus the two children with the challenging personalities. We are not perfect. Who is? We both got into this thirteen years ago really not knowing what to expect. At least I didn't. I'd never been married, he had. And yet here we are thirteen years later for better or for worse and believe me, we've seen a lot of the worse of one another. Two children and two c-sections later we have survived. Yes, I should have come with a warning label!

A few days ago we watched Date Night (yes, we watch a lot of movies, don't judge) and the two main characters, Tina Fey and Steve Carell had the exact same conversation that we have had before. It was hilarious! My husband says to me, "We've had that conversation before." And I said, "Thousands of couples have that conversation."

I have seriously had that same fantasy of taking off and just checking into a hotel room à la Ashley Judd in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood in my nightgown with a coat and a bottle of vodka in one hand. What woman or man hasn't? But most of us don't. We work out our differences for our children and for better or worse, just like we said in our wedding vows, and we move on. We can't afford to take sabbaticals like the character in Eat, Pray, Love. That's not reality for most of us.

In an age when divorce is always the answer we have somehow managed to hang in there and make it work, and that has made all the difference.

Hey! I Think I'm a Latina Blogger!

2010-08-17T15:00:00.001-04:00

Woman Blogging by Mike Licht

Here's some interesting news! After six years of blogging here and on skirt! and also reading many other Latina's blogs over the years, word on the street is that there has been a "recent explosion of Latina bloggers on the web." Maybe no had noticed us all of this time, so I guess it's nice to know that we've "sparked a buzz of excitement through cyberspace."

According to this Hispanicad.com article "Latinas are outpacing the general market in growth and use of social media ." I guess that's why the new excitement. We Latinas are actually blogging more than our non-Latina counterparts. Which makes sense really given that "Hispanics and Latinos constitute 15.4% of the total United States population, or 46.9 million people." (Wikipedia)

I enjoy blogging. Blogging for me is a weekly (and sometimes more) writing exercise. It gives me time to sit down and craft my words, however rudimentary. Sometimes I have the time to really go back and edit my work and sometimes I don't. Those times that I don't it's more like one of those 15 minute writing exercises where you are only allowed to write non-stop without any editing. Those are fun. It's always cool to see what you end up writing.

So I keep blogging. I don't do it for the money, although I should add that option to my blog. I tried it once but didn't see much ad activity. I really just blog for the love of writing and to send my words out into cyberspace in hopes that I will touch someone and make them go, "hmmm," laugh, or to spark some memory of their own. It's all about the pen, or the keyboard in my case.

Back to more Latinas blogging. There was actually a panel on this subject at the BlogHer conference. I've wanted to go to BlogHer for the last couple of years, since I first heard about it. I think I am really going to make an effort to go next year. What I found most interesting about this article was the statistic that "Hispanic women in the U.S. are one of the fastest-growing online demographics, and more than 85 percent of Latinas visit social networks on a regular basis." This is interesting to me, not only because I'm a Hispanic woman blogger, but also because I sell Hispanic media, including digital. This is great information for Hispanics as a viable digital market.

There I go again! Always wearing both my writer and my advertising hat at the same time! Argh! Thus the reason why I don't write full time and I blog.

Up to my Shenanigans!

2010-08-13T01:50:00.000-04:00

This is what I've been writing other places when I'm not here.

I have a week to finish "the talk" with my daughter. The birds and the bees in other words. Here is the story on that on skirt!

Sopalatina.net, a really cool Latino web site posted this essay that I submitted about reading and what an important part it has played in my life.

Enjoy!

I've Decided It Is All About the Architecture

2010-08-08T19:40:00.002-04:00

I went on a walk again through downtown and I decided it IS all about the architecture.

Citizens Bank at 402 Main, Built in 1925.

I took the train again down to St. Joseph's to a sales call. Now that I knew the route it seemed a lot quicker. When I got to the Preston train platform I was right in front of these beautiful buildings. Just look at the designs. Houston has some of the most beautiful buildings. I'm so glad so many of these buildings have been marked as historical because that means they have a better chance of survival.

The State National Building at 412 Main St. I love the small two story building next to it. I think it looks so unique there next to the taller building. I would love to own that smaller building so I could convert it into my house. Yes, I would live downtown.

This time I stopped and took a picture of another Houston sidewalk sign. I found out earlier in the week that they aren't only on St. Joseph Pkwy. They're other places too.

Then on my way back to the office I snapped a picture of the place where I should live.

The Rice Hotel

When I first started working at the Chronicle in 1993 the Rice was closed and there were rumors that it would be remodeled and changed into apartments. I used to joke that if that ever happened I would live right next door, roll out of bed in the morning and go to work. They didn't remodel and reopen it until 1998 and by then I was married and I was thinking of a house. What was I thinking? Now that I own a house I think about how much I would enjoy not having a yard.

A couple of restaurants and a coffee shop have access to the Rice lobby and I think that's really cool. I love to sit in their beautiful lobby for lunch or for a coffee and imagine what the Rice was like back in its hey day. The artwork on the ceiling is breathtaking and if you sit really still you can almost hear the hustle and bustle of the original Rice Hotel. There used to be a jewelry store in the lobby, among other businesses, back then. The Rice was one of the places to be and many business deals were made in their bar.

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE all the restaurants and bars downtown. I remember when I was in college and a few years right after college when my friends and I would go to a dance club downtown called PowerTools. It was so underground and grungy and we loved it. Back then there were no bars downtown except for PowerTools, the Brewery Tap and La Carafe. Now there are all these bars and restaurants. I love walking down Main St and seeing that we actually have pubs now! There's Molly's Pub and the pub attached to the Rice building, Shay McElroy's. It makes me feel so European!

So I've decided that this is exactly what I was going to write about that day I fell. That and that I'm surprised at how many people take the light rail. I was coming back at lunch time Wednesday and a bunch of people were going into downtown for lunch. A lot! I had to stand on the way back and I had to hold on to the bar like I was on NY subway.

Now about one other thing. BlogHer.com. I want to go one day. I say that every year, but I'm very serious this time. I feel like it always sneaks up an me and then it's like this weekend. I am going to write it in my calendar for next year and I'm going to write "plan for BlogHer" six months from now. I would love to attend all the sessions and to attend the parties with other bloggers. It's this weekend and I'm missing it. Next year!

Houston Is So Cool but HOT!

2010-08-06T15:59:00.001-04:00

Since I had to blog on here about my big FALL, I didn't blog about Houston and all the quirky or interesting things I notice about it when I walk somewhere. I did blog about the architecture over on skirt! If you want to read more about that go on over to skirt!

Bank of America Building

Yesterday I went around the corner to Pad Thai, a really good little Thai restaurant (and by little, I mean really narrow) on the ground floor of the Hogg Building. (I love the house at the top but I've never been in it, but would love to) I was walking back when I saw this beautiful view of one of my very favorite buildings downtown, the Bank of America building. I found that it has it's own Wikipedia page with all kinds of interesting tidbits. In fact, there's a whole page for Houston buildings, but some of the really old ones that I really like on Main Street aren't listed. Many of those even have historical markers on them.

After I posted this picture on Facebook one of my friends, and one of the only workmates that I have as a friend on FB, stopped by my cubicle to ask me if I had taken that picture yesterday during lunch. She had commented on another photo that people who see me taking pictures probably think I'm a tourist. I joked that taking pictures was probably the reason I fell down.

I'm off to pick up a check from a client downtown. Maybe I'll be inspired to write the original post I intended to write on Wednesday before I was side-tracked.

I Think I Was Looking Forward to "Fall" Way Too Much

2010-08-05T00:07:00.001-04:00

This is fake grass y'all! It's under the bench at the Metro Rail. Kind of creepy!

So today I decided to get brave and to venture out again on walking sales calls, despite the melting Houston heat. I took the train down to the Bell St exit and I walked over to a building on that end of Downtown. When I was coming back on the train I noticed something kind of weird. Under the benches they have pictures of grass. Is that strange or is it just me? I'm trying to understand their reasoning for that.

Then I started thinking about Houston and what a cool city it is. I started thinking of a list of things I was going to write about on here. Things that make Houston interesting or weird or maybe things I had never noticed about it before. So that's what I was thinking about all innocently as I left my last sales call when SPLAT!

I lost my footing and my ankle twisted to one side and down I went on the sidewalk, hands out. Here is the damage.

And here is the scene of the accident.

It happened on the corner of Franklin and Travis, right in front of the Hong Kong restaurant, well a door down. Notice the rocky sidewalk with those sharp little pebbles. One of those little pebbles tore open my hand nicely. At first I just sat there on that sidewalk you see here. I was mortified and embarrassed. All the cars at the light or passing by on Franklin saw me fall. One truck slowed down and I prayed that it wouldn't stop. So I just sat there and regained the little pride I had left and pushed up with my good hand.

Once I got moving down Travis St. I called my husband because he was coming downtown to meet me for lunch. He hadn't left the house yet so he got some band aids to bring me. Then I cursed myself for forgetting my Wet Ones. I always carry a package of wipes in my purse. They come in handy when you have two kids. Well this morning I was going to put a new package in my purse and I forgot. It would have been nice to have a wipe to clean my hand just then. I walked all the way down Travis to Cabo, around three blocks, with a bloody hand. I didn't wash it until I got to Cabo so who knows what germs crawled up into my system. Lovely...

Now I don't have anything cool or weird to tell you about Houston except that Metro has pictures of grass under the benches at the Metro Rail platforms and it doesn't even make any kind of sense. If I had anything else to say I promptly forgot it all after my fall.

What's funny is that when I posted my last blog on Facebook yesterday I said I was really looking forward to "fall." I totally meant the season and not a literal fall. I think my message got lost in translation somehow. And another thing that's really funny and ironic is that when I started my journey around Downtown this morning I was feeling so optimistic. I was declaring my goals and aspirations out loud while walking down the sidewalk. (Yes, I probably sounded like those homeless people that talk to themselves, but "when in Rome," right?) I think that message also got lost in translation because instead of having wonderful positive things come back to me I was splattered all over the sidewalk only an hour later.

My post on interesting little things I've noticed about Downtown Houston will have to be saved for later.

Steady and Well-Ordered in my Life

2010-08-03T23:28:00.003-04:00

It is hotter than heck in Houston right now. I have been getting out on sales calls and the heat is intense. Yesterday I got the bright idea of taking the train down to a sales call on the other end of downtown but soon realized it wasn't such a great idea. First I had to walk one block down to Main St and then one more block down to the train platform. Once I got off at my stop, which I must admit I arrived to really fast, I had to walk three blocks to the building. When I got there I was sweating! I had to stop off in the restroom to wipe my face and to cool down. And I was wearing a cotton t-shirt and skirt! Imagine if I was wearing a suit. It is just too hot right now in Houston for anything like that.

While on my walk down the sidewalk I noticed a couple of interesting messages. Here is one.

I passed another one, but I was too hot to stop and take a picture. They were on St. Joseph Parkway. I have no idea who William Burford is and when I tried to Google him nothing popped out at me.

My only consolation during the summer is the thought that it's really only this hot in Houston for two months and it's only hot all together for four months. The rest of the year is nice. In fact, we had a nice long winter this year. And this is the last month that we will have to suffer this way. At the end of September it will start getting cooler, hopefully...

The Chinese are still coming by to visit my blog and I've received two contradicting messages. I think one is from the Communists and the other is from my friends. The Communists say, "A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody." What's that? A warning because I'm letting people use my blog as a channel?

My friends said in Chinese and I translated it, "Like it here - Support your update." Nice message guys! I'm glad you like it here too. It's been my online home for almost six years now.

The end of the heat also means the end of the summer and this has been one lazy summer! I'm almost glad the kids are going back to school because it will put us all back on some kind of schedule. I've already started trying to put them on a schedule, giving them a check off list they need to work on each day. It includes the norm, like wash your face and brush your teeth and moves on to more specific things like get exercise and work on your math. They also need to start going to bed early and waking up early. They've been at home this summer with Daddy so they haven't even had to wake up early.

I'm trying to put myself back on a schedule too. I've been extremely delinquent about going to the gym, among many other things. School will get me back on track! I hope...

One very hard decision I have had to make is to pull down my Hips 'n Salsa blog. I'm not really pulling it down all together, but I'm not going to update it on a regular basis any more and I'm not going to list it on the Latina Lista website as a partner. I just don't feel like it's fair to Latina Lista if I'm not updating regularly. So there you go. I had to let go of one thing to make room for other things.

I read this quote this week and I feel like it is very fitting for me and my writing. I must get organized in order to do really great work. I want to enter some writing contests, more for the discipline and so that I will make the time to write, than to win. Entering a contest gives me a deadline. August 30 is my next one!

"Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work." -Gustave Flaubert. Sorry William, I think I like Gustave's quote a bit more.

The Chinese are My Friends

2010-07-29T02:03:00.000-04:00

Design annetaintor.com

OK, I take back everything that I said about thinking that Chinese spies were using my blog. They aren't. At least I hope they aren't.

After posting this blog the other day I was talking to my sister about it and she told me that because of Communism a lot of Chinese are using other ways to communicate with one another. I did remember reading/hearing that Facebook and Twitter, among other sites, had been banned in China. That makes me so so sad!

My sister was all, "NO THEY ARE! They are using your blog to communicate!" And suddenly I felt so cool and privileged that of all the blogs in the world they liked mine enough to use it as their channel.

But then my best friend is all, "YEAH, and then the CIA is going to have you on their watch list!" and I say, "Let them! I have nothing to hide! I'm the mother of two children and I blog about stuff that's mainly just important to me, and I sell advertising." Oh yeah! That sounds really suspicious. But then my friend reminded me that they would just think that was my cover. I'm screwed!

So today I get on my blog about the Chinese and I have this message. I used Google to translate it so I hope it's right.

"People can not live like animals, but should pursue knowledge and virtue."

I sure hope they aren't saying I live like an animal without knowledge because I wasn't smart enough to catch on the first time! Sorry guys! I really don't think about Communism too much here in Houston. Or maybe they are telling me that they are tired of living like animals under their restricted life. Which if they are, that makes me even more sad. Because I don't think about Communism too often.

I go on in my life and I'm stressed out because we are going to have to pay $2,000 (YES, TWO THOUSAND!) dollars to get our SUV fixed once again... and then something like this just rattles me into reality.

We live in a country where we have freedom of speech (however unpopular that might be) and freedom of religion. I have the privilege of belonging to a religion, that however unpopular it may be, has fought in the Supreme Court many times for these basic freedoms.

I can blog about whatever I want to blog about, from the mundane to the controversial. People in China can not. That is something to think about.

The Chinese Love Me or Are Going to Kill Me

2010-07-25T17:02:00.004-04:00

Before I start blogging I need to clarify that this is not meant to sound condescending in any way towards the Chinese. In fact I love everything Chinese. OK so now that I've made my disclaimer we can proceed.

annetaintor.com

A while back I started noticing that I was getting comments on my blog in Chinese. At first I figured they were spam. Then my husband suggested that I Google a translation. When we did that the comment was porn related so we just laughed about it and deleted the comment. Since then more comments would pop up and each time I'd delete them. Then not too long ago I noticed a comment from someone Chinese (their name was a Chinese symbol) and the comment was in English. And it was kind of a funny comment in an awkward English that looked like maybe the person had used a translation program themselves.

Next time I received a comment in Chinese I translated it to see what it said and it was actually somewhat of a message that related to what I had written in my blog. Hmmm... could it be that I've captured a Chinese following?? Kind of cool if I have, considering I haven't really captured an American following thus far. In fact, most, if not all, readers who don't know me come to my site via searching for Nike quotes.

So here are some of the comments I've received in Chinese that I translated.

"Message support please continue refueling." - I can't figure that one out. What were they referring to? Did I sound like I was all out of gas or couldn't go on any more? Hmm.. And WHO is message support?

"Your efforts have been seen- and support you." - Now THAT one is interesting! I'm wondering if my blog is serving as a place that people are sending each other secret messages. Wouldn't that be cool?? Kind of like that Russian spy circle they uncovered. Maybe my site is a place for Chinese spies to leave messages. Hmmm..

Then there are the English ones.

"far from eye, far from heart"

"After a storm comes a calm"

"It takes all kinds to make a world"

AND MY VERY FAVORITE

"Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."

I will definitely heed this advise. Maybe that's why I carry JD Salinger's Nine Stories in my car with me. So in case I die in a car accident the police and the paramedics will pick it up and say, "Wow! She had good taste in literature!" Or something to that effect.

So hopefully the Chinese spies won't come kill me for uncovering their spy secret and if they do at least my house is full of really good literature.

Do You Know Where You're Going To? (ala Diana Ross)

2010-07-16T23:16:00.001-04:00

annetaintor.com

Do you know where you're going to?

Do you like the things that life is showing you?

Where are you going to? do you know?

Do you get what you're hoping for?

When you look behind you there's no open door

What are you hoping for?

Do you know?

Song by Diana Ross

I blogged about the vision board over on skirt a couple of weeks ago and then I mentioned following our dreams again this past week. I love that quote by Sam Phillips in Walk the Line. Sometimes I watch the movie up to that part just so I can hear it again. The actor who portrays Sam Phillips, Dallas Roberts, does such a great job in that scene just telling it like it is.

That speech he gives Johnny Cash includes so many things in life. It wasn't just about a song. It was about Johnny Cash embracing that moment, that rare chance that he had been given to audition. Sam is asking him to give it his all, to show him what he has in him. It was as if Johnny Cash was lying in that gutter in that very moment. As we know, he did grasp that moment and he gave him his all. He proved that he had it in him to be a star.

The truth is that I blogged about the vision board on July 4 and now it is the 16th and I still haven't made the board. Why? Because there is one part of me that's stuck and what's worse is that I can't even talk about it here because it's career related. Let's just say that I still feel like I am still at some crazy crossroads in my life. It's a very uncomfortable place to be in life and not where I want to be at forty. At the same time maybe it's not a bad thing because I'm at the halfway point of my life.

I hope that the vision board helps give me some direction. If not there's always my trustworthy PROS and CONS list.

Latest News on Other Blogs & In General

2010-07-12T01:31:00.002-04:00

Magnet from annetaintor.com

I had a very productive weekend of writing. I started on Saturday with a blog on skirt! about my favorite all girl band, Girl in a Coma playing at the Tejano Music Awards on Sunday.

Then on Sunday I blogged on Hips 'n Salsa about logging my food on livestrong.com. Pretty uneventful, but maybe helpful advice to some who don't know about livestrong.com.

Sunday I also wrote a literary prompt response to this month's Literary Mama essay. I'm not sure if it will be accepted, but I've been wanting to do that for a while. I also need to finish a short story that I want to submit to Glimmertrain. I think I'll work on that next.

In other areas of my life as usual, when it rains it pours! Both my SUVs broke down at the very same time. So we spent today carless and stuck at home. I had to take an emergency vacation day tomorrow so we can take one of the SUVs to the shop and then I'll rent a car for work.

So yes, I'm not really medicated and motivated like my Anne Taintor magnet above says, but I feel like I need to be. I feel like it's always something and like my life is a constant challenge. And then I stop and I remind myself that despite these hiccups in life I have a lot more than many people and I have a healthy family. So I pick up and move on.

Summer is Almost Half OVER And What Have I Accomplished?

2010-07-07T00:28:00.002-04:00

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost half over. That just seems incredible, but I know I say that every time. I say it at the end of the school year and then I say it again when school is starting.

Magnet by Anne Taintor

It just seems that when summer is over half a year is over too, and I'm not any closer to my goals. Which is why I have decided to make a vision board to picture my goals and what is most important to me. One things that is important is the children's education and tonight I pulled out as many easy reader books as I could find to get my son started on his summer reading list. We have less than two months now to get him up to speed on his reading before he starts first grade in the fall.

Also, we are almost half way done and I'm glad to report that my husband Rey has picked up his blog, You Should Blog About This again. I was starting to worry that he wouldn't record his wonderful summer experience with the kids. I tell him that they will remember this summer as long as they live. :) I'm so happy that he picked up his blog again because it will give me more writing material too. Like commentary on his blog topics! (evil grin)

I always envy people who have what I consider time to write. I envied my friends who were stay at home moms for a while and for their time living in Europe (Ireland and Spain) and I was always telling them that I wished they would keep a blog about their experience. I still tell them today that they have wonderful writing material. I'm so glad that my friend Viki is keeping a blog of her Singapore experience! I also envy my sister her summers because she only works during the school year. One of the reasons I should have become a librarian or a teacher back when I thought about doing it fifteen years ago.

I don't envy them in a bad way, but I guess how else can you view the word envy? I only wish that I had that time so that I could write full time during those periods. Then I think of Julie from Julie & Julia and I think of Gwendolyn Zepeda. Julie wrote her Julia Child cooking blog while working full time and Gwendolyn Zepeda works full time and writes full time. Which reminds me, I'm also giving away Gwendolyn's most recent book. Enter to win Lone Star Legend!

So no, I realize that working at home or being a stay at home mom (whichever term you prefer) isn't the answer. I know I can write and work full time. I only hope that one day soon I will publish something, or more than one thing, that will allow me to concentrate full time on my writing. And when that day comes I promise that after working for seventeen years I will fully appreciate that time.

Playing Coyote, the Board Game That Is

2010-06-30T14:07:00.002-04:00

My Daddy drawing the Coyote game in my kitchen.

My dad came over on Sunday to just hang out for a while and to visit. He's 86 so he often gets a little bored and comes by to visit me or goes by my sisters' homes. Since I have the privilege of living right by him I get to see him the most but the way I see it my kids get more opportunities to get to know their grandfather. I didn't know any of my grandparents and my kids have my dad, my in-laws, and a set of great-grandparents, who coincidentally are close to the same age as my dad. Fortunate kids!

On this particular visit my dad said he wasn't hungry so he just asked for something to drink. I made him a drink (yes that kind of drink) and we talked for a while. I set up the ironing board in the kitchen so I could iron work clothes while we visited.

Then I got the idea of telling the kids about how I used to play "Coyote" with my dad. Before you get any crazy ideas, Coyote is a board game. My dad would draw on a thin cardboard and we would use buttons for the pieces. One large button represents the coyote and twelve smaller buttons represent the sheep.

The kids instantly became interested, just like they do in hearing stories about my dad's adventures as a little boy. My son asked my dad if he could draw the game for them. My daughter got busy looking for thirteen buttons. My dad drew the game out on a thin cardboard sheet that I had (an empty sheet out of Seth's unfinished Creative Memories baby book) and my kids watched intently. When he was finished he explained the rules of the game.

The coyote lives in the center of the board. The sheep are all on one side of the board. One opponent is the coyote and the other plays the sheep. The object of the game for the coyote player is to eat all the sheep. The coyote jumps the sheep if the player leaves an opening on the other side and eats them (very similar to checkers). The sheep are trying to corner the coyote in so that he can't move any more. If the sheep succeed that player wins. If the coyote eats all the sheep well obviously the coyote wins.

I have fond memories of playing this game with my dad as a little girl and now the kids know how to play it too. My dad played a couple of games with my daughter and then he played with my son. My daughter was tough to beat and I don't think he ever did beat her. My son, being younger, learned the basics of the game and my dad said that once he learns it well he'll be a fierce opponent.

When I was telling two of my friends about the game and I mentioned the buttons one friend said, "It sounds so Depression Era," and it is! My father played this same game when he was a little boy in the 1930s. I Googled the game and I couldn't find anything about it. Another Coyote board game comes up, but it's not the same one.

It is such a fun game I'm thinking of videotaping my dad explaining how to draw the board and a demonstration. Then I'll put it out on YouTube so others can enjoy the game. It is one of those things from my dad's generation that will be lost if we don't record it.

The game is easy and cheap to make, but best of all it was a great bonding experience between two distant generations. As I watched my kids play with my dad I thought about how these are the same kids who play on electronically hand held games and on the Internet. Yet here they were playing an old fashioned hand-drawn board game with a man who was their age almost 80 years ago. Priceless.

Brother & Sister's Keeper

2010-06-24T14:07:00.002-04:00

Interesting observation... I didn't grow up with any brothers and Rey, my husband, didn't grow up with any sisters. Now that we have a son and a daughter we are learning about the dynamics between brothers and sisters. In a way I'm learning what it's like to have a brother and Rey is learning what it's like to have a sister. It's really funny because we are learning as we go. We don't know how girls should react to boys in certain situations or the other way around. We're just using our own common sense.

For example, we stopped letting them take a bath together about a year or so ago. We don't want to give them issues, but at the same time we don't know how old they should be before they need to cover up. Right now they are still so young and innocent. We figure that nature will take its course and they will start covering up when the need arises.

Then there's the fighting and the teasing. All I can say is thank goodness my daughter is older because if my son were older he would be a bully. Even though he teases and hits she's still old enough to check him sometimes and she has the advantage of being a tall girl. She doesn't like to hit him, and we don't encourage fighting, but sometimes she has to put her foot down with him and my husband and I have to use our best judgement on how to handle the situation.

I really try to encourage them to love one another. I remind them that their daddy and I may be gone one day and they will have each other. I tell them that they are going to dance with each other at their wedding. Or I tell them that they will always have a dance partner at weddings and parties as they grow up. I want for them to be close and I hope that they are. They can play together for hours and I love to hear them when they are playing and not fighting. They are both such alpha personalities. They are born leaders and sometimes that gets challenging.

I think they are how their dad and I would have been if we played together as children. And that's a nice thought because we very possibly did play together a couple of times but we don't remember. My older sister lived next door to Rey and his family when we were around 3 or 4 and she says we met.

So we go on raising our children to love each other and to play fair and we are learning more about boys and girls in the process and maybe we can learn more about each other.

Hispanics and Education

2010-06-18T15:46:00.002-04:00

From edweek.org 2010 Shows % of Hispanics' level of education as compared to non-Hispanic whites

A recent article in The Houston Chronicle says that a record amount of students enrolled for college this coming fall with an exceptionally high number of Hispanics. Now that's news!

I read another article in the Chronicle recently that asked if culture was to blame in the lack of education in the Hispanic community. The article was written because of a recent study that said that there is a direct correlation between education and wealth in the Hispanic community in Texas. (as if that's hard to figure out) This report said in a nutshell that if Hispanics don't become educated and active members of the community then this state is in danger of being populated by very poor uneducated people that will rely on financial aid. So seeing that many Hispanics enrolled in college this fall gives us hope.

Then I read this article about how Hispanics don't utilize financial aid like they should. When I read this it reminded me of the Chronicle article about Hispanics and culture and how the writer asked if it our culture was to blame. I loved the answer that Rice University sociologist Steven Klineberg gave to this question.

“It's the easy answer. It's the self-serving answer,” says Rice University sociologist Steven Klineberg. “The beauty and the danger of the cultural explanation is that it allows you, the middle-class Anglo, to get off the hook. If it really isn't culture, if they really do want an education, then we have to provide the resources.”

So yes, the resources are there. Do Hispanics know they are? Not all the time. I remember that when I was in high school my counselor was not really engaged in where I was going to college or whether I had scholarships. I applied for financial aid because thank goodness I had sisters who went to college before me and I knew that was the thing to do. But I remember having conversations with other Hispanic friends around my age who said they couldn't go to college because of the cost. I know now that I could have applied for a lot more scholarships than I did. I didn't know about all the scholarships available back then.

Money is left out there because kids don't always know about it. One great thing about technology is that now kids have the resources to find out this information on the internet. We didn't have internet when I graduated from high school. But still, even with the internet kids don't know where to look and first generation and second generation parents many times don't know either.

And where does it all start? It starts in elementary school with reading skills. An article on this subject shows that poor reading skills trap children in poverty. The article points out that "82 percent of Hispanic students in schools with low or moderate rates of families living in poverty do not read at grade level. "

The place to start is in elementary school with reading. Mentor a low income child and help him or her with their reading. Then continue this in high school encouraging them to make college plans and researching scholarships and financial aid. Once they get to college Hispanic students need mentors and a support system to help them make it through and to graduate.

If we want to make a difference this is one thing we can do to enourage them and to ensure that Texas has an educated and financially sound community in the future.

What's Going On?? - In a 4 Non-Blondes' Voice

2010-06-18T01:27:00.070-04:00

Design by Anne Taintor

I read this new Anne Taintor card and I just cracked up. It is too funny!! Anne Taintor has a phrase to match any situation in life.

I blogged about my writer's block/depression on skirt! I also blogged about my fill after six months over on Hips 'n Salsa and I'm starting to think that I need to cut down to two blogs again or maybe even one. But when I try to decide which one or what two I can't decide because all three are so different and they serve such different audiences.

I went back and read other posts both here and on skirt! and I've been talking about this funk way too long. What is the deal?? Only I know and only I can shake it. One thing is for certain. This is it. I'm not going to write about how I can't write any more. Ha ha! I'm either going to JUST DO IT or I'm going to shut up. Besides, that doesn't really make for interesting reading, reading the same topic every week.

A lot more interesting things are going on in the world that I should be talking about. See next blog.

Confessions of a Narcissistic Writer

2010-06-04T15:25:00.002-04:00

When I first started this blog I thought it was a bit narcissistic. But then all my friends started telling me how much they enjoyed it. Before I knew it I had three blogs so what does that make me?

I have often thought that I am a little of a narcissist, but then what writer isn’t? Okay, maybe Harper Lee isn’t. But even she wrote one extremely successful novel and even if she never wrote another published piece again, she can not escape the fame and fortune that followed.

Then came Facebook. Oh my! I love Facebook and sometimes I have to tear myself away. Facebook has become the platform for all people like me who always have something to say about something.

I will never forget what two women told me the summer I interned at the St. Pete Times. I was 21 years old and at that age well you know, you think you know everything and you have an opinion about everything. At least I did. I’m sure I was pretty annoying, especially after a month of working with me in one small office. Finally one day one of the poor women made a comment about my talking and I don’t remember what I said but I remember her reply and of course how it made me feel. She said, “Yes, but we don’t have to make a comment about every single thing,” or something like that. Once again, I don’t remember what it was exactly, but I got the message loud and clear.

I think of that moment often when I send out my comments to the FB World and I wonder if there is anyone on the other end who is blocking me because I make too many comments.

A week or so ago I was at a luncheon and I met a really sweet woman who was sitting next to me. She asked me if I was on Facebook and I, since we were at a professional event, felt inclined to give her my disclaimer. I told her that Facebook isn’t my professional FB. I hardly have anyone from work and all of my “friends” are either my good friends, high school friends, relatives, or my writing friends. I see as a great platform for writers. Where else can you self-promote?

So am I narcissist? Yes, probably, but I hope it’s all for good in the end.

Out of My Comfort Zone and Off My Butt

2010-05-19T15:05:00.002-04:00

Lately I've been resorting to only writing lunch time blogs. I don’t know how that happened but it did. I don’t know what happened to my writing in general, both in blogging and in trying to write creatively. It, like many other things in my life, has taken a giant detour. Not that I’ve wanted for them to do that, but they have. Life is very strange like that. Sometimes you are living your life, doing all that you can when suddenly things take a sudden and unexpected turn.

Most recently this was true of my job. Things changed and my cheese was moved, yet again. But I’ve been in my industry long enough to expect that change. The thing is that like other things in my life my life was going a certain direction for so long that I didn’t want to get out of my comfort zone to change it.

I received a Master’s in Communication NINE (yes, nine) years ago and I planned on pursuing a career more in that direction. That didn’t happen. I was offered a different position within this company and I took it and I really enjoyed it. It was somewhat along the lines of what I had studied in many ways. I dealt with a lot of organizational communication. Then five years ago I received a promotion and even though I wasn’t thrilled about what they were asking me to do, I took it and I made the best of it. It was not related to project management or communicating with the entire organization like my former position.

So what now? I finally decided to have my resume re-written professionally. That was a big step for me. The company I used did such an awesome job. So there you go. I got out of my comfort zone and did one thing to shake things up a bit. I believe that everyone, whether they are looking or not, should have a fresh updated resume at their fingertips at all times. And I also believe that everyone should have their resume out there. It’s just called being prepared and realistic in this economy and especially in our industry. And that’s what I plan to do.

On to other subjects and back to writing. I need to do something to jump start my writing. I can never concentrate on more than a couple of areas of my life at one time. I’ve been working out pretty regularly for a while now, so I’m doing well there. But whenever I work out I stop writing and vise versa. What a vicious cycle! I’m also lacking in some other areas of my life that will remain unmentioned. I know what they are and I need to work on them. I desperately need to cut out the things in my life that are eating my time.

Summer is here! I need to get the kids registered for summer programs and I need to get on a summer "work-out/writing/spiritual/teaching the children" schedule for myself.

That is my goal for the summer. To get my life back on track in all areas that I am lacking. I need to literally get off my butt! What are your summer goals?

Over On skirt! & What's New

2010-05-12T15:10:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in the latest of what's going on come on over and check me out on skirt!

I have been very delinquent in blogging here and on skirt! I apologize. More to come later!

Coming Attractions:

An online interview with Girl in a Coma about their new cover records, Adventures in Coverland.

"Love You Forever" at a Man's Point of View

2010-04-21T10:26:00.003-04:00

Many of us, especially mothers, have read this children's book. It's a heartwarming story about a mother's unconditional love for her son. It follows their relationship from birth until he is a grown man. Each page ends with the mom taking her baby, little boy, teenager, and then grown man into her lap as she sings,

“I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.”

My sister bought me this book when I had my first baby and she told me that it was one of her very favorites. I have to admit that the first time I read the book I choked up. It was so beautiful!

My best friend and her little boy are very close. He's her only child and he adores her. Her sisters have teased her that she won't let go of him when he gets older. I told her she was like the mom from this book and I was surprised when I learned that she'd never read it so I bought her a copy.

This past weekend we were sitting out in our back yard with drinks and watching the children play. We made a joke and a reference to the book and my husband had no idea what we were talking about. I was surprised that he never heard me read the story to the children. I told him the story and when I got to the part about the man being grown and the mom driving across town with a ladder on her car he had a repulsed look on his face.

"That is just gross!" he declared.

My friend and I looked at each other and we just laughed. We never once thought of the story as creepy or weird. In fact, I found it very touching. It was just hilarious that a man wouldn't see it the same way. Then I realized that it really makes perfect sense. We are so very different that a man wouldn't see it as a warm and fuzzy book like we did. Women are mothers and are nurturing. Men are not naturally nurturing and motherly.

It also reminds me of the first time my children saw "The Little Princess." (Spoiler alert if you haven't seen this ancient movie.) When it got to the end when the little girl sees her father and he's all blind and has amnesia, she's crying and asking him to remember her. My daughter busted out into tears and loud sobs at that part and my son just looked at her perplexed. He couldn't even watch the movie because he didn't know what had happened to her and he just kept staring at her wide eyed. I was even shocked at her reaction. I didn't expect it to touch her that way. It was the first time she had ever cried watching a movie.

My husband and I laughed so hard later when we I told him about it. My husband said, "You just witnessed 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' right in front of you."

Well that "Love You Forever" story was our "Little Princess" moment, that's for sure.

If you've never read the book you can read it here. http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/loveforever.htm

The Case of the Lost Remote

2010-04-14T22:19:00.002-04:00

Comcast Remote

My husband was gone to work to the Dallas/Ft Worth area for a week and in that entire week the remote control to the cable was lost. What kind of crazy irony is that?

First of all let me explain, we are not a three TV household. We have two TVs and the cable is only connected to one. The other one is connected to the wii, so no shows there. The living room TV is connected to the Xbox. So the living room TV is usually used for either watching cartoons or playing Xbox. Once a week or so Rey and I will watch a TV show or a movie together. Since I'm not a big TV person it doesn't really bother me that I don't watch TV. I always have a lot of other things to do besides watching television.

However, the week that my husband was going to be out of town for the entire week I would have liked to be able to watch all the On Demand that I wanted. I could have watched movies, shows, etc. while folding clothes. Imagine my frustration and disbelief when the weekend before my husband left we could not find the remote anywhere. We all looked for it and we could not find it. My husband and son did a thorough search for it but didn't come up with anything.

So my husband left on Monday morning on his business trip and I was left remote-less. I did another search myself and came up empty handed.

When my husband came back on Friday he took the sofa, turned it on its side and shook it. Out popped the remote, along with a bunch of other odds and ends, toys, old wrappers, etc.. I missed out on free television and he gets back on Friday and finds the lost remote that we were sitting on the whole week. How hilarious and how typical of my life.

Three Blog Happy

2010-04-11T16:54:00.001-04:00

Image by Anne Taintor

It's been almost two weeks since I decided to put ShoeGirl Corner back in business and I think I'm doing a pretty good job. The trick is to stick to a certain subject matter for each blog.

My skirt! blog should be more about being a working mom but sometimes I'll delve into the challenges of being a working wife too. This last post took a bit of a different turn and I think my husband thought I was going to post it here.

The Hips 'n Salsa blog should stick to the subject of weight loss and exercise. I talk about other stuff that relates to that.

Then there's this baby here. I think I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with it and my two other obligations. Because I feel like those other two are blogs that I need to keep up. The skirt! blog is on a national website read by many people and my Hips blog is written in partnership with Latina Lista. So yes, I do feel responsible for blogging for those two blogs.

But ShoeGirl Corner is my baby. It's where I got started doing what I like to do best. I like to just talk about whatever comes to my head first. This is the place I started doing that, before Facebook and Twitter. This is where my friends would come to see what was going on in my life. Where they told me they felt like they were sitting at my kitchen table talking. I knew then that this was my voice, where I can be myself and people still come back to read.

So if you're reading this blog now for the first time or for the hundreth, Thank You for coming by and visiting. I hope you keep coming back.