Weird Word Thursday: Vol. 8

I know word verification is not going away anytime soon, but I figure I can at least have a little fun with it. So, I present you with Weird Word Thursday. Each week, I will feature my favorite non-word from a captcha I've encountered and make up a definition. Why? Because like Anne J says "those anti-spam words [are] silly and amusing." This week...

Bracop [bra-kop]-noun
a person of authority (usually a mother) who inspects young womens' outfits for exposed bra straps.

Example: "My grandmother, the bracop, made sure my was brassiere straps were safely tucked away before I left for school."

Got a better definition? Leave it in a comment, no word verification required.

Got a Weird Word you found in while filling in a word verification thingy? Share it in the comments!

Wordless Wednesday: 3 generations

Tip(ful) Tuesday: Get Your Groupon

Damon clued me in on this website that offers incredible deals from retailers in your community. It's called Groupon and it works like a group discount rate program...a minimum number of people have to purchase the "deal" in order to get the special price. I checked it out and saw some pretty amazing deals for spas, restaurants, and activities (like golf). You can sign up for email alerts to get the deal of the day delivered to your inbox. Yesterday, I purchased $40 worth of food for $20 at a Mediterranean cafe. I can't believe I didn't know about this sooner!

Baby Log: Week 35

Marlie and Me are back from our trip to Miami! Marlie did so great on the plane. Of course she caught the attention of all the flight attendants and the passengers around us. She would smile big, bat her eyelashes and then bury her face in my shoulder...she is such a flirt! Our visit with my family was wonderful. It was nice to spend time with them, but I am glad to be back in my own bed with Marlie in her crib! I am also thrilled to come home to our cloth diapers. I used disposables during the trip and was it not a good experience. Here are some highlights of our trip:

• Marlie met her cousin Ari (my brother's 2.5 year-old daughter) who wasn't thrilled at first to have another little girl in her house. But she warmed up to Marlie after awhile. I wish they lived closer so Marlie could grow up with her cousin.
• We didn't get to the beach, but we went to the playground where I took Marlie on her first ride down the slide:
• She has a wicked case of heat rash to remember her time in Miami and I have an awful tummy ache from all the good, but bad, food I ate!
• Marlie's newest moves: wiggling out of my arms when she wants to be put down, smiling and blushing when someone pays her attention, trying to stand up while nursing...seriously, she won't sit still!
  
• I won 3 incredible prizes this week. First I won an AMP Duo Diaper from The Eco-Cheap Mom: Fluff the Bum Cloth Diaper Event. very. cool. Then I won a Diva Designz web design template from Mom of All Trades, which I am donating to Marlie's future community school. Finally, I won a Baby Einstein World Music CD at Mocha Dad. Awesome!
• I'll be catching up with my blog reading this week..don't forget to enter my giveaway for Green Blaster natural cleaning products
  

Baby Log: Week 34

Last week I forgot to tell you about how Marlie's paper-eating habit came back to bite her in the butt...literally. She had eaten some newspaper at the cafe and I found it in her poop the next day (yes, I do examine her poop)! I know I have to get used to her excreting the crap that she swallows when she craps, but I'm still grossed out. I'll let that mental picture marinate for a sec. Okay! On to this week in the life of Her Royal Highness the Baroness von Poopoopeeshire...

• Marlie loves playing with our dog Butters. Her idea of playing is kind of rough though. It consists of her smacking him in the face and pulling his tail, which is what she does to us (except the tail pulling part). It's time to teach her gentle touch.
• She has discovered the velcro tabs on her diaper covers and is pulling them open. I'm thrilled.
  
• She has become very curious about body parts. She has been sticking her fingers in my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. I am one good jab away from becoming a cyclops.
  
• Her latest disturbing habit is gnawing the wood off the headboard of her crib like some kind of deranged, mutant beaver, woodchuck, or wood pecker. see photo:Don't the scratches look like the hatch marks prisoners carve on their cell walls to count down the days until their release? Seriously though. I don't like the idea of her ingesting treated wood (varnish, formaldehyde, who knows what else?), but I don't know how to get her to stop sharpening her teeth on her crib.
• No giveaway wins this week. I'm not too disappointed. I've been channeling my mojo into my job hunt. I have a lead on a part-time communications job with a social venture company. It's a social media charitable project, it's flexible hours, it's right up my alley! Wish me luck.
• As you read this I'll be up in the air with Marlie en route to Miami to visit my family or we will have already landed. Either way, we are out of town and on break from blogging this week. I know you'll miss me, but I left a cool giveaway for you to enter.
  

Closed...Green Blaster Natural Cleaners: Review & Giveaway

I'm on a mission to green my home. My first act was to get rid of all chemical household cleaners. Easy! The problem though was finding inexpensive and effective replacements. I tried to make homemade cleaners, but I soon gave that up (turns out I don't get a kick out of mixing potions).

Enter Green Blaster Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Products. From the company website...

"Our mission at Green Blaster is to help you tackle both everyday and difficult cleaning challenges, in a safe, healthy way with products that work while at the same time protecting our homes, children, planet and economy. Our broad selection of safe, non-toxic and biodegradable environmentally friendly cleaning products will meet your cleaning needs with price and performance comparable to – and in many cases better than – traditional chemical cleaners."
I selected the All Natural Multi-Purpose Multi-Surface Kitchen Cleaner, the All Natural Minty Fresh Bathroom Cleaner and the Natural Odor Remover for this review. Remember the situation with my dog peeing on the carpeted stairs? I treated the areas with the odor remover. It didn't complete eliminate the urine odor, but the stench is considerably diminished. The kitchen clean worked very well on our glass cooktop. The bathroom cleaner removed the tough soap scum from our glass shower doors (yeah!), made the faucets sparkling clean and left a fresh scent. I am very impressed with the Green Blaster cleaners I've been using! I bravely took one a picture of my tub before I used the Green Blaster bathroom cleaner and after. See the results for yourself:

Visit the Green Blaster website to view their entire line of products, including personal and pet care items. The prices are affordable and shipping is free!
Win It: One lucky Marlie and Me reader is going to receive a $15 gift certificate toward the purchase of Green Blaster products

Mandatory first entry: Visit Green Blaster and tell me what product interests you the most (leave a comment on this post)

Optional Entries: Earn one (1) extra entry for completing each of the following (leave separate comments for each):

• Be a current or new follower of Marlie and Me via Google Friend Connect
• Be a current or new subscriber of Marlie and Me via email (subscription must be activated)
• Share an easy "green" tip in honor of Earth Day (April 22nd)

The rules:

• This giveaway will end on 4/30/10 at 11:59 pm CST
• Winner will be chosen randomly from all comments posted using Random.org
• The winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond. Please make sure I can contact you either by having an email address visible on your blog profile or leave your email address in your comment(s).
• By accepting the prize, the winner is granting permission to be identified as such.The winner's information will be forwarded to the sponsor for prize fulfillment.
• In the event the prize is not claimed in the allotted time another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to US residents only. Must be at least 18 years of age to participate.
• Entries that do not follow instructions or are falsified will be disqualified

Weird Word Thursday: Vol. 7

I know word verification is not going away anytime soon, but I figure I can at least have a little fun with it. So, I present you with Weird Word Thursday. Each week, I will feature my favorite non-word from a captcha I've encountered and make up a definition. Why? Because like Anne J says "those anti-spam words [are] silly and amusing." This week...

Squip [skwip]-verb
to move in an erratic, jerking fashion

Example: "Marsha turned down Jim's offer to go to the prom after she saw him squipping on the dance floor at the club last Saturday."

Got a better definition? Leave it in a comment, no word verification required.

Got a Weird Word you found in while filling in a word verification thingy? Share it in the comments!

Wordless Wednesday: Snagglepuss

Heavens to Murgatroyd, she has 2 teeth!

Baby Log: Week 33

This was a week of wonders despite Marlie's new round of night-waking (teething? growth spurt? both?). Her daddy and me cannot agree on a course of action. My vote is for comforting/co-sleeping. He votes for letting her cry-it-out. He believes that she should learn to put herself back to sleep. Funny. I am an adult and I still cannot fall asleep without the television on. Marlie doesn't suck her thumb and never took a pacifier, so someone please tell me how the heck she is supposed to soothe herself? All I know is that I am very tired and feeling blah, so no pictures this week (sorry). I'll keep y'all posted on the Great Baby Sleep Battle of 2010. What else happened...

• We celebrated Marlie's first Easter
• I bought a sippy cup for her and filled it with diluted apple juice. So far she just throws the cup on the floor.
  
• Marlie tried plums, mango and grapes this week. I got her a baby feeder and we have been putting slices of frozen and fresh fruit in them. She loves to feed herself. Big hit!
  
• She is still teething. Her second bottom tooth broke through on Saturday. She is starting to bite. She bit me on the neck...the little vampire.
• She took her first baby steps while holding on to the rails in her crib. One small step for baby, one giant leap for babykind!
• We had a lot of play dates this week...Brandy and Orlaith at the mall, Catalina and Bella at the cafe. We also made our second trip to the grocery store without daddy. On Saturday, we went with some friends on an art crawl and had some people over for dinner.
  
• Speaking of socializing...I've had it with random strangers coming up to me to ask how old my child is only to turn around and make a rude comment about how "small" she is...the implication being that she is not getting enough to eat. I had it out with some woman at the grocery store on Wednesday. She did the whole oh-my-gosh-she-is-so-cute-how-old-is-she? bit. I told her that Marlie is 7.5 months. Her response was really?! She is so tiny! Something in me snapped. So I asked her pointedly what she meant by that. She looked stunned, but she didn't back off. She continued her rude line of questioning by asking me if I didn't think she was small compared to other babies her age. WTF?! So I say, "I think she is perfect." We just stare at each other for a few seconds. My eyes are begging her to keep dishing the snark because I have some choice words ready to fly out my mouth that start with F and end in U--if you catch my drift. Instead she just gives me one last glare and walks away. Score: Momma Bear-1 Stupid Hag-0. grrr.
  
• No giveaway wins this week...I'm having a dry spell :-(
  

Weird Word Thursday: Vol. 6

I know word verification is not going away anytime soon, but I figure I can at least have a little fun with it. So, I present you with Weird Word Thursday. Each week, I will feature my favorite non-word from a captcha I've encountered and make up a definition. Why? Because like Anne J says "those anti-spam words [are] silly and amusing." This week...

Frong [frawng]-noun
a large crowd of frugal people who hunt for bargains

Example: " a frong of mothers gathered in front of the toy store at 4 am for the door-buster sale."

Got a better definition? Leave it in a comment, no word verification required.

Got a Weird Word you found in while filling in a word verification thingy? Share it in the Linky!

Wordless Wednesday: Marlie's 1st Easter

Review: eShakti Women's Clothing

When eShakti offered to have me do a product review I jumped at the chance for two reasons: First, I've been aching for some new clothes because it's been almost a year since I bought anything for myself. Secondly, I was curious about whether I'd like shopping for clothes online.eShakti carries a beautiful selection of women's clothes in sizes o-26W. Everything is amazing! I actually had a tough time making a decision, but finally chose this belted linen weave day dress in khaki brown:
One of the reasons I have never bought clothes online is because it is so hard to find clothes that fit my body type. I am petite in height, small on top, narrow through the waist with an ample booty. Based on past experience I was going to order a size up to fit my bottom, which means the upper half of my garment would be baggy. Imagine my glee when I discovered that eShakti offers custom sizing! I entered my measurements using their easy custom sizing tool and eagerly awaited the arrival of my dress.
My dress was delivered in less that 7 days after I placed the order. I immediately tried it on and was ecstatic that it hugged my figure in all the right places...a perfect fit! My one quibble was that the belt was so long that I had to pin it in the back.
I wore my dress to church on Easter Sunday. We received a lot of compliments. I felt stylish, beautiful and comfortable. How many times have you said that about your clothing?!

My eShakti experience was A+! I will definitely shop at their store in the future, and you should too!

Baby Log: Week 32

There was a lot of running around town this week:

• We took Marlie to the arboretum last Sunday to take Easter pictures among the blossoming tulips. This was her first professional photo shoot, and I wanted everything to be perfect. Well she woke up that day with three huge pimples on her forehead (more on this in the next bullet). Nothing a little airbrushing can't take care of, so I didn't panic. We get to the photo shoot. Marlie is so pretty in her dress and hat that she draws a crowd. But the stinker refuses to smile! Her photos all look like this--> Note: PhotoShop cannot turn a frown upside down. Sarah the photographer was kind enough to offer a re-shoot on Thursday. I got her all dressed up again and took her back the the arboretum. She was still giving mean looks, but I managed to get her to smile enough times to get some really nice pictures.
  
• Back to these weird pimples. On Monday morning they looked really inflamed. I also noticed raised bumps on her left arm while giving her a bath that evening. I took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday who had no idea what was going on with the bumps on her forehead, but instructed me to apply Neosporin three times a day. alrighty. She said the bumps on the arm appeared to be insect bites.
• Marlie slept through the night on Monday! She went to bed around 8:30 and didn't wake up until around 5 am. There was no repeat performance the rest of the week though. Her gums are really bothering her and she is cranky all the time. The other bottom front tooth is about to break through. I hope it hurries up. I am exhausted.
  
• Marlie and me went grocery shopping by ourselves on Friday. I proposed this test in an attempt to get some of our errands done during the week so that we could have more quality time as a family on the weekends. I forgot potatoes, but otherwise the experiment was a success.
  
• I won the BõKU Super Food ~ Prize Package {Giveaway} at Leslie Loves Veggies

HAPPY EASTER SUNDAY!

Winner of the $15 iTunes Gift Card

Congratulations to #11, navalgazingbajan! You have 48 hours to respond to the email I sent you. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Weird Word Thursday: Vol. 5

I know word verification is not going away anytime soon, but I figure I can at least have a little fun with it. So, I present you with Weird Word Thursday. Each week, I will feature my favorite non-word from a captcha I've encountered and make up a definition. Why? Because like Anne J says "those anti-spam words [are] silly and amusing." This week...

Quitch [kwitch]
-verb
a mental irritation


Example: " Seeing boys with their pants hanging off their behinds makes me quitch."

Got a better definition? Leave it in a comment, no word verification required.