The Tech Don...

UPDATE -- So, have gone over to visit them yet? They have some great reviews posted on phones, computers and more. Check it out and be sure to enter into the contest listed below if you haven't already. It ends tomorrow so get a move on it!

Hahaha! I finally found a site that feeds my inner geek and my inner nerd at the same time! the Tech Don looks like a mobster (a genre that fascinates me to no end...don't get me started) and talks about tech stuff via their web magazine which I love! Check it out.

The Tech Don is 1 month old and to celebrate they are giving away 3 laptops valued at $3,000 each. Oh count me in! They are giving away to 3 lucky lucky people their choice of some pretty impressive machines (excuse my drool).

The winners get to choose from:

A compact, ultraportable, lightweight 1.72 pound Toshiba Portege R500-S5004 that features a 12.1″display and it’s the world’s thinnest notebook. (small but seriously kick booty)

Their second laptop is for gamers. The Dell XPS M1730 has good looks and amazing performance.

And last but certainly not least (and I think my favorite) is a monster laptop, a portable entertainment center, a HP HDX with a 20.1″display. This big baby is really amazing. Although it’s not portable like a normal laptop (it weights almost 16 pounds) this HDX features a True HD 1080p display and more.

You seriously need to check these out so head on over (via my link above) and get to drooling on your own keyboard before you short mine out! What are you waiting for? Go. Shoo. Be gone. Oh and if you win remember to invite me over to break your knee caps and steal my new toy! Oops, there goes my mobster side (I tried to warn you). Sorry!

A Papasan Chair is the WORST! Get me a LoveSac Baby!

Non-Sequiter of the day! Ok so I used to have a Papasan chair and while I admit they look cool the truth is that they suck for those of us who are not "coordinated" and graceful. Those of you who know me know that while I may portray the beauty and grace of a ballerina in my mind I in all reality I am about as graceful as a Rhino. Especially when it comes to stairs. Suffice it to say, I have learned how to tuck and roll to save my head on the way down. Trust me here...it works!

At any rate, most of you may not know that my lack of grace also extends to furniture that is balanced precariously on a stand. Several years ago when I was an apartment dweller I owned such a piece of furniture. Long story short (too late) I had just gotten out of the shower, gotten dressed and put on my "pretty face" (make-up). I decided to settle into my Papasan Chair to enjoy a nice cold coke and a good book. I sat, pulled up my legs and proceeded to topple completely over in the friggin' chair. The soda hit the deck with me and then shot straight up into my face and up my nose. NICE! That chair was history. It wasn't that it just happened this one time, it was that this was something like my 7th or 8th time. WTFront Door???

What would have served me better then as well as now was/is a LoveSac. I have tried them at the mall and I love them. You could lose yourself in one and since it is on the ground I am much less likely to crash on my butt in one! Pingandwin is having a giveaway for one lucky person(read ME) to win a SuperSac and I really really want to win one. Head over to Ping and Win by clicking on the header above for the link and check it out!

Happy Adversary to Us!

I am going to pat myself on the back a little today so you will have to indulge me.

What is my pat-worthy item you may be asking yourself?

Well, it is none other than my 12th Wedding Adversary which we are celebrating today!

Adversary??? Let me explain. We call it our Adversary because we believe that we are both worthy Adversaries of one another! We are constantly challenging one another and usually in good ways, though not always (it is marriage afterall and even a bed of roses is bound to have a thorn or two in the mix every now and then). But hey...a challenge is a challenge and like I said, he is a worthy adversary so I am honored to have been with him for so many years.

Another pat worthy note is that this year also marks our 17th year as a couple. That means that I have been with my husband for half my life. This is an accomplishment I am very proud of.

Always remember that I love you sweetie! Happy Adversary!

I do have another pat worthy anniversary to share and this one involves my 2 BFF's. We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary as friends. It is strange to think it has only been a year but we really just hit it off almost instantly and we have spent an untold and to be honest almost insane amount of time together since. We have slowly started to grow our trio and I think our newest additions are very complimentary to our dynamic so I am excited to see what the future holds for our little group. It really is a blessing to have such amazing and supportive friends and it is no small miracle that all of our kids get along famously. Whew!

So Happy Adversary to my BFF's B & H. I love you both.

Happy Easter To My Peeps!

I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter!

We had a great time at the Mackey's 2nd Annual Easter Party & Egg Hunt! There were tons of people and a gaggle of kids but it all seemed to flow together with ease. No fights, few tears and lots and lots of laughter. That is what being with friends is all about!

Here are a few more cute pictures of Bailey in her Easter finery. Enjoy!

Ugh...Where are my comments????

***UPDATE*** Being a constant button pusher (masher as my DH calls me) I knew I would eventually either stumble upon the answer or break Blogger completely as is my talent. Thankfully I fixed myself instead of taking down poor Blogger! Go me! :-)

However I lost all of my neat customizations in the fix so... :-( Back to the drawing board for now. Sorry...you will all just have to email me your comments until I can figure this out.

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This is so frustrating. My comments just up and disappeared on me and I cannot get them back. If you can help please send me an email because I am at a total loss now.

My programmer friends always came to me to test their software because I have this knack for breaking code without even trying. Looks like I am at it again!

H*E*L*P!!!

Update on Beauty to the RESCUE

I just wanted to thank all of you who participated in the event and helped to make it such a success. We raised $13,000 for the cats and dogs in our system. Every penny raised at this event goes directly to the care and support of the many many homeless dogs and cats we have rescued from the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control Facilities here in the valley. These sweet little furry balls of love are waiting in our system for their forever homes to come along and thanks to you and your support they can rest a little more comfortably with food, medical care and shelter paid for. Rest assured that we do not euthanize our rescues but keep them safe and healthy until we are able to find them the most perfect of homes to live out the rest of their sweet lives.

If you are interested in supporting this great cause please head over to www.azrescue.com and remember to Adopt - Donate - Volunteer! If you are not from here then please do a search on local shelters in your area and find a way to give back to those who love you unconditionally. I promise that it will change you forever (in a good way)!

I was tagged...

So here I was minding my own business and surfing the web (hard to believe...I know) when suddenly I hear a chime. EMAIL! I alt-tab over to check it out and find that I have been tagged by one of my bestest friends Becky at Becky's Bits and Piecing! This is new to me but I am always up for a little fun and games so here we go.

Here are the rules:

1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself
4. Name 7 of your favorite weblogs
5. Send an e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged

About me...
1) I have been married for 12 years this month and with my husband for 17 this year. That means I have been with him for half of my life.

2) I have one child and by the look of things she will remain an only child. I love my 4 year old daughter, she is my pride (most days) but I am getting older and so is she. I am starting to wonder at what point is it too late to add another one to the mix without destroying the balance? What are your thoughts?

3) I have a needle phobia. It got better with hypnotherapy during my pregnancy but it came back several months after delivery. It is not as severe as it once was because I can actually talk about needles now without having to throw up (no joke) but it is still bad enough I will refuse treatment at an ER if it involves a needle. I am considering hypnotherapy again in hopes that it will stick a little better the second time around!

4) I am the youngest of 7 kids. I have 4 sisters an 2 brothers and not one single family member living in the same state.

5) I am a momma's girl. I call and talk to my mom every single day. If I am having a horrible day all I need to do is call her and just hearing her say Hello settles me down. My ringtone for her is Breathe by Anna Nalick because talking to her reminds me to Just Breathe when I am having one of those days.

6) Despite my very social nature I have a very small circle of friends. I hold them near and dear to my heart and will do most anything for those few I consider real friends. I try to let my friends and family know how special they are to me because of this. I do believe it is important to not let things go unsaid when it comes to the special people in your life. So to the ladies in my life (you know who you are) I want to let you know that I love you guys (gals?) and you are the best friends a girl could have! Thanks. :-)

7) I have Dishues. That is to say that I have issues with doing the dishes. I cannot stand to have my hands in a sink of dirty dishes (dishwater). Especially if it is cold...that just makes me gag. I will do the dishes but the water has to be running not standing. I am not sure what my deal is but I have always been that way (ask my dad). Growing up in California made dishes a problem for me because they were always telling you to conserve (and I agree we should) plus my dad works in water reclaimation so he is big on low water usage. I would volunteer to mow our massive lawn instead of doing dishes. I would offer to wash cars instead of doing dishes. I probably would have offered to get my teeth pulled (as long as no needles were involved) instead of doing dishes. Like I said, I have Dishues.

As for 7 of my favorite sites...well just check out the Relief From My Reality section and you will find them (I believe in working smarter not harder)!

Now I am supposed to tag some others but like I said, my circle is small so I would just be repeating what Becky already did so I will skip this part for now. If you read this and would like me to tag you please leave me a comment and I will get my hand over to your shoulder for a quick tag (and my eyes to your blog for a great read). Thanks and I hope I didn't scare you off!

Beauty to the RESCUE

This coming Sunday is the big event so be sure to mark your calendars and come on out for some pampering and good cause.

Check it out here... www.AZRESCUE.com

This is the Dog & Cat Rescue group I used to volunteer 40+ hours a week with on top of my full time job before I became a mom. I am not able to devote that kind of time to it any longer and sadly I have developed some pretty gnarly cat allergies since I had my daughter so I can no longer foster cats/kittens in my home. Dogs are not a fostering option with a young child since they are all Euthanasia list (pound) rescues and are unknown entities making it too great a risk for both dog and child. For this reason RESCUE does not allow it and I must confess this is something I admire about the group. They do not treat their volunteers with disregard for safety and they do not treat their rescues with disregard for safety either. That is what sets them apart from many other groups I have worked with and it is why I would highly recommend them to anyone for volunteer work and adoption.

At any rate, one of the biggest fund raisers of the year is happening this coming weekend - Sunday, March 9, 2008 at The Mane Attraction Salon on 32nd & Camelback. It is always loads of fun and with live music you can't beat it for a Sunday afternoon. I hope you can make it out. The stylists are second to none and for a mere $30 donation you can get the most amazing Hair Cut of your life. Believe me...I know!

I hope to see you there! Again, stop by www.azrescue.com for more information on this great event and this wonderful group.

Namaste.

Nice Weekend...

So I had a very nice weekend. I spent all of it with my daughter and several of my BFF's. I got some much needed progress done on my table runner which I have named Sew In Hell (so in hell...get it) because I feel like I am SO IN HELL when I work on it. The pattern is lovely and the finished product is something I am satisfied with (although I am not totally finished with it), but the instructions were written by Big Footed Leprechauns who have clearly never read them back once they put them together. If it were not for B, I would have quit sewing because of this project! Thanks B!

I also got the chance to stock up on some good Karma by helping H & R out. They needed some together time so I babysat their 2 kids allowing them to go on an all important and much needed date. It was nice to be able to just help a friend. Sadly my Karma went south when my daughter woke up just after they got home and panicked so badly about being in a strange place upon waking that she peed on their bed...and on me! Well to be honest, I was already a mess from Little Lord of the Diapers projectiling his medicine all over me so it was just par for the course. Thankfully H & R planned ahead with kids of their own and have a cover for their mattress. I would never have been able to live with myself otherwise. Ugh...so as the saying goes...No good deed goes unpunished and I think I paid a little extra for this one. Maybe next time I will get off a little lighter. One can hope.

Today I spent the day with H and we were just able to visit while the girls played (and argued as they tend to do now and then). Little Lord of the Diapers showed his great cleaning prowess thanks to an open baby gate. Did I mention he also earned the title of Little Lord of the Diapers today because he busted out an awesome Lord of the Dance move on H & I this evening!??! It is times like this you wish you could rewind real life and watch it all over again.

All in all it was a very good weekend and one I would most certainly like to repeat (with some minor exceptions of course). Thanks to all for the much needed girl bonding. Let's do it again sometime soon.