Guest Blogger Brandi

As promised I begged and pleaded asked my friend Brandi to write a guest post. She is the proud Mommy of four beautiful children, so as you can imagine she has some pretty funny "Mommy Stories" to share. So pour a cup of coffee/tea/hot coco, sit back and realx, and enjoy a few funny stories. Hopefully you will soon see why I love this girl so much!

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Hi I'm Brandi, our friend Jennie here has asked me to be a guest um... blogger? I've never blogged before so bear with me please.

First of all I'd like to tell u a little bit about our friendship. I've been friends with Jennie now since the 4th grade. We have been through a lot together, and I wouldn't take back a minute of it. We have one of those rare friendships that, when I look back over it at anytime I am guaranteed to bust out in hysterical laughter, of course this always seems to happen in public (I get strange looks daily). Some of my fondest memories are of us driving around in her car doing absolutely nothing and having a blast!

Jennie suggested that I tell some war stories about being a mom/domestic engineer (that’s fancy for housewife. I always add in monkey wrangler to the occupation slot :D). Since I am blessed with four kids she figured I had plenty to share, so here goes, sorry if I bore you to tears!

Ok Lily, sweet Lily, is my oldest child and the most outgoing! She is beautiful and energetic in every sense of the word. When she was almost 2 she had her first time-out. I don't remember why she was in time-out, but I will never forget what happened in the next few minutes. I stuck her nose in the corner told her to stay and went off to finish the dishes. A few minutes later I returned to free her from her "prison" and saw she was still in the corner! As I walked towards her; I have to admit I was praising myself for raising such an obedient child that stays when she told at such a young age and reveling over what a smart child she was I saw it.
“Lily what’s this?"
"Happy stinky!" she replied with pride blazing on her face.
"Where did you get a hold of a brown marker?" I asked.
"Poopy!"She beamed back.
In the total of 3 minutes this girl was in the corner she managed to poop her diaper, deduce how to get it out and then proceed to paint her artful vision of happy in the medium of fecal matter all over my white wall! In case you didn't already know this Windex will clean just about anything.

Next up Andrew! Andrew is reserved but very handsome and something surprising will always come out of his mouth. One day I had returned from Wal-Mart with new tighty whiteys for him. Expecting the "Oh! Mom! underwear? Where's my toy?" response, I got the exact opposite... "Oh thank you, thank you Momma now I can be a super hero!"
Shocked and somewhat speechless over the reaction I watched him scuttle off into the house happily clutching his new undies. Soon he returned outside clad in nothing but aforementioned new undies and a red hanky tied cape style around his neck, he hopped around the corner hands on his hips and announced
"I'm Tighty Whitey Boy and I'll save the day!" (I may or may not have peed my own pants from laughing so hard).
Mine and Jennie's following week was decorated with random Tighty Whitey Boy jokes.

Abby is the most quiet of the four, she is so sweet and gentle in everything she does. I had made gummy worms one day and completely amazed she asked me
"How you do that Mommy?"
"Magic" I answered
"Wow!"
About a week later when the last gummy worms had been eaten of course Abby comes and asks for one.
"Gummy worm please Mommy?"
"They're all gone darlin' I will have to make some more."
Thinking the conversation was over I returned to my task, after about 5 minutes I turned around to find her still staring at me.
"Abby honey what are you doing?"
"You have to say Abra-Dabra-Gummy Worm!" and that’s when I learned that she takes me way too seriously.

Michael is the baby he is rough and tough and hardly anything stops him. No certain story has popped up in my mind for him but, I will tell you the kid runs fast, I mean fast. He is 19 months old and when he runs I believe he is literally defying the laws of physics. The way he wabbles the kid should live with his nose in the dirt. When he screams (he is in the fit-pitching stage) someone always yells "The tea is ready!" But he loves his hugs and kisses and his food and I wouldn’t expect anything less!

I think I was supposed to tell The Waterpik Story but this thing is already too long its even annoying me. Thanks for reading!

I'm Baaa-aack!

Wow.

It has been a long time. I am what my IRL* friend Micah called a Slogger. A slacker blogger.

*In real life

I wish I had some really exciting story to explain my absence, but I don't. So this post is to play catch-up. So bare with me here, while we get caught up on a few things.

First of all, Monday was my Birthday. I am officially an old woman. Let me prove this theory. I went to some semi-local shopping outlets with my Mom on Monday to go shopping and find a new wardrobe. I shopped about 1284 stores, just knowing that I was going to go home with a completely glamorous wardrobe. I tried on outfit after outfit just knowing that "this one" was it. I also came home empty handed. Call me crazy, but I don't like any of the new styles out right now. There is just something about the "homeless logger" look that is not appealing to me. Five years ago I would have worn it anyways because that is what was in style. Now that I am an old woman, I chose to come home with no new clothes.

Second we have been hit. It crept in on us like a thief in the night. Silent. Harsh. Unrelenting. Unforgiving. It is the Swine Flu, and it is evil. I picked up Zachary from the babysitter on a Sunday night. He woke up that night with a 104 temp. I took him to the Doctor on Monday morning and they confirmed my suspicions. Positive Group A Flu Test...aka H1N1. We were house ridden for three days. He was so sick it was pitiful!

Third I finally got to meet my niece. She is so much more beautiful than I ever thought. I have enjoyed every minute with her. I will ask you guys to pray for my brother-in-law because he leaves for Iraq on Tuesday. She in her Mom (my sister) will be coming home to stay while he is away. I can't say that I'm sad about that, but I do ask that you pray for his safety while he is away, and for my sister to have strength since she will be a single mom for a while.

I also have a few other request. My friend Angie announced this week that she is pregnant again. Please join me in praying for her and her family. I believe that not one person in this "blogasphere" does not know how the last pregnancy ended. So please pray for a healthy pregnancy, and baby.

Also I am sure we all know Stellan's Story. He is in the hospital again with SVT and is not doing well at all. Please pray for his recovery, and Jennifer's strength and peace at this very difficult time.

And finally, be sure to check back in with me tomorrow, because I will have a guest blogger. I have asked my best friend Brandi to share some of her "Mommy Stories" with us all. I'm sure with four kids she has plenty. Please drop by tomorrow and show Brandi how loving my Lovelies are!

I think we are all caught up now. It was good to talk to you all again. I promise to do better.

Talk to y'all tomorrow!

Whatever Happened To The Customer Is Always Right?

I have noticed something over the past few weeks. Something that actually disturbes me a little. You may have noticed this too.



Customer Service Is Dead My Friends!!



I have worked with the public since I was 16 years old. One thing that was (painfully) drilled into my head was "Make the customer happy" or "The customer is always right".



Well much to my dismay, those days are long gone.



Take for instance the lady at the checkout that was on her cell phone the entire time she was checking me out. Never spoke to me, not even once! But I can say that she is going to buy her husband a new pair of shoes for his birthday next week! I'm glad, I was worried my bothering her to want to pay for my merchandise would doom her husband to walking around barefoot, and I would just never forgive myself.





Or a different cashier at a different store who let out a blood curling scream right in the middle of checking me out, and went running to the other end of the room. I was shocked! I checked to make sure I didn't have some kind of monster hanging out of my nose, or that Zach didn't let out some sort of atomic bomb in his pants. When I was sure that I didn't cause the little breakdown she came back to explain that a spider crawled across her register. A little melodramatic?



Then there was the guy at the hardware store. I asked him where something was, and I was told if I would look "down that way" I would see it. Since I came to him from "down that way" and didn't see it, that may be why I was asking for assistance.



Call me old fashioned, but I'm not giving these people my money to be treated like I'm bothering them!! What happened to the days of old when people would pump your gas for you? Or come to you while you are shopping to ask if you need help finding something? Or, at the least, GET OFF THE PHONE while they are waiting on you?

I'm curious, do you have any bad experiences to share?