Make Me...

"Made me" I guess I should say. I was reading some archived entries on Birdie's blog and I found where she had posted this link: http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml . It's called Portrait Illustration Maker and what it does is allow you to kill WAY too much time making a virtual icon of yourself to post on blogs or put up as your icon on MSN Messanger, etc. You have several choices for each body part and you choose the ones you think resemble you most and then you can adjust them up or down and left to right to get your icon just right. This is about as close to me as I can get with this thing. I'm actually really liking it about now! Here I am:

Funky Flu

Just when I thought this week couldn't get any better, I discover that my babies are sick. Both of them. The littlest one caught IT first. She already had a runny nose and mild upset tummy due to the grand appearance of two molars and an eye tooth. Then ontop of that we discovered that she was running a mild lowgrade fever which we (at first) also assumed was due to the teething. So we just alternated infant Tylenol and Motrin around the clock every 6 hours until the fever had gone on it's not-so-merry way. However, we were surprised to notice the next morning that she had broken out in a rash from head to toe. It looked like a cross between Rosiola and Chicken Pox. They were small pinhead sized pink dots all over her body. When "A" was only 6 months old she had a similar rash as the result of the passing of a virus. We ALMOST took her to the doctor, but she was eating fine, playing fine, and no longer showed any signs of any of the previous symptoms so we decided that whatever virus it was that she had been hosting had already run it's course. And of course there is the fact that you can't do anything about a virus anyway other than treat the symptoms, because unlike a bacterial infection which can be cured with antibiotics, there is no cure for a virus...it just has to run its course. Two days later, "A's" rash was gone. We get up the next day and our three year old is complaining of a bad headache and running fever. Oh no! Not again! We break out the Children's Tylenol and Motrin again and start our little routine all over. Then I get a phone call from my brother-in-law whose home we had visited about a week before all this started, and he informs me that some of the kids his wife babysits had come down with this rare strain of the flu! I told him that "C" and "A" had also been sick. He said that Michelle (the kids' mom) had taken her daughter to the doctor when she complained of a severe headache and ran a lowgrade fever. The doctor told her that it was an unusual and mild variation of the flu virus, and that you just had to let it run it's course. He told her to alternate tylenol and motrin to ease the pain and keep the fever down, and not to be surprised if her daughter broke out in a rash after the fever broke. He also said that by the time the rash appears the child is no longer contagious. Bingo! The light bulb came on in my head. Guess that's where my kids got it from...(since we never go anywhere). The good news is that them getting this weak strain of the flu now, according to the pediatrician, make actually help them build an immunity and avoid the severe flu that goes around later in the season. That would be a most welcome benefit of this mild but annoying little virus!

Birth-month Myths...or not?

Hi All. Saw this and thought..how interesting. Got it from Kerry, who got it from Bea, who got it from....who knows...but it's kinda fun. The idea is to copy your birthmonth and use the strike through tags to cross out those phrase which do not apply to you. Then you either post it on your blog or email it to friends with the following link so that they can do the same! http://www.sdf-1.org/special/archives/000104.html. I am an October baby...my favourite season....FALL! :)


OCTOBER:Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to takes things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

The Avon Pimp

Ah..good 'ole Avon. Let me tell you what "they" have done to me now. Unwittingly they have turned a classy Avon lady into an Avon pimp. Allow me to explain myself. I was formally a member of district 1151 who followed the 'B Thursday' delivery schedule. For those of you who are not familiar with these terms, this means that my order was due in on Mondays and returned for delivery on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. First about a month ago I receive with my Avon shipment, this lovely little type-written letter explaining that I am one of the "lucky" representatives to be re-assigned to a new district. District 1152. I also have a new District Rep. whom I have yet to meet. I have no problem with this. That is fine. My problems begin with my current campaign - 18. You see, about two weeks after I received the letter detailing my new district assignment, I get ANOTHER letter. This one explains that my lovely, familiar as the scent of my husband's aftershave, comfortable as a pair of good worn sneakers, 'B Thursday' delivery schedule has also been changed. "NOoooo!" I cried. (And that was before I even realized the impact of this change). The letter stated that my new, anxious as the first day of school, scary as a hairdo from a new stylist, 'A- Week Monday' plan was to take effect with Campaign 19. I'm on Campaign 18 now. This means that according to my old schedule, my C18 order is due in by noon on September 6th and will arrive for delivery on September 8th. Well, my C19 order is now due at noon on Sept. 8th and will be back for delivery on Sept. 13th (due to the Labor Day Holiday). THIS means that my C19 order is due in before my C18 order even gets here! I was shorted 12 selling days of C19! "Why even place a C19 order" I asked myself. Then I read a few lines down. Apparently, if I turn in an order at all for C19, Avon will reward me with $50.00 sales credit per selling day lost. Wow...that's $600 much needed sales credit! So...now I have to figure out how to advertise, demo, and sell two campaigns at once since C18 and C19 will have to be turned in together. I'll be pushing Avon products like a pimp with an ugly hooker! As if my life weren't complicated enough already! Thanks Avon!

SSA - Solitaire Showdown Anonymous

Hi. I'm Dana and I'm an addict. That's right. I'll admit it. I'm addicted to this stupid online game called Solitaire Showdown. (You have to have MSN messanger to play against other people with MSN messanger). There I was..calmly chatting along with my sister on MSN messanger when all of a sudden this message pops up:

"so and so... has invited you to play SOLITAIRE SHOWDOWN. Do you accept? or decline?"

So I made the vital mistake of accepting. My sister and I played for hours. Literally. I think it was like two in the morning when finally we were forced to shut the computer down ending our game, due to the lack of motion and thus lubrication of our eyelids which caused them to become glued to our eyeballs. Not a pretty picture at all! We decided to meet online every night around 9:30 or 10:00 (well after my kids were in the bed) to play. Only now I have this problem. My sister...my only MSN Solitaire Showdown opponent has divorced me. Well, I guess technically we are "separated" but the little cheater is already "seeing other game opponents." Only not on MSN. NOooo...that's not good enough for her anymore. She has moved on to bigger better things. My rival? X-Box!

Hence, I am now putting out a singles ad, in search of a new MSN Solitaire Showdown companion. So if you have an MSN passport and would like to try this fun and addicting game, please leave me a post, email, or message me! I'm Englishrose7 on MSN!

Avon "Bites" the Dust

Wednesdays and Thursdays are typically what I refer to as my "Avon" days. I usually do a little bit of work every day: hand out some brochures, take a few orders, make some phone calls, etc. My new shipments come in on Wednesdays and so for the most part Wednesdays and Thursdays are devoted to bagging up orders, delivering them, handing out brochures for the upcoming campaign, and hopefully collecting several new orders as well. Not today. Why you ask? It all comes down to a tiny little thing called a tooth. Yes..I said a tooth. Just one. The catch is, it's the one tooth that my 12 month old daughter did not have yesterday but probably will have by tomorrow. Yep...you guessed it. We have "teething troubles." My normally happy-go-lucky, always smiling, never crying, bouncing baby girl has done a 360 into her evil "toothache twin." All day long she has been whiny and grumpy...not wanting to play, eat, or sleep. I picked her up...she cried to be put down. I put her down...she raised her arms to be picked up. The poor kid was miserable! She cried because she was hungry...then because she didn't feel like eating. She cried because she was sleepy, and then because she was in too much pain to sleep. Normally, teething does not affect her this way. She accumulated several teeth that my husband and I have no recollection of. She had two front teeth...then one day she had six! How or when they decided to arrive...we have no idea. However, the tooth she is cutting now is not a regular tooth. No..it's the Tyrannosaurus Tooth...a molar. This tooth makes a grand entrance unlike any other! It is accompanied on it's journey by a mild-mannered fever, and the not-so-dainty diarrhea. These three abhorrent amigos combine to make a very unhappy one year old, which in turn makes for a very unsuccessful Avon Lady day! Guess I'll have to put in some extra hours tomorrow. My husband will be home all weekend! TGIF! Thank God it's Friday? nope Toes Go in First? nope.... THANK GOD I'M FREE!

Time Flies and So Did I

Last minute gift buying,
Only 2 hours to spare.
I have on no makeup,
And I haven't brushed my hair.
With two little rugrats,
It's hard to be neat.
Oh, to heck with the touch-ups...
I have clock hands to beat!
Strapped the kids in their carseats,
And we're off like a flash.
Thank God for my charge card...
I'm all out of cash!
We arrive at the department store,
And stumble inside.
My one-year old is hungry...
"COOKIE" she cried!
Oh Great! Now her sister,
Is wanting one too.
As I did through my purse,
I hope this lollipop will do.
Down the lingerie aisle,
Past bras, hose, and thongs...
That go in your butt-crack,
Oh man! That's just wrong!
Past purses and jewelry
On our way to the men's clothes.
Where after an hour,
A warm-up jacket we chose.
Finally, we check out...
Charge it! I said.
Then we wrapped it, delivered it,
Ate dinner, and went to bed!

Another B'day Brain Fart!

Well Crap! I just missed my niece's b'day a few days ago and today (I just discovered) is the 17th of August which is, not so coincidentally, my dad's 50th birthday. I didn't forget. I swear I didn't. Well...not really anyway. I was perfectly clear on when his birthday is...just let it sneak up on me a whole lot sooner than I expected. Luckily, he doesn't get home from work today until 7:30 tonight. So my husband and I have about 4 hours to put our heads together and decide what in the world we get a 50 year old man who eats, sleeps, works, occasionally messes with the computer and frequently plays tennis but has everything he could possible want for that particular sport (and according to my Mom probably shouldn't have bought in the first place!) LOL. My mom and sister got him a cake and a computer game...so that takes care of the eating and computing part. Guess I'm stuck with the tennis. Dang! Now what? My brain is zapped from working on my online Avon ad most of the morning and I now find that I have reverted to "toddler talk." You know... the basic "see spot run" language that my kids understand completely and my husband is irritated by when I use it on him. (Sad thing is..it usually work better on him than the kids!) LOL Any good ...did I mention inexpensive...gift ideas? Come on..I've only got 4 hours!

A New Beginning

Well, here it is. My first attempt at what I only learned of yesterday... blogging. Stumbled upon a fellow Avon Lady (Birdie)'s blog and was fascinated, so I decided to attempt one of my own. Though I'm quite certain it won't be nearly as clever as hers, I hope you find it entertaining. We'll see how often I post entries on this thing. I'm afraid I am enthralled by many hobbies and activities, but alas there are only 24 hours in a day and most of those are filled with caring for my two precious daughters, doing housework, selling Avon, grocery shopping..etc. Hopefully this won't suffer the fate of some of my previous hobbies and fall by the wayside. I'm still learning..so please be patient with me!

God Bless!