Winter Blast 2011 - Round #3

As I write this a third winter storm is bearing down on Oklahoma. It was only one week ago that Tulsa got the largest snowfall in a single day that we've ever had. The previous record (set in 1994) was 12.9". In a 24 hour period, we received 14". Strangely enough (which really isn't so strange now that I think about it... it's pretty typical for Oklahoma to have wild temperature swings because we're located right along the jet stream) two days before this storm, we had balmy temperatures reaching 76 degrees. I worked in my yard, prepping the vegetable garden area for spring. I was ready to break out the sunscreen. Then we were thrown into the deep freeze. Our high temperature was 10 degrees and winds were blowing at 35mph (-15 degree windchill). It was officially a blizzard!



Of course Scott and I get out and do our best to clear the snow from our very steep driveway. On day 1 after the storm, Scott manages to clear one pathway from the top to the bottom of the driveway. This took one hour. On day 2, the same. On day 3 our next door neighbor, whom we share a driveway with, came out to help (which he might as well have just stayed inside drinking a beer for all that he did). On day 4, Scott knocked out most of the driveway and I helped a little there as well as doing the path from the front door to the mailbox. So, about the time that I finish the path from the front door, it starts to snow... and snow... and snow. Our weathermen (who are generally very accurate) predicted that we would get a dusting of snow. Well, 5+ hours later, we had another 3.5" which totally destroyed any work that Scott and I had just done. I guess I shouldn't be complaining too much. I did get a good workout.



So, I'll try and sum this story up... We were all trapped in our house. Scott was able to work from home which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good that he doesn't have to drive in to work, bad because this means I have to keep the kids quiet (good luck with that) while he's on conference calls and bad because I can't get on the computer or watch TV. I know, I know... I should find something constructive to do with my time (like baking or cleaning or something...whatever). On day 3 post-snow we started to run out of milk and desperation was beginning to set in. Scott made it out to get groceries and came home safely. On day 4 post-snow, Scott went over to check on our old house to make sure the pipes hadn't burst or anything. On day 5 post-snow I couldn't stand it anymore... I had to get out... somewhere... anywhere! So, we loaded up the kids and went out to eat and then we went to get some more milk. Fun stuff! Up to this point, I hadn't seen any other adults besides Scott for days!





Needless to say, I've had it with snow for the rest of the year. As of today, school has been out for 6 consecutive days and after we receive this next round of snow... which is supposed to be 5-10", I'm assuming school will probably be closed for the rest of the week. That's epic! I heard a weatherman say that 17.5" is twice the amount of snow we receive in an entire year! If we receive only 3 more inches of snow, it will be the snowiest season in Oklahoma on record since they started keeping records 100 years ago! Oklahomans are just not used to this kind of weather. We can't drive in it. We obviously aren't prepared for it. I mean, for Pete's sake... we didn't get mail for 5 days and we haven't had trash service for a week (my trash is out today, but it remains to be seen if it will actually be picked up!). At this point, I think I'll just opt out of the snow thank you very much!

So, on a lighter note... it was beautiful. That can't be denied. And I didn't really have to drive in it, which is another plus. So, maybe it really isn't that bad. No... who am I kidding?! I'm going nuts inside my own house! All I want my sanity back!

Time stops for no man (er... or woman!)

Well, I'm a little disappointed in myself. I had grand ideas of blogging on a regular basis if for no other reason than to keep a running journal of little things happening in my life. I guess that didn't happen now did it?? I looked at the last journal date (well, the last one before my previous post) and it's been almost 2 years since my last post!! I would like to say I took a haitus or something, but really I guess I was just lazy. Did I not have anything going on in my life? Nothing to say you ask? Ummm... not entirely. We bought a new house... that's pretty monumental I'd say! My daughter has started school. A few things. I read my old posts (and I have to say it didn't take long!) and I did enjoy reading them. So... I, Dayna Karas, do solemly swear, to do my best to post to my blog as frequently as I can. In sickness and in health. In good times and in bad... blah, blah, blah... We'll see!

Sofie Rose's Big Day Out

The weather has started to turn warm here over the last several days, so I thought it would be a good idea to air the kids out a bit and go outside. Since we have the new house, I really enjoy being outside and working in the yard. I was pulling vines out of an overgrown section of the yard when something ran up to me. I looked down and it was a Cairn Terrier. Those of you that know me have heard me talk about the two dogs I had when I was a kid. Both of them I loved dearly and both of them were Cairn Terriers (Tasha and Cassie). What are the odds of this particular type of dog wandering into our yard? I looked at her and she looked a whole lot like my dog Cassie. It was uncanny. The only noticeable difference was that she had a stubby tail (usually for that breed the tail is kept long). I also noticed that she had no collar, although it looked like her fur had an indention of where a collar might have been before. She was a bit skiddish and ran away when I bent down to pet her. She seemed harmless enough, so I wasn't too concerned that she would be agressive towards the kids. They were enjoying chasing after her and everyone was having fun.




I went back to pulling weeds thinking that she would probably go back home or wander away eventually. Well, we were outside for a good hour and a half. The dog would wander away to explore, then she would dart back and run up to the kids or to myself to be pet. By this time she was comfortable with all of us and she would come up to us with her ears back against her head to show she was ready to play. I couldn't figure out how old she was, but I knew she had some puppy left in her because she was darting around and jumping off of high places in our yard. It reminded me of how my dogs used to be. I kept thinking to myself there would be no way that my dogs would have stuck around (with no fence to contain them) for this long. They would have bolted long before now. They also would have barked at anything that moved. I never heard this dog bark. That's pretty amazing for a Cairn Terrier!




Well, it was starting to get dark and it was getting colder. I was sure the dog was probably hungry. I decided to take her inside and give her a bath. About this time, my husband came home. The dog liked him too. She obviously wasn't afraid of men as some dogs are. I asked Scott if he would mind going to get a small bag of dog food while I gave the dog a bath. The kids and I took the dog in and gave her a bath. She sat perfectly still. Again, I'm having flashbacks to my dogs and how they did NOT like to have baths. They would pace the bathtub and claw at the sides of the tub to get out. This dog stayed in one spot while I shampooed her. Amazing! What a well behaved dog she was. I noticed that she had been well taken care of. She smelled as if she might have had a flea dip fairly recently. Her toenails were a little long, but it's very hard to cut Cairn's toenails correctly without cutting them to the quick, so I can understand having a professional do that. After all the shampooing, I dried her fur with a hairdryer.

Now that she was all clean, I decided to let her wander around the house. For some reason, from her disposition alone and how well behaved she had been, I didn't have any problems letting her explore the house by herself. I assumed she was housebroken, which she was. The kids enjoyed following her around and making a dog bed for her.




Scott came back and we poured some dog food and water into two plastic tupperware containers. She drank some water, but when it came time to eat some food, she would nose the bowl like she was trying to turn it upside down. It was only when I put a few kernels out on the floor that she would eat it. We ended up giving her a few pieces of chicken as well, which she gladly ate.

It was time for the kids to go to bed and they were fighting us all the way. There was way too much excitement with a dog in the house to go to bed after all! We finally got them to go to bed and for the first time, the dog was able to relax (because no one was following her!). She lay down nicely at the foot of our bed as if she had done it a hundred times before.

At 9pm I figured she hadn't gone to the bathroom since we brought her inside at 5:30pm. I decided to take her out one last time before settling in. I took her outside and immediately I heard someone yelling... "Sophie... Sophie...". I looked out the gate and saw someone driving in their SUV in our cul-de-sac. I immediately yelled out... "Did you lose a dog?". I was thinking that I would put up flyers around the neighborhood the following morning. I had taken some pictures of the dog for just this very purpose. I took the dog down the street where the car was and immediately, the woman inside yelled "Oh Sophie!" and began to cry. She told me that she had been driving around and looking for Sophie for her parents who lived 2 streets away. Her mother and father just had to put their other older dog down this morning and in the chaos of the day Sophie got out. Because they were so distraught about putting down their other dog, they didn't notice that Sophie was gone until maybe 6pm. She had been reluctant to come down our street because it was dark, but she decided to try and that happened to be the exact time that I came outside with the dog. It almost seems like destiny. I told her that Sophie had been a perfect guest. She wanted to get my name and phone number because she was certain her mother would want to call and thank me.

Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, Sophie's owner called me. She was an older lady and we talked about 30 minutes. I told her that Sophie was a wonderful dog and that my kids really enjoyed her visit. She mentioned that Sophie was rescued from an animal shelter when she was just 6 months old. She was now 6 years old (older than I had expected). She told me that Sophie didn't like to wear a collar while in the house, so they usually took it off (she had been stamped for identification). She was the apple of this woman's eye you could tell (in fact, she said her full name was Sophie Rose!) and she told me that it would have gone down as one of her worst days if she would have lost both her dogs on the same day (Sophie and the one she had to put down).

Some things are meant to be I suppose. The Cairn that found our family made me remember how great it is to have a dog around (and I didn't even have to potty train her or anything!). The kids were great with her and she was great with them. Maybe someday when our kids are a bit older we'll get a dog. We have lots of things to get in order before that day comes however (we have to get a fence for one thing!). I briefly thought about what would have happened if Sophie had never been claimed. Would we have kept her? After all, she was such a great dog and I did have experience with Cairns. Would we have given her up to an animal shelter or a rescue foundation? I guess we'll never know. I just knew that someone must have been very sad to be without her and I was right. In the end, I'm so glad we found her family. As I told her owner, Sophie can come and visit us any time!

So, what do you think? Do these dogs look alike? The picture on the top is Sophie and the picture below that one is Cassie.




And here's a picture of my two, very loved, Cairn Terriers. Tasha is on the left and Cassie is on the right (she was just a puppy in this picture). The girls liked to forage around for goodies under my brother's bed (hence the mess).

Do You Realize?? (Part II)

Well, one would have thought that Oklahomans had spoken when over half of the votes cast for selecting the new Oklahoma state song chose the Flaming Lips "Do You Realize??". Of course politics had to get in the way of democracy...

I must say I thought it was a done deal and I wasn't aware that there would be a vote with representatives at the state capitol for this. Apparently there were several lawmakers that were offended by the band itself - what they wore, how they conduct themselves, etc. - and they voted to block "Do You Realize??" from becoming the state song.

It really peeves me sometimes when people start to judge one another on the basis of what they wear or how they speak. I have definitely met some of the strangest, toughest looking people (goth-inspired Cure fans, bikers, etc.) that are the kindest most affable people you'll ever meet. I never judge a person based on such superficial things. Dig a little deeper and you'll usually find that you may even have something in common with someone who does not come from your background or has different beliefs. I digress...

So, I guess the to-be new state song was, in fact, voted down... but in stepped the calvary! Oklahoma's governor overstepped the vote and signed it into effect anyway! Swwwwweeet!!

Read all about it here and here.

Winter Wonderland

Well, here it is, the beginning of Spring and we're having another round of Winter weather! Last week it was warm and we were all enjoying being outside. Yesterday, in a matter of 8 hours, we had 8 inches of snow on the ground! What a difference a day can make. It was the strangest weather system I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot of strange weather in Oklahoma). In the state of Oklahoma, simultaneously in one day, the northwest part of the state had blizzard conditions, the south part of the state had flood warnings, the southeast part of the state had a tornado, and here in the northeast part of the state, we were having thunder and lightning WHILE it was snowing!! Very apocalyptic!

We had a heavy, wet snow and for a while Scott and I thought our tree in the front yard wouldn't make it because it was literally bent over and touching the ground. I was so sure it would just snap off and break at any moment. Luckily, it made it through ok.

I was actually hoping that the kids would get to experience a little snow this season (not just ice). The only other "snow" we've had this Winter was an inch of sleet (and nothing you could make a snowman with). We all went out while it was still snowing (it seemed it would never stop!) and played around in the snow.

Parker was the first to go out and he immediately wanted to go back inside. By this time, we had about 6 inches of snow and it came up to his knees. Needless to say, he could barely move and it wasn't much fun for him. Morgan loved the snow and she didn't want to go back inside. She and I stayed out a bit longer and made snowballs and a mini-snowman that was about a foot and a half tall (mommy didn't have all day to make a snowman, so we had to make a miniature version). I would say that everyone had a fun time.

This is the kind of snow that I love. The kind that comes on a weekend (when I don't need to drive anywhere) and doesn't interfere with my plans. I can enjoy it and then in a couple of days, it's gone! That's the best!

A Good Ol' Texas Boy

My uncle sent me this link today. My grandpa has been featured in an article for his local newspaper. He does woodcarving as a hobby and he's loves to share it with others.

I remember staying at my grandparents house for a couple of weeks one summer. During that particular summer, my grandpa decided to teach me how to woodcarve. He gave me a little pocket knife and a block of wood with a bird sketched on it. He worked with me and worked with me to show me all of his tricks of the trade. My carving left a little to be desired, but he praised me on what a great job I did. I never forgot that.

My grandpa has many great carvings to his name (that have many admirers). Among them are a set of ice block holders. I don't know how to describe this to you other than it looks like a huge set of plier-type things with chains connecting the handles. It was a tool they used way back when to carry ice blocks in to people's early refrigerators. The cool thing about it is, he carved the whole pliers and chains out of one continuous piece of wood (and it's huge)!! Another famous piece of his is a 2ft+ tall carving of a bull. He carved it out of a wood that is extremely hard (maybe walnut??) and that's what made it so special. You can see it in the background of this picture (it's the large, black woodcarving in the back).



He also carved the now infamous set of working pipe wrenches in all sizes (mentioned in the article... and yes, you can actually turn the screw on each of the wrenches and they will open and close the mouth of the wrench... incredible!!). This carving I'm sure is willed to either my father or my uncle. That's why he would never sell it to anyone... not even the Smithsonian (see article)!



And of course, some of my personal favorites are my grandpa's own little creation. I don't even know what you want to call it, but he carves balls inside of a cage of wood. These balls will move around, but never fall out. Every time I ever attempted to carve one of these, I would find myself with an empty cage... but no ball! This is one he carved for me to hang from the rear-view mirror of my car when I turned 16!



I've learned so much from my grandpa over the years. It still amazes me today what a wonderful storyteller he is. He can make anyone feel right at home with his "Good Ol' Texas Boy" charm! I'm so happy that he's MY grandpa!!

What's In A Name?

I was watching a show with my kids the other day and as the credits were rolling, a name caught my eye and it made me laugh. What was it you ask?? Well, it was Debby Derryberry (sorry Debby if you are the one person on earth who happens to actually READ this blog!). I just had to think that this woman probably was harassed on a regular basis simply because of her interesting name.

I too was one of those uniquely named people. I wouldn't say I was harassed per se, but my name was one that caught the attention of people on occasion. My maiden name was Dayna Abell. Of course I would get the "Dayna is dis-Abell-ed"... or the ever-so-popular... "Dayna... what are you ABELL to do??". My dad had a boat that he called "Ready, Willing, And Abell". So, of course, I've heard that one too! People would always have a hard time pronouncing my last name. I always thought it was straightforward, but then again, I was born with that name and it seemed normal enough to me.

As for my first name... people always want to spell it Dana (or oddly enough Danya... I never quite got that one!). I suppose I can understand that. I mean, I've only met 1 other Dayna who spelled their name the same as mine. As a child I used to hate my name. I asked my mom over and over if I could change it. Don't laugh, but I wanted to call myself Candy. I can just see how that would go over today. Talk about ridicule!! Now that I'm all grown up, I love my name and how it's spelled. It's a little different and I believe that sets me apart just a little from the norm (and that's the way I like it!).

Now that I'm married, I have a new name and a new set of mispronunciations. Karas seems to be another hard one for people to say. I always have to say... "It's Karas... like caraff of wine...". About that time people will look at me like I'm on something and say... "Oooohhhh" (like they're pretending to understand it)!

Oh well, the people who know me, know my name... and that's all that matters right? Because after all, what's in a name?

Today Is The Greatest...

Well, to quote the Smashing Pumpkins song, "Today"... "Today is the greatest..."! It's officially still winter in Oklahoma and it's 85 degrees today (30 degrees above normal!)! Warm weather just makes me feel giddy... like I need to be sipping a cocktail by the pool and listening to some Bob Marley! I even hinted to my husband that he should try to take off a little bit early from work (here's hoping!)...

The kids and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and play outside for a bit. They love to be outside. Morgan immediately will go out and pick a handful of weeds... ok, "flowers" if you must call them that! Ha! Parker likes to take all the balls we own outside. Bouncing balls. Footballs. T-Balls. Everything! Ahhh... but I love it. That's what being a mommy is all about!

We brought out mommy's special "bubble-gun". It automatically shoots out more bubbles than I could possibly ever blow in my lifetime (and all in a matter of seconds). The kids love it. They run all around trying to catch them. Isn't technology wonderful?

I thought I'd share a few pictures from our time outside in the wonderful outdoors! Enjoy... and I hope the weather is as enjoyable in your part of the world!

Do You Realize??

Well, congratulations to Oklahoma's very own, The Flaming Lips! Their alt-rock song, "Do You Realize??" has been chosen as Oklahoma's State Rock Song!



I read the headlines on my Yahoo page this morning and in the entertainment section, I saw this article. I had heard, about 3 months ago, that there were 10 songs that Oklahomans could vote for as their State Rock Song. As much as I was hoping The Flaming Lips would win, I didn't actually think they would. I mean, if you think about it, this state is not really a haven for alternative bands. The article even said that they received 51% of the votes. That's incredible! Congratulations to The Flaming Lips!

On a side note, a few years ago, The Flaming Lips had a street named after them in Oklahoma City (that's where the band is from). I was able to take this picture of the street sign. This one is located right next to the Bricktown Ballpark in Downtown OKC.



If you'd like to listen to a little clip of Oklahoma's new State Rock Song, click here. If you would like to learn more about The Flaming Lips, you can visit their website.

I Hate Spammers!!

Well, I've been working really hard to get our Karas Family Blog page up and running. I've been trying to "upgrade" the website with things that I may implement on my other web site A Foolish Arrangement (for the band, The Cure). Some of these things are guestbooks, slide shows, being able to leave comments for pictures, and even voting on pictures. I'm trying to build them where they can be used across both sites (so I program it to be somewhat generic... which takes a little longer to do.).

Anyway, I had a guestbook on my Cure website that was free and through a third-party website. I decided it was time I build my own guestbook because I don't like having to depend on other people's code to run my site, not to mention they pop up stupid advertisements, etc.. So, I built my own guestbook and hand-entered all of the data from the old, third-party guestbook and put it into my new one (which took about 3 days to do!).

Long story short... now I'm getting at least 3 spam messages entered in per day. I HATE SPAMMERS!! Spammers have things called spiders or crawlers that go out and search the internet for guestbooks, message boards, blog comment areas, etc. and they have automated programs that can enter their spam in the fields and submit the forms. The more links to their websites that are out there on the web, the higher they are in the search rankings. Now I have to add some sort of a challenge question or something called CAPTCHA images to my guestbook. I'm sure you've all seen CAPTCHA images at some point when submitting a form. These are the words or numbers that are squiggled or distorted in some way and they ask you to enter what you see in the box. Well, this is done to determine that a human is in fact submitting the form. This way a spammer can't automatically submit the form with a program (and so it decreases the chances for spam being entered).

Doing all of this programming for my websites and doing some things I've never done before (like implementing CAPTCHA) has been kind of invigorating. I forgot how much I actually like to program and it gives me a little challenge which I need from time to time.

I hope I didn't bore you guys too much with the technical jargon... You'll have to check out all of the new things I've been adding to the site! Ta-ta for now...

Big Kid Beds!

Well, yesterday we decided to convert Parker's crib into a day bed...

Since the kids share a room, Morgan wreaks havoc when the lights go out at night. She crawls into Parker's crib (maybe because it's a novelty to her) and pesters him for at least a good hour after we leave the room. I'm not sure what she does, but he always ends up crying and his blankeys are all on the floor (and out of reach to him). Morgan also has been getting bruises on her back from her technique of getting out of the crib. So, it was with all this in mind that we thought the benefits would outweigh the negatives and we should free Parker! :)

We bought a 3-in-1 crib/bed system that would convert from a crib to a day bed/toddler bed to a full size bed headboard. We're going to use it as a day bed for Parker until he's ready for a regular bed. At the same time, we had bed rails for Morgan so she wouldn't fall out of her twin bed. We decided that we would put that on Parker's bed so he would be fairly contained, but could still get out if he needed to. We had the best intentions, but unfortunately, the bed rails didn't fit the toddler-sized bed. So, we had no choice but to cross our fingers and hope for the best that Parker wouldn't fall out.

So, we got the bed situations all worked out and the nano-second after we turned off the light and closed the door... the kids were out of bed and playing (not that we thought they would stay in their beds!). They probably played for an hour or so and then finally settled down. At 4am, we hear crying from Parker... he had fallen out of bed. That wasn't such a big deal though. The bed is not too far off of the floor. The reason he was crying was because he couldn't get back into the bed. The stool we had for him to use to get into bed was across the room from the night before when the kids were playing.

Hopefully the kids will get used to their new sleeping arrangements and we won't have to go back to the way things were. We'll see!

Winter Weather!

Well, as some of you may or may not know, Oklahoma was hit with Winter weather both yesterday and today. Yesterday we mainly had freezing rain (which makes a lovely bottom layer on the roads) and today it was mainly sleet (which then changed over to snow). This year wasn't nearly as bad as last year when we lost power for several days. Luckily everything was pretty much status quo around here unless of course you have to drive somewhere (which I don't!). I took a picture of our poor little tree in our front flowerbed. It does not like the ice!



Scott had to stay up at work to monitor some things there (in case the power were to go off), so he's staying at a hotel nearby for a couple of days. It eases my mind to know that at least he will be safe and not trying to brave the roads with the horrible driving conditions.

In the meantime, the kids and I have been out in the snow... eeer... sleet... whatever it is! Morgan has been talking about making a snow angel for the entire winter (I think she saw someone making one on TV or something). I bundled the kids up so we could go outside. Parker looked like the kid from "A Christmas Story" where he was so bundled up, he could barely move! Nonetheless, we braved the cold and went outside. It was the first real time I think that the kids have actually played in snow. Morgan ran out and immediately dropped to the ground and began making her snow angel. Parker just stood there for a while because he couldn't really move in his big jacket (just kidding!). Morgan then started eating the snow and she would take some to Parker and have him try it. There are probably so many toxins in that snow... but... oh well... they had a great time.

While the kids were playing, I attempted to shovel the driveway. The forecasters had said it would stop sleeting by 5 and it was about 4:30, so I thought it was pretty safe, even though it was still coming down as I was shoveling. I shoveled off half of the driveway, but there was still that under-layer of ice that I couldn't get. I was going to wait until morning and put some de-icer on. Well, as I write this now at 9pm, it is still snowing (damn forecasters!!) and all of my work was for not. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow... ugh!

So, here are a few pictures we took from our Winter-time adventure outdoors!

      

Historic Moment

Well, I feel proud to say that I witnessed a historic moment... Barack Obama is now the 44th U.S. President and our first African American President.



This gives me hope that maybe America is ready to move beyond the color barrier and acknowledge people for who they are and what they can accomplish. I also hope that Obama will help restore America's reputation (especially overseas) that has been badly tarnished over the last several years.

I must say I don't envy Obama's position a single bit. He has a very tough road ahead of him stabilizing our economy. If he can put America back on track, he may very well be perceived as being one of the great presidents of our nation. I mean, if you think about it... can it get any worse?? It will be very interesting to see how his first 90 days in office will shape up. I plan on following it very closely.

For those of you who missed it...



If you would like to read more about our new President, Barack Obama, you can check out these books (written by Obama himself):

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise

I have reserved a copy of "The Audacity of Hope" myself and I plan on reading it as soon as it becomes available at my local library.

Potty Training (Do not read if you're bored with mommy content...)

Well, today was a big day for us! Parker went potty on the potty chair for the first time today (and he even went TWICE today... rapture!!)!

Scott was getting ready to give the kids a bath and I asked him to put Morgan on the potty before getting into the tub. She didn't go, but since the kids were already naked, Scott decided he would put Parker on there just to get him used to the idea. Well... to our surprise, he actually went!! Of course, I thought that maybe it was just a freak thing... until he did it AGAIN a little bit later (when big sister was getting ready to go potty)!

I think Parker knows the routine however. For those of you who don't know, we're in the throws of potty training with Morgan. We tried a little bit to potty train her when she was 18 months old. We had a couple of successes, but she just wasn't ready. We started back up when Morgan was about 2 1/2 and she was very stubborn at the start, but then she seemed to get it. Well, after about 3 weeks of success (she would actually come and tell us when she needed to go), she reverted back to having accidents (and no successes). There wasn't anything we could think of to indicate why this might have happened, but needless to say, we've started over again with her.

So, to get to the point, all this time, Parker has been watching us potty train Morgan. Every time she would sit on the potty chair... if she didn't go, Parker would look inside and say "No...". When he saw potty in there, he would say "Yay!!" and then we would go get M&M's or a treat. I think he knows the routine, but I'm very surprised he knows the sensation to make himself pee. It was a great moment to say the least. I just hope we can keep it going! It would make my whole year if we had both of our kids potty trained in 3 months! You have noooooooo idea! :)

PoGo? Ask yourselves why??

So the other day I stumbled across an article that I just had to read... "Polaroid Goes Digital" or something to that effect.



Polaroid has come out with a new digital camera that is supposed to replace their throwback Polaroid camera that would print out pictures on the spot. There was a time and a place when the old camera was cool... say... the 80's (when the alternative was to send your film away to be developed). Today, however, anyone can just print out their own photos when and how they want them. It's just so easy.

So, after reading about the "low-lights" of this camera, I just find myself asking... "Why would ANYONE want to buy this camera??"

You can print about 20 pictures before your battery is dead

It costs $0.50/picture once you purchase the paper (You can have pictures professionally printed out at Walgreens for $0.20/print.)

Prints 2 x 3 photo (But, they can be turned into cool stickers! Insert sarcasm here...)

Grainy photos

Turns flesh-tones green

No auto-focus

Costs $200 (Would you want to pay $200 for a camera that doesn't even auto-focus?)

And the big one... Polaroid declared bankruptcy in December (Will you even be able to buy paper to make the prints??)

Read more about the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera.