New York, New York

There are so many things I love about New York.  The food.  The people.  The way of life.  The cultures.  It is simply a marvelous city with so many interesting observations.

For one thing, there are very few overweight people.  And virtually no extremely obese people.  You would never survive New York in this condition.  I never really thought about it, but you are walking everywhere.  There are stairs every ime you enter and exit the subway.  A very overweight person just wouldn't be able to get around.

Another thing is the comfort level.  People where whatever they want, and let their hair do whatever it wants.  I live in a state where your hair is like primary importance in your appearance.  In New York, it's pulled back in a ponytail, or just there.  Nobody worries about straightening, or curling.  There hair does what their hair does. 

And then there is the attitude.  Some people find New Yorker's very stand offish.  I call them direct.  If you can't make up your mind ordering a pastry, then you better move out of the way for the person who does.  If  pull out in a car in front of someone, or heaven forbid you stop for a pedestrian, oh boy are you going to hear about it.  And I don't just mean horns.  People will be screaming out their car windows!  And can you imagine for example, brooklyn car dealerships?  I am quite sure there is no pussy footing around the price.  People are direct.  If you want to pay a certain price, you better just spit it out and see if it flies.

Aaah... New York, New York.

This is a sponsored post for the Kings Auto Show, however, all the points and views are my own.

It's Simple

We all have heard the repeated advice to drink plenty of water.  But believe it or not, you can drink too much water.  I learned this when I was having kidney trouble.  Well, actually kidney failure.  The doctor told me to keep drinking water, so I immediately assumed I should drink lots, and lots, AND LOTS of water.  I actually drank too much water!  Then he told me, that you should drink as much water as you put out.

This has got to be a tricky proposition.  I mean, when I'm in the hospital, they have that little catcher thing in the toilet so they can measure.  I doubt very much, that people are using these in their homes.

Then I was told to drink half my body weight in ounces.  I weigh 120, so 60 pounds, and there's 16 ounces to a pound, divide that by 8 so I now how many cups to drink, and that comes to 120 cups of water per day.  That can't be right!

It's just too hard.  I know that there are services where water delivery youngstown, denver, malibu, everywhere.  Maybe that's what it takes.  We let the delivery services figure it out for each of our body sizes and we drink what they deliver!

It's simple.

This is a sponsored post for Cooksey Culligan Water Conditioning of Youngstown, however, all the points and views are my own.

How Did That Happen?

Don't you love it when your car breaks down?  Naturally, I am being sarcastic.  It is just the worst having your car break down.  Well I thought it was the worst.  Turns out that it's bad to have your car break down, and it's really bad having it break down when you are out of town.  Throw on top of that, the scenario where you are in a hurry to get somewhere.  You have an appointment.  And now I think we are at the worst.

For my cancer check ups I have to regularly go to a medical facility in the San Jose area.  We live in Utah.  This drive can be somewhat of a pain in the butt, particularly when you are going to school full time and working part time.  We would drive through the night, arrive, have x-rays, labs, and see the doctor, and then turn around and drive through the night back.  Sounds crazy, even with this schedule, we still miss two full days of school.  Oh... did I mention my appointments with my doctor have to be scheduled for a Wednesday only.

One of these two day trips resulted in the car breakdown.  We were in San Jose, but not close enough to my doctor.  And remember, we had to make the turn around to head back immediately following my appointment.  First thing, San Jose Towing.  While I was conveniently dropped off, my husband went with the tow truck.  I don't know how he did it, but following my appointment, I walked out front, and low and behold he was ready to go back.

To this day, I'm not sure how that happened.

This is a sponsored post for D & M Towing and Transport, however, all the points and views are my own.

It's All About Family

My friend caught me the other day eyeing an ad for kansas city homes for sale and her expression was "huh?".  I explained that I was looking for a vacation spot, my getaway.  Well this only brought more of a concerned or "what the heck" kind of look to her face.  I told her it was all about family.

My Mom is an only child.  My Dad has one brother, so I ended up with one set of cousins.  My extended family consist of my Aunt and seven cousins.  I love them all dearly.  And they all live... you guessed it... in the St. Louis and Kansas City area.

Growing up, I had a crush on my oldest cousin.  He is incredible smart and incredibly kind.  During my illness, he wrote the sweetest email I think I've ever received.  He offered to come and take care of my children and me.  He said he'd take the time of work and fly out just for this purpose.  This is a nuclear engineer who is a deputy on the side.  

I have two girl cousins who are the sisters I never had.  We went to New York together just for the fun of it and made wonderful memories.  Most recently they came to visit so that they could help.  They cleaned and organized my laundry/storage room in the basement.  If you had seen it before, you would not have thought what they accomplished was possible.  

My other five boy cousins are equally as wonderful.  I couldn't love them more.  I can't think of anything I'd rather do more than be with them.  So sure, a vacation home in Kansas City.  Why not?  It's all about family.

This is a sponsored post for Remax Mid-states, however, all the points and views are my own.

The "Beater" Car

My kids have friends who on their sixteenth birthday receive a brand new car.  This is not the case in our house.  We have always had what we lovingly refer to as a "beater" car for our first time drivers.  Why you would put a teenager behind the wheel of a brand new car is beyond me.  But then again, maybe other families have teenagers with perfect driver records, although I doubt it.  The "beater" car is perfect for several reasons.

First of all, it is very low cost to insure.  In fact, we have been able to get our hands on cars with a salvage title, meaning the car has no value.  This makes insurance extremely low because there is nothing to replace.

Second, if you get that scratch or dent, with a "beater" you really don't notice it.  I have teenagers who have hit fire hydrants, mail boxes, trees, posts, parking lot walls and dividers, fences, and naturally other cars.  At first I was trying to teach the kids a lesson in that they needed to pay for the body work to repair the car.  I thought is was good responsibility.  But soon we were in need of car repair from Las Vegas to car repair riverside ca.  They manage to bump and scratch anything within a ten foot radius.  The money was better spent on saving for college.

This is a sponsored post for German Performance, however, all the points and views are my own.

What to Wear?

Tonight I am attending a big cancer event, and the ever present question has raised it's ugly head:  What to wear?  Usually my girls help me out, but unfortunately, I will not have their opinions today.  I will be meeting them there, which means, I am getting ready all by myself.

This may seem all right, because for the most part, I come up with something either really cute, very nice, or acceptable.  I worry though, because of those times that come to mind where I have shown an outfit to my girls and their expression tells me it is not very cute, not good, or completely unacceptable and they are not going any where with me.

It is fun to torture and tease my girls.  I truly respect their opinion and they are so sweet to be kind in their critique, particularly if something is too "young looking".  I do not want to look like I am trying to be in high school and my kids don't want me looking like that either.  But my kids are very sensitive to not hurt my feelings which it never does, and it makes it really fun to tease them.  I put on tight leather pants and come out of the dressing room while announcing to them how much I absolutely love them!  Or a crazy low cut shirt, which shows truly nothing, and tell them this is so cute!  Their faces are one of "oh dear" and "umm" and it makes me laugh every time.

So tonight, what if I wore a Green man suit?  I'm going to have to add this to my bucket list, because these incredibly colorful suits that cover your entire head and even your face look like SO MUCH FUN.  I need to wear one and the look son their faces would be fantastic, and totally worth it.

I guess I don't need to worry about what to wear now?

This is a sponsored post for Be Green Man, however, all the points and views are my own.

So Many Things To Do

It feels so far away, but then again it feels so soon, that I will be moving into my new quarters.  I am excited to be with family and to have my grandchildren so close.  And I am nervous over all of the things I need to do to make it all happen.  And happen it will!

My first order of business is getting window well covers over two of the basement windows.  I certainly do not want me grandchildren visiting me via this route..... by falling into the window well.  I want to get them covered a.s.a.p. because they are beautifully new and I'd like to keep the winter out of them if I can.  And this is only the beginning.

I have dreams of a book nook where I will read and read and read to my grandchildren.  I want a butcher block in the kitchen for baking with my grandchildren.  I am putting in a little area with dark curtains for grandbabies to take a nap.  I want to create a playhouse under the stairs.  And I've even thought it might be fun to put a little slide on the side of the stairs coming down.  What fun it will be to visit Baba!

And then I need to get organized.  I might even need supplier management as I tear out images from magazines of the gadgets, decor, and other interesting things I want in my new home.  There is an adorable way to hang art work that I found with clips for each of the kids to hang their artistic treasures.  I found an activity table that has a lip all around the top so we can paint, finger paint... with pudding of course, and all other kinds of things!

So many things to do...

This is a sponsored post for Browz, however, all the points and views are my own.