Where do you like to sit when you go to the movies? Parents, where do your children like to sit when they go to the movies? My son TJ and I are going to spend some mother and son time together tonight and it looks like we’re going to the movies. My son likes to sit in the front row when he goes to the movies. I hate it there, I have to look up to see the screen and it’s really uncomfortable. It makes me wish that everyone in the theater had their own viewsonic monitor to watch the movie on. That way the picture would always be clear and at the angle you like it, and you could wear headphones and put the volume where you like it too. But for now moviegoers don’t have this ability. So. Where’s the best seat in the house?

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Time to Share Some Good Stuff! Last week I found some good news from Skeet’s home, Hawaii, but this week I’ve got more news from my home, New Jersey.

Whether you have children or not you’ve either shopped at, passed by or heard of ToysRUs. This big chain of toy stores is headquartered right here in New Jersey. What you may not know is that ToysRUs is a partner with the organization Autism Speaks. ToysRUs partnered with the Autism Speaks organization to help fund autism reasearch and advocacy. Autism affects approximately one in 150 children in the United States. ToysRUs is the national sponsor of the Autism Speaks Walk Now For Autism fundraising and awareness walk program, as well as a sponsor for monetary grants awarded to Autism Speaks. This year, for the second year in a row, ToysRUs carried out a seven week marketing program collecting donations for Autism Speaks. The program is scheduled to coincide with April Is Autism Awareness Month. Last year more than $1.1 million was collected. This week ToysRUs announced that this year was even more successful, with more than $1.5 MILLION being collected from all US ToysRUs stores and the ToysRUs website. That’s a lot of generosity from shoppers and employees, going to a very valuable cause.

Since giving birth to my second son I naturally have greater interest in anything pertaining to special needs, particularly down Syndrome. We became aware several years ago that ToysRUs put out a special needs toy catalog for the holiday season called A Toy Guide For Differently Abled Kids. Along with the 7 week fundraising campaign, ToysRUs put out a special mini edition of the Toy Guide called the Ten Toys That Speak To Autism, which is located at http://www.toysrus.com/autismspeaks.

I’ll be making sure I buy something from them instead of the other guy next time I need a toy. It’s awesome to see a huge company such as ToysRUs being involved with the community and important causes such as this one.

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Some of you may know that medical billing is part of my job. Billers often have to read detailed notes about encounters with patients in order to select the correct diagnosis and procedure codes. I like to educate myself by reading up on different conditions. This week, after learning that approximately 900 people a day die from sudden cardiac arrest, I decided to read a little on sudden cardiac death.

I’ve always thought cardiac arrest meant the heart stopped. But after watching the short video on the Inside Cardiac Arrest website I learned that sudden cardiac arrest actually happens when the heart starts beating irregularly. It usually occurs with no warning and it’s almost inevitable that if left untreated for more than a couple of minutes a patient in sudden cardiac arrest will die. The video, made by St Jude Medical,  also contained information on risks, symptoms and treatments of sudden cardiac arrest.

I found the short video to be informative and easy to understand. Heart disease is so common and can strike anyone, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to educate themselves. Take a moment and check out the site for yourself.

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I picked up a package of Go Diego Go underwear for CJ. He’s been doing pretty well with the potty and thought he might like some big boy underwear with a character he’s familiar with. Until now he’s been in plain solid colors. Now CJ can say Go, and he can sort of say Diego. Hubby pointed out to me the irony of these underwear. He thought they should’ve been called just Diego underwear, because the last thing we parents want our children to do in the underwear is go. He’s got a point. It is a bit ironic, don’t you think?

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My knee’s been bothering me for several weeks now. At times the pain is blinding and makes me want to curl up in a ball on the floor and cry. It’s been getting worse and worse so I went to the doctor tonight. I explained everything from when it started a month ago until now and answered all of his questions. He didn’t even bat an eye when I told him sometimes my knee gets so swollen that it looks like my knee would benefit from some weight loss pills. When we were all done he told me he wanted me to get an xray of my knee and he handed me an xray prescription. The prescription listed the diagnosis as knee pain. Pain is not a diagnosis, it’s  a symptom. If that’s all that it takes to order a test, why can’t I order my own xray? And what about the lack of privacy? I mean, sure the doctor knows why I’m there, but must everyone in the world know why? What if it was for something embarrassing?

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I had a nice relaxing day. RB let me sleep in until 10:15! I really needed it. He brought me the most gorgeous floral arrangement I’ve ever seen, and cappuccino. The boys gave me a Rolling Stones 2 cd set. RB made a late lunch. We went out to dinner with my Mom and Dad, as well as one of my brothers and his wife and daughter.

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day.

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Ok, I’m a little peeved right now. I entered a contest on Cass Knits in which the prize was a cookbook called Little Cakes From The Whimsical Bakehouse back in February. Now Cass is not entirely without blame here, her description of the cookbook was so good that I had to enter because I really wanted to win. I wanted to eat and I wanted to bake. I WANTED TO BAKE SOMETHING CUTE! (We’re talking red letter day folks.) So I entered and that was that. I didn’t expect to win, because who really ever does expect to win contests anyway. Imagine my surprise when I learned in March that I’d won the contest.  I was so happy, and really looking forward to getting that cookbook with the picture of the cute little cupcakes on the front of it. I checked with Cass later in March and my info had been sent to the publisher.

I checked with Cass this morning and found out the publisher said they sent it out to me. I never got it! I surprised myself when I caught myself feeling really bummed about this. I’m sure if the publisher said they sent it then they probably did. So my cookbook is somewhere in between my house in suburban New Jersey and wherever they mailed it from. Yes, I said MY COOKBOOK. So, since the publisher doesn’t have it and I don’t have it, that means someone else has it.

Someone has taken my cookbook and I want it back. So I’m putting out a request for help to everyone in the blogosphere. I’m asking everyone to be on the lookout for a mail carrier with my copy of The Little Cakes From The Whimsical Bakehouse. Look for him/her in their mail truck, parked behind a shopping center reading my cookbook. Look for him/her in the grocery store, peeking inside a backpack or totebag to check the ingredients they need. Look for a mail carrier continually gaining weight. Look for a mail carrier with icing on his/her face. Look for him/her at your child’s school - if there’s a party and you see any of those cupcakes and they were brought in by a mail carrier, that’s my thief.

I’d appreciate any help I can get with this situation. I want my cookbook. I want to bake cute cupcakes. I want to eat cute cupcakes. If you find the mail carrier who took it, tell them I said they’re mean and to mail me my cookbook.

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I am not into shoes. I hate shoe shopping. The facts that I’m not into shoes and that I hate shoe shopping are both because I have BIG WIDE HONKING HUGE FEET. It is impossible to find anything stylish when shoe companies seem to feel all women wear sizes 6-9. I have had two pairs of leather clogs for about six years now and they’re getting really work. I have had a pair of “deck” shoes for about four years now and they’re shot. Now I’m facing one of the things I dislike the most - shopping for new shoes. The shoe stores in my area don’t carry shoes big enough to fit my big feet. Not the Payless, not the shoe stores, not the department stores, not even Marty’s shoe outlet who carries everything including shoes, sneakers, boots and sandals, even bigger names like Ecco shoes. I’m a little afraid to buy online because sizing varies so much between manufacturers. So if any of you ladies out there have large feet, please help me out and let me know where you shop online for shoes. I’m guessing I need someone with a decent selection of styles, a reasonable return policy in case the shoes don’t fit, and most of all - good pricing. Help!

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Many people have a hard time buying gifts for other people. My sister in law is no exception. She called me recently because Father’s Day is in a month and she wasn’t sure what to get my brother. She knows I used to sell computers and that I am obsessed with finding the best deals possible online when I have to buy something. She asked to help her find a gift for him that he’d want, like and use.

So there we were on the telephone, each of us on our computers. I’m familiar with most of the computer and tech toys that my brother has but I asked her if he’d bought anything new recently. Noone wants to be the person to give someone something they’ve already got, you know. She said he hadn’t bought anything at all lately. I asked her if he’d mentioned needing or wanting anything specific. Aside from the standard silly answers like a Ferrari, a truck and a computer, the answer was no. So I started thinking back over conversations we’d had in the past few months and it dawned on me. On a number of occasions my brother had called me from a job asking me to check something or do something on my computer for him, because he didn’t have what he needed on his old laptop or thumb drive. I knew what she should get him, I’d seen it shown in the weekly deals. She must have sensed I thought of something from the tone in my voice, because she asked what I was thinking.

I told her we needed to go to the Buy.com website. She told me she’d never shopped on Buy.com, and asked me what they sold. Rather than spend a couple of hours on the phone telling her what they sold, I answered “everything”, while wondering how can anyone that calls themself a shopper not have shopped at Buy.com. Anyway. I told her we needed to go to the Computer section of the site. She reminded me they were on a tight budget and couldn’t afford a new computer. I told her I wasn’t going to show her a new computer (although I could because they carry them), but rather I was going to show her something almost as good as a new computer. Wanting to ease her fears, I told her I’d seen a portable hard drive that I thought would make a great gift for him.

She told me he’d looked at portable hard drives before and he thought they were too big and heavy and that one wouldn’t fit inside his laptop case. (It sounds like it’s time for a new case, don’t you think? They have those you know.) I told her in this particular instance size would not matter. I got her to look at the page for the Buffalo 320gb MiniStation Turbo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive, as shown in this screenshot.

320gb. That’s more storage than all of the hard drives in all of the computers I’ve ever owned added up. She’s not a computer person so I doubt she was as impressed as I was. So I explained some of the specs to her.

The amount of storage available on such a tiny drive amazes me. Isn’t that amazing! The dimensions are 5″ wide by 3.3″ deep and the unit is 0.8″ high. This portable hard drive is not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes or a deck of cards. The drive is about the size of the picture on the left, which happens to be of the drive. The drive weighs a minute 0.42 pounds. The more I tried to sell her on this drive the more I wanted one for myself. I mentioned its shock resistant chassis in case it’s dropped, that it connected by USB and that it works in both the Windows and Macintosh environments. This is key because my brother works on computers as part of his job. The other thing that I really thought was great about it is that it’s a plug and play drive, so my brother could use it right out of the box without downloading any drivers.

Finally she agreed with me that it seemed like it would be a good gift for him. She saw the price of $134.99 down from $379.99 and asked me if there was a catch, like a membership you had to buy or a rebate you had to fill out. I was happy to be able to tell her there was not, that was Buy.com’s price for the item. She was thrilled to see that the purchase would qualify for free shipping, and was even happier when I told her she could get another $10 off by using google checkout, which she’d never used before. She was so happy with the hot deal she got that she said she was going to start checking their site first, and that she understood why I liked Buy.com so much. I’m glad I was able to help her find something within her budget that I do think my brother will appreciate.

Funny thing. I feel like shopping now!

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I’ve been blogging for quite some time but have always set certain limits for myself. I notice the posts and blogs I enjoy the most contain true to life personal stories and information. I write about all kinds of things, sometimes I even earn money for writing something. In trying to improve my own writing skills as well as have an enjoyable blog I recently decided to expand my limits a bit. That’s left me wondering if you as a blogger have set limits for yourself on what you’ll blog about from your personal life. I don’t mean the acne treatments and the common cold, I mean the real stuff. Where do you draw the line on what’s ok to write? What’s the most personal thing you’ve written about?

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Some time ago my blogging pal Skeet acknowledged there’s a lot of bad news and sad stuff going on in the world today. At that time Skeet issued a challenge for bloggers to find and Share Some Good Stuff, by writing about a story or some good news in our area on our blogs. She’d go through all of the submissions, in a mini carnival of her own, and recap the highlights. Most Thursdays I do try and contribute to her project because I think it’s worthwhile. The majority of what I find pertains to Down Syndrome and special needs because my youngest son CJ has Down Syndrome. Most of the stories I’ve found have occured in my own area, but this week I found some good stuff to share from Skeet’s own backyard, Hawaii.

I chanced across this article from the Star Bulletin about brothers Javen and Jarius. Their father’s favorite saying is “sky’s the limit”. Javen and Jarius are two of seven children born to Abe and Fran, a pair of educators. These two parents have been known to selflessly exhibit generosity and kindness to others. While not monetarily rich they are rich in the values that they have passed on to their children.

Javen is considered to be one of the best hurdlers in his area. He’s going to college on a track and field scholarship. In the two short years he’s competed in the hurdles he’s won ribbons and trophies. And he attributes his success to his little brother Jarius, whom he calls his inspiration. Jarius has Down Syndrome. He is the only child in his school with Down Syndrome, and my heart lit up when I read that all of the students watch out for him. Javen and his family all take pride in all of Jarius’ achievements, whether they are in the Special Olympics or life in general. Javen carries his sports gear in a Special Olympics backpack as another way of honoring his little brother. Their father Abe credits the birth of Jarius for brining love to their family.

This story once again proved to me that there are parents out there teaching their children values, as well as acceptance and consideration for others. It teaches me to be patient in the hopes that more parents will instill values and teach their children that everyone has a right to be a valued member of the community.

Have any good news of your own? Share Some Good Stuff. Let Skeet know. The sky’s the limit. No matter how big or small we’d love to hear it.

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If you do, you’ve just got to vote in this contest. You may recall earlier this year, in March, I wrote about the Renuzit TriScents Transform Your Home $20,000 contest. If you don’t I’ll quickly fill you in. Triscents transitions a combination of three fragrances that can be customized to offer different scents throughout the day. To enter this contest you had to submit a video or photo essay including Renuzit TriScents about transforming your home.

The entries are in and ten semi-finalists have been announced. No, I’m not one of them. But Renuzit is asking for help selecting the winner. Now I have to admit, when I was asked to vote I almost didn’t go to the site. But I went, and boy am I glad I did. Two of the entries are terrific. They’re so funny I had tears coming out of my eyes and my sides hurt. I actually watched my two favorites twice.

The two entries I like best are videos. One is by Tommy, Judy and Ed Silver and the other features a child named Ashley. The Silver video contains a spoof of a song that was popular a couple of years ago. The song in the background just pulls it all together and makes it pretty humorous. The Ashley video features a three year old rhyming. What more can I say? The rhyming is great and she’s cute. Both videos are very creative. I had to watch both twice and it was still hard to decide. Want to know which one I picked? I’ll give you a hint, it’s one of the two shown in the screenshot I’ve taken. I can’t go giving away secrets now. I wouldn’t want either of them to feel bad. Besides, I can vote every day and who knows if I’ll change my mind tomorrow.

If you want to have some fun then you really ought to log in to the semi-finalist gallery, check out the entries and vote for your favorite. Registered users may vote for their favorite once a day through June 7, 2008. The winner with the most votes will receive a $20,000 home makeover with Tayna Memme. Let me know which one you like best.

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It occurred to me today that I am tired of typing my older son and my younger son every single time I want to refer to my sons. I have found that the boundaries I set for myself when I started blogging have started to expand as my readership grows. With that in mind I have decided to introduce you to my family. Family being the people that share my home.

Hubby. That would be RB.

My older son. that would be TJ.

My younger son. That would be CJ.

The cats are Shadow and Rennie, but you might know that if you’ve seen me write about them on Cats and Coupons.

So that’s my family.

Oh yeah. Someone once asked me why I didn’t tell my name, why I always use valmg.

Hello. My name is Valerie. I use valmg because it’s short and it distinguishes me from the trillion other Valeries. It contains my initials, so for anyone who wondered, valmg is my name.

Now everyone join the circle and introduce yourself.

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The house to our left has been empty for about a year now. The couple split up with the intent of divorcing, so they moved into separate homes. I know the little girl went to stay with the mother. Not much has been happening over there until about a week ago when we saw things being taken out. This morning when I backed out of the driveway I noticed some furniture near the street and I wondered briefly if the house had become a foreclosure due to being empty for so long while it’s owners maintained two other residences. I didn’t have to wonder for very long.

Hubby called me earlier today. “I saw George (the man that used to live there) this morning and they finally sold the house. The closing is later this month. I asked George who was moving in and George wasn’t sure, he only knew it was a couple.”

Me. “Do they have kids?”

“I don’t know. He said it was a young couple so good chance no.”

At this point I wonder what possibly brings him to this conclusion based on the information given but before I get a chance to ask I hear him say

“I hope they like music.”

Oh no he didn’t just say that. Once again I am forced to wonder about this man’s sanity or lack thereof. He’s obviously concerned about his band and its weekly practice, which neighbors have had occasion to have stopped by calling the police. Don’t the neighbors know he’s a star crossed musician and he must practice?! Doesn’t everyone really want to hear loud music from 7:30pm to 9:30pm every Tuesday night? Oh, by the way, they’d keep playing if it weren’t for….. ME. I’m the bad guy who makes them stop at 9:30, for the sake of me and our kids as well as the neighbors. And the picture frames, who surely deserve some rest after two hours of shaking their booty.

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I took my older son to the cardiologist today. His pediatrician recommended it just to be safe after my son almost passed out this past Friday in school. I had called the pediatric cardiologist we take my younger son Friday and they squeezed us in today. My son had an exam, an ekg and a cardiac ultrasound. The cardiologist agreed with the pediatrician that it was almost certainly dehydration and he has given him the all clear to resume all normal activities. I am sooooo relieved. Thanks to those that emailed asking.

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