In my best Oprah voice...

it's time for Fridaaaay FraaaghMENTS!

This week has just zipped by. I much prefer that to those weeks where Tuesday feels like it should be Friday.


Now that I've got my hair squared away, I'm thinking of giving my blog a makeover. It's had the same look for about 2 years. Well, my froggy does get a hat and scarf in the winter time. But I'm thinking maybe something to freshen up the place a bit. What do you think? Got any good ideas?

I had the opportunity to interview for a new job at work recently. It would have been full-time (I work 3/4 time now.) There were a lot of good reasons to go for it. But in the end, I decided that now is just not the time. While Annie is pretty independent, the boys still need a lot of guidance and hand-holding when it comes to after school and homework. So I declined the interview, though the extra money would have been handy. Since then, Mike has been approached about a new freelance opportunity and I had one drop in my lap today. Together, these won't make up what I could have earned by going full-time, but I do feel like these opportunities are validation that I made the right decision and the patience and family focus is paying off.

This internet stuff can just get you sucked in, can't it? But I have to think that anyone with internet access probably never pays full price for anything ever again. I've been doing the Swagbucks thing for a while and have earned about $150 worth of credit at Amazon. Then I became familiar with Groupon, which offers great deals on restaurants, spa services, museum and recreation admissions, etc. Some of the deals are city-specific, others are web-based deals. Now there's Eversave. Very similar to Groupon, but with deals that seem to be a bit more eclectic. My best Eversave deal so far? $19 for a mani-pedi at a local salon. Even better, I got it free because someone I referred to Eversave made a purchase. Woohoo! 

I'm going holiday bazaaring with my mom and sister on Saturday. It's become our own little tradition. (SMB -- are you sure you don't want to join us?). I don't usually buy much, but it's fun to browse and count how many times my mom picks up something, then whispers to me..."I could make that," even though we both know she won't.

A Facebook friend of mine posted a picture of a skillet with white powdery stuff in it. Her 7 year old son tried to make pancakes and started by dumping the pancake mix right into the pan. That was funny. But what was REALLY funny was the story one of the guys who commented on it told about his son. He gave me permission to repeat it here:

Try taking your 15 year old son to the DMV to get his learners permit. I have told him all along that he is responsible for having everything he needs to get this done. We show up to the DMV and get out of my truck to go in and he has NOTHING in his hands, no birth certificate, no SS card, no NOTHING... so I ask my young Generation 'next' genius if he brought anything with him as proof of i.d. and do you know what he said? He looked at me like I was the dumbest person ever thought of and said, and I freaking quote..."can't they just google me?"

Hope you have a great weekend. Mine is quite full, but I'm hoping to find some time to reclaim my office space in the basement. I used to do all my work there when I used a desktop computer. With the laptop I can work from the couch, the bed, the kitchen table...and I do. But I'm not nearly as productive. So back to the basement and the laser-focused productivity...(as soon as I check Facebook...)!

PS -- Popping back in because I forgot that I wanted to add a link to a post about the Veterans History Project. If you know and love a veteran, please check it out. What a great way to honor our U.S. veterans.