Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Another New Blog!


I've created another new blog. This blog titled 'The Wrong Side of the Clouds' was created to be of a more personal and spiritual nature. It will focus more on journaling my journey through this life and weight loss and my walk with God. Sometimes I feel like I am on the wrong side of the clouds, waiting out my existence here with learning and fellowshipping and hopefully growing in Him and sharing Him with others until that great day when I will finally go to my real home! Please subscribe to the feed if you want to keep up with me on a more personal level. BeccA's Buzz will continue to be a mecca for...well, pretty much anything and everything! Thanks for your continued support!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Give Me Five Monday Meme #36

Monday, September 29, 2008

The 'Give Me Five' Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple short list! Here's how it works. Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn't have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified.
Sign up for weekly reminder emails @ beccagirl@charter.net


Give Me Five favorite things about fall.

Ok, Joyce convinced me to post a topic even if I didn't have time to do a big post for myself. Great idea!!!

Here's my short GM5 list:

1. The change over to cool night air and all the breezes of a crisp fall day.

2. The fall colors! I love to take drives and enjoy the beautiful rainbow in leaves before they all fall off.

3. The childhood nostalgic feelings that resurface at this time of year, back to school, picking out a Halloween costume, pumpkin pie.

4. Going to the pumpkin patch to get your pumpkin to carve and set out on the porch.

5. Digging out all your sweaters and long pants from the back of the closet. Nothing says good times like a cozy sweater, bon fire and hay ride!

Give Me Five Participants
1. Joyce T.
2. Tamy ~ 3 Sides of Crazy :)
3. Dawn\'s Daily Life
4. Tammy
5. Pinaymama
6. Vivian
7. Beverly (by Grace)

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Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Blog - Simplistic Accounting

It's here! I've created a new blog called Simplistic Accounting.

If you or someone you know has a small business or an at home business, direct your attention to this brand new blog and you will find tips and tricks for all things accounting. I've worked in the accounting and tax service field for over 10 years now and have learned alot. From payroll to general ledger entries, getting organized to ways to save money, this blog will have it all!

If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me directly or to leave a comment and I will do my best to help you resolve your accounting issues and get on track for year end tax reporting and even 1099 preparations!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Give Me Five Monday Meme #35

Monday, September 22, 2008

The 'Give Me Five' Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple short list! Here's how it works. Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn't have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified.
Sign up for weekly reminder emails @ beccagirl@charter.net


Give Me Five birthday memories from your life or of someone else.

Today is my niece's 8th birthday and getting ready for it has me thinking about birthday memories from my own childhood. Feel free to share good ones, bad ones, surprise ones...what ever you got! Oh yeah, I don't have any photos of my own to show you in my post so I'll borrow from online :)

1. Slumber party/14th Birthday. This was awesome! I had a few friends over for the typical party and then like 3 or 4 of them stayed over and we had a blast! We laughed, we danced around and acted silly. It was great! I recently scrapbooked those photos and enjoyed looking at how young we were and wondered where those girls are now. I continued being close friends with one of those girls who slept over until about 5 years ago. I just remember how much fun we had that night, looking back on it thinking I never wanted it to end.

2. Surprise 50th party for my mom. It was alot of work to plan and execute! But in the end it was great. That room was filled with people who otherwise would never have been in the same room together. I don't mean that in a negative way at all, I'm talking work people with old high school friends of hers, her mom up from the country and cousins from the other side of my family, church peeps and I think even a neighbor! My brother's only job was to get her there on time and through a calamity of errors, were an hour and a half late. All in all, it was a great time when they finally arrived, mom cried when she saw her mom and old high school friend! She never would have believed I could pull off such a guest list I suppose.

3. 18th Birthday cake. Hands down, the best birthday cake ever! I only *WISH* I could show you a photo of that one, my mom paid alot of money to have 19 roses put on top! (1 to grow on...) (no wonder I'm fat! LOL) There was only room enough on the cake for an airbrushed rainbow across the middle, hands down, the best birthday cake ever!

4. My 1st and 2nd 21st Birthdays. A friend of mine was getting married the next day on my 20th birthday, so we went out the night before to a comedy club to celebrate both occasions. I left my ID at home (believe it or not, it worked) and told the doorman that since I was '21' now, I didn't think I needed it anymore. I got served!!! Of course, the next year when I actually turned 21, I cellebrated again, although I don't actually remember what I did on that night. Not because I drank too much, just because I don't remember. I know my friends got us tickets for the circus because I had never gone before, maybe that's what I did...who knows!

5. Birthday season, hunting season. I remember when I was young...well, even now, my birthday is basically right in the rifle season for deer hunting here in Missouri. So that means, birthday or not, the men in my life would leave me for a cold lonely tree stand! My dad always left me and now my brother and boss do, too. It's ok, I rather enjoyed it being just us girls when I was younger. We didn't have to worry about dad coming home drunk and ruining our fun. So how about you? Any birthday memories coming to mind??? Don't forget to comment too.

Give Me Five Participants
1. Tammy
2. christy
3. Paula
4. Tamy ~ 3 Sides of Crazy :)
5. Crystal
6. sandra collins
7. Kwizgiver
8. Beverly (by Grace)
9. Anna
10. Carrie
11. Forgetfulone
12. Melanie- Our Happy Happenings
13. 4streegrrl
14. Joyce T.
15. Pinaymama
16. Jean

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Happy Anniversary to Me!

That's right, I said 'Happy Anniversary!' No, not a wedding anniversary like everyone else has. Today is the first anniversary of my very first (hopefully NOT last) trip to Italy and subsequently, the first authentic Italian meal! On this day, September 20, 2007, I traveled with friends from Cheltenham, England where I was on vacation, to Pisa, Italy for a mini-inside-my-vacation-vacation.

Once we were to Pisa, we traveled by train on to the historic city of Florence. The owners of the apartment we rented for our stay suggested a family restaurant/meat market just around the corner. We were hungry travelers searching for sustenance. No time to check the travel book for a place to go so we followed their directions to a place that in my opinion, served the BEST food of the entire trip! We ended up eating their on two separate days, it made me happy :) Communication was minimal between the us and the waiters during the entire trip but as you can see, we were able to work it out. My first meal? Lasagna & Bistecca (steak). Fantastico!

Tonight my mom and I ate at a local restaurant here in St. Louis called Trattoria Toscana to commemorate the occasion. I was a bit let down by all the artwork which seemed to consist of about 90% Venice and 10% non-specifically geographical Italian scenes, rather than anything even closely resembling the beauty of "Tuscany" as the name would suggest. It was not a visual reminder of my trip, unfortunately. I later learned the owners are really Albanian. Hmmm. The food was overpriced but had big portions. Not all foods make good leftovers. I would rather have had a smaller portion and a smaller bill. I had tilapia and mom had linguine with clams. We started with a smoked salmon antipasti with toast, butter and lemon. Mom thinks the butter was actually cream cheese, I thought, is this Italian fare or Jewish?

It just goes to show, nothing can compare to the real thing. Ding, Ding, Ding! Everyone raise your glasses, "Here's to the hope that I will again some day, return to the home of my ancestors and feast on the abundance of a time and place I will dream about forever!" Bonapatito!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Should the driving age be raised?


This is a hot topic lately. Looking at statistics and crunching insurance rate variables is one way to take a look at it, I suppose. One could argue about experience levels playing in but how would an 18 year old have any more experience than a 16 year old if not allowed to practice until then? It's kind of like not getting the job because you don't have experience, but you can't get experience because no one will give you a job! And don't even get me started on the increasing number of distractions all people seem to try and balance while operating fast moving 1/2 ton machines of potential death & dismemberment:

Radios
MP3 players
Cell phones
Blue Tooth (Yeah, I said it. It's better, but you still have to fuss with it.)
Food & drinks
Kids & other passengers
Cigarettes (?)
TomTom type GPS units
DVD players
Make up
Shaving
Reading the newspaper
Oh yeah, and traffic, just to name a few!

True, experience does come with time and practice. You develop good driving habits by repeating them so often, they become like second nature. Granted, but you should never rely on 'second nature' to take over like an autopilot. People who are just starting out don't even have that yet. In other words, whether they are 16 or 21, they will still be inexperienced new drivers.

Perhaps a better solution would be an extension of the 'learner's permit' stage. No matter how old you are, you get your learner's permit and then have to complete a say, 2 year program with various state regulated tests to be passed along the way. This method would give learners time to get first hand experience alongside an established driver over a longer period of time and through a varying range of seasonal weather climates and road conditions. Also, it would keep learners on a path of progression building instincts and good driving habits well in advance of being licensed to take on independent driving responsibilities.

The above 2 crash photos were taken last night near our church. The driver of the gold car is the 17 year old daughter of one of the families at our church. The call came during the church service and left us all in tears and prayer. She was alone returning from a school game. Her friend planned to get a ride with her, even had her belongings in the car but at the last moment decided to get a ride from another friend. She was not wearing her seatbelt. She was talking on her cell phone. All normal things we do while driving. She was making a left turn and was hit on the empty passenger side. The driver of the other car had had a couple of beers but registered under the legal limit in a field test. He was traveling above the posted speed limit.

Praise the Lord, she will be ok! She's banged up from hitting the steering wheel and her knees are bruised but she will be ok. I believe she has only had a driver's license for a few months now. I can't help but wonder how this situation could have been different, if the crash would have been more avoidable if she would have had a longer period of monitored driving practice as I outlined above? We're all very thankful it ended as well as it did. The worst kind of accident is the kind that could have been prevented in some way.

My own mother was 47 years old when she got her 1st driver's license. She would most certainly have benefited from an extended learning period.

Parents remember: You still make the rules in your house. Why wait for the state government to tell you how to teach your kids driving safety and skills? You can choose to extend the period of time as a 'learner' beyond state guidelines, giving your child some much needed experience before spreading their solo wings to drive! I'm sure the kids will complain about it and cry out, "It's not fair!" But then again, who said being a good parent makes you popular?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Pet Peeves - Kid T-Shirts

It's no secret that I have a few pet peeves. Come on, we all do at some point! One of my ongoing pet peeves which has suddenly taken off again is bad attitude t-shirts for kids.

If you put this on your kid, people will read it and laugh or snicker or gasp, your child will begin to enjoy the attention, possibly begin to believe it's true and then do his/her best to live up to the advertisement. Your child will think it's expected behavior, mom put this on me intentionally! Well, I say, "Enough!" There's nothing funny or entertaining about it.

Is it too much to ask to encourage your kids to be better than their sin nature?! Why, oh why would you spend hard earned money to dress your kids with a billboard of bad attitude? You know, until recently, bad attitude from children was looked down upon in society. Now people laugh in their faces and wonder why 14 & 15 year old kids are pregnant or killing people for $20 worth of crystal meth! And don't even get me started on images & symbols of death on kids!

If you feel the need to dress your child in a worded t-shirt, try looking past the naughty ones disguised as funny and find some actual funny t-shirts? Just like everything else out there, you have to weed through to find something acceptable but it's worth the search! My nephew is 1 1/2 years old and I bought him one that says, "I still live with my parents." See? Funny, not negative.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

Well, here we are again, flooded in the Midwest. I swear everyone is making this huge rainstorm up! Saturday night I went to sleep really late and it was not raining. I woke up Sunday morning and couldn't hear any significant rain to speak of. It's as if I didn't even know of any rain and yet I can see that it flash flooded everywhere! The Make-A-Wish Foundation lost everything including all the artwork from kids, other businesses and homes and apartment buildings all ruined by the rush of many waters.

Normally this time of year is the best time to be outside walking and getting fresh air but with all the flooding and raining, I suppose we'll have to settle for indoor ellipticals and treadmills. The weather is normally cool and bright, not quite fall, no longer HOT summer and humidity (St. Louis, remember?). Well, not lately with all this rain and the water isn't even expected to crest until Wednesday. I also heard it rained more up north and that will make the levels go back up. Wow, water is such a powerful force. Run for the hills, fellow Midwesterners! And watch out down south cause all this water has to go somewhere!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Give Me Five Monday Meme #34

Monday, September 15, 2008

The 'Give Me Five' Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple short list! Here's how it works. Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn't have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified.
Sign up for weekly reminder emails @ beccagirl@charter.net


Give Me Five of your favorite breakfast foods.

First, my apologies for not hosting the GM5 for a couple of weeks. No more playing around with Cobra golf clubs, it's time to get back on track! This week the topic is sure to get our taste buds working overtime! You may have more than 5 for this specific meal, just pick from your faves to share try not to drool onto your keyboards!

1. Pancakes. By far at the top of my list! When I was young, we didn't always have meat to go with our pancake breakfasts so mom would spread peanut butter on the tops after the butter and I didn't know pancakes came any other way, it's the best for me! I still eat them that way even if I do have bacon to go with them.

2. Eggs. I enjoy eggs in so many different ways: omelets, scrambled, hard boiled, deviled, over medium...LOVE EM'!

3. Biscuits and gravy. An old childhood favorite that never gets old!

4. Sweet Rice. My grandma made this slow cooking white rice that was perfectly sweet. Add a little cream and butter, it was a dream! Now I make it with 5 minute white rice and it's still pretty good.

6. Bacon. Everything is better with bacon!

Give Me Five Participants
1. Tammy
2. Cat.
3. Vamp
4. Tamy ~ 3 Sides of Crazy :)
5. Crystal
6. Joyce T.
7. Penny Lane
8. Shannon H.
9. Nicole
10. Anna
11. Dawn\'s Daily Life
12. 4streegrrl
13. Melanie
14. Tina Kubala
15. Rantings of a Woman
16. Kwizgiver
17. vivian
18. Dotchi\'s Chunky Blog
19. Bethany

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Friday, September 12, 2008

How long has it been?

Since you ordered Avon?? I know, Avon is still around! A lady at church sells it and I sometimes look through the books just to see what kinds of things they are selling these days. Avon still offers your standard perfumes and various kinds of pimple cream and foot lotions along with other items I categorize under 'toiletries'. They also sell makeup and jewelry, handbags and shoes, videos and home decor, holiday items and chochkies!! They really have stepped up their game to offer a wide variety of items to attract alot of different kinds of buyers. I just ordered some oil blotting papers. I was given some in a care package one time and loved them! I also ordered a pair of those plastic garden looking shoes for running up and down to the basement for laundry. I got them in white with rhinestones, yeeha!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

It's that time of year again

The past couple of days here in St. Louis have been fantastic! It's that wonderful time of year when it's not hot and it's not cold in any way. The sun is shining bright and the sky is a fantastic azure blue with only the slightest hindrance of clouds to block the sun's bountiful rays! The breeze that is neutral in temperature moves life along it's course. It's perfect!

It's that time of year when you are pretty sure your swimsuit has made it's last trip out of the drawer for a while but you're not *quite* ready to dig out your jackets yet. It's days like these I wish I had an outdoor job. To be clear, it's ONLY days like these I wish that!! I hope you have great weather where you are too and are able to venture out into it for a while before it's gone.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Deleting your blog?

I recently had a friend who recently intentionally deleted his blog...can you imagine? All those posts, all that history gone! I know that sometimes our posts seem irrelevant and insignificant but you just never know who might happen by and for some strange reason, need to read something you've posted!

That's the thing about our written words, once it's out there, it takes on a life of it's own, really. Posts on topics from 'how to catch a man' or 'staying on your monthly budget' all the way to 'where to pick up some Phentermine without a prescription' could some how be *just* what the reader on the other end is looking to get info on! And you never know what that could be, so post on my friends!

I'm happy to report he has revamped his blog and is going to attempt another run of it. Please go by and encourage him to fight the good fight! Tell John over at Defending the Doctrines of Grace I said "Hi!"

Thursday, September 04, 2008

I am so easily amused...

It's only 1 minute and 15 seconds long but it has me in stitches every time!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Award Giveaway #2 - Totally Fabulous

My friend Tammy over at Mom Knows Everything deserves this award! She is almost always among the first people to participate in the Give Me Five meme and well, she's fantastic and totally fabulous!

I received this award back in October of 2007. Now I am cleaning out my sidebar and passing out all my awards to give them one last tribute. I decided not to keep them all over there on my sidebar like a wall of trophies. I appreciated them and now I'm passing them along so others can enjoy them as well. You don't have to put it up on your blog if you are chosen, just leave me a comment to let me know you got it! Have a great day all! Now back to cleaning...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Happy (belated) 3rd Birthday, BeccA's Buzz!

I dropped the ball on this one! I totally missed the 3rd birthday of BeccA's Buzz back on August 20th!

I can't believe it's been 3 years already! So much has changed around this blog since the beginning. I've learned alot about blogging and the internet and computers since I started working on this project. Some things never change, I still haven't figured out how to lose weight but I can tell you how to use html code to make subtle improvements to your template (if you use one), among other things. BeccA's Buzz is nearing it's 500th archivable (did I just create that word?) post. (Email me if you want an explanation of the word "archivable".) That will be cause for celebration as well! Perhaps I will think of reviewing all the posts and making a 'Top 10 Best and Worst Posts of the 1st 500' post! Stay tuned but in the meantime, stop daydreaming BeccA and cut this cake, it smells great! I get a corner with a rose...

Award Giveaway #1 - Friendly Site Award

I was given this award back in October of 2007 and tucked it away there among the other awards in my sidebar. In an effort to clean up and revamp my blog a bit per the advice of a friend, I have decided to pass on my awards to other people so they can be appreciated once again!

If you are a frequent commenter or participant in my Give Me Five meme for Mondays, you stand a pretty good chance of walking away with one of my precious priceless awards! I mean, it's no reason to check your pulse oximeter due to over anticipation but hey, a little link love and an award can offer a nice level of excitement! So without further ado, my first reward to clear out is:

The 'Friendly Site Award' goes to my blogger buddy Tina over at The Creative Nerd. Congrats, Tina, keep up the good work and witty banter! Feel free to appreciate it from afar or you can add it to your blog, if you like. No worries!

That's good news!

As some of you know, the building I rent in was recently sold. This worried me. A lot. you just never know what you are going to get! I breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered the rent would remain the same, at least until the end of my current lease. Whew!

The A/C in my living room was making odd noises and blowing warm air the other day for a few hours so I decided to call the new landlord for a meeting. I wanted to meet the guy and also explain the rent situation...long story short, he had not yet received my rent for last month yet...anyway, I called and made an appointment with him for this morning.

When he arrived, he was very pleasant and cooperative and friendly! We had a little chat about the A/C and he said, "You want me change right now?" (He's is of some Latin descent, I believe) He told me about some of the other businesses that are going in to the building and we talked about the restaurant below me. One of the main topics of discussion was about the smoking issue. I explained to him about my over sensitivity to cigarette smoke and he told me they won't be allowed to have smoking in there! There's currently a sign up for no smoking and he said it would remain up! Yay!!!!

Now I don't have to worry about all my clothes, home theater seating and bedding being destroyed by disgusting smoke smell! No offense to smokers out there, but I used to smoke and I know it smells. Thank you God for taking that away from me!

Overdue site maintenance

Recently it was brought to my attention that my blog is way too cluttered in the sidebar. Considering the source, a little is considered too much. So, I have decided to meet in the middle and take a good look around for some things to clean up or donate from my sidebar. It's not like I have ads for various Charlotte cosmetic dentists over there or anything but I agree it could use some thinning down.

So, over the next few days, I plan to clean out my personal stash of awards that I've collected. I plan to pass them on to other blogs and that alone will clean it up considerably! So if you have a blog I enjoy, chances are pretty good I'll be leaving you a comment with a link to a post for an award for you really soon, be watching!