It takes a village...and a policeman and a hair dresser and a mail man...

I know raising kids in the big city can be hard. Especially when you are the kind that thrives best in a more rural setting. Sometimes, you could use a little help when you find yourself in a pinch. It's ok! That's what we are all here for, to help each other!

Take this momma for instance. This morning she was out for a walk with the kids when tragedy struck. Somehow some of her little ones found themselves down in a drain pipe unable to get out! Help! Help!

As you can see, the community was very willing to help out. A policeman, a mail man, a hair dresser and many others, all chipped in to help momma duck rescue her babies and get them on the road to safety. Of course, momma duck doesn't always understand that we are doing our best to help them, not hurt them. Communication is everything in situations like these!

Just calm down, momma duck. We're doing our best here! Here's 2 more....aww...one can't be saved. Sorry momma duck, they did everything they could!

Soon they were on a guided path to safety. So mom's out there, when you find yourself in a pinch, don't hesitate to ask for help. Someone, even a perfect stranger as in this case, is more than willing to help out in any way they can.

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This incident happened around 10 am 4-29-09 in Lemay, Missouri.

Favorite quotes from Southland: Episode 1

#1 "What are you, Canadian?"

#2 "Wanna know how to stop all this gang bangin'? Give em' all free marijuana!"

#3 "What did you think the gun was for? Show and tell??"

#4 "I had the day from hell...I got arrested."

If you missed the start of this great new show on NBC, feel free to watch them over on Hulu.com and get caught up on Southland. It's a great show!! Each week I'm going to post my favorite quotes to tease and/or remind you. I'm a little behind so I have some catching up to do. If you watch the show, feel free to comment with your favorite quotes!

New addiction on Facebook...Farm Town!!

I am prone to addiction. I know this. I must repeat things over and over. If I even visit something like Amazon books, I'm there getting a stack of books! Addicted!!!

Well, as if I wasn't already addicted to Facebook enough, now I've discovered a new app to spend copious amounts of time on. It's called Farm Town!

Love it!!! I'm totally addicted. I don't want to work, I don't want to sleep. I want Farm Town! I only wish there was a way to get the crops to grow quicker LOL It's too fun and by the way, if you have any crops to harvest, I'm your girl! The only thing I don't like is pimping yourself in the marketplace for harvesting jobs to earn money to run your own farm. Other than that, it's awesome! Try it and come be my neighbor. I need a couple more :)

St. Louis City, smoke free? Is it possible?

I heard a piece on the news last night that talked about changing a law in the city of St. Louis to make all public places smoke free. Although I personally love this idea, I know alot of people are miffed about it.

Think about it though, would we allow any other toxic waste to fill the air in public places? I realize some bars and restaurants feel like they will lose business if this gets changed, but how much business are they already losing by allowing smoking now? I personally stay away from smoky places. I simply don't patronize places where my clothes and purse and hair and lungs are going to be drenched in cigarette smoke during and well after my encounter. It's harmful to my health and offensive to my sense of smell and negatively affects the taste of food. No thanks!

Besides, when are we going to consider the negative affects on the kids? Not only is it harmful to their health, it sends a message. A self indulgent message that it's ok to hurt someone else, because you have the right to do it to yourself. My father smoked with us kids in the car and in the house, my entire life at home. I ended up taking up the habit after he left. Perhaps I was 'conditioned' to regular doses of the nicotine and subconsciously craved it? Who knows. The point is, it wasn't good for us to be breathing that in for all those years but that didn't matter as long as he wanted to do it. It's everyone's choice weather or not they want to smoke, unless they are standing next to someone else's choice. Take a moment to read up on the effects of second hand smoke from the American Lung Association.

School nurses have to have like written permission from parents to give kids an aspirin at school but do they have your protection from breathing toxic waste into their lungs by just walking through the clouds just outside the entrances to theaters, malls, schools, restaurants, stores and many many other public places? If you want to smoke, keep it to yourself. Literally. Just like news of the best diet pill might spread fast, smoke gets around! It's your choice to smoke or not, but don't expect other people to enjoy being forced to suffer because of it. For shame.

And don't EVEN get me started on the part where the earth is just one ginormous ash tray! What do you think happens to that butt or empty pack? 'Someone' has to clean them up! They don't just disappear into thin air when you throw them out your car window! I'm done with this conversation.

Robin Thicke is coming to my town!

Tomorrow night, Robin Thicke will be in concert at the Fabulous Fox theater in St. Louis and I can't afford a ticket :( Jennifer Hudson is opening and I wouldn't mind seeing her either! Waaah!!!

You may remember a post I did a while back about Robin Thicke, the man is so smooth, he can make baby lotion sound like the best eye cream ever made! He actually has a song about cocaine and makes it sound sexy! This style of music isn't even my 'normal' diggs, there's just *something* about him! I think he has a more recent album than 'The Evolution of Robin Thicke' but that's the only one I have or have heard. Still, shoot! I wanna go!!! Someone should totally give me a ticket out of the kindness of their heart, I only need the one ticket! :-{)

(click on the above photo to go to a 'Lost without you' video)

Time to party!

Well, this past Saturday got off to a great start! We had a rummage sale to benefit the women's ministry at church and for no more than we had, we did great! Can't complain there.

Next, it was time for my friend's son's 5th birthday party. They make a lot more 1st birthday decorations than they do 5th birthday decorations...but I think that's because by the time they are 5, they have specific things they like and you go for those kinds. His party theme was Transformers....too fun! It was a simple yet fun party and everyone had a great time, especially the kids who played and played!

While I was at that party, I got invited to another party for later on that night. A girls night in type party. It was my first time to be invited and I have had reservations about it in the past and was actually kind of relieved I hadn't been invited yet because if I decided not to go, that would possibly cause offense and I wouldn't want that. But where I am right now, I felt comfortable enough to say yes and it helped my other friend since this was also her first time to be invited back since her reuniting with that friend again and she needed someone to drive her with her sight being what it is right now. So it all worked out. Although I wasn't sure it would for me since I had been up since 4:45 that morning to open the rummage sale, ack!

I ended up going to that party after the first party and had fun at both. We ate food and played games and it was nice to see some faces I haven't seen in a while. I'm talking about both parties :) So, party on!

Susan Boyle's got it going on!

Surely by now you've heard this performance on Britain's Got Talent last week. Susan Boyle sang so beautifully, I'll bet Simon felt under dressed! It was like all of a sudden being at a fine operatic performance and perhaps he should have been wearing a tuxedo instead of a t-shirt.

None the less, Susan gave a wonderful performance and I really hope this isn't the last we've seen/heard from her. I read one blog that talked about her age and love of cats and the fact that she was still single gave women hope that would otherwise be thinking 'it's too late for me'. Maybe there's something to that, but doesn't she wish she would have tried before now to get discovered? She wasted alot of time and maybe she did try and nothing ever worked out. It's great that she continued to put herself out there. Maybe Simon can give her a kiss and that would kill 2 birds with 1 stone! Just joking...she hasn't waited this long to throw it away on someone like Simon Cowell! LOL

Let this be a lesson to everyone about jumping the gun and judging the book by it's cover, shall we? You never know the beauty inside of a person just waiting for an opportunity to burst out!

"Do you have a blog?"

The coolest thing happened to me the other day in Target. I was roaming around the store shopping for what seemed like everything short of appetite suppressants, I really need to start making a list to take with me. Anyway, I had just enjoyed a 15 minute conversation with a little old lady who noticed I had kitty litter in my basket and wanted to discuss our love of cats :)
After I walked away from that furry conversation, I began again to wonder through the store. Suddenly I heard a woman speak to me asking, "Do you have a blog?" I replied 'yes' with a bit of surprise. "And you went to London?" At this point I was stunned because I wrote about that like, 2 years ago! "Yeeeeees....?" She then tells me that her friend has a blog with a similar name and she also had gone to London. She stumbled upon my mine by pure accident looking for her friend's blog and she recognized me from my blog!!! Wow! I was blown away that I could be recognized on the street because of this blog...so cool!

I told my mom about the encounter with Heidi (I think that's your name, please correct me if it's not, sorry!!!) and my mom cried out, "My daughter is a celebrity!!!" She had a big grin on her face. I didn't have the heart to tell her that was highly unlikely. Especially with my page ranking and traffic scores. But it is nice to be recognized for something positive :)

Heidi if you are reading this, thanks for stopping me to say 'Hi', it really made my day. Congrats on the pregnancy and don't give up on your blog. I hope you stop by here again and leave me a comment so I can come find your blog, too!

Pirates gone wild!

When I was a kid, I learned that pirates were 'the bad guys'. They would overtake the control of boats and ships to rob people of jewelry and cash with only one eye yelling 'Arrrrrgghhh!' Sometimes the vessels themselves were the object of the pirates desires. They were known to be very violent and brazen, empowered with a strong sense of lawlessness.

Over the past few years, I've noticed an increase in the number of otherwise 'regular' people who fancy taking on the persona of pirates as their chosen lifestyle. Even going as far as speaking like them and dressing and raising their kids with the same lawless attitudes. Perhaps pirates have been glamorized by Hollywood and Halloween a bit too much. Keep in mind, these are the kind of 'pirates' that never rob anyone nor do they desire to plunder anyone's goods. They live in suburbia for goodness sakes!

Real pirates of today have taken piracy to a whole new level. They aren't interested in a few heart pendant necklaces or bigger boats for their fleets. No, these guys set out in tiny boats with big guns and overtake ginormous cargo liners! What is wrong with these people? Somalian pirates *must* have a screw loose...and a big one at that! I think they've been let go to get away with this for far too long or something. Now, not only are they wreaking havoc among the European shipping circles, they are now barking up the tree of the USA! Well, we came in bigger boats with even bigger guns and all the skills needed to handle the situation! Even still, they just aren't accepting that there will be an end put to all this, if they continue. I just read an article on Charter.com that said they have just hijacked 4 more ships in retaliation of their fallen colleagues in the Gulf of Aden. Oh boy...here we go again. Certainly these are definitely not the kind of people to be modeling your family values from.

I think this would make a great bit called 'Really' on SNL's Weekend Update. It might go a little something like this: "Really pirates? Really? You didn't learn the first time we shot 3 of your colleagues in the head on the first shot from a good distance atop a moving surface through a glass about *this* big simultaneously? Really?? And really, now we have to come back and do it all over again? Really??? Really, do you think we will actually turn our backs on this? Really, Really??"

It's about time now, to get back to blogging!

After the shiny new glow of Facebook has finally started to fade, I'm discovering that I'm missing things I used to do online to keep busy with. Like blogging! I predicted that joining Facebook would divert much of my attention throughout the day and I was right! I find so many things on there to keep busy with, I forget all the other facets of online life that I shoved aside in the meantime. The games, the (Lil) Green Patch, Flair, photos, videos, groups...the list goes on and on!

Facebook has it's fun and it's 'worth', if you will. But when it comes to writing, it doesn't hold a candle to blogging! I feel completely open on my blog to express myself and have my time to really get it all out there. On Facebook, you are sort of limited in characters in some areas and you really only get to express tiny blurbs here and there as different topics arise.

Well, it's time to get back to other things! It's also about time for some Vegas vacations too, but that's a whole other topic!! It's time to get back to my regular game site, Gold Token. It's time to get back to emails, for goodness sakes! I've had this one friend I've intended to email for months now! Good grief already. So Facebook, I love ya, but it's time for me to refocus and you're gonna have to step back in line somewhere else.

Proactiv, you owe me a pillowcase!!!

Let's have a talk about beauty and health care for a minute. I promise, no talk about such colorful topics as colon cleanse or wart remover!

I had been happy for years with my Bio Matte Oil Free skin care products from Arbonne. I loved it! It really kept my face looking good as long as I used it regularly. I couldn't believe the difference in my skin and overall look in just the first week alone! Well, like all good products that you find work great for you, the line was discontinued by Arbonne and the next generation line was nothing I even cared to use on my face. The feel was wrong the smell was wrong and the lotion didn't have any SPF in it. Bleh.

So the search has continued for years of me trying to find a good system that I like and works well for my combination skin. I've tried various Avon products that were only 'Ok'. They had a moisturizer that would irritate my eyes. So I'm still looking.

Last week, I realized my mom had purchased the Proactiv system to try and had never used it. So I finally got around to trying it last night before bed. I used Step #1, the cleanser followed by Step #2, the toner and then after a time of air drying, I went on to Step #3, the repairing lotion. My face felt pretty good when I went to bed, I must admit! And the fragrance itsn't too bothersome.

The problem came when I woke up today and saw that the pillow case to my brand new sheet set is all bleached out where my face had been all night!!!!!!!! What is up with that? Should I be worried about my clothes during the day if I have this on my face? And if it can do that to a green pillowcase, what is it doing to my skin??? Ugh, Proativ, you owe me a pillowcase!!! I miss my Bio Matte from Arbonne! Waaaaaaah!

Late night drama in the city

Tonight at approximately 1:03 am, I was jolted out of bed by the loud sounds of a car accident in front of my apartment. The weather is cool tonight but I have the windows open anyway. So I grab my phone and dial 911 before I even have time to throw on some clothes. I was already in bed, mind you!

So, I ran to the front living room windows and look out. I had to tell the dispatcher on the phone that I heard a terrible crash but now that I'm looking I could only see some debris in the street, I couldn't see any cars! Then out the door and into the street. By this time, other neighbors began to emerge and my attention was directed to about 2 blocks down the street where you could see a white car stopped in the street. As it turns out, this guy had hit the car parked on the street in front of my parking lot and from the vantage point of my apartment, you couldn't see the damage to the car. It's totaled on the other side.

He then proceeded down the street until his right front tire broke off to the right and the car stopped about a foot short of hitting a second car. The other neighbors and myself walked down the street and greeted a young man who was walking around the car. He was almost laughing. I asked him if this was his car and he said, "Yeah, this is my car. I just need to move it over there and park it." I asked him if he was driving and he was like, "Yeah I was...I just need to move it over here."

WOW! Drunk or high much?

Later we saw the drunk/high (maybe both) driver in the back of one of the squad cars. Congratulations dummy, you've won a free night's stay....in jail....YESSSSSSS!!! The unfortunate owner of the totaled car never did come out. One of the officers ran the plates on it and it was registered to an address for across the street but he couldn't gain entrance into the building to notify them of the accident situation. They are gonna be ticked off in the morning!!!

Vacation time dreaming

Every time the weather goes from dreary and drab wintery overcast clouds to bright and warm springy blue skies...I want to get out of Dodge! I always want to take a vacation and go see the world and get out of this office! Ugh...

This has been one drawback of working for a business that prepares tax returns, as soon as the weather is getting nicer, that is when we have to work the most hours! Although I am not directly involved in the tax preparations much around here these past few years, I still can't take any time off until after the April 15th tax deadline because I need to be here to do my job since my boss doesn't have enough time to get done what he has to do, much less having time for my work, too.

So, until then, there will be no flight plans, no road trips, no days in the sun at all!! Ok, I'll stop crying in my soup for now...I'm just satisfied to still have a job in this economy!!

My Name is Earl: Karma theology

I have really enjoyed the sitcom My Name is Earl. I've watched the show since it began! I get a kick out of the situations they find/get themselves in and how Earl uses karma theology to right wrongs from his past. It's great entertainment!

Tonight's show entitled 'Witch Lady' seemed a bit after-school-special to me. It was nice to see Betty White working again but the 'let's not put labels on people' set-up and speech by Earl was a bit predictable to say the least. Hopefully they won't have any trouble raising the content bar back up to it's previous level in the future. It's been a really funny (and odd) show for me, wouldn't want to have nix it!

Cirque Dreams, A jungle fantasy! TONIGHT

Tonight I have a ticket to see Cirque Dreams, A jungle fantasy at the fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis, Mo.

I'm pretty sure it's a sort of Cirque Du Soleil ripoff. But still, I can't wait! I have only been to the circus one time, when I was 21 no less, and I loved it. Also, I've never been to a ballet of any kind so for me this is a fun combination of both! I'm excited. I just wish I would have ordered a pair of opera glasses from ebay by now. I think they'd come in real handy on nights like these. :)

My momma really, really loves me.

This was waiting for me on my desk this morning. My momma really, really loves me!

You can find me on Facebook!

Ok, I finally caved in and joined Facebook. Now, I'm totally addicted! I'm finding myself not even checking my email as much as FB. And the best part? I've been reunited with an old best friend that I had grown apart from years ago! When we were friends last, she had 2 sons around the age of 6 & 5....the oldest is graduating high school in May and she has another son who's now 7!!! It's just wonderful :D

It's also amazing to discover that I only joined Facebook about 3 weeks ago and when I searched for her, she wasn't on there. Last week, she joined and looked for me right away and there I was! Even more amazing is to see how the Lord is working in my life. I had always been left with a sour taste in my mouth at the idea that there were these people who had left my life thinking I was a bad person and Sheila has just proved that wrong! She has proved to me that even though we have all made mistakes and lost years of history because of ill feelings, we are still left with a lifetime of great memories still to make! What a wonderful feeling to regain a lost and broken friendship. Praise the Lord, you are so good to me. I can't wait to meet her/them all over again!!!

The Hole in the Wall game show

Have you seen this game show on Fox called 'Hole in the Wall'? It's a great concept for a game show. It's originally a Japanese game that became wildly popular around the world.

There's 2 teams of 3 players and points are given for clearing through the walls that are moving towards the players. The walls are made of thick foam cut out into different shaped openings and the players have to contort themselves in order to clear them. You also have to land in the 'play area' or else it's a 'not clear' and there are no points. Also, *just* behind the play area, is a pool of water and if any part of you ends up in the water, that's also a 'no clear' too.

The melodramatic host and over glamorized female assistant with 80's hair and scantily clad clothes are a bit over the top. But it's understandable considering there's really no 'content' to the show, there's alot of empty time to be filled considering each wall encounter takes about 15 seconds...and that includes the replay. LOL

But it's so fun to watch them try to clear the walls! When they do, your jaw drops down and you can't believe it! Some of the wall combinations are IMPOSSIBLE to clear. Literally. And then, the winning team gets a chance at the blind wall as the sort of 'bonus round' for extra winnings. They pick 1 teammate to be blindfolded and the other 2 have to give directions to how they should position their arms and legs and everything else in order to clear the wall, which rarely happens successfully. But I just finished watching the newest episode and these 3 girls just took home $125,000 for winning the game for $25,000 and they actually successfully cleared the blind wall for an extra $100,000!!! You can watch full episodes of Hole in the Wall on the website. Too funny! It's very entertaining.

It's time, to face the hole!!!

That's it! Tatiana is schitsophrinic.

The judges finally nailed it tonight on American Idol. They finally figured out that there are many faces to Tatiana :)

I personally think she sings just fine but she is (as my friend Patrick says) crazy! She's very entertaining to say the least. She's up, she's down...even when she seems on an even keel, you can't help but to think some crazy is *just* about to seep out from her. They should have put her through just for the entertainment value alone!

And what's up with that, all of a sudden she speaks with a new accent we've never heard before? Viva Las Crazy, fo sho! My condolences to all the Tatiana fans who are disappointed to see her off the show for real this time....unless someone has to drop out in a couple weeks....Tatiana! There's still hope, again!!!! ;-)

It could have been worse

This past weekend was full of hope to get some much over due projects going around my place. I was tossing around thoughts of getting my oil changed, shopping for wholesale clothes, house cleaning...you know, nothing spectacular but things that were needing some attention.

Saturday morning came and I decided to do the necessary cleaning on my list that requires the use of those annoying yellow cleaning gloves, like changing the cat box and such, before I took my shower and went out to run errands. That would give me an extra opportunity to try and get that latex smell off my hands and wrists. I digress. So I am vacuuming around the cat box and I can tell the electricity is doing a little dance. Nothing major, then I notice the burning smell. "Great! My vacuum is about to burn out and I'll have to sell a kidney to buy another one."

Simultaneously, part of the electricity went out and the smoke detector started screeching! I looked up at the smoke detector and there was smoke coming out of the circuit breaker box hidden behind a wooden trap door in the hallway! Now I notice the smell was not just burned, it was the distinct smell of fire! So I proceeded to begin crying and franticly looking for my phone. I dialed 911. I was so scared, I could hardly talk! The firemen came and checked everything out. Too bad one wasn't Kirk Cameron like in Fireproof! Just joking...

There was no actual fire but it did burn out one of the breakers in that box and it had to wait until Monday to be repaired. Apparently, there were 30 watt glass fuses (yes, I said glass fuses. I know, old school) in one of the circuits in the basement and that allowed things to overheat before tripping the breaker. They aren't supposed to be more than 20 watts. So be sure and check yours to make sure you don't have 30's either!

So, needless to say, I didn't get much done what with having all that going on...Oh well! Atleast there wasn't a real fire!