Whatever Wednesday: Happy Holidays?

This whatever Wednesday is going to be a modge podge of things, I think, mainly because I have a couple of things I want to talk about. The first one is: What's the big deal with asking people to say Happy Holidays?

I don't like to really get into political/religious conversations, because people tend to feel SO strongly about these sorts of things, and debating just takes up too much energy, and almost always ends in people fighting. But the whole Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas debate? I just don't see what the big deal is.

I, like Ella, worked in an agency for inner city kids. For four years I worked in the winters as an after-school program worker, and then in the summer I was a camp counselor (which, I currently go back too in the summers to teach some sort of class. And I just found out from my meeting last week that if camp happens this year {budget cuts and a new director that hates camp} I'll probably be back full time.) Anyway, after four years of large groups of children, who were usually unruly, with parents who didn't really care much about their behavior, I got a little burnt out. I left the Settlement house to go into private childcare, and was a nanny for two little Jewish girls.

Before nanny-ing for these girls, I hadn't really known anyone who was Jewish. My Mom's college best friend was, but we weren't around enough to really know what it was like, and, she's not really a... Hardcore Jew I guess I would say. I didn't really think about Christmas, and how it's just every where. I talked to the girl's mother a couple of times, and she admitted that sometimes it was hard. If you think about it, walk into a store this time of year, and what do you see? Santa's and Christmas Tree's, presents wrapped up for Christmas morning. And what's playing over the loud speaker? Christmas music. Occasionally you might spot a random Menorah, or a Star of David or Driedel (forgive my spelling, I can speak a TEENY bit of Hebrew from my time with this family, but don't even ask me to spell it.) And I was just shocked when a total stranger walked up to me once when I was shopping with the youngest girl and asked her if she was excited for Santa.

People are SO scared of their rights being trampled on, they don't stop to think about other people's rights. Obviously there are MORE Holidays going on around Christmas time than just Christmas and Hannukah, but that's my point. How often do you hear about THOSE holidays? You don't. Last week at the Wildlights Member Preview Night (a light show at the zoo) I was thinking about the girls and wondering if I may bump into them. And then I realized, no. I wouldn't. Christmas music was blaring, Santa was there... It was just all Christmas.

I'm not a Christmas hater. I don't want them to take down all the decorations, that would be sad. But it would be nice to be a little more inclusive. And if that can start with merely subbing "Happy Holidays" for "Merry Christmas" well... Why not? If someone is wearing a big Christmas Tree sweater or a Santa hat, then sure, go ahead and assume that they're the Christmas Celebrating kind, but if you don't know, why not just play it safe? What do you guys think?

Anyway, let's move on to tattoos. I know a lot of you read bedroom blog, and it was recently discussed that the main character got a tattoo. What about you guys? Do you have any? Want any? Regret any?

I have three. One is on the back of my neck, one is on my wrist, the other is on my lower leg. I don't regret any of them, but I do regret the placement of the one on my wrist. I wish I would have gotten it on my ankle or somewhere where I could have hidden it better. The one on the back of my neck is my nickname (Lo) the one on my calf is my son's newborn footprint, along with his name and date of birth, and then one on my wrist is a shamrock with the words "anam cara" (I got it with my best friend, it means "soul friend" in gaelic) I want more desperately (I want to get one in memory of my Dad, as well as the words "No day but today", and I will do footprints for any future children, and when I'm done I may get a quote from the Footprints Poem placed somewhere near them: "my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.") But a.) Tattoos are not cheap, at least not here they aren't. The one I got with my best friend was done in Memphis, it was only 20 bucks, which was amazing, but also done by a friend of my friend, so we probably got a discount. The one on the back of my neck (which is small, just my nickname: Lo) was 40 bucks, and the one on my leg was 120. Which, I realize to some people is nothing (I know people who spend hundreds, even thousands on tattoos.) But it's a lot of money to me. Here's a picture of my favorite tattoo (the one for my son):


Not a great picture, and it was taken right after it was done, so it's a little red. Here's the one on the back of my neck (it's orange because I took it with my camera phone which had a weird tint to it for some reason):

And here's the one of my wrist, with my best friends (her's is on her ankle, so mine isupside down in the picture)



OK, now on to the next bit of business, my Father In Law. He's scheduled to get his heart stents in on the 10th. I don't think I'll be going this time. I'd like to be there, but it was just a lot of work and stress to try to reorganize things so I could be there, and Cayden didn't really handle the changes all that well. If my Mom can get off work and take Cayden, then I'll probably go. So, if I'm home there will be a post. If I'm not home... Then we're going to skip it. There will also probably not be any posts for the rest of this week. As most of you know (though I do realize some of you live in other countries that don't celebrate Thanksgiving) It is Thanksgiving. I'll be going out of town for the day, and when I come back, we usually tend to try to go see a movie. Then Friday, we're going to attempt to do some basic black friday shopping (my first time, I'm a little nervous!) And we may take a trip to go back and see the Wildlights, I'm not sure.

But, back to my Father in law, thank you guys again for all the support. You've been fantastic. Life's gotten a little bit easier, and I don't feel so sad or stressed, at least about my Father in Law. In other news, my period is now 10 days late. I'm super emotional (I sobbed at the end of Jon and Kate plus 8, and I don't even really like that show.) but I've taken 5 pregnancy tests now (I know, it's a little excessive) and still nada. To top it off, one of my friends just found out she's pregnant, so I'm really jealous. It's one of my worst traits, I am a horribly jealous person. I also don't know if she's trying to rub in my face that she's pregnant (she keeps telling me things like she feels like it's a girl, and her lunar calendar says it's a girl... And I know, you're laughing, a Chinese Lunar calendar to predict the sex? You're nuts! But really, I've heard from a lot of people, and looked at it myself, that it works. It worked for my brother, sister, me, my son, my husband... I'll have to post a link sometime and you guys can look and tell me if it was right for your kids!) Anyway, she knows I want a girl, she knows I want to be pregnant, and I can't tell if she's just super excited about it (I know I would be) or if she's trying to rub my face in it. I know I shouldn't be so paranoid, but growing up my group of close friends were a bunch of jealous backstabbers. When I realized this, I kinda left the group, but it took me YEARS to realize what crappy friends we were to each other (and I was included in being crappy to them) So now with some of my friends, especially friends that are newer, I'm just super paranoid. Plus, as I told you before, there's that jealousy issue. I dunno. My one hope is though, that she was 16 days late with her period, and took 3 tests that were negative before she got her positive. So I'm hanging on to some hope that it'll happen with me. I know this makes me sound a little nuts... But I think most women who have tried to get pregnant will agree, that once you decide you want to be pregnant, pregnancy can't come fast enough. It just upsets me too, that my period is late. I feel like we can start trying again until I get it.

I think that covers it all for today. I know I have a poopy diaper to change, a shower to take, and errands to run (I have to take my brother to a job interview, and my sister shopping. But Jeremy gets off early today, so Yay for that!)

Oh, and two found freebies for you guys (thanks to www.freebies4mom.com, which I still need to add to the bloglist): The Bonnie Hunt Show is giving away 250,000 of these photobooks. The books cost 40 dollars, then shipping is also free, and that's 8.99, so it's an amazing deal, IF you can get it. I did mine late yesterday and they were still available (they don't tell you if they're still available or not until you go to check out and enter the code) But, I personally think it's worth the time. I did it on Firefox though, and it did give me a technical error a few times, but if I refreshed (sometimes I had to refresh twice) it would come back. I also noticed that you can't upload a TON of pictures at once, if you do, it won't let you upload them, so I uploaded mine in groups of 20. It did take some time, but I would upload, then go away while it was uploading and do some work, and come back to upload more. This deal is ONLY for the 20 page book, so if you upload a billion pictures, you'll have to pay for any additional pages you want. Depending on the layout you use (which you can change on each page) you can use anywhere from 1 to I think 12 pictures on a page. My photobooks held like 80 pictures I think? Search for the product: #3157086 to make sure you're getting the right book. The coupon code to enter at checkout is BONNIE.

Secondly, if you need free photocards, either for the Holidays, or you want to make thank you cards, or whatever, you can go here (this is also thanks to www.freebies4mom.com) http://www.seehere.com/, The freebie is for 50 free cards (you have to order 50 total, but it can be in any kind of increments, for example I made 10 thank you cards, 20 Christmas cards, a birthday card for my cousin and Mom, and then 18 New Years cards) It does end November 30th, and right now you DO have to pay shipping (they were giving free shipping, but I guess so many people used the offer that they had to cut back.) It's also only good on the 4x8 cards. Shipping is less than 4 dollars, so to get 50 photocards for 4 bucks really is a deal. The coupon code for this is: freebies4mom-1109 A lot of people are saying they had to type in the code in order to get it to work, NOT copy and paste it.

I however think that these offers are only good if you live in America, so sorry for my readers outside the country!

You guys should check our freebies4mom, it's NOT just for Mom (though they do have lots of kid stuff) but they often post free samples, coupons, good deals, ect. I love the site.

What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? Are any of you going out on Black Friday?