I love this girl!

It's not often that I come across an artist that just completely blows me away. But today I came across one that did just that and I wanted to share her with everyone I know. Here name is Leona Lewis and you are listening to her now. She is a 22 year British artist. Back in 2006 she won the British version of American Idol. Her single "Bleeding Love" was the best-selling single in England last year. She has an amazing voice and is absolutely gorgeous! Her album Spirit is scheduled to be released April 8th in the US and I can not wait. My favorite song is "Angel". I hope you all enjoy listening to her as much as I do.

Training for Parenthood

While nothing can really prepare you for being a parent, I do believe that having pets can give you a basic understanding of caring for something that relies solely on you for their livelihood. However, if the way we have raised are dogs is any indication as to how we will raise our children, Social Services will be up in our business all day long. Ok, ok, so perhaps I exaggerate just a bit. But bless their puppy dog hearts they have had a rough life. From being struck by lightening, to eating rat poison, to getting locked in the bathroom for hours, to wondering off and getting lost, these dogs have been through it all.

We do everything we can to keep our dogs safe. They go to the vet on a regular basis, we give them heart worm pills, we have a fenced-in back yard so they can't get out. We don't let them out in the front yard unless we are with them (ok, so maybe we have left the front door open a couple of times hence the wondering off and getting lost part above - but they have digital ID chips in them for just that reason). Bottom line, we do what we can to make sure they are safe and happy. Just like any parent of a child would do.

Now I know that as children get older, they tend to get into more trouble. And that leads to the ever popular parental "talks". Parents have talks with their kids about everything from the birds and the bees to school grades to drugs. But who would have thought that one day, we would be having one of these "talks" with Caesar and Cleo.

You see, the other day we had to have the "Smoking is bad for you" talk with the dogs. I know, I know. You probably think we've lost our minds. Why would we need to have a talk about smoking with a couple of dogs? It's not like a dog can light one up any time they please. But on Monday, when I got home from work, I walked into the bedroom and saw this. A pack of cigarettes lying on the doggie bed just as pretty as you please.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the pack of cigarettes lying there. Neither one of us smokes so where did the cigarettes come from? Did they run down the street to the store and purchase a pack?

Then, I remembered, the box! The box is a decorative cigar box that Chip picked up at a cigar shop. It contains old RJR memorabilia, including, you guessed it, cigarettes! Chip and I believe that Caesar and Cleo scope out the house for things they can get in to when we leave the house. They act all sad when we leave but as soon as that door shuts and the car backs out of the drive way they are into what ever they can find. This time, it happened to be the cigarette box.

So, after I made this little discovery, I did what every other mother would do in this situation. I looked into those brown puppy dog eyes and said "Wait until your father gets home!"

Chip gets home and I show him the cigarettes. He thinks it's quite funny. But we form a united front, look both of them in the eye, hold the pack of cigarettes up to their faces and say "Bad doggies!" "No, no!" That was the extent of our talk. I mean seriously, they are dogs. Do you think they understood and learned their lesson? I would like to think so. But just in case they didn't the box is now on the top shelf of the bookcase, out of reach of curious doggie paws.

Never Again! And I mean it this time.

I hate a certain super center that is in every city across the country. I won't use it's real name but those of you who know me know which store I am referring to. There really is no nice why to say it. Simply put, I hate that store. Every time I go there I always say it will be my last. Well, this time I really mean it. I don't know what it is about the place. As soon as I pull into the parking lot I start to tense up. I can feel my mood shift to from "happy, happy" to "pissy, pissy". I have to psych myself up to even get through the door. I tell myself that I will have a great shopping experience but then I walk in. I feel I have to prepare myself for battle. The place is always a mad house, people are everywhere. You have to be on the defensive because you never know when you might get plowed down by crazed shopper who thinks they own the store. If you manage to find everything you need and make it to the check out line you have to wait forever. What is the point of having 30 cash registers if only 5 are open at any given time?! So any way, Saturday night Chip says he wants to go to this store. I look at him like he's lost his ever-loving mind. Surely he did not say what I thought he said. He's not a big fan of the super store either. "You want to go where?" I ask. "I heard they have $30 remote control helicopters." Now, I know he's nuts. "We can go to the book store." he says. It's was a classic bribe I know, but I readily accepted because who can say no to the book store.

We go to the book store first. There is nothing like a tasty cafe latte and book browsing to put me in a good mood. We finish and get back in the car. Secretly I am hoping Chip is so excited about his book and magazine purchases that he has forgotten about the helicopter. No such luck. We pull up to the store and shocker! It doesn't look that crowded. We even get a second row parking spot near the front door. I even said to Chip, "Maybe this won't be so bad." We decided since we were there we would pick up a few other things. So off we go. We managed to find everything we need without too much of a problem (except for the main thing we went there for, the helicopter). Feeling good about this visit we make our way to the check out. And here is when it started to go down hill. As always the lines were long. We only had about 5 items so we go to the self-check out lane. I think self-check outs are a wonderful thing. I use them all time. They are quite the time saver, if they are working. We wait our turn and get up to the monitor. We start to scan our items and all is working well. Then, I moved the bag! What happens when you move the bag you might ask? It screws up the system! It thinks you are trying to take your items without paying. We had to wait for assistance. And how many sales assistants do you think were working, monitoring about 6 self check out lanes. 1!!!! We waited so long for assistance that the machine eventually cleared itself. We began scanning again. Then we tried to scan the bottled water. It would not recognize the item. By this time I am in my classic huff-n-puff stage and Chip is getting frustrated not only with the machine but with me. Once again we had to wait for the one sales assistant to come over. The whole time I am muttering to myself "I hate this store". The sales assistant finally comes over and has to manually key in the item. It still wouldn't take. She had to do it several times and finally it went through. We, or should I say Chip, finally manages to get everything scanned in and payed for. I swear the whole process took over 15 minutes. We make it back to the car. Once inside we both take a deep breath. I look at him and I say, "I am never coming to this store again." Reflecting back, I have to ask myself if it was really that bad. We did manage to find everything we needed without too much trouble, and some of the issues with the self checkout were operator error. After all, I did move the bag before we were done. However, I have to also ask myself, is it worth the irritation and frustration I always seem to endure to go back to this store? After much thought I can honestly say the answer is no. I would rather drive down the street to a similar store and pay a little bit more. I will gladly leave this store to those who have a little more patience.