Sunday shopping madness

Why -- WHY -- do I set foot inside the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon???

Seems like at least half the people in town also choose to push a cart around in there on a Sunday. Nothing wrong with that...I just can't stand the crowds.

We made the fatal parenting error of not making sure we had the diaper bag with us when we left the house. And sure enough, when we arrived at our first stop, the library, Kellan had made a "deposit" in his diaper. So we had to cut the library visit short and hightail it to the store so we could get home and get that diaper changed.

When we got to the store, I went ahead inside while Michael stayed in the car with Kellan who was finishing up a snack. Michael kept the car keys. I had a bad feeling about splitting up with them, but thought no, I'll just rush through faster without them.

Which I did. Didn't see them in the store at all, so I figured they just decided to stay in the car and wait for me.

So I rushed out to the car and....no one there. Plus, I had a cart full of groceries and no car keys. So I had to push my full cart back into the store -- back into the Sunday shopping madness -- to track them down. ARGH.

Oh, was I flustered. And frustrated. 

But the grocery gods must have been smiling on me at that moment -- the two of them were simply waiting near the checkout line, looking for me.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" Michael asked.

"It's dead. Can I have the car keys?"

So I pushed my car out for the second time, unloaded the groceries, and resisted the urge to pull up to the front to pick them up after they paid for Michael's batch of groceries. Didn't want them to get lost, and then spend another 15 minutes wandering around looking for me. 

Lessons learned:

1. Don't split up from your husband during grocery shopping.
2. Make sure your cell phone is fully charged. REPEAT -- make sure your cell phone is fully charged. 
3. Take a freakin' diaper bag with you, for pete's sake.
4. Don't go shopping during the Sunday afternoon madness in the first place.

Taking on too much: beware the temptation!

So life has been a little crazy in the Raygun household. I've been working more than usual and we've all been sick. Plus, I'm juggling some mini-projects for a new little venture I've got planned (more on that later). With all that, I'm having a heck of a time trying to plan two coffee dates with friends that I haven't seen in person in FAR too long. 

Where does that leave me? Well, at the moment, it's 12:15 pm on a Saturday, my boys are at the soccer fields, and I'm trying to cram in as much work on the computer as I can while they're gone. Meanwhile, I'm surrounded by a quite messy house. There are piles of stuff everywhere, and it's driving me a little crazy! But I digress.

I came across this article while on the computer this morning, and I just have to share. I know so many of you loyal Raygun readers are busy moms like me, and this post is like a breath of fresh air. It helped me realize that all the stuff I'm trying to pack into my life right now might just be too much. So, I'm going to try to simplify a bit. At least in the short term, until life's pace slows down a bit.

Hope it helps you do the same. 

I shake my fist at you, social media!!!

ARGH.

Just when I thought I was getting over my Facebook obsession, I go and add another highly addictive social media application to my life.  Yes, I am on Twitter.

What the heck am I doing? I feel so hypocritical. I recall saying once, "Who cares if you're in line at the DMV? Do people really care about this stuff???"

Well, I'll admit...it is kinda interesting. Actually, it depends on the person it's coming from and the amount of "tweeting" they do. For example, I don't really care what my random follower in the UK is doing with his days (I don't even know who he is, how he found me, or why he's following me) but I DO care to read that Jimmy Fallon got home from work early and had to choose between playing video games and watching a DVD. Now THAT'S interesting. Heck, I kinda feel like we're pals! 

Hmm. I'm kinda sounding like a psycho stalker person. I promise I'm not.

I am certainly not well-equipped for regular tweeting -- I don't even text on my cell phone, for that matter -- but I am at a computer for 8 hours a day, most days. And for some reason, the company firewall doesn't block Twitter.  In fact, it's somewhat encouraged. Because the thought is, you post about your job and people are intrigued and follow you, which promotes the station....and so on.  

Hopefully I'll get over my little love affair. But right now, it's keeping me entertained at work. So that means it has some merit, right?

At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I'm still here

Hello readers. You may be wondering where I've gone. Well, I'm still here. Just so busy/tired/sick that I can't really squeeze in new blog posts right now. 

I've got a minor cold right now, and it's not a super awful one, but it's keeping me from doing much more than the basics to get through my day. 

Hopefully I'll be able to post something a little more interesting and/or meaningful in a day or two! 

Thanks for stopping by! More to come...

It's getting a little hairy around here

I haven't seen the inside of a hair salon in 3 months. 

This is what I'm lookin' like these days:


But this is how I feel like I'm lookin' most days:

I'm sure I'm not that bad. 

However.

This is the longest I've ever gone without a cut and color, and you know what? There is a LOT of gray on top of my head. In fact, those gray hairs are multiplying like rabbits. Rabbits, I tell you!!! (I was going to share some close-up photos to prove my point, but such zoomed-in shots of my scalp just looked too weird.)

I guess I've been coloring and covering up so long, I didn't realize just how many grays were mass producing beneath the fake pigment. Or perhaps -- and this thought freaks me out -- I'm so stressed lately that they really have been multiplying at an increased pace.

I guess I'll never really know. But I do know this -- my April 4 appointment can't come soon enough.

Yay for St. Patty's Day!

All right. I am super excited for St. Patrick's Day morning. Because I am going to make this again: 


Yep....what better day for a bright green smoothie! Seriously, if you have a banana, some milk, some vanilla and some kale in the house (well, that might warrant a run to the grocery store) you should seriously make the Kale and Banana smoothie. It is quite good and quite healthy. And extremely green.

And while we're on the topic of green, I have to send a big THANK YOU to Danielle for this:

I signed up to be a part of a pay it forward project she suggested on her blog, and this is the lovely package she sent me! She designed it all around the theme of being LUCKY, with a fantastic looking Irish-themed book, nice green Chapstick, and a Jason Mraz CD with one of her favorite songs, "Lucky."

Thanks, Danielle. I do feel lucky, indeed.

Found another one! It's typo time

I found this blatant typo last week and just didn't have time to post it.

If you saw the Idaho Statesman last weekend (can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday), maybe you saw it too!

These managers, who annouce the layoffs, get stressed out, too

Maybe the Business section editor was too stressed to run a spell check!

A Legacy of Leading

In case you missed my subtle hints earlier this week, here it is -- the University of Idaho 'Legacy of Leading' 60 second spot I voiced last year.

Makes me a little nostalgic for my alma mater. I tend to get that way about U of I.




It wasn't really made to air on TV -- it is mostly shown to prospective students when they visit campus. Hopefully it's helping a few people choose the Vandal path!

Mystery revealed!

Okay, I know I didn't give you much time to guess the answer to the What Is It? post. But I just couldn't wait to tell you.

This, my friends, is a Kale and Banana Smoothie. Yes! You read that correctly! Kale and bananas -- together!

And guess what else?

It's actually quite good!

I know, I know... this looks absolutely horrendous.

But if you use young kale (as in small leaves, I suppose) it's not so bitter, and the banana overwhelms the taste of the veggie.

The other night, I pulled up the Kale and Banana Smoothie recipe, which I've been wanting to make for a while. Then I told Kellan he was getting a "treat", and he watched me whip it up with great anticipation.

Ta da!  He liked it! He really, really liked it!

He kept smacking his lips and saying, "Ahhh..." as if it was the most delicious treat ever. 

I was delighted to know I'd snuck one of the healthiest veggies in the world right by him. Hee hee!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Here's to another happy and healthy year! Once you get over that awful flu bug, of course.

Love you!

What the heck is it???

Check this out!

Any idea what it is? Go ahead, take a guess.

I can't wait to tell you about it, but I'm too tired... I'll have to tell the story another time. 

But really! Take a guess! I wanna hear what you think...

DaviesMoore: A New Brand is Born

I try to keep talk of our careers out of the conversation here on The Rayguns. Well, except for all that freaking out I did a couple weeks ago about my big transition. But today is a big day for Michael, and I just have to point it out.

Yesterday was Michael's last day as an employee of MMG (Marketing Media Group).

Today he is VP of Brand Planning at DaviesMoore.

The new company is a blend of old and new in the Idaho advertising community; the oldest ad shop in the state is joining forces with the most aggressive, forward-thinking agency. From MMG and Davies Rourke to DaviesMoore. I think good things are in store. Very good things.

Anyway, check out the new website if you have a minute. There are some pretty sweet glam shots of Michael and the DM peeps on there. Like this one:

And, see if you can find one of my thumbprints on their site if you're really bored. I'll give you a hint: it's on their blog page.

Okay, another hint: you won't see me, but you'll hear me. 

All right, just one more hint: it has to do with my alma mater. 

If you can't find it now, you obviously can't mouse click your way out of a paper bag and I wash my hands of you. 

Anyway, cheers to DaviesMoore and a new chapter in Idaho advertising history!!!

Betty Baker I am not

I hope this post will be a reminder to me next year that I am not good at baking.

The things I bake almost always turn out to be yummy (like the Cranberry Banana Chocolate Bread I made last year...mmm), but I tend to have a leeeetle problem with handling baked goods once they're out of the oven.

And sadly, that's what came to pass on Saturday, 24 hours before Kellan's Pre-Birthday Birthday.

First, I found some excellent inspiration online -- a killer-looking red guitar cake.

Then I traced the outlines of all my cake pans and cut them out of a JC Penney flier so I would have some idea of how to cut them all once they came out of the oven. (Never mind the fact that I was petrified by the idea of having to squeeze them all into my freezer so they'd be easier to cut, and/or attempt something called a 'crumb coat.' Yikes.)

I had to split the cake mixing into batches, because I couldn't fit it all in my KitchenAid mixer! But after dividing and conquering, I got all of the batter into greased and floured pans. I'm pretty sure my fingers were actually crossed as I slid them into the oven.

Then it happened. 

I let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes after they were done baking, and figured it was time to turn them out on the racks.

It was not time.

One of the sheet cakes quite literally fell to pieces. I wasn't really surprised -- I had anticipated some kind of major cake-making failure during the process -- and actually, I'm a little glad it happened early on so I didn't spend a ton of time buying special little candies for decorating and stuff.

After cursing my stupidity, I developed a Plan B -- create a stencil and dust powdered sugar over the second sheet cake. And if that failed....well, I still had two rounds I could just stack and frost.

It only took me about 25 minutes to carve out the stencil from the sweet birthday posters we made to decorate the house with:

Cool huh? Michael designed it based on the cover for U2's new single, pictured below.

And here's what we ended up with:

I was pretty sad about how the powdered sugar started to melt. (The cake was too moist to handle the sugar. See? I told you what I actually bake is yummy.) But then I started to see the coolness of the effect. Kinda looks rock and roll, don't ya think?

Our baby is TWO!!

Two years ago today, around 8 in the morning, I felt like I'd just won the lottery.

My son was 4 hours old. He was fast asleep, and so was my husband. All our family had gone home to get a little shuteye, but I couldn't close my eyes. I couldn't believe that Kellan was here. Really, really here.

So I spent a couple of sleepless hours tossing a word around in my head that felt a little foreign at the time: 

MOMMY.

It's been an eventful couple of years. But I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Happy Birthday Kellan

A wonderful Pre-Birthday Birthday

Phew. The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind! My mom went into the hospital Saturday night for appendicitis (it was removed before it ruptured), and we had about 24 hours to put together Kellan's second birthday celebration. (The time change didn't help!) All things considered, however, I think it all came off pretty well. And most importantly, Kellan had a blast.

Here's a little highlight reel of his Pre-Birthday Birthday, starting with Sunday morning at Mama Hina's (Grandma Tina's) hospital room.

More birthday details to follow, once I've caught up on sleep!

Tylenol's apology

It's one thing to have a typo. It's another to have one in your own brand name.

You'd think if a customer pointed out such an egregious error, the company would be enormously grateful. Or you'd at least think the customer would get more than a canned response. That's exactly what Tylenol left in my inbox this morning.

Thank you for expressing your displeasure with one of our ads for Extra Strength TYLENOL® acetaminophen products.

All of our ads are researched thoroughly for consumer acceptance, but it is difficult to produce advertising that appeals to all tastes. Please accept our apology if you were offended.

We appreciate your taking the time to share your comments with us.

The Information Center

Apparently it is also difficult to produce advertising that correctly spells a product's brand name.

I wasn't so much offended as I was appalled.

No year's supply of Tylenol products for me, I guess!

Stuck in a tango lesson

I had no idea I would bear witness to a dance lesson when I stopped by a local coffee shop for a smoothie and free WiFi recently.

I'm still not even really sure what that was all about. 

The visit started off uneventfully, other than the fact that one of the employees flipped the sign to CLOSED as soon as I settled in with my Berry Morning Blast. I asked if I should leave, and she assured me that it was perfectly fine for me to sit along as long as I wanted. 

Then a woman in a hoodie, running shoes and weird culotte-style pants blew through the door. Pretty soon I realized she was the owner, due to the bossy and bizarre wine lesson she started giving her employees.

Crazy Owner Lady: Now, when someone asks you what kind of Chardonnay we have, you say Anjou. It is the BEST wine we have. I think it's nine dollars a glass. Let me check.  

She bolted over to the register and manically slammed her fingertips onto the keyboard.

Crazy Owner Lady: Yep. Nine fifty. It's the BEST wine we have. Next, you can point them to these wines. They're okay. They're good. They're good wines. They're almost as expensive. They're seven dollars.

At this point, I noticed she was making some of the employees taste the wines. They didn't seem to mind, but they did seem a little uncomfortable. I could tell they were from another country...maybe that was why? Maybe they didn't really understand her. I could picture little thought bubbles above their heads saying, why is she talking to me like I'm a little kid?

Crazy Owner Lady: Now. I can tell that wine is a mal-BEC. How can I tell? Because of the legs. It has beautiful legs running down the side. You don't drink a lot of wine, do you? You don't have wine in your country, do you?

Huh? Now why did she have to go there? They were already bewildered enough.

Okay, you're probably wondering....what about the dance lesson thing?

Right. 

The crazy owner lady finished up her weird wine tutorial and started pushing tables around. Then a non-employee guy (maybe her husband?) put on some tango music. Then she barked at all the poor foreign kids to come over and get ready. 

And here's part of what ensued:

Eeeek! As you just saw, this is the point where the crazy owner lady turned her attention to ME. I'm shocked at how calm I sound on that clip when I answer her question, because in my head I'm thinking, oh no....she's going to get snoopy and figure out I am secretly taping all this weirdness and she's going to lose it and kick me out...

Somehow, I managed to keep my cool, and she asked if I can take their pictures so she can post them on their website. "Oh! Sure!" I said, hoping I will be spared from some sort of incident. 

"They're from Iraq," she says. "WE BOMBED THEIR HOUSE."

I had no idea what to say to this. I think I uttered some sort of oh sound. Because this little tidbit of information did not even remotely explain why she was ordering her employees to learn the tango.

I couldn't help but wonder... Is she planning some sort of coffeehouse dance competition? Are these people actually being PAID to dance? 

And then I thought, I should really get out of here before she makes me dance too. 

Shame on you, Tylenol! Shame!

Oh my goodness gracious. Tylenol needs to put their advertising agency on probation.

You'd think a such well-established brand could do better than this.

Yes, it's time for another game of spot the typo. 

I know it may be hard to spot in the screen shot above, so here's a closer look. You can't miss it:

TYENOL? Really??? Come ON.

I am not joking when I tell you that my jaw dropped (and stayed there for about two straight minutes) when I spotted this grave error. 

Excuse me, but I have to email Tylenol now. I cannot let this one pass.

UPDATE -- Wednesday, March 4

I haven't heard back from Tylenol yet. You'd think they'd be falling over themselves to thank me for saving them from such embarrassment! I mean, who misspells their own brand name? Honestly!

I'll let you know if I hear back...

It's baaaack....

The croup has returned. 

Michael noted some wheeziness in Kellan last night, and amazingly, he slept peacefully until about 7 am. Then Kellan's honking cough woke me up -- that sound which sends a lightning bolt of dread and anxiety into my heart. 

Oh, how I hate croup. It is a nasty and insidious ailment. And I know I may be in for another night of half-sleeping/half-stressing on the floor next to his bed, listening to each labored wheeze, in and out...in and out. 

This time, however, I am not going to mess around. I'm sure the doctor will suggest an in-office dose of Decadron (a steroid that helps reduce the inflammation of the airways) and this time -- I'm going to say okay. Last time, the doctor (a fill-in doc, not our regular pediatrician) thought it was perfectly reasonable NOT to administer the Decadron based on the mildness of his symptoms, and two nights later, we ended up in the ER at 4 in the morning. Not this time, I say.

Party planning for a rock star

It's a pretty daunting task, planning a rockstar-quality party. Kellan turns TWO a week from today, and his party is Sunday afternoon. The clock is ticking! 

So far, I have loose plans to make a guitar cake, hopefully looking somewhat like the one pictured above. I know -- wish me luck. We're also going to get the karaoke machine out -- whoo hoo! But that's really all I have going at this point. I guess I should figure out some party snacks, but I really don't have to do a lot since we're just having immediate family and our good next door neighbor friends over.

I'm sure Kellan will be completely thrilled that we'll have a real mic for him to show off his singing skills. And as long as the Birthday Boy is happy, that's all that matters, right?