DD, MM, & LL for yesterday 9/29/2013

Daily Dozen

1. Quick thermometer for toddlers, because they won't sit still long enough for the old school ones
2. My little one was just hot, not feverish
3. Side benefit of working at a restaurant: food to take home
4. Elaine cleaned the fridge. I was planning to do it yesterday.
5. Gabriel offered to do grocery shopping and take one of the boys while doing it...
6. Days off with my little guys. I love hanging out with them and seeing where they are now at.
7. Cozi - great for sending hubby to grocery shop, live updates his list when I add last minute items, and I can see what he found and what he didn't in real time, and text him to look extra hard or where to look for the stuff I really need
8. Good computer
9. Gabriel brought home my candles
10. Kids were good today
11. Calculator - it didn't fail me when I totaled the cash wrong at the bar. I didn't count the money right.
12. Cordless vac... not sure how I survived all the crumbs and stuff from two toddlers before I got it.

Magic Moments

• Last night at the restaurant the place was busy and we had no servers. I was bartender... It was nuts. Ace up the sleave: I had Zac for busser. He got extra love from me because he saved the day until the bosses came to save the day.
• Gabriel came home with groceries and a nerf gun, claiming it was on the list.
• Sunday night football had the Broncos at nearly 60 points and Arslan was super excited

Lessons Learned

• Never let a toddler play with "free" version of a smartphone game. They'll be sure to buy whatever the game is advertising by accident. Buy the game they like, to get it ad-free.

Temperature gets so uneven in the house, we have our own inside house weather patterns.

DD, MM, & LL for today 9/28/2013

Daily Dozen

1. Snow... If it's going to be cold, might as well be pretty outside as well. Also, it makes the boys and my husband SO excited. Arslan said, "It's snowing! We can ski in the snow." That's our two-year-old. I think he'll be an amazing skier by age four and will routinely leave me in the dust, pardon me, in the powder.
2. Warm house... cold outside warm on inside--actually, isn't that an interesting idea for a recipe?
3. Quiet by both boys. Normally, that would worry me, but for now they're quietly eating food.
4. Tea
5. Brilliantly funny book, "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?"
6. Empty fridge -- time to go shopping but glad it's empty so I can clean it first. It was hard for our fridge to be empty because mama-in-law keeps separate groceries and so did the roommate we had.
7. Aspen trees -- so pretty in the fall
8. Interest free credit cards -- saved us from paying interest on our medical bills that the hospital was charging.
9. Insurance on the rental car -- hailstorm came through last night. I don't have to worry about hail damage to car, window chip, or anything like that.
10. Insurance adjusters are real people with kids, business, bills, and accidents that happen to them, too
11. Stool -- not the BM kind, but the one that lets me access the top shelves!
12. Smart Phone -- I budget and record all expenses and income like cash tips from my bartender/server job into YNAB, use a to do list to grocery shop, call and research stuff on the fly, read books on the bus, check the bus schedule, write to my boss, husband, vet virtual assistant candidates, sell on eBay, etc... all from my phone. Amazing.

Magic Moments

• Last night after I got home, my husband Gabriel poured me a glass of wine and gave me a foot rub as we chatted. It was so nice. He was very talkative and we shared about some memories we had, our day, thoughts about our career choices and how we chose our majors in college. It was like we were dating and just getting to know each other... fresh and interesting.
• Kaleidoscope with the boys... the LED flashlight in the back made for a brilliant display they couldn't get enough of!

Lessons Learned

• http://7secretsearch.com/page/about Pretty interesting way to gauge your website's worth...
• iPage emailed me with $1.89/mo hosting offer and a free domain. Seemed like a great offer, so I started thinking about what free domain I want... Luckily, I checked out their reviews before I got too far. Wow, they suck. Slow servers, will give you occasional pop ups from their affiliates, will not refund money, etc. Not getting hosting from them. Ha. 
• But hey, I guess it goes to show you that random email offerings will get me thinking about purchasing. Email marketing works.
• Also, your online reviews are the thing to watch for an online company! Treat online reviews like the ultimate holy grail--with undying reverence, and look for them high and low... Good ones will give you eternal life.
• Never, ever leave a toddler next to a candle for a second. My son seemed to be innocently watching and trying to keep himself from blowing it out. I turned my head for a second and he was trying what the candle would do to the toilet paper! Talk about heart attack. We had a light chat about fire and safety... but mostly I had a stern self-talk.
• The rug is always dirty. I just vacuumed the rug thoroughly 3 times, cleaning the canister out each time, and got lots of stuff and fuzz each time. Our rug isn't particularly dirty because I have a convenient cordless that I use at least twice a week. It just goes to helping me conclude that I will probably not buy carpeting. I wonder though if it's the quality of the rug, too. I mean, would a really nice handwoven Persian rug, like the one my parents used to have, shed fuzz every time? Also, would a Roomba be really worth buying if you had to clean out the canister that often?

DD, MM, & LL for today 9/27/2013

Daily Dozen

1. Rain... so refreshing and smells divine. Considering we live in a dry climate, it makes me think of travels to wet climates and Seattle...
2. Grass is still green. I've been focusing on how cold it's getting. But wow, there are flowers, green grass, leaves still on the trees, and kids still play in shorts in the afternoons. I love it. Soaking up early fall in the mountains.
3. I love how rolls of wispy, turning clouds hang onto the mountain sides in the early morning. It makes our valley feel mythic, full of magic and mystery.
4. These new Schwinn AC sport bikes are so cool... I loved getting my hands on those beautiful commercial bikes before they got delivered to the customer today.
5. Really appreciate Google, how it integrates across all online dimensions... business, personal, etc.
6. I can keep in touch with my dad and brother in Mongolia easily because of various services... LocalPhone is awesome because they are now just a local phone dial away on my cell.
7. Extended warranty coverage. I hated that I paid so much for it... so now I'm glad I'm getting some use out of it.
8. Competent and communicative service professionals.
9. Tamir was so happy this morning.
10. Emails... you can change your initial tone of voice from demanding to sweet by re-writing before hitting "send." Wish all communication worked that way.
11. My occasional $5.99/bottle deal I find when I buy a case or two online, with free shipping... makes me spoiled. $8.99 a bottle?! Pah... I can do way better.
12. Voicemail that comes in my email. I can just hit forward and share with family or coworkers.

Magic Moments

• Car is going to get fixed under the extended warranty coverage after all. I had 500 miles left covered, so that was lucky.
• When the kids learned there was no more ice cream, they both took it without tantrums or resistance. Usually, one or both are insisting on more. In fact, I was not done eating mine yet and they didn't try to force me to give up my share to them. My boys are growing up!
• Found this course: https://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/dmc/ Interesting... Maybe 2014 is my year to get one of these brilliant teams to do my business adwords campaign.

Lessons Learned

• Arslan's time outs downstairs really work. He just needs alone time to see things from a different perspective and calm down... then he's a pleasure to be with again.
• Shoot, I can't get emails for my boys on gmail yet. I guess 1 year old and 2 yrs old are too young. Protecting the kids from cyber-spying and data collection? Nah. I figure they're going to be famous anyway--just as well that we all get used to the pitfalls early on.
• "Flowers are the sex organs of plants," is a comment that should be reserved for conversing with botanists, or maybe a science class... Don't even ask why I had to learn this one. I thought I had something original to say, I guess, but wandered too far off topic. (Is there a NERD jar for me to put money in to, as punishment?)

DD, MM, & LL for today 9/26/2013

Daily Dozen - Dozen things I'm grateful for

1. Brother Mergen is coming to visit from Mongolia soon
2. Fall is progressing nicely... lots of rain, helping on with the droughts and water shortage of recent years
3. Blogger is actually pretty easy to set up with the domain name I just bought from Go Daddy
4. Udemy gave me the great idea to look closer into Blogger as a platform
5. Work at HealthStyles... I got to do some creative design work on Adobe Illustrator today
6. I forgot to eat breakfast, and arrived at work hungry... having forgotten to bring lunch. Argh. Luckily my coworkers have good stashes to borrow from.
7. Bus system with the new VelociRFTA is doing well. I am able to take advantage of the time savings after all.
8. Last night's family dinner with Isabelle, Melea, Gabe, Boogie, Arslan, Tamir, Elaine, Woo, and Melea's parents... delicious chilli. I made quick corn bread. Boys were so happy.
9. Car handoff at the parking lot worked out well.
10. I had an eventvwr scam from a heavily-accented guy who said he was calling from Microsoft and was seeing a lot of problems on my computer. He called from 324.456.7891. I knew he was a scam because I looked it up as I was talking to him. He hung up pretty quickly after I told him that he was scamming.
11. Noble Samurai lessons are very informative and helpful. I'm glad the software I bought 2 years ago are now at least useful.
12. Today is the first day of many days to come... and I'm as happy as I ever wanted to be.

Magic Moments - So I can capture the best of my life

• "You're welcome" in a friendly voice from a normally gruff person. She sounded genuinely pleased to help me.
• Slept through the night last night. My 1-year-old and 2-year-old both like to wake up and snuggle in the middle of the night... every single night. This is like finding an oasis in the desert. Finally got the rest I needed and look properly non-bleary-eyed.
• Little things... giving text of someone's phone number to brother, saying "yes, you can" to my husband wanting to do something
• Boss said the flyer was "perfect"
• Learning about Market Samurai more. It's pretty awesome. Gabe's going to have to deal with my "investments" from now until I start to make money from this thing called online marketing and stuff.

Lessons Learned - Because there's an opportunity to learn, every step of the way

• Ok, TMI probably but I need to start logging my periods and tell the doc. Today was a TOTAL surprise and I have to say, after being regular for years and years, ever since I had my boys and installed the "no-more-baby" rod, this thing is so irregular and feels like it comes every 2 weeks. Seriously. If I log it, then it's not just my hormonal "feeling."
• You get more done when you really have to pee.... you just start typing and talking faster... LOL j/k Apparently, I didn't really learn much worth learning today.