I shamelessly thieved the husband meme from Chelle in desperation…

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How long did you date? Just about 3 years. We met in September 01, moved in together in February 02, got engaged December 02 and got married in July 04.

How old is he? 33. I’m 32, but I always forget.

Who eats more? Him, most of the time. I have portion control issues, though.

Who said “I love you” first? He did. Actually, what he said was “Would you think I was a freak if I told you I think I love you?” I didn’t. Not at all. I loved him already too.

Who is taller? Him. Tall, hot, and smart. I lucked in.

Who sings better? We’re both very not good, but we sing anyway. We serenade our kids in unison at bed time every day. Poor little darlings.

Who is smarter? Him, but don’t tell him I said that.

Whose temper is worse? Me. He doesn’t have a temper at all. He balances me out nicely.

Who does the laundry? I do. He occasionally puts it away but can’t fold to save his life.

Who does the dishes? We both do, but I do it more. Since I cook, he’s supposed to clean but he’s been slacking.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

Who pays the bills? He does, for the most part.

Who cooks dinner? I do. He can’t cook AT ALL, but he rocks the barbecue. (As long as I prepare all of the accompaniments!) Actually, he’s very intelligent and could totally cook if he had any desire too. He really hates it, so I do it.

Who drives when you are together? I drive my van. On the rare occasion we leave the house without the kids, we take his (sports)car and he drives.

Who is more stubborn? Me. Totally me. It’s genetic.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me. I think? BG - want to comment on that one?

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither of us. Usually if we realize we’re wrong we just pretend that the other person misunderstood us and we were right all along. It’s pretty funny.

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, because they are able to come see us quite often. But we see his a lot too. Everyone’s only 2 hours away.

Who proposed? He did, right before we were leaving to head home for Christmas, 10 months after we moved in together. We were still in school, but he figured if they could do it while they were in school, we could too. He sold his RRSPs to buy my ring.

Who is more sensitive? Me, but he’s a big softie too. I just cry a lot.

Who has more friends? He has the lifelong kind. I have a few of those, but lots of the ‘probably wouldn’t see each other if our kids didn’t play together’ kind. My good friends are really really good. Amazing, really.

Who has more siblings? We both have one. I have a brother and he has a sister.

Who wears the pants in the family? Ummm…we both have our areas.

The Big Guy is an awesome friend, an awesome husband and an awesome father. I loooooove him a lot and I know I’m incredibly lucky to know him and to be married to him. When my mom met him, she said something like “Oh, thank GOD!”

I desperately need to update my blogroll (accessible from my right sidebar by clicking on “Cooler People Than Me” under Other Goodies, in case you were wondering…) and I need your help.

If you want to be on it, please leave a comment on this post letting me know. Even if you’re already on it, please tell me again so I can confirm your url. I’ll plug through the comments and enter you when I get a chance. I read hundreds of blogs and really would love to link to all of you but my organizational skills are sorely lacking so I need you to help me.

Come on…throw a girl a bone! It’s like de-lurking day, but not.

(You can also tell me if you want to be removed from it. That would be weird, but go ahead!)

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In reverse…(helping you help me)

I’ve got all of the new TOP buttons designed (which match the beautiful new theme that’s not working but will soon if it kills me) and I know many of you link there.

If you used the code that I provided, the image at your site will update automatically.
If you coded your own, however, would you please update it to the new one?

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com"><img src="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/images/topbutton.jpg" alt="The Opinionated Parent" /></a>

Thanks!

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Advance warning - Something to think about…

If you could ask me anything, what would it be?

Soon you’ll get your chance!

Grrr. Chelle designed me a new theme for TOP (based on the current theme she modded for this site - she’s good, no?) and it keeps randomly reverting to the default (aka crappy and ugly) theme. I have no idea why and it does it every hour or so. Sometimes it only stays pretty for 10 minutes and I have to deselect and then reselect the theme from my dashboard. Has anyone ever heard of that and/or know a solution? I’m going to call my host because they have great support and check if they know. And I’ll also get my genius husband to check the server error logs. Other than that?

< /annoyance > < other things >

I’m working on new buttons for over there as well. If you used the code that I provided, your images will update automatically. See the one over there? In the top right sidebar? Like it? They’ll look kind of like that.

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I just got a Cuisinart Griddler and it ROCKS! I love it! I’m totally not sick of paninis yet. They’re delish! And I can use it in lieu of my Foreman grill and my griddle, both of which I’m going to sell.

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I am still addicted to lines, apparently.

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Oh, and here’s the answer to the burning question of the week.

At this site, right on the home page, there is a published “review” with images and text stolen directly from The Opinionated Parent and claimed for their own. (Look for Speckles & Weeds about 3/4 of the way down.)

See the same thing here?

It’s bad enough that they can’t write their own blurb about a company who’s items they carry in their shop, but they even stole the images that link directly to my site, indicating they also know nothing about the internet or that I’d know immediately when they stole it. Granted, the title image does link to my review, but there’s no other indication that I wrote it, nor did they have my permission to print it.

I highly recommend never shopping there. Sad, because it’s a small Canadian company and those are the ones I love to recommend. Not this time.

I emailed the owner this morning:

On your website you have copyrighted images and text taken directly from our site without permission. Please remove all of them immediately.

The Opinionated Parent

I’ll be watching to see if they remove it all.

Update: 36 hours later - no response and it’s still there.

Update: 1 week later - it’s gone but I didn’t ever receive a response with an apology or any explanation.

With all the stuff I give away, it’s amazing to some people how excited I get when I actually win something. In the past couple of months I’ve won two great contests, both from Chelle! First I won her copy of The Glass Castle which was an awesome read that I highly recommend and then I won one of her great hand-knitted market bags! I’m a market loving kind of girl and I plan to get a lot of use out of it. It’s even more special because my friend spent time making it. Thanks so much Chelle!

I’ve also received some great books in the last while to review…

The Bilingual Edge is one I couldn’t really get in to simply because neither of us is fluent enough to speak another language to our children, but I did enjoy bits of it from the perspective of a mom who speaks a little French and a little ASL and wants my kids exposed to both. It’s not a riveting by any stretch but it does have some great information if you’re looking to give your kids that edge that bilingualism brings and you want to know how best to go about it.

Forgotten Ellis Island is one I wanted to read simply because I don’t know anything about Ellis Island and thought it would be interesting. I was right - it was great. A very easy and fast read that gives a true glimpse into what happened on Ellis Island. It brought about lots of emotion in me thinking about the mothers being isolated from their children in the hospitals and sometimes even being deported without them. A great read if you’re interested in that type of thing!

I have a pile of books still waiting to be read as well. I’m sure I’ll have some time in the next five years, right?

In light of all the toy recalls, here’s some weekend viewing for you.

Support the little guys. We recommend some great ones over here. An extra buck or two could save your kid from lead (or freaking date rape drug) poisoning and someone else’s kid from working in a factory all day to make your Big Box Mart and Dollar Store crap.

Hopping off my soap box now. For a little while, anyway.

So, are you shopping at WalMart for your kids Christmas presents this year? Online? Small local suppliers? How are you going to make sure they’re not loading up on lead? Or GHB? Have you tried the home lead testing kits? Are you remaining in staunch denial? Do tell.

If you can’t guarantee me it’s safe and natural, it’s not going to be found in my house. Frankly, it’s just not worth it.

(My kid? Needs NO toys. We have a garage full of things for him and three toy boxes full in the house. I’ve started getting rid of stuff just to make some room. Anything made in China that has any paint on it is so far gone it’s not even funny. Anyone else in the same boat? What are you buying instead?)

This weekend, I finally figured out how to code this:

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com"><img src="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/images/topbutton.jpg" alt="The Opinionated Parent" /></a>

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com"><img src="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/images/topchicklet.gif" alt="Recommended by The Opinionated Parent" /></a>

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com"><img src="http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/images/topiambutton.jpg" alt="I am an Opinionated Parent" /></a>

I know many of you are regular contributors to and/or reader of T.O.P. so this will make it easier to tell everyone about it - especially for any of you who don’t code at all. Just right click in the box below the image you want and “select all.” Then copy and paste the code wherever you’d like it on your own site.

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(I also learned how to make a line. Silly, but I was quite proud of myself. No more periods across the middle of a post. Yay!)

I’m still struggling (read: going absolutely nowhere and begging for help) with

1. Turning this theme into a 3-column design (sidebar, posts, sidebar)
2. Getting the poster’s name and post time out of the posts. I’d just like the date to be there. I want to do this at T.O.P. as well so I’d like to do it myself with help as opposed to having someone do it for me.

If you can help, I’ll love you long time.

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It’s a long weekend in Canada (not in the US, right?) and we pretty much spent it packing, doing errands and getting stung by a wasp whose compatriots live under our front steps and are perpetually pissed off. I’ve been limping since I was stung and my ankle is swollen, but it’s getting better. The BG’s was better by last night because the little prick left most of it’s venom in me before jumping on to him to deposit the remainder. Thank God the boy was still inside. I can’t imagine him in this much pain.

Today we’re doing the walk-through on the new house and tomorrow at noon it’s officially ours! I’m going to start moving 2-3 van loads a day to try to get most of the small stuff out before the big move on Saturday.

Our new bed is being delivered to the new place on Thursday. NEW BED! Wheee! I’m SO excited! We bit the bullet and bought a top of the line king size monstrosity for my huge husband with sleep issues. Hopefully he’ll stop complaining about me hogging the bed now. (Kidding. He won’t stop.) I’ve got the new bedding all washed up & ready. Do you all know how expensive king size bedding is. The mattress cover alone is $150 (unless you get the kind that does nothing - we got the dust mite proof kind). We got a huge sale on the bed in a bag so it was cheap, and when I took it all out to wash it I realized why. It’s transparent.

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Just had to put another line in. Can’t help myself.

So, I’ve had this unusually great post brewing in my head for a few days. I had it pretty much completely written ~ you know, on the toilet, in the shower, before falling asleep at night… (I’m not the only one who does that, right?) and when I woke up this morning, all that was left in my sieve of a head was the title. I can’t even remember what it was about. Grrrrrr.

So, maybe you can help. I have a prize for anyone who stirs my memory enough to bring the post back.

The title is:

As If Mother-Guilt Weren’t Enough

but dudes, that’s all I’ve got. Help.

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It’s Mother-Talk blog book tour time again and TOP is participating. This book has a very important message. Check it out! But you would have anyway, right? Because you’re entering all of the contests over there every day right? Who doesn’t love free stuff? Not you.

Gratuitous cuteness:

For all of you who have subscribed to email updates here and at TOP (yay! there are lots of you! thanks!) please let me know how it’s working. The one comment I’ve had to date is that it would be nice if they were immediate instead of a cumulative post the next day. I don’t know what to do about that, other than to tell you to use Mozilla Thunderbird (free here) for your email and it has an RSS reader built right in so you’d get everything immediately (and all of your bazillion email addresses in one place is kind of nice too). You could also use bloglines or one of the gazillion other free RSS readers.

Back again with Friday Miscellany. I know ~ you don’t have to tell me how excited you are!

I’m the last stop on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for a great new book…check out my review.

Have you been entering all of the contests at T.O.P? Giveaways galore of late…at least one per day!

We’re working on recovering from our colds. Mine only lasted a few days but the poor boy’s still pretty snotty. However, he has still slept 11-13 hours through the night all week. Please don’t tell anyone I said that, lest we get jinxed.

Breaking News: The boy can finally drink out of a straw! Unfortunately I had to resort to using a plastic Rubbermaid litterless juice box, as much as it killed me to have him drinking pthalates and bisphenol A. But, he drinks! At least now I know that if I’m not with him he won’t perish of dehydration.

Looking for the 123 Magic review? Sorry to disappoint, but I had a good friend in a parenting crisis so I gave her my book at the beginning of the week and both her and her huz are going to read it so it could be a while before I get it back. All I can say is “BUY IT! You just need to know that it works. Read the book, and give it a shot. Let me know what you think!

Edited to add: Remember the week long shits? The boy got 4 teeth in 5 days and all is well now. Oops!

Edited again to add: Today - 2 more teeth. That’s 6 in 18 days. Wheeee!

Have a great weekend!

So, the boy’s had the shits for a week and so far we’ve come to the conclusion that he’s either intolerant to wheat or dairy, and maybe white rice in his crackers, but brown rice is fine.

We don’t eat any white flower because the BG is allergic to it so he’s never had any, but we eat tons of 100% whole grain stuff so that one would really suck.

Now we have to do a strict elimination diet to find out exactly what the problem is. Maybe it’s both.

Any tips from those of you who’ve been there?

Oh, and he feels fine. No signs of pain or illness other than the ass-water. He’s staying hydrated by nursing tons and drinking green smoothies and water. (Thanks to Reesh for the smoothie recipe - yummy!)

Tomorrow - Organizing Kid’s Clothing and…stuff. Right here!

Also tomorrow - Contests ending for Baby Starlet, New for Baby & Dot Girl. AthleticBaby and BOBOBABY ending Friday. More contests coming Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Oh, and next week. Get my drift? Check daily! Deadlines are going to start shortening now that we’re getting so many entries. My inbox can no longer handle it!

I suck. Sorry. I have about thirteen posts planned but have been away visiting the folks so none of them are finished. My niece turned one on Saturday, which means in only nine weeks the boy will be 1. Can you hear me crying from where you are?

Back soon!
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I’m ba-ack! Did you miss me? (Don’t tell me if you didn’t ~ my feelings get hurt easily.)

Remember when I mentioned we had a crapload of snow last week? Wanna see?

This is compared to this:

in the summer.

It made for some crazy driving, which always makes me really nervous because the BG drives on highways a lot for work. He, thankfully, was able to be flexible with his schedule and postpone some trips for nicer days.

We live in chinook country so it’s crazy ass windy here now but the roads are completely clear. That’s why we were able to travel this weekend to visit my parents and celebrate my niece’s first birthday. The boy had so much fun playing with his grandparents and he had his first chance to play in the snow since he learned to crawl!

and my mom dug out my old horsie to see what he thought…

He was definitely intrigued! It takes a lot more balance than any of his ride-on toys, but he’s got great coordination for his age and he stayed on.

We left the BG at home for some “alone time” - he really missed us so was very eager to play when we got back. My two favourite boys are complete insanity when they’re together sometimes…

We’re off for our daily walk with the dogs to check the mail and explore the neighbourhood!

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I’ll try to be back much quicker this time - I’m swamped over at TOP so come on over and enter all of the great contests! There are several valid this week and many more to come - I’m posting every 2 days, including weekends, now to try to catch up!

Many of you know of my love for animals. Our pets are our furry children, and we love all animals and think they deserve great respect (even the ones we’d never have in our house, like snakes.)
I was raised to take special care of those who cannot care for themselves. My husband and I believe that we should also speak for those who have no voice, and we are indeed very outspoken about it at times. We are raising the boy the same way ~ to believe that animals are no less valuable than people, and to care for them with love and compassion. Wanna hear my rant about people that let their cats outside? (If you live on a farm, you get a pass.)

A fellow animal person, Aimee, has a new blog and she’s hosting a contest to promote it. Go over and enter to win a horse pack at this post. (Tara! You’ll love it!)

• Check us out at the Dr. MOZ propaganda page!

Tuesday isn’t half bad either actually.

Yesterday we had a friend over for a latte all morning and another friend over for tea all afternoon. In the afternoon, we built a blog for said friend during naptime. Go check out Kris at Go Ahead - Ask Me! She’s a registered nurse working toward her B.N. and she’s available to answer your health questions!
For the first time in months, the boy slept through the entire night last night. Not even a quick sip of boob juice! Prior to that we had been having a hell of a time with teething (and that will probably come back - I’m not kidding myself) where he wouldn’t sleep more than 20 minutes to two hours at a time and often had to be held all night to sleep. A glider does NOT make a comfortable bed for the mama. The BG felt so bad for my back and my lack of sleep that we have a new Lazyboy being delivered this morning. The man’s a God, I tell you. He’ll have to work lots of overtime to pay for that, and he didn’t even question it. He just said “You need more sleep and we’ll be going through this again with the next one, so go pick what you want.” I chose one of the least expensive, of course, and they were on a great sale, but we still can’t really afford it. I can’t wait to rock him tonight in our new chair! (Uh oh, I hope it fits through the door to his room!)

We’re off to baby group this afternoon (and the post office to pick up some TOP samples and prizes) and then swimming tomorrow. It’s a great life!

Speaking of TOP, there are currently 3 valid contests. Have you entered them all? How about your mom? Best friend? Neighbour? That guy with B.O. down the street? Please spread the word! There are lots more to come.

Over there, we’ve added a new page called TOP Shops with permanent discount codes for our readers. We’ll be adding to it regularly so if you’re about to do some online shopping, be sure to stop by there first to see if we can save you some money!

Sorry about all of your comments on the last few posts disappearing, yet again. We’re completely fixed now and the phantom in my laptop has been exorcised. (Actually, it was all my stupid fault, but that sounds better.)

On a Saturday, no less. I’m always mixing it up around here. Just keeping you on your toes.
(My site crashed and I had to revert to a backup so my apologies if you came to a white page yesterday, or something even more screwed up. I think we’re all fixed here and over there. If you see anything gimpy, please let me know.)

Here’s a repost of yesterday. Or as close as I could get, anyway…

Looks like this Friday Miscellany thing is becoming a regular feature.

*I have a new renter over there in my sidebar –>
She’s a great writer, ten weeks pregnant (YAY!) and she says ‘fuck’ which makes me love her even more.
Go visit dazed at Adventures in Everyday Life and let her know from whence you came.

*Today’s your last day to enter to win some Vincent shoes for your little people over at The Opinionated Parent.

*You can also enter to win a $25 gift certificate to a great online store!

*Get 20% off at one of my favourite places to shop online until April 15 (and after that, free shipping forever!)
*Tomorrow? (Now, today! Watch for it!) Another giveaway! And more next week!

*Due to the great crash of 2007, we had no choice but to finally complete the big move to the new domain!

If you have Much More Opinionated in your sidebar or your bookmarks, you will notice that it now redirects to www.theopinionatedparent.com. Please update your bookmarks, and…

Ta Da!

Our new sidebar button is now available for you…

There are two options:

1) Right click on the above image and save it to the location of your choice. Put it on your server, in photobucket, flickr or wherever and then link it in your site to http://www.theopinionatedparent.com.

2) Click here to get the html code. Copy and paste directly into your sidebar or site. As always, just let me know if you need help to get it in.
Remember to let me know if you have the button somewhere on your site and/or if you post about TOP. Both things earn you an entry in our supporters draw. Draw to take place March 31, 2007.

*I have some great news that I can’t share with you yet. Nope, I’m not pregnant. Any guesses?

Back soon!

For the first time since he began to gain control of his hands, this morning the boy sat on my lap and we read an entire book without him trying to eat it! Up until yesterday, I would read a page or so and he would grab the book, crawl away and chew on it. I much prefer reading together. It was so amazingly fun! I pointed to things and he touched them. I made silly noises and he laughed. It was this book:

We have many from the series (ABC’s, Opposites and Animals) and they’re all wonderful. They have all of the Canadian spellings of words (colour, not color etc) and are interesting for the babes but not too distracting. (And hard pages for the book eaters among us.) We picked ours up at a book fair at school, but Amazon has them for great prices and they ship for free if you spend $39, which is way too easy to do on books. Especially now that my kid will actually let me read to him!

There’s a new post up at The Opinionated Parent, and we currently have two great contests running ~ come on over and try your luck!