search words

Search words used to find my blog in the last week:

1. Five people are googling lightning in pregnancy? And finding me? It's this post.


2. KU peeing on K-State? I don't really care for KU in that sports kind of way but I'm pretty sure I've never peed on them or written about such a thing.


3. I have four plants, two being on their deathbed. 

help me with a teeny, tiny nursery

I am spatially handicapped. And currently decision handicapped - I think it's the disappearing brain cells. Bad combination when you're trying to figure out how to make a nursery in a tiny space.

The good thing is I have this blog with all of you clever people. So here's the challenge: We have a 8 x 10 nursery room. And we have no space for guests but will likely be having a lot of guests in the next year.

Option #1

Pros:  Matches our crib style. Drawer storage.
Cons: Trundle is nice but uh, you can't really pull it out in this room.

Option #2

Pros:  Matches our crib style. Drawer storage. Cute pillows make it a nice seating area.

Cons: Not so great for tall people. From Ikea so have to wait for a Minnesota trip.

Option #3a

Pros:  No headboard/sides that takes away breathing room. Cheapest option.

Cons: Tight fit.

Option #3b (same bed, different arrangement)

Option #4
Go with a traditional nursery. No guest bed and buy a rollaway to move in when we have visitors, and store in basement when they aren't around.

Pros: Toy box, hamper and rocking chair can now fit in nursery instead of regulating them to sun room or living room. Cuter and more roomy, if you can have a roomy 8x10 room (you can not.)

Cons: Really annoying for guests and whoever has to lug that thing up from the basement (hubs). Lose ability to sleep in nursery when baby boy is sick and crying and I don't want to have to keep going back and forth. Because I am lazy.

There you go. Please help!

i'm putting my kid in a bubble

So as to overwhelm me even more, the American Academy of Pediatrics and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are now recommending stricter guidelines for children car seats. These are the news stories I used to ignore.

The new guidelines include:
- Rear-facing seat until the age of 2.
- Forward-facing with harness until child maxes out height/weight restrictions for seat
- Booster seat with seatbelt until child is 4'9" tall, possibly to age 12.

Under these guidelines, I am only three inches shy of needing my own booster seat.

I love reading the comments on these stories. The parents who would rather sacrifice the safety of their child so they aren't being called a "baby" by their peers. Or the reluctance to go rear-facing because it takes two minutes longer to get them out of the car.

On the other hand, between BPA-free bottles, drop-side cribs, booster seats and bumpers it's going to be hard to keep up. Especially when I'm still trying to figure out why a three-month-old wears six-month-old clothing.

the fantasy life

My fantasy would include things like big bowls of popcorn, another seven seasons of Gilmore Girls, tank tops and sweatpants, iced mocha and Shea agreeing to make the bed for the rest of our lives.

Shea's fantasy includes spending countless hours on ESPN.com, waking up early to make sure a line up is in place before the Sunday games begin, analyzing injury reports and watching real games all in the name of fakeness or as you know it, fantasy football.

Imagine my self-disappointment when I received this email: "c martin has invited you to join an ESPN Fantasy Football league: Mystery Inc.." Nothing against Cmartin, I agreed to this activity without real acknowledgement of what I was getting myself into. The endless discussions about rushing yards, sacks and trade deadlines. It does not even remotely resemble a Gilmore Girls revival.

Steps to a successful fantasy football team for someone who prefers reality:

1. Creative team name. Check.  

Bend and snap

It's funny, you like it.

2. Find super secret source to create draft strategy since husband is in league and refuses to come to the rescue for fear I will destroy his team.

I can't tell you who it is because he's obviously super secret hence the disguise. But I will tell you he's been doing fantasy football for 20 years (he's obviously old and bored) and writes sports for a living. And I hired him once so he's obviously indebted to me forever. Plus he sends me Excel documents to lead me to drafting success. That's the kind of nerdy help I need.

3. Follow injury reports. I followed some Twitter people. That's as far as I am willing to go. Seriously, I can't believe I cared enough to take the time to read about someone who twisted their knee at training camp.

Our draft is Monday. Silly, I tell you. Just silly.

bribing the unchurched

Would you go to church if it meant free tickets to a baseball game? What about if the church paid your utility bills? Or gave you a free car, house or flashy electronics just for playing along and filling their pews.

A church in Minneapolis is giving away free Twins tickets to first-time visitors to promote an "epic" sermon series with the "epicness" of baseball tickets. But this church is only following a trend. This church in Jacksonville, Florida paid the electricity bill for four visitors who attended their Easter services. But the king of all bribes, this church gave away 16 cars, 250 bicycles, 15,000 prize packs worth hundreds of dollars. electronics and furniture.

I both applaud the creativity and recoil at the thought. On one hand, it's probably effective marketing if your goal is to fill seats. And if someone who wouldn't normally step foot in a church door does because he loves the Twins, I believe God can use that to reach his heart. But realistically, how many new visitors come expecting to find God and develop a weekly habit of church attendance?

When we first looked for churches after our move to KC, one church handed out chips and salsa to its visitors followed up by a $5 gas card in the mail. I don't get salsa. The gas card was for our next visit. But instead of visiting again, I wondered if the money I put in the offering plate would be used for another visitor's gas budget or to help support the children's programs, printing of the programs or outreach to those who need it.

The church we attend now followed up after our first Sunday with a visit to our apartment complete with canvas bag and brochures. The difference is I didn't go to church expecting something in exchange, though who wouldn't give up a Sunday for a new canvas bag?! One day our pastor gave us Popsicles to "feed his sheep" during a sermon because our church has zero air conditioning. And if you haven't caught on from previous blog posts, it's hot here. But no one came there expecting them as a reward.

Even though we're all adults and capable of making informed, responsible choices, we still need bribes. Get a free pedometer if you promise to stop sitting around and use your feet! Win a trip to Hawaii if you lose weight and reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes! Get paid cash to stop smoking - as if the chance to live a long life free of lung cancer isn't enough incentive.

Wouldn't it be great if we made choices based on wanting a healthy, fulfilling life with a perspective on something other than ourselves and this world?

If you win church members' hearts in exchange for material goods, are they then committed more to God or more to materialism?

Getting owned by the work world

Starting salary for my journalism degree is supposedly $36,300, according to Payscale's article.

I guarantee you my journalism friends out there are coughing and rolling their eyes after reading that sentence. My starting salary in 2005 for a job with "editor" in the title? $28,000, and that was high. Oh journalism, how you broke my heart.

I left college five years ago (FIVE years!?) thinking I'd only work at jobs that I was wildly passionate about. How could I accept anything less, right? But then I got a nice little working world education.

Slowly my requirement for jobs have been reduced to: 1) A salary that pays my bills; 2) Boss and coworkers that don't make me cry; 3) Someway, somehow using my skills/degree; and 4) A job that allows me to go home and enjoy my real life.

Couldn't have guessed that one.