My Photos: A Reminder of What It's Really All About

I have been in a real rut lately.  The fact is that I have been burnt out for months.  When I work, I seem to be going at half the pace I used to, so it feels like I am just working all the time when I am not tending to my children.  On those days when I'm feeling especially run-down and under-appreciated (and counting the days until summer vacation is over), I wonder why I am able to plug along day after day.

I took the photo below at dinner last night.  Those aren't fake smile-for-the-camera smiles.  My family is genuinely happy and having fun.  After I took this photo, I realized that they are why I keep going.  I'm going to put this photo on my desktop so, if I ever begin to forget again (maybe while I'm up until 1am working because I couldn't get enough done during the day), I'll have an instant reminder.

Taken with the Nokia Lumia 920

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

Shop 'n' Share: Replenishing My Husband's Geek T-Shirt Collection

This product was purchased with our own funds.  No compensation was received for sharing this shopping experience with our readers, however, this post may contain affiliate links.

My husband's favorite item of clothing to wear is a comfortable t-shirt.  In fact, I think he would be wear a t-shirt every waking minute if his office did not require him to wear a shirt and tie.  A printed t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts is his uniform 3 months out of the year after work and on the weekends.  Somewhere during our 13 years of marriage, I decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  I always have my eyes open for t-shirts my husband might like.  My only rule is that I will not buy him white t-shirts anymore because he manages to stain them the very first time he wears them 95% of the time.

A few months ago, my husband discovered LOL Shirts.  He works in IT and is a geek at heart, and he has found tons of geek t-shirts he likes on this site.  This text-based Relax. I can fix it. t-shirt and one that says I'm here because you broke something. are his favorites to wear to work on casual Fridays.  There is always some kind of promotion going on at LOL Shirts and shipping is just $2 per shirt, so I don't mind helping my husband to replace some of his t-shirts that have become stained or worn.

Some of the shirts on this site are available in up to a size 5X.  My husband likes his shirts loose, so I usually buy a 3X for him.  There is an additional cost of just $.99 for size XXL and XXXL shirts.  On average, one shirt would cost me roughly $10, give or take one or two dollars based on the current promotion.  If you're looking for an affordable Father's Day gift this year, whether it be from you or your children, a shirt from LOL Shirts would be a great way to go.

By the way, each of my children's teachers will be receiving a teaching-themed t-shirt for their end of the year teacher's gift that they can wear all summer long.  Be sure to check those out if you are still in need of a gift for your child's teacher.  For a limited time, you can receive $5 off each shirt plus free shipping when you checkout using Promo Code: 5OFFEVERYTHING!

As always, if you shop, be sure to come back and tell me what you purchased!

DIY Reusable Advent Calendar Boxes

Last year, I made these DIY Advent Boxes and I am happy to say that our children just loved them.  If you recall, I had put a piece of Holiday candy for each child in every box along with pieces to a jigsaw puzzle.  Every day in the month of December, they would open a new box to retrieve their candy and to find more pieces to the puzzle.  I will be using these advent boxes again to countdown to Christmas with my children, but I made two changes . . .

The first change is that I included 4 pieces of candy in each box instead of 3.  Why?  Because my husband jokingly complained that there was no candy for him each day, thus guilting our children into sharing their candy with him.

The second change I made is to use a more difficult puzzle.  Last year I used the 100pc Crocodile Creek Robot Travel Puzzle.  I was able to put 4 puzzle pieces in each box.  Although the puzzle was just slightly challenging for our then nearly 5 year old twins, it was far too easy for their big brother, who was nearly 8 at the time.  So this year, I chose a more challenging puzzle . . . the Disney Circle of Friends 150pc Puzzle.  I thought this puzzle looked neat because it is circular in shape, plus it has all our children's favorite Disney characters on it.  Well, it turned out that the puzzle was even challenging for me.  I had to assemble it in order to put the puzzle pieces into the advent boxes in an order that made sense.  Hopefully, our now nearly 9 year old son will be able to help the twins with adding their pieces.  Since there are 150 pieces in the puzzle, most of the boxes have 6 puzzle pieces in them, which I think will be more fun for each child to be able to add more than one piece to the puzzle per day.

Go here to learn how to make these DIY Reusable Advent Boxes.

For Better or For Worse: So Very Thankful for the Laughter

On Thanksgiving Day, like most people, I am counting my blessings and am especially thinking about everything I have to be grateful for.  Of course, I am thankful for my husband, my 3 beautiful children, my family, everyone being in good health overall, having a roof over our heads and food on our table, and all the friends I have made online through blogging.  Another thing I am grateful for is having the ability to laugh, which my husband is in part largely responsible for.  Many times, I am so busy and under so much stress that I rarely stop to have fun anymore.  There are some rare moments when I do laugh uncontrollably and the release feels so good.  The other night, I experienced one of those moments . . .

The children have been behaving extra "special" lately.  This seems to happen every year before Christmas.  It's almost like they are trying to test whether Santa is really watching them or not.  My husband and I were talking about how each child is so predictable in how they react to our calling them, our asking them to do things, and so forth.  For example, our oldest will just say "What?" when we call him.  If he doesn't hear what we say, he just goes on with whatever he was doing without making any effort to find out what we wanted.  So, my husband yelled upstairs to our 3 children and mumbled some nonsense words.  He even repeated the words a few times.  We got a few whats  in response, but only our daughter actually came down to find out what we wanted.  It made my husband and I laugh to see how predictable their responses were.

Then I told my husband that I've always thought about just starting to count, like we do when we want our children to do something quickly.  Usually I tell the children that they have until I count to a certain number to complete the task or else they would receive a specific punishment.  My husband agreed that this would be extremely funny, so he started to count loudly.  Only our oldest panicked because he did not know what we wanted, did not know what number his father would be counting to, and did not know what the punishment would be.  Out of all 3 children, he was the only one who ran downstairs to find out what he was supposed to do to avoid a punishment.  I was laughing uncontrollably and had to hide behind my laptop to avoid letting my son know that it was a trick.

That was my long way of saying thank you to my husband for the good times and laughter.

Wishing all my readers a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Upgrading My Husband's Underwear Drawer with #MaLoUnderwear by Mario Lopez (#CBias)

If I have never mentioned it before, then I must tell you that my husband is a very particular man when it comes to things like his socks, underwear, and even bath towels.  Once he finds something he likes, he sticks with it.  He wore loose boxers for most of his adult life and only made the life-altering change to boxer briefs a couple of years ago.  During the Spring and summer months, he prefers to wear compression boxer briefs because they prevent chafing.  For the cooler weather, he has been looking for something that he likes in a boxer brief that does not cost $25 per pair like his compression boxers.  He has tried many brands, from packaged boxer briefs to individual pairs from specialty stores.  Nothing has been perfect for him so far.

When I asked my husband if he was willing to try the new MaLo Underwear by Mario Lopez, he was surprisingly open to it even though I could tell he was a little skeptical.  All the other brands he had tried in the past were either too short, too thin, did not stay put, etc . . .

My husband was pleasantly surprised with the MaLo boxer briefs he received.  These particular boxers were in conservative colors, which he liked, although he does wear prints if they are preppy.  He found them to be very comfortable and they seemed to wash well with no signs of shrinking.  He prefers exposed waistbands for his boxers because they are thinner and more comfortable to him, so already he knew he would not be wearing the heather grey pair as much as the others.  I looked on the Kmart website, where the MaLo Underwear line is sold, and I did see these boxers in other colors where all 3 pairs had exposed waistbands.  Those will be the ones my husband will be finding in his stocking Christmas morning if Santa chooses to go that route.

Although my husband wears a size XL for boxers, he usually wears an XXL for his loose fitting white cotton undershirts.  Despite this, he decided to give the MaLo crew neck t-shirts a try anyways.  Like the boxers, these t-shirts washed well and did not shrink.  He was thoroughly surprised at how comfortable they were and admitted that he could easily layer the grey tee under his dress shirts.  He would not be able to use the black for work because all his dress shirts are light in color.

Overall, the MaLo boxer briefs are the closest thing my husband has found to being the best boxers for him, aside from his compression boxers.  There were two things that kept these from being THE perfect boxers for him.  The first thing is that the fabric for the opening on the front overlaps a little too much.  The second thing is that he would prefer the pocket to not be cotton/spandex, but instead a material that breathes a little better.

If you would like to try MaLo underwear and tees, look for the packaging below at your local Kmart store or on the Kmart website.  The 3pk of boxers and 2pk of crew neck t-shirts retail for $14.99 each.  You can also enter to win a chance to meet Mario Lopez plus $75 worth of MaLo products in the "Make Over Your Man" contest hosted by MaLo Underwear on Facebook.  All you need to do is post a before photo and an after photo of your man wearing a MaLo product along with a description of your makeover.  This contest runs through October 30th, 2012.  Visit the contest page for the official contest rules.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and MaLo #CBias #SocialFabric #MaLoUnderwear.  All opinions expressed are my own.

For Better or For Worse: Things My Husband Does at Work When He is Bored

My husband works in the IT field for an outstanding company.  In this field, sometimes things are hopping and sometimes they a little slow.  I suppose it's a good thing that a hundred people are not putting in tickets to request IT help for their computers all at once.  So what does my husband do at work when he is bored? Well, I actually asked him and his response was "I look through installed software on networked PC's to see what's not supposed to be there, go through cookies and temp files to see if we have any malware/inappropriate surfing going on.  I also have been cleaning out and reorganizing the Lab/Server room. Why?"  That was a good answer, but here are some other things I know he does . . .

1.  Thinks about how his life would be different if he was a millionaire.

2.  Shops for the latest in technology and electronics that usually fall into the things-we-could-never-afford category.  Then he excitedly sends me the links as if doing so will get him closer to owning those items.

3.  Logs into our 8 year old's home computer while our son is playing games on it to "mess with him" by moving his mouse pointer and giving the computer other commands that our son did not initiate.


What do you think your spouse does at work to pass his or her downtime?

20 Thoughtful and Romantic Gift Ideas to Surprise Your Spouse With

I recently read an article about how to be romantic all year round and how you should not wait until Valentine's Day to show your love for your spouse.  There were some great ideas in this article, many of which did not require a lot of time and money.  One idea that really inspired me is the one about a monthly gift.  I think picking up a little something for your spouse once a month just to say that you were thinking of him or her would be fun, romantic, and would add some anticipation to a marriage.  This should be a low pressure gift, perhaps something little that you saw while you were out that made you think of your spouse.

For those months that you do not just happen to see something you think your spouse would like, I enlisted my husband to help me make the lists below.  These are lists you can turn to if you need a back-up gift idea.


Monthly Gift Ideas for Your Husband . . . 

1.  A favorite cake, pie, or other dessert that needs to be specially ordered from a restaurant or bakery
2.  A 6-pack of one of his favorite beers that he rarely gets to have
3.  A movie he had mentioned once that he wanted to see a long time ago, but never did
4.  9-holes of golf
5.  A tie (if he has to wear them often)
6.  A clever novelty t-shirt
7.  The latest book by his favorite author
8.  The latest issues of a few of his favorite magazines that he does not subscribe to
9.  A video game he would like that you can play together
10. A container of munchies or treats to keep at work


Monthly Gift Ideas for Your Wife . . .

1.  A jar candle in a scent you think she'll love
2.  A charm to add to an existing charm bracelet or necklace
3.  A favorite cake, pie, or other dessert that needs to be specially ordered from a restaurant or bakery
4.  A mixed bouquet of flowers
5.  A movie she had mentioned once that she wanted to see a long time ago, but never did
6.  The latest book by her favorite author
7.  The latest issues of a few of her favorite magazines that she does not subscribe to
8.  A new scarf (if she likes to wear them)
9.  A pair or two of fun novelty socks that fit her personality
10. A few shades of nail polish or lipstick you would love to see on her


If you have any ideas about small thoughtful gifts to give to a spouse, I would love to hear them.  My husband and I are going to try this, so I will certainly need more ideas for the future.

Go here for more great ideas about how to show your love all year long.

For Better or For Worse: Jokes That Make Me Sigh

My poor husband was admitted to the hospital last night.  He has an infection on the side of his leg and it has gotten worse, even with being treated with antibiotics.  So, I am trying to patiently wait for tests and things to be done before I freak out.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, you can look for updates there.

I thought I would share a couple of the things my husband says to me when he is trying to be funny.  These are recurring jokes that he uses on me again and again.  He usually waits just long enough so that I am not expecting it before he uses each one again.

Me:  I have to draw my contest winners today.

Him:  How do you know what they look like?

Him:  I can't wait until tomorrow!

Me:  Why?  What's happening tomorrow?

Him:  I get better looking everyday.

For Better or For Worse: A 4 Year Old States the Obvious

Ever since I met my husband over 15 years ago, there have been some sore subjects for him.  The first is that he has more than his fair share of body hair.  The second is his having a pair of lengthy arms.  Of course, he has heard a few monkey, gorilla, and ape jokes.  A small number of them may have even come from me.  Since my husband is a huge Star Wars fan, one or two Chewbacca jokes may have been mixed in there with the gorilla jokes.

It has been awhile since I've picked on my husband about this topic.  His false sense of security was destroyed recently . . . but not by me.  One day, our 4.5 year old son walks up to my husband and states out of the blue, "You look like that big hairy guy from Star Wars."

For Better or For Worse: An "I Told You So" Moment

About a month ago, our whole family took a trip to the mall.  I remember that my husband had been on a job interview earlier that day.  The trip to the mall was typical and uneventful.  When we got back to the car, I noticed that he had left the GPS mounted to the dashboard.  I asked him if he was worried about someone breaking into the car to steal it.  He just dismissed me like I was being abnormally paranoid.

Then before we pulled out of our parking space inside the parking garage, we noticed a piece of paper stuck under our windshield wiper.  I figured it was an advertisement or a menu to a restaurant, but it was neither.  It was an unofficial ticket from mall security.  There was a big check mark next to the box labeled "Security Risk" and a note saying: "Do not leave GPS in plain view."

New 3G2S Series: Dad's the Word!

Many of you have enjoyed stories about my husband in my For Better or For Worse series since June of 2009.  You have heard me mention time and time again about my husband's special sense of humor, which I love even though I give him a hard time about it.  Aside from an occasional Silly Monkey Story, my husband, who writes product reviews for 3G2S, really has not written any personal posts.

Well, my husband surprised me today with a story he wanted to share with our readers.  I think a personal post from him is long overdue.  I really want to encourage him to write more of these posts, so I decided to give him his own series called "Dad's the Word!".  Look for the first post coming soon.

For Better or For Worse: Cross-Dressing

We decided this morning to take the whole family to see Kungfu Panda 2 this evening.  The movie was scheduled to start at 5:20pm.  Before we left, I needed to take a shower and eat a light dinner.  While I did that, my husband got the kids changed from shorts to long pants and gave them a light dinner to eat.  Everything was a little rushed because . . . well, we are always in a rush when it comes to leaving the house with the kids because they always take their time to do pretty much everything.

My husband had put the boys in the car while I put a hairclip in my daughter's hair to keep it out of her eyes.  Then we left for the theater as quickly as we could.  We were cutting it pretty close, so I hopped out of the car at the movie theater to go retrieve our electronic tickets from the machine while my husband parked the car.  There was no line, so I got the tickets and waited by the entrance for my husband and children.  When I saw them walking towards the door, something did not look right.  Then I thought, "Why does Makenzie's pants look so short on her?  Did she have a growth spurt?"  Then I noticed that Luke's pants were cut funny.  They were tapered at the ankles and they were a bit long on him.  At that point, it dawned on me that my husband let the twins out of the house wearing each other's jeans!

For Better or For Worse: The Early Bird Gets . . . To Be Tired

Since my husband has to be up the earliest out of everyone at least 5 or 6 days a week, he has inherited the job of waking everyone up in the morning.  He usually sets the alarm for himself, which I don't even hear anymore when it goes off, and wakes up whoever needs to be up that day after he is done showering and brushing teeth.

A couple of weeks ago, the morning went like any other.  All five of us needed to be up and out of the house early that day.  So we were all finishing up breakfast and doing whatever we needed to do to finish getting ready when my husband calls me from downstairs.  It turned he had just realized that he had gotten up a whole hour earlier than he had needed to.  He must have set the alarm for the wrong time.  As a result, everyone in the house missed out on a whole hour of sleep.  Being the one who needed to sleep the most, he was very upset with himself.  So we all had an extra hour of computer time and TV watching that morning.

Can you guess why he did not realize right away that it was not the right time to get up that morning?

For Better or For Worse: The Easter Bunny Sighs and Shakes His Head

Since Easter is only a couple of weeks away, I asked my husband to get the box containing our Easter stash for the children's Easter baskets down from the closet shelf.  I had to check to see if the loot was even between the three.  I've learned my lessons from past years of uneven Easter baskets and holiday stockings.

After I took inventory of what I had and made a mental note of what I still needed to get, I noticed that the three packages of Jelly Belly jelly beans I had picked up a few weeks ago were missing from the stash.  I told my husband this and he started to look around the closet for the missing items.  Then he realized that any further search was futile.

It seems when I asked my husband to put the bag containing the candy into the box in the closet, he heard, "Take this candy to work and eat it."  Seriously, he did.  He didn't question it, even though he thought it was extremely strange.

I wonder how he explained eating Hello Kitty jelly beans at his desk to his co-workers?

My Photos (W/E 2-6-11)

This week, I am sharing two photos that were actually taken by my husband.  If you missed his self-portraits, which I posted yesterday, you can see them here.  I do think I need to let him have the camera more often.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

"It's What Cats Do"

"Anticipation"

Thank you for taking the time to view my photos this week! If you'd like to play along or see more great photos, stop by to see Lotus a.k.a. Sarcastic Mom.

For Better or For Worse: Self Portraits

Last night, I asked my husband to help me take some photos for two future articles I will be writing.  Perhaps it is my fault for not relinquishing my Nikon digital SLR camera to him more often.  Either he was really excited to have free reign with the camera or he was in a very silly mood . . . or both.

I think what I found on the SD card speaks for itself . . .