Ma Cocotte

 

Perhaps you understand what that means and perhaps you are looking it up on Google.  It is one of Julianna's many names.  Of course when I say, write, type, or think "Ma Cocotte," a flood of powerful emotions inundate my thoughts.  To describe these emotions is very difficult as my thoughtful prose becomes powerless to convey how much I love my dear Julianna.  So I'll take another approach; the addition of my favorite photographs of Julie taken over the last few years to some of my thoughts just might give you a vague idea of my feelings for Ma Cocotte.

In the "Ma Cocotte" set I have prepared captions for each of the photographs of Julie.  These are just some of the thoughts I had about Julie as I reminisced about each moment and how Julie makes me happy. Click here to see a grid view of the photos and click on each photo to see a large view and read the captions.  Click here to view the slideshow.  To see the captions in the slideshow hover over the photo and click on the i that magically appears.  I hope you enjoy my favorite photos and my thoughts about my sweet wife Julianna. 

Julie, thank you for being everything I could ever want in a best friend, eternal companion, lover, wife, woman, and partner in crime!  Thanks for being the dynamic, fun, playful, intelligent, and sexy woman that you are!  You are appreciated every moment of every day.

54 out of 100

Hmmm. That score isn't great, is it? I found this cool webpage called Hubspot's Website Grader. It does exactly what it sounds like, it grades your webpage or blog. Here's what they say our score means:

"A website grade of 54/100 for www.rjsnow.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 54% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website
structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others."

All you do is enter your webpage address. It does an evaluation and then emails you a free report. You can have it compare your site to other similar sites and it gives you specifics on what you can do to improve your page. Pretty nifty, eh?

So hopefully with their suggestions and some time, we'll be able to pump up our page into something even cooler, if that's even possible...

Poetica at the Warped Tour! Right on!

My brothers band Poetica has been chosen by popular vote to play at the Vans Warped Tour this Saturday on the Ernie Ball Stage between 11 and 2.  Is that freaking sweet or what!  Here is the deal, 20 local band competed in the Salt Lake City area (and similarly in other areas) on the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands web site.  The top four were chosen to play at the Warped Tour and the band that grabs the 1st place spot (judged at the Warped Tour I think) will continue on to compete at the national level.

So come out and support Poetica at the Warped Tour!  Needless to say this is pretty cool and I'm proud of the great work that my brother and his band have done.  They are very talented as a group and as individuals.  We'll see you at the show!  I'll be the one behind the lens.

Glorious Glenwood Springs---NOT

This is an entry I wrote a few weeks ago, but am just getting around to posting...



We have found ourselves in Glenwood Springs, Colorado for a couple days while Rob is doing some work here. It's a quaint place somewhat like Park City. I decided to be brave and join him with the kids. My reasons were 1) I could use a change of scenery after spending all day, every day in the same place doing the same things; and 2) Rob's work was footing the bill, so this is as good a time as any to see if we can all make it in one hotel room together.

Weelllll, let's just say it's a good thing we didn't pay for this trip. The town was nice enough, but not very stroller friendly. Most of the areas we wanted to go were uphill from the hotel and besides pushing the stroller, I had Madeleine in the bjorn carrier. Plus, all the stores and cafe's (no kid-friendly fast-food joints) had stairs and unautomated doors.

Besides not having too many places to go or see, none of us slept very well. Since we were all in one room, trying to get the kids to bed at their normal time was not an option, since that's at 7:30pm. It took Nathan until 10:30 or 11:00 to fall asleep, after an average of an hour and a half of trying. As soon as he'd start drifting off, Madeleine would start crying. As soon as Madeleine would start drifting off, Nate would start yelling. It was a vicious cycle. So in order to keep her quiet, I had her in bed with me, which means I didn't sleep well at all. Of course, naps were nonexistent also. Ugh.

When we finally left for home 3 days later, it was late in the day. We hoped this would be a good option so that both kids would sleep the whole time. I won't get into details, but it was a stressful drive. Nate would scream every 30 seconds after falling asleep because his head kept flopping around as we were driving around the curves. Finally, after over an hour of this, I hopped in the back seat, held Nate's head up with one hand, and fed Madeleine her bottle with my other hand. Fun. We finally arrived home at 1:30am.

Needless to say, we won't be trying an over-nighter sharing a hotel room anytime soon.

Format Approval

I'm turning my thesis in to the graduate school thesis editor right now for final format approval. This is one of the last steps before I'm official. Yeah!

Anatomy of a Gummy Bear

You'll either enjoy this or be very grossed out.

I'm B-O-R-E-D!!!

No doubt we've all heard this from our kids (even the kids who can't express that feeling in words express it in other ways such as getting into everything from knives to toilet bowls and/or crying, whining, etc). We as parents have also felt this many, many times. I know we're not supposed to entertain our kids constantly so they can learn how to keep themselves busy, but this is hard, especially during the long winter months. Both the kids and the parents need to get out of the house and find fun things to do on occasion.

I found a great webpage to help us do just that! goCityKids is a great resource for coming up with somewhere to go when everyone is stir crazy (this is the link to the Salt Lake City, UT page, but other cities are available). You can search for places/things to do by "Type of Day" (Indoor/Outdoor), "Kind of Fun" (Thinking and Learning, Back to Nature, Entertain Me), and "Your Child's Age". Or you can just browse the hundreds of ideas listed.

Just a couple of the fun things we've done from ideas off this page:

• Treehouse Museum Toddler Time: Mondays from 10am-noon. Only $3 per kid and free for adults (at other times of the day, it's twice as much AND adults have to pay). We LOVED this place!! It was totally kid-proof and he could run around at will playing with whatever he wanted to.


• Castle Heights Playground: A really fun giant castle playground.


• The Tracy Aviary Pelican Feedings: We're planning on doing this soon. We get to throw fish to the birds! We've already done the parrot feedings and our son had SUCH a great time with the birds landing on him and eating from his hands.

Don't forget to look at the calendar for events and the "Deals and Steals" page for coupons at participating venues. Have fun exploring together!!

Oompa, Loompa, Doompa Dee Doo

Now, I HATE "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" but I LOVE the online store Oompa Toys.

Here's their slogan: "NO BATTERIES. NO BLINKING LIGHTS. NO CARTOON-THEMED TOYS. PERIOD." The founder of the company is a mother of two. Here are a couple of quotes from her.

"I wondered if she (her daughter) would ever learn to use her imagination. She did, after all, play with toys that with the push of a single button did and said everything for her."

"As a mother with relatives in a developing country, I believe toys should not only be natural and well-made, but created in humane and safe working conditions by adults and with absolutely no child-labor. I go to great lengths to ensure toys within the Oompa family do, indeed, come from safe environments."

As parents, we want to get our kids toys that are 1) fun, 2) educational, 3) will last longer than 3 weeks (as in quality and also attention span), and 4) are cute! These toys are the answer. They are so wonderful I want to buy them all and shower my kids with them year-round. Of course, that's not possible nor a good thing. But just check them out and you'll see what I mean.

How to Give Your Dog the Heimlich Maneuver

Today's "Julie Pages" featured site is called eHow. The title pretty much explains what it is, but here's a synopsis:

Say you have a question on how to boil and egg (the actual question I had that led me to this website...don't laugh). How about the best way to find a good Christmas tree? Or how to test, buy, and wear store perfumes in order to get the best results? Well, look no further! The answer to all the questions and more are on this site.

This is a really fun webpage. Sometimes I just like to browse the millions of subjects listed because it can be quite entertaining, along with informative.

Here are examples of some funny questions that are answered here:

• How to hide from your kids (I assume every parent has a moment they need to hide)
• How to fashion a makeshift tattoo gun (Ouch! Don't try this at home!)
• How to trim toenails (For men, obviously)
• How to annoy a Trekkie (I don't really get it at all, but I'm sure trekkies do)

Anyway, you really should browse. It's fascinating!

Shopping for Jeans.....Fun???

Typical scenario:

"Hey, I really need some new jeans. I'll go shopping and have fun spending money and making my wardrobe cuter!"

2 hours later.........

"ARRRGH!!! I hate this! Why can't I find ONE pair of jeans out of the THIRTY that I tried on that fits well and makes me look cute???!!! I must be a freak."

Sound familiar? (Please say yes, I don't want to be the only one out there that this happens to, thus confirming my "freakness".)

Here's a webpage http://www.zafu.com/ that is soooo fun because you can shop for jeans using your exact measurements, fit style, and fashion sense. You go through a series of questions and then get results personalized for you! It tells you exactly what brand, style, and size you need, how much they are, and where to get them. Make sure to click on the results links for additional information. PERFECTO!

Now I haven't actually gone to buy any of the jeans yet. It's been a long time since I've needed any, but I will as soon as I get out of maternity and post-maternity sizes. So if any of you end up trying on or buying a recommended pair, let me know how it goes!

The same webpage does dress pants and bras (I'm not EVEN going to go THERE)!!!