I'm Back!

As it turns out, the reason I was feeling so terrible with this last cold was that is wasn't just a cold, it turned into pneumonia. So I went to the doctor and got some heavy antibiotics and was put on a nebulizer. I'm getting better and starting to feel back to normal again so I'm getting back into the swing of things.

On Friday I took Eva and Adrien to Ethan's school, The Children's Center, for their Fall Festival party. Ethan got to go to class dressed in his Halloween costume. He was a punk rocker this year. I went all out! I buzzed his hair into a real mohawk, dressed him in cool clothes, gave him those fake tattoo sleeves and punk bracelets. Everyone thought he looked awesome and a couple of people said he looked like a pint-sized Travis Barker. I forgot to take photos, but his teacher took some and I'm trying to see if she'll email them to me. All in all it was a hit and everyone had fun.

Today I'm getting back to work. I've got to write a few new lenses and do some more promo work. The last couple of lenses I put out were Fast and Easy Makeup for Busy Moms and How to Make Skin Lightening Cream at Home.

The house hunt is still going on. In fact, my parents are in Clanton right now looking at a four bedroom single wide trailer. Four bedrooms would rock! I sure hope everything works out and I can get it! My fingers are crossed that they have good news when they come home. ;)

That's it! I'm Ordering a Biohazard Suit...

I'm sick. I'm talking fever, chills, body aches, stuffy nose, hacking cough, so tired I could strangle anyone who threatens my rest like a grizzly bear kind of sick. Boo Boo's home from school today because he's coughing pretty bad too. Adrien's cough from last week is mysteriously coming back (reinfection?) and baby Eva's nose started running again today as well.

I can't handle germs anymore. I'm DONE! Every single school year we get on this never ending merry-go-round of sickness that lasts for months. I'm fed up with it. Do my kids and I have no immunity whatsoever? We take vitamins, drink juice, try to eat fruits and vegetables often. What gives?

After a few months of this I'll start losing my mind and psychotically cleaning everything because I'll be convinced the house is what's making us sick. I'm serious. I do it every year. The germs literally drive me to the point of insanity.

I'm not ready to go through this again. As much as I love fall and winter, spring just can't get here fast enough for me. I don't know when I'll be back to writing again. As of this moment, I'm on sick leave.

Today's Mission

Aside from doing the dishes and the laundry (which I've already gotten under control because I'm awesome) I've got some work to do on Squidoo today.

First, I'll be writing a new lens. I'm not sure what the topic will be, but I'll figure something out. Next I've got to spruce up a few of my other lenses that aren't really seeing much traffic. Then it's time to promote them all a little more on various social bookmarking sites and what not. And finally I'll open a Xomba account and start writing a few short articles that link back to my lenses.

Boo Boo and I are sick with colds, but thanks to some cold medicine we're feeling pretty decent for the time being. By the way, Boo Boo is Ethan. That's been his nickname ever since Adrien was a baby. And no, there's no relation to Honey Boo Boo. We may be Alabama hicks but we're classier than that. ;)

So that's the schedule for today. Wish me luck. I've got to run for now because Mr. Boo Boo is sitting at the dinning room table trying to let me know that he's ready for lunch. He might not be able to talk, but he knows how to get his point across!

My Blog Gets a Makeover & My Twitter Followers are Pervs

As you might have noticed, the blog is looking especially fabulous these days. That's because I spent the entire freaking day (no joke) hand drawing a new banner image. I did it with Photoshop and I think it's pretty awesome, if I may say so myself.

You may be thinking "well if you can draw digital art like that, then why aren't you selling it and making money that way?" Seems like a no-brainer doesn't it? Unfortunately, digital art takes an unholy amount of time and time is something I just don't have. Maybe one of these days I'll be an artist, but not today friend. Not today.

In other news, my twitter followers are perverts. Yesterday, I tweeted about my latest blog post saying something like "So this writing thing is not taking off yet. Maybe I'd do better as a stripper. Gotta bring home the bacon some how!" Yeah... the link I put at the end of that tweet got clicked like nobody's business.

The joke's on them though. Instead of nudie pics, all they got was a semi-depressing blog post about how I'm not doing well with my writing. Ha! Why didn't I think about using misleading tweets to gain traffic sooner?

In all honesty, it was supposed to be funny. I guess one of two things happened, either everyone really thought it was funny and that's why they clicked, or I have a really warped sense of humor and my joke ruined the day of people surfing the internet for naked chicks. Either way, I'm amused.

Fear and Doubt

I'm starting to get scared. It's getting real close to the day that my kids and I move out of my parents house. We've been looking at trailers and it's almost time to start making a decision on which one we're getting. Part of me is thrilled at the thought of having my own place again and no longer sleeping on a couch bed with my four year old, but I'm mostly terrified of how I'm going to make ends meet.

One life saver will be in the child support and temporary alimony I'll be getting. However, my husband wasn't a millionaire, so it certainly won't be enough to live off of.

I've made like 4 bucks with Squidoo. Don't spend it all in one place right? I'm getting worried that freelance writing isn't a viable option for me anymore. I just flat out don't have the time. You can't work only a couple of hours a day at freelance writing. It takes way more commitment than that. But a couple of hours a day, or sometimes less, is all I've got.

I can't get a mainstream job because then who would care for Ethan? The younger two would be fine in daycare if that's what had to be done, but not Ethan. I wish I could afford a nurse to care for him in the afternoons and during the summer time so I could just go to work and support my family like everyone else. It sure would be easier than trying like hell to find time to write articles online that may or may not ever help pay the bills. I'm really scared.

I think I'll be a phone sex operator. Now that's where the money is! I'm joking of course (or am I)? All I know is there's got to be a better way. I don't think writing is going to cut it for me right now. Maybe I should learn to make something and sell it on eBay. Who am I kidding? I can't sew or do anything that they teach in home-ec. I took wood shop in high school. Not to learn how to make stuff though, I took it for the boys. Needless to say I'm not crafty in the least.

Lord, give me a sign. Tell me how I'm supposed to financially support my family with virtually no means to do so? Sometimes it feels like all the paths in my life lead to a dead end. But I'm not giving up, I'm just a tad bit worn out. Perhaps I'll feel more optimistic in the morning.

Squidoo Wrap Up

You know how I said my biggest problem trying to make money with Squidoo is that I don't have time to write as many lenses as I need to? Well it's been a little over a month on Squidoo and I've only gotten 11 lenses so far. Ouch.

I had the bright idea to try to find some old eHow articles of mine to re-purpose into lenses. I was pretty sure they were saved on one of these old hard drives I have laying around. So I got out a USB to SATA/IDE cable to see what I could find. Unfortunately after much time spent screwing around with it, I couldn't get it to work. Fail.

So now I'm going to have to wait until I can get my hands on a desktop PC so I can just slave those old drives. Where I'm at now, there are only laptops and tablets. Oh well.

Anway, here are the 11 lenses I've got under my belt so far. I'm going to start work on a new one today about fast and easy makeup for busy moms. I came up with that idea while doing my own super-speedy makeup this morning. I thought "hey, I should write a lens about this." ;)

Pin-Up Girl Makeup Tips
What is BB Cream?
Easy Pin-up Girl Hairstyles
Batman Birthday Party Ideas
Cheap Booties for Women
Fajas for an Hourglass Figure
Top 5 Best Anti-Aging Body Washes
The Best Lip Plumpers Ever
Build a Bigger Butt Fast
Avon Sales Tips to Take Your Earnings to the Next Level
Affordable Fall Sweaters for Women

Bow to the Wrath of the Mighty Princess Eva!

My sweet baby princess Eva is teething. Yeah... four huge molars at one time. As if that isn't bad enough, emerging right along with her molars is a new, almost evil, personality. She has been in full diva mode for the past six days. I'm talking fussing, hitting, biting, screaming, throwing food and falling out into full blown tantrums on the floor. It's Eva's way or the highway. No negotiations.

Needless to say, my little diva does not think I should be working. In fact, she doesn't approve of me doing anything short of entertaining her. If I need to go pee, there's hell to pay when I get back. When I dress Ethan in the morning for school, she's in her playpen screaming what I can only imagine are obscenities in baby language.

She used to be a very good eater, but now if it isn't an oatmeal cream pie, it's going to end up on my face as she violently hurls it at me to show her disapproval. Who is this tyrant princess and where did my sweet angel go?

The tyrant is sleeping right now. I should be washing the pile of dishes in the sink, but it's 10 o'clock in the morning and I just needed to sit. I'm exhausted.

Ethan's gotten to the point that he can't stand to be around her (he's autistic remember?) and so he eats his dinner after she goes to bed because he can't handle her drama. Lord help, I think I need to call Nanny 911 on my one year old!

If anyone can give me some advice on how to handle this extreme personality shift, I'll gladly take it. I don't remember either one of my boys going through anything like this before. Please tell me it won't last long, because when baby ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Oh by the way, I managed to write that lens about BB Cream. Check it out here if you're interested. That's the only lens I've gotten done this week though, Princess's orders and all...

Got to Keep on Truckin'

I've been really down lately over all this divorce business. This morning was pretty bad because I had a dream about him where I was lying on his chest and telling him that I don't want to go, please don't let me go. Then to make things weirder, Adrien woke up and started walking around looking for his daddy. I told him daddy wasn't here and he argued with me that he had seen him and then started crying.

So I held him as he sobbed and told me how much he missed daddy. I think he must have been dreaming about him too. At any rate, it made for a difficult morning.

I prayed about it some and I told God that if there was any chance that my ex could change and be a bigger man for me and his kids that I needed a big sign. I need my ex to tell me that, without me asking. I'm just going to step back and let the Lord decide what happens here. I'm tired of always taking matters into my own hands, it never works out well in the end for me.

With all that said, I've got to get back in the saddle with my writing. I've slacked a bit this week due to the way I've been feeling. See, whenever I'm feeling bad I like to take the kids out shopping and to do things with them – basically anything to get me out of the house and my mind off of the bad stuff. As a result, I haven't been working as hard as I should have been on my career.

Today I'm finishing a lens that I've been working on for a couple of days about fall sweaters then I think I'll write a new one about B.B. cream (mainly because I just bought some and LOVE it). Don't know what B.B. cream is? Well wait for my lens and I'll tell you. Don't you dare Google it! Wait for me to fill you in. ;)

The gist of this post is, even when you're feeling like total crap and nothing seems to be going your way, you've just got to keep on truckin'. Put on your big-girl pants and take care of business. It won't be like this for long.

By the way, the video below is just because I'm really digging this song right now. So yeah.. enjoy.