Since there is actually a shortage of teaching positions in the district this school year, I started thinking about applying for non-instructional jobs simply to get my foot in the door with the school district and to add to my experience in the classrooms. My first choice was to work as an assistant in an ESE (Exceptional Student Education) classroom. I knew I would not find anything full-time, with benefits, or even high pay. However, I was attracted to the idea of taking one year to glean as much knowledge from highly qualified, working ESE teachers as possible.

Anyway, I have an interview to work 7-hours a day at one of the local high schools as an ESE Associate. Wish me luck. I really feel like if I am indeed offered the position, I will take it. It will mean that I will be an employee of the district, get to know some of the teachers, gain some experience, gain confidence, and the hours at the high school are OK as long as I take my daughter to before-care at her school as soon as it opens. It even looks like by the time I get off work, I will be able to make it to pick up Gigi right as she gets out of school.

My daughter and I are big fans of the Disney parks here in Florida, but I’m eager to show her that Orlando and surrounding are about more than just Disney. When I spent time in Orlando before I had my daughter, I side-stepped the parks and enjoyed the other attractions in the area. You can find Orlando tours that include fun stuff like Gator Land and Train Land International.

My last really amazing sight-seeing thing I did alone since having my daughter was a mini-tour of the Space Coast – which I am absolutely dying to take my daughter to see. Her former nanny lives over there with her husband and new baby and I want to take advantage of that, pick up some Kennedy space center discount passes, and help my daughter see that we live in what is probably the best state in the nation when it comes to the sheer number of fun things to do right here near home.

Trusted Tours & Attractions has discount tour and attraction tickets for amazing Florida landmarks like the Miami Seaquarium and Silver Springs Nature Park – not to mention more cool things than I can mention in one article in Key West (one of my favorite places here in Florida). They’ve also got some helpful online travel guides so you can sit down and start planning your trip to the amazing Sunshine State. Plus, while you are visiting the site, make sure to sign up for their newsletter. You can win a $150 Magellan’s gift certificate just for signing up by August 31.

What a treat!

This week we found heirloom tomatoes at Publix. They were a hefty $5 a pound, but we picked one each of the available varieties and will save the seeds. It will be fun to try to grow them.

After all the flavorless hybrids I’ve eaten from the local stores, the heirlooms were such a treat. I cannot tell you how much I miss the tomatoes in my grandmother’s garden up in West Virginia. When I went up a year ago for my other grandmother’s funeral. I ate garden corn, tomatoes, and green beans every day for at least two meals each day. I couldn’t get enough.

I’ve been trying some tomatoes on the back patio and they grow and ripen well, but the birds and squirrels keep beating me to the punch so I have not got any actual mature tomatoes yet this summer. I am going to start moving the plants onto the screened porch to see if that works.

Anyway, here is a snap of the tomatoes. Aren’t they pretty? The varieties are Red Brandywine, Gold Medal and Cherokee Purple. According to the stickers, they were all Florida greenhouse grown.

Sunday I was shopping for a few last-minute school items with my daughter and while we were at one store, my daughter came running at me with a Hannah Montana wig. She announced that this Halloween she was dressing as Hannah Montana and the wig was absolutely necessary to complete the costume.

I told her that it is only August and Halloween is not until the end of October, to which my five-and-a-half-year-old replied, “It is never too early to start planning.”

Sage wisdom for such a little person, yes?

You know what? I had to think back to when I was her age and Halloween was this exotic concept to me, one day of the year where I could go absolutely wild and wear a costume to school, all day, without anyone telling me I had to look anything but fanciful and fun. I used to plan my Halloween costumes for months on end as well. So, who I am I to not let my own daughter do the same?

For the record, I did not buy the wig Sunday. I can find better prices online. And, as much as I would like my daughter to choose something other than Hannah Montana, this is going to be her choice 100% — so Hannah it is. I still want to point out that I adored her “princess” stage and I keep looking at a Cinderella costume I found on the Costume Cauldron website. *sigh*

This will be the first time in three years I will have Gigi for Halloween. It just hasn’t worked out lately. So, I am going to be dressing up in full costume as well this October. There is just something about having a child that allows you to let go and be a kid again. In light of that, I am going all out! I’ve been looking online for a while for the right costume and I’m almost doubled over in laughter right now! I found a costume for Julie the Cruise Director from the Love Boat. Talk about a blast from the past. The kids might not know who I am supposed to be, but anyone over 30 should be in on the joke without a problem. How “camp” is that?

When you go to the Costume Cauldron website, make sure you use the Secret “Haunted House” backdoor. Just go to the homepage and about halfway down on the right side you will see a brown comma in the line that reads “Our Store now has over 10,000 masquerade items for you to choose from!” Click it and you’ll get better prices.

Here in the Tampa Bay area, almost everything is closed down for the day. The first day of school is delayed, offices are closed, and people were evacuated from low areas. And throughout all of this, we have yet to feel even a raindrop. In a bizarre turn of events, the hurricane that was predicted to make landfall in our area in blowing across Florida south of us, will hit the east coast and then bounce back across Florida, north of us. All in all, we are like this funny little triangle of land that will totally get missed this time around.

Years before I moved here, a co-worker up north told me the reason that the Tampa area keeps being missed in most hurricanes stems from an old Native American legend that the area is somehow protected by supernatural forces. That is all I have ever heard about that, because despite much searching I have never found anything to back up that story.

Either way, it looks like we are safe.

I know you hear the same commercials that I hear. There are people telling us all of the time that making money online is as easy as admitting the desire to do so. People attest to the fact that you can make thousands of dollars a week with just a few hours of work a day.

I am here to tell you that there is indeed a lot of money to be made online, but the people who are successful spend a LOT of time making their small business opportunity work for them. I’ve heard of people who admit to being online 20 hours a day!

I make a modest amount of money online, with very little time spent. Most of my income is passive and I put the gears in motion over a year ago. I maintain my websites, keep things fresh, make sure I am not breaking any rules, play on the “up and up”, etc. However, I am certainly not sitting on a bed of hundred dollar bills, tossing them in the air, awash in wealth. No, I would say that annually I bring in as much as someone who works a decent part-time retail job.

If you have the time to invest in getting your websites established, putting money-making systems into place, and continually building your knowledge, then you can indeed make enough money online to actually work from home. So, here is my encouragement for those of you who want to invest the time:

• Find some great webmaster forums and read everything you can that is written by those who are successful.
• Don’t be afraid to test out programs and ad networks. Discard what is not working and keep looking for what does.
• Design and re-design your website until you find the look that works for you. Layout, navigation, colors, etc can sometimes make or break the perceived credibility of your site.
• Don’t recreate the wheel. If there are 100,000 other sites offering information on Hannah Montana or Ford Mustangs, keep looking for a niche topic until you find something that is mostly unexplored. Being unique on the internet is a HUGE commodity.
• Learn what it takes to get to the top of the search engines for the keywords you desire. However, make sure you do it the right way. Don’t; break any rules, because all that will due is get you blacklisted in the search engines in the end.
• And, above all, be patient and understand that money is not going to start flowing into your pockets overnight, or maybe not even in a week or a month or a year. My biggest earning website took about two years to start earning good money.

Can I just tell you how much it saddens me to know that morally decent people like me and most of the people I took my education classes with are looking hard for work as teachers here in the Bay Area only to hit closed doors over and over? We are all completely certified, come to the field with years and years of real-life professional experience, and solid ethics. However, there are not as many teaching jobs available now as there were only a few short years ago.

We can all accept the job shortage as a reason. But, it is harder to accept schools like Trinity Oaks Elementary in Pasco County (close enough to suit me and all of my friends if we could get jobs there) are hiring people like Joel Cupp.

Who is Joel Cupp? He is a 29-year-old elementary school teacher who used the screen name JCUPP01 to extend invitations for sex to two girls, ages 13 and 14. He also exposed himself on his webcam. It turns out the “teens” he asked to perform sex acts were actually investigators from the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and state Attorney General’s Office.

He was arrested on felony charges and he subsequently resigned Thursday from Trinity Oaks. He was released today from the Pasco County jail after posting $30,000 bail. He faces three charges of luring or soliciting children to engage in a sex act and one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition.

Here is the kicker. Cupp asked the “teens” their ages and even after they told him, he went on to ask them to get together for sex. He acknowledged their ages, commented on how young they were, and went on to ask about their sexual experience and to even reveal to them that he was an “elementary school teacher.”

Sick. Sick. Sick.

I know we are all worried that our children might be in classrooms with people like Cupp. That is one more reason I want to be a working teacher. At least I can be sure the kids in the classroom with me are safe.

It’s starting. The first day of school was meant to be tomorrow. Of course, Fay is blowing through town and the district closed the schools for tomorrow. Can you even believe it? The first day of school cancelled for a hurricane?

In any event, with the new school year comes a good bit of stress. My daughter is in kindergarten this year and got into one of the best schools in the district. It’s a fundamental school with stricter uniform, attendance, behavior, and parent participation expectations. It’s a public school you can be asked to leave, so you want to make sure to follow the guidelines. Even in kindergarten, she will have homework four nights a week.

School means scheduling issues with me and my ex-husband. It means finding before and after care once I find a job. It means evenings where homework and baths are about all we will have time for so Gigi can get enough sleep to get up at 6 or 7 in the morning.

Anyway, I’ve actually been doing a lot of reading about stress reduction and life balance and time issues. One of the sites that I’ve had the pleasure to visit is the The Stress Institute®, where I started by finding an excellent article on stress reduction strategies like deep breathing, guided imagery, prayer, setting aside time to walk and a lot of other suggestions. It’s not like any of the information was new or revolutionary with me, but I needed the reminders and the encouragement. One of the tips was to eat breakfast. I know I should eat breakfast, but I cannot even begin to count how many years it has been since I have done so. I needed the reminder.

Other info on the site is actually new to me, like brain cell health, aging issues, and food is another path to a “better” brain. All I need to do now is not get so entranced in the reading that I stay up too late and get too little sleep.

Has anyone tried the Attune chocolate bars that a have a daily dose of probiotics? I found them in with the yogurt this week and picked up 4 of the dark chocolate bars. They taste pretty great and my daughter liked hers better than some of the tart liquids I have given her in the past.

I have not heard anything about this product outside of the testimonial from the girl stocking the diary shelf at the supermarket, so I am just looking for input from anyone who has tried the Attune bars.

I will say this. I knew there was soy in the product before I even looked back and read the ingredients. I am allergic to soy and my ears and throat and mouth all itch now. It makes me wonder why they needed to use soy in the chocolate.

Someone asked me what my Top 15 Disney characters were and I immediately thought this would be such a FUN list to make with my daughter. She is five-and-a-half and very interested in all things Disney.

So, without further delay, here is our list:

1. Jane (from Tarzan)
2. Megara (from Hercules)
3. Belle (from Beauty and the Beast)
4. Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty)
5. Cinderella (from Cinderella)
6. Snow White (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
7. Jasmine (from Aladdin)
8. Pocahontas (from Pocahontas)
9. Mulan (from Mulan)
10. Alice (from Alice in Wonderland)
11. Wendy (from Peter Pan)
12. Peter Pan (from Peter Pan, AND the first male on the list so far)
13. Tarzan (from Tarzan)
14. Hercules (from Hercules)
15. Winnie the Pooh (from so very many movies)

Now, here is my challenge to you! In the comments, leave me a list of your Top 5 Disney Characters. I want to see what beloved characters have made a mark on your life.

This all threads back to the ScreenLife Games’ Disney Bingo DVD game. Since our household is all about Disney these days, this is a game that caught my eye and when I showed it to my daughter, she started jumping up and down and clapping in glee – yes glee.

Kids as young as age four will love this new twist on the traditional Bingo game. In fact, since I live in Florida I am willing to bet there are a lot of adults in my neighborhood who might also like to play along. You play with real Bingo chips and cards, but the on-screen characters call the numbers. It’s great for teaching skills like number recognition, colors, shapes and patterns. And, look, I even included a picture of one of our Top 15 Disney characters – Megara – calling one of the numbers.

You can buy it online at Amazon.com or Drugstore.com.

We’re excited about school starting this week. Tomorrow is orientation and on Tuesday morning, my daughter will have her first day as a kindergarten student.

Ironically, Tuesday morning is when Tropical Storm Fay might barrel through the Tampa Bay area. Forecasters are saying that tropical storm and hurricane-force winds of 75 mph or higher will probably gust through here Tuesday.

In fact, the Tampa Bay area will probably be put under a hurricane watch sometime today. That means hurricane force winds are possible in the next 36 hours. There is also a chance that the storm will bring with it tornadoes.

As of now, there have not been any school-closings issued for the nearby counties. In any event, I am getting more water run though the reverse osmosis system and into bottles than usual, moving plants and pots off the back patio, charging my cell phone, and making sure there are batteries in my flashlights.

About 5 years ago my late Maltese, Echo, was suffering from hotspots and terrible dry, itchy patches of skin. She would bite until she bled and massive patches of skin would peel off, taking the hair with them. This is an all-too-common thing for the Maltese breed.

I had been through about everything with my vet: anti-fungal shampoos, cortisone shampoos, and various other prescription remedies. Nothing worked.

One day I happened to be in the pet health food store in Gainesville, Florida and I started talking to the owner. He told me he had a degree in animal nutrition and that Echo’s skin had everything to do with her diet. He said the common brands of dog food I had been deeding her were making her sick. He likened it to you or I eating at McDonald’s everyday for all our meals. He told me it might not actually kill us, but we would become fat and sick over time.

He pointed me to a few holistic brands of dog food and I decided to try Eagle Pack’s Anchovy, Sardine & Salmon Meal variety. He told me that over a period of two to three months, Echo’s condition would go away. Looking at the ingredients, I saw the first ingredients were the fish products. There were no byproducts, no corn, and no fillers. It was all food I would put into my own body.

Guess what? It worked. Echo’s skin healed and remained healthy and beautiful until the day she died of old age. I felt great about the food I was giving her, though I felt terrible that I had gone a good part of her life without realizing the importance of not giving her just any dog food that was on sale and tasted good to her.

I have another Maltese now – Phoebe. She is an older rescue and has had a terrible diet over the course of her life. I’d been giving her Eagle Pack as well, but to be honest, the cost of the food is hard on my budget. I started to look around and found that FINALLY, some of the brands that are sold in grocery stores are beginning to get a clue and are putting out healthy products without byproducts and corn.

That is when Hill’s® Science Diet® Nature’s Best® entered the picture. I was skeptical at first, because in the past when I looked at the ingredients in Hill’s products I did not see anything I would give to my dog. Nature’s Best® dog food, on the other hand, is just what I have been looking for!

You have to read the ingredients yourself to see what I mean:

Ingredients: Chicken, Brown Rice, Whole Grain Wheat, Cracked Pearled Barley, Soybean Meal, Chicken Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Egg Product, Natural Flavor, Whole Grain Oats, Apples, Cranberries, Soybean Oil, Peas, Carrots, Dried Beet Pulp, Iodized Salt, Flaxseed, Broccoli, Vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Whole meats lead off the list and the food is absolutely packed with antioxidants, veggies, and all the right supplemental vitamins. On top of that, Pheobe LOVES it! And, I do not have to drive to a specialty pet boutique anymore to buy dog food.

The moral of my story is that you owe it to your pet to give them the best, and now the best can be found in less expensive brands at your local pet superstore or grocery store.

Note: I received my Nature’s Best as part of a promotion through BzzAgent. They give me free products to try and I let you know what I really think. It’s that simple. 

I’ll admit that beyond the most common texting terms, I am clueless as to what the texting generation is saying to one another. So, as a follow-up to the post I recently wrote about kids getting cell phones, here is a handy texting terms translations chart I found online. It does not include the more sexual or crude terms.

•911 – Emergency, call me.
•999 – Emergency, call me.
•2DAY – Today.
•2MORO – Tomorrow.
•2NITE – Tonight.
•AAMOF – As a matter of fact.
•AFAIC – As far as I’m concerned.
•AFAIK – As far as I know.
•AFK – Away from keyboard.
•ASAP – As soon as possible.
•ATB – All the best.
•ATK – At the keyboard.
•ATM – At the moment.
•AWHFY – Are we having fun yet?

•B – Be.
•B4 – Before.
•B4N – Bye for now.
•BAK – Back at keyboard.
•BB4N – Bye Bye for now.
•BBIAB – Be back in a bit.
•BBL – Be back later.
•BBS – Be back soon.
•BCNU – Be seeing you.
•BF – Boyfriend.
•BHL8 – Be home late.
•BION – Believe it or not.
•BRT – Be right there.
•BTW – By the way.

•C – See.
•CM – Call me.
•CU – See you
•CUBL8R – Call you back later.
•CYR BRO – Call your brother.
•CYR MA – Call your mother.
•CYR PA – Call your father.
•CYR SIS – Call your sister.
•DK – Don’t know.
•D8 – Date.
•EOL – End of lecture.

•FAQ – Frequently asked question.
•FC – Fingers crossed.
•FWIW – For what it’s worth.
•FYI – For your information.
•F2F – Face to face.
•F2T – Free to talk.
•G1 – Good one.
•G2G – Got to go.
•GAL – Get a life.
•GMTA – Great minds think alike.
•GR8 – Great.
•GUDLUK – Good luck.

•IAE – In any event.
•IBK – Idiot behind keyboard.
•IC – I see.
•ICQ – I seek you.
•IDK – I don’t know.
•ILU – I love you.
•IML8 – I’m late.
•IMTNG – In meeting.
•IOW – In other words.
•IOU – I owe you.
•IRL – In real life.
•IYSS – If you say so.
•JAM – Just a minute.
•JTLYK – Just to let you know.
•J4F – Just for fun.
•KHYF – Know how you feel.
•KWIM – Know what I mean?

•L8R – Later.
•LDR – Long distance relationship.
•LMHO – Laughing my head off.
•LOL – Laugh out loud.
•LTNS – Long time no see.
•LTNT – Long time, no type/text.
•LUV – Love.
•LYLAS – Love you like a sister.

•M8 – Mate.
•MEGO – My eyes glaze over.
•MTE — My thoughts exactly.
•MTFBWY – May the force be with you.
•MYOB – Mind your own business.
•NETHNG – Anything.
•NMHO – In my humble opinion.
•NO1 – No one.
•NP – No problem.
•NRN – NO reply necessary.
•NTW – Not to worry.

•OIC – Oh, I see.
•OMG – Oh my God.
•OTOH – On the other hand.
•OTT — Over the top.
•PCM – Please call me.
•PITB – Pain in the butt.
•PLS – Please.
•PLZ4GVME – Please forgive me.
•PRL – Parents are listening.
•PRT – Party.
•PUKS – Pick up kids.
•QT – Cutie.
•R – Are.
•RGDS – Regards.
•RNGL8 – Running late.
•RLR – Earlier.
•ROTFL – Rolling on the floor laughing.
•RTM – Read the manual.
•RUCMNG – Are you coming?
•RUOK – Are you OK?

•SK8 – Skate.
•SK8R – Skater.
•SPK – Speak.
•SUM1 – Someone.
•SWIM – See what I mean?
•SYS – See you soon.
•TAFN – That’s all for now.
•THNQ – Thank you.
•THX – Thanks.
•TMB – Text me back.
•TTFN – Ta ta for now.
•TUL – Talk to you later.
•TTTT – To tell the truth.
•TTYL – Talk to you later.
•TVM – Thanks very much.

•U – You.
•UI! – You idiot
•UOK – You OK?
•U2 – You too.
•U4E – Yours forever.
•UR – Your
•W — With
•WAN2 – Want to?
•WB – Welcome back.
•WE – Whatever
•WKEND – Weekend
•WOA – Work of art.
•WOT – What?
•WRU – Where are you?
•WTH – What the Heck
•WTG – Way to go!
•WUF — Where are you from?
•W8 – Wait.
•W84ME – Wait for me.
•XLNT – Excellent
•XOXO – Hugs and kisses.
•YKWIM – You know what I mean?

I think I mentioned that last month I hit my neighbor’s car. He used to park across from my driveway and it was always a tight fit for me to get out into the street. One day I had both kids in the car with me and misjudged things by a couple of inched and I hit the back panel of his Nissan Z.

My insurance company took care of things for me within minutes and the neighbor is absolutely not upset with me. However, I keep watching my bill to see if my rates increase,. In the meantime, I have been quietly shopping around using auto insurance online quote systems at other companies – just to see what my options are if I need to change. Plus, I really do want to eventually put my second car back on my policy.

If anyone has a great experience with a car insurance company, let me know. Real experiences only, please! I’m not looking for a lot of comment spam from people who are just looking to have their awkwardly worded keywords linked in a comment on my blog.

What is the right age to get a cell phone for your child?

That’s a question that will have 100 different answers if you ask 100 different parents.

I was faced with the first glimmer of reality in this issue Tuesday night as my sister and her husband presentd my nephew with a brand new cell phone for his 7th birthday. Seven. The kid is seven.

I held my breath, feeling what was coming at me next. I was right. My daughter, five-and-a-half, turned and asked me when is SHE getting a phone.

Ouch.

I had hoped that question would comes a few more years down the road. I am not a big fan of giving a young child a cell phone. I do eventually want her to have one of those basic units that can call out to a limited array of numbers and maybe even one with a way to block texting and internet. I have not actually given it all that much though, aside from hoping I would be able to deal with it later.

In the wake of all the local stories about back-to-school in the local papers is a whole lot of coverage about cell phones and kids. The stories talk about six and seven year old kids getting phones, kids texting all day, and the fact the cellular companies are spending more advertising money than ever before to target young children.

My dreams of getting Gigi a “kid” phone with like three buttons died when I saw a statistic that said 10% of 8-year-olds have a cell phone, by age 12 that statistic is 50%, and at the age of 15 a full 84% of kids have their own phone. The phones they what are BlackBerries, Apple iPhones and phones with full-size QWERTY keyboards and social networking software.

Studies show that parents do try to maintain some sense of control when they give out a phone, though. A good number of children start out with pre-paid phones so that parents can control the costs. About one-fifth of parents say they attach the achievement of a particular grade-point-average to the privilege of having a cell phone.

I’ve gone over in my head the fact that a cell phone can be a safety for my daughter. It is a good feeling to know she can call me when she needs to, just like I carry a cell phone to know I can make a call from the car if I break down on the road. I think about how much easier it would be to get in touch with her when she is at her dad’s house.

On the other hand, I did just fine in school without a phone. I used a pay-phone if I needed to call home. My teachers did not have phones in their classrooms, but these days all of the teachers do. If there really is an emergency at school, there are many ways for my child and the teachers to get in touch with me aside from my daughter having a cell phone. At the age of not-yet-six, I do not plan on her being out on her own outside of school anyway.