I’ve had a busy week.

My daughters birthdays are just days apart (11 yr. old is the 7th and 5 yr. old is today) from each other and I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately.  Good thing my 11 year old was ok with not having a party this year (last year she had a huge party) so we are celebrating my 5 year old’s birthday at good ol’ Chuck E Cheese’s with all of her friends from school.

So happy birthday to my big girl and happy birthday to my little girl. Just know that you will always be my babies.  ;)

Doing the happy dance!!

Thanks to my dear friend, Mariana, whom I’ve only known for a short time but who is dear to my heart has took (almost) a full day (I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of you for doing this) to fix a MAJOR problem on my site for me.

Apparently, my site was hacked because I never updated my Wordpress account (don’t ever let this happen people!) and my password was the same for 2 years (a huge no-no!).  It also messed up my Feedburner email updates so no one was getting my blog updates.  It was insane!

I felt insane.

After asking numerous times on Twitter if anyone knew how to fix a feedburner problem, numerous phone calls to Godaddy (which were no help at all!) and many hours on the internet trying to find a solution (which I could not find anywhere, including Google), she did it all in about 6 hours.

She actually took time away from her life to help a blogger in need – Now that’s what I call a friend.  Thanks girl!! You’re the best! I owe you big time!

I would’ve NEVER gotten this to work out without her help. I really thought it was the end for New York Chica.  I lost all hope and was not motivated at all.

So thanks again Mariana! This post is for you!

If you haven’t checked out her awesome site, go to http://ridingwithnohands.com.

Cutting coupons has been my obsession for as long as I can remember.  Saving money is something I love to do, especially when it means that I can splurge on other things, like lattes and all that good stuff.  But when the obsession creeps into my dreams and bad things happen, then there may be a problem.

Here’s what happened in my dream:

I came in through my door from being out (I have no idea where I came from; the dream started out like that) and noticed my sitter rummaging through my stack of coupons I bought from buying several newspapers.  I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she couldn’t believe all the coupons she found.  She said she could save so much money so she decided to cut the ones she wanted.

I said WHAT?!

Are you crazy? Those are MY coupons that I bought and you have no right to go through my property anyway. You are solely here to watch the kids and make sure they are fed and safe – that’s all!  She tried to tell me that I didn’t need them because I had lots of food in the pantry and she thought it wasn’t a big deal.  I then told her what do you mean no big deal? Stealing is a big deal and that is exactly what you did.  I was so furious that I tackled her to the floor and started punching her and kicking her and all of a sudden her husband pops into the dream and saves her.  He told me to get off of her because I was a crazy lady and said he didn’t want his wife working for me anymore.  I told him tell your wife she better hand over the coupons before she leaves or else I’m calling the police.

And then, I woke up.  Actually I woke up laughing. I mean, come on, calling the police because of a coupon thief? LOL

My husband asked me why I was laughing and if I was ok? I said I just had the weirdest, demented dream ever and it had to do with coupons.  And then he called me weird.  I said, this time, I would have to agree with you.

So, what does that tell me? That you shouldn’t mess with a girl’s coupons or is it that I’m crazy?  You be the judge.

Oh, and to make it clear. I am not, whatsoever, a violent person. I wouldn’t hurt a fly…….well, maybe I will but I would never, in a million years, do what I did in my dream.

Photo credit: News14.com

This morning when I checked my emails, I noticed an email I received from MomLogic.com (I signed up for their updated newsletters; you should too!) with the title, “New Does Not Mean Clean” and I knew I wanted to read more about it.  You see, whenever I would buy clothes for any of my kids, my husband or myself, I like to wash them beforehand so I was definitely intrigued by the title.

To be honest, I never liked the smell of brand new clothes, no matter what store I bought them from and I always wondered what dirty hand touched this garment before me.  My husband got me used to that. He’s a Virgo so he can be very meticulous about cleanliness at times.  He was especially particular when our kids were babies; we would wash EVERYTHING before our kids would wear anything.  Thank goodness we did.

After reading the article, I got sick to my stomach.  Here is what you can be placing on your skin if you don’t wash your brand new clothes before you wear them:

1. Bacteria
2. Feces
3. Skin Flora
4. Respiratory secretions
5. And lots more!

Read the full article HERE and check out some other great articles there as well.

Happy Washing!

My four year old and I have lots of conversations in the car.  Some conversations make me laugh and some make me wonder, “where does  she hear this stuff from”.  Anyway, they’re all so cute because it lets me me know what she’s thinking.

Here are two small conversations I just had to share with everyone.  It made me laugh out loud because she’ll come out and just say some random things.

4 y.o.  – Mama, that’s a hospital truck, right?

Me – Hospital truck? (looking around really quickly while I drive) Oh yea, that is actually an ambulance baby (yes, I still call her baby).

4 y.o. – What is that for?

Me – It’s how they take sick or hurt people to the hospital.

4 y.o. – And dead people too, right mama?

OMG! I had no idea she would say something like that.  So I had to say,

Me – Yes, and dead people too.

Immediately I changed the subject because I knew the conversation would go somewhere else along those same lines.  I was not ready for that!

Another funny conversation happened while driving home from picking her up from school one day.  She said she was hungry so she asked for lunch and said she wanted pizza.  So I told her that right before we go home, that we’ll get pizza.  This is the conversation that we had in the car:

4 y.o. – Mama, I’m hungry, can we have pizza for lunch?

Me – That sounds like a good idea. Right before we get home, we’ll get it.

4 y.o. – But I don’t want pizza at home (she meant she didn’t want Ellio’s pizza).  I want triangle pizza from the pizza place.

Me – Oh, excuse me missy (saying it with a laugh).  Ok, then, we’ll go to the pizzeria and get you triangle pizza.

4 y.o. – YAY!!! I love triangle pizza mama.

I had no idea a 4 year old would know how to distinguish between frozen pizza and “pizzeria” pizza.  C’mon, at her age, a pizza is a pizza…right?

It’s true, kids say the darnest things.

Do you have some wacky conversations you’d like to share? I would love to hear them!!

Happy Sunday!

What a year 2009 has been.

It started off  badly (financially) for the first six months but things started to “look” good in June so I would have to say 2009 wasn’t that great. But thank God things got better.

As for the blog, things couldn’t be better.  I’ve met so many nice people that I now call “my friends” and I’m so glad I have them in my life (you know who you are).  Having this blog has kept me sane like you wouldn’t believe.  Going through financial stress is hard but when you know that other people are going through them as well, it keeps you hopeful and alive.

I’m hoping that 2010 has a lot to offer for all of us and hopefully the economy will pick up too.

I know I said previously that you will see changes on my site and I will be a better blogger for 2010 but I’ve already slacked off on my posts.

What can I say?

It was the holidays and family comes first but school is back in session so things should kick off to a nice, fresh start.

Thanks for all of your visits, support and for entering all of the giveaways.  Stay tuned for new and exciting things in 2010!!

It’s almost the New Year and with that I decided to make lots of  changes, on my blog and in real life.  I’m looking into changing the theme/look of the site so it’s “clean looking and much more organized”.  I’m also looking into a part-time job (or full-time, whichever comes first) so I won’t be social networking too much but with my iPod touch, I know I’ll be in touch with my favorite people, bloggers & of course, Tweeters.  And, I’m going to start living my life as a new person.

You must be thinking what the heck is she talking about? Living her life as a new person.

Well, the past year I’ve had unnecessary drama that I will not discuss (we need a little privacy, don’t we?) and I hope to get pass that.  I hope that drama will be resolved because there is nothing positive about drama, in any situation.

So here’s to the upcoming new year, 2010

I hope to be a better person, a better wife, a better mom and a better blogger!! (In that order)

Life is way too short to sweat the small stuff, you know!

On another note, please be on the look out for some new giveaways, stories and everything else real soon.  MyBlogSpark has given me some great products for me to try out and with that, some yummy giveaways for all of you!

Happy Holidays!!

I hope you enjoy one of my very favorite Christmas songs. It reminds me of my childhood so I really love it.

Enjoy your holidays everyone!!