Friday, October 28, 2016

Our Daughter Is Back Home


I know that it's common for your heart to break when one of your children (or grandchildren) are hurting. It hurts far more then if it was done to you and it gets really hard to deal with once your little ones are grown up and you have to try your best to stay out of it. Sure, you can wish for karma to hit this jerk or you could imagine that you meet him in a dark alley one night and you can call your mom or sister or best friend and vent for a few hours or a few days. But, when you can't actually get involved and tell this person or his family what you think, it does start to eat at you.

Me? I do all of the above and write in my journal. Ever since I was a little girl, I was able to get any feelings, bad or good, out on paper. If something "ruined my entire life" that day, I wrote about it in my journals and I felt pretty good afterwards. I used to write in my composition books and notebooks and as I got a little older, my mom started buying me journals from the local bookstore/card shop. I wrote several times a day and kept them under my bed. Sometimes under my pillow, depending on when I was writing. But, it didn't matter what was going on in my life, even as a teenager who had some very "interesting" adventures, I was able to cope with a lot as long as I had pen and paper.

Our oldest daughter broke the news to us a couple of months ago and it has been extremely hard to not punch her "husband" in the face. (and well, a lot more that I wish I could do but, I don't need to be arrested!) Especially after finding his online accounts which were very unfortunately found by me. I wish so much I could send these to his parents. But, I will not get in the middle of this. At least not yet. In the meantime, our daughter and our 2 granddaughters have moved back in with us. Luckily, our house used to be an old inn with a barroom downstairs that was turned into a 2 bedroom apartment prior to us buying it. So, there is room for them but the move has been stressful.

I can't lie. I am absolutely THRILLED to have all of my children under the same roof again. My granddaughters too? Yes please! But, not under these circumstances. We treat her apartment as her own apartment and she comes and goes as she pleases and goes to work every single day and as much as I wish her 2 little angels could stay upstairs with us while she's away, they have a dad and another set of grandparents who also love them very much. It has been a hard past couple of months filled with many, many tests and I am on the border of not passing them all. Why? Because as much as we are just trying to help her out, offer advice, be there for her and the girls, help to make sure they have a good starting point where she can save and get on her feet and start brand new, there will always be a part of me who would be just oh so relieved to use the information I have to destroy his life.

In the meantime, life here is "normal". Something always seems to pop up when you least expect it and more times than not, 2 more things will pop up shortly after. I swear I am always more worried and afraid when things seem to go smoothly. But, without these hurdles, we wouldn't learn and life would be rather boring.

Our Daughter Is Back Home


I know that it's common for your heart to break when one of your children (or grandchildren) are hurting. It hurts far more then if it was done to you and it gets really hard to deal with once your little ones are grown up and you have to try your best to stay out of it. Sure, you can wish for karma to hit this jerk or you could imagine that you meet him in a dark alley one night and you can call your mom or sister or best friend and vent for a few hours or a few days. But, when you can't actually get involved and tell this person or his family what you think, it does start to eat at you.

Me? I do all of the above and write in my journal. Ever since I was a little girl, I was able to get any feelings, bad or good, out on paper. If something "ruined my entire life" that day, I wrote about it in my journals and I felt pretty good afterwards. I used to write in my composition books and notebooks and as I got a little older, my mom started buying me journals from the local bookstore/card shop. I wrote several times a day and kept them under my bed. Sometimes under my pillow, depending on when I was writing. But, it didn't matter what was going on in my life, even as a teenager who had some very "interesting" adventures, I was able to cope with a lot as long as I had pen and paper.

Our oldest daughter broke the news to us a couple of months ago and it has been extremely hard to not punch her "husband" in the face. (and well, a lot more that I wish I could do but, I don't need to be arrested!) Especially after finding his online accounts which were very unfortunately found by me. I wish so much I could send these to his parents. But, I will not get in the middle of this. At least not yet. In the meantime, our daughter and our 2 granddaughters have moved back in with us. Luckily, our house used to be an old inn with a barroom downstairs that was turned into a 2 bedroom apartment prior to us buying it. So, there is room for them but the move has been stressful.

I can't lie. I am absolutely THRILLED to have all of my children under the same roof again. My granddaughters too? Yes please! But, not under these circumstances. We treat her apartment as her own apartment and she comes and goes as she pleases and goes to work every single day and as much as I wish her 2 little angels could stay upstairs with us while she's away, they have a dad and another set of grandparents who also love them very much. It has been a hard past couple of months filled with many, many tests and I am on the border of not passing them all. Why? Because as much as we are just trying to help her out, offer advice, be there for her and the girls, help to make sure they have a good starting point where she can save and get on her feet and start brand new, there will always be a part of me who would be just oh so relieved to use the information I have to destroy his life.

In the meantime, life here is "normal". Something always seems to pop up when you least expect it and more times than not, 2 more things will pop up shortly after. I swear I am always more worried and afraid when things seem to go smoothly. But, without these hurdles, we wouldn't learn and life would be rather boring.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Hyland's Halloween Costume Contest (3 Winners!)

** I received products in return for my post and sharing this contest thanks to Hyland's. **



Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! The hot, humid weather is over and all of the leaves start changing color and you can usually find some good movies on TV during Halloween. My little ones love it too. It seems to take so long to decide what they want to dress up as and with school parties, our Halloween party, and a few other local events, they sometimes have a couple of costumes to cover everything. 

We like to have a kid friendly party each year where kids can dress up or not. (Our youngest is still a little scared of some costumes!) There are a few other kids who prefer to stay inside on trick or treat night. Some younger and of course, the older ones too. So, we try to get the word out and have a variety of healthy foods and drinks and make up some treat bags for our guests. I feel it's a good idea to have a safe place for kids to go during trick or treat hours and even after for the trick or treaters. It's also a great way to fill their pumpkins with healthy treats, toothbrushes, little toothpaste, floss, or whatever else you can think of! 

Do you want to win a Hyland's prize pack and a $100 Visa gift card? There are 3 winners so be sure to enter and share with your friends. 

Three winners will win a prize pack which includes the products in the picture above and the $100 Visa gift card. You are already taking pictures of your little cuties all dressed up, so, why not share one with Hyland's and use the hashtag #HylandsHalloweenCostumeContest? 

** Please keep in mind that you must be the legal guardian of the child in your photo. ** You can read more about the official rules on the giveaway link. 

Have a safe and happy (and healthy) Halloween and good luck! 


Friday, October 7, 2016

Has There Ever Been A Successful Blog Transfer?


I have a blog, well 2, on Wordpress. So, a few times over the years I thought, well, maybe I should throw my Blogger blog over on the Wordpress platform so they're all in one place. (I have to tell you, I am not a big fan of Wordpress. I love Blogger. But, this could be due to the fact that I am not so up to par with the tech side of everything.) I'm used to Blogger and want to keep my design. Even if it is about 6 years old.

Every once in awhile though, I receive an email from a fellow blogger who is having a promo or some sort of deal on blog transfers. If the price is right, I'll reply and ask a few questions, send over my password, agree to a date, and then wait. I've done this twice and both times ended up being one of the hardest and most stressful things I ever had to deal with. (Involving blogs I mean.) After this last attempt at a blog transfer, I think I will stay put. I like my Wordpress blogs and hope to be able to fill them in with content ASAP! But, I also like my Blogger blogs right where they are. (and I have been up for countless hours trying to republish everything that became unpublished and rewriting things that disappeared.)

I understand that sometimes content is lost during a transfer. At least this is what I'm told. I don't know if this is true or not or if it's just to save the person who will be doing the transfer. This happened to me both times. The other peculiar thing that totally threw me over the edge was that even after knowing the URL and the blog name, (Busymommylist), neither person transferred the proper blog! They transferred another blog that I have on Blogger. (Yes, I went crazy a few times and purchased a few domains that I liked and just started a blog to keep the name.) By then, it was to late. I was informed that I won't be able to have it transferred back and have this blog transferred unless I pay another fee! Um, no thanks!

The first time this happened, I had a couple of years of redirecting issues and no matter how many times I would call, Godaddy, it was never fixed. This was messing up my page rank, tracking, analytics, and naturally, a lot of opportunities I could have had if all of the above wouldn't have been a problem. One day, I called with hopes of reaching somebody who would understand my troubles and could either point me in the right direction or with any luck, fix it for me. The person who answered the phone was more than helpful and knew exactly what I meant when I started to explain and he fixed it on his end while I was still blabbing about how this has affected me and VOILA! He said, "No worries! I found the issue and it's all fixed. Give it a few hours and everything should start to fall in line." We had a conversation about burgers and other food suitable for tailgating (He was reading a few posts where I reviewed a few products and some recipes I shared.) and that was that! So, I was reluctant a couple of months ago to try this again and now I wish I had went with my gut and just let things the way they were.

Instead, I thought I was helping another blogger and giving her business and if she says my design and content will be fine and she seemed well versed in the whole redirect concerns I had, everything would be good to go. The problems I had the first time around with the URL and whatever these redirect issues were, are no longer there. Instead, I lost several hundred posts. Most of which I have been finding are still here. Just unpublished for some reason. The rest? They are gone. Forever. Until I redo them all and start filling in some holes.

I know it's not the end of the world but I really don't have the time or the patience or the stress levels necessary for such a small "disaster". I find it odd that both times things went wrong, I would go on to email and be very kind and thoughtful and careful not to sound angry or upset. Every single email would be ignored. Never even a tip or a name of somebody who could help me, nothing. and to think that I still receive emails from the one on a regular basis. No matter how many times I would unsubscribe or leave a comment on one of her posts asking for help with my situation. Does she even read her emails or comments??

I Tweeted a few times about this and somebody replied and told me that there is a "transfer" option on Blogger. Maybe the next time I will attempt this on my own. Or maybe I will just stay here. Since I'm comfortable here and I kind of like it.