There’s a review/interview on Truxtun Avenue where I give my opinion on the passions and toughness of working on a start-up company.  The article centers around Guy Kawasaki’s latest book “Reality Check,” which hits stores Oct. 30.  Check out the great article and leave a comment on Truxtun Avenue.  I would love to hear what you have to say!  Here is an excerpt from the article:

If ever there was a writer with a book that both creates and finds a new pool of irreverent-minded, work-passion-obsessed entrepreneurs, that’s Guy Kawasaki. Notice, the key word wasn’t "help," but “find.” That’s because his latest book, “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition” may just be the perfect tool for those who are smart, hard-working, and benevolent-minded enough to not just have a successful business start-up, but perhaps network with a man who has a golden touch.

It’s a bumpy ride, though. So after you get a copy, you might want to Velcro yourself to that office chair.  >>Read the entire article >>

Kawasaki helped direct from the front lines on two different occasions on the Apple/IBM advertising wars. He is director/advisor for a slew of golden companies.  Guy Kawasaki is the man behind www.alltop.com.   I’m eager with anticipation for Guy Kawasaki's latest book to be released.  I personally feel as though I know Guy from reading his column in Entrepreneur Magazine for many years.  He is bright, sincere and to the point.  I look forward to more of Kawasaki’s great advice.

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At one time, my 22 month old daughter would dig into the trash like a dumpster diver. If I turned my back for a moment she would pull out of the trash what she thought were treasures. Yuck!! Therefore, for safety purposes and to save my sanity we went through the pain stacking, multi-hour task of putting child cabinet locks in place. Now, with reluctance of watching my lil “baby” growing up, I took the child safety lock off the trash cabinet door. My daughter thinks she is a big helper and now puts her trash in the appropriate place. For some this may not be perceived as a big deal. For me it marks a pivotal point of my daughter growing up and wanting her independence. Doesn’t she remember all the previous days when she wasn’t so independent? Days spent crawling and babbling. Days spent needing me to sustain life? Those days appear to seem long forgotten. Although, I’ve seen evidence of her growing up before, I choose to ignore it. Today is just another day I’m realizing my daughter is growing up much too fast. I’m not ready for her to grow.

II've been watching tonight.  I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for when the big day comes.  I won't even disclose what party I'm registered.  I can say, that I feel more confused tonight than before.

As for Sarah Palin, I feel like she started the debate on a negative note.  Which then I feel lead the tone for the entire debate.  A barrage of negativity.  Sarah walked on stage, waved at the crowd, then blew them a kiss.  Well it was with that hand she shook Senator Joe Biden's hand and asked, can I call you Joe? Then she looked away back to the crowd.  Waving to crowd upon the approach to her podium.  Um, yeah,it's not a beauty pageant with your figure eight wave lady.  And who wants to shake a hand with lips all over them.  Hello, we are approaching flu season.  Although he lips are pretty.   I did like her mom approach to most of her debate.  Oh and of course I like her makeup.  Her lips and eyes were accented with a beautiful color display.  Maybe I can call her for make-up and beauty tips? She was very poised.  I wonder if she can carry books on her head and walk a straight line.  On a side note, what is "dog gone it"?  "Dog gone it" vote for me?  She seems very sweet.  Can she run the country though is the country. 

I like Joe Biden's experience and he is well presented.  In fact, he made me choke up when he talked about what it's like to be a hard working family sitting around the kitchen table.  He pulled at my heart strings.  I don't think it was fake emotion.  However, I think all politicians do take drama classes.  The biggest thing I don't like about Joe Biden is he wants to tax the heck out of the upper class.  I don't think that's fair.  Because someone works hard and see financial successes they would be penalized.  It should be evenly distributed in my opinion.  Who knows what he says is true.  He's a politician for crying out loud!  he too had nice make-up on.  Although the color was a little dark for his skin tone.  Thus didn't match his scalp seen through his thinning hair.  

Just a thought.  I'm middle class. I'm a mom.  I have a career. I wanted to be 7th grade class president.  I'm a leader.  I'm organized.  I love the make-up counter.  Sometimes I'm neurotic and crazy.  I'm analytical.   Always ask why.  I think of alternatives after my morning coffee.  I like my spices and my CDs to be in alphabetical order. I've never had braces.  But I have whitened my teeth.  Everything else is real.   VOTE FOR ME.  I would like to be considered Vice President of the United States. 

I thought I knew what tough days were until I just lived the worst couple days of my life. I am ever so grateful to be alive. Let me try and re-enact my life these past couple days.....

Friday morning I woke up with a very sore back. I thought, oh no I hope this isn’t what I think it is. I don’t have time for any deviation from plan. I quickly took two Tylenol and tried to forget about what I knew deep down was going to be inevitable. Eager I continued packing and getting ready for my flight to Texas. I was going to Texas to see my Sister and nothing was getting in the way of this trip. As her husband had been deployed to war two months prior.  My trip to Texas to help her with her busy world as an Army wife. A world entangled with managing a 6 month old and a 2 ½ year old. On the way to the airport, I repositioned myself several times in the car trying to get comfortable.

My airline flight was scheduled with one layover. Total travel time was 5 hours and 24 minutes. With an adequate amount of dread and anticipation, traveling with my 1 ½ year old daughter was going to be enough of a challenge. My back continued to hurt like I was being stabbed by some mean bully. Pop, there goes another Tylenol. The flight was excruciating. Not because the travel itself was grueling but because I had a 1 ½ year old climbing all over me. Normally, I wouldn’t complain about being a human jungle gym. However my back now felt like I had elephants dancing on it. At some point during the flight I also realized either someone turned the heat up to scorch or I had a fever. This was the deal sealer; I knew I had a serious problem on my hands. With the fevers, the feeling of being stabbed and elephants dancing on my back, I knew this problem that was going to need medical attention.

My sister picked me up upon arrival to Texas. After the endearing hugs and the how was your flight routine, I broke the bad news. I told her about the fever and the pain. She could relate and knew exactly how I was feeling. You see my sister and I have more in common than blood. We also both have had what is called Pyelonephritis. Pyelonephritis is also defined as a kidney infection. We knew I had to seek medical help as this would just linger for days and get much worse. Possibly requiring admission to the hospital. We commiserated on how the pain possibly equates to that of child birth. Or as my sister can relate to getting a tattoo on your sternum. Driving to her house from the airport was the longest two hours of my life. The drive included but wasn’t limited to, one stop for the kids to get food and a stop to buy a thermometer to check my fever. 102 degrees it registered and that was after taking another dose of Tylenol. At this point I thought I was going to die from the pain and I knew Tylenol was no longer cutting it. Turn, reposition, turn, as I try to get comfortable during the ride.

After the very uncomfortable two hour drive we arrived at her house, we gave the kids a bath. At which point my daughter decided she needed to unload her crap in tub she was sharing with her cousin. She has never taken a crap in the tub. I asked, why now God? Of all days to choose christening the tub, why today? Why right now? If you can imagine for a moment, cleaning up a crappy mess when you feel like you want to die. The elephants continued dancing on my back.

The kids went down to sleep and my sister wrote driving instructions on how to get to the hospital. I took the car and left my sister with all the kids. Her instructions were clearly drawn on the little white piece of paper. Somehow I was delirious from the pain and I wasn’t reading the directions properly. I wish I had my GPS; Shelly is her name, here to guide me. The streets in this Texas neighborhood didn’t have streetlamps. I had such a difficult time reading the little green street signs; I nearly pulled over and called 911 just for a police escort to the hospital. The only thing that stopped me from calling was I concerned they may ticket me for being an unsafe driver. Finally, there in the distance I saw a tall building with a cross on it. I knew I had found the hospital. I think that cross was a sign from God. He led me to where I needed to be. Maybe I had died and gone to Heaven? I know at various times I thought that it sounded like a pretty good option at this point.

The process at the ER seemed so antiquated. First I signed in with a man who appeared as though he ran the flow of the Emergency room waiting room. With his thick accent and big glasses, I followed his commands. Sit here, fill this out, and is this correct? Afterwards, I saw a triage nurse. The nurse took some information, quick assessments and vitals. She gave me a cup to pee in. Bring it back when you’re done, and then the doctor will see you. There after I was called to registration where they got all the payment information. I thought it was amusing how to registration guy wanted more information than the triage nurse.

The real fun was about to begin, I waited and waited and waited to be seen by a doctor. I saw people getting called back, but no one called for me. Did I miss them call my name? I was there alone, and I could have missed it. The ER was filled with a lot of people. People that were very interesting to watch. It was a people watching smorgasbord. I kept waiting, I was starting to get cold and shivering. After much deliberation to not cause a setback, I got up from my hard as a rock chair and went to the man that oversaw the flow of the waiting room. Sir, can I have a blanket, I asked. With his thick accent, he inquired if I had a fever, I said it was a small one. He refused to give me a blanket on account of my fever. At that moment, I started to cry. The kind of hopeless cry where you just want to be held. The kind of cry that if you weren’t in so much pain would seem unreasonable. Hunched back from the pain, I hobbled back over to my corner, defeated. I waited an excruciating 3 hours until they called me back.

After they called my name, I hobbled through the ER waiting room. It was like I was about to walk through the pearly white gates. Like winning the multi-million tri-state lottery. I knew at that point, I had made progress. Myself and my herd of dancing elephants managed to sit upon the gurney amongst all the beeps and clatter. The ER doctor came in and started asking me questions. Upon telling him my situation, he reviewed my pee lab report. Just as I suspected, infection. The treatment for the infection was a pain reliever, to settle the elephants, IV fluids as I was dehydrated, IV antibiotics and lab work. Normally I would be scared all alone in a situation like this. But somehow I was incredibly calm, as I was desperate.

After another three hour stay on the gurney in the ER being treated by nurse, Heidi, I felt better. The elephants finally went to sleep. At this point, nearly being awake for 24 hours, traveling alone from California to Texas with a year and ½ old child, along with being in the ER for about 6 hours. I was toast. This truly was the longest and most grueling 24 hours of my life. At 3:00am I found my way back to my sister’s house and climbed into the bed she so lovingly made for me.

The bed was so nice, until I woke 4 hours later with the elephants dancing again on my back. Is this a nightmare I thought? How could they come back so quickly? I knew I needed to get the pharmacy as soon as possible if I was going to feel human again. As I walked down stairs, half bent over, my sister told me I look like I need to be in the ER still. I knew I looked like I’ve been tortured.

After barely surviving the painful drive to the pharmacy and back, I took my pain meds and snuggled into bed again. Thankful my sister was there to care for my daughter. All the while feeling guilty that I was adding extra work to her already exhausting life. I was here to help her, not be an inconvenience. The entire day was a blur as I was medicated with pain medication. She told me the following day, I was only awake for about 3 hours. I don’t remember any of it. The lack of memory I’m certain due to the delirious pain and the accompanied pain medication. I just know my daughter was taken care of and I’m so grateful for my sister during this time of my extreme need.

With my dancing elephants now sleeping, I am ever so grateful to be alive.

Dulce Bebe Boutique $50 Giveaway

Mom eNetwork is doing another giveaway.  Here is the link: 
Dulce Bebe Boutique $50 Gift Certificate Giveaway

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We first heard about mr.oscat from another mom, we were instantly  intrigued.  We had the privilege of seeing a recent show.  Words to described..... Fun!  Fabulous!  Silly!  Awesome!  and of course, we are still singing Quack! Quack!   The CD is sure to be on your favorite playlist!  The kids dance and sing. It is so entertaining for the whole family. So mark your calendar. There is an event tomorrow. Mom eNetwork is also doing a giveaway.

mr.oscat is wrapping up the July mini-tour  

WHERE:     Southwest Library
ADDRESS:   8301 Ming Avenue
WHEN:       TOMORROW - Don't Miss It!!
DATE:        Thursday, July 17th
TIME:       &n bsp; 4:30 pm
COST:       &n bsp; Free 

You won't want to miss this gig. Make sure you bring your kazoo!  Check out mr.oscat's great website. Where you can see the  video  Ducks In  A Row!  You'll be hooked just like us!  Singing Quack! Quack!

momEnetwork.com loves GIVEAWAYS!  mr.oscat wants to giveaway a mr.oscat CD, Kazoo and Poster  to a lucky member!  It's simple to enter. Here are the details.   You must registered to enter the contest.   Mom eNetwork feels so honored to have the privilege of promoting this great band.  We only promote things we believe in!  Check out the gig tomorrow.   We'll see you there!

The military troops fighting to defend "Lady Liberty" are in our hearts. Often we pray for their safety. We pray for their families. We pray for their safe return. We pray God keeps them safe while they are fighting for our freedom. There selfless-service to this nation should be an inspiration. Without them could we sleep each night as comfortable? Tonight when you lay you're head down on your soft pillow. Think of where some of our troops are sleeping. In self dug a hole? On the ground? Maybe they aren't even sleeping, keeping guard through the long, lonely dark nights. Yearning for a touch from family?   Dreaming of a hug or familiar smile from a loved one?  For some it's possible this freedom is taken for granted?

I am ever so thankful for the freedom they provide us. I come from a very long family history of military. From great grandpas and grandpas to dad to step-mom to most recently, my Brother-in-Law. Born on a Marine base and raised in a military family, I know some of the sacrifices of seeing your family members go off to war.

Although I appreciate there service and duty protecting this beautiful nation. With tearful eyes and a heavy heart, my brother-in-law is being deployed tomorrow. My sister will be left behind, with a 4 month old and a 2 year old far away from family. Please, when you lay your head down tonight. Remember the peace and freedom we have. And should not take for granted. 

Thank you to all the service men and women. Please also say a pray for my brother in law, sister, their children and our family.  Remember there is a price for freedom. Veterans, Soldiers, and families have and are paying that price.

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Just in time for Summer! We're pleased to announce a new resource on Mom eNetwork. Check out where to have "Cool" fun in Bakersfield.

Whether it's at a Spray Park, a Pool or Ice Rink.  Find where the "cool" places are to hang out!

Enjoy! 

I have started giving time outs to my daughter who is nearly 18 months old.  It started this past weekend.  She was beating my very patient dog, Princess Frankie, over and over again with her bald dolly.  I kept saying no and redirecting her.  To no avail, she continually made her way back to beating the dog.  Poor dog and dolly.  I thought now is good as any to start time outs.  I sat her on the floor right there at the point of impact.  Told her no, and informed her she as on a time-out.  She cried and cried.  Of course, my heart was breaking.  After a short moment in time, her time-out was over.    The dog hasn't been beaten since.  I'm sure it won't be the last however. 

So, I was wondering does anyone else use time-outs?  How should I do use time-outs with an 18 month old?

Next post idea.... Mommy Time Outs! :)  Much needed!

How did you get pampered for Mother's Day?  For me, Mother's Day is one of the most special days of the year.  A place when I can sit back, eat what I want, have my husband pamper me.  This Mother's Day was Phat and Fat. 

<u>Phat </u>because it was truly a day where my husband served and showered me with love.  A day where my contributions and hard work is recognized.  A day where we went where I wanted to go and do.  That meant a journey to a craft fair and shopping. A day of pure loving and support.  Thank you husband for making it special.  A day without cleaning, without laundry, without any chores!

First I must say that we have a low carbohydrate lifestyle.  So when I say I had a <u>Fat </u>Mother's Day.  I mean it to every letter! My husband got me all my favorite junk food I wanted for the day.  For breakfast he made me Belgium waffles and my favorite coffee.  For those that don't know me, I'm a coffee freak!  For lunch he made me BBQ ribs with his special homemade Texan BBQ sauce.  Texans know how to grill, they literally fell off the bone.  Yummy!  Then came dinner and desert.  For dinner he made me what's called a horseshoe.  We were introduced to these when we lived in Springfield Illinois.  That's where these heart-attack on a plate dishes were invented.  I love them!  A horse shoe is where take any meat, lay it on top of thick sliced bread, cover with French fries and beer cheese sauce.  In my case, I love buffalo style chicken.  Hot & Spicy!  Lots of French fries and pour on the cheese sauce.  What did I get for desert you may be asking?  Nothing better than a ding dong and a twinkie! Perfect mix of cake and cream! 

I hope everyone else had a fabulous Mother's Day.  A day that we remember all year round!