Yesterday, my middle child came home and told me there was a new boy in her math class.  A new CUTE boy.  As she was leaving math class, the boy said: “Hey, I think you have pretty eyes!”  Well, that just made her day.  She is under the impression that she has boring eyes.  My older daughter has green eyes, my son has dark blue/brown eyes (we call them hazel) and she has “just plain brown” eyes.  It doesn’t matter that I have told her that her eyes are beautiful.

But, it does matter if a boy tells her that!

To all my readers, have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday Season!

At Costco today, I noticed how many shopping carts were left in the parking lot instead of being dropped off in the numerous marked shopping cart corrals. I started thinking, I must be pretty lazy if I can’t take an extra one minute to take my cart to the appropriate place. However, I believe that there are a number of legitimate reasons not to return your cart.

• You are nine months pregnant and you can hardly walk anymore.
• You are shopping with your young children and you don’t feel comfortable leaving them in the car by themselves.
• You are legitimately parking in a handicap spot (I don’t mean those of you that use your spouse’s, parent’s, grandparent’s, etc. car and think parking in the handicap spot is somehow your right.)
• The weather is horrendous. If it is WINDY, please return the cart – you know what havoc this can wreck on the cars in the lot.
• You are injured in some way.

Can you think of any other excuses for not putting away your shopping cart?

We were surprised yesterday in New Jersey with a snow storm! Normally, we don’t get much snow until December, so this was a bit unusual. Fortunately, on Monday it is supposed to be 50 degrees!

Here is our backyard only one hour into the storm. The heavy wet snow snapped branches and caused power lines to go down. Some of our friends lost power through the night. By the end we had about 4 inches!

Bausch + Lomb recently revealed the results of their “Daily Talk” survey. This survey found that 93% of moms surveyed have had conversations with their children about drugs, alcohol and smoking, with 63% feeling that they were well-prepared to discuss these topics. On the other hand, day-to-day conversations about such issues as nutrition, use of contact lenses and makeup were a little harder for moms. Moms felt least prepared to talk to their kids about makeup (33 percent) or talk their children about switching from glasses to contact lenses (21 percent).

Do you talk to your children about the small things as well? I found that when my middle child was entering middle school, that I there were subjects that we needed to discuss. We had already been discussing the big ticket items such as alcohol, smoking, drugs and sexual activity. Now it was also time to discuss personal hygiene.

Since I am a substitute teacher, I often come in contact with middle and high school age kids were seem not to know the basics of personal hygiene, or how to apply simple makeup, or how to style their hair. Kids at this age are very self-conscious and any tools that we can give them to help them feel better about themselves is a plus. I want my kids to feel comfortable in their own skin without having to embrace extreme fashions or styles.

This year, we decided that my middle daughter would be able to try contact lenses if she wished. She has worn glasses since fourth grade. Now that she is about to enter seventh grade, and she does participate in sports, I gave her the option of trying contact lenses. She is excited to be able to try the Bausch + Lomb SofLens Daily Disposable Lenses! She has always been a bit self conscious about her glasses and I think this may be a good confidence booster for her.

If you want to read more about the Daily Talk Study, you can access it here.

I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Bausch + Lomb and received Soflens daily disposables to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Well, the storm didn’t hit us as hard as we thought. We took all precautions and the winds are still a little gusty. There were a couple of big tree branches down in our neighborhood, but we fared fairly well in this part of New Jersey!

A park near our house didn’t fair so well. Hope everyone is safe!

Are you still looking for love in your life? eHarmony has claimed to made more matches than any other dating service. Until the end of the day today (January 19, 2011), you can get a three month membership to eHarmony for only $60. That is a $119.85 value!

Simply click here and you will be taken to Groupon to purchase the membership (membership in Groupon is always free).

Do you make New Years Resolutions? Some of the top New Years Resolutions in America include:

Drink Less Alcohol
Get a Better Education
Get a Better Job (maybe look into banking careers)
Get Fit (this is on my list every year)
Lose Weight (this one is on my list too!)
Manage Debt
Manage Stress
Quit Smoking Now
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Save Money
Take a Trip (I would love to go on a cruise!)
Volunteer to Help Others

Whatever your resolution might be, the best way to accomplish it is to:

1. Write it down!
2. Make a plan for the coming year to achieve the goal and make those plans realistic.
3. Be Flexible! If you fall behind or make a mistake, dust yourself off and start over again.

My dad always went shopping on Christmas Eve. Sometimes he bought something, sometimes he didn’t. But it was his tradition. Dad passed away this year. So, I will be seen, at the mall, on Christmas Eve just to keep up the tradition. I probably will pass on buying more gifts, humidors, perfumes or bath supplies, but you might catch me at the food court buying a single scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream as a tribute to my dad!

I recently one a couple of concert tickets and decided to give them to my teenage daughter. This aren’t the type of tickets were you need steiner binoculars to see the band because you are sitting so far away. These tickets are for a small venue where there is standing room only. That’s right, there are no seats whatsoever. I am a little nervous about letting her into this kind of environment, however the band is geared more toward teens. I will have to wait for my daughter and her friend anyway since it takes over 1 1/2 hours to even get there. Plus, they get to meet the artist after the concert. How cool is that!