Since My Last Post

Things I have been up to since my last post:

• Spent a weekend with my brother and his family in Jackson Hole. My brother, his wife, their three oldest kids and Eric all ran the Old Bill's 5k. Ike won the diaper derby and made it into the newspaper.
• Workworkwork
• Made a cake from scratch for the first time ever. (Don't mock, Kiwi friends. You are just jealous you cannot buy cake mix for under a dollar. I can assure you that if you could, you would be lazy too.) It was for Eric's birthday, which was pretty low-key.
• Workworkworkworkwork.
• Genealogy - my OWN genealogy. I forgot how much I enjoy it.
• Sweeping my kitchen floor. Babies are messy eaters.
• Putting books back on bookshelves. Babies are only good at taking the books off the bookshelves.
• Going on walks with Eric and Ike.
  
• Preparing for a lesson I'll be giving at a genealogy fair to be held in a few weeks.
• Fielding phone calls from people in my stake who want to use the stake center. (That's my church assignment - Building Scheduler. It's much more time-consuming than you'd guess.)
• Becoming friends with various neighbors.

Will perhaps attempt to post more regularly.*


*Blatant lie.

Chase the Soap

This is Ike's favorite bath time game. We find it so adorable that I put him in his swim diaper so that I could film it and share it on my blog.

Nine Months

The biggest change for Ike in the last month has been his advancement in motor skills. He has transitioned from army crawling to regular crawling. I'm even putting him in a diaper derby (a crawling race) this weekend in Jackson Hole! In addition to his crawling, he pulls himself into a standing position whenever the opportunity presents itself. He has, on rare occasion, taken a step or two with the support of a table or couch, though I think this has been fairly incidental. Today he even stood on his own for a very brief second.

It's become very difficult to change Ike's diaper as he just cannot be still. He just wants to gogogogogogo, even though the vast majority of the things he wants to see are things that he is already familiar with. It turns out the footstool for the glider will never get boring.

Ike's obsession with his father has been rekindled this month. He will go to just about any length to be with his dad. Last night Eric and his dad were in our backyard making landscaping plans, and Ike could see them through the window. He was nearly going berserk trying to get their attention. Considering that as a general rule Ike doesn't make a lot of noise, it was a hilarious scene.

Ike loves to be around other people still, and he is a hoot to have around in church. He especially loves children. This past Sunday he stood on our knees for quite a long time so that he could lean forward better examine the children in the pew in front of us. He may also have attempted to steal some toys.

He doesn't like it when I sweep or vacuum, presumably because that means I am taking away all of the good treats he's been planning to eat. I'm pretty sure Ike's motto is, "Cheerios found on the floor are better than those on my high chair tray."

Ike has become immeasurably more fun in the last month. I don't think I ever would have imagined how much happiness I derive from playing with my little guy.

The Glorious Magic Eraser or Why My Nephews Haven't Been Banned From My House

I do not know how they managed it, but when they came to stay for a couple of days in July my nephews left a lot of scuff marks on my walls. A lot of them, folks. And in the most bizarre places - like chest-high. How did they do that?

Anyway, soap and water did not work. Scrubbing a lot did not work. I didn't know what to do. How do I make these things go away? Then I remembered that I'd heard great things about Magic Erasers.*

And oh, how magical they are! No more scuff marks! Easily rubbed away.

Plus, I got my bathtub and sinks really clean - cleaner than ever before, probably. I don't think I've ever had so much fun cleaning things.

Which means when my brother called last week to see if they could come visit in November, I was able to tell them that would be fine. I would challenge my nephews to do their worst, but I'm sure they could actually cause a lot of damage. No challenges will be issued.

*I was not paid to say these things about Magic Erasers. And actually, I used the Wal Mart brand, so I guess it's really those that I am praising.

Working from Home

I've been working from home since the beginning of April. When I made the transition from full-time to part-time, my work was very accommodating but did set forth a couple of expectations.

One is that I still have to go into the office two days per week. I'm actually really glad they require me to do that. For one thing, it gets me out of the house and around adults very consistently. I find that on my at-home days I really do miss adult interaction, and I miss my co-workers whom I quite like. I have a few very good buddies at work, and I'm glad that I still get to see them consistently. Plus, Ike really loves to hang out with the baby-sitter and her kid on those days.

The other plus-side of going to work is that people don't forget about me, which means I always have enough work to do. The only way for me to be able to research for a client is to have somebody else give me client work to do. (I don't have any of my own clients because of my job position.) Going in regularly allows me to communicate better with the case managers about how hefty my case load is, when I'll have certain things finished, and how much work I need. The truth of the matter is that the case managers have a hard time keeping track of who needs work, so being in their presence keeps me closer to the forefront of their minds.

The second stipulation is that I must work twenty hours per week. By going in to the office twice per week I come pretty close to that mark. I usually don't have any problem hitting my twenty hours and have occasionally hit closer to thirty.

As I've been working from home I've developed a few things that really make my work-from-home days more successful. I don't always do all of these things every day, but I find that when I do them I can get a lot more accomplished:

• Eat breakfast. Also eat a real lunch.
  
• Don't go back to sleep during Ike's first nap. (This one entirely depends on the night before.)
• Wear real clothes. I don't dress up for work - usually jeans and a medium-nice top - so what I wear to the office is what I wear at home as well.
• Do make-up. I just feel better about myself when I am looking decent.
• Make a to-do list every day of cases I'll be working on and things I need to finish in that day.
• Spend Ike's awake time interacting with him as much as possible. Use his nap times to work and his independent play-times to get housework done.
• Keep the desk and work area tidy. (Everyone can have a good laugh now. Papers, papers everywhere!)
• Keep in communication with co-workers about major projects, change in protocol, etc. (You would be surprised at how much I miss by only being in the office twice per week.)
  

Anyone else have tips for working from home?

On Honest Reviews

In the last few weeks, my friend Janssen posted about a rather lousy customer service experience she had with an online retailer. She then wrote a follow-up post in which she detailed why the first experience was so frustrating and why she felt compelled to write about it. In short:

• She had only heard very good things about this retailer, primarily through several blog posts written by many different bloggers.
• Yet when she wrote her bad review for the retailer, several people commented that they had also had bad experiences with the retailer, namely that their clothing was poor quality and also fit poorly.

As Janssen and I chatted online about this incident and the way she handled, I learned that this retailer frequently gives away free clothing to people who are willing to blog about them. The retailer will also sponsor giveaways for the readers of those blogs to have a chance to win a dress. (Apparently the merchant sells mostly dresses.)

I had, somehow, NEVER heard of this retailer until Janssen's post. I'd not read any blogs with rave reviews nor ever had the opportunity to comment on a blog post in an attempt to win a free dress. But apparently I was very much in the minority in that regard.

Still, the whole situation was quite frustrating to me. If that many people find these dresses to be cheaply and poorly made, then why are so many people saying good things about them? Do bloggers not realize that it is bad for their own credibility to endorse a product that isn't particularly good?

Everyone likes free stuff. I get that. But even if you are a person who likes free stuff, you have to see what bad business it is to promote something that isn't any good. First of all, it makes you look like you don't actually care about your readers. If you did, you wouldn't be encouraging them to spend their hard-earned money on garbage. Second, it undermines your credibility as a real-life person. If you endorse something that your readers find out later on is terrible, why should they believe you the next time you endorse another product?

Here are a few guidelines that I follow in my blogging reviews. (And, to be fair, I haven't really been given anything for free in exchange for a blogging review, but maybe I will have the opportunity to implement these guidelines in the future.)

• If the product was given to me for free in exchange for a review, I will always tell my readers such.
• If I don't like a product, or if I think the product is over-priced, I will be upfront about that.
• If I ever say that I like a product, I will say it sincerely. If there are caveats (such as "I like this but I would never pay full price for it.), I will make sure those caveats are clear in my review(s) of the product.

Are there other guidelines I should add? Is it really that hard to give honest opinions of products, even if the products aren't that great?