#1000, Baby!

Hi! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sara, otherwise known as Miss M, otherwise known as Slacker and a Half! It's been a week and a half since I blogged last. That's TERRIBLE! But see, I promised a giveaway for my 1000th post, which would be this one, but I couldn't think of what I wanted to give away. How lame is that?

I guess that's where the "imperfect" part comes in, huh?

Anyway, I finally came to a decision, and then it took me a few days to actually get the items on which I had decided. So that is the reason for the delay. I will get to what they actually are at the end of this post.

First, I wanted to go over my questions. I opened up the comments for an "ask me anything" type of scenario, and um, I only got three questions. This tells me that either in five years I've blabbed everything there is to blab about myself, or that I'm terribly uninteresting, and no one else cares. Huh. I'm still going to answer the ones I got though, and thank you very much to those who left them!

Katy said...

Ok, if given the option (jobs, money, resources fall into place) where would you want to move? Or, nope, you're staying put forever?

If I could move anywhere, it would be to the Seattle area. Maybe not Seattle proper, but definitely one of the nearby suburbs. I hate that we are so far away from any family here. I would love for Bubba to grow up with his grandparents nearby. The reality of the matter though is that we will probably never move, because my husband is 100% certain he will never get a job besides the one he has now, which is silly IMO. But, since he's the one with the paying job, he gets to make that call, not me. Boo.

Iris said...

Hmmm... maybe I´m a bit too early with this, but... Will you send Bubba to school or will you be doing homeschooling?
Just read about some Germans who "fled" to America cause they wanted to teach their kids themselves - isn´t allowed over here.

I'm considering homeschooling Bubba right now, but just until the second grade or so. I firmly believe in the value of play as an important method for children to learn, but the reality of today's public school system is that all of that is being done away with in favor of testing. The problem with that, in my opinion, is that kids who can't read or write well have to be tested one-on-one with the teacher. If one teacher has 27 kids in a classroom and is spending all day testing kids one on one, when is she ever going to be able to teach?

I'm not saying testing should never be done, but after having worked in public schools for the better part of a decade, I've seen it get to be a little over the top. Add to that reduced recesses, the loss of "free choice" time, removal of "special" classes such as music and art... well, I'm not loving it. Sure, I could send the boy to a special private school such as a Montessori school (I love me some Montessori!) but we can't afford that.

I don't think that everyone should home school. In fact, it scares me that some people do it because they are dumb bunnies and are obviously winging it. (not all of them though, so no hate mail please!) However, I'm thinking that I, having majored in education in college, and having worked in early childhood classrooms for so long, am at least qualified to teach my own child until he's done with the second grade. After that, he will be able to read and write and the testing shouldn't eat up as much of the day. Then I would feel better about him going to school.

Maggi said...

Any plans on having more kids? :)

Nope. We had pretty much decided to have just the one kid before we had Bubba, but after the mess and stress of dealing with our insurance and medical bills, there is no way in hell we're going to put ourselves through that again. It almost broke us as a couple, not to mention left us financially drained for a long time as well. Then there was the whole "I don't have childbearing hips" thing because they didn't spread or whatever so it's pretty clear if I did get pregnant again I'd be having another c-section, which means another hospital stay. I'll admit I liked being in the hospital, but if it means having to stay away from my boy for however many days... No thanks! Then there's that whole giving up sleeping in until noon business, which would also totally blow.

Besides, I sold all my maternity clothes (including those great maternity Joe's Jeans from A Pea in the Pod that I luuurrrrvved so very much) on eBay already. :)

And finally, not a question, but...

Sam said...

If there's anything I'd like to hear more about ... it's how-to's. I always enjoy those!

I have one coming up on how to make embossed monogrammed note cards!

Now, on to the giveaway! I decided I wanted to give away something that was very ME, so I asked myself, what do people think about when they think of me? I came up with Cupcakes, Glitter, Craftiness, Martha Stewart, and the color Pink. So here's what I have:

The winner of my 1000th post giveaway will receive a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, and a pink, glittery Le Creuset spatula so that you will always think of me when you mix up a batch of cupcakes for yourself! My mother in law gave me one of those spatulas before the baby was born, and it's always the one I reach for when baking. (My Williams Sonoma ones only wish they were so loved.) It makes me happy.

To fulfill the "crafty" portion of my description, the winner will also receive:

An "I'm Bitchin' in the Kitchen" flour sack dishtowel, embroidered by yours truly. The one with red thread in the photo is my own. It had just come out of the dryer which is why the eyes look sorta puckery, but they're really round, I SWEAR. I will be doing yours in whatever color you like. I am in love with these dishtowels because they just work so well. I get bummed when there are no more clean ones left and I have to go back to my old ones.

Here are the rules:

You get:

1 entry for a comment on this post saying what your favorite flavor of cupcake is

2 entries if you become a follower of my blog, or are a follower already

3 entries if you tweet about the giveaway (I'm @SplendidMissM)

4 entries if you blog about the giveaway on your own blog

Leave one comment for each thing, as each comment will be an entry. The contest starts now, and ends on Friday, March 19th, at 10:00 pm Arizona time, which means you have a whole week to enter. I will randomly draw a winner and post it (hopefully!) that evening.

Good luck!

***Disclaimer - the prizes for this giveaway were bought with my own money. They were not given to me, nor was I paid or given any sort of compensation for hosting them in a giveaway. ***