Would this piss you off?

August 17, 2009

Back in November, I started a little review blog titled “Fairly Odd Reviews” which sits all by its lonely self on the internet, not bothering anyone. Which is sort of the problem.

That site feels like an afterthought now, and I’m finding it hard to come up with new content. In actuality, I don’t do that many reviews since I already have a place in which to pour my heart and soul writing about products I love.

But, because I’m carrying advertising on this blog, I needed to create a separate site for product reviews, so, that is why Fairly Odd Reviews was born.

After seeing how much cash my paid advertising is bringing in (ha!), I’m rethinking it all again. One option would be to drop the ads and use this blog to write about it all: all my normal chatter, plus any product reviews or recommendations I think worthy of my time and effort. I’d be clear to say, “so-and-so asked me to test this product and here’s what I think” and I won’t be doing “paid for” posts, sponsored posts or reprints of press releases.

But, would this piss you off?

Would you hate bumping into a product review every week or so? Or, would you find my love for Friendly’s Lemonade Roll or Dreambox Learning’s math program mildly interesting? Remember that if I am to consolidate the two sites, I’d have to lose the advertising here, so that may influence how you feel about it.

I care a lot about what you guys want to see, or not see, here. Speak now: I’m listening. Right after I make some delicious iced coffee from The Coffee Exchange.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me, Fairly Odd Reviews, Parent Bloggers Network 34 Comments

Looks like we’ll be enjoying the fresh air alone

August 14, 2009

Her bed is made with pretty lavender sheets and soft pillows. There are empty hangers in the closet and shelf space on our office bookshelf for her things.

Yesterday, the kids made a big, happy sign with her name in bright letters so she’d see us when she got off the bus.

We baked a cake yesterday, just for fun, and the kids insisted we not touch it until she arrived so that she could have the first piece.

Our week was planned to include park dates, beach trips, visits to the pond, blueberry picking and many, many ice cream cones.

But, she’s not coming.

When we signed up to be a Fresh Air family, I knew this was a possibility. Kids get sick, parents get nervous, families have a change of heart. I also was very specific about the age, gender and trips dates that we’d be able to accept: I wanted a girl around the same age as my two and could only sign up for the last trip of the summer, leaving us no other dates should something happen.

So, when the call came last night that our girl had canceled, I knew we’d be sitting this one out.

There were tears this morning, especially from Belly who was looking forward to meeting this little girl, sharing her toys and introducing her to friends and things we love to do. Jilly, in typical fashion, got angry first, demanding to know “why?!?”, not realizing how many things may have forced our seven-year-old visitor to change her mind.

All is not lost. I have a list of great things to do this upcoming week, and we’ll make an effort to still do them. We’ll eat too much ice cream, go to the beach and pick blueberries until we can’t stand the sight of those little round globes.

And this morning, there will be chocolate cake for breakfast.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 18 Comments

We Missed the Bullseye: our Lyme story

August 12, 2009


Something was wrong with my husband (no need for sarcastic comment).

Almost a month ago he started coming home from work complaining of a splitting headache. He’d squint through dinner, barely making conversation, and I offered to clean up the dinner plates most nights so that he could go rest in our darkened bedroom.

One night he scared me. I went in to the room to say goodnight before heading downstairs to my usual nightcap of bad reality TV, and I saw him sitting on our bed quietly. I kissed him on the top of his head, and this man who is usually so affectionate barely acknowledged my gesture.

“Have you considered this might be Lyme Disease?” I asked after a regular family dinner when I had thought, “he looks ten years older“.

But, with no bullseye, we were both skeptical. The only reason I had mentioned Lyme was because I had recently read Sarah from In The Trenches of Mommyhood’s post. Her son’s Lyme diagnosis came after her mother’s intuition told her that his low-grade fever and out-of-character quietness weren’t “just a cold”.

Finally, a few days later, I was woken by my husband who told me that he needed to get tested right away. His headache was fading, but there were now red welts across his torso and legs. It didn’t take the lab thirty minutes to confirm that he did have Lyme.

He was lucky. A round of antibiotics beat back the disease, and he is normal again (well. . .).

And I now know that there is more to watching for Lyme than just finding a tiny telltale tick or that red bullseye.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Husband, Fairly Odd Me, Health n Food Talk 37 Comments
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