That pretty much sums up my weekend! Let’s start with the cake. My baby turned one! Zoe’s first birthday was Saturday and we celebrated with about 35 friends and family. Got Zoe to take her nap JUST before the guests arrived and she was the perfect little party host all day long. She ate cake and LOVED IT! Not too messy — just enough to be fun to watch. She loved her gifts. Got her first baby doll. Big sis named her Precious. How precious.

BTW, notice I didn’t focus on the RAIN that fell during the BIRTHDAY party at the EXACT moment people were sitting down to eat OUTSIDE.

The run was Christy’s Race in De Pere. It’s one of my favorites. 4 miles through picturesque De Pere. I run by homes I imagine myself living in some day. And the distance is nice. A little more challenging than a 5K but not too overwhelming like the upcoming Bellin 10K. And nice people! They THANK you for participating when you cross the finish line. Real nice. And then we stopped in Seroogy’s for some chocolates. They have free samples. Real nice.

And the biking happened Monday on the Fox River Trail. Lots of people. Best part for me was watching my 7 year old dominate! She made it the whole way by herself with minimal whining. Best part for her — stopping at DQ!

All in all. Great weekend. Hope you had one, too!

Right? I mean yesterday I broke a nail when I was spreading mulch.
It’s on my mind. It hurts because it broke in the middle of my nail and started bleeding.
Got dirt in it and now I’m wondering what will happen because I didn’t wash it thoroughly.

I considered sending a TWEET. Ashton might. Ashton Kutcher has more than a million followers but I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t always understand them. The other night he sent a tweet that he was going to put his head on a pillow. Thanks for the heads up AK! But.. don’t you do that EVERY night?

So what’s the value in Twitter? I think I found it today. Astro Mike sent some really cool tweets. He was up in space eating chocolate like a fish and floating in the middle of his sleeping bag. I was really happy to be part of his Twitter family. That was something interesting to get my morning going.

So we’ve joined Twitter. Good Day Wisconsin that is. We are sending tweets during the show. It’s fun for us. And it was super easy — takes about 2 minutes to sign up.
We’re using Twitter to let our “followers” know that what is coming up on the show, what news just happened, what the weather is like, etc. Instant information!

We’ll try not to send the following.
“Sitting here at the news desk.”
“Taking a bathroom break. Be right back.”
“Pete just sneezed and I said bless you.”

Unless that’s what you really want to hear.

We hope you’ll join the conversation!

Meanwhile.. about my nail… it really hurts.

Turns out all the rules I learned for the first kid.. have changed.

Zoe is almost a year old and she’s still in the “bucket” seat.
She’s a peanut. Bella outgrew it by about 6 months.
But it’s time to get her in a more permanent seat.

So..

Recently I ran into Justine Lodl of the Center for Childhood Safety.
I’ve done numerous stories with her over the years regarding bike helmets, car seats, etc..
I was talking about getting Zoe a new seat and that it would be nice to turn her facing forward and she tells me the rules have changed. Again!

That’s right. The recommendations now are to keep the kids FACING BACKWARD for TWO YEARS! Not just one. Did you know that??

I’m always worried about not getting the seat in correctly. Maybe that’s because the stats are bad. Something like 97% of car seats are installed INCORRECTLY. So I went to the Center for Childhood Safety to get their help. Drove right up and into their cute little garage in Green Bay. Good thing I went because they found at least 4 things wrong with the car seat Zoe showed up in. Turns out all the rules I learned for the first kid.. have changed.

They watched me do it so I would get it just right. Nice and tight.
Think I feel better? A little bit. But then they told me my cell phone was a projectile.
My coffee was a projectile. And in the event of a crash, even a minor one, those things flying through the car could really hurt a person.

I went home and cleaned out my car. That lasted 2 days.

If you have questions about car seats, send them my way. Justine will be on the show Tuesday morning and I’ll try to get the answers for you.

Pete Petoniak just did something a lot of people wouldn’t dare think of doing.
He shared his colonoscopy with the world. Yes, the world, because it has been posted online. It’s one of those kind of stories where just the word makes you a little squeamish. But it’s also one of those kind of stories that gets people talking.
And that’s the point. Start the talk. And maybe someone in your family will walk the walk.. straight to the doc’s office. Maybe Pete saved someone’s life today.

So.. and I know the whole point of “comments” is to share your mind.. but someone out there thought it was too much to show on tv. Really? In today’s world? With all that is out there on tv and cable and the internet?

We warned people that they might not want to watch. But I did. It was fascinating!
We got the doctor’s point of view. Saw the polyp. And watched as the doctor removed it. Way to go doc!

I think it was very brave of Pete to let us see it. (and see him in his hospital gown).

What do you think??

Did you see the story about the White House Press Secretary confiscating phones during a news conference yesterday? These reporters should not only know HOW to put their phones on vibrate, they should know how RUDE it is to let them ring. It’s distracting to the person talking and to the other correspondents who are trying to do their job.

We had stories about cell phone etiquette YEARS AGO! This is certainly nothing new. But it certainly doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Just yesterday I was talking with someone and felt my phone vibrate. I turned my eyes down, away from the person, to check my phone. RUDE. I almost slapped myself.

Now with twitter and facebook and iphones and blackberries and the constant flow of communication there are SO MANY opportunities during the day to be distracted.

I was at a baby shower couple of weeks ago. One of the guests walked around with her blackberry in hand. She constantly checked it, even when in a conversation with others. Her friends tolerate it, because they are so used to it now. It’s still rude.

Gotta go. Just got a tweet I NEED to read.

But it was still GREAT WEIGHT LOSS!

KRISTIN is NOT the Biggest Loser.  Only 5 more pounds would have done it.

Anyway.. KRISTIN and her mom CATHY looked GREAT! 

Kristin lost 167 pounds!!!  Her mom lost 95!

Congratulations to our FOX VALLEY BIGGEST LOSERS!!!!

BTW: E!ONLINE has a recap of the finale.

They promised to stop by GOOD DAY WI soon.. So stay tuned for that.

I was at a baby shower last week when they sent some cards around the room. You were supposed to add your advice for the new mom. I always struggle with this. The new mom in this case is a lot more “grown up” than I am and so she doesn’ t really need my advice. Usually I say “nap when baby naps” because that’s what people always told me. But who really does that? We need to do the laundry and the dishes and watch our favorite tv shows when baby naps, right?

Well I finally came up with something. And this is a really GOOD one.

“IF YOU FEED YOUR BABY BLACKBERRIES, MAKE SURE THEY ARE NAKED”

Or in just a diaper. I learned this lesson the hard way. Fed Zoe blackberries. She couldn’t get them in her mouth fast enough. Well she didn’t get them all in her mouth. They fell all around her.. And as she wiggled.. They got mashed into her new organic cotton pants. Bummer.

Speaking of Motherly advice: I remembered that the moms at my first baby shower also put together a book of advice for me. I flipped through it. One of my faves: BUY A WIPE WARMER. I took it to heart! But all it did was dry out the baby wipes. I couldn’t give it away at my garage sale.

I flipped through the book for more from MY moms.

From my Mom: BRING YOUR BABY TO YOUR MOTHER’S HOUSE EVERY WEEK.

From my Stepmom: HOLD ‘EM CLOSE TO YOUR CHEST AND HUM.

From my Mother-in-Law: THE MORE YOU PLAY WITH YOUR BABY THE FASTER IT FALLS ASLEEP.

Good stuff moms. Thanks! And Happy Mother’s Day!

(Here’s a pic of me and my mom)

So I went rummaging yesterday. Not through someone’s garage, but I’m looking forward to that, too! I went to the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Green Bay yesterday. Wow! It was busy. Because it was my first time I don’t know if it’s busier than usual, but I was definitely surprised by the crowd. Surprised, too, when my NEIGHBOR spotted me! Said he makes regular trips looking for GOOD finds. Then on the way home from school another NEIGHBOR said she had gotten a bed frame there this week. I learned Tuesdays are the best days to find new stuff.

I almost walked out with an armload of silver trays because of today’s “quirky crafter” segment. I wanted to build a jewelry tower. It would have cost me about $2. And.. it would have been one-of-a-kind. But I left empty handed because I was a little overwhelmed and I was running out of time.

I’ll definitely go back. I saw a relish tray that would make a great catch-all for jewelry.
And a white glass vase for my daughters “hair pretties.”
All for just pennies… And NO ONE will know but me. (and you)

Happy rummaging!

I originally did this for our Thrifty Thursday segment on planting seeds to grown your own veggies.
To be totally honest.. I took the idea from Martha. As in Stewart. I bought some spray “chalkboard” paint at Michaels Crafts and turned some old pots I found in the garage into stylish herb pots.

I cleaned up the pots. Let them dry. Wrapped the part I didn’t want black in newspaper and painters tape. Sprayed it twice. And Voila!

I did this for our herbs. Might use them in the kitchen. But if mom doesn’t cook, you could just buy her some flowers, put them in the pot and write “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY” or “I LOVE YOU MOM” on the pot. Or have the kids draw a little picture…

So there’s one idea. If you have another — please share!

Okay.  Maybe this is no big deal. 

Pete says EVERYONE has this capability on their computer. 

But.. it’s new to me!

I came across a few cool photo-fixing websites in my attempt to add pictures to my blog.  My iphone pics are too big so I needed a place to re-size them.

One of our smart web guys told me about www.picnik.com.

It’s so cool.  And free!  No software to download. 

Look what I did with our pictures.  Me in neon.  Pete in pencil.

I also checked out www.pixlr.com.  It’s like the popular photoshop.  But it’s free!

This one is going to take me some time to figure out.  I’ll try to post a pic tomorrow. 

But now I’m one step closer to realizing one of my New Year’s resolutions!  I want to to be digitially savvy enough to email, edit, organize and print my pictures WITHOUT having to ask my husband to do it!

Happy editing!