Keep track of what's online the easy way!

Hopefully in this post I'll give everybody a good tool to keep up with whatever you find interesting online, like maybe this blog and the Frantz blog. What makes it easy is something called Real Simple Syndication, or RSS for short (if you already know what RSS is you can probably just skip this post). RSS is a way for a web site to alert readers of updates to the site. Using an RSS reader you have one place to see everything that's new.

In order to use RSS you need to start with an RSS reader. The easiest to get started with might be the google rss reader here. Another option, if you use the firefox web browser. It has a feature called live bookmarks that allows it to act as an RSS reader.

Once you find an RSS reader the next step is to subscribe to RSS feeds. The best way I know to find RSS feeds is to use firefox. If you're using firefox as your web browser (which I highly recommend) you'll see this icon on any page that has an RSS feed at the top in the address bar. Clicking on that icon will take you to the feed and give you some options of where to add it (with firefox live bookmarks and google reader being two of those options).

RSS feeds allow you to go one place and see updates for all the things you're interested in. I follow about fifty feeds in my RSS reader between news, comics, blogs, etc...

Hopefully you'll find this useful. Let me know if you have any questions.

You're lucky day - Very Long BLOG!!

Well, let me start off by saying Happy Reading. I meant to blog all weekend, but hurt my wrist like nobody's business and couldn't do much of anything. As technical as Steve is... he doesn't think to get on our little blog website and write a word or two for himself. To date, he only reads what I write. It's like an elaborate calendar entry for him to reference.

Saturday - Jake had his graduation for his Orange belt. The test was last Thursday and he passed with flying colors. Then on Saturday they make all those who pass put on a demonstration for the parents wrapping up everything they learned for the last 3 months. We are very proud. He's got his sight set for that black belt. It'll be a while, but it's a great positive influence and when it comes down to it, he loves it. You can see the yearning in Steve's eyes to get out there too. One day, Steve, one day. Right now, you can live vicariously through your son.
Sunday - Well nobody really wants to know that I spent the morning at the spa (again, while Steve's not writing this he would like me to add his input and say that he got me the spa deal for Xmas) which is great and all until I had an acid peel done to my face. Um, interesting. My face is still sensitive. That's really all I have to say.


Monday - Well, I'm pretty sure we crossed into March. By the looks of it it might as well be December all over again. I guess Mother Nature wasn't done with the pretty white stuff. While we are not expecting anything above 2 in, it's facinating that I still am writing about these, well, at least once a month. It is pretty and I don't get tired of looking at it... while I'm inside the confines of my house. While I was enjoying the beauty of it all, Andy's got really sick with some sort of stomach bug. Got up early this morning and hasn't been able to keep anything down. Thank goodness for hardwood floors!

Circus on Sodor - Thomas the Train

We have officially taken Andy to his first play production and as we guessed, he LOVED it! He was literally on the edge of his seat partially due to his size and partially due to the fact he was taking in the entire play. We had pretty good seats with no view obstructions, which is nice when you have little ones. After the play was over, he wanted to watch it again... the difference between live plays and DVDs.
After we were done with watching the play and eating junk food, we played by the fountain at the Seattle Center. It was a cold day, but it didn't stop kids from actually playing in the water. Andy had to settle for running around the fountain with Steve while I took pictures.THEN after we were done with the fountain, we headed to IKEA where Andy got a whole hour in the ball pit with kids his age and Steve and I walked around. I was conceptualizing refurnishing our loft while Steve humored me by saying, "Yep, ah-huh, that sounds great..." I still walked away with my latest organizational storage unit thingy. :)

Alas the end of the work week!

OMG! It's been one of those weeks. I worked like 60 hours, my house in shambles, I don't remember the last time I had a decent dinner, and I believe my kids grew at least a half inch since I saw them LAST weekend! Seriously! I'm so exhausted. There is nothing more that I would love to do than to sleep in tomorrow and do absolutely nothing. But my weekend is booked. We are taking Andy to see a Thomas the Train production tomorrow (which I'm so excited for him to see because I know he will LOVE it!), then there the "house in shambles" I'll need to clean, and to top it off I will need to work this weekend so I'm not slammed come Monday. Every little thing that I didn't get to during the 12-14 hrs I spent at work each day all week will need to be done by Sunday.

I hope everyone else had a much better week!

Huh??

So, just yesterday I blogged about rain and the different types of rain, etc, etc... Well, I wasn't prepared for the SNOW that is coming down right this very second. I mean I knew it was cold, but I didn't realize it was snow cold. Apparently, we have a low pressure from the north and mixed with all that rain I was gabbing about, we got snow. While I would love to sit here and get excited I believe our "snow advisory" is effective through 4am. So, well before I go to work it'll be all over an done with leaving us with either ice or slush. I'm not sure what we are expecting tonight and I've learned my lesson from banking on the weather sites/guys/or any forecast. We been there, as the night progressed the temps warmed up and we got nothing but rain.

Crazy weather!!!

Continuous rain

Well, it started to rain on Sunday and it really hasn't stopped. We have all varieties of rain from misting to down pours but it's all rain. Saturday was a beautiful day and we had close friends of the family watch the kids while Steve, myself, my mom, and Ben (kid's grandpa) went north for a little shopping therapy (well, that was for me) and dinner, plus some casino time. Steve has been hoarding his lucky $100 for the Craps table, and well, his lucky $100 is no longer lucky. We had a good time hanging out having adult time. We got home late around midnight and I was very glad to sleep in on Sunday.
Steve and Jake went paintballing on Sunday and Andy and I gardened... well, until the rain started in. I was able to get a considerable amount of weeding done and while I was doing so, I got inspired for our summer backyard projects. We have all the basics in for backyard enjoyment, but this year, I would like to kick it up a notch and actually add some visual interest (i.e. plants, yard definition, etc). So, as I sit here writing this looking out to the backyard from the office, the wheels in my head are turning, and mother nature is slapping us with thunderous rain. I love Washington!
Anyhoo... really looking forward to this weekend because we are taking Andy to see his ALL TIME FAVORITE train, Thomas in a theater production at the Key Arena in Seattle. I'm so excited to take him! We took Jake to two live productions when he was Andy's age (Blue's Clues and Dora) and nothing beats the experience of a live production. Steve and I love a great musical on stage and hope that one day the boys will have the appreciate for theater as much as we do.

Just as I suspected...

The blogging is slowing down as there doesn't seem to be much to write about. I officially started Weight Watchers again last Saturday. That was a huge milestone because that was something that I have been wanting to do over the holidays. Steve also finally got my treadmill together over the weekend. So, I no longer have an excuse not to eat right or exercise. Aside from battling weight, I've finally attempted to learn VBA... a much needed skill in my job. Thank God I have Steve. Like it or not, he has to field all my questions. It's going to be slow going as I have to be able to apply these concepts to something tangible for me. So, we talk in lots of examples. It's a good thing. Next thing will be SQL, then I'll be working on my leadership skills for my position. It's been a while since I set "acedemic" goals for myself. Speaking of acedmeics... Steve and I have been researching the potential of going back to school. The Bachelor I've always wanted and the Master that Steve wants. We'll keep you posted.

Jake is currently working on getting his Orange belt. Going through the motions of getting his tips that lead up to the next belt test. He's also doing pretty awesome in his guitar lessons. As if that wasn't enough, he was just awarded Acedemic Achievement in Math this quarter. Can you say, "Proud Mom??". :)

Andy, well, is coming into his own. He's overly observational and part sponge. He's so funny and comes up with the wittiest things to say. He contantly has Steve and I fits of laughter over what he says. I would love to write them all, but that would be one long blog. My latest and greatest is him helping me clean house over the weekend while wearing his Iron Man costume. He said he needed the extra power to get through all the cleaning. Amen to that!! A little extra power can always help get through the pains of house cleaning. When that failed him, he has his tractor beams to blast those items in our way... I'm not so hip to what tractor beams are actually for, but they are there if we need to tap into them.