I am pleased to introduce Mandi as the newest writer for the Shak family.  Mandi is a mom, wife, and pet lover.  Her stories are real, her experiences funny.  Please make her feel at home!

As my first post, it seems logical to tell you a little about myself. So, here goes…

My husband and I live with our two children, one boy and one girl, in a brick home on a hill. We have a white picket fence surrounding our house, which sits on 25 acres of rolling hills and valleys. It’s a lot to keep up with, so I am assisted by two nannies and a WONDERFUL housekeeper.

Wait…wait…wait…um…my mind was traveling back to my dream last night. I apologize. Here’s the real story…My husband and I have two wonderful children, an 8-year old girl and 2-year old boy. We live in a typical “cookie cutter” home with our two dogs and cat. Our home is so close to our neighbor’s house that we do sometimes hear the tantrums of the three children who live next door. So, in short, no “yard man” is needed! Unfortunately, needed or not, the two nannies and housekeeper are also not part of our world.

My husband started his business right as the economy tanked about two years ago. That’s been interesting. I have been a stay at home mom since the birth of my daughter almost nine years ago. My three year job search has become both irritating and boring. I believe it is safe to say that our family sees or has seen many of the everyday struggles that many families are experiencing these days.

I hold a Bachelors Degree in Family and Consumer Services with an emphasis on Child Development and Family Studies. In theory, this makes me an expert in almost all aspects of family life…from morning sickness to adult diapers. Since graduating from college in 1997, I have been humbled to learn that, although book knowledge is a wonderful and useful tool, experience is the best education!

I welcome the opportunity to write on a regular basis. I have to admit, though, that I do believe it will be a challenge. For years, I’ve said that anything in writing can be used as “evidence”!!! I now have the chance to test my theory! Hopefully, we will all learn a little, and the only evidence will be that of my budding self-confidence!

Possibly the hardest lesson to teach a child is that to accomplish something, you have to work hard for it.  Of course there are people born with more advantages than others like athletic ability, parents with lots of money, natural good looks, but for most of us it takes study, practice and determination to get where we want to be.

Erin is slowly learning that even when you don’t want to work at it, you still MUST when you’ve entered an obligation.  She won a baton twirling title last summer and one of the requirements to fulfill her role is to work with a private coach to develop and then perform TWO show routines.  Her second routine is “due” in three weeks - that is she’ll have to perform it in three weeks with no “drops.”

Erin did not want to meet with her coach last night … she threw a big ol’ hissy fit.  Still, she went.  She is realizing that sometimes it’s not just about winning, it’s about the responsibilities that go with winning.

The downside of having a doctor who installed a new computer system is they l re-look at everything on your health history (plus you have to wait a little longer to get registered since they’re doing new scans of insurance cards, etc.).    The upside is they re-look at everything, including the fact that it’s been three years since I’ve had a mammogram.

Guess where I was this morning?  If you thought perhaps I was having my ta-ta’s exposed, adjusted, and smashed, you guessed right.  Thankfully the newer machines aren’t as painful as the old ones … yes you have to deal with the squish factor, but not the smashed-for-what-feels-like-five-minutes per breast like the old machines felt.

AND!  The rooms have become so pink-friendly that it was kind of sweet being there.  In the waiting room, we found a couple of clipboards with word searches, mazes and sodukus to entertain your brain while you wait.  There was a clipboard with the games in the actual mammogram room, as well.

I like how women are treated with care and understanding, with compassion and playfulness these days when having this procedure done.  I think next year I won’t dread it so much.  I will go back next year … there’s no sense in waiting three years again.

Christine Kane recently wrote about her experience when a doctor found something unusual during a regular breast exam,

When your doctor crinkles her brow while she’s grabbing your breast, it’s hard to hear the part about not being concerned.

So, during that 3-week mammogram waiting period, here’s the temptation:

Call everyone.

Get them to console you. Make them be just as scared as your most scary voices. Call your mother. Relax into the sound of her shock and sympathy and worry.

Fortunately everything turned out okay.  And for other women whose mammograms don’t come out clear, remember EARLY DETECTION is the key to breast cancer survival.

Go ahead. Get your boobs smashed.

I always make complete stops at lights and stop signs anyway, but this would definitely give me further inspiration to do so.  Why do I always make complete stops?  Because the police officers in my area love giving tickets when you don’t.

Squirrel Queen linked to these very creative signs and I might have to suggest we consider it in my own little town.  Creative genius!

What a great idea … people would definitely stop and read.  Then again, maybe they’d be distracting for some drivers.

Here in the south, school is sometimes canceled when we get a lot of rain.  There are so many flat back roads that the school district doesn’t want buses to drive through the flooded streets.  But when we get snow - even a quarter inch, school is canceled!

What’s even better?  When snow is in the FORECAST, school is canceled.  We have a winter storm warning in effect where I live… the scariest kind - ICE before the snow.   As a result, all the counties in my area have already called off school for tomorrow.

There’s only so much TV to watch during the day.  I’m sorry if he’s not your baby’s daddy but I really don’t want my child to watch your pain!  Don’t despair Moms and Dads who are staying home with their kiddies …  there are lots of other fun things to do on a snow day!  Frugal Upstate, in fact, gives us a detailed list of 40 things to do on a school snow day including some of my favorites,

• Build a tent with a sheet.
• Have an indoor picnic.
• Let the kids choose the dinner menu and have them help you cook.
• Have a pretend fashion shoot.

Or outside,

• Make snow angels.
• Go sledding. No sled, no worries! Go cardboard sledding.

Thanks for the great ideas, Jenn. I’ll need them!

Our own Ron of Shaktronics deserves to wear the crown of “Finds Really Cool, but Sometimes Disturbing Stuff” for his finds over at PopFi.  This find can thankfully be filed under the “cool” category.  He found an interesting link to what the borders of the U.S. states would look like based on population distribution.

The map’s creator Neil Freeman says,

This Electoral Reform Map redivides the territory of the United States into 50 bodies of equal size. The 2000 Census records a population of 281,421,906 for the United States. The states ranged in population from 493,782 to 33,871,648. In this map, new states have formed, all with equal populations of roughly 5,617,000.

Here’s what a new map would look like if it was drawn based on population.

Here’s where to click to see the BIG map from the original source.

A sweet little message to help from a 7-year old British boy sparked a lot of news coverage and nearly $200,000 in donations from around the world.  Charlie Simpson wanted to ride his bike five miles to raise donations.  His UNICEF page says,

My name is Charlie Simpson, I want to do a Sponsored Bike Ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives.  I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.

Donations are pouring in from throughout the world… $5 to $30 (and more) at a time.  If you want to give through Charlie’s page, click here.   What a generous heart and huge spirit little Charlie has!

Photo from London’s Daily Mirror.

There’s been funky weather throughout the U.S. this week - lots of rain, snow, warmer temperatures, cooler temperatures.  In my own area we’ve had rain, rain and more rain along with thunder and lightning.  I snapped a photo yesterday as the clouds rolled through.

My little picture of the threatening sky is nothing compared to John’s though.

John was standing outside waiting to get into a building and snapped several dozen pictures of the sky,

I took out my little point-and-shoot camera and my tripod, set the camera on fireworks mode, and pointed it in the general direction of the lightning. I started hitting the shutter button over and over again. By the time I had everything set up, the lightning had slowed down a bit, but I kept at it. John pointed out that the lightning was starting to move east, so I swung the camera a little bit to the right.

Some day I’ll be a good photographer, too.

Marriage proposals can be sweet, romantic, fast, slow, boring, amazing, flattering, and … go ahead and fill in your own words!  They can be as creative as the person asking and Derick Childress has proven creativity has no bounds!

Using a technique called Light Writing, he used stop motion animation to  inquire,

EMILY, WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Derick explains how he did it,

I knew I wanted to find a very special way to propose to a very special woman.  I liked the look of light writing, but I wanted to do something on a much larger scale.  To my knowledge, a light writing of this size had never been done before.  I had the idea of placing a camera at the top of a tall building and mapping out the words “Emily, will you marry me?” over part of the city.

Here’s the video,

I’m still not sure whether or not Emily said yes, but I hope she did.

From Epic Win FTW: