All Hail the Massage Zone

Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. Yay!!!!!!!

I slacked for quite some time on what to do. We tend to do that. We tend to not have babysitters either. Well, I finally took the bull by the horns and scheduled us for a couples' massage. It was pretty awesome. We got a soak in a hot tub before our 90-minute massages as well, in a lovely surroundings. The best part was that our massage therapists really did a great job applying the right amount of pressure. We both like to really feel a massage and I find that a lot of therapists are just too gentle on me. These were awesome. And did I mention 90 minutes? Ok, I know I did. But I just had to say it again. We even got my mom a gift certificate for her upcoming birthday. Shhhhhhhhh. If you happen to be in the South Puget Sound area, check out The Massage Zone. The hot tubs are really what sold me initially, but they were awesome all around.

~t

Zane's New Bike

So, we got Zane this super cool new type of bike. I hear it's European. There are no training wheels. It is not a tryke. And there are no pedals! It's supposed to help him find and keep his balance. He's pretty good at balancing when he's climbing and jumping and dancing, so we'll see how he does with this. Here are some pics...

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Apparently, they are called push bikes, walking training bikes, or walking bikes. Here is one I found on Amazon that Zane seems to wish he had:



The reviews on this one were pretty good. And it's cute, too. We got one of the wooden ones that was more like this (although not quite this spendy)...



~t

Ten Chimneys

Before I was gainfully unemployed I worked at Ten Chimneys. It's hard to explain what Ten Chimneys is, easily. It's many things to many people. Originally, Ten Chimneys was the estate of 20th century Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. It was their home, their summer retreat, the place where they created, entertained, and relaxed. Their friends came to stay and enjoy the renowned hospitality of Lynn and Alfred. These were people like Noel Coward, Helen Hayes, Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn and other luminaries of the day.

Lynn and Alfred built Ten Chimneys from the ground up. It is as personal as a diary and holds the history of early 20th Century theatre. Not only that, but it hold their ideals, their values, the things that made them great and can inspire us and future generations to greatness. These values are intangible but important: friendship, creativity, hard work, dedication, family, discipline, reflection, and whimsy, just to name a few.

The place itself is beautiful: 60 acres of rolling hills in the southern Kettle Moraine of Wisconsin. Three picturesque buildings with hand-painted murals and curtains made by the first lady of 20th century American Theatre, Lynn Fontanne. It is important to preserve this space for all of us to remind us of the values, so we can tell the stories and remember.

Ten Chimneys is now an official National Historic Landmark. It is a house museum with tours from May through November. It is a center for the arts where important work in theatre happens to this day, as it did when Lynn and Alfred lived there. Visit in person, or online if you cannot get there. But visit. If you'd like to learn about touring, visit here. If you'd like to donate, click here.

~t

Zane Hearts Elmo

On a recent trip to Walgreens, Zane and I were diverted. I had seen them before and tried to stay away. This time, it just happened. I could not stop it. The impulse buy...




He's got his own throne! Ok, you can't really see that it's Elmo. But trust me. (You can sorta see Elmo's hand.)

~t

Hot Tub Spot is Staked Out

The weather being what it is in Olympia (not usually super warm, even in the summer), we really have never considered getting a pool. However, it has been a goal of ours for quite some time that we will have a hot tub. We even have a spot all picked out for it in our backyard (which, admittedly needs some work, especially since the fence issues we have had recently). But there's that nice little grotto behind the shed in the above picture. That's where it will go.

I just found this great Pool Supply store online that also carries hot tubs and all sorts of accessories for outdoor entertaining. They even have hammock chairs, which I love.

Thanks to the mostly temperate climate for much of the year, outdoor entertaining is very big around here. It's one of the things I really love about this area of the country. Now we just need to do some outdoor renovating, and Blue Haven looks like a nice place to start getting some things together.

Their site features:
"Substantial savings over local pool retailers.
Our 99-day money back guarantee.
Industry leading customer service.
Ease of ordering.
In-stock, fast shipping of our wide variety of swimming pool, spa and home leisure products."

I love the 99-day money back guarantee. They give you an entire season to make sure it works for you. That's great. Now it would be nice if Santa would bring us a hot tub (and a fence)!



~t

Is it a PPP Christmas?

PPP stands for PayPerPost, the company that pays bloggers to write blog ads, of course! If you've been reading along, you've heard me wax poetic about my adoration of PayPerPost. Now, they're asking, "Hey, whatcha gonna spend all your awesome money on?"

I guess that depends on how you look at it. Is it on Christmas gifts? I guess--cuz I bought some. But really, right now the cash is just going into the "general keep my family alive and warm fund". How much have I made? $845.76. Wow! I didn't even realize it was that much. It's part of my financial plan of "multiple streams of income."

Now, here's the thing. I've been investigating a lot of online moneymaking opportunities lately. I can honestly say that we haven't really found anything that compares to PayPerPost. Anyone else who's investigated online opportunities starts to get suspicious. Do they really pay? I can say, "Oh YEAH!" for PayPerPost. Of that $845.76, I've already received $512.11. And I've only been doing this since mid-October. Pretty rad, huh? I think so.

Not only that, but it really is fun to write for PayPerPost. There is a lot of freedom, choices, and great support. There's a fabulous forum where you can really get to know your fellow bloggers. There's always some interesting new thing to write. The company itself is smart and fun. Hey, just check out this vid of CEO Ted Murphy if you don't believe me. Yeah, he's a catfeesh. Ok, maybe that's not the best example of smart. But trust me, folks, he is, and he's got a great crew working with him.



~t

Rockstartup.com is HERE!

If you've been reading this blog, you know two things. 1. I blog for money at PayPerPost. (LOVE them.) 2. I just started my own domain which is a reality "show" based on my family's life. It was actually inspired by all the videos that PayPerPost has been paying me to make.

Brilliant PR business that PayPerPost is, they are doing a business reality tv show online. As a beloved PayPerPost Postie, I've known something like this was coming down the pike. As a beloved PayPerPost Postie, I know PayPerPost is very good at what they do and are always working to make things better. But honestly, with this new site they pretty much blew me outta the water.

The look of both the site and the episodes themselves is incredibly professional, and I just say, just darn cool. The episodes feature real-life situations in which CEO and Founder Ted Murphy and his crew are out and about doing whatever they can to get PayPerPost noticed. Ted is honestly one funny dude. I think he might have an acting background. He is certainly one gigantic ham (no fat jokes!). The rest of the staff has a lot magnetism and fun as well. They really are, as Kevin says in his tagline, "Putting it all out there."

And it's fun to watch. This is a brand new business in a whole new area of internet marketing. It's Ted's SIXTH in thirteen years. There's a lot of controversy surrounding what paid posting might do to the blogosphere. Who KNOWS what's going to happen, but it's fun to watch, so check it out!

Here's Episode 1:



Even though I gave that up on the blog, there's a LOT more to see at RockStartup.com, including Epidsode 2. So go there. Go on. Go.

~t

Have a Crunchy Christmas

I used to be fairly crunchy. I used to be a vegetarian. I used to do yoga. Ok, not too much, but I did. I even have a fabulous yoga mat from Gaiam. Even though the yoga mat is now used for diaper changes, I still LOVE that store. I was actually a little surprised and excited to find that they had online coupons available. And they offer $4.95 shipping, which is a pretty decent deal. Their home page says "Shop. Learn. Travel." They are just so cool! Now, someday I will do yoga again.

~t

Buy the Sky and Sell the Sky

Wow. I'm listening to XM radio on my TV while bopping around the Internet and REMs Fall on Me just came on. The whole CD, Life's Rich Pageant, was a fabulously mellow, entrancing ride. Hearing it now takes me back to listening to a tape in my little room in New Berlin, WI. I imagine it must have been at least 20 years ago. I was probably 13 or 14. Fall on Me was one of my favorite songs. (Call out to my old grade school friend, Ann Winze, for introducing me to the songs the cool kids were listening to.)

Did you ever read Proust's Remembrances of Things Past, I think it's called? (Le Recherche du Temps Perdu en Francais.) It is a very large work, multiple volumes, I think. But the most well-known part deals with a little cookie called a Madeleine and how he eats a Madeleine one day and just the mere taste floods all his senses with so many memories. I think for him it was of visiting an aunt as a child and eating those cookies. That's how I felt hearing the song just now. Isn't memory a miraculous thing?

~t