Things have been a little crazy around here. We sold our house in September and moved into a town home for a temporary solution. In the last three months, we have been to Florida, California, and Michigan. And with all those travels Little Monkey and I got sick twice. We’re still getting over something we caught from our last travel. We’ll be heading back to Florida the end of this month and by February we will be moving to Calfornia (barring any unforeseen circumstances). So trying to remain calm, cool, and collected has been quite trying. Have you tried entertaining a toddler for a week in a hotel room?! It has been crazy. And now Christmas is almost here…and am I ready? No. So many things changing so quickly and I just don’t feel anywhere near ready for it.

I’ve been following Somer’s disappearance on October 19, 2009 since before the official Amber Alert was released. You see little Somer disappeared from my hometown, Orange Park, FL. It is always hard to hear about a child disappearing especially now being a parent myself. It breaks my heart because the pain that you know the family is enduring. I put out the word on Facebook and Twitter for my hometown family and friends and those outside that we had hoped could help to find Somer. We had hoped as a community that little Somer would be found unharmed, but that was not the case. It happened so quickly that my head is still spinning. One minute she was missing, the next her little body had been found in a Georgia landfill. It was so incredibly sad.

Little Somer was laid to rest today. Had I been back in town visiting, I surely would’ve gone and shown my support for her family. I know that the community has been shook up, but in spite of this horrible tragedy little Somer has brought the community closer.

To see videos of the memorial, go to First Coast videos and search for Somer.

You can find out more from the First Coast local news source.

Good night Somer. May you rest with the angels.

Not only can you find out the most current news, sales, things going on with your friends, but you can connect with your favorite stores, restaurants, and celebrities.

In September, we moved to our new place and switched over to a new cable company. I had a few frustrations with the new cable company. One being that the flighty person that talked to my hubby over the phone told us that our new channels (expanded to receive more kid channels for Little Monkey and Oxygen for me) would be available right away and the other being that we had to join a waiting list for our DVRs. We waited a couple of hours and no new channels. That is when I took my frustration to twitter. Imagine my surprise when I was contacted by customer service rep after-hours on a Friday night! The customer service rep was awesome! She addressed all our issues. Of course, she couldn’t solve our lack of DVRs any faster because that is just common issue with our area since DVRs aren’t a big selling point so they keep them in stock less. Our channels were up within minutes of her researching the issue. I was so glad that we didn’t have to be without those channels for Little Monkey an entire weekend while we were still trying to unpack our new place.

Instead of packing the day before our Florida trip on September 24th, I spent the day in a bit of a frenzy. You see I was chosen along with a few other mom bloggers (Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom, Hip As I Wanna Be, Optimistic Cynicism, dare to dream, Nanny Goat in Panties, Confessions of a Mom, Peeling an Orange with a Screwdriver, and a few more that I missed their blog names) to be a part of a conference call with Anthony Edwards from the new movie Motherhood with Uma Thurman and Minnie Driver. You can imagine my nervousness as I have only had one other time to be a part of something so cool that you can be certain that I flubbed it up and kicked myself for a few days. And my only other claim to fame was being on a commerical for the City of Jacksonville’s (Florida) Humane Society Adopt a Pet Month. And that went over badly with my ex who was convinced I wanted the actor in the scene that I was pretending to hit on…ummmm…yes…he was jealous that on a tv commerical for all of Jacksonville to see I pretended to flirt with guy while he was out walking his dog. Yes – a lame premise for a commerical but whatever you get the point. I was thrown into the situation by my co-worker who coincidentally was seeing the guy I was pretending to hit on. I’ll admit I had fun, but I am no Meryl Streep.

Now when I went jumped at the opportunity to be a part of a conference call with Anthony Edwards you can bet I was scared out of my mind of making myself look like the biggest fool. I spent an entire day thinking up three questions to ask and around midnight those questions make great sense, but come sun up the next day my questions seemed pretty lame. By the time we got to the conference call, I wanted to bail. I was so nervous I thought I was going to get sick. Minus my overwhelming nervousness, Anthony Edwards made that conference call quite enjoyable. At the start of our call, he let us know he was a little late because he walking his child’s bike down to the bike shop to fix a flat tire. That was definitely a reminder that he still is a human being and a father of 4. Yep, I said it four. Fun tidbit – Anthony Edwards wife is Jeanine Lobell founder of Stila Cosmetics. Anthony Edwards seemed so down to earth, understanding, and just downright…awesome. He seemed to really connect with the script not just be able to pretend to play the father in the movie. It is so great to know that he really understands the character that he brings to life. I dare say I left the conference call with a bit of a crush. How could you not like him?! IMDB has one of his personal quotes as “There’s really no point in having children if you’re not going to be home enough to father them.”

In the middle of the interview, I began praying that they wouldn’t call on me to ask any of my questions because I thought they were so lame compared to everyone else’s great questions.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Nanny Goats in Panties for writing my question and Anthony Edwards’ answer because I just went to listen to the interview and the interview audio file had expired.

My question: “What is one thing that you think dads would like moms to understand better about being the dad?”

Anthony Edwards’ answer: “That it’s really not intentional that we forgot what you said. There is no intentional passive-aggressiveness in the fact that we forgot.”

I had to laugh because I am pretty sure my hubby and I argue about him forgetting what I say on purpose at least once a month.

About Motherhood:

From acclaimed writer/director Katherine Dieckmann comes MOTHERHOOD, starring Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver. Shot entirely on location in New York’s West Village, this bittersweet comedy distills the dilemmas of the maternal state (marriage, work and self, and not necessarily in that order) into the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day. In a unique way, MOTHERHOOD probes exactly what it takes to be a mother, with both wry humor and an acute sense of authenticity.

You can find out more about Motherhood…
on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MotherhoodtheFilm
on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MotherhoodFilm
on movie website: http://www.motherhoodthefilm.com

Anthony Edwards will be running the New York City Marathon on November 1st and his participation will benefit Shoe4Africa and its goal is to build the largest children’s hospital in Africa . Shoe4Africa also seeks “empowerment through sports and education, creating unique health initiatives, and promoting AIDS awareness.”

It’s my birthday!!! Yeah!!! And Starbucks’ birthday present to me is their Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee. Yep, today’s the big day for it to be released to the masses. And I am officially an addict already! If you get your Starbucks VIA packets, I really, really suggest getting the tumbler, too, it is such a great way to keep your coffee with you. Here’s a great Starbucks VIA gift pack for the Starbucks Lover. Right now they offer the coffee flavors in Italian Roast and Colombian. I love how convenient these little packets are.