The Blonde Diaries

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Raising a Father. All opinions are 100% mine.

The relationship between a parent and their child is a special one filled with lots of love, joy, excitement, and special memories that fill an entire lifetime. There are times when it seems that other things are getting into the way of creating these special relationships and memories. Work commitments and other life commitments can get in the way and put strains on these relationships leaving a feeling of sadness and possibly guilt. These feelings are exactly what Arjun Sen, author of the new book Raising a Father, started to experience.

Unlike the parents who bury their heads in the sand, Arjun decided to take action. Arjun quit his job after September 11th and started a stay at home job so that he could fix his strained relationship with his daughter and mend the damage he inflicted. It is a heartwarming story and one that I look forward to reading. I will be checking my library this week when I return my other books to see if this one is available. I may not be a parent but I think the message of making family your #1 priority is one that everyone should take to heart. Jobs, hobbies, and other commitments are enriching and fun, but family is so much more meaningful.

If you are in need of a heartwarming story during this holiday season, check out this new book. The video below is a great teaser and gets the point of the book across excellentally. I was hooked on the story by the time the video was over and it was only 1 minute long. Stop and watch the video. You won’t be sorry.

Raising a Father

So while I was battling the fabulous “I Love You” gift Mike gave me last week that flared up over the weekend (ie the virus), Mike was battling his own issue this weekend in the form of the zit on his nose.  Go figure that anytime something important comes up, such as a wedding shower or wedding photos, Mike or I tend to break out.  Mike is fairly good about using his acne treatment everyday but for some reason the stress or the bacteria from his virus last weekend was not helping and he ended up with a zit causing his nose to look very similar to Rudolph. Luckily, I had my acne treatment packed and he was able to switch over and it has improved but I have to say I feel a little evil for being happy he was having an issue this weekend too. I hate being sick but the zit issue made me feel a tiny bit better about it all. Maybe in a few more days we’ll both be cured and this will all just be a memory we forget.

Taking a vacation from everything was great last week.  No stresses and no worries.  That is until I went home and was bombarded with wedding to-do items.  So now I have a new to-do list and am ready to start crossing items off the list.  So far I’ve done four things: ordered the cake topper, finished booking honeymoon excursions on the cruise, applied for a no internation transaction fee credit card (and was approved), and signed up for the big Texas Exes Walk/Run this weekend.  I’m going to continue working on getting things finalized so I can move on to fun things.

I also finally got around to stacking up all of my new books that I recently purchased from the Friends of the Houston Library book sale.  I came back with quite the stack of books for just $43.  I just need to sit down and decide when I want to read each book.  I might need to think about purchasing a couple of bed wedges for my friend and I so we don’t mess up our backs from reading. Her stack is just as high/thick as mine and we promised to trade books once we were done with our bags. That is an awful lot of books to read. We’ll see how we do I guess. I might have to ask around the book blogs to see how people keep from tweaking their backs and necks from reading often.

Wednesday afternoon already.  This week is quickly shaping up into a very lazy week.  I have made it to the gym once, I have managed to cook one meal at home, I have read one chapter of the new book I am reading, and I have made as of this post, one blog post.  Wow that is pretty lazy!

But I have to say I am enjoying the veging out and being lazy.  Letting my mind wander and reading articles and blog posts on the internet has really let my mind clear out and I’ve been able to ponder so many different things.  I’ve also been able to start coming up with game plans.  Game plans on things like – budget friendly meals, saving money by using up items I have, finding new things to work on at home to provide entertainment and enjoyment.

So now that I’ve finished thinking and being lazy for the week I think I am going to try and start catching up on the book reviews I need to write and some fun Disney Theme Park Videos to share with everyone.  I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve done a fun YouTube post.

I just posted a few days ago about the explosion of people I know having babies this year. It has finally made me wake up and realize I will be there in a few years. I have to say even at 27.75 years old I still do not know what to expect and what I should do/not do when pregnant. My friends have been a wealth of information but there are still things that I am curious about but don’t want to ask for various reasons.

I have turned to google instead for my pregnancy questions because I can read as much as I want and at a pace I am comfortable with. I recently came across a parenting website hosted by Nickelodeon (the television station) that is really fun and informative. There are lots of questions and answers as well as an online message board for you to turn to with all of your questions. I read a few articles today about what to expect in week 21 and week 24 of your pregnancy just to see what it might say. They were both very comprehensive articles that gave information as to how you should/are feeling, what is going on with the baby’s development, and steps you should think about taking in the next few weeks to prepare. Pretty cool! I hope that when I am finally ready to start thinking about babies of my own that I am very informed on everything and will be as prepared as possible.