2008 August | Permission to Peruse

Mr. Rogers Resolution

August 31st, 2008 at 10:34 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Finally something has been done. They finally convinced Mr. Rogers‘ wife that he needed help. They went to see the doctor and apparently they said hallucinations can just be a part of getting old. That stinks. But the doctor gave her some pills to give him and they’re hoping that will resolve what’s going on. So hopefully, this is the end of his troubles for now.

*Update…Scott relayed only that information but after reading through some of these stories, I was shocked to see how prevalent this problem is in the elderly. Knowing how he has worked the system and gotten more medication than he probably should have, I’m sure in the end it’s a medication issue, not really just and “old age” thing. Who knows though. I’m just hoping THIS medication helps him.

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August OTH Report

August 31st, 2008 at 9:22 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

For new folks, this is the recap for my One Tree Hill Blog site.

Alrighty, strap in for this one because it is INSANE. This month was amazing. Outstanding. Unbelievable. And honestly, I almost did not put this post up. I’m really almost embarrassed at how well it’s done. Especially knowing my OTH readers probably have found this site through the Hot Blogger Calendar (hello to any readers out there! holla!). I feel a little like who am I to deserve the success of this site but at the same time I know I have poured hours and hours of work into it. Not to say I’m not happy about everything, I’m just saying it’s humbled me greatly and I’m not putting these numbers out here for anything except to share with you guys in the journey I’ve been taking these past 9 months. I just don’t want any OTH readers feeling that it’s all a numbers game to me. Because I really do care about the readers there, the community we have built and also the show. But anyway, I do want to share. So here it goes…

First great news, we went over 1 million hits this month–just for August. We had almost 500,000 unique visitors including 270,000 first time visitors. Those are some staggering numbers for a 9 month old blog if you ask me.

As you can see the the activity in the past week or so has really started to climb as the season premiere starts tomorrow. Last Monday in fact just about brought the server down and we hit the same record highs we had at the end of the season.

A few random great things happening..TVGuide and BuddyTV have both exchanged links with us and we even had Matt Mitovich commented a few times on the blog after he made a trip to Wilmington! We also have been solidly in the #1 Google search result for “One Tree Hill Spoilers” and have moved up with “One Tree Hill”. In unfortunate news for others but fortunate news for us, one very busy site has quit posting like they used to while another has stopped allowing spoilers to be posted. I think this is driving our traffic higher.

Lastly in great news are the financial numbers.

Two big things happened with that this month. One, I added a 78×600 ad (60×600??) from BlogHerAds. And apparently that’s where the bulk of their ads are and our daily income jumped 3-4 times what we were getting. One day I think we were getting $3/1,000 hits. Which is FABULOUS! What I’m not sure is if I happened to hit a really good ad time for the new ad size or this is normal.

The second great news from this month financially is all the pre-Order Amazon sales of the Season 5 DVD were shipped out and we got 6% of all those sales.

So financial total for this month? You’re not going to believe this. $2600 almost to the penny. I told you you wouldn’t believe it!!! I can hardly believe it myself!

The crazy thing about all this?? I’m pretty sure next month is going to be even better!

Again, I have to give God glory for blessing this. I’m sure some people would choose to believe God would never bless a blog about a TV show. But He certainly hasn’t allowed it to fall apart. So as the doxology says, Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. I’d certainly say this is a blessing AND it’s flowing!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from…the Father.” James 1:17

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Mattress Switcharoo

August 30th, 2008 at 11:06 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

OK, so we had a little project today that was totally not planned. This morning I got a call that my mom’s neighbor was basically giving away a King size box spring and mattress set. Since the girls are still sharing their twin bed, we’ve been planning to upgrade their room and have thought about giving them our Queen bed and getting us a King size. We had also debated getting them bunk beds and keeping our set but if someone was going to give us a set, why not? We ended up agreeing on $100 which is a steal for how nice they are. She was going to donate them if we didn’t take them so it was a win-win even at that price.

So we get it home and start thinking about it all and I’m like, oh my, now we have to tear down the kids room. And our room. And buy them new pink girly Queen size sheets and a comforter. And buy us new everything King size. And oh my word, I hadn’t really planned on all this work and money.

But true to form, Mom and Heather stepped right in and we went on a last minute shopping trip tonight and spent, well, way too much on all new bedding for both beds as well as picking up a few accessories for around the house. And of course I have pictures!

First, here is a before picture of my bedroom.

Now I have to warn you, we haven’t bought a new King size bed frame yet. It’s still sitting on the ground! And we’re going to have to change out our pictures. But I like where the look is going. Wow, we have REAL, MATCHING lamps for the FIRST TIME since we’ve been married.

That picture actually looks pretty bad compared. But really! It’s going to look great! The cover is a brown animal type pattern matteleise (however you spell that and I think that’s what it’s called). The lamp shades actually have a gold, red and black pattern on them that’s really cool.

Also for the room, I found that red mannequin thingy. Scott’s comment? “Hey I like that naked lady thing.” Men.

I love trees and I got this wood statue thingy for my mantle.

Also got this wood statue thingy-mabob. I’ve put it on my foyer table.

And here are two prints I got the other day for the kitchen.

Now what’s not pictured is the girls’ room because they’re asleep and I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

So yeah, today was a really nice surprise. God really blessed us with such a great deal on the mattresses and all the good finds today.

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Who needs an iPhone Holder?

August 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

This was me and my trusty iPhone (ok, so not ALWAYS trusty) cleaning the house today (can’t you tell) since my shorts didn’t have a pocket. It worked. The only thing? I forgot about the sweat factor. Nice.

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Back to goal weight

August 29th, 2008 at 10:28 am / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

August must be my official lose weight month. Last year I had gained 6 pounds throughout the year and used Weight Watchers to lose them within a few weeks. This is after spending about 2 years in the gym with no results. I mean, I definitely had results. I no doubt gained some muscle but whatever inches I may have lost, my weight didn’t go down. Anyway, after we got back from Grove Park Inn this year, I was 4.5 lbs above that goal weight again. As you might remember, I read the Seven Pillars of Health and got really motivated to eat healthier, drink more water and exercise (for health reasons, not weight loss reasons).

Well, I’m very happy to report by simply choosing better food (my goal was NOT to lose weight), I’ve lost 5 lbs. since August 4th. I haven’t counted one calorie or one point. I’m simply choosing wheat products over white, removing almost anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup or MSG and snacking on fruit instead of lots of chocolate. And drinking lots of water. And this IS a lifestyle change. I do not feel any less motivated on making these choices than I did on August 4th.

I feel so much better about what I’m eating and obviously with 5 lbs gone it’s a huge incentive! I was able last year to lose the weight on Weight Watchers but it wasn’t with healthy eating, it was just with portion size. This way, I feel so much better about the choices I’m making and more importantly the choices I’m making for my family. Yes, the kids still are eating a lot of stuff they shouldn’t but when they see me eating strawberries, they are SO MUCH more likely to ask for it.

Anyway, I know you hear it from everyone…just eat healthy, but it really works! And I’m saying this so you know if I can do it, you can do it!!

OK, everyone can now simultaneously throw something at me for losing weight without trying.

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Friday’s Feast

August 29th, 2008 at 8:19 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Appetizer

When was the last time you had your hair cut/trimmed?

Last Saturday!

Soup

Name one thing you miss about being a child.

Watching movies 80 times in a row AND not feeling guilty about it.

Salad

Pick one: butter, margarine, olive oil.

Butter

Main Course

If you could learn another language, which one would you pick, and why?

Spanish. I could actually use it around here. And maybe help Emma with her homework in a few years. I tried to teach myself Spanish about 7 years ago. I managed to become familiar with the language so I can read very little. I couldn’t even recognize one Spanish word before I started. BUT I can’t speak a sentence!

Dessert

Finish this sentence: In 5 years I expect to be…

a mother of 8 and 10 year old girls, 35 years old. Probably still working for the same company and pining for the days of One Tree Hill blogs that make good money. That’s about all I’ve got so far. Big dreamer I am.

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Facebook’s Pieces of Flair

August 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

This is my latest geeky time waster. I went a little crazy with the One Tree Hill stuff on there.

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Grey’s – I can’t wait!

August 28th, 2008 at 10:05 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Can all of us MerDer fans have a collective awwwww!

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Feelin’ the love

August 28th, 2008 at 9:13 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I may be losing steam on the Hot Blogger Calendar list, but I’m feelin’ the love from my family this morning.

Scott decided to take Emma to school for me today. I heard her from the bedroom telling Scott, “I want Mommmyy to take me.” Aw, she misses Mommy and our school routine.

Scott to me while I was getting changed for the day, “Did you lose some weight?” Dang, he’s really working on the points this week.

Lexi on seeing my emerge from the bedroom a good 30 minutes after she got up, “Mommy, are you going to work today?” I told her no and she says, “Yayyyy!”

Feels good to be loved this morning!

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Morning Coffee Firefox Add-on

August 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

TechRepublic came up with a list of 10 must-have Firefox Add-ons. Out of all of them, the one I am going to love is Morning Coffee. Basically you push one button and all the sites you check in the morning pop up in different tabs at once. Perfect for me! I constantly keep the same 8-10 sites open all day and when some install program asks me to restart my browswer, I simply groan. This makes it a snap. You just enter the URLs you want opened in the Configure section. A little coffee cup shows up as a button in your toolbar and you just have to click when you’re ready for them. You can even have a different set of links for each day of the week. Although, I think I’d like to categorize mine by type rather than day…like be able to open a set of OTH related sites vs. open a set of blog sites I read. But this will get me started!

And just for fun, what are the sites I have on there now?

My Gmail account
Google Reader
Twitter
My stat site for my OTH site
My dashboard for my OTH site
FanForum for my OTH site
My dashboard for this site
I also cycle through my income sites for my OTH site in the morning but I don’t keep them open all day
Facebook

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David Cook in a Cowboy Hat

August 27th, 2008 at 10:07 am / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

I must be in a picture mood today. MJ just posted this American Idol recap and look at the woman in the background of this picture:

Can’t say I blame her.

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The fam

August 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

Just for fun.

Pyzam Family Sticker Toy
Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

From Here

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Awkward Moment #1

August 26th, 2008 at 10:08 pm / Amy Bennett / 8 Comments »

This certainly wasn’t my first awkward conversation but it’s the first I shall share. Something about sharing in someone else’s embarassment is fun for people, so I hope you enjoy .

To set the scene, Scott and I had only been dating a few months. That means I was only about 16 (seriously). Scott had a friend that was older than him that had just gotten married and we hung out with them occasionally (Honestly, I really don’t remember if this was before they got married. They currently are married and have three children). Anyway, at the time that would have made Scott 19 and this guy probably 21. And you have to understand they were well, older and um, more experienced. Scott and I had just started dating and Scott was one of my first real boyfriends. We hadn’t done anything more than kiss (that I recall) and I was just really young and inexperienced.

One day we went over to their house and Scott and his friend were outside which left this guy’s wife and I alone in their house. We were not great friends, but more than acquaintances. We got along well whenever we were together but she was a few years older than me and we didn’t have a whole lot in common except Scott and her husband were friends. In any case, I tried to sound all grown-up, try to start a conversation and say, “So how are you guys doing…is the sex going ok?”

*crickets chirping*

Yeah, looking back I STILL feel awkward right there. She was a sweetheart like she always is and replied in her country twang, “Yeah, everythang is fine!”

But oh my goodness, do I want to crawl under a rock every time I think of that conversation.

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Emma reading

August 26th, 2008 at 9:32 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

I mentioned awhile back Emma had really taken to reading this summer. Since the school year started I’ve been working 15 minutes with her in the reading book every night (you know, ALL 6 days. Except for Friday and Saturday night. OK, so we’ve read 3 nights. whatever.). I’ve been amazed at how she’s picked it up. I was able to catch some on video. And really, I know it’s painful to listen to a new reader sound it out and all but she hits a stride about ~~two minutes~~ 3:30 into it and says several words without sounding it out. I’m really excited to do this again later in the year and see how she progresses.

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First Day of School…of NO crying

August 26th, 2008 at 9:06 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Emma did not cry one little bit today. Even when I dropped her off, she went in, hung up her bag in her cubby, turned around and gave me a kiss and that was it! She was SO HAPPY to tell me when I got home from work that she didn’t cry at all. Next task: get her to walk into the school by herself!