fave sites of 2009...

Okay, I know 2010 has been around for about a month now, but I'm a little behind. And so now a little late, my fave sites of 2009:

10. Mashable -- It's not news that this a great social media information site. Still, it's one of my faves so it's on the list. So there.

9. Gilt Groupe -- I am admitting to you all that I do have snobby tastes, but this site is so fun because often the cutest things offered fit my budget! Seriously you guys, I got an Orla Kiely bag for $49 and that makes me almost able to forgive them for the foofy 'e' at the end of their name! Oh, and if you sign up, tell them I sent you with this link (http://www.giltfuse.com/invite/amyash) so that I get the referral bonus and then can buy more bags. Super fast shipping, too, so it's almost instant gratification, which is the best kind.

8. Tweetdeck -- All my social networking and information lists in one spot. Handy!

7. Chemobabe -- My incredibly lovely and totally geeky birthday twin, Lani, launched this site a couple of months ago and she's totally inspirational and incredible, besides being an amazing writer, mathematical genius and mother of three. Also, the site is keeping her from launching any more Facebook Gift Apps. (Though, she's now the Mayor of everything on FourSquare)

6. Cake Wrecks -- The utter stupidity combined with snarkiness never fails to crack me up. Hee hee...

5. Mayo Clinic -- Okay, I know this one looks weird on this site, but hey... I am a mom. I also am a bit of a control freak and so I find this site useful when I'm getting my facts right for a doctor's visit. Also, they have a great symptom checker tool but if you're a total hypochondriac, I suggest you maintain some serious distance from it. But they also have cool pictures, like this one of your small intestine.

4. Laughing Squid -- It's random. Enough said.

3. Unhappy Hipsters -- It's sort of the Cake Wrecks of Modern Architecture. Photography shots. Think Dwell spreads with a bitchy narrator. It's nice to see that not everyone takes hipsterism so seriously...

2. Kidelity -- This beta site is a financial management system for you and your kids to manage their allowances. It basically works as an online banking system for the Bank of Mom/Dad, but it does help you and your kids keep track of what they may actually be doing to earn allowance, helps them learn the power of saving, and ends the argument about how many weeks in a row you've forgotten to give them their allowance.

1. Etsy -- Again, most of you know about Etsy, but seriously, if I was to plan on wasting a lot of time online (as opposed to not planning on it), Etsy is a place I'd waste some valuable time. Besides being a cool site where you can find beautiful and original handmade gifts, home decor, jewelry, clothing, etc., it makes you want to go out and make stuff. Or maybe it makes you just buy their stuff and say you made it. Either way, super cool site.

small frye... this is when you know her momma is dressing her...

wordless wednesday

1,000 cranes for josh...

Sometimes when someone you love is going through a hard time, it's hard to know what to do to help cheer them up.

But over the last three weeks, many of Josh's friends and family came out to fold origami cranes to fulfill the Japanese tradition of giving him 1,000 cranes to make a wish on.

It was an amazing experience to meet all of these people connected to our friend Josh and to see them all come out for the same reason--to send him our love and good wishes.

Plus, it was fun to see who had the skills and who were very good at fold origami turkeys. (I'm in the turkey club.)

Thank you to everyone who came out and folded, and also to those of you who mailed in and dropped off cranes. The result was spectacular and I think Josh really appreciated them.

what's to eat without wheat?

So, if you know Tali, you know that she frequently suffers from stomach aches. This has been going on for years now and though we've been to the doctor a number of times, nothing ever comes up in her tests.

So for awhile now, we've attributed it to nerves.
Which frankly seems a bit like a cop-out. It's true, she doesn't like loud places with lots of people (oh wait, can you say school?) and she is a total slave to schedule, which is something I'm um not that much a slave to. Nor is her dad.

Last summer the poor kid carried around a plastic bag, even to Disneyland, for fear of throwing up. And though she only did once (and I'm 99.9% certain that was carsickness), I think she actually likes to drive her brother crazy by embarrassing him with the bag. And also, it does make a mighty nice windsock when you're riding a bike.

But this has been going on forever. I'd thought that if it were a transitional thing, we'd be transitioned by now. We've tried giving up lactose and dairy, and that helped a bit.

But now we're giving up wheat.
Which is a problem. Because that is sort of what kids eat.
Tali is up for it because the pain is real enough. But she doesn't like meat and well, she loves her some carbs.

Anybody have some experience in with the wheat free world out there? Recipes? Web sites? Insights?

When I announced last night that we were going to try this, Tali nodded and then laughed.

"Oh great. Now Mommy is going to have to learn to cook again. Maybe we should just keep going out for sushi."

Sigh... So much confidence. (Help? Anyone?)

kitchen music

wordless wednesday

I'm here... Really...

I know I have a bad track record of disappearing from my blog every once in a while. And okay, I've never really been good at maintaining an everyday posting kind of thing even though I'd like to. But you know that you've let things slide when you're advertisers send you messages that say "We miss you!"

And the funny thing is that usually when I'm super busy, I am at my happiest, but somehow I'm so full of things to do that um, some things aren't getting done. Sorry, blog.

So while I get my act together and finish up this campaign I'm working on for my day job (the one that actually pays me), check out the Suncadia article I wrote for the Examiner and see how happy my children were to visit there.