One of the awesome tools we have been using since I started my blog is Google Analytics.  Google Analytics lets you see how your site is doing as far as daily visitors, page hits, the average time spent on your site, etc.

There are two aspects of it that I faithfully check everyday.  One is the number of visits/visitors I get daily.  For example, on July 29th I had 166 visitors.  I want you to keep in mind that this was the last day of my giveaway.  On July 30th (my giveaway is now over) I had 40 visitors.  I’m sure tomorrow when I check it, I will have had about 8 visitors for today.  It’s cool - I don’t feel used or anything!

Getting over myself and moving on, the other part of Google Analytics that I’m obsessed with checking is the map.  The map lets you know what states people have come from and how many visits are from that state.  It actually even gives you the world map.  Here’s a little shout out to my reader in Greece.  I don’t know who you are but keep coming back, baby, and thanks for reading!!

Anyway, mostly because of my giveaway, my map has really lit up. Any state that has not yet accessed my blog would be white.  All the others are different shades of green depending on how many times they have come over. Allow me to show you:

All that’s missing is HAWAII and I will have all 50 states!  What does it mean if/when I get Hawaii?  Not a thing my friends.  It’s just piece of mind for me that I have all 50 states on my Google Analytics map.  So come on Hawaii!  I’m not asking any of you to be my friend for life! I just want you to come on over, take a look around, maybe leave a comment.  If you don’t like what you see, fine, you don’t have to come back.  Just light up my Hawaii on my little map and I will be one happy blogger!

Even my sister and her husband, who blog like once a month, have Hawaii on their map!  What gives!?  Since she is my sister, I might as well plug her blog.  Check her and her hubby out at Maple Syrup Conglomerate.

And Hawaii, help a blogger out and stop on by.  Thanks!!

Well, I asked you guys not to disappoint me on my first giveaway.  250+comments later I think it’s safe to say that I am not disappointed; I am amazed!

Allow me to cut to the chase.  The winner of the t-shirt is…Sky from Seeryus.  Congrats!  I’ll be in touch shortly.  Wear your shirt proudly, girl!

For those of you who didn’t win, don’t be discouraged.  This shirt, along with other apparel designed by my husband, is available for purchase at our little Muzbee Crazy store.  You can also access it by hitting “Store” on the upper left under “Blogroll”.

Thanks to everyone that entered.  You guys rock!!

Asleep at the wheel

5 Minutes for Books is hosting a “What’s on your Nightstand?” carnival.  The fourth Tuesday of the month is your chance to discuss whatever book you may be reading at the time or one you may have finished within the month.  I usually finish one and move right on to the next.   Depending on what’s going on in my everyday life, sometimes I can get through a book fairly quickly and other times it may take me at least a month, if not more, to get through another one.

Right now I am about 100 pages into Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  Let me explain my logic on picking this book.  I perused the back cover and saw 1. It’s about a Greek family and my husband is Greek (well, 50% anyway).  And 2. The main character’s name is Calliope.  We are of the Greek Orthodox faith and every member needs a “Greek” name.  Well, Kiki’s is Calliope.  There you have it.  There was my logic on picking this book.

Now let me explain to you why my logic stinks!  In my perusing of the back cover I somehow miss the important info (the whole point of the book) about how Calliope was born a hermaphrodite and in later years becomes Cal.  The book is told from Calliope/Cal’s perspective and she/he starts out by going back to the year 1922 to explain her family tree and how her genetic mutation came to be.  That is actually interesting and I am starting to feel for the characters.  I just wish I could get my mind past the incest that has pretty much started the whole thing.  I have this horrible flaw of getting caught up on one thing and missing out on everything else around that one thing.  That pertains not only to this book, but also to different aspects of my life.  So I’m trying to get over that by trudging through the rest of the book.

My co-worker who read the book, insists that I will like it the more I read on.  She says you really start to feel for Calliope/Cal as he becomes a man.  And maybe she is right.  I mean I am starting to feel for the grandparents and the situation they were in.  So maybe as I get more into the book and I get to the part of the transformation and how he moves into adulthood, I will have forgotten the whole incest thing.  Or maybe that fact will just make me feel more for the main character.

Stay tuned.  Maybe by next month’s carnival I’ll be done with the  book and I’ll be able to tell you I got over my hangup and loved it.  Or maybe I’ll say, “You know what, I couldn’t do it.  This just wasn’t the book for me.”  But if you have read this book, I would love your feedback.

The kids BROKE our camera!!  They were fighting over whose turn it was to take pictures and they dropped it!  I went to take a picture of Kiki’s new cast and it wouldn’t work.  It’s upsetting because it was a very nice camera given to my husband as a gift from his parents.

I have never been the greatest with taking pictures.  And pictures on a digital camera…forget it.  They sit on that card forever.  But now that I’ve been blogging, I have been snapping shots left and right.  I don’t want to miss out on any potential blog fodder.  Whether it be in the allergist’s office or in the emergency room with a broken arm, the camera and I have found a new love for one another.  And now it’s BROKEN!

I ran down to borrow a camera from my neighbor because I have to get a picture of Kiki’s new cast.  I HAVE to do a follow-up on her broken arm saga.  My readers demand it!! If you see reality, would you send it back to me please!?

Anyway, I borrowed the camera and got the shot.  Thank you, Jo-Lynne.

The cast extends above her elbow because her fracture is more of her forearm then her wrist.  And did you notice the swimsuit?  We spent an extra $40 and got her a waterproof cast.  She already tried it out today and it is amazing.  How far we have come!  It beats the trash bags and most importantly, her summer is not lost! YEAH!!!

So this will be on for the next 4 weeks and at that time the doctor will make the decision to let her go cast-free or place a shorter cast on for a couple more weeks.  If only replacing our camera were this easy!!

Last night, some of the girls in my neighborhood were getting together to say goodbye to one of our neighbors.  They are moving next week and so we threw a little Bon Voyage party for her.  All week I was stoked for this evening.  A little night out with my friends, some food, some drinks…the evening couldn’t have gotten here fast enough.

So the time comes to make my way over to the party at my good friend Kim’s house.  Somehow my daughter follows me over because she is playing with Kim’s two daughters.  The children head down to the basement as Kim, Jo-Lynne, and myself start setting out food and of course, pouring ourselves some beverages.

All of a sudden, there is screaming from downstairs.  The party hasn’t even really started yet.  At first, I can’t tell who it is and then we realize it is my daughter.  But it was also a weird sounding scream and I couldn’t tell if it was pain or excitement.  But since it continued, I made my way downstairs to assess the situation.  There sat Kiki on the basement steps sobbing.  I ask her what’s wrong and she sobs/screams that her arm hurts.  I look at her arm and right away can spot the deformity of her left wrist.   I’d like to say my years as an x-ray tech helped with this diagnosis, which I’m sure it did, but I think the deformity could have been obvious regardless of medical training.

I have seen this deformity many times before on children that I have x-rayed.  But this time it was my own daughter.  I took one look at her arm and pictured her little bones fractured and the pain she must be in and found myself needing a moment to “regroup” so that I could tend to her properly.  So I tell her to hold her arm and I quickly run upstairs.  I tell Kim and Jo-Lynne that Kiki’s arm is broken.  I tell Kim I need her to get my husband.  BTW, she has posted on this from her perspective over at her blog, Situationally Single Mom.  Then I pace up and down the hallway while repeating to Jo-Lynne that my daughter’s arm is broken.  I must have said it about 4 times.  Then I cover my face, look at Jo-Lynne and say “OK.”  Jo-Lynne also has her perspective of things up on her blog, Musings of a Housewife.  I run back downstairs to get Kiki.  It’s a frenzy to get everything we need.  My husband is in the garage sawing a piece of wood as a make shift splint which we tape to her with painters tape.

We toss her in the car, Kim takes AJ and we are off.  The whole way there Kiki is sobbing in the back seat and then she says, “I wish I was at home watching tv.”  My heart just broke into a million pieces.  So we finally get out of her that she was sitting on a stool and jumped up on it because she was excited and fell backwards.  Kim showed me the stool when we got back and it is such a small stool but I guess it doesn’t take much.  Although, the way Kim’s girls show how Kiki jumped up on it with only one foot on it, its no wonder we are in the situation we are in.

Anyway, I’ll try to shorten this up now.  X-rays confirmed the break.  She is in a temporary cast until we can see the orthopedic doctor.  I was hoping for today but it looks more like Monday.  We’re giving her Tylenol and Motrin and ice and elevation and the whole bit.

It’s a shame because her summer camp goes to the pool every afternoon.  And her birthday is coming up in a few weeks.  We were in the midst of planning a party at this new kids place that opened up with all the inflatable things; but we have already told her that we need to come up with a “Plan B.”  She seems to be handling it well.  She has moved on to more important issues like what color should her cast be.

I just want to extend a huge thanks to Kim, Jo-Lynne and Kim’s mom (who was visiting for the weekend) for all of their help.  Looking back on yesterday and knowing that Kiki is going to be ok, I am realizing that there are so many things about it that are comical.    Obviously not the injury itself, but the chaos that ensued after the fact.

Once we got home my husband was kind enough to get the kids to bed so that I could enjoy part of my mom’s night out.  And I did.  Although Kiki did come in my room a couple of times so I decided to move her and I into the guest room so I would be right there and she wouldn’t be walking down a dark hallway with a newly fractured arm.

Upstairs brushing my teeth today, my son came in my bathroom to keep tabs on me, I guess.  He grabbed the Excedrin bottle off the counter.  I watched as he twirled the bottle around in his hands for about a minute.  Of course, the whole time I’m rest assured in the invention of childproof caps.  Then I watch as my son unscrews the top and looks in the bottle.   And I know for a fact that the lid was on tight.

Panicked, I grab the bottle out of his hands.  This causes a tantrum in which he comes over and hits me.  With the toothbrush still in my mouth, I mumble, “Go in time-out for hitting me.”  Crying, he walks out of the bathroom.  I’m thinking he’s just walking away from me.  But as I peek out the bathroom door, I watch him walk down the hallway and proceed down the stairs.  I creep towards the top of the stairs where I can see his time-out chair in the living room.  Sure enough, I watch as he climbs in, crying mind you, and sits there!!  I am astonished!!  Elated, I go downstairs to his chair and explain to him that he can’t hit and I thank him for listening to me.   As ecstatic as I was that he actually listened about going into time-out; I gave myself my own time-out because I should know better then to keep medicine out on my bathroom sink.  Thank God that I was standing there when he grabbed it.

This just goes to show that in one single incident you can see how rewarding and how challenging parenting can be.

I have been an x-ray tech for 8 years and in that time I have seen and heard a lot of things from patients.  But now that I’m in the safety of an outpatient center,  my exposure to such things has decreased dramatically.  Ultimately, this has its pros and cons.  One of the cons is that when I do hear or see something wacky  I am now caught off guard, like today.

I brought a patient back and explained to the man how I needed him to change for his x-ray.  This in itself can be comical because you never know what you are going to get when you walk back into the room.  But I digress. After I go through my song-and-dance about how he needs to be by the time I come back in for the x-ray, he says to me: “I’m a police officer and I have a gun on me.  What do you want me to do with it?”  Silence on my end!

First of all, the man is in plain clothes so I have no idea of his vocation.  Secondly, I have never been asked this question before!!  What do I want him to do with it!? Umm, not use it on me for starters!   Finally, after I’ve been silent for so long the man probably thinks I’ve mentally checked out, I say: “Uhh, do you want to put it on this chair over here?”  He was happy with that answer and I left the room.  When I came back in I was pleased to see that he had followed the changing directions AND his gun was safely hidden under his clothes on the chair.

I have to give the man credit for telling me.  He could have just not said anything and so I appreciate his openness.  But I’m used to questions like, “What should I do with my cell phone?” or “Do I have to take my belly button ring out?” - not inquiries as to where we place weapons during radiographic procedures. “Oh, right here on our radiology gun rack, sir!”

Paging “Dorks” - family of 4.

This giveaway is now closed!

So under the recommendation of my friend, Jo-Lynne, I am going to do a giveaway.  I’m pretty stoked about this, people, so don’t disappoint me!  My husband designed this women’s t-shirt.  Obviously, he didn’t make the shirt, but he thought of the graphics.  Such the creative bugger!

So just leave a comment on this post by July 29th.  Make sure you leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner because I will need to get a shirt size from you.  FYI, this is a short sleeve crew neck jersey tee.