10 years ago as a newly married woman living away from home for the first time ever in her life, I found a place online that filled many of my hours with online window shopping. That place was Ebay. Back then Ebay was pretty brand new and the sheer volume of things for sale, even the most obscure things like a sticker album I had during the 80’s, was amazing.

And 10 years and over 700 transactions later, I still love it. I don’t spend nearly as much time browsing as I once did (because now there is blogging and Facebook, etc.). but this weekend I had a little extra time and a little “mad money” in my Paypal account. This is what $25 bought (shipping included in that price):

A garden flag for the holidays:

A nice little plaque for our bathroom:

I am currently sifting through over 3,000 (yes…3,000) people I follow on Twitter. I’m having a huge purging party because if I am even going to attempt to enjoy and use Twitter to the fullest, some things have got to change. Here are the unfortunate people getting the axe from me:

1) The “Make money online gurus”- These are the “marketing gurus” who swear they have the perfect program that will make me an obscenely rich millionaire just by driving traffic to my website for the low, low price of $500. What cracks me up is that in almost every profile picture of these guys they are wearing suits and slightly turned as they face the camera. I’m thinking they’re hiding something behind their backs….probably the money from the poor people they bamboozled. Me? Not interested. Not at all. Besides, if I had $500 to blow I sure as hell wouldn’t give it to a perfect stranger I’ve never met just for traffic to my site.

2) The “Make Money WAHMs”- Again, I’ve thoroughly investigated a TON of work at home jobs, because believe me, if their were something legit you could do to make fast money at home like they promise, I’d be doing it already. The truly authentic WAHMs that I know have busted their butts negotiating a deal to telecommute from a REAL employer or either started a product or service legitimately from the ground up. It makes me sad that some of these pyramid WAHM schemes really do attract naive women.

3) The “Bait and Switchers”- When I follow people I always make sure they are not a part of anything pornographic or just lewd, period. Imagine my surprise when several people on my list now have obscene pictures in their profiles and point me to nasty websites. The classic bait and switch. Goodbye!

4) The Freebie Fanatics– His/her tweets always scream “get something free at my website”, so you go to their website and it’s slap full of affiliate samples, meaning…sure, you might get a freebie, but they also get a nice little sum from you clicking on the link. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank. There is a right and a wrong way to do a deal/freebie blog and there are some women who do it very well and authentically, not just for a click, but because they truly are passionate about helping others save money.

5) Weird people– This includes anyone trying to get me to buy their new acacia berry drink because they swear it will take 20 years off my face and just, well….weird people. I don’t care about your deeeep philosophies on life and your angst over the latest gaming system. I hear enough gaming system angst from my husband and son.

And the list of annoying “Twits” goes on and on….

I will say that this colorful cast of Twitter characters on my list really is all my fault. I had no idea there were so many people using Twitter and thought I was supposed to be nice and add people because they added me because we’re all just one big part of this whole blogosphere and we all need to band together. (OK, seriously, you can stop laughing now) However, the more I go to looking for tweets from actual people I like hearing from and the fact that almost every tweet I came across was nothing but spam, something had to give.

I do love cleaning and organizing. Tweet tweet!

The little man and I are spending today getting our home decorated for the Fall holidays.   We’re going to be in the trenches (storage closet) digging out our wreaths, candles, and other decor to celebrate the cooler days and nights (which we’ve still yet to see) and beautiful fall foliage display (which, again, we’ve still yet to see).  

We won’t be discouraged, though. 

Because this?

This happens in our backyard and is totally worth the wait.

Y’all. We have a problem. A problem I never imagined we’d encounter while raising our son.

He wants to be a witch for Halloween.

Yes, a witch. Seriously, can little boys be witches for Halloween, and if so…exactly what would this costume consist of? Because I’m drawing a big blank here and don’t have a creative bone in my body to pull this off.

Halp?

Up until now I have never been able to get E.B. to eat chicken noodle soup. It was extremely frustrating when he would get sick because chicken noodle soup is always our go-to when the yuckies hit our house. He refused to eat anything but crackers and drink electrolyte drink. Soup is also my “mom’s too tired to cook” standby. I love Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup and eat it several times a week. My son, however, just absolutely refused it.

We were recently sent a few cans of the new Campbell’s SpongeBob Chicken Noodle Soup to try. E.B.’s eyes lit up immediately when he saw SpongeBob on the label. I fully expected him to turn up his nose once I had prepared it for him, but lo and behold, the child ate every bit of it and asked for more. It was a beautiful thing.

Our verdict? Although the noodles in the soup are shaped like little SpongeBobs, it’s still the same great tasting Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup you’d expect. If this is what it takes to get my child to appreciate soup, then I’m all for it and highly recommend it.

E.B. was restless and, quite literally, flipping and flopping when I put him to bed tonight. It takes a while for him to settle down, but once he does we manage to get our prayers said and talk a little if he has something on his mind, because you know the best time to tell mama you got a time out at school is always well after the day is done.

Lately, the fact that I am coming to the realization that he is it, he really IS going to be our only child, has me feeling a little sad because it seems like these 4 years were gone in a blink. My husband and I agreed very early on in our marriage that when we reached 35, it was at that point that our family would be complete. Of course, we didn’t count on the fact that it would take us over 4 years to actually achieve a viable pregnancy, but here we are.

So naturally, due to this big realization, all of these mushy mommy things keep coming out of my mouth and tonight I told E.B. that it didn’t matter if he was 40 years old and never came to visit me in the nursing home, he would still be my baby.

“Mama,” he said, “I am NOT a man-baby!”

Well. Duly noted. But, whatever. It will totally be like the book.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

If you have a high school senior (or know of one) graduating in 2010 that has a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and participates in a school sponsored sport, they are eligible to apply for the Wendy’s High School Heisman, a prestigious honor implemented in 1994 that recongizes students who excel in the classroom, on the playing field, and in their communities. A list of the application stages and awards can be found here and the application to apply can be found here. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2009 at 5 PM Central.

GIVEAWAY – NOW CLOSED!

Wendy’s has generously provided one lucky Mommy Cracked reader with a $20 Wendy’s Gift Card. To enter, please leave a comment on this post (one per person, please) by Wednesday, September 30 at 5 PM Central. U.S. only.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Wendy’s and received a gift certificate to giveaway and to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I’m totally blaming the weather for the fact that I have absolutely nothing to blog about at the moment. Imagine if you will over a week of rain…but not just any rain…hot, humid rain. And fog. If it weren’t for the hot and humid part I’d think I lived in London. It’s depressingly dreary and it sucks the creativity just right out of me.

But all is not lost! I’m using my downtime to catch up on all of the 300+ blogs in my feedreader, so I’m sort of being productive. And? Only 7 more straight days of rain to go until the sun is supposed to come back out!