Do you know what I am really good at?  Worrying.  I worry like crazy.  I always thought that my mom worried too much.  But now she tells me that I worry too much.  And I know I do.  So far most of the things I have ever worried about- they have never happened.  So I spent all sorts of time worrying and wringing my hands and feeling sick to my stomach for no reason.  Wasted precious time.

If there is an illness out there that I know about, I have worried that my daughter will get it.  And the worse it is- the better.  I’ll worry about it even more.  The moment I found out I was pregnant, the worrying started.  I worried about everything I ate and did.  I worried about the chance of a doctor possibly causing cerebral palsy during the birth.  After she was born I worried some more.  I have a pretty active imagination and can come up with some pretty scary stuff.  I know it’s a normal mom thing to some extent, but sometimes I think I might take it too far.

Now we all know that marriage is hard work.  It is hard to live with someone all of the time and to get along with them most of the time.  Then add children to the mix and marriage is even harder.  My husband and I have always had a pretty good marriage.  We’ve had our ups and downs like most people, but we do pretty well together.

One thing we have always done is had occasional weekend getaways.  Even when we did not have children it was good for us to get away from the same old stuff once in a while and just enjoy each others company.  Now that we have a child we do not do weekend getaways very often.  In fact, she is 2 1/2 years old and we just had our first getaway.  But it was great- great for us, great for her, great for her grandparents who watched her, just plain great!

I encourage every married couple to take a weekend getaway once in a while; you’ll be glad you did!

I don’t think there are a lot of people in the US who have vision insurance.  I was reading an article on New York Times about this very thing.  It stated that only 17% of employers offer a vision plan to their employees.  We did have vision insurance until my husband became self-employed.  Now?  No vision insurance for us.  But guess what?  I need glasses.  I need them in order to see far away.  So, I have two choices.  Don’t wear any eyeglasses and have a hard time seeing.  Or cough up a bunch of money for glasses.

Turns out- there is another choice.  In that very same article in New York Times they mention Zenni Optical.  A company that offers generic frames which includes your lenses for $8 and up.  Now that?  I can afford.  I can even afford to buy a couple of pairs just in case I lose or ruin one.

This is one pair that I really like.  And guess what?  This is one of the $8 pairs.

I love how these glasses look- I like a light weight pair of glasses.

Basically what I am telling you is- if you need glasses but you don’t have a vision plan you can still afford to buy the glasses you need.  Check out www.zennioptical.com.

Now hopefully you’re not doing this- since it’s against the law.  But, say you’re planning to rob a gas station.  What is one thing you would make sure you did before you robbed the gas station?  I’m not an expert on robbing anything since I’ve never stolen anything in my whole life.  But, play along with me here.  You might have a mask of some sort, a plan of where you were going to go afterwards, etc.  Oh- and you would also want to make sure you had enough gas in your car to get away.  Right?

Well, not the 23 year old who used a Bowie knife to rob a Cape Haze (Fl.) gas station.  After he robbed the gas station a customer followed him and called 911.  The police were out looking for him when a newspaper carrier saw a car that matched the one described in the robbery.  Apparently he had ran out of gas nearby.  After robbing a gas station, of all things.  Why didn’t he just fill up first?  He was arrested several hours after the robbery.

Next time he might want to think it through a little better.

If you own a business then I am sure you have felt the pinch of our economy.  I know most of has felt the effects in one way or another.  But if you are a small business owner it is probably especially hard on you.  What can you do to make sure your business survives?  I don’t have any special tricks for you or the answer to that question.  But I can offer a couple of tips based on what I have read.

One thing you may want to consider is Business Loans.  If you need a little extra money to get you through the hard times this might work for you.  But you have to keep in mind that you need to be able to make that money back once our economy turns around (it has to eventually!).  Another idea to consider is to make sure you take credit cards.

If your business does not take credit cards I think surviving will be extra difficult.  Most of us don’t carry much cash anymore so be sure to take credit cards.

Let me know of any other tips or tricks to help small businesses in this rough economy.

So do you know anything about the history of Valentine’s Day?  I didn’t.  Last night I was watching Jay Leno and he spoke briefly about the history of Valentine’s Day.  Of course he had to put a funny spin on it, so I got curious and wanted to look up what the history of Valentine’s Day really is.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the history:

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. Until 1969, the Catholic Church formally recognized eleven Valentine’s Days. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).

The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.

No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs. By the time a Saint Valentine became linked to romance in the fourteenth century, distinctions between Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were utterly lost.

In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feastday of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.” The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Vatican II calendar.

The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were excerpted by Bede and briefly expounded in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Legenda Aurea still providing no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first “valentine” himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer’s daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read “From your Valentine.”

Very interesting!  And now we know.

I was reading today about the woman with the longest fingernails.  In 2008 her fingernails were measured for the Guinness Book of World Records and they were 28 feet long.  The longest fingernail was 2 feet and 11 inches long.  That’s how tall my daughter is.  I can’t image!

Anways, I was reading today that she was seriously injured in a car accident when she was thrown from her SUV.  She is in the hospital in serious condition and apparently lost her fingernails.  I do hope she will be okay.

Reading about it made me think about how crippling it would be to have such long fingernails.  My husband and I were wondering if she might be relieved to have them gone.  I mean how would you do things like drive a car, write out wedding invitations, or use a computer.  It would just be impossible with such long fingernails in the way.  I do hope she will be fine anyways.

So what are your plans for Valentine’s Day?  For us- we’ll probably be sitting at home like we do every weekend.  A few weeks ago we went out and celebrated Valentine’s Day.  We were with my parents so they were able to babysit our daughter so it was our only chance to go out.  I do have a special little dessert planned that I am going to make for my husband and daughter.  And then after my daughter is in bed maybe I’ll put on a little sexy lingerie for my husband.  I never do stuff like that even though he likes it.  He’ll be shocked for sure if I do!

My husband has everything he needs and most of the stuff he wants.  I never know what to get for him when it comes time to buy him gifts.  Like tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I didn’t get him anything.  Well, technically we went away for Valentine’s Day a couple of weeks ago and that was our gift to each other.  But, you know what I mean.  He has all of the little technical things guys like- lap top, flat screen TV, DVD player, PlayStation, Wii, Palm Pilot, etc.  The only thing I can think of that he doesn’t have is  a Rackmount lcd.  I guess I’ll have to look into that for his next gift receiving occasion- father’s day.  I have time to plan but I really should get started!

I am so sorry that I have been so non-exsistent lately.  I am okay.  I am just busy with regular life.  I do plan to keep on blogging though.  Just give me a few days to get things back in order and I’ll be back.