More Cartoonversations from Only in a Woman’s World


Jenny: I thought you were at Disney World.

Emily: Well the cartoon version of me stayed behind to keep you company. Cartoon Me doesn’t trust Cartoon You to do one of these Frito-Lay thingies by yourself.

Jenny: How thoughtful. Now I feel really guilty about the fact that I didn’t share any of the snacks Frito-Lay sent this week with you. CAUSE THEY WERE GOOD.

Emily: Did you eat them ALL?

Jenny: No, I just ate the yummy Smart Food. I let Bobby have all the Baked Lays and Flat Earth Chips.

Emily: Dangit!

Jenny: Sooo yummy. The Smart Food is only 120 calories and it tastes like caramel popcorn BOO-YAH!

Emily: I’ve been robbed!

Jenny: I ALMOST feel very sorry for you. Now quit your whining and watch this new webisode from Only in A Woman’s World!

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Cousin Competition

Brads grandchildren

Saturday my big ol’ crazy family got together celebrate my paternal grandmother’s (yes, that Grandmother’s) 90th birthday. It was super-fun. One of my favorite parts about these events is getting to visit with my cousins. Here we all are with my grandparents – all eight of their grandchildren: (L-R) my cousins Donovan and Shelby, my brothers Andy and Charles, my cousins Rachel, Amy, Mackenzie, and me.

I have been privileged to share both childhood and adulthood with my maternal cousins, Emily and her sister Anna. But my dad’s side is spread across the country, and my three youngest cousins all live out-of-state. I was recently reunited with two of them, Donovan and Shelby, last Thanksgiving and we really hit it off as adults. (I hadn’t seen Shelby since she was 14; she’s now 23!) Saturday I also got to see my cousin Mackenzie and meet her husband for the first time. I hadn’t seen her since I was pregnant with Sophie, and she was a single med school student, and she’s now married and expecting a baby girl herself. After the party, I invited these cousins back to our house so we could spend some time together.

Of course, on the way, I called Emily to make her jealous. “So, my Brads cousins are coming over tonight. Are you sweating?”

She couldn’t even play it cool for a minute. “I do not approve!” she said nervously.

Right after that, I saw my cousin Anna in her car at a stop sign. Coincidence? I think not! The other 2/3 of the Supercousins were pretty jealous that I was about to share some cousin love with the other side of the fam!

Despite the pressure from Emily & Anna to call my little party off, Shelby, Donovan, Mackenize, and her hubs Colin all came over around eight Saturday night. And we had an awesome time eating, laughing, talking, and finding we have more things in common than just really inbred good genes.

We’re also all smart, witty, and fabulous-looking!

But alas, the next morning they boarded planes and in Donovan’s case, a motorcycle, and headed back to their respective homes across the South.

Lucky for you, Em, they all live far away and none of them asked me to start a blog with them. So – I guess I’ll keep you and your crafty sister – for now. But you MIGHT need to step up your game a little bit!

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Housekeeping – FAIL of all FAILS.

When I saw that the Parent Bloggers Network was having a Blog Blast sweepstakes on the subject of housecleaning, I had a nice little chuckle at my own expense. Seriously, this is one of my terrible life failures. I am messy. I have never kept a clean bedroom. My husband calls my car “the rolling trash bin” because it is always full of stuff. And I hate, hate, HATE housecleaning. I am 31 years old (shut up Emily), can I really change NOW??

I like to keep a clean house – I just don’t like to be the one who keeps it that way! I don’t really have any cleaning methods or a cleaning routine. I do the dishes when we don’t have any more utensils, do the laundry when no one has clothes to wear, and sweep the floors when cat hair dust bunnies start flying through the air. Or, when I have company coming over. Then, and only then, I panic and clean like a banshee!!

I am not exactly the world’s best housewife!

It’s not that I’m lazy – I swear. I just HATE cleaning. Hate hate hate it. I am definitely lacking in the motivation department.

Just so I can lay my shame wide open for you all, please enjoy the current state of my dining room table:

what?? like YOUR house isn't this messy?

What?? Don’t judge me!

The person in my house who is actually good at cleaning is my hubby. He is very meticulous. Too bad he works 55 hours a week so I can live a life of leisure and doesn’t have time to do all the housework too! Seriously, though, he really helps me out a lot, especially with the dishes and the laundry on weekends. And when we have a birthday party or company to clean for, we always clean together, and that make it more fun! One of the cleaning products that we use when we clean is Pledge Multi-Surface, and I have to give my hubby credit for discovering it! He started out using it for his electronics, and then we started using it everywhere in the house. It works great on all surfaces.

To help those who need a little cleaning intervention, Pledge Multi-Surface has a new site coming in May! Go there now to download a $2 off coupon (did someone say COUPON? Holla!), and when the site launches in May, you’ll get to see five bloggers (not me, oh how I wish!) get a cleaning intervention!

In the meantime, if any of you want to get together and do a cleaning intervention on ME, my door is always open. When there isn’t a huge pile of hot wheels and train track blocking the entry way, that is.

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