Bored Puppy Syndrome and Other Odds and Ends

Recently a friend of mine referred to her young children as bored puppies. The reference was to the craziness that seems to come out of nowhere when it is time for quiet time or nap time or bed time. I immediately realized that I too have a couple of "bored puppies." Every. Single. Night.

We have the same bed time routine every night. It hasn't changed in months and months. But that doesn't matter. Put them to bed, turn out the lights, crack the bedroom door ... and then the partying begins.

Part of the issue is that it is still light outside at this time of year. That certainly doesn't help things. You leave two three year old boys in a semi-dark room for just a couple of minutes and the chatter starts. That chatter quickly escalates, especially if no one goes in to put a stop to the madness!

This was Monday night. Which really isn't any different than most any other night. I was feeding Silas in his room listening to things slowly get out of hand in the room down the hall. Nothing like two bored puppies chewing up everyone's shoes and nothing being done to stop it. At least in this case there was no destruction. But still ...!

By the time I was finally able to put Silas down (who was only half done and didn't care for being stuck in his crib when he wanted his second course) I walked into the other room to find Bored Puppy Syndrome in full bloom: they were in the opposite beds, there was lots of giggling and shrieking, stuffed animals went flying through the air, and bed sheets were all twisted up. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed to NOT laugh at the antics. I play mean mom on TV, but really I'm laughing on the inside.

The amazing thing is how quickly these two little guys can hop back into their beds and have all the stuffed animals back in place. Two seconds flat. Seriously! Those are some mad skillz!

Threats of timeout, a chat with Hubby, and then I managed to get back to Silas. I continued to listen to things escalate once again (they just can't help themselves) and watched as Hubby enforced timeout. Eventually we had two sleeping boys. It just takes us an hour or more to get there. It is so much like watching bored puppies it's surreal.

In other news, Silas is now 6 months old and I did not get a picture of him on the day of. But we're finally having some professional pictures done this coming weekend and I can't wait to see some beautifully done pictures of all three boys! He also had his 6 month well visit and he's doing well. He's growing and gaining weight but apparently plateauing on the growth charts. He's healthy though, so we're not concerned. I'm going to take him back in a month just for a weight check and as long as he's going up we're not going to worry about it. He may just be a peanut. That's okay with me.

We did attempt to start him on some rice cereal, but it didn't go over very well. He was completely confused by the spoon. The boys had no interest until well past 7 months old, so I'm tempted to just put it away and wait. Hubby thinks we should keep trying. "We" would prefer to wait, but "he" is welcome to keep at it if that's what "he" wants to do.

Finally, I forgot to post here that I had an article up on Catholic Sistas this past Friday. Check out Marriage: A Catholic Understanding when you get a chance. I was especially surprised that Big Pulpit linked it up on their Friday Extra post. Never would have guessed that in a million years, but very honored by the link up.

Speaking of Catholic Sistas, if you don't follow the blog, I encourage you to check it out. We're currently working on a series of posts on the Anima Christi prayer (part 5 went up on Monday), there is a series started on Proverbs 31, and this coming Thursday I put up a guest post that is a letter from a mom to her unborn daughter who is not expected to live very long after birth (prayers for all of them, please!). The Thursday post will bring tears to your eyes! I'm amazed too at how this worked out. I won't go into details, but as it turned out, Thursday is also the day this precious baby will be induced. Putting the post up that day is a total coincidence. God works in amazing ways!! Anyway, all I can say is, we have a lot of good stuff going on at the blog. Posts go up usually four days a week and we have a lot of great talent.

There's a brief update on the goings on in these parts. I've been so sporadic with my blogging lately, but I do like to share when I can. I'm hoping to do another Lawn Chair Catechism post this week, too (I missed last week). Hopefully you'll hear more form me soon!

7 Quick Takes: Cinnamon Rolls, Doughnuts, Pizza, and Other Non-Food Takes

--1--

Not food-related: yesterday at Catholic Sistas there was a post all about fathers. It was a post in pictures and it was fun to look through. Sweet pictures, funny pictures, and everything in between. If you get a chance, go on over and check out 12 Things Catholic Fathers Want To Tell You About Themselves. I contributed a picture to the endeavor. I bet it won't be hard to figure out which one it is. 

--2--

Speaking of awesome dads, my little boy's awesome dad took him to a doctor appointment last week. Ethan had to have an echo cardiogram done and the appointment got made for a day and time that would require me to either bring the baby with me and cancel a meeting or ask Hubby to do it. So Hubby agreed to do it and he took Ethan in. I think the two of them had a good time. I was told that Ethan was really good, he brought his "baby" with him (a small blanket with a monkey head in the middle), and he got to watch Curious George during the echo. Hubby said he didn't seem to mind the procedure at all. And then afterwards, Hubby took him to a local bakery for a cinnamon roll before dropping him off at school. The cinnamon roll was definitely a highlight for the boy! He still mentions it and even Peter will randomly tell us, "Ethan doctor, had cinnamon roll." I think Peter is going to need his own "Daddy Date" soon, cinnamon roll included.

By the way, the echo cardiogram was good. He has a heart murmur, but apparently it's nothing to worry about.

--3--

This morning, both of the big boys got to have a little daddy time. Their daycare was having a "Doughnuts with Daddy" time this morning, so Hubby took the boys in a little early for that. I had them take the van and I loaded it up with all the usual stuff I bring every day. Silas and I came a little later and I fed him in his room as normal and then Hubby brought the boys by to say good-bye to me before heading up to their room. We then switched cars in the parking lot and both headed off to work. I like that our daycare does little things like this for the kids and parents. The boys had been looking forward to having doughnut with daddy all week. Although, I think the appeal of the doughnuts was bigger than time spent with dad. But that's okay, they'll still remember it.

--4--

Since the boys got to have doughnuts today I couldn't resist having a little treat myself. So after leaving the daycare I made a quick stop at the same little local bakery that Hubby had taken Ethan to last week. I bought myself a cinnamon roll and the guy running the cash register stuck two in my bag. I almost didn't notice and then he made a "side" comment and I realized what he had done. Two for the price of one! This is why small businesses are so great!! And those cinnamon rolls were so yummy!! Mmmmmm!

--5--

Enough about doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, we went out to dinner last night as a family. For a family with two working parents, it's amazing that we do so well cooking and eating at home for the most part. But every once in a long while we do have to improvise. So last night we went to a local pizza joint. We had gotten a gift card at Christmas time for this place but hadn't had a chance to use it until now. It's very close to campus and a very popular place so we knew we wanted to wait until things slowed down at the university. And it's summer now, so things are definitely slower! The restaurant was still really busy, but at least we managed to find parking.

The whole experience was a comedy of errors. As I approached the restaurant I saw Hubby walking up the sidewalk to the front door. So I expected him to get us a table and I'd be able to walk in and plop the kids right down. After I managed to get all four of us out of the car and arrange how we were going to walk in and slowly make our way to the building, we got in and could not find Hubby anywhere!! I texted him and got no reply. The hostess finally puts us at a table and I happened to look out and see Hubby standing outside at the corner of the building between the two front door. Obviously he hadn't gotten my text so I wasn't sure if I should bother calling him or not. I tried to arrange the toddlers at the table and eventually gave up, left all three kids there, and went and grabbed Hubby. Then we had a cup of milk spill (what is with waiters who grab a bunch of napkins for you and then plop them down right in the middle of the mess? Now how am I supposed to clean this up?). And then Silas didn't want to be left out, so he had to create a pooping mess for me to clean up. Glad the food was good!!

--6--

The funniest thing about our experience out last night was when Ethan decided he was finished eating. He climbed down from the table and told us he was finished. "I done, I done," he kept saying. I was trying to get him back into the booth and out of people's way. We were sitting right near where the wait staff was coming in and out of the kitchen.I was trying to reason with my toddler (which I know is pretty useless anyway) that he still needed to sit with us, that he didn't have to eat anymore if he was done, and that, unlike at home, there was nowhere for him to go. None of that was convincing him. "No! I done, I done." It was crazy and silly all at the same time. I was inwardly laughing at my "creature of habit" toddler while I was trying to keep him from tripping over the people coming in and out of the kitchen area. Eventually we did manage to get him back into the booth and he even ate some more of his pizza too.

--7--

Our weekend plans will hopefully include a trip to the library, some house cleaning, writing some thank you cards, taking Hubby out for breakfast on Sunday, and maybe even me cooking dinner Sunday evening. We'll see about that last one. Hope you have some great weekend plans! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

This week's Quick Takes fun is being hosted by Kathryn of Team Whitaker. Go visit for more blogging fun!

Small Success Thursday, No. 8

#1
We have our garden boxes done and in place. Admittedly, I had very little to do with this. Unless you count keeping the children out of the way while Hubby worked on the boxes. Which really, that can be quite the task! Especially with a baby. Try keeping two toddlers inside the house while Daddy is outside sawing or painting or doing other things with power tools. So, okay, this is definitely a success for me! I shared a couple pictures of the early stages of the garden boxes in THIS POST. Here's the rest of the pictures:

Painting the concrete board

Finally in place, dirt sitting by ready to go in.
I did help with placement, which took many tries.
And those boxes are much heavier than they look!!

Dirt in and seeds planted. I wasn't home for this part,
Hubby and the boys did all this together. Silas and I went shopping.

The success here is that this is finally all done and 99.8% of the credit goes to Hubby. Can't wait to see what we get out of this!

#2
As of this week I have now been back to work for three months. This also means that I have been successfully pumping for three months! With as much of a struggle as breastfeeding was in the beginning and how much I was not enjoying it, I really, truly thought that we wouldn't continue once I returned to work. But we did. Twice a day every day I leave my office (or I leave a meeting early or interrupt a conversation with a coworker or student or stop doing something right in the middle or ... something), and I walk to a different building to pump milk. And I've been doing that twice a day, every day for three full months now. I never thought I'd last this long. And Baby Silas is doing great!! Isn't he cute?

Almost 6 months old!!

#3
I took a walk on Monday! I finally did what I have been saying I want to do. Monday after dinner and some play time, Hubby took the twins up to do baths and I stuck Silas into the ring sling and we went for a walk. I think I managed to walk about 30-35 minutes. It felt great and Silas got a little snooze in as well. I had a little baseball cap for him that he looked sooooooooooo cute in. Oh my goodness, this boy! I got back home just after the boys had had their evening snack and read some books and Hubby was getting ready to get them upstairs to bed.So far, that's only one day this week, but it's a 100% improvement over last week and the week before that and the week before that and ... well, you get the idea.

Bonus #4
I have finally completed my application to start the process of becoming a Benedictine Oblate through the St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. I've have been praying about this for several months now and have had the application sitting on my desk since March. I finally got it filled out and am handing it over today to be mailed off with several others. Thus starts a new journey! I haven't mentioned this previously and I don't know how much I'll share about it on the blog (at least initially). Eventually I may share a few things, but we'll see how things go. The process to become an Oblate takes at least a year, possibly longer if you're juggling a young family at the same time. Prayers appreciated!

What are your small successes this week? We're all sharing over at CatholicMom.com.

Big Brother "Reading"

I so wish I had a picture to go along with this post. But when this happened I was feeding the baby and I didn't want to intrude on the moment by trying to capture it with a picture. Anyway ...

Saturday I was sitting in our family room feeding the baby when Ethan brought a book over for me to read. I told him I couldn't read right then but that I would once the baby was done.  But he couldn't understand this concept. I'm assuming that at this age there is no concept of time and everything must happen NOW because there is no such thing as later. So far, all evidence points to this conclusion.

After much frustration (on Ethan's part) and many tears, somehow Peter ended up agreeing to "read" the book to Ethan. Ethan was immediately happy again and I watched to see how this would go.

I saw Peter take the book into his lap and Ethan sat down on the floor next to him. With the two of them sitting right next to each other (which by itself is the cutest thing ever), Peter opens the book.

"Someone ripped this book." Peter says. The text block is tearing away from the cover on this book (can you tell I'm a librarian?), Ethan agrees, and I laughed to myself at this exchange.

I found a picture: the book.

Peter proceeds to flip to the first page and says, "One dog." Moving on to the next page he continued with almost the exact words of each page.

I was impressed when I heard him "read" on the page with the picture of a maze, "One dog going in, three dogs going out." And then he got to the first exchange between the two dogs about the hat and it was perfect:

"Hello. Hello. Do you like hat? No, don't like hat. Good-bye. Good-bye."

I was sitting across the room in tears from holding in my laughter. I was enjoying listening to Peter read with a little help from Ethan here and there as they went through this book page by page. And for three year olds, this is a pretty lengthy book.

The kicker for me is that this is a library book. It's been in the house for only about three weeks. But library books are so loved here that we read every single one, every single night. So I've started limiting how many we bring home. And unfortunately we don't get to the library as often as I'd like so we end up keeping them for the whole four week loan period.

I love that the boys love books so much. I also love seeing how well they can get along when they want to (it doesn't happen all the time, I can assure you). And I love that Peter tried to read the book and did a pretty good job at it too. I can't wait until the day when they really can read a book! Oh the worlds that will open up to them.

Lawn Chair Catechism, Week 3: Who's the Boss?

When I saw the title of this week's chapter I immediately thought of the old TV show "Who's the Boss?" It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but I never could decide who really was the boss.

There's no question who the boss is here. It's God! This chapter is all about authority: who has it, who is it passed on to, and what it means for us today. Many things struck me about this chapter, including the idea that Tradition (with a capital "T") is one with Scripture, the two cannot be separated. Also, that Tradition is the passing on of Church teaching, NOT just acts of doing something the same way over and over again, i.e., "we've always done it that way."

Since returning to the Catholic faith over a decade ago and learning more about the faith in the process, I was taught the difference between Big-T Tradition and small-t tradition. However, I hadn't actually associated Tradition with the Magisterium in quite the way that is presented in this book. Reading through this chapter I had kind of a "duh!" moment. If Tradition is the passing down of the Church's teachings to subsequent generations, than it is obvious that the Magisterium is the keeper of Tradition, guided by the Holy Spirit. In the same way, we wouldn't have Holy Scripture if it weren't for Tradition. It's not like the question of the chicken and the egg. In this case we know that Tradition came first and Scripture second.

Oh how that would shock our Protestant brothers and sisters! But I digress ...

This question from the leader's guide goes along well with my thoughts from this chapter:

What advantage does having a Magisterium--an official teaching office--give to the Catholic Church?

This is one of the reasons I love the Catholic Church. In my few years away from the Church, I never felt drawn to other faith traditions (small-t tradition, by the way). I didn't consciously leave the Church, it was more of a slow falling away in the busyness of going to college and being out on my own for the first time and never really internalizing the importance of my faith. I believed in God, but didn't see the importance of attending a service on a weekly basis. I had occasion during my college years and early 20s to go Mass and I did, but never felt the need to make it a habit. I also attended services at other churches, but that usually had more to do with circumstances (peer influence or music gigs on Easter or other special days) than it did with me "checking out" a different faith.

Once I was on the path to reconnecting with the Catholic Church and re-learning my faith, I truly came to understand why the Catholic Church makes the claims that it does. And once I understood the history of the Church, the oral traditions of the early Church that led to the compilation of the Bible a few centuries after Christ, and how the whole hierarchy thing works, the concept of the Magisterium fell into place.

The keeper of Tradition has to come from somewhere!! Scripture and interpreting Scripture--there has to be an authoritative source. If not, then what? If there is no ONE interpretation of Scripture than every single person can have their own interpretations and then everyone is right and no one is wrong. That just can't work!! Not with humans, no way. I've seen enough of human nature to know that God would never just leave it up to each of us to form our own interpretations of Scripture. 

And this idea of an authoritative source feeds into my librarian brain really well. Maybe that's why I accepted it so easily. In any case, it made sense and I knew that only the Catholic Church could be the One True Church. Why? Because of the Magisterium.

The advantage of the Magisterium? It makes the Catholic Church an authoritative source. It creates a unity in the teachings of the Church such that everyone (all 1 billion plus Catholics in the world) are all on the same page. It gives us a place to turn for understanding Scripture. It unites us and puts us all on the same page. From the richest Catholics to the poorest Catholics, we all have the same teachings, interpretations of Scripture, and understanding of Tradition.

Now when I listen to my priest give a homily or I attend a Bible Study discussion, I know (hopefully) that I am being taught through the lens of the Catholic Magisterium, guided by the Holy Spirit. There is no room for one individual's interpretation of Scripture, that only creates chaos.

I guess I would also say that another advantage of the Magisterium is that it adds a level of comfort for those of us in the pews. It's nice to know that no matter where I go, which Catholic church I attend, the teachings are the same.

For more discussion on this chapter of A Well-Built Faith by Joe Paprocki, check out today's edition of Lawn Chair Catechism on CatholicMom.com.

Catholic Writer's Award: Receiving and Giving

The lovely Lynda at Flowers for Francis blessed my blog with this delightful Catholic Writer's Award, originating at Melanie Jean Juneau's blog. I love beautiful art such as that included in this award. It just makes it even more special.

I'm touched to receive this award. And although I see that there are no rules associated with it, it seems only right that the blessings should be passed on. So I am going to do just that! Here are my picks for a few deserving blogs (just a few, because I could literally list 2 or 3 dozen):

• The Breadbox Letters by Nancy Shuman. Another Kentuckian with an exquisite blog. Actually she has more than one, and I would follow all of them, but then I'd have to drop something else. So I'm sticking with this one for now. But if you visit her blog, check out her other writings too. I know she'll appreciate this award because the art work is right up her ally, and that'll be evident as soon as you land on her page.
  
• My friend Michelle's enchanting blog Tales from the Side of the Tub. Michelle and I met online several years ago, are now Facebook friends, have been able to meet IRL [In Real Life] once, and we both write for Catholic Sistas. She's the mom of eleven and has such awesome kids. And they are always saying or doing hilarious things. So she's chronicling them on this blog. I especially love her story of why she named the blog as she did and I'm even going to link it for you so you can check it out HERE.
  
• Another favorite of mine is My Favorite People by another friend. She's the mom of six and her youngest is only a day younger than my Silas. She and I also know each other through an online community and we did meet once when I was on a business trip to Dallas. But she's a Midwest girl now! Her children are beautiful and are her favorite people. She shares all about them on her blog. I love seeing her almost daily posts of what her favorite people are up to. 

There are so, so many others I could add to this list, but I need to stop somewhere. From my understanding of the award:

The award has no strings attached.

No rules, no obligations.

A simple acknowledgment of great Catholic writing which brings joy, truth, freedom, or encouragement to others.

It can be someone who writes about prayer; their struggles and pain, bringing hope to others; life in God; faith stories that make you laugh.

Pass this award on to a fellow Catholic writer or two.

Post the recipients name and blog if applicable, award title, logo with a simple link back to http://melaniejeanjuneau.wordpress.com/.

Happy blog reading!!

7 Quick Takes Friday: Two #7QT, Birthdays, Fun, Exercise, and Too Much Food

~~1~~

Today I not only have this meager #7QT post, but I'm also posting over at Catholic Sistas. Today I'm sharing 7 saints that are good role models for dads. I was inspired to take this on by the upcoming Father's Day holiday. It is one that I think is a bit overlooked. I think this is a nice way to begin thinking about all the amazing ways fathers influence our lives. Check out Role Model Saints for Dads at Catholic Sistas today.

~~2~~

I also have to tell you that my post at Catholic Sistas today will be my last 7 Quick Takes post there for the foreseeable future. I'll still be writing once a month in my other time slot (third Fridays), but trying to do two posts a month over there was getting to be too much. So I'm dropping this one thing. But never fret!! Another ink slinger Sista is taking over the reigns and I'm sure she'll have some great ideas! So if you've enjoyed the 7 Quick Takes posts at Catholic Sistas, they will still be continuing, just not by me. I'm looking forward to seeing what topics are covered in future posts.

~~3~~

Saturday we had a birthday party for the boys. They turned three on Friday and we celebrated (in a small way) on Saturday. We invited the grandparents to dinner that night and kept it to a small affair. My parents came up from Atlanta and we enjoyed hamburgers, French fries, and coleslaw, followed by presents and cake and ice cream. The boys got to run around in the backyard and chase bubbles, we ate outside (which the boys were really looking forward to), and we had a purple and yellow cake. We also had way too much cake! I ordered a half sheet thinking a half was the size of what is really a quarter sheet. I'm sure the look of shock on my face when the lady at the bakery brought me the cake was priceless. We also learned that the boys have forgotten how to blow out a candle since we put away the Advent wreath in December. There's a skill we need to work on again. Overall, it was a fun evening. [Pictures were taken, but not by me. So I have none to share right now.]

~~4~~

Since my parents were in town for the weekend we decided to find something fun to do. So on Sunday we checked out the local Children's Museum. We had never been and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I went ahead and bought the year-long membership while we were there. I think it'll be a great place to take the kids a few times during the year. The boys fell asleep on the way home which got me thinking: this would be a great way to get a nap out of them. I don't mind a little driving around after a trip to the museum so they can sleep and I can listen to some podcasts on my iPod or just some good Catholic radio. Oh the things we will do for nap time!

~~5~~

Doctors, doctors, and more doctors. Since the boys turned three, it was time to go in for a well check-up. They did really well! Peter wasn't too sure about the scale and didn't like that he had to take his shoes off, but he did it and the nurse got all the measurements she needed out of him. Once he was done, Ethan was eager to get up on the scale and put his head under the measurement stick. Blood pressure screenings also start at three, and both of them did great. Got a reading on the first try. They also did really well during the physical exam. I was so impressed with them!

We are going to have them re-evaluated for allergies and we got that appointment scheduled for a few weeks from now. Their current doctor told me she doesn't trust allergy testing done too early, and since we now regularly feel the boys foods that they had originally tested positive for, I'm inclined to agree with her. I'm looking forward to this re-evaluation. It'd be great to not have to worry about epi-pens!

We also learned that Ethan has a heart murmur. What's interesting is that I had an echo cardiogram done when I was pregnant with the boys. The first one showed a possible issue with Baby B's heart (Ethan), but the follow-up echo I had done showed nothing out of the ordinary. So I'm not totally surprised by this. I also feel like it was mentioned before, but there was nothing in his chart about it. So, on Thursday Ethan was scheduled for an echo cardiogram. It was done just to make sure there is nothing to worry about. So I'm not worrying about it unless someone tells me that I should. Hubby took him to that appointment and said he did great. He also took him out for a cinnamon roll following the appointment. What a great dad!

~~6~~

I need a pedometer. Actually, I do have one, it just needs a new battery. But really, I could have used a pedometer on Tuesday. What a day! I was on my feet so much! I don't think I sat down for longer than 30 minutes until around 3:30 that afternoon. Part of the issue was that I overslept by a LOT! So then I as running from one thing to another right away. And then once I got to work I was in my office for all of 20 minutes before I had to walk to the main library for an interview that took 30 minutes, then I walked back to my office, was there all of 10 minutes before I was off to go pump. I got back around 12:30, cleaned everything, got my lunch, ate, and then headed to my next meeting at 1:30. Back to my office at 2:30 for just a few minutes and then it was off to go pump again at 3:00. There is no way I didn't get the recommended 10,000 steps that day. I really wish I had had my pedometer that day.

~~7~~

The "Too Much Food" Take. If we're friends on Facebook you might have seen me mention on Thursday that I ended up walking away from the vending machine with way more than I expected that afternoon. But I didn't explain. So here's the story.

I grabbed $1.25 from my purse Thursday afternoon and headed up to the third floor of my building. $1.25 will get me one item from the things in the bottom half of the machine. The top half are all more like $2 each. Total rip off, but sometimes you just don't care. Anyway ... after I purchase an item one of our IT guys shows up next to me to get a drink. We say hi, I'm about to walk away, but then he got angry with the drink machine. I turned around to see what happened and I see him put a dollar into the vending machine. He then proceeds to get angry at that machine too. During his fights with the machine, I had started chatting with him about a monitor problem for one of my staff members. But that conversation got derailed while we both tried to figure out if the vending machine was capable of returning his dollar to him. Apparently it is not.

So, turns out the drink machine wasn't taking bills for some unknown reason. He then proceeded to stick the dollar in the vending machine in the hopes it would give him some quarters if he asked for change that he could then use on the drink machine. But as we discovered, giving change is not something this machine was interested in doing without a purchase first. I told him to just go ahead and get something, he could save it for another time. Instead he insisted that I get something for me. After some back and forth I told him I'd repay him and I entered the number for a bag of Peanut M&Ms. The machine spit out two bags! So now I had the bag of cookies I had come up there to get, plus two bags of Peanut M&Ms.

I ended up giving one bag of M&Ms to one of my coworkers. And my IT friend ended up using his credit card on the drink machine to get what he had wanted all along. I didn't even realize that these fancy machines now take credit cards. That's a piece of information I wish I didn't know!

Check out Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Take posts!! Have a nice weekend.