The Fanny Pack Husband Tag

In addition to the multiple blogs that I subscribe to and enjoy reading, as well as my moderate addiction to Social Media, I am unashamed to admit that I also have a minor love affair with YouTube.

Whether it’s fashion, hair, makeup, politics or popular culture; I LOVE watching the multitude of videos that people all over the world upload to YouTube.  I’ve even drank some of the social video crazy juice and have been regularly uploading vids as well, the most fun of which has been a two part Husband Tag video that I was surprisingly able to get The Honey to voluntarily participate in.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what exactly goes through my mind when The Honey cuts a fool, or if he tolerates my special brand of foolery, then check out these amusing videos that give a little insight into our life, love and relationship.

The Most Wonderful Time

There is certainly something both heartening and compelling to awakening to one’s own circadian rhythm.  Or receiving the last of the holiday packages in the mail the first thing in the morning.  Or getting up and relishing in a delicious home-cooked breakfast with a 12-cup pot of coffee brewing.  Or (best of all) having an out-of –office memo activated to deter anyone from calling or emailing with any work related inquiries.

Coming off of one of the busiest schedules of my life, it is wonderful to have these next few days of Holiday Vacation to have special moments to just relax, time to enjoy family and friends and the mindfulness to reflect upon the true reason for the season.

Now, if I could only find matching Holiday Footed Pajamas for the entire family (I told The Pack that they could not open any gifts unless they all came to the tree on Christmas morn, donned in this year’s designated Pack Family Jammies) and several Extreme Holiday Sweaters for Church on Sunday, I would be totally winning!

I’m (Not) Every Woman!

You ever feel like you are doing SO much, yet actually getting nothing done at all?

Oh. I’m the only one then?

Well, that is absolutely what I have been going through over these past few weeks.  It doesn’t matter how many bake sale cookies I produce, overtime hours I work, wrestling matches or AAU tourneys I attend; I just can’t mark everything off my everlasting “to do” list.  And if you know me, then you already know that I am awaiting God’s answer to my petition for 4 more hours of sunlight, as there are certainly not enough hours in the day!

Even late last week, I forgot to send my kid to school with the supplies she needed to begin a project that must be completed by tomorrow; I had to adjust my schedule to include a business dinner that I didn’t add to my calendar a month ago when I accepted the invitation and after two month of rescheduling his appointments, I had to ask my mother to take The Baby Child to his doctor’s appointment, where he ended up needing four shots!

Talk about Jesus being a fence!  And an anti-anxiety agent.  And a 32 oz. Calgon container.

Tiffany FAIL!

With December almost half-over, I’ve been quite apprehensive to even log onto The Pack to check the daily readership stats, especially since I’ve not posted anything of substance since late November.  Still, thanks to those of you who have at least “peeked” in to see if I’ve had an opportunity to either, vent, complain or enlighten.

This time of year has proven to be uber-busy for me (what, with counting down until Holiday Vacation, remembering sizes, scratching gifts off the lists, taking Christmas Photos and mailing holiday cards) but I promise that I will try to do and be better.

SPAM Texting Me? Really Though!?

Though born in the Polynesian sub-region of “Oceania”, I’ve never been a fan of the Hawaiian delicacy (or continental scourge) known as Spam ®, so over the years, receiving communications from totally random businesses or individuals bearing the same disgusting name has really never sat too well with me either.  Now, for many of us, we understand that as consumers of various products and services, our buying habits and other tidbits of our personal information are being sold and distributed to the highest bidder every day for marketing purposes.  And clearly, while none of us particularly likes the idea of mega corporations like AT&T and Time Warner Cable sharing our telecommunication habits with third-party marketers, in the back of our minds, we do sort of accept these practices as the unspoken cost of doing business.

For me however, where I draw the line is when the results of these info swaps manifest in text and SMS messages to my cellphone.  My cell is for my kids to reach me when they need to, for me to screen, forward and accept calls when I am out and about and for me to molly-wop the honey in Words with Friends.  It is not a portal for hacks and frauds to practice their company’s texting business hustle on.

What’s worse is that those who know me know that I don’t give out my cellphone number all willy-nilly, even to people that I know, so the notion of some counterfeit telemarketer having my number and using it to send me unsolicited messages really chaps my behind!  And while I’ve been blessed for the most part to only just have begun receiving these messages within the last two months, they are still incredibly annoying, especially since downloading SPAM-blocking software from the various cellular app stores out there restricts only so many of these nuisance communications.

So you have to know that it didn’t take me long to begin researching my options, when after two weeks and multiple SPAM texts from some random company with an area code not even in the region of the country where I live began filling my SMS queue with their foolishness.  At first, a simple “delete” seemed to be all that would be required to get rid of them.  Then after a second text, I responded with a STOP message and added the text number to my SPAM Blocker list.  Then, after a third text during a meeting at work, I had had enough:

Now while my complaint would have likely fallen on deaf ears in my State’s Attorneys General office (seeing as how the offender is from Florida), and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) would have likely been the proper regulatory branch to contact, it does seem that my point was made, as since my angry reply, I’ve not received any further buffoonery from them.  But hey, let me not get ahead of myself.  With five weeks still left in the year, I just might have to keep a threat to call “Pookie n’ dem” in my back pocket should the folks at choicerestore.com not take the hint.

Thanksgiving Wishes & Turkey Day Dreams

It’s been a wonderful 4-day weekend full of blessings, family, fun, Friday Shopping Deals and food comas.  Before we head back to work and our regularly scheduled programming, I just wanted to wish you all a fabulous (though belated) Thanksgiving Weekend and truly blessed holiday season.

iCan’t Today.

Well folks, like a simp I’ve once again taken work home over the weekend and am also working through my day off.

*Sigh*

Somebody agree in prayer with me that a long lost, obscenely wealthy great aunt or uncle shows up in my life and decides they want to adopt me!

Jesus be a benefactor!

Let’s Take a Twirl Around Herman’s Foggy Head

Vodpod videos no longer available.

The only thing that could have made this answer better was if it had happened during one of the many Republican Presidential Debates that have been oh so entertaining over these past few months!

Agreeing to meet with reporters from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week before one of several fundraising excursions in Wisconsin, Herman Cain gave the contingent his nonsensical perspective on what exactly he knew about the economy, collective bargaining and that great political equalizer, Foreign Policy.

Now, while I do understand the need for Cain to be careful in selecting his words and conveying his thoughts (less he end up a Morning or Late Show sound bite…wait…never mind), what Cain was doing in this interview was not carefully considering his verbiage, but instead having an “Oh –ish” moment where he had no clue how to answer the question at all.

But instead of asking for a lifeline or simply admitting to being a mere mortal like the rest of us (well, after about 4 minutes of hemming and hawing, he sort of does), Cain decided that Jedi mind tricks were the way to go.  I mean really, how could Herman go wrong by asking the interviewer to confirm that what he thought he knew was in fact correct before he proceeded to explain why he would do a better job than Obama in Libya without really knowing what Obama’s stance on Libya was in the first place? *takes deep breath*

Seriously though, as painful as the majority of this interview was to watch, I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for Herman Cain.  What I have come to notice with a great many of the GOP candidates for President is that they have a lot of fiery rhetoric to get the base clamoring behind their campaigns, but after peeling away the fervent speeches, singular philosophy and oversold images, there seems very little substance from which to truly gauge these men (and woman).

But hey, between Bachmann’s HPV flub, Perry’s 2 out of 3 Government Agency disbanding and now Cain saying a lot of nothing, I can’t help but anticipate some pretty epic miscues from the rest.

I’m quite sure Barry can’t either.

MsTiffFanny Goes Live!

The reason you all are witnessing me patting myself on the back right now is because I finally accomplished one of my blog goals!

A couple of years ago when I decided that I wanted to write and maintain a blog, one thing that I thought would be awesome for  The Pack Faithful would be if I could somehow accompany the blog with some videos so that my readers would not only become familiar with my authoring voice, but my natural one as well.  In truth, there are times when there is SO much to say about a situation or happening in life, politics or popular culture, that I am certain that my intentions can sometimes get misconstrued.

It is for that reason that I put an action plan in the works to develop a YouTube Channel as a counterpart to The Fanny Pack.  MsTiffFanny Live is exactly what the name suggests.  It is a live vlog where I can upload various videos highlighting my random musings, thoughts and expressions.  For me, the channel is not only a branding mechanism, but a vehicle to inform as well as and decompress with.  Besides, for those of you who do not know me personally, MsTiffFanny Live will finally give you a chance to see and hear where The Fanny Pack originated.

The introductory video is one that took me FOR-EV-ERRRR to upload and edit, but the end result  turned out to be a very satisfactory Channel intro that will precede any future videos that I post (if I do say so myself).  Check it out, and if you are feeling the direction I am taking with the channel, please comment, “like” and even subscribe.

Thanks Guys and Gals!

Back From the Bottom…Florida, That Is

So, if you guys didn’t know, my most recent M.I.A. status was a result of a mini-vaca that the family took to Florida last week. And for the record, it actually did take me and The Pack Household an entire week to prepare for the trip to Orlando for my sister-in-law’s wedding, and another full week to recoup and play catch-up upon our return.

I will say though, that the trip as a whole (less the whiny kids and frequent stops), the family time and the beautiful wedding was so worth the time away. Oh, and did I mention that while many of you Pack Faithful were battling a rouge snow storm and frigged conditions, we found ourselves in a perpetual state of shorts-wearing; relishing in consistent mid-80 degree weather (not bragging, just sayin)???

But now that I’m back to reality, my workload has only seemed to double, my days have seemed to shorten, and I’ve finally been forced to turn on the furnace. At least we have some great photos (that I’ll likely post to the blog soon) to help us remember our time away.