Confession. It's good for the soul.

My husband was away on business earlier this week. Thankfully, this doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I find myself staying up way too late because I have trouble falling asleep when he's not around. My theory is that if I fall into bed completely exhausted, I won't be lying awake in the dark over-anaylzing every sound I hear.

I'm paranoid that way.

So, the other night, after I put the kids to bed, I sat down with my laptop and turned on the TV on for background noise.

But, I wasn't up for blogging that night. I was up for procrastinating. So, I started flipping through the channels and stumbled upon Rock of Love Charm School.

Klassy TV, I assure you.

As if watching Sharon Osbourne try to "class up" the women who were once vying for Bret Michaels' affections wasn't enough, I followed it up with the season premiere of The Pickup Artist 2. That's the show where "Mystery," the world's greatest pickup artist (don't ask me why, because really I don't get it -- they showed him "in action" and I wasn't impressed), shows socially backward men how to, well you know, get women.

You would think I surely would have hit my limit at that point, but no. I topped it all off with Paris Hilton is My New BFF.

Three hours later I peeled myself off the couch with a screaming headache and a nagging urge to shower.

There. I've confessed. I just had to get it out in the open.

Please tell me y'all have indulged in a little trashy TV every now and then.

I can't be the only one, right?

A bargain so good, it'll make you blush

I don't exactly live in a "metropolitan" area.

Most of the time, that has its benefits.

Less traffic.

Less congestion.

Slower pace of life.

But, for the times I'd like to escape hide from my kids take a little break, living in the sticks has its limitations. (read more)

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried

Each fall I volunteer at a local baby consignment sale. The sale has grown dramatically over the last six years, and I can find tons of great deals on kids clothing and baby gear.

When you've got three kids, you're kind of all about the deal.

The reason I volunteer, is I get to shop first (before consigners and the general public), which is an even sweeter deal.

So, before I headed to the sale a few weeks ago, I called my sister to see if I could pick up anything for her kids. She had mentioned that 3-year-old Ashley was really into Barbie these days and that if I happened to stumble across a Barbie doll or two, that would be great.

I get to the sale and spot one Barbie. She's brand new, in the box, and comes with her dog. Ashley is a huge animal lover, so it's a win-win on two counts. I buy the doll and when we give it to my niece, my daughter pipes up, "Ash, when you feed the dog his food, he poops it out."

Um, what?

Jillian explains that she was looking at the back of the box and Barbie's dog most definitely goes poo poo.

I couldn't believe this would be the case -- but upon closer inspection, it appears this is, in fact, very much the case. Check it out: You lift the dog's tail to open its mouth and insert brown food pellet.

You push the tail down and the pellet comes out the other end.

And, to top it all off, Barbie uses the included pooper scooper to clean up the mess.

Because she's responsible like that.

I've gotta say, I was a little shocked.

I kept trying to picture the Mattel "idea meeting." A bunch of high-powered execs sitting around a table trying to dream up the next best-selling Barbie. Ideas are being thrown around and then someone says, "You know what girls today need to learn? Responsible pet management. How about a Barbie that picks up her dog's poop?"

The unanimous response seals the deal. The execs think it's a great idea, and Pooper Scooper Barbie is born.

Crazy, but probably true.

In Mattel's defense, Ashley thinks the whole feeding/pooping thing is just about the coolest thing in the world.

But really, I think I've pretty much seen it all now.

Best of the Beach

I finally got around to downloading all the photos we snapped at the beach.

I'm particularly fond of Josh's "King of the World" photo below and, I even included the one vacation picture that has me in it! (I've had to make a concerted effort to take at least one of these "mom is really with us" pictures per vacation so that my kids will have proof that I actually existed. Otherwise, just a cursory look through the scrapbooks and you'd think they didn't have a mother. A father, yes. But, me? I'm always the one taking the pictures, not in them. :)

Laundry Lifesaver

So, I grew up in a house where laundry was pretty much an art form.

When it came to doing the wash, there were rules that had to be followed. And the women in my family, well, they took laundry very seriously.

The cardinal rule: Always sort your loads according to color and/or type of fabric -- whites, pastel colors, primary colors and fragiles.

That rule has pretty much stuck with me.

Except that after a while, I get lazy.

That's when I start throwing everything in together. Just so I can finally be done with the laundry.

So, that's exactly what I was doing the other night when I threw my daughter's white school uniform blouse in with a pair of red shorts. The shorts had been washed a bazillion times before. I had never had a problem with the red color "running" over other articles of clothing.

Until that night.

In fact, I was in such a rush to finish laundry duty, that it was only after I took the blouse out of the dryer that I noticed the pink splotches.

Great. There goes $30, down the tubes.

But, a moment later I recalled a conversation I had with a friend about laundry mishaps and she heartily recommended this:

My friend had washed a pair of white pants with a rust colored shirt and claimed that Carbona Color Run Remover worked miracles. It contains no bleach, formaldehyde or phosphates -- but claims to be effective, even on previous color run accidents where the streaks or dyes were set in the dryer.

I dissolved the powder in a bucket of water and emersed the shirt. Within seconds, the stains were gone.

Whew! Now if I could only find a spot remover that was as instantly effective.

For more helpful tips, head on over to Works for Me Wednesday!

Finally back from the beach. I've returned as a swooning adolescent...

So, I'm finally getting a moment to sit down and update y'all on our beach vacation.

We traveled to Myrtle Beach with our family, my parents, and my sister and her family.

Really, there's not too much to recap for you. I could sum it up in one word: Challenging.

Lots of sick kids (colds, ear infections, roseola).

Which made for lots of crying and whining.

And, of course, there was the nor'easter that blew in with 40 mph winds for a few days.

But, we did try and make the best of it. We managed a trip to the aquarium and enjoyed a few sunny days -- even if it was a little breezy.

The weather also provided a perfect excuse for me to dive into some new books.

Have you read them!?!?

Y'all. Y'all.

I'm a little obsessed. These books may just have eclipsed Jane Eyre as my favorite read. (And you have no idea how that pains a literary snob like myself to say that.) I've read a lot of good books this year, mind you, but none that I haven't been able to put down so I could go wash clothes and make dinner for my family.

Until I started reading these.

Total guilty pleasure, these are.

Now, initially I was a little gun-shy to pick the books up because they're young adult fiction and one of the main characters is a vampire.

I'm not really into that genre.

But, Rachel assured me that it wouldn't be what I was expecting. And when Shannon began raving about it right before I left for vacation, I finally got myself to Walmart and picked up the first two books, telling myself that if I didn't like them, I would return them.

Less than a week later I was at the Walmart in Myrtle Beach buying books three and four.

I wasn't done with book four when we returned home, so the derth in my blogging (while I'd love to tell you it was due to catching up on laundry and unpacking) was really due to my insatiable desire to finish this book. When I finally did, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I could finally go back to being a wife and mother to my children.

But, then I heard there was an exerpt of a follow up book on the Stephenie Meyer website. I figured I'd pop over and check it out. What it could be, a chapter or two?

264 pages of a Word document.

So, that pretty much shot the next day, because I had to read that as well.

Now that I've read every possible thing to do with the Twilight Series available, I'm trying to get back to life as usual (while also waiting for the Twilight movie to come out November 21 -- see, I told you I sound like an obsessed 13-year-old).

All I have to say is go get the books. Go get them now. Read them.

Just make sure you're caught up on laundry and you've pre-made a few dinners.

How do I love thee, Smashbox? O, let me count the ways...

I'm going to be straight with y'all.

I'm cheap.

I'm the type of girl who would never spend $80 on a pair of sunglasses, when she can find a similar style for under 10 bucks. I love to shop the outlet stores. I'd buy a no-name purse over a designer bag any day of the week.

And, truth be told, I rarely spend an exorbitant amount of money on makeup.... (read more at chic-critique.com)