This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alice.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve been reading about Alice.com here and there online and I would love to give it a try! That would just be so super cool to have the things you need just delivered to your house! I would absolutely love that! I’m finding all kinds of things on their site that I could order for our house, like dog snacks, dishwasher detergent, deodorant, baggies and more! And they even have a small selection of people snacks, too. I found freeze dried strawberries and peaches! I didn’t know that those even existed – weird! You know what, though, those might be really good for my ‘getting healthy’ that I’m working on! (I don’t like to say ‘diet’ for several reasons, but, this post is not about dieting or getting healthy, it is about getting to do a bunch of our grocery shopping online!)

Oh! Wait a second, they have more than just snacks – I just found a whole big food section! There’s an entire subsection of it that is candy and gum – won’t the kids just love that! (With Five gum right at the top – their favorite!) And in the Food section of ‘The Pantry’ there are 10 different varieties of Pop Tarts – yeah, my kids are so there!

Every single product has price comparisons with other stores, online or off, and their prices are very competitive. And better yet – the shipping is free! All of the products also have customer-submitted reviews. It is a very interactive site, with a social aspect like MySpace or Facebook. So you can totally get other people’s feedback on which products are best to get. I suppose a good example would be if one of the kids stained a shirt with something I had no idea how to get out – I could go onto their community and ask for advice on what would get the stain out the best. Or maybe you need advice about a recipe you’re wanting to cook. That’s pretty cool, if you think about, a web 2.0 social community ‘at your grocery store’. That’s pretty cool.

It would be really cool, because, Mark would just have to get the perishables when he goes shopping – we could get all of the household essentials sent right to our door! While I’m busy trying to talk Mark into it, you guys should totally check them out!

Oh yeah, and there’s an affiliate program, too. I’m always looking for affiliate programs when I run across new companies that I like! I usually scroll right to the bottom of the page to see if they have one! There’s is more a ‘Refer A Friend’ program and this is how it works:

1. Spread the news about Alice, using the tools and unique referral link we give you on this page. (Your Refer A Friend page.)
2. Each time someone new uses your referral link and signs up, we’ll track their purchases for an entire year, and give you 3% of those sales.
3. Each person you refer will also get a $10 credit in their Alice account once they spend at least $50 on the site.

So ya’ll go check ‘em out and wish me luck convincing Mark to use them! (It took him years and years to accept the fact that using places like Sam’s and buying in bulk was a great idea – and the convincing didn’t come from me, either! Of course. Sheesh. They have to hear from their guy friends or clients, you know?) We’ll see! And make sure you come back here and tell me what your experience with them was and how you thought of the whole process! I’ll be waiting!

We have two nights that we call ‘family TV night’ around here. They are the nights that there are four shows on that we all really like to watch. It’s pretty much the only time I watch ‘TV’ TV. Any other shows I watch get watched on Hulu. Or any time I miss those shows. But I digress. So last night – we were all in my room watching House and Lie To Me – two of the best shows on the planet – and Mark revealed to us that he’d released yet another mouse from the garage.

See – God did this funny, funny thing back in 1992. He hooked up a knife-loving, gun-loving hunter with a chick who feels really, really bad when she kills an ant. He (the Man upstairs) has been laughing ever since!

And a few months ago, we discovered we had a little mice issue. Surprising it took that long, really – since we moved from a heavily-populated city (Dallas – aww…I miss you!) to a rather rural small town in Northeast Alabama. I honestly thought we’d have mice pretty much from the get-go. Of course, they’ve got loads of ‘em in NYC (awww…NYC…you now how I love you!) …or are those just rats? Anyhoo – I digress, yet again. It could be the Zero Carb Rockstar – who knows… The ‘Drink of Digressions’ I shall now call it forevermore…

Mark’s first inclination was to just get ‘mousetraps’ – you know, of the devilish variety. Oh. my. gawd. Are you OUT of your ever-lovin’ mind?! No way on EARTH was I going to have a sweet little mousey down there SCREAMING in pain, because, one of its legs was hacked almost completely off in one of those damn things! No. way. And I do mean no. way. when I say no. way.

So not happening!

So he gave in and found some roach motel-type traps (withOUT poison) that would just get the little buggers caught inside them. Then he releases them in the woods across the street. Maybe this isn’t the best resolution to the problem, though – because, he also told us how he handles “the release”. He gives the box a nice, hard shake and then as he opens it he screams at the little mouse not to come back. Now, while I admit that the vision of that in my head is rather funny – maybe using something like Riddex would be a better solution for us. It would just keep the little buggers away completely and then this Redneck and this Hippie wouldn’t have to fuss with each other over it!

There is definitely plenty of other stuff for a Republican, hunting, Southern boy to argue about with his liberal Democrat, vegetarian, “All We Need Is Love” wife! And trust me, we do. Combine all that arguing with sitting here way too long at this desk every day, not moving around enough and you know what? I am tired and my feet are sore! I’ve always wanted one of those ’soak your feet, foot bath’ things, (been begging Southern boy for one forever) like maybe this Bioenergiser dtox and seeing how my feet are extra sore lately, now would be the perfect time to get one! And this one looks really cool!

Why are my feet extra sore lately? Because I banged up my right foot pretty darn good on a piece of furniture a couple weeks ago! I first had thought that I’d just broken my pinky toe. Good gawd, it hurt! But it seems that I’ve also done some kind of damage (maybe hardcore bruising or something) to my actual foot, too. I’ve been limping around for weeks. I look like a darn fool!

I’m wearing sandals – with socks – with the top strap OPEN on the right foot. My coolness is bubbling over.

Sooo sad to see post about this on Facebook today – and in the video they say that Texas Stadium will come down around March 2010.

So much of my ‘old world’ is changing…

Whoa. You guys. How did this happen to me?

I’m old.

So old.

This contemplative, pensive, introspective, reflective mood of mine is all Kelly McCausey’s fault. Really. It is. I’m in the middle of listening to her WAHM Talk Radio show (You can tune in every Monday!) and when I heard her say “November 9th” …out loud ….I went **mental double take**. November 9th – what’s that?

Oooooh, yeah. Now I know. Now I remember.

NINETEEN YEARS AGO today, I got married the first time. Whoa. Stomach lurches up a bit. Wow, that was a long, long, long time ago. I’m sitting here just dumbfounded. It was my first marriage – the one that sadly didn’t last. And it has just thrown me for a loop this afternoon. I feel like I’ve sort of had the wind knocked out of me. And like I need to just sit ‘on the couch’ and mentally digest it all.

See, here’s the thing – I feel like I am but nineteen years old. So how on earth could I have gotten married nineteen years ago???

I mean, I really just feel like not much more than a kid myself. I haven’t gotten a whole lot right yet. I’m still a cluttered mess. And I’m hoping to one day soon figure things out and start acting like a real grown up.

I have done three very important (the most important) things right. I have been married – this time – for 16 years. I have three amazing and incredible teenage children. And I’ve been sober for almost 18 years. So don’t get me wrong – I’m not a complete loser. And those are most definitely very important things. And I could die today, happy that these wonderful things have transpired. For real.

But all that other stuff, what I like to call “earth stuff” – I really suck at it. You know, keeping track of things. Keeping the house clean. Consistency. Work ethic.

It’s not that I’m feeling like ‘oh I suck so bad’, just that ….like, I’m still ‘getting started’. I’m just ‘getting going’. I’m working on things. Things are coming around. You know, like a nineteen year old girl’s life would be. Well, now that makes me think I’m getting down on myself over things. But I’m not. It’s just put me in this really …introspective …ok, this is odd – but, grateful mood. I’m feeling really, really grateful.

I think I’d gotten myself into one of those fogs we allow ourselves to get in – you know the ones – where you can’t see the forest for the trees. And the fog lifted, as soon as I heard Kelly say “November 9th” out loud. And I think it pulled me out of those trees and let me see the forest. Wow – I’m not the struggling, just getting started chick. Lots of good stuff has happened and is in my life.

But still – damn! I feel OLD! (And my house is a mess. And I’m not making enough money yet.)

So on the one hand I’m grateful and overwhelmed by all the goodness that is – and on the other hand, I’m overwhelmed at how many years have actually gone by.

When my daughter came home from school, I really, really wanted to tell her something. I have no idea what. Every time my brain told my mouth to say “Honey,” ….I stopped. I didn’t know what it was I wanted to share with her, impart to her….. Weird how compelling that feeling was.

If a goofy girl like me can have some wisdom, I think maybe that is what it was. Realizing all these years have gone by, and I’ve lived ‘em. And I’ve done ok. I’m not living in the street. I’m not mooching off my folks. (Too much.) I’m not in jail. So maybe I’ve learned a thing or two. It must be all subconscious though, because, I sure couldn’t share it with her! I couldn’t get but one word of it to form – “Honey,”… Although, I’m sure if it were in my conscious brain, her 13 year old brain isn’t ready for it yet, anyway. Damn, it was such a strong feeling – I so intensely wanted to share it with her! It was a physical feeling – you know the kind?

Anyway – weird afternoon. I’ll go back to my goofy self now, I promise. And if any of you tell Mark that I used my name in the same sentence with the word ‘wisdom’ – I’ll kick your ask! He’ll completely laugh his ass off at me!! I’m watching ya’ll!

Photo credit: nickjohnson

(The photo I chose just cracked me up. The Universe is being funny again – I searched ‘old ladies’ and I got this building – which is the Graham Home for Old Ladies in Brooklyn, NY. My first husband’s name was Graham. Heh.)

((I do love the photo, though, and NYC is one of my favorite places. And if you check out Nick’s photos, he really has some interesting ones. The photo just after this one, in fact, is another really neat building.))

(((Oh – and if you click through to the flickr photo page, you can look at the giant version (original) and see the plaque on the wall from 1851 – very cool!)))

My "high schoolers" waiting for the bus!

Originally uploaded by lisamariemary

All of my monsters go to the high school now. That’s right – no more ‘room mom’ for me. No more ‘come to lunch with me, Mom’ for me. No more ‘bring cupcakes for my birthday, Mom’ for me.

Can I get a moment of silence?

:::silence:::

Thank you. I’m feeling a little better now. I can do this. Really, I can.

And besides that, Sammie LOVES it at the high school. They have all three had that reaction when they started there.

And you know, the other day – one of the other ‘trumpet moms’ brought brownies for the trumpets – so see? I could ‘treat’ the trumpets and trombones sometimes to goodies.

I don’t think I’ll ever be up there reading cute books to the class, though…. *le sigh*