My Blog Visitors

Ever since I installed the Feedjit widget in all my blogs, I have been able to tell who my most recent visitors were and how they came to arrive at my blogs.

Of course some of my visitors are my regular readers so I don't have to wonder who they are and why they are visiting!

Those that arrive on my blogs through search engines, now those are interesting! You can click on the search engine link and see what they were searching for when they found a post in that particular blog that they thought had something to do with their search.

I started a new blog called A Mommy Blogger and it is going to focus mainly on parenting issues, and my first post was a commentary on the Parkland High School cell phone sex scandal. Did you read that news story?

Anyway, I had installed Feedjit on that blog too, and after I published my first post, I went to update another blog. After that I went back to my new blog and imagine my surprise when I saw within that few minutes that first post had generated a few visitors!

Guess how they arrived at that blog?

Their search words were parkland, girls, nude, pictures .... haha, and when I clicked on the search link, guess what blog came on top of the search results?

If they had come hoping to see nude pictures of school girls on my blog, they must have been sorely disappointed! Haha. After a few hours my blog was no longer at the top of the search results that had the same search words. Guess that was my 15 minutes of fame on google search!

I like to write commentaries on news I'd read and I've had visitors drop by my blogs via links at CNN. Wished the trackbacks at CNN had brought a deluge of visitors! Oh well, a few are better than no visitors, right?

Sometimes I get a thrill when visitors arrive from google search on some old posts in my blogs. At least I know my previous postings are appearing in search engine results and visitors from different parts of the world are dropping by at my blogs!

Do you get thrilled to see the different visitors drop by at your blogs? I guess I am easily thrilled!

Speech Therapy

Today I finally dropped in at the Galt Joint Elementary School District office and asked what was needed to have a speech therapist come and evaluate Duncan.

It was a very straight forward procedure. All I had to do was submit a written request and usually there will be a response within 10 days.

When I got home, I wrote a letter requesting for the speech evaluation for Duncan and dropped off the letter in the mail immediately after that.

I did think that Duncan will eventually outgrow his speech problems but since the service is available for free, why not give Duncan the help he needs now? The evaluation is available for kids from aged three upwards living within the school district.

I am looking forward to the response from the Elementary School District and the see how much Duncan will be helped by this therapy.

No, we don't want him to go around saying 'fuck' every time he wants to bring attention to a truck that he sees! Haha.

Conversations

"Mommy, I've got something to tell you."

"What is it, Duncan? What do you want to tell me?"

"I love and like you."

"I love and like you too, Duncan"


~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~


"Mommy, that fuck looks like the pizza guy's fuck."

"What? Pizza guy what?"

"That fuck. It looks like the pizza guy fuck."

"Oh, truck. No, Duncan, that truck is not the pizza guy's truck."


~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~


"If you don't behave yourself, and refuse to sit on the shopping cart, we'll take you back to the baby store. We'll return you to the baby store, and get ourselves some new babies."

"NO! I don't want to go to the baby store!"

Well, if you don't listen to Mommy and Daddy, we'll trade you in for a new baby who will listen to Mommy and Daddy."

"NO, I don't want to go to a baby store. I HATE that place!"

"Have you been you a baby store before, Duncan?"

"No, I hate that place!"

Girls and Guns

Self-defense is a basic human right ~ Second Amendment Sisters

Doug grew up around guns and he developed a love for guns. Whereas I, the only gun I knew before I married Doug, was my father's shotgun which he used for hunting.

I knew before I married Doug that he was a pro-gun rights guy. A thought did cross my mind, early in our relationship, however. What if he was some wacko, and I could end up a victim of his guns? :-)

Anyway, that was then. You can see from my previous posts that I am not afraid that Doug is a weirdo or wacko. I have learned to appreciate his gun collecting hobby and have fired some of the guns that he has in his collection.

Doug's handgun collection

Duncan is a boy, and boys tend to love things that go bang. He loves his toy guns especially the airsoft guns that Doug got for him.

Denice? She's a girl and has more fears than your average little girl. She is still afraid of fireworks and anything that goes off with a loud bang. Even the sight of guns was enough to frighten her. Doug wondered if a more girly looking gun would make her change her mind. Some pink stocks on the gun, maybe?

I told Doug that it was natural for little girls to be afraid. Better that she fear guns than be casual about it, to my way of thinking. But Doug is afraid that she might develop an irrational fear of guns. So he bought both Duncan and Denice some airsoft guns.

She must be over-coming her fear of guns. Or she doesn't want to lose out to Duncan! If Duncan has a toy gun, then she must have one too!

Let's fill the magazine

The magazine is full, and I'm ready to fire it!

What do you think, Daddy? Do I look good with a gun?

Remember the girly looking gun stocks Doug was wondering about? Look at this! Complete with Hello Kitty holding a gun!

Yes, this is a real rifle. Some guy in California had this AR-15 rifle specially painted for his wife. If guns come in these patterns and colors, I think they will go a long way to helping Denice overcome her fears of guns!

I wouldn't mind owning a cute looking rifle like that!

Where guns and children are concerned, teaching them about responsibility and gun safety is paramount. We need to get the mystery out of guns. When there is no longer a mystery to the gun, children are not likely to play with guns simply out of curiosity. I cannot emphasize enough gun safety education.

Guns in the hands of a well trained child can save his life as well as the lives of the people around him. In 2002, an 11-year-old boy in South Bend, Indiana, shot and killed an intruder who had a jagged knife against his grandmother's throat. (full story here.)

The right to own and bear arms is protected in the Constitution of the United States of America. The moment all guns are taken off the hands of citizens that is when we need to fear the government.

P.S. Zawi, is not convinced, is he? :-)

Three Takeaways

My Three Takeaways of 2007, as per Zawi's tag. :-) I had already done a review of 2007 in an earlier post, so the three takeaways will be the top three of that review.

1. April Trip to Arkansas and Visit of my good friend from Malaysia

Doug, Duncan and I went to Arkansas, which is the birth place of Doug's mother. My good friend, Esther (visiting from Malaysia), was able to make that little trip with us. Denice was left with her grandparents in California.

The main purpose of that visit was to see what development was taking place to the adjoining property that Doug has in Dardanelle, Arkansas. That 40 acre piece of property has been in Doug's family for over 100 years. His mother gave him her 20 acre share of the property and Doug bought out an Aunt's and an Uncle's remaining 20 acres.

Arkansas is a very pretty state, very green with lots of rainfall, which reminds me a lot of Malaysia. There are two problems that I have about us moving there. Firstly, it'll be a lot further to Malaysia, and secondly, it is hard to find a good Asian supermarket in Dardanelle!

While in Arkansas we were able to visit Doug's cousin and her mother. Her mother had a stroke not that long ago and she doesn't look like she's in the best of health. So we don't know if the next time we visit Arkansas, she'll still be around. It was the first time they had met Duncan. During that visit Doug's aunt and uncle from California were also visiting Arkansas. So we had a nice little visit together in Arkansas.

My friend, Esther's visit was also a good one. It was her third visit to the US since I moved here. I enjoyed her visit tremendously.

2. Blogging for Money, and Friends Made through Blogging

In July I finally succumbed to monetizing my blogs by placing Google Ads on my blogs. :-) Previously I was annoyed by the many ads that people had all over their blogs, especially those popping and flashing ones. I still hate those pop up ads, but I have learned to live with the flashing ads! In August, I started writing paid posts. I admit that the idea of making money from writing paid posts can be quite addicting. I started four new blogs so that I could write more paid posts and hence make more money!

That is why, when November came along and I got penalized by Google for writing paid posts on my main blog, I was thoroughly pissed! When my PR dropped from 3 to 2 and then to zero I decided to get my own domain name for Puteri's Musings (my very first blog). I stopped writing paid posts on that blog. As of a few days ago, that blog has regained some PR, a PR2, which is better than a zero.

Blogging has also brought me new friends. Who would have thought that blogging would bring U.Lee, Zawi, Daphne, Akmal, Nightwing, Asiana, Coki, Beachlover and a few others into my circle of blogging friends? I love you guys!

3. Celebrating Eight Years of Marriage

In August, Doug and I celebrated our eighth year of living together as husband and wife. We survived the critical 7 year mark. We duly noted that fact and thought it amusing. By God's grace we hope to celebrate many more years of married life.

We have two small children and we hope, God willing, to live long enough to see them grow to adulthood.

On our anniversary, Doug took the afternoon off, and he came home with flowers and a new pillow for me. I am on an eternal quest for the perfect pillow. Unfortunately, that pillow did not turn out to be the one. Doug also took me to lunch at a very nice restaurant to celebrate the occasion.

Those are my three Takeaways for 2007. :-)

Woohoo!

The screenshot below was taken today, when for the first time after I keyed in 'Puteri' on Google search this blog appeared at the top of the search results! Two other blogs of mine appeared fifth and seventh on the list. Woohooo!


And the screenshot below was taken last November.


Remember I talked about a custom plate for my car? It has been ordered and we have not heard anything back from the DMV. It has been over a month. :-( The final decision was this one.


In case you think the plate will come out looking as pretty as this one, it won't. There won't be any pretty poppies on the plate that is coming! It'll just be a plain white background. :-)

Back to having some PR

Puteri's Musings has a rank! It's not PR3 (where it was before it slipped to zero) but I'm not complaining that it is now a PR2! Woohoo!

I'm also happy for my friends who have regained some ranking. I was not aware that Google was going around doing the page ranking thing in January. I thought it would be February before they'd be updating the page ranks.

Anwyay, this PR thing is only of interest to those who try to earn some money through blogging. Unless of course, you want to show the blogosphere that you have a blog that has some PR! :-)

Speech Therapy for kids

Recently, while we were at Denny's restaurant, we met a lady who had given birth a day earlier than I did at the same hospital where I had Duncan. She remembered us, and of course we talked about the progress of our children.

Her son was considered a slow learner and she told me the son was undergoing speech therapy. There were certain sounds that the son had some difficulty with, and of course I told her that Duncan too had some difficulty with certain sounds.

She recommended that I contacted the local joint elementary school district whose office was located across from Denny's so they could send someone to evaluate Duncan at his preschool. If he indeed had some speech learning difficulties, the school district would send someone to help him with his speech.

I have not contacted anyone from the local joint elementary school district and this evening I was reminded of what I hadn't done because we drove right by the office as we drove home from dinner.

For a long time, Duncan could not say TV. Instead of saying 'teevee' he would say 'feedee'. He also has difficulties with words starting with 'k' and 'tr'. He still says his name is Duntan, instead of Duncan. He can say it correctly if he says it slowly. And words like cake, cat, truck would come out as take, tat, and twuck. On good days truck comes out as twuck, on bad days it can come out a fwuck! Hehe!

As for two syllable words, they are usually pronounced with a break. His name Duncan will come out as Dunt - an. He loves crack - ers, too - ties (cookies), and choc - late spread on his bread.

My friend, Kathy, who is helping Denice and Duncan with their reading tells me that one of her daughters had speech therapy when she was six. I think it is a good idea that Duncan receives his therapy while he is still in preschool. His cousin, Dillon, received speech therapy when he was in elementary school too.

Even though I have a lot of issues with the education system here, I am glad that there is a program to help kids with speech difficulties and this program is offered free, which is more than I expected. I am willing to pay somebody to help Duncan with his speech if it comes to that.

High Winds

It rained most of yesterday and last night the wind started kicking up. When I came awake before six this morning, the wind was really blowing!

Right now it is raining and very gusty. The tarp shed that Doug has in the backyard is completely without the tarp. The wind has completely blown off the tarp roof. All the trees that are in pots in our back porch are lying on their sides. The cover on the bar-be-cue grill has also been blown off.

We have a row of eucalyptus trees on one side of our property and they block the winds quite a bit but sometimes I worry that a couple of them might topple and hit the house. They will definitely hit the house and damage the roofs if they fall down.

There have been reports of trees and power lines down all over Sacramento because of the high winds. Driving in this high winds can be pretty hazardous because high profile trucks (big rigs) can get blown over on its sides. And also have to watch for falling trees on the roads. In the higher elevations, it is blizzard conditions there. People have been advised not to drive up the mountain roads because of the blizzard conditions and roads are usually closed during that kind of conditions.

I was watching our geese playing in the puddles of water in the front yard. It was so funny to watch them almost blown off their feet as they were standing around in the puddle! :-)

I decided to keep the kids home today. No point taking them to the day care because there could be a power outage, and I would have to go pick them up and bring them home. When there is a power outage, parents have to take their kids home. The lights in the house flickered a few times this morning, so there is a possibility of a power outage in our area.

You know what, I should have slept in this morning! A couple of hours of extra sleep would have done wonders to my mood! Haha.

New Year's Resolutions

No, I am not going to write about my New Year's resolutions. I am over that stage of my life where I feel the need to write the things I needed to do for the year! So over it! Want to know why? Because I never keep my resolutions!

I like what Pi Bani said - this year she is renewing her previous years' resolutions, almost like renewing her driver's license, is what she said! :-)

I know what I need to do if I want to keep my health .. my most important consideration this year, because I am pre-diabetic, and I have prehypertension. I have started to change my diet and I have ordered a gadget that is supposed to help keep my blood pressure normal. I have even got myself a new pair of walking shoes, to help with the exercise I need to keep. As to the gadget, I will blog about it, when it arrives and I see some change in my blood pressure!

Do you know what the top 10 New Year's Resolutions are? I recognize some of them because they used to be what I resolved to do, too!

1. Spend more time with friends and family.
2. Fit in Fitness
3. Tame the Bulge
4. Quit Smoking
5. Enjoy life more
6. Quit Drinking
7. Get out of debt
8. Learn Something New
9. Help Others
10. Get Organized
    

I don't have to worry about 3, 4, 6, and 7. Now, 8, that is interesting .. maybe as time permits. And 10, that is a constant battle! No, no, I am not make these two my New Year's resolutions! Haha, just thinking aloud!

How about you? Do you have some New Year's resolutions written some where?

A New Year's Haiku

The clock strikes midnight

Gun shots fill the cold night air

The New Year is here.