Archive for 'Life With Ladybug' Category
Life with Ladybug: Ten years later
By Shannon Magsam Have you ever heard of the 10-year rule? It’s the theory that it takes at least 10 years to be considered an expert in a given field. I was reminded of that rule today because it’s the 10-year anniversary of my most important job. So naturally, I was thinking to myself, “Does [...]
Life with Ladybug: Never stop learning
By Shannon Magsam I don’t really like the word resolutions. So at the beginning of a new year, I prefer to set “goals” instead. Instead of a bunch of random ideas, I plan one or two goals for each area of my life: family, friends, spiritual, financial, business and health. My overall goal in 2012 [...]
Life with Ladybug: Horsin’ around
By Shannon Magsam, Ladybug’s mama I got a horse! I got a horse! I mean, my daughter got a horse. My parents actually went out and bought the grandkids a horse. Unfortunately, they live 2 ½ hours away. And I think this might be a ploy to get us to move closer. But still! A [...]
Life with Ladybug: Letter to the principal
By Shannon Magsam So, apparently in the Fayetteville School District you have to fill out an absence form if you’re going to pull your kid out of school for, say, a family vacation. Or, in our case, to spend extra time with grandparents the full week before Christmas. You not only have to jot down [...]
Life with Ladybug: Elf on the Shelf (and lots of other places)!
By Shannon Magsam, Elf-sized since 5th grade So I know many of you have an Elf on your shelf, too. We named ours Elfis (he has some crazy hip action when he sings Blue Christmas) and he is so mischievous. Not only has he done some funny things around the house, one day he stowed [...]
Life with Ladybug: “Mom, is santa really real?”
By Shannon Magsam I had been dreading this day since our daughter’s first Christmas in 2002. For nearly 10 years we’d side-stepped questions about Kris Kringle’s existence with vague answers like, “What do you think?” and “Who said that?” if a classmate mentioned that they didn’t believe anymore. Well, we’d really only had redirect the [...]
Life with Ladybug: Top of the Muffin To You!
By Shannon Magsam Several months ago, I promised Jennifer Irwin and Gwen that I would try Spanx. They were both shocked that I’d never shimmied into a form-slimming shapewear garment. I had always pictured a tube of GoGurt being squeezed from the bottom up. Or a muffin top spilling over the paper wrapper. They assured [...]
Life with Ladybug: Bridges over untroubled waters
By Shannon Magsam, Ladybug’s mama So many times we want to change people. We marry our husbands and expect to just “tweak” them a little as we go along. We have kids and we try to mold them into civilized human beings, with is good and part of our job description. But sometimes we ignore [...]
Life with Ladybug: Growth Spurt
By Shannon Magsam Ladybug went for a well-child checkup on Friday (only six months late since she’s 9 ½ now) and I found out she’s only FOUR inches shorter than me. As in, I’m only FOUR inches taller than her. Of course, I realize I’m only 4’11” but STILL. Girl is getting tall! The pediatrician [...]
Life with Ladybug: Dream a little dream
By Shannon Magsam Somebody pinch me. “It’s like a little miracle every night,” I told my husband on Wednesday. My daughter has gone to sleep within 15 minutes of getting into her bed for the PAST TWENTY-ONE NIGHTS. In a ROW. For those of you who know about my 9-year-old’s struggles with sleep, you’ll know [...]
Life with Ladybug: My new best friend
By Shannon Magsam Gwen and many, many other friends (and family) have teased me for several years now about my stupid phone. I mean, the thing couldn’t even take pictures. And I also didn’t text, never added contacts (never bothered to learn plus I just remembered people’s phone numbers, shock!) and there were definitely no [...]
Life with Ladybug: New Orleans ladies
By Shannon Magsam My husband put together the perfect road trip playlist for our drive to New Orleans. I had completely forgotten about the song, New Orleans Ladies by Louisiana’s LeRoux, but suddenly my husband and I were singing along full voice while we cruised along the highway. “They sashay byyyyy, they sashayyy byyyy.” As [...]
Life with Ladybug: This mama’s must-haves from The Mustache
By Shannon Magsam, mama to Ladybug and wife to John I put out on our Motherlode Facebook page recently that I really love the new store, The Mustache, which is near KNWA on the Fayetteville Square. It has so many fun gift ideas, even baby stuff! So I thought I’d share a few of the [...]
Life with Ladybug: First state blogging conference for chicks
By Shannon Magsam As Gwen and I drove over the rocky, slowly narrowing, dirt road in separate vehicles, we chatted non-stop on our cell phones. We had wanted to ride together, but Gwen had to head back that evening and I was spending a night in the Hunstsville woods. Her husband’s red Pilot was about [...]
Life with Ladybug: Now is the summer of our discontent
By Shannon Magsam I have never created a summer schedule before. Schedules kinda make my left eye twitch. The fact that I hate routine is a joke amongst me and my friends (Dawn? Cara? Gwen?) But I guess this is my year to grow up because I’m getting organized! Making schedules! Using coupons! Bleh. Anyway, [...]
Life With Ladybug: Coupon craze
By Shannon Magsam Well, some of you probably heard my big talk on Magic 107.9 last week about getting into couponing. Well, the truth is, so far I suck. Maybe that’s too strong a word, but I’m not exactly walking up to the checkout counter with $248 worth of groceries and paying only – gasp! [...]
Life With Ladybug: Deep blue
By Shannon Magsam, mama to ladybug My intentions were good. I’d remove the dead fish, Mrs. Sassypants, from the tank and replace her with a new Betta. Ladybug would be none the wiser and the crisis could be averted. I’d seen Mrs. Sassypants — a Siamese Fighting Fish — was dead that morning before school. [...]
Life with Ladybug: The seesaw of motherhood
As Ladybug and I were sitting on the stage in the Barnes & Noble children’s section, she asked if we could buy the book we were looking at together. The cheap side of me was all, “Let’s just read the good parts here and we won’t have to buy it”. We did a few of [...]
Life with Ladybug: Genetic messiness
By Shannon Magsam, Ladybug’s mama She can’t find her shoes and we’re already about to be tardy for school. I’m getting angry as she finally spots them in the bathroom where she took them off to get into the shower last night. “I’m ready!” she shouts and runs back into the living room to grab [...]
Life with Ladybug: A good call
By Shannon Magsam Ring. Ring. Ringgggggg. My cell phone is brr-ringing that “old-fashioned telephone” tune. My fingers itch to grab it from my purse and see who’s calling. I keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road. As of yesterday, I gave up talking on the cell phone while driving. It’s [...]