The first printing is back from the printers!

I received my first printing, 33 copies, back from the printers on Thursday and the books have been really moving! I really appreciate everyone's support and would love to hear your feedback for the next edition!

I've even had a successful purchase completely through our website: www.joeandkatie.com/book Thanks, Teresa T!

I'm so glad that I get to switch hats now to marketing! I love contacting people and asking them what they think of my book. I'm hoping that a maternity boutique with a gift registry would like to carry it.

I'm going to be contacting stores in all the major (and not so major) cities around Jacksonville, like Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Tampa, Savannah, Atlanta, and Macon.

If you know of a store that would like to carry my book, please let me know: http://www.joeandkatie.com/book/contact.html

Thanks!
Katie

Car seat clean up #2

I just pulled out my son's car seat buckle to clean it. It had over 4 years of food growth on it.

Please, everyone, clean your car seat buckle!

Cleaning the car seats!

As I am working through the final edit of Chapter 3, Getting From Here to There, I am recommending all the things that new parents should consider when transporting their baby. One of them is buying a car seat that is easy to clean.

Wow! I had not cleaned the buckle of my Britax Boulevard until today. It has been sticking and spontaneously releasing the straps. Not good. I finally took the time to read the owner's manual to find out how to remove and clean it and Wow, I learned two things:

1) It was incredibly easy to remove the buckle.
2) It was incredibly disgusting!

The manual recommends cleaning it using just warm water. So I filled a cup with warm water and stuck the buckle in to loosen up the 2 years of juice, cookies, milk, and other substances. After a few minutes, I looked at it and it was almost tea colored! Eww! So I dumped it and put some fresh water in and soaked it again. Same thing happened! I'm on my 3rd soaking now.

I really hope this helps my DD stay buckled in tight now.

I did not know that chocolate could sustain me during a convention! No money + no desire to use ATM + free chocolate at a vendor booth = enough calories to keep me focused.

Now... I'm crashing!

Things I like: a free golf lesson!

June is American Express Women's golf month! PGA professionals all over the country are giving free lessons at designated clubs. Last night I had a lesson at San Jose Country Club in Jacksonville, FL by Todd Bork. By the end of the night, I was hitting straight shots with my new improved grip!

I think I read about this in the paper, either our local Times-Union or the Wall Street Journal. This website http://www.playgolfamerica.com/ will list out all the places that are participating.

Of course, they are hoping that you will come back for more lessons, but Todd did not push it. He gave a really great lesson that was very positive and helped us correct our swings.

Next week, we go back to play on the course!

Gotta love free!

Things I like: Smucker's Strawberry squeezable fruit spread

I love the idea of this product and love to use it!
http://www.smuckers.com/products/details.aspx?groupId=1&categoryId=260&flavorId=432

Now, I just have to dirty 1 knife at lunch!

p.s. it is called a spread because there are certain requirements for something to be called preserves, jams or jellies. the ingredients are good enough for our pb & j!

Jon & Kate: Am I the only one who thinks....

I've enjoyed watching Jon & Kate plus 8 over the years. Even my kids enjoy watching it.

I just think that the timing for the expose of marriage troubles came right after Season 4 ended and hit the news again right as Season 5 started. Any publicist would have been proud of all the hoopla that this has generated!

Just because this is a "reality" show doesn't mean that it has to be factually the truth. Everything is he said/she said and some video that doesn't really prove anything except being at the wrong place/bad decision making/etc.

Does anyone else think that maybe the wool is getting pulled over our eyes just so that more money could be made on ad revenue? Remember that television programs of any genre are only there to encourage you to watch commercials, unless they are paid for by the advertiser already (infomercials, church programs, etc.)

A very talented group of video editors could select very different parts of a "day"from Jon and Kate Plus 8 and turn them into anything they wanted. For example, the video could probably produce 20 minutes of just kids screaming. Or they could just show people eating, yet staying skinny! They could show Jon & Kate working out all day and the kids watching TV all day. Thousands of people would call to have them investigated.

So, are they really having marital difficulties? Any publicity is good publicity!

I apologize if this is too preachy. Just thought someone needed to say it.