Ticket to Freedom: Sica turns 25
May 28, 2010
NASA sends a pair of monkeys into space to test the effects of launch and splashdown of mammals
An earthquake hits the Russian town of Khabarovsk, killing 2000 people
John Paul II becomes the first pop to visit Great Britain
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opens to vehicular traffic
and the Archbishop of England decrees the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn to be valid.
What do all of these events have in common?
They all just so happen to fall on today’s date, May 28th. Take a wild guess what else happened on this day? But of course, my birthday! May 28th, 1985 at 9:07 am little “Sica Chu” was born into the world and became the person that would blog on her (stop doing the math people) twenty fifth birthday.
Twenty Five years of battling my own trials and tribulations, twenty five years of laughing, shouting, smiling, crying, growing, watching, skipping, sleeping, learning.. Twenty five years of wiggling my toes. Twenty five years of finding new ways to embarrass myself. This could go on forever, but the point is twenty five years! TWENTY FIVE YEARS! When you sit down and think about it that’s a pretty darn long time! Half way to fifty, quarter to a century old! Now I’m sure this is no big deal to anyone but me but I’ve officially hit a milestone! As of today I can officially rent a car without any additional “under age” fees, I could go to a venue in the state of Massachusetts and purchase an adult beverage! By gosh golly I can do just about anything except for purchase life insurance for a flat rate from companies that require policy users to be ages 50 and up. Ohhh give it some time and I’ll blog about that, twenty five more years to be exact.
Am I ready to let the dogs out for the next 25 years? You bet your soft bottom I am!
Inquisitive Thursday: Today’s mind boggling question
May 27, 2010
A Day to Honor My Best Friend
May 26, 2010
I am very proud of a special someone who is getting honored today for going beyond the call of duty many times, and is getting the Looking Beyond the Ticket Award! This event honors officers who took the time to look beyond the obvious to find criminal and drug activity during motor vehicle stops. He and a select handful of New Hampshire officers will be gathering around for a ceremony with the Governor, John Lynch today at noon.
Congratulations Officer, you amaze me with your courage, hard work, and bravery. I believe in you and know that you make a difference in everyone’s lives, including my own. From being in the longest deployed unit in Iraq to serving 6 years as an officer, you are my hero. You are an incredible person with undeniable strength and I am blessed to call you my better half.
The Story of the Little Pink Mustang
May 25, 2010
Four years ago today my darling little nugget, Briana was born. For the last year or so she has been bugging me twice a week about how she wants to get her own car so she can go __(insert destination of her choice)__ and make an adventure of her own. Lately it’s been either Hawaii or Florida, but every now and then she comes up with something creative.
Well the time has finally come where her step dad and I felt it was necessary to let her start fulfilling that very dream. The last two weeks he and I have been car shopping, now mind you car shopping with a man can be extremely tough. We were looking at the Ford F-150’s, Harleys, Kawasakis, Cadillac Escalades, Jeep Wranglers, ATV’S, even the Police Cruisers. Tough decision especially when both parents are more into the “manly” version of vehicles. Dad of course wanted to get a police car, because he is a cop. I wanted to get the Ford F-150 because it had a lot of room and just looked that much cooler. Both of our choices were an astronomical amount, but for our daughter prices was no barrier.
Such a simple decision took us 2 1/2 hours of pondering followed by 3 additional pit stops to the “dealership” to finally 
make a purchase. Each time we made our way down we argued about the room of the vehicles, the power, the make, the model, which one is cooler, and which ones we never got when we were younger. Dad and I were two 5 year old kids gawking at the options we could choose from and living our childhood dreams of owning such a fantastic mobile device. The vehicle wasn’t even for us and already we were thinking of ways to jazz it up making it the coolest thing in the world for Bri. We finally realized that the choice of her very first vehicle shouldn’t be about us and it should be what she would like the best. So we still found ways to still get what we want and keep her in mind too (selfish, I know, I know).
Starting with the F-150, yes it had the most room, HOWEVER it was the heaviest and would take up too much power making her ride less enjoyable. Moving along to the Harley, Briana hates noise so having the Harley wasn’t the best 
route (although it would have made Mommy very, very proud). Kawasaki, considering it was her first time driving we pictured her side swiping a tree or something and scraping her leg. BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THIS WILL BE THE END OF THE WORLD WHEN AND IF THIS WERE TO EVER HAPPEN! I love my daughter with all my heart, I do. So when I say that she is the biggest drama queen I have ever met, it’s said with love. When Briana gets a mosquito bite on her foot she absolutely has to have a band aid on it for days, and yes.. she limps around telling everyone she broke her foot. So try and imagine what it would have been like catering to a little girl that scraped her leg on the Kawasaki or ATV. The Cadillac Escalade was pretty nifty, I forgot why this one was ruled out– Oh yes that’s right, it was highly recommend against by a passing couple who have purchased it before. And of course the police cruiser that came with “leather” seats, well– this one has not been ruled out but has been saved for if we have a son. Or until Dad weighs less then 130 pound maximum limit, whichever comes first.
So to conclude our car shopping experience we landed on a beautiful Barbie pink convertible Ford Mustang GT, loaded 
with rims, radio, and can go a whopping 5 miles an hour when punching it! The wiggle room was a concern even after we purchased it so just to be safe we took Briana to the “dealership” to sit in a few cars to determine which she liked best and which would give us more growing room to play with. I am happy to announce that Briana will be able to fit inside her car, sitting the proper way for give or take 8 months. At least that’s what we’re hoping for. But if that position doesn’t cover her for awhile, Mommy has it all figured out.
Since Mommy has always been a lover of Mustangs and might I add weighs less then the maximum amount also gets to enjoy her little pink pony. We set up her car over the weekend and I couldn’t resist taking it for a test drive.. you know… to make sure it worked and was safe enough to shuttle her 35 pound butt right along. I cannot squeeze myself into the driver seat.. however I can drive with my foot over the dashboard and steer with my left hand while pressing the accelerator with my right. The pictures might be released at a later date for entertainment purposes.
This concludes the story of the Little Pink Mustang. Stay tuned for video footage of the surprise, driving, and wrecking of this beautiful plastic 12 volt wonder.
Happy 4th Birthday to my little monkey!
Dear Monday, I love you.
May 24, 2010
Dear Monday,
Not many people like you, but I sure do. Don’t get me wrong, the weekends are great– however I tend to find them to be overwhelming at times. I’ve been such a workaholic over the years I forgot what it was like to get a little rest and relaxation, two whole days every week really necessary though? I enjoy waking up to you every week and know that I will have plenty of things to accomplish for the day. The more tasks I’m bombarded with the better. Because Monday’s are usually my busiest days, I sleep better that night knowing how much I’ve accomplished. Normally I do not get the “required” amount of sleep each night, but on you Monday.. I get at least 6 whole hours of sleep.
You may think I’m a tad off the wall for asking.. but do you think you can find a way to impliment two Mondays during the week? Matter of fact, if you’d like to replace this Friday with a Monday that would be super convenient. I’m not ready to face the gray hairs and shopping for wrinkle lotions.
Your friend and biggest fan,
Sica Martin
Googlelicious Chomping Pac-Man Fun
May 21, 2010
It’s Friday, why not take a quick pit stop and travel back into the 80’s for a quick game of Pac-Man! Google has turned its logo into a fully playable game to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Come honor the birth of Pac-Man by taking a moment out of your day to play with Pinky, Inky, Blinky, and Clyde.
Nick Vujicic Will Help You Turn That Frown Upside Down, Oscar!
May 21, 2010
One thing you’ll learn about me (if you haven’t already) is I love inspiration. I enjoy getting inspired just about as much as I love getting others motivated. I’m a tipsy turn over, as my friends call me. I can take any yucky situation and turn it into a positive experience. It’s all about shifting your mindset, which is hard to do for some. But when you have videos like the one below you realize that no matter what kind of plate you have been handed there is always a way to enjoy the entree you have been served. Once you realize that everything in life is a learning experience worth smiling about the sooner you can get over your personal hurdle and enjoy living your paradise. Nick Vujicic knows exactly what I’m talking about!
Facebook Retracts Their Claws on Custom Landing Pages
May 20, 2010
Strike that, reverse it! Facebook seems to have listened to everyone’s opposition of the changes that were implemented yesterday regarding custom landing tabs for fan pages. For now things are back to normal. In the event they do decide to go forward with their original plan make sure to check out yesterday’s post and see ways you can go around not having your Welcome Page seen first.
Snoopy Dance Time!
Never Put Off a Task Until Tomorrow if You Can Delegate it Today.
May 20, 2010
“Never put off a task until tomorrow if you can delegate it today.” -Helen Reynolds
I’ve chatted with a few people before about how they have hired a virtual assistant in the past and just never knew what to do with him/ her. They knew they had too much on their plate, they understood the importance of delegating their overload, they just didn’t know what they could toss in their lap. One of the most common questions I get asked is “Well, how can you help me virtually?”…
I’m fairly positive that if a handful of people has this question, there’s bound to be dozens. So here we go folks, I introduce to you an extensive list of tasks that you can assign your VA to and different ways you can utilize your Virtual Assistant better, two great articles I came across last night.
101 Ways to Use a VA by Notary Eagle Professionals
30 Creative Ways You Can Use a Virtual Assistant by Donna Eliassen
Enjoy!
Say Farewell to Custom Landing Pages on Facebook
May 19, 2010
One of the greatest things about owning your very own Facebook Fan page was the flexibility and options you had to customize your page and turn it into your very own mini community portion of your website. Using apps like Static FBML gave you the ability to create your own Welcome tab and make it as your default landing page. This was until they announced today in the Facebook Developers Forum that they are no longer offering this option to make custom landing pages to users UNLESS you have a minimum of 10,000 fans or have an account rep at Facebook.
As a small business owner and a ginormous fan of using pages for business I am a tad peeved with the new changes mainly because it was nice to go that extra mile and make sure people got the proper welcome when they visited the pages rather then being taken directly to the wall or info tab. The good news is custom tabs are still allowed and you can direct people to your welcome page using it’s very own unique URL and shortening it with bit.ly.
For more information check out the Queen of Facebook, Mari Smith’s post about the implemented changes.
