Raspberry Kids gets a new look blog (and a new address) …

Effective immediately, Raspberry Kids has a new blog address:  http://blog.raspberrykids.com

From now on, we will be updating posts there.

Raspberry Kids goes live!

Enjoy and please feel free to drop me a comment with your thoughts.

After several late nights leading up to our launch, it is now time to get some sleep …
Good night from a tired but very inspired raspberry mom,
Sue

Operation Warehouse move: COMPLETE

Today was moving day for Raspberry Kids and after two months of our house doubling as a shipping and receiving dock, we finally reclaimed our living space.  Our dining room table is visible again and there is now room to move in our walk in closet (as opposed to shimmying past all the boxes to get to the sock drawer).

The kids are a bit upset because they no longer have “towers” to climb on or tunnels to navigate through.

Our launch is imminent.

It is now 3:30 am so it is time to go to bed.  The good news is that it is really only 2:30 am … thank goodness for “falling back” with the clocks.  An extra hour of sleep will come in handy.
Sue

I work for a slavedriver. I work for myself.

I haven’t pulled these sorts of shifts since my days at Webnames when we kept our sleeping bags at the office and pulled all nighters.  I was a lot younger then and it was BK (before kids) when I had a bit more energy and a few more consecutive hours of sleep per night.

I do have help as I am not just working myself like a robot, I have also enlisted my dear husband to assist during this crazy pre-launch time.  He gets home from his day job to be met with a task list that is a mile long that ranges from taking care of dinner to creating a banner for some advertising that I have lined up.  One of his business associates even joked with him “So I hear you are working for your wife now.”  Who are we kidding?  The poor guy has been working for me since we met 12 years ago!

While I can run on adrenaline with the best of them, having to coordinate other people’s lives is proving to be an extra challenge.  Making sure we have the Halloween costumes ready to go, picking up the keys for my new office, coordinating friends to help mind the kids as we get closer and closer to launching Raspberry Kids, volunteering to help out at J’s preschool, paying the bills … and the list goes on, and on, and on.

One thing is for sure, I am more motivated than ever and I am truly enjoying this crazy ride.  To say I have learned a lot so far would be an understatement and it is refreshing (albeit mundane at times) to be rolling up my sleeves and becoming immersed in every aspect of this business with the exception of renaming product image after product image!

Well folks with only hours until our launch (fingers crossed) I better get back to it.  My boss is going to crack the whip soon!
Sue

Blogging in the bathroom

No, I am not blogging whilst __________ (you know) … I am supervising the toddlers in the tub and seeing as how I haven’t found any time to blog in the past few days, I have to take my opportunities when they present themselves. Everyone knows Moms are quite the multi-taskers!

The past few days have been a bit of a blur and I think I am going to need a new prescription for my eyes after squinting at spreadsheet after spreadsheet. If I knew months ago what I know now, it would have prevented quite a bit of rework and renaming of files and images to get them ready to import into our e-commerce solution for Raspberry Kids. Fun, fun, fun!

Things are coming together nicely though and there will be some late nights ahead but we still anticipate launching this week. Fingers crossed.

Well that is about it for my time tonight as the kids are almost done practicing their bubble blowing in the water (their swimming instructor told them to practice in the tub). Riley just yelled out “I make bubbles mama” … let’s hope he means from his mouth and not the other way bubbles can be made in the tub. They also use the tub to perfect their starfishs and doggy paddle

By the way, I would like to know if all kids drink bath water? If you have any experience with this, please drop me a comment. It would be nice to find out that our kids aren’t the only loonies out there who do this.

Hopefully my next post will be from a better locale. Paris would be nice …
Au revoir for now,
Sue

Vowing to be a better Mother Plucker.

As you may or may not know (or have read about in my previous blog posts) I was the recipient of a Mom makeover courtesy of the Image Builders and the Mompreneur Magazine.

Having quite a natural look (read:  boring!) and being out of the workforce for close to 3 years, I was like a bit of a fish out of water when I showed up for my first meeting with the Image Builders.  Both Susan and Denisa took me under their wings and transformed me.  Not only did they work with updating my hair, make up and overall look, their encouraging ways and communication styles have helped me to regain confidence when I’m back in networking and business related situations.

So I was a bit embarassed this morning when I went to meet with Denisa so she could work her wonders with my make up as my makeover was being revealed at today’s momcafe event.  I must confess, my “eyebrow maintenance” has been a bit slack.  Chalk this up to a lack of tweezing experience, time and having spent about 16 hours a day in front of my computer for the past couple of weeks gearing up for the launch of our website:  www.raspberrykids.com

She reiterated to me again today how your brows lift your eyes and are an integral part of your overall look.  After she was finished with me (again), I couldn’t agree more.  I also kept checking out everyone’s brows throughout the event and I totally concur about what a difference great brows can make and thus I vow to be a better Mother Plucker.

As an aside, momcafe was extra inspirational today and the speakers were exceptional.  Sandra Wilson of Robeez shoes and Cathy Priestner Allinger, Canadian Olympic Silver Medallist and Executive Vice President – Sport, Paralympic Games and Venue Management.   Wow!

Since I took 3 hours off to go to the event today, I only have 15.5 more hours to go.
Sue
P.S.  I ran this blog post TITLE passed my ultra-conservative sister and she gave me the thumbs up.  She said I should add the adjectives “older” and “prudish” to my description of her but she’s not that big of a prude so I will leave it as is.

My Mom is honored

My Mother was a dedicated volunteer her entire life.  She was always the one that worked hot dog days, helped out in the school library, drove to all of our field trips and attended every game of every sport I ever played.

She was the team Manager for soccer and ringette and she held various positions within the Winnipeg Youth Soccer programs as well as the St. James Soccer Club.  She was one of the founders and committee members of the Folklorama International Youth Soccer Tournament (now the Golden Boy Tourny) that had teams come to Canada from all over the world.  During the tournament she would rarely see a game because she was holed up in the trailer scheduling the tournament and keeping statistics by hand on graph paper.  She was the soccer referee assignor for St. James for umpteen years.  Our kitchen was her office and at her funeral, one of her referee proteges commented to me how my mom was so influential in his life.  She assigned him his first game & ensured he had a ride to it.  He went on to become a linesman on a World Cup stage.  My mom was so proud of him.

In addition to all of her contributions to the soccer community in Manitoba, she was also the regional coordinator for the Canadian Cancer Society for over 20 years.  She canvassed for many other charities as well.

When I was growing up and people asked me if my mom worked, I always said “No” but looking at her volunteer resume, it is very apparent that she did.

While my Mom enjoyed her career at the Royal Bank, once she had children, she decided to stay at home and this became her job.  She never missed a milestone or a championship game.  She was definitely the CEO of our family and taught me a lot about what it takes to be successful.

1.  Be organized
2.  Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability and give no less than 100%
3.  If you say you are going to do something, you do it
4.  If you start something, you finish it
5.  Take pride in what you do
6.  And the list goes on … (believe me the list goes on, see point #1)

It is with an immense amount of pride that I tell you my Mom has been honored with an award that will be called the Lorrie Thompson Award for Outstanding Youth Female soccer player in Manitoba. This is very fitting as my Mom was outstanding in so many ways.

I miss you Torrie,
Sue

Reveal numero trois

Deliciously chic, funky and fabulous baby essentials from Sweetpea Baby.  Raspberry Kids carries Sweetpea Baby’s bibs, burp sets, woobies and binkee clips.

You can buy the products individually or you can mix and match bibs and burps or binkees and woobies or any combination you like to create a very beautiful, thoughtful and unique set.

The quality of the Sweetpea Baby line is exceptional and the beautiful bows make them “shower gift ready” or you can just hoard them all to yourself.  The choice is yours!

With pink, blue & brown color palettes, there is something in this range for everyone!

Raspberry Kids will be launching very soon so you do not have to wait much longer to get your hands on these gorgeous pieces!  Make sure you sign up for our newsletter on our homepage so we can notify you the moment we go live.

Counting down the days,
Sue

Daddy’s girl & Mama’s Boy

I’m not sure exactly when it happened but our daughter is definitely a Daddy’s girl. When we pick Daddy up from work, her eyes light up and she almost jumps right out of her carseat. From that moment on, it is all Daddy all the time … Mommy isn’t even capable of undoing her carseat buckles! This task can only be performed by her dear old Dad.

Being a Daddy’s girl myself, I can totally relate to this. There is some sort of unexplainable connection between a father and a daughter that I cannot put into words. I was also the son my father never had so the bond was solid on all fronts. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about or miss my dad. Howie was a legend and still is in my mind.

Our son is more attached to me. In fact, he pretty much latches on to most women. We have two attractive girls that live in our basement suite and Riley is infatuated with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked for their phone numbers one of these days. He calls them “the girls” and likes to hang out at their door and chat with them whenever he can.

Riley loves hanging with Daddy and Jamie still enjoys time with Mommy but they definitely have their preferences. Every night after story time, Jeff lies with Jamie and I lie with Riley and we sing them songs and if we ever try to mix it up and lie with the other one, we are quickly corrected and told that Daddy is supposed to lie with Jamie and Mommy with Riley.

Not wanting to play into this too much, we try to make sure each parent spends 1-on-1 time with each of the kids so they both get an opportunity to have their special time with each parent. Today was my turn to take Riley to the eye Doctor and we made an adventure out of it. He also got to pick out a treat after he was done since he was such a good boy.

Not sure if this is something they will outgrow but my husband and I enjoy the bond we have with both of our kids and our hearts still melt when either of them tells us they love us or when my daughter announces that we are the best Mommy & Daddy she has ever had. I will be sure to show her this blog post when she is 13 and tells us how much she hates us!  Sigh.
Sue

Addicted to blogging

Some people are addicted to love (think Robert Palmer tune) but I think I’m addicted to blogging.  These blog posts just come to me at all hours of the day or night and I can more or less write a complete blog post in my head and then sit down at a later time and key it in.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I try to mix it up a bit and provide snippets of The Sinclair Family gong show, along with the life of a start up Mompreneur, some www.raspberrykids.com plugs and a bunch of hodge podge in between.

I sincerely enjoy blogging although my sister and several friends who shall remain nameless are mortified that I put “everything out there” for the world to read.  To me it is an outlet, a coping mechanism and a sounding board (even if noone is listening it still feels good to get it off my ample chest).

I have always been a writer.  I used to be the kid that put my name on EVERYTHING … much to my mother’s chagrin.  I wrote on books, toys, the wall, pretty much anything that would accept lead, ball point or crayon.  I would sign my signature over and over and over again on a piece of paper, I would make lists, I would take fake drive in orders just because I liked writing “FF” for french fries on the paper.

When I moved away from home 13 years ago I wrote countless letters to my great Aunts, my family & my friends and yes this was old school correspondence before email was invented.  I still write letters to a couple of great Aunts who are still with us and I miss buying cards and writing letters to my mom and dad more than I can explain.  There is just something about putting pen to paper that works for me and allows me to express myself more eloquently and truthfully than I can sometimes verbalize.

OK, so now that we’ve established that I enjoy writing/blogging so much, I suppose the bigger question is “Does anyone actually enjoy reading my blog?”.  I would love to hear any comments you may have.
Blogger Sue (Funny those initials are BS and yes, as those of you who know me can attest, I’m full of it)