MIss Maddy

Today Maddy and I went to the nail salon.  She loves her manicures and pedicures and we always go to the same place so everyone knows her.  Since it was a week day the place was pretty empty.  During the pedicures we were chatting about all kinds of random things.  When some of staff did not understand everything in English the lady doing Maddy's toes would re-tell the story to them.

While Maddy was getting her manicure one of the ladies who was pregnant asked Maddy if after she had her baby could she hire Maddy to baby sit.  Without missing a beat, and fairly loudly Maddy responded "I can't babysit for you, I don't speak your language".   I thought everyone in the salon was gonna pee their pants they were all laughing so hard.

Gotta love a kid with no filter!

I might get good at this after many attempts!

This week we released our press release showcasing the Super Bowl Info graphic we did.

Click Here for the blog post and a bigger image

In two days we have been covered in 15 different types of media ranging from newspapers, internet and a whole lot of radio. 

I have already done two radio interviews.  One I bunted and the other I knocked it out of the park.  One of our partners did a radio interview today and we have one scheduled for tomorrow. 

Soon we will catch the eye of the "big boys" and hopefully we will move up from the Triple A team to the big leagues in news coverage.


Enjoy the Super Bowl, drink safe and don't forget the commercials!

Creating a monster

Our dog Bruiser is pretty darn smart.  He knows a lot of words and we are always working on keeping him active and his mind busy.  When we first got him we bell trained him so when he wants to go outside he will ring his bell.  This was very easy for him to master.

To challenge him more I had my Dad build him a "dog brick" and within a few days he had that down to a science.  A "dog brick" is a puzzle type box where you put treats inside and the dog solves the puzzle to get the treats.

 Bruiser also likes to play with his shoe.  We trained him to only play with his shoe and leave others alone.  His favorite thing to do with his shoe is to "rodeo".  He gets the shoe just right and then goes in circles with it and then will change directions.

Our next adventure with Bruiser might just create a monster, he will truly be able to boss me around.  We purchased a couple of Bow Wow Buttons.   Right now we have them programed with "Dog Treat" and "I want to go outside".  He is taking to them pretty well.  Today I have already given him two treats.  Last night Mark and I were talking and all of the sudden we heard "I want to go outside". 

After these buttons are mastered we are going to keep adding them and hopefully  we can teach Bruiser to talk to us.

Hit the New Year Running

No rest for the wicked around here.  I have done fairly well with my trying to work out 4 days a week.  I love our new exercise bike.


Most of my time lately has been focused on Maddy's SSI application and jumping through all the hoops.  It seems like things are going well.  We should have this all wrapped up in the next few weeks.

When I  am not work with or for Maddy I have been a busy little PR queen for the business.  The 20 bucks a month we invest in HARO each month has really paid off a good bit.

I look like a real business woman!

Check it out here and here.  We are number 26 on the first article and number 3 on the second article.


We have been working hard on a Super Bowl info graphic and once we press release it I will give you a peek.

January is already halfway done...YIKES!

What a year

2011 was quite the roller coaster ride. Hopeful that 2012 will be a wildly successful year and that everyone stays happy and healthy.

Let's see what we did in 2011:

January:

• The year started out nice and calm.  Make a good bit of resolutions so I kept and some went by the wayside.
• Maddy went to Monster Jam with her boyfriend and did really well with the LOUD noises.  It was an "anything for love" outing for her.

February:

• This was the month of dr. appointments.  Those yearly check-ups, never much fun but a necessary evil.
• Maddy started in Special Olympics in January.  She was on the track team and loved going to practice each week.
• We managed to get everything done including Girl Scout events, church events and arranging time for the boyfriend.

March:

• What a whirlwind month this was.  Every day on the calendar was full.  
• Track practices and her very first Special Olympics tournament. She did great and medal-ed in every event.
• Maddy begin a bible study of the basic Tenants of Faith
• The month closed out with a trip to Vegas.  Always so very thankful for my Mother who comes to my house to keep watch over the child and dog.

April:

• Track practice, and tournaments continued
• The prom was on the 9th.  Maddy and the boyfriend had a fabulous time
• We attended a special charity event for Special Olympics and Maddy was able to mix and mingle with the Houston Astros.

May:

• In May we made the drive to meet my aunt for lunch and a wonderful time was had by all.  It is nice to reconnect with family.
• Maddy completed her bible study and was baptized on the 10th
• The church held a special service for all the kiddos that completed the bible study and they were all confirmed.  We had a table full of family in attendance, it was an amazing day.

June:

• The month started with my family reunion.  The weekend was filled with love, laughter and family stories.
• Maddy began Special Olympics swim team.  
• For the first time EVER Maddy went away to camp for 5 days.
• While Maddy was at camp we began the preparations to retain Guardianship for when she turned 18
• The day Maddy left for camp my Mom fell and hurt herself.  We would not find out until a week later that she had burst her L1 vertebra
• Mother begin the long journey of recovery.  We had hallucinations, a stay in a Houston hospital and then a move to a rehab facility in her home town.

July:

• Maddy had her first swim tournament and medal-ed in every event.  She loves the tournaments!
• Most of my month was taken up by driving to check on my Mom once a week and helping her with her long journey of recovery.  She was fitted for a brace that would be on her for several months.

August:

•  This is a rinse and repeat month.  Look at what I did in July and that is August.
• The highlight of the month was Mom going home on the 12th.

September:

• Maddy was thrilled as the Fright Night remake came to theaters.  She loved it so much she managed to convince enough people to take her she saw it 5 times at the movies.
• Maddy had a swim tournament in town and Mark went with us.  He was there to see her receive her very first gold medal.
• Mother was making more and more progress towards being independent again
• Maddy broke up with her boyfriend of over a year.  It was a traumatic day for all involved.

October:

• Maddy turned 18 and for 4 days she was a legal adult. 
• Mark and I became parents again.  We are official legal guardians
• Oct. 7th was a huge milestone for us.  Maddy had gone one year seizure free!  (Thank goodness we are still seizure free)
• Maddy had her wisdom teeth removed.  She was quite the Chipmunk Cheeks.

November:

• The SaveOnBrew business was in full swing with some great press both locally and nationally.  My new duties included some PR work as well as Database Management.
• Thanksgiving was a big milestone for Mom, she drove herself to my house for Thanksgiving.

December:

• SaveOnBrew continued to get great press
• My niece and my best friend both graduated college. One a BA and one a Masters
• We celebrated a calm, small Christmas and were all very thankful for health and all the personal and business milestone that the year brought us.

I am definitely ready for out with the old and in with the new.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Enjoy our E-card

How to be a PR Guru from home

Since I only mention it all the time you know that the husband and I are running a small business from home.  Things have really been on the upswing here for us with SaveonBrew .  Recently I have moved to try to do some more PR work as well as tend to the day to day data.  When you basically have 3 people running a company while working full time jobs (mine is Maddy of course) everyone has to do a lot of everything.

I am constantly amazed at the Internet because of the ability to reach people.  In my learning how to do PR for the company I learned of HARO.  This is short for Help a Report Out.  This site places reporters of all mediums with sources for their articles.  Many times you submit a pitch, they ask for more information and the next thing you know you are in publications.

This happened to us today.  A couple of weeks ago, I found a pitch on HARO about small business owners.  I sent it to the hubby to complete and that evening the reporter send an online interview. Today we received notice that this was being published.

http://businessinfoguide.com/entrepreneur-interview-mark-davidson-saveonbrew/

I would ramble on and on about other things that are happening for us, but I have a HUGE pile of data work that needs to be done.