Hope you are all having a wonderful Monday morning, as opposed to an OCIM. MM and I are having a pretty normal Laundry Day Monday, and right now we’re in between loads, and MM is entranced in Dragon Tales, so without further adieu, it’s time to post Monday Morning, a fun little meme hosted by one of my favorite bloggers, Write From Karen.

August 4th Questions:

1. School is around the corner for many of us. Have you started your back-to-school shopping yet? Do you get all of your back-to-school shopping done at one time? Or do you spread it out? Do you make back-to-school shopping special or fun for the kids? Or is it just another shopping trip? What about back-to-school clothes shopping? Do you budget what you’re going to spend on your childrens’ wardrobes, or do you pay more attention to sales? Any back-to-school shopping tips you wish to share?

Our kiddo is only 2 and hubby and I are out of school as well so there is no back to school shopping for us in the near future – I do look forward to it though, I have this strange love of school supplies that is truly inexplicable.

2. Is there a website/blog that you visit on a daily basis? Why this specific website/blog? How long have you been visiting this website/blog? Now list your next top two favorite websites/blogs (and yes, I know this is a hard question, but list the ones you REALLY look forward to reading). WHY do you love these websites/blogs so much?

I’m going to mention websites AND blogs, just to make this answer even longer. And then the truth is, trying to choose my top 3 favorite blogs? I’m staring at 8 right now, willing one of them to be less fabulous – if you know me, you know I hate making choices, so I want Adventures of an American Mum, Supernanny Where Are You, An Island Life, Jonniker, and Finslippy to know – I really really wanted to list you here, because all your posts either crack me up, make me  think, and / or intrigue me for hours on end – but if I don’t list Write From Karen (who always cracks me up with her realness, is a writer like me (like outside of blogging) and hosts her own memes and contests and makes me wish I were that good), The McMommy Chronicles (who is probably the funniest, most awesome mommy blog on the block and writes the best guest posts ever) and John Mayer‘s blog (more on that later), I’ll never forgive myself.

The all time favorite? Sorry mommies, but John Mayer’s blog always always always cracks me up – to be fair, he is a professional singer songwriter with far more fodder than we could ever hope for – so don’t feel too bad – if you were a gorgeous famous dating Jennifer Aniston, singing to me about Count Chocula and umbrellas Guy Blogger, I might have chosen you.

But wait, what about favorite websites that aren’t blogs? I must visit some of them, too, right? Well if you must know Polyvore (make awesome outfits in a magazine layout kind of way – the ultimate in daydreaming for free), Google Reader (the best RSS reader around) and Goodreads (organize your ever growing list of books read, and books to read, and see what your friends are reading, too!) are probably my favorite websites that aren’t obvious guesses like Facebook or Myspace which I also visit daily but then, who doesn’t?

My favorite site that I check daily, would be Google Reader – without which I wouldn’t possibly be able to keep up with all my favorite bloggers, read the latest XKCD comic (I’ve tried to warn you how terrible nerdy I am, here’s even more proof), and keep up to date on the latest from People Magazine, Grey’s Anatomy gossip and more.

3. What book have you started with low expectations, and finished with tears in your eyes it was so good? Now please share with us a book that you think people MUST read. Why this book?

Honest? The Harry Potter series I began with utterly low expectations – my uncle recommended it to me and I had nothing better to do – and before I knew it I was in love with the darned series, an uber fan, and I’ve now read all the books, see all the movies and yeah I won’t go on because this post is already getting far lengthier than I anticipated. Now for the book everyone must read now – Lamb by Christopher Moore – if none of my previous posts have intrigued you enough to check it out – do it now!! This book was so good I had withdrawls for months afterward. I lived and breathed this book – and bonus points, it’s a totally good read for guys and  girls alike, so you can force your hubbies to read it, too, and they might even like it more than you, if not at least as much as you! Do it now!

4. Are you concerned about credit and/or identity theft? What do you do to try and prevent it? How often do you shred documents and change your passwords? Have you ever checked your credit reports? Why or why not?

According to my husband identity theft is far, far more damaging and worth fretting over than credit theft, and I thought about explaining why but realized I’m not smart enough to do it well – maybe if he reads this, he’ll comment and share.

We try to shred anything that has a sign up form attatched, so people can’t sign up with something in our name, anything with bank account or credit card info on it, social security numbers, etc. that we are throwing away. My husbands passwords are impossible to hack so I’m sure he doesn’t worry about it, and may or may not change them – I wouldn’t know and would never notice as they mean nothing to anyone. My password is something you’d have to know me awfully well to guess – I don’t change it often though I tweak it occasionally – I have a bad memory and too many things to memorize, but if it’s something important I try to use something else.

I’ve never checked my credit report, because I’ve never really needed to. We have no loans, no major purchases in the future – we may check it if we’re ever getting ready to do something like that though.