Yes, I was one of those crazy fools who waited in line for the iPhone two years ago. I waited in line and was disappointed because they sold out before I could get one. I ended up driving to two other AT&T stores before coming home empty handed. I did finally receive one about 10 days later, and have been a happy iPhone carrier ever since.

If you have seen me at any point in the past two years, the iPhone has been there. And I’m sure I pulled it out and used it to get directions, find out when a business closes, check the weather radar, access current traffic details, read scripture, retrieve a Spanish translation, get a recipe, compare prices, find the closest gas station/restaurant/store/alternate route, figure out what song we just heard, play scrabble, get/send email, check facebook, take a picture, check my calendar, or just to find the answer to some pointless piece of trivia. And those are mostly just the items on my home screen…

The iPhone has become part of our culture. Recently, my daughter’s elementary school sent home a newsletter that included the phrase “there’s an app for that.” Yup, it’s everywhere.

So, earlier this month, when Apple announced the next iPhone would be available for pre-order on June 15th, I got in line (electronically this time). And yes, it took a bunch of refreshing, but I finally received that confirmation message. And this morning, at 5:45am, I received a message that my iPhone was on the UPS truck and would be delivered today. Ummm… who cares that I have to have surgery at some point today? Thank you Steve Jobs for keeping me distracted from that with my new toy

[Here are some early reviews for the iPhone 4 in case you don't know what all the hype is about.]

A few weeks ago I told you about how desperately my 10-year-old wants a Facebook account (so much so she went to great lengths to obtain one when we told her “not yet”). I hinted that I had come across a possible “Facebook for tweens” – something that might make both parent and tween happy.

Enter FaceChipz.

Many kids begin their journey into social networking as a young elementary school student when they receive a certain stuffed animal called a Webkinz. This furry creature has a special code on its tag that allows the child to create a whole world – online – centered around a two-dimensional version of the pet. While in Webkinz World, pets can interact with other pets and even chat (using predefined phrases and words). Thus starts an addiction to social networking few of us choose to live without.

By age 9 or 10, a lot of kids have lost interest in such an animal-based existence (it’s about the time many of us also decided we no longer wanted to be a vet when we grew up, right? ). In any case, this is when too many kids are jumping to Facebook. Unfortunately, Webkinz and Facebook are vastly different in terms of safety and maturity. In fact, Facebook’s requirements state users must be at least 13 years old to obtain an account, and there is wisdom in that rule.

So what do you do if you’re 10 or 11 and craving some social networking? This is a difficult place for a lot of parents and tweens. A lot of parents break the rules and let their (too-young) kids have Facebook accounts when this happens. Thankfully, a group of parents in California (including a mom and dad to four girls) have been working on another option.

FaceChipz works a lot like Facebook in that users can post photos, chat with friends, and play a few games (the number of games available is growing as the company ramps up the tool). The big difference is in how users make friends online. Similar to how Webkinz users must first purchase a stuffed animal to log on, FaceChipz users trade chips (like those shown right) to connect online. In fact, it’s impossible to “friend” someone on FaceChipz without one of these chips. Good marketing ploy? Maybe, but the real benefit of this is that our kids can’t be friended by 40-year-old-creepy-strangers. The chips cost $1 each so in that regard this is much less expensive than Webkinz (I don’t know about you, but my kids had a ton of those creatures, at $8-14/each).

Also, to set up a FaceChipz account, you need a parent’s credit card. A one-time $1 charge to the card ensures a child has parental permission to create the account (which is a really good thing). There are no maintenance fees (a la Webkinz) and you’ll never be charged more than once, even if you have multiple kids on FaceChipz. The parental features even allow you to temporarily “turn off” a child’s account, should you need to do so as a punishment (not that our kids are ever naughty…).

After the account has been set up, you can buy the chips online or at your local Toys R Us. Then your child can share the chips with friends (in real life) to connect with them in FaceChipz. Once a chip has been activated online, it can no longer be used by someone else (so predators can’t pick these up out of trash cans to connect with our kids).

All in all, I think this is a wonderful safe alternative to letting tweens join Facebook before their time. I look forward to seeing how the people behind FaceChipz grow the site to attract (and keep) more kids.

With two daughters, I hear a lot about “mean girls.” It seems like every week there’s more drama about who’s not speaking to whom, and who called who certain bad names. I’m sure my own daughters participate more than they admit.

Today I was getting a pedicure (thanks to my wonderful birthday present from my husband ) and the nail tech and I got to talking about such girl antics. At first I thought we were of one mind about the whole issue, but then she told me a story that left me speechless. She said that the other day her second-grade daughter came home complaining about another girl in her class. The mom (this woman I was speaking with) proceeded to tell her daughter, “Oh, ignore her… she’s a bitch anyway, just like her mother.”

I was shocked. I’ve heard moms talk like that to their teenage daughters, but never had I heard a mom talk that… er, frankly… with her 8-year-old.

Wait, frank is not the right word. Or is it? Has such foul language become so accepted in our culture that it’s OK to use it with second graders?

When moms are telling their daughters that other women are bitches, we are doing our daughters (and their whole generation) a huge disservice. We are continuing a cycle of mean girls that has absolutely no benefit in our culture. Doesn’t this mom realize she is contributing to the problem instead of helping to fix it?

When I got home and told my husband this story, he said he hears it all day at work. The women in his office frequently throw verbal punches at each other, and it’s not pretty. There are women who can slay others without ever breaking a sweat (or a nail), all while wearing a smile. Of course that sort of thing happens in schools and offices everywhere.

Why must we, as women, tear each other down so much? And worse still, why do we teach our daughters that it’s OK to treat each other that way?

I know this one insignificant blog post can’t change the world, but I am publicly stating I want my home to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. So for all those women that I’ve hurt in the past with my verbal punches and negative thoughts, I apologize.

I want to follow Christ’s example, to speak words of encouragement (Ephesians 4:29) instead of insult, words of sweetness (Proverbs 16:24) instead of bitterness. I pray I will be a good example for my daughters, so together we can help break the mean girl cycle.

Facebook’s rules state users must be at least 13 years old in order to obtain an account. However, they do nothing to actually verify a user’s age. As such, my daughter was able to change her birthday to make it seem she was 16 years old. When I logged into her account, I found at least ten other girls in her class who also had accounts. Obviously, these girls also changed their birthdates, with or without parental permission.

After I wrote my initial post, I’ve encountered a fair number of parents who have given permission for their kids to “fudge their age” in order to sign up for Facebook. I don’t know whether it is out of desperation (because these kids can certainly be persistent in their demands) or just for lack of understanding (maybe they don’t know about the icky 40-year-old men friending their 10-year-old daughters). In either case, I disagree. Here’s why:

1) Rules are rules, regardless of whether we agree. A good friend said it best when she commented, “if we let our kids break the rules to obtain a Facebook account at age 10, what’s next? How about when they are 15 and decide to take the car out for a joy ride, or 17 and get drunk?” If we teach our kids it’s OK to break some rules now, when the consequences aren’t that harmful, we’re just setting them up to break rules later, when the consequences can be fatal.

2) The risks are real. In just three days of having a Facebook account, multiple older men attempted to friend my 10-year-old. Her profile was not visible to non-friends, but her photo was. Apparently that was enough to cause them to friend her. They didn’t know her, or me, so I have no other choice but to consider them to be predators searching for naive young girls online. Unfortunately, this type of thing will continue to happen (even when she is old enough to actually have a Facebook account) so we, as parents, must teach our kids about the risks and how to deal with them.

3) It exposes them to mature content. Consider a 10-year-old girl who friends the 16-year-old brother of her best friend. She is then exposed to the conversations, photos, and thoughts of a whole slew of kids who are six, seven, maybe eight years older. Would you let your 10-year-old daughter go to an unsupervised party with a bunch of high school juniors and seniors? I suggest allowing them to be friends with those kids on Facebook is much the same.

So… what’s a parent of a tween to do? When your kids outgrow Webkinz, but are too young for Facebook, where do you turn? Thankfully, a safe alternative is about to be unveiled (according to my sources). Stay tuned for the launching of a “Facebook for tweens” next week… (no, I’m not launching a business – it’s just one that I’ve heard is on the horizon).

Our 10-year-old daughter knew we monitored the email on the laptop, so she signed up for a new Gmail account using her iPod Touch over our wireless broadband access. (I must admit I was amazed at just how smart she was to accomplish all this! I see a bright future for her technologically, as long as she uses it for the right purposes.) As I speak to more and more parents about this, I am realizing how many kids trying these types of sneaky tactics… and how many are getting away with it!

Another girl who goes to school with my 5th grader frequently sends us email at 11:30pm… on school nights. When asked, she says she isn’t tired, so she plays on the computer… late at night… in her bedroom. I checked out her Facebook profile. She lied and said she was 16 to get the account. Her picture is cute. Her info says she’s “looking for men.” Her parents have no idea. They don’t have Facebook accounts. They don’t use the Internet much. They don’t realize what their child is doing online, or who she is talking to.

Do you?

I found a “Family Internet Contract” (courtesy of iMom.com) that certainly isn’t going to prevent kids from doing this stuff, but it could help parents have an informed conversation with their kids, hopefully before email and MySpace/Facebook accounts are obtained “on the sly.” Or if you’re like us, and this whole “growing up” thing sort of snuck up on you (i.e., our kids are already heavily online), this contract can be a great way to make sure we’re all on the same page.

But I had an appointment scheduled for a few days later, and this time I wasn’t just planning on covering the gray, I had actually told my stylist I “wanted something fresh,” because I was bored with my current color. “Maybe some auburn highlights?” I asked. Yes, I do believe those were my exact words. Now that I write them here, they seem a bit hallow.

My small group has just started a series entitled Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald S. Whitney. The first chapter starts with “Do you thirst for God?” It has me thinking… a lot. Also, last week’s sermon about “Living an Intentional Life“… that has me thinking too. Finally, our book club just read Same Kind of Different as Me (more on that in tomorrow’ post)… and that has me really thinking.

It’s all making me ponder how much of what God has given me I am trying to change. He gave me a wonderful husband, who loves and cares for me and our children. So what if he always leaves his dirty underwear behind the bathroom door. God gave him to me just as he is… why am I trying to change him?

He also gave me the talent for a job I can perform from home, so as to always be available for my kids. Yet, I have this desire for more… more power and prestige in the workforce… something I can’t have by working part-time from home while my kids are in school. I am blessed with what most women would refer to as “the best of both worlds”… so why am I trying to change that?

And then there’s the thing that got me started on this whole topic. It’s the least important of all these things I’m trying to change, yet it was what God used (at least, what He used today) to give me a wake-up call today. It’s my mousy-brown, turning-gray, hair. I’ve hated the color since I was old enough to know I could change it. Isn’t that what causes us all so much trouble—the knowledge there we could have something better? (Not to mention the fact that I could obviously be doing a whole lot more *useful* stuff with the money I’ve spent on changing my hair color.) I’m not saying hair color is everyone’s issue, but it’s definitely one of mine. I think it just points to an underlying current of discontentment in my life.

So I told the stylist I wanted her to color me back to my natural color (yuck), to avoid the whole my-roots-are-showing scene. I’m not in love with it, but I’ll learn to live with it. Or, better put: I’m making the decision to be content with it… for now. I’m kinda hoping God waits until I’m *really* old to turn my hair completely gray… either that or we all get raptured before the gray makes its permanent home on my head. A girl can dream, can’t she?

Oh but in case that doesn’t happen, Proverbs 16:31 offers some encouragement: Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life. Seriously? Well, alrighty then .

Last Friday night, my kids’ school had a free family game night. For this particular game night, we played bingo. Seated next to us was a family who recently moved here from the Oregon. The mom commented that in Oregon, bingo is for occupants of retirement homes. Ha – not in Maryland! We love our games.

And lest you’re thinking of bingo being playing in those smoke-filled lodges or VFWs, think again. Basket bingos are typically held in a school cafeteria or church hall, and are definitely smoke free. Each game has a prize in the form of a Longaberger basket filled with various other sundries. (Families and local businesses sponsor each basket and fill them with whatever they wish. Sometimes you get a basket full of Mary Kay products. Other times a family will use a theme like “movie night” and fill the basket with related items.)

Basket bingos typically raise somewhere in the $4,000 – 5,000 range for the organization. Even in this recession, basket bingos held around here typically sell out. My daughters’ school is holding their annual fundraiser bingo on March 12. Tickets are $12, which gets you a stack of cards for the night’s games. There are plenty of other opportunities to drop some cash throughout the night, whether it’s on snacks, bingo dabbers (you mean you don’t have your own?!), or extra cards.

Next on the list of events no one else in the country apparently does is the bull roast. Wikipedia actually has a very brief page dedicated to explaining what this event entails, and then specifies it typically only occurs in the Maryland area. How wonderful that we are famous for this non-stop eating festival! Yes, a bull roast is basically a big all-you-can-eat buffet. You pay around $40 per person to benefit the sponsoring organization. Then you pig out (or is that cow out?) with your friends. My husband particularly loves the slight variation on this called “Bull and Oyster Roast” – he claims he once ate 25 raw oysters at one such event. Ewwww. (Sorry, Wyeth.) These events can raise anywhere from $5,000 – $10,000, depending on the size of the event.

So there you have it. If you’re not from Maryland, I’ve just helped you learn something new. Maybe you could help raise funds for your organization with one of these events? Enjoy .

Nicaragua is often mentioned in negative tones. A majority of the population lives on less than $2 per day. Education and health needs are always in a critical state of failure. Our current government has aligned itself with Hugo Chavez and others who are opposed to freedom and liberty. Our roads are full of potholes, fuel prices are high, running a simple errand can be exhausting and one’s car takes a beating here. Personal safety and protection is a major concern when you visit some neighborhoods. All of Managua’s trash is dumped into the lake of it’s own namesake. All of these concerns can lead one to ask, is there any hope? What about the things of God? What of the future? Is there something we can’t see in all of this?

Contrasting the obvious woes of this country with the good things of the United States is an easy task. North American roads are wonderful, well planned and clearly marked. You never see an armed guard stationed outside of a pharmacy or grocery store. Even though the U.S. is in a recession, restaurants are full, football games are sold out and the average salary is really good compared to here. Most lawns are manicured, each home has running water and indoor plumbing, lots of food in the pantry, the freezer is full and the electrical grid is stable. The average family has two cars. In general, everything is very organized. Leading one to think, these people have the kingdom of God! But, is there something lacking in all of these good things?

This leads to a concluding question, which country is more spiritually free? Nicaragua has voted consistently to keep abortion illegal – it is considered murder here. Each September, the Day of the Bible is celebrated. There are many parades and public readings of the Holy Scriptures – Genesis through Revelation. Easter is our most cherished holiday! Businesses and schools are prayed over for God’s blessings. If you took a poll on the street asking the question, “Who is Lord?” The overwhelming reply would be Jesus Christ.

In North America the Bible has been taken out of schools and special permits are needed to even talk about God in schools and in the workplace. Abortion is America’s holocaust and is the slaughter of the innocents. Christians have been forced to keep their religion private. If you went to a local mall and asked the question, “Who is Lord?” I would imagine for every ten questions you would get ten different answers.

Maybe part of the answer to this dichotomy could be that even though North America seems to have the physical aspects of the kingdom of God, they have forgotten their King! Nicaragua, a nation battered, bruised and classified as a third-world country, but she still remembers her King. In this there is much hope for this nation. The future belongs to the people of God.

- The Buzbee Family

The show picks up a few days before Lux’s 16th birthday, as she meets her birth parents for the first time in an attempt to seek emancipation from the foster care system. (Somehow they never actually signed away their rights permanently some 15 years ago, but let’s suspend belief on that part for a few minutes.)

The judge at the emancipation hearing essentially tells her to try to make things work with her birth parents now that they are back in her life, given that she has no source of income or permanent housing. It’s all a bit far-fetched, but yet somehow I found myself sucked into the story pretty quickly. In fact… I might even admit to shedding a few tears over the whole thing. (Anyone who knows me, knows how much foster kids can pull at my heart-strings.)

Although the whole “get-back-with-your-birth-parents-15-years-later” story is out there, the fact is there are tons of teenage kids caught in the foster care system without any real sense of permanency. Aside from being entertaining, I hope this show can help shed some light on the need for families for these kids. In the meantime, I will be tuning in each Monday night to see how things turn out for Lux.

For me, that has happened too many times. So now, I avoid calling customer service lines like the plague, preferring instead to submit questions or comments via email or online chat sessions.

But a new trend seeks to rectify this situation, as well as to provide jobs to Americans working from home in their pink bunny slippers. Check out this Forbes.com article to learn more.