Pre Mother's Day Musings by Rottie

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I have been doing a lot of reflecting the last few days. Maybe because my own mom hasn't been with me since 1991 or perhaps because I am not going to be with my own adult children. Either way, both my mother and my kids have been on my mind a lot this week.

I miss my mom. Some day's I miss her more than others, but she is always in my heart. I have her wedding photo over my dresser and I will admit, I often talk to it. She left when I was almost 30, a victim to lung cancer like so many of her generation. Those cigarettes that looked so glamorous on television and were everywhere eventually did her in.

So many days I wish she was still here to counsel and guide me, and then I recall how often we fought over things. In some ways I have become her despite my best efforts not to and in many ways I am different. Not better necessarily but different all the same. I have a tolerance of cultural differences that she didn't have. She couldn't help it, it was how she was brought up and how society looked at things back in her days. She lived through the Great Depression, and segregation and of course WWII. She lost her father, my grandfather at age 16 and had to help raise her two younger brothers. I can't even imagine what that must have been like.
She like everyone else, had her skeletons and dark secrets, but she kept them to herself and I rarely saw anything come to the surface.

She would be so proud of her children, grandchildren and now great grandchildren. She would love my grandson Isaiah who is half black and half Italian, Irish, German and Scottish. Even though my mother had her prejudices she always put her family first. I remember when I wanted to "date" ( we were about 12) the boy across the street and she told me to stick to my own kind. Little did she know that we dated for a whole 3 or 4 weeks lol. I am sad that she didn't see any of the younger grandkids grow up into the wonderful adults that they are, and that she didn't get to meet any of her great grandchildren either.

It is tough being a mom. I used to get so angry at my mom and often told her to mind her own business. I never realized how much that hurt until my own children said the same to me. Even when our kids are adults we worry about them. When they are going through a rough patch we want to fix it for them. We hate seeing our children unhappy and will go balls to the wall against anyone that hurts them. I realize now as I reflect back on my life that I put my mother through hell. I guess it is just the way it is supposed to be though. We push them to the edge of the nest and they begin to take flight. Soon they are off on their own with their own little ones to raise and the cycle continues.

So, Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mom's out there. We are the warriors of our families and the nurses, advisors, bank ( lol) confidants and worlds of our children. I hope each of you is appreciated, loved and respected as you should be.

Rottie

Mother's Day 1988 when we first found out about Mom's cancer. She is the center one in purple. I am the very pregnant one on the far right. Sadly we lost Dad first in 1989 also to cancer.

Wiped Out...Yep it finally happened to me!

I kept hearing about my reviewing friends getting wiped out by Amazon. These were good and decent reviewers that, like me, used their products and wrote detailed honest reviews. I sympathized with each one as they posted their status on Facebook and then ran to check my own account to make sure it was still there. Each time breathing a huge sigh of relief that I was still standing.

Yesterday, Amazon came for me. I checked my reviews in the morning to make sure the photos that I had posted the day before had uploaded. Everything was as it should be, so I emailed my seller the permalink so they could see my work. Then I just went about my day as normal. Had to deal with an oven that decided to quit on me ( another story), clean my house and do my laundry. Typical day off types of things that I do when I am home.

Last night I received an email back from the seller. He informed me that the permalink I gave him was no good and that the review was not on his product page. I ran over to Amazon's website to check and make sure everything was as it should be, but it wasn't. Everything was gone! Just my profile introduction and photo was there! No reviews, no helpful votes ( I had over 1,800) just a bunch of zero's! I stared at it for a moment and then let it sink in. I had joined the ranks of wiped reviewers.

It hurts, I will admit it. I tried to tell myself last night that I knew it was coming. I mean so many good reviewers before me have been wiped and Amazon is cracking down on fake reviews. Us honest ones are just a casualty of the war on fakes. More and more people are complaining that the reviewers that receive free or discounted items are biased, and some are I am sure, so Amazon is getting rid of us slowly and methodically. Soon it will all be verified purchases only, but sellers will figure out a way to get around that to improve their rankings. When one door closes they will find another one.

I am depressed and it comes and goes. I feel like I was fired from a job. I wrote good reviews and I always left a disclaimer. I used each and every product and was honest about how I felt they performed. If they deserved a 1 star rating, they got it and if they deserved a 5 they got that too. I reviewed days after I received the product and I didn't review more than 3 or 4 things a day. I played by their rules and they wiped me. I will get over it. It is just a review site. I had a good run of a year and I got to try some awesome items and give my opinion on them. I will continue to use Amazon as I have quite a lot of credit still on my account and I am not going to waste it. It just was kind of a shock to me.

Beautiful cubic zirconia earrings that I got.

I received these earrings at no cost for my review but all opinions are entirely my own

I was approached by Alamazza to review their beautiful cubic zirconia stud earrings. I was so happy that I did because they are gorgeous! I have owned and wore many pair of zirconia stud earrings, and most times they are either too small or too large for my taste. These are large, but not too large or heavy.

 The stones are high quality and the faceted cutting really makes the stones catch the light and sparkle. They are gold plated, but because they are silver in color it leads me to believe that they are white gold plated rather than yellow gold. The posts are long in length which I love. I hate when posts are short because they end up pinching my ears and hurting me. I wore these earrings to work for over 11 hours and forgot they were in my ears. They are that comfortable.

 The setting is well made and the lattice work around the stone is an open design. I like this because it shows off more of the stones and helps them to catch the light more. I also have to say that because I have sensitive ears I was a bit nervous in wearing them, however even after being in my ears for over 11 hours, they were not irritating. I think they will work well for those like me who have sensitive skin or allergies.

These earrings are available at Amazon for purchase and would make a lovely gift for yourself or someone you love. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DPJ62U4