Man, we've never needed so many darn batteries until this year. I swear every toy the kids got had batteries not included in it. That should've been something that we'd notice before hand. We didn't so we currently have a few toys that still can't be played with. UGH.

Batteries needed for 6 Remote Control Cars:
The kids ended up with a total of 6 remote control cars, which means Santa had brought them each one and we bought daddy one. Of course, I couldn't tell them that some of the relatives would buy daddy one because I'd have to explain one more child would get one.

Walking Barbie Pony and Ballerina Barbie Doll still need batteries. This is the Barbie that teaches kids to do Ballet as well. This also has the wrist bands that need it. I needed AAA instead of 9V and AA. UGH

Two Cameras, both needed batteries, CD player, alphabet Train Station and the Little People's Preschool.

I could've become rich this year if I would've just bought stock in the darn battery companies. :) How about you? Did you end up with lots of toys that needed batteries? Grandpa even brought over a pack of 36 AAs which are all gone and a pack of 8 9V.

Labels: 9V, AA, AAA, ballerina Barbie doll, barbie, barbie horse, batteries, christmas, christmas presents, duracell, RC, remote control cars, toys

I ran outside barefoot in order to grab something out of the truck. That's when I did it...I stepped right on top of a sharp rock (pebble, something) and I felt it with my heel. It ended up being a piece of glass, however I wouldn't know this until much later. Oh man does this ever hurt, I figured it hurt so bad because it was in the heel and I probably bruised it pretty bad. It wasn't the first time I had done this, and probably wouldn't be the last.

I never checked on my foot until about an hour later. I was cleaning the house and finally sat on the couch to take a break, it was about 5 or 6 a.m. I looked around the house to see what was left to clean and I spotted lots of red footprints. I wondered if I'd stepped on a ketchup somewhere and upon closer look I noticed it wasn't ketchup. Quickly looking at my foot I discovered the blood. I'd been bleeding for that last hour and leaving tracks throughtout my house. I quickly called the hubby in case he arrived home from work in case he saw any that I missed and explained I was fine, had stepped on something and cut my heel open. Man talk about being a clutz right?

This was only one day before I'd hurt myself again, I swear I always hurt myself when I'm pregnant. It's like I have this magnet that pulls me into accident zones. This time I was in Golden Corral (yes, we eat there a lot), my youngest is going through her potty training time and kept saying she had to pee. Immediately I'd grab her, run to the bathroom and leave without her going. I got tired, forgot to look around and this time when we were exiting the stall I got hooked. Yep, hooked. You know on the back of those doors are the clothes hooks to keep your jacket or purse on. It reached out and grabbed my arm, my arm was stuck and I didn't think about it and jerked it free. This only made it worse. My VERY red mark turned purple within minutes. This was Christmas eve, today it is green, blue and purple. Same arm I got the shot so the pain is once again there. UGH

See how accident prone I am? Maybe later I'll talk about crashing my bike three times last school year. Granted I wasn't pregnant but still.

Are you a clutz?

Labels: accident, arms, blood, broken glass, clutz, feet, pregnant

I'm a homemom and love getting free stuff, I also have a site online where I review books I've read. In return most of the author's send me their books as a thank you and hope for a good review. I must admit, not all the time are they happy with the reviews, but they never ask for the books back and it adds to my growing library.

You may and may not have heard, but Microsoft is doing something similar and there is a huge debate going on throughout the blogosphere on it. Microsoft is sending popular bloggers an email asking them to review their products and are willing to part with their Ferrari 1000s and 5000s. These are more their review laptops but still very nice to own. Not everyone agrees with this idea though, I'm not 100% why.

Some believe it is Microsoft's way of bribing them, but if they aren't telling you to write a positive review I can't see that being the case. I am looking at it as their way of getting more products out there in the blogosphere for people to talk about and generate word-of-mouth. After all isn't that what the world has come to? People learn about products on the television and blogs. Not to mention even if it was a bad review people would still want to find out for themselves and it could also drive traffic to their website. It's a win-win situation for Microsoft and a win for bloggers that agree to have the laptops sent to them. See Vista is coming out in less than a month and of course Microsoft needs people to be able to review the product. If a person doesn't have the computer that is compatable how can they say yeah or nah on it?

I've also read that Microsoft is allowing the blogger to keep the computer forever, or return it after the reviews. I'm not sure if they are letting them keep these computers for free of after the review they plan on charging them. Maybe Microsoft can answer that question. But to me, it sounds like a nice PR scheme and a great review gift to receive...I didn't get the email though so I guess I'll be reading what other reviewers think about the product.

How has your luck been with Microsoft? I, myself love the company at least Microsoft Word, that's my favorite thing to use when writing. I know there are many other things out there but that's the one I use the most. I've had bad luck with one company though...DELL and let's just say I'll save that for another post. But never tell me a computer can't blow up, they can.

I say as long as it is free and they don't REQUIRE a positive review it gets a thumbs up. Especially for those of us that probably would never discover the product or just don't have that kind of money to spend on it.

Labels: blog reviewers, blogosphere, bribing, microsoft, microsoft ferrari 1000, microsoft ferrari 5000, reviews, rewarding, windows vista

Nope I didn't win anything but it sure was fun posting the things I learned this year and hope to accomplish next year. Where are yours?

Here are the winners and their prizes: (feel free to stop by and leave them a message)

30GB iPod Video for Top 10 Ugliest Sneakers of 2006donated by Poker on a Mac.

$100 and a book from Dave from Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support and The Intuitive Life Business Blog for 101 Blog Tips I learned in 2006.

Web hosting package worth $240 for Top 10 “Crzy” Tech Gifts donated by Thrive Web Marketing.

Rob wins a $100 Amazon voucher from DeveloperCube for Looking Ahead in Homebrewing.

2 free passes (worth $349 each) to eMoms at Home coaching course in January for his post Ooh, baby, baby it's a wired world; but what is going to change in residential real estate in the next 12 months? Almost nothing . . .

The Nintendo Wii for his post Top 8 YouTube Videos of 2006 donated by 451 Press.

$100 cash or $500 in advertising credit from bloglinkr for Six Moments that Changed My Foodie Life in 2006.

$100 cash from The Blogging Times for A Blogosfera Brasileira de 2006.

$100 gift card from giftcertificates.com for Why We'll Fork Over $15.00 to Hear Britney's New CD in 2007 donated by Rob Schaumer.

$100 cash for Baby Name Stock Market: My Picks for 2006. Donated by Information for Her Australia for Australian Women.

Labels: 2006, blog contest, contest, predictions, preditions 2007, problogger, problogger contest, problogger.net, reviews

had struck the house. The house itself was silent, nothing stirred. The children, believe it or not were all tucked in their beds. I couldn't help but wonder, what mystery might occur. For this was not usual for my three munchkins.

I had one that would stay up way past her bedtime and sneak into my room every single night. Of course being three this can be ignored, but not on a night that Santa would occur. On this particular night, she went straight to her bed, told me she had to sleep in her own little bed or Santa would not come. I imagined at one point I'd see her sneaking to my room, but she stayed there all night, not a whimper was heard.

My second late-night munchkin, he never came in. Never once did he try sneaking into my room to turn on my t.v. or play the video games. Yes, he was known to do this, figuring momma would sleep through anything with that pregnant belly making her tired all the time. But once again, he stayed in bed, in fact was asleep by nine.

The third was easy for she normally goes straight there, however she had to get her ten minutes of talking back and forth with her brother. I could hear them in the hallways talking loud enough that the other could hear in the next room, asking what Santa would bring. But shortly there was silence and I sneaked into each room, all were asleep probably dreaming of the same thing.

A door was knocked and a phone began to ring. Santa had stopped early to bring by everything. I worried this would wake the oldest, ya know the one that sneaks in for video games, but not a chance. He slept right through the night and had to be woken by his little sister because she anxiously waited to head down the stairs.

I must admit, I worried all throughout the night that somehow the kids would wake as Santa was unloading. But it never did happen and I barely slept a wink. An hour after I slept I had two little girls sneaking in, about an hour later, they would wake their brother and we'd all run down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.

Santa left a mess, or I should say the kids did in their surprise. Boxes were ripped open and left laying on their sides, toys half out of boxes and paper everywhere. What was I do to, clean up was everywhere. Late last night, once I came home, I went straight to bed. So the mess still lays in the wake and I'll hopefully get to it sometime this week.

Okay this was unusual way of writing but I wanted to show, Santa did come this year. He brought many presents, as well as family gifts from all over the US. Now I must figure out my new toy so I can upload the pics.

Labels: chaos, christmas, presents, santa, the night before christmas, xmas

I was asked which sandboxes I frequent, so I'll list the top three and tell ya a little about each one. At least the little amount I know, as two of them I only frequent certain rooms.

Every morning once I check my email I head over to my favorite sandboxes to see who is playing and possibly which ones have any job leads or blogging leads. The first one I stop at is WAHM Forum, which I normally only frequent two categories and those are: Bloggers and WAHMs Who Writes, so if you ever see me in there drop me a message. I also love reading new blogs so feel free to let me know in the comments area here that you have one.

The second place I glance at is Mommy Jobs Forum and yes I said I glance in, there isn't a whole lot of action in there lately so I just see if anyone is chatting. If they are I leave a message. WAHMs Who Like to Write will list any jobs they can find as well as questions.

Last, my frequent hide-out and this is the place I spend lots of time throughout the day is MomGadget. I'm sure you've heard me mention this place at least once a week as this is where I sign up for all those fun blog carnivals. But that's not all it is, this is a message board that gives advice, shares secrets on how everyone is making money blogging, in fact Gayla actually a five figure blogger. That's my goal. :)

What's your favorite sandboxes to play in?

Labels: five figure blogger, forums, make money, message boards, momgadget, mommyjobs, sandboxes, wahm, writers

Yesterday I was tagged by Clutzy's Clutzes and here are my 5 Things you didn't know about me. I think this little game has gone around the world by now, I've seen it numerous times on other blogs. Now I finally get my turn. :)

#1- I have a tattoo, many people would never believe this about me but it is true. I got it once I turned 26. Oh, for those wondering it is on my right shoulder blade...a frog (kind of like the WB frog) that is standing upright in a Jester's outfit.

#2- Here is another thing many would be surprised with, get ready. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 26, and I mean that literally..it was the day after I turned 26. It is a long story, but the shortened version when I finally tried learning to drive something would always come up. Social security number didn't match because we were married, newborn in the backseat and I burned out the clutch, person suppose to teach me to drive broke his hip and that was just a few of the things that would happen. I gave up basically, husband went to Iraq when I was pregnant with number 3 and I almost gave birth at home because no ride or sitter. I decided when he did get home I'd learn no matter what.

#3- I'm a military brat, that's right I grew up in the Air Force. My dad stayed in the full 20, retired and we lived offbase at this point where I met my husband. He graduated high school and signed up for the Marines, I would later date him again and eventually we would get married. So, I've been military my entire life, I have no clue what I'd do if I wasn't military.

#4- As many of you know I'm pregnant with number four now. He's a boy and yes his name is already picked out. The thing you don't know is that all my births have been under an hour or less, each one faster than the last. The first three births were horrible in the beginning with all that nasty morning sickness, this one has been a blessing. However, that scares me and I'm more afraid to give birth this time around than I ever have been. I also keep thinking that I've broken the birth record of the last baby each time, so does that mean I'm delivering a pizza this time? 30 minutes or your money back? Hey, ya gotta have some humor right?

#5- Another fun topic nicknames. Okay, this is going to be a deep secret. Yes, of course I have a nickname but it is NEVER to be repeated. hehe. Ready? LIZARD, yep that little creature that flies across the ground almost unseen. I grew up with that nickname all through school, which is probably why I changed my name to a longer version once I got married.

Anything else ya'll want to know about me? Ask away, this was fun. Now I must tag five different people: Char at Casual Keystrokes, Gayla at MomGadget, Delphine at LIFE Salad, Jersey Girl, and Kris at Blogging for Money.

Labels: 5 things you didn't know about me, birth, blogging for money, driver's license, military, nicknames, pregnancy, tattoo

I know I'm sure that title caught ya offguard right? Imagine my surprise on Sunday Morning when I thought I'd go xmas shopping and hit up some sales in the paper. Guess it wasn't my time to shop.

At first I arrived at my destination around 6 a.m. but it wasn't open like the paper said, instead someone left the keys the night before and they had to wait for a manager to come open the store. This took about an hour. During this time I drove thru Burger King to get some breakfast, hey it was my mommy time why not. ;) I waited just like a few other customers in the parking lot.

Finally around 7:30 they opened the doors and let a few of us in. Once inside myself and another customer noticed a jewelry display case that had been broken into. Uh oh was my first thought. There were no sirens or anything to that nature, the manager called it in and let us shop in the meantime. Yes, we actually walked through the store before they looked around. It was kind of strange walking around the store knowing someone had probably broke in, thoughts of him/her still being in there crossed my mind but I tried hard to dismiss them.

That is until the manager announced over the intercom we had to come to the front of the store and explained the cops advised no one to shop until it was searched in case he/she was still inside. Talk about getting the chills up my spine. They asked me to stick around outside so I could give my statement. In the end I never did get to go shopping, instead I wrote my statement and went home. I even told the hubby I didn't want to finish shopping he could. For those worrying, yes it was scary but I did go back monday and get a few items, he was outside the whole time.

Labels: breakin, christmas, christmas shopping, cops, free holiday ideas, holiday shopping, presents

I must start off by saying this post was inspired by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger has decided to challenge his readers to a "Predictions and Reviews for 2007." Here is mine:

Things I Did in 2006
At the beginning of this year I only had one blog (Dreams to Come True) and not many were commenting on it. I heard that some stay-at-home moms were actually making money off their blogs and this sounded like a really neat plan. I decided to try, even ventured out and created a new blog..this one. This one is mainly because I found out I was pregnant and figured why not blog about it. I thought it would be something that would happen within the first two months, it didn't. Later I would discover a forum, (MomGadget) this site would be the thing that turned my luck around and started teaching me what I was doing wrong. This is when I would begin to read blogs like: Problogger, Shoe Money, MomGadget, Blogging for Money, Essential KeyStrokes and John Chow.

The Blogging World in 2006
Many of us watched as celebrities gave birth, tried writing books and even got married. We didn't just watch them on the news though, for us bloggers the internet is the only way to get the scoop. Heck, by the time it reaches the national broadcast we already know about it. The blogging world has shown us that you can get information just as fast, so why wait for it. Get online and look it up.

Hot Celebrity Couple for 2006 was TomKat. (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes) Fans watched the pregnancy, pondering whether or not it was fake, some even suggested that it was an alien baby. Then once the prized child was born they put her in hiding until the day Vanity Fair would have pictures of her, only a month or two before the wedding. After the wedding, fans would see this bundle of joy just about everywhere mommy went.

Celebrity Run Down for 2006 (in no particular order)
- TomKat get pregnant, give birth, get married.
- Nicole Kidman gets married, Keith goes to Rehab.
- Lindsay Lohan hurts arm (lots), tries suicide, gets on AA.
- Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt have Little Shiloh, pictures go to highest bidder. The happy couple becomes wax figures in a museum.
- Britney Spears gives birth, everyone mistakes child's name, Kevin&Brit divorce, Brit is seen everywhere with no undies, Brit stops hanging with Paris.
- Madonna adopts a baby, lots of drama here and now it looks like marriage is in trouble.

A website known as TMZ would be the first to let everyone know about documents they had found as to the name of the celebrity babies as well as upcoming divorces the celebrities filed. But this was just the celebrity side of the blogosphere, and yes I did join in. (EntertainUs News)

Fortune 500 Companies
Businesses began to realize how important the blogging world had became and has actually started doing their own blogging communities. I guess we'll see next year how that turns out for them.

My Predictions for the Blogging world In 2007
That's simple, there will be that much more. We already read the local newspapers online and watch the news on it, now more and more people will be writing about it on their blogs. It'll just be put in their own words and why not, isn't the news how we interpret it anyways? Toys will be another thing, of course there will be blogs and blogs about toys but the key thing will be the toys will be geared more towards the internet. I've already started to see this and I can expect it to go much younger. I also believe more companies like PPP (Payperpost) will come out of the wood works and continue as long as bloggers are willing to place the ads on their website, and hey if it adds to your income why not.

Predictions for Myself
I'm giving birth in March, 2007 and that is my main goal. This will be the fourth addition to our family and I can't wait to start adding more to the blog as the adventures I'm sure to have. Many say that once you have two it is the same as having three and four. But one thing they forget to mention and don't realize is that things change, not only who is bunking in what room but depending on how many cars you have. hehe. You get the drift. So, maybe I can earn enough to start paying some bills and getting a few extra fun things for the kids and maybe even myself. Now I doubt I'll buy a car with my blogging money, at least not in 2007 but who knows about 2008. :) What are your predictions?

Labels: blogging, blogosphere, preditions 2007, problogger

Over at The Instigator Blog, Ben has hosted a blog carnival on "what you learned through blogging this year." What a topic right? This opens up so many different topics, I know I can't wait to start reading them, but first I must tell ya'll what I've learned.

#1 - Persistance does pay off- Okay, as you know I've been blogging for a while but I was one of those that thought I'd start seeing money right away. The truth is I didn't, but I stuck with it and I'm slowly making money. That's not the only good news, some new blogger friends of mine took some time to make money as well and now they are making 5-6 figure incomes a month. Not bad right?

#2 - Promote your blog- How is your blog going to take off if you don't let others know that it is out there. Out of all honesty I thought that once my blog was set up the company that hosted it, for instance blogspot, would do it. Instead you must actually get word out. Place your blog at the end of your emails so that whenever you send out something everyone sees it and hopefully visits. Or put it in the search engines, this tends to get a lot of traffic.

#3 - Get traffic- I learned and am still learning on how to drive traffic to my site. The number one thing I'd tell someone is to comment on other blogs. When someone comments on my blog I actually visit their link. On blogs that I visit on a daily basis I tend to view some of the other comment blogs.

#4 - Join blogging carnivals and forums- This doesn't just drive traffic to your site but helps you in so many more ways. Ever get writer's block? Blogging carnivals will help you overcome that. Forums are great places to ask those questions that you never would've asked on an open blog.

#5 - I learned all types of different ways to make money on my blog. From paid postings to adsense and how to place them on your site. I'm still learning where to put them on the site, hope you can bare with the learning system I'm going through. But as for ways to make money, here are a few companies that I do make money from: Reviewme, Payperpost, blogvertise, blogitive and chacha. If you ever have questions on these companies feel free to ask.

As you can see, I've learned a lot this year and only did up to number 5. I never posted on my favorite blogs or blogs you should read, I'll save that for another post. Now if you are like me and like to see someone give something to charity, right now if you join in on this blog carnival, Ben is going to donate $5 per blog posting. Come on you can do it. :)

I hope you found this entry a bit helpful to you bloggers that want to learn about making money or how to add something to your site. Hope the ending of 2006 is a great one.

Labels: blogging, earn money, instigatorblog, make money, payperpost, reviewme, what I learned

Payperpost.com has finally decided to make all their posts to include full disclosure. So, now when you come upon a PPP ad it must state that it is indeed an ad, not just a journal or blog entry. Those that don't disclose this will be booted out or won't get paid for that particular ad.

This should please many out there that were afraid that PPP just didn't care to share with their readers that they were writing ads the whole time. TechCrunch who normally is totally against anything PPP does just wrote an applaud to PPP for finally doing something right.

I do wonder if this didn't come from the recent site Reviewme.com where all their bloggers had to state it was a paid review. Many of the bloggers admitted that it was a good thing to let their readers know ahead of time, so they didn't feel cheated. Either way, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Now if I could just sign in when they are posting the ads with the highest pay.

For instance, if I had signed in at the right time, this entry would be a paid entry. Currently I'm writing this on my own and just updating my readers.

Labels: ads, full disclosure, paying ads, payperpost, ppp, techcrunch

An older man dressed in a red shirt, hat and blue jeans was kicked out of DisneyWorld recently....all because he looked like Santa Clause. I know some of you are wondering okay well what's up, there has to be more to it and there is.

J.D. Worley is a 60-year old man that does in fact look like Santa Clause, beard and all. He even has those rosy red cheeks we hear so much about in the stories. He went to DisneyWorld like anyone else, hoping to have a little bit of fun. Isn't that why everyone goes? Once he got there though, things would change. A group of younger kids followed him around, because they BELIEVED him to be Santa. Many families, store employees and kids asked to get their pictures taken with him. He saw no harm in it, why would it matter. It was something they believed, he was walking around shouting, "Ho ho ho, I'm Santa, blah blah blah."

Children did ask however if he was indeed Santa, in which he did tell them he was. I think this is just a man that couldn't harm the thoughts of little children. Why tell them no and have them run away crying.

This came to a screeching halt when Park Employees told him he must alter his appearance or leave the grounds. Was he suppose to shave off his beard? Get in some other shirt? I for one, have a husband that once he can will grow out a beard and will not shave it at any means. So, how did DisneyWorld think they'd tell ANY man to shave it off or leave? He did admit to wearing a red shirt and hat but everyone does around this season at the park, even the ones going just to ride the rides and explore it.

Will he go back? He says he is still upset but does plan on going back. My guess is it won't be around christmas ever again.

Labels: disney, DisneyWorld, j.d. worley, santa, santa clause

The class is going great, I really like the instructor and I believe I'm actually learning a bunch. Before you ask I'm learning about Microsoft Excell, Access and Publisher. Cool huh?

I'll miss SoccerBoy's performance this week, however hubby will make it so that makes me feel good. He normally has to miss it because of work. He came home with a progress report, getting better. Still needs help with writing, writes sloppy and tries shortcutting still. As for math, well he had an F last month, Nov 20 and two As this month. Well one was Nov 30th and the other Dec 5th, both were 90% so he's doing much better.

BalletGirl made a gingerbread house today, I did take a picture but haven't sent it to the computer yet. Will probably post that tomorrow. On the way home a little boy wanted her house, when she didn't give it up he kicked it and it broke to pieces. Little boy lives near me so (for the first time EVER) I went (with her and house) over to his house and told his mom. This was just something I couldn't stand and hope if my kids ever did this (They better NEVER do it) that the parent would tell me. I told his mom, she was upset with him and apologized. Asked if there was anything she could do, I said no but wanted her to know what he'd done. Within 10 minutes he was at my house with a can of frosting and crackers (graham) so she could rebuild it so she could show her daddy. I thought this was very sweet. It does show there are still parents that do get it.

Christmas party is this friday, I can't wait to see how that turns out. Santa won't be arriving in the hummer but he will be on the fire truck. Guess for the kids it only matters that he's there.

Labels: classroom parties, frosting, gingerbread, gingerbread houses, microsoft access, microsoft excell, microsoft publisher, santa, santa clause, school performances

Okay, maybe not everything here makes me want to pull my hair out but some do.

Shot Update: Arm seems to be finally cooling down, took four days for it though. Guess that'll be a lesson for me, I am NEVER EVER getting another flu shot. The pain is still there along with a knot, granted the redness has went down. I think I'll take my chances with the flu next time though, only reason I took it this time was because I'm pregnant and didn't want to deal with being sick.

BabyGirl seems to be coming down with the flu though. Figures right? I get her the shot because I don't want her getting sick and she gets sick, most likely because of the shot. :( Poor thing is all hot and sniffles.

Class- Remember that class I told ya I was taking, then I wasn't because no childcare. Well, the military let my hubby have mornings off so he could watch her and of course work at night. Well, good thing with her being sick huh? She gets very upset with me gone but it feels good to come home to that. :) I love seeing she actually misses me while I'm gone.

to be continued,

Labels: classroom parties, flu season, flu shot, microsoft, microsoft access, microsoft excell, microsoft publisher, shots

Wow! A toy sale and only days away from Christmas, well if you aren't finished shopping and still need some last minute items click the link.





FREE SHIPPING on orders $29 and up.
Coupon code: FREESHIP29
LIMITED TIME: Now until Friday Dec. 15
Dynamic sale banners (above) currently feature this special offer.
GIANT TOY SALE - Save up to 50% Off big toy brands.
No Coupon code necessary.
LIMITED TIME: Now until Sunday Dec. 17
No coupon code necessary. Link directly to Toys category page with this text link code for your site:

Giant Toy Sale at BabyCenter. Up to 50% off through Dec. 17.


Save up to $50 when you Shop by Dec. 19
Save $10 on orders of $50 or more.
Save $25 on orders of $150 or more.
Save $50 on orders of $250 or more.
Coupon code: HOLIDAY50

LIMITED TIME: Saturday Dec. 16 until Tuesday Dec. 19

Labels: ads, babycenter, sales, toy sale

Friday- I took BalletGirl out of school for a few hours so I could get her flu shot. This is something I've never done. No, I'm not meaning taking her out of school because since she started kindergarten (she's now in 1st grade) the nurse is always calling, even for a cough for me to come get her. Last year, BalletGirl had to be on a nebulizer because she kept getting sick and it was hard for her to breath. This time, I plan on making her healthy as best I can.

BalletGirl decided she wanted the flu shot first, so brave she was even after she saw the big needle. Of course this was a big mistake as I planned to get both girls done, plus myself. BabyGirl didn't want it done after she saw her sister, so I went up hoping to show her it was okay. This just scared her more and by the time it was her turn she was already in tears for she had seen the needle. I had to hold her down as she screamed as loud as she could. This is strange for her because normally she will sit through all shots, but not this time. Both ended up with stickers which didn't seem to please BabyGirl, at least not until daddy said to go get them an ice cream each. Hmmm, that did it.

The flu shot, well lets just say that BalletGirl went back to school after lunch and was just fine. BabyGirl, haha, she was angrier than anything I'd seen before and just wanted to curl up on the couch and be left alone. She stayed there all day, even went to sleep there. Myself, well I was sore, not really sure why since the girls had no reaction. It's been two days and I noticed yesterday that the area that the needle was poked into is a red bump, below that (about a finger space) is another red bump that is slightly bigger. At the touch they are very hot. Is this normal?

Saturday- Oh you can just say I tried taking the kids to see the Santa Clause 3 movie but failed. By the time we got up there (30 minutes prior) the line snaked around the theater. I was so not waiting in line with three kids. We went to CiCi's Pizza instead and the kids ate so much food there so that was a good thing. Once home, I went fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday after Nap: Guess what I awake too? haha, you will love this. Apparently at some point BabyGirl had lifted my shirt over my belly and was talking with her baby brother (inside the womb), she does this often and normally says hi and walks away. However it seemed that he responded back and the two older sisters (6 years old and 3 years old) decided to play with him. They would tap one side of the belly and wait for him to kick there and do it again. I woke to them actually placing items on my tummy and watching him kick them off. So, my belly has become a game land for the kids while I'm sleeping, thankfully and somehow I didn't wake up to all this until the end.

Labels: baby games, flu season, flu shot, flu shot reaction, kicking, kids, pregnancy, santa clause 3, school, sicknesses

It's blog carnival time over at Gadget Mom forums, aka The Red Hot Bloggers.

Holiday Traditions - Do you have a holiday tradition that has been in your family for years? Have you started one yourself with your own kids?

This will probably be short as I'm doctoring a 3 year old that got her flu shot today and she's VERY mad at me. But for me, every year we make a Growing Reindeer, which is used by tracing the hands and one foot. The foot is used as the reindeer's head and the hands are his antlers. Plus, right before 25 days of christmas the kids and I will make a countdown chain and each link has something for us to do that day. As Christmas draws near we get ready by preparing our holiday menu, very much like our Halloween Menu but Christmas Style. We aren't anywhere near family so we don't get any visitors around this time of year. Christmas eve is spent watching every christmas movie I can think of, drinking hot chocolate with LOTS of marshmallows and baking cookies for santa.

One tradition I forgot to mention...we aren't your typical wait until christmas to open presents. Instead we kind of start this 5 days before Christmas, no we aren't hanukkah or any other religion, this is just something we've always done. You can say it's because when SoccerBoy was younger we couldn't wait to see the look on his face and we've kept it since then. By Christmas Eve all gifts have been open, except for those family members sent and Santa's gifts. Told ya it was different.

Happy Holidays ya'll and don't forget to stop by MomI'mBored's website and check out the holiday tradtions carnival.

What are some of your favorite Christmas Traditions?

Labels: blog carnival, christmas movies, christmas traditions, cookies, holidays, momgadget, presents, reindeer, santa

A Mom from S.Carolina actually had her 12 year old son arrested for opening up a Christmas Gift. Yes, this was actually his christmas gift and my guess is he knew what it was. The gift in question that brought on all this trouble...a Game Boy Advance. Reports say that he was handcuffed and taken to the station where he was charged with petty larceny charges and had to wait there until his mother came to pick him up. OUCH! That'll follow him around for a while. Now before you feel to bad for this boy apparently just last month he actually punched a police officer. It makes me wonder how much this mother put up with before finally giving in and showing him she would actually call the police if he did one more thing wrong.

What would you have done? Lets just say he has been in trouble left and right and not listening. I think he'll at least think twice before disobeying his mom again.

Labels: 12 year old arrested, arrest, arrested, christmas, christmas gift, handcuffed, petty larceny, police officer

Anyone out there with kids? Kids in school? Kids getting ready to have Christmas....wait, that's not the word anymore, Holiday parties?

First thing I want to talk about is the phrase. When did "Christmas Party" get replaced with "Holiday Party" or "Winter Party?" I remember still saying Christmas Party when I was a child in school and I don't think I'm that old but will about it's been 10 years. I told my dad yesterday about my kids' doing holiday parties and even he corrected me saying, "I don't care they are still Christmas parties." I totally agree with him because that's what it is.

BalletGirl's class is making a Gingerbread house on Thursday the 14th and on the 15th she's going to be all hypered up with sugar because of the Christmas Party in her class. Akkk! That's fine, she's not the only one having one. Later that night, I'm taking them all to that Christmas Party I've been helping plan for the military. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

SoccerBoy's school is not doing on as far as I know, however I'll probably get a letter sent home next week telling me what I need to bring. This is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to school. Don't tell me at last minute or I may not do it. However, he does do a performance at school next week on the 13th. I'm not sure about BalletGirl.

I've told everyone that I'd get to see Santa arrive in a Hummer, things had to change and it'll be a fire truck. I'm sure the kids will be just as happy as long as he is at the Christmas Party. But man I would've loved to have seen that.

Does anyone know what this movie, "All The King's Men" is about? My hubby asked if it was medieval (sp) and I honestly wasn't sure.

Have ya seen Santa Clause 3? Did you like it? I want to go as soon as it shows on base, yes I know it is showing out in town already however it'll only cost me $2-$3 to see it here plus snacks. Hmm, which would you do?

As for holiday shopping, I've done quite a bit but forgot one VERY big thing.....Stocking Stuffers. Oops, gotta go back out this upcoming week or order from ebay. Any recommendations?

Oh over at WonderMom she does a giveaway every Tuesday. This past week it was a Doodlebops giveaway, while ya'll know I'm nuts about this I had to try. But she also told us that the Doodlebops website does a giveaway every day, so if your child loves them head over there for your chances of winning.

Labels: christmas parties, fire trucks, holiday parties, hummers, santa, santa clause, santa clause 3, school, school performances, stocking stuffers

Okay this is actually from my first post, however blogger wouldn't let me post it all.

Yesterday, both kids came home with a stack of papers...some were volunteer forms and the other were "We are having a party, please check what you can bring." Well, I won't be volunteering this year, besides being pregnant I've already got a ton of stuff to do. As for the bring stuff, we'll see. Did I tell you we also must pay $15 for SoccerBoy to go on a field trip. Ikk, never heard of that before, I thought the school always paid for that. Oh and if we'd like to volunteer for that it is $15 for us too, needless to say, I won't be attending.

Okay, now for a few little deals I noticed in my inbox. Did you know that currently Leapfrog is having a 25% off sale? Yep, so hurry over and get those few things you forgot to get during Cyber Monday and Black Friday. The Gap is having a 30% off sale.

Last, I just wanted to share that I did get paid my $100 for the two reviews I did over at reviewme.com, so if you were waiting to hear that someone got paid it has happened. Another source of income has been, chacha.com and payperpost.com.

Hope ya'll have a nice day!

Labels: black friday, chacha, classroom parties, cyber monday, gap, leapfrog, parties, payperpost, reviewme

Update for the week, well the entries at Mommy Bloggers are up and they are really funny to read. Stop by and see which ones you like the best.

Since we are on the subject of writing, I'd like to take this chance to ask you to visit my newest gig, Military families. That's right I'm writing over at Families.com now and would LOVE some feedback and comments. Please help me get this started.

This week has been pretty busy for school projects, BalletGirl (she's 6) was given a science project to do. She had to make a catapult with us, now I must say this was no easy task and honestly we weren't even sure if it was what we thought the teacher meant.

"Make a catapult that you can launch at moving target." My husband's first comment, "Catapults didn't launch at moving targets, they were meant to hit walls and knock down things. If they hit a moving target that was just luck." I, myself wouldn't know, I never really cared much for history and am only starting to get into it. Kind of funny how my worst subject in school has become a favorite now as an adult and I really wish I had learned half the stuff I've been teaching myself.

The items that we could use to make this: plastic bags, egg or milk cartons, tape, cereal box, popsicle sticks, wood, nails, shoes, ikk. But you get the drift. We had no clue what it was she was really wanting and went online. The only one we could find were the ones made of wood, that kind of represented what hubby had originally told me. Aways they began to work, they both had a lot of fun. Here's the picture:

Labels: catapult, children, classroom parties, contest, families, military, military families, mommybloggers, parties, school, school projects, science, spouses

Last week I mentioned a few contests that I had signed up for, but I forgot to mention one so I'm going to do it now.

Currently Mommy Bloggers has a contest for their one year anniversary. I won last week, a $25 GC to amazon, I got to choose the prize. There is another contest this week so don't miss out, you follow the link and answer two questions. Not hard right? I can't wait to read the stories that go with these entries.

Keep in mind all those gift certificates and prizes you win this month will make great holiday spending money or stocking stuffers. ;)

Labels: $25, bloggers, contest, gift certificates, mommy, mommybloggers, moms, prizes

Nope, we aren't tipping over blogs and this has nothing to do with cows.

Easton over at the Business Blogwire has come up with an idea called blogtipping, actually I'm not sure if he came up with it or not but he does it every month and it's a fun way to discover new blogs. I wanted to do it last month but wasn't really sure what was going on, this month I'm not missing it.

Basically for those curious blogtipping is like it sounds. You link a few blogs that you like to your blog entry and tell us what you like about them and maybe a TIP or two on how they can be improved. Now I'm not a critic so I'm not sure how I'll do on this.

Here are three blogs that I have come to love:

As a mother I'm always looking for blogs that deal with motherhood and I found that over at WonderMom.

1. Always a new review for you to sink your teeth into and decide after reading her post if it is really worth it or not.
2. There is a contest every week on her site for you to win something new. Who doesn't like to win stuff.
3. She's always adding quotes from her kids that reads like you were standing right there listening to it.

Tip: Keep on blogging and know that you are being read and making a difference.

The next blog is one that I found as more of an accident, he'd actually blogged about my blog in regards to a review he was doing for another site. I read what he wrote and loved his style and ever since I've been reading John Chow over at www.johnchow.com.

1. He's always willing to share with his readers another way to make money. After all, aren't we all looking for a little extra cash?
2. The site is clean and easy to navigate around.
3. The fact that there is always something new posted everyday. I hate constantly going to a blog that hasn't been updated in over a month.

Tip: I love your syle, don't be to offended when you've been banned, there are those out there that just can't stand to be beat.

The third blog I must talk about is the one that got me into really blogging again and encouraging me to make more money. For without Momgadget I don't think I would've even found all the wonderful blog carnivals, blogtipping or the friends I've made in the forums. Thanks Gayla.

1. Gayla wants to share with you how to earn an income off your blogs and is willing to share her secrets.
2. She's always putting a colorful picture up on her blog.
3. She's got stories that we can all relate to when it comes to kids and blogs in general, not to mention she reviews mom gadgets.

Tip: Your site and forum are looking great, soon you'll have 200 members. Hope you are ready for that. As for a tip, only thing I can think of is your site loads slowly for me but that could be

Today, I decided I'd blogtip those that dealt with how to make money for us bloggers that are trying so hard to figure it out. As I stated before this is my first time tipping blogs so bare with me. I promise I'll get better, as I said I hate giving advice especially when I'm so new to blogging. I can't wait until next month. In the meantime I hope that ya'll have a wonderful Christmas Season!

Labels: blogging, blogs, blogtipping, bussinessblogwire, earn, Easton, income, john chow, johnchow.com, make money, momgadget, momgadget.com, tips, wondermom, wondermom.blogspot.com

You hear Christmas songs everywhere you go. Am I right? Every time you turn on the radio a christmas song comes on, thankfully I love just about every song that is ever played. Not to mention now whenever you go to a store you will hear that jingle bell tune with a Santa out front trying to collect donations. Making you feel guilty every time as you quickly dash into the store to try avoiding eye contact. I'm the type of person that can go in with exact amount but get stopped by one of them and have to turn around and go home because I just spent my money. One reason I don't shop and my hubby does.

But for me the "Christmas Season" began the day of the Thanksgiving Day Macy's Parade, that's really when it all begins for me. This is when me and the kids sit in front of the television until the parade is over eating pie and drinking hot cocoa. Yep, that early in the morning too since I live on the east coast. I don't care it puts me in the holiday spirit.

Following the parade I think all the Christmas re-runs helps add to the spirit of the season. I dont know how many times I've watched, "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street" but I'll watch them again this year as well. I've seen shows like "Christmas story" and every cartoon for Christmas as well. Yep, I'm a season junkie and I'm here to admit it.

This year seems to be a bit harder for me to get into the spirit of the season, probably because I'm missing my HUGE family that I haven't seen in over a year and know they have these huge get-togethers that I'll be missing. Or maybe it's just the hormones of being pregnant, who knows. But one thing is for sure, I do love making it magical for my kids. I'm the type that will have a mess throughout the house because santa tracked in his snowshoes, glitter, and party as he left behind a giant mess so the kids know that he went by their rooms.

Course the last thing that lets me know that the Christmas season has officially begun are the houses at the street corner. There are about 5 of them and every year they compete against each other to see who can have the most things outside or the best light show. I dont' exactly know what the contest is but you'll see them out there every night adding something new, right up to the night before Christmas. It's funny to see and reminds me of "The Grinch that Stole Christmas." The one with Jim Carrey where they are competing with the lights.

This entry was inspired by a blog carnival hosted by Katelyn of Free Holiday Ideas, the topic is: It’s just not Christmas until.. If you want to join in click here and let her know.

Labels: blog carnival, blogs, christmas, christmas movies, christmas songs, free holiday ideas, holiday, momgadget, santa, snow