Ever wonder about your teen? Confused by what they say or how to approach certain subjects? For Parents Only: Getting Inside the Head of Your Kid by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice may be the answer to some of those questions. I may not have a teen, but my 10 year old is approaching the age fast...a bit to fast for me. This book is for both young and old parents, so it doesn't matter if you have a 5 year old or a 15 year old. It's full of helpful suggestions.

Ever hear, "You aren't listening to me!" even after you spent 5 minutes listening to your child rant or cry about something? If you are like me or like my parents were then sure you've heard the phrase. This book covers that, it explains what your child is really saying, kind of like a teen translation guide for parents...something we really need to learn.

Your teen isn't listening to a thing you say anymore, find out why. Maybe that sweet little girl you remember has turned into a rebel, or is jumping back and forth with moods. This book will not only help you understand them better, but hopefully help with the relationship between the two of you.

This book will walk you through the following challenges we all deal with in those teenage years. Freedom, Identity, Taking charge, Security, Listening, Attitude. Why should you read what two women say? For starters Lisa Rice, one of the authors, is a mother of three girls and on boy that are all teens. Yeah, they are ready to approach all those answers and questions and I think she's got enough resources of a been-there-done-that type of approach. Lisa and Shaunti interviewed over 1000 teen/tweens to get the answers for this book, so ya'll will learn what a teen thinks, by a teen.

Read the book for your answers, and if you'd like I'm giving away two copies. Leave a comment and tell me the hard things you remember talking to your teen about, or that you remember talking to your parents about.

Labels: book review, For Parents Only

Today, I turned 30, which makes for a great way to end the week I think. Since it is Friday, don't forget to stop by Char's site for her Comment Friday.

A few Giveaways from Around the Web:

Gilden Tree Bath Essentials basket from Casual Keystrokes.

Pinks and Blues Blog has a few giveaways over at MamaLovesGiveaways is giving away Bosom Button or Bambina Ballerina Hair Bow Holder.

Spoiled Pretty is giving away a Guilt Free Treats kit

I'll also be having a giveaway with my review of "For Parents Only" very shortly.

Movie Talk: Umm, believe it or not I didn't watch any, I've been hooked on ABC Family watching all their Christmas specials. I'm a sucker for them. Are you?

Update on hubby: He's getting a bus ticket since it is cheaper than a plane. Ikkk, what a drive.

Labels: august giveaways, birthdays, fun friday, movies

That's right, according to my kids I'm old now. I struggle with this hurdle a lot until today, but now I see it as it is, one year older. How is that good? Well I'm alive. To top it off my kids pointed out some white hair I have. Akkk, I had no clue. Ain't I too young for that? lol

Labels: 30th Birthday, happy birthday

Winners of Splitting Harriet are: Doreen and Bebemiqui. Please email me with your address. homemom3@gmail.com

Have you won a giveaway lately? Let me know so I can link it. Got a giveaway, give me a shout and I'll post it, or if ya want me to host one for ya drop me an email at homemom3@gmail.com

GIVEAWAYS:

Hip Mommy's Place is having T shirt Giveaway

TV Squad is giving away 2 copies of Gilmore Girls Season 7

Bella Sugar is giving away Philosophy Amazing Grace Layering Set for their Thursday Giveaway.

Design Mom is giving away Martha Stewart Crafts. They've got everything from wrapping paper, wreath making kits to how to make snowflakes.

Serious Eats is giving away a Holiday package, it's a a package of New York Nostalgia from Russ & Daughters.

Labels: book giveaways, DVD giveaway, november contests, november giveaways

13 Christmas Songs

1 Twelve Days of Christmas
2 All I Want for Christmas
3 White Christmas
4 I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Clause
5 Deck the Halls
6 Here Comes Santa Clause
7 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
8 Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (hey I have kids)
9 I'll Be Home for Christmas
10 O Christmas Tree
11 Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer
12 Winter Wonderland
13 Up on the House Top

Do you have any favorites?

Labels: 13 Thursday, christmas songs, Thursday Thirteen

Johnny Depp is hot and I swear the older he gets the hotter he looks. You agree? Johnny is playing in Sweeney Todd the latest in a Tim Burton film. Oh I can't wait to watch this, even if I'm in a hotel I WILL be going out to see this one...WITHOUT the kids.

This is a story about a man that had everything, until one day someone stole it all from him. Of course what would any man do that had a wife, kid and a life that was just taken from him? He'd fight back, he'd be out for blood...revenge. Once he comes back he finds out his wife has passed but the man that took it all from him now has his daughter.

When he sees him though he breaks out in song, so be prepared. In this film he is the "Demon Barber" and when he shaves someone he gets right down to the skin. Why not, they all got under his? I think we all deal with our own demons and want revenge one time or two, I know I've wished it. I must say while it looks very humorous I think he portrays the "need" for revenge in the part where he states, "How 'bout a shave" he looks almost crazy with desire here. Perfect for this scene as he can almost taste the victory.

Now at the beginning of the story it reminds me very much of Edward Scissor hands, talking about something terrible happening at the house. I'm guessing no one knows that he still loves up there.

If you are interested in the movie visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site. Warning this is not a movie for kids, it has lots of blood and guts. It's the perfect movie to watch this holiday season if you are a horror nut like me.

While you are at it don't forget to visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace.

Labels: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd

Gotta love that turkey!




For more Wordless Wednesday participants please visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Labels: wordless wednesday

Well after telling ya'll about the sites my hubby got to see yesterday I decided to look some of them up. They were beautiful, he sure is lucky, however not with the traffic. Ikkk. He called me late today, before he could call me I left him a message. "Where are you? You okay? Call back, ya didn't wake me up today."



He's just about to hit Vegas, stayed at a hotel last night instead of in the Uhual. BRRR! He says it was so warm he fell asleep and didn't want to get out of bed. hehe. Yes, this is typical of him, I normally have to bring the kids into the room to get him out of bed.



Now I will admit that the scenary would be nice, I'm a chicken with heights and hate the city. But aren't these places a sight to see? Oh this must've been a nice trip, even if he hates driving when others are on the road. Too bad he didn't have a camera huh? Hopefully when we all go over I will so I can share the experience with everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking for some romantic christmas gifts that'll please him or her? How about something that'll bring the two of you together? Imagine spending time with your loved one in a romantic setting, candles, bubble bath, a hot meal that neither of you cooked and beautiful scenary. If you've got kids let them spend the weekend with a relative or a friend while the two of you just have some quality time together. There is nothing better than a Bed and Breakfast, it's more personal and doesn't make you feel like just someone that comes and checks out. You'll feel like part of a family.

Labels: Colorado, Las Vegas, Missouri, road trip

Have you won a giveaway lately? Let me know so I can link it. Got a giveaway, give me a shout and I'll post it, or if ya want me to host one for ya drop me an email at homemom3@gmail.com

GIVEAWAYS:

Dear Dr. Moz is giving away one kaboost chair booster which would be perfect around the holidays.

In case ya missed my review of the Boon: Animal Storage here is the link and let me just start off by saying it will make a LOT of space in your child's room. With that being said, Kailani is giving away Boon: Animal Storage Bag. Boon has a ton of helpful products for mom from dispensor spoons that won't let ya waste baby food, storage bags to the wonderful looking potty bench.

Over at Mile High Mamas they are giving away Christmas Onesies. It's a cute onesie that states, "Dear Santa, please define naughty." hehehehe

Perrot Library is giving away a Pop-up book of Narnia

Boo Mama is giving away a copy of I Love You More which is a very cute book that your child will love to read to you after you read it to them once.

A Book Bloggers Diary is giving away Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson

Wide Eyed Fiction is giving a copy of Vanished away, hurry over to sign up.

Casual Keystrokes is giving away Chocolates and Snowglobes. Don't that sound like Christmas to you?

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway and win a copy of Splitting Harriet


MomGadget is giving away a Kodak Printer. The catch is you must comment a story on your black friday experience.

Pozing is giving away a pair of fancy Hairsticks

MomLogic has announced she is giving away 200 free bottles.

Yes they are all Mine is having a Christmas Giveaway with such things like stockings, ornaments and book, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens.

Yum Sugar and Hostess with the Mostess have teamed up to give you a fantastic Holiday Giveaway worth $7000.

Christine from From Dates to Diapers is giving away a piece of jewelry from Michabella Creations

Crunchy Domestic Goddess is has a great Holiday Gift Guide and a giveaway to go with it. To win one of these wonderful prizes check out her list and then post about it. The elephant rattle looks like something we'd like, especially with all these teeth coming in.

Labels: book giveaway, november contests, november giveaways

Six Flags has an offer for those of you that plan on visiting this holiday season. Currently if you purchase a pass before December 31st of this year, 2007, you can get a free 32oz Sports Bottle plus a free one day of unlimited refills. With kids that's a real money saver. Am I right?

We use to live near Six Flags and visit at least twice a year, I haven't been there now in 10 years. Boy, do I miss the place. My favorite ride was Viper. What's yours?

Labels: Six Flags, Six Flags Offer

In case ya didn't hear the news the little girl dubbed as Baby Grace has been revealed. This is such a sad story, a few weeks ago the news showed the world a detailed and colored picture of a little girl they decided to call Baby Grace. No one knew how she died, why or even who she was...until now.

Reports are stating this little girl is actually named, Riley Sawyers. Riley was only two years old when she was beaten, and drowned. That's right, this little angel was murdered by her own parent. After she died her parents stuffed her inside a small blue storage bin and tossed it in the river where a fisherman would later discover it. That poor little girl, and the fisherman that must have nightmares from this.

It was Riley's grandmother that came forward after she saw a picture of her granddaughter on the news. The funeral will be held this week for Little Baby Grace.

Labels: Baby Grace, murder, Riley Sawyers

I just wanted to update all my readers out there. First of all the hubby is now in Colorado, he called me this morning to tease me by telling me how beautiful it all is. He mentioned something along the lines of white capped mountains, dirt and beautiful scenery. Wow, it sounded so lovely until he got too far in the mountains and we could no longer talk.

It's strange, this time around I really miss him. It doesn't make sense because he goes to Iraq and places like that and sure I miss him but this is different. Either way I can't wait until he is back...maybe I'll even treat myself to a few hours away from the kids drinking coffee.

As far as the kids, SoccerBoy is still making good grades, BalletGirl is going to miss her friends/teachers terribly and BabyGirl is going to be interesting to watch on the road. She's funny though, I know at school no one helps her use the bathroom but she begs me to follow her in and help her pull up her pants anytime she's with me. I asked her today, "Do you ask your teacher for help?" Her response was no, she's a big girl and does it herself.

Now Little A isn't doing so well, even though the others have been away from daddy months at a time he hasn't. He's use to a schedule that isn't happening right now. He knows something is different, the furniture is gone as well as many of his ride on toys, walkers, etc. 9 a.m. is nap time for him, normally he eats, goes to sleep and around lunch time he wakes to find daddy saying hi and we pick up his sister. When he wakes up he searches the room and watches the door. I know he'll be one happy boy when daddy comes back. Oh and yes he is daddy's boy. Currently I have a taped message (cell phone) that I play for him since daddy left it yesterday it has really helped.

Other than that, things are going good. I am currently working on some writing projects (yes, I finally found work that pays) and am trying to clean the house.

How is your week going?

Labels: life

The countdown has begun ya'll have less than 25 days to get those presents under the tree. Do you know what everyone wants? Well if ya do you may want to check out all the cyber monday deals today and get in on that free shipping while ya can.

I found out a few things my son wants and of course being 10 years old he wants all types of geeky toys. No, not pens and notebooks but an ipod, video games, wii and of course an xbox. Will he get all these? Doubtful, but I did look around the net and found some great Cyber Monday deals with ipods and electronics.

For those that don't know, cyber monday is the day the net goes on sale. Hurry up to your favorite online stores and see if you can find any great cyber monday deals for yourself or your children.

Currently there are a ton of sales for ipods, which I even want. Course he did like last year, if you recall he asked for that ipod dog, which means he needed the ipod as well. This year he wants the ipod boombox, which means he still needs it. The Xbox we did have but it broke between Iraq and here so we do need a new one, especially if we are going to get that guitar hero that he played at his aunt's house. That game is too complicated for me but maybe he can become a pro.

So what's on your list? Have you done all your shopping? I know Gayla over at MomGadget.com is completely done. I have't even begun yet.

Labels: cyber deals, cyber monday

Cyber Monday is just like Black Friday, except you are doing all your shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving and all on the internet. What does this mean? Sales, sales, sales and no lines! Woo hoo!

Wal-Mart
black & Decker Toolbox with Tools - $20
Graco My Little Baby Doll Playset $20
xBox starter bundle $399.99
Playhut Thomas The Tank Play Vehicle- $10
Baby Einstein Discover and Play Gift Set $28.99
HP Deskjet F2110 Printer $40
chocolate fondue fountain $24

Kmart
Jewelry Armoire $69.99
burgundy chair cover $7.99

etoys
Magtastik Dream Set $19.99
Star Wars Action firgures $2.99
Little Tikes Junior Quad - Red $49.99
Polly Pocket! Dance 'N Groove Disco $9.99
My Scene Goes Hollywood: Limo $14.99
Bratz Babyz: Ponyz Buggy Blitz $1.99
Littlest Pet Shop: Carry Case $9.99
Double Stroller Travel Bag $5.99

Have fun ya'll, I'll post as I find more good deals for you on this beautiful Cyber Monday Morning.

Labels: cyber monday, etoys, kmart, walmart

Curious on what ESRB is? This stands for a rating system for video games, it means Entertainment Software Rating Board. This is a great website that will help you decide whether a game is too violent or has nudity, blood or cursing. Every parent should be able to have a few parental controls on what their children can work do.

With the holidays fast approaching and my son asking for video games this will definitely come in handy. Honestly I have no clue what video games are out there, but now I can be a little knowledgable with what it is that he wants to play.

You'll find abbreviations like on the back of a video game but do you know what they stand for? Here is a quick rundown:

RP- Rating pending means no one has rated the video game yet.
EC- Early childhood is perfect for any child three years old and up. So, if I wanted to find a video game for BabyGirl this would be the ESRB rating I'd look for.
T- Teen
AO- Adults Only, means it has content that only adults should see. Maybe there is too much violence or nudity. Items children and teens shouldn't view.
E- Everyone

Now if you actually get the ESRB you can feel safe knowing that your children are guarding from playing games that you don't approve of. Many game consoles actually allow parents to set up a guard for their child, which basically mean if you don't want your child playing anything other than EC rated games the system won't allow it. So, just because the kids get home before you do, doesn't mean they can be sneaky.

An example of how this works, you can look up Harry Potter (which should be big this year) and find a whole bunch of recommendations. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix rates this game as a E10 due to fantasy violence. They also state which platform there is, such as PSP, MacIntosh, etc.

I decided to look up a game my kids currently have, Powerpuff girls and came up with a list of 11 game ratings which all fall under E rating. Now there is some violence in Powerpuff Girls and it states Mild Violence.

Keep your guard up with ESRB and know what your child is doing.

Labels: ESRB, game ratings

Well yesterday was the day we moved all of our belongings into our moving van. Ikkk, not good. See the thing with us is we are planning to buy some things brand new which means leaving a lot of the stuff. So besides packing we also had the stuff we are currently going to use in this house until move out which is the 14th. Now imagine trying to make sure all the stuff needing to be packed is packed. If you've ever planned a trip out of town you've surely got that feeling of "I forgot something" which is what I'm going through now.

I have one box (small) of toys for the kids, a few books and of course had two weeks worth of clothes. However I went through the garage and found more clothes so I'll have a lot more, so I spent most of the day packing and washing clothes.

Hubby set out yesterday around 5 p.m. and stopped off in Tennessee. It should take a total of 48 hours or something like that for the trip there and then he's flying home. I told him don't look at it as a chore but a break. Hey he isn't home with four kids, three of which fight and one that cries when he isn't being held. Love them to death but I think it'll be hard trying to clean the place with all of them home. Am I right? Any suggestions?

Things I learned:
- If you pack toys make sure you hide the box, they will get unpacked.
- No matter how many boxes you have, it won't be enough.
- You WILL run out of tape, at least three times.
- Something will get broke (my crystal swan did)
- One thing will get lost (I've lost a box of irreplaceable items before)
- Insurance is expensive
- You will still be packing when the uhaul pulls in.

Hope this helps others. It's been a riot for me.

Labels: boxes, military packing, moving, moving day, uhual

Hurry and buy these, Amazon has some GREAT hourly giveaways at the moment take a peek:

HP Photo Printer from $149 to $9.99 this is s GREAT deal
Senseo Gift pack $65.95 $49.99
LeapFrog Learn to Read Complete Phonics System $89.00 $29.99
73% off DVDs

For a complete list visit: Amazon Black Friday

Labels: Amazon, amazon black friday, black friday deals

It's Friday which means ya must visit two locations. Okay ya don't have to do it but ya know ya want to so here they are: Casual Keystrokes is up and with a giveaway where there will be three winners and if ya like chocolate ya don't want to miss out. Don't forget to visit Blog About Your Blog, I'm just waiting for a link.

Movie Talk: Santa Clause 3, Santa Baby, Hairspray and Live Free or Die Hard. I thought the first two were perfect holiday movies, haven't watched the last two yet. What were your takes on them? Any recommendations for me?

Book Giveaway: Splitting Harriet- 2 winners for this one just leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about sales and what you have actually bought for the gift-giving season.

Labels: comment friday, fun friday, giveaways, movie talk, movies

What did you have for Thanksgiving Dinner? We drove down with three delicious pies in the back of the minivan, apple, pumpkin and of course pecan. Who wouldn't want to eat these right? Yummmy, tastes even better with the cool whip. Now I must state where my sister in law lives is in the middle of no where and you almost miss the exit...actually we did. But the homes over there are breathtaking and make ya wish you won the lottery, the fields are plenty and the children would just love to run these.

For dinner we had:
smoked turkey
deep fry turkey
ham (SoccerBoy is allergic to the bird)
mashed potatoes
turkey or ham gravy
brocolli and melted cheese
stuffing
many other things I just can't remember.

What was on your list of food items? It was a lot of fun and the kids played for hours. But we got a glimpse of what our move will sound like with an 8 month old sitting behind us. Ohhh, this is not going to be good. lol

Labels: deep fry turkey, ham, smoked turkey, thanksgiving turkey

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! I hope ya fill yourself up on that Thanksgiving Turkey and get yourself a nice nap. Remember to be safe driving home. Currently we are on the road somewhere between Jacksonville, NC and Virigina.

Labels: thankgiving day, thanksgiving turkey, turkey

Just because we are way out there doesn't mean we won't have some sales. Marines, Navy men, WAKE UP! Your wives want to go shopping, that or they'll take those credit cards and leave you the kids. hahahah

Here is a quick list of sales in the area for this Thanksgiving Day:

Kmart:
Everything Christmas from lights to stockings are reduced today.
Board Games: Buy 1 get 1 free
clothes: 50% off
Playskool Dusty Vac or Mike the Mower (not shown): 50% off
Disney Princess Project & Draw

Walmart:
Canon 7.1 MP PowerShot A570 IS Digital Camera & Canon PIXMA MP4…$198
Zune 30GB MP3 Video Player, Brown...$98
PlayStation 2 Thanksgiving Day Value Bundle $168
Mega Mech Airmagination Inflatable R/C Robot $20
Backyardigans Toddler Room-in-a-Box $85
The Singing Machine Top Load CDG Karaoke System, SMG-137...$38

12" Girls' Huffy Disney Princess Bike $38 or wait for Kmart on Saturday and it'll be $20

Labels: Thanksgiving Sales

We recently got to try out the new "Made for Me" Digital Music Player by Playskool, each one comes in their own puppet like covering. We have the Blue puppy puppet, which is just right for a baby boy and very cute to look at. Hey, at least it isn't just some ordinary MP3 player or music box. This is cute, babies will enjoy it and moms can even hang them in the crib or stroller.

It plays a lot of songs, from playful like eensy weensy spider, happy and you know it to soothing sounds like a creek with slow running water, or the soft tune of rock a by baby.

Soothing- running water, twinkle twinkle, lullabies, crickets singing
Sounds- animal sounds, a horn, someone saying uh oh, yeah, yippie, etc.
shuffle- eensy weensy spider, all on a Saturday Night, Wheels on the Bus
playtime- hey diddle diddle, hickory dickory dock, pat-a-cake, pop goes the weasel

As you can see there are a ton of songs for your little one to listen to on this Made for Me Mp3 Music Player, in fact there are 50 prerecorded ones on the player. Since receiving this I have took it in the car and the kids have pushed the buttons to make it sing, brought it on stroller walks and hooked him to the stroller where Little A played with him and even left him in the playpen. Today alone, my son only wanted to play with this little puppy and make him sing to him, he's currently asleep beside it and I can hear a creek running in the playpen. Ooooh, I love this quiet noise.

Oh and before I forget, if you son or daughter likes a certain song that isn't on their playful MP3 player you can download it to it. Yep, there's even a USB cord for you to hook up and add your music to it. BalletGirl wants me to download some Hannah Montana songs to it for our road trip. There is also a smaller device that comes out and has music in it, you can hook this up to any of the Made for You" products and listen to music. Awesome right?

The funniest thing, now my youngest child has an MP3 player before me, but it is making the daytime a lot easier without screaming during trips to the store. Now I can listen to soft sounds or childhood tunes. Great gift item to get a young child or a parent that has a young child that can't seem to put themselves to bed at night.

Labels: Made for You, MP3 player, Playskool, puppy puppet

Here is a quick list for Black Friday at Kmart, it goes from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m.:

Craftsman® 19.2V drill 39.99
All Lego® building sets buy 2 get 1 free
Craftsman 2-gal. wet/dry vac 50% off $14.99
jewelry 70% off
Barbie Items buy 2 get 1 free

Honestly, I think Kmart's Thanksgiving Day Sales are better than the Black Friday ads. Now many of the toy items are 50% off.

Labels: black friday, black friday ads, kmart, kmart ads

This year we are actually traveling to Virginia instead of going out to eat. As many of you know SoccerBoy is allergic to anything with Turkey in it, which means informing everyone beforehand, just in case. We can't just plop stuffing on his place unless we know if it has turkey drippings in it or not, same thing with gravy. Growing up my father would make homemade gravy using stuff from the turkey, this could be deadly for our son.

Normally we eat someone that is open and the kids pick anything they want to eat...besides dessert only of course. Normally I get sweet potato pancakes and some turkey and the kids there is no telling what they will decide until we get there.

This year we just discovered BabyGirl has a thing for seafood, by this I mean she is suddenly not eating the usual happy meals like chicken nuggets or hamburger. Instead she'll ask for a fish sandwhich or at the "Ark" she requests shrimp or hush puppies. She knowingly orders hushpuppies knowing I'll choose the small seafood meal which has calamari, shrimp and some catfish. This weekend we found out she LOVES clam chowder. What does all this mean? She is extremely picky so hopefully there is something up in Virginia she will eat.

The car drive shouldn't be too terribly long, that is if I can get us going during Little A's naps. Estimated travel time from google maps is about 3 hours, which means probably 4 hours because of potty stops. It never fails, one hour on the road and someone has to pee. Know what I mean?

For everyone out there, be safe. Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Labels: thanksgiving

Homemom3 was ranked #8 in a list of the Top 20 Contest blogs! Woo hoo, I feel so honored. Head on over and take a peek at their list. Matthew over at Blog About Your Blog figured these out by using google page rank (which I was just lowered to 2), alexa, bloglines and technorati.

Now you know the sites to visit to get contest/giveaways, or if you want word out on your own giveaway.

Labels: contests, giveaways

How many of you will be hitting the streets on black friday? Hmm, what's black friday? This is the day that all stores lower their prices to get out of the red and hope everyone will buy EVERYTHING. It is always the day after Thanksgiving, which some may think of it as "The Day After Thanksgiving Sales." I've only ventured out a few times, one was horrible, people were actually fighting to get the talking Bob the Builder dolls.

However I'm going to start you off on Thanksgiving specials as we know everyone else will be filling themselves up on Turkey.

Kmart has great offers, including Thanksgiving Day Sales:

Thanksgiving Sales from 7 a.m.- 9 p.m.
Board Games- BOGO
DVDs- $3.99 (perfect stocking stuffers)
Coby headphone and earphone combo pack- $4.99
Disney® Pix Micro digital camera- 2 for $19.99
Leap Frog Fridge or Learn ’N Groov ’N Groove- BOGO
Polly Pocket- BOGO
Barbie® My Scene Mall and Fashion Fever dolls- 50% off
Polaroid A801 digital camera- $79.99
Magellan Maestro 3100 Navigation System- $129
kids clothes (most)- 50% off
tree skirts & stockings- .25

For those that don't know BOGO means Buy One Get One free.

Labels: black friday, black friday ads, Thanksgiving specials

Due to the holidays this list will be cut a bit short as I know ya'll are busy in the kitchen or on the road. However if I do miss ya, let me know so I can add ya. If you want me to host a giveaway for ya drop me a line at homemom3@gmail.com and I'll hammer out the details with ya.


GIVEAWAYS:

Char over at Casual Keystrokes is giving away a copy of Wordpress for Dummies

Mom Reviews is giving away HP Photo Books and Captain N and New Super Mario World dvd.

Yes They Are All Mine (love the blog title) is giving away a copy of Pursuing a Deeper Faith by Dr. Charles Stanley as well as a few other books.

3 winners will get a copy of Boo Humbug

Camy's Loft is giving away a copy of Canteen Dreams

MomGadget is giving away a Kodak Printer if you share a black friday story with her.

Mama Loves Giveaways has quite a few this time around:

Diaper Cake
$50 GC to Whole Foods
Pinks & Blues Holiday Gift Guide

The Rookie Blogger is giving away $50 cash for comments.

Laura Williams Musings is giving away a copy of When Morning Comes but don't forget to read her review.

Rocks in My Dryer is giving away a set of Brilliant Bows

Don't forget about 5MinutesforMoms big Christmas Giveaway, there is just too many links to add here. This page will take ya through ALL of them.

Over at The Prize Blog they are having another giveaway and this time you can win a 2GB Wooden Memory Stick, it's so cute.

Kailani is giving away one pair of leggings from her first blogher sponsor Queen Baby Bean. Hurry over to sign up.

Drive safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Labels: book giveaways, gc giveaways, gift certificates, november contests, november giveaways

That's right, the countdown for the move has begun. Actually we are due to move out of here until December 14th, but the hubby is moving all of our belongings the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, I know that's Black Friday and if I want to hit the sales I have to drag the four kids with me. Hmmmm. No, of course I'm not going to do that.

What will I do?
We (kids and I) will be staying in a hotel from time to time, ie, when I need a break from cleaning this house out.

What about packages I'm waiting for?
Not to worry, that's already figured in and I've made sure I have room for all of them. hahahaha. Moving will NOT stop this reviewer.

What will you do about internet access?
Oh you haven't heard, I switched service providers, ya'll are going on a road trip with me. Just hopefully we don't get run off the road by a semi this time. I'll post about this in a few hours.

Any suggestions?

Labels: countdown, moving, moving day

Garry makes lots of money a month, no I won't tell ya how much that's for him to say. But the neat thing about him and his site is he is always willing to share his knowledge with his readers and his friends. Many times I've dropped him an email or even an im and got a quick answer from him to help me along my way. Back in Feb is when I found his site and it was right before it started taking off, he and his site has grown a lot since then and he's told readers every step that he's taken. So if you want to learn to make money head on over to join his Viral Video Fever. That's right vidoes are the next big way to make money and this will show ya how. Oh but don't forget to read his articles, they will teach you a few other tricks along the way.

The Viral Video fever consists of a $294 tuturial video set from Charles Trippy. Don't you want to learn how to make money?

Labels: charles trippy, contest, garry conn, garryconn.com, giveaways, viral video fever

And who did you think would win? haha, Hubby is always going against Ohio and looks like he was wrong this time. HAHA! Ohio won!! Woohoo! Every year the Ohio vs Michigan game is big in this house and my team won.

14-3 for those that did't catch the game.

Labels: Michigan, Ohio

Many of you know that my oldest daughter, BalletGirl, (age 7) has been taking Spanish classes in school since she was in Kindergarten. She's in 2nd grade now and really likes to try talking to me in Spanish, well I'm constantly hearing her say words to herself in another language at least so I thought it would be a great idea to try to review a product from Boca Beth.

Boca Beth is a neat item to get a child that is just starting out or that just wants to practice it. I may not be able to teach her the subject, however Boca Beth sure can.

Boca Beth sent us the "My First Songs in Spanish" CD, egg shaker and the Boca Bird. The CD went quickly into the player and we listened to it nonstop for an entire day. Now once the kids get home from school it is played. Well, for one week she did take it to her spanish class where they decided to listen to it. The teacher loved it as it went right along with her lessons and the songs were things she was trying to teach the students.

BabyGirl loves the "I Know The Days Of The Week" and BalletGirl loves them all but her most favorite as she says is "Kiss is a Beso." You should see them when the CD is playing. My girls love singing along with the CD and using Boca the puppet to sing along with them. They really love it when mommy tries, hey I never said I could sing. For those of you worried, when one child has the puppet the other has the egg shaker.

Many CDs I've purchased in the past were dry and just said the words, however with Beth they are singing and upbeat and dancing around the room. This is definitely one even I can enjoy and pick up on. I do plan on eventually buying the Boca Beth Backpack set, which comes with a ton of CDs, DVDs and flash cards. For those that are wondering the CD we have has a lot of children's tunes that they will already know and then it dips down and teachers them the days of the week, colors and numbers. It's a lot of fun, the songs that start off spanish go right into english words to explain it and visa versa.

She is even giving away free word cards on her site every month and for the month of November you get FREE shipping! To view a sample of what you can learn, head over to her YouTube page.

Labels: Boca Beth, second language, spanish

A few days ago we got a shipment in from Playskool and they sent some really neat things. But I'm only going to talk about one right now as it has been a hit while we have been slowly packing items to go.

Tag Tails, these are really neat little belts that wrap around your child's waist and has a small tail that you can attach to the back of it. The tail comes off fairly easy. One game that the kids seemed to like to play was the Zoo Keeper, which is when they each got to pick out their own tail (belt) and stay on one side of the yard. I, the zoo keeper got to try to catch them and put them back behind the wall. Kids had a lot of fun with these and even made up their own games as well.



Freeze tag became a lot more fun and a neat game they did was played "I've got your tail." With this game everyone has a belt on, except the person that is it and they run around and grab tails. Once he/she has grabbed a tail they place it in a circle or pot. Of course the person that lost their tail must try getting it back, course the keeper of the tails is always watching. So watch out!

The girls loved their tails so much they wore them up to the store. That's right, I walked up to the store with a zebra and a monkey. EEEE eeee! Everyone at the store was asking about them and of course the girls told them all about being able to test out toys. Yeah, I had several wanting to know where to get them.

There are four different tails that come in a package. Zebra, monkey, lion and tiger. SoccerBoy would only be the lion if he HAD to wear one. Course he thought it was fun making up games, but refused to walk down the road wearing a tail. hehe. This is definitely a fun game, they have even resorted to wearing them in the house and hiding each other's tail.

Labels: Lion, monkey, tag tails, tiger

Ya'll probably don't want to read this but I'm ranting.......


Well ya'll knew I was waiting for the hubby to get cut...he didn't. He took the class and all that just never could go in to get it done. Okay, he could but didn't. Once we found out we were getting out I really thought he would but he didn't, finally I called in to get my visit. Yep, I was totally going to change up my whole new life, turn 30, get out of military and tie tubes all in the same month. Found out today, they won't do it. Waited too long, they only give out the classes once a month, you have to go to a class to decide whether or not you want to get tubes tied.

People I've had four children, FOUR, I'm almost 30 and I'm getting out of the military. I can't afford anymore, I don't want to be pregnant for 10 months. Trust me a class isn't going to change my mind. I love my four kids, but I know that I won't have anymore.

Okay well that didn't change their minds, they aren't doing it period. Not enough time left in the service. Which means no sex for hubby EVER. lol. Yes, I know it isn't funny but I'm NOT getting pregnant. Sorry just had to rant.

Labels: getting cut, getting out, military, snipping, tubes tied

It's Friday and ya'll know I always post the Comment Fridays over at Char's Casual Keystrokes and Matthew's Blog About Your Blog.

Movie Talk: Deck the Halls, Shrek 3 and Ocean's 13, The Invisible and Christmas Do Over. I loved Deck the Halls, the Invisible was interesting but ya have to stay with it, no walking out of the room. Shrek 3 is perfect for kids and Christmas Do Over is just like Groundhog Day but for Christmas.

The hubby and Soccerboy went to watch Beowulf yesterday and even stood in a two hour line. With that being said they told me to inform my readers it SUCKED. That's there term not mine. They said they loved the graphics, 3D animation and all but the story line wasn't there which made it very boring. They even got to watch it for free and still ranted about it, so this will probably be one I skip totally or I watch on DVD just because there is nothing better to watch.

Giveaway later today so stick around.

What's the #1 item on your child's wish list this year?

Labels: blogaboutyourblog, comment friday, movie talk, movies

The winner of this past week's Boo Humbug Giveaway was ChristyJan.

Remember if you have won anything from the Giveaways I list I'd love to announce it with a link to your site/blog. If I forgot your giveaway let me know so I can UPDATE my list. Or if you have a product that you'd like to giveaway drop me an email at homemom3@gmail.com and we'll hash out the details.


GIVEAWAYS:

Callapidder Days is giving away a copy of Every Secret Thing

Fantasy Sci Fi Book Review is giving away two books to the Jaz Parks

Neat O Rama is giving away a copy of The Daring Book for Girls


5 Minutes for Mom has a few giveaways for you and a Christmas Giveaway.

Mary's Writing Nook is giving away a copy of The Shoe Box

ParentProductReviews name has been changed to Momsational! and currently has a giveaway for you to win an HP Photo book for scrapbooking.

Jakks is having a Barney Be a Star Sweepstakes. Enter and you can have Barney show up during his tour. Just picture your child actually getting to have a walk on role for Barney.

Hurry on over to Adopt Two Boys and enter the Little Sprouts Diaper Giveaway

Moms Blogging has a huge giveaway listing.



The first giveaway is for The First Adventures of the Incredible You, a Fun and Funky Personalized Storybook. Second giveaway is for a personalized children's song.

Classy Mommy is giving away a copy of Thomas and Friends DVD set

Kailani has a giveaway on her site, "Island Life Review," where you can win a $25 GC to Out of Tea for Hair Accessories. She also has a few giveaway listings of her own, here is her Wednesday and today. Don't forget to sign up for her current giveaway for That Baby CD DVD

Labels: DVD giveaway, giveaways, november contests, november giveaways

ChristyJan, not sure what your blog is sorry. Please drop me an email with your address on it so I can get this book out. Congratulations Christy!

homemom3@gmail.com

(sorry it took so long everyone)

Labels: boo humbug, book, giveaway

When you first get up in the morning what do you do?

I get up normally an hour before I have to wake the kids, I brew myself some tea and toss in one load of dirty laundry before sitting down at the computer.

First links I do are: Yahoo mail and gmail, once I've got through that I visit my mybloglog, google adsense and technorati. I love to see who visits me, when I see mybloglog visitors I normally hop on over to their sites then off to see if anyone clicked on my ads and how many people visited my site. From there I head on over to technorati to see if anyone is blogging or linking to me. Finally it is time to hit up my favorite blogs and then read my feed reader to see if there are any new posts.

There ya have it folks that's my typical morning, this does not include running after kids or forcing them to get dressed and turn off the tv. all this is done before waking them up.

I'd love to hear about your morning.

Labels: gmail, google, google adsense, technorati

Just letting ya'll know I did not forget, I'm currently outside my home on the laptop trying to find internet connection. Charter is suppose to come between 1-5 p.m. tomorrow to fix it. They say they can see I'm only on at 2-4 hours at a time because my internet is either upstream or downstream....I have no clue what that means I just know it means I can't be online.

I will NOT be able to make my Tuesday Giveaway post as it is not on my laptop. Very sorry, I will try to post the winner of Boo Humbug in a couple hours, if not it WILL be listed on my Thursday Giveaway list.

With gas prices on the rise I decided to take a look at things people are saying about it. One thing I was shocked to see was that Ohio has a Gas Station Ghost. First, I'm from Ohio and am always fascinated by things going on over there.

I think it is funny since my hubby is constantly saying only crazy people are from Ohio. With almost my entire family from Ohio it makes it easy for him to say, but to top it off almost his whole office has someone that is from there as well. Talk about coming back to haunt ya. Normally he points out all those murderers that are from Ohio or are currently killing over there. Hmm, maybe I should point out California to him.

Imagine my laughter as I read about the ghost, one thing is good over there at least if you get your gas at night you are being treated to a show. Could you imagine pulling up at a gas station to see Casper appearing before you? Now I'm not sure if it is a ghost or just fumes from the cracks in the ground (hope not that last part) but at least you have something to smile about when the tank is getting filled.

Have you seen the Ohio Gas Station Ghost? I'd love to hear about it, ya'll know I'm a sucker for ghost stories. For those that want to hurry on down to catch a glimpse of the ghost he/she is in Parma Ohio at the Marathon Gas Station.

Labels: gas station, gas station ghost, Ohio, Ohio gas station ghost

Well, every year we stay home for Thanksgiving, by this I mean we go out to eat but never leave town. Most of our neighbors will leave a few days before, leaving the street to look like something from a horror movie. Ya know those deserted streets no one should go down for fear of never leaving again. This year we were invited to my sister-in-laws house, so we will be traveling up north a bit which should be a lot of fun.

Quick question, is there any snow north of North Carolina right now? I hate traveling during the snow season and yes I realize I'll be moving right in the middle of it which scares me out of my mind. Why? No not just because of the tires and such but on our move to North Carolina a truck driver ran us off the side of the road and into a snow bank. That's some scary stuff too, imagine a snow storm, I'm guessing a trucker that had no breaks (hopefully, as I'd hate to think he did it on purpose), three screaming kids (thought we were crashing). Yeah, not something I want to repeat. I had just learned to drive too. No I wasn't driving when it happened, but I'm scared to drive near truckers now.



Back on subject, since Thanksgiving is only days away be prepared to see a lot of talk on it and Black Friday as I LOVE that day. Any tips on traveling during the holiday season? I don't do that too often and I know it's a bit crazy this time of year. I see gas prices are on the rise yet again which sucks, I hate gas. Currently in our somewhat small town the gas prices have rose to over $3, yes I know it is more in other states. From my understandings it's $4 in some California towns right? Gasbuddy.com actually helps you find places that have cheaper gas in your town, so I'm going to probably use that for our road trip, just so I know what is out there.

Labels: black friday, car, donate car, gas, gas prices, gasbuddy.com, north carolina, Thanksgiving Day

Very sorry dear readers, I'm currently a day behind. It seems Charter has decided to go nuts on the East side of the coast. Not just the east either, it seems even Missouri is getting hit by whatever keeps shutting us all down.

But fear not, I will have my Tuesday Giveaway list up in about an hour as well as my winner for Boo Humbug. Will my winner from last week please come forward. If you don't by the end of the day I'll have to reward it to someone else. In that case I'll ask ya'll to comment on my giveaway list to win that book. (If the winner doesn't come forward.

Anyone else experiencing outages in your area? What do you do in the meantime? We went out to eat and watched videos I rented from the .99 machine at the gas station.

Shrek 3 and Ocean's 13.

Labels: Charter, outages

What would you like to see on Homemom3? I think it is time that Homemom3 gets a bit of a facelift. Maybe nothing too major as I don't want to run off my loyal readers, but I think it is high time for a bit of spring cleaning on this blog.

What do you think I can do to spice it up a bit? How could I take this blog to the next level? Should I change the color? Move the sidebars? I want to hear your opinions.

I was also curious, if you are a mom/dad how many kids do you have? What age group are they in? I get a lot of companies asking this when they want to host a giveaway or for me to try out a product that would relate to my readers.

My kids ages: (for those that may not know)
SoccerBoy 10 year
BalletGirl 7 year
BabyGirl 4 year
Little A, aka Buddy 8 months (this week)

Labels: blog design, design, homemom3

My sister travels all the time to countries all around the world for her job, her recent adventure was to Berlin. She told me there was one hotel in Berlin that she loved because of the view of the river.

I have been to hotels all over the United States during one move or another, but never outside the states. I can only imagine the service and views she gets to experience. Maybe one day, hey a girl can hope right?

Course I would want to visit all the attractions in Berlin and of course the cafes, maybe a bit of shopping. Of course if I shopped it would mean saving up some money for a long while. My sister and I have talked about doing a cruise one day in about 5 years but I just need to think of a place to stay. Berlin does sound nice, doesn't it?

This entry isn't for me as I've never used Verizon Wireless, it is for a friend.

Here is the brief rundown:

Her son saved up his money to purchase his own phone, which was roughly $100, after that he proceeded to make it work with a plan. He got the pay-as-ya-go plan and they were told that he paid for the $50 one and his minutes wouldn't expire. Perfect right? Wrong, instead only a few days after a month he gets a text message saying he needs to buy more minutes. BTW- he'd only used 66 minutes.

Please tell me this plan doesn't only give kids one hour to talk for $50 a month. Does anyone know? They are giving my friend the run around on this and I'd like to know if others have had troubles with Verizon Wireless. Now according to what they told her he subscribed to a plan after one month the minutes start over.

Any advice for her? BTW- it is MomGadget and here is her post about it if you'd like to go straight to her and offer advice Verizon Wireless

Labels: kid phone, kids, Verizon Wireless

It's Friday and ya'll know I always post the Comment Fridays over at Char's Casual Keystrokes, which has a giveaway too and Matthew's Blog About Your Blog

Now I'd normally ask ya'll to sign the linky but no one ever does, so I'm asking you to leave me a comment so I can visit you. Maybe you can give me and other readers your teething tips. As ya'll know Little A began cutting teeth at 2months early, he currently has 5 (turns 8 months next week), but is right now cutting three more teeth. Eeek. Oh and all at the same time. Leave your tips in the comments.

BTW- I BabyGirl received her "Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon" book from Barefoot books that we won at Crunchy Domestic Goodness. First she adores the book, she's almost completely vegetarian as it is but she loved the fact the dragon didn't like to eat people but instead healthy food. She's the type that won't eat much meat and doesn't like candy because it gives you cavities.

Movies talk:
1408- pretty scary
Evan Almighty- Husband rented thinking I hadn’t seen it, which was fine since I love the movie.
Deck the Halls- Funny but not as cute as I had hoped. But it did put me in the holiday spirit a bit more.
Chuck & Larry- Very funny, will even buy it. NOT for kids.
Ratatouille(sp)- Yes we watched it in theaters but the kids loved it so we rented it.

A surprise GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment and enter to win one copy of Boo Humbug, I had a few extras so wanted to have a giveaway of my own again. I love these things. ;)

Labels: boo humbug, giveaways, movies, teething

There's a great deal over at Hamilton Beach® and if you are like me you'll take advantage of the offer. What is it? Oh, they are chalking off all shipping and handling with any electric orders you make for the month of November. That means if you were to buy one of their Eclectrics® Mixer and a crockpot you would NOT have to pay S&H.

I have lots of mixers in my house, most are older models or those cheap ones that you can buy during the holidays at $5-15. But my dream is to have a retro kitchen with the top of the line electric mixers/blenders, etc. If I got to pick my own mixer I'd have to go with the silver, unless of course they had red. Please Hamilton Beach® make one that comes in red.

Every year my grandmother would make a lemon merinque pie. Don't ask me for the recipe though because she wouldn't always share ALL the secrets with me, but I did get to help mix it. Her mixers were the old fashion type that you had to use your hands and whipping up the merinque was hard to do. I think she would've been able to make them much faster with something like one of their Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer. What do you think? Course I think Grandma just liked to take the time with all of us, ya know all those memories.



My favorite thing to make during the holidays are cookies of course. My kids and I will bake up a storm (assuming our stove works) all week long before Christmas. We'll make sugar cookies, candy cane cookies, elf-shaped, santa-shaped, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies, etc. You name it we've probably at least tried to make them, the kids like eating the batter off the mixers. It would definitely cut time in half with a Hamilton Beach® Mixer and of course my husband would love the shake maker.

What do you make during the holiday seasons? What product could you not do without? Oh and I'm sure some will wonder, I think making crock pot meals and freezing them is perfect for when things start to get stressed at home. This way you don't have to run around pleasing everyone, it's whatever you can defrost and is already prepared.

No this hasn't been a week, but I wanted to tell ya all I have already began making money on www.momunlimited.net in just two days. So, it does happen, I'll let ya know the status in one week that way I can tell ya whether or not I've made a dollar or not.

What Cash Parking do you use? Which ones would you NOT use?

Labels: cash parking, domain names

The winner of last week's Boo Humbug Giveaway was Ron Miller of PowerSweepstaking.

Remember if you have won anything from the Giveaways I list I'd love to announce it with a link to your site/blog. If I forgot your giveaway let me know so I can UPDATE my list. Or if you have a product that you'd like to giveaway drop me an email at homemom3@gmail.com and we'll hash out the details.


GIVEAWAYS:


A Blonde Reviews is giving away a Santa Sign

Prizey has a ton of giveaway listings on their site and a baby gear giveaway.

Chic and Untroubled is giving away a $100 GC to Victoria Secret.

Mama Loves Giveaways is giving away a Nerf N-Strike Disk Shot

Two Moms in a Blog is giving away the perfect Christmas gift, a Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-In-One Printer

Bloggy Giveaways has two different giveaways, one is for a $50 GC to Silver Mist Studios and the other 6 winners will get a BizziMom Planner.

Adopt Two Boys will be giving away Play Foam

Challies is having a GIANT November Giveaway with lots of stuff to win.

Chicago Moms is giving away BOB giveaway. Which turns the TV off when the time is up, no more telling them to shut it off, it'll do it for you.

All Women Talk is having a Principessa giveaway with 22 items.

Apartment Therapy has thought of the perfect therapy book for you...the Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook

My Fashion Life is giving 5 winners the “PROJECT RUNWAY” SEASON 3 4-disc DVD

Callapidder Days will be giving away one copy of As I Have Loved You.

Win a Funny Baby Shirt, a Readalong CD, a Men’s Style Manual and a Family Comedy CD all from Parent Product Reviews.

Win a $25 GC to Amazon just by telling Playlibrary what you are thankful for this year.

Labels: Amazon GC, book giveaway, november contests, november giveaways

Ron Miller you are the winner of the Boo Humbug Giveaway. Email me at homemom3@gmail.com so I can get your address.

Thank you to all those that entered.

Labels: boo humbug, giveaway, winner

The report cards are in and the kids did GREAT. SoccerBoy made all Bs and one C which as ya'll know is SUPERB. No more Ds and Fs, he is really trying hard. The teacher had nothing but good comments about him.

BalletGirl made all Es and Ms and don't even ask me about that. But I was told she scored a 3rd grade reading level, but was able to read up to a 6th grade but they couldn't get her to tell them what she remembered about it after reading a story. But 3rd grade is really great for a 2nd grader. Oh the test was in September, they'll be giving her one more before we leave just to see where she stands. :) WOo hoo!

Not sure on BabyGirl as I haven't met with the teacher yet.

But we are VERY pleased with their grades.

Labels: good grades, grades, report cards

To all of you out there that buy domains, I was curious on your experience with "Cash Parking?" I have 5 domains and only one is currently in use and instead of just getting dust on the unused ones I thought about why not parking them and getting paid for it. Right?

Which companies have you used for Cash parking? Which ones worked? Which didn't?

Are there any that you don't have to pay for? Or is paying for one better? Thank you in advance.

UPDATE: I have found a place to park my domain, I'll let ya'll know how it is doing in a week and then I'll let ya know in a month just to see if I make any money.

http://www.momunlimited.net <-- parked site

The sister site to it, which actually has content is www.momumlimited.com (I'd love some comments)

Labels: cash parking, domain cash parking

The Medibag Kid Friendly First Aid Kit-I got this in the mail a while ago but let me tell ya this little bag comes complete with everything a Dr. Mom needs.

Now it looks like a plastic doctor bag your child would get in a toy store, but it is durable-hard-plastic. The MediBag is perfect for the busy mom, or the mom with kids...especially one that has four children. I have dropped this thing so many times and if it wasn't me doing the dropping it was one of the other (older) three kids.

Inside is everything a mom would need to put on a cut, scrape, burn, splinter, cold pack, etc. From the ice pack to the colorful crayola band-aids, which makes everythign okay. The only thing the bag is/was missing which I added were the lollipops. But to top it off this bag also came with a coupon for a free 45 item refill, well you pay $4.95 for S&H but that's it.

Inside:
1 Red Doctor's bag
8 each blue, red, yellow crayon bandaids
5 neon bandaids
10 jr bandaids
2 knee/elbow bandaids
20 smiley stickers (which makes everything better)
1 first aid guide
1 emgency family information label
1 instant ice pack
2 exam gloves
8 gauze pads (different sizes)
1 tape roll
1 plastic tweezers (throw away type)
2 safety pins
10 cotton swabs
1 .5 oz eye wash
15 antiseptic wipes
2 antibiotic ointment packs
2 anti-itch ointment packs
1 burn relief gel
2 antiseptic hand cleansing gel
2 sting relief pads
1 thermometer (1 time only)


The Medibag is perfet to hold everything in not to mention it doesn't just break open at every turn. Just to let ya'll know, I take this bag with me every time I go to pick the kids up from school. It easily fits under the stroller and if one trips and falls down on the way home I have the perfect emergency kit. Even teachers have asked me about it. Don't think it doesn't come with me on road trips, if I know we are headed somewhere that we'll be walking a lot it is placed in the front of the car. Now if we go to the carnival and BabyGirl falls on her knees we can rush to the car and not have to head for home. Doesn't that sound like the MediBag you want in your possession?

Labels: first aid kit, MediBag, ouchies

Jo from Life With Heathens won the $10 paypal from Life as a School Bus Driver.

Have you won a giveaway lately? Let me know so I can link it. Got a giveaway, give me a shout and I'll post it, or if ya want me to host one for ya drop me an email at homemom3@gmail.com

GIVEAWAYS:

Win a copy of Boo Humbug from me, Homemom3.

ArsGeek is back at their giveaways once again and this time they are giving away Neuros OSD.

MomGadget is giving away Teen Edition, Travel Edition and Family Edition to one lucky reader.

Hip Mommy's Place is giving away a beautiful Laura Ashley silk dress.

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away 2 $15 amazon gift certificates from Mary Castillo, author of Switchcraft.

Wonder Mom is giving away a copy of Rocket's Firebird Rescue DVD, hurry over to win.

Mama Loves Giveaways is wanting to give away two pairs of Smart Heels.

Shannon over at Bloggy Giveawaway is having two great giveaways, three winners will get Loops De Lou, which is perfect for the holidays. The other is for a $50 GC to Leigh Gray, which has some great hand bags.

Over at Parent Product Reviews they are giving away something that would be GREAT for a stocking stuffer this year....... it's a Leapster handheld system plus a Sonic the Hedgehog Leapster game.

TV Squad is giving 5 winners a copy of October Road season one.

Kailani is having two giveaways at Island Life. The first one you could walk away with a nice BusyBodyBook, which I know is a great way to organize your life. I won one from B5Media last month. She's also giving away one copy of I Love You More, which is a really cute book.

Three winners will get a copy of The Brilliant Book of Baby Names from Little Mummy.

Don't forget about the month of giveaways over at Adopt Two Boys, currently you can win a puzzle from LaLa Natural toys. I just loved their rattles.

The Cipher by Diana Pharaoh Francis.

Hello My name is Alice is giving away a copy of Chicken Soup for the Volunteers Soul, perfect for the holiday season.

Hmmm, wonder why I haven't heard about this one yet (Garry?), it seems BlogsWeLuv is having a November Contest, winner gets a review of their blog. Hop on over and even if ya don't want to enter you can still read the interviews they have with different bloggers or the reviews they have for different blogs.

The Make Up Girl is having her monthly giveaway, but this time it is for $250 worth of Billy B. Beauty makeup brushes.

The Goody Blog is giving away HyperDash, so hurry on over to sign up and don't forget they are doing it all month long.

UPDATE:

A Blonde Review is giving away Santa's Landing Sign, so that the kids know you are directing Santa to the house. You better enter this or the kids might put coal in YOUR stocking.

Labels: book giveaways, dvd giveaways, gc giveaways, giveaways, november contests, november giveaways

My house has never been one of those designer homes, let alone an interior design home that you have to go to Harrington interior design school to get a degree. Oh don't get me wrong, I dream of the day that I can do it but I'm in no rush. But if you came into my home you wuold immediately be able to tell I have kids and I'm not meaning from the jelly fingerprints on the wall. Nope, instead you'd be greeted with the television being tuned into Dora or Littlest Einstein's, the kid-safe couches (meaning nothing they can stay or mark up), and of course dozens of pictures of the family on the wall. Maybe one day when they are older I'll have that designer couch, huge entertainment center and a couple of paintings on the wall....but not anytime soon.

Let's step back to design for a minute. Did you know you could use the computer to design not just your home but inside your home? At the Harrington School they actually teach you that. I had no clue, now I knew you could do the outside but never what would match and look great together inside the home. My dream kitchen has always been the retro (red & silver) look and one day I plan on having it. My living room would be those really soft couches that sink in a bit and lots of the black abstract statues and a painting or two. Do you have a dream?

Labels: interior design

Okay, so far that little donate button below my picture never seemed to work. I hear it isn't very popular but I'll still be keeping it. How did the paypal button work for ya'll? I'd love to hear some success stories.

Garry Conn introduced me to something new this weekend, it's called ScratchBack. Basically you pay me a couple of bucks to keep your link up for a week or more. In a way it is like leaving me a tip, or as David from CyberCoder stated, "It's more like a Tip Jar."

Currently my price is $3 a week, which according to some isn't much for having a link up. After about a month I'll let ya'll know how well it works and whether I'll either adjust the price or delete it completely.

So if ya want to have a little link or just give me a tip with a thank you, feel free to click on the little black box that says, Are You In My TOPSPOTS.

Labels: Links, tips, topspots

Hey I couldn't think of what to type as a title and I think that will get your attention. Anyways earlier this week the hubby and I were packing and tossing things out of the garage. You can pretty much call it spring cleaning in the fall. It was getting late, baby was crying and the neighbor asked me a few questions. Like I said it was dark too, or getting that way anyways. Hubby was having a blast going through the boxes so I left him to it. Why not right? WRONG!

Women, there is a reason you don't let your spouse go through the boxes of yesterdays. First he found prom pictures, yep those very embarrasing shots you can't believe ya never threw away. Or yearbook photos with those ikky hairstyles. He was having a blast and every time he found one the neighbor wanted to see.

I never thought about him finding anything that would shock me. Heck, I'd been the one that put all the boxes in the garage back when we moved in. Okay, well apparently there was something.

"Babe, you should see this."

I probably rolled my eyes at the moment and wondered what picture he'd found this time. I hated my pictures from school, see when I was younger I'd chopped off most of my hair and it was slowly growing back in my high school years. ikk.

"What is it?"

He laughs, "Nope you need to come here."

"Just show me it."

Okay and immediatly in front of everyone (including kids) and my new neighbors he lifts up a very pretty pair of velvet panties and a santa outfit. I about died. So ladies never EVER let your man help you pack, or clean....especially when it is OUTSIDE.

The worst part was he forgot that they were in his pocket, (ya know after he got me he quickly hid them) so when we went out to dinner later and it was time to pay he accidentally pulled them out when getting his cash out. eeeek

Wow, this piece of news totally floored me but it should be something ALL of us parents think about.

Teen Given permission to Smoke at School because she is clinically addicted.

First, how did she get that way? While I am not saying it is all her parents fault but I know I'd be wondering about now. I know if it were me being the parent I'd be looking into getting her some help and fast. Am I right?


It has obviously got to a point where her parents would know, otherwise the doctor wouldn't have given her a doctor's note stating she needed smoking breaks after each class.

Now the article states that her mom is a smoker as well, and like most teens she probably started by sneaking a few. But it also states she smokes a pack a day, which can only mean someone has been suppling them for this underage child or mom has been giving them to her. (same thing)

I hope ya'll read this article and really thing hard about your own children at home. I just had a talk with mine.

Labels: smoking, teen smoker

Boo Humbug by Rene Gutteridge was definitely a different type of book for me. Out of all honesty, I thought it would be all about Dickens and Christmasy humbug, maybe a bit of blood and gore. When I heard about horror with Dickens it was something I had to read. But it wasn't. It was funny, it spoke of Skary, it was full of laughter for me and in the end it tied up nicely. It was a quick and easy read, almost too quick for me...I didn't read it right away as I was still in the mood for Halloween, but once started it was one I had to finish. You'll love reading all about Lois, Scrooge Alfred, Wolfe and Ainsley even if they have quirks. I think many of us can relate to these characters, for myself I see a lot of Ainsley in me. (not allowing hubby to feed baby the sweet stuff) Man I had no clue Rene had been in my house.

Summary:

You've got your small town life going on in Skary, Indiana and with the holiday season you can bet they're going to do a Christmas play of sorts. They normally do A Christmas Carol but this year things are going to be a bit different when a new girl comes in and takes a step up to the plate. She wants to do scary and different for the play but not everyone is in agreement. But once she gets them convinced there is no stopping them, except for a few minor adjustments.

What happens when the whole town is planning a horror play for "A Christmas Carol" and suddenly at the last minute are told they are going to do "The True Meaning of Christmas?" Will they pull it off? Will everyone want their money back?

Haha, you didn't think I was going to tell ya did ya? Nope, you have to read it for yourself. But I did like it, even smiled as I turned the last page.

Enter to win Boo Humbug (The Boo Series #4) by commenting below, forget the Mr.Linky he doesn't always like me. You have until Thursday, November 6, 2007. Tell me ya want to win, tell me your favorite Christmas movies or plays.

The Life of a School Bus Driver is going to give you $10 paypal for the one that can guess how much she makes as a Bus Driver. Can you guess?

Since it is Friday let's head on over to CasualKeystrokes and enter Char's Giveaway and don't forget to swing in and say "hi" to Matt at BlogABoutYourBlog.

Wondering about my giveaway, it's coming up and once I announce it I'll link it here. A hint? Okay, you can enter to win Boo Humbug by Rene Gutteridge. :) Oh and you just comment to win, no linking.

My movie rentals: This week (which I'll be watching tonight) are Captivity and License to Wed. What have you seen? Anything good, what do you want to see? I know the kids want to see "The Bee Movie."

Don't forget to sign Mr.Linky or leave a comment here so I can visit your blog over the weekend.

Labels: comment friday, fun friday, giveaways, movies

The hubby finally found some boxes for me last week, course I've already packed up 15-23 boxes of nothing but books and three boxes of toys. Before ya'll think wow, Let me tell ya these boxes are Flatron LCD monitor boxes. What does that mean? Well ya know those small flat screens ya'll see in offices for computers, it's that size. So it wasn't hard to fill them up. No, I'm not done packing toys or books but as you can see I've done some.

Last night he scored a ton of boxes over at our military gas station, my entire living room is full of alchol boxes. lol. It looks like I LOVE to drink. Okay I'll take the Kalua but anything else can go. Wait, the vodka too. Course now that I have all these boxes I have no more tape. Figures right?

TIP: Always make sure you have the following before you begin packing:
empty boxes
LOTS of tape
kids out of the house or they'll scream for ya not to pack it up.

I broke down today, I don't know why either. Okay, I have an idea but I never do and hate doing it. But hubby told me yesterday that we still don't have any job offers, well he has one but we won't be able to make it on that one alone. We argued when I stated I could always work nights instead of him working two jobs. After all that, he heads out of the house today and informs me he's going to try to get our advance for moving and try moving the kids and I out next week. NEXT WEEK! He had talked about extending a month, not to mention no job offers. Where will he move us? How long will we all be apart or stressing about everything? What about my doctor's meeting? No he doesn't know what it is for but he knows I have one.

ERRRR.

Any tips? Moving or otherwise?

Labels: boxes, moving, moving day, packing, stress

	Enter your search termsSubmit search form
	Web homemom3.blogspot.com

Ever try locating something on this site? I have and I know how hard it is, so I'm going to adding a search function for it. Now for those that may not know you can go to google.com and type in "homemom" site:homemom3.blogspot.com and get results. However, I'll make it easy on you and figure out how to add this to the site. :)

Does anyone know how to make the google search function smaller?

Labels: google, google serach

Ya'll know that ya can make some money off the internet right? Of course I'm sure if you are a mom you've even tried doing some of those paid surveys or email clicking things. I know I did in the beginning, and from time to time I still do, just not as much anymore.

Did ya know you can make money off your blogs too? Well Ashley Quall discovered it and more. She didn't just make small change, sure at first she did but her very first check was $2,790. Last year her website made $1 Million and already it is close to that this year. How did she begin? She taught herself web design, at the age of 9 she played games on the family computer and began learning about designs.

So to all you parents out there that have children that want to blog or create sites, this may actually be a good thing. I'd suggest opening a niche blog for them and keeping a monitored eye on them. Both of my kids have one, my son has a yo-yo blog and my daughter has a magical one (fairies, barbies, etc) but neither are allowed on unless I am sitting by them.

Ashley's business wasn't free thought, it did cost her $8 to buy her domain name. But when ya think of how much it cost compared to what this 17 year old now makes, it's a drop in the bucket. She was even offered $5million to sell it, of course she declined. I would too, I mean if you are already making 1 million a year, why sell?

Now think about it, I've been playing with google adsense for almost 5 years off and on, just this month I got my first check which was a little over $100. Today, her site makes $70,000 a month....I think this girl has hit a gold mine and really hope she can keep it up. Of course, whatever she decides to do she's set for life. I guess wateverlife really did fit into her world. Congratulations Ashley, I just hope I can follow your dream one day.

Labels: 17 year old millionare, Ashley Quall, blog, internet millionare, whateverlife

Well, there is no prolonging it now. No matter how I feel about aging and yes I know we all do it. But for some reason I found today to be funny. No, not because I'll soon be turning another year older or because my baby made the loudest farting sound in the cafeteria and everyone thought it was me. But because of what today is (no, I did not mean blogtipping either, but I"ll do that too) a special kind of day for me, one of which I'll never get back.

Currently I am 29 and in 29 days I will be 30. How strange is that? It is suppose to be part of a new cycle in my life as well, which I'm hoping turns out to be a good one. So far this year it has had it's very high moments (birth of my son) and some low moments. (finding out we were getting out)

For me, every birth is remembered in almost great detail. What do I mean almost? Well I can tell ya everything that lead right up until actually giving birth, after that it gets fuzzy. Any of you moms experience that? For my first daughter (2nd child) I can tell you that we got stopped at every light and worried we wouldn't make it, however I can't recall any of them telling me about her birthmark on the side of her head. Due to not knowing, after hubby went home to get our son, and nurses left me alone to enjoy the solitude I flipped out when I saw above her ear what looked to be a blood clot. I immediately paged the nurse and they explained it was a rare birthmark. Phew. My last son, basically the same thing, I can barely tell ya the birth weights of any of my children. I guess because hubby was always there and I let him do the remembering for me, my third child I remember every detail, but he was in Iraq at the time. No clue why I went into all that but I did. But I think births are always a high part in someone's life.

The low, well I've never been out of the military life. Okay I lied, technically my dad did get out in the end of my high school years, but I don't really count that as he still worked for the military...he just wasn't Air Force anymore. I think it is the fear of the unknown that is getting to me. I'm hitting an age that everyone talks bad about, ya know that whole 3-0, we are getting out and I'm scheduling myself to never have kids again (sorry as I type this I can't recall the name of the procedure). No, he never did it so I'm making sure. For the most part I'm almost ready to shed that old skin and start new, but like most I'm afraid of changes. I mean who isn't afraid of changes though right?

Changes for a catapiller are supose to be beautiful, from an ugly worm to this beautiful piece of art with lovely wings and full of grace. What about a woman? From a skinnny, scrawny girl, developing into a woman to becoming knowledgeable. Now one thing I can do without are (men close your eyes) the wrinkles across the skin, crow feet, sagging boobs, ikky feet and fat. I'm actually okay with losing SOME hair, just not all of it. I can even go grey/gray (however it is spelled) but I don't want to be bald.

Leaving the military means losing the security behind it, but at the same time it means hubby never goes away and the worry of whether or not he'll come back alive. Hey, we all worry about it no matter what we tell ya, even they do. But it also means getting a job that might not pay the same as we were making before, without all the health benefits. Of course with that being said, that pay could actually be more than what we were making in the military and maybe with BETTER health benefits. It's the unknown that scary. Not knowing which way the dice will roll. Hey, I'm not a gambler, I don't even buy lottery tickets.

So today marks a day that I'll never get back and soon I'll hit an age, hopefully it'll be full of grace, wisdom and maybe some good fortune. Wish me luck ya'll, so far it's been a very bumpy ride.

Labels: 29, 30, age, birthdays, changes, military