Planning for a family vacation

It's time to get away just the two of us so we've sat down and and started looking into many different resorts to see which option is best for us. My cousin has just recently planned her wedding and their honeymoon get a way so she was able to help us with some ideas. She had recommended that we look into all inclusive packages. This would make our get a way vacation that much more enjoyable! Once you are there you don't have to worry about all the extra costs. We have looked into an Caribbean all inclusive family vacation.

Karisma Hotels and resorts has got our interests. We can enjoy a world of sensuality and seclusion on the white sands of Riviera Maya. Karisma Hotels is a collection of unique beach resorts in stunning vacations destinations. Karisma offers the luxury all inclusive with beach beds with curtains for ocean view intimacy moments, beach side bar swings, swim up rooms with great ocean views, sunset margaritas served by a beach butler on their private stretch of sand and much much more. It's all part of Karisma's way of pampering all for one price.

Running on Empty

We are quickly running out of gas around here and the scary thing is that Christmas is next week and we are probably going to be too tired to enjoy it. Last night was the worst, the dog was whining for some reason and wouldn't settle down until almost 4am. Shortly after she finally settled down Kohl arrived down, sick with the flu. He stayed home all day so there was no sleep to be had in the house over the last 24 hours. Hopefully things will be more settled tonight and some sleep can be caught up on.

Dreamin' of Turkey

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Club House. All opinions are 100% mine.

It's that time of year again the house if filling with Christmas Baking and everyone is preparing for the Turkey Supper and our traditional Boxing day Hot Turkey Sandwiches. I always make sure to cook a big turkey to make sure we can have left overs for a few meals. I have no problem cooking the turkey but the gravy is always a challange for me, too thick, too thin or not enough flavor. A few years ago I finally gave up and looked for an alternative a favorite in our house is the Clubhouse brand of instant sauces they are easy to make and the gravy is even better than Grandma used to make. Another favorite is the cheese sauce that we use for vegetables. You can check out the
gravy tips video to find all kinds of ideas you can use Gravy for. Club house is a trusted brand well known for making quality products to make our lives easier. You can check out their website and complete the newsletter sign-up and contest entry. The website is a great resource that you can use to get recipe ideas for all occasions. The site also offers a School House Section designed to help us learn more about flavors, spices and other baking tips to make the most of your kitchen. Take a few minutes and check out all the information to help you make your Christmas entertaining even better.

Chrismas Countdown

The Great Christmas Countdown is on, now the hard part while the days are winding down we are extra busy at work so to find the time to go into town and finish our shopping is very hard. To make matters worse the kids are finished school for Christmas Break and that makes it even harder. We don't have a lot of things left to pick up but still we are not finished. I'm sure we will find a way to get everything finished, I hear Walmart is open 24 hours so perhaps late at night after work and the kids are in bed. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Unique online bidding site

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

For me it's all about saving as much money as I can, with a big family it is a challange everyday to make ends meet. If I can find a deal I'm taking full advantage of it everytime. This is the season that makes stretching the budget even harder trying to find great deals on the things my family wants for Christmas. There are all kinds of online auction sites that allows me to try and save money but one that I recently discovered is the
Bidazzled Auction website. You can get all sorts of online opportunities with this unique bidding website. This website will allow you to save up to 90% on the name brands you want. All proceeds fund charities and provide you significant savings. It is very simple you buy your bids in advance as you find something you want to bid on you use your bids to increase the value of the bid. With each bid placed the bid will increase by a few cents, when the bids stop coming in the final bidder becomes the winner. In it's short existance Bidazzled has seen items like Laptops and Wii's go for as low as $1. If you are interested in checking out this opportunity you can get bonus free bids just by signing up and using the following promo codes * Blog: BBP1202A
* Twitter: BTP1202A, you can also get more free bid passes just by referring friends to eht Bidazzled experience. Good luck and happy bidding.

Winter Arrives

Winter arrived here on Sunday, we had company up and were worried about them when they headed out on the road for home when the snow was starting. Everyone made it home safe and the kids had a great time playing out in the snow as it fell. After the "Snow Party" we moved onto the kids Christmas party from Matt's work. It was a bowling party with a visit from Santa himself.

Caution Great Coffee Ahead

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NESCAFE. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am guilty of enjoying my coffee from time to time and it really is determined by what time of year we are. In the summer I like nothing better than to sit back by the pool and enjoy a iced coffee treat while the kids swim in the pool. If it is colder I have to have a piping hot coffee to warm up with. I spend so much (time and money) travelling back and forth to the local coffee shops I really had to reconsider my spending priorities. We decided if we could get a good coffee machine that would look after everything I wanted we would get one for the house to save some money. It took a little research but we discovered the NESCAFE Dolce Gusto machine. It would be a great gift and is on my Christmas "Hint" list to see if I get one. The Gusto machine will deliver quality beverages that are comparable to the best coffeehouses around. The kids will definetly love the Hot Chocolate feature they are always looking for a cup with marshmellows during the winter months. There is a contest right now that you can actually win a NESCAFE Dolce Gusto Machine by entering at Sweetspot.ca, the contest runs until December 20, 2009 so check it out now to get your entry in.

Winter Wonderland

It finally happened today, the first snowfall of the season, usually it happens a lot sooner than December but we all enjoyed the mild fall. The kids were very excited to see the white fluff falling. The dogs especially Riley didn't know what to do with himself when he went out to do business this morning as this is his first winter. This will surely put everyone into the Christmas spirit around here with only a few weeks left to go until the big day.

iLasik Surgery success stories

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Incendia Health. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have been struggling with my vision for the last couple of years, I really discovered the problem after I returned to work after almost 10 years away to raise my kids. I struggle with blurry vision and wonder what I should do, I have been trying to decide between corrective lens or corrective surgery. I have been doing a little research on corrective surgery and it seems like a good option, I really dread the thought of having to depend on glasses everyday. What really made it hit home was the
iLASIK Video Contest that I found while searching. This contest is open to everyone and there are some great submissions so far that really inspired me to find and consult with a qualified iLASIK doctor. The site even offers a link that will locate the iLASIK doctors in your area. As I mentioned the contest is open to everyone to share their stories on how corrective surgery has impacted their life or could if they haven't had the proceedure yet. The contest is offering some cool prizes including the grand prize of $5000. There are secondary prizes available as well including $2500 HDTV prize packages available for the 1st prize in each category and HD camcorders valued at $199 for 2nd prize in each category. You can also take advantage right now of $20 Amazon card for each video submission you make before the contest deadline. You win just for submitting your story.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas???

It hasn't sunk in yet that in only a month is will be Christmas, for our area normally we would have had a snow or 2 by now and that usually symbolizes for everyone that Christmas time has come. It has been unnormally warm here this fall with only a couple of days that it was even close to freezing so no snow. It is hard to get into that shopping mode without the white stuff so hopefully some morning very soon I will at least wake up to a skiff on the ground to get me in the Spirit.
Merry Christmas

Getting Ready for Game Day

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of henderson bas. All opinions are 100% mine.

Tommorrow is the big day for our family as it is the final race of the season in Nascar, we are still holding out hope for Mark Martin to some how pull off the upset win to capture his first Championship but the odds are against him for sure. We really enjoy our racing, especially this time of year when Football is just getting started and it is also turning cold outside so it allows us to gather around have some fun family time and eat lots of fun Game Day snacks and meals. Tommorrow we don't want to miss a minute of the race so we are turning to one of our favorite "on the run" meals Bistor Crustini, these are delicous pocket meals the all the family love and allows me to prepare a meal quickly in the microwave so I don't have to miss any of the action either. Our household has two favorites the Philly Steak and the Brocolli & Cheese. If your a football fan check out the Crustini website for a chance to enter the "Game Day" contest in which one lucky entrant will win a V.I.P Trip to Las Vegas including airfare, 5 days and 4 nights in a luxury hotel and of course tickets to the Big Show and $1500 CAD spending money to make the most of your experience. Entering is easy you just need a UPC from your favorite Crustini from your freezer and you can enter. This contest is open to all my fellow Canadian Residents and the best thing about it is it's an instant entry contest so you will now immedietely if you won, no waiting for a draw date.

Olympic Torch Relay

Monday we got to all take part in the Olympic Torch Relay as it passed through our community on it's way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It really was a fun experience with lots of activities for the kids to get involved in while we waited for the big event. Hubby got to actually take part in the relay and carried the torch for 1 segment of the run, it was very exciting for everyone and the kids even got to jog along the sidewalk with him as he went. What a fun time can't wait until the next time Canada get's to host the Olympics.

Financial Planning

Planning for our financial future is one of the most important aspects we should all be concerned with. It takes a good plan to ensure we are financially secure in our later years, it's a fact that people are living longer than ever and it is important to make a plan that will secure your lifestyle after your working years. The best solution is to consult with Las Vegas CPA, a Certified Professional Accountant can assist you in an effective plan to secure your financial future. It is too risky to leave your families financial future to chance to take the time to invest in your future today it will pay off in the long term.

Faster Service

I live on my laptop, it basically starts once the kids are off to school and it will continue most days until I pick them back up at school. I work at nights so I miss most of my favorite shows so to be able to watch them during the day from the comfort of my own laptop is a fantastic service that love. The
charter ultra fast 60 service provides one of the fastest services available on the market today. The service will allow me to download songs for the kids while catching up on my shows, my current service was so slow I couldn't do any more than 1 task at a time.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Christmas is in full swing

With Christmas decoration almost completed I have turned my focus to my shopping. I'm a little later than I usually like to be but we have caught up a lot over the weekend. It was a fantastic power shopping trip but we are now about 75% done with all our shopping. With a few more pays to go before the big day we should be in good shape in time. How are you doing with your shopping experience?

Great vacation specials

I have been dreaming about my dream honeymoon since my husband and I got married almost 10 years ago, we got talked out of going away for our wedding by my family and it is one of the biggest regrets we have about our wedding. We have been so focused on the kids that we always put off our own celebration but now as the kids are getting bigger it is becoming much easier for us to start to think about travelling our selves. We recently discover a fantastic "World Sale" form British Airways they are featuring exciting vacation packages including airfare, hotel and car rental packages to various destinations throughout the world. The Sale will last until November 19th and you have to book your trip to take place between November and March of 2010. British airways travel from Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver and can take you to so many beautiful destinations including, London($599 round trip w/ 3 night hotel), Paris($540 round trip w/3 nights), Cairo($770 round trip w/ 3 nights) Dubai and Hong Kong just to name a few options. We've always really wanted to go to Paris or London for a romantic getaway, being able to take in the historic beauty of these site would be an incredible opportunity. Traveling with British Airways is always and exciting journey, they are so focused on customer service and providing you with the best vacation experience possible. They offer all the comforts you would expect including complimentary food and cocktails to relax you on your journey.

Pupp Training

We have been struggling with our Pup the last month or so, it seemed as though we were doing so good with getting him trained but the last little while he has been so difficult. I am getting very frustrated cleaning up little piles and puddles all over the house. I would love to hear any tips anyone would have to help train our little beagle.

Stopping the Fridge Bandit

My hubby and his team from work were trying to save money and get better food choices at work so they bought a fridge for his office and were filling it on an honor system, keeping water filled in rotation and everyone kept their own snacks stocked up. It was working well for a while but all of a sudden everything started to disappear on them. They really enjoyed their fridge but needed an option to protect their things. They searched and found an option at www.FridgeLocker.com it is a pretty simple box that goes into your fridge and allows you to lock up your special items from the fridge bandits. Hopefully this will curb the bandits and allow hubby and the team to enjoy their snacks again.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I love my Christmas lights, for me I prefer white lights and this year we are going bigger than ever for us. We put Pine Garland up throughout the house and fill them with white lighting. When we are completely finished this year we will have the entire main level of the house and it is so pretty so far, we need to buy a few more pieces of garland and a couple of sets of lights to finish up. I will come back and post some pictures when it is all done and we have the tree up...planned for Wednesday at this point. I love Christmas decorating.

Translation Services made easy

With today's world being made so small with the rise of the Internet it is more important than ever to be able to get your message or marketing out to everyone. This can be a daunting task but there are services the specialize in brand translation and have a qualified staff available 24/7/365 to assist you in any translation service you may require. There are no minimums and no maximums anything can be translated quickly and accurately with the assistance of these services. Services like Translia are very easy to use, you simply have to upload the file you want translated and set the price on the translation and the team of translators will get your translation turned around quickly and you don't pay unless your satisfied with the results. Companies can make use of this service to market themselves to areas of the World they wouldn't have thought of before.

Christmas is in full swing

Last night after the kids headed off to bed, we got all our Christmas Presents, well the ones we have home so far out and organized. We even have them all wrapped so they can be in our New Closet that we built last week. They can be out of sight from the roaming eyes of the youngsters. We were pretty worried about things but after we got everything organized we think we are not in too bad of shape. We know exactly what we need to get and made a promise to each other that we will not alter or buy extra things from this list this year. This is the year we maintain the budgets and don't get too much stuff.

Kitchen Makeover Contest

For most people the kitchen is the most important room in our homes, the kitchen is the most valuable investment we can make in our homes. We our in desperate need of a
kitchen makeover, our kitchen is too small and has a very hard layout to work around to make meals in. My dream Kitchen Makeover would see us adding an addition onto our home to create a new dining room so we can open up the existing dining room and kitchen to make one beautiful kitchen. There is a new contest from Maple Leaf that is going to award one family a total kitchen makeover valued at $32,000, what would you do if you won. You can enter the contest daily on the Maple Leaf website and check out all the new interactive features including "Meet the butcher", "Meet the Baker" or "Meet the Pasta Maker" for lots of tips. I'm so busy and I love features like this site because it also offers meals made easy tips. It allows you to find all kinds of great meal ideas that anyone can make quickly and easily. Making great meals doesn't have to be tough and Maple leaf can show you how.

Christmas Countdown

With Halloween now behind us it is time for us to break out the Christmas decorations. Some people think it is too early to decorate for Christmas already but we love our decorations so we start to put them up already. We always wait until Remembrance day to put up the Christmas tree but everything else goes up over the next week or so. We are adding a lot more decorations inside the house this year, I'd love to have more but the budget doesn't work yet.

Catching up on my shows

I took a job last fall that makes me work in the evenings until 1:30am, it works out great for me as it allows me to work around my husbands schedule and be there for the kids after school. The one thing I really miss is sitting down to some of my favorite shows in the evening like Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds and CSI. I recently discovered a great option of using Charter on Demand to see all my favorite shows at alternate times when it is more convenient for me. It isn't just a great option for me but for many people that are too busy to catch their shows when they are on network TV but still want to be up to date. It's great for the kids too, my youngest son started school this year and had a routine that he watched Diego and Elmo back to back but they are on in the morning, now he catches them after school on demand and gets to have some unwinding time after a busy day. If you would like to know more about this service you can learn more at charter.net/ondemand. If you are on FaceBook you can also

get updates and fun extras on Charter’s Facebook page. Take a few minutes to see how ON DEMAND can make you life that much easier.

Halloween is almost here

This week seems to be going by pretty fast. I work tonight then have tomorrow off and will be spending my time getting things ready and packed for our trip to Amherst and Moncton!!! It's hard to believe that my baby boy will be 5 years old on Sunday, Blake is excited to be planning a birthday party with his friends from school!

Last week was of course another busy week. Trinity had an appointment to have her knee looked at last Tuesday, which now results in a cat scan then probably followed by physiotherapy. Another 3 weeks before we find anything out....

Blake woke up the other night, which I thought was another nose bleed but he had a nightmare.... I not sure which one would have been worse????? As I got him settled in bed beside me I asked him about his nightmare...

Blake said "it was awful... I was being chased"

so I asked "what was chasing you?

....get this....

Blake says "it was a MITTEN!...a mitten with a jack-o-lantern face with glowing snake eyes."

My response,"Oh my that is scary.... (trying not to laugh)

So I asked him what was the mitten trying to do to you...

Blake say's ...... "it was trying to ELIMINATE me!

LOL what a kid LOL

So with that nightmare behind him, life went on. Saturday brought Fundraising with the Church Youth Group (bottle drive) so we spent most of the afternoon helping count the recycling bottle that were collected followed by a pizza party. Later that night we all met at the Sunrise Stables for the yearly Haunted Hay Ride. We all went but Jay...he is smart enough to know when something is too scary for him...and trust me he made the right decision. So the hay ride wasn't all that bad...a few scary moments here and there and Trinity, Kohl and Blake were ok with most of the ride. Well at least until the masked men (monsters) with chain saws came attacking from the dark woods. I thought I was going to have a heart attack... honestly I must say that the kids handled the ride better then I did. Now we weren't just frightened by these chainsaws once, it happened many many times throughout our ride. At first the saw came at us from one side so we would all move to the opposite then as it went around to the other we all piled to the opposite side again... well they got us in the end there were monsters and chainsaws coming at us from both side and up through the middle which left us with no where to go.... I thought I was a goner LOL! (now just to let you know that these chainsaws did not have the chain on them but the sound, vibration along with the mask and light effects were beyond scary... luckily we all survived!

Well that's it for now... Have a great week and we will see most of you on the weekend!

Reunion time Made Easier

It is time for me to start thinking about my High School Reunion, with the way the World is today there is so much more moving done over the years that even the most organized individual will lose contact with some of the people in their lives. Using the helpful program from MyLife allows you to search by name which can save a lot of time. I made a number of inquiries to see how it would work to help me find someone from my past life.I was surprised on how many successful hits the network was able to provide me for my classmates. I was even able to recruit some assitance from Barbara and Heather to help find the remainder of our class . I set them up with MY LIFE too so we can get through the list so much faster. One of the loved ones I am searching for is my cousin (Sandy) that moved away right after High School, we've lost contact over the years and using My Life I wasn't able to find her but I was able to find her sister and make contact with her. It will be a very exciting time next summer when we all get together for the reunion.

A New Face Lift

We did some changes to our daughters and sons room a couple of months ago, the first step was a new paint job as we traded rooms it left Jay in a Purple Room and Trin in a Green Room. We painted them a couple of weeks ago and now we are putting the final touches on the rooms. Today was a cool hand painted border around the ceiling, we will add some molding on the top and bottom of the border next week. Here is a sneak peak of where we are right now.

Asia Pacific Booking Sale

If you are taking a trip to the Asia Pacific you need to take a few minutes to save big money with the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific. The super sale can get you fantastic rates on beautiful hotel rooms in Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, HK, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Taiwan, India or Bali. There are over 1 million hotel rooms up for grabs with rates as low as $30. This special 3 day event takes place Oct 27th - 29th 2009 and coincides with record low rates on air fare to these countries allowing travellers to take in some of the most beautiful cities in the World at extreme savings. This incredible booking sale is for travel dates between December 2009 and April 2010. Deals like these do not come around very often, you need to consider the opportunity to explore many new cities that would welcome you for a visit. By visiting the website you can quickly access the various rooms in the country of your choice with just a few clicks of your mouse. Reserve your rooms online and even speak to a representative if you have any questions or concerns. Hurry now to get the best selections of rooms at these incredible sale prices, this event will end on the 29th so book early for best selection.

Finding old friends

Everyone has those people in their lives that made a differance in their lives but as time has gone by you have lost contact with them. It is just one of those aspects of life you have to accept, people are so transiant these days with many moves over the course of a lifetime it is so easy to lose contact with people. In this day and age there are so many online ways to re-connect with people from your past. I was a very active swimmer when I was younger but lost touch with my coaches and team mates after I stopped swimming and moved a number of times. Using the new MyLife Service I was able to do searches on a number of my former team mates and coach. My coach had such an incredible influence in my life, teaching me great work ethics and organization skills that I have been able to translate into my everyday life. With the "my life" service I was able to find 3 of my former team mates but unfortunetly I have been unable to find our coach yet. 185
We are now starting to work on a reunion celebration and I am using these connections through My Life to brance hou tand find as many of the old team.

Camera Critter: Sibling Love

We have our 2 dogs, Breigh is about 1 1/2 and Riley is 5 months, they are brother and sister and really spend a lot of time loving each other. They will play and cuddle together and they get along really well together.



Riley recently ( last month) has stopped going outside for the bathroom, he would literally go out and do nothing and then as soon as he was in the house he would do buisness whereever he wanted. It got frustrating so we moved onto to the kennel. We are about 5 days into this and it is working well for him. We are hoping to be able to move on out of the kennel soon if anyone has any good suggestions on how to convince him outside is the way to go we would love to hear about it.





To participate in camera critters click HERE!

What would your dream kitchen be?

The one thing I missed about our old house was the kitchen, we had this home built and I loved the new kitchen. When we moved there were not a lot of homes to choose from and we didn't have the time to wait for a new home to be build so we bought and older home. While it is about twice the size of our old home the kitchen is a little dated and I don't like the cabinets. I would love to have a kitchen remodel but we just can't afford it right now. I recently found an opportunity that might allow us to get the kitchen of our dreams. There is a new contest exclusive for Canadian Residents from the makers of Casa di Mama Pizza, you can enter the Dr. Oetker Kitchen Makeover Contest by purchasing specially marked packages to get your PIN number. They also are offering many secondary prizes that can have a major impact on your kitchen, new whirlpool appliances can make a beautiful addition to your kitchen. There is also an opportunity if you haven't already signed up for a Savoury Moments Membership that you can recieve an additional PIN number just for signing up today. What would you do with a new kitchen makeover, don't just dream it enter the contest today, someone will win it might just be you.

Camera Critter Fun

I managed to get some pictures of my shy puppy the other day out in the yard. It took me a while as everytime I caught him in a pretty pose Riley would jump up and run away. He really enjoyed digging holes and chewing sticks from our tree shrubs that we were cutting down. The one picture that I really wanted to get was Riley and Breigh (his sister) fighting over the sticks and a bone they had found. Maybe next time I will be able to get the shot.

I got the shot, after finishing the post I caught them outside when they didn't see me.



The puppies were in their glory we finally cut down the old apple tree in the back yard. The trunk had developed a large crack in it and we were worried it would fall and do damage. The dogs loved it because it left them with a never ending supply of Apple twigs to chew on. Of course they are just as bad as the kids because they had a supply but they would fight and growl back and forth over 1 twig.



To participate in camera critters click HERE!

Searching for old friends online

Sometimes we all wonder about our younger days and the way things used to be in our lives. It is just a part of life as we grow and things change in our lives we get seperated from the friends we had or possibly the old relationships we experienced. Have you ever found yourself wondering where those people are and if they might be wondering the same things about you. Who might be searching for you online? There is now a online service that can track who is searching for you online and once you are signed up you can see a list of people that have been looking for you. It's an easy service to use you enter your name and age and it gives you a list of people that have searched your profile online. It is a very interesting service to see who is looking for you online. If you are intersted in finding out who searched for you all you have to do is go to MyLife.com to get started on your profile. Once you are signed up you can also use the service to find old classmates from your school days or use one of the many other search criteria.

Camera Critter: Apple Sticks

The puppies were in their glory yesterday when we finally cut down the old apple tree in the back yard. The trunk had developed a large crack in it and we were worried it would fall and do damage. The dogs loved it because it left them with a never ending supply of Apple twigs to chew on. Of course they are just as bad as the kids because they had a supply but they would fight and growl back and forth over 1 twig.



To participate in camera critters click HERE!

Web hosting made easy

Everybody knows how much fun I have with my website and although I haven't had as much time as I would like to spend on it lately with the kids going back to school and projects finishing up around the house I will be working on adding more consistant content everyday. So many people ask me how to get started on their own site and I always have to tell them how easy it really is. The first step is to find a good web hosting service. It is so critical to have an idea what it is you are planning to accomplish and find the best service for you to meet your goals. The site webhostinggeeks.com is a very good place to start, they review all the top web hosting services and gives you a very detailed breakdown of the features each of those services offers.145 Whether you are a beginner or not you will find a lot of benefits in using this site. It provides a quick comparison of price, space, traffic limitations as well as a list of bonus features that are provided by the service. Personally I do a lot of communicating through my family blog to update family on all our activities, if you are interested in starting a blog of your own you should check out the best blog hosting providers to get a better idea of what providers would be best suited to blogging. I find blogging to be a lot of fun and a great to virtually scrapbook my families daily adventures.

Fall is really here

Although it has been fall for a week now it has still been fairly warm out. It finally hit today and as it is now October 1st I can really say that it is fall. I will soon be reaching for the heaters at night to keep the house warm. One great thing I look forward to this time of year is all the fresh vegetables that are available...yummy.

Missing Friends Search

In today's fast paced interactive website world filled with sites like Facebook, Twitter and more it is a fantastic way to find old friends and loved ones. We have become such a mobile society, I can count on 1 hand the amount of people from my Granduating Class that still live in my home town. So it's so easy to loose contact over a few years. There is a fantastic new service at the site www.MyLife.com that allows you to re-connect with people. I recently wanted to find a old friend Matt, I haven't seen in a while so by just doing a quick search My Life does all the searching for me, it checkes the profiles of all the most popular socializing sites to find matches for me. I really wanted to know what he has been up to and where life has taken him over the years. Although there was a number of results returned I was able to find a profile that matched and allowed me to find out where he was living, what his career now is along with his personal information and family. I was able to link up to his facebook and join his friend list. It was very excting and know I will be using this to search for all the other old friends I have lost touch with. It's so much easier to use as it searches quickly through all the sites. I can't recommend this site enough to people just star

Dance Fun

Another Dance Season has begun and as always there is so much to get ready for. New Shoes, 3 pairs for each of the kids, the registration fees and of course the costumes. One I know for sure that we need to find this year is a "Thing 2" from The Cat in the Hat. I have been searching online to try and find one and had some success on a few different sites and on EBay, so we'll see how my bid goes, wish me luck.

A man and his toys

Christmas is coming fast so what do you get for someone that has everything. My father has accumulated so much stuff over the years it's hard to get him something that he doesn't already have so for me it's easier to buy him accessories to go with something he already has. He loves his Yamaha motorcycle and is always tinkering and adding new accessories to in during the Winter to get ready for Spring. Now that I live away it's hard to get gifts to my family so shopping online and having them shipped direct to family is so much easier. It's great to buy online too because you can save up to 60% off your custom yamaha parts. Now I will just have to find a way to figure out what accessories to get him without him knowing.

Christmas Countdown

It's official,,, in only 3 months it will be Christmas Day, that scares the crap out of me. We live so budgeted we have to plan our Christmas purchases months ahead of time to make the math work out for us. This Christmas will be a bit different for us because we are planning on staying home for the Christmas Season and only be heading home to visit for New Years Eve. We are trying to finish up a few big projects in the house before we start to worry about decorating. Wish us luck on the journey.

Christmas Time is Coming Fast

It's the most wonderful time of the year, yes Christmas is just around the corner and it's time to start planning what to get each of my kids. My oldest son is the easiest as he only has one focus when it comes to hobbies. He is into anything "Army" or "Combat" and loves getting out doing war games with his buddies. He is looking some new paint ball gear and is really looking for an airsoft rifle but he still has some convincing to do on that one. I'm sure he will be shopping online for me and creating the big list of things he wants to have.

When a mouse beats Spiderman

I was very surprised when the news broke yesterday about the Disney buying up the Marvel Company. It will be interesting to see how the deal shakes down with so many commitments already out there for Marvel it will take a while before we see the Disney spin on our favorite Marvel Characters. I think Disney Executives will certainly respect the history of Marvel and take the Characters in a new and exciting direction. In the end I hope to see an even better product with more fun and adventure than ever. I heard the shares dropped on the news so it might be a good time to Buy one Share of Disney as it has a proven track record of surviving and in the long run with the addition of thousands of new characters to draw from should become an even more powerful enterprise. Good Luck Mickey, I can't wait to see you swinging through New York with Spidey.

It's beginning to look a lot like fall

Well I think it is time to face the truth... summer is coming to an end. No the beaches aren't closed yet.... the pool is still up (for now) and the weather is still pretty nice and the kids are still enjoying the pool....

BUT

the kids are going

on Thursday

Medical Marijuana...What's the Reality

In recent years there has been an ongoing debate over the validity of using Marijuana as a pain reliever for different medical condition. There are people that believe it is a useful tool and those who believer it is not an effective treatment for any condition. I have read of different conditions that can be treated using Medical Marijuana in a responsible matter. It has been reportedly been used to treat Migraines, asthma and depression and is also used to assist people going through treatment for Cancer to assist them with the side effects of their treatment. Whether you agree or disagree in the use of medical marijuana it is here to stay as an alternative treatment.

I have no washer

Yesterday my washer broke, worse a tube popped off the back of the machine and it filled and filled and filled until it overflowed flooding my son's bedroom and the family room. We are now in the middle of clean up and dry out. There was so much water that we actually burnt out our shopvac while sucking up the water. We managed to find the replacement parts today after many hours of searching and are catching up on all the loads of wet towels etc that we used to try and suck up the water.

Camera Critter : Bronx Zoo

We survived our trip to NY last week and one of our excursions was to the Bronx Zoo, I thought I would give our puppies a week off of Camera Critter and share some pictures I took at the Zoo.
Here's the Big Gorilla, he was pretty laid back and wasn't too concerned about us being around. Reminds me of hubby a big hairy beast

This little fella was pretty curios and came right up to the glass to great us

What a beautiful peacock, I love the blue

One of my favorite shots from the zoo was this sea turtle, it was relaxing to see him swimming gracefully on by.

To participate in camera critters click HERE!

Wordless Wednesday "Sugar Rush"

To particpate click HERE!

Family Vacation Planning

We have been working on planning a great family vacation that we can enjoy together. It is a challange to find a destination that will offer exciting adventure for the entire family. We really want to have a warm destination that will allow us ot enjoy the warm water and sun. We have discovered the "Karisma" line of hotels that give the choice of 5 different locations all based on the beautiful white sands of the Maya river. These 5 different locations offer distinctly differnet experiences allowing you to customize your experience. If you are searching for a great vacation don't forget to checkout the options.

Camera Critter : Up to my neck

It's so much fun to have a mischievious little pup again, the other day hubby caught Riley out in the yard up to his neck in a hole he had dug in the lawn. He was growling and going after something interesting. After watching for a couple of minutes Riley finally peaked his head out of the hole and showed what was so interesting. He had dropped an apple into the hole and was trying to figure out how to get it out. Funny to watch for sure, too bad we didn't get it on video.






To participate in camera critters click HERE!

Skywatch Friday : New York Approach

It has been a wild week in NYC for my daughter and I, we came down with her dance troupe and had a great week, I took this picture of our approach when we were landing.

To check out all the other cool skywatchers click on sky watch friday

It's the most wonderful time of the year

It's that time of year for us as soon as we start BTS shopping we also start Christmas shopping. In our family we have 4 children so it means we have to start shopping early to meet the budget. Our oldest son has been deliberating on what gaming system he wants. He is considering all the options from PS3 to Wii to XBox .
He is currently leaning towards the Xbox because he feels there is better access to Games with that system over the PS3 and with the Wii he thinks it might be a bit more kid orientated. To meet the budget I wanted to take the time to shop for all the options and see what pricing I could get. When I found Shopwiki.com it made all the difference, they offer all the online options. They are different from traditional sites because they are not paid for their listings, they work basically like google, searching out all the sites the offer a particular product.
Another consideration for us is the costs of accessories because with all the systems you need to have a lot of accessories to do anything with. It seems as though the system that uses the most accessories would be the wii, which makes another plus for the xbox. With the help of Shopwiki we will be able to make the best deal and save us money to put into other items for the kids.

Wordless Wednesday " What you looking for"

I'm convinced now my new pup is too crazy, while the kids were in the pool he decided to dig a hole in the lawn. The funny thing was that when he was done it was just big enough for him to stick his whole head in and not 1 bit more. He dropped an small apple in the whole and was having a great time trying to play with it.

To particpate click HERE!

Gotta Run, Gotta Win

It has been a hectic year with me returning to work it seems as though sometimes there isn't enough time in the day. I have been working about 5 nights a week and basically run out the door when my husband gets home from work. For me it means eating on the go but I'm picky and I still like something yummy even when I'm in a hurry. One of my favorite on the go dinners are Stouffers-panini my favorites were "Philly Steak" or "Smoked Turkey" but now there is a whole new line of "Lean" Panini's that have the same great taste but are better for my weight consious mind. To Celebrate the launch of the new flavors a new contest has been launched looking to award 3 lucky people with a $10,000 dream vacation to India, Greece or France. That would be a nice vacation after the hectic year we have just completed. There are also 12 secondary prizes of a Sony Camcorder. 158This contest is exclusive to residents of Canada and will allow you one free entry after that you need to enter UPC codes off your favorite Panini Products. You can enter the contest every single day but you have to use different UPC codes each time. If you would like to try your luck just register here to start entering the contest.

blogger problems

Carrie with some review of the help topics I found out some information on your blog, the server you store pictures on is called Picassa and it only takes so much information an alternative is to post off of another server ie Photobucket, I posted this off you photobucket account, it's quite easy you just click the share button and it gives you a link code you can cut and paste into your blog. I had to resize the picture in Compose mode but it worked.

Local Events Calendar Widget

It's summer time and it is truly my favorite time of year, I get to have the kids home from school and we get to plan out all kinds of activities. This year is a bit more challanging for me as it's the first year I have been back at works since the kids were born. Luckily I am home all day and hubby takes the evening time while I'm working. I find it a bit more hectic so I needed to find a resourse that could find all the local events going on around so I didn't have to take time listening to the radio, reading newspaper and flyer boards. While I was searching I actually came accross an incredible site called ParentsConnect.com it's an online resource service that gives you access to all kinds of information for infants up to teens to help you with common questions. They have created the Local Events Calendar Widget to help busy parents keep up with their community events. Right now they also have a contest to see who's widget gets the most clicks with a prize of $1000 up for grabs. This tool will help me and can help you organize your daily events to keep the kids busy and out in their community.

Kids' Events |
Kids' Activities


Daycare |
Summer Camps

ParentsConnect.com