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.



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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.

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Wordless Wednesday "Sugar Rush"

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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.






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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

Scenic Sunday : Grandpa's Field

On a recent visit to the in-laws home to pick up our new puppy we also had a birthdya party for our son Kohl while we were there. I got this picture of the kids running through the field in the back yard, I thought it was a great scenic picture.



To see other great "Scenic Shots" click on the picture below

Web Hobbies

I remember two years ago when I originally started my websites as just a hobby and to keep my family up to date with the activities of the kids as we live so far away from them. It is so exciting to see how that original idea has evolved over the last 2 years with the vast expanse and accessibility of the Internet I have been able to connect with people literally all over the world. I am now approaching a point where I am looking for more out of my service and am planning on moving my sites off my free service to a paid program that can offer me more features but where to start in looking for a web hosting service. A lot of my Internet friends are using paid services but most of them use different ones so it is hard for me to pick the best one. Turning to a web hosting review site is very beneficial because it offers honest reviews of all the web hosting options. Most good review sites will rank the different providers and show you key information like rates, space, features and more to give you a fair comparison of offers. They will also provide you with links to the services like In Motions Hosting so you can get the full information on the various providers for yourself before making a selection. Using a hosting review site can certainly save you lots of time in your search for a host service.