Building Stronger Communities Through Friendly Competition

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aviva Community Fund for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have been reading about ways to make our local community better over the last few months and recently came across the Aviva Community Fund. This fund is sponsored by Aviva Insurance and has goals of improving the local community through $1,000,000 awarded to winners in the competition. The funds contest is currently in phase 1 which is the initial submission stage and is still accepting applicants until November 25, 2013. It is important to note that finalists are chosen based on the number of votes recieved so it is important to spread the word for your submission to get the most support and to move onto the next phase. It would also be a great idea to get an Aviva Insurance Broker to support your ideas to increase your chance of winning. The goal of this fund is to create positive change in the world we live in.

The community fund is a great idea and we are currently focused on establishing the funds focus in the local area. There are a few ways you can get more infomation on the program by choosing Like Aviva Community Fund on facebook you will be kept up to date. Of course there are multiple options in regards to how to contact Aviva as they can be followed by twiter by selecting Follow @avivacf to be kept up to date on all the news and information.  I am a big supporter of any cause that is focused on kids and their development in our communities of today. I find too often kids get pushed aside and do not recieve the education and chance they deserve. I strongly encourage anyone reading this article to check out the ideas already submitted and place your vote to make your opinion count see the website for full details and good luck to your favorite community cause. Check out the Aviva website by clicking the links to see the information.

apple orchard

It's the time of year that I look forward to all year, it's time to take a trip to the local Apple Orchard and fill up a stash of Apples for the winter. It is the perfect time of year when it is just starting to really feel like fall. The kids had a blast last year and have been looking forward to our trip this weekend for months. Go Apples.

Stronger Communities...Stronger Families

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aviva Community Fund for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I find it so encouraging this time of year to see opportunities for small groups and organizations to build better communities. It is also encouraging to see Businesses helping out by sponsoring programs. I have been following a contest put on by Aviva Insurance called the Aviva Community Fund, it's designed to help programs build awareness for their causes and have their programs win awards based on fan votes to assist them to reach their goals. I love to see programs based on building and supporting families, I think it is so important for our kids today with all the pressures from society and the media to have a grounded home base and life to help them grow into productive adults. The program is now moving into the Semi-Final stages and it's time to get up and vote for your favorites. Once you have registered on the Aviva Community Fund website you can just sign in daily and vote, you can vote up to 15 times per voting cycle and you can either vote for the same candidate or spread your vote around to all your favorites. Now you can only vote for once per day for an idea and be sure to vote for the one you want to see win as once you cast your vote you can not take it back. If you would like to follow all the action you can Like Aviva Community Fund on facebook or via Twitter Follow @Aviva to get more information about the fund and what Aviva is doing for communities just like yours.

Keeping our kids Safe At School

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Insurance Hunter for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The kids are now back in school, we think it should be easy to get them off to school in the mornings and all is safe but with hundreds of other parents thinking the same thing it can get really hectic around the school with everyone dropping their kids off around the same time. A recent Ontario School Zone Safety SurveyOntario School Zone Safety Survey by Insurance Hunter has shown that over 2/3rds of all parents polled drive their kids to school and few carpool. I also found the response that almost half 43 percent felt that the drop off zones were overcrowded and 34 percent felt that the drop off zones were not safe. Going to a new school this year it was new for our whole family and we had to find out all the processes on our own. It was a challange to get used to the routines but after a few weeks we got used to the routines and everything seems to be getting easier for us. It still resembles absolute chaos in the mornings dropping the kids off but atleast now we now the direction of the chaos. If you would like to see the results of the survey to see what other parents thought check out the link to Insurance Hunter’s survey on driver safety in school zones survey. Insurance Hunter is an online home and auto insurance comparison site that offers you hassle free quotes. They have qualified insurance agents that will follow up with you to ensure you are getting the best insurance rates available.

Career Options

Thinking about a career that can withstand the tough economic times it's a great opportunity to look into the new Regency BeautySchool. No matter what the economic outlook is it is a given that people will always want to look their best and for many that means regular trips to their specialist. One of the best and growing schools is the regency beauty school which has grown from 2 schools in 2002 to over 80 schools with plans to grow even more. This is a career that has a lot of security it you learn your craft and are able to speak well to people. It can be a lot of fun working directly with people and having them give you their trust in their appearance. Check out more information on the courses and locations at regencybeauty.com. This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 3583 Alpine Avenue NW – Walker, MI 49544

Joke..Two Sisters

Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble.

In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull from the stockyard in a far town so that they can breed their own stock. They only have $600 left.

Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, 'When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.'

The brunette arrives at the stockyard, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less.

After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news. She walks into the telegraph office and says, 'I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home.'

The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, 'It's just 99 cents a word.'

Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.

After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, 'I want you to send her the word 'comfortable.'

The operator shakes his head. 'How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable?'

The brunette explains, 'My sister's blonde. The word's big. She'll read it very slowly ...

com-for-da-bull.'

A trip to the dentist

A dentist noticed that his next patient, a little old lady, was nervous

so he decided to tell her a little joke as he put on his gloves.

"Do you know how they make these gloves?" he asked.

"No, I don't," she replied.

"Well," he spoofed, "there's a building in Canada with a big tank of latex and workers of all hand sizes walk up to the tank, dip in their hands, let them dry, then peel off the gloves and throw them into boxes of the right size."

She didn't crack a smile. "Oh, well. I tried," he thought.

But five minutes later, during a delicate portion of the procedure, she burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked

"I was just envisioning how condoms are made!"

Gotta watch those little old ladies! Their minds are always Working!

Start each day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude.

Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often

Bug Off

Sometimes the best offence is a good defence. In the constant battle to keep our homes free of insects and unwanted creatures it pays to have experts help you create a pest free home. You could wait until you have your home invaded or you can get a plan to stop the critters before they move in and take over. Houston is known as a great breading ground for cock roaches because of it's warm climate. If you use a reputable company like "bulls eye pest" the experts of Houston Pest Control. They can help you of course if you have an infestation, but they can also help you by reviewing your home for any signs of infestation and also find areas that insects can penetrate your home and come up with solutions to protect your home. Working with your specialist you can find peace of mind knowing your investment will protect you and your home from the unseen critters that can cost you a lot of money and damage if left untreated.

Dance fun

I have had a busy week with the kids at their dance competition and the weekend is now coming to an end. Today the kids performed their big production of Billy Elliot it was so exciting to see them both have so much fun up on stage. We are now getting ready to get some sleep and get ready for tommorrows show of the Nut Cracker, it will be a very exciting moment for sure to see the kids in their last big show of the competition, that is except for the finally dance off which so far has to performances from Trin getting in so far.

Cheese Cake Delight

Oh the wonderful time of year that I get to celebrate my Birthday, it's especially nice because I get to celebrate with my daughter as her birthday is the day before mine so we now celebrate together. We bought a delicious variety cheesecake from the grocery store. It had 4 types of cheesecake, chocolate swirl, strawberry swirl, regular and almondetto....Yummy

Frustrating

I can't imagine the irresponsible behavior of big drug companies and their complete disregard for human safety and life. The extreme quality assurance they have to go through to get a drug on the market is extrely long. It really makes you wonder when it takes so long to have the experts greeen light the new jug only to really test the product, it's then deemed safe if we take the time to persue the truth of the Actos product. If you have questions about the upcoming -Actos lawsuit just click on the link above to get the information you need to make the right decision for your family.

JUST FOR LAUGHS....

MY WIFE IS POISONING ME....

A man goes to see the Rabbi.
"Rabbi, something terrible is happening and I have to talk to you about it."

The Rabbi asked, "What's wrong?"

The man replied, "My wife is poisoning me."

The Rabbi, very surprised by this, askes,
"How can that be?"

The man then pleads, "I'm telling you, I'm certain she's poisoning me, what should I do?"

The Rabbi then offers, "Tell you what. Let me talk to her, I'll see what I can find out and I'll let you know."

A week later the Rabbi calls the man and says,
"Well, I spoke to you wife. I spoke to her on the phone for three hours. you want my advice?" The man said yes and the Rabbi replied,

" Take the poison."

Flat Tire Joke

Yesterday I had a flat tire by the hospital .
I eased my car over to the shoulder of the road, carefully got out of the car and
opened the trunk.

I took out 2 cardboard men, unfolded them and stood
them at the rear of my car facing oncoming traffic. They look so
life like you wouldn't believe it! They are in trench coats, exposing their
nude bodies and private parts to the approaching drivers.

I started to change my tire, and to my surprise, cars started slowing down looking at my life like men. And of course, traffic started backing up. Everybody was tooting their horns and waving like crazy. It wasn't
long before a Mountie pulled up behind me.

He got out of his car and started walking towards me. I could tell he was not a happy camper!

"What's going on here?"

"My car has a flat tire," I said calmly.

"Well, what the hell are those obscene cardboard men doing
here by the road?"

I couldn't believe that he didn't know. So I told
him, "Hello-o-o-o, those are my emergency flashers."

Auto Repair Plan

I would have to say for sure I am not a great car person, I know how to put gas in and I know you need to get your oil changed and tires rotated but that is about it. I hate taking my Honda Civic into the local shop because I'm always worried that they are going to take advantage of me and charge me too much just because I don't know the in's and out's of vehical repair.

I remember what happened to break me finally so I needed to find help when it came to fixing my car. I had some smoking issues and when I took the car into get checked I was told it was my Head Gasket and that it was going to cost me a lot to get it fixed. A friend that was sitting in the shop waiting with me mentioned I should try out a website "RepairPal" to make sure I wasn't getting gauged by the shop. Repair Pal will help you from it's valuable database that knows how much parts and labor should cost for a wide variety of repairs. It was fantasic and I was even able to print out what it should cost me and I was able to take it in with me and show them that they were charging too much. I got the work done for $200 less than what I was originally quoted.
Repair pal is available for a wide variety of areas and if you find yourself in need of Los Angeles auto repair you can check out the site to see how they can help you out.

Time to move

The weekend we have been waiting for has finally arrived, it's moving weekend. We are not moving because we want to but because we have to but we are going to make the best of the situation and have been working hard getting our new place ready. The moving truck is out front and tommorrow we start loading it up, we will have lots of help on the other end to unload but this end it's a little light so hopefully we can get things loaded ok. Wish us luck.

Birth defects

I always get very disapointed when I hear about drugs that were meant to help us with our health actually causing damage instead. It is even worse when the effect is seen in our children. A drug used to treat epilepsy and migrain headaches called Topamax has been linked to birth defects in children born to mothers that took the drug. The birth defect is a cleft pallet or cleft lip that don't properly fuse together during development in the womb. This has become such an issue that it has garnered the interest of a group of lawyers that are working on a Topamax lawsuit to get compensation for people whom have had their lives disrupted by the carelessness of the drug companies.

O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath – Personal Injury Lawyers – 808 West Avenue, Austin, TX. 78701 – 512-494-9949

Furniture Dissapointment

We picked up the boys new bunk beds today and they were very excited to get to spend the night in their new beds. We managed to get everything home, or so we thought, they forgot one of the boxes so we had to travel back to the store. Then when we got put them together there were a couple of parts damaged the headboard and footboard were heavily damaged so it was very disappointing. So dissapointing that we are not sure if we will go back to get our other furniture we wanted. We built the beds anyway and are taking them back to get the replacement parts sent to us.

Moving Sale

We are in the process of moving and it is an interesting experience for sure, we are moving a little bit every chance we get. To make it a bit more fun we are working on picking out new furniture for the family. We are down sizing a little bit so it is allowing us to sell off a lot of our things to get some money to buy new. It is making it easier too because it is less we need to move to our new home.

Catching up

It can be a lot of fun doing Dance competitions with the kids but it sure eats up our free time and the poor house takes the brunt of the abuse. We have been trying to keep up with the cleaning but with being gone most of the day it seems like we get home long enough to drop our clothes, eat and not much else. We will have to spend a few days next week getting caught up.

Big drug companies

I consider myself so lucky to have had 4 healthy babies over the years. They were all born with everything in the right place and 10 fingers and toes in place. I recently heard about birth defects that were being blamed on a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraine headaches. The effects of these drugs have caused birth defects in some children. The birth defects include cleft lips and palettes and can be very devastating on parents and children alike wondering what was done wrong to create this issue. The Topamax lawsuit is designed to get compensation for people that have had their lives impacted by the drug companies pushing out these drugs before providing proper testing to make sure they were safe to be used for people to use.

I want a pony

We are moving to the farm house and with that brings a whole new bunch of opportunities for us. We are now able to finally really look into get a pony for the family. Grandpa has a couple of horses in the barn but they are so big, they make the kids nervous. I have been shopping online for a pony and found a beautiful one that reminds me of something out a fairytale. I would love to get it for the kids but we want to wait until we are moved and settled in first.

Rain Boots

The kids are getting sick of me in the mornings telling them to wear their rain boots. They hate wearing boots to school thinking they look so uncool. I can't totally disagree with them but it is a fact that we are getting a lot of rain, basically everyday brings more rain and I want to make sure they are dressed appropriately for the day. I'm sure they'll understand someday why I care so much about their well being and not so much their fashionability. Sorry kiddies.

Cryotherapy Lawsuits

You would like to think that when you put your health in the care of health care professionals that they will make sure you are looked after properly. In the case of post surgery swelling doctors can perscribe a Cold Therapy Device called Cryotherapy. It is designed to reduce the pain and swelling by circulating cold water around the injured joint. The danger is if it is not properly done the prolonged exposure or using water that is too cold can result in damage to the nerves or skin that could be permananent. It could cause chronic pain, permanent nerve knowledge or frost bite. It can certainly be a scary situation when you feel like your losing control of your own body and don't know what to do. You trusted your medical advise but where certainly left down you should take the time to look into the cold therapy lawsuit you might be in a position to recieve compensation for your pain and suffering if you take the time to review your options. You should contact the team of O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath – Personal Injury Lawyers – 808 West Avenue, Austin, TX. 78701 – 512-494-9949 to recieve more information.

Tis the season

Yes it's that great time of year that everyone loves, Flu Season has struck our household and it is taking it's time creaping through the house. It started about a week and a half ago with little Kohl and slowly moved onto Blake and Trin and finally myself or so we thought...tonight it finally hit Jay if only so slightly so far, that only leaves Matt to get his turn, I guess we'll see if it finishes it's rounds or skips him over.

Car repairs made easy

It is so frustrating owning older vehicals you never know when they will let you down and cost you money to get them repaired. Just last week we had problems with both of our vehicles and they had to go into the shop the same day. The worry was how much is this going to cost us right before Christmas. How frustrated are you with your Auto Repair bills. It's like you never know if you are being treated fairly by your garage or not. If you are like me you don't know how much a repair should cost you.
The next time you have the Check Engine Light come on in your vehicle try out the great site RepairPal.com to get an estimate as to what your repair should cost you to be sure you get a fair deal when you go in for your repairs. They have a really simple site that allows you to search your vehicles year and make to find out various information including any recalls or to find out how much it might cost to repair the struts on your Toyota Camry or other vehicle. You can be sure you are paying a fair price for repairs.