TAKING OVER THE COMPUTER

My son is getting rather upset with me today because I'm spending to much time on the computer. I am trying to get some posts done before we go away. It's not to often, as a matter of fact this is the first time that I've had a good size list of blogging opportunities waiting to get done. If I keep getting these opportunities than I will have to look into getting myself a laptop, I can't hog the family computer and with my husband getting into blogging we might have to get the internet hooked up on my sons computer. I'm sure things will all work out and he will be talking to me really soon.

Destination Wedding Vacations

Ah, dreaming of being waited on hand and foot while I enjoy beautiful white sandy beaches. Fantastic candlelit dinners, along with many other fantastic dining options. The beautiful ocean lapping up against the shore, with beautiful calm waters. Cabana's directly on the beach, swim up suites the imagination is endless when I begin to think of a destination weddings I would like to take, with hubby of course. I began looking into vacations that we could take and found a fantastic group of hotels in Karisma Hotel line located on the beautiful waters on the Mexican Riviera Maya. The Karisma Hotels offer a number of unique vacation opportunities to match with what you long for in a vacation and specialize in beautiful settings and gorgeous views.

Sponsor a child

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SEO 5 Consulting. All opinions are 100% mine.

It is so easy to get into the mode of why me, we can get so down on ourselves about how hard we have things. When you sit and listen to the news or watch documenteries on how life can be in other areas of the World it is amazing how good we really have things. When I watch the poor children in countries like Africa and you see them suffering through every day not knowing where or when they might get something to eat. Plan works is an organization that helps in many ways make life better for those that are really in need. They find ways to help with education by setting up education opportunities for the youth and communities they are helping. They also work to provide immunizations for children. Another one of the vital services they support is finding ways to provide access to safe drinking water and educate people on the vital importance of sanitation. 160 The only way they can provide these service to the areas they are so vitally needed is through donations from people like you. Setting up sponsorship is so easy either by going to the website or by calling the hotline. It is so important for people to take the time to sponsor a child, it is very affordable and you can set up your donations so they are either made monthly or yearly whatever best suits your budget needs.

vacation planner

We travelled down to the travel store today to start finding information and books for our upcoming vacation. The travel agent was super and gave us a lot of information to sort through to plan. She showed us the best times (budget wise) to travel down to disney. Now we have books to show the kids, they love the movie hotel and hopefully we will be staying there for our trip.

Planning a family vacation

We have finally made our decision on a family vacation, we are heading to disney land. It is a big job to plan a trip for 6 especially with little ones but we really want to get there soon. We are planning on next Spring or Summer at this time. We need to get a few debts cleaned up and save some spending money. The kids are pretty excited and we are showing them videos and pictures to build the excitement, not that kids really need any help building excitement.

Tax Time is coming

It is soon coming up to tax time, it will be different for us this year as it is the first year I have been back to work full time. It makes a difference for deductions and such, at least I can claim some childcare expenses this year and the home renovation tax credit should help us some as we put in new windows, doors and some flooring last year that we can claim. We are just waiting for our tax slips to come so we can get into our tax person to finish up our forms.

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.