Ice Princess's Parent Talk

Kids Point Reward System Charts

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:24:00 +0000

My sons are both very stubborn. Getting them to do something I want is a chore. They've both also turned into picky eaters. Since I have a bunch of free time now, I put together a reward system for them to try to get them to do what I want, including eat better. My oldest son has a monster reward chart I downloaded from https://www.kidpointz.com/. It is a weekly chart where you add a list of tasks and mark off a square for each day of the week where the task is completed. His tasks include: brush teeth, do homework, clean room and listen while I read at night.
My youngest son has a doggie reward chart I also downloaded from https://www.kidpointz.com/. It is the same type of chart as the monster chart. His tasks include: brush teeth twice a day since he has 4 cavities, clean room and listen while I read at night.
I also downloaded a fruit and vegetable color chart from https://www.personal-nutrition-guide.com/support-files/rainbow.pdf. It tracks which fruits and vegetables are eaten every day according to what color they are. The chart also has a color coded list of which foods belong to each color. It doesn't have white though, so I added that myself. Included in that list are bananas, cauliflower, garlic, mushrooms, onions and potatoes. I'm also letting them include milk, cheese, yogurt and chicken for the white category.
I've set up a point system where each activity done per day earns 1 point.
There are a total of 10 activities for each boy at 1 point each, so there is a total of 70 possible points per week that can be earned. This is a 30 day system, so for 4 weeks that is 280 total possible points for a 100%. They need to earn at least 182 points for passing of 65%.
I'm setting up these prize levels:

181 points or less (0 - 64%): $1 prize
182 - 206 points (65% - 73%): $5 prize
207 - 231 points (74% - 82%): $10 prize
232 - 256 points (83% - 91%): $15 prize
257 - 280 points (92% - 100%): $20 prize

The prize is their choice as long as it stays within the price limit of what they earned.
We'll see how it goes!
My oldest just told my youngest: Have you noticed Mom has gone cuckoo because of that chart thing! LOL! Guess that's what happens when I don't have work to do.

UPDATE: 7/6/13 - My sons are doing really great with this, especially the oldest, who's very competitive. For the first round, my youngest got the $5 prize and my oldest got the $10 prize. In the latest round my youngest got the $5 prize and my oldest got the $15 prize. It's definitely a good, sneaky way to get kids to do what you want with the added bonus of teaching them to manage money.

More Kids Reward Systems

Kid School Emergency Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:49:00 +0000

I was watching Live with Kelly and Michael this morning. Kelly was talking about how she received an emergency phone call. Turns out her daughter, Lola, had fallen in school playing frisbee and was being taken to the hospital. X-rays showed nothing was broken, so they left. On the way home, the hospital called and said to come back. They had looked at the wrong x-rays. Lola's arm was broken! Crazy! One more story of hospital error.
Anyways, that reminded me of my son's school emergency a few weeks ago. The nurse called and said he had gotten his finger stuck in a water bottle. You know the stainless steel water bottles with a plastic screw on cap that has a flap over the hole you drink out of? Yeah, his middle finger on his right hand, was stuck in that hole. Apparently, the nurse couldn't get his finger out. She had tried icing it and using some sort of lubrication, but it didn't work. His finger was starting to swell, so she called the EMT. Driving to the school, I had visions of them transporting him to a hospital to amputate his finger, and my running in yelling at them to stop! lol.
When I arrived at the school, there was a small firetruck and an ambulance parked in front. Gathered in the nurses office was a whole group of people: my poor son who looked like he was about ready to cry, the nurse, the fireman, 2 EMT's, the janitor, a teacher's aide, and then the gym teacher came in. Luckily, they had gotten the cap off his finger shortly before I arrived. The EMT's ended up cutting the cap, not his finger, off. I was super glad they were able to get the cap off without resorting to drastic measures! He caused quite a commotion at the school! Everyone was pretty worried about him.
I'm not exactly sure how he ended up getting his finger stuck. He didn't offer too much information other than it was after lunch. He'd stuck his finger in and out of the whole a couple of times, and then it got stuck. He told his teacher who took him to the nurse.
Kids!

More Raising Kids

Another School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:45:00 +0000

The boys are in 2nd grade and preschool this year. My youngest is really enjoying preschool. He had a few issues the second day involving not wanting to clean up, getting upset, throwing a tantrum and kicking the teacher, but other than that he's doing great. He was upset when he had to take the weekend off from school.
His speech is coming along pretty well, although I still hate sending him off to school alone. He's at the same preschool with the same teacher his brother had, so already knowing her makes leaving him a little bit easier. She did a great job with my older son. My youngest son has a special ed teacher coming twice a week for an hour and a speech therapist coming twice a week for a half hour. He got approval late in the school year last year, so he only had it for about 2 months with nothing but me over the summer. Hopefully professional help for a full school year will have him ready for kindergarten. He's missing a lot of early sounds like p and b. He really seems to know a lot of things, colors, shapes, letters, etc. It's really great being able to understand more and more of what he says. The other day I was cutting an onion and I said: OMG I can't see. He heard me and said: yeah, you need a haircut lol.
They are getting big way too fast. Now that they are both in school, I have mornings to myself for the first time in almost 8 years. Working at home while raising two very busy boys pretty much by myself has been challenging, but I'm really glad I've been able to stay home and watch them grow. Speech Therapy

Summer Vegetable Gardening

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 02:07:00 +0000

Here in upstate New York, we are having a very hot and dry summer. Everyone's lawns are even turning brown. Farmers are even hoping for rain, so that corn and the second cutting of hay will grow.
My summer hobby is vegetable gardening. I like to grow a wide variety of vegetables. This year I'm growing a couple different kinds of lettuce, arugula, spinach, peas, green beans, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, popcorn, butternut squash, pumpkin, watermelon, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and beets. Everything seems to be growing pretty well. Probably because I've been making an effort to water the garden.
The boys father stopped at a garage sale and bought a box of irrigation supplies for $20. The guy running the garage sale used to install lawn sprinkler systems. There were tons of things in the box, including hoses, nozzles and sprinklers. His find has been a big help with keeping the boys cool and the garden watered.
I've been trying to get the boys to develop an interest in gardening by helping me, but I'm not having much luck. The youngest one did help me plant seeds. He's not much of a vegetable eater, so I was hoping gardening would help with that too. He will eat carrots and peas so far. I'm hoping that once the green beans and tomatoes are ready, he will eat those too. Tomatoes are the only vegetable my oldest son will eat. I've resorted to the sneaky chef method of pureeing vegetables and sneaking them into the foods they will eat. Hopefully, I can phase that out someday. With all of the crap in store bought food these days, growing their own organic vegetables is a skill they are going to have to learn if they want to stay healthy.

Hoping to Heal Tooth Decay Naturally

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 02:21:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I took my 4 year old to the dentist for the first time. The day before, I just happened to take a peek in his mouth and saw a gray spot on one of his teeth. I pretty much knew what that was, a cavity. Unfortunately, his first dental trip didn't go very well. He refused to sit in the chair and let the dentist get a close look. He did open up while standing, so the dentist could view the tooth. He thought it was a cavity too. My dental hygienist suggested I take my son to a pediatric dentist, since they deal with kids every day and have a kid friendly office. That was a big mistake. For a pediatric dentist, he was not very good. He didn't connect with my son at all. The dentist came out all hyper and talking a little loud to my son wondering what his name is and how old he is. My son just ran over to me and didn't say anything. I think he was scared. Then we went into the room. My son went to look at a bunch of sticker rolls they had on the wall and was trying to check a few other things out. The dentist had this weird tone of voice when telling him to stay away from things. The dentist had me sit my son on my lap facing me and lay him down between me and the dentist, so he could look in his mouth. I think my son wanted to sit in the dental chair, but the dentist didn't even try to have him sit in it. Then when the dentist was looking in my son's mouth, he was singing this weird song. The only positive thing the dentist did was show my son the mirror he was going to use to look in his mouth. When he was done, the dentist said my son had eight cavities and my son would have to be hospitalized and knocked out in order for him to take care of all the cavities at once. I've never heard of hospitalizing a child for cavities, but apparently that's what a lot of money hungry dentists do. I asked him if we couldn't just fix the cavities a little at a time and he said what, knock him out multiple times? This dentist, who's on Genessee St. in Utica, NY was going to charge $2000 for fixing the cavities. On top of that would be the hospital bills, so it would probably cost about $5000 to get my son's cavities taken care of with this dentist. Pretty crazy. I have NY's Child Health Plus for my son which includes a dental plan for certain dentists. This dentist isn't in the plan. I was just stunned, but fortunately something came over me and I said I was getting a second opinion and we left. If my son ends up needing to be hospitalized to get his cavities taken care, that dentist won't be doing it. I didn't like him, he didn't connect with my son and I'm pretty sure he didn't have my son's best interests in mind and was just out to make money. I immediately went to my dentist and scheduled an appointment for my son. Hopefully he will be able to get my son to cooperate, although I don't really hold much hope in that. If that doesn't work I'm not sure what I will do. In the mean time, I'm reading a book called Cure Tooth Decay. Apparently, it is possible to remineralize teeth and heal cavities naturally. Apparently, tooth decay can be stopped and small cavities may even go away. According to this book, cavities are the result of a nutritional imbalance of Vitamin A, K, D, calcium and phosphorus. Remineralizing teeth requires a diet of no grains or sugar, with raw dairy products, vegetables, limited amounts of fruit, eggs and grass fed meats. There are a lot of testimonials on the internet from people who have had success with healing tooth decay with diet changes. I'm doing the best I can with changing my son's diet, but it's difficult to get a picky 4 year old to cooperate. He's doing great not having juice. I've also stopped giving him gummy vitamins. The cavities are all between his teeth. My dental hygienist said cavities between the teeth are usually caused by sticky things, such as gummies and lollipops. I'm guessing the gummy vitamins are a big cause of the cavities, so beware of gummy vitamins. The same thing happened with my older son, only he was 6 and cooperated, so that my dentist could fill the cavities. The worse thing he is eating is cheerios and crackers, so that's not too bad. I'm really hoping the changes that we are making will help at least slow down the tooth decay until my son is a little older and more cooperative. It's tough having restrictive dental insurance. My dentist doesn't even take it. I was laid off last year and lost my dental insurance, life insurance, etc. I tried signing up for life insurance with a local company, but they kept requesting more info and were concerned with my blood sugar issues. It also required someone to come to my home and give me a physical. I wasn't too keen on that aspect. In the end, they cancelled my application saying I didn't respond to their request for more info, which I did. TLI Family Insurance is a site that might be worth looking into if I decide to try to get life insurance again. You can click here more info, if you are interested in life insurance. Allstate might also be an option. I have my car and homeowners insurance with them, and they also offer life insurance.

Eyeglass Neck Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 02:03:00 +0000

When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I had a ton of headaches. I'm a software developer, and at the time, I worked eight hours per day. By the end of the day, I had excruciating pain around my eyes and temples. I thought part of it might be eyestrain, so I went to the eye doctor at Walmart. Sure enough, I needed glasses. Once I got glasses the headaches weren't quite as bad, but a lot of it was probably hormonal. A few years after that I signed up with a real eye doctor, and I now go have my eyes checked yearly. My eyesight problem is that I can't see distance. I refuse to drive without glasses. The signs are just too blurry. I also wear my glasses during the day while I'm working on the computer.
My oldest son was a preemie. It's common for preemies to have eyesight problems, so when he was about four, I took him to my eye doctor for an examination. It turns out that his eyesight is actually quite bad. He's supposed to wear his glasses all the time. He's not too good about that, but he does wear them most of the day while he is in school. He doesn't think he needs glasses.
I still have to take my youngest son for an eye exam. I'm waiting until he's a little bit older and more cooperative. My oldest son's first trip to the eye doctor didn't go too well. He was uncooperative and the eye doctor insisted on using eye drops. In order to get the drops in, we had to hold him down. My eye doctor is ok for cooperative patients, but he's not good for little kids, even though he's supposed to specialize in kids. His personality isn't very kid friendly either.
My son and I are always misplacing our glasses. I always set them down and forget where I put them. Of course it's harder to find them when you can't see without them.
Last week, my son came home without his glasses and didn't know where he had put them. Luckily, he had put them in his desk at school. That was a relief. Glasses are really expensive, a good couple hundred dollars, so I really don't want to have to replace them.
My great aunt Freeda always use to wear an eyeglass neck chain. I think that is what my son and I need. I would probably feel like an old lady, but they are really a good idea. You can buy them in different colors and styles. They are very inexpensive too. Much cheaper than spending a couple of hundred dollars on a new pair of glasses because the old ones were lost.

Safety First

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:43:00 +0000

Guest Post contributed by Cori I am always trying to find new ways to save some money. A coupon here, a good deal there, buying used and gently worn items, etc. etc. So when I needed to have a tired replaced, it seemed like it was only a natural choice to purchase part worn tires for my car, instead of splurging on pricey brand new ones. Thank goodness I decided to check it out online before I actually went through with it! At first I found a lot of information about all of the regulations in place to make sure that these tires are safe and meet certain standards for resale. Then, I came across an article on TrustedDealers.co.uk about an investigation that was done on places that sell these partially used tires. Apparently whoever conducted the investigation went around purchased 50 tires from different vendors. What they found was both staggering and disgusting. Almost all of the tires were in violation of the regulations in place, often by being mismarked, but what is even more terrifying is that some of them were violations which made the tires very clearly unsafe for driving. One tire was even described as having the “potential to kill”! Two of the tires still had objects which had poked through the tired stuck in them, four of them had damage done to the liner on the inside, sixteen of them had not been repaired following proper guidelines, and six were driven without being properly inflated. This is really terrifying when you think of all of the potential damage these “money-saving” tired could have possibly caused to drivers and passengers alike. As I mentioned, I am all for saving money, but never at the expense of my own or someone else's safety. I can't believe that a practice such as this is even still illegal because regardless of the fact that the government has put “regulations” into place, it is obvious they are not being enforced strictly enough! I employ anyone who reads this to either buy brand new tires or if you absolutely must purchase worn tires, please only do it from trusted dealers!

Small Town Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:58:00 +0000

I read the local newspapers a week late when my parents are done with them. We live in a small area so it doesn't take too long to read the papers. A few positive stories but, the majority of the news is negative. It might be a small area, but there's always robbery and thefts. Once in a while there is a murder story.
A recent, local murder story involved a girl who ran over an elderly man. Apparently they were friends from frequenting a local bar. Her story was that he offered her a large amount of money to help him die. He supposedly had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She agreed to "help" him. She borrowed a friend's car, took him to a back road, bound his hands and feet and ran him over. Awful, awful story. The man's family was unaware of any terminal diagnosis. Lots of holes in her story, so who knows what really happened. She was sentenced to jail time, but was already serving time for an unrelated crime.
There are way too many criminals in this small area of upstate New York. I can't imagine what the newspapers are like in large, crime ridden cities such as Los Angeles. They must be super thick. At least criminals keep los angeles criminal defense lawyers busy.
Crimes in this area date pretty far back. One recent murder case from the 1800's has been revisited in the newspapers lately. There was a woman, Roxalana Druse, who's husband was abusive. She finally had enough and killed him. She cut him up with an ax. She enlisted the help of her daughter and son to get rid of the body. When her husband was discovered missing, she was charged and ended up being hung. A female being hung was pretty newsworthy back then.
Chester Gillette is another famous murderer. He reportedly took his pregnant girlfriend, Grace Brown, out on a boat and killed her. Their story is the subject of a book called An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. I've actually read it. It's a really good book that I highly recommend.
Lately, it seems like there are more and more criminal stories in the news. The Trayvon Martin case in Florida is a pretty sad case being spotlighted in the news lately. For many of these cases, it's really hard to figure out what exactly has happened. Each side has a different story. California criminal lawyers have a tough job of getting the truth out while still defending their clients.

Sesame Street

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:31:00 +0000

Contribution by Kennith Griffin

This is crazy. Tonight in the bath tub my 2 and a half year old daughter started identifying letters by sound. You know, we have those soft foamy letters that stick to the bath wall when they get wet. She was putting them on the wall one by one and acting like she was teaching a class or something. Most of them weren’t correct, like she called a “K” an “A,” but some of them she got right. She held up the “C” and said, “cccc.” I did not teach her this. We aren’t a flashcard kind of family by any means. The only thing I can think is she watches Sesame Street on our Dish TV every day while I am cooking dinner. I know that show has letters of the day and such; perhaps that is where she learned it. Now I don’t feel as guilty for putting her in front of the tv while I cook. She’s actually learning something from those silly characters! I was impressed by her knowledge to say the least.

Kids Gardening Growums

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:29:00 +0000

I was browsing through the latest issue of Computer Graphics World and came across an article about Growums. It is a line of vegetable/herb characters geared towards kids and getting them interested in gardening. I was very excited to stumble across Growums.
I love gardening. Unfortunately, the boys aren't as enthusiastic about it. They help me once in a while with planting and enjoy digging in the dirt, but could really care less about the vegetables themselves. I'm really hoping that as they grow older that will change.
This year I'm adding watermelon and corn, 2 things they both like. I'm hoping that will help them be a little more enthusiastic about gardening.
I'm also hoping the Growums will help. Growums is about a half dozen sets of 4 different vegetables and herbs. Each set comes with a them. I bought my youngest son the pizza Growums kit
. It comes with seeds for basil, oregano, tomato and pepper. I bought my oldest son the taco Growums kit
. It comes with seeds to jalapeno, cilantro, tomato and iceberg lettuce.
The Growums website has games and lets kids track the progress of their gardens. Each vegetable has a cartoon character version. They are really cute!
I hope the creators come out with a cartoon show. With the sad condition of today's food supply, getting back to the basics and growing your own food is a skill future generations are going to need.

More Kids Gardening

Reality TV

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Contributed by Alec Bates

I watch far too much reality TV. I don’t know when I got so into it but I vaguely remember really liking Survivor when I was growing up and then the Apprentice caught my attention, too. Now I’ll watch just about anything that comes on my DirecTV as long as it’s reality – from MTV Real World kind of stuff all the way to Hoarders and things like that! I really like the Housewives series on Bravo because it’s that kind of drama I really get off on. Who wouldn’t like to watch a bunch of women who I view as my peers going at each others’ throats on national television? As much as I like reality TV I would never in my life actually be on a reality show. I don’t think you could get a job or do much with your life after you have to show your true colors to everyone on TV and I don’t understand why so many young people do! I’ll never let my kids do it!

Speech Evaluation

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:13:00 +0000

Only 6 more months until my little 4 year old starts pre-school. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once both boys are in school. Probably enjoy the quiet, and maybe I'll actually go into work a little more.
In preparation for sending my son off to pre-school, his speech is being evaluated. He was tongue tied when he was born, so I had his tongue clipped when he was 9 months old. After that, his speech seemed to regress, and he's been difficult to understand. The past 5 months, his speech has really improved a lot on its own. The speech evaluation process started last week when we went to visit a psychologist. The evaluation is being done through the school, so that it is free. That also requires a psychological evaluation. Honestly, I wasn't impressed with the psychological evaluation. It was an hour and 15 minutes, so to begin with how do you judge a person in that short amount of time and seeing them once?
The doctor had him perform a whole bunch of tests, that wore me out just watching. Some of the tests were problem solving like putting blocks in holes, imitating taps on blocks and using blocks to replicate a given picture. Other tests involved language where he had to count and describe what was happening in a picture.
The problem solving tests my son did excellent on. He scored above and beyond the 4 year old level.
Unfortunately, he scored as low as you possibly can on the language tests. My son is kind of a quiet guy, especially around people he doesn't know. The test was at an unfamiliar location with an unfamiliar person, who I'm not sure I really liked. My son didn't really say too much, so I don't see how you can evaluate someone on a language test when they don't respond to the questions. It's hard to judge whether he knew things or not.
Next week is the speech evaluation, so we will see how he does on that. Hopefully the doctor will be better and will be able to get him to be more verbally responsive.

Beach House

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:34:00 +0000

Posted by Gaylord Campbell

My parents own a beach house that they rent out pretty much throughout the whole year. There are usually a few weeks of down time during the fall when nobody is renting it out. We try to go down for a few days during this time. My mom was beginning to get worried about the house not being used and someone breaking in while it was empty. I told her she should just have a security system installed. She thought it was a good idea, but she did not know which companies were available in that area. I told her just to google “long beach adt” to find out what was available. She was able to find prices and packages that were available. Some of the systems not only had an alarm for break ins, but also for floods. It sounded like it would be perfect for the beach house. My mom called and they said they can send someone out next week to install the system. It looks like we have an excuse to go to the beach for a few days.

Organize and Declutter Your House and Life

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:25:00 +0000

For my birthday, the boys father bought me an Amazon Kindle Fire. It's really cool! Amazon offers a whole bunch of books for free too. One of the books I downloaded was Absolutely Organize Your Family by Debbie Lillard. One of my resolutions this year is to declutter. We've lived here for almost nine years, so it's time. With all the talk of the world ending, which of course it's not, 2012 seems like a good year to start fresh. Compared to some people, I don't have a lot of things accumulated, but I like things clean, fresh and organized. I feel like the walls are closing in on me when there is too much clutter. I do have a bunch of junk drawers that need cleaning out. With junk mail and all the papers that get sent home from school, it's really easy to accumulate extra clutter. Not to mention all of the boys' toys. They are 4 and 7 now with no plans for a third, so I guess it's time to pack up some of the toddler toys that are still laying around. The boys rooms are a total mess, especially the 4 year olds. He's not compliant at keeping his toys picked up yet. He just dumps things out and then wonders why he can't find things. Legos are all over both boys' rooms. Legos are a great creative toy, but they are a pain to pick up. I have bags of Legos hidden away because I'm so tired of picking them up every night.
The book I downloaded is also supposed to have information on organizing kid's rooms and helping them learn to organize. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but I can't wait! I hope it works!
One tip I read is if you don't use something, throw it away. People hold on to things because of emotional attachment or thinking maybe someday they will use it. Another tip is to keep like things together. When like things are together, you can see exactly what you have and what you need and don't need.
The part I'm on now talks about organizing your families schedules. We lead a pretty relaxing, low key life, so that's not a big issue yet. I don't believe in having such busy, stressful lives that you are always running from one place to another. You get tired and cranky, and the kids get tired and cranky. Few people realize that relaxation is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. All you have to do is say NO. lol. I do have a calendar that I write appointments and activities in though.
BTW, you don't need a Kindle to read Kindle books. You can download the Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader app for the Chrome web browser and read the books using that. The Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader app and the Chrome web browser are both free too.

More Home Organization Tips

Custom Frames The Frame Place Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:39:00 +0000

For a few Christmas gifts, I put together jigsaw puzzles geared toward the interests of the recipient and framed them. A Harley Davidson jigsaw puzzle for my brother, fit a poster puzzle frame I bought in Walmart perfectly. The other two jigsaw puzzles were odd sizes though. One was an apple farm scene jigsaw puzzle for my mother. The other was a Lena Liu Angel of Love scene for my sister. I went with a honey/oak frame for the farm jigsaw puzzle and a gold frame for the angel jigsaw puzzle. Both came out beautiful!
I searched the internet for inexpensive custom picture frames. The site I ended up ordering from was The Frame Place. Periodically, they offer $4.99 shipping. That's a great deal! I hate paying shipping. Shipping picture frames is expensive too. I ordered two frames and without the shipping deal, I would have had to pay $16. Total for both frames was $45, including shipping. That is very reasonable. Custom picture frames can be very expensive. The Frame Place offers a huge selection of frames. The descriptions and images are pretty accurate. Frames are sold in standard sizes or custom sizes.
Periodically, The Frame Place also offers discounts. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they are offering 20% off with promo code 20MLK.
The frames I ordered were a complete frame. They included the frame, acrylic for the glass and a cardboard backing. They were very good quality. The custom frames were well shipped in a cardboard box with brown paper and a large piece of cardboard between the frames. They arrived UPS.
The only drawback is I couldn't find a site that offered cashback for ordering from The Frame Place. I prefer ordering from sites where I can get additional cashback from sites like ebates.com or Mr. Rebates.com. At least prices are reasonable at The Frame Place, so no cashback isn't a big deal.
If you are looking for cheap, inexpensive custom picture frames, I highly recommend The Frame Place.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Murder Criminals Psychological Thriller Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:11:00 +0000

Back before I had kids I loved watching movies and television shows that involved murder, crimes, and psychological thrillers. I loved the action and suspense. Once in a while, I'd find a good movie with a great twist.
In the paper there is a weekly article called The Justice Story. Those stories always fascinated me, as did reading any article or book involving detectives and mysteries.
I remember reading about a guy, Andrew Cunanan, who was wanted for going on a killing spree across the US. Then it was all over the headlines that fashion designer Gianni Versace had been killed. It turned out he was killed by Cunanan. That was a very interesting story.
I read a lot of the articles about the OJ Simpson murder trial. I watched a little bit of the trial, but mainly read about it. He had the best california criminal lawyers and it paid off. He was acquitted, even though it's pretty likely that he was guilty.
When I was about 16 years old, there was a big murder in my hometown of Little Falls, NY. A local jeweler, Greg Jouben, was murdered in his shop. I was at the doctor's office not too far away when it happened. His murderer turned out to be a serial killer name Gary Evans. He had an abusive childhood and grew up to rob antique shops along with killing five people. He was even in jail and befriended the Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz, which is another fascinating crime tale. After Evans was arraigned in Little Falls, he kicked the window out of the window he was riding in and jumped off a bridge into the Hudson River. When his body was found, he had a handcuff key in his sinus cavity and a razor blade taped to his ankle. His story was plastered all over the local papers. It's amazing they even caught him. It was really big news for a small town.
The Los Angeles Times website even has a special section devoted to crime stories. It's really awful reading them. There's tons of stories too. Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers must be pretty busy.
Those stories are all fascinating, but really scary. All these criminals were once innocent little babies who were born to someone. It makes you wonder what goes wrong to drive them to grow up and have such a disrespect for the law and to commit such awful crimes. Abusive childhoods and bad parents are a big part of it, but some people grow up to lead productive, honest lives despite having bad childhoods, or not the greatest parents. The opposite is also true. Kids with great childhoods end up committing awful crimes.
Since having kids, psychological thrillers are a thing of the past. Now I prefer comedies, romance and cartoons. It's funny how things change when kids come along.

NoMoreRack Reviews Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:22:00 +0000

I hate shopping, but I love finding deals. I do the majority of my shopping online. It makes it easier to shop around to find the best price on an item. I also like to click through to a site using ebates.com or mrrebates.com. You just sign up at either site and use their link to click through to the website you want to order from. The rebate site will then give you a certain percentage of cash back. The percentage of cash back varies depending on the store the order was placed at. When your account reaches $10, ebates.com will send you a check. When your account reaches $10 at mrrebates.com, you can request a check. I have received checks from both sites. I go with the site giving the most cash back for the store I'm ordering from. It really does save a lot.
There are so many websites out there offering deals on all sorts of things. It's just amazing. Today I went looking for a deal for subscribing to US magazine since my subscription ran out. The majority of websites were charging anywhere from $56 to $70 for a one year subscription. I finally found Discountpress.com offering a one year US magazine subscription for $26.95. Great deal!
There's a website called NoMoreRack that offers daily deals on all sorts of items. The deals only last one day, but each item is discounted 80 - 95% off the regular retail price. Items include manufacturer closeouts, overrun and overstock items, and cancelled orders. Shipping is a flat rate $2.00 fee per product.
If interested, nomorerack reviews can be found at http://www.mommyrantings.com/2011/12/nomorerack-review.html. You can't beat a great deal!

Kasey Kahne Breastfeeding Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:41:00 +0000

Just read these articles at USAToday and NY Daily News about Nascar driver Kasey Kahne's breastfeeding comments. Apparently, he was out shopping at a supermarket where a mother was breastfeeding. Several of his tweets, which were deleted, included:

"Just walking through the supermarket. See a mom breast feeding little kids. Took second look because I was obviously seeing things. I wasn't!"

"One boob put away one boob hanging!! #nasty"

"I don't feel like shopping anymore or eating."

One Twitter user @KnittingRad tweeted to him: "I hope someday you have a kid and someone tells your wife that feeding your child looks nasty."
He replied: "And your a dumb b*tch."

His apology: "My comments were not directed at the mother's right to breastfeed. They were just a reaction to the location of that choice, and the fashion in which it was executed on that occasion. I respect the mother's right to feed her child whenever and wherever she pleases."

What a jerk!

More Nascar

Reading my blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:46:00 +0000

Content by Mitch Osborne

I thought that reading was my biggest passion until I got San Bernadino internet providers at home. Now I know that there are so many amazing blogs out there that I don’t have time to read books anymore. I mean seriously, who reads books? I love being up to date on everything happening in the world and if you ask me the best way to do that is to get on one of my news blogs and find out what’s going on. There’s something empowering about knowing what the media’s been saying about any particular issue although I won’t lie to you, I do spend a fair amount of time reading the celebrity gossip columns, too. I think it’s fun to be knowledgeable and it’s made me far more able to carry on conversations with people I meet at parties and whatnot. I just can’t imagine how people got informed before the internet – how did anyone have any idea what was going on, you know? That’s the real question I think I need answered.

Ipad 2 Cases Smartphone Accessories

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:45:00 +0000

The big hit at my house for Christmas was Star Wars Legos. My seven year old is obsessed with them, so of course my four year old is also obsessed since he wants everything his big brother has. My seven year old received Mace Windus starfighter, General Grievous' starfighter and Boba Fetts Slave 1. They are really complicated sets, but he does a great job putting them together. Although the main reason he wants legos are because he likes to collect the minifigures.
From reading friends' Facebook status updates, tablets and ipads were a pretty popular gift item this year. I just recently bought myself a Samsung Stratosphere smartphone. It was free from Best Buy during their Black Friday sale. I've always bought new cell phones from Verizon, but it is much cheaper to get them from a third party retailer. You just call a number to activate the phone and if their is a problem with the activation, you just call Verizon and they will activate it without a problem. If I had bought my Samsung Stratosphere smartphone from Verizon, I would have had to pay $150. Free is much better! Accessories are also cheaper when bought from a third party retailer.
I received a car charger for my new phone for Christmas. I should look into getting a case to protect my Samsung Stratosphere smartphone. I've already dropped it a few times. Luckily, there was no damage. There are also cases available for tablets and the ipad. Ipad 2 cases even come in leather. The ipad is pretty expensive, so I would definitely have to invest in an ipad 2 case, if I ever bought an ipad. Maybe by next Christmas the price will come down a little bit.

Tri-State Window and Siding New Jersey

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:21:00 +0000

Nine years ago, I decided it was time to move out of my parent's house. I was 27 and had saved enough money for a good sized down payment on a house. I wanted to buy a house or buy land and build a house. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for, but I figured I would know it when I found it. I scoured all the home for sale advertisements. A few houses here and there were interesting, but nothing solid. There was one listing for 38 acres of land with electric, water and basement included. It was really cheap, about $25,000. I sent off an email, but never received a response. A few weeks later, I saw the ad again and gave them a call. The place needed a lot of work. There was a falling down trailer and trailer sized basement. A few large dirt piles. There was no yard, just a big weed patch. It had lots of potential though. One good thing was no close neighbors. It was a lot of land, which was all woods, at a cheap price, so I bought it. Turns out the company I bought it from, buys land, logs it off and then resells the land cheap.
My significant other worked for a contractor, so I hired him to build a house. We had gone to modular home dealers, but they weren't any cheaper than a stick built home. They didn't seem to be any better quality either. We came up with our own floor plan based on a few different floor plans we had gotten from the modular home dealers. It was an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling and loft overlooking the dining, living room areas. Ash floors throughout and a post and beam design, so the ceiling is all wood beams.
The outside is red pine wood that is stained. It looked really nice when it was new. A couple of years ago, my significant other, re-stained the siding. The dormer areas are a problem though. A few boards are starting to rot. Based on that and the requirement to restain the siding every few years, I kind of wish I had gone with a vinyl siding. There is a simulated vinyl wood siding that is nice. It looks nice and there is less up keep than a real wood siding.
Someday, I will probably replace the wood siding with a simulated wood siding. I'm in upstate New York, so I will have to check around for companies and pricing. If you are in New Jersey, you might want to check out Tri-State Window and Siding. They offer siding new jersey. They offer free estimates and even build sunrooms. I have an area on the side of the house where I would like to build a sunroom. I may have to give them a call sometime, since they will also come to New York.

Christmas Home Upholstery Cleaning Steam Team

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:09:00 +0000

I've been spending the past few days working on my Christmas shopping. Hopefully I will have it all done except for a few minor things this week. I'm trying to order just about everything online. I can't take my youngest shopping with me. He wants everything, climbs out of the cart, grabs what he wants and throws it in the cart. When he's not looking I take it out, but I think he's wising up to me.
The big thing I want for Christmas is a juicer, so I can start making my own vegetable juices. I use the blender or my smoothie maker for fruits, but I need something tougher for vegetables.
Last year the big things I received were a vacuum sealer and a dehydrator. I use the vacuum sealer a lot in the fall to preserve vegetables from my garden. I use the dehydrator to dry herbs from my garden. The boys like dried fruit too.
A few years ago, the big gift I received was a Hoover steam cleaner. With two boys, I use that A LOT. We took the carpet out of my youngest son's room, but my oldest son's bedroom still has a carpet. I use the steam cleaner to clean that. I love the steam cleaner for cleaning the living room furniture. It really cleans the furniture very well. The couch just gets so grimy. There are still a few stains on the couch I can't get out though. Someday, when the boys are much older, I may have to call in a professional to see what they can do.
I'm in upstate New York, but if you are in the Austin, Texas area, you can call The Steam Team, http://www.thesteamteam.com/. One of the services they offer is home upholstery cleaning austin.
That is a very handy service, if you have tough to get out stains on your furniture.

Plus Size Maternity Shopping Sales Rebates

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:09:00 +0000

With Christmas almost upon us, a lot of websites are offering sales. Some are also offering free shipping. I picked up seven bottles of wine at wine.com with a penny shipping and handling charge. That was a great deal! Shipping charges on wine can get pretty expensive. The wine arrived yesterday, so it was fast shipping too.
Usually I do some shopping at Old Navy's website, but I don't have anything to order from there this year. I didn't see anything that interested me in their Black Friday sale either.
Aeropostale has women's clothes I really like that seem reasonably priced. Unfortunately, it's not really the time of year to shop for myself.
If you are pregnant, you might be interested in OneStopPlus.com. They currently have a sale on plus size maternity clothes. It looks like the majority of prices are already marked down. In addition to those marked down prices, they are offering 25% off your entire order and a free express shipping upgrade. You just have to enter the promo code OSPCYBER11 in the promotion code box at checkout.
When I order online, I also check Ebates.com and MrRebates.com to see if the store site I'm ordering from is listed. Those two sites will give you cash back for shopping. All you do is, sign up and go to the list of stores. Find the store you are placing an order at, and click the link. You will automatically be taken to the store site. You place your order, and the rebate site will give you a certain percentage of cash back on your order. When you reach $10, they will send you a check. It's so easy, and it really helps save money, especially this time of year. Every little penny helps.

Collection Harassment

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:03:00 +0000

One thing I learned at a young age that I hope to pass on to the boys is that it is important to save money and have good credit. My grandmother always told me that. Working at a bank also helped with learning that. I bought my first brand new vehicle when I was in my early twenties and built a house in my late twenties thanks to my saving and good credit rating. It's much tougher to save when you have kids, but every little penny helps.
Now that times are tough, I'm glad I've been able to save a little bit. I'm not much of an investor though. I tend to stick with cd's as they offer more interest than a savings account and help your money grow since they are not risky. I did recently discover cd's at a credit union offer way higher interest rates than banks.
I have a couple of credit cards, but pay them off each month. It's very easy to get into credit card debt though. With Christmas and birthdays all hitting at once this time of year, I am very tempted to let payments slide, but interest rates are so high, I hate to do it. My mortgage is my only debt, and I would really like to keep it that way.
Some people get so far in debt that collector's will start banging on your door looking for the money you owe. Collection harassment can be pretty scary. If that happens to you, there is a website called creditlaw.com that might be able to help you. They are a group of consumer attorneys and offer free case reviews. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects consumers from collectors who try to collect money through unfair practices. Creditlaw.com will help you understand your rights, assist those eligible for compensation and help stop collectors from harassing you.

Plus Size Dresses

noreply@blogger.com (Ice Princess) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:09:00 +0000

With Thansgiving over, we are now on the way to Christmas. The boys are really excited! I still have a ton of shopping to do. I bought a few things during the Black Friday sale. I'm hoping to knock off a lot of things on the list this week during the Cyber Monday sales. In case you aren't familiar with Cyber Monday, it is the equivalent to Black Friday sales only the sales are at online stores. You can usually pick up some really good deals.
On Black Friday, Best Buy had the Samsung Stratosphere smartphone on sale for $0 with a 2 year contract. My current plan expired the day before, so I jumped on that deal. It was the phone I had been thinking about upgrading to, but was $149 on the Verizon website. The Samsung Stratosphere is the only smartphone with a physical keyboard, which is what attracted me to it. I'm not sure I would like a virtual keyboard.
Clothes are a good bet for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales too. A web site called Jessica London offers plus size clothing, including plus size dresses. Their Cyber Monday sale will take 30% off your entire order and also includes free shipping off orders of $50 or more. Free shipping is the best! I hate paying for shipping. I know it saves me time to shop online and is less of a hassle, but I just hate spending the extra money. I don't mind paying a couple of dollars for shipping, but I tend to not shop at sites which charge more than that.
Jessica London is also currently offering $50 off all coats, 60% off boots and up to $90 off leather.
Jessica London has a holiday sweepstakes going on where you could win a $500 shopping spree. That would certainly come in handy this time of year.