Alex and Mom Homeschool

Free Summer Bowling For Kids

2014-06-01T10:10:00.004-07:00

Have you registered your family at http://www.kidsbowlfree.com yet? Your kids will get 2 FREE Games of bowling every day all summer long at your participating center. There are over 1,050 locations to choose from. Please use my email stacyleearnold@yahoo.com in the "referred by" field. We’ll both be entered to win some cool prizes including iPads and a trip to Walt Disney World! Our family loves the program and we’re sure you will too.

Stacy Arnold

Kids Bowl Free All Summer

2014-05-26T14:54:00.004-07:00

This is a great activity for the kids this summer. Kids, 18 and under, can bowl free everyday, 2 games a day. I believe it said through the end of September. Just go to the link posted and sign up. They will email you your coupons each week or send them to your phone. The only thing you have to pay for is whatever it cost to rent the bowling shoes, unless of course, you have your own. They even offer a discount package for up to 4 adult family members to use, but you are under no obligation to purchase this. It's a fun activity to keep the kids from being so bored this summer. www.kidsbowlfree.com

Interesting facts about sociopaths and the western world

2014-05-21T19:28:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd share this little post I found on google and see what everyone thinks about it.

https://plus.google.com/111774140123356522839/posts/HXorjgjuZdd

Tips for creating a Lego Ninjago birthday party

2012-10-05T11:26:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago was Alex's birthday party. He actually turned 9 on the 24th of September which was on a Tuesday I believe. Therefore we chose to celebrate on the Saturday before his birthday. He decided he wanted his party at the bowling alley. He was very excited. He loves Ninjago, for those of you who know what Ninjago is. For those of you who don't, Ninjago is lego ninjas. So I decided to make that the theme of his party. I did a lot of Ninjago googling. To my surprise I could not find any commercial made Ninjago party supplies. I did however find many blogs with some good ideas on how to make my own Ninjago party supplies. I used Tootsie Roll lollipops to make little Ninjago characters. I wrapped red and blue tissue paper around the Tootsie pops and printed little yellow eyes off of the internet. I cut out the eyes and used a glue stick to apply them. They were very cute! I used a small glass jar with legos in it for the center piece, and tied the balloons around the top of the jar. The balloons were red, blue, white and black, the same as the Ninjago guys. I found packages of fortune cookies at Publix, and put them in the goodie bags. I printed off small Ninjago pictures and tied them around the top of the goodie bags along with a small coctail sword. I also found lego wrappers that you can wrap around minature hersey bars for sale on Ebay for about $2.50. They send you a link to your email after you purchase them and you can print them right from your own computer. I waited to late to order them so I used tissue paper and and a crayon to make a lot of the wrappers. They still looked good, but it did take a long time to make each one look like a lego. I bought paper cups in red, blue, white, and black. I printed out more Ninjago eyes and glued them on all the cups. The cake was very impresive. Winn Dixie made it for us. We took a picture of the Ninjago guys that we had printed off the computer and Winn Dixie used that to make an edible sheet that covered the top of the cake! I was a little nervous about how it was going to look, but it turned out great and all of the kids loved it- mostly the boys! They all had a great time bowling. Alex got lots of nice gifts and raked in $75.00 in birthday cash! Directly after we left the party on the way home Alex started saying he didn't feel very well. We thought he might have gotten car sick. When we arrived home all his little friends who live near us came over to see what all he got for his birthday and to give him some gifts. He put on his Ninja suit that his brothers gave him for his birthday and the next thing we knew he was burning up with a fever and went downhill from there. He was taken to the Dr. three times within a little over a week. The Dr. said he had the flu. He was throwing up and running a fever. His head hurt so bad he couldn't even stand up for a few days because it just made it hurt so much worse. He had solid red eyes in the inner corner and at the bottom of his eyes. It was very scary. The Dr. assured us it was just from throwing up and he had busted some blood vessels. It has now turned into an ear infection and he is taking medicine for that, which he hates. He went back to school this past Tuesday but still has the red eyes. All the kids in his class were amazed by his eyes but happy to see him back at school. I told him to just tell them he was a vampire, lol. Thank goodness he made it through his party and felt fine the whole time as far as we knew. He hasn't even had a chance yet to open all his birthday gifts yet. He got some peel & stick Spiderman wall stickers that we plan on putting up in his room this weekend. He loves all the superheros. I am just so glad he is feeling better and things can get back to normal now. Shockingly my older boys nor I have gotten sick. So I'm very happy about that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think we are out of the woods by now. I have uploaded some pictures so everyone can see how cute it all turned out.

Double Checking Receipts After A Shopping Trip

2012-07-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

My son and I decided to make a trip to Walgreens today. The weekly sales paper had some good deals on school supplies. I figured I should go ahead and get the supplies that were on sale because right before school starts they are probably going to be triple the price if not more. Many times I have waited until right before school starts and couldn't find the stuff we needed because it's sold out. I enjoy finding great deals, school supplies or otherwise. So not only did we find some very good deals on school supplies but I also found a couple of other clearance items that were a really good deal! I found a LivPure water bottle filter replacement for $1.00 and a pack of Oral-B pulsonic brush head replacements for $1.00 as well. Upon checking out I felt I was charged a little too much, but I had bought quit a bit so I couldn't really tell for sure. When I got outside I checked my receipt and realized I had been overcharged by $27.00 on an item that I was supposed to only be charged a dollar for. I immediately went back in and let them know what happened. They of course reversed the charges and credited my debit card the $27.00 that I was over charged. I have learned to always check my receipts, especially when shopping at the smaller stores like CVS and Walgreens, and other places like that. They tend to post sale prices and not program them in their system. Therefore they ring up at the original price instead of the sale price. I have to say I was very happy to know that it was $27.00 less than what they had originally charged me.

Earning Money

2012-06-24T18:06:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I received my second check from Inbox Dollars. It lacked a few cents totaling $37.00. My first check was for around $33.00. It's a good feeling when I get that check in the mail for doing basically nothing. Mostly I just click on emails. They are only worth $.02. Yes I said $.02, but it doesn't take any time at all to do it. While I'm checking my email everyday I just take a few seconds to open up the emails sent to me from Inbox dollars. There are many other things on Inbox dollars you can do that will earn you much more money. Such as shopping, viewing videos, tasks, or signing up to be on companies email lists. I have shopped through the different sites Inbox Dollars has listed on their site two or three times to buy stuff that I was already going to buy anyway. When you do that they may give you anywhere from a $1.00 to $15.00 or more depending on what it is you're ordering or subscribing to. I don't buy anything online without either going through Inbox Dollars, Big Crumbs, Mypoints, or one of my other favorite sites first. That way I get a discount and they put the amount of the discount in my account. It's like extra money that gets put in your account for doing the same thing you would be doing anyway. It adds up and it's fun, like a surprise! I'm posting a picture of my check I received yesterday so you can take a look at it.

There is a link to Inbox Dollars on the side of my blog page if you would like to give it a try.

My First Pottery Pieces

2012-06-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

I started pottery classes several months back. It has been a lot fun, but I dragged out what was supposed to be a 4 week class and made it a 3 month class because of my chronic pain issues. Anyway, last week I called up Ms. Lynn Koning, the instructor, and asked her if I could come pick up my pottery pieces. The last time I was there I glazed them. I enjoy the glazing and working with the clay on the pottery wheel the most. The smoothing down of the pottery, not so much! Ms. koning fired my pieces in the kiln after the glazing so I was just waiting to pick them up. I was excited to see how they turned out. I was proud to say they turned out pretty good for my very first time. Every time I look at them I feel proud knowing that I made them myself. I brought the home and served condiments out of them for the tacos I made for dinner the next night. I also made two platters using the slab roller instead of the wheel the last time I was there that are in the process of being fired now. I will post some pictures of them when I get finished with them but for now I am posting some pictures of the very first four pieces I made.

Loving "Bigcrumbs"!

2012-05-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked about Bigcrumbs in awhile now. I am $8.72 away from earning $100.00 so far! It is alot of fun. Every so often I check to see if I'm due some money. It may be from purchases I've made or from purchases that others who have signed up under me have made. There are over a thousand online stores listed to shop from and growing. Stores include places like Walmart, Kmart, Toys R Us, Ace Hardware, and so many more. It's so easy! All you do is shop for things that you would normally buy anyway, and then you receive a small percentage of your total purchase back around the same time every other month. It really adds up! I can not wait until I hit my $100 mark! I encourage you to at least check out the site and see for yourself how great it is. Sign up is free and don't forget to click thru the Bigcrumbs site before going to your shopping site so you'll get credit for your purchases. Payment for purchases is received every other month around the same time each month. Why not save a little money while shopping? http://home.bigcrumbs.com/stacyleearnold

BOTOX FOR PAIN

2012-03-16T23:09:00.002-07:00

I finally received the botox injections today that I have been waiting on for over a month now. As most of my blogger friends know, I stay in chronic pain. I started seeing a new neurologist, Dr. Marden, over a month ago. She wanted to start botox injections on me to try and help me with my cervical dystonia (constant muscle spasms and tightness). I have been waiting a long time to get back in for my next appointment and get started because the doctor's office was trying to get my insurance straightened out as to what they would or wouldn't cover. I don't even know how many injections she gave me, but I know it was a lot! She injected the back of my neck, and put several in the right side of my head because the pain travels into my temple and behind my eye, and a few other areas in my shoulders. It will take a few days before I'll be able to start feeling the effect and know if it's going to help, and two weeks before I get the full effect. In the meantime I'll be praying for a miracle!

POTTERY WHEEL LESSONS

2012-03-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

This past Monday I had my first pottery wheel lesson! I have been thinking about taking it for a very long time, but no one aound here offers it. I was sitting in "Massage Envy" a couple of weeks ago waiting to be called back for my massage and picked up our local Wiregrass Magazine to browse through it. Near the back of the magazine there it was! Pottery Wheel lessons offered by Ms. Lynn Koning of Pinkard, Al. I was so excited! After I left, I called the number and spoke with her about beginning lessons. She teaches out of her home and also at The Cultural Arts Center here in town. I chose to take lessons at her home because they don't actually use the wheel at The Arts Center, and that's the part I was most excited about.
It was a lot of fun! They were thoroughly impressed at how well I did with it being my first time to ever be on the wheel. The teacher and student kept bragging on me and said I was "a natural". They said the the other girls were going to be jealous of my work. Haha! The class last for 4 weeks. Next week I will probably trim up my pieces after they have become leather hard. After that I will learn to fire it in the kiln and glaze it. I can't wait to learn the entire process, but I'm pretty sure my favorite part is still going to be using the pottery wheel itself. What new experiences have you tried lately?

~Free Pancakes~

2012-02-27T22:12:00.000-08:00

I was sent an email today from IHOP stating that they are serving free pancakes tomorrow!! On Feb. 28th each customer that comes in between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. will receive a free short stack which consists of 3 buttermilk pancakes. The email states that it is at participating locations and they are asking that customers consider leaving a donation that will go to help Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Enjoy!

Space

2012-02-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

Guest written by our friend Mason Abbott
I have been learning all this interesting stuff about space and space exploration in my science class in college. I really can not believe that right now we are totally shutting down the space program. I think it is such an interesting thing to learn about. I would love to be an astronaut and explore space. I think it is crazy all of the missions that astronauts have done that people don't even know about. When they went to the moon, everyone was all excited about it and watching it on TV. After that people kind of lost interest, but they kept exploring space. I mean we have sent so many satellites into space to explore for us. I don't even know how satellites work. I was trying to research it and just ended up going to satellitetvriversideca.com! Then I got totally sidetracked and started reading about my favorite TV series and the upcoming episodes! I am thinking that maybe I didn't really grow out of my attention deficit disorder! Ha Ha! Maybe I need to look into that!

A New Start

2012-01-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

I think I'm ready for school to start back. The kids start back this Thursday. They are fussing and fighting, and driving me crazy! It's a new year and I'm ready to get it started. It's time to get this drain tube out of my back so I can get in the gym. I probably won't be able to do much at first, but I at least can get on the treadmill and get a good start until I'm feeling better. Once the kids are back in school that forces me to be up early and get back on track with errands and other things that need to be taken care of. Otherwise the kids and I stay up late and then get up late the next morning especially since I just had surgery right before Christmas. I know I can't really do anything anyway if I do get up earlier so it has just given me more of an excuse to not be very organized or on any type of schedule. That can be nice for a short period of time but after awhile all the things I need to do start piling up and weighing heavily on my mind.
I see the doctor for a follow up appointment tomorrow and hopefully my drain tube will be removed. Then either the end of this week or next week I will start my tutoring sessions back up as a representative of A to Z In Home Tutoring. I took a short break from it due to the holidays and my surgery. The next two things on my to do list is to sign my 16 yr. old up for Lifeguard training at the recreation center and also to get him signed up to take the ACT test as soon as possible. So beginning next week things will begin getting back to normal.

Post Surgery

2011-12-28T21:52:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, I had surgery on December 21, the Wednesday before Christmas 2011. I decided to go with a doctor who is a plastic surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Walding. He is a bit young but kind, down to earth, and thorough. I felt good about my decision. My surgery was scheduled for right before Christmas and I have 3 children, so decided to go ahead and let my children open their Christmas presents, and to also celebrate my middle son's birthday, which is on the 23rd of December. We enjoyed a nice, fun birthday dinner at Beef O Brady's. I said a couple of prayers and then left it in God's hands to look over my children while I was in surgery at Flowers Hospital and to look over me during surgery. For anyone who missed my 2nd surgery, it was very bad! There were complications and the doctor, Dr. Champ Baker Jr. with Houghston Clinic treated me incredibly bad! So I was very very nervous to have another surgery. To my surprise, everything went very smoothly. Everyone was great. The hospital staff was wonderful. Dr. Walding made sure I was given something for nausea before my surgery and afterwards because I get sick from the anesthesia. He removed a lipoma, as I had suspected, and also removed 2 cysts of old blood and dead tissue that was probably a result of the 2nd surgery I had, an under scapula arthoscopic bursectomy. He checked the muscle further up to make sure there was nothing else there that shouldn't be. I would like for the right side of my neck to be checked for any lipomas as well (since that is one of the main spots my pain has been this entire time) just to put my mind at rest, but I don't know if that was a possibility at the time. The dr. says lets give it 6 weeks and see how I am doing. One of the very prominent lumps I could feel going across one side of my back turned out to be a consistently spastic muscle. My follow up appointment was Tuesday of this week. I had hoped to have the drain tube that is in my back removed but it is still putting out a lot of blood/fluids and the dr. wasn't quite ready to remove so I go back Tues. of next week. Hopefully it will be taken out then. The incision runs completely across the right side of my back, but if it helps at all then it was worth it!

An Early Christmas

2011-12-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday the kids and I decided to go ahead and open our Christmas presents. I thought this would be a good idea since I'm having surgery this Wednesday. This will be my 3rd surgery concerning my chronic neck and shoulder pain within the last 1 1/2 yrs. I wanted to make sure that just in case anything does happen to me during surgery that my children's last memories be of us all celebrating Christmas together, and not of depressed sad feelings every year there after that Christmas rolls around. The boys all got to open a lot of presents and had a good time. The only thing we're saving for later is my youngest son's "Santa Claus" surprises, which we plan to do Christmas morning. Hopefully I won't be feeling too bad by then.
My middle son's birthday is this Friday also so we are going to celebrate that a little early too. Tomorrow night we plan on going to Beef O Brady's (his choice) to eat and wish him a happy 15th birthday. I will feel much better knowing everything has been taken care of and my children are happy and settled before I head in to surgery. Then all I will have left to focus on come Wed. is me. I pray that I've made the right decision and that I will finally get some relief. I feel good about it.
Merry Christmas!!!

Stuffing Doesn't Have To Be Stuffy

2011-12-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

Guest post written by Annabelle Schumaker
For years now I've been eating stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It's like eating the stuff is even second nature to me now. But it's become a little boring, so I decided that when I'm fixing my family Thanksgiving dinner this year, I can fix a different version than the same old stuffing that I've eaten year after year.
I went online to see if I could find a really good different kind of stuffing recipe. When I was online looking up that stuff, I ran across some information on internet service in my area and I decided to switch over our home's service to that provider.
I found all kinds of interesting kinds of stuffing that I really canÕt wait to try out. I was thinking about all of the different kinds that I could try out for different types of meals too! I might just try out some of these different versions for different normal meals as a fun addition. ThereÕs just something so inherently great about stuffing as a dish itself and I love enjoying it!

Memories

2011-11-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

The other day my children and I were talking about how cold it has recently gotten. That reminded me of how my mother would make snow ice cream when we lived in Tuscaloosa, Al when I was little, before she died. My kids wanted me to make some for them, but I didn't know if it was real or it was just something creative my mother came up with to entertain us kids. She did that a lot. She was very creative, and made lots of wonderful memories for my brother and I before she died of a brain tumor when we were young.
Ironically, I was reading a magazine a day or two ago and viola, there it was, in black and white, a recipe for snow ice cream!! So I wanted to share it with everyone else. I have not tried it, but this is the first time I have ever come across an actual snow ice cream recipe. Here it is. Let me know how it turns out if anyone tries it.
-1 cup of milk or cream
-3 Tbsp. sugar
-2 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips
-almond flavoring
-Snow
-1/4 salt
1. Mix milk, sugar, shocaolate chips and a few drops of almond flavoring in a small ziplock bag, seal bag.
2. Fill a gallen-size zip lock bag halfway with clean snow and add salt. Put smaller bag inside bigger bag; seal bigger bag, squeezing out air. Knead bags until milk mixture soidifies, 5 to 10 minutes. Open bigger bag and remove smaller bag. Rinse outside of smaller bag in cold water before opening. Squeeze ice cream into a bowl and serve.
Kimberly Danger,
mommysavers.com

Trick or Treat

2011-10-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to Wiregrass Commons Mall on the Northside of town tonight to find some school shirts for my oldest son. We got there a few minutes before 4pm. When we first arrived we noticed the parking lot was way more packed than normal. When we walked inside, there were little trick or treater's every where. I had forgotten all about the mall having trick or treat on Saturday night. I was going to take Alex, my 8 yr old, back home and put on his costume then come back, but it would have taken a little while. So we crossed the parking lot and went to Toys R Us. They only had a few costumes and they were all a little big. We found an Obi Wan Kenobi, and it worked! They were 50% off so I got the costume and his candy bag for under $12.00! Now that's a bargin! Next year I will also be able to sell it for more than what I paid for it, unless of course he wants to wear it next year. I'm sure it will still fit. The funny thing is that his original costume was Darth Vader. Any way, he had a lot of fun, and got some candy as well. Eventually we finally found my oldest son 4 school shirts at Khols and only paid $40.00 for them all. My middle son we dropped off at Carmike Cinema 12 because he wanted to meet his friend at the movies and see "The Three Musketeer's". So all and all it was a good night.

Corndodger's Haunted Maze

2011-10-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

My two oldest boys and I had a good time last night at Corndodger's Corn Maze. I first found out about Corndodger's thru a friend's post on facebook. My youngest son was spending the weekend with his dad so I thought the older boys might enjoy going on the haunted trail in the corn maze. One thing I didn't really plan on was having to go through it with them. I'm a big baby when it comes to haunted houses! Despite being hesitant I went anyway. The first guy that jumped out of the corn field scared me so bad I felt my heart jump out of my chest! My oldest son thought he needed to show his braveness and stood there and stared the scarey people right in the eyes! They were a bit disappointed that they couldn't scare him. My middle son just kept laughing and telling me to let go of his jacket! At one point I just froze and buried my face in my hands. When I looked up "Jason" was still standing there right over me with that white mask of his looking down at me! I almost freaked out! I felt like a bad mama afterwards because I had ran ahead a bit and left my children standing there with the bad guys. The whole maze didn't last long but I was soooo happy when we reached the end. In spite of me being a big scared baby, it was still a lot of fun!
http://corndodgersfarm.com/

BEWARE OF LYRICA

2011-09-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

I have been taking Lyrica for about 6 months or so now due to cervical dystonia (constant muscle spasms and tightness of the muscles) on the right side of my upper body, neck and shoulder. It has helped with the pain to the point that I am able to get up and funtion during the day and get my errands run although I'm not pain free.
Recently I started feeling a lot of pain in a tooth that was broken. I made a visit to the dentist only to find out I needed a root canal and crown on the tooth that was hurting, and was also told I needed crowns on 3 other teeth. I have never had a root canal or a crown. I didn't yet connect it to the Lyrica. After getting the root canal and crown 2 months ago I am still having some pain around the gum. The endodontist said he is baffled. He said if the root canal failed the tooth would be hurting, and there's no infection that we can tell.
A few days later, I started to chew on a couple of Pringles, and suddenly felt very hard peices of something in my mouth. Low and behold, it was a top back tooth that had just crumbled and broke apart in chunks for no apparent reason and without warning. Not only was I devastated, but then I started wondering what in the world was going! It reminded me of stories I've heard in the past about meth addicts. The way there teeth can just suddenly fall out of their mouth. I knew I wasn't doing any illegal drugs to cause something like that so that made me think about my prescription medicines I am taking. The only new prescription I'm taking is Lyrica. Even though I didn't really think I would find a connection with tooth decay and Lyrica I was curious so I looked it up on the internet. To my surprise I found post after post after post of people who not long after taking Lyrica started having major dental problems. Some people had never even had a cavity before until they started taking this medicine and suddenly ended up with their teeth just breaking apart and falling out of their mouth, just as I described. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 or even 3 teeth. I'm talking about them loosing all of their teeth, or 8 to 13 teeth. They had to have teeth pulled, have many root canals, crowns, and even dentures. These people have spent thousands of dollars trying to have their teeth restored.
They are also complaining of sore and bleeding gums, permanent hair loss, short term memory loss, confussion, permanent damage of their vision, unable to find the words they're looking for, unable to write or type due to not being able to put the right letters together. There were complaints of major tooth decay after only being on Lyrica for time periods as short as 2 months or so. Some of these people had been to their dentist right before they were put on Lyrica and were given a clean bill of health, so to speak. I was terrified after reading all of these posts! I am only on a small dose and it is already starting to ruin my teeth! I know people who are on very high dosages, and started thinking about how they probably had no idea of what this medicine is capable of doing. I called one person that I knew was taking it and asked her if she has had any major teeth problems since she started the Lyrica. She said her mouth was a mess and she has been trying to figure out what was going on for awhile now. She said she was to embarrassed to even go to her dentist for a cleaning because that's how bad it has gotten. She said her teeth are breaking off in peices! Some of the posts commented that they had tried to find an attorney to file a suit against Pfizer, but no one will even take the case. That being said, there are lawsuits going on concerning suicides and suicide attempts due to taking the drug Lyrica. Oh, did I forget to mention the suicidal thoughts connected to Lyrica. This is a very dangerous drug!!! If anyone that reads this is taking or thinking about taking Lyrica please just take a few minutes to google Lyrica and teeth problems or side effects of Lyrica and check out all the blogs and posts about damage that Lyrica has caused. I plan on reducing my dosage and being off of this medicine by this weekend! I will let you know how it goes.

Dolphin Encounter

2011-09-21T00:34:00.000-07:00

The boys and I went to the beach this past weekend. We had a pretty good time, despite the pain I was in with my neck and shoulder. I have been promising my oldest son for years now that he could swim with the dolphins one of these years for his birthday. Well I'm happy to say that it finally happened. I think he was pretty happy about it too. It was a great experience for him and the dolphins were really cool! We went to Gulf World in Panama City Beach, Fl. Cory got to swim with a dolphin named Sandy. He held hands (flippers) with her, got a kiss from her, and then got an exciting pull around the pool by her. They are really amazing creatures. I hope we can go back one day and all of us can swim with the dolphins. I know the other boys would enjoy it a lot too. I am posting a couple of pictures for everyone to see.

The picture uploader is acting up right now and won't let me add any more pictures. I will try to add more later.

Fun toys for kids

2011-09-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

My youngest son Alex enjoys playing with his toys more than anything else in the world. He probably has way more toys than he should. I guess that could be due to the fact that he has his two older brothers' old toys as well as some new ones of his own. Despite having so many toys, he has certain ones that are his favorites that he plays with all the time.
One of Alex's favorite things to play with is his super heros. He will sit and play with his little super hero men for hours. He doesn't even have to have anyone else play with him. He will just sit right by himself and use his imagination. He loves Spiderman the most out of all of them. We have watched the Spiderman movies over and over many times to the point I feel like I'm going to loose my mind if I have to watch them one more time.
Another favorite toy of Alex's is his Video Now. I have definitely gotten my moneys worth with that toy. He started watching it when he was about 3 years old, and still watches it to this day. You can buy many different videos to watch on it. We have Scooby Doo, Spongebob, and Ed, Edd, and Eddy just to name a few. It is nice to take in the car with us when we go places, and a lot of fun for kids. I suggest it for anyone who has younger children.

Family

2011-08-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hi. My last blog was about our vacation trip to Bryson City, North Carolina mountains. I didn't post any pictures with my blog so I'm adding them now. Thanks for looking.

Tubing in the Smokies National Park

(Alex, my youngest)

My oldest son Cory

My boys and myself

Enjoying a night out

The campground

The Indian Villiage

Ocunuluftee Island

Alex building a dam

Checking out all the pretty rocks

Relaxing

Cory, and Devin (my middle son) taking a break

Digging our own gems

This is hard work!

Sluicing

Find anything yet?

Please don't look at my dirty nose.

Check out my rubies!

Our Cabin

Peek a boo

Extra cash for our trip

2011-07-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we decided to take a vacation to North Carolina. We went a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed it so I vowed to go back one day. After making reservations months ahead of time I soon realized that it was going to be incredibly difficult for me to drive nine hours to North Carolina with 3 fighting boys and just myself. I asked my ex-husband if he would come along and help with the kids, and he agreed.

I knew we would need to take as much money as we could scrounge up so I decided to cash in my "mypoints" points, and my "inbox dollars" points which I had been saving up for awhile. I received $85.00 from mypoints, and $30.00 from inbox. My cash from mypoints was quickly distributed into my paypal account within a few days. Inbox made me wait a few weeks and then sent me a check in the mail. It was the first time I had cashed in my points and was really excited to receive money for basically nothing but clicking on emails. I also sold a few things on Ebay which I do occasionally and made a few extra dollars.

Needless to say, the trip was a little hectic, but yet fun all at the same time. We stayed in a cabin at Deepcreek Campground. It rained just about everyday, but only for a few minutes at a time. It didn't stop us from doing everything we wanted to do though. We went to the National park so the older boys could go tubing. That was quite the experience. We visited Cherokee Indian Village and thoroughly enjoyed wading in the water at Ocunuluftee Island. After visiting the shops nearby, my youngest son decided his new favorite thing was Indians and had to have a bow and arrow. He has been playing with it ever since. We also went digging for gems while we were there. I am in the process of tumbling the gems now. I'm thankful we had the chance to go back and make some memories for the boys.

Caylee's Law

2011-07-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

An online petition has been started in Caylee Anthony's name. It would make it a federal offense if a missing child or the death of a child is not reported within a reasonable amount of time. Please sign this petition so we can better protect our children.

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