Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez on Bones

I was watching Bones tonight. I usually use TV to find my music because I am too lazy to look on my own (not entirely true but correct as of late). I usually like the songs they have at the end of this show and this was no exception. This is the first time I actually searched for a song from the show and it's only the second time that I remember really wanting to. Normally I just enjoy it. Tonight I grabbed the first thing I could find to write on which happened to a be a paper plate from dinner (and amazingly I found a pencil too!) so I started writing down the lyrics (finally I have an excuse for using closed captioning!). I then ran to my computer and started my search (using Swagbucks, of course) and quickly found what I was looking for. Jose Gonzalez, a song called "Heartbeats". The artist was actually mentioned by a guest on the show who gave a cd of songs that he enjoys to Angela.

I like :)

Enjoy!

Saving my online earnings at Mypoints-making and keeping resolutions update.

Mypoints (Join MyPoints NOW!)
is a site where you earn gift cards based on your participation. You can earn points from bonus mails (5 points per mail), signing up for offers from MyPoint partners, buying from hundreds of well-known stores online, searching the web using their toolbar and more. If you are an active online shopper you can earn a lot of gift cards on this site. If you are like me and mainly use the free features like the toolbar and the e-mails you can still earn a decent amount of gift cards throughout the year and it is so simple. I even earned points by doing my taxes!


I cashed out my last Mypoints gift card in December. So I started with a low balance at Mypoints in 2009 (I cannot remember the exact number of points I had).


As of April 6, 2009 I have 2501 points- enough to get a $10 gift card with some left over. To get a $25 gift card I need about 3500 points (most $25 gift cards are between 3250-3750 points).


My daughter's 4th birthday is coming up but I am not redeeming anything yet. I am very proud of myself. Last year I would have redeemed for gift cards as soon as I had the minimum amount of points. I would have spent them on myself for something like a night out to eat. This year I am saving them for birthdays and Christmas or for general household needs and/or home improvements- Lord knows we have plenty of home improvements that need to be done.

One exception is that I might be buying myself a steam cleaner from Amazon.com.

Saving my online earnings at Swagbucks-Making and Keeping Resolutions update.

I last cashed out at Swagbucks in December for Christmas gifts. Since then I have earned enough for another $20 in Amazon.com gift cards, plus some! Not too bad, considering I do it almost all by myself. I have one semi-active referral that helped (thank you Mel!!).

What the heck is a Swag Buck? (You can also click on "Paid To Search" under Categories to learn more)

At Amazon.com I can enter all of my gift card codes into my account, as many as 5 at a time (I think) to use for future purchases. Because I have a limit to the amount I can enter at one time I am cashing in at Swagbucks periodically so that I can save as many as possible before I need (or want) to make a purchase.

So my SB account balance is going down, but I haven't wasted it! I am either saving for a Steam Cleaner or birthday presents. My daughter Amara's birthday is this month so there isn't time to order anything for her. But I haven't found anything for her that is worth it on Amazon anyway. I have found some really cool ideas for Zachary and his birthday is in July, so I have some time to figure out if I want to use Amazon for him or not. If not, Steam Cleaner it is! I really really want it. Though I am having trouble deciding which one I really want because there are so many to choose from. I have decided that I want one primarily for cleaning the non-carpeted flooring in my house, with the option to do the carpet and fabric as well. And to also be able to get into hard places and really clean anywhere I want. The particular one in my wish list is the best one I could find for the price. If anyone has any experience with it please let me know.

The important thing is that I am sticking to my resolution and I am saving!

I've Been Sick

On Thursday afternoon I started feeling a little crummy. Crummy quickly progressed to dizzy, shaky, achy and worse. Unfortunately much of it happened while I was trying to do errands. I somehow managed to get my two younger kids and I through a quick shopping trip around 9pm, after finishing everything I had to do and taking some ibuprofen. I was getting the FLU! Whenever I am sick Jason rarely covers my share of the work. He will hardly take care of the kids and will absolutely not take care of the chores- dishes, cleaning. SOMETIMES he will make dinner when I feel like I am dying. Most of the time he doesn't take my illnesses seriously. He acts like I am faking it or something. It really really angers me.
But Jason came home from school on Thursday...and he was getting sick too!! Same thing- same symptoms only a few hours behind me. When Jason is sick not only does the world revolve around him (which it does on a regular basis) but it's like he is the only person left in the world. The only people who matter when he is sick are the ones who want to take care of him.
So much for help. Jason slept all day Friday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday.
From a chair, under a blanket, I watched my house go to ruin. I allowed my daughter free reign of the kitchen and she took it with pleasure and even happily supplied her brother with whatever she was having. I did manage to make some frozen pizza on Saturday during a pain outage, thanks to loads of ibuprofen. I don't keep horrible things at home and any leftover Halloween candy we have is completely out of their reach so they weren't eating too bad. Just lots of sandwiches. I felt awful about not being able to do much but I could barely function even while under the influence of painkillers. Messes were made and not cleaned up. I'm NEVER going to catch up with what went wrong- it's just too much and I know Jason will never step in to help out.
Monday came and I wasn't feeling better. Jason seemed to be because the night before he stayed up until some ungodly hour of the morning. So of course while I was dying and watching ANOTHER child, he was enjoying a wonderful beauty sleep at 1pm. So here is sick sick Alex trying to take care of Zachary, Amara, Jonas AND our friend(long story about Zachary being there) while perfectly fine Jason is resting his eyes. I was hating him. I complained on and off about the lack of help (knowing it would do nothing but not being able to shut up about it all) and he said the dumbest thing ever: "I don't know why you're still sick. I'm better" This from the jerk who SLEPT ALL WEEKEND. I didn't get to sleep. I had to take care of the children during all waking hours because someone else wouldn't wake up to help a little.
Tuesday I was STILL sick and was showing some signs of getting better but not much. The night before I told him that I had a meeting with the school at 10am and could only take Zachary, that he needed to get the kids ready while I was gone because I had to leave immediately when I got home to take them to preschool. I told him how important it was that he was up and that I could NOT take the other kids. At 9:15 I tried waking him up and he just turned his alarm off and went right back to sleep. So I spent 10 minutes trying to get him up and had to deal with him telling me to shut up and go away. Then he really made me mad and said that no matter what I did he was just going to go back to sleep after I left. So I completely flipped out (still sick as hell) and started giving Amara and Jonas a bath so that I could go straight from there to preschool. While I am giving them their bath I burst into tears because of the stress of the meeting I was about to be late for, how he was treating me. Finally I had them completely ready but didn't have time to get them breakfast and he actually got up. So I left with Zachary and we were only 3 minutes late. Our meeting was done in time for me to pick the kids up and get them to preschool on time so everything went well. My throat had been hurting bad during this whole sickness but I had been ignoring it because of everything else being worse. While I was out I decided to actually look at my throat so when I was sitting in the car getting ready to drop the girls off I checked it out and it really surprised me. My throat was as red as blood (still is). No spots or anything but it was really swollen.
The weekend was really nice but Tuesday afternoon it was starting to get a little cold- cold enough to need the heat. So I tried to turn it on and it wouldn't work! I thought it was just being stubborn but the evening came around and it still wasn't working. So I went from starting to get better to going back to my original state. I was so cold and couldn't find a way to get warm. Our bedroom has different heat so we didn't have to worry about sleeping but I didn't want to make everyone spend the evening in there. Plus the kids weren't minding it at all- just me. So the blanket went back around me while I trudged through the house and tried to do something. I made a crappy dinner of saltines and Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and added some carrots to it. Then I made some hot chocolate to cheer everyone up and keep me warm. But those were the longest 5 hours of my life.
Finally when it was time for bed I had all of the kids sleep with me since it was the only warm room in the house. Zachary's bedroom was the coldest. I put a space heater in the bathroom so that it would be tolerable in the morning. I took my ibuprofen so I could sleep and off to bed we went.
Today I am finally well enough to catch up a little here on Gather and check some e-mail. Not much else will get done on the computer today. I missed Gather!! I have been living in a fog of painkillers and pain and tons of water the last few days and I am glad to be back. I don't think I have ever been this sick before. The flu, the sore throat (worst sore throat ever, for sure- worse than strep), the absolute need for water like I've never needed water before and then this morning I woke up with pain in my right breast and there is a lump there. I am pretty sure it is mastitis or at least a clogged milk duct and I really hope it is nothing worse. I've had mastitis once before and it felt just like this. But talk about pouring, ya know.
One good thing is that today out of nowhere our heat came back on. Of course it happened while it was 70 degrees out but it is supposed to get cold again tonight so I am glad it works again.

So, what's new with everyone else? And thank you if you made it through this whole thing!

Free sunflowers for us and the bees

I love freebies and found a great one today. I was looking for free seeds and came across a site that is giving away free sunflower seeds. With this site there is a catch, but this catch is more than worth it.
The Great Sunflower Project

In exchange for free sunflower seeds, the site asks that you watch the flowers as they grow. They are studying bees, colony collapse disorder and are trying to figure out a way to solve the problem.

From their site:
How will the Great Sunflower Project help?
By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing. We'll be sending out annual Lemon Queen sunflower seeds in early March 2009. Just in time to plant!
It takes less than 30 minutes.
It's easy.
Free Sunflower seeds for planting.
No knowledge of bees required!
Enter your bee counts online or send us your paper form.

It's very easy to sign up for this project. You just enter your e-mail address and home address for them to mail the seeds. If you wish, you can even supply the seeds yourself though they ask that you use a specific kind of sunflower so that their study functions properly.

The site is worth checking out. There is a forum, map of participants, a bee guide, tips on how to create a bee garden and so much more. They also have resources for teachers and students. They encourage groups to participate in the project, so if you know of a school, scout group or anyone else that could benefit from this please pass it on!

I am no gardener. I kill plants with ease. But two years ago a neighbor gave us some sunflowers and their ability to take care of themselves wowed me. Those flowers are amazing! I am really looking forward to this project!!
Keep your eyes open for updates about this project.

Saving my online earnings at Gather-making and keeping resolutions update.

Well, we are almost done with February and I am happy to say that so far I have been successful! This is an update on one of my favorite sites, Gather. Gather is a social site for grownups that caters to everyone.
This is a site for the serious or casual writer who is looking to share their work or get feedback. It's for the artist- the photographer, painter, the videographer and everything in between. It's for the mom or dad who wants to interact with other parents. It's for people who like to play games. It's for the people who love a good deal, want to find the best coupons and bargains and enjoy freebies. It's for people who want to find others like them.
Gather is a place to publish in writing, in pictures and in video. You create a profile page where people can write you a message, where you can share what's on your mind and tell everyone about yourself (all of this is optional). You can make friends, start and join groups, comment and more. Gather rewards your activity with points which can be redeemed for various gift cards and/or Paypal payments. For many people, the friendships and fun you have on Gather can outweigh the benefit of the points.

At Gather I have earned 1,399 points (since December 15, 2008. I have redeemed $130 in gift cards and donations since June 2008). I can cash out for a few different $10 gift cards (Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, CVS and others) there for 625 points. I need 1,565 to get to the next cashout level, $25- under 500 points to go. When I reach that level I have the option of getting Paypal and even more gift cards for stores like Target, Home Depot, Amazon.com, Macy's and others. You can also redeem your points at 3,125 ($50) and 6,250 ($100- though you can only do Paypal at this level).

I actually have decided that it would be best for me to opt for Paypal because I signed up for the Paypal debit card with the % cashback when you shop, which means getting even more out of my free money. I haven't read all of the details about the debit card and what purchases are eligible but I think all purchases made get the cashback. Then, if I want to earn more on my purchases I can use sites like MyPoints, Big Crumbs, Swagbucks and others to get even MORE cash (or points) out of my purchases.


Pretty cool, huh?

Playing the Game Wave- time for trivia!

We visited with Jason's parents a lot over the holidays and since they are big fans of games (especially trivia) we had to bring the Game Wave over so they could try it out. The same night we played Letter Zap with them we also tried out some trivia. With my Bzz Kit I received 2 trivia games: 4 Degrees- The Arc of Trivia Volume 1 and ReWind.


First up was 4 Degrees. Jason's dad and Kt, Zachary, Jason and I all joined in. In this game there are 6 categories to choose from: Art, History, Science, Sports, Lifestyle and Geography. With 4 degrees each player picks a category when it is their turn and that player "rolls" a die. All players are playing for 50 points each round except the player choosing the category- when they roll the die they are playing for the amount of points that they land on. Then you are given your challenge. You are shown a fact and 4 choices for the anwer. The first fact you are shown will be vague and if you don't know the category well you probably won't know the answer. If you do happen to know you can guess and you get lots of points. But BE CAREFUL! Once you make a choice, you CANNOT change your answer! If you guess wrong you lose the standard value of points (50) or if you were the player rolling the die you will lose the amount that you rolled.
The second degree hint gives a little more info than the first. You are given 4 degrees of hints and by the fourth hint you are able to earn very little points. But by the 4th hint you will be able to answer the question easily.

Then we tried ReWind. In this game there are 10 categories to choose from but they are not always the same categories. There is a broad range of questions that can be asked. The person with the lowest score gets to pick the category (with the exception of the first round, of course). You are given multiple choice questions. The counter starts at 1000 points and if you guess immediately and get it right you get all 1000. The longer you wait to pick your answer the lower the points go. But be careful because if you guess wrong and have to change your answer you lose a Re-Take. You are given 6 re-takes at the beginning of the game. If you are the player with the lowest score and get at least a score of 500 (I think it is 500) then you are given extra re-takes. While your possible score gets lower you are given more clues as to what the answer is. You get 4 clues before your time is up. That last clue is usually a dead giveaway. Up to 6 people can play this game but it can also be a one player game. It is a lot like the Buzz Time Trivia game that is available in restaurants and on digital cable.

Even though Zachary didn't know most of the answers he was still able to play and have fun guessing. Later in the week we played a few more times with them. When Jason's uncle Mike came home from Germany he had to get in on the action too. At one point we were fighting for remote time because everyone wanted to play!! These two games are fun, interactive and involve the whole family. But they can also be enjoyed alone. Definitely a thumbs up for ReWind and The Arc of Trivia!

Want to read more about these games and the Game Wave system? Just click on the Bzz Agent category on my blog homepage.

Playing the Game Wave- Letter Zap family challenge

Over the holidays we were able to spend a lot of time with family. Jason's family in particular is fond of games. I had to bring the Game Wave along whenever we went over in case we had time to play. As soon as it was mentioned that I had it, Kt (Jason's step-mom) insisted we give it a try. I recommended Letter Zap (Tag). So KT, Jason, Zachary and I all grabbed a remote. Amara decided she wanted to play too so we gave her a remote and set her up as well. We invited Jason's dad to play but when he learned it was a word game he decided to sit and watch before making a decision to play.
For our first game we set it for 5 minutes. The challenge? Beating me!!
Our game began and we all raced to get as many words as possible. There were shouts of joy when someone would get a big word or beat someone else to a word. There were cries of unfairness when someone would snag someone elses word. We gave Zachary a little bit of a handicap. I won our first game. Jason's dad decided this game was NOT for him but asked us to call him when we played the trivia games.

Trying for big words- for any word- when you have 3 adults racing you is very difficult! The competition is fierce and fun (as is the name-calling!). We haven't played many games in the past few years though we all enjoy it. We had such a blast playing this game and played it for almost an hour. We tried all three time limits and decided that 5 was perfect (I think that was our decision at home too).

Letter Zap is a hit everywhere!

Read all about my experiences with the Game Wave, my latest Bzz Campaign
Here

Making and keeping New Years resolutions- saving my online earnings

I made a few New Years resolutions for 2009. Normally I don't make any resolutions so this is a big deal for me!
The first resolution I made was that this year I will try to save as much of my online earnings as possible to use for Christmas and maybe birthdays. Some of the sites I belong to only give out gift cards and merchandise as prizes and those are the ones I am mainly focusing on for saving. On the sites where I earn cash only I will try to save it in my Paypal account but will use that for bills if it becomes necessary. Over the past few years when I have earned points or whatever I have immediately redeemed them for whatever gifts I could get. Sites like Gather and MyPoints gift some great gift cards and I like to spoil myself sometimes! It's hard to just leave the points there to accumulate when you could get a $10 Olive Garden gift card or a $25 Target gift card and use it right away. But now I am going to leave it alone. Or at least try to leave it alone more than I have in the past!
I have been successful so far but it is only January. I have enough points at Swag Bucks to get a $5 Amazon.com or $5 Starbucks gift card but I am not going to redeem it. I am about 200 points away from a $10 MyPoints gift card and will be there probably in about 2 weeks or so. I will NOT be redeeming it right away! I am getting close to cashing out at a few different sites and I am going to try my hardest to keep everything in my account and save it.

I'll keep an update so everyone (including ME) can see how I am doing. I seem to do a better job when I keep track like this. Wish me luck!

Playing the Game Wave- Gemz

Read more about Bzz Agent and the Game Wave game system HERE

We tried and loved our first game on the Game Wave- Letter Zap. I let my 7 year old son choose the next game and no surprise- he picked Gemz. Of all the games that came with our system that one looks the coolest in the eyes of a child. All of those pretty diamonds and shiny shapes.

So we put it in and once again he was too eager to read the directions before starting the game. This one seems to only be a two-player game. I couldn't find an option to add more players so Zachary and I played and Jason watched. We knew the concept of the game but couldn't figure out what we were doing.
I quit after spending a game not being able to figure it out. I have never played this game anywhere and kind of assumed it would be very similar to Tetris. We went back and read the rules before trying again. And NOW we get it! The idea is to match like Gemz in groups of 3 or more. You are given one gem style to match and you can only trade places with pieces that will make the match go into a group of 3. Does that make sense? I'll have to make a video of us playing so this makes sense! Half of the time you can't find anything but when you do you are given a new gem to try to match. If you can't find anything then you have to move to the next assigned Gem and lose 50 points (I think it was 50).
Zachary played for a few minutes then handed over his controller to dad. Jason and I played through the game but decided we didn't like this one. We both kept saying, "It would be so much better if it were more like Tetris!" Zachary preferred to watch rather than play because he had trouble understanding that he wouldn't always have a match and couldn't figure out how to change it. I think he would have liked it if it were more like Tetris too. Maybe Game Wave will come out with something more like Tetris (HINT)!!

We might play this game in the future but only if we are bored with the other games. It just isn't that fun or entertaining.

My birthday weekend

I have a busy weekend planned. My birthday is on Sunday January 11. I will be 27. Last year didn't seem like a big deal but this time I am kind of freaking out- I am stressing over getting older this time.

Tonight I am going out with one of my friends to a bar. I won't be able to stay out long because of Jonas but I think it will be lots of fun and I am looking forward to getting out. Tomorrow we are going to go to my grandma's and my niece is going to order some pizza and get some ice cream cake (yes, we are aware that it is WINTER but it is SO good!). Sunday- my actual birthday- my mom is going to make me curry and bring it over. She has been unemployed for a really long time so she doesn't have much to offer me so she said she would make me that for my birthday. She let me choose any food I wanted and I didn't hesistate to pick! I can't make curry and I love it so it had to be that. Then in the late afternoon/evening we are going over to Jason's dad's house to celebrate a little more. Last week we went to my other grandma and grandpa's house for a late Christmas celebration and my grandma gave me an awesome pair of pjs. Funny thing was that the idea was running through my mind because the last pair I got I really hated and the pair before that are almost 4 years old- I wanted a new pair. I wear a few other things to bed too so the old ones stayed in good condition but nothing can ruin a good sleep like uncomfortable clothing so I was totally thrilled to get these adorable, comfortable and warm pajamas!! She got a really nice pair too. I am used to cheap pjs from Walmart or Target. They are totally different from what I am used to!

Then at the bustop this morning I heard that it is going to start snowing tonight and will keep going ALL DAY tomorrow and into Sunday! I hope this doesn't ruin my plans. Hopefully it won't be so much that we are stuck. I have heard conflicting stories- from 1-6 inches from one source and from 6-12 from another source. I always do love a good snowstorm.

I was almost born in one...27 years ago my mom was pregnant and past her due date. It started snowing in the days before I was born and on the 11th my mom started feeling some contractions. She knew it was going to happen and knew the weather was bad but was tired so she took a nap. When she woke up she was fully in labor and she said the snow had gotten really high. They couldn't drive to the hospital on their own so they had to call an ambulance. She ended up having to lie down in the snow while she waited for them (and they either got lost or stuck while she waited) and was sure that I was either going to be born in the snow or on the ride. They ended up making it and I was born sometime around 6 in the evening at the same hospital that all of my kids were born.

Not entirely off topic: my mom had a roommate who had a baby boy the next day, January 12. I was always aware of this growing up and I was always interested in birthdays and who shared mine so whenever I met someone I would ask their birthday and where they were born. I met two guys over the years who were born in York on Jan 12, 1982. One of them I met through a church youth group that my best friend invited me to. I remember asking him some questions and when he told me that info I commented, "maybe you were my roommate when we were born." Funny thing is that I never said that when I met the other potential. I spoke to him every so often- he was a fun friend though we only hung out a few times just by chance but I never did learn whether or not he was my roommate. When we were 18 or 19 I got news from some friends that he died in a car accident going to or coming from Maryland. I felt really sad even though I had many friends with whom I was much closer. Normally I don't feel that way when I am not that close with a person. My mom called me shortly after I found out about it and said, "Did you hear about the car accident where they boy from York died? That was your roommate when you were born." I told her I knew him which surprised her. I always had a feeling that it was him. Just a little story- sorry to bore you all!!

Anyway, I hope all goes well this weekend and we have a great snowstorm that still allows me to get out and do what I want! I am such a selfish birthday girl :)

I just won 20 Swag Bucks in a contest!!

The Swag Bucks team had a contest on their blog: Guess the score for 20 Swag Bucks

on January 7th. The contest in short:

Tomorrow night is the BCS College Football Championship game featuring the Oklahoma Sooners vs. the Florida Gators. As if there wasn't enough hype around the game already, I'm going to give 20 FREE SWAG BUCKS to anyone who guesses the correct final score!!

So I figured I would give it a try and see if I win. Couldn't hurt. I e-mailed them the score Oklahoma 14 Florida 24.

I kind of forgot about the whole thing then. I knew it was happening soon but I couldn't remember when. Since SB has introduced all sorts of new ways to earn Swag Bucks in recent weeks I have been checking things out more often so today I checked out their blog and saw that they had announced the winner. I got a flutter in my gut when I read it as if I knew I needed to see what it had to say. And sure enough...Winners of the BCS Score Contest. Here is a little blurb:

Why is Tim Tebow so excited? Because loyal Swaggernauts Lorri L. and Alexandra K. (THAT'S ME!) each just won 20 FREE Swag Bucks for beating The Swag Guy's Challenge and correctly guessing the final score of the BCS national championsip game: Florida 24-Oklahoma 14. He's probably also happy because he just won a National Championship :)

So I won! It was VERY exciting! I have enough Swag Bucks now to get a bunch of things but the two best ones are a $5 Starbucks gift card or a $5 Amazon.com gift card. This time I think I will wait though. I trust them enough now to hold on to my Swag Bucks for a while and maybe get something big...or just cash out a bunch of $5 gift cards all at once.

Since joining Swag Bucks on March 30, 2008 I have received 7 $5 gift cards and a t-shirt. Not bad for a short period of time! This is my most successful paid to search site that I use. I actively use 3 different sites for my searches and they all reward in some way.

Want to search and win too? Sign up free at Swag Bucks or click the banner:

This is a good way to start off my birthday weekend!

Send and receive money for free

Everyone knows about Paypal but did you know that there are other smilar places and that some are totally free to use?
Revolution Money Exchange allows you to send or receive money totally free, up to $1,000 per day.


You can link the account with your bank account for easy transferring. And it is just like any other bank except it is all done online. You can also request a FREE debit card to use at any ATM or location where RME cards are accepted (Full list of locations here ). A few popular locations include Macy's, CVS, Walgreen's and many more!


Not interested in trying new things? If you haven't yet, you can sign up for a Paypal account. You can apply for a debit card (subject to approval but I was approved in less than a week since it is just a debit card, not a credit card), a money market account, a credit card and other services. You can have a free account at Paypal but you are limited in what you can do. With a business account you have a lot more freedom but you are subject to fees for sending or receiving money (I forget which). The fees are really low but still...it's your money.

Playing our first game on the Game Wave- Letter Zap

When my Game Wave (read all about it here) arrived I had to wait for Jason to hook it up for me (which SEEMED to take forever!). It wasn't difficult at all but I don't like to do that stuff. Plus our entertainment center didn't have a spot with an outlet hole so he had to drill that before we could plug it in.
FINALLY!
My 7 year old son Zachary, Jason and I put in the first game- Letter Zap and we each chose a remote. My son was a little too eager to get the game going so he bypassed the directions and we were prompted to choose names. Then we went right into a game. There was a big screen with letters all over the place- sort of looked like a word find. We were blindly playing and it was obvious! We had no idea what to do and how to do it so we just let the timer run out and went back to the main menu.
We discovered that there are actually two different games to play on this disc. One is a 4 player game where you race to make the most words out of the letters on the screen. Every time a word is created and submitted those letters disappear. If two or more people are going for the same letter only the quickest player will get it. The more letters in a word the more points you get for the word. It is hard to get big words when multiple people are going for the same letters! You can set the timer for 3, 5 or 10 minutes for this game.
With the second game, each player gets their own box and the letters never change. The player who gets 10 words first wins the round though it appears that points are accumulated through each round as well and the winner has the most points, not the most round wins. I cannot remember what the time limits on this game are but it is the same every time.

After we read all of the instructions we started playing the first game again. This time we understood and had a good time. My son was even able to enjoy it and found a lot of words. We let him have words if he annouced them before we started to use them. It's a really bad idea to annouce your findings during a competitive game...though also hard to not do when you get really excited! I was consistently the winner of this game!! I love word games. We tried playing with each time limit and decided that we all preferred 5 minutes. 3 feels way too short and 10 is too long. With more players 10 minutes might be ideal.
After playing a few games we decided to try out the other game- the one where you each get your own box of letters. Jason was better at this game but we all agreed that it isn't nearly as fun to play.

We ended up spending the rest of the evening playing Letter Zap- up until it was time for Zachary to go to bed. We all love this game- it is great for all ages! Even my 3 year old daughter wanted to join in the fun. She accidently got a few words too! She didn't stay as interested as we were but had to try it out because of how much fun we were having. She did love being able to have her own remote so we let her set hers up even when she didn't play the whole way through. So far, this definitely is a family game system!

I'm certain my head will explode at any minute!

We had a good Christmas despite not having much money to spend. Ok...we had NO money to spend. But I did spend some anyway because kids don't understand that. Jason and I got a few nice things too, including an awesome quesadilla maker that is the best thing ever! I tried it out last night and fell in love. It was like at first sight but love at first bite. It makes some darn good quesadillas. I can put just about whatever I want in it as long as I put it in a 10 inch tortilla. That was MY favorite Christmas present!
We also got some grocery gift cards which really helped out on my last shopping trip. I haven't been to the store in a couple of weeks so I really filled my cart. This was the first time in months that Jason kept the baby (Jo is really sick so I insisted he had to stay home). I just had to take one of the others so I took my daughter and dropped her off at the grocery store's tree house (best idea ever). I got to the register and my bill totalled $310 before my card savings. After card savings, the bill totalled $199. Over $100 in savings isn't bad. I had 3 or 4 coupons too which helped make it that low. I used our two $20 gift cards so I only had to pay $159. Cart overflowing, I made it home and crashed on the couch, announcing loudly that I was NOT bringing anything in. I am really sick too. Jason got the hint and brought everything in and even put it away. I helped a little with that. Then I am hungry so I go and raid our newly stocked kitchen only to find that there is NOTHING. Yeah, there is plenty but I didn't get anything I could just grab and eat. Too bad sandwiches don't make themselves. I am not feeling well enough to cook AND eat. Just eat.

I browsed the bills and this is where the exploding head comes in. Car and house payments are due right now: $1000. Gas bill is almost $800. Electric is almost $400. They are both due immediately. Plus the water bill, phone bill, sewer/trash bill and a few others I know my head is avoiding. I practically peed my pants reading our latest gas bill because I know we couldn't have possibly used as much as they are saying we are. Our gas dryer is broken and we don't overuse our heat. Yet the bill shows that we used TWICE as much gas as we did last December. Last December we had a freakin gas dryer. This December we don't, and nothing else has changed. So how on Earth has it doubled? We do qualify for LIHEAP which helps with your gas or electric bill over the winter months if you can't afford it. Unfortunately unemployment still doesn't send paystubs and Jason STILL hasn't called them (he tried one day for 15 minutes but gave up after the busy signal started to drive him nuts) to get a copy of what he is being paid. Every time you try to call unemployment the line is BUSY. Always busy. My mom was trying to get her paystubs from them and spent 5 hours calling them nonstop. FIVE HOURS! She said she just kept hitting re-dial over and over again. And they don't let you request or access info like that online. They should, considering you can't call them. I just want to cry. Can't get the LIHEAP without proof of income but can't get proof of income because the unemployment office is too busy. I wonder if I can tell them that and just send them a copy of our initial statement of what he will make...? Probably not. It's what he makes every week but that would just be too easy for everyone.

I am absolutely not making enough cash online to pay all these outstanding bills.

Make money at Wellness 360

You won't get rich but you will make a few bucks a money just by keeping track of what you eat, watching exercise videos, reading health articles and other easy things. You can sign up for free here: Wellness 360


My favorite way to rack up points is with the food intake tool. You simply enter what you have eaten for the day (or days if you miss a few). If others have entered the same food before then you will be able to make a selection from the list and it will save you the time of entering calories and nutritional info.

Keeping track of your earnings is very simple. You receive points for participating on the site but you can also see how much money you are making when you view your report. I have consistently made about $3 a month but I do not visit the site daily. If you visited every day and utilized all of the tools and articles available you would probably make about $10 a month. When you refer friends you can make even more. They pay quarterly, when you have made $25 or more.



Just as cool as making money, they keep track of your caloric intake so that you can monitor your eating habits. Very helpful if you are on a diet or trying to get/stay healthy. By keeping track I know that I have lost 5 pounds since joining the site and it helps me want to keep working on it!

Bit the Bzz bullet and got the Game Wave system

I am a Bzz Agent and recently was offered a campaign called the Zapit Game Wave Game System. The catch- this one I would have to pay for. $50. I love games so the siren song was powerful.
I bought it! It is my Christmas AND birthday present. I wasn't going to get myself anything and normally I wouldn't spend money on a Bzz campaign but Jason (boyfriend) spent $40 on an Everquest 2 expansion pack without discussing it with anyone first (he said there was no discussion- he was going to buy it no matter what). So I decided that I would try out the Game Wave, a DVD game console by ZAPiT Games. Plus it could be a present for the entire family if everyone ends up liking the games that came with my order.
I signed up for the campaign kind of late (the very beginning of December) so I figured that it would come either right before Christmas or possibly even after. But to my surprise it came super fast. It arrived less than 2 weeks after I placed my $50 order. In addition to the system (which has a suggested retail price of $99, comes with 4 remotes...and includes batteries, matching remote dock, all cables that you will need and one trivia game) I got 2 additional remotes and 4 additional games. The extra games are Rewind- a trivia game, Letter Zap!- a word game that can be played two different ways, Gemz- a color/shape matching game and Click!- a game that is a race to solve a mystery puzzle. The 4 extra games come in dvd sleeves instead of cases. Bad when you have young kids but good if you take it with you a lot.
The system is meant to be a multi-player game. Up to 6 people can play at once. It is a family game system so even kids can play. Right now there are 13 games offered and it says they are all are violence-free. It also doubles as a DVD player. Very cool!
I checked out the website to learn some more info:
http://playgamewave.com/index.cfm
It goes into detail about the games that are available (I hope I can buy Veggie Tales in the future!) and where you can find one in a physical store (looks like it is available a mostly religious stores but there is a map to show exact locations). You can also purchase everything online. You can even try out one of the games on the site. Reviews and other information also available.
Stay tuned to read about my experiences with the Game Wave...!

Sold! Getting rid of stuff to make way for more stuff

My house is lik a giant ball of clutter. You can barely walk anywhere without running into or tripping over something. So in an effort to do good to the house and to get back some money to buy clothes (and other needed items) for the family I am trying to sell some of our old stuff. I started with baby stuff since I don't expect to have anymore. We have lot of old baby clothes and some other things. First thing I listed for sale was on my local Yahoo sales group and also on my local Craigslist. I uploaded my pictures on Share a Pic which pays $.22 per 1000 views (remember, I do almost nothing for free! Though I won't lie, the site is almost more trouble than it is worth). I posted a doorway infant jumper for $5. Sold in a day. Almost made enough to pay for the pink sparkly ballet shoes and pair of jeans that I picked up from someone else on Craigslist. Those together cost $7. So now I am behind $2.

I also have some stuff on consignment in one store. Most of my funds there I have already spent on some new pants for my daughter since she is growing out of all of her 3t clothing and we have almost nothing that is 4t (anyone have anything to donate?) But when I go pick up the leftovers in the beginning of December I might have some more money there. I will most likely just use store credit and get new clothes for everyone- we all need them. I wish that was just me being a clothing whore but unfortunately it isn't. I have 8 or 9 pairs of pants but only 2 or 3 pairs actually fit me. I have NO long sleeved shirts that fit and WINTER is coming fast in PA. My oldest son has plently of pants but he is growing out of all of his shirts. My daughter, as I mentioned before has almost nothing in 4s but that is what she needs. My baby boy needs everything. We don't do shoes so I won't even bother looking for those and I just bought him some socks. But he has so few clothes that I am doing laundry 3 times a week just for him.
And did I mention that our DRYER broke, we have VERY LIMITED space to line and hang dry...AND it's cold out a lot now. But line drying has advantages like stiff jeans that make us itchy. Oh yeah, it also saves us some money!

Anyhow, I also listed some baby boy 0-3 month clothing. All of it is in pretty good condition- it was brought to my attention that there are a few stains on some of the stuff but I had trouble seeing them and there is some wear on a few things but no holes or rips- if it were me buying and I checked it all out I would totally buy it, especially at less than $1 per item! I have 19 things- all winter stuff like pants and long-sleeves and a jacket. I have that listed for $15. Is that too much? Because I have no buyers.

That is all I have so far. I have gotten together approximately 50 items to bring to the consignment shop though I don't like making the 25 minute trip so I try to find other reasons I could go out there. It is close to the only local Home Depot and I have a $25 gift card to use there courtesy of Gather. I could buy a new door handle for our backdoor since we don't currently have one. They only take 50 items per visit. I was thinking of trying some other consignment shops too. Most of them have terms I do not like. One place makes you pull your own items at the end of the consignment period. Ha! Like I could do that with 2-3 kids in tow. So that one is totally out. Some want everything on hangars and some require that anything unsold goes straight to charity. Sorry, but I am practically a charity case myself. But I need to start calling other places to see where I can take my stuff. That will get rid of it much faster. Some of them might even take household items, which I have too much of. People give me stuff assuming I want it and I DON'T...but I don't have the heart to reject things.

I think I will stick to baby items, clothing and household goods that are just sitting out. Then I will move on to more. Start small...start small. I have to keep repeating this!


Sell anything online for FREE

Unemployment- at least we have something, but I want more

Jason lost his job on October 13, 2008. Forget plans to have a vasectomy- that costs about as much money as we will be making a month or maybe more. Shoot, we might as well forget Christmas. Anyway, he got approved for unemployment so while he is off and looking for non-existant jobs he is also SUPPOSED to be going back to school. I already got all excited over that but I forgot who I was focusing on and realized this weekend that I should NEVER EVER look forward to something when it comes to him. He does what he wants, when he wants and it doesn't matter that he has 3 kids and a girlfriend that have to work around HIS schedule. I'm starting to think that Everquest will forever be more important than anything else and that he will not be going back to school (more about that Everquest crap later).

Before he lost his job we had about $3,000 in the bank from tax returns. Now that we will be getting way less than $400 (closer to $300) a week, we are quickly losing that saved money and we will start having serious money troubles soon. We just got a van back in June which costs $400 a month. Our mortgage is around $600 a month. That plus insurance is what we will be making a month with his new paycheck.
So the same day he got fired I took on a job babysitting full time. But I only getting $50 a week from that. But $200 extra a month is something. That will pay the electric bill and the house phone.
Preschool I paid in full at the beginning of the year so that is something I won't have to worry about anymore.

I do some things online to make money but none of them make me enough. I am not one of those people that rocks at getting referrals and it seems with so many places that if you want to make money you need other people helping out. I have a lot of referrals on one of my sites and there I earn about $5 a month doing nothing. Though it would be pretty awesome if every site I was a member of was earning me $5 a month. I might be making a good bit of money then! I suck at writing, otherwise I would go for places like Associated Content to make a few bucks a week.

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Trying to "go green" but it's more like going broke

For quite some time I have been interested in the green movement. Everytime I learn about something new I try to do some research, mainly looking at cost. I get to a site and the first thing I note is their mention of how "it will save you in the long run". As I read that statement my hope abandons me. That says to me: "it's gonna cost you a fortune!" And of course I am always right. I know how they can justify it- you are doing so much for the future and the earth. But how am I supposed to pull hundreds or thousands of dollars out of an empty bank account? Especially when I need to feed my family NOW- not in five years.
But I do do what I can. I buy those cool light bulbs. They don't last as long as they promise but they do last much longer. Savings on my electric bill? No clue. A plus: you don't need to constantly change your light bulbs! Good for us since our "ladder" is usually a wobbly chair. Who needs a stinkin' ladder?
I turn off lights when I am not using a room. Unfortunately everyone else in the house compensates for my savings by making sure you can see our house from space no matter what time it is.

Green gifts: