Mattel or Fisher-Price Class Action Lawsuit- You might get a payment!

I just found this in one of my magazines:

If in 2007 or earlier you purchased or received as a gift a new Mattel or Fisher-Price toy, you may be entitled to a payment from a class action settlement.

They list a website to go to to file a claim, it is http://www.mattelsettlement.com/.  On the site they also have a list with pictures of all the toys that are included in this recall settlement.  Claim forms are available on that website or by calling 1-888-955-2715.  The list includes many different toys such as Barbie, Dora, Sesame Street, Batman, Polly Pocket and Cars.

Please help me finish this project....

This was a project I started in November, it was supposed to be a Sugarplum Fairy.  I have no idea how to finish it...anyone have a suggestion??

Dear Spring 2010, please hurry, I'm waiting!

The other day I was credited tons of free photo books to my Artscow account and since I've been going through many, many, many folders of pictures on my computer (which of course are organized by season and year).  I have made photobooks previously on other sites and always seem to run into the same problem, not enough pages.  Of course you have the option of adding pages but my credits are for 20 page books.  Not wanting to pay for the additional pages I have been trying to pick through  and only include the "best of the best" pictures.  Easier said than done.  We do so much during the warmer part of the year that when comparing the photos with our winter photos, winter just seems booooring.  We do still have fun but there is just no comparison.  So with that being said....I'm ready for spring!  For me, winter is only fun until Christmas.  Once the tree and lights are down, I'm ready for gardening, flowers, green grass and warm sun!  I know its only January and we have plenty of winter left....I just wish it would hurry up.  Winter makes me lazy, unmotivated, and antsy.  I think I have started at least three projects that I just CAN NOT finish...what is the deal.  Somebody help!!!!

$1.19 Baby and Toddler clothes!!!

Just found out that Sears is having a huge clearance on baby and toddler clothing, clothes going for $1.19.  They will probably not be around for long.  You can shop online (might save you some time) just click on the link, sorry its a long one!

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/s_10153_12605_Baby_Baby+&+Toddler+Clothing_View+All?pageNum=1&storeId=10153&sName=View+All&vName=Baby&cName=Baby+%26+Toddler+Clothing&catalogId=12605&aff=Y%23viewItems%3d96&sbf=Clearance&sid=I0084400010000100383&sortOption=PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH&expCheckout=&langId=

FREE PHOTO BOOKS

I found a great new website where you can order photo prints, make photo books as well as other photo gifts. http://www.artscow.com/  I made an account with them and became a fan on facebook and they gave me TONS of free promotional things (LIKE FREE PHOTO BOOKS!!!!)  When I say tons I mean A LOT, like buttons, magnets, coasters, mousepads, and a photo watch.  So today I check my email and they sent me a coupon code for 10 more free photobooks.  You have to pay for shipping and handling but that is it!  I'm so excited, I have so many pictures I need to organize into photobooks.  Pass this on, too good to pass up all this free stuff!

The Best Pie in the World

I tried this recipe after picking tons and tons of blackberries last summer.  It is now my favorite pie and I can't wait to get more blackberries this summer!

Apple-Berry Pie

Ingredients:
1 pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups fresh blackberries
2 cups apples - peeled, cored and sliced
2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Roll out crust on slightly floured surface and place in 9 inch pie plate.   Roll out top crust and set aside

2.  In large bowl, mix together sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon.  Add blackberries and apples. Toss gently to coat without mashing the berries.  Let stand for 20 minutes.

3.  Spoon filling into pastry lined pan.  Dot with butter.  Moisten the edge of the pastry with water.  Cover with top crust.  Trim and crimp edge.  Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape during baking.     Cover edge with foil to prevent over-browning.

4.  Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.  Remove foil, and continue baking for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.  Cool on wire rack.

ENJOY!!!!!

A whole bunch of little people

So we had another eventful weekend.  Our daughter had her friend over yesterday and I took them (plus our son) sledding at the Conservation club with my parents and younger brother.  The snow was very icy and it was hard getting back up the hill, but that made going down twice as fast!  After her friend left, I babysat my friend's three girls over night.  We had a full house but everything went very smoothly.  The two older ones are good friends with our daughter anyway and the little one is probably the easiest baby I have ever babysat!  At one and a half she is very independent and easy going and no work at all.  My poor son didn't know what to do with all these girls in the house!  He looked so grown up next to the baby, made me miss him being that little!~

Ode to the Hamster

Over the years we have brought many pets into our home.  In the past we have had cats, bunnies, a turtle, and an iguana.  Currently wee have two dogs, a Bernese Mountain Dog , and an Australian Shepherd, fish, chickens, and our new friend the hamster.  Our daughter fell in love with my husband's cousin's hamster over Christmas and decided to use her Christmas gift money to buy one for herself.  I always had hamsters as a kid and have some good memories so I agreed.  In the past, many of the pets we had just ended up being more work than I bargained for (and bunnies really do multiply fast), but this is probably the best pet we have ever had!  The only downside that I can find is the noisy exercise wheel that he only uses at nigh, but after moving his cage downstairs we don't even hear it.  He does not stink, or make a mess, his food and bedding are cheap and he provides hours of entertainment for the kids.  They build him obstacle courses and houses on their play table. This is the perfect pet for families that cannot have larger pets in their home or do not want high maintenance animals like dogs.  Really, your kids will love these furry little vermin!

Owl Pillows

                        Owl pillows I made for my kids for Christmas

Books should be free

I was looking up free audio book downloads for myself and came across a site called http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/.  This website has a category for children's books.  They're mostly classics like Tom Sawyer and Heidi but there are also Mother Goose rhymes and Aesop's Fables.  I downloaded Alice in Wonderland for my daughter and put it on her mp3 player.  I wasn't sure if she would like it since it wasn't the Disney version that she knew, but she likes it and asked me to download her more books.  She has been listening to it before bed.  I'm excited that she may be able to enjoy stories that are too hard for her to read by herself.  I know not every kid has an mp3 player but you can download the files to your computer and burn them to cd.  Also American Girl is holding a photo contest for girls in honor of their new Girl of the Year Lanie.  The contest is to take 5 photos (choose from their list) and also to finish the note "I am inspired by nature when..."  The 5 grand prize winners will win the entire Lanie collection and 20 first prize winners will win the Lanie doll.  Here is the link to the info on their website http://americangirl.com/girloftheyear/2010/photocontest.php  Good luck to those who enter!

What in the world....

Ok so I could not decide what to focus today's post on so its going to be a bit random.  First of all I am saddened by the horror that is going on in Haiti.  I would love to work for the Red Cross and be able to go and help these people.  I believe that people who do this kind of work (or volunteer) are not given enough recognition in this world.  It has to feel like you have a huge purpose.  Not that my life has no purpose, I would just like to be able to contribute more or help others in one way or another.  Actually the funny thing is that I went on the Red Cross website just about three weeks ago and emailed them about volunteer opportunities and I never got any kind of response.  On a totally different (and lighter) note I want to thank Vanessa on American Idol (the country girl that likes jumping bridges) for thoroughly entertaining me.  I'm rooting for her, I hope she gets to live her dream of getting out of Nowhereville U.S.A.

It's Idol Time

I am a huge fan of American Idol, which begins its new season tonight.  It will start off with the usual auditions from different cities, introducing to us the many hopefuls (and many disasters) of the show.  It seems though that each season brings less audition clips of the actual contestants that are making the cut and more footage of the morons that are not.  Sorry but crossdressing or acting stupid to get on tv is only funny so many times...then you find yourself fast forwarding through these idiots (thank God for Tivo!)  Many of you may already know that Simon Cowell will be leaving the show after this season to focus on his new show X Factor.  I believe that this will be a huge blow to AI.  The show's ratings and credibility have already been slipping and as much as Simon gets booed by the audience, his comments are actually the only ones that give the contestants any real criticism (in my opinion).  Even the contestants seem to only be satisfied with their comments if Simon approves.  Replacing Paula with Ellen is another dumb move.  Although I love Ellen and think she is hilarious, she has no music background.  The jokes may get her through this season but how relevant will her criticism really be?  Yes Paula didn't make much sense, and yes she liked just about EVERY performance, but I don't think Ellen will boost the ratings by THAT much.  I can already see into the future....Idol will be beat out by X Factor....just wait and see.

"Strong and Happy" drawing contest

I ran across this contest on a site called http://www.5minutesformom.com/   Its a drawing contest courtesy of Yolplait kids.

Get Drawing and Win $1000:
Since Yoplait Kids is a tasty yogurt snack with 25% less sugar and calcium and Vitamin D in every serving – have your little ones draw a picture showing themselves as the happy and strong kids that Yoplait Kids can help them become!
We are sponsoring the “Strong and Happy” Drawing Contest, and offering an exciting prize courtesy of Yoplait Kids for our winning artwork: $1,000 to use towards classes (including sports) and/or education material for the child(ren).
We will also award a prize to our second place drawing: $300.00 to use toward classes (including sports) and/or educational material for the child(ren).

So here are my childrens entries:  

Alexis age 6

Maddox age 2

Wish them luck!  Finalists will be posted January 21st.

Had to Share

                              My daughter learning how to crochet

Cutting back, the recession...and trying to survive

Blah Blah Blah....We all know how much the recession is impacting EVERYONE...yes EVERYONE, and almost everywhere you turn there are articles and stories sharing information on how to cut back. I will admit that some things I have read or seen have not helped me ONE BIT. So I will try to share some information on things that I actually am doing, while they might seem small, insignificant savings, they really add up. Ok, lets start with the obvious, coupons. So saving .30 on something might not be the best deal but you really have to know where to look for the good coupons. Forget the paper (especially our local paper which does not have many coupons in it)lets look online. My favorite sites for printable coupons are www.coupons.com, www.smartsource.com and www.redplum.com. The only downside is that they usually limit how many coupons you can print. I also go to the websites of all the brands of products that I use (i.e. Children's advil had $1.00 off coupon recently) and check for printables or sign up for mailed coupons (i.e. Pantene mailed me a booklet of $1.00 off coupons). Another thing I just did was took a long hard look at our wireless bill....hmmmm....we were not using even half of the minutes that we were paying for! So we cut our minutes, simple. I also got tired of paying $20 a box for diapers, now most people will say to switch to generic brand diapers...not the solution I wanted. Really, honestly, potty training is HARD and takes real dedication but I'm home so I told myself to stop putting it off and really start working HARD on potty training our son. So far so good...day 3 of potty training, one accident yesterday, only 2 diapers used-just at night when he is asleep. Ok now this is my favorite...www.oldnavyweekly.com. What this is, is a site that old navy puts coupons on. They usually update with new coupons on Thursday nights and how it works is you have to click around to find hidden coupons. If you are lucky you will find a 20% off coupon if you are REALLY lucky you could get a $75 off $100 purchase coupon or $50 off a $100 purchase coupon...no its not a typo. I have only been lucky enough to find the $75 one once since there are limited quantities, but its fun trying every week. I don't know one mom that couldn't use some savings on their kids clothes.

of war....

I don't get a lot of time to read but I try to sneak in a half hour here and there as I sit in my car waiting for my daughter to get done with school (bad parking situation, have to get there early) or while I wait for her at dance class. I'm currently reading a book called Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis by Nicholas Stargardt. Ok before you say anything lets backtrack. Ever since I took a tour of Auschwitz when I was 7 or 8 I have been very interested in WWII and especially the Holocaust. I try to read and watch anything I can get my hands on. This book is not a weekend reader or anything like that but it has tons of information that I never knew about prieviously. For example, I have read a lot about Jews during the war, the exterminations, ghettos, hiding, sneaking children, and this book does still talk about that but it also talks about German children's lives during the war. These children don't get written about as often but they also were impacted by the war. The book talks about the different institutions and homes that these children were sent to if they were considered unfit for society. It also talks about the brainwashing that they went through and how little control their parents had over their lives. Very interesting book but definately not a light reader.

Recycled crayons...project for kids

Friday night my daughter had a sleepover with two of her friends. We did a project together that I found on the internet a while back. We made recycled crayons. We took our huge box of crayons and sorted through it taking out all the broken pieces. Then we peeled the papers off and separated the crayons by colors into tin cans. This was the hardest part for the kids since it takes a while to take off the papers, I did some of it ahead of time to speed up the process. Once they were sorted I put the cans into a pot of water (only need a little bit of water) and boiled it.
The crayons melt in the cans and you can pour the melted wax into plastic candy molds (you can buy these at most craft stores like Michaels). The cans and wax are hot so I had the girls tell me what colors they wanted but I did the actual pouring. They also added glitter to some of the crayons. The best part is that you can mix colors for a tie-dye effect or layer them by letting each layer of wax harden before pouring the next. The crayons pop right out of the molds when the wax is completely cool (you can put the molds into the fridge to speed up process). We had a blast, then the girls traded their crayons like trading cards. Good project for a cold winter day!

Goodbye Chicken

So over the past year and a half now I have tried my hand at raising chickens. We ordered our first batch of day old baby chicks from an online hatchery. They were very cute and we kept them in a brooder in our basement. They grow very quick though, and they don't smell that good either. They did not start laying until the following spring (we moved them to a chicken coop in the meantime!)That summer some of our hens started getting broody and tried to hatch their eggs. We attempted to let 3 different hens sit on their eggs and all three times we failed. All it took was the hen getting off the eggs for too long once and all the babies were dead. So we borrowed an incubator from a fellow chicken raising friend and hatched 21 babies! Again they were so cute, but got big quick. So last fall we decided that we had too many chickens and we took 10 to get "processed". I was very excited about having 10 fresh, free-range chickens that I raised that I could cook for my family. After cooking one for the first time we found out that the meat on the chickens (the little bit that was on there) was way too tough to eat....even when cooked in a slow-cooker ALL DAY. I was disappointed. Ok so now I have all these chickens in the chicken coop....they're done laying for the season and I have to feed them, crap....Ok so I put an ad on craigslist and someone offered to buy half of them, she should be here any minute....hopefully she shows!

New to blogging

So I am a virgin to blogging but I thought I would give it a try. I have always thought of myself as a person who was "computer savvy"...(do people still say that) and until recently was pretty confident in my general knowledge. I was shocked to find out that I am now in the category of people that I thought only parents and grandparents of my generation belonged to. My 12 year old brother recently showed me how to convert You Tube videos into mp3 format. I was floored. Is this common knowledge? Is it legal? How do you stumble upon a program like this....did he really google "turn my favorite you tube videos into mp3's so I can put them on my ipod"??