Sweet Happenings

More Opportunities

2008-07-15T18:55:00.001-07:00

I don't know what is going on but it seems like there have been more opportunities available lately. Has anyone noticed this too? Since I signed up for SocialSpark.com,I have seen an increase so I think it must be making a difference. I hope it keeps up and I will continue to blog as fast as my little fingers will let me type.

Save Money Through Dealking.com

2008-07-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

With the economy in dire straits, I have been looking at all avenues to save some extra money. Dealking.com is a site that lists hot deals and offers coupons to several stores. They also offer cash back to Old Navy,Sears, Target, Toys R Us and many more. Including Christopher and Banks which is one of my favorite stores and they offer a 3% cashback there.

Sign-up for the DealKing affiliate program. This is a new program where Dealking will pay bloggers for anyone that signs up. More money can be made if that person purchases an AT&T Go Phone. You can receive $25.00 cash back and then another $5.00 for each phone sold.

I am definitely bookmarking this site for future reference.

Good Delicious Recipes

2008-07-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

I was looking around the internet and found some great recipes on the Jenny Craig site.
All you have to do is register and then the recipes are available to you for free. I don't need to lose very much weight but I wanted to prepare recipes that I knew would be healthy for my family.

This chicken dish was called Sweet'n Sour Glazed Chicken. Can be made under 30 minutes and only had 216 calories. It was delicious!

Paintball

2008-07-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

My kids have taken up the sport of airsoft where they shoot each other with plastic pellets. Eye protection should also be worn as the bb's can take out an eye and as we found out, a tooth. Much to my horror, one of the neighbor's kids had their mouth open and their front tooth was shot out. I have banned my kids from playing it at least temporarily until they buy a full face mask.

Since the ban, my sons have been exploring paintball and have been begging me to take them to a paintball course. I was checking out the Ultimate Paintball website and saw that they were selling a good selection of gear including BT Paintball Marker Guns, Masks,Woodland Digi Pants, vests,bulletproof chest protectors and free shipping for orders over $99.00. From what I can see, at least with paintball, you are covered from head to foot with protective gear so it seems that may be the safer way to go than airsoft.

Quick Trip

2008-07-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we are going to run down to Portland and see my nephew play soccer. He's coming up from California and this will be the first time we will get to see him play. He's pretty good as he made his high school varsity team as a freshman last year.

I know my boys will enjoy a break from the remodeling and we plan to maybe hit the museum and the Saturday Market too if they are game and do some shopping which I know they will not turn down.

It's a beautiful city that's for sure.

Northern Trust Bank

2008-07-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Scary times are upon us and it doesn't look like there will be a quick fix in the near future. My husband and I are 10 years out from retirement and with stocks dropping and oil prices going through the roof, retirement may be out of the question.

Personal financial planning services at Northern Trust may help with rebuilding your goals for retirement. My husband and I have plans to travel the world and with help we may still be able to live out our dreams. Northern Trust is a premiere bank. They are global leaders in asset management and services. Whether it be financial planning,private banking, business banking, trust and estate services and more, Northern Trust can meet your needs.

With careful planning, I am hoping we can weather this storm and still come out ahead!

Stain Disaster

2008-07-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was prepping my closet doors for staining and had to get some kind of pre-stain so that when I did finally stain, it would go on evenly. Did that and then went to apply stain. It was too light almost clear and not at all what the picture showed on the can. I was racing for the hardware store before it closed for the day, went and got a darker stain. Raced back home because I had to apply the stain within 2 hours of the pre-stain.

Again the stain was too light. I kept applying it but it never got darker. Not only that but the stain was uneven in places. The prestain did not do its job!

Thankfully, I have a back-up plan and that is to paint the doors the same color as the walls. I think that will be the best option but OMG what a headache and of course more work for me. The temperatures are hitting the 90's so I am going to wait until evening to start painting the doors.

New Affordable Eye Wear

2008-07-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

Both my sons vision have changed for the worse over the last few years. Unfortunately they have inherited the bad genes for eyesight from both sides of the family. The boys have been complaining that their glasses needed to be updated to a stronger prescription.

ZenniOptical.com offers great prescription glasses starting at $8.00. They also sell bifocal lenses, anti scratch, uv protection, and more for extremely affordable prices. The secret to their low cost is that they sell direct to the customer with virtually no advertising or middle man. It was difficult to buy new glasses for the boys every year because our insurance didn't cover any of it but with ZenniOptical.com that won't be a problem any longer.

Catch Zenni on MyFoxWGHP.com

Chinese Herbs for My Cat

2008-07-13T00:11:00.001-07:00

Awhile back I had blogged about my cat having a weeping eye. We tried to take her to the vet but couldn't catch her. I found a site where they sell herbs to treat cats and dogs with certain ailments. I emailed the site and told them the problem. They sent me some herbs and I have been putting it into my cat's food every day. The only problem is that she needs to have 3 doses a day but since she lives outdoors, I don't know when she is going to show up. I have been giving her canned food so she has been coming around at least once a day for that treat. It has been a few weeks and her eye is looking much better. Check out pawhealer.com for natural and holistic medicines for your cat or dog.

More on Glenn Beck

2008-07-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

I was perusing the Glenn Beck website again and found his blog. Having more liberal tendencies, I am sorry to say that I do not see eye to eye with him on some of his views but I am always willing to listen to the other side and not discount it just because it's coming from a conservative perspective. I do agree with his opinion that sexual crimes against children are treated as minor offenses when they should be treated a lot more seriously. For those of you who are interested in hearing his take on various politics with a humorous edge, he will be performing at the Dallas Majestic Theater on July 17th. This show will be broadcasted nationwide to select theaters.

Doors and More Doors

2008-07-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

This past week, I have been staining the inside of my French Doors and they did come out looking great except the stain is a shade lighter than what the bedroom door will be. Since my French doors are fiberglass, I can wipe the stain off and start again if I am not satisfied. It's a little tricky because the longer I wait before I brush it, the darker it will become. I have to make sure that my two doors will match because it will be easy to leave one side on longer than the other. I also had to stain one side of the grilles. Later I will be painting the outside of the French doors white as the outside of the grilles. I bought another stain to do the closet doors. I tried to match it to the French doors and to my bedroom door which will be done in the same stain as the bathroom vanity. Not sure how it will all look with 3 different stains. The match will not be exactly the same. I am trying to save myself another $300.00 by staining the closet doors myself instead of the cabinet makers. It has been a long 3.5 months and I am beginning to see that there is an end to all of this.

Who the Heck is Glenn Beck?

2008-07-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to conservative talk radio all year although I am not a conservative just to see what views the other side has been spouting these days. I came across Glenn Beck who has a popular conservative talk radio show which airs over 260 stations and also has a TV show on CNN's Headline News.
A political satirist, he is doing a summer political comedy tour. On July 17th, he will be performing live from Dallas and that performance will be broadcasted to select theaters across the country via FathomEvents. There are several videos and interviews posted on GlennBeck.com. His video on free health care pokes fun at the Democrats and their push for a more socialized health care system. If you are conservative or not and enjoy a laugh or two, you may want to check this guy out.

Cholesterol Check Results

2008-07-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had blogged on my cholesterol earlier about going in to get it checked. Well I got the results back and it was 198. A lot better than last time at 227. My good cholesterol number could have been a little better but all in all I am happy with the improvement. I have oatmeal every single day and I have been exercising at least 30 minutes 4 to 5 days a week. I would like to see it even lower but for now I am satisfied with the results.

Alternative to Embryonic Stem Cells

2008-07-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was at a wedding reception this past weekend and ran into a high school teacher who had a science student that was doing regeneration work on insects. They had given the insect some grape extract and the insect regrew a leg that it had lost. Normally the insect will partially grow the leg back but in this experiment, the entire leg was regenerated and that was really exciting news. The teacher also told me that regeneration can occur in humans too. If you cut the tip of your finger off, often times that will grow back. I was flabbergasted, I had never heard of that before.

That incident reminded me of the type of work stem cell researchers are doing today. I find the subject extremely fascinating . Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can be used to regenerate tissue or different types of cells. The potential benefits for Alzheimer, spinal cord injury,Parkinson's, diabetic, arthritis,and stroke victims is enormous. The flip side is that there is a huge controversy over whether or not embryos should be used to harvest the stem cells that are needed to continue this type of research.

Little did I know that there may be an alternative to using these cells. It appears that women's menstrual blood also contains stem cells that exhibit similar properties to bone marrow and embryonic cells.

There is a company called Celle that allows women to collect their menstrual blood and using a cryo preservation technique, the sample will be stored for an annual, semi annual or quarterly fee . These cells may have the potential in the future for treating some of the debilitating diseases like diabetes, osteoporosis and etc. There is a Celle Client Testimonial video that talks about the benefits of storing the cells for future use and for use by other family members.

Here is a press release with more details about the company:

Taking Control: Future Therapies for a Host of Serious Diseases May Be Found in Women's Menstrual Blood

July 07, 2008: 01:28 PM EST

OLDSMAR, Fla., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With today’s hectic lifestyle, where most women are juggling careers, family, relationships, and a host of activities, the idea of possibly facing a serious illness in the future is not something that readily comes to mind -- especially when a woman is in the prime of her life. But what most women don’t know, is that the key to treating a number of possibly life-threatening diseases that she, a parent, a sibling or even her children may face in later years, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, may be found within her own body -- in vital stem cells, which can now be harvested from her own menstrual blood.

Now, thanks to the revolutionary research and technology of C’elle, a service dedicated to providing women with a safe and easy method of collecting and preserving stem cells found in her menstrual fluid each month, even the busiest woman can take control of her future, right in the privacy of her own home. With C’elle’s non-invasive collection process, menstrual cells are processed and cryo-preserved (stored at a very low temperature) for potential cellular therapies that may be used in the future. These self-renewing cells one day may even be used for sports medicine or cosmeceutical treatments, such as anti-aging therapies.

"C’elle enables and empowers a woman to take control of her future health, and possibly of those genetically closest to her, in a fast, painless and stress free way," said Michelle Kay, Marketing and Sales Manager for C’elle. "We live in exciting times, as science and technology are discovering how extremely valuable menstrual blood stem cells really are, and the enormous treatment potential they represent for future therapies. C’elle’s ongoing research is supporting these promising findings."

For more information about C’elle, please call 1-877-892-3553 or visit www.celle.com.

I have never heard of such a service and it seems quite unbelievable like something out of a futuristic science fiction movie. But at the same time, it is exciting new cutting edge technology and my hope is that stem cell research will continue to progress so that some of these diseases will be eradicated.

The Fourth Month

2008-07-08T18:51:00.001-07:00

We are well into our fourth month and the remodeling is progressing slowly. I finally painted the entire room and master bath. My husband has tiled the shower but now we are waiting for the double sink vanity to be finished. The cabinet makers told me they would be ready in maybe another 2.5 weeks. It's been about 2 months since I put the order in and we can't put in the tile floor nor the engineered hardwood floor in the bedroom until the vanity is finished. I have been running around ordering sinks, faucets, shower heads, shower doors and the wood floor. I can't believe how expensive the bathroom is becoming. The faucet fixtures themselves were $900.00 alone. The shower door I wanted would have been another $800.00 but I settled for a less expensive model. On top of that, my money market account fired off a warning letter that I was withdrawing too often as there was a 6 withdrawal limit per month. Obviously, I did not read the small print when I signed up and I was sweating bullets because I thought they would send my checks back unpaid. Thankfully they did not but now I have to charge everything so I can pay it off in one lump sum. Next I have to stain the French doors and closet doors. I decided to get unfinished closet doors and I hope I don't regret the decision. It was either that or mirrored or white doors. I just made more work for myself.

My family reunion cruise is not looking so hot either. I have been working with a travel agent and have called Costco and another outfit trying to get the lowest rates. Looks like we don't have enough people to get the group discount. Costco gave us the best rate for the 3 day cruise to Mexico but still it will be a lot. About $1500 for a family of four and that does not include airfare. My brother pointed out that we can stay on land in a hotel with meals for about 1/2 that price. Trying to find something that fits everyone's budget is going to be tough.

Family Reunion Cruise

2008-07-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Down in San Antonio, I found out that it is going to be my brother's and my turn to organize the reunion for next year. My sister-in-law came up with a 3 day Mexican cruise. I thought it was a great idea. We have some elderly relatives, my parents included, that can't get around real well but love to gamble. The ship will have all these things on board plus plenty of activities for the younger generation.

Since, I have been back, I have been doing some preliminary checking. Right now the only 3 day cruise to Mexico is the one to Ensenada offered by Carnival and it's the party cruise. I called a travel agent and she wouldn't recommend it because she didn't think it would be a good fit for the reunion. Our other option is the 4 day cruise to Cabo San Lucas.

One good thing I found out is that passport cards are now available and they cost only $45.00 for adults compared to the $100.00 for the regular passport books. The cards would only be good for land and sea travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. This might be a better alternative for the seniors. My family also need to apply for 2 passports too. The wait for passports has gone down to 4 weeks from 3 months so I was glad to hear that.

I guess I will have to do some more checking around although I have only found 2 cruises so far that fit our time frame. I am glad I have a year to plan this.

Better Ways to Clean With the Dirt Devil

2008-06-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

I live in one of the dirtiest places on earth where the wind blows 24/7. My neighbor has an American flag flying on a very tall pole. The flag looks like it has been starched as it is usually blowing straight out at a 90 degree angle. On those days you can't see the neighbors houses so you can imagine how much dust comes into my home.

I've tried many methods to clean my house and save energy at the same time. Going green has become my middle name. I have used a rope mop to drag crumbs and dirt out the door. It helps some but it's not the best way to clean a home. Sometimes I just wet a rag and get down on my hands and knees and clean the old fashion way. It works well for someone who is not arthritic. For those that are, it is a bear getting up from the floor.

When food drops to the ground, it is common practice to throw it away or get out the big upright vacuum. In my family, my boys believe that no food should be wasted. With a little wash or some dusting off, it ends up back on the plate like it never took that little detour.

Dirt Devil has come out with a new technology called AccuCharge. I especially like the cordless hand vac that uses 70% less energy and has earned the Energy Star label. It's lightweight and charges twice as fast. It would make cleaning very easy, efficient and most importantly, it conserves on energy which in turn helps the environment.

Back from the River Walk

2008-06-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Got home at midnight yesterday. It was a long day back but much better then when we left for San Antonio on Thursday. The security lines were short at the airport which was great. Last year, when I went to Hawaii, it took over an hour to get through the lines. This year, we flew American Airlines and both flights were late. Spent 4 hours in the airport waiting for our plane and then spent another 4 hours at the Dallas airport waiting for late flight crews. Our plane was there but no one to fly it. We got to our hotel at 2:30 in the morning.

Aside from that, my gang was up at 7:30 am so that we could be ready to leave for Sea World at 10. After we visited all the relatives, we made it out by 11:30. It was fun but really hot and muggy. My parents came along so I hung out with them while the rest of my family went on the rides and saw some shows.

What was nice too, since we got into the airport late, there was no choice of rental cars left so we ended up getting a large SUV that could seat 8 people for the price of a large sedan. We were able to drive my parents around and they did not have to navigate the city themselves.

We did a little bit of the River Walk and that was really a neat place, and spent time in the RiverWalk mall. It was a pretty mall and right on the water too.

The kids and the cousins did Ripley's and they had a blast. Especially the Haunted Adventure. There was a trolley that you could take around for a $1.00 so we took that to Market Square where they have a Mexican Market. The market was OK but one thing that I didn't care for was that all the stores carried the same items. I think if there had been more variety that would have made it more interesting.

Since my mother is not very mobile, we took her and my dad on the river cruise. The cruises were not too expensive at $7.75 for adults and $5.00 for seniors. The cruises last about 35 to 40 minutes and the driver gave us the history behind the building of the River Walk and also the historical significance of some of the buildings that line the waterway. I think it was worth the money.

Of course, we had to hit the Alamo. We didn't pay $5.00 for the self guided tour so we just went around and looked at some of the exhibits. It was nice and cool inside which was a relief from the heat outside but we didn't get much out of it just because we didn't do the tour.

It was great to see my relatives. Some I had not seen in 4 years so those kids had changed quite a bit.

Next year, it will be my brother's and my turn to organize the reunion and we are looking to do a cruise so that should be a fantastic time.

SocialSpark is Live!

2008-06-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

SocialSpark is now live! They operate similar to a social network but with a different twist, they also offer opportunities and if you are eligible, you can earn dollars for posting about the ad.

I have been signed up with them since June 2nd and have been very busy visiting blogs and adding friends. I have been giving props or votes to several sites and in return, I have received props too. Right now I am up to 43 votes and have 39 friends. I decided to go ahead and add my art blog and just found out that was accepted this past week.

There are many blogs already on SocialSpark and I was just looking at Mom with Brownies profile. Here is a mom that homeschool's, pinches pennies, has 5 sons, some of which were adopted. She already has over 700 props and 3000 friends. She's taken 8 opportunities. It's an interesting profile and I liked the pictures of the brownies on there. They look delicious!

I have found since joining SocialSpark that traffic to my blog has increased which has helped my RealRank and in turn has enabled me to be more eligible for opportunities on both SocialSpark and PayPerPost.

However, if there is a downside to SocialSpark, it is that there are not enough opportunities. Competition is fierce and I have to be checking the site all the time. 98% of the time, opportunities are already taken by the time I see them. I'd like to see some kind of notification system.

In the meantime, I am grateful for the opportunities that I have received and for all the new friends I have met. This post was sponsored by SocialSpark.

Can't Find the Shorts!

2008-06-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

My whole house is in disarray. I have been trying to pack for our trip to Texas and I am glad I started on Sunday. We don't leave until Thursday. Today, I was looking for my younger son's new shorts that I had bought for the trip. Two hours later, still no shorts. My problem is that we have clothes everywhere. All of our dressers, closets, and chest of drawers have been emptied during the remodeling process. There are a zillion items of clothing stacked all over furniture throughout the house. I vaguely remember saying to myself that I have to put these shorts in a safe place because I knew I would not be able to find them. Well, that plan worked really well because now I can't remember where I put them!

I finally had to steal a pair from my older son. I really need a vacation!

Do the Research on Used Cars

2008-06-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

After a couple of months of looking around, my son bought a used car, a Pontiac Grand Am to be exact. My husband went with him to check out the vehicle. While they were there, I received a phone call from husband asking me to go to Car Fax and look up the history on the car. It turned out it has had several owners, even though it was only 5 years old and it had been in a accident that totaled the car back in 2004. I immediately told my gang, don't buy it but they ignored me. The previous owner had the car refurbished but I don't know if he used Advocate Auto Claims. If you have been in a car accident,they will give free Diminished Value Estimates on your car and will handle claims from beginning to end whether it was your fault or not. They can help you receive Diminished Value on your car up to 4 years after the accident.

Anyway, I have to admit that the car does look nice, but after my son bought the car, my husband told me that the previous owner had replaced the radiator because of overheating. My husband decided to look that problem up on the internet and found out that there was a class action suit against GM because of deterioration to the gaskets caused by using Dex Coolant. This resulted in coolant going into the oil tank causing overheating in the engine. Quite a few models were involved dating back several years and of course, my son's car was one of them.

We got rid of my son's last car after replacing the transmission because of potential reoccurring problems in the future, only to replace it with another walking time bomb. I just can't believe it!

Beautiful Day!

2008-06-13T13:00:00.001-07:00

The weather has been really crazy lately with wind, rain and cold weather. My husband has been getting up at 4 am every morning trying to spray. Nature has not been cooperating. He's been burning the candle at both ends as he was doing the remodeling too after he got home from work. Nothing like having a zombie walking around the house from lack of sleep.

The wind had been blowing up to 60 miles an hour at times. Thankfully, it quit yesterday and the sun came out. Got into the 80's finally. Took the opportunity to give my dog a bath and clean her bed. She's looking fresh and she smells like oatmeal too. I put on a flea and tick colllar. We had found 2 ticks on her and then we found one in our bed. No doubt, my husband brought it home from the field. I am a little weary about using the collar as I hate to use chemicals but the bugs are getting bad and I didn't want the dog to get sick from them.

It's going to be hot again!

VistaPrint

2008-06-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

As an artist, I am always looking for high quality materials at decent prices. VistaPrint.com is a site that offers professional customized print products at affordable rates. They even offer 250 free business cards,websites, pens, checks and more. I definitely will be checking out the free business cards. Although I do a lot of these types of things myself, it may be cheaper in the long run to have a company like VistaPrint do the cards. I will have to figure out the math with the paper,ink, and also the wear and tear on my printer too.

They offer a whole selection on invitations,stationery,rubber stamps, promotional giveaways,logo design, websites and you can upload your own designs on everything.
Another feature they offer is a one month free trial to build a customize website that looks and feels professional. Only costs $4.99 per month for the website hosting after the trial expires.

VistaPrint has over 13 million customers around the world with many testimonies from satisfied patrons. One person wrote that she thought there must be some kind of catch to the free products. She found out that not only were there no catches but the quality of the products were outstanding and VistaPrint saved her a heck of a lot of money.

Review My Post and Get Paid!

2008-06-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is new from Payperpost and all the potential postie needs to do is sign up for payperpost by clicking the button below. If you write a review on this post or any post with this badge, you will earn $7.50. As for me, I will also earn $7.50 and a link back to my site. It sounds like a win win situation for both of us. Payperpost encourages placing this badge on every post, however, I think I will be selective in that department.

I have just signed up for socialspark too so I am going to give these things a try and see if they translate into more opportunities and more dollars!

Cholesterol Check

2008-06-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

I am supposed to get my cholesterol checked and I have been putting it off. Last reading was at 227 and the doctors were telling me that I was borderline for high cholesterol. That was two years ago. Since that time, I took up biking, step aerobics and went on oatmeal, fish oil and now pomegranate juice. All are supposed to be helpful in lowering cholesterol.

The pomegranate juice, I just discovered at Costco. Wikipedia says that pomegranates have vitamin C, Vitamin B5 and antioxidant polyphenols. The pomegranate extracts have a lot of benefits such as reducing heart disease and also antiviral and anti bacterial properties with dental plaque.

Still, I am nervous that despite all my efforts, the cholesterol may read high. I was also on my son's gluten free, low fat, all natural diet for 4 months. I did kind of fall off the wagon recently and have been eating a few things that I should not be eating. Also I started to gain back the 8 lbs that I had lost over the last couple of years. I think it was the stress of the remodeling and the feud going on in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, I got back on the scale and found that I had lost 1.6 lbs. I have been doing 200 abdominal crunches a day and lifting weights too with a 30 minute workout on the bike and 15-20 on the step.

I fear the genetics are against me. I know people that are severely overweight, never exercise and they don't have any cholesterol issues. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and just go in and get the test done.