Smart Girls

 

Here's a great new video series.  If you have young girls and want to give them the message that being yourself and doing what you love is okay, then share this series with them, Smart Girls at the Party.

Amy Poehler (SNL and Baby Mama) teams up with Meredith Walker and Amy Miles to celebrate young girls who are changing the world by doing extrordinary things and just being themselves.  Featuring a writer, a gardener, an all girl band and a praise dancer (and many more), Amy and her friends let these girls know how amazing they are and encourage them to continue being themselves.

Featured on Cozmo TV, this series is inspirational to young girls and would be enjoyed by Moms and daughters together.  Watch the video above.  If you can relate, have a daughter you think would benefit from the show, or just want to help spread this great message, you can get your own widget here, and embed it into your site, blog, facebook, myspace an/or xanga pages.

Let's all spread the word that our daughters can do and be anything they want, and they are amazing  just being themselves.  This is a message that is way overdue and one I, as a mother, can definitely get behind.  Won't you join me?

 

Someone Cares...about Me?

I think we all get the emails about our inheritance from foreign lands.  Recently I've won a couple of lotteries in Peru, but this last one actually made me laugh.  I have never responded to any of these bogus scams and yet...Here is what I received yesterday:

Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza,
Mr Frank Nweke, Dr. Philip Mogan, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, Barr. Derrick Smith, kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of FedEx, Ibrahim Sule,Larry Christopher, Dr. Usman Shamsuddeen, Dr. Philip Mogan, Paul Adim, Puppy Scammers are impostors claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation.

During our Investigation, we noticed that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

Therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by coordinating your payment in total USD$11,000.000.00 in an ATM CARD which you can use to withdraw money from any ATM MACHINE CENTER anywhere in the world with a maximum of $4000 to $5000
United States Dollars daily. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in an ATM CARD.

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect the American Citizens. All I want you to do is to contact the ATM CARD CENTER via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $260.00 only.

Note that your Approval Slip which contains details of the agent who will process your transaction.

CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: MR. WILLIAMS UZOMA
EMAIL: williamszoma@gmail.com

Do contact Mr.Williams Uzoma of the ATM CARD CENTER with your details:

FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
TELL:
CELL:
CURRENT OCCUPATION:
BANK NAME:
AGE:

So your files would be updated after which he will send the payment information's which you'll use in making payment of $260.00 via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram Transfer for the procurement of your Approval Slip after which the delivery of your ATM CARD will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay.We order you get back to this office after you have contacted the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTER and we do await your response so we
can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

ROBERT S. MUELLER, III
DIRECTOR, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possession of your ATM CARD, you are hereby advice only to be in contact with Mr.Williams Uzoma of the ATM CARD CENTER who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

Like I said, I usually do not respond, but this time I had to.  Here is my response:

Mr. Mueller,

I can assure you that I am not currently, nor have I ever been involved with one of these scams.  I spot them as scams a mile away and delete them directly.  I appreciate you letting me know that, as a representitive of the FBI, you do actually have money for me and have made arrangements for me to receive them on an ATM card.

I'm sure you already have access to my bank records and know that I do not have $260 to send you, however, I would be more than happy to give you, the Director of the FBI, permission to take that out of the 11 million, or thousand (not really sure what the actual amount stated above is).  Please deduct and forward the card in the adjusted amount.

Thanks so much for your time in assisting me with this and assuring that I am not getting scammed.

Sincerely,

Beneficiary

How long do you think it will take to get my ATM Card?  Will follow up with any response, LOL.

No Connection

I woke this morning at 6am.  I felt like crap but really needed to get some work done since I was pretty much in bed all day yesterday and completed none of my assignments.  Making money from home definitely has it's benefits, but it's times like this that have me wondering if I should just be doing something else.  Losing an internet connection can be crippling to a work at home business, when all your orders and correspondence is virtual.

It took 4 hours and a couple phone calls to get the situation rectified, and I'm not pleased.  I like to get work done before the kids get up and check any internet profits from the previous day.  This delay has me a little stressed and I already have a splitting headache  so extra stress is not what I ordered.

I'm determined to continue making money online through a variety of sources.  Ebay, Etsy, paid blogging, adsense and other programs have paid for all our groceries over the last 4 months allowing Hubster to put aside that money that would have come out of his paycheck.  Some he puts into his 401k and the rest we have put into a vacation account.  Ultimately we would like to be able to take a nice family vacation at least once a year.

Today I will be looking into other internet options as my current carrier has me less than pleased.  I need to keep the cost the same or lower and need to bundle my services (as they are now) to continue saving.  Verizon set up lines through our property a couple months back and they will be my first call.

Must be using Internet Explorer

Apparently this blog is currently blocked by firefox claiming malicious content or spyware. I'm not sure how I got infected or why the warning pops up with mozilla and not IE.  Those are the only 2 browsers I use, so I would be interested in knowing what other browsers are being used and if you get the warning or not.  I assume if you do get it that you are running and not reading this, but let me know.

I'm trying to research it through Google, since the alert apperars to be coming from them, but I'm not getting anywhere so far.  Any suggestions would be appreciated as I have never had this happen before.  Do I wipe out the blog?  Do I remove codes from sponsors?  Do I get away from bravenet?  I was working on switching to Hostgator but got stumped in the early stages, I've created a mess for myself.  I'll keep you posted in case your one of the 3 people that can actually view this site.

Delivery Directions

I've mentioned before that I am slightly directionally challenged. I think it may be more of a lack of interest when driving and not really paying much attention to anything other than the direct route I am traveling and sites around. I find myself remembering passing an establishment but not really knowing when or exactly where it was. I've always been this way. I don't see it changing.

I like to print maps, or at least write down the exact directions, from the internet. It just depends on the distance. Local.com has combined mapping services with all other features of a site and made itself the one stop for all information pertaining to local businesses. Whether you are looking for directions to the local library, Hours of operation of your favorite restaurant, or directions to the new Sports arena, Local.com is the place to look. Check it out.

I printed directions from another mapping service the other day when I had to deliver dinner to a friend who had just had a baby. She only lives 5 miles away, but I had never been to her new house, so I mapped it. The directions I got literally had me taking 4 lefts and 4 rights alternating between, when I could have made a left a right and another left and right. I guess I should start paying closer attention while I'm driving so I do not have to depend on others or the internet for directions.

Blogging Benefits

It's been almost 8 months since I started this, my first, blog.  I now have 4 and attempt to maintain them all, sometimes not so successfully, but I try.  I originally got into blogging as a pastime to keep me busy while my little one slept and her brother was off playing.  Boogie started kindergarten this Fall so I found myself with some more downtime.  I found out I could actually make a little income through paid posting and dove head first into that and lost a little of my creativity along the way...but made some money.  I then took this blog in the direction of helping others and have found several individuals to support and help and that makes me feel good.  I've sought out individuals in need and have done posts about their causes.  I've sent money, knitted caps, written letters of support and whatever else they needed that I had to give was sent.

It's been a wonderful ride thus far, and I've received my share of perks as well.  I've received money from paid posts, I've received products to be tested.  I found some great hand-made sea glass ornaments that I purchased as Christmas gifts and I found an author who's books I must now read.

When I first heard of Katy and Liz, the mother and daughter wrongly evicted from their home and living out of their car, I knew I had to post about them and I wanted to send some money.  At the time, Brandilyn Collins was collecting money through her pay pal account and immediately sent some funds.  I was sent a personal thank you e-mail and of course followed the link to her site only to find out she was an author with several books in different series.  I perused her books and found the Kanner Lake series to be the most intriguing.  I ordered the first 2 in the series from amazon.com.  I read the first one in every spare minute I had, it was hard to put down. I even found myself becoming a bathroom reader.  The chapters are short, so I would grab the book each time I went to the bathroom (even just to go pee) and would spend 3-4 minutes finishing a chapter before I would emerge.  Upon completing this riveting story, I immediately picked up the second, happy I had ordered them both.  I will now be purchasing the third and fourth books in the series and will then start on one of her other "seatbelt suspense" series.  Thank You blogging for allowing me to find this great author and her faith filled books.  I am truly enjoying them.

Instant Stardom, the Power of the Internet

I've read a lot of posts today about theUS Airways plane landing on the Hudson River.  How everybody was safe, and other than the poor fella who broke both his legs, no one was seriously hurt.  Captain C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger has been called a hero by passengers for his quick thinking and awsome landing-on-water skills that saved the 150 passengers and crew.

What is REALLY amazing is that this pilot already has a fan club on Facebook and over 50,000 people have joined.  How freaking crazy is that?  Not that the man doesn't deserve it, it's just crazy how one goes from ordinary pilot to hero-with-fan-club in a 24 hour period.

Great Job Pilot Sully, I'd be happy to join your fan club.

Redecorating with Stainless

We are in the process of cleaning out our Master bed and bath.  The bedroom has become the catch all for all the outgrown kids clothes and other stuff we couldn't find a place for but couldn't (or didn't want to) give up.  So were cleaning it up and Yay, redecorating.  I've decided to accent the room with stainless steel accessories.

I've found several key items to de-kid the room such as a blomus stainless steel aromatherapy burner (see where I'm going with this deco?) and stainless steel tealight holders.  I would like to make the bedroom my "quiet" place.  Somewhere to relax at the end of the day, watch a movie, and occassionally pretend that the kids do not exist, yet.

For the master bath which I never use, but would like to, I was thinking about a stainless steel tissue box as well as a blomus stainless steel trash can.  The light switch plate and electrical plates would be replaced with stainless as well.

I can invision the new and improved spaces and am loving the idea...now the work begins.

 

I was Beaten

Remeber the site I was working on, and having difficulties with?  The one for bloggers to give back?  You can find articles about it here.  Anyway, I was beaten to the punch, and all for the better because I never could have done as good a job as the Momdot franchise did.  If you are looking for a way to give back, look no further than Bloggers Give.  A site dedicated to helping others and banding together as bloggers to get the job done.  The site is easy to navigate and they have even developed a letter to give to sponsors once you have already made contact. I encourage you to check it out.   

 

DVR on the Fritz

We've been having problems on and off with our DVR.  Some shows play back just fine and others freeze up repeatedly and make it impossible to finish watching recorded shows.  It seemed as though it was only a couple of the channels we record that were giving us difficulties and I was sure it was a conspiracy.  Just like the shows that run 2 minutes into the next hour which prevent the next hour's show from being recorded (unless it's on the same channel) due to only being able to record or watch 2 shows at a time.  Anyway, it's made us take a look into My TV options.

Hubster's company has a contract with DirectTV (they are actually a client) and he thinks we could actually receive direct tv for free.  I'm all about free stuff, but am leary to change our viewing methods as it takes me forever to figure out all the funtions of the different remotes.  I'm comfortable with my current remote and am afraid of changing. My brother has directtv and I have a heck of a time trying to find shows with their remote.

The cable company says it is in fact a fried DVR and we need to take the box to one of their stores and swap it out.  We've lost all our recorded shows which for me isn't that big of a deal, since I got caught up over Winter break when no new shows were on.  The kids are going to be upset when they realize all their shows are gone...forever.  No more Merry Christmas Drake and Josh, and no more iCarly goes to Japan.  Man I'll miss those...NOT!

 

Free Rice

 

One of the easiest ways I have found to give back is through FreeRice.com.  You simply answer questions in a variety of subjects and for every question you get right, 20 grains of rice gets donated through the UN World Food Program to  help stop hunger.  Since it started in October, 2007, FreeRice has generated enough rice to feed 2 million people.

By playing the games on FreeRice you are also benefitting yourself, with language skills, math, art and other topics, you're enriching your mind while giving to others.

I'm committing to 10,000 grains of rice per month for all of 2009.  I'll post updates and let you know where I stand.  Won't you join me in helping others while helping yourself?  Just click the rice bowl and you're on your way.

Brain-too-full-to-retain-Syndrome

Several years ago, the restaurant I was managing closed down.  I had the option of transferring or taking a very nice severance package.  I took the latter.  During that time I sincerely looked into career changes and was mesmerized (or so I thought) with the business of online trading.  While I didn't know much about the different types of options available, I studied a little with a company online and learned about stocks, bonds,  CDs and different ways to set up a portfolio.  I took notes and was sure that Stock Trading would be for me.  I love to crunch numbers and figured this would get me a more normal work schedule and set me up for family life.  It didn't work out.

I found that studying and taking notes was fine.  I did well with the online tests after each chapter, but I retained NOTHING.  I seriously would go back a week later and it was like I had never read or studied any of it.  It was the wierdest thing.  Either I was too wrapped up in the not-working-and-still-getting-paid aspect of my severance, or I just really didn't get it, although I did, and just couldn't retain it.  So, the online Broker job was out and I went back, for another 4 years, to the restaurant business.

Ever have anything like that happen to you?  Brain-too-full-to-retain syndrome?

 

 

Tracking for Questionable Parents

I've been reading lately about the father who killed his 2 1/2 year old son to avoid paying child support.  This, to me, is absurd and tragic.  From my understanding, the man was never into the father role much, so suspicions should have already been heightened when he took the child for visitation, but I don't know the whole story.

I do know that I would not be letting any dead beat dad (or mom) take my children without some way of tracking their where abouts.  Would it be overprotective to have such parent's vehicle equipped with a GPS Tracking device?  I don't think so.  What about divorced parents with shared custody?  Wouldn't it give you peace of mind if all parents with any type of shared custody or visitation were forced to have  GPS tracking installed for the other to monitor?  I think this would be a fantastic idea and should be implemented.  If Daddy decides to take the kiddies to his favorite strip club to" watch the game", you would know.  If Mommy decides to hit Happy hour just before picking up the kids from school, you would know (or at least suspect).

I can think of many ways GPS tracking could be beneficial and life saving.  Heck, I think any one living in inclimate weather should have one.  I know if I went off the road (which has happened before), it would be comforting to know that someone could find me...once they realized I was missing.

Anywhere But Here

Here's the story I promised.

Katy and her mother have been evicted and were living in their car...until recently.  Katy's blog Anywhere But Here chronicles this young girls experience with homelessness.  Her father passed away when she was six, and her mother has been unable to find a job for 3 years.  Since Katy recently turned 16, their survivor money has been cut in half.

When they received their notice of eviction, Katy made sure to grab her laptop as a means to communicate and stay connected.  She has had

Happy New Year

I hope everyone is enjoying this first day of 2009.

Hubster went back to work this morning so it's just me and the kiddies, we're making a plan now on how to spend the day.

The website is on hold due to hosting issues.  I apologize for the false promise, but will still use this here little blog to bring attention to those less fortunate, if for no other reason than making myself feel better about doing SOMETHING to help out.  I have a story coming later today, or tomorrow at the latest, so be on the lookout for that.

I've made some resolutions, that I'll keep to myself so as to not let anyone else down if I fall short.  I'm going to get more organized (crap, I wasn't supposed to say that) and find more time to tend to the house work (yay) so that I am a more rounded person and not just glued to my laptop all day, as fun as it's been, I need to be more.

I look forward to sharing 2009 with all 2 of you, and hope to find more friends and followers along the way.