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What’s that on the dam wall?

24 May By 2 Comments

Here is another one of those “what Trisha’s husband forwards to her in email” posts. This was pretty amazing…passing on because I just dont believe this is real!!

Insane!

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What’s  that on the dam wall? 

Look  closely! It’s  one of those things you have to see to  believe.

This  is the Diga del Cingino dam in Italy -  can you see the little dots on the  wall? You’ll  never guess what they  are…

 

You’ve  got to be kidding!


  They are European Ibex and they like to eat the  moss and lichen growing on the  wall. They  also are licking the salt off the stone.

  Isn’t that incredible they can stand at that angle?

Photo credit: Peter Bosshard, understand this to be Austral Press
Just  when you think you’ve seen everything!

 

Filed Under: Guest Writers

Sanity-Saving Sippy Cups – Facebook Contest

23 May By

As parents of young children, I think we can all relate to wanting sippy cups that actually prevent drinks from spilling or leaking when our kiddos are running around with them. Munchkin has recently released their new Click Lock sippy cups, and are running a Facebook contest that you’ll want to check out.

To celebrate the launch of Munchkin’s leak-proof Click Lock sippy cups, four fans created videos, and now Munchkin needs help selecting the best video as their next commercial.

Visit the Munchkin Facebook page and vote for your favorite video in the Click Lock Video Contest!  And why might you want to do this, you ask? All voters will be entered to win an iPod Touch so you can create your own movies at home!

That’s not all, though – Munchkin is providing a giveaway right here, too – enter to win your own Click Lock cups and a $10 iTunes card.

Prize: Click Lock cups and $10 iTunes card

Enter: Comment below telling me what your kids drink most often in their sippy cups to enter. For an extra entry, you can Tweet and Facebook this post out. Please leave an additional comment as the random generator that pulls the winner goes per comment.

Terms: Contest ends on  May 31st. US only. Munchkin is responsible for prizing. Please allow 3 weeks for delivery. Winner will be contacted via email and has 48 hours to respond before new winner is pulled. All thoughts and content are my own. I received a promotional item in exchange for this post.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Guest Writers Tagged With: , , ,

Costumes Provide Summer Fun that Beats the Heat

23 May By 1 Comment

Hi, I’m Christi from FrugalNovice, dropping by for a guest post. My boys are 3 & 4 1/2 and are energetic like you wouldn’t believe. We also live in Texas, which means it’s hot. Like, all the time. We’re talking 100 degree temps in APRIL, people! As a result, our window of time for good outdoor play is pretty small, and is limited to the mornings and evenings. That leaves us with the whole afternoon for figuring out good indoor options, and it can be hard to come up with something new and fun for the kids to do.

You probably typically think of costumes for Halloween, like I always have until now. But let me tell you, online costume retailers like Costume Supercenter are really a treasure trove of dress-up options for girls and boys. That’s especially great for us because when we go to the store all we ever see is princess gear, which doesn’t exactly appeal to my kids. Looking online, though, the boys had a blast looking at all the choices for dress-up. They eventually whittled down their selections, and I’m sure you’ll be just shocked to find out what they picked. Introducing:

Iron Man and Spiderman! When the costumes arrived, the boys wanted to try them on immediately… and proceeded to wear them all. evening. long. They were transformed into a world of fighting bad guys and saving the day, and they ran all over the house playing pretend. As a mom I love the creativity that it fostered, and that they were having active play inside. The costumes were well-made and fit true to size – we ordered to allow a little room to grow and the costumes should last us for a while! C (Spiderman) is like me and always has a hard time with hats fitting – his mask fits for now but he may outgrow that part of it a little sooner. The costumes seemed to be a bigger part of their pretending anyway!

This experience gave us insight into just how fun costumes can be for everyday play… and I  learned a lot about superheroes, too:

Note: I received costumes from Costume Supercenter to facilitate this review. I was not compensated monetarily for this post. All opinions are honest and are those of myself and my family.

Filed Under: Guest Writers, Reviews

Are you confident in a swimsuit?

18 May By 3 Comments

Listen ladies, now that summer is here, its time to shed the self reservation and join in on being confident and happy! I know finding a suit is a pain. I will be the first to admit that standing in the dressing room…anywhere….can make me cringe.

But wearing shorts on the beach is just a fashion faux pas!

So Join Lands’ End and SELF Magazine to:

Celebrate National Swimsuit Confidence Week and Tweet Each Day!

Change Your Profile Picture, Tweet with Lands’ End, Win Giveaways and Boost Your Swimsuit Confidence

 Join Lands’ End and SELF Magazine each day May 21 – 25, 2012 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CDST and participate in a series of National Swimsuit Confidence Week events on Twitter. The weeklong movement was created to celebrate women of all shapes and sizes as well as educate and inspire them to embrace their swimsuit beauty and have fun this summer. Each day Lands’ End will give away 6 – $50 Lands’ End gift cards each day!

 Date: Each Day – May 21 – 25, 2012

Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. CDST

Location: #confidence

Follow: @LandsEndPR, @SELFMagazine, @LEprMichele, @LEprMariella, @LEprMolly

 I have Swimsuit Confidence! – Get the Badge – Go to http://on.fb.me/MhaQwh and display the “I have swimsuit confidence!” Badge on your Twitter profile photo.

Send a tweet to @LandsEndPR proclaiming “I have swimsuit confidence!” #confidence for a chance to be entered to win a $500 Lands’ End gift card. Send now through May 25 – winner announced at 5:00 p.m. CDST May 25, 2012.

 Schedule:

Date Top Participants:

  • 5/21 Bring Your Confidence to the Beach/Sweepstakes @LandsEndPR, @classymommy
  •  5/22 Mastectomy Swimwear @LandsEndPR, @GenaeGirard
  • 5/23 Sizing Up Swimwear @LandsEndPR, @AllThingsChic
  •  5/24 Swimsuit Trends for Real Women @LandsEndPR, @CurvyGirlTweets
  •  5/25 SwimMates @LandsEndPR, @nycpretty
Filed Under: Guest Writers

Are you a dog person?

18 May By 3 Comments

My spouse sent this to me in an email forward and wanted to share! I have seen some of these before, but not all, and its fun to see it one stream.

If you love dogs, you will totally relate to how funny they are. I honestly was never a dog person till I caved and let my daughter get a dog. I swear my entire house is 10 times funnier. We all fuss after the dog, laugh at the dog playing, and it made our house bigger, not smaller.

And as if to tell us its ok, our FOUR cats all accepted the dog within a few days. My old cats that have never been around a dog all of a sudden will sit next to him on the couch. There is no snuggling yet, but no one is dying, and thats a step in the right direction!

 

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

dog pictures

 

If you have a dog, have you always been a dog person?

 

trisha

Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: ,

Uncovering History With The 1940 Census

15 May By Leave a Comment

While I am not generally a history buff, the release of the 1940 census records have piqued my curiosity. I don’t really know much about my family’s heritage, and have never really cared to, but I feel myself being drawn to our family history more than ever. My kids have started asking questions as we look through scrapbooks about who each person is, and honestly I don’t know most of the people in my own family. If they have been dead for over half of my life, I am lucky if I remember their name.

I have been spending time reading books from different time periods to the kids, and this also causes them to question our family. They want to know if anyone in our family owned slaves, or came over on the Mayflower, or fought in the war. It seems like they want to make sense of history, and if they can just relate it to their own lives they will better understand.

While I never cared before, I am starting to get excited. I guess I’m not the only one…

According to CNN the National Archives and Records Administration received over 60 million hits in three hours! With that much interest, I have to believe I have missed out. By simply remaining clueless about my families heritage, I feel like I am missing out on an important part of my past.

George Santayana is known for saying “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Well, maybe it’s just as bad to have never known the past. How else can I learn from my family’s mistakes?

So now my kids and I want to begin our Family Search to see what we can learn, and I can’t help but hope that one day a future generation is searching for me!

How much do you know about your family’s history?

Filed Under: Guest Writers

They have some quiet neighbors…

10 May By 16 Comments

Every now and then my spouse sends me some really fun “email forwards” and I like to share them. Here is a really great one that he sent me this week…

It says:

A couple purchased an old church in Kyloe, Northumberland, PA.  They invested a lot of money on the interior, but left the exterior almost completely intact. They did more of a restoration than a renovation, which would have cost them 3 times as much. If they had not purchased the old church, who knows what would have happened to it, as it was in very bad shape.

 The couple adapted the interior while leaving the outside with the minimum appearance of a house.

TAKE A LOOK…

 

Amazing, huh!

Filed Under: Guest Writers

Britax Event!

8 May By 5 Comments

Out of all the car seats I have owned and all the kids I have had (ok, well just two kids), I have yet to own a Britax.

SHOCKER.

Trust me, I know.

For someone who wants to buy the best for their kids and with the massive amounts of recommendations everyone gives me for Britax, you would think that I would own one by now. I fully intend on remedying that and getting P one as he gets older. I def want to keep him safe! Charlotte actually just moved to a booster seat herself. I am this crazy mad woman that would be happy if she would stay in a car seat forever, but I figured at 7.5 I probably have to “let go” a little bit.

Sniff.

Expect Greatness Tour

For those of you that love Britax or want to get to know them, they are having an event if you live in the Orlando area Macro Baby 1361 Florida Mall Ave, Orlando, from 12Pm – 4PM.

Join the party as the BRITAX Expect Greatness Tour travels from city to city in specially branded BRITAX and “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” mini-vans. The tour offers great giveaways, great discounts, great parent education and of course, the great quality of BRITAX.

If you are not in the Orlando area, the tour is still moving around, so you can check out other dates and locations here.

You can visit BRITAX (britaxexpectgreatness.com) to win big. Prizes can be won in store (or online) with up to $25,000 worth of goodies! (This too counts towards the Rewards Registry Program).

Do you own a Britax? Which one? Do you like it? Would you like me to run a giveaway on one?

~Trisha

Filed Under: Guest Writers