I Bought A Present For ME!!

Ever since I had Konnor, I have never been at the top of the priority list.  Purposely putting myself after others, I don't often have the newest clothes, the coolest phone, or other spiffy things.

Yesterday, I bought a laptop.  Four hundred dollars of something just for me!  After purchasing my new Toshiba, I am feeling the normal guilt that I feel after buying something for myself.

After battling with myself, "oh that $400 could have gone here or we could have done this," I took a step back.  No, really, this was a good investment.  With Justin on the computer as much as he is, I need this. 

What do I need a laptop for?

Well I really need it to keep up on JAKA365, which is my photo blog.  If you haven't seen it, check it out!

But I also need it to keep up with this blog.  If I have the desire to start reviews, the need for my own computer is pretty obvious.

More than anything, though, I wanted my own computer so that I could access the internet when I wanted to.  My phone's internet isn't fast nor reliable, and to be honest, typing with a Blackberry isn't fun.  Haha.

So here she is.  My new computer.  Nothing grand.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing to drop your jaw over.  Honestly, though, I don't need any of that.  Just something simple to blog and edit photos with. :)

General Mills Reduces Sugar in Cereal

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

If I had a dime for everytime I have heard that line, I would be a millionaire.  Heck, we all would be.  There's truth behind it, though.  Studies have shown that eating a healthy breakfast will enhance your performance throughout the day.  Not only will you be able to concentrate better at school or work, you will have more strength and energy for more physical aspects of your life.  Plus, you have seen the comercials - healthy breakfasts can lower your cholesterol!

In December it was announced that General Mills would be reducing sugar in their cereals ever more than they already had been.  They committed to reducing the sugar in their cereals to less than 10g per serving!  *goes to look in pantry*  Now, I can tell you that we have other brands of cereal (that are not General Mills) and not one of those cereals have less than 10g of sugar per serving.

I was provided 4 coupons for General Mills cereal from My Blog Spark to try out the new and improved cereal.  All I can say is "wow!"  These are cereals that I grew up with, prior to their commitments to our children of today.  Which means when I was eating these cereals, there were less vitamins and more sugar.  And while it could be that I am older, I don't find any difference in the taste I remember, to the taste of now!

Constantly looking at nutrition information, I want what is best for my kids.  I want them to grow up happy and healthy, and I was them to succeed in life.  My confidence for their breakfast needs is with General Mills.

For more information about the relationship between kids and cereal, visit General Mills' Health & Wellness page.

Business to Blogger - Gaining Exposure to Your Blog

As I am sure you are all aware, I am quite new to this whole blogging deal.  Well, maybe more so the more formal aspects of blogging as opposed to just blogging to keep track of memories I want preserved.

Wanting to make something more of my blog, I have become more technically in tune with what it takes to make a site more popular.  Traffic, right?  Being interesting and funny and leaving an impression with readers that makes them want to come back is probably most important.  But how do you get that?  Well, I have linked my website to my Facebook, Twitter, and even my YouTube accounts.  I have also made some new friends around the blogging community.

When my friend, Kristin, whose advise I trust when it comes to blogging among other things, wrote her blog post about Business2Blogger, I was curious.  Doing what any normal, curious, human being would do, I headed over to the site to investigate. 

The benefits for a small blogger, like me, is great.  They can provide you with opportunities for reviews at absolutely no cost!!! Yes, you heard me, for FREE!!!  Not to mention this website works with not only the blogging community but also businesses.  It's like a website that plays match-maker.

Sound like something you'd like to participate in? Then head on over and sign up here.  It's quick and easy and free to sign up.

And hey, did I mention that this is FREE?!

So click here for more information or to sign up.

Prepping For Relatives and Mobile Babies....

Ariana will meet her grandma for the first time in about four days.

Visiting from West Virginia, Justin's mom flies in on Thursday, February 4th, 2010.  She will stay with us until her flight leaves on Sunday.

The day she flies in Ariana will be 8 months old.  Where has the time gone?!?!  We are three quarters of the way to her first birthday.  Wowzers.

So this week I have to clean.  I don't just mean pick up the living room and kitchen and dining room.  We are talking a full, top to bottom, deep clean of my house.  The thought makes me sick to my stomach.  Having a little 2 bedroom apartment doesn't always mean just a little bit to clean.

Also on the agenda, while we are at it, is baby-proofing.  Don't get me wrong, I have been baby-proofing the house, but this will be an all out baby-proofing. 

That leads me to a question (or four).... How do you prep for visits from the in-laws?  What should I expect?  Oh my gosh, I have never done this before! YIKES!

Also, so I don't miss anything, give me a rundown of how you baby-proofed the house when your little ones decided to become mobile.  As much as I wish she wouldn't do this just yet, here we are.  Ariana is crawling and apparently climbing too!! HELP!!!!!!

Lamaze - Toys For Babies

Ariana has had one toy, Mr. Spider as we call it, for a couple months now.  Something about this toy keeps her attention, and she LOVES it! 

My little cutie-bug was absolutely distraught over goodness knows what last night, so I handed her the spider.  Immediately, whatever her deepest worry was, was forgotten.  She put that spider right into her mouth.  It was in that moment that I looked at Justin and asked him, "What would we do without that spider?  What if we ever lost it?"  These thoughts had passed through my head before, but it was then and there that I realized just what this spider was to her.

He had no answer, just a panicked look in his eye.  I immediately hopped on the computer and found Genius Babies, who sells a wide variety of baby toys, including the most popular Lamaze toys.  While we didn't find any of Buzz the Bug (which is what I found it's called), they have a ton of other great toys for Ariana's age.  At her stage, it's hard to find toys that will keep her attention as well as toys that are safe. 

Everything is in her mouth at this point, so I am constantly worrying about parts coming off in her mouth and her choking.  What mother isn't, right?  After some more digging, I did find our spider friend for sale at Toys R' Us.  $12.99 is definitely well-worth it.  Buzz's wings make crunchy noises, while each of the objects hanging from his feet do different things.  Ariana's favorite is when i squish the object that squeaks.  She will giggle and giggle - which, in turn, amuses mommy as well.  The rings on the end of one of Buzz's feet go into her mouth, and all around, he is very easy for her to hold onto.

I am currently awaiting approval from the man of the house to expand Ariana's Lamaze toys, in hopes she will find something that will give her even half the joy that Buzz the Bug does.

Cascade ActionPacs

Wow!!! Has anyone used these before? They are the concentrated detergent cube things that go in the dishwasher. It has both liquid and powder concentrated into this cube that is about an inch long and wide and half an inch in height.

My dishwasher SUCKS! We are forever having to scrub off every little piece of food and/or dirt before putting it into the dishwasher, making me wonder why i even bother with the dishwasher anyways.

We have tried both liquid detergent (which was okay) and powder detergent (which was a disaster). Apartments just have really crappy quality dishwashers, i guess.

Anyways, i decided to buy these Cascade ActionPacs. $5 for 20 of them, so i figured i wouldn't be out a TON of money. I used one today. Just opened my dishwasher, and OMG!!!!!!!!!!! These things are freaking amazing!!!

I put a dish in there that i didn't scrub. It wasn't that dirty, but i knew residue would have been left over with the liquid or powder detergent. Nothing with these. It is CLEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy The Ride Rewards

As a mommy of a 3 1/2 year old who was in diapers not long ago, and a mommy of an infant who is obviously in diapers, I know they get expensive. And I don't mean a little expensive, I mean a LOT!! We can go through a box of diapers (around $20) in a matter of two weeks, maybe three. That's a box of 84 diapers. So about $80 a month, sometimes $100. With that, and formula, an infant costs a LOT of money.

When it comes to diapers, we have tried multiple brands. Nothing works as well as Huggies. Especially overnight, when Ariana doesn't wake up all the time, it's nice to know we aren't going to wake up to a soggy bed and baby. Haha!

Today I was getting ready to throw away the plastic from a package of diapers, and noticed a code. It was Huggies Enjoy The Ride Rewards. Curious, I logged onto their website ( https://enjoytheriderewards.com/ ), and created a log-in ID. Immediately, I was awarded 10 points. With the code I found, I was awarded 9 more points. Okay, this is cool, I thought. So I decided to investigate and found that you can use these points on a variety of things. Diapers, gift cards, art supplies for the kids, and more!

How cool is that?? If you have kids, and use Huggies diapers, I highly suggest you check this out!