A cool nomination and award for me

I would like to give my thanks and appreciations for the recent nominations and awards this blog has received, yippee!!

Thank you to Love2shopmom for passing me the Kreativ Blogger Award! This award is so cool,that this is the second time I received it!! Since, I already posted about this award on my blog; this time around I’m just showing how much I appreciate receiving it from my fellow blogging pal! Love2shopmom blogs all about shopping and her love for it, you can check her out for some great deals on shopping over on My Bargain Mom! Thanks Again!!

Now how cool is this? My blog got nominated for a Bloggers Choice Award, in the category of Hottest Mommy Blogger! Oh wow, bunch of thanks for this! After going over to take a look at my blog’s position with this nomination, I couldn’t help but laugh after seeing blogs with over 100 vote’s, lol! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch up to that, but I’ll have fun trying, lol! Thanks for this nomination Jonathan at 2rivers and if anyone would be so kind enough to give my blog more vote‘s, a big thanks in advance goes to you, how fun! Thanks, thanks, and thanks!!

Whats for Dinner Sunday

Today, for us it was roast beef, mixed greens, roasted tomatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and taffy apple salad, with a glass of wine on the side. Hubby cooked the roast beef and the cornbread, the boys helped make the taffy apple salad, and the greens and corn bread was prepared by me. This is our typical preparation for Sunday’s dinner, getting the whole family involved. Saturday dinners are easier going, but we prepare them together often as well, while Monday through Friday’s is mostly me.

The beef got marinated overnight in a wet marinade of worcestershire sauce and garlic cloves, and set out this morning in a dry rub of organic thyme, fresh organic parsley, salt, and black pepper for a couple of hours. From there it went into the oven on low broil to each side, to brown. Next, it got wrapped in aluminum foil with purple onions and slow cooked outside on the grill. The tomatoes got cooked out on the grill as well. I used the beef juice from the broiler pan to make a gravy for the beef.

The greens were mustard and turnip‘s, mixed. Early morning I placed a nice sized smoked ham hock in the water. I know it’s not the healthiest choice of meat, one can use smoked turkey meat as a substitution, but we eat pork in moderation, although it’s such a habit. In the sink the greens got soaked, washed, and chopped. From there they went into the pot of water with the already cooking ham hock. I tossed in some vinegar, a chopped organic turnip, salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar and let them boil until they were tender, about 3 hours.

Now that the longest preparations were out the way, it’s time to prepare the taffy apple salad. The boys made the caramel with pineapple juice, sugar, flour, tiny bit of vinegar, and an egg yolk, over the stove in a small saucepan. I chopped and cored some organic granny smith apples, while letting the boys stir in some crushed pineapples, peanuts, apples, and whipped topping. It got covered and placed in the fridge until ready for dinner.

Hubby and I worked side by side as I prepared the macaroni and he prepared the cornbread, we both short cutted it. I used Kraft deluxe mac in the box with a little extra elbow mac, brought it to a boil with salt and butter, drained it and added in a pint of buttermilk, eggs, and the cheese pack. Afterwards I made a bottom layer in my casserole dish with the mac, then added some shredded mozzarella cheese, topped it with mac and topped that with some shredded mild cheddar cheese, from there it went off to the oven to bake. Meanwhile, hubby tossed a box of corn muffin mix in the bowl, added in some milk, eggs, more corn meal and sugar then off to the hot and buttered pan and in the oven along with the mac and cheese.

We sat down and enjoyed our Sunday dinner and hubby and I had a glass of wine, with a cherry dropped in it to drink, while the boys had some semi frozen apple cherry juice. It’s amazing how much my boys can eat, but they surely don’t give it to much time to stick. We were done eating by about 5:30ish, so we went out in the backyard and enjoyed the weather. Finally, we came inside and watched a movie I rented from blockbusters, The Secret Life of Bees. It went off just in time to catch the 4th round of the NBA Finals. It was fun to see the Lakers and Phil Jackson walk away with yet another Championship victory, that’s my favorite NBA team by the way!

Okay, that was my Sunday, Saturday was a seafood feast of lobster tails, scallops, and split shrimp scampi with ceaser salad, organic carrots and celery, with ranch dipping sauce, baked red potatoes, and fish sticks as my youngest have allergies to fresh seafood. I’m a seafood attic and can never get enough; well that’s the end of today’s rant!

Cyberworld News

A mom blogger from Missouri, got the quite the surprise. She shared a professionally taken family photo of herself, husband, and children on her blog and other social networks, but it somehow ended up being used for a storefront ad way up in Czech Republic. Coincidentally, it was spotted by a college friend that brought it to her attention. What a small world we live in?

In Arizona, a man believes his twittering that he was out of town led to his home being burglarized, while he was away. That’s another downside of being so social on the World Wide Web, something I’m guilty of myself, we have to be more careful these days.

In other Cyberworld news I had recently read several blogs about a mom from Illinois, with a hoaxed blog and the story just made my heart drop. April’s mom a.ka. “B” the blogger who hoaxed the internet with her blog, has since apparently come clean, she actually made the front page of the Tribune. Briefly recapping the story she portrayed herself as an unmarried Christian mother pregnant with a terminally ill child that she later gave birth to, only for the child to die hours later. All the while this was untrue, along with the photo’s she placed on the blog.

After she came to realize that her true identity was about to be exposed she tried to remove the blog, twitter and face book account that she used, apparently all a little to late, because the online community had already discovered just who she was. She has since come clean and admitted to the hoax. She says she apologizes for doing what she did.

Although “B” does go on to share that she really did lose a son shortly after giving birth back in 2005. Her reasoning for starting her blog was intended to help her deal with his loss, as well as to express her anti-abortion views. She mentions it was intended for only a few friends to read, but when she began receiving over 50 comments, she found it addictive that people were interested in reading her writing. Also mentioned was the support, prayers, and yes some cash that was sent on her behalf. It then goes on to say that the stress from it all led her into the hospital. This is all so sad all the way around and after I read over some of the many comments received on the Tribune, there is still even more to this story, than what was mentioned. More on this, here.

Wordless Wednesday

I snapped these photo's while at our trip to Brookfields Zoo! This was from the exhibit they have going on called Dinosaurs Alive. It looked so Jurrasic Park walking through there, they were animated with swinging tails, moving heads, and the sounds of roaring. I can't even recall how many times my little one kept asking me "Mama, is those dinosaurs real?" LOL! I have more photo's from the zoo in my shareapic gallery!

You know its summer when

All the relaxing semi quiet places you normally frequent are over crowded and loud, although summer officially starts on what June 21st, it is officially the summer season as school is out, and so are the families in droves (including my own, lol).

I took the boys to the zoo on Friday and we picked up my mom to tag along with us, dad & my hubby were both at work. I purchased a zoo family membership, so our next visits for a year will be free. We packed the cooler with lunches and headed out. The weather wasn’t too bad it was about 80 degrees out. When we arrived at the zoo the parking lot was jam packed. As some schools in our area are still in, apparently between them and daycare centers it was like a zillion school buses filled with field trippers, therefore, that nice 80 felt more like a scorching 90 in the crowds. The crowds slowly started disseminating later in the afternoon, so we had a wonderful entire day outing at the zoo.

Next up, on Monday I took my 2 boys to get their physicals for next school year out the way early, so afterward we headed to a McDonalds with the R gym for lunch. Yikes! I would take them here sometimes and let them have fun playing around in the R gym, while I do some homework, studying, or just simply reading. Here we go yet again, another crowded parking lot. I circled the lot twice for a parking spot, and almost decided to just go home. I decided to wait around for a few moments to get a park and before I knew it someone tried to steal the park I was waiting for. I’m like geez what is wrong with people these days, did they think I was just sitting there sight seeing or something?


We get inside and the dining area was packed, but luckily we managed to grab a table for us to eat. Afterwards, the boys went and enjoyed themselves at the R gym. I think that is really nice free fun for a McDonalds. Inside the R gym they have a few basketball hoops and air hockey, (this is where you’ll find my oldest) then there’s the 3 story interactive play area with slides, and all sorts of things to climb and tumble on, they have a few games around to play as well, like skateboarding. I had to stand up in there for awhile before I got a seat.


Schools out, the crowds are in and you know its summer when (care to finish this statement if it’s officially summer in your part of the world)?

My Growing Boys

It sure is funny how time passes by. I will be attending the graduation ceremonies with two of my boys this week. They are growing all so fast. My youngest is graduating from kindergarten and he is so excited about starting first grade in the fall. He had an awesome teacher that brought so much creativity and fun into his learning; I couldn’t have wished for him a better teacher. He loves writing and drawing pictures that matches his little stories. He has gone through more than a few doodle pads at homes.

My middle guy isn’t having a ceremony, but he is so proud of himself knowing that he will be entering the junior high this fall. Already he is thinking about what sport teams he want to try out for. He is so athletic and enjoys so many sports, but I think he narrowed it down to football and basketball, leaning towards football as his top choice. He has ADHD, but shows so much determination in whatever he does.

Last but not least, my oldest will be graduating from the eighth grade, going on to high school when classes resume in the fall. This will be quite a change for him as he has special needs, mild autism being one of them. He really is maturing well, and becoming more and more independent, but still my hardest struggles with him right know remains to be practicing good hygiene. He doesn’t like my help as he likes to do everything on his on, but as a growing boy and going through puberty I have to force my help on him. On many occasions even after a shower he would be ready to leave the home smelling like onions, if I didn’t intervene. He is getting better and with time shall do better with this, I know. I am so grateful for the passionate and caring staff that has been working with him as he transitions into high school. He is very into puzzles and has a great sense of humor.

I’m looking forward to this week, I’m so proud of them all! We were all just giggling while looking through some of our older photo albums. They could barely recognize who was who before they started growing so rapidly. Oh the joys of life and parenting!

Deal of the Day

Today’s deal of the day is at Old Navy Store. If you like those flip fops sold at Old Navy you may want to head on over to catch their sale that’s going on today only. Not a spectacular sale but everybody loves a good deal when it comes. Today only Old Navy Store has those colorful flip flops on sale for just $1, 1 buck. I don’t know if there’s a limit to how many you can buy, but of course they have a limited quantity to offer. This was relayed information to me from a friend so don’t sue me if not’s happening at your Old Navy, although I think it applies to them all. You can call your’s to make sure. Old Navy is only a few blocks from me so I plan on going to get some for my family, because I think they are nice and comfy to wear when we frequent the beach. Plus I wear them trough out the summer season and around the house.

American Idol Shocker

Wow, I have to weigh in on the American Idol Finale, so if you haven’t seen it live already this is a spoiler. First, I thought Tuesday night final performances we’re the most boring of all the American Idol seasons, neither Kris nor Adam knocked it out of the park for me. (as Randy says, lol) The song chosen to be their new single written by the new idol judge Kara DioGuardi was not the best song selection to produce a top selling hit off of. (to me)

To the contestants, I would have been more enthused if the finals were between Adam and Danny as in raw vocals vs. raw vocals, not karaoke, as in Kris. Sure Kris is cute and charming, and yes he is talented. He plays the piano, he strums the guitar, but his singing is just mediocre (as Simon says, lol). Seriously though it’s like all his note’s stay the same, his range is very limited, and that bores me. I liked a good three songs he sang all season long, all the others made me yawn terribly. Why was Simon still in his seat after the announcement of him as the winner, or why did Kara say that her selection as his single was too high for him? I still can’t believe he won. Then again yes I do believe it as Popularity does overpower the true meaning of the competition. Being that Kris made it as far as he did I saw it coming, reminds me of another Sanjaya, just a little more talent worthy.

Moving right along, tonight’s season finale was by far the best I’ve seen. I had a great time watching all the fantastic performers and duets. The return of the idols and they all did great. I almost got up to dance when Danny and Lionel Richie performed. Lil Rounds and Queen Latifah blended nice together, but I think Mary J. Blidge would have really hit it off with her. Black Eyed Peas and Fergie did an outstanding job. Kris and Adam we’re nice together singing with Queen. (I liked that) Then I think Kara really humiliated the bikini girl. Was that part of the show or was bikini girl really shocked when Kara came out singing behind her? The award ceremony was nice and humorous!

Now comes the disappoint, Adam didn’t win American Idol. Oh well I bet he’ll out sale Kris by the albums and tour’s. I can’t wait to buy his cd, despite his loss. He tore the roof off with his duet with Kiss and I’m not even a big fan of that style of music, so Adam really drew me in. My boys started doing cartwheels off that performance; I was just looking in awe like alrighty then, (rock fans) rock out, lol. It was a fun performance to watch.

Well, well, well, I guess I will tune it to another American Idols Exclusive, “So You Think You Can Dance.” Its okay, but not a show I like to follow every episode. Till next time American Idol, looking forward to that Adam Lambert cd!!!! Even Kris thought you deserved the title, but rock on!!!!! Even though I found it a boring ending to a superb final night, congrats to Kris Allen the underdog / dark horse and his adoring fans for his win. (see, I'm not a sore looser) ;)

Matt Giraud gets the American Idol save

I love watching American Idol and I’m sure some of you already know this! Well, it always seems to get good once it gets down in the number of contestants. I honestly have to say that the voting so far this season has surprisingly been right on. I have been agreeing with the outcome of the voting so far. Even as I watched tonight, I feel the bottom three, was the bottom three in the competition.

Something newly introduced this season was the judges save. Apparently, after so many great singers were voted off way to early like Chris Daughtry, and Jennifer Hudson. Both of whom are doing their thing in the industry. Speaking of Jennifer Hudson, (Oscar and Grammy winner) she performed on Idol tonight, and she really did look and sound nice. She has lost lots of weight, and her makeup was cute! She overcame a lot with the tragic loss of her loved one’s, and will soon be getting married. I think she was having trouble with her ear piece tonight though, as she kept reaching at her ear.

Back to the save thing, Lil Rounds and Matt Giraud were the bottom two. With two weeks remaining for the judges to use their magical save they chose to use it tonight with Matt,

as Lil was saved by the votes, along with Anoop. It shocked me though; I felt they could have held on to it. The competition is getting fierce and now the pressure is on as two will go next week. I have been a fan of Danny Gokey and Lil Rounds since the auditions, but both of them, in my opinion are just staying the same, with no new sparks, nor surprises. I still look forward to seeing them, because they can sing, darn well!! Just gotta put more personality in their performance to me. My top two favorites are Allison, at 16 years old, major talent. I just love her hair color, not everyone can rock it, but it’s fitting on her. Then come’s the amazingly talented Adam, he had to grow on me, but when he performed and transformed that Smokey Robinson song, he showed another side of him that blew me away, mad raw talent, love him! Even earned a standing ovation from Smokey himself!!

Oh and then there’s Chris, who? Oh Chris, yea I almost forgot about him, him nor Matt stand out at all to me, but I’m no judge. Anoop is alright, he is doing better than he was at first. And that’s my take with the latest on American Idol, and don’t forget to vote your favorite through, if you watch it!! To be continued…..

Spring Break Vacation

We surely a great vacation in itself just escaping the spring snowy weathers her in IL to the hot 80 degree, but nice weather in Florida. Things went smooth sailing and I couldn't have asked for more. Our flight was nice and landed on time, rental van was ready for pick up when we arrived, and the keys to the town home villa we rented were ready for us upon arrival.

We got a standard model Chrysler town and country, which was nice and spacious. The resort we booked with in Kississimme was a good deal for the price and value on a budget. 3 star rating the outside could use some updating but the inside was nice. Driving to everything was a breeze with all the tourist friendly road signs on the highways. Everything was nearby, grocery store and walmart one block up and within 15 minutes of all the parks. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two floors, living room with sleeper sofa, enclosed screened patio, full kitchen with every appliance one can need. From the blender, toaster, coffee pot, skillets, pans, dessert bowls, silverware, and on and on. Three t’v’s total so my boys enjoyed their own TV in their room. I don’t even think hubby nor I watched the one in our bedroom, too tired from all the heat and walking to lay in bed watching TV.

The parks we visited were Seaworld, we all loved the show from Shamu, the killer whale. We didn’t do the whole Walt Disney World Resort of parks, but we did do Magic Kingdom, where we got to take a picture with Mickey and Minnie, which was cute and worth the wait in line. Next up, was Universal Studios and the first ride we rode was the Simpson's, very fun ride. Next day was Universals Island of Adventures, which was just okay and we all thought the same. It is definitely more so for the older crowd as they have several roller coasters for the thrill seekers. My boys did enjoy the Dr. Seuss themed area and rides though, Spiderman was fun too. So, we didn’t spend much time there, but it was included in our 2 for 1 park ticket price, so it was cool. We went on a high speed race late at night to FunTown, and drove the Go Karts, lol! Next up was our visit to Busch Gardens theme park / zoo in Tampa, FL about a hour from Orlando. It was a nice and relaxing day filled with mostly site seeing with the animals, the train ride, and rhino rally tour through the jungle and up close encounters with the animals. We dared not even attempt the crazy and extreme roller coaster’s there. I ride coasters occasionally, but I can also have a great time without them. Especially, when it comes to the extreme one’s. Finally, last but not least we did some shopping. So many different spot’s don’t even ask me to recall them all. I do remember the outlets in Buena Vista, and the Prime Outlet Mall, which was a really nice shopping trip. I wish we had a Victoria Secret outlet near us, I was in there having lot’s of fun, lol.

Time to go home and “oh no, can’t we live here in Florida” was the response from the kids, lol! We had a great time and the favorite park for us by show of hands was Universal Studios. Tired and restless we made it home. Epsom salt, Epsom salt, and more Epsom salt cause the dogs were tired on hubby, and the calf’s of mine were calling for it, lol. A early bed night for the boys did the trick for them, yet we were still recovering. Had a great vacation!!

Two lovely awards for me

I received not one but two awards some time ago, that I've neglected to post. I was awarded these from a fellow blogging friend Andrea over at Mom Writer Me, thanks Andrea! Great blog she has! I appreciate you passing these both on to me, and excuse my lateness in getting these posted. I know I'm bending the rules of receiving these awards a bit, but being as inactive as I've been I would like to pass these on to all my readers. I have so much catching up to do, and I want to thank all my continued readers with both of these. Thanks again Andrea!

The first is for blogs that:


"are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

The second is:



The rules are:

Name 7 things that you love then pass this onto 7 other bloggers.

(No particular order) -

My family
My dog
seafood
shopping
reading
The Wii
vacations :D

At one point I was attempting to showcase all the awards that have been passed on to me in a tab of it's own. Needless to say, I couldn't figure it out lol. I got the awards tab to appear up top on my menu bar, but once clicked it only comes back to my homepage, without an award in site. My hat goes off to so many talented bloggers that just have their blogs laid out to the tee, when I grow up I want to be just like you!!! :)

My scattered thoughts

Hello, me again, still here! :) I just wanted to pop in today with some of my random (scattered) thoughts. One things for sure is that the blogosphere is forever changing. With the bat of an eye it almost seems something new has emerged or something that was once popular has changed. Not quite sure if these things occur for the better or the worst.

I have long lost my popularity ranking with entrecard sine my dropping rate has significantly declined. In fact my profile reads just here for the view, at the most I was once a dedicated dropper with a hint of addiction. I decided not to leave entrecard in it's entirety. Mainly because there are many great blogs on there that I enjoy reading, so why not drop and read with them as time allows. Anyways I logged in today for the first time in a bit and was surprised by the amount of pending ad's awaiting my approval. Surprised because I've been inactive and my ranking is way low. I've just learned of the changes with something on the level of paid ad's or so... I approved quite a few just for many more to appear and noticed my earned credits for accepting ad's didn't increase. Don't know how all this is working and I'm a bit lost with all the changes. Guess I have some updates and announcements that I need to read over as a result of my being away....

What's up with all the spring snow? When we left IL to FL it was snow on the ground and we made it down there sporting tanks and shorts in the gorgeous Florida sun and 80 degree weather. How funny it was when we came back home once again to snow on the ground. So, yes we enjoyed our vacation in Orlando and Tampa. I'll be making another post with more details on our vacation and upload some photo's to share. The vacation was much needed and very much enjoyed, we had a great time.

I also discovered that instead of my page rank going down it actually went up. I have a google page rank of 2 now. Don't know how this works either, but I'll gladly accept this finding!! :D

Spring is in the air

What a beautiful few days we had; nothing like a little sunshine to brighten a day! We have been having some wonderful weather lately as the spring is nearing. Bring on spring break! I surely can’t wait. Although, I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since my last post, I’ll save the excuses as busy life, busy times, and move forward. I’ve caught up with my classes, what a relief and next week is my spring break woohoo! My kids go the week after next and we’re headed to Disney World, yea! I know I deserted the premises, but I hope I haven’t lost and alienated all my readers.

Spring is definitely in the air! I see my tulips starting to come to the surface. I wish I was able to bloom many more different flowers but these thumbs of mines isn’t quite so green. My pc virus is finally cleared away. I had to reformat my hard drive back clean and to its original state out the box. It was a pain, but the pc is back up and running.

On a sadder note, rip to Natasha Richardson. At the age of 45 her beginners ski lessons ended tragically after a fall accident resulting in a fatal head injury, so sad. I remember her most from the movie Parent trap, with Lindsay Lohan. I liked that movie. She was so young, condolences to the family.

Wordless Wednesday

Recovering from a rough week

I’m here all, and thanks to those that gave me a visit or dropped by my blog this week. I had to take some downtime and although I’m still not back up to speed I’m getting there.

Where shall I start? I came down with something and I been sick, I did fairly well though through the winter and tending to the kids when they got sick but it was no escaping me this time, kiddo’s are okay thank goodness other than a small cough from little one, he’s been rigorously taking his asthma treatments. Hubby not feeling too well himself so we been lysoling the place up behind ourselves.

Fell a bit behind in school, I’m supposed to turn in assignments and met with my teacher for a 15 minute session once a week since I’m doing self taught learning courses this semester aside from my Saturday class. My appointment was for this past Monday but I didn’t make it because not only was I sick, but both my parents were as well along with Presidents Day and no school for the boys so I was out of luck being sick myself plus no babysitter. I was already a week behind in this class when it started because my youngest went into the hospital with his asthma the same week this class started up, missing my first meet and orientation and now after this week I’m actually two weeks behind now. I kept moving ahead with my assignments though so hopefully they’ll get accepted.

My bones is sore, my muscles is aching, my ears are ringing and my head is pounding along with congestion, burning eyes and sore throat, can it get any worse?

My computer information class started out as a campus class but I dropped it the first week after reading through the syllabus and realizing I wasn’t going to be able to pull it off by the teachers standards and strict attendance policy of x amount of tardiness or absences equal automatically removal from the class by him. Again I missed this first day of class with my son's Dr. appt. I did stay after class to see just how stern he was and mentioned to him that I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull off the best attendance but that I would still try my best to have all work turned in on time or early to try to pull an A from the class, explained my household situation of raising a child with special needs and not knowing one day from the next, just as I have always done with any employer or educator, I feel me being honest upfront works best as my flexibility is often limited, anyway it didn’t fly with him. No exceptions made for me and I understand I don’t go around expecting special treatment, but at least after being honest and open up front I have always found to work better so in the event of my absent for a longer than usual time frame won't be a major shock and can be expected plus it leaves the door open as to how to go about if I’ll be the right employee or student or team mate for any group assignments etc.. Anywho, no problem I just dropped the class for fear of being dropped to take the class self taught on my own time and pace mostly. Therefore I got a new syllabus and once again a behind schedule start for this class as well. By the way when my son went into the hospital that time away from class would have had me already dropped from the class, so I’m glad I dropped the class.

I have really been catching hell this week trying to get myself caught up before mid terms and fight through this sickness. To make things worse my main pc has been infected with a virus and I’m getting the blue screen of death. I already had firewall, antivirus, spy ware detection and firewall running so how I got infected is beyond me.

Valentines Day went fine nothing major as it’s honestly just another day. We went out for dinner as a family which is the norm because again a sitter for us is slim to none and we have just accepted the fact and adapted to it, so it’s no longer disappointing for us, when we already know what to expect. That was about that we enjoyed the dinner out and break from cooking and doing dishes afterward.

Unfortunately I really like entrecard and I haven’t been active since my main pc caught the virus b/c I need my laptop for school and can’t take the chance of getting a virus on this one. I will try to continue to drop from my favorite’s but since I will no longer be using the toolbar and multiple tabs I don’t know how active I’ll remain, I’ll have to update you with this one, for now whenever I do it will definitely be only from my fav’s and I’ll overlook them and at least make sure I got all my fav’s and if I’m missing anyone I’ll have to add them in. Not to say I in fact got this virus from dropping but I know I have dropped over a few blogs that either mentioned they caught a virus or stopped a malicious script and I do recall seeing a warning about this before in the past as well, but with multiple tabs open I haven’t an honest clue. Other than then the kids and I both play online games occasionally but we’ve been doing this for years with no problem and I do ptc programs but again been doing this for awhile and lately only been using laptop for them, so as far as visiting new site’s I do that most often when ec dropping.

Be careful make sure all securities is updated and running and use them often. I can’t believe I got infected with all I have installed, but so well for that, so yes my pc is currently still down. As for school I still have some catching up to do but I just wanted to say I’m still here haven’t left blogging but I’m tremendously busy with school this semester and it’s not going as easy of a breeze as it once was so I have to dedicate more of my time into studying at the moment, plus kids after school activities twice a week has started back up for this season and somewhere in between this all falls cooking and household duties so yea, I’m pretty swamped right now in general.

Wishing everyone a great weekend and sorry I’ve been inactive with my blog and reading and dropping by yours, but I have to prioritize and don’t ask where my great ability of multi tasking went? Let me check and see if it flew out the window :) Yes, I think it did I guess sooner or later it’ll come back to me ;)

My surprise visit

I hope you enjoy animals and the wildlife if you don’t, then don’t scroll down too much farther because I’ve posted some pictures that I took from my surprise visit with an opossum. I caught the little stinker in my backyard early in the afternoon on a rather sunny winter day.

I have seen them before in my yard but typically it was only during the dark nights, so this was not only the first time I saw one in my yard during the daytime but it also stayed for about a good 30 minutes visit. I was just watching and watching for a few moments. Then, I ran for my camera to snap me some shot’s to show the hubby and boy’s so they wouldn’t think I was going nuts by mentioning that I saw an opossum in the yard in the winter while it was still daylight.

It must have been really hungry and out looking for food. Winter is the hardest season for them because many of them starve to death during the cold freezes making it hard for them to find food. A sight to see it was and it even left us his gross um I’d rather not say but stuff behind. I’m just snapping away until I saw why it sat in one spot so long, and then yea, got it on film, eww.

I got some pretty good shot’s of the wildlife, but it tickled me pink when I thought I was going to get a nicer close up as it kept coming closer towards the home. Yeah right, I zoomed in and ended up startling myself, so that was the end of the picture’s. I haven’t seen anymore from it so I guess it’s gone along it's trail.

What’s in a screen name?

Okay I thought I would make this post in regards to screen names being that I’ve run into rather more trouble leaving comments on some blogs than I would have cared for. I know this is ten times most likely due to the fact that my screen name / user name contains the word money. I know a name of MakingMoney does sound rather spammy I must admit this myself. That’s why I recently started leaving Naye at the bottom of my comments to sound more personal. Sometimes I forget to add it, if anyone knows how to make it always appear when I comment please share that tip with me in the comments here and thanks in advance if you could be of any help with this.

I have tried leaving comments on some blogs that I really enjoy reading or ran upon a post I found quite interesting and wanted to comment, only to waist my little precious time leaving a comment then noticing it wasn’t going through. This is even after going through the verification of me not being a spammer, just to get accused of being one anyways. I think some blogs just automatically throw me out to the dogs as a spam comment leaver and I end up in that number that says this is how many spam comments we have caught to date for your blog, lol.

Oh well what’s a girl to do. The name is here and I’ve been using for a long time now. The history behind the name is that I made it when I first signed up with my blog account. So, I had it long before creating My Random Day here. I made it when I first created my you should know what type of blogs?? Yep, you guessed it making money, lol, although I haven't added anything new in over a month with them besides a few updates.

I've seen some rather unique screen names out there. So, if you wouldn’t mind sharing I would love to know what lead up to the screen name you blog with?

My Top Droppers for January

I would like to give thanks to everyone that frequents my blog, but today’s post is an appreciative one and it goes out to my top droppers. These are my top visitors and readers from Entrecard. Since this is my first post of this nature I'll mention some things about entrecard. If you’re blogging and haven’t given entrecard a try, I’d suggest you check them out it’s a network for bloggers and is designed to encourage new readership for your blog as well as discovering new blog’s to read upon for yourself. Majority of my loyal readers are from entrecard. Big thanks to those that visited my blog the most for the month of January!!!

Lola’s Diner
IWalk,U2
Guilty Pleasures
Celebrity Body Gossip
Viewpoint Publication

Tech Spotlight

Big Boys Have Toys Too

Glue 4 Families

Life’s a Pizza Pie

Christina's Movie Review Mania

Thank you all!!!!!

Home from a short hospital stay

My little slugger (6) had to spend the night in the hospital with his asthma acting up early Monday. We stayed in the ER for almost seven hours before they admitted him and sent him up to a pediatric room. In, addition to the long ER visit they kept him for 24 hour observation with an IV, steroids and breathing treatments. I am so tired who ever gets any rest when you have to stay overnight in a hospital. The patient does I guess, but not too often does the parent. No matter how comfortable they try to make your visit.

He ended up coming down with a virus that rapidly triggered his asthma and the breathing treatments I gave him at home just didn’t cut it for him, plus the virus made him run a high fever. At first they thought he had contracted the flu but it turned out that he didn’t, so it was lots of confusion. The peds dr. came down to see him in the ER before he was admitted and told me they initially thought he had the flu but turns out that he didn’t but it was indeed a virus just not the flu.

I stepped out the room after hubby made it up there so I could go eat and sit with the boy’s in the wait room for a little while. Hubby called my cell phone to tell me they were ready to take him up so we all headed to the ER to escort him up to the room before hubby and the boys went home to get ready for school the next morning. I noticed they had put a nose mask over my son and the transporter was wearing one as well, but no one mentioned why? We make it upstairs and the nurse was fully gowned, masked and gloved up still no one managed to offer at least a mask to my other boys so I’m finding all this to be weird. Now, after the nurse got his weight and we enter into the room she tells me my son will be in isolation and can’t leave the room and that they all will be wearing protective gear so that they don’t come in contact with and catch the influenza (flu). Geez, thanks for mentioning that it would probably be best if my other boys at least put on a mask or left the room to protect themselves as well, nobody wants the flu.

I tell the nurse that I thought he didn’t have the flu and she goes he does he has influenza flu A. I tell her the Dr. came down and told me it was confusion less than 15 minute’s ago so I ask her so are you sure? Meanwhile I told my hubby to head on home as it was getting late and that I’d call to update him. By now I’m getting teed off with all the confusion and instead of the nurse saying well let me double check and make sure, no she just arrogantly carried on that he has flu, so I’m thinking well maybe it’s the Dr that’s confused. It’s great to know that they taking precautions and all but this miss-information was killin me. A short while later the same Dr. comes in to check on my son. He confirms to me that my son doesn’t have the flu and that someone read the test wrong and something about the control test results showed positive but not to worry it’s not flu and that he would make sure everyone is clear. He mentioned how my son didn’t even have any flu symptoms and that he would have been surprised if he did have flu because he hasn’t had any flu cases this year.

Anyways he is doing better now and will be staying home from school for the week, of course.

Politics this week

We welcomed in our First African American President and First Black family into the White house (in part built by slaves). A young and intelligent President Barack Obama (47) First Lady Michelle Obama (45) daughters Malia, Sasha and even Marian Robinson Michelle’s mother to help and be there for her grandchildren. All a day after celebrating the National Holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. I found it impossible to hold back my tears while watching all this take place. Later to find out that Obama was sworn into office again on Jan 21st as a precautionary reason after the mishaps of the tangled wordings while taking the Oath of office.

We gave our farewell’s to George and Laura Bush as they headed back home to Texas after Bush was relieved of his two terms as President of the U.S. On CNN Martin Luther King III spoke that his fathers dream hasn’t been filled just yet, as we still have too many people still living in poverty. Caroline Kennedy dropped out of the run for the vacant New York Senate seat previously occupied by Hillary Clinton who is serving as our current United States Secretary of State under President Obama. Ted Kennedy was released from the hospital after suffering a seizure at the inaugural luncheon for Barack Obama. There are talks of Sarah Palin looking to pick up a multi million dollar book deal and that Democratic Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibran will be chosen to replace Clinton in the Senate.

On another note I published my first written article outside of blogging so if you could so kindly give it a view I would really appreciate that. America Welcomes Obama

I picked up Guitar Hero for $39.99 this weekend!!!!

Woo hoo can somebody say great deal! I absolutely love to shop around this time of year. Especially the clearance and bargains not that I’m a cheap person or maybe I am to an extent, but I most definitely love to grab me something that I consider a bargain to me versus paying regular price for something that isn’t on sale. So, I have a small habit of always checking out what’s been newly marked down in a store when time allows and what better time of year is this than right now with all the end of Holidays clearance sales and the semi annual sales where you can really rack up on some great deals.

I know you may be wondering by now where on earth did I manage to pick up guitar hero for $39.99? Well, it was at Meijers, if you never heard of Meijers it would put you in the mind of a Super Wal-Mart, Super Kmart and Super Target type of store which I call a one stop shop where you can pick up item’s like clothing and groceries all in one store. No, it wasn’t the newest guitar hero world tour. Though my guess is that this is the reason why they had the older version of Aerosmith marked down.

Well we never played the Aerosmith version of guitar hero which is currently priced at 79.99 in Wal-Mart right now, so we are just fine playing it even though they have a newer version out. I got the Wii version but they also had the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version on sale for $39.99 as well, this is the game plus the controller. The extra guitar’s which are normally priced at $39.99 for one was actually marked down for $9.99 so of course I picked up an extra one for a funner 2 player mode. Target is currently offering this bundle right now for the Wii at $149 for the bundle of 1 game plus 2 guitar controllers and I purchased the same thing at Meijers for $49.99 that’s a $100 saving, yippee!! Now that Rocks doesn’t it?

Teen killed mother over Halo game found guilty

An Ohio teen Daniel Petric who is now 17 kill’s mom and shot father after taking away his Halo 3 game that he snuck out and bought on his own was tried as an adult and found guilty. The judge dismissed the plea of insanity that the teen was addicted to the video game and didn’t think death was real or thought his parents wouldn‘t be dead forever, what? How old was he? He could be facing life in prison without the possibility of parole for this of which happened back in Oct of 2007.

The boy had also been homebound for a year after a snowboarding injury that resulted in a severe staph infection leaving him with nothing to do but play video games and watch TV. Apparently he played the video game for hours at a friend’s house but his father refused to let him play it due to the violence of the game and confiscated it from his son.

The father took the game away and stored it in a lockbox in his closet next to his 9mm handgun in which the teen later got the key and removed both, then shooting both parents in the head of which only the father a minister survived and he believed he survived only because the older sister and her husband arrived at the home shortly after the incident. The teen told his sister she couldn’t come in because mom and dad had a big argument. After hearing the moaning from inside they pushed their way inside the home and made the call to 9-1-1. Get this though he actually tried placing the gun in his dad’s hand after all was done alleged to make this case appear as a murder - suicide, prosecutor’s mentioned. Doesn’t sound like much insanity there to me or does it? He asked his parents to close their eyes because he had a surprise for them and then fired. When he fled the scene he left only with one item and yes it was that Halo 3 game.

How awfully sad is this and I wonder what on earth was going on in the head of this teen while he just opened fire on his parents because a video game was taken away from him, that’s deep and disturbing.

Back in the Swing of things

I made a post a little while back revolving more around a random day in my life pertaining to me juggling family while currently wrapping up classes of my own. I was nervous when I first started back with school because my whole reason of being a stay at home mom right now is because the difficulties I faced while working and raising a child with disabilities and not knowing when to expect a great day or a stressful day became overwhelming. When I left my job I noticed how easier it made life for all of us and I was worried that leaving the home once again not to work but to go to school would throw everything out of wack but with effective scheduling and time management it didn’t and how relieved am I to say that (fingers crossed once again). It’s now time for me to get back in the swing of things as my winter break is over and my classes are back in this week.

I even decided to pick up a Saturday class this semester. What was I thinking taking a Saturday class in the midst of snow storm season, which means I have to wake up extra early on a weekend morning to get out the door allow myself enough time to cruise through the treacherous weather and make it to class on time, super! I figure allowing hubby and the boys to have Saturday morning all to themselves would leave me with more freed up time throughout the week to do my assignments and study while the house is empty with everyone else either in school or at work, so I hope my little schedule of classes work’s well this way for us all.

I ended my last semester with a 4.0 GPA so it would be great if I can remain at that once again after this semester end’s so wish me luck, here I go again!!!!

The return of Sanjaya and American Idol

It’s time for American Idol once again, the premier of season 8 starts January 13th. I been watching Idol since season 2 and although it hasn’t been as good as it used to be I will still be tuning in to see what this season has in store. I see they added a new Judge singer Kara DioGuardi to the panel. Voting begins February 17th. If you watched Idol did you ever call in to vote or did you just tune in to view it?

It’s also the return of Sanjaya, not back to idol but he is back with his debut 5 song EP entitled Dancing to the Music In My Head. You have to remember Sanjaya from season 6 even if you never watched the show as popular as he was. He was the most talked about idol contestant of the season known for his big hair do’s, personality and the high negative criticism that he drew from the Judges especially Simon Cowell for his lack of singing talent compared to the other contestant’s. His EP come’s out January 20th and he even has a memoir coming out that same day as well Memoirs of the People's Idol about how American Idol has changed his life and what went on behind the scenes. Well good luck to Sanjaya with all this and let the season begin!!!

Honest scrap award

I have to say that I have really been enjoying the blogosphere. Passing on this award makes my almost 50th post so my blog is still rather new but meanwhile I have managed to read some really nice blogs, somehow got myself a tiny little old 1 in google page rank, lol met some cool blogging buddies (you know who you are) and received a 3rd award in such little time. I really do appreciate receiving this Oscar award and I would like to thank Monica’s Blog for passing this on to me. She has a nice blog you may enjoy to read as well, so check her out.



Honest Scrap Award Rules

When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!

Okay, here are 10 things about me:

1. I don’t watch much TV but I do watch reality TV often. 2. I love seafood and crave it often lobster, crab, shrimp and fresh water fish oh my. 3. I own a bully breed and think BSL (breed specific legislation) need's to revised, because it's crappy right now. 4. I love taking family road trips 5. I can’t sing but think Karaoke is much fun. 6. I would probably go nut’s without listening to music daily 7. I like to shoot pool 8. I hate make up and rarely ever wears any. 9. I don’t mind cutting the lawn, on cool days that is :) 10. I like trying new recipes and love to cook big Holiday meals with my hubby, boys and extended family all of which I love dearly.

Now comes my turn to pass this on to 7 bloggers:

I would actually like to pass this award on to a new blogger that likes to speak her mind and always has, not to butter her up or nothing but I just recently found out that she has been a subscriber to my blog for sometime now without my knowledge until she jumped in with a comment here out the blue. I guess I finally sparked some interest out of her. I been mentioned my new little blog to her (my friend) and told her she should give blogging a try one day, so without further adieu drum roll please (just kidding) I would like to pass this award on to my friend Nique (she probably gonna get me for putting her front and center like this lol) anyways her blog is super duper new so stop by and pay her new blog a visit, she says she feels like she’s talking to herself, I told her well duh you are at the moment but in time you will get readers (right isn't that how it goes?) so just keep posting when you have the chance, okay okay here she is:

Mental Elevation

Up next are some blogs that I have been enjoying to read and some are frequent reader’s and commenter's of mine’s as well, so also check out these nice blogs that I’m passing this award on to:

Philly Today
Random and musings of what’s going on around Philly

Markfe
Personal and random with some nice garden photos

Stacy's Random Thoughts
Personal and random with a nice sense of humor too

Purple Cashmere
Personal, life experiences and random musings as well

Positive Men
Random musings on positive issue’s

In the Eye's of the Beholder
Personal and some nice random musings as well

Okay thanks for the award and check out these great blogs, if you haven’t already!!!

Obama acceptance speech virus

As we near the days of getting closer to seeing the first African American get sworn into office at the inauguration on Jan 20th please be aware as email viruses will be more and more on the rise. I received an email warning about this and it has been verified by snopes otherwise I wouldn’t even be mentioning it here.

Don’t open any emails with the subject line of:
Obama acceptance speech
Amazing speech by Obama
World welcomes Obama’s win

These messages may appear to be from legitimate news sources and will try to trick you into clicking on a link that will lead you to a malicious website, or infected link with a Trojan horse attachment to make attempts to try and steal your logins and passwords.

If you see any email of this sort delete it immediately. I don’t open emails of these types of headlines anyways because they always make me skeptical. I do get emails from Barack Obama’s website from time to time though. Just thought I would mention this as I find it to be very important as I know people will be more and more excited and curious to hear, read, watch Obama’s acceptance speech, be careful of the links you click and to be safe don’t open any emails of this sort, just delete them.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/obamaspeech.asp