A Bookworm’s Diary is giving away a $50 Gift Certificate to Bamboosa, a bamboo clothing store.

Visit A Bookworm’s Diary to enter.

We’re pretty sure Abby loves blueberries….

I can’t remember the last time I wore a swimsuit.

Some things are just simply better left to the imagination…wait…no…I take that back, I don’t want anyone even imagining me in a swimsuit. I’m just asking for laughter, ridicule and humiliation if I allow you to imagine that.

Having babies robbed me of brain cells and left me with something far less desirable and very unwelcome!

I know some women aren’t willing to let gravity and other things affect their fun, but I am just too modest to even consider being seen in anything more revealing than shorts and a t-shirt.

This is about the extent of what I let people see at the beach:

All things considered, even if I didn’t have all this extra baby weight to lose, I still don’t think I’d opt for a traditional swimsuit. Some things really should just be covered up once you reach a certain age. Unless I lose the weight and miraculously get transformed into a supermodel, then maybe….

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by BOCA.

In case you missed it, we recently had a giveaway for a SwaddleMe Infant Wrap.

We had over 80 entries to the contest including the extra entries people earned by signing up for the Hip Mama’s Place Message Board.

We would like to thank everyone for participating. We really enjoyed reading who you would use/give the SwaddleMe for and we wish we had enough for everyone.

Without further delay, the winner is:

Comment #77 Tammy Kennedy!

Congratulations Tammy!

She indicated she will be giving the SwaddleMe to her son and daughter-in-law for their first child.

Please keep watching for more giveaways from us.

We currently have one running GIVEAWAY - Educational Software from Weekly Reader that will have 2 winners!

Also, our upcoming contests will include:

• $10 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway
• $10 Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway
• A Dove Shower set
• A Thomas Kinkade Bear
• and much more….

This weeks blurb is about:

Days like These!.

Days like These is the personal blog of Tanyetta, an awesome, honest, stay at home mom and military wife (you rock!). She has a great wit, a passion for life and a tendency to tell it like it is.

Go check out Days like These!, leave a comment or 1,000 and get to know Tanyetta. I promise you’ll like her!

My daughter, from the day she was born, has had trouble dealing with the environment around her. From being allergic to a protein in cow’s milk to skin rashes she seems to have troubles and sensitivities to everything she eats and touches.

I asked her doctor why kids now-a-days seem to have more allergies than they used to and his opinion was that we are being too careful. That we are too concerned about cleanliness and do not let a child’s body get exposed to some of the things that would help make it stronger.

I’m not sure what the reason is but it got me to thinking. We currently have an air purifier in her room that we leave on all the time. It’s mainly in there because she is such a light sleeper and the white noise drowns out the noises of the house. But I wonder…are we doing her a disservice?

I love my air purifier, and I know my Mom loves the one she has as well. It really seems to remove odors from the air especially when you have pets. Here’s an example of one: fresh air purifier and ecoquest international that explains what air purifiers do.

But still, am I helping Abby in the long run, leaving it in her room?

Our family is expecting 2 new additions, 1 this coming fall and 1 this coming winter. We don’t have a huge family, even when combining my family and my in-laws. In fact, our 2 kids, and my 12 year old nephew have been the only kids. I’m sure they liked the attention lavished on them from all the adults, but I can’t wait for the Christmas gatherings in years to come!

Anyhow, with the 2 new impending arrivals, and our decision that 2 kids is enough for us, especially at the elderly age of 35, I’m very excited to meet these 2 new people. Aside from wondering if they are having a boy or a girl (or both…each…hehe….) I am intrigued by what they might name them. I think especially because we have decided not to have any more, so I will not get any further opportunities to brand a child with a name that will possibly shape their entire future.

Baby Zone, who have a COOL new website design, has a tool for baby names and I was checking out the names for baby boys the other day. Jacob was still #1 for last year in the top 100 baby names. Abigail was #8 for last year so we’ve managed to give both our children names that 16 other kids in their class will have. It’s better than naming them after a shoe or a fruit though….(although I personally think the name Apple is really cute).

So, I’m curious, where do your kids names rank, if at all, in the top 100 baby names?

Mom marketing is quickly becoming one of the most popular types of product marketing around. I am pretty sure we have blogging to thank for the vast numbers of companies that are targeting moms in their advertising. This is partly because moms, as always, have generally influenced purchasing decisions for their whole family, but also in major part to the “word of mouth” created by bloggers reviewing products.

You don’t have to be a blogger, however, to benefit from this. Not only are free paid survey companies (see our how-to series to learn how to participate: Free Paid Survey guide) offering more and higher paying surveys to moms, mom bloggers the web over are holding giveaways that are often as easy to enter as leaving a comment on a post.

If you are mom, don’t miss out on these opportunities to get paid for your valuable opinion or to just win free stuff by being in the right place at the right time. Not only do we all love free stuff, most of us are being hit hard by rising prices on gas and groceries. Every little bit helps!

An Ordinary Life is having a giveaway that involves food!

Brownies!

If you aren’t interested you may need professional help.

You can enter by going to the contest post: Yummy Mummy: Brownie Giveaway. The winner will be chosen on Tuesday.

If you don’t want them, go enter and then send them to me!

We are in the midst of our weekly How-To Series about how to participate in FREE PAID SURVEYS. There have been other detailed articles written so far which you can find on our Free Paid Survey How-To Series page.

BzzAgent: Word of Mouth Marketing
BzzAgent is not your typical free paid survey site. You do not simply take a survey, submit it and receive points. In many ways, BzzAgent is better, a lot better, but you have to be willing to participate.

What is BzzAgent?
BzzAgent is “the leading word-of-mouth media network.”

What is word-of-mouth (WOM)?
Pretty much what it sounds like, consumers spreading the word about products or services (good, bad or indifferent) by “mouth” which could actually take on other forms such as blogs, reviews, etc.
Continue Reading……

(this may not be as funny to most people upon first glance, but I actually know this man…and if you knew what he did for a living (he’s a tough guy) you’d probably laugh yourself right off your chair)