I call myself a “recovering former working mom” because I stopped working to stay at home with my kids last November. Before that I worked full time as an Architect, specifically a school architect. Most of the schools I worked on were in low and middle class towns and every dime mattered.

There were some state and federal programs in place to help these schools and one program that helps get technology and computers into the classrooms is called E-Rate. E-Rate is administered under the direction of the FCC and makes discounts available to eligible schools and libraries for telecommunication services, Internet access, and internal connections. This includes DSL service, wiring, and even VoIP Services.

Since quitting my job I have rarely entertained the idea of going back, but every once in awhile when I hear about things such as E-Rate that remind me of my former career, I reminisce. But only for a minute….

Almost Frugal is hosting The Great Kid Giveaway. And no, silly, they are not giving away kids, but STUFF for kids. You need stuff for your kids, they told me so! Go check it out and enter to win one the prizes they are giving away!

Also:
Host - A Bookworm’s Diary
Direct link - Shoo Shoes - Review and Giveaway
Prize - A pair of shoes for TWO lucky readers!
Deadline - Midnight CST, August 4th.

Host - A Book Blogger’s Diary
Direct link - Jasmin Rosemberg Giveaway
Prize - Win a copy of “How the Other Half Hamptons” by Jasmin Rosemberg
Deadline - Midnight CST on July 31, 2008

Host - A Bookworm’s Diary
Direct link - Joy is the Greatest Gift - Review and Giveaway
Prize - A copy of Joy is the Greatest Gift to one lucky winner.
Deadline - Midnight CST on July 31, 2008

How cool is that? I think they were nuts to go back, but it is so neat that Christian still loves them!

I thought all the tears were dried up, but that’s not the case, so this will be short.  Tyler died at home, early Saturday morning.  For the first time in 17 years, we don’t have a cat.

We were told that the kitten was a male, so we named it Tyler.  The vet laughingly informed us that it was a girl.

 I always loved this picture; the three of them crammed into one chair, Mackenzie’s leg thrown over Ty.  Tyler and Dylan (the black & white) were litter mates.

A little over a month ago I announced that I had won $50 worth of Smashbox cosmetics from Hybrid Mom in this post: You are NOT Going to Believe This!

As you may have noticed by now I am the last person in the world to have a need for cosmetics. Chap-Stick is about the extent of my daily primping.

This is good news for someone else, because I have decided to give the cosmetics away to one lucky reader. Well, actually this time luck will have nothing to do with it. Instead of having a random drawing, YOU will have the control, the POWER to win.
Continue Reading……

Doodlebugz Crayola is a line of unique personalized products by Princess Linens that come with genuine Crayola products.

About Princess Linens:
From their site:

We offer personalized baby gifts, monogrammed baby clothes, john johns, rompers, jumpers and dresses, baby shower gifts, new baby gifts, sibling gifts and toys. We also specialize in personalized toddler gifts and sibling gifts, baby scrubs, infant scrubs, toddler scrubs, Doodlebugz Crayola crayon keepers, doodlebags, crayon aprons, and crayon toolbelts, chef apron and hat set and chalkboard placemats.

They have a wide range of adorable and unique gifts, clothing and cool accessories that any kid and parent would love. One of their product lines is called the Doodlebugz Crayola Collection, and Princess Linens was so nice to send my son a Crayon Dufflebag to try out from that collection.
Continue Reading……

As it gets ever closer to my 36th birthday, and I get ever closer to 40 (seriously?) I have realized that I’m not quite as sharp as I used to be. I used to be able to hear a conversation from 2 rooms away, and see the TV from the couch without wearing glasses. While my sense of smell seems to grow even sharper with each passing day (hardly a gift when you have kids and a dog) my other senses are just not as good.

Lately I’ve been noticing that I can’t always make out things they say on TV even after rewinding it with the DVR about 14 times. Even with the volume turned up sometimes I just can’t make out what they are saying. I may have to resort to turning on the closed captioning on my TV, or getting a set of those amplifying hearing aids. Have you seen those commercials where they can hear conversations from like a block away? Hey, those would be fun just to have!

Back in April I posted about my husband’s car accident in a post titled: A man and his truck…..

Well, it turns out that the insurance did total it out and gave us a nice amount for it, although we were not thrilled with having to buy another truck. We bought that truck brand new and it really didn’t have too many problems.

At one point, we did explore the possibility of buying the truck back from them and paying to have it repaired from the insurance money but we were concerned that it may never run quite right and cause additional problems down the road.

I didn’t realize it, but apparently you can get additional money in the case of a car accident, especially where you are not at fault under something called “diminished value.” The fact that a vehicle has been damaged and repaired has a negative effect on its value and you can re-coup this difference in all 50 states. I don’t need this info now but it is certainly good to know in case it ever happens again.

Jake was talking on the phone to his Grandma…

Obviously I only got Jake’s side of the conversation.

“Did you know I got a car from the garage sale?”

“I got a John Deere gator.”

“Yeah and did you know Max went to sleep and will never wake up?”

“Yeah and did you know he’s with God?”

“And they are all playing together?”

“What dog did you have when I was growing in mommy’s belly?”

“Ok I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ok, I’ll talk to you tomorrow when you go downstairs and find your pool.”

Awesome!

We recently ran a contest in this post: Cookies by Design Cookie Bouquets - a review and giveaway and had a huge response.

Unfortunately I can only give 1 prize, I’d seriously love to give one to everyone who entered.

After adding in all the additional entries, which took me over and hour and me a grand total of 616 actual entries I used Random.org to pull the winning number (certain numbers would have been thrown out if they corresponded with one of the few “non-qualifying” entries).

Are you ready?

The winner is #19 Mary Jenkins!

Congratulations Mary!

In case you are interested, the next three numbers in the sequence were: 409, 51 and 167.

I want to thank everyone who entered and all the hard work everyone put in to earning extra entries.

Stay tuned, we’ve got some more great giveaways coming up soon. I promise you won’t be disappointed! Make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our updates so you don’t miss them!

There is a new site especially for mom bloggers that is launching on August 1st with almost $4,000 worth of prizes. The site is MomDot.com and is seriously going to be THE place for mom bloggers to network and list their blogs.

I strongly urge all the mom bloggers out there to get your listing up at MomDot, and register for the forum too, to network, chat with and learn from other mom bloggers.

Go check out MomDot and what they have to offer, enter whatever giveaway they currently have running and post on your own blog about the grand opening on August 1st. Seriously, this is ground floor. Like buying Microsoft stock in the 80’s.

Plus, their button is fantastic!

This weeks blurb is about:

Pamibe.

Pamibe is written by Pam who has been blogging for almost 7 years. She writes about “family life, politics, religion and current events” and is always interesting or funny. One of my favorite features that Pam does is her new current hobby of sending her dog Bree to locales all around the world using Photoshop. Pam doesn’t hold back. You can be sure of honesty combined with great stories, interesting news and events and awesome pictures of Bree.

Go check out Pamibe and met Bree and Pam. I know you’ll be as anxious as I am to see just where she will travel next!