Looking at the Sky on Friday - 19

For more info on this fun meme, click the image.

Jeffrey and I stopped at Home Depot the other night to look at deck furniture.  The ‘boys’ are building a deck, we need deck furniture - the same that that if we were going to start a cattle ranch we’d need cattle supplies.  I had to take a picture (or 2) of the sky before we went in.

and we did find some furniture that we like.

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

Send a Gift with a Text

It seems like everyone has a cell phone these days, and people are using them for more and more things. Our phones all work as phones, digital cameras, and MP3 music players. Some phones have complete internet access and full keyboards - small keyboards, yes, but they're still keyboards. One of our friends has the cutest little fold up keyboard that attaches to his phone!

Anyway, with all the things cell phones can do nowadays and especially since most people are never far from their phones, I'm not surprised that there's a way to Send And Receive Real Gifts on teh cell phone . (sponsored link - cool idea - misspelling not my fault) A text message that's a gift - it was only a matter of time before someone came up with that. This might even be another one of those ideas that leaves me wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Win One of 5 Blu Prizes

Here's a contest with some great prizes! It comes to you from the BluFrog Healthy Energy drink people, and you can win one of 5 Blu prizes. Choose from a gaming package, a music festival in Chicago, New Years in New York, a stock car driving experience in Orlando, or the winter X Games in Aspen. Wow! Just reading about all the prizes is pretty energizing, and I haven't even tried the drink. Note: if the people from BluFrog are inclined to send me some to try, I'd be happy to. :)

To enter, you just need to leave a comment letting them know which prize you would like to win and why. I am having a problem deciding between the New York package, the Orlando one, or the trip to Aspen. I'd love to get that helicopter ride over New York City, so I'm leaning toward that one. Cory and I just went to New York at the end of March, and it really would be fun to go back. You just can't see everything in 3 days. Then again, I love watching the X Games (I bet some of those athletes drink BluFrog because they have crazy energy!) and I've never been to Aspen, so that one would be great. I'm not so sure about the whole Richard Petty Driving Experience that the Orlando prize is about, but I know someone who lives in Orlando! And I bet Jeffrey would have a great time driving those cars.

It's a tough choice, isn't it? I guess I better decide because, in addition to choosing and commenting, there are two additional ways to enter - Twitter Tweet and Blog Post - for a total of 3 entries per person. I'm hoping that, even though this is a sponsored post, that it'll count. So, eenie, meenie, miney, moe... I choose Xtreme Blu in Aspen.

How about you? What's your choice? Comment, Tweet, and blog to win by 11:59 p.m. EST on July 17, 2009.

Receipt Surveys

Do you fill out those surveys you get when you check out at the store? It seems everywhere you go, they're asking for feedback, and if you fill out their survey withing 48 hours you'll be entered into a drawing for a gift card or something. Usually I ignore them, or just plain forget about them until my time is up, but we got one last week that I thought was worth the time. Jeffrey and I went to the mall and had dinner at the food court. I got this Szechuan chicken that was actually hot and spicy (Yay!) - so I needed some milk. Jeffrey went to Arby's and got me a milk - 70¢ for a little carton of milk is pretty ridiculous, but it was good. On the back of the receipt was an invitation to fill out a survey, not for a chance to get something, but for an actual code to get a FREE Beef & Cheddar sandwich. So, Jeffrey tried to go online and fill out the survey, and was told that that location was no longer accepting surveys. Then he tried calling the number to actually talk to someone, and they hung up on him! Talk about rude - they ask for feedback, he wants to give it to them and get the free sandwich they offered, only to find out they aren't taking feedback. Why did they even ask/offer in the first place? Very frustrating!

I did just complete a survey for Sears, even after the frustration with Arby's. Jeffrey and I were at the mall in the first place to see if we could find him some dress pants, because he needed them, and because Sears has that promotion going on - if you buy $50 or more of mens pants, jeans, breeches, you get a $50 Sears card to spend on other mens apparel. So we found him 2 pairs of pants on clearance for $24.99, which of course only added up to $49.98 and didn't quite hit that $50 mark, so we had to find something else too. Luckily they had some light black jeans on clearance for $10, exactly what Cory has been looking for - so we grabbed those. Yes, over $50 in clearance pants and jeans, and they qualified for the promotion! I mailed my rebate yesterday. And today I filled out their survey, because they actually gave me 7 days to get to it, and we could win a $4000 Sears gift card. I could buy a lot at Sears for $4000.

I guess it's all about the incentive.

Chocolate is Calling

There seems to be a theme to facebook status updates from some of my friends:

" I could give up chocolate but I'm not a quitter..."
"Chocolate: luscious, lumpy. load of love...... Man cannot live on chocolate alone; but woman sure can.... ;-)"
" bad sweet tooth, bad bad bad! MMMM peanut butter on spoon, dipped in chocolate chips..."

OK, admittedly those are only from a couple people, but those are the updates I noticed. Now I have this urge to go find something chocolate...

Luckily, that urge doesn't strike me all that often or I might need diet pills. See what a bad influence you ladies are on me?

Speaking of chocolate, don't forget to claim yours through the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act. (it's a Friday thing)

Name the Firefly and Win a Scholarship

Both my babies were breast-fed, almost exclusively. I bought some formula once or twice, just to have for those occasions when I might have to be away from the baby or something, but mostly we didn't use it. For us, breast feeding was the right thing to do. Breast milk is best and contains everything a baby needs, all the nutrients, etc. Besides, it's a lot simpler - no washing and preparing bottles, mixing formula, and making sure it is the right temperature for your baby. I'm just guessing at that, since I never actually did it, but it does look like a lot of trouble - not that my babies wouldn't have been worth it if I'd had to do that. I did have to express breast milk while I was at work so Beth would have it during the day while she was at the babysitter's, so I suppose I went to a little trouble. Breast feeding is also a lot cheaper than buying formula. I haven't checked prices recently, but it seemed pretty expensive even 18 years ago.

I know breastfeeding doesn't work for everyone, for various reasons, and moms who need to supplement breast milk with formula, or replace it altogether, care just as much for their babies as moms who breastfeed. I'm sure they look for a formula that is as close to breast milk as they can get, that contains all the nutrients baby needs. The Comforts for Baby store brand found at Kroger owned stores has the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy baby as well as lipids associated with mental and visual development, lactose and choline and more. It contains all the essential ingredients that must be in infant formula as dictated by the FDA and required by the Infant Formula Act. I never had to think about any of that because I was giving my babies breast milk. Also, because Comforts for Baby is a store brand, it's more affordable than the name brands, but you're not giving up quality just to save a little money.

Right now Comforts for Baby is running a contest to name their mascot, a cute little firefly. The winner gets a $10,000 scholarship. I'm horrible at coming up with names, so the best I could think of was Sparky, or Ferdinand - but those aren't very cute and definitely not original. Hopefully you can do better and win that scholarship for your little one. You have until July 31 to enter, so start thinking.

A Question of Terms

Speaking of graduation (see last post), we all took our cameras to try and get some good pictures of the momentous occasion. My dad took his new little camcorder to get video of the whole thing. I was telling someone today that he video taped it, but that can't be right anymore - there's no tape! These new digital camcorders record right onto a memory card.

So, the question is - what's the correct term for it nowadays if video taping isn't right?

Beth Graduates this Weekend

Beth is graduating from high school on Sunday. Yes, she's actually been out of school for a whole semester, but this weekend is the actual graduation ceremony, and she's graduating with her class. We didn't send out any party invitations but we are having a few people over tomorrow, grilling some chicken, etc. to celebrate. Her grandparents are even here from Kentucky.

I am having a hard time believing that one of my kids can possibly be old enough to graduate from high school. Where does the time go?

Beth just got home from graduation practice and brought home an envelope from her 4th grade teacher. There were some pictures from 4th grade, something Beth had written about what she liked, who her friends were, what she wanted to do in the future, etc. It was interesting to read and see how things had changed. It was really a neat thing to get - and she was so little back then!

I wonder what the next 8 years will bring...

(Why am I ready to cry as I post this?)

The Case of the Missing Backgrounds

Twitter stole my background again! I'm not sure why I keep having problems with this. A while back I didn't have a background at all - Twitter ate it and wouldn't let me upload a new one. After a few days of messing around, I finally got one uploaded, and it worked for quite a while. But that one's gone now, and the original one that Twitter ate is back again. Again. The same thing happened last week, except that time I tried to use a background from twitterbackgrounds.com. The only problem with that was that Twitter wouldn't cooperate. My colors changed, but the background didn't show up. After a little messing around, my other background showed up again. But now it's gone again. Did you follow that?

1. Twitter ate background 1
2. After much messing around, I finally managed to upload background 2
3. Last week background 2 disappeared and background 1 magically showed up again
4. I tried to use a new background (background 3) which never showed up, but suddenly background 2 came back - again magically
5. Today, background 1 is back again

Is Twitter trying to tell me something? This makes just as much sense to me as Outer Banks foreclosures.

How Was Your Weekend?

I finally got the chance to sit down and catch up a little bit. I haven't gotten to any blogs yet, but I did go through everybody's status updates on Facebook, and checked in on Twitter to see what was going on. It's Monday, and I'm doing laundry, washing dishes, changing sheets, trying to get caught up from the weekend - that doesn't leave a lot of time for hanging out on the computer. Anyone want to come do all that other stuff for me so I can catch up on my blog reading, actually post a tweet of my own or two, and find some Shop NBC Promo Codes? Oh, and I need to get my house straightened up and cleaned because my parents are coming to visit starting Wednesday evening. I wouldn't want my mom to think I don't keep my house clean.

We had a good weekend - church on the Sabbath and then again Sunday for Pentecost. We had some good discussions and good food. I wouldn't want to do it every weekend, but it's nice to have that extra time every once in a while. It was really nice of God to give us Holy Days throughout the year. Sad that so many people don't know about them, though.

Beth and Tim got back safely from Florida Sunday evening. Part of the reason I have this blog is to try and keep track of the things that are going on in life, and I think I forgot to even mention that they left. Thankfully, their trip was very uneventful - especially comparing it to last year's flight when they spent over 4 hours sitting in the plane on the runway. They managed to stay dry, too - a great feat since they went to Daytona while Daytona was getting all that rain, over 20 inches in a few days. Anyway, it's nice to have Beth back - I think she even missed us a little.

Next Sunday, we're going to her high school graduation.

-- one of the links in this post was sponsored. Can you guess which one? :P