Win Flash Drives for Your School

With so much emphasis on technology in the schools these days, it makes sense for every student to have their own flash drive. A lot of the school work is done on computers, and it's often hard to transfer that work between the school computers and the home computer, especially with so many websites blocked for 'security purposes' or to keep the kids from wasting time when they are supposed to be working. When you need to email your files to yourself so that you can work on them at home, and you cannot access your email, that can be a problem. And that's when the flash drive comes in very handy.

Here's a school fundraiser I hadn't heard of - selling school-branded personalized flash drives. So many fundraisers try to sell people things they don't need, but these the students and teachers can actually use. The way it works is, the school registers with Pexagon. Then Pexagon supplies the school with a number of gift cards. Students, teachers, and parents buy the gift cards, which they redeem on the website, and the personalized flash drives are shipped directly to the home - no tax and no shipping. The school then returns all unsold gift cards to Pexagon - so there's no getting caught with something you can't sell, like these boxes of candy bars I have sitting in my basement that the band students are not selling. The flash drives come in sizes from 512MB to 4GB, in 14 colors, and with free laser engraving.

If schools sign up by June 30, 2008 and incorporate the fundraiser into their back to school supply lists or mailings, the profit on each and every flash drive is 30% - 10% more than the usual share. You can also register to Win 1,000 Personalized Flash Drives for Your School! Anyone can sign up, but the flash drives will only be given to a school and not an individual. In addition to the 1000 flash drives grand prize, Pexagon will be giving away 20 gift cards each week. You can register as often as you want, and the winners will be chosen randomly every week. I'm thinking 1000 flash drives ought to about cover all the students in our high school.

5 Kind Things

I was tagged for five kind things by Liz @ Pink Lemonade of Life. Yes, I know, it was a while ago. I told you I'm bad at keeping up with these things. Anyway:

Here are the rules:

• List five kind things you do for yourself. List five kind things you do for your family (I changed it just a smidge) and List five kind things you have done for a stranger


• Tag five more people.

So, here goes:

Five kind things I have done for myself:

1. I started walking every morning when Cory was a baby. That means I've been walking 2 miles every week day for 15 years.
   
2. I let myself take time out to read.
   
3. I bought dark chocolate.
   
4. I got the digital camera with the 12x optical zoom.
5. I met all kinds of great people on the Internet. Does that count? Never mind. It's my blog, and it counts if I say it does.

Five kind things I have done for my family:

1. I iron the shirts! and do the laundry. Yes, I know, it sounds like it's my job, but I could make them do it themselves. Maybe I even should.
   
2. I let Beth bring home a kitten, even though I never wanted another animal in the house. Shhh.... don't tell anyone I actually like this cat. She's a sweetie.
   
3. I've made Jeffrey his favorite chocolate pie a few times since we've been married. He'd say I should have made it more, but he really appreciates it when I do make it. If I made it too much, he might not appreciate it as much, and he'd probably have even more weight to lose.
   
4. I took the kids to the beach at least once a week in the summer because I remembered how much that meant to me when I was a kid. Now they're not so interested, and I'm sad.
   
5. I started taking the kids to the library every week when they were little. I think, if at all possible, all kids should get to go to the library, for books and reading programs and fun.

Image from WikipediaFive kind things I have done for strangers:

1. I gave a lady one of my coupons for Papa Murphy's so she could get a free pizza.
   
2. Just last week I picked up several items that fell off the grocery belt for the person in front of me.
   
3. When the person in front of me forgot something, I caught up with her and gave it to her.
   
4. I hold open doors for little old ladies (men too)
5. I help little old ladies pick up things they've dropped at the grocery store, and help them reach things they can't. Of course, there are plenty of times I have a hard time reaching things, too. That's when I'm either happy to have my teenage son with me, or I wish he was there.

Now it's my turn to tag five more people: I tag the first 5 people who read this! Leave me a comment and I'll link you up.

Addicted to Sports?

No one in this house is too fanatical about sports, except for Jeffrey and Beth with their Illini basketball. There are, however, plenty of sports fans out there. In this state, everyone is crazy about the Packers and were totally heartbroken recently when Brett Favre announced his retirement. Remember how much I cared about that?

In between the big games, sports fans can now visit the AddictSports forum. Here they can discuss the games, the players, nfl picks, and the latest in Fantasy Football, Basketball, Hockey, and Baseball. If you're one of those people who just can't get enough of sports, this might be something you'd be interested in. If you're like me and really know nothing about sports, this might be a good place to learn a thing or two.

Relationship Meme

I was tagged by Carrie for this. I'm pretty sure I've done it before, but it's been a while. I wonder if any of the answers have changed?

1. How long have you been together? - In June we will have been married for 22 years.
2. How long did you date? - Our first date was before I went to college, but we were just friends. We didn't actually decided we liked each other for a while. Then we dated off and on for about 2 years before we got married.
3. How old is he? - He'll be 47 this summer.
4. Who said "I love you first"? - He did. I'm pretty sure...
5. Who's taller? - He is.
6. Who is smarter? - Me, of course! No, really, it depends on what the question is. His strengths are different than my strengths, and we work really well together.
7. Who does the laundry? - me
8. Who does the dishes? - again, me - though the kids are supposed to do them once a week. However, with work and other activities, they seem to be getting out of it lately.
9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? - Looking at the bed from the foot, that would be me.
10. Who pays the bills? - Since he's the accountant, you'd think he would, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. I do. Of course, he had to make the money so I can.
11. Who mows the lawn? - Most of the time he does, but I do it if I need to. Why? We have a teenage son who should do it more often.
12. Who cooks dinner? - I do. He forgot anything he ever knew about cooking when we got married.
13. Who is more stubborn? - OK, me. Next question?
14. Who kissed who first? - He kissed me. But I'm sure I kissed him back!
    
15. Who asked who out? - He asked me.
16. Who proposed?- He did.
17. Who is more sensitive? - I am, but he's pretty sensitive, too. Cory likes to give him a hard time because he gets emotional about movies. Excuse me, Cory, but you're pretty emotional, too!

I'm not tagging anyone. I'm so bad at getting to the things I'm tagged for, I don't have any right to tag anyone. If you want to do it, go ahead, and let me know so I can read yours.

Hot Chocolate and Watching TV

I'm sitting here drinking my leftover coffee/hot chocolate (I'm in the basement where it's cold) and I started thinking about how Jeffrey started complaining that I never offer him any. So, about a week ago, I was making mine, and I offered him some. Of course he had to say yes, since he'd been complaining, so I made him some, too. And, after all that, he didn't like it! I warm up the coffee, add two scoops of hot chocolate mix, and I'm good to go. I guess that's not enough chocolate for him. When he makes hot chocolate, he likes to use 2 envelopes, which would translate to, at least 4 scoops?

Well, guess what? I'm not making him any more hot chocolate, with or without coffee. If he doesn't like it the way I make it, then he can just make his own. And the way he makes it, he's better off without.

While I'm down here, I'm 'watching' CSI New York, which I've never watched before. I always liked Gary Sinise - since Forest Gump, anyway, but we just never got into watching this one. There was just nothing else on I really cared about, and I wasn't paying that much attention anyway. Maybe if I had Bose home theater sound so I could hear it better, I would have paid a little more attention tonight. Then again, maybe not. I get too distracted when I'm on the computer, and I don't pay much attention to the TV any more. I sort of know what's going on, but I miss a lot. Then again, maybe I'm not really missing all that much...

Field Trip

Image from WikipediaCory is on a field trip to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum today. It started out as a Health class field trip, then the art teacher found out about it, and the art students were given the option to go. The cost wasn't too bad, either because of the group/school rate. I think it looks really interesting, and I was looking forward to seeing some pictures. Cory checked this morning on the MPM website and didn't see anything about not being able to take pictures so he took the camera. Now that I'm looking at the actual Body Worlds website, I see that it says no pictures are allowed. Oh well...

I hope he has a good time. I'm sure I'll hear all about it when he gets home, whenever that will be. He's got play practice after school with 3 other people, and he's going to call when they're done. Like I said, there is going to be a lot of running back and forth in the next few weeks.

Try to Keep up

Wouldn't it be Nice to Win a Home Makeover?

I just mentioned yesterday that we are planning to put ceramic tile in the kitchen, dining room, and entryway of our house. Today I found out that I can enter to win $20,000 from Renuzit® TriScents™ to help with a home makeover. How great would that be? With that money, we could not only do the kitchen, dining room and entry, we could go ahead and put the hardwood flooring in the living room, too. Here are the rooms as they are now:

Our house is 10 years old. It's hard to believe we've been here that long, but we have. We have the same flooring, the same paint, the same everything that was put in when the house was built. It's not horrible, but the builders don't really expect it to last all that long. They expect that people will move out and move up, or do some home improvements along the way. We're not going anywhere, so we're ready to start with some improvements.

The main reason we want to do the floor is that we also want to finally put a patio out back, and we don't want to be coming in and out on the carpet. The vinyl in the kitchen is coming away from the edges and separating in places. Also, we'd like to get rid of the carpeting and go to all hard surfaces because it is supposed to be healthier and better for avoiding allergies. I'm not sure how far we could go or how much we could do with $20,000, but that's a start.

Be sure to visit the Renuzit® TriScents™ website to read the official rules and see how you can enter to win a home makeover, too. While you're there, be sure to print the coupon to try Renuzit® TriScents™ electric scented oil air freshener. It comes in two scents: Seaside Breezes™ and Morning Meadow. I usually like my house to smell good, like fresh baked bread or something like that, but these sound nice, and the coupon makes it easy to try them, just click and print.

How to Fasten a D-Ring Belt

We went shopping Sunday because we needed some things from Sam's, and because Jeffrey had a coupon to save 15% off at Kohl's. At Kohl's Cory found some pants he liked, and they came with a belt like this:
Cory mentioned that he had another pair of pants with a belt just like it, but he never wears the belt, because he doesn't know how to fasten it. He had tried pulling it through the rings and tucking it into a belt loop, but it just didn't stay. So I explained - you put the end of the belt through both rings and then bring it back through one of them. He still didn't get it, so I had to demonstrate. Through both rings, back through the top one:

"Oh!" he said. "Now I can wear my belt."

Silly kid. Why didn't he just ask in the first place?

Play Practice has Started

Cory had his play audition before Spring Break and then found out yesterday, the first day back to school, that he had play practice that night. Of course, I found out about it after school when he called me to tell me that he had a meeting until 3:45, when he wanted me to pick him up - so we could turn around and take him back for play practice at 6:00. Jeffrey had basketball last night, so he ended up going early so he could drop Cory off, and then Cory did get a ride home so he didn't have to wait around until after the guys were finished playing basketball.

I have a feeling we are going to be running back and forth quite a bit in the next few weeks, but it sounds like we will be able to share some rides with the friend he got a ride home with last night. They will be having play practice Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6 to 8 - for several weeks. They can't practice on Wednesdays because of some stupid agreement between the school district and the local churches. I really cannot believe the churches had the nerve to tell the school they don't want any activities - no practices, no events, nothing - on Wednesday nights because there might possibly be a student who wants to attend some church thing on Wednesday night, and I can't believe the school district actually went along with it. That's a whole other thing, so I won't get started on that.

Cory at least will have one night a week he doesn't have to go, and we don't have to take him. He might do his volunteer time at the library then, or he might just do nothing. It will be nice not to need all those luxury watches to keep track of what time it is and where we should be. I think it's good for Cory to be involved in things, and I realize other kids are involved in a whole lot more things, so it could be worse.