Pampers (Giveaway)

Health, Beauty, Children & Family is having a giveaway!  Do you know anyone who is expecting and is deserving of a baby shower?  How about a giveaway providing $300 in the form of a gift card for the baby shower?  I bet you will want to enter this.  While you are at it, check out Pampers Mission.

Kid Safe, KidZui (Giveaway)

Are your kids starting to get more interested in computers and technology?  Are you fearful of them being exposed to garbage and junk?  Right now Dear Crissy has a giveaway on her blog from KidZui.  I was very happy to stumble upon this.  I love that this site is face for kids.  They won't be exposed to stuff they really don't need to stumble upon.  I am definitely going to have my kids check this out and really am looking forward to it. 

"If you are looking for a safe, fun, and easy way to allow your young children to experience the internet, you will love KidZui–the browser designed specifically for kids!"

Who Doesn't Love Mickey Mouse?? (Giveaway)

My son loves Mickey Mouse.  He also loves singing the "hot dog, hot dog hot diggity dog" song!  :)  Right now if you head on over to Shining2Save she is having a giveaway for a Mickey Mouse Great Outdoors DVD.  Do you have a Mickey Mouse lover in your house?  What fond memories do you have of Mickey Mouse from your childhood?  I honestly LOVED Mickey Mouse as a kid.  I loved sitting on my parents' bed when I was about 5 or 6 and watching the shows.  I loved Goofy and always cracked up when he would do something clumsy and yelp with that loud howl only he could do.  hahaha

Preparing

I know it is only June, but I will admit that I am already thinking about Christmas.  Primarily I am thinking of shopping for my kids' gifts.  So far I have the following set aside for Christmas:

Jack:

• Monsters, Inc. DVD, which he has been begging for for a long while now.  This is such a great movie, if you haven't seen it.  I highly recommend this to anyone, and not just if you have kids.  I must confess that I absolutely LOVE this movie.- I won a GC online and got this for free. Monsters Inc
• Batman Movies 4 pack (Here) since he is such an avid Batman fan- I won a GC online and got this for free.
• Arthur and The Invisibles 2 (Here )- I won this online on a blog (New Age Mama) and I know he is going to love it. Free
• A stash of 14 Chevron Techron cars (Like These) that I found at a yard sale, various styles for only 25 cents each! $3.50 total
• A car rug (Almost Like This One) that I scored at a yard sale as well, for $2.00!  I couldn't believe it when she told me that price.  It looks like it has been hardly touched.
• Last year's Lego finds.  One was at a yard sale which if I remember right was only $3.00.  One was given to us when their grandma was cleaning out their shed and I set it aside for when he was a little older.  $3.00 total
• I decided since I got the 2nd movie to the Arthur and The Invisibles, I would get the first one (Here)with some left over money on a GC from Amazon that I won on a book blog a couple weeks back.  (I decided to purchase used books vs. new, so I was able to buy 2 books and this movie instead of just the one book I would have been permitted to had I purchased brand new.)  The overage was exactly $2.69. 

So far the total for Jack is $11.19!

Bug:

• Enchanted (Enchanted)- I won a gift card online and bought this primarily for her for Christmas.  She has been wanting this movie for a while now.  Every time we check it out at the library, she throws on her dress ups and sings her little heart out.  It is so precious!   So this was free.
• I entered a giveaway on Hip2Save (Hip2Save) for a Build-A-Dream Playhouse and won a little while back. I was so excited, as I knew my daughter would absolutely love it.  I picked the castle. (Check It Out).  It is sitting in the garage hiding. So free.

Bug's Total is $0.00!

So a total of $11.19 spent so far in all.

How far in advance do you do your Christmas shopping?  As a single mom, I never know what life is going to throw at me, so I shop throughout the year.  It is soley my income that provides for Santa.  If you don't check out yard sales or online giveaways, I highly recommend it!  It can be well worth your time, especially the yard sales.  I tend to find some great finds in my searching.  Get planning ahead of Christmas!  Happy hunting :)

Time To Change

I was on Facebook last night and stumbled upon a link on my cousin's page.  It was a video of a family who went from a house with 2,000 sq. ft. to 320 sq. ft.  That is a couple and a tween son.  They have even managed to have a couple kids sleep over before.  At first thought I imagined some crazy family crammed in a tiny house and being unhappy.  Granted, that is exactly what I would think if I went and moved into a much smaller house.  I was pleasantly surprised after watching the video.  They seem so happy and seem to be doing well.  Their house is paid off in full, they pay $145 (or so) a month to rent the space for their place, but that also includes the rent for their business.  They work at home in a separate adjoining trailer "thinga-majigger".  They make homemade baby gifts.  All in all, they honestly seem like a happy family.  Here is the link to the video Here.   (Aren't you guys proud that I finally figured out how to do the link thing without listing the entire website?  Oh my goodness, I feel so accomplished.)

In the video, she kept emphasising it is about what you have and not what you don't have.  How important that is for us to remember.  I personally don't think I could go and move into that small of a house.  I get extremely claustrophobic sometimes and I know that I would just want to be away from home as a result.  However, after finishing watching the video, I surprisingly wanted to go through my house and get rid of a significant amount of items.  If any of you remember from reading my blog, last year I got rid of so much stuff and donated them to the thrift store.  It honestly felt so great.  My garage had been stuffed.  Now I need to go through our house more and get rid of more.  Do you ever feel like that after watching a video?

Summer is Upon Us.... Giveaway

Summer is upon us.  For some of us that means family vacations.  For others that means family reunions and camping.  That is what our family does.  Right now Life in a Sandcastle has a giveaway going on for a Lifetime 6 foot Folding Picnic.  Who couldn't use one for camping and misc. trips?  Heck, I know you could definitely use it for backyard BBQs, birthday parties or anything else that tickles your fancy.  Check out the blog http://lifeisasandcastle.blogspot.com/2011/05/lifetime-6ft-folding-picnic-table.html  And don't forget to checkout Lifetime http://blog.lifetime.com/.  Happy entering!

C.K. Kelly Martin Giveaway

Are you a lover of books?  I sure am.  Right now if you head over to Fragments of Life at http://shusky20.blogspot.com/2011/05/spotted-ck-kelly-martin-huge.html, they are having an awesome giveaway.  Up for grabs C.K. Kelly Martin books and an Amazon GC.  I am looking forward to this.  Check her out NOW.  The giveaway ends July 1st.  Happy reading and entering.