The curse of the Angry Birds and no Internet

You might not of seen me online too much lately in the last couple of weeks. That's because our Internet hasn't been working very well lately. We finally got a tech out on Friday to see what the problem was. He changed some wiring and got it up and working again-woo hoo!

Since I didn't have a way to work on my online things the last week, I had a lot of time on my hands. What did I do with my free time? I GOT ADDICTED TO ANGRY BIRDS.

Have you played this game on your phone? Please don't if you have never played it. You won't get laundry done. You'll put off feeding your children. You will forget to sleep. It's that addictive.
I actually hate it, but when I don't kill all the pigs, I have to keep playing it til I pass the level.

Have. to. kill. the. pigs.

I think I might have to get one of these shirts.

At least when I could get back online, I did not have time to get on that darn game. Thank goodness. I have a new blog that I worked on all weekend and will be unveiling next week. I hope that you will visit it too when it's active and leave me comments. Here's a hint: If you like photography, you will love this blog!

Are you thinking about Halloween yet?

I know that it's only February, but it's never too early to start thinking about costumes. Emily likes to wear her past costumes when she plays dress up, so we get full use out of her Halloween costumes all year round. There are so many cute girls costumes out there that we always have a hard time choosing one each year for her.

I'm always trying to get her to pick an animal costume because they are warmer to wear outside since our Halloween is usually chilly. She usually wins, though, and picks some ballerina or princess one.

When we were approached by CostumeSuperCenter.com to do a review of one of their costumes, Emily was very excited to choose a costume from the 100's of choices. After about a zillion hours later, she finally chose the Child Batarina Costume.


(Yes, I accidentally cut off her feet in the photo.)

This costume was so cute! It came with several accessories which you don't really get with other costumes. It looked well made also and high in quality. She wears it all the time- I hope it lasts til October!

So why not get your Halloween costume shopping out of the way now and do it conveniently online!

I love you more

Me: "I love you more than chocolate."

Emily: "I love you more than my toys."

Me: "I love you more than my camera."

Emily: "I love you more than soup."

Me: "You must REALLY love me."

I hate public voting

When I checked my email today, I was excited to find out that Mom Central was hosting a contest and they were going to give 5 bloggers each a $2000 grant to help them become successful!

I thought, this would be great because I really want to start a photography blog and I have great ideas for it-THEN, I started reading the rules and how they would handle the judging. It will be partially by public voting and partially by them.

How it will work will be like this. Everyone wanting to enter tells why they feel they need it and how it will be used. That's cool. Then, everyone votes for the blogger they feel should win. This part is not fair and totally contradicts the whole grant in my opinion. IF a blogger is in need of a grant, then I'm pretty sure they don't have alot of readers yet and their blog may not even be on the map. Sooooo, how the hell are they going to find enough people to vote for them? IF a blogger can get a lot of votes, then I'm pretty sure they already are branded and DON'T NEED THE FREAKIN' MONEY!!

This grant is to be used for SEO, advertising, platform fees, etc., etc. All the things that a little nobody needs to become that somebody that will probably get the votes. I HATE PUBLIC VOTING.

Now, they are trying to be fair and make three categories to pick from:

Category 1: The top 15 submissions with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the top tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)
Category 2: The top 15 submissions with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the mid-tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)
Category 3: The top 15 submission with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the low-tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)

First of all, there should not be any blogs that should qualify if their blog traffic falls in the top tier. Second of all, even the bottom tier traffic will probably still be pretty good traffic. Third of all, if you have your idea, but haven't started your blog yet, how do you even get in any category?

When I first read that email, I automatically assumed (you know what they say about that!) that Mom Central would go through the submissions and pick a blogger who had a great idea and that in their opinion, were really worthy to receive it upon need-isn't that what a grant is? To me it's the little guy that is on to something, but just needs a little help to get going.

Public voting is just a popularity contest and the one with the most friends wins, not necessarily the one who deserves it.

Will I enter? I might. Do I think I'll win? Do I look famous to you?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

The hubby surprised me with an Open Heart necklace by Jane Seymour-totally beautiful. We weren't supposed to get each other anything because we were supposed to count our night out on Friday as our Valentine's Day. That little sneak! Oh well, isn't that what husbands are supposed to do?

Anyway, we celebrated it on Friday by going to a murder mystery dinner and I TOTALLY LOVED IT.

Have you ever been to one? They rock! I never laughed so much. It was put on by a brilliant man who wrote it and even played a character. The mystery was called Five Card Murder by Scott Naumann.

Here is the press release about it:

During Its A Mystery's uproarious production of Five Card Murder guests take on the role of "detective" beginning with cocktail hour mingling with suspects, the unveiling of alibi's and a gourmet dinner. With the cold filling the air, the wind beginning to blow, the stakes are high! The game is set, the cards are dealt, but...someone just might not live to play their hand! Guests will even visit the crime scene and take a walk to uncover other telltale secrets!

The Skellington Manor is an awesome place and the owners and people that run it are super awesome. The setup was nicely done with linen covered tables and chairs.

(Sorry about the quality of photos, they were taken by my phone. )

The characters involve the audience and stay in character the whole night. We got picked on by some of them, including Ruby Redd.

She was the busty lady in red.

The detective was hilarious during the show.

This is Ma Banks-she let a lot of "wind" during the show and pinned a few on some of the audience.

If you have a murder mystery dinner in your area, you should check it. I can't guarantee that it will be as good as this show, but it's worth trying it out!

(I was not asked to do a review of this show-this is just about my experience here.)

Easy Saturday

I finally have a Saturday to myself, so I decided to use it to practise some new backgrounds for baby shoots. Emily followed me downstairs and I took advantage of a warm body.

She was enjoying laying down on the comfy blanket. We decided to pretend she was on a model shoot.

I told her to give me a serious pose.

Then, a fun one.

Shortly after that, she got bored and left, so I had to use this guy.

Yeah, I know.

I need some babies to photograph!

Another thought about promoting my business

I talked awhile back about wishing that I had promotional pens when I did the bridal show. I didn't think about it again until I had a wedding couple over the other night. We were signing contracts and I handed them the only pen I could find, which ended up having pink ink-Argh!

If I had a personalized pen handy, it would have looked better for me and I would just let them keep it if they wanted or accidentally walked off with it. It's so important how you come across to your clients and how organized you are leaves a lasting impression.

I think that if I had matching envelopes to put the contracts in, like using Amsterdam Printing envelopes I would look more professional. Then, I could just throw them all in the vendor bag that I give them.

Sometimes, I think promotion can be a fun part of a business and the client loves to get free things as well!

Looking for business ideas?

As many of you know, I run several businesses that I've started over the years. I love being an entrepreneur because it allows me to stay at home (for the most part).

One type of business that I've been curious about is starting a network marketing company. MLM companies can be a highly profitable because of the residual income that the different levels sales. MLM businesses can sell anything from flowers to Internet marketing tools.

Starting this type of business doesn't have to be hard.

Decide what type of product you want to sell

Check out different distributors to see what would be the most profitable product to sell and what you would be interested in dealing with.

Set a retail price for your products.

You need a profit margin high enough so that your distributors can get 20-40 percent on their purchases. Look around for companies that have Network Marketing Software and consulting.

Invest in a website

Hire a web designer to put together a website for your MLM company. There are many design sites that do this, like this San Francisco Web Development site. You will need a MLM specialist to do your MLM team websites as well.

Advertise

The last step is getting your business out there. Plan a budget for advertising and use free resources as well.

Soon, your MLM business will be up and running and you will be enjoying your residual income for years to come!

Still Proud

We didn't win, but we are still holding our heads high.

It was a good game-I thought we were going to win at the last minute. Oh well. Even the greatest teams have their moments.

We still had a good time-eating.

And eating.

I didn't do any special decorations this time. I just put the food out for everyone to grab.


The hubby's wings were the hit of the party as usual.

Barely had a chance to get a photo before they were gone.

When Zach finally showed up, he and Emily had a good time proudly wearing their jerseys.

He supports his Gpa's team.

Little Avrie does too. As long as she gets a chicken wing some day when she has teeth.

We'll get em' next year-GO STEELERS!!

A review in the making

As many of you know, I am a preferred blogger for CSN Stores. I have been asked to review an item for them and of course, I'm going to keep it a secret-cause that's the way I am.

It might a lamp, or even a very cool swing set! They have so many neat products and pretty much anything you can think of to buy. So, if you need a new a couch, they got one for you. If you need a new vacuum, they have that as well.

Can you guess what I'm reviewing? Check back just for fun on my past posts and see what I need badly. I'll give you a cookie if you guess right-not really, but won't it be fun to try to guess anyway?

Super Bowl, Baby

Are you going to watch the Super Bowl this weekend? Did your team make it? Ours did!

Did you assume we were Packers fans?

Nope.

WE ARE STEELERS FANS!

So, this weekend will be filled with eating fattening food and wearing black and gold. I don't mind it too much, but I will have to inform the hubby that I'm not going to be the waitress for the evening. If that's the case, I'm grabbing my little smokies and chili and hiding upstairs and watching it from my bedroom!

Have a fun weekend and I'll be posting photos from the game next week!

Dreaming of warm weather

My husband and I always fight when there is snow on the ground. He wants to move to a warmer climate and I don't want to leave family. Something that would settle our arguments would be to invest in a vacation home to visit during the cold and snowy months.

One spot that sounds absolutely delicious would be buying or renting a spot in San Diego. Mission Beach is located between the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay at the center of The Strand, the most popular beach area in the City of San Diego.

Mission Beach is a popular vacation destination with water sports of all types and a gorgeous sand stretching over 3 miles with a boardwalk to boot. I remember when I went to Ocean City and just loved shopping on the boardwalk there.

I'm a Midwest girl who is amused easily. I love to watch the ocean waves come back and forth and beautiful ocean sunsets. The thought of being able to go to where you can play volleyball in the winter sounds tempting!

My other choice might be to pick Florida with some fair real estate choices. It would have to be close to Disney World though-my favorite place in the world.

Now, I've got myself wanting summer to get here-darn it! Are you some where warm right now?

One big snow fort

Like other Midwesterners, we woke up to a mound of snow adorning our driveways and doorsteps. I think we got 16 inches? At any rate, the blowing snow blew our driveway shut-it was 3 feet deep!

This was after we shoveled for 3 hours. Honey, when are we getting a snowblower??

Emily had fun playing out in the snow.

Though, we didn't stay outside very long. I hate cold.

Bella wanted to stay out longer, but she was shivering, so I told her she had to go in.

Today, we have the cold to deal with. I think it's -13.

At least the groundhog says it will be an early spring-he better not be messing with me!

Snowed in again

Wouldn't you know it, when I finally get almost all the snow off of our drive and sidewalks (after a gallon of salt) we get the worse storm of the season. It started around noon today.

And hasn't stopped.

I haven't stepped in our backyard since November.

They say we're looking at 12 to 14 feet of snow.

Damn.

I wished that I would have picked up some comfort food.
Maybe, I'll have to send the hubby out for some Quizno's tonight before we get totally snowed in-I'm going to print out their coupon for a Rib Sub for $2.99. Yum!!

What's your comfort food when there's bad weather out?