We decided, at the last minute, to take a  family beach vacation over this labor day weekend.  Hubby managed to get tomorrow and Friday off so we are headed to New Jersey.

I managed to come across a spectacular place in Wilwood called Morey's Piers.  They have over 100 amusement park rides between 3 different piers and 2 water parks, which will thrill the kiddies.  Shhh, we haven't told them yet.

Their website made it super easy to purchase tickets for the parks and find accomodations near by as well as book them without ever having to pick up the phone.  That's good, since the kids NEVER leave me alone while I'm on the phone and surely would have ruined the surprise.

I was also excited about the specials I found on the site.  They offer daily specials throughout the summer and I think the kids will really enjoy riding rides under the fireworks on Friday night.

I can't wait for some good, quality, family time!  I will have my trusty PC to amuse me on the drive as well as after kids and hubby go to sleep, but don't expect too much.

 

For those of you who use bravejournal, could someone please tell me why I am currently listening to some guy talking about buy.com?  Bravenet is the only program I have open and it's a flippin commercial in the background.  Is this right?  It's really hard to concentrate.  I know, I could just turn the volume down, but why should I have too?  I do not want to listen to this so could someone please tell me how to make it stop?

My husband has a full time job and a Disc Jockey business as well.  We recently were looking into ways to cut some costs with his DJ business as he is currently not allowed to drive and has had to sub contract others to do his pending jobs for him.

I found a great deal with VistaPrint on business checks that will save us some money as well as let us design our own checks to bring attention to the business.  We can order out checks online, choose a template and the colors for the checks.  We also determine the font and can add his business logo.  What a great advertising tool.  His sub contrators will get the checks.  They will take them to the bank for cashing, and WHAM, instant advertising to the teller and anyone else who comes across the check.  I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before.

With coupon code Checks25 We can get an additional 25% off the already low prices.

The prices are so good at VistaPrint, I'm going to design and get my Christmas cards from them as well.  They offer a variety of services from business to personal.  If you have any printing needs, I encourage you to check out VistaPrint.

 

 

 

business checks

I took another super quick quiz to find out my "hidden" talent.  I'm not so sure the talent is hidden, but this definitely describes me.  What's your hidden talent?

 

 

Your Hidden Talent

You have the power to persuade and influence others. You're the type of person who can turn a whole room around. The potential for great leadership is there, as long as you don't abuse it. Always remember, you have a lot more power over people than you might think!

With the announcement of a 4th American Idol judge, I have come up with my dream job.  I think this would be a beautiful partnership between AI and myself.  Check out my video and make sure to vote for ME!

Make sure you check out FutureResume.com and make your own video for your dream job.

 

 

I look forward to working with Simon, Paula, Randy, and Kara.  Make sure to watch Ai in January to see if I get the job, lol.

The child's self-image begins with how he perceives that others – especially his parents – perceive him Even in the most loving homes, spanking gives a confusing message, especially to a child too young to understand the reason for the whack. Parents spend a lot of time building up their baby or child's sense of being valued, helping the child feel "good." Then the child breaks a glass, you spank, and he feels, "I must be bad."

Even a guilt-relieving hug from a parent after a spank doesn't remove the sting. The child is likely to feel the hit, inside and out, long after the hug. Most children put in this situation will hug to ask for mercy. "If I hug him, daddy will stop hitting me." When spanking is repeated over and over, one message is driven home to the child, "You are weak and defenseless."

Joan, a loving mother, sincerely believed that spanking was a parental right and obligation needed to turn out an obedient child. She felt spanking was "for the child's own good." After several months of spank-controlled discipline, her toddler became withdrawn. She would notice him playing alone in the corner, not interested in playmates, and avoiding eye contact with her. He had lost his previous sparkle. Outwardly he was a "good boy." Inwardly, Spencer thought he was a bad boy. He didn't feel right and he didn't act right. Spanking made him feel smaller and weaker, overpowered by people bigger than him.

SLAPPING HANDS
How tempting it is to slap those daring little hands! Many parents do it without thinking, but consider the consequences. Maria Montessori, one of the earliest opponents of slapping children's hands, believed that children's hands are tools for exploring, an extension of the child's natural curiosity. Slapping them sends a powerful negative message. Sensitive parents we have interviewed all agree that the hands should be off-limits for physical punishment. Research supports this idea. Psychologists studied a group of sixteen fourteen-month-olds playing with their mothers. When one group of toddlers tried to grab a forbidden object, they received a slap on the hand; the other group of toddlers did not receive physical punishment. In follow-up studies of these children seven months later, the punished babies were found to be less skilled at exploring their environment. Better to separate the child from the object or supervise his exploration and leave little hands unhurt.

Parents who spank-control or otherwise abusively punish their children often feel devalued themselves because deep down they don't feel right about their way of discipline. Often they spank (or yell) in desperation because they don't know what else to do, but afterward feel more powerless when they find it doesn't work. As one mother who dropped spanking from her correction list put it, "I won the battle, but lost the war. My child now fears me, and I feel I've lost something precious."

Spanking also devalues the role of a parent. Being an authority figure means you are trusted and respected, but not feared. Lasting authority cannot be based on fear. Parents or other caregivers who repeatedly use spanking to control children enter into a lose-lose situation. Not only does the child lose respect for the parent, but the parents also lose out because they develop a spanking mindset and have fewer alternatives to spanking. The parent has fewer preplanned, experience-tested strategies to divert potential behavior, so the child misbehaves more, which calls for more spanking. This child is not being taught to develop inner control.

Hitting devalues the parent-child relationship. Corporal punishment puts a distance between the spanker and the spankee. This distance is especially troubling in home situations where the parent-child relationship may already be strained, such as single-parent homes or blended families. While some children are forgivingly resilient and bounce back without a negative impression on mind or body, for others it's hard to love the hand that hits them.

So, lucky me, I have friends and one of them "tagged" me.  I officially feel like part of the big blog family, thanks to RJ Flamingo who tagged me with this...

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Instructions: What you are supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun...Copy/paste, type in your answers and tag four people in your lists! Don't forget to change my answers to the questions with that of your own.

(A) Four places I go over and over:  Grocery store, drive hubby to work(and pick up, at least for   the next 6 months),Riverview Gymnastics center (2x a week for the kids classes), Grocery store (that counts as 2 because I'm there at least 3x a week)

(B) Four people who e-mail me regularly: Cassandra, Nikki, Janey and all my survey groups

(C) Four of my favorite places to eat? Rey Azteca, The Grate Steak (but it's a little far since they closed the one close)Soya (or any great sushi place, this is closest and the food is great) and Ruth's Chris

(D) Four places you'd rather be?  On the Beach (actually living in a house on it), On a cruise ship to Alaska, New York (but just for a visit)Home in Michigan(again, just for a long visit)

(E) Four TV shows I could watch over and over: CSI, Law and Order, American Idol, Army Wives

(F) Four people I think will respond: Heidi, Katie, Tammy, and Eric

 Your turn!

Boogie will start Kindergarten in a little more than a week and this will be the first time that we've had to plan our "vacation" around a school schedule.  Where should we go?  How should we get there?  It reminds me of all my favorite vacations and the great friends and family I spent them with.

One particular vacation stands out as a comedy of sorts.  Although at the time it was NOT that funny, in retrospect, it all turned out fine.  I went to visit my best friend, at the time, who had moved to Chicago to go to design school and to be close to her fiance.  On this particular visit, she thought it would be nice to set me up with a coworker of hers whos company she enjoyed.  Chuck seemed like a nice enough guy.  The fourof us went out to dinner and had a couple shots of tequilla (Chuck and I) and then went to a night club.  While I do not remember the name of the club, it was HUGE.  I turned my back for 2 seconds and all the sudden found myself alone, no friends in sight.  Making the best of it, and knowing we planned on being there for a while, I got a drink from the bar and wandered around looking for interesting people to engage in conversation with.  At one point I remember a bouncer trying to get frisky with me, but I just laughed, smiled, and walked away.  Soon I "bumped" into my friend and her fiance and we had another round of drinks and casually looked around for Chuck.  After a couple more drinks (and hours)  we had not seen Chuck anywhere.  Assuming he ran into other friends and would get a ride with them, we went to leave.  As we went to the parking lot to get into my car...it wasn't there.  We, of course, thought we were just looking in the wrong place, so we kept wandering the parking lot.  After about 30 minutes, we started getting worried, this was a bright yellow car, so it should've been easy to spot.  Well we started to go back to the club to call the police (I'm showing my age now) because we didn't have cell phones.  As we got to the front of the club, up pulled my car.  Had we valet parked and not remembered?  No, My friends coworker, Chuck, had apparently taken my keys out of my purse and decided he would take MY car and an unknown guest, out for a spin.  Needless to say, I took my keys, my car, my friend and her fiance, but NOT CHUCK, and we went home.

So, back to our winter vacation.  My friend still lives in Chicago, and I haven't been there in, gosh, 15 years.  Her middle son is 3 months older than mine and she has a daughter who is less than a year younger than my daughter. I think the kids would have a blast together, and I would love for my kids to see a "real" winter.  We don't get those here in Virginia. I however am NOT fond of driving in Chicago or in winter weather, so I was looking at different Chicago tours to see the city as well as things the kids might like to do while there.

Trusted Tours & Attractions offers site seeing as well as discounted tickets on special attractions.  I think the kids would really enjoy going to the Legoland Discovery Center.  You can check out their online travel guides as well as sign up for their newsletter and get the chance to win a $150 Magellan's Gift Certificate.  You must sign up for the newsletter by August 31, so check it out now.

If you are planning a trip to New York, you should check out their Top of the Rock tour.  The view is spectacular.

For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to start a third blog.  I had a fun idea from a post I did about my neighbors complaint (a letter I wrote, but never really sent) and thought it would be humorous to do a blog all in letters to people. It's really new (3 posts)  but I think it will be my best.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  Oh, and if you want to explain wordpress, or the Today VIP formatting to me, I'd be in debt forever!

If you’ve been reading this blog, then you know that Hubby took a spill a couple weeks ago and the Doctors have no idea why.  Hubby doesn’t remember the event, so he’s not of much help.  Since the main reason people “faint” without any pre cursors (feeling dizzy, nauseous, lightheaded, etc.)Is usually heart related, and since he has a terrible family history of heart disease, that is what they are looking into.  None of the tests have shown any reason for concern, but I thought I would do some research of my own.

While somewhat unrelated, since we haven’t received any news that his heart is in trouble (although, with his lifestyle, we both assume it will be a problem in the future) I came across some very interesting information that I thought I’d share. You know I’m a sucker for info, and learning new things is always fun.

While I’m not in the medical field, and some of these processes are way over my head, with words I would rather not even try to pronounce, I found the idea to be revolutionary (even though it’s been around for 50+ years) and a good alternative to massive surgery, or  at the least, something to try before surgery is necessary.

 

  As we age, cholesterol, calcium, and other minerals accumulate on the inside lining of our blood vessels and, over time, clog them. This process is referred to variously as hardening of the arteries, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, and arterial plaque buildup (see Figure 1). To ignore this process can be exceedingly dangerous and may result in rampant cardiovascular disease. Examples of such diseases are high blood pressure, angina (chest pain due to poor blood circulation to the heart), heart attack, peripheral vascular disease (poor circulation to the legs and feet), and stroke. Most of these conditions are physically disabling and depressing to the patients.

 

EDTA is an arterial cleansing agent that removes plaque, cholesterol and any heavy metals that restrict your oxygen and blood flow throughout all the blood vessels in your body.

The process of EDTA Chelation can be done with several intravenous treatments or oral chelation is also available.  The results from studies are amazing and it has even more positive effects on your body than traditional procedures which target the main problem without preventing other “issues” which may occur with the “standard” aging process.

If you or someone you know is suffering from any ailments due to restrictive flow of arteries, I encourage you to check out the site www.arteryhealthinstitute.com