If you aren’t lucky enough to have vision insurance or have vision insurance that will only pay up to a certain amount for your contact lenses, you should definitely check out LensShopper. Now, my vision insurance will pay up to $250 a year for contact lenses. That sounds like a lot, but if you wear contacts, you know it isn’t. That only pays for a couple of months of contacts, and then I pay out of pocket for the rest. My last order of contacts I stilled owed money on after they took the insurance off. That is where LensShopper comes into play. Their lenses are a ton cheaper than what I normally pay for my contacts! They even have even better deals if you order in bulk! I love that it tells me how long the delivery time is and whether or not the contacts are even in stock. Nothing is more annoying than ordering contacts, and then after you place your order, you find out their are backordered. I love that they even make it easy to find the best deals on their site by listing the best deals for each kind of contacts. If you just want to search out your contacts, you can choose to search by manufacturer, lens type, and even popular lenses.
Now, I personsally use the Focus Night & Day contacts. I found on their site that I can get a box for $40.95 (if I order bulk) and get free shipping! I love free shipping! That is a darn good deal for my contacts! I would save almost $40 off my normal order of 6 boxes! I can’t complain about savings like that! If you need contacts, you need to definitely check out LensShopper for all your contact needs!
It is amazing that we are given this little gift of life without a handbook. We try our best to keep them safe. However, there are some things as parents we should know. I was lucky enough to be invited onto a phone call with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and learned a lot of information about keeping my kids safe. My goal is let you know what I have learned, so your children don’t become a statistic.
Did you know that most abduction attempts occur after school? It is usually between the hours of 2 pm – 7 pm. Almost half of nonfamily abduction attempts happen when a child is walking to or from school (or some related school activity).
Did you know that the majority of children affected by abduction attempts are girls between 10 – 14?
Did you know that only 58% of parents have talked to their children about this?
This is scary information. I remember when I was a kid, and I could go play outside myself. Now, I would never let my kids outside by themselves! I am so glad to see that Duracell and The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have teamed together to give us parents a handbook to start a conversation with our children. Best of all, this is free of charge! The Child Safety Handbook can be downloaded right from the linked site.
Now, we were able to ask questions and mine revolved around what to tell my 4 year old daughter. I don’t want to scare her, but I also don’t want to not have this conversation with her. The advice I was given for her age is that we really need to get away from “stranger danger”. The problem with stranger danger is that it portrays strangers as these scary bad people, and that is not what strangers look like. We need to talk about the situations that have been tried and are effective — like the puppy trick. We need to teach our children that it is okay to say no to stranger and that if an adult needs help, they will ask another adult, not a child. Our response cannot be fear based, and we must also reassure our children.
I highly recommend downloading that handbook. You will find a ton of helpful information no matter how old your child is. The Power of Parents Child Safety Handbook provides safety tips from the experts at NCMEC for four age groups: infant to toddler, ages 4-6, ages 7-11, and ages 12-17. The handbook outlines age-appropriate tips and scenarios that parents need to be aware of, as well as some outside influences that may be impacting their child’s actions. If reading this handbook could potentially save your child, it is well worth taking the time to download and read it.
The school that Madison is going to next year collects Box Tops. If you don’t know what Box Tops is, let me explain. There are a ton of items that you can buy that have the image to the left on the box. You collect these for your local schools, and they get 10 cents for every one you turn in. Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when if you can get a bunch of people together, it adds up quickly. Now, the school’s goal is to earn $750 from Box Tops. Last year, they made $536, and I would love for them to meet their goal for this year (even though Madison is not even enrolled yet. I understand that any extra money to the school with benefit her). Now, there are several ways we can do this for our local schools.
First, you need to log into the Box Tops site and create an account. You enter your state and your school or if you don’t know that, just enter your zip code. I personally entered the school and state. From there, you are able to see how your local school is going. Now, how do you increase that number? Well, you can collect box tops with that logo on it. They also have a Marketplace. Now, until recently, I did not know about the Marketplace. This works so awesome too! There is a list of stores that will give a percentage of whatever you buy from them back to the school. There are stores like Avon, Gap, Kohls, Best Buy, Leap Frog, Target, and Walmart (this is just a couple of them — the whole listing is on the site). All you have to do is log into the Box Tops Site, click on marketplace, then click on the store you want to shop it. That’s it. Once you checkout, the percentage you purchased will then be applied to your school. If you are Christmas shopping online anyway, why not help out your local school (and if you don’t want to help any of them out, I’ll tell you the school we are sending our money too, and you can use them).
Did you know that Box Tops has donated more than $250 million to schools nationwide since 1996? Would you like to help raise that number? Then start collecting Box Tops and use their Marketplace to do your online shopping! To help you get started, I am giving away a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble (thank you Barnes & Noble for your support of such a great program!). What do you have to do?
Each one of these things will give you one entry:
1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.
For 5 additional entries,
1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:
This contest will end November 26th at 8:00 pm CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!
Now, you can tell that I don’t like Gov. Palin on this blog. However, she is a human being, and she does have family and friends. I am just floored about how horrible McCain’s aides are being towards her. When I came across this video from Campbell Brown, I found myself applauding. She states exactly what I have been thinking — if Palin was that stupid or that bad, why on gods green earth did they pick her for being VP. Somebody screwed up then, and it wasn’t Sarah Palin. I cannot believe some of the crazy stories that have been put out there. To be honest, I don’t think Sarah Palin was the demise of John McCain (though she didn’t help). I think his age and his voting record (voting with Bush 90% of the time) was the problem. Watch this video and let me know what you think.
I had to make sure that I talked to my sister before I blogged about my exciting news. I will be attending the Pampers Mommy Blogger Event (at least that’s what I think its called) on Monday and Tuesday of next week! One of the participants dropped out, and they asked me to attended. I am so psyched (this is even more exciting than getting some new recipes to try!). I’ve skimmed over the list of attendees, and they are all awesome bloggers. We get to tour the P&G facility and get to talk to the head honchos there, so if you have questions you want to ask, comment away!
Box Tops & A $50 Giveaway Too!
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008First, you need to log into the Box Tops site and create an account. You enter your state and your school or if you don’t know that, just enter your zip code. I personally entered the school and state. From there, you are able to see how your local school is going. Now, how do you increase that number? Well, you can collect box tops with that logo on it. They also have a Marketplace. Now, until recently, I did not know about the Marketplace. This works so awesome too! There is a list of stores that will give a percentage of whatever you buy from them back to the school. There are stores like Avon, Gap, Kohls, Best Buy, Leap Frog, Target, and Walmart (this is just a couple of them — the whole listing is on the site). All you have to do is log into the Box Tops Site, click on marketplace, then click on the store you want to shop it. That’s it. Once you checkout, the percentage you purchased will then be applied to your school. If you are Christmas shopping online anyway, why not help out your local school (and if you don’t want to help any of them out, I’ll tell you the school we are sending our money too, and you can use them).
Did you know that Box Tops has donated more than $250 million to schools nationwide since 1996? Would you like to help raise that number? Then start collecting Box Tops and use their Marketplace to do your online shopping! To help you get started, I am giving away a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble (thank you Barnes & Noble for your support of such a great program!). What do you have to do?
Each one of these things will give you one entry:
1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.
For 5 additional entries,
1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:
This contest will end November 26th at 8:00 pm CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!
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