Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

#BagItForward

As our kids head back to school this month, we find ourselves shopping for new school supplies.  I luck out that I can order them directly from Madison’s school, so I’ve actually had Madison’s supplies since May.  That being said, not everybody can afford to get their kids the school supplies they need.  A lot of school’s list require you to spend a lot of money, and in this economy, not everybody has that (especially if you have more than one kid).  That is why I am both happy and proud to be part of the Bag It Forward with Elmer’s.  All you have to do is pick up an extra bag of school supplies and donate it locally in your community.  Yes, it is that easy.  This is the shopping trip I took:

The charity we choose is the Apple Tree Program. It is run by the Worth Township, and these supplies go to kids who live in my township. The second reason we choose this program is that my kids go to camp, and Madison went to preschool here. I know the women who run the program, and it really helps kids in my area.  You can pick any program or just give some supplies to a child you know needs them.  You can upload photos of the items they Bagged Forward on http://www.bagitforward.org and see what others have donated.  We donated two bags — one for each of my kids.

Also, from July 25 through Sept. 1, for each “like” on the Elmer’s Facebook page, the company will donate a product to the Kids in Need Foundation’s national network of free stores, where teachers from disadvantaged schools can “shop” for free for school supplies. Products to be donated include a variety of glues, foam board, project supplies and pencil sharpeners. If you already like the page, they’ll make a contribution on your behalf, but you can donate again by watching a video on the Elmer’s Kids In Need Facebook tab and sharing it with your friends and family.

Elmer’s is also a Upromise partner and that every time you purchase an Elmer’s or Krazy Glue product with your registered drug or grocery card, a percentage of your purchase will be put into your Upromise account.  We picked up an Elmer’s Glue Pen, Elmer’s Disappearing Purple Glue Sticks, and School Glue.

Join us in the #BagItForward movement and give someone you know a bag of school supplies! Together we can make a difference.

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer’s #BagItForward #collectivebias.  All opinions are my own.

Did you ever have one of those weeks?

I had one of those weeks last week.  You know, one of those weeks where everything goes wrong.  Like if you sit in your Adirondack chairs and they break or it rains every time you have plans.  I’ve had bad days before, but it seemed like last week was against me.  It kicked me in the butt.

We spent that entire weekend looking for Madison’s retainer.  You know, those suckers are $500 and insurance doesn’t pay to replace if you lose them.  She’s been so good with it that it was amazing that we lost it.  We dug through garbage at our house and at my mother-in-laws house too.  We looked everywhere inside and outside, under outdoor wooden benches and even the kids beds!  We literally tore 2 houses apart.  Her orthodontist was on vacation last week, so we couldn’t get in to see him to see what we could do.  I knew heading in last week we were in trouble since the weekend sucked.

So that happened.  Then, my sites went down.  This was a 2 prong problem.  First, I had no access to my sites.  You may have seen some funkiness on my sites.  That’s why (it ended up having to do with a WordPress upgrade.  Hostgator ended up fixing it) I was a wreck on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Google+.  While digging through the backend stuff, I found out I was almost out of disk space.  Now, I currently pay $50 a month (yes, I know its a lot).  They told me I’d have to upgrade to the $80 month package (yes, I almost keeled over).  I had a great friend dig through my sites and found out that I had a rogue plugin that was backing up my site.  It wasn’t suppose to be saving to the server, but it was without my knowledge.  I had backups dating to 2007!!!!  Needless to say, we deleted 10 GB of backups!!!!!  (Crazy, isn’t it?).

Those two issues pretty much consumed my week.  However, this looked up by the end of the week.  First, Hostgator fixed the issue.  In talking with friends, I found a cheaper host for my blogs (which I’ll be moving to this week sometime if any funkiness happens).  I’ll get more space for less money!  I know somebody using this company already and they love them.  Best of all, I was doing laundry Friday morning, and guess what I found??!!??

Madison’s retainer.

My laundry room is also a junk room and also has a freezer and fridge in there (its all downstairs).  I was throwing in towels to the washer and her retainer was sitting in front of the fridge down there.  It looked great, and I ran it upstairs and brushed it.  The bad news is that she can’t get it into her mouth now.  However, we found it and it can be adjusted.  We have an appointment Thursday morning to do just that.

It’s amazing how your week can just turn better on a dime.  I now can sit outside on my Oakland Living outdoor furniture and relax.  How did your week go last week?

10 Reasons Why Your Mom WILL Use Google+

Robert Scoble wrote a post about why your mom won’t be using Google+.  If you read my post from last week, you know I’ve had the ability to play with Google+ for a bit now, and I have to disagree.  Why?  Well, I’m a mom.  And I use Google+.

1.  I love Circles.  The argument seems to be that non-geeks won’t understand circles and won’t use them.  I can think of many reasons why they will.  Let’s say you want to vent about your inlaws or your job or pretty much anything you don’t want the whole world knowing.  You can easily just send a message to your friends complaining (make sure you disable the share option) and you don’t have to worry about the world knowing.  (Yes, I know they can still screenshot it, but if they are your friends, do you really think they will?)

2.  The mobile app is beyond easy to use.  I downloaded in the car on the way to a camping trip, and used it in the car (Need to add that I was not driving).  I was able to easily have the picture appear in my stream (it was a picture of how full my van was packed!).  It was a great test post and I have even been told how great the pictures looked on Google+ versus Facebook.  They just have a much more crisp look to them.

3.  Hangouts.  If you are like me (a mom) and your family lives far away, this is a great feature.  I can talk to my sister and my parents (who both live 4 hours away) and they don’t have to be at the same house!  We can be a family together even though we are in 2 states.  It just makes it easier to get online and talk.  As long as I can write directions on how to use it, my parents (who aren’t all that tech savvy) can figure it out.

4.  Simple interface.  Makes writing direction to use things much easier (see above).  Remember the saying, Keep in simple stupid?  That’s what Google did with this interface.  Simple makes it much more friendly to nongeeks.

5.  Adults are here.  This is exactly what the doctor ordered for us stay at home moms.  Facebook limits you to your friends.  On Google+, you can expand your horizons and follow those who you may not personally know however find interesting.  You can have adult conversations with people who may have opposing viewpoints and you don’t have to worry about whether or not somebody you knew in high school is going to read your insightful comment.

6.  One stop shopping.  Moms need our lives to be as simple as possible.  We are busy.  I like having my email, social networking, documents, etc all in one spot instead of having 20 bookmarked sites to do the same thing.

7.  Sparks.  This looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so “when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share.”  If your bored, have a go in there :)

8.  With a Google+ account, you get unlimited photo storage on Picasa.  I love being able to take a picture with my phone (which I have available to me most of the time.  I don’t normally carry my camera all too much), upload it, and not have to worry if I’m going to exceed my storage space.  And who doesn’t like free?

9.  You control your privacy unlike Facebook who doesn’t bother to tell you that they sold your information till after the media catches it.  Google Plus also makes it easy to control your privacy settings.  You don’t have to dig through 20 menus to get there.

10.  I’m here, and your mom loves me.  Why wouldn’t she want to hang out where all the cool people are? :)

  • Google + (mythoughtsideasandramblings.com)
Enhanced by Zemanta
Check this out:
 custom keychains
blog advertising is good for you
Follow Me!
Twitter
Categories
Archives
Enter These Giveaways
Lisa Martin
NutriSystem, Inc.