TThis post is sponsored, but the ideas, thoughts and ramblings are my own.
Since having kids, I turned into a big softie. Yes, I’ll actually admit it. I cry at things I never would have before, and I think about things that never would have crossed my mind before having kids. I’ll be honest here — I get all teary eyed at Sears new commercials. Their new campaign is about how one gift can change someone’s life. Since I absolutely love Ty Pennington, I thought I’d show you what he had to say:
Okay, now that I’ve got myself composed again, I need to tell you what wishes Sears answered for my family. I was provided a $100 gift card from Sears that we were able to use this weekend.
Bill and I bundled the kids off early yesterday morning and headed off to Sears. I luck out since Sears is actually walking distance from my house, and we actually shop their quite a bit — off the top of my head, we got a bench, our snowblower, and our lawnmower from there. However, on this trip, we had no idea what we were going to get. My Christmas shopping is pretty much done, so we were going to try to find something for the kids.
The first place we checked out was the outdoor decorations. Madison is always wanting more for our yard, and this isn’t something we spend a lot of money on. Shortly after this picture was taken, Will decided to lay on the floor and talk to one of the deer that they had for a decoration. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to get that embarrassing photo of him. Nothing really caught our eye in this department, so we headed over to toys. Of course, there were a lot of toys to pick from, but really, my kids don’t need another $100 worth of toys right before Christmas. Since the favorite part of any store for my husband is electronics, we headed to that department.
Once we were in electronics, my husband immediately walked towards the TVs even though we really don’t need one. Plus, $100 doesn’t really buy a TV (or at least not the ones he was looking at). Madison was being her normal hyper self running around looking at things until she saw the guitar hero bundle. Yes, that is my whole family playing Guitar Hero in Sears. Madison asked us if we could buy her the drums.
Now, the school district I live in has cut the art and music programs from the curriculum and will not be adding them back. I have written many posts on this blog about how awful I think this situation is and how I feel that music definitely is a class that should not be cut. My daughter loves to play instruments and sing. I can’t imagine depriving her of it. With the $100 Sears gift card, we will be able to fulfill her wish and give her the additional music support she will not be getting from our school. Who knows — Madison may end up to be talented singer, dancer, in a band, etc. However, I’d love to give her the stepping stones she needs to reach her full potential. (Plus, well, Guitar Hero is fun for mom and dad too. Dad was all over getting it when I told him there was 3 Tool songs and Freak On A Leash by Korn. I also need to add that the gift card paid for a portion of the cost of this bundle. I paid the rest.)
Since we got such an awesome family gift from Sears, I’d like to extend this awesome opportunity to one of my readers. Yes, I’d like to give you a $100 gift card to Sears to use however you like.
You can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post:
Blog Comment:
I just need you to tell me what you think you’d want to spend your $100 on. Head on over to Sears and let me know the item number of what you like.
Twitter:
I’ve made it super easy for you to Twitter about this contest. Just tweet out this message:
RT @blm03 please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card – tweet to make your own wish: http://urlbrief.com/8e0599
Blog Post:
You can also enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to this post. Make sure you leave a comment with the URL to your post, so I can count it as an entry.
Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration. You can register up to three times by tweeting, leaving a comment, and doing a post on your blog. The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries. This contest goes until December 23 at midnight EST. Good Luck!
Check out the other Izea Insiders for more chances to win:
I love to play games, and I think my love of games has rubbed off on my children. I’ll play any board game against anyone. I personally love Monopoly, but in 12 years, my husband has only one a few times (so for some reason, he doesn’t want to play with me anymore). However, this year, I think our game playing will be on our Wii. We are having Christmas at my house, and we are the only one with a Wii. Besides some Wii games, I think we will be playing War and Go Fish, since Madison is four and that is about all she knows how to play.
What games do you play on playing over the holidays?
Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody
55 years old from Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Call it breaking the brass ceiling. Ann E. Dunwoody, after 33 years in the Army, ascended Friday to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general.
At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody looked back on her years in uniform, said it was a credit to the Army?and a great surprise to her?that she would make history in a male-dominated military.
“Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding,” she told a standing-room-only auditorium. “Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family.
“It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession,” she added. “So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?’ I say, `Not in my wildest dreams.’
“There is no one more surprised than I?except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, `Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.’”
You can read the rest of Gen. Dunwoody’s story here.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
I hate when your day starts off so well and then quickly goes downhill from there. Sunday morning was one of those days. Sunday started with the kids sleeping in till ten. Yes, ten. I was just as surprised. I also decided that we were going to go to church. I swear my husband is sometimes worse than the kids because he whined more than they did. My kids have not gone to church very often which I know is my fault. However, since Madison might go to Catholic school next year, I felt we should definitely go to mass. Mass was at 11:30 AM, so we had plenty of time to get ready and go. We made it to church with plenty of time to spare. Will made it about three fourths of the way through the mass before I had to take him out. Madison lasted till about five minutes left. However, she had to go to the bathroom, so she had a good excuse. we liked the church. Madison told us she loved it and wanted to go back. After that, Madison wanted to go to Denny’s and get alien pancakes. That is her favorite food. Since she was good in church, we decided to go there and eat dinner. lunch took forever but it was good. After that, we decided to go get Bill, Will, and Madison’s hair cut. That also went well. We came home, and Bill noticed that Madison seem to have gone to the bathroom quite a bit while we were out. After being home for about 30 minutes, Madison was in the bathroom about four times. I asked her if it hurt, and she told me she had “hot pee”. as a woman, this definitely sounded like an urinary tract infection. I personally have had a ton of them. Now, it is Sunday afternoon, so there was not a whole lot of places we could go. I first tried CVS minute clinic, but they would not treat her because she was under 12. I took her to the local urgent care. We got there one minute before they closed. However, at CVS, Madison had went to the bathroom. She did not have to go when we got to urgent care. She also was refusing to drink any water. While we were there she went four times, each time she only went about four drops. the ended up giving us an antibiotic and sent us home. However, Bill and I had a dinner downtown at Navy Pier for his work. It started at six. I got out of the doctor’s office at six. Downtown is over a half hour for us to get there. Seriously. in my area, I went to the only Walgreen that was still open. I hate that Walgreens, because they have horribly slow service. They told me two hours, I told him I would be back in a half hour. I went home and got ready in about 20 minutes. While we were gone, Bill had packed the kids bags to spend the night at grandmas. we packed the kids in the car and headed back to our brains. Of course, her prescription was not built yet. Also, while we were waiting in the car, Madison had to go to back them. I then had to take both kids out of the car and go into Walgreens. In the meantime, Bill had gotten her prescription and could not figure out where we went. we finally caught up to him, and we were on our way. Bill and I ended up being around an hour and a half wait for his dinner. However, they had just sat down to dinner when we got there, so our timing was great. The party was actually pretty fun. All in all, I guess it was not that bad of a day — the afternoon just stunk. Madison is doing well now. I swear, my kids never get sick during the week — the only get sick after hours or on the weekends.
As a mom, how often do you hear this question? At my house, this is a daily question. I never grew up with pets. My husband grew up with a ton of them. Right now, we use to have fish (and we are getting a little fish tank next week). That is the only pet Madison has known.
She asks all the time for a dog or a cat. However, she does ask if we can keep the rabbits, squirrels, ants, chipmunks, and pretty much anything else she sees on the ground. If she’s sees a commercial for an animal on TV, she has to have it. She’ll even go as far as pausing the tv (we have a dvr, so she can do that) to make sure we see it! Yes, I think she needs a pet. However, we are often gone on the weekends which does not make our house too pet friendly. I am also allergic to both cats and dogs (not a bad allergy, but one nonetheless).
What kind of things do your kids want as pets? What do you have as a pet?
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Granting Wishes at Sears
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008TThis post is sponsored, but the ideas, thoughts and ramblings are my own.
Since having kids, I turned into a big softie. Yes, I’ll actually admit it. I cry at things I never would have before, and I think about things that never would have crossed my mind before having kids. I’ll be honest here — I get all teary eyed at Sears new commercials. Their new campaign is about how one gift can change someone’s life. Since I absolutely love Ty Pennington, I thought I’d show you what he had to say:
Bill and I bundled the kids off early yesterday morning and headed off to Sears. I luck out since Sears is actually walking distance from my house, and we actually shop their quite a bit — off the top of my head, we got a bench, our snowblower, and our lawnmower from there. However, on this trip, we had no idea what we were going to get. My Christmas shopping is pretty much done, so we were going to try to find something for the kids.
Now, the school district I live in has cut the art and music programs from the curriculum and will not be adding them back. I have written many posts on this blog about how awful I think this situation is and how I feel that music definitely is a class that should not be cut. My daughter loves to play instruments and sing. I can’t imagine depriving her of it. With the $100 Sears gift card, we will be able to fulfill her wish and give her the additional music support she will not be getting from our school. Who knows — Madison may end up to be talented singer, dancer, in a band, etc. However, I’d love to give her the stepping stones she needs to reach her full potential. (Plus, well, Guitar Hero is fun for mom and dad too. Dad was all over getting it when I told him there was 3 Tool songs and Freak On A Leash by Korn. I also need to add that the gift card paid for a portion of the cost of this bundle. I paid the rest.)
Since we got such an awesome family gift from Sears, I’d like to extend this awesome opportunity to one of my readers. Yes, I’d like to give you a $100 gift card to Sears to use however you like.
You can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post:
Blog Comment:
I just need you to tell me what you think you’d want to spend your $100 on. Head on over to Sears and let me know the item number of what you like.
Twitter:
I’ve made it super easy for you to Twitter about this contest. Just tweet out this message:
RT @blm03 please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card – tweet to make your own wish: http://urlbrief.com/8e0599
Blog Post:
You can also enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to this post. Make sure you leave a comment with the URL to your post, so I can count it as an entry.
Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration. You can register up to three times by tweeting, leaving a comment, and doing a post on your blog. The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries. This contest goes until December 23 at midnight EST. Good Luck!
Check out the other Izea Insiders for more chances to win:
BenSpark
Steven Sanders
Corrin Renee
Elizabeth
Laurie
Kat
Heather
Brett
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