Different Safety Tips for the Holidays

Guest post written by Bernardo Graham

There are many safety precautions that everyone should take during the holiday season. I always follow a few simple steps to ensure that my Christmas is a truly jolly one. One tip that you could make use of is to set your home security alarm from ADT home systemsbefore you leave to do any shopping. This tip might seem simple, but you'd never believe how beneficial it really is. Another tip that I personally always use is to not go out if it's snowing. You might also want to refrain from driving at night if it's recently rained. The rain will actually freeze over and turn to ice. It can be very dangerous to many people on the road.
Obviously, another tip to follow would be to watch the stove when you're cooking anything for the holidays. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how many people will burn and overcook things. In fact, it's not uncommon to start a fire if you're planning to deep fry your turkey. I always sit in the kitchen when I'm preparing any holiday feast. This not only protects the home from a potential fire, but it also helps me to keep an eye on something so that it doesn't burn or overcook. By following a few simple steps, you'll be sure to have a safe holiday every single year.

Winter Storm Warning

After waiting for a White Christmas, we finally have snow today which is more than we expected. We got a winter storm warning Wednesday evening and this morning when I woke up I saw snow falling and saw snow everywhere. We will have a White New year then instead of White Christmas. It feels a lot winter season now that we got more snow. Good thing hubby's truck is all ready for the winter since he already put his snow tires on it, including my car and Mom-in-laws car.

Knitting for Fun

Written by  Constance Hayden


My knitting experience is very limited. Because I am a left handed person, it was very difficult for me to learn how to knit. Everyone who taught me was right handed and I would have to take everything they showed me and turn it around. Needless to say, many of my first projects came out looking not quite as lovely as I wanted. In fact, they were downright ugly.
I bought many books on learning how to knit, but, again mostly written for the right handed knitter. I even learned how to take a mirror to the pictures in the books and have them reverse for me. This didn't really help with the quality of my knitting. Finally I met a lady who was left handed and was a terrific knitter. I convinced her to teach me to knit properly and now my knitting projects all come out looking as they should.
I love to knit now and have managed to make quite a few projects, blankets, hats, scarves and even a sweater. They are all beautiful and everyone I have given one to loves them. Knitting helps me to relax and I especially love to knit while sitting and watching my satellite television from http://www.expertsatellite.com/. It took me many years to finally learn to do it right and my goal now is to teach as many left handed persons to knit as I can.

Denver Trip

We just came home from a trip in Denver last night. We stayed there overnight to attend my step-son's wedding. We were grateful that the weather was really good that made our trip successfully safe. Tyler was doing well during the entire trip. We stayed in a very nice hotel and got a suite room which was really nice. We are glad that we were back home safely last night.

Carpet Cleaning

When it comes to carpet cleaning, it’s really a tough job especially if you have pets in the house. We usually have one pet dog “Bandit” a Golden Retriever and a Chow mix so his got a lot of hair but we keep his hair trimmed short but now since we have another dog "Kyle" which my step daughter brought in the house, keeping the carpet clean is a lot more of a challenge because she sheds a lot. Good thing there are a lot of carpet cleaning services around Grand Junction where we could find that can give us good deal. It’s so nice to know that there are companies that offer such services anywhere here in the US. If you live somewhere in Texas, you can also find carpet cleaning services and if you are looking for one and don’t know what company that offers good services you can check online carpet cleaner review austin and you will find a lot of information about carpet cleaning services in Austin, Texas. This site will help you find the best carpet cleaning solutions austin has to offer. If your carpet cleaning don’t work might as well search on carpet repairs austin, too.

Prenatal Check Up

My prenatal check up went good this morning. My baby's heart rate was at 157 beats/min, my OB measured my tummy, got my urine checked too and everything went normal. I'm glad that everything is all good. Though my sciatic has been hurting but that's all I could deal with it. After my prenatal check up, hubby and I went to IHop for breakfast. We had a good breakfast and enjoyed our company together since Tyler was at home with grandma.

The First Snowfall of the Year Brings Feelings of Happiness

Author: Jonathan Suarez

The first snowfall of the year is one of my favorite things; it seems like the world stops as the graceful dance of snow flakes make their way to earth. For a brief moment, our hectic lives seem to fade away as the beautiful silence fills the air leaving us to breathe in the soothing fragrance of winter.
We fall asleep with the assurance that upon waking we will find that the cold barren season of fall has been replaced with a wonderful blend of snow and ice clinging like frosting to the tops of trees and houses. We are reminded of a simpler time when as children we couldn't wait to get outside and frolic in the new fallen snow.
The contest was on to see who in the snow covered neighborhood could build the biggest and best snowman, and of course we always wanted our own Frosty the Snowman in our front yards. It didn't matter how cold it was, as a child did we really ever feel the cold? We rolled and rolled until the snow balls were too big to lift onto one another, and of course Dad would have to help.
The wonderful part of the first snowfall was standing back gazing proudly at the creation we had just finished and sheer joy filling our souls. Topping off the day would be mom announcing from the warm inviting house that the hot chocolate was ready.
We all storm in throwing our winter gear in careless abandonment as we head to the family room. There is nothing greater than the feel of hot chocolate warming our bodies as we huddle to watch some family special on the direct tv specials.

Holiday rush

We are not done getting the stuff we need for the holiday yet. I just talked to hubby, he is doing the shopping with mom-in-law and I am left at home watching Tyler. I need to stay home so he will have a chance to get what he wants to give me for Christmas presents I think. Ha,ha,ha,...We always go together to shop so this time he went without me plus it gives him more time to shop without having to rush since Tyler is not with him. I already started wrapping the presents for everyone but there are still some that I can't wrap coz hubby has to tell me whose are those stuffs and besides I don't want to open the shopping bag where some of the stuffs he bought were there. Only couple of days til Christmas day.

Christmas Presents

We have the Christmas Tree set up already and have decorated it with lights and Christmas balls. The only thing that's missing is the Christmas present/s or gift/s to add more excitement and life to our Christmas tree. We already bought some stuff for gifts but haven't wrapped them yet. We still need to get some more stuff for the children's presents though. Hubby and I decided that we will be spending less for Christmas presents this year. He already told his children not to expect too much for presents. I'm still thinking of what to give with hubby and mom-in-law. It's hard to decide what to give hubby, mom-in-law already told everyone that she doesn't want anything for Christmas except for a card. Christmas day is getting closer as the weather is getting colder for the winter season. I'm glad we don't get much snow yet here in the valley but in the mountains they have gotten more. I'm still in the search for winter boots and haven't found the one I like yet. I have search over the internet with different shoe stores online and I came across with zappos.com which sells different brands of high quality and fashionable footwear like Born, Columbia, Cesare Paciotti and many more plus they have a huge sale on these brand of shoes that I just mentioned.

Finally done with class

I'm glad my Anatomy and Physiology class is already over. Just had our final exam this afternoon. I thought it wasn't that too hard that I expected. Although I know I got confused on some of the questions but I'm hoping that my score won't be that bad.Hubby dropped me off to school this afternoon because we thought it would snow but it turned out to be a fine weather. He also picked me up after the class. Tyler and mom-in-law was with him the whole time. While waiting for my class to end they drove to Montrose and had dinner and shopped by Russell Stover for chocolates.

Touches of nature on our Christmas tree

Guest post written by Georgia Hammel


When I was putting up our Christmas tree about a week ago, I got to looking at it once all the ornaments were on and it was lit up. There just seemed to be something missing. I couldn't really place what it was that it was missing until just a few days ago. Everything on the tree was plastic! I thought that it wouldn't hurt to have something on it that looked a little like it should be on an actual tree.
I looked through some decorating blogs and resources to try and pick out something that I could easily get to put on the tree to add that extra something that it needed. When I was searching for that idea, I came across the website Cleartvbundle.com and after reading through most of it, ordered an internet package off of it.
The idea of pine cone ornaments struck me after I looked through a particular blog and couldn't believe that I hadn't thought about it before. It was such a simple idea, but once I put them up on the tree I knew they were the exact thing it needed.

Final Exam

Tomorrow will be my final exam for the class (Anatomy and Physiology) I am taking. We did some review in class yesterday and I had been studying all the lessons that we took in class. I'm hoping to do good on the exam and be able to get an "A" for the final grade. I'm glad that tomorrow will be my last day of school.

Getting a house

Hubby and I are planning of getting our own house next year, hopefully. Since the real estate is down we might be able to get a good deal for a property where we can pay less than what we are paying for rent right now. We keep checking on properties online with different real estate companies hoping to be able to find the right property that we would like to own. Though it’s still just a plan but we are hoping to make it realized next year before the contract lease of this house we live ends. We are also be checking on different mortgage companies that would help us give the best deal and lowest interest rates. As I keep searching online I stumble upon http://www.equileads.com/ a website that offers affordable and guaranteed leads if you are in the business of selling  mortgages, home loans,  healthcare insurance, homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance and other types of insurances. If you are in the mortgage business check out
http://www.equileads.com/mortgage.php and find out more information about it or if you are a webmaster, a website owner or a blogger you can also generate income for your site by becoming an affiliate which sounds good to me. Maybe I could check
http://www.equileads.com/affiliates/ so I would know to join and become an affiliate since I have my own blog.

Family Portrait

We got our family portrait for Christmas this year and we liked it very much. Tyler looked so cute and adorable in every photo. I know my parents will love to see those photos. I will be sending them copies and I already gave mom-in-law copies of those photos as well and she loved them.

Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching and there are only a couple of weeks until Christmas Day. Oh my goodness! I can’t believe how the days go by so fast. We haven’t put up our Christmas tree yet, nor any sort of Christmas decorations in the house. Oh, I take that back mom-in-law changed the table cover into a Christmas motif and put a Christmas centerpiece on the middle of the table which really looked pretty. That’s the only Christmas décor we have in the house so far. We are planning to get our live Christmas tree this week so hopefully we will be able to put our tree up before the week ends. I need to start thinking about Xmas gifts for the family too. I have been thinking about what to give for hubby, Tyler, mom-in-law and the rest of the family. Sometimes it’s hard to decide on what to give as Christmas presents. Hubby is not picky and he would appreciate anything I give him. Although hubby and I have bought some stuffs for Tyler as Christmas presents but I’m still thinking of other things to give him aside from toys. Maybe books about Christmas Stories, I might be able to find good books for toddlers that Tyler might be interested about. I better check online and see if I could find one.

Call from Canada

I just got a call from a friend in Canada. It's been awhile that we haven't communicated each other and it was nice to chat with her. She tried to call me many times and left a message on the phone and I tried to return her calls but couldn't reach her. Sometimes, I thought about calling her again but then by the end of the day I forgot and when I remember that I needed to call it was already late in the evening. So, finally earlier she called me and good thing I was home and got her call. We talked a lot of things about our families back home. She is planning to go back to the Philippines for a vacation next year. She wanted me to spend vacation in the Philippines next year too so we could meet again but I can't do it since my due date is next year. I told her my plan to visit the Philippines will be in 2012 and I'm hoping that I will be able to make it that time.

Vacation near the Ocean

I haven’t been to all the States here in America but have been to couple of them like Florida where hubby and I got married and spent our honeymoon, Utah where we visited the Latter-Day Saints  Temple in Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas, Nevada where we usually spent summer vacation with the children. I am hoping to be able to visit other places here in the US where we can spend and stay near the ocean. I miss going to the beach where I used to live back in the Philippines where there are so many beach resorts. Hubby grew up in Florida so he loved the ocean though he doesn’t like the humid weather. I told hubby maybe in the near future we could spend our vacation near the ocean and enjoy the beach. He suggested that South Carolina have nice places to visit and stay in a hotel near the ocean like the Myrtle Beach Hotel. He said we could find a lot of hotels that are near the beach. I told him since you like golf maybe he could find a beach resort that we could stay and he can also enjoy playing rounds of golf during our stay.  As we were talking about it. We started checking online for Myrtle Beach best hotels and got so excited and came across with http://www.horizonmyrtlebeach.com where we thought has all the amenities we would like if we wanted to spend our vacation. Hmmm, hubby and I were in la,la, land as we were imagining how fun it would be.

Two Meetings

Only have two meetings for my class to end next Wednesday and I am excited about it. This afternoon we had a test and I was glad that I did good on that test. Got an A for that test and I am hoping that I will do good for the Final Exam next week so I could get an A for my final grade in my Anatomy and Physiology class.

Counting down the days until Christmas

Guest post written by Gina Peppers


This time of the year is some of the most exciting days of the year. But if you have kids they can be some of the most stressful too! I have three kids and it can be really tricky keeping track of all of them on a normal basis. Luckily, I actually got most of their presents taken care of this year on Cyber Monday. Plus, it helps because they always ship packages during the day when the kids are at school so I can get them wrapped before they can get home from school.
Now I just have to worry about keeping them in line and me from going crazy until Christmas comes. I thought that I would do something special for them to help them count down these days, so I went online to look for an advent calendar. While I was online, I found this site clearwirelessinternetservice.com and after looking through it, signed up for internet service through it.
I was just going to buy an advent calendar, but I decided instead to do a DIY advent calendar because that way I could put three pieces of candy or put activities on each day that they could do together.

Getting ready for church

Everyone is getting reading for church. I can't believe how the days go by so fast. There are only 20 days til Christmas and we haven't put up our Christmas tree yet. I'm hoping we can get our tree this week and put it up. We will have another family portrait for Christmas this afternoon. It's going to be the whole family including grandma, and all of hubby's children and their family.

Buying a house

Hubby and I are considering about getting our own house next year while the real estate market is still down. We are on the hunt for a nice, bigger but affordable house for sale since we are renting now and we can get a house and pay a monthly mortgage less than what we pay for rent right now. Checking at homes from the different real estate websites online are exciting. We haven’t checked and walked in at those homes that we liked yet but I have already some properties in my checklist that I would consider. We are not looking for brand new house but even an fixer upper home will be fine as long we get a good deal for it. We can always fix it and customize it and there’s nothing to worry about the materials to use because I know they can be bought anywhere even online. Even stainless steel kitchen sink or a butcher block countertop is available online or can be bought at a nearest supply stores. I told hubby that when I have our second baby I would like to have a rocking chair in our bedroom so it would be easier for me to just sit on the rocking chair while feeding the baby especially at night. I have seen a lot of different brands of those rocking chair online like adirondack chair. I am hoping that we could reach our goal to get our own home next year.

Kicking baby in my tummy

I often feel my baby move inside my tummy even if I was only less than 5 mos pregnant. During the ultrasound the baby was just moving around, turning and kicking his arms and legs everywhere. Well, the echo tech even liked it because she was able to get good images of the baby's anatomy. When the Dr. came in and double check the ultrasound images he told me that my baby is floating very close to my skin because the placenta lies behind him. No, wonder I could feel every single move my baby makes. Sometimes, when I lay down I thought there was something crawling on my skin but it was just my baby. it's a weird feeling every time my baby squirm inside my tummy.

Christmas trees; The hunt

Thanks for the article from Antone Medina


When Christmas rolls around, this is a wonderful time of the year for family bonding. Year after year, we experience many wonderful memories that involve purchasing our Christmas tree. We will gather the family in the van and I set my Adt Home Security before we go get our Christmas tree. When we arrive at our Boy Scout funded Christmas tree location, we spend lots of time looking through the trees. Many trees are too short, some are too fat, many are too tall and skinny, but when you find the one that is right you know.
Our family takes great joy once we stumble across the perfect tree. It is usually about 6 foot and medium sized on the bottom. It cannot have bare spots; at least where the front is going to show and it must not show any browning. We bring home our wonderful tree and start to decorate, we spend as much time as we need and enjoy each other's company, singing Christmas carols and stringing the lights, placing the ornaments, stringing the icicles and finally, placing our beautiful star on top.
Christmas tree shopping is a wonderful event cherished by the whole family. Everyone enjoys having a real Christmas tree and since we started our tradition of finding our own tree, we have never gone back to an artificial one.

Another baby boy

Yes, another baby boy in the family that's what it appeared during my ultrasound. Though it would be neat to have a baby girl but hubby and I are very happy to have another boy and to know that the baby in my tummy is developing healthily. So far the Dr. said that there's nothing to worry about because everything looked perfectly fine. The ultrasound technician was very thorough in taking images of the baby's anatomy. So we were glad to find out about the fact that the baby is healthy. I'm sure Tyler will be happy when he sees his little brother in April. I would like them to be close to each other and love each other as they grow older. I would love them both to be mommy and daddy's boys.

My Scrubs

It’s been almost two months since I quit working at the nursing home. It feels so good to be home and just take care of my baby boy and be a full time housewife. Though I sometimes I get bored but I get over with it easily since I get myself busy with the house chores and Tyler. Every time I opened my closet to get some clothes to wear I always see my set of scrubs and miss wearing them and thought about my work at the nursing home. Well, it’s only temporary coz I will be going back to healthcare again after I give birth if I didn’t go into the LPN Program. I guess by the time I go back in the nursing home again I would need new scrubs coz I don’t know if my old ones would still fit on me. I got some ua uniform scrubs which I really like. It won’t be hard to where to buy uniforms because I could get them online through blueskyscrubs. They different unique scrubs at very affordable price. You can even buy wholesale nursing uniforms from them at very reasonable price too.

My Birthday

It's another year to celebrate and be thankful for the gift of life that God has given me. Me and hubby had lunch at International Buffet without Tyler. Mom-in law volunteered to watch Tyler at home to give me and hubby time for ourselves together since it's my birthday. We did had a good lunch and went to the grocery store to buy some foods for Tyler. We also went and shop for some clothes which I need for the cold weather. For the birthday presents. Hubby gave me a ring with my birthstone which is really nice and mom-in-law gave me a very nice birthday card which made me cry as usual every time she gave me one because of the very meaningful and thoughtful words she put in the card. I got a birthday cake too which is sweet. Ha,ha,... To my hubby and mom-in-law thanks for everything. I appreciate all the love and all the things you did and do for me. I love you both so very much.