Blog World Giveaways

OK, so I like to enter giveaways when I have the time. So, here's where I'll be listing the giveaways I've found during the week, and if I'm lucky enough to win something. For grins, I'll include a MckLinky so you can enter any other giveaways (yours or someone else's) that I've missed. Have fun, and good luck winning lots of cool stuff!

I WON! I'm so excited. OK, so a couple months ago I won some toothpaste and mouthwash, but this is way cooler. I won some great makeup from Estee Lauder. Here's what I won:

What you see here is a Pure Color Multi-Shimmer Gloss in Rose Gold, Double Wear Stay-In-Place Lipstick in Stay Mauve, TurboLash All Effects Motion Mascara in Black and Double Wear Stay-In-Place ShadowCreme in Ivory Lace. The gloss looks really pretty in the bottle it's layered and shimmery, and smells really good. The TurboLash mascara, is one of the new vibrating ones, I was excited when I realized that, and even though I was on the couch in my sweats, had to put on mascara. It felt a little weird at first, but went on great, I really like it. So thank you Estee Lauder for my fun new make-up!

Now here's the giveaways I've found today (I'll keep updating throughout the day if I find more).
Warm & Safe Crib Batting
250 Personalized Stickers
Breast Cancer Awareness Tote Bag (hurry, this one ends tomorrow)
Fire Opal Fantasy Chandelier Earrings
Name Your Tune: Personalized CD Giveaway
Crane Adorable Animal Cool Mist Humidifiers- Review and Giveaway!
Original Painting Give Away by TyeJ
Win Ravens Audiobook and Support A Great Cause!
La Petite Krott Creations Snappy Nappy Give Away
Giveaway & Review Make Ahead Meals For Busy Moms by Jane Doiron Cookbook
Rhoda Rose Chocolate Covered Give Away
Stuffed pumpkin from "The Q Pumpkin Patch"
Yoplait “Promise to Make a Difference” gift




Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Wordless Wednesday - OK, Dogs Are Weird Too

To be fair to all the cats, dogs can be weird too. These are my weirdos.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Around the World

My wonderful son, the adorable teenager that he is, has interesting taste in music. He's very open minded, enjoying everything from Bach to Linkin Park. Today he's decided to listen to the same song, over and over again. Have you heard the Around the World song? It's very repetative, and it goes like this: Around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world.... etc. You get the point. But in case you don't, just play this.

Well, the first time through it's funny. The second time through I wondered how many times they actually say "around the world". By the fifth time through I wanted to pull out my hair and shove it in my ears so I didn't have to hear it anymore. Then my brain decided to turn on, and I grabbed a pair of headphones, stuck them in his computer and handed them to him. Ah, peace and quiet. I'm not one to begrudge my kid the ability to listen to whatever music he enjoys (though I do pay attention to language and the message the songs portray). But other than that, he can listed to whatever genre makes him happy. And does, sometimes he plays classical music on his piano, sometimes he listens to country with me, other times he's listening to heavy metal, and now and then he listens to songs from animated films. I'm very happy that he has such broad interests. I just don't want to hear "Around the World" again, and wish it would stop playing in my head. AAAAAAHHHHHH Get Out Of My Brain!!!!

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Um...

Did you ever stare at your screen at a blank blog post and wonder, "Why can't I think of what I want to write?" That's how I feel today, I had all sorts of great ideas all through the day, wrote in my head a glorious post full of some great writing work, and as I opened this post I couldn't remember word one. How sad is that? I wonder if it is a sign of getting older... nah, I'm still too young for that. Must be the lack of sleep. Well, next time around I think I'll keep a notebook with me so I don't lose these gems.

Well, since I can't think straight today, I guess it's time to go read some other people's blogs. Maybe I'll find some miraculous inspiration for tomorrow.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Wordless Wednesday: My Poor Car Has Been Through A Lot This Year

Meet the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Car. She's had a bad year...

This happened Mid February 2009

This happened Mid August 2009

Had to drive with a plastic sheet on the back window for a couple days


Thankfully she's all better now...

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Funny Sleepers

My husband (whom I will be calling GB in order to protect him from utter embarrassment, and I won't tell you what it stands for because if he found out I did he'd wring my neck!) has a habit of saying and doing the funniest things in his sleep - besides the horribly loud snoring. So I've decided to keep a log of some of these things. (So be sure to come back and check out any more stuff I add to this post.)

One of the things I vividly remember is one night several years ago we were in bed, and he was snoring so loud I couldn't sleep (I bet many of you have been there). Well, I nudged him and whispered "Roll over, you're snoring." Well, he yelled back (and I mean yelled, in a very angry voice), "I'm not even asleep, I can't be snoring. It's the dog." To which I nearly burst out laughing, since I had been watching him snore, could tell where it was coming from, and the dog was in our son's bedroom at the time. When I told him the story in the morning, he didn't remember any of it. Which is always the case.

Here's some of the other things he has said:
* DB! Come take off my shoes. (He wasn't wearing shoes at the time) - DB is what I call my son, it's short for Destructo Boy, which I'll explain in detail eventually.

* GB: "Who took the pictures?"
Me: "What pictures?"
GB: "The pictures on the computer?"
Me: "What computer?"
GB: "Your computer?"
Me: "There aren't any pictures on my computer..."
GB: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

* GB: "DB!" (who had been in bed for an hour)
Me: "He's in bed, what do you need?"
GB: "Tell him to bring me the words"
Me: "What words?"
GB: "He needs to bring me the words so I can explain them."
Me: "What words are you talking about?"
GB: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

The Spooky Sounds of the Night

I lay here in bed staring at the shapes in the ceiling. I can hear the whirling and faint ticking of the ceiling fan ticking. *rattle, rattle* What was that! I freeze for a moment and try and place the sound. Oh wait, that was just one of the dogs rolling around in her sleep, her tags clinking together. Then comes the creaking. Was that a footstep? Is there someone in my house? Oh no. What's going to happen now? I hold perfectly still, hold my breath, and listen harder. No more sounds. Well, perhaps I should feel comforted by the fact that we have an alarm system in place. Did I remember to set it? Shoot, get out of bed, go check the alarm. Yep, it's set. What am I so worried about?

I go back to bed, curl up with my blanket and close my eyes. What was that?! I don't recognize that sound. So many thoughts run through my head of all the things this person I'm sure has snuck into my house is planing to do. Do I wake up my husband? He still gives me a hard time about the last time I woke him up for nothing. Breath! The dogs aren't barking, so it's probably nothing, right? What if he's so quiet they haven't heard him yet? Stop it! Stop thinking all these things. There is no one in the house. It's just the creaking of the house settling. The normal typical noises of the night. I knew there was a reason I stay up so late that I'm exhausted by the time I go to bed. It's so I fall asleep before I can hear the creapy noises. Why is my house trying to scare me at night?

The house! It's not someone sneaking in, it's the house. It's haunted, or has a mind of it's own. What is it house? What did I do to you? What didn't I do? Would you like a new paint job? Maybe it didn't like the color from the last time. Maybe it's the flooring, what if the house liked the carpeting because it was warmer? . . . . .

OK, now I know I'm suffering from sleep deprivation. The house is trying to scare me because it liked the carpeting better? What is wrong with me? Have I completely lost it? No, just tired. Need to sleep. But the noises, the sounds, the spooky shadows in the night. How can I sleep? Must sleep, can't stay up anymore. Pull the blanket over my head, because every child knows that pulling the blanket over your head protects you from the evil in the night. So now I'm safe. Sleep must come now, it just has to . . .

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

I Hate Ironing!

Why can't we make more fabrics that don't need to be ironed? We can make a car that can plug into our house. We've put men on the moon. We can make a box that can decode images sent from satellites in space (TV). So why do I have to stand by an ironing board with this silly gadget and try to get wrinkles out of my clothes? Is this really necessary? You'd think that somewhere along the line, someone with influence would just shout ENOUGH!!

People of the world unite! We will not iron our clothes. We will not pay someone else to iron them for us. We will not get to the hotel for a business trip, pull out a nice outfit for a business meeting only to realize that it's so wrinkled from the trip that we need to spend an hour ironing it! I'd rather spend that time in the jacuzzi. Now I know, there are some places out there making wrinkle free clothes, and I applaud them. {Hooray! Bravo! Clap, Clap, Clap} But it's not enough. Clothing manufactures everywhere, listen to me. Make more wrinkle free clothes! And make them less expensive. I can't pay $200 for a skirt, and $500 for the jacket to go with it. I don't even spend that on shoes!

But what difference can one little person make (OK, so I'm not all that little, but you know what i mean.) So until I can get a suit in wrinkle free fabric, I'll hang out in my t-shirts, jeans, and workout pants. . . Now look what you've done. If I'm in a t-shirt and workout pants already, I won't have a decent excuse not to workout. So now I'll start working out more, lose weight, and none of my clothes will fit. So I'll have to go out and buy more clothes (that probably won't be wrinkle free!) to replace my wardrobe. *Gasp* They're doing it on purpose... It's all a plot to get us to buy more clothes! How sneaky and manipulative. Will they stop at nothing. How dare the clothing manufactures trick us like this. It's appalling. Unite against the beast, don't fall for it, stay strong my sisters (and brothers), don't let them fool you into working out and potentially losing weight because the only thing that doesn't get wrinkled is your workout wear! Don't let them trick you so you have to buy a new wardrobe! . . .

....... I wonder if I've let my mind wander too much today.....

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Teenage Boys - Eww

I am the mother of a 13 year old boy. Little boys are cute, and sometimes gross. They like to play in the mud and dirt, they play with snails and bugs, and they are in general semi-disgusting.

Teenage boys are worse. They're growing hair in places that a mother does not want to see (get your mind out of the gutter people, I'm talking about his armpits). They smell. Come on kid, I buy you deoderant for a reason. Take a shower and put some on! Then there is the hair on his upper lip - I'm too young to have a kid old enough to shave!! For goodness sakes, when did this happen??? Leg hair galore, I don't even want to know about hair anywhere else... but he tells me anyway.

One one hand, I don't want him to feel embarrased to talk to me about anything, especially while he is going through the difficulties of puberty, but did he really just tell me that? And how can I convince him that it's wrong for him to walk around in his underwear all of a sudden when it wasn't a problem before? Not only that, but his father still does it and that doesn't bother me. Well, I don't have an issue with seeing my husband's "package", but my son - EWWW! I don't want to know how big it may or may not be, I really don't want to know anything about it unless it is a medical type issue that a doctor may need to know about. But if I tell him that, or show disgust or embarrasment at discussions of such a private nature, he may start to feel uncomfortable talking to me, which is the last thing I want. So I'll suck it up, but get him shorts to wear to bed, and try and do what a good mommy would do for her son that is growing up WAY too fast.

I guess it could be worse, he could be walking around naked. Or really worse, he could feel like he can't talk to me about stuff, and have a big problem come down the way in the future. I miss the easier times when it was as simple as feed him, bathe him, change him, and love him. But he is turning into a fine young man, and as grossed out as I am occasionally, he is very smart, kindhearted, fit, likeable, honest and has a plan for his future that he is willing to work for. What more could a mother really ask? Top it all off, he's super cute, so I know my grandbabies are going to be adoreble. :) Not that I want grandkids anytime soon, he's still too young for that!

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Cats are Weird

So there I was visiting with some family, when their cat jumped up on the coffee table. Nothing new there, I've seen cats do that. It was what happened next that was the weird part. Silly little kitty thought to himself, "hm, this bowl looks like a nice place to take a nap." So he climbed in, curled up and proceded to fall asleep. And there he stayed. Must have been comfy. My son spun the bowl in circles, and kitty didn't so much as meow. We left an hour or so later, and the cat was still asleep in the bowl.

I can honestly say I have never looked at a bowl and wanted to nap in it. Ever see a dog do that? Well, I have seen fish nap in bowls, but only when they live there. Well, Mister Kitty, I sure hope you liked it in there.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Random Thoughts and Rainbows

Hello. I am a blogoholic. As I write this post, I am up to 7 blogs that I personally write and 3 that I collaborate on. That's 10 blogs. Is that sick or what?

So, here it is. Even with all that blogging, I realize that I have lots of random thoughts and things I'd like to share that don't fit into any of my topics. So here we are. My Random Thoughts of a Blogoholic. You never know what to expect here. I'm not even sure what to expect yet. So stay tuned for my randomness.

I saw a rainbow the other day when driving home from work. It wasn't in the sky where rainbows normally reside. This one made its home in the sprinklers that fed a patch of grass off a freeway on ramp. It made me smile to see the rainbow.

At first I thought it was a little sad that the rainbow decided to come down and live in such a small place, but then I realized that the little rainbow knew it would have a home for a long time, even when it isn't raining. Smart little rainbow. I hope we meet again soon.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic