Wednesday, March 31, 2010

And The winner is.....

To find out who won, visit my new blog at http://web.me.com/bevis1/Kats_Cradle/Kats_Cradle/Kats_Cradle.html
This is where I will be posting from now on. Please update your following information accordingly by clicking follow when you go to my site. Thanks :)

Winner!

Welcome to my new site! I decided to make the most out of my mobile me account by creating this little website. Let me know what you think :)

The winner is comment number 1! T, you win! Enjoy your yogurt and goddess kit. This winner was generated at random.org.

Regular update tommorow :)

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Yoplait Greek Yogurt Review and Giveaway!

Want to nourish your inner goddess? Try Yoplait's greek yogurt. Did you know that Dannon and Yoplait were the same company? I didn't. Huh.

To celebrate its new Greek yogurt and to encourage women to nourish their inner goddess, Yoplait has teamed up with actress Izabella Miko, who plays Greek Goddess Athena in the Clash of The Titans. (I can't wait to watch this! I will be in Columbus next weekend for anyone who wants to go with me.) Check out this cool trailer.

Anyhow, the people at yoplait and MyBlogSpark, were kind enough to send me a goddess kit, that you can also win. I tried to yogurt, and found it to be rich and thick, and yummy. This greek yogurt is to regular yogurt what custard is to ice cream. Thick, creamy, and delicious.
Only unlike custard, this yogurt has no fat, and is 120 calories per container.
There are three different flavors of Greek Yogurt from Yoplait: Strawberry, Blueberry, and Vanilla. My favorite was the vanilla, which surprised me actually, but it was really good. The strawberry and blueberry were also very good.
I normally eat the yoplait whips, raspberry flavor, so this yogurt was a complete different experience for me. My husband also enjoyed them, though his favorite flavor was strawberry.
Want a coupon? Visit this link to save .30 cents on Yoplait Greek Yogurt today!
Want to win your own goddess kit?
Tell me in the comments which flavor of Yoplait Greek Yogurt you are most likely to try, and tell me how you get in touch with your inner Goddess.
I was not paid for my review or give away of Yoplait Greek Yogurt, I only wish I was ;)




Wednesday, March 24, 2010

So busy!

We've been super busy moving, but I have something I just have to blog about.
Mama-baby yoga, at athens regional medical center, is awesome. I just got back and am feeling GREAT and ready to start unpacking boxes!
In case I didn't say or wasn't clear, the water from our ice maker line in our old apartment, kept leaking to the downstairs apartment. They would complain, the apartment would fix it, and then it would break again. After the last fix, our downstairs neighbors moved... so no one to report leaks. Whoops!
They inspected the apartment prior to some new person moving in, and discovered major major issues with the ceiling, and in order to fix it, we were relocated, and upgraded to another apartment in the same complex. We weren't supposed to be upgraded, but the husband and I discussed it and decided the difference in rent was equal to what we paid to use the apartments washer and dryer, so we upgraded. I managed to negotiate rent down for the inconvenience and now we are actually saving money! It's more than our old one, but less than cost of laundry.
We were reimbursed for movers, so they got everything over here, now it's just a matter of putting everything away. Our couch did not survive the move :( It was DOA anyway, one seats been broken for awhile, but the husband was content to sit on a pillow, so we are making use of our seldom used love seat until it sells on craigslist, and our new couch (also from craigslist) is being delivered in two weeks.
It's pretty, its a brown leather like couch, its really vinyl, but its in great shape, and I can wipe it off when Bella spits up :D
Our washer and dryer is coming up soon, and then we will be done with the moving thing. We put a few things in storage because Bella is getting ready to crawl and when I babysit I don't want the kids to be cramped, so our coffee table, and some shelves that never really fit in these apartments after we moved from Sandy Springs are now out of the way. I wanted to keep them because they're so pretty, and one day we will have room for them.
I feel kind of bad for the husband. I get everything I want. I've been off doing new things, and we moved, and I got my new couch, and so on, and the poor guy has wanted a flat screen/big screen tv for SO long, and it's never even been debated whether we can get it or not.
It's too much, and our other tv works fine (unlike the broken couch) it's never been and will never be a priority :(. I wish I could get it for him, and one day I will. It would be ideal to babysit 40 hours a month to repay a little borrowed savings, pay for the couch, washer/dryer transport, and the difference in rent + storage, as well as some other expenses I'd like to take on. Once basic expenses are covered, and Bella is covered (baby gates, new car seat (love the old one, but she will outgrow it soon), convertible crib, baby sign language, maybe gymboree, things like that) then I am going to try to get him the TV. I'd like to get it for him for Christmas, or maybe his birthday, but I doubt it will happen. I've been saying I'd like to get it for Christmas or his birthday since 2005. Ah well, he will surely get it for himself once he gets out of pharmacy school.
In the meantime, I need to do something special for him. He's been so great, and schools been hard. Must think of something....



Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Home

I had a great time in Columbus. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, but the trip reminded me how important it is to make more frequent trips home.
Also, I have made a decision regarding work.
I'm going to try the babysitting thing, and wait on work until at least fall, if I ever go back. My baby is only a baby once, and I just can't stand the thought of missing it. My mom worked tons, but she had to. I always said if I had kids I would stay home if I could. So it may make things a bit harder, but since it's not an absolute must, I won't do it.
So I've put an ad on craigslist, I'm going to post notices every kid friendly place I go, and at my apartment complex, and I've posted a website, put myself on google, yahoo, and everywhere else. It's a little bit of overkill, but I have all of this web stuff just hanging around from when I had my business, so why not use it?
Hopefully I will get some business soon, and it'll be great. I'll have all summer to figure out the financials and decide whether or not I absolutely have to return to work.
Wish me luck

Friday, March 12, 2010

Going to Columbus

Well it's not the beach, but it is a vacation! I'm heading to Columbus for the weekend for a much needed break.
Meanwhile, I have some things to think over.
I have decided to start a babysitting service. Why not? I've taught preschool, I have a baby, this way I could stay home. I have one potential client for Monday's, and I've already gotten a response to my craigslist ad for two more potentials earlier Monday-Friday.
With this in mind, and the fact that our current apartment has some unfixable issues and our apartment is sorry about that, so we're getting upgraded to another building. Next weekend. Yay! This other apartment is a little bigger, and much more suitable for babysitting. People can pull right up to the door, you don't have to go upstairs to get in, and we have a washer dryer connection and a little patio.
So I thought I had it all figured out, when suddenly a preschool I put my resume in at earlier called and offered me a job starting asap. Bella can come, but she has to stay in the baby room, and it's an eight hour day. State funded, so state paid, which means a decent salary, and its a contract job meaning I'm promised the job for at least a year.
Great! Except fort the ASAP thing... Bella's no where near ready for daycare. She won't take bottles, she's been held by me like 24/7, and she doesn't sleep well in cribs, we co-sleep most of the time.
They need someone now, the state requires they fill the position within 15 days so they stay in ratio. I'm all for starting in the fall, they may have a position for fall, I should know Monday, but starting Monday.... I couldn't. Fall would give me time to prepare Bella a bit better. And besides, over the summer this babysitting thing could really take off... I'd much rather stay home with the baby. It looks like a great preschool, and the baby room is great, but... I want to be with her all day. It's just a thing, I've always said if I have kids I want to be a stay at home mom. And yes, when my husband finishes pharmacy school that will be a much more viable option.
I can get by till fall, honestly I can get by until my husbands done with pharmacy school. It would just be safer to have a job. More steady... and in this economy stability is a gift. I'm so torn!
So off to Columbus for a weekend to clear my head and think things through.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Monday, March 8, 2010

I hate Dell

I forgot my anger at dell briefly, until I read this blog by momma such, and remembered I've told everyone in person about why they should never buy a dell computer, but I haven't fulfilled my threat to the dell company after my horrific experience with them two years ago by spreading the word online. Yes, I hold a grudge, mostly because my dell computer is broken, has always been broken, and they refused to take it back, fix it, or even answer the phone for hours at a time, keeping me in an infinite phone loop until I sent my mobile phone bill to them in response to a customer satisfaction survey.

Yes I hold a grudge, but I swore to them I would tell every person I knew and every person I would ever meet that they should never get a dell computer. I don't go back on my word.

I HATE dell. We used to love dell, my mom got a new dell every year for work for like five years in a row, and it was fantastic, but between 2005 and 2006 something changed (outsourcing?) and our last dell computer came to us with a broken fan, which resulted in a three hour long phone call before they finally sent somenone to fix it, the fan broke four more times that week! a bad harddrive, a non-working monitor, keyboard, and a faulty graphics card. Each problem meant hours of hold time and having people who couldn't understand me mad because I couldn't understand them. They tried to tell me they couldn't help because I didn't pay extra for help, and I told them the computer is brand new and has NEVER worked, send me a new one. They didn't, they just kept sending replacement parts, and the darn thing is still broken, but we waited past thirty days so tough luck.
I am NEVER getting another Dell again, and it has become my mission to warn every person I've ever met not to buy a dell. In fact that reminds me I haven't blogged about this yet, so I'll copy this response to my blog.
I'm an apple girl now :) They have stores, with people, that I can visit

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Spring Break!


Alright! The hubby is on spring break (me to incidentally), but my classes are fun book club like classes and writing workshops. His classes are a little more intense. I was hoping we could go somewhere beach like for the vacation, as was Bella, but the hubby really just wants some time at home relaxing and doing nothing. I figure a few days of that and he may be bored enough to head to Florida with me :). I've got plans this week anyhow. Tommorow is baby story time at the Library, and Wednesday is mommy-baby yoga. I'd rather go out of town at the beginning of the week but the end, but what can you do. The hubby needs a break. My idea of a break is sipping Pina Coladas on a beach somewhere, while the baby plays with sand in her cute cute swim suite and ordering room service for two to three days, his is sitting at home and sleeping in. Poor guy, Pharmacy School must suck really bad for you to be exhausted enough to skip the beach.

So I've been home hanging out on the couch with the hubby. I watched a few movies over the weekend because we had free blockbuster rentals. I watched Bride Wars, which was actually pretty terrible, Speak, which was good, but sad, and Where the Wild Things Are, which should have been called where the sad things are. Seriously, the movie was a sad sad depressing movie. The English Major in me loved it, full of symbolism and artistic stuff, and pretty music and visuals, but the people were sad. I know Max was dealing with anger in the book, but such depression?

I also read another amazon freebie called Primitive, which was about crazy hippies who kidnap a model and make her live in their green cult place and use the publicity to tell the people of the earth about the danger of methane.

It was exciting, but gruesomely descriptive, and personally I'm tired of hearing about the environment. I do my part to be green, but seriously, stop shoving it down my throat you know? Use all the money that's been poured into preaching about how we're the worst things that have happened to the earth and go save a rainforest somewhere. Just dial it down a notch is all.

So hopefully later this week I will be on a beach somewhere enjoying the ocean. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Free Kindle Books


A quick update: Bella had a doctors appointment and got two shots :( she is not very happy with me. However she forgave me after we went to story time at Barns and Noble this morning, and then went to get her bows and tights from Target (along with any bright starts pink toy I didn't already have for her) why bows? Because in the last three days, fifteen different people informed me that HE is a beautiful baby. WTH? He? She wears girl clothes, with pretty flowers on it. One woman looked right past her playing with her pink bright starts car seat bar and said how beautiful he is. If you don't know, say "You have a beautiful baby." Baby is a gender neutral word. Unlike HE.
Seriously, have you ever seen a more feminine looking baby?

I rest my case. Bows

Also I have spent an ungodly amount of time reading kindle books lately. (Take that BarnsnNoble! j/k I loved story time, even though I pretty much missed it thanks to the twenty minute wait for a bagel at the B&N cafe)
Kindle has a lot of freebies, they change week to week, so I'm doing a review on the ones I've read that are still free.
Here goes

My Soul To Lose: By Rachel Vincent
This is more of a novella, but it was awesome. It's a prequel to her Soul Screamers Series. Technically a young adult book (those are my favorite) this story stars Kaylee Cavanaugh, a sixteen year old who suffers panic attacks. The source of her panic attacks, creepy shadows that surround a person and give her the impression they are going to die. No one but her can see the shadows, and the shadows frighten her so badly that she can do nothing but scream and scream and scream. A shadow surrounding a young boy at the mall launch one of her screaming panic attacks, and consequently she ends up in an insane asylum. She spends the rest of the story trying to convince everyone to let her go home. She receives help from an unexpected ally who knows more about the shadows than she does.
The story was well written, and creepy. I, being the advertisers dream, purchased the next two books in the series after this. I can't say anything about them without giving away vital plot details, so just download the book. You don't have to have a kindle. You can download the books to desktop software, or to your i-phone or blackberry.
Serial by Jack Killborn and Blake Crouch
Another short story about two serial killers who meet up with each other and try to kill each other. I didn't care for it. Not much in the way of a plot, just gruesome descriptions. Also hard to care about either one being in danger when they both need to die... which was kind of the point, but it doesn't make relating to the characters any easier

Daring Chloe by Laura Jensen Walker
This one isn't free anymore, and man did you miss out. Awesome book about a bookclub that does adventures from every book they read, ending with them visiting Paris after readers "French Women Don't Get Fat." You have to read it

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
I've actually been wanting to read this series for awhile, so when I saw it free I jumped on it. The first in Kim Harrison's Hollows Series, features a world where vampires and shapeshifters, and fairies are common place, and not kept secret (yes, like true blood, but ever so much better)
anyhow, Rachel Morgan, a charms witch quits her job and ends up with a hit on her. She teams up with a vampire and a super buff pixie and starts a detective agency. First case: Find out who wants her dead.
Good story, good characters, will buy the next one when my bank account recovers from my bow, toy, and baby book buying today.


Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
Andrea Hampton is a young business woman whose impractical grandmother and sister decide to open a bed and breakfast out of her childhood home. When her sister is injured in an accident, Andrea must journey back to her hometown and help her grandmother open the bed and breakfast. Someone is trying to stop them from opening the B&B, and vandalizing and threatening them at every turn. Can Andrea and her cute neighbor solve the mystery and save her grandmothers business and get her back to her business world?
An intriguing mystery, and written well enough to keep me reading despite my many problems with this book. So the main character is this fiscally responsible business woman who wants nothing more than to not get fired from her job. She is willing to help with the family business (new family business) and telecommute, but that doesn't stop judgmental neighbor boy from guilt tripping her every step of the way about how she puts her job before her family. Really? She visits often, talks on the phone often, and came when there was a crisis? What more do you want? Apparently for her to quit her stable job and help her grandmother on this risky business venture, cause thats what families do. Its like the opposite of all of those stories about the family that wanted their son to go into the family business but he really wanted to be a doctor, and everyone grows and learns that he should be able to follow his dream too. This wasn't just one characters opinion, it was the morale of the story. WTH?
Saving Sailor by Renee Riva
A very sweet and funny coming of age novel about an italian ten year old girl who wants nothing more than a southern accent, and her dog. For once a coming of age novel doesn't have to be sad. Read it, it'll put a smile on your face.
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