Traffic pro

Hey, look over there to the left!

Do you see that? That is Bloggers new Followers widget. Now if you have a Blogger account you can follow blogs that you like and see their new posts from your Dashboard.

What is the advantage of that you ask?

1. Easily see updates on other blogs while you are in your dashboard.
2. Let other people on Blogger know that you are reading them.
3. Get more exposure for your own blog.
4. Show potential advertisers how many people follow you.

Yep, that is right you can use it to get more traffic. Not only will your blog be seen on other people's blogs but you will also show up on other people's profile pages as a blog they follow.

My promise to you!!!

I will reciprocate follow anyone that follows my blogs. So go ahead and follow me and I will follow you.

I have been eating what seems like nonstop chicken. I think I have gotten stuck in a rut. I normally love chicken because you can make so many things with it. There are so many different spices and sauces that you can use too. I do have to be careful though because a lot of sauces have sugar in them.

When I started the no carb diet it was easy because I love chicken. Now I find myself inventing all kinds of weird things or just eating things at the wrong time of the day. Tonight for dinner I had three eggs with hot sauce. Last nights dinner was a pile of broccoli steamed with garlic. I am not sick of the diet or craving bad things. I am just bored with food. I love variety in food.

One of my creations to change it up a bit was a hot wing salad. It was not really hot wings but it was chicken. I just cut up a chicken breast and tossed it in hot wing sauce. That was then placed on top of a plate of salad with ranch dressing. It was yummy!!!

You all know I am trying to get healthier right? I have changed the way I eat and now I think I need to really look at changing the way I live. I used to work out a lot. I was almost obsessed actually. This was when the girls were all little though and I had much more time. I would do 30 minutes of steps before the girls would wake up. Then I would run on the treadmill for 30 minutes at nap time. To finish off the day I would do another 30 minutes of steps. For awhile I was so obsessed that I would do leg lifts behind me while cooking and doing dishes.

Those days have passed and you would never have guessed that I used to be such a workout freak in the past. Now I am getting older and I have let myself go. It really is changing my energy though. I am not as active any more and a lot of that has to do with lack of time to workout. Some of it has to do with getting bored while working out.

I just came across these new videos. If you have not already checked out the video that I embedded you should now. It looks really cool. XFLOWSION looks more exciting than your average workout videos. There are four DVDs, 2 guidebooks, and 2 audio CDs. The four DVDs should prove to keep you from getting bored. Plus experts say that you get results faster if you do not do the same workout each time. Your body responds better when you change your workout.

The first DVD is energetic and inspiring music played in surround sound by a live band. The second DVD is a yoga style workout to help reduce stress and anxiety. The third DVD focuses on strength, toning, and flexibility for a total body workout. The fourth DVD is a high intensity workout that focuses on your core to strengthen and flatten your abs. The DVDs sound pretty neat if you ask me.

Have you discovered Daytipper yet? I came across it about a month ago but like usual I have not had time to submit any tips. It does look like another neat way to make a bit of change. It is not a get rich quick site but it could be a bit of fun.

Members of Daytipper submit tips and instructions to the website. If the tips get accepted they get paid. Other members can then check out the tips and vote on them. It is a neat little idea. Many sites allow you to share ideas and tips but very few will pay you. It may not be a lot of money but it is more than nothing.

So this was the last surprise gift for Neona. We have been very busy with her birthday and everything else family related. I really needed a break from everything to just have fun and play. Everyone loves the birthday gifts. I especially love the American Idol game.

I have had a blast just ignoring all the blogs and websites for a few days. I am dropping in ranks fast but I do not care. I have loved the break to just relax and have fun. I will be getting back to things but I do not think I will be as crazy about trying to do everything at once.

Neona turns 9 on Monday. She was not very happy that she would have school on her birthday so we told her that she can consider the whole weekend hers. A whole weekend of no chores and special fun. Friday night Noelle went to the high school football game so we went to the park.

James was just getting into town as we dropped off Noelle so we met up at Subway. Subway is the only fast food in town and we wanted to eat at the park. So we got our sandwiches and headed to the park. Yes, I did cheat and ate a sandwich. Actually I got a wrap and told myself that it was not as bad as regular bread even though I am sure it is. I have lost 10 lbs on this no flour or sugar thing so I felt I deserved it.

On the way home from the park Nicole snooped around in the Land Rover and found one of Neona's gifts. We figured that she would end up ruining the surprise so Neona got her first gifts early. She got Mario Kart for the Wii, an extra steering wheel, some lip gloss, and a couple of bottles of nail polish. The rest of the night was spent playing Mario Kart of course.

Saturday, Nicole and Neona went to a friend's birthday party. We decided to not have a party this year because there have already been a lot of parties around. Plus there would be no room in this house if she got more presents. The girls already have more things than they need.

Since today is Sunday (James' only day off), James and the girls are on their way to the city that James' dad and grandparents live in. The girls will visit with the grandparents while James gets in some golf with a friend of his. Neona is excited because she was told that her grandparents will be making a big dinner for her. I am taking this time to get a few things done. I am really far behind on a lot of things.

Neona is still getting another gift but I want this one to actually be a surprise on her birthday so I can not say anything on here yet. I am sure she is snooping everywhere trying to figure it out.

We are iPod crazy in our house. We love music and iPods make our music portable. I would love to buy new iPods and so would the kids. We already have a few though so I suppose that we should wait until maybe Christmas. We have the original one, a video one, a Nano, and a shuffle. I would really like to get another shuffle and a touch one.

We have speakers to plug them into all over the house. We also have the travel thing so you can play an iPod over your car stereo. That thing kept us sane will moving across the country. There are many places in the middle of nowhere that do not have radio signals and we got sick of the cds pretty fast.

I love the Apple Store refurbished iPods. They are just like new but they are cheaper. They also have deals going on a lot of the time where they offer free engraving. Right now they are offering free shipping and free engraving on the new ones.

Refurbished iPod nano 4G now only $79 (previously $99)
Refurbished iPod nano 8G now only $99 (previously $129)
Refurbished iPod touch 8G now only $179 (previously $199)
Refurbished iPod touch 16G now only $219 (previously $239)
Refurbished iPod touch 32G now only $319 (previously $399)
Refurbished iPod classic 80G now only $169 (previously $179)
Refurbished iPod classic 160G now only $249 (previously $279)

Apple certified. Good as new. Save on a certified refurbished iPod. One-year warranty. Free Shipping.

Once again we find ourselves in another election. Once again we see many groups encouraging people that do not normally vote to vote. Once again I think about a conversation I unknowingly walked into.

Years ago during an election year I was working at a sports bar. I walked up to a couple that was at a table having a heated discussion. They made the mistake of bringing me into the discussion. You should not ever assume that a cocktail waitress is not intelligent. I actually have a 145 IQ. I just had young kids and had to work nights when James was home from work.

The woman, thinking I would be on her side, brought me into the discussion at first. She said that it was disgraceful that so many people do not vote in a country that has the right to vote. I agreed with her at that point. Then she added that she believed voting should be required of all citizens. That is where she lost me.

Then the man thinking that he had me on his side said that you can not force voting in a free country. I had to agree with that. The he added that there should be some sort of incentive to get more people to vote. He said that maybe a tax credit would get more people voting. Once again I had to disagree.

The couple then made the mistake of asking me my opinion. One should never ask for my opinion because they really will get it. It will probably not be something they want to hear either.

Well, I went ahead and gave them my opinion and here it is....

Think about what people do not vote. Some do not vote because it is against their religion like with the Jehovah's Witness's. There are a lot of them too. Most people close the blinds and hide when they are going door to door. Do you really want them to vote? The remaining people that do not vote are mostly people that do not care. They do not care to vote and they surely do not care to educate themselves and make an intelligent decision. Do you really want these people to vote? You think we have it bad now. What if these people were forced or even given an incentive to vote? If people do not educate themselves before voting I do not want them to vote. I would actually thank them for not voting. Look at some of the weird people you see everyday. Do you really want them to vote?

I was looking for an image to add to this post and just happened upon this site. It shares my opinion that people need to educate themselves if they are going to vote. I really like the test to see if you should vote in the next election or not.

Has the price of gas gone up by you yet?

Are people where you live starting to panic?

We may live in a small town in Wisconsin but Hurricane Ike is causing a panic already in our town. It looked like every single one of the 2,000 people in our town were racing to buy gas today. The gas station was packed almost all day. In the afternoon gas had already gone up 6 cents. This created more of a panic and everyone raced to get gas before it goes up even more.

I was just about on empty and James was at half a tank. So we decided to fill up before prices went up. We went from $3.69 to $3.75 this afternoon. I know that is not very bad but I figured better safe then sorry so we filled up. Who knows what will happen to the price of gas tomorrow.

I was shocked by what I saw and heard at the gas station. In a small town a gas station tends to bring out neighborly conversations. People were waiting in line talking about how high prices have gotten down south. Others were discussing how the hurricane could wipe out the oil refineries in Texas and cause prices everywhere across the country to go way up.

Many of the people at the gas station said that they were gassing up everything they owned. People brought all of their vehicles, gas cans, lawn mowers, and even their recreational vehicles. We did not go that far. I did make sure that the vehicles were all the way filled up though. The amount of gas that James goes through driving between the stores he runs makes me wish that we had a way to buy fuel in bulk while prices are low. Wouldn't it be nice to have your own gas pump at home so you could stock up on fuel when prices were lower?

Well most of you do not know about Nicole and Neona playing soccer last year since I did not start this blog until after it ended. The girls have always loved watching soccer on television. James' has tons of jerseys. Arsenal is James' favorite. The girls even have a few jerseys of their own. When they were little they had cute little full uniforms that James brought back from England but they have out grown all of them.

A couple of years back Alexis started playing soccer at recess and really liked it. When we moved to this small town Nicole and Neona decided that they wanted to join the soccer league that the community center runs. They had practice on Thursdays and games on Saturdays. They loved it at first. It rained so much this spring that we were always behind on games. They started to get upset because it kept getting canceled. Then they were changed to 30 minute practice and then 2 games every Thursday and Saturday to make up for the rain days. This really wore the girls out so they started to get sick of it.

The last game of the season came and Neona was tired and begged to stay home. I told her that she had to play because it was the last game and her team depended on her. Half way through the second game Neona took a ball to the face. It hit her hard and her glasses went flying off. She had a headache the rest of the night and her glasses had to be bent back to shape at the eye doctor but she was fine. She did decided not to play this year though. Nicole and Neona are a year apart so this year they would play on different leagues so they did not want to do it. I am hoping that they will get back into it next year though. It brought them closer together. They were not just sisters they were team mates too. Plus I got to sit on the side lines with all of the other soccer moms.

The Sproutwells are back with a new video. In this one the mother becomes a soccer mom. It is pretty cute. Do not forget that you can collect points on healthy products and then go on to freshfunds and use your points to bid on great prizes. All you have to do is buy some Chiquita Fruit and Veggie Bites, Fresh Express Gourmet Café Salads, or Fresh Express Packaged Salads and collect the points.

It keeps getting colder everyday. This also means that I am drinking more and more coffee everyday. Now add on that I have not been eating flour...

I really, really want to make my biscotti but I should not. So instead I will give you my recipe and just drool at the picture. I can still guzzle coffee though.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a large baking sheet.

In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined well. Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

On prepared baking sheet with floured hands form dough into two slightly flattened logs, each 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.

On a cutting board cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool biscotti on a rack. Biscotti keep in airtight containers 1 week and frozen, 1 month.

I have not talked about Entrecard lately and I have gotten a good deal of traffic from them lately. This means that I really should talk about it again. I truly believe that they can be a Godsend to blogs that are having trouble getting regular readers. As far as traffic building goes you really do get out of it as much as you put in. It is also a very nice community.

The addition of the Entrebar has made my life much easier. I can do my drops with little to no extra thought. As soon as I sit at the computer in the morning I open up Firefox and sign on to the toolbar. I open up my email and also open 10 blogs. I read a few emails while the blogs load and then go through the blogs. I go back and forth like that until all my emails are taken care of. Then I go about any other business I need to take care of while more blogs load.

I do this back and forth routine and before I know it I have finished my drops. The Entrebar is so easy and thoughtless that I often find my kids doing drops for me. I will get up to get some coffee and come back to find my kids sitting there. For those that know that I did not see being able to have multiple blogs and being able to drop on them all... this is why I am able to. My teenager does some of my drops for me. She is becoming addicted to blogs now.

There are a few blogs that the girls have come to like reading. There are a few that they just point out to each other when they come to them because they like the name of the blog. The girls love the animal blogs and craft blogs. They also like to talk about some of the interesting blog topics. I have to say that it is better than the almost nonstop conversations about Tokio Hotel that have been going on for the last month.

Long story short... If you do not use the Entrebar yet you really need to. For those that have had problems with it there is also a newer Beta version available. I have the original one on my main computer and the Beta one on my laptop. I have used the Beta one for about a week and I love it even more. It is not listed as a feature on the site but it seems to keep you from having to start at the beginning again if you stopped. Either that or I am nuts.

I have been able to do drops on the main computer for awhile and then go to the laptop and it will pick up where I left off. It makes it so much easier to deal with than the original. The Beta version and the original version can be downloaded on the Entrecard Toolbar page.

I have thought many times about having lasik surgery done. I am so sick of wearing contacts. I hate dealing with taking them out and soaking them. I also hate having to deal with glasses when I have my contacts out. Then you have to worry about getting something in your contact or it falling out. It becomes a big hassle. That may be a worry for me but it could become a very dangerous situation for people is certain careers.

Lasik surgery has become even better now with the newer iLasik. The new iLasik changes LASIK technology by using two lasers. This new breakthrough eliminates the need for a blade. Now the procedure is even safer because of it. Lasik has changed many people's lives already. Now that it is even better and it is also changing the military.

How many people had dreams of being a pilot growing up but they could never follow that dream because of their vision? All those dreams could not be fullfilled. Now that has all changed. The Military and NASA are now using Lasik technology. The aviators and pilots are raving. If you have even thought about having Lasik surgery now is the time to check into LASIK information and take some action.

This game seems plain and boring for the first couple questions and then it gets crazy. It is a thinking game but it will not make your head explode like some of the others I have had. Good Luck!

Okay, school came entirely too fast this year. I feel like summer just started and now it is over. It feels like every time I turn around I am spending more money on the kids. Just the school supplies were over $200. Then add on $30 a kid in book fees. Kids always seems to out grown all of their clothes during the summer too.

Right when I thought all of the spending was over Noelle brought home a permission slip. I had heard about a 7th grade camping trip before but I guess I did not realize it was right away the second week of school. So there goes another $70. I really feel bad for parents that already could not afford all of the other things. This has been a tough year for a lot of people. They do have scholarships for the trip but I think that would be pretty embarrassing for the kids.

The camping trip is during school days so it is considered mandatory. They will leave Monday when school starts and come home Wednesday at the end of school. They will be doing normal camping things and crafts, plus activities to bring them closer together as a group. Noelle is very excited about going and being with her friends. It will be strange with just the two younger girls home. We will have to do some fun young girl things on those days.

With all of this spending I thought that I would post a few Back To School sales.

Do you live outside of the U.S. and constantly get frustrated because many companies will only ship inside the U.S.? Do you find that many things you want to sign up for require that you have an address in the U.S.? This company might be just what you are looking for.