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We have a winner to announce in the Vinyl Banner Giveaway!

The winner is Luvdaylilies! Congrats!

Thank you to UPrinting for sponsoring this blog and providing us with tons of products and giveaways. We are still doing giveaways so make sure to check out our Current Giveaways.

We have a winner to announce in the 250 Custom Printed Stickers Giveaway!

The winner is 1stopmom! Congrats!

Thank you to UPrinting for sponsoring this blog and providing us with tons of products and giveaways. We are still doing a lot of giveaways so make sure to check out our Current Giveaways.

We have a winner to announce in the 100 Custom Printed Postcards Giveaway!

The winner is Anne from Small Town Mommy! Congrats Anne!

Thank you to UPrinting for sponsoring this blog and providing us with tons of products and giveaways. We are still doing a lot of giveaways so make sure to check out our Current Giveaways.

Now that we lost all of our old shows and movies we found ourselves stuck not knowing what to watch when we had free time. I totally forgot about Charter's On Demand. When the girls were young On Demand was like a miracle for me. The girls would really want to watch a certain kids show and I could play show after show for them anytime they wanted.

It was wonderful when the kids were sick and could not stay asleep at night. There is not much for kids to watch at night but On Demand gave them all of their favorites shows anytime. It would help them fall asleep and help me get some much needed rest.

I also love the free movies. They always have great old movies that I can force my kids to watch with me.

If you would like more info about On Demand you can learn more at charter.net/ondemand. You can also get updates and fun extras on Charter’s Facebook page

Why end the carving fun with pumpkins?

This is a cute way to get your kids to eat their fruit. What kid would not want a cute carved orange served with their lunch?

It would also be a great way for kids at school or in clubs to be able to have fun carving something together. It is next to impossible to carve pumpkins in large groups but you sure could carve oranges. In the end you would also have a healthy snack instead of just a pile of candy.

When carving oranges you need to be careful to not cut too deep. You just want to cut the outer orange skin. Toothpicks will help you pull the orange skin away.

Someone asked me the other day how old my girls are and I had to giggle. For 5 weeks out of the year I have two kids the same age. Yep, I had them really close together! Thank goodness I was able to nurse the youngest or I would have spent a ton on formula. Nicole on the other hand had to switch to formula at 3 months old.

When she was 3 months old she ended up in the hospital with RSV for a week. I was forced to stop nursing her during that time since she could only get IVs. Before she left the hospital they had started giving her bottles and she refused to ever nurse again. I was very sad to have lost that closeness with her.

I was very thankful that there were store brands for formula. The FDA regulates formula and makes sure that all formulas provide the needed nutrition for infants so the savings is worth it.

Many families for one reason or another are not able to nurse their children. Formula can be a huge expense at a time when money is already tight from having a new baby. Walmart's store brand formula, Parent's Choice is now on sale. You can buy two cans for just $10!

Here is another gross food that kids love for Halloween. Fried Worm Sandwiches are super easy and kids love them all year long. When my kids were little they loved them and would eat them a lot.

All you need is hot dogs. Cut a few hot dogs in half lengthwise. Then cut each half into three strips lengthwise. You then have a few options depending on how you like to cook hot dogs. You can either boil, microwave, or brown the "worms" in a pan.

As they cook they will curl and plump up to look like worms. My kids used to prefer them all piled on a plate. Then they could pick out their own worms for their sandwich. Sometimes they just wanted to eat them without bread. It is more worm like that way.

I have always found the Jelly Cat stuffed animals to be adorable. I sometimes miss the days when my girls would drag stuffed animals around with them. We had piles and piles of them. Even after all of these years, we still have quiet a bit of stuffed animals that the girls refuse to part with.

I was just looked at the Lou Lou's Corner and found that there is a new huge Jelly Cat. There is now a Huge Truffles Sheep. It is 48 inches wide and absolutely adorable! My girls loved huge fluffy stuffed animals. They would curl up with them in bed every night.

Lou Lou's Corner also has a great Red Tag Sale page were you can find some huge discounts. You can find the super soft and cozy Barefoot Dreams and the trendy Appaman apparel. I am thinking that I need a Barefoot Dreams bathrobe. They look so soft and comfy!

Jack O' Lantern Sandwich

This sandwich is another cute and easy idea. Just do some carving on the top piece of bread and make your sandwich. This sandwich is peanut butter and jelly but you can make just about any kind of sandwich. You could also try to find orange bread or just make your own orange bread by doing the bread painting project.

Everyday I come across something that makes me want to do new stuff around the house. The girl's bedrooms are on the second floor and are always much warmer than the rest of the house. They have ceiling fans but they are loud so no one wants to use them. I have been very busy but I really need to look into if I can do anything to make them quieter or if they just need new fans.

As I was looking around online I found that the Minka Aire Concept II fan has a "Wet Family" of fans. They can be used outdoors. Okay maybe I am a bit sheltered but I never thought of that. There are soooo many mosquitoes in our yard that we do not spend as much time outdoors in the summer as we had planned.

I met a family here that puts a standing fan on their deck to keep the bugs away but I never thought of installing an outdoor ceiling fan. Now my dream deck is covered and has an outdoor ceiling fan. My list of things to get when I win the lottery keeps getting longer and longer! Until then I guess I might try a standing fan. I think that I might be a bit lazy to lug a fan in and out of the house each time I go outside though.

Have you done your pumpkins yet?

We have been pretty busy so we have not gotten that far yet. We plan on doing them Wednesday night. The kids have off of school Thursday and Friday so they can stay up late. That will be the day they have costume parties at school so it will be a great ending for the day.

We love using printable patterns when we do our pumpkins so I decided to share with you some links to a few sites that have nice looking and easy to do patterns. We have used each of them in the past.

The Pumpkin Lady

eHow

DLTK

I need a vacation! The weather has been up and down for way too long. Sending the kids to school with an umbrella is becoming a daily routine. Everywhere I look people are sick. I need to get away and have some fun!

I just found out that there is a Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific from October 27-30. Over one million room nights will be on sale. Rates start as low as $30 US/ night. The destinations include... Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, HK, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, and Bali. Add this to the record-low air fares to these area and you have an exotic trip at a great price!

You do not have to just book for right now. Think about a trip over the holidays or even next spring. If my life was not so crazy all of the time I would be gone in a second. My first thought is all of the beautiful places that I could visit. Then I think about all of the shopping I would do. Then of course my mind goes to all of the foods I would eat.

When I win the lottery I will spend a lot of time traveling. I love seeing new places and experiencing their lives.

This weeks giveaway is 100 custom printed Brochure/Flyers for one lucky winner. Feel free to get more info about the Brochure Printing or Flyer Printing by UPrinting. You can also check out UPrinting reviews on Yelp if you would like. Make sure to enter all of our Current Giveaways!

Giveaway Prize: 100 Brochures for One Lucky Winner
100 8.5 x11" Brochure / Flyers on 100lb gloss text paper ; 4 color printing on both sides

Folding Choices: Half fold; Trifold/Letterfold; Z-fold; Accordion (4 panels) Roll Fold (4 Panels)
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs.
Ends: November 9th

As a thank you for doing this giveaway our sponsor, UPrinting, will be giving me the brochures as well. I think that I will use them to advertise my webhosting company Erickson Duoservers.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment about how you would use the 100 Brochures if you were to win.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This will give you three additional entries!
  
• Follow this blog - It is on the left sidebar. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed (left side bar) and make a new comment.
• Add the Your Fun Family Blog to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it.
• Fav the Your Fun Family Blog on Technorati and make a new comment.
• Follow us on Twitter and make a new comment.
• Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of.
  


Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count. I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

If you are having a Halloween party you might want some punch. There are some neat things you can do with a Halloween Punch depending on what kind you want.

To get this look all you need is a simple plastic mask and powder free gloves. Simply add water and freeze. You can add food coloring if you have a lighter colored punch.

If you want one hand that is reaching out from the punch you can stand a frozen hand in a coffee can and then fill with water until it covers some of the hand. When it is frozen it will allow the hand to stand up out of the punch.

For a more gross punch you can drizzle red food coloring on the hand and float some vanilla ice cream.

How cute are these?

These are simple and adorable. Another big plus is that you will probably not have to buy a thing to make them. All you need are clean milk jugs, permanent markers, a craft knife, and a string of white holiday lights.

Simply have your kids draw scary ghost faces on a few clean milk jugs. It may help to draw the outline in washable markers first. Then when they are sure that they like the image they can use the permanent markers.

When the faces are all done you need to use the craft knife to cut the holes at the bottom of the jugs for the lights to fit into. That is all that is to it. Very easy and fun.

The best part is that you will not have to worry about storing them for next year. Since the jugs do not cost you anything you can just make new ones each year. You can start a new tradition to go along with pumpkin carving.

Are you a pro at arts and crafts and this one is to easy for you? You can get creative and make more than just ghosts. They can get as detailed as you want them to be.

We have a winner to announce in the 250 Premium Business Cards Giveaway!

The winner is Liz! Congrats Liz!

Thank you to UPrinting for sponsoring this blog and providing us with tons of products and giveaways. We are still doing a lot of giveaways so make sure to check out our Current Giveaways.

I have heard a lot about Bid Here lately so this morning I decided to check it out. I went into it a bit skeptical but then I got addicted. It really is a unique auction site. When you sign up you get 5 free bids but mine were gone in 30 minutes. There is definitely a technique to it.

The concept of Bid Here is simple. They put products up for bid and members bid on them. When members of the site bid on an item they pay $.60 for the bid. The item then goes up by $.02 in price. The timer also resets and the count down begins again. If the count down ends the last bidder gets to buy the item for the bid price.

Looking at the ended auctions page is really what got me excited about the site. Someone got a Nintendo Wii for only $.22 plus whatever they spent on bidding. Someone else got a Toshiba Laptop for only $8.53 plus their bids. If I am reading the website stats right...the winner spent $4.80 on bids. So the total paid for the laptop was pretty darn good!

If I was smart I would have gone and just watched at first. I am not always smart though. I learned that many of the people use a last second approach. This saves them from wasting a bid if other people are going to keep bidding like crazy. They also have an automated bidding system that allows you to not miss a bid. Some of the auctions go on for awhile and some go pretty fast. Maybe there is a better time of day to do it. Maybe it is better to go for the lower price product if two of the same thing is going for bid.

I was concerned at first that some people might end up going bid crazy and make so many bids at .60 each that they would spend more than what the product costs. When I looked into it further I found that they have the site set up so that you can use the money you spent in bids towards purchasing the item.

We are on our second day of gloomy weather here. This is when I start to miss Arizona. I miss always having sunshine and a bright blue sky. It just makes everyday feel wonderful from the start. I also miss the Famous Sam's in Oro Valley. I worked there for four years. It was like family. A crazy family, but family none the less.

At four years of working there I was the newest of the night staff. Even if we got done working early we always stayed to hang out with each other. We knew all of the customers so we would just go table to table watching sports and playing NTN Trivia. I could always find someone there to spend time with.

Here is me back then in uniform. Wow, I spent a lot of time doing my hair and makeup back then! I also spent a lot of time working out. Notice the bright sunshine and palm trees?

One of the things I miss about the sports bar that I working at in Arizona is the ability to watch multiple games at once and still be able to play trivia or a game of pool. The place was huge and full of TVs. Our friends could all get together and spend hours there.

I loved the Direct TV Business package they had. People would come in huge groups to watch games from all over. Direct TV for Business would allow for us to have 25 TVs playing whatever games people wanted plus have 3 giant projection TVs for the big games. The only problem we faced was which game we would have the sound on for. That became a huge problem only once. When there was a big Packers game at the same time as a big UofA game.

A little family restaurant that I worked at way back when I was only 19 even got Commercial Direct TV. They got sick of losing Sunday lunch customers during football games so they got Directv Business in their banquet room. As soon as word got out, all of the families started coming back in for Sunday lunch.

Here is another Halloween idea...

All you need is apples and almonds. This would be a much healthier alternative to other Halloween snacks. First quarter some apples and cut out the center core area. Cut out a wedge from the skin side to create an open mouth. Then your kids can start inserting the almond teeth.

If your kids want a sweeter snack you can make an alternate version using peanut butter in the open mouth and marshmallows as teeth. Either way they look fun to make and eat.

So you planned a fun day for Halloween... You have some crafts and some snacks but what about some games?

Here are a few cute Halloween games and fun things to do with children.

Paper Bats

This one would be cute to use as a decoration too. You could poke holes in the top and string them up together. All you need to do is cut bat shapes out of construction paper. The bats then get folded with the accordion fold, also known as the fan fold. Then the kids can make small cut outs just like when you make snowflakes.

Witch Hunt

This game is like an Easter egg hunt. Simply hide Halloween things. You can find things at a cheap dollar or crafts store. You could also just cut shapes out of construction paper. You can do witch hats, bats, ghosts, spiders, and pumpkins. You can also have prizes if you would like. Simply put out some special ones that symbolize a price. If you use paper ones you could write the prize on the back.

Halloween Who Am I?

This game is a guessing game with a Halloween twist. The person who's turn it is chooses a Halloween type character and the rest of the players ask yes or no questions to figure it out. This game will keep the kids having fun for a long time.

I have another great giveaway to announce. Our sponsor UPrinting will be giving away 100 postcards to One (1) of our lucky readers. We are doing a lot of giveaways for Uprinting right now so be sure to check out the Current Giveaway list and enter them all.

Giveaway Prize: 100 Postcards for One Lucky Winner
Size: 4x6; Paper: 14pt Cardstock Gloss; Printing: Full color both sides
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US (Canadian residents pay shipping and taxes. Offer not available to residents outside of the US and Canada)

This giveaway ends on October 28th. If you would like to learn more about UPrinting and their Postcard Printing check out their website. As a thank you from UPrinting I will be receiving free postcards also. I think I will have mine printed to advertise my webhosting company Erickson Duoservers.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment about how you would use the 100 Postcards if you were to win.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This will give you three additional entries!
  
• Follow this blog - It is on the left sidebar. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed (left side bar) and make a new comment.
• Add the Your Fun Family Blog to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it.
• Fav the Your Fun Family Blog on Technorati and make a new comment.
• Follow us on Twitter and make a new comment.
• Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of.
  


Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count. I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

I will have some extra free time this weekend and I think I will try to tackle some of the clutter that has been driving me nuts. I loved when James added the extra shelves in the two cupboards but that only solved a little bit of the problem.

I really want to clean and organize the kitchen. I love small kitchen appliances but I hate that they cover my counter space. I wish more things were under the cabinets instead of on the counters.

I love my bold metallic red toaster oven because it matches the kitchen theme perfectly but I now wish that I had looked at under cabinet toaster ovens. I would not have to worry about moving everything around on the counters every time I wanted to use the darn thing.

Here is another fun and healthier Halloween snack. Breadstick bones can be very easy. If you do not want to go to the trouble of making your own breadstick dough you can buy ready made Pillsbury breadstick dough.

Simply roll the dough into a long breadstick and then gently tie a knot at each end. You can then jazz them up if you want. Some things that you can sprinkle on include... garlic salt, Parmesan cheese, oregano, or sesame seeds.

Your kids will love these fun to eat Halloween breadstick bones.

I have another great giveaway to announce. Our sponsor UPrinting will be giving away 250 Stickers/Labels to One (1) of our lucky readers. We are doing a lot of giveaways for Uprinting right now so be sure to check out the Current Giveaway list and enter them all.

THE PRIZE

250 Stickers/Labels for One (1) lucky winner
Sizes: 2” x 3.5”, 2” x 4”, or 3” x 3”
Paper: 70 lb Label Matte
Specifications: Full color front, blank back; 4 Business Day printing
FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the USA (Canadian residents need to pay shipping and taxes). Offer is not available to residents outside the US and Canada.

This giveaway ends on October 29th. To learn more about the great stickers that you could win check out their Sticker Printing section.

As a thank you for doing this giveaway I will be receiving free stickers too. I am always excited to receive products from UPrinting. I receive many books to do book reviews on. I have thought about donating them to the local library when I am done so that the books can get more exposure. I think I will be using my stickers to make "donated by" stickers for the books. Why not get some publicity for one of my sites while I am at it?

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment about how you would use the 250 Custom Printed Stickers if you were to win.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This will give you three additional entries!
  
• Follow this blog - It is on the left sidebar. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed (left side bar) and make a new comment.
• Add the Your Fun Family Blog to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it.
• Fav the Your Fun Family Blog on Technorati and make a new comment.
• Follow us on Twitter and make a new comment.
• Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of.
  


Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count. I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

Congrats to Naddez from Naddez's Goody Corner. Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaway. We still have plenty of giveaways going on right now so make sure to keep checking our Current Giveaways. You can also check out Naddez's blog and enter some of her giveaways.

During the week we noticed that the Animal Cops show was doing a special show on puppy mills. The girls really wanted to see it since our Pugs were rescued from a puppy mill. I knew it would be a very sad and graphic show but the girls insisted that they wanted to see it.

It was absolutely horrible. I was amazed by the very little bit of laws that protect these poor animals. Most states only require that breeders provide food and water. There are no other standards that have to be followed. The conditions of the places were disgusting. They even had dead and dying animals in filthy cages with live ones.

Many large breeders just do it for the money and breed unhealthy animals. This means that the babies end up with many health problems. The pet population is already way too high so shelters have to put animals to sleep all the time.

Every time I look at our little Pugs I feel so bad for what they have had to deal with in their lives. I wish more people would adopt a pet. There are so many pets to adopt that everyone is sure to find one that they could love. If you really want a purebred there are many purebred rescue groups.

Petango has a great website to help families find an adoptable pet in your own area. If you do not have time for a dog you could also use Petango.com - Adopt a cat! cats need less of a time commitment but give you just as much love. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook.

The holidays are coming and along with the holidays come holiday stains. Every year we bring out our nice table linens and then come the spills. What are some of your worst spills and how do you beat the stains?

One of my favorites is how to stop red wine from staining linen or carpets. As soon as there is a red wine spill grab for the salt. Pour salt on the red wine until the top layer of the salt no longer turns red for the wine.

Leave the salt on the wine until it has been able to pull all of the stain out. The salt will absorb all of the wine so it will not be able to stain anything.

It is getting way too cold already! Isn't it too early to be scrapping ice off of the windshield? When I was growing up we could always look forward to a trip down south over Christmas break. It helped us get through the winter.

I wish James was able to get away from work more often. I would like to take a trip to some warm beach right about now. Maybe stay at some Myrtle Beach Resort.
We could enjoy the warm weather and the relaxation of being in Myrtle Beach Hotels and site see.

We could go to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum one day and the NASCAR SpeedPark
another day. I am sure that we would have to go to one of the Medieval Times dinner shows too. I am beginning to think that I really need to get away for awhile. There just is not enough to do here when it is cold. I want to go play at some Myrtle Beach Resorts.

(Enter all of our current giveaways!) We have another great giveaway to announce! Who would like to win 250 free business cards? I have talked to all of you readers before about how important business cards can be.

Who knows when you will end up talking to someone about your business or website. You need to leave them with something to remember you by. How many times have you tried to remember the name of a website but you just can not think of it? You do not want that to happen when it comes to your website.

The Online Printing Company, UPrinting would like to giveaway 250 premium business cards to one of our lucky readers. Giveaway ends October 21st. As part of this giveaway I will be receiving free business cards too and I am super excited!


MORE INFO

• Choose size: 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (skinny card)
• Choose paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
• Full Color Both Sides
• Offset Press
  
• 3 Business Day Printing
• Free UPS Ground Shipping in the USA. Canadian Residents must Pay Shipping and Taxes. Residents of other countries are not eligible.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment about how you would use the 250 Free Business cards if you were to win.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post.
• Follow this blog - It is on the left sidebar. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed (left side bar) and make a new comment.
• Add the Your Fun Family Blog to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it.
• Fav the Your Fun Family Blog on Technorati and make a new comment.
• Follow us on Twitter and make a new comment.
• Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of. Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count.

I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

I was asked to check out MyLife and do a review. My Life is a site that helps people connect with people they have been looking for. Some people are looking for a lost love. Others want to find an old friend that they lost contact with.

I decided to look up someone I dated years ago in Arizona. We wanted different things in life but we stayed very close friends for a few years. Every few months he would need someone to talk to so he would show up at my work or call me. We would talk on the phone for days but I would never agree to meet with him since I did not want to get back together with him.

As time went on I moved away and my phone number changed so he could no longer call me. I felt it was better that way and never gave him my new number. Once in awhile I wonder how he is doing. I usually think of him on my birthday since we share the same birthday.

When I looked him up on My Life I found that he moved back to Colorado. He loved Colorado so I hope that he has finally found happiness.

Lately I do everything at the last minute. I can not believe how far behind I have gotten on things. I have two email accounts that have over 1000 messages in the inbox. I check my email about 30 times a day but I never actually read them all.

Luckily I just remembered that today was the deadline to get my free business cards so I hurried up and made some new designs.

I kind of sift through and file my email. I read the ones that have to be handled right away, delete the junk, and leave the rest for when I have time. I have gotten so bad that I have had to create an email filing system with folders for different types of emails.

When I have time I go through the folders of emails. Now that I really look at all of the folders I realize that I really need to go through some of them.

Watching your parents growing older is never an easy time. There are so many decisions to make and many of them can start family fights. It is always better to plan ahead. No one wants to think about these things but if you plan ahead some of the stress can be avoided.

Many families try to avoid these topics because they are uncomfortable. If you wait until something bad happens then emotions cloud people's judgment. Families need to sit down and discuss what will happen in different situations while the older adults have time to really think clearly and make good decisions.

When you wait too long you risk having to make decisions without your parents input. This can lead to huge falling out in families when everyone disagrees on what the parent would want. These times can be stressful enough and families need to be together.

I am always amazed be the advances in technology and this is another area that technology is helping people. Many older adults do not want to lose their independence and refuse to move out of the homes that they love. Advancements in the Medical Alert field have helped older adults stay in their homes with less worry.

When my grandmother starting having problems she felt that a cordless phone would be enough. She often forgot to charge it so there were times that she would fall and could not call anyone. Medical Alert advancements have made things like a FALL ALERT detector and a GPS Tracking Bracelet with 2-way speakerphone possible. I have seen many reports of patients with Alzheimers wandering off in the middle of winter and a GPS bracelet could be a matter of life or death.

UPS just delivered my new phone. I am just not as excited as usual though. I get a new phone every time they allow me to upgrade. I usually take the time to search for the one I really want and then I can not wait until I get it. This time I am just happy that I have a working phone again. Maybe the phone will grow on me. Noelle has the green version so we might end up trading after awhile.

Now that we live in Wisconsin again we can not get good coverage from T-Mobile but we are stuck in a contract. We could of course pay them $200 for each of the three phones we have with them but I do not feel like paying that.

When we moved here they promised that they were working on better coverage in this area but we have now lived here for almost 2 years. Their map shows that we should have perfect coverage. Unfortunately this just is not so. The tower that they think is here was moved when we first moved here.

I have to go outside of my house to get even a tiny signal. I get absolutely no signal in most of the town. I have however lost my addiction to my cell phone. I used to be on it all day long and now I only use it when I have to leave town. Oh yeah, it is also my alarm clock. Who knew I would be paying a monthly bill on an alarm clock!

My cell phone died a few days ago after having to be replaced twice already. By the way the T-Mobile Shadow is a piece of junk. Having Windows on it and making it an MP3 player was more than it could handle and it just kept committing suicide. This time it was out of warranty so I needed a new phone.

Since my cell phone is just an alarm clock with emergency camera capabilities we decided on a cheaper phone. I really do not need anything great since most of the day it is just a paper weight. I really miss having good cell phone service!

I have talked to you all before about Cryo-Cell International and it's groundbreaking research. They have been studying stem cells and banking cord blood for years. They have even discovered new ways to get stem cells. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Cryo-Cell is getting involved.

Back in 2007, Cryo-Cell discovered that menstrual blood contains stem cells and they started C'elle. The research on these stem cells has continued to amaze people. Now in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Cryo-Cell has partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They want to explore the potential uses of menstrual stem cells to treat breast cancer.

They are also making donations to the Susan B. Komen Foundation this month. For every C'elle enrollment there will be a C'Elle Breast Cancer Donation of $25. For every Cryo-Cell enrollment in the Protect Baby + Protect Mom service there will be a Cyro-Cell Breast Cancer Donation of $50. Anyone that has been considering banking cord blood or menstrual stem cells should hurry and take advantage this month. On top of the donations being made Cryo-cell is reducing the price of the Protect Baby + Protect Mom service by $300.

Their research really is fascinating. It also provides a way to research stem cells without having to get stem cells in other controversial methods.

I have another great giveaway to announce! This makes the current giveaway total three so be sure to enter them all! Lemon Tree Cards will be giving one of our lucky readers a coupon code good for $25 to use on their website. They have the cutest invitations. Their most popular invitation is the hot pink Zebra Frame Baby Shower Invitations. I love that they come with a hot pink envelope and matching return address labels.

They also have many other products to chose from. My favorites are the Personalized Tshirts. They make them for kids, adults, pets, and my favorite...matching shirts for girls and their dolls. Check out the note cards, thank you notes, scratch off tickets, advice cards, and candy wrapper labels too. With the holidays coming up you may also want to check out the personalized keychains.

The winner will be chosen on Oct 14th. You must live in the U.S. to enter.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment on this post about what you would want from the site.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post and Lemon Tree Cards. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. I will add two extra entrees for you so this will give you three entrees!
  
• Follow this blog - It is on the left sidebar. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed (left side bar) and make a new comment.
• Add the Your Fun Family Blog to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it.
• Fav the Your Fun Family Blog on Technorati and make a new comment.
• Follow us on Twitter and make a new comment.
• Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of.

Each one comment counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count. I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

My house is turning into Pug central. At least right now the puppies are not really walking around so I just have to deal with the two adults. There are a lot of inconveniences that I did not think about before. Every time I walk through the house I have to climb over a ton of baby gates.

We have one keeping pugs out of the front room, one keeping puppies in the bathroom, one keeping pugs from going down the back stairs, and one keeping pugs from getting in the basement. I wish that I knew about all of this back when there was a house selling a ton of stairway gates at a yard sale nearby.

Even though we have four gates I wish we had one or two more pet gates. I wish I had one to put in my bedroom door. The pugs seem to think that my bedroom is some forbidden land of treasures. Every time I open my door they sneak in and run in crazy circles trying to get away from me.

We got our first Christmas catalog in the mail today. I guess I probably should start thinking about what to get everyone. The catalog that came is the one that we usually use to get presents for James' dad. Every year it gets harder to buy gifts for everyone though. Everyone already has everything that they want.

I have to really think hard to figure out what to get for James, my dad, and his dad. If they want something they just go and get it. This means that I have to find things that they would want but do not realize that they would want them yet.

James just bought himself leather Packer men's coat. I do not want to get them any men's clothes because I would not even know what they would like. Especially when it comes to men's pants.

Thank goodness I do not have to shop for my brother in California. All he cares about is surfing gear and I am clueless when it comes to that.