Traffic pro

We have a winner to announce in the 500 Premium Business Cards Giveaway!

The winner is J.Anderson... Congrats!

Thank you to UPrinting for sponsoring this blog and providing us with tons of products and giveaways.

* Update - The winner has been chosen... and the winner is Erin from a bird and a bean! Congrats Erin!!!


The time has come for the Wham-O Double Waverider Slip'N Slide giveaway!!! I know you have been anxiously waiting for summer so I wanted to celebrating early with a Slip'N Slide Giveaway. This giveaway has been sponsored by CSN Stores.

They have a store for everything you could ever want. The best part is that every item has a neat "Seen it for less?" option. If you find an item on another website for less you can send them a link to the website and they will get back to you with an offer.

We were given this same Slip'N Slide by CSN Stores and we can not wait to use it! Our back yard goes down in a slope which makes it hard to do certain things with the kids but it is perfect for sledding and Slip'N Slides! We had a regular plain one and the girls had to wait in line for a turn. As soon as I saw this double one I knew it would be perfect for families like ours that have more than one child. Now two kids can go at once!

You can find the Wham-O Double Waverider Slip'N Slide on the Toys and Games Online store. You may also want to check out some of the great kids bedding they have on All Childrens Furniture.

This giveaway ends at midnight on April 8th.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?
Your main entry will be to comment on what you look forward to the most about summer.

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 is 3 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. (This is 2 entries!)
* 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. Make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win! If I can not find your email address on your comment, profile, or website you can not win.

It is time to giveaway some more business cards! Uprinting has great premium business cards with vibrant color printing on both sides. I absolutely love all of the business cards that they have given me. They have also gone back to free UPS shipping on giveaway prizes!

If you would like to learn more about UPrinting feel free to check out their awesome Business Cards Online. They have many great products to choose from when you need a Print Online service.

Giveaway Prize: 500 Business Cards for One (1) Winner
Size: 1.5x3.5 (slim cards) to 1.75x3.5 (slim cards)
Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only. You must be at least 18 years old to enter.
Ends: March 29 at midnight

This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting. I receive free products to do giveaways for them.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?
Your main entry will be to comment on what you would use the business cards for.

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 is 3 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. (This is 2 entries!)
* 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. Make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win! If I can not find your email address on your comment, profile, or website you can not win.

This Irish Stew is fantastic. The Guinness adds a nice richness. Make sure to check out our Irish Soda Bread to go with it.


I love this Irish Stew and I can not wait to make it this year. It is one of the few things that the whole family loves.

The main difference between this recipe and others is the Guinness and the Marmite. Marmite can be found in most grocery stores these days. If your grocery store has a section with import goods then it probably has Marmite. I have never really had trouble finding it. It adds to the richness in flavor and can be used in other dishes that has a beef based sauce. There is no meat in it but it has a beefy flavor.

Ingredients

2 lbs Stew Meat (beef or lamb)
salt
pepper
rosemary
flour
3 garlic cloves
olive oil (can substitute vegetable oil)
1 red onion
1 leek
small package baby carrots
10 potatoes
4 cups beef stock
1 heaping tablespoon Marmite (yeast spread)
1 can Guinness beer (reduce beef stock to 2 cups)
Mushrooms


* You will want to start in small batches of meat so when
you fry the meat the sides do not touch and they can fully
brown. The browning adds a lot of the flavor.

* If you are using a big pot on the stove instead of a slow
cooker you can make it all in the big pot. If you make it on
the stove use a lid. Make sure to keep it low so it does not
burn and stir it from time to time.


Directions

1. Place a small batch of the meat in a bowl and toss it with
enough flour to completely coat. The flour should look dry.

2. Brown the meat in a pan with hot oil. Set the meat in the
slow cooker. Continue until all of the meat is browned.

3. Add the onions, garlic, and rosemary to the pan and fry
until they start to brown.

4. Add in some of the beef stock. As it comes to a slow boil
scrape the bottom of the pan to get up the brown pieces
that stuck to the bottom. Again, this is a big part of the
flavor. Mix in the Marmite.

5. While the stock is simmering to loosen up the brown
pieces you can start to cut up the rest. Make the
pieces whatever size you like. You can peel the potatoes or
leave the peel on. Put them all in the slow cooker.

6. Put all the rest of the ingredients, including the
simmering stock, into the slow cooker for at least 3 hours.

I have really enjoyed these weeks working as a The View Brand Ambassador. This is the final week but I am sure that I will write more about the shows in the future. I used to miss a couple episodes each week but now I added it to my regular recordings on the DVR.

I can not wait to see Thursday's episode with Sir Elton John. He is such a fascinating person. I am sure that the show will be great!

On Friday Kate Gosselin will be on. I really can not stand her but I am sure the show will be good. I hope someone has the guts to ask her some tough questions. I would love to see someone tell her that she is a control freak and way too full of herself.

Monday, Andy Garcia and his daughter were on talking about their new movie. His daughter plays a stripper. He agreed that it was difficult seeing his daughter play the part. That had to be a very uncomfortable set!

“I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other The View branded items to facilitate my review.”

A representative from CSN Stores contacted me recently and asked if I would like to work with them and do a giveaway. What a silly question! I love doing giveaways! Who doesn't love free stuff? They have a huge list of stores covering everything you can imagine. I chose to do a giveaway for a product from ToysandGamesOnline but they have great stuff at all of their stores including kids bedding at a store named AllChildrensFurniture.com!

It is not often that I get to choose the item for the giveaway so I was like a kid in a candy store. I love shopping and if someone else is paying that is a major plus! So many choices, so little time. How could I choose?

I thought long and hard about a few items. They have a cute hexagon shaped domino game named Heximoes that would really get the older kids thinking and tons of other thinking games. I also really loved their chess sets. They have some really beautiful ones.

In the end I decided that we need to get out of these winter blahs and look forward to summer. Next week it is supposed to be in the 40s all week and that means that spring is coming! It is time to get excited about the warm weather heading our way!

I decided that the perfect prize to celebrate winter ending would be for a Wham-O Double Waverider Slip'N Slide. This item normally sells for $40.50 but right now they have it on sale for 26% off. This giveaway has not started yet but if you can not wait head on over and check it out!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

We never really know how much technology rules our lives until we have to go without it. A while back my cable modem was not working right but I had to wait until the cable company tried everything else before they would send me a new one. This meant that I often went hours without internet.

I did not know how much I was dependent on the internet until then. I could not making anything that I needed a recipe for because they were all online. I found myself wanting to look up information but I could not.

Then came the issue of weather. Any one that knows me well knows that I do not drive a lot. I do not like driving if I am unfamiliar with the area. I do not like driving in busy traffic. I absolutely hate driving in bad weather!

Before I make any plans during the winter I check the weather online. I lived in Arizona for way too many years to actually find driving in the snow normal. It is so nice being able to go online and check the weather anywhere at any moment.

AccuWeather has gone one step further and redesigned their site to include four new lifestyle areas: Weather and Health, Weather and Travel, Weather and Home and Garden, Weather and Outdoor Activity. Now you can check out if the weather will be good for anything you can think of.

Did anyone catch this episode of The View? I have avoided watching anything about her before this. I only watched this because it was on The View and I am one of their Brand Ambassadors. I always thought she had to be crazy but I had no clue how crazy she really is.

I think the ladies were just as shocked at how out there she was. This clip gives you a bit of an idea of how weird she is. It does not show everything from the interview though.

At one point she actually stated that if she meets a man and gets married she will want another child. Are you kidding me? I feel sorry for those children. I can only imagine how hard their lives will be.

“I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other The View branded items to facilitate my review.”