Rockabye Baby!

http://www.rockabyebabymusic.com/ecom2/index.php/rockabye-baby-lullaby-renditions-of-journey.html

I am so excited to do this review and giveaway from Rockabye Baby!  I was provided a copy of the CD to review and will be able to give one away to one of you!  If you love Journey or just great lullabies for your baby, you will love this CD!  My hubby calls me a music hater.  It is not true.  He says this because I do not like music on when I am trying to talk to someone.  It is not because I hate music, but because I get so into it that I can't focus on the conversation!  What do you think?  Music lover or hater? 

This Rockabye Baby! lullaby renditions of journey CD is awesome (my opinion-although I was provided the CD the opinions are my own) it sounds as if I wound up a music box and recognizable Journey songs were what played!  The songs on the album include: Open Arms, Any Way you Want It, Only the Young, Don't Stop Believing, and eight more songs!  Rockyabye Baby! describes itself, "Rockabye Baby! transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies. Guitars and drums are traded for soothing mellotrons, vibraphones and bells, and the volume is turned down from an eleven to a two. Rockabye Baby! is the perfect way to share the music you love with the littlest rocker in your life."  I must say that I agree! 

 
 Rockabye Baby has lullabye renditions of a lot of different artists including: Beatles, Queen, U2, Metallica Guns N' Roses, And Green Day!  There are a lot more, I just listed a few of my favorites!

If you would like to win this Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Journey you can enter in several ways! 
1) Leave me a comment and tell me why you think you and your little one would enjoy this CD.
2) Subscribe to my blog.  Leave me a comment and tell me you did or that you already subscribe.
3) Tweet about this giveaway.  Please leave me a comment that you did.
4) Follow @rockabyebaby on twitter.  Leave me another comment that you did. 
5) Blog about this giveaway.  Link to my post and leave me a comment that you did. 

Have fun!  Winners will be chosen February 15, 2010 using random.org

Rainbow Brite

Remember her?  I remember my Rainbow Brite doll!  I am excited to announce that Rainbow Brite is being relaunched!  MomSelect and Hallmark provided me with a Rainbow Brite cd pak.  I received 10 CD-Roms.  One to keep and nine to give away!  I have to admit I spent probably an hour working through the CD!  It is filled with games, puzzles, the theme song and much more!  Your child (or you!) can print out coloring pages.  If you check out the website you can view four mini epidsodes! 

If you love Rainbow Brite you will be excited to know the newest doll is available at Target and Toys R' Us this month! 

So, the first nine comments will get a Rainbow Brite CD-Rom for their child (or themselves!) to enjoy!  Hurry, because I am getting ready to tweet this! 

Menu Plan

Well, I have been enjoying my extra time off! This is evidenced by me actually having a menu plan for the next week as well as my shopping list and coupons matched up! I tried to plan my menu around the meats I had in the freezer from our January Angel Food box.

This is what I have planned so far:

Sunday: Steak and Gravy

Monday: Broiled Tilapia and Parmesan

Baked corn as side dish

Tuesday: Beef Short Ribs

Wednesday: Comfort Meatballs (A Pioneer Woman Recipe from Woman's Day mag)

Thursday: we usually go to a friend's house for dinner

Friday: Chicken Spaghetti (another Pioneer Woman Recipe from Woman's Day mag)

Saturday: Noodle Frittata (Woman's Day recipe)

Sunday: Beefy Noodles (Woman's Day recipe)

Monday: Tuna Noodle Salad (Woman's Day recipe)

You will notice I didn't put but one side dish. We usually just have fruit or veggies, nothing too exciting or elaborate. So, do you have a menu planned? I am endeavoring to make our monthly food bill be around $250. We have been going out to eat too much.

“Snow” Day

It has happened for the second time this January! We got a "snow" day! I put that in parenthesis because although we are getting some snow in our neck of the woods, it does seem to be predominately ice. I know we will have to make this day up. It is worth it! I am as bad as the kids with the immediate gratification thing. Now, last year, I wished for snow days like nobody's business because I knew they would be made up when I was on maternity leave. Did we get any? No! Ha!
So, I am enjoying this snuggly day with my family. I am busy working on getting my weekend chores done early so we can enjoy more of our weekend together and hoping desperately to get ahead in my schoolwork or lesson plans so I can ditch the feeling of being overwhelmed and barely staying on top of things.
One thing that has changed when Chris entered law enforcement…he doesn't get snow days. He misses out on the joy of anticipating "the call" that says no work for today. It seems more grown-up that way.
Lorelei loves the "snow." Chris and I have both taken her outside to catch snowflakes and grab a handful of snow. She then comes in to show the person that stayed inside by the warm cozy fire.

So, what are you doing with this "extra" day or what would you do with the gift of an extra day?

PS- When you don't have mittens a pair of mom's socks work great! 

God knows...

I am so thankful that God knows the desires of our hearts.  I am thankful that He chooses to lay passages from the Bible in our minds and hearts to remind us that we are not alone.  I am thankful that He included stories in His Word that show other people's struggles.  How they were unfaithful, whether in action or thought, but that He remained faithful!  I am thankful that stories of infertility are included in the Bible.  I am thankful that God chose to include the emotions involved with this...because they are so real. 

I have been seeking the Lord in this issue again.  I believe Psalm 127: 3-5 (NIV), "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."  How I long for a quiver full!!!

I also believe Provers 30:15-16, "There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!': the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'" 

Thank you Lord for not dismissing my feelings.  Thank you for the miracle of Lorelei.  Please allign the desires of my heart with Yours. 

It is official!

It has been in the works for a while...I am happy to announce I will be teaching part time next year!  Because of middle school's rotating schedule it will look something like this: three days a week I go in at 10 and leave at 3 and two days a week I go in at 7: 15 and leave at 12:30.  This is wonderful!  This will give me a little bit more time with my favorite people as well as a little more wiggle room to work on school!  Yay! 

Contest for Applied Labels!

Update: Jessica won with her third entry saying she tweeted! 

I am excited to announce my first giveaway!  I recently received some personalized labels from Applied Labels.  I chose to have Lorelei's first and last name as well as a heart icon for our labels. 

Applied Labels are custom-printed labels that are even dishwasher safe (if only I had a dishwasher!) I chose the classic design of labels as I have mentioned many times Lorelei's love of the "Barbie" bottles.  However, if you use glass bottles they have special Baby Tapes made especially for bottles and they also have Baby Dates which you use once to date bottles.  This is great for childcare, or even the freezer!

There are two other great products available: Tag-A-Longs which are laundry-safe labels that are an alternative to that sharpie on the tag method we are all so familiar with.  If you chose to use these labels in shoes, they offer Shoe Shields which protect the label inside the shoe.

I was going to take a picture of one of our labels on a "Barbie" bottle, but decided against is since I did decide to have her last name printed.  I will tell you we have been very pleased with these labels and have already been asked about them several times! 

There are four different fonts to chose from: cutie (my personal favorite), curlz, elegant, and standard.  There are eighteen differnt icons to choose from my two personal favorites were the hearts and the ladybug (don't worry there are boy options as well!) I found myself trying hard to think of thigns to label, as it was so fun, and they are so cute! 

Ok, so the part you really want to know about... how can you win a $50 e-certificate and order your own? And please don't think that you have to have kiddos to win this one!  I found myself wishing I had some labels with my name on them!

1) Go visit Applied Labels and tell me (via comment) which font and icon are your favorites.

If you want more entries:

2) Tweet about this giveaway and leave me another comment about your tweet.

3) Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link.

4) Subscribe to the blog and leave me a comment that you did or that you already subscribed. 

Enjoy!  Good Luck!  Giveaway closes February 8th.  Thet winner will be chosen using random.org

The product was provided for my to review by Applied Labels but the opinions remain my own. 

General Mills Cereal

MyBlogSpark recently provided my with four coupons to try any General Mills cereals for free.  General Mills has recently announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children’s diets.

Other cereal benefits:
Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.
Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.
More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.


For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.


Right now if you visit here you will find a $1 off coupon for one of four General Mills cereals. If you choose to participate we will also provide you with VIP coupons for 4 boxes of General Mills cereal to help your family come together at the breakfast table every morning.

The information and free cereal coupons were all provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

With my coupons I chose Kix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and two boxes of Raisin Nut Bran.  The Raisin Nut Bran were for Chris and I, but the other two were to share with Lorelei.  I am always looking for things she can eat.  Since she refused baby food from teh beginning but only has four teeth, this has proven to be difficult!  Both of those cereals were a win!  Even though I was provided the coupons for the cerals, the opinions are my own. 

Simplify My Life

Do I need my life simplified? Well, let me think for a minute. Ok, I don't even need a minute. Just a millisecond, yes! I am a wife and a mommy and I love both of those things! I teach sixth grade science and love it, and I am a doctoral student and most days I (sickly) love that too! Is my plate full? Um, yes. I know this is only for a season of my life and I definitely have days when I feel totally overwhelmed, yes, but I do love my life. God has blessed me so much!

The Mom Bloggers Club (you might have noticed the button on the left column of my blog) is having a contest and giving away an HP Mini 110 with Windows 7. I just need to write how winning one will simplify my life…well, I carry my cumbersome work laptop everywhere with me to try and catch a few minutes to work on things when I have unexpected lull times (like right now when I am sitting in a minor med office waiting to get stitches in my elbow from attempting to kick the cat this morning—but that is another story). It would be extremely helpful to have a more compact laptop to do this with! It also would be helpful to not be THIS laptop as it has had to be rebuilt twice this past year as I wrote about in a previous post. Let's just say it is not HP. J

And if I should win this awesome prize…I promise to share with my hubby. He has a laptop that has had a bad battery forever and he has to carry the battery around everywhere. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a laptop?!? Such a good man, he never complains. (His laptop is also not HP…enough said)

And the Windows 7 portion of the prize? I have heard nothing but good things about Windows 7 and can't wait to get my hands on it! I love the commercial of the man that says it was his idea to have the two pages, side by side. Seriously, I know we have all thought that would be SOOO helpful! And how many tabs do we all have open RIGHT NOW!

Do you think you might like to win one of these HP Mini 110 with Windows 7 as well? Well, just comment on my post. Three of these great netbooks will be given away to readers who leave a comment on entrants' sweepstakes posts.