Make Memories

Oh where, oh where have the Today.com bloggers gone,

Oh where, oh where can you be…

Okay, I was a bit discouraged when I saw that the Today.com blogger’s choice award went pretty much unnoticed. First they asked for nominations and not many answered. Now they are asking for votes on the blogs that have been nominated and once again it does not get much notice.

I am really hoping that the next time Today.com has these awards  people will get more involved. We all have busy lives but we need to make time to appreciate the things around us. Especially if you are also a Today.com blogger.

If you missed the nominations you can still vote on your favorite of the 5 nominations. Check them out in the forums. You can find them here, at Vote for January’s Blogger’s Choice Award.  

Check them out and see what you think… I may be a bit biased, but I voted for a blog I visit everyday Celebrity Today .  If you are a fellow Entrecarder make sure you drop there too.

If you are not a Today.com blogger what are you waiting for? Click on the link on the right side bar and start getting paid to blog. I love Today.com. I can get paid to write about anything I like. There are so many great topics out there. It is hard to pick just one.

I usually do not do a lot of product reviews but I guess I have really enjoyed shopping lately. Our phone died so we headed out shopping. As we looked at phones we were surprised at how many really nice ones were for a good price.

We found these phones made by Uniden for about $50 at Best Buy. I absolutely love them. We keep the main phone in the livingroom. There are two more phones, so one is in the basement rec room and one is on the second floor in Noelle’s room.

The phones can call each other in intercom mode. That is what makes me love them so much. I no longer have to make thousands of trips up and down staircases to talk to the kids. Now I just have to remember which phone is on each floor. I keep using the “call all phones” mode and having to tell people I wanted someone else.

Oh yeah, It is also wonderful knowing where the phone is. Children in this house had a bad habit of forgetting them  in bedrooms or the recroom. Now they can leave them there and I will still have one when I need it.

Well, I got the taxes all done. I am usually really excited  this time of the year but I was a bit disappointed this year. We used to get a lot back so we would look forward to some big purchases when we go it.

I did the taxes on the Turbo Tax website like usual and was shocked by how much less it was this year. I then went to two other websites and did the taxes again. Still it came to the same amount. I was in such denial that I then actually did them myself. Yep, you guessed it. Still the same amount. So I wasted a lot of time just to go back and submit the taxes with Turbo Tax.

This year I had been thinking of selling the Jeep Grand Cherokee and getting a new SUV. James just bought a used Honda Accord so he would get better gas mileage with all of the driving he does for work. We still also have his Land Rover so I decided that I would just keep my Jeep for now.

Our only other plan for the tax return was to get the girls new bedding and decorations for their rooms. So when I found that we were not getting as much back this year I decided to just put the rest of the money into savings. There is not much we really need right now and I do not want to just spend it to spend it.

Some of you may remember that we have been trying to buy the Wii Fit. All of the stores here have been out since before Christmas. James had talked to an employee at Game Stop and was told when the next shipment was coming in. He raced in and bought the last one they had. They had only gotten 3 so we were really lucky to get one.

Everyone in our family loves it. I really started to get into it but then I got a horrible cold so it will have to wait until I am feeling better. Then I am going to get serious about getting into shape by summer. James and I really did not like seeing our Miis get rounder after it weighed us. Of course the girls thought it was very funny. I guess it was funny when it was James’ Mii and not mine.

I have to say that the hula hooping is very hard work. Maybe I am doing it wrong but I need a rest after it. I am really loving all of the games for the Wii that keep the girls active. Winter time in Wisconsin is not usually a time for much outside activity so the Wii is keeping them fit.

It is funny how buying new cleaning tools can get the whole family interested in cleaning again. I normally hate wasting money on these silly type things. James bought the Swiffer when it came out but I just could not see spending money on all of those cleaning pads. I ended up just clipping cleaning rags into the clippy things and using those. It did work out well and it saved me lots of money.

Well now James came home with the Clorox Ready Mop. I was not too impressed. It is still another one of those silly products that keep you spending money on more pads and cleaner. The rest of the family loves it though and they are all racing to keep all the floors mopped.

I guess in the end it might just be a good purchase. At least everyone is now interested in cleaning again. I will probably never buy replacement pads though. It seems so wasteful when I already have a house full of rags. Maybe I will look at the cleaner bottle and see it I can refill and reuse that. Yes, I am very cheap! I am helping save the environment though since I am not buying all the disposable stuff.

Okay, I saw Ann Coulter on the Today Show last week mention single mothers. I let it go that time.

Last night I watched Dr Phil and she was at it again. This time the topic was about our new president and if people are having unrealistic expectations. She once again brought up single mothers. It seemed like no matter what anyone asked her she wanted to keep turning it back to what she thought about single mothers.

So what is her insane view of single mothers? She believes that all of the world’s problems are because of single mothers.  No, I am not exaggerating. She even tried stating statistics about how many rapists, murders, and other incarcerated criminals are from single mothers. She has many times also stated that single mothers choose to be single mothers and that this country glorifies being a single mother.

First off, I do not know many women that chose to be a single mother. Being a parent is a very hard job. Who wants to go through that alone?  Last I checked it took a man and a woman to make a child. What blame gets put on the men? What about the fact that society now looks the other way when men cheat on and abandon women? I think a more accurate statement would be that children that do not have a father in their life tend to have more problems.

Society does not glorify single motherhood like Ann Coulter claims. Society tries to empower women that get stuck in a horrible position. Everyday women are left to raise children alone. They feel lost, alone, and helpless. Society tries to help these women see that they can make it past their situation.

Okay I am done with my rant. I just could not let it go. She made me very angry.

We got a new printer. As printers go I think this one is really sleek and pretty. I do not usually look at a printer and say, “Wow, that thing is really good looking”, but this thing really is.

I am also not usually one of those people that buy something they do not really need. I hate being wasteful. I have heard many people lately say that they have gone to buy ink for their printer and found that buying a new printer was cheaper.

How does this work by the way? How can they make a whole printer and ink for the printer for less than what it costs them to make ink cartridges? The new printers come with the ink so it should be much more expensive when you figure on a whole new printer!

What upsets me about this is first of all the extra printers that end up in landfills.  I have talked to many people that were given printers for free. All of them have told me that they threw the free ones away when they saw that they could get a new one for the price of ink. So this tells me that giving the old printers away does not help. Next I get upset about the fact that companies charge us so much for ink. They obviously do not need to charge that much. If they charged less for ink it would save many printers from landfills.

Okay now that my rant is over I can say that I love my new printer. I justify getting a new one because this one is an all in one. Yes I already had a regular printer and a photo printer but my photo printer is one of the portable ones that I never hook up to the computer. There is not room on my desk so I just use it with memory cards. I also gave my flat bed scanner away a while ago because I did not have room for it. My new printer does it all so I now have everything I need and it fits on my desk. Plus…yes, it looks really cool.

I would like to thank Yanjiaren for this award. This award was given to Make Memories by the Qiman`s World blog. This is the first award we have received on this new blog so I was happy to receive it. Yanjiaren has been a faithful commenter on this blog so I would also like to point out that Yanjiaren has another blog that I like. Green Not Mean is a great blog that deals with everything eco friendly.

I am horrible about giving away awards. I used to take the time to really find great blogs to pass awards on to. I would also try to look at who my top droppers are and who commented the most on my blogs. I found it very discouraging that all that time seemed to go to waste. Many times people did not even thank me for the awards. Plus I am extremely busy these days so I rarely even get all of my drops done any more. These are the reasons that I seldom pass on awards any more. I do want to properly thank the people that have given me awards though so thank you once again Yanjiaren.

*A reminder to anyone that does want to get an award from me I do give out a Your Fun Family - Award of Excellence. This way I can give out awards to people that really would like one. Anyone that would like to apply for the award can email me at melissa(at)yourfunfamily(dot)com. All awards are announced on the Your Fun Family Blog unless a request is made for a different blog.