Signing Time with Rachel Coleman

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Rachel Coleman the co-creator of the Signing Time series for Mommytalk.com and you can check it out here.

I used Signing Time with my oldest and now using it with my youngest who it so close. She was actually signing "eat" to me the other day which was awesome. It is progress but we are not quite full communication yet. It will not be long though and it is nice to know my hard work is paying off.

Rachel is a wonderful person and is very devoted to her family. It was a pleasure to talk to her and great to hear her recommendations first hand. She definitely knows her stuff and gave me some really great tips to pass along. I really appreciate her taking the time to talk to me and share some of her stories.

Go check out the article and the wonderful community over at MommyTalk. I have met some great friends over there and they are always happy to help. They offer great parenting advice and awesome parenting articles. I really want to thank them for giving me this opportunity and for helping me along the way.

Salvation Army - Doing the most good?

Of course it is common this time of year for the Salvation Army to be outside store fronts asking people for money. The other day I was out shopping and came across one and I noticed the slogan they had said, "Doing the most good". What in the world does that mean? I mean, are they actually saying they do more good than any other charity? My first thought was how arrogant that is and in my personal opinion it is down right inappropriate. I certainly understand this is a goal they wish to achieve and maybe they are in fact doing more good than anyone else. It just did not sit right with me for a charity like that to choose that phrase for advertising. That slogan was everywhere I went and every time I see it I get annoyed. People give to the charities they feel passionate about and that is the way it should be. This struck me as some sort of crazy competition. Like you need to give all your money to them because the other charities were not good enough and did not do near as much good as they did. I finally came across one yesterday that had a "Sharing is caring" sign which was so much better. This is the season for giving and helping others. Do we really need to keep score?

Precious Girls Club Winner!

The winner of the Precious Girls Club Giveaway is Sharon who said:

I love that it teaches values...as a mom of a daughter and granddaughter...and a future aunt of a new little girl...we need to get back to what is important and teach young ladies the right things...confidence, self esteem, kindness..etc THANKS on December 14, 2008

Congratulations Sharon!

If you did not win you can still head over to the Precious Girls Club and check out what they have to offer. By entering the code 8137-KTQ1-NZCG at Precious Girls Club you will be entitled to a free premium month Rainbow membership on the site.

Thanks to everyone who participated by commenting, blogging, following me, and even adding my button to their site. Please keep checking back here for some more great giveaways!

Precious Girls Club Giveaway!

Created by Precious Moments, the Precious Girls Club offers a safe and wholesome online environment for your little girl. This giveaway includes a goodie bag full of really cool stuff. It includes Precious Girls Club - Charm Bracelet and an additional "helping hand" charm. It also includes A Little Bit of Faith (Precious Girls' Club) which is a book about a little girl, Katie, who moves to a new town and tries to start a club. She has a difficult time and discovers that a little bit of faith will help her along the way.

The Precious Girls Club virtual world site offers a safe and whole environment for girls aged 6-12. They can create their own characters, explore, play games, socalize and even shop "virtually" with the points they earn. The whole experience reinforce virtues such as helpfulness, kindness, responsibility, loving and caring.

Each of the giveaway prizes comes with an access code for enhanced play on the Precious Girls Club virtual world site. Playing on the site is always free but a Rainbow membership offers girls access to exclusive features like games, quizzes and crafts. The people at MomSelect and Precious Moments are offering my readers an opportunity to check out this awesome virtual experience. By entering the code 8137-KTQ1-NZCG at Precious Girls Club you will be entitled to a free premium month Rainbow membership on the site.

To enter the giveaway all you have to do is leave me a comment with something pertaining to the book and/or site. What do you like best? What is your favorite thing? How will you put these items to good use?

Want additional entries?

Sign up over at MommyTalk.com and then come back here and comment again with a link to your MommyTalk profile. Make sure you do so in a new comment in order to get credit for multiple entries.

Blog about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me here at Giliena's Inspirations and the Precious Girls Club virtual site. Then come back here and comment again with the direct link to your post. Make sure you do so in a new comment in order to get credit for multiple entries.

Add my button to the sidebar of your website. Then come back here and comment again with a link to your site. Make sure you do so in a new comment in order to get credit for multiple entries.

Follow me by clicking on the "Follow this blog" link on the sidebar of my site. Then leave me another comment that you have done so. Make sure you do so in a new comment in order to get credit for multiple entries.

*IMPORTANT*

Contest ends December 18th, 2008 at 11:00PM MST! Be sure to include your email address so that you can be contacted. I have to have some way to contact you. If no email address is provided your entry will be disqualified and the comment will be removed. The winner will be chosen using random.org and will have three (3) days to claim their prize. If the winner does not claim their within three (3) days another winner will be chosen.

Wii Fit = Me Fit

So, let me tell you. Mama has a holiday wish list too. Having two babies really does wreak havoc on your body. I cannot even remember what my girlish figure even looked like. Just like many others I have a bit of extra weight that I desperately want to get rid of. We purchased a Nintendo Wii a couple of years ago. I love video games and my family loves playing games on our Wii. When I first saw the Wii Fit I fell in love and knew I had to have one. What a great concept! It was like the people at Nintendo made it just for me. I want to exercise and feel like I am playing a video game instead.

Well, Santa and his elves have their listening ears on and I cannot wait to try it out. I can already feel the pounds falling off as I sit here and think about it. It is a hot item and is sold out in many places. When we got ours a large shipment had arrived by 2pm and by 6pm that same evening there were only 4 left. One of those 4 is here waiting for me . . . calling to me. I wish I could bust it out right now but hence I must wait patiently. Did I mention I am not a patient person?? What special items are on your holiday list?

The Jalapeno Experiment

This is one of those moments in life where you wish you had your video camera ready. The one you swear will win you the 100k on America's Funniest Home Video. The other night I made myself a snack. I chopped jalapenos and mixed them in with cream cheese to dip chips in. I took a break today from cleaning and had the munchies so I decided that was my snack of choice. I got all set up and Vic decided she had to snack with me. I gave her a chip and told her she could not have any sauce because it was hot. The rest of the events go like this:

"Mama, it is not hot . . . I will blow on it"

"No baby it is spicy hot"

"I like spicy mama please I want some"

"No baby this is really spicy"

"Oh mama I loooooove really spicy"

So, I hand her a chip with just a little of the dip on it. I felt okay with it because we feed her spicy foods all the time and she loves them. She takes a bite and the rest left me in tears . . .

"Oh mama, is it spicy? No, it is not spicy mama"

"Yes it is spicy sweetie"

"Mama mama . . . water and ice please . . . help help help . . . water and ice please mama . . . help help help"

*gulp gulp gulp*

"It is not spicy mama . . . more water and ice please"

*gulp gulp gulp*

"Oh mama it is not spicy . . . more chips and spicy sauce please"

All the while she was running around the house with her water cup. Too cute!

Holiday List Deals

I finally got my butt in gear and started getting holiday shopping done. I already had two of the items I wanted to get for my kids get sold out. That was motivation to get it done before they ended up with nothing. Every year I swear I am going to start shopping earlier so that I can be done and not stress. You know it never seems to happen that way. I am always left at the last minute scrambling to get the gifts I want. I am not sure why I do it. I always know what I want to get long before the rush begins. I just either do not push the button online to get it done or I put off going to the store. Then the last minute arrives and I am freaked.

I did have a few items I wanted get sold out again this year. I had to change my thinking a bit but now I am on track. I guess one could say I am doing better this year because I still have a couple of weeks. I managed to find a great deal on the Fisher-Price Go Baby Go Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle for my little one over at Amazon.

I also got the Fisher-Price Dora Magical Welcome Dollhouse there as well for my oldest. She is a huge Dora fan and no doubt will get a lot of use out of this. She plays with one at her friends house and loves it. The other thing she wanted which I thought as very cool was a laptop like her mommy. So I searched and found Vtech - Tote 'N Go Laptop Plus so she can "work" like me.

My step daughter is at that age where she is extremely hard to buy for. I got her some books and several other items. The one gift I was very pleased with is the Coby 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Key Chain (Red). This way I can load pictures of all of us so she can take it with her and have them always when she is at home.

My mother sent to me Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book: Her Biggest Ever Collection of All-New 30-Minute Meals Plus Kosher Meals, Meals for One, Veggie Dinners, Holiday Favorites, and Much More!. I am a huge Rachel Ray fan and love her recipes. She gave it to me early and I definitely recommend buying it.

Anyways, I hope you all are having good luck with the holidays deals and are in better shape than I am.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Holiday Fear

The holiday season is supposed to be all about family, friends, giving, and a whole lot of joy and happiness. Apparently it is about taking as well. For my family it has also become about some punk hoodlums that felt they had the right to reach into my space and take what does not belong to them. They took my hard earned items as if they had some superior right to them.

I woke up just before 5am the other morning to a very loud repeated banging noise. I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. I saw the time and thought it was a neighbor scraping the ice and snow off his windsheild. I remember thinking if he kept that up he was going to break his window. I peeked out my window. My bedroom is right above the garage so my window looks out front to the driveway. To my complete horror there was a dark figure standing next to my husband's vehicle. Not thinking, I ran to the bigger window in the common area and opened it and screamed. These coward punks ran towards another vehicle parked in the street out front and sped away. Did it stop them? Hell no! They went on to another street and the police said that we were victim number 140. There were 6 victims on my street alone.

At that very moment my life changed. It was as if they had reached in and stolen a piece of who I was. I would never be the same person again. I felt a chill that made my very soul shiver. I immediately thought of my children. What if it had been my house instead of my vehicle? The thought of someone coming into my house uninvited left me feeling ill. Horrible thoughts of things that could happen rushed through my head. I could not stop them. I took for granted that I was safe. I live in a decent neighborhood and never imagined this kind of thing would happen here. It is not until something like this happens that you stop and think about all the areas in your life you are vulnerable to this kind of attack. We feel a sense of security along with the denial that something like this could happen to US. This is only something you ever hear about on the news. Sadly I am left feeling that even though I have checked the doors and windows numerous times I need to check them one more time. Every single strange noise outside is a repeat violation in my head.

As a result, I have gotten up off of my butt and reactivated the alarm in my house. When we moved in I kept putting it off thinking I was safe and there was no need. I urge you all to have a very wonderful and safe holiday season. Please take a moment to think about where you might be vulnerable. Do not fall into the same trap that I did and let your guard down. Please please learn from my mistake in an effort to keep yourself and your family safe during this holiday season. The lowest of low are out there waiting to take advantage of good people. Unfortunately this is a part of life and as I have been told repeatedly these last couple of days, it is a part of this time of year.

I am angry and afraid. I have had my time to voice my fears and hopefully help someone think twice and be safe. Now I have to work towards forgiveness and move on. I will never forget and will always be thinking about how the things I do makes me vulnerable.

God bless

Avon Botanicals Bamboo Diffuser and Beauty Palette Winner!

The winner of the Avon Botanicals Bamboo Diffuser and Beauty Palette Giveaway is Ardy22 who said:

"I need a case or two of the ANEW CLINICAL Advanced Wrinkle Corrector . LOL!" on December 2, 2008.

CONGRATULATIONS ARDY22!

If you did not win, there is still time to rush over to Avon and order some wonderful items in time for the holidays. Do not forget, the nice folks at Avon have offered my readers free standard shipping with a $30 order when you shop with an eRepresentative. All you do is enter the code: JINGLE30. Act fast though because this offer expires January 1, 2009. Be sure to take advantage of this great deal during the holidays!

Thanks to everyone who participated by commenting, blogging, following me, and even adding my button to their site. Please keep checking back here for some more great giveaways!