Friday, July 30, 2010

Review - Dinner For Schumcks

Well I won tickets to the preview to Dinner for Schmucks last night so I went with my dear husband. He so deserved it after all the hours he has plugged into this blog of "mine". We went to a great dinner first at a Greek place, had Calamari, and Tzaki with pita as well as Greek meet balls and Humus. So good. Then the movie. Well, what to say. What we saw of it was really good, really touched on the delicate subject of making fun of people (a subject I really am very sensitive to as I was always "that" kid in school). Now we missed allot of the movie for two reasons, first at least 1/2 the movie had no sound!!! BUT they kept playing the movie LOL with no sound, so my husband and I made our own dialogue which to be honest was allot of fun and was a pretty good bonding experience for me, if that makes sense. They also seemed to cut parts out when they turned the movie off three or four times to try to fix the sound problem then the movie would seem to jump ahead a bit - not to mention all the time we had missed the dialogue on the movie. But being that it was comedy it was pretty easy to follow what had happend. It was really funny and the audience for the most part was really good natured about it all. We got free movie passes out of - as we should of if my mind. All in all I want to see the movie when it comes out, with sound :), it was all about people getting along, despite our differences. I like that.
It was very funny and I also like that feel good feeling of laughing for two hours. Not a kids movie though -at least not for my kids - there was a young teen there and I would not have wanted my kids of that age there if I had them, but to each there own. I would recommend this movie for sure, not sure if it is a big screen movie if you are not REALLY into that kind of comedy or you have allot of money - but it is defiantly worth renting. We rarely go to movies that are not ones that "should be seen on a big screen" if you know what I mean. But we are a single income family. I would love to go to allot more, if we could I love going to them.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Busy Weekend

My husband and I went to Wild Play Elements Park, the web site is www.wildplay.com it is simply put being a monkey for a hour or two :) This is the second time we have gone, last time we were both scared to death the whole time and came down (you are WAY up in the trees) this time we both enjoyed it - without fear - but did not get the same adrenalin rush from it. It is a great work out, and trust building within yourself. There are three courses in BC, one in Nanaimo, one in Victoria and one in Whistler. They are all different from each other and we intend to try them all :) The one we go to has zip lines, rope swings, wobbly bridges, tightropes, ladders, obstacle courses (way up in the trees remember) swinging logs to walk across. It takes allot of courage and mental awareness to do and it is just relay good for your self esteem to do it.
We did this for our 11 year wedding anniversary which was on Saturday! I can't believe it has been 11 years already! We got married on the beach at my mom's house, with only 18 people there, we spent next to nothing and got married in bare feet. We only had our best friends there and every one said it was the best wedding they had ever been to (perhaps everyone says that to the bride and groom LOL) To top it off it was a pot luck! We are very nontraditional people and we REFUSED to go into debt to get married, not us LOL. It was a day to remember anyway, as they always are.
Have not won anything else - yet - but will keep you posted as it goes/comes.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Another win and a Welcome!

Well I have a Follower - that is as good as a win any day -welcome Eileen -welcome, you are my official first and the "other" is just my husband LOL. I am happy to have you here!
I also got a e-mail this morning saying "I" won tickets to Dinner for Schmucks I say "I" because it is not really my kind of movie and as we can not really afford a sitter for a movie that we don't REALLY want to see my hubby is going to try and go with his good friend. They will love it, I think it is more of a guy movie anyway. I do no really enjoy movies that make fun of people,it's sad - as I was that kid in school :( and I guess kind of still feel that way if you know what I mean? But I won - that is two wins in 24 hours and I feel good LOL.
Still entering like a fiend to. The one I really want to win is for these Worry monsters - called the WorryWoos - I have entered two different blog contests for them now, one for just one monster and one for a set - I would so love to win, one of my daughters has pretty big worries and I think having a little guy/or gal around to worry with her might help a bit. I intend to get her one for Christmas if I don't win but I will enter every contest for them that I come across (for us Canadians ;)
My other obsession is clothes for me - I have lost 100 pounds in the last year and for the first time in my life I feel sexy - really really good about myself and I do not have allot of clothing -and NO good quality clothes as all as we are a single income family in one of the most expensive cities in Canada LOL. But I make do and I look a heck of allot better now than I did - but still - I am entering :)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I Won a Contest!

Well after three weeks of entering religiously I have won my first blog contest. I am so proud of myself :) I won from a lovely blog : http://couponclippingnutritionist.blogspot.com/ she has the best contests for natural/healthy products - very cool. What I won was a $30 gift certificate for Belvedere Signs, I have already used it (I won this morning LOL) I bought a simple sign that says "Love is spoken here" then I had enough left over for one animal sign. - We could not as a family of four decide which animal character we wanted though so we put them in a hat and voted - My daughter won a wiener dog - she choose purple! So now we will have a BRIGHT purple medium wiener dog on our living room wall in 5-10 days LOL. I will post a picture once they are up. I am just so happy to have won something, and this is honestly the one I was hoping for this sign "Love is spoken here" is so lovely, and kind, and such a great reminder to walk gently. I will put it right in my entrance way so it is the first thing I see when I walk in my door. Thanks so much Amanda, if you read this - truly, I appreciate this more than you know! And to Belvedere Signs, thanks to you as well, your signs are just amazing, beautiful works of art it took my family and I the better part of 30 minutes to figure out how to spend that last $12 LOL, the signs are just so good!



Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Schleich Give Away at Organic Girl



Organic Girl is doing one of the best give aways I have seen yet (for my kids anyway) it is for an assortment of Knights, she has a picture of all sorts of creatures, Knights, dragons etc on her blog. If your kids like Schleich or if you have kids that have not experienced them yet but are into imaginary play go and enter - these are the best of the best of play figures in my mind - we have hundreds of them in my living room right now. I can actually hear my girls playing with them as I type.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Sunday at Leaving the Lights On

I went to a great event yesterday called Leaving the Lights On - put on my a friend of mine. It was for women, about women. There were speakers and tables set up with different products - some to try, if you were willing to stand in line you could even get a manicure! There was someone doing Airbonne makeup as well as massages being done. This was all free once you were in the door. I had such a nice kid free four hours. The speakers talked about relaxation, sexuality, reproductive health, and of all things burlesque! it was fabulous. We all walked away with a goody bag of coupons, a few samples, condoms from the Sexual Health Center, and lots of other fun things. I came aways with a brilliant book for my daughter called:
Little Women's Guide to Personal Power - how to turn your monthly menstruation into your biggest blessing of your life. Written by Kyla Plaxton. Her web site is : wwwilovemyperiod.com
and it is published by Little Goddess Enterprises
If you have a daughter coming into puberty and you want her to see this as a positive - this is a great book - I am thrilled with it. this book alone was worth the entrance fee to Leaving the Lights on. My daughter has already been into the book - read most of it since last night and is really liking it as well. Kyla writes in a easy to read manner and talks about girls bodies in a non-embarrassing way (at least for my daughter). There is a work book section in the back for girls to try and work out ways to deal with their PMS in a positive way as well and to chart their cycles. The actual reading part is only 70 pages long and the rest is the work book part - about 100 pages of that - so they can really grasp their cycles.
So it was a great day, well worth it and I had a afternoon off from the kiddletts :)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Ah Saturday and Costco!

I went to Costco this morning with the youngest - we were there at opening, it was very quiet and civilized, within an hour everyone in town must have been there - really! It went from easy shopping to fender bender shopping. Crazy, we almost always go there on a week day evening, not sure what possessed me to go today - oh yes I know. We shop on Pay Day and today was the day LOL. Perhaps I should have fed us rice until Monday and gone Monday night instead! Must say though the staff were just amazing! They went and got me a icing sugar when I told them at the till that the box was closed (I was just suggestion someone be informed so they can open it for others I was OK to go without this time), they refunded my coupon I forgot to use then brought in ten minutes later without the product only my shopping list and the coupon. They were just great. Then my youngest and I gorged on the famous hot dogs and if that was not enough we had to share a caramel Sunday after that! I rolled home to put my loot away.
I go to Costco with a list from my menu plan for two weeks - I almost never veer off of it - and I write down the cost of every last dime I spend as I spend it - I know when I get to that till exactly what it will say. I have caught them out big time more than once and I am always right!
I recommend everyone become a granny shopper like me - though no one else ever does - I have never seen another 36 year old doing it - heck I have only ever seen the 80 plus set doing it. And once this older woman came over and congratulated me on doing it! But I save a ton of money.

My sad news today, at least for me was I woke up this morning to eight - yes read it eight- e-mails from blogs telling me I did not win there contests! How is that! I felt like e-mailing them back (poor looser that I was by the third or fourth e-mail) and asking if they would like to pour some salt in my wounds LOL. NO really I am just fine, a bit sad, I am yet to win and I have entered HUNDREDS of contests, blogs, sweepstakes ect. I so want to win, I really do...... I honestly thought for the first couple e-mails that I had won and I just about died LOL - I am learning, won't get so excited now, just hopeful. These e-mails have not happened before today though so not sure what happened there.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Review: Bio-Groom Dog Shampoo & Ear Cleaner



Today I tried out a new Shampoo on my Black Lab Dravyn. The Company is called Bio-Groom and the shampoo was called Natural Oatmeal Anti - Itch. It smelled so good compaired to her usual shampoo - really sweet, almost like mint though I am not sure that is quite what it is. I did not use very much and that dog was sudsy for the full scrub - I have never had her this bubbly with shampoo before. I bought the bottle - 355 ml thinking it would last 2 months tops with a weekly bath and now I am thinking perhaps it will last three or more! I am impressed, and will be buying this again, perhaps not the Oatmeal everytime - I bought this kind because it was on sale, they have lots of scents/formulas.




At the same time I bought Dravyn some Bio-Groom Ear-Care Ear Cleaner, I have used a ton of different products to try and keep the ear mites at bay on this dog - any of you having Labs, or any floppy eared dog really will understand I am sure. Well I have used this three times this week, and she is now not rubbing her ears AT ALL - this is huge - just huge! This actually works! You put a squirt in your dogs ear, rub her ear vigorously then become a human cotton swab with a piece of cotton and wipe out all the black gunk. The first day there was four cotton pads worth (from her "bad" ear) the second time I filled two pads, and today - the pad was light brown!!! WOW! I am sold impressed. I think Dravyn is too :) I bought these at a small specialty pet store, they were areound $13 Canadian each - well worth it in my mind.




Bio-Groom also makes products for Cats, Ferrets and Horses :)

A Clean & happy Dravyn ->

Cakespy Contest

http://www.cakespy.com/blog/2010/7/15/cake-byte-and-giveaway-cupcake-plates-by-michelle-miller-now.html

So I am not able to enter this wonderful contest as it is only for Americans you lucky people but it is for the most beautiful cupcake plates ever (in my most humble opinion). So if you are reading this - and you are American - PLEASE pop over if and enter. You will love it - if you make cupcakes you will love it even more (I do can you tell LOL)
I have had unbelievable frustration trying to bring links from blogs here to show what they have for contests - and then to show them that I have linked here - I have spent a couple hours trying now with not much luck. Just goes to show how compter illiterate I am really, not something I can brag about, but I am trying hard.
I spend about an hour each morning bright and early having my piece of toast and coffee doing sweepstakes on Win Free Stuff it is a great Canadian contest site that tells you what you have entered, also when you need to enter them ie if it is daily or weekly, or a one off. It also has checks to mark off if you are uninterested - I just love this site. In one hour I can do the whole site and it is fun for me. I must say though now that I have found blog sites I am prefering the intimacy of them. I like feeling like I am getting to know some people (I know I am not really) but I am going back to these blogs again and again and reading them. I look at the contest sites and actually look around at the places I really like. Some of them I intend to do some Christmas and birthday shopping on. I would never have found these places without these contests. It is just wonderful.
I am learning alot, hopefully over the next few weeks/months I will learn alot more. Hopefully I will get some readers other than just my husband :) Nice as he is! I need to know how to get a counter, have tried to google it but no luck, if you know how let me know please - it would be great to know if there is anyone comming here or not yet.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

If you pop over to Survery Junkie (in my contest favorites to the left )right now, she has a great contest on for a shower curtain from the brilliant company Izola Shower. Forgive me the simplicity of my post with no links, I am a baby at this and am on a very steep learning curve - I would love tips, about all this as I really have no clue how to do any of it! But go over to Survey Junkie and try and win one of these beauties - they will make any bathroom look better - I am in - are you?
Well this is new for me, I have been trying to win a contest - both blog and sweepstakes for about two weeks now with no luck so far - at least I have not heard from anyone that I have won yet but we will see. I keep opening my in-box thinking today is the day LOL. I am ready to win something now. I have entered some blogs that I would so love to win, one is for a amazing Bear Mug - it is just beautiful, my daughter would so love it for Christmas.

The sweepstakes I wants to win, oddly, are for cleaning products. I am a bit of a cleaner and I spend far to much on them so if I can win them - great :) I guess that says something about me though doesn't it.

I have two girls, one with ADHD and one is Bi-Polar so going on trips would be hard unless we could all go together, so I do not enter to many trip contests, though I do like the odd - girlfriend - trip :) I would like to go off with the girls to New York to shop or something, who wouldn't.