Entries from December 2008 ↓

I first heard of Swagbucks from Hope, over at Pink-A-Doodle-Do. I hesitantly tried them out, and lemme tell you folks, am I ever hooked!

The concept is pretty simple — you get paid to search the web. You sign up on a very quick form (less than a minute to fill it out, and no, you don’t have to give them much personal info) and you’re all set to get started. You don’t have to download their toolbar, but if you want to, it’s there. Personally, I don’t really like extra toolbars, so I just set their website as my homepage. They actually use Google as their search engine, so whatever you search, you’re coming up with the same exact results you’d get if you went to Google’s homepage. Every once in a while when you search, at the top of the page a swagbuck witll pop up, and it will alert you that you have won some points. You also win points by shopping through participating retailers if you start out at the link on Swagbucks’ site. Walmart.com is actually one, and a lot of people shop there. Anyway, the point is to win as many swagbucks as possible, and they accumulate in your account. There are prizes for all different values of swagbucks, and you can trade your points for the prizes. Personally, I have won $25 worth of giftcards to Amazon.com in about 6 weeks. Granted, we do search the web more than the average person. But even if you win $5 in a month, that’s $5 more than you had before, right? And you’re not doing anything you wouldn’t normally be doing. They just want you to use their site, so they’re paying you. It’s as easy as that. Try it out today — seriously, I can’t say enough good things about this company. And I waited to make sure it was all 100% legit, and now I know it is — I’ve received prizes, I’ve used my giftcards I’ve received from them to make purchases, and I have contacted customer service and received a prompt reply from them. So go, go — try it out and let me know if you love it as much as I do!

I cloth diapered Firest from his first year on, and I cloth diapered Warrior pretty much his whole diapering ‘career’. I have been meaning to get them out for Fancy, but the disposables were just so dang convenient. Today I finally motivated myself and got them out.Let me preface this by saying that Fancy has huge pooping issues. She poops litearally once every 5-10 days. We have to feed her prunes daily, and massage her tummy just to get that. So I thought to myself as I was putting on the first cloth diaper, “this will be a cinch since she never poops!”.

I’m also thinking a custom rubber stamp with the word PRINCESS on it, that we could just use to stamp everything she owned might be appropriate. Or perhaps just a tiara?

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours!

I’ll admit that it was a slight challenge to get all three to smile at the same time. But they all cooperated pretty nicely (which was something to say, seeing as how we took these at 9:30 at night). And although not perfect, they are true to real life. The life that I will want to look back on in 20 years and smile about. More than ever, I am thankful for my children. Things can be taken from us, but our family will forever remain our best and truest treasures. And this Christmas, I can say that I am learning that lesson more than I ever have before. Yes, our possessions are nice, and can bring us comfort and pride, but when it all comes down to it…. cars, boats, nice clothing, basketball trophies, medals of honor, sparkling jewels, they will all fade away one day. What is in our heart will remain. So that is the blessing I wish to each of you this Christmas season — the best and most wonderful kind of blessing - beautiful memories with the ones you love.

With Love,

Carrie

Thanks for all the entries! Congratulations to Suzanne, comment #6.  According to Random.org, she wins the gift buck$! Enjoy, Suzanne!