My Barefoot books website

You probably didn't know this, but I have a Barefoot Books website.  I signed up for it a few years ago, but have never sold a thing.  It's a darn good thing that it's free!  But I do love books! 

When I was about 4 years old, I was the youngest kid on the block.  All the "big" kids were in school all day every day.  But I didn't want to be the "baby".  In the apartment downstairs, there were two little girls who just finished first grade!  I remember their names were Tammy and Brenda.  They went to a private school so they were allowed to keep their books at the end of the year.  When they finished first grade, they gave me some of their reading books.  I remember paying very close attention to the segments on Sesame Street, The Letter People, and The Electric Company where the taught pronunciation.  I would then go haul myself into the bedroom and practice reading.  Finally one day, I came out of the room and told my mom I wanted to show her something.  Then I read her a complete story out of the book.  She was actually suprised and takes no credit for teaching me to read.

I started Kindergarten in 1979.   Back in the old days, kids didn't have to know much before entering Kindergarten.  So it was unusual for a kid to know how to read.  I remember they sent me to the first grade class at the beginning of the year and had me read to them.  Thinking back, I can't imagine why they had me do that.  It seems kind of strange now.  But I still remember standing at the front of the room and reading to these first graders who seemed so incredibly big and scary.  But I sucked it up and read my book.

I guess that's where my love of books began.  My favorite book was a book called Frisker.  Which was first published in 1956.  My mom has a cassette tape of me reading that book.  I hope to record my son reading his first book too.  I know that my mom and I both enjoyed listening to it when I got older.

When I was pregnant with my son, one of the first things that I wanted to do was start his book collection.  I knew right away that I wanted to try to pass along that same love of reading on to him.  And so far, it's working.  He's three years old and not yet reading, but he does enjoy his story time at night.  He usually sleeps with the books we read before bed.

I started my Barefoot books website shortly after my son was born.  They have some really great books.  It might be worth taking a peek at the website.  See if there is anything that might interest you or your child.

Click on the image below for a fun music video!

Q&A with Brandon Barash (Johnny Zacchara on General Hospital)

The following never-before-seen interview with Brandon Barash of General Hospital, the actor who plays Johnny Zacchara interview was shared today with us (General Hospital Brand Ambassadors).  

Q: What would you do if you could turn back time?
A: I would meet Benjamin Franklin.


Q: What do you do in your down time?
A: I like playing music, standing on my head, walking around in nature -- and if I’m really feeling ambitious, I’ll do all three at the same time.


Q: What is the best way to prepare for a love scene?
A: The best way to prepare for a love scene is by spending lots of hours at the gym.


Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: Basketball – college or NBA.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t an actor?
A: If I could not act I would NOT be one of those people who give you tickets for expired parking meter. I would be a surgeon or a police office in Alaska. Only in Alaska.


Q: Describe your perfect date.
A: My perfect date is being with a girl I can talk to.


Q: What is one of your favorite things to do?
A: When it is just me and my dad my favorite thing is to sit outside, drink a scotch and talk about nothing.


Q: What do you do for Thanksgiving?
A: I spend Thanksgiving with both sides of my large extended family.


Q: describe your most memorable moment on GH.
A: When Jonny was shot 5 times and survived it, recovered and went to a wedding the next day.


Q: What was the most memorable moment of pop culture in 2009?
A: Clearly it was when we lost the late and great MJ.

(I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other General Hospital branded items to facilitate my review.)

I am a General Hospital Amabassador

Recently, I became a General Hospital Ambassador.  It's a program where a bunch of moms get to help promote General Hospital.  I have been watching General Hospital since roughly 1990.  I have seen many beloved characters and actors come and go over the years.  I even followed a few of them over to the short lives spin-off  "Port Charles".  (I'll have to blog about that another time).  I am thankful to have the opportunity to help promote a great show and one of my favorite genres.  Let's save our soaps!

Stay tuned and check out my blogs.  I may have some insider info for you in the near future!

(I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other General Hospital branded items to facilitate my review.)

New job starting next week

I am starting a new job next week.  I have so many mixed feelings about it.  The good news is that I will get a paycheck.  :-)     The job is temporary to start.  So after the initial "getting to know you" phase, then we will see if we like each other well enough to commit to the relationship.

Today, I took a drive to see how long it will take me to get there.  It took me about 35 minites to get there going the "least use of freeways" route.  On the way home, I took the "fastest" route which saved me about 5 minutes, not that big of a deal.

The down sides are that I will have to pay $75 a month for parking, a longer commute, and later hours before I will get home.  I am probably looking at getting home about 6:45pm.  Those are the things that are kind of bothering me.

I really don't know a whole lot about the job.  So it's possible that I could love the job and the people.  If I am hired on as permanent, then the benefits are pretty good from what I understand.

I am very nervous about this, especially since I am not really sure what I want to do. 

I will still persue my Real Estate career and really hope that takes off for me.  I'd like the flexibility of the job.

Bean Pot Taco Soup

Because it's one of my newer stoneware pieces,  I search the web frequently for Bean Pot recipes.  I have been trying a variety of recipes and so far all of them have been greaat.

If you have a hard time cooking meat until is is tender and juicy, you might want to try cooking in a bean pot.

Here's a recipe that I just found and would like to try next.


Bean Pot Taco Soup

1 Can of Diced Tomatoes
1 Can of Corn
1 Can of Black Beans
1 Can of Pinto Beans
1 packet of Ranch Dressing Mix
1 packet of Taco Seasoning

Mix together in beanpot. Microwave for 25 min or until hot – stirring occasionally. Top with sour cream & cheese before serving then add corn chips!

Should a toddler be allowed to play with a Nintendo DS?

When my son was just under two years old, I was playing Super Mario Brothers on MY Nintendo DS.  It was never intended for him.  After watching me play the game once, he wanted to give it a try.  I figured that he would get bored with it pretty quickly, so I let him have a try.  My to my amazement, he played the game well from the very start!  I thought it was amusing and amazing!!  So that Christmas, I got him the Leapster.  I figured that it would be a good alternative for him.  Well, the downside is that because he was only two years old, he doesn't know Math or how to read, which is somewhat required for all Leapster games.  Drat!  The Nintendo DS is so much easier because there are plenty of E rated games that do not require reading.  So after my husband got me a new DS for Christmas, I decided to give my old one to our son.

Well, it has snowballed since then.  He is still only three years old now, but he can play Nintendo DS games like a champ.  He plays much better than I do.  (No, I am not jealous.)  But sometimes I wonder if this can be a bad thing.  It certainly has it's ups and downs.

I have noticed that with certain games he can become a bit more aggressive, so I do try to steer clear of those games.  I have tried to steer him toward the Leapster games, but that attempt has failed most of the times.  Sure, he plays his Leapster sometimes, but not as much as that Nintendo DS.  It's good for long car rides and getting him to sit still in a restaurant for longer than five minutes.

I don't allow him to take it to social gatherings, such as a family get-together for the holidays.  But that really doesn't help when most of the bigger kids have brought their DS with them.  I feel like a family gathering is for socializing with people, not for burying your head in a video game, which is what he would do.  But when he sees the other kids with their game systems, the only thing he wants to do is have a turn with it.  And when that kid doesn't want to share their DS (which is totally their call), then all heck breaks loose.  My three year old is being taught to share and now this older kid is not sharing.  Oy-vey!  Now what?

I am not about to give in and let him bring his DS with him.  There is just too much that can go wrong in that scenario.  And I am trying to get him interested in other things so that he doesn't become a video game junkie. 

But I do have to admit that sometimes it is nice to have a long stretch of time to do laundry or something while he's playing a round of Kirby.

I entered a contest to win a copy of the "Your Baby Can Read" Program

I just entered a contest at J. leigh designz for a Your Baby Can Read Starter Kit.  It looks like it is primarily marketed for babies, although their ads claim  that it can be used for kids up to age 5.  Since my son is three years old, I don't really want to spend a ton of money on this if it really is not meant for his age range.  We have been working on learning our letter names this week.  He seems to be able to catch on to what we are doing, but after today's review, I am not sure how much it is sticking.  This week we learned letters A thru D.  Today, when played games to review the four letters we have done so far, he seemed to be guessing.  He also used to know the alphabet song pretty well, but he seems to have forgotten the end of it now.  It would be interesting to see how this program would add to what we have been doing.

Links:

J. leigh designz

Your Baby Can Read

My Review of Poingo Story Reader 2 Pack Set: Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Venture into the story with Poingo! Move Poingo around the page to interact and play with two Disney favorites, Mickey Mouse and Toy Story. Connect Poingo to your PC or Mac to receive bonus content, free music and more!

Poingo Story Reader 2 Pack Set: Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

This shows improvements!

By Mattsmum from Parma, OH on 1/1/2010

4out of 5

Pros: Page-Turner, Well Written, Engaging characters, Easy To Read, Informative
Best Uses: Younger Readers
Describe Yourself: Everyday Reader

My son got the Mickey Mouse book for Christmas this year. This book is a wonderful improvement over the books that came with the Poingo Pen. In the other books, no matter where you touch in the story section, it would begin from the beginning. This makes it hard to follow along, or even pause between paragraphs to discuss the pictures or anything. In this new version, you can touch the pen at the beginning of any paragraph on the page. So at least you can plan to pick up close to where you may have left off if your child goes astray. The additional activites are fun too. My son loved doing the Hot Dog Dance along with the book. Yes, it had the actual song and broke it down to teah how each character does the dance. My son three year old had a blast with that part. I hope to see mre improvements to this system.

(legalese)

The most suprising Christmas gift I ever Received

When I was in 5th grade, the most popular toy for girls was the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Everyone had one or wanted one.  I was no different.  My mom sat me down one day to tell me that she had been to every store in town and there wasn't a Cabbage Patch Kid to be found anywhere.   She told me that she really wanted to get one for me, but she just wasn't going to be able to find one.  She asked me if I would want a Flower Kid instead, (those were the sort of generic knock offs of the Cabbage Patch Kid).  I told her that I did understand and that it was okay.  I was sad, but it wasn't the end of the world.  

In our house, we always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  My mom would pick which gift I would open.  So on Christmas Eve, I got to open my one gift.  Guess what it was... no, not a Cabbage Patch Kid.  :-)  It was a handmade nightgown that my mom had made herself.  She was not even close to being a seamstress, so it wasn't the best nightgown in the world, but it was nice.  Before I went to bed, she apologized again for not being able to find a Cabbage Patch Kid and said that she hoped I would not be disappointed with my gifts on Christmas.

The next morning when I woke up, I rolled over right on to the most peculiar thing...  a Cabbage Patch Kid who had on the exact same nightgown as me!  I was surprised and nervous.  I wasn't sure if this was a dream or some sort of trick or mistake.  I tiptoed down the stairs to find my mom with my new doll.  I just had a smile on my face and was like...  "is this for me?"  I thought, if this is some sort of dream, I don't want to wake up!

Sure enough, my mom had the doll the whole time.  (But I am sure you knew that, right?)  But she hadn't completely lied to me.  She did go to every store in town, (this was long before we had the internet in every home and online shopping).  Finally, she went in to a store called "Toy World".  they told her they were all sold out, like everyone else.  She asked them if they could just take one more look in the back room.  The guy working there decided to go ahead and check, and would you believe he found ONE doll.  And it was the perfect doll for me.  Similar hair color, similar eye color.  She couldn't have chosen a better doll herself.  I even loved the dress she came with.  Her given name was Ginger Eugenia, but I renamed her Allison Marie.

Twenty-four years later, I do still have the doll.  I took her everywhere with me for about a year.  She's a bit beaten up, but I would never get rid of her.  I appreciate the planning that my mom put in to making it a big surprise for me.

Twitter Moms & Target

This post answers the question: What was the most surprising gift you’ve ever received? Share your most surprising gift and you could win a Target $100 gift card. The sweepstakes ends December 27, 2009, so you have plenty of time to enter. Then be sure to come back and put your link in the comments below so I can read all about it.

My Review of Vtech V.Smile V-Motion TV Learning System - Blue

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The V-Smile V-Motion Active Learning System by Vtech is a brilliant breakthrough gaming console that combines wireless motion-activated play, web connectivity, and educational gaming into a system that plugs directly into your TV. Your children will love the wireless action-packed play that guides ...

Vtech V.Smile V-Motion TV Learning System - Blue

Good when it works

By Vicki from Parma, OH on 12/15/2009

3out of 5

Pros: Educational, Engaging, Interactive
Cons: Works inconsistently
Best Uses: Entertainment, Young Children
Describe Yourself: Education Oriented, First Time Parent, Working Parent

I bought this in May 2009 for our son. It worked great for the first few months, then it started having problems. I called Vtech and they told me how to re-set the thing. (unplug everything, hold in the power button for 30 seconds, plug it all back in). I found myself constantly calling Vtech. It would work for one game and then I'd have to do the whole re-set thing every time he swapped games. After about 6 or 7 different calls to Vtech, they finally had me send the system to them and replaced it with a new one. I got the new one yesterday, so we'll see how long it lasts. My son likes the games and we probably have about a dozen different games. I don't expect much for graphics on this, so that's not a big deal. I just shouldn't have to disconnect everything and re-set it every time he wants to switch games (and hope it powers back on)

(legalese)

Primerica is calling

Being listed on the monstrously monstrous job sites can be dangerous to your financial health.  While there are a few legitimate employers that use monster.com and other similar sites, there are plenty of scams out there too.

Today I got a call from a guy with Primerica.  He invited me to a business meeting this evening.  Because I am polite, I didn't tell him to bug off.  I told him that I would consider it.  That was probably a mistake.  But I guess if he calls again, I will try to be a little more honest with him.  I am not looking for a pyrimid scheme scam to get mixed up with.

The multi-level marketing plans are frought with problems.  And the ones that focus more on recruiting and less on the business are the worst of the bunch and Primerica is right up there at the top of the list of problems.

Here are some links about Primerica that should be considered before getting involved.


http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/fraud-and-scam-c98332.html

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/primamerica.php


http://www.pinktruth.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=617&Itemid=123

Faith Freaks

http://www.faithfreaks.com/

My review:

I have definitely found a personal home on this site. The people that I have found here are very friendly and welcoming. Within the first few days, I had made over 20 friends who actually sent me personal messages, commented on my blogs, and truly seemed to care about me as an individual and not just another number on their “friend list”. After using the site on a regular basis for a few days, what I have noticed is that the people comment on each other’s blogs with a great deal of love and encouragement. Even differing opinions are treated with respect.


As you will read below, the target audience is teens, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great place for people of all ages. You will also find people like me – a 34 year old, married, working mother. But browsing through the profiles, it is definitely a predominately teen site. I would certainly reccommend this site to any Christian parents of teen age kids who want to use MySpace.
Nick, the founder that I spoke with is very personable and approachable, as you will notice in the interview below. I think he has a great deal of committment to the site and making it a positive force for teens and Christians in general.
Interview with Nick:

1. What is your name and your role on the site?

My Name is Nick and I am one of the co-founders

2. When was the website founded?

We started last summer (2007)

3. Why did you start the website?

Having been in youth ministry for 15 years, I started to use myspace to keep in touch with kids. It was a great tool but there was lots of filth all over myspace (language, advertising ..etc) and I said to myself these kids are immersed in this culture there has to be a better way, a place that they can connect and not have to wade through all that stuff. Myspace is a great idea but it’s NOT a good place for teens.

4. How many members are on the site?

Currently over 80 thousand And we grow at a rate of over 5 thousand a month!

5. How many members are regular users?

I don’t have exact numbers but enough that we have to continually upgrade our servers..lol

6. Are there age restrictions on your site?
Yes, You need to be at least 13 years of age

7. Do you have a target audience, such as a certain age group, region, or denomination?

Teenagers =)
8. What are the basic features of the site?
Prayer Boards, Moderated Chat & profiles, music, pictures and lots Prizes (we gave away a brand new laptop a few months ago).
9. Do you have official fan pages for any Christian artists or leaders?

Yes, we actually have a bunch of those

10. What are some features that set you apart from other Christian social networks?

We are youth oriented. Moreover, ministry focused. We try to create an environment for teens to get find resources for help. (so many teens are suicidal, depressed, cutting) 3 million teens in America cut themselves! But we also try to create an environment for teens to grow closer in their walk with God too. In addition, a place for those who don’t know Jesus can find hope and life through a loving non judgmental environment (but we do have guidelines that members MUST adhere too).

11. What is your level of commitment to future success of this site?
If God is for us who can be against us? I have and will continue to work tirelessly to make this site where God can be glorified and people saved and commit to until God says stop. I have mortgaged my home and sold my motorcyle.

12. What can you tell me about your admin team?

We have a staff of committed youth pastors, senior pastosr, Parents , counselors to law enforcement. Who give and give to this ministry.
13. What are your goals for your website?
To continue to be a place for Teens and Gods people
14. Would you consider a merger with other Christian social networking sites if you are unable to get the membership or funding that you hope to attain?

I would consider it, As long as the other site visions and goals line up with ours