Mommy Moment of the day

Today's Mommy Moment occurred when my daughter decided she wanted to take a shower. And she wouldn't get out when I wanted to come in (which is fine) and she wouldn't let me turn the water on past the first small creak of the handle (not so fine!)

So my Mommy Moment of the day was me, taking a shower that seemed to last forever, with a trickle of water rinsing out the shampoo in my hair. Yes, I might have skipped washing my hair, but that's why I wanted to shower this morning to begin with! Needless to say I did not condition today. And I will remind you of my previous hair-related-comment. Mommy needs a haircut. If daughter is going to continue showering with me in our tiny stall shower and only allow me a small stream of water, I am not going to be able to rinse anything out of my hair very well, and having the hair chopped off would be a huge help with that.

Now I am one step closer (or perhaps one shared shower closer?) to the Locks of Love chop. Stay with me. It has to happen soon!

Hope you're having a great day, and if you're a mom, a dad, a grandparent, or a pet-parent, come by and tell me about your moments. Please, remind me I'm not alone!

Picnic Table Talk

So I have totally been meaning to post these pictures of my daughter "rolling in the grass," as she puts it. She had done a tumblesault/somersault (I checked, both are accurate) before, but this was pretty insane!

Anyway, when I noticed that the Picnic Table Talk over at ABC and 123 I thought it would be a perfect time to share these shots:

Musings of a Mom

1. Returning home after an 8 1/2 hour drive is much less horrific when it is still light out upon your arrival home. And much less horrific when you and your child sleep for much of said drive.

2. A much needed weekend away with the *girls* does a great deal for the mommy mind-set. So does Sangria. Lots and lots of sangria.

3. I did not miss doing laundry for an entire week. Children create more laundry than any creature on earth. It's amazing how such a tiny, little person can somehow fill a washing machine a thousand times more than her parents do. (Or maybe I just don't change my clothes enough? Seriously, do I?)

4. It is really nice for Daddy to take over bedtime. REALLY nice. I think 2 1/2 years of it has me meeting my quota, at least until she's 5. Wouldn't you agree?

5. I'm getting closer and closer to wanting to chop my hair off (to donate to Locks of Love again.) A mother does not need SO many inches of hair on her head. It gives her another headache, and she surely has enough of those already.

6. Zoloft is my friend. I would share her with my parents if I could, because they could sometimes use a friend like her. ;)

7. If you do not fully experience the Terrible 2s, the Terrible 3s are probably going to suck.

Wordless Wednesday!

Tackle It Tuesday!

I'm in NY @ my parents' house. The house I grew up in, but have not lived in for years. And years. And years after that. (Yeah, I'm old. What of it?)

And I'm going to try at some point today to tackle the items that my mother has been griping about my having left behind oh-so-many-years-ago. Either when I went off to college, or after I returned and then moved into Manhattan (I was cool once, so much you don't know about me!)

Anyway, that's my goal for today's Tackle It Tuesday. I hope to get through a small stash of stuff to make sure that I can leave for home tomorrow having made my mom just a little bit happier!

What's your plan for today?

Muffin Tin Monday!

Sssh, don't tell anyone, but I am prepping this post in advance (see, there is a reason to figure it out!) so I can be sure to participate in MTM, just in case I don't get something up in time while out on the road!

This wasn't my most successful MTM meal, but I tried to get my daughter to enjoy her bagel breakfast with various toppings in her tin. She basically ate the American cheese first [check out the pictures, you can see her going for it!] then the avocado, and then a few bites of the bagel with cream cheese (onion and chive!)




Ah, well. Next week will be better! Enjoy your meals, everyone! And stop over to Her Cup Overfloweth to learn more!

So tired ...

Child is so stubborn. Must fight need to crash. Must wash dishes. Sink is full. Too full.

D@mned dishwasher still not fixed.

Would like to finish watching last night's SYTYCD episode, and tonight, the big 100th episode partay. Katie Holmes (seriously?) and all that jazz (insert eye-roll here.) I love Ellen, but she did not belong on the judges {jidges, ah, Cat, you did look striking last night ...} panel, and I think she knew it. But I digress!

More than half-packed for girls' weekend in CT. Catching up with friends from college, most of whom I have not seen since long before I moved to NC. Almost all have children and we will be men free, child free and simply free (if you saw my Wordless Wednesday post this week, that tee is from the first time we did this kind of weekend, and sadly, the last time I attended. As you can imagine I am quite looking forward to some girl-time!)

Enjoy the weekend. Don't miss me too much. I promise to have a drink or two, or an entire bottle of Barefoot Moscato (my fave these days!) for you! As my little one would say, "Cheers!"

Testing, testing ...

1 ... 2 ... 3?

I keep reading how people are scheduling their blog posts to submit at a certain time, so of course I have to ask myself, can I do that?

Now, I will admit that I actually AM tech savvy. Honest. I am. No, really. My life before motherhood had me not just working as a social worker, but for 9 years (count 'em, NINE!) before that I worked in publishing (although it was tax publishing ... zzzzz ...) and did a ton of product operations, behind the scenes, lots of pagers going off in the middle of the night, etc.

So you'd figure between that and my techhie husband, I should be able to figure out how to schedule a post to be submitted, right? So here's my test run. I'm writing this at 10:30, and scheduling itto submit at around 11AM, just for testings' sake.

10-1 says it works. But that measly odd of 1, well, there's doubt in my heart, I guess. I'm thinking maybe Mommy Brain took over and there's no way in heck it's gonna happen. But we'll see! Are you with me? (Oh, wait, if you're with me, it did work, so that's a good thing!)

At last, my toes are free!

It only took me 4+ months (and however many years before that) but I finally got a North Carolina pedicure. Hooray! My toes are free and fresh and pretty in pink! If you recall, I b!tched a bit about how I hadn't had my toes done since prior to moving to NC. If you don't recall, of weren't around back in March, I B1tched like this and am finally able to wear my flip-flops with pride.

We had a Moms' Night Out tonight. It was, as some would say (but never, EVER me) a mani-pedi night. A night for us moms and mommies-to-be to treat ourselves while drinking bottled sangria (I brought that) after tossing in some fresh fruit (thanks to whomever brought that) and picking some Chick-fil-a nuggets out of a red SOLO cup. So we sang some bad karaoke (yes, that was ME) and relaxed in our massage chairs while the owner of the place ran around with a microphone and a colorful disco ball, and we laughed.

It had been a while since I laughed that hard, but I had a great time, and my feet are happy, and so am I. And on that note I am more than ready for bed! So take this as a reminder to take care of your toes. You'll be glad you did, and you'll be surprised at how amazing you feel afterwards, even if it wasn't the best pedicure you've ever had (I've lived in NY, after all!) It's still worth it. I promise!

Wordless Wednesday (for the most part!)

When you blog ...

Do you prepare your blog entry before you sit down to type it out? Do you have a special notebook? Or do you jot down some ideas on napkins and random slips of paper around your house? Or do you simply sit down at the keys and start typing?

That's more my style. For me, my blog is like a journal, I sit down, and I write. It's a little different than journaling, because I don't have the same privacy as when I hole up in my room and sit there with a pen (when I can find one that works!) and my pretty journals. But it makes sense that I'd need less privacy, since I open this up to the entire world to peruse at their leisure. Not that this is what happens, but I digress ...

Instead I sit on my exercise ball and lean on the table in front of me with my laptop on it. These days we have a MacBook Pro. What do you use? We used to have a Dell until I dropped it. Smashed the hard drive into smithereens. Even my techhie husband couldn't fix that mess. Ah, the tragedy. External hard drives, everyone. Seriously. Get one. USE IT.

Anyway, as for me, I type until my daughter asks to "A, B, C, D." Which pretty much means she wants to have a go at the computer, and I get the boot. Which is why some of my entries are done later in the day or at night, so she's not around and I get free reign!

So, tell me how the blogging experience works for you. I'd love to be able to imagine us spread across the world typing away at the keys, notes in hand, or not, at a nice pretty desk in an upstairs office looking out the window, or in your living room, like me, with Moose A. Moose of Noggin talking in the background. Either way, we're all in this together!

Muffin Tin Monday Swap!

How exciting! My very first swap! And for Muffin Tin Mondays supplies! What more could I want?

Check out my previous post for today's Muffin Tin Monday update and more info on all of the fun! And check out THIS LINK for info on how to join in and participate in the upcoming MTM Swap!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Today's theme is all about dips and sauces! We did our MTM this weekend, since I wanted to get her to enjoy her lunch. So here's our tin filled with some hot dog, some pickles, and some corn (not exactly dippable, I know, but I forgot that I made french fries and should have put them in there! Oops!) with the standard dippers of ketchup, mustard and relish. Uhm, yum!

My daughter absolutely, 100% LOVES her dip. She could live off of it, if we'd let her. She'll use syrup, sour cream, ketchup, hot sauce, vegetable dip, ranch dressing, and basically anything else you can think of!

If you're interested in more info about Muffin Tin Mondays, check out Her Cup Overfloweth to participate in today's theme, or to dig around to find out more! And have fun!

Where toys go to die ...

What a sad sounding title, but I have to be honest here. I think that the toy box is the place where all toys go to die. They just don't ever seem to make it back out of there, ya know?

When my daughter was little I got her this toy box with a gift card we had from Amazon. It's great, it's cute, it's light, easy to move around, and it was cheap, all things considered. I like it a lot, but for the most part, she would try to climb in there and pull out her toys, tossing them onto our living room floor, so she could spend some time in there playing (these pictures were taken about a year ago, my gosh she looks so tiny!)


I have since used it for stuffed animals (not played with) and recently switched that up and put in some of the 'extras.' You know the kind.

The toys that she hasn't played with in ages, the ones that are missing pieces, but I hope they'll resurface some day and so I can't bear to toss them out just yet, the puzzles that have pieces scattered all over the house, the soft blocks that she rarely looks at. And yet, today, when I did the switch, moving the stuffed animals from the toy box to the bright and cheerful green basket that held all of these things, she proceeded to find a way to play with nearly everything over the course of a few hours, give or take.

And then, tonight, after she went to bed, I proceeded to place everything back in the box. Whether they'll resurface again remains to be seen, but I stand by my new name for the thing, it's absolutely the place where toys go to die. Poor little rings and blocks and things ...

Mamma Mia!

Here I go again!

I'm such a dork. I'm actually really excited that the mommies' group I belong to is doing a group-wide event to see Mamma Mia!

Yes, I've seen it already. Yes, it's like the cheesiest movie ever created. Yes, the songs stick in your head for months after hearing them. And yes, I probably laughed at the ridiculous scenes more than I was overwhelmed with any other emotions.

And yes, I want to go and see it again. It's a feel good flick, the music is so fun that you'll start dancing in your seat, and singing along with the actors. Meryl Streep, of all people, plays the main character, and it's just too amazing how entertaining she really is!

Anyway, if you get the chance to see it, or see it again (I think it might be on HBO or SHO tonight, actually, I have a vague recollection of my husband mentioning that he set it to record for me) I say go for it! You'll enjoy it, as long as you don't have the highest of expectations for an amazing blockbuster. And have fun while watching!

'Cause ... Mamma Mia, here I go again! My my! I cannot forget you!

Recipe Swap!

The Grocery Cart Challenge is doing a recipe swap today. So I figured I'd toss in a simple recipe that I did just the other day and remembered how much I loved! It's for Corn Casserole, and it's only a few ingredients, and pretty yum, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:
* 1 can corn (drained)
* 1 can cream corn
* 1 box Jiffy corn bread mix (probably any kind would work)
* 1 egg
* 1 c milk

Grease pan w. butter or butter spray. Mix ingredients together and pour into pan. Cook at 350-degrees for 35-45 minutes. I often have to do it for at least 45, so the inside isn't gloppy. Check it w. a knife and if it comes out dry it's done. If you prefer the top to be more brown, throw it back in for 2-3 minute increments.

I use a small, round Corningware so it's kind of deep and that might be why I have to bake it for longer, but otherwise it might be fine for shorter if you use a metal baking pan.

Enjoy!

(Sorry there are no pictures, I only read about the swap this morning, so I didn't take any of the casserole!)

Help Defeat Cancer

All you have to do is "write your name!"

Stop by this page and support the LIVESTRONG battle by adding your name to a list that will hopefully reach 30,000 and help earn a $30K donation towards beating this horrible disease.

I learned about this on My Half-Glassed Life, which is a blog written by the wife of a man (Jamie, of Jamie's page = link above) who is fighting the battle. Let's take a minute to help them out. It won't hurt, I promise!

Thanks! And Pass It On!

Books with a sad twist?

I finished one of the books on my "to-read" list! Hooray. Actually, I finished two books since my last book related post. The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs and Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner.

Not to give them away to anyone who hasn't read either, but what the heck is up with the chick-lit type books having an extremely SAD twist in them? If I want a twist I'll read Jodi Picoult. It's summer. I read light books in the summer to make me happy. I should not be bawling as I turn the pages and find out someone ... well, again, not giving it away here, but seriously, if I wanted to cry I'd watch The Notebook. I have that DVD on loan from my sister-in-law since before my daughter was born (she's almost 2 1/2) and I haven't watched it yet.

Anyway, is it just me? Do you get cranky when you're enjoying a light read and turn the page to get hit in the face with not just a pie, that'd be funny, but a really hot pie plate? Read: NOT funny in the least.

Sigh. My next read is Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell. Hopefully she will deliver. If not, well, I'll just start reading my old journals. I'm sure they are good for a few laughs.

Wordless Wednesday!

Cereal Boxes ... mini-rant!

Seriously. What is the point of having those tabs at the top of our cereal boxes? Am I the only person who finds myself tearing at the thing to get the slot open so I'll be able to actually USE the stupid tab?

I'd rather just empty the whole d@mned thing into a Tupperware-like container so I don't have to deal with the splitting and ripping and avoiding the tab. And it's not like a box of cereal lasts in my house for much longer than a day or two, so I don't know why I bother trying to keep it "fresh," when there's really no need.

ACH. Anyway, that's my mini-rant, gripe, whatever you want to call it, for today. Feel free to chime in with your own at your leisure!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Another Muffin Tin Monday! I just created a snack-filled muffin tin for my daughter, as today's theme is Big/Little. I wasn't super creative, but I did quiz her on where the big cheeses/little cheeses were, and went on from there!

Hope you enjoy! And head on over to Her Cup Overfloweth to check out how today's MTM originated!

I even incorporated a big/little fork, too!

There's the BIG Cheese!

She took this picture all by herself!

No post today ...

A really bad allergy day for me today. I'm exhausted and headed to bed, and not able to make much of a coherent sentence tonight. I did switch up my meds this evening and am now taking generic Zyrtec instead of generic Claritin, so let's see if that helps.

I'm so tired that I can't even stay awake to watch Harold and Kumar's sequel to their White Castle movie. Hubby's watching, but I can only stay focused when Neil Patrick Harris is on. I love that man!

Anyway, good night, sweet dreams, and see you tomorrow for Muffin Tin Monday!

Are you FLY?

Or should I ask, are you a FLYBABY?

If you know what the heck I am talking about then you are one of the millions of people out there who have heard of the Flylady. I have not done any Flybaby tasks in quite some time, but I bring her up tonight (in the wee morning hours) as a friend mentioned her today, and inspired me to go ahead and tear into my horrific sink situation.

If I have done any due diligence, you know already that my dishwasher has been out of commission since March. Yes, it is July. I know.

And so I pretty much always have something in my sinks. Yes. Plural. The Southern home has two parts to the sink. One part garbage disposal, the other part regular sink. I use both of mine as a sink to catch the dirty dishes. And believe me, I have not been proud of my lack of environmental ethics lately, but I have opted for paper and plastic over adding another dish to the piles that lay before me.

And so, tonight, as the clock skipped later and later, I stood in my kitchen, iPod Nano plugged in and blaring (softly) and I washed dishes. I cleaned my sink, my other sink, and a huge amount of the junk in them both. Now one side is completely clean, and, GASP! Empty! While the other side soaks under some detergent-filled-water. Now I know that Flylady (I'll get back to her in a minute) would say that I should hide the supposed bucket of water UNDER my sink, however that would be impossible, as that is where my garbage pail and other varying cleaning supplies are hidden!

Now, Flylady made me crazy some years ago with 900 e-mails in my inbox over the short window of time I spent with her. So much so I gave up on her book and took very few tips from it (excepting the some-number-of-items-fling-boogie, which has me tearing through my closets and bedrooms tossing such number of items into a trash bag and saying, 'Be gone!') This, however, did not stop me from purchasing her Flylady Body Clutter book, which was supposed to teach me to rid my body of clutter like my home. As if. Had I remembered that I never really got through the ridiculously pink book she first reached out to me with, I would have never bought this second one. But alas, I did. And it sits, up in my bedroom, collecting dust on a shelf I have not yet boogied through.

But if I can get half my sink clean, I can do anything! And after all, my parents are coming on Monday, and I need to clean my entire house and lose at least 20 lbs by then ... so I'd better get my butt moving!

I hate those suckers ...

LITERALLY!

Whenever I go outside I return inside with several bug bites. I swear I hate those suckers! D@mn them for loving me way too much.

I was just outside with my daughter, maybe for 30-45 minutes. It's an overcast day, really kind of nice out, and we were in the backyard. But with the sun in hiding and the heat kind of off course for the regular summer days, the bugs were out in rare form. D@mn them. I returned inside with at least 3 mosquito bites on my legs. :(

I did spray myself with some OFF, but too little too late. It doesn't seem to work much anyway, and I do have the Burt's Bees brand of bug spray, but Dear G-d that stuff stinks! It's like I rolled around in a -- what are those candles called that you use to keep the skeeters away? -- wow, I can't believe that the word is escaping me right now. Well, anyway, it's like I rolled around with one of those!

So what the heck am I doing living Down South, you ask? Yeah, every summer when the bugs come out and suck on me like I would a piece of buttery corn on the cob I find myself asking that very same question!

So, if you have a natural and safe way to prevent these suckers from gnawing on me for the rest of the summer, PLEASE let me know. I'm about to start wearing my winter clothes when I go out, and I know that ain't gonna' cut it!

AHA! Citronella! I was about to look it up and it popped into my head. Whew. I feel much better now. Leave it to Mommy Brain! Only took me 20 minutes to figure it out. D'uh.

I picked up the needles today ...

Not that my little girl let me get more than a few rows done, but I picked up my needles and started working on the "scarf" that I started back in, well, October of last year, give or take a week or two.

It felt nice to give it a go, and I was pretty happy that I was able to keep the rows even, which hardly ever happens.

I think that's the hardest part about knitting for me. I read a book to help me cast on, I knit pretty well (a little too tight sometimes, but pretty well, for a novice knitter!) and then I end up with totally uneven rows. At least the first time I did some knitting my piece turned into, well, you don't really want to know what it looked like. I do still have it, so I'll have to post some pictures sometime to embarrass myself a bit.

But for now, I'll stick with my sort of scarf with 26 "stitches," and when I'm done I'll be sure to show it off!

Remember, if you're a knitter or know any that are out there in the blog-o-sphere, let me know so I can find you and follow you!

**And OK, so to REALLY freak me out a bit, I submitted this entry and on my blogspot page there was immediately an ad for a tarn website. WHAT!?!?! Who is watching me, cause I'm not sure I like this!**

I'm a sucker for chocolate!

And so I can't help it, I have to enter another giveaway.

But when you look at this cake, you'll want to enter, too!

I found out about it on Our Homeschool Fun which directed me to Lollypops and Lizards and so to get my entries I'm posting about it here!

So, if you're interested in a free chocolate cake, check it out. But if you win and I don't, man, you'd better ship me a slice!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

Any knitters out there?

I learned to knit from my aunt many years ago. She basically taught me a single knit stitch, and that was it. My first attempts were hilarious, I never did get to show her how I'd improved over time (my regret) but I've since done a small scarf or two, and would love to continue working on one that I've been into lately. But I'm a slacker!

I just started reading The Friday Night Knitting Club, and of course I miss it! I wish there were groups or classes nearby that would be perfect for helping me to learn, and really know what I'm doing to the point that I could get a pattern going and actually MAKE something!

I have never known anyone to work the way my aunt did, she was the queen of knitting and crocheting, and although I'll never live up to her amazing talent, I'd love to get some lessons and take it up again, a little bit for me and a little bit for her.

In the meantime, I'll just keep reading this book and live vicariously through the characters. But if you know of any knitting groups in Raleigh-Durham, NC, or know of any knitting bloggers or online groups and resources, please let me know. I know I could do some digging on my own, but I'd love to have some suggestions from anyone out there. Thanks!

I AM NOT A JUNGLE GYM!

I thought this would stop now that she is older. But what the he!!? I sit on an exercise ball at the computer, and she is basically climbing all over me and bouncing on it while beating the cr@p out of me.

Now, true, she kisses my shoulder after elbowing it until I feel pain, and rubs my back, whatever is supposedly injured, but the hair-pulling and bouncing off of me as if I were the trampoline is FAR FROM FUN!

Geez. Can someone cut me some slack here? Let me sit online in peace for a MINUTE?

I really could use some chocolate right now. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY BADLY. Anyone?

Muffin Tin Monday!

So this is our very first Muffin Tin Monday! Thanks to Her Cup Overfloweth I'm giving it a whirl for the first time.

Something pretty simple, just a muffin tin lunch of chicken nuggets, carrot sticks, ketchup and ranch dressing. My little one seemed very excited, and has actually made her way through much of her lunch (minus the spill of milk we just had while I came by to post this -- Sigh!)

Anyway, we're happy to join in on the craze, and I hope this is the first of many Muffin Tin Mondays to come!

Proud to be an American ...

Happy Birthday, America!

This is what my daughter has been saying all day today. It's a special feeling (when she wasn't screaming or pitching a fit about getting in her car seat) to hear your 2-year-old child wish the USA a Happy Birthday.

And so I'll take this moment, with the day coming to a close, to wish you all a happy and safe Fourth, a wonderful weekend overall, and a HUGE thanks to the men and women, overseas and at home, keeping our country as incredible as it is, and keeping us all safe. I send you my gratitude for all that you do, every single day, to make our world the way it is today.

And I'm proud to be an American,
Where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
Who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand UP
Next to you and defend her still, today.
'Cause there ain't no doubt, I love this land.
G-d bless the USA.

-- Lee Greenwood, Proud to be an American lyrics

I really love ice cream!

I love ice cream. I swear I would eat it several times a day, if I could do so without worrying about calories and such. Alas, I'm not that lucky, but I still love my ice cream, for dessert, for a snack, for ME! ME! ME!

I'm prompted to write this tonight as I just enjoyed some Starbucks Java Chip, or something like that. Now, Starbucks appears to have changed their ice cream packaging, because the ice cream I got was a teeny, tiny pint. And when I was pregnant a few years ago, I could live off their ice cream for like a week or two, or even more! And I ate it every night. It made the baby quite excited when I had my 10:30pm treat. She would move around shortly thereafter, enjoying her daily dose of sugar and a drop of caffeine. Ah, well, no pregnancy excuse these days, but I can still enjoy some dessert!

But ice cream is SO not just for dessert, ya know? I mean, what better way to cool off during the day than an Eskimo Pie ice cream pop? Or to drive over to DQ and get yourself a Blizzard? Speaking of, I'm not always a chocolate ice cream fan, but I've been dying to try their brownie explosion Blizzard, or whatever it's called, since I saw the commercial where the kids have it DVRd and they press play when the mom walks in the room. If you haven't seen it yet, you have to check it out.

***Side note: So while I was trying to find it online I found several hilarious DQ commercials, I may have to start a whole new post to share them!

So anyway, tonight I finished the Java Chip pint off, added some colored sprinkles (Marbles Mix-Ins -- I'm all about the coupons, ladies!) and some ReddiWhip. Made me as happy as a clam (whoever invented that saying must have been an interesting person, I mean, who really knows how happy a clam IS?) and finished off my night.

And on that note, off to bed I go. Sweet dreams, everyone! I know I'll be having some!

Yay for Paperbackswap.com!

Yay! I'm getting two of my to-read books sent to me soon, and one of them is Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner. I LOVE her, and I'm SO looking forward to this book, as I think it's the sequel to Good In Bed, which is one of my all time favorite books EVER!

The second one is Peony in Love, by Lisa See. She also wrote Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, another favorite read (totally different kind, but a great book, nonetheless!)

And so, I say thank you to Paperbackswap.com! Hooray! I'm so excited! And if you've never heard about this website, please keep reading ...

I believe it is my duty to teach you all about a website that helps me get rid of my books and get more in return, all for the small postage of sending a book out in the mail (usually about $2 and change) Imagine clearing out your book shelves just to make room for books you haven't read yet? It IS possible. Read on to find out more!

Paperbackswap.com is a great website that is totally free, but for the postage of the books you send out. So basically you register on the site, list a bunch of your own books that you've had boxed away since the one and only time you read them ... and you know the kind ... we all do. The ones that have moved as many times as you have, and yet you know you'll never crack open their covers again. You'll never do more than dust them off and put them back on the shelves, maybe pass them along to someone else for a few weeks until they make their way back to you.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you need not hoard your books anymore!

Basically once you've posted about 10 books that you're ready to part with you get a credit (or 2-3) and can start shopping. Once you've found a book you're interested in you can 'order' it on the site and it's shipped off at no cost to you. When someone requests a book on your shelf you can actually send it on its' way without ever leaving your home! All you have to do is purchase some PBS money, establish a bank for your postage and print out the wrapper at home. Then head out front and pop it in your mailbox and bye bye, while you gain another credit towards a book you want to 'buy!'

So, start pulling those books out of those dusty old boxes, get them from the back of the shelves and bring them to your computer with you. Before you know it you'll have requests asking you to send them on their way and you'll have freed up so much space you'll be surprised at how much you were holding onto for no reason at all.

It's really much simpler than you can imagine (or determine from my post here!) and I promise you'll become completely addicted. So head to Paperbackswap.com and tell them ACE1028 sent you!

Check it out!

OK, so I don't do giveaways, but the least I can do is link you to someone who DOES:

GC towards a Cleaning Service!

Hmmn, if I won a cleaning service gift certificate (this one is from BidMyCleaning.com!)I think I'd probably go nutty cleaning my own house first, so they wouldn't think we were as messy as we actually ARE! Am I the only one who would do that? I mean, with the number of pets we have, and the kid, we're a disaster area waiting to happen!

Anyway, check out the link if you're interested in shooting for that GC! And Good Luck!