Saturday, April 25, 2009

Hobby Turned Obsession?????

My other motive for starting this blog was to continue my hobby/obsession for freebies. For the last three years I have in my spare time at work entered contests and signed up for freebies. My biggest wins have been a free year of Netflix, 3 ipod shuffles (I returned 2 for a nano though) and some $100 leather shoes I won for my husband. As for freebies I get anywhere from 10-20 magazines in the mail a month, and tons and tons of small samples of deodorant, toothpaste and such. I also belong to a company where I test products for them and afterwards I get to keep the product. Finally, I belong to a survey company where I get paid $3 a survey and I usually get to do around 2 a month. It adds up though because I have bough stuff for V’s nursery using the money.

Since becoming a stay at home mom I have found more time to devote to my hobby and I recently uncovered mommy blogs. Many have giveaways for free stuff. They blog about a product/company and you go to the company website then comment back on the original blog post describing an item you saw to prove you went to the website. I love checking out the websites because it tells me about products and cute items revolving kids/babies. I usually enter these contests while V is boob feeding. Maybe 2 hours a day tops. So far I have won somewhere around 16 contests and I have only done this for maybe 2 months.

My loot thusfar:
A organic newborn outfit for a boy (will make a great gift)
$50 gift certificate to tinyprints.com (where I will make V’s first birthday invitations)
Around 10 different books
A huge box of organic cleaning supplies (stuff I had wanted to try anyways)
Pillow
New kind of toothbrush
Super cute pink hair clips for V
A toy watch
2 baby/children’s CDs
Napkins
Toy wrangler (too keep V’s toys from falling out of the stroller)

Back to my original point. I started this blog because if you post a button for the blog on your blog some contests then give you an extra entry. Therefore on this blog I will have a blogroll of my favorite blogs (that offer giveaways).

Saturday, April 18, 2009

No Food and Drink Allowed

So today after 6 months in my new town I finally have my library card. As a future library professional this is very exciting for me. It is a smaller library than what I am use to. Coming from Orlando and their massive downtown library it is very strange to see such a small library and small book selection. I will make do and as soon as Violet reaches 18 months I will have her there weekly for toddler time. I am seriously excited to share my passion of books to my offspring.

I also experienced my first session of nursing in public. I picked the back corner of the library put a blanket over her and let her get some lunch. I got a few double takes from some library patrons but it was more painless than I thought it would be. My mother was with me and reached out to the nearest shelf and pulled a book off so we would have something to do while she ate and it was a giant history/picture book of my college (UF). We laughed at the odds of that happening. We also laughed at the no food or drink allowed in the library rule. Should I have checked my boobs at the door?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Population Control

One sure fire way to ensure that my dedicated bachelor brother never has children is to inform him that diapers do not always contain poop.

Six Months!

Today my baby turns 6 months old. For a birthday treat she got 3 vaccinations, poor baby. I did nurse her immediately after to help take the edge off. Now to the stats. She is 90th percentile for length and 50th for length. My baby is growing right before my eyes. Although she can't sit up or crawl yet she melts my heart with every toothless smile. Poor baby is a little extra tired from the shots so she gets lots of extra boobie today. Rest up little Violet, the next 6 months will bring so much more for you.

UPDATE: All day I have had a very tired and cranky baby. Shots do not a happy baby make.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

First Time Mom, First Time Baby Blogging

I decided with a new baby comes a new blog. One to talk about the craziness that is raising a child. From cute toothless smiles to explosive poop I feel the need to share these stories with others. It could be nice for moms to know they aren't the only ones out there for these things to happen to and for those without children these stories could be a WARNING. Enjoy.