A Quick Contest for You!

Just as I'm on my way out the door I stumbled across another amazing contest.

This one is sponsored through green your decor Head on over for your chance to win some absolutely amazing eco-friendly candles. 1 lucky winner will walk away with 1 3"x6" pillar candle in Citrus Thyme, and 2 x 3"x3" pillar candles in Peppermint Eucalyptus and Lavender Balsam. Absolutely divine choices!

Chances for up to 5 entries. Contest closes September 26, 2008!

Holy Loot Batman!

I just got home from Superstore and couldn't wait to share my loot. Check out what I picked up for $1.13!


36 pack Media Pencil Crayons
2 Dry Erase Boards
3 Single Subject Notebooks
2 pencil cases
Insulated Lunch Tote

(please excuse the excess in the picture... I am so tired and exhausted but just had to share).

The Lunch Tote I got SCOP (scanning code of practice) even though I had to fight for it. It scanned in at $8.97 even though the tag in front clearly stated $2.97. The CSR was adamant that because a customer could have moved 2 whole boxes of the lunchboxes to the sign that it wasn't SCOP. I stood my ground and got it for free in the end.

Anyone who's curious about SCOP and what it means to you the consumer should check out the article by Kim at FrugalShopper Canada here. Superstore is notoriously bad at having correct shelf prices and I rarely leave the store without a SCOP.

Totally awesome score for $1.13 out of pocket. Gotta love SCOP and clearance deals. Which reminds me. They're out of turkey's and I spent $175 on groceries this week so they're offering a credit of $24.99 in lieu of a free turkey. As we're leaving tomorrow I really don't need a turkey but the $24.99 is great!

Contest Call!

In my internet journeys tonight I've come across a couple of contests to share with you guys :O) Usually I would separate them into separate posts but I'm busy packing and am short on time. So here goes.

MommyKnows is hosting another contest for a $10 starbucks giftcard. Pop on over, leave a comment for 1 entry, blog about her contest for a 2nd. How easy is that?

ihchicky over at Everything Up Close is hosting a wonderful contest sponsored by TheresaRose Designs. Have a boo over at Theresa Rose Designs and post your favorite Design & why. My personal favorite was the Willowy White Turquoise and GunMetal Link Necklace I love unique pieces of jewellery and everything on Theresa Rose's site falls into that category and what amazing prices!

Grammy Janet's Place is sponsoring a contest for 2 amazing books. Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten & Let's Get Ready for 1st Grade. You can get up to 5 entries in the contest so be sure to check it out. There are 2 winners to be drawn, one for each book.

Don't forget to enter my contest as well!

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Now That's What I Call Ice Cream

I won a voucher for dinner at Moxies restaurant through Gallo & Sons Winery. $200 for dinner for 4. The voucher was supposed to be for 4 people but they took it at face value so I brought the whole gang. 5 adults and 3 kiddos. We gobbled down 3 appies, dinners, drinks & dessert. And wouldn't you know it... the food tasted better as it was free! LOL.

The piece de la resistance of the night was the Magic Dessert for the kiddos. Never in a million years did I expect a dry ice and ice cream surprise. Both girls thought it was the most amazing ever.

The night unfortunately didn't finish on a high note (which I won't burden you with)... but the food was great, and the girls had a marvelous time hanging out with their little cousin Mia. Miss Malie devoured her dry garlic ribs, Tala took control over the Caesar Salad. What can I say.. they know good food!

We took the Albion Ferry across to Langley so that was an adventure for Tala & Malie. Though I think were a little disappointed that it was a Ferry Boat not Fairy!

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Stuck Like Glue/Royalties Please

2 blog posts in one!

My Dad arrived on Wednesday and quite to our surprise Tala has attached herself to Grandpa Gordie like glue. She hasn't been more then a couple of feet away from him since he arrived and even waits outside the door like a puppy when he uses the bathroom.

We had steak for supper tonight and I'm not quite sure who won the eating contest but they're both looking rather full!

And on the subject of supper.


Both kids are major condiment kids, Malie absolutely adores Ketchup. Here she is posing with our favorite Presidents Choice Ketchup.


Mr. Weston please contact me at imanoptimisticbeauty[at]yahoo[dot]ca to arrange for Royalty payments. I am absolutely positive this picture will increase sales by a million percent! LOL.. and yes I am totally joking!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I have a busy one in store.. hopefully all goes smoothly.

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Entertainment Book Frustration

My apologies that this blog has turned into a rant these last couple of days, but my golly am I frustrated to the max!

OK.. so March of 2007 I ordered the 2006 Entertainment book at a reduced rate. They ended up sending me the 2007 book that same year as a condition of getting the 2006 book for $9.99 plus $5 shipping.

This year I received no notification from them, nor have a I received a book. But they've charged my credit card. So I called their 1800 number and they've informed me that I signed up for some sort of automatic renewal without my knowledge. And apparently I was well briefed on the fact that I had signed up for it. Which is a joke. I don't like having things shipped to me automatically and I am beyond unimpressed.

I am so frustrated as to keep money available for myself & the kiddos I transferred it to my credit card, and now that money is gone, and I'm so frustrated with myself now. The book has been shipped to my old address and I need to have it shipped back to the company before they'll refund me the $56 minus a restocking fee. It was shipped on the 15th, and odds are I won't be here when it finally arrives, and then it will have to be shipped up North. Who knows how long this whole process is going to take and that's money that I actually really need right now getting ready to move up North with no job to support myself for the time being. I'm angry with myself that I was stupid enough to think that things would actually work out for the best and in an apparently lame attempt to keep my costs down transferred money over to save on interest charges.

What good does a 2009 Entertainment book for Vancouver do me in Prince Rupert? What would $56 do for me right now? A whole lot.

So my advice to anyone thinking about getting the Entertainment Book is to think twice about what they are offering. It appears that they are in the business of setting people up to incur extra charges. And setting up a pre-authorized yearly renewal without the client being aware of that fact is a prime example.

Hospital Woes

I may very well be the biggest klutz in the history of the world. So when I hit my pinky toe against the door jam while running past on Sunday it didn't really surprise me. What did surprise me though was how much pain I was in, and how swollen & bruised my entire foot was the next morning. I mean it was seriously bright red across 4 toes and half way to ankle. I had only hit the pinky toe so it was strange.

Still I hobbled around all day and worked, taking frequent elevation & icing breaks. To my dismay my foot continued to swell & fill up with blood.

So I made the decision to go to the hospital last night after work. I arrived shortly after 6pm. Waited and waited while my food doubled in size. Finally 4 hours later I was admitted to the Emergency Room. Wonderfully I got my xray right away and hopped into my bed and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

then waited some more! 4 hours later I finally saw the doctor who informed me that my foot was not broken but I had done serious damage to my toe and the blood was pooling in the rest of my foot from my toe. Nothing to be done as its really just "one helluva bruise" (his words not mine). I was obviously in lots of pain so they gave me pain meds, crutches and sent me home.

8.5 hours from start to finish to be told that I had a bruised toe! I can understand the delay in the waiting room, there were other people more sick/injured then I was. But 4 hours waiting for the doctor to tell me I was fine is a tad too long. A nurse could have came and told me I was fine and sent me on my way right away.

Which leads me to wonder if perhaps a big part of the Emergency Room issues facing Canadian Hospitals is lack of efficient operations. I'm not discrediting the fact that we need more nurses, and doctors, better facilities. But a faster turnover for non-critical patients would surely ease up the strain.

I propose that Canada take a more American approach to this and have a nurse assigned to persons coming in with minor injuries. These nurses would be responsible of tasks like ordering xrays, diagnosing, treating and discharging of patients. Things would run much faster, and free the doctors up to work with patients that are in dire need of their undivided attention. I believe that down south nurses even have the authority to write prescriptions for certain meds, not all, but the more commonly prescribed ones including antibiotics.

I realize that we are lucky here in Canada to have government funded healthcare, but there is no denying the fact that we need an overhaul of the way things are going. I saw so many Mothers & Grandmothers in the waiting room waiting to have their children seen, for hours! My wait time was long and agonizing with the pain level I was in. I cannot imagine what waiting for 4 hours with a crying toddler on your lap, wishing that you could make their pain go away would be like.

Any thoughts? I 100% realize that my toe was not a life or death incident, but being that my entire foot was swollen up and bright red I made the decision to go to the hospital. I just wish that we had a more effective way of treating patients presenting with similar situations.

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Everything Up Close - Yet Another Contest!

2 posts from me in the same day? How often does that happen? Well when I find things that I'm so impressed with I cannot help but double post.

Everything Up Close is hosting another contest that I'm even more excited about. The value is less but the items are beautiful. HomeStudio has offered this beautiful pendant Scrabble Tile Pendant - SONG BIRD (Red) & 1mm Silver Snake Chain to one lucky reader/commenter.

To enter head over to Everything Up Close

Search the Etsy page belonging to HomeStudio and pick your favorite design. Trust me it will be hard to pick just one!

My choice was the Scrabble Tile Pendant Dandelion Trio.. which I actually bought! It reminded me of the innocence of Tala & Malie's obsession with the "wishing flower". The innocence of a child's curiosity about life in general is inspiring and makes me smile.

I encourage you to head over and get your entries in!

New Contest - Everything Up Close

Hey guys! Another contest scoop for you! Everything Up Close is currently hosting a contest to win an adorable custom medium sized diaperbag/tote through Designs by Kari.

You have the opportunity to gain up to 5 entries, and the prize if well worth the effort!

Be prepared to drool over the bags at Designs by Kari as you need to post your favorite item and why you like it. My personal favorite was Polkadot Paisley Aqua Chocolate Diaper bag tote bag

Very classic, beautiful bag.

So head on over to Everything Up Close for your chance to win!

Good luck!

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Wowzers!

I have a serious addiction to making my girls the absolutely most adorable little people in the world! And with crazy, funky hair like Tala's; and amazingly silky hair like Malie's I need clips that stay in place. Ladybugs & Lullabies offers amazing clips that are absolutely amazing!

And of course as I tend to do when I'm up super late I was surfing around and checked out some of their new collections and found the absolutely adorable clips to the left. They are from the New Retro Look Collection and I am in love! The next time I have some wiggle room in the budget I will be ordering them up just like that! They are $4 each or $7 for a pair. The flower one is my favorite, though the Squares is a very close 2nd.

These clips are actually cool enough that I wear them as well!

Just a quick reminder if you haven't had a chance to already Allyson (the owner of Ladybugs & Lullabies) is running a contest for a $25 giftcard redeemable at her wonderful store in return for voting for her in the Mompreneur of the Year Award. The grand prize is $17,000! So please vote vote vote! You can vote once per email address and the contest closes Sunday, September 14th. You can view all the details here

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

I will not complain

Do you know anyone who complains endlessly? About everything? And anything? I know quite a few and it has definitely inspired me to keep things to myself. One thing that especially drives me bonkers is people who complain about new things! I mean seriously... its brand new and you're super duper lucky to have it... or people who complain after a massage or pedicure - Hello! You just got pampered for how long? LOL.

So....

Here I am not complaining that my new laptop makes my neck hurt!

And its not like I've actually been on it too much as like 60% of my stuff is on the desktop still. So maybe I'm just extra wimpy... but still I am not complaining!

I love my new laptop. Its so pretty and makes me smile to see it. I haven't had much difficulty adjusting to the new setup and to Vista. Quite to my surprise I actually enjoy Vista. I'd heard so many horror stories that I was surprised to enjoy it and find it so user friendly.

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Contest! $25 giftcard

Ladybugs & Lullabies is one of the most amazing baby product sites that I know of. Allyson creates amazingly beautiful barrettes that are a regular fixture in both girls hair.

Infact we love the clips so much that Tala was named Little Ladybug of the Month! See the site here

Allyson has entered to win the Mom Entrepreneur Award thru SavvyMom. This contest would give her business an amazing boost and at such she has very generously offered up a contest.

The prize is a $25 giftcard for use at Ladybugs & Lullabies on her gorgeous clips.

You can vote for Ladybugs & Lullabies here There is a limit of 1 vote per email address (confirmed with the contest sponsor). You will receive 1 entry for the $25 giftcard for every email address you vote with.

Please email Allyson at noslipbabybows [at] aol [dot] com with the subject line: Mompreneur Votes and be sure to include the email addresses that you've voted with.

Contest closes September 14th, 2008. Winner will be notified by email.

Good luck everyone! These are truly amazing bows & even if you don't have a little girl to adorn they make an amazing present!

If you are interested in making an order right now and cannot wait to find out if you're the lucky winner the current coupon code is: Autumn08 Expiry September 30/08. Good for 25% off your order. Shipping is amazingly affordable, only $2!

These clips are amazing for a couple of reasons. My favorite part is that they are amazingly adjustable. You are free to choose your own colours & accents to create the perfect clip for you. After all.. not everyone likes the same things. The 2nd reason is that they stay in place! No more constant adjusting. Have an itty bitty baby with baby fine hair? No problem!

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Another Chance for Free Coffee! (Sarah's Key Contest Continues)

Kim over at Mommyknows is offering up another opportunity for a Starbucks giftcard. All you have to do is pop on over to her blog and post a comment. How simple is that? Enter Kim's $10 Starbucks Contest here

For those of you who aren't familiar with Kim, she is the former owner of the Baby Marketplace. A seriously dangerous addiction of mine during Christmas 2007. She had the most amazing deals on Bonus Boxes and so the kiddos were extremely well dressed this year - and at such great prices. While she no longer runs the BabyMarketPlace her blog is still up and running.

Question of the day for an entry into the Sarah's Key Contest: Keeping with Kim's Theme what makes/made your children meltdown to the max?

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

They Make My Heart so Happy!

This had initially started off as a post about the total and utter lack of organization in my life since I had children, but that will have to wait for another day! After the girls got up (about 5 minutes ago) so happy and lovey dovey with each other I just could not resist snapping some pictures. And of course now I just cannot resist sharing them with you!

They got up very very late today. After a very busyweekend with their best friend I wasn't sure what to expect. So I was very happy when they scooted downstairs together and were so lovely together. Miss Malie said to Tala "Good Morning Tala" and gave her a kiss on the cheek immediately! Which of course was followed by the same by Tala and then a course of "I Love You" & "I Love You More". And of course Mommy got hugs & kisses too! What a wonderful way to wake up. Hopefully the rest of the day goes as well!

All comments will be entered into the draw for 1 of 5 copies of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Draw will take place on October 1st from all comments received between now and then.

You can receive a maximum of 1 entry per day, plus 1 extra entry for linking to the contest from your blog! See all details here.

Book Giveaway - Sarah's Key

I am appalled, amazed, confused, saddened and angry that the topic of Sarah's Key is not taught in schools.

I had am amazing Socials teacher in school. Mr Gluska was absolutely amazing and pushed his students to reach their maximum potential. There were a lot of students who didn't raise to the occasion (which was evidenced by the high failure rate in his classes). But for those who did raise to the level he expected you learned how to learn. He covered topics from the Halocaust, the Japanese Internment at Hastings Park in Vancouver, Residential Schools, the mission of Martin Luther King, Slavery and the eventual abolishment of slavery, The Apartheid. So it absolutely amazes me that we were never taught about the Veladrome d'Hivre (Vel d'Hiv).

Recently I was contacted by Sarah Goldstein a Marketing Assistant at St. Martin's Press. She raved of the book Sarah's Key and offered to send me a copy for my review. Being the book worm that I am I jumped at the opportunity. The book is absolutely amazing so far and I highly recommend that you pick it up if you have the opportunity.

Sarah's Key is written by Tatiana de Rosnay and creates a fictional story around a very significant part of both the Jewish & French history. A history that for some strange reason isn't widely known. I am unsure of why the story of Vel d'Hiv has faded away into the distance but I do feel strongly that both the survivors and those who weren't so lucky deserve to have their story told. The book is written from the standpoint of a little girl caught in the middle of the roundup and of Julia an American journalist living in Paris who was given the task of writing an article to commemorate the 60th anniversary.

I personally feel strongly that human rights tragedies such as the Vel d'Hiv where innocent people were sent to their deaths for being of a different religion must be known by all. Especially our children who are given the difficult of task of looking at our past mistakes and making sure they don't happen again in the future.

Sarah Goldstein has graciously increased the number of books available to be won! There are now 5 books up for grabs and the date of the contest close date has been extended to allow for more entries.

* Draw closes on October 1st/2008
* 1 entry per day
* If you have a blog you can earn 1 additional entry by posting about my contest on your blog and then posting a link in the comments
*To enter please leave a comment on any post between now and October 1st, 2008.

To enter the contest just comment! Topics could include the most significant book that you have read, your interest in the subject matter/book, or your thoughts on teaching children about such events in school

If you're interested in reading more about the Vel d'Hiv click here

You can visit the publisher's website here

And lastly if you are interested in reading more about Sarah's Key before its official release date please visit the Author's Website here

I Love Superstore Clearance!

Off to Superstore for my groceries yesterday and happened to walk by the clothing department and my heart skipped a beat when I saw a sign announcing all Children's Clearance was $0.44! Unfortunately most of the stuff was pretty picked through. There was nothing in actual kid sizes just toddler sizes.

I picked up one outfit, shirt, shorts & over jacket. All 44c but the true kicker was that one of the items was SCOP so I got $36 in clothing for $0.88! That is a savings of $35.12 or 97.5%!

Happy happy Mommy here! & Super Star Model in her 88c outfit to the right!

Mini Vent & Points & Prizes Bouquet

As I mentioned in a previous post I love online shopping for the options that it has. Shipping these days is quite often less then the cost of gas to drive there and back.

We received a Toys R Us giftcard that I would love to use before we leave the lower mainland. Simple I thought.

Tala has been asking for an easel for Christmas and I thought it was the perfect time to pick one up. They have a Thomas the Train Double Sided Easel for $39.98 (regularly $49.99)... but no picture! I've searched google to (seemingly) no end and no success in tracking down this particular product. I do not want to order it and end up hating it.

Toys R Us Thomas the Train Double Sided Easel

When will webmasters get the picture? I don't believe that I'm unreasonable in my expectation to at least see what I'm ordering before I order it. So I spent a frustrating 10 minutes on hold trying to get ahold of someone at ToysRUs who could at least give me more information on this product. Nada! They couldn't even tell me if its made out of wood or plastic.

So I'm still sitting here trying to decide if we should order the easel or not. There are no locations in my immediate area that still have it so I can't really just pop in (not that its really popping in when the closest location is over half an hour away by car).

I had initially thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the kiddos into the store to pick out a Christmas Present for each other. But do I really have the energy level to chase 2 toddlers around Toys R Us?

If anyone happens to be more google savvy then myself and can find this product I will happily ship you off a little surprise from my huge freaking box of excess stuff that I need to clear out!

On the plus side on the girls' Christmas Presents arrived today. Through the absolutely wonderful site Points & Prizes we ordered a Gator Puppet by Aurora. It was a little on the steep side of points (140,000) but totally worth it! They will absolutely adore it and I'm ecstatic that I took the chance.

If anyone is interesting in having one for their own little ones they retail for around $13.95 US and are totally worth the price. It comes with 2 little finger puppets and is incredibly soft and cuddle worthy. There's even velcro inside the mouth so that the Gator can get a great grip on his lunch. Very cute! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from this Mom!