However, we may have to have Sophia and Matthew sharing a room for a year or so until the little one sleeps through a noisy sister in the room. I can imagine using so many different kinds of cute feminine kids beddingadorning the twin bed if she uses it, instead of transitioning to her toddler bed she inherited from Matthew. Excuse me while I hop up on this soap box, because I am about to sound like my mother.

Nothing grosses me out more than sleeping on a bed without a mattress pad. If you spend money on a mattress, get a quality mattress pad. Mattress pads are an inexpensive way to protect the bed from sweat, drool, and any other body fluids you encounter when you have kids (urine, vomit, etc). I don’t care how good you cleaned after Junior peed the bed, don’t expect that the next person is sleeping on a nasty mattress covered with only a thin layer of fabric, ewww. I will judge you if your beds lack mattress pads. And for kids, have several on hand. Matthew has three for his bunk beds, Sophia has two for her crib… both theirs are waterproof. I have one that I spent a fortune on, because it is waterproof and does not crinkle. We often have kids climbing into our bed at night, and that pad has paid for itself 20x over with how many times it has saved our bed. Austin and Christopher have one each, they were just cheapies, but they will tell you, I will get mad if I see a naked bed.

Because I have to arrange for them to shuttle me back and forth to the dealership, I decided tonight I would take it in, this time to fix a couple cosmetic things and repair his remote start & alarm. After the recent battery incident, it sure made me appreciate my dealership. I have always hated finding and trusting new mechanics, because you hear so many horror stories of shady mechanics. The disadvantage of moving so often, is you get to start over at a new city, and have to find all new services. This is why I love the Google Age so much, word of mouth has always been the way I find businesses, but if that is not available, I am all about the review sites. I have never been a fan of flipping through the phone book.

I found this new website today, called RepairPal that is pretty interesting. You can put in information about your car, repair needed, and zipcode and they will not only give you a range to expect the estimate to be, but shops nearby with peer reviews, which would look like this page showing some San Fransisco auto repair shops. Out of curiosity I put in his Civic and pretended it really had needed an alternator and it came up with a very comprehensive report. Not only did it tell me the range of costs I would be expecting for parts & labor, but then it also gives me recommendations of things I make sure are done (i.e. which other tests I make sure they do) and explanations of symptoms and other necessary repairs that may be necessary. Not just that, then maps out shops in my areas with reviews.

The other helpful part of the website is you can enter a specific make, model and year of a vehicle and get reviews, common problems, recalls, etc. So if you wanted to learn more about a 2001 Honda Accord, it would be easy to look up ratings, reviews, recalls, and common mechanical problems. Other neat features are a car encyclopedia, in case you wanted to look up what a timing belt replacement entails; and a section called My Car where you can keep track of your maintenance and repair records, plus get reminders, recall information and service reminders, and best of all it is all FREE!

When we move next month, it is nice knowing I will be able to find a place to take our cars that I can trust, I am extremely loyal to my service center and look forward to finding a place that can take care of all of our car needs, from oil changes, to mechanical repairs.

This is a sponsored post.

When my babies are teeny tiny, I love a classy bracelet to remind me which side I nursed on last, especially when I am super sleep deprived. As they get older, a rugged necklace with a large circular bead or charm is ideal for the baby to play with and avoid distractions is exemplary.

Brought to you by our friends at http://www.abigailscreations.com

If you were to search in the archives of this blog, you will see a rant about my satellite tv provider, because that the time I did not know websites like MeasuredUp. existed. If I had, I feel like my post may have made more of a difference. Maybe if enough people share their negative and positive experiences on MeasuredUp., it will inspire a change in all the companies who leave a lot to be desired, or encourage companies with many positive reviews to keep up the good work.

Check it out, write your own reviews, and read about the companies you use before you have to call so you know what to expect. There is nothing worse than having high expectations of a company and then being let down by a nightmare experience. Hopefully, you will have a fantastic experience and you will want to shout it from the rooftops, but whatever the case may be, share you experience and inspire some change.

*This is a sponsored post.

So here is my theory, some creative geniuses named Thor and Ofira were working together on an on demand news, video, blog, and website program, kind of like TiVo for the PC. They realized after years of work that they both shared a passion for tarsiers (google it) and ended up having a wild torrid affair which ended in much heartbreak and a stronger desire to make their lovechild, thoof.com the leading website for personalized news and information retrieval.

So, playing around with Thoof, I decided to thoof myself (wow, sounds dirty eh?) to see how thoofable (watch for that word, soon to come to a dictionary near you) I am. Well, I guess I am famous! I saw an article about “Which came first, the stripper or the name” which mentioned that although my name is not that of a stripper, my name is that of a suburbanite soccer mom. It also went on to say that I may have been doomed to dance for dollars had my parents named me Candi or something similar. Interesting, too bad my parents were not able to thoof a name for me that would have landed me in a mansion somewhere, instead of driving a minivan with a gaggle of sons.

Don’t forget to submit your own articles to thoof, if you do, you can add a ThoofRank Badge to put on your blog or website to proudly display how popular you have become on thoof!

However, if you are looking for an auto auction, Chicago readers are in luck. With vehicles available for test drive on Fridays and auctions every 2 weeks, it is easy to see how you can find a great vehicle for a low price. They also have a consignment program if you have a used vehicle you need auctioned off to the highest bidder. Check it out, this would be a great way to obtain a project car, a student car, a second car, or a very low priced first car.

*This is a sponsored post.

They also have free brochures, a large section of resources and information, and a 1-800 number. I also like that they offer cancellation protection at no extra cost, because you never know when something will come up. Make sure you read the policy because canceling because you changed your mind is not a covered expense.

Now PayPerPost offers a new program called PayPerPost Direct. Basically, PPP Direct is a program you can install in your blogs to allow advertisers to directly approach you to offer you an opportunity to write about in your blog. This allows Posties and Advertisers to directly hash out a deal and set their own terms without involvement from PayPerPost.

Other pay for blog websites, such as ReviewMe, can charge as much as 50-100% markup, which is CRAZY! Why should I do all the work while someone else makes just as much as I do for being the middle man? With PayPerPost Direct you truly are your own boss! Now I don’t mind the 35% markup from PayPerPost, they do have a staff to pay, they do send me Tax Returns, and they do secure more advertisers than any other paid blogging website I have seen, however, the more money I can keep in my pocket the better… which is where PayPerPost Direct comes into play.

PayPerPost Direct will still offer marketing, they will still offer the security of me not having to put my email address out there and wait for advertisers to connect to me, they still make it super easy for me to get opportunities and for advertisers to find me. It is important that you claim the money you make to the IRS, and PayPerPost does that by sending you the forms you need for tax purposes, however even with PayPerPost Direct they will continue to track your earnings and send them out to you in your end of the year tax statement. Seems like a WIN-WIN situation to me!

The next time we went, we stayed in a hotel in Oahu, and then back to Lawai Beach Resort where my parents had previously purchased their time-share Condo. They offered classes on lei making, hula dancing, snorkeling, scuba diving, and many other neat classes. My parents took a helicopter tour through the canyon that I missed out on because I was sunburned and feeling queezy.

I hope someday to take my own family to Kauai, Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu. The cultural experience I gained from our trip will last me a lifetime. I loved the people, the sounds, the sights, the food, and most of all the memories my family shared.

Barcelona is another place I would love to visit. While there I would love to visit the Picasso Museum and the Olympic Stadium, in addition to many other tourist attractions.

And of course, what is a European vacation without a trip to Rome, with the Vatican City and the Parthenon to name a couple, I could easily sightsee every day for a month and still not be able to take it all in.

If you are considering a vacation in Europe, stay tuned, Easy to Book is adding new cities to widen it’s net.

*This is a sponsored post.

The newest zip program, SecureZIP is a very simple download, and for a limited time can be downloaded for free; this is the full version, not a trial version. Secure Zip encrypts and compresses files for fast and secure transfer, this program is great for business projects, sensitive files that may have personal information like a social security number or banking information, or anything that you would not want to fall into the wrong hands. This data security program is also great for protecting your own personal files stored on your hard drives, portable media, or laptops. SecureZIP – The next generation of ZIP.

Within two minutes of submitting my email address, SecureZip was downloaded and two minutes later was registered and up and running. The program is easy to use and is also integrated into Outlook Express which makes it super simple to email encrypted files. You also want to check out SecureZIP’s impressive review over at PC Magazine.com, they made 4 1/2 marks out of five marks, and have great raves.

Check this program out, it is a great asset in total data security.

Another type of loan is a personal loan, which are typically higher interest, shorter repayment terms, and usually have nothing used for collateral. These type of loans are typically short term, higher interest, and smaller in amount. These type of loans have no collateral and include loans such as credit cards, signature loans and payday loans.

A third type of loan is a debt consolidation loan, this is a loan with the purpose of paying off other high interest loans. The type of consolidation loan I am most familiar with is a home equity loan, which frees up the equity in your home to use for the purpose of paying off higher interest loans.

Any time you are dealing with credit, there are risks, from overextending yourself and getting into “debt up to your eyeballs” so to say, to overpaying for an item after calculating interest, to using the value of your home and then later not being able to sell your home for profit, or even having negative equity. There is also the temptation of running up the freshly paid off credit cards once you have consolidated them into a new loan. This is why one should never borrow money lightly… remember, what is one dollar today, may be $5 tomorrow.

The neat fact about D’Legne Chandeliers is that they are sold directly from the manufacturer, and not sold in stores where items are marked up over 100%. I once heard that an average furniture store marks up their prices over 400%.

Can’t you just picture one of these beauties in your home?

*This is a sponsored post.