Growing up in a Family of Holiday Workers

My husband and I aren't going to get to visit family for Thanksgiving.  To be honest, it's not that big of a deal to me.  Thanksgiving never really was much of a holiday for us.  When I was eight years old, that was the last time my family celebrated.  My mother invited her mom, step-dad, and my dad's mother and step-dad for Thanksgiving.  Dad was the 1970s equivalent of a 911 dispatcher, and he worked nights, but by day he was a volunteer EMT.

No Shave November and Cancer Awareness

FTC disclaimer:  I am part of the U.S. Cellular Blogger Brigade and this is a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.

U.S. Cellular offers a FREE PRINTABLE Parent Child agreement to help you discuss safety of the Internet, cell phone usage, limits, and courtesy with your teen or tween.  You don't even need to be a U.S. Cellular customer to access this, although I have been for 10 years and highly recommend them. 


November is a great time to put down your razor and pick up your cell phone to raise awareness for cancer.  With great devices from U.S. Cellular, like the iPhone 5s, it's easy to track charity donations, take selfies of that growing beard, or even use apps to see what you would look like if you added a beard to yourself.  (Not everyone works in a place where they are allowed to grow a beard.  My husband works in food service and is required to shave daily.)  But with an app he can join in on the fun.  Regardless of facial hair or not, you can still use your U.S. Cellular device to promote cancer awareness while on the go.

Book Review: Safe House by Joshua Straub

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book for review purposes.  All opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.


My husband and I are in classes to train us so we can either foster or adopt children. When Family Christian offered me a chance to review Safe House by Joshua Straub I was excited to read this book.

This book was a bit of a slow read for me.  I never, never, never dog ear a book.  This one had so much great information in it, that it was the exception to my rule.  This went along with what I have been learning in class, just in more detail.

Why I don't Budget (and what I do instead)

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I've been known as a frugal guru among my friends for, oh, about 20 years or more.  But there's one piece of money advice that I hear everywhere that just doesn't work for me.  Having a budget.

Since I graduated college, I have been selling on eBay.  I've been blogging for years.   I recently joined a  direct sales company As anyone who works at home knows, there can be some months you may make thousands, and other months you might make under $20.  (I've had both!)  The financial experts say to budget with your smallest month in mind, but that does NOT work for me.  How can I budget paying $600 of utilities on a $20 budget?  It just can't happen.

We're Adopting and Ways you can help!

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Big news!   We're paperwork pregnant!

The bad news is, the house we have been fixing up to make live-able (there was 60 year old carpet plus tons of other stuff that was bad for the lungs or just unsafe).   It's taken all the life insurance money I got from my mother.

Why I donate with eBay for Charity Giving Works -- The Reasons may Surprise You!

FTC disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links.

eBay Giving Works program allows you to donate 10% - 100% of your listing's sale to the charity of your choice (provided they are signed up with the program.)

1.   It makes me feel good to help others.

2.  It's an easy way to donate to causes I care about.

3.  It helps my listings stand out.

4.  If there are two identical items people will be more likely to chose your item to purchase.

5.  You don't have to pay eBay fees on the portion you donate.  That means your donation dollar goes further than if you sold the item on eBay and then donated to your favorite charity offline.

6.  Tax deductible giving!

7.  I have a section in my store that is called Partial Proceeds to Charity.

8.  It actually earns me more money!  I know this sounds odd, but I have done experiments in the past with items selling identical items and I almost always had the item sell for MORE than it would have if I had kept all the money myself.  Granted, it's not much more, but if I can make a difference and make a donation and still make about $1 more, I see no reason NOT to use this great feature on eBay!

Late October Adoption Update

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It's been a long month of classes.  So far this month, we have spent five evenings going to classes.  Because of where we live, it takes us as long to get to class and back as it does to sit through class (two hours and three hours depending on where the class is.)  This week, we only have five hours of classes, but they are also my husband's only days off.  One week we had seven hours of classes (and seven hours of travel) in three days time.  Oh, and did I mention we also have homework in addition to getting the house in order and trying to come up with enough money for adoption expenses?

Why your Passwords should be in a Safe Place in case of Death

FTC disclaimer:  Many of my posts contain affiliate links.

In February 2014, my mother passed away.  After that, I started preparing things I never would have thought of in the event of my untimely demise.  My mother had been ill for a long time, and was not very computer savvy,  which made things easier in the online world.

Someone logged her out of every one of her accounts AND passworded her computer the night she passed away.  Yes, I know someone else did this and my mother didn't -- it was passworded AFTER my mother was pronounced dead.

First, the password that was put on Windows was able to be taken off by a computer expert.  The cost of this was about $100.  My mother was a writer and had many unpublished works on her hard drive, so the cost was well worth it as I hope to publish them posthumously.  In fact, my mother made me repeatedly promise I would do so.

Someone tried cheating in a blog giveaway!

FTC disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links.

Last week, I arrived in the house late one evening.  My husband and I had been at foster / adoptive parent training and I decided to check my e-mail and a few things online before heading to bed.

I refreshed my blog, and it showed that I had over 4,000 entries to my iTunes giveaway, yet for the one for the Paparazzi bracelet, it had about 20 entries.  I thought to myself, "I thought for sure I had that to show entrants, not entries."  So I went to Giveaway Tools, and amazingly, I did have it to entrants.  During the time my husband and I were at class, over 3800 fake names were used to enter my giveaway -- over 12,000 fake entries.

Seven Quick Takes: Falling while on the floor and more

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1.  My husband and I are in foster parent / adoption training.  We had three nights of classes this week totaling seven hours.  Because of the rural area we live in, we spent the same amount of time in the car traveling to the classes this week.  Fourteen hours in three days.  We had a two hour class on how to give medicine to children.  There were three hours on laws regarding foster parenting and adoption, and a two hour first aid class.