randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

There have been a few times when it was necessary to get a cash advance to make ends meet when a paycheck came up short or something happened that required money we didn’t have. It can be very helpful, if you’re smart about it of course. It’s incredibly helpful if, for example, your car needs repair immediately and you don’t have the money on hand or a credit card you can put it on. It also occurred to me a couple of years ago that it could be a very good thing for vacations. What I’d thought about was that most people book their vacations in advance and pay for their airfare, hotel, etc in advance. So you get a cash advance for spending money and you pay it back when the allotted time comes — or extend the advance and pay it over a couple of weeks.  It’s my experience that these sites are very secure and the money is deposited right into your bank account.

October at last. Fall is coming into full swing, leaves are turning colors and the month ends with my absolute favorite holiday – Halloween. Oh how I love Halloween. When I was a kid, I started contemplating what I would be for Halloween in July. It was always serious business. Mom needed to know by the first of the month so that she could get the costume made in time, or talk you into wearing last years costume. As much as I love making my son’s Halloween Costumes, there’s something to be said for the convenience and variety of store bought costumes. There are some things that the average sewer just can’t make, sports uniforms for example, and lets face it most people don’t have the time or energy to make costumes at home, especially when it’s probably only going to be worn once. “What do you want to be for Halloween” is often a question that parents dread asking. Are they going to choose something impossible? Or will it be something outrageously expensive? Well, this year if your child says “I want to be a Philadelphia Eagles (or any other NFL team) player.” You can accommodate (complete with helmet) without spending a fortune by visiting NFLUniformsSet.com. As an added bonus, they can wear the jersey on the next game day.

I’ve done numerous searches on eBay for a wide variety of things.  I remember someone telling me once that she bought really nice lingerie on eBay (Victoria Secret brand, no less) for about 1/3 the price of the pieces in the store.  It was brand new with tags and everything.  I couldn’t help but think “Why would someone buy something at Victoria Secret and then let it go for so little online?”  Seriously, why not just return it to the store?  Now that I’ve checked out ABC Closeout, I understand.  They didn’t buy it at the store.  They bought it wholesale from someone else.  They’ve got a pretty good deal on Victoria Secret, actually.  $4.50  a piece.  Pretty impressive considering what you pay for their stuff in the stores.  It’s definitely for resale, of course.  The minimum order is 500 pieces.  It’s definitely a site worth bookmarking if you’re considering opening an online store.  They have closeouts on clothing, jewelry, electronics, baby items, etc.

Talk about the ultimate in “perfect gift for Grandma.” Not to mention mom. A picture blanket from VisionBedding.com. It’s exactly what it sounds like — a blanket that has personal photos on it.  The site allows 1, 4, 9, 12 or 16 photos on a blanket up to 72×60, which costs $189.95.  I’d say that’s a pretty fair price considering the smile that it would bring to the faces of Gage’s grandparents to get something like that, I’d say it’s definitely worth the price.  Especially since we live so far from his grandparents and they don’t get to see him very often.  If they were missing him they could just wrap the blanket around themselves and get a polar fleece hug from Gage.  I imagine that would go over incredibly well.  I wouldn’t mind getting one for myself, either.  Not with pictures of Gage though.  Pictures of my family — mom, Joe, sisser and mimi, along with my nieces and nephew and my brother in law.  That would be really nice.  I take that back, I want two.  One with pictures of family and one with pictures of Gage.

When I was a kid, we had a huge vegetable garden. It was full of all kinds of delicious veggies — spinach, tomatoes, peas, lima beans, potatoes, etc. There’s something about growing vegetables yourself that makes them extra tasty. So, I’d like very much to have a nice vegetable and herb garden. As a kid, I loved helping my mom make the plant labels that went at the end of each row, which is a tradition I’d carry on although I’d go for something more substantial than seed packets stapled to stakes. There are a lot of nice long-lasting labels for plants in the garden than paper these days. Plant labels would be especially good for helping to identify the various herbs that I’d like to grow. Since I’m not entirely familiar with how all of the ones I’d like to grow are. Come to think of it, I don’t think I could identify much besides tomatoes until the vegetables themselves started appearing so they’d be handy all over the garden.

I’m getting all of my paid blogging sites mixed up. And my blogs. Nothing like taking the time to write an entry for an opp and realizing after you’ve saved it and tried to submit it that you’ve written the post in the wrong blog.

At least there’s an “edit” option.

I used to play poker every weekend with a group of friends. It was just “penny poker”, but I always thought that the only thing missing from it being a truly great set up was a nice set of Poker Chips. Someday I hope to be able to have a bunch of friends over every now and then and have a nice night of poker and laughs, and there will be chips. Not just the edible kind. In my “dream game room” there would be a nice poker table with comfortable chairs.  The chips on the table wouldn’t be the standard blue, red and white.  While that’s very classic looking I’m not much of a classic kind of girl.  I’d probably go for green, purple and black (or white), or perhaps pink, purple and red.  It would definitely be a non-standard color combination.  Why?  Well, why not?  At CardRoomSupply.com you can get any color combination you want — so why not get a combination that suits your personality or the decor of your game room.  You might even be able to match the colors of your favorite sports team.  They do have some nice high roller chips that I think are interesting.  They have values noted on them (1, 5, 25, 50 & 100) — which at my table would denote cents as opposed to dollars.  It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a night of poker with friends.  I quite miss it.

When I lived in Virginia, the office I went to had our Christmas parties at the horse track. It was a lot of fun. There’s nothing quite like it. I have to admit that I absolutely loved it. Betting on horse races online is one of the many online betting options at Bet365.com and I think I’m gonna have to bookmark it so I can have some fun when I have the money. They also allow betting on other sports including hockey, football and even darts. There are even games and an online casino for your internet gambling pleasure. I know several people who have played at their casino and won some pretty decent money. You only need one account with them, whether you’re just betting on sports or doing sports, casino and games. Their casino has all the casino favorites, including blackjack, baccarat and even slots.  I can’t wait till I can afford to spend a little time and perhaps make a little money there.

Woody has sleep apnea and let me tell you it can be pretty scary. Waking up in the middle of the night because the person next to you stopped breathing. I used to shake him (and wake him up, from time to time) when that happened. One of my biggest fears is that he might have passed it on to Gage. There are times that I check on him and I can’t hear him breathing or see his chest rise and fall. It scares the heck out of me, that’s for sure. If it becomes necessary, I think I would take Gage to a sleep study and see if it’s an issue that warrants concern and some kind of action. I don’t know that he’d do any better with one of those breathing masks than his dad would do, though. I think Gage moves around way too much for something like that, it’d never stay in place. I’ve considered going to a sleep disorder center myself, for insomnia. I’ve always suffered bouts of insomnia, every couple of years. Some of them were short — a month or two. Some were longer. I had one that lasted almost a year. It was not fun. I’m on the 4th month of an insomnia cycle at the moment.

For the past few years, I’ve been thinking about how interesting (not to mention lucrative) it would be to do a little real estate investing. I’d love to own a rental property or two, something really nice. I’d also really love to do some fix & flip stuff. Which is something I’ve been interested in for about a year. There are a lot of old houses in this area, pre-World War I, actually. They’re beautiful on the outside for the most part. But all of the ones I’ve been in are run-down and badly in need of repair and upgrading. Don’t get me wrong, they’re solid houses. I doubt a tornado could take them down — they just need a little TLC. PEI University has an online program that teaches real estate investment strategies and techniques. It’s nice that you can Learn how to invest in real estate FREE. I’ve been checking out the site to get a little information and see if it’s something that I should look into when the time is right. It’s definitely something that I’m interested in. Admittedly, part of my interest comes from having watched a number of “Fix & Flip” shows on TV and thinking, “Hey, I could do that.” Not just that I could do it, but that I would love doing it.

I’ve always been a fan of holiday gift baskets. Not just for the holidays, of course. They can be given for any occasion. Birthdays, milestones, thank yous, get wells and of course just because. There’s nothing quite like getting a beautiful basket and opening it up to find an assortment of delicious gourmet treats that you love or would love to try, but wouldn’t normally buy for yourself. I think that holiday gift baskets are not only a convenient gift to give, it’s very easy to make them thoughtful and personal. Gourmetgiftbaskets.com is a great place to find exactly what you need. They’ve got a huge assortment including a lot that are under $50. I found a dozen in the “Under $50″ category alone that I would be honored to receive from a friend or loved one. It’s also my experience that holiday gift baskets are also great employee gifts. I once received a basket from an employer full of wonderful chocolates and cookies, not to mention an amazing cheesecake! I definitely felt appreciated when I received that. Of course, getting all of your co-workers to chip in for a nice basket for the boss is always a possibility as well.

Denver is a great place to visit. Skip the skiing in Aspen and come during the spring, summer or fall. There’s a whole lot of fun to be hand for singles, couples and families.

First of all, we have a great night life LoDo has more bars and clubs than you can shake a stick at. We’ve also got an incredible array of really good local bands. Whether it’s covers you want to hear or originals. There are bands in every genre and a few bands that have created their own genre.

For family activities, there’s The Denver Zoo, the aquarium, a couple of museums and of course the theater. Elitch Gardens is a great way to spend a day. It used to be a Six Flags theme park, but they sold it last year — you can still find information on the park at the Six Flags website. One fairly unique thing about Elitch is that it’s in the middle of the city. There’s nothing quite like coming to the top hill of a roller coaster and being surrounded by city — it’s surreal and a very cool experience.

If you’re into something a little more romantic, you can Ponte the Platte. Basically it’s a gondola ride down the platte river. We’ve even got a drive in theater if you’d like to take your partner to a movie and cuddle up nice and close. Kids love the drive in as well, of course.

We have a lot of good restaurants, like the Capitol Grill and the Denver Chop House. Denver also has a number of unique ethnic restaurants including African, Creole and even a few Czech restaurants (just to name a few).

Hotels in Denver are easy to find. Whatever it is you need to fit your taste and your budget is available. Everything from the Grand Hyatt to a Courtyard by Marriott to Howard Johnsons and La Quinta is available in Denver. It’s a great place to visit and a great place to stay. Sports fans won’t be disappointed when they visit Denver. We’ve got hockey, lacrosse (indoor and outdoor), baseball, basketball, football and soccer for you to enjoy. This is a town that loves their sports. If you’ve never been to a lacrosse game, I personally recommend going to an indoor game if you visit during the NLL season. It’s fun, exciting and inexpensive.

A few years ago, my cousin Luke died. It was incredibly sad for everyone in the family. Unfortunately, the family members who don’t live in the area weren’t told about it until after the funeral, which gave us no opportunity for the closure which attending the funeral offers. He was young, the same age as my little sister, actually. She was very affected by it, she was quite close to Luke. When she was emotionally able to, my aunt set up a page dedicated to my cousin at Registry of Life. It’s an interesting website that’s been very helpful in getting her (and other family members) through the grieving process. There’s a timeline of Luke’s life and a photo album with pictures of him from the day he was born up until right before he died. The last time I saw him I was 12 years old and he was about 8. So I didn’t get to see him grow up. Seeing the timeline and the photo gallery were really nice for me. I got to see all of the milestones of his life that I didn’t know about as well as seeing him “grow up” through pictures. While it was very sad and I felt a tremendous loss, it was my aunt who needed the most support through the process. It was nice to be able to give her that support through the website, it did her a lot of good.

This is a sponsored post.

I’ve been considering going back to college for a long time now, unfortunately the lack of vehicle and funds has put those considerations at a standstill. Lately, the idea of taking online classes at an accredited online University, like Capella, has been in the front of my mind. Afterall, e-learning is the way of the future. I would just need to see about scholarship possibilities for something like that. Capella recently introduced a BS program in Public Safety with a Criminal Justice specialization. While that particular field doesn’t much interest me, they also recently introduced BS programs in Information Technology, Software Architecture and Health Informatics. IT is of some interest to me, but I don’t know that I would want to make a career of it. Everyone I know in the field is stressed out and unhappy. They also have graduate and undergraduate programs in psychology, education, information technology, business, and criminal justice. Education is definitely of interest to me. Being a teacher is something that has long interested me, probably because I had some very significant teachers who had a profound impact on my life. I’ve long thought that it would be nice to be able to touch someone that way. Capella has so many programs that I couldn’t begin to list them, to be honest. So I’m sure that if I decide to go that route – which is very convenient for someone in my situation, I could find a program that appeals to me and my plans for the future.

I’ve been attempting to lose a bit of weight over the past few months. I’ve been somewhat successful, but there’s only so much dietary changes and occasional walks can do. What I need is some good exercise equipment. Nothing huge or elaborate, I’m thinking maybe some basic pilates equipment or something, since it’s considered low impact but effective. I could use low impact, since my body isn’t ready for high impact exercises. Everythingfitness.com has a basic pilates kit with an instructional video for right around $20, and they offer free shipping on orders $19 an over, so it looks like a good deal that I’ll be taking advantage of as soon as I can. You can even call them toll free and talk to a personal trainer to help determine what kind of equipment would be best for you. Eventually, I want to get something that will help focus on my ab area, but first I need to improve my overall fitness and physical strength.