This isn’t a sponsored post, nor one that I’m being compensated for in any way but the knowledge that I’m passing on credible information to help people in desperate need. It’s about all I *can* do right now, but hopefully, you can do more.  With all the scamming that goes on during these very difficult times, I want to pass along information on CREDIBLE organizations that really are helping.

I’ve taken this directly from an email from MomCentral.

1. Doctors without Borders

Another famous relief foundation has already treated 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti, but an estimated 3 million have been affected by this quake, so there remains tremendous work to be done. They have a page to donate and great suggestions on sharing the cause through badges for your blog or website.

2. UNICEF

UNICEF pledges that 100% of donations will be used to save children’s lives in Haiti. UNICEF’s disaster relief response, coordinated with other UN agencies and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, will focus on helping children and women, usually the most vulnerable in times of crisis. Children under 18 make up nearly 50 percent of the 10 million population of Haiti.

3. Mercy Corps
 
The Mercy Corps always distinguish themselves as one of the first responders when an earthquake hits. They helped out in Peru in 2007, China in 2008, Indonesia in 2009, and now they land as one of the first on the ground in Haiti. Their extensive experience can only be made more valuable by donations and funding. Their website has a place to donate and also asks users to set up their own fundraising page and encourage other to help out as well.  

4. Donate from your Mobile Phone

From your mobile phone (any carrier, any rate plan) — it’s very easy:
Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. (U.S. State Department)  or Text "YELE" to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti. (foundation started by Wyclef Jean) This aid goes immediately to the first responders on the ground in Haiti and will be sorely needed.

5. Oxfam America

Oxfam America has nearly 40 years of experience in disaster response. Your donation will go immediately to the most critical needs in Haiti, and they will ensure that every penny is used wisely.
Oxfam has a staff of approximately 200 people on the ground in Haiti, including a group of highly-experienced emergency specialists.  This emergency team supports rescue efforts, assessing the damage and responding with public health, water and sanitation services to prevent the spread of waterborne disease.  Additional emergency specialists have been dispatched from USA, UK, and Mexico today and the charity is preparing to send additional stocks.

Oxfam staffers have reported hearing cries from the streets: "Water, water, water!"  Oxfam is working to provide clean water and emergency shelter to as many as 300,000 people now living homeless in this ruined city.

As you may or may not be aware, I am a HUGE photography buff.  I LOVE my camera. I have dreams about taking photos.  Seriously, if I could, I’d just go off and take pictures for days on end.  If there is ONE thing I am passionate about, it is photography.

When I found out about a incredible scholarship opportunity that is only for women, I knew right away that I’d apply for it.  It’s absolutely AMAZING.  It’s called SOAR!  SOAR! is a new scholarship that is not only going to change the lives of three women, but breathe hope and encouragement into people across the nation. The SOAR! Scholarship is going to help three women take their dream of building a photography business come true. Starting December 1st, they invited women to submit a 2 minute video that shares why they have what it takes to SOAR! in building their own photography business.

I first found out about it on my own, while visiting other photography sites.  But when Mom Central asked for bloggers to help spread the word about it, I naturally jumped at the chance, because I FULLY
intend(ed) on entering.  In fact, I’ll be recording my entry video tonight, because the deadline is coming up!  I think the challenge will be in keeping it to 2 minutes!

Three winners will be chosen on January  8th. These INCREDIBLY lucky women will receive SONY, Adobe and ShootQ photography equipment for their new business, and will also receive valuable advice from industry leaders. Nationally renowned photographer, Me Ra Koh, created this scholarship to empower and enlighten women. Each SOAR! Scholarship applicant must complete a brief online application, which requires personal & family information, a summary of what makes photography your passion and your time and travel commitments. Applicants must also submit a two-minute video explaining why they are worthy of receiving the SOAR Scholarship. The entire application process proves fast and easy, and all information can be found within the SOAR! Scholarship website http://www.soarwithmera.com/

Edited: The entry deadline has passed. However, you can still visit the website and view everyone’s videos – they need feedback!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of the SOAR! Scholarship and Me Ra Koh Photography. In addition, I will receive an Amazon gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Have you seen the new Macy’s commercials with Queen Latifah (I LOVE Queen Latifah).   Macy’s “A Million Reasons to Believe” campaign is just too cute.  You see this little girl trying to reach up to mail her letter to Santa, and Queen Latifah steps in to help her.

Once again this year, Macy’s is asking you to bring that very special letter to Santa to one of their locations to mail to the North Pole.  When you do, Macy’s will donate $1 to the Make A Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000!!

As I’m sure you can imagine, the kids who benefit from the Make A Wish Foundation would be THRILLED if you’d do this with your special Santa letters, too!

Time is running short.  Sit down with your kids tonight and write those letters to Santa profession all the innocence and goodness of the past year.  Bring them to Macy’s tomorrow and drop them in their special Santa Mailbox, and feel good in knowing you just helped someone’s wish come true, besides the ones in those letters.

As a special incentive to get you to do it, I’m offering TWO winners a $25 gift card to Macy’s for telling me what you’d write in your Letter to Santa.  Just leave a comment and tell me what you’d ask Santa to bring you this Christmas.   

Of course, you can earn extra entries by tweeting this giveaway, and then leaving a separate comment with the link to your tweet.

Just please make sure to leave your email in your comment so I can get in contact with you!

Winners will be drawn December 28th.

Happy Holidays!

Behind every great snack food is a great dip. And now that the football (and holiday!) season is upon us, we must take the time to appreciate our dips. What tailgating party or snack food lineup is complete without it?

Dean’s® Dips has launched the Dipstakes™ sweepstakes. Just like the Jets and the Giants, there are longstanding rivalries in amongst dips as well. Are you a Honey Mustard loyalist, Guacamole diehard or an Onion Dip fanatic? Vote for your favorite dip and help us settle this once and for all!

Everyone who votes will also be eligible for weekly prizes like free dip, a BBQ grill set or a home entertainment system.

It’s super easy to play, too – it’s all on Facebook!  Click here to enter the Dipstakes!

I have a special treat for ya! Leave a comment here before THIS Friday, December 14th and see if you can guess my favorite dip.  I’ll pick 2 of you who have the right answer to receive TWO coupons for FREE DEAN’s DIPS!

What’s better than FREE dip, you have to ask yourself.

FTC thing: I received vouchers for Dean’s Dips to sample for this blog post, and am passing them on to you

I’m totally doing this for Audrey.

On Monday, December 14, 2009 6pm.com will be hosting the “Merriest Monday of All.”  If you’ve never shared 6pm.com with your readers, this is the mother of all promotions!

That’s what the email said. And just the other day, my friend Audrey mentioned that she wanted a North Face jacket. So I suppose this is also for her hubby, Matt! LOL

In any case, read on…

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

tax deduction!

I LOVE my little tax deductions!  So does TurboTax^®!

For the third year, TurboTax^®, is conducting a nationwide search for America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction and the parents of one lucky baby, born Dec. 1-31, 2009, will win $5,000 for their family!  Considering a recent report says a typical family will spend about $221,000 raising a child through age 17, this could help mom and dad get a little more sleep in the New Year.

Want more tax tips for parents?

Newborns aren’t the only ones who qualify for tax credits. Parents may be able to claim a tax credit worth up to $1,000 every year until their child turns 17.  They also may qualify for a number of other credits and deductions, such as child care credits or an adoption credit, worth up to $12,150. 

I was thrilled to participate in last year’s promotion to remind you that Turbo Tax is looking for YOUR cutest (and newest!) little tax deduction.  Did you have a December, 2009 baby, or are you pregnant with one?

To enter your last-minute little cutey, simply go to CutestTaxDeduction and submit a photo of your newest tax deduction.  But you better hurry you only have until January 7th to get the photo up.   And remember, this is America’s choice, so make sure to spread the word to family and friends!

To help make the promotion more fun, I have THREE of these ABSOLUTELY adorable Cutest Little Tax Deduction onesies to give away, too!  Simply comment here on this post and tell me about your tax deductions (aka your kids).  Their names, ages, ss#… no no, kidding   Just tell me about your kids and what makes them rock.   Your children do not have to have been born in December to be eligible for the onesie, either   I have THREE to give away, so get my attention!

I’ll leave this open until January 3rd, to give those of you who are still waiting to pop those littlest tax deductions out   How’s that?! )

Note:  Open to US entrants only, please, as I have to pay postage LOL  [and I’m broke!]

FTC thing:  I received 3 onesies from TurboTax to provide to my readers for this giveaway.

If you ‘re old enough to remember hearing that, you’ll be thrilled to know that K-Mart Blue Light Specials are back, and to celebrate in style, Kmart will be giving shoppers on Twitter a chance to win a $50 gift card every day!  In addition to the chance to win daily, everyone following @KmartDealsnNews on Twitter will be automatically entered for a chance to win a $500 Kmart shopping spree – how cool is that?!  I don’t know about you, but I DEFINITELY could use an extra $500!

The sweepstakes is running now through December 23^rd .

Winning couldn’t get easier – all you have to do is follow @KmartDealsnNews on Twitter from your personal Twitter account and issue a Tweet everyday using our hashtag: #KmartBLS.  Each day is a new opportunity to win, so the more often you tweet – the better your chances are to win a Daily prize! 

For more info on sweepstakes details, check out: http://tr.im/kmartBLS, and for Official Rules: http://tr.im/kmartBLSrules. 

Of course, this is all in celebration of the return of Bluelight Specials at Kmart!  There are over 40 great Bluelight Specials throughout the weekend in-store, and other great offers online at Kmart.com, too, only on Saturdays and Sundays.  A little preview for this weekend’s (12/5 to 12/6) Specials:

• Bluelight Special teasers for 12/5 to 12/6:

  All 14k gold Birthstone Baby Charms $29.99 (reg $69.99)

  Mushabellies $14.99 (reg. $24.99)

  4 piece table tennis table $99.99 (reg. 149.99)

• All day offers:

  Saturday:  Small Wonder Blankets & Wonderkids Thermals – BOGO Free

  Sunday:  Men’s 3pk Fashion Brief or 2pk Micro Knit Boxers or Musical Card Boxer $5 (reg. 9.99-12.99)

So be sure to head over to Twitter and follow @KmartDealsnNews!

Over the course of my lifetime, there have been many, MANY memorable gifts given to me.  Gifts on all occasions, and sometimes, for no occasion at all.  Just typing that sentence brought to mind some very special thoughts, but for today’s post for TwitterMoms and Target, they ‘re asking what’s the most surprising gift I’ve ever received.

If you’re a reader of my other blog, Coming to a Nursery Near You, you probably have already heard this story.  But it is, by far, the most surprising gift ever. E V E R.  In CAPS.  BOLD CAPS even.

To set the scene…

It was February 14th, 2007.  We were living in northern New Hampshire and were in the midst of a full-on blizzard.  I was 99.9 months pregnant with my baby boy, Zachary, and hubby was at work.  I know – you’re thinking “awww, she had her baby – what a surprise”.  but you’d be wrong! HA!  I love it when there are twists in a story, don’t you?

ahem.

Anyway, I received a phone call from the local florist.  They had a delivery for me (shock!) but were unsure of my address.  I gave them directions and waited anxiously for my delivery.  Well – you know – the FLORIST CALLED kind of delivery.

When he arrived, he sported 12 long stem roses, carefully wrapped against the snow, with a beautiful bow, in a beautiful vase, and a card that read something like “Happy Valentine’s Day. Love Jimmy”.  I know – he’s such a romantic, right?

I WAS FLABERGASTED, though!  He’d NEVER sent me flowers – especially not TEN TIMES THE MARKUP VALENTINE’S DAY FLOWERS!

It was such a shock.  A TOTAL, beautiful shock.

That night when hubby finally made it home through this horrendous storm, we had a nice dinner with just the 4 of us.  It was a pretty standard night for us, but of course, Valentine’s nooky thrown in for good measure.

Well, attempted anyway.  I was 6 days from giving birth to our third child. 

I should, at this point, tell you that on that day in February, 2007, we’d been together for nearly 12 years. 

Ok, so back to the noo…. well… ok, let’s skip that part. 

9 months pregnant. Flowers – check. Dinner – check. Intimacy attempted – check. I was ready for SLEEP, when ALL OF A SUDDEN….

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Nooooo never!  The holidays would NEVER stress me out.

yeah, right.  I have some nice swamp land in Florida to sell you too, if you believe that.

The holidays are a super stressful time of year for many people. 

Here is my solution.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Did you know that like adults, 9 out of 10 kids lack enough fiber in their diets. Kellogg Company knows how tough of a time Moms have finding ways to increase their child’s intake, and they came up with a great solution by adding a boost of fiber to some of their most popular kids’ cereals.

They started with 2 kids favorites, and they were 2 of my kids’ favorites, Apple Jacks™ and Froot Loops™, so I agreed to do a review of them for Mom Central.

I set them up a taste test.  I was curious to see if they’d notice a difference between the ‘old’ version and the new.  I know that when a product has added more ‘’fiber’, *I* can tell. 

When they bounded out of bed that morning, the each foun d TWO bowls of cereal waiting for them.  I said nothing.   They just figured they’d hit the cereal lottery,  They gobbled them both down.  They never said a word about anything different about them. 

Rather uneventful in terms of a taste test – but a BIG deal in reality.  They never noticed a thing, so replacing their Froot Loops™ and Apple Jacks™ regular versions with the added fiber version will be easy!

And like most moms I know, I’m ALL about the easy!

Here’s a couple of links that you can check out for more information on Kellogg’s commitment to nutrition, as well as their new fiber cereals.

"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Kellogg’s and received boxes of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks and will receive a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate."