Military Spouses MyCAA Career Advancement Account

Are you taking advantage of the Department of Defenses' Military Spouse Career Advancement Account (MyCAA)?  If not, you should as it's $6,000 that can be paid towards a degree to include advanced degrees, educational training, counseling and license fees.  This is a program for spouses of active duty personnel and activated Reserve Components that started last May of 2009.

Call 1-800-342-9647 or click here for more information:  https://aiportal.acc.af.mil/mycaa/mosLogin.aspx.  There is a two week backlog per the site.

Disappointed Zhu Zhu Pet: Wheels Don't Turn

I wonder if others are having issues with their Zhu Zhu Pets?  I ended up buying three and gave one away as a giveaway in the spirit of Christmas and ended up keeping the one that ended up being broken much to the dismay of my six year old.  The wheels won't turn but the other one works. I haven't heard from my winner if their Zhu Zhu works.

I just wrote the toy company to see if there is anything they could do.

Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving: Take the Pledge

Take the pledge to not get behind the wheel even if you or someone you know is only buzzed as buzzed driving is drunk driving.  Impaired driving is no accident. It's a serious and deadly crime that kills every 30 minutes.  This holiday season, especially tomorrow night, New Year's Eve, is a particular time to ensure no one is injured or killed over drinking and driving.

Watch Emily's story on how Buzzed Driving affected her life:



The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), the Ad Council and Global Influence wants everyone to drive smart all the time and especially tomorrow night.  Take the pledge, follow on Twitter (@buzzeddriving) and become a Facebook fan. 

In 2008, nearly 12,000 people in the U.S. were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes - and during the periods around Christmas and New Year's, this number was particularly high, with 316 people killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. In 2007, 162,493 women were arrested for a DUI, an increase of almost 29% since 1998. 

I have not lost anyone fortunately to drunken driving and pray I never do.  It's such a tragic and senseless act to commit. 

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated for this post.  I am a member of the Global Influence who partnered with NHSTA and the Ad Council to spread awareness.

Merry Christmas!

I bought a Santa suit and had my daughter's boyfriend dress up to "catch" some surprise pictures for the younger one's of Santa placing the presents.  I woke up the six year old to quietly join in on the surprise but she was too tired to be coherent and didn't remember a thing this morning.  Luckily I had pictures to show her which she was tickled over.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

12 Pearls of Christmas: Celebrate

What Really Matters
by Dawn Meehan

In the hustle and bustle and commercialism of Christmas, take time to remember the real reason why we celebrate - the birth of Christ, our Lord and Saviour. May you all have a blessed Christmas!

I had a VERY long day with the kids doing little but fighting. By the time we left for church, we were all short tempered, snapping at each other, and not at all in the Christmas spirit. Thankfully, once at church, we calmed down. Things were put in perspective for us. We sang Christmas songs and began to smile at one another again. The kids didn't fight once while we were there. Well, they did use their battery operated candles as light sabers for a minute, but we'll forget about that part.

I never sent out cards (sorry to all my family and friends). It just didn't happen this year. I don't think I ever completely finished my shopping, but it's a little late now. Several items I ordered online have been back ordered. I just realized that the kids have eaten all the cookies I've made and there are none to put out for Santa now. I encouraged them to leave him a glass of wine instead. And I failed to read the Christmas story to the kids before they went to bed.

But you know what? None of that matters. It really doesn't. Christmas is here! Christ is born! And He doesn't care if we sent out Christmas cards. He doesn't care if we ate all the cookies we baked. He doesn't even care if we never got around to baking a single cookie at all! He loves us no matter how much we screw up.

Now that's worth celebrating!

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Dawn Meehan (aka mom2my6pack) grew up in Chicagoland where she began her writing career at the age of 5 with her widely praised, The Lucky Leprechaun, an epic tale of a leprechaun who is- yes, you guessed it, lucky.

Dawn has six children, basically because she didn't want seven. She is the author of Because I Said So and spends her days blogging at BecauseISaidSo.com, changing diapers, cleaning pudding off her ceiling, tackling insurmountable piles of laundry, and explaining to her kids why they can't have a pet squirrel or an indoor slip-n-slide.

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year's Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is leave a comment here. Come back on New Year's Day to see if you won!

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/

The Coupon Mom Show!

In tough economic times, Coupon Mom comes to the rescue and helps stretch your dollars to the max!

Stephanie Nelson, better known as Coupon Mom™, has appeared on numerous television shows (The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and others) to share her remarkable tips and tricks for getting the biggest bang for your buck without sacrificing on quality! Now you too can learn the tips and tricks of strategic shopping and see how to save big money with the Coupon Mom Show!

With one new episode posted weekly until late April, you’ll know everything about saving from shopping at grocery stores and drug stores to eating at restaurants inexpensively and even entertaining on a budget. There are even a lot of fun hands-on challenges and an intensive savings boot camp! Perfect for any real family learning to save money! If you're hoping to save 25% or 50% or even up to 75% this show can help!

About the Coupon Mom Show

The Coupon Mom Show teaches viewers how to save money by watching Stephanie Nelson work with real families to solve their savings challenges in a fun and entertaining way. In each episode, Coupon Mom addresses different financial challenges, from families that want to slash their grocery bills to those hoping to save on holiday meals, birthday parties or even school supplies and provides saving solutions for them. New episodes of the Coupon Mom Show will be airing every Thursday on YouTube and on the Coupon Mom Show website.

Have a question for Coupon Mom? Viewers can submit questions and challenges to the Coupon Mom Show forum.

About Coupon Mom

Stephanie Nelson has built a loyal following and has become a trusted source. She has been featured as an expert on Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, The Early Show, Good Morning America, and profiled on MSN, AOL, Yahoo, and many other sites. Her site, http://www.couponmom.com/, attracts more than 1 million unique visitors per month, and she distributes her money saving newsletter to more than 1.5 million subscribers.

12 Pearls of Christmas: Slow Down, Pray & Give Thanks

All Decked Out For Christmas
by Maureen Lang

One of the reasons so many of us love the holiday season is that it's just so...pretty! Twinkling lights, shiny ornaments, packages that glisten with bows and fancy wrapping. Our houses are trimmed with wreaths and glowing trees, and the neighborhood lights up the night with strands of icicles and glimmering reindeer.

Even we get decked out for the holidays! Chances are most of us will attend at least one party this season, and if we don't usually don clothing or jewelry with a bit of sparkle, now's the time to take a chance with something that reflects the holiday.

Smiles are another reason this season is such a popular one. They accompany that familiar greeting-Merry Christmas! Smiles go with the gifts we give and with the gifts we receive. Smiles go with the old Christmas carols and classic movies we watch every year.

The holiday season is a time when everything can seem amplified. But what if we're all decked out on the outside, from the sparkling clothing to our best effort at a smile, and on the inside we're anything but happy? If life isn't what we expected it to be, the gap between reality and our happy, hopeful expectations seem wider when everyone around us is laughing through the season.

I know there are as many reasons to be unhappy as there are to be happy, and I wouldn't begin to have the answer to make this season bearable for everyone. But I do know a few things that have worked for me:

Slow down. What? During the busiest time of the year? Yep. I know when I feel completely overwhelmed it's because I'm pressuring myself to do too much. So I try to plan ahead, settle for less than perfection, do my best without driving myself and everyone around me crazy. Choose what's really important and let go of the other things. And I've adopted my aunt's favorite saying: "However it turns out, that's how we like it." Works wonders on attitude!

Pray. As my pastor reminded me this weekend from Psalm 34:18: the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. God may not deliver us from our troubles, but He promises to stay beside us-in fact, closer than when everything seems hunky-dory.

Find a moment to give thanks for what you do have (without looking around at those who have more).

This last point deserves a moment of reflection, and is something I'm still learning to do. I have a child severely handicapped by Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic form of mental retardation. For years I thought I'd accepted his condition. I obediently said to God, "thank you even for this," since it taught me many things about adjusting to the life I've been given rather than the one I might have chosen.

But as my son gets older, I see new forms of acceptance making that feeling of gratitude more genuine. I think I'm finally letting go of some of the hopes and dreams I had for him, my oldest son. I can no longer imagine him any other way than the way he is, even though I'd be first in line if a cure is ever found.

I still think it's a good thing to give thanks in all things, even if it begins out of obedience rather than tender gratitude for whatever thorn we live with. But realizing it's okay to grow into that gratitude was a blessing to me.

Maybe some of the bruises on our spirit seem tender during the holiday season, a reminder that all the glitter on the outside might not light us up on the inside. My prayer is trust Psalm 34:18. Let's lean on Him this season-He's right here beside us!

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Maureen Lang grew up loving to tell stories, and God has blessed her immeasurably to be able to tell them to a wider audience these days. For the latest goings-on, please check her blog!

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year's Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is leave a comment here. Come back on New Year's Day to see if you won!

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/

12 Pearls of Christmas: Wondrous Mystery

Magnificat
by Anna Joujan

Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord. The familiar catch of breath. The sting in the eyes. And the tears begin to flow with the falling rain. Or do the tears fall with the flowing rain. What is it in these words that I whisper that wrenches at my heart so? Why does Mary's prayer touch the core of my being, so many centuries after it was spoken?

I think it must be because I know that she was just a girl, just a human being, with a woman's heart like my own. And so, when I hear her wondering words, I can feel with her the emotion she must have felt. To bear the son of God-what wondrous mystery, what glorious honour! And she was, like me, just a young woman-much younger, in fact, than I am now. And so, no matter how often I hear the story and read her words, it still has the power to bring abrupt and unsought tears.

What a gracious God, to work wonders with such frail and faulty creatures as us!

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Anna G. Joujan was born in South Dakota, as a Canadian citizen, and was raised in Zambia, the child of missionary teachers. Since her family's move to the U.S., Anna spent her childhood and early adulthood traveling throughout the world thanks to various educational and work opportunities . . . France, China, Peru, and Jamaica being some of the stops in her journeys. Her undergraduate degree in French Literature led to a Masters in Information Sciences, and to work as a college and high school librarian, and a cross country coach. She has also returned to Zambia multiple times to teach for individual families and for local schools. All the while continuing pursuing her passions of writing, artwork, photography . . . and running to a fault. She blogs at Full of Grace.

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year's Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is leave a comment here. Come back on New Year's Day to see if you won!

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/

Zazzle Customized Products: Valentine's Day Idea & Giveaway

This Valentine's Day why not give the gift you made?  Create something special and personalized with Zazzle.  Whether it's a shirt, a mug, a card and a matching stamp or wine labels, you can find a bounty of products that show your love.

Personalize a cup and fill it with his/her favorite candy or coffee packets:

Customize Love Valentine's Day Cup by jbranam
Browse more Valentine's Mugs

Customized Happy Valentine's Day Mug by jbranam
Get a ceramic mug on zazzle

Create your own personalized wine labels and save a lot of money.  Buy a bottle of wine, soak the front and peel the label off.  Replace with your own customized label.  Add a loving quote or a memory and you have a nice personalized present.  Add a delicious Chocomize Chocolate Bar to compliment the wine or champaign.

Valentine's Day Customized Wine Label by jbranam
Browse more Valentines Stickers

The possibilities are endless what you can create with Zazzle but your loved one will know you love them.

The Giveaway:

$25 Gift Certificate!

To Enter:

Go to the Chocomize main entry and enter .. it's easy!

My Zazzle Wine Bottle Labels

I finally was able to place my labels on my wine bottles for Christmas.  After soaking the bottles, front only, I peeled off the label and placed the Zazzle labels to the front of the bottles.  This way, the back of the wine still contains all the information.  You can also customize the label to show the type and year of wine if you choose.

Here are a sample of other choices:

Copper and Gold Personalized Christmas Wine Labels by jbranam
See other Christmas Stickers

Christmas Present Customized Wine Label by jbranam
View more Christmas Stickers

Gold Christmas Tree on Red Background Wine Label by jbranam
Browse more Christmas Stickers

Kmart Bluelight Teasers for December 23-24 & Sweepstakes Information

Here are the Bluelight Special teasers for this weekend 12/26 - 12/27:

• Gen gemstone earrings (reg.$ 39.99) sale $9.99 
• Mushabellies (reg. $24.99) sale $7.99 
• Digital Photo Keychain (reg. $19.99) sale $8.99 ( 65% off)

Sweepstakes Information:

Don’t forget: The last day to enter the #KmartBLS sweepstakes is December 23rd - So keep the tweets coming and use the #KmartBLS hashtag before the contest is over!

Extra great ways to win:

• All those following @KmartDealsnNews on December 23rd will be entered to win the Grand Prize of a $500 Kmart shopping spree! The winner will be drawn on the 30th. For full details, make sure to check out http://tr.im/kmartbls Good luck!
• Kmart has extended their shopping hours to 6am-12am through December 23rd and 6am-10pm December 24th so if you still have shopping to do or in many cases, if YOUR husband still does, tell them to go to Kmart! Use the following link to tweet about the new shopping hours and enter yourself for the daily drawing! Shop @KmartDealsnNews extended Holiday hours: 6am-12am until 12/23 and 6am-10pm on 12/24! #KmartBLS.

12 Pearls of Christmas: Perspective

A Soggy, Jolly, Holly Christmas
by Melody Carlson

One of my most memorable Christmases started out as a natural disaster. But isn't that a bit how a pearl is formed? An oyster's soft easy life is disrupted by the invasion of sand, but something good comes out of it. When I was eight, we experienced the worst flood in recorded Oregon history. It was only a few days before Christmas when our streets became shallow rivers and the governor proclaimed a state of emergency. My sister and I assumed the flood was simply our new water-world playground and didn't understand the seriousness of washed out bridges and downed power lines and submerged homes. But when we realized this flood was about to nix our usual three-hour trek to our grandparents' home near the coast, we were not happy.

Naturally, our mom, a single parent, protested the sensibility of holiday travel (most of Oregon's rivers were involved in the flood). But Christmas at Grandma's house was our favorite event of the year. And thanks to our persistence, Mom finally gave in. We piled into the car and headed out. Flood waters climbed higher the closer we got to the coast. And at one point the road behind us was closed and the one ahead was flooded and about to be closed as well. The state policeman told us we could cross "at our own risk." We followed a Volkswagen Bug into the water-then we actually watched the bug floating away! Of course, there was nothing to do besides plow on through the water, which appeared to be nearly two feet deep! Fortunately we had an old heavy Chevy that did not float away, but the water seeped in and pooled on the floors.

Fortunately, we made it safely to the grandparents. But once we arrived, we learned there would be no Christmas tree because the road to the woods was closed. Then my grandpa picked up his ax and led us outside where he chopped down his prize holly tree planted in the parking strip. I stared in horror, thinking Grandma was going to have a fit. But then he explained the city had told him to remove the tree for traffic visibility. So we had a twelve foot holly tree for Christmas. It was a little prickly decorating it, but with its shiny green leaves and red berries, it was the most beautiful tree ever! So what started out as a disaster turned out to be a soggy, holly, jolly Christmas after all.

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Melody Carlson, author of Limelight, Love Finds You in Sisters, The Christmas Dog, 86 Bloomberg Place, Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Carter House Girls, and much more... http://www.melodycarlson.com/

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year's Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is leave a comment here. Come back on New Year's Day to see if you won!

ZhuZhu Pet Giveaway Winner Announced

Congratulations to Barb!

An e-mail has been sent to Barb and she has until tomorrow at noon to respond.  If she does not respond, a new winner will be generated via Random.org.

This took a little longer to determine the winner as the entries from the post had to be moved into the correct date and time slot of the other entries to ensure fairness.  Each entry was verified per the entry requirements.

Thanks to all those that entered and Merry Christmas!

Free Downloadable Children's Songs

Free downloadable children's songs that are educational are available HERE.  Here is a sample available:

Abby & The Pipsqueaks

• 8 Days
• Don't Play With Fire
• The Pancake Song

Adam & The Couch Potatoes

• Never Gonna Be Bored!

Danny Adlerman & Friends

• Humpty Dumpty
• Elliott

Gap 20% Special and $20/$10 Gift Card

Right now you can save 20% at the Gap up until January 20, 2010 and if you purchase a pair of mens or womens jeans before December 24th, you get a free $20 in-store gift card or get a $10 gift card when you purchase a pair of Gap Kids or Baby Gap jeans. 

Go here to find out more:  http://www.gap.com/browse/info.do?cid=48380