BIG BAG OF LUCK GIVEAWAY

Here is the information about the great giveaway that the "Carried Away Bag Makers Team" is sponsoring. The contest begins tomorrow, March 13th and runs until March 23rd, which by the way is already a special day as it is my sister-in-laws and my nieces birthday. :o) Enjoy the fun and good luck to each of you. :o)

Join us for Carried Away: The Big Bag of Luck Giveaway
March 13-23rd, 2009

The giveaway is pretty simple, just hunt through all of our SHAMROCK SHOPS to find the hidden clover or the words "bag of luck" in the item description and you could win the grand prize, valued at over $100(US!). There are many smaller prizes as well.

MAKING A PURCHASE ABSOLUTELY INCREASES YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING!
If you've been thinking about snapping up a handbag or other great handmade delight from our team mates, the giveaway week is the perfect time! Browse through our team member shops (a full list is at the bottom of the blog) and mark your favorites. Come back during the giveaway and make a purchase of just $10 for ANY team shop to earn five entries for FIRST PLACE (value+/- $60 (US!). Purchase just $25 from any SHAMROCK SHOP and get 5 extra entries towards the GRAND PRIZE !

This promotion is available to worldwide and many of the prizes include free shipping.

Two More Days

Only two days until the start of the CABTeam St. Patrick's Day give-a-way begins. I will be posting the details tomorrow, so be sure to check in. The actual contest starts on the 13th. There are lots of prizes and I would love for one of my readers to win one of them.

Wow, I just noticed that the sun is actually shining. How nice is that? The clouds and rain and mud do get tiresome after awhile. Seems a bit windy though. I am so ready for Spring!!

Brad has had a bit of a setback. It seems that he has actually had homework in two subjects that he denied having homework in. A little chat with his teacher yesterday brought this to light. It seems that he also had a whole packet of back work to get done. The teacher asked him where it was and he told her he threw it away. He then quickly told her no, he didn't throw it away, he told her it was home in his bedroom. That was another big lie. He told me it is in his locker. Needless to say, he was grounded from t.v., computer and Gameboy yesterday. Today he gets to tell the teacher the truth and get all of his makeup work and bring it home. He is not a happy camper, but then again, neither am I. I just hope he can get through this without losing focus. I don't want this to be the start of a lot of problems in school. I am not sure where he got the idea that he could pick and chose which homework assignments he wants to do. He needs to get it together, he knows we have a parent-teacher conference scheduled for Friday.

I think maybe Karli is ADHD. LOL She was so hyper last night, she just ran, and jumped, and got into anything she could. We were exhausted by the time she finally fell asleep. She is getting a bath today. It is her first one, and I am using a dishpan. Hopefully she will like it and I won't get too wet. :o)

My Early Morning

Well, since Steve and I take turns getting up at 6:15 am on school morning to get Bradly off to school, and since it was Steve's turn yesterday, that left me to get up nice and early this morning. As much as I do not enjoy rising at such an hour, I do in fact, enjoy the solitude that getting up at this hour offers. That is, after the bus arrives and Brad leaves. Mornings have always been difficult for Brad, at least until his ADHD medication kicks in. I have to say however, that our incentive program consisting of earning Game Boy and computer time on the days he has successful mornings, is finally starting to pay off. He now has more good mornings that bad ones. He has come a long way and we are proud of him. We are not having very many honesty issues, which used to be a major problem. All in all, things are going well with him and I sure hope it lasts.

I have good news!! Our meeting at school yesterday for Nicholas was successful. He should have a one-on-one aide working with him within two weeks. This should better enable him to stay on task and get his school work done, and hopefully keep his behavior in check. He is in an 8-1-1 classroom with only 6 kids at the moment, but since his class size went from 4 to 6, there just isn't enough manpower to give him the time he needs, so we are very excited about this addition to his I.E.P.

Today I am drinking orange spice green tea. I ordered a 75 pack sampler pack from "Teaman" on Etsy. This pack consists of 15 different flavors, 5 of each flavor. I am enjoying such a nice selection. I even have Earl Gray now for when our daughter and son-in-law visit from Canada.

Last night I listed a wallet in my Etsy shop. I think it turned out quite nice and I am going to work on coming up with a different form of closure for the wallets today. I would like to incorporate a strap closure with velcro rather than just having the velcro on the inside of the wallet to close it. I really enjoy either making new patterns or revamping existing ones. In my opinion that is way more fun than just using a boughten pattern. :o)

Gloomy Monday

Ugh....is the rain ever going to stop?? We had thunder and lightening last night which seemed so strange. My wish for the mud to be dried up by Friday is never going to be if this keeps up..LOL

Well, an hour from now we will be at our son's CSE meeting where we will be trying to get the school district to give him a one-on-one aide. We are determined to come away from this meeting with an aide. He needs one for both behavioral and academic reasons, and this decision is paramount to his success in school.

Karli, our new puppy is making definite gains with the potty training. She also seems to be accepting "no" when told to stop a certain behavior. This is not 100% of the time, but as long as we are seeing some improvement I will be happy. I did however discover a small spot on our carpeting where she has chewed a small hole. I told my hubby, maybe I will be getting a hardwood floor sooner than we expected. LOL

Bradly has joined the newspaper club at school. He loves 5th grade and being in the middle school. There are so many extra activities for the kids to participate in. Of course, now I have to remind him that he needs to get his article written for the next edition. He is also bowling one day a week after school, and this last Thurs. he was so pleased because he scored over 100.

Steven, our oldest son, went fishing in the Gulf over the weekend. He sent us some photos via his cell phone. He sent two pics of two different jellyfish which evidently had stung him on his foot, which proceeded to swell up. He also sent a pic of him holding a small Hammerhead Shark that he had caught. Steve is such an avid fisherman, that the opportunity of living only 30 or 40 min. from the Gulf of Mexico is a wonderful opportunity for him.

Megan, our oldest daughter has been working at Pet Smart while waiting to do the nursing testing so she can work in Canada. She got bit by a German Shepard on Sat. and has quite a bruised up arm. She was just thankful that the dog didn't break the skin. :o)

Rainy Sunday

It rained off and on all night. I was thinking how muddy and gloomy it looked outside, but then I realized the bright spot. The snow is almost gone...maybe Spring really is coming. :o) I do hate mud, especially when tracked in by the kids and the dog. Maybe we will have some warm sunny weather soon and it will dry up.

I must apologize for misspelling Karli's name throughout my blog yesterday. I have no idea why I did that because I do know how we spell her name. Megan pointed my goof out to me last night, and I was really surprised to see I had done that.

Well, I got my animated graphic ad purchased from "Lilybeandesigns" on etsy. She did a wonderful job. I have spent many hours familiarizing myself with "Project Wonderful", and I actually have a few ads running on there. I am amazed at how many sites there are out there who sell advertising. There are spots that end up being free also, which is nice.

Yesterday went very well with the kids and the animals. It was quite a nice relaxing family day. I am hoping for the same today. The kids have this coming Friday off from school which gives us a three day weekend next week. Wouldn't it be nice if the weather allowed for the kids to play outside? :o)

Great to be a part of this great bag making team

Decisions

I have decided to hire an Etsy graphics designer to make me an ad to post on Project Wonderful. This site offers so many places to advertise that it is mind boggling. I keep researching and hoping I will have it all figured out by the time my ad is finished. It is actually exciting to be embarking on a new adventure and learning some new ways to advertise my shop.

Speaking of my shop, I worked yesterday on a new bag that I intended to list in my shop, but lo and behold, I liked it so much, I decided that I needed a new bag for myself. LOL I mean, after all, Spring is almost here and I wouldn't want to carry the same bag I carried all winter. And, as I continued to rationalize this decision, I was thinking that when I carry one of my bags, I am a walking advertisment, so it only makes sense that I should change bags every so often..Right..LOL

Puppy potty training is going well...thank goodness. Carli does have to get up and potty once in the early morning, but she goes right back in her crate and goes back to sleep. The problem is that taking her potty usually wakes up Nick and he thinks we should get up. :o( Carli is a riot to watch especially when she plays with our cat, Stopho. They have such a great time tumbling around. Every so often, Carli chomps Chloes tail. Now, Chloe is almost 11 in people years, so she really doesn't appreciate this attempt to get her to play. I speak from experience when I say that Carli does have some VERY sharp little teeth. Anyway, Chloe will all of a sudden decide to play with the puppy and when she does that she seems so young again. I think the puppy is good for her. She is more active with Carli here, which should help her lose some of those extra pounds she is carrying around. I know how that feels too..LOL Oh, and I will leave you with this funny idea that 7 year old Nicholas came up with yesterday. Friday is show and tell day in his classroom. He had it all planned that he could take Carli to school for show and tell in his bookbag. When we talked about it, he agreed that it wouldn't be much fun for Carli. I did talk to his teacher though, and we can bring her in for a little while whenever we want. :o)