Seventh Generation ~ Lorax

Had anyone tried the Seventh Generation cleaning supplies?? I have been entering in a Lorax Seventh Generation Contest to win some of the Cleaning stuff but Iv never tried them yet. They are giving away Green Laundry Kits, it's a sweeptakes kinda thing that you Enter on their Facebook page. Im not one of those people that do everything in their life "Green", but if I can find what I looking for in a green product and if it don't cost an arm and a leg, then I'll get it. My only problem with Green Products is the price. It's so expensive!!! My family is no where near being rich, we barley make it from month to month! Im not excally sure what people concider poor these days but Im pretty sure that I probley fall into that group. Even though I hate to admit it.... but truthfully it's hard not to be poor and broke. So when Im broke or have just a little bit of money to spend on cleaning supplies, I always end up getting the store brand stuff because Name Brand and Green Products cost to much! So Im hoping that I atleast win a small Laundry Kit in this Sweepstakes!! LOL I would love to try out some new green protucts for free!!!!!

You can enter ONCE A DAY!

All you gotta do it "like" the *Seventh Generation FaceBook Page* (Dr. Seuss' Lorax is all over the page, it's cute) and then Enter your information in the form just One time.

Come back the next day and all you will have to do it click a ENTER NOW button and your done for the day. Come back EVERYDAY and enter to win the folowing Prizes:

*Weekly Prizes~> 1,000 winners will receive
green laundry kits

*First Prize~> 5 winners will receive
high-efficiency washer/dryer sets

*Grand Prize~> One winner will receive a trip for
4 to the Redwoods.

Click Here to Enter the Sweepstakes!

5 Ways to Play With a FlashLight

5 Ways To Play With Flashlights

Mental Map: In the dark, test your kids' memories of where things are. Say "find the fireplace" and have them shine the flashlight on it.

Starry Night: Turn out the lights and shine a flashlight through a colander on the ceiling to make your own solar system.

Stomp The Dot: In dim light, have the kids run around trying to catch the beam you shine on the floor (I think it would be soooo funny to watch my kids run around chasing a light dot across the floor HAHA!!!!)

Puppet Parade: Search for animal silhouettes online, print them onto card stock and cut them out. Tape each animal to a stick, making puppets. Shine the flashlight on the puppet to create a shadow on the wall.

Guess What: Use a flashlight to "draw" a shape on the wall or ceiling. See if your kids can guess what you drew.

Do you have any other flashlight games?

Sleep Problems Can = Health Problems

I would love to hear of everyones sleep problems or concerns or anything else you would like to add or share with me, so please leave your comments :0)

I have always had a problem with sleeping. I will wake up very sleepy and will hit snooze more than once every morning..... Don't everyone hit snooze every now and then? :0) Well all day long I will be in and out of extream sleepiness and then tiny burst of engery every now and then. I can't take naps when my body has had enough because I am a Momma! So I have to deal with it and overcome the tiredness. But once my daughters are in bed and Im finally able to lay down and get those much needed ZzZzZzZz's........ I can't goto sleep!!!!!!!!!!! It don't matter what time I lay down I can never goto sleep before 2am! Iv been like this since I was a child but never really thought to much of it because back then I wanted to be up so I could watch TV and be a kid :0) But now I would like to sleep alittle bit more. I really can't goto sleep as soon as I lay my kids down because thats when I finally get my quite time to blog and do what I gotta do with my Photography Ect. My main problem with my sleeping is that after I finally fall to sleep...... I have problems waking up! I can wake up and get my daughter ready for school and put her on the bus, I do hit snooze a couple times but if I know that I HAVE to get up then I will but my body never has enough engery to stay up so once I lay back down...... Thats when I won't wake back up. My fiance and my youngest daughter try waking me up all the time and they barly ever succed! It's a bit scary because everyone tells me that they have tried waking me up more than once and sometimes I even open my eyes and talk to them but I NEVER remember talking or even seeing them. All I remember is that i was sleeping. There are times that I will end up sleeping a good 7 or 8 hours of sleep but when I finally wake up, I wish that I would of only gotten about 5 hrs of sleep cuz I feel worse the more sleep I get. I truly don't understand my sleeping patterns but I wish I would just get over my weird fear of Doctors and go ask a Pro about my concerns!

I was watching Anderson yesterday and got a good bit of Sleeping Tips. Anderson even has a Sleeping Quiz on his website from Dr. Breus. It's called Dr. Breus' Behavioral Sleep Deprivation Assessment. I took the quiz and this is what it told me:

Score:

You answered yes 7 times: You are moderately sleep deprived.

You need to commit to getting at least an extra hour of sleep every night, and you need to look at the quality of your sleep, too. Things like caffeine and your sleep environment may be contributing to the quality of the sleep that you are getting, even if you are getting the amount of sleep you think you need. Good sleep hygiene, quality sleep products and the right sleep environment could really make a difference for you.

It's pretty helpful! Anderson's site has alot of very helpful information. I figured I would share it with everyone out in the blog world incase someone is struggling with sleep problems like me!! I hope this helps someone out there!!!! :0) I would love to hear of everyones sleep problems or concerns so please leave your comments :0)

5yr old BreakDown!

I wanna know what our kids go thru at school that make them flip out and be in such bad moods when they get off that big yellow bus!! Almost everyday when my daughter gets home from school it don't take her long b4 she is flipping out, screaming, hurting her sister and just being plain mean! It drives me up the wall!! During a normal break down, she cries and screams while she is threathing to hit me or kick a tree. When she gets introuble for threathing me...she flips out again saying that I am mean for sending her to her room! Today she was so clumbsy and tired that she fell 3 times in less that 30 minutes! 2 of those times she slammed her head into concret! She cried a little bit and then ran back outside mad at me like it was my fault that she fell in the 1st place! She's a tough kid but very much a DRAMA QUEEN!In her brain she feels like it's her way or the highway! She had then nerve to look me in the eyes and say that Everything she asks for at school she gets so I have to give her everything she asks me for! I think NOT! She must not ask for much at school "if she gets everything she asks for!" A few minutes ago she was sitting in the drive way in brand new jeans lining some little pink clips all in a row. Atleast she's not gettin in trouble but in NEW JEANS? I give up! I knew having 2 kids less than a year apart was gonna be tough but WOW! These gurls fight more than any kids I know! And thats bad cuz i have 2 little brothers who fight alot lol! But I do have to say that my daughetrs would be lost without eachother and I would be lost without them! Yes, They may fight like hell and hurt eachother on a daily basis but they love eachother sooooo much! I have a She-Ra wannabe and a Drama Queen LOL What a family I have hahahahaha <3

What a mean mad face! haha :0)

My Camera and Me

Iv bounced thru alotta hobbies and intrests thru-out the years. Iv made childrens pillows, pocketbooks and bags outta thrift store clothes, even child craft aprons outta old jeans! Iv done scrapbooking...tried jewerly making (wasn't to good at that) I even tried makin clothing and without a sewing machine I am NO GOOD at that either! LOL! But put a camera in my hand and I will stay busy for hours! There is just something about capturing a moment in time, a smile or the first bloom of Spring. It brings joy to my soul that nothin else can! the smile of laughter on my daughter's face or the colorful sky when the sun rises.... I just can't help but capture! It's like a force pulling me to the shot. I can feel when something needs to be photographed and know when something or someone needs their story told. I can capture that story, that thought and moment. If im not able to take the shot that needs capturing.... it truly upsets me at times and it can take me a few minutes to get over not getting the photo. Without my camera, without being able to capture the joy of life in photos, I would be lost and not as happy as I am now!

My Camera makes me Blossom like the Sun makes a Flower Bloom!!

Writter By

Autumn Banks

The Crazy Camera Girl!!

I bet the people that were at BiLo's about 30 minutes ago think I'm some weird, crazy person!! haha 
Let me explain.... My daughter is a Milk addict and we were about outta milk, so we had to goto the store to buy some more. Well I took my camera with me......like I always do (even tho my bf thinks I'm an idiot for bringing my camera everywhere....even inside the grocery store lol) Anyways!!! In BiLo's parking lot is some beautiful little purplish pinkish flowers growing in their flowerbeds around a tree. Well I wanted pictures of those flowers. So I walk my lil happy butt over there and knell in this flowerbed taking pictures of these tiny little flowers while my 2 daughters and my bf are standing pretty much in the middle of the rd watching me and waiting for me to get done! lol Well I got up and we went into the store. We walked around for a few minutes and once we got to the milk, I decided that I wanted to take a picture of all the jugs!! The look on my bf, Alans, face was sooo funny! It was like WTH?? haha I told him to just leave me alone and be happy that I am doing something that makes me happy and that I love :0) After a very frustrating check out thru the Self Check, due to the cashier at the main computer not paying attention to her screen, we made it outside to the car. After we got the food in the car I decided that I wanted more pictures of those tiny flowers. Not to mention that this time there were a couple of men standing right infront of the story talking and I could hear them saying "What is she doin!" HAHA! Those tiny flowers were not the end of my photo taking in BiLo's......... Before we left the parking lot I had Alan pull down to the bottm corner, where this beautiful flowering tree stood out against the bare branches of other trees. At that tree, I chased a bee thru the blooms! lol I wanted so bad to get a shot of that bee. Im not too sure if I got the shot or not cuz I havn't checked my photos but I sure hope I did. If i got it You can be sure that it will be posted in my Photography Blog!

Here's the Milk Shot haha!

Old School TV Shows and My Daughter

Alright, for some reason, my house has been fun of old school cartoons the past few days! My youngest daughetr is 4 yrs old and she's normally all about Strawberry ShortCake, Barbie, SkyDancers and Princess Movies but ever since we got Netflix her taste has simi changed a bit!

This morning we started it out with Strawberry ShortCake but now we have made it to Super Mario Bros Super Show!! hahahaha Almost all of last week we was on a He-Man and She-Ra kick! The funny thing is that Im 24 so Iv never watched Mario, She-Ra or He-Man until Ciara found them on the Wii! My fiance use to watch He-Man when he was a kid and I think my aunt use to watch She-Ra but now I watch it all!

Yesterday I was watching my daughters playing outside and I heard Ciara say "By the Power of GraySkull, I have the Power!!" After she ran around a few minutes as He-man, Ciara decided to stop and hold her stick sword in both hands and say "I am She-Ra" I love it! My daughters are the cutest but This Mario Bros show is soooo Cheezy that I can't help but laugh. I use to play the game ALL the time!! That's why Ciara put it on tv, She said....."Mommy, look it's your favorite game! It's a show!! Seee??" It was soo cute! Now she's standing at the front door holding on to the door knob (not sure why she's at the door lol) Not missing a beat of Mario and Luigi!

HAHAHA Garlic Ice Cream????

Mario really truly just said he wanted some Garlic Ice Cream!

On the real people part of The mario Bros had to be the funnies part that Iv seen is when Mario jumps outta the Steam Machine and is so tiny!

Well I thought we were still on Mario but now Zelda is on and now it's back to Mario!! WOW!!

It's like OLD SCHOOL has taken over my house, my Wii, and my Netflix!

LETS DO THE MARIO!!!!

Swing your arms from side to side, take a step!! haha

JUST LIKE THAT!!!

hahahahahaha

Just Blowing Off Some Steam!

Okay!!! So I am a 24 yr old woman who has 2 kids and lives on my own with my bf. I have been out of my parents house for 6 years! So when someone tries to tell me how to spend my money and how to take care of my kids....... I get mad. Y wouldn't I get mad? I mean these people act like Im a bad parent. My daughters have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, clean clothes on their back, a bed to sleep on and LOTS of toys to play with!!!! Im getting yelled at because my daughters bed didn't have a frame on it until about a week ago. It's was just the matress. But even with my daughters having a bed..... my oldest sleeps in the floor. I can't make her stay in her bed. She starts out in her bed when she lays down. And sometime between the time she closes her eyes to the time she truly gets sound asleep, she ends up laying in the floor cuddled up to a blanket or stuffed toy. I mean COME ON!!!!! My gurls are happy and healthy and very smart! So leave me alone and let me live my own life :0)