Long day

What a day! It's is finally over and out.
The day started out as a day off. Then about 11am I get a text message from my friend, asking if I was going to the department meeting? That was news to me!? I didn't know about the 2 o'clock meeting, so I quickly call up daycare to see if there is room to drop Kara off for a few hours and head out to work for the meeting. The meeting ended a little after 3:30pm and I headed home shortly after that. Picked up Kara from daycare. It was good to see her playing with the other kids there. I don't have her in daycare all too much, mostly just when times like today happen and I can't take her with me somewhere. Also she gets some daycare interaction at my gym, when I take her with me she is able to play with other kids there also.

After picking her up, we went together to a mall for some Christmas shopping. I was at Victoria's Secret and tried a perfume on; I had Kara smell my hand and she licked it! I didn't expect that, it was so cute. I was buying for some of my girlfriends their Xmas gifts, to take with me when I see them in California. Even though we will be visiting the week after Christmas, I still think I should get them a gift. I got a really good deal on a box set of VS perfumes and lotions, so I can divide the set up to make individual gifts.

Kara and I were still out at the mall and it is now 8pm! I totally lost track of time and we were having fun together. Plus I still had to go food shopping before heading home. At this point it is already passed Kara's bedtime and one stop to grocery store isn't going to make it any worse. We get home about 9:30pm and I put Kara directly to bed, with her milk a read her book. Then I took the time to put away the groceries. By this time it is 10:30pm, almost 11 and I just now am sitting on the sofa relaxing with a glass of Eggnog, typing away. I need to get to bed myself, and end this long day on a good note.

Blog more later, for now it is sleepy time, and off to a deep sleep, dreaming about our California trip coming up. 

BAD COSTCO!

Black Friday is all about having a really good deal! Right? Well not with Costco. Careful with sales, it seems like a good deal but it is not necessarily. Currently (Nov.21,2010) there is a Costco Coupon for $30 off a Kodak camera...THEN starting Friday the day after Thanksgiving (black Friday) is a holiday coupon for the very same camera at $20 off!? What the heck!? so sneaky. I bet customers are going to buy more of the Kodak Cameras on Friday just because of the Black Friday fever, and having to buy something...than those buying the camera now.

Funny part to this all, is that the coupon for $30 off is valid thru the 28th! HA! so if you are going to shop at Costco on BLACK FRI use the $30 coupon and not the $20 one. So ridiculous. Becareful shopping the B.F. Sales, not all that it's cracked up to be.


I will be at home avoiding the crazy shoppers and decorating my Christmas Tree.

Kara, Our Little Lady Bug!

Happy Halloween! Kara celebrated her second Halloween this year. This time around she was more aware of everything going on, and getting into it. She is 17 months old, and walking around carrying her candy bag, wearing her costume, and knows that these little wrapped items are CANDY! She had a tootsie roll in her hand carrying it all around the house, then discovered it was something to eat and was biting into it WITH the wrapper still on it. This was a little messy trying to get the remaining wrapper off for her to eat the rest of the piece of candy properly...as she was chewing a mouth full of tootsie roll, she said, "mmmm"... I got a kick out of it.

There is about half of her candy stash that she cannot eat, due to being a chocking hazard, or too chewy, or too hard. Leaving about half of her loot for us to nibble on here and there. It is a big bowl of candy just sitting on the counter in the kitchen, and it is hard not to just grab a bite sized chocolate or two...Eating these daily is not so good for the waist line.

I go all year not eating much candy, and then this past week is candy every day!? Talk about a sugar overload! I must get rid of this bowl or at least hold myself back from snacking on it daily! Kara doesn't eat it every day. I throw bits of candy into Andrew's lunches for his work. Anyone want some 3 Musketeers? or a Chocolate bar? Please? Help me eat some!?

Kara dressed up as a ladybug. I made her costume out of some felt from the fabric store and a cute set of red wings for her to wear. I also drew on her face with my lip liner, some antennas and a little bug nose. She looked adorable. When we went to trick or treat Andrew brought the dog along to walk with us. We started out having Kara walk but could barely get to the house next door fast enough, and I ran into the garage and grabbed her wagon. She liked being pulled in the wagon around the neighborhood collecting candy and seeing all the other kids in costume. Towards the end thow she wasn't wanting to get out of the wagon anymore to walk up to the doors. Andrew took her up to a few doors and most houses had people in their driveways sitting around fire pits with their candy to pass out. We had a blast and walked pretty far, farther than I had thought we would.

Mind Your Manners!

I was playing with my daughter, Kara, earlier today and all of the sudden she had a perplexed look upon her face, I asked her what was wrong? and of course she is only 1 1/2 years old, so she can't really answer back in complete sentences. Then she goes to touch her throat, I knew she didn't have anything in her mouth, and was not choking on something. As the concerned mommy, I kneel down to her level with my face in front of hers...and then Kara let out a big burp! Gross! but cute at the same time. It was so funny, I never saw Kara burp before, I don't think she has? Well of course the baby kind of burps, where I use to put her over my shoulder and burp her as a baby, but this particular burp was a BELCH! nothing like a baby burp. I taken by surprise. After she burped, she seemed relieved and stopped touching her throat, and seemed fine. She just had a burp building up and didn't know what it was. We both didn't know what was going on. It was a funny moment, but alarming at the same time.

I am a first time mom, and learning everyday new tidbits to raising a child. Burps and all. 

Poem Dedicated to my Daddy Kenny

My Daddy Kenny taught me to write poems and use to write poems for me. I wrote this poem while sitting in a cafe. Miss you Daddy Kenny.

People watching as time slips by
I take a bite of my Quiche style pie
sip on a pumpkin turned into a latte
sit in a corner chair all comfy and cozy
as I watch the people enter the cafe
some come and go in a hurry and scurry
while a few sit and linger
unconsciously tapping a finger
I take another bite
savor the flavor
as the egg, cheese and artichoke
dance around my taste buds, this is no joke

A man across the way
looks like he'll be here all day
his feet propped up on the chair
laptop open as he vigorously types away
his hair tucked under a hat
and on his left arm a tat.

Three tables over, a lady sits
one hand holds a cell, in conversation
the other a sandwich, in devour

It's 37 past the hour
she pauses with the sandwich
a smile appears from ear to ear
whom ever she is talking with
she agrees with joy...
maybe it's a boy?
a secret crush
I wont tell, and keep it hush.

Farmville Game Tips

I came across this article written all about the Game Farmville. Sharing with you the bits I found most important or helpful out of the entire article.

_________

...If you think you're not going to be able to check on your farm for a while, you may want to consider

planting crops like artichokes. These will take 4 days to mature, but you'll have an additional 4 days to

harvest them. This is a good way to keep your farm active if you're going to be away for a while. It's

also a good thing to keep in mind so that you know what kind of window you have to get back to your

farm before you first crop will start to wither.

Building Up

Once you start to get a handle on your planting and harvesting cycles, you can begin exploring all of

the other options FarmVille has to offer. As you advance in levels and build up your coin stash, you'll

be able to buy more and more items for decorating and enhancing the value of your farm. Some of

these are worthwhile investments, although many are just fun to play with.

That's what makes this game so great, really. It allows you to play at your own pace and turn your

farm into exactly what you want it to be. You can add structures, fences, animals, trees, vehicles, and

many other types of decorations to your farm to give it your own personal touch. That way, when

you're friends come to visit, they'll be able to see what a magnificent farmer you are.

SURVEYS

Paying cash for FarmVille dollars isn't the only way to get them though. At the bottom of the Add

Farm Coins and Cash page, you'll see multiple options for surveys and other offers that pay out

FarmVille cash. Some of them cost a small amount of money, but many of them are free. This is really

the best option for getting extra FarmVille cash. It's easy and you don't have to invest any real money

to keep playing the game.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the surveys of course, but these are relatively easy to deal with.

Any survey you fill out will cause you to start getting a bunch of promotional emails. This is certainly a

nuisance, but you can minimize it by simply setting up a new email account and using that one for all

your surveys. That way you can keep the unwanted emails from cluttering up the inbox you actually

use.

There can also be a delay in the FarmVille cash being posted to your account. Sometimes you'll get it

right away, but usually it'll take at least a day to show up. There's not much you can do about this, but

if you plan ahead it really shouldn't be a problem. Just start filling out those surveys early and you'll

have plenty of cash when you're ready to spend it.

There are other, more practical reasons to want to have a lot of neighbors as well. When you're short

on cash, it's great to have the option to go and help out on your neighbors' farms to earn some money

fast. You can help out each of your neighbors once a day. For the first 20 neighbors you help in a day,

you'll earn 20 coins and 5 experience points each. Once you get up over 20, you'll only be earning 5

coins and 1 experience point each, but that can still add up to a lot of cash if you make a habit out of

it.

Expanding before you're ready can make it hard to maintain a positive cash flow. You want to make

sure you'll have at least 10,000 coins in the bank after you purchase your land expansion in order to

be sure you're up to the task of managing a larger farm.

Once you decide you're ready to expand though, you'll need to be able to pay for the extra land.

There are actually two ways you can do this, but neither of them is particularly cheap. If you have

enough neighbors, you can pay in coins. If you don't have as many neighbors as is required for the

plot of land you want to buy, you'll have to pay in FarmVille cash.

For example, the 14 X 14 Homestead can be bought for 10,000 coins as long as you have at least 8

neighbors to help you with construction. If you don't have that many neighbors, you can also buy the

Homestead for $20 in FarmVille cash. Since the coins are so much easier to come by than the cash,

you'll be wise to try and recruit those few extra neighbors so you can pay in coins.

You may think that $20 FarmVille cash isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. You'll need $20

more each time you want to expand though. So if you want to expand fast, you either have to have a

lot of FarmVille dollars on hand or you'll have to seek out some new neighbors. Even the largest plot

of land currently available only requires that you have 16 neighbors.

This isn't a particularly large number when you think about it, and it will save you a lot of money in the

long run if you just go out and recruit some friends to help you. It really isn't as hard as it might seem

to get people to be your neighbors either because they don't actually have to do anything to help you.

All they have to do is open the application and set up their character. After that, they never have to

come back to their farm again. Once your friends know this, they may be more inclined to help you

out.

Crop List

Seeds Cost Maturity Experience Sell For Profit / Hour

Strawberry 10 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 35 coins 6.3

Eggplant 25 coins 2 days 2 Experience 88 coins 1.3

Wheat 35 coins 3 days 2 Experience 115 coins 1.1

Soybeans 15 coins 1 day 2 Experience 63 coins 2.0

Squash 40 coins 2 days 2 Experience 121 coins 1.7

Pumpkins 30 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 68 coins 4.8

Artichokes 70 coins 4 days 2 Experience 119 coins 0.5

Rice 45 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 96 coins 4.3

Raspberries 20 coins 2 hours 0 Experience 46 coins 13.0

Cotton 75 coins 3 days 2 Experience 117 coins 0.6

Bell Peppers 75 coins 2 days 2 Experience 108 coins 0.7

Peppers 70 coins 1 day 2 Experience 162 coins 3.8

Aloe Vera 50 coins 6 hours 1 Experience 85 coins 5.8

Pineapple 95 coins 2 days 2 Experience 242 coins 3.1

Blueberries 50 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 91 coins 10.3

Watermelon 130 coins 4 days 2 Experience 348 coins 2.3

Grapes 85 coins 1 day 2 Experience 270 coins 7.7

Tomato 100 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 173 coins 9.1

Potatoes 135 coins 3 days 2 Experience 345 coins 2.9

Carrots 110 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 200 coins 7.5

Coffee 120 coins 16 hours 1 Experience 243 coins 7.7

Corn 150 coins 3 days 2 Experience 380 coins 3.2

Sunflowers 135 coins 1 day 2 Experience 315 coins 7.5

Cabbage 140 coins 2 days 2 Experience 388 coins 5.2

Blackberries 75 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 117 coins 10.5

Green Tea 105 coins 10 hours 1 Experience 191 coins 8.6

Red Wheat 180 coins 3 days 2 Experience 449 coins 3.7

Sugar Cane 165 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 239 coins 9.3

Peas 190 coins 1 day 3 Experience 381 coins 8.0

Yellow Melon 205 coins 4 days 2 Experience 528 coins 3.4

Onions 170 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 268 coins 8.2

Broccoli 200 coins 2 days 4 Experience 473 coins 5.7

Asparagus 220 coins 16 hours 2 Experience 357 coins 8.6

ultimately, peas will be the best crop to plant, but it’ll

take you a while to reach a high enough level to be able to plant them.

Best Seeds in Earnings Per Week Assuming Crops are Harvested At

Maximum Efficiency

These earnings take into account the cost of ploughing (15coins), this is very important since crops

with shorter harvesting times must be ploughed more times giving many players an “invisible” cost.

Also remember that every time you plough you also gain more experience, so do not be mislead with

crops such as raspberry which give no exp, because they end up giving you the same exp as 4 hr crops

when the experience gained from ploughing is also taken into consideration.

1. Tomato 1218 coins/week

2. Sunflowers 1155 coins/week

3. Blueberries 1092 coins/week

4. Coffee 1080 coins/week

5. Carrot 1050 coins/week

6. Raspberry 924 coins/week

7. Broccoli 903 coins/week

8. Red Wheat 592 coins/week

9. Yellow Melon 539 coins/week

10. Red Bell Peppers 539 coins/week

11. Rice 504 coins/week

12. Corn 501.7 coins/week

13. Pineapple 462 coins/week

14. Potatoes 455 coins/week

15. Strawberries 420 coins/week

16. Watermelon 355.25 coins/week

17. Yellow Bell Peppers 324 coins/week

18. Cotton 273 coins/week

19. Soy Beans 231 coins/week

20. Squash 231 coins/week

21. Artichokes 208.25 coins/week

22. Eggplant 168 coins/week

23. 
    
    
    
    Wheat 151.67 coins/week

Trees

Tree Cost Experience Maturity Profit Resale

Acai $27 FarmVille 0 Experience 2 days 158 coins 47 coins

Cherry 225 coins 5 Experience 2 days 18 coins 11 coins

Apple 325 coins 5 Experience 3 days 28 coins 16 coins

Orange 425 coins 5 Experience 4 days 40 coins 21 coins

Plum 350 coins 5 Experience 3 days 30 coins 17 coins

Peach 500 coins 5 Experience 4 days 47 coins 25 coins

Lemon 475 coins 5 Experience 3 days 41 coins 23 coins

Lime 750 coins 7 Experience 5 days 75 coins 37 coins

Fig Gift 0 Experience 3 days 33 coins 18 coins

Avocado Gift 0 Experience 3 days 37 coins 21 coins

Apricot Gift 0 Experience 4 days 56 coins 30 coins

Grapefruit Gift 0 Experience 3 days 50 coins 23 coins

Banana Gift 0 Experience 3 days 56 coins 32 coins

Passion Fruit Gift 0 Experience 5 days 93 coins 46 coins

Pomegranate Gift 0 Experience 5 days 108 coins 53 coins

Date Gift 0 Experience 3 days 69 coins 40 coins

Olive Gift 0 Experience 4 days 112 coins N/A

Leveling Light Speed

Here is a trick only a few people know about Farmville but can help your farm grow immensely. Before

I reveal the secret you must understand a few things about why leveling fast is good:

1. The faster you level, the more access you get to higher end crops, you will notice if you scroll

up to earnings per week of each crop (page 35), many of the crops with the highest earnings

are only obtainable at the highest levels.

2. It is also important to notice, that many of the highest earning crops also have very generous

harvesting times, take sunflowers for instance, which only need to be harvested and ploughed

once per day and compare them with raspberries, which need to be harvested and replanted

every 2 hours. Not only do the sunflowers give you more coins per hour, you are also doing

only 1/12 of the work compared with raspberries. This is very important since it will make your

schedule much more flexible, and save you huge chunks of time. This is why I advocate leveling

as fast as possible till you can reach a crop that earns good exp/week but at the same time has

a long harvesting time so you can relax.

3. Cosmetic Purposes – If you’re playing Farmville to impress your friends and make your farm

grand and beautiful, you want to make sure you have access to all the things Farmville has to

offer. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with tons of coins but unable to buy that villa just because

you’re level is low.

4. Higher Level = More land = More Crops = Faster Leveling = More Coins/More Free time

As you progress throughout Farmville the plot of land available to you also increases. This

means you can plant more crops, earn more coins, earn more experience, and save you time!

What a game breaker!

Page 50

The Secret to Leveling Faster

If you have played Farmville for quite some time you have probably come into a situation where your

farm really isn’t leveling as fast as you would like, and are slowly stockpiling thousands and thousands

of coins. Whenever I check through my friends Farmville’s and see this happening I will always take the

time to give them some friendly advice. Basically, if there is a huge stockpile of gold that isn’t being

spent there should only be one reason. This is only done when a player is saving for something

expensive such as the million dollar villa.

To be put simply, if you have loads of money in the bank, and you’re not saving for something, it’s

being wasted! If this is you, the following trick will really bring your farm to new heights:

1. Calculate the amount of coins needed to plant and plough your desired crops. This amount

should be kept with you at all times in case your current crops wilt and you receive no income

from harvesting them. If you are VERY SURE (EXTRA STRESS ON THIS POINT) that you will be

able to harvest your crops in time.

2. To Calculate the amount of coins you will need, first find out the size of your farm (eg 14x14),

next choose what crop you will be planting next (eg Tomatoes). The formula for calculating

how much will need is:

(Price of crop + 15 Plough Fee) X Total Area of Farm

Using a 14x14 Farm with tomatoes as an example:

(100+15) X (14X14) = 115X196 = 22540

3. Spend all your remaining coins on buying Hay Bale (located under the decorations tab in the

market), at 100 coins per piece they will give you 5 experience points and can be sold for 5

coins, therefore giving you 5 experience for 95 coins.

Use this list on special occasions when you know you only have a very small window of time

where you can plough and harvest.

Best Crops by Harvesting time

Best 2 hour crop: Raspberries

Best 4 hour crop: Blueberries

Best 8 hour crop: Tomato

Best 12 hour crop: Carrot

Best 1 day crop (24 hour) crop: Sunflowers

Best 2 day crop (48 hour) crop: Broccoli

Best 3 day crop (72 hour) crop: Red Wheat

Best 4 day crop (96 hour) crop: Yellow Melon

Higher Levels (20+)

Lots of Time: At this point planting tomatoes is the most efficient crop for you to plant even though it

only needs to be harvested every 8 hours.

Little Time: Tomatoes might be an option for you, if not plant coffee/carrots/sunflowers.

__________________________

Pretty neat! I am glad I came across this article on Farmville tips, and was able to share with other "farmers".

Percentiles Schmentiles...

Our daughter is 15 months old now and after her checkup today, she weighs in at the 7 percentile! Eek!? is that too little? Not so much, my family is on the smaller side growing up to begin with, so it is genetics. But still, there is that concern of feeding Kara (our daughter) enough and having her grow at the right "percentile" Andrew and I are new parents... never raised a child before and had someone depend on us to feed them or help them grow.

It was much easier having a dog. With our dog we feed him twice a day a dish of dog food, and keep his water bowl filled. Piece of cake. The vet doesn't worry about percentiles or growth spurts in a dog. Now we are raising a little person and feeding her to grow. This is a hard part in being a parent. This past year has been sort of easier sticking to portions and when she was eating bottles of baby formula, it was an 8 oz bottle at a time.

Now Kara has finger foods, cheese, milk, some baby jar foods and all sorts of food options to choose from when it comes to feeding her. It is getting overwhelming, just a bit. Who knows, maybe you (the readers of this blog) have a baby/child that you are wanting some good eating tips and health information on what to feed little kids? I thought I would share with you what I found in an article that Andrew came across.

Here are some helpful tips for feeding kids: I took the following bits of information out of the article, http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030800.asp

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After a year of rapid growth (the average one-year-old has tripled her birth weight), toddlers gain weight more slowly. So, of course, they need less food. The fact that these little ones are always on the go also affects their eating patterns. They don't sit still for anything, even food…

Since erratic eating habits are as normal as toddler mood swings, expect your child to eat well one day and eat practically nothing the next. Toddlers from one to three years need between 1,000 and 1,300 calories a day, yet they may not eat this amount every day. Aim for a nutritionally-balanced week, not a balanced day…

Use a compartmentalized dish, and put bite-size portions of colorful and nutritious foods in each section. Call these finger foods playful names that a two-year-old can appreciate, such as:

• apple moons (thinly sliced)
• avocado boats (a quarter of an avocado)
• banana wheels
• broccoli trees (steamed broccoli florets)
• carrot swords (cooked and thinly sliced)
• cheese building blocks
• egg canoes (hard- boiled egg wedges)
• little O's (o-shaped cereal)

Place the food on an easy-to-reach table. As your toddler makes his rounds through the house, he can stop, sit down, nibble a bit, and, when he's done, continue on his way. These foods have a table-life of an hour or two.

...6. Cut it up. How much a child will eat often depends on how you cut it. Cut sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, and pizza into various shapes using cookie cutters.

...10. Respect tiny tummies. Keep food servings small. Wondering how much to offer? Here's a rule of thumb – or, rather, of hand. A young child's stomach is approximately the size of his fist. So dole out small portions at first and refill the plate when your child asks for more. This less-is-more meal plan is not only more successful with picky eaters, it also has the added benefit of stabilizing blood-sugar levels, which in turn minimizes mood swings. As most parents know, a hungry kid is generally not a happy kid.

11. Make it accessible. Give your toddler shelf space. Reserve a low shelf in the refrigerator for a variety of your toddler's favorite (nutritious) foods and drinks. Whenever she wants a snack, open the door for her and let her choose one. This tactic also enables children to eat when they are hungry, an important step in acquiring a healthy attitude about food.

12. Use sit-still strategies. One reason why toddlers don't like to sit still at the family table is that their feet dangle. Try sitting on a stool while eating. You naturally begin to squirm and want to get up and move around. Children are likely to sit and eat longer at a child-size table and chair where their feet touch the ground.

...15. Make every calorie count. Offer your child foods that pack lots of nutrition into small doses. This is particularly important for toddlers who are often as active as rabbits, but who seem to eat like mice.

Nutrient-dense foods that most children are willing to eat include:

• Avocados
• Pasta
• Broccoli
• Peanut butter
• Brown rice and other grains
• Potatoes
• Cheese
• Poultry
• Eggs
• Squash
• Fish
• Sweet potatoes
• Kidney beans
• Tofu
• Yogurt