Stop hey what's that sound?...

...that is the sound of silence. Ahhhhhhhhh... My boys are off camping and I'm here all by myself..well, it's just me and the cat. Nathaniel got home from the road on Wednesday the 25^th after leaving out on the 1^st. Geof and I picked him up at 6:30am in a town that is a 2 hour drive from our house. As you can imagine, the rest of that day was spent catching up on sleep. Geof even fell asleep while he was eating dinner. He hasn't done that since he was a baby! Yesterday we went to the book sale at our local library. Most of the crafty books that I usually go for were picked through, but Geof and Nathaniel were quite successful. Today the boys are out spending some quality "guy time" together. I'm glad to have a little peace. I think "glad" is an understatement. Geof has been feeling the need lately to test any and all boundaries and my patience at the same time. After a month of being the sole focus of his energies you could say that my nerves are a bit fried.

It's Freebie Wednesday!!

I occasionally peruse some of the freebie sites that are out there. Here are some of the better freebies I ran across today.

• Summer Essentials Gifts from Marlboro. Just call 1-800-MARLBORO and enter"3777"when asked for the code, it's all automated.Then pick a gift from the list...
  10-12 Week Delivery. I picked the sleeping bag
  • Coleman Widebeam Flashlight
  • Eureka Sleeping Bag
  • Barbecue Branding Iron Set in Gift Box
  • Zippo Outdoor Utility Lighter
  • Weber Seasoning Kit
  • Zippo Blu Lighter
    
• Free Sample of Hugo Purple Perfume for Women. Just click on "Free Sample" in the op left corner.
• Teen Sample Pack from StayFree. Yay free pads!!

By the way if you haven't heard yet about Blingo you should try it. It's a search engine where every time you search for something you have a chance to win prizes. I won a free movie ticket a couple months ago. They give away a lot of movie tickets and Amazon gift certificates as well as money. Just click the button below to start!

Chicago 2007

Did I mention that we went to Chicago? We had a great time and now that my camera and computer are finally on speaking terms here are the pictures to prove it! All pics are clickable.





This was the view from our hotel. You can see the El in front of the blue building.








Geof sitting on a ledge. Don't worry, it's not as high up as it may appear, the's only about 3 feet from the ground. This was taken in front of the Shedd Aquarium. The tall building in the background is the Sears Tower.










This is the only decent picture I took at the aquarium.










Really old dead guy we found in the Field Museum.







Mummified child. The Field Museum had an exhibit about ancient Egypt. Geof didn't particularly care for the mummies.







Sue the T. Rex. Also found in the Field Museum.








Sue's actual skull....and Geof.








Nathaniel. Yes, the antlers were intentional. He looks so happy, no?







Pretty self-explanatory.








The view from our seats.










Nathaniel and me....er....I mean THE American Gothic at the Art Institute.










The journey back to southern Illinois.







I didn't realize until after we were home that I hadn't made it into any pictures. I swear I was there, I was just behind the lens!

Getting Paid To Post

I took the plunge the other day and signed up with Pay Per Post, a blog marketing company. It's a lot like blogsvertise.com but you have more choices on topics to write about, plus the range in compensation is much more. The least amount I've seen has been $5 and the highest is in the hundreds. This is the first post I've made with them and the pay out is $10! I think the best feature is the choices you have. I've posted a few things for blogsvertise.com in the past, but assignments come in maybe once a month and while I can choose to accept or decline them, they all..well..suck. With Pay Per Post there is a decent-sized list of different topics on which to post. Another great feature is the fact that you can post your honest opinions. Granted, some advertisers want mostly positive feedback, but not all. Some businesses wanting bloggers to write about them are just looking for buzz for their new product or services, something to get the word out, and others simply ask for a review. The best part is that it's a lot easier and faster for me to write about my personal feelings towards a product or service rather than making up bullshit about something that I don't really care about thus making it much more fun.

The only thing I don't like about Pay Per Post is the fact that some advertisers don't allow certain domains. This means, for example, that some opportunities aren't available to me because my blog's web address has "blogspot.com" at the end. I can understand why some companies do this, perhaps they're looking for more "legitimate" outlets or outlets that might generate more cash flow on their end or reach a broader audience. That's fine with me. There seems to be only a few of those with plenty of other opportunities for me.

So I jumped on the bandwagon, call me a sellout. I am a stay-at-home mom and I contribute nothing financially to my family. This, while I don't have the patience to turn it into an uber profitable venture, still allows me at least to not be so dependent which I can appreciate. I may not make a fortune but at least I can buy yarn a little less guilt free!

If anyone out there would like to join just click the Pay Per Post button <---- over there on the left, or the button at the bottom of this post that says "Review My Post". I've had nothing but good experiences so far. Just thought I'd share my latest find and to warn you that I'll probably be posting with more frequency now so beware!



edited to add......
...after submitting this post to Pay Per Past I learned that you can choose to save or donate your your fee to American Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity...how cool is that?!