Jolly Green Giant and Santa

This is too cute.  Even though this is NOT the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!  Jolly Green Giant and Santa - ENJOY!

Air Travel - Tim Hawkins

So for all of you who travel on airplanes this should give you a great laugh.  Tim Hawkins is so funny and clean.  So many comedians are crass and crude but Tim's humor is always clean and family appropriate!

Beach Body and Shakeology

So as many of you know, I have recently signed up to be a Beach Body Coach.  I stumbled into this as I was really interested in feeling better and I heard about their fabulous nutrition drink called Shakeology.

I am sure many of you have heard of P90 or P90X and many others including Insanity.  Well, these workouts are all from Beach Body.  So what does a mother of six have in common with a beach body you may ask?  Well, I wanted to get my health back and with that, get back into shape.  I can't tell you have pleased I am with the products.  Shakeology has been so great for me.  It is quick, easy and can be used on the go.

See, most the time we eat bad only because we are pressed for time and have limited choices.  Think about it...you are running to pick up the kids and get them to the next event, everyone is tired, hungry and you are out-of-time so what do you do?  You pull into a fast food place to grab a quick bite.  Well, with Shakeology, I just have to have a bottle of water with me (or stop and get one or a bottle of milk), pour the powder in, shake it up and boom - your meal is served.  Quick, easy and best of all, nutritious!  In one drink is the comparison of 5 servings of salad!  Best of all, it tastes great!  There are two flavors, Greenberry and Chocolate and they are packaged in individual packages or in a bulk bag.

I use the base mix at home for breakfast every morning and add my own fruits and veggies for a fabulous smoothie.  I get all the nutrition comparable to handfuls of supplements in on easy to drink mix.  Since drinking shakeology, I have more energy to WANT to exercise and I also have lost my cravings.  You know, the need to have something sweet or salty at about mid-day or late-night.  I even went to Olive Garden last week and passed on the bread sticks!  WOW - that was first!  I LOVE their bread sticks but I was content with the salad.

They also have a great results and recovery drink to take after those extreme workouts.  It is called P90X Results and Recovery Formula.  It helps to rebuild your muscles and give you what you need to replenish your body at the cellular level.  Great stuff!

To purchase all these products you have to be a "customer" and sign-in with Beach Body.  I can offer you a "free customer" sign-up if you are interested in seeing the products, reading the nutritional values of products, buying work-out programs and also allow you to track your work-outs!  Let me know by sending me an email, I would love to help you achieve your fitness goals.  There is nothing stopping you but you!

Just wanted to close with a couple of inspirational testimonies.  This woman has an inspiring personal testimony, Cammie and I wanted you to read it.  Then there was this one, don't know if he used Beach Body products or not, but his 120 pound testimony was so inspirational that I wanted you to see it.  It is never too late and you are never too far...start now and get moving!

So, You Say You Want A New Job?

Here is an incredible link that can really allow you to soar above the daily grind.  Some people think that a Sutro Tower is tall (at about 977 feet).  How about the Eiffel Tower with stands 1063 feet tall.  Don't forget the Empire State Building which is a mere 1453 feet.  The Sears Tower tops out at 1730 feet but that is nothing compared to the 1768 feet that of the Guided Towers.  This would be an iincredible job, if you are not intimidated by heights!

Andy McKee an INCREDIBLE Guitarist!

My boys have a lot of musician friends and one of the those friends mentioned he was learning a song by Andy McKee so I had to find out who he was and what was the style of his music. Well, was I surprised to find such an INCREDIBLE Guitarist!  I could listen to him all day.  Enjoy!!

Andy McKee - Drifting
Andy McKee - Ebon Coast
Andy McKee - Rylynn
Andy McKee - Shanghai
Andy McKee - For My Father
Andy McKee - Into the Ocean

Casey Jones Show

Totally random today.  How many of you remember the Casey Jones Show?  Even better, who remembers the theme song?  For those of you a bit short on memory, here is a piece of history for you!

Do you have any other favorite songs from T.V.Land?  Well, the site above will help you recall it too!  ENJOY!

Did You Know?

Here are some random things that I thought were worth sharing.  Who knew?

Alaska: More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska .

Amazon: The Amazon rain forest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States .

Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.  Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert; the average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, ice.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Antarctica:

 

Brazil: Did you know that Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

 

Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ' Big Village '.

Chicago: Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

 

Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere!

 

Damascus, Syria: Damascus, Syria was flouringing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in  753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

 

Istanbul, Turkey: Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents.

 

Los Angeles: Los Angeles' full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of it size: L.A.

 

New York City:  New York City has been known by the term 'The Big Apple' .  It was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city.  Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin , Ireland;  more Italians in New York City, than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel .

 

Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio , every one is manmade.

Pitcairn Island: The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn, in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. Miles/4,53 sq. km.

Rome: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C.  There is a city called Rome on every continent.

 

Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

S.M.O.M.: The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M).  It is located in the city of Rome, Italy and has an area of two tennis courts.  As of 2001, it has a population of 80 -- 20 less people than the Vatican.  It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.  Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island.  There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

 

Spain: Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits'.

 

St. Paul, Minnesota: St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.

Roads: Chances that a road is unpaved:  in the U.S.A. = 1%;  in Canada  = .75%.

Russia: The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia.  It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles).  It was drilled for scientific research and gave up some unexpected discoveries.  One of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen - so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.

 

United States: The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight.  These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls: The water of Angel Falls (the world's highest) in Venezuela, drops 3,212 feet (979meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.

America's Got Talent - Jackie Evancho

This is an incredible little girl with a HUGE voice.  This is a MUST listen to clip of Jackie Evancho on America's Got Talent show this past week.  Simply beautiful!

This was an earlier performance by Jackie Evancho on America's Got Talent back in August!  What a gift!

Teaching Baby to Sleep in Her Crib

Teaching your baby to sleep in their own crib can be quite challenging and this creative father took it to a new level.  Thought this was too funny and just had to share it.  I know for me, I think baby would be sleeping next to me, in my bed before I would do this! 

This is a Library

So for all those blonds out there wanting french fries, a burger and a milkshake; step right up!

Driving...Are You Paying Attention

This was an interesting video with shocking scenarios.  Not sure if they are all real or scripted but many are taken from cameras posted to view and monitor traffic.  Take a minute to consider how our urgency usually isn't really all that urgent, is it?  Incredible footage that really will make you stop and think.  We are loosing the war of traffic fatalities.  Shocking and tragic.

I personally know the feeling of loosing a family member to a motor vehicle accident.  My husband's sister was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed in an intersection by a large commercial truck that failed to see a poorly placed stop sign.  Nothing puts all the pieces back together.  If only we all could just slow down and take it easy.

I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

This is just TOO cute and amazing.  I would guess this boy to be four-ish by his teeth and size but his finger control is pretty amazing.  I'm Yours on the ukulele...pretty incredible!

Here is the original version by Jason Mraz, just to gain some perspective if you haven't already heard it.  The kid did a pretty good job, I would say!

Mexican Dancing Dog

So this is just incredible!  This dog can dance!  The hours of training that went into this must be endless as this dance is lengthy for a human, yet alone a dog.  Amazing!  Enjoy!  Let's Dance!

Happy Birthday to You - Chipmunks

Just thought this was cute.  Nothing special.  Just a Happy Birthday Song that is appropriate for everyone!  Happy Birthday to YOU!

Old Man of the Mountain

After my brother shared the song with me the other day, I did my own search to find another song that I remember my father singing.  I can remember asking him to "sing" it for me and he would tire of it.  I couldn't write the words down fast enough and he was very annoyed by my continuing asking.  Who knew, these 25 years later, the I could sit down at a computer and find all the words and many versions of the song myself.  I do wish I had his voice signing it, but for now, this will have to do.

Old Man of the Mountain - Lyrics
Old Man of the Mountain - Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers.  This version is sung more similarly to the way my dad sang it but they don't finish the song.  This was the speed in which dad would sing it and a bit closer to the key and style that my dad sang it.  They do their own rendition and take a crazy turn in the middle of the song but it was enjoyable!
Old Man of the Mountain - Sour Mash Hug Band.  This one just puts a smile on your face.  Much more fanfare than when dad would sing it but this one has the feel I remember but again a bit faster than dad would sing it.  All-in-all it puts a smile on my face!
Old Man of the Mountain - Cab Calloway and Betty Boop 1933
Old Man of the Mountain - Big Band VooDoo Daddy.  This version is played a LOT faster than my dad used to sing it but it is close.
Old Man of the Mountain - Big Band VooDoo Daddy @ Fair.  This version is not as clear in sound as the one above but is is the same group and you can feel the band's intensity and see their expressions here.

Watch out for Facebook Scams!

I saw on a friends wall this link regarding seeing "The SHOCKING hidden message on Coca-Cola logo!"  Well, first it will ask you to "click on the like button below".  DON'T DO IT!

These are SCAMS!  Until more facebook users learn to be suspicious of liking pages scams like these will continue. Whenever you have to "add" or "like" these secondary pages, you need to understand that information is being added to your computer.  This data could be tracking you or sabotaging you.  You have NO idea until the damage is done. 

First thing you want to do is no longer "like" these type of pages.  Then, remove suspicious applications to no longer have access to your account.  Third, change your password and make it a strong one.  What is a strong one?  Well use caps, lowercase, symbols and numbers and best of all use an acronym.  Here is an example of a sentence.  "My oldest child was born in 93."  A password could be created from this sentence that would look like this:  Mocwb!93.  Again, "My oldest child was born !n 93."  This is a good idea to have a password like this.

A good page that you may consider joining is Sophos.  They will help you know what is a scam or a real threat to you and your facebook security.

If you are interested in seeing the subliminal messages that are "said" to be on the coke can, follow this link.  I could clearly see a few of these but a few took more imagination than I have.

Nobody's Darling But Mine - Jimmie Davis

My brother was reminiscing about days from his childhood and remembers how our dad used to play the ukulele and sing to our mom.  This is special because many of the memories of our childhood some would say were, not so great.  Mom was trying to hold the family of eight children together with very little money, bills and a husband who was inconsistent.  There definitely were hard and many sad times, but in the midst of the trouble there were very special and wonderful memories as well.  My parents loved each other even though they divorced because of my father's irresponsibility and his drinking.
See my dad was an alcoholic but through much prayer and finally repentance, he changed.  He went to treatment (again as he had done several times in the past.  This one was a six week program) but he was there for nine months.  (It took him a bit longer to unwind his messed up thinking and acknowledge his mistakes than most, but he stayed and dealt with his issues.)  His counselor told him how he should just move forward knowing that he didn't deserve his wife and family back as he had caused so much damage from his behavior. The incredible part of their story was my dad finally understood his failure and he came to my mom and repented of ALL he had done to destroy their family and marriage and he acknowledged how he didn't deserve her love but wanted her to know that he would always love her.  This was the first time in all the years they were married that my dad owned his issues toward my mom and he didn't blame her, the boss, the government, no one but himself.  This was a "new" perspective for my mom and she knew something had changed.  She had never seen this side of my dad.  She forgave him and accepted his apology and they began to date again.  Shortly after that, they remarried.  See, God can fix ANYTHING!

Life is a choice and we can choose to dwell on what is (or was) wrong or we can choose to focus on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is ANY excellence and if anything worthy of praise, DWELL on these things. (Philippians 4:8)  We each have to decide what we are going to hold in our hearts.  We choose to lock or unlock our hearts!

See my brother chooses to remember the good times as we were kids and in doing so he found this song.  He too used to play the ukulele and recently decided to pick it up again.  He and his friend (who plays guitar) have been playing every evening and then remembered this old song my dad used to play and sing to my mother before the divorce.  See my parents did love each other, they just had to learn how love should act toward one another.  In this world of easy divorce and quick turn-arounds, we all could stand to give those people who we think are too far gone another chance if they, like my dad, show that they have changed.

With some help from the Internet, they found the chords and the words to the old song, Nobody's Darling But Mine and he sent me the link.  In talking to a few of the siblings, he asked if they too remembered the song as my dad would sing it to my mom.  Of course they did and it brought back great memories of days gone by.

Nobody's Darling But Mine - Freddie Stewart (3/25/1925 - 8/15/2000) sings in this version. 
Nobody's Darling But Mine - Guitarist.  This could be how my dad sounded.
Nobody's Darling But Mine - Merle Haggard.  I share this link because Merle's voice was similar to my father's minus the heavy southern accent.
Nobody's Darling But Mine - Rosemary Clooney.  I put this link because my dad loved Rosemary's voice and I think he would like hearing her sing it again.
Nobody's Darling But Mine - The Whitstein Brothers.  This was just a great rendition of the song.

Ebay

Ok - this is just, well, random.  My son found this link and one day while we were talking about weird and interesting links that we have found he shared this ebay link.  Hmmm - Interesting in the least.

Aleene's Tack-It Over & Over

So if you are into scrapbooking you probably have a few rubber stamps in your collection.  The new family of stamps are these unmounted stamps.  Here is a great link on how to mount them.

I do a bit of a modification to this idea, but the part I really wanted to share was the Aleene's Tack-It Over & Over.  Great tips!

Dog Whisperer

This is just precious!  If you have ever had puppies in the home, this guy is a MUST to have around.  Who knew there was a "Dog Whisperer"!

Only at Wal-Mart

Ok - this little clip should help you get your groove on! Watch her move and yes, this is at Wal-Mart.   ENJOY!

Home Instead Senior Care

So this woman, Mary Maxwell is a client who lives in a retirement center run by Home Instead Senior Care.  She was asked to deliver the invocation in Omaha, Nebraska at the company's 2009 Convention.

This is pretty funny in the least and well, you need to listen for yourself.

the face of Dove

If you haven't seen this transformation of the Dove model you need to.  It is a must see for all the young girls you know as well.  Really puts things into perspective.  Most of what our girls are seeing and trying to compare to just don't exist. 

Chick-Fil-A by Tim Hawkins

Well, here is Tim Hawkins again making a GREAT parody on a classic restaurant. Got to love Chick-fil-a-and this version of Proud to Be An American! Yes!


He has done this song before.  Here is another parody.  Chick-fil-a and Yesterday!
 
Too funny...enjoy!

New Words to Know

So, for all of you that are so into being in the know, these are probably words you already use and most definitely know the definition of their meaning.  For the rest of us, here you go:

• chill pill a notional pill taken to make someone calm down
• chillax calm down and relax
• turducken a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey
• bargainous costing less than is usual or than might be expected; cheap or relatively cheap
• staycation holiday spent in one's home country
• fussbudget a fussy person
• vuvuzela long horn blown by fans at soccer matches
• national treasure someone/thing regarded as emblematic of a nation's cultural heritage
• buzzkill a person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect
• social media websites and applications used for social networking
• microblogging the posting of very short entries on a blog
• netbook small light laptop
• dictionary attack an attempt to gain illicit access to a computer system by using a very large set of words to generate potential passwords
• paywall an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to a website
• freemium a business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for
• automagically automatically and in a way that seems ingenious, inexplicable, or magical
• carbon capture and storage the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels
• geoengineering manipulation of environmental processes in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming
• toxic debt debt which has a high risk of default
• deleveraging the process or practice of reducing the level of one's debt by rapidly selling one's assets
• overleveraged having taken on too much debt
• quantitative easing the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank
• exit strategy a pre-planned means of extricating oneself from a situation
• overthink think about (something) too much or for too long
• catastrophizing view or present a situation as considerably worse than it actually is
• soft skills personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people
• matchy-matchy excessively colour-coordinated
• LBD little black dress
• frenemy a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry
• cheeseball lacking taste, style, or originality
• cool hunter a person whose job it is to make observations or predictions about new styles and trends
• hikikomori the abnormal avoidance of social contact, typically by adolescent males (in Japan)
• steampunk a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advance technology
• tweetup a meeting organized by means of posts on Twitter
• bromance a close but non-sexual relationship between two men
• wardrobe malfunction an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position
• defriend another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)
• Interweb the Internet
• hater negative person

Geotagging and Your Smart Phone

Saw an interesting news report on Smart Phones (Blackberries, iPhones, Droids...) and your photos that you post.  Most people don't think that they are giving information about themselves when they post a photo to the web but with the new technologies built right into the phone, you are giving ANYONE the ability to know exactly where you are when you post ANY photo to the web.

Built inside the Smart Phones are geotagging devices.  You maybe have seen the pop-up window asking if you want to use geotagging to pinpoint your location.  When you say yes, data is embedding into the photo that anyone who is savvy can download a software to "read" your image and find out exactly where you are.  Even when you didn't say or type anything!

This tracking ability becomes a concern when women are trying to hide from domestic violence abusers, or people who are dealing with stalkers or you just don't want the world to know where your teen-age is hanging out at the moment with friends!  When these Smart phones take a picture they have all kinds of information formatted into the image, including longitude and latitude information.

So, how do you turn it off?  There is a site that brings attention to the inadvertent information sharing that is happening everyday.  Click on the link, scroll down to "How do I disable this?" and they will walk you through the process.  Depending on your phone, you will need to follow the instructions they give you. I will share the basic steps for the iPhone because I am familiar with that phone.

HOW DO I DISABLE THE iPHONE FROM GEOTAGGING PHOTOS:
There are TWO ways to disable the iPhone.  One way will disable ALL functions of the geotagging.  This sounds great but your map apps will no longer have your location available on them if you opt for this choice. 

The other will block just the apps and camera's you want to block.  You will have to "re-set" this function though.  There is no easy way to turn this off for just one application.  You will now receive "prompts" asking you if you want to "turn on" the service on any given app.  I am going to show you this first and then the second choice here (the re-set option) will follow.

1. Go to your "Settings" icon.
2. Click on "General".
3. Then click on "Reset".  You need to scroll down to find it.
4. Be CAREFUL HERE: You want to select "Reset Location Warnings" ONLY!
5. Once you have clicked on it, then click on "Reset Warnings".
6. This restores all of the Location based warnings for each application to the default, which in MOST cases is the prompt window launching saying "Ask on first use".
7. Now launch your camera(s).  When the prompt window launches click on, "Don't Allow".  Now your camera will not be able to geotag your photos.

The other option is to turn off all geotagging on your iPhone but again, now your maps will not have your location on them either.   Here is how you do that:

1. Go to your "Settings" icon.
2. Click on "General".
3. Then set Locations to "off".
4. This will turn off ALL location based services for ALL applications.  (Your maps will not work with your location now.)

So that's it.  Now you can control your images as they hit the Internet.

Turn Off Facebook Friend Finder

If you are a facebook user, you may have been prompted to reconnect with old friends via their "Friend Finder" option.  Well, what you don't know is that they (facebook) will access all of your contacts and ask them to join facebook...sometimes without you even prompting it!  I know because this happened to me.

So, with that, I am going to walk you through how to disable this function from your facebook wall.  The draw is that facebook says they will help you find friends so many are thinking, hey, sounds great.  Problem is then facebook has access to all your contacts.  Not so good.

TURNING OFF FRIEND FINDER:

• First, you need to log in to your facebook account.  This is simply, just go to facebook like you always do.
• Make sure you are on the "Home" page (top right corner of your wall - first tab).
• Next, look to the left side of the page, near the top and click on "Friends" (about the fourth in the list).
• Now, click on "Find Friends".
• Click on the BLUE Letters that say "Learn More" under "Find Friends".
• Now click on the BLUE letters that say visit "This Page".
• FINALLY, click on the large BLUE button saying, "Remove".
• A message will come up saying it is removing all imported contacts.  Now you are done.

This should solve your problem of having facebook bother all your "contacts" in your contact list!