Every day, all day long Rich reports to me how the stock market is doing.  It drives me absolutely crazy.  If I never hear him report to me again about how the stock market is doing I will still have heard way too much.  The reason he does it is because we lost so much money, like many of you probably did too.  A year ago at this time we had a nice little amount of money in the stocks.  Not a lot, but enough to feel comfortable that we could fall back on that money if we needed to.  Then the economy fell and our stocks did too.  At the worst point we were down about 80%.  Things have started to track back upwards, although we are nowhere near where we were before.

I do not like hearing Rich talk about it all day long.  Whether the news is good or bad I get annoyed having to hear it.  I’ve asked him to simply report it to me at the end of the day- rather than every few minutes.  Anyhoo- I found a site today that I think Rich would love.  It’s called Wicked Profits and it can be found at wickedprofits.com.  This site is basically a review site of stocks.  I think he’d enjoy this site, so I’ll have to send him to check it out.

So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere then you have heard about the swine flu.  So, what do you think about it?  Is the media over-reacting causing fear?  Or do you think all of the coverage is warranted?  And how is it affecting you?  Are you changing any plans?  Washing your hands more? 

I tend to be paranoid about germs anyways.  And given that Hailey had pneumonia this winter and has asthma as well it is pretty scary to me.  What do you think about all of this?

Until what?  Well, until the Manta ride at SeaWorld opens, of course.  And I can’t wait!

We love visiting the Orlando Florida area for vacation.  And unless you’re new to my blog then you know that I talk about going there every time the subject of a vacation comes up.  It’s our favorite place to go.

Now that we are about to move out of our house (this weekend) and move into our new house soon (read more at Livin With Me) we can start thinking about a summer vacation.  We’d love to be able to visit Orland sometime in September.  The crowds will have gone down a bit and we’ve gone at that time of year before and it’s perfect.  It’s still pretty hot, but not quite as bad as July would be.

Anyhoo- one of our favorite theme parks is SeaWorld- we absolutely love the shows and the rides.  And since Hailey will be almost 3 if we go in September I know she’ll be old enough to really enjoy the fun.  Plus there is a fantastic looking new attraction called the Manta.  You can visit their site and try for a chance to win.  There are six activities to complete and if you finish you’ll get a “Front-of-the-line” pass for the new ride- and get to go right to the front of the line!

So hurry up and check it out and start planning your next trip to SeaWorld!

This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been contacted. Congrats Gianna!

Chances are if you have preschool or elementary aged children then you’ve heard of Ben 10.  Just in case you haven’t- here’s a quick run down.  Ben 10 is a show on the Cartoon Network. The show started out with Ben finding an alien pod on the ground while camping with his grandfather. He finds a device that looks like a watch (Omnitrix) inside the alien pod. The Omnitrix permanently attaches itself to Ben’s wrist and makes it possible for Ben to turn into different alien life-forms. Ben uses his power to fight evil- both aliens and regular criminals.

I was recently given the chance to check out the Ultimate Omnitrix made by Bandai.  This Ultimate Omnitrix is just like the one that Ben wears on the show.  It allows kids to put different alien parts inside its chamber, turn a knob and create alien creations.  It is so much like the one on the show and it is super fun!  Your child will be able to tackle alien adventures just like Ben does.  You can get this Ultimate Omnitrix at Toys R Us for $19.99 or you can try to win one right here!

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

• Leave me a comment telling me who you would give the Ultimate Omnitrix to if you win.

Want some extra chances to win? Leave an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH extra entry.

• Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then leave me a comment with the direct URL.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed and then leave me a comment letting me know you’re a subscriber.
• Stumble this post (please leave a short review) and leave me a comment letting me know and tell me what your name on Stumble is.

This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses and will end on May 6th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be chosen on May 7th 2009 via random.org and notified by email. Please read all of my giveaway rules here.