March 16th, 2009
James’s family was over this weekend. It was fun to watch Christopher and his cousins. He wanted to play with them and the only way he knew how was to knock over their train tracks that they had built. Thankfully, his cousins started to interact with him and they all seemed to have a good time.
It is always nice to talk with my sister in law and make sure Christopher is normal. She has four children, three of which are older than Christopher so she is a wealth of information and she graciously shares what she knows!
James’s parents were here and Christopher referred to them as “Mom” and “Dad”. I asked Christopher why he called them that. After a little bit, I figured out that he had heard James call them Mom and Dad. It is amazing what children learn and pick up.
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March 12th, 2009
I have always read about adoptive parents selling books on Ebay or Amazon. I have been afraid of losing money through Ebay and I have not been success with Amazon. I was thinking about when I sold our CD collection during adoption, so I googled selling books online and came across several sites. After comparing several sites and seeing which would buy fiction books, I settled with Powell’s Books. You need to enter one book at time to know what they will pay for the book, but overall my experience was good. They paid to have the books mailed to them and I believe it was within 10 days I received an email saying that the money was deposited into paypal. Powell’s had the best buy back rate both in money they would pay for a book and books that they would buy.
I don’t know about textbooks, but I know that most of the sites said they would buy back textbooks as well. I wish I would have thought about selling books online when my husband and I were adopting!
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March 9th, 2009
Well, somehow, I have all the pages up. Though, I am missing have of what I wrote on “About Us”. Now I have to rewrite that. I know, I know; why didn’t I save it somewere else and then copy and paste. . . Sometimes you think you are smarter than you really are!
I am hoping that by some sort of chance I did save it somewhere and I can find it. I don’t think that will happen. I almost feel I have to rewrite the whole thing, I just don’t know how to continue. I guess I am not a good writer. Or is that why writer’s scrap their work and start over?
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March 5th, 2009
In August, I became a Pampered Chef consultant, with the sole purpose of offering it as a fundraiser opportunity. I have enjoyed helping raise a little money for adoptive parents. I found that when we were raising money some people were willing to help if they received something in return. It was great that one of my friends offered this when we were in the process of adopting, and I have wanted to do the same.
If you have friends that are consultant of a home based business, ask them if they will donate their commission towards your adoption. If you don’t know anyone, please send me an email and I will help!
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March 2nd, 2009
Well, I switched web hosts and I haven’t figured out all the ends and outs yet. I did figure how to get the blog up. Pardon me while I try to get the whole site up and running.
I have a lot to post. I have heard some great ideas for fundraising. I hope to post one of those ideas by the end of the week. We will see how it goes.
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December 17th, 2008
What a rough six months. No sooner did we finish celebrating the 4th of July and Christopher was sick. My laptop broke again, fourth time in under two years! I still haven’t gotten it fixed. I am so disillusioned by laptops, maybe mine is just a lemon. I am frustrated with my website skills. I have talked to a couple people and read some material and hope that I can accomplish what I have in mind. I like some of the features my dad has with his website. Granted most of the features no one will see but me.
I am looking forward to Christmas, Christopher was grasping the concept of gifts and unwrapping presents at his birthday. I am a little apprehensive about actually wrapping and leaving presents under the tree. I can just see him unwrapping them all! Of course, if I wait any longer, I will be wrapping presents Christmas Eve.
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July 1st, 2008
Christopher turned two this past week. We went to the zoo with some friends on his birthday. His two favorite animals were turtles and monkeys, in that order. He just sat and watched the turtles swim around. I think we might need a pet turtle! His biggest frustration was he wanted to touch and pet all the animals, but there were these fences and mama kept saying it wasn’t possible.
James’ family came over and celebrated with us. We had lunch at McDonald’s and let the boys play on the equipment. Then they all came over and had cake and ice cream. The cake was in the shape of Lightening McQueen. Christopher loves the movie and wants to watch it everyday, which is a little hard since we do not own it. We just rent it for a week and then wait a couple of weeks before renting it again. I think that might be way it hasn’t lost it’s popularity because he can not see it all the time.
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June 26th, 2008
Hopefully, by now you have a website up and have added Google Adsense. I believe the next step for your website is to become an affiliate. An affiliate (publisher) is a person that markets someone else’s product. This just means you have a link to a product and/or business on your website. Then if some one clicks on that link and buys something you receive a percentage of the sale.
Two companies that have a huge list of affiliates are Bidvertiser and Commission Junction. The good thing about going through these companies is that you can sign up and get accepted without having a certain amount of traffic to your website.
Once you are signed up, look through the different affiliate companies and choose the ones that suit you. I love books and reading, so I good match for me would be a bookstore. I would have no problem promoting a book I just read.
For instance, I have started removing toxins and chemicals from my families live and one of the best books that I have read is Home Safe Home. I like this book for a couple of reasons:
- She assumes you don’t know very much about different toxins and tells you what they are and where you are being exposted to them, but she doesn’t talk down to you.
- She doesn’t make feel like a horrible person if you don’t do everything possible to get rid of toxins in your life.
- She gives you resources to get more information in areas of interest to you, ie building or remodeling a home.
Other interests I have are gardening and sewing, so if I found an affiliate that matched those interest. I would sign up for them. You just need to find something that you like and can talk about.
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June 23rd, 2008
Well, I had another duh! moment this past week. How is that you know what to do in a certain situation, but never apply it to other situations?
I had a rough Thursday, it didn’t start out that way. James had the day off and we were enjoying the morning. We had lunch and Christopher and I were settling down for our nap. James walked in and asked how we could take a nap under a sheet when it was hot. I said to leave us be, it was our ritual.
Well, fast forward to the evening, I gave myself a concussion and was of no use the rest of the evening. By bedtime, I was doing a little better and could sit up and walking without feeling like I was going to lose my lunch. We got Christopher ready for bed, but he just wasn’t setting down. Then it acured to me, a blanket! Maybe if I cover him with a blanket that will settle him down enough for him to go to sleep. Would you believe that within five minutes it was fast asleep. Okay, you probably would. It just takes me a bump on the head to put two and two together.
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June 19th, 2008
One of the things I have looked for in the past was a way to earn money from home. I did not want to do shows or parties, but all I could find was get rich quick schemes! Within the last six months, while creating this website, I came accross a company called Elance. I was coming at it from the contractor’s prospective, but found it interesting that people with computer skills could put together a resume and find projects online. They bid on projects that they are profecient at and if they are awarded the project they do the work from home!
I wish someone had told me about them sooner. I could have been working at home, instead of pounding the pavement! I know it is not everyone’s dream to wear pajamas and fuzzy slippers while getting paid but it is mine!

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