Start of school is the unofficial end of Summer.  Sunny days were all well spent : Soaking up the Sun, Dance Recital, Bum around, Rocked with Milk Shake, Taekwondo Lessons …

It all began from watching an episode of M and J, a morning show. They showed a video from YouTube of a high school girl getting beaten up by other girls. I was flabbergasted by the idea that a group of girls would gang up and beat a girl just for fun. They had the audacity to put the whole scene on video and share it for the whole world to see, thinking that it was very funny. According to the victim, she thought they were her friends and now she is not just physically scarred but psychologically as well. It is very disturbing that according to research, fights are no longer just a boy’s past time after school. For some insane reason girls have become more violent as of late. I’m sure different people will have various theories for this kind of behavior. One thing for sure, I have been deeply troubled by what I saw because the girl could have been anyone’s daughter. Being a parent to a little girl, I want to be able to protect her all the time but reality is I couldn’t be with her every minute of her life. My answer to this dilemma is for her to learn how to defend herself. My husband and I agreed to let Little K learn self-defense/Martial arts. We didn’t have any preference as to what country of origin(Japan, Korea, China, etc) as long as they teach her how to punch and kick effectively. Read the rest »

Yep! That’s our girl. Excited to go back to school to learn something new. Summer flew by so quickly for us. It’s been a week since Little K’s first day of school. I met her teacher last Monday since we couldn’t make it to the meet and greet ice cream social( we just had to take the opportunity to soak up the summer sun at the beach one more time). I was informed that she was picked the “line ender” for the fire drill and was given a big job of being the class librarian. We are very happy that Little K was matched with a great teacher. I could see that her teacher is very happy to have Little K in her class.

At the end of her first day, she looked for her Kindergarten teacher and gave her a hug.

There are plenty of very attractive sales and promotions right now just in time for back-to-school days. How would you like to win a brand new laptop?   It is a perfect tool for any student to get an A+ . What a cool way to start a school year right!

Charter Communications is giving away 30 HP Compaq Presario C770US laptops. If you want to be given a chance to enter,  just subscribe to any of the following great deals: Charter High-Speed® Internet at $19.99/mo for 6 months, Charter Digital Home™ and High-Speed Internet at $69.98/mo for 6 months or Charter Digital Home™, High-Speed Internet, and Charter Telephone® at $99.97/mo. for 12 months. During the Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway promotional period, all customers with online orders will be given $100 gas card.

Here are the computer details:
New HP Compaq Presario C770US Notebook
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor
15.4″ WXGA Screen
2GB RAM -160GB hard drive
DVD Burner
Built in Wi-Fi and Ethernet
Plus a NEOtec Laptop Backpack!

The computer specs is more than enough to do homework, that’s for sure. The first winner will be announced September 1. Some 30 lucky winners will be grinning from ear to ear, will you be one of them?

Early this summer we enjoyed going to the library to Catch the Reading Bug. We have to give it to the librarians because they have out done themselves this year. They had a free concert tour by Milkshake (regularly featured in Discovery Kids and Noggin). We surprised Little K when we brought her down to Crofton Library to watch the outdoor concert. It was a perfect afternoon event and even Brady had a chance to come with us.Little K was pretty tired that day from spending time at the pool but she managed to have a great time seeing Lisa in her tutu live! I highly recommend the Milkshake band, they have awesome songs that enhances young children’s imagination. They would be a great band to book for kid’s parties, they sure can entertain a whole bunch of little ones. Their songs are very happy and I’m sure listening to Bottle of Sunshine will remind me of a perfect summer day in 2008. They have CDs for sale on their website, I wouldn’t mind helping out a cool kid friendly band.We thank Anne Arundel County Public Library and all the businesses who donated in making this Summer filled fun and reading.

It’s been a relief that oil prices have been dropping dramatically in the past weeks thanks to the strengthening dollar. Today I have heard that it’s $114.59 to a barrel and we can somehow breath a little bit easier because the prices at the pump are sliding down instead of going higher than $4.00 for a gallon regular gas. A much needed good news so that parents can go shopping for school supplies and clothes in time for back-to-school. Shoppers should take advantage of the extra savings during this time because most stores are having back-to-school sales.

More often than not I forget grocery coupons at home but I try to shop armed with a coupon when shopping for big ticketed items. It is still a challenge for me to remember to bring coupons though. Buying online makes it a lot easier, it only takes a few seconds to find free coupon codes. You would be surprised how much you can save. Free shipping codes are very helpful as well. The trick is to remember to type the discount code on the space provided upon check out. I find it exciting to see the total bill reduced. Find Just My Size coupon code and treat yourself to something new.