Makeover New Year's Resolution

Guest post written by Marsha Foster
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I've watched so many episodes of makeover shows like "What Not to Wear" that I know what they'll tell everyone and how the people should dress and take care of themselves. But I think that it's my turn that I should give myself a makeover. I know the stuff, so I made a New Year's resolution to give myself a makeover in 2011.

I'm not going to call Stacy and Clinton up to give me a makeover, so I'm going ot do this thing for myself. I went online shopping to get myself some nice things that are clothing staples. When I was online shopping, I came across the website Wirelessinternet.net and looked through it some. After I thought it over I switched over my internet service to the one I found on the website.

Another one of my New Year's resolutions is to get a new hairstyle and freshen up my makeup look. I’ve gotten lots of ideas from “What Not to Wear” but I think that I need a real hairdresser who’s seen my hairstyle to give me a new look.

Christmas With My Cat

Guest post written by Jessica Greene

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We've had our cat Bunches for 8 years and he really has become a part of our family. Every time that we take a family Christmas picture, I make sure that the kids are holding him so that people can see our cat when we send out those pictures in our Christmas cards. So when I'm Christmas shopping, I don't like to leave Bunches out. I'll pick him up a few things so that he'll have new things to play with, just like the rest of us.

When I tell people that the say that cats wouldn't mind or care about that, but I want to include him in our Christmas celebration. I was actually online trying to find him some new toys a couple of weeks ago and when I was doing that I came across some information about Clear Wireless Internet pricing. I showed it to my husband and after that, I decided to change over our internet service to that.

I found a couple of cat Christmas gifts that I think Bunches will like. The thing about cats is, you never know how they're going to react though. It's the thought that counts.

Christmas Lights At Hollywood Studios

Thanks for the guest post by Jonathan Curtis
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Christmas lights are so beautiful to look at when arranged by someone who has put method and heart into it. There are a few places here in South Florida, where I currently reside that have the most beautifully arranged Christmas decorations. Having lived in a third world country (Tanzania) for the first half of my life, I am in awe of how creative people can get with the Christmas Light Decor!

Locally, I just love to drive around with my husband and 3 children and admire the beautifully lit houses. If you are into doing that, make sure you set your www.Home-alarm-systems.com before you go out to look at Christmas lights and decorations.

But the one that really had my jaw dropping was Disney's Hollywood Studios. My family and I were there last week. We got to experience the Osbourne Family Christmas lights. What an amazing and spectacular scene. Even my little children (all under 5) were taken aback by the dancing lights and an added bonus of snow flakes. If you ever go to Disney world around Christmas, you shouldn't miss this breathtaking event.

Shopping With My Family

Written by my friend Dong Wood

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I really enjoy Christmas shopping, even when the streets are jammed and the stores are overly crowded. My husband and I always go shopping around Christmas time because it makes us get in the spirit Christmas. It normally snows a few times in the month of December and that as well always make us feel as if it is the holidays.

My husband and enjoy shopping at target because we always find something for everyone at reasonable prices. If we start shopping early enough, we are always able to find extra discounts and savings on select items. My husband and I shop for the kids at toys r us, but when we go to target, they go a long to help find gifts for the grandparents and the uncles and aunts. It seems as though it is a tradition we've been doing for several years and the kids enjoy just as much as we do.

My kids are 7, 00, and 04, so I always let them walk the store together to find their grandparents, something, while my husband and I shop for his parents. We all look for everyone else's presents together. I must say I enjoy this time more than any other with my family. We always eat out and catch a movie afterwards, so we always set the home security alarm from www.totalalarmsystems.com/adt-home-alarm-packages-pricing.html since we are never aware when we will be back home.

Skating In Bryant Park

Guest post written by Nancy Grady

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My husband Steve and I went to midtown to purchase a new pair of Miracle Ear hearing aids. I have always lived a very healthy and active life, and the way I see it-there's no reason to ever stop that. I decided I wanted to get out and does something fun so I convinced Steve to take me ice skating several times over the weekend. We first went to Rockefeller center to get the unique opportunity of ice skating under the big Christmas tree. It was incredibly memorable, but a little cramped for space. There were many times that we had to come to a complete stop because there were so many people packed in front of us.

The next day, Steve and I still had quite a lot of energy so we went to the ice rink in Bryant Park. There was a lot more space and Steve and I really got to enjoy ourselves without feeling too congested. We took it slow and really got to relish in the experience. After all these years, the city can still feel magical at times. Skating made me feel great. I'm so glad we went.

Perfect Garland For Our Banister

Guest post written by Carrie Cartwright

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For the past couple of years, I've looked at the banister of our stairs in our entrance way and thought about how great some Christmas garland would look wrapped around it. But I've never actually decided to do anything about putting some up there until about a week ago. I thought that I'd use this extra time that I got off work for Thanksgiving to whip some up.

I had thought about just ordering some offline with my CLEAR-INTERNET and saving myself the trouble, but I realized that it wouldn't be all that much trouble to make myself.

I bought enough garland and lights to put together the lighted garland and it just looks so beautiful when you walk into our home and see it! I really regret not going to the trouble of doing this before. It really wasnŐt all that much trouble and does make our entranceway look pretty festive. Whereas it was pretty lacking before because itŐs so small and we couldnŐt really fit any other Christmas decorations in the space.

Holiday Cheese and Wine Party

Guest post written by Deb Gordon

Instead of doing the regular old holiday dinner party like me and my husband have been hosting the week before Christmas for the past couple of years, we decided this year that we're going to just have a wine and cheese party. I thought that it would be a much easier thing to host by just buying a bunch of cheeses and crackers instead of baking a whole bunch of holiday themed food. Even a dessert party takes quite a bit of trouble in the kitchen.

But I wanted to make sure that I would have some really good cheeses and a wide enough selection, so I went online with my wimax 4g and found all kinds of different cheeses to put on my grocery shopping list.

I'm taking care of the cheese and crackers and I'm letting my husband take care of the wine for the wine and cheese party because he knows more about wine than I do. I'll have to make sure that he gets enough of each kind though. We'll also be encouraging people to bring their own favorite wines, of course.

DIY Wrappings For DIY Gifts

Guest post written by Lauren Lawrence

In the past few years, I've been making my own gift wrap and gift bags and been having a whole lot of fun with it. By now, I'm basically an expert and have gathered all kinds of craft scraps of paper, ribbon and little trinkets that I use to help wrap gifts and make it look like a professional did it. But this year I'm going even more DIY and making the gifts too.

I'm pretty good at making all kinds of crafts and stuff and I enjoy making the wrapping paper and stuff so I thought it would be even more fun for me this year. Plus, I work from home so it's easier to make the gifts instead of going out and buying them. I was looking online to find some ideas for homemade gifts, when I came across this site Cleartvbundle.com and read through it. Then I decided to sign up for the internet company.

But in the meantime while I'm still trying to come up with actual gift ideas, I work on a DIY gift bag here or there. I also like to incorporate things that the people who are getting them love onto the bags, like trains for my little nephew.

Decking Out Our House For Hanukkah

Guest post written by Carol Burns

I always think way ahead of time when I'm planning for certain activities. My husband is hosting an office holiday part at our house in a few weeks and I've been using all of my spare time trying to come up with decorations to put up around our place and also come up with the menu for the party.

I went online to try and find some stuff to get some inspiration as to how to decorate our place for the party, when I decided to LOOK at some stuff that I had found about a new satellite internet company. Our old internet company has been disappointing us for a while, so I decided to show it to my husband and we're going to change over our internet access to it.

I found some blue and silver Hanukkah decor that is definitely more classy and subtle looking than a lot of the garish stuff that I found when I went to local stores in hopes of finding something. IÕm glad that I started planning ahead of time so that the decorations will get shipped here in plenty of time.

Let Me Tell Ya Bout My Best Friend............Heather

Thanks for the post from Sylvester Campbell
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As I sit down to right this that ditty "Let me tell ya bout my best friend" runs through my head. Isn't that the quintessential part of being a best friend to be there in the ups and downs. Well, Heather has been there for it all.

Heather and I went to the same High school and even hung around the same croud, but never really knew each other. I don't know when exactly it became that we were best friend, except to say that I don't remember a time after HS that she wasn't around. Even now, though the years have past and we are miles apart (literally she's on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast) we are always there for eachother to lend an ear, be a shoulder to cry on or just a friendly "hello" over the phone at the end of the day.

Although we don't get to visit much, being so far away and all, we still make time to go see each other. Like this summer, my family and I packed our bags, set the information home security, and took off for a 2 week vacation to see her. And you know how sometime you try to catch up with someone you haven't seen in so long, and it just feels akward. That never happens to us, we pick up right where we left off and know nothing has changed except for geography.

A Cheerful Surprise!

Guest post written by Florence Newman
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Today was a very exciting day indeed. While looking up HearingAidsReviews online, I got a call from my darling son. He is in the United States Marine Corp and called to tell me that he was going to be come be with us for Thanksgiving. My husband and I are thrilled to have him coming home. ItÕs been a long 5 years since our boy joined the marines, and itÕs been a real trial having him away. It always does my heart a lot good when I actually have him back in the house for a visit.
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For our special dinner together, we are going to have a Thanksgiving with a slightly less convention spread. Sure, weÕll have the turkey and the stuffing, but weÕll also include a few of his favorite dishes from over the years. I think what we have planned will really make him happy, as well as bring back a lot of family memories. I am so thankful for the holidays. They have brought me some of the best times over the past few years, and I know that this year is going to be really special, too.

Being a First-Time Home Owner

Guest post written by Pete Schnieder

My wife has been on me lately to take a more vested interested in homeproimprovement, especially now that weÕre officially home-owners. YepÑfor the first time together, weÕre no longer renting a propertyÑwe own it! ItÕs an amazing difference, I can already tellÉthe space just feels like itÕs more ours. I think one of our first projects is going to be to add a nice sunroom adjacent to our back portch/living room area. ItÕll be nice especially in the spring and summer months since weÕll be able to actually utilize our beautiful back yardÑsoaking up a few rays and kicking back to enjoy life.

I think weÕre also going to build a fire pit area near the projected space for our sunroom so we can have cookouts. ThatÕs one thing we never did enough of at our old house, and weÕre thinking that could be a good way to get to know the neighbors, too. WeÕre really going to take pride in fixing this place up so that itÕs more us. CanÕt wait to get started!

Banana Cream Pie For Thanksgiving

Guest post written by Veronica Parker

I've been crazy about banana cream pies ever since I was a little girl. They're my dad's favorite too so we would always gang up on my mom and get her to bake that kind of pie for us when she was going to bake some kind of pie or really any kidn of dessert. I think that I've had one for every oen of my birthdays since I was 6 years old so I know a good pie when I taste it.

I was emailing back and forth with my dad to plan for Thanksgiving a few days ago and made sure to ask him what mom wanted me to bring for Thanksgiving. When I was doing that I ran across this site talking about an internet company available in my are and I decided to get some more info and sign up for it.

Well, it ends up that she wanted me to bring some honeybaked ham, which is easy enough to pick up somehwere. I'm not going to chance making it and messing up. I'm leaving the banana cream pie to my mom so it's perfect, just like always.

Aquarium of the Pacific

This guest post from Arlene Guthrie

I always have friends and people ask me how I spend quality time with the family, which activities are the best to choose, and more. On the top of my list for fun family activities is definitely visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific. At an aquarium the whole family will find something they love whether it be the sharks, fish, starfish, jellyfish, or even manatees.

I always pack a cooler of food before I leave the house so the family can have something to eat after we're done at the aquarium. Before we all get into the car, I turn on the home security alarm from besthomesecurity.com just to be safe because we are always gone for several hours. When we get to the aquarium excitement is in the air! Everyone wants to rush ahead to see what they want to see but I always want to keep everyone in a group. Having a lost member of the family wouldn't be very fun! At the aquarium some of our favorite exhibits are the Sea Otter Habitat, Lorikeet Forest, and just any exhibit that has colorful fish! We love the Lorikeet Forest because you can walk through and feed them nectar. This gives you the chance to see the unique birds up close and personal. Out of the northern and the southern exhibit we normally head to the Tropical Pacific Gallery first because we'll see some of the prettiest fish in that tank. Altogether, I hope the family all remembers the visits to the aquarium as a fun filled time.

A Book A Shopaholic Can Understand

Guest post written by Linda Brewer

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I've always had a problem with being able to stop myself from spending a ton of money when I go shopping. I just love the feel of swiping my card and getting the stuff in a new shiny bag that I just bought. But I'm trying to not spend so much money now because I'm saving up for a new car.

People have been telling me forever that I need to read the shopaholic book series, so I went online about a month and bought the whole set of them. Right after I did that I saw www.clearwirelessinternet4g.com and read through it. Then I switched over my internet service to it because I thought that maybe I could use some of that extra money to put toward my new car.

Well, after I read a few of the books I ordered the rest of the books by the Shopaholic writer Sophie Kinsella. I can obviously relate to the shopaholic Becky because I’m a shopaholic too. But I think that reading about the ridiculous amount of money that she spends on things she doesn’t need is helping me control my shopping.

So Ladybug Like

Post contributed by Leonard Phelps

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This was our daughter's first Halloween and we were so ecstatic. To make it memorable, we wanted her to have the perfect costume. After traveling to a variety of stores, we finally chose a cute ladybug costume for her.

Although she may not remember everything that happens, we made sure to take enough pictures of her to look back on. The night was perfect for her to go trick or treating. Don't get me wrong, we weren't going to let her eat a lot of candy (she's only 10 months), but we did want her to have fun on her first trick or treat night.

Once Halloween arrived, the weather for the night was perfect; it wasn't too chilly for her. I must admit, I think I was more excited than she was. When we headed out, I was relieved to find that she did actually enjoy herself. She's very friendly and she loved pushing the doorbell of people's houses. She would smile or sometimes laugh when the owner would finally open the door to give her a treat. Instead of being scared of the kids with scary costumes, she'd either stare at them with curiosity or let out a cute laugh. It was fun.

Overall, the night was a sweet success. We ended it by cuddling on the couch to watch some dish.t

Friday Night Theater

Contribution by Diane James

Every Friday night, I take my wife out for a night at the Theater in Detroit. Since we started this little tradition of ours, I can't say that I've had a bad Friday night. The evening usually begins with dinner at our place. Once we finish up washing the dishes, we get dressed and ready. It usually takes her awhile longer than I to get ready, so I use that time to set the home security alarm(HOME SECURITY prices) .

Depending on what's showing that night, we usually head out to either the Detroit Opera House, Fisher Theater, Fox Theater or Gem Theater. Once we get to the theater, we enjoy whatever live show happens to be playing that night. My wife loves operas while I usually enjoy off-Broadway musical comedies. We usually take turns each week deciding where to go, though we are both open to compromise if a particular show is only being held on a certain night or time frame. My favorite show thus far has to be Forever Plaid which is a show that falls in my type of genre and is an affectionate revue of the close harmony male vocal groups that reached the height of their popularity during the 1950s. I am definitely looking forward to the next time they perform that show again. Plus, I like to see things a second time because you always catch innuendos that you missed the first time aroun

Family reunion activities

Guest post written by Clint Brown
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As much as we love getting together and eating a ton of really great food, you can't just do that for hours and hours at a family reunion. You do have to do some other things eventually. So this year I took it upon myself to plan something for all the kids to do so that they could use up some of that energy and let the adults catch up and chat some more without being bothered.
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I got the idea to hold a kickball game or two after everyone's lunch had settled and I convinced my two sisters to help me, which I think they also appreciated so our great aunts wouldn't corner them about being in their 20s and not being married. I downloaded some kickball rules with my clear internet and printed them out for us to take to the reunion.
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Well, it ends up that the family kickball game was a really big hit and I've already got requests to organize another one for next year. I think a lot of the adults are even interested in participating in it.

Sesame Street

Authored by Oswaldo Blackburn
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I am a big fan of Sesame Street, or "The Street" as we refer to it in the hood. The Street is a gritty urban show targeted to kids, featuring a homeless monster who lives in a trash can, a bloodthirsty vampire and a crazy tall yellow bird. The whole thing is a psychedelic nightmare, and this is why of all the children's shows on television Sesame Street is the scariest and coolest in the young adult crowd.
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Only with Sesame Street, the characters are not just the afflicted and hopeless. They are also represented by those who push for civil rights, like roommates Bert and Ernie and their unspoken love. Truly this is a show that knows how to be progressive. I also find the celebrity guest spots to be titillating and full of envelope pushing lasciviousness, as evidenced over the recent controversy over singer Katy Perry's dress. It is just one more example of how The Street is willing to be daring in its choices despite being a kid's show designed for toddlers. The show, contrary to conventional wisdom, is not just about pushing merchandise and making profits, although that accounts for most of the motivation for all television. No, Sesame Street is about educating youth with style and danger, featuring a rough and rugged ghetto full of monsters and shady characters, which is why it's the perfect morning show to watch on BestChoiceTV .

Travel Shows Recorded with DVR

I appreciate the guest post, Jewel Rodgers
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At this time, I do not have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars on a vacation to exotic locations such as Vanuatu or the Seychelles. But I do enjoy learning about these various places and more by watching travel shows. I use my DVR service on my satellite tv from www.expertsatellite.com to stay up-to-date on the latest shows featuring people from Africa , South America, and even Europe!
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As I have a job that keeps me working until about 8 p.m. each night, I tend to miss new episodes and season premieres. By using my DVR, I can record my favorite programming with ease, allowing myself to watch the shows when I have the time. To make it even better, I can watch my shows over and over, plus rewind, fast forward, and pause whenever I need to. I like that I have control over my recordings, as it allows me the convenience to watch shows as necessary.
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My current DVR list includes new episodes of No Reservations and Bizzare Foods, which though cooking-oriented, also highlight the culture the produces the odd sorts of food Americans typically don't eat, such as insects or the tails of oxes. I plan on using my DVR in the future to record the Amazing Race and Samantha Brown.