a VERY good product that we invested in this weekend

We all live by budgets I know and it is sometimes hard to make the huge expenditures balance with the small amount on our paychecks ... but I have a "shortlist" of items I "want" - (my list of Want and Need is very well balanced).

I can proudly say that I am not a big spender, I would have the money spare to buy something on my WANT list and when I stand in the shop in front of the product I always tend to think back to the NEED list and even when that list is empty I still find it hard to leave the shop with that specific item as I always think of how much groceries or non perishables can be bought with that money, and I end up walking out empty handed.

But this weekend I went searching for something I saw on TV ... The Scholl Velvet Smooth Electronic Foot File.  With a huge preggy belly and still working and on my feet all day it is taking its toll and with the belly in the way it is getting harder and harder to spoil my feet when I get home since I cant bend forward like normal.

I kind of convinced my hubby that this item is on a thin line between "WANT" and "NEED" list. Now we went to Game to look for one there and all they had was the Verimark/Homemark brand for R250 odd (which we all know never lasts as long or works as good as what the illusionists on the adverts try make us believe).

Someone then referred me to Clicks when I started asking around for the Scholl Branded one.
Getting to Clicks I went looking for the Footcare section where I saw it right away and it was like an immediate relief recognizing it as the exact one on TV.  (Keep in mind my budget had already hit the red and I was shopping on hubby's budget now).  With the whole excitement of seeing that they have what I want I didnt see the price until after I called him and showed him that this is what I want.

When he said "Ok, Now get one and lets go pay I only saw R399.99 and started feeling bad - this is not a cheap little "foot file" and I began feeling guilty that I could rather just buy the ordinary foot file for R29.99  and do it myself - it is a bit more strenuous but it still works.  I went and put the Electronic Foot file back on the shelf and he insisted that I take it as he knows it would come in handy.

After about 30min of arguing about taking it or not, he won and I settled for it being my Christmas present since I complained about it being too much to pay for something that is actually on the WANT list and not on the NEED list as such. And we also found a box at the back of the shelf that had a promotional sticker on it (get a second roller free) - this box was R319.99

So the one that has just the machine and one roller head is R399 and the one with all that plus an extra roller is R320 ... BARGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!

I didnt get a chance to try it out that night but last night I was ordered to go lie on the couch with my feet up and my darling husband pulled out the new "toy" like he called it...

As he started rolling it over my feet you could actually see how it removed the dead dry hard skins and that with no pain, no bending over to get to reach the feet and he could watch tv at the same time.
My feet has been so hard and sore and cracked the last few weeks that when you rub your feet against the sheets at night you can feel that it is rough and cracked the way it scratches over the sheets...

Last night my feet was sliding over the sheets and felt amazing. Hubby has never been one for touching feet ... he gets the shivers just thinking about it but he even said he could definitely not invested in a better product.  I fully second his opinion there.  He can do my feet without having to actually touch feet ... you simply hold onto the handle and you roll it over the tough spots on your feet.

And just before I sign off - I need to make sure you understand WHY the Scholl brand - all the others come with one rollerhead - the verimark one is alot cheaper yes, but when your roller is worn you have to go buy a complete new machine. And no offence to the Manufacturers, but that one doesnt look very durable.

There is a Clicks branded one available (looks rather sturdy but also didnt see any replacement roller heads anywhere, which would also mean you would have to replace the machine when the roller head is worn out.  Scholl has Rollerheads available in packs of 2 and from the looks of last night's doing feet their roller heads are going to last quite a long time.

I wouldnt just take brandnames for any items and I always look for the cheapest alternative, but I would definitely recommend you buy yourself or your partner a Scholl Electronic Foot File if they are currently using a normal footfile to work through the rough heels and calluses on their feet.

Morganville Vampires book series

I have recently finished the Series of Morganville Vampires - it got a bit dragged out at the end but was quite an interesting read and I loved reading it all the way to the last book.

It doesn't come close to the series of Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments (2 series that follow up on each other) - I will give some details about it in another post sometime.

Well when you start reading Morganville you cant stop - that's for sure...
The characters are very down to earth, each with their own individual issues and problems along with their need to try and survive the outside world which is full of blood lusting vampires (not all bad vamps though).

There is quite a few of the vampires that you get to fall in love with and dont want to see them harmed in any way but at the same time there are the baddies too who make the human's life a living hell.

I am pasting some reviews from the series for those who are interested in knowing more about it ...
I liked it and I am sure anyone that likes vampire novels will enjoy this one :


INFO BELOW COPIED FROM WIKIPEDIA: 

The Morganville Vampires is a series of young adult urban fantasy/vampire novels written by Rachel Caine. The novels feature Claire Danvers, a student at Texas Prairie University, and her housemates in the vampire-controlled city of Morganville, Texas. While the mayor of Morganville is human, unbeknownst to most of the population the town is actually run in cooperation with a group of vampires.^[2] Morganville is also home to an unusually large number of second-hand thrift stores.

Synopsis[edit]

Glass Houses

This is the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. Morganville is a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows, one that will spill out into the bright light of day. Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire really doesn't have the right connections to the undead who run the town. When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates, Michael, Eve, and Shane, don't show many signs of life. But they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

Dead Girls' Dance

The second book in the series continues from the cliffhanger ending of the first book. The book starts with the arrival of Shane's anti-vampire father, who tries to murder Michael and cause havoc in Morganville. His killing spree starts with Brandon, an evil troller. Shane gets blamed for Brandon's murder and is caged as a result. (Caged is the punishment for murderers, where the guilty person is locked in a cage and publicly burned to death.) Soon after that, Claire sees Oliver holding a friendly conversation with Shane's father and starts to get suspicious. While trying to free Shane, Eve gets out an arsenal of vampire-killing equipment and Michael locks her away in her room after mesmerizing her. Eve takes Claire on a search for help the next morning, but Claire gets kidnapped by Monica and her pet Monickettes. They are intercepted by Shane's father, who holds Monica hostage. To get help from Sam the vampire (Michael's grandfather), Claire and Eve go to the Dead Girls' Dance to meet him. While there, Claire meets a boy named Ian, who offers her a drink. Ian turns out to be an amateur rapist. Eve finds Sam just in time and they leave the party unharmed. When they return to the house, they find that Michael has begged Amelie to turn him into a vampire. He is turned and soon after that, they find that Shane has been freed by his father. After a period of fighting, Shane's father leaves town, and Claire strikes a contract with Amelie.

Midnight Alley

In the third book of the series, Claire makes an important decision that determines the rest of her life. This leads her to finding out the deepest, darkest secret in Morganville, enough to destroy the city – if it falls into the wrong hands. She must learn all she can to save her best friend, patron, and those she tolerates. With Monica kicking up and Shane in more trouble than ever, Claire must work to protect her friends and herself.

Feast of Fools

In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace together. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though — especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball, attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire realizes the elaborately evil trap he's set for Morganville.

Lord Of Misrule

In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, the master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil undead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn’t the only threat. Violent black cyclone clouds hover, promising a storm of devastating proportions as student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to be in for a whole lot if trouble.

Carpe Corpus

To protect her friends (as much as possible), Claire has been forced to side with Bishop as the battle for Morganville rages on. Somehow, Claire manages to save Shane, reconcile with Michael, and make up with Eve. Claire and Myrnin also may have discovered a cure to the vampire disease. Now they still have the problem of Bishop controlling the city. To save Morganville, someone unexpected has to pay the ultimate price that leaves the entire town in mourning.

Fade Out

Morganville has stabilized into a kind of peace (although it may only be skin deep), but new players are entering the scene, and the course of true love never does run smoothly, especially when an old girlfriend drops in for a visit. And the phrase "hidden camera" takes on entirely new and significant meaning for our heroes in the Glass House.

Kiss of Death

Claire Danvers and her friends have been given an offer they can't refuse – time away from Morganville, with an escort of course. But when they encounter trouble of both the human and vampire varieties they begin to realize life outside Morganville isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Ghost Town

The fragile peace between humans and vampires in Morganville is in trouble, and when Claire takes drastic action, she's put under serious pressure to re-establish the barriers that keep the town residents inside, and wipe the memories of those who leave. But working with her half-crazy vampire boss Myrnin means that things don't always turn out as planned...and as the people of Morganville begin acting strangely, Claire and her friends must solve the mystery and try to put things right. But one by one, her allies are turning on her... even the ones she trusts most.

Bite Club

After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble. There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare- knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other-or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire—accompanied by her friends and frenemies—to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville

Last Breath

There is a question Claire has long been asking: why do vampires live so far out in a sunny desert when they're sensitive to sunlight? The reason doesn't have to do with sunlight but water - and an ancient enemy who has finally found a way to invade the vampires' landlocked community. Vampires aren't the top predator on earth. There's something worse that preys on them ...something much worse. Which means if Claire, and Morganville, want to live, they will have to fight on to the last breath. With her boss preoccupied researching the Founder Houses in Morganville, Claire is left to her own devices when she learns that three vampires have vanished without a trace. She soon discovers that the last person seen with one of the missing vampires is someone new to town-a mysterious individual named Magnus. After an uneasy encounter with Morganville's latest resident, Claire is certain Magnus isn't merely human. But is he a vampire-or something else entirely?

Black Dawn

When a tide of ferocious draug, the vampire's deadliest enemy, floods Morganville, its eclectic mix of residents must fight to save their town from devastation. Chaos has taken over the quiet college town of Morganville as the threat of the draug rapidly spreads with the help of the city's water system. Whilst most of the locals have already fled, student Claire Danvers and her friends Shane, Eve and Michael choose to stay and fight. Things take a turn for the worse when vampire Amelie, the town's founder, is infected by the master draug's bite. Unless Claire and her friends can find an antidote to save Amelie and overcome the draug, Morganville's future looks bleak...

Bitter Blood

Thanks to the eradication of the draug, the vampires of Morganville have been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town’s human population is determined to hold onto their lives by taking up arms. But college student Claire Danvers isn’t taking sides, considering she has ties to both humans and vampires. To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville looking for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news…or worse.

Fall Of Night

Thanks to its unique mix of human and vampire residents, Morganville, Texas, is a small college town with big-time problems. But it isn't the only town with vampire trouble ...Claire never thought she'd leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate course at MIT, she can't pass up the opportunity. Saying goodbye to her friends, especially her boyfriend Shane, is bittersweet, and her new life at MIT is both scary and exciting. Enrolled in a special advanced study programme with Professor Irene Anderson, former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on VLAD, her machine designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires. But Morganville and its inhabitants are never really far from Claire's mind. When she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire begins to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she'll ever make ...

Daylighters

Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier than they've ever seen it before, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated - vampires from humans - they realise that the changes definitely aren't for the better. It seems that an organisation called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they've never had: hope of a vampire-free future. And while it sounds like salvation - even for the vampires themselves - the truth is far more sinister and deadly. Now, Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end ...

Midnight Bites

Six brand-new stories from the author of the bestselling Morganville Vampires. This edition sees all of Caine's Morganville short stories featured in one edition, for the first time.

END OF COPIED CONTENTS

According to the press, the last book (Midnight Bites) will only be released March 2016 and I will probable read it as soon as it comes out ... I actually have a contact that always gets the latest of books in ebook format then I get to read it before it hits the shelves.

just another day in paradise mixed with "what to expect when expecting" and parenting - ;-)

Greeted with light rain this morning when we left the house was the first sign that this day is going to suck ... There is no other weather perfect for staying indoors, lying under the blankies with a nice steamy romance novel ... and if the reading gets too much on the eyes, you move to the couch and watch a movie ...

But off to work we go after dropping kids at school ... 

These steps are getting harder and harder to climb every day - with a 34 week preggy belly these steps are killing me.  One would think that climbing them up and down several times a day every day since I fell pregnant that it would actually get easier as the pregnancy but trust me - it wears you out...

Before you even had a proper start to your day, you are exhausted and you just want to go home ... 

All the pregnancy books tell you that regular exercise makes it easier - hell no - you need energy for the exercise first of all - and you cant get the energy since you are exhausted all the time and when you try sleep you are over tired and then still wake up all funny hours of the morning for a full bladder and then in some cases the nausea... 

I been extremely lucky in that department since my better half has been getting the cravings, morning sickness and nausea all day ... I just have this unbearable exhaustion and extreme heartburn - no cravings, no morning sickness.  I would have to lie if I had to explain what morning sickness feels like.

Apart from the symptoms that my darling hubby has been getting - he has packed on a few kg's (he is very self conscious about it) although it is only about 3 or 4 kg's ... and he eats the most outrageous combinations ... he would make himself a toast and egg, but spread the toast with jam first before putting the egg on top ... choc vermicelli and hundreds&thousands sprinkled over his cereal...  a packet of mini liquorice all sorts emptied into a tub of choc chip yogurt ... really very weird when you are the one carrying the baby but someone else acting on the symptoms ... 

We usually joke about it saying he is the pregnant one and I am just the surrogate carrying the baby.

Most men also could not care much about their partners being pregnant. Im not saying they are not excited and happy about it, but they respond to everything else in a normal way as they do every other day.  

In my experience - I have a very helpful partner, we both work full time and normally share duties and responsibilities (he just doesn't cook "normally"). 

He wont let me hang washing (since stretching isnt good for me and the lines are too high) so only times I get to do this is if I happen to be off on a day he works or he works the late shift.

He runs my bath water for me - and he never forgets to bring my towel gown and slippers through to the bathroom.

He does cook (despite his "I don't cook" belief) when he can see I have had a rough day. The kids love his Mince on Toast ... and I have heard them tell him he makes it better than me and when I walk in they pretend they said nothing. :-) 

He sweeps and vacuums. 

He does the ironing while he watches sport channel. 

This girl has absolutely no reason for complains ... and I won't complain. I am spoilt rotten and I would never be able to cope without him. No other man would be so helpful especially when he works longer hours than you do. I have found an extremely rare treasure and I plan to keep him forever as my life would serve absolutely no purpose if he is not in it.

He is like one of those people you meet and you ask yourself "how on earth did I survive up till now without knowing him/her" - the type that you wish you had met sooner in life ... and boy don't I ask myself the same thing often ... 

Our kids are high achievers academically and superstars in my eyes - they are my pride and joy.

I have 6 beautiful kids and some people see this as "torture" and say "poor you".

I have 6 times the love and hugs and kisses returned back to me than what those have with only 1 child. So in a nutshell I am blessed, not punished ...

Well, enough for today - will be back with another post later

My first blog - Introduction as well as my totally failed search for income opportunities

Well, I would like to do a slight "introduction" of myself before i tell about my experience in trying to find "work from home" opportunities  ... I'm a 36 year old, full time working mom, with a good mix of toddlers and teenagers and a husband I would not think of trading for the world.  I am nearly at the end of my pregnancy with our first child together and we have received the news already at our 5 month scan that it is definitely a boy we are expecting.  We have picked out his name since before we knew the sex of baby and have been stocking up on all sorts of goodies to make sure everything is ready for baby's arrival.

My wonderful husband has been doing even more baby shopping than I have and has been trying everything in his power to make everything as easy as possible for me during the pregnancy. He has been helping around the house by doing washing, ironing, dishes, just to name the least and has been making sure the kids all understand which chores is theirs to do daily ... they get paid for this of course (no chance of free labour in our household).  Since we taught the kids to start saving and opened them each a savings account it has made them more determined to "earn" and save.

They sometimes need a little nudge in the right direction when they slack on chores but a simple reminder of how much they earn weekly on the chores does help a bit.

With the loving and helpful family we have I could seriously not ask for much better than I already have. The kids are very excited about the arrival of a new baby brother and the fact that it will be so close to Christmas just increases the excitement even more.

They have helped so much with most of the smaller preparations (eg. washing all the clothes, packing according to sizes, helping to pack mommy and baby's hospital bags).

Then there is also the constant arguing in-between over who will be bathing baby, who will be doing the feeding and changing nappies (even who gets to take baby to school with them and pack baby's lunchbox for school).

When we decorated cupcakes on Sunday I was asked a series of embarrassing questions as to how and why of being pregnant, the growing process and the birthing process ... since they are only between 6-8 yrs old, it made for a whole lot of imagination and even more so a lot of laughs and giggles when they started explaining in their opinion how it all happens. I never realized how wild someones imagination can go when pushed to the limits.

To get down to my experience with searching for an additional income - this is my opinion on how wrong the world of "opportunities" are.

Ok now, I have been trying to search for ideas on making extra income since I will be going on maternity leave in less than a month and rather dreading the idea of not having a solid income for the time being on leave since our lovely government pays a very small percentage out to Maternity UIF and a whole lot of other aspects that has been boggling my mind.

But to get more to the point I got fed up... every single page you click is full of promises of how to make extra cash and I seriously doubt that I would ever be able to convince myself to take the risk of investing the amounts they require to get the "info" on how to become an internet millionaire ...

If they all been getting so rich with the whole idea thing, then why still try rip people off to pay for the info.

Survey sites gives me the creeps ... too much info they requesting and you get halfway through a 30min survey then get the page that says "sorry, you do not fall into the category we require" or "we are looking for someone with a certain interest and apologize for the inconvenience"

I have done so many of those already and found only one site that pays yet it takes a very long time to make some money out of it but at least it is real money and I have been paid out a couple of times.
Now majority (or more actually ALL these other random survey sites) require you to do your "registration" and then once you registered it wants ID Number and Address, etc ... now that to me is rather scary - especially when Identity Theft is at such a huge rise lately - and besides the info they need - you have to then sign up to a whole lot of other random survey sites (panels) in order to start getting surveys ...

And has anyone noticed how your spam box keeps growing and growing uncontrollably after you registered at just one of these places.
Because majority of them take your info : for example Name, Region, email, cell nr - and stick you into a geographical database (your interests helps them too coz then they also categorize you under specific interests) and this info gets sold to other companies

Say an online casino wants to target specific people in a certain region but wants to get to people with a certain interest in casino's or gambling - they would specify what interest groups they want and buy off your info ... and no it is not a BS story - I have bought people's email addresses from such marketing companies before to target a specific group of people with an interest in my products when I worked in the marketing field.

Another make money from home scam is to do "data typing work" - for most housewives this seems to be the ideal work from home idea since lets face it - woman all commonly know how to type and those who dont can learn very quickly... How many stay at home moms wouldnt love the possibilities to be doing some typing work while kids are napping or after housework is done and waiting for food to finish cooking and then still earn a few rands from it ... now the adverts always promise you BIG BUX ... but ever wondered why those people advertise in the classifieds and dont just "pay for a bigger advert" with all the BIG BUX they are making ... now after alot of careful consideration and temptation i decided to try this about 6 or so years back (yes this has been going for many years and no one has stopped them as yet) ... Here is what the application and work entails :

You respond to the advert, get a reply that says you have to pay R500 odd (just a random amount) to the person's bank account and then they will send you the info to get started right away.
You pay the R500 and yes they send you the info (in most cases i guess)

The "no experience needed" and "need internet access and PC" ..
You Copy & Paste the exact same advert that they had advertised (the one you responded to) into any random classifieds sites online, you can forward it to your friends (or to a targeted group that you buy off of those marketing people that sell email addresses of people who all ticked "work from home" and "income opportunities" on their interest list) - you just in turn add your contact number and email.

and then you wait - you have done the "Internet access and PC needed" part of the work

You will then also start reeling in other suckers who just like you think they will have such a nice income generating by doing some easy typing work from home ...
You in turn reply to their email (THAT'S THE TYPING PART OF THE WORK - that you don't need much experience for) and you tell them to pay the amount and you will forward them the "package to get them started right away"

To me - that is stealing other peoples money - not helping others to make a living working from home
It is a scam and it is growing even more uncontrollably by the day. Especially with so many desperate people seeking an additional income to try make ends meet and also so many people trying to find an alternative to block the holes until they can find permanent employment somewhere.

Another favourite of mine is idea everyone has that Blogging will make them rich - Yeah Right!!!
you cant just ramble down any bit of junk and next week you have millions in the bank ...

I have read up on alot of the "how to make money through blogging" and dont get me wrong - you definitely can make money on blogging in my opinion if you put a lot of time into it and definitely alot of work too.

From my personal understanding of the countless informative articles I have read on "making an income through blogging" I think with the right content and the right affiliate advertising (stuff people actually want to see) you will be able to make a few extra rands but I highly doubt that you would make hundreds or especially thousands of rands just through blogging.

I would think the main aim for blogging is to share info, let blow off some steam after a heavy workday and especially if you are a loner that doesn't really have a reliable shoulder to dump all your problems on at the moment and since blogging is public you do have the opinion of others helping you along, giving advice and just also being there and understanding that they are not alone in this cruel careless world we live in.

My idea behind my blog, is to start being able to let out my thoughts and opinions and at the same time knowing that those who want to read it is welcome to do so and those who are not interested in my blog will simply just not read it ...

Although no one could ever say they wouldn't welcome making some extra cash for doing nothing but to bargain on starting a blog and thinking cash is going to stream in is just way to naive...