This giveaway is now closed.

A couple of months ago I won a 16×20 poster print of any picture I wanted. I chose a picture of Seiuli with his surfboard in Hawaii. It turned out so great! I just told Sei the other nite that when we take pictures on vacation I want to get a few enlarged. I am so excited!! I think the summer is one of the best time to catch great pictures. I know I’ve already caught a few:

About Online Poster Printing
Online Poster Printing specializes in printing high-quality posters using premium materials. We offer a money back guarantee on all our products, such as photo canvas prints, vinyl banners, wall stickers, and rolled or mounted poster prints.

Do you have an awesome summer pic you’d love to have enlarged?? Now’s your chance!!  OnlinePosterPrinting.com is  offering a free 16×20 Gallery or Museum Wrapped Canvas Print for one of my readers to win.

It’s super easy to enter:

MAIN ENTRY:

• Leave me a comment telling me what picture you’d love to have made into a 16 x 20 print.

Bonus entries: 

•  Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway. Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet. You can retweet daily for more entries!
• Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave me a link where to find it.
• Subscribe to my blog. You WANT to do this because I have giveaways often. You don’t wanna miss out! Leave me a comment letting me know you subscribed or are already a subscriber.
• Stumble this post, Fave me on Technorati, link this on Facebook… each one is worth one more entry. Leave a seperate comment for each. You can relink on FB daily for more entries. Make sure to comment again!

This giveaway ends July 31.  

Disclaimers: Giveaway is open to US/CAN residents. Shipping of prizes is not included and must be paid by winner. Online Poster Printing reserves the right not to print obscene or offensive materials.  All designs submitted in the form of a giveaway may be used by Online Poster Printing for online marketing and promotional uses. The designs will be used solely as examples and will not be printed or commercially distributed.

We spend a lot of time at the pool. If Sei is off during the day, he takes the kids. If he’s working, I take them after the kids I babysit are gone. Livie LOVES the water. She has no fear. Taj was the same way. He was full blown swimming with no floaties or help last summer when he was 4. Well, Livie is very independent and competitive so she’s been swimming sans floaties this month- at age 3. Impressive? Yes. Scary? Yes. Now she wants to go to the pool without her floaties. Yeah… that’s not gonna happen. Not this summer. I still get nervous with Taj because he loves to swim underwater picking up dive sticks, but everytime he disappears to find them I get nervous because I can’t see him. It’s kinda funny because I want my kids to know how to swim, but makes me nervous once they know how. Am I weird? Yeah, don’t answer that.

I love the summer. It’s awesome. I love hanging out at the pool. I love the heat. I love wearing flip flops and shorts. I would LOVE to live by the beach. I do not, however, love swimsuit shopping. I am a big fan of coverups!!

I never wear a swimsuit. I mean, I DO but I wear board shorts as well. Swimsuits just are unflattering on my “baby got back” body. But I have found that shopping online is much more appealing. I bought my swimsuit/board shorts online this year and got to try it on in the privacy of MY bathroom with MY mirror and MY lighting. And I loved it. THAT was a first! It’s cute, black with blue. It  covers my booty, yet doesn’t LOOK like I’m trying to cover anything up. It’s super cute, so I was pleased with my shopping experience. Much better than trying on things at the store, bringing it back to the customer service person and telling them, “Thanks, but it doesn’t fit.”

What do you hate shopping for? Jeans? Swimsuits? Anything and everything? Do you shop online at all?

I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE the summer. I LOVE the heat. Right now Uprinting is wanting to find the best summer photo out there. They are offering $250 in prize money and (yes, there’s more!!) a free 16×20″ Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print!

I love Uprinting. They are a sponsor of this blog and of my Eazy Mealz blog. They are also the company that provided my awesome 16 x 20 print of Seiuli that I won a while back. It’s perfect!  UPrinting.com is a leading online provider of business cards, color brochures and mailing postcards.

This pic is one of my absolute favorite. We took it last summer. We’re going to be taking more awesome pics on our vacation in July, but this one…. Wow, I love my kiddos… all 7 of them.

This giveaway is now closed.

When I was younger I remember going to see the circus. I was amazed at the trapeze artists, a lil freaked out by the clowns and thought the animals were amazing!  And now… YAY- the circus is coming to town!!! I’m a little bummed I won’t be able to go opening nite because my family will be on vacation… but don’t let that stop YOUR family from going!! The best circus around: Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey Over the Top circus will be coming to Dallas/Fort Worth starting July 29.

** I have an awesome coupon code that you can use for four tickets for a cheap $44, any additional tickets are still priced at $11.  You can purchase your tickets at Ticket Master. The code is…. MOM! Yep, type in MOM and you get the discounted price.

Just for purchasing a ticket you are invited to the Animal Open House & Preshow. It begins at 6:00pm. During this time you can actually go down to the circus floor to meet the performers & animals and have a ton of circus fun!

But there’s MORE.  Yes- MORE. Because I am a Dallas Activator for Feld Entertainment  thru Mom Central, I get to host a super awesome giveaway. I have a Family 4 pack of tickets to opening night, Wednesday July 29, in Dallas! Is that not awesome?!?! So, if you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area or will be in the area on opening nite then you  MUST enter this giveaway!!

I’ve made it super easy to enter. 

***For your main entry, just comment letting me know what you love about the circus and who you’d love to take if you win the 4-pack.***

For extra entries:

1. Subscribe to updates. It’s right up there in the rightside corner.
2. Link to this giveaway on Facebook.
3. Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway @swampbrat76. Comment here letting me know you tweeted @swampbrat76. **You can also RE-tweet this everyday and earn another entry.
4. Blog about this giveaway and link to this post.  This will earn you TWO entries. Make sure you leave me TWO comments with links to the post.
5. Email atleast 3 of your friends in the DFW area about this giveaway and include a link to this post. BCC or CC me a copy of the email at: Tori (at) swampbrat (.) net

**This giveaway will end Tuesday, July 21! If you win I will contact you via email and will need to hear back from you within 48 hours. If not I will have to pick another winner. The winner will need to bring a picture ID to pick up their tickets at the Ticket Will Call booth.

**For more chances to win, visit Brandy at Not So Average Mama. She’s hosting a circus giveaway as well!!

This weekend we hung out a lot as a family. Taj wanted to see some ducks and feed them. We went in search of ducks at a local park. Unfortunately the ducks were no longer hangin out at their usual hot spot. So we improvised and fed the birds. I have this cool new Vado from Newbaby.com that I love to use. So, here I was, the innocent mamarazzi trying to film her sweet kiddos when we had a little… “Boys will be boys” incident…

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Y’all gon’a make me lose my mind up in HERE, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me go all out up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me act a FOOL up in HERE, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me lose my cool up in here, up in here

(DMX – Party Up)

Let me preface this post by saying – I love Taj and Liv. I do. They are awesome and I am so thankful to have them. The summer Tristan, Alec and Isabel went to Texas and I was pregnant with Taj was the worst summer ever. I didn’t know what to do. I was bored to tears, lonely, and fat. I am so thankful I have Tajy and Livie & I don’t ever have to send them away to anyone for visitation. They’re awesome. But holy crap- I had forgotten what it’s like to have 2 small children- and no older ones. I’m so used to having and 3 year old and 17 month old at home during the day. But at 3pm I kinda get a break because the older kids come home from school. I take Izzy to gymnastics and can run to the grocery store without taking the little ones with me. There’s other kids home to take Taj outside to ride his bike, jump on the trampoline, play Transformers, etc…

The last 5 weeks with the older ones are gone…ugh. There is no 3pm break time. Whaa. I am so glad I only have 6 days until my kiddos come home. I am so bored. Sooooooooooo bored. And not motivated to do anything. (Except blog, but that’s important!) I don’t wanna cook dinner. I don’t wanna clean the house. I don’t wanna go outside- even with our new beautiful yard. I just wanna stay inside, drink diet Dr. Pepper, and sit on my butt. Could I be a little depressed? Quite possibly…
I’ve tried to be proactive and force myself out of the house. I signed Taj up for swim lessons and he absolutely loves it. Livie and I are taking a Mom & Me class. Holy Gay!! I feel so stupid singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” as we walk along the pool wall. And Livie senses the gayness because she screams the entire time. Not because she’s scared of the water, but because she wants me to put her down. Since we’re in 3 feet water I can’t put her down. We’ve left “class” everyday early to play in the shallow water. She’s in heaven. But then she goes psycho when it’s time to leave. So, yeah, that’s always fun.
The kids come back next Thursday. They fly in a little after noon and then Kelsea and Karlea arrive about 3 hours later. So, we’ll go from 2 to 7 kids. And I am SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT! Am I crazy? Maybe. I’m realizing that I’m just a lame little kid mom now. With the 1st three I didn’t know how awesome it could be to have older kids, so I rocked at being a little kid mom. We went to the library. We played at McDonalds. I made felt books! (When you read that say it like Lloyd on Dumb and Dumber “Our pets heads are fallin’ off!!) Yeah, well, I don’t know what happened to that mom. She got old I guess. Or figured out you could just buy felt books. You don’t have to make them…

With school letting out and hot weather coming (or in some cases it’s already here!!) I want to take this time to share some statistics with you. I’m not trying to depress or scare anyone, just to raise awareness.

~ In 2000, there were 3,482 unintentional drownings in the United States, an average of nine people per day.(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

~ It is estimated that for each drowning death, there are 1 to 4 nonfatal submersions serious enough to result in hospitalization. Children who still require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the time they arrive at the emergency department have a poor prognosis, with at least half of survivors suffering significant neurologic impairment. (American Academy of Pediatrics)

~ Drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related death among children under the age of 15. (U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

~ 19% of drowning deaths involving children occur in public pools with certified lifeguards present.(Drowning Prevention Foundation)

~ A swimming pool is 14 times more likely than a motor vehicle to be involved in the death of a child age 4 and under. (Orange County California Fire Authority)

~ Children under five and adolescents between the ages of 15-24 have the highest drowning rates. (U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

~ An estimated 5,000 children ages 14 and under are hospitalized due to unintentional drowning-related incidents each year; 15 percent die in the hospital and as many as 20 percent suffer severe, permanent neurological disability. (National Safety Council)

~ Of all preschoolers who drown, 70 percent are in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning and 75 percent are missing from sight for five minutes or less. (Orange County, CA, Fire Authority)

~ The majority of children who survive (92 percent) are discovered within two minutes following submersion,and most children who die (86 percent) are found after10 minutes. Nearly all who require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) die or are left with severe braininjury. (National Safe Kids Campaign)

I have signed Taj up for swimming lessons and recently purchased a video thru a friend that demonstrates how to teach young children to swim. I want to do all I can to prevent a tragic accident. We all have different people that read our blogs. Let’s get the word out and keep our babies safe.