Another great children’s book to get this holiday season is Tim and Sallys Beach Adventure. The first thing you will notice that the lines in the his book rhyme. I think that helps keep my kids attention, because they really like this book. Madison is always talking about going to the beach, so reading about the beach was right up her alley.  This is not a long book.  However, it is broken up into sections such as “They Get Started” and “They Are In Sight of The Beach”, so you can easily break down this story into several sections (and several nights of reading).  You get to read about swimming in the ocean, the animals that inhabit the beach, the tide, and sandcastle just to name a few things.  I really like the word list at the end of the book.  It has a pictures of key things in the story like bathing suits and crabs.  Then underneath the picture they have the word.  Since we are working with Madison with reading and sounding out, this is perfect for us.  It makes it a lot easier for her to sound out the word if she has a clue what the word is.

If you want a great story, Tim And Sallys Beach Adventure is a book you need to get at your house.  Mom and dad will enjoy it just as much at the kids.

I recently came across another item that falls along the lines of “why didn’t I think of that?”. The mom who came up with the Parking Pal, in my opinion, is a genius.  The Parking Pal is a circular magnet with a child size hand print in the center.  When you put it on your car/van/vehicle, you child puts they hand on their, and it keeps them safe while you load or unload your vehicle.  Being that I don’t have a driveway and we park on the street a lot with the minivan, I love that this keeps Madison safe.  I’ll be honest, when we first used it, I was completely surprised by something.  Madison knew what I wanted her to do without telling her.  She knew that I wanted her to stand there with her hand on the magnet while I was loading the car.  I love that this is intuitive enough that she just knew what was expected.  This has also been a hit with other moms.  They all wanted to know where I got this from, and all thought it was a great idea.  Now, the Parking Pal does come in several designs to pick from — everything from soccer balls, to fish, to flowers.  There is definitely something for your kids that you can get on there.  The Parking Pal will run you about $7.99.  However, $8 is well worth insuring my daughter’s safety.

Need an awesome present for your pet this year?  Need a gift for a pet lover in your life?  If so, you definitely need to check out Big Paw Designs.  First, they have really cute collar charms and they are around $10.  They are made with in the US with lead free pewter.  They also have Rescue Mom and Rescue Dad car magnets.  These too are made in the US, are removable, and UV fade resistant. They even have pet stickers! One of my favorite things on this site has to be this:

Now, tell me that isn’t the cutest stocking you have every seen.  After checking out this site, I want to get a pet just so I can use a lot of the really nice, really cute stuff that I found.  There are a ton of designs to pick from, so there is definitely something for everyone.  Now, I know you are wanting something from here as much as I do, so I have been able to arrange that one of my readers will get a $15 gift certificate for Big Paw Designs!

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know what you would spend this gift certificate on over at Big Paw Designs.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

</p> <div><a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" alt="Lisa Reviews" border="0"></a></div> <p>

This giveaway will end on November 21st at 8:00 pm. Good luck!

I personally have a lot of outdoor plants. I was actually outside cutting down a lot of my dead plants today. Since I am allergic to life itself, (Yes, you may laugh at that statement. However, I was allergy tested, and I was allergic to every single thing they tested me for,) I always wear gloves when doing any sort of yard work. I love my Ethel Gloves. First, I have super small hands. I never can find gloves that are 4 sizes too big.  However, these gloves fit like a charm (they also come in several sizes, so if you have bigger hands, they will fit you too).  Second, I love the feel of them.  The inside of these are super soft, so they actually feel nice to wear.  They also have elastic around the wrists.  For me, that is heaven sent, because when I am pulling weeds and dead plants out, I always get dirt into my gloves (which negates the use of the gloves most of the time).  With Ethel Gloves, I did not have that problem.  What is the thing I love most about these?  They are machine washable!

This definitely makes an awesome gift to the woman in your life if she does any sort of gardening outside.  We are always looking for fashionable gloves that fit well and do the job we need them to.  Ethel Gloves fits all of the above, so she’ll love them!

How many times do your find yourself having a really bad day and would love something that would turn that around? How many times do you find yourself getting down on yourself?  A lot of how we feel has to do with our mindset and the Fl!p Your Thinking cards try to turn that around for you.  The cards are small and easily fit on your key chain.  They have affirming saying on them that help you to reverse your negative thinking.  For example, the very first card says “I am not ALONE” and on the back, it says “I am CONNECTED”.  After going through several of these cards, I personally feel more of an inner peace.  I love that is so easy to thrown in your purse, in your pocket, or even on your keychain.  I also love how a few cards can make you feel better about yourself, your day, and the world in general.  Each of these sets of flashcards also have 3 cards that you can but your own thoughts and statements on.  At $14.95, these make an excellent stocking stuff for just about anyone in your life.

Do you own an iPod? I do, and my biggest complaint is that I don’t always have a something to plug it into to listen. I don’t always want to use my headphone. Most of the docking stations that are out there are both expensive and huge. Most people, including myself, don’t have room for those. I also don’t want to be having to carry my docking station from room to room either. The Orbit is the answer. It weights less than 7 oz yet sounds just as good as any speaker you’ve ever used. It easily fits into a large pocket. It connects to iPods, MP3 players, laptops, and even has a 2.5 mm adapter for use with mobile phones! You don’t have to worry about having to find a plugin either — it takes just three AAA batteries which allow for up to 24 hours of straight playtime.

In my house, we use this in the kitchen.  I don’t have a lot of counter space, so we wanted something that was little yet still sounded good.  For us, the Orbit works perfect.  I love that I can easily take it into the living room with me too.  For a speaker this small, it has incredible sound.  It is actually quite impressive.  It even comes with a travel carrying case, so you can take this everywhere you go!  This makes both a great gift for yourself or any music lover you know!

For the last year, I have been in the process of converting all of our CDs into MP3 and saving them to the computer.  We have a lot of CDs, so it is something that is taking me a lot of time.  The sad part is that I still have half of our CD collection to still do.  This is where companies like AbundaTrade come in.  They take your new and used cds and copy them for you.  They make it ten times easier for you.

Now, once you have your CD collection as MP3s for your ipod or mp3 player, what are you going to do with those old CDs?  Now, AbundaTrade.com will buy them from you (they also buy books and DVDs too).  You give them a list of the CDs you have, and they tell you which ones they want. You then box up your CDs and send them in. The great thing is that AbundaTrade.com will send you the necessary materials to box and ship your trade-ins!  Now, you then take your credits and are able to shop on their site for a ton of things.  They have everything from TVs to cameras to a PS3.  If they don’t have the electronic item on their site that you want, you can let them know, and they will see if they can get it!  I love to be able to make extra money without really having to do anything extra.  This is an awesome way to get the CDs you no longer use out of your house and give you some extra cash for either yourself or Christmas!