Bill and I had went a saw Hellboy II:  The Golden Army on Friday night.  My goal is not to give out any spoilers with this review.  If you saw Hellboy and like it, you will love Hellboy II.  However, if you thought the first one was cheesy, you’ll think this one is too.  The story is that the the mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth.  Hellboy and his team must stop them to save us. Obviously, some of these characters are going to have wanted to buy some term insurance on their lives, since they don’t make it out alive (don’t worry, I won’t tell you who!)  The plot was good.  However, it was pretty predictible.  I had guessed the ending half way through the movie (and yes, I had guessed it right).  There were a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.  The special effects were awesome.  The humor was great too.  After seeing this movie though, you’ll never think of the tooth fairy the same again (okay, one little sort of spoiler).  Personally, I would have waited to see this on video. However, my husband was glad we saw it in the theater.

I again ordered from this awesome company, and really, I can’t get over how great they are.  I placed on order on Tuesday afternoon to get thank you cards for Will’s birthday (I know, a tad late, but better late than never).  First, there was so much to pick from it was hard to decide. Once I picked a card, I was even able to pick how many photos I wanted in there and what way they were facing (landscape or portrait). I only wanted three photos, and I even had a couple of choices from there. Now, if i was in the pictures, I would have wanted to take a little Orovo detox first. However, it was just him, so it turned out super cute. Including shipping, I paid less than $20 for custom thank you cards. How can you go wrong with that?  It took me about 15 minutes to design my cards, and they were ready for pickup at my local CVS Thursday afternoon.  A Tuesday to Thursday turnaround in awesome!

I would highly recommend Kodak Gallery to anyone looking to make some custom cards.  They even have custom gifts that you can do too!  The prices are right, the quality is excellent, and the turnaround can’t be beat.  Here’s a sneak peak at the card we did:

Pretty awesome is all I have to say.

I am all for saving money.  What woman doesn’t want to save a couple of bucks when she is shopping?  Nowadays, most of us have moved our shopping online and love coupon codes.  FindSavings.com is a great place to get your coupon codes to save yourself a couple of bucks.  You can easily find what you are looking for.  On the left sidebar, you can search for your coupon either by using the category list or the store list.  On the right sidebar, you can see all the new coupons that have been added into their system.  The middle column has all of your featured deals.  I personally am loving the HP Home Store Offers.  Our HP desktop that we have now was custom built in 2000, and it still works!  However, it is a tad slow compared to my laptop (which I bought in January).  I had been thinking that we should do another custom built cpu, and I just found a coupon for $400 off!  They even have coupon codes for my most favorite store:  Best Buy.  I can definitely always spend my hard earned money there.  What is my favorite part of this site?  I can sign up to get an email with the latest codes.  Who wouldn’t want ways to save money sitting in their email?  I know I am signing up for a couple of these coupon emails with my favorite stores.  If you are looking for a one stop shop for your coupons, FindSavings.com is it.

I don’t often products that I fall in love with the first day I have them. However, it was love at first sight with this laptop cooling stand.  I spend a lot of time on my laptop, and anyone who has a laptop knows how hot they get on the bottom.  I actually have a burn mark from my laptop on my leg (and yes I am serious, I really do).  I have been trying to find something, anything that would help me out.  This cooling stand is exactly what I was looking for.  The size of the cooling stand is perfect.  It adds a small amount of height to your laptop and that’s it.  My favorite part is that the fan is run by the USB port on your laptop.  I saw many versions of these cooling stands that made you plug it in to get it to work.  Personally, I have a laptop, so I am not tethered to the wall.  Why would I want a device that makes me stuck in one spot?  The fan cools down the bottom of the laptop, and it almost feels like your legs have their own air conditioner.  If you are having laptop heating issues like I was, I highly recomment one of these cooling stands.

Charlie the Can-do Choo-choo! is one of those books that you have to buy for all the little boys that you know.  Will got it for his birthday, and it is one of the coolest books I have seen for a long time.  Charlie the Can-do Choo-choo! is about having optimism and knowing that you can do whatever you set your mind too.  The part that impressed me was that this book is not like a normal book.  The book opens up like a train on the tracks. On one side, you have the story;  on the other side, you have pictures and lights.  When you press the train’s nose, the train lights up throughout the book.  Both  my 4 year old and my 1 year love to play with this book.  I have never seen two kids have so much fun with a book before!

If you are in need of web hosting, you definitely need to check out Web Hosting Geeks. They have the ten best hosting sites on the web on their site, and why they think they are the best. You are able to view monthly prices and any bonus features that the host offers. This site makes it extremely easy to compare apples to apples. I’m glad to see my host, Bluehost, tops their list off. I have to agree with their five star rating. I can only stress how much I love their support staff. The other thing I like is that you can also see customer reviews and you can even put your own review on here! I should put my own review on there. If you look along their sidebar, you are able to sort the hosts out by hosting awards and reviews too. I looked at the last ten reviews and found one on IPowerWeb, that made me giggle. To quote, “Nowadays, though, the new servers are SSLLOOWW… it’s as though they’re channeling Twitter or something.” Now, that makes me really not want to use their service, and that’s the beauty of this site — you are getting real people reviews.

If you need hosting, you should definitely check out Web Hosting Geeks before you decide.

As you all know, I love reviewing kids books and kids toys on here.  With having a 4 year old and a 1 year old, I have great product testers, and I really get to see how products hold up.  That being said, at my house, we have been playing with the Nana Star books and plushies, and we have a winner at my house.

Before I go to far into the books, I need to give you a little background on how Nana Star came about (and I got a little teary-eyed myself when I found this all out).  The authors of this series of books are Elizabeth Sills and Elena Patrice.  The illustrator is Linda Saker.  The original creator of Nana Star is Elizabeth Owens (Elizabeth and Elena’s grandmother and Linda’s mother).  She had a grandson named Vance  that she made up Moonman and Nana Star for.  When he moved away, she often sent him hand made cards with her characters, so he always knew she was with him.  Unfortunately, Vance now “dances with the stars“, but she has allowed us into her fantasy world, so our children can have that sense of belonging too.

The first thing I have to do is warn you. You need to read the Nana Star book first. Trust me, it all makes more sense if you do (**blush** won’t tell you how I figured that out). This is a truly entertaining book. Not only can I read it to my kids, there is a CD that comes with it.  When you listen to the CD, make sure you get comfortable.  They have really awesome background music behind the narrator.  There is also an additional song on there.  Madison was singing along after the first time listening to the songs.

The other really cool thing that they do with these books is that they have a Nana Star’s Little Twinkles Club.  On purpose, they have a spellling mistake in the book.  You are able to write them and tell them what the mistake was, and you can then join the Twinkles Club!  This is such a cute idea to engage their little readers.

The second book we read and listened to was Nana Star and the Moonman. Now, in the first book, we learned that a little star fell out of the sky was looking for her Nana. Now, the second book is the start of the journey the little girl (Nana Star) takes to help the little star get home. I truly can see this being an awesome series of books. As an adult, I’m wondering what happens next.  The other nice thing is that the CDs that come with the books are held by a pocket that is attached to the book.  You don’t have to worry about losing the CDs.

Now, I highly recommend these books.  Madison was engaged with them.  The thing I noticed and loved about the books themselves (besides the CD pocket) was that the paper is a thicker paper.  It does not rip easily which is a huge problem normally in my house.  You also get a bookmark with each book.  Amazingly, we don’t actually own any bookmarks, so it is a welcome addition in our house.  I also like that I am not the only one who thinks these products are great.  They have gotten numerous awards including Mr. Dad Seal of Approval and Great Dad Recommends Awards, Nominated by Mom’s Choice Award® for Most Inspirational Story, and iParenting Media Award for Excellent Products of 2007.

Not only did we try out the books, we even had some fun with the plushies that they offer.  Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what to expect.  I really am not good with measurements and figuring out how big things really are.  However, this Moonman was quite a bit larger than I expected!

Now, if you push on Moonman’s belly, his head lights up and it plays a lullaby (which you can kinda tell with my picture of Will and Moonman).  Will likes walking around with him (and let me add that is kissing him not biting him in the second picture!).

Now, this Nana Star plushy is a huge hit with both kids.  Its cute, easy to carry, and even has bloomers on under the skirt (yes, I checked).  Madison immediately made the connection between the doll and the books.  She talks about Nana Star quite often now.  You can also tell that this is not a small doll either.

If you need a great children’s gift, this is the way to go.  The books are for 3-7 years olds and they have such a postivie message.  In some of the books to come, they will learn about good manners and courtesy, friendship and fun, and giving and sharing just to name a few.  Now, if you’d like to win a copy of these books and plushies for yourself, they are running an awesome contest.  All you need to do is comment on their Got Lemons post and tell a story about how you turned lemons into lemonade.  The best story they get by July 7th will win you a copy of the books and they will also donate a copy of the books to your favorite school, childcare center, library, children’s hospital, or doctor’s office.  How awesome is that?