The Discovery Channel is awesome.  I have another show on there you have to watch.  It’s called When We Left Earth, and it is all about the space program.  You get to watch the real footage from when man first went into space, and when he went to the moon.  I know the next show is going to show the Challenger mission.  The reason I find this so interesting is that I wasn’t even born in the time frame of the first two shows.  It is one thing to read the history in a book; it is another to actually see it unfold in front of you.  You can feel the tention in the room while you are waiting to see if they actually make it into space.  They even interview the people involved now to tell you what they thought back then.  The technology they had back then (there was no such thing as dell memory chips) is just mindblowing. It is hard that they made it into space with what they had.  I accidentally caught this one night, and I am glad I did.

One of Madison’s favorite toys is the LeapFrog Leapster TV Learning System. Now, if you read the reviews on this either you love it or hate it. The biggest complaint is that the graphics stink. Well, I agree. The graphics aren’t the greatest. However, I have a 4 year old who really doesn’t care about that. She loves the playing the games, and I love that the games are educational. She is learning and doesn’t even realize it. The other part that I love is that all the Leapster games work in here. Right now, this is the only Leapster system we have. However, we have been eyeing up the handhelds ones for the long car rides to Green Bay. The fact that those same games will work in here is a huge plus for us. The system is extremely durable. Madison plays hard with all her toys and we’ve had this over a year, and she hasn’t broken it yet! Each game has multiple levels, so when you child gets better at they can still play the game.

This is another new show on the Discovery Channel. I am not sure, but I think somebody did some market research and thought we need more shows about/in Alaska. Unfortunately, I have to disagree. I love Discovery Channel — I hate this show.  Honestly, I feel like I am watching Survivor.  If I wanted to watch that, I would tune into regular TV.  When I do find something interesting in the show, the people on it start whining again and ruin the moment.  I just find that The Alaskan Experiment annoys me more than anything.  I don’t find it interesting enough to keep my attention.  (If you haven’t seen the show, it is about a couple of teams that get dropped off in different parts of Alaska and they have to brave it on their own out there for 30 days).

Have you seen this show?  What do you think?

I swear it gets harder and harder to find quality programs and cds for our kids that won’t drive us (parents) up the wall. That Baby CD and That Baby DVD is the answer. It is extremely hard to keep both kids entertained while watching something. However, That Baby DVD did its job. Will just stared at the tv in wonderment, and Madison danced while the songs played (Will did a little dancing of his own too). The first thing that Bill and I noticed was that we recognized a lot of the songs on here. These are covers of songs by Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant, The Beatles, The Pretenders, just to name a few. The second thing we noticed was that songs were sung for the kids and toned down. However, they weren’t completely kidified, so that you feel like pulling your hair out and covering your ears. I can’t tell you how many of those kinds of CDs (I know we all have them) that we listened to once and never again. That Baby CD is what Will listens to at night. We use to have a classical CD playing in his room all night. It is the same CD we used for Madison, so we happily replaced it with That Baby CD. He sleeps with it just fine, and I sometimes catch myself singing with it when I change his diaper (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). Both the DVD and CD have gotten a lot of play in my house. This ranks high on my list of things all mothers should have.

Now, if this is something that you want to get your family, I have a coupon code that you can use to save 20% on your entire order when you order from the The Baby DVD website. It is “MotherTalk”. Also, any orders from now till May 18th that use the coupon code will be entered in a drawing to win a new iPod nano. Now, who couldn’t use one of those? Something for you, something for the kids . . .you can’t go wrong.

If you live in the Chicagoland area, Grants Appliance is a place you want to stop. They have everything from washers and dryers to stoves to dishwashers to mattress and plasma tvs. I am sure they even have plasma tv mounts there! We first started using Grants when we lived in Aurora. They pretty much beat every price around. If they don’t the make and model that you are looking for on their show floor, they will order it for you (we did this with our dishwasher!). In my current house, we bought the washer, dryer, dishwasher, and stove from them. Their delivery guys are great too! If you are looking for brand name items for a great price, Grants is your one stop shop!

I was always a person who did not think there was a real difference between HDTV and regular TV. I figured the store just had a way to make it look better in the store, but it really wasn’t so. However, I will admit I was wrong. When we were in Arizona, our room had a Plasma TV with HD, and I could immediately tell the difference. When we came home, I realized how small and outdated our TV really was.

That being said, there are many sites out there that will help you navigate through the maze of all the HD products out there. Now, that we are coming up on March Madness, you need to look at site like Retrevo to help you decide which product will help you not miss a thing with these sports broadcasts. It starts with basketball, and then there will be baseball, and then football.

If you are not a member of this bank yet, you really should be. This bank shows true customer service at every turn. We have been with them several years, and I have never been unhappy with them. They helped us sign up for accounts for the kids. We are going to meet with them about setting up college accounts for the kids. They have online bill pay (I know I love this feature!). They also have a Debit Card Rewards Program. The more you use your debit card, the more rewards you earn. The reward points get turned in for gift certificates for places like Best Buy and Red Lobster (sorry, no foot of bed tv lifts or anything like that!).

According to their fee schedule, they will charge you if you need a copy of an old statement. I went into the bank on Thursday and explained my predicament. My old laptop blew up (I lost the hard drive) and I found all of 2007 statements (which I need to be able to do my taxes) except for Jan 2007. I just needed a print out of that. The wonderful personal banker I had worked her magic and got me my printout without having to charge me. I am grateful. This is just one great customer service experience I have had with them over the last several years.

It is a rarity to actually get good customer service, so when I see it, I like to let everyone know about it!