Jeff Schroeder is back! Loved him on Big Brother 11 and last season’s Amazing Race. I hadn’t heard about this series Around The World For Free before, but apparently Jeff is taking over the 2nd season of it. It looks really good. It’s online only at cbs.com but definitely worth checking out. There are a few preview clips already up that you can watch. Jeff tweeted today that he leaves in a week to start the journey. I love his personality and am excited to see this thing play out for him!

Around the World For Free is a fully interactive online reality show. Jeff Schroeder attempts to travel around the world in 100 days … without a penny in his pocket. Where he’ll go and how he’ll get there have yet to be determined, but at least he won’t be alone. Fans can follow along on CBS.com every step of the way, offering tips, travel photos and even a helping hand. Sign up now for Around the World For Free updates.

Bored? Get a quick entertainment fix by smashin’ some screaming beans. It gave Bailey and I chuckle Happy Friday ya’ll!

David has been playing this new game on his Droid called Pocket Empires. Its pretty cool and you can get more information about it at www.pocketempiresforums.com

Colgate is running a promotion where you can keep track of your child’s healthy habits online, awarding 1 star for each healthy habit they practice throughout the day. The stars they earn can be saved to unlock various games online or for printable activities. 45 starts = a free toothbrush.

Sign Up Here!

Okay you loyal readers you. Scratch that… you loyal READER you. I’m sure there is one of you out there?

I just cashed in for my *SECOND* $5 Amazon gift card of 2010 through Swagbucks. I have been using Swagbucks for a little over a year now. Throughout 2009, I earned enough swagbucks to cash in for over $265 in Amazon gift cards. That paid for a good chunk of Christmas presents for my kids. If there was ever a year we needed a little help, 2009 was it. It was so very helpful!

I don’t expect to earn nearly as much in 2010. I had about 20 referrals in 2009 (many of which mind you, I got just from posting my wins to Facebook and catching the attention of a curious Facebook friend here and there). So, I was earning swagbucks for my own searches, and then each time they won, I also won the same amount - until they reached 100 swagbucks. A $5.00 Amazon Gift Card costs 45 swagbucks. How do you earn swagbucks? EASY. You stop using Google. You make Swagbucks your primary search engine. It is google powered, so you are going to get very similar search results. You don’t *have* to download anything. You can download a toolbar, but you don’t have to. I like the Google engine better for searching for images, but otherwise, Swagbucks is very comparable. I know this to be true because it’s all I use now (and I was a mega googler before)! Anyway, you will randomly “win” a swagbuck for searching. I have the best luck later in the evening (which happens to be when I’m looking for various things on the Internet), I think because the East Coast has all gone to bed. I have won as much as 20 swagbucks on one search. Most are just 1 swagbuck wins. Some are $2, $3, $4 or more. They also put out swagcodes, that you can redeem for 1 free swagbuck. These come out pretty much daily, so you can almost earn a $5 Amazon card just from copying and pasting the codes they publish!

I figure if I can earn two $5.00 Amazon gift cards per month, that is $120.00 by the end of the year that can be spent on Christmas gifts and it would be 100% worth my time. I am doing nothing different. We all search the Internet. I just choose to search through swagbucks.com so that I can earn gift cards for doing so. Easy!

I have no referrals right now, so whatever I earn, is completely by myself. If you have not started using this site, I highly recommend it. It is WORTH checking out!!

I do ALOT of Internet surfing during the day. I work from home. I’m tied to my computer for about 8 hours a day, that is outside of my personal “fun computer time”, and I often get BORED. So I click around to different sites and “explore” the Internet. David does the same at his job, but has access to very few sites, as they are filtered. He is going to reach the end of Wikipedia some day, I know he will LOL. Anyway, I am going to try to post a link to a site that one of us visits (kids, me or David) with a little review. These aren’t going to be paid reviews, just sharing a link that we find interesting or helpful, because who doesn’t need another site in their favorites anyway?

Today’s…

I stumbled across this website a few weeks ago, and it’s quickly becoming a daily click for me. They offer a daily sale with one item at an extremely low discounted price (and cheap shipping!). They also offer 1 item at a low sale price in these categories: Tshirts, Magazines, Games/Toys, Good Til Gone. It’s usually 1 special per category, so it’s a quick click to see if you are interested in anything they have up for sale. It’s alot like “Woot”, in the way that they put something new up each day in those categories.

The other cool thing about Tanga, is that they have games, puzzle games, and a daily contest where you pick 3 numbers and you have a chance to win a free tshirt. It’s just kind of a fun site to keep in the favorites for boredom buster moments…. the gams/puzzles are actually kind of neat.

This is not a paid review, just me passing on a neat site to check out! Thumbs up!

David showed me this picture this morning and I knew right away what it was, Longaberger! I have never owned a Longaberger basket (or cared to really for that matter), but I remember hearing buzz about them many years ago. Cool baskets with a crazy high price tag. I think maybe more popular on the East Coast areas? Not sure, but I knew by looking at the pic that is what it had to be. Would be cool to work in a giant basket.

This website comes highly recommended from Miss McKenzie herself! She gave it two thumbs up. It’s too hard for Bailey, because you do have to be able to read on your own to understand most of it. She wings it though Pixie Hollow is a Disney site. Your ‘lil princess enters her own fantasy fairy world through Pixie Hollow, by first selecting and naming her very own fairy. McKenzie’s is “Rainbow Gem”. There are some preselected “handles” to pick from. From there you can dress your fairy, play games, search for other fairies and “pixie dust” and just play around in fairy land. It’s pretty cute. My girls love fairies

www.pixiehollow.com

Yahoo, I’m a Webranger! This is a fun site for kids! It’s hard to compete with popular kids sites like Webkinz and Runescape, but this is an educational and fun site for kids that enjoy anything having to do with nature or scavenger hunts that might lend a little break from the above mentioned sites. I just played through a few minutes and found it entertaining and plan to show my kids (who are currently enjoying nature with their grandpa :))

Webrangers!

Have fun!

My MIL sent this to me (Thanks Lisa)…

Are your reflexes slowing down? The automobile driving manual says the average driver’s reaction time is .75 seconds or 1 car length for every 10 mph.

Test your reaction time with this test: Sheep Dash Test It’s quick and kind of fun