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Are your kids driving you crazy? Are they bored stiff?

Tired of pulling your hair out, trying to come up with great ideas?

Ready for some awesome solutions?

Do you have some great summer-time fabulous suggestions to share?

Hop over to the GoodNCrazy summer series where they will (and you can):

A. Beat the Heat with your Kids

B. Stop the Whining

C. Save Mom’s Sanity

D. All of the Above!

How you ask?

Once a week, Carissa will be listing kid friendly—help a mom out— ideas!

Kid Friendly Cuisine.. and she doesn’t mean ‘you make it they eat it’, she means Kid COOKING friendly cuisine… she’s roped a few of her favorite foodie bloggers into helping her out. Her kids will try the recipes out first, so it promises to be good!

Kid Friendly Crafts.. yes.. the kind they can do basically on their own! (The best kind huh?)

Kid Activities... ideas, places, stuff to do with kids this summer!

and

Mom Crazy Finds for your Kids… fun kid stuff, creative solutions for kid problems, and more!

Playdough is the new big thing around our house, and on this post of the series, I found this (and fell in love):

It is part of a kids crafting station – those are spice racks, y’all.  I don’t have the foggiest idea where it could possibly go, but I’m doing that… somehow. Never you mind the bottom row.  Those are paints… I have a three year old… I’m braving it enough just with the Playdough. So when his is just Playdough, don’t tell him it was suppose to be any different, mmkay?

And I’m finding all sorts of other goodies in the series, too. I’m certain I even saw a coupon code there somewhere… ah, she’s after my frugal heart.  So go over there and find something fun…. It’s all good… and crazy! {FYI: Just in case you really have NO IDEA, Carissa is one half of what many of us lovingly call the #gno gals. Tues nights. On Twitter. Rawks. Just sayin’.}

Disclaimers:

The majority of this post (ie: the series description parts) was stolen without remorse from GoodNCrazy. (Re-reading that I thought I should add I don’t have remorse either, haha.)

Also? If I stumble across her saying OhMyStinkin’Heck again, I’m going to steal that too, or some variation of it.  So, just pretend you didn’t hear it from her first. 

If you leave my blog to go check out that awesome series (and if you already left, you are still held responsible for this), you agree to come back here… eventually anyway.

And finally, although I plan to check out the foodie ideas, we won’t be playing her way. My kid is 3 y’all. However, with my degree of skill in the kitchen (ahem.. or lack thereof…) it may turn out to be all the same anyway. :p

BTW, after all this summery get-the-kids-to-stop-jumping-up-and-down-on-your-very-last-nerve-already bonanza, they will eventually go back to school . And they’ll need stuff. No worries, because I’ve got ya covered. Just come back here in August (come back before then for cryin’ out loud, but you know what I mean) for the Back To School ’09 Guide full of some pretty awesome goods, if I do say so myself… plus the not to be missed ULTIMATE BACK TO SCHOOL PRIZE PACKAGE… oh, yeah… you’ll WANT to win this giveaway. 

I am a little behind in getting this posted, but there is still time to win! 

Earth Mama Angel Baby is celebrating motherhood, creating a new blog, and offering up some amazing prizes.  For more info and to get signed up to win, stop by the Earth Mama Angel Baby Tea Party hub.  Be sure to mention Shake The Salt as the blogger-mama that referred you. 

Awesome prizes:

The Tea-Totally Grand Prize - This prize includes ALL of Earth Mama Angel Baby’s USDA Certified 100% Organic and Certified Kosher teas formulated for pregnancy’s most common discomforts, plus BOTH Heavenly Tea Mugs.

Mama-to-Be and Mug for Me!

Milk of Momness and Mug!

Tea Sampler!

Check out the prizes page at the Tea Party hub for full details on these prize packages!  Drawings for prizes will be held on May 15.  

If you are stopping by via the Ultimate Blog Party, let me welcome you to Shake The Salt!  I’m so excited you are here.  Be sure to sign my Guest Book (i.e.: Mr Linky) below so I’ll know you stopped by (this is not the official UBP Mr Linky) and I’d be especially thrilled if you leave a little comment, too.  If you don’t know what the Ultimate Blog Party is, go check it out and join in all the fun. (Pssst… there are prizes, wink wink… plus you’ll get to meet lots of great bloggers!)

I’m Christy! Nice to meet ya!!  Hubs and I have been married for 3.5 years (St. Patrick’s Day is our “half-anniversary date!) and have a 2.5 year old son, who I refer to around here as Lil Roo.  Our very spoiled 7 yr old Staffordshire Terrier / American Pit Bull Terrier, who we refer to as our daughter and our 12 yr old female tabby cat round out our little family.

I’m an Editor-In-Chief with U.S. Family Guide over our local guide. 

I’ve been blogging for a year now and this is my second Ultimate Blog Party.  I began blogging as Multitasking Mama last spring, then moved to Shake The Salt over the summer. 

I love frugal shopping and getting great deals – you can find the Frugal Deals Roundup here each week, a great resource for locating all the great deals of the week! {If you are a frugal blogger, email me to get added to the Frugal Blogroll}. 

I love offering product reviews and giveaways, and I’m currently working on my Spring Cleaning & Organizing Series, so be sure to check that out. 

I also blog at Simply Sensational Divas Review, and I’m working on getting the following blogs off the ground over the next couple of months: Sweet Posh Baby, Homespun Preschool, Making It A Home, Florida Fun Reviews, and I am creating a website for Forti-Cones Surfing Company.

Also? I need some desperate help with Photoshop Elements, which I purchased to do some basic graphics on the new blogs, yet feel completely stupid with the program open in front of me, not knowing what I should do exactly. I used Paint Shop Pro for a while (before I blogged) and managed it ok, but I’m at a loss with PSE. Anyone wanna take me under their wing & let me be their grasshopper?

I’d love to connect with you! Find me on Twitter & Facebook (when connecting, let me know you found me through the UBP), and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the great stuff here at Shake The Salt.

Prizes I have my eye on….

{OK, I’m still checking them out, but I’ll let ya know soon!}

Please sign the “guest book” letting me know you stopped by… this isn’t the official UBP Mr Linky, just an easy way for me to click over to your blog, LOL. I’d be doubly excited if ya left a comment too, heehee.

 The ladies at MomDot have teamed up with Dyson to create the Dyson’s Domestic Divas.  Every two weeks through April, a Dyson will be passed along to a new Dyson Domestic Diva to test out. 

I would love to be a part of the Dyson panel and give the vac a whirl! 

With the condition of parts of our carpet, I can honestly say my expectations are not that high, but hey! It might surprise me, LOL! 

Our poor carpet takes A LOT from us:

Canines & felines in the house. We trained my MIL’s puppy for her, which meant lots of “learning” accidents. Our male dog (who recently passed away), would typically spend his days in the back yard (and most of that time in the dirt!!) and his nights inside, bringing the dirt with him.  There’s also another canine (so spoiled she refuses to be called a dog!) and a couple of cats that are constantly in and out. (Actually, just one cat now as one has not come home lately   ).

We have a toddler boy.  And as is his duty in that role, punishing the carpet from time to time comes into play as well.

We live on a dirt road with a dirt driveway with very, very minimal concrete outside. We want to build a front porch, but for now, it is just a “stoop”. Whether by 4 legged critters, or the 2 leggers, lots of dirt is tracked in every day.

Granted, I could use a mega powered carpet cleaning machine to attempt to tackle some of the more “in need” spots, but even so there is a lot of dirt tracked in on a daily basis and that is probably settled under the carpet over time that my current vacuum hasn’t sucked up. 

I’d love to see what the Dyson could do!!

By the way, if YOU want to vie to become a Dyson Domestic Diva, signups for the 2 February spots are being accepted here. But I’d prefer you didn’t, you know, to increase my chances, LOL!  (Seriously, go over and take a chance – I hear that Dyson makes an awesome machine!).

Pamela @ PMKU.net / Happy Panda is hosting a Virtual Baby Shower for Sassy Frazz and her blessing #4 ~ December 1–8, 2008 ~ and you are invited! Check out the party games and view all the awesome prizes you can win!! 

Christine of From Dates To Diapers… And Beyond & Katja of Skimbaco Lifestyle are hosting a Virtual Holiday Party tonight on Twitter and will be highlighting great Holiday Gift Guides and awesome giveaways.

Word to the wise: enter all the giveaways you can for the best chance at winning Christmas gifts to save a little money this holiday season. If you don’t enter, you can’t win. I’ve won giveaways on blogs several times and the chances are really good.

Also – if you have a Holiday Gift Guide, make sure it is linked up on the Gift Guides Mr. Linky and if you are currently hosting giveaways, be sure those are linked up on the Giveaways Mr. Linky.  The Virtual Holiday Party tonight is sure to draw a large crowd and your gift guide & giveaway posts could draw some decent traffic from the event. 

And of course… Don’t forget to ATTEND the event!  Sign up for Twitter if you haven’t already (completely free), then “follow” Christine & Katja (click on their links then click follow.) You can also follow me. If you are new to Twitter, give me a shout-out and I’ll help you get settled in and learn the ropes. 

* Virtual Holiday Party deets *

Hungry?  We have this awesome little barbeque place in our small town that just rocks.  They recently moved from their “hole-in-the-wall” building because Walgreen’s purchased the property. (Woo hoo! We are getting a Walgreen’s!).  The line at lunch time extends outside of the building! 

We also have a few of the typical fast food places (my fave of them for breakfast is Burger King and for lunch McDonald’s, lol).  There are several we would like to see here.  We also have a small seafood restaurant. 

We live in a small town, so options are few.  If we are actually planning to eat out, we take a trip to the nearby city.  Otherwise, it is usually just grabbing something quick. 

Blog Trip - Day One

Blog Trip - Day Two

Official Blog Trip Hub

Well, after a full day on the bloggy road, it seems we need to fill up the tank.  Gas around these here parts is: $3.58. Milk is still more, excited when I find it at the mini-mart, drug store, or just on sale anywhere for less than $4. Logically, I don’t know how we afford either. At least we buy a little less of the milk than we go gas.

Hubs works 2 counties away, so we try to conserve gas any way we can otherwise.  We don’t live in the city, so we typically plan an errand day / city day and get some errands done as well as visits with family. 

Hubs has been hearing about and looking into something-hydrogen-or-other to do to his truck to improve the gas mileage.  He’s still researching and it isn’t a main driving vehicle, so he may try an experiment, lol.  Sorry, but as soon as mechanics or car talk is spoken, it all comes across Greek to me. I’m sure whatever he said made perfect sense and was great. I saw his lips moving, and there was sound, but really… I had no idea what he was saying.

We are currently working on the paperwork for a second mortgage to cover next month’s gas bill. OK, not really, but dang we spend a lot on gas. I’m reasonably sure our gas bill is more than our car payment. There’s been times when it was close to double.

Pssst…  The giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST TONIGHT, September 2, 2008!!  It’s a beautiful hand stamped initial charms necklace from J. Lawson Designs.  I have one (with my son’s initials on it) and LOVE it.  Be sure to enter for your chance(s) to win.

Blog Trip - Day One

I’m going on a blog trip!  Marie at Mommy Fest / Mommy Community had this great idea for us to do a Road Trip theme blog party.  Each day is going to have a theme and I just may SHOCK you all by posting every day of it.  No promises though.  I’m easily distracted, ya know. (In fact, as I write this I am currently distracted at PKMU, but I’ll tell you about that later… I don’t want you getting distracted too before you even finish reading MY post. She can wait. ).

So… wanna join me on the road trip? Maybe we can do a caravan kinda thing.  (OK, the song “Convoy” just popped into my head. Randon. And weird. Anyone else remember that song?).  You can get details of how the Blog Trip is going to work, the itinerary for the week, and the Day One (Sept 1) Mr Linky, enough info to have you totally ready to cruise. 

The theme of the first day, other than getting all packed up, the car loaded and stuff, is to do a little welcome message.

Welcome.

OK, moving along.  What? All right, that was kinda blunt and rude.  But I did mean it in the nicest way.  Honest.  I’ll see if I can do better.  (Don’t blame me, I’m still distracted). 

Welcome to Shake The Salt.  I’m Christy and I am really excited about my new blog here.  It officially launched on July 25!  I want to get one of those cool Blogiversary buttons, but I can’t decide which date to use. I created the blog on June 20. Doing all the background stuff and getting the design done took a little bit, so I wasn’t really posting here.  I started posting regularly on July 18 I think, but didn’t officially “launch” the blog until July 25.  So, I’m confused. 

I’m a thirty-something mama to a sweet two-year-old little handful of a boy and wife to a very busy fireman.  It is yet to be seen if our family will be blessed with a little sibling for B.  We live in the country & love it.  I love, love, love frugal shopping – it really is like a game to me! I score awesome deals and have a crazy stockpile!  I enjoy doing product reviews – it is such fun to see some of the amazing ideas fellow moms come up with & to check out things that are new or at least new-to-me.  Shake The Salt is all about promoting fellow moms!

I have a giveaway going on until 11:59 PM EST Tuesday, September 2, 2008, for a beautiful hand stamped initial charms necklace from J. Lawson Designs.  I have one (with my son’s initials on it) and LOVE it.  Be sure to enter for your chance(s) to win. 

I am wrapping up the Launch Party (all the winners have been announced on the blog) and I am working through the list contacting winners and sponsors.  So, if you are reading this, and are a winner or sponsor and I haven’t touched base with you, I will really soon. 

I’ve started posting random questions, so if you are bored play along.  :p  If you like free stuff, I post some every week.  And if I haven’t frightened you away yet, you are more than welcome to come follow me on Twitter.  That way, I’ll have another chance. 

OK, not sure if I followed the guideless exactly (probably not) but this post has gotten super long and I’m sure you are ready to move along already, right?  Go check out who else is taking a blog trip!

Bridgette at The Not-So-Blog Blog is having a Renew Your Spirit Event in honor of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, because she wants to “Renew The Spirit” of her readers and show everyone what is right with New Orleans and it’s lovely people.  And, yes, there are giveaways involved. 

Mindful Moms is a new website that will be featuring guest expert posts, as well as columns on Minding the Home, Budgeting, Green Living, Beauty, and Travel. Enter the giveaway at Mom’s Favorite Stuff.  Deadline to enter is September 1, 2008.

To celebrate this launch, one very lucky winner will receive the following prize package:

Mom’s Favorite Stuff tote

Mom’s Favorite Stuff Tote Bag

Manic Trout Sweetest Thing Earrings

Thermaplex and Pinxav Samples

Rita Wilcox French Purse in Aqua

OnTray2Go in mellow yellow

Giggling Lola from Kids Preferred

Giggling Charlie from Kids Preferred

Sizzles the Dog from Kids Preferred

Think-ets

Haba Little Heart Clutching Toy

Haba Mushroom Clutching Toy

Haba Dwarf Clutching Toy

Imagiplay Puzzle Me Up frog

Fancy Nancy Card Game

Animal Soup card game

Grandparent Talk Clip

Family Talk 2 Clip

Family Talk Clip

Cahootie Truth or Dare

Charlie & Lola - I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed (softcover)

Charlie & Lola - I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato (softcover)

Charlie & Lola - I Completely Must do Drawing Now (softcover)

Charlie & Lola - My Very Busy Sticker Stories

Charlie & Lola - Sizzles is Completely Not Here

Mythmatical Battles Cards

2 gift sets from SpaSecrets.net (3 soaps, foot scrub, foot cream)

Monster Room spray from Lindsay’s Candles

The ladies at 5 Minutes 4 Mom and HP have teamed up and are looking for nominees of a student or family who’s life could truly be changed by having a computer and printer.  Take a few minutes to read Tammy’s and Parker’s story, then think about someone you know that would be deserving and who could benefit greatly.  You are also welcome to visit Tammy at her personal blog, Praying For Parker, and at 5 Minutes For Special Needs. This isn’t a giveaway - it is about changing lives.  The deadline to submit your nominee is August 27, 2008.  The winner will be posted on August 29, 2008. To add your nominee, visit “Blogs Can Change Lives…”.

The Launch Party here at Shake The Salt has been such a HUGE success that we want to wish the same success to Bits From A Brit.  At 11:59 PM EST tonight, the mad rush of entering the launch party giveaways at Shake The Salt will be over (though we will be having a lot more giveaways in the future!).  Don’t despair, though!  Bits From A Brit will be kicking off their new blog with tons of giveaways, so be sure to go over and check out their Launch Party!  It starts September 1st and I hear that it is going to last a full month! 

Mommies United is hosting a Back To School Event with lots of prizes, all week long.  Be sure to check in there, all week long, and enter all the giveaways.  I’ve checked out their list of sponsors & there is some really great stuff from school supplies to clothing, all of which is “back to school” essential (plus maybe some cuties for the ones not old enough to go to school yet, ‘cause we don’t want them feeling left out!).   Go on over and say hi and tell ‘em Christy @ Shake The Salt said hi. 

UPDATE (8/17/08):  Enter to win a Make Life Simpler product from Ellie Bags @ Mommy’s Idea (EllieBag’s blog).  She will be offering more giveaways, including the Over Tote, so check back @ her blog often.  She’s also made the Grand Opening specials even better!  Go cehck the website for details!

Hey folks… yet another LAUNCH going on!  August is offically national launching month!  I’m pretty excited to announce the GRAND OPENING of Ellie Bags… home of the new Over Tote diaper bag system! 

To kick off the launch of the new Over Tote diaper bag system, Ellie Bags is offering:

(1) Free No-Germs antibacterial hand sanitizer with EVERY purchase of an Over Tote.

(2) Free Baby Sheep rattle or Baby Lab for the FIRST TEN who purchase the Over Tote.

(3) TEN PERCENT off the purchase of an Over Tote system, good through August 31, 2008.  use code mommy10. 

You are also welcome to visit the Ellie Bags blog, Mommy’s Idea. 

Over Tote… The smart new way to carry a diaper bag!