Happy Birthday to my sweet baby!

I can't believe its already here. 2 years ago I was tossing and turning in my bed because I was going to have a baby in a few short hours! Baby Kieran was born via c-section on April 8th, 2009 @ 7:51am (due to being footling breach, and too risky to try a version). She weighed in at 6lbs 13ox and 19(or 19.5 I forget oops...lol)inches long. She took to breastfeeding like a champ, while I was in recovery still! We had some issues with her weight and latching after leaving the hospital but we pulled through and I'm proud to say that we nursed till she SELF weened in January of this year at 21½ months old!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, silly, goofy, lefty, dancing girly!

Mohawk Rug Review and Giveaway

I was reproached by someone from Mohawk rugs last month about doing a review and giveaway on the blog. I was super excited to be given this chance, especially with moving to a new house. Kieran finally has her own room after almost 2yrs of sharing ours so we've been excited to decorate it and adding in the rug to review was awesome and perfect timing.

Here is some information about the nursery rugs:
-They are made with a new technology in yarn that is very soft to the touch, perfect for a baby or childs room
-Latex backing provides non skid surface for all hard surfaces or it works great to keep the rug in place on carpet
-Made from 100% Nylon. Nylon rugs are easy to take care of, they spot clean easily but you can also wash the 40"x60" size in a front load commercial washer
-Made in the USA



We got our rug on March 18th, just 2 days after moving in (review up a little late sorry!), and I waited a couple days to open it since we were still getting things organize. The first thing I noticed before opening it was how big it looked which I was excited about. Next thing I noticed was the colors, really nice and neutral to any color scheme in a girls room (I choose a brown and pink rug). Kieran's room right now is flowers, butterflies, and Tinkerbell and done in light purple, blue, and pink. The pink and brown striped rug we received for review works really well in her room.



When I laid the rug out, with the help of the kiddos, I was excited to see and feel how soft it was (so was Seamus!). I figured that the softness would go away after a couple days of walking on it and Kieran playing on it. I was super surprised and excited to see how soft it was after a few days and even now after 2 weeks of use its still just as soft as when I laid it out! I change Kieran's diaper on the rug before bed and she loves to feel the rug while laying there, I think most carpet and rugs are rough on babies but this one is nice a soft.



I think these rugs would be awesome in any nursery or child's room. They're nice and soft, and complement many decorating schemes, and a nice size too.

Mohawk has been kind enough to offer one of my readers the chance to win a rug! Winner will get the choice of rug, and size (40"x60" and a 60"x84" (5'x7').


Mandatory Entry: Like Mohawk on Facebook and let me know you did by posting your first name and last initial. (as well as an email address to contact you if you win. Mandatory Entry must be done before any extra entries)

Extra Entries: (one comment per entry_
-share this giveaway on your Facebook Wall
-Follow Mohawk on Twitter
-Follow Me on twitter (heart at top)
-Follow my blog with google friend connect
-Tweet this giveaway include @SliverStorm and @mohawk_home in the tweet, leave tweet link in comment
-add my button to your blog and tell me where to find it
-Tell me which rug you'd choose (first 6 on the list)and if it would be for your child's room or a gift


This will end on Sunday April 17th @ 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.


**Disclosure**
I was not paid to post this giveaway. I was sent an item for review, and the review in this posting is my own, I did not receive any other compensation.

Going MIA

I'll be MIA for about a week. We sign for the keys to the new house tomorrow (Tuesday) and our internet will be turned on at the new house "Sometime" on Thursday >.<. Time Warner only had a full day appointment available so we have to sit around all day (luckily my brother is staying with us since we have lots of appts. on Thursday's). I think I'll have a nice update blog post next week with pictures of the new house too :D

Saturday Snapshots: Listening Therapy/Therapeutic Listening

The main idea is to emphasize integration of the auditory and vestibular systems together. Since there is such a close connection with visual functioning, visual processing also will likely improve. Particularly spatial awareness, and the concept of time and space.

Sensory-processing-disorder.com

Computer Fail 2011

My luck with computers sucks! In late 2008, I had this feeling that something was wrong with my computer, it just seemed wrong. Hubby kept saying it was fine, and we could wait to "fix" whatever it was until tax time (Feb 2009). Sadly he was wrong and it wasn't fine, it died in late November 20008, just died, completely fried. (I don't think the graham crackers Seamus put in it helped matters much) It sucked but luckily the hard drive was still good (mother board and power supply went) so we didn't loose anything.

Fastforward to the end of January 2010, and we buy me a new computer(so ya dh and I "fought" over his desktop like a bunch of kids after school, for over a year lol). We stupidly went with HP even though we knew better, we knew they had issues with their power cords breaking and such. We got one of the newest models out at the time and paid just over $800 after taxes for it. It did pretty well till around November 2010, then the battery started having issues, and I'd have to keep it plugged in all the time or it would die. Then we had to pawn it for a month in early January 2011 due to having to pay off a lawsuit from old medical bills. We got the computer back early this month, and it "seemed" to be ok. But it didn't last long.

The warranty went up on January 29th, 2011, and exactly 2 weeks later the hard drive completely fails and dies, out of no where. We had no warning, and I had a 500gb hard drive more then half full with digital scrap booking stuff and pictures. Luckily most of my pictures were uploaded to facebook or photobucket so I didn't loose too many. Most of the pictures I lost were from the last 2 months, which sucks but at least it wasn't all of Kieran's first birthday pictures (most but not all are gone).

We then buy a new hard drive for the computer, only to remember that computers these days don't come with Microsoft disc's, so we have no way to install Windows 7 back on the computer. We do have Windows Vista from another computer we got for the kids (cheap $30 one for them to play around on) so we ended up putting that on the laptop. Huge fail Windows! Vista Sucks. My video card won't work, the drivers won't match up, Vista doesn't recognize it. We did order our Windows 7 backup disc from HP but it won't be here for a few more days.

Hubby's so ticked off with HP, and their horrid customer service, that he's trying to sell my laptop. He's done with HP and doesn't want this computer any more. We have 1 person looking at buying it (not back, $200 less then we paid a year ago), and if he does we're getting a new one. We debated whether or not to build another desktop for me. I'm planning on going back to school (if all works out) in the Fall so I wanted a laptop to take with me, plus I got spoiled with being able to lay down in bed with it, or watch a show on Netflix while taking a bath (lol). So we're going to get another laptop. We have our choices narrowed down to an Asus and a Toshiba. There's pros and cons of both so we aren't sure. Both of them have worse video cards then my current laptop which sucks (especially with my WoW withdraws from Vista not reading my video card right, right now), but the processor is better. The Asus has an Intel i5 processor which hubby likes, its just a tad better then mine so it will run a little better. But if we get the Asus I'll loose my BluRay and Lightscribe (even, though we hardly use them, it stinks)and my buttons on the laptop for easy volume and such will be gone, the Toshiba has those but the Asus doesn't. Both the Asus and Toshiba are between $550-620 so if we sell mine for $600 (asking $650, with a new hard drive in it) then we wouldnt' pay much out of pocket. Now we just have to decide which one to get.

But thats why I've been MIA so much this month. First I don't have a computer, then it super fails, and now that I have one I can't stand Vista so it drives me bonkers being on it. Oh ya and I'll be MIA again in just under 3 weeks with the move >.< lol

Moving

We are finally moving! When we moved into this place in August 2008 we signed a 6month lease, and our plan was to move in Feb. 2009...well we found out a few days after we signed the lease that I was pregnant with Kieran and moving just 2 months prior to her being born probably wasn't a good idea. We decided to wait till Feb. 2010 to move, but it didn't work out right. Since November I've been watching Craigslist trying to find a place for us to move once February came. We had 3 different places in mind at the beginning of this month, each with pro's and con's and we couldn't decide which one. Once we finally decided and went to apply the people said that they had other apps and we had to wait, so we went with our second choice, same thing happened. After that we thought we wouldn't find anything, it was already 1.5weeks into Feb, and we had told our landlord we'd be moved out by Feb. 21st.

As I was looking through some rental companies around here I found one place that was similar looking outside as the current place we live. I had hubby call the rental place to see about it (and it was only 2 blocks up the road from us), but they mentioned that they had another place that was slighty bigger, and only $50/mo more. The place they mentioned was a duplex, rather then the triplex we called on, and is newer built. They had A side open but were holding it for someone who applied already. We got to go look at A side, because its the exact same as B side and B side would be the side we would get if we decided we liked it, just had to wait for the current tenants to move out. We really liked the place, a 3bd 2.5ba (opposed to our 2bd 1ba) with a fenced back yard (we have no fenced yard now and are on a fairly busy street), and the other nice thing is that its only $125 more then we pay now. One thing I realllllllly didn't like is that its the same exact layout as our current place. The front door opens to the living room then the kitchen straight back, you cannot see from the kitchen to the living room, I really wanted an open kitchen, and the laundry is in the kitchen again. All 3 beds are upstairs, along with 2 baths (one in the master one for the kids). We decided to go with this place because it had more pro's then con's. We put our deposit down on it on Friday the 11th, but we can't move till March 19th (haha lucky me on my birthday! >.<). The current tenants move out Feb. 28th but then the rental company has a 2 week period for inspection and cleaning/fixing things. So we'll have another month to move, luckily our current landlord is nice about waiting. So next month I'll probably be MIA for 2 weeks while we move and wait for Time Warner to come and hook up internet at the new place

Bright Starts Winner!

The winner of the Brights Starts giveaway is #51 Jessica.






Winner has been emailed and has 48hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen :)