It seems like everyone is kicking it into gear with weight loss. I’ve been on a semi-diet for the last couple of weeks, trying to lose about 15lbs. Losing weight can be very frustrating. I know for me, I get very discouraged when I don’t see the pounds melting away. I know deep down that isn’t how it works, not in the real world and not when you’re trying to do it in a healthy manner but sometimes you just can’t help but feel this way! I know of people that exercise and watch what they eat (I’m one of them) but I also know of people that go with alternate ways to loose weight - such as diet pills. A lot of the diet pills on the market today contain Phentermine - an appetite suppressant. I’ve never gone this route but I admit, I’m interested in knowing if this is effective?

I know of a few people who have a radar detector in their vehicle. Several of my friends tease me and tell me it’s something I should consider investing in. Why? Occasionally I get carried away when I’m driving and have a tendency to exceed the speed limit. I guess they figured in the event this keeps happening, I’ll have a radar detector to notify me when their’s law enforcement somewhere near. I’d always thought they were illegal, but I’ve just found out - they’re not illegal in most states, including Georgia! I should have considered one of these prior to my cross country trip, huh? Maybe that would have prevented my “warning” on my last day of traveling!!

Today made the third day that our apartment manager said she’d be coming in to check on this “heating and hot water” issue. It also makes the third day she didn’t show up. Imagine that. It’s frustrating because we have things we could have been doing (grocery shopping and running errands), but instead, we’ve been sitting here awaiting her visit. She has a key, so we don’t actually have to be here but I don’t like the idea of people I don’t really know entering my place when I’m not here. Not when I have so many valuable things in here. Plus, even though they know we have cats, I wouldn’t want to risk them letting either of those little brats out! Haha! They wouldn’t be able to keep up with Bella. She’d be out of the door and down the 4 flights of stairs so fast!

I bet we get another notice saying they’ll be here tomorrow! Pffth

It’s hard to believe that Summer is almost over and the school bells will be ringing soon! Lucky you, you have a chance at getting a new cell phone, free over at Wirefly between now and August 26th! I happen to love the Verizon cell phones, specifically the Silver Razr! I surely wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of those bad boys for free! I will be honest with you! Jo and I are both in dire need of cell phone upgrades! I can’t even begin to tell you the limitations we both have and how much more convenient it would be to have more features on our phones besides the basics! The phones around here are pretty expensive too, so if we happen to be lucky enough to get a free phone, that would be awesome! I will definitely do some more heavy browsing!

If this sounds awesome to you, check out Wirefly.com! Browse through their phones and plans! You could land one of the free phones yourself!

My PayPal deposit finally went in! I was beginning to worry because it had never taken this long! Shewww! One less thing to worry about!

My sore throat isn’t any better. I’ve gotten to be quite stuffed up too! I absolutely hate colds, so I hope this one isn’t going to last very long! Everything I’ve tried to eat has been successful at irritating the heck out of my throat! Jo made some kind of Alfredo pasta and you wouldn’t believe how salty that was! Poor guy! It almost gagged the both of us!

Now if I can manage to get myself up and going again (nap-time lasted longer than planned), I could get some things done!

Anyone that takes the time to browse around my site, will notice I have a passion for photography. I’ve been doing it semi-professionally for a few years now, though I’ve been dipping my toes into it since high school! If you’ve been a reader here for the last few months, you’ll also recall that I’ve been looking at digital cameras, saving my money and trying to decide which camera is going to benefit me most. I’ve mostly used Fuji Film cameras (S5100 and S7000) in the past but have not been that pleased with the quality of some of the photos - things like grain/noise. I think I’ve finally narrowed down my choice though! It’s between the Canon 20d and Canon 30d. There wasn’t a huge upgrade from the 20d to the 30d, so I’m leaning more to the 20d because A) it’s cheaper than the 30d and B) the lack of a big upgrade for the price in the 30d. In all honesty though, I would like the newer 30d, just because it’s, well - newer!

Even though I am striving for a career in photography, I’m still having fun with it! One of the things I used to love about doing photography was when my best friend Stacey lived with me = she and I would go on these little photo adventures every week! Sometimes we found ourselves at the beach or walking through nature trails and other times we’d find ourselves down a country road. It’s always made for a great time and I cannot wait to get my new camera!

Welcome to contest number 2 here on Scribblescratch.com! I want to keep the contest fun and keep people wanting to participate! I hope with this contest,
I am able to accomplish that!

Rules / requirements;

Find one of your childhood pictures and add a caption either to the photo or as the title of your entry. The picture itself can be funny (hey, we have all taken some pretty hilarious childhood pictures) or the caption you choose can make it funny! Either will do.

Please note, the photo must be YOUR childhood photo, not a photo of your child or a child!

Post this photo in an entry on your blog, with a link back to this entry or the main link, Scribblescratch.com. Achor text should read “Caption your childhood photo contest”.

Funniest captioned photo wins;
$20 via paypal or amazon (your choice)

Deadline for submissions;
Thursday, July 26th

If you are confused, I shall give you two personal examples of what I’m looking for! These are two photos of me, as a child! Please click the photos to read the text and view the larger version!

See how easy it is? No pictures have to be taken, just merely find a funny photo of yourself as a child and caption it!

Have fun!

When it comes to home loans, everyone wants to find Cheap mortgages. When my husband and I purchased our previous home, we decided it would be wise of us to Compare mortgages! We wanted to be sure we got the most out of our mortgage, paid the least out of our pocket and of course, got a good interests rate! There are different types of mortgages, so you want to make sure you’re going to get one that you’ll benefit from most. There are First time home owner mortgages, Remortgages and even Buy to let mortgages! My husband and I went with the First time home owners mortgage and with our lender, that meant we didn’t have to pay anything down, got a lower interest rate and we were able to finance 100% of the loan! It worked out great!

I’ve just been catching up on the latest news around the country and caught this over at CNN.com!

It’s likely the Benoits’ 7-year-old son, Daniel, was sedated at the time he was murdered, because a high level of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax was found in the boy’s system…

Source: CNN.com

I guess that could rule out that Benoit went into a rage before committing these horrible acts . It seems to be leading more along the lines of premeditation, to me aka Detective Jones!

It is so frustrating when I’m waiting on a deposit from PayPal to my bank account! Sometimes it takes 24-48 hours, while other times it has taken nearly an entire week (between 5-6 days). I made a transfer Friday and usually when I do transfer before Saturday, they are deposited by Monday afternoon. I checked until midnight last night and still, it hadn’t dropped into my account. Here I sit at 3:27pm (MST) and it’s still not in there. I’m not really worried about it at all. I know it’s going to be deposited into the account but it’s really annoying having to play this waiting game!

In other news. I am in serious need of a cure for this sore throat! I sucked on a lemon earlier because I hear that’s supposed to help (with sore throats and swollen glands). I even drowned myself in 3 glasses of lemonade but neither did a lick of good. haha!

For the last few years, my mom has been wearing glasses. She hasn’t always had to wear them for normal daily functions, mostly for reading. This past fall, however, she started suffering with vision problems (blurred vision and occasional headaches other than the migraines she normally has). She finally decided to see her Optometrist, who told her this is something she needs to be doing more regularly because her eyesight was gradually worsening. I’m not sure why wearing glasses bothers her so much, I personally think she’s as cute as button with them but many people feel the same way she does. Now she’s considering changing over to contacts. One of her biggest concerns is how comfortable will they be, since she’s never used them before! Proclear Multifocal Contacts are designed for comfort and can be worn for 12 hours or more! They are also designed for patients a multifocal or bifocal contact lens - she would need the bifocal contacts! She will love to hear this!

I finally managed to get some sleep! I laid down around 10:30am and within a matter of minutes, was off in la la land! Thank goodness! I woke up a few times though, the first because Jo was making so much noise in the kitchen while making himself an omelet and the second because it got so hot! Why did it get so hot you may be asking, since after all we just bought a snazzy air conditioner? Well, our power went out! It was out for about 20 minutes and we have no idea why! They’re doing some construction in one of the apartments, so I can only assume they shut down the power for some of that but who really knows! They rarely tell us when something like that is going to affect us! Speaking of which, they never did stop by to inspect the heat in this building and the problems with the hot water. I figured as much though!

I know a few people, including a couple of relatives, that own homes and condos along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. They only use these homes once or twice a year for their own vacation with their families, however, they use them as vacation rentals the rest of the time to pay for the property and make a nice profit! Sometimes they struggle with filling vacancies because most of them rely on word of mouth for their business. If they really wanted to increase their business though, they should be listing their rentals on Rentals.com! This is actually a great resource for both property owners and those seeking rentals! Property owners can listed their properties detailing the property, adding photos and price! Those seeking rentals will then be able to search for properties in the areas they wish to vacation or live by price, state/city and type - apartments, condos, houses and vacation rentals, to name a few!

Jo and I were actually planning to move to Savannah, Georgia last year. When we made the decision to start looking into it, we did many of our apartment and rental home searches through Rentals.com! Searching is easy and the site is very user friendly, which I love! One of the things I really love about Rentals.com; not only can I do basic searches, I can also narrow my search down by amenities, community, length of lease, and as a non-smoker I can even narrow it down by smoking policy! This definitely helps narrow the playing field down and anyone that’s gone apartment or even house hunting will understand just how hard it can actually be, to find that perfect place!

If you’re a property owner needing vacancies filled or you’re someone who’s seeking a rental, head on over to Rentals.com!

I tried getting some sleep but I failed! I just cannot get comfortable and honestly, I’m not all that tired now that I’m back up again! I think it’s this raw, scratchy throat of mine. Looks like I’ll be making a trip to Shoppers Drug Mart later on, for some lozenges. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a sore throat! I hope it doesn’t last long! I’m just so sick of being sick! It seems like I come down with one thing, then I get better in a few days and within a day or two, I’m sick with something else! I have never been sick so much in my life!

Anyway. I put up the poll for “That’s life” - photo contest. Cast your votes!

I used to do a lot of “designing” a few years back. I mostly worked with local business owners (photography and home designers), in an effort to get their name out there and have a space to showcase their work! This wasn’t actually a planned “job” for me, it just sort of happened but as I finished one site, I found myself with another request. One of the biggest problems I faced, was that I lacked the proper contact information. I merely had an instant messenger username and email address listed.

What I should’ve done, was had a contact form up like vision22! I was thumbing through their site and clicked the contact page, where I found a unique contact form. It’s in the form of a questionaire /survey, which I like. Potential clients and customers can select their preferred contact method, along with a secondary method which would give them assurance in that they’re message is received. They’re also able to choose what the their contact is in reference to and the type of message being sent (general, quote, web related etc). I think it’s a great way to make sure that potential customers and clients are able to be reached once a quote is drawn up and available.

I really regret not having something like this back in the day! It would’ve enabled others to contact me with their exact needs!