Do You Jump on Your Bed?

Do you jump on your bed? Do you let your kids jump on the bed? What about when you stay in a hotel?

I confess -- my kids do jump on the bed, and I've been known to encourage jumping on hotel beds. Which is why this promotion tickled my funny bone.

Intercontinental Hotel Groups sponsored the "World's Biggest Bed Jump" this summer, and are offering a special "Stay 2 nights, then get 1 FREE" offer through August 15. When you stay at any IHG hotel (Holiday Inns, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo & more) for 2 nights between now and August 15, 2009, you'll receive a free night anytime between now and December 26, 2009!

There are some specific rules -- so check out Get A Free Night for all the details.

The lovely PR person for IHG, Susannah, sent me iTunes gift cards to give away to help my readers create their own bed-jumping playlist! Because we all know that jumping on the bed is much more fun when you've got some great tunes playing :)

I have three $10 iTunes gift cards to give away! To enter, leave a comment telling me if you jump on your bed, or what song you'd add to your playlist if you won, or where you're going on vacation this summer.

The giveaway will end next Friday (July 24, 2009). Giveaway open to US residents only. Winners will chosen randomly. Entries must include a valid email address for contact purposes. (Or you can leave a comment, and then send me your email address via email.)

Tell Me Thursday - Flip

This picture pretty much tells the story. It's of my oldest, doing a flip into our pool. It's something both boys pretty much taught themselves to do -- and it's fun to watch!

If you played Wordless Wednesday, don't forget to follow up today with Tell Me Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday - Flip

Play along at Wordless Wednesday!

Money Saving Monday #18

When I shop online, (and it's not Amazon), I always search for promotional or coupon codes before I process my order. Usually I type "coupon code" and the name of the store I'm shopping at into my search bar in order to find those money-savings codes. You can often find codes for percentages off, free shipping, or sometimes even free with purchase offers.

It takes a few extra minutes, but overall it's well worth the time spent. Recently, I've started visiting Coupon Chief to look for coupon codes. At their home page, they list popular and new coupons. You can also search for codes for any store.

Coupon Chief has more than 40,000 coupons for over 8,000 stores right now -- making it one of the largest coupon code databases.

I like that they offer an email subscription so I can receive a newsletter in my inbox reminding me of their service and letting me know what new coupons are available.

They also offer an interesting program that pays you if you upload coupon codes that others use. Their Pay-2-Share program will pay you 2% of all sales made via the coupon you upload, for the stores that participate in the program (and there are tons it looks like!)

The next time you shop online, don't forget to search for a coupon code!

Snuggling

My sweet L recently weaned. It was a gradual process, and while I'm comfortable and know it was time, it was also bittersweet. For the last couple months, she was only nursing at night before bed. I started cutting down on the amount of time she nursed, and started offering to snuggle her instead. I stopped nursing her at all at naptime. And, slowly, when she would ask to nurse, I'd offer to snuggle her instead.

She hasn't nursed in 2 weeks now, and when it's naptime or bedtime, she asks me ever so sweetly to snuggle and has stopped asking to nurse. I'm glad I still have that one-on-one time with her and I do enjoy snuggling her at the end of the day to help her get ready to sleep.

My 7yo has a hard time falling asleep. The truth is, he has almost always had a hard time falling asleep and I snuggled him and laid with him for years. The last few months he's been asking to snuggle, and I have put him off. This week, though, I didn't. I have snuggled him before bed and he has been going to sleep quicker than before. I don't know why I resisted - except that their bedtimes often overlapped and I took more time with my youngest.

The last couple nights I have agreed to his request, knowing that he won't always need an extra snuggle before bed. These are the moments I want him to remember -- when I agreed to do something he wanted/needed, and not when I refused. He still fits in my lap, and we have the chance to talk a little before I shush him and just hold him.

These are some of the moments I cherish.

Small Successes (Vol 25)

Over at Faith & Family Live, Danielle encourages moms to share three small successes they've enjoyed during the week. It's wonderful to click through and read about the successes of so many moms!

Here are mine for the week:

1. Went out with a friend for dinner. It's sort of a new friendship, and every other time we've gotten together it's been with our kids. It was nice to enjoy dinner, and then Barnes & Noble, and then a run to Wal-Mart for milk & diapers with her. She's a sweet, awesome, faithful, wonderful woman and I'm glad our friendship is growing.
2. Managed to get enough laundry done so that DH had clothes to take on his trip. He left yesterday for Milwaukee to surprise a friend for his 40th birthday and to visit our family & friends (including his uncle who is battling cancer.)
   
3. Planned 2 weeks of meals and made plans to get together and cook them all in one day with above-mentioned friend. I can't wait to see how this goes, and hope we can continue it!
   

What were YOUR successes? Please blog about them, as I love to read the good things that happen each week among my internet mom friends!

Tell Me Thursday - Water Baby

Our pool was about 94 degrees last weekend. It feels wonderful (to me - some people think it's too warm) L, however, agrees with me. Here she is, resting peacefully on the waterfall in our pool. It looks like she's sleeping - but I must have caught her in a blink! Within seconds, she was scampering over the rocks and waiting for her dad to pull her around the pool again.

If you posted a picture for Wordless Wednesday, be sure to tell your story & let them know at Tell Me Thursday!