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About Table for Five:
First there was me and my husband, and then there were two wonderful sons. And then there was a new baby coming! One day, we walked into a restaurant, and the waitress asked how many? I said, table for four, please. Then I turned to my husband and said, when the baby comes, we'll need to ask for a table for five. And the rest, as they say, is history. I hope you enjoy my posts, reviews, photos, and giveaways!
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While I was at the salon getting my hair colored and cut tonight, my husband was in charge of getting our pumpkin carved for Halloween. We had one of those carving kits you can buy with the plastic scoop and little saw, plus a book of Halloween templates to put over the pumpkin and trace. Chris looked at one, then sketched it out freehand on the pumpkin. He had the kids help scoop out all the pulp and separate the seeds, then did the carving. He put a candle in it to see how it would look lit from the inside, and it freaked Kaitlyn OUT. Here’s some photos:
Pretty cool! That’s why he’s in charge of the pumpkin carving, if I had tried to do it, I would have ended up with two triangle eyes and a rectangle mouth, at best. Have you carved a pumpkin for Halloween yet?
I am a huge fan of VistaPrint. I used up all my business cards at BlogHer this summer, so I took advantage of VistaPrint’s 250 FREE business cards deal. I made a new card that looks really cool-you’ll all have to come to BlogHer in San Francisco this summer so you can get one!
I’ve got Coupon codes to share for some FREE items at VistaPrint. First of all, just in time for the holidays (Christmas Eve is exactly EIGHT WEEKS from today!), you can order custom Holiday Cards from VistaPrint and get 10 FREE by using the Coupon code “FreeHoliday” (without the quotes). There are two other Coupon codes available as well:
Coupon Code- “FreePen07” One free custom promotional pen that you can customize, just pay S&H
Coupon Code – “FreeCalendar07” One free custom wall calendar, just pay S&H
Who doesn’t like free stuff? And while you are on the site, check out VistaPrint’s business cards as well!
Have I told you all yet about what my calendar looks like for November? No? It looks like this:
Nov. 2-3: Drive self to Detroit Airport, fly to Memphis, TN. Fly back Sat. night, drive home.
Nov. 5-18: Chris in Phoenix, AZ. Me alone with house, dog, and three kids. There may be drinking.
Nov. 16: Celebrate Kaitlyn’s birthday and Thanksgiving early with my Dad and Stepmother because they are going out of town the next week
Nov. 19: Celebrate Kaitlyn’s birthday at home (don’t forget to find time to shop for presents)
Nov. 22: Thanksgiving
Nov. 23: The day after Thanksgiving, also known as ‘Black Friday’. I usually get up at 5:30 so I can get in line at Target by 6:00. Yes, I am insane. But I love getting the good bargains!
Needless to say, I am reconsidering my decision to participate in NaBloPoMo this year. I love the traffic, I love the sense of participating in a big group activity, but since I post every day on this blog anyway…I don’t know. I just don’t want to over-commit myself, especially since I will have DVD, product, and book reviews to do as well, plus there’s my $2000 plan. So, I probably won’t.
So that’s my November! Doesn’t it sound fun? 
I am having so much fun, and I am so grateful to all the companies for, all the products I am getting for reviews these days. The DHL guys, the Fedex guys, the UPS guys (why are they all guys? Don’t women do package deliveries?), they brighten up my whole day just by knocking on my door. And I’m learning a LOT about time and product management. I have a huge day planner I use to keep track of what arrives, who it’s for, and then I schedule the review dates so I don’t forget them. Some day I might even need corporate performance management to keep track of everything I do all day! I love, love, LOVE product reviews
Isn’t that how that saying goes? Well, I have a plan.
A $2,000.00 plan. That’s Two Thousand dollars.
I want it by this time next month.
How? By taking advantage of paid blogging opportunities that are available to me.
Even with a new Page Rank of 3 (please don’t let it drop, please don’t let it drop), I should have no problem earning $30.00 a day with this blog.
And MomReviews just went up from PR0 to PR3 as well (it makes no sense, it’s only six months old, barely any backlinks, but don’t anger the Google gods, just be grateful), so I should have no problem earning $30.00 a day with that blog.
$60.00 a day times 30 days = $1800.00. The additional $200.00 I plan to make from my share of my Text Link Ads, my LinkWorth ads, and maybe I’ll get lucky and make some money with the BlogHer Ads running on MomCooks (no one is reading MomCooks except my friends Mimi and Lynne. I need more readers).
So that’s the plan. November is also National Blog Posting Month, since I already post on this blog every day now, I’m trying to decide whether to post a review every day on MomReviews, or post a recipe every day on MomCooks. They both could use some trafficky love.
Oh, and I have read and re-read Izzy’s Blogging Declaration of Independence, and all the comments I got after my last “woe is me, I write paid posts and my Mommyblogger friends don’t read me anymore” post. It’s my blog. I need to do what I need to do. Yes, there will be multiple posts a day. Yes, at least half will be sponsored in some way. If you don’t want to read them, please skip ahead or look back in the archives for other posts. I’ve got lots!
TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s the plan.