Building stronger communities

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aviva Community Fund for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love to see opportunities for communities to build stronger ties and programs, at this time of year it seems so much more appealing to see communities grow together. I have been following a program from Aviva Insurance, the Aviva Community Fund was developed to award programs that promote community strength. The Fund is moving onto the Semi-Final stage which means it is time to get busy reviewing the entries and voting for the one or ones you feel strongest for. Once you are registered all you have to do is sign in and vote for your favorite, you can vote for them once per day and you have 15 votes per cycle so you can spread them around if there are multiple causes you like. If you are a facebook fan you can Like Aviva Community Fund and using your facebook connect app vote directly through their Aviva's facebook page @ facebook.com/AvivaComunityFund. I like to support childrens causes especially for at risk youth as it is so important to ensure kids get as strong as start as possible in their childhood to encourage them to have successful and productive lives. I feel if we can focus on that first it can really remove the drain later on if they can be the best they can be. I know everyone would love to see as much support in the program as possible to encourage groups like Aviva to continue this program and grow our communities better, I would love to see everyone get on their everyday and make your opinions counts. To check out more information on Aviva you can Follow @Aviva to get the latest updates.

Oh no it's really Dec 13th

I had a stark realization this morning, I am in serious trouble with my Christmas Shopping plans, I don't know how the days go by so fast it seems like just the other day it was December 1 and I had over 3 weeks to get ready now it's the 13th and I am at only 11 days and counting so fast my head is spinning. It just doesn't seem Christmasy here yet, we have no snow and most days are above freezing, we need a snow covering to make it right. Please just a little sent this way the first of December next year. Merry last minute shopping to everyone feeling just like me.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Insurance Hunter for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

No I'm not talking about Christmas which is also just around corner but back to school, which is like Christmas for Parents. We have been successfully getting back on track with the kids, it's an all new routine this year as we moved, new school and my wife started a new job as well which makes routines good. One thing I really noticed about the new school was the amount of traffic in the morning with parents dropping kids off. I have seen all kinds of scary things in the mornings, parents putting on makeup, talking on cell phones, kids with no seat belts you name it I think I've seen it over the last few weeks. I've seen a Insurance Hunter’s survey on driver safety in school zones which is directed to this topic exactly. The survey discusses that 66% of parents drive their kids to school and that number is even higher on weather days 82%  & when their kids have large projects to take to school it raises to 90%. If you are interested in reading the results from the Ontario School Zone Safety Survey hit the links above and you can see all the stats that were collected from the Insurance Hunter Survey. If you find yourself in the market for auto insurance be sure you will find the competitive rates and service you are looking for from Insurance Hunter.

Caught up on the walking dead

Well my son has been going on about "the walking dead" show for weeks waiting for the new season to begin. I really haven't watched any of the episodes so I had a vague curiosity on what the show would be like. I pictured a bad campy version of zombies chasing people. Well there was a marathon on this weekend covering the entire series all 2 seasons so we started watching and we all got hooked. We couldn't stop, my wife and I had a hard time leaving to go to work etc. It's a good thing we have dvr so we could record the shows and watch them later. The hard thing is now the marathon is over and we are finding ourselves struggling with only 1 new episode every week. The show really has a great story and is not as "B" rated as you might expect.

Community Inspiration

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aviva Community Fund for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Every once in a while we see inspiring changes being made by big corporations. Such is the case with a current promotion from the team of Aviva Insurance. They are currently looking to donate 1,000,000 to the  Aviva Community Fund providing support to community causes and are searching for your suggestions for community development projects that would improve your community. This year every finalist that makes it to the judging phase of the competion will be awarded a minimum $5000. To make it more exciting there will also be 2 grand prize winners that will have up to $150,000 each for a Broker supported and at risk youth. I am so excited to see great opportunities for  programs I personally want to see every child have great opportunities to grow into productive happy members of our society. You can check out all the current entrants online now and vote for your favorite, even better take an opportunityLike Aviva Community Fund  to make improvements in your own community and submit your own suggestions. Entering is really easy you can check out all the eligibility rules, it's really you need to have a idea to improve Canadian , have a good budget plan and get underway by 2013, of course your idea has to be action orientated to help communities grow and thrive. It is not very often that you can find opportunities to fund great ideas for your community. If you would like more information on this program or any other information Follow @Aviva for updates and insurance information

Thanksgiving Delight

Thanksgiving is just around the corner here in Canada, wondering what your Thanksgiving day traditions include. We will go to the local apple orchard for some delicious apples which of course follows with some home baked apple pies. We stick to a lot of the traditional fair. Turkey, potatoes, carrot, corn etc is all the great favorites we have. We really focus on finding time to spend together at least on thanksgiving and would love to hear some of your traditions and favorites.

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween, it's that time of year, spooktacular scary decorations and ghoulish scary costumes. We recently got all our decorations out of storage and set them up for the first time in our new home. It's so exciting to change up our brand new home to spooktacular. The kids are so excited to have our new home and now the transformation is complete.

Preview

Road Trips

This post brought to you by InsuranceHunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

We recently moved back to our home town and I can't be more excited. We lived over 5 hours away for almost 4 years and we constantly had to make road trips home to visit. The worst thing about these trips is that I always did all the driving, and the risks involved in these trips was pretty bad. I can remember the trips my wife would have the van packed to leave after I got off work on a Friday and I would rush home change and hit the road. I had already worked all day and now here we hit the road for over 5 hours. I would drive and most times struggle to stay awake while driving. With small kids if they fell asleep or were quite I would never consider stopping for a rest break or stretch. It's amazing we survived all these trips back and forth. I heard about a survey that was recently completed by Insurance Hunter that talked about this exact phenomen and as I read the Insurance Hunter’s safety survey the information seemed exactly like our family and it was really scary.  The survey discusses the results that 72% of dad's do all or most of the driving and 64% of dad's have continued driving even if physically tired both of these results fits me perfectly. It's always smart to have a good auto insurance policy to ensure you and your family have the protection you need to stay safe and protect everyone in the case of an accident. Take some time to checkout the survey on the link above and get a quote from the team at Insurance Hunter.  This post is brought to you by Insurance Hunter.

Sign of the season

Well it must be a sign of the season, today at work the pumpkin shipment arrived and we set up the fall displays at the front of the store. I love this time of year, Halloween is coming and it's so much fun to have decorations up to celebrate this time of year. In our new house I'm not sure what decor we will put up this year but I am looking forward to getting the lights and decor out very soon. Spook you later.

On the road again

Well we moved and what a fun experience moving into a new home with my family after months of planning. The unfortunate thing I didn't get my job transferred to our new home town yet. I was hoping to have this done but now it looks as if it may not happen to next year. Luckily I have a place to stay in our former town as my parents live there. I am currently staying one night at home and one night at my parents and rotating through the week. I look forward to the time when I can call my home, home and not have to drive an hour to work each day...wish me luck.

New Home, New Insurance

Post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

We are on the move again, it's hard to believe we have been here for a year but our new house is almost finished and it is time for us to get settled into our new town and home. We are so busy finishing up all the loose ends, transfering jobs, finalizing the house etc that anything we can do to save time and money is great for us. I like to get things organized at night after the kids have gone to bed and the house is finally quiet so it's important for me to be able to use online services to help achieve our goals. When it came to our home and Car Insurance I wanted a service I could use online when it was convienient for me so with a little searching I was able to find Insurance Hunter, an online broker that provides fast and flexible insurance options. With a Broker you get service that has your best interests first and does all the comparison's for you to ensure you have the best rates available. For me it was fantastic to save time by being able to do all my insurance shopping in one location instead of having to go from site to site comparing  Auto Insurance rates. Getting your quote is very easy and you can do it online anytime as the site runs 24/7 so it works for you at your convience. Another awesome feature of Insurance Hunter is that they offer Travel Insurance so after we get moved and settled in our new home my Wife and I can take a nice vacation down south and get our travel insurance coverage online as well.

Alternative education

Looking at alternative options to ones career path should be taken seriously and although not always easy it is important to make smart choices. I know for many people it is a difficult decision to make but with careful consideration it becomes much easier. The Regency Beauty School offers the most current education methods you can recieve with hands on training and practice. The Regency Beauty Schools started out over 50 years ago and has grown to over 80 location to serve their student base. If you would like to find out more information about location nearest you or what they have to offer you in your situation check out RegencyBeauty.com This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 3583 Alpine Avenue NW – Walker, MI 49544

Gee I'm Tired

The population of this country is about 237 million.

104 million are retired.

That leaves 133 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work.

Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government, leaving 19 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 16.2 million work.

Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Governments and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals, leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work.

You and me.

And you're sitting at your computer reading jokes...



Just joking, ‘

Comedy time

As I was telling you all, I had a tremendous find at the local dump day last weekend, and was able to bring home a drum set for the kids to bang on. Sunday night Jay found another use for the drums as he turned our dance room into JJ's comedy club, he was cracking jokes for at least a half hour, some better than others but he sure seemed to enjoy being in the spotlight. It was fun to see a different side of him than we have seen before.

Pest Control Experts

There are so many things that can effect our health and the health of our family. Cock roaches have actually been found to spread disease and cause asthma also. These little creatures can find their way into your home through the smallest of cracks and can even take up residence without you knowing they are there. The little freeloaders spreading bacteria and multiplying the whole time. Cockroaches are known to love urban areas and especially warm climates to help them multiply. Contacting experts from Houston Pest Control will help you combat these little creatures and if you contact them now they can actually come into your home and do an analysis to inform you of your risks. With this information you can take the premptive action to protect your home and your family from and infestation before it happens. If you would like more information on their services simply hit the link above to find out how they can help you.