The Sewing Mom

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of TiVo. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer flew by and tomorrow is all ready the first day of Fall! Not only does Fall bring cooler temperatures (hopefully), but above all else, it’s the beginning of the Fall TV season. That means all new shows, no more re-runs! Just a few of my favorites include The Middle, Gray’s Anatomy and The Amazing Race and I can’t wait to see them all.

If you’ve followed my blog at all, then you know that we tend to be out in the evening a lot with band and softball events. Because of all of our evening events, it is very possible, downright probable, that we will miss our favorite shows. But, NO MORE! Thanks to TiVo, we no longer miss anything (unless we just simply forget to record it!), because TiVo records all of our favorite shows so that we can catch up with them when it’s convenient for us. Honestly, when someone asks me what night one of my favorite shows airs, I’m really not sure because just about everything we watch is on TiVo! My husband even records football games while he’s watching them live simply so he can go back and re-watch all those great plays! I’m telling you, TiVo is the best invention EVER!

Of course, they are always coming up with new things that make it even better (I didn’t think that was possible). Seriously, have you seen the new TiVo Slide remote control? It actually slides open to reveal a Qwerty keyboard. That can come in really handy when you’re searching for titles of programs you may want to record. I do that a lot when I’m looking to see if the White Sox are being televised. TiVo Premier has some great features including HD and access to On-Demand video, something my husband has really enjoyed.

You might want to check out the TiVo Facebook Fan Page and, while you’re there, don’t forget to Enter to Wina new TiVo Slide in the “30 Slides in 30 Days” Sweepstakes.

I’m telling you, TiVo is something I would hate to live without!

I got up early yesterday morning because we had another full day of softball on the schedule and we needed to get on the road. I knew the Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival was in progress over the weekend and they too usualy get an early start so I stepped outside on our front patio to see if there were any in the air. You have no idea how surprised I was when at first I heard the sound of the gas burner, then I saw this coming over my next door neighbors roof!

By the time I ran into the kitchen and grabbed my camera, it was directly over my house. If I had been up on our roof, I probably could have simply climbed aboard, it was so close! I watched it as it sailed over our neighborhood and appeared to be heading for a landing in a nearby field. I was just amazed at how low they were flying.

I did see this same balloon again as I was getting ready to pull out of the driveway for the day. He was still quite low, but still in the air!

We have a total of 4 computers in our house, 3 desktops and 1 laptop. With the exception of the desktop computer that I tend to use only for work, I have always had internet security that I purchase and keep up to date, on all of the computers. However, even with the security software I’ve been using, 1 desktop and my laptop have both become infected from a nasty virus, not just once, but twice. It was very frustrating, not to mention costly, when a computer crashes because some jack-wagon thinks it’s funny to spread viruses around the internet.

I have owned my work computer for only a few months and was still trying to decide the best way to protect it. As a member of Parent Reviewers, I was given the opportunity to review the AVG Internet Security 9.0 Software and I jumped on it. AVG is the security software that was recommended to me by the computer geek who fixed my other computers after they were infected. In order to complete the review, I was given a one year free download of the AVG software. All of the opinions in this post are 100% mine.

I promptly downloaded the AVG Software and put it to work protecting my computer. You can click here for your free trial download of the AVG software. Once the download was complete (which took very little time), I saw this screen and new it was working.

I’ve been running the software for about a month now and feel very confident that it is working. With AVG Internet Security9.0 you get:

Identity Protection for safe banking and shopping
LinkScanner® for safe surfing and searching
WebShield for safe social networking, chatting and downloading
Anti-phishing and anti-spam for a safe, uncluttered inbox
High-speed anti-virus/anti-spyware with auto updates
Enhanced firewall to keep hackers out of your PC

This is a screenshot of my latest computer scan and I am happy to say, the result were clean.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that with AVG, you can also get a 1 year free subscription for identity theft recovery services. This is a screenshot of what I saw when I logged into my computer this morning.

I do recommend AVG intenet security for all your home computers. It is a solid, easy to use software that can protect my home network from outside attacks.  Remember, it doesn’t just scan your email, AVG also scans the sites your visiting on the web to prevent your private information and your computer from being hacked.

This is what she looks like after a full day of playing softball in 105 degree temperatures! Believe it or not, this was only day 1! We had to get up the next morning at 5 and do it all again. They payoff? The team took 5th out of 24 teams, not to shabby in my opinion!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of WhyDoWork.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I truly am a work-at-home mom. My daughter is now 14 and a freshman in high school so I do have quite a bit of daytime hours on my own. One afternoon, almost 2 years ago, I was blog hopping when I ran across a blog dedicated to work at home jobs. The post I read led me directly to the job I’ve now had for the last 18 months and I am ever so thankful. You see, I am home to get my daughter off to school, I am home to get my housework and laundry done, and I am even home to get dinner going and take care of the dog! I also get to create my own schedule so I can work around special school days, softball tournaments and band concerts. I feel blessed to be doing what I’m doing and not have to spend money on gasoline! In fact, since finding my job, I’ve run across many more sites dedicated to helping those who all ready work at home, and sites like WhyDoWork.com which can help those wanting to work at home find jobs through their search engine.

There are days when I sort of miss the face to face of working on site and seeing other human beings, but I am always connected to other work-at-home employees doing the same job for the same company via a chat room. We also utilize e-mail constantly. Many people find support via work at home forums or chat rooms like the one I use daily. While it’s not the same as face to face meetings, I have to say, the benefits of me working at home, far outweigh the negatives. Today for example, I dropped my daughter off at marching band practice at 7 this morning. I came home and was able to do the dishes, 2 loads of laundry and spend some time catching up on emails, all before my short 3 hours shift, walking into my home office 10 minutes before my start time. When I got off work at noon, I only had to walk to the kitchen to get my lunch and resume whatever household activities I chose to do!

Working at home is not as uncommon as you might think, in fact, there is a very large work at home jobs community that offers support and tips on working from home. While I highly recommend working at home, remember, working at home is not a substitution for babysitting, it does take commitment to make it work, but it can be rewarding.  I love staying home and still earning a paycheck!