Subscribe & receive all blog updates straight to your email!

Theta Mom®

Redefining Motherhood

Paperspring Review and Giveaway: Need Holiday Cards? This is the Giveaway for You!

***This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Katrina! An email has been sent!***

Paperspring was launched in 2008 by Charlie Chan Printing, a commercial printing company based in Los Angeles. Paperspring’s project managers and designers aim to please every customer with their remarkable standard of high quality and service. Paperpring does all of their printing in-house which means fast, unparalleled service for the customer. Satisfaction is 100% guaranteed and Paperspring has been officially certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as “a chain-of-custody provider of recycled paper made from environmentally sustainable forests.” Aside from being an eco-friendly company, they also pride themselves on exquisite designs that are exclusive only to Paperspring.

I was given $60 to spend at Paperspring to try out their products and see if it matched what they have committed to on their website. I was very impressed from the moment I browsed their website. Their designs are truly beautiful and the service was super fast and easy. Furthermore, the cards are of very high quality, something I can’t wait to share with friends and family this holiday season!

I chose the Pure Joy: Red Holiday Photo Card as my Christmas card for this year. You can get a good look at this card here. It’s made of 100% recycled cardstock and is FSC-certified. I easily uploaded a picture of my kids and the quality of this photo on the card was excellent. I didn’t share the personalization underneath the card in this post, but you can personalize this card any way you wish!

Ccard2

I was also impressed with not only how quickly I received my cards, but the way they were packaged. You can shop now, especially since Paperspring is offering a 20% discount on all holiday card orders placed now through December 6th.

Or, enter to win here because Paperspring is giving one lucky Theta Mom reader a $60 coupon code to use at Paperspring! Need holiday cards? Invitations? Thank You Cards? Paperspring has an amazing collection of different designs for any need, just in time for the holidays!

How to Enter the Paperspring Giveaway:

Required Entry: Go to Paperspring and check out their website. Come back here and tell me how you would spend the $60.

Extra Entries: (You must leave a separate entry for each extra entry to count and extra entries won’t count unless the required entry is done)

1. Follow my blog publicly and tell me you do. (1 entry)

2. Follow me on Twitter and leave me your twitter name. (1 entry)

3. Grab one of my cute buttons and add it to your website. (2 entries per button)

4. Subscribe to my Blog. In order for this entry to count, you must activate your subscription. (1 entry)

5. Click to vote for me at Top Mommy Blogs. Just click the banner on the right side bar and tell me you clicked. (1 entry)

6. Tweet this giveaway! Just copy/paste the following:
Enter to win a $60 coupon code #giveaway to Paperspring @ThetaMom http://tinyurl.com/yerxd3z
Please RT (1 entry per daily tweet)

7. Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me. Leave me your link to show the post. (2 entries)

8. Add Theta Mom to your blogroll (2 entries)

Giveaway Rules:

This giveaway is open to US residents only. It begins on November 22, 2009 and will end at 10 PM on December 3, 2009. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced and must respond with a current email address within 48 hours to claim. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. Enter as many extra entries as you would like Theta Moms and good luck!

I received a $60 e-gift certificate to use at Paperspring. I was not compensated for this review. These are my own honest opinions about the product, including my experience.

Am I Really Doing This?

LZ from My Messy Paradise posted the most fun set of questions on her blog, so I just had to play along!

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you. Paris Hilton

2. Where was your first kiss? On the back porch

3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else’s property? No

4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex? Yes, college boyfriend. Fun times.

5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? Karaoke after a few beers, for sure!

6. What’s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex? Great teeth

7. What really turns you off? Dishonesty

8. What do you order at Starbucks? White Chocolate Mocha

9. What is your biggest mistake? Not starting this blog sooner!

10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? Does staying with a bad boyfriend for way too long count?

11. Say something totally random about yourself. I can eat Rainbow Sprinkles directly out of the container. No need for ice-cream or whipped cream.

12. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? When I was skinnier and blonder- Lara Spencer from The Insider

Lara

                                                                                                                  Lara                                                                          

Wedding2

                                                                                           Theta Mom

13. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows? Kiddie movies, but not by choice.

14. Did you have braces? No

15. Are you comfortable with your height? I am tall at 5’8 and I was always so conscious of it growing up. Now, I don’t mind it so much.

16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you? My husband proposed to me on the ice-skating rink in Rockefeller Center.

17. When do you know its love? When you can’t ever imagine yourself living without this person in your life.

18. Do you speak any other languages? I tried learning Italian since my husband speaks it, but I still can’t string a full sentence together.

19. Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Fake and bake? Of course, I’m from New Jersey. 😉

20. What magazines do you read? I used to read InStyle, but now I don’t even have time for that anymore.

21. Have you ever ridden in a limo? Yes, many times. The most fun limo rides I remember were for 3 different Bachelorette Parties in NYC.

22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? Yes. All of my grandparents are deceased. I recently wrote about the anniversary of my Nana’s passing.

23. Do you watch MTV? Of course! I never miss an episode of The Hills or The City.

24. What’s something that really annoys you? When my husband thinks I spend way too much time blogging. And I know he’ll eventually read this, and then our conversation following will be even more annoying.

25. What’s something you really like? Listening to music

26. Do you like Michael Jackson? Yes, he lived an incredible life and although he had years of drama, the man was talented.

27. Can you dance? Actually, yes. I even minored in it in college.

28. What’s the latest you have ever stayed up? 5 am. But, then I went to sleep…

29. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room? Ambulance no but ER, yes.

30. Do you actually read these when other people fill them out? When the questions are this f-u-n, I do!

And as a side note, my feed has not been updating in many of your readers. I ask that if you are so kind, please resubscribe. Otherwise, you won’t get my updates. I am also in the process of putting together my blogroll, so if you have me listed on your blog, please be sure to let me know in the comments! And in order for my updates to show on your blogroll, you would have to re-add me there, too. I know, what a mess…

LeapFrog Leapster2 Review and Giveaway

***This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Stefany. An email has been sent!***

LeapFrog  is a company that is leading and designing innovative and educational products that are technology-based, making learning fun for children of all ages. They offer quality educational products at an affordable price point, making any purchase a great investment. The LeapFrog philosophy is that they “put learning first.” This company believes it is this philosophy that sets them apart from other competitors.

I have been impressed with this company and their line of educational, technology-based products for quite some time now, so you can imagine my excitement when I received the email that LeapFrog wanted Theta Mom to perform a review/giveaway! I reviewed the Leapster2 along with two games: The Princess and the Frog (4-7 years) and Star Wars (5-8 years).

The Leapster2 is the #1 best selling educational handheld gaming system. Honestly, it’s the first product that has truly held the interest of my 4 year-old son. I can’t tell you how many times he has received gifts from a birthday party or Christmas and after five days, the excitement wore off and he moved on to the something else. I have a basement full of toys that he hardly ever uses anymore. And then, we met the Leapster2.

You know I only endorse products/companies that I fully believe in and support. I can’t tell you enough how the Leapster2, in some ways, changed my life. Seriously. My son will actually play on his Leapster2 for an hour at a time. He looks forward to playing each time and we even downloaded an extra game from our computer at no extra cost! The gaming and learning possibilities with this Leapster2 are endless!

The touch screen is easy to work with and the buttons are easy for my son’s little fingers to navigate. But, what I love most about this product is that there is real learning going on and my son doesn’t even realize it because he’s having so much fun! He’s counting, recognizing letters, shapes, beginning to put sounds together and form words, all at the press of a button.

 

The other reason I absolutely love this product is that it transports very easily. We even take it in the car since it runs on batteries, no need to plug in. We invested in a battery charger and rechargeable batteries, so when he wants to continue playing, it’s so easy!

Moreover, along with the Leapster2, there is a CD-ROM called LeapFrog Connect included in the package that actually tracks your child’s learning progress! You can set up an individual account (which we did) to monitor and track your child’s overall performance. This is called The Learning Path and it demonstrates your child’s skill level in Listening and Speaking Skills, Phonics Skills as well as Memory Skills. How awesome is that?

The Princess and the Frog (4-7 years) game: My son loved Cooking with Tiana. He gets the chance to be a real chef, cutting the food and stirring the pot. (Yes, he loves to stir the pot)! He also likes to choose the “right letter” to get to Mama Odies’s House. He tells me with excitement when he gets it right!

Star Wars (5-8 years): My son also enjoys identifying upper and lowercase letters while battling the Storm troopers. He also gets to blast the letters to get more power. What boy wouldn’t want to blast those letters in space? Spelling and letter recognition has never been this much fun!

I cannot tell you enough how much we love the Leapster2 and the learning experience it provides my son. As a Theta Mom, this product is my sanity, because my son’s attention is on something else other than me for once!

The Leapster2 retails for $69.99. You can purchase one yourself, by locating a store here or you can enter this giveaway because LeapFrog is giving one lucky Theta Mom reader the chance to WIN YOUR VERY OWN LEAPSTER2!!! Perfect timing for the holidays Theta Moms! Trust me when I tell you, your child will be ecstatic over the Leapster2!

How to Enter the LeapFrog Leapster2 Giveaway:

Required Entry: I made this SUPER easy: Just follow my blog publicly and tell me you are.

Extra Entries: (You must leave a separate entry for each extra entry to count and extra entries won’t count unless the required entry is done)

1. Follow me on Twitter and leave me your twitter name. (1 entry)

2. Grab one of my cute buttons and add it to your website. (2 entries per button)

3. Subscribe to my Blog. (1 entry)

4. Click to vote for me at Top Mommy Blogs. Just click the banner on the side bar and tell me you clicked. (1 entry)

5. Tweet this giveaway! Just copy/paste the following: Enter to win a LeapFrog #giveaway for a Leapster2 @ThetaMom http://tinyurl.com/ygq7w3n Please RT (1 entry per daily tweet)

6. Stumble this giveaway and tell me you stumbled. (1 entry)

7. Fave my blog to Technorati and use icon in the Connect With Theta Mom green box. (1 entry)

8. Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me. Leave me your link to show the post. (2 entries)

9. Add Theta Mom to your blogroll (2 entries)

Giveaway Rules:

This giveaway is open to US residents only. It begins on November 19, 2009  and will end on December 3, 2009 at 10 PM. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced and must respond with a current email address within 48 hours to claim. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. Enter as many extra entries as you would like Theta Moms and good luck!

I received the Leapster2 and the two games shown in this post for review. I was not compensated for this review. These are my own opinions about the products, including my son’s experience.

Blogger Was Like a Really Bad Boyfriend, So He Finally Got the Boot

I must preface this post by saying that many of the blogs I visit are powered by Blogger. Although I had an absolutely horrible experience with Blogger, this will not deter me from continuing to support, visit, follow, and comment on your blogs. This, my dear readers, will never change. However, I needed to make a change for my own site. And since many of you have been asking me why I made the decision to leave Blogger and make the move to WordPress, I am going to dish right now.

Basically, Blogger was like a really bad boyfriend to me; he was always late, sometimes unresponsive, totally unreliable, never supportive, and acted like he owned me. A girl can only take so much before she reaches her breaking point. And this girl had enough.

Blogger Was Always Late and Sometimes Even Unresponsive: My own blog would take time to load and some blogs I visit frequently would take so long to load, and some not at all. This process proved that Blogger was never on time. Even worse, to try and comment on a blog that had restricted users to Google accounts only? Blogger was never on time. Most often, I couldn’t wait around long enough for Blogger to show its face. Is this an Internet Explorer issue? Perhaps. Did it happen to all users? No, but I was certainly one of the lucky ones. Even when I downloaded Google Chrome and other “tricks” that were suggested to me, these problems still existed. This is when I totally reached my threshold.

I need a platform that will always be on time and responsive. I want my page to load easily for readers and make adding a comment a pleasure, not a hassle. No need for logins, passwords, page loads, pop-ups, none of that garbage. One quick form without any login necessary.  Completely a fast process that’s consistently easy, seamless. Effortless.

Blogger Was Unreliable: Aside from sometimes not being able to leave a comment all together, there were a few occasions when I was completely locked out of my own blog! I received either a Google server error message or one of those crazy error messages full of code that actually would not let me on my own damn blog! I couldn’t even get to my Dashboard to post my sheer frustration with Blogger. Did it happen all the time? No. Enough to spook me? Absolutely. Enough to make me leave? You better believe it.

I can’t be worried that every time I login to my blog, there is a chance something has gone terribly wrong. I don’t want to have to hold my breath every single time to make sure that my Dashboard will completely appear. Blogger showed me time and time again that it’s simply not reliable. I need a platform that will give me peace of mind when I login to my blog, it will be there!

Blogger Was Not Supportive: With the many issues I was facing, Blogger never came around to help me. I would share my frustration and issues on the help forums and the administrators would never respond to me; not in an email or on any of the Blogger help forums. My time spent there was completely useless. I worried that there would come a day that I would be locked out of my blog for more than a few hours and then what? Hope the Google police would rescue me? Not a chance.

I need a platform that encourages support. I need a community of users that will help you when you need guidance, be there for you in time of need, and help you to find your way through code when you’ve screwed something up. You will get a response from some WordPress gurus on twitter almost instantaneously, let alone the hundreds of users who login to the help forums to chat and support hourly. There is always someone there, regardless of your issue or time of day. Especially since I am a new user, I foresee myself chatting on these boards a lot, and that’s the kind of support I need.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying WordPress won’t have its own issues. Give me some time and I’ll probably find some pitfalls, but at least with WordPress, there is an entire community ready to provide support and give you the help you need. To me this is priceless, and it’s something Blogger could never and will never provide.

Blogger Owned Me: Need I say more? Although I wrote and owned my content, I was always at the mercy of Google. If Google was down, so was my blog. If Google EVER decided one day to erase my little blog out of the blogosphere, it could be done instantly because my domain was pointed to Google, and technically they could do whatever the hell they want with it. This goes for all blogspot addresses as well. Using Blogger, you will always be at the mercy of Google. I have come to realize since I am paying a hosting company as well as my domain name to have a dot com, I want a little piece of that action and I certainly deserve that.

On the WordPress platform, my blog is mine and all mine. I own it. All of it. If Google crashed tomorrow, I will still be standing.

So you see, Blogger was like a really bad boyfriend that I finally realized needed to go. Was I scared to leave? Totally. Was it a leap of faith? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, I had to follow my gut, and my gut was telling me to move on.

As for WordPress? Well, he’s the kind of guy that I want to stick around for the long haul. I see a real future together; one full of stability, reliability, and endless support.

And the best part?  He doesn’t own me.

I do.

Welcome to the New Theta Mom…On WordPress!

So, it’s official.

I am creating and publishing my very first post on WordPress and it feels fabulous! I have to give a huge thank you to Lauren at Restored316Designs. I cannot say enough about her! Not only did she answer the million questions I had about this move, she helped to restore my previous design and moved my blog from Blogger over to WordPress beautifully. There is so much to learn on this platform and she was so patient with me and my emails!

Many of you have been asking why I made the move from Blogger, so I will be posting about my experience very soon…

In the meantime, I still have some tweaking to do here and there, but I would love for you to stick around and check out my new digs! There are so many new features for you to love, but I think my favorite so far is the Connect with Theta Mom box with those awesome icons! It’s such a clean and polished look. Totally loving it!

This is definitely a whole new bloggy world and I couldn’t be more excited about this change. So pull up a chair, grab a latte and hang out with me. We have so much to catch up on!

 Oh, I almost forgot…

 Welcome home.