My friend and fellow work at home mom, Marie Ynami is doing something that is truly fitting for the season.

Marie has gathered work at home moms and created Carol for a Cause 2006. It’s an event that only lasts 12 days and it began on December 13, so there are only 8 days left now. All proceeds received from this event are being donated to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

I’m pleased to say (though you may not be so pleased to hear) that I sang “Up On The Housetop”. I couldn’t get Zach to sing with me, but that’s ok, maybe next year.

Head on over and hear the wonderful ladies sing and the all their adorable kiddos too. Warning: You may want to put the dogs out before you click on my recording! LOL
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Christmas is the season for carols, fun and giving. How would you like to hear work at home moms sing your favorite Christmas carol?

This is a UNIQUE Christmas Fundraiser inspired by the 12 Days of Christmas. Running for only 12 days, beginning on December 13 and ending on December 25, 2006, all proceeds of this fundraiser will be donated to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. To listen to the carols and to donate - please visit Carol for a Cause 2006 .

Once your donation is received, you will be directed to a page where you can access the “carols”.

As a Thank You for your donation, you will also have access to awesome resources and e-books like:

- Traditional Christmas Carols
- Holiday Stress Ebook
- Creating a Magical Family Christmas
and some business resource ebooks too like Viral Marketing Values, Computer Basics for Beginners and Word Processing Basics …

Carol for a Cause 2006 can be found here -> http://www.mommycommunity.com/go/CarolforaCause

For about a month now, atleast one of the members of this family has been sick at any given time. Nothing major just chest colds, teething, runny nose…you know the winter sickies that always go around.

Well, I thought we were over it and everyone was on the mend, but Thursday Hunter started running a fever and was just not himself AT ALL. Even when he’s sick and teething, he usually still runs around and plays, albeit at a slower pace. Not this time though. He was at his Granny and Grandaddy’s so that I could work and they could spend some time with him since the weather was nice. About 2 hours after he left, Granny called. He woke up from a nap with a temperature of 102 and acting like he was in never never land, crying out Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma. I could hear him on the phone when she called. I didn’t like the feeling of hearing him sad and I couldn’t be there to comfort him when he called for me.

She brought him home and I gave him some tylenol and the fever finally broke, but only about 10 minutes before the medicine started to wear off. Not long enough at all to get the rest he so obviously needed. He finally started acting better, the fever broke and he went to sleep about 6.

I thought for sure he was out for the night, but about 7:30 he woke up and was burning up with fever again and shaking like he was freezing. Took his temperature and it was 104. We gave him more tylenol trying to get the fever under control, but he was so weak he could hardly move. His diaper was wet so I changed it and he just laid there, which is VERY out of the ordinary for him. Usually I’m about 2 seconds away from finding some rope to tie him still! Just kidding of course, but honestly, I didn’t think a 1 year old could ever be that strong and that determined.

We decided to take him to the ER because the fever wouldn’t break and we were worried it would end up so high that he would start convulsing and we live a good 30 minutes from the nearest hospital.

The verdict: Ear infection in his left ear. This is his first ear infection and only my 2nd as a Mama. I was lucky with Zach in that he only had 1 when he was small and that was when he was 2 or 3.

Once they got some Motrin in him at the hospital it started to make a difference in how he was acting. They prescribed a 5 day antibiotic treatment (must be some strong stuff if it’s only 5 days, I seem to remember 10-14 days).

Yesterday he still felt bad and wanted his Mama almost all day, so needless to say I got very little work done, except for the hour or so he did nap yesterday afternoon. Honestly, I think that’s his way (or God’s way) of telling me to slow down!

He didn’t sleep well last night. Needless to say, I didn’t either. He woke up just after I went to sleep and couldn’t go back to sleep unless he was laying in our bed next to his Dada. Let’s just say, I have given birth to another (and worse than the first) kidney kicker! Thank goodness for cribs or else he would end up in the floor a dozen times each night the way he rolls and kicks in his sleep!

Today, well he’s pretty much his old self. Right now, he and Zach are playing and crackin’ me up with their shannigans!

Wow…I was browsing a small business blog I found today and one of the posts mentioned a Forbes.com ranking of the best states for business. I was very pleased to see that my state, Virginia, ranks #1 in this first ever poll conducted by Forbes. Seems it won by a large margin too.

There were 6 categories that factored into the rankings.
- Business costs
- Economic climate
- Growth prospects
- Labor
- Quality of life
- Regulatory environment

Out of all 50 states Virginia was the only one to score in the top ten in all 6 categories. Other states that did well include #2 Texas, and #3 North Carolina.