Our daughter, Christi, loves the children’s clothing & items annual resale event out where they live.  It’s held at a convention center and is a very popular event.  She has to price all of her things she wants to sell and enter them into the computer beforehand.  Then at the time of the event, every item has been tagged and can be scanned with a barcode scanner.  I don’t know if they use a Symbol LS2208 or what type of scanner they use, but I do know that it makes this huge event run much smoother.  Check-out time is greatly reduced, and each person selling items is more assured of getting the money they are due to get.

Now you can choose your favorite WordWorld friend on a T-shirt.  These are licensed Tees, and you can choose between Dog (I think Dog is so cute!), Pig, Duck, Frog, Bug, Bee, Elephant, Shark, Tiger, Kangaroo, Turtle, Fish, Monkey, and others.  Sizes include adult, junior, and youth sizes.

Since there is a bed bug epidemic in the US now, what can we do to help prevent bed bugs from entering our homes?  These bugs can be anywhere including nice hotels, dorm rooms, apartments, and other places where there is a frequent turnover of people.  They can be on new clothes, new sheets, new towels, etc, because these items are often made in countries where bed bugs are a problem.

Here are some good tips from various sources on how to prevent bed bugs from being an uninvited guest:

• Check out the  BED BUG REGISTRY before staying in a hotel.
• Keep suitcases off the floor in hotels.
• Wash all clothes as soon as you return home from a trip.
  
• Vacuum luggage as soon as you return home from a trip.

• Do not purchase clothes and hang them in your closet! Always wash new clothes or send to the cleaners first.  (It doesn’t matter how much the item cost!)
  
• Always wash new sheets and new towels which most of us do anyway.  But also wash new curtains or any new fabric where these bugs could be hiding.
• Cover your mattresses with a plastic mattress cover.
• (Maybe put stuffed animals in the dryer for 20 minutes?)
  

Here are a few sources for more information:

eHow

Good Housekeeping.com

WebMD

Wikihow

If you’ve never checked out the 200+ stores at CSN Stores then you might want to check them out and see just what all they have to offer.  They have everything from dining sets to toys & baby items to pet care items to all sorts of kitchen items and much more.

Being a preferred blogger with CSN, I was given the opportunity to review an item during the summer.  I chose a computer desk which we really like.  We received it just a few days after ordering it and were surprised at how quickly it arrived.

CSN has given me the opportunity to review another item, and I’m thrilled!  It’s hard to decide what to choose since they have so much!  I plan to look through different CSN Stores, and then I’ll let you know what I decide. Like I mentioned, they have 200+ stores so I’ll have plenty of items to choose from!

Word World has new episodes starting Monday, October 4th.  These will have more advanced skills.  And they have upgraded the WordWorld “Build a Word” iPhone app and also have three new WordWorld mobile applications for Samsung’s bada platform.    Be sure and check out Toys R Us and Target for WordWorld products .

For homeschooling families, this is a great opportunity to go visit NASA’s Space Center in Houston, Texas.  Home School families only are allowed on this day as it is closed to the general public.  There is a big discount on tickets which is great!  Here’s more info for those interested.

Here is a simple way to reduce the amount of sugar in Kool-Aid with a natural sweetener, stevia.  We made Kool-Aid this way a lot this summer, and our college-age son liked it.  So it passed the test!

INGREDIENTS:

*1 small package of dry Kool-Aid mix
*1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (or 1 tablespoon works fine)
*6 “KAL spoons” of KAL Pure Stevia Extract powder