Yes… some moms do! Other than surviving the dog days of summer with my obnoxiously rowdy boys for nearly three months, I’ve had another reason for being quiet.

What can I say? I was in love!

So here’s the official announcement:
Chele’s wedding bells will be ringing very soon!  December 31st to be exact.

Of course, this isn’t my first wedding, but I’m banking on it being the last!  Although we plan on a private ceremony,  I’d still like it to be a memorable occasion with plenty of “Kodak” moments to share for years to come.

I’d love to hear any words of wisdom or some shopping suggestions you have for this mom!

P.S.
Special thanks to my sweet friend, Lisa for her adorable wedding clipart that also prints perfectly!

After answering my questions, Jendi asked me this:

"What has been the most profitable marketing tool for you and your blog?"

Woah Jendi! Let’s go straight for the jugular, OK?!

Honestly, there’s no fabulous, sparkling nugget of wisdom and wealth for you in this answer. In fact, it might surprise you!

Here’s a few hints on my most profitable marketing tool:

• The marketing tool is already in your toolbox.
• It doesn’t cost a penny.
• Most people can’t master this tool so they skip it.

Are you stumped yet? OK, I won’t leave you in suspense any longer. The answer is…

PATIENCE and RESEARCH

Not a very sexy answer, huh? Sorry!

Honestly, think about it for a minute (Just think to yourself, don’t reply directly to me for all these questions). How much time and effort is put into the blogging posts you write? Sometimes a bit more thought and effort are put into them than the amount of time you wait to achieve a result, right? The result can be any number of things, depending on the purpose of your post. Maybe your expectation was blog interaction via comments or maybe it was something more complex such as making a sale on your new, improved super-deluxe time saving gadget.

Do you become irritated when you don’t receive your expected result immediately? Do you start changing your post? Do you resort to trying costly services and tactics to draw more traffic or attention to your post? Do you give up and decide everyone with an internet connection and a mouse must be on a personal mission to ignore you?

Why? Did you even give it time to be seen by a human eye other than your own? Did you? It’s so hard to sit and do nothing sometimes, isn’t it?

Don’t worry, you’ll get to do something as soon as you RESEARCH what went wrong or right and apply your changes to a new post. On the next post, try to exercise a little PATIENCE and you may be pleasantly surprise by the results! Then rinse, lather, repeat. Just like shampooing your hair!

Here’s my question for you, Jendi:

When shopping online, what aspects about a blog/website discourage you from making a purchase that you were considering? What do you wish more bloggers/online retailers would take into account for their shopping visitors?

Many of you will be taking 3 and 4 day weekends to celebrate.  Earlier this week, our friendly neighbor to the north, Canada, celebrated their own Canada Day.  So, I’ve decided to give Moms Love Shopping podcast the week off to celebrate, too.

Don’t worry, the podcast WILL be back!  You’ll be too busy racking up on holiday sales, shooting fireworks and grilling burgers to listen this week anyway.  Then you’ll spend all week recovering and playing catch up (or hiding those new shoes) to miss me. 

If you do happen to get some free time and need some shopping therapy, rent or buy Confessions of a Shopaholic to get your shopping buzz while you relax.  Or, if you haven’t listened to last week’s show, Shopaholic Confessions – Show #54, (shame on you!) get caught up and find out who the true shopaholic in MY family is.  I was surprised!

I’ll talk to you next week.  Have a wonderful holiday weekend and be safe.
‘chele

P.S.
Don’t forget to have fun shopping!

If you’ve never heard of a cross blog conversation, it’s when two bloggers correspond with each other, each from their own blog. I’m excited about the opportunity to ask Jendi some of my burning questions and I will attempt to dazzle her with my own answers!

Jendi began our conversation by asking the following questions:

“How much time do you spend online in an average day? Do you spend more time online shopping or doing blog related things?”

First of all, that’s a heck of a loaded question!

I probably spend more time online than a lot of moms because I also work a full time business from home. If it weren’t for that factor, and I truly spent all that time shopping online, I’d need to check myself into the nearest Shopaholics Anonymous, ASAP! But, I digress… to be completely honest, I’d say I spend an average of 8 – 10 hours online daily. Yikes!

The second question is a bit tougher to answer. It’s virtually impossible to NOT shop online these days… or at least ‘window shop’ online. I am constantly distracted by lovely things when online while I’m working, blogging, surfing or just catching up on my friend’s blogs.

For instance, just this morning, I responded to a comment on my personal blog and clicked on over to my friend Nell’s blog to see what she’s been up to lately while I drank my coffee and waited for the dryer to catch up with the washing machine. Nell distracted me with a post about the lack of adorable baby boy fashion and some great sites she found with drool-worthy items. I had to check it out, because I’ve been grumbling forever about the tiny selection of boy’s clothing to myself and publicly here at Moms Love Shopping, as well. (Um, I don’t even have baby boys anymore!)

I would like to spend more time productively blogging, but I’ll need to learn to control my internet window shopping to do it.

Here are my questions for Jendi:

1. What was your interest in becoming a blogging intern at Profitable Mommy Blogging? I noticed that you were already blogging on your own blog for two years before accepting the position.
2. What are the distractions that keep you from spending as much time as you’d like blogging and how do you avoid them?

You can find her answers at Jendi’s Profitable Mommy Blogging Column.

I confess that I haven’t thought much about Michael Jackson in the years since high school — and a quick look at my music collection showed that I don’t even own any of his music. I headed over to Amazon this morning to check out what was available for Michael Jackson and was pretty amazed to see that there 446 songs of his available for download! I read that many major retailers (even online)sold out of his music overnight — but downloads are always available.

I didn’t buy Thriller this morning, but I did buy The Way You Make Me Feel and Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.

What are your favorite Michael Jackson songs?

Local shopping mom Erica Mueller and I recently met for a test drive in a Ford Flex and decided to test out it’s ability to hold groceries for two households.  It was a blast!

It’s a little strange doing your grocery shopping with another mom, especially when it’s on the spur of the moment.  I had no coupons, no list and I was HUNGRY!  There were a few impulse items in my cart, but I didn’t feel quite so badly when I saw Erica place a bag of green cotton candy in her cart.  

One of the most obvious things about our shopping trip was that even though we were also picking up things our family needed anyway (milk, bread, eggs)… my cart was filling up much faster than hers!  She was sweet enough to acknowledge that I had two school age boys to feed at the moment and she only has a husband and toddler to make me feel better.

Erica also just HAD to outshine me again when she pulled out her reusable shopping bags.  Oh the shame!    I’m forced to admit temporary Ford Flex brain (Dear Ford, can you hear me?) possessed me.

Having a mix of reusable bags and plastic bags worked out great in the end though, because we took our groceries out to the Flex and it was easy to pile everything in and not worry about mixing things up.  I’m so happy to report that Erica didn’t need to hunt me down to get her cotton candy back!

By the way, the Ford Flex had plenty of room for all our groceries, dry cleaning, a toddler in a car seat, two adult passengers… and we could have filled it up with more if we had more money to spend (OK, so that hint wasn’t exactly very subtle)!

You can check out more photos from our test drive and shopping spree on Flickr:
Chele’s Ford Flex Flickr Photos
Erica’s Ford Flex Flickr Photos

By the way… Did you enjoy this story?  Do you play Wordless Wednesday?  Save your words and Tell Me Thursday about your photo! It’s fun!

Come back Thursday for the story behind this photo!
You can participate at Wordless Wednesday & TellMeThursday.

It’s OK to slap spendthrift wives

Naturally, I had to click on over to see if  Sharia law had indeed been adopted in the United States after I went to bed.  CNN.com reported:

Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.

Phew! OK, so it was a judge in Saudi Arabia.  Not that this doesn’t bother me, but it isn’t surprising coming from a country that has never valued women’s rights.   However, just one sentence later I was picking my chin up off the floor again at this:

Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that “if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment.”

Pardon Moi?!

First of all, the women are REQUIRED to wear this hideous garment.  I imagine she’ll get slapped if the garment is less than immaculately clean, slightly worn or faded, Junior slobbers on it, or (GASP) her husband is feeling macho and thinks she’s wearing it crooked.

So, to put a value on how much a woman can spend on an item of clothing she’s required to wear and give her husband carte blanche to decide it’s frivolous is beyond whacked out to me.

I hope that someday all women of the world will be given the same rights as their male companions and at the very least be treated with respect and valued.

Until then, I’m on the search for an abaya to burn for my Saudi sisters (I was too young to participate in burning my bra).  What are your thoughts on this judge’s comments? Sound off  in the comment form below!

P.S.
Here’s the full article at CNN if you aren’t outraged enough and must read more!

Well I’m back from my 120-day cruise around the world where I landed in every exotic port and tropical island I could find on the map. No, I’m not sunburned because I lubed up with super extra strong SPF 50 lotion and I protected my delicate blonde tresses with the fanciest sun hats I could find.

In between all the swimming, sunbathing and relaxing on this dream cruise, I even found my Prince Charming, who swept me off my feet…

…and brought me back to the reality that is my life.

So, that’s the story I’m stickin’ with to explain my long absence (although I really DID find my Prince Charming…)  The true story would bore you to tears.

I apologize for being a negligent friend, BUT I can’t apologize for taking this much needed break because now I’m back in the game and excited to get back to work making Moms Love Shopping the premier resource for shopping deals, reviews and advice.

To show you how serious I am about this, I’d like to officially introduce you to two amazing women who have joined my team to keep this website moving forward. You may have already noticed them assisting me since the end of November when I took my suitcases and boarded the cruise ship (internet access is iffy out at sea, you know)

. Melanie Rogers is a wife and homeschooling mom of 3 children. She enjoys helping other busy moms find great products to delight their families and make their lives easier.

Kacie Pruitt is a married mother of two young sons who recently became a full time stay at home mom. She looks forward to learning how to shop on a fixed income and sharing her experiences with other moms.

More moms could be added to the mix soon! Watch for details if YOU are interested in taking part.

One last tidbit before I go (see, look how I’m rambling…I’m back to my old self!) Yesterday I went on a grocery shopping spree with a local mom I met thru Twitter (follow us!) and we took a Ford Flex on a test drive. So watch for the photos/videos/updates coming in the next few days.

Chat with you soon (I promise)!
‘chele

P.S. I’d love to hear about your latest shopping trip or product review. Tell me about it on the Contact Us form or call it in on our listener line at (214) 615-6505 ext 9083.

Thanks to a little birdie named Twitter, I met my first local shopping mom, Erica Mueller, this week!  If that weren’t exciting enough, Erica recently had the opportunity to test drive a Ford Flex for a week and invited me along!

We decided to make the test drive truly mom worthy by doing some shopping and testing the ability to hold two family’s groceries!  We’ll be sharing those photos soon.

I’ll also be chatting with Erica on Moms Love Shopping Podcast soon about our thoughts on the Ford Flex and our overall impressions.   I’ll give you a little hint now… I WANT A FLEX!  Can you hear me, Ford? I’m a good mommy and I deserve one!  

Here’s a few good reasons why I loved the Ford Flex:

==> It’s sexier than a mini van & looks fabulous at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France or Paris, Texas!

==> It’s certainly flexible! Seats fold out of the way, lay down to make more room, and there’s tons of space for long legs, kicking toddlers & serious shopping sprees!

==> You can lay the back seats down for transporting tons of groceries, sporting equipment, tools, etc. (did I mention serious shopping sprees?) and still legally seat four passengers!

==>  It was comfy and I felt like a million bucks riding in it!  I really wanted to whack Erica over the head with my groceries and drive off in it!

You can check out more photos from our test drive and shopping spree on Flickr:
Chele’s Ford Flex Flickr Photos
Erica’s Ford Flex Flickr Photos

Read more about Erica Mueller’s Ford Flex test drive on her blog

PMS Moment – Click here for more amazing videos

I asked some popular moms (you may recognize them from around the internet) what they REALLY want and what the best gifts they’ve received in the past are. You might be surprised at the answers are… or maybe you won’t be!

You might even decide to show this survey to the kids and your significant other the next time the question comes up to ensure you get what you REALLY want!

What would you most like to receive for Mother’s Day this year?

• Imie of ishopathome.ca says:
  A nice, elegant piece of silver jewelry
• Jenn of boutiquebargains.com says:
  A day to relax with no interuptions.
• Kelly of wahmtalkradio.com says:
  Yeah, I want chocolate! And maybe some Sharpie markers.
• LaTara of veganfamilyliving.com says:
  Peace and quiet
• M&M Lover of quiet-mom.com says:
  M&Ms
• Nan of themommycircle.com says:
  Nikon D50 or D80 DSLR Camera
• Robin of robinlemon.com says:
  a nice peaceful day
• Tamara of tamara-wilson.com says:
  This year for Mothers day I think I want to see my mom, which is not likely so I would settle for a nice day doing something fun with the family.
• Treece of auntiewahm.com says:
  A home-cooked dinner

What is the best gift you ever received for Mother’s Day?

• Imie of ishopathome.ca says:
  A spa Certificate!
• Jenn of boutiquebargains.com says:
  A day to myself – finished off with my favorite meal cooked by my husband
• Kelly of wahmtalkradio.com says:
  Honestly? Chocolate. I love chocolate!.
• LaTara of veganfamilyliving.com says:
  Handmade jewelry from my oldest child
• M&M Lover of quiet-mom.com says:
  M&Ms
• Nan of themommycircle.com says:
  A silver anklet on my first mommy’s day from my baby boy.
• Robin of robinlemon.com says:
  an all in one printer/scanner/copier
• Tamara of tamara-wilson.com says:
  Pillow cases my two oldest (it was just them at the time) made me, they drew their faces and hands so I could sleep with them no matter where I was.
• Treece of auntiewahm.com says:
  Gold Charms – actual silhouettes of my daughters not the generic “girl” charms.

Didn’t Tamara’s Mother’s day wish and favorite gift make your eyes misty?

In her second episode, we talked specifically about shopping and things unexpectedly turned a bit personal for a few moments. If you’ve ever been curious about my past and how I came to have the outlook I have on shopping, then you defitely want to listen to Show 3 – Living in the Moment.

Stop by and welcome Sharon to the world of podcasting. We could all learn a thing or two from Sharon to make our communities and overall environment positive, productive and prosperous places to live!

If you haven’t guessed by now, this show is an April Fools Day Silly Show.
If you have a sense of humor, you might enjoy this. If you don’t, no offense meant or taken.

In today’s episode, host Kelly McCausey rants and raves about why people would feel compelled to cut out coupons from the newspaper and drive their “archaic Flintstone-mobile” to a grocery store. She also has some unique ideas of what you can grow in your Aerogarden, especially if you don’t like your mother-in-law!

Thank you to our new sponsors, Mom’s Charge It Network and Mom Mushy Brains for your continued support of us moms who LOVE to shop!

On Friday, our guest will be Chele Neisler, the host of Mom’s Love Shopping. Stay tuned!!

I must confess… I took great joy in poking fun at Kelly McCausey in this post and making you wonder at the same time. I even waited til the very last minutes of Thursday to tell the story. I guess that’s just my mischievous streak.

Ok, it all started during a conversation on Mom’s Morning Show about Wordless Wednesday photos. During this conversation, Kelly stated her pet peeves about photos and what types of photos she deemed “not worthy” because they weren’t interesting enough to be wordless.

The irony is that the first time Kelly participated, she posted a photo of her sofa. Not that it was an ugly sofa, in fact, it was quite lovely and cozy… but other than that, I wondered what the big deal was? So now I’m doomed to tease her for eternity about her sofa photo.

The other thing is, Kelly is probably one of my favorite online friends. It really sucks that we live so far apart. I imagine sitting on my couch someday and shooting the breeze with Ms. McCausey about life, business and the infamous couch photo.

I’ll say, “Hey, you opened your big mouth and besides, it’s so much fun making you eat your words” to which she’ll raise her eyebrow, look at me and say, “Stick a fork in it; it’s done!“

The Household Helper’s Host Cara Mirabella is a work at home mom of one busy toddler.

Cara admitted: “I’m a recovering clutter-bug .”

One of my favorite episodes so far is Episode #5 – Bonus Show where she talks about organizing your home. At first I figured it would be “blah blah clean” and “blah blah take out the garbage” but I was suprised that it wasn’t as boring as I imagined and she even talked about shopping for containers! Yep, that’s when I really perked up.

Need some organization in your home with permission to shop? Check out Cara’s tips on her weekly podcast.

Single Mom’s Talk Radio host Tishia Lee is a joy to listen to and a sweet mom that will steal your heart.

One of my favorite episodes is Show #6 – Reviews of Online Dating Sites as Tishia shares her experience in shopping for a man.

I couldn’t help but smile inside and wish I’d known her when I was a single mom. Are you a single mom? Are you shopping for someone you can relate with? Tishia’s bubbly personality (usually) and honesty will be a refreshing jolt of reality for you.

I’m truly not a morning person. In fact, if you know me well, then you know I really don’t want to talk to anyone first thing in the morning. I’m just kinda grumpy that way. Are you surprised? Really?

I have about an hour and a half before Mom’s Morning Show starts from the time I drop the kids off. During that time, I do the mundane daily things I need to do to be productive for the day. I know that by 9:30 Central Standard Time, I need to be ready to multi task because that’s when I get my “daily spunk injection” from other moms that I can relate to via a live conversation on Blog Talk Radio.

Some mornings, you’ll hear me and other Mom Talk Radio hosts as a “Crew Member” on the show. Other days, I’ll be passively listening. On my best days, I like to harass Kelly McCausey from the web chat while as I multi task.

Having trouble getting your day started? Join us every weekday morning for some fun!

Natural Mom’s Talk Radio host Carrie Lauth describes herself as an earthy, crunchy mom. Seriously. Until I became familiar with Carrie, I would have taken that as an insult!

While I’m far from being crunchy, I’m getting a great education from listening to her tips and becoming more aware of the benefits of Carrie’s lifestyle. One of her most recent podcasts that intriqued me was the show Beauty Secrets of the Bible with Ginger Garrett. I’m rethinking some of my own beauty treatments and cosmetics after absorbing this topic.

Carrie says, “A well informed Mother who learns how to choose what will work for her own family and leave the rest behind is a happy Mom…”

I look forward to hearing more great shows from Carrie and learning more about natural mothering.

Vegan Family Living’s host LaTara Hamying is passionate about healthy eating habits. In fact, I’m not even a vegan and she inspires me to make changes in my own grocery shopping!

Now, if you are thinking, “Oh big deal, it’s just another animal cruelty pitch to get me to quit eating meat” then you are in for a treat. LaTara is a Vegan for health reasons. The benefit to that is that you can comfortably be curious and listen without putting up your defenses.

One of my favorite episodes that satisfied many of my curiosities was Show #11 – Q&A On Vegan Shopping in which Jennifer Gniadecky, a “Wanna Be Vegan” grills LaTara on shopping for a more healthy lifestyle and asks some burning questions on the minds of many meat eaters!

Go ahead, I DARE you to give Vegan Family Living a listen. Even if you aren’t convinced to convert to healthier food choices, you’ll at least be more open minded the next time you have dinner with a vegan!

Parenting My Teen’s host Aurelia Williams tackles the many topics that have dumb founded you or that you’ll likely soon encounter if you have a teen in your home.

Since I’ve only recently become the mother of a teen age boy, I’ve found her podcast archives on teen topics extremely helpful in getting me up to speed and prepared for the journey ahead with my teen and future teens.

Aurelia doesn’t take her podcast topics lightly. She’s passionate and ready to tackle the topics that others might dance around. Here’s some eye opening, jaw dropping topics that me squirm in my chair: Teen Gambling Addiction, Teen Driving and Teen Cyber-Bullying.

In today’s fast paced world, I know that I count on Aurelia to keep me up to date on teen topics. If you have a teen or soon will, I highly recommend adding the Parenting My Teen Podcast to your parenting strategy today.

This school year was anticipated as my “golden year” in which all my children would attend school and I would have some kid-free time for several hours per weekday.

I’ve found that there is a price for that precious time I’ve waited so long for, unfortunately. The price tag sometimes comes home in the form of sticky situations, fund raising freak out, PTA paranoia, homework hangover and more…

Wonder Years Radio’s host Christina Lemmey dives right into those issues week after week with top experts and experienced elementary moms. I’ve certainly had my eyes opened to several misconceptions about the above mentioned topics.

One particular topic that made me rethink my attitude about school fund raisers was Show #16 – One Person can Make A Change. If you are sick of the boring or frivolous fund raising campaigns by your school, give this show a listen and find out how YOU can change that! I guarantee you’ll be inspired, or at least have a new respect for the amount of work and energy fund raising requires to plan.

Annette donates her critters to these children to help them work thru their grief. You can read some of the great stories that are being reported back to Annette about the success of Critters Who Care.

Soon after Christmas, my children received their own critters from Fun on the Ark . Now, most 13 year old boys would probably consider an activity such as this with his mom and little brothers “uncool”. The two little ones sleep with their new critters and my oldest says he’s keeping it to remember our Christmas together this year (he currently lives two states away with his father during the school year).

So, I say to you… if my children enjoyed these critters and treasured them to this extent, can you imagine what these animals mean to a child that Annette donates animals to for grief therapy?

How can you help? I’m so glad you asked. You can find more information and get in touch with Annette to sponsor Critters Who Care.

On the other hand, if you know of a child that would benefit from this type of therapy, you can contact Annette to recommend children in need of stuffed animals.

I’ll try to list them without giving you nightmares:

1. I make tea for my family in the microwave. I can never get it right on the stove. I always get distracted before it’s time to turn the burner off. When I come back, the water is gone and the tea bags are crispy! I have never gotten it wrong in the microwave and my family jokes that I should sell it. LOL

2. I never had a teddy bear as a small child. I had an orange stuffed dog. I still have the poor ugly critter, too!

3. I prefer being barefoot with one exception – I hate the way concrete feels on my toes. I will walk with toes pointed straight up when I’ve placed myself in this situation. It’s definitely a good distraction for people to stare at instead of my swim suit!

4. I’ve never liked James Bond movies. I think he’s a crappy role model for boys and men. I’ve never liked men that tried to use a James Bond line, look or move to flirt with me, either.

5. I’ve never thought Tom Cruise was hot. Really, I don’t get it. Sure, I saw Risky Business and thought his dance was sexy, but other than that? Much more appealing eye candy is available! =)

6. My most disgusting pregnancy craving/meal was spaghetti, lemonade and gummy bears. Trust me… no matter how pregnant you are and how delicious it sounds at the time, don’t try it!

7. I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

I’d tag someone in return, but since I took so long to think up 7 things, everyone that I can think of has already named theirs! How about you? Did you post yours, and if so, where?

Check out more funny gifts NOT to give in our Wordless Wednesday category.

Desperate to find GREAT gifts for everyone on your list? Check this out:
FREE Holiday Gift Ideas Guide