Tomorrow is the 1st of February 2013, that means as from tomorrow it's only 13 days until the much loved and highly celebrated Valentines Day. To celebrate I am offering one lucky person the chance to win a box full of treats for the whole family in time for Valentines day worth £30.

The box will contain:
  • A family fun DVD.
  • Two boxes of chocolates.
  • Three different bags of Butterkist popcorn (Cinema Sweet, Salt & Toffee).
  • Four bags of  225g Dorito's (Cool Original, Tangy Cheese, Chilli Heatwave & Lightly Salted).
  • A Valentines day teddy bear.


Thanks to everyone who took part in the competition the lucky winner is

LACEY ROBINSON CONGRATULATIONS!

Money Saving - FREE Amazon Vouchers!

by Jada, January 29, 2013
If you are a new reader of my blog you may have missed the two previous post I have done before about Swag Bucks. To read the previous post you can click here and here I DO recommend you read these post if you are thinking about signing up to Swag Bucks I have posted everything in these two post that you should really know first! 

I have decided to do another Swag Bucks post as I have now earned £80 through the amazing site! I come across Swag Bucks back in July 2012 and very quickly earned enough Swag Bucks (points) to earn £25 in Amazon vouchers in my first month all for free. The only thing I done was played 2-5minute games, took part in a daily poll, participated in online task and completed surveys, ohh and I watched lots of video's too :)

Then the following month, August the 2nd to be precise I started blogging so I paid Swagbucks less attention and only earned enough Swag Bucks for £20 worth of Amazon vouchers, as my blog progressed I slowly stopped visiting Swag Bucks altogether checking once or maybe twice a month to see how many point's I had. Thanks to my lovely referalls I was still clocking up points slowly. Seven month's have now passed and I have had £80 Amazon vouchers for free, not a penny spent just some free time. If I had more spare time I would of earned £175 by now as earning £25 a month is very easily done!


As you can see from my photo above I cashed out every time I had enough Swag Bucks to purchase a £5 Amazon gift card, higher amounts are available to buy but buying the £5 ones individually cost less points then buying a £25 voucher strangely! Other gift cards are also available for UK sites including New Look and you can also use the points to get money transferred into your PayPal account.

To join Swag Bucks click on this link.
Until next time,
Jade x

To read the August post on Swag Bucks click here.
To read the November post on Swag Bucks click here.  



Well as I only started my blog last August I missed out on the 2012 MAD Blog Awards, I am however happy that I am around for the 2013 MAD Blog Awards and would love for my readers and visitors to get involved!

The MAD Blog Awards fourth annual Mum and Dad Blog Awards, in association with Parentdish.co.uk, are the UK’s biggest and most exciting awards for parent blogs. Thousands of blogs are nominated, but just five bloggers from each category will make the finals, and will attend a gala awards ceremony in London in September 2013, where the winners of the 2013 MAD Blog Awards will be revealed.

Nominations open at midnight tonight and although I can't tell you what to do and who to vote for, I would be ever so grateful if any of my lovely readers and visitors would like to vote for me in any categories you think I fall into, I personally think Best New Blog but maybe you my lovely readers and visitors think more of me. There are 15 categories to choose from. Of course you are not obliged to vote for me, I do not class myself as one of the best bloggers, I am proud of how far my blog has come along and winning an award would be an amazing achievement, being in the final's alone would just be amazing enough! Something to remember for life!

Just to confirm you do NOT have to vote in every category! You only have to vote for Parent Dish Blog Of The Year, which can be any blog you feel deserves this title ;) and then any other categories you would like to vote in! 

So for example, if you only read my blog and one other, and wanted to vote for both of us, you would have to choose one of them as blog of the year and then the other one could go into one of the other categories! The rest of the categories you can just leave blank! 

ALSO you can vote for the same blog in multiple categories! So for example if i liked ekjbhgkdbs I would put them in 

- Best Baby Blog
- Best Blog Of The Year
- Best Family Blog
- Best Entertainment
- Best Craft
- Best New Blog
- Best School Days Blog

And for any other categories they fit in!    

The link to the nominations form is: http://www.the-mads.com/vote/  

Thanks in advance for anyone that may vote for me! 

Jade xx
Yes that's right, Cinema tickets for £1.75 each, that's for adults as well as children! Want to know the catch? Well there isn't one really, I will bullet point the main info within this post though! When a friend asked me if me and Spud would like to go to the cinema with her and her little girl back in 2010, I really wanted to go but I couldn't, I was broke with literally £10 left in my bank, I told my friend the reason why we couldn't attend and was absolutely shocked when she told me about Kids AM.

Read on for the all the info your need!
Kids AM is a scheme run at VUE cinema's nationwide, every Saturday, Sunday and school holidays at 10:00am and/or 10:30am VUE cinema's will have a children's film or maybe even a choice of 2 films showing, each ticket whether your an adult or a child cost £1.75. Children must be accompanied by a adult though, well as far as I'm aware! There is no maximum amount of tickets you can buy, although I will advise if you was taking a large amount of children to pre-book your tickets or even pop into your local VUE and buy the tickets before the day as tickets do get sold very quickly on the day of the showing.

At my local VUE cinema - Reading, 9 times out of 10 there will be a choice of 2 films we can watch, one staring at 10:00am and one starting at 10:30am. I have arrived at the cinema plenty of times and been told there is no tickets left or separated seats which of course is no good for a Mother and her child so little Spud has been left disappointed. I now tend to pop into the cinema during the week and buy mine and Spud's ticket there and then ready for the day, this also beats queuing with the kids who can become impatient!

3D? Luxury seats
Want to watch a 3D movie? No problem, although they do cost an extra £1.25 per ticket (£3 each) which is still a bargain price. Although you can't choose the latest releases, the Kids AM scheme is quite good with the choices they have on offer, they normally wait until a kids film has left the main cinema box office and then move it to Kids AM. So me being the bargain hunter I am, ask Spud nicely if he can wait a few weeks to watch the latest film out because 9 times out of 10 they do make Kids AM and I have saved myself a good amount of money!

Luxury seats are also available to have, I am aware that this also has an extra cost, I am just not sure how much more as I have never had a problem with the normal seats to want to upgrade!


Worried about your child being too small?
If your worried your child is too small to see the screen on what may seem like huge cinema chairs I really wouldn't worry, VUE have booster seats especially for the kids! Meaning your child and yourself can sit comfortably and be able to see the film without climbing onto your lap to see the screen properly!

Worried your child is a fidget and toddler may cry? I wouldn't worry, this is exactly what Kids AM is for, KIDS. Children make noise, they whine, they laugh, they cry. Your getting access to the cinema at a massive discount price, you really can't complain, the kids will love it and so will your purse!

Films generally change weekly/fortnightly, I would recommend you find out specific information for your nearest VUE as every one may be different.

Below is just some of the films me and Spud have watched with the Kids AM scheme.

Ponyo
Disney Pixar Up
Disney Pixar Cars 2
Alvin & The Chipmunks - Shipwrecked
Disney Enchanted
Nativity
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Astro Boy

Worried about the cost of cinema food?
Did you know VUE allow cinema customers to bring their own food into their cinema's? No? Well neither did I until I started this post and checked their Facebook page. As long as its not alcoholic or overly strong smelling then VUE are ok with you taking your own food in, so no stuffing food into your bags, which I have done plenty of times, although I won't be doing that now I know!
 
Conditions That I am aware of:
All adults must be accompanied by at least 1 child.
Pre-booking tickets online means you will have to pay a card handling fee which is about £2ish from what I can remember.

Have Fun!
Remember I am posting this information from my own knowledge of visiting Kids AM, so none of this information in this post should be taken for granted. I would advise you to check out your local VUE cinema and double check they have the Kids AM scheme running and for times and films available including prices! In my town we only have a VUE and Showcase but I am aware Odeon and Cineworld do cinema schemes so check out your local cinema and see what bargains you can pick up!

I would love to hear your views! Maybe you can do what I do, surprise your kids, don't tell them where you are off too and let them guess! Kids love surprises, well Spud does! I love seeing his face light up when he realises where we are off too!

Until next time,
Jade x

Well as you all should know by now I become a Mother at the age of 15 and because of this I am stereo typed, I am called names and labelled as just another statistic. In the last week I have read 2 interesting articles, one about teenage mothers and one about older mothers.

On Wednesday (the 23rd January) I read an article posted on various news sites with the title Teenage Mothers are looking for affection/love. Just from the title alone I was fuming, you know the saying never judge a book by its cover, well if this was a book I would of hated it, still I would of purchased it because it fascinates me how so many people still judge Teenage Mothers. Lacey Banghard (best known for her cleavage on page 3 and more recently Celebrity Big Brother) can do one with her pathetic name, I feel sorry for the girl, she's famous because of her body and doesn't have a real clue about the systems in Britain, that sentence from me comes after Lacey's spat at young mothers and un-employed people in Britain, that's just starting another whole new topic (politics) so I won't go into her stupid story.

So Teenage Mothers are looking for affection this is according to research carried out in an area with one of the highest rates of teen ­pregnancy. While the vast majority of teen pregnancies are unplanned, evidence from a study conducted in Tayside shows that many young women who deliberately get pregnant do so as a means of moving into adulthood. NHS Tayside carried out the research to gain a better understanding of young pregnant women, given the region's historically high rates of teen pregnancy compared to other parts of the country, Holyrood's Health Committee was told on Tuesday.Scotland has a higher rate of teenage pregnancy than most other Western European countries. Teenage girls living in deprived areas are four times more likely to become pregnant than those living in affluent areas.

Ann Eriksen, executive lead in sexual health at NHS Tayside, said: “Some of the things that emerged from that piece of research – among those young women who had said that they wanted to be pregnant, they wanted a baby – was very much around looking for love, looking for affection, looking for… someone they could love unconditionally, that would love them in return.

The articles also go on to say other factors that teenage mothers continue their pregnancies for (because we are made to feel that abortions are the better way) with some of the factors being;

  • Gaining recognition and status within families and within their communities.
  •  Family history was also a factor, with several young mothers themselves the result of a teenage pregnancy.
  • There was a hope that they would be able to get their own accommodation, to be able to move out of the family home
 Dr Lorna Watson, consultant in public health at NHS Fife, agreed that deliberate teenage pregnancies often involved issues such as self-esteem and "the degree of respect afforded within their relationship, within their community".

This rubbish really does get on my nerves, I sometimes feel like I should stop trying to prove that I am different from the majority of teenage mothers but I do not want to be associated with the likes of these wrongens (because they are just that in my eyes). We hear it all the time, she only had a baby for the money, she only had a baby to trap her boyfriend, she only had a baby for the council flat, bla bla bla.

People need to start realising that me and you, her and him, her and her, him and them, we ain't all the same, just like me and the stereo typical teenage mother. I never wanted to leave home, I stayed at home till I was 18 and then me and my Dad both decided it was time for me and Spud to find our own place so we both had the freedom we was entitled too. Yet if I was just a 18 year old girl with no child and I wanted to leave home at 18 for freedom, I wouldn't of got judged would I? I bet your thinking that in your head right now, no one judges non parents for leaving home at 16,17,18 but when your a mother, you've done wrong, your just a burden to society and all that nonsense. I worked, I studied and I raised a baby all by myself who is now 2 months away from being 7 and is one of the most polite well behaved children you could ever meet.

I really could rant and rant all day long about society, teenage mothers and the way we are stereo typed but now I am going to move onto the second article that caught my eye, ''Nearly half of births in England and Wales are to mothers over 30 (according to this). That doesn't mean the other half are teenage parents, do you know there are mothers at 60 plus giving birth? What about them mothers do they get judged? Of course they do!!!!!! Yet they don't get as much stick as teenage mothers though do they, not from the media, not from most statistics. Their children however will get bullied, they will be mistaken for being the mothers grandchild, possibly even great grandchild.

I am not trying to start a debate but I am interested in people's views on the following;

1. Is it better to become a teenage mother?
OR
2. Is it better to become a OAP mother?

If you would like to voice your opinion I'd love to hear it, please leave a comment below and if you have the time please give me your reasons as to why you choose your selection.

Because I am a teenage mother I obviously would say becoming a teenage parent is better, my reasons for this are;
  • We are younger and generally more fitter then OAPs, we can run after our children and will not help from younger more able people to help keep our children safe if we want a trip to the park for example
  • Everyone knows that as we age more and more problems start, we start loosing our hearing and our eyesight, of course this could happen to anyone of any age but generally more in the elderly.
  • We will not need our children to start looking after us, as our bodies age things stop working, of course some elderly parents get put into homes, what would happen to the children, they would of course be shipped off to family or even placed into care themselves.
 My list could go on and on and on, pages full of reasons, literally.

Get involved!!
Jade x

 Sources:
www.itv.com
http://www.paisleydailyexpress.co.uk
www.scotsman.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://www.ons.gov.uk


My Most Random Post To Date!

by Jada, January 24, 2013
Phew I finally managed to get rid of the Christmas theme, I have put a basic one back up for now as the layout is the last thing on my mind at the moment to be honest! I have a few reviews to write up which I'm looking forward to sharing with you all and some exciting (well they are to me lol) post to write. Sadly I have had to say goodbye to Company Of The Month (COTM) it got a bit to competitive and wasn't being used the way I originally planned, anyways now I don't have to do that I can now concentrate on better things =D. No one has to worry though, I will still be working with the fabulous companies I am currently working with, and hopefully past and present companies too. For those of you who wasn't familiar with COTM it was a page where I yes ME choose a company to be a star company for a month, they was small independent companies that I personally loved! I gathered a bit of background information from the companies and then there info. logo, pictures etc with a link stayed on the COTM page for one month, then a new company was chosen. I will still introduce you all too the fabulous companies I love, if and when I have time.

I lost 5lb in my first week of dieting/gym, it was one of my new years resolutions but I didn't start it until 2 weeks ago! Today (Thursday) was meant to be my weigh in day, but I was too chicken to go get weighed in fear of me putting the 5lb back on as I have had a bad week! Dieting can be rubbish, but at least with Weight Watchers I can eat what I want just in moderation, for any fellow Weight Watchers out there did you know a Cadbury's Crunchie is only 5 points? Mmm!

I finally got around to sorting out my emails today, well I say sorting out but it wasn't really that at all, what I should of said was I finally plucked up the courage to peek at my inbox today, I deleted all the 'junk' and kept the other messages unread. I really must take an hour or maybe 2 hours out later tonight to reply to the lovely companies who are awaiting replies from me!

Does anyone else watch Celebrity Big Brother? If you do I'm #TeamRylan I loved him since the X-Factor days and have been wishing his success in CBB ever since the first night! I really do hope the public have seen a different side to him, the real side. On the X-Factor I felt like he was shown up by Nicole for his song and costume choices and by Gary who in my opinion did embarrass Rylan. With Gary Barlow being such a 'huge' icon (not that I can see how!) the public sided with him imo, but now he's been in CBB I think the public have fell in love with him!

One more thing before I go, me and the lovely Rachel from Blogging Mummy have decided we are deffo going to Brit Mums 2013! I am in the process of buying a ticket and I can't wait for my first big blogging event! 

I would love for my readers/visitors to get in touch and tell me of any of there new years resolutions! Maybe we can urge each other on or even share tips!

I have tons of other stuff to write about and I am totally aware that this post may of been the most random post since I started blogging but as I've been away from the blogging world for so long its just all spiraling out in little bits lol, well I'm off to dish up the dinner.

Speak soon,
Jade xx

I'm Back!!!

in , by Jada, January 23, 2013
For the last week I have felt like a little child waiting for Christmas day to arrive, I don't think I've ever gone so long without internet!! I have been away from my blog for what seems like forever! It feels so good right now, to be writing this post from MY laptop in my front room with a good internet connection! There has been delay after delay in getting a connection back up and running, I honestly started to lose hope that I would even have an internet connection by the end of January! The snow hasn't been the best help either, but anyways I am back!! This time I am not going anywhere!

Laptop with a notebook beside it.

My VERY Late Christmas Post!

in , , by Jada, January 04, 2013
This is a very weird moment for me right now, to be sat here on a Friday night with some rubbish on the TV for some background noise to keep the place being so unquiet, with little man in bed and no toys going off or a loud children's DVD blaring in the background, moments like these recently have been very rare. I have been ill once again, this time with a chest infection, my second chest infection in 3 months actually, a chest infection is not the one when your Asthmatic, every coughing fit I have I panic in case it turn's into a Asthma attack, yes panic, panicking itself is not good when your Asthmatic, I have totally remained 'cool' to the best I can with only one night me debating on weather to get some medical help, turns out sticking my head out the window and breathing a specific way really does help! Enough about me being ill! Christmas, the word that every child dreams about, the word that many adults dream about, Christmas can be a very stressful time, which is something I discovered for the first time with Christmas just gone!

I started this post at 8:40pm, the time at writing this sentence is 23:18, I have not lost my passion to blog, to be honest I don't think I've found my passion to blog yet, don't get me wrong I love blogging, I am amazed and fascinated that people read my post, totally surprised me when I got my very first reader, it was most probably my lovely Mother who's Birthday is today actually! Ok that was more of a paragraph then a sentence wasn't it. I have so much to write about but before I get carried away I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope that 2013 is a better year for each and every single one of you!

I also wish you all had a lovely Christmas, I did plan to get on here on Christmas eve, and before then, I didn't plan on my last post to be the 19th December at all, some of you may have seen a post I wrote, I had to remove the post for certain personal reasons, that post was the reason why I couldn't get online and write a lovely Christmas message to all my wonderful readers and visitors, that post was the reason why I discovered how stressful Christmas can be! If you missed the post, me and Spud have had some personal problems going on, and the person who is meant to be the 2nd most important person in Spud's life (obviously I am number 1 =D) let him down big time in a child's eyes

So there was me, on Christmas eve rushing around trying to get my boy the presents he was let down on, Smyths Toys by the way I love you! I love them, you see Spud really really wanted a Mickey Mouse Fire Engine for Christmas, about 3 months ago a Smyths catalog arrived on our door mat and ever since he set eyes on the toy he wrote that down on his Santa list! It only cost £14.99 if I would of known Spud was going to get let down on his promised presents I would of ordered the toy in due time! The Friday before Christmas which I believe was the 21st I ordered the Mickey Mouse fire engine from Smyths, unfortunately for guaranteed Christmas delivery order's needed to be made by the previous Monday (which was the 17th) so I had no hope in my mind that we would receive the toy on time, possibly even before the new year! I could not believe it when the toy turned up on Christmas Eve! Smyths you made my child's Christmas morning!!

Christmas morning is always the same for me and Spud, we are the only ones here so we open our presents together and then have a cooked breakfast then later on in the afternoon we go to either my Mum's or Dad's each year we alternate to one or the others. My Mum has 4 children, 3 to my Dad and my little sister to her partner of 12+ years, my Dad has 6 children, 3 to his first wife and 3 with his second wife (my Mum) so understandbly Christmas is a very packed occasion at my Dad's, especially since he has 6 grandchildren too! So this year my second oldest brother and his partner William invited us to their lovely new home for Christmas day, when I say us, I mean all of us, my Dad and his partner, all of us kids and all the grand kids, a very big well done to my brother and Will because the dinner was amazing and so was the setting! Gays are perfectionist, it was like we was in a 5* restaurant! 

The whole day was very special, with most of us going off to my Dad's about 6pm for some tea and games, my Dad brought his partner a puppy for her Birthday present (also on Christmas day) so everyone was fussing over the new edition who my Dad's partner called Bonnie, I myself am not a animal lover/person at all, but she is a lil cutie, for the first time in my adult life, I let a puppy/dog 'kiss' me! My family and myself were totally amazed at my achievement! 

Spud had a brilliant time as he always does, thank you to the beautiful Attachment Mummy who blog's over at Attachment Mummy where I won the Vtech Innotab 2 Spud spent most of the Christmas holidays on his new tablet! He kept forgetting the name of the Innotab and said more than once it was his Ipad lol, he was very proud to show off his new device playing with the Mickey Mouse game I purchased him to go with it (I also purchased Disney cars, you can never go wrong with Disney!). Ohh by the way if your new to the blog you will soon discover Spud is OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse and loves anything Disney!

Well enough for now, I will be back tomorrow to tell you about the rest of our Christmas/New Years holiday!

Best wishes to you all!

Jade xx     

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