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My Little Get-A-Way

I've been a stay-at-home mom for the past 8 years. I have a busy two-year-old who is at the peak of her fall-out tantruming phase and an inquisitive 8-year-old, that I home school, who has a hundred questions that demand answers. Although I love being home with my children, I sometimes get bored, burned out and at times I'd just like to get away. However, living on one income, get-a-ways are not very feasible and I have responsibilities with my children and could not just leave them with someone else while I vacation. So I have to find fairly inexpensive ways to unwind, during nap times or when the children are otherwise occupied, that doesn't require me to leave the house.

This is where The Sims come in. I have been a fan of The Sims franchise for 8 years. My love for the games started with the Sims 1 where I became fastinated with these little virtual people that I had full control over. I had control over when they ate, when they slept, what they wore, what form of entertainment they use, etc. Now, as a stay-at-home mom, this may sound like what I do with my children, but can you really have full control over a tantrum filled two-year-old who seems to reject everything? Nope, not happening and no way.

Anyway, back to the Sims. A few years after the introduction of the Sims 1, the Sims 2 came out. With the Sims 2, not only did I have full control of little virtual lives, but the virtual people now had the ability to have pregnancies and gave birth to children that looked just like them. These same virtual children had the ability to grow up, get married, have their own children and die. Thus the introduction of generations. Now, I could not only have full control over a few sims, but whole generations of sims!

If that was not enough...the Sims 3 comes out about a year ago. I am now exploring the Sims 3 and I have to say, I am nothing short of impressed. My virtual families now live in a seamless neighborhood where they can jog around town and visit their next door neighbors. While I play my virtual family, the townies around them continue to age, get married, have children and live out a full life cycle...without my control. You would have to play it to see how cool this feature is!

But why is this considered a get-a-way? With the Sims franchise, I have the ability to briefly leave my sometimes chaotic full time job of mothering and jump into a virtual world where I can have full control of something. (No, I'm not a control freak by-the-way!!) I control whether these virtual people have happy-go-lucky lives or lives full of drama. The sims gives me a chance to take my mind off of everyday worries, even if it's just for a short amount of time. The games also allow me to be creative and build houses, businesses, design outfits and build whole towns. With the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack, I'm able to visit France, China or Egypt with my sims. I may not be able to visit these places whenever I want to in real life, but these places are just a phone call away in my virtual sim's world. Check out this trailer:

Canon Powershot SX110 IS

OK, so we all can't be professional photographers. I accept that. But, I was in the market for a nice digital camera that would allow me to take great pictures although I don't know anything about photography. After months of research, I ran across the Canon Powershot SX110 IS (Note: there is a newer version of this camera, SX120IS). After reading review after review on this camera, I decided that I probably wouldn't find a better point & shoot camera for the price. I found this camera on Amazon.com for $220.00 with free shipping, so I purchased it. This camera has 10x optical zoom and 9.0 mega pixels for those larger prints (Note: the SX120IS is 10MP). It takes regular AA batteries (no special expensive camera batteries). Invest in rechargeable batteries and a charger and you'll save even more on batteries. This camera has several auto settings for different photography situations (i.e. indoor or nighttime settings). I've found that the auto feature is sufficient for my purposes, especially with outdoor shots. If that's not enough and you know a little bit about photography, this camera allows you to set it up manually as well. Hangs down, this camera takes the best outdoor pictures that I have even seen. Don't take my word for it, I'll let my pictures speak for themselves (1st Picture: dragon fly flying over a lily pad, 2nd Picture: Lily in our front yard, 3rd Picture: a bumble bee in a tree):

Samsung - Laptop Model: NP-R580-JSB1US

When I run across a great deal, I just have to share it. If you are in the market for a new laptop, then consider the Samsung Model: NP-R580-JSB1US from Best Buy. This is the best deal that I've seen on a new laptop in a while. Like other reviewers have said, this is the "best bang for your buck" at only $829.99. Why? The Samsung has taken this laptop and installed the new Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor. Why is that such a big deal? Try going to another computer manufacturer's website and check out the price for other laptops with this new processor. Samsung did not stop there. They also included a NVIDIA GeForce GT 310M graphics card (512MB). This in combination with the processor should make a few casual gamers smile, especially the Sims 3 fans like myself. Wait...there's more. This laptop includes 4GB DDR3 memory... um hello multi-taskers!! Now these additions alone make the laptop worth more than $800 bucks, but Samsung did not stop there. They also added a Blu-ray Disc-enabled DVD±RW/CD-RW drive. Now if you research things before you buy them like myself, you already know that it is almost impossible to find a new laptop under $900 with a Blu-ray drive. Don't believe me? Go to Dell and try to build your own system. You can get a pretty nice Studio 15 for around $800. Now add a Blu-ray enabled drive to the system...oops, you've just pushed the price of the system up another $150. So what's the point? If you want a decent laptop, with pretty good customer reviews (check them out on the Best Buy website) that will allow you go watch some videos online, while downloading music, flip back and forth to Facebook, play a video game or two and watch your Blu-ray movies, then you should be pretty happy with this purchase. But don't take my word for it, go out there and compare prices with other brands. I'm sure that you'll see my point!