Recommendations

I figure that I have been getting some great information from other moms, why not share the things that I recently found that are WONDERFUL!

Picnik.com
So this is an oldie for me, but I forgot about it and just started reusing it. So it's kinda like it's new.
Picnik.com - it's this awesome picture editing program. It's easy to use and there is no huge learning curve. PLUS from now until April 19 you can get all the features that you would usually have to pay for because, dun dun dun, Google bought it. SOO after April 19 you will have to go through Google. Go figure, it is wonderful, it  is on the internet, why wouldn't it be bought by the Goog. Anyway, I highly recommend it!!
Another photo editing tool I recommend is Gimp, but since I only have till April 19 to use Picnik I have been using that a lot more lately.

Roku
The next one will reveal a random fact about me. I have never owned a gaming system. No Mario, no x-box, no wii, no handheld Mario. Crazy right? Am I even American (I assure you I am). My parents finally bought an x-box and wii after I had moved to college. Well, I figured since I had grown up just fine without one there was no reason for us ever to own one. I mean all they do is create more distractions for kids from going outside and using their imaginations. Since I got married the hubster has made me see that it may not be so terrible if we had game stuff so our kids and their friends come to our house too on occasion (besides I like that the Wii and Kinect don't have controllers where you plop your duff on the couch for hours so I wouldn't dig my heels in for that one).
Next confession, we don't have cable. We watch movies and stuff, but we haven't had cable or TV of any sort since we moved to Alabama. We never watched it really when we were both in school so why pay for it right? In fact, when we signed up with Time Warner the fellow asked us if it was legal to not have TV. He thought my husband was kidding and thought he would change his mind eventually, he didn't. We really did not get cable.
All this combined means that it is insanely quiet in my house (where I am most often located, in case you ever want to find me). Unless of course I want to throw in one of our 10 quality DVDs. There is really only so many times you can rotate through DVDs while cleaning. Anyway, this is my long story to tell you we found something that gets Netflix on our TV:
Roku
It's this little box that cost $79 for us to get netflix and tons of other things on our TV. The box itself comes with preloaded apps (like netflix, pandora, disney, hulu plus, etc) and then we just pay the $10/month for Netflix. AWESOME!! I have loved it!
PLUS we loaded it and looked at some of the favorite channels to add and two of the favorites were BYU Channel (complete with past Jimmer games) and the Mormon Channel. This means we can now watch General Conference on TV instead of rigging up our most uncomfortable chairs in the computer room. Or I can listen to past talks or Education Week talks as I clean.
Life changing, right?
I seriously love this little box!

Downton Abbey
Now that I have Netflix, I was referred to this series and I love it! It's fabulous!! It makes me wish I lived in England with all their proprieties and such.

Those are my recommendations for the day :)