Enjoy a Family Staycation - Stay at Home Mum

Enjoy a Family Staycation

Do you have holidays coming up but cannot really afford to go anywhere? If you have a family and are living on one income, then one of the first things to be sacrificed are holidays. If you have come to the realization that your family vacation may not be in the budget this year, then don?t despair just yet. It is possible to enjoy a family vacation from the comfort of home in the form of a stay-cation.

A stay-cation is a vacation where you do not go anywhere. Instead you enjoy the comforts and luxuries of home without spending any money on accommodation, tours, rental cars, airline tickets and travel insurance. ?There are several different ways you can enjoy a stay-cation with a little imagination.

Resort Style Stay-cations

Yearning to sit back and relax with a cocktail in hand while enjoying all the luxurious of a five star resort? Too bad five star resorts come with five star prices and you could be looking at spending a few hundred dollars a night just on accommodation alone. Resorts offer so many different luxurious from a swimming pool, to delicious room service, to yummy cocktails hand delivered to your deck chair.

Use your imagination and create this world at home. During the day set up the kiddie pool with water so that the kids can splash around. Mix up a few delicious cocktails for you and your husband with your favourite spirit, mixer and ice. Put the drinks in a colourful glass complete with a little umbrella (from the bargain store) and a fancy straw and transport yourself away from your backyard and onto an exclusive island.

You can make your own bedroom a little more resort-like with a few quick improvements. For example, enjoy the luxury of room service by bringing the television into the bedroom and cooking up a meal to serve with the family while watching DVD?s on your bed.

Spa Stay-Cations

To enjoy a perfect spa without the costs, set up a family spa service with one family member in charge of different areas ? your daughter could be in charge of giving facials; your son could be responsible for massage; and your hubby could do the diligent duty of a manicurist. Of course you will have to switch so everyone gets a turn! And, top of the five star service with a long luxurious soak in a bubble bath complete with a glass of champagne, strawberries and candles.

Day Trips

Find some interesting things to do within an hours drive of home and enjoy a day trip! ?You could enjoy a day out at the zoo, museum or art gallery. ?You could pick strawberries or go to a fun park. ?Hire a boat for the day and do some fishing! ?At least you don?t need to find accommodation at the end of the day ? you just drive home to the comfort of your own bed!

Of course if you are dying for a cheap holiday ? you could always try house swapping with a friend or family member!

Source: http://www.stayathomemum.net.au/my-lifestyle/holidays/enjoy-a-family-staycation/

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Men's 100 starts with Bolt, Blake ... and Gatlin

LONDON (AP) ? All anyone's talking about ahead of the men's 100 meters is the showdown between Olympic champion Usain Bolt and world champion Yohan Blake, a pair of Jamaicans who train together.

As the premier track and field event of the London Games gets started with opening heats Saturday, it seems everyone has an opinion about who's going to win ? and the answers tend to be Bolt or Blake.

There are other contenders. There's the third Jamaican in the field, Asafa Powell. There's U.S.-record holder Tyson Gay, surgically repaired hip and all. And there even is another past Olympic champion, Justin Gatlin of the U.S., who walked off the stage in Athens eight years ago with the 100 gold.

But in 2006, Gatlin tested positive for excessive testosterone, leading to a four-year ban that prevented him from defending his title in Beijing.

Now 30, his prime years perhaps in the past, Gatlin has picked up his career. And guess what? He still believes he has a shot to reclaim his crown, even if he readily admits it's a long shot.

"There are other guys out there who have the upper hand on me since I've been gone for four years," said Gatlin, who won the 100 at the U.S. trials in June. "It's going to be an uphill fight for me to claw to the top."

Just as tough has been enduring all the negative talk, which goes something like this: Once a doper, always a doper.

He knows he can't change that perception. He's stopped trying.

"Look, I've turned the page, but it's a part of my book," he said. "I can never close the door on the past four years and say never I'll never look at it, because that's where a lot of my strengths have come from and a lot of my bravery."

During his ban from the sport, Gatlin found himself relying on unemployment checks to make ends meet.

"Going through the struggle I went through not only humbled me in my lifestyle but strengthened me as a person," he said. "I was able to turn into a man and understand what it is to not know where your income comes from. Because everything just pretty much imploded."

Steadily, he's picking up the pieces.

He's also regaining the form that made him an Olympic champion. He's shed weight, dropping about 20 pounds over the last year to get down to a little more than 180, and changed coaches, switching to Dennis Mitchell.

"I remember reading a blog site, where one blogger said I looked like a professional wrestler on the track," Gatlin said. "I was that big."

The challenge now for Gatlin ? and for everyone else in the race ? is finding a way to get past the 6-foot-5 Bolt, whose height helps him get to the finish line with fewer steps.

"He's going to cover more ground," the 6-1 Gatlin said. "So you're going to have to compensate somewhere else, being with strength or turnover. But Tyson beat him (in 2010), so that gives a lot of other runners, who are brave to go out there, confidence."

More recently, Blake beat Bolt, too. That happened at the Jamaican trials.

"I don't really want to say he's vulnerable," Gay said. "He's the only guy who's been where we haven't been. I think he still has to be one of the favorites. He's the champion and knows what it takes to compete on this level."

Sure does.

Bolt, after all, won the 100 and 200 at the Beijing Olympics, both in record time. He still owns both marks, including the 9.58 he ran in the 100 at the 2009 world championships.

Not everyone likes his chances in London, though.

Maurice Greene, the 2000 Olympic champion in the 100, thinks Blake is simply too strong right now.

"Technically, he's better," Greene said. "You win and lose through your technique, and Usain has been having technical problems for the last two years. He hasn't fixed it since then. ... I don't see him fixing it now. You have to go with (Blake)."

Gatlin also pictures himself in the mix for a medal.

"You always see these epic photos or short clips, where the whole stadium is dark and dim and then it goes really quiet," Gatlin said. "You see eight guys in the starting blocks, (the gun goes off), and the stadium lights up like a night's sky with photography. ... It's so special. I'm so glad I get to be a part of this now."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mens-100-starts-bolt-blake-gatlin-055836990--oly.html

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Facebook Foe And Twitter Tweaker Dalton ... - Business Insider

The San Francisco developer who caused a stir by proposing an alternative to Twitter has released an alpha version of his own social service.

After blasting Twitter on his blog, Dalton Caldwell started work on a competitor that would never take ads and would always love app developers.

Two days ago, he revealed another motivation for the project:??In June, he?claimed Facebook executives he met with threatened to put him out of business?if he didn't sell his company to them.

The site is even named App.net, in the hopes that one day it will be chock full of add-on apps, much like Facebook and Twitter are today.

Caldwell launched his own crowdsourced fund for App.net with a goal of raising $500,000. App.net is nowhere near that goal?it hit about $155,000. Even so, Caldwell today tweeted that he was going to open the gates to select folks who backed the project.

The service won't be ad-supported. It will cost $50 a year, at least for now?that's the minimum donation.

As a paid social media site, App.net may never fly. But Caldwell's ruckus got tongues wagging in the Valley. The Google exec responsible for Google+, Vic Gundotra,?weighed in with his own swipe at Facebook.?

Even Marc Andreessen got caught up in the tumult. He's on the board of Facebook. And his venture-capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, had invested $5 million in Caldwell's company when it was known as Mixed Media Labs and working on a photo-sharing service.?

So he ended up quitting?Caldwell's board. Another?Andreessen Horowitz partner, Scott Weiss, took the seat instead.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/dalton-caldwell-app-net-twitter-facebook-alternative-2012-8

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Lollapalooza evacuated because of thunderstorms

CHICAGO (AP) ? Chicago police are evacuating fans from the Lollapalooza music festival because of a line of advancing thunderstorms.

Police spokesman Officer Darryl Baety says the festival was ordered shut down at 3:30 p.m. after a severe thunderstorm warning was issued.

Festival-goers are being evacuated from downtown Chicago's Grant Park to underground evacuation and shelter sites along Michigan Avenue.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are scheduled to play last on the main stage Saturday. The three-day event concludes Sunday and is sold out.

Shelby Meade, a spokeswoman for promoter C3 Presents, says the company regrets having to suspend the show, but that safety comes first.

Powerful winds from an advancing storm were responsible for last summer's deadly stage rigging collapse at the Indiana State Fair.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lollapalooza-evacuated-because-thunderstorms-211324702.html

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The Basic Concepts of Muscle Fitness - Learn How To Build ...

The Basic Concepts of Muscle Fitness by BuildMusclesBig.Com on August 3 Rating: 5

August 3, 2012, Category: Muscle Building ? Leave a Comment

To ensure that our bodies to increase muscle, our own muscles need to be subjected to some kind of resistance or progressive muscle overload. Muscle building or perhaps muscle hypertrophy happens when muscle tissues are broken down simply by weight training or another type of progressive muscle overload after which restored through the body.

Therefore muscles are actually made when you actually split muscle fibers and your body repairs them, we should destroy some thing in order to achieve a higher level of muscle health. Throughout the restore procedure your body mends torn muscle tissues and also thickens and also grows bigger.

When you break down one?s muscle tissue by weight training as well as other form of intensifying over load that stimulates tearing of muscle fibers muscle hypertrophy starts. One?s body will certainly respond by healing and repairing the muscle which makes it larger. This is actually the biggest part of muscle building plus it happens immediately after you actually work out. So the actual physical exercise that makes the muscle tissue break down doesn?t actually develop muscle, but starts the process that does. Therefore, you need to make muscle injury that leads to muscle tissue being restored, strengthened and made to improve in size. Muscle fitness happens by actually ripping muscle.

To achieve top muscle fitness, one?s body must also have a sufficient calorie consumption. No new muscle mass can be produced unless one?s body features a constant supply of energy, or calories, readily available for muscle development. No muscle tissue can be produced unless your own calorie levels are sufficient to aid and also fuel that muscle development.

If you are trying to have a higher-level of muscle fitness you have to eat much more calories than you burn on a daily basis. This is essential, without the additional calories it will likely be not possible for your body to make brand new, larger muscle tissue. Calories fuel muscle development. Muscle building and also increasing muscle fitness is a metabolic process that needs both a heavy exercise and also training program to stimulate muscle growth and also a large intake of calories to fuel said growth.

To find out more, I recommend this site: musclefitnessinfo.net.

Related posts:

1. How To Maintain A Fitness Plan
2. Keeping In Shape With Winning Fitness Solutions
3. Muscle Sculpting And Body Building Fitness System
4. Thrive Fitness: The Vegan-Based Training Program for Maximum Strength, Health, and Fitness
5. Outdoor Activities To Increase Your Fitness Levels

Source: http://buildmusclesbig.com/the-basic-concepts-of-muscle-fitness/

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My Story: After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Finding the Mercy of the Angels Around Us

Two years after having my diagnosis upgraded to Stage 4 metastatic disease, it happened. I finally?had my?SUPERSIZED come apart last week. I suppose I shouldn?t have been too surprised. Working where I do, I?ve been able to keep a clinical and statistical lid on the simmering pot for quite a long time.?Some who know me well, especially my wife, later told me they were waiting for the day when the volcano could no longer lay?dormant and emotions would erupt unexpectedly.

My personal Vesuvius vs. Pompeii finally arrived last Monday. I will tell you, as the?town?lying in the shadow of the volcano, the siege came unexpectedly and with surprising force. The event was triggered by not one catalyst in particular, but by a series of smaller pre-quakes, which passed largely unnoticed.

An early morning meeting with a colleague took an unexpected turn when the discussion focused on me.?What was I really feeling? Did I really?believe that my outcome?COULD be a bad one? How was my family dealing with it? What are my odds??These are questions and issues I have dealt with and answered freely?for a while now.? I wasn?t particularly?shaken by the discussion. In fact, I went back to my desk and sent an email containing three entries from this blog with a note saying,??these might give you some more insights into my life? thanks for asking.?Task done.

Shortly after that, there was a phone call with a newly diagnosed patient who needed?some fellow-patient insights on?treatment and side?effects. His case was very?similar to mine. Within 15 minutes we bonded quickly,?as members of this brotherhood do. I signed off wishing him well and asking him to keep me posted on his progress. Task done.

Then I read through a clinical study. It was the type that occasionally crops up and causes me to miss a heartbeat or two wondering which outcome group I would fall into. Task done.?

Finally, there was another project that required me to check on some of my cancer brothers on Facebook?

As I stared into the screen, I was confronted by an entry from a fellow patient I have come to know?quite well despite the distance.?I knew he?had been hospitalized the week before. His entry read?Countdown to chemo?T minus 5 hours. I slept well and am not really nervous to get this started. A few positive thoughts and prayers wouldn?t hurt however!! Here?s to the next chapter in the journey!?As if that wasn?t enough, his photo, although he was smiling,?was a far cry from the?man I remembered.

Ground zero? Eruption.

I was shocked. I couldn?t breathe. Within seconds, I found I was sobbing at my desk. At last, too much cancer had gotten to me.

No one wants to get teary-eyed at the office, no less be found sobbing at their desk. I turned my chair around to face the window and pretended to be reviewing some materials. I couldn?t tell you what I was looking at for the moment. Three times I tried dialing my wife who was away for the day. Three times I hung up. I knew I wouldn?t be able to coherently relay what was going on at the moment. I thought of my college friends in the South Bay and Orange county. I stopped mid-dial on both of those calls as well.??My calls would only have caused them to wonder what was going on and I?would not be able to squeeze out an audible and comprehendible answer.

When the coast was clear, I plotted a course out the side door with a?short recovery in the men?s room that was followed by a beeline to another colleague?s office. She, a double cancer survivor, took one look at me and I started again. But I was at least?in safer territory. She looked at me and said, ?Dan, I know what you?re going through? you are thinking about coming off of treatment?in several weeks???She was right. My wife and I have spoken of this several times in the past few weeks. In fact, she was the first to spot that fear in me.

Although I recovered a bit, every five minutes brought on?a new eruption. I knew I had to call it a day and hastily asked for?"permission to escape cancer,"?which was immediately granted.

Driving back to the South Bay, I took time to stop and look at the ocean. I was still in the throes of my meltdown, but the cool breezes at least provided some comfort. I knew I couldn?t go home yet and face my boys in this condition so,?when I thought I had recovered sufficiently, I welcomed two stops I had to make.

It was these stops that reminded me how compassionate others can be. At both stops the sight of a familiar face caused me to lose it once again. At both stops I was taken in and given an opportunity to?let my emotions out and breathe. They passed the tissues and just listened. They let me take?the time I needed to recover. They found ways to make me laugh.?I am grateful for their kindness. It?s remarkable given that I have just gotten to know them to any extent in the past few weeks.

By the time I arrived at home, I was finally?calm enough?to dial my wife and, among much?gentler tears, relay what had happened to me that day and?soak in?her comfort.

If this journey has taught me nothing more than to acknowledge the mercy of the angels around us?those well known and those who present themselves when needed?it is beyond a doubt?a journey worth taking.

Blessings to all?our caretakers, loved ones, friends and acquaintances who catch us when we fall.

Related Stories on TakePart:

? My Story: Taking Stock of Life Six Months After HIV Diagnosis

? Do Stem Cells Hold the Key To Tumor Regrowth?

? Worried About Skin Cancer? There's an App for That

Dan Zenka is senior vice president of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. In 2010 he was diagnosed with the disease and started the blog My New York Minute to share information and patient perspectives and to encourage men to talk about prostate cancer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/story-prostate-cancer-diagnosis-finding-mercy-angels-around-162657382.html

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An Internet Marketing Business ? Steps To Start? | The Groveland ...

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Source: http://www.grovelandbuzz.com/2012/08/02/an-internet-marketing-business-steps-to-start/

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