There isn’t much that scares me these days – horror movies put me to sleep, a terrible thunderstorm just means I don’t have to mow, and I think a snake or a tarantula could make a nice pet. However, yesterday afternoon I had the scare of my life. I was with my 2 1/2 year old son at the mall to get his haircut. After he was done he was standing next to me at the counter while I paid the bill. I exchanged a few pleasantries with the lady ringing me up and we said our good byes and I turned around to get him and head out the door. However, he was no where to be found in the barber shop. I have never, ever felt so panicked or scared in my entire life. You know that feeling that hits your system like a ton of bricks when you realize you just whizzed by a cop going 25 miles an hour over the posted speed limit? Imagine that feeling, only to the millionth degree.

The second I realized he wasn’t next to me, I quickly ran around the store looking for him, he wasn’t to be found. I then rushed out the front door looking everywhere for the little man. Nothing. I ran back in to double check the store, meanwhile the staff started looking around the back of the store, nope – he definitely wasn’t there. My heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute, my mind was racing with who to contact, what to do next? I then ran back outside the store and scanned the perimeter around the barber shop entrance once again. Unbelievably, and I don’t know how this happened, but I caught him out of the corner of my eye not more than 20 feet away. I don’t know how I saw him as I was just scanning everything I could so quickly. Thankfully, he was fine, just strolling along sucking on a sucker at the next stores windows. I cannot tell you how relived I was when I ran over to grab him and pick him up. My knees were literally shaking as the adrenaline pumped through my body as we walked through the mall and back to our car.

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday afternoon; which is to not assume anything when it comes to your kids. They can get away quicker than you can blink and you must keep an eye on them at all times in a crowded place, even more so if your child is like ours and likes to be a wanderer. But you can’t have eyes in the back of your head, so what’s a parent to do? I found this little gadget that we are going to try out called the “Mommy I’m Here” wireless child locator. You simply attach it to your child’s shoe and you put the transmitter in your pocket or purse. If you can’t see your child, you press the transmitter button and the teddy bear lets off a high decibel alarm to alert you to your child’s whereabouts. This nifty little item is only twenty bucks, comes in pink or brown and easily attaches to your child’s belt or their shoe. I know if he had been wearing the teddy bear child locator yesterday afternoon, I would have saved myself from a few more gray hairs. Fortunately we were already at the barber, so I just got a quick color touch-up and everyone was none the wiser. (Ok, not really, but I should have).

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It may be the dead of winter now, but it won’t be long before Old Man Winter is pushed aside for warm summer days and weekend parties with friends and family. Why not give yourself a new look this summer, and what better way to start it off than a summer shirt on sale from JCPenney? This American Living Rugby Polo Shirt is normally $45, but is Outlet priced at only $12.99! There is no JCPenney Coupon Code required to get this great looking shirt at this closeout price. Available in a red, blue or green stripes and in sizes from small to x-large, this rugby polo shirt is the perfect starter for your new summer look. Made from pure cotton to keep you cool and comfortable this summer on those warm evenings.

Imagine yourself now, sitting on the patio sipping wine and laughing with your friends. It won’t be long before those dreams are a reality, so be sure to act quick and get your new summer clothes while you can. Remember, no JCPenney Coupon code is needed to get American Living Rugby Polo Shirt at this markdown price. Simply choose your color and your size then add it to your cart. If you pick up a few more things and get your order to $65 or more, JCPenney will give you free shipping when you use JCPenney Coupon Code LOVEBUG. Be sure to visit FlamingoWorld to see all the JCPenney coupons and discounts to save even more money on your families new Summer clothes.

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With the current struggles of the economy many people are reconsidering their summer vacation plans. Rather than jet setting off to some tropical vacation spot or spending a month’s salary for a week’s stay in DisneyWorld many people are thinking about taking a “staycation” this summer. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a “staycation” is when you stay close to home for your vacation rather than spending time, money and energy to travel abroad. A staycation can mean a couple nights stay at a nice hotel in a nearby city, a trip with your kids to the amusement and water parks and even dining out at nice restaurants that you normally wouldn’t go to. What a staycation isn’t is staying around your house to catch up on the things you normally don’t have time for during the regular week. Things like cleaning out closets, weeding the garden and sorting through your garage are not what you’ll be doing on your staycation. For a few extra tips on making your staycation the best it can be this summer, please watch this short video from our friends at cnn.com

If you have decided a staycation is right for your family this summer, now what do you do? First, hit the internet to find deals and discounts on the things you’d like to do. Restaurants, hotels, museums and amusement parks will often post discounts and coupons on their website to help generate business, so be sure to check them out. Secondly, just because you are staycationing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good-looking new vaction outfit. Check out FlamingoWorld.com to look for Kohls Coupons, JCPenny Coupons, Ann Taylor Coupons, Gap Coupons and other apparel stores coupons to save money when you find the outfit that is right for you this summer. And if you plan on doing any kind of walking on your staycation, be sure to look for shoe store coupons to save even more money.

If you spend the time to plan it right, you can have just as much fun in your own backyard as if you were packing your bags for a week-long trip to Aruba. One more bonus of a staycation versus a vacation? No security guard pat-downs

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Whether you celebrate Valentines Day with a box of chocolates, a dozen red rozes or candy hearts that say “Be Mine”, you know that you need to be prepared to show your significant other how much they mean to you on this Hallmark Holiday. This year you can capture those special moments that the two of you will share on this holiday of love with a brand new GE digital camera. . We found a great deal from Radio Shack on this 7.0 MegaPixel digital camera on sale for only $79.99. ECost is selling it for $102.99.

This GE digital camera is available in a stunning red finish and features a large 2.5 inch LCD viewing screen so you can quickly and easily review the pictures you take. The built in Smile-Detection will automatically take the picture as soon as it detects someone smile, and the Blink-Detection will alert you if someone blinks so you can immediately retake the picture. The camera also takes 2 “AA” akaline batteries, so you don’t have to sit around waiting for your batteries to recharge. You simply drop in some batteries and you are good to go. Radio Shack is now offering Free Shipping on this camera, but be sure to review all the Radio Shack deals and coupons from FlamingoWorld.com if there is something else you need.

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Today in Chicago it was a balmy 33 degrees (with sunshine!), which seemed like quite a heatwave from the single digit temperatures we have been getting over the past two weeeks. The sun and warmer air really put me in the mood to think about all the fun summer activities we do around here, most of which involve getting the family over to the local pool. So I started looking around a few stores to see what summer stuff is out already, and found that many of the stores have already started putting this years swimsuits on sale, Kohl’s included.

Editors note: Although I really like the quality of clothes and and other products from Kohl’s, I can’t stand their pricing strategy. Can they please stop with the gimmick sales? Every time I go to the store there is another big sale going on, in fact I doubt Kohl’s has ever sold one item at full price in the history of the corporation. Stop the pricing charade and just tell us what you are really charging for the item instead of pretending everything is always 30% or more off of the regular price..

Anyway, the Summer items that I did find at Kohl’s that should help you start to get your Summer crave on as well. This women’s tankini top from ZeroXposur will be a great new look for you to wear to the beach this year. Pair it with some solid brown bottoms and you’ll be ready to hit the sand or water for some serious summertime fun. The striped pattern on this tankini top gives a classic, stylish look and the racerback styling gives a streamlined athletic fit should a water volleyball game break out. “Normally priced” at $36, it is “On-Sale” for only $27. However if you use the Kohls Coupons from FlamingoWorld you can save an additional 10-15% on your entire order. With those savings, you may just want to check out the Men’s and Junior’s swimsuits from Kohl’s and outfit your whole family in new beach clothes for your summer outings this year.

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It may the dead of winter now for most of us but it’s never too early to start planning for that summer vacation. If your vacation plans entail endless miles of highway driving then we found just the thing to help you make to that next stop along your way. This heated travel blanket from Driving Comfort is the perfect answer for those couples who are always disagreeing about the temperature in the car. If he likes that AC low enough to frost the windows, but you prefer a temperature that is quite a bit north of freezing, then this heated travel blanket is for you.

Made of a super soft fleece, it is pretty warm by itself but plug it in and you’ll be toasty warm while your significant other is dealing with goosebumps from the chill of the AC that he has hovering around the freezing point. Available in red plaid or navy, it comes with a 7 1/2 foot cord to reach to the back seat. It’s even large enough for two people so your little ones can keep warm in the backseat if you and hubby prefer to keep it frosty up front. Available for only $39.95, it’s a small price to pay to keep the peace while stuck in the car together for the next 700 miles.

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January 20, 2009 is a day that will forever be looked at as a day that changed U.S. history. When President-Elect Barack Obama is sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States of America, it will be the first time in American history that a minority will hold the office of President of the United States. As a way to commemorate this historical event, Barnes and Noble has compiled all of their available Barack Obama book collections in an easy to find page on their website. These novels tell the stories, history and background of Barack Obama as he started down and eventually won the path to the Presidency. Whether you are a historical buff, a politico, or just someone like Joe the Plumber, you will want to find some keepsake to remember the day that US history was rewritten in 2009. Certainly there will be many more pages written that chronicle the legacy left by President Barack Obama, but now is the time to secure a piece of history.

If you are interested in saving a few dollars, and in this economy who isn’t, be sure to use Barnes and Nobles Coupon Code: Y7Y9H9T to save 10% on your order. If a book isn’t something you consider a keepsake, you should also look at the other Barack Obama Keepsakes we have found at FlamingoWorld.com to help you remember the historical day. If you are so inclined, you could go the whole nine yards and wear a Barack Obama mask to your inauguration party. That is also something that will go down in history, however probably not for the same reasons.

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With most of the Midwest encased in a very deep freeze (-17 here before the windchill factor) many schools are playing it safe and taking the day off due to the unbearable weather we are experiencing. That’s a wise move for the school districts, the kids safety should always take priority over a spelling test, playing dodge-ball and the mystery meat they were going to serve for lunch today. However, these no-school days often cause quite a shake-up to the normal routine for working parents, the most pressing concern is usually how to keep the kids from destroying the house (and each other) when they are trapped inside your four walls for hours on end.

One thing that helps to pass the time for our kids is letting them play in the sink with some water and bubbles. Now it’s even more fun because they get a chance to use the “Strawz: Make your own straw kit” that Santa gave them this past Christmas. We add in a little dish soap for the bubbles, some tub tints for color, and they’ll be busy creating their own bubble worlds for quite some time. Which should give me just enough time to prepare our own “mystery meat” for their lunch today.

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With the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas wrapping up this past week it won’t be long before all the newest “must-have” gadgets hit the shelves. However with a slower economy many of us won’t be spending our money on the newest high-priced electronics and toys, in spite of how much we would like them. However, that doesn’t mean our “gadget itch” should go unscratched. If you are looking to pick up some new electronics to play around with, now is the time to be shopping at TigerDirect.com. They are a re-seller of quality overstocks of new and refurbished electronics, computers and accessories. With all the newest gadgets that will be coming out from Sony, Panasonic, Dell, Microsoft and others, you can be sure that TigerDirect is going to have a lot of inventory of last year’s “hottest” items. Which means big savings for you, because you can get new equipment at a fraction of the price of what this year’s hottest models will end up costing. If your order over $100 worth of goods and keep it under 10 lbs, TigerDirect will ship it for only $1.99 ($4.99 over 10 lbs).

We are in the market now for a new computer for the kids PC games, since our 1997 desktop PC just doesn’t have the “oomph” to play their newer ones from Santa. I can’t have them using my work computer much longer, so TigerDirect is where we will be shopping. We don’t need something brand new and shiny with all the extras they will never use, so we are shopping around the site to find something a bit more stripped-down, which will mean big savings to us. The money we’ll save on buying name brand “certified-refurbished” means we can spend a little extra to get more of what we need, which is speed and memory. We’re looking at this refurbished Dell that has a Windows XP OS pre-installed, and based on our friend’s recommendation, it sounds like it will work out perfectly for us. We can even pick up this handy Wireless USB Network Adapter (thanks Mike!) so we can get internet access to the computer without having to run cables around the house. Lastly, you should always check out the TigerDirect coupons at FlamingoWorld before shopping as there is always a number of money saving coupons available.

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Nirvana, according to Dictionary.com can be defined as, “An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.” Based on our personal experiences after using a heated mattress pad, I would have to say I totally agree. Getting into a warm bed on a cold winter’s night in Chicago is truly a nirvana-like experience. In years past we have piled on the covers, tried electric blankets and wore flannel pajamas to bed in the winter but to no avail. We would still get that chill up our spine when we first got into chilly sheets at night. After a few minutes of rubbing our legs up and down the sheets we would start to get some warm relief. But by the middle of the night we would be sweating from the mountain of covers or the flannel pj’s we were wearing. However, this winter we have a different tale to tell.

We found this heated mattress pad from Blair.com and decided to give it a try and see if that would help warm up our bed before settling in under the covers. And let me tell you – it was so worth every penny and I probably would have paid double for it if I had known how cozy it makes the bed when we first get in. We set it on “high” when we put the kids to bed, then when we are ready to hit the sack our bed feels like warm, soft bread as it first comes out of the oven. We lower the temperature a bit before we hit the lights out and we are ready to settle in for a great night’s sleep.

The King and Queen Heated Mattress Pads come with dual controls, so you each can set the temperature exactly as you desire and the 10 hour auto-shut off means you won’t overcook yourself or your sheets. If you are tired of the “night chills”, you need a heated mattress pad on your bed. At $60 or less, this is truly the best money you will spend this winter. You can’t find Nirvana in your bedroom for any less!

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