Get Organized with AcornPoints by AboutOne & Enter to Win $10,000

This is post is sponsored by AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints.

Confession. I'm a piler. I pile papers and books everywhere. In fact, my desk is always in some sort of disarray. Don't believe me, check out this post, but beware, it's not for the faint of heart. I keep trying different ways to stay organized and cut down on the paper clutter on my desk. I still seem to revert back to my piling habit.

Maybe I'm not a hopeless cause. That's why I'm excited to try out AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints, an online family organizer that makes staying organizing effortless. They've partnered with Microsoft and Suze Orman to launch a brand new version of their online organizer. The site isn't quite ready to launch but here are some features I would totally use:

• It syncs with my Google (or iCal or Outlook) calendar and contact all in one place
• There's a calendar-based online organizer. Now I won't miss that webinar I signed up for!
• I can use my smartphone to send photos of my receipts or even of my kids' artwork

AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints will keep all of your household information in one place. That's right, your family's health education, home, and vehicle records all accessible in one place. I'm usually digging around in our filing cabinet to look for our car registration, then off to my wallet for our family's health insurance info and then dig around my desk for the latest cable bill. All your information is completely private with bank level security.

You can upload memory keeping items like videos, photos, and artwork too. AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints will instantly format my info (including the above mentioned household info) into online or printable reports. Even newsletters and photo memory books. The less work on my end, the better.

 AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints will also reward you for being organized. When you reach certain organizational goals, you can earn gift cards. I'm not sure what the details are, but I'm not above bribery. 

Want to try out AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints? As part of their launch celebration, they are running a $10,000 tell a friend giveaway. To enter, head to their website and enter your email address to get on the list to receive a free account. Once you confirm your subscription, refer at least 3 friends who signs up and confirms their subscription will enter both of you in the giveaway. That means $10,000 for both of you to share!

Here's a video with some more info:

Sign-up so you'll be notified when  AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints is ready to launch and start 2012 on the path to organization. You can also follow AboutOne on Facebook and Twitter to get updates.

While this post is sponsored by AboutOne 2.0 with AcornPoints, all opinions and disorganization is my own. Above links to AboutOne are referral links.

My Boss Is Two Years Old

Don't let that sweet face fool you

Yesterday, I realized that I'm not really the boss of me.

I have no idea why it's taken this long to figure out.
My toddler is the boss of me. Or at least he thinks he is. Yesterday morning, at 6:30, he woke me up. Now 6:30 might not be that early for some of you, but considering I went to bed at 3am, that's a wee bit early. I gave up using my alarm clock after Sophia was born over six years ago. Once I decided to work from home, she became my alarm clock. When she woke up, I got up for the day. It worked out perfectly for my schedule. During her first year, she slept until 10am almost every day. I got spoiled.

Yesterday morning my wake up call made me cranky. Hubby's big work project culminates this week, which means early mornings and late nights. He usually feeds and dresses the kids in the morning AND does bus drop off duty. Yesterday, I was on call for the morning duties. I vaguely remember hubby kissing me goodbye with a promise to give me a 7am wake up call.

Did I mention that Jaxson, my cute toddler woke up at 5:30AM? To keep Jaxson busy, hubby gave Jaxson a banana and the Leapster Explorer before he ran off to work at 6:00. Or maybe it was 6:30. I was too groggy to remember.

Because he can kick butt 

For the next 30 minutes, Jaxson sat next to me in bed, eating his banana and playing video games. Every few minutes, he put his face inches from mine, yelling, "Help, mommy!  Help me! " I groggily helped him draw the letter R in the freaking Explorer game. He woke me up for the letter R? Five minutes later, he screamed for more help. Did I mention that he spits when he screams?

By now I was pretty darn cranky. I just wanted to sleep until 7am! Exasperated, I told him to play a different game. Ok, I might have yelled it.  His definition of a different game was yelling something different at me.

"EGGS! MOMMY, I HUNGRY! I WANT EGGS! "

All while inches away from my face. He was a broken record. Over and over he yelled for eggs until I drug myself out of my warm flannel sheets.

Yes, I made Jaxson some freaking eggs. I wasn't happy about it. Even snapped at hubby when he made his wake up call. I was one super cranky mom yesterday.

Two years old are demanding bosses.

Whimper. Who's bringing me chocolate and coffee?

DC Weekend Picks: Concerts More Lunar New Year Celebrations

It's Thursday, what do you have planned for the weekend? I swear, I'm not normally this organized, but I'm always looking for fun things to do with my family. So why not share with you all?

Lunar New Year celebrations continue this upcoming weekend. We didn't go to any last weekend because the cold, icy snow made me lazy. Plus Sophia wanted to see the parade and standing outside in the snowy thirtysomething degrees Farenheit weather was not how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning. So keep your fingers crossed for this weekend.

More DC Lunar New Year's Celebrations (with some repeats from last week's picks):


Billed as the largest Tết celebration in Northern Virginia, there is a 2 day celebration at Langley High School in McClean, Virginia  from 10am to 5pm on both Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30. There will be music, dancing, food, lion dances, dragon dances, charity raffles, beauty pageant, and games. Admission is $2/person. Saturday's event will be held by a Vietnamese Seniors Group while Sunday's will be hosted by Vietnamese Community of Washington DC, Maryland & Virginia. Location: Langley High School, 6520 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 2210.


Bundle up and head out early on January 29 for a good spot for the DC Chinatown's Chinese New Year Parade. We've attended this parade in the past and it never fails to excite the kids. There's plenty of lion dances, performers of all sorts and lots of colorful costumes. Let's hope it won't be freezing this year! The parade starts at 2PM. Visit thewebsite for route information. I highly recommend taking the Metro to the Gallery Place-Chinatown stop. After the parade, head to one of the many Asian restaurants for a new year's dinner.

Creative Cauldron in Falls Church, VA is presenting a Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) Community Celebration at 2PM on January 29. Audiences will be treated to five unique dances, musical selections on traditional 16 string instruments and a fashion show demonstrating traditional Vietnamese costume and dress. Tickets start at $12. For more information, visit the website.

It's not a new year's celebration but this free Hot Peas 'N Butter concert looks like fun:

Friends of the Library, Montgomery County is celebrating 30 years of supporting, protecting, and defending the Montgomery County Public Libraries with this year's anniversary. To kick off the year of fun, FOLMC is hosting the popular children's band and three-time Parent's Choice Award Winner, Hot Peas 'N Butter. On Saturday, January 28 at 11am Hot Peas 'N Butter will play a free, but ticketed concert at the Germantown Library. Free tickets are only available in advance, starting Tuesday, January 24 at the branch.

Want some snow? Check out Adventure Theatre's production of The Snow Day adapted from Ezra Jack Keat's book. It was almost sold out but they added more shows. Yay! Read more of my review at Tots2Tweens.

What are you doing this weekend?

Lion photo by pixiduc via Creative Commons. Hot Peas 'N Butter photo courtesy of Montgomery County Library.

Stop and Smell the Grass

I had to share with you one more snow photo. As I chased around the kids, I stopped for a moment and noticed how these tiny blades of grass were sticking out of the snow. Beautiful, isn't it?

Work From the Cloud or Your Desktop with Microsoft Office 2010 and SkyDrive (Review)

I love working from the cloud. Being able to access my files no matter where I am makes it easier to work on the couch or at my favorite coffee shop. I've been using Google Docs for quite some time. It was easier to work from the cloud since I constantly switched working from my desktop to my laptop or netbook, especially since I only had Microsoft Office installed on my desktop. Microsoft Word and Excel files I received for work could be viewed and edited in Google Docs, but any special formatting didn't show up properly.

Now, I don't have to worry about compatibility between documents I receive in my email, thanks to SkyDrive, Microsoft's free online storage. With SkyDrive, I can work on a Microsoft Word file on my desktop, save it directly to SkyDrive and then access it from my laptop later. All my formatting is saved and remains consistent, no matter where I access my file. I can open and edit my document using Microsoft Office Web Apps or open it using Microsoft Office installed on my computer.

It's easy to share your files

With SkyDrive, I can create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files. I can also create a PowerPoint presentation or a OneNote notebook. It was also very easy to share a file. In my recent post about nature walks on Tots2Tweens, I shared a  printable Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt List by linking directly to the file. My readers can just click on the PDF file and print it out.

As you can see, with SkyDrive you're not limited to MS Office documents. Not only can I upload PDF files to it, I can upload photos as well. Sharing photos with family and friends is just as easy. You can send them a link to view your photos. SkyDrive stores all your photos and files in the cloud without taking up a ton of space on your hard drive.

You can share files by emailing your friends the link

You can even upload video files and view them directly from your browser. I'm not a huge fan of Youtube, but I can see SkyDrive as a more private way of sharing video files. I can store my video files in the cloud and only share them if I so choose.

I still love my Google Docs. It's simple with no frills.

However, SkyDrive has convinced me to go back to MS Office. With Microsoft Word, I can do more fun things with my documents. I'll have access to templates like lists and letterheads and fun projects like notecards.   I can also print directly to PDFs. I have the option to save directly to my hard drive or to SkyDrive. If you have a Windows phone or an iPhone, you can download the SkyDrive app for easy access to your files.

I'm not ready to give up Google Docs yet, but I can see myself using both SkyDrive and Google Docs equally. You can do a lot more with SkyDrive, aside from what I've mentioned here. Check out how more than one person can view and edit the same Excel workbook at the same time.

Want to give SkyDrive a try? Sign up for free. Do you use the cloud for your documents? Which service do you use?

I received codes for Microsoft Office 2010 to facilitate this review. SkyDrive is free. As always, all geeky opinions are my own. 


Photos courtesy of Microsoft.