On my other blogs, I’m involved with PayPerPost. If you’ve never heard of PayPerPost, they pay you to blog about certain topics and websites. It’s an amazing concept and site, and I’ve made over $5000 since I started working with them in July. Anyone with a blog can join and start making cash - just click the button over there —> to sign up.

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about this is that the community of bloggers involved with PayPerPost is amazing - the head honcho of PPP, Ted, refers to us as “posties”, and you’ve never met a better bunch. One of them, Marcus, is hosting a blog carnival this week for us “posties”, and one of my blog entries from The Florida Blog was submitted. So go ahead, check it out - I’ll wait right here.

We can only hope that insurance rates for Florida homeowners will soon be on the decline, as Gov. Charlie Crist and others passed insurance reforms on Monday, January 23, 2007. Most homeowners in Florida were hit hard after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, and lawmakers have responded by reducing homeowners insurance premiums by 5 to 20 percent.

When we lived in evacuation zone “C”, in our former house, our insurance (through Citizens) was less than $1000 per year. After the storms, and just after we sold, I received a notice that our premiums were going up to $2400 a year! At that point, we were quite glad that we had sold and moved to higher, dryer ground. At our new home, we were able to get coverage from a company other than Citizens, for less than $2000 a year. Not back when you take into consideration that our current home is worth twice as much as our former residence.

I’m in a contest, and I need your help! RealRock 101 (WJRR-FM) is sponsoring a contest with PayPerPost, where we were invited to share our most outrageous, exciting, or embarrassing concert experience! Watch my video and see what you think of our story about a VERY embarrassing incident at a Jimmy Buffett concert in Tampa.

The 3 videos with the highest # of views on YouTube will go to a finals round on the RealRock 101 website, and they’ll be voted on there.

Here we go - have a laugh on us!

The snow was falling during the Bears & Saints game tonight in Chicago, which may have given the Bears the edge they needed to win, 39-14. The Colts then made a huge comeback against the Patriots, sending them to Super Bowl XLI. This year also marks the first time that two black coaches have been at the Super Bowl - heck, there’s never been ONE black head coach at the Super Bowl, in 41 years!

The Super Bowl will be held in Miami this year, at Dolphin Stadium, on Sunday, February 4th. Hopefully the Bears will use this time between games to come up with a better version of 1985 “Superbowl Shuffle”. If they need help with moves, Prince is the featured half time act.

For the 2nd time in 100 years, the University of Florida Gators are the national champs, after beating Ohio State in the BCS National Championship. Congratulations to Uruban Meyer and the entire team - GO GATORS!!

I read this article last night in the St. Pete Times - did you know that Florida law ALLOWS sex offenders to visit a school, if the sex offender has a child at the school? My stomach turned as soon as I read it, as I live not too far from the area where a sex offender kidnapped and killed Jessica Lunsford.

My husband and I actually had a disagreement of sorts over this article. He feels that if a sex offender has a child, that gives them the right to be on campus. I disagree. Regardless of whether or not a sex offender has been a sperm donor, or is father of the year, he has no place on a school campus around MY child.

Let me clarify that I also believe the Florida laws don’t use common sense when dictating who is a sex offender. Take the case of Emilio Johnston, who was mentioned in the article. At the age of 18, he was arrested for having sex with a 15 year old girl, and was ordered to register as a sex offender. I believe that people like Mr. Johnston are simply victim of a bad law. I see jim much differently from someone who was 30+ and had sex with a 15 year old. Or someone who is a sexual predator. I take no issue with “Romeo & Juliet” sex offenders being on campus, as long as they are supervised at all times. I do take issue with sexual offenders who fall into other catagories being on campus. I can not believe that after all the press regarding John Couey (who murdered Jessica Lunsford) working ON CAMPUS at a school, that Florida continues to permit sex offenders on school grounds, and in some cases, does not supervise them.

How does that protect my child? What are you going to do, Governor-Elect Charlie Crist, to protect our kids at school?

EDITED TO ADD: I’ve started a petition to send to Mr. Crist - please consider signing it so we can change the law to KEEP dangerous sex offenders out of our schools:

Ban Sex Offenders Who Are Parents From Coming To Florida Schools Petition

And I’m not talking about the ride at Magic Kingdom!

When we were on vacation last week in Boone, North Carolina, we ran into TONS of Floridians! My husband met a woman who had children in the same ski class as our kids, and she and her husband were from Broward County. They were also renting a cabin just down the street from us. Our friends that we were traveling with met someone on the slopes who happened to live the next town over from us.

Apparently Boone, NC isn’t only a bit hit with our family, but the rest of the state likes it too! Not only can you get there in 12 hours from central Florida, but it’s relatively cheap to stay and ski.

Travelling out of state does make me appreciate Florida. Last night, we were in a restaurant in South Carolina, and were asked if we wanted smoking, or non smoking. That’s just something we take for granted in Florida!