Thankfulness 2013: Day Six

Hobbies are great.  Mine (you may or may not have noticed) is card making.  I've had a lot of fun doing it this past year.  Tonight I'm headed in to my local Archiver's to use their craft room for an evening of working on our Christmas cards.  It was going to be a girls' crafting night but schedules aren't aligning.  It very likely will be just myself there this evening so I guess I'll be thankful for Me Time.  I'm looking forward to my crafting time no matter the company that joins me tonight.  I'm especially happy to have this adult night considering the week I'm expecting coming up.  Drill has been extended for this family from two days to six days.  No Papa in the house for that stretch plus a party on that Saturday (day 5)...EEP!  Did I only say I was thankful?  I meant exceptionally thankful for Me Time tonight!

Thankfulness 2013: Day Five

My husband is a very understanding man.  We have failed at menu planning this week.  Pulling frozen meat to thaw, not adding all necessary items to the grocery list, etc. all adding to the warped and constantly changing nightly menu.  I am so thankful for my husband's sense of humor when stupidity hits our household.  Now if y'all will excuse me, I have a hotdish missing a crucial ingredient that I must finish putting together in order to throw it in the fridge ready to bake tomorrow instead and a new meal to figure out...

Thankfulness 2013: Day Two and Three

I completely missed out on day two so I'll post two.

2.  Sales.  When you are determined to make all your own Christmas cards and there is a sale on the card stock you needed.  When you are headed in to buy your baby's formula and there is an instant rebate without coupon required.  When the target ad and the cartwheel app double up savings on diapers!  All of these kinds of things totally make my day, which is probably why I had such a nice weekend...

3.  Heated blankets!  I am a cold person based on the temperatures of my extremities.  My husband is not.  Sharing a bed is difficult in the winter without the magical blanket that can be set on each side individually (usually a 6 for me and off for him).

Stolen Chances Blog Tour

Let's start with the fact that I adore Elisabeth Naughton.  Aside from that, I wanted to let you know that Stolen Chances is available NOW!  And if you haven't read them yet, pick up a copy of EACH Eternal Guardian Series books....On to the main event of the day:

Stolen Chances

Find me at Amazon and Barnes and Noble!  Check out your other favorite e-book sellers too!

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Nine years ago, Archaeologist Maren Hudson lost everything when a member of her team was killed during a routine dive. Now she’s been drawn back to Mexico and the career she walked away from in order to protect the most precious thing in the world: her daughter.

One desperate phone call brings salvage expert Thad Leighton back to Mexico. For his murdered brother, he’s ready to settle the score, but one look at Maren and everything changes. Years may have passed, but she’s still as mesmerizing as she once was, and a few days on site together have him questioning his priorities and why the hell he walked away from her so long ago.

Sparks between them reignite, but Thad knows Maren is holding something back. Thrust together in the middle of the sweltering Yucatan, Thad is more than willing to strip away her layers. But while the truth might offer the second chance he’s been searching for, forgiveness may be as elusive as the relic they’re both hunting. Because when Thad unearths Maren’s biggest secret and discovers who she’s really working for, suddenly it’s not just about a life that was stolen from both of them, it’s about staying alive and outwitting a madman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

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If you see it out in the wild, let us know!  Otherwise, you can grab your copy online at Amazon!

Get To Know Elisabeth!

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I was never one of those people who knew they wanted to be an author at the age of six. I didn’t have imaginary friends. I didn’t write stories in my journal or entertain my relatives by firelight after Thanksgiving dinner. For the most part, I was just a normal, everyday kid. I liked to read, but I wasn’t exceptional at it. And when my teachers complimented me on my writing abilities, I brushed them off. I did, however, always have a penchant for the unique and absurd. And as my mother told me all throughout my childhood, I should have been an actress—I was a drama queen before my time.

Years ago, my husband bought me Scarlett: The Sequel to Gone With The Wind. If you ever saw the book, you know it’s a long one. I sat and read that thing from cover to cover, and dreamed of one day being a writer. But I didn’t actually try my hand at writing until years later when I quit my teaching job to stay home with my kids. And my husband? After that week of reading where I neglected him and everything else until I finished Scarlett, he vowed never to buy me another book again. Little did he know I’d one day end up sitting at a keyboard all day drafting my own stories.

My writing journey has not been easy. I didn’t just sit down one day, decide I was going to write a book and voila! sell my very first attempt. As most authors will probably agree, the path to publication is filled with hours of work, pulling all-nighters I thought I’d given up in college, sacrifices, rejections, but a love I discovered along the way I just can’t live without. Instead of a big, thick book to read by lamplight (I do read much smaller ones when I get the chance), I’ve traded in my reading obsession for a laptop. And I’ve never been happier.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a wonderful family and fabulous husband who put up with my writing—and obsessive personality—even when life is chaotic. More than once my kids have been late to swimming or baseball because I needed just five more minutes to finish a scene. Their support and encouragement mean the world to me. I also have amazing friends and a support network I couldn’t survive without. So to all of you out there who have encouraged me along the way, sent me emails and fan letters, phone calls and congratulations, I just want to say, thank you. You make this whole writing gig that much more enjoyable. I truly wouldn’t be here without you.

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Visit Elisabeth and the Guardians!

Elisabeth's Blog

Twitter

Elisabeth's Facebook

Eternal Guardians Facebook

Goodreads

Thanks to Enchantress of Books for including me in this tour!  I love Elisabeth's books and was thrilled to participate!

Enchantress of Books Blog Tours

Dating

Hey there...come here often?  Oh yeah, I'm usually the one chasing a little blonde girl and pushing a handsome little babbler in a monstrous double long stroller...We mostly stick to the Barnes and Noble lego or train table.

Don't you love meeting up with someone you so rarely get to see out of certain contexts?  You know, people like your siblings away from your parents.  Girlfriends without the kids.  HUSBANDS without kids?  That is the novelty that we had.

We get the occasional trip to a store without the kids.  Valentine gifts (tickets to a comedy show) that require driving 4hrs to get to--luckily with a set of grandparents in between to drop off a couple kids who would not be appropriate audience for said show.  A Christmas party for his company...Oh, there was the hospital stay while Wyatt was asleep in his newborn state of nearly constant unconsciousness too!

Typically our 'alone time' is filled with schoolwork, crafting of greeting cards, catching up on the latest NCIS or NCIS LA, or apart altogether doing errands of sorts while the other is home.  If we are both home, we are lucky to only have to remind Alyssa that bedtime is required or 'tomorrow' doesn't come and if she doesn't sleep NOW...a handful of times.  If we have a miracle night, there aren't any tears coming from behind a gated toddler's door.

So while our friends are tag-teaming our kids alongside their own toddler, we celebrated still being adults with tastes that run more mature than My Little Pony or chicken nuggets and french fries.  (Well, maybe not much more mature than french fries...)

We highly recommend Iron Man 3....but stay until after all the credits have run through.  Now back to the standard parental lifestyle of attempting to remember to NOT pull our hair out, we'll go bald naturally eventually anyways from stress hormones.

Rummaging!

I love this season!

Seriously, garage sales galore and weekends in which to sift through every offering...*bliss*  Now if only I could do it without the kids!

I was lucky last weekend to have a sale a couple houses down from us.  I got to meet those neighbors, spent some time outside, and bribed good behavior out of the toddler by offering up the park down the way after some rummaging.  I love that she is still young enough to not have figured out we would've been going to the park anyways because of the lovely weather.  HA!

Look at how perfect the condition is!  So beautiful even if I never improve my sewing skills enough to do it justice.

A few weekends ago was the ECFE hosted multi-sale at a local school.  We didn't score as big as I wanted to in the jeans department for a certain little man who is growing by leaps and bounds but we did find a treasure nonetheless.

That used to be a white and powdery blue Little Tikes table.  Now it is a purple, green, and CHALKBOARD spray painted Little Tikes table.  (Did y'all know that the amazing chalkboard paint is in spray cans now?!?)

Yup, we are having a load of fun with the rainy day chalk now and finally have a kids' table for all sorts of activities.  Now we just need another nice day with no wind to get the chairs from their powdery blue glory to updated and fun purple and green.

Do y'all frequent rummage sales?  Got any tricks when dealing with toddlers at rummages?

Happy Mother's Day

Wyatt wanted to give me a present today.

This was the face doing baby laughs/talking at me as I cleaned up the side of my jeans in the Best Buy bathroom today.  The lovable brat decided burping wasn't as productive as spit-up.

Such a freaking cute boy regardless, he had me laughing most of the clean up process.

To all you Moms, Happy Mother's Day.
To all you trying to become Moms, I am thinking of you today.
To all of you missing your Mom, I am wishing you happy memories today.
To all you women, you shape others' lives and we love you.
Happy Mother's Day!

Product Review: My First Look and Find's

We have so much fun with these books that I needed to share them with you.

Did you ever enjoy the I Spy books or games?  So many kids love to hunt for things and when they find them they are THRILLED and so proud.  If your young child loves treasure hunts or spying things that you ask them to find, try these books out:

First Look and Find books are the I Spy concept for toddlers.  There are many options out there for characters from Pixar to Disney to PBS and more.  Here is our collection (though there are some we have on our radar for a good book buying day still):

Our most recent addition was the Pony version.  It is easily the favorite which is predictable when it is also the favorite TV show currently.

We highly recommend these books for your toddlers.  They can be enjoyed together or for some quiet time.  The covers are done in a semi squishy material over the hardcover to soften it up just a bit which is nice considering I dig at least two out of the toddler bed each morning.  I love that they all have different searches for each page in the back in addition to the pictures that they are supposed to match on each page.  If I'm not available to read those extras, Alyssa sticks to matching the pictures on each page.  Later we go back and do all the extras together!

Toddler Photobombing

End of Toddler patience (aka Book Repo)

**Edit** This is a completely unsponsored review.  We purchased every one of those books because we love them.  We got them at Barnes & Noble (they usually have more in stock than online oddly but they are all tagged as 'Bargain Books').

Taggies!! Product Review

So with the 6 month clothes came something that I snatched up when I was out shopping just before Wyatt came along.  Notice anything very different about these jammies?

How about now?

Yup, those are some little silky tags sewn right to the jammie fronts.  You know, all those toys and lovies that have that silky texture that fascinates many babies in the world...they added it to the sleepers now!  No more worries about a lovie in the crib.  No more worries that they can't find their lovie in the middle of the night at slightly older ages either.  Well, okay, they will still probably cry out in the night for their favorite lovie toy if it goes into hiding.  For Wyatt's age though, you can't get much better than having this safe alternative in bed with him to soothe himself.

Awesome job, Taggies!  Thanks for bringing the toys safely to bedtime.

Get Ready to MOVE! (with another sneak peek!)

Folks, I'm giddy.

Yes, between the euphoric high of finally having closed on our house, the painting, the project planning, AND furniture shopping because we now have two living spaces (living room and downstairs family room--soon to be overran with toys) with only one couch to our names, well, I have been in a planning/decorating state of giddy joy!  Let's not forget that I am just eight days from having a son in the outside world rather than bouncing on my bladder on top of all this.  (Oh shit...only 8?!)

My mom and aunt came down this weekend and tore through the house with rollers and brushes in hand and what we thought would be months of us working around furniture and kids became a project in the DONE list instead!!  I had to run out and buy the paint for the other rooms when they got here because they tore through what we happened to have purchased for the two kids' rooms so FAST!  Original plan was that Chris would be painting Alyssa's room this past weekend and we would be lucky to get that much done before moving everything tomorrow (Tuesday).  In actuality, those two women showed up 3-4 hours from their homes and got Alyssa's room, Baby's room's base color, our room, dining room, hallway, and living room ALL painted!  My contribution was sadly just taping what I could reach without use of a ladder/step stool, keeping a toddler as out-of-the-way as possible, and I got to help with the dots in her room too.  So useless when you can barely catch your breath standing still!

I don't think the living room will ever photograph right...so trust me when I say I LOVE how it turned out.
Legacy   UL250-22 (Behr)

Last night we went furniture shopping for the main living room so that we have seating for the various people that are already trying to plan trips down here to meet the little guy--yay...hostessing while fresh into recovery in a new place...Gah!-- Anyways, we found a great setup that I am loving!  My husband loves that I stayed very much under budget (30-40% depending on if you consider taxes and delivery in the budget which he usually does not when he gives me a number to stick to) and still got him a recliner in the mix.

Couch

Love seat

Hubby's favorite: Coffee table with 4 stools (extra seating!)

I'll get pictures up once we get them delivered and set up in the new house (and have internet over there!).  I'd add the recliner in here but the pictures online are kind of awful and I can't find one that shows how well the 'leather' matches the other 'leathers' of these pieces...so y'all will have to wait with the baited breath I know you've got going.  (HA)

In the meantime, bear with what will likely be a very sporadic next couple of weeks.  I'll post updates as possible on the house.  I'll certainly introduce y'all to our boy next week and hopefully it will be coherent while I'm on the lovely pain meds that I'm told accompany a c-section.  Otherwise you may find a small craft post mixed in here and there from my folder of to-be-posted stuff just waiting to be shared with y'all.  The big move begins tomorrow so the next few days will be CRAZY HECTIC and hopefully super fun too!  I'll see y'all when I get internet up at the house!

*Photo credit:  Love seat and Sofa
*Photo credit:  Coffee Table

**We got all our pieces at Ashley but their site didn't have all of them pictured for me to share directly from them.  I have not been asked by anyone at any company to share their products with my audience and do so only because of my own excitement at a new home purchase and love of decorating!

Ornaments and Kids

This year Alyssa picked out her own ornament to add to the tree.  2012's ornament is "Punzel"!  (You've probably already seen her in a couple pictures here or there.)

Previous ornaments have been a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Toodles) for 2010 and a Princess Tiana in 2011.  We do love Hallmark holiday ornaments!  We take a sharpie to the underside (or back if need be) to write which year it joined our tree.

I can hardly wait to start our son's collection too!  The 'kid tree' is going to be so fun looking over the years!

Mayan Calendars and 2013

It's COMING!!!  The End Of The World is HERE!!!

Oh....huh....oops, false alarm folks.  Go about your business.  Nothing to see around here.

Well, of course we do have a good amount of time to still implode or have impacting meteors or whatnot...but you should probably consider how the Mayan calendar system actually worked before jumping on that bandwagon still.  The basics of it that apply to today specifically are that the calendar being referenced was the Mayan's long calendar which worked on a cycle.  A new age comes at the end of each cycle (think a new shift in mankind's perspective as one possibility) that defines the next cycle.

If you want to simplify what this means to you personally...well, compare today on their Long Calendar to December 31st on your standard 12 month wall calendar here in the U.S.  (I have no experience with other countries' calendars so I can't say for sure which follow the same pattern though I know many do because of the Catholic influences in history).  January 1st still comes along the next day even if you haven't purchased your 2013 calendar for your wall....

So...if you don't already have one...I can't think of a better day this year than the apocalypse to purchase a 2013 calendar!  Do you have a physical calendar around your house?  Wall, planner, pocket, desk?  What is your favorite style of calendar?

Only HOW MANY DAYS?!?!

So I looked at my little Reindeer Countdown and realized that it is getting CRAZY CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS PEOPLE!  Of course my hubby being who he is is also pretty difficult to shop for.  I came up with only a couple ideas really this year and none of them were WOW to me.  So I resorted to massive amounts of Google and Pinterest searching for ideas.  Wow was the well dry there too.

I came up with one result that I would LOVE to share with you giving you almost no time to copy it (which is exactly how much time I had left too) but I can't guarantee that Chris isn't stalking this site waiting for me to get excited about that last thing that I stumble upon and blab it.  SO...y'all will just have to bear with me and wait until after the holiday to find out what I FINALLY found.  I promise you'll get the chance to steal the idea just like I did when the next holiday comes around if you want.

However...I could always use a stash of ideas for Valentines, birthdays, anniversaries and next Christmas....What was the best gift you got your significant other?  What was the best gift you received?

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree...

With most of our belongings in storage awaiting the official move into a house again, we were missing a crucial piece of the festive feeling of Christmas season....the TREE!  There is always a debate over real vs fake and I'll just nip that in the bud by saying as much as I LOVE the real trees and going to a farm and cutting our own as a family like I did growing up most years, I cannot stand the bumps and itches that I get all over my arms as I put the lights on or the ornaments getting hung.  Plus I've seen enough dog vomit in my family history with pine needles in it to want to avoid that in the future too.

So with my lovely pre-lit fake being in storage along with all of our ornaments and my personal favorite tree topper, well, we had to figure out something else for the apartment life this season.  The plus side to the timing of figuring this out--WE HAVE A CLOSE DATE on our house!!!  We know which house we are buying and we have gone through all the hassle of the short sale and we now have a date of which we will be owners of said house.  This means I was able to make plans for next year's holiday season decorating with the apartment solution for this season!  Meet the beginnings of my upstairs tree (read color coordinated):

The lights are red and white twined together (yes, I made my husband tangle lights rather than untangle them) so that nearly every white is paired with a red.  The santa hat topper and the tote bottom were inspired--okay, taken-- straight from a Pin which will lead you to here.  For this year I have red bells, silver icicles and a few Poinsettas on the tree.  I'll wait for some good sales to collect some other red, white and silver ornaments (minus any glitter) to fill it in for next year.

When do you put up the tree?

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Twenty-four

Honestly, this 30 days thing is hard!  Not the part about BEING thankful...more the part of remembering what you've already posted about (I've been seeing some repeats on Facebook and I'd be willing to bet if we all scroll back through my blog that I've done one or two or missed some obvious ones because I figured I've already done them!).

On Monday night we went to the grocery store where the local high school's hockey team moms were bagging for a fundraiser.  We have no issue with donating to a school sport or other community events so I pulled out something for Alyssa to drop in their bucket as a 'thank you' for bagging our groceries.  We pushed the cart up to the woman and Alyssa, without prompting, said quite nicely and clearly, "Thank you!"  We still had to remind her to put the money in the bucket but the display of manners was a proud moment for her Papa and I.  I am thankful for a child who is learning and using her manners so well!  Too many kids learn them too late to make a habit of using them.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Twenty-three

Well, we go from a day that is meant to be dedicated to being grateful to the American epitome of gluttony.  Of course that doesn't stop me one bit from participating in the epic sales that can be found today, Black Friday.

Today, I am thankful for the leftover turkey and buns to keep us going (or waddling for me).  Oh who am I kidding?  I'd be thankful for leftover turkey sandwiches any day!

Swelling and Shoes

One basic thing about being pregnant is that swelling is almost guaranteed.  When and how badly is so widely varied though that I can't claim you'll be a blimp by week X.  My swelling with Alyssa was minor and only towards the end (I ended up being that most dreaded creature--the Crocs wearing person in December!)  My only excuse is that I couldn't reach my legs enough to put winter boots on instead or tie anything unless my husband was home when I needed to get ready.

To avoid that horrifying month of shoe issues I went on the hunt for some shoes that can be slipped on by a woman who can hardly bend over already without losing breath.  (Dang is this kid hanging out high up there!)  What I found has thrilled me.  Delivered just yesterday in my size and to my door are my new Dr. Scholl's shoes!  I love the free shipping that Famous Footwear offers when they don't have your size in stock....Since I tried on a couple pairs of similar shoes I was pretty confident in my size I needed for this brand/style but their return policy that includes running to the store instead of the post office made me so comfortable with this ordering process!  Here are my new black and turquoise shoes that shipped straight to me:

I love the color combo on this pair of Reni's!

And just because I have a hard time passing a sale I got a pair of shoes in the store that day too.  Aren't they cute?!?  They are a wool/poly blend so some really neat texture that most shoes don't give an outfit.  

They had these Fielding ones in stock for me so I couldn't pass on them...I love sales!

I swear I didn't used to be a shoe girl....I'm not sure what's happening to me!  Maybe this little guy in me is draining that balancing amount of testosterone and I'm only left with shoe-fever-inducing estrogen?  Yeah, I'll go with that for now....Now who has a brand suggestion for some cute boots that fit over wide feet and high arches??  HA!