Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving


From our family to yours we wish you a Very Happy Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

My Living/Breathing Bucket List - Updated

Time for an update - Been far to long


1. Travel to every state in the US at least once in my life. I would love to stay in every state but will be happy with touching my feet on the ground of every state.

2. Take a cruise with my family, hopefully this one happens soon!

3. Have a honeymoon (without the kids).

4. Host my 1st giveaway on my blo This has been done a couple times. 

5. Win a new blog makeover from Simply Stacie and Kelly's Lucky You Build a Beautiful Blog Week. Yes I won!!!

6. Have a career that I love.  - Check

7. Get 200 followers on my blog. - Done now on to # 8

8. Get 500 followers on my blog. - Set back with this one... #6 got in the way. :)

9. Get 1000 followers on my blog.

10. See Cavalia again, loved it so much!!

11. Take my daughters horse back riding. - We are counting pony rides for now

12. Own a dog, of course not until my daughters are older and can help. Cross this one off since Little J is allergic to dogs and cats
13. Lose 40 lbs - I have 10 lbs that seems to come back and leave and come back but I will take it
14. Learn to cook at least enough to feed my family more then boxed items  - Due to some circumstance in my life this one became a necessity

15. Finish both my daughter's baby books.

16.  Renew my vows with my husband at the local Renaissance festival.

17. Own a home with a backyard. 

18. Go to the circus.

19. Finally take the time to get both my daughters christened, I have guilt about this one since they are now 8 and 4, but on the other hand I raise them with faith and love.

20. Find the time to have a girl's night out without feeling guilty. - Girls night out, check. Guilt, still there. 

21. Find someone I trust to watch my children. - I have friends who can watch if needed but I am still on the lookout for that actual babysitter

22. Learn calming techniques so that I can reduce my stress level.  Again this became a necessity

23. Be able to live comfortably without having to worry about how I am going to pay my bills. I work so hard and still struggle everyday. 

24. Go camping with my girls, although this one I am willing to wait on until Little J is older. 

25. Finally let go of the "bad" people in my life even if some of them are blood. - I honestly thought this one would take FOREVER! But my life changed and I had to take a good look at the people around me. Made me realize who I needed to keep in my life and who I needed to move away from 

26. Stand up for myself better.  - Something else I learned over the last year

27. Take our vacation to Myrtle Beach that we have planned, cancelled, talked about but never been able to go on.  Took our vacation now onto #2

28. Find my husband one great, perfect gift that he will not exchange and will not leave me broke!  I have decided that being the best wife I can be is the best gift of all.

29 - Work on my Thirty One business. (Start by having an actual home party!, Mine have all been FB)

30 - Let go of a lot of guilt for stupid things. 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Elf on the Shelf 2014

Big J & Little J have been a bit unruly the past few months so our Elf on The Shelf decided it would be a good idea to visit early. (Normally  he does not visit until after Thanksgiving)

He has been up to some crazy & funny things so far this year.

Day one he arrived and decide to hang from the pot rack


Day 2 - Big J had mentioned how funny it would be if the elf was trying to carve our pumpkin. Well "the Elf" did not want to make a pumpkin mess so he decided coloring on the pumpkin would be just as funny.


Day 3 - Big J plays the flute in band and we found this flute ornament for her music teacher. Our Elf decided he would give it a try. Elf approved!


Day 4 - I guess we were in need of some laughs so our Elf decided to bring us some Elf jokes.





Day 5 - He broke out the board games. a couple Barbies and dogs joined in for a lively game of Elf Twister!



Day 6 - ELF SCHOOL!  Elf was the teacher of course and was teaching some stuffed animals their ABCs and Numbers. There were worksheets and of course the animals had their pencils.





 Day 7 - After all the excitement over the last couple of days our Elf was tired so he went with the pretend to be a Christmas Tree approach.



Day 8 - Tonight he decided a photo session was in order. My Little Ponies came a long and posed behind the reindeer, penguin and snowman cutouts. Of course Elf had to have his camera and he even took a couple pictures. Just in case Big J and Little J think to look.




I wonder what our Elf will be up to next?

Some upcoming ideas: Hopscotch, Elf donuts and Coffee, Elf Naughty/Nice Reports, Elf Swing and much more!

Does your family have an Elf on the Shelf? What funny things has he or she done in the past? Any good ideas for this year? Share your photos, ideas and links in the comments!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

The "new" length of Giveaways

I have been pondering this for awhile now. I remember when I started blogging a couple years ago... ok like 4 years ago, when you entered a giveaway you had maybe 10 chances tops.. Now you have more then a 100. I know I do not have to enter them all, but I would like a fair chance at winning like everyone else.

Do you feel it is necesaary to have so many chances to enter? I get that there are many giveaways that have a lot of bloggers participating but still if you each choose one Social Media site instead of all then the entry form would be so much shorter.   It just seems out of control that in order to get all entries possible I have to comment on 10 blogs, like 20 on Facebook, Follow 30 on Pintrest and then like 40 on Twitter. Not to mention all the vote for me choices and comments that you are asked to make. Why not keep it simple? One comment and one Social Media per blog and throw in a couple votes.

Sigh.. Maybe I am just the minority in wanting things to be simple. or maybe that is why my blog does not have great traffic like some others.

So anyway.. does anyone want to enter a giveaway? Perhaps you would like a $25 credit for Thirty One?







If anyone is interested in earning more free products over the holidays, please let me know.