Grand Opening Giveaway

Head over to http://www.solovelycreations.com/ and enter your chance to win the Grand Opening Giveaway. You have until May 25th to enter and several ways to get your entry in. She is giving away a round magnetic board. Even if you don't win, they are priced really really well and there are lots of beautiful fabrics to choose from. Here are some samples.

Crazy Busy

Ok, so I am totally stinking at this whole blogging thing. Gee willikers. It's only been written on my to-do list for a few weeks now... Yes... I have to write it on my to-do list or it doesn't ever get done! Sad huh?!?! Haha

The last month has been insanely busy, to say the least. Since there is absolutely NO way I could recap everything, I'll recap the last couple of days and what is to come. I took Cuddle Bug to school this morning (only a few weeks left of pre-school and then we're going to do the homeschooling thing for the summer and see how that goes.). Once I dropped him off, I went hunting down a couple of things that I needed to complete Mother's Day gifts. Cuddle Bug is going to paint/decorate a couple of flower pots and I'll plant some flowers in them for our Mom's. He recently did some for me and I absolutely adore them so I thought they'd make cute presents. I buy terra cota colored planters and spray paint them (these two being painted a light lilac color). Then he paints them various colors (various shades of yellow, blue, pink/red, green, purple, and orange). I lucked out and found the spray paint I was looking for on clearance for dirt cheap so I was excited about that. Once I had everything bought, I came home and was talking to my mom on the phone and trying to find some energy to get up and do something when my dear friend Danielle called. She was going to shop at Target and wanted to know if I wanted to ride along. Now, let me tell you..... anyone who knows me and knows me well knows that Target is like my 2nd home. I am ALWAYS up for a trip to Target so there was no way I was turning down the offer to ride along with her. I didn't need (or want) anything really but who cares... I just like to walk the aisles. Haha It was loads of fun and I really enjoyed getting to have quiet adult conversation. After we left there, we went and picked up our kiddos (they go to pre-school together) and went to Pizza Hut to grab lunch. The kids had a blast and, again, I enjoyed the adult conversation.

I can't believe that it is May already. Where has the year gone so far??? We usually begin trying to get things for Christmas starting in June but I have a feeling that this year is going to be much much different. The thought of Christmas just absolutely blows my mind... much less the thought of starting to buy presents. So yeah... not so sure that this year will follow suit as it has the last 4 years.

Prince Charming and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary next Thursday. Again, it doesn't seem like we've been married for 5 years. We aren't planning on doing too much. I had hoped we could go on a mini-vacation but we'll save that for a later date. I do have a surprise or two up my sleeve though. :D

Anywho, I suppose I should get off of here. Prince Charming will be home before long and I need to get supper started. If you're new here, say hello and introduce yourself... I love to hear from new people. :)

Free Samples

Here are some more free samples for you. Hope you enjoy.

Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid65100.aspx

Goodnights (Boys and Girls)
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid69302.aspx

Letter Opener
http://mailfinity.net/letter-opener.html

Halle Berry Fragrance
http://halleberryfragrances.com/us/

Rachel Ray Nutrish (if you have entered for this before, you can enter again. I have every time they have offered it and gotten 4 bags for free and just requested my 5th!)
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid69432.aspx

Homeschooling

Ok gang, I know that a lot of you homeschool your kiddos so what better place to gain information from then you guys... right?! :) We are looking at homeschooling our son... I have read and read and read information about it all online but I have read so much that its starting to get confusing to me. I've talked to some local mom's whom homeschool and they've told me about the local support group and their method of teaching (several of them do the classical teaching method!). So what I want to know from you guys is this...

A) How did you start homeschooling? Where did you begin?
B) What curriculum did/do you use, especially for like pre-school, kindergarden age?
C) What advice do you have for us as we are researching all of this?

Thanks ahead of time for any advice that you can throw our way...

Zoo, Festivals, and Birthdays... Oh My!!!

Golly Gee Willikers do I stink at this blogging thing or what. I kept thinking that after our normal stresses of the holiday's and Cuddle Bug's birthday following shortly after, that life would surely slow down and I could resume the regularly scheduled program. However, it's the end of March and life has yet to slow down.

Last Friday, at about 3 in the afternoon, Prince Charming and I decided that it was supposed to be such a beautiful weekend that we were going to get out of the house and go on a road trip on Saturday. Cuddle Bug had never been to the zoo so we decided that Saturday would be the most perfect day for that. Now if only it were that easy to just plan a trip to the zoo... however, it's a 2 hour drive there and a 2 hour drive back. I needed to go Friday evening to get groceries because we were totally out of everything and I knew it would be late Saturday before we would get home. I also needed to tackle some of the laundry so it wasn't as daunting of a task when we got home. Saturday morning, we got up at 6:30 and headed out for the zoo by 7:30. We finally made it back home that evening at 6. It took us about 4 1/2 hours by the time we walked through it all and stopped and ate lunch overhead the giraffe/elephant pit (they have where you can get hamburgers, nachos, snow cones, ice cream, etc.) The drive on the way home took longer because we were all getting anxious with being in the car for so long so we stopped at a few places to grab a drink or get out and stretch our legs and stuff. But it was well worth it because Cuddle Bug had an absolute blast... he loved everything about it. We will definitely be making lots of trips back to the zoo over the years, thats forsure.

Sunday, we woke up to get ready for church and decided last minute that we were going to play hooky for the day. A nearby town was doing a festival that we decided to go to. It isn't often that there is anything going on around here to do that's fun for the whole family so we thought we'd take advantage of that opportunity. By the time we left here, made the drive, walked around, and drove back, it took us about 4 1/2 hours of so. We really hated to miss out on church but we haven't had any "family away time" since Prince Charming and I got married almost 5 years ago and just really needed and wanted to get away as a family and enjoy the time together. It was the best weekend we've had in forever and really a great bonding moment for us all. It was absolutely fabulous. Cuddle Bug is still talking about all the fun he had a week later and asking when we can do it all again.

Since my last update, I had a birthday... I am now a whopping 24 years old. Geez that feels so old. In the words of my father in law, I am now 2 dozen years old! Heh Atleast that SOUNDS better then 24 years... LoL :D It was a great birthday and I got some fun goodies... a new movie (Marley and Me... it was pre-ordered so I haven't "officially" received it yet.), a purse, money, some more new dishes (I've started collecting Fiestaware), a beautiful flower arrangement, some tupperware, a homemade, to die for coconut pie that my Mother-In-Law made for me, etc. Now... let me stop here and say that I'm not just saying this coconut pie is "to die for" because my Mother-In-Law reads this (she's a busy lady, I seriously doubt she even knows that I have a blog!!!!!) but when I say this pie is to die for, it seriously it. Oh my stars... it is the most delectable coconut pie I have ever had. She always makes it at Thanksgiving and its the thing I look most forward to every year... Haha I was so excited when Prince Charming told me that he had asked her to make one for me for my birthday instead of him buying me a cake this year.

So much to do coming up... Easter is in 2 weeks, our anniversary is coming up, another Festival is coming up in May that we were hoping to go to, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. It seems like this year is flying by already and it just began... how is that even possible?! Anywho, I hope you all had a most fabulous weekend and your week starts off wonderfully!!!!

Freebies Galore

***Freebie Alert***

http://fsisolutions.com/kcgoodnitesboxers/
Free Goodnight Boxer Sample


http://freewarmdelights.bettycrocker.com/WarmDelights/Default.aspx?source=899
Free sample of Warm Delights Mini's if you sign up for the Betty Crocker newsletter


http://www.goredwithmerck.com/go_red/goredwithmerck/consumer/index.jsp
Free Light and Easy cookbook if you answer a few questions about diabetes and heart health (super easy questions!)


https://www.splendidlife.com/ancillary/samplingprogram.do
Free sample of Splenda with Fiber


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Free sample of Quaker Rice Cakes


http://www.tide.com/en-US/offers.jspx
Free sample of Tide Total Care


http://www.parentschoiceformula.com/sample-gentle-baby-formula.aspx
Free sample of gentle baby formula sample and Parent's Choice Infant Formula news.

Free Blizzard from Dairy Queen

***Freebie Alert***

If you go to Dairy Queen's website (http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/) and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can sign up for the Blizzard Fan Club. If you buy one blizzard, you get another one free!!!

Sign up for a free sample of Gain laundry detergent and a coupon for $1.50 off. (http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid66688.aspx)

An Update of Sorts

Ok, I've changed our pseudo names because DH, DS, and myself were getting kinda confusing for me to use. So for now, Hubby will be called Prince Charming, and our son will be called Cuddle Bug.... :D Now, back to the regularly scheduled program.

Whew, its the 21st of January.... life will soon start slowing down some... hopefully. November, December, and January are always killer months for us. The holidays with family, the holidays with work (just Wog's work this year since I'm not working), the holidays with Fred's school, Fred had a Thanksgiving program at school, etc. Fred's family birthday party will be this Saturday and he will have a class birthday party at school during snack time on Wednesday. Once that is over with, we're home free for atleast a few months.

We welcomed a new puppy into our family at the beginning of January. She is a lab mix and is quite the handful. My dad estimates she will weigh about 50 pounds or so. Our other 3 dogs are dachshunds and are all about 15-20 pounds. She already towers over them and she's just 13 weeks old or so. This dog absolutely loves being outside so she spends most of the day outside and comes in when it gets dark and sleeps inside (unless of course its raining or really cold or something then she spends the day inside). We named her Ella but like the rest of our dogs, she aquired a nickname pretty quick and goes by Ella Bella, Ell-Bell, Ell-Ell, etc. Fred adores her and has loads of fun with her. It has definitely been a challenge having a new puppy around but she's great. I have some pictures of her that I will share when I get them loaded off of our cameras.

In typical fashion for our family, come end of December/beginning of January, the sickies came along. We all battled sinus junk during Fred's break from school in December. We got over it and were doing good and then last week Fred and I got sick with it all over again. Last year at Fred's birthday party, he was so sick and slept through the entire thing. Wog and my father in law opened his presents for him while he sat in Wog's lap. We ended up taking him to the emergency clinic and got him on anti-biotics and such. I'm hoping this year does not end up being a repeat of last year for Fred.

I got a new SLR camera with some of my Christmas money... a Canon Rebel XS. I got a killer deal on Ebay with 2 lenses and such. I have had so much fun playing with it and learning things about it. I was using my old Canon point and shoot last night and hated it with every fiber in my being. Haha The camera I got was not the best there is but considering that I'm just learning, we figured we'd get this one and work with it and upgrade it in a year or two should we see the need to.

Fred's birthday party is this Saturday. I am so excited because we have so many things planned for it. It's going to be firetruck themed. Wog created a table cloth for the table where the food is going to be that looks like flames so the table will look like its on fire. Fred is excited about his party this year and can't wait for it to get here.
Not much else going on really worthy of blogging about. Tax season is here (joy joy!). It isn't so much fun when you have to pay in and don't get anything back. The joys of growing up and being an adult I suppose huh?!?

Anywho, I'm rambling... haven't updated in ages so I thought I'd update. I need to get off of here and get something done in the house while Fred is napping. Hope you all are doing well. I'll try to get by and comment tonight.

Prayer Request for Jenna and Chris

I am adding a new prayer request for another family. Jenna and Chris delivered their beautiful little boy, Brayden, on Wednesday, the 14th. They have taken him to AR Children's hospital where he is currently in the NICU. Please be praying for them and their families as well. You can check out their site and Kelly and Scott's site for updates on what is going on!

Prayer Request for Scott and Kelly

Coming to you guys with a prayer request tonight. Kelly gave birth to her little girl and she was having trouble breathing. They have rushed her to AR Children's Hospital and the reports have not been good. We serve an Almighty God though and we know that ultimately, he has control, not the doctors!!! Please say a prayer for this beautiful family. Even though it was nothing to this extent, having gone through the whole "child born not breathing" thing with our own son, it sends chills down my back for what this family is going through. Let her know you are thinking about her and praying for her!!! Thanks guys.

So precious