TBT

I LOVE "Throw Back Thursday".  There are some doozies out there!  Here's what I posted today on instagram. 

Throwing it back a good 20 plus years!  Who remembers glamour shots?  Hey, get naked, I'll "doll" you up and take your picture.  You're a teen?  Even better!  What was I thinking?  Hilarious!

5 on Friday

Ready for this?  It's been a while. 

Top 5...

1.  I am addicted to Instagram.  It's true.  This week one of my photos was featured on one of my favorite sites.  Look at that little lamb!  So cute.

2.  I LOVE Cafe Rio.  If I could eat there every day I totally would.  There's only one thing I get...the pork salad with the tomatillo dressing.  Well, I follow them on facebook because they throw out silly questions every so often and the top 5 answers win a FREE MEAL!  You know you just said that in your head.  So guess who won a free meal with her answer this week!  Yes, me!  So fun!  The question was if eating Cafe Rio was a crime what would you do to avoid capture?  I said that I'd become a cop then I could eat all the evidence.

  3.  I started balloon twisting classes this week.  Look what I can make after just one class!  I think the Carnie blood in me is paying off!  I even have a party that I'm twisting at this weekend.  My goal is to become good enough to do parties, fairs, etc.  I think if after one lesson I can twist and figure stuff out I'll be good!  So glad I have circus blood in me.  I'm not kidding either! 

4.  A new photography proposition presented itself to me this week.  I'll keep you posted.  I am SO very, very excited. 

5.  I received some of my first training and reading materials for PTA president this week.  My daughter was called down to the office to grab the packet.  She was so worried when her name was called.  HA!  I am a little overwhelmed at this point but I plan to be the best PTA president the Jr. High has had in a long time!

Bottom 5...

1.  My 6 year old missed dance pictures this week.  I am more than sad!  I never received the email or the paper that said when pictures were to be taken.  I got a call at the beginning of my class and there was no way to get him there.  I still can't believe it.

2.  Our power company made a MAJOR mistake and turned off our power on Wed.  I was livid.  The guy who came to turn it back on was more than apologetic.  He was sweet.  But I was still mad!  Turns out all I had to do was turn the breaker switch back to on.  Seriously??? 

3.  Why is it that when you REALLY need to print something off the ink runs out?

4.  This has been a really stressful week.  Waiting for things is hard!

5.  I have really missed my parents this week.  I mean, I miss them all the time but this week was worse.  I'm having a hard time with kindergarten ending and knowing my baby will be gone all day long in just a few months.  All I wanted was to call my mom and have a good cry!  I love you mom and dad!

Hope you had a great week!!

More Swaps This Month

I am participating in not one but TWO swaps this month!!  I love this, can you tell?  The first one is this...

I am so excited about it!  You have to check it out.  It's a smaller priced swap.  You need to spend only $15-25.  And you get beauty products!  YES, please!  I love Beth and Angie who put these swaps together.  They work hard and I always try my best to honor that by putting together great packages.

The other swap is this...

I absolutely love these Cara Box Swaps.  She has well over 200 people per month to track and she does an amazing job.  I have met the most amazing women through this.  My favorite part about this swap is the personal note that you send with it.  Oh I can't wait.  And there's a theme every month.  This month's theme is about everything local.  I need to send my partner a box filled with goodies that are local to Utah.  So fun! She loved the outdoors so this will be perfect.

Go check them out!!!

Mug O Comfort Swap

My friend asked me if I am always participating in a swap.  I LOVE them and I try to do one a month.  Who doesn't like to get treats in the mail?  This time I was paired up with Jennifer over at Utah Queen of Chaos.  She's got 4 little kids and I can't even begin to imagine that!  She is also from Utah and we have very similar tastes in liquid refreshment.

Check out my haul!

 Look at all those herbal teas to try!  When I was shopping for Jennifer I bought her the pineapple chamomile tea too.  I almost bought some for myself because it looked so good.  I think I'll throw some water in the kettle right now!  I absolutely love the mug.  I don't have a travel mug so this is perfect!  Thanks!

  So you might have noticed that these chocolates are already opened.  That's right, I dove right in.  Man, are they good!  I only had one square each and I will savor every single bite.  And I'm not sharing!  Sorry kids and hubs.  These need to last me a while.

Thanks again ladies for an amazing swap.  I can't wait for the next one!  Click on the mug picture to see the rest of the hauls!  And to see upcoming swaps!

Dial Kids Hair & Body Wash

A couple of weeks ago Purex sent me a sample of this amazing kid body wash.  We got the Peach Clean scent and I wanted to eat it, it smelled so good!  All of the opinions expressed in this post are mine and I was not compensated in any way (I just received the free product to try and review).

My 6 year old has really sensitive skin and what I liked about Dial Kids was that it's made specifically for their skin.  Soap dries his poor skin out.  I have to lather him in lotion after his showers.  The peachy clean scent didn't dry his skin out at all!  I haven't put any lotion on him since he's used it.  Awesome!!  I really do love how nourishing it is.

Another perk is that it won't make your kids eyes hurt if they get it in their face.  So I just give him a wash rag and let him go to town!

Want to try it?  I have 3 coupons for my readers.  Just enter below!  I'll choose the winners on Friday, May 3rd.  So Hurry!!

My Week in Review

Dear life,
Can I get a break please?  I'm running out of white flags.
Sincerely,
ME

Top 5...

1.  I have a new favorite TV show.  Have you seen The Walking Dead yet?  I'm obsessed.  The Hubs is obsessed too.  It is NOT a show for kids!  It's very gory and I LOVE it!  Look, I even became a zombie.  I make the zombie look good and scary!

2.  Look what we woke up to this morning?  Yes, more snow but it was so beautiful.  I have to remind myself to enjoy it because I HATE the heat and it's coming all too soon.

3.  I got my Cara Box this week!  It totally made my week!

4.  When my 6 year old gets in trouble he writes notes.  A couple of days ago he wanted me to make him pancakes.  He had just eaten breakfast so I told him he'd have to wait a few minutes.  He FREAKED out and hit me so I sent him to his room.  I heard a piece of paper slide across the floor and this is what I saw...

I am not good at "kid speak" so when I saw "acshole" I panicked just a little bit.  Here's the translation..."If you love (heart) me why don't you actually (acshole) take care of me I'm sorry".  I can just picture him in his room trying his best to sound out these words.  He's written me so many of them I created his own hashtag on instagram!  We had a good little talk and then when I told him he still had to wait the few minutes he cried again and clutched his stomach.  He then crawled through the kitchen like he was going to starve to death.  Hilarious.

5.  This week Hope Kids had an event at Hollywood Connection.  The Hubs stayed home with our 14 year old because she is still sick.  The boys and I had so much fun!  We spend the majority of the evening upstairs playing the games that give you tickets.  We ended up with almost 900 tickets mostly because an older couple gave us all of theirs.  Here's a picture I took...

Bottom 5...

1.  Facebook drives me absolutely insane sometimes!  I know I'm guilty of making people mad or hurting their feelings and I'm sorry about that.  But dang this week was a doozie.  Why am I friends with people I actually didn't like growing up?  This week I took great pleasure in "spring cleaning" my friends list.  Somehow these people find a way back into my facebook feed by posting a comment on another friends status or picture.  Yuck!  Make the bad ones go away for good please!  And if you think I'm one of the "bad ones" please delete me.  I won't care.  In fact, I'll probably be grateful.  There were a few people I didn't delete but wanted to SO badly!  I don't know why I didn't.  I want to delete my account all together but I can't because I have a lot of amazing people in my life and that's the only way I stay connected to them.  What do you think, should I just delete those additional people I know don't like me?  Dang, but they are neighbors!  Well, it's just one neighbor.

2.  We still don't have any answers why our 14 year old is having such severe abdominal pain.  It's been over 10 days now.  She had an endoscopy done this week.  We should have the results back on Monday.  Her Dr. (I'll call her Dr. H) was less than friendly with me.  I could not figure out why.  Dr. H was my 6 year old's Dr though this whole Hirschsprung thing.  Later that night it hit me!  Last year when he was SO sick I went over her head to get him the help that he needed.  He ended up being hospitalized and being treated with TPN and Lipids because he was so malnourished.  His surgeons suggested that I switch GI doctors to someone who practiced at the hospital because it would be easier to communicate.  I agreed.  I had completely forgotten about that.  Do doctors really think so highly of themselves?  I KNOW I did the right thing.  She quit her practice and now practices at the hospital.  Great.  I had more questions for her after my daughter's procedure and the nurses paged her several times.  They even gave her my phone number.  Surprise!  I never heard from her.  What's up with doctors thinking they are God's gift to this earth?  I wanted to switch surgeons once and was told by the other surgeon that I couldn't because it would cause him too many problems in the office.  What do you call a doctor that graduated last in his class?  A doctor.  Scary!

  3.  Have you heard of dog shaming?  I'm getting my sign ready!  Kidding, sort of.  The Hubs and I bought new bedding last night.  We found a SCREAMING good deal!  My 12 year old came in and asked what that big wet spot was.  Freaking dog!  He peed on it.  I bundled it all up and asked him to take it down to the laundry room.

4.  A local real estate company held an Easter Egg hunt this morning even though it snowed a good 6 inches last night.  It was freezing and miserable and extremely unorganized.  At one point one of the ladies just started giving kids eggs out of the bucket she had been dumping them out of.  It was a Hope Kids activity so I am grateful for their effort but it really should have been cancelled.  They even had you fill out a little slip to be entered into a drawing.  They wanted to know if we or anyone we knew was planning on buying a house in the next 6 months.  What?  Tacky.  Tacky.  Tacky.

5.  Doctors...need I say more?  She's worth being on this bottom list twice.

Until next time!

Cara Box

I received my first Cara Box this week!  This swap was amazing!  I made two new friends.  This swap happens every month and there is a different theme each month.  You can sign up every month if you want to or just once.  It's great!  And you don't send a package to the person who's sending you a package so it's a great chance to meet two amazing ladies.  I was paired up with Sydney and Tanika sent me my goodies.

I was spoiled rotten!  Over the last few weeks Tanika and I have exchanged several emails.  She put together THE most thoughtful package EVER!  This month's theme was the first letter of your name.  So everything needed to start with a "T".

It has been an emotional week and this could not have come at a better time.  When I opened the box the first thing I saw was "T" for tribute.  She made a donation to Hope Kids in honor of our family.  Yes, I cried when I read that.

I also received baby lotion because I "T"reasure the smell!  An amazing book.  Tanika, it's SO good!  I love uplifting reads.  I got a darling trinket (a butterfly ring).  I've already worn it and got a couple of compliments!  

My favorite thing about the Cara Box was that we were required to write a thoughtful, hand written letter.  How often do you get a hand written letter anymore?  Hers was amazing.  And yes, I cried again when I read it.

Tanika, thank you SO very much!  It wasn't an accident we got paired up!