An Easy Way To Help

So today I am blogging with a goal.  For those of you concerned do not fear, So Sayith Tay and Jay will come later today.

Today my goal is to ask for help.  I don’t typically do this sort of thing, but since this is SO easy and has great results I’m trying anyway.

If you have facebook please do something for me today.

Our church also has a school that teaches preschool – Junior High.  The school was thriving until recently and this year is going to be very rough.

Target will donate $25 to the school for every 25 people who vote for the school. All you have to do literally is click on this link and click “Vote” and you could be helping this school make it through a rough year.

Please help by voting and sharing this link with anyone you can to pass it along.

http://apps.facebook.com/givewithtarget/schools/58418

Thank you friends!

And The Winner Is…

Thank you to everyone who participated! I added 8 new people to my followers which was odd since only 5 people commented.  So to ensure I didn't cheat I took a picture of the random number generator and the winner is...

#4 – Kim

“One of my favorite things is the sound of a bunch of people singing. Be it a choir, adorable children, regular folks at church... whoever... whenever... people singing together is lovely!”


And what will you be getting??

 A CD of one of the greatest bands of all time SKYPARK, a CD of one of the greatest comedians off all time BRIAN REGAN, and since you go to church with me instead of a juice it up gift card I am hand delivering the greatest smoothie of all time to you MELON MADNESS.


And for the record, one of my favorite sounds of all time is listening to this woman sing! Her passion for the Lord overflows when she is singing and it always blesses me. So I will add that to my list of favorite things.

Also, she's awesome and I feel like I have known her forever even if its only been a year.

Also, she's going camping with us and the Webster's and Pffefer's in a couple of weeks and that makes my heart happy - there is something special about camping with a bunch of friends who also all have kids - to sit in chaos together and ignore it all!

P.S. I didn't link to myself this time.

Let The De-Clutter Games Begin

I will choose a winner tonight so you still have a few hours left to win some goodies!

If you know me well you know I’m not a “pat myself on the back” or “toot my own horn” kind of girl.  I appreciate being acknowledged for my efforts, but in some (most) circumstances I’d rather not be acknowledged at all.

That is unless it involves my motherly/housely duties.  For some reasons that is the only place in my life I not only enjoy acknowledgement, but hope to get it.

That being said, although I adore my husband, this is not a strong suit of his.  Did I use that right? Strong Suit…I’m not even really sure that’s actually how it goes, since its one of those things I’ve always heard, but never actually seen.  Anyway, back to my awesome hubby.

Justin IS good at making me laugh when I’m angry.  Justin IS good at giving me break when I ask for it.  Justin IS good at tolerating my insanity. 

Just IS NOT good at verbal appreciation.  Nothing against him, that’s just not his kind of thing.

That being said for my own sake today I want to pat myself on the back.

It started when I mentioned a few needs ago my desire to de-clutter.  I had plans to de-clutter and knew it was coming, but then it go hot.  And if I’m hot then you know it’s insanely hot, since I’m always cold.  Nobody wants to spend hours cleaning and organizing when it’s hot.

However, one of my children then decided to misplace our Tivo remote which controls everything we can view on the TV (and in this case delete the Olympics so we can make room for the cool new fall shows coming).  So I was on a mission – find the remote WHILE de-cluttering.

Do normal people link to themselves as often as I do?

It started with the Living Room. 

• Get rid of the trash and extra papers
• Clean and organized the desk and desk drawers
• Clean off bookshelves of unnecessary clutter
• Reorganize (and purge) DVDs
• Reorganize (and purge) CDs
• Reorganize (and purge) Video Games
• Move all furniture and vacuum everything
• Dust/Windex everything

I didn’t find the remote so I moved onto the Kitchen

• Clean inside, outside, and top of Fridge and Freezer
• Clean counter tops
• Clean stove top
• Clean, reorganize, and purge pantry
• Clean, reorganize, and purge cupboards (which I just found out is not spelled cubbards)
• Clean sink

I still did not find the remote so my bedroom was next

• Clean out, reorganize, and purge closets
• Clean out and reorganize end tables
• FIND REMOTE IN ENDTABLE
• Stop cleaning

Yeah, so I didn’t finish my room, but 2.5 rooms in 1 day and about 8 hours later I called it quits.  Go me!

AND over the last 1.5 weeks I have made dinner every night, done half the dishes (usually Justin’s job – just helping him out – poor guy needs a vacation), made and fed the kids breakfast every day but 1, vacuumed…again, swept the floor (again usually Justin’s job, but a break is needed), and even took out the trash once (most definitely Justin’s job – forever and always – I maybe do it once a year so I’ve met my quota).

GO ME!

Now this did all come at the cost of laundry not getting done this week but…

YAY ME!  And laundry can wait until tomorrow night and while I do the laundry I’ll probably clean out the Storage Room since that’s the last real room that needs to be de-cluttered… Justin and I will have some major differences in opinions on the word de-clutter when it comes to that room.

Let the battle begin (and be won by me – Go Me!)

How I Get Paid To Take Free Stuff

So as I mentioned in my blog last Friday (still 1 day left to win prizes!!) I like free stuff.  The only thing better then free stuff is getting free stuff and getting paid to take it!

I thought I’d share with you all today in case you also like free stuff.  Here are just a few things I’ve done in the last 90 days to get me some extra cash and free goodies:

Bestmark: Mystery Shopping

• 5 Oil Changes/Tire Rotation Free (Reimbursement) + a total of $150.00 in payments
• 6 Free Insurance Quotes (I didn’t need though) + $36 in payments
• 11 Phone Calls or Emails for various things for $44 in payments

MarketForce: Mystery Shopping

• 10 Meals at El Pollo Loco Free (Reimbursement) + $50 in payments
• 1 Meal at Panda Express Free (Reimbursement) +$5 in payments
• 1 Coffee/Tea from Coffee Bean Free (Reimbursement) +$4 in payments

BzzAgent: Free Samples

• Free Coffee and Tea K Cups with a cool new cup
• Free Gum
• Free Children’s Claritin
• Free Dr. Schols Insoles

So on top of all the free stuff I’ve gotten (or was reimbursed for after completing an easy review) I’ve also gotten about $300 in cash in the last 3 months!  AWESOME.

I personally use it to pay for the girls gymnastics / dance classes which works out great for us.  Anyway, so now you know.  And I would be happy to share more.

If you are interested in getting free stuff and sometimes even getting paid for it let me know and I’ll get you the information you need for these 3 companies.  There are a lot of scams out there so be careful if you go on the search on your own.  These are the ones I use and trust and I can get you the information you need if you wanted to try it. 

For some of them if you sign up through me you even get a bonus! 

August, Oh August

I'll be picking a winner for the free goodies on Thursday, so if you haven't entered yet make sure you leave a comment on this blog.  The winner will be announced Friday.

My favorite season by far is Summer.  I hate being cold.  I love the sun.  The hot sun.  I love that my kids can run around outside to their hearts content without shivering.  I love that we can go swimming or go to the beach. I love snow cones.  I need to make snow cones tonight.

I really love summer.

When August began my heart got a little sad.  This means summer is coming to an end! Well officially it doesn’t do that until September 22^nd (which happens to be my little sister’s bday – happy birthday little sis – you end summer!!), but we know it will start cooling down sooner.

For most of you this is probably exciting news (my husband is one of those).  For me, I will miss it.

There is some hope.  August itself has some of the best birthday’s ever (you know who you are - and without cheating I can say Tracy, Quinn, Allyson, Bryan, Sam, and Meguna).  And that makes me happy.  I also get to see Brian Regan live and end my version of summer with an awesome camping trip.

The thing that makes summer ending most tolerable is that fall shows will start back up.  I love me some fall shows:

• Community
• Big Bang Theory
• How I Met Your Mother
• Psyche
• Grimm
• Once Upon A Time
• Raising Hope
• The Office
• Up All Night
• Parks and Rec
• New Girl
• CSI
• Happy Endings
• 30 Rock

I will however miss The River, Terra Nova, and House.  Good bye friends.

I am not actually sure of all those are coming back, and after typing them all out I’m realizing that although that is the only TV we watch…it adds up – about 8 hours a week, that’s not horrible right?

The end of summer for us also sparks a new chapter in our lives with our first baby starting school.  Wow…I’m going to have a Kindergartener! Also, please pray for my baby girl.  She's having a hard time with just the thought of starting school and she's been very emotional.  I keep reassuring her, but she is nervous and scared about what's coming despite all the good stuff I tell her about school. She starts next week!

So Sayith Tay and Jay #33

What is Spanish?

Taylor: Um, uno that's Spanish. Una Gata.  Oma Gata.

Jordan: Spanish is what you eat food and noodles

What is Kindergarten?

Taylor: Somewhere where you be a scientist

Jordan: Kindergarten is where you get seeds to grow flowers in the garden things.

What happens when you go to school?

Taylor: When I go to school, maybe they measure your foot.  That's disgusting.

Jordan: I forget to get my lunch.

Did Mommy and Daddy go to school?

Taylor: Yes. They learned a lot of things.

Jordan: Yeah, they learned barbies and watch a movie too.

Why do people go to school?

Taylor: So they can learn, maybe Spanish? That's in kindergarten.

Jordan: Because they forgot their backpacks.

10 Things I Love

I recently gave you 10 things that bother me, so in my attempt to have a well balanced life I should give you 10 things I love.  

1. Horchata – Probably one of the best drinks in existence.
2. Snow Cones – Life is always better with a snow cone (except for cherry, lime, grape, or orange)
3. Brian Regan – Have you heard of him? Go to youtube and watch him, you will not be sorry… no really go now.  I’ll wait. (Since I know you’ve watched it now I’m sure you appreciate my above reference to grape snow cones – see #2)
4. Scalding Hot Showers – Even in the middle of summer I like my showers practically melting my skin off.
5. Melon Madness – It’s a drink at Juice it Up (far superior to Jamba Juice since Jamba Juice does not have a watermelon drink). 
6. Free Stuff – I like doing secret shops because I like getting stuff for free.  Free Lunch? Free Oil Change? Yes please.
7. Hosting Parties – I love to create ideas and entertain people.  Although my house is too small and there is no parking and we don’t have money to do things I’d like to do.  I still enjoy and someday when I have all of the above things I will feel less guilty about throwing parties (If you’ve had to park at my house and sit in it during one of my “parties” you know why I feel guilty.  Sorry for the inconvenience friends, but thank for tolerating it and still coming)
8. My Friends – My friends are far superior then your friends…unless they are the same people.  And if they are the same people, I probably love them more then you.  But seriously… I probably do.
9. Pictures of my kids – I think my kids are cute even with their big ears and awkward smiles.  I’d have my entire cubicle covered in those gorgeous faces if it wasn’t just a little bit creepy to do so. Sometimes pictures are much nicer then the actual thing… as one of the best bands of all times puts it “You’re much nicer on Kodak Paper…you’re always smiling at me”.  I tried to find the song for you, but it is not on youtube.  Sad day, but you should totally try to look it up!  Great song called “The Girl in Your Pictures” or just go buy the CD if it’s still out there.
10. Skypark (See #9) – They are/were great.  I love/loved them.  You should buy all of their CDs and love them too (if they still make them).  If not you should then buy all of Tyrone Wells’ CDs since he was the lead singer of Skypark and he’s also awesome. 

So I also figured what better way to celebrate the things I love then to give one of you lucky readers (all 20 of you) a chance to win something related to one of my favorite things. 

The Rules: (I also like rules – I’m a rule follower not a rule breaker)

• “Follow” me by clicking “Join this Site” on the right side of my blog (it’s a blue button and if you already follow me then you are half way there!)
• Leave a comment below with one of your favorite things of all times (Only 1 comment or you will be disqualified)
• If you share this with a friend and they do the same thing have them put your name in the comment and there's an extra chance for you to win (I'll count that as a 2nd entry for you - but them must complete all the steps for it to count)!!

I will pick a winner at random in the next few days to win a prize package related to my favorite things.  Note: I will not be giving you #8 because they are mine and I refuse to share them.

Good Luck and Happy Friday!