One Man. One Woman. One Sweet Squishy Baby. This is Las Vegas in a family way! WELCOME TO OUR VEGAS!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Daily Vegas ~ Wordfilled Wednesday
Happy Hump Day (almost!). I am sorry for such a short post today, I have been super busy trying to get everything done, and on top of that I have a sinus headache that feels like I have one of Squish's toys shoved up in my brain through my nose! (sorry for the mental picture) In just a few short days - this will be us! We will be braving the crowds, and the heat to visit our first Minnesota state Fair. For years I have listened to the stories my family tells about their adventures with all you can drink milk, chocolate covered bacon, more food on a stick than you can imagine, and of course butter sculptures of the beauty queens. I hope we have a blast, I hope Squish enjoys seeing all the people, and I hope we don't get too hot. I am so excited to go I can't even stand it!!
Of course seeing my family is the main reason we are going, but isn't this a wonderful bonus??
And even though I will be on Vacation for the next 10 or so days, please make sure you stop in. I have some fantastic Guest Bloggers lined up to share with all of you!
Do you realize that September is beating on our doors as I type this?! With the end of summer brings the new school year, and before you know it we will be getting ready for the holidays. How would you like to get a jump start on your holiday preparations? UPrinting.com can help. UPrinting.com offers a myriad of commercial printing options including, but not limited to, business cards, calendars, labels, brochures, posters, and greeting cards.
UPrinting.com has generously offered one lucky reader 50 7x5 Folded Custom Greeting Cardswith Plain Envelopes. Yep, that is right 50 holiday(or any other greeting card you need) custom greeting cards to start the season off right. All you would need to do would be to take your holiday picture, or write your holiday letter, or shoot, really just sign the inside and call it a day. Holiday cards could be done just like that.
UPrinting.com is also an eco-friendly company. “UPrinting.com recycles all unused paper scraps, printing plates and ink waste. Our vegetable-based inks offer a safer work environment for production staff by reducing harmful fumes and VOC emissions.” In addition “We proudly use vegetable-based inks which have lower levels of VOC than traditional petroleum inks. This reduces harmful carbon emissions while creating a safer work environment for our staff.”- per UPrinting.com website
The Giveaway: 50 7x5 Folded Cards with Plain Envelopes
14pt Cardstock Gloss
4 Color Front, Blank Back
4 Baronial Blank Envelopes
Half Fold (Scoring only)
Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above
How to enter: Please make sure to leave your email in your comment, or I will not be able to contact you about your win, and will have to choose another winner. I will be checking each entry to the best of my ability, so honesty is appreciated!
Mandatory Entry: Go to UPrinting.com and tell me something you learned about the company. You must also be a follower of Family and Life in Las Vegas either through GFC or RSS. Please leave a comment with your email letting me know what you learned and how you follow.
Extra Entries: (Please note these entries will not count if you do not first do the required mandatory entry)
Subscribe to Family and Life in Las Vegas through email. (upper right side-bar corner)
Tweet about this giveaway: "#Win 50 free custom greeting cards in a #giveaway from @FamilyNLifeLV and @Uprinting http://tinyurl.com/2a96ru2" (can be done once daily)
Vote for Family and Life in Las Vegas on Top Mom Blogs
Vote for Family and Life in Las Vegas on Picket Fences. (both can be done once daily)
Giveaway will end 09/12 at 8pm PST.
Random.org will select the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond; otherwise I will select a new winner.
(Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation for hosting this giveaway. I have also not bought anything from UPrinting.com so I can not perform a review of their products.)
Megan over at a Ruffle in Time passed on the Blog with Substance award to me. Each time I get one of these awards I am pretty astonished; it really does mean a lot to me because it means someone may well possibly really read what I am writing. Which seriously still amazes me. Thank you Megan - you are such a great mother , and your little kiddos are seriously cute! Megan has posted some fun ideas for Halloween coming up, so if you want some inspiration, head that way! (I personally will be attempting the tulle wreath, which even though wasn't her idea, I wouldn't have thought of it unless I read her blog!!)
Since I just did a post with the rules for this blog - I am just going to link up my answers and pass it on to 4 pretty awesome bloggers!
DON'T FORGET!! Make sure you enter for your chance to win a Wupzey (Highchair Food Catcher), and a Scandle (Massage Oil Candle). And while you are doing that - enter to get some extra entries into this September's Blogmania event. Trust me, you want these easy to do extra entries!! (All links are at top of post)
This is going to be a shortened week for us, and then we are not going to be posting menu plans for the next two Mondays as we will be in Minnesota, and I will not be planning menus!
Last Week: I have still been plagued by the "I don't want to cook" blues. We managed to get through the week pretty okay though. Budget was pretty good. I am going to up our weekly budget for a little while, just to see if that helps, but other than that - no big issues.
This Week: Only 3 meals on our list this week, and then Kim is on her own. (which will be fine for her, as she has been doing well with my "I don't want to cook" blues) Still working on kicking the Diet Coke habit - man that stuff has it's grips in me pretty good!!
Meals: Salad Night BBQ Chicken with mixed veggies. Turkey Taco Pie
Grocery List: Surprisingly there isn't anything that springs to mind that we don't have other than tomatoes. But, I am sure I will think of something...
Don't forget to swing by Organizing Junkie to link up, and check out some other fabulous menu plans!
I wish I was crafty. I am filled with envy every time I open a blog filled with all of its crafty goodness. I wish that was me. And don’t even get me started on Etsy. I have a love hate relationship with that place. I love the handmade, homespun goodness that is Etsy. Its pores ooze pure creativity. I hate that that isn’t me. I hate that I have never been a crafty person.
I was the athlete growing up. My brother and sister are both musicians. My sister has always been crafty. She could easily live in Michael’s. Although she couldn’t work there because then all her money would be spent on crafts. I can’t draw, can’t paint, am a big scrapbook failure (still stuck in November of my son’s first year scrapbook), I guess I can write, but what I really really want to do is sew. My Aunt makes the most fabulous quilts. She made my baby blanket, and my wedding quilt. My friend Alex is pretty handy around a sewing machine. For Christmas she gave us some handmade baby items, which I absolutely loved. These days I am finding I love the handmade gifts more than the store bought variety (with the exceptions of appliances). For Squish’s birthday my friend Lolo’s husband did a painting for his nursery. It was beautiful; vintage airplanes (Squish’s nursery theme). I want to be able to do that one day.
Handmade gifts are one of a kind, they are from the heart, and if you know how to be crafty 9/10 you are saving money! So I have decided I am going to attempt my hand at some of the wonderful tutorials the blogosphere has to offer. There are so many to choose from. I will feature them as I get around to making them. My goal is two-fold; I would love for someone to say to me one day that I too am crafty. I want to inspire someone to pick up a sewing needle or whatever inspires them and try it.
The second goal is to start being more organized. It makes me slightly nauseous when I see these crafty ladies and their super cute houses that are seemingly clutter free. While I know that is never going to be me, I figure if I look at each room as a possibility to be crafty, I may not hate having to put the work into re-organizing my house. It is funny, you would think being OCD would make it so I liked to clean, and be organized. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I am one of the most disorganized people I know. I will again be turning to fellow bloggers for inspiration in this journey, and then posting about it.
Don’t fret though, I promise that my crafting attempts won’t take away from the sweetness of my silly Squishy baby boy, and all the Toddler family fun we are seeking out. His face will still be plastered all over my blog. This is just something that I have always wanted to do, and by utilizing the resources around me, I hope I will one day achieve my goal and be a crafty albeit still sleep deprived mama!
In other news, Squish’s 4th Molar Monster has made an appearance. My poor little man is a drooling fool. This combined with the fact that he is reaching the age where he is learning about boundaries can make for some crazy moments, but he still manages to find a way to let his silly happiness shine through. I love this little man, Molar Monsters and all!
Look who is so proud of himself for stealing mama's phone ----------------- Watching little Einsteins
My favorite little Phone Thief, but when did he turn into a little boy??
Hope everyone’s weekend was enjoyed. I know we were pretty crazy around here… I can’t believe I am heading back to Minnesota in just 3 short days!! I have WAY too much to do! Question of the Week: Do you return your cart to the corral at the grocery store? Heck Yeah I do, I can't stand when people don't walk the 5 steps to bring it to the corral. Lazy butts!!
Late at night when all the world is sleeping, I stay up and think of you... and I wish on a star that somewhere you're thinking of me, too. ~ Selena
Wow I think I just dated myself a little here... Okay so the quote may be a little cheesy, but after last night's post, and just feeling a little out of sorts lately, I found myself looking through old pictures. One of the ones I came across was a picture from the Hubs return home after our first deployment as a couple.
During that deployment we were definitely put through a couple of hard months. I was living in Chicago, and while I knew the Hubs was going to be my Hubs, some of my girlfriends couldn't understand why I was waiting for a guy who was a million miles away. While I never really told Rob, there were definitely times when I found myself wondering if they were right. I would wonder if I was crazy for waiting for a man when I had no guarantees it was going to work out. I spent a lot of nights thinking. But no matter how I was feeling, I most often found myself spending nights wondering what he was doing and if he was okay.
One night I went outside and looked up and say Orion big and bright as could be. I know this sounds really cheesy, but it was like an instant calm came over me. A few days later Rob called from overseas and said to me that he would spend nights looking up at the stars, and hoped I was seeing the same night sky. He told me that Orion was looking especially bright lately. At that moment, any worries of making it through that deployment were put to rest. We were on the same page, and I knew that all the waiting I was doing was going to be well worth it.
I think I need to get out and look at our night sky a little more. Perhaps it will help me gain a sense of perspective again.
Okay, so forgive the golfing analogy here (I grew up watching way too much of it) So you know when a golfer hits the ball into the sand trap? They try and get it out, but they swing and just send sand everywhere without touching the ball? So they try again, and this time they manage to hit the ball, but it just banks against the edge landing in the same spot? Over and over the golfer tries to get out of the sand trap, but unless you’re Phil Mickelson the likelihood you are going to end up covered in sand, still stuck in the trap, and one golf club thrown into the water trap near-by (either that or bent in half from repeatedly beating it against the ground in frustration).
Sometimes I feel like this is where I am headed. I am the golfer who is newly stuck in the sand trap. Or rut, or at the bottom of a really large wall, or stuck in between two cars who parallel parked way too close. Get the point? This mama is bumming. Here is the thing; we are about ½ ways through this deployment. This is a pretty standard occurrence for me during each and every one of the Hubs deployment. (Let’s be real, being a single mom is super hard. I have mad respect for those who do it full time all the time. Even with Kim here, I am still finding myself hitting the ½ ways slump.)
At some point I reach a point where I spend a few days to a few weeks feeling stuck. I don’t want to go out, I find myself making excuses to not go to things. Sure the excuses are always there, but that doesn’t mean I have to keep giving into them. So what if Squishy is crabby, who cares if the insomnia is getting to me, or the daily headache is getting to be a little much… I could and should push through and do the normal everyday things we have planned, but lately I have just not been feeling it at all. I’m not sleeping well at all, I am not eating as well as I should, I can’t seem to kick my diet coke habit (no matter how hard I try) and at this point I am seriously considering coffee (which I hate) just to help me make it through the day without feeling like a zombie.
Great, you are all probably reading this and wondering, “Why is this lady whining again??” Well here is the thing. I have tried all my go to “swings” but I am still stuck in this sand trap. I would prefer not to end up buried in the sand, so I ask you, what do you do to get out of a rut? How do you reset your soul? I would love to hear someone new ideas, or tricks to add to my bag.
At the end of this week I will be taking a much needed trip to see my family. My wonderful and amazing mother is celebrating a huge birthday, and for once I actually get to be there. Living so far from all of my family, and my in-laws isn’t exactly ideal, but it is what it is. I am hoping this trip will really help me comeback and be refreshed.
Sorry for venting. I promise to get back to my regular posting tomorrow.
Oh, and if you were just looking for a daily Squishy dose - check out my super cute dancing dude. Yes, he is dancing to Run-DMC, and yes, he loves that penguin. Judge me if you will, but if your little man was getting down the way Squish was here, you would let him listen to Run DMC too!! He is the light of my everyday! Love this little dancing Squishy!
Recently I had the opportunity to review a unique massage oil candle called Scandle. A Scandle is a lightly scented soy based candle that burns 2 degrees above body temperature and produces soothing and healthy body oil. You can use the Scandle for massages, manicures, pedicures, or as an everyday moisturizer. When you are finished using the product, it will re-solidify naturally as the candle cools.
The Scandle is “all natural and are made from FDA approved ingredients including Shea butter, cosmetic grade soy butter, jojoba, vitamin E, & body safe fragrance or essential oils.” It is Paraffin and petroleum free, and packaged in a reusable container making it an eco-friendly product.
In addition to the original Scandle, they also offer corresponding salt rubs made form Dead Sea Salt. And recently they just released a Shimmering Scandle.
My Review:
Disclaimer: This is my 100% honest opinion which may be different than yours. I received no monetary compensation for this review.
I really enjoyed this product. In addition to the travel sized Scandle in Love Spell, (which was a lot bigger than I was expecting) I received a travel sized amount of the Dead Sea Salts in a corresponding scent. This product does exactly what it says it is, a massage oil candle. The fragrance was light and far from overpowering. So often massage oils can be over-scented. This was simply not the case. I was extremely happy with the way the product smelled. The oil was easy to apply, not even close to too warm for my skin, and a small amount went a very long way.
In one application, my feet and hands were noticeably softer, and my favorite part was that they continued to remain soft throughout the day. I love that you can give yourself a mini pedicure using this product. Simply mix in a little Dead Sea salt into a small amount of oil, and you have a spa quality salt scrub.
The Scandle is a wonderful and unique product. I was beyond impressed with it, and plan on ordering some for birthday and Christmas gifts. I love that it was easy to use, and also eco-friendly. Scandle's claims that “A candle never felt this good”, and I have to agree whole-heartedly. If you are looking for a product that is priced well, easy to use, and does exactly as it claims, I suggest you head over to Scandle’s website and check them out!
Charlie over at Scandle has generously offered one travel tin giveaway in the winner’s body safe fragrance choice. (No essential oils) to one of my awesome readers!
This giveaway is open to residents of US only.
How to win:
Please make sure to leave your email in your comment, or I will not be able to contact you about your win, and will have to choose another winner.
I will be checking each entry to the best of my ability, so honesty is appreciated!
Mandatory Entry:
Head over to Scandle’s webpage and tell me what scent you would choose if you won. Follow Family and Life in Las Vegas either through Google Friend Connection, or RSS feed. Please leave one (1) comment saying you have done both of these things and what you would pick.
(This is the only mandatory entry, and must be done in order for any extra entries to apply.)
Tweet the following “Enter to #win a massage oil candle http://tinyurl.com/25qnd2f from @FamilyNLife and @Scandlecandle. #giveaway ends 9/6 RT” (can be done daily)
Sign up to recieve Family and Life in Las Vegas email.
Make a purchase from Scandle and comment back with what you bought.
Vote for me on Top Mom Blogs and Picket Fence (can be done daily).
Giveaway will end September 6th at 8pm PST.
Random.org will select the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond; otherwise I will select a new winner.
Recently, I have been reading a lot about the sadness associated with the beginning of a new school year all of the letting go it requires. I am not there yet, but oh my, I can’t tell you I will be a wreck.Yes, I will be happy that my little man is growing up, and is heading on to places that will help him develop as a person, but there is always a sense of sadness when our children begin a new stage in their lives.
The truth is that parenting is filled with these moments of Melancholy.When we gave birth to our beautiful children we all knew parenting wasn’t going to be easy, and that it would have many tough moments.But I know I personally didn’t expect being a parent to be such a mixed bag of emotions. That with every big (and little) accomplishment or stage our child enters there would be sadness in letting go.
When Squish was six weeks old he had already grown out of his 0-3 month clothes.(He never fit in newborn clothes being 10 lbs 2 oz at birth.)In a mix of post-partum emotions, I found myself crying as I packed up these clothes.I posted on Facebook something to the effect of “I didn’t realize the simple act of packing up clothes could be so sad.”My mother sent me a message that day that has stuck with me through every happy/sad moment, here are the central parts of that letter.
“One of the hardest things about being a mother is that every day is another goodbye - the old adage about the best two gifts you can give your children are roots and wings is really true. Only no one said the wings part would be so hard, especially if you have worked hard on the roots part!”
“All of the benefits of motherhood are gifts - like little hands on my face and the looks of absolute adoration. Not to mention the knowledge that my first little girl has grown to be healthy and kind, and is now a loving mother because of the "Letting go" I did.” ~my mom.
The roots and wings adage has been something I try to remember at the times when I find myself saddened over moments that I should be celebrating.Moments like packing away old cloths, Squish’s first birthday, the moment he started walking, and I am sure I will feel the same twinge in the pit of my stomach when Squishapillar starts school.
For now I will keep reminding myself that as a parent I will continue to give my child to great gifts of roots and wings.And take joy the gifts of little hands, slobbery kisses, and big blue eyes looking up at me saying “mama” will be the rewards I get for letting go and giving my baby wings to continue to grow into the amazing little man he is quickly becoming! (That and the fact that at almost 29 I still need my mother on a pretty regular basis, so there is hope that my Squish isn’t going anywhere for a long time.)
Deb – you rock. No seriously, your strength inspires, and there is no doubt that you are a great mother. Lucas is lucky to have you as a mother. Thank you for thinking of me.
2. Copy the award and put it on your blog.
Working on it!!
3. List three things which you love about yourself. Why is it so easy to find things you love in others, but we are so critical of ourselves??
I love my eyes, and I love that I gave them to my son.
I love that even if I question it now and then, I am a good mother, and a good wife.
I love that I can cook, and that the more I do, the better I get.
4. Post a picture you love.
I thought I would change it up, and post a picture that I took before I got pregnant with Squish I took this on a cool day at Red Rock.
5. Pass this award on to 5 of the sweetest bloggers:
Dawn over at the Mom-A-Logues also gave me an award today. Feeling very liked over here in Vegas I tell you!!
There are some rules to this award and I will take them very seriously.
1.) THANK the blogger who awarded it to you. Dawn, you are so nice to think of me. I am so touched you thought of me and my little family blog! Thanks for making my day a little brighter.
2.) Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation and experience using five words.
Family and Life in Las Vegas and Crazy About My Baybah are back with this week's edition of the Bee Funny Friday Follow, because being funny is what it is all about!! We hope that you will join in the fun and post pictures and/or stories about something funny that happened during the week. Something fun to get the weekend started.
Here are a few simple guidelines we encourage you to follow:
1. We would love you to link up and post it the link on your blog. 2. Following the hosting blogs in the # 1 and # 2 spots in appreciated. 3. Post pictures and/or stories on your blog about something funny that happened during the week. 4. Put our Bee Funny button in your post to share the fun. 5. Visit as many blogs as you can, and let them know that you are there from Bee Funny Friday Follow. Follow the ones you like, and we are sure you will get follows back. 6. But most of all, Bee Funny! Because Beeing Funny is what it is all about!
Bee Funny is open to family friendly sites ONLY, all others will be deleted.
Penguin Wrestling at its finest!
While you are here - you may as well enter some fun giveaways!! Don't forget to head to the Blogmania extra entries post, get up to 14 extra entries! And enter for your chance to win a Wupzey, it will make your life as a mom easier!
In just a few short days - this will be us! We will be braving the crowds, and the heat to visit our first Minnesota state Fair. For years I have listened to the stories my family tells about their adventures with all you can drink milk, chocolate covered bacon, more food on a stick than you can imagine, and of course butter sculptures of the beauty queens. I hope we have a blast, I hope Squish enjoys seeing all the people, and I hope we don't get too hot. I am so excited to go I can't even stand it!!
