Winner Winner!

The winner of this adorable ring is...

Crystal!!!!

Congratulations! Email me with your address and this cute ring with be in the mail to you! :)

A New Candy!

Today I got home to find this package in my mailbox (well it was actually on the counter since Jonathan had already gotten the mail)! Can you tell where it's from?? It's a package from Canada! From my blog friend Sue who lives in Canada!! Sue was one of my first blog friends. We met in the comments of our favorite author, Kristin Billerbeck's blog. We've never met in person, but maybe one day we will... I just love reading Sue's blog. She's real and always leaves such uplifting comments. You should head over and check out her blog. You won't regret it! She's just so sweet:)

I know you're dying to know what was inside my package! Well, first was this absolutely adorable card! Is this me or what? With the sweetest note inside! Then there were these: A week or so ago, Sue blogged about her favorite candy called Smarties. But they are nothing like the American sour candies. They are kinda like M&M's but different. I left her a comment and told her I was intrigued with this weird candy, so she asked for my address and told me she'd send me some! How sweet is she? So, I've tried them and I think they are a bit crunchier than M&M's and quite delicious. I mean...how can you really go wrong with chocolate?? :)

Jonathan saw the box when I opened the package and broke on into it and shoved a few in his mouth and he was surprised to find chocolate. He loves any fruity candies and thought they were the American Smarties:) HA! That'll teach ya to get off my chocolate! Just kidding honey! i love you:) You can have some Smarties if you want!!

Thanks so much Sue, both for the fun package (its always fun to find something more than bills in the mail) and for your friendship and encouragement! It was a great way to end a busy Monday!

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway in the previous post!**

Blogaversary and a Giveaway!

Today is a day of firsts and I'm so excited about it!!! It's my FIRST Blogaversary! Whoohoo! On one hand I can't believe it's already been a year since I started blogging, but on the other hand I feel like I've known a lot of my blog friends for way longer than a year! I started blogging because I've always been bad at writing in a journal and I needed a way to get my feelings out. I had no clue that I would have actually kept with the whole blogging thing this long:)

In order to celebrate my blogaversary, I'm going to show you the fun jewelry I got in Toledo last month at For Love. (If your mall has a For Love store...please shop there all the time for me since I have to stock up each time I visit my parents!) Then I'm going to do my FIRST giveaway of a cute cocktail ring from For Love!!!

First off, lets get one thing straight... I know that the pictures are horrible! I had bad lighting and don't have a fancy camera. Second of all, please excuse my lack of a manicure and the fact that my hands look way ugly this close up in pictures! I'm not a hand model! OK, on with the show!

First are these cute rings. This ring is my absolute favorite right now! It just seems to go with everything and is a great size! It was $3.80!!

This ring is a dark metal color and I just love it! It seems to go with anything and is nice and small for an "everyday ring". It was $3.80.

This ring is a bit big but I think it's fun for something different! I never wear gold, but I'm trying to integrate it into a couple outfits, so I needed a cute gold ring. It was the most expensive thing I bought! It was $7.80. And yes, I realize it takes up my entire hand.

This ring is super fun! All of the little silver balls move around and kinda jingle. Not great to wear to work but fun for a night out! This was $3.80.

Next is this cute gold bracelet. Again it's a bit over the top but fun for a night out:) It was $5.80. (Don't you love how my arm looks like a ghost?) I am loving big earrings like these! I've been wearing them with my scarves and they help me feel trendy even if I'm not:) These silver earrings were $4.80.

Some gold earrings to go with my gold ring and bracelet:) I wore these to church this morning with a brown sweater and loved them:) They were $3.80.

These are a bit heavy but I think they are worth the "pain":) They were $5.80.

I got this cute headband (but I have yet to wear it...I have to find the perfect place!) I can't remember how much it was but I know it was between $5-$7.

I mean, how can you not go crazy in an accessory store with prices like that??

And last but not least, I'm giving away this cute ring (sorry the picture is blurry I was having technical difficulties!) It is silver with a pearl in the middle and is a size 7. (I bought it and got it home and I realized I grabbed the wrong size and this one is way too big. For Love doesn't take returns, but the next time I was in town, I got one in my size and I love it and get TONS of compliments on it!) Please remember that my hands are freakishly small (seriously...I have to wear kids gloves it's ridiculous!) so it probably won't look quite as bulky on your hand:)

In order to be entered for the drawing, leave me a comment! About anything:) (That goes for you lurkers out there too who never leave comments!)

You can get an additional entry by blogging about the giveaway.

You can get another entry by tweeting or Face Booking about the giveaway with a link to my blog.

So there you have it! 3 chances to win this adorable ring!!

You can enter until this Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm and I will announce a winner on Thursday! Good luck:)

Now I understand the hype

I'm not sure why I haven't shared this with the world wide web already... but... we got iPhones! Let's just say that I was extremely attached to my ...um... crackberry. Anyone who knows me knows that it was by my side at all times. It was good to me (except when it would wig out and I'd have to take the battery out and put it back in to reset the phone). I was also about as proficient typing on it as I am typing on my computer keyboard. And boy did I love that little flashing light reminding me I had a message or email...
I had always looked at people with iPhones and thought that yeah, they look cool, but I like my blackberry. Well, then apple came out with the newer iPhone version and Jonathan said that when our plan was up for renewal we were going to get them. I was excited. Who's not excited for a new toy? But I was also already in mourning for my blackberry.

So the week after Christmas we were out returning Christmas items and I was totally oblivious until Jonathan parked in front of the AT&T store! "OH! you mean, you want to get them now?!?" I could tell he was excited but I was less than enthused. The man asked for my beloved blackberry so that he could transfer my contacts (which of course only transferred phone numbers so I had to transfer all other info ie. addresses, emails, birthdays). When I handed it to him, he pretty much had to pry my fingers off of my phone. Less than 5 minutes later he presented me with my new white iPhone. I had never even really played around on one so while the man was switching Jonathan's phone and they were in a deep conversation about phone stuff that I could care less about, I started pushing buttons... or should I say touching buttons.

And then it happened...by the time we walked out of the store, I was hooked on my new iPhone. The entire way home I was like, Oh, and it does this and this and this and poor Jonathan was trying to see all the fun stuff I was doing while he was still trying to drive safely. I totally thought I would hate the keyboard, but you know what? I might not be as fast, but it's really not as bad as I had pictured. And my phone really does do some pretty awesome stuff! I feel like the world is at my fingertips! I love that it automatically connects to wifi! So much faster than Edge!

Now I can track my weight loss, find a restaurant in the area, find a recipe, make my grocery list, keep track of my membership cards, order movie tickets, play interactive scrabble, play an iPhone version of guitar hero (totally addicting btw), listen to Air1 or Pandora, check the weather, google reader, facebook and twitter, take pictures and videos and guess what... It EVEN has a PHONE!

What can I say, I'm in love? What else could explain an entire post about my new phone??!!??

{We're too cheep to pay for apps so all of those described in this post were FREE!}

Giveaway

Traci at Beneath My Heart

is doing a really great giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a 12x12 canvas by Red Letter Words. How cute is this one??

So head on over to Traci's blog and check it out!!

Mini-Getaway

Yesterday, Jonathan and I had a mini-getaway. I was so excited and I couldn't blog about it ahead of time. Why? you ask. Because our mini-getaway was for my sister-in-law, Leslie's surprise 40th birthday party and she couldn't know we were coming to town! My brother planned this HUGE party for her at Molly Malone's Pub in Covington, KY (pretty much downtown Cincinnati). He rented out the second floor of the pub and the place was full of people! Not many of whom we knew, which was kinda weird. Jonathan and I knew my parents and Leslie's sister and mom... and that was it! But it was a good time. Jonathan and I were obviously the youngest in the room (by a long shot since I'm so much younger than my brother) and we laughed about the fact that A) we never go to bars/pubs B) when we have been in those situations we always feel OLD! and C) this was the first time in a long time that we felt young at a bar! HA!

Jonathan decided that since we were going to have a night out on the town that we would just get a hotel room and make a weekend get-away out of it! He found this nice hotel just minutes from the pub. When we walked in the room I couldn't believe it! He surprised me with a giant suite with a sitting room and a jacuzzi tub!!! Whoohoo! How romantic is he? Here are some pics of the room:

We went out to dinner with my parents and then to the pub! Here are some pics of the party. Leslie really was surprised! It was cute! It was funny when she started seeing people who had come from out of town and how excited she got!

Walking in (I know it's dark but her expression is priceless!)

My parents

Jonathan and I! (and my ruffle shirt that I got at Limited for $55 marked down to $15!)

My mom and me. Can you see the resemblance?

My sister-in-law's mom and sister

Leslie - The Birthday Girl! You wouldn't guess she's 40 would you?

My brother had also planned a surprise party for my niece's birthday (which was last week) while we were all in town. So we had a fun afternoon hanging out with the family today!

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend and I'm soo not ready for Monday to roll around!

I WON! I WON! I WON!!!

I just got my mail today and had a really fun package!! About two weeks ago I won my very first blog contest over at Trish's blog!! If you haven't read Trish's blog, you just have to! Head on over. She is a wonderful Christian woman and happens to be a TV reporter and started her blog as a story. She enjoyed blogging so she kept it up. (or at least I think that's how she started her blog.) Anyway, she is an excellent writer and you should definitely go read her blog!

She had a giveaway of Alma Chocolates because she said they are the all time best chocolates ever! I won the grand prize which was this:

10 pieces of bon bons

I Chose Salted Lavender Caramel
Ode to Joy
Marshy
Chloe Truffle
Mint Meltaway
Salted Peanut Butter Cup
Mexican Chocolate Truffle
Habanero Caramel Crown
Rosewater Caramel
Cardamom with Burnt-Sugar Sesame

Bar

I chose the Salty Nutty Toffee Bar

Toffee

I chose Pistachio Toffee

I'm sooo excited to try them. Doesn't it all look delicious?? I'm pretty sure I don't need the calories, but I will enjoy every ounce and not worry about it!

Thanks Trish!!!