09 November 2008

Giveaway Winner!

Thank you all for your feedback. Over the next few weeks I will be updating my blog. Now onto the winner...Congratulations fantacy so sweet-n-stuff!! I will be contacting you within 24 hours and you will have 48 hours from then to get back to me. Congratulations again!

Giveaway: Free magazine subscription

***THIS IS A STICKY POST. IT WILL APPEAR AT THE TOP UNTIL THE GIVEAWAY ENDS. NEW POSTS ARE BEING POSTED BELOW.***

As promised, I am hosting my first giveaway and I even have one prize for each of my 3 blogs (Homeschool Unit Studies, The Happy Wife, and Things I Love). The prize is the same for all 3 blogs: a one-year subscription to the magazine of your choice from Ladies Home Journal, Fitness, Siempre Mujer (written in Spanish) and Parents magazine. The contest will run from now until November 8th. I will use random.org to choose a winner and the winner will be posted here. If contact information is provided or I can reach you through your blog/profile, I will also e-mail the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with their information or a new winner will be chosen at that time.
How to enter:
1)Leave me a comment with a piece of constructive criticism, positive or negative (I can take it, I promise) about this blog.
After doing #1, you may also enter by doing the following:
2)Blog about the giveaway and leave a new comment, separate from #1, that includes the URL to the blog posting. If you are not a blogger, tell your friends and when they enter, have them put your name down as the person who referred them here.
3)Subscribe to my feed and leave another separate comment telling me you did so.
4)TUESDAY BONUS ENTRY-go vote and come back and post that you did so. I will only accept entries on Tuesday for this bonus entry and it is being awarded on the honor code. If you say you voted, I will trust that you did. Please do not post who/how you voted, just that you did.

Good luck to all!!!

07 November 2008

My anniversary and a GREAT mail box

Yesterday was my 9th wedding anniversary. I have written before about how wonderful my husband is and I just want to say again how thankful I am to have married such an amazing man. The past 9 years have not been perfect, but I am very happy and look forward to many more years married to this man.

For our anniversay, my husband took the kids and I to a favorite restaurant of mine in Erie, PA. That made for quite a drive (2.5 hours one way), but we made a day of it and it was rather enjoyable. Plus, I enjoy long drives with my husband because it gives us a chance to talk. When we returned home, it looked like Santa Claus had been to my house. I had 2 medium-sized boxes, a large cushioned envelope, 1 small box, several catalogs (I LOVE to look through catalogs), and a few other pieces of mail all sitting in front of my door. I gathered it all up and brought it inside. Since I am one who saves the best for last, I decided to go through the mail first. There were NO bills, that always makes for a nice mail day! A few pieces were junk mail and were immediately shredded/recycled and a few were things to do later, but one I got excited about was a survey from the Wegman's (a local grocery store) in Chili (pronounced Ch"eye"l"eye", not like the food, it is a nearby town). The pharmacy there wants to know how they are doing and since I have prescriptions there, I received this VERY easy and short survey to fill out. When I turn it in, I will receive a $5 Wegman's gift card, easy enough for me!

Now, onto the packages. The small box was a Huggies sample with a diaper and samples of their baby lotion and baby bath. I love samples! The envelope was a full-size package of chewable Pedia-Lax tablets and a Pedia-Lax pen that I had won a few weeks ago on another blog's giveaway. The next box I opened was from BzzzAgent and was my campaign packet for Aromaglow. It is a cute candle and shade set, valued between $15-$18. I will post more about it (with pictures) once I actually use it. I also received my host package for the pre-Holiday Party through House Party. It was full of CD's for me and several sampler CD's for my guests. It also had a great Philadelphia cream cheese recipe tin full of recipe cards. Again, I will post more about this stuff after the party.

All in all, I got a lot of fun things yesterday and got to celebrate one of the best decisions I ever made. It was a very nice day!

05 November 2008

Mr Clean Magic Eraser and the USA

Ok, these two things do not go together, but last night while I was waiting to hear the election results, I decided to start cleaning up our walls since we are moving in a few weeks. I decided to try the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Strength that I had received as a sample a little while back. You can read my review of it on my other blog, The Happy Wife, but I will tell you that I love it!

Now on to the next part. As you know, yesterday was election day here in the USA. I grew up always believing that it is my civic duty to vote, but never really understood what a privilege it is. Not everyone I voted for won, but some did and for that I am thankful. As for the others, I can live with them in power and, since I voted, I have the "right" to complain about them too. Not that everyone does not have the right to complain, but personally, I respect the opinion of someone who actually participates in the process much more than someone who doesn't. It is kind of like the person who constantly complains about their weight as they are scarfing down a hot fudge sundae. I am sorry they feel bad about themself, but I feel worse for the person who is eating right and doing what they can for exercise and is still unable to lose weight and I can respect the feelings of woe from the one who is actually trying. Anyway, I am just thankful that we live in a country where we are not told who will rule us, that we can actually choose who will represent us in government. Theoretically, anyone can grow up to hold a public office. You do not have to be born a Kennedy or a Bush to do it and as we have now seen, you do not have to be a specific race or a specific gender. Most offices do not even have age limits, as long as you are a legal adult of 18 (35 for president of the US) or more. You can come from a wealthy family or a poor one, you just may have to work a bit harder than others if you have less money.

While this year proved to be a good one for the Democrats, at least on a national level, many of them acknowledged they are aware there are still many people out there who are more conservative and that they have a duty to represent the conservative side of things too. I am not sure what the next 4 years will bring, but I am glad to live here to find out.