Sick Days

Let me tell you one of the few bad things of marriage and parenthood. If someone in your household gets sick, i.e. your child, your husband, or, in my case, both, you end up getting whatever germs that had once they're over it.

What's In Your Fridge?

Hello my darlings! How was your weekend? Mine was nothing short of eventful, but that's another story for a different day! Today I've got a wonderful blogger guest posting for me. I've followed Abby from Dirt on the Rocks for as long as I can remember. She's funny, witty, and absolutely adorable. And today she's here, guest posting on my blog, and she's talking about something I have a hard time with every time I go to the grocery store, how to organize all that food in the fridge. Cause lawd knows I need a much better system than my current one of "just cram everything in there!" Here's to getting organized, y'all! 

If you are anything like me then that means you love to grocery shop, and at times you might go a bit overboard.. After a long day at work I love coming home to a stuffed fridge and cooking dinner - it helps me unwind and I really enjoy doing it.

Hi, my name is Abby and usually you can find me at Dirtontherocks.com and Bigboychronicles.com, but today J is giving me the opportunity to guest post here!

I wanted to share with you the dilemma I have had for years - my fridge. When I lived at home our fridge was always full of food, but my mom hated buying a lot of groceries because she always felt like they would go bad quickly.

Around my late teen years, I started cooking myself and I think that’s when my addiction to cooking and shopping started. Every time I go to the grocery store, I would get super excited about buying things for future “ideal” meals. This lead to buying more than we could eat in a week and eventually the food went bad and money wasted. No one likes to hear those words together.

When I moved in with my boyfriend, we bought a fridge. The fridge is your typical apartment fridge - it’s not that big. Our family of three often means a lot of groceries, so this can be a bit stressful! After getting home from the grocery store, we have packed bags just waiting to be put away - but where? Our main problems are our tiny fridge and lack of organization. It gets overwhelming, so we tend to just shove the groceries wherever there is space.

This is obviously a big no no because some food gets shoved to the back of the fridge and is often forgotten. Because of this, there would be moldy food that needed to be trashed and let’s not forget that mixing rotten food with fresh food is also very unhealthy. This can lead to food poisoning and no one wants to experience that!

Our refrigerator is the normal white fridge with two bins at the bottom with two racks in the middle. It has storage on the door, but it’s not a lot. The best solution I’ve found for our small fridge is organizing each rack and using bins for extra storage. There are clear, inexpensive ones that are perfect for this.

Another way of staying organized is categorizing food. I like to use the food group pyramid as a guide to organize my food.Obviously, keep the frozen goods in the freezer - that meat probably won’t do well in the refrigerator unless you plan to cook it the same day. You can also try adding labels to the bins you buy or you can simply add them directly to your racks and refrigerator.

The more you find ways to keep yourself organized, the better it will be in the long run. You’ll always find what you’re looking for and you won’t waste another cent on forgotten food!

Abby is 23 and a single mother living in Southern California trying to make ends meet. She is a freelance blogger whose clients include UMoveFree.com, an apartment-finding service for locating   downtown Fort Worth apartments. Abby loves spending time with her son and is constantly learning new things about him as each day passes by. In her blog, Dirt on the Rocks, Abby writes about food and life. Like many single moms, Abby finds that her life experiences are both daunting and inspiring, and her blog reflects these experiences.

Why Do You Blog, Josie?

Y'all are in for a big ol' treat today! One of my newest favorite bloggers is swapping blogs with me and telling y'all why she blogs! I'm at her place, and she's taking over things here in my neck of the woods. So, welcome her with open arms, and then come on over to her place and visit with me!

*******

Hi {An Unstyled Life’s} readers! My name is Josie and I blog over at Letters to Sophia. When J asked me to do a guest post for her I was really excited because I have never done one before! So because I’m a newbie at it I asked what she wanted me to write about and she mentioned what about why you blog. I immediately decided that that’s what I was going to write about because I've never actually shared why I do. 

Everyone has their own reasons for starting a blog and this is mine:

I’ve always enjoyed keeping a journal or using an online source to write about whatever came to my mind or what I was up to. I love being able to look back and remember what I was going through or what I was doing at that time. I still have a journal that I kept when I was 15 and I enjoy reading it every now and then. I even save planners from each year, it’s kind of weird.

I kind of stopped keeping a journal once I started college. I was just too busy and never had the time to really sit down and write. But during my third year of college I found out I was pregnant. Yes, my pregnancy was unexpected so I took it kind of hard. I wasn’t planning on having children for a while. I mean I was 20 years old, in college living in an apartment with three girls, and had barely any income. I cried for days but thanks to my family and friends they were able to be there for me and tell me that everything was going to be ok. 

Even though I had my family and friends I still felt like I couldn’t truly talk to anyone about how I was feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy that I’d be a mother and I had a perfectly healthy baby growing inside me, I was just worried. I think any new mom worries.

Around April of 2010, about a month after I found out I was pregnant; I decided that I needed somewhere to write. Somewhere I could just ramble about what I did during the days as a pregnant woman and how I felt and not worry about someone else judging me because of it. I needed somewhere to just let everything out. And trust me, when you’re pregnant and trying to finish up your junior and senior year of college, you need somewhere to vent.

I bought a cute little journal at Barnes and Nobles and started writing in it one night. I decided I’d write to my baby. I started it out as Dear Baby, and I went from there. As I wrote, I cried and cried. And after I was done writing and crying I felt so much better. I was able to put it away and feel happy the rest of the day.

After writing in it a few times I decided I wanted somewhere online to write because it’s just so much easier to type what I feel. So I started this blog. I kept it private at first with only a few readers and each post was a letter to my baby.

As I got further along in my pregnancy the writing kind of slowed down and I actually stopped blogging for a couple of months.

And then Sophia was born.

I was so happy to be a mother and was enjoying all my time with her while I was on maternity leave from school. 

After three weeks I went back to classes. I was in Morgantown alone with Sophia. Gary {my fiance} was an hour away finishing his school in a different town and my parents lived almost two hours away. I had my roommates and friends but they were busy with school too. I couldn't get into any daycares in Morgantown {they all had waiting lists} so when I did go to class I would have a friend watch Sophia, and I'm SO thankful for them doing that.

After about a month, things got real hard. It was harder for me to get my school work done and for me to find someone to watch Sophia while I was in class. I was just exhausted. 

I finally realized that I couldn't do it. That as much as I pushed and tried I just couldn't be a new mom and go to college full time so I called my mom in tears and just broke down to her.

After talking we finally decided that Sophia would stay with my mom during the week, two hours away, while I went to classes in Morgantown and I'd just come home every weekend. As much as it hurt me to leave my baby, I had to finish school. 

As soon as we hung up the phone I just held Sophia and cried and just kept saying "Sorry" to her. I cried so much that I had to take Sophia out to my roommate and I just went back in my room and laid there and cried. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. In fact, I'm crying now. I just felt like I failed but looking back now I know it was best for both Sophia and I. 

My mom got Sophia that day. It was the first time I was ever away from her. I felt lost and empty. I was hurting and I just cried for the longest time. The first few days were extremely hard but I started getting busy again with school and things got a little easier. My mom was able to send me pictures all day of her and it kept me going until I was able to drive and see her on the weekends.

I then decided to start writing to her again on here. And it was probably the best thing to help with how I was feeling. I would write to her and tell her about my day and how much I loved her and missed her.  I tried writing to her as much as I could and I kept it going for one whole semester until I finally graduated college and was able to be back with my baby. And we haven't been away from each other since. No more leaving my baby. 

Letters to Sophia then turned into sort of baby book where I share what we've been up to and tons of pictures. I have enjoyed keeping my blog. It has so much meaning to me and I'm able to look back and read how I was feeling during the hardest months of my life. 

I have been able to document our story and of course meet other mommy's and read their stories. I plan on blogging for as long as I can. You can also print your blog out into little books so you know that I'll have all these books for Sophia to read as she gets older. She'll be able to read our story.

And that's why I blog.

THANK YOU TO J FOR LETTING ME GUEST POST FOR HER TODAY AND ALSO TO ALL OF HER READERS WHO TOOK THEIR TIME TO READ THIS! PLEASE STOP BY MY BLOG AND SAY HELLO! HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT DAY!

Come Find Me!!

Happy Friday, y'all! I'm only here for a brief second today, just wanted to stop in and tell y'all to check out my guest post over at my girl B's place!

She's letting her hair lose out in sunny California this week, so I'm holding down the fort for today!

Head on over and find out a bit more about what's on my Big Texas To Do List!

I hope everyone has a Shiner beer filled weekend!

Trend Watch Tuesday

Welcome to our second edition of Trend Watch Tuesday! This next lady has great style (duh!) and one of the most adorable dogs I've ever seen. She's insanely sweet, and always looks amazing. She knows how to accessorize like no one else, and she's incredibly funny! She's on the twit, and has a wonderful blog. So, after reading her TWT post, head over and give her some love. Ladies and gents, help me welcome, Katie.

When J asked me if I'd like to be part of Trend Watch Tuesday I was so excited and immediately agreed. Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this, J!

I started blogging to have a place solely dedicated to my fashion and beauty obsession. I figured most of the people in my life were tired of hearing me talk about it. They probably were. Blogging about it hasn't deterred me from talking about it all the time. Oh well. It was a good idea in theory. Not only did it not stop my incessant talk of fashion, but pretty much all other aspects of my life have found their way into the blog at one point or another. Looking at it that way, it could seem like my blog is a bit of a mess and I have no idea what I'm doing with it, or in life. That's partially true. I'm not going to say which part.

What I've always loved about fashion and beauty is that there is something for everyone. You can find your own style, you can find a way to express yourself, you can do this a million different ways, in any city in any country, and on any budget. It's universal. It's for everyone. For the most part I'd say I have a laid back, potentially over accessorized style. I love my accessories. Bags, jewelry, sunglasses, scarves - I love it all. You can be wearing the most basic outfit but throw on a couple of accessories and you've got a whole new look. It allows you to constantly reinvent your wardrobe.

What I love about blogging is that it's such an interactive community. As much as I love reading magazines, and watching TV shows and movies, those experiences are very one sided. When you're a blogger, you write a post and get comments and feedback. You read other posts and get to post your comments and feedback. There's Twitter, and Facebook, e-mail, and every other social medium most of us are using. It's like a big, constant, ongoing conversation - and I absolutely love it.

Some days my life might feel like an unorganized mess, but I'm glad I have my blog and all my blogging buddies who are there as I document all the craziness. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Trend Watch Tuesday

So, remember the big thing that I hinted at last week? Well, guess what!? It's time to reveal it! I've been working on a new weekly segment for The Bee's Knees for a little while, and I'm so excited that I can finally tell y'all about it! It's called Trend Watch Tuesday. I'm wanting to showcase all of the bloggers who have awesome style. They're basically going to do a little guest post and talk about their style. Basically, I'm wanting all of my favorite fashionistas in one place! So, ladies and gents, we have our first featured blogger today! This chick is insanely funny, has the most adorable boston terrier, and has amazing style. She's an incredible thrifter, and can DIY like no one I know! So, without further adieu, please welcome Brandy!

I can't tell you how honored I was to have J ask to feature me on her blog. She is so funny and even though I only know her in Blogolopolous Town or Twitterville she seems so down-to-earth. My name is Brandy and I have a blog and etsy shop. I am married (no kids as of yet) and together we have a pompous boston terrier dog named Frederick Biggie Franklin. She asked me to talk about my style even though I'm not technically a fashion blogger. I have a lifestyle blog and fashion posts pop up almost weekly. I get very anxious about taking full body shots so I rarely do it and just stick to bits and pieces of what I'm wearing. I think I have a few different styles but most of all I would describe it as a comfortable, go-with-the-flow type of style. I like punk, bohemian, and sweats. Doesn't everyone? Sweats are the best that's why when dresses and leggings became popular I jumped right on that bandwagon. Any style that keeps with the un-restriction of my belly is something I'm going to hold on to. Leggings are just sweats masquerading as something less of a fashion faux pas.

Most of my clothes come from either thrift stores, gifts, or the sale rack. I even like to DIY some items too. The only thing I've purchased recently for myself at full price were my Minnetonka moccasins. I had my eye on those puppies for a long time. I waited out a few different holidays to see if anyone would have been awesome enough to buy them for me but alas I just had to do it myself. Which I'm fine with. I'm a pretty independent person albeit cheap, which is why thrifting works out for me.

I was asked what my favorite outfits and accessories are so here they are in pictures. My dream piece is a vintage quilted Chanel bag.

Thanks for having me

Peace out Beatrices!

-Brandy

The Blog - brandy-son Zen master flash

The Shop

Where am I?

I'm not here today, but I am somewhere. Wanna know where I am? I'm here today. So come on over and show a little love!

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

brown chicken brown cow

y'all are probably wondering where i've been all week. well, i'll tell ya. i've been nursing sore joints and writing a guest post for miss andy. it's about the sexy time, so it took me awhile to build up the courage to write it.

anyvajazzle, i grabbed life by the family jewels and jumped in head first, and wrote a post about the sexy time. and not sexy time with the hubs, sexy time with someone other than the hubs! scandalous, i know!! 

anyway, i'm over here today talking about sex and that jazz! so, head on over and check me out. unless you're my mom, and in that case, just click the 'x' up there in the corner and close out of this, pronto! 

sexy saturdays with andy. it's sexy, yo!

hope y'all have a great (and sexy!) weekend. hopefully i'll be back to my old bloggy self come monday and i can catch all of you up on my birthday adventures! 

cupcakes with ks

Hello to the hive!

And yes, I have decided that if you follow my girl’s blog,

you are now part of the hive!

Moving on…

Let me introduce myself.

I’m ~KS from While We’re Waiting.

And when Miss Butterbean asked me to stop by and talk about birthdays…

I had to really think about it.

I mean…

talking about cupcakes, and balloons, and presents…

My favorite things?

Sounded a little rough.

But I sucked it up and here I am.

So…

Birthdays.

In the past few years…

I have taken to celebrating birthday months.

Cuz really…

Just one day to celebrate the fact that the people I love most are a part of this world…

Well, it’s just not enough.

Life moves too damn fast as it is…

So I like to slow down and celebrate the good stuff in a big way.

The celebrations must include treats.

I always buy myself a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

Last year…

Despite the fact it was twenty degress below zero,

My cake got a bit… disfigured.

I’m also a big fan of birthday cupcakes…

So any birthday celebration that’s worth anything will have at least a couple dozen of these!

A proper birthday must also have balloons…

A crap ton of balloons to be a bit more specific.

I don’t know what it is about balloons…

But to me,

They’re synonymous with happiness.

Hmmm…

So what if we combined cupcakes and balloons?

Kinda perfect.

But I disgress.

And of course,

PRESENTS!

Ideally…

Mountains of them!

And while the presents themselves are fabulous,

I actually enjoy wrapping them the most.

But this is just what I imagine when I conjure up the most epic birthday celebration of all time in my mind.

But as much as I might have made it seem as if this post was all about me…

It’s not.

It’s about our birthday butterbean!

So however you spend your day my sweet friend,

I hope it’s everything you could dream of and more.

It’s your day…

The day you buzzed into this world and made it better by just being you.

And that is definitely something worth celebrating!

my canadian chickadee, melly melly dee

i absolutely lurve my next guest poster. she's my favourite canadian (get it, favoUrite? cause she's canadian? gawd i'm hilarious) of all time. i found her on the twit first, and didn't even know that she blogged for an extremely long time, but once i found her blog, i was hooked. some people call her melissa, some people call her mel, i call her melly melly dee because honestly? that's mo' gangsta. and you know that's how we roll, yo.

When I was asked to do a guest post on the subject of ‘birthdays’, I had no idea what to write about.  

Best birthday ever?  Maybe the one where we went bowling?

Worst birthday ever?  Ehn?  Can’t think of anything.

I think part of the problem is birthdays in general.

I'm kind of over it. I don't feel the need for parties or presents. I am happy just going out to supper with a small group of friends or just my husband and just be relaxed and enjoy myself.

I'll be 30 on my next birthday.  I'm actually looking forward to it. I think I'm starting to look older too. People aren't surprised when I tell them my age. They used to be. 

No grey hair yet. Wrinkles are starting; just around my eyes. Laugh lines! I don't begrudge my laugh lines though. Not everyone has the chance to get them.

I think birthdays may be overrated a little. I mean, all it proves is that you still haven't died. There are six billion other people that are doing that every day.  

Although, next year when my husband & I turn 30, I think we should actually do something big.  What, I don’t know yet.  So far I’m thinking:

-

Quiet romantic weekend away.

-

Weekend away to closest casino (Blackjack!).

-

Weekend away to see a sporting event.

I’m willing to take suggestions.

crazy lady andy girl

i just came across our next guest poster not that long ago, but i wish i would have found her a lot earlier! this chick is witty, smart, an amazing writer, and has some awesome stories. she's got the most adorable cat (check out her etsy shop to help out with jete's cancer treatment!) and takes the most amazing pictures. as you can tell, i may have a biiiit of a girl crush on miss andy. check out her blog, follow her on the twit, go buy some of her stuff, just be prepared for a little crazy with a side of awesome sauce.

Firstly, I’d like to get the important stuff out of the way and wish Butterbean a happy birthday! I hope you partied it up good(ly) (because I just can’t misuse an adverb)! 

I love birthdays. They’re like the best holidays ever. I mean, does anyone really care about Labor Day? Nooo. But everyone cares about birthdays. Even people who say they hate their birthdays love their birthdays. 

It’s like, a law of nature or something. 

And what’s not to love? A day all about you and people give you things and eat lots of food and sweets in your honor. And as you get older, people consume copious amounts of alcohol just to celebrate that you! were born! 

Does it get better than that? 

Nopetty nope. 

Growing up, I didn’t love my birthdays (shocking, I know) because I had to share them with my mom. We have the same birthday and she’d throw us elaborate birthday parties that were really all about her and to show off what amazingness she could produce. If I’d had my way, it would have been my closest friends, a sheet cake, a plate of carrots, and a day of cartoon watching or running around on a slip n slide. 

Easy peasy. 

So now I make up for it. And I’ve had some kickass birthdays in my adult years. I’ve had some great times with friends, gone dancing, been cooked an amazing meal by my host mom in France, and eaten some amazing meals. The best birthdays, really, were spent with great people and great food. 

Which brings me to my favorite birthday thus far: my 28th. 

I decided I wanted something intimate. I wanted to do something to show my best friends how much I loved them. So I invited my closest and bestest (even though some couldn’t come), drug my dining room table to my front patio, hung japanese latnerns and twinkle lights, set out my mother’s china, cooked 4 courses of cuisine I like to call Andy-esque, lit candles, and poured the wine. 

We spent the evening eating and laughing and telling great stories under the night sky. It was gorgeously decadent and lovely. Perfect, even. All I need to celebrate my birth. 

All I need to celebrate my life. 

becky is my favorite

if you know me at all, you'll know that i couldn't have a guest post week without having my lovah do a post for me. becky is my favorite person in the world. seriously, she is. she's funny, she's a texas gal (although i don't think she likes it much) and she's baby butterbean's godmother of badassness. plus she's seriously tall, has two different color eyes, and she's smokin hot. just ask her fiance chuck. anyvajazzle, check out her blog, hit her up on the twit, drop her an email, whatevs, just know that when you fall in love with her, you can't have her. chuck and i already have dibs.

beans is partying it up on her buuuuurfday! what's she doing? something awesome, you can be sure. she's probably drinking champagne from crystal champagne cups, er whatever you call them, you fancy people. in honor of bean's burfday week, i wanted to tell you a little about a little party that happened a long time ago to a little becky, far, far away.

when we moved back to the states from italy, my dad bought a bus. a bus? you say? yes. a bus. and then he converted it into an RV type-a thing. he did indeed. it had beds and more beds and a table that turned into a bed and a stove and cabinets AND you could climb up on the roof and just HANG OUT! it was SO cool.

for my 12th birthday, my mother somehow convinced me that a bus based birthday party would be awwwwesome. what better than a bus, than a dress-up party! nothing!

i busted out my kaboodle, my bright pink lipstick (is there any other kind?) and bedazzled black shirt and it was PARTY TIME!

so the bus. he didn't paint the outside. no, he left the outside very bus-like. it was orangey and delicious. and people would say, "oh, the house with the bus?" and i would say, "schmessh." really softly. EVEN THOUGH! the house is like up a hill and not right on the road, for heavens sake. he could of at least put that thing in the back pasture.

however, the INSIDE of the bus had beds and tables that turned into beds and a stove and a really awesome bathroom that we weren't allowed to use and an awesome captain's chair. imagination station, anyone? all aboard! oh, right. it also ended up having bees in there but that's ok because the roof was the best part. it was flat and it was high up and IT HAD A LADDER! I KNOW! ladders are the fucking shit!

and that's the time that you were like, damn! becky's hot in bedazzled eighties shirt and really short skirt. even when she was 12.

so salti she's sweet

i was so excited when this lady said she'd guest post for my birthday week! i came across her blog somehow and fell in love, then when i found her on the twit, i was hooked! she's funny, she's a jet-setter, and she posts the most hilarious pics evah! ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for ms. salti! 

I can’t seem to get around to blogging on my own blog, so why not offer to guest post for a fellow bloggy friend? Sounds good to me!

Our subject for today is:  Birthdays

I seem to have bad mojo when it comes to birthdays… For some reason, something always happens that kind of ruins the day for me.  So, a few years ago, I decided that leaving town for my birthday would help alleviate the drama.  That was when the annual Vegas birthday trip was born, and let me tellya, I love Vegas!

Three years back was the first trip with my friends Paul, Brittany and Karen.  We went down for three days and were there on my actual birthday.  Paul’s dad hooked us up with what we thought was going to be an awesome free room for the weekend.  Yes, it was free, no it was not awesome.  The room we ended up in was two levels with the bedroom in a loft on the second floor.  There was a hot tub in the middle landing of the stairs, and let’s just say that when we got in and turned the jets on, hairballs came flying out.  EWWW!!!! The rest of the trip was pretty great however, so we let that slide.

The next year some girlfriends and I decided to celebrate all of our birthdays in Vegas (as they’re all within two weeks of each other) and planned the trip for a weekend in between them all.  My friend Lisa’s sister works for one of the hotel companies and hooked us up with a great deal on rooms.  I think there were a total of seven of us and we had an absolute blast!  We went out every night, picked up boys, drank and danced the nights away!  It was fantastic.  That was the year that I “got involved” with the bartender from the casino at our hotel who, incidentally, I later found out was married!  Yeah, ridiculous!

The third trip was last December and, once again, it was epic.  We got the hook up from Lisa’s sister again and stayed at the same hotel.  I was super excited to see the bartender again and sweat him a bit.  If you cross me, you better watch yourself!  We spent most of our nights out at Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar” in Harrah’s and had so much fun!  On more than one occasion throughout these trips we’ve stayed out until the sun came up and decided that nothing “good” happens after 3 AM… that was our curfew for this year!

That brings me to this year’s trip, which we took in October just a couple of months early.  We decided we were sick of going to play in Vegas when it was cold and we wanted to spend some time at the pool.  Plus, going on vacation right before Christmas makes finances a little tight.  If you want to read about the last few years’ posts, you can click on the “Vegas” labels on my blog. I’ve recapped the first day of our trip over on my blog and will be getting to days 2 and 3 this week, so stop by and take a look!

birfdays are for wieners!

y'all my birthday is on monday!!

happy birthday to me

have you gotten me anything yet? no? don't worry, you've got all weekend to pick something out. although you should have been putting a lot of thought into it already! 

anyvajazzle, i've had a few bloggers begging me to let them guest post for me, and i figured that it would be a terrific present if they did it the week of my birthday! 

ok, that's not 100% true, it was pretty much me begging some of my favorite bloggers, not the other way around. but, that's aside from the fact. next week i'm taking the week off to lay around and let my servants wait on me hand and foot. ok, that's not true either. i will be taking the week off from blogging, but much to my disappointment, i don't have servants. maybe y'all could pitch in and get me some for my birthday? 

so, while y'all are hunting down gifts for me, i'll have some of my favorite bloggers guest posting for me!! i'm extremely excited about this y'all! so be sure and check back next week for a little birthday love!

hope y'all have a great weekend, if you want, you can use my birthday as an excuse to party your tails off!

pee ess? here's a little birthday present from me to you: click here

dropping love bombs

you can also check me out over here today!

first off, i need to apologize for this post being late. i normally get my drop a love bomb post up first thing thursday morning, but yesterday was hectic! my niece is here visiting (i've *definitely* got a post coming up about that!), i had to get baby butterbean to the doctor for an impromptu visit, then there was a root canal directly after lunch for me, and to top it all off, the three valium i took before the dentist appointment didn't kick in until afterward, so i spent most of the rest of the afternoon drooling in my grandmother's living room floor. needless to say, i was in no condition to write a post! but, it's not to late to get those love bombs dropped, so here's this week's mission!

normally we drop a love bomb on just one person, but this week we're shaking things up a bit. we're dropping a love bomb on the *entire chicago fire department*!!

Chris Wheatley, one of their firefighters, died in the line of duty on august 9th.

this mission is going to work out to be two-fold:

1) to encourage, support and comfort the chicago fire department as they've lost a brother in duty.

2) to thank the chicago fire department for serving their community so faithfully.

y'all know that i'm also involved with the organization itstartswithus and their mission this week is to help out a service worker. well every once and awhile, they team up to help drop a love bomb, so this week we're joining them!

it seems like every week the mission hits me personally in some way, and this week's mission is no different. my husband was a firefighter for eight years. i have witnessed first hand the brotherhood that exsists in these departments. these guys (and girls!) are family, and when one dies in the line of duty, it's just like losing a very close family member.

i fully believe that firemen are unsung heroes. they risk their lives daily and normally don't get a single thanks. and most of the time the pay is a joke, but they still do the work, mainly because they love it.

but now is our time to give them something back. every single member of the department is hurting after losing their brother. let's step up and make sure they know how much we appreciate what they do, and bring them the comfort they need.

let's drop a love bomb y'all!

you can leave a comment on the chicago fire department's blog here:
http://cfdblaze.com/2010/08/cffu-local-2-tom-ryan/

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

it's time!!

the time has come!! wanna know who won the CSNStores giftcard giveaway?

you do!? 

ok, well, first, head on over to ms. salti's and check out my guest post!!

and then, check out this cute picture!

are you ready to know now??? ok, fine, here it is:

haha fooled you! ok, seriously, on to the winner....

are you ready? 

drum roll please.......

and the winner is:

jenna from corgipants

congrats lady!! send me your email!

thanks for entering y'all,  and don't fret if you didn't win, i've got another big surprise coming soon!! 

Dropping Love Bombs

remember when i told y'all about drop a love bomb?

well, some other bloggers and i have teamed up with lauren from drop a love bomb to kind of further spread the word about the project. here's the way it works: every thursday we get a new "assignment," basically, what that means is there's someone who needs love, encouragement, cheering up, etc., and we "drop a love bomb" in the form of a comment on their blog. today's assignment is one that i can definitely relate to.

bria is a 22 year old who has been struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety. she checked herself into the hospital back in june looking to get help. she was put on medication, and for awhile, things were starting to look up. but, in her words, she eventually relapsed, and is now suicidal.

i have been in her shoes before, and it breaks my heart to see someone who thinks they have nothing left to live for.

i know that words are just words, but even words from a stranger can help tremendously.

in the words of lauren, "written encouragement and love have such incredible power in times like these."

i'm hoping that all of my followers will join us in trying to bring some light back into bria's life. i know that it helped me to hear kind words when i was in her position, and i'm hoping that she'll feel the love that we're sending her way.

let's drop a love bomb on bria!

you can comment on her blog here:
http://devilishdelish.com/2010/08/08/this-life-is-a-struggle-and-i-am-ready-to-give-up/


pee ess - you can also find me guest posting over here today!