Gotta Love 4 Day Weekends!

Isn't it funny how you spend almost 2 days getting ready for one meal that takes less than an hour to eat!  :-)  But it's so worth it!

We were blessed again this year to provide Thanksgiving dinner for a local family.  I bought their turkey the same time as ours and walked out of the store with 43 lbs of turkey!  I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving is loading up the back of the car and dropping off that meal on Tue evening!

For our meal, the kids were delighted to have Nana and Papa come eat with us!  It was a beautiful day too, so they were able to get some time outside to play while I worked on the big meal.

Thanks to my slow cookers, everything was done and warm at the same time!  Like usual, I made the meal free of soy, dairy, gluten, peanuts and tree nuts so everyone could eat everything.  We found a new treat this year, Rice Whip!

Of course it's not a holiday without matching jammies!

I did a little bit of black Friday shopping on Thursday night, but overall, I wasn't really feeling it this year.  Instead, I rang the Salvation Army bell during the day on Friday.  I think this will make a  much better tradition than fighting crowds for stuff we don't really need anyway!  The boys were sweet to visit me and bring coffee.

Saturday, we put up the tree!  This was the first year that Konny really got into it! 

We hung up our stockings...

Finally, our Elf on the Shelf, Hartzell, returned to us.  He's up to his usual elf antics already!

It was back to work and school this morning! 
By the end of the week, I'm sure we'll all already be looking forward to Christmas vacation!

Review & Giveaway: Glitzology Polish

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am loving indie polish lately.  Glitzology is a newer indie brand but her polishes are awesome!  I'm slightly ashamed to admit the amount of time I've spent perusing etsy and polish blogs looking at all the sparklies, yet Glitzology has some awesome color combos that I had yet to come across.

When polish comes in the mail, it makes any day great!  I do believe Katie was equally excited for these pretties to arrive in the mail!  Naturally, she went straight for the pink, "Disco Barbie".

 

The first color I tried was Country Girl.  I picked this specifically because of Konny's love of John Deere tractors.  I figured I have some nieces who will like it too!

 

I tried this out over Sinful Colors Happy Ending, a naked nail, and Sinful Colors Let's Meet.  All 3 have a coat of Seche Vite on the top.  I'm going to say I prefer the green undercoat but that is probably just because of my preference for green in general.

 

Next, Katie and I tried Disco Barbie.  I love how dense the tiny pink glitters are.  I did have to dig a little to find some stars.

Finally, we have Crunch Berries.  I tried this over Sinful Colors Let's Meet, naked nails and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  The white makes it look like a bowl of Cap'n Crunch!  I'm not sure which I prefer.  I just all around love these glitters!

I am so excited to have an extra Crunch Berries to give away! 

It is such a fun color!

Right now you can get 20% off you entire order at Glitzology when you enter the code ILOVEGLITTER20 at checkout.  Be sure to check the shop notes first as there are often sales and coupon codes that are even better!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was provided a Crunch Berries polish for my review and one to giveaway by Glitzology.  All opinions are my own and may differ from other's experience.

 

Green Mountain Fair Trade Certified Coffee

As much as I love coffee, I love it even more when it's fair trade!  What's better than having a global impact when you brew up your morning cup of joe!?

With flavorful Fair Trade Certified Green Mountain Coffee, you're ensuring a better cup of coffee for yourself and a better quality of life for farmers. Your purchase doesn't just impact farmers — it benefits the surrounding communities, too.

Buying Fair Trade coffee...

Helps farmers get a fair price for their beans

Improves working conditions

Assists in protecting the environment

Supports community development with projects resulting in new schools, roads, health clinics and safer drinking water

Fair Trade Green Mountain is not only a great up of coffee packed with good vibes, it also..

Has a delightful, quality selection of Fair Trade Certified^™ coffees available for everyone's taste and enjoyment, including Colombian Fair Trade Select and Sumatran Reserve

Offers a delicious assortment of seasonal Fair Trade Certified^™ flavored coffees (such as Pumpkin Spice and Spicy Eggnog), to perfectly balance your coffee with the weather

Is the leading brand in K-Cup^® packs for Keurig^® brewers

Is available in most grocery stores, Target and Wal-Mart and online at GreenMountainCoffee.com and Keurig.com

Includes one of the largest selections of Fair Trade Certified^™ coffees in the U.S.

Green Mountain Coffee recently teamed up with acclaimed musicians Grace Potter and Michael Franti, taking them to Fair Trade farming communities in Colombia and Sumatra .  Too see a behind the scenes look at each trip and be there for the journey as Grace and Michael learn about the impact Fair Trade has on farming communities, be sure to LIKE Green Mountain Coffee on Facebook.

Of course, it's not a celebration without a party, and there's no party without some great music. Be sure to return to Green Mountain's Facebook page to view live concert stream on Nov 13 at 9pm EST as Grace Potter rocks New York City with her stunning voice and Michael Franti revs up the crowd with his infectiously energetic performance.

Disclosure:  I am a BzzAgent.  Coupons and samples for Green Mountain Coffee were provided to me for my review.  The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experience.

Just Keep Running. Just Keep Running.

Despite a brief break due to a slight ankle sprain, I'm still at it!  I really wasn't sure how I would take to running in the cold, but it's not so bad.  I'm making sure to keep up with my maintenance inhaler and I'm sure that's made a huge difference.

On Oct 20th, I was excited to run a 5K to benefit Winfield's Food Pantry.  My home town!  It was also my first time to run with a childhood friend, Melissa, who used to have a serious adversion to exercise and even used to hide my workout clothes.  Now she loves to run!  Our friend, Chris, from high school ran too.  I ran 9:27 min/miles which was a personal best for me.

I've kind of developed this thing about painting my nails to match whatever I'm wearing for the next day.  I've done it for all 7 events I've participated in this year.

 

Last weekend was an 8K for the Erin is Hope Foundation.  It was chilly!  I ran with Chris and Tammy.  I was sure there was no way I'd run under 10 min miles, but my official time was 48:17!

 

I used one of my new polishes from Different Dimension to match my KSU shirt.  I am loving indie polish lately and Different Dimension has some awesome colors!  Plus she recently released her Christmas line and it's sooo sparkly!

 

 

I am no where near fast, but I keep going the entire time and keep striving for personal bests AND I'm having fun!!

 

I think one of my favorite parts of the IHR 8K was all the vendors!  They even had little chocolate shaped shoes.  Can you believe I forgot to grab one in my desperate search for coffee....which even turned out to be Starbucks!

 

The next event is the 2 mile Turkey Trot on 11/17.   Kelton and I are running it together and we are so excited!  After that we're running the Reindeer Run 5K here in town on 12/15.  Can't wait!

Happy Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was super busy!  From the moment we got up, we were going going going!  Until bedtime that is, when we all slept really well!

Kelton had 2 costumes this year. He'd already decided on a ninja when we discovered his costume for school needed to be a "good" character.  Thankfully, Mimi was able to whip up some scrubs really quick and he was Dentist Kelton.  Anyone need their wisdom teeth extracted?

After we got Kelton sent off to school, we started our day with Konny's therapy appt.  They kids loved wearing their costumes to Heartspring.

After Konny's therapy, the littles had a quick nap, while I got everything ready for Kelton's class party.  No pictures from the party, but it was lots of fun! 

Afterwards, since the kids were already in their costumes, we went over to the local nursing home and handed out muffins to the residents.  The kids loved it and the director told us that not nearly enough people visit like that, so we will definitely be making it a regular thing!

After the nursing home, we waited for Daddy to get home from work and for Jason, Dolly and Braylee to arrive and it was time to Trick or Treat!!

 

After our traditional Halloween hamburger vegetable stew, it was time for baths and matching jammies!  The kids weren't exactly cooperative at this point.  Overall though, it was a great night and we can't wait until next year!