Old School Blogging – April Edition

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Jackie

This has to be my favorite post of the week! Why? Well, because it’s so incredibly easy and it’s a lot of fun kickin’ it old school style with everyone! I was pretty excited when I was tagged last month by Heather and immediately wrote my post and linked up.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great bloggers who are taking part in Old School Blogging with Heather from Theta Mom and Elaine from The Miss Elaine-ous Life.

How did your husband pop the big question?

There was a restaurant next to the office that we worked in and my husband had borrowed the keys from them for an evening. I knew nothing of what he had planned but I did suspect that something was going on because he refused to tell me what we were doing that evening. He pulled in some friends of ours and she came and picked me up… of course I couldn’t look where we were going and with my eyes closed she led me into a building.

I opened my eyes to a rose petal path that led to a table with a huge vase of roses with my husband standing next to it. It was then that he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

After that we all went out to eat together to celebrate.

What are the three most surprising things about married life?

When you first start dating you try your best to look good all the time and are conscious of just about everything. Then time passes and you start to get comfortable with one another until there is barely nothing that you don’t do in front of one another. Except going to the bathroom…. I draw the lines there.

Patience. It takes a lot of patience not only to deal with kids but a husband too. Oh… and a sick one on top of that!

How did you find out you were preggers for the first time?

Really?!?! You expect me to remember over 18 years ago? I’ll be honest… I don’t remember the exact details. I’m sure that I missed my period and started to worry. I was young… a mere 22 years old and went to a pregnancy resource center where they confirmed it. I was shocked to say the least.

How did you choose your first baby’s name?

I poured though book after book searching for the right name. I finally settled on Caitlin which is the Irish form of Catherine which is my mother’s name.

Describe where you see yourself 10 years from now…

Chances are I’ll be in the exact same spot that I am now. On the couch, watching TV with my husband while we both surf the internet, work, and/or read! I

We’ll still have one kid left at home who will be 13 while the other ones will be 27, 23, and 21. God forbid I’ll be a grandparent….

I know… it’s an exciting life that I lead.

Describe how you find bliss either by using words or images.

Diet Coke…

Diet Dr. Pepper…

Image courtesy of Pinterest

Books & baking. Two of my absolute favorite things ever.

I can always get lost in a book and find my escape from every day life and the craziness that it can be. Baking is the same for me… it’s something that brings me joy, happiness, and it’s another way to relax.

Have you linked up yet? Come on…. you know you want to! Old School Blogging is a lot of fun!

Link up and don’t forget to use the #OSBlog hash tag and start some conversation on Twitter!

Old School Blogging ~ March Edition

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Jackie

So I opened up Twitter yesterday afternoon and saw that I was tagged by Theta Mom and of course I followed the link to see what it was all about.

Old School Blogging! Yup… getting back to some fun basics. Stuff that we all used to do when we first started this blogging thing many years ago. Fun stuff like silly memes where we’d answer all sorts of questions about ourselves and then tag a bunch of other people in them and bounce around from blog to blog to see what their answers were.

Well, Heather from Theta Mom and Elaine from The Miss Elaine-ous Life are bringing some fun back to blogging old school style and I am so very happy to say that I was one of the first people tagged! Pretty cool, right? They plan on having a monthly meme complete with a linky so we can all share a little bit of bloggy love.

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #OSBlog on Twitter!

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Let’s see… 10 years ago was 2003. At that time I was the mom to 3 girls (8, 4, 1), working in retail, and never heard of blogging.

This is the oldest pic that I could find of the girls & I that was halfway decent.

2. What 5 things are on your to-do list?

Pack for Florida
Clean the house
Figure out how to entertain a 3 yr old on an airplane
Find a good blog designer who won’t charge me an arm & a leg
Lose 10 more pounds

3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

Hmm… healthy or not healthy?

Cookies – preferably homemade chocolate chip
Cucumbers with garlic salt & pepper
Triscuits
Hummus
Brownies

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire:

This one is easy!

Pay off my school loans and consider going back again
Set some aside for my kids college education
Buy a new house
Take a vacation

5. Name some places you have lived:

I have never left the great state of Michigan!

I’ve moved around the state a lot though. I was born in the metro Detroit area and lived in Taylor until I was 2 or 3, from there my parents built a house North Branch, and then once they got divorced the moving began. Holly, Fenton, Grand Blanc, Swartz Creek…. I finally gave up the moving thing and went to live with my dad in Lapeer and I stayed there until I was 19 or 20. After that I decided that Traverse City was a good place to live and I was there from 20 until 24. After that I moved one more time and I’ve been here ever since.

6. Name some bad habits you have:

I have a lot of bad habits! Geesh…

The one that I’ve had the most difficult time kicking is my love of Diet Coke… or Diet Dr. Pepper.

7. Name some jobs you have had:

Waitress, Jewelry sales clerk, Restaurant manager, Cake decorator, Baker, Bakery/Deli manager at Meijer, Systems Monitor, Tech support, UX designer, and Product Owner (similar to project manager).

8. Name those you are tagging for #OSBlog:

Jill, Jessica, Jen, Gigi, and Lauren.

Wordful Wednesday ~ Halloween!

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Jackie

I think that one of the reasons that I like fall so much is because of Halloween! It’s my favorite holiday of the entire year… costumes, pumpkins, spookiness, candy, and all the lore that goes along with it. There really is something magical about this time of year. The one thing that never gets old no matter how old you get is carving a pumpkin! We do it every year together as a family…. yea, sometimes I have to drag the teens to it but they always end up having fun.

See… having fun!

This year ~~Mr. I do it~~Andrew was old enough to help out and his contribution was coloring everyone’s pumpkin with a red marker or stabbing them with the carving knife.

Oh… he and his sister were so kind to refill the guts of my pumpkin right after I cleaned mine out. Of course they waited until I had turned around and was busy doing something else. I have a sneaking suspicion that they did it to a couple other pumpkins too because I had to clean them out when I went to put the candles in.

Look at that! They’re having fun… with family! It does happen more often then you’d think but sometimes it’s hard getting them to join in initially but it really is worth it in the end.

I think that towards the end that Caitlin and Andrew gave up…. heads down or watching Disney Jr.

Although Lauren with the biggest pumpkin ever took forever to carve hers and Natalie carved two in the same amount of time.

Look at that! All of the pumpkins are carved and well lit on the kitchen table! It’s kind of hard to see but two of the pumpkins are characters from Adventure Time and one of the smaller ones has Adventure Time carved into it… all courtesy of Caitlin & Natalie.

I saved the best for last…. my pumpkin! The girls told me that it looked like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland but that’s not what I was going for. What do you think?

Hey… it’s Wednesday! That means that I’m linking up with Seven Clown Circus and Parenting by Dummies.

Lego Kids Fest Giveaway!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Jackie

Who doesn’t love playing with Lego’s? I mean you can sit down with… or without your kids and just create things for hours! Houses, cars, elaborate mansions, and all sorts of things. Seriously, they will occupy all of my of my kids from the oldest to the youngest and even my husband!

So what’s a mom to do on a cold fall day who’s looking for something new to do with her family?

Lego KidFest of course!

Lego KidsFest! October 12 – 14 in Novi, Michigan!

The LEGO KidsFest is a giant traveling LEGO expo coming to the Suburban Collection Showplace, a mere 30 minutes from downtown Detroit, October 12 – 14, 2012. This hands-on, educational, all-ages LEGO extravaganza features millions of LEGO bricks not to mention lots of construction zones, dozens of life-sized LEGO models and displays, LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Games, group builds such as Creation Nation, live LEGO Master Builders, and so much more covering three acres of space.

I am looking forward to going and spending a few hours building all sorts of crazy creations! It’ll be a tie who gets the toddler & who gets to explore with the older kids though… maybe we’ll have to trade on and off! If you’re thinking of going you should probably get your tickets early because they tend to sell out pretty fast! There are 5 sessions that are all exactly the same.

Friday, October 12
4 pm – 8:30 pm

Saturday, October 13
Session I: 9 am – 1:30 pm
Session II: 3 pm – 7:30 pm

Sunday, October 14
Session I: 9 am – 1:30 pm
Session II: 3 pm – 7:30 pm

Then you’re in luck because I am giving away two tickets to Lego KidsFest in Novi to the Friday, October 12th from 4-8:30pm show!

And if you’re not sure check out some of these great activities!

• LEGO Model Gallery: 40 life-sized models made entirely from LEGO bricks
• LEGO Master Builders: live demonstrations and activities from the crew who get paid to play
• Creation Nation: build your own creation to add to a custom map of the U.S.
• Race Ramps: build your own custom car, then race it down the ramp against friends and family
• LEGO Games Arena: roll the dice to play LEGO board games
• Construction Zones: creative free build, play and display areas
• LEGO DUPLO®: younger visitors can explore imagination through building
• LEGO Retail and KidsFest Marketplace: purchase LEGO merchandise and official KidsFest tour goods
• Brick Pile: a gigantic pile full of LEGO bricks for creative play and enjoyment
• Monochromatic Builds: bricks of a single color to foster group creativity
• Brickscapes: fantastic displays that combine lots of LEGO and DUPLO sets

Fun right!

Okay, so how do you win? Use that super simple form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are a few fun Lego facts:

LEGO® is the contraction of two Danish words, “leg godt” which means “play well”.

There are about 62 LEGO® bricks for every one of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants.

19 billion LEGO® elements are produced every year. 2.16 million LEGO® elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.

Cool, huh?

Hey… guess what? If you want another chance to win enter over at Simply Raising 8 and Shawn Ann’s World!

Tickets to LEGO KidsFest were received for the purpose of this post. All opinions are that of my own.

When a toddler learns to use the iPhone camera

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Jackie

Cheese!! That’s what I kept hearing over and over again while Andrew was playing with my phone. I didn’t think much of it because I figured that he wouldn’t know how to work the camera or anything like that. Often he just looks at the phone and says cheese because he knows I use the camera to take pictures. No big deal…. he was just playing.

Well, guess what? I was wrong. Yup, you got it…. the toddler figured out how to open the camera app and then how to take a picture. When I looked there he was, face so close to the screen that the only pictures taken were of one eye or his forehead, taking picture after picture.

From the grainy look of it and the fact that you can see about a quarter of his face you can guess how close he had the camera. But there is a definite smile on his adorable face.

Once I figured out what he was doing I had to try and get in on the action. I thought that maybe I’d get one or two cute pictures of the two of us together. Nope… just a pic of his forehead (again) and me looking like a crazy lady.

This one is my favorite and not only because you can see most of his face. What I love about it is how happy he looks, how it captures his pure joy, his fondness for having fun, and of course mischief. This picture captures the pure essence of Andrew. Could there be a better picture?

I’ll be honest… I did delete some but I kept a few just because they were cute and halfway decent. Most of all they’re memories that capture mere moments in time that are fun, special, and were a learning moment that made him happy.

Tell me…. have you found similar pictures on your phone or camera?

Of course it’s Wednesday and that means that I am linking up with Seven Clown Circus and Parenting by Dummies!

With Just a Bit of Magic

Tag Archives: fun

Old School Blogging – April Edition

Old School Blogging ~ March Edition

Wordful Wednesday ~ Halloween!

Lego Kids Fest Giveaway!

When a toddler learns to use the iPhone camera