28in28 Recap: Things I learned

Good Morning Everyone, 

Today marks the end of my 28 posts in 28 days challenge! 

I have to say I was really excited to start this challenge but I am even more excited that I completed it! It was a fun challenge to undertake and I did learn some really important things along the way!

1) I do not like to post on Sundays. For some reason I never seem to have enough focus to know what I want to write for Sundays. The weekends are usually either busy or they are spent being a little lazy, either way I will be very glad to get back to writing five times a week with weekends off! 

2) I learned to start having my phone at the ready for pictures. This might seem silly but I actually caught a lot more moments because I was thinking about sharing them on the blog. I don't want all the pictures to come to the blog of course and I don't want to be one of those people that are like "STOP! Don't move! I need to blog this!" But I am glad that I actually thought to grab the camera and capture some of the adorable moments. Pictures really do make a blog post more fun and exciting. Even if they are just ones on your phone. I honestly don't mind that they aren't high quality pictures but I am going to try and use the fancy camera a little more!

3) On that same note- it pays to make designs on PicMonkey. I really like creating them for one thing and they are really eye catching to post on Pinterest or on Facebook. I usually get more hits on a post if I take the time to make a cute "logo" type thing! 

4) Having a schedule for blogging is very helpful. I am not sure why I fight schedules so much...maybe it's like a flashback to school or something? Well call me officially converted to scheduling. Even if I didn't use the post I scheduled for the day I had options that even led to better ideas for posts! 

5) My blog might not be big or have a huge following but the following I do have is amazing! You all have been so supportive with your comments. You kept me motivated to finish this challenge and to come back here and write every single day this past month! Thank you all so very much! 

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a break. See you back here in March....on Monday. 

 

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My Books of 2014

Good Morning Everyone, 

So about a week (or was it two weeks?) ago I was going to join the Show Us Your Books linkup....but as per usual my disorganized brain didn't get things together in time and I missed it. 

Lucky for me GoodReads decided to remind me that I wanted to do this post by sending me the completed list of the books that I read for my 2014 challenge. I had challenged myself to read 52 books (a book a week) last  year because I wasn't sure how much reading I would get done having a 1 year old in the house. 

I am happy to report I did indeed reach my goal (plus additional ones that I totally forgot to upload to my GoodReads Account. Whomp. Whomp.) even if that goal was reached through several sleepless nights where I simply could not put the book down or out of fear that I would have to wait several hours to know what happened if I didn't finish right away. 

Out of those 52 books  I thought I would share with you my top five for the year! 

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

This book was a stay up all night-gotta find out what happens next-type of book. It was totally not what I expected when I picked it up! Really enjoyed it and it made me very nervous about when Kyra goes to school!

Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service by Beth Kendrick

This is another book that took me by surprise! It was on the shelf at Barnes and Nobel as one of the employee favorites and I have to agree! I love dogs and this story was just the right amount of doggy/chic lit fun!

School For Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

This is the first in a series and I have to say I am really looking forward to the rest of the books. This takes a different look at what is considered "good" and "evil". I loved every minute of it! 

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Oh Stephen King.....you sure do know how to terrify a girl! This book was equal parts scary and mind game worthy! There is a particular scene that has scarred me for life. It is a sequel to The Shining and is a wonderful read for all those that wondered what happened to little Danny after the hotel!

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

 I know that this book is a top favorite just because I have actually re-read it already! I loved the characters, I loved the time setting, and for some reason this resonated with me deeply. Maybe it is because Lincoln was a nerd or maybe it is because I too am prone to "over sharing" via technology!

I hope that if you haven't read these books you give them a chance and if you wanna see all 52 books that I finished you can check them out here.

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The Christmas Quest

Good Morning Everyone,

Today I'm going to tell you a little story. 

Every year it seems like around this time we find ourselves with a Quest.

This year's quest? 

Finding the elusive ornament. 

Every year we get a Hallmark ornament. Sunday we decided we would go shopping for ours this year. We got to the store and it was super crowded and it was making Kyra pretty fussy so we stepped outside to look up the options online.

The online listings had a lot more ornaments than we saw in the store but there were two ornaments in particular that we knew we had to have. 

Behold "Baby Mine"  and "The Great White Menace" 

 I wanted "Baby Mine" for Kyra for sure. I love the movie Dumbo of course but the song in particular always makes me cry..in a good way! Bobby had to have Jaws just because it had the theme song and well you know it's JAWS!!

Both were out of stock at the Hallmark we were at so we drove to another Hallmark a few miles away. 

Out of stock. 

So we get on the phone and call the mall that is about 45 minutes away. Out of stock. The girl then tells us that these two particular ornaments were very popular this year and they have been out of stock for weeks. 

You may not know this about Bobby and me but we are competitive and now that we know these are hard to find...it has become a Quest!

Ornament Challenge: ACCEPTED

We look up the numbers for all the Hallmark stores in a 100 mile radius and Bobby starts calling. 

Out of stock. Out of Stock. Out of Stock. 

Finally he finds a store that has "Baby Mine". They put it on hold for us but they don't have "Jaws". 

The calls continue. 

Success! There is one store that has the display model of "Jaws" left and they are willing to sell it to us...however we have to pick it up that night! 

So we drop Kyra off at my parents and get on our way. Both stores that we have to get to are a LONG way away....and it is 3pm by now....the stores close at 5pm. 

It's a race against time. 

We arrive at the first store by 4pm and pick up "Baby Mine". It's finally ours! SO PRETTY!

One down....now we just have to get our fishy friend!

As we start the journey to the other store we notice that one of Kyra's toys has become lodged under Bobby's seat. 

We now have to listen to Polly Wolly Doodle....for 40 minutes. No joke. 

 

 At last we arrive and the lovely ladies sell us our toothy friend!! 

Victory!!!

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