Smelly winner!

My Yankee Candle giveaway has burned out and the winner is....

I'm not telling quite yet. First I'll tell you that the winner was chosen by Matt picking a number, and then I counted to that number on the comments.

Matt picked 5 because we are May birthdays...

So that makes the winner MICHELLE!! you can check michelle out at www.rationalliving.blogspot.com --she's on this crazy endeavor (sorry Michelle!) to have her family live under the guidelines of WWII rations for a year! I'm going to find her story very interesting. Matt and Michelle are old elementary school friends and she's up yonder in Topeka.

Have a great weekend. Michelle, I'll get your candle in the mail soon!

Another Giveaway!!

Happy busy-preparation-for-Thanksgiving Day to everyone!

If you are travelling this holiday weekend- I wish you very safe (and sane) travels!

I wish I could have giveaways as awesome as thepioneerwoman.com but I'm just not that cool, I don't have sponsors, and I don't have the money! However, I'm going to try to do some small fun ones around here just to keep ya coming back for more.

Lean in real close to your computer and take a big sniff. Can you smell this?

It is a medium-jar (burn time 65-90 hours) from Yankee Candle in the Home for the Holidays scent. It is one of my favorite candles to burn this time of year.

And since I know that most of you are going to be really cranking out the Christmas decor and spirit now that Turkey day is about over, I'm going to give one lucky winner this candle. Then your house can smell as fabulous as your Christmas decorations will look.

Valid in the continental US only, void where prohibited. heehee

To enter this fabulously scented contest, just leave a comment answering this question:

What is your favorite holiday tradition, old or new? Is there something that you've carried on to your family from your own childhood? Is there something you decided to start last year?

Christmas Eve we always go to church, then come back to our house to eat, and watch "A Christmas Story." I think I've been doing that since at least junior high, and we do it here now. I even call the church around the corner to see what time their service is, just in case the weather is bad and we can't get to our own church!

We also started a tradition several years ago where we make reindeer food, and sprinkle it around the house on Christmas Eve day. Matt and Brooke (and now Hannah) do the sprinkling, and I photograph. It is made with oatmeal, colored sugars, and some glitter (so that it is reflective, and the reindeer can see there is food at this house and be sure to stop!). Brooke loves doing it, and it's a fun little activity to keep us entertained as the excitement builds on that day!

So...what's your tradition?

Entries will be taken until Black Friday at noon. Winner will be randomly drawn from a hat. Tell your friends to make a stop at LittleWorthWhileMoments for their chance to win too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tidbit Tuesday

Today's post is just going to be a bunch of random tidbits about my family and I. Nothing too earth shattering, just fun little facts. We won't include body weight or anything terrible like that!

Angie's Tidbits:
I am an Iowa girl.
I am a Mexican food lover. Taco Pizza is even my favorite pizza.
I spend too much time on facebook/playing Bejeweled.
I love love love random acts of kindness. I just love to do small things to make people happy.
I love to read smutty romance novels, though I have branched out to the Janet Evanovich books and the Twilight books- neither of which have much smut.
I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that my favorite hobby is baking.
I have to sleep at least with my feet covered. Even if I'm hot, I have to have at the very least, one foot under the blankets. It makes me feel safer. Because I'm sure a sheet would save me from the boogey man.

Matt's Tidbits (and my ambien is starting to kick in so this could get interesting).
Matt is exhausted/wiped out /burnt out from work and working on his pilot's license. He's sooo close to be signed off to do his check-ride, he just has to make it a little further. But he's just tired. It is not fun for anyone. Thank goodness we've got a 4 day weekend.
I'm not sure what kind of food is Matt's absolute favorite-- he does love a good burger, and he also loves chinese food.
Matt does not have a love/hate relationship with my baking hobby. He just loves it.
Matt has a better pillow than mine. So as soon as I shove him out of bed at 345, I promptly move said pillow to the middle of the bed for the last 3 hrs of my sleep!
Matt has long skinny toes. Just in case you wanted to know.

Brooke's Tidbits:
I can't figure out what is going on with her on her clothing. Here i thought we were all set, and she must have grown like an absolute weed because I'm having to get her more pants/jeans. And now i look at our long sleeved/sweatshirt stock, and a lot of those are too short too! I might have to buy her some clothes for christmas even though I already spent way more than we should have!
She has really reconnected with her creative side lately and loves sitting at the table creating all sorts of things with scissors, paper, glue, markers.
I hear her trying to sound out a word she sees, and it makes my heart happy.
The girl is a major wimp when it comes to hair tangles/getting her hair done.

Hannah's Tidbits:
Finally popped through another tooth!!! Number 11, another front bottom one. There is hope! I think we'll see another one real soon as she's got all her usual teething symptoms going on.
Getting pretty opinionated on whether or not she is going to put on shoes or a coat!
Very inconsistent eater. Some days, she'll eat a whole yogurt for brkfast. Other days, maybe 2 bites. Same with dinner; sometimes she'll eat mac and cheese or spaghetti, sometimes she won't.
Getting much better with her words, she says: juice, shoes, hair, ow, no, help, snack, MM's, bowl, please, door, car, dadda, momma, papa, gama, eyes, cake, night night, more, baby, hello, hi, bye, thank you, done, up, hoho, dog, meow, book, cheese. I'm sure there are others I just can't think of anymore of them right now!

I'm off to bed for now. Tour de Christmas and a giveaway coming soon!

No wonder our landfills are full...

I'm not an environmentalist kind of girl.

We don't recycle much.

I don't use re-usable grocery shopping bags. Though I intend to start when Hannah gets potty trained and I'm not reusing the Walmart sacks for poopy diapers. That truly is the reason we have not converted to the re-usables.

I like aerosol hairspray.

I drive an SUV.

However, I don't litter. I don't like styrofoam. I don't spray paint bridges (anymore).

But this week I discovered something that made me realize why our world is such a dump. Literally-the landfills are overflowing. I contribute a lot of it to ridiculous over-packaging. I've thought about this before- but this box of Zyrtec really has me irritated. Check this out:

Box of Zyrtec.

12 pills, each good for 12 hours. Which is six days. But with Matt and I taking them, that means it's enough Zyrtec for 3 days for both of us.

Inside the box; twelve of these:

This oversized, takes-an-act-of-God-to-get-open packages to hold these little pills that are maybe 1/4" in diameter.

Here's a frame of reference for you, that's a quarter laying there:

Now, do you really think that was necessary? How about 12 pills in a simple child-proof bottle?

This has really had me thoroughly irritated this week, to the point where I'm going to stick with my original plan to buy generic Zyrtec D. It's cheaper, and the packaging- while still not streamlined, is not nearly as ridiculous as this.

Thank you for reading my rant. It's a little journey off the beaten path before the loads-of-Christmas prepping posts that are likely to come very soon.

Thankful

What are you thankful for?!

My cousin-in-law posted on her blog her top 10 things she is thankful for, and challenged fellow bloggers to do the same. So here I am. And I pass the challenge onto you! If you don't have a blog, you are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments section.

My list is going to be a random smattering of "serious" items and "silly" ones, and I'm not posting them in a specific order.

1. I am thankful that we have a God that loves us unconditionally, meets us where we are, and loves us enough to send Jesus to die on the cross for us. Yeah God!

2. I am thankful for my hard-working husband, who loves me and our girls with all his heart. Even on his grumpier days (which tend to be Thursday & Friday b/c he's so worn out from the week), there is never a doubt about his love.

3. I am thankful for my beautiful little girls. Brooke, the enthusiastic, exuberant whirlwind; and Hannah the funny, sweet self-entertaining one.

4. I am thankful for medication. Prescription and Over the Counter. If someone says they don't feel good I say "did you take anything?" I'm thankful that someone out there was smart enough to come up with drugs that help headaches, cramps, sinus', post-partum depression, and insomnia. YEAH YOU, whoever you are!!

5. I am thankful for this recipe for Caramel Chex. It is my new favorite snack.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chex-Caramel-Crunch/Detail.aspx

6. I am thankful for all my friends, old and new-- you make my world go 'round. OXOX to you all!

7. I am extremely thankful that I am blessed to be a stay at home mom. I love this job. Taking care of my family and my household. I still will say that my worst day at home is better than my best day in the corporate world.

8. I am thankful to be a part-time travel agent, working from home. It is so fun helping people plan their trips, and it helps pay for some things that the regular budget doesn't allow for. Plus it helps me keep my foot in the adult world a little more firmly.

9. I am thankful for all things Disney. We are Disney nuts. I'm so excited and thankful to be owners in Disney Vacation Club-- and the fact that we have 50 years of awesome vacations and memory-making-moments ahead of us!

10. I am thankful for my entire family-mom, dad, brother, step-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin-in-laws. Some of my best memories in life come from the time spent with extended family. OXOX to you all!

I hope Thanksgiving is a special time for you. Even if you are not with all your family, I hope you find time to count your blessings!

Wordless Wednesday

(don't forget to leave a comment with your favorite Christmas song).

This pic pretty well sums things up around here today:

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

We are in decorating mode around here. Two trees assembled with lights, decorations yet to go on those. One more big tree left to get out of the box, and about 5 assorted sized trees left to go as well. Today I'm going to work on getting stuff moved around and straightened up to make room for the decorations.

I plan on doing a photo-tour of our christmas decor once we get it all done. I'm already excited.

In the meantime, I'm going to steal Jodi's idea.... I'll be changing the music on my blog-music-player (if I can remember how) to Christmas tunes. I'd love to see what your favorite Christmas songs are-- maybe they'll make the playlist! I've got so many favorites it is ridiculous, but some of them include "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" from Nutcracker, "Mary Did You Know," and "The 12 Pains of Christmas." We're also huge fans of Mannheim Steamroller around here!

Have a great day!

Just a bunch of pictures

I've been in a picture-taking mood lately and thought I'd post a bunch here. I've got bread going in the bread machine, meat thawing for Steak Soup, kiddos down for a nap, Matt gone to review stuff with his flight instructor, and Twilight playing on the new TV. The couch is calling my name!


My girls and I!


Matt and I!



Wrestle-mania 2000. Here the girls are trying to "tickle" daddy.

Here they are bouncing on him. He is protecting his ear. It's really

funny when he starts trying to protect other parts.

Look at all that hair!

I took a bunch of pics around 4p.m. the other day when the sun was

going down. The lighting was awesome!

Playing outside in her playhouse one morning.

My dad and stepmom have major issues with all the leaves they have!

We have fun with the small amount we have!! :)

Two VERY tired girls one evening after bath.

Here's something we haven't discussed before...!

So I debated about posting this but I thought it was interesting (and okay, kind of comical). The men in your world might love me for this post.

I was driving home the other night from some retail therapy, and I was listening to Kim Iverson on the Buzz. I don't really like her, I think her show does not have appropriate content for younger listeners, and sometimes I think she is full of it. But she had a guest on the show- Dr. Rebecca, that was talking about all the health benefits of sex. It was pretty interesting....

She says you should have sex every 36 hours- Yikes-- here's why:

1 To prevent H1N1. According to a Wilkes University study, people who have sex one to two times a week have 30% higher antibodies to fight off the flu. Imagine if you followed the 36 hour plan-all you would have to do is to breathe on your friends and they would be cured.
2 It’s better to peak than to leak. Regular intercourse with or without an orgasm improves bladder control by toning the pelvic floor muscles. Say goodbye to the soggy drawers and floors with the 36 hour rule.
3 Keep it up! Don’t let it blow up, referring to the prostate gland. The National Cancer Institute report reveals a 33% lower risk of prostate cancer when a man has 21 orgasms a month compared to 4 to 7 a month. The 36 hour plan has you covered.
4 Its heart smart. A University of Bristol study showed men who had sex two or more times per week decreased their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent. Keep the lub-dub going.
5 To protect your bones. Yes, I did say bones. During and after sex, the hormone testosterone increases and builds up bone mass which decreases the risk of osteoporosis.
6 Women earn a cookie by giving up theirs. During a 15 minute sex session you can burn 100-150 calories. So, shake it up baby!
7 Frequent sex increases longevity. According to Realage, 100 orgasms a year adds 3-8 years to your life span. So, have more sex, so you can live longer, so you can have sex longer.

I wonder if I can find somewhere that says that just taking a multi-vitamin every day would have the same effects :) -- That seems so much easier and less time consuming-haha!

Appetizer Coupon Winner!

Drum roll please....

The winner of the two free bowls of queso and the bloomin onion is.....
JODI!!!!!

Jodi and I met thru her blog, went to the New Kids concert together, and are hoping for many fun playdates with Hannah and Olivia. You can visit Jodi at www.oliviaandlogan.blogspot.com

It is a good thing she won...because yesterday she nuked a bowl of easy-mac without putting water in it, and it came out like charcoal. And she locked her (fairly new) kitty cat in the store-room on accident for six hours. Apparently she needs a break, or some additional calories, or sex or something -- haha!!

Thanks for all the entrants! Wasn't this fun! Keep your eye out for the next giveaway...and here is a hint.... it smells good.

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to you!! I hope today you take a moment to thank God for the men and women who have served, and currently serve, our fabulous country. I hope you take a moment to ask God to watch over those men and women currently serving our country in some not-so-great-environments right now!! And while we're at it, I hope you take a moment to thank God for the families of those men and women who miss them while they're gone, hold down the fort back home, and worry about their loved ones on a daily basis!

In honor of Veteran's Day, I'm having my first official blog-giveaway. And I've already got an idea for another one coming up, yippee! Today, because I have some leftovers from previous events, I am giving away TWO coupons for a free Queso dip at On The Border, and ONE free Bloomin Onion coupon from Outback! These appear to be good at any OTB and Outback, so even you non-Wichitans can enter. If you are reading this and don't want an OTB or Outback coupon- a) you're silly and b) enter anyways and give them away to someone!

To enter, leave a comment answering the following question (you leave a comment by clicking the little blue word 'comment' at the bottom of this post).

The question: what is your favorite meal to make at home? (a fitting question don't you think since I'm giving away eating-out coupons?!)

My answer-- homemade chicken and noodles in the winter, grilling steaks in the summer.

I'll take entries until Friday the--gasp- 13th! I hope I have more than one entrant ;) Oh and ONE winner gets all three coupons.

Oh -and if you mention in your comment that you've posted this giveaway on your blog (which I need the url for), I'll give you a second entry!

We're just learning the art of the blog giveaway here at LittleWorthWhileMoments, but we all need to practice so you can be ready for the much-more nifty giveaway in a few weeks. And unfortunately, no, this travel agent is not giving away a trip.

Toodles!

banana chocolate chip muffin update!!

I was just re-reading thru my muffin post and noticed that I forgot to put in there that you need to do 2 or 3 mashed, ripe banans! about 1-cup worth! Kind of an important ingredient! I hope no one has made these and had them fail miserably!! sorry!

I have edited the post to include the nanners.

Oh and if your nanners aren't quite ripe enough, you can crack the peel a bit and stick them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds. that softens them right up!

Happy baking!

All kinds of Friends

I'm feeling very sappy today.

Those of you who know me well know that I am just kind of a sap in general, but today I'm having a "do you know how much I love you?" kind of day. I bet if Matt gets wind of that he'll be having high hopes... but wait-- my mother-in-law reads my blog so I better not go any further with that sentence! hee hee. But hey- did you know that I think your son has a cute tooshey? He does. Good job ;) lol

Back to being a sap ;)

I love my friends! I think living several hours away from all of my side of the family has made me treasure friends more than ever. I yearn to be with people who love me, and I miss the closeness I had with my cousins growing up, etc. I was just sitting here thinking about all the different kinds of friends we have, and how friendships ebb and flow over time.

There is Jill. One of my oldest, most precious friends ever. We never get to see each other nearly as much as I would like, but we always pick up right where we left off. We love being nostalgic and reminiscing together, and we love talking life-right-now stuff together too. We can be silly and serious. She definately defines the "old friends are best friends" kind of role.

There is Debbi. The light of my life in friendships the last few years. I found her through our kids being in preschool together, and God gave her to me at just the right time. As I struggled with changes in other friendships, ours blossomed quickly and I love her with all my heart. I can talk to Debbi everyday, and wish our busy lives allowed us to do more together! She is a great "BFF."

There is Kaci. I suppose technically she is family, but I'm stuck with her in that realm. I'm not stuck with her as a friend though, I've chosen her. It took many years to finally figure out that we really do connect, and in the past few months, I've been thinking "gee that was dumb. look at all this time we've missed!" I think we're both filling a good spot in each other's life and I'm so glad we have gotten there!

There is Angela, Jennifer, and Erin. All friends whom I have been extremely close to at different times in my life. All friends who I still call my friends. All people who I know, in a heartbeat, we'd do whatever the other needed. Our lives spin in different circles right now, some due to geography, some just because of life, but they are the kind of friends that even when you're randomly in contact, you know that you still share a spot in each other's heart somewhere and you can always pick right back up!

There is Wendi. Tracy. Michelle. My newest of friends I suppose you could say. Michelle is an old friend of Matt's and a new one of mine. She has a new job so we don't get to chat on FB as much anymore, so we need to fix that. Wendi and Tracy are mom's from Brooke's kg class. We've chatted a lot and I like them both. It will be fun to see where those friendships go. As with everyone, they'll either love me or think "enough already!" :) I always say you can't have enough girlfriends, and I'm sticking to that philosophy.

I'm blessed to have a lot of friends, and I try everyday to make sure I am a good one to everyone. I remember in college having several girlfriends I was really close to. At that time I was struggling with being single, and God finally showed to me that He wanted me to just focus on being a great FRIEND to many women, that was what He needed me to be. And I think I've done pretty good being a good FRIEND. I hope each one of my friends, not just the ones above but the many others, do know how much I cherish them. God brings people into our lives for so many reasons, and I'm thankful for each and every one of the girlfriends He has given me!

oxoxoxo

On a roll

Did I tell you about how I cleaned my house and kept it that way? Yep. Still hanging in there. Thought you would like to know.

I am also apparently in a "Spend money on the house" kick. We got our roof-which fortunately insurance paid for. We got a new dining room--which actually the leftover insurance paid for. I'm wanting to get a new area rug for the living room. I'd like to get the whole upstairs recarpeted but we might have to wait on that for awhile. I decided I was tired of looking at the little round table with the to-the-floor-table cloth and round piece of glass over the top that was in the hallway upstairs. So...what is it? 80s? 90s? I don't know. Just tired of it. So I went to Target yesterday and bought this nifty set of narrow shelves with a drawer at the bottom to go in the corner of the hallway by the girls' bathroom. And I put it together by myself. (which was not the easiest task in the world might I say). Now I need to get it accessorized. I ran out of time yesterday.

I've got the itch to get the girls bathroom repainted/decorated. It's just been pretty boring since we moved in-- the original (not so great) border, the original flat-off-white paint. So one of these days, Matt is going to come home and the border is going to be torn down. We're going to do a ladybug themed bathroom. I'm going to paint tall grass and put ladybugs all over, etc. It will be cute if I do say so myself.

Now... I just need to get myself back on a roll with a)not snacking ie counting calories and b) scrapbooking. I've got to get my butt back in gear on that. At least to get to where I want to be on things. I need to finish Hannah's baby book and I need to scrapbook the cruise from last year. Then I will evaluate if that is something I want to keep doing or just start doing digital books on winkflash.

All these lofty goals and ideas, in the midst of getting busy on Christmas stuff! I've got 8 Christmas trees to get decorated!!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Don't be afraid. Don't think "what a yucky combo." I was there once myself, and then I went ahead and tried a bite of one somewhere, and decided that Banana-Chocolate Chip (at least in terms of bread items) is indeed a good combination. I found a base recipe and tweaked it a bit, and the result is my family's new favorite muffin / breakfast item. They gobble them right up. Now you can make them so your family can gobble them too!

The ingredients:

Do you think my cupboard needs cleaned out? Just keeping it real here... no perfect cupboards going on around here.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl, mix 1 and 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and a few shakes of salt:


In another bowl, mix 1 egg, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp vanilla, and one (8oz) carton of banana yogurt. (Or Banana Cream Pie, or vanilla, or plain).

Mix well and stir into dry mixture. No need for power tools on this recipe. Just stir it up with a big ol rubber spatula. Then stir in two or three mashed bananas.

Once mixed, stir in one heaping cup of chocolate chips. I use semi-sweet. Also, since I tend to make mini-muffins, I have found that using MINI chocolate chips works soooo much better for this recipe. If you use the big ones sometimes you just get one chocolate chip in a cup- but if you use the minis they seem to spread out much better! :) I discovered this by accidentally buying mini chocolate chips one week. This week I didn't have that accident, which is why you see regular chips here. I need to get into the habit of making that same mistake, especially with holiday baking coming!

Mom! Take my picture!

Oh mom, take my picture too!

Spray your muffin pans really well.

A side note; I'm so NOT a generic snob, I buy the store brand of lots of things. But this is the second can of Kroger "Pam" that has done this too me-- ooze stuff. I'm so done buying generic Pam.

Bake the mini muffins about 10 minutes, and check them.

Do you see anything wrong in this picture? Well maybe not since there is not scent associated with this blog. But if you could smell this picture, it would smell like burnt hair. That's what happens when you are an idiot who has a candle burning on the stove and gets your arm too close to the flame when you're setting the oven timer...!

When they are getting golden around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean, they are done! Let them rest in the pan for a few minutes and then flip 'em out onto the counter. I think they taste best cool. Don't they look yummy?

My girls see these come out of the oven and I can't get them to leave them alone. I said "Hannah, no! hot hot!" she went and did something else and I was talking to Brooke. All of the sudden, here comes Hannah with chocolate all over her face and half of a warm muffin in her hand. I didn't know she could reach onto the counter already! She couldn't wait to get her hands on a muffin! In this picture she had since stuffed the other half in her mouth

Now if you want to make these more of a dessert- you can put some peanut butter frosting on them. Sounds gross huh? Nope, trust me it is good too! PB frosting is basically PB, butter, powdered sugar and a little milk. But these little delights are good without anything on top!

Let me know what you think!?