Taking a Bloggy Break.....

Hello my friends.  I'm sorry I've not posted since last Friday, but unfortunately, life has taken a bit of a dramatic turn and things are happening.  Therefore, until I get everything settled and know what is going to happen - I am taking a bloggy break.  I hope to be back soon so don't give up on me!  In the meantime, I will continue to lurk on your blogs and read all about things going on in your day to day world. 

Have a great day and a great week ahead and thanks for stopping by!

Lots of love and hugs,

World Cheese Dip Competition

Happy TGIF my peeps and welcome to FRIDAY!!! WOO HOO!!!  I don't know about you, but this week has drug by and I am SO thankful that I get off at noon today!  Tomorrow is the World Cheese Dip Competition and my mom and sister and niece are coming in at noon today to help me get prepared for it.  I truly don't expect to win a thing but know the 4 of us are going to have an absolute BLAST doing it together and I just can't wait! :)  We have been preparing for a few weeks now but - now the time has come to get down to business and get it done!!!  If you are in the Arkansas area and don't have anything going on tomorrow - be sure to join us!  It's being held at War Memorial Stadium and the doors open at 1 and it goes until 7:30.  There will be cheese dip taste testing, the Alabama/Razorback game on the jumbotron - games and stuff for the kids to do, etc....  You can go here to learn more!

Well, guess I better get moving - it's foggy this morning and I'm hungry and need to stop for some breakfast and most importantly - COFFEEEEEEE!!!  I hope that you have an awesome weekend and can't wait to catch up on your blogs this morning and then on Monday.  I promise to have lots of pictures to share with you Monday about our day!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day my peeps! :) 

Lots of love and hugs,

Walgreens Trip, Birthday Gift & Flowers

Happy Thursday my friends!  How are you?  How is your week going so far?  Great, I hope!  Mine is going okay - not too good, but not too bad either.  Last night on my way home I decided to stop at Walgreens and use my Register Rewards that I had earned to pick up a few things we needed at home and a few fun items for Halloween.  Check out my loot:

Glass Halloween Jar - $5.99

Sparkly Halloween Sign - $3.99

Poptarts - $2.99

Kraft Cheese - $4.59

M&M's - .69

Laffy Taffy - .30

Total - $18.61 with tax before coupons

After coupons - $1.31

Woo hoo!!!  See - I told you those coupons are paying off.  Once you learn how and get the hang of it, it really saves you a ton of moo-lah! :)

Also, I made a birthday present for our receptionist who is turning 30 years old this Friday that I found here and it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.  I really think she'll get a huge kick out of it!  Take a look and let me know what you think:

Also, I have to show you another beautiful rose from our rose garden that my hubby picked for me and put in one of my pretty light pink vases that I picked up at a yard sale or goodwill for mere pennies - aint she purty :)

Well, that's it for today I guess.  I hope you lovies are having a wonderful day and an awesome week so far.  Only one more day til Friday and the weekend - Woo hoo!!!  Thanks so much for stopping by and saying hello.

Lots of love and hugs,

Wednesday Words

My daughter's latest drawing (she knows what her mama likes - LOL)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to say hello! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Words of Random

Hi ya folks! Today I decided to join Stacy Uncorked in her Random Tuesday blog hop.  Come play along, okay?! :)

*  I really do not like my job

*  I am so bored most days

*  I love the people and the firm - but my job, eh... not so much

*  My husband and I are struggling right now as a couple

*  We have begun marriage counseling

*  I won't go into the reasons right now as to why

*  He is coming to take me to lunch today

*  I miss us

*  The World Champion Cheese Dip Competition is this weekend

*  My mom, sister and niece are helping me in the contest and I can't wait

*  Though, I really don't expect to win anything at all

*  Today is another gorgeous and fallish type day

*  Razorbacks are playing Alabama at Alabama this weekend

*  I can't wait until next Tuesday night

*  It is Bunco night

*  Which means - girls night out

Well, there you have it - honest and boring - *sigh*  Hope you are having an awesome day and thanks for stopping by to say hello!

Lots of love and hugs,

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday my friends!  Hope you had a fabulous weekend.  Ours was okay - not great - but okay.  However, on Saturday, I got to spend the day with one of my besties and we went hiking and had a great time!  Here are a few pictures from the hike and the view from the top! I hope you enjoy them:

See, I told you - gorgeous view from the top! :)  Ignore the date on the pictures - my camera batteries were changed out and the date and time didn't reset - ugh!  Anyway, I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week ahead.  Thanks for stopping by to say hello and I can't wait to catch up on your blogs today!

Lots of love and hugs,

Taking Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

Happy Happy Friday my friends!  This has been a long week and a week from hell and one that almost did me in.  But, I decided yesterday that I was going to get back to living my life instead of worrying about all of this nonsense stuff that has been happening in my life for the last 3 months.  So today, I am here "smelling the roses".  The pictures below are of roses in my "rose garden" that my husband made me many years ago.  I came home on Wednesday night to this:

Different types of roses and different colors,

and one rose for each year we've been married

which is almost 14 years! :)

He tells everyone he made this for me so that when he's in the doghouse he can just go right out and pick me flowers and bring them in to try and smooth things over.  LOL  Truth be known, he is the one with the green thumb in the family - I, personally, have a black thumb when it comes to growing things like plants! HA!

So... what's on your agenda this weekend?  Anything fun and exciting by chance?  I am going to dinner with my husband tonight and then tomorrow I am getting together with one of my best friends that I've not seen once since we've moved home and we are going to hang out and have lunch and just visit.  We were going to go hiking but it's supposed to storm instead so I think we are just doing lunch this time around.  The weather is almost perfect here for hiking and I am looking forward to a lot of those trips! :)  Sunday will probably be just a catch up kind of a day around the house - laundry, cooking, etc....

Well thanks for stopping by to say hello!  Have a great day and a wonderful weekend!  Can't wait to see what you have planned this weekend.

Lots of love and hugs,

Traveling Through Thursday Blog Hop

Happy Thursday lovies and welcome to another beautiful day!  I don't know about you but I am SO happy that tomorrow is Friday again - how about you?! :)  Each week I try to find a new blog hop to follow and this week it is "Traveling Through Thursday Blog Hop" with Living on Love an Cents, Mom on Dealz, Our Kids Mom and Belly Charms (the blog).  I'm always looking for ways to meet new people so I'm excited to have found them!  There are just a few rules - so follow along and link up so you can play along too!

1) Follow the first 4 pages in the linky. These are our hosts. Be sure to comment so that we can follow back!

2) Please only link up your the network we are visiting for the week!--Google Friend Connect

3) Spread the word about this hop with a post, grab the button, etc.!

For more followers- Grab the linky code and post this on your blog for your followers!

See... easy peasy!  I hope you have a wonderful and glorious day today.  It is going to be in the 70's here and I couldn't be happier! :)  I am ready for some fall ya'll! :)  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Lots of love and hugs,

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Hump Day my peeps and welcome to Wednesday!  I decided I would play along with This Kind of Love today and the rest of the peeps in the "What I'm Loving Wednesday".  Come play along, won't you?! :)

This week I am loving.....

that Fall is in the air:

That it is time for Razorback HAWG BALL Y'ALL:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_

9/11 Razorback Tribute

{via} 

and yummy fall coffee drinks for those cool, crisp mornings:

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Caramel Mocha Latte

Warm, Cinnamon Apple Spice:

So, those are just a few things I'm loving right now - how about you?  What things are you loving?  I hope that your have a great day and thanks for stopping by to say hello! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Walgreens Shopping Trip - Extreme Coupon Style

Happy Tuesday my friends.  Hope your week is going well so far.  Mine's been really rough so far but I am pushing through.  I wanted to share with you another of my great extreme coupon shopping trips this past Sunday.  Be sure and keep your eye on things so you can make some BIG scores too! :)  (P.S.  Ignore all of my crockpots and burners on the table in the background - that is us getting ready for some SERIOUS cheese dip competition coming up on the 24th of September - more on that soon!)

Quilted Northern Tissue Paper - 2 for $8 - $1 RR = 2 for $7 (I didn't have a coupon for these darn it)

Playtex Sport Tampons - $2.99 - $1 RR - $1 manufacturer coupon = .99

Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief Whitening Toothpaste (2 boxes) - $4.99 each - $3 RR each - $1.50 coupon each =.49 each ($.98 for 2)

Colgate Optic White Toothpaste - $3.99 each - $2 RR each - $1.50 coupon each = .49 each ($.98 for 2)

Chex Mix (4 bags) - $.99 each - $.50 coupon each = .49 each x 4= ($1.96 for 4)

Air Wick Air Freshener Kit - (2) - $7.99 each - $3 RR each - $4 coupon each = .99 each ($1.98 for 2)

Scrubbing Bubbles (2) - $8.99 each - $2 RR each - $4 coupon  each = 2.99 each ($5.98 for 2)

Total Retail Value - $103.83 (before sale)

Sale Retail Value - $66.87

Total Register Rewards - $22.00

Total Coupons - $25.00

Total Out of Pocket Spent after RR and Coupons -$19.87 

Can I get a WOOT WOOT??!!! :)  Now that's what I'm talking about - that is some serious retail therapy there, ya'll! :)  Well, I hope you have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by to say hi!  Please let me know you were here so I can stop by and visit you too!

Lots of love and hugs,

We Will Never Forget

Where were you when the world stopped turning 10 years ago?  I can remember very vividly that I was at work and received a call from one of our satellite offices who were in downtown Little Rock.  She said they had evacuated the building and she and a couple of other attorneys were headed to our office for the day.  The reason they were evacuated was the fact that they had federal agencies in that very building and weren't sure if it was a terrorist attack on several capitals across America or just NYC and DC, only.  Plus, they were in the tallest building in downtown Little Rock, which certainly didn't ease any of their fears.

How did you spend your 9/11 remembering?  Did you have loved ones who were in the towers the day they fell?  Although, we weren't living in NYC until 5 years later than the attacks, it still affected us, just as much as the rest of the world.  My kids were very young and I remember me and my best friend sitting in front of our tvs later that weekend watching all of the coverage and just crying with disbelief.

One of my very good and dear friends, Ellen, (hi Ellen) - actually still works in NYC and she has told me countless stories of her experience on that day.  I am so thankful that she was safe and no where near the towers that day.  Although, she was on her way into work that day and it took her and a few others in the firm about 4 or 5 hours just to get back home to New Jersey.  Can you imagine being right in the middle of that and trying to get home - or even more - getting in touch with your loved ones to let them know you are safe and are trying to get home?

So where were you the day the world stopped turning on that bright, September day?

We will always remember and never forget.

Lots of love and hugs,

Happy TGIF, etc...

Hello my friends and welcome to Friday and the weekend!  WOO HOO!!! How are you? How has your "short" week been?  Great, I hope!  It has flown by for me and I'm SO glad.  It's been another really rough week and I'm just about at my wits end with things.  I have been taking care of others for so long now and not being appreciated, that I have decided it's time to start taking care of ME, MYSELF and I for a change. 

On Monday, I started my new healthy lifestyle and must say that I am doing fairly well.  I'm eating healthy every day for the most part and even more than the most part.  I did eat 2 tiny slices of a small frozen pizza tonight but I was literally starving to death!  Grapes, Yogurt, Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter Toast, Sweet Potatoes and Carrot Sticks will only go so far - LOL

Anyway, I am on the hunt for some great healthy and easy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and would love to have you pass any along that you use and enjoy. 

So what's on your weekend agendas?  My mom and sister are coming to the house and we are all going to work on the cheese dip competition stuff - I can't believe how much work is really going to go into this competition but it is going to be a lot of fun, that's for sure.  And, the fact that they are doing it with me is going to make it even more fun!  I can't wait!  I promise that once the competition is completely over, I will post the recipe for you to enjoy as well. 

Well, I'm off to work now.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to say hello!  Enjoy your weekend and I will catch up with you on the flip side.  :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Wordless Wednesday (sort of) - Fall Is In The Air

I don't know how the weather is where you are currently - BUT it is in the low 50's at night and in the 70s/80s during the day and NO humidity whatsoever - it IS the perfect fall weather and MY favorite time of year.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and thanks for stopping by.  :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Hop Along Friday Blog Hop

Hello  my friends - happy Friday and happy lonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg weekend!  Woot woot!! Today I decided to play along with Chubby Cheeks Thinks in her weekly Hop Along Friday blog hop since I've not done it in such a long time.  Come play along, won't you? :)

Here are their simple rules to follow - easy peasy!

1. Please only link up blogs, only. Once you link up with other bloggers, please feel free to follow them on other social media outlets, but we ask you to leave this link up for blogs, only.

2. Please remember to return every week as the link list will start over each week. With that being said, the link list will be open from Thursday evening through Friday night at 11:49pst, but will be visible indefinitely.

3. We do not require that you follow each and every person on the hop, but we do ask that you take your time, have fun and follow the blogs that stick out to you. We will do the same.

{ TO PARTICIPATE }

1. Follow each of our hostesses:

Chubby Cheeks Thinks
Belly Charms
Living on Love & Cents
The Adventures of Goober Grape & Monkey Man

2. Add your blog link to our link list.
3. Place our button on your sidebar!

There you go - that's all there is to it!  Be sure to play along and meet other fun bloggers like yourself! :) 

On another note - what are your weekend plans for the Labor Day holiday?  We are planning to lay by the pool and get some sun, do a little grilling out and of course, getting ready for the FIRST BIG GAME of the season on Saturday night - Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Missouri State Bears.....GO HOGS!!! 

VS.

I can't wait to hear all about your weekend plans and I hope to catch up on all of your blogs soon.  If you are new here and a new follower - WELCOME!  I can't wait to get to know you and read all about you and your family on your blog, so please remember to let me know you were here so I can follow you back!

Have a wonderfully blessed day and an even better long holiday weekend.  Stay safe!

Lots of love and hugs,