Kids Creation Playset Giveaway!

Wow, I have to share this one NOW! Dad-Blogs is participating in an awesome giveaway with Kids Creations for a cool new playset! Now, as a mother of VERY active ten and five year olds, we all know that having a cool playset in the back yard is a great way to "Go Green". Getting my kids away from their video or computer games and outside is a challenge most of the time. Once you get them in the habit of playing outside, then getting them back INSIDE becomes the challenge! I wonder how much electricity I can save by not having the TV running 24/7 with "Phineas and Ferb" or "Wizards of Waverly Place"? That is a question I would LOVE to answer!

Check out the cool prize in this giveaway!

http://www.dad-blogs.com/the-blogs/community-news/372.html

Thanks again Kids Creations! Be sure and check out their awesome playsets at their link listed below!

http://www.kidscreations.com/


Here's to a happy spring!

:)Cat

It's been a LOOONNG week!

Wow, it is never fun to come back from vacation and hit the ground running! I had such a busy week with work, catching up on laundry and just trying to get back into a routine. Plus we ended up at Urgent Care one night this week for Tyus, double ear infection and beginning of an upper respitory infection. Today is the first day that I got up, didn't have to go anywhere, really didn't have anything planned, didn't have much that I had to get done.....whew. Vacation is nice but the recoup time is killer.

My father in law had hip replacement surgery on Thursday morning and I am thankful to say that it went well. He got home today, so we have been trying to make ourselves available in case my mother in law needs any help.

I have been trying to catch up on reading and commenting on the blogs that I follow but man! Some people are sooo good about posting everyday. Me, I have been getting kinda hit or miss with all the things going on. I need to hit more!

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Easter! I will post pictures from our trip to Gatlinburg soon!

:)

Back from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

We're back! Last week was our spring break, so we packed up family and friends to head for the mountains of Tennessee. I love the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. There is so much to see and do.......outlet shopping, go kart racing, Ripley's aquarium, Wonderworks, lots of pancake houses.....gee, I sound like a kid myself! Plus it is only 5 hours away, a simple drive from Ohio. The only bad day we had there was on Friday, when that horrible storm system that spawned tornadoes in western Tennessee blew through. It was scary to watch the weather channel, hearing the weatherman telling people in such and such city/town/county to take cover when we have no clue what cities are near where we are. Luckily, the storms only brought rain to the area we were in.

We booked our chalet through American Patriot Getaways. We have used them lots of times over the years and have always been very satisfied with our lodging. Plus they always have a deal of some kind going on. We got our chalet for 50% off because I booked our reservation on Christmas day, (Merry Christmas to MEEEE!!) With three families sharing, this came down to about $60 bucks a night. And it was GORGEOUS!! We stayed at Black Bear Hide-Out, a great three bedroom chalet which was WAAAYYYY up on a mountain. The driveway was killer!

They still have a 50% off offer on their website for selected properties so here is the link:
http://patriotgetaways.com/

Ty actually cried when we packed up and left. I didn't cry, only because I know we will be back next year.

Need a laugh? Look at this video on this blog!

I couldn't quit smiling and my kids were running to watch it after the first remix........safe and fun for all!

http://shinyadornments.com/wordpress/?p=279

Enjoy!

I WON A TRIP TO SEAWORLD FROM IZEA!!

Well, the paperwork has all been sent back in, the winners announcement has been posted and I have been in constant contact with the rep from IZEA! I actually won a trip to SeaWorld in Orlando! I broke down and told my kids last week and they currently think I am the best mommy EVER! (I'll milk that for all it is worth, those teen years are coming up on us quickly!)

I think I am more excited than my kiddos! This is perfect for our family, Mak being 10 and Ty being 5, they are still close enough in age to ride the same rides plus still willing to be seen in public with their parents (even though we are cool!)

We have been watching the Shamu cam and the penquin cams on the Seaworld website, getting it into our heads that we will be giong there in a few months. Tyus has been drawing pictures of Seaworld and hanging them on his door and Mak is mad that it is not summer and why can't we go NOW??

Did I mention I love blogging even more now?

Check it out!

http://izea.com/seaworld-manta-mania-contest-prize-winners-announced/



WOOHOO!!

Date Night!

The hubby and I actually got to go on a date last night! By ourselves, no kids, no other couples....wow. It seems like we always do things with other people but never just as us. My parents had invitied the kids to both spend the night so we had all day yesterday to plan what we were going to do. Oh, to be wild and free again! We decided to go the dinner and the movies, so then we just had to agree on what movie to go see. I didn't find anything listed at either the new run theater or the dollar theater that I just had to see, so I let the hubby narrow down the choices. He came up with either seeing "ILove You, Man" or "The Watchmen". I picked "I Love You, Man" but then he said he really really wanted to see "The Watchmen" so I agreed. Big mistake. The movie was awful. It was dark, violent and disturbing to me. Plus it was almost three hours long. Halfway through, after one particularly disturbing scene, the hubby started apologizing to me. I closed my eyes and tried to nap through the rest of it. I learned a lesson, I will NEVER go to the movies again without sticking a good paperback book in my purse. If I would have had one, I would have gone out to the lobby to sit and read, the movie was that bad in my opinion.

After the movie was over (and I had told the hubby that he had lost all rights to ever pick another movie again), we went to Applebee's for dinner. At least that was very pleasant. I got the Lime Chicken and YUM! It was so good and melted in my mouth. Hubby got his favorite Oriental Chicken salad. The couple at the tabel next to us had their two small children with them, one looked about three and the other about 9 months. The nine month old did the typical "Hey, we're out in public, let's do projectile vomiting all over Mommy" routine. The hubby and I just looked at each other and started to laugh because we have been there, done that and got the Tshirt!

All in all, it was a nice break for us. And what was really bad is that we were home by 9pm. Sheesh, we ARE getting old!

Final damage from my expensive Saturday

Well, I got some good news and some bad news on my car. The good news is it was the alternator and it was actually covered under my extended warranty. The bad news is that the alternator fried my battery and I had to replace that, not covered under my extended warranty. So my grand total for the car expedition was $201.00, counting parts, labor and tow.
We also got the dryer fixed at the cost of about 100 bucks. So there is $301.00 out of my vacation budget. I am just glad that I didn't have to pay for the alternator and the labor involved in replacing it. That would have set me back ALL of my vacation budget.

There is a bright side to everything and in this case, it is that we still have money for Pigeon Forge!

Thanks to everyone who dropped by and offered sympathy for my plight!