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Wordless Wednesday-the holidays

I figured I would share some photos that I took over the Holiday weekend as my Wordless Wednesday instead of posting it’s own separate post. That way I will limit myself on the amount of photos I share since I took over 300 pictures this weekend.
Happy Hanukkah everyone
 Baby girl loved watching the candles on the menorah

 Two seconds after he woke up Christmas morning
 Baby girl woke up not long after her big brother did
 And little man slept for an hour & a half after the other two woke up. I couldn’t bear to wake him up.
 Let the unwrapping begin

  I love love love his expression here
 And my favorite photo from the weekend. I asked them to get together so I could take a pic & it was as if some cosmic force came over them & they complied!

For more inspiring photos be sure to check out:
 
 
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Lego announces Lego Friends

Lego announced recently that on January 1, 2012 they will be releasing a new line called Lego Friends and it’s geared specifically for girls. I don’t know about you but I am excited about this. We have two boys and one girl and my boys LOVE anything and everything Lego. My daughter also enjoys Legos but more often then not, she feels a little left out when the boys are playing with their Legos building airplanes, warships and whatnot . She will occasionally build some things but it’s a little hard to build something to her liking when the millions of pieces that we own are all from boy themed sets such as Star Wars, Hero Factory and Cars. I know they have the boxed sets that include Legos with all sorts of colors, and they even have a pink brick box geared for little girls that they can build a house, a car, a horse with.  In case you’ve never seen it it can be found here.

Today I came across an article on Circle of Moms: “Lego Friends Line for Girls Raises Controversy“. And curious I searched and found a few more.  Jezebel wrote “Lego Targets Girls with pink blocks, cute figures, & no creativity“. HLN wrote “Do girls really need pink Legos“.

Honestly I do not get what all the hooplah is about. This whole should toys be separated by gender is a joke. Most toys out there today are in fact separated by gender. What are Barbies? A toy geared specifically for girls, or how about Disney Princess, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, the list goes on and on. And it also goes visa versa for toys geared specifically for boys. There’s Tonka, Hot Wheels, Action Figures, Batman, Star Wars. It’s been this way since I was a kid. We had most of the items I mentioned above and a few more such as She-ra and Rainbow Bright and boys had He-man and die-cast Transformers. You get the picture I am trying to paint?

The second article ruffled my feathers a little bit just in it’s title. No creativity, really? I think they did pretty darn good in the making of these Legos. Not only were the characters created as smart but in the descriptions of each character they lists a few of their interest and for them to list what they want to be is awesome in my mind. I mean what little girl wouldn’t want to play with a Lego such as the character Olivia who’s bio states:

I love: My friends, science, school, drawing, inventing things, nature, hiking, photography, history. 
I want to be: A scientist or an engineer. 

Or how about Andrea. Her bio states:  
I love: Writing and composing my own songs.
I want to be: A musician/singer-songwriter.
                                                           
No girls do not NEED pink Legos but there is nothing wrong with adding a little extra touch to a product to gear it towards a specific sex. It’s called marketing and people in that field know how to do their job and in Legos case I think they are doing it extraordinarily well. Not only that but Legos in general are a great resource for growing kids. They can provide hours of entertainment, and not mind numbing entertainment that a TV provides but they get you to use your brain. Figure out what piece goes where, you can build by separating by color, by size, they can be used to teach math, they teach them how to think three dimensionally, helps with fine motor development, learning patterns, do I need to go on? 

I for one will be purchasing a set or two, possibly even three for my little girl not only for the learning benefits but simply because I am all for toys with positive message behind them.


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Finding your Holiday Traditions

Over the last month or so I have heard the question “what holiday traditions do you have” over and over. And my response was always the same. We don’t have any. Kind of sad huh. Yeah I thought so to. But then I realized (about five seconds ago) we actually do have traditions. They aren’t anything big but still it’s something we always did when we would go to my parents house and there’s no reason for me not to continue them with my little family.

For Hanukkah we would go to my parents. Occasionally it would be at my Aunt and Uncles but 9 times out of 10 it would be hosted by my Mom.  It was the same food every year and while some might complain I think it’s perfect that way. The first course consists of gefilte fish served on a plate with a piece of lettuce, two or three cherry tomatoes and a nice healthy scoop of chopped liver and matzo ball soup. My favorite way to eat my gefilte fish is smothered in horseradish sauce and then I would take a piece of matzo and smother that with chopped liver and some more horseradish sauce. Can you tell I like horseradish sauce? Oh yeah and only the red kind. Then we would have our second course, aka the main course. Brisket, kugel (either potato or noodle), latkes (another one of my favorites) served with either apple sauce or sour cream, and a vegetable. The last few years I had been in charge of the vegetable and I would make my famous green beans.

Food wise I didn’t do anything this year. I’ve been a little bit homesick (shhh don’t tell my husband or my mom) and Brisket is insanely expensive out here, like 40 bucks for a cut of meat, I don’t even spend that much on a pair of pants! And it was the kids last week of school so while we have been doing the candles every night I just didn’t make a big dinner.

For Christmas the kids would wake up and we would all pile in the car and head over to my parents house in our pj’s. It would immediately be gift time because it’s just cruel to make your kids sit and wait while there is a room filled with gifts that they are literally drooling over. After gifts my mom and I would make breakfast. It would always consist of eggs of some kind. We usually rotated between matzo and eggs or eggs smothered in cheese and salsa. And the best part was the cinnamon rolls. Nothing special because this was all about having a relaxing day so we would just make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. There would also be bacon, sausage and those little square hash browns. I don’t know why but those things are always so dang good.

When I went grocery shopping and automatically went for the rolls, sausage and bacon it didn’t even occur to me that this is a tradition. I was second nature to pick all of these things up. And the same goes for our Christmas dinner. I picked up a ham, potatoes, a ton of green beans, crescent rolls and mustard. That’s just about the same thing my mom would prepare, right now to the mustard which will be mixed with brown sugar for us me to dip my ham in.

So even though this year we wont be spending the Holidays with my family we will be staying in our pj’s all day, grubbing on some good food (even thinking of making some latkes along with mashed potatoes tomorrow), taking a lot of photos, spending all day putting together toys, getting frustrated at all those little ties and screws in said toys and I am sure laughing at each other. If that isn’t some form of tradition then I don’t know what it is.

Happy Holidays to everyone, I hope your holiday season is blessed with love, laughter & light. 

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Change someones life with Samaritan’s Purse

Christmas time has become a time for presents and long forgotten the true meaning behind the holiday. While we as individuals work to keep the true meaning behind Christmas in our hearts and to teach it to our children we can still get wrapped up in the giving of gifts. We are only human after all.
This year I come here to ask you to look deep in your hearts and think about others this holiday season. Samaritans Purse is a Christian based company whose goal is to bring International Relief to those that are truly in need. You can visit the Gift Guide which allows you to select many different options of how to use your donation such as, Teach a child to read, Feed a hungry baby for a week, Rescue children in crisis, Introduce boys and girls to gods world, Hot meals, Clean water, and so much more. 
The gift guide is broken down into eight categories:
  1. Ministry to children
  2. Gifts under $15
  3. Operation Christmas child
  4. World Evangelism
  5. Meeting crisis needs
  6. Transforming Communities
  7. Farms & livestock
  8. More gifts

They have suggested amounts for each donation but you can enter in an amount you are comfortable with if you can’t afford the suggested one or want to break it up and do several areas of the gift guide. I understand that this time of the year can be especially hard financially but this time also brings out the good in people. People wanting to open their hearts, homes & sometimes wallets to help those in need. So this year I ask you to check out Samaritans Purse and how you can help a person in true need.

Samaritan’s Purse is a non profit Christian organization that provides spiritual as well as physical aid to the less unfortunate people around the world. Since 1970 they have helped people that are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, & famine. Their purpose is to share God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.
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Wordless Wednesday-A few of my favorite things

One of my favorite movies as a child was the Sound of Music. I loved all of the singing and the story behind the movie. And of course I would reenact the movie pretending I was Maria. Because nobody solves a problem like Maria.
I can still sing most of the songs from that movie and one of these days I will actually get around to buying it because I think my daughter would love it also. One of my favorite songs is Few of my Favorite things. I just love it because they aren’t moentary items per say but more small things that are special to her. I know I am getting deep on a movie that isn’t even real but I get that way about musicals. 
Anywho, my point to all of this is I wanted to share a few of my favorite things, via photos of course.
Watching my babies sleep 
Watching the sun rise
 

Watching thunderstorms 
Flowers
 

Happy children
Messy kisses
 Friendship
          
        Playing in the snow
Family
 Nature
 
Rainbows
                             
And lastly, memories
For more inspiring photos be sure to check out:

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Sunset Sunday-Brilliant colors

I know I have mentioned before how amazing the sunsets are out here but I feel as though photos don’t do it justice sometimes. At least the photos from my standpoint, on the ground standing only 5ft 5in tall looking upwards instead of outwards. My husband and I have joked about getting up on the roof to take photos but I haven’t done it because, well I am scared LOL. I’ve never been on a roof before and since I am accident prone I can just see it wouldn’t be a smart thing for me to attempt climbing on the roof.

So earlier this week my husband and I walked outside to look at the sunset, me with my camera in hand he starts running telling me to follow him. I was confused but figured what the heck might as well follow him. He comes running back outside with the ladder in hand.

I have to say that I love being married to a man that has similar geek-doms such as myself. So up onto the rooftop he went. Camera in hand while I waited safely on the ground. This first photo is courtesy of my husband great photography skills.

These are a few of the shots I managed to get via 20 feet below rooftop level and safely on the ground.

None of these photos were edited, excluding the black & white one of course. Only thing done was to add the b&w finish. All the brilliant colors were the same colors we saw with our own eyes. How’s that for a gorgeous sunset?

Craig from Stay Adventurous and I have teamed up to help spread the word on Sunset Sundays. We would love it if you would join us and link up your sunset photos!
 

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Sunset Sunday-Just in time

With winter approaching the weather has been quite chilly lately. And along with the cold weather we’ve had a few days of no sun. I love the cold rainy weather but I don’t think I could go any more then a few days without seeing the sun. Last weekend we had a cloudy day and the clouds reminded me of waves. It was really a neat sight to see. Even without being able to see the sunset you can see the glow towards the bottom of the photo. 

This second photo was also from last weekend, another cloudy day, except the clouds parted and the sun shone through right as it was sunset. It was a gorgeous sight to see.

Craig from Stay Adventurous and I have teamed up to help spread the word on Sunset Sundays. We would love it if you would join us and link up your sunset photos!

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Discover Zaarly plus a chance to win $50

*Update: The winner of the $50 Visa Gift Card was Alysa George who commented on RachelFerrucci’s post. CONGRATULATIONS Alysa.*


The word Zaarly has been all over the internet lately. When I first heard of it I had no idea what exactly it was. So naturally I had to go check it out. 

Zaarly (@Zaarly on twitter) is a site where you can search for anything you can think of from companies and/or independent contractors. For example say you wanted to look for someone that could come hang up your Christmas lights because you’ve never done so and are a little scared of falling off the roof. Simply type in what you are looking for, your price range, approximate location and Zaarly will post your listing. If there are places out there that do this you will receive offer in your activity section of your page. 


Not looking to buy anything? That’s okay because you can also do the opposite. If you fulfill a task, service, or have a product that is wanted, you can also make money on Zaarly.




There are some rules of course. You can find them in the Marketplace Rules. As long as you abide by the rules you have the opportunity to make money or find services at your price.



Right now when you Sign up for Zaarly they will donate $1.00 to Feeding America – (@feedingAmerica). But in order for Feeding America to receive the donation you just must click this  Zaarly link. Each donation will represent a gift to Feeding America’s entire mission. $1.00 may not seem like a lot but $1.00 equals to 8 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food banks. 


Enter for a chance to win a chance for a $50 Visa gift card

  • Sign up for Zaarly using this link (Remember it’s Free & $1.00 will go to Feeding America!)
  • Come back & place your user name in the comments
  • Entries must be in by Dec 15th 11:59 EST

Winners are chosen through random.org. US and Canada eligible. Chances of winning depend on how many entries are received through all posts with this giveaway. Winner must respond to email within 48 hours. Name will also be placed on this post.

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Dare to try: Smokey Eyes

Thanks to L’Oreal for sponsoring my post about my favorite beauty looks, tips and tricks! Check out Makeup.com for beauty advice from the experts.

I love makeup. Always have. Even as a little girl before I was old enough to use real makeup I used to play with my fake make up. Now I would love to be one of those people that has a ginormous collection of makeup but alas I am not. I have my necessities such as powder, eye liner and mascara, and then I have a few extras such as my collection of eye shadows. Some may see eye shadows as necessary but I feel they are not typically for every day life but great to have for special occasions or nights out on the town or just when you want to get all prettied up.

On my necessities list is a great powder. You don’t want one that looks like you have plaster on your face but you want one with enough coverage to conceal any possible acne you may have or just to give an all around refreshed look. My absolute favorite is L’Oreal Infallible Never Fail powder. I have eczema and adult acne and I have tried just about every single line of makeup out there and not a single one has provided such amazing coverage as this one does. For my eye shadow all I use is Elf Cosmetics Smokey eye’s. The eyeshadow goes on smooth and stays on all day.

I admit, I am not an every day makeup wearer but every once in a while I like to get all prettied up and when I do I love to try new things with my makeup. Trying new things isn’t always easy when you don’t have the natural talent of thinking up color combinations so like a lot of people out there I go to the internet to find help. Makeup.com not only has videos for eye makeup but they also have videos on lips, face, nails, skincare (love this) and tips galore on how to take care of your skin. To sum it up, they have a plethora of ideas for you. It’s your one stop shop for all things skin related.

Here are a few examples of some ideas I have done.

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My attempt at a smokey look. May have gone a bit overboard on the outer dark color but it still turned out pretty good.

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Color coordinating with my outfit to make my eyes pop. I was wearing a blue shirt so I added a line of blue around the bottom lid and the top lid. But not too much so that all you would see is blue .

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. Click here to learn more about Makeup.com or become a Facebook fan by clicking here.

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How to start your day off with a bang

Have you ever had one of those mornings that just starts off with a bang? I’m talking a bam smack you in the face, get the hell out of bed only to end up wishing you never got out of bed kind of morning. Yeah, that kind of morning slapped me in the face today. So after the frustration left and the laughter started I decided to share with you a step by step guide on how to achieve such a bangup morning such as the one I had. 
1. Get yourself a vintage alarm clock like the one you had in highschool that way it can wake you up 59 minutes after it is scheduled to go off.
2. Rush the kids to eat and get dressed and ignore that your son is complaining of a stomach ache and just call it a typical “don’t want to go to school excuse”.
3. Purposely drop your keys on the way out to load the children into the car.
4. Jedi mind f**k your garage door opener into not working.
5. Climb onto the bumper of your car with the intention of falling off said bumper while the garage door release handle slowly slips out of your hands (you should really try this, it’s quite fun).
6. Destroy you purse, car interior and pockets looking for the keys you “purposely” left in the house.
7. Call your loving husband who is sleeping oh so comfortably in the bed you wish you were hiding under.
8. Knock/fist pump/punch on the door that locked itself. Maybe throw in a good kick or two and of course a nice scream while you’re at it.
9. When all else fails lay on the horn until a fore mentioned husband stumbles out into the garage with a crazed confused look on his face.
10. Pretend this was all just some sick cosmic joke seeing as your husband had absolutely no issues getting the garage door to open.
 There you have it. In ten easy steps, maybe less if you’re in a hurry, you too can achieve this awesomeness of a morning.