It's giveaway time!

So here we at the end of January. Hasn't this year already flown by? lol
As we come into February I hope you are finding lots of joy and blessings in 2013 already. 
Want to enjoy some more awesomeness then get your hands all over this months giveaway. I have paired up with my friend Kelly. She is a Thirty-One consultant and enjoys it very much. 
Kelly and I met in 2011 when she moved in a couple houses down and we became friends. So read on below and meet her yourself and enter this months giveaway! (Please note in order to be entered into the giveaway you must join her group page (unless you are already a member) and either comment on the blog link or the blog comment box. Thanks!)

My name is Kelly Bowen and I'm the wife of a Marine.  Oh what a life!  We have 3 children; ages 12, 9, and almost 2.  To make a long story short, I've been in the Jacksonville area for almost 3 years.  I was a medical transcriptionist for 6 years and worked the night shift from home… didn't have many opportunities to meet people and make friends.  When my husband deployed last year, I quit my job and became a full time stay-at-home mom.  About half way through deployment I decided to go back to college.  Now, I am an independent consultant for Thirty-One! 

My "why" for joining the thirty-one family was an easy one.  I had been interested in the products for quite awhile and went to a home party where I learned about the business opportunity and all the benefits of being a consultant, prayed about it, and joined!  I love being a part of the thirty-one family!!  Thirty-One is a faith based company inspired by Proverbs 31.  We believe in encouraging, celebrating, and rewarding women.  With thirty-one I've been able to bring in my own little income, get tons and tons of bonuses, meet lots of women all over the area, and have made new friends.  Exactly what I was wanting!  Since my husband came home from deployment, he has supported me and encouraged me to keep going!  This year I am 31 and it's thirty-one's 10th anniversary, so I decided to give my everything to thirty-one this year!!  Thirty-One has tons of products to help organize anyone's life with totes, bags, purses, hang-up organizers, and so much more!  As a consultant, I throw home parties for hostesses and their guests showcasing our products, play games, and have fun!  I also help with online/catalog parties for those who don't want to have a home party.  Hostesses can collect orders from anyone… even thousands of miles away!  The hostesses earn awesome rewards; free products and half-off products and hostess exclusive products!  My personal goals for 2013 are to have at least 1 party every month and to become a senior consultant (have a team of 5) by the end of the year.  There is soooo much to say about thirty-one because it is such an amazing company!  I could go on and on about the benefits of being a thirty-one consultant, the unique and beautiful exclusive thirty-one prints, the reputable products, too too much to brag about!  I love Thirty-One!

I have a facebook group where I post product pictures, the monthly specials, specials that only I offer, and more.  Please join my group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/KLAMS/  I am going to give away a thirty-one Littles carry-all caddy in the pattern of your choice (retail $12)  to a random person just for becoming a member of my group.  Here is a picture:

In addition to that… if you book/hold an in-home OR online/catalog party with me in February, March, or April, I'm giving away a $10 thirty-one gift certificate!! 

If you want to join my team and indulge in all the awesome benefits of being a thirty-one consultant, then you are awesome and should contact me!  Thirty-One is having a special Feb 16th-April 1st where new recruits can get a $99 rebate making your enrollment kit FREE!!  Contact me for more details!

For anything and everything thirty-one, please contact me!! 

ph# 863-670-1603  Email:  klams121@gmail.com

View our thirty-one Spring catalog online at http://www.mythirtyone.com/KLAMS/   

Blessings,

Kelly

Good luck to you all and we'll catch on the flip side. Winner will be announced next week in my blog posting and link :)

What's cookin?

I don't like the cold, I don't like it too hot, I hate the humidity. Do I sound like I can't be pleased? Haha, oh I can be....and a good meal is just the trick (and diamonds, flowers, and surprises too). With this cold weather that has come to visit and not wanting to leave I have dove into cooking (since I don't want to leave my house). And man I have dug up some soup recipes that are pretty amazing. So I wanted to share them with you all :)

Since we all battled sickness (with a vengeance) it seemed only traditional to make some chicken noodle soup. Here is a the recipe I use:

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or add left over chicken or turkey at the end)

1 teaspoon celery salt
1 onion, chopped
2 qt. water
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 large carrots, sliced
1 teaspoon onion salt
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
Boil above ingredients for 1 hours. When chicken is tender, remove from broth and cut into 1 inch pieces and set aside(I like to tear mine so it’s in big chunks). If the liquid has reduced to much you can add some more water at this point. Add 2 cups of uncooked noodles and continue to boil for 20 minutes.

Cream Sauce
¾ cup butter
1 cup flour
4 cups milk
Melt butter in large sauce pan. Whisk in flour, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened (get it pretty thick). Add salt and pepper. Add cream sauce to broth/noodle mixture. If the soup is too thin after adding the cream mixture, continue cooking until desired thickness.

Next I love tortellini and this has become a quick favortie in our house. I introduce you to:

Tortellini and white bean soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 2 ribs celery, sliced 
• 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 8-oz. package fresh cheese or meat tortellini
• 1 15-oz. can white beans, drained and rinsed
• Salt, optional
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add celery, tomatoes and oregano and cook, stirring occasionally, until celery begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, 2 minutes longer.
• Stir in broth and bring soup to a boil. Carefully add tortellini and beans and cook, stirring occasionally, until soup is heated through and tortellini are tender, about 7 minutes. Season with salt, if desired. Divide soup among 4 bowls, sprinkle each with 1 Tbsp. Parmesan and serve immediately.

And last but not least I have a find my hubby made in Rachel Ray's Everyday magazine and it was amazing! 

Beef and barley stew

1 pound lean ground beef

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 14 1/2 ounce can  diced fire-roasted tomatoes

1 teaspoon oregano

6 cups beef broth

3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

3 ribs celery, sliced

1/2 cup pearl barley

1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Salt and pepper

In a large saucepan, cook the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it starts to brown. Stir in the onion and garlic, lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the beef is well browned, 12 to 15 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and oregano and bring to a simmer over high heat. Stir in the broth, carrots, celery and barley and return to a simmer. Lower the heat and cook until the barley is very tender, about 1 hour. Stir in the parsley; season with salt and pepper.

I hope you enjoy these (granted you actually try them). I am gonna make it habit to share my recipes I conquer  (or destroy, you might have better luck) on a regular basis. XOXOXO

I stood up for myself! (go me)

I’m a firm believer that high school is a peak into our lives as they will be. Every social situation in your adult life is presented to you in high school with an extra dose or hormones and drama just to make it that much more fun.

Whether you're the quiet type or the outgoing say what's on your mind type (like me), it is a vicious cycle that sometimes is just entirely unavoidable.

And so it does not surprise me that bullying is a problem in my adult military spouse life, just as it was in civilian high school and just as it can be at any work job or in any social setting everywhere.

Instead of being shoved into lockers or openly mocked and degraded, adult bullying is a little more subtle, a little more backhanded and a little bit easier to just dismiss as “personality clashes", “differences in opinion,” or “she’s just hormonal.” Because hormones are an excuse for everything.

I have recently been put in a situation where I had to put my big girl panties on and stand up for what I believed in. I was questioned, I was mocked, my motives were questioned, and well it got me nowhere (at least not yet). 

I find that the military spouse community dishes up adult bullying with a unique and potent intensity that you are unlikely to encounter elsewhere in the adult world thanks to our unique circumstances and stresses. Sure, mean girls (and guys!) are everywhere but our lifestyle forces us to sort through a cross section of people groups, types and cultures  that we would be unlikely to encounter in any civilian setting and that can be far outside our comfort zones. That can bring to head a lot of personal insecurities. Add the stress of deployment, reintegration, injury and death to that and you’ve got a big bully pot ready to boil over.

Think you've never encountered a MilSpouse bully? You may be surprised:

This is real life!  Things that have been said to either people I know or, in one case, to me. 

We know from discussions surrounding our kids (and perhaps our own memories of being bullied in school) that such behavior is a form of power play. Child bullies are often riddled with personal insecurities and put others down as a way of building themselves up and making themselves feel better.

This is also true of adult bullies. But where we expect and even actively wait for kids and teens to act out, adult bullies can take us by surprise. Encountering someone who is genuinely backhanded and mean, especially in a community where there is strength in numbers and we hope everyone is on our side, can be downright shocking.

The goal of an adult bully is “to gain power over another person, and make himself or herself the dominant adult. They try to humiliate victims, and show them who is boss.”

When we teach our kids how to deal with bullies with tell them to walk away and, especially when the behavior turns vicious and violent, report it to an adult.

But how do you deal with a bully when you are both adults? 

STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!!!!

Turning over a new leaf

For everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis I would like to THANK YOU! I have checked my stats and I cannot believe that every month it gets on average 700+ views. The response has been more than I could ever imagined and hoped for. 

So with that being said I am "turning over a new leaf". 

I know a lot of my fellow military wive friends are entrepreneurs and I am definitely planning on taking that route after our big move as well. So I had this idea to partner up with many of these ladies for a monthly giveaway. One that would promote their business and my blog. A little old fashioned marketing if you will. So if you have a business and would like to partner with me in promoting it with a giveaway, let me know :)

So here is how it's gonna work:
-Every month on the 2nd Wednesday I will be posting a new blog promoting a fellow Military Wives business and doing a giveaway. 
-The first 40 people to comment on the blog and like the businesses page on Facebook (if one is provided) will be entered into a random drawing using http://www.random.org/integers/.
-The winner will be announced on Friday via Facebook! (and/or email)
-The winner must notify me via Facebook or email-agrisham2183@gmail.com with all shipping info. 

Now lets get to the fun part............let me introduce you to Sarah Alvarado-Owner of Dreaming of Dandelions
Go to her Facebook page here and "like" it Facebook.com/dreamingofdandelions
and visit her store on Etsy www.dreamingofdandelions.etsy.com

Sarah and I went to high school and played soccer together. Her husband Anthony played baseball. Anthony enlisted in the Marine Corps...here is her story :)

 "Looking back, the history of Dreaming of Dandelions is based largely around our experiences as a Marine Corps Family. While I was attending The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, my husband was deployed to Iraq twice. I finished my classes two weeks before he returned from his second deployment. At this time I was also 9 months pregnant. I spent the next few years enjoying being a mom and wife. My husband spent his last year in the Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa, unaccompanied. Major bummer. However, while he was gone it gave me lots of free time to explore my creativity again. I began to sew again and completed lots of projects around the house. I always wanted to start my own handmade business but couldn't quite pinpoint what I wanted to focus on. Well, the time approached for my husband to finally come home. Of course, I needed the perfect outfit. I had the dress but I gave up on finding the perfect clutch to go with it...so I made one myself. That was the beginning of Dreaming of Dandelions. The perfect combination of my love for fashion and handmade."

What an awesome and inspiring story! Her stuff is super cute too :)

So here's what we have for you! The give away will be this handmade zipper pouch. Isn't it cute? Well get your "like" on and comment below for your chance to win it :)

Oh Pinterest! I love and hate you :P

 I was on Pinterest this morning, and I came across a blog where a woman talked about how homemaking was her job, and she took it seriously.  She gets up early, cooks, cleans, prepares delicious meals, blah, blah, blah.

I wanted to choke her. 

The next blog in my reader, was describing how to create HANDMADE love notes for your child's lunch box.  Seriously?  Write on a napkin or buy the ones premade, never mind that.

Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest. I get lots of recipes and craft ideas from it.  You can find me here: http://pinterest.com/amg2183/

I was joking with a friend about my "findings" and she just laughed at me. I asked her why she was laughing and she said I was a "Pinterest" Mom. Reminding me of all the things I do and how envious she was that I seemed to have it together and still make time to volunteer and keep a pretty busy schedule. I was utterly flattered by her perception of me, but also thought, "hey I must be putting on quite the show!" lol

I thoroughly enjoy my busy schedule and all the things I am involved in. But I am not the "Pinterest" Mom. I'll give you a few examples:

We had Hamburger Helper one night for dinner.

The laundry isn't done, the floors aren't spotless, and I don't get up early to make my kids a hot breakfast every morning.

I think it's okay if my kids wear the same pajamas more than one night.  (I don't think they should wear the same clothes every day, but luckily that's not an issue here!)

I don't hand make my husband cards.  

I don't water my lawn.

I don't save everything I am getting rid of for a garage sale.  

I do love my kids, take care of my kids, workout, keep the house reasonably clean, and make sure there is always toilet paper.  The dog gets walked, fed, and watered.

I don't spend my free minutes scrubbing, cleaning corners with q-tips, or making sure the underside of my chairs have no spots on them.

I did take my children to story time, to the park, on a walk, had a movie night, and took them to  Wendys because I didn't want to cook. 

Life is good, and if my baseboards are a little dusty, at least I know it's for a good reason--Alanna and Brycen

Getting this off my chest!

There is a rule I like to follow where I don’t talk politics on Facebook or my blog. And with the overwhelming negativity and boasting on social media outlets, I am sure you could understand why. But I feel like there are a few things that I need to get off my chest. 

I am disgusted. Not with the outcome of this election, but by the words that have been used to show that we are not as united as we’d like to think. Did I vote for Obama? No, I didn’t. But I am still supportive of our nation’s decision in choosing to keep him as our President.  

As a military spouse, choosing a president is extremely important to me. With a husband who serves this country, you can understand how essential it is for me to stay on top of political issues when foreign affairs are involved.  And it is even more important for me to stand united with my country while thousands of men and women, including my husband and friends are still fighting for us. 

Both Romney and Obama supporters are guilty here. I get that those who voted for Mitt are disappointed. And I understand those who voted for Obama are overjoyed. But we can share our feelings without being foul. Recently I watched a solemn crowd listen to Gov. Romney give his last words in the 2012 election. And as he offered prayers to our President I felt at peace with this decision. But once the cameras showed Obama’s headquarters in Chicago I couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the sight of t-shirts that read “99 problems and Mitt ain’t one” “Once you go black you never go back”, or reading a sign that is in accordance with the Civil Rights Movement that read “We HAVE overcome”.  Again, I understand that our country is excited, but associating this debate with the hard times our country faced years and years ago only makes me feel like we have stepped backwards. It hurt me deeply to read that sign that almost alluded to the fact that because I didn’t vote for Obama then I must be against him as a black man. In 2008 I understood and shared in the excitement over electing our first African American President. I remember feeling a bit of joy over it as I did vote for him. But this year’s election shouldn’t have been about that at all. To suggest that those who voted for Romney to be racist (and I have seen statements that have said so) is wrong. How is that uniting us? 

But what also hurts are those who have said that our country is “stupid”, or that we are doomed because Obama has been reelected. That to me is ignorance. The majority of our country has made it clear they believe in our President. They support him. And by no means do we all have to agree with this decision, but as a united nation we should respect it. He is just one man. His decisions alone are not what shape this nation. We are not doomed. Our nation isn’t going to fall into socialist hands. We will survive another 4 years. I promise. For some it might be a little harder and for others it may come easier. But that’s all part of our democracy. That is the beauty of our country. And the fact we as a nation decide upon all issues, is one of the most admiring aspects of the Unites States of America. 

And for all who are utterly disappointed in how our election system runs, let me remind you that there are hundreds of countries that don’t ever have the choice to pick their leader. Many are forced to live under the rule of a dictator.  Be thankful for our countries right to vote. 

And I will close with how proud I am of our Presidents speech. Even though I didn’t vote for him, I must have faith in him as my president.

“I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.” - President Barack Obama

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

It’s officially the week of Thanksgiving and you can feel it in the air! People are taking to the streets and to the stores. I’m not sure how many are dancing and spreading the blessings of thanks to one another and each and every person they see and meet along the way! But, I do know that the energy is gearing up for those days ahead and I want you to get your attitude of gratitude on as you remind yourself to be safe as you venture out and about!

While some are counting their blessings more than once, sending cards, texts, and emails of thanks to those they love.  Others are feeling the pressure. They are on the run, and running they are as the grocery stores gear up and the retailers are preparing for the opening of Black Friday. Some even beginning it on the day of Thanks and some lining up on the sidewalks to buy on sale what will still be on sale in December but they just have to have it now.

 Ah yes, Thanksgiving is upon us!

Many are looking forward to a day of great smells in their homes. Shared stories of those they love, the memories of times once held together, precious memories of those that were good, great, not so grand, or all wrapped into one.

And then there are the traditions that now are only figments of the imagination. Those times that seemed like so long ago, they were real and touchable, but yet so gone as are those who held them together.

A holiday that many savor just as the smells and aromas that fill homes or the memories of so many.

Turkey, dressings, and pies, oh my! The Thanksgiving Parade and football! The joys of a day.

A day to GIVE THANKS and to be thankful. To remember the First Americans, their hospitality, the extension of self for the greater good, and treaties broken. The circle of life in lessons learned, in gratitude. Interesting how that works isn't it?

I am thankful for so many things, so many people, so much of life's lessons and continue to be blessed by all.

I can look forward to doing that “Black Friday” thing; an interesting study in human behavior it is. I love going with friends and enjoying a pumpkin spice latte. It is a wonderful time to kick back and just people watch, to have several laughs as you watch people just lose their ever lovin' minds without filters or restraints. 

Now that is just funny and so wrong on so many levels …Maybe it is just funny that it is wrong or wrong that it is funny!

We will be spending our Thanksgiving with some of our closest friends. Gonna cook it up real nice with Nicole for about 20 people.

Sometimes it is time to change it up, to switch from what was to what is and what fits you best for now. Sometimes it is time to break from tradition.

Perhaps this year, this week is your week for major changes in how you do this holiday, and I pray you begin it with a breath of gratitude, the wind of hope that touches your face to remind you that we are all connected in this thing we call life, both here and in the next place.

Be gentle with people and extend kindness to all you encounter. Remember those who are now growing or grown and they do not need us like they once did, do not always express their love the way they once did, and we have given them the strength to fly, yet it is us who miss what once was more than they do. 

May you have a glorious day while taking one step of dance at a time and letting you decide how you will enjoy this week of Thanksgiving.

Will it be with gratitude or jacked up stress?

It is up to you now.