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August 29, 2013

A Birthday and a Graduation

August has been a busy month for us and at the beginning of the month we celebrated my birthday and the hubbs' graduation.

This year I was dreading my birthday. It meant that I'm that much closer to my 30's. I don't want my 20's to end. They have been an absolute blast! No one was going to let the day slip by no matter how much I tried. Jayla was the main one not letting me forget that it was approaching.

The hubbs took Jayla shopping for my birthday and my little girlie girl took Daddy down the make-up isle. While they were shopping in the make-up isle Jayla got quite the kick out of it because Daddy doesn't know anything about make-up. Surprisingly, they bought me BB cream in the correct shade.

My mom got me a new stand mixer seeing how I blew the motor in mine at Christmas time. I was pretty excited about that, I have been missing my mixer.

She also surprised me with a cake and she just had to put the infamous clown on it. Let me tell you about these clowns, they are old, older then me. I don't like clowns and I despise those clowns that they put on every cake that they can for me. They think they are hilarious when they do that. I'm not amused. I'm actually surprised that they didn't find their way to my wedding cake.

My wonderful bestie, Sarah from With Dirt On Our Face sent me a birthday surprise! She wasn't going to let by birthday slip on by either. What are friends are! I was seriously surprised when the package arrived! I also decorated my own cup with out realizing it. She is a sneaky one!



Overall I had a nice relaxing birthday and I'm excited to see what 28 brings my way.

Now onto the graduation. A few days after my birthday my husband graduation with an AA in Applied Science with a concentration on Welding. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA. I couldn't be more proud of him. After he graduated he landed a postition teaching welding at our local College. He is quite excited about that. While he was in school he discovered that is something that he really wanted to do and now he can. Between his normal job in the day and teaching 3 evenings a week I hardly ever see him.

 (ins't my grandma the cutest?)



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August 28, 2013

Campus Book Rentals Review

When I first heard about Campus Book Rentals I wished I had known about it sooner.The hubbs had just graduated a few weeks prior to me learning about this amazing company.

Seeing as how I did all the paperwork for the hubbs from financial aid, loans, and ordering his books I know how expensive they are. To the point of them being ridiculously expensive. If only Campus Book Rentals had come into my life sooner I could have saved us so much money.
It may be too late for me to save the money on books for the hubbs but it's not too late for you!!

There are some great perks to renting your books from Campus Book Rentals.
First of all you will save 40-90% off bookstore prices! That is a huge savings just right there!

They have flexible renting periods and offer free shipping both ways! Another savings! No shipping cost and we all know it's getting pretty costly to ship things.

You are also allowed to highlight in the book as if you owned it!

For those of you who are little late to finding out about Campus Book Rentals like I was, don't go kicking yourself in the butt just yet. Campus Book Rentals has a little something for you too with their new RentBack program. You can make money to help make up for the overpriced books you bought instead of renting. They will rent your books for you over and over and you will get paid for each rental. You could make 2-4x more then selling the book back to the school.

Here is a video to explain a little more to you about RentBack



My favorite perk of renting your books from Campus Book Rentals is that for every textbook  that is rented they donate to Operation Smile to help children get cleft surgery.

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft and 1 in 10 of those children will not survive to their first birthday.  The children who do make it are often unable to eat, socialize, communicate, and smile.

Every child deserves to smile and have fun and that is where Operation Smile comes in. They help children receive the life changing surgery.  Operation Smile has been able to perform over 200,000 free surgeries and over 3.5 million comprehensive patient evaluations.


*I was compensated for the review but all opinions are solely my own





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August 20, 2013

One Pot Mac and Cheese

Like any other kid out there my child could live off of macaroni and cheese.  

The only down side to my child trying to live off of macaroni and cheese is that packaged crap. I hate it. 

This recipe takes almost as much time to cook as it does to prepare a box of the packaged stuff.



What you need:
macaroni noodles, or noodles of choice(I never measure my noodles out, I just pour it into the pot)
2Tbsp butter
1Tbsp flour
dash of Italian seasoning, garlic powder,
salt, and dry mustard
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Bring your water to a boil and add noodles. If your cheese needs to be shredded do it while you cook the noodles. Cook the noodles until al dente.

Once the noodles are cooked, drain the water and leave the noodles in the colander. Give the pot a quick rinse and return to the stove.


Melt your butter in the pot and then add the flour. Mix until a paste is formed.

Add your seasonings and then slowly add the milk constantly stirring. Once the milk has thickened and bubbly remove from heat. If it's too thick to your liking add a little milk and stir. 

Add your cheese, a little bit at a time, constantly mixing. When all the cheese is well mixed add your noodles. Stir to coat the noodles.





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August 15, 2013

Not Here

Hey guys! This is going to be a quick post! Breanna from Sweet Silver Lining has her sponsor spotlight posted today and guess who is apart of it? That's right, me!!! Now hurry up and go over there and enter the giveaway!!!


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August 14, 2013

Playing with Macro

Last December I bought these lens filters to play around with macro to see if I liked it before I decided to invest in a macro lens.

Once they arrived I took them out of their package and stuck them in my camera bag and that is where they sat until last month and I'm not all that thrilled with them. You have to find their "sweet" spot in order to get them to cooperate but for the money I spent, I'm not complaining too much about them.

My grandma has a beautiful yard with flowers and plants everywhere. I knew her yard would be the perfect place to play with the lens filters.

Grandma's house is my favorite place to be. It's relaxing, quiet, and the stress just melts away when I'm there. It's seriously my heaven on earth so I'm going to share a few pictures with you that I took in her yard.








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August 5, 2013

No Bake Chocolate Butterfinger Pie

I love this pie, it's easy, it's quick, clean up is a breeze, and it's delicious.

The beauty of this pie is that it's versatile and you can come up with so many different combinations by changing the flavor of the pudding and toppings.


What you need:

Graham Cracker Crust
1 package 8oz cream cheese, softneded
1 can 14oz sweetened condensed milk
1 package 3 1/2oz instant pudding mix
Whipped topping (I used cool whip)
Whatever topping your little heart desires. I used one king size Butterfinger.

Mix together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together. It should be creamy and well blended.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Add in the instant pudding mix and mix away. The pudding is going to set very quickly and it's going to get stiff. I added splashes of milk along the way to help it mix. Just eye ball it. It will be ok, you can't ruin this pie.

Pour mixture into pie crust and let it set in refridigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Top with whipped topping and the goodies you choose to go on top.
Return to the refrigerator until ready to serve.



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