coffee with a sweet surprise

Side note right off the bat: I got a free sample from Smiley360 and am posting my review for them.

Some of the best parts of my day is drinking my daily coffee. Morning, early afternoon and sometimes late afternoon - a cup of coffee can be found in my hands. My preference is quick and flavorful coffees. I own a Keurig (brews coffee fast!) and I routinely add flavor creamer to my coffee unless we are out of creamer and then I revert back to my days in the fire department and just add a little cold water to cool it down.

I'm very familiar with both the Nescafe and Coffee-mate brands having used their products for many years. Getting to try the French Vanilla Powder was exciting to me so I made a cup less than 10 minutes after the mailman dropped off the package.

 I enjoyed how quick it was to make - just add water!, flavorful, sweet, a good amount of caffeine. This is wonderful in the  mornings when I am stumbling out to the kitchen not fully awake to brew a cup of coffee to take back to the shower with  me.

This isn't only an instant coffee, it's instant with sweetener and creamer already added so it's very quick to make. The taste is very sweet so if you're not used to having super sweet coffee, this may be more of a "con" than a "pro". The caffeine must be pretty decent since it got me out of my afternoon slump in record time.

The only negative thing I can find about this product is the after taste I was left with when I finished off my cup but drinking a glass of water got rid of most of that unpleasantness.

overall, This won't replace my regular coffee and creamer routine but it's a nice thing to have in the cabinet as backup when I run out of my usual coffee or to keep in my car for a mid afternoon on the go cold coffee.  This may also be a good addition to regular coffee in place of creamer for an added caffeine boost! I would recommend this to most people to keep on hand for back up or for those guests who drink coffee while the regular occupants of the home don't.

christmas spirt and love

From the fist page read of the book The 13th Gift by Joanne Huist Smith I was hooked. The author draws you in instantly with what feels like you are reading about your own family and the daily trials and tribulations of getting yourself out the door on time for work as well as your children out the door on time for school. Once you  get hooked in that first page you soon learn the real struggle is the passing of the husband/father in the story. The book chronicles trying to deal with finding your Christmas spirit while also trying to deal with the first Christmas without your husband and father. In the beginning Joanne had no idea how she was going to keep life together for herself and her kids. She had no Christmas spirit and the memories of past Christmas' with her husband haunted her instead of bringing her comfort. Megan, Ben and Nick were each struggling in their own ways of dealing with Christmas coming and missing their dad. It wasn't until a gift appeared on their front porch 13 days before Christmas that things slowly started to change. Everyday for 13 days a new gift arrived and against all odds, brought this struggling family together in their darkest of time as they tried to figure out who was leaving the gifts. The family started new traditions, added twists to old ones and the kids figured out how to honor their dad while making new memories on their first Christmas without him. Joanne wasn't sure she wanted the first give but each day as a new gift was discovered she began to look forward to them and they slowly began to show her what the true meaning of Christmas was about. In the days before Christmas she began to life fully again and make this Christmas the best one her children had ever had while healing their hearts in the process.
The book concludes with Joanne and her middle child Nick, meeting with the gift givers some 10 years later and learning why they lleft the gifts and who they were honoring by doing so. Finding this out changed both of their lives and they decided to start a similar tradition of their own.


I honestly could not put this book down once I started reading it. I laughed, I cried and I felt like I was a part of this grieving family as I turned each page. The emotions are real and the author does an amazing job of pulling you in and creating a way for you to feel the words on the page as you read them. upon completion of the story, I read the notes about the editor and found out she based this book and the events in it on her own life, her personal experiences and her heartache. This book helped her heal and move forward and I for one am thankful she wrote it. I was inspired to help bring the Christmas spirit to others after I read it. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!

I couldn't have been more blessed to receive this book from blogging for books to read and review for free. I will pass this book along to others with the instructions that once they finish it they pass it along to someone else. This book should definitely be read my others.....many, many, many other people.

A little "Furry Logic" never hurt anyone.

Over the weekend I received my third book to review from Blogging for Books. I do have to say that I think this one is my favorite so far. 

Furry Logic; a guide to life's little challenges by Jane Seabrook.

It has the sweetest little kitty face on the front of it and to be honest, that little kitty face is what drew me in to choose this book to review.

The book is filled page after page with some of the cutest little animal art that I have ever seen. Each little animal is accompanied by a funny little quote.  I love the one that says "you'll always be my best friend.....you know to much.  ha!

There is all to much truth behind the quote that states "The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention.....is to sit down and look comfortable." every word of this is true. I experience this daily with my three  year old daughter.  I couldn't help but think of her and smile when I came across this page. The quote is paired up with a momma and baby penguin. Simply beautifully put together.

This book is sure to make anyone smile who looks through it. It would make a wonderful gift for those young or old, in heart or age.

everyone loves a dino

From the moment I pulled this book out of the package I was instantly hooked and drawn in. The bright yellow and blue on the cover drew my eyes right to it and the soft cover beneath my hands had me ready to open the book instantly.
As I flipped through this book for the first time I was delighted and yet amazed to see the vast variety of dinosaurs (150 pages of them!) waiting for you to learn how to draw every detail of them.
The amazing thing about this book is not just the fun drawing instructions but also the little facts they snuck into it. They have little facts thrown into the drawing instructions as well as the meaning of each dinosaur you get to learn how to draw.
The instructions start out very basic and by the time you have completed your drawing, you have added every last detail to make your masterpiece perfect and precise.
My daughter is three and was very excited when this book arrived as well. She flipped through the pages naming the ones she knew and deciding on which one she was going to try and tackle first. She giggled at the silly looking ones and was thankful that the scary looking ones were just drawings.
I was beyond happy to review this book as a courtesy of Blogging For Books and even more happy to have a book that not only brings joy to my daughter when she flips through it but also teaches her the facts of the long ago creatures that are still so loved today.

ready.....set......lets get crafting

My first book to review showed up on my doorstep today. I am just excited and thrilled to receive this amazing book today from Blogging for Books to review. I opened it up right away and am already plotting some great craft ideas

This book is full of sturdy stencils of the upper and lower case alphabet as well as some fun whimsical designs that will be fun to explore and play around with. The cardboard of the stencils is  very sturdy and seems to be durable for multiple uses.

The book also starts off with a paragraph on how to use this book and is then followed with several pages of different craft projects and a list of the items needed to complete the project as well as tips on getting the project started.

I see some amazing fun crafts being created at the hands of this book! I cant wait to show you all what we come up with!

 

 

 

Just a little fluff

A while ago I had my husband purchase the INSANITY dvd set in the intention of using them faithfully. I used them faithfully alright, faithfully to collect dust on the shelf in my garage. Today I trudged through the mountain of crap that was barricading my way to those said DVD's and blew the dust off of them. It took a few tries to get it all, there was many layers! 

Day one of week one totally kicked my ass!

I was briefly pondering and let me stress briefly, doing the other two discs to get me caught up to day 3 which is where I should be due to starting on Wednesday but I'm pretty sure if that even was to happen I would be crawling to work tomorrow. Thankfully I have an easy work day tomorrow but I certainly don't want to do it on my hands and knees!

Oh and did I mention I'm embarking on this adventure with not one, but two bad knees......You're so right, what the hell am I thinking?!?

Stay tunes for some amusing stories as this adventure progresses.

When a door opens, step through it.

I have been pondering in the back of my mind for quite some time now about starting a blog of some type. I have been stalling because I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Weeelllll tonight, I jumped in feet first and created this blog and I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'm really hoping that when tomorrow comes around I will still be able to navigate my way back to it!

I have always had a love for books and the escape from reality they provide and have been wanting to do book reviews for some time now. I'm really hoping to use this blog to do just that....and to share funny stories of my darling toddler.

lets hope both ideas are successful!