Wordless Wednesday-This kid

This kid, I LOVE him. I could just leave it simply at that, but I just have to add that this kid is my world. He's one of the most amazing little dudes I know. He has the personality like no other, a laugh that is contagious to all, a smile that is all trouble, and he gives the best cuddles. I love this kid!

Quick explanation....I woke up to find both the kid and the dog had snuck into my bed some time during the night. The first pic you can only see his bum sticking out from under the pillow. This adorable swollen eyed smiley face, I get to see it every morning. It hasn't changed in five years, he always waked up just like this.

See's Candies now open in Penn Square Mall, OKC

The other week my daughter and I had the honor of attending a pre Grand Opening event at the See's Candy in the Penn Square Mall.  As soon as I stepped foot into the store I may or may not have done an inner squee. The saying "just like a kid in a candy store" stands true for adults too you know. There's something about stepping into a See's Candies store and smelling the chocolate (oh my gosh the chocolate) and seeing the classic black and white tiled floors that brings out the inner child in every one. As if they knew what we were all thinking we were given a chance to take a peek behind the counter, and get this, we did packing races! Lets just say I now know how to efficiently (not speedily) pack a 12 count chocolate caramel marshmallow box of candies.   It was a lot of fun watching everyone try to figure out how exactly to get the little papers that the candies sit in separated with one hand AND not touch any of the candy with your hands, it was a fun process but also educational in learning that they don't actually touch the candies and that they actually inspect each box to make sure it is up to their standards before it can be sent out to be sold.

While there we got the opportunity to learn more about the company and let me tell you they are a company deep with history. I knew See's was a company with many years behind them but knowing there was a story to those years makes it makes it all that much more special. Here are a few interesting tidbits I learned during our visit:

1. See's sells over 26 million pounds of candy every year!
2. In addition to the 26 million that they sell they give away approximately 1 million pounds in samples.
3. Every single person who walks through the door has the option to receive one sample of candy.
4. The first See's Candies shop was opened in 1921 in Southern California.
5. They have two factories in California. One in Burbank (which I have driven by so neat) and one in San Francisco.
6. See's Candies was started by Charles See the son of Mary See who's picture hangs in every See's Candies store.
7. They still make a few of Mary See's original recipes from when she first started baking such as the fudge.
8. See's uses no added preservatives in their candies.
9. They now offer Gluten Free options.
10. The LollyPops are made in a different factory then the chocolate candies so that along with the chocolate drops are the only candies that they can guarantee are allergy friendly.
11. The chocolate drops is the same chocolate that they cover their candies with.
12. See's employees are AWESOME! Seriously they pour their heart and soul into their job and love not only what they do but the company they work for.
13. And my favorite little tidbit they shared was that the scene in I Love Lucy, you all know which one I'm talking about right? The one where she's in the candy shop trying to keep up with packaging the candy along the assembly line and she get's so overwhelmed in the classic Lucy fashion that she starts shoving her face with chocolates? Yeah that one! It was filmed in the Southern California facility.

Okay so I learned a little bit more then just a couple of things but it was all so fascinating to me I just soaked it all in. I've always been a See's fan. I still remember going into a See's store as a little girl and walking out with a chocolate LollyPop in hand. I want to personally thank Adam, Jermaine, Diana and See's for allowing my daughter and I to take a peek inside the magic behind your wonderful company. 

Weekly Meal Plan 07/28

I am attempting to jump back into this (again) and what better way then at full speed? Might not work for some but unless I jump in like this I will fall right back off the wagon. So fingers crossed I last longer then a month this time!

I am still piecing together which meal we should have on which day but this is the menu I've come up with so far.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Onion Mushroom & Leek Fritatta 
Veggie Paella
Mushroom Pasta
Fish Tacos 
Some type of chicken dish that I haven't decided on yet
Chicken Tortilla Soup

My grocery list is pretty long for these meals because my fridge is pretty bare right now so I don't have anything on hand. I've been sick and cooking has been the last thing on my mind, same with shopping. So tomorrow will also be a restock shopping kind of day, yippee.

Grocery List:
Eggs
Cheese (I only buy reduced fat sharp cheddar. Still the great taste with half the fat. I should be in commercials.)
Cream Cheese
Onions
Zucchinis
Red Bell Pepper
Leeks
Tomatoes
Lemons 
Blueberries
Mushrooms (a bunch!)
Spinach
Cannellini Beans
Cabbage
Lime 
Avocado
Sugar
Whole Wheat Flour
Penne Pasta (I get the veggie kind, gotta sneak as many veggies in as I can)
Milk
Salt Free Chips
Sour Cream
Salsa
Soft Corn Tortillas
Whole Roasted Chicken
Lettuce

I think that's about it plus a few odds and ends like bread, salad dressing, beets, hearts of palm, coffee creamer and fruit, can't forget the fruit!

The nice thing about the fish tacos and the soup is that they share a lot of the same ingredients so that cuts down on the cost a bit and my husband already purchased fish so I wont need to purchase any more of that. FYI fish out here is 1) very expensive and 2) the selection sucks. If you are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's near you I highly recommend checking their fish selection out. They are very reasonably priced and have a very decent selection.
Do you plan out your weekly meals? Tell me, what does your weekly menu look like?


 

Disney's PLANES new clips released

Disney just released three brand new short clips for the movie PLANES which is set to hit theaters on August 9th! These clips are a lifesaver for my kiddos since every time we see the commercial my youngest says to me "Hey Mama that's the movie you talk about, can we watch again"? THe replay button is an awesome feature LOL

Bulldog Shamed

Dusty Meets El Chupacabra 

Strut Jetstream 

You can also check out their YouTube page for all types of videos related to the movie! They even have tutorials for making paper airplanes http://www.youtube.com/RacingSportsNetwork

Disney’s PLANES on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes

Disney’s PLANES on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire new posters & Trailer

The 75th Hunger Games Quarter Quell has been declared!

 

On the 16th of July it was officially announced on Lionsgates Facebook page that every quarter century, the Capitol honors the anniversary of its victors over the districts with a special edition of The Games. For the first time in history the favorite Victors, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark will return as this years Tributes.

 

In honor of Lionsgates big announcement they released new Quarter Quell character posters for the wildly anticipated sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! Here is a sneak peak of a few of the posters that were released.

 

 




And because I know you've been waiting for it, here is a brand spanking new trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens in theaters nationwide November 22, 2013! I know I was late the the Hunger Games club but I am making up for lost time here. I cannot wait to see this movie. I especially love seeing Donald Sutherland as such an evil conniving man which is not his usual forte. 

You can also keep up with all the recent information for the movie on these social sites.

Official Facebook Page: facebook.com/thehungergamesmovie & https://www.facebook.com/TheCapitolPN

Official Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/TheHungerGames & www.twitter.com/thecapitolPN 

Official Google+ Page: https://plus.google.com/+TheHungerGamesM...

Official Pinterest Page:http://pinterest.com/hungergamesfilm/

Official Hunger Games Explorer Site: http://www.thehungergamesexplorer.com/us/

Disney Planes Printable's

If your kids are as obsessed with PLANES as mine are you'll want to follow on Facebook to keep up on all the happenings and the website has a lot of fun things for the little's to do. But in the mean time here are a few printable for you to keep your kiddos busy until the movie comes out. 

If you can't get them to print directly from the images below you can download them from here. I also have a PLANES Paper Airplane pdf if you'd like to print that out for your kiddos as well.

All materials featured above were provided by Disney. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I give to you Captain America: The Winter Soldier new teaser poster. I know I know I am so mean only showing you a poster but when I got this in my email I totally squeed because dude this mean Captain America will be back! Yes I am a total fan girl of Captain America, hello Chris Evans YUM!

Okay enough gushing. The new poster above shows the famous Captain America shield with scratches on it, paint chipped off, is that blood on there? Either way the infamous shield is noticeably beaten up. Can this mean that there may be a darker tone to the sequel? That may be the case as from what I can tell about the movie is that Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the new modern world of today. Together with Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), they battle a powerful and dark enemy.  The Winter Soldier, an assassin who just so happens to be his best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who has been brain washed.

So much we still don't know, but one fact we do....April 4th 2014 Captain America will open in theaters and you can bet your bottom dollar I.WILL.BE.THERE!

CAPTAIN AMERICA on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CaptainAmericaMovie

CAPTAIN AMERICA on Twitter @CaptainAmerica 

Boy Meets Girl

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by The Blogger Connection.

I love hoodies. I may or may not have at least six of them in my closet right now, and that's not counting the one's in my coat closet or my husbands that I steal borrow. Most of my hoodies are back from my punk rock days so they've seen better days. Still totally wearable but a little rough around the edges. Finding an edgy, stylish yet contemporary look is not as easy as you would think. Until now. Stacy Igel, the designer behind Boy Meets Girl captures the innocent spark between a boy and girl perfectly with these vintage cameos. The rest is up to you. You can personalize the Boy Meets Girl hoodies however you like, whether it be a monogram of your initials or you wedding date. It can even be embroidered on to the cozy hooded sweatshirts.

Some fun examples for Personalized Hoodies:

• Wedding/Bridal Gifts....Groom and Bride or Shakle and Chain (haha I added that one)

• Graduation Gifts....Yale Alumna and UofM Alumna

• Sorority Events....Mr. ZBT and Mrs. AXO

• For the house divided....Sooners and Longhorns

• Single and Fabulous....TBD and Me

• The social media savvy girl....@you and @me

• The pop culture obsessed....Peeta and Katniss

Or if you slightly twisted like myself and have not so nice but totally fitting nicknames for your significant others you could use those. I would share our pet names but I'll keep this pg so I don't scare anyone. But seriously how cute is this hoodie? It has all the classic elements to a hoodie AND with the boy and girl silhouette. My favorite is the black and pink because well, they're my favorite colors. 

If you'd like to check out Boy Meets Girl on Facebook you can find them here, Twitter over here and of course their website right here. 

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by The Blogger Connection. I was provided with a product in exchange for this post. All opinions included in this post are my own.

Get outside & play with Coca-Cola's #TakeItToThePark

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by She Speaks and Coca-Cola.

We love the park. And when I say WE I mean all of us, yes that most certainly includes myself. I love watching the kids have fun and seeing their smiling faces brings me joy. Knowing that I can sit for a minute and relax while they go play to their hearts content is an truly awesome thing. And something a park adds extra value to because you're almost never the only person there. It's very rare occasion for to be no other families also at the park doing the same exact thing. One of our favorite parks out here is what the kids call "The Wolf Park" but to us adults it is more commonly known as Reeves Park. One part of the playground has a wolf head hence them calling it the Wolf Park. I didn't snap a photo of it this time but I have in the past. It's actually pretty neat. Another thing I LOVE about this park is it's all wood. Well excluding the slides and swing set seats of course.

Prior to moving here and going to this park I had never before seen a park made entirely of wood. Heck I don't think I had ever seen a park made with any wood before. Everything was all metal or wood. So this park is extra special for that reason. Also it is completely fenced in. There are two main sections to the playground. The older kids and the wee kids. Each of them are fenced in (you can see the fence in the background in the photo above). There are two entries/exits. Both on the same side of the playground so you can't miss if your child runs out. Having that little added security feature is really important to me since my youngest is still a bit of a runner. One last thing I'll mention....TREES! A park is not a park if it doesn't have trees. They provide many functions but most importantly on an extremely hot day they provide shade! For all these reasons and more is why I love taking the kiddos to this local park. Since the first time we went we knew it would become a favorite park of ours and even though we've been countless times it's still awesome each time we go there.

Coca-Cola recently introduced the America is Your Park campaign. The idea behind the campaign is to help bring people together to improve the health of their communities. And with the start of the campaign the hunt is on to find Americas Favorite Park! Now here's the special part, the park that wins 1st place will receive the title of Americas Favorite Park AND a $100,000 recreational grant which can be used for improvements to the park. The 2nd  place park will receive $50,000 3rd place $25,000 and the there will be a $15,000 wildcard grant that will be awarded to a randomly chosen park from the remaining 25 spots on the leaderboard! Another thing I love about this campaign is anyone can put together their own park meet-up and make things happen! If you are interested in doing your own meet-up but need a little help they put together a great checklist filled with ideas on how to make your outdoors day a success. You can view the page here.

Here is a brief video explaining more about the campaign.

This is the part where I shamelessly ask a personal favor of you all. The park that is currently in the lead with 147628 of the votes (as of July 4th) is the the Veterans Memorial Park at 1900 SE 4th Street, Moore, OK. During the May 20th tornado it was destroyed. I would love to see the park rebuilt not just for the children but for the city of Moore as a whole. Moore has a long way to go until it's fully rebuilt and how amazing would it be to start with a place where community comes together to play, interact with each and overall come to have a fun time. Below are a few photos from the Veterans Memorial Park. The first one is a before shot and the second is an after of the same place. Then the following two photos show how the park was completely destroyed.

I received permission from the Veterans Memorial Park to use any photos as I see fit on my post.

To cast your vote in the Coca-Cola’s America Is Your Park campaign visit HERE. To vote for Veterans Memorial Park in Moore, OK you will need to search for the park by name & city. It will not bring it up if you search just by name. You will need to log in to vote but it is a very simple process, you can even log in using your Facebook account! 

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by She Speaks and Coca-Cola. I was provided with a Coca-Cola Park Kit along with a Subway gift card so my family & I could have a fun park day. All opinions included in this post are my own.

Please excuse me

Please excuse the current state of affairs on my site. Things are just a wee bit messy in my attempts to transfer to WordPress. Yes, I finally caved and let everyone talk me into making the switch. BUT it's a step in the right direct and one I can't turn back from sooooooo things may be a bit wonky but we're working on it and hopefully by the end of the week we will be fully functioning and back in business!

As for my giveaway that I have up right now, I know the links got a screwed up so I will more then likely extend the end date to give you all a chance to enter.

In other non related to anything news, look at me as a youngin, wasn't I cute!

Official Trailer Debut of The Delivery Man

That moment when a guy finds out that he is going to become a father is a special moment, one they will probably never forget, but not everyone has the same experience. Like when David Wozniak (played by Vince Vaughn) finds out that he's not the father of 1, 2, or 3 children but 533 children!

Yes you read that right, five hundred and thirty three kids! Thanks to a mishap at a fertility clinic 20 years ago David Wozniak unknowingly became the proud Dad to all of these kids. And now 142 of those children are suing to reveal the identity of their birth father. What is a guy to do with this news? Have a panic attack, go m.i.a., come forward? No, what he does is truly amazing, heart warming and inspiring. He secretly becomes kind of like a guardian angel to these kids. There to provide support and encouragement should they need it. If I am making zero sense watch this brand new trailer that was just released...right now!



I told you, heart warming right. But I seriously love the comedic value they brought in along with the serious side of the story. Example....Chris Pratt is hilarious! The clip where he is just sitting there as his kid is just smacking his face talking non stop.....go on admit it, you've totally had one of those moments, I know I have....a lot more then once in fact LOL And I don't know why but it is always more comical watching moments like those happen to Daddy characters for me.  

I for one can't wait for this to come to the theaters. November 22nd can't get here fast enough! Don't forget to check out the Delivery Man on all the social media channels to keep up on all the latest happenings with the film! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and of course Instagram.

Dark Dawn Review + a Giveaway

I love paranormal. Seriously madly deeply truly LOVE it. There's something about it that just grabs me by every fiber of my being and takes me away to this far away land and holds me there. Then I finish the book and it's back to reality. Always a sad day when I finish a book. I know I can't be the only one who gets completely sucked into a book like this. If I am then you guys are reading the wrong stories! Today I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine's newest venture....Dark Dawn. The author, Melissa Brodsky is made of pure awesome, seriously she is. She writes such engaging stories, I used to stalk her site for her short stories and she's such a sweet heart. Melissa together with Nicole Andrews Moore created Dark Dawn. Here take a peek into the story.

Blurb:

In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth, and everything in between. The In-between was unplanned, unexpected, and unwelcome. Every action causes a reaction and when mankind was born, so were the Fae. Suddenly it was up to Heaven to save Earth. God created Angels to right his wrong, to save human kind. A deal was made, an agreement of sorts. The Angels would protect humanity from Fae domination and destruction, and in return they would have inhuman strength and immortality. Thus a time of angels swooping in to save humans from free will, bad decisions, and big mistakes began. They protected humans from the Fae who intentionally enslaved them, leaving shells of humans, or worse, leaving nothing at all. 
Even God doesn’t always learn from mistakes. Angels were given freedom of choice. Some Angels chose wrong. When some of them spread their wings, they went too far, and just as Icharus was punished for getting too close to the sun, they were punished for getting too close to mankind. 

So they fell. Falling was the easy part.

Are you grabbing onto the edge of your seat? Yeah I was too. So imagine my excitement when I was approached about doing a review AND a giveaway. I'll get to the giveaway in a minute but first let me gush about the book.

One thing I loved about this book was while I may have had a hint of what was going to happen, I really had no clue and was proven wrong. That to me is always a huge deal in a book. You always want to keep your audience guessing. If you have a story that is too revealing then you wont keep the readers attention and they'll never finish. The version I read was the MA version and while definitely adult it wasn't so hot and heavy that it took away from the story line. It was very tastefully done. In fact it may have been closer to PG compared to some of the paranormal romance novels I have read. It was a refreshing change. 

The characters...I really truly madly deeply love the idea that the main characters are angels. Not just people who have wings and fly but REAL angels created my the holy man himself. Along with being immortal, strong, and equipped with beautiful wings, each angel had their own power if you will. More of a gift bestowed upon them. Each gift fits the character perfectly and made the character into an individual as opposed to just this group of angels with no depth. 

I don't want to give away to much of the story line but I don't want to close with the fact that while the book may not have had a cliff hanger ending (THANK YOU...seriously not a fan of cliff hangers lol) it left a few things open and unanswered to lead into the second book of the series, Dark Destiny which is scheduled to be out in 2014. The ONLY downside to that is now I have to wait for it, I am so impatient when I find a series I love. Oh well at least I will have something to look forward to right?

And now on to the giveaway I promised! I am giving away four ebook copies of Dark Dawn to FOUR of my readers! Since Dark Dawn is only available as an ebook right now please make sure you have some form of reader prior to entering this giveaway. I'd hate to have someone win who has no way of reading the book. There are four possible entries for this giveaway. Please do the mandatory entry prior to the additional entries. This giveaway will be open until July 7, 2013 July 14, 2013 at 11:59pm and is open to US residents only.

Mandatory Entry:
Based on the info above what are you most excited about reading in Dark Dawn?

Additional Entries:
1. Follow Melissa Brodsky on Goodreads
2. Add Dark Dawn to your "to read" section in Goodreads
3. Tweet about this giveaway. Make sure you come back and leave a link to your tweet!
Example tweet "Come enter this awesome #giveaway for a chance to #win a Dark Dawn ebook by @Rockdrool from @Shanamama9197 http://bit.ly/14lUlGj "

Quick note, if you aren't into Adult stories this book is also available as an NA Version here. Also make sure to keep up on the latest news regarding the Dark Dawn series....like when they second book is going to be released and possible teasers on their Facebook page!

I was provided an advanced copy of this book in order to facilitate my review. No monetary compensation exchanged hands. All opinions stated above are solely my own. I am providing the copies of the ebook all on my own for the giveaway simply because I love the story and want to share it with others. 

UPDATE....I will be extending this contest by one week since I am having issues with my move to WP and my site was down for a few days. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused for anyone attempting to enter this giveaway. The new end date will be July 14th at 11:59pm.

Winners are posted below and have been contacted. Thank you to all that entered!

My five picks for a replacement RSS Reader service

As we all know tomorrow Google Reader RSS will officially be closing their doors. What does that mean for you/us? It means that through this service that has allowed us to read through news feeds, blog posts and articles in one central location, that it will be no more. I for one foolishly forgot about this and never researched a replacement service. When I went to Google Readers homepage and received the message pictures above I clicked the link provided which opened up a page like this one.

This simple breakdown (pictured above) explains a little bit of what Reader does and what you can do before you find a replacement service. They recommend Google Takeout. Now I am not a coding genius, far from it in fact and while I did as they suggested it brought up about five files that made absolutely zero sense to me when I opened them. So I went to the next best thing. I asked friends what their preferred reader was out of the three that I was aware of.

1. Feedly

2. Digg

3. Bloglovin

I have been playing around with the three readers above and so far I am liking Feedly the best. All three of them were beyond simple to set up and navigate. Simply create an account and import the Google Reader feed but Feedly is the only one that had any type personalization options beyond your basic tile or list viewing options. I am a very visual person so that is very high on my priority list. If you don't need to have the visual aspect then you should have no problems with any of the one's listed above. While I do love Feedly, the ease of set up, navigation and overall options I still wanted something with a bit more.....oomph. So I went hunting and what I found was Flipboard. The only downside.....this is an iOS &Android based service so if you have an iPad, iPhone or Android this is the way to go. You can visit https://editor.flipboard.com/ and do some basic account edits but not much beyond that. But let me show you right quick why that despite it only being available on mobile devices I will still be using it in addition to Feedly.

One last mentionable site that I've been hearing a lot of chatter about is Bloganize. While they're still in the Beta phase the site is very user friendly and appealing to the eye. One difference that I noticed is that you can mark blog posts to read later and you can also mark them as favorites. Also you can create "stacks". A stack is an organized selection of blogs. If you see below I currently have three stacks. Those blogs on Blogger, General blogs and Social Media Moms. With stacks I can pick and choose who I want in which section and separate them by category if I choose to do so.

There you have it, my top picks on a replacement RSS reader service now that Google Reader is no longer. If you happen to find a service you absolutely love please share it here, I love hearing what others have found.