Top Two Tuesday: Cleaning Tips

Hmmm.... I'm nowhere near qualified to be telling anyone else how to clean (not being so great at it myself) but I have picked up a few tidbits of info, especially after living on my own for the first time in college.


1. Baking Soda

Not Hub's Tub. Just an example. The style of the tub looks the exact same though, must have been the norm for houses built around the 40's.

Its non-toxic and scrubs like a dream. When I first started dating hubs, I came to his house and immediately noticed his bathtub made me want to gag was gross. So naturally I got down on my knees and began scrubbing. Bleach, Kaboom, some "As Seen on TV" product...

Nothing. Would. Clean. This. Tub.

But then (cue angel chorus)..... I discovered baking soda. I got the tub wet, sprinkled it on, let it soak a little while, and then with a scrub brush, the tub came clean! I've since learned that baking soda is great for all kinds of things. My great-grandparents even brushed their teeth with it. Who knew!

2. Microwave De-Gunker

Mom showed me this trick. In a microwave safe container, mix water with a teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves (or your favorite spice), and heat for 2-3 minutes or until water boils. It will help loosen all the gunky stuff that always gets all up in your microwave, and as a bonus, it makes your kitchen smell fab!


Go on over to Taylor's to see all the great cleaning tips!

Potter and the Ring

Its been an exciting week!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 debuted in theaters. I dragged hubs with me to see it, and now he says he wants to see all of them (success!).

 

Overall, I was very happy with the movie. Splitting it up into two parts has enabled the film makers to stick more closely to plot lines from the books. But there were still a few key things missing. The story of Dumbledore's past was really absent. Nothing about his family, sister, brother, etc. nor his relationship with Grindewald. I love the way the story of the three brothers and the deathly hallows was illustrated on screen as Hermione read it aloud. The saddest moment of all the films had to be when Dobby died. (I think hubs was pretty close to tears at this point haha- just kidding babe!)

All in all a great movie though!

Now on to the best part of the week.....

I literally shrieked like a little girl, jumped out of my seat and sat crossed legged in front of the TV when the story of their engagement came on the news. Yes, my husband finally knew for sure at that moment that I was crazy. But I just can't help being so excited about this. Its every little girl's dream to marry a prince and William and Kate's love story is somewhat of a fairy tale. 

And the RING! Omg the RING! 

An 18 carat sapphire sourrounded by 14 diamonds. Of course you probably know that it was William's mother Diana's engagement ring. Given Diana and Charles' unhappy marriage and divorce, I was kind of surprised that William gave Kate his mother's ring. But it was so sweet that William said this was his way of making sure his mom didn't miss out on the excitement. A GORGEOUS ring, wouldn't you agree?

Top Two Tuesday: Favorite Jobs

 

Over at Taylor's blog this week is top two favorite jobs you've ever had. The problem for me is that I've worked for the same company since I started working at age 14. So I guess I will choose my two by telling about my two favorite positions I've been given at work.

Well, my husband and I work for Sonic Drive-In. That's where we met about 8 years ago and hubs is now a successful partner in his store here in our hometown. So I will go on to describe my two favorite things I've done for Sonic and try as hard as possible to make this not sound like my resume :)

1. Assistant Manager

I was promoted to assistant manager when I was 16, the youngest manager I've ever heard of at that time and since then. I was a carhop before then. Basically I ran shifts, counted money, and sent upset customers home happy. Anyone who has worked in the food industry can attest to the fact that to work in any kind of restaurant is a different world from retail or any other environment and no two days are the same. Its crazy, stressful, but mostly fun and I can honestly say I have loved almost every minute of my time with Sonic.

2. Local Store Marketing

I've been promoted very recently to the area of marketing for my husband's store. I will go door to door to businesses, talk to people about Sonic, and foster relationships with schools' academic and athletic programs. Its very exciting because I get to take all the things I know and use them to build relationships with the community to help grow their programs while growing our family business.

Go to Taylor's blog to take part in the fun!

All Quiet on the Blogging Front...

Been awhile since I've been on here. We've been busy for sure. Quarterly meeting on Thursday. Then we left for Florida on Friday for the Carolina vs Florida game. We had a great time. Met some awesome people. Its very unusual to be welcomed with open arms by fans of the opposing team. We pulled up to our tailgating spot and immediately people from nearby spots were coming over to introduce themselves, offer us food or drinks, and just chat. Well, if you watched the game, you know that USC dominated, but all the Florida fans we crossed paths with after the game were congratulating us on our win.

And now Thanksgiving in drawing nearer, I'm trying to decide if we will have our own thing at home or go to my mom's house. And I'm starting to get stressed about Christmas shopping. So many things coming and so much to do.

And to top the weekend off, we were given some bad news while in Florida. One of hubs high school friends passed away on Saturday. It was very sudden and unexpected. He was buried today and it has been a hard day to say the least. Hard to say goodbye and just hard to understand why this happened. Please keep his family and friends in your prayers.

Rest in peace, Matt.

For Maddie

All week, I've had this little girl on my mind.

Her name is Madeline. This week would have been her 3rd birthday. Sadly, she was only able to celebrate her first. She passed away as a result of complications from being born prematurely. Her mother, Heather, writes the blog The Spohrs are Multiplying. It was one of the first blogs I began to read daily when I first "joined" the blog world. She is one of the funniest and wittiest bloggers and the videos she makes of her youngest daughter Annabel make me smile and laugh every week. She is a woman of many talents and much strength. It is needless to say that I don't know how I would cope with such a loss as the one Heather has endured. I have both laughed and cried reading her heartfelt blog.

Her foundation, Friends of Maddie, is a support for families of premature babies. Heather has made a DVD compilation of the videos she has made and 100% of the proceeds will go to Friends of Maddie. Check out her post on it here. Its a wonderful way to honor Maddie's third birthday and it would be a great Christmas gift for kids, these videos are HILARIOUS! :) 

Please check out Heather's blog, and if possible, donate to Friends of Maddie or to your local March of Dimes. And whether or not you are able to do this, join me in saying a little prayer for Heather and her family, and for all the premature babies and their families around the world.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 29

Day 29: Three wishes

Right now these are the things that are on my mind. They are more like dreams and hopes rather than wishes, but here they are:

1. I wish we were debt free.

2. I wish we could be living in our dream house right now.

3. I wish I could find a great job that pays well and will help #'s 1 & 2 come true more quickly.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Days 27 & 28

Once again, I'm late on these. Busy weekend. Hubs and I went fishing on Saturday morning. He had gone the day before and caught a lot of fish so we thought it would be fun to go together. Well, 6am came too early on Saturday and lets just say that catching no fish + 40 degree weather = unhappy me. Hubs caught fish, but I couldn't feel my fingers so I gave up pretty quickly. He told me to quit whining like a 12 year old, so naturally I just sat in the back of the boat with my arms crossed for awhile after that. haha :)

But anyway... on to the blog challenge! This has been a lot of fun and I have no clue what I will post about when its over! :)

Day 27: Pets

Cookie was my first very own dog. She is a black lab, dalmation mix. We got her when I was about 7 or 8. She has been the best dog. Always so sweet.

Here she is at Christmas a few years ago. She is going on 14 years old now and has a lot more gray on her little face, but she is still as sweet as ever. She lives with my mom and I miss her. But I have all of these other crazy fur babies keeping me busy here at home with hubs.

Jack is Brian's black lab. He and hubs were bachelors together before I came along :) He is the most gentle big baby ever. He loves playing with our dachshunds and is so sweet with them, although he does step on them everyonce and awhile, but hey, hes BIG!

He loves the water!

Beautiful boy.

And of course there are the two weenie babies.

This is Captain, the (former) miniature dachshund. I say former, because he now weighs too much to be considered "miniature." Hes about 15 lbs now. The biggest "mini" dachshund I've ever seen, but he's not fat, just all muscle. He is 15 lbs of pure force when he plays, it wears me out!

This is Chloe. She is a force to be reckoned with as well, except she was the runt of the litter, so she is half of what Captain weighs. She may gain a pound or two when she is full grown, but she will always be small.

Our weenie babies love each other! So cute!

and Day 28: What stresses you out?

To be honest, not much stresses me out. That is a good thing because I think stress can really kill you if you're under it too long, but then again, stress can also be good for getting things done. I think when it came to studying for tests and writing papers in college, that stressed me out, but it was good that I felt the pressure to get things done (even though it was usually the last minute- procrastination is a whole different issue!).  I think I'm just more laid back. I've been with the same job for 8 years now. It is the kind of environment that some people can't handle, because the stress can really get bad at times, but I just take things as they come and at the end of the day, things are always ok, so I never let it get to me.

Lately money stresses me out, but I don't worry about it. I guess its a fine line between the two.

I'm having fun with this challenge!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 26

Day 26: Family Pictures


The most important thing in life is your family...

There are days you love them and others you don't...

 

But in the end, they're always the people you come home to....

Sometimes its the family you're born into...

 

And sometimes its the one you make for yourself <3

 

 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 23

Day 23: Favorite Vacation

I would have to say that my favorite vacation was our trip to Myrtle Beach in 2009. I had just finished my Junior year at USC and we had been dating about 6 months at this time. It wasn't the most scenic or expensive vacation but I wouldn't have traded those few days for anything. After coming back, we were engaged just a few days later.

Top Two Tuesday: Favorite Gifts

I have a lot of great gifts that I've been given, such as my salvation and my husband. But like Taylor said, I'll make this list a little bit more materialistic :)

1. MacBook Pro

I LOVE my MacBook Pro. It was a gift from hubs for my last birthday. I did need a new computer. My one from college was about to die and hubs knew I wanted a Mac so bad so we went to Atlanta to the Apple store and picked one out! He is the best!

2.  2010 Mustang GT

Hubs got this for me last year and it was the most fun I ever had driving a car. Sadly, we no longer have it. The boys barely fit in the back and we couldn't tow hub's boat with it so we traded it in for an SUV. Hubs says that everyone should own or drive a mustang at least once in their life and now that I had the opportunity I'm glad that I did. I got to learn to drive a manual with this car too and thats a good thing to know how to do. She sure is pretty.

Go join in the fun:

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 22

I've missed a few days again. Its been busy around here. We were busy watching the Gamecocks whoop up on Tennessee on Saturday (Go Cocks!)  and then Halloween night was very busy for hub's restaurant. But now the craziness is over for right now at least. My step-sons are here until tomorrow and we are just hanging out and trying to keep them from eating all of their Halloween candy!

But here's day 22: Favorite City

I haven't done as much traveling as I'd like. Most of the places I've seen have been to see family, and I've never left the country, and with the state of things these days, I don't know if I ever will, but there is one place that has my heart and is hands down my favorite city. New York, New York:

My last visit to the Big Apple, in 2008

I love everything about this city. I love the subway, the architecture, the food, the sights and smells. Its one of the only places I know that has a beautiful park in the middle of a bustling city. The people there are not rude like some may say, and I've always been able to find someone to lead me in the right direction or offer suggestions on somewhere cool to visit in the city. Hubs has never been there and I love this city so much that I can't wait until the day we can share in it together. From Little Italy to China town, to Central Park, and Times Square, I would give anything to be able to live there. Its one of those places that you visit and never want to leave.

With my mom and sisters in Central Park

November Warmer of the Month

To be honest, I'm happy Halloween is over. I've never really been too big on this holiday, and now I've got a bunch of left over candy that I'm going to have to try and not eat all at once. But I'm really just excited that it's over because that means that we are now in the real holiday season. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and then Christmas!! I've already got Christmas on the brain, and I was so excited when I visited my personal website this morning and saw the new warmer of the month chosen by Scentsy:

And the scent of the month to go with "Prancer" is called Silver Bells. How festive! Contact me if you would like to get more information about ordering, or anything concerning Scentsy. Scentsy makes for great holiday gifts!

Or if you're interested in earning FREE Scentsy, you should consider a basket party. Even if you're far away from where I live, I can mail you everything you will need to have your party, and its at no cost to you. Plus you get an awesome free gift just for hosting! Contact me at aimeeoakes@gmail.com for more information!