Jennifer

Making a Special KeepSake for Grandparents

September 12, 2009 by Jennifer 10 Comments

Tomorrow is a big day… it is Grandparents Day! Unfortunately, my girls only have one set of living Grandparents but they adore them so much. We will say a special prayer for our wonderful “Angel” Grandparents.

My parents love receiving sentimental things from the girls. The girls absolutely adore their PawPaw and YayYay. You may ask why the girls call my mom YayYay ;). When M was a baby, my mom would always call her on phone or come over and go yayayayayayayayay to her over and over. M would just crack up so much and laugh so hard. Well when M was right around a year, when she would see my mom, she would automatically yell out Yay Yay! So the name was born. They know no different! I love that M gave her a unique name too and L just followed suit naturally and calls her the same thing.

So when we heard that Grandparents.com launched a new section to their website to let you send a sentimental recording for FREE… I was all giddy. You can surprise the Grandparents anytime, any day and anywhere with a special recording. We did just this tonight, so the Grandparents will get it first thing in the morning when they wake up. My girls sang the song “You are my Sunshine” and also said a couple sentences about how much they love them and we clicked finished and had it emailed. I can’t wait to hear their reaction.

I think now every couple of weeks, we will do this to surprise them and just make their day :). Go ahead and give it a try… it sooo cool and something they will treasure always and forever. AND its FREE!

Personalized Kids Labels All The Cool Kids Are Doing It

September 9, 2009 by Jennifer 6 Comments

As you all know, my girls have started back to school. I still can’t believe how fast the summer went by and soon we will be enjoying the snow fall here in the NC Mtns. I do have to say, I am really trying to be more organized this School Year. I am keeping track of papers more and making sure the book bags and lunch boxes are packed each night before bed. Even though I am showing off my new found organization skills, doesn’t mean the girls will always follow suit ;). Also, you never know when a kid at school will decide they like your child’s lunch box or book bag better than their’s ;)… so when I was asked if I would like to test out the Personalized Kids Labels from Lovable Labels, I immediately said yes! This could very well be the key I need to help promote organization to my girls.

When the labels arrived, I started labeling everything. I labeled their book bags, their lunch boxes, their jackets, their pencil boxes, all the lunch gear such as sandwich boxes, thermoses, their extra set of clothing for school, their rest towels, their folders and the list could go on. I am very proud to say that we have not lost one item yet and we are officially into a month of school. Now, this is progress over last year!

The quality you may ask…. is so awesome! The lunch gear has already went through a month of everyday washing and the labels have not peeled once. They are stuck there for good :). Words taken right from Lovable Labels Website: “Our labels are made with a special “perma-grip” backing that will stick to almost any surface. Our labels are UV resistant, dishwasher and microwave safe. The iron-on labels are made with a special industrial material and are washer and dryer safe. The bag tags are made of special flexible plastic and the metal tags are made out of metal of course.”

I love that when you order the Back to School Pack, that you receive all size labels. Since I have labeled so much this year, it was so great to not worry about the label being too small or too big. I do know now that we will NOT go through a school year without these labels. They have made this mom’s job so much easier!

If you would like to make life a little easier and not have so much lost items at school, then you can go and get your very own pack. Use the coupon code: onemomsworld and receive 10% off your purchase!

Disclosure: Lovable Labels did provide me the Back to School Pack for me to review, but I was in no way paid to write my review. This review comes from my heart and I will only tell you how I really feel :).

Fruit Cup That You Can Open Easily

September 2, 2009 by Jennifer 7 Comments

Let’s set the stage. You go in your cabinet and grab a fruit cup. You have really been craving fruit so much so seeing that fruit just makes you so happy BUT you cannot get the top peeled back. It is being so stubborn, you keep fighting with it, your taste buds just keep swelling because your eyes are seeing the fruit, but your mouth is not tasting it! AHHHHH. Libby’s Fruit Cup to the rescue. You all, I am not even kidding when I say this was the easiest fruit cup EVER to open.

It peels back so smoothly and you do not have to sit there and tug at it. Also, get this…. since the rim on the top of the fruit cup is raised… you will not get ANY fruit juice on your favorite shirt or jeans! Does that not rock? :).

In stores beginning September, Libby’s Jumbo Cups™ are packaged in 3-pack sleeves and available in four delicious varieties: Diced Peaches, Diced Pears, Mixed Fruit and Cherry Mixed Fruit, at an approximate retail price of $3.39.

I love that each cup provides 50% more than all the other fruit cups on the market at the grocery store. I love fruit so much and cannot go a day without eating it, but the 4 oz cups just do not satisfy my craving for fruit. You really have to try these. I have been so impressed with them and been counting down the days to September so I can go out and stock up on more! You can visit Fruitification.com for more information on these neat fruit cups.

Guess what? One winner will win (8) Libby’s fruit cups – 2 of each variety. Just leave a comment below and tell me your favorite fruit. I will pick one randon winner through random.org. Contest ends September 9 11:59pm EST.
For extra entries tweet and facebook this contest. Leave a comment for each entry!

Disclosure: Libby’s did provide me the fruit cups for me to review, but I was in no way paid to write my review. This review comes from my heart and I will only tell you how I really feel :).

Mom is Hitting The Books Again

September 1, 2009 by Jennifer 12 Comments

The girls were not the only ones to start school. Watch out.. because mommy is hitting the books again! See, I was going to school for my Computer Information Technology Degree when I found out I was pregnant with M. So, I decided to stop after I finished that semester and take a break. Well 7 years later and mommy is back. I only have a few classes I needed to take so I thought since I have some extra time on my hands to go ahead and sign up!

Boy has College changed in 7 years. Let’s take a look… shall we say “Mom meets College”

1) Mom… raising your hand is so old school. Please do not raise your hand to ask to go to the bathroom. Just walk out of class and do it!

2) Mom… don’t stuff your mouth full of food out in the hall. Hello, don’t you know you just take your food and drink into class and eat while the instructor is lecturing. I mean really now!

3) Mom… don’t be such a techno phobe. Go ahead and leave out your cell phone so you can return that all important text message or answer that all important cell phone call so all your classmates can hear you. Really get with the program here you know!

4) Mom… don’t act like you are loving class when you are really bored. I mean you know you can just get up in middle of class and leave to go on your merry way. Goodness.. what’s with you mom!

5) Mom…don’t just sit there with your hand waving in the air to add to the class discussion. Hello… don’t you know you are suppose to just blurt out what you want to say cutting off other people. Geez!

Ok.. Ok.. Ok… so I get it. I need to forget my manners when I’m at school. Now I get it ;)!!! Jen you are so 2000. This is 2009!

Deep Wounds Can Be Healed

August 31, 2009 by Jennifer 20 Comments

This blog post has been on my heart tonight. It is really personal but I thought I would share my story anyways. I touched on this story a bit with Sarah from Real Life Blog last Thursday on our trip to Raleigh, NC. Here goes!

Tonight when I was putting the girls to bed.. I heard M talking real softly. As I was kissing L good night, I leaned over to M and said: “Who are you talking to?”
M said: “I am talking to God, mommy”

That immediately warmed my heart and just out of blue she said: “Mommy, when I get home from school tomorrow night.. I want us to read my bible together.” This speaks so much volume to me, you just don’t know.

You see…I was always brought up in a Christian home and we were always in church. I got married to my highschool sweetheart right out of highschool. The relationship did not work as we were so young that we didn’t make it work unfortunately. I got out of that relationship and started seeing the man that is now my hubby today! Just a couple months into that relationship, I found out I was pregnant.

This was not good :(. I cried so much. On one spectrum, I was so thrilled to finally be a mom, but on the other spectrum I was scared to death. My whole family is real religious and loves our almighty God. I have several preachers in my family. So as you can see, being pregnant out of wedlock was not good. I remember calling my mom and telling her first. Her own first words to me were “I am really disappointed in you.” “We never dreamed of our daughter doing this.”

I was the child that never partied, never got drunk, never smoked, always made straight A’s, worked two jobs in highschool to help my family make ends meet. So my pregnancy was just wrong. Everyone around me was judging me so bad and looking down on me. The one person that I thought would really judge me was my BF from highschool Holly. But… I was totally wrong. She did not judge me at all. She was there to comfort me through so many tears and helped me get through those first couple of months. No one knew, but as I would cry so hard everyday… the thought that ran through my head was I should just kill myself. That way I wouldn’t disappoint anyone anymore.

As time moved on, my family accepted what happened and started treating me with respect again. BUT… I was still facing God. I served him so wrong. I was scared to even step foot in church… afraid of what would happen. Life went on and I had my wonderful, super fab, M. She was beautiful and I could never imagine life without her. As we were going on with life… I was still so scared to go face God. Then unexpectantly, I got pregnant again with L. Here we go round 2. Pregnant again out of wedlock. I waited till I was 5 months to even tell my extended family and 12 weeks to tell my mom and dad this time. I had lost lots of weight so it was easy to hide. Then we had our wonderful, super fab, L. Life was so grand. It was soon to be hubby, myself, and my girls. Life was complete. Or was it? We still needed God in our lives. I was so scared though since hubbs and I were not married that God would not accept us.

Hubby and I did eventually get married. I was just so scared to get married incase of having another failed marriage, but we both took the leap and did it :). Yay.. finally! We have now been married almost 2 years and brought God back into our family…. its just wonderful. Those deep wounds have been healed and I am not scared of facing God anymore!

So with M saying what she did tonight, just spoke so much to me. I am raising her right in the eyes of the Lord. He is shining bright in our lives now. Everything is going to be A-OK! We have found a great church family where we can be involved and be accepted for who we are. The girls can be involved with children’s activities and I am excited to go to my first Womens Ministry group this Wednesday. I just feel so at peace now with all that has went on the last 7 years. God is helping me heal those wounds.

This morning in Church a song was being sang by a wonderful lady and there was so much spirit with people praising the Lord, crying happy tears because they were moved so much. Both hubby and I looked at each other and were crying. Neither one of us were ashamed as we are born again Christians and we are where we are suppose to be. We all feel whole again. We are now complete as a family!

As we were walking in from Church this afternoon… hubby said: “Jen, we need to find a nice home wall accent that says This House Serves The Lord!” I said AMEN to that!

I know my past is not perfect (I am sure people will still look down on me) but I am thankful that I can repent my sins and be forgiven. I can start walking on the right path now and it just thrills me so much that my girls want to follow that path with us.

This post really means a lot to me and thank you so much for letting me share it!

Jennifer

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