Update On My Daughter, The World Racer #11n11

Back in July my daughter, Smooch headed out of the country for a year. She became a World Racer and will be going with her team to 11 different counties. It’s just amazing to me what she’s doing with her life.

You’d think, oh my gosh, traveling the world as a 21 year old, seeing so many different cultures, hanging out with friends would be easy. Not so much. It’s been quite a spiritual journey for her so far. Can you imagine being in one place, feeling like you want to be somewhere else, doing something else, while knowing this is where God wants you?

Photo by Stephany Hernandez

At the beginning of July Smooch gave an awesome update on the work they’ve been doing and how God is growing her. She decided to give up chocolate so I joined her for the month of August and haven’t eaten chocolate for the month. I’ve thought about chocolate a lot, which has turned my thoughts towards my daughter lifting her up in prayer. Fred has been good about helping me remember. At our Lock-In for the young adults I stuck one of those frozen eclairs in my mouth and as I started to chew, remembered there was chocolate on the top, screamed, and spit it out. hahahaha

Photo by Stephany Hernandez

I wanted to share with you some photos of my daughter and her friends so you can see some of what they’re living.

I’m also asking for you to pray for her: her health (she’s been really sick because her body doesn’t digest oils well and she’s vegan), the team’s safety, that God would continue to use them.

Also, see the top right button on my blog? You can give a tax deductible donation to help her continue on this year long journey. She’s only half way to her goal and needs to have about $8000 more to stay with her team for the rest of the time. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but we have a big God who can do big things!

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

Photo by Emily Arzani

That’s my girl and her team! I’m in awe of her and so proud to call her my daughter. To God be the glory!

You can give:

Smooch: http://ambergallaway.theworldrace.org/
Emily: http://emilyarzani.theworldrace.org/
Stephany: http://stephanyhernandez.theworldrace.org/
Gabby: http://gabriellehobbs.theworldrace.org/
Abbie: http://abbiebauer.theworldrace.org/

Dorm Rooms Benefit From NewAir Water Dispenser

I’ve had two girls head to college so far. I’ve got two boys going in the coming years. Knowing what the kids will need is important. Thinking about what would come in handy that isn’t usually on the list is easier now having gone through it twice.

I learned that if you can accessorize in small dorm rooms with awesome products, the college days can go a lot smoother and end up saving money in the end. What college kid, or family, doesn’t want to save money during these years!

One item that belongs in any dorm room is the NewAir Water Dispenser! The WCD-110SS model is great because it has hot and cold dispensers. Your college student can fill up a water bottle any time of the day, warm up a bowl of instant oatmeal on the run to class in the morning along with a cup of coffee, and heat up a bowl of ramen noodles for an afternoon snack all in the blink of an eye.

Let’s talk about the dispenser itself. It’s a pretty light appliance. I was able to carry it myself, no problem. The 5 gallon jug was another story. That bad boy was heavy so Fred brought that into the house. It was a super easy set up. It comes with a Quick Start Guide so you can pretty much start using it right away.

Overall it went well with everything else that is stainless at Fred’s house. It definitely fit in. It would look great in any dorm room. It takes up very little space and that’s the biggest bonus. We’ve even brought it back to my little house and it’s currently sitting next to my stove. This house is tiny and it is in the spot our case water bottles used to take up.

The buttons on the front seemed like they could be of a better quality. They were just very loose when I pushed them. Above the hot water button is a safety switch. You have to slide that safety switch up to be able to push the hot water button. The water can get extremely hot (176°F to 203°F), so this is a necessity.

We went through the process of the set up which takes about half an hour. We flowed water through the cold and hot water spouts to see how well they poured. We turned the switches on in the back (they make the water hot and cold). Because dust can accumulate during shopping, they recommend flushing it after you’ve had the water bottle on for half an hour. We took the bottle off and emptied the taps. After the taps were emptied we drained the remaining amount from the back.

This has been a great addition to the kitchen. It would fit nicely into any dorm room because it’s so slim and would tuck away easily into any available nook. There’s also the bonus of saving money because you’re not buying bottles of water any more and you’re going green by reusing the large water bottle!

What one thing couldn’t you live without in college?

Heading to Middle School with Master Lock & Giveaway

Last week I took my youngest to middle school for the first time. It was an open house and he’s never been the middle school here. It was quite the experience. The middle school is currently sharing it’s space with the elementary kids while their school is being rebuilt.

We brought along Doodle’s new Master Lock padlock to try out on what could be his future locker. Oh, and speaking of the word “Doodle” while we were walking around, I started to say his nickname out loud, “Hey Dood…dude, check this out.” As soon as I said it, I thought to myself, “he’s going to kill me.” And sure enough, a moment later, he came up to me and whispered, “Can you not call me that in front of people?” Sigh…a little piece of me died.

Moving one, we had a tour of the school. We went to the 6th grade wing and got to see the classrooms. The rooms are pretty decent sized and it was a pretty large wing. We headed to the lunch room and gym. Looks like they’ll be pretty closed off from the big kids. Makes me happy to know that!

After we finished the tour, I had DOODLE (cuz I can say that on my blog still) practice putting his padlock on the locker. He spent quite a bit of time practicing the directions to click. These are so much easier than remembering numbers, going right, going left and going right again. Hoping that you land on the right numbers each time and that it opens. I always had a little bit of stress when I was in school and having to remember a new combo every year.

I’m loving this new Master Lock padlock. It lights up in the direction that you click. Once you have the code right, you hear/feel the click and the center circle turns green. Codes are, in my opinion, much easier to remember than numbers back and forth.

We’re really excited for the school year to start and not having to worry about memorizing a combination on the first day is a relief!

Now through September 7, 2014 visit http://www.MasterLockPhotoHunt.com for a chance to win back-to-school security items, and create a wish list for easy shopping with the Master Lock Photo Hunt Challenge.

Be sure to enter to win the Master Lock dialSpeed padlock below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Target $150 Gift Card Giveaway

So excited to be able to bring you this giveaway! I know that at this time of year, any little extra helps around our home. Just think of all the awesome back to school supplies you could get!

Hosted by:

NYSavingSpecials

Co-hosted by:

Mom Loves 2 Read, Simply Sherry, An Ordinary Housewife, Adventures with Little man, Rosey The Coupon Coach and Barbara's Beat

Come and join us in this great giveaway

You can be the lucky winner

Target Gift Card $150

August 11  12:01 EST  To August 24  11:59pm EST.

Valid only in the Continental United States.

Void where prohibited

18 years or older to enter/only 1 entrant per household

Winner is chosen through random.org

All entries are optional.

All winning entries will be verified

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Woven by Words is not responsible for the awarding of the prize. If you have any questions about this giveaway, please email the host at nysavingspecials@gmail.com. This blog, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media network is not associated with this giveaway.

Wordless Wednesday: Extended Family

It’s so important to me that my boys see their dad’s family as much as possible. So glad they made the trek from IL to VA. The boys headed down to Williamsburg for the week to be with them. I’m so happy they have this opportunity!

Do your kids (or do you) get to see their cousins a lot?

Prize Candle: It’s Like Reading A Novel

I’m not the only one right? You start reading a novel and it’s starts to get really good, and you do what I do, right? Turn to the end just to confirm what you believe will be the end. You do that right? You’re impatient like I am, right?

When my Prize Candle came last week, I could see at the front the tiniest sliver of my prize (or at least the prize holder). I lit the wick and sang in my head “burn baby, burn.”

The fragrance of my Prize Candle is Adriatic Fig. Honestly, I probably never would’ve chosen this scent simply for the fact that I never in a million years would’ve had a clue what it smelled like. Now, I’m bad at explaining how something smells, but to me it was, well it still is, a mix of musky and a light “floral” (maybe on that 2nd one). It’s a very easy fragrance. It didn’t overwhelm the house at all.

Back to that darn, stubborn prize. Prize Candle offers candles that contain a prize that’s valued at $10-$5,000! Can you imagine typing in your candle number and getting something over $10? Yes, I was imagining. That’s what makes it exciting and sheer insanity all at the same time.

This is where it comes to relate to reading a novel that I just HAVE to read the end of so I can enjoy the rest, even though the end has been ruined. Day 1 of burning, which was only a couple of hours, I was really good. No desire to “help” it along. Then I saw a couple of people talking about their prizes and how they had to dig into their candle because they just couldn’t wait.

I thought I had more patience than that. A couple of days went by and I started burning the candle again. It burned for about a half an hour and I could see more of the plastic bubble holding my prize. Then, yes, then I got impatient. Nothing wrong with helping it along. A little scraping here, a bit of digging there and voila, out came my little prize.

Only problem? It was late at night and I had to take photos of it for my post. lol Guess what that meant, waiting until the next day since the lighting in this house is so terrible!

Next day came and I pulled out my silver ring. I wonder if there’s a general size ring the company goes with because there’s no way they can know the size of the candle burner. My ring was pretty with a blue gem. I went to the site and typed in my ring number. It was valued at $10. Not $5,000, but it was fun wondering what it could be worth!

Now I can burn the rest of my Prize Candle and enjoy the fragrance. I think it would make a cute gift and who knows, that could be worth a LOT!

Have you ever found a prize in a candle before?

Finally Vacation: Massanutten Resort

Halfway through July the boys and I went with Fred to Massanutten Resort. Now, before you start freaking out that we went with Fred, the condo we stayed in was a double condo. As you walk into the main door, you’re given two other doors that lead to one bedroom apartments. I had one and Buddy slept on my hide-a-bed, and Fred had one where Doodle slept on his hide-a-bed and we just kept all of the doors open.

Whew with that out of the way, we had a really nice time. I had to work, but took my birthday off (for the most part) and half days two other days. I’m not used to having paid vacations.

Fred has had a time share for a lot of years now and this year, while his kids were gone to Germany with their mom, the four of us headed over to enjoy it. Next time, I’m taking a full week off to enjoy everything that’s available.

One of the first things we did was actually outside of the resort. We took a really beautiful hike at a park. Fred had done it before so he knew what to expect. While it was beautiful, there were some precarious spots to climb. The top of the climb had a gorgeous view, but oh my goodness, I couldn’t climb to the tippy top. It was SO scary for me! I was a bit panicked with the boys being up there, but Fred kept an eagle on them for me.

Fred took the boys fishing where they saw a snake swimming in the pond as well as some deer! They didn’t have any luck catching fish, but the boys hadn’t fished since last year.

Thanks to the resort, we were given 2 passes to the Water Park and Mega Zip Line. We had to pay for everything else, don’t get me wrong. lol Fred and Doodle did the Zip Line. Man, it looked so scary to me. hahahaha They loved it though. Doodle even did a kids ropes course later on in the week.

We had a good time at the Waterpark. It was a fun place to spend my birthday! The slides were a lot of fun! Doodle loved the lazy river and when we couldn’t find him at one point, it was because when we looked for him, he was sitting in this area that makes you go in circles. There was one point that we all had to get out of the water because someone left a little “gift” in the water. It was closed for about 45 minutes.

Throughout the week, there were different activities that Fred took the boys to while I worked. They went and played Candy Bingo and went to one of the Rec Centers where Doodle swam in one of the pools. One of the nights they had an Xbox Madden competition that Doodle played in. One night, I was super tired, we played the Trivia Night. We did a good job, but not good enough to stay for the entire game. lol

It was also nice to sit at the condo and watch the storms roll in and roll out within minutes. It reminded me of living in Colorado as a young girl. The view was absolutely stunning.

It was fun to have an entire week to spend with Fred and the boys. Obviously it’s not something we’ve done before and this kind of vacation isn’t something that’s usually available to a couple who isn’t living together. It also gave us the inspiration to start thinking of other vacations we could take with the same set-up. We definitely want to do Disney, so maybe this winter we’ll head down.

Have you done any vacations this summer? What was your favorite part of it?

Enhance Your Home With Audio Fest At Best Buy

 

I come by a love for home entertainment from my dad. He always…AL-WAYS has the best and newest gadgets, tech, and electronics. His house is where you want to watch movies or listen to music because it’s always enjoyable. 

I haven’t been able to deck out my home like my dad, but I will in baby steps. One gadget at a time. I have to say, I have one up on him this time with the HEOS by Denon.

Here’s why I have one up on him…it’s a Wireless Multi-Room Sound System comprising a family of great-sounding music players for your whole home. You can enjoy your favorite streaming music services, internet radio or your own music collection and set-up is a breeze. There is a free app to control them from your iOS or Android phone or tablet.

So, I downloaded the Free HEOS App to my phone and as usual, my phone was being stupid. Fred had to download it to his phone and of course it worked right away. Unfortunately, (shhhh don’t tell him I’m saying this) that meant I was subjected to his music selection. lol He enjoys torturing me with his beloved genre. =)

I love that it’s multi-room capable. This one fits well in our family room and bedroom, even as you can see above, the kitchen, too. For a large room like my dad’s pool table room and basement combo, the larger The HEOS7 ($599.98) would be better.

We don’t have any music stored on any of our devices other than my youngest’s iPod, but you’re able to stream from your favorite music service such as Spotify, Deezer, Tunein or Napster. Fred uses Pandora and I would use Spotify.

August Audio Fest is taking place across all Best Buy stores from 8/3/14 – 8/30/14

·         Beginning 8/3/14 through 8/30/14 Best Buy will feature one month of deals audio specials, events & more.

·         Best Buy is gathering the best offers on the best audio products throughout the entire month of August.

·         Visit a Best Buy store to test & try the latest & greatest in audio – from portable Bluetooth speakers and headphones, to home theater solutions and car audio.

·         Best Buy has the best selection of audio products – come in and let Best Buy teach you how to upgrade your sound; LOVE THE WAY YOU LISTEN

What’s your favorite home home audio gadget in your house?