Last year I became a Jewelry in Candles rep and thought it'd be a great way to kick off summer with a giveaway. Winner chooses the scent and either a candle or a tart.
Sugar Pea loves these candles even more than I do. The thing I love most about JIC is you can pick what you get in your candle. Rings, Earrings, or Necklaces. Some candles even have men's rings as options. If you order a ring, you also can choose your size. This is my favorite part, as with other brands I always ended up with rings that fit onto my 11 year old's skinny fingers.
My 2 favorite scents are the black cherry and the clean cotton. The clean cotton reminds me of both of my grandma's houses. The scent brings back so many memories of their houses. Especially spending a week with each of them during the summers.
I was asked to try out OraMD for a review and giveaway.
I received a small bottle in the mail. I was a little surprised at the size, but let me tell you, the size is very misleading.
What I liked about it was that it is all natural. Pure botanical oils of almond, spearmint, and peppermint.
The directions say 2 to 5 drops. I was skeptical so I started off with 5 drops. WOW! It was strong and a little to much for my mouth and sinus cavities to handle. 2 drops was plenty for this girl.
It did a pretty good job. Which was a shock to me. I am weird about my teeth and very picky about what I used to brush and how my teeth feel. Normally I used baking soda and peroxide and they become squeaky (literally) clean. That didn't happen with this, but they did feel pretty clean.
I decided to combine it with the baking soda and peroxide. Let me tell you I LOVED IT! It gave the nice minty flavor to the mixture, which was great. I didn't feel like I needed a breath mint after to give me that minty breath.
I didn't expect my gums to feel like they did. Having several autoimmune diseases, my gums have taken a beating and become red and swollen. After just a week my gums felt different. Not as tender, and after 2 weeks the bleeding when I brushed was gone. Even my dentist commented on how much better my gums looked. This was a huge selling point for me.
After I tried it I had the kids try it. They weren't as excited as I was. They liked the smell, but didn't like how strong it was. So I made them a baking soda paste (baking soda and water) and added a couple of drops. It was much better for them, and they even request this over their old toothpaste now.
I definitely recommend this to anyone that is looking for an all natural way to brush your teeth.
I am giving away 2 free bottles of OraMD. That's right 2 winners!
Mía Mariú is a health and beauty company that promotes beauty inside and out. Mía Mariú botanical skin care, mineral cosmetics, natural health supplements and fine fragrances are available exclusively through Independent Advisers and online. The Mía business opportunity offers an innovative approach to social selling using the power of e-commerce, social networking and personal service. Women can easily balance their career and personal lives without sacrificing their time with family and friends.
Whether a woman wants to earn extra income, begin a new career, build a side business or simply wants the freedom to be her own boss, then the Mía moment is now.
a Rafflecopter giveawayDisclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Everyday Morning is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment.
Mía Mariú is a health and beauty company that promotes beauty inside and out. Mía Mariú botanical skin care, mineral cosmetics, natural health supplements and fine fragrances are available exclusively through Independent Advisers and online. The Mía business opportunity offers an innovative approach to social selling using the power of e-commerce, social networking and personal service. Women can easily balance their career and personal lives without sacrificing their time with family and friends.
Whether a woman wants to earn extra income, begin a new career, build a side business or simply wants the freedom to be her own boss, then the Mía moment is now.
a Rafflecopter giveawayDisclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Everyday Morning is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment.
100 posts. I wish I could say they were 100 fun filled posts, but I can't.
So much has happened since I started this blog.
Instead of making this a sad recap of what this blog is about, I figured I'd give 15 things about me, and a giveaway.
I was born and raised in Illinois. We moved to Vegas when I was 16 because of my sister's asthma. I wasn't happy at the time, but I know now it was the best for all of us.
My dad died when I was 14. I was devastated for a long time. Now going through all that at such a young age has helped me help my kids. I know what they are going through. What they need. What will help them the most.
I met Tin Man when I was 17. I knew when I met him that I was going to marry him. We married when I was 18. So many people tried to talk us out of it because I was so young. I knew this was for us. We celebrated 14 years together this past January. We were planning a vow renewal ceremony for our 15th anniversary.
I was 19 when Warrior was born. My pregnancy with him was great up until 37 weeks when he stopped moving. Thanks to that one stubborn moment, The next 3 weeks were pure hell. Filled with many doctors appointments, ultrasounds, and in the end, being induced, 48 hours of labor and an emergency csection. Topped off with him being in distress, heart rate dropping to 60 then skyrocketing to 250+ and him aspirating on meconium.
When Warrior was a baby, we lived in Oregon for 2 years. Issues with my lovely mother in law made us want to get as far from her as possible. My mom lived up there and got me a job where she worked. I hated living there. It rained 7 months out of the year, and I was just miserable the entire time. After 2 years we decided to move back to Southern California.
Sugar Pea was born 3 weeks after I turned 23. I wanted to try a VBAC,
but my body, more like my uterus, had other plans. After 36 hours of
labor (10 hours of strong labor), my uterus ruptured so I was rushed into another csection.
Warrior was one of those kids that can make a mom scared to have other children. He constantly had to find out why mom said no. He constantly stuck things in every opening. Styrofoam and erasers in his ears. Cereal up his nose. And he ate anything he could get his hands on. I was constantly having to check to make sure what went in came back out. Oh and then there was the 6 different times to the ER because he ate things he found on the ground outside. He has always kept me on my toes.
Sugar Pea was the complete opposite. I just had to tell her no one time and that was it she never did it again. However she was my daredevil. She constantly tried to climb things. Only once, but the next time she'd find something else. Living in earthquake country, I had everything bolted to the walls. Little did I know, she'd be the real reason they had to be bolted to the wall.
I cried when Warrior started school. His first day of Kindergarten was hard on me. He walked in, told the teacher what his full name was, and that he was ready to learn how to read. After the first week of the school, he wanted to quit because the teacher was teaching him shapes, colors, numbers, and letters. He knew all that already, so wanted to move onto college because they might teach him to read.
Sugar Pea's Kindergarten year was a nightmare because she didn't talk very loud and she had a speech problem. The speech teacher treated me like I was the world's stupidest mom and didn't know how to take care of my own child. I still resent that man and the way he treated me and my baby.
We moved a week before school started when Warrior was in 5th grade and Sugar Pea 1st grade. It was the best move for us. Tin Man had a much less stressful job. School here is 1000 times better than the school they were at, and at the time we didn't know it, but we were much closer to Stanford. It took a year before that reason was known.
The school the kids went to is a parent participation school. Meaning the parents are required to put in 4 hours a week per child. At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this, but I love being in the classroom. You get to know the kids better, not to mention the teacher. I also love knowing what they are doing in class and not just what's going on with the homework.
Sugar Pea was diagnosed in 1st grade with an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). Last year, the end of 4th grade, she was also diagnosed with a Visual Processing Disorder (VPD). I'm still learning ways to help her, but I can give advice to other parents. If you think there is something going on with your kid, push it. Push to have them tested.
I have had many people tell me I was to honest with my kids about what was going on with Tin Man. They always told me "less is more." This is one thing I learned not to do from going through my dad's cancer and death. We weren't told what was going on. We over heard adults talking and that's how we found out he had cancer. We weren't told that doctors told my mom and dad, that there wasn't anything they could do for him. That the chemo would only give him a few extra months. I didn't want to put my kids through that. I was honest with them from day 1 about what was going on with Tin Man. Even with everything that happened the day he passed away, I made sure my kids knew and didn't have any lingering questions that might haunt them.
Congenital Heart Defects have been a part of my life since I met Tin Man. I didn't know anything about them until then. Over the last 3 years they've become a big part of my life along with organ donation. Tin Man and I had plans for after his transplant. Things we wanted to do. Not just fun things, but serious things, having to do with awareness. Now that Tin Man is gone, I will do what I can to make our plans a reality.
There you have it. 15 things about our family.
To celebrate my 100th post, I'm giving away a $25 gift card to Macy's.
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<a href="http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="120" src="http://www.mymemories.com/images/stm/BestSoftware-500x120.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
If you use the code STMMMS56552 you get a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - that's a $20 value!
The winner for the giveaway was #17 KIM S. Please contact me if you haven't already gotten my email.
A few years ago a friend turned me onto digital scrapbooking. I was hooked instantly. I also loved that I didn't have to find storage room for scrapbooking supplies. Every free moment I had I spent doing page after page starting with Warrior as a baby and on up. Then we moved and with getting settled up here and then Tin Man getting sick, I never found the time to get back into it.
So when I was asked to review the My Memories software, I was more than happy to. When I checked out their website I was amazed at the huge selection they had. Not just kits they have for sale, but the number of free kits they have too. On just the first page I found several I wanted.
After downloading the software I just jumped right in. I was amazed at how easy it was to use. The software comes with very simple backgrounds and embellishments, but like I said there are a ton of templates and kits on their website. You also have the option of using one of their templates or your own design. Plus you can create calendars.
I've been playing around with it for the past couple of days and have made a few different pages. This page I made for Sugar Pea's birthday. I used the simple background and embellishments that came with the software.
This page I made for a day out last May. This one is made with one of the kits for sale at My Memories.
Sugar Pea was sat next to me giving me her input on pages for her. I decided to let her have a go and see what she came up with.
She decided to do a February calendar so she can see what all we have going on this month. She loved it and was able to do it most of it without any help, that's how easy it was.
I highly recommend checking out My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software for yourself. If you use the code STMMMS56552 you get a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - that's a $20 value!
Now to the best news! I've been given a copy of the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software to give away to one lucky reader! To enter all you have to do is head on over to My Memories and leave me a comment telling me your favorite, or 2, kits.
Last year I became a Jewelry in Candles rep and thought it'd be a great way to kick off summer with a giveaway. Winner chooses the scent and either a candle or a tart.
