I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Here's a giveaway to say sorry...

I have been a terrible blogger but the joys of my laptop continue. It was NOT the power cord because the new one I received does NOTHING for my laptop but I'm starting to make this desktop feel like home, much to hubby dislike. The desktop is "his" because its our "gaming" computer for his WOW time but seriously my blog > WOW. Sorry hubs. <3

The good news is, we are all moved in! We have a few boxes left but they are our pretty glasses and some of his collectible stuff that we are probably not going to be putting out until the bug gets older and wont ruin it. Haha. And as soon as I buy some batteries today, I will be uploading pictures of the new place and taking you on a fabulous tour of the new homestead.

Mom and the kids, minus Abby, came over this weekend to see the place and like my mom said "It doesn't feel like an apartment, it feels like a home". Yes. Yes. Yes. May have to do with the fact that we've already hung curtains, which we didn't have in the old place or that we actually call it "home" and not "the apartment" but I am convinced it feels like home because I've already become more motherly in it. Emma's room is basically done and I have been baking! I haven't truly baked and been domestic in so long! I made the most amazing cupcakes the other day and, as promised, I have a giveaway for you! I give you...

Caramel Apple Cupcakes!

Yum, I know. And the best part... so simple! I guess you could say, Tastefully Simple?!? Haha, greatest segue ever. So here's the scoop. I am slightly obsessed with Tastefully Simple! I used a box of Nana's Apple Cake Mix, added all of the ingredients it called for and then separated into a cupcake pan. The caramel "frosting" was made with melting caramels and some heavy cream. I've seen people frost them with actual frosting and then  caramel but I skipped that part and just stuck with the caramel. :) Two weeks ago, when Angelina slept over, we made chili using Wahoo Chili seasoning and mmmm, mmm... so yummy! And we all are completely aware of my watermelon obsession during my pregnancy and the Watermelon Margaritas, made with club soda obviously!, are what got me through. I was messaging Adriana every day to find out if the watermelon was in stock!

But above all other products, I am obsessed with the Beer Bread! It has been my favorite thing since I was introduced to Tastefully Simple years ago. Absolute favorite way to eat it? Plain bread dipped in oil. Oh./my.goodness. And this is why I am extremely excited... Adriana is giving away a It's That Simple gift pack!

It includes a box of Beer Bread, a package of Bountiful Beer Cheese Soup and a gorgeous bag all wrapped up! Interested? Do you want to win?? Here's what you have to do:

1. Follow my blog! 

<----- It's over there, just click!

2. "Like" Tastefully Simple By Adriana on Facebook!

and this is how your vote will count...

3. COMMENT ON HER FACEBOOK WALL! 

Tell her Heather from Good, Bad & Free sent you or tell her what your favorite product is or if you've never experienced Tastefully Simple, let her know what product you are most excited to try!!

On October 1st, Adriana will pick a winner and it will be announced here and on her Facebook wall!

Good luck!

Ps. This post is entirely my own words and thoughts and did not receive any compensation for doing so, I just really love this stuff!

That was only a week?

Ugh. So I just realized it's Wednesday which means it has been one week since we learned we would be moving and started packing. A couple days without cable and internet and now that we have internet again, we have learned that my laptop power cord no longer functions so this is just a quick post to let you know that I'm here, but only sort of. I have a new charger en route from HP so when it arrives I will start loading up all of the wonderfully hoarder looking photos I have taken over the past few days.

I am exhausted, my house is still in boxes and I haven't seen my husband for more than 15 minutes since we moved on Saturday sine all of our shifts have been opposite of each other but the good news is in the next few days (read: when I get my charger) I have a GREAT giveaway lined up and there will be tons and tons of pictures!Plus, since we plan on staying for oh, more than 6 months, whatever, you'll get to see how my redecorating/arts and crafts projects go!

Wish me luck... I have a few days off and I'm hoping to sell some of my stuff in a yard sale on Saturday... we have some big stuff that I want to get rid of so that we have the space to set up the bookcases and furniture we're actually keeping!

But tomorrow, David and I both have the "day" off ( he works at night) and its going to be eggs and bacon and pancakes and juice and anything else he wants and we are going to enjoy our first morning together in our new home. <3

Going Offline.

So tonight starts the official "move".
As of tomorrow morning, we will have a trailer and 3 suvs to start to load. At 4:30, we sign a new lease and start unpacking said trailer and suv's. We are giving ourselves Friday night and all day Saturday to move. Hopefully I'll be unpacking boxes Saturday and Sunday night.
However, Comcast will be turning off our internet Sunday and wont be turning everything on in the new place until Tuesday so consider this my goodbye until we are up and running again. <3 Cross your fingers for me!

Oooooh looky....

Jen over at A Girl in Pearls & A Boy With Toys featured me as a Pearly Blogger! I am a HUGE fan of her page and her Etsy Page!! I'm seriously debating buying about 12 different prints for Emmalee's new room, maybe even one of the wedding ones for our new bedroom! I actually have 2 of these prints in my Etsy cart and was planning on purchasing them once I learn the new mailing address but in the meantime...

Now the BEST news is that Jen and Tara at Fabulous but Evil have teamed up and are doing a giveaway for one of Jen's amazing prints!!

I wish I could tell you don't go enter because then I have a better chance of winning but I'm in a good mood tonight so go over, like their blogs and their Facebook pages and good luck!

And the Winner Is...

Erin from I Teach for A Living... What's Your Super Power? !!!


Yey! You have 24 hours to email me your address at hgifford1@gmail.com or I'll have to pick another name tomorrow!

Ps. Go check out her blog, its a 101 in 1001 type thing and her stories and vlogs are great!!

What a BIG Day!

 So first off it's September 13th which means my little one is a whopping 3 months old already!
Let's AWWW together....

I'm in love with her! <3

So she doesnt go to the doctor for a 3 month check up so no new info on her length or weight but my goodness, I can promise you that she's growing! She sits up if you support her waist, and when you pull her up fro her arms, she holds her neck straight instead of flopping back. She still hates tummy time but she does it for a few minutes and is getting her head to an almost perfect 90 degree angle! She has full conversations and laughs, which is usually just a loud shriek and giggling which is new as of today.  She smiles when you smile at her and has started putting herself to sleep if I put her in her Rock N Play while sh'e's sleepy but not yet asleep. We're still waiting for the big rollover but I'd say she's doing just fine! :)

In other news, we're moving!!! Literally, a mile away! Haha. But we have been looking at this complex sinec we started living here. Our current apartment is a 950 square foot two bedroom. Its decent, its in a great location to our jobs buuuut its the bare minimum with no amenities. We moved here because they would take our pups. Well, welcome to Hidden Brook Apartments!

We will be moving into a 2 bedroom, 1150 square foot apartment with granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, and a new energy star approved heating system. Theres a washer and dryer IN the unit!!!!
It's still a ground floor apartment with walk in closets and plush carpets throughout. The maintenance guys are currently painting the walls and then we can pick up the keys on Friday!
In addition to a cleaner, prettier, bigger, newer apartment the complex has a community room, which can be rented out for a function, cough cough Emmalee's Baptism cough, a pool, a fitness center, a playground, a tennis court and basketball courts. Did I mention we'll only be paying $100 more than what we are now?!? I know, right?!? The downside is we need to be moved in by Friday the 23rd so that they can get the unit we are currently in ready for someone to move in on October 1st. We can do it... it will just be a bit crazy for a bit!

Its the best place to be in the long run.  It has more children, more family oriented amenities and we'll need the space as Emmalee grows. Are we out of New Bedford? Not really but until we can afford a house its the greatest place we could be and we plan on being there until we are ready to take that next step. <3

Ps. Did you sign up to win the Target Gift Card? Its the last day!!

What I Learned Today...

1. People with crappy dogs have ruined renting for people like me. It is next to impossible to find a place that will take dogs because "we've had problems renting to people with animals in the past". That's great; their dog sucks, mine doesn't. We found a really great rental and we are going to look at it tomorrow but were told not to get too excited because he really doesn't want to rent to people with dogs but since we sounds decent, we can take a look anyways.

2. Getting out of the house sans baby= 3 minutes.
    Getting out of the house with Emmalee= 8 minutes
    Getting out of the house with Emmalee and David= 14 minutes.

3. I hate the south end of New Bedford with a passion and I can not wait to move out of this city. I miss the ocean and trees and space. More importantly, I don't want Emmalee in the New Bedford school system. I don't care of much of a bitch I sound like.

4. Pregnancy brain is a real thing and lasts well past the birth. Case in point: The envelope I've been looking at since 8 am to out in the mailbox, just went out there.

5. People are great and my daughter is loved by so many. I literally unpacked 4 boxes of clothes that were given to us by friends whose daughter's had already out grown them. She is so spoiled and I dont see that changing anytime soon.

6. It is completely possible to buy $32 worth of Huggies wipes for 5.96. I'm a crazy couponer and I feel wonderful about it. I can give my family what they need but don't worry about going broke. Also, I was able to pay ALL (and yes it deserves bold and capital letters!!) of our bills! We are.... wait for it... wait for it... current on every one of our bills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now to most people this isn't huge but to two people who were out of work for 3 months getting no income in the house at all, this is huge to me and David. I didnt expect to be "back on our feet" (I mean, we're almost there) until Christmas time.

7. It is never too early to think about Christmas. I put a convertible car seat marked from $90 to $35 on layaway for Emmalee. No, it's not a "fun" toy but she'll be 6 months old so seriously, she wont even remember what she got for Christmas. And yes, we've already started our wish lists. :)

8. And last but not least, I am obsessed with Adam Levine. It's fine. I dare you to listen to this and not want to sing it all day...

Or this...

Which brings me to the next part of my post....

I'm linking up to Join the Gossip to share! Nothing but unadulterated Man-ness.

Who should I feature next time?

Book Club Friday!

I just recently finished the book called Pretty Little Devils. If you are a fan of the show Pretty Little Liars, get this book and read it! it was printed in 2006, right about when Sara Shepard was starting her series and the similarities are crazy....

From the Book: 

Hazel Stone wants nothing more than to be a part of the hottest clique in school, the Pretty Little Devils. She’s got the style, she’s cool enough, so how did she end up at a lunch table full of high school C-listers?

Hazel has resigned herself to life as a nobody, when suddenly everything changes. Sylvia, queen bee of the PLDs, invites Hazel to one of the group’s famous soirees—held at the site of their babysitting jobs.

Before Hazel knows it, she’s in with the in crowd—and she couldn’t be more thrilled!

But popularity comes with a price. Especially when one of Hazel’s classmates becomes jealous of her newfound status—deadly jealous.

And you know how school gossip can just rip a girl to shreds . . .

Was it the greatest book ever? No, but it was a quick read and pretty enjoyable...

What are you reading? I need some new books for the Nook so link up and let us know!

Also, for the sake of the 50 Book challenge, I just finished reading Playing the Game & The Time Traveler's Wife! That's 3 more books!

10,000?

Seriously? I am SO close to hitting 10,000 views!

Who would have thought when I started using this as a sounding board during my pregnancy that this many people would care?

10,000 is less than 30 views away.. whose the lucky person going to be? There might be something great in store for you!

Victorias Secret Giveaway

I just HAVE to share. Kori, over at Blonde Episodes is giving away a $50 Victoria Secret gift card to one lucky reader!

She's a super down to earth blogger and her fashion Fridays are things I only dream of! Check her out, follow her and good luck winning!

Overhaul.

So I will be overhauling the blog.

I want to go in a new direction.  There will be updates on our family life, tons of pictures of Emmalee and the pups, but stay tuned for thoughts, reviews and GIVEAWAYS! I'm working with some great artists, crafters, and photoographers and can't wait to pass one some of the love.

I will also be looking into post ideas so that it's not always just about us.  Some great ones I've seen are:
--Target Tuesdays
-- What I want Wednesdays
-- Thankful Thursdays
--Friday Confessionals

If there is ANYTHING you would be interested in seeing.. let me know and we can work it into the blog somewhere...

I am also looking for guest bloggers! Thought about writing but can't keep up with it everyday? Do you own your own photography company and want to show off your work? Share a GREAT recipe that you loved? Let me know!

Would you like to promote your services and goods?
Do you want to get more viewers on your website or Facebook page?
Let's work together! Email me for more information.

My goal is to make this more hands on and enjoyable for all so I hope you stick around to see the wonderful new changes.

<3

The Um... Thursday Update?

I truly am terrible at this now and I apologize.  Part of me is happy that I'm only posting about mundane things that really don't require me to blog/share everyday. My thoughts are just rambles and its never anything amazing.

We are both back in the swing of things, two full time jobs and surprisingly enough, we are making time for each other. After a crazy game of back and forth, we ended up going to Kenny Chesney's concert at Gillette Stadium, in the beginnings of Hurricane Irene! We met up and tailgated with some friends and our floor seats were wonderful! He always puts on a great show and I'm glad that in the end, we ended up going.

And the beginnings of Irene...

We are lucky that we live in a complex that has a high percentage of senior citizens because it makes us an NStar priority aaaand all the units has backup generators :) so we never lost power. We are VERY lucky! By biggest concern was how Emmalee would be, she doesn't need power to warm up her food but she likes the fan or her white noise machine to help her sleep and I wasn't sure what would happen without those. But since we didn't lose power, I guess it was fine!

Emmalee is growing so much everyday though.  She is still working on her neck control but gets stronger everyday and is now showing the beginning signs of rolling.  If shes on her belly, she'll start to rock back and forth a bit. Usually one of her arms is in the way and she cant quite make it but she still has a while to go before she hits that developmental milestone but its exciting anyways!

However my little piggy makes me nervous.  I pump at work so that I can continue to provide her with breast milk even when I'm not home.  Its time consuming and slightly obnoxious but its whats healthiest for her and will help her the most. Now I have NO problem with formula at all but where we are doing so well feeding, i want to be able to do it for as long as possible, which is funny because I didn't know if I'd be able to do it at all before she got here! Emmalee is 11 weeks old now (yikes!) and I've heard of the dreaded 11 week growth spurt but my god, can this child eat! 14 ounces while I was at work for 8 hours yesterday! I got home today at 4:30 and she was latched/falling in and out of sleep until 6.  Slept for a half hour while I had dinner and was back on from 6:30ish until 9. I'm concerned I wont be able to keep up with her much longer! I know I cant stress because that will simply hurt my supply but I hope she relaxes a bit because I am just keeping up with her while pumping and am not able to put away any extra like I had hoped to but it will work out...

You can feel the crispness in the air in the morning and summer is definitely ending but I am excited about the fall that's coming up and I cant wait for the coming months!