hello Monday

Hello!  Happy Monday friends =)  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Link up your weekend posts below =)

We had such a great weekend!  This past week was actually one of the best we've had in a long time.  Brian was home at night all week because he had training at work.  It's so nice when he is home at night.  I'm bummed that today is the start of him working nights again.  But, like I said...our weekend was great!  So let's recap!

Friday when I got out of work Brian met me in town and we did some shopping.  Our Macy's is closing and I am sooo incredibly sad about it.  So we went to see if they had any deals, and they really didn't.  We picked up dinner at Chipotle and we headed home.  Emma got home around 8, she went to her school for movie night.  They showed Trolls.  I can't even tell you how many times that movie has played in our house! Ha!

Saturday we were up bright and early.  6am.  We had to be at the University in the next town over by 6:45 to get tickets for Emma's swimming event.  This past weekend was the Maine YMCA State Swimming meet.  So beware...this is a very heavy picture post!

When we got there the line was already really really long.  I was nervous we wouldn't get tickets.  They only sell 400 tickets for each event.  And every person can purchase up to 5 tickets for an event.  Thankfully we were able to get all the tickets we needed!

We headed back there around 11:30.  Emma had to be there at 12:00.

There wasn't a bad seat in the entire place.  Emma was so nervous.  She had never swam in front of this many people or against this many people.  She swam the 50 Freestyle, 50 Backstroke and the 200 Relay.

 

Her first event was the 50 Freestyle.  She was in lane 2.  When she dove, she dove in way too deep and it took her longer to come back up.  So she lost quite a bit of time there.  She came in 5th place with a time of 42.68 seconds.  Not bad!

Her second event was the 50 Backstroke.

She was in lane 8.  Her time was 51.86 seconds, and she came in 1st place in this heat!  So proud of her!! 

Her coach was so excited for her too!  

Her third and final heat was the 200 Relay.  You guys, these girls ROCKED the relay!  It was Emma and 3 other girls, and they worked SO well together!!!

They were in lane 4.  Came in first place with a time of 2:59.96!  1st place for these girls! =)

I am so beyond proud of not just Emma but the entire team.  They are an amazing group of kids and they worked so hard to earn a spot at the State swim meet.  This swim season has officially come to a close, and now I have no idea what we are going to do with our spare time now.  Oh wait...yeah I do.  Softball!  Ha!  Softball starts in just a couple of weeks, so we have a bit of downtime before that gets going.  Brian is helping coach Em's team this year, and Emma seems to be really excited about it. =)

Sunday was spent doing...NOTHING.  Ha!  We spent the entire day just relaxing.  Which was really nice.

Lastly today, if you are the mom of a girl...don't forget to sign up for our Girl Mom Swap!

How much would your little girl love to get a box just for them from another little girl of a blogger mom?!   Join myself along with the following other bloggers.

Dara from Not In Jersey

Beth from Our Pretty Little Girls

Lacey from Perks of Being a JAP

Danielle from Sprinkle of Joy

Johannah from The Sirois Family

Leslie from This Is For Keeps

 here is the info on the swap.

Sign ups open today, March 1st.

Sign ups are due by March 8th.

Partners will be matched on March 10th.

Mail your packages out by March 17th.

Share your box with a blog post on March 29th. 

The box amount should be $20 BEFORE shipping.  Once partners are matched, be sure to communicate via email to create a box their daughter will love.  We will do our best to try and match partners with similar aged girls and preferences, but can't make promises. 
Participants must be in the continental U.S.

Click HERE to fill out the sign up form.

I hope you all had a great weekend as well...and were able to make it to the end of this extremely long and picture heavy post.  If you did...then linkup!  Have a great Monday!!

 

hello Monday

Hello!  Happy Monday friends =)  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Link up your weekend posts below =)

Girl Mom Swap {Announcement}

Happy Wednesday Friends!  When I first started blogging I never imagined I would form the friendships that I have with some ladies that I've never met.  And some of them I have "met" by doing blog swaps.  Whenever I buy for another blogger and then receive a package in the mail from another blogger, Emma is always right there watching to see what I got.  She gets just as excited as I do =)  When Dara from Not in Jersey asked me about co-hosting a swap for the girls of us bloggers, I was all over it!  I was in!  I knew Emma would be ecstatic about it =)  

 

So if you are a mom of a girl or more than one girl, join myself along with the following bloggers and join in on this fun swap =)

Dara from Not In Jersey

Beth from Our Pretty Little Girls

Lacey from Perks of Being a JAP

Danielle from Sprinkle of Joy

Johannah from The Sirois Family

Leslie from This Is For Keeps

So here is the info on the swap.

Sign ups open today, March 1st.

Sign ups are due by March 8th.

Partners will be matched on March 10th.

Mail your packages out by March 17th.

Share your box with a blog post on March 29th. 

The box amount should be $20 BEFORE shipping.  Once partners are matched, be sure to communicate via email to create a box their daughter will love.  We will do our best to try and match partners with similar aged girls and preferences, but can't make promises. 
Participants must be in the continental U.S.

Click HERE to fill out the sign up form.

If you have any questions at all, please free free to reach out to myself or any of the other hosts!

We hope you will join us! =)
Also...be sure to check out my What We're Reading Wednesday post!  Two posts up today!!

What We're Reading Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Friends.  So today I have 2 blog posts up.  Be sure to check out the other one by clicking HERE.  It's a fun swap announcement =) 

Today is What We're Reading Wednesday.  I have some good book recommendations for you today!  And I am even getting Emma involved this month with this post with what she's been reading. So if you're a reader, and have read any good or horrible books lately...link up with us below =)

Back quite a few years ago there was a show on CMT called, Can You Duet.  On that show was a couple, Joey & Rory.  They were amazing together.  I fell in love with their love for each other and their faith in God.  Fast forward several years later. Joey was diagnosed with Cancer and unfortunately passed away last March.  I have followed Rory's blog daily, and you can find that by clicking HERE.  Rory recently published a book.  And it's a must read if you have followed any of their journey.

Even if you know nothing about their story, I suggest it.  It's an amazingly well written book.  The love that Rory has for his wife is just amazing.  They had a love like no other.

Here is a little synopsis from Amazon on the book.

By inviting so many into the final months of Joey’s life as she battled cancer, Joey and Rory Feek captured hearts around the world with how they handled the diagnosis; the inspiring, simple way they chose to live; and how they loved each other every step of the way. But there is far more to the story.
“My life is very ordinary,” says Rory. “On the surface, it is not very special. If you looked at it, day to day, it wouldn’t seem like much. But when you look at it in a bigger context—as part of a larger story—you start to see the magic that is on the pages of the book that is my life. And the more you look, the more you see. Or, at least, I do.”
In this vulnerable book, he takes us for the first time into his own challenging life story and what it was like growing up in rural America with little money and even less family stability.
This is the story of a man searching for meaning and security in a world that offered neither. And it’s the story of a man who finally gives it all to a power higher than himself and soon meets a young woman who will change his heart forever.
In This Life I Live, Rory Feek helps us not only to connect more fully to his and Joey’s story but also to our own journeys. He shows what can happen when we are fully open in life’s key moments, whether when meeting our life companion or tackling an unexpected tragedy. He also gives never-before-revealed details on their life together and what he calls “the long goodbye,” the blessing of being able to know that life is going to end and taking advantage of it. Rory shows how we are all actually there already and how we can learn to live that way every day.
A gifted man from nowhere and everywhere in search of something to believe in. A young woman from the Midwest with an angelic voice and deep roots that just needed a place to be planted. This is their story. Two hearts that found each other and touched millions of other hearts along the way.

This book was SO good.  Inspirational really.  But be prepared with an entire box or two of tissues.

I have also been reading a 40 day devotional.  I posted about it last month as well.
Cuffs & Coffee.

 

It's written for the wives of Law Enforcement officers and I have to say it's been really great.  My favorite so far was day 20.

 "Unfriended"  How true this is.  In the world we live in now, people can be downright mean on social media about our LEO.  I've seen so many posts that I have wanted to comment on, but I don't.  And I have had people unfriend me because of my beliefs surrounding Law Enforcement.  It's a cruel world sometimes.

If you are the wife of a LEO or know someone who is, get this devotional.  

This month I wanted to do something a little different as well.  I thought it would be fun to share what Emma has been reading too!   So for any of you that have girls around the age of Emma, you may find some good recommendations from her =)

I will tell you...she sometimes enjoys books that for the life of me I can't figure out why.  So a couple of weeks ago Brian bought a movie for her, that's also a book.  She loved the movie, so she wanted to read the book.

Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

I told her even the cover of the book looks creepy, but so far she is enjoying it.  She's not too far into it quite yet.

She usually has 2 books going when she reads.  She keeps one at home and then the other at school.  So at school she is currently reading, The Fourteenth Goldfish.

This one sounds really cute.  She said it's about a little girl who gets a goldfish in Pre-K.  The fish keeps dying but her mother keeps replacing it.  And somehow a little boy shows up at her house one day that reminds this little girl of her grandfather, and it turns out it is her grandfather.  Her grandfather is a scientist her and figured out how to make himself young again.  

Emma loves this book and has almost finished it.  Her opinion, she recommends it!

So tell me, what have you been reading?  Link up below and show us!  

Have a great Wednesday, Friends =)

An InLinkz Link-up

Self-hosted WP: [inlinkz_linkup id=699141 mode=1]

What We're Reading Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Friends.  So today I have 2 blog posts up.  Be sure to check out the other one by clicking HERE.  It's a fun swap announcement =) 

Today is What We're Reading Wednesday.  I have some good book recommendations for you today!  And I am even getting Emma involved this month with this post with what she's been reading. So if you're a reader, and have read any good or horrible books lately...link up with us below =)

Girl Mom Swap {Announcement}

Happy Wednesday Friends!  When I first started blogging I never imagined I would form the friendships that I have with some ladies that I've never met.  And some of them I have "met" by doing blog swaps.  Whenever I buy for another blogger and then receive a package in the mail from another blogger, Emma is always right there watching to see what I got.  She gets just as excited as I do =)  When Dara from Not in Jersey asked me about co-hosting a swap for the girls of us bloggers, I was all over it!  I was in!  I knew Emma would be ecstatic about it =)  

 

hello Monday

Hello!  Happy Monday!  Normally I recap our weekend on Monday mornings, but since I worked all weekend there really isn't much fun to recap at all. 

Link up your Monday post below!

Last week Emma was on February break from school.  We always have a week off from school up here in February.  I think it's because we go so late into June for school here.  So Thursday we packed up and bright and early headed to the coast of Maine.  My in-laws had their week at their timeshare, and we were able to spend some time there.  

 

Emma looks up to her big cousin Hannah like Crazy!  She loves her to pieces.  It's kind of fun to have an older cool cousin ;)

We hung around the condo for a few hours and then we went to the ocean.  It was sooo chilly, but beautiful.

This was about as close to the water Alyx would get.  She and Hannah were picking shells...but really Alyx was just picking rocks! ha!

 

This place is so much prettier when it's not so foggy.

Alyx and Kaden.  They are best buds!

Brian found some sea glass for us =)

After the ocean, we headed back to the condo to go swimming.  And guess who left their bathing suit back home?  Pick me!  Whoops!  The girls still had a blast swimming though.

 Alyx was pretty leery about jumping off the side..but she eventually did it =)

We ended up leaving Emma there to stay a few days.  She came home yesterday with my inlaws.  She had so much fun spending time with her cousins.  They played lots of games and watched lots of movies.  Plus went back to the ocean and also went swimming at least twice a day.  

And now February break is over and it was back to school this morning.  Emma has a busy week ahead of her between school and swim practice.  She has her big State Swim Meet this weekend, and she is beyond nervous for it.  I'm sure she will do fine though =)

I hope you all have a great Monday!
Link up below =)