And the WINNER is...

First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to read through my entire post and for showing my extremely talented sister-in-law, Susan, some love in the comments. Like I've said, I always love to hear from you. I also know Susan truly appreciates your kind words and enthusiasm over her jewelry and driftwood masterpieces. So thanks again!
And now for the winner of these shiny little beauties...

My trusty assistant, Grant, will now draw the lucky number...

Drum roll please!

And the winner is...

Brooke from Dinkypops No More!!!!! Congratulations Brooke! And make sure to e-mail me your address so I know where the sparkly gems need to be sent.

And as a little thank you to Susan, I am going to share some pictures of her and, my brother, Corey's beautiful boys. She has not seen these yet, so hopefully it will be a delightful surprise!

The oldest is Sam. He is a bright and extremely intelligent, almost 9 year old who loves all things trains and bugs - he could literally tell you anything you would like to know about both. You would also be amazed at his drawing ability...such precision and detail. He must get his art talent from his Mom!

Next is Aiden, who is now 6 years old. He is also my God Child. Aiden is silly and sweet with adorable curls and warm brown eyes (he also gets both of these from his Mama). He and my Grant are great little buddies. They always enjoy getting together to wrestle and play cars and trucks an build forts out of blankets.

The youngest is handsome little Logan who is 2. As you can see, he has big blue eyes and the most adorable red hair. Logan has had his share of struggles with food allergies and severe eczema as a result of them. His allergies are now, for the most part, under control but through it all, this little boy never stopped smiling! I am amazed because even at two, he takes it quite well that there are just some things (like cake and ice cream) that he just cannot have. He is an amazing little boy!

So there you have it. The winner has been announced and I got to share some pictures of my adorable and much loved little nephews. We're all winners in my book!

Something new (You're going to want to read this one, trust me!)

I always enjoy trying something new. Like my new laptop. I really like trying out my new laptop.

Did I tell you I got a new laptop?

Oh, yes I did that right here. Silly me!

And did you notice the new layout and background?

Love it!

I have my super sweet, real-life and blogging friend Melissa, from Home Is Where Your Story Begins to thank for it! She is so talented and kind and so very great for putting up with super-picky me! We live in neighboring states, about 3 hours away (but work for the same company) so we have been im'ing and e-mailing back and forth at night (waaayyy too late at night for this early bird!) to try to get the look just right. And by golly, I think we've got it! The background was actually designed by Heather at Butterflygirlms Blog Designs and Melissa did a little tweaking and customizing to make it just right for little ole' me! I even have a new custom signature now! How special am I???? You'll have to read through the rest of my rambling to see it at the bottom of this post, though! Ha!

Another something new....This past Sunday, the kids and I made a trip into town to do some grocery shopping. *twang*twang* (No, we didn't take a horse and buggy...but close...my mini van!) St. Cloud just recently got a new grocery store called ALDI Market.

Have you ever heard of it before?

Me either.

I had heard that they have very reasonable prices, as long as you aren't picky about the brand of the item you buy. And you know frugal me can never pass up the chance to save a few bucks, so I decided to give it a try. I was also warned that you either have to bring your own grocery bags or buy theirs and to bring a quarter to check out a cart, that is fully refunded upon returning the cart to the front of the store.

So we shopped...

...and shopped.

And then shopped some more!

By the time we were done, I had a HEAPING (literally HEAPING) cart full of yummy goodness and each child had a toy (I know, I'm a push-over. But they were both really good and that is a feat in itself!) and the total was only $174 and some change and the kids toys were about $10 total (I told you I am a push-over!) so that means ALL of the food was only $164. The price of milk there is only $1.78!!! Skim, 1%, 2%...even Whole! Now that is amazing. I was in heaven! If I would have bought a cart full like that at our usual grocery store it would have easily been over $200. I will most certainly go back. I'll still have to buy certain brands, like Nutella, at another store and they don't have everything (but do have the essentials). In the end, my fridge and cupboards are full and I am one happy Mamma! Bet you wish your town had and ALDI Market, don't you?!?

Notice anything else new?

No pictures on this post! Not like me at all but, hey...it's something new!

Now for something else new...I know there a lot of you out there (and you know who you are) that don't EVER comment. Why don't you try something new as well and post a comment?

It might just payoff!

Payoff...you ask?

Yes, payoff!

I love to win stuff. Heck, I just love to get anything for FREE. More than winning and freebies I love to give, give, give! So that is what I'm gonna do!

All you have to do to get your name in the hat is go visit my lovely sister-in-law, Susan's ETSY store - Black Eyed Susan Artworks - by clicking HERE. Take a look around, make note of what you like (if you feel so inclined you could even buy yourself something or a Christmas present or two!), and then come back here and post a comment letting me know your favorites thing(s). You will be entered to win this lovely pair of earrings. The winner will be picked at random (I'm old fashioned so each comment will be numbered in the order of posting and then all numbers will be put in a hat and drawn by my adorable little boy) so don't worry about exactly what you write. Just write anything!

Also, in order to be entered into the contest to win the earrings, your comment must be entered before Noon Central Time on Sunday, November 22nd. But don't let the commenting stop at this post. I love to hear from all who read!

Isn't this fun?!?

Now get to the commenting!

Good Luck!

True Story - Celebrity Editon

Through my own digression while commenting on another Carrie's blog post, I reminded myself of a very funny and true story. It goes a little somethin' like this...

Way back BC (Before Children), Duke and I went on vacation to Daytona Bike Week with a group of friends. On one particular day we headed down town Daytona to do a little shopping and see some vendors. The boys went one way, and the girls the other - cause lets be honest, boys and girls don't usually shop well together. At least my hubby and I don't, but that is a whole nother story!
My friend Amy and I were walking down the very crowded sidewalk in front of Daytona Harley Davidson and, as always, I had my 'stardar' on. As we passed one particular couple, the crowd seemed to be a-buzz and kept looking in their direction, staring and talking so I knew something was up. Especially since the woman was a super tall, super blond, extremely tan, very well-endowed...lets just say she was very 'fabulous' looking, but the crowd seemed to be more interested in the man. I grabbed Amy's arm and began to pull her in the direction that the couple had been walking. She asked me what I was doing and I replied, "I think we just walked past a famous guy. The chick he was with looked like (well you get the picture from my description above) and no one even paid any attention to her." Amy asked me if I saw the guy and I said, "Yes, but I have no idea who he is." We made our way through the crowd and into an a vendor area. There we spotted this...

Amy's gasped and her jaw nearly dropped to the ground. When she finally recovered from her mini-seizure she uttered the words, "Vince Neil, it's Vince Neil." Perplexed at her excitement, I asked, "Who is Vince Neil?" Her head spun around so fast I am surprised she didn't get whiplash, and she she exclaimed in astonishment, "You mean, you don't know who Vince Neil is????"
My simple reply was, "Nope." She went on to explain that Vince Neil was only the lead singer of MOTEY CRUE and she questioned how in the world I didn't know who the lead singer of Motley Crue was!?!?
After she ridiculed me for a bit longer, we got up enough courage to go over and ask him if we could take a picture of him (I found out the hard way that it is better to ask prior to taking pictures of famous people after a near pulverizing incident while attempting to take a picture of WWF wrestling star, Goldberg, at a bar in Strugis!) To our surprise, his then girlfriend and now wife, offered to take a picture of us with him.!

How cool is that?!?

Well just check out for yourself...


Please excuse my "hoochiness." Remember...this was 'BC' which also makes it 'BM' (Before Marriage and Before Maturity) At least I can look back now and wonder, "What on Earth was I thinking?"

To this day, Amy can not resist telling that story at every get-together I attend with her! Hey, that's what friends are for, right. Heck, I can't help but laugh at how silly it is that I didn't know who the lead singer of Motley Crue was.

There you have it peeps!

True Story