Celebrating 30!

I always neglect my personal blog when my life gets busy, but I'm still here and you can visit me over at my full time job too on All Women Stalk! If you are new to my blog; I write, edit, and am the face of the All Women Stalk social media. So hop on over to say hello...I write mostly wedding posts on there. On Facebook we host a lot of giveaways and post theme days like #Workout Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, etc. We're also on Twitter!

So how is your 2013 going? It's almost April and it's still pretty chilly here in the Northeast. Other than the cold weather, life is pretty amazing right now. I turned 30 this month, and if you recall last year I wasn't looking forward to it. But I have since embraced 30 and learned that I need to stop being so negative about it and push forward. I may not have done some things I thought I was going to do by 30, but wow I have accomplished other things that I never even dreamed would happen for me. Also, it helped that my husband, family, and friends really made my 30th birthday one of the best birthdays I've ever had!

Did I mention I have the best husband ever! He surprised me with Broadway tickets to see Wicked!!! 

Meet Katie, she's AMAZING!!! Oh and she is having her first child, a baby girl!! Check her out, she repurposes unplayable vinyl records into journals! 

She made me a cake and cupcakes with little owls on them! 

My sisters and family friend (who is like a sister!) PS the one to the far left and the one standing next to me are my sisters!

The crew hanging out at my favorite place for dinner and drinks!

That's little me about 27 years ago, I believe I was three in that photo and all dressed up for my dance recital! 

Did I mention my obsession with owls! I received all of these from my in-laws! 

My mom in the middle photo, dad next to me in the bottom, and step-dad to the far right in the bottom photo. 

My older sister (the blonde) and I are two years and 1 day apart: March 11th and March 12th. So naturally we celebrate together! The restaurant brought out ice cream sundaes for us both!

Food!

I also took my annual birthday trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show with my mom!

This year's theme was Brilliant! In translation...all about London, England. This Alice in Wonderland exhibit was one of my favorites...

Alice!

Time for Tea!

Oh yes and we met Sandra Lee of The Food Network! Very nice and beautiful! 

 PS thank you to all of my amazing blogger friends who sent me cards and gifts for my birthday. It makes me feel like the luckiest girl to know so many amazing women and inspires me to make this and every year after the best years of my life. When you put that positive attitude forth, you feel it and everyone else feels it. I told myself this birthday was going to be great and it was and still is!! 

Crazy Start to 2013!

We'll we're ringing in 2013 just right with fevers, colds, and trips to the doctor and ER! My daughters and I have all been sick for about two weeks now on and off with fevers. Tonight was the worst of it with my daughter's fever going up to 103. So we took her over to the hospital to make sure it wasn't pneumonia since we had taken her to the doctors on Monday and they said she was fine but to wait a week to get a chest x-ray to rule pneumonia out! Well it turns out that all three of us have sinus infections! Who knew you could get this sick from a sinus infection! I'm really disappointed that her doctor didn't catch it and we could have avoided a 3 am visit to the hospital. But this is life with kids I guess!!

So how is 2013 treating you?! Hoping we can all kick this in the butt now that we are all on antibiotics, good thing too since her 18th birthday is on Monday...what a way for her to celebrate!! But I'm just glad she is better and the fever has gone down, it's pretty scary when your daughter is shaking and cold but feels like she's burning up.

Happy New Year!!!

Ornament Swap Success!

WOO HOO!!! Wow I feel like a lucky woman this year, such a beautiful year 2012 has turned out to be!! My ornament swap gift came in the mail today, just in time for Christmas!! Erin over at Keep Calm and Sparkle  knew just the perfect ornaments to send this equally owl obsessed chick!

Aren't they gorgeous!! She sent them in the cutest owl box too...oh and she wrapped the package in Christmas wrapping paper!! I'm so in love with them and now I think I'll sign up next year to join the ornament swap again! Thanks to Steph at The Vintage Modern Wife and Laura from The Luckiest in Love for hosting the 2012 Blogger Ornament Swap! 

A Very Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year! 

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has an amazing holiday and a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May we inspire others and help those who need it when we can. May the spirits of the 26 Newtown, CT. angels live on and move us to be a better country. May you and your family enjoy the holiday with each other and not worry about the gifts under the tree, but rather enjoy the gift of life, of each other.

Happy Holidays!

My new favorite owl mug...my only owl mug...so far!! 

Stand Tall...

We can't keep allowing for this to happen in our schools and I don't believe gun control is the answer. A few weeks before the tragedy in Newtown, CT. two guys were arguing on the train in Philadelphia about a Sixers  VS. Bulls game and when the Sixers fans got off they turned around and opened fire into the train...OVER A BASKETBALL GAME?!!! So I believe I have the right to bare arms and protect myself against people like this, against people who might hurt me or my family. Yes, perhaps we need stronger background checks, or maybe check to see what kind of people are living in the same home as the gun owners, but we also need to arm our schools. This is happening too often in a place that is supposed to be safe for our children, so why aren't we hiring armed security to stand tall at EACH and EVERY School in America?? If someone was there, if there was an armed guard there, this tragedy may not have happened. We arm our malls, so why not arm our schools where our children are for most of the day? Taking guns away from the right people is not the answer because the bad guys will always find a way to illegally have weapons of any kind whether it's a gun, a knife, a bat, etc. Stand tall and fight for the 26 lives that were horribly taken away from their families.

All my love to the families in Newtown, CT and to all those who have been hurt by someone who took your loved one away from you.

Ornament Swap Fail!

So my blogger friend Steph of The Vintage Modern Wife along with Laura from The Luckiest in Love put together an ornament swap blogger event. Whomever wanted to join put in their blog link as well as their email and you were randomly linked with another blogger. I was linked with Erin From Keep Calm and Sparkle, who also has an obsession with owls...hoo knew!!

We were to ship our ornament packages this past Monday to make sure it would get there by today to link up again and share what we received. However, my package hasn't made it's way to Erin yet and her package to me was sent back to her because of some problem at the post office with the wrong weight of the box! It's a little disappointing as this was my first ornament swap, but good things come to those who wait...right?!

So what is everyone doing this weekend? We're hoping to get some Christmas shopping done and we also have a few birthday gifts to get as we have two birthdays this month and one next month with the kids! My youngest is turning 16...OMG where did the time go!! When I met my husband my stepdaughter was just turning 9! AHH I feel old! LOL!

Happy Weekend! xoxo

Update: I found out that we can still link up with the ornament swap until Christmas!! That makes me very happy!! YAY!

It's OK Thursday...

It's OK... That I haven't written since last week because I'm busy catching up on AWS... To listen to the Salt-N-Pepa station on Pandora and sing along to Whatta Man...you know you love them too!

To then listen to the Rob Thomas station and the first song that comes on is your wedding song, which then puts you in tears! 

That I don't feel like going shopping for Christmas gifts for anyone...gift cards are good enough right?

That I feel like getting back into bed and sleeping the rest of the day away so that it will be the weekend already! 

That I bought myself another gift (a cute owl mug) but still haven't bought anything for the hubby or kids yet! What? I'm easier to buy for! 

So what are you OK with today? Are you ready for the weekend or perhaps you are just ready for winter to be over already even though it really hasn't started yet! 

Happy Friday!

So I was hoping to do an OK Thursday post...but it looks like that will have to wait until next week seeing that it's Friday already! Wow did this week just fly by or what?

I just got back from the city, I was a little nervous about driving there since I never really have before. When we lived closer to it we usually took public transportation when going to the flower show, museums, or shopping. But now that we're about an hour away it only makes sense to drive there.

My stepdaughter had her music audition today for one of the colleges she applied to and not knowing what the traffic would be like or where I would be parking, we left pretty early to give ourselves extra time. However, as we got closer and every light decided to turn red on us I realized that I better just drop her off at the building she needed to be at and search for parking on my own. So I drove around for about 15 minutes and realized I didn't have any cash on me to park in a parking garage, but luckily I found a neighborhood apartment complex with a suitable parking lot and just hoped that I wouldn't get a ticket! 20 minutes later, after warming up with her musical pieces, she sang for the music administration and we were already on our way home! PS... she said it went really well, fingers crossed!

It's funny how you build up the excitement, the nerves, and the butterflies in your stomach for weeks and moments before your big day (whatever it may be) and you do what you have to do and then it's done! But now the waiting begins all over again and this is her top choice, so send your good vibes and think good thoughts for us because now the nerves and the butterflies will start to grow again for the news of the acceptance letter!

Before I say goodbye and wish you a good weekend here are some photos of our Christmas tree...we always make sure all of the kids are home to pick out a tree and decorate, it's one of my favorite family traditions. So they better come back even when they're in college, no matter what!

We made these ornaments last year using scrapbook paper!

Here we are putting up our photo ornaments from Ocean Side Bride...check out her Etsy shop!

I'm hoping to collect more owl ornaments and decorate a mini tree with all of them! 

I love having the tree in front of the window, it reminds me of the old fashion holiday movies! 

What are some of your holiday traditions? Happy Weekend!