Meet & Greet Monday

Today is a complete rarity for me. I have not had a Monday off of work since October 2009. And I'm off today. I am truly baffled by this! Definitely not complaining!

Through Swaptree I have received about 6 books now. 

I started reading Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin first, and I LOVED it! Have any of you read it?? Did you also feel a little dirty rooting for Rachel? Or am I alone there?

The day after I finished Something Borrowed, Something Blue, also by Emily Giffin, showed up. I read the ENTIRE book last night. I couldn't stop!

Aside from that life has been pretty boring! Not a whole lot going on! 

If this is your first visit - HI!! I'm usually not so boring, so feel free to poke around some of my past entries!

Neutrogena UltraSheer Liquid Daily Sunblock

Great Protection!

 

I recently had the pleasure of trying out Neutrogena UltraSheer Liquid Daily Sunblock. I burn really easily in the sun, but I hate how greasy and sticky most sunblock or lotion makes my skin feel. Neutrogena UltraSheer was great! It has an SPF of 70, which is a must if you are fair skinned like I am. I put it on an hour before a day long trip to the zoo, and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't make my clothing or anything else stick to me! It was very lightweight, and after applying it to my body, I decided it was comfortable enough to put on my face as well. 9 hours and one additional application later, I had a great trip to the zoo with my husband, without crawling into the car burnt to a crisp at the end of the day. I have definitely found my go to sunblock in Neutrogena UltraSheer Liquid Daily Sunblock.

Are you a book junkie?

How about a music or movie junkie? I know I am, and on the Swagbucks website I noticed a Special Offer link for a site called Swaptree.

How it works? Users sign up (it's completely free!) and then they add items to their "Have" list on the site. These items are ones you are willing to put up for trade in exchange for other items. You also create a "Want" list, where you search and add titles or items that you want. 

Swaptree then notifies you if an item you want is available for trade for an item that you have. The only cost to you is shipping costs, but Swaptree steps it up with the option to add a credit card to your account, and print postage straight from the website after a trade has been accepted! This postage label can be printed on regular computer paper and packing taped to a bubble mailer (you can gets packs of 2 that pefectly fit books and DVDs at the Dollar Tree for $1), and then all you have to do is drop  it in the mailbox and it's ready to go.

Swagbucks offers a nice amount of swagbucks when you complete your first few trades. I just signed up for Swaptree last week, and have completed 4 trades so far. The first trade I was given 100 Swagbucks. And then 40 each for the following 3 trades. That is 220 swagbucks just for trading out old books and movies, for books and movies I would rather have!

By using Swaptree I have decreased my carbon footprint by 35 pounds and saved $23 just by trading 4 items.

Be sure to sign up for Swagbucks first if you are not already a member:

Then click on Special Offers, and Swaptree should be along the top banner!

I received my first two items yesterday:

I decided to read Something Borrowed first and am about 5 chapters in :)

One Year Wedding Anniversary Weekend - Day 2

Day 2 was spent at....Milwaukee County Zoo!! I love zoos, as mentioned a couple posts down. I'm always fascinated by all of the animals and watching them! It was a perfect day weather-wise. About 85 and sunny. Got realllllly hot towards the afternoon, but it was manageable :)

This was one of the cutest things I had ever seen in my life! Baby came swinging over to Mama, grabbed her face and tipped it upwards. So precious :)

Some cool looking birds! 

Milwaukee County Zoo was a great time! We will definitely be going back there! We have always loved Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, but this is nice for a change of pace :)

One Year Wedding Anniversary Weekend

Neither of us was able to swing much time off work to celebrate our anniversary. We both managed to get a weekend off, and decided to head 2 hours north up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the weekend. 

Saturday we woke up early to take Riley to the dog park for a little bit, before we dropped him off to spend the night at my mother's house. It is always so hard for me to leave Riley. I know it's bad, but I always wind up crying for the first half an hour after we leave him. I just feel bad I guess, and I love him to pieces!

We hit the road to Milwaukee at about 9:30 AM. Our first destination? The Miller Brewery tour! We drove straight there, and managed to arrive with perfect timing, 10 minutes before the  next tour was set to begin, so we looked around the lobby.

Then the tour started!

We watched a 12 minute video and began the walking through the brewery part.

Soooo much beer.

The above are decorations in the caves, and it was so neat down there!

Then it was time for some samples!

Hubby here is drinking Batch 19, which they told us was a pre-prohibition recipe, and it was DELICIOUS.

We enjoyed relaxing in the beer garden for a bit, and then headed back out.

We snagged a Milwaukee map from the brewery, and decided to check out Boerner Botanical Gardens, as we love Chicago's botanic gardens. So I plugged the address into my trusty iphone and off we were!

There was a wedding there that day, so we didn't get to check out a few areas since we didn't want to disturb any of that. Pretty wedding colors though! :)

After the botanical gardens we headed up to the hotel to check in and relax. I wound up falling asleep for about 90 minutes, and then we headed out for the dinner I've been waiting for!

I had read about this place on the internet, and we originally wanted to stay there, but opted to stay at a Hampton Inn, since it was closer to all of our other destinations. We had dinner here though and it was the best dinner I can remember eating! I had Shepherd's Pie and Root soup, and I wish I could have brought some back home with me!

If you love potatoes like I love potatoes, you must eat  here!

After dinner it was back to the hotel, where we busted out the year old wedding cake!

It was surprisingly just as delicious as I remembered it being.

After cake we went swimming, and then went back to the room to hang out and watch movies.

Day 2 will be a separate post, since I know this was painfully long!

Crystal  over at Soup Baby passed this award onto me (on my wedding anniversary to boot!) Thank you :)

So now I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about me as well as pick 3 people to pass it on to.

1. I am like a little kid when it comes to going to the zoo. I get all excited and run around all day like a crazy person!

2. I just celebrated my first wedding anniversary this past weekend.

3. I am a licensed massage therapist, though I haven't had much luck finding places to work doing it. I'm currently trying to get a home based  business going.

4. I have never been to Hawaii.

5. We are hoping to have a baby in the next year or so. Not trying but not-not trying :)

6. I love my dog perhaps a bit too much. I generally cry a bit when we have to leave him for a weekend.

7. I am hoping to go back to school next year to get my CNA, and then eventually head on to nursing school after that.

Who do I want to pass this on to?!

1. The Life Of NesJas

2. In A Yellow House

3. Some Dreams Come True

:)

Happy Anniversary!

A year ago today, July 10th, I married my best friend. After a hugely long engagament, and a WHOOOOOLE lot of planning, it finally happened. It rained in the morning, but cleared up outside by 1 PM, and was nice for the rest of the day and night. I cried and laughed and smiled more that day than any other day I can think of.  I love you hubby!

XOXO

Happy 4th Of July!

Ahhh 4th of July! I love fireworks! Going to a graduation party today, and watching the fireworks from almost a front row position in a neighboring town, should be a great time! And hoorah for a day off work!

One year ago today, it was 6 days short of my wedding day. I recall being so stressed out and nervous, but I allowed myself time to go out on the 4th to NOT think about the wedding for a little bit. It was so fantastic to relax (as much as I could) I cannot believe how fast this first year has flown by!

Hope everyone has a great day!