Thursday's Things: I'm Golden

... No, not like the shower. Eww.

SITS Spring Fling is over... even though I'm pretty sure I still haven't recovered from that whirlwind of fun. Even more fun was hearing that I WON! Several times, actually... gold all around me! Hope you all got some goods, too.

Thank you to Heather and Tiffany from SITS, along with Carina from Card Nirvana, for a fabulous $40 gift certificate to Card Nirvana. They have beautiful designs for many various occasions, so head over there and take a look if you're in the market. I've got my eye on some unique birthday cards for Monsoon's 4th this summer plus my niece's 2nd and my nephew's 1st. It's a gift that never ends!

Many thanks to Valerie at It's A Wonderful Life for a generous $50 gift certificate to Macy's! Go see her and be instantly charmed by the sugar-sweet little boy grinning in her header.

Another (yes there's more!) thank you going out to Lisa at The Chaos Chronicles for a Pregnancy Goodie Basket. No, I'm not, but I have a couple of friends going through infertility treatments and hope at least one of them will be able to use this as soon as I get it.

Yet another (can you believe it!?) more recent thank you-thank you going out to Barely Domestic Mama for a chocolatey pampering Fiber One Spa Break Basket. My tummy is looking forward to this most of all. Be sure and keep a look-out for Barely Domestic Mama's frequent giveaways and helpful reviews.

Thursday's Things: Worms, Roses and Lemonade

Sour

Sprinkles has round worms, which can apparently be transferred to people... and cause lots of nasty things. Gross, eh? Yay for inspecting poo in our near future.

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Sweet

Hubby brought home a box of one dozen roses, which was so very nice. Monsoon was confused, though. "Whoa! Thanks Daddy for bringing me flowers!" I'm sure they were for me. Yes. Yes, I'm sure.

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Two blogging beauties have bestowed upon me a sweet-n-sour award this week. New friend SandySmile at A Groovy Kind of Life and old friend Lesha at The Lost Burp Clothe think I show great attitude and gratitude, so thank you Lesha and SandySmile for The Lemonade Award and the When Life Hands You Lemons award. You are both fantastic.

Instead of passing this on, I really want to encourage everyone to visit Lesha and SandySmile, who both demonstrate great attitude and gratitude (which is why they got the award in the first place, of course) and they deserve some extra special comment love!

Thursday's Things: Fling My Stuff

SITS is having a Spring Fling event on Tuesday, March 10th, complete with hourly giveaways. All the Sitsters are encouraged to have giveaways, as well. They recommend anything from a DVD we don't watch anymore to gift cards to whatever, so I've been wracking my ever-loving brain for something to give away, and these are some of the THINGS I've come up with:

1. Half-empty bottles of B&B Works lotion in plumeria, sweet pea and a litter-box unrecognizable scent that has turned clear and has no legible sticker.
2. Half-burned Yankee candles, which apparently contain lead.
3. Ten-year-old sample bottle of Clinique something-or-other perfume that smells like skunk farts toilet flowers.
4. A shoe-box full of scratch-off tickets. I've checked them, but they might still be winners if I missed a number... or several numbers.
5. Two broken toilet seats. Put them together, they might make one whole!
6. One CD player/radio with a broken antenna and missing cord. It still runs on batteries. Sometimes.
7. A lovely microwave, two years old, in full working order. Bonus: it gives your head body a nice green pretty glow.
8. The last three weeks worth of my paid-up dues for Group Therapy with Grandmas - I'm not so sure I want to work that hard to look good. Anyone love pain? Anyone?
9. Five ten-packs of Pic pens. I got a great deal on these! You'll just have to find your own ink.
10. Bag of barely touched, uncooked Quinoa. There must be someone out there who thinks it's not horribly disgusting that bad. Or that can even pronounce it.

There you have it; all my best unwanted crap used THINGS. This is how much I love you guys. Feel free to vote on your favorite!

Thursday's Things: Park It

The Neighborhood Park: One of my favorite things about living in our small town. We got to visit "the park" yesterday for the first time this year. These pictures are from our last visit, way back in November, as we were too consumed with excitement to remember the camera this time.

Doing things a little differently today. No Mr. linky (but anyone who wants to participate and post about any THING is welcome to leave a comment and I'll visit). Instead, you all get a tiny story.

Today, two brothers (about 3 & 5) came over to play next to us on the caboose, which you can see in the second photo. The oldest one said to me, "Jesus is in my heart." I found this quite endearing. Then he tried to shove his little brother off the caboose.

Thursday's Things: Whirley Pop!ping

Wabash Valley Farms: The Original Whirley Pop

Who doesn't love Popcorn? Unfortunately, it's hard to find good popcorn (or make it, for that matter) when you don't use a microwave.

That's right. I do not use a microwave. But that's a whole other post.

Monsoon loves popcorn like any kid, so instead of going broke buying him bags of it for them to pop for him, my mom got me a Whirley Pop popcorn maker for Christmas. Perfect popcorn in an easy 3 minutes, minus the smell of burnt bag.

And for those of you who can't read are skinny bit.. too fat to care don't count calories, Wabash Valley Farms also makes REAL THEATER POPCORN all-in-one packets; just cut, pour and pop! And it really tastes just like what you get at the movies... only not stale. Really.

Anyone who has THINGS to share is welcome to participate in Thursday's Things, just link up below!

Thursday's Things: Salsafied

It's time for another installment of Thursday's Things. Play along! Post about any old (or new) thing you love (or hate). Anything goes! Just add your name and the link to your Thursday's Things post to Mr. Linky, then post a comment here and check out the other THINGS bloggers are talking about. Thanks for participating!


My THING for this Thursday is:

Green Mountain Gringo Salsa

It's one of my favorite fat free snacks. Wait! Don't run! I swear it's delicious! Don't you know salsa is suppose to be free of fat - and healthy to boot! Full of yummy veggies (yeah, okay, and loaded with peppers to hide the veggie "yumminess").

I prefer the HOT variety if I have to pick one, but my favorite is mixing the HOT and MEDIUM together with some "On The Border" Cantina Thins (Not pictured, sorry. They're about as tough to snap as Bigfoot around here), especially warmed for just a minute in the oven. YUM!

So check out your local grocer for some SALSA! Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, to be precise. I don't even let Hubby share my jar(s) of this stuff - he has his own and if he eats it first, too bad!

Thursday's Things: Gone Belgian

Let's see if we can drum up some THINGS for the second week of Thursday's Things! Come on and play along, rules are fairly lax, just be generous with your comments.

1. Post about a specific thing or theme of things, be it a thing you love, hate or just have to talk about. Give us pics if you want, descriptions about it and why you are posting about it. (Last week I did family games; this week is chocolate... maybe next it'll be a book or group or activity...)
2. Hook up with Mr. Linky below, leaving your name and the link to your specific Thursday's Things post.
3. Leave a comment here and share the comment love on the other participant's posts while we share our love or hate of some things and maybe find some new things to love or hate.
   

In honor of the impending V-day next week, I'm sharing with you all one of my very favorite things of all time. It's a thing, it's a place, it's an atmosphere all in one.

Lucas Belgian Chocolates.

Every fond memory of my childhood can somehow be linked back to, you guessed it, chocolate. For instance, the first time my mom knew my dad and I would be okay together: She walked in on him sharing his Hershey bar with me (something he had NEVER shared with her. Ever). I think I was like 3... days or so.

But this place, ahhh, this place. We've been visiting Charleston, S.C. since I can remember, and the only thing that I remember from every single trip, other than the beach, was visiting - no, experiencing - this place. I can smell it now if I close my eyes and pretend I'm there - freshly mixed kettles of melted chocolate.. dipped giant strawberries.. hand-made truffles.. and oh, did I mention the aroma? It's a teensy little shop next to the market downtown, and I know every inch of the glass case by heart.

So, for Valentine's Day, if you're looking for something extra sweet for yourself (alright, or your sweetie), look no further. Check out the shop's website here. It's small and quaint, and that's part of the charm - just like the shop and Charleston itself.

Here's a list of just a few items you can order, just in case you aren't already falling off that new year's wagon. **most of these come in a choice of milk or dark chocolate, some in white also.

Truffles:
Mousse*Fudge Love*Double Chocolate*Triple Chocolate*Butter Toffee*Mint*Coconut*Coconut Cream Pie*Raspberry*Strawberry*Black ForestKalhua*Irish Cream*Grand Marnier*Champagne*Macadamia*Expresso*Cappuccino*

Other Chocolates:

Butter Crunch*Dipped Apricot*Chewy Caramel*Praline Bar*Orange Peel*Dipped Cherries

Mmmmm.... Enjoy!

P.S. I might add, in case anyone needs varification of my chocolate-tasting skills, I can tell the difference between what type of chocolate (as in brand) was used in the making of homemade ice cream. It's a gift, maybe not so uncommon, but thought I'd mention it.

Thursday's Things

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Welcome to the first ever edition of: THURSDAY'S THINGS! Anyone can participate by posting about any THING, be it a favorite, a new discovery, something you can't live without or something you despise. You can include descriptions, photos, reasons it's great (or NOT great!) and/or anything else you can think of. Share your THINGS!

The category of my first Thursday's Things post is Child-Friendly Family Games. **YOUR post does NOT have to match my theme, so go on and share anyTHING.**



1.)My First UNO. They come in various styles (ours feature characters from "Where The Wild Things Are"). The game is suited for children 3+ and is simplified with matching pics along with each number, so kids can learn to recognize numerals but can play even before they do.

BONUS: It's actually fun for us, too.

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EXTRA: The little "Game Wright" Card Holder pictured is great for little hands. It works well for kids who understand the games they are playing and don't need you to tell them what cards to play. It lets them learn to think critically and make their own decisions. **Found the game and card holder at Target**

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2.) HULLABALOO from Cranium. Think Twister for kids, but less twisting. A voice in the speaker gives commands like, "jump to a triangle" or "hop to an animal" while playing silly music. There are two settings, beginner and advanced. Box says for ages 4+, but Monsoon is 3 and plays with us just fine. Each session is only a couple minutes long, but you can play over and over again depending on how much time you've got... or energy! *

3.) CARIBOO. Again, you just can't go wrong with Cranium for putting learning and fun together. There are beginner (shown) and advanced level cards, great for younger preschoolers to kindergartners and even fun for parents. Under each "door" is a space where one of six balls might be hiding. Use a key to open doors, depending on the color/shape/number/letter prompt from the draw pile. When all the treasure balls are collected, the treasure chest opens up.

Participate in THURSDAY'S THINGS!

Talk about food, games, household supplies, restaurants, appliances, electronics, stores, magazines... anyTHING! Leave the link to your Thursday's Things post on Mr. Linky (hope it works - it's my first time) and leave a comment. Thanks!