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I ordered one of these about a month ago. It arrived quickly and looks great! I do wish I took advantage of the discount (this one gives you $35 toward any size canvas), instead of just going with the freebie, because I would have liked a bigger size!

I have worked with this company for a few months now and absolutely love them! If you are looking to monetize your blog, look no further. The people at the Escalate Network are so helpful, and you can do as little or as much as you want to with posting deals. The best part is, it's FREE! Who doesn't want a quick and easy way to make money?! Email me if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer them for you!

USE CODE: 100FREE for front and for back USE CODE: 100FREE2 for 100 Free double sided business cards
Shipping Rates: $4.99

Valentines Mug for $2 plus shipping/handling: 

USE CODE: MUG2
Order by Feb 5th for Vday delivery.

A little game of tag...

My sweet friend Cara tagged me in a little blogger game. And because I'm "it", I'll be answering 11 questions that she has created.

The rules for tagging:
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.

If you want to know 11 things about me, go here, or here. I'm fresh out of any other interesting facts about myself!

My answers to the 11 questions:

1. If you could have someone do one chore for you for the rest of your life, 

what chore would it be?

Do I have to pick just one?! hmmm. . . I'll go with dustvacmopping.

2. Which song do you always sing at-the-top-of-your-lungs-super-loud-yelling style in your car?

oooh. . . I do the love the early 90s, and Taylor Swift. I feel like she sings in my range. haha. . . I'll go with Dear John. 

3. Publix or Kroger?
Both.

4. What instrument do you wish you could play?
Guitar

5. What did you eat for breakfast?
I'm not very good at the breakfast thing. I'm working on it (sort of). It usually comes about 2 hours after coffee, and is either oatmeal (currently Raisin, Date, and Walnut or Strawberries and Cream), eggs, or a bagel. But since I'm drinking my coffee as I write this, I haven't had any yet today.

6. If you had to buy your clothes from one store for the rest of your life, 

what store would you choose?
Banana of course! If it's my money, the Banana Outlet- if someone else's money comes with this, I'd shop at the regular store too. :)

7. What is one quirky thing you do that others may find strange?

Again, just one. . . hmmm. . . lining up the items in the pantry like tetris pieces with labels facing forward? 

8. What TV show is your guilty pleasure?
Anything with the name Bachelor in it. So bad- definite guilty pleasure.

9. What is your favorite season of the year?

Summer

10. When was the last time you felt homesick?
First week of college

11. If you could be best-friends with a celebrity, who would he/she be?

Carrie Underwood, or Usher- haha

Now, here are my 11 questions: (Many taken from Julie's blog, when she made a similar post!)

1. Who was your first crush?

2. Where do you see yourself in five years? Be honest.

3. If you could travel to one country for a week, where would you go, and where would you want to stay?

4. When are you happiest?

5. When was the last time you cried?

6. Mountains or Beach?

7. If you had unlimited money, which store would you visit first?

8. What is your favorite quote or verse?

9. If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, which would you choose?

10. If you could have any zoo animal as a pet, which would you choose?

11. At your current stage of life, what is your ideal date?

...and I'm tagging these friends (I can count- I just wanted to pick 12 :) ):

Meagan @ Night Owls and Early Birds

Andrea @ Moments with the McGuires

Lauren @ Little Guess Family

Katherine @ Life in Our Little Hawks Nest

Kari @ Kari+Nathan

Hannah @ Life Happens When You're Making Other Plans

Lindsay @ Oh You are the Roots...

Jennifer @ Migration

Sarah @ Sarah's High Notes

Kristy @ The Warren Forum

Maria @ Every Day is a Country Song

Anna @ Living the Leviner Life

Weekend with my girls! (7 month old included) :)

Last weekend, Andrea and I drove up to Charleston to visit our friend Meagan and her sweet baby girl! Little E, as we like to call her, has gotten SO big! If you have even an ounce of baby fever, spend a few hours with little E, and you'll be ready to skip the whole pregnancy process altogether and just pop one right out! (Sorry, that got a little graphic.) 

Really?! Melt your heart.

Here she is getting ready to crawl! I missed the shot of Meagan and Chris on all-fours with E, showing her how to go from the rocking stage to full-fledge crawling. . . .haha, so wish I got that!

This picture actually carries a LOT of weight. Because, there is one very important surprise that revolves around why we entered this shop. :)

. . .And why Andrea just HAD to have something sweet, specifically Sour Patch Kids and Gummy Worms. . . .

. . .Right at that moment. Can you guess?!?!?!?!?!

(I'm giving you time to guess. . . .)

Got it yet?!

Because she is PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I've be dying to say it! And now I can! Because now, it is official!

And with her official announcement comes ones of the cutest new blogs you have ever seen. So swing by and tell her congrats and maybe give her a little "follow" too. It's fun to get new followers when you first start blogging (heck, it's still fun to get new followers!). Right?! In fact, I even shamelessly blogged about it once.

Back to E. :) Funny how you take less pictures of yourself with friends when there's a baby around. :)

Ahhh. . . here we are! Sort of. heheh. . . this is one of Meagan's trademarks. :) Love you, Mea!

(Speaking of, Meagan has started a new blog too! It will make you laugh out loud, and is filled with even more pictures of E, so why wouldn't you want to visit it?! Go check her out! And remember that "follow" thing. :)

Take two.

Dre and me with little McGuire (he/she will be visible in pictures starting in July. :) )

Family pic!

And the other family pic! hehe. . . yes, we are.

Seems like a three-day weekend every weekend would be a fantastic idea. Anyone else agree?!

Calling all Scoutmobbers! (You don't want to miss this new blog!)

So last Thursday, Matt and I went to a cooking class and met a really cute newly-wed couple named Rion and Kate. You know how you can just click with some people?! Over the course of the three hour class, we just hit it off! And as we were sharing in the delicious meal we all got to make, we got to talking about life, jobs, where we went to school, etc. It was here that we learned about the really cool idea/dream/goal/business that Rion and Kate have started just in the last month. 

...First, I should say that Matt and I are the type of people who dream big, are business minded, and love the idea of being spontaneous risk takers. But when it comes to jumping on any of our inventions, apps, or business plans, we are s-u-p-e-r cautious. We laugh about how we see ourselves going off on a whim and trying something new in our minds, but in actuality, we like things comfortable, we like family, we like home, and we don't love change. WOW. I feel the need to explain that we actually are semi-cool people. . .

Anyway, Rion and Kate are like the "thinking" stage of our minds plus the "doing-something-about-it" stage that we never quite venture to. And their idea is GENIUS! 

Ready to know what it is?!

Okay, so have you ever used Scoutmob? It's similar to Groupon, Living Social, Sweet Jack, and the other "daily deal" sites that have come out, but with Scoutmob, you don't have to buy anything in advance. Instead, you get 50% off of the total bill (sometimes up to a certain amount) at the places listed on their weekly/monthly Scoutmob site. You can learn more here. Matt and I love it because it gets us to try new places without feeling like we may be wasting money if it's not good (see, there's that cautious thing again). 

SOOO... Rion and Kate are making our lives even EASIER because they have created a blog called ATL Mobbers where they write reviews on the Scoutmob places they visit, so that we don't even have to wonder whether it's worth the visit!! So genius! In fact, it is such a great idea, that in the first week of their blog going live, the founder of Scoutmob tweeted about their page! And restaurant owners have already caught on too, and have started offering them complimentary meals if they will write a review about their experience (don't worry, they make it clear that their reviews will be honest and will not be influenced by any extras tossed in with the regular deal).

As ATL Mobbers gets bigger and as Scoutmob expands (You can look here to see if it is in your city yet!), they hope to be able to travel to other cities to review their deals too- so cool!

So if you're a Scoutmobber, and especially if you live in Atlanta, check out Kate and Rion's site: ATL Mobbers. Make sure you leave a little comment if you do visit and follow them too! 

Cooking Class at the Viking School!

I have always, always wanted to take a cooking class. Really, I'd love to freeze my life, go to culinary school, and then have my own cooking show like Giada, but since I'm far too practical to even think seriously about dropping everything and starting something new, a cooking class has been on the top of my list of fun things to try so I can pretend like I'm a spontaneous person who is following a dream. :) (Hel-LO run-on sentence)

So last Thursday, Matt and I headed down to the Viking School for an Italian-themed cooking class where we got to make homemade fettucini, spinach and ricotta ravioli, marinara, and alfredo. I was like a kid on Christmas morning! We had the best time! Our instructor was great, and the people in our class were so fun. Here are some pics from the night!

Studying :)

Kookie showing us how to chop an onion- I learned a new technique!

Todd- the master chef of the group!

Love the focused look. He was a natural! ;)

We also learned how to quickly dice fresh garlic- I may need to do a little how-to post to share what we learned!

The apron is a good look on him I think :)

I want to come home to this every day.

Rion and Kate got married 4 months ago- they are super cute!

Matt stole a shot of me in my student mode- haha, I'm such a nerd

Getting ready to juice the lemon- I want one of these!

So cheesing- but this is pretty much what I looked like the whole night- haha

Kookie and Todd

Carrie and Mackay

Kate and Rion

Taste test!

Rion, Kate, and us with Kookie!