My new Hamilton Beach® Mixer is here!

I am so excited! A few weeks ago I entered a contest to win a new Hamilton Beach® Eclectrics® Mixer, and amazingly I was chosen! After seeing how cool they looked online I was so excited to see how it looked in person. I've been waiting anxiously for the UPS man for the last few days, and finally today my waiting paid off. Mr. UPS Guy probably thought I was insane as I jumped up and down saying "Yay, it's here! Thank you!" (Doesn't help that he's our neighbor that goes to church with us lol.) I immediately brought it in and dug my new Hamilton Beach® Mixer out of the box. I had heard it would be yellow so was a bit worried that it would be banana yellow and be too bright for my drab kitchen, but it is actually a very mellow soothing yellow and looks so sleek and smooth. I assembled the parts and plugged it in to see if it really was quieter than my old one and it is, it rotates quietly and smoothly. And I'll tell you, this thing is sturdy! Solid and heavy, which means it won't try "crawling" off the counter. I had a lot of fun making this little video about my Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and even talked Hubby into being my co-star. Enjoy!

Vat19 Gifts

I am so excited that I got to try out some really great products from www.vat19.com. They sent me some Insta Snow Fake Snow Powder, Color Flames Colored Candles, and a Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencil. I had to try out the pencil first to see if it really smelled like grapes, and it does! Toddler promptly confiscated it and loves it, he's been drawing with it for the last hour. I wanted to try out the Insta Snow but Hubby says we should save it for when we decorate for Christmas. From what I've heard it really does look and feel like snow. I can't wait to try it! I did try out the Color Flame candles and what's cool about them is that the flame burns the same color as the candle! I told Hubby we are going to use them on my birthday next month. Toddler thought they were pretty cool too. Check out www.vat19.com for great products like the Ambient Fire Video Fireplace DVD and more.

Family Finance

One class I really enjoyed in college was a family finance class. My brother and I took it at the same time and it was an online course. The book we read for it was called "The Wealthy Barber" by David Chilton and was like a fictional story, but with financial advice given by a family friend who's a barber. It gave really good financial advice that was easy to understand. There was only one part I do not agree with. The author believes that you don't need life insurance for kids or anyone else who has no income. His reasoning is that if they die you are not losing income. But my view is that a person, even children, should have enough life insurance to at least cover the expenses of a funeral, which can be around $10,000. We don't have that kind of money just sitting around, so if we did have to pay for a funeral we would lose income. And life insurance really isn't that expensive usually. But besides that point, I really enjoyed that book and learned a lot from the class.

Romance

I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, cheesy love stories and chick flicks make me so lovey dovey. My Hubby can be pretty romantic too when he wants. He used to always surprise me with flowers and chocolates for no reason. Here's one particularly sweet thing he did for me that made me love him so much. We were both still in college, living in a nice little basement apartment. Toddler was a little over a year old and I was pregnant with Baby. On top of being a mom and part time student, I was also working a full-time graveyard shift while pregnant. For about 2 months I lived on about 2hrs of sleep a day since the time I was at home I was watching Toddler while Hubby worked full time and went to school full time. It was rough, I had to be on my feet all night and lifting things a lot. I'd come home completely exhausted with about an hour to eat breakfast and get ready for school. Normally Hubby would still be asleep when I got home. One morning I cam home and hubby had made me a delicious breakfast and had the table all set with candles and roses. It was so wonderful and sweet and I will never forget it. Now it's a bit harder for us to find time to be romantic with two little kids and work and everything, but for those of you like me we can still find romance by getting lost in good Romance Novels. I love to read and a good romance is great for helping me feel romantic in my own relationship. www.millsandboon.co.uk offers a wide variety of romance novels for you to get lost in.

Transformers

Ever since I heard they were making a new Transformers movie I have been so excited! I want to see it so bad! I grew up with mostly brothers so that means I grew up playing with cars, dinosaurs, and of course Transformers. I loved the animated Transformers movie and thinks it's awesome they made a "real" movie. It looks so neat. I especially like how Optimus Prime looks in it. Hopefully we can go see it soon.