Sunday, March 14, 2010

Waffle Iron Review!!

I can't say enough about CSN Stores! I was amazed at how quickly the Black and Decker waffle iron arrived after I told them I wanted to review it! It came in on Friday, and we decided to make Saturday Morning "Waffle Day"! The boys (and Rick) were all so excited.

Prepping the Black and Decker waffle iron for the first time was really easy. All you had to do was spread oil on both sides with a paper towel. Then you just heat it up until it's ready (about 5 minutes), pour in the batter, close it up and let it cook until the light turns off, in about 4-6 minutes. I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to use, since I'd never used a waffle iron before. The waffles turned out pretty good. It took me a little while to get the hang of cooking them evenly, but it wasn't too difficult. We had them topped with strawberries, and when my father-in-law stopped over as we were finishing up, I even let him have an extra one so I could get his opinion too.

The waffles weren't quite as thick as I was hoping for, but they were still yummy!! I'm looking forward to adding waffles as a part of our lazy Saturday morning breakfasts  :)

Thanks to CSN stores for letting me review this product!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Something fun - and my second post today!!!

As I was wading through emails today, trying to get caught up from the weekend, I noticed that there was an email in there asking me if I would like to do a product review!! Woot!! How much do I love trying out new things and talking about it... if you know me, you know the answer to THAT!

The email came from CSN Stores, which is an online store that has pretty much EVERYTHING you can think of!!! I was actually looking on there this afternoon for a dog crate for Miss Mika. We've decided she's not trustworthy when we're gone, as we learned this weekend (and every other time we go away)...

Joshua and Logan are in need of some new kids bedding and you can bet I'll be doing some shopping from this site!!! I like to have their bedding sets be complimentary, but not identical, and this website has a lot to choose from!

I'm really excited because I'm going to be doing a product review of this waffle iron ! Waffles are a favorite at our house, but I'll be honest, I've never thought of Black and Decker as being a brand name for small appliances, so we'll see how it works! Look for that review coming soon!!

Super Fun Weekend!!!!

So, Rick surprised me with an overnight getaway. He said it was to make up for all the times we plan to go away but then something comes up and we can't. I just think it was SO COOL that he planned it himself - it's not very often that I get surprises like that!

I ended up getting called into work on Friday - that was kind of a bummer because Joshua and I had plans before they went to the babysitter's for the weekend. I was planning to go in for a staff meeting at 1:30pm, I just ended up going in at 9:00am and staying through the staff meeting. It will be nice to have that extra day on my paycheck, and luckily, Joshua understood and was ok with us rescheduling (he got a trip to Chuck E Cheese out of the deal!!!). As soon as I got home from work, we loaded up the car and headed out. I didn't guess where we were going until we were just east of Ludington. We turned toward Manistee and I asked Rick if we were going to a casino. Turns out we were on our way to the Turtle Creek Casino/Resort in Traverse City!!! I LOVE going to the casino every once in a while, so I was really excited.

The drive up was REALLY nice, Traverse City is about 150 miles from Whitehall. I'd never actually BEEN to Traverse City, I've driven past it, but never actually gone there. We got to the hotel at about 5:30pm. We checked in, dropped our stuff in the room and headed downstairs to the casino floor. We got $160 in small bills and went to the penny slots. Those fives lasted us about 6 hours of penny slot fun!!! At about 11:30pm, I was getting tired of the slots and we were down to our last $45, so we decided to take it to a roulette table. We put it all on black (the color of my underwear, LOL!!) and it won!!! Up to $90! We decided to let it ride and it won again - a nice cool $180 made in about 30 seconds. We took our chips directly to the cashier and cashed out. By then it was midnight, so we went up to our room because we're old and we go to bed early, lol.

On Saturday morning, we got up about 7:30am and went down to the breakfast buffet. After we checked out of the hotel, we headed into downtown Traverse City for some exploring. Spent the morning down there walking around (the weather was really nice for March in northern Michigan), and it was so cute. Around lunch time we decided to head back south. We stopped off out by the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (we want to take the kids there this summer) and then went into downtown Manistee to do some more exploring. It ended up being about 6:30pm when we finally made it home. Rick and I went out to dinner and then came home and watched movies for the rest of the night.

Yesterday, Joshua had his annual scan. We decided to try it without sedation, so I thought that would mean IV free, but then when we got there, I realized they needed to use contrast for his scan, and he would need to have an IV for that. We were both pretty upset when we realized he was going to get a poke after all... But, he was a trooper (always is!!) and it was ok. He did GREAT staying still for the scans, and I got the call from the nurse this afternoon that he remains cancer free!!!!!!! So, awesome news since we're 6 years from his original diagnosis.

The weather has been "warm" the last couple of days (right around 50), so I hope that means Spring is on its way. We still have quite a bit of snow here, but seeing the sun for a few days in a row definitely gives me hope that winter is on its way out. Can't wait for all the mud that comes along with spring, lol... especially when your yard doesn't really have grass.... I know Rick wants to have a lawn put in this year, so hopefully the money will be there when we're ready to actually do it.