Category: Family

Father’s Day is fast approaching, and like the slacker I am, I never seem to prepare quite soon enough. But this year, my husband was kind enough to tell me what he wants as a gift well in advance!!! I cannot even tell you how excited that makes me. ORDERED!! And, as part of a sponsored campaign with Cardstore and the Motherhood, I was commissioned to create his card in plenty of time as well. So basically, I am winning Father’s Day 2014, at least where my husband in concerned! (Don’t worry Dad, I’ve got you taken care of, too!)

As I mentioned, I recently tried out Cardstore, the online arm of American Greetings, where you can make and send greeting cards online. Let me just say, I was honestly floored at how awesome it was and I am muy muy sad that I’ve never used it before. I wish I could go back in time two weeks ago and make cards for the kids’ teachers. No lie, friends (since all opinons are obvs. my own) IT WAS SO EASY AND AFFORDABLE! The kids and I made a totally cute, personalized, one-of-a-kind card in a matter of minutes and it cost the same or less to buy it and mail it as it would if I bought it at the store. Plus, I saved time and gas not having to drive to the store, too. SO MUCH WIN. But I am getting a little ahead of myself! To start, I corralled the big kids in front of the computer:

Then, we hopped onto Cardstore.com to check out our options. We picked the “Cards From Kids” category from the Father’s Day section, and there were over 2 dozen options!

We narrowed down our choices to cards you can put a personal photo into, because obvs, my husband wants a pic of his adorable children in his Father’s Day card.

Then we went to work adding our photos and changing the text:

It was super, super easy to edit the inside text and then proof our selection. I fixed the way the word “You’re” was a little cut off in the last text bubble on the front.

We finished our card AND ordered it in less than 10 minutes – and that’s because we were taking our time for this post, to do a thorough review. I could’ve done it in half the time, easily. And, Cardstore is mailing it directly to the recipient – in this case to our house, but we could’ve easily sent it anywhere!

And finally, the price was awesome! Less than $5 to make and mail the card, and with this discount code, you can get your Father’s Day card for only $2.49! (you know I used a coupon code!!) Just enter CCG4527 at checkout.

In addition to offering up attractive, high-quality cards, Cardstore also made this cute promo video for Father’s Day to emphasize all the contributions dads make to their kids’ lives! Remember the viral “World’s Toughest Job” video that came out before Mother’s Day? It now has a companion in this “Dad Casting” video, showing there is absolutely NO script to the highs, lows, and hilarious moments of Fatherhood. Check it out!

Cute, right? Oh my gosh, I know my husband is not looking forward to some of those teenage moments! {Oh but I SO am. Not either.}

I highly recommend that you all hop on over to Cardstore to make a Father’s Day card for your hubby and Dad! I know will be making another one for my Daddy and having it sent straight to him as well.

Can’t get enough Cardstore? Join us TODAY at 1 pm over on Twitter for a Twitter party where we will be chatting all things Father’s Day and using the hashtag #WorldsToughestJob.  Hope to see you there!

Happy card creating! Don’t forget your coupon code!

First things first: if you don’t get the title of this post because you’re too young to remember “Family Ties”, then I HATE YOU.  I don’t know how you young ingrates with no morals  or education SLEEP AT NIGHT! Go Google Alex P. Keaton and be educated or NEVER RETURN HERE AGAIN.

*Ahem*. Anyway.

As you should know (because really YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO US!!), Emily and I just returned from our very favorite blog conference, the Mom 2.0 Summit. As usual we had a great time, but NOT as usual, we were also IN THE PROGRAM as speakers.

Seriously, you guys, someone actually thought it was a good idea to put us up in front of people and have us act like we know things. Shocking, no? Even though I had filled out an application to speak, I seriously about hit the floor when the email came that said we were indeed two of the chosen ones.

Now, I should mention, that when I applied for Emily and me to speak, I also thought that (as is typical at these conferences) we’d probably be on a panel with a couple other people in a 45-minute session. So, imagine my shock when I learned the plan was that it would be JUST Emily and me leading a NINETY-MINUTE workshop. I immediately, and I am not even kind of exaggerating, broke out into the sickest cold sweat ever. My stomach lurched. Ninety minutes? As soon as I could form a thought, the thought that I formed was: “EMILY IS GOING TO KILL ME!” and her response predictably was, “WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN US INTO?”

*Gulp*

What had I gotten us into? Could we do this? I mean sure, we have lots of blogging experience and have worked with tons of great  brands, and neither of us is a stranger to public speaking, but…ninety minutes? It seemed rather daunting. Also, there were eight other sessions on the schedule occurring at the SAME TIME as ours – eight! And by Saturday afternoon at 2, a lot of conference attendees are burned out. So we were pretty sure we would have about two people attend our workshop. Fingers crossed for four.

So we met, and we planned, and we made slides, and a spreadsheet, and collected quotes and anecdotes, and even threw in a graphic of our family tree that does not branch (speaking to a crowd? Open with a joke, especially if you’re the butt of it!) for funzies.

And by the time T-minus one day until departure rolled around, we were feeling, for the most part, really good about our presentation.

Until the last-minute jitters set in. And Emily texted me expressing some nerves. And in what I can only describe as an epiphany launched into my brain and I texted her back:

Here’s the thing that sets us apart from everyone else: if we screw up, embarrass ourselves, and are run out of the blogosphere – who cares? I love our blog but without it we still have each other, great families, houses, jobs. It is not our sole income and it is not our life. If we never go to another blog conference or see any of those people again? Our lives are still more than complete. I don’t think a lot of the other people there can say that.

{I know this next part may sound like I’m backtracking, but the above was said to Emily, and she knows my heart, so she knows what I meant and what I didn’t mean. Not all of you who read this will know me that well, so let me make sure you understand my intent.}

Now Em and I certainly don’t think we are bett-ah than anyone else. We are just…grounded.  And I want to say that we  love and value our friendships we’ve made via blogging. We have some that are long-standing and important to us, but they don’t supercede what we have here at home. And of course, I don’t mean to imply that there’s anything wrong with full-time, professional blogging. There are a lot of people who do that and do it well and –  hootie hoo! – good for them!

But that’s not us. At the beginning of the day, and the end of the day, we are two first cousins, who are also fifth cousins, who like to write about our families and our neuroses and hopefully at least once in awhile, crack each other and YOU up. Or tell you you’re not alone, or give you strength through a struggle, or show off our ginormous tongues (ok, only Emily’s is ginormous!)

And if I am going to succeed at a blogging presentation, or if I am going to fall down flat on my (perfectly made-up) face and get run off the internetz, there’s no one I’d rather do it with than with my cousin Emily.

So that’s the way it is, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

(We totally rocked it by the way. And like, THIRTEEN whole people came!)

Thanks Mom 2.0, truly, for taking a chance on us. We loved every minute!

(Sha la la laaaaa!)

 

Today I’m linking up with our friend Jeannett at Life Rearranged for Insta-Friday. Head over there and check out all the insta-moments she’s collected today.
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Last Friday was the dreaded Valentine’s Day party. As it turned out, everything went fine at both parties, and Andy and I both lived to tell about it. And, I got the opportunity to bring lunch to Sam and Kate at school. As you can see from this picture, Sam was kind of excited about that.

Kate was happy to see me too. I wonder how long that will last?

Saturday I was getting ready for Kate’s basketball game, and I was drying my hair, not really listening to Sam chattering away beside me. Eventually it occured to me that he was saying “Mom, I want a mohawk!” and had Andy’s beard trimmer in his hand. So, we compromised.

Saturday was also National Margarita Day. I celebrated. Maybe twice. But I was just being patriotic.

This is Sam and my grandma, who would murder me if she found out I put her picture on the interwebz. Fortunately, the closest thing she has to a computer is a solar-powered calculator.

My dad gave Sam his cap from his Army days. Sam paired that with my grandpa’s army shirt, and he was ready to save the world.

Sam also turned 14 this week.

I swear I have two kids and love them both equally, but evidently I need to take more pictures of Kate!

So… this happened.

I’m sure that adventure is going to be bloggable, to say the least.

What did you do this week?