April Champions For Kids SIMPLE Service Project! Help them Play! #OdwallaCFK

I love a good community project and taking care of children is very important to me.  I've already shared with you how SIMPLE Champions For Kids is making it for all of us to get involved within our own communities.  April's mission is the Odwalla Game Day Challenge and I'm so excited to be participating!  Childhood obesity is a huge problem in the U.S. and a lot of that is because kids just don't get out and play enough!

We can all make a difference in a child's life by partnering with Champions for Kids and April's sponsor, Odwalla Juice.  We can Help Them Play and keep them active and healthy!  Are you up for the challenge?  I know I am!

It really is SIMPLE and only takes 4 easy steps:

GATHER:  I'm taking a different route with the gathering this month.  I started by heading to my local Walmart to purchase my own fun supplies to start this donation off right.  You can see my shopping experience HERE.  I plan on reaching out within my community for gently used sporting goods equipment to add to my collection over the next couple of weeks before my actual giving mission.  Here's what I have so far:

LEARN: About the athletic needs of the children within my community.  Here's where I'm struggling.  You see, I'm incredibly new to this area and this was an unwanted move so I haven't really made the jump in yet.  This will be a breakthrough for me and its HIGH time I did this!  We live here now, we need to get to know these Woods, and we need to know where our help is most needed!  This mission is personal for more than one reason!

GIVE:  This is the easy and fun part once we finally GATHER everything and LEARN who to give it all to!

SHARE:  This is the part both YOU and I need to do to keep the momentum going!  You see, Champions for Kids has an amazing goal.  Mobilize 20 million by 2020!  They are trying to make a difference in the lives of children and they are asking US to help!  WE can do this but without reporting our missions, they'll never know if they meet their goal!  If you can find it in your heart to give, even just a little, please Report It Here! 

I am happily including April's sponsor in my donation kit.  I've just discovered Odwalla Juice and its wholesome goodness! 

There is so much packed into these little bottles!  Take a look at this:

Yup, pretty impressive and I love how they break it down like this.  This will certainly fuel a child's energy and Help Them Play! 

I found my inspiration for this month's SIMPLE service project on Odwalla's website actually.  The site states that Odwalla Juice is "Pure goodness that nourishes your body, mind, and spirit.".  The children we all strive to help don't have much, maybe nothing at all other than the shirt on their back, that's the sad reality.  The concept of nourishing their SPIRIT is very powerful! 

Over the next week, I will venture out into these Woods, I will gather more goods, and I WILL find a deserving organization.  There are kids in these Woods that need me and the rest of my community members.  Together, we will HELP THEM PLAY!

I'll be back to share my giving mission within the next couple of weeks and by that time, I really hope you have a story to share with me as well.  Will you help the kids in your community and be Champions for Kids?  One child at a time, we can all make a difference!

If you'd like to find out more about the Champions For Kids Simple Service Projects, you can connect with them on Twitter and Facebook.  It's all about the kids!

Disclosure:  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.  All ideas, opinions, and photos are entirely my own! #CBias

Oral Hygiene for Easter? Yes, It's Important & Colgate Makes It Fun! #EasterSmiles

You see those beautiful smiles above?  They're very important to me and I'm so lucky to see them each and every day!  I love to make those faces smile and I love to keep those smiles healthy!

Our life has been chaotic lately with this move from the Island to the Woods.  We haven't had as much fun as we usually do so I decided to have a little pre-Easter Egg Hunt.  Spring is in the air and Easter is just around the corner so it seemed like the right thing to do.  

We headed to Walmart (store #602 in the Woods) to buy groceries this weekend as a family and I thought it only fitting that I pick up a few items so that we could have some fun in these woods this week.  Who needs to wait for Easter anyway?  

We actually had fun shopping (we usually do) and since we were on a mission, it was even more fun!  I bought all of our groceries and was ready for a little pre-Easter fun and a lesson or two (mother of 6...there's ALWAYS a lesson or two).  

 Got the big payout eggs in order.

Stuffed the little ones full of candy.

Readied the buckets.  Please note the Colgate items included...Lesson 1!  Although my kids don't really need to be taught this lesson because they actually LOVE brushing their teeth!

I headed out before them to "hide" the eggs.  Seriously, they are 3 and 5, I didn't hide them too well on purpose!

They were locked, loaded, and ready to go!  Let's get this Easter Egg Hunt on!

They (we) had so much fun, I can hardly wait until Easter arrives!  It's always a day of "family" for us!  We grill out, we egg hunt, we enjoy the Spring, and we just PLAY!  The lesson of sharing and caring was received well today and Bug learned that even though she can get more eggs than her Bubby, it is very important to share and be a good sister.  PRICELESS!

And the other lesson (which didn't necessarily need to be taught in this house) is that oral hygiene is important.  It's always important and again, I'm lucky that my babies LOVE to brush.  We are a Colgate family so it only seemed fitting to include these items in their Easter loot.  You can't expose your teeth to all of that sugar and not "bathe" them afterwards.  So my babies did just that!  

They chowed down on the sugar (because I really don't let them have it often) and then ran right into the bathroom to brush their teeth with their new Colgate Dora and Spongebob toothbrushes and tooth paste.  It seemed like the right thing to do!

It was a good day in the Woods!  And might I suggest you consider including some Colgate Nickelodeon Character toothbrushes in your Easter baskets this year?  Your kids will love them and it only makes sense right?  I know, I always think of everything!  You can thank me later!

And if you want to connect with the Queen of Oral Hygiene further (Duh...I'm talking Colgate here), you can find her on Facebook and Twitter. 

Happy Easter to each and everyone of you!  I'm glad we did the pregame show here and can't wait for the actual Easter games to begin.  I think we shall make this a new family tradition!

Disclosure:  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions, ideas, and photos are entirely my own. 

Party In The (Walmart) Parking Lot!

So what if there are oil stains everywhere, juice pouches littered about, and buggies thrown haphazardly throughout the parking lot,  and you have a hole in your pants?  It's not a big deal!  If you've got a Hula Hoop, you can have a party in the Walmart parking lot...Bug style...life is good!  

You've got to make your own fun no matter where you are, no matter the circumstances.  And we should ALL own a Hula Hoop!  I'm buying mine tomorrow!  

A Ride With Matt - Her Take - Now It's Personal!

Pal-Mac Cheerleading 1984.  It's not a great picture, but it was the 80's.  I wanted to share a "face".

Earlier this week, I shared with you my personal account regarding my plight for awareness for Huntington's Disease because I have been moved to share this with y'all! The reason this is personal is because I "know" this disease.  My family does not suffer, my family does not feel the sting.  But my ties to this "story" are very personal.  I want YOU to support A Ride With Matt because this matters.  There are names, and faces, and human lives behind this disease and it takes so much from the families that suffer!

I went to school with one such family.  Their mother was my English teacher.  I had classes with, cheered with, and graduated with a woman who I am proud to call "friend" (above 1st row, far right...how cute is she?  Doesn't she LOOK happy?).  It is moving, it is personal, and you should WANT to help after reading this.  

Without further ado, my friend, Annaliese, tells her story about living with the demon that is Huntington's Disease.

"Before HD, my dad was an amazing man. He was the class president and total athlete! Football, basketball, baseball, and track - he did it all. His track records stood for a long time at Pal-Mac! He played trumpet in the drum and bugle corps in Palmyra. He served our country in the Navy during the Korean War, and he came back and went to RIT, but failed out. He became a Quality controller at Mobil Chemical which was the job he held until his retirement in the late 70's. He coached at the Palmyra community center, basketball and baseball too. 

He was a volunteer fireman which caused him to have second degree burns on his hands and frostbite all at the same fire when trying to rescue children in a fire. He ran right to the scene instead of going to the fire hall to get his gear. 

He took us on amazing camping trips to the 1000 Islands, Jersey Shore, and Canada. He bought me my first brand new pair of skis, my first new ice skates, and he came to all my home softball games. I still have the doll he bought me (I'm sure my mom made him do it!). I made his coffee in the morning before I went to school and sometimes toast. But truth is, I was embarrassed by his disease, I was hurt by his disease, and I was robbed by his disease. 

HD was not understood and basically unheard of back then, especially in Palmyra. So yes, the general misconception was my dad was the town drunk. I didn't know how to defend him. No one else's dad had this issue.  There wasn't a support group to go to. I wanted to ignore it, I wanted it to go away.  I wanted the pain to go away!  

See I didn't get to know the guy who was once one of the town's heroes. I knew the guy who seemingly argued nightly with my mother and occasionally beat her, who was constantly depressed, who often spent his night parked in his recliner smoking and saying nothing or went out with the guys to play poker on Friday nights and Saturday was golf. He often choked during dinner, fell down the stairs and stumbled down the street. He frequently crashed the car until he lost his driver's license which just sent the depression in a downward spiral. It destroyed him. He took to driving our riding lawn mower around town because they didn't have nifty scooters back then. 

HD robbed me of having a typical father-daughter relationship, yet I clung to every bit of sense of emotion and belonging I could get from him. I didn't know then how badly the meds and the disease affected his ability to show emotions. I don't remember him ever telling me he loved me, but I can remember forcing myself to kiss him goodnight and telling him I loved him in hopes to get a little bit of acknowledgment in return. 

I took up skiing and softball, not because I was interested in it, but because he was. I grew to love them both.  I still ski and I coach little league baseball.  I still have that doll, the skis, and the skates. I can't seem to part with them.

Right before Freshman year, my dad beat my mom so bad that she kicked him out. If Adam hadn't have been there, he probably would have killed her. He went to live with his mom across town, but he came over all the time, hung out in the garage, took care of the yard, rarely came in the house but attended all our games. 

The tension in the house was cut in half, in part because he was gone and in part because Andy was too. He wasn't diagnosed yet, but he had a wickedly violent temper and often put holes in the walls and doors at our house. 

Sophomore year I attended the Junior prom with Scott, and Dad came for pictures. He gave me five dollars in case I needed to call a cab if Scott "got fresh" or drank too much and couldn't drive home. I can't tell you how much that stupid $5 meant to me.

By Junior year Dad was moved to the VA center in Canandaigua and our holidays always included the dreaded visit there to see him, gifting him with soft, simple clothes that he could easily put on and take off. Having to hold his cigarette for him so he didn't burn himself and struggle to create conversation with this now shell-of-a-man.

The day of our high school graduation, he couldn't be there. He couldn't see me cross the stage as he had for all the others- he didn't get to hear my graduation speech or see me receive my awards. 

During my college years I studied HD, tried to develop alternative means of communication for him as his vocabulary was reduced to "yeah, no way, and beautiful". I was always 1 step behind his needs, racing to catch up, to stall the declines, fighting for speech and feeding therapy for him and then advising the feeding tube. I made up a photo album about his family, high school, and Navy days for his room so that when people came to visit, they could look at it with him and have something to talk about. The day after I graduated from college I went to show him my diploma and award. He said "beautiful". It's the last word I remember him saying to me. He said so much in that one word.

At graduate school at Penn State, I took more classes that I hoped would help give me the tools to help him.  Augmentative communication was new on the scene and I was a star student. Too late, I couldn't get the VA center to support my programs for him and he couldn't do it without daily support. My Master's Thesis was on treatment options for HD patients in each stage of the disease. I got an A, but I failed to help my dad.

The day I was married, my dad could not be there.  After the reception, we went right to the VA center so that my dad could see me in my wedding gown and hopefully realize that his baby girl was all grown up and taken care of, and that he could die in peace knowing his job was done. I don't know if he had any clue who I was, but I know I shared my wedding day with my dad.

Dad died the following year.  He was finally at peace.  I truly am so proud of my dad!  He was an awesome man, I wish I could have lived more of the healthy years with him."

You see, I knew Annaliese, but I didn't really know her.  I am now AWARE and ready to help!  Are you?  Please consider donating to this worthy cause.  Support this family..and so many more families like the  Austins that are misunderstood and battling Huntington's Disease in the shadows!

You Can Do It Bubby!

Bug isn't always the best big sister in the world to her Bubby.  She loves him, but she is often mean to him.  But sometimes, like yesterday, her love for her little brother shines through and it makes my heart happy!  

I watched them ride their bikes together for about an hour and was so touched that every time he got "stuck", she would jump off of her bike and run to his rescue saying "You can do it Bubby!".  His face would beam with pride, happiness, and admiration for his hero each and every time.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Happy Wednesday!  And as always, enjoy all of the "little" moments in your day because those are the ones that make the best memories and actually matter the most!

A Ride With Matt…Huntington’s Disease Awareness – Part 1 – My Take.

Back in the early 80’s, our family was set to move again.  We did that often!  My Dad went ahead as always and found a very quaint little town in Upstate New York called Palmyra.  I had no idea then that I would always call this place “home” in my heart at some level.  Friendliest people I’ve ever met and I stay in touch with a lot of them on a daily basis.  Yes, part of my heart is still there and will always be.  

Recently I’ve been drawn to a story that has me moved almost beyond words.  It surrounds a family that I was fortunate enough to know during my years in Palmyra, and it involves a topic that is paramount, yet misunderstood.  The unknown is frightening to all of us.  Here is one “unknown” that should be heard, and this family is ready to put a name with a disease that has plagued them for 4 generations.  Huntington’s Disease.

Fade back 30 years, we moved to Palmyra.  I distinctly remember seeing “the town drunk” and thinking how odd it was to have one of those in a town like this.  I mean, he stumbled around the streets, he slurred his speech, and he twitched.  Of course he was the town drunk.  My father concurred, out of ignorance, both his and my own.  Even Mayberry had one.  Why not Palmyra?

As the years unfolded, I met the Austins.  I had classes with Annaliese, and we graduated together.  She had siblings, and they were many.  Her mother taught me in English and so much more!  They were all active in the community.  This was an upstanding family.  And I realized that the “town drunk” was Mrs. Austin’s husband, the Austin kid’s father.  How could this be?

You see, he was NOT the “town drunk” at all.  No, he was plagued with Huntington’s Disease, an unforgiveable, incurable disease that eventually took his life.  It had taken his father’s life.  And unfortunately, it later took his son Andy’s life.  And Andy had a son.  That son’s name is Matt.  Matt is 21 and is plagued with this disease.  According to the “books”, Matt doesn’t have very long to live.  That’s how this goes.  You are diagnosed, you twitch, you slur, your step is stumbled, you’re angry A LOT and you die.  And yet we, the masses, don’t get it at all!

Matt and his family have banned together and A Ride With Matt will be amazing!  There will be a cross-county bike ride.  There will be awareness.  There will be amazing funds raised to figure out WHY this happens and HOW it can be “fixed”.  You can donate by clicking on that link I just provided!  

This is a cancer people.  We need to understand.  We need to support this cause because what this family is doing is AMAZING!  Within the coming week, I will share with you the personal account of my friend, Annaliese.  She knows the sting of loss.  She understands that her own children are at risk.  Her voice should be heard!  Will you listen?

You need to follow this story.  You need to take action.  You need to help raise awareness.  This is real and not as isolated as you might think. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to meet a “friend” that I had known forever through connections in Palmyra.  And lo and behold, her husband and his sister have also been plagued with this disease.  I met them. They were humans and just years ago, they were “normal” like you and I.  How can this be happening?  Why are we not aware?  What can we do?  Stay tuned for more.  YOU can do something!

Please watch the video  for more details on Matt and his ride.  And please do stay tuned because I will be sharing the family’s personal thoughts very soon and I will be following this ride.  Will you?

He's Wearing Clothes in the House and This Place is a Mess!

Guess it's time to reinvent my life!  Bubby's wearing clothes in the house by choice (if you've been following along, even not so closely, you know this is odd) and this place is a HOT MESS!  Just look at it!  

There are cords everywhere, there are toys thrown hap hazardly about.  No this is NOT right.  This is NOT my house!  My Bubby should be running around in a diaper and everything else should be in order!

My life stays in order and that's how I maintain the little bit of sanity that I have.  Since the not-so-move, this has not been the case.  Everything is in disarray.  But today was the kicker.  Bubby got up and selected his attire for the day.  It included pants, and a shirt, AND socks.  He wanted to be DRESSED to stay indoors.  

OH MY STARS!  The planets are misaligned.  This boy does NOT get dressed...not without a fight.  And we weren't going anywhere.  Holy what has happened to all that I once knew OCD girl? 

And the apartment is a mess.  I mean utter chaos mess.  How can we have such a mess with so little here?  The how is not the issue, the fact is!  But it shall all be resolved soon enough.  

The U-Haul truck as been rented.  The drive to the island is planned for the morning.  Over the weekend, we shall be neatly placing all of our belongings into the truck (oh who am I kidding? B is doing most of the moving so the crap is just going to be thrown in there in another HOT MESS) and bringing it all here to the woods.  It will be neatly placed in here (again with the humor, they'll throw it and I'll stress over it) so that I can make this house a home for the next couple of years. 

I can do this!  I know that I can.  But now I have to deal with the fact that Bubby wants to wear clothes.  I'm OK with clothes...I wear them every day.  But all of this change at one time is very confusing.  OK...one thing at a time.  Move the stuff in, get it all in order, deal with the clothes thing later!

As always, it's all good and I'll sparkle through this!  And by Monday, I'll have all of my stuff again!  Let's just hope I can find it all!  Isn't moving fun?  Wish me luck and if you're in the area, stop by.  Help me unpack, grab a drink, and have a laugh with (at) me!  This will be fun!

Good Morning!

No, I'm not beautiful in the morning!  I'm OK with that.  But every morning when I wake up for the second time, I roll over and kiss this little man!  After his Daddy goes to work, somehow Bubby always finds his way into my bed.  

Each morning, I get to wake up next to my husband, say good bye, and wish him a good day.  I lay back down and get a little sleep.  And then I wake up again, and this little man is there for the smooching.  Yes my life is good!

I hope y'all smile as much as I do on each of your "wake ups".  Have a great day and enjoy the little things in life because these are the things that matter the most!

It All Ends Today! My Sparkles Are Back!

The past few months have been rough.  I see that above message pinned to me on a weekly basis, shared on my timeline on FB even more than that.  Yet, I've ignored this important message. 

January 7th started a litany of "bad stuff" and I usually don't let the bad stuff get me down.  This time, however, was an exception.  A series of bad events took over my life and dulled my sparkles.  One by one, they hit, and they were legitimate problems.  One by one, I let THEM control ME.  From horrible house guest, to financial woes due to a move, to a "home" that just isn't.  I let circumstances turn me into one of those people who I don't like at all.  

I became a whiner.  I became a complainer.  Dare I say it?  Yes, I do! I'd become a bitch!  All of the characteristics I hate, I'd become!  Each event had a horrible impact on me, and I indeed was becoming someone who I was not, someone who if I was not me, I would despise.  Who am I kidding?  I had started to despise myself!

But more importantly than that, I was not being a good wife, a good mother, nor a good friend.  These were the things that I prided myself in and I was failing miserably.  I was in my little sad shell, and it's time to bust out!

I sparkle, therefore I am.  Sparkle is not just word, it's a true state of mind.  It's who I am and I want ME back!  No, I will not forgive the bad house "guest" for draining our savings dry and taking advantage of us while we opened our home and he disrupted our peace.  No, we will never recover the funds lost in this unexpected move.  No, I will never love these Woodlands like I loved my Island.  But it's time to put on my big girl panties and move on!  

There have been other events that I have not shared and do not care to share for fear of being the perpetual whiner.  But believe me, they have been overwhelming.  It's time to take a new stance though, or actually my old stance.  Time to put on my sparkle pants again!

The positives far outweigh the negatives here.  I have my health, I have my family, and I'm particularly fond of squirrels.  All of these live within my reach (especially the squirrels...man we have a lot of them here).  So what if it seems to rain every day?  It's the coming of Spring and all of this rain will surely bring many bright and beautiful flowers just around the corner.  We love the flowers!

"Life is good, the grass is green, the good Lord smilin' on you and me...gonna knock on wood"...yes, Kenny Chesney, you are correct!  I will remember this and I will never EVER let anyone or anything dull my sparkles again!  

My life is good!  Despite the set back, the location, the occasional doubt...it's still good!  I am a wife, a mother, and a friend...first and foremost.  And NONE of those people have let me down.  I'm through with the negativity.  Bring on the sparkles!

That's right people...I'M BACK!  Sparkle on! 

My Life's A Hot Sparkly Mess!

Seriously!  Bubby's face says it all, and the photo explains the rest!  

My life is MORE than a hot sparkly mess right now.  It's complete and total chaos.  We don't have "beds", no TV, hardly any toys at all, only one book (why did we only bring one book?), no furniture, and I have no desk!  This can't be good!

NAY...this ISN'T good at all!  The kids are crabby, I'm even worse.  We've been in these woods for a couple of weeks with none of our "stuff" and we are not acclimating well.  

It's been raining...A LOT...so we've been stuck inside.  Not fun at all.  No sparkles here!   

I've been busy working (bumping off of someone's WiFi I might add...thank you NetGear Guest1) but the kids are bored and who can blame them?  It's still raining and the pollen is unbearable.  The "woods" are not where we belong. 

And lest we forget that picture shared at the beginning of this post.  I used to have a desk.  I used to be organized.  I used to have my sanity (kind of sort of maybe).  But at least I had a desk.  Now I am working from the floor.  With my laptop on a cooler, knees folded in an uncomfortable position, back propped up on the wall, notebooks and files everywhere.  NO this is NOT ideal!

Hot sparkly mess is an understatement.  I long for normalcy.  I long for MY life to be back again.  I will maintain my work schedule, I will keep attempting to entertain my babies, and we WILL get through this temporary madness.  We WILL have our stuff here soon and we WILL enjoy our years (heaven help us...I hope they are few...you don't know what has been going on financially and with the utilities and such) here in the woods!

In the meantime, I hope the babies figure out that mommy is just as miserable as they are and that working from a cooler is not my ideal situation while they run around screaming, kicking walls, each other, and throwing crap (seriously, where do they keep finding crap to throw?  There just isn't that much crap here!).  

I'm ready to get off this ride and back to normalcy as soon as possible.  We're headed to the island (ahhh paradise...you don't know how much I've missed you) to pack and get some of our "stuff" this weekend.  Top "stuff" on the list includes my desk, more toys, craft items (because it won't.stop.raining), more books, a TV, and the sanity that I somehow left on the island!

Say a little prayer.  Send some sparkles.  Do whatever it is you believe in, but whatever you do, do it STAT!  We're not fairing well here in the woods but this is only a temporary set back!  We'll be sparkling again in no time...I just know we will.  This is only a location and the lack of "stuff" and this weather are putting a damper on our lives right now, but we've got this!  We've still got each other and that's what matters the most!

Rock on and don't let anyone ever dull your sparkles! I will start practicing what I preach again in the morning.  Tonight I whine!

Party & Giggle With Us On Twitter! #GoGreenNGiggle

Are you ready to party and giggle along with Sunflower Suzi and the rest of the Gigglin' Garden Gang?  Of course you are, so please join us for a party on the Twitter to talk sustainability and all things "green".  It's bound to be a sparkling green good time!

When is the party you ask?  On Tuesday, 03/13/12, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm EST.  You're free right?  Good, then I'll see you there!

But wait...there's more!  We will be giving away prizes!  That's right people, YOU could win 1 of 3 $25 Walmart gift cards OR the grand prize of a $100 Walmart gift card.  

You'll need to RSVP in order to be eligible for these prizes.  That's simple though!  Just enter your information in the handy-dandy linky below.  Easy peasy!

And to make this simple (and y'all know me, I like simple things) there's this fabulous Tweet Grid to make it easier for you to party along!  If you don't want to use it, be sure to follow the hashtag #GoGreenNGiggle!  Hope to see you there and hear all of your awesome ideas for going green!  

Be sure to follow the party host (me) @notinsanemom and my fabulous co-host (and fellow Texan I might add) @lomargie so you don't miss out on any of the fun!

This post and my participation in the party have been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.  #CBias
 

Murphy USA...There's An App for That!

To say that I'm a newbie to the Smart Phone world (stupid smart phones) is an understatement.  I finally bit the bullet (and the bank account) and purchased my Droid Razr in late December of 2011. 

I'll be honest, I've had nothing but problems from this fabulously overpriced Verizon Wireless phone of mine.  I can't access the internet unless I can bump off a WiFi somewhere.  That kind of blows the intention of the whole thing, BUT Verizon has vowed to make it right and they have FINALLY agreed to see things my way (I can be quite persuasive) and have sent me a replacement that I am anxiously awaiting to receive.

So with that said, on the occasions that I do have internet, I've been trying out the whole "app for that" theory, and honestly, there pretty much is an app for everything.  One of my favorite apps (it's a pretty close 2nd to Angry Birds) is the NEW Murphy USA app.  

Murphy USA has rebranded with fabulous new colors and they are ready to move on to the next phase of awesomeness.  I love my Murphy USA store!  I love the prices, the convenience, and the friendly service I always receive.  And NOW?  There's an app for that!  

The app offers a store locator, a favorite button (we all have our favorites), you can MurPay from your phone (meaning you can lock in on a low price when you see it and prepay before ever stopping at the store...SCORE), and you can track your gas mileage which is way so cool!

As much as my (stupid stinkin not-so-smart) phone has allowed me, I have been using this app and I love the ease of navigation and the simplicity of it all!  Murphy USA scores again!  Of course we knew they would!

Have you checked it out?  If your phone is smarter than mine, I hope you will download the Murphy USA app because it comes in really handy when on the go!  Oh and stupid stinkin' me forgot to tell you my favorite part about this app!  When you're on the road, you can pull up the app when you need gas and it gives you the Murphy USA price as well as the best competitors' prices.  They actually sent me to a different store last week because their prices were better!

How's that for integrity?  Can't beat that with a stick, or a gas can, or anything else these days.  Seriously it seems like integrity is highly UNDERrated these days, but Murphy USA still gets it!  I'll remain loyal and hope that my new stupid stinkin not-so-smart phone will allow me to view the app whenever I want!  Rock on Murphy USA. 

Disclosure:  This post has been compensated by Murphy USA through the Smarter Driver Community.  All opinions and ideas are entirely my own...you should know that by now!

From The Island to The Woodlands

When we left the island on Friday, it wasn't a particularly lovely day.  No the winds were angry and the palms (I like palms) were whipping in those winds. 

But there were palms.  And just over those palms...there was an ocean with beautiful sandy beaches.  This was my home!  I ventured out often and I was comfortable and HAPPY!

But life throws us curve balls.  You learn to dodge and miss, or you swing batta batta swing!  We chose to swing.  We had to move.  We had to be a family.  We could make this work.  But we moved to this...

There are no palms here.  No indeed.  There are pines and oaky things (I don't like pines or oaky things) and beyond these not so pretty trees...bright lights, big city.  I'm not a fan!  

Have I given this place a fair shot?  I absolutely have NOT.  I'm still in mourning.  Why?  Because just over these trees (let's put aside the make and model of the foliage) there are no beaches.  There is no sand.  There are no shiny happy people! Nope...just bright lights, big city, and lots and lots of traffic.  

The furthest I've ventured out is Walmart (yes I'm aware you are not surprised) because it is less than 2 miles away.  But even at Walmart...nobody knows my name.  

I promise I'll give this place, these Woodlands, a shot, but this will never be home to me.  Home is where my heart is and my heart lives here, but my happiness will always be found on the island.  My family agrees, so it's all good.  I can share my feelings here.  

I'm afraid of this bright light, big city place.  I'll acclimate, but I don't think I'll ever be "home" again until I can see my sandy beaches on a daily basis.  

Counting the days until we can reunite with the palms.  Stupid pine trees!  Don't get me wrong...we'll make the best of this.  The people are super nice and the area is great.  I'll just never be a city slicker no matter how hard I try to hide out in "The Woodlands".  I know what's beyond those woods and I long for "The Island".