Guest Post: Shine On!

Hey Everyone! We have a guest post today with Meghan from Shine On! Take it away girl! 

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Hello lovelies! I hope you are all having a fabulous day. Please let me introduce myself -- my name is Meghan, and I blog over at Shine On. I'm a twenty-something, coffee-loving, professional sorority girl living in Music City, TN. It's nice to meet you!

I am thrilled to be a guest on Jenna's blog today! She is a fantastic woman, and I always look forward to reading her blog each and every day. Is she not one of the cutest little preggo ladies you've ever seen?! Adorable!

When Jenna asked for guest bloggers, I was so beyond excited. Like I said, I love reading her blog, and I am so excited to 'meet' all of her wonderful followers. Yes, you all. I sincerely hope we can become blog buddies! That's one of my favorite things about the blogosphere -- 'meeting' and making new friends all over the place!

Anywhoo, Jenna told me I could write about whatever my little heart desired. At first, I was a bit nervous about this. I like to think I'm creative, but when the whole blogging world was my oyster [that's the saying, right?], I wasn't sure where to go. Until my Pinterest-ing post yesterday...

Books.

I started thinking about the hype that series like The Hunger Games, Twilight & Harry Potter have had within today's youth. With THG release on Friday, and the fact that I love the series, I started thinking about the series that I grew up reading. So without further adieu, I give you to my Top Five Favorite Book Series (from the childhood me).

1. Goosebumps

R.L. Stine

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I would sit down and read an entire Goosebumps book in an afternoon. Thinking back, these were sort-of creepy, don't you think? But man, R.L. Stine did an awesome job at engaging us and actually giving us, well...goosebumps. Favorites? The Haunted Mask, Night of the Living Dummy, and all of the 'create your own ending' books.

2. Nancy Drew

Carolyn Keene (ghostwriters)

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Did you want to be Nancy Drew? I sure did. I loved that she was able to solve all of her crimes by dinnertime...wait, that was Mary Kate & Ashley. Anywhoo, Nancy Drew was amazing. While it's an older series, it didn't lose it's oomph across the generations. I read the same books that my mom read as a child, and that's pretty darn special. Favorites? Secret of the Old Clock, Secret of the Shadow Ranch, and The Hidden Staircase.

3. The Babysitters Club

Ann M. Martin

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Ohhh, The Babysitters Club. I don't think anyone will ever forgot those bright book covers with those ever-so-stylish child blocks. After reading the books, who created a BSC with their friends? I know I did!! The storylines were hysterical, and, like, totally awesome!

4. Sweet Valley High

Francine Pascal (ghostwriters)

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Sweet Valley High is a series that focuses on Elizabeth & Jessica Wakefield. They're twins..and they're great. As a tween, I really aspired to be like the Wakefield Twins. Like, totally! ;) They really hit on a lot of the important topics of a young adult...first boyfriends, first kisses, breakups and more!

Last, but certainly not least (because I really could go on forever...)

5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Alvin Schwartz

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This was one of the series (three books in total) that you will never forget. Actually, I still can't believe I was allowed to read them. Reading some of the stories now...and considering how much of a wuss I am, I'm not sure how I made it out of these books alive.  I mean, let's just check out these photos.. yikes!

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So friends, what were your favorite childhood series?

Feel free to comment below, or even get a little crazy and stop by my blog to reply!

I'd love to see y'all over there!

Jenna - Thank you so much for letting me guest blog. Here's to a great year!! Muah!

Restless Blog Hop!

Hey Everyone! I'm hosting a blog hop over at the Restless blog hop! :) So Excited.. And Sorry I got this up a little late!
I wanted to share a few things that I'm loving on Pinterest too! Since we just had St. Patty's day.. I'll share some cute things I would love to do for Easter:

Home made cadbury eggs!!! Yum. Can be found here

Dye easter eggs with Kool-Aid. So easy and cheap! You can find it here

And third:

a cute and simple wreath to make for Easter here

adorable Easter eggs, can be found here

 And that's all I have... 

Here is the Young & Restless Blog! You should check out her awesome blog and join the weekly blog hop! Make sure to follow if you are linking up!


 And if you are linking up today! Be sure to grab a Restless Blog Hop button!

<center><a href="http://christanncox.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="young and restless" src="http://www.thislittlelightblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Faerie_Wings.jpg" /></a></center>
Now Link Away!

Hair Therapy!

So being pregnant has been some kind of wonderful. 

I can't wait to hold the sweet little one but I've been so busy that I can't wait til May when I can really focus on this cute little new being! Getting the hospital ready and all that jazz.

But yesterday, I really needed some hair therapy.. 

so I got a hair cut!

BEFORE:

(PS. I have no make-up in this picture above)

AFTER:

I feel better. Now I actually will have time to straighten my hair. 

That's all for today! 

Thanks for stoppin by, 

xoxo Jen.

Tag! You're it!

So, I don't think  I've done one of these before... I was tagged by Kylee from 20&Counting! Here are 11 things about me, followed by the 11 questions Kylee posed. I'll then post 11 new ones for the girls I tag to answer! 

photo credit goes to mariannegreig.com

So here are 11 things about me:

(in no particular order)

1. Weekends are my favorite because I love spending time with my husband!

2. If you could get paid to sleep, I would be rich... because I can out-sleep anyone. I have to keep a strict sleep schedule to function or I could sleep 12+ hours a day!

3. I'm currently watching once upon a time on hulu because I missed it last night.

4. I was a dancer... for 15 years (from 3 to 18). Sometimes I miss it but then I just have a dance fest around the house.

5. My kids will not be allowed to go to UF. I am a Florida State Seminole! I bleed garnet & gold... OK so maybe not gold... but garnet ;)

6. God has blessed my life and I live to praise him!

7. I love Ranch dressing...its weird I know. I love it on fries, salad, wraps, sandwiches, to dip chips in it. Its so good.

8. I'm not a pet person. We will never have cats or dogs. The hubs is allergic. They cost more money and are just an animal to clean up after. Sounds bad. I am a compassionate person... Its just, I would rather have goldfish.

9. My motto for life is to "stay positive"! Sometimes you have to "fake it to make it"! Not every day is going to be the best but if you pretend it is and keep a positive attitude... your day will most likely get better! I always say, "I'm riding the positive train!"

10. I don't usually admit this but, I kinda like the Kardashians... There show is entertaining.

11. Baseball is my favorite sport to watch. My husband and I are going to a game on Saturday! ...so excited

Now for the 11 questions posed by Kylee:

1.  Favorite feature about yourself. I have pretty eyes. My hair is pretty great too.. some days I don't even have to brush it and it looks nice.

2.  One thing you want more than anything. A healthy baby.

3.  One thing that scares you about your  future. I get scared sometimes when I watch politics. I hope our nation can stay "one nation, under God" as long as I'm alive... and I pray for my future descendants that America stays, "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

4. Biggest phobia? Snakes! Ugh... I can't even go near them. I don't like cockroaches or spiders either.

5.  Most exciting thing you have ever done? got married to the man of my dreams!

6.  Biggest accomplishment? graduating college with my Bachelor's... soon it will be my Masters!

7.  What is your biggest pet peeve? Messes.. but I also hate when boys/men leave the toilet seat up... 

8.  If you could be anything in the world when you grow up, what would it be? Well I'm getting my Masters in Social work... so something in the social work field that is also faith related! 

9.  Would you rather have no eyebrows or no eyelashes? no eye lashes.. cause you can buy fakes that look real but you can't buy fake brows that look real..

10.  Cookies or ice cream? cookies... my husband would say ice cream. we have this disagreement every once in a while ;)

11.  What's one thing you want to do before you die? Go to Hawaii with my husband and go on the honeymoon we dreamed up but couldn't afford. haha.

Tagging 11:

♥Mallory♥Tori♥Mel♥Chelsea♥Annelise♥Kinsi♥Esther♥Jennifer♥Paulette♥Britt♥Emily 

You're it! Now tell us 11 things about yourself and answer my 11 questions! Then Pass it on!

1. What's your favorite food? 

2. What were/are going to be your wedding colors?

3. What is the one thing you miss from your childhood? 

4. What is the biggest dream you have for the future?

5. Favorite Sport & Team? 

6. What are you doing right this second besides blogging? 

7.What is your life "motto"?

8. Do you like country music? If so, what's your favorite song?

9. Know any funny jokes?

10. How did you get started blogging? 

11. Top two favorite movies of all time?

Next time.. I'll add more pictures!

That's all for now! Thanks for stoppin by!

xoxo Jen.

Couponing & Saving some $$$

Who likes saving money?

Who likes sales? 

Well me too.

I've never been that great at couponing but today I can officially say "I did it!" I successfully couponed at CVS and saved over half my bill. A few weeks ago, I went to Publix and saved about 1/3 of my bill.. Here's the receipt:

Actual Price: $190.23

Total Saved: $63.53

Total actually paid: $126.70

That was good but not the absolute best. I knew I could do a little bit better. I look at the ads at CVS and Publix every week. We pick up two newspapers and clip all the coupons out of them... even the ones we think that we probably won't use (because you never know).

The key for me to save the most is to look at the ads of what is already on sale and use coupons on top of Buy One Get One FREE type of deal. So let me show you what I got today: 

2 packs of Gushers fruit snacks, 2 packs of Dole peaches fruit cups, 2 Welch's white grape juice, 1 T.G. Lee milk, 2 Arizona brand Teas, Colgate toothpaste and 2 Colgate manual Toothbrushes.

Actual Price: $36.08

Total Saved: $23.28

Total Actually paid: $12.80

So let me explain how I did it. I started couponing about 2 weeks ago at CVS and after my last purchase, I had 3 "Extra-Care Bucks" to spend for my next visit. If you have a CVS card, you get all the deals in the ad... and sometimes if you buy certain items they give you money back in the form of "CVS Extra-Care bucks" on the bottom of your receipt, which helps you save soo much!

So today, I mapped out all the deals before church and got the coupons ready. We did two separate purchases at CVS:

And that's all! Just wanted to share my amazing savings... 

To learn how to coupon, check out Southernsavers.com! She taught me everything I know!

Also, here is post I did way back when... when I first started to learn to coupon. It has a bunch of wonderful links that will help you! If you are couponing at CVS, don't forget that all the new deals come out every Sunday! Happy Couponing and hope you had a great weekend! 

Thanks for stoppin' by:

xoxo Jen.

P.S. On March 23rd, I'm co-hosting my first Blog-Hop with Young & Restless! So Mark your calendars and be ready to link up your favorite posts!

Linking Up: 

Nifty Thrifty Things

Show and Tell Saturday

Lovely Crafty Home 

Big News!

Well my husband made this facebook official last week. So I've decided to share the big news on the blog!

I'm pregnant!

I found out a while ago and I'm about 10 weeks. We had our first appointment last week and got to see the sweet lil baby's heart beat. Here's the little guy/gal:

Here's my sweet husband's facebook post that announced it to the world after telling family and friends of course: 

We are so blessed and beyond excited. This explains why the blog has gone a week lately without an update.. I've been a little nauseous.. and mostly just trying to get school work done. Grad school full time is intense. I'm interning 20 hours a week plus taking 5 classes. God is good and things will slow down this summer as the little one is supposed to arrive in late September! 

That's all for today! So excited & Thanks for stoppin' by: 

xoxo Jen.

Linky Followers! GFC says goodbye...

Hey Everyone! There's a new way to follow in town! 

So I've been reading a lot all over the place that if you are not a member of blogger... Google Friend Connect will be no longer be working soon for SOME. So many bloggers have been joining a new way to follow called Linky Tools! You can sign up for a free account here!
You can follow me here:

Its so very Cheri has been hosting a Linky Followers blog party for all those who sign up! Here are the rules:
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1. You MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

 If you see that your link has been deleted you need to add the LINKY FOLLOWER tool to your site and then come back over and re-enter your link

{You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.

3. Just add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code if you want to put it on your site.

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE. Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site. You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.  Leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.


LEAVE ME A COMMENT - And I'll gladly come follow you back! :)