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November, 2014

familyjust for fun

Happy Birthday Charlie!

It is unbelievable to look back at my first Dear Charlie post and know that we were celebrating her 10th birthday when that post went live and now she is 14. FOURTEEN!! How does time go so quickly?

To be 14, Charlie remains fairly active and healthy! Arthritis is definitely starting to set in so there are some days she is more stiff than others so we may need to help her up the back steps. Her vision is starting to get a little cloudy but her hearing is sharp. She doesn’t play with toys like she used to but she still wrestles and plays with Chloe on a daily basis. She is still very much my shadow and follows me from room to room. She is still very much a big part of our family and still our very special girl!

Since 14 is a pretty big milestone is dog years, Abby wanted to make sure that we threw her a birthday party. Not just any birthday party, it had to be a Frozen birthday party so we went to work planning. Since Abby had a Frozen theme party this year, decorating was easy and I was able to pull out of of the leftover party supplies.

There was, however, one special item we needed to shop for online. I was trying to decide if I wanted to get something like a doggy t-shirt or something along those lines for the party and then I discovered the adorable doggy tutus made by Sweet Cheeks on Etsy. She made a custom Frozen-inspired tutu for Charlie and I almost died from the cuteness when it came in. I highly recommend checking this shop out.

Once we had the decorations and attire ready to go, I took Abby shopping at PetSmart to find her a special gift. Since Charlie really isn’t into playing with toys anymore, she decided she wanted to get her a new collar and some special treats. It didn’t take long to pick out a collar after she found one that was had a bow on it and was named the Abby collar.

Friday was finally party night! We made Charlie’s favorite meal (hot dogs), donned party hats, and sang “Happy Birthday.” Charlie has always gotten excited over new collars or bandanas so she was happy to model her new collar. Charlie and Chloe enjoyed Frosty Paws while we munched on decorated sugar cookies.

Happy Birthday Charlie

Happy Birthday Charlie

 

It was a very, very fun family night and hopefully we will be enjoying #15 next year!

 

P.S. Don’t forget to check out and enter my beauty favorites giveaway! Winner will be drawn Friday, November 28, 2014!

chronic stylegiveawayjust for fun

Birthday Recap & A Giveaway!

One of the other highlights of fall is celebrating my birthday! I don’t like celebrating my age (creeping towards the mid-30’s category scares the crap out of me) but I am definitely one to stretch things out and try to celebrate over the course of a week! At least a week! More if I play my cards right 🙂

This year John had to play guitar in a wedding on my birthday for one of our former youth (which seems to be happening a lot lately and making me feel even older!) so we had a little family celebration the weekend before. We had a family day and went out to do a little shopping and of course eating! One of my new favorite, favorite places to eat out is Brixx Pizza. I absolutely love pizza and could probably eat it every day of the week but when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2010, I never thought I would be able to enjoy pizza out again until I discovered Brixx! They offer a gluten-free menu and the pizza is amazing! John and Abby also give the gluten-free pizza two thumbs up which doesn’t always happen! If only I can talk John into liking pineapple on our pizza! I have already converted Abby onto Team Pepperoni & Pineapple but can’t seem to bring John over to the other side!

Another awesome thing about Brixx is there patio terrance which provides a beautiful backdrop to a gorgeous fall day:

Birthday Celebration Recap

 

The following Saturday (the 18th) was my actual birthday and since John had to be elsewhere, I had to find a partner-in-crime to celebrate with! We have an honorary member of our family named Taylor (more affectionally known as TT) and it just so happens that her birthday is four days later! She is most definitely my partner-in-crime in all things beauty related and we can find just about every excuse in the book to make a trek to Ulta so we decided to enjoy a birthday girls’ night out!

Who doesn’t love to buy a new dress and get all dolled up? And of course, you have to rock the Birthday Girl sash:

Birthday Celebration Recap

Thankfully I was able to snag a picture with John before he had to scoot out for the wedding! We don’t have a lot around here (we do only have one stoplight after all) but we headed out to Outback (their gluten-free selection is also amazing) and ended the night with Cookout milkshakes.

Five Friday Favorites will be making a return next week so I will share my five favorite things from my birthday outfit which I adored:

Dress: Attention Women’s Studded Fit & Flare Dress

Heels: Abbey Dawn (purchased on Poshmark)

Bracelets: Also purchased on Postmark

Ring: ShopMissA.com (Similar)

Makeup Tutorial: Midnight Blue by GoldieStarling

In honor of my favorites and my birthday, I am going to be giving away some of my beauty favorites to one of YOU! Look at these goodies:

Birthday Favorites Giveaway

Giveaway box includes:

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Physician’s Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner & Serum in Ultra Black

Foundation Pump by BeautyMP (fits Revlon Colorstay)

Color Icon Eyeshadow Palette 5 Pan by Wet N Wild

Daily Brush Cleaner from ELF

Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips by Sally Hanson

Brilliant Shine Lip Gloss by Milani in Rose Blush

Matte Lip Crayon by Ulta in Hazy Pink

Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel by Bath & Body Works in Coconut Cabana

Ready for the Rules?

1-Leave a comment letting me know your top 3 beauty favorites that I need to check out.

For an additional entry:

2-Tweet about this giveaway and leave me an additional comment letting me know you did (including the link to your tweet).

Giveaway will run until Friday, November 28! Good luck!

Disclosure: I am hosting this giveaway and all products included in today’s giveaway box were purchased by moi! Honesty and transparency are always a priority! I hope you enjoy!

familyjust for fun

Fall Family Fun!

Welcome back y’all! Hopefully you guys made it through yesterday’s video post without any ill side effects! If you made it through the entire video, I am sending you a virtual cookie and a hug!

Thankfully in the midst of a Fall full of migraines, we had a couple chances to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! Some of my favorite things about fall are beautiful days and a drop in sweet Southern humidity! Can I get an amen on that?!

My family lives five hours away so whenever we get a chance to all get together, we try to soak up every minute we can get! My parents along with my sister and three sweet nieces came down for a visit so we took advantage of a beautiful Saturday and headed down to Hollywild Animal Park! We love going to Hollywild as its a smaller zoo so its child (and spoonie!) friendly! It also helps that the terrain is almost entirely flat so that adds bonus points in the child and spoonie department. If you notice Hollywild sounds a lot like “Hollywood” as many of its animal residents are animal actors and have stared in movies or commercials! The resident rhino is the star of the Zycam “rhino virus” commercial as well as the Land Rover commercial from a few year’s back!

Here are some of my favorite shots:

Fall Family Fun at Hollywild Animal Park

I melt every time I look at the picture of Abby and Dorothy holding hands (be still my beating heart!) and I laugh every time I look at the picture of Happy Jack (the zonkey in the middle!). One of our other favorite things about Hollywild is the safari ride where you get to feed the animals! Be careful as you might get licked!

 

One of our other fall adventures was to our local corn maze! It is seriously one of the coolest places to visit! This year’s maze was in the shape of Charlie Brown & The Great Pumpkin! In addition to the maze, they had a hayride to a pumpkin patch, a zipline for kids, a cow train ride, a corn canon, and a host of other redneck  fun:

Fall Family Fun At The Shelby Corn Maze

I thought Abby would be a little hesitant to try out the zipline but I was way wrong! She loved it and probably rode it five times! We made it through the maze by luck as somehow our directions weren’t lining up and we seemed to bypass some markers! I thought only Thomasville had big chairs but we learned that Shelby has one too! I could not help but take a picture with the giant metal chicken! If you have ever read The Bloggess, you will know exactly why!

These were definitely two highlights of fall so far! Have you had any fun fall adventures with your family and friends? Do you have anything that is on your “must do” list every fall?

disclaimer

Information posted here should not be considered medical advice. It is not intended to replace consultation with physicians or other healthcare providers. A New Kind of Normal covers my personal experience and because every person's experience is unique, it should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare.

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