Jill K

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED.CONGRATULATIONS TO #s 3 AND 7 FOR WINNING!

What are your plans for the day before Easter? Do you want to take part of The Easter Eggstreme at Thanksgiving Point?  Sure you do! Here’s a little info about what goes on that day:

“Hunts with thousands of Easter eggs will be every half hour between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. New from years past, each hunt will be open to all children ages 12 and younger, but segmented into age group areas to ensure all have a fair opportunity to enjoy the experience.   

Eggstreme activities include a bean bag toss, ring toss, inflatables, pony rides, crafts, relay races, face painting, the Chick-Fil-A cow and Easter Bunny, live baby animals at Farm Country, kiddy cow train rides, and others.”

You can read more about the day here.

Tickets are $9 per child and $4 per adult.

But today I am giving away 2 Family 5-Packs of tickets for your enjoyment!

Want to enter to win? Just leave a comment on this post.

I will pick 2 winners at random tomorrow morning and mail you your tickets.

Good luck!

My family experienced a tragedy recently. My sister’s perfectly healthy 2 1/2 month old baby boy passed away quietly in his sleep two weeks ago. The reminder of the fragility of life, combined with the painful reality that the world will continue to move on around us, can create a terrible feeling of helplessness. Luckily, we have been blessed to feel the support and love from extended family, friends, and strangers trying everything they can to get us all through this difficult time.

I’ve thought a lot about the physical and emotional pain associated with losing a loved one and seeing someone so close to you suffer in ways I can’t even imagine after having to say goodbye to their precious baby. It has made me wonder just how many people we deal with in our daily lives are feeling similar pain. Has the checker at the grocery store recently lost a family member? Has the annoying coupon lady just been told her husband has cancer? Has a coworker’s spouse just left them and they’re too embarrassed and hurt to tell anybody?

We may never know, but why wait until we KNOW someone is having a hard time before we are nice to them? Even small things can help someone get through a hard day. Small things like smiling at someone, letting a car pull in front of you so they don’t have to wait longer, giving up your seat in the waiting room, etc. And if someone (or their kids) is less than pleasant to be around, refrain yourself from saying something you wouldn’t want someone to say to you. I know I’d be sad if someone wasn’t kind to my sister while she walks around with a hole in her heart.  image source

Remember when I watched the Bachelorette for no apparent reason?

Really, there was no reason for that.

Ashley drove me crazy, and as much as I fell in love with Ben, I couldn’t help but wish he would shave his head. I think about 99.9% of us sillies who watched the Bachelorette fell in reality-show-love with Ben, especially when his sweaty proposal to Ashley in the finale was rejected. We all wanted to know how someone could reject a sweet sweaty mess like Ben. Maybe it had something to do with his sweaty hair sticking to his forehead? We’ll never know.

But, things were looking up for Ben the Winemaker! He was chosen to be the Bachelor! Hooray for Ben! He came back less loveable and more sweaty. His hair is just plain weird. I saw someone online compare him to Francine on the show Arthur, and I couldn’t agree more. Check it!

photo from here

This season has been filled with lots of crying and obvious “surprises.” Ben has ended up skinky dipping with Courtney while pretending to like ol’ What’sHerName.

So who will he propose to tonight?

Will it be Courtney, the model who is “in it to win it” (according to the other girls)?

Or will it be the other one?

girl photos from abc.com

…So, tonight is the night Ben chooses Courtney….

I had a baby boy three weeks ago. As you can imagine, he’s incredibly handsome. I love everything about him, his hairy back, his long, skinny baby fingers, his cute little baby noises, and even his angry baby screams.

Although I’ve gone through the baby-having process two times before now, this is my first time really experiencing the “baby blues.” I don’t feel like it’s extreme depression, but it’s definitely something I haven’t felt before.

Let me ‘splain.

If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I’m not in love with being pregnant. It’s uncomfortable and anger-inducing and I disliked getting my big body dressed every morning.

But the moment this baby left his safe, warm home inside my womb and entered the freezing cold sterile operation room, my body had the painful realization that something is missing. Even though the baby constantly makes his presence known (about every 2 hours at night, to be exact) my body’s having a hard time dealing with the fact that he’s not inside anymore.

Anyway, it’s weird. It’s really weird. And no, I will not be filling the void with a “girl baby” as requested by my daughter.

Talk to me, goose. What is going on with me?

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Tomorrow is the 1st day of December. You know what that means, right? Right. You are finally allowed to listen to Christmas music and watch the old claymation Rudolph movie without me looking at you all judgmental-like.

Okay, I’m messing with you. We’ve been watching Rudolph over here for a few weeks already. I’ll find something else to judge you for.

And now I’ll tell you something about me that you will probably make you look at me all judgmental-like. I grew up in Idaho. Well, I actually lived in Roy, Utah until I was 8ish.
Neat, right?

Being a Idahoan/Utahn, I am pretty much down with the snow. I don’t always love it (like when I’m spinning out of control and crashing into guardrails on the freeway) but I expect it, especially during the month of December and most importantly ON Christmas day.

The Christmas season doesn’t seem right to me without a blanket of snow covering the outdoor Christmas lights and possibly a light magical snowfall on December 25.

photo from here

All of my memories of Christmas time include playing in the snow and coming inside to hot chocolate and sitting by the (electric) fireplace. Or trekking around the snow-filled mountains to chop down a Christmas tree. Or going caroling (in the snow!). Or going sledding. Or building a snowman. Or jumping off our deck and landing in a pile of snow to freak out my mom.

The comforts of the holiday season (for me) are usually centered around coming inside and warming up with your loved ones after having fun in the snow. Clean, danger-less, non-car-smashing snow.

I’m looking forward to showing my kids how fun snow can be. When they’re acting like jerks, I’ll show them how fun it is to get hit by a snowball.

Happy December!

Comfort is the perfect gift for everyone on your holiday gift list, so be sure to take advantage of Tempur-Pedic’s Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

Last week, the ol’ TV played plenty of lame movies that I have seen hundreds of times, yet still took the time to watch them again. One of these movies was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

This movie sure is a classic, right? And Grandpa Joe sure is a classic jerk, right? RIGHT.

I never really noticed it when I was young, but I am noticing it now.

Grandpa Joe is a major selfish a-hole.

According to this movie, it’s standard for grandparents to become completely useless and lie in a bed for years and years while their broke daughter works late at night, changes their bedpans, feeds them watered down soup and tries to raise a young son who does a paper route to bring in extra money. Sure, it’s a movie. I get that crap.

Grandpa Joe, however, doesn’t seem to care about the struggles going on around him. He still requires tobacco and obviously some mustache trims now and then.

Seriously, who trims that mustache?

Then Willy Wonka announces his golden ticket contest. Grandpa Joe has always wanted to go inside that factory and eat a bunch of chocolate. He’s tired of complaining to his poverty-stricken daughter about that watery soup crap she always serves him and the other oldies, and he wants some CHOCOLATE!

So what does he do? He gets Charlie’s hopes up about winning the golden ticket. He even somehow manages to secretly purchase a chocolate bar for Charlie. How did he get that chocolate bar?

After some depressing time, Charlie finally gets a golden ticket. Grandpa Joe is excited! He GETS OUT OF BED. and DANCES. And sings, “I got a golden ticket!”

Oh, how convenient, Grandpa Joe. You can’t get out of bed to use the bathroom or get a job, but you can suddenly dance? How very opportunistic of you.

He then goes on to show his jerkiness by signing the contract outside of the Wonka factory before reading it and exclaiming to Charlie, “We got nothing to lose!” Which really means, “I’m about to die, and I’m obviously not leaving your mom any money…so who cares what I do?”

He also teaches Charlie fantastic core values, like stealing and talking crap on everyone’s parenting skills. Like, what’s up with Veruca Salt’s father? What a weirdo. He should be lying in bed making his daughter struggle to keep up with the house payments and keep food on the table.

Despite being surrounded by lazy grandparents, we see Charlie has a good heart and still passes Willy Wonka’s test and wins the factory.

And Grandpa Joe’s response to this news…

“What about me?”

If I could change the ending, I would have it end with Charlie and Willy Wonka looking at Grandpa Joe after that question and laughing maniacally.

Then pushing him out of the magical elevator.