Have Fun, Stress Less When Vacationing with the Kids ~Post 3, 9 Final Tips

If you would like to follow along, there are two posts to this series. Have Fun Stress Less when vacationing with the kids Post 1, and Have Fun Stress Less when vacationing with the kids Post 2.

 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Pier August 2012 Vacation

1. When at your hotel keep clothes in suitcases. Why?? because it lessens what you have to do when you go to leave.
2. Use various Apps to get to know your area. Urban Spoon, Foodspotting, Yelp all are great for getting to know restaurants and what is good where you’ll be vacationing. Shopkick for deals, Raining Hot coupons and your local pharmacies for Apps to getting great deals when far from home.
3. Use coupons or online discount codes/ such as retailmenot.com and ebates.com for hotel/driving/shopping etc.
4. Grab a postcard for the family back home and send your greetings to them. Or do as we do, bring back some Salt Water Taffy. When we go to the shore we usually get Dolles on the boardwalk.
5. Collect Souvenirs of the trip. Examples could be ticket stubs, wrist bands, photos, seashells, sharks teeth, sand, postcards.
6. Make a project from those Souvenirs. Get a recycled jar and fill it with the items you collected and you’ll have a great memory to commemorate your spectacular fun filled vacation.
7. Before you book hotel find out what is available at the hotel for kids to do, Lazy River, Pool, Hot Tub, Games etc.
8. When you are finally vacationing, buy things as needed when your there. In case you forgot some things, don’t fret. It’s not like your going to a remote Island or anything, or are you?? Well then tweet those pics…
9. Before you leave the house make sure you clean it. Make all beds, take care of trash, run the dishwasher for the last time and empty fridge of things that will go bad. Use Glade Plugins to make your rooms stay fresh. When we came back home. I walked in my home and everything was done. Smelled fresh and not stale or dank. It was nice to know that I just needed to do the laundry and put the rest of the stuff away. But because I was so efficient from the start that took me an hour to do. Life’s Good!!

All in all realize that with a little preparation ahead of time, you can save yourself mounds of time and trouble from getting overwhelmed, to actually having fun and enjoying your vacation. Now school is back in full swing, so it’s “Back to Life, Back to Reality”, the song is playing in my head right now. Back to a brand new schedule for the year. Leave a some Comment Love, Yeah!! ~Christina

What’s in my Purse Tour, Organizing My Chaos & 22 Purse Must Have’s

So I got my new purses and can only use one at a time, oh darn. So here’s the one I chose. The black one for now and I’ll change it up, when the mood strikes. I don’t know about you but, I cannot have too deep of a purse, in fact I prefer a more shallow purse that is wide so that when I go to dig for something it doesn’t take long to find my items. I have to have an organizer in my purse too it keeps everything in it’s place Now I just need to get an apparatus to hold all of my fly away receipts and a trash can installed and I’ll be set. hehe. See how beautiful it looks all nice and neat. Trust me it’ll start filling up with receipts soon don’t worry, so I have to clean it out at least once a week.

Here’s a list of my “Must Have’s” for a purse that survives a chaotic household.

1. A cell phone pocket.
2. Sunglass holder pocket.
3. A Kangaroo pouch, a big purse organizer turned inside out and a small one put inside it. Easy to see into and keeps chaos organized. Or a purse organizer of some sort.
4. Pens for when you need to write notes. 
5. Markers and Note Pad (I always seem to run out of these, need a stockpile for sure), for those creatively sparked ideas when your out and about.  For me it’s usually for the home or my blog.
6. Lipstick, organized upside down so I can see what color I am hurriedly reaching for, gotta have this handy.
7. A card holder, just for health insurance cards, kids pictures, social security cards, and store cards. Will be doing a tutorial on what I did to put all of my large store cards together, even though I have the key fob ones attached to keys, at a later date.
8. I have a sample sized deodorant on the left side pocket and usually my body spray is in there somewhere, need to go get some more. Love Vampire, I get this at Rite aid. I get so many compliments on it, people follow me around.
9. Girly items inside discreet pocket.
10. Kabuki brush (not shown) for touch ups.
11. Hand Sanitizer
12. Change (especially quarters) for when your kids bug you to do the claw.
13. Band-Aids and Neosporin for the boo-boos.
14. Chargers when on the go.
15. Small pouch of wipes or napkins for messes. Also keep wipes in my car too.
16. Small trial sized hairspray.
17. When I am at a family function for a couple of hours I take a mini makeup kit, for touchups, cause we get to laughing and there I go touching my face again.
18. Small snacks for car drives.
19. Stamps
20. A couple of plastic sandwich bags for trash, more organizing etc.
21. I stick my keys right on top or stuff them in next to my check book.
22. A Checkbook Cover and Checkbook I really don’t ever use my zipper because it is so impractical with 4 kids that I have no time for fussing at the store counters. So it stays unzipped but I always carry it on my forearm for safety. You’ll notice in the next picture that my cell phone looks damaged and melted, well I left it in my car in 100 degree heat, which I don’t recommend, still works though.Now go organize that purse of yours. Just dump it like I do and start all over. Sometimes my daughter even reorganizes for me. Any questions, contact me on the side bar or Please leave a comment. Thanks for reading, Christina

Hi my Blogging Friends, Update on me, alot has happened in the past 9 months, well read on....

To begin with I hope you all don't think I have fallen off the planet, 'cause I have been here, just as a browser not a blogger. Here is what I have been doing, in list form of course.

1.) Prepare home in Indiana for moving in May 2011. Literally right after my last post.
2.) This preparation entailed Decluttering, Tossing, Cleaning, Repairing, Painting, Staging, Cancelling various things related to home and Moving. Various posts coming about these topics.
3.) Finding a home back in Pennsylvania where we previously lived 4 years ago. This is where we call home and all of our extended family (and friends) reside.
4.) Do all of this while husband travels and works during the week in Pennsylvania. I have 4 children to run around and get homework done etc. etc.
5.) August 2011, In Pennsylvania now, dealt with re-registering to schools, finding Dr's, getting physicals, joining sports, tying up loose ends in previous state.
6.) All of children are in school now. Time to dig out of boxes. Keep, Toss, Donate, things we brought with, amazing what you box up. Organize storage room for easy access to items used during the year. Post in the future on bin organization.
7.) Go room by room and make a list of all of the items I'll need to decorate home, including furniture that we desperately need. Make Excel spreadsheet. Done!!
8.) Halloween comes and goes. Prepared for Thanksgiving had fun with family. Decorate for the holidays. 1st Christmas spent back with family, since our second year in Indiana. It was so great to be here with them during the holidays. Run, Run, Run...Busy, Busy, Busy.
9.) Start eating less to lose weight beginning November 5th, 2011.
10.) Deal with the aftermath of Christmas/holidays, get some down time in and prepare for reposting on blog/facebook/twitter/pinterest. Getting organized all the while.
11.) Write down ideas for blog that have been trapped in my head. Change blog colors. Clean up items and make blog prettier.
12.) Start walking 30 minutes everyday, up and down the mountain we live off of.
13.) Reach 20 lb. weight loss goal as of January 15th, not bad for 2 months and 10 days. Lose 20 more for 40th birthday in March.
14.) Thank God everyday for getting me through the past year.
15.) Take a breath, now post content to blog.

Wooosh, did you get all of that. It's way more detailed than that but I'll only post about the good parts in future posts. All I can say is I am glad to be home. Because there's nothing like it!!

Also glad to be back posting.
~Christina

Day 15 Back from Vacation

Hi, Everyone… Sorry I was away. I anticipated getting on here to post before I went on vacation, but we left a day early and I had to scramble to get ready. When I was on vacation visiting family I stayed in a hotel that I would’ve had to put a deposit down for internet, so I decided to wait till I was home. So I am sorry for being delinquent, but I am back. I missed blogging and was going through withdraw, especially because I had my CHALLENGE going on. So I am starting up where I left off. Now I am half way through. Patrish from House of Dough Blog is doing great and I am sooo proud of her posting everyday, she’s just showing off, lol!!! Glad to be back, now look for my next post coming up soon!!

Day 19 CHALLENGE NO MORE POSTING FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry folks I give up, I have no more ideas and this is just boring.....................












April Fools 
Hope that you had a great day, I was fooled twice, usually I am the one doing the fooling, did you get fooled, well then share what happened

Day 7 CHALLENGE One week down and I am thankful!

Hey Everybody!! Christina here,
As you know I have been posting everyday and today marks officially one week since I started my CHALLENGE. The CHALLENGE is to post everyday for one month, to see what happens. I also CHALLENGE YOU as well. And so far it has enriched my life greatly. I have met so many wonderful people on here and in blogfrog world that I am in awe. I am so appreciative of everyone who has come and read my blog, especially my Avid Followers. You can find them on my Home page under Following me?. I would love for you to visit their blogs too, just click on the tiny pics of them, as I believe in paying it forward. I am having so much fun posting. It is a great outlet for sharing my creative side! I also have a BlogFrog Community which is on the side bar as you scroll down my blogs home page. If you have your own blog and haven't joined blogfrog yet, I urge you to. It is a positive atmosphere for bloggers to interact and get to know one another. Here is My BlogFrog Community http://theblogfrog.com/1503076, if you would like to join you have to first join blog frog here http://www.theblogfrog.com/. Take a look and send some comments my way and don't forget to pay it forward yourself. Thanks!!



I am working on some new content for the upcoming weeks and can't wait to dig in. Be on the lookout for my next posts, I have a special one for my daughters birthday, so take care and I'll see you in my community!!