Social Media

While I love social media, I do not have any social media connected to my blog especially since it is so small. I do have a personal Twitter account and LOVE it! I deleted my FB account over a year ago and honestly haven't missed it at all. I do miss being able to catch up with my high school and college friends but luckily a few of them have blogs and twitter.
My real love is Pinterest. I love how easy it is to find things that I previously had to hunt down. I like finding new ideas for my classroom, new recipes to try, new things to create and just about everything else. I have even created a pinboard of pins that I've tried and jotted down adjustments that I've made to them. I have been using Pinterest for over a year and just simply can't get over the fact of how wonderful it is. Since I quit FB, I had to have something to do with all of that free time and Pinterest seems to have done the trick!
I visit lots of websites every day. I usually wake up and check my email and then I check my twitter account. Reading tweets for me is like reading the newspaper for my husband. I follow CNN and People and Us so I have all the bases covered as far as news is concerned. Often times, I know the scoop before it ever comes out in the newspaper which really aggravates T but I secretly love it! I also check flash sale sites like Zulily, Rue La La and Very Jane. I like to find good deals and occasionally these sites have things that are unique or hard to find but they also have well known brands like Kitchen Aid, New Balance and Cuisinart. Most of the products are typically 50-75% off retail prices but they have a limited supply and are only available for a limited time on the site, hence the fact they are called flash sales!
What sites do you check into daily? Any more flash sale sites I should check out?

Why I Blog

I started blogging in 2009 at the urge of a few friends from college who wanted to keep up with my life since I moved far away. I encouraged my family in South Carolina to also blog since I wouldn't be seeing them as much since I moved to what seemed to be, across the country. My blog stayed active for about 6 months then I closed down that blog due to some personal issues and resumed blogging again in 2010. My blog has undergone several changes, including it's now 3rd domain name. I'm hoping to keep this name as it just fits my style, you rarely see me without my latte these days!

I typically blog about my day to day life, new recipes that I've tried, products that I love, things I have created and just general life. We have been TTC for almost 5 years off and on and I occasionally share those struggles in hopes of finding some comfort and support. My mother is in the middle of a move back to SC and I will utilize this blog for her to keep up with things here, even though I'm sure our daily phone calls won't cease, it will be nice for her to read about life here!

Hope you will follow along as well!

Picking Up and a Comment Challenge

So, I changed my blog name and domain yet again, third time if you are counting. I just needed something new to get me going again and I have a new page design on the way as well. I am hoping with all these changes, I'll be ready to blog more often again!

Beginning today, Jenna is hosting her annual commenting challenge. Today's topic is About Me so here we go...

If you haven't visited my blog before, I'm Chea and I live with my husband Tom. We have spent the past 7 years traveling and enjoying being married. I teach Kindergarten and Tom teaches PE and coaches soccer. We have a sweet dog, Maggie and a fun cat, Ham. We are still awaiting a baby to come into our lives and hopefully that will be very soon!

It's Red Hot!!!

I had to post this recipe in time for all of your holiday parties you may be hosting! It's a really good apple cider that my principal made last week! I couldn't get enough! Red Hot Apple Cider 2 quarts apple juice 2 cups red hots- the tiny little candies, not the cinnamon disks Using a coffee pot, put the red hots where you would normally add your coffee and make sure to use a filter. Pour the apple juice in like you would add your water. Brew! You will absolutely love that you made this yummy treat! Now, I halved the recipe and did make it in my coffee pot, because well I don't have one anymore since I got my Keurig. I just used the stove top to heat the juice to a boil and added the red hots and stirred like crazy until they melted. Let me know if you try this out!

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

I have been tweeting about my Random Acts of Christmas Kindness and my attempt to do 25 things this month. I've been asked about my method and what all I'm doing so here is my schedule and how I went about things.

I started off creating a list of people that I deal with each day. Everyone from the crossing guard at work to the Salvation Army bell ringer made the final cut! Then I created a numerical list 1-25 and made my notes of kindness that I would do each day.

1. Take Ms. Joy (the crossing guard) breakfast.
2. Buy coffee for the person behind me in line at Starbucks
3. Pump gas for someone while they sit in their car
4. Buy the Salvation Army bell ringer a cup of hot cocoa
5. Deliver homemade cookies to the neighbors
6. Send cookies/treats to T's coworkers
7. Order pizza for the neighbors- I know they have lots going on Wednesdays so I thought it would be helpful to already have dinner ready for her. She was very thankful!
8. Send my brother who lives in Tennessee a box of his favorite cupcakes from a local bakery
9. Drop off a few poinsettias for the lady at the post office
10. Take donuts to a friend
11. Tape a dollar to the front of the coke machine at work- I have done this before and it always makes someone's day
12. Leave candy canes and holiday cards on the cars in the parking lot at the grocery store
13. Adopt a family/child for Christmas. We do this every year and I love it!
14. Drop off hot cocoa for the kids who wait at the bus stop in the morning
15. Leave holiday books in the play area at the mall
16. Make Christmas treats for my volunteer moms at school
17. Make a donation to the animal shelter.
18. Leave a gift for the mailman in the mailbox
19. Take my husband's car to work today have it washed on the way home! (yes, I have to work on this day and he doesn't)
20. Take Christmas treats to the nursing home
21. Meet our pool man outside with a cup of coffee and breakfast- he always comes early and I'm never home to do anything for him.
22. Clean out our closets and make a donation to Helping Hands
23. Hand out Starbucks gift cards to people in line. Just a fun twist on buying someone coffee!
24. Deliver Christmas treats to people working late on Christmas Eve. (drugstore, gas station, etc.)
25. Deliver treats to the hospital employees who have to work on Christmas day.

I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have! Hope you have fun speading Christmas kindness and cheer!

Happy Holidays!

I found this 20 questions survey on something a while back and thought it would be fun to post it on the blog. Feel free to copy it to your blog and let me know so I can see how your answers compare to mine!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Since I’m not really an egg person unless it’s in a cake plus I only eat the white actually if it’s cooked. I’m just gonna go with hot chocolate. I love to drink hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and some sprinkles. However, I’d prefer caramel apple cider any day or my favorite Espresso Truffle (hot cocoa with a shot of espresso)!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Wrapped of course, unless they are too big to wrap, then they need to be hidden. I love a good surprise!

3. Colored lights or white? Just a personal preference but I prefer the white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No - but I might this year.

5. When do you decorate for Christmas? As soon as I can! Usually the day after Thanksgiving but I love Christmas so much and since we are on the go so much, I often don’t get to enjoy my decorations so I would love to decorate November 1 if my husband would let me. He doesn’t like to rush the holidays!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish, excluding dessert? I love when my mom makes a pumpkin roll. However, I guess that is considered a dessert but it has pumpkin in it! I also love my Aunt Jan’s macaroni and cheese. It’s very different than what you are probably used to.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Probably spending Christmas at my grandparent’s house. We would always go over there on Christmas Eve and open gifts right at 6:00. My Nanny is German and that was a tradition that they had when she was growing up so we stuck with it. Christmas morning we would open gifts from Santa as soon as I woke everyone up bright and early then we would head back to my grandparent’s house for lunch!

8. When and how, did you learn the truth about Santa? What? Santa isn't real? He's still bringing me presents.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Since I have grown up and gotten my own house, I like to have themed trees. The first year we lived in our house I put up 2 trees, it was a beating and I said never again. I do have one main tree in the family room that is decorated in gold and brown and animal prints. I also have smaller trees all throughout my house that are decorated with sentimental ornaments.

11. Snow. Love it or hate it? LOVE IT - but I don't want to have to drive in it.

12. Can you ice skate? Really slowly holding on to the wall. :-)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Gosh, there have been so many favorites throughout the years. I can’t really narrow it down to one.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Spending time with family and remembering why we are celebrating. I'd also say that I'd rather find ways to help others or give to the needy more than I enjoy receiving gifts. I think this time of year helps you to remember how very blessed we are.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Chocolate delight. What’s better than chocolate, cream cheese, pecans and cool whip?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Heading to church on Christmas Eve for the candle light service. That is my favorite service of the year!
17. What tops your tree? A bunch of glittery sticks and stuff.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Definitely giving. I love finding just the right gift for someone and truly surprising them!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I have SO many I don't know if I can name just one but I guess I would chose Silent Night. I remember singing this when I was a kid at our church Christmas program.

20. Candy canes. Yuck or yum? Yummy! I love peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks and peppermint ice cream! Plus, Bob’s peppermint candy is the BEST!

Helping Out Society

Over the Thanksgiving break, we went out and did a little shopping. We ran across this adorable little coffee shop and stopped in for a treat. Next door to the shop was the cutest little bakery, Society Bakery to be exact. Apparently, the bakery is well known and was even voted Top 10 Cupcakes by The Ellen Degeneres show. Well, we had the gluten free brownie and a chocolate chip cookie. Both were absolutely incredible. I didn't really want the gluten free brownie but the sales lady who happened to be the owner's mother, convinced us that it was really the best thing under the counter. I believe she was absolutely right! The cookie was amazing but that brownie...Oh My!!! It was to die for! So if you are ever in the area, stop by Society Bakery and help yourself to a treat. One thing that I also love about this bakery is that they donate back to the community. I will definitely be stopping in to help out society and my sweet tooth!