A year ago today

This little miracle came into our lives

(You can read his birth story here)

Today, he is one.

Today, he is officially a "toddler"

For the first time in 3 years, I don't have a baby in the house.

Noah is my last baby, and seeing him grow up is hard.

I still remember hearing his first cries and holding him for the first time

Now, hundreds of thousands holdings later

He is independent.

He is strong.

He is goofy.

He is one.

Happy Birthday Noah!

Embarking a new journey

I am embarking on a weight loss journey and have decided to share it with you (Lucky you right?)

Please be sure to follow me on my new blog and join me on this new journey!!

Kraft First Taste Review And Giveaway

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER TODAY! THANKS!


*I recieved the same package that I am offering in my giveaway for my review. This review and giveaway is in no way connected to or sponsored by Kraft. All opinions are my own*
Kraft is a household staple in my house, so when I was offered a Kraft First Tast Basket to review and giveaway I jumped at the chance. I am always up for trying new things.

Included in my package were:
New kraft Homestyle Deluxe Mac and Cheese
New Kool-Aid Fun Fizz Drops
Ritz Crackerfuls Filled Crackers
Coupons for Free New Digiorno Pizza and Breadsticks, Free packagae of Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Shaved Meats, and Free package of Kraft 100 Cal Chesse Bites

My kid's are huge kool-aid and mac and cheese fans, so they jumped at the chance to try these two items. The mac and cheese was great. It was a hearty and filling dish. It has a crunchy bread crumb topping that the kids loved. We will definately be adding that to our grocery lists.

The kids were thrilled with the Kool-Aid Fun Fizz Drops. It is a great way to get kids to drink water and it is just 5 calories.

I kept the Crackerfuls to myself. These are not your typical crackers and cheese. These are made with real cheese and have 6 grams of whole grain per serving. It is enough to keep you full until your next meal.

Want to win a basket filled with all the same goodies that I got? Thought so!

If you would like to try some of the lastest and greatest from Kraft Foods, simply leave a comment below.

For additional enteries:
*Blog about this giveaway (leave a link in the comments)
*Follow my blog (leave a comment)
*Follow me on Twitter @melissa_austin and Tweet about this givewaway (@melissa_austin)

Winner will be selected via Random.Org on Monday July 5th and contacted via Email.

Getting Ready For Vacation

I am on vacation this week. Well, actually Steve is on vacation from his work and I am taking a well-deserved break from mine. That is one of the things I love about working for myself, is that I can take the time off to enjoy time with my husband and family.

And I need it.

The stress of everything that is going on is getting to me. I am exhausted 95 percent of the time. Just run down. So, I am looking forward to taking some time off to recharge.

We are loading up the kids and going camping Thurs-Sun. This will be Aidan, Morgan, and Noah's first time camping. This is the first time in years that I am going. It should be a great time for all.

Next week I will be back in full swing both here and on my Weight Loss blog. As well as back to writing full time.

Enjoy your week!

This Father's Day...

I am lucky beyond words to have a man in my life like my husband.

He has stuck by me through thick and thin.

Sure there were times that I am sure that we should have thrown in the towel

And I can't count how many times we both packed bags and left, only to return a short time later.

He has supported my dreams

He loves my oldest as if he were his own

He is a wonderful father. He takes amazing care of all four children. My heart swells with love for him when I watch them play.

I am lucky.

I know what it feels like to be loved. Wanted. Needed.

Despite our troubles, we remain together...comitted to making this marriage work.

My husband is so much like my dad.

Honest and loyal. Hardworking and loving.

Maybe that is what drew me to my husband. My dad is the perfect male role model.

I love my dad

And my husband.

I am forever lucky that I have these two men in my life

And that my children have them as someone they can look up to.

Happy Father's Day Dad

Happy Father's Day Steve

I love you both more than words

It's Summer Time....

And The Living Is Easy!!!

The day my world stood still...

Any one who follows me on Facebook or Twitter knows that yesterday was NOT a good day.

It started out good. My productivity level was high and I was feeling great. Then I took a break for lunch. 20 minutes later I came back, sat down at my computer, typed in my email and discovered something horrible...

I'd been hacked.

Google, realizing that spam was being sent out from email address, disabled my email. There was no warnings, no emails to an alt. email, nothing. As panic started to set in, I clicked over to this blog.

"The blog you are looking for no longer exisists"

It was gone, banished to some nether region in the bowels of Google for reasons I didn't know.

Of course I emailed Google. What I got was a standard cookie cutter email explaining to me why some email accounts become disabled. But no reason on why mine was gone. Not to mention there was no explaination of where this blog went to. I know I didn't violate and ToS. I am careful. Especially because I maintain my business contacts in that email address.

A few hours later, I was able to get my account re-instated. Imagine my horror when I discoverd that links ( which I am assuming are virus) was sent out to everybody in my contact list. Buisness contacts, personal contacts, school district, teacher....everyone.

Fortunately, as I discovered just a few moments later, Gmail has a really good spam filter in place. And it recognized that what was being sent from my account was spam, and promptly returned all the emails. So, no harm...no foul. Though if you did get an email from me with just a link in it, please forward the header (with I.P addresses) back to me...I have a lead on who did it. I just need to verify some I.P's

So, I changed all my passwords. Set up a new email. Going to be spending the day getting everything changed over to my new email.

I am just glad that all was returned to me...intact and no permanent damage done.