Birthday GIVEAWAY!

So on Friday I told you guys I had something exciting and fun prepared for my birthday and it's a giveaway!! Remember my dear friend Jackie that I talked about a couple weeks ago in my post about Rachael's wedding? Well, she has an Etsy shop called Knits by Jax and she's got some great stuff!

Anyway, Jackie has so graciously offered to give one of you the opportunity to win a resuseable coffee sleeve! BUT, because Jackie is so awesome and wonderful she's also offered EVERYONE a discount to her shop during this giveaway!! All you have to do is enter the code THISANDTHAT at checkout to receieve 10% off any item that you purchase!

Ways to Enter! (All entries will be by comment on this post)
Mandatory For One Entry:
1. Be a follower of This and That - and tell me in a comment how you follow.
i.e. Google Friend connect, RSS feed, Bloglovin', Facebook, etc.
2. Visit Knits by Jax and tell me what your favorite item is!

Optional Entries:
3. Tweet about this giveaway and leave your username in a comment!
Check out this awesome giveaway by @cindylou3 for a pretty reuseable coffee sleeve http://tiny.cc/2fjf8!
4. Facebook about this giveaway and leave a link to the post.
5. Blog about this giveaway and leave a link to the post.
6. Purchase something from Knits by Jax and tell me what you purchased.

That gives you a total of 5 chances to enter! And make sure each entry is a separate comment so you have the best chance of winning!

Good luck and I'll be picking the winner next Monday, February 6th!

Cindy

Birthday Weekend!

I've got several pictures on my phone I've been wanting to share on here from the past week so I decided to do an iPhone photo dump! There's a few sky pictures because as you all have read before, I love sky pictures. Stank sleeping with one eye partially open.

Sunset on the frisbee golf course on Tuesday
Speckled leaf
More of the sunset on Tuesday



Awesome clouds on Wednesday afternoon

I've been looking through this book for information on shipping hazardous material for work.

A pretty dandelion in January!

The tiny, tiny sliver of moon is next to the light post from Thursday's sunset

Anyway, in addition to my photos, this weekend is my birthday weekend! Monday is my birthday and I've got something extra special planned for my blog on Monday so be sure to come back then!! But this weekend will be filled with lots of goodness! This evening Collin and I are going to the Baltimore Aquarium to celebrate my birthday. I've been wanting to go for ages (I've been before but Collin hasn't) and we're really excited! Then tomorrow evening my company is having their holiday party, they always do it in January because more people can come since Decemeber is always so busy. And on Sunday we're having a little family get together at my parent's house to celebrate both me and my mom! Her birthday is on Tuesday. =) So yeah, it should be a fun weekend!!

I hope you have a great and fun weekend, too! And come back on Monday! You won't be disappointed!!

Cindy

Comedy Break!

I've been pretty busy these past few days and my creative blogging juices aren't flowing today so I just want to leave you with something funny to tie you over until my next "real" post. I follow these guys on youtube, Tripp and Tyler of don't be that guy films and this is one of their latest. It's so, so funny. Collin and I have been quoting it lots lately. Give it a watch. I think you'll appreciate it, too!

"Does anyone know how I can make Papyrus my default font?" haha! Hope you enjoyed the video!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Saturday mornings are great for making pancakes. I don't have to go to work, Collin goes in later in the morning so we sleep in and then make pancakes! Or I suppose it's more like Collin makes the pancakes. I do help make the batter but he's the one who actually cooks them. And I love it! He makes some amazing pancakes! And that's saying something because I didn't really like pancakes until he made them for me. But I must admit, I only eat chocolate chip ones...

Cindy

Monday Morning Blues

Picture taken Saturday morning

That's what my morning has felt like. Cold and icy. Not really, but it hasn't been the greatest morning. I woke up extremely tired and then while I was getting ready for work my stomach started not feeling so great. So I sat down to let it settle for a few minutes and then of course by the time it was settled enough to finish getting ready I ended up being about 15 minutes late to work this morning. Which isn't necessarily unusual for me but I was going to be on time today if it wasn't for my stupid stomach! Then I get to work and my neck and head just started hurting really badly. And I didn't pack breakfast this morning because I had thought I left something here but once I got hungry I went to get my food and remembered I ate it Thursday morning. *sigh* Ever have a Monday morning like this? Plus, to top it all off it's been foggy and COLD all morning long.

Anyway... just because I had a not-so-good morning, I'm not gonna let it get me down! Today is still a new and wonderful day. There's still many opportunities for awesome things to happen! Plus, despite all the difficulties/annoyances I may face, today is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)

Be blessed today my friends! Rejoice today because the Lord has given it to you!

Cindy

Ya'll Come Back Now, Y'Hear?

So going around on the interwebs has been this fun little dialect test/vlog thing and after Ashley at Hudson's Happenings posted it this week I just really wanted to do it. So... here's a little video of Collin and myself showing you our "accents". =)

The instructions are to say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

So... what do you guys think? Do I have an accent? Do Collin and I sound anything like how you would have imagined? I just love Collin's deep voice! He sounds like a radio personality or something, doesn't he? =) We hope you enjoyed our first little "vlog". We had fun making it!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's cold here but we're not predicted to get any snow just some rain but other places are supposedly gonna get hit pretty hard. So if you're one of them, good luck - stay warm and safe! See you all Monday!

Cindy

Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!

This past weekend Collin and I headed up to a tiny town in The Poconos called Jim Thorpe, PA. My friend Rachael from college was getting married and she had asked me to sing with 5 other friends from college in the ceremony! So early Saturday morning Collin and I packed up the car and began our 5 hour journey north!

Comfy clothes for traveling


A road trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to Cracker Barrel!

For the first time ever I beat this dumb game! I've gotten down to 2 pegs before but this time I actually beat it!!
And then it started snowing. While the sun was out. And there was already some snow on the ground from a storm they'd had on Thursday.
This was the coolest thing! Icicles hanging from the rocks on the side of the road. Oh it was so neat to see all over the place!

The wedding took place on Sunday afternoon so Saturday evening was the rehearsal and dinner. Afterwards a bunch of us met up in my and Collin's hotel room for some rousing rounds of Pictionary Down the Lane which caused so much laughter we thought we would disturb the neighbors! We had a blast playing and it was great to spend time together with my college friends!

The wedding was above a museum in an auditorium type room and the ceremony was very nice! Our group sang "You Are the New Day" which is sung by The King's Singers. I think one of my favorite things about the day was that the recessional song was "Married Life" from the movie Up. It's the one that's played when it goes through their love story at the beginning. It was so special and they had the exact instrumentation for it live. =D Anyway, the reception was filled with lots of fun and dancing! And it was great to be seated with my awesome Messiah friends. We had a blast. I can't wait until the next wedding for when we all get to see each other again. ; ) Hopefully we'll get together before then though! I love those friends!

Jon with the fun shaped pineapple

That was a yummy cake!
The cake toppers were handmade treble and bass clefs!


Alicia, me, and Mary Lee

This about sums up Jon, David, and Andy. =)

A "normal" picture of the three guys.

Collin and Jackie, the two non-Messiah grads in our group
The sextet (singers) and Messiah friends!
The Messiah crew with the addition of Collin and Jackie (Andy's girlfriend)
All of the Messiah group in one picture!

The beautiful bride, Rachael!

The back of her dress was so pretty, too!
Jackie and me. I wish she lived closer because I think we would hang out all the time. I love her!

The girls I hung out with all weekend. Alicia, Mary Lee, Jackie, me

On the way home on Monday the icicles hanging off the rocks on the sides of the road had grown because it snowed a little more on Saturday night. And it was SO cold the whole time we were there. I don't think it got above 25 degrees while we were there. Much, much too cold for my liking! But we still had a great time!

I hope you had a great holiday weekend like we did! And I hope that whereever you were it was not nearly as cold for you as it was for us!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

I know you all probably don't care too much about my cat, Stank, but this blog is just as much for me as it is for you all and I love my buddy boy! I love how sweet he looks and his precious little paws. And now for a bit of humor... he loves to get into the bath tub and lap up any water he may find and he especially loves it if we turn the faucet on to drizzle out some water for him to lick/play with. However, if there's no water (and there wasn't on Monday) he ends up chasing his tail! haha! Enjoy!

Cindy

Beautiful Nature

Last week's weather was so weird! It was cold and rainy a few days and then warm and sunny a few days! I much preferred the warm and sunny. Though both gave me some really neat photo opportunities. I really enjoy taking nature pictures. I just get so inspired by everything I see around me and can't help but to stop sometimes and just snap some pictures. And I love having my iPhone handy at all times to take the pictures with. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few of them with you.

They were calling out to each other
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty;
the whole earth is full of His glory!"
Isaiah 6:3

You alone are the LORD.
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens,
and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it,
the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything,
and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
Nehemiah 9:6

I'm so glad that God created the earth to be so beautiful and to be so full of life and wonderous sites! It can be so breathtaking sometimes to just glance around at all the little things. Even in the middle of winter there's such beauty all around. How truly magnificent! And what a great testament to a wonderful Creator. I fully believe the earth is full of His glory! So much so that I sing Holy, holy, holy! Praise be to God!

Cindy