Life with Linda

Family Game Night

January 16, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Have you signed up with House Party.com? I love House Party.com! I’ve had 5 or 6 parties so far and they are so much fun. It’s easy, too! After you sign up, when a new party opens you fill out a survey to apply. In a couple of weeks you’ll get an email if you get the party. You party pack comes later, just in time for your party. The party packs always include items for hosting the party, hostess gifts and coupons, and guests gift and coupons. Items in the party packs do vary, though, for each party.

I was excited to get the Hasbro Family Game Night party! The parties were held on New Years Eve. We had so much fun!

Here’s a picture of what was in the party pack:

Four games – Catch Phrase, Yahtzee, Twister, and Draw Something. Included were batteries for Catch Phrase
Family Game Night cups, party hats, a crown and trophy for the winner
Coupons for me and the guests.

Before the guests arrived, I opened and set up all the games in different areas so we had plenty of room to play. I also wrote the names of the games we were playing on a piece of paper. When someone won a game, they put their name on the list under the game they won. That’s how we determined the winner.

We played games, took a break for snacks, then played more games. The guests had free reign of the games. They could play what they wanted, when they wanted. We often had three different games being played at once.

Here’s a Yahtzee winner:

This was all of ours first time to play Draw Something. It’s so much fun! As you can tell by the faces of the kids playing!

Twister was a big hit, too. This new version of Twister has a new twist. haha One of the options on the spinner is to put certain body parts in the air. And hold them it there until that part was called again. This proved to be very challenging, especially when the kids were twisted up and had to hold themselves up. We laughed so much! The kids were sore by the end of the night, and were even sore the next day!

And the winner is…. He won the most games over the course of the party. He was much happier than he shows in this picture. He was trying to keep a straight face. lol

Here’s a group shot, minus three adults who didn’t want to be in the picture.

We had so much fun with this Hasbro Family Game Night! These games are all great family games.

Do you have family game nights with your favorite games?
DISCLAIMER: I received this party pack from HouseParty.com to have a party. I received no other compensation, and I was not required to write this post. I just wanted to share the fun!

Sick…..

January 14, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

We had another cold go through the house. Again. Thankfully, it wasn’t the flu. However, the cold was bad enough to trigger secondary infections in three of us that warranted a trip to the doctor and antibiotics.

You know it’s bad when the pharmacy tech says “Your whole family has been in here!”.

Thankfully, the my kids are pretty much over it, other than a small lingering cough.

After taking several naps yesterday, an unheard of occurrence for me, I am feeling some better today. Thankfully, the antibiotics I started on Friday are finally kicking in. I figured after taking a whole bottle of that mucus busting medicine and worsening symptoms, it was time to take myself to the doctor. I’ve also been using aromatherapy for my symptoms. It really does help.

So…..after missing several days of posts, I am finally feeling up to blogging! Now I’m off to catch up on posts! 🙂

“C” is for Childhood Cancer Awareness

September 19, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

“C” is for Childhood Cancer Awareness.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. The Gold Ribbon is for Childhood Cancer.

goldribbonlabelWM

Only a small portion of research money goes towards childhood cancer. For some childhood cancers, it’s been over 20 years since new drugs have been approved. That’s just not right. These are our kids! All of us my not be cancer research doctors, we not not all have a million dollars to donate, but we all can spread the word about childhood cancer. The millionaires will hear and the cancer research doctors will get funding. It’s too important NOT to share!

I have a lot more information on my Childhood Cancer Page.

“C” is also for Calen, my son the childhood cancer survivor!

Calen was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on October 20, 2000. Eight days before his 6th birthday. Talk about a nightmare, being told your child has cancer is one. After three years and three months of treatment, he has gone on to still be cancer free almost 12 years after diagnose!

Calen is my hero! There are not enough words to express how proud I am of him.

To go through what he did and come out a survivor is awesome. He’s not only a survivor, he’s a thriver. He leads a full and busy life. He works very hard using the talents that God gave him for God’s glory. Satan tried to keep him down, but satan didn’t win! To God be the glory!!

Please Pray

September 14, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Please pray for my husband and my children. My husbands mother went home to be with the Lord this morning.

Please pray for peace and comfort for my father in law and all her children and grandchildren.

She was was a lovely, sweet women and will be greatly missed.

Thank you

Paying it Forward with Gutzy Gear

September 9, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Thanks to Madame Deals Media and Gutzy Gear I had the opportunity to purchase school supplies to giveaway.

I was sent $25. to buy a backpack and as many school supplies as possible to fill it. Not to keep for myself or my kids, but to giveaway to a child who needed it.

Since I only had $25, I opted to get a small backpack, as backpacks can get expensive. I found this small one at Walmart for $7. In fact, I bought all these supplies at Walmart. School starts here the first week of August, so when I received the money, all the school sales were over. I still found some good prices at Walmart, I would have gotten the spiral notebooks that are cheaper than the composition notebooks, but they were out of them. My kids like the composition notebooks better, as do as lot of kids, I think.

Not included in this picture is a small bottle of hand sanitizer that I inadvertently left out. Included are:

9 composition notebooks
1 pencil box
1 handheld calculater
1 box of crayons
1 box of colored pencils
1 package of pens
1 package of mechanical pencils
1 pack erasers
1 pack of glue sticks
1 pack of index cards
1 ruler
1 -3 pack of tissues
1 small bottle of hand sanitizer
and the backpack

Here’s my receipt for all these. $24.79 before tax and $26.28 after tax.

Gutzy Gear also sent me 2 Gutzy Gear strap covers and a package of Gutzies to add to the backpack.

The filled backpack with the Gutzy’s and the missing hand sanitizer.

Never heard of Gutzy Gear? Gutzy Gear includes these really cool shoulder straps for backpacks, or any kind of bag your child carries, duffel, sports, dance, etc. Gutzy Gear then offers Gutzies patches that have velcro on the back and stick to the shoulder straps. There are currently over 50 designs to choose from, with more being added all the time. I opened all the Gutzy Gear and added it to the backpack.

Gutzy Gear patches are a fun way for kids to decorate their backpacks while expressing their likes and interests. Since the patches attach with velcro, they are easily moved around or removed for trading with their friends.

Ok, I had fun shopping for the supplies, filing the backpack and decorating it with Gutzy Gear. But the best part was giving the backpack away!

My family runs our church’s clothes closet. We accept clothing and household donations from the community, sort the donations, then give everything away for free to community. We open to the public on Saturdays from 10-12. While it is a lot of work, it is also a great blessing to our family to be able to work together to help others in this way.

So I took my Gutzy Gear decorated, filled to the brim backpack with us to giveaway to a child that needed it. This little boy came in with his mom and I asked her what grade he was in and if he needed a backpack and school supplies. She told me he was in first grade and didn’t have a backpack, that he was carrying a satchel to school.

Look at his little face! He was sooo happy to get the backpack. I handed it to him and he immediately put it on. I had to adjust the straps while he had it on. lol It was heavy with all those supplies in it, but he didn’t care. He put it on and wore it the whole time his mother was looking at clothes. You can tell by the shelves in disarray behind him that it was a busy morning. He didn’t care. He just kept smiling and wearing his new backpack.

I was so blessed to be given the $25 to go shopping and the Gutzy Gear to giveaway. Even though we give away clothing and household items on a weekly basis, to see how happy this little boy was to receive something that most kids take for granted was just amazing!

Thank you Gutzy Gear and Madame Deals Media for making this amazing moment possible.

*Disclaimer- This backpack giveaway was sponsored by Gutzy Gear and Madame Deals Media. I received $25 to purchase these school supplies. Everything listed on the receipt and pictured here was given away. I received no other compensation. Opinions are my own.