Wedding Day

Wedding Day
Enjoy EVERY moment in your wedding gown. You can't stay in it forever...SO UNFAIR!!!!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

GET OUT AND ABOUT - and a few tips too

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TODOS -

I thought I would dedicate today's post to todos. I brought up Spring cleaning a short time ago, and it is a good time to get in gear with that, but I want us all to remember the fun todos. These are simply things that might be fun to do.

Get OUT! This snowy Saturday reminded me of how important it is to take advantage of the lovely weather we have been having. Arizona is simply loaded with lovely places to enjoy. Start taking advantage of the fabulous weather we have been blessed with. A change of scenery and a change of pace is an instant mood lifter. Doing something new is good for the mind, and getting out and moving around is definitely good for the body. Do things locally and save on gas. Get creative and have an adventure of your own.

1 - Open all the windows in your home and let the sun and fresh air stream through. Tackle a cleaning project when you can take advantage of the bright sunlight and fresh cool air. Yes...this is a chore, but a chore is so much easier to do when you have a that sense of flushing out the icky. No?

2 - If you have the yard, clear up an area and look into gardening. There are lots of great resources online that can help you. If you don't have much room, you can still garden by utilizing some large pots.

3 - Explore your neighborhood and take a nice walk. You might catch a yard sale or meet some new neighbors.

4 - Pack a lunch and take it to the local park with a book or camera. You can enjoy the fresh air, a good story or people watch. Just enjoying a change of scenery is such a lift after a gloomy gray winter.

5 - Have fun with the kids. My son used to love when we would go outside and play with squirt guns. I used to blow bubbles and he and his friends would run around shooting them down. There are lots of recipes for making your own bubble solution online.

6 - Check out your community calendar. Most towns and cities have one online. Look up your town's community calendar and see what is going on. There are always plenty of fun events for the kids and adults. I found several pretty awesome happenings just by looking up Prescott's calendar. You can find concerts, craft shows, classes, and more just by taking the time to look.

7 - If you have a GPS system or even a smart phone (you can get a free GPS app), you might like to try Geocaching. Geocaching is a treasure hunting game that you play by using a GPS system. People hide a cache at a site and log the coordinates in using a GPS. Then they post it on the Geocache site. You look for the sites in your area, and go on the hunt. For a real break down head on over to the Geocaching site here.

8 - Want to get out and about and tourist it? April 16th to the 24th is FREE NATIONAL PARK WEEK! Hooray! Yes, I get excited about this one. There are some wonderful parks here in Arizona, and now is the time to enjoy a slew of them for free! This year's theme is Healthy Parks, Healthy People. Follow the link below to learn more and get in on all the details. There is even an event calendar here with events for parks here in Arizona.

9 - Want a change of scenery without going too far? Why not check out the neighboring city or town. I am sure there are plenty of local attractions you can enjoy by just going a town over from your own.

10 - Local arts. Start checking out all the fabulous entertainment in your city. It usually doesn't take long to locate a fine arts association in your town. Support the local arts and enjoy some home entertainment. When it comes to live entertainment, the price is always right. Look for local concerts in the square, theater groups, art walks, and symphonies. You can enjoy some very high end entertainment locally and save on gas and ticket prices.

LINK: National Park Week



FREEBIES

I have to say that so many freebies come and go all the time that it is hard to keep up with them. I just may start posting them here whenever I see them rather just when I post on Thursdays.

CVS will send you a coupon via email for a free full size Essence of Beauty product when you like their Facebook page and go to their promotions page (link is on the left side of their FB page). You do need to enter your CVS loyalty card, and if you don't have that. Let me just say that you need to get one now! They are great for getting some extra special deals at CVS. Sign up at the link below.

LINK: Essence of Beauty Coupon

Sam's Club members can sign up now for a free sample of Huggies Supreme baby wipes. Yes, you do have to be a member and they are in limited supply, but a great little thing to have on hand for minimal work. :)

LINK: Sam's Club Huggies Supreme Baby Wipes Sample

Rewards Gold has another fabulous free magazine opportunity and this time it is for Forbes Magazine. These do not always last long, but I have noticed that you can usually get your hands on the financial magazines for longer than the fashion magazines. I get this particular subscription thanks to Rewards Gold and like it a lot. It is a simple process of joining up, referring friends, completing a watch survey and two reviews, and a free year subscription is yours. Not bad at all.

LINK: Rewards Gold Forbes Magazine

FreeCCM has a free song download of Laura Story's "Faithful God." You can also listen to her new album "Blessings" as well as download songs from Jonny Diaz, The Choir, David Walker, Derek Webb, and Cloverton. You can also still listen to Jonny Diaz's new album. Remember you do need to be a member, but it is totally free, and they are very good about only updating you once a week.

LINK: Free CCM


FREE ACTIVITIES



Check out Michaels for a great activity for the kids. They have an activity on April 16th where the kids can design and color their own canvas tote to take with them. This is for ages 3 and up while supplies last. Contact your local Michaels to see if they are participating. This event runs from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, but remember that it runs while supplies last. PS This canvas bag might make a nice treat for mom for Mother's Day.

LINK: Michaels Store Events

Loew's has some great Build and Grow clinics coming up. On April 23rd your kids can build a window birdhouse (apparently it sticks to your window so you can see the nest through the glass. On May 7th the kids can make a beautiful Happy Mother's Day flower vase. Follow the link below to sign up your children and get all the details. This is always a great treat for the kids and you truly can't get better than the free price. :)

LINK: Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics

Speaking of free things to do don't forget that next Wednesday, April 20th, Ken Lain from Watters Garden Center will be at the Radio Shine studios giving us some of his tips and tricks that will help all of us gain some gardening success. You can bring your lunch making this a totally free event or order lunch for $8. If you would like to sign up for this awesome luncheon session follow the link below to our website, and you will get all the details under latest news.

LINK: How Does Your Garden Grow? with Ken Lain at Radio Shine

FREE WAY TO GIVE

Okay here are a few ways that you can give right now without taking a dime out of your pocket.

Like Rite Aid on Facebook and they will donate $1 to the American Heart Association's Go Red For Woman movement. They are giving up to $25,000. When I signed up they were at $4,108. Spread the word for a good cause.

LINK: Like Rite Aid and Give


For every person who takes the World Food Programme's short hunger quiz, a child will be fed. Test your hunger IQ and then spread the word! This quiz literally takes about three minutes. Not only will you learn a little more about the world's hunger problem but your participation will feed a child. How cool is that?

LINK: World Food Programme's Hunger Quiz - Feed A Child

Free Rice is a vocabulary quiz also from World Food Programme that donates 10 grains of rice per right answer. You can improve your vocabulary and help others. The Free Rice program has given 90,023,711,930 grains of rice to date! You can sign up with your facebook and track your progress, get friends involved, expand your vocabulary and best of all...give.

LINK: Free Rice

And last but not least, don't forget Goodsearch.com and Goodshop.com. Goodsearch and Goodshop allow you to donate to your favorite nonprofit by simply doing what you do online every day...searching and shopping. Search through Goodsearch.com and your nonprofit of choice will get a penny per search. Here is how it works. Type in goodsearch.com. When you get the main page simply type in who you are searching for and verify. After that, you simply search. You can change each time you search or you can simply keep it the way it is. Each time you search, that charity will get a donation. This money can really add up. You can also shop via their Goodshop.com site and a portion of those sales go to your favorite nonprofit (the price doesn't change. It is just like if you shopped by going to the site directly. Read all about it at their website link below. And if you are curious as to how those gifts can add up, after you verify your favorite nonprofit, click amount raised. This will give you a current tally. Imagine, if you searched twice a day every day for a year, you would painlessly give $7.30, and if you shared this tip with your friends, the donations could seriously climb.

LINK: GoodSearch and GoodShop

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