My First Giveaway, PSYCH! No seriously.

So I've been trying to decide what to do for my first giveaway for a while now, and I've settled on one of the coolest shows ever! Psych! Don't ask me why it's season 3, I'm not really sure. But either way, it's so funny it'll make you cry!
PSYCH is about a boy named Shawn Spencer who has dedicated his life to never growing up. Shawn's dad, Henry, was a police detective who trained Shawn with everything he knew from a very young age, hoping that Shawn would want to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately this hard training had the opposite effect on Shawn. Although he had no desire to become a police detective, he gained an amazing talent for details and deductions. He uses his skills to win reward money from the SBPD (Santa Barbara Police Department) by giving them tips on their cases from what he figures out watching the local news. He solves a few too many cases and is implicated as being involved in the cases he helps to solve. How does he get out of this pickle? He starts a Psychic Detective Agency of course!

Henry & Shawn Spencer

Shawn's best friend Burton Guster (aka Gus) is Shawn's other half, and a hilarious counterpart to Shawn. He thinks of himself as cool and smooth and has no idea that he's quite a nerd. They've been best friends their whole lives, and he gets dragged into whatever crazy idea Shawn comes up with! I think the noises he makes are some of my favorite parts!
Detective Lassiter (aka Lassie) & Detective O'Hara (aka Jewels)
2 of Shawns favorite things.
1-Giving Lassie a hard time
2-Hitting on Jewels

Here's a video of clips from Season 3

This giveaway will be open until Thursday 10:00PM Mountain Time.
You can make 3 entries for this giveaway
(Only available to be mailed within the United States)
1-subscribe to my blog (leave a comment telling me you subscribed)
2-leave a comment about what you love about Psych
3-follow my blog (leave a comment telling me you follow me)

Ladies & Gentlemen

Sometimes when I'm flipping through the channels and seeing girl after girl dressed as provocative or revealing as she can manage I think about the pictures of my grandma when she was younger. She always looks so classy, like a real lady. I cringe to think of what my grandchildren will think of my pictures! So here I am wishing we could live in a world where all of the women are ladies and all of the men are gentlemen.

My Beautiful Grandma
Thank you Danielle for sending me this! This is a link to see a picture of my classy grandparents.

And here's some more great pictures:

Wish I could afford to look like these ladies!

As you might be able to tell, I love me some pencil skirts!

Glee & Gwyneth Paltrow Singing 'Forget You'

I've watched this 3 times tonight and I love it so much I had to share it! Who knew Gwyneth Paltrow could sing like that!

Cravings: Chocolate + Ryan Reynolds

So tonight I was craving 2 things.
#1 Chocolate

I didn't have my standard York Peppermint Pattie on hand so I went to my back up that doesn't make me feel like I'll have to run 3 miles to make it up.

Easy Homemade Chocolate covered strawberries
-Slice up some strawberries
-Heat up some Ice Cream Hot Fudge topping
-Drizzle over strawberries
-Enjoy :)

#2 Ryan Reynolds

I love Ryan Reynolds. He just might be my favorite actor. He's ridiculously handsome, hilariously funny, and unbelievably ripped.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

My obsession started when I got my first taste of Ryan when he starred in Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place. Ryan played Michael Bergen or 'Berg' as he's known on the show. An extremely easy going pre-med college student and his two best friends Pete a neurotic architecture student and Sharon a tough girl with a soft heart. If you have never seen this show you have sorely missed out. It only ran for 4 seasons, and sadly you can't even buy it on dvd right now! So unfair.

Later I saw Ryan in Just Friends and I remembered how funny he is! The movie does have several crude parts, but as a whole it's got a good heart and is very funny! Ryan plays Chris Brander, a fat teenager who's in love with his best friend Jaime Palamino, but stuck in the friend zone. He graduates high school vowing to never be stuck in the friend zone again. It's almost painfully funny to watch, and it's pee your pants funny to see him in the fat suit!

Definitely, Maybe was my next favorite movie of his. It's a very sweet romantic comedy with him playing a loving soon to be single father. He's Will Hayes who's in the middle of a divorce who has a 10 year old daughter Maya, who's just had her first sex-ed class. Maya insists on learning how her parents met. He gives in and tells his story, but turns it into a mystery by telling 3 different love stories from his past. It's a great go-to chic flic movie!

The Proposal combines my love for Ryan Reynolds with my love for Sandra Bullock. She is one of my favorite actresses, and the combination of the two of them is fireworks! Ryan plays Andrew Paxton, executive assistant to Margaret Tate (Sandra) the boss everyone has nightmares about. Margaret also happens to be a Canadian who was too late on her paperwork and is now being deported. To stay in the country she decides to blackmail Andrew into marrying her, but she gets a little more than she bargained for when she ends up in Alaska with Andrews entire family. An awesome choice for any movie night! It's also got Oscar from the office in it, although his role might make you laugh, cry and cringe all at the same time!

The Green Lantern is an upcoming movie set to come out this June with Ryan starring as Hal Jordan aka The Green Lantern. To be honest I know very little about The Green Lantern, but I'll be sitting in that theater opening night just because of Ryan. :)

It also stars Blake Lively who I love from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

So if you didn't already love Ryan Reynolds I hope that now you do. Here's one more picture for you to look at. I know I will!

A Few of Wes's Favorite Things

I'm going to take a cue from my good friend Jess's Blog and share with you some of my 2 year old's favorite things.
WESLEY

CARS THE MOVIE
Wes is constantly talking about Lightning and Mater. He also loves Frank, the guardian of the tractors who chases Lightning and Mater after they tip all the tractors. He calls him the bad guy.

DINNER PARTIES
My mom found this table and chair set at a yard sale lasts summer (for $5!) and Wes has loved it ever since. He loves to set out dinner parties for his friends. Tigger, Pooh Bear, Bear, and Monkey.

HIS KITCHEN
And, of course, he needs his kitchen to complete his Dinner Parties. He got this kitchen for Christmas this year (it took Tad 4 hours to put it together) and there hasn't been a day yet that he hasn't spent hours playing with it.

His Monkey
Monkey is another gift from my mom. Wes pulled him out of a bin of stuffed animals she keeps at her house, and they've been best friends ever since. Wes takes such good care of his monkey, he love to get him dressed, feed him, take him for rides, brush his teeth and everything else he sees us do for him or Scarlett. We've had a couple of scares with loosing Monkey, but so far we've been able to find him.

MOVIES, LOTS OF MOVIES
At the moment Wes's favorite movies are Monster House, How To Train Your Dragon, The Backyardigans Singing Sensation, and The Hulk. Not the cartoon Hulk, the Edward Norton Hulk. He asks to watch it over and over again. Wes loves any movie or show that has 'scary parts'. He sits clutching his monkey wide-eyed as he watches the scary scene, but when it's over he wants to watch it again!

THE HULK OBSESSION
Since seeing the movie his Hulk obsession has grown. This is the comforter on his bed.

And the big boy underpants he picked out for when we start potty training (which we haven't yet).

RUNNING IN CIRCLES
His favorite activity is running in circles, especially if he's got company like his 2 cousins. This is a video of Wes and his cousins Ainsley and Gavin at the zoo last summer.

BALLS
Ball was Wes's first word and it's still one of his favorite things. You can't let him see the big ball bin at Walmart unless you have 20 minutes to spend explaining to him why he can't take them all home with him.

WES'S FAVORITE PEOPLE
#1 Scarlett
He can hardly control his excitement for his little sister. Although he does tend to get a little too excited and be a little too rough with her, it's very sweet how much he loves her.

#2 Ethan
Ethan is probably Wes's best friend. He lives in the apartment above us and they have a blast together (when they aren't beating the crap out of each other that is).

#3 Daddy
Finally, Tad is Wes's favorite person of all time. Since he was a tiny boy he's always picked Tad first. I can't say I'm not a little jealous, but who can be mad at that face?!

BidRack.com

BidRack.com

The link above will take you to a new site where you can bid on lots of awesome products. Including Ipads, flat screen tv's, louis vuitton purses, toys, jewelry, even gift cards all of which bid for amazingly low prices! The last Ipad wen t for under $4, the flat screen was under $9, and the purse went for under $5.

The catch is that you have purchase bids to participate. The packages are as follows:
40 bids - $27
100 bids + spin - $60
175 bids + spin - $100
300 bids + spin - $150

A spin is basically like the wheel of fortune, you get to spin to see how many additional bids you get on the wheel, ranging from 1 to 20. Once you buy a bid package you get a free spin, plus you get a free spin every day you log onto BidRack. BidRack is a partner with nomorerack.com that I really like and have heard really good things about. They have really great guarantees and policies ie. If you don't win the bid you can use the bids that went towards the product for store credit, flat rate $2 shipping, and their Win Back guarantee - if you buy 100 bids and don't win anything they will give you your bids back until you do.

Right now there are more auctions than there are bidders so it's a great place to auction for things if you have the money to buy the bids. And they're running a great promotion from now until February 26th at midnight that if you sign up and get your friends to sign up & buy bid packages you get Apple products!
3 friends - Shuffle
6 friends - Apple TV
10 friends - Nano
15 friends - Ipod touch
35 friends - Ipad
65 friends - Macbook Air

So if this sounds like a deal for you sign up!

What's your reality?

Which Reality Show Would You Go On?
Every time Tad and I are watching a reality show I ask him this question. Now it's your turn! Here are your choices:

25 women compete against each other for the heart of one, very eligible bachelor. You'll live in a house with the other 24 women while you fight for attention from the object of your obsession on group dates. The Bachelor is not for me, I'm much too insecure to compete for a man against 24 beautiful women on live tv.

The Bachelorette is the reverse. 25 men fighting for the affection of 1 woman. While there is the upside of being the one who gets to go on every date, and let's face it, most likely getting to make out with lots of hot guys. The down side includes becoming attached to several guys at once, not to mention having to hurt people's feelings on a regular basis. I tend to cry in tense situations so I'm afraid I would spend the bulk of the show in tears. No good.

You will be stranded in a remote location with a large group of people who will all be plotting ways to get you voted off. You may have to begin with little or no provisions or preparation. Along with regular challenges that are designed to test your endurance, strength, agility, problem solving, teamwork, dexterity, and/or willpower; you will also have to face the struggles of surviving in the wild. I, being a self proclaimed wuss, would never survive this show.

Fear Factor. Basically you (either by yourself, or in a team of 2) will be faced with the most terrifying or horribly disgusting activity the show's producers could think of to try and outlast the other contestants in pursuit of a large sum of money. This is simple. I could not fall from a 30 story building. I could not, under ANY circumstances swallow a bug. Any bug. Fear Factor is not for me.

While this show is only open to professional dancer and celebrities, it's still fun to consider. So 12 dancers are paired with 12 celebrities and competing for the role of the best. I believe they get each get paid to be on the show. The further they go in the competition, the more they are paid. While the money would be awesome, dancing is not my thing. I dance like the typical awkward white girl so I'm better off on a different show.

A group of people (usually less than 15) all live together in a house competing to be the last tenant. They each compete for the upper hand to try and avoid getting kicked out of the house during the periodic evictions. I would actually consider going on this show, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Wife Swap is a show where they take two moms who run their houses and families in completely opposite ways and make them switch houses and families for 2 weeks. The first week the moms are there they live the other woman's life. The second week the mom gets to make any changes she feels are needed. When I read my husband the list of shows he said that this would be an interesting one to do. Although it made me a little nervous to think Tad wanted to house a strange woman for 2 weeks, I have to agree that it's intriguing. But it also would not be my first choice.

America's Next Top Model or ANTM to the Tyra fans out there like me. A large group of women (sometimes as many as 30) compete to be - America's Next Top Model. They have a challenge and a photo shoot every week, and the girl with the weakest pictures gets sent home. Often they have challenges where they have to pose with live insects or in mid-air. The winner gets several prizes, including a modeling contract. I was obsessed with this show for several years because I'm a Tyra fan, and it was really fun to see how they do model shoots. Somehow the most awkward looking girls took the best pictures (so maybe I have a chance!) As much fun as this show looks like, it's not one I would choose to do.

American Idol is one of the most famous shows, but for the sake of the Amish: The country is scowerd to find the best singers that wait in line hours to be heard by Simon, Paula, and Randy (at least it used to be Simon, Paula, and Randy) Each week they are given a music category or artist to sing from. While the judges get their say, America picks the winner. If I could sing, hands down this would be the one. Sadly that is not the case.

The amazing race is a new obsession of mine. You pick whoever you think will get you through the race and team up with them for a journey around the world. You'll need brains, brawn, and a tough stomach to make it to the end. You'll be faced with everything from connecting a Guatemalan water supply to bungy-jumping over a cliff, to having to eat a goats head, all while trying to stay ahead of the pack. This show is so much fun to watch because the teams are always so different. My favorites are always the boyfriend/girlfriend teams who spend most of the time yelling at each other. This would be my husband's pick. I asked him why and he said because he thinks he'd be good at it. Go figure.

And finally there's Project Runway. Clothing designers from all over are chosen to compete for enough money to start their own line, among the random prizes you get from competition to competition. My favorite episodes are where they are challenged to make clothes from unconventional materials like a car (literally seat belts and car seats), nature (leaves and twigs and moss), or even paper (newspaper or even trash bags). I can't sew, I don't even know how to work a sewing machine, but I hold onto the hope that someday I might. This is the show I would love to be on. One day I will learn to sew. One day I will amaze you all with my awesome creations!

Until then, what's your choice?

What I learned today

Today I learned 2 very important thing.
1st
Turkey Bacon has nothing in common with real bacon except it's shape.
We decided to have omelets for dinner and I thought, "Hey I'll finally fry up the turkey bacon I bought." It did not turn out as planned. Maybe it was the way I cooked it. If anyone has any suggestions for a better result please share!

2nd
My older sister Danielle is very, very wise.
My husband Tad will be the first person to admit that Danielle's dinner table is one of his favorite places to eat. She always finds the best recipes.
Today I tried her recipe for Banana Muffins and it totally rocked! The recipe is below, and I totally recommend trying it. Danielle and I both refrained from using the frosting, but I'm sure it's awesome with. To be honest I probably would have tried it if I had any idea what mascarpone cheese was.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients

Muffins:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

Frosting:

• 3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions

Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly. The muffins may be eaten warm or cooled completely and frosted.

To frost the cupcakes: Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the mascarpone cheese and then beat in the honey. Spread the frosting over the muffins. Sprinkle with the walnuts.