Postcrossing

I have my found my new favorite thing in the world... literally. I ran across this website after a friend had posted a 31 postcards in 31 days challenge on Facebook, and I was googleing postcards and this website popped up.

As I read further into the site, I fell in love. Postcrossing is a website that allows you to "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world"  that is straight from their website! I have always wanted a pen pal type situation but I think this is one better! 

When you are new you can request up to five addresses to send postcards to. Each postcard is given a code that you must write on your postcard. The code allows your postcard to be tracked. Once the recipient receives the postcard they go to the site and enter that code and that let's you know your postcard has been received and that you can send another one! 

I told A.Drama about my find and she was hooked too! She signed up and requested her addresses too. My outgoing postcards are on their way to Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, China, and Belarus. Hers are on their way to Germany, Russia, China, Lithuania and the Netherlands. 

First off, do you know how hard it is to find postcards when you need them?! Um, very! A.drama and I scoured the two surrounding big cities quickly and came up short handed. I ordered two books of postcards off Amazon to get us started and we did finally luck out in a used book store, finding a few old postcards with no writing on them that we could use. 

The thing that is cool about the Postcrossing website is the bio/profile pages. You get to write a little bit about yourself on your profile page with a listing of your likes and then other postcrossers can use this to help find postcards that cater to your tastes. While not required it does make things more fun! 

We need to stockpile postcards so we have a selection that we can go through to try and find ones that match the person they are going to. We are excited now to have a reason to buy the touristy postcards when you go to places and build up a stockpile. It's a totally fun new hobby.

As we sat down Saturday to write our postcards, it was actually a little difficult figuring out what to write down. I tailored each postcard to the recipient, mentioning something that was in their profile and just told them a little about where I live. In the future I will be able to tell a little something about how I got the postcard I'm sending (I was on vacation etc etc) 

It costs $1.10 to mail a postcard internationally. They have special stamps for such a purpose. They are round which makes them kind of cool, but at the same time a little boring I suppose too. We decided once we are through with these that we will purchase the regular $0.46 stamp and add with it a $0.66 stamp, that way the person getting it will get two stamps and after reading some of the profiles, people like to collect the stamps too.

Here we are sending our postcards out into the world! 

I can't wait until I get my first postcard back in the mail! I wonder where it will come from? Think you might be interested in giving Postcrossing a try? 

Throw Back Thursday: Woolrich

Here is a throw back picture to 2008. A.Drama and I took a bus trip to New York City, which ended up being a bus load of old folks... no really. They loved us! But they were totally excited about the stop in Pennsylvania to the original Woolrich store. A.drama and I did not understand the excitement but old people be cray about Woorich. 

It's funny that we had never really heard of Woolrich or seen another Woolrich store, but now we've seen them several different times in different places we've been.

In fact here is A.Drama in Mackinaw City, MI last year in front of the Woolrich store.

Happy Thursday! 

Family Field Trip to Coco's

Today the family, minus NiBo, took a road trip to Page Turner town to check out Coco's Sweet shop! Lucky for us it was cupcake Saturday too! A.drama and I got a yummy cookie dough cupcake. Even dad enjoyed picking out different chocolate covered items. Mom opted for the saltwater taffy, DELISH TOO! Everything is so sweetly delicious at Coco's, we decided the vanilla taffy was the best, although I'm pretty partial to the banana.

PT had lots of new things since the last time I was up for opening weekend. It's so good to see a friend so happy and everyone rooting her on. Also as part of my fall pumpkin challenge I HAD to try the pumpkin fudge and the pumpkin malt balls. Pumpkin Fudge gets a thumbs up from me! Tastes like pumpkin pie, it was delish!! The pumpkin spice malt balls were ok, definitely better than the pumpkin spice m&m's! 

I don't know if you know this or not, but Historic Route 66 goes right through Page Turner's town! PT pointed us in the direction of The Route 66 Family diner in town so we stopped in for lunch. Then we drove around to check out a few more of the historic places in town.

Don't forget to check out the The Candy Lady Diaries to hear the stories of life in the candy shop.

Thanks PT for giving us a new location to field trip to and get our sweet tooth on! 

Throw Back Thursday: Homecoming

It's that time of year here in small town... it's Homecoming week. Tonight under cover of darkness students will sneak onto unsuspecting teachers and strangers' yards to throw toliet paper up in their trees. I did watch the parade and got candy thrown at me, there were tootsie rolls so I was ok with the candy projectiles.

Here is a throw back to my 2000 Freshman Homecoming dance with me and my date. I loved this dress color, I remember I was so excited when I found a fingernail polish that matched perfectly. Gma made this and my matching purse. It comes in very handy to have a Gma who can sew, she made several formal dresses for me and saved us a boat load of cash! Hard to believe this picture was 13 years ago! Holy moly.

Happy Thursday! You're almost to the weekend! 

Happy Anniversary

Happy 31 years to the best parents a girl could ask for! 

10 Things: I love about Tuesdays aka SOA Night

Specifically this Tuesday, but most of this can be transposed with any Tuesday during SOA season

* Sons of Anarchy...obvs

* Text exchanges with OL that mostly include exchanges of "Holy $h*t" or omg

* My mom calling at 10:17 to discuss SOA

* The fact I said holy crap before the first commercial break and 6 mins in

* Facebook messages from friends live chatting the show

* Having no clue what is going to happen this season but trying to figure it out anyway

* Following Twitter #SOAFX while I watch and seeing other people's reactions

* Tomorrow's lunch discussion

* Jax Teller 

* We are only 3 episodes in and I already can't imagine my Tuesdays without this show

Songs I Can't Get Out of My Head

I can't get these two songs out of my head, they are so freakin catchy.

This first song is NiBo's fault, he showed it to me and I can't get it unstuck. Watch the video then you will find the funny in the accompanying photo from our Chicago trip.

This next song won't stop playing on the radio and the infectious chorus remains stuck in my head too.

 

You're welcome, I hope they are stuck in your head now too. It's only proper you pass them along and get it stuck in someone else's head.

Happy Monday! 

Finally Fall!

Happy First day of Fall my friends! The days will now officially start getting shorter and the nights will grow crisper, and what a perfect first day of Fall it has been. With the low dipping into the lower 40's it definitely will feel like a Fall night. It's my favorite time of year and I can't wait for the leaves to start changing. 

I found this list on Pinterest and I love everything on it. I can't wait to cross it all off my Fall list, you can also add everything Pumpkin to the list ;) 

On The Last Day of Sumner

As summer fades to an end, NiBo and I made the best of the last day of summer. He usually never has a Saturday off but for a change today he did and we had to do something fun in honor of that, and the last day of summer. So we went to Chicago! 

On our way to our Museum destination we took a stroll through Grant Park and checked out the Buckingham Fountain.

Our last Chicago adventure included the Art Museum, this time we opted to check out the Field Museum. Neither of us had been up to the museum for many many years. We went with the VIP ticket which got us into a 3D Movie about the T-Rex dinosaur Sue on display and access to a few other exhibits which weren't as cool.

My favorite part of the museum was definitely the fossils, fossils of any kind, but mostly the dinosaurs, because well dinosaurs are awesome.

The last time we went to Chicago we tried to go to the Skydeck but didn't feel like waiting in line for hours, so we called it a day. This time was different, we didn't have to be home so soon to get ready for Monday, so we decided no matter what we'd wait. When we got to Willis Tower they said it would be a two hour wait, blah, ok we'll wait.

They queued you up in a couple spots so at least you felt like you were moving. Most of the people in line were from foreign countries, even as Illinoians we took the tourist destination bait and waited and waited in line. While we waited they had slide show pictures of Chicago views on the TV monitors, we found it funny and odd that people were cramming to take pictures of the pictures. Wouldn't you rather go out into the city and actually see them? How do you explain that, " well why I was waiting in line I took some pictures of the pictures of Chicago" Also we learned that people do not know proper line etiquette, which can be annoying, but is just par for the course I suppose.

Once we got to the top, which only ended up being about an hour wait, the views were worth it! And the glass boxes that stick out the side of the 103rd floor were pretty cool too! 

 Happy last day of summer! Hope you got to live it up too! 

iPhone 5s

I had the day off today and thought I'd take a chance and try to get the new iPhone that came out today... well I succeeded! I just happened to have my upgrade in time to get the new one, and for the first time I have the current phone that is out new!

I told myself I wasn't going to wait in line so I was hoping that by chance pulling up to Best Buy when they open would be enough. When I pulled up like 10 minutes until they open there were only like 3 people in line. Ok I can do this.

Turns out they started passing out tickets to get the phone at 8:00 and people waited overnight and started lining up at 10:30 the night before. I can't think of anything I want that bad to wait outside overnight in the cold. So when I strolled up to the line, they asked what carrier I had and boom, they had a phone left, several it turns out but hey I got one and that's all that matters.

In the short line to check out I quickly realized I don't belong with these people. First off just because I'm in line for the same product does not mean I want to hear you and your phones life story. Also I suggest that if you are going to be one of the first people, please understand how the phone works. While waiting in the line the guy in front of me had the most basic of questions for for the apple expert. ugh. Then the girl behind me wanted to tell me about every iPhone she has ever had... yikes.

But after playing with the new phone I love it! Much faster than my other phone, love the new features. Gpa goes on and on about how he doesn't understand the big deal about getting a new phone... it's hard to explain to old people. But our phones are such huge part of our everyday lives (well at least for my generation) not saying it's a good thing, it's just a fact Jack.

Happy Friday!