We have a winner!

Congratulations Debbie from The Adventures of Three Little Byrds! With your 3rd comment out of 30, you have won the $60 CSN Stores gift card!

Thanks to all of you who commented and joined in the giveaway!! 

Extended to Monday

Running out the door with no internet access all weekend and I'm late (no way, not me!), so I'm going to extend the giveaway until Monday!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Does it ever slow down?

Sorry for two posts in a row with no pictures - I know that's no fun!  But so many times the pictures are what keep me from posting because I don't have them all on the computer yet...and I always think I'll get to them, but never do...so here goes anyways, just so you know what we've been up to.

So, life has been BUSY lately.  I keep wondering when I'm going to be able to stop and catch up, but things just continue on full speed ahead.  Ryan was out of town Sunday through last night so I had three evenings to myself and I was actually kind of excited.  (Sorry babe!  I missed you ALOT though!)  I had all kinds of "catching up" plans.  I was going to finish sorting through all 400+ pictures from Tina's wedding, finish editing them and put them on flash drives for my aunt and cousins.  I had full intentions of FINALLY tackling the "office" and unloading all of the boxes in there - it basically looks like a storage room right now...still, a month after moving in.  I intended to find some pillows for the couch.  AND I thought I would have so much time to myself that AFTER all of that, I envisioned myself sipping coffee and reading a book at the end of the day!

Who was I kidding???

The ONLY thing that got done on that list was that I did find some pillows from Target (on my lunch break!), haha.  No editing/sorting pictures.  No cleaning up the office...although I think I did shove one or two...or five...more piles of things in there.  And NO (frown face) sipping coffee and reading a book.

I did actually START to edit pictures, but as soon as I got on the computer to do that, Matt called to tell me about the candy that  he and Wes got on their Target run and upon realizing that I was staying by myself, he and the rooms drove 20 minutes at 9:30 at night to come stay at the house so I didn't have to stay in our big, dark house by myself. I love brothers - I think everyone should have one :) (I got lucky with two...Matt AND TJ!) They act all big and tough on the outside, but really they have a soft, protective spot for their sisters on the inside - even their big sisters.  Funny how it wasn't like that when we were kids, ha! 

So, I watched like 45 minutes of "Hitch" on tv and ate candy with Matt and Wes instead, then we all went to bed.  And I have yet to return to the pictures. 

They ditched me the next night though because of a 6 AM practice the next morning and not wanting to be 25 minutes from campus. Can't blame them.  So I did have to man up and kill a giant spider in the garage by myself...Ryan didn't believe me when I told him about that. :)

I knew going into these evenings by myself that we were hosting our small group on Thursday night, but the house was for the most part already clean.  But then, on Monday, my friend who was hosting a baby shower on Tuesday night got sick, so I volunteered to have it at our house instead.  AND, I am having a jewelry party for the same friend (she's selling jewelry) next Tuesday and I was going to have it at work, right after work.  Well, I ended up changing my mind about having it at work and decided to have it at home instead.  So, I went from only hosting small group Thursday night and making a pan of brownies to having a baby shower the next day with lots of munchies, small group on Thursday night with a pan of brownies, AND having a jewelry party at our house next Tuesday night with munchies to prepare (and we're out of town this weekend, so nothing will get done then!).  So instead, my evenings turned into grocery store/home goods store/BabiesRUs runs to get snack foods, baby gift (because I'm a procrastinator like that) and speed up my pillow selection process so that the couches would have pillows. 

Needless to say, I shut the office door...to remain that way for a while! :)

{Don't forget to add a comment (or four!) to my last post to enter the drawing for the $60 gift card!}

Up for grabs: $60 gift card!

~ who wants it?? ~

So, a couple months ago, I got an email from someone at CSN Stores asking if I wanted to host a giveaway or do a product review on my blog.  Not gonna lie, I was skeptical and didn't respond for a while at first.

For like a month...

Well, that and I've become a little bit of a personal email slacker lately.  As in like 300 emails in my inbox currently...

But then, I happened to come across a couple other blogs who had CSN stores giveaways, and it turned out to be legit.  I started looking around on some of their websites and realized that they carry a TON of stuff/brands...and I even signed up to win on someone else's giveaway, so I dug up the old email and wrote back, hoping it wasn't too late.

It wasn't.  (Yay!)  Turns out, I have the option of reviewing an item for myself or having a giveaway. 

Hmmm...what shall I do?

While the idea of using the gift card for myself just to review an item was pretty tempting, I thought I would share instead.  Besides, sometimes I jump on my little tracker thing at the bottom of the page and see where people visit my blog from and it's all over the place.  And curious person that I am, I'm always like "well, who could that be in Texas/Arizona/California...even Africa?  I don't know anyone there!" And I always wonder how people in those places find me...what brought them to little ole "Livin' the Wood Life", my teeny tiny corner of the world wide web. 

Or there have even been times that someone will tell me "oh, so and so told me about such and such...they saw it on your blog" and I'm like how the heck did "so and so" know that I even had a blog.  I know I put links on facebook after posting, but half the time "so and so" isn't even on facebook. 

Sooooo....I decided that I will give YOU the gift card in exchange for satisfying my curiousity and knowing who is visiting and keeping up with us as we live the "Wood life". 

What can a CSN stores gift card get you, you may ask?  Well, just about anything you want or need.  Having just bought a house, I'm in "furnishing" mode, so one of the first things I looked at was bed sets for our guest room, then bathroom faucets.  If that's not what excites you though, then you can buy shoes, clothes, school supplies, cookware, toys, pet supplies, housewares, appliances, tools...you name it, they have it, and probably in the brand you're looking for.  You can check out all the brands that they carry here on the CSN Stores site.

The $60 gift card is good for anything on their site, but does not include shipping, and the giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canada residents only

I'll pick the winner randomly from the number of comments left on this post so that everyone has a fair chance.  And you can enter up to four times to increase your chance of winning.

"So, get to the point Erin...how can I WIN??"

I hear ya.  Here's how:

1. FIRST: Become a follower - and then be sure to leave a comment letting me know that you're already a follower or you've just become a follower (because the comment is what counts!).  For those of you non-bloggers, "following" just lets me know you read "Livin' the Wood Life" - all you have to do is click "follow" under the followers section on the left sidebar.

Then, for bonus entries...after your first comment, you can leave three additional comments:

2. Leave a comment saying how you found my blog...on facebook, from someone else's blog, etc...

3. Tell me where you're from.

4.  Since it's football season and lots of my posts this time of year are about which football game we're at each weekend, leave a comment with a shoutout to the team that you cheer for.

I'll pick a winner on Friday at 5 PM EST (to ring in the weekend!), so you have until then to enter.

{Be sure and leave your name and an email address on your comments so I can contact you if you win!}

HAPPY MONDAY!!

Army Game

Well, we're in T-town!!  We flew into Atlanta last night, where Martha and Dexter picked us up and we all drove to Rachel and Jeff's beautiful home in Tuscaloosa, AL.  It's crazy that they have lived here for nearly three (I think?) years and this is the first time we've seen their home in AL.

After waking up to three of the most precious kids you have ever seen in your life, it makes me wish they lived 5 minutes away like they did in Athens when I was in college at UGA so this Aunt Erin could see them all the time.  Samuel and Ellie Kate were so cute this morning when I came downstairs.  They were so excited to see us and wanted to go jump on Ryan in bed to wake him up.  When they found him already awake, they were so excited and ran and pounced on him.

Now, Samuel's at school and the girls are at Mother's morning out, so we're going to go explore this town!  Rachel has a whole itinerary set for us, complete with seeing the campus, seeing the cute shops around here, Bryant museum, and Ryan and I are going to go eat lunch with Samuel at school.

It's so fun for me to see this town that they live in and the town that Ryan grew up coming to so much throughout his childhood for games and to visit his sister when she was in college at U of A. 

Anyways, while I'm on this whole catching up kick, let's just go ahead and get on

to this past weekend too before it gets overlooked...

One of my very best friends from home came up to visit - this was like her 7th trip to Durham since I've lived here, so if coming all the way to Durham to see me is any indication of how much my friends love me, then Britney loves me the most! :) Another unnamed friend did not end up making it this weekend. Something about a 5k that she planned way back when or something and the Britney trip was a last minute one that came together....clearly, she doesn't love me. 5 notches down the friend list she goes. I won't name any names though...Laura might get upset with me! ;)  I'm kidding..Laura has made the 5 hour drive more than once by herself to visit. 

But she did miss out on some good Cheesecake Factory cheesecake that we had to celebrate Britney's birthday with... mmm!

My parents also ended up coming up at the last minute so two weekends in a row we had a full house, which we love!

First time I've ever caught the three amigos walking together in the Devil's Walk before...and Mom getting a hug from Banks.

My parents at the Devil's walk...  ha, check out Mom's "Duke #10" bag.  She flips it around when she goes to Florida games and the other side says "Florida #45" in orange with TJ's button on it. 

Is she a soccer mom football mom or what?  :) 



BBB-ritney! Everything is more fun with Britney...I'm still trying to talk her into MOVING to Durham!  There's lots of medical opportunities here for a Nurse Practitioner I'm sure!  (that's my argument anyways)

We played Army for our homecoming game, so it was also Military Appreciation Day.  There was a flyover and parachuters brought in the NC flag and the game ball.

Ryan and Dad waiting for the team to come out of the tunnel.

Here they come...and there's our number #10!

Here comes the team, led by our Matt Pridemore carrying the American Flag!  I was so excited about this because Matt is one of the most patriotic people I know and he was chosen by Coach Cutcliffe to carry the American flag on Homecoming/Military Appreciation Day against Army! 

Here he comes!

At the end of the game, our team went over to stand with Army during the playing of their fight song. 

It was a really cool game atmosphere and a really fun weekend with Britney.  

Now I'm off to explore this town!