Disney Store Twice Upon a Year Sale plus Free Shipping Today

I realized it's been a while since I've posted about sales. Even though I want the main focus of my blog today to be about recognizing our fallen soldiers, I wanted to let you know about a good sale at Disneystore.com, too.

The "Twice Upon a Year" sale is currently going, and many items are priced up to 50% off. This includes some of the singing dolls, some Disney Infinity figures, plush toys, and more. You can see all of their sale items HERE.

Also, today only, they are offering free shipping on every order. Just use the promo code FREESHIP.


Have a wonderful day, and Happy Shopping! :)


I am not affiliated with the Disney Store, nor do I receive any sort of reimbursement for these posts. Just a Disney fan who likes to keep my readers aware of budget-friendly sales. ;)

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day to my American readers. :) May we all remember in the middle of the celebrations with family and friends the true meaning of the holiday: honoring those who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy.

Yesterday at church, we had our traditional Memorial Day service, honoring the soldiers who lost their lives, and also paying tribute to the veterans in our church.

We had some excellent special music, too. I had the privilege of being a part of the special ensemble. We sang three songs, including a challenging a cappella version of "The Star Spangled Banner." There were also songs performed by a quartet and one performed by a young man in our church who sang an incredible arrangement of each of the military songs with prerecorded versions of himself singing the other parts.

I am so thankful for those who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for my freedoms. I am thankful for a father, an uncle, and a grandfather who fought for our country. And I am thankful for a Savior who paid an even greater price for my spiritual freedom.

The song lyrics I thought I'd leave you with today are from one of the quartet numbers. It's called: "Blades of Grass and Pure White Stones." According to my research, the lyrics were written by Orrin Hatch, and the music was written by Lowell Alexander and Phil Naish.

Blades of grass and pure white stones
Shelter those who've come and gone.
Just below the emerald sod
Are those who've reached the arms of God.

Buried here with dignity,
Endless rows for all to see.
Freedom's seeds in sorrow sown,
'Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.

Blades of grass and pure white stones
Cover those who've left their homes,
To rest in fields here side by side,
Lest we forget their sacrifice.

Buried here with dignity,
Endless rows for all to see.
Freedom's seeds in sorrow sown,
'Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.

Just below the emerald sod 
Are those who've reached the arms of God.

Buried here with dignity 
Endless rows for all to see.
Freedom's seeds in sorrow sown,
'Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.

'Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.

May we never forget.

Thrifty Thursday and Other Fun Finds

Happy Thursday, everyone! I thought I'd share another quick "Thrifty Thursday" post, along with some other non-thrift store finds around town. :)

This past week at Goodwill, I was able to find this guy:

He's from the "Ty Girlz" line (the same company that released Beanie Babies). This line of plush dolls have wire in their arms and legs to make them posable. They kind of remind me of plush Bratz dolls (the girls especially). A few years back, there were a ton of them in Tuesday Morning, and I discovered that some of their shirts and sweatshirts fit the Hearts for Hearts Girls. The tighter shirts and pants are too small for H4H, but I thought they might possibly fit... 

...our Curvy Barbies. And I was right! :) The jeans look a little awkward in this picture, but they do work. I don't know if the pants on the girl dolls would fit. I think the bagginess of the boy pair is what made them fit Tori...and just barely. The girl styles might be too small. It's nice to have another option for our Curvy girls, though. :)

The shirt fit Dell and her friends perfectly. :D

At the 49 cent table, I found this interesting little doll. I picked her up for my friend from the doll club who collects these types of dolls. She has either a porcelain or paper mache face (as far as I can tell), hair in need of a comb, and a body/kimono that appears to be made of Styrofoam (or something like it). 

Her crazy hair from the back. ;)

***

That's all of the exciting stuff from the thrift store for now, but here are a few non-thrift store treats that are still "thrifty" for your wallet. ;)

At Michael's last night, my girls and I found these Michael's exclusive "Flash Charms:"

They're made of plastic and have little silver bells attached to them.

Aren't they cute?

They cost $1.99 each, and there are lots of different designs to choose from. (You can see more of them on the Michael's website HERE.)

Of course, these instantly brought to mind the "Bell Charms" of the 1980s. Do any of you remember those? (If you need a refresher, HERE's a blog post about them.) I never had any of these myself, but I remember seeing them around. They were pretty popular then. The Flash Charms look almost exactly the same, down to the little silver bells and the design of the plastic clasps. You can even get plastic chains for your charms like the original ones from the 80s. 

My girls had a fun time choosing one for themselves and one for a friend. It was a great walk down memory lane for me, and an inexpensive treat for them. :)

Middle Gal decided she wanted to take her charm off of its clasp. She's hoping to find a doll tiny enough to ride this scooter. ;)

I love that it even folds up! :)

***

Another recent fun find was from Walmart. For around $2, you can get blind bag necklaces:

(I apologize for the blurry picture. I took it in a hurry and threw away the wrapper before checking my phone.) :} They had Disney Princess, Avengers, My Little Pony, Frozen, and more. I chose My Little Pony this time around.  

And I was so excited to see that I ended up with FLUTTERSHY!! :D My favorite pony. :)

***

This next find falls into the "not so thrifty" category, but I still wanted to share. At my local Target, I saw two new Shoppies dolls I'd never seen before:

Meet Rainbow Kate and Sara Sushi. :) ($14.99 each)

Sara Sushi has yellow eyes, green makeup, iridescent white hair, and red, black, and green clothing with a sushi headband. 

A look at the back of her packaging.

~Her bio~

Rainbow Kate was my favorite of the two. Talk about a throwback to the 80s. ;) She has lavender eyes and freckles, rainbow colored hair and clothing, and a cake-themed headband.

The back of her package (sorry it's a little blurry).

~Her bio~

Target also had some cute accessory sets for the Our Generation line, priced at $6.99 each. "Fine in Floral" includes glasses, three pairs of earrings, bracelets, a hair accessory, two hair pins, and a necklace, all in floral themes.

"Blue Belle" includes glasses, a headband, bracelets, and earrings in blues and greens.

***

Those were a few of our fun finds from around town. Hope you enjoyed them! :) Will any of these things be finding their way to your collections?

A Weekend Getaway and a Lovely Day

Hello again, my bloggy friends! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I was able to spend two wonderful days in a little cabin an hour or so away from home with no cell service or Internet to distract me. My goal? To use the uninterrupted time to get some writing done and to enjoy the company of two of my writing buddies. :)

This is where we stayed.

This is the view from the front porch. I felt like I was in Narnia. :)

The cabin belongs to my friend Sarah's family. She was gracious enough to invite me and our Mount Hermon buddy Rosemary to join her for our mini retreat. And while we did get a lot of writing done, we also were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery:

It rained almost the entire time we were there, so we only took a couple of walks. Actually, I only made it out for one, because when Sarah and Rosemary took a walk the second night, I was really on a roll with my typing and didn't want to stop. I probably should have, though, because my neck was pretty stiff the next morning. :}

This was where we spent the majority of our time.

Yep, this was where all of the magic happened. ;) We didn't have cell service, but I was able to use my Spotify playlists I'd downloaded to my phone (which didn't require Internet). 

I didn't use my Story Writing Playlist I shared in a previous post very much, though. When I'm in the bare-bones creating stage, I find that Enya is my best music of choice. ;)

I wanted to use the above pictures to show the actual lighting, but here's a picture with flash that shares a few more details. :)

Here's a look at the living room area beyond the table of writing inspiration (which, on a side note, ripped a hole in my pants with its metal edge. Not sure if that helped with the writing inspiration or not.) ;) 

And another with flash.

Here's where I slept. This room is right on the other side of the dining room area. So if you turned completely around after the last picture, this is what you'd see. 

And here are the three writers and our attempts at selfies. ;) 

Rosemary, Me, and Sarah 

(Note to self: In the future, to avoid looking like a marshmallow, do NOT stand in front of your two skinnier friends for a selfie.) ;)

And this picture pretty much sums up Sarah's personality and sense of humor perfectly. ;) 

All in all, it was a fun, productive week. We all got some writing done (I finished a detailed synopsis of over half of my second book), shared some laughs, attended a little local church pastored by a friend from the girls' school, enjoyed "excellent boiled potatoes," and made some wonderful memories. :) Awesome, Bob. ;)

I've linked to Sarah's website before, but I'd like to do so again for any of you who would like to check out what she's up to. You can find her HERE at "Roshambo Saves Lives."

Rosemary is just now stepping from the world of anonymity and is in the process of setting up her new author website. It's still under construction at the moment, but it will be up and running soon. You can see it HERE. Rosemary's another speculative fiction writer like me. In other words, she's another person who likes to make up worlds in her head. ;)

***

So today, it was back to reality. ;) I dropped the girls off at school and headed to the gym for my first workout in a week. Whew! I'm going to have some sore muscles tomorrow. ;)

But, aside from getting a great workout, I also got a present. :D

My sweet trainer for my small group training class this month got me this adorable TY Rainbow Dash. :) She said she saw it and thought of me. (She really likes my Rainbow Dash t-shirt that I often wear to the gym, and has commented on it before.) 

I set Rainbow Dash up on the little table by our workout session. My friend Patti joked that Rainbow could be our new mascot. And, you know what? Every time I thought "I can't do any more pull-ups," I looked over and saw her. Then all I could think about was Rainbow Dash telling me to be awesome and finish strong. Probably not that nicely. ;) It made me laugh and kept me going. 

I'm thinking she may have to make a few return visits to the gym. ;) 

Oh, and can I just say that I love that she has the whole 80s rocker mullet thing going on? ;D

After my workout and after I'd picked up the girls from school, I decided. to take advantage of the nice weather and attack the crazy killer hedge that likes to take over our front sidewalk. ;)

Here it is over halfway done. 

This is what it normally looks like. ;) 

It was a big job, especially since I was just using handheld pruners. But when I got about to this point, I remembered the electric hedge trimmer I'd been too nervous to try before. I decided it was time to get over my nervousness and finish the stupid hedge before I lost all feeling in my arms. ;) 

It wasn't too bad, and the rest of the hedge was done in ten minutes. I now have a new favorite tool. ;) 

As if that wasn't enough stretching of my comfort zone for one day, I let the girls ride their scooters on the sidewalks and streets for a couple of hours. This is Oldest Gal and Middle Gal.

And here's Little Gal. :) 

So I know some of you are probably thinking, "Wait, you don't let your kids ride their scooters on your street?" I know, I know, that sounds terrible. But they just learned to ride them this past year, and our street can get pretty busy. We also tend to have a lot of parked cars on the curbs, which makes it difficult for little bikers and scooter riders to see oncoming traffic. 

Today, there were hardly any cars parked in the vicinity, and the traffic was pretty slow. I also realized that I need to start letting my girls branch out a little more and not let fear dictate every parenting and/or life choice I make. Hanging around Sarah for a whole weekend might possibly have had something to do with that. She's big on getting me out of my comfortable bubble. ;)

And I was super impressed with the girls. They were very aware of their surroundings and called out "Car!" to each other whenever a car came in sight. They told me later that their Grandpa always talks to them about safety before they ride bikes in the street at his house. (Thank you, Grandpa Prewett.) :)

Of course, I sat on the porch and watched them the whole time. I mean, I'm not ready to COMPLETELY let go or anything. I'm still an overprotective, paranoid mom. (And really, I think traffic safety is one of the areas it's okay to be on the overprotective side.) But I'm working on letting go, little by little. ;) 

I might also have ridden one of the scooters for a little bit, much to my daughters' delight. Not in the street, though, and not fast. I'm not crazy. :)

Here is Little Gal, taking a little break next to a lovely, newly trimmed hedge. Wonder who did that? ;)

Honestly, though, I think the best part of today was just sitting by the front door between scooter episodes and talking. It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of all of our commitments and tasks. Whenever I take the time to sit and visit with the girls, it's always such a blessing. It was a great preview of the way I want our summer to go. :)

And I guess that's about all for now. I hope you all have a fantastic week, enjoying the little things. :) I'll be back with more to share soon! :)