Meet Kelsey. She's a Sweetheart!

As you are reading this, I'm most likely on the way to Memphis for Tucker's EEG at LeBonheur (prayers for normal results would be greatly appreciated!). So instead of my absence, I have a special guest poster today! Make sure to give her some warm Tennessee Honey welcomes!

Hello there readers! My name's Kelsey and I blog over at Keeping Up With Kelsey. I've gotten to know Lauren and I was so excited to have my first ever guest post on her blog! She's such a sweetie and she got married one day before my birthday (Sept. 27th) so that gives her bonus points in my book. 

A little bit about me, well, I grew up on a farm in small town Nebraska. Went to college for Agriculture (yup, they have colleges for that stuff), finished that degree and then started working at an Investment Firm. I felt that I needed a business degree so I started on one. Just now finishing it up, four years and two degrees later... Through it all I found a boy I kinda started getting attached to. His name is Travis, you'll hear a lot about him if you follow me. He lived straight north down the road from my parents about six or seven miles. We decided we kinda like each other a lot so after three years of hanging out exclusively we still going strong. Moved north seven miles and I've lived there ever since!

I'm an organizing freak, a self-proclaimed OCDer, an attempted DIY'er, and an avid couponer. I like to play outside in my garden, read a book or cook when I have a little bit of free time. I've been a believer in the Lord since I was a baby and I believe that volunteering is SUPER rewarding so I find myself in charge of the area youth group, teaching polka dance lessons to teenagers, finding any way to help out the local community and playing in a band with fellow community members in the summer (ya, I'm a band nerd). 

Since we live on a farm I often find myself falling in love with the new babies that are born each year, we have a ton of cows, some ponies, a couple kitties and of course, no farm is complete without an old hound barkin all night! Right now we're calving so it's kind of exhausting but the babies are so precious. But, I'd have to admit, my all time favorite part about the farm is the actual farming. Working the ground, planting seeds, spraying the tiny seedlings to keep pesky weeds away, watering in hopes that the drought doesn't kill off our money-makers and then getting to harvest those crops to find a profit is fun for me. I always post a "farming on the four's" post on my blog to keep my followers informed about what's going on around the homestead. 

Couponing, well that's a big one for me! I really never had a "I need to stop spending" moment, I'd say it's a way of life I've just learned since I was a little squirt. Anymore, I look at it as a fun challenge. Since I'm with my farm boy he's constantly busy so I find myself alone a lot. Finding yourself alone means finding a hobby, mine's saving money. Best part, I'm not spending money on my hobby. Bonus!

I love to find a good Pinterest project and attempt to re-create it. You'll find a couple on my blog, also I'm working on my list of 101 in 1001. The basic run down of it is this: you find 101 things you want to accomplish in the next 2 1/2 years and you cross them off one by one. I'm slowly getting some finished up but with the summer coming up I'm hoping to accomplish a ton more! Wish me luck!

Thanks for taking the time to get to know me a little bit, if you like me (or find me hilariously weird) swing on over to my blog and keep up with me!

See! Told ya'll she was a sweetheart! :)

Also, I still have a few spots left for a FREE button swap for February!

Happy Wednesday ya'll!

Because we all need a laugh on Mondays!

My husband showed me these videos one morning and I laughed till I cried.

I want to be friends with the geniuses who came up with these videos.

They take clips from sports or movies or Presidential debates or whatever and do the voice over for them, but in a super hilarious way. 

Watch, and enjoy:)

 

 

Two years.

That's how long it's been since my baby has had a seizure.

Two years ago this month, I watched my six month old have a full blown Grand Mal seizure in my arms and there was nothing I could do about it. It was the most scariest thing I've ever witnessed as a mother.

It was like time had stopped and I held him like that for hours, when in reality it was only about a minute or two long.

Tucker had a pretty rough time with medical issues in his first year of life. I spent a lot of time sleeping on hospital couches with him.

When he was six weeks old, he was hospitalized for high fever and had to have a spinal tap. 

A. Spinal. Tap.

And I heard him scream.

At four months, he was diagnosed with Complex Partial Seizures.

He's had to have MRI's, CT Scans, and surgery (for another reason).

You can read all about my poor Tucker man's medical history here, here, and here.

But today marks an awesome new start.

Not one seizure in two years. And I'm hoping never again, but there's always the chance they could come back later in life.

He goes to LeBonheur Children's Hospital for checkups every so often.
We saw his Neurologist yesterday and he said he wants to do a few more tests and if they check out, Tucker should be off his medication by this summer!

We go to Memphis next week for the EEG test.
LeBonheur has been so good to us, and I haven't had to worry about him once when he was there.
But I sure will be one happy Momma if we never have to go back!

Thank you for all the prayers and happy thoughts sent our way throughout those difficult times two years ago (for those who have known about it).
 

Music makes the world go round.

Here are a few of my favorite songs that I'm listening to on repeat lately!

Doug likes to poke fun at me now that I like The Civil Wars because they are considered to be a "country" band.

I hate country.

The Civil Wars is NOT country.

They are more folk/bluegrass.

They don't sing about dying dogs or drinking themselves to death or killing their cheating spouse.

They make real music, from the soul.

Yes, the sooooooouuuuuuul.

And also, if you've never listened to The Lumineers, you should do that right now.

Ho Hey is mine and the kids' song.

Tucker sings it all the time and it is too freakin cute.

He'll yell "HEY! HO!" and then sing the chorus.

Gosh I have awesome kiddos:)

If you are taking college classes, this post is for you!

Have you heard of Campus Book Rentals?

Well if not, let me make your life a LOT easier by introducing them to you!

Campus Book Rentals allows you to rent your textbooks for up to 40-90% off bookstore prices. That's crazy cheap. And if you're like me, you are always looking for the best deal on textbooks!

Here is a personal example:

I need "The Art of Public Speaking" for my Speech class coming up.

My campus bookstore wanted $75 to rent.

Amazon wanted $40 to rent, even with my Prime membership.

Campus Book Rentals: $30 to rent. 

That's amazing.

And a whole lotta change spared on my end!

Plus, Campus Book Rentals will ship you your books for FREE and give you the supplies to send it BACK for free! How great is that?!

You are even allowed to highlight in your books. Most rentals you can't do that.

Also, with every book rented, they will donate to Operation Smile to help save lives!

 Another great service CBR offers is their RentBack program.

RentBack is new initiative that allows students to rent the textbooks they own - to other students... which is awesome because it makes them 2-4x more money than they'd make if they sold their books back at the end of the semester through buyback options! Isn't that awesome?!

Watch the video to learn more!

*I was compensated for this post from Campus Book Rentals. These are my honest opinions*

Dobby.

ughhhh. 

It's starting again.

I'm slacking.

And tonight begins my classes for this semester, so I'm not going to be posting as much as I would like, but hopefully I'll get into a routine soon! 

I just wanted to stop by and show ya'll this:

My Dobby turned one yesterday!!!

And the poor baby has had an upset stomach for about a week now:(

The only thing he can keep down is Strawberries and Rasberries.

Maybe he's turned vegan all of a sudden?

Who knows.

Happy Late Birthday Dobby!

My Harry Potter Fix: Fashion {Link Up}

I'm super excited to be linking up with Ashley, Tarole, and Erinn for the first time for....

EEEEP!

Be still my heart.

Ya'll know I loveeeee me some Harry Potter.

And this weeks linkup was all about Potter Fashion.

Oh yeah.

I created a few myself:

Bellatrix by tennessee-honey featuring a satin shirt

I got this idea from Ashley.

I don't like Bellatrix. She killed Sirius. Rude.

But I do love the edgy-ness of her outfits.

Even though she's pretty "out there" and a little obsessed with Voldy, you have to admit she's bad ass.

Hufflepuff Date Night by tennessee-honey featuring suede heels

Hufflepuff <3

Because we all can't be Gryffindor.

I got sorted into Hufflepuff on Pottermore

{HallowSparks19927}

Luna Lovegood - HP Fashion by tennessee-honey featuring argyle knee high socks

I love Luna.

She's awesome. And a great role model.

And then I have these pinned on Pinterest:

                                                                                            Source: google.com via Lauren on Pinterest

                                                                                           Source: skreened.com via Lauren on Pinterest

                                                                                                     Source: etsy.com via Lauren on Pinterest

I guess you can't always have a super fun weekend.

This weekend I did a lot of super fun exciting things! 

I cleaned out the kids' rooms and got rid of toys they didn't play with. That took about 2 hours per room.

I TRIED to do laundry, but since it rained so much and we live in a house that's about 438204830 years old, the water pipe under the house would keep overflowing and would flood the laundry room. 

1) Watching Horton Hears A Who, drinking coffee, and cleaning Kenzie's disastrous room.

2) Drinking Chia Green Tea and Pinteresting.

3) Doug and I saw a Mac-n-cheese burger on Food Network (that show is the devil I tell ya!) so we made some ourselves!

4) Playing blocks with my favorite little man! 

I finally have Kenzie's room organized and put up her Castle tent she got for Christmas! 

 We all had a little tent time. :)

This face.

Pure happiness.

And of course, socks.

Coffee Talk

Today I'm linking up with Natalie from 23seventeen for Coffee Talk #17.

I just recently found her blog the other day (and I can't remember where from!) but I instantly fell in love with it!

1. Would you rather have a pen pal or an email pal?
I would like to say pen pal, because who doesn't love getting personal stuff in the mail? But I know I'd be a horrible pen pal. I hardly ever get anything to the post office on time.

2. What are you wearing at this exact moment?
One of my husband's old pull-overs, black comfy pants, and mix-matched socks. Duh.
I'm such a fashionista.

3. When you are sick, how do you handle it?
If I'm super sick, I usually think I'm dying and end up being super dramatic. I admit that.
I also go into child mode and want my Gran to come take care of me.

4. I am _____________ [fill in the blank].
Drinking coffee, watching Scooby Doo (for the 438904230 time), and wanting to go back to bed because this rainy weather makes me sleepy.

5. Movie you are excited to see this year????
Oh man. 2013 is going to be THE year for awesome.

 

I kind of like movies....can you tell?

Glasses make you smarter.

Or at least I like to think so.

That's what I tell myself when I wear mine, anyways.

I was so excited when I was contacted by Antonio from Firmoo.com to review a pair of glasses for you all.

And unlike most people these days, I actually NEED my glasses haha!

Firmoo.com is awesome for several reasons.

#1- They offer FREE glasses to new customers (plus shipping). FREE people! You can't get much better than that.

#2- You can virtually "try on" every pair of glasses on their website.

#3- They offer both prescription and non-prescription glasses.

#4- Fast delivery and awesome customer service.

#5- Huge selection of fashionable frames.

#6- If you aren't satisfied with your glasses, you will receive a refund, as easy as that!

If any of you know me in real life, you will know that I'm blind as a bat.
Literally.
I'm legally blind in one eye.
So obviously I was a little skeptic of ordering prescription glasses online.
All I did was enter my prescription that I had from my eye doctor.
When my glasses arrived, I couldn't believe it, but I could actually SEE out of them!
They are perfect and I love them.
I hardly ever wear my contacts anymore now that I have these bad boys.

You should definitely try Firmoo.

Let me know if you do! I want to see your glasses!

Tweet me @lauren_tnhoney! :)