Home again & an update

I've been in Arkansas for a little over 2 weeks now. A lot of things are the same as they were when I was a kid. My parents live in the same house, with mostly the same neighbors. But I wave and it takes them a moment to realize who is outside walking the little dog. My small town hasn't changed much. The roads seem smaller. There are new restaurants. Some old buildings have been torn down or businesses are left vacant. I can go to the grocery store and not recognize a soul. While the town hasn't changed much, the perspective through these eyes seem to have changed greatly. I assumed I would make the change back home easily. I've lived here since I was 8. I learned to drive on these small roads. I slept over at my neighbor's houses. I used to know everyone. But I left for college over 10 years ago. Then married and moved to Kansas and Colorado. I haven't "lived" here since I was 17 years old. It's very weird coming back now. It's like my little down has been tweaked slightly. There's something very "Twilight Zone" about it.

The job hunt is still on, for those of you wondering. There are some awesome job postings in NWA. I am do excited to find a job I love and start a new career!

Rigel is doing well. He seemed very needy for a while. He was clingy and soft. But we figured he was just out of sorts & missed his house & his Joe. He's much better now.

Joe will officially be home at the end of December. The Army has once again thrown us a very strange curve ball, but this time, we win! We get to make the decision that effects our lives. It's so nice, after being given orders for over 7 years.

Hope everyone out there is doing well. I'll blog again when I have news to share. :-)

And the winner is....

I was so excited to be able to host this wonderful giveaway from such an AMAZING company!! I absolutely LOVE their products!! Thank you so much to Erin Condren for supporting my request and offering this to my loyal readers.

So out of 67 entries, the winner is...

And the second entry was from...

 

 

Congrats to MEGAN!! You will get an email from me as soon as I recieve the discount code from the company.

Must App Mondays!!

This week's app is Kik!

All of a sudden three of my friends started telling me about this app. We all had Blackberrys at one point in time and would chat over the Blackberry Messenger (BBM). There are some perks to BBM & also now Kik. They aren't texts, which means they don't count against your text message numbers. While I have unlimited texts, some of my friends do not, so this is awesome for people who have smartphones but are trying to save money on texts.

 

But Kik is even better than BBM because it is not limited to Blackberrys! This app can be used across cellphone platforms. Lovely. And you also can chat with people without giving out your phone number. So watch this... my username is sara0120. Now people can message me without me posting my personal phone number online. This came in handy during my thesis data collection. When people wanted to contact me personally, I usually referred them to Kik with my username. That way they could talk to me (usually chew me out about my perceived disrespectfulness) but I didn't have to give out my number.

 

So there you have it. Go get Kik and shoot me a message!

 

Liebster Blog Award

So I must admit, I don't usually do these things. I just never have any time to give them the attention they deserve. But I am so thankful to my friends and readers! But look at this one! Not only is it beautiful, but it's GERMAN!! So you understand why I had to do this!



 

Sweetest, kindest, dearest, beloved...liebster (in German)

The Liebster Award is for up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

 


This beautiful award is from Bethany over at Canines & Cadences. So she has 11 questions I have to fill out. So here goes...








Questions:
1. Which issue (politics, religion, etc) are you most passionate about? Oh what a hard question! And it's just the first one! So anyone who knows me knows I am passionate about many many things. But since this is the Sara & Rigel blog, we'll go with the obvious one.. about dogs. Well, designer dogs to be exact. I was actually just on Pinterest, innocent Pinterest, where I saw someone talking about a corgi / lab mix. Where the dog "looks like a puppy" it's whole life. Gag me now! I HATE this whole hybrid dog movement. There are perfectly amazing dogs in rescues and shelters waiting for loving homes while there are people out there that want to create these special mutts in their backyard, in some cases causing problems with the mother dog and the puppies. Anyway, I will save you from the nitty gritty.

2. What is your S.S.B.? (Secret Single Behavior -- from Sex & The City) I have no idea what this means. LOL! I'm not a good "girl." I've seen Sex & and the City, but I'm not well versed enough in it to know what this is. Sorry.




3. What is your "deal breaker" in a relationship? Respect for my goals. And the fact that I'm not a typical "girl." I don't wear make up. I don't dress up. I'm a jeans kind of a gal. I've had "boys" break up with me because I don't wear make up. Suck it up dudes. Not into it. And my goals. It's not like I have weird goals. But they tend to conflict with some guys' idea of what a wife should do. Thankfully, Joe is totally cool with my education / career goals and is uber supportive of them all!

4. What is your radio tuned to when you're in the car by yourself? I have this awesome iPod holder thingy. I hardly ever listen to the radio.

5. What is the cheesiest pick-up line you've received? What's your favorite item at Taco Bell? Well, I would like to go buy you as many soft taco supremes you can handle.

6. If you could have any exotic animal for a pet, what would it be? PENGUIN!!

7. How long does it take you to get ready in the mornings? What is your routine? I can be ready in about an hour and be completely ready for whatever. First I have to take care of Rigel, so that's the very first thing I do. Then shower and dress. Can I mention that I HATE to blow dry my hair, ugh.

8. What was your favorite cartoon as a child? Smurfs. I could name them all! I wanted to be tiny and blue so badly!!

9. What is one hot-button issue that you wish everyone would just shut up about? Well, hot-button, so this could be rough. But I have to pick the prochoice / prolife debate.

10. If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Twister, hands down! This confuses Joe to no end! I know every word of this movie! And I just adore it! Even after living in Kansas and almost being in a tornado, I still love it. Why? I don't know. It's just a fave I never tire of.

11. What would your significant other say is your best quality? My hair. Which is strange right, knowing how much I hate to fix it. Joe says I have model hair. With the help of my stylist, Martha, and really wonderful hair products, I can make it really nice in just a few moments. Joe will sit and play with my hair, which I love because my mother used to do the same when I was near her.

Erin Condren $25.00 GIVEAWAY!!

Welcome readers!! I am so excited to announce this giveaway! I am a new Erin Condren follower and let me tell you, I'm hooked!! I wrote a whole review about my Life Planner already. You can find it HERE. And I ordered the orange iPhone case just a week ago. See, totally hooked! As if I needed to tell you all this, her products are amazing and top notch. You can simply search for Erin Condren on Twitter or YouTube or Pinterest and watch her customers light up with joy when they talk about her products. ErinCondren.com offers so many different products to choose from -- Life planners, iPhone cases, notebooks, stationary, invitations, address labels, too many things to even list! There is something for everyone. And who doesn't like personalized products??

That's why it's my great honor to present this giveaway to you all!!

GIVEAWAY RULES:

There are some very important things you must do so PAY ATTENTION!! :-)

Please note that you MUST leave a separate comment on THIS blog for each different step you do to get credit for it. Also duplicate entries will be deleted so play fair!

For 1 entry MANDATORY: FOLLOW this blog, leave a comment saying you are a blog follower AND leave your email address so I can contact the winner. If you don't feel comfortable leaving your email address on the blog (I know some people don't like to) you can email it to me at willow162001(at)yahoo(dot)com.

For 1 entry: go to the Erin Condren Facebook page- like it and leave a comment on their page saying that I (Sara) sent you. Then leave a comment here saying you did that. And yes, I will be checking.

For 1 entry: sign up for the Erin Condren newsletter at www.erincondren.com. Then leave a comment here saying you did. You will want the Erin Condren newsletter. She doesn't spam you, but does send good updates and info about new products.
For 1 entry:  TWEET the link about the Giveaway, including @sara0120 and @ErinCondren, then leave a comment with the URL here. Note that you can get 1 entry per day per tweet.

(Of course, if you already do any of those things, like follow this blog or LIKE Erin Condren on FB, just leave that in the comments you leave here)
As always, I will use Random.org to select the winner. The contest will run from today until Friday, September 14th at 12PM EST. The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 15th.

Fine Print: This giveaway is open to US residents 18 and older only. Once a winner is selected, ErinCondren.com will give me the $25 code and I will email the winner. Once the winner responds, I will email them the code. If the winner does not respond to my email in 48 hours, I will select another winner.

I can't wait to see who wins!! Good luck to you all!!

Please note that I was not paid or compensated in any way to host this giveaway.

Must App Mondays!

I'm going to try something new. I've never been a scheduled blogger. But I want to be. And I have so many wonderful apps I want to share with you guys. So every Monday I'm going to write about an iPhone app I have and love! Does anyone have any cool rhyming name ideas? Must App Mondays was the best I could come up with. Kinda like must-have, but less of a tongue twister.


Anyway, the app I'm going to share with you today is actually my newest app. It's called TouchRetouch. I believe it was $.99 in the app store. There is a free/lite version, but it has a watermark on the final product. I refuse to pay more than a buck for any app (with very very very few exceptions). I have quite a few fun photo apps, but this one is very cool. I didnt know this sort of editting was even possible on an iPhone!

Here's the description straight from the App Store:

So here's my before picture:

And here is my after picture!!

I spent a good bit of time fussing around with this app trying to see what I could "erase" and what I couldn't. Small things are erased flawlessly! But sometimes the erased part was very noticable. I tried to erase part of a house just to see what it would do. Needless to say, it was kinda weird. But I have so many pictures from Colorado Springs of amazing mountains - but with a street light or stop light in the shot. These small details were erased without any trouble. I can already tell this will be a go-to app for me!

There is a lovely tutorial when you first open the app. PAY ATTENTION! There's some great information there.

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of the new Must App Mondays!!

Planner Love!!

Have you heard of Erin Condren? A while back I heard about her site and her wonderful planners and stationary. I wasn't in a place where I needed a new planner. But a few months later, only a few weeks ago actually, I was trying to find something similar to the best planner I ever had, which I bought at a Borders, which doesn't exist out here anymore. So I was a bit stumped. But then I overheard a few friends talking about the Erin Condren Life Planners and remembered looking at them a while back. So I bit the bullet and got one. They are so hands on with their personalizing, you can even choose what month you want your calendar to start on!! Since I have a whole new life starting in September, I chose to start my new life planner than month too.

I am a planner person. As much as I try, I will never be able to sync everything into my phone. I know and quite frankly envy people who can keep track of their lives with electronics. But ever since college, I need to be able to see what I need to do. I need to be able to write things down in 2 seconds and mark things off just as quickly. Plus I am very anal about the way my planners / calendars are organized. I thought I would love the planners with the distinct time/hour layout. Boy was I wrong!! I love the Life Planner two page month view. But I am so happy with the weekly view.

Each day is separated into three sections, morning, day, and night. This gives most things a little wiggle room, unlike the hourly approach. This is the first real week of my planner so far. I have family coming to help me move back to Arkansas. And you know that was the very first thing I added to my new life planner. Also, there is some blank pages and lined pages at the end of the planner. At first I didnt really know what I would do with them. Until the move hit me face on. I started a list of everything I needed to bring with me to Arkansas. And then another page to keep track of the jobs I'm applying for with passwords to accounts I need to check the status of jobs on. I know that I will have that planner with me all the time, I might as well use it to the best of it's ability!!

Plus the shipping is just spot on! It came packaged so beautifully! You know someone took time and care in shipping this planner. Like I said before, ErinCondren.com is still a hands on business. I'll warn you right now that it takes a while to make and ship their products, but the end result is completely worth it. And the website does a very good job at updating you so you know where your planner is when you stalk your account daily to see if it's been printed or invoiced. :-)

And even though they dont have to, the company throws in lots of different labels and gift stickers for FREE!

From what I understand this is the 2nd year the company has been making planners (could be more than that, but I think it's only the 2nd year) and the company listened to their customers and made some alterations to this year's model. First thing I want to mention is the aluminum coil bounding. At first I was slightly annoyed by the way the ends were bent. They kept sticking in a hole on the covers and I couldn't fold the planner back on itself to write in. But once I showed Joe, he grabbed a pair of plyers and fixed it in about 60 seconds. If the coil was plastic as it was last year, I wouldn't have been able to alter it. It's perfect now. If you are having a similar problem, simply bend the ends into the coil more. A very easy fix. I was also worried that the plastic pocket in the back would be too thick. But nope, it's the perfect size. When I write on the planner, I cant even tell it's there. Plus it's handy for all of the extra stickers.

But now the hard part... figuring out what my next purchase will be since the company also sends a $10 off code with the planner. There are so many things I want! But take a look at this iPhone cover and then at the theme of my blog and tell me this isnt perfect!! It's a little pricey, so I need to wait until I have a job or at least until I know how much the APA editor will cost me, but this will  definitely be my newest iPhone cover!

And these acrylic blocks are just too cute! Can you imagine that on my (new) desk (when I get a job). Sara Sutliff, M.A.!!!! Can we say daydreaming?

If you have a few bucks to part with and you need a new awesome planner or cool stationary of any kind, I greatly recommend that you look at ErinCondren.com. If you need any more recommendations, just look on Twitter or watch some of the videos on YouTube. When was the last time someone liked a planner enough to blog / vlog about it??