Mother's Day with American Greetings

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MoreThanAMom #CollectiveBias

When I think about my mom, I get pretty sentimental. She means the absolute world to me, and it wasn't until I became a mom myself that I realized the level of love she had for me. Without a doubt I've always known she's loved me, but until you have a child yourself you've never experienced this type of love and therefore couldn't completely appreciate the love your mom has for you. But now I do and I'm so thankful for her and I'm thankful I know that feeling when it comes to my own children as well.

So with Mother's Day just around the corner I'm excited to be able to celebrate her and show her just how much she is appreciated. And being physically distant from my parents due to my husband being in the Air Force, it makes Mother's Day that much more special and its our chance to let her know that even thousands of miles apart, we still think of her, love her, and value what she brings to our lives. 

So I went to our local AAFES Base Exchange (BX) to check our their selection of Mother's Day items and the first thing I saw when I walked in was the American Greetings display filled with an array of Mother's Day cards, gift bags, and more. 

It made my heart so happy looking through the selection of American Greetings cards because it looked as though they have thought of everyone and were truly determine to celebrate every mom! They had cards for wives, mothers, sisters, friends, grandmothers, aunts. They had cards from one mom to another, from kids to their mom, from kids to both their moms; it was so great to see American Greetings had the perfect Mother's Day card for every mom!

When I saw their wide selection I even picked up a card for a close friend of mine that I met when I, myself, was in the Air Force. Being in the Air Force means you are away from your extended family a lot, so friends that you meet in the same situation become more like family and its so important to let them know how much we appreciate them just like we do with our extended family. And what's great is that American Greetings currently has a promotion for "Buy 3 cards, Save $2" so this is prime time to find a special card for several moms in your life, promotion runs from 4/17 to 5/14!

Its common for one to receive flowers on Mother's Day but what's even better are flowers that last forever, am I right?! So the kids helped make a fun, colorful bouquet out of tissue paper that we also grabbed from the American Greetings selection of products at the BX. The how-to is simple. Here's what you need:

SUPPLIES

• Tissue Paper
• Scissors
• Vase
• Rubberband

INSTRUCTIONS

• Choose the size of your flower(s), the larger your flower the bigger sized tissue paper you want. For a fuller look, use more sheets (we used two packages and didn't cut them down in size so our bouquet is big and full). 
• Begin folding the tissue paper like an accordion until the entire thing is folded.

• Place rubberband in the middle (this holds it all together) and fold the whole thing in half.
• Trim the ends if you'd like a pattern on the edges of the flowers or leave as is for a pointed look

• Now gently pull each piece of tissue paper away from the next to create a full, flower look. Fluff to your heart's content! Then place in a vase and you're done!

I know my mom will love her card, notice it has "coupons" for use with grandma? So clever. I always love when my kids make me coupons for things, they love when I redeem the coupons and just get so excited. And the card I got my friend was so perfect ("Momming is not easy"), and on the inside it referenced chardonnay so naturally that's the gift I got for her.

With Mother's Day right around the corner, let American Greetings help you celebrate every mom in your life! To get further inspired for your Mother's Day gift ideas, or to check out their other amazing products check out their site.

Babies and Wine

There seems to be a baby boom going on around me. And had this happened a few years ago I would've been a wreck because I had baby fever and a piece of my soul blackened each time I saw a pregnant lady, especially an ungrateful pregnant lady…oh I'm sooooo miserable blah blah blah. But the hubby and I lived apart due to our careers so we didn't exactly have the best situation for bringing a fourth child in to the world. Once we relocated to Europe and actually began living together for more than a week at a time I had quite the opposite reaction when people announced their pregnancies - I could've cared less at that point. I was glad we had older kids that could enjoy traveling with us. Plus our ridiculous work hours weren't conducive to a wee one either. But now, now we are close to beginning a new chapter of our lives and because of all the changes that will be happening soon it is prime time to get this lady knocked up!

Perhaps it's my newfound baby fever or perhaps I'm just paying attention more but I've noticed, with these ladies that are newly pregnant, several of them weren't even trying. I thought that kind of thing only happened when you were in high school. I thought adults truly thought out the whole let's bring another PERSON into the world thing. When one announced she was pregnant and someone asked her if they were trying she responded by saying something like No, were weren't trying. Then all the ladies oohed and aahed over her confession as if she had just bitch-slapped Jesus' mother. At which point someone asked well what birth control were you on? and she replied…I kid you not…oh I wasn't on birth control. 

Now. I've never been good at math so I'm certain my calculations are all kinds of fucked up, but doesn't sex - birth control = the potential of a human growing inside your uterus? I mean, if I were trying to not have a baby I'd slap a patch on my ass or take a pill each morning. And once I decided to no longer do those things I wouldn't exactly proclaim to be oh so surpriiiiiised when the pregnancy tested popped up with two lines.

Fuck me sideways.

In other news, I feel like one lucky mom to have given birth to three awesome kidlets that gave me an additional Mother's Day. The date on that award is accurate - Mother's Day happened on 1 February and this is a certificate I received from my brood.

Ariana is an impressive cook, she made brunch for us all. 

They also gave me a report card and it basically told me I don't drink enough wine.

I'm not certain if the lack of a grade in the Bein Cool column is a pro or a con. I left it alone but it does say I need more wine right next to it so perhaps they think I need to step my cool game up. Kids do still say that nowadays, right? And to further solidify my concern is the grade I received for Catchin the bus it was a B-. It wasn't even a solid B. I was given a B-, I border on being average at this one apparently. 

But it's true. 3 out of 5 days a week we are crossing our fingers that the bus is still at the stop waiting for them or has yet to arrive. I've chased the driver down several times. He's a kind man and he now knows my car, every time he sees me he simply pulls over and waits for my brood. I need to bake him cookies at the end of the year. 

Okay, okay, I've used enough brain power, I'm off to pour a glass of wine.