When I say that Truett loves his Kidz Gear headphones, it’s an understatement.  Not only does he love them, he has become obsessed with them.   He came home yesterday from school at 3:30, put them on, and literally wore them the rest of the night.  He probably took them off for maybe 30 minutes throughout the rest of the evening. HE LOVES THEM I tell ya!

These Kidz Gear headphones are built just for kids and specifically made for Apple products like the iPod and iPhone.  BUT, there is an adapter just in case you have a different device!!! Some features include:

• They feature unique KidzControl Volume Limiting Technology for a safe listening experience while helping to protect children’s hearing
•  an Inline Microphone
• a Remote with controls for Track Up, Track Down
• Microphone Records Audio
• Answers Phone
•  Issues Voice Commands to SIRI
• TheRemote controls volume up and down, as well as lets the user play, pause, skip a track, return to a previous track or even hear the playlist that is currently active.

KidzControl Volume Limiting Technology

Maximum volume levels are limited to between 80dB and 90dB levels and is ‘always on’.  They are ergonomically designed with soft padded child-sized ear-cups.  The Kidz Gear Headphones cost $29.95 and I’d say that’s a small price to pay to keep your kiddos ears safe.

Truett says their super comfortable but I’ll let him tell ya.

KIDZ GEAR HEADPHONES GIVEAWAY!!

One lucky winner will receive a pair of these awesome, safe Kidz Gear Headphones, along with a carry bag, and an adapter just in case you want to use them on a non-Apple device.

TO ENTER (required to enter)

Leave a comment telling me your kid’s favorite song!

Also, these won’t get you an entry but I’d love it if you considered them just because (and to share the love).

• Share via your favorite social network like twitter and facebook.
• Join the A Cowboy’s Wife’s Facebook Community
• Subscribe to my feed via email.

Giveaway ends on February 8th at about 4pm or so CST.

Disclosure: I was sent a pair of headphones to review. All opinions are my own, as always.

Tax time is fun huh?  Ummmm, no, not when your receipts are kept in a large tote like this……

But if you’re smart, you’ll invest in a Neat Receipts unit – NeatDesk.  I am in love with this document scanner.  It’s fast, it’s simple, and it’s smart!  I had seen a million times and was thrilled with the opportunity to review it for you guys.  While it does have a hefty price tag (under $400 for the desk unit), it’s money well spent in my opinion, especially for anyone who is self-employed!!!

SETUP

Setup is super easy.  It literally took all of 5 minutes to setup, however, I did have to update the software.  Our internet is slower than most but it wasn’t too bad.

SCANNING

The desk unit has 3 different slots; Documents, Receipts, and Cards (business).  Even if you scan in a document, you can easily change it to a receipt if that’s what it is.  I started scanning in gas receipts immediately and was wowed by it!  It pulls the info from the receipt and is smart enough to remember certain things about each receipt that may apply to a similar one.

Some other scanning ideas include:

• business cards
• receipts (for bookkeeping, taxes, expense tracking, etc.)
• documents (shot records, contracts, etc.)
• articles & resources you want/need to keep
• tax forms

You totally need receipts if:

• You have gazillions of business cards.
• You wad up receipts in your pocket, then toss them on the counter.
• You hate data entry and bookwork.  <—-blech
• You want to get rid of the waste, aka, paper.

Things I love about Neat Receipts:

• SIMPLE! SIMPLE! SIMPLE!
• Create folders to categorize receipts, documents, etc.
• Drag and drop.
• Has tax categories for filing which makes tax time even easier!

Neat Receipts gets 5 stars from me.  I absolutely love everything about it and as long as you sit down and take the time to scan in your receipts, you won’t be dreading your next tax year!  Here’s a quick video view of how it works.  I blacked out some of the numbers (like my credit card) on the receipt.

You can get the NeatDesk for PC or for Mac.  There is also a mobile version that is super handy for folks who travel a lot!

Disclosure: Neat Receipts provided me with a desk unit in return for my honest opinions. 

When you meet and marry your husband the way I did, nobody expects you to stay married. Nobody.  And when you marry a cowboy, it makes for an interesting ride full of ups, downs, and even a few “bucked off” moments.  Through it all though, you remember why you married and how love & vows played the biggest roles in keeping you married.

January 30th, we will celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary.  I realize the accomplishment that is, particularly in our current times, however, please don’t think there was pixie dust sprinkled on us, spreading joy & happiness every day.  In fact, several years were quite the opposite and I think we both gave each-other the ‘what did we get ourselves into’ look many times.   But then we remember…….our love and our vows.

When I look at this photo, I remember two things; being happy and being sad.  I was 16 and 5 months pregnant with Tyler.  I was happy because I was with the man that I loved.  And I was sad because we lived away from anyone and everyone and I was clueless on how to be a wife, much less a mother.  But our love for one another and our vows got us through those times; the times where we ate at Dairy Queen because I didn’t know how to cook, our heartbreaking miscarriages, and even the moments when we’d wonder how the heck we were gonna feed our kids when payday was still two more weeks away.   We made it work because we loved each-other and because we made a vow to be true to each-other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for better for worse, for richer for poorer til death do us part.

One of the great illusions of our time is that love is self-sustaining. It is not. Love must be fed and nurtured, constantly renewed. That demands ingenuity and consideration, but first and foremost, it demands time.

I truly believe this statement.  I think that so many times, couples give up thinking that there is something better out there that would require less time & work and perhaps that’s true, but then what’s the point of the wedding vows?  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to work through and appreciate the bad with the good because it has made our marriage substantial, our love for one-another stronger, and that only makes us more powerful as a couple.   I have always given my husband credit for us being happily married. He is so slow to anger, he believes the best in people, he is as steady as a rock, he works from sun up to sun down to take care of us, and he is as faithful as any man could be.  It took me a long time to truly appreciate those qualities, and instill them in myself, but I did and still continue to work at it……and more recently, when I turned it around and started to love my husband as God loves me, that’s when I knew that there will never be anything that will ever come between us.  I began focusing less on his faults and more on my own… and my own need for God’s grace in my life.   While I may dislike my husband at certain times (like when he promises to bring me a Dr. Pepper but then forgets), I completely love him with all my heart. There are no words to express my gratitude, only actions, actions of respect, honor and devotion until death parts us.

To live happily ever-after does not mean there are no struggles. It does mean that when you choose to die to yourself, to your SELFishness, your demands, your rights, and seek to really love, to be joined together as one, then you can start to live happily ever-after.

For every hard moment, there were twice as many happy & joyful moments and all I can do is smile when I think of them.  I pray that God blesses us with 19+ more years.

This craft project was way easier than I thought it would be and went much faster too.  We used a cricut to put names on these mini mailboxes for Truett’s pre-k class for Valentine’s Day.   When my older boys were little, I would put together gift sacks for each kid in their class, for each holiday.  It was fun for me and exciting for them.  I loved doing it and back then, there weren’t really any parents that got involved with their child’s class.  Today, I’m doing it for Truett and his class.  While there are plenty of parents involved at the school, I still wanted to do for him what I did for them.   It’s one of the joys I have as a mother.

Now since I don’t have a Cricut, I reached out to my friend Vicki, a scrapbooking queen that was happy to help me out!  With the help of an AWESOME program Vicki had, we quickly put together each child’s name.  So with that, we’ll get right to it.

Aside from the mailboxes, the only thing I bought at this point was the white vinyl adhesive aka Cricut Cuttables, Adhesive-Backed.

THE MINI MAILBOXES (the fit in your palm pretty much)

1. Measure the space where you’ll be placing the names.  These were exactly 4 inches of space so we made the names just a hair smaller than that.

2. We used Vicki’s program to pick a font and create names.  A tip Vicki shared with me – We tilted and overlapped the letters so that it would cut and peel as one piece vs letter by letter.

3. Since the paper was 12 x 24, we cut it down to 12 x 12, making two sheets.  We were able to fit all the names on one sheet too!

4.  We applied the vinyl piece to the cutting mat and smoothed it down to prepare it for the Cricut.

5.  We connected the computer and Cricut together and began cutting!

6.  Once cut, Vicki gently pulled the excess off.  Be very careful and watch for the dots for i’s…..

7.  With this handy tool seen in photo, we gently pulled up the names.  I have no idea what that tool is called so if you know, share in the comments please. Vicki is on a cruise right now so I can’t ask her.

8.  Once that’s done, you simply peel the back off of each name and stick onto the mailbox!

9.  VIOLA!  Do this for all the mailboxes and you’re done!

Now I’m done with them yet.  I’m still undecided on what else I want to do as far as decoration.  I have a ton of stickers that I can put on them. I don’t know if I want to put them on or if I should let each child decorate their own.  I’ll be filling these mini mailboxes with tons of goodies and giving them to the kiddos at their Valentine’s Day party.

I’d love to hear your ideas as far as decorations….should I finish decorating them or let the kiddos put stickers on them themselves?

Do you have an awesome product that belongs on Walmart’s shelves?  Well if so, you have got to check out  ‘Get On the Shelf‘!  Walmart recently launched an exciting opportunity, giving you the chance to have your product sold in Walmart’s stores!

Have you been in the kids department lately?  Have you seen the adorable cape and mask set?  They come in red & blue or black & white and they are under $6 bucks!  What a frugal way to be an awesome superhero! Anyways, those are made by moms like you and me.  And when I was in Dallas a while back, I saw some honey sitting on an end-cap, thinking how authentic the label and name was,  I asked about it and you guessed it….it was from a local beekeeper who had already been selling it to the locals.  Walmart took notice and got his product on the shelf!

Maybe you can be their next story!  Here’s how:

1. Create a video of your product.
2. Submit it to the ‘Get On the Shelf‘ website. (until February 22nd)

-The 1st round of voting begins March 7th – April 3rd.  10 finalists will be announced.

-Of those finalists, the 2nd round of voting will be April 11th – April 24th.  The Top 3 finalists will be announced.

Contest is open to participants in the United States only. Walmart employees are not eligible for the contest. Products already carried by Walmart or Walmart.com are not eligible for entry either.

This could be someone’s big break so I encourage you to at least try!  I know y’all have some creative product ideas that can help folks out!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences, Walmart news, and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

While I didn’t do much in the blogosphere in 2011, it was one of my most cherished years.  I was there for my kids.  I was there for every single moment that was important to them and me.  A few ‘little moments’ that meant the world to me throughout 2011 include:

• Seeing my son be crowned football king and fall festival king
• all their sports moments from football to basketball
• being their for my son during his knee surgery and therapy
• silly moments in the car with my husband
• birthdays
• seeing my son in his play
• being with my son as tossed the glasses and got contacts
• watching my boys with their horses
• helping decorate players lockers
• my son’s first day of pre-k
• watching my son coach peewee football
• taking my son to the park
• mother and son moments
• father and son moments

and my favorite……watching my boys just be together.  No music, just reflections.

Personal Finance is 80 percent Behavior and Only 20 percent Head Knowledge

January 1st marks our first day on the Dave Ramsey Financial plan.  After seeing where we spent our money in 2011, we knew we needed to make some changes if we were gonna survive in this economy with 3 kids, 2 of which will be attending college in the next 1-3 years.  We needed a plan and we made a plan.

Our first DR action was to combine accounts.  After 18+years of having separate accounts, we decided to merge into one.  One of our biggest arguments with each-other is the whole “I paid for this” crap.   It was a very scary decision to be quite honest and while I’m sure we could have made it work with different accounts, I felt like we needed to be united much more in our future, especially with our finances.

Now we really don’t have much debt, maybe $17000 which includes our car, so the DR plan was to get out of debt but also to learn our spending habits and secure our future.   We had to create a budget which proved difficult.  Folks with a set income will find it fairly easy but when you are self-employed, it becomes a guessing game much of the time.  We did get the budget done though based on his income and my LOWEST projected income. That way, if I made more, it could be used as a ‘snowball’.  <– That’s DR terminology.

Having a budget means cutting costs and one of our biggest money wasters, aside from fuel, is food.  If you’re anything like  me, you buy a ton of food and end up never even using half of it.  Meal planning is not something I am good at. In fact, I’m down right horrible at it but I’m determined to learn and make it work for us.  Creating a meal plan is essential and I decided to make it part of my food blog for accountability.    This way I can reflect on how I spent our grocery money, if we actually made the food, and changes we can make to improve.  It’s also a fun way to engage my audience!

There are many steps to the DR plan and as the year goes on, I’ll share them with you and how we are progressing.  So to recap what we’ve done and our steps so far…….

*Create a budget and give EVERY dollar a name. 

DR’s Baby Step #1

• $1000 in an emergency fund – We currently have $2500 in ours that we will not touch unless it is an absolute emergency.

DR’s Baby Step #2

• Pay off all debt (except the house) by utilizing the “Debt Snowball” – Some folks will be on this step for a while depending on their debt size.  What I love about using the Dave Ramsey software (I use the online one), is that once you have put in your debts, it will calculate when you should be out of debt assuming you follow the program accordingly.  It’s very cool to see your debt free date.  It gives you a visual and some hope.

We will be on this step for a little bit but I’ll still be updating you with tips and ideas on things you can do to help achieve your financial goals.    Do you have any finance goals?

Also, I’m happy to share a book that is an easy read and great overview of how the DR plan works; The Money Answer Book.  It’s mine, I’ve read it several times but have moved on to his other books and dvds.  If you’re interested, leave me a comment below on why you’d like to have it and I’ll draw someone on Thursday, January 5th.  Just a small way to pay it forward….

I received a google alert, coming from a forum, where there was a discussion about me.  It’s funny really, why would people I don’t know have a discussion about little ol’ me, but they were and it revolved around my noticeable absence in the blogosphere.  Now I could have gotten upset about the assumptions that were made that included PR not wanting me anymore, a nervous break down, and not getting enough traffic but I didn’t. In fact, I felt sad for their ignorance.

PR reach out daily but I turn most everything down.  While I didn’t have a nervous break down, I was revived spiritually, and I have never gotten tons of traffic.

The fact is, I have removed myself from much of the online space because being a Mom is more important to me.  Professional blogging is not a hobby, it is a full time job and in most cases require much more than 40 hours per week.   It can quickly become overwhelming and take over every breathing moment.  I simply had enough and said, no.more.  My time with my family had been reduced and the constant reminder from my boys that I’m on the computer all the time, quickly burned a hole in my head and I began to feel guilty.  I had forgotten how to enjoy my kids and I wanted to again.

While I understand that both problogging and being a Mom can be done (and God bless all of you who DO do it), I choose to be a Mom first without interruptions.  It has always, and will continue to take priority over everything else in my life.  So if you see a lack of posts or zero status updates, it’s not because I was rejected by the blogosphere in any way but because, well, I guess I’m rejecting it, to do what I have always been called to do……..being a Mom.

There are a zillion causes worth contributing to this holiday season and the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program is one of them. This year, Huffy will donate $15,000 to the Toys for Tots program when they reach 40,000 Facebook fans.  They still have a lot of ‘Likes’ to go and really need your support.  I mean really y’all…you simply click “like” and you’re doing your part for the cause. It doesn’t get much easier or cheaper than that.

When I got the email asking me to share this, it brought up a memory.  I have pictures of my brother teaching me how to ride and I was older, 7 almost 8, and it was the only bike I ever owned.  It got stolen soon after.  I was sad of course but I’m more sad now when I think about it because my Mom worked so hard to be able to afford that bike for me. :(   I talked to my Mom earlier about it and she said she remembers us not being able to afford to get my flat fixed and how Kathy our neighbor, who is now my AUNT KATHY, would fix it for me since we didn’t have the money.  OMG, these memories are making me sad. GAH!   I happen to find a photo of me and Jeremy on my Black and Gold BMX Huffy Bike!!!!  I was 7, almost 8!

So this is why I’m writing about it.  We were fairly poor.  I was one of those kids who had the necessities but not much else and was completely thrilled to get something.  I know  how valuable the Toys for Tots program is and how awesome it is for Huffy to donate the money.   So I’m asking you to ‘Like’ and share with others for the cause.  They….I would appreciate it.

The Walmart Black Friday ad is THE ad that is highly anticipated at this time of year.  It’s usually leaked early but Walmart has done the leaking this year!  Below you’ll find just some of the specials you can during the black friday shopping day so enjoy and spend wisely!!  We love to buy necessities at this time, as well as, a few gifts.

Pay close attention to the different times things are on sale!!!

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS

Wow, check out that Emerson 40″ LCD TV for only $248. Holy cow I bet those go fast!!

The hot I noticed on here is the Canon Rebel T3 with Bonus for $479. Not too shabby at all.  That’s also an Amazon Kindle for $79 bucks!

PS3 Bundle for only $199. DANG!!! That’s a GREAT buy y’all.  Also tons of movies on sale!

Tons of kid board games for only $3.88. These are always a hit and awesome on the pocketbook! The Leapfrog Tag Reader is only $20.  We love our Leapfrog products!  And check out those Jeeps, cars and motorcycles for $99. WOW!

This has me excited!  600 Thread Count Canopy Sheets for ONLY $19.96.  OH.MY.GOSH.  That’s insane!! Canopy is an awesome brand too!  Bath towels are $1.28 Those are crazy prices. I bought tons last year on Black Friday and they are still in awesome shape!  So worth the money and the staying up late to get them.

Trampoline WITH enclosure for $158. GAH!! I also love the $69 basketball goal, the $49.97 Sewing machine and the AWESOME Cricut for $187!!!!

 Be sure to check out your local ad.  Print it and prepare your shopping list y’all!! I’d love to know what you plan on getting!! 

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.