Home Improved More

On Valentine's day, I showed you our new chairrailing that I was so excited about!  Let me show you what else we did with our walls.

When our house was built, for whatever reason, the builders put picture box molding on 3 of the walls in our living room, but not on the fourth, the wall with the bay window.  For years it has annoyed us.  Until now...

Before Christmas, Tim and my Dad added the molding to most of the wall where it was missing.  But see that tiny little angled part of the wall.  At the time, I said it didn't need a box on it, so it remained blank.

But the more I looked at it, the more I realized, it needs a box too.  Poor thing, I wouldn't want it to feel left out!  It had a twin on the other side of the wall as well.  We needed to get these babies boxed!!

(Sorry for the dark pictures.  It's hard to take them against the bright windows.)

So I got to be Tim's helper one Saturday. We drew lines on the walls, used a tape measure and a level - and that was just in the planning.  Then he pulled out the big, loud saw.  I held the molding, I helped, but I didn't like the saw.  We got it cut and angled to the right sizes.  Then a few nails from the nail gun (another thing I'm not too fond of) and tada!!  Beautifully boxed walls.

(Notice there are no couch cushions.  They frequently get moved and played 

with by the little people that invade my house.)

Now doesn't that look better.  And since we had more molding and since we did so well in the living room, we decided to finish out our last wall in the dining room as well. 

Well, what do you think?  Did we do a good job?  (And yes, I'm blatantly asking for praise here!)

Wouldn't you love to Travel to Alaska?  See the stunning vistas, try your hand at gold mining...request a FREE Alaska state travel guide today.  (Did I mention it was FREE?!)

Candy Deals

Need to help your kids stay quiet in church? 

Now's the time to stock up on candy, leftover Valentine's candy, that is. 

Check out your local Walmart, CVS or Walgreens.  They are all selling their valentines and Valentine candy for 75% off. 

I got a box of Transformer valentines with 30 suckers for $0.87.  24 fun dips were $0.75.  So go stock up on candy or get your children's 2012 valentines early.

Happy shopping :).

Review: The Me Project

Are you living out your God-given dream for your life?  Have daily demands put your dream on the back burner?  Would you be able to set aside a few minutes a day for 21 days if it meant moving forward with that dream?   What if I told you that you could Kick Start Living Your Dream right now?

Kathi Lipp explores those very questions in the book The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You've Always Wanted.  God has given each one of us dreams and aspirations but we are not all living out those dreams.  Some people are held back by fear or by the daily demands of life.  Some are held back by finances or lack of confidence.  Some people aren't even sure what their God-given dreams are.

Lipp starts out by offering a visible way to examine what your dreams are.  She recommends starting a 50/50 journal - 50 things that you want to do in the next 50 years.  Those are your dreams.  They can be anything - get your nails done, travel for a month, or be on TV.  After pondering your dreams, she asks you to choose one to work on for the next 21 days.  Then she talks about the importance of accountability and finding other women to keep you accountable as you move towards that goal.  Lipp even includes an accountability covenant for you and your friends to fill out which states that they will encourage you to keep moving forward toward your dream.  The rest of the book consists of 21 days worth of projects - tangible, measurable things - that you can do to be one step closer to your dream.

This book is very easy to read.  Kathi Lipp writes in a fun, conversational tone that makes you feel like she is sitting right next to you sharing her wisdom over a cup of coffee.  She is very frank about hard times in her life and never once makes the reader feel like she is a perfect woman who has it all together.  She offers solid advice and specific actions in the each project that help you think about and move closer to your goals.  The projects are all in line with the Bible and every step is covered in prayer.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is ready for a change in their life or even those who are considering a change but may not be ready yet.  It encouraged me to start a 50/50 journal for myself, and to begin my own 21 day journey toward fulfilling my goals and dreams.

Kathi Lipp

Kathi Lipp is a busy conference and retreat speaker, currently speaking each year to thousands of women throughout the United States. She is the author of The Husband Project and The Marriage Project, serves as food writer for Nickelodeon, and has had articles published in several magazines, including Today’s Christian Woman and Discipleship Journal. Kathi and her husband, Roger, live in California and are the parents of four teenagers and young adults. For more information visit her website: www.kathilipp.com.

**Want to get started pursuing your dream?  Check out Kathi Lipp's article Three Super Simple Kick Starts.

**Want to win a prize?  Just leave me a comment on this post and you are eligible to win the following:

 

Grand Prize Giveaway:

Deluxe Starbucks Coffee Gift Basket

• Three 2.5-oz. bags of Starbucks coffee
    (Sumatra, House Blend, and French Roast)
• Tazo black tea
• Starbucks marshmallow cocoa
• Almond roca
• Almond roca buttercrunch toffee cookies
• White chocolate and raspberry cookies
• 2 Starbucks mugs
• Keepsake black bamboo basket

              $62 value

I will be drawing a name from the comments on March 3.  That name will be entered with Kathy Carlton Willis Communications for a chance at winning the grand prize.  The grand prize will be awarded on March 7.

I was provided the book at no cost by Kathy Carlton Willis Communications.  The opinions are my own.  

And just for the record, I've never seen so many people named "Cathy/Kathi/Kathy" together in one post. :)

What I learned Wednesday: Affiliates Part 3

Want to learn how to make money with your blog?  Check out my What I learned Wednesday posts here.

This is going to be my third and final posts on affiliates.  Next week, I'll start on a new topic.

I had some more time this week, so I researched a few more affiliate networks.  One of my pet peeves with these websites is that you really can't see anything about the site until you join it.  There isn't a posting of sample ads listed.  There isn't a range of payouts amounts listed.  It's very general and vague until you join.  And some of the sites are harder to join than others.  Some require your social security number on a tax form.  I'm sure that it is legitimate, but it never sits well with me to give out my SS# for any reason (I don't even like to give it to doctor's offices).

So here's the lowdown on the sites I visited:

Logical Media - I reviewed this pretty extensively in last week's post.

My Savings Media - After reading other bloggers posts about this, I decided to join this network.  Of course, like other affilitate networks, I couldn't find out too much ahead of time.  To join this site does require your SS# and a tax form to be filled out online.  I am now waiting for a phone call from my affiliate manager.  You cannot logon to the site without being approved by phone first.

Escalate Media - I looked over the home page at this site. It said:

We look for affiliates that use a combination of different marketing tactics, including search engine marketing, email marketing, contextual advertising, social marketing and banner ads.

That kind of intimidated me because I don't know what most of those tactics are.  I'm not planning on emailing out ads.  I don't know what it means to do social marketing (maybe on social network sites) and I don't know much about making banner ads.  So I chose not to join that site.  Maybe if I learn more about that form of advertising, I will reconsider.

Panthera Network - The first two requirements to join this site are as follows:

1. Only publishers with a web site are accepted.

2. You MUST have a top-level domain where a WHOIS search will show you or your company
as the registered owner of the site. No free hosting web sites will be approved.

Since Blogger is free hosting site and I am not listed as the owner of the site, I can't become an affiliate with Panthera.

Commission Junction - I spent a lot of time here.  It seems like it's a very large network with lots of choices of ads.  That can be good or bad.  Too many choices can be very overwhelming to me.  The other drawback to this site is that it appears that you only get paid if the clicker takes an action, i.e. registers at a site or buys a product.  You do not get paid just for people clicking on your ads.  So, for now, I decided to forgo becoming an affiliate there.

Amazon Associates - Notice all those links I have to books and products on Amazon?  That is part of being an Amazon Associate.  If you buy something after clicking on one of those links, I get a small commission from it.  If you blog on blogger, this is really easy to set up and use.  You don't have to pick ads and copy html into your design.  You sign up through the "monetize" tab in your editing menu.  A new box will appear in your editing screen to the right of where you type your blog post.  It has a search box that you use to find the product you'd like to link up in your post.  When you find the product, you can choose to link up a picture, a link or both.  And that's it.  Super easy.

Google Affiliate Network and Google AdSense - These 2 programs work in conjunction with each other, although I am having difficulties getting them to work together.  Google AdSense is another affiliate that is very easy to sign up with if you are on Blogger.  Sign up under the "Monetize" tab on your design page.  Choose where you want the ads to appear (side bar, under each post, in a feed reader, etc) and Google does the rest.  They choose the ad and put it there.  You get paid based on clicks, impressions (how many times the page is viewed) and leads (sign-ups).  Google Affiliate is supposed to work with adsense somehow, but I can't get Google Affiliate to recognize my AdSense affiliate number.  And I can't get an account set up without it.  So I'm still working on that one.


I hope this helps some of you and encourages you to play around with ads on your blog.  I think Amy said it best,

Experiment, experiment, experiment! Experiment with different networks, ad sizes, text links vs. images, placement on your page, etc. Sometimes there are vast differences in revenue when small changes are made!

Good luck affiliating!!

Freezer Cooking 101

Usually Tuesdays are All About Me.  But after careful thought (and writers block) I decided "Enough about me!  Write about something useful already!"

So, in light of my little outburst with myself, I decided to start a new series on freezer cooking.  I am by no means an expert on this.  My friends and I who cook together learn something different that we need to change each and every time we have our cooking day.  But I do know more than I did a year ago when we started this thing.  And I am going to share that vast wisdom with you (vast as in, um, maybe 4 posts).

Here is what I plan to talk about over the next few weeks.

• Planning your menu and location
• Shopping for your food - tips and tricks
• Planning for cooking day
• Cooking day - tips and tricks

As you can see, the key to a successful freezer cooking day is PLANNING.  If you have a good plan in place, your day will flow smoothly and you will go home with lots of food (as well as sore feet, but I can't help you with that).  Stay tuned!

How about you?  Have you done a big freezer cooking day before?  Are you interested in trying it out sometime?

A little parenting secret

Shhhh, I've got a secret.

Well maybe it's more like a confession.

I have figured out a way to keep my son still and quiet in church.  I should have tried this method earlier.  Doctors have been using it for years.  What's my secret?

Lollipops.

Yup!  Give the kid a lollipop and he listens to the sermon.  There are rules attached, of course.

Well, one rule anyway:  You cannot eat the lollipop until the music is over and the sermon starts.

One lollipop (the good big ones, not the little dum dum ones) lasts just long enough for our preacher to finish his sermon.  In fact, David was doing the final crunch off the stick while the invitation was starting.  He quietly and calmly went out to wash his hands.  He came back in time to take his offering up front, then we were done.  Perfect timing - perfect quiet little distraction.

So, there you go...my tip for the day...sugar your kids up so they can hear God's Word.

Anyone have any good coupons for lollipops?

Freezer cooking

I'm freezer cooking today with 2 other friends.  We're making 9 recipes and we should each go home with 18 meals - most all of the meals I'll need for a month!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Review: The Art of Weightlifting Website

Meet my online trainer, Taylor Ryan.

 She is the woman behind the all woman's weightlifting site, The Art of Weightlifting.

And guess what?  She's real!!

She's not a virtual trainer like on some Wii game and she is not a hands-off person who just posts workouts but leaves you to your own devices after that.  She is flesh and blood and she is an active personal trainer who is available online daily to give advice and encouragement on exercise as well as on clean eating.

Let me tell you a little about her website.

The Art of Weightlifting is a subscription site, (because, ladies, the best things in life are worth paying for) aimed at helping women realize the need for weightlifting in their healthy lifestyle.  Many women spend all their time only doing cardio to try to lose weight. They jog, run, or step like crazy without seeing the results they want. 

Enter weightlifting and personal help and advice by Taylor.  And your results will change.

I know I sound like an infomercial.  But I'm only speaking from experience.  I have never been overweight but I have had baby weight to lose.  And the way I lost it was eating healthy combined with cardio AND weightlifting.

But enough about the benefits of weightlifting.  Let me tell you how The Art of Weightlifting works.  The site is set up with several main sections: workouts, fitness forums, clean eating help, fitness challenges, teleseminars and (my favorite part) member profiles.

Workouts -  There are MANY different workouts posted on the site for people of all different skill levels.  There are beginner workouts, intermediate workouts and advanced workouts.  There are workouts that target your butt & thighs, your core or your arms.  There are fat blasting workouts and cardio burning ones (see, she does like cardio too).  Don't know where to start?  Take the fitness test on the website to determine what level you need to begin on.  And if you're like me, you may need to change some of the exercises in a workout because of a body part you can't bend so well (hate those big toes).  Just ask Taylor and she'll customize the workout for you.

Fitness Forums - Got a workout question?  Ask it in the forum.  Got a food question?  Ask it in the forum.  Just want to know what everyone does on New Year's?  Ask it in the forum. I think you get the point. The forum is where you ask your questions and Taylor along with anyone else who's subscribed to the site can answer it.  The questions are listed in thread format so it's easy to see all the responses in one place.

Clean Eating Help - While I was working to lose my baby weight, I learned that 75% of weight loss is your diet.  Not being on a diet, but your diet, what you eat normally everyday.  Yes, you can go on a diet but that won't last.  Soon you'll either get frustrated and quit or you lose the weight, go off the diet and gain it back.  So what's a girl to do?  Change the way she eats - FOREVER!  That's what clean eating is about.  Cutting out processed foods, "white" foods and sugary foods and drinks.  Learning to eat healthy daily.  In the clean eating help section, there are loads of recipes categorized by meal.  I have tried several of these and they are very good, full of protein and very filling.  I can't say that I'm a 100% clean eater, but I'm up to about 60-70% "clean" now - baby steps. (After writing this, I had a chicken sandwich and fries at Burger King - oops.)

Fitness Challenges - Currently, as I said in my New Years post, I'm participating in an 8-week fitness challenge put forth by Taylor.  I have to record my weightlifting and cardio workouts on the site daily as well as keep a daily log of what I eat.  If I can keep this up for 8 weeks and take the suggestions that Taylor leaves for me, I can win a $50 gift card!

Teleseminars - This is something new that Taylor is starting.  She's going to start having a teleseminar once a week on a variety of different topics related to fitness or clean eating.

Member Profile Pages - Each member of the site gets a profile page similar to a profile page on Facebook.  You can "friend" other members, write on each others pages and keep a mini blog on your page (that's where I record my daily food and exercise for the challenge).  It's a great way to encourage each other, get food ideas and meet people with similar health desires as you.

In my opinion, that's a lot of stuff to get when you join the site.  So how much do you think this costs?

$50/month? $100?

Nope.  It's just $9.95 a month!

I personally think that's a great price.  The gym I go to currently charge $60 for a one hour session with a personal trainer and I think that's a fairly low price compared to others I've seen.  So, for me to see a trainer there once a week for a month is $240.  I can get 2 years worth of personal training on The Art of Weightlifting for that price!!  I, personally, think this is a great value.

So, how did I find out about this site and get started?  I started by finding Taylor's blog, Lifting Revolution.  Then after reading it for a while, I tried out the 7 day free trial on the site. I loved it and decided to take the plunge and sign up.

That's my take on it.  What about you?  Do you have a personal trainer?  Do you have fitness and/or diet goals you'd like to meet?  Interested in the 7-day trial?  There's no time like the present to start.


I received no compensation for writing this.  I just really like this site and wanted to share my new-found treasure with you.

What I Learned Wednesday: Affiliates Part 2

I'm learning more about blogging.  Come learn with me!  Start by checking out these What I Learned Wednesday posts.

My assignment for the week was to follow up on last week's post by researching affiliate network websites and report back what I had learned.

Since last week I have visited several affiliate networking sites.  I checked out Logical Media, My Savings Media and Escalate Network.  I looked over their sites and found which companies they advertise for.  Escalate Network focuses on advertising with couponing and saving money bloggers .  My Savings Media specializes in product samples and coupon offers.  Logical Media seemed to offer more of a blend of companies.  Since I have a blog that encompasses a lot of topics, I decided to start by joining the affiliate that seemed more general, Logical Media.

After being an official affiliate with Logical Media for several days, here is my take on their site:

It is very confusing and not very user-friendly, especially for the user that really doesn't know too much about the back-end workings of their blog.  When you sign in, you are taken to the campaign screen.  There you pick the advertisements that you want on your blog.  You can choose from 3 different types of campaigns. 

1) Pay per click - you get paid each time someone clicks on that ad
2) Pay per lead - you get paid each time someone clicks on the ad and completes the sign up at the linked site
3) Pay per sale - you get paid each time someone clicks on the ad and buys something at the linked site

You can search for an ad by company or by type of campaign.  That part is pretty self-explanatory on the site.  However, that is the only self-explanatory screen on there.  The next part is where the confusion starts.  After you choose the company, you are taken to a screen with lots of ads to choose from in lots of different sizes.  There is HTML code under each ad, but there are also text fields that can be changed.  Once you change them, you can generate more code. The text fields use a bunch of acronyms that I don't understand so I'm not sure if I should be filling those out and making new code or using the pre-made code.  To top that off, I have gotten about 10 emails a day from them with links to use for new campaigns.  That is great, but I'm not sure what to do with the links.  There aren't pictures attached so it's not an ad I can display on my site.  It's only a link.  Anyone have more experience with this and know what to do with those links? 


Anyway, I figured out enough to add some ads to my page.  Feel free to look around and "Ooo" and "Ahh" at them.  I think I'm going to camp out on this topic for another week and check out another affiliate network site to see if its user-interface is any better.

Thanks for learning with me!

All About Me: What I'm watching

Here's my confession.

I'm a TV-aholic.

Not just a little but a whole-lot-of-aholic.

Tim and I watch TV for 3 hours every night, from 8-11
And, I watch TV over lunch too.

So here's what we are watching:
(Sometimes we have to record shows to get them all in.)

Mondays - Chuck and House
Tuesdays - Glee
Wednesdays - American Idol, Survivor
Thursdays - American Idol, Big Bang Theory, CSI
Fridays - CSI: New York

The weekends and other hours, we watch Netflix streaming, Netflix movies from the mail or other recorded shows. 

(At the moment, my favorite Netflix show to watch during lunch is "18 and Counting".  Gotta love the Duggers!)

What about you?  What are your favorite shows?

Home improvement over 7 years in the making

We bought our house new almost 8 years ago. We didn't build it. We just found it on the market new.  So, while most everything was new and complete, a few things were missing. 

This being one of them:

See that?  The entire hallway, living room and dining room had the same chair-railing.  Beautiful molding, expertly installed.   Except for this tiny little 6.5 inch section between Julie's room and the bathroom.

Seems easy enough to fix right?

WRONG!

It took 7 years to find a chair-railing that matched the custom-ordered stuff that was already in the house.  When I finally found it, I was so excited!  Of course to get 6.5 inches, I had to order 16 feet but that was OK with me.  I was just happy I found it.  So I did what anyone would do, I ordered it from Home Depot. 

Then I waited...
and waited...
and waited. 

Six weeks later, I found out that it hadn't even been ordered!  Turns out, they have to have $500 worth of orders from that manufacturer before they can order anything.  Nice of them to tell me that, huh?

So I promptly canceled that order, got my money back and reordered from a local hardware store. That store actually told me about their minimum order up front and how long I would have to wait for them to get those orders in.  And they didn't require money until my order came in.  So while I still had to wait another four weeks to get my much anticipated molding, I got much friendlier service and a more truthful company. 

Then it came in!!!  And we got this:

YAY!!!  It still needs to be caulked and painted, but it is up and that's what is important.  No more 6.5 inches of bare space in my hall!!

And...

Since we had to buy 16 feet to get our 6.5 inches, we decided to use some of that extra and add molding to our dining room as well.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm so excited!  I can't wait to get that stuff caulked and painted.  Pretty soon it will look like it's always been there and that's what I've been waiting for for 8 years!!!

We had more plans for that space under there as well.  Stay tuned and I'll show you that next week!

Review: CSN Organization Goodies

I'm so excited about today's review.  Last month I was given the chance to pick some products to review from any of CSN's vast array of websites (over 200 in all!).

I was so excited when they arrived!  I mean who doesn't love getting a package in the mail!  And to beat it all, my free gifts came in 4 separate packages on 4 separate days.  I thought this was a little odd, but I got 4 times the mail that way, so, hey, I'll go with it.

Great Product #1:
DVD Storage Drawer

 
In an effort to organize my house (one of those New Years goals), I saw this and instantly loved it.  Tim laughs because I get so excited when I get something new to organize.  The kids even got into it and helped pull DVD's off the shelf for me to sort and organize.  My lovely new drawer holds up to 150 DVDs in 75 double-sided sleeves.  The sleeves come in 5 different colors to make for easy organization (and to make it just so pretty).  Our categories are Kids, Family, Chick Flicks, Regular Grown-up, and Superhero movies (gotta love our guys and their Superheroes). 

 Our drawer now lives here, right next to our TV.  Love the easy access for everyone.  However, when the drawer is open, it gets front heavy and can topple over. 

 Open with all the beautiful colors.  Love it!!  You can easily flip through the DVD's to see the movie titles.

My new DVD storage drawer definitely helped reduce the DVD clutter on our shelves.  Of course, I did keep all the cases for those DVDs in a box under my stairs.  Occasionally we do outgrow our DVDs and I try to get a little money out of selling them to a used bookstore.  The cases are necessary for that.

Great Product #2:

Chrome Robe Hooks

OK, so I was still on an organizing kick when I picked out these awesome hooks.  You see, our hall bathroom had a little problem.  The shower is on one side of the room and the only towel rack is on the other side of the room.  When my little shower-taker took her showers, towels exploded all over the floor - one to wipe her eyes on, one to dry off on, one to step on.  As much as I wanted her to hang up her towels, there wasn't enough room to put another long towel rack over by the shower.  So, I racked my brain to find a solution and, ta-da, I came up with robe hooks.  Lots of room to hang towels, little wall spaced needed.

 Here's one...

 And the other.  See how little wall space I had to work with.  The hooks fit perfectly!  And we installed it low enough for little hands to reach it.

The close-up.

We just love these hooks.  They look great, are very sturdy, and were relatively easy to install.  And best of all, no more towels on the floor!!

Great Product #3:

Weightlifting Gloves

Another product I found that I really wanted were these weightlifting gloves.   I LOVE to lift weights but my hands don't love it so much.  I get frequent callouses and rips on my hands from gripping the weights and that needed to stop.  Now thanks to these handy-dandy things, it has.

 

They are padded on the palms to provide extra protection as well as extra grip.  And the gloves leave your fingers free for pulse checks.  Best of all? They. Are. Pink!!

Great Product #4:

Electrical Kids Science Kit

Last year during all our snow days, our kids really enjoyed doing science experiments.  In light of that (and since this year is looking like last in terms of snow days), I picked out a new science kit for them.  This one is more along Tim's line of expertise.  With it, the kids will be building an electrical alarm.  We haven't pulled it out yet - still waiting for one of those all-snowed in days - but everyone is eagerly anticipating its release from the box.

Great Product #5:

My New Weekly Organizer

Isn't it pretty?!!  And functional too.  Obviously I needed a new planner because my last one expired on Dec 31.  So I found this one.  It's very useful.  On one side is a pad with the Days of the Week.  There is plenty of room on each day to make a list and the days aren't numbered so if I skip a week, I don't have to waste any of the planner.  The other side of the planner has a pouch to keep important things like appointment cards as well as several sizes of post-it notes.  

We loved all the new products we got!!  Thank you very much to CSN for providing me with opportunity to try them out!!

What I learned Wednesday: Affliate Programs

See previous What I learned Wednesday posts here.

Today's topic:  Affliate Programs

What is an affiliate program?  I'm so glad you asked.  An affiliate program is basically advertising for someone else, or for some company, then getting paid if someone acts on that advertisement.  As a blogger, I am a publisher (just found that out today. Hee, hee, hee, I like the sounds of that).  Advertisers want blogger/publishers to help spread the word about their product or service.  So they "hire" the blogger of sorts to try out and promote the product.  Or they borrow space on the blogger's site to display their banner, then pay the blogger every time someone clicks on that banner, or signs up for a service through the ad.

How do I become an affiliate?  You join an affiliate program or an affiliate network.  You can look up individual companies or products online to see if they have an affiliate program (Google the product/company with the word "affiliate" or "referral").  Or to make life easier, and, really, who doesn't want to make life easier, you can join an affiliate network.  Advertisers want to make their life easier too, so instead of forming their own affiliate program, they will use a third party site, the affiliate network, to find the bloggers for them.  They sign up their product/service as a campaign and members of the site apply for the campaigns that interest them.  As a blogger, an affiliate network gives me lots of companies with lots of campaigns to choose from.  So it benefits both the publisher (me) and the advertiser.

How do I find affiliate networks to use? Just like last week's post, this is a lot to absorb for me and I'm still doing research on which affiliate networks are best.  So, instead of going on to a new topic next week, I'm going to check out some different affiliate networks and I'm going to tell you which ones I've decided to join.  In the meantime, you can do some research too.  There were some great posts written on affiliate networks that I have been reading lately.  They include lists of different networks to join.  Please read these lovely ladies posts and check out the networks they recommend.  Then you can be ready next week to tell me what you've learned.

2Wired2Tired
Blogging with Amy
Thrifty Divas

All About Me: Favorite Movies

See all my All About Me posts here.

Through the years there have been many movies I've loved but here is a list of my all-time favorites.


The Saint with Val Kilmer - one of those great, action movies.  It's got action, plot twists, a hot leading man and a beautiful leading lady.  Simon Templar (Val), one of the top thieves in the world, finds himself falling in love with the woman he is supposed to steal from.  Will he choose to continue with the theft or run away with his lady-love?  Hmm, you'll have to watch to find out.


Ahh, Harrison Ford - one of my favorites. He plays Richard Kimble, a doctor falsely convicted of killing his wife.  During a transfer of prisoners, the bus wrecks and Kimble escapes and becomes The Fugitive.  During the rest of the movie, he is on the run from US Marshall, Samuel Gerard, played by Tommy Lee Jones all while trying to prove his innocence.


This one will probably surprise some people but I LOVE the movie Clueless, with Alicia Silverstone.  It is a remake of Jane Austen's Emma.  It is somewhat cheesy, and a little crude in places, but just as Jane's original, it's a great storyline.


This smart, well-written movie is highly entertaining.  Reese Witherspoon plays the lead, Elle Woods, a spoiled, rich fashion major who decides to follow her ex-boyfriend to Harvard law school.  Legally Blonde is one of those movies I can watch over and over again and still laugh.


Once again a Reese Witherspoon movie makes my list.  Sweet Home Alabama follows Melanie Smooter as she attempts to put her back-woods past behind her by divorcing her high school husband in order to marry sophisticated Andrew Hennings (played by Patrick Dempsey).  I think I love this movie so much because it shows how life gets in the way of relationships but in the end love conquers all.


I had to throw in here my favorite animated movie.  I remember seeing Beauty and the Beast in the theater when it first came out (I was in 8th grade).  I loved it then and I love it still.  I love that Belle fell in love with the Beast when he wasn't beautiful, when he was still a beast.  She loved him for him and not for his looks or position.  In fact the only part of the movie I don't like is when the beast turns back into a prince.  I think the prince is way too feminine and doesn't look good at all!


I also thought it was appropriate to add in here my favorite Christmas movie.  This movie needs no help from me.  It's just a wonderful, feel-good movie that always makes me feel like Christmas!

What about you?  What are some of your favorite movies?  Did any of mine make your list?