I have several giveaways running currently. Be sure to scroll up and see them. If you have a giveaway, link up below! I will be running this every Thursday.

Please use this format so everyone is consistent:

Blog name- giveaway item (end date)

Please link directly to your giveaway. I don’t mind if you link to an adult giveaway but please mark it as ADULT if you do. Thanks!

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

The Kroger Family of Stores has a Cart Buster savings extravaganza going on right now and until March 14th!  You won’t want to miss the great savings you can find on some great brands.  Some of the brands you will find on sale right now at the Kroger Family of Stores are: Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Hamburger Helper, Yoplait, Progresso, Totino´s, Green Giant, Cascadian Farm, Tide, Charmin, Bounty, Pampers, Pantene, Crest, Iams, Febreze, Old Spice and many more!

I was surprised to learn all of the stores included in the Kroger Family.  You can find these great savings at the following stores:  Kroger, Ralph´s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith´s, Fry´s, QFC, Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott´s Food & Pharmacy.

Thanks to the Kroger Family of Stores, General Mills, and My Blog Spark, I am happily able to send one of you a $25 gift card to use at any of the Kroger Family of Stores!  While I can’t get the card to you by the end of this sale, I encourage you to get to the Kroger Cart Buster event while you can!  Remember, this great sale ends March 14th!

Here is how to enter:

• For your first comment, tell me what you plan on purchasing with your gift card while these low prices are available!

After the first required entry, you can do any (or all) of the following for one entry each!

• Subscribe to ToBeThode by email (must be verified) or Reader. Leave me a comment that you did or if you already are!
• Follow ToBeThode publicly in Google Friend. Leave a comment letting me know that you did or if you already are.
• Follow me on Twitter AND tweet about this giveaway. (You must do both for this entry.) Leave me a comment with your status update! You can tweet once daily for an extra entry. Be sure to come back and leave the URL for your status update.

• Grab my button and put it on your blog. Be sure to include your URL in your comment.
• Blog about this giveaway and link to ToBeThode. Leave a link to your blog post in the comments. (please do not copy and paste from this post)
• Stumble this post (the post, not the site). Leave me your Stumble Name and/or URL.

Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm (CST) on March 24, 2010. Winner will be drawn by random generator and posted. The winner will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond in order to claim their prize. This giveaway is open for U.S. residents only. One entry per household please!

disclosure: I was given a $25 gift card from Kroger Family of Stores and General Mills through My Blog Spark for sharing the information contained in this post.  I have not been compensated monetarily for this post and all thoughts and opinions are my own.  If applicable, any images and quotes taken directly from the sponsor.

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

I told you in my last post that the weather has been nice here.  Well, these photos are from our first day playing outside.  Joley has never been able to play in the play house or with her brother out in the yard.  They both had a lot of fun!

Johnny was so excited to be able to go outside that he still had oatmeal on his face!

He is such a good big brother that he watches over his sister while she plays.

Joley looks so cute outside. She is such a tiny little girl anyways, but then you see her next to a big (little) house or how she fits under a table and you realize just how small she is.

She had such a great time playing. She is going to have so much fun in the play house this spring and summer.

That is, until it is time to go inside. Going inside is not fun. Johnny was the same way. We used to have to bribe him to come in the house from playing in order to avoid all-out tantrums. Joley, apparently, is a lover of outside play too as you can tell by her behavior when it was time to go in (which, after thinking about it, we weren’t even going in.   We were going to go for a walk.  She wanted to stay out back!)

Poor little Joley. Life can be so unfair.

This is part of Wordless Wednesday. If you want to do a Wordless Wednesday post, you can go to any of the following (or all of the following)! Extraordinary Mothers, 7 Clown Circus , 5 minutes for Mom, J Leigh Designz, Go Graham Go, and Jolly Mom.

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

I haven’t blogged in a few days.  As a matter of fact, I have been pretty scarce from Twitter too.  But, I haven’t been super busy with school or family obligations.  I haven’t been working on the budget that needs to be finished or the homework that is waiting for me.  Nothing like that at all.  But my reasons for neglecting social media and my blog are better.

I have been enjoying the taste of Spring we have had here lately.  It was so nice this weekend that we were able to get outside and do things.  Yesterday, the kids and I went for a walk and played in the backyard… for hours!  I have been doing things besides sitting here on this computer and it feels great.  Since Thursday, I have walked at a minimum of 1 mile each day.  Yesterday, I walked two miles plus whatever I normally do throughout the day.

It feels so good to get outside with the kids.  So good, in fact, that I am praying for Spring to come.  I love the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, the sound of my babies little feet stomping through the grass.  I love to see the squirrels who frequent my backyard tree and my dog, Sammi, excited to chase them.  I love to hear the birds chirp and the geese flying overheard, heading back to the area after the long, cold winter.  I can hear the cows from the nearby farm during the day and the sounds of kids playing in the neighborhood.  The sounds and feelings of Spring are the best so…

All I have to say to Mother Nature is this… Bring on Spring!

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

Do you have a blog post you want to share from the last week?

Well, I am going to help you out. If there is a post, any post, you want to share, do it here! It can be pictures, stories, a meme entry, or whatever. Just link up and share your favorite post!

Then visit others (as many as you can please!) that have linked up and share some comment love! Let them know you came from ToBeThode’s Saturday Sound Off! I will be visiting too and commenting, tweeting, and stumbling posts!

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

A great bloggy friend, Michaela (from Mama Michie’s Musings) is the proud mama of a baby girl named Abigail.   I can’t wait to see this little angel who I have been waiting ever so patiently for.  She was born 4 weeks early and is doing great!

Congrats Michaela, Noah and Daddy!  I hope you are all doing fantastic and I wish I could actually get to meet you to see your little princess!  You aren’t that far away actually… maybe some day!

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

This was a bad week.  I lost 2.5 pounds from Friday until Monday because I was so sick that I couldn’t eat.  My body apparently went into starvation mode and when I started eating again, it was happy.  A bit too happy.  I am not happy though.  I am actually upset and have vowed to make changes this week to get back on the right track.  I have not exercised all week and I really think that is contributing to my stasis with my weight.

So, I don’t have much to report this week.  I gained 0.2 pounds.  I lost 0.5 inch on my waist.  I still have so far to go that these little gains in pounds are so upsetting.  I know that this is a process and I need to understand that there will be ups and downs along the way.  I am still trying to get to that point in my mind though.  Thank goodness I had a measurement loss this week or I would be very depressed.

So, I will give my totals for the past 9 weeks to make myself fell better and to understand how far I have come.  These are all losses:

Pounds: 17.3 pounds in 9 weeks.

The measurements were started 7 weeks ago.

Arms: 1 inch

Waist: 4.5 inches

Hips: 4.5 inches

Bust: 4 inches

Thighs: 2 inches

Total of  16 inches over 7 weeks.

I walked a mile today (plus my normal daily walking) and hope to make changes this week to get back on track to make those numbers larger.

This will serve as my Blog the Weight Away update for Wednesday, March 10th. In the meantime, be sure to offer encouragement to my teammates!

Team members:

Toni from MarketMommies.com
Paula from FrostedFingers.com

I will add the Blog the Weight Away blog hop once it is available.

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

• * Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add to one blog linky.
• * Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.
• * Follow as many blogs as you like
• * Comment on the blogs telling them you’re from Friday Follow
• * Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one – but you can follow each host blog.

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

Tonight, I had the most amazing experience at church.  I can honestly say that I have never felt the way I did this evening.  I have never been moved to tears and felt the presence of our Lord come over me in such a way.  I have never felt such peace.

Once a month, my church has a gathering called Inspire.  I have spoken of this before as I have been every month since it started.  These gatherings are the highlight of my month and I look forward to the day in which I will meet with friends for a night of faith, fellowship, and love.  Tonight, we were talked to about Lent and sang.  We discussed how Jesus died for our sins, He died so that we may live eternally with Him.   We can not have a relationship with God if we turn away from Him or if we sin.

The priest showed scenes from The Passion of the Christ.  While they were sad and upsetting, it was a dose of reality as well.  We were not meant to leave depressed, but happy that our Lord was willing to die for our sins.  We can’t hold onto sins and struggles.  We need to free those from ourselves so that we can live fully with Christ.  Any sin or struggle weighing us down was keeping us from having a relationship with Christ.  So, what are we to do?

The priest had an amazing way for us to free ourselves from the sins and struggles that weighed upon us.  Each person was given a small piece of paper.  On that paper, you were to write what sin(s) or struggle(s) you are dealing with that is keeping you from having a full relationship with Christ.  When you were finished, you were invited to come to the front and nail your sins to a cross that was prepared of wood, standing over 6 feet tall I imagine.  Each person in church, both young and old, walked up to the cross and nailed their sins to the cross… the same way Christ was nailed to the cross for our sins.  We were encouraged to pray and feel the weight being lifted off of us and to feel God’s love for us all.

When you finished with nailing your sin to the cross, you were given a large nail.  It is about 6 inches long and immediately brought to my mind the nails that must have been used on our Lord.  Hanging from the cross is the following writing:

Lent

A time to ponder your nail, your sin, your cross…

your Savior.

As I went back to my seat, I was overcome with emotion.  Holding that nail, I broke down into tears.  The tears were for the sins and struggles I wrote, the love I felt, His grace upon me and my friends, and my sorrow for Jesus choosing to die for me.  Am I worthy of His love?  I must be worthy of His love.  He died for me, for my sins, and so that I may live.  He gave me life because of the love he has for me.  I choose to live that life with Him in my heart, in my mind, and in my actions.  I am worthy and I will prove it.  Just wait.

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.

I have several giveaways running currently. Be sure to enter!

Win a Burpie Bundles bib (3/4)
Win a St. Eve Kids Pink Cozy (3/11)
Win U*neaks shoes and 2 pair of socks (3/17)
Win a Potty Tots Potty Training Kit (3/20)

If you have a giveaway, link up below! I will be running this every Thursday.

Please use this format so everyone is consistent:

Blog name- giveaway item (end date)

Please link directly to your giveaway. I don’t mind if you link to an adult giveaway but please mark it as ADULT if you do. Thanks!

©2010 To Be Thode. All Rights Reserved.