~ My Husband Rocks! ~ ...the party...

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The costume party, that is :)



This past weekend, Austin and I attended a costume party. He went as Walker, Texas Ranger, and I went as a gypsy :) We had a grand old time; I love how much he gets into these goofy, fun times! He's a very fun guy to be friends with, and I get the added benefit of being married to him! He rocks!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am the only person who has the ability to add blogs to the MHR blogroll. If you are a MHR blogger, and have not been added to the blogroll, plase comment or e-mail me at katylinvw{at}yahoo{dot}com and I will gladly add you to our little group!!!

(if you would like to add the MHR Fridays button to your sidebar, use this code ).

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>

If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays Union 28 will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you Union 28!

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday, and a wonderful weekend!

Blog Hop '09!!!

Just the other day I was thinking to myself how long it had been since I participated in a fun blog party! Then, there I am, browsing the twitter/blogosphere, and I run across Blog Hop'09!

I'm so very excited, and I can't wait to make a whole bunch of new blog friends!

First I've gotta get all gussied up in my "Blog Hop" attire:



Austin's hoppin, too:


Okay, so those pics are actually from the New Year's Eve Sock Hop we attended this year, but I thought they were just perfect for the occasion!

If you're visiting for the first time as a part of the Blog Hop, feel free to poke around! the great adventure is most well-known for ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Fridays! But we've got a LOT going on in our lives! We're in the midst of a total re-build on our house, and we love to travel! This year already we've taken a trip to Cozumel and Colorado (where my family, and part of Austin's family lives), and we're heading back to Colorado in the next few weeks!


Happy to have you here! Hop Away! :)

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Birthday Bash Giveaway WINNERS!!!

AWESOME!!!!!

The Birthday Bash Extravaganza has come to an end!!!

I have had such a great week, thank you all so much for attending and entering and commenting!

Here are all of our winners:

~ Giveaway #1 from hopeink ~
Daja at in other words . . .

~ Giveaway #2 from juicychristians~
Anne at Our Homeschool

~ Giveaway #3 from Define Your Space ~
Ashley at Jaded Mission

~ Giveaway #4 from 3 Lambs Graphics ~
Nicole at Taulman Times

~ Giveaway #5 from Daydream Studios ~
Stacey at Our Families Journey . . .

Congratulations ladies!!!

I'll be in touch early next week to work out the details of getting your prizes to you! :)

Again, thank you all so much for celebrating the 1st birthday of ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ With us!!! It is always so exciting and inspiring to read the stories of all you wonderful women who are striving to love and encourage and respect your husbands in this small, fun way :)

Love ya!

MHR~BB Giveaway #5!

Today marks our 5th and final giveaway for this year's My Husband Rocks! Birthday Bash Extravaganza!!!

Today, the wonderful Anna from Daydream Studios has provided our giveaway prize!



When I was searching for giveaway sponsors and prizes, I ran across this photo:



and instantly fell in love with it! They have such phenomenal work on their site, but this was the one I could not get off of my mind, and she has generously agreed to send this to one lucky winner! So start racking up those entries!!!

There are many ways to earn entries into this giveaway, but must complete at least the first one for any of the extra entries to count:

1. Visit Daydream Studios, look around, then come back and comment on this post with your favorite item in her shop!

Once you have done that, you can earn additional entries by doing any of the following {You must leave a comment here to let me know you have done an extra entry! One entry per comment. No comment = no entry}:

2. Post the button on your sidebar AND write a post announcing the birthday bash, linking back here!

Here's the button code:

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-husband-rocks-birthday-bash.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/BlogStuff/IMG_0501-1-1.jpg"></a>

3. Tweet this giveaway post with "@katylinvw" in the tweet.

4. E-mail a MHR prompt/theme idea, or an inspirational article to me at katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com (This one is worth 5 extra entries!!!)

5. E-mail 3 friends inviting them to the birthday bash, and copy my e-mail address (katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com)!

ALL of the giveaways are open until 12:00AM Saturday, June 20! Be sure to enter them all!
Giveaway #1 from hopeink
Giveaway #2 from juicychristians
Giveaway #3 from Define Your Space
Giveaway #4 from 3LambsGraphics

TODAY ONLY!!!!
Any of the #4 type entries will get you 10 additional entries in EACH giveaway, and posting your own ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ post will get you 10 additional entries in EACH giveaway! :)

Good luck! :)


P.S. Don't forget to check out the other party posts below!

MHR~BB Giveaway #4!

We have such a fun giveaway today!!! :)

Wonderful, fun Amy of 3LambsGraphics has generously offered up today's giveaway prize!



Especially for our birthday bash giveaway, she has created an 8x10 version of her "Let's Stay Together" Fine Art Giclee Print!!!



~~~~~~~~~~

~ * ~

There are many ways to earn entries into this giveaway, but must complete at least the first one for any of the extra entries to count:

1. Visit 3LambsGraphics, look around, then come back and comment on this post with your favorite item in her shop!

Once you have done that, you can earn additional entries by doing any of the following {You must leave a comment here to let me know you have done an extra entry! One entry per comment. No comment = no entry}:

2. Post the button on your sidebar AND write a post announcing the birthday bash, linking back here!

Here's the button code:

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-husband-rocks-birthday-bash.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/BlogStuff/IMG_0501-1-1.jpg"></a>

3. Tweet this giveaway post with "@katylinvw" in the tweet.

4. E-mail a MHR prompt/theme idea, or an inspirational article to me at katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com (This one is worth 5 extra entries!!!

5. E-mail 3 friends inviting them to the birthday bash, and copy my e-mail address (katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com)!

ALL of the giveaways are open until 12:00AM Saturday, June 20! Be sure to enter them all!
Giveaway #1 from hopeink
Giveaway #2 from juicychristians
Giveaway #3 from Define Your Space

Good luck! :)


P.S. Don't forget to check out the other party posts below!

MHR~BB Giveaway #3!

Halfway through our party week, and today we have a doozy of a giveaway!!!

The generous gift comes from the sweet and talented Angela at Define Your Space!



I am so excited about this giveaway prize, in fact, I'd like to keep it for myself! Angela is going to allow the winner of this giveaway to select one of the personalized wood signs from her site (valued at $28)!!!

Here are just a couple of her great designs:

There are many ways to earn entries into this giveaway, but only the first one is required to be entered:

1. Visit Define Your Space, look around, then come back and comment on this post with your favorite item in her shop!

Once you have done that, you can earn additional entries by doing any of the following {You must leave a comment here to let me know you have done an extra entry! One entry per comment. No comment = no entry}:

2. Post the button on your sidebar AND write a post announcing the birthday bash, linking back here!

Here's the button code:

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-husband-rocks-birthday-bash.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/BlogStuff/IMG_0501-1-1.jpg"></a>

3. Tweet this giveaway post with "@katylinvw" in the tweet.

4. E-mail a MHR prompt/theme idea, or an inspirational article to me at katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com (This one is worth 5 extra entries!!!

5. E-mail 3 friends inviting them to the birthday bash, and copy my e-mail address (katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com)!

ALL of the giveaways are open until 12:00AM Saturday, June 20! Be sure to enter them all! Giveaway #1 from hopeink, and Giveaway #2 from juicychristians!!!

Good luck! :)


P.S. Don't forget to check out the other party posts below!

MHR~BB Giveaway #2!

Keeping this party going in style!!!

Today's great giveaway comes to us from the uber-talented Nathifa over at juicychristians!



Nathifa makes gorgeous jewelery, like this:



and this:

and this:

And she has offered for our birthday bash a $15 gift certificate for one lucky winner!!!

There are many ways to earn entries into this giveaway, but only one is required to be entered:

1. Visit juicychristians, look around, then come back and comment on this post with your favorite item in her shop!

Once you have done that, you can earn additional entries by doing any of the following {You must leave a comment here to let me know you have done an extra entry! One entry per comment. No comment = no entry}:

2. Post the button on your sidebar AND write a post announcing the birthday bash, linking back here!

Here's the button code:

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-husband-rocks-birthday-bash.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/BlogStuff/IMG_0501-1-1.jpg"></a>

3. Tweet this giveaway post with "@katylinvw" in the tweet.

4. E-mail a MHR prompt/theme idea, or an inspirational article to me at katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com (This one is worth 5 extra entries!!!

5. E-mail 3 friends inviting them to the birthday bash, and copy my e-mail address (katylinvw {at} yahoo {dot} com)!

Good luck! :)


P.S. Don't forget to check out the other party posts below, including the first giveaway, here!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Birthday Bash Extravaganza!!!!!

Woo hoo! Today is the day, the official kick off of our ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ 1st Birthday Bash! I am sooooooooooooo excited! The actual birthday was Saturday, June 13th, but I decided that one measley day was not enough of a celebration, wo sere gonna do this as a week-long blow-out!

Can you believe it's already been a year! When we first started MHRF I didn't really know if it owuld catch on, but now we're 184 bloggers strong, and we have partnerships with some phenomenal people! Union28, Love, Actually, and Firewives.com!!! Thank you all!!! And a BIG thank you to all of our giveaway sponsors: hopeink, juicychristians, Define Your Space, 3 Lambs Graphics, and Daydream Studios!!!

My goal for this week is to focus on the main purpose of ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Fridays. The reasons why we keep writing week after week, Friday after Friday, blogging all the reasons - from the seemingly silly to the passionate and poignant.

For those of you who haven't already reached this conclusion: MHRF isn't really for our husbands, not entirely anyway. Sure, our hubbies do love to hear about why we love them, and why we think they're incredible, but at the core of it all, the heart issue, is just that. A heart issue. The real point of all of this is learning to control our all-to-human proopensity to pick out and dwell up on the negatives, and choose instead to focus on the good, those things which caused us to fall in love in the first place, and that keep us falling in love all over and over again.

On top of revisiting this mystery of marriage and God-given gift of love and commitment, we're going to enjoy some very talented guest-bloggers, and a giveaway a day for the next five days!

How's that for a party?!?!!?!

Here's the button code:

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-husband-rocks-birthday-bash.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/BlogStuff/IMG_0501-1-1.jpg"></a>

Post the button on your sidebar AND write a post announcing the birthday bash, linking back here, and you're automatically entered (once) in each giveaway!!!

Be sure to come back every day to see all the fabulous prizes and party on with all of us! We're talking multiple posts per day, so check in early, check in often! There are going to be lots of other ways to get entries!!!

Happy Birthday!

You're Invited!!!

Who: Everyone!!!
What: The My Husband Rocks Birthday Bash!!!
When: June 15-20, 2009
Where: Right here at the great adventure

That's right! My husband rocks turns 1 year old on Saturday, June 13th, 2009! That date will kick off a week-long blog-tastic bash which at the very least will include some fantastic giveaway prizes! Most of the rest is a surprise, but stay tuned for some hints and sneak peeks! Mark your calendars, we're gonna have a blast!

New Year's Eve Party!

Our friends Merle & Heidi hosted a New Year's Eve 50's Sock Hop in a big barn that they have outfitted to be a party building on their property!

It was a costume party, so of course we did it up right:

- gotta have the accessories! :)

They had propane heaters going, "drive in" movies playing,


tricycle drag races,

swing dance lessons on a big dance floor,

and a ton of food! More than a week after the fact, I'm finally getting these pics posted!

We had a blast!

:)

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ New Year's Resolutions

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you may have read earlier this week, I am doing a 101 things in 1001 days list instead of writing traditional resolutions.

The "Marriage" section of my list reads like this:

12. {Private} :)(1/286)
13. Go on one date/month - just the two of us.(0/33)
14. Go to a marriage conference with Austin.
15. Read every book on The Best Christian Marriage Books list.(1/16)
16. Start a family night - one night each week w/ no TV, but do something else together!(0/143)
17. Give Austin a massage at least 3x/week (1/429)

In addition to these things, I know that the items in the homekeeping section of my list will also have positive repercussions on our marriaage, as a neat and tidy home is very important to Austin - as well as being something that I am not naturally very good at. Working on these habits is another way that I will communicate my respect for Austin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Austin is such a sweetheart, and we have had an amazing year! Although I would not say that we have no had our share of rough patches and hard days, but our first full year as a married couple has been spectacular and memorable!

This week he surprised me by taking me to a 50's Sock Hop New Year's Eve party!!! It was a costume party (pics will be up soon), and we had a great time! Thanks for a great 2008, hunny! I'm looking forward to many more great years! Love you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be sure to check in with the other ladies who are bragging on their rocking hubbies today by clicking on the "My Husband Rocks Participants" button in the left sidebar.

(if you would like to add the MHR Fridays button to your sidebar, use this code ).

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>

If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading, everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!