A Review

Why am I doing a review on my main page? Isn't there a special tab for that? Why yes...thanks for asking. I am doing a review on the age 33. I am now safely past 33 and feel qualified to review it.

Disclaimer: All opinions on the Year 33 are my own and I have been in no way compensated for my views by Mother Nature.
The Year 33 was delivered with little fanfare. Sure, we celebrated its arrival in the usual fashion. Cake, presents crying, gnashing of teeth and even hid in the closet and time with family and friends, but its initial arrival would have been largely unnoticed if not for the production of celebration.

Much like the saying that good things come in small packages, Year 33 proved to really deliver on the life changes to start off so unassumingly.

Shortly after the Year 33 arrived we were inspired by the housing market, impending birth of our 3rd daughter and basic insanity; to put our house on the market and move to the country. It was a nail biting experience that took 9 months to complete and not only did we manage to go more rural, but we pulled off buying our country dream home; "The Crayon Ranch". What a crazy turn of events to go ahead and be able to live in the place where you only dreamed about retiring at.
As I mentioned before we had an upcoming arrival of another daughter in the Year 33. Our tiny Bitsy was born late December. Year 33 was apparently a good breeding year, because she came just as perfect and beautiful as any blessing straight from God could. By the way... have I mentioned that she is sitting on her own now.
See I told you. Even she is sticking her tongue out at you for your disbelief!

The Year 33 also provided us with the opportunity to become caretakers for my in-laws. This has by far been the most difficult part of the year as we faced mother-in-laws heart problems and impending bypasses and father-in-laws rapid onset of Alzheimer's. We are still currently in the transition period where we have to let things "fall into place" before permanent 24/7/365 type of care.

The Year 33 packed quite a punch and I believe has been the Year with the most life changes in it. I know that if I chose to look back, I would see other things that irritated me, upset me and made me feel as though life couldn't go on. Really....all years are like that. I chose not to look back though. It obviously wasn't the big deal I thought it was, if I can't recall it right now. God was loving, just and didn't give us more than we could handle and helped carry us through the more stressful times. I know this will be His promise for Year 34 as well (cause He is nice like that!)

In review, I would have to recommend the Year 33 to anyone! I anxiously await to see what Year 34 is going to bring us!!

Shaking Up The Crayon Box

There are some exciting changes going on around here.

Heavens no...I am not pregnant again.

What I am referring to is some blog changes. OK so maybe you want to hold onto your confetti, but as for me...I am throwing mine!

First thing you will notice is a nice little row of crayons at the top of the blog. These are navigation buttons to take you to different pages in my blog. Cool, huh?

• Home button - Duh...really folks.
• Crayon Box - This tells a little of me and The Scribblers.
• Bright Crayons - This section will be devoted to a new blogger each week. I want to showcase YOU! There will also be a widget in the sidebar listing your blog name and directing visitors to the "Bright Crayon" button to read more about YOU! This will start on Feb 1st.
  
• Giveaways - I have some exciting giveaways coming up. The first one will start on the 1st of Feb. and run until Feb 7th. It's a Valentine and Food type thingie...so if that is your kind of "thingie" check it out!
• Reviews - I am working with some super neat people with some super neat products. Not only am I reviewing these products but some of them will be available in the upcoming giveaways. Some are just so neat I am keeping them all to myself.

The next change is my domain name. If you found me through the usual .blogspot.com, you can still reach me through that for now, BUT you can also now find me by typing in www.thecrayonwrangler.com How cool is that??? The move will eventually be permanent and painless (So the fine folks at GoDaddy.com tell me) Hopefully you won't notice the change at all, unlike a really bad hair plug job that EVERYONE is going to notice!

Changing also is my BlogFrog community. You can find this cool joint on the top left sidebar. It's the pretty blue box up there....see it now? Good. Here I will be asking you questions and you can ask me and other reader questions or have some rockin' good discussions. I ask that we keep it family friendly and respectful. This is a way that I get to interact more with YOU!

I am also making the move to Disqus comments. This is another way to interact with you and your comments. It says to log in to leave a comment, but don't let that scare you. You can be a guest and comment just fine! I don't know if I will keep this feature premanent or not, we will just see how it goes and give me some feedback on it, mmm-kay?!?