| The Shewbridges of Central Florida

Monday, November 15, 2010

Brandcation Event - Florida Ecosafaris

On Friday during Brandcation we got up really early (at least really early for me

) and headed deep into St. Cloud to Florida Ecosafaris for an amazing day of adventure.

From their website.....

"Let Us Take You On An Unforgettable Journey into Forever Florida, a 4700 acre eco-ranch and wildlife conservation area boasting beautifully untamed wilderness, natural streams, wetlands and dense cypress forests. Choose your own fully-guided adventure: Coach Safari, Horseback Safari or soar over it all on Florida's only Zipline Safari!

At Forever Florida, we have eco-safaris for the entire family - the thrilling Zipline Safari, the adventurous Horseback Safari and the comfortable Coach Safari. Each offers a unique opportunity to leave the theme parks far behind and experience wild, natural Florida.

Each of our eco-safaris transport you through Forever Florida; an all too rare wild part of the state preserved just as nature intended. This special place boasts nine distinct Florida ecosystems, home to an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, white-tail deer, nearly two hundred species of birds and the endangered Florida Panther."

Thanks to Matt Duda for giving us the background on the ranch and all of the property at Florida Ecosafaris and answering the million questions that we all had. Along with providing a wonderful lunch for all of us of coleslaw, beans and a delicious BBQ pulled pork (one of my faves).

While most of the ladies went on the zipline tour, because of my disability, I took the Coach Safari tour with Bobbie from One Scrappy Mom and while it was quite cold for Florida in early November, we still had a wonderful time and saw some amazing things....

Thank you so much to Florida Ecosafaris for providing us with such an awesome experience. I will definitely be taking my family back - I KNOW my boys and their girlfriends will LOVE the zipline and Bill and I can take the Coach Safari tour, because it will be different each time. I'd like to give a shout out to my tour guide Nancy who was just wonderful, she was so knowledgeable and truly had a love of the land and the animals.

Check out their website for all the information on prices and availability.

{Disclosure: My ticket to Florida Ecosafaris was complimentary. I only paid an extremely nominal fee for all the activities that I participated in. I drove my own transportation and was graciously given gas money by the lovely ladies that were at the event with me. All the views expressed in these posts are ALL mine.}

Monday's Music Moves Me: Elvis is Still the King

Welcome back to our rockin' good meme Monday's Music Moves Me! The exciting music meme that XmasDolly and I are hosting, now along with Larry from Cakeblast and Callie from JamericanSpice. Won't you play along... here are the rules:

First step: You need to run on over to You Tube, (or wherever your find your songs/videos) and get your pick for the day according to the theme. Upcoming themes are over on Dolly's blog on the right sidebar.

Second Step: Grab our "Monday's Music Moves Me" button above or on Dolly's right sidebar.

Third step: Dance with (follow) your hostesses (that would be me and Dolly); grab our buttons; then sign the linky, either here or on Dolly's blog - they are linked.

Final step: Start lookin' for a partner and boogie on down to her blog (or his), and say hello by leaving a comment, and tag (follow) her/him. If you've been tagged (followed) be polite, and go on over there, leave a comment and tag (follow) her/him back.

This week being a freebie week, I decided to go with my favorite singer of all time... The King, and I picked my favorite song of his, it's not one of his more popular ones that most people think of when they think of him, but I give you.......... {just a side note - he's not dead, you know!}

In the Ghetto by Elvis Presley

Now, don't forget to sign the linky and visit the participants and leave a comment. For more Monday music fun, visit Amanda, Run DMT and Hairbows & Guitar Picks.

ROCK ON MY FRIENDS!!!!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Cartoon of the Day - Bath Time

When I saw this, I thought of my friend Kathleen from Life with 4 Boys that I really got to know while at Brandcation last weekend:

(click to enlarge)

I am also REALLY happy that Kathleen got to take home the vacuum that Sears donated for our conference - she totally deserved it!!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Brandcation Stay at Global Resort Homes - THANK YOU!!!

{Banner courtesy of UPrinting.com}

While I was at Brandcation this past weekend, I had the privilege of staying at Global Resort Homes at Windsor Hills Resort in Kissimmee. There where 33 of us that stayed in 4 of these gorgeous homes... here is the house that me and 8 other women stayed in.... and I would like to thank those women for being SO generous in allowing me to have the bedroom on the first floor so that I didn't have to worry about navigating the steps all the time. I had the best roommates EVER!!!

The first night we were there we had a get to know each other party with TONS of snacks and drinks provided by Pepperidge Farms, Dole, Cabot Cheese, Deans Dip, The Candy Wrapper Store, and Sam's Club; along with party favors from Blog Friendly PR (I love you Shasta!!)...

When each of us arrived, it was like greeting old friends because of the connections we had made via our blogs, twitter and the Momdot forum, but then we had SO much more fun getting to know each other even better through talking, game playing and a whole LOT of laughter. We also got to win lots of prizes that were gifts from several wonderful companies (listed below) - some of the ways we were able to win was by playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors," Musical Chairs, Fashion Shows and even something like "Let's Make a Deal." I was so lucky to get a fantastic Margarita Maker from Kelty Kids. {Party at my house!!} I was also very privileged to win a beautiful rosewood keepsake box that you can record a message and include a photograph from VoiceQuilt that I can send to my son in Afghanistan - I am SO excited about that!!

This is such a fantastic place to stay, I really think that if you are going to be in the Kissimmee area, you TOTALLY need to look into Global Resort Homes for your all your vacation needs. They are clean, pretty and comfortable. Since I live in the area, I know there are lots of places you can chose to stay and Global Resort Homes is definitely one of the best that you can pick. I especially LOVE our rep Tara Salinas, she went out of her way to make sure everything was working perfectly in our houses.

Right now Global Resort Homes is having a contest on their Facebook page for a 7-night stay at one of their resorts! WooHoo!! Don't forget to tell them who sent you, as they are also giving away a 4-7 night stay to those of us who refer you (you can also be a recipient of that if YOU refer people to them, so spread the word.). We had a wonderful stay at their resort, so I want to again say a huge THANK YOU to Global Resort Homes for all they did to make Brandcation a fantastic weekend.

Stay tuned for more posts about what else we did all weekend.....

Thank you to the following sponsors for their awesome gifts:

~ Food Should Taste Good Chips

~ Ikea

~ BAZI - Energy Drinks

~ Blunders Manner Mats (My grandson is going to LOVE these)

~ ShawneTV

~ Proforma Green Marketing

~ Bumble Bee

~ Uncle Ben's (I have donated this in our local Boy's Club pick up for the food bank)

~ Little Lamb Kidz

~ Journey Bars Nutrition Bars (kept us going on our adventures in Disney World - post to come)

~ Carolina Pad (this was one of my FAVORITE gifts)

~ Backyard Safari Outfitters Adventure Kits (another wonderful Christmas gift for my grandson)

~ Maple Leaf Farms Cookbook

~ Shoe Wallet

~ American Historic Inns

~ Cherb Chronicles

~ Canine Colors Book (bet you KNOW I can use this - TeeHee!!)

~ ShaToBu' Body Shaper

~ National Association fo Moms In Business (1 Year Membership - isn't that FABULOUS!!)

The fantastic giveaways were sponsored by this wonderful companies: (on top of those mentioned in the post)

~ Eversave (Special thank you to Eversave for the DELICIOUS baskets in each house! YUMMY!!)

~ Out of the Blue Delivered (They have the greatest items on this site - I WANT so many!!)

~ My Little Pony (I also received one of these, but passed it along to one of the ladies with a daughter)

~ Hip Fusion Designs

~ Karma Kitaj

~ Sears Home Appliances and Kenmore (They gave away FOUR vacuums - AMAZING!!)

~ Bounce Houses Now (Congratulations to Maria - she will be a ROCK STAR to her kids this Christmas!)

A special shout-out to Sounds for Fun Karaoke Store who had arranged for us to use a karaoke machine, but we were unable to go pick it up for our party. Thank you so much for the offer, I can only imaging how much more fun our party would have been if we ALL began singing. HaHa Also kudos to Kissimmee Guest Services (Keith Brady) and Kissimmee Visitors Bureau, with particular mention to Gail Bartashy, for all the work you did to help make our entire weekend in the area marvelous.

(I sure hope I didn't miss anyone... you were all so wonderful to help make our weekend amazing!)

{Disclosure: While I was given all these fabulous gifts, I did not pay for my stay and only paid an extremely nominal fee for all the activities that I participated in. I drove my own transportation and was graciously given gas money by the lovely ladies that were at the event with me. All the views expressed in these posts are ALL mine.}

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Closer on TNT Season 6 Final Episodes

One of my FAVORITE shows on TNT is "The Closer" staring Kyra Sedgwick, among others, including the adorable G.W. Bailey (whom I have loved since M*A*S*H). TNT will show the rest of season 6 beginning December 6th 9/8c - and I can hardly wait. Here is a mid-season 6 recap:

Want to learn more about "The Closer" and even see some behind the scenes photos and videos, play games and link up to them on Twitter and Facebook, head on over to the Official Website and find all things Closer... it is a really fun site to visit.

Check your local listings for TNT and check out "The Closer" on December 6th at 9/8c.