Pretty For Spring Blog Hop Winner....

And the winner of the Lia Sophia Raspberry Splash necklace valued at $98 is......
Dominique S!! Please be sure to email me your contact info at missmilliesays@yahoo.com so that I can get your gift out you! Congratulations!

Letting go of a friend....

Friendships can be such fragile things. One word or the wrong action can damage a friendship forever. It's almost like breaking up with a lover, I think. You share your most intimate secrets, spend tons of time time together, fight, break up. You get where I'm going with this right?

Sometimes the friendship just becomes toxic and you have to break loose. It suffocates you. The negativity becomes a constant presence in the relationship and you have to make the difficult decision to let go of a friend...

I had to make that choice last year, and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. The loss was so painful, because all I thought of was who am I going to talk to now. Who will listen to me when I celebrate my good days, or when I just want to bitch and moan about the kiddies and hubby? Who else will be brutally honest with me when I'm in the store fitting room trying something on and I ask if my ass looks to big in this dress?

Lucky for me, fate put some pretty amazing women in my life around the same time I had let go of this friendship. It didn't make the loss hurt any less, but having these women in my life taught me what healthy friendships SHOULD be.

Do you have a toxic friendship in your life? It can affect you more than you know, and you deserve better...

Pretty for Spring Blog Hop and Giveaway! April 18-22

I'm so excited. I'm hosting my very first giveaway as part of the Pretty for Spring Blog Hop hosted by The Howard House Reviews and Giveaways. This promises to be lots of fun with some pretty cool prizes. So be sure to check out the other great blogs participating.

My giveaway is being sponsored by me this time around. I am offering a lovely piece of Lia Sophia jewelry from the retired collection. It is the Raspberry Splash necklace with a retail value 0f $98.

So here's how it's going to work:

1.Mandatory entry: Follow me via GFC - which you can find on the sidebar.(1 Entry)
2.Follow ME on Twitter(1 Entry)
3.Subscribe to my newsletter via email - on sidebar (2 entries)
4.Tweet about the giveaway at least 2x a day (2 entries)
5.Leave a comment on blog letting me know you how you entered (1 Entry)
6. Have fun!!

1. www.howardhousereviews.com
2. www.familyapprove.com
3. colorcrazedart.blogspot.com
4. www.mottmottdeals.blogspot.com
5. www.missmilliesays.com

I was that kid...

So I was just reading a beautiful piece written by OldTweener on her blog, and it made me cry because it brought back some unwanted childhood memories for me. You see, I was one of the kids she speaks of in her post. One of the kids who stayed away from the other kids in school because I was always teased, or tripped, or hit when I ventured to close.

As I stated in one of my prior posts, I was severely abused as a child. On occasion I showed up at school with bruises. My mother couldn't be bothered with buying me new clothes so I usually wore clothing that was too small and nowhere near what all the kids were wearing.

I was the kid who no one wanted to play with. The other kids thought I was weird, too much of a nerd. Some of the kids knew what happened in my house, and didn't want to be involved. Not once did a teacher or school counselor approach me and ask if I was ok, if things were ok at home. No one wanted to get involved. The one time a neighbor finally called Child Services, my mother and her friend convinced the Social Worker that nothing was going on.

They left, and my hell continued.

I used to wish that one day a Fairy Godmother would show up and whisk me away from all the hurt and pain. I wished upon every star I saw shooting through the sky and I prayed every night. But nothing changed...

All I ask of you, is to take an extra minute as you go through your day and pay attention to the children and teens you may encounter. Don't be the one to see something is wrong yet not do anything about it. Sometimes just the simple act of asking "Is everything ok" can make a huge difference. Whatever you do, don't just walk away if you think something is wrong.

Take a second to do something. Make a difference in a child's life.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

So excited to be a party of the Ultimate Blog Party this year. How much fun is it to discover all these great blogs and make new friends in the process?!

A little about me. I am a happily married mom of 5 children ages 5, 12, 14, 16 and 19 who keep me insanely busy. Add in a full time job at a local non profit and and now blogging which I am enjoying immensely. My blog is pretty new and is pretty much about my family and  life in general. I will be adding in product reviews and giveaways soon.

Be sure to visit me again as I'll be part of the Pretty for Spring Blog Hop April 18-22nd and will be hosting my first giveaway. See you soon!

Purging....

I've been struggling with today's blog post for the past couple of days. It's a hard topic for me, yet it's so important to me. I want to finally write a book, not just any book, a story about me. I have no expectations that millions of people will read it and I will become insanely popular. That's not what I'm looking for. Closure, cleansing my soul, finally laying my past to rest...that's what I'm looking for. If my book is able to help heal others along the way, then I will be happy.

You see, I want to write about my life thus far. I am a survivor of child abuse. No matter how hard I try to forget that...I can't. It's always a part of me. It affects my everyday life whether I want to believe it or not. It affects my decisions on how to raise and discipline our children.

I have literally blocked out whole periods of my childhood. Sometimes the pain is too much and I don't want to remember. But it's important that I do. Because by remembering what happened to me, it reminds me that the cycle has been broken. I chose NOT to do the same to my children. I CHOSE to not spank my children. I chose to be the mother they need and not a mother they would grow to hate.

Now the time has finally come to tell my story. I know the process will be difficult, I'm already crying as I type this, but it's oh so necessary. I hope you
all will join me in this journey.

Pretty For Spring Blog Hop!!

So I'm pretty new to blogging as you all know, but lucky me, I get to be a part of the Pretty for Spring Blog Hop hosted by The Howard House Reviews and Family Approve

I am ridiculously excited about this and as a participating blog I will be hosting a giveaway of Lia Sophia jewelry. (Pictures will be posted next week).Because this is The Howard House Reviews first blog hop, she is keeping it relatively small, so the first 15 blogs to sign up will be in. It promises to be lots of fun. So be sure to join us April 18-22!!