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Be it a subdued engagement party or a more risque bachelor or bachelorette party, there are going to be some favors and gifts given out. Such get-togethers present a fun opportunity to give your almost-married friend a unique gift or two. My husband and I received some pretty awesome gift items. At our engagement party we got mostly cash in cards, which is also an awesome gift idea, but we got other things too that were really quite neat. Many of the presents we received from our friends and family were small items, like champagne for our wedding, gift cards, sports tickets, and theater tickets. Even though you don’t have to bear gifts at an engagement party, many of our friends and family did anyway.
The guys at the bachelor party got my fiance a shirt that said ‘I survived my bachelor party, but I don’t remember how,’ along with some other crazy shirts and things. He also received as a groom gift, a groom sun visor, a mug with the word groom printed on it and a wine gift set. He came home from the party with an inflatable doll and a ball and chain that he said they made him wear the whole time the party was going on. The guys had other funny bride wedding gifts they gave him, to ad to the merriment of his bachelor party. My girlfriends gave me some lovely bride gifts, but I got my share of joke gifts along with them. I received a present with a big ribbon on top that turned out to be an elegant white evening bag made of satin with a crystal clasp on it. They put a pin and a shirt inside the bag that I had to wear for our night on the town, and there were some make-up and manicure accessories inside as well. But I think my favorite little novelty bride gift was a throw pillow that said ‘tonight’ on one side, and ‘not tonight’ on the other. What a crazy present that was, and I know I’ll have a lot of fun using that .
On the other hand, the bride and groom wedding gifts we got the reception were all more serious. We thought we might get some duplicate gifts, and we did, like a few blenders and a couple more toaster ovens than we really need, but that’s to be expected at such a large ceremony. We did get some of the things I had written on to our bridal registry, like the china I wanted and the food processor. My mother- and father-in-law gave us a bar side set and a pool table, and my husband thought it was absolutely wonderful, and has already planned a get together with the guys. As a wedding gift from my mom and dad they bought our plane tickets for our honeymoon to the Greek Isles. We received a lot of wonderful gifts on our wedding day from our loving families and fantastic friends.
Having all our friends and family around us on this more than special day meant more to us than anything. We were able to spend our engagement party, wedding, and reception with them, and we are so glad about that. They have always been there for us no matter what, and I’m so glad we have so many wonderful friends and such a devoted family, in our lives. It’s also great to have such wild and crazy friends in the mix to throw you such fantastic girls night out parties and bachelor parties. Having friends in your life like ours can really make life worth living. The magnitude of our gratefulness for having them as friends, along with the most fantastic families, just cannot be expressed in something as small as a thank you note.

When I picked the theme for the baby shower, I couldn’t help but think of Ernie on Sesame Street and his favorite bathtub song of ‘Rubber Duckie You’re the One.’ It seemed like a longshot, but I checked to see if there were any duck baby shower available anyway, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot simpler to put together such a baby shower than I anticipated it would be, especially with all of the outstanding input I gleaned from suring the Internet. You can can a ton of different duck favors online, not just for showers but for birthday parties for younger kids as well.
I was holding the shower in my rec room in the basement so I had plenty of room to set up indivdual tables to seat four guests at each. I got a yellow ducky cake with a couple of layers, the bottom one of which said baby girl in red frosting, and then I put that next to plates, drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and other deserts; on a table on the other side of the room, I put all of the baby shower presents. On the wall I had a huge cut out of Daisy Duck and smaller cutouts of Donald, Mickey and the whole Mickey Mouse Gang.
The place card holders I bought and put out at the shower were miniature pink picture frames that had a little ducky in each of the corners. The punch bowl had ducks painted all over it, as did the plates, napkins, glasses, and favor candles that each guest received as a gift. I bought a bathtub for an infant that was in the form of a duck at a local retail place, and I put the punch bowl inside of it. It looked pretty adorable. I found an ice cube tray that made little duck ice cubes, so I put yellow water in them and froze them. Believe me, it was the most ducks you’ve ever seen in one place at one time.
On the world wide web, I found a bunch of great ideas, and that’s pretty much where I found everything I needed, but I did get a few recommendations from some of the people at my school. On the Internet is where I found duck shower favors, such as the precious duck baby shower favor bookmarkers I found, and the duck candles, too. The people at the shower thought they were to die for, and they got handed out to the winners of the games we did at the shower as well.
I put some rubber duckies in a large, square-shaped, makeshift tub that I filled with water before anyone got to the shower yet. On the bottom of the ducks I wrote numbers and as the guests arrived they each had to pick a duck out of the little pond. We gave out a prize for the person who had the winning number, which I pulled out of a hat a bit later during the shower. We also did the old game where you try to guess which person belongs to which baby picture. The guests were told in advance to take a baby picture of theirs to the shower with them, and then we put them all on a board and put the board in the front of the room. Each guest got a chance to check out the board and see how many pictures they were able to match up with the faces of the other guests. The duck baby shower favor went to the one who guessed accurately on the most pictures.
Everyone enjoyed themselves, and the new mommy picked up quite a pile of wonderul presents for her baby girl. Going on the net to help me put together this shower was an outstanding decision. I didn’t know how it would all come together, but it all worked out very well in the end. The duck theme really was a cute idea.

During the recession, people will go the distance to save a few pennies on fuel, there’s a flourishing new type of energy drink that costs 20 times as much per ounce as Coca Cola – energy shots.

A growing number of Americans are turning their backs to $3 cups of coffee, and picking up $3 2-oz shots of energy liquid – and most of them taste bad.

The energy shot market is expected to double this year, to $700 million in sales – and Living Essentials will likely be responsible for over 80% of those sales, as they created the original product – the 5 Hour Energy shot.

Other companies have sprung up, in an attempt to capture some of this new energy drink market – energy shots such as 6 Hour Power, Fuel 7 Hour, and 8 Hour Energy are all attempting to tap into this new industry.

Though it sounds similar, 8 Hour Energy has raised the bar a little higher for the competition. In addition to caffeine, it includes Acai, Gogi, and Tahitian Noni – three incredibly popular berries, each known for their natural energizing and dietary benefits. Currently, the only other way to get a serving of Acai berry is to purchase a $40 bottle.

Aside from the health-benefits, The Mr Energy 8 Hour Energy shot contains no calories or carbs, and it tastes great!

“I’ve seen the 5 Hour ads plastered all over the media. But if people read the labels before they buy, I think they’ll go for 8 Hour Energy. It’s just a better quality product,” says Darin Steen, one of the top ranked health and fitness instructors in the world.

In a blind test conducted at the University of Florida, 9 out of 10 students preferred the 8 Hour shot over 5 Hour Energy. Other test-groups were given free samples of the Mr Energy 8 Hour Energy shot, and returned with rave reviews.

“Wow… after taking the 8 Hour Energy, not only was I able to stay up to study for finals, I picked up a basketball game after! Without it, I probably wouldn’t have managed to do either,” laughed Troy Smith, a senior majoring in Finance.

“Mr Energy 8 Hour Energy shots are amazing. I stayed energized and focused, and totally aced my final. It’s like time in a bottle,” said Stephanie Wilcox – a student at the UF College of Dentistry.

Despite 5 Hour Energy’s 60 million dollar advertising budget, Bhelliom Enterprises, the creator of 8 Hour Energy, believes their superior product needs only word-of-mouth to prevail. “The ingredients speak for themselves,” says CEO of Bhelliom Enterprises, Casey McCarthy.