Save AND Make Yourself Some Money on Textbooks

Recently I was introduced to an awesome company- CampusBookRentals.com, and asked to share some of their awesome opportunities with you!   This is a GREAT site to get your books for college.  I know I personally think it is ridiculous how expensive books for classes in college cost.  I mean, who has that kind of money to fork out HUNDREDS of dollars for ONE book? I don't think so! But CampusBookRentals.com has a WONDERFUL site where you can save TONS of money. And with this semester coming to an end and a new one just around the corner who doesn't want that?! Some of the great things CampusBookRentals.com  can offer you are:

-you can save 40-90% off of bookstore prices

-free shipping both ways

-you can highlight in the textbooks

-really flexible renting periods

Amazing right?!

PLUS  these guys donate to Operation Smile with every book that is rented, which I LOVE and is SUCH a bonus for renting from this site. What is Operation Smile? This is one of my favorite charities.  As a nanny, I have a special place in my heart for children. Did you know that every 3 minutes a child is born with a cleft? And 1 in 10 of these children will die before their first birthday without receiving the proper medical treatment. I was dumbfounded and heartbroken reading those statistics. But Operation Smile is changing lives by helping these children and their families by providing free,safe, and life-changing and saving surgeries for these children.These children can go on to live normal, healthy, happy, smile-filled lives thanks to this wonderful organization! And by renting books through CampusBookRentals.com you can help yourself by saving tons of money, AND you can help save a child and need. Amazing!  

You can also check out www.RentBack.com

This site lets you rent out books that you already own to other students! So instead of selling those books and only getting pennies back on hundreds of dollars worth of books you can make money on them again and again...AMAZING!

I was compensated for this post but all opinions on these awesome companies are my own.

You're Gonna Hear Me Roar

I have had this blog for almost two years now. And in the past year (and a half if we are being honest) it has been severely neglected.  I have been so busy...with a lot of things. One of them being I get so caught up and distracted with reading other blogs that I never have time to do my own.  And then there's that little comparison monster that creeps in and tells me I haven't had anything good to say compared to these people. And these girls have perfect lives, they aren't anything like me. But lately it hit me...I love reading blogs where the authors are REAL. They pour their hearts out. They talk about REAL things going on in their lives, past and present. Good AND bad. Not just superficial things. They help people, just by sharing, and letting others know they aren't alone in how they feel, or in having bad experiences. 

It got me thinking.... I have been so quiet on my OWN blog. Especially lately.  And I feel like I am almost a completely different person than when I started this thing in the very beginning of 2012. And you know what? I have a lot to say! (these realizations could be due to the fact that I have been obsessed with Katy Perry's 'Roar' lately). And up until now I have been very, very private with my personal life.  I never wanted to talk about things that have happened in my life.  I have barely written personal things in my own journal about my private life. Part of the reason for that is there have been some very difficult and heart-breaking experiences. And it's like I didn't want to record them for anyone to ever read them, I felt like they were too near, too painful, too recent, too humiliating. And even in writing, it had always been very difficult for me to share what I am feeling. So I only alluded to them in past posts. Actually, like only one of them.

But things are different now, and because of these experiences, I have been learning how to open up. And I have decided to open up about my life. To use my tiny corner of the internet for good.  To maybe let someone else out there know that they aren't the only one to feel the way they do. 

I am not saying I am depressed. I am not saying I have a horrible life. I am not saying that I have had the most difficult, horrible experiences that are possible to have.  I AM saying that I have been hurt. That I have made mistakes. That I have lost myself. That I have been betrayed. That I have been broken so deeply I never thought I could heal. That I survived what was, at the time, my worst nightmare.  But, most importantly, that I have learned. That I have been blessed beyond measure. That I have grown. That I have loved. That I have been loved. That my testimony is strong. That I know things horrible things happen, but there is ALWAYS hope. That I KNOW my Redeemer lives, and HE is what has gotten me though everything and anything. That I have always had a light, not at the end of the tunnel and something always off in the distance, but right beside me leading me out of the dark. My Savior. And I know He lives. And I know that there's a purpose in EVERYTHING we are called to go through. I saw a quote recently by Brigham Young that said 

"Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation." 

I know that He would never allow me to hurt more than necessary. And that no matter what He calls me to pass through while on this earth, it will be MORE than worth it when I leave this earth. 

So here's to opening up, and sharing my stories. And you know what?

You're gonna hear me roar.