Overtired Mama's Travel Tips and Tricks

This is it, the moment of truth, this is the episode where we find out if Donny or Nicole goes home, and, whether Team America were successful in their challenge. A little recap of the flip flopping that was happening before this live eviction.  Caleb approaches Derrick about keeping Donny.  Derrick says he's glad he's not the one bringing it up (in the diary room - not to Caleb), but he's open to the idea.  Caleb goes to chat with Cody about it.  Cody is like a brick wall.  Not open to the idea in the least.  Frankie thinks it's a good idea. In the meantime, we learn that Team America will find out if they were successful in the "coming up with their own challenge" challenge through a "secret code" that Julie will have.  She will ask one of the Team America players what kind of food they would request as a have not this week.  They are to respond "Apple Pie".  If Julie says the request is granted, they were successful, if the reque

Aside from the fall out from nominations... we have Victoria, suffering from an apparent tooth ache.  Eventually, she passes out in the bathroom.  Scary moment for the houseguests.  They carry her in to the diary room.  She eventually comes around and says she's feeling better. Team America gets to come up with their own challenge.  Donny says they should save him... but the other two don't agree.  Frankie says (while doing his makeup in the diary room) that America would never want to save Donny (huh?).  Frankie says he'll figure something out. Derrick tries to explain to Donny why people are scared of him.  Basically saying it's because he's likable. Frankie suggests they do a play.  Donny still tries to convince them to save him, but Frankie is not on board.  They decide to do a play, much to Donny's dismay. POV - Detonators come up with a strategy.  We'll see if it works.  Winner gets POV, but they get to watch CBS's new show "Scorpi

I was prompted to write this post after reading so many negative comments and news articles about this challenge. Before this challenge, I will admit that I knew very little about ALS.  I have learned so much about this devastating disease throughout this campaign.  Some I've learned because I chose to look in to it further, some I've learned because of people including educational pieces as part of their challenge. This campaign is positive on two different levels - it's raised an enormous amount of funds, and it's raised awareness.  Yes, I realize there are people doing the challenge that will not donate any money, and yes, there are people that will learn nothing about ALS as a result of this challenge.  But the fact is that funds ARE being raised and people ARE learning things about ALS because of this challenge. How unfortunate that some are saying that this disease is unworthy of our donations due to the "small" amount of people affected.  Do I rea

People are reacting to Nicole's return to the game.  Unsurprisingly, no one is particularly happy about it.  Nicole and Donny do some game talk, which makes everyone talk about them working together. Caleb decides to bring out Beast Mode Ninja.  He shows everyone a series of kicks, spins and yelling.  Oh yeah, and then he falls down too.  He's so weird. HOH - Boxing challenge.  Unfortunately, Nicole is out first.  It ultimately comes down to Cody vs. Donny.  The winner is...... Cody.  Unfortunately, that doesn't sound good for Nicole or Donny.  The Detonator boys start discussing how they will have to get rid of Christine at some point soon.  I'd prefer sooner rather than later. Cody's HOH room - a couple of notable happenings: 1 - Caleb talks about how good looking Cody's sister is. 2 - Donny says he thought Cody was just "some dumb kid", but turns out he's "a genius". Nicole goes to chat to Cody to plead her case.  Cody make

Wow, episode 26.   Hard to believe that we're this far in to it, unless you start remembering all of the houseguests that are gone. Anyway - let's pick up with the fallout from Frankie's nomination of Zach.  Zach decides to go in to full campaign mode.  He's hoping that Frankie will back him up as a good choice to keep in the house, but Frankie doesn't do that.  Poor Zach feels betrayed.  To make matters worse for Zach, Victoria has taken her pink hat back (the hat Zach "borrowed" from her at the beginning of the season).  Zach is devastated. On to eviction time, and, no surprise, Zach is voted out.  He's pretty classy in his interview with Julie, considering I expected him to throw everyone under the bus and say what horrible people they were.  He didn't even trash Victoria, who, in her goodbye message, showed Zach that she had shredded his beloved hat.  Side note - is THAT her big game move?  This girl is terrible. While Zach talks wit

We open with the fallout from the Battle of the Block.  Donny is not a stupid man, he knows that Christine threw the competition.  He believes Derrick is one of the masterminds in all of this.  Derrick also knows something is up with Donny and he tells Frankie that Donny is on to them. I've been waiting for this episode all season because, it's the return of Zingbot.  When Zingbot arrives, he's not quite himself.  Zingbot is spouting compliments and the Houseguests don't like it.  Christine voices her displeasure - Don't worry Christine, soon enough, you'll be wishing that there weren't any Zings.  So after the niceties of Zingbot, the doorbell rings, and in comes Kathy Griffin to zing everybody.  Some of her zings include: "Who likes to wear pink and cuddle with men?  Zach!"  He tries to look hurt, but eventually can't help but laugh.  There's a Zing about all the cuddling Cody and Christine do.  She gets a little upset.  Cody says in th

Kids are amazing.  I don't just say that because I'm a mom, I say that because I'm surprised all the time by the strength and abilities of kids to do amazing things.  Here in Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada), there is an amazing school full of awesome kids who are doing an incredible thing for their community.  Bayside Middle School has about 600 students and the whole school gets involved in their annual "Walk for Kaitlyn" in support of the Children's Wish Foundation. Bayside's fundraising efforts began after a child at their school, grade 8 student Kaitlyn Doucette, passed away after a battle with cancer in 2002.  As the school dealt with the loss of Kaitlyn, they decided they wanted to have something positive come out of it, and it was decided that they would partner with the Children's Wish Foundation.  Since they began their fundraising campaign in 2002, they've had 2 more students pass away after battles with terminal illnesses.  This

We start right away with game play..... everyone is scrambling to save themselves from the block. First, Derrick manages to convince Frankie it's a good idea to keep Victoria off the block, and she's over the moon about it.  The Detonators decide that instead, it's a good idea to nominate Donny.   Who wants to see the HOH room???  Am I the only one who's kind of like "Meh" at this point?  Yeah, I know, Frankie's sister is Ariana Grande... fun, but I wasn't really sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear her letter.  Frankie's excited that he's now "free to be who he is" because he revealed that Ariana is his sister.  So, of course, there are lots of pictures of her.  And through her letter to him we learn (spoiler alert) she's opening the VMAs.  Then we get to see about 2 pictures of Derrick's.   Derrick pulls Donny aside to tell him he will be nominated.  Awww. Now, the next #TeamAmerica challenge - they

So, we start with the "betrayal" of Christine vs Nicole.  Nicole is feeling pretty bettrayed.  Victoria and Nicole speculate about who Christine is alligning herself with.  Nicole mentions Christines....unusual... relationship with Cody. For those readers who don't know much about what's been happening on the live feeds... Nicole and Cody cuddle a lot.  It is unusual because she's married. I hope it's ok with everyone that I'm not going to recap the football outing. I didn't find it particularly interesting for a couple of reasons: I'm not really a fan of Frankie Christine or Caleb, and... I don't really like football. The 3 houseguests got to go visit the Dallas Cowboys.  I'll leave it at that. On to tonight's vote - Nicole is unanimously voted out. I don't think anyone was surprised by that.  Nicole is sweet, as always, during her interview with Julie and, of course, Donny had a sweet "goodbye" message for her, hopin

Frankie reveals that he's "famous" and that his sister is Ariana Grande.  We see the two extremes... Victoria is starstruck (although she claims it doesn't really affect her), and Zach feels utterly betrayed.  He even yells and cries about it in the diary room.  He's pretty broken up. Frankie mentions that he will be donating his money to build schools in Africa... Zach yells in the diary room that people should just give him the money.  Did anyone else notice that someone (maybe Caleb?  I couldn't tell) asked Frankie if he was really gay.  Really? Now, a POV challenge involving OTEV (aka Gilbert Gotfried as a Penguin OTEV).  Nothing too notable during this competition other than a faceplant by Nicole, and Caleb referring to himself as "Beat Mode Cowboy" multiple times.  *yawn*  In the end, the winner is...... Zach.  Christine worries about getting more blood on her hands.   Side note - how many times have we heard the term "blood on my hand

Alright, I'm not a PGA golf fan, so the fact that Big Brother was delayed for that did not make me happy, but on top of it, they showed 60 minutes before Big Brother.  Boo.  As suggested by my blog title, I am consistently over tired.  So needless to say, I couldn't stay up for Big Brother (I live it the Atlantic Time Zone, so it was on at 11 PM our time, too late for me). I will, however, do a "point form" recap: - Remember that we're picking up where the the double eviction left off. - Nicole is pretty ticked about Hayden's eviction and takes it out on Christine and Frankie. - At the HOH competition, Christine and Nicole win HOH. - Zach tries to get back in Nicole's good graces by revealing all about past and present alliances. - Christine nominates Donny and Zach. - Nicole nominates Caleb and Frankie. - Frankie figures out that Caleb is going to throw the Battle of the Block, so Frankie asks him not to do it. - Caleb decides to sit out of the

Many of you know, or can tell from my Tweets and blog posts that I'm a pretty big Big Brother fan.  There aren't alot of reasons I would miss watching an episode, especially a double eviction episode.  But last night, I chose something over Big Brother.  Some girlfriends and I decided we were going to watch Sharknado 2.  I know, terrible movie, right?  But it's SO terrible, it's good.  I haven't laughed that much in a long time. The best part?  My friend is a "hostess with the mostess".  Check out the decor and snacks! Awesome, right?  The movie was just as "good" if not better than the first.  Horrible acting, horrible special events, a terrible storyline, cameos galore and Tara Reid's face that continually had the same facial expression whether she was trying to be happy, sad or confused.    I highly recommend watching this movie if you're looking for a laugh. Now, on to Big Brother....Double eviction night!

I've seen a variety of photo challenges on social media lately, and I have to say, I love it.  So many beautiful pictures of different places, people, things and more!  And so much creativity.  I was inspired while seeing some recent photo challenges over the last few weeks or so.  I decided to issue my own challenge.  This isn't a physical "prize" based challenge, my hope is that during and following the challenge, you feel great about what you've accomplished. If you've read some of my past posts, you know that I've often struggled with staying active, so, I've used that as inspiration for this challenge.  I'm calling it the "Couch to Action Photo Challenge".  Whether you are already really active, or are not active at all, this challenge is for you.  I encourage you to set your own goals, and use these photos to help motivate you.  I'm proposing this as a 15 day photo challenge.  Not too long, so hopefully a good length to commit

Picking up where the the Battle of the Block left off.  Caleb and Victoria won, but they had to accept 3 punishments to win - 2 weeks of slop, Adam & Eve (dressing in leaves and being chained together for 48 hours), and Caleb has to shave his head. Let me recap all of the punishments together... yes, slop sucks.  Chained together?  Probably the worst.  She is definitely high maintenance, I wouldn't want to deal with that.  Then... the hair shaving.  His reaction reminds me of the infamous reaction that Rachel had when confronted with the same challenge on Amazing Race.  Need a refresher? He shaves his head, and personally, I think he looks better. Christine decides to try to keep herself safe by suggesting to Nicole that Hayden has been making out with Victoria (not true), and that Hayden told Zach he was safe (not true).  Newsflash Christine, if you're going to lie about somebody doing something or saying something, it probably shouldn't be about Nicole's

The Saint John Sea Dogs are a Quebec Major Junior League hockey team based out of Saint John New Brunswick.  This year they are celebrating their tenth anniversary.  As part of the celebration they are offering a gift to fans, free tickets to their pre-season game on August 15th! Anyone who reads this blog, or follows me on Twitter knows that I love a good giveaway, and this one is awesome.  If you're going to be in Saint John, New Brunswick on August 15th, what a great evening of entertainment!  The game will put the Saint John Sea Dogs against the Cape-Breton Screaming Eagles.  It's sure to be a fun and entertaining game. To get your tickets for the August 15th game, head to the Harbour Station Box Office to get yours.  You can't get the free tickets online, so I suggest that if you are unable to get to the box office, you have a friend pick up tickets for you.  And while you're there, you can pick up tickets for the other two pre-season games for $9 each (plus $1

There are now multiple ways to keep up with my blog posts... 1 - You can follow me on Twitter at @Overtired_Katie; I always tweet as soon as my post is available. 2- You can click "follow" in the menu on the right. 3 - Do you use Blog Lovin? Follow my blog with Bloglovin 4 - Follow @YMCBuzz, they often share my new posts. If there are other ways you would like to be able to follow (ie - Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram), let me know and I can make that happen if there's enough interest. Thanks for reading!!

So, It's a long weekend here (New Brunswick, Canada), so... my family and I headed out to a camp on the river, where we have no cable... so needless to say, I missed Big Brother last night.  But I can tell you the following things about what happened in point form because I read the spoilers.  :) - Donny & Nicole were the HOH winners - Donny's HOH letter was from his girlfriend and makes him cry - Zach tells Nicole to nominate weak players - Nicole nominates Zach and Jacosta (haha) - Donny nominates Victoria and Caleb - Donny's nominees win!  He's de-throned and Nicoles nominees remain.