Dad Life

My friend Shawn, sent me this video, and I just had to share it.  I hope that everyone was able to acknowledge a Dad for Father's Day.  Where would we be without them?


Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Thank you, Lord for the gift of good dads.  Thank you for giving so many of them wisdom, patience and a sense of humor.  Amen.

It's In The Bag!

A few months ago I found a blog website that is full of inspiration, creativity, humor and great photography. The author, Brooke, doesn't post everyday, so it is an easy site for me to follow along with. I like that in a bloggy website. And unlike my own blog, this one is "professional", with sponsors and giveaways and stuff. Anyway, I commented on one of her posts recently and WON a giveaway!! I was thrilled as I never win anything, and since I received the item this week in the mail, I wanted to share both the blog and my prize here with you.

The Prize:



An insulated lunch tote. Trendy, practical, pretty and fun! It looks like I could pack at least 3 pints of Chunky Monkey Ice Cream, 6 chocolate chip cookies, 4 chocolate bars, 2 cupcakes and a diet coke, easily. Not that I would do that. I don't drink diet soda.

And as if I didn't love the stylish patterned wet suit material enough on it's own, it's called the "Gourmet Getaway". Yes, please. Let's book that right now.




Okay, maybe that won't be happening right now, but I can cart all of my HEALTHY, gourmet snacks to soccer and baseball games, and be able to offer refreshing alternatives to all of my soccer/baseball mom friends from my new trendy bag! Now I just need a pair of shoes to match. Hmm...

Check out Brooke's site, but after you fall in love, don't forget to come back and visit me every once in awhile!

And you can get one of these bags, too. Visit Land of Nod here!

A Bit of Bling

On our first day in Minnesota, I had the opportunity to meet a lovely woman named Sherry who has her own jewelry business. Aside from being super friendly and sporting that Minnesota accent, she is VERY talented and her work is beautiful. And luckily, she has an online shop!

I am partial to supporting creative women; women who use their gifts to make beautiful things.

These pictures were all taken at her home. Her studio is right in her living room and she was having an Open House so all of her creations were on display. I wish I could have taken more pictures, but the battery died and the last shot I got was of the earrings I purchased....


Yeah, that didn't work. Unblurry, they are even prettier... So, go visit her website today. Or tomorrow. I don't want to be pushy. Click here to go - there: JitterJewels

On our LAST afternoon in Minnesota we went here..

Different kinda bling for me...

This is Penzey's Spice Market. An awesome shop in St. Paul (although they have others scattered around the country. I didn't really want to leave, but we did have a toy plane to board a little later, and I really depleted my wallet at this store, so I guess it was necessary to go. You can also visit them online: Penzeys

I purchased spices entitled Italian Sunset, Sunny Paris, Paprika: Hungarian Sweet. And quite a few others... They packaged them all up so beautifully, too. I'll have to take a picture later to post here. It just added to the whole experience. And I have to say that I LOVE ST. PAUL! It does not seem city-ish to me at all. Lots of cool restaurants and boutiq-ee type shops. And St. Paul's Cathedral is beautiful! It made for an excellent "girl's weekend" stop.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about our other stop and then that will be it. Because I still haven't even gotten to the rest of my family's experiences while I was away - and guess what? I'm going away again tomorrow for ANOTHER girls weekend with my mom and sisters. Then I'm done for a while. And Keith didn't even say that. I did.
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Lastly: Weight Loss. You may have noticed that I skipped last week. But probably not, so I'm just coming clean with you. I was up at 4:30 am last Friday to catch a plane, and wasn't capable of seeing any numbers on the scale. That doesn' t happen til much later in the morning. So, to get back on track here is where I now am from 2 Fridays ago....

+ 1 lb. Okay. I haven't really worked out much since Easter, so time to get back on track! After this weekend...

Hey, Cupcake!

Over the past year I've been seeing lots of things about cupcakes and their new found place in entertaining. Have you noticed this? Cookbooks entirely devoted to cupcakes, cupcake stationary, cupcake plates, really cool cupcake liners, cupcake t-shirts, cupcake everything! I've been toying with different cupcake ideas and then found two sites that were exactly what I was looking for, but all the thinking was done for me already.

First, I'll share the sites, but you must promise to come back to visit me from time to time. These ladies are professional to my amateur for sure!

The first is Bakerella - she has been mentioned in a number of magazines, and was even featured on Martha Stewart - and it started with this: cupcake pops

Next, a Sr. Close To My Heart Consultant, who is much more creative than myself, on the west coast, who shared this awesome papercrafted cupcake: Papercrafted cupcake

So, when I've had a little time here and there over the past week I've been trying these out. Here is my first attempt!

The Cupcake Gift Card Holder:

The Gift Card hides in the cupcake! Just pull the cherry up and viola!

And here are the Cupcake Pops:

They are as yummy as they are cute. Oh, and here is my little cupcake:

The recipe for the cupcake pops is on the Bakerella website. I made my own cream cheese frosting (for the cake mixture) and used Wilton pink chocolates for the icing, and Nestle chips with a little vegie oil for the coating on the base.

Both of these projects are now a permanent part of my collection. Loved them, and will be doing them again for sure! Not only fun and tasty, but very therapeutic!

Eat/Smart

Have you ever heard the story called A Grain of Rice? About 6 months ago I came upon a site which is like a game, but also a charity. For every answer you get correct, rice is donated to feed the hungry. So, you can brush up on your vocabulary or geometry, your Spanish or your history, and be donating food at the same time. It doesn't cost you anything but your time. Noah loves going on this site with me (usually at 9:00 at night when he is supposed to be in bed, but hey! if it helps him on his SATs in 8 years...)

Of course there are many other ways we can help the hungry, but if we all visit this site once and a while, too, just imagine how many people could be fed!

Check it out: http://www.freerice.com/