The puppies!

Last night we got to visit our future puppy's house. She is about 3 weeks old. Her litter had 7 total pups. 3 yellow, 3 brown, and one black lab puppies. We have been anticipating our new arrival at our house and slowly collecting things for her. I'm glad to hear we still have until the end of Sept. before she comes to live with us so we have a bit more time to get things ready.

The puppies were just so cute. The proud parents did such a good job letting us look at them and hold them for a bit. They have really started to open their eyes this week the owners told us. I can't wait to stop back out next week and see how much they have grown.

Back To School

Today was B's first day back to school at his Montessori Preschool. He was so excited this am and wore his backpack around the house for an hour before the bus came to pick him up after lunch.


I made a little treat for him to take to his teachers. It was a little tin with a bag of Hershey's Bliss chocolates inside. On the front of the card it read, "Red Cross First Aid Kit" and the inside said, "...because there is nothing a piece (or two!) of chocolate can't fix." As I former teacher myself, I know this is so true!

If only I was named David and drove a Camaro

Famous Dave's is offering free entrees for anyone named Dave, David, or Davy in honor of Famous Dave's 15th Birthday celebration!

Now calling all Dave’s! On Sunday, August 30, 2009, anyone with the first name of Dave, David or Davy can receive a free entrée (maximum value of $15). In addition, anyone with the middle name of Dave, David or Davy can receive a half price entrée (maximum value of $7.50). Dave’s,

David’s and Davy’s can enjoy this offer whether dining in or ordering barbeque TO GO.

And if I only had a Camaro, I could get free pizza at Papa John's. Read the story about how Papa John lost and found his Camaro here. In honor of "Papa John's" reunion with the Camaro he sold to keep his pizza business running he is giving a FREE one topping pizza to all camaro owners tomorrow, Wednesday August 26. You must drive there in your Camaro to pick up you carry out order.

Both of these deals came from the all too awesome Chicks Dig Deals Blog.

Now, Darn IT! My name is only Amber and I drive a mini-van. oh, poop.

JK Wedding Dance- Violence prevention and intervention

I posted the Jill and Kevin Wedding Entrance Dance a while back and thought it was so very funny. Their video has had over 12 million views on YouTube and it seems like everyone has seen it somewhere or another.

I learned yesterday that due to the circumstances surrounding Chris Brown, who sings “Forever,” they are going to turn their publicity into something positive and ask for donations to support the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

They have started their own blog, found here, and have already collected over $16,000 towards domestic violence prevention and intervention.

6 years ago...

I married my hubby!

After 9 months of dating, he proposed one night in our apartment for my 25th birthday. We were married 2 months and 3 days later.

Our wedding was absolutly fabulous. We put it together quickly and on a budget and we love how it turned out. The church was full to the brim and we were surrounded by so many loving family members and friends. The night was such a blast- dancing until the very last song of the night.

We have been through a lot, but we've been there together! I love my hubby with all my heart!

Weekend Cakes

Back To School

Hurry, Hurry! You have a little bit of time left to enter over at Chicks Dig Deals for a awesome prize package, "better back to school giveaway". This package includes lots of great school supplies from Avery, bonus box tops for education and a FREE product coupon for Pillsbury Toaster Strudels and Totino's Pizza Rolls!

Yippie! School supplies!

And.... you can get an entry by leaving your name and what was your favorite school lunch item...hurry on over and check out what mine was!

AND BTW.... if you don't already subscribe to the Chicks Dig Deals blog, you are missing out on some great deals and money saving offers!

The Shutter Re-do

Look what my uber-cool hubby did for me today!
Before












After





He painted our shutters. I love how it turned out! I am so happy- they are even better than I expected. Now I can't wait to get our new door. I want an all glass BLACK one for the front.

Like this one:



Thanks, honey!

On the Bookshelf

What I'm reading:

Jodi Picoult's Picture Perfect


What I just got in the mail:

A Perfect Mess by Lisa Harper compliments of Callapidder Days


Yea!

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2*

Okay ya'll... I'm back from our little va-ca and just worn out! I had planned to go through the photos from day 4 of My Life. In Pictures. and choose our Shot of the Day on Friday and then do the same for day 5 on Saturday.

Little problem. Downtown Marriott in Des Moines did not have wireless in the rooms. (um, well they did, but it was $12 a day and I was to cheap to pay that)

So, here I am with the much anticipated (okay, maybe that is an over statement!) SHOTS OF THE DAY.....

Day 4- Something you are proud of- okay, honestly this was hard to pick because people posted great accomplishments such as learning to cook, a great climbing adventure, a husband/ father in the service, kids, kids, and more kids, and a great variety of other things.... how could I choose between all of these? They were all great things to be proud of!

So, I wasn't going to pick one. But then I thought, hey you know what.... just pick one. So I did. I am awarding the Shot of the Day to: JoeyBelle at Brilliant Brunette. She spoke at a Girls Camp Out and I am just drawn to this. I can't wait to hear more about this which she is later going to post about. I think that mentoring young girls and being a good leader for them can be so important.

The Shot of the Day for Day 5- Black and White goes to Sandy at the Adams Family! Love this shot!

Thanks again for everyone who jumped in and played, for a day or all week! It is always fun to get a peek into each other's lives!

I hope that you will join us in October!

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2/ Day 5

We are leaving for vacation this afternoon (Thurs.) so I have not picked a "shot of the day" for Thursday yet. I will post SOTD sometime this weekend.

I want to first thank eveyrone who joined in My Life. In Pictures. this time! Some of you played only for a day and some were in all week! I think this photo challenge is lots of fun because we get to know one another a little bit better.

It is especially fun for me to see those who post each day and wonder what they will post the next day.

I was excited to have a few new people join in for round 2. Yea! Welcome, and it was nice to meet you!

We only had about 1/2 as many players this time, but that's okay... it didn't keep me up as late each night. I am hoping that maybe since it is summer and everyone is so busy that some were not able to participate this time around.

We will try for Round 3 in early October. That should give us some fun fall things to take pics of. As always, please email me with any suggestions for ideas for next time. amberloo22 AT AOL DOT COM

Here was my list of things from Session 1 that I needed to work on doing better for Session 2... Let's see how I did:

I need to:
* post it at the right time and day- Check... I got each post to go right when I wanted it to
*have a Mr. Linky that works - Check... Mr. Linky worked each day. On day one, I had the wrong one up, but the wonderful help desk at Mr. Linky got it straightened out with no interruptions!
*remember to post Mr. Linky on the post - Check... I put him on each day!

Yea! I am proud of myself!

For Friday's Black and White Photo Challenge I am giving you a picture of two of my very good friends Wendeline and Hollie. We taught together for two years and became good friends. Hollie was a deserter and moved to Des Moines however. It is nice when we are able to still get a little time together if she comes back or if we visit in Des Moines.

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2/ Day 4

The Shot of the Day for Wednesday's "Out & About " challenge goes to Kate B. I LOVE this shot of the daddy walking with his little ones on the streets of Chicago. I love the city. Never been to Chicago, but big cities in general. I love the black and white and all of the surrounding people and buildings. Great job, Kate!

Thursday's challenge is "Something that you are proud of". Since it is late, and I am tired as usual... I am going to post something easy.

Here is a picture of the last cake I did on Saturday. My friend Ashley got me started in cake decorating and I have enjoyed doing it for about a year and a half. I had an order to make this Thomas the Train birthday cake for a friend's 2 year old son.

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2/ Day 3

The Shot of the Day from yesterday goes to: Cris at Elemental Baby. She selected a favorite photo that she took of her daughter. I love the emotion you can see in her little one's face as she enjoys some of her first "rides". The laughter you can almost hear through the picture is priceless! Great job!

For day 3 of the My Life. In Pictures. Challenge we were to show something "out and about". After we ate dinner I grabbed my camera and we all jumped in the car. I didn't know what I was going to find to shoot.

We ended up stopping over (unannounced, I might add) at a friend's house. She had mentioned a while back that they have two calves and how friendly they were. I thought if we could sneek in a little visit that I could get a shot for our "out and about" catergory.






Hubby, B, and I all enjoyed feeding the calves named Frosty and Brownie. They came running right up to the fence and let us pet them. They were just the cutest things. We also enjoyed looking at all of the fresh produce they have growing in their garden. The kids all found a few ripe tomatoes to pick as well.


Tomorrow the challenge is to show us "Something you are proud of". I know some of you have already posted pictures that could have worked in this catergory as well!

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2/ Day 2

Yesterday the challenge was to show us something representing Summer Fun. Lots of great pictures came in for that! I was a little jealous at all of the beach pictures I must say. I love the beach and haven't been in several years. I can't wait for the chance to take B to visit one and for him to play in the water and with the sand.

The shot of the day for Challenge #1 goes to.....Jenny at Through Jenny's Lens. Her sweet, sweet little ones are showing the perfect picture of lazy days of summer. They just look like the best of friends. Great job and thanks for sharing them with us!

Today the assignment is to show us something in your life that is a favorite. One of my favorite places to go when I get a night out is Celler 19. I luva luva me some Blueberry Muffin Martinis from the Celler. Yum, Yum my favorite! I was able to go on Friday night with my hubby to meet up with one of my very most favorite friends, Kim, who lives in Colorado. It was so fun to be able to hang out with her for a while. I miss her so much and wish she was closer so we could have our kids play together!

Chasing Picture Perfection- Photo Assignment #2

Once again I am participating in Assignment #2 at Chasing Picture Perfection. I earned an A+ badge for my entry with Assignment #1. This time we are working on creative framing. I have already seen some of the entries for this and I feel like they are way more creative than mine. However, I enjoy the thought of looking around at different places I go and looking for more places I could practive the creative framing technique.












These pictures were taken last week after I heard the assignment for #2. I loaded up the kids and we headed to Omaha's Lauritzen Gardens.

Check out Stacie's blog, Chasing Picture Perfection, for some great photo tips and assignments.

My Life. In Pictures- Session 2/ Day 1

Welcome to the My Life. In Pictures. Session 2! I'm so glad to have you back! We had a great time with session one and it was fun to get to know one another from the pictures you posted in the challenge.

I hope you enjoy this week and get the opportunity to pick up your camera and get some pictures to share that show us a bit of Your Life In Pictures.

The purpose of this photo challenge project is to encourage you to pick up your camera and start capturing details of your life. This project should also serve as a way to look at what others are finding to shoot and will hopefully keep you inspired to look for more moments in your life you wouldn't always think to capture with your camera. You are welcome to just post a picture or tell us a story to go along with it.

If you are just joining us... you can click here to get more details on how this works.




If you are playing along, be sure to post the URL to your post (not your blog URL) below with Mr. Linky. I can't wait to see what everyone has found to show us! Be sure to visit the others who are participating and see what they have posted to share with us.

Thanks for playing and see you all on Tuesday for "a favorite".

My Life. In Pictures. Day 1--
B enjoyed a few days at some of the local pools this summer. Our town does not have a pool anymore so we have to travel to some surrounding communities to swim. We only had one day where it was over 90 so we didn't get as much pool time as usual for the hot & humid midwest summers.