Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Meltdown giveaway!


Ready for a thriller?

The global war on terror has reached catastrophic proportions, leading the U.S. Special Operations EOD team—Task Force Valor—to Chernobyl, where ghosts of past disasters are nothing compared to the nuclear nightmare about to unfold.

With CIA Agent Mary “Phoenix” Walker heading her first Special Ops mission and Master Sergeant Bobby Sweeney fighting demons on and off the battlefield, Task Force Valor races to stop a terrorist threat in the Ukraine before Europe is turned into a radioactive wasteland.

But when the terror reaches American shores, the team is powerless to help until they can save themselves. And when they finally track down the source of the chaos, what they find is worse than anything they could have imagined.


Chuck Holton has traveled the world, experienced combat, served in the Elite 75th Ranger Regiment, and is the author of six books, including Allah’s Fire, Island Inferno, Bulletproof, Stories From a Soldier’s Heart, and A More Elite Soldier. His journeys have taken him from the depths of the Atlantic, to the mountains of Burma, from the dogsleds of Alaska, to skies of Iraq. Chuck lives in Appalachia with his wife, Connie, and their five children.

Interested in a copy? Leave me a comment and I'll have the random number generator do it's thing. Please enter by Friday, Sept 4.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Scenarios winner!

The random number generator has selected a Scenarios winner! The person is commenter #3.
True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 6 Result: 3 . Congrats to Chaos-Jamie! This is the friend who turned be on to blogging and book reviews! Only fitting, dontcha think? Stay tuned for more great reviews and giveaways!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Operation Organization Week Four!

If you are interested in Operation Organization visit Melinda's blog Coming Clean: Confessions of an Imperfect Parent.

This week has flown by! I found myself scrambling today to complete my week 3 goal. If you missed it last Friday, my goal was to tame my spice cabinet and utensil drawers in the kitchen.

So without further adieu, here are the before pics again -

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And the afters -

I have filled up my spice rack. I changed the bottles to reflect the spices I use most frequently! I love my Dymo labeler!

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I also have separate baskets for Italian, Chinese, and Mexican spices. I have a basket for sprinkles and extracts, etc. I purchased baskets at Target and Dollar General and spent a total of $14.

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I plan to used my labeler to label the baskets too, but I haven't had a chance today.

The utensil drawers still seem a little cluttered to me, although they are better. I washed them out and pitched pacifiers that haven't been used since last summer! (Among other things!)

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So, what's next weeks goal you ask? How can I find anything else that needs organizing? I've already done the linen/art closet, tamed the shoe mess, and now the spices and utensils. What could be left you ask? I am warning you that this isn't pretty and these images may be disturbing.... My "pantry" cabinets need some work! Here is the before -

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Come back next Friday to see my progress!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Hope of Refuge winner

So, drumroll please....The Random number generator at random.org has picked our newest winner! The Hope of Refuge by Cindy Woodsmall goes to commenter #5 who was Shelley! Congrats!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Operation Organization Week Three

If you are interested in Operation Organization visit Melinda's blog Coming Clean: Confessions of an Imperfect Parent.

You may remember that my goal this week was my art supply/linen closet. Here are the before pics I shared last week.

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Shameful!!!

So I buckled down and spent hours cleaning out this closet! I threw away two bags of stuff, have a bag of old linens to donate, and here are the after pics.

TADA!!

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One problem I had was keeping all the sheet sets together. I heard someone say recently that they folded the fitted and flat sheet and put them inside the pillowcase! Brilliant! Used that idea!

My goal for this week -

Three kitchen utensil and gadget drawers and my spice/baking supply cabinet.

Here are the ugly before pics -

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I love kitchen gadgets, now I need to find a way to find what I need easily.

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This just needs to be cleaned and purged!

Come back next Friday to see if I succeed!!! Happy organizing!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

40 minute Bible Studies by Kay Arthur

The 40 Minute Bible Study series from beloved Bible teacher Kay Arthur and the teaching staff of Precept Ministries tackles important issues in brief, easy-to-grasp lessons you can use personally or for small-group discussion. Each book in the series includes six 40-minute studies designed to draw you into God’s Word through basic inductive Bible study. There are 16 titles in the series, with topics ranging from fasting and forgiveness to prayer and worship. With no homework required, everyone in the group can work through the lesson together at the same time. Let these respected Bible teachers lead you in a study that will transform your thinking—and your life.


Titles Include:

•The Essentials of Effective Prayer
•Being a Disciple: Counting the Cost
•Building a Marriage That Really Works
•Discovering What the Future Holds
•Forgiveness: Breaking the Power of the Past
•Having a Real Relationship with God
•How Do You Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk?
•Living a Life of Real Worship
•How to Make Choices You Won’t Regret
•Living Victoriously in Difficult Times
•Money & Possessions: The Quest for Contentment
•Rising to the Call of Leadership
•How Do You Know God’s Your Father?
•Key Principles of Biblical Fasting
•A Man’s Strategy for Conquering Temptation
•What Does the Bible Say About Sex?

I received the copy of "How Do You Know God's Your Father?", and although I haven't finished it, I have already gained insight from the first few lessons. I like the Bible text being in the margins of the study book, so you can mark it up like crazy!!!

Kay Arthur, executive vice president and cofounder of Precept Ministries International has worked with her teaching staff to create the powerful 40-Minute Bible Studies series. Kay is known around the world as a Bible teacher, author, conference speaker, and host of national radio and television programs.

The Friends We Keep


Making friends has always been difficult for me. I even struggle now with rejection and so I don't try. I tell myself that's okay, because I have my husband and my kiddos and most importantly, my God! But I do know that I still have a longing to be liked and when in a room full of women, I often feel like the shy wallflower I remember being in junior high.

During a particularly painful time in her life, Sarah Zacharias Davis learned how delightful–and wounding–women can be in friendship. She saw how some friendships end badly, others die slow deaths, and how a chance acquaintance can become that enduring friend you need.

The Friends We Keep is Sarah’s thoughtful account of her own story and the stories of other women about navigating friendship. Her revealing discoveries tackle the questions every woman asks:

• Why do we long so for women friends?
• Do we need friends like we need air or food or water?
• What causes cattiness, competition, and co-dependency in too many friendships?
• Why do some friendships last forever and others only a season?
• How do I foster friendship?
• When is it time to let a friend go, and how do I do so?

With heartfelt, intelligent writing, Sarah explores these questions and more with personal stories, cultural references and history, faith, and grace. In the process, she delivers wisdom for navigating the challenges, mysteries, and delights of friendship: why we need friendships with other women, what it means to be safe in relationship, and how to embrace what a friend has to offer, whether meager or generous.

Sarah Zacharias Davis is a senior advancement officer at Pepperdine University, having joined the university after working as vice president of marketing and development for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and in strategic marketing for CNN. The daughter of best-selling writer Ravi Zacharias, Davis is the author of the critically-acclaimed Confessions from an Honest Wife and Transparent: Getting Honest About Who We are and Who We Want to Be. She graduated from Covenant College with a degree in education and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Learn more or buy it here.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Scenarios series for girls

When I "met" Nicole O'Dell several months ago in blogworld and found out that she was publishing a series for girls that emphasize choice-making, I was so excited! I immediately asked to be involved in promoting these books.




I have 11-year-old and 9 year-old daughters and they are growing so fast. One of my goals is preparing them to consider their options and make good, educated decisions. These books present girls with dilemmas common to teenagers and gives them the opportunity to choose as the character. I like the fact that the books stress the idea of facing consequences for our decisions.

My 11 year old daughter read "Truth or Dare" after I read the books for this review. I wanted to share her thoughts with you -

The book Truth or Dare is a story of Friendship and temptations. The Truth or Dare sleepovers start as harmless pranks but soon the Dares get bigger and more risky. When Lindsey promises to choose Dare, her friends choose something that could disappoint her parents and God. With friendship on the line, YOU have a decision to make, what should Lindsey do?


I think she summed it up nicely, didn't she?

We also discussed the book when she finished and she told me, "It's really easy to say what you would do in that situation when you are reading a book, but real life is a different thing."

Truth or Dare and All That Glitters are the first two books in the Scenarios series. The series is targeted at 10-15 year-old girls.

Nicole O'Dell lives in Illinois with her husband and SIX children, three of whom are triplets. With a heart for young girls and a special passion for the relationship between mothers and daughters as they approach the teen years, Nicole created the Scenarios: Interactive Fiction for Girls series to help girls develop sound decision making skills, Her writing also includes devotionals and Bible studies for women of all ages. Check out her website here.

If you are interested in an autographed set of these two books, leave a comment here telling me about your decision-making as a teen! I'll use the random number generator to select a winner on Friday, August 21st.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Grand Finale

Day 6 is here! The Finale of the 2009 family staycation!! It was a good and busy day again today. First we went to the old Union Station building that has been renovated into a Museum and entertainment complex.

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She liked the echo of her voice!

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The architecture is beautiful!

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We went to the travelling Narnia exhibit which unfortunately would not let us take pics inside the exhibit.

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Then courtesy of the internet, we enjoyed a free visit to the Science City Museum for kids. It is fun! Two floors of science related interactive exhibits.

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She tried to take a bath with the ducks!

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This bike is on the second story - it was hard to watch them do this.

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Hubs and the boy really enjoyed playing this pipe instrument with flip-flops.

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Aren't they cute?

Then we crossed the street to Crown Center and had lunch at Fritz's. The food is just diner hamburgers, but the delivery style is unique.

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Yep that's a train.

And here are my engineers.
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We visited this free exhibit of "lego art" All the mosaics and sculptures are made completely of legos!
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Then we went to the Crayola store. There are lots of fun things in this store.

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Then it was back home for another mandatory rest period. Then we had a pizza indoor picnic and watched a movie.

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We also had an impromptu beauty session.

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Now, we are ready for school to start. Well almost. We need to get a little rest first! Thanks for sharing the fun with us this last week! Anyone need a travel agent?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Staycation Day Five (aka mommy needs a nap)

I seriously considered our day today as my cat woke me up at 6 am, digging his incisors into my ankle. (Yes, I decided to let him live!) We had ambitious plans. We are all a little tired. We are having a hard time because of the age span of the kiddos (2-11), finding things that keep everyone entertained. Yes, it is a good opportunity to teach that being part of a family means that you are not always going to be entertained. It is an opportunity to instruct that family vacations are a little "give and take." But, in the spirit of honesty, all I want to do when a child zooms thru a display/event faster than the speed of light and declares, "Is this ALL we are going to do today?", all I want to do is scream and lecture on gratefulness and privilege. That and maybe a little discipline...,

This morning we headed approximately 1 hour north of home to St. Joseph, MO. It is an area rich in history and museums.

Our first stop was the Pony Express Museum and thanks to a coupon in a travel guide, we were able to get all 6 of us in for $8. The museum is housed on top of the old site of the stables for the Pony Express! They had lots of hands-on exhibits, and memorabilia and a play area for the kiddos. This went over extremely well!!

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The kiddos next to the replica of the beginning of the first Pony Express Ride.

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Sitting on the saddles.

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Sorting mail

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Enjoying the play area.

Across the street from the Pony Express museum is a park with this huge engine. We had to walk over and have a look!

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And of course, what do my children find on this huge engine? A new friend! A tiny new friend! Not the huge engine that captures their attention, but this does!

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You saw it right? Yes, they wanted to bring it home. And even though it reminds me of my childhood kitty, NO THANK YOU! One set of cat incisors in my ankle are enough, thank you very much!

So once I was labeled the meanest mom ever -

Our next stop was the Patee House Museum. It was a little more expensive but probably worth it! I wouldn't truly know, because of the aforementioned "zooming" thru. It was originally a hotel, was an office for the Pony Express, was a women's school, a garment factory, a Union headquarters during the Civil War, a sanitarium for epileptic patients and now is a museum. The architecture is beautiful and the place is packed with artifacts! Hubby and I could have spents days there! They also had an operational carousel that the kiddos enjoyed.

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A stop at the soda fountain.

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We then drove to the Remington Nature Center. We enjoyed our picnic lunch there. The nature center was also filled with interactive displays for the kids. It had a wonderful paved walking trail right along the banks of the Missouri River too! It was very nice and also very affordable. If you are bothered by references of man being millions or billions of years old, be forewarned that there is some of that here. If you look past that and discuss it later, it still had a lot to offer. Some great Indian artifacts and an aquarium too!

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This is one of the coolest interactive exhibits I have seen. It walks you thru different wildlife and characteristics about them and their tracks "magically" appear in the sand!


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This is a honeybee hive under glass with a pipe feeding to the outside of the building. We watched the bees come and go and work, work, work!

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Lifting some railroad track.

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A cool bridge on the walking trail.

We had planned another stop but we were all tired and the weather was starting to get stormy so we headed home.

AND this is why we do it -

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Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go protect my ankles and get some sleep for tomorrow's adventure!!!