A season of giving...

I've been eyeing this person's work for quite some time, as she has a great eye for design and colors. Recently, she began a series of giveaways! Check out her work and generous spirit HERE.

(btw... I totally left a comment to try to win the business cards as seen above...)

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street...

This is just too much! Aren't these the most adorable CAKE POPS you've ever seen? Have you ever seen cake pops? :)

I'm actually thinking of attempting to make some for a certain little guy's second birthday that is coming up in oh, about 3 weeks. However, I won't be doing a Sesame Street theme ... nor do I think the ones I end up with will be anywhere near this adorable! What a fun idea, though!

Head over to www.Bakerella.com to see how she made these! (Happy 40th Birthday, Sesame Street!)

Emerging...

On Monday afternoon, the boys, Na (Ada), and I went over to Meemaw's house to release some Monarch butterflies. (Meemaw is Ryan's paternal grandmother.) What a neat experience! She has a small habitat just for raising the butterflies on her property, and had called earlier that day to say there were eleven butterflies ready to be released.

It was such a great learning opportunity -- not only for the boys, but also for myself. These gorgeous insects are even more magical now after seeing them at several life stages, all in one location. We saw the caterpillars munching on the butterfly weed, several chrysalises (chrysali?) still waiting to hatch, and also the shells left behind after the butterfly emerges. An added bonus was that Meemaw got to meet our newest little butterfly, Toben.

It felt good to be out of the house (for me). I guess I did a bit of emerging that day, too!

Meaningful Math...

If you read the subject of this post, you may be making a face right about now. We received the following in an email this evening, and my math-and-numbers-loving husband thought it was so cool. I did too, which is why I'm sharing it with you all:

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%. How about ACHIEVING 101%? What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If: H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K

8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%

And: K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E

11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%

But: A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E

1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%!

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close,

and Attitude will get you there,

It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

We love these...

This book was given to us almost three years ago by the Brammers, shortly after Caleb was born. They were up in the Boston area (to run the Boston Marathon...sheesh) and picked this up at the Harvard library. Little did they know that it would begin a slight addiction on my part!

With it's beautifully, artfully, masterfully designed pop-ups and wonderful details about dinosaurs, this is one book that kiddos and adults alike will have a hard time putting to the side. In fact, we keep this Dinosaur book (and its cousin, Sharks) up on a shelf in our study where little hands don't have access. It's quite a treasure!

This Christmas, the Brammers gave America the Beautiful to Logan. We also have these two books (gifts from Na & Papaw), which are similar in the elegant simplicity of design. Sabuda put great effort in creating these books, and the attention to detail is just amazing to me. How does someone visualize, and then create, something like this? Truly a work of art.

If you're looking for a gift for a little boy (or even a big boy or girl) these might fit the bill! They are so fun and intricate, that I find new things in each pop-up nearly every time we look at them. My hope is that these books will be enjoyed for many, many years to come.

At last...

This totally made my day. Our local news station just put out a "just weather" website, and can you tell what my favorite feature is? A "haircast"!!
As a former meteorology major, this just tickled me all shades of pink.
Check it out here!

Oh, and we've got snow today in Houston! Just so you know.

Oh, wow...

That wordle site is really cool. Sure wish I could save some of these images to my computer...


Click on the image above to see it in a larger version. Unless you have microscopic eyesight, that is!

The words are from "He Is" by Aaron Jeoffrey (I honestly didn't know about this song, until I read about it on another blog. I love that it speaks to 'who' God is in each and every book of the Bible!)

"In Genesis, He's the breath of life

In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our high priest
In Numbers, the fire by night
Deuteronomy, He's Israel's Guide
Joshua, He's salvation's choice Judges, He's Israel's Guard
In Ruth, the kinsmen's redeemer
1st and 2nd Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles He is Sovereign
In Ezra, He's the true and faithful scribe
In Nehemiah, the re-builder of broken walls and lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms He is our morning song
In Proverbs, He is our wisdom
Ecclesiastes, He's the time and season
In Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream
In Isaiah He is Prince of Peace
In Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
Lamentations, the cry for Israel
Ezekiel, the call from sin
Daniel, the stranger in the fire
Hosea, the forever faithful
Joel, the spirit's power
Amos, the strong-arms that carry
Obadiah, the Lord our Savior
Jonah, the great missionary
Micah, the promise of peace
Nahum, our strength and shield
In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's brings revival
In Haggai He restores that which was lost
In Zachariah, He's our fountain
And in Malachi, He's the son of righteousness rising with healing in His wings

In Matthew Mark Luke and John, He is God and Messiah
In the spirit filled book of Acts, He is the reigning fire from Heaven
In Romans, He is the grace of God
Corinthians, the power of love
Galatians, freedom from the curse of sin
Ephesians, our glorious treasure
Philippians, the servant's heart
Colossians, He's God and the trinity
Thessalonians, our calling King
In Timothy, Titus and Philemon, He's our mediator and our faithful pastor
In Hebrews, the everlasting courage
In James, the one who heals the sick
In 1st and 2nd Peter, our faithful shepherd
In John and Jude, He's the lover coming for His bride
AND in the Revelation, in the very end, when it's all over, said and done, when time is NO MORE. He is and will always be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace, son of Man, Lamb of God, The Great I am, Alpha and Omega, God and Savior He is Jesus Christ the Lord HE IS EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEED!"

So fun...

This site, wordle.net, allows you to make some really fun word clouds. I tried to make this a new header to my blog, but I can't quite figure out how to make that happen. Maybe something will click soon... I am feeling the need for a "blog makeover"!