The Little Things for Wednesday

Today is Wednesday.  The middle of the week.  I have a love/hate relationships with Wednesdays.  On the one hand, they are marvelous because the signify that half of the work week is over!  On the other hand, they remind me that there is still half of the week to go...

Here are the things that made this Wednesday great!

I ate at Del's Charcoal Burgers for lunch.  They have homemade root beer (which was fabulous!) and burgers that were perfectly done.  I plan on taking Benjamin to share in the awesomeness of Del's soon!

Today was JA day.  And there is just something fantastically simple about Nilla wafers.  Kids love 'em.  Adults love 'em.  They are just simply declicious!

Benjamin has to work at the Ortho office this evening, so I will be able to catch up on my Dancing with the Stars!  And for those of you that are wondering about Xanadu.... It was funny and entertaining!  If you are able to get tickets - I say do it!  It's a spoof off of the 80's movie with Olivia Newton-John.  If you like the 80's, roller skates and musicals, you will like Xanadu!

Things that make Tuesday great!

Here are a list of things that are making this Tuesday a great day!

Wearing my fantastic yellow Ray Bans

 $2.00 Bagel, Shmear and Coffee Day

Wearing Jeans to work

Going to see Xandau tonight at Music Hall with Benjamin

What has made your Tuesday great?

Small Things...

A few months ago I came into work one morning to find the two scenes of murder played out below on my desk!

It's the small things like this that make me so thankful for my co-workers!

I Heart California Caramel Co.... + a GIVE-A-WAY!!

Update!!  The winner of the Simple Chocolate Caramel Apple is..... Lisa McGovern!!  Lisa will be receiving one of these fabulous apples courtesy of California Caramel Co.  And to try one of your own, please visit www.californiacaramelco.com.  Thank you to everyone who participated!  

About a year ago I was introduced to the best caramel covered apple my taste buds had ever savored. Unlike other covered apples, the Granny Smith was juicy, the caramel a wonderful texture of fabulous and the chocolate outside to die for! This apple came from California Caramel Co. Benjamin and I savored that first apple while I raved about it to my Mom who in turn purchased them for family members for Christmas who in turn has raved back to Mom at how fantastic they were!
This Valentines, a package arrived on our front door. From Sacramento, California. YES! More apples! My Mom sent apples to us kids to celebrate the season of love! Over the next few days we had apples for dessert after dinner. We received one White Chocolate Caramel Apple and one Almond Caramel Apple. The white chocolate was super smooth and was a fantastic contrast with the caramel. The Almond Caramel was just as decadent.



Because I think that these apples are so fantastic and because California Caramel Co is so awesome.... we are doing a...

GIVE-A-WAY of one Simply Chocolate Caramel Apple!

To win, simply to do one of the following:

1. Go to California Caramel Co's facebook page and become a fan.
2. Go to California Caramel Co's blog and become a follower.
3. Then either post a comment or shoot me an email at joyfullysoaring@gmail.com telling me which one you did and your name will go in for the drawing!  If you do both, you double your chances of winning!

All entries must be in this Friday, March 19th at midnight CST. I will post the winner Saturday morning!!

Good Luck to you all!!

Three Dog Day

Here's some of our favorites from today's Cozy Pet shoot.

{sam and molly}

{sam and molly}

{jack}

{sam}

{molly}

Dallas Blooms Brightly

Until this weekend, Benjamin and I had never been to the Dallas Arboretum. We saw in the paper that the Dallas Blooms were going on and since it was such a fantastically wonderful day weather wise, we grabbed the camera, hopped in the car and went on an adventure!

The flowers were absolutely beautiful! Tulips in all colors, hyacinths in the deepest purples and daffodils galore! I was pleasantly surprised to see a great smattering of families with picnic baskets laying out on the grass watching their kiddos play in the sun. The Arboretum has a 12' Ferdinand the Bull that they are featuring right now as well.

The whole afternoon was wonderful and it felt nice to be out in the sunshine!

March already?!

Where did February go? In a blink of the eye the month is gone and I'm winning pinch/punch for the month of March! Among the fabulous snow days, Puxatony Phil declared that there will be 6 more weeks of winter and indeed there has been. The weather has been super chilly that even I am ready to turn in my uber cute hats for my flip flops!

Here are the highlights of the rest of our February:

Day Two of Crazy Dallas Snow

We celebrated Valentine's Day.

Benjamin and I had a craft day on one Saturday. Later that day Ben and Samantha stopped by to spend the evening with us and we played multiple rounds of Bananagrams.

Noah came to visit us for a few days on his week home. He and Benjamin had a fabulous time traipsing through town playing the best crane games...while I was a work.

I saw Phantom of the Opera for the first time.

We hosted Chi Alpha for the youth group.

February was quite a blur and March hasn't slowed down much either. What's that saying...we'll sleep when we're old? I'm ready now! :D

Courtney's Senior Pictures

This weekend, Cozy Pet travelled to Houston to do our second humans only shoot! Family friends, Lynn and Courtney, met us down in Discovery Green Park to take Senior pictures of Courtney. The Lord really blessed us with beautiful weather for the afternoon. Thank you Lynn and Courtney for making the experience fun!

{jumping for joy! graduation is near!}

{AHS Tennis Team}

{big smiles}

{desires to be a missionary}

{loves having fun}

Chi Alpha 2010

This year was our second year to be a host home for The Heights Student Ministry Chi Alpha event. Growing up, Benjamin and I both participated our church equivalent, Disciple Now, and have such wonderful memories of growing friendships as well as understanding of who our God is. We had the privilege of hosting nine 8th grade boys and two leaders for the weekend.

This year's theme was Just God. Students learned that while our God is a loving, caring God, he is also a just and fair God. They wrote letters and created care packages for transition homes in Dallas. Neil McClendon was the speaker for the weekend and Branch led worship. It was a fabulous weekend - two of our boys made decisions to be Christ-followers!

The weekend also had a winter Olympics theme. Each group was given a country that the youth staff figured the students had never heard of. Our country was Seychelles. One of our boys did a project over this country in the 6th grade and arrived at our house armed with a team flag, team cheer and everything we needed to create T-shirts. Manfred made his youth debut as their mascot complete with matching t-shirt!

Although we were slightly tired after the weekend was over, we were blessed through the experience and look forward to 2011!