P-Dub in da house!!

Anyone that knows me knows I love the Pioneer Woman (real name: Ree Drummond). I talk about her like we're best friends. My family knows that if I'm trying a new recipe, most likely it's hers. In fact, most of the time when I'm cooking they ask, "Is that from Pioneer Woman". Not only are her recipes awesome, but her blog is one of my most favorite to visit. She's witty, smart, and talks about calf nuts (who could resist?).

Ree just came out with a cookbook of lots of down home, delicious ranch recipes. The cookbook is a perfect reflection of her. It follows the same theme as her blog recipes, where she gives you step by step (picture by picture) directions. It would be a wonderful Christmas gift for anyone who loves to cook -- or even better...for those who have no idea how to since she makes it *super* easy!

On Monday my mom and I went to her cookbook signing and it was so much fun!! She answered questions from the audience (one of which was mine!), shared her husband (Marlboro Man as she likes to call him) and 2 boys (aka her punks) with us, and signed cookbooks. She was even more beautiful in person. And I have to say...MM is everything she said he is (ahem!). She was even so kind as to bring us cute-as-can-be Pioneer Woman t-shirts.

Here are some pictures from the awesome evening:

MM and the punks bringing in our T-shirts



Oh hello there...



The beautiful Ree answering audience questions



Singing a little Ethel Merman for us (hilarious!!)


Todd taking a picture of me taking a picture of him (and MM looking a little concerned for Ree's camera)



Seriously...she has the CUTEST boys in the world!!



I got Todd to smile for me (is he stinkin' adorable or what??)



Mom and I wait in line to have our books signed. We brought PW some Smokehouse BBQ sauce and Bean mix.


Haha...at one point the boys got a hold of the microphone and started making noises into it. While everyone there thought it was hilariously cute, I don't think MM was all too happy as is evident by the "come hither" finger!



It was finally our turn!



Cheese! (I have to admit that I did crop my mom out of this one as I think she was checkin' out MM rather than looking at the camera!)



That's better



It was such a wonderful mother/daughter evening and I hope to get to meet Ree again (maybe I'll get invited to the Lodge...hehe).

Praying for Bennett

My sweet friends Brian and Breck Gamel, who attended church with me in college just recently had their second son, Bennett. Sadly, Bennett came into this world having a very hard time breathing. The doctors discovered that Bennett had a bowel obstruction which allowed meconium to leak into his abdomen. At this point, the best case scenerio is that Bennett's bowel obstruction was random and he will completely recover. The worst case scenerio is that he has Cystic Fibrosis. The doctors are running tests and performing surgeries on the little man to figure out exactly what is going on. He will be in the hospital for at least 6 weeks at this point. Oliver, Bennett's older brother is staying with family and it has been really hard on him to only get to see mommy and daddy for short periods of time.

I am asking that you please join me in prayer for this sweet family. Brian and Breck have not been able to hold her newborn baby and as a mother I can not imagine the grief. Please be praying that Bennett's situation is a unique one and he would pull out of this a healthy little boy. Also, for Breck, Brian, and Oliver that they would be able to find balance in this hard time and that God would comfort and bring peace to their hearts.

I asked a sweet blogger (mommy2my9) to help me make a blog button for Bennett. Please put this button on your blog to remind yourself and others to be in prayer for this family.

The button along with the html is below. Isnt he the sweetest little guy? If you are using blogger, you can go to your layout, click "add a gadget", click the add HTML button, and then copy and paste the entire HTML from the small box below the button. The button, when put on your blog, will lead right to Bennett's blog.

<a href="http://bennettgamel.blogspot.com/"> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388784722309592562" style="WIDTH: 221px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCfcaPkZLCH0V_FCb53n-XquhHq2xXOh5h6_ZIkVDUyUEl0oSMY2N25xve6jKyxWYgir3Eu6bmJkwYPGia89JRRwvM61GGA0tG5h6S8CHmTYgsdbjo8Lqaq76odvfzl36Z_-tPxVN4xZH/s320/New_Page_34.jpg" border="0" /> </a>

Let's storm the gates of Heaven on behalf of sweet Bennett and his family!!

Top 100

I have decided to make my way through Guardian's Top 100 Books You Can't Live Without.

You can find the list here.

I had planned to go in order and start with Pride and Prejudice, but the library didn't have it so I skipped to Jane Eyre. I still plan to go somewhat in order, but may have to do a little rearranging from time to time.

I'm not very far in Jane Eyre yet, but am really liking it so far. I haven't really read many of the "classics", so I'm excited to get some of them in my repretoire.

I like this list a lot because there is a good variation of genres as well as some new books and some old.

I do plan to skip The Complete works of Shakespeare (because there are way too many and I don't know what the heck he is talking about half the time....I may take a friend's advice and read Shakespeare for Dummies as a replacement) and the Bible (because I already read it regularly).

Have you read any good books lately? Wanna join me on the journey through "the list"?

A continuation......

Matt posted this as a comment to my post yesterday, but MAN did it do a number on my heart. I just wanted to share:

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see "Him walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see "Him walking on the sea" ( Mark 6:49 ). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.

God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.

TODAY'S OC

The desires of our heart

A while back I was talking with a friend about how God promises to give us the desires of our heart. Her desire was to have a baby girl (she was blessed with a boy instead). My desire is to get pregnant (I have been blessed with time to draw closer to God and wait on His perfect timing instead). I think that sometimes we read that verse and automatically think on the desires of our flesh rather than what our heart and soul actually desire. I think what God is promising is that He will satisfy us completely if we just set our hearts on Him.

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Lovin' Summertime

Painting a puppet



My little kitty


Water park fun


Hangin' out at the zoo


Cheeeeese!

Where have you been all my life?

This morning I drank my first green monster. It seriously rocked my world! I can't believe I didn't try these before. I first came across these on Oprah when a women who was diagnosed with cancer told Dr. Oz she drank one every morning because of the huge health benefits of spinach. Looking at the drink I thought, no way on earth am I drinking something like that!! When I entered the Summer Glow boot camp I realized that the owner of the blog drank them too. I looked at the ingredients and still thought they sounded disgusting! The weird thing was, every thing I read said that you really can't taste the spinach. Yeah right, I thought.

They were right!! You seriously can not taste the spinach in the green monsters and the health benefits to eating spinach every day are out of this world!! I'm officially hooked and plan to have one every morning for breakfast. There are many different ways to make them and really you can put whatever ingredients you'd like, but here's what mine consisted of this morning:

2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1/2 cup fat free milk
1 tbsp peanut butter (for some protein)
1/2 banana

It seriously tasted like a pb banana smoothie.

Try one! I think you'll be pleasantly suprised!! :)