My New Lover...

...was accompanied by this note on Valentine's morning...

... sat right beside me during our family Valentine's dinner last night...

Yes, the wine we had was called Cheap Date.  Complete with twist-off cap instead of cork.  Yeah, we're classy like that. 

My new lover also helped me with the girls' flowers.

Madison really likes my new love.

Violet just thinks we're silly.

But, really, my new lover and I are going to have a wonderful relationship.  His name is Fred.

And Fred was my Valentine's present from my most amazing lover.

Congrats & a couple of giveaways

First of all, I have to give a huge shout-out to my new friend Rachel.  She & her hubby, the illustrious Mr. Daddy, just got their 200th follower!  Rachel is one of those ladies you wish you could go have coffee with every week.  She is genuine, loving, wise, honest, and so many other things.  And Mr. Daddy?  Well, lets just that every time he gets ahold of the blog - you are guaranteed to giggle!  They are so excited to have 200 readers they are having a giveaway.  Jump on over to Once Upon A Miracle, give them some lovin, and enter to win some beautiful personalized beach towels.


Also, Sheri over at Unexpected Bliss has a couple of wonderful summer giveaways.  She is giving away 2 $100 Target cards (who wouldn't love that?) here and a Canon PowerShot A3100 IS here.  She is also raising money to send her sweet son to the Rose Bowl Parade in January.  for every $5 you donate to his fund, you will get another 5 entries for the camera. 


So head on over & enter!

Want a new camera?

Yeah, so do I.


I read a few *ahem* blogs, one of which is MckMama's. This morning, on her Twitter, she mentioned a giveaway for a Nikon D40 that one of her blog friends is doing. I jumped over to Unexpected Bliss, expecting to leave a comment and go about my day.


What I found instead was a church family moment.


This sweet woman (who I just "met" reading her blog this morning) bared her soul. Their family is going through a very difficult time, financially, mentally, physically. It is to the point where she had to work yesterday, Easter, to try to pay some of her medical bills. She missed Easter with her boys.


That just broke my heart. She had set up a P*ypal donate account, because after she told her followers what was going on, they insisted on having a way to help. But then she stayed up all night, feeling guilty over strangers giving money to her family. She realized that she has a D40 she has barely used because of the situation. She has taken maybe 60 pictures on it. So, she is giving it away, to say thank you.


You can leave a comment on her post here to get an entry into the giveaway. If you post on your blog about the giveaway, that's another entry. If you choose and are able, you can click on the Donate Now button on the left sidebar of her blog. A $5 donation will get you 5 entries, $10 will get you 10.


Our pastor's wife Linn recently posted on her blog about Crazy Love. The idea is that we, as brothers and sisters, can meet the needs we see around us with a crazy love. That we love so much we are compelled to help. I have to tell you, that idea has been stirring in my heart. I always go back to Matthew 25:35, which says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in".


Now, please understand something. We are by no means rich. We are barely making ends meet right now, like so many. Some months, we don't. But, that does not excuse us from seeing the needs around us, from obeying God when He says to do something about it.


The contest is open until Tuesday night. Please go over to her page and leave a word of encouragement for her. It takes a lot of nerve to share so openly. I wish we all, myself included, were that honest.