Capture the Coast Giveaway

As I wrote about here, I'm very excited for this fun giveaway of one 'Capture the Coast' cookbook...

along with 5 tickets to the Junior League holiday gift market taking place November 5th-7th at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

The cookbook is really practical and yummy! I'm not just saying this because I'm a member of junior league, but I know there was a lot of effort in putting together this cookbook. There were hundreds of recipes submitted to be included in this book, but only the best ones made it through. All of them have been taste-tested numerous times, refined, and even combined. It also has some great table decorating ideas.

Time and time again I've only heard really good reviews about this cookbook. Personally I haven't yet tried any recipes yet myself but I just got a copy of it last week. 

And the holiday gift market is a great way to kick off the holiday season. There are cooking shows, you can take your picture with Santa (which you can use in Christmas cards), and lots of unique boutiques and merchants from out of state.

Please note 100% of the net proceeds raised through the holiday gift market tickets will go straight back into community projects in the Tampa bay area.

By purchasing these books you are supporting great community projects such as Children's Cancer Center, Children's literacy project, Food for Kids, etc.

The book can be purchased at any borders for $21.95 and the tickets are valued at $5 each. This is approximately a $47 value!

There are two ways to enter the giveaway...

1. Leave a comment letting me know which one is your favorite Junior League charity/community project. You can see a list of their projects here.

2. Blog about it or share it on facebook and leave a second comment letting me know you've done so.

I will announce the winner on Friday, October 29th. And if you're part of junior league you are allowed to enter as well. 

Best of luck! 

Vintage camera and our weekend

We had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the weather outside as much as we could. I know it won't last for long! Before I know it it'll be too cold or too humid to be outside.

A couple of weeks ago I read about an iphone application called 'hipstamatic' which takes pictures in a vintage type of color. I found the Droid version of it called 'retro camera' and have really enjoyed using it as much as I can. I love these pictures because it reminds me of the pictures my mom and dad used to show me when I was a little kid.

Friday night we went to Sam and Amber's house for some delicious smores and fellowship with friends. I took a couple of pictures but they didn't come out as good as I had hoped with this new application on my phone (I think the pictures turned out kind of creepy!) Here are the only two that came out ok

Saturday we went out on the boat with Steve's dad. It was really so peaceful and relaxing out there. Jack loves the water and he was happy as a clam all day! He loves the wind on his face and smiles and makes a happy babbling noise. It melts my heart to watch.

Steve loves going out on the boat and I know both him and grandpa are looking forward to many memories here. I'm really thankful we get to do this and don't take these memories for granted :)

Here are some pictures in no particular order

Steve showing Jack the shrimp bait

Jack playing with the bait!

A really gross shrimp

Jack and I napped on the boat for a good 2 hours on the way back. I loved holding him and sleeping with him- don't get to do that very often! he was wiped out  but he was a good trooper.

Just for fun here are some other pictures of Jack.

On another note wanted to share a few of things...

There is a little boy Owen that's been on my heart for a couple of weeks. The lead singer of the christian band Sanctus Real had his third little one and he has a congenital heart defect. He seems to be recovering and it looks like he'll be going home from the NICU soon. If  you could please keep them in your prayers you can read the full story here. I can relate to the stomach knot feeling of anxiously waiting for updates from the NICU doctors and it can feel  more than unbearable sometimes. My heart goes out to them. 

Also I know my posts haven't been as deep or as personal as I'd like them to be (and as I'm used to writing). And even though I'm really enjoying this joyful season of having Jack, things are not perfect in our lives. We have family member who is not well and this has really taken a toll on me these last few months. I'm not able to share more to respect the privacy of this person, but thank you to all of you who have been faithfully praying alongside our family.

And this weekend we're going to our first Florida State game. It'll be Jack's first game and with the way the Noles have been playing lately I'm really hoping for a win! I will post pictures from our weekend up there early next week.

And finally I'll be doing a giveaway this week for the 'Capture the Coast' cookbook and 5 tickets to the holiday gift market in Tampa coming up November 5-7th. It'll be a very fun giveaway!

A fun Saturday

I started to blog about our weekend but only got as far as Saturday. The weather has been gorgeous here in Tampa and we're enjoying every bit of it!!

Around 9am we headed over to Buddy Brew Coffee like we often do on Saturday mornings. Susan and Dave Ward, a wonderful couple we met at STF started this coffeeshop about 9 months ago. It's located close to downtown on the corner of the Albany and Kennedy (about a block east of Howard and Kennedy).

Its a pretty small shop which gives it a pretty cozy feel, like you are hanging out in your living room. We LOVE coming here since we love the Wards and we usually end up running into someone we know. On Saturday we ran into pastor Gary from church.

A couple of months ago we ordered a few buddy brew coffee bags for Steve's mom. Since then all she wants for her birthdays and Christmas is more coffee bags from there. It is really delicious!

Here's a picture of Steve and Jack at the coffee bar.

Here's a picture of the fancy machine where they brew their coffee.

You can read more about Dave and Susan and how they got started their coffeeshop here.

Afterwards we headed over to St Pete for my company's yearly Junior Achievement bowl a thon. My office team has been working hard on this for months and I'm glad we got to go bowling together as a family! We got there early so we headed over to a nearby park to kill some time.

This park was so pretty! It reminded me of the beautiful parks in Venezuela.

Jack pointing at the ducks!

He was loving the swing!

Afterwards we headed to the bowl-a-thon and unfortunately the two pictures Steve took didn't come out. Steve and I had fun bowling while my co-workers held him and kept him entertained :) Jack had a blast with all the lights and music in that place. And he got lots of extra attention from my coworkers so I'm sure he loved that- ha!

Afterwards we headed home for his afternoon nap, and I napped along with him for a good two hours.

We went to Chili's in the evening to use our yummy coupon for free chips and queso. Who would ever pass that up?

Jack tried chips for the first time ever, and this kept him entertained for most of the dinner.

Honestly whenever we go out to dinner with him it is like wrestling a baby alligator- he does not like to sit still! But on Saturday he just stood by the window very quietly and kept stuffing chips in his mouth. We didn't have to entertain him and were actually able to talk during dinner. Who knew chips could be so glorious for a one year old?

I love, love, love my little man. He is growing up way too fast...

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Journey of Faith Friday: Brotherly kindness

This week my friend Amber has asked readers to share about a time when someone’s act of kindness impacted my journey of faith.

While we have been very blessed with a wonderful friends and church, I had a hard time thinking of a specific gift. I can think of endless occasions when someone spent time with me, talked over the phone, sent encouraging emails, etc, etc.

After much thought I remembered what a great blessing and help were the meals people brought us after we had Andrew and Jack. While it was a GREAT blessing both times, I was really appreciative of it after having Jack. I had a slow recovery after my second c-section and was not able to move around very much- and much less cook. I was REALLY thankful for this as it really helped us get through those first few weeks.

I clearly remember wondering if I’d ever be able to cook again with a little one- it just seemed so far off! But looking back it was just the emotions I was feeling at the moment.

I don’t know what we would’ve done if we hadn’t had meals brought to us. It was incredible to see of the body of Christ coming together to help us during that time. I'm thankful I've had the experience to witness this time and time again.

And just for fun here is a picture from that time :)