My mother sent me this amazing video clip and I'm surprised at just how much this story affected me.  I was enthralled and enraptured and in the end, had a huge smile on my face.  If you're looking for a feel-good story to brighten your day today, then by all means click play!

If you've been reading my blog for the last few months, you may remember me mentioning in several posts I wrote about how my husband and I were actively renovating our guest room, from top to bottom.  Well, I'm thrilled to say that it's finally finished!

We did it all too...new carpet, new paint, new furniture, etc.  Since my husband and I are both from small towns in Texas, I wanted our guest room to be serene, with a bed and breakfast kind of feel.  I was hoping to achieve the "classic country cottage" look and it feels awfully home-y to me now!  Take a look and tell me what you think:

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If you're a long-time reader of this blog (THANKS!) or brand new to this site (THANKS!), then you may have signed up to receive my newsletter delivered directly to your inbox.  I've always used Feedburner to provide this service, but over the last few months, I've become increasingly disturbed by the problems they seem to keep having and the utter lack of communication on their part in when these issues will be fixed.

I've had numerous folks tell me that they have repeatedly tried to subscribe, though never receive a confirmation email from Feedburner which seals the deal and actually puts them on the list.  I've also had many long-time subscribers tell me that they haven't received a newsletter from me in months.  This is simply unacceptable and so it was time to find a new player in the game.

I'm happy to say that yesterday I made the official switch to a new email newsletter company and am happy with the results I've seen so far.  There are obviously going to be a few bumps along the road, but I hope that you will be patient with me as I make the transition from Feedburner to the new newsletter program.  Many of you have already received a request to confirm your subscription and that's because I added your address to the new program and must have your permission to subscribe you here.

Over the next few days, you may receive a newsletter from the new program as well as a Feedburner newsletter.  Feel free to unsubscribe from Feedburner, for I will be completely turning that off as soon as everyone has made the move.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.  Thanks again for choosing to be part of the new newsletter program.  You are my most valuable readers and I appreciate you so much!

I've been blessed so far to have a lot of unexpected, sweet moments as a family.  Both my husband and my daughter are two of the sweetest and kindest souls on this planet and not a day goes by that I don't feel truly loved by them.  That's a super sweet moment in itself!  But when I was asked to recall my favorite unexpected sweet moment with my family, the one that immediately sprung to mind happened on the day my daughter was born.

You see, even though technically a man and wife are considered family, there's just something about solidifying that union with a child that makes the whole picture of family, for me, final and complete.  Now there's nothing unexpected about actually MEETING my daughter.  I mean, when you're pregnant we all know that day is going to arrive...eventually.  But what completely blew me away that day was the immediate and inexplicably strong bond I experienced with her during the moment we met for the first time, face to face.

But wait, there`s more! »