Here it is...

I knew this was my "theme song"
the second I heard it. It gave me
goosebumps, made my heart leap
for joy, literally made me want to

jump up and DO something.

I have claimed DO as my word. If you've been reading this blog - it's been my word for a while.

I love it.

This song suggestion was given to me by a dear Brave Girl friend. We took Soul Restoration together.

I'm so excited to have this song as my "theme song" for turning 30!

Dawn, you're a genius.

and maybe...

after you listen to this amazing song...

YOU will want it as your "theme song" too!

So yes, Dawn my dear, YOU are the winner of the $20 Starbucks card so please send me

your mailing address when you have a moment.

To all of you who gave me song suggestions...

here is a

BIG HUG!

As for my 35 things to do before I'm 35 list...

I didn't get to it.

Isn't that terrible?  Oh well, I'm not going to be too hard on myself - I've had a lot on my plate lately.

I will work on it tonight and get it on here soon! I have a lot of fun ideas and I can't wait to share.

So you all

have a fabulous Monday!

AND

to my baby sis...

Happy 25th Birthday!!

~ don't feel one day over 30, but I am... exactly one day ~

Any birthday is started
out right with an awesome
giggle session in front of
the mirror - laughing at

silly looking chocolate milk mustaches.



 Because chocolate milk mustaches...

 are delicious!

 Followed by kids taking naps and me watching a

funny flick...

 while eating my favorite sub...

 that was surprised to me and delivered promptly at lunch time...

 by my one true love.

 I then was surprised by my sister

with an awesome

zebra-striped birthday cake!

Chocolate on the bottom, Vanilla on the top and

Bavarian Cream through the middle...

To.

Die.

For.

Delicious!

 She also surprised me with an awesome little

devotional book of 199 verses for women,

a great colorful cookbook with delectable pictures,

and my ultimate favorite...

A salad-spinner!!!

Isn't it cute?

I love the green!

My birthday was marvelous.

Traditional Happy Birthday
phone call sung by my Grandma Sally,

at 8am.

Several awesome, colorful, meaningful cards,


a few beautiful

one-of-a-kind

art pieces

from my kiddos,

a late evening bike ride with my sister,

and look...

I saved you a piece of cake!

Thank you for all the Happy Birthday wishes and
don't forget about helping me find
my 30th Happy Birthday
theme song!

and win!

~ 30th Birthday Theme Song + A Giveaway = Happy Birthday Girl! ~

Happy Birthday to
ME! I'm 30!!!!!!!!
I can't hardly even
believe it!!! I have

decided that I want to recruit your help... 

and I'm recruiting you for all your amazing music ideas!

I am going to pick a Theme Song for this here my 30th Birthday!

It should be fun, inspirational, exciting, happy and high energy!

Do you have one?

A great 30th Birthday Theme Song for me?

Now, I have a very broad taste of music -
So be super creative and appropriate

for the whole "turning 30" of-it-all.

Please,

 I would love for you all to have a lot of fun with this!

 I'm going to pick a song from all of your amazing comments you leave me

(maybe leave me a Youtube Link to your song-choice for me)

and the person whose song that I pick with the best "Sami Jo 30th Birthday Theme Song"

for me -

will

WIN!!!

A $20 Starbucks Gift Card!

So think, think, think,

about what you believe would be a perfect 

"30th Birthday Theme Song",

leave me a comment,

and

I'll checking them all out,

and by this next Monday,

I will have picked the winner!!

So excited to see what you all think up for lil ole me!!!

Also, in the mean time...

I'm going to make up a list of

33 things to do before I turn 33!

Have you seen those?

Here is an example by Meg Duerksen

that she made for herself for her 35th Birthday

and she put it on her blog Whatever

Good idea, right?

So excited to discover this next decade and have you all with me along the way!

Wishing you a

bright and beautiful day full of

Balloon,

Cake & Ice Cream

Dreams,

Love you all!!

a big thank you & a winner!

Oh. My. Goodness
that Blog Hop was
loads of fun! I adored
reading everyone's blogs
and seeing such amazing

artwork!

You Brave Girls are such a blessing to me.

It was so fun!

Thanks again to Judy for doing all the organizing -

Girl! You rock!

Now for the giveaway winner!

Drummmmmm Rolllll!

The winner is

Lisa from Schnauz Scraps!

Congratulations, Lisa!!!

Please email me your mailing address and I'll get your packaged mailed.

As for you all - I wanted to leave you with something that actually Lisa reminded me of and that is...

The Starfish Story

by Loren Eiseley

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So - for me, this means wherever you are,

whoever you are,

YOU

can make a difference for somebody.

And even though you might think that what you are doing is so small and minuscule -

chances are, it means a lot to the person that is receiving the blessing.

God Bless you all and have a fabulous week!!

~ Brave Girls Club Soul Restoration and a Giveaway! ~

Have you ever had someone
share information with you, and
you found that information to be

extremely sacred and valuable?

The information was so genuine and splendid
that you were giddy to share it with everyone you love.

The information was compiled so very beautifully...

 From beginning.

To end.

You pictured the person that was sharing the information with you -
thinking through the curriculum,

mulling it over and over.

You know that they must of slaved over
every.
 precious.
 detail.

Meditating over it.

Praying over it.

Fine-tuning each and every tool
so that it may speak so perfectly to your heart,

your sisters' hearts,

(my sisters Jodi (left) and Casi (right))

and their sisters' hearts.

You got a sense of peace and trust from the person
that was
teaching and sharing with you

You knew they had been where you are.

Clueless.

Lost.

Frustrated.
Hurt
Worried.
Overwhelmed.

You collected the information in the

deepest part of your being.

Your heart soaked it up.

You're so very grateful to this person
because you know,
that you've just been given

a precious gift...
valuable knowledge...
divine empowerment...



There was a rush of emotions ranging from:

Excitement
Energized
Fear
Doubt
Encouraged
Confidence



Change was inevitable

and

Healing DID take place.


The precious information, combined with your faith, your beliefs, your goals, your dreams,

 a little bit of sunshine, mod podge, glitter and paint -



all of these ingredients melded together and you found, your precious soul opened up and
was able to receive sweet messages of truths.

For me,
I found all of this and more in the
Brave Girls Club
Soul Restoration.
 By:
 Melody Ross - Artist, Product Designer and Writer.
Together with her sister,
Kathy Wilkins,
they founded the Brave Girls Club.

So.

This is me being giddy about the valuable information I learned
 and
I'm sharing it with someone I love...

psssst! ... that's you.

Soul Restoration Part 1 - Finding Your Truth (6 weeks)
April 5, 2011
 Session: $99 - Register HERE.
and
Soul Restoration Part 2 - Living Your Truth (6 weeks)
For graduates of Soul Restoration 1 - June 7, 2011
Session: $99 - Register HERE.

And if you are one of my Brave Girl sisters visiting through the
Brave Girls Club/ Soul Restoration Blog Hop -

I love you, too!

I've been also so immensely blessed by the Brave Girls Club Online Community.
I have adored getting to know a lot of you
and if we haven't been introduced  -
Hi! I'm Sami Jo!

Wife to Ben, Stay-at-home mama to Paul and William,
Daughter, Sister, Mother Blogger (as my husband calls me), and
I praise God everyday for my life and his many blessings.

So Brave Girls go find me on the Brave Girls site and let's be friends!!!

All of you please take a moment to enjoy my little blog.
You can go HERE to see how God led me to even know about Brave Girls/Soul Restoration and
then HERE to read the poem I wrote while going through the Soul Restoration healing process.

Now, for those who stuck around through this extremely long but fabulous post -
a surprise giveaway!

 I will be giving away this cheerful pennant bunting for you to hang up maybe in your crafting corner, kitchen, laundry room - wherever your heart's desires.

Any place where you'll look at it and it's playful colors and shapes will put a smile on that
Brave Girl face of yours.

AND

my ultimate favorite, I will also be including in this giveaway, one large pencil starfish.


Simply leave me a comment at the end of this post.
Please, in your comment share with me where you will hang this colorful bunting if you're the winner
and also leave me one of your favorite Truths, Quotes or Verses.
Lastly, make sure that I have a way to contact you if you're the giveaway winner.

You can sign up for the giveaway until Sunday night at 11:59pm MT -
I will announce the winner on Monday, March 7th!
Only one entry per person, please.

If you are following the Soul Restoration Blog hop you came from
Stephanie - My Creative Wish
Awesome title, huh!

and now, you're headed to
Rebecca - Flyover Pilgrim 
As the title says, it is truly - Art. Life. Beauty.

Also,
if you just joined us and want to start from the beginning -
start with this lovely gal who organized it all
Judy - Be Present - Be Real

I am so happy you stopped by and please know,
 the door is always open
for you 
here at
herHousehold.

By wisdom a house is built,
by knowledge it's rooms are filled with
rare and beautiful treasures.
Proverbs 24:3-4

She won! BIG TIME!!

Chrysanthemama - you won! You were the only one to leave me a comment for the Jetty Rae cds giveaway - so guess what? I'm giving you both of them! Email me your mailing information and I can't wait for you to get to enjoy Jetty's music! Congratulations!!!!

2 Jetty Rae CDs to Giveaway!

YES!

2 CDs to Giveaway!

That means 2 winners!!!!

I'm so excited!

So y'all remember when I introduced you to Jetty Rae, right?

If you didn't get a chance to read that post click here.

Isn't she wonderful?

I think so, too!

 

If you haven't got a chance to listen to her music yet - this is her website.

Her music can also be found on
itunes
Amazon
Pandora
Facebook

Jetty Rae and her office manager were so kind to send me several cds to hand out

and enjoy for myself

and

2 t-shirts.

Bless their hearts.

I gave one of the t-shirts to my sister as they are both size small.

She looks stinkin' adorable in it, wouldn't you agree?

I'm going to take the other one and work my magic and see if I can make something fabulous so I can still sport the Jetty Rae loveliness of it all... cuz we all know, I aint no size small :)

(YES - I totally just said "aint" - Don't hate!)

 These are the songs that are on the 2 cds.

Yay! So many goodies!

So here's the deal Sparky, {GRIN}

to win, you have to do 2 of the following and just leave me one comment telling me what you did -

NO Multiple Comments pleeeeeeease.

Okay.

1) Become a follower of this blog

2) Tweet or Facebook about my giveaway with a link to my giveaway

3) Do a little shout-out on your blog about my giveaway and leave me the link to your blog in your comment

4) Tell me which song of Jetty's is your most favorite!!

You do not have to have a blog to win.

Just leave me a comment using the Anonymous option 

(do 2 of the above and tell me which ones you did)

and make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

This giveaway is going to be open from

today - Monday, November 22 to next Sunday, November 28.

That next Monday I will pick 2 winners and do a post to let y'all know who won!

We are headed off to our Thanksgiving get-away at my sisters. SO EXCITED!

 so I will not be posting in-between that time.

God Bless you all

&

have a very 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Misty! You Win!

Guess who was #11?

Misty of Rainy Day In May is the winner of my 400th celebration giveaway! Hooray for Misty!

Hey girlly email me your address - samimelton@yahoo.com & I'll get this little bag of goodies out to you lickity-split!!

Thanks all who participated in my celebration and did that little dance for me to celebrate my 400th post.

I'll be having more giveaways because it was SO MUCH FUN!
So stay tuned!!!

Happy Week All!

400th Post Party & her Giveaway!

Mama!

Did you say this is your 400th post?

Did you say that you were going to have cake?

and maybe, ...

maybe, presents?

I just need to ge...

If I could just pu...

this darn....

Maybe pull this way...Oh, well I'll just leave it...

Anyway!

Time for cake... I heart cake.


Do you want some cake?

So.

My mama put together a present for a lucky someone.

This is her first real giveaway - ya know.

First, these black candle sticks.

I think mama got these while she was thrifting around.

She likes to thrift shop, ya know.

...
a little faux alligator picture holder,

a little devotional booklet to remind you whose promises to count on.

Okay William, I'll take it from here... Now, GO TAKE A NAP!

ha ha ha ha ha

Hi friends!

The most exciting thing in today's giveaway is this awesome necklace made by

FarmGirl Paints Becky Strahle.

I loved this necklace because it reminded me that in the Lord I can rest easy.

Only through him can I have real rest.

real peace.

Becky is so talented and she had designed me my own necklace and I wanted to share one with you.

So, that's the giveaway!

Hope you're as excited as I am!!

All you got to do to win is leave me a comment on this post -

you have between today and next Monday to do so.

I will pick a winner on next Monday's post.

I just want to thank you all for your kind words, encouragement and friendship. Having this little blog has truly became blessing in disguise.

Have a good week all and don't forget a cupcake.

and don't forget to dance the little 400th post jiggity jig dance!

Happy Day,