I love frozen yogurt

I've been reading the blog, Barefoot in the Kitchen, for many months now because I love to follow local bloggers (with the secret hope that I will be friends with them someday). Stephanie has been heralding the opening of her family's yogurt shop and I can't wait for the grand opening. This is made sweeter by the fact that I'll be getting free yogurt! I've always been strictly an ice cream girl, but recently enjoyed Golden Spoon and am keeping myself open to this new, lower-calorie experience. I can eat twice as much yogurt, right? Hope to see you at the opening!

Get your BUY 1 GET 1 FREE coupon.
Free yogurt for bloggers, click here for details.

Blog it Forward

Today marks the beginning of the blogger mash-up, Blog It Forward, created and hosted by the lovely Victoria, from sfgirlbybay. The theme is "What Inspires You" and the idea is to feature 10 posts per day, with links forward and backwards to other participants. I am looking forward to reading as many of the 300 entries as I can in the next 6 weeks. I have an idea that I will find many more blogs to add to my reader. Click the banner to the left to see the schedule and list of all those participating. I was a little disappointed to see that my turn falls on the last day, but maybe reading all the other entries will make mine all the more fabulous!

Check out the 10 starting posts here:

Creature Comforts * Design for Mankind * Heart Fish
Hula Seventy * Ink on my Fingers * Oh, Hello Friend
Paper Pony * Poppytalk * sfgirlbybay * Smile and Wave

Free Eye Candy

Pixelgirl Presents offers hundreds of free images for your desktop or iPhone. Most are illustrations, but there are photos too. Take some time to browse through and download a few that appeal to you. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Getaway

My husband is the greatest. For Christmas, he surprised me with a plane ticket to visit my friend, Jane, in Utah - FOR SIX DAYS! I know, he's awesome. Not only did he buy the ticket, he cleared the dates with Jane, took some time off work for himself, and arranged a day of babysitting with both my mother and mother-in-law. Yes, he's incredible.

And what did I do during this fabulous six days? I read three books. I watched hours and hours of tv. I took naps. I ate delcious, decadent food. I shopped. I lunched with some cool people at a cool place. And spent lots of down time with a pregnancy-induced sickie. It was the greatest getaway ever!

I was around kids, but they weren't my own and I didn't have to bug them to do stuff, discipline them, or worry about their bedtime. I helped make meals, but I wasn't responsible for planning menus or feeding an entire family. I made Jane oatmeal cookies when she felt like some, but didn't have to rebuff her tireless nagging to drive to the store late Sunday night to get milk to go with them.

In the end, my husband and I both agreed that six days was too long. But five days seems just about right and he admitted how hard it was to be with the kids every day. He said he loves and appreciates me for staying home with them and trying my best to make our house a home. (And this is coming from someone who was already arguably one of the most hands-on & helpful Dads I've ever seen.) My sweet hubby said he wants me to send him on a trip like that every year. And since it's a little easier to get away, now that our boys are a bit bigger, I think I'll take him up on it.

And the best part? He didn't even give me grief about all the things I bought! Probably because I am the greatest bargain shopper ever and two thirds of the things I bought were under $4. Somehow this was the only picture I took of my trip.

Thanks to all the people who helped babysit: our mothers and our sisters, and several friends of mine. I owe you guys!

Read Blogs the Fast & Beautiful Way

Does anyone still read this blog?

Google Reader is awesome. If you don't have one set up, you should do it now (for free). I can easily subscribe to blogs I like, and read the new posts in easily half the time. I like being able to share a post with my husband, and star my favorites for future re-reading. The only downside is missing the beautiful layouts of all those bloggers who spend so much time making their site look pretty. And of course, if you want to comment on a post, it takes a couple extra clicks.

But thanks to a tip from Making It Lovely, I've found a new way to keep up with my posts, comment more often, and enjoy those pretty pages: Google's Next Button. You add a "next" bookmark to your browser toolbar, and every time you click on it, you're taken to the next post in your reader. To add the Next Button, go to Settings in your Google Reader, and look under the Goodies tab.

Another great thing: when you get to the end of your list, and have read everything, you get a page that says, "Congratulations, you have reached the end of the internet." And when you click on "end of the internet" you get the following page. I love it!

I try to follow that advice.