Good Morning Blog-world!

It's morning. I have lots to do. Yes, it's the perfect time to write a blog.

When Dave gets home from school around 10:15 a.m., we'll be leaving our house and driving up to Duluth for Jim and Aimee's wedding. Dave's the best man in the wedding (of course he's always my best man), but this weekend he has the honor of being Jim's best man too. Too much packing and things to do and not enough time. The wedding will be fun and I'm looking forward to dancing and having a weekend away from home!

Otis and Cooper are being separated for the first time this weekend. Otis went to Becky's house last night. Becky called me and asked what she should do to get him to stop yelping and sitting in front of the door. Poor little guy! In a little bit (after I pack, wrap the present, finish the accident report and get the kennel in the car), Cooper is going to my parents' house. Cooper doesn't know what to do without Otis. Good thing they're only apart for a couple of days.

You probably read "accident report" and thinking "What happened?"

Well, on Wednesday some old lady t-boned Dave and I when we were trying to meet my mom, sis, aunt, uncle and cousin for lunch. My cousin Ben is/was home from China for a couple of days to fix his visa issues, so we were looking forward to hearing about his job and life in China.

So we were crossing an intersection when our light was green and stayed in our center lane the whole time. The lady was turning right at the same intersection...at the same time as us. She needed to make a quick left after her right turn...and didn't look straight ahead in the direction she was going...and ran straight into us as she crossed through our center lane. A big Cadillac crossover SUV caught the corner of my eye...I look right, scream, and the thing runs right into my door. Then she kept hitting the gas and moved our car, wrecking all the panels on our passenger side. So we had to have the police come and everything. All in all, it was a good reminder to count my blessings. Everyone was ok (even the two elderly people). Our car is still somewhat drivable. We had good insurance and the insurance company has been really great. We only suffered $3,500 in damage. So that's all I got about that one.

Here's one other thing that's kind of funny. Ashley and Loralai and the NC Balows were in my dream last night. We were on a family vacation at a really fancy place right on a body of water.

October for The Balow Bunch…

Gigi’s post last week and Pappy’s post today, reminded me that I want to dedicate a post to all things we have planned for the month of October…It seems like this month is more low-key than last month…although we still got some exciting things going on…

• Light the Night Walk (this one is already done)…
• Lunch with my cousin who’s whom from China for a week
• Jim and Aimee’s wedding (and rehearsal dinner)…in Duluth that weekend
• Baby Shower for Erin
• Bookclub (1-night retreat at Nicki’s cabin)
• Lots of debate watching

Two more recipes that passed the Balow Bunch test

Yes, ok, I admit...Dave and I may not be the best judges for my cooking. We are probably two of the world's least pickiest eaters and like almost everything. But I've been loving my most recent issue of Cooking Light and have tried two more of the recipes from this issue. We enjoyed both of them -- Autumn Apple Cake and Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Chard. The chicken recipe was surprisingly delicious with a sweet and slightly spicy flavor (I opted for the jalapeno pepper versus the cherry pepper). Apples are used with both recipes, so I've continued to enjoy my bounty from the apple orchard. But unfortunately, I used the last apple last night. Bummer.

Light the Night = AWESOME!

Last night, we participated in the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was a great time. When all the donations were all submitted, our team of 19 raised $5,515! Thank you to everyone who contributed. You money will be put to good use...to help support people and their families fighting cancer. Before the walk started, they had free food for the participants. They also had a band playing...and some cool people gave some words of appreciation (some local news anchor, Senator Amy Klobuchar and a Vikings player who currently has cancer). There were lots of families and kids walking together. It took a bunch of pics...here's a couple of my favorites.

Tonya and her family. Madeline, Lauren and Marc

Our team -- Team Tonya

This pic is for Pappy!

Me and Tonya. She had a special blue "Survivor" shirt and a white balloon.

Dave and I with our illuminated balloons.

Happy birthday to us!

With my new job, I've acquired a new awareness for email marketing, because that's what half of my job entails. To stay up-to-date with the current trends and such, I've added a few email marketing related blogs to my blogger feed.

Today I read this post about getting special email promotions for your birthday. I thought it'd be fun for us to put together a list for all the websites where you can sign up for emails and receive a special Happy Birthday email. I'll list the websites...and all you have to do is go to the site, sign up for the email, and then wait for your b-day to roll around...and received lots of great coupons and special b-day offers. Consider this my early b-day gift from me to you.

Here's what I got off the top of my head.

• Caribou Coffee
• Noodles
• Kincaid's
• Qdoba
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Circuit City
• Ruby Tuesday's
• Quizno's
• Maggiano's

Are you aware of any other Happy B-day special email offers that you can sign up for? Leave them in the comment section.

Watch this video, please!

Today I had lunch with my friend and former co-worker, Tonya. In case you don't remember, she's my friend who battled (and defeated) cancer last year and the mother of two girls (now ages 2 and 4). She's my inspiration for joining the Light the Nigh Walk (and the team captain). Our walk is on Saturday!! I can't wait. We talked about it at lunch. She and her husband are both on the team and they're bringing the kids too, so they can be share the experience. It's going to be emotional. Tonya was tearing up just thinking about it -- and the walk hasn't even happened yet.

The good news I want to share with you guys about the walk. I made my fundraising goal!!! Beat it by $20. And the even cooler news -- Tonya's goal was to get ten people on her team and have the team raise $1,000. As of now, Tonya's team has 18 people and has raised $2,690!!! Go Team! We blew Tonya's goal out of the water! Thank you so much if you we able to contribute to the walk. I really appreciate it...and I know it will make a difference in the fight against cancer.

I've been saving this video to post on my blog for a long time -- as part of my efforts to encourage people to support Tonya's team. But since we met our goals, I don't need to encourage more donations (although it's definitely still appreciated) -- but I think this video is really good...so I'm posting it here anyway for you all to watch.

It was a video that aired during the Stand Up 2 Cancer event that was on TV a couple of weeks ago.

My theme songs...

I think I did it. I think a found a theme song for where I am right now in my life. I can relate to the lyrics. It has a fairly upbeat tempo, so it'll motivate me to be more positive.

Learning How To Bend by Gary Allan

Until something else comes along, this is what I'll be jamming to every day! Now that I have a themesong, I'm going to start working on a soundtrack. ;)