I'm a Cracker Jack Box Full of Surprises

Recently, I have had the challenge of pulling off a surprise anniversary celebration for a couple that have been married for nine years!

I must admit that I had a blast planning it! And I even uncovered a few new talents that I can add to my decorating repertoire.

As I excitedly recapped the event with Mr. Falsetto, he mentioned that he loved surprises...

He also added that I had not surprised him since his 25th birthday; he is going on 28. Bad me!!! So this weekend, I have a lot of catching up to do...

This weekend I will be a cracker jacks full of surprises!

A Missed Crowing Moment

Yesterday as I walked into my office several of my coworkers {who were all well aware of my love for pageants} began to question me about this year's Miss Universe pageant. Miss Universe 2010 was crowned on Monday night, August 23rd and I missed the entire pageant!!!!

A southern, belle from south Alabama, a former crown chaser and an eternal lover of pageant and all things bling-missed a crowning moment. What can I say? Life has been busy, yet fulfilling! I guess I will need to get TIVO! Until then I will have to rely on the world wide web for recaps... Click here to read more of the article from which the excerpts below were taken.

Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, of Guadalajara, beat out 88 other women from six continents at the 59th annual pageant held in Las Vegas, broadcast live on NBC.

Miss Jamaica Yendi Philipps took second place, Miss Australia Jenista Campbell took third, Miss Ukraine Anna Poslavska got fourth, and Miss Philippines Venus Raj—the projected favorite coming into the competition—took fifth place.

Navarrete was the top scoring competitor in the evening gown component of the competition, and was the second-highest scorer in the swimsuit portion.

Judges asked Navarrete about the effect that the Internet has on young people and she said it is an indispensable tool.

Miss USA Rima Faikh, the first Muslim-American person to win the Miss USA competition, did not make it to the final round.

Now that was shocking for me.... We always make the final round....

On another note, there seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the answer of Miss Philippines 2010. Some say that her answer or lack thereof seemed to have cost her the crown...

Did any of you get to watch the pageant? If so, what was your opinion?

Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part III

So where was I? Oh yes, now I remember....

I was so engulfed with helping God's people that I forgot all about the 100 applications that I had on the job market. I was so engulfed with helping God's people that forgot all about me, my problems and my situation. It was all about the people of God!

And in that I had also found joy, peace, happiness and a sense of fulfillment that I had never felt before. I was really content with my life and with doing kingdom business...

All of sudden, I received a call from a major food and beverage corporation concerning a training supervisor position. I was ecstatic! I said within myself, if this is for me God, you will make it happen! I felt so peaceful about the opportunity.

The company that I was working for made several counter offers; some of which were VERY hard for me to refuse. But in the end I chose purpose over immediate financial pleasures. And what a wise decision that was... {If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him~James 1:5}.

I landed a better paying job, that was closer to home with stellar benefits in a career that I loved!!! I give God all the glory, the praise and the honor to Him because it is in this economy that He blessed me with a new opportunity to fuel my passion and to fulfill my purpose in life!

I hope that my testimony will encourage you to keep your faith in troubled times!

T.G.I.F.

It's Friday and I can hardly wait to go on a date with Mr. Falsetto!!!! I will return on Monday to finish up my Keeping the Faith to Endure series...hopefully! In other news, I did something really exciting yesterday!!! I will have to wait to tell you more on that! sOrRy)!

Have a great weekend!

Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part II

It took all that I had to get used to the day to day operations of my new positions... I had to make sooo many adjustments. Among those were:

• Moving from the corporate level to the local level
• The work load
• Managing over 30 hourly employees
• The hours {my hours were very flexible in my previous position}
• and most of all the MONEY!!!!!

I could be a little more detailed, but I digress. After spending the first few months in agony, I got this *bright* idea that maybe God had put me there for a reason. So I repented for being unthankful and I made a vow to Him that I would fulfill His purpose for Him having me there for such as time as this...

It was not long after that; that He revealed His purpose for my being there... It was so simple for me to receive but so hard for me to give... My purpose for being there was to share and show the love of God in my life and in my daily walk with Him....

Wow! What a mission to complete...

So I began to channel my creativity and have {themed} monthly birthday parties and holiday celebrations for my staff . That fostered so much unity... So many lives were touch and so many began to love and to care about one another...

Soon I was so engulfed with helping God's people that I forgot all about the 100 applications that I had on the job market. I was so engulfed with helping God's people that forgot all about me, my problems and my situation. It was all about the people of God!

Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part I

In 2009, I had several major challenges that I faced that really *shook* the core of my faith. One of those things was being affected by the RIF {reduction in workforce} that my company had implemented.

I can remember it like was yesterday... It was a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon and I had just finished my last training session. The location at which I was training was less than an hour away and I was on the way back home. It was going to be a great weekend... That is... until the phone rang...

They wanted me to come by the office which was an hour in the opposite direction in which I was currently traveling... So, I made a U-turn and perhaps one of the longest trips that I had *ever* made in my life...

I knew that it was not going to be good, but somehow I had this assurance that everything was going to be okay. My company had been riffing for the past year and somehow they always managed to do it on a Friday. Their reasoning was that it was statistically proven that lay-offs and terminations were always better to do at the end of the work week. I am not sure as to who was responsible for those stats, however, I was seriously consider finding someone else to do that job... What a way to spoil someone's weekend!!!!!

After what seemed to be a 15 hour drive; I arrived at the office. Inside the HR manager awaited me armed with a severance package and an option to take a lower paying job that I knew that I would not enjoy nearly as much as I loved training. I was devastated! They assured me that it was not performance related and of all the riff's that had taken place that day; I was the only one who had received a counter offer... I immediately thanked God for thank opportunity and listened to the rest of their spill that really sounded like whomp, whomp, whomp to me at the time...

Now my beautiful, sunny day did not seem so sunny and bright now... The weekend that was initially going to be filled with fun, shopping and good food would now become a weekend filled with decisions, decisions and more decisions. They gave me a week to make a final decision.

So after much fasting, praying and seeking spiritual guidance from my leaders I decided to humble myself and take the lower paying job...

{to be continued}

The 2010 Miss North Alabama Pageant

This year's Miss North Alabama Pageant was a huge success!!!! God truly answered all my prayers concerning this event and He definitely exceeded my expectations!!!! I give God the glory because He ensures that all we set our hands to be will be blessed!

Here some of the winner's from this year's pageant! They were all very beautiful and poised young ladies.

I pray that next year will be {doubly} successful as this pageant is used for a fundraiser to support the Free to Sow, Free to Grow and Free to Flow Praise Dance Ministries. This praise dance group is affiliated with New Birth Ministries and community outreaches throughout the Shoals area...

Take and Bake Pizza

About a month ago Mr. Falsetto and I ordered a take and bake pizza from Papa Murphy. What it take and bake?

According to Papa Murphy's it is whatever you want whenever you want... It is handmade and fresh. You get to choose your favorite Papa Murphy's pizza or create your own custom pizza - get exactly what you want. Then they will make your pizza fresh right before your eyes with the finest ingredients.

Once you make your selection; you take your pizza home and bake it in your oven whenever you are ready. Every Take 'N' Bake pizza from Papa Murphy's is always served piping hot and delicious. It doesn't get any easier!

It made a fun movie and date night... I wasn't particularly fond of the toppings that he choose but it was still good. Here are the steps that {we} took...

First, {we} removed the plastic....


Then {we} placed it in a preheated oven, and waited for 30-45 minutes. This was the most grueling part of the process as we were both {starvacious} LOL....

Finally, the wait was over and we dove into this baby.... It was delish!!!!


We really enjoyed this!!!! I don't know that we would be doing this again in the near future, but we had a fun first experience!

Diamond's 2nd Sesame {Sweet} Birthday Bash

We recently celebrated Diamond's 2nd birthday with a Sesame {Sweet} themed birthday bash. We ended up with the theme Sesame {Sweet} because her theme was originally going to be Candy Land. After her undeniable love for Elmo blossomed; we decided to combine the two.

Fusing the two themes together was such a blessing because the color schemes were the same! Ha! Go and figure that one! I was so happy with the outcome of the invitations, decorations, gift wrapping and the overall outcome of the party... Let me share it with you...

You're invited!!! I love these lollipop invites! They worked well in the theme {fusion}...

These are the gifts that I wrapped for her. I {heart} gift wrapping...

The Sesame Street gift wrapping paper was a hit!

Next the decor... Notice all the vibrant colors... I so wish that I had {real} photography skills...

The cake was phenomenal...

And lastly the fun... The party was held at a splash pad. And with the Alabaman heat; the location was perfect!

The birthday party was a blast... I have a {Sweet 13} coming up in a few weeks... I can't wait to share it with you. Hint: The theme is Top Model and the colors are zebra and pink!

Do you know of any great party planning sites? Would you like to share them with me?

Hello August!!!!

I can't believe that it is August already! Where is the year going??? LOL! I have been busy beyond belief... One project after the other... And enjoying every waking moment of it!!!

There are sooo many ideas/thoughts/plans/visions swarming around my head right now... I think that I will take a moment to {gather} myself over the next few weeks.... I really need to chart my course for the remainder of year... I have a short time to do some major things and by the grace of God; it is going to happen!!!!

I just wanted to pop in for a moment to say hello... More updates to come... I am going to turn it in now :)!