5 Free Father's Day Gift Ideas

I remember when my parents used to tell me their favorite gifts were the homemade variety. I thought they were just being nice. I knew what they really wanted was a coffee mug, jewelry box or water weenie from the Santa Secret Gift Shop at school. It only took me twenty plus years and two kids to realize they were actually telling the truth - homemade gifts are the best! The countdown clock is on for Dad's Day, so here's a list of five free father's day gift ideas you can get cracking on right now (or during nap time).

Favorite Tie Photo
I took a few silly ones with Ryan's tie on Benny today (even knotted it myself):

I used a different tie and went the photographer route a couple of years ago - came out with a few of my all-time favorite Noah photos.

Father's Day Questionnaire
Pre-made questionnaires are available online, or you can get crafty and make your own. The answers you'll get are priceless. 

I mean, "really good at... hammering"? Why do I have so many frames waiting to be hung around here?

Home Movie Highlight Reel
I made one for Noah's first year and I'm just putting the finishing touches on Benjamin's this week. I'll post Noah's for now so we can keep Benny's a surprise.

Scavenger Hunt
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the idea for a scavenger hunt came last week while I was reading Gone Girl (if you've read the book, you'll understand why it's a crazy place for inspiration), but Noah loves searching for treasures so I thought he'd love to take Daddy on a hunt. Here are a few of our clues:

Hand Decorated Cookies
I don't really know why ties seem to be the universal symbol for Father's Day. It's kind of the equivalent of Mother's Day being represented by handbags or heels. I don't think we'd stand for that! But tie cookies are easier than these (or so I thought):

So I decided not to fight the tie theme when I came across these dapper delicacies online:

Easy enough, right? Well, when Noah and I tried to make them and ours turned out like this:

Colorful keyhole? Baseball bat? Not quite the paisley tie I had envisioned. I guess I should have learned from my previous Pinterest Mom post. We gave up and resorted to making these:

Mustaches mean "Dad" too right? Even if they're on little blue faces with four eyes?

Ryan didn't seem to mind our early gift fail - he ate about three when he got home from work.

Let me know if you have any other good ones to add to the list!

Do These Lashes Make Tummy Look Flat?

I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow! If you could imagine me simultaneously jumping up and down while weeping, you would have a good picture about how I feel right now. I'm really, really excited for a few relaxing days away, laying on the beach, and sleeping through the night. But saying goodbye to the boys is going to be really, really tough. Ryan's parents have kindly offered to come and watch them, so I know they will be having an amazing time with Mimi and Grandpa while we're away, but I'm still going to miss the heck out of them. 

   

So about the trip... I know what most women worry about when they're headed on a beach trip.

Eyelashes, right?

Think of it as a really vain version of the Serenity Prayer. There are things we can change - without too much effort, money or pain - (i.e. eyelashes) and things that we cannot (i.e. oh, I don't know, stretch marks?) 

I know the difference and I've chosen to focus all of my energies on the former. 

Apparently, these ladies have gotten eyelash extensions:

livelovehairblog.wordpress.com

And so did Tricia - the trendy, adorable, younger sister I'm always yammering on about. (Side note: I have a trendy, adorable, older sister too - I'll be yammering on about her on here when she visits with my sweet nephew Brady next week!)

Anyhow, Tricia was really good at graciously fielding compliments about her lashes without giving away the secret. I, however, couldn't stop myself from telling anyone that complimented my new look (and probably a few people who said nothing at all): "They're FAKE! Extensions I tell you!"

A few friends have asked me to blog about them, (probably just to shut me up), but for those that are interested, here is a behind-the-scenes look at professional eyelash extensions:

It looks pretty intense, but really the most painful part is laying flat on a table for a really long time - like two hours. 

You can't stop your big sis from taking pics when someone is pointing that thing at your eye.

At first, I thought that sounded kind of amazing, but sleeping isn't easy when your eyes are taped shut and there are sharp tools moving around them. Also, after about an hour and twenty minutes I start to get pretty antsy and my hips begin getting sore, but maybe that's just me. 

These falsies are supposed to last for two to four weeks, which seems like a pretty good trade-off. I'll have to update you if that window is shortened by a few days of salt water and chlorine. 

I'm not sure how long I'll keep them up, but I think they're pretty awesome. I mean, I wake up feeling fancy. Even, my sweatshirts suddenly look dressed up. And since I don't tend to wear makeup on vacations, they seem perfect for a beach trip.

Here are the obligatory before and after shots:

Danielle: Before

Danielle: After

I'm pretty sure Ryan doesn't notice them, but he doesn't seem to notice stretch marks either, so I'm okay with that. 

Tricia: Before

Tricia: After

So what do you think? Another crazy thing to add to the list of what women do for beauty? Or a fun and painless way to dress things up for a special occasion, vacation, or trip to the grocery store?

Bestselling Novelist, John Shors, Talks Tossed out TVs, Travel & "Teeny-Tiny"

I thought I'd change things up a little this week. Most of the calls I've gotten for freelance work in the past six months have been related to the legalization of pot and school shootings. While both of those stories may need to be told, there's only so much telling I can do. So a couple of weeks ago, after one of those calls, I did a little reflecting about what I really loved most about my career in hopes that I might be able to incorporate a little bit of that in my blog.

There are lots of perks to a working in television, but believe it or not, meeting celebrities and the occasional free loot didn't top my list - (waking up at 3:45am and trying to book interviews with people who didn't want to be interviewed didn't either - that was the worst!) But after a little introspection, I came to the realization that the part of my job that I loved the very most was getting to meet and interview authors. Dorky, I know, but writers are way more fascinating in person than P. Diddy. Yep, I just name dropped.

Again. No shame.

The photos are fun to have, but all kidding aside, I consider myself lucky that books are my thing because I guarantee Jimmy, Jennifer and the Jessicas are not interested in hanging out if I'm not producing a live hit for them, but I think I may be able to twist a few authors arms for an interview. Which is how I ended up sitting in a bestselling novelist's home on a piano stool, throwing questions at him for this blog...

A couple years ago, when we first moved to Colorado, my sister-in-law gave me a copy of a book she liked called Beneath a Marble Sky. (Thanks Angela!) It was based in India and unraveled a beautiful love story in the midst of the construction of the Taj Mahal.  I love historical fiction and I couldn't put it down. When I got to the last page I came across this message from the author:

My immediate thought was: "How cool is that? A bestselling novelist is inviting his readers and book clubs to reach out to him". Then I flipped to the following page and found out he lived near Boulder, just like me. I let my Mom borrow the book and kind of forgot about the whole thing until I was having my little reflection. That night I downloaded his most recent novel on my Kindle, ran a web search for his name, found his email address, and sent him an email introducing myself and asking if he would be open to letting me interview him. I got an email back within 24 hours, and within a few days I was heading to his house with my camera.

John Shors is about the nicest guy you could ever meet, and if you like to read, write, travel or have ever considered throwing away your television, I think you'll enjoy the interview below. Also, I know I said I don't have anything to give away in my first post, but he signed a couple of books for me, so now I do!  I'll be putting the names of anyone who shares this blog post within the first 24 hours into a hat and letting Noah and Benjamin each choose a name. If they pick yours, I'll mail you the autographed book (so go share and then come back and read/watch below).

Q: How did you know you wanted to be a writer? 
"Basically, I grew up reading. When I was probably 13-years-old, I came home from school one day and my father had thrown away our television. My brothers and I were very distraught at the time - it was quite traumatic - but what it did was sort of push us into books and we all became avid readers. I’ve pretty much read a couple of books a week ever since that day. At some point I just decided, probably when I was in high school, that I want to do this, I want to become a novelist. I had no idea how hard it would be to get to that point, but I just felt like I could do it and luckily things worked out."

Q: Did reading about faraway places inspire your travels?

"I think books really did inspire me to travel because so much of what I was reading was set overseas. I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa – very nice city, nice place – but I wanted to sort of go beyond and I was reading books set all over the world and I think that really was the catalyst for me to get interested in traveling. I was lucky enough after college to hop on a plane, fly to Japan and teach English for a couple of years and that really got me excited about seeing the world."

Q: Do you have a favorite place?

"I love Asia. I really have an affinity for Asia, whether it’s Vietnam or Thailand or  Cambodia, India, Japan. To me, it’s exotic and so very different from the west. I’ve been to some of these places twenty times, but yet I feel like every time I go it’s a new adventure and new experience."

Q: Tell me about the process of writing your first published novel…

"Yeah, it was difficult. At the time I had a very busy day job, I was helping to launch a public relations agency in Denver, and I had this dream of becoming a novelist, so even though I had this very busy day job I would come home at night and work on this novel, which was based on the story of the creation of the Taj Mahal. It is a famous story in Asia, it’s beloved, but no one in the west had ever really heard about it so I felt like there was an opportunity to make a splash with my first book. It was hard having a full time job – writing at night, on weekends and vacations. Under those sort of confines I worked on it for five years. It was a true labor of love."

Click on the book to go straight to Amazon

Q: Part of its success could be attributed to your book club program.  How did that come about?

"When Beneath a Marble Sky came out as a hardcover it got great reviews, it won a national award, we sold the movie rights, all these really good things happened – and I just decided that I wanted to give something back to readers.  So when the paperback version came out two years later I put a letter in the back of the paperback inviting book clubs to invite me to their evenings via speakerphone. I included my email address in there, which had never really been done before. It just took off. I got quite a bit of media attention and 'word of mouth' buzz.  So at this point I’ve spoken to about 3,000 book clubs all over the world."

Q: What’s the best question you’ve gotten from one of these book clubs?
"It’s so hard, I mean, some of them have been "googling" facts for hours and they’re very studious and serious. Other clubs have been drinking margaritas for hours, so I’m never sure what kind of group I’m walking into and the questions are very different and they’re both fun."

Q: Now you're actually traveling with your readers to the places in your books - how did this happen?  Did you go to your publisher and say, "I’m thinking about doing this..."? 

John and some readers at Angor Wat, the setting for his most recent novel, "Temple of a Thousand Faces".

Q: Where do you write?

"My home office, nothing fancy, just a laptop and a monitor – but I’ll try to get myself in the right frame of mind. I’ll listen to some song that I love and try to motivate myself, because writing is hard work. I always feel like when I’m starting a book I’m about to climb a new mountain and it’s a heck of a lot of work, so I do need to sort of motivate myself and inspire myself and I’ve got various ways of doing that."

 Q: What music did you listen to today?

"Actually, I listened to One Republic. My family is going to their concert later this spring so I'm trying to get intimate with all their songs."

Q: Best and worst writing advice…

Q: Favorite Children’s Books?

"Shell Silversteen’s stuff I loved, poems. Ferdinand and the Bull [The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf], that was always a fun one. My Mother used to read us this book called Teeny Tiny and the Witch Woman which was kind of a scary book, so that was always fun."

I'm going to order this on Amazon - Noah loves/hates/loves scary stuff!

See, I told you he was super nice! Go ahead and email him yourself if you don't believe me. His email address is shors@aol.com and his website is www.johnshors.com. When I told Ryan he had spoken with over 3,000 book clubs since placing that letter in his first novel, he replied, "that's like two a day!" He is a math guy, I'm not good with numbers, but I know it's a lot of readers and I think it's a wonderful gesture.

Speaking of readers, I thank you, my dear blog readers, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me an excuse to use my camera for something other than home movies this week. I'll be back with a post about "5 Ways My Life as a Mom is Like Going Insane" in a few days.

Dear Diary

While I was cleaning out my closets last week I came across this stack of diaries...

Back in junior high and high school I was pretty diligent about recording every. single. detail. of my day in these little notepads.  While Ryan was playing basketball on Wednesday night I spent the evening reliving my days as a Riverview Pirate and, honestly, it was a little eye opening.  I tend to remember these years only as fun and carefree, but as I read back through my words I was struck by the number of pages that felt sad, lonely and misunderstood.  I know diaries are a bit like therapists in that we tend to pour out our hearts when times get tough, but I'm pretty sure that re-reading these will help me be a little more understanding next time I get caught in an elevator with some loud, obnoxious girls at the mall, find myself next to an awkward teen couple at the theater or most importantly, when my own boys reach adolescence.

I'm double the age I was when I wrote the majority of these entries, so when I got to the end of my last diary and found I had a few pages left, I decided I would offer up a little "Back to the Future" advice for my 15-year-old self:

Being a teenager is hard...

for everyone.  It doesn't matter if you're pretty, zitty, tall, small, athletic or pathetic at sports.  Anyone that doesn't admit to having really tough days as a teen is either lying - or is Beyonce (but she was home-schooled, so that doesn't count).  Take comfort in knowing that although the issues may vary, all of your peers are dealing with their own.

Do you think Solange voted for Beyonce to get the "best-dressed" award?

There are lots of guys (or girls) in the world...

that don't go to your high school.  3.4 billion to be exact(ish).  So while I know it might feel like your world is falling apart because x asked y to prom instead of u, believe it or not there is a very good chance you will have forgotten entirely about x after your first year month week day of college.  You will come to learn that although some high school sweethearts do live happily ever after, it's the exception, not the rule.  Enjoy flirting and dances and going on dates, but in your case, Prince Charming doesn't show up until after college so don't lose too much sleep about guys just yet.

I think my entire graduating class may have fit under those Pepsi umbrellas in the bottom left corner.

Your Mom loves you... 

even though it might feel like she is nosy and difficult and stricter than all the other moms.  I know you think she is listening in on some of your phone calls (she is) and that you're convinced she doesn't like the older "bad boy" you're crushing on (she doesn't) - but it's all because she loves you and doesn't want to see you get hurt.  At some point during college, when you're 1,300+ miles from home, she'll become your best friend.  Then, one day when you have your own kids you'll finally get a glimpse into what a mother's love really means and you'll start to understand why it's okay that you're the only one that's not allowed to hang out at the Ramada Inn after prom (you're not) and why your curfew is way earlier than everyone else's (just enjoy your sleep while you can).

"Dani, nothing good happens at the Ramada Inn."

You will not remember which games you won and lost...

but you will never forget what it felt like to be a part of team and to push your body to the point of absolute exhaustion.  Put every ounce of energy you have into your game or race, but know that one day soon you'll have a hard time remembering who won the championship, let alone each game.  What you will recall is your Dad showing up early with a giant hug and the game shoes you forgot by the back door - or mouth guard or sports bra or (insert additional forgotten gear here).  Same goes for those early, chilly sunrises you are treated to as you row, half-asleep, up the Detroit River with one of your dearest friends from childhood.  Cherish those practices because you won't remember who crossed the finish line first on race day.

How's that for a shot of Detroit?

When something doesn't feel right, speak up...

again and again and again until someone is able to help you.  In your case, it will be a giant, basketball-sized cyst in your abdomen that won't be diagnosed until the end of your junior year.  You already know something isn't right, because you write about it every ten pages, so don't feel bad speaking up to the doctor, even if she says you look healthy.  Ask if there are other tests they can run and give them a list of all the dates that you have woken up puking your guts out and reeling in pain. Be a drama queen.  You're good at that.
*This doesn't just go for physical ailments either.  If you know someone that is depressed or being bullied or abused, tell someone (and keep telling people you trust until the right person steps in).  

Poloroid proof that the hospital sent a creepy Teletubby to wish me well on my surgery.

You will not...

Whatever happened to YM and those "Say Anything" columns?  

and that is a very good thing.  Because not only are you unfit for the the task of looking as put together as Kate Middleton does every time she leaves her castle, but if you spend all of your free time hanging out at polo matches and balls, you might miss out on the opportunity to scoop up this hunk of burning love who is currently busy wreaking havoc in the red rocks of St. George, Utah:

Sorry Ry, couldn't resist this photo.

Not only will find him to be about a million times hotter than Wills, but he will also become an incredible husband, father and best friend - who happens to have parents that are way cooler than Charles and Priscilla.

Your super secret system worked...
even on you.  When you took your most private thoughts and sealed them up in an envelope and signed your name on the seal you ensured that no one would read your innermost thoughts without you knowing.  I'm pretty sure someone has snooped through your diaries at some point (you have two sisters), but these remain untouched.  And at least for the time being, your secrets are still safe with me.

Maybe I'll be ready for you in another 15 years.