Long Time

It has been a long time since I really posted. I have hit a bloggers block. It is bad when you can not even start a "bloggers block" post. I think I have deleted three times before I got to this point.

We have been busy - getting ready for our trip to NC and WV this week. We got our Christmas trees up this past week and the kids did their Christmas shopping at school. I have even gotten each kid a gift off their list. I still feel like I have a long way to go before December 25th.


I am still trying to get my energy back from my surgery. I go tomorrow for another follow up appointment with the doctor. I have been told that it could take up to 6 - 12 months before my energy will return. I am just thankful for all the help that Michael has been during all of this. I don't know what I would have done if he was not such an awesome dad and husband.



We have been rehearsing hard for our Christmas program at Church. As in the past, it will be three nights of dinner and a show. This year we are excited that Grant and Marah will be in the program. Just maybe this will get some family and friends to come see it. We had a very long practice tonight 5pm - 9pm, but are excited that we have this coming Sunday off.

As you can tell from this post my life has been really boring. I mostly have been spending my days in the kitchen baking for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am excited that the business is growing and that we had a nice write up in the Pittsburgh Magazine. (http://www.wqed.org/mag/features/1208/homemade_holidays.php). The next two weeks will be very busy for Cookies By Rachel, as we bake 450 dozen cookies for a local hospital. We have started to think (dream) about adding a second kitchen.

Well I just realized I really had nothing important to say, but talk about (boring) self. I hope to post again soon with some exciting things.

Testing things out

I like to change things up a lot in my house, re-arrange the living room, the kids bedroom and move things around in the kitchen. So I thought I would give it a try with my blog. Not so sure about it yet.

I think I really just needed something to do, so I was not stressing out in front of Fox News!

Rachel is now on Facebook

Facebook has been a new thing in our lives. A great way to get in touch with high school and college friends. I have spoken with more college friends the past summer than I have in the past 1o years.

I felt too old for MySpace, and I was unsure at first with Facebook. Once I got signed in and familiar with the features - I was hooked. There are many different applications to to add to your page. It allows you to list your favorite things and information about yourself. It makes me feel like a "hip" teenager rather than someone in her mid-30's.

There are things that I don't like about Facebook. I don't enjoy forwards in my email inbox and Facebook has alot of applications that you can forward onto your friends. You have the option of accepting or ignoring them. I have to be honest - I ignore 99.9% of them. At first I felt bad - thinking the few friends I connected with from high school would probably consider me a snob again -Which I was never one! But after receiving several a day - I finally decided to just start hitting the ignore button and live with the snob title again! I have to admit I do like the "Pieces of Flair" application. It allows you to pick buttons and even design your own.

Facebook allows you to come up with a status on what you are currently doing in your life. I have found it as a fast way to check in on friends during the week. Today I notice a status and was curious as to what it meant. My husband and I got to talking about how you can really get people curious about your life by just giving them bits of information on your current "life status". I sometimes like to use my status to inform my husband that I won't be cooking dinner - so he can be better prepared for take out.

Rachel is now done talking about Facebook.

Two Door Signs

I have owned my own company for 2 1/2 years. When I first started I never thought that it would go anywhere. But God has truly blessed me - each month I am just amazed at the amount of work He supplies for me. And I can truly say it is all Him -

When you have your own company you get alot of advice from alot of people - friends, family and even locals at the coffee shop and deli. Some of my favorite over the years have been:

You need to put a big chocolate chip cookie on top of your van and drive around!
You need to have your kids eating cookies and then take their photo and put in on our van!
You should go to hotels and they can serve your cookies.

I have gotten some really good advice that I have taken and used. A friend suggested a local deli and even was kind enough to talk to the owner for me. Now you can purchase my cookies daily at the deli.

About a year ago I got a magnet door sign for my Van - just one. And I have gotten several orders and alot of people asking me about my business. So it has been useful. But we only got one sign - and the joke was I was only letting 50% of the community know about me.

Having one sign was not a big deal to me - but to our friend - it drove him nuts. I would laugh everytime he would say - MIKE GET HER ANOTHER SIGN! So when I got my new car - I made the big investment and bought two new signs for the KIA and now the business is just flowing in! And Jason is very happy now.