Love the giant tub of cheese balls - perfect for a man trip! ;)

I'm still getting my own blog up & running, so I may not be the right person to comment, however - here's a couple tips I've found useful.
Make sure you're promoting your posts via Twitter & Facebook.
Commenting on other blogs seems to help increase traffic as well (It sounds like you may be doing that already, but keep it up!).
Also, keep in mind that it isn't about how many people you reach, but that you reach (and change) someone. Jon Acuff from Stuff Christians Like (SCL) talks about that. My own fledgling blog doesn't get very many comments, but in conversations with friends (or on fb), people are telling me that they appreciate my blog. For the time being, that's good enough for me. They may not comment, but they are being affected by the posts. I call that a win.
I just signed up for Bryan Allain's Blogrocket - http://blogrocket.com/ - email list. When you sign up, you get access to a 32 pg e-book with blogging help. That may provide some insights as well.

Bottom line - don't get discouraged. Jon Acuff said that he had multiple blog ideas start and fail before he struck on SCL. Keep speaking. There are people out here listening.

Yay! I'm so glad you posted the recipe link. I love soft pretzels and got spoiled by them when we lived near Amish Country in PA. I can't wait to try this myself.

In the past, I've loved women's retreats. The music, the speakers, the conversations - though, I don't remember any doilies. I'm now in a small young church and I just found out that we've scheduled our 2nd women's retreat. I kind of dread it. The first was so awkward for me. No music, no outside speakers, no breakout sessions. It was more of a weekend long Bible Study, really. I suppose I was spoiled by my earlier experiences.

I observed Lent for the first time last year and found it so...I'm not sure what adjective to even use. It woke me up to the complacency in my life. It made me hyper aware of Jesus' suffering for us - for me and my hideous sin. It's made me even more excited about the relationship I have with him.

1st CD - Mannheim Steamrollers Christmas In The Aire. Gifted to me, so I went out the next day and bought a CD player. Ha.

1st cassette - Maybe Bullfrogs & Butterflies or Psalty or something. I was pretty young.

1st record - 1979ish, my sister gave me a book with a 45 in it, Bill Gaither's I'm Something Special.

Do you have a special place or room that you consider yours? I've been hearing @thenester (thenester.com/) talk about Gallery walls and they look really cute. Essentially, you frame them all in random but related frames and hang them all up in a cluster. You could include the non-food tokens and photos of the gifts.

Nicely done London!

My "supermom" homeschooling sister uses a game called 10 Days Across the USA (http://amzn.to/fbv9VL) to teach her 6 & 4 yr old about the states. She & I even played it with just the two of us - and it's fun for adults, too. There are versions for other continents out there as well.

What I remember about answering machines is taking 20-30 minutes to set up the time and date and then record and re-record the message over & over until it was just right.

Found a number. Should I call it? Still deciding.

1. Mercury Mystique in midnight blue
2. Liberty University
3. Narnia