After having a chatty lunch with two fellow bloggers, Twitter enthusiasts, and Northwest Indiana residents, Natalie and Jennifer, we realized that there are a lot of great bloggers and Twitterers in our area, but we’ve yet to hear of a region tweet-up.

So, I’m proposing one in the near future. Preferably an establishment with a good drink special. Someplace in Merrillville? Don Pablos? Hooters? I’m taking suggestions on time and place. I’ll make sure the restaurant knows we plan on taking over and bring the nametags.

All bloggers and Twitter users are welcome. You’ll have more fun if you’re of legal drinking age. Are you up for it?

Spread the word and RT:

Are you ready for an NWI tweet-up? Suggest dates and times! http://tinyurl.com/dl7azy

Meet my cousins…Madeline, Jack, and Katharine (their brother, Mitchell, his hiding from the camera as all teenagers do). Together, they are a rambunctious, messy, hysterical handful, and they have a little sister on the way this April.

With five kids, I’m not sure how their parents are going to find the time to send out Birth Announcements, but I can give them a tip…go to Doodle Bug Dezigns. Their announcements, invitations, and holiday photo cards are beyond cute and easy to order online between naps, feedings, and laundry.

Come April, I’m afraid I just might be out of my babysitting element when I’m outnumbered five to one!

Before I dive into this post, lets get one thing clear…I’m not pregnant. There’s not a flicker of desire to become pregnant. If I were to become pregnant, I would use all 9 months to eat marshmallow fluff and then complain incessantly about how I can’t even fit into the Liz Lang maternity clothes from Target.

That being said, I’m a strong proponent of stem cell research and solutions and am so happy our president is making strides to progress the study of steam cells. Currently, Cryo-cell offers some amazing opportunities to collect and preserve stem cells. From banking your baby’s cord blood, to collecting monthly menstrual blood, there are risk-free and pain-free ways to harvest stem cells which have been used to treat more than 70 diseases, including malignancies, anemia and metabolic and immune system disorders.

Their current offer makes harvesting and storing stem cells a more affordable option for parents looking to protect their children. No doubt, it’s an investment, but an investment that may pay for itself many times over through the course of your child’s life.

The site encourages interested women and expectant parents to “compare us” because they know they offer the most advanced services at the most affordable price that could one day save your child’s life.

I know this post may be a little heavy-hitting for my blog, but bear with me and weigh-in.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m a huge NPR fan. I don’t understand half of what they talkabout, but I find it calming and I might even be learning a little something in the process.

Today, I listened to This I Believe, which is a short segment where people from all over the country share one of their core beliefs. Sometimes they are touching and sometimes they are funny, but today’s segment was about Finding Freedom in Forgiveness and was absolutely shocking.

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino picked Ronald Cotton out of a line-up as the man who raped her in 1984. After 11 years in jail, DNA evidence proved that Ronald was not the rapist and he was released. Jennifer felt tremendous guilt and met with Ronald to ask for his forgiveness. He told her that he forgave her long ago because they were both a victim of the same crime. Because of their ordeal, the two are now good friends.

To me, it’s a tremendous story from both accounts, because I don’t know if I’d have the guts to face up to my mistake and apologize like Jennifer did and I don’t know if I’d have the complete lack of bitterness that Ronald has.

The two have written a book together called Picking Cotton and will be featured on 60 Minutes in a segment about mistakes in eyewitness testimonies this weekend. You can also download This I Believe free on iTunes and watch a video clip on Amazon.

So, would you be able to do what either one of them did? Stand up and confront your mistake or forgive someone who essentially took years of your life away from you?

In the past week, two of our clients and their cookbooks were featured on the local news in Chicago and St. Louis. They both have outstanding cookbooks and did an fantastic job using completely different approaches to their screen time; Naam Pruitt giving a cooking demonstration and Nielsen-Massey * show casing their product line.

EDIT: Video removed because it autoplays. Ick. Watch Naam Pruitt’s cooking segment.

I don’t work directly with these clients very often, but my company did provide all of the photography for the cookbooks and some recipe development, so it’s awesome to see our** work on television!

*Channel 7 doesn’t allow embedding, so click for video.

** Okay, so both cookbooks were completed before I was hired, but it doesn’t make it any less exciting!