This year, Stop & Smell the Flours has created a reading program called Read Across Iowa for public libraries throughout Iowa to participate in! We know how important our libraries are across our State. We also know that more and more youth and adults are going to the internet, apps, etc. to find and read books, yet not utilizing the books within our public libraries because of those other available resources. Because we think it is important for youth and adults to go into the library to find a good book, we wanted to create this program. This program will run through March 2017!
Each library will be entered into a drawing for $100 worth of books for their library as well as the top three libraries with the most readers will receive money to use on books and materials for their library.
AND the top 10 readers will be awarded with a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble as well as cupcakes for a year (1 dozen cupcakes, 1 flavor for 12 months)! We have also added a $50 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble to the reader with the most pages read!
If you or your library would like to participate, please reach out to us and we would be more then happy to get you the information you need!
(The updated standings list is as follows. * Means there is a tie):
The Top 10 Readers are:
1)Jessica Parsons – 121 books
2) Melissa Penner – 117 books
3) Ann Dibble – 98 books
4) Kathleen Stonehocker – 87 books
5) Jennifer Cesaro – 86 books*
6) Vera Scrivner – 86 books*
7) Mary Gifford – 85 books
7) Janice Schealler – 82 books
9) Pauline Struthers – 78 books*
10) Dee Lexy – 78 books*
Top 3 Libraries With The Most Readers:
1) Algona
2) Burt
3) Earlham
Reader With The Most Pages Read:
Melissa Penner with 32,960 pages! Way to go!
Readers in the month of September read a total of 105,414 pages! The total number of pages that the readers have read so far is 848,722!!! Wow! Way to go!! Keep up the good work! We couldn’t be more proud of you!
Karissa is a very good friend from high school. She is smart. She is beautiful. She loves the outdoors and probably the most important…she knows who the best team in the country is…the Iowa State Cyclones! I decided to call her up on Sunday and ask her if she wanted to come over and practice shooting bows and eat dinner. “Yeah,” Karissa said. “Be here by 6:00pm,” I told Karissa.
Hunting whether with a bow or gun isn’t something that you can just go out, buy your weapon and then go out that same day and expect to kill something on your first shot. It takes practice and patience. One of the things that we have learned while practicing is that when you practice with each other..you get to coach, help and celebrate together. Who doesn’t want that?!?!
One of my favorite parts of today was sitting up in the deer standing and seeing Karissa nail the deer. Her shot was perfect! I think we both about fell out of the stand because we were so excited and happy. These happy times also came with some challenging times when we were trying to find arrows in the tall weeds…trying to look out for the all so ugly poison ivy.
After putting our bows and targets away…we headed inside to get some dinner. The coals on the grill were started and ready for the meat. The pasta salad was made and on the counter, the fruit was on the counter, the baked beans were cooked, the chips and dip were out, the brownies were on the kitchen table….everything was ready but the meat. While waiting for the meat to cook on the grill, we talked about cowboy church, school…we are 26 years old and still sit around and talk about school. Some laugh, but I think it’s kind of cool. It must have been good or why would we sit back and reminse about it?!?!
After eating dinner, I served up brownies and ice cream. “I was thinking how good these brownies sounded when we were practicing,” Karissa said. We enjoyed each others company as we savored our dessert, giggling about life. As we have grown older over the years..it’s hard to imagine just 9 years ago we were both entering our senior year of high school. We were having the time of our lives, living the life of a teenager….no mortgage to pay for…no car payment…no taxes…… Now 9 years later we have a mortgage, car payment, taxes and stresses in life. Don’t ever let those stresses of life, get in the way of spending time with those that you care about…..life is really short and we don’t want to miss these moments.
This past weekend, football fans around Iowa just finished watching the biggest football game in IOWA….Iowa State Cyclones vs Iowa Hawkeyes! Football fans across Iowa spend the entire week posting their jokes against the other team, wearing their favorite team gear and buying a months worth of food at the grocery store for the biggest party they will host @ their home for the entire year!
If you are a big sports fan like I am….and maybe just maybe you are the BIGGEST Iowa State Cyclone fan in the country…you know the PAIN I was feeling watching the game this past Saturday. You were probably frustrated, sad, disappointed…just like me! You wanted them to win more then anything! You wanted to walk up to every Hawkeye fan you know and tell them just how bad they played! But now…you can’t!
This college football season, we are giving away $20 worth of FREE treats to somebody who guesses the closest number of touchdowns. Ten minutes before kickoff, you need to comment under our post about football on how many touchdowns you think the state of Iowa team will make (ISU, Iowa and UNI). When two teams play each other, you will want to guess the total combined touchdowns.
For EVERY touchdown one of the state of Iowa team makes (ISU, Iowa and UNI), we will donate one dozen cookies to be donated back into our community! You can nominate an organization, team, law enforcement member, farmer, etc. This weeks nomination was the Iowa State Cyclones football team!
Since I was 7/8 years old, I entered in the Iowa State Food Department. My mom was never a big cook or baker growing up, but I found a passion to be in the kitchen baking cookies or making dinner. I had made many desserts for neighbors, friends and family. When I would drop off or deliver treats, many would ask when I was going to open up my own bakery. We both laughed and I said, “Never.” I never had a desire to open up my own bakery with the over-head costs, hours, etc.
Here we are in September of 2016 and I would have never guessed that I have had built a business this quickly. Stop & Smell the Flours has expanded so much, in fact we are looking at adding a second kitchen, just for the bakery, in our home. Although we have only been working on the beginning stages of outlining what we need to do, we are hoping this project will be complete in the next 2 years.
Stop & Smell the flours 