The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

Happy Hour #41 with Melanie Dale. Melanie is a geek on a God-ride, a minivan mama and total weirdo who stinks at small talk. Her laugh is a combination honk-snort, and it's so bad that people have moved away from her in the movie theater. She adores sci-fi and superheroes and is terrified of Pinterest. Author of Women Are Scary: The Totally Awkward Adventure of Finding Mom Friends, she's also a contributor for Coffee+Crumbs and an advocate for Children's HopeChest. Living in the Atlanta area, she blogs at Unexpected.org about motherhood, orphan care, adoption, and sometimes poo. Her book: Women Are Scary: The Totally Awkward Adventure of Finding Mom Friends Melanie talking about her "mom balls" and "sitting shirt" Melanie's reading: Rachel Held Evans Year of Biblical Womenhood & she's recently read Bossypants by Tina Fey I'm reading (when we recorded this): The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (I have finished and recommend!) Three things Melanie is loving: The Walking Dead + Skinny Scarves by Freedom in Fashion + The Kentucky Mule For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #40 is with my friend Shauna Niequist. Shauna is the author of Savor, Bread & Wine, Cold Tangerines, and Bittersweet, and is an enthusiastic hostess, home cook and passionate gatherer of people. Shauna’s three great loves are her family, dinner parties, and books, and she believes that vulnerable storytelling, hard laughter, and cold pizza for breakfast can cure almost anything. On this show we talked about her books, cooking club & small group, how her family loves to travel, how she balances motherhood and work, her favorite items to have in the kitchen, and what she's working on right now. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #39 is with my favorite person in the world ... my husband! Since I started the show I've been wanting to have him on, and you guys submitted some great questions via Facebook, Twitter, & IG for us to chat about. We honestly had a great time, and so even though this is a bit of a different show than you are used to, I think you will like it. On this show Aaron and I discuss the upcoming new live album from Austin Stone Worship, how we do ministry together, how we have changed since we first got married, how we met, and of course, how much we love our date nights. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #38 is with my friend Jessica Thompson. This is now Jessica's second time to be on the Happy Hour and I love it and love her. She's one of my most fun guests that I have had on this whole time. I feel like I could sit with her over chips and salsa and laugh for hours. Jessica lives with her husband and three kids in Southern California. She's an author and speaker who has great things to say. On this show we talked about how we both love the show Nashville, her newest book, grace for those around us, and her most recent crazy vacation. I compared Sister Wives to the Church, and then we both shared books we're loving now. Jessica's latest book is called Everyday Grace: Infusing All Your Relationships with the Love of Jesus. This book tackles how we can be in relationships where you will get hurt, and your friends will let you down and yet we can still show them grace. I loved this book so much and it helped me re-evaluate the way I had put such big expectations on my kids. Connect wtih Jessica: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Blog // Amazon Subsribe to the Happy Hour in iTunes and follow Jamie on Instagram for a chance to win a copy of Jessica's book, Everyday Grace. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #37 is with my friend Trisha Davis. Trisha and her husband, Justin, live in the Nashville area (for now) with their three boys. Her and her husband run REFINE US, which is a ministry they founded in 2007. RefineUs Ministries using their story of failure, loss, and transformation to guide individuals, couples, churches, pastors, pastor’s wives and church planters towards a healthy marriage and family. Trisha and Justin wrote BEYOND ORDINARY in 2012. Beyond Ordinary is a book about the heart: our heart, your heart and God’s heart for marriage. Beyond Ordinary will stretch you. It will challenge you. It will inspire you to keep going. It will ask you to pick each other up and run with grace and purpose. To leave ordinary behind as you move toward extraordinary. On this episode of the Happy Hour Trisha and I talk about adoption and how God has moved in mutual friends of our lives, in our own lives, and how God is stirring Trisha's heart towards adoption. What life is like for a momma when her oldest son is graduating, and what it's like to allow our kids to begin to live an independent life. We discussed how they walked through life after her husband confessed to having an affair. Connect with Tricia here: Facebook // Blog // Instagram // Twitter Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes, Stitcher Tweet me your questions: Jamie Ivey Twitter For full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #36 is with my new friend Meredith Toering. Meredith and I met at the If Gathering this past February and didn't get hardly any time to chat, and after our chat today I was wishing I had more time with her. You are going to love her! Meredith is the International Director of Morning Star, an NPO that works with orphans and at-risk children (family preservation programs) who have very complex heart defects in China, Uganda, and India. On today's show Meredith and I chat about how she ended up in China, and the amazing story of her parents adopting Brooke, the little girl she took care of during a summer internship. I also begged Meredith to give me all her parents secrets on raising kids that love to travel, love people, and want to serve people well. We also chatted about how she won a spot on the #styleforjustice trip with Noonday Collection and IJM. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Happy Hour #35 is with my friend Melanie Shankle. You may know Melanie from her blog, The Big Mama Blog, where she's been cracking up all of us readers for years now. Melanie lives in San Antonio with her husband and daughter. She is the author of three books, Sparkly Green Earrings, The Antelope in the Living Room, and her newest, Nobody's Cuter Than You, that just released this week on April 7th. On the show today we talk about her book a lot, her friend Jen that she mentions in the book who is walking through cancer, how I started podcasting because of her and Sophie's podcast, talking with our kids about sex, the shows we watch, how much we both like baseball, college life, and how technology has ruined us all. I laughed so much in this podcast and loved every second of chatting with Melanie. I think that you will too. Today's Happy Hour episode is exactly what I had in mind when I dreamed of my own podcast. One minute we're talking about the crazy things our kids say about sex, and the next minute we're talking about one of our friends struggling through cancer. It's the real talk that girlfriends have, and so this Happy Hour is one that you will love. For a full summary and links to the show, Click here!

Happy Hour #34 is with my friend Trillia Newbell. Trillia Newbell is the author of United: Captured by God's Vision for Diversity (2014) and Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves (2015). She is currently the Director of Community Outreach for the SBC;s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Trillia is married to her best friend, Thern, they reside with their two children near Nashville, TN. You can find her at trillianewbell.com and follow her on twitter at @trillianewbell. On this show we discuss training for a triathlon and her new book FEAR AND FAITH that releases TODAY (April 1st). I shared with Trillia my struggle in teaching my kids about race issues here in America. Trillia and I talked about how we struggle with measuring up to ways we women think we should be successful, and truly embracing our gifts that God has given us. For a full summary and links to the show, Click here!

Happy Hour #33 is with my new friend Asher Collie, who founded the organization, SOLE HOPE, which I will be visiting this weekend! Asher and her husband, Dru, moved to Uganda 2 years ago. They have six children from ages 16 to 2 year's old. They started SOLE HOPE in 2010 to help the Ugandan people with jiggers. They are loving on Ugandans and helping change lives every day. I'm actually traveling to Uganda THIS FRIDAY to work with Sole Hope and see their ministry first hand. I'm beyond excited to meet Asher, the whole Sole Hope team, and see all they do first hand. I'm also going to get to visit Jalia & Daniel and see where they make jewelry for Noonday. On this episode we chatted about how Sole Hope started, and what their mission is for the people of Uganda. Asher and her husband have adopted 3 children since moving to Uganda. Her story about adoption was so moving, and led us to talk about breastfeeding babies that don't come from your body! (I may or may not have shared a little too much info about my love for breastfeeding!) Asher shares about the Sole Hope Guest house and I know I'm going to love it. This episode was super fun for me, and I'm excited to meet her. For a full summary and links to this show, click here!

Happy Hour #32 is with Lindsey Wheeler. Lindsey, her husband Chris, and their daughter Eliana live in Nashville, TN. Lindsey started BOTTLE OF TEARS after she was diagnosed with lyme disease and wanted a way to spread love and hope to others that were suffering. In this episode we talk about her journey with pain and suffering and how that led her to starting a company to help others. We recapped what happened at the end of the If:Gathering for her and how she's hoping for a miracle for her and her daughter to both have complete healing & restoration. Lindsey's story of how they were matched with their daughter will blow you away. We both have children that have come from hard places, and we want to encourage and equip parents on this path that we are, but how do do that without airing their dirty laundry is hard, and we talk about how to do that well. Lindsey shares about how God led her to her new journey in comforting the broken. I asked Lindsey what were some of the biggest things that encourage her when she feels so lonely, and it encouraged me so much in ways that I can be a better friend to those around you. For a full summary and links from this show, Click Here!