The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

Today's Happy Hour guest is my friend Amber Rose Zimel, and I just love everything about her! Amber Rose and her husband, Adam, have five kids - four boys and one girl. They are also adoptive parents and their youngest was born in Ethiopia. Today Amber Rose and I talk a lot about parenting since between us we have nine kids. She is someone that I look up to a lot in parenting, so it was a joy to talk about raising kids with her. Amber Rose shares her story of becoming a mom as a teenager and how her and Adam have then grown their family since then. We talk about talking with our kids about the big S word - sex. We both talk to our kids when they are young about this subject in hopes that we will be their influencers and not their friends. We also share what books we're reading and just how dang hard this job of parenting is! You will love our conversations! For a full summary and links from this show, click here!

In this podcast Debra and I discuss instagram feeds and what celebrities we currently follow and I tell her 19 celebrities that the internet says we should follow. We also talk a lot about sex trafficking and what God has done in both of our lives and hearts with this. Debra shares the story of her son, Ronel, coming home after the earthquake from Haiti, and if you don't cry during her story there's something wrong with you! I know the story and had tears in my eyes as she talked. You will enjoy Debra's voice about advocating for women and adoption. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Today’s guest on THE HAPPY HOUR is my friend Ashley Benson. Ashley and I actually grew up together in Brownwood, TX and then reconnected later in life. Ashley is married, mother of two, pilates instructor, health advocate, and much more that involves health and fitness. In this episode Ashley and I talk about her starting a small business as a personal trainer, why she started her health/fitness blog, her daughters new farm school, vacationing on a sailboat, tye4 (a new pilates method that she's teaching), renewing your wedding vows, dating, and I think she might have sold me on this fitness vacation idea by the end of our conversation! For more details from this show, click here.

Today’s guest on THE HAPPY HOUR is Julie Hayes. The interesting thing about this podcast is that Julie and I have never met, but yet she contacted me about being on the show. She left a comment on my blog that said she’d love to interview me and ask me all the questions that she has for me. For some reason I just felt like this would be fun, and so we did it. When I recorded I knew that it might not work and then I could just can it if it didn’t. Good news is that it turned out great. In this podcast we discuss books we’re reading (of course), parenting, our adoption of Amos, meeting Aaron, my time on the radio, Noonday Collection, and lots of other randomness! For more details on this show click here.

Today’s guest on THE HAPPY HOUR is Rachel McCoy. Rachel is a newer friend of mine within the past few years. She's not only one of the most genuine and nicest people I know, but she's also beautiful. She's a wife, a past college athlete (Baylor Bears), a track coach, a lover of fitness and cooking, and is in the midst of training for a mini sprint triathalon. Rachel is married to Colt, who is a former Texas Longhorn and now plays in the NFL. Rachel and Colt just moved to Washington for his job and so she's learning all about a new city. We chat about her life as a wife to an NFL player, fitness, Washington DC facts, favorite tv shows, Olivia Pope, beach vacations, Texas stuff, and much more. For more details on this show click here.

Today’s guest on THE HAPPY HOUR is my friend Meghan McCamant. I can’t remember when Meghan and I met, but she is one of my most favorite people in the world. Meghan is first my friend, and second she is Story’s BFF. Meghan is a fun loving, headstrong, homegrown Austinite! She loves to read, be outside and hang with her dog Pearl. Meghan is the gifted and talented specialist at the elementary level in Cedar Park, TX and has also taught 1st and 2nd grade for five years. For more details from this show click here.

Happy Hour episode #5 is with Jessica Honneger. Jessica is one of my friends here in Austin and we met not longer after I moved here six years ago. She is a wife to Joe and momma to Amelie, Holden & Jack. She is also the founder of Noonday Collection, which I’m a HUGE fan of and love all of their jewelry. (and they have tons of stuff on sale right now!!) Last week on the podcast Wynne who is an ambassador with Noonday gave away a $50 gift card to Karen. For more details on this show click here.

Happy Hour episode #4 with is with Wynne Elder. I’m not sure how Wynne and I met, but I think she’s a great woman who follows dreams passionately and you will hear that in her voice as we talk today. We talk about her road to her two babies that were born in Ethiopia, her fertility journey, their upcoming road trip, what books and bible studies we are reading now, some great 90′s heart throbs, Noonday, and lots of other fun stuff. Links from the show: Books about Rwanda — LEFT TO TELL & AN ORDINARY MAN (Hotel Rwanda story) Together for Adoption Conference Books we talked about: Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, Moms’ Night Out, Bird by Bird, Restless, Notes from a Blue Bike, Daring Greatly, The Locust Effect Bible Study’s we talked about: She Reads Truth, If Equip 90′s heart throb list & the picture of me + Zach Morris from when I worked in the radio world Article about teacher letting kids forfeit final exam if they gave up their cell phone for the week Follow her trip to Rwanda this summer with #styleforjustice Also, because Wynne is so awesome she’s offering one of YOU a $50 gift ... For more details from this episode click here.

Today’s Happy Hour Podcast is with a great friend of mine Amanda Brown. Amanda and I met at church when we both started an intensive development program and we have been friends every since then. What I love about Amanda is that she’s so honest and truthful to her friends. She challenges me in ways I have not been challenged in before, and yet is so compassionate when she challenges you. That’s Amanda & I in the middle with our friends Maris & Tiffany when we were in London last year! In this podcast we discuss her running the Boston Marathon this year (try not to cry when she talks about it), Friday Night Lights and how I think it’s promoting bad behaviors to teenagers (although I love it and can’t stop watching), her being an extra on FNL, her bucket list, the Bachelorette and all the drama it involves, her Etsy store, mascots (and how I was one: see photo below!), small Texas towns, and how you couldn’t pay us enough money to go back to high school. For more details from this show click here.

This podcast was super fun to record because I just love my friend Jen. She’s an author, speaker, wife, mom, and most recently a reality tv star! We talked about: Supper Club vacations books and books and more books American Idol my social media fast-talking to our kids about sex and 2nd podcast in a row that I have started singing on … could this be something that happens every time? Only time will tell! You will love this podcast and I hope that you share it with your friends! *Jen and I with our Supper Club girls, Melissa & Noel* Here are some links to the show that you might be interested in: Jen Hatmaker books Jen’s website The books that Aaron & I use to talk with our kids about sex: The Story of Me We talked about how I hate cooking when Aaron’s out of town, and I’m here to tell you that I only made pasta ONE TIME this past week! On Monday I made broccoli soup, then on Tuesday I made a roast in the crockpot (and by the way just putting anything in the crockpot, and then working all day makes you. Click for more details