12.31.2010

The Beginning of our Christmas Pictures

We had a wonderful Christmas.

Our stockings were hung by the Chimney with care and we all prayed really hard that we had been good enough for St. Nicholas to stop by here!

This was my sweet Avery's 3rd Christmas. Can you believe? I sure can't.



We started Christmas celebrations by baking cookies.



Avery loved baking! The mess was very minimal, so I was impressed!


We then decorated our Christmas tree and, well, somebody didn't like being told not to stand on the step stool with out help.



It all worked out o.k. and the tree got decorated and Mr. Pouty pants decided to be cheerful about Christmas again.





We went to Longhorns to eat dinner Christmas Eve. Everyone was pleasant and we had a wonderful time. We wrapped up the night getting hot chocolate and riding around looking at all the beautiful lights.

Avery slept in a good bit Christmas morning, which was nice for Santa because (s)he had been up late and was very, very tired.

Avery doesn't "get" Santa yet, but when I told him Santa had come he was a very happy little boy.

The look on his face was priceless when he walked into the living room and saw all his new toys!



More pictures to come!!!

12.30.2010

Christmas Preview and a Happy New Year


I'll blog more about this beauty later.

Now, here is a cute little poem that sums up my current body fat percentage and my news years resolution.

Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my dad's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt—

I said to myself, as I only can
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"
So—away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
"Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie—not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore—
But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!


12.28.2010

Chicken Fried Rice-Without the Chicken

I have not had sushi in almost three years. Actually, it would be three years to the day, today! My strike on sushi started as a nice dinner at the local sushi bar. I hadn't been eating sushi long, just a few months, but it was so good, I just couldn't get enough. This day was like no other. I worked my full-time job, went and grabbed some cowboy rolls at the restaurant, and then went and baby sat. I came home that night and my friend was going to stay over because it was still Christmas break and our college down looked like a deserted island. I also had crazy neighbors and didn't like being at the house alone.

I went to bed feeling a little puny. As the night went on my stomach was churning and I ended up having a puke fest in the bathroom. All. Night. Long. I woke my friend up around 3:30am and asked her to take me to the local store to get some medicine. Puke fest at the gas station, a bottle of Pepto, and a few bottles of Powerade and I still had no relief. Yuck! Around 5:00am I called my mom, who lived three hours away, and asked for her input on my how to rid my misery. She told me if the vomiting didn’t stop in about an hour to go to the ER.

As my luck would have it, the puking didn’t end. I woke my friend and begged her to take me to the ER. She got up and got ready for work and drove me to hospital. I had imagined an extra long wait to get a room, but we went right on back. I was hooked up to IV’s and was given the “good drugs” to knock me out. I didn’t care what they gave me, I just wanted relief. As time rolled by, we waited and waited, no results. I was certain I had food poison. Must I remind you of the sushi I had for dinner. Oh yes, my friends, that’s what I had been vomiting all night. I experienced seaweed coming out my nose. NO JOKE! I looked up in the mirror at one point while puking and had a nice green strip of sticky seaweed hanging out. Have I completely grossed you out?

Here I am in the ER and my friend tells me she has to leave to go to work. I figured I’d be there a few more hours so we bid our farewells and she told me to call her when it was time for me to go home. It wasn’t 10 minutes after she left the doctor rolled in and announced the final verdict of my untimely illness.

“Food poisoning from that sushi”, I thought to myself as he was reading through my chart.

“Well Miss. Heard, you’re pregnant”, Mr. Doctor said.

“How is that possible”, I asked?

I will stop this conversation right here, as we all know about the birds and the bees. Here I am, in the ER, alone, pregnant, and my friend can’t come pick me up. Crap. “What to do, what to do” I kept asking myself. I remind you that it is Christmas break still and this little town is empty! I call around and finally get a ride home. “Thank you Jesus”, I thought to myself.

This story right here is why I haven’t eaten sushi in THREE YEARS, until last night. On the eve of me finding out I was pregnant, I get a text from my cousin wanting me to meet her and the family for sushi. Hesitantly, I replied back to the text message with a “sure”. Nervously I walked into the sushi bar and took a seat. Oh the smell. For a moment it smelt wonderful, then I was taken back to that night in my bathroom where I puked for hours. I gave myself a little pep talk and continued to look at the menu.

It was time to order.

"Can I get the Erika #2 (crispy shrimp, mix spicy crab, on top seared beef, special sauce). I also would like an order of the shrimp tempura, a house salad with ginger (my favorite dressing of all time), and a child's chicken fried rice".

"God please let this be good", I kept praying.

YUM! Avery and I shared our salad. The child drank the ginger dressing with a straw and devoured the shrimp tempura. He loved his chicken fried rice, except he would pick through the rice with his chop sticks to find the chicken and put it on my plate. It was too funny! So, three years to the day later, I ate sushi. I. LOVED. IT.





12.24.2010

December 24


It's not just at Christmas
that we remember,
"It's the spirit
that counts." 

12.23.2010

100th Blog Post Giveaway-Results

Thank you all for submitting what you are thankful for this Christmas season!
I am most thankful for my sweet little boy, Avery!
He comes home from his dad's house today and I thought it would be a perfect day to choose a winner.

Lauren was chosen by the Random Selector to win the $10 Old Navy gift card.

Lauren, please e-mail me your mailing address so I can get your gift card to you!

May you all have a wonderful Christmas!

December 23


To love someone
is to love
their potential
into reality.

12.22.2010

December 22


Too often we are so busy
doing the urgent
that we do not have time
to do the important.

The True Story of Rudolph

A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night.

His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob's wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand.

Why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?" Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob's life. Life always had to be different for Bob.

Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.

Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make one - a storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the story doesn't end there.


The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores . By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.

In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn't end there either.

Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry.

"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas."

The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn't so bad. In fact, being different can be a blessing.

12.20.2010

100th Blog Post Giveaway

Tis' the season to give!
I'm still in shock that I made it to 100 blog post.
When I started my blog I figured I would get tired of it and quit after a few months.
However, I instead found that I love my blog and everything about it.
I love looking back at past blog post and see how much has changed and think back at all the memories.

To celebrate my 100th posting, I'm giving away a $10.00 Old Navy Gift Card!
To enter this giveaway, please leave one comment telling me what you're most thankful for this Christmas Season!
I haven't set the time on when the giveaway will close, it will be a surprise. Therefore, hurry and leave your comment so you don't miss out!!!

December 20


The main thing
is to keep
the main thing
the main thing.

12.17.2010

December 17


All people need
Acceptance
Approval
Affection
Attention
Achievement
Appreciation

12.16.2010

December 16


No-one
can change the past,
but it's never too late
to improve the future.

12.15.2010

December 15


The only person
we have to be better than
is the person
we were yesterday.

12.14.2010

December 14


To be listened to
and to be loved
are so much alike
that most people
think they are the same.

12.12.2010

12.11.2010

12.10.2010

December 10

We can choose
what we do
but we cannot choose
the consequences
of what we do.

12.08.2010

12.07.2010

December 7


Too often
when all is said and done,
there has been more said
than done.