Easter

My parents had Amelia the week before Easter, but they brought her back to us on Good Friday and spent Easter weekend with us.

We had a lot of fun dyeing eggs. They weren't the prettiest eggs in the world, but Amelia surely had a lot of fun decorating them!



This year, we went to church on Saturday night instead of on Easter Sunday. I dressed Amelia up in her Easter dress anyway. :-) (And when I arrived at church, I realized that other mothers had the same idea. Ha!)

Amelia, however, wasn't really up for just standing still and posing, so...








On Sunday, Amelia woke up to discover that the Easter Bunny had paid a visit.


We had a yummy lunch, and later that afternoon, my cousin Vicky came by for some Easter dessert and to watch Amelia hunt eggs. Amelia LOVED hunting eggs. :-)






It was a fun Easter weekend!!

Stuff that Happened Before Easter

That's a clever title, is it not?

Here's just some random stuff that happened while I was on my unexpected blogging break.

Amelia and I took advantage of the nice weather by doing things like going to the park.


We went to a birthday party, where Amelia enjoyed a little Wii Rock Band action. The bare feet and pigtails made me think of Taylor Swift. (By the way, this was an indoor playground facility, so she had to take off her shoes. Just didn't want you to think my child's barefootedness is a common occurrence outside the house.)


Darryl and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary. While we didn't do anything "grand" on the actual day, we did get an opportunity to go to Baton Rouge while my parents had Amelia, and we ate with our friends Rebecca and Damian at Commander's Palace. Darryl took this photo en route from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

A) Yep. We are totally sitting with girls in the back, guys in the front. B) I was busy telling Darryl what kind of photo I wanted him to take. Because I'm like that.

Anyway.

Here's a cool "Making of Bananas Foster" photo.

Also, it should be noted that Rebecca does not always wear a paper chef's hat on her head. It was her birthday, and apparently a paper chef's hat is Commander's Palace's sombrero for birthday celebrations. (The waitstaff did NOT, much to Rebecca's relief, gather around the table to sing.)

And while I'm on the subject of food, might I just say that beignets and I were reacquainted after a long, approximately 10-year separation. I had these at a place called Coffee Call, and they were DELICIOUS.

"Reunited and it feels so good..."

Anyway, those are just some of the goings on over the past few weeks. I promise to put a post up about Easter soon...at least before Thanksgiving. :-)

I'm Still Around

I apologize to my five or so readers for my spontaneous blog break.

There's a lot of stuff going on right now, but I'm not ready to write about it. (I just committed one of my own pet peeves...being vague about something and not giving full disclosure. My response in my mind is typically, "Then why did you bring it up at all???" I just wanted you to know that I have been busy because of all this stuff, and I will spill the whole story soon. Also, just to relieve any curiosity, I'm NOT pregnant, and Darryl and I are still happily married. So you can rule out pregnancy and divorce.)

And my parents have Amelia this week until Friday, so I have relegated myself to the task of going through Amelia's baby clothes. Darryl and I have decided that IF we have another baby (not ruling out that possibility, but we're no spring chickens, either), it would probably be cheaper to just buy new stuff again rather than to pay to store all these clothes. Seriously, with the exception of a few things I gave away through the years, I think I have every article of clothing Amelia has worn. I could open my own boutique!

Anyway, I was afraid I would be smelling every outfit and fighting back tears through this process, but I've held it together very well. The hardest things to go through are the tiny Newborn and 3 Months clothes. Was she ever that small??? Anyway, I'm pushing through and getting it done!

More blogging soon!

Beef with Snow Peas--YUM

Last night I made the Pioneer Woman's Beef with Snow Peas, and all I can say is YUM.

I've been trying to make a new recipe each week, and this recipe is definitely one I will make again.

Also, I had never used real ginger before. In the recipe, Pioneer Woman talks about how wonderful it smells, and I have to agree. It has such a crisp, clean smell. (Perhaps I kept a small piece of it to the side and smelled it about every fifteen minutes while I was cooking. Is that weird?)

(Also, the photo above is from her website because my food photography skills are severely lacking.)

Realizing Life

Monday night, I went to see my school's excellent production of Our Town.

I love this play. It isn't full of action; instead, it is about the day-to-day routine of the small town of Grovers Corners in the early 1900s. The women gossip after choir practice. The milkman delivers the milk at the same time each day. Momma makes every meal for the family. Marriages take place. Babies are born. People die -- some young, some old.

It's a play about the extraordinary in the ordinary.

My favorite line occurs in the last act, when a now-dead Emily attempts to return to a "normal" day from her youth, and she is caught up in the beauty she never realized in what was a seemingly ordinary life. She says to the Stage Manager (who functions as a sort of narrator in the play):

"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?"

Even though I have a long way to go, "realizing life" is something that I think I have gotten a little better at in the past few years. I take tons and TONS of photos, but my favorites are the little everyday moments. Here are a few:

Some Thoughts about Movies

When I was in grad school, I learned that English majors could be very pretentious about their movie tastes. I became very close with a small group of grad students who worked in the university's writing lab, and our conversations often wandered to what were considered "good" movies, and I learned terms like "noir."

The movies were always ones that were heralded by film critics and were often movies I hadn't even heard of or seen. And because I was in my early 20s and hadn't quite reached the state of confidence that, I believe, comes with the 30s, I believed I needed to brush up on my knowledge of "good" movies rather than boldly proclaim, "Hey, y'all. I just LOVED Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion!"

So I joined the girls who met once a week to watch foreign films and pretended I liked them.

I dragged Darryl to movies he and I didn't really care for. It got to the point that Darryl would actually groan when he saw the "Miramax" logo at the beginning of the film because he knew he was in for a real treat. Not.

But I have evolved since then. I'm (much) older, and as cheesy as it sounds, life has taught me that real friends accept you for who you are, not the movies that you watch. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, my friend Tim posted on FB that he had seen the much-lauded Oscar nominee Tree of Life. I responded with, "I just saw The Vow." (For the record, after hearing the talk about Tree of Life, I'm a bit scared to see it. I think I could be lost for the entire movie.)

Now, I'm not opposed to the critically acclaimed, "good" movies. I rather enjoyed The English Patient. I absolutely ADORED The King's Speech and would probably put it in my Top 10. (Also, I would put Colin Firth in my Top 10. Along with Ryan Gosling, who has nothing to do with The King's Speech.)

Last weekend, I went to see The Artist, not because it was the big winner at the Academy Awards, but mainly because a couple of people told me they thought I would like it. And they were right. I really didn't know anything about the movie other than the fact that it was a silent, black-and-white movie. And honestly, my original thoughts were, "What's the big deal about that? That's just a gimmick." I was so, so wrong. It is such a delightful movie about a silent film star who realizes his irrelevance in an industry that is moving forward with "talkies" and leaving him behind. It is smart, funny, touching, and beautiful. I highly recommend it.

And afterward, go see The Vow. Life's about balance, right?

What a Week! "My Life '12" and Other Craziness

Whew, people. This has been a week. A CRAZY WEEK.

(And this is going to be a longer post than usual. I'm just warning you.)

Last weekend, our high school ministry (called "Inside Out") had a special event weekend called "My Life." Unlike our other annual events that take place out of town, this one took place right here. Twenty-one (yes, 21!!) girls from our group registered for this weekend, so we had to find a parent willing to host 21 girls for the whole weekend (thank goodness a parent did that rather quickly) and transportation for all of us to get from one place to the other. (Just to give you some context...we were the biggest group out of all the "small" groups, and most groups had 6-12 students.) Without a doubt, this event was the most stressful for the leaders because we had to coordinate all of this AND find a free-time activity for us to do Saturday afternoon.

Even though the event was stressful to prepare for, I have to say that is was, without a doubt, the best event for our group. The girls all seems to bond more closely with one another and with me and Jen (my co-leader), and it was overall a huge success. Here's a pic of us at a chocolate factory, where we spent part of our free time:


Also, I learned two useful pieces of information from these girls:

1--There is a bra called "The Bombshell," and apparently some girls wear two at once. (I don't think that any of these girls wear The Bombshell, but apparently many high school girls do. And I don't want to link to The Bombshell, but you can Google it. And be amazed.)
2--I learned what YOLO means: "You Only Live Once." I might have been awakened at 4 am one morning to a group of girls saying, "YOLO! YOLO!" (I'm not sure what they were doing as they were saying this, but since they were contained in the house and nothing seemed to be on fire, I let them continue on with their "YOLO" escapades.)

Now, let's move on to the rest of the week...

So Sunday afternoon, I was more sleep deprived than I had been since Amelia's newborn days. And then Darryl had to leave Sunday evening to go out of town for the week.

Monday and Wednesday, I had to get up at 4:30 and get both Amelia and me ready so I could get to school for my part-time gig.

Tuesday, I had scheduled a check-up bright and early for Amelia (originally, this was so Darryl could go with us before going to work that day), so Amelia and I had to get up and get us dressed and over to the doc for her way past due annual check-up. Which included 4 shots. She was not a happy camper when that was over.

Friday, I had to judge an essay competition for a Literary event in Gainesville. This wasn't too bad, but it did take a few essays for me to get back into the "grading groove." And then it was like riding a bicycle. Once an essay grader, always an essay grader.

BUT in the "background" of all these little goings on was that we were negotiating with a couple who wanted to buy our house. Lots of emails back and forth, lots of phone calls with Darryl about what our next offer would be, lots of stress made a little more stressful because Darryl and I were a couple of time zones apart.

And on Friday, we finally reached an agreement. And then there were papers to sign, email, fax, and so forth.

(So YES, we sold our house. More on that later.)

Whew.

The tornado warnings last night seemed a fitting ending to this crazy week. I had the weather on, waiting for a sign to get in our hallway bathroom, and Darryl was flying in to Atlanta in this crazy weather. To provide extra assurance for me, he would text me to tell me about all the turbulence.

Thanks, Hon.

I'm crossing my fingers for a peaceful weekend.

Yeah, well...

I didn't do such a great job of blogging this week, huh?

What else is new?

This week has been a little crazy, and this weekend is going to be even crazier. And next week is going to be off the chain.

In short, this past week...

--Darryl and I DID have a modified date night last Friday...modified because we had to accommodate a prospective buyer coming to take a second look at our house that evening (more on that in a minute). We did dinner, but no movie...but our PF Chang's was really delicious!

--I ran/walk eight (yes, EIGHT!) miles last Saturday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I was kind of proud of myself when I was done.

--I've been planning for a weekend church event for my 9th grade girls' small group. I use "small group" somewhat jokingly because 21 of them are planning to attend. That will deserve a post all its own, I'm sure!

--We've had a couple of house showings. I'm not sure I have mentioned on this blog that yes, we have our house up for sale again. We're hoping the third time is the charm, but we'll see. :-)

More later, for sure.

Friday Catch-All

1. Starting this past week, I'm working two days a week at my old school. I'm teaching a class that is supposed to help kids work up to their potential on the standardized 9th and 11th grade English tests that take place in May. I could only work Monday this week, and the school is out next week, so basically I worked one day only to have almost two weeks off.

It's a little money and I still will get to spend plenty of time with Amelia, so I think it is a good thing for the most part. Getting up at 4:45 a.m. this past Monday, though, hit me like a ton of bricks.

2. I don't know what exactly to say about the death of Whitney Houston. It's so sad, but at the same time...I wasn't really surprised. That doesn't make it any less sad, though. I know this is cliche and I've heard many other people say the same, but her songs truly do make up a good bit of what I would consider the "soundtrack" to my life, especially 5th grade through college. I can remember when my best friend in 5th grade, Heather, hit "play" on a new cassette (this was before the CD days, y'all) she had just bought by this new singer. We danced around while using hairbrushes as microphones and sang "How Will I Know?" about 427 times in a row.

3. I have started watching Parenthood on Netflix. It's so good, y'all. I love Lauren Graham, a.k.a. Lorelei Gilmore. (Ah...Gilmore Girls. Let's take a moment, shall we?)

4. I just started using Google Reader, and it might be changing my life.

5. A worship leader/singer for our church, Chris Cauley, is on The Voice this season. He's crazy talented and is on Adam Levine's team. (By the way, I'm thinking this show is much better than Idol, which, as I might have blogged about before, I broke up with when Taylor Hicks beat Katherine McPhee.)

6. Darryl and I are having a date night tonight (dinner and a movie) and I am PUMPED.

That's it.

Also while we were in Florida...

We were able to spend a little time with Darryl's sister and her girls. Amelia really enjoys playing with her cousin Avery, who is about six months younger than Amelia. Here's a pic of the two of them:


Amelia also enjoyed playing on the horse/tire swing in the front yard. It took me forever to get her off it.

We also got a chance to look at the new house Darryl's brother and his wife are building. They are hoping it will be finished in April, and I can tell it is going to beautiful. I'm so happy for them!

Valentines Are All Around

Last Thursday, Amelia and I went to Florida to visit family. My parents (especially my mother) had the Valentine spirit going full force -- they had put a "Valentine mailbox" on the kitchen counter, and it would have a surprise in it multiple times throughout the day. Here's Amelia checking the mailbox:


I had to make sure Amelia understood that this magic mailbox didn't work at home. :-)

Here's Amelia and Nana:

We (meaning Nana and Amelia) also made some Valentine's cookies.



Amelia also worked on Valentine's cards for her classmates:



It was a fun few days. (We also were able to see Aunt Ashley and the cousins, but I'm going to post on that later this week.)

Yesterday was a good Valentine's Day. Amelia went to daycare and exchanged Valentines with her classmates. I ran a few errands, and Darryl brought me these roses when he got home.



We had a yummy dinner of salad, steak, baked potatoes, and dessert (which I purchased from Whole Foods), and afterward we played Wii Bowling with Amelia.

It was a wonderful day!

Not Much

That's what's been going on these days. Not much.

I feel like a bad blogger lately, but honestly, I don't think you want to read, "Well, I went to Publix for groceries, and then I came home and cleaned the bathrooms."

I don't even have a photo of cupcakes to show you this week. :-)

And the runner on my weight-loss ticker went backwards again. As Amelia would say, "That's not good."

And I know I should have my healthy cereal for breakfast, but I really want a cookie instead.

Let me go on the record to say I LOVED Madonna's halftime show. It was obvious she was lip-syncing at different points, but I honestly don't have an issue with it because the production itself was so good. (The entrance was amazing!) I'm not even the biggest Madonna fan, but I liked that she mainly performed hits from the past while promoting her new single.

And Kelly Clarkson performed a very classy rendition of the National Anthem. Love her.

So while I couldn't really give a rip about who won the game, I must say "well done" on the entertainment.

And that's what's most important about the Super Bowl, right?

What We've Been Up To

I didn't really mean to take a week off there, but quite honestly, I just haven't been in a blogging mood. Things have been going well, and we're all happy here, but I just haven't had a whole lot to report.

(Wait...GMA is on right now and there's a woman who had a 14-pound baby with no pain meds. WHAT?!?!?!)

(Also, let me say for the millionth time that I love, love, love Robin Roberts.)

Okay...let's see.

Here's just a random pic of Amelia that represents pretty much any day we have at home.


One of my favorite lines from her last week occurred when we were in the car, driving to the gym. It was really foggy outside, and she said, "Momma, it's FROGGY outside and we can't see the sun!" I love these little mispronunciations of words. I know all the books say to correct them, but I just can't yet. (Like when she says "I winned!" whenever she beats one of us at something.)

Hmmm...what else? Oh yeah, I made cupcakes last Friday. I was just in that kind of mood, you know?


They were good, y'all. And despite the cupcakes, I was able to get the runner on my ticker to go forward again. :-)

Over the weekend, I had lunch with my friend Casi, whom I hadn't seen since May. We both laugh about the fact that we think we saw each other more when we lived in two different states than we do now that we are in the same area.

Other than all that excitement (haha), I've been hanging out with Amelia, working on/finishing up some scrapbook projects, and trying to keep the house maintained somewhat.

And I don't really know how to end this exciting post, so I'll just end it. :-)

Just Some Thoughts on Things

1. I'm watching GMA right now, and a feature just aired about single women who are planning their weddings without even being engaged or having a boyfriend. Ladies, nothing is going to scare a potential husband off more than having the wedding planned before you even meet. I'm just sayin'.

2. I'm going to confess that I am watching The Bachelor yet again. Really, you should judge me for that. I'm just going to argue that it is indeed one of the best comedies on TV. (This bachelor, meaning the man himself, might be the most disappointing one yet. Seriously...why are these women fighting over him?)

3. You know what I'm over on Facebook? "Tests." There's this new status going around that says something like, "I'm seeing who really reads my status updates. Leave a comment that starts with the third letter of your first name" or something like that. Seriously?? You are "testing" to see who reads your updates? Maybe I read your updates, but I don't want to play your stupid game. I also detest the breast cancer awareness statuses that involve posting the color of your bra or what country you are traveling to (I'm not opposed to breast cancer awareness, just the silly games) as well as bold Christian proclamations that suggest you aren't a true Christ follower if you don't copy and paste the bold Christian proclamation as your FB status. Wow. It felt good to get all that off my chest.

4. Today looks like it might be the only day it is going to be sunny outside. I think Amelia and I should take advantage of it, don't you?

Weight Loss Failure

If you look at my little ticker on the right, you might see that my runner is running backwards.

As Amelia would say, "That's not good."

This time the gain can be blamed on Louisiana cuisine, as the three of us made a quick trip to Baton Rouge last week.

(I say "quick trip," but there was nothing about that trip that was quick. Between rain, numerous stops for a 4-year-old who never seemed able to coordinate her bathroom needs with rest area stops, and so on, we were in the car 20-plus hours round trip.)

All I can say is that there was King Cake, and King Cake and I had a much anticipated reunion after about six years of being apart.

And I might be having one more slice of King Cake with my coffee before bidding farewell to it. A fond farewell.

BUT...

I want to toot my own horn for a minute because I am still following the half-marathon training program, and on Saturday I actually did my 5-mile run (and by run, I mean run/walk) at the LSU lakes.

And I didn't hate it, probably because this was my view:

So...I'm about to indulge in one last slice of King Cake, and then it is back on the wagon for me.

And let's cross our fingers that the runner on my ticker actually runs FORWARD next week. :-)

Cakes, Pageants, and Pounds

My friend Tim invited a few people over this past weekend to watch the Miss America pageant. I was PUMPED about this because I don't think I had watched this pageant with a group of people since, oh, college. And really, some shows are meant to be enjoyed as a group, and a pageant is definitely one of those.

Anyway...I volunteered to bring a dessert for us to enjoy, and I decided upon this chocolate cake recipe that I had received in a sample cooking magazine in the mail a few days ago. Unfortunately, when I was finished with the cake, it looked like this.


But y'all. It was GOOD, cracks and all. (And it might be the reason why I gained back a little of my four pounds this week. Yikes.)

Back to the pageant...we had a great time watching. I have so many thoughts about this pageant (one contestant had "afraid of windmills" as one of the facts about her on the screen--what???), but let me just say that the greatest moment of spontaneous laughter took place when this dress appeared on screen.


Y'all, this photo does not do that bow justice. Seriously, I think I had that bow on the top of my Christmas tree in 2002. (I'm sure she is a lovely young woman, but that BOW. My word. It hardly fit on the screen.)

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. Thanks, Tim, for hosting!

Project Life, Parenthood (the show), and other musings

Project Life. I started to begin this sentence with "You might remember that two years ago...," but then I thought that probably nobody remembers this because my scrapbooking endeavors are very likely not at the forefront of everyone's mind.

Anyway, I have embarked on a scrapbooking project for the past two years called Project Life, and I'm doing it again this year. In 2010, I tried to do the "photo a day" thing, and while I mostly enjoyed it, I also found it burdensome. Getting photos developed and catching up on journaling of all the photos could sometimes be a nightmare, and the point of scrapbooking -- besides recording memories -- is having fun, right?

Last year, I tried the digital version, and about a month into it, I realized I didn't like it that way. I thought I would enjoy eliminating the "photo developing" step, but I just got lazy with it. (Nothing was wrong with the product itself, mind you. It just wasn't for me.) In fact, that album is only about halfway complete, and I just work on it a little from time to time. I feel compelled to finish it, though, because I paid for it up front so I could get an extremely discounted rate.

So this year, I'm going back to the traditional version, but I'm doing more of a "week at a glance" kind of thing--photos, receipts, lists, journaling. Just little snippets that represent daily life. No pressure to do that "photo a day" business. Next week, I'm going to post what I have so far.

(1--That whole discussion probably bored you to tears, didn't it? And 2--I've had to get up three times so far because Amelia becomes Miss High Maintenance when in comes to how she wants her hot chocolate. First she didn't want the marshmallows on top, so she wanted me to take them out. Then she did want them. Then it was too hot. It might be a long day around here.)

Parenthood. I have started watching this show on Netflix and I LOVE it. (By the way, I am totally into the whole "watching a show on Netflix" thing. It's how I became obsessed with Mad Men. And speaking of Mad Men, WHEN IS IT COMING BACK????) I had to make myself go to bed last night (or this morning) at 12:30 because I wanted to keep watching. Alas.

Football. Y'all. I can hardly talk about that National Championship game the other night. What was UP with the Tigers? (In all truth, while I love my team, I thought it would be very difficult to beat Bama one more time, but I didn't think we would be SHUT OUT.) Also? I learned that I like a high-scoring game. More touchdowns, I say. A low-scoring game is a SNOOZEFEST.

New Year's Resolutions. Actually, I'm doing okay. I've been eating much better, keeping up with my workout plan, and reading the Bible with the goal of finishing it in a year. However, I'm in the middle of Job right now (I'm doing the chronological plan), and oh my goodness. Job is long, y'all. And a bit repetitive. And depressing. After Job, I might find the rules about the temple very exciting.

Rain. When we were in Baton Rouge over Thanksgiving, I saw some rainboots on sale and came "this close" to getting them, but I refrained. Of course, since that moment, Atlanta has felt more like Seattle. Seriously, y'all...rain, rain, rain. I'm pretty sure, though, that if I had bought the rainboots, it would be sunny here all the time.

That's all.

Monday Thoughts (on Self-Improvement)

Y'all! I lost 4 pounds! FOUR POUNDS!!

I'm sorry. I'm slightly excited about that. It is giving me motivation to continue onward in my weight-loss/fitness journey. Last night, I was losing my resolve (and might have eaten some potato chips). But now, I'm ready to eat my bowl of delicious Kashi cereal. Yum.

(But I'd rather have a doughnut. Don't get me wrong.)

I also successfully completed Week 1 of my Half-Marathon Training Plan. And survived.

I also got my hair cut Friday, and I really like it. However, last night I was with my 9th grade small group, and no one acknowledged my haircut at all. (I'm not all that self-absorbed, but I know from my teaching experience that students might not catch on that the "A" is for "adultery" in The Scarlet Letter, but they DO notice a haircut.) And it is an obvious haircut (seriously...I think I got at least four inches cut off the back.). So my theory is that if a haircut is obvious and no one mentions it, then no one likes it.

(Y'all. Those 9th graders make me feel so self-conscious. It's like I've gone back to ninth grade myself. I think this is something I need to work on.)

Well, I have a list a mile long of things that need to get done today, so I need to shut down this blog post and get going.

A Few Thoughts

1. I feel like someone should come visit us right now because our house is the cleanest it has ever been. We, and by "we" I mean "Darryl," went on a huge "get rid of the clutter" mission during the holidays, and I have to confess it is a good feeling. Yay for a clean house.

2. I have been obsessed (OBSESSED!) with watching Louie Giglio's Passion Conference online. I don't even have the words to express my thoughts about it. Simply amazing (and a wee bit convicting).

3. I'm a little sad because this coming weekend is the annual Glen Ella scrapbooking retreat, and I'm not going this year. It was an unnecessary expense in a time when I'm not working, and I was originally okay with not going. But now everyone is talking about it on Facebook, so I'm sad. While I'll miss the delicious food (oh...the food...), I really will miss laughing until my face hurts.

4. So far, I've done well with my New Year's Resolutions. Granted, it's only Day 5, but I'm on a roll, people!!

5. Even though I am sad that I'm not going to Glen Ella this weekend, I am very pumped that I'm going to get some time this weekend to hang out with my friend Sabrina. We haven't seen each other since last summer, and I'm excited to catch up with her.

6. I'm getting a much-needed haircut tomorrow. It really hadn't been my intention to go long with my hair, but I haven't know what else to do with it. In all honesty, I really wish I could go super-short, but I think my face is not the right shape for it, especially now that I'm in the, ahem, upper end of the weight spectrum. I've selected some photos from Pinterest, though. I'm thinking something along these lines:

But, if I lose my 27 pounds, I might go even shorter, like this:

Of course, I'd also just like to look like Michelle Williams, but whatevs.

7. This really might be the most pointless post I've ever done. You know you've hit a low when you are showing hairstyles.

Resolutions And Such

So we're on Day 3 of 2012, but I figure it isn't too late to publish a couple of resolutions, right?

Here we go...

1. I would like for "losing weight" to not be one of my resolutions next year. (In other words, I want to lose some weight this year.)

2. I would like to run a 1/2-marathon. And by run, I mean a combination of running and walking. If you know me and think this is crazy because I am not an "athlete," I want to remind you that Oprah ran a full marathon once, and the Biggest Loser contestants (many of them much heavier than I am, thank you very much) ran a full one last season. I think if I train, I can do it. We shall see...

(Also, I have absolutely NO desire to do a full one. Just a half.)

3. I would like this to be the year I read the Bible all the way through. I've attempted several times, but I always get stuck in Leviticus and all the rules about the temple. I'm trying a chronological plan, and I've already learned something...I had no idea that Job lived before Abraham! See? My knowledge has already increased!

4. Of course, I want to be a better mom, wife, friend, daughter, etc. I'm not sure how you list that as specific goals...

And that's it...

Oh, I must add that I stayed up until the wee hours (for me, "wee hours" would be 1 a.m.) to watch the David Crowder Band's last concert on live stream from Passion. I'm so tired this morning, but the concert was SO good. They will be missed!

The Christmas Catch-All

This is my last Christmas post, I promise.

I realized I didn't talk at all about Christmas with our families in Florida the weekend before Christmas.

On our way down to Florida, we stopped at Callaway Gardens for the night and did the Festival of Lights. If you ever go, you should choose to ride the trolley, especially if you have kids. Amelia LOVED it.


However, one of our favorite things we did was the butterfly exhibit the next morning before we left. Amelia was delighted by all the butterflies flying around us, as you can tell in this pic:


Then we traveled on to Florida, where we celebrated Christmas with my parents on Saturday and then celebrated with Darryl's family on Sunday.

I'm about to be super-lazy and say that if you want to read about our Christmas at my parents' house, you should go here to read my mom's account on her blog. (I would have used the same photos and told the same things...so why not? Plus, you should check out her blog anyway.)

On Sunday, we had a great time with Darryl's family. It's funny...at my parents' house, everything is very calm and quiet because Amelia is the only child there. At Darryl's sister's house, it is KRAZY because there are five kids. It's fun, though! Darryl fixed prime rib for lunch, and we had that with all the fixings.

Top Left--Amelia and her cousins Madison and Savannah look at the iPad.
Top Right--Amelia's Uncle Dayton tries to show her the proper stance for hitting a ball.
Center Left--Amelia loved hanging out in the back of a pick-up truck with Madison and Savannah.
Center Right--Opening presents!!
Bottom Left--Darryl and his sister, Ashley.
Bottom Right--Savannah was EXCITED to get a BB gun. (It reminded me of A Christmas Story.)

And here's a pic of all the cousins. Cameron, the only guy (bless his heart), refused to smile. :-)


Monday night, we visited one of Darryl's best friends from college. He and his wife have three daughters, and Amelia LOVED playing with them, especially the youngest one. When I saw all of them playing dress-up, it made me want to have four girls...for about a nanosecond.


It was a great visit with our families!

"Peace On Earth" (A More Serious Christmas Post)

(Disclaimer: I debated hitting "publish" for this post. I tend to go the way of "humorous" over "serious," but all this has been rolling around in my brain. So for what it's worth...)

When I was a young girl, the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" was a musical fixture around the holidays. Mr. Patterson, the organist in the church where I grew up, often played it -- as only seemed appropriate -- on the chime setting so it would sound like bells within the walls of the church.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

All these years, though, that is the only verse of the song I knew.

Several weeks ago, I was listening to the Casting Crowns version of the song on the radio, and I heard verses of this song that were unfamiliar to me. At first I thought that these verses were added just recently, but when I looked up the lyrics, I learned not only that they were verses from the original song, but also that they were penned by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

I think the song struck a chord with me (no pun intended) because the next-to-last verse sums up how I feel sometimes. As a Christian, I probably shouldn't feel that "there is no peace on earth," but sometimes it can be difficult to feel goodness -- whether because of trying circumstances, struggles, bad things happening to good people, unexpected tragedy, silence when we want an answer, and the list goes on. (Incidentally, Longfellow's life was fraught with tragedy; if anyone had reason to doubt the message of "peace on earth, good will to men," he surely did.) But like the speaker in the song, I find that these doubts eventually give way to the knowledge and assurance that God is still here. Goodness does exist.

This past week, that assurance came by way of a story that captured Darryl's and my attention the week before Christmas -- the story of the Greens. We don't know them directly, but we are good friends with several people who are good friends of theirs, and their situation has been very much "Tweeted" and "Facebooked" over the past few weeks. The Monday before Christmas, they welcomed a baby who had been diagnosed early in the pregnancy with Trisomy 13. I'm not an expert on the disease, but I do know it involves severe chromosomal abnormalities, and that many babies who have it do not even survive to be born, and if they do survive, each day is considered a miracle and a gift.

After a few days of life on this earth, Baby Hallie died just past midnight on Christmas Eve morning. The day before her death, her father wrote this blog post. I encourage you to read it.

For me, it is a beautiful reminder that "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep."

It is a reminder that, even in the midst of uncertainty and heartbreaking sadness, the message of "peace on earth, good will to men" does indeed prevail.

Christmas...Finally

Well.

I didn't mean to take quite the hiatus there right at Christmastime, but the truth of the matter is that I'm a bad procrastinator when it comes to blogging "events" like holidays, vacations, and such because it means I actually have to plug up the camera and upload some photos. (Mindless things like face creams and my 40th Birthday Party Celebrity Guest List? I can blog about those things till the cows come home.) This time procrastination was even worse because I "de-Christmased" our house Tuesday, so in my mind, Christmas is O-V-E-R.

But, two of my blog readers -- which I figure might be half of my blog audience, and maybe one of those was my mother -- are chomping at the bit for a Christmas report, and who am I to disappoint?

You might want to wait until you've read this post before you answer that question.

I'll start with Christmas Eve. Our church did something a little different this year and had our entire church "schedule" on Christmas Eve...so essentially, we treated it like it was Sunday, but we just did everything Saturday. The only problem with that is that I was so discombobulated about what day it was that I didn't know which end was up.

(It also apparently confused Amelia because they celebrated Jesus's birthday is Waumba Land -- our church's version of preschool Sunday School -- so on Christmas Day, she was adamant that it wasn't Jesus's birthday anymore because they had celebrated it the day before. And maybe on Christmas Day she said it was Santa Claus's birthday. Oops. That's something to work on for next year.)

Anyway, church was great, and then we went to Panda Express (Amelia's choice) because nothing says "Christmas" like a bowl of chow mein noodles and String Bean Chicken. Then we went home because my cousin and her husband were coming over that afternoon for what has become our traditional "eat dessert and open presents extravaganza."

Here are a couple of photos of that.

This is a Delta Mocha Chiffon cake (from the Southern Living 2000 cookbook). I've made it about five times in my life, and each time, I vow it is the last. It is a PAIN to make and is very time consuming, but it is oh so delicious.


Here are Vicky and Robert. I tried to get Amelia to pose with them, but by this point, she had lost her charm and willingness to do what I asked of her. And yes, Vicky is posing with Amelia's dog, Lily.


That night, we went to Chili's for dinner -- because nothing says "Christmas" like Southwestern Egg Rolls -- and then we came home to get ready for Santa. Here's Amelia with cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. And she also drew Santa a picture of Woody and Buzz that she insisted I roll up like a scroll and tie it with a red ribbon. (It looks like Santa is finally getting his high school diploma, doesn't it?)

I also like how you can see Darryl in the background with his laptop. He was in the Christmas Spirit, yes?

On Christmas Day, Amelia woke up at about 7:30. I think we have just a year or so left before she wakes us up at, say, 3:30 in the morning.

Santa brought Amelia some Toy Story toys and a chalkboard easel, and she was happy.

Now, I'm about to get a little lazy on you and give you a photo collage of Christmas Day.

I also love this next photo. Someone was very excited about the Hello Kitty umbrella that Santa left in her stocking.


(In the above photo, you might also see a "Jackasses" Calendar for 2012. I get this for Darryl every year because sometimes he likes to be a jackass. I say that in love, and it has been a long-running joke between us. Anyway, I think he has a collection of five of these calendars hanging in his cubicle. One year I didn't give him one and he was so disappointed I had to go out the day after Christmas to find one.)

(Sorry to get sidetracked with a story about Jackass calendars. Where were we?)

For lunch, we ended up having steaks with assorted butters on the top (1--I don't think I've ever typed the word "butters," and 2--Darryl's had garlic butter and mine had blue cheese butter), and
smoked gouda mashed potatoes. Delicious.

We had a low-key day, but that evening we went to Waffle House (because nothing says "Christmas" like Waffle House and because we wanted to get out of the house).


Then we went to look at some cool Christmas lights in our town that were synchronized to music. That was pretty cool and seemed like a great way to end the day.

It was kind of an unusual Christmas for us because we typically travel to see our family AFTER Christmas, but this year, we went the week before because Darryl's sister and her family were heading out of town Christmas Day. But we did enjoy a nice day just the three of us, even if we did get a little cabin fever.

If you have made it to the end of this post, I thank you.

Merry Christmas!!!

December Catch-Up

Yep, I did it again. I fell out of touch with the blog world.

But I have my reasons.

Since the last time I wrote, I...

...have baked and decorated sugar cookies.

...have taken Amelia to see The Nutcracker.

...have gone with the family to see lights at Callaway Gardens.

...have gone to Florida and to celebrate Christmas with our families.

...have had a couple of lunches and dinners with friends.

...have tended to various other things like dentist appointments, doctor appointments, etc.

In other words, it's been a bit busy around here. We're really making merry around here, and I promise to post some pics soon.

But for now, I need to do laundry and straighten up the house.

(Random: This weather is the pits. Rainy and warm? GROSS.)

Since Santa

I sort of fell out of touch after the Santa visit, didn't I?

Well, we haven't done much "holiday" stuff since then. One day I scrapbooked, another day Amelia and I stayed in the house ALL day except for a trip to Publix, and we spent all day Saturday cleaning up the house (as in DEEP cleaning...closets, cabinets, and such).

HOWEVER, Darryl and I had a date night Friday and went to a program called "Classic Christmas" at our church. The music was awesome, and we really enjoyed the night out.

I'm posting my December Daily collage from that evening. The joke behind these photos is that Darryl was very uncooperative about taking a photo with me. (The photo of the lights is the ceiling of our church. I love how it is decorated this time of the year. Very twinkle-y.)

Amelia's Santa Visit

Amelia and I went to visit Santa today, and it was our best visit with Santa yet! This was the first time she actually talked to him. I was so proud of her! She told him she wanted "Toy Story toys" and then proceeded to list every character in the movie. :-)

This isn't her "official" Santa photo, but I was able to get a few good shots. I wish you could have seen the smile on her face when she was finished talking to Santa. I think she was proud of herself, too!





A Little Mom Note:

Let me tell you...the Santa at Mall of Georgia is AWESOME. We saw him two years ago, and he was great with a very hesitant Amelia and sat in the floor so she might be more likely to walk over to him. Yesterday, the little boy in front of us was throwing a FIT, and Santa was so patient with him and bribed him with candy canes. :-) And...as long as you make a minimum purchase, you can take as many photos as you want with your own camera.

Last year, we went to the one at North Point, and it was not a great experience. Santa made no effort to interact with the kids other than saying, "What do you want for Christmas?" AND they let you take ONE photo with your own camera if you make a purchase. So if that one photo isn't good (and ours wasn't), well, too bad for you.

It's good to know these things, right?

A Little Christmas Shopping

Yesterday, my friend Blayne and I needed to do a little Christmas shopping, so that's what we did. We both needed to make a trip to IKEA, so we loaded up and went. I don't think I have ever been to IKEA when it wasn't swarming with people, so it was nice just to browse around.

On our way back, we decided to stop at Lenox Mall, and Blayne asked if I would ride The Pink Pig with her because in all her years of living in Atlanta, she had never ridden it. So...since there was no line, we decided to ride it. (Mind you, every other adult in line had a kid wanting to ride it. There we were, two grown women, waiting to ride The Pink Pig.)

We had a fun day of shopping!

(P.S. For the third year in a row, I am doing the December Daily project by Ali Edwards. This is why I have been posting these 4-photo collages on my blog; these are usually the same collages I put in my album. I'm going to post more about this project later and actually show you the album--it's such a great (and simple) project even if you aren't a "scrapbooker.")

SEC Weekend

After LSU's win over Arkansas, our friends Damian and Rebecca decided to come to the big ATL for the SEC Championship. And, in a last-minute-deal-can't-turn-this-down-turn-of-events, Darryl got tickets for the three of us to go, too!

I was a little worried about how Amelia would fare during the game, but she did great! She loved cheering, "5...4...3...2...1...Go Tigers!!!!!!!" while waving her pompom. We had a great time!

The PInk Pig (and my mom's birthday)

Amelia and I went to Macy's to ride The Pink Pig yesterday.

I'm going to be honest: The Pink Pig is VERY overrated. The first year we went, we waited in two very long lines (probably an hour and a half, total), and the ride itself is, well, lame.

(However, I think the hype is because it used to be at Rich's many years ago and Macy's brought it back. Every time we've gone, there has always been a handful of white-haired ladies who are riding because they wanted to relive their childhood of riding the original Pig at Rich's. I think that's sweet. I get nostalgia.)

For some reason unknown to me, I returned last year on a weekday before Thanksgiving, and the lines were much better although there was still a short wait.

Well, who am I to buck a tradition I apparently started? So yesterday we went again and apparently a random Thursday the first week of December is the ideal time to go because there was virtually NO line at all. And Amelia LOVED it.


Amelia was so excited this time around, and that made it fun. So my point is this: the Pink Pig is NOT worth the two-hour wait that apparently exists on weekends and week of Christmas. It IS worth, however, a short line wait. And I guess if your kid is having fun, who cares???

ALSO...yesterday was my fabulous mom's birthday! I should have posted about it yesterday, but after the Pig, Amelia had a bit of a meltdown (actually it was a freakishly HUGE meltdown) in QT, so I was a bit distraught after that. Anyway, she has always been a wonderful mom, and I think she was born to be a grandmother, and we all love her very much! (You can also check out her blog here!)

First Dentist Visit!!

Amelia went to the dentist for the first time two days ago. She was really good, and we both loved the dentist. Dr. B talked to us first so that he could get to know Amelia, and he told me that he wasn't going to press Amelia to do anything she didn't want to do because he didn't want the visit to be traumatic.

Well, after he showed Amelia all the equipment and let her play with the water sprayer (she really enjoyed that!), she was good to go and he was able to do a complete exam with a cleaning and x-rays. (And everything looked good, thank goodness!)