Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

As another year comes to a close, I'm feeling pretty gosh dern proud of myself. In spite of all the chaos and commotion, I still managed to accomplish two of my three New Year's Resolutions for 2010. I don't usually make resolutions, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I'd consider these more like goals than anything else. I'm task oriented so a "resolution" has to be reasonable, measurable and attainable.

Resolution the first: Weight.


Now before you massacre me for not loving my body as it is, and before you start in with the "oh you look so good" comments (cause seriously, this time, I'm not fishing) - remember, I'd just had a baby. And since Amelia did not end up weighing 62 pounds at birth, I really did have some serious weight to lose. And while I can't contribute the weight loss to anything besides months of uninterrupted stress, I never specified any particular plan that must be followed in order to lose the weight. The end result was all I was concerned with at the time.



Resolution the second: Reading

I spent most of 2009 reading nursing related information: textbooks, NCLEX study materials, job orientation and training packets. I was ready to read something for myself. I made the resolution to read at least 12 books this year, one for each month. I not only met, but I surpassed this goal by two books! More than any other, this resolution was my saving grace. It gave me permission to escape into a book without feeling guilty because I was working towards a goal after all. Gosh I'm such a nut job sometimes! Here's the list along with links to my reviews of what I read last year.

1. Life of Pi
2. Midwives
3. The Shipping News
4. Memoirs of a Geisha
5. The Reader
6. A Wedding in December
7. Open House
8. The Other Boelyn Girl
9. The Phoenix Park Murders
10. The Memory of Running
11. The Kite Runner
12. Eat Pray Love
13. The Girl With the Pearl Earring
14. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Resolution the third: Running

This is the one where I fell flat on my face. My initial goal was to run a half marathon anywhere outside of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, things just got away from me and I didn't run a single race this year. In fact, I haven't been out running in over two months! I will revisit this resolution in the coming year and plan on starting 2011 off with a nice long run.

So there you have it. I'm feeling good about my resolutions and am excited to make new ones. Even though I didn't complete everything I'd set out to, I choose to focus on what was accomplished rather than where I fell short. Yet another great lesson from 2010, and Meatloaf!

God Only Knows

Eleven years ago I was 22 years old. I had spent some time, not nearly enough most adults would say, exploring a few corners of this world. I was young, skinny and insecure. I knew I hated seafood and I loved the East Coast. My hair was short and I wore a uniform every day to work.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like much has changed since then. Except of course, I'm older, rounder and more sure of myself. I have actually been to more corners of the world but I still hate seafood and would happily move back to the East Coast if given the opportunity. My hair, after going through it's own identity crisis, is short again and I've found a different uniform to wear to work every day.

Throughout the years one thing has remained constant, in fact, the greatest thing about the past eleven years is that I've gotten to take every trip, reshape my figure (courtesy of my two darling children), and find my latest uniform, with Elijah by my side. None of this would mean nearly as much to me, hell none of this would have happened without the love and support of my dearest friend.

Happy Anniversary, my love. To me we're the same crazy kids we were ALL those years ago!.

(image courtesy of James Dear)

Freeze Frame

Our Christmas was perfect. Hope yours was too!!!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

If you didn't received this adorable card in the mail that means I lost your address in one of our moves.

Please e-mail me your address so I can send off the extra cards I have laying around. (It makes me sad to think I have more cards than friends.)

I promise to add you to my Christmas Card list and you will never be left out again.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas All Over Again

Well, we are currently in the throws of my least favorite of the Ogden holiday traditions.

The holiday sickness.

I use the term holiday because the sickness can (and will) strike one of us either Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's. I thought we'd dodged it this year. We pulled through Thanksgiving without any incident and then Asher got strep right before his Winter Break. I couldn't have planned the yearly "celebration" of this particular tradition any better.

Apparently though, it doesn't count unless it's close to a holiday...and inconvenient.

There's the year where my best friend came with her family for Thanksgiving and Elijah spent two days in the guest bedroom unable to get out of bed. The year we had to head to Pryor for Thanksgiving and leave Elijah behind because he was unable to make the three hour trip away from a bathroom. We spent one Thanksgiving Eve in an ER getting Asher a 2 am breathing treatment while our family slept at our place in anticipation of the super awesome meal we would all be cooking in like FOUR HOURS! We also had to turn a fully packed, vomit filled, car around on Christmas Eve in the hopes that Asher would be able to make the drive to his grandparents house the next day.

Those are all the examples I can pull off the top of my head, let's just say that I've been scarred by, and am absolutely terrified of, this unexpected, yet oft celebrated holiday tradition.

Which is why when Asher woke up this morning and told me he had thrown up I refused to believe him. After all, it's not like he could actually show me because he had already flushed it, so I knew he must have been mistaken. (In my defense, this warm Texas weather is throwing our allergies completely out of control out here so I figured he'd just coughed up a bunch of mucus-y gunk.)

I couldn't have been more wrong. He's been hugging the toilet all morning and just looks so sick and miserable. All he wants is to waller in my bed with me while I'm doing my best to keep the kiddos separate so as to "contain the joy." I'm running from room to room trying to keep both kids entertained with two different idiot boxes...parental guilt be damned! In addition, I feel awful as well, because of my allergies and am anticipating a whopper of a sinus infection any day now. All of this is happening just in time for my in-laws to get here on Thursday with their three schnauzers.

But never mind all that, I just wanted to take a moment and say, from my germ ridden household to yours....

Happy Holidays!!!

Sister Golden Hair

We de-mulleted Amelia this weekend!!!

It was difficult convincing Elijah that Amelia would look adorable with a short cut, but he finally gave in. And now, the photo montage...

Sister Golden Hair from Miss Marina Star on Vimeo.

Elf Yourself!

I'm linking this up to the "Elf Off" over at "According to Chip and Bobo" in search of fame and fortune!

O, Christmas Tree

Another thing that's big around our house at Christmastime is the tree decorating. In addition to the real tree we put in the living room, we also have two other fake trees that go up in the kids rooms.

The living room tree is annoying to me. I want a Martha Stewart looking, color coordinated tree with garland, bows and fancy, breakable ornaments. Instead, we have a hodge-podge of ornaments we've collected over the past ten years with no unifying theme. Elijah has promised that we can add another tree to the collection next year. I will finally have my beautiful tree in the front room window, just for show. Of course, I couldn't do it this year because I have to buy the ornaments after Christmas ON SALE!

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here are the kids trees:

Amelia's tree theme is "adorable," just like her.

Asher has a "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme, of course.

Tradition

The holidays don't start around our house until I've made the first batch of my favorite Christmas treat.


This is one of the things I remember about spending Christmas with my mother. So we always have a warm batch to munch on while decorating the tree. I make it in the oven, old school style, not in the microwave like the new boxes direct. It takes about an hour at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. It's time consuming, but the toasty goodness is totally worth it. I make dozens of batches throughout the month. Some I give away, but mostly we just inhale the stuff! For example, this is what was left this morning from yesterday afternoon's batch (the bowl was completely full).

Friday I'm In Love

There are so many things I love about this time of year. The cold weather, the endless days of shopping, the joy of listening to the only cheesy radio station that plays a loop of well worn Christmas songs, and of course, the food.

This edition is dedicated to my love of peppermint. Elijah insists that the addition of peppermint to any food only serves to destroy it's deliciousness, but I respectfully disagree.

This is my favorite holiday food ever! Since it's a seasonal item, every year, I try to make it last longer by buying up several tubs and keeping them safely from freezer burn. They don't usually make it past March.

This is something that can be difficult to find, but if you like peppermint, they are totally worth the search. Walgreens can usually be depended on to keep them in stock.

Best stocking stuffer ever.

This is new, I'm just trying it out. I'll get back to you on the deliciousness factor.

I realize this isn't a food, but it's a glorious way to start every December day!

So there you have it. A list of my favorite peppermint treats. Am I crazy to love peppermint this much?

Everything's Magic

Note to self:

Next time you want to start a 782 page book, do it after you're settled into a home not before.

I really feel like I missed out on the "feeling" of this book because I had to read it in stolen moments of quietude. (Which is not something that has happened very often in the past few months.)

I loved the story and would recommend this as a perfect book to get anyone into the mood for next October. It's not particularly Halloweenish, but the cover is reminiscent of Poe's raven and the story is entirely about magic, a topic I find to be perfect for the beginning of fall.

Susanna Clarke has cleverly underwritten the story with footnotes and asides that make up an entire English history for magic. I was very impressed with her attention to detail as well as her commitment to her subject.

Don't let the size discourage you, it's an easy book to get into and a truly fascinating read.