12.31.2009

Nine in 09

Write down 9 things that you remember about the year 2009.

* lots of friends and family/cousins had little babies or are due soon (6 people -2 boys -4 girls)
* went on my 4th Caribbean cruise, definitely my most favorite one
* had a mini get-a-way weekend to Las Vegas, saw Criss Angel
* Abigail a.k.a. Stunner left for Africa in September, Dad left for India in November
* I stopped working at the Rec Center after 10.5 years, is that retiring? ha
* In July I went to my first IKEA in the United States, Atlanta to be exact, with my sister Sarah-- loved it and I could read everything!
* LOMA dancing on the bed, err at school, err in the car, all of her dances that make me wanna pee!
* discovering Gluten-free foods and how to cook as best I can gluten free. Having to give up real people bread. :o(
* discovered more of myself-seriously!

These are the ones that came to mind quickly. I'm sure I will be eating dinner tonight and think of something even better! Maybe I will write the top 68,234 later!

12.29.2009

Birthday with friends


Last night Scary and Loma took me out for my pre-birthday, birthday dinner. We attempted to eat at Chuy's, which has Cool Springs stirring, but the wait was 90-110 minutes long on a Monday night. Crazy! The parking lot was packed like black Friday and they had signs up everywhere saying NO CHUY'S PARKING you will be towed. We decided waiting that long was crazy, there was no place to sit and the bar was standing room only so we headed over to Cozymel's instead. You know we are huge Mexican food fiends! We had lots of laughs and great conversation. Of course A meal is not complete without ice cream so we headed to Coldstone's to talk some more and closed it down. I had a fabulous night catching up with 2 of my closest friends. Thanks girls!

12.28.2009

Christmas *09

We had a great Christmas. It went by super fast but everyone was happy in the end. I did get my plum pea coat, CD, DVDS, lots of clothes, spa pedicure gift card, jewelry and signature pieces of the dishware I am now collecting.
We make the rounds on Christmas splitting Christmas Eve with my family and Steven's mom side of the family and Christmas day brunch with my family and dinner with Steven's dads side of the family.


Christmas at my house.
He was pooped out by 11pm!

Christmas morning we had brunch at my moms house.

Steven, our infamous mid-morning napper.

Christmas day dinner with the Hicks & extended family consists of a big Thanksgiving style meal, playing with the cousins little ones.

12.18.2009

What comes after the eating, the praying, and the loving?

....another book by Elizabeth Gilbert entitled COMMITTED! My dear friend Mary is a B-I-G fan of Gilbert's' first book and printed an eight page article from O Magazine for me to read about the upcoming book due out this spring. I'm going to quote a rather long but deep passage from Felipe (her husband) who has made lots of money in the jewelry business. It's long, read it anyways!
" when I used to go down to Brazil to buy gemstones, i would often buy something they called a parcel. A parcel is the random collection of gems that the minor put together. A typical parcel would contain maybe 20 or 30 aquamarines at once. Supposedly, you get a better deal that way--buying them all in a bunch--but you have to be careful, because of course this guy is trying to unload his bad gemstones on you by packaging them together with a few really good ones. I used to get in trouble because I'd get too excited about the one or two perfect aquamarines in the parcel, and i would pay as much attention to the junk they just threw in there. After I got burned enough times, i finally got wise and learned this-you have to ignore the perfect gemstones. Don't even look at them twice because they're blinding. Just put them away and have a careful look at the really bad stones. Look at them for a long time, then ask yourself honestly, can I work with these? Can I make something out of this? Otherwise, you've just spent a whole lot of money on one or two gorgeous aquamarines buried inside a big heap of worthless crap. It's the same with relationships, I think. People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other's personalities. Who wouldn't? Anybody can love the most wonderful parts of another person. But that's not the clever trick. the really clever trick is this- can you accept the flaws? Can you look at your partner's faults honestly and say, I can work around that? Because the good stuff is always going to be there, and it's always going to be pretty and sparkly, but the crap underneath can ruin you. ---Felipe

" There is hardly a more gracious gift that we can offer somebody than to ACCEPT THEM FULLY, to love them almost despite themselves.--Elizabeth


The movie comes out this spring staring Julia Roberts. Anyone else wanna join us opening night?

12.13.2009

Home for the Holidays

This is the first holiday that part of my family will not be present. As most of you know, my dad is in India (yes, the country) until May. He will not be home for the holidays...but we still have reason to celebrate the season! Christmas Eve will be at our house this year-a new tradition. We do NOT have a holiday meal. My mom has recipes she ONLY makes on Christmas Eve so they are special. After church we'll be dining on appetizers .... my moms secret recipes for : pizza dip & crackers (sounds icky but it is amazing) her famous crab dip with sides, pounds of peel and eat shrimp and cocktail sauce, spicy and regular sausage balls, spinach queso and a few other items that chef Steven makes but I am not sure of at this point! He too is great in the kitchen! We've followed this menu since moving to TN in 89 since it was just the 4 of us. Can you tell, we love seafood? Inside my house-

Here's the living room tree.... 8.5 ft. We can't put ornaments on the bottom half because Mr. Z's toys roll under and we've lost one too many!
My special topper. I don't do stars or angels. My parents have this exact German topper (mom is from Germany) and have used it for 35 years of their marriage and 3 moves. Theirs is blue and still crowns the top of the Chartier tree! I wanted to follow that unique tradition so I got the red/gold German topper. I hope that one day my kids will use it or pass it down. Fun fact, they do not make these state side!This is the office tree, tall, skinny 6ft. I don't think the picture does it justice, it really glows at night. This is the fun tree: lime green, turquoise and hot pink. (you know I like themes). Sadly, I couldn't find my matching garland...will buy more after Christmas at half the cost. It's not the fullest tree and yes, I realize it looks bare without it!
My topper is just a sparkle sequin burst.



12.11.2009

Me & the bean

Friday night E & R had a Christmas party/scavenger hunt to attend and were in a bind needing someone to watch Avonlea a.k.a beans. After she was born, Steven made a "funny" and we started to refer to Arianna as Rice and Avonlea as beans....get it, rice and beans! Anyways, the two of us had a girls night at my house....plus Zane. We spent A LOT of time looking at the Christmas tree lights, drank all 7oz. in our bottle, and got so excited when the pacifier and pj's came out for bed. Zane was super good with her too. He stood guard outside the room she was sleeping in for 3 hours! NO joke, our little playful puppy became an adult watch dog over this baby. After she left he jumped on the bed looking for her! He has NEVER gotten on the bed or any furniture in our house before. Since then, he has snuck into that room and cozied up where the baby slept. I hope he will be protective and love on our babies someday.
These aren't the best pictures but it was just the two of us!

12.10.2009

Christmas wish list

Here are a few things on my Christmas wish list. I may, or may not have already gotten them! I'm done buying for all 12 of my family/friends and even some extra people too.

A plum colored pea coat.



A recycled cotton "I heart my boxer" t-shirt or raglan style shirt. Weird huh, I know. I just love my dog. Okay, I can't find pictures of the other items. :o) Enjoy these two!


12.03.2009

Mrs. Claus' Cookbook!

Just passing along a great website from the North Pole. It has a TON of holiday (or any occasion) recipes at the tip of your fingers, errr keyboard. You'll find everything from candy and fudge, to cakes, cookies and pies. Just click the title that sounds yummy and you can print it in recipe format with the ingredients and step by step instructions. Enjoy!

http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/