reflections on 2006

It's hard to believe this year has come to an end. I'm a bit sorry to see it go, because overall, it's been a great year for Brian and I. I just counted (yes, I keep a list, of course) and I've read 68 books this year. That's a lot of reading, and I love it! I hope to read at least that many more in 2007!

I lost 40 pounds this year and got my health under control. I allowed myself some treats over Christmas, especially Giovanni's pizza, but I didn't gain a pound. :-D This week will be back to exercising full time! With it being 82 degrees here today, I don't think my walking outside will be a problem!

I scrapped over 140 pages and made over 150 cards this year! Whoa!

Brian had back surgery this year and is feeling great, despite many hours in the car over the holidays.

Brian got laid off from EA and now works for n-Space. It was a good move - he's in a job that he loves and there's nothing that can compare to that!

We paid off all of our credit card debt this year! YAAAYYYYY! I still can't believe it. I hated making payments on those cards - I couldn't even remember what most of that money had bought in the first place.

We're so happy in our church and in our home. We still miss NY. Maybe we'll get back there someday. But FL has definitely been good for us, especially health-wise. As we were driving home on Friday and crossed into Florida, it was the first time I really felt like Florida was home. :-D

Tonight we are spending some quality time together to ring in the new year. I'm already in my pajamas, we've ordered pizza, and Brian is gone to rent a movie. We're going to curl up on the couch together. I can't wait. Brian has to work tomorrow, can you believe it?? And we were so busy over Christmas, we didn't get much quality time together. So tonight we're quietly welcoming 2007 and bidding farewell to 2006.

January has a lot of things in store for us! Well, for me, anyway! Brian is working on a cool game for the Wii - he's been working on it since he started at n-Space in March, but it's nearing completion, so he's under deadline. I'm excited for Winter Scrapfest at Lifetime Moments! This time, I'm a points-counter and I'm SO EXCITED about that! I love love love Scrapfest and I was lucky enough to be one of the winners this past summer! I have like 400 pictures from Christmas and from my nephews and nieces to scrap, so I'm ready to go. Also in January, I'm hoping to get a few more piano students. Sometime this winter/spring I'm going to finish my Kindermusik training. And I still have 20 pounds to lose. :-D

As we say goodbye to 2006, I want to leave you with some lyrics from a song we sang at church this morning. We praise God for the work He has done in our lives this year, and we trust Him in the years to come.

We will remember, we will remember,
We will remember the work of Your hands.
We will stop and give You praise,
For great is Thy faithfulness!

christmas crafts

I made lots of stuff for Christmas this year! Of course, I make lots of stuff every year, but this year I was super motivated! Some of the gifts I made are for people who read this blog, so I couldn't post the pictures till after Christmas. Anyway, here's some of the stuff! (Don't forget I have major trouble with the photo option on Blogger! I'm still waiting on someone to teach me!)

All photos are clickable.

Gift tags:



Mini card set for Mom:



Cocoa caddy for Brad & Kari:
(The bottles contain white chocolate, marshmallows, caramels, and Andes mints - all for flavoring hot chocolate.)


Same gift, bottles in caddy:


Same gift, top view:



Cocoa caddy for Jason & Angela:



Altered train case for Amanda:
(This came plain white and we covered it with this really cool paper that reminded us of Amanda's style. The second pic is of the 3 trays that slide into it. It's such a cool case, I'm going to make one for myself!)

a year end poem

These past few weeks have been the craziest Christmas season I can ever remember! Time has absolutely gotten away from me, and I'm frantically trying to get things ready to go on our trip in just a few short days. Did I mention that I ordered stamps online from the USPS and they got lost in the mail? Ironic, huh? Well, they came today. Looks like my Christmas cards will be sent out before Christmas after all. I wrote a poem to enclose, but I'm sending 88 cards and there's just not time to make all the copies. So I thought I'd just post it here. This will probably be my last post before we leave, so we want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, a happy New Year, and a safe holiday season.

------------------------------------------

This year of '06 has brought many events,
And more will arrive 'fore December is spent.
So without ado, I just want to share
Some stuff about us – and told with a flair!

We've now lived in Florida for over a year,
And we are becoming quite settled down here,
Though we still are not really used to the heat.
(We still think that New York just cannot be beat!)

We began our year with a bit of strange news:
EA laid off Brian, despite rave reviews
Of his programming skills, personality, brains -
But we know that their loss is truly our gain!

He's working for n-Space and still making games
For folks like Nintendo and others of fame.
He loves it, he says it's his favorite job yet!
Saying goodbye to EA, we do not regret!

For the spring and summer, I used some old skills
I'd developed in college, to help pay the bills.
I did freelance writing, wrote stuff for the 'net,
And it was by far my most laid back job yet.

I loved working at home and at my own pace,
And when that job ended I wore a sad face.
Since then I've been teaching piano again.
I'd missed it so much - what fun it has been!

In late March, we found my blood pressure was high.
The doctor said, “Exercise! Or you could die.”
It's amazing what that piece of news did for me.
I'm eating well, working out, being healthy.

And would you believe I've dropped 40+ pounds?
But what's even better – my BP is down!!
I've gone down three sizes and the very best part
Is knowing each day I have a healthy heart.

In October, we celebrated SIX years
Of wedded bliss, laughter, happiness, and cheer.
And then, Brian had surgery on his back!
He feels so much better - and no more ice pack!

We've finally found a church that we love -
It truly has been a gift from above.
And I get to play keys and sing in the band!
You can be quite sure that our church is not bland!

This year has brought visitors, travels, and fun,
Many trips to Disney, and days filled with sun!
Come see us, or if you're in town, let us know!
We'll meet you for lunch, dinner, or a show!

Overall, we're thankful, we're happy, we're healthy.
In family and friends, we know we're quite wealthy.
We love you, we miss you, we hope you are well.
Please call us and tell us what there is to tell!

This Christmas, take time to remember the birth
Of Jesus, God's Son, Who came down to earth
To save us, live with us, for He is the reason
We celebrate this blessed, glorious season!

Love to you all.

~Brian and Kerri

good grief!

It's been way too long since I blogged! I'm so behind on reading other people's blogs too - sorry, you guys. I'll get with it one of these days!

Christmas cards are done - whew! I made 87 this year! Now I just have to print the labels and get them mailed off. I also have to decide if I'm going to include a little letter inside - I wrote something already, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use it. We'll see. Brian is working late tonight and I'm working on things for Christmas. I'm WAY behind this year! I usually have all my shopping done and mostly wrapped and the cards mailed by now! But not this year. Christmas snuck up on me!

Well, our decorations are all up. I put up my snowman tree this year. Since we didn't put it up last year, I had forgotten about some of the ornaments. It's so fun getting them all out! And the Star Wars tree is up, in all its glory! :-D The exterminator was impressed by it when he came this morning. :-D And the music tree is up. That makes three, plus two smaller trees (I think one is like 4' and the other is about 2.5') on the front porch, a small tree in the bedroom, and a small tree on top of the armoire. Oh, and the ceramic tree, but that doesn't really count. :-D How many is that - 7? Good grief. I'm addicted to Christmas! And the craziest thing is, we didn't even put up our "family" tree this year, and that's the biggest of them all! It's 8', I think, and the snowman tree is 7' and the Star wars tree is 6'. If you lined all our trees up in a row, it would look like a tree version of the Von Trapps!!!!

OK, so we've got like 5 or 6 gifts so far. We've got so much shopping to do still! I did some shopping online this morning, though. There's way too much to do in the less-than-two-weeks we have left before we leave!! Oh my goodness, what have I been doing for the last several months????

We went to the choir program at the Presbyterian Church last night. (The church where I worked for awhile.) It was great! I'm so glad we went and heard the wonderful choir and saw everyone.

Oh, and we went to see Marc Broussard at the Hard Rock Live on Thursday night. He was as awesome as ever, but the people around us were SO RUDE!!!! They kept talking and talking - which was really YELLING, so they could be heard over the music. WHY, I ask you, do people buy tickets to a concert and then talk to their friends the whole time? They can talk to their friends for free ANYTIME! :-( But Marc was awesome. :-D

We got our first Christmas card of the season today. It was from the Herzogs, our friends from NY. I actually taught piano to their two boys, Luke and Brian, and I also taught their dad, Rob! AND, Rob was our dentist! They were some of my very favorite students ever. They still are, I guess. Now they have another adorable baby boy! I miss them. I miss all of my friends and students from NY! If I lived there, it would be about time for the Christmas recital!

Well, I better get to work on this stuff. And put some more laundry in. At least the house is in pretty good shape! Now the goal is to keep it that way so I won't have to worry about a ton of cleaning! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season so far.

'tis the season!

I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the prospect of Christmas! I'm just so excited I can hardly contain myself! Today I'm decorating. We usually decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, but Brian and I were soooo enjoying our time together, we just didn't get around to it. He can't lift anything anyway, so I'm on my own for climbing up to the attic to get down the trees.

Right now, Christmas music is blaring from iTunes (I LOVE iTunes!) and I'm about to have some homemade hot chocolate! I'll probably sweat while drinking it, but who cares! Not me! Dinner, which is Dream Dinners' chicken pot pie, is done, just needs to be popped into the oven for about a half hour. So I have lots of time to deck the halls!

I'm nearly done making my Christmas cards. I have been having so much fun making them, I might have to make some for next year already! LOL! Can you tell I'm slightly excited about the season?? Of course, it would be nice if it wasn't 80 degrees, but that can't be helped. Anyway, I'll be posting some of my cards later. This year, instead of making them all the same like I usually do, I'm making all different ones.

Thanksgiving was a blast! We had an absolutely wonderful time! It was us, Tim & Christi, and Justin & Molly. We're so thankful for our fun friends! Here was the menu:

Turkey (marinated in Williams-Sonoma's spiced brining mix, delicious!)
Mashed Potatoes & gravy
Corn
Mac & Cheese
Green Bean Casserole
Fruit Salad
Garlic Cheese Biscuits (a la Red Lobster)

Pumpkin/Apple Butter pie
Apple Crisp
Cookies that looked like turkeys (picture to follow, so yummy and cute!)
French Silk pie

I think that's it. Brian and I have been having turkey every day since! It just keeps getting better. I need to make turkey more often! OK, back to the decorating. Just wanted to take a quick minute and write. Cheers!

a spontaneous feast

OK, so we just decided yesterday to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house and have a celebration with friends, a la New York Thanksgivings. We're so excited and I'm running around like a crazy woman! I did make it to Williams Sonoma and got some of their brine for my turkey - something new for this year. I also got some of their gravy base, which I've heard is delicious. I've tried to get the gravy several times, but they're always sold out! Must be good!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Brian has a follow-up appt. with his surgeon today, so I'll update on that soon. Cheers!

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Brian got his Nintendo Wii today. He's as excited as a kid on Christmas. Well, this pretty much IS his Christmas! :-) The Wii is not available to the public yet, but these are the perks of working in the game industry. (It'll be available in like 2 days, though, so it's not like he got it THAT much earlier!)

Tonight I'm going to a scrapbook thing and Brian is going to stay home and play with his Wii. Sounds a bit vulgar, doesn't it? LOL! Even funnier - next week our friends Tim and Christi are coming over and while Christi and I make Christmas cards, Brian and Tim are going to play with their Wiis together! HAHAHAHA! Seriously though, what was Nintendo thinking calling it the Wii? It was originally supposed to be the Nintendo Revolution or something like that!

Check this out: How adorable is that?? That's my Maxie. I just took this a few minutes ago. And that's the blind on the sliding glass door that looks like it's cutting him in half! He gets in the blinds and gets all comfy and rolls over, and he takes the blinds with him! I feel bad that I post more pics of Max than of Sam, but when Sam gets in cute poses and I take his picture, he's so black you can't tell which end is up! He's on the couch in my scraproom now, lemme see if I can get a good shot. There we go. There's my Sammy. Of course, as soon as I sat back down in my chair to upload the pic, he got up from his perch on the couch and got in my lap. He's such a lap cat! (Both pictures are clickable.)

Anyway, that's all I have to say today! Except I'm tired! Wonder why?!

why, oh, why?

It's 2:30 am here in O-town, cloudy and 54 degrees.

And I'm awake. For no apparent reason.

So this is my second night in a row to be an insomniac. Last night, or maybe I should say yesterday morning, I didn't go to sleep until sometime after 5:30. I got up this morning around 10:00 and spent the day doing things around here. I deep-cleaned our bedroom, moving furniture and vacuuming thoroughly around, between, under, and behind everything. I did some more organizing in the closet, washed the sheets, blankets, and bedspread from our bed. I de-cat-haired everything in our room, including the lamp shades. (Still need to do the curtains - that's for tomorrow. Or, I guess, today.)

I did tons of laundry and picked up all around the house. I cooked a big dinner and didn't do a lot of resting today. You'd think that doing all that on 4.5 hours of sleep would make me tired. But no. Oh, no. Here I am! This happens to me occasionally, and there's not much that's more frustrating to me. I'm tired. I want to sleep.

Oh well, I just took a Tylenol PM - a little late, don't you think - and now I'm going to listen to my book (Miss Julia Throws a Wedding by Ann B. Ross, love it) and stamp some cards or something. I've been very motivated to stamp lately! So here goes.

See - THIS is why I hate it when people call early in the morning. You never know what time I actually went to sleep. *sigh*

*Edited to add: I went to bed at 6:15 and still had trouble falling asleep! I got some really cute Christmas tags made though. But they're for my secret sister, so I'll have to post them later! :-)

happy birthday, meg!

Happy birthday to my spectacular friend Meg!! (It was Sunday, but everyone knows I'm never on time...) Anyway, Meg, hope you had a wonderful day.

OK, Brian went back to work yesterday and he's feeling great. He called me today and was so energetic sounding - he's SO happy to be feeling normal and virtually pain-free! He's now off all meds. He's an amazing man.

Thursday night was not an easy night. Brian was in a LOT of pain from the incision, and he was VERY sick from the anesthesia. At the hospital, every time he got up, he became nauseous and then had dry heaves (he hadn't eaten in over 24 hours at that point). It was awful - every time he heaved, it would hurt his back. The nurse and I were trying to hold him up, but he's so tall - we were afraid he was going to fall down. It was quite an ordeal, but we got through it! Oh, and of course he was walking around mooning everyone since you know how those hospital gowns are! I was trying to told him up and hold his gown closed in the back! Now that I think back about it, it was hilarious!

Once we got him in the car, he seemed okay. He had to hold this vomit bin on his lap the whole way home - about a 40 min. drive - just in case he needed it. But he was fine; he slept most of the way home. Of course, I had to stop at Walgreen's and get the drugs, and 400 people buying toilet paper and such were in line in front of me. Ugh!

So while we were waiting for the Rx to be filled, I drove through Wendy's and got B a Sprite, which he said tasted like heaven! LOL When we finally got home, I got him in bed, then I proceeded to stay up for most of the night cause I was just worried about him. Every time he woke up I would make him get up and walk around to prevent blood clots! I was worried most about blood clots!

Can I just say that the worst part of the surgery for me was seeing Brian hurt. It didn't help when the nurse went to put in his IV - he hadn't thought about that, so he was unprepared. I knew he was getting one, but I didn't want him to freak - he's not so thrilled about needles - so I didn't remind him that he was getting one. Anyway, I told him to look at me, and when she finally got it in and all taped to his arm, I looked. Big mistake. There was a PUDDLE of blood on his blanket. Not just a few drops - a puddle! Oh, it nearly killed me. Brian said he had heard her say, "Oops!" But I didn't hear that, so I was pretty shocked when I saw the puddle! I had to sit down and put my head between my knees - and then the nurse says to the other nurse, "Uh-oh...the wife's going down!" LOL! I was okay, just not prepared to see my husband losing what looked like gallons of blood! So they brought me some apple juice and that helped. Sometime during the time I was dizzy and literally seeing stars, they cleaned up his hand and whisked away the blanket, so after the apple juice, everything was all clean. Man, I'm such a wimp! I just can't stand to see my sweetster in pain, that's all!!

Anyway, now the drama is over and life goes on! A pain-free life for B! Yay! Tonight we're going to our friend Justin's house to watch a movie with our friends from n-Space. We try to see a movie about once a week with this group. It's a really fun group!

Here's my latest scrapbook page of the adorable Baby B. I cannot WAIT to see him at Christmas! He's talking up a storm now! Mom and Dad kept him for part of the week last week, and Mom said when he did something he wasn't supposed to do, he waved at her and said, "Hi." Cracks me up! Anyway, enjoy.

a long, hard day

Well, the surgery is over and it went very well. We are so thankful! Brian is asleep on the couch - he's been in quite a bit of pain from the incision, but he's pretty well drugged up now. His back/leg feels great! I'm exhausted, so I'll post all of the gruesome details tomorrow. There are definitely some stories to tell!

Thanks to everyone who prayed and thought good thoughts for us today. We really appreciate it! And special thanks to my cousin Chris who came and sat with me during the surgery. We love you guys! :-D

"i'm a mutant!"

Today has not been the best day for me. It started out with me making a delicious smoothie and then, in an effort to clean the blender, knocking over the cup full of smoothie so that it dripped down the stove and cabinet into a huge purple puddle on the kitchen floor. :-( It was all underneath the stove and in every little teeny groove. Ugh. And of course, today I used blueberries, so my stove is now stained purple in spots. I'll have to take my Mr. Clean magic eraser to it.

I grouchily went about my day after cleaning up the mess, and then I left to go with Brian to see the surgeon. The surgeon told us that Brian has an extra vertebra in the lumbar section of his spine!! He showed it to us on the X-Ray and MRI. It was so weird and crazy! And that vertebra doesn't have a disc between it and the first sacral vertebra. In other words, the vertebrae in the lower back section of the spine go like this: L1-L5 (that's lumbar), then S1-S5 (that's sacral). Brian has an L6!! And no disc to cushion it, so that's what has caused his prolonged back pain for the last 15+ years.

But he also has a herniated disc between L4 and L5, and that disc is bulging onto the sciatic nerve, so that's what the doctor is going to operate on. Brian will have a microdiscectomy THIS THURSDAY at 3:30, so remember him (and me!) in your prayers! This is a minimally invasive outpatient surgery, but still - they're operating on the spine, and to me, that's a big deal. I'm a bit nervous, but trusting God. What else can we do?

Anyway, after the doctor left the room, Brian goes, "Did you hear that?? I'm a MUTANT!!!" HAHAHAHA!

On the way home from the doctor, I decided to stop at the store and stock up for the weekend - I wanted to get a few special treats for B, rent some movies, and get a vegetable to go with the pork chops we're having tonight. Of course, it started POURING rain on my way into Blockbuster. Luckily, Blockbuster is located in the same shopping plaza as Publix, so I didn't have to get wet when I went between them. BUT - folks were voting at Publix, and the entrance was extremely crowded, especially since people were standing around with their groceries waiting for the rain to let up. I finally got inside, but there were no carts. Back out into the crowd I went.

It had let up some by the time I finished my shopping, but it was still totally pouring. And now the parking lot was flooded. As I made my way through the parking lot, I was actually walking in standing water. The normally 5 min. drive home took about 15 or 20, because the roads were totally flooded. I hope Brian gets home okay!

Well, I'd better get the pork chops started. I just want to get on the couch with my sweet husband and relax after this crazy and emotionally trying day. Of course, I have paperwork to go through and file, and I have to see about moving my piano students since I'll be at the hospital at their lesson times on Thursday.

I'll leave you with this little cutie: last night I was once again going through my closet, getting out clothes that don't fit anymore. (This, after running around Saturday night in a black skirt I found hanging in there with the TAGS still on it - I never wore it cause it never fit! It fits now, but every top I put on looked like I was wearing a tent! Time to go shopping again!) I had made a huge stack of tops (mostly sweaters and sweatshirts) on the bed, and I was doing some organizing in the closet. When I finished, I noticed that someone had made himself comfortable on the stack of shirts!

happy anniversary to us!

Well, it was on Saturday, but we celebrated on Sunday, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it!! SIX happy years for us!!

At any rate, we headed to the Disney parks after church on Sunday to celebrate our anniversary. Brian's back has been out for 2 weeks, so we didn't get to ride anything, but that was okay. We went to Animal Kingdom first - we had never been there. It was cool! We got to see lots of animals! We saw a hippo - it swam right up to the window where we were standing! I couldn't BELIEVE how huge it was!!

Of course, my favorite animals of the day were these beauties on the left. It was so fun watching them walk around - one of them was sniffing all around with its mouth open! So cute! And then she showed off for us by jumping back and forth across a fountain.



After we exhausted the Animal Kingdom, we headed to MGM and had dinner at the Sci-Fi Cafe. It was the coolest place - all the tables were inside these old fashioned cars and the whole place was set up like a drive in theater, complete with huge movie screen playing snippets of movies and cartoons. It was VERY cool.

Thanks, Jenni and Eric, for the recommendation! We will SO be going back to the Sci-Fi Cafe!

In other news, it looks like Brian might have to have back surgery. He has had back problems for years and years, and last week's MRI showed that he has a herniated disc that is bulging onto his sciatic nerve. He's in quite a lot of pain, so we pray that it can be alleviated ASAP. We're going to see the surgeon next week - y'all keep us in your prayers!

AND it looks like I have an ear infection. Sigh. My throat is killing me! The dr. called in a prescription for me. I have a fabulous doctor. The trick-or-treaters have been ringing the doorbell the whole time I've been typing this, and now it's time for me to fix dinner - herb-crusted flank steak, brown rice, and green beans! Yum! Brian is on his way home. Tonight we'll watch Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin! Happy Halloween, everyone!

another concert!!!!

Guess what??!! MARC BROUSSARD is coming back to Orlando! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! He is my favorite singer and I CAN'T WAIT! We've already got tickets! His last concert here was just unbelieveable, so I can't wait to hear him again!

Oh, did I mention that Brian and I are going to see Spamalot in February? He had wanted to see it on Broadway, but we never did - so we're going to see it in Tampa. It's Brian's early birthday present!

it's hot

In honor of the weather exceeding record temperatures where I live today, I thought I'd share a poem.

"It's Hot"
by Shel Silverstein

It's hot!
I can't get cool,
I've drunk a quart of lemonade,
I think I'll take my shoes off
And sit around in the shade.

It's hot!
My back is sticky,
The sweat rolls down my chin.
I think I'll take my clothes off
And sit around in my skin.

It's hot!
I've tried with 'lectric fans,
And pools and ice cream cones.
I think I'll take my skin off
And sit around in my bones.

It's still hot!

20% of myself

I am a fraction of the person I used to be.

Four fifths, to be exact.

I went to the doctor today for a follow-up visit for my blood pressure. I have now lost 38 pounds, which is 20% of my weight when I started. WOW! I'm proud! AND...my blood pressure was 120/70. The doctor was thrilled and so was I! Awhile back, I set a goal of a certain weight I wanted to be by Christmas. Now I'm only 10 pounds away from it! Yay! I feel confident that I can do it. After I get to that weight, I'll only have 10 pounds left until I'm in the correct weight range for my height. I'm SO happy! I can't even believe it!

In other news, I only have 9 days left at my church secretary job. I have mixed emotions about it. Part of me is ready to be home again, to have healthy snacks and exercise longer and more often (like I did before). And part of me likes the people and the work there. I know I'll miss it, but I might start going to their Wednesday night dinners. I know there are several people I will keep in touch with, too.

Things at church could not possibly be better. We had a ROCKIN' service yesterday! Chris brought in some horns - we had a trumpet, trombone, and saxophone player - and they were incredible! The band is tighter than ever! Chris wrote a cool new song that covers a brass lick from an old Chicago song. We did it yesterday for the first time and the place was jammin'!! I am SO blessed to be part of this amazing band!!!!

A week ago this past Saturday, Brian and I went to Dream Dinners. We had never done this before, and we had SO much fun! If there's one in your area, I encourage you to go and try it out! Most of you know what a picky eater I am - and let me just say that I have LOVED all of the meals we've had so far!! Last week, we had chicken enchiladas, pork chops with sweet ginger and apples (yum!), chicken with lemon and artichoke sauce (I know some of you are shocked by now), arroz con pollo (a Mexican chicken dish with black beans, corn, salsa, etc. - yes, I even ate the beans!!), and four-cheese and meatball calzones. I ate (and liked) all of it. ALL of it! Can you even believe it? (Some of you need to pick your chins up off the desktop!)

If you don't know about Dream Dinners, it's this place where you go and prepare meals that can be frozen. Brian and I made 12 meals, but we split them, so we came home with 24 meals. That will last us a month! I only have to grocery shop for lunch stuff and snacks!! And we had a great time preparing the stuff - it was really fun to do together. AND - one of the best things is...dinner is already done! You just have to stick it in the fridge the night before (or the morning of) to thaw it, and then cook it according to the directions! Everything is already chopped, mixed, etc. It might seem expensive, but when we divided it up, each serving came to $3.50. That's WAY less than we normally spend! (I should work for their sales dept.!)

Here are some pictures of our little Dream Dinners adventure. Click for larger images. Hey, if anyone signs up for Dream Dinners, be sure to give them our name! That way we'll get a free dinner!

latest pages

Here are my latest scrapbook pages. I haven't been scrapping much at all - I think I got my fill over the summer! But I'm finally getting back in the scrapping mood! The first page is the title page for our 2005 album. The second one is my scrap room. Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

I started another post the other day but never finished it - maybe I'll get around to that tonight or tomorrow! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

have a laugh

Don't say I didn't warn you - this makes me laugh out loud. Every time I watch it.

i'm not sweating!

As I drove in to work this morning, I noticed it was a cool 64 degrees. This weather is putting me in a permanent good mood! I got SO much done today because I wasn't dragged down by the heat! Fall has FINALLY arrived in Florida. I think I'll get out my decorations.

a few days at disney

Jenni and Eric and their adorable son Evan came to Disney World this past week for their vacation, and I was fortunate enough to be able to spend
a few days with them. I had a BALL! Jenni and I have been to amusement parks together many, many times over the last 30+ years, and this time did not disappoint. If only we knew, during all those trips to King's Island when we were little, that we would someday be at Disney together with our husbands! :-)

On Monday, we went to MGM. I had never been to MGM and it was fun. We were in line for the Rockin' Roller Coaster, and we were probably about 2 or 3 rides away from getting on...and it stopped. After waiting for what seemed to be forever (but was probably about 15 min.), we left and headed to the Tower of Terror, which scared the living crap out of me. :-D I LOVE roller coasters, and I will ride just about anything (but nothing bungee-ish) - but those rides that drop you freak me out! It was way fun though, and Jenni got a good laugh at the picture since my eyes were squeezed shut and I was holding on for dear life!

On Wednesday, we went to Epcot and Brian joined us just in time to ride Soarin' - which is one of my favorite rides ever! Then we had dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant in "Italy," and I had some of the best lasagna I've EVER had. Yum! Epcot was open until midnight that night, so after dinner, we rode the ride that's in the big golf ball - I forgot what it's called, but it's really dark and perfect for some smoochin'!

It's always great to spend time with Jenni - we've known each other literally all our lives. Our parents have been friends since before we were born and our families have spent lots of time together through the years. Jenni and I always love to reminisce about mean things we did to each other - can you believe she thought I was mean?? SHE was mean! - haha - and fun times we had, crazy things we did, how we used to fight, etc. Jenni's my oldest and best friend and I wish we could spend more time together. Someday maybe I'll get a scanner that works so I can post some pics of us in our younger days.

(Just adding a photo here for my avatar!)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have been SO TIRED this week! I don't know if I'm still trying to get caught up on sleep from the weekend or if I'm fighting off some virus or bug! But I just can't seem to wake up this week. I REALLY hope I'm not coming down with something. :-( B and I keep trying to go to bed early every night, but then something will happen that deters us from getting to sleep. Of course, Brian is on deadline at work and is working overtime, so he's not getting home till late. And I've been working extra at the church - the newsletter goes out this Sunday (I've never done one before!) and I just finished it today. Tomorrow I've got to copy, fold, and put the labels on them. And there have been tons of funerals lately, the church is calling a new pastor, and they're having their annual elections a week from Sunday. Oh, and their Fall Festival is in about 2 weeks. Needless to say, things have been busy!

Other than that, things are going great. It's starting to act like it's going to cool down a little bit soon - we had a lovely cool breeze today and I didn't even sweat all day!! Shocking, I know. Brian and I bought seasonal passes for Disney and we're excited about being able to come and go in the parks during the holidays. AND Jenni, Eric, and Evan are coming from Ohio next week and I'm so excited to get to spend some time with them!

FINALLY, here are some pics from the inlaws' visit. (Click on any picture for a bigger image.) The first 3 are Brian (doing his famous "evil eyebrow" look) and both of his parents at the Harley Davidson store at Downtown Disney. :-)


Here's me and Brian on the pier right before our boat ride (here's a good example of my clothes being too big for me!) and then a picture of the lighthouse near Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. (I just thought it was a pretty picture. I think Brian took it.)




As you can probably tell, I don't do so well with the picture feature on Blogger. Does anyone know how to make them look better? If so, can you please teach me??!! Last but not least, here are the jewelry sets I made for the auction:

it's been awhile

Well, it's been way too long since I posted! We've been crazy - this past weekend, we were gone to Tennessee for my family reunion, and the weekend before that, Brian's parents were here. The weeks in between were spent preparing for the weekends!

I took TWO cameras to TN and didn't even take ONE picture the whole time I was there! Why do I do this???? But I did take some pics when Brian's parents were here, so I'll be posting those soon. I also have some pics of the jewelry I made for the auction at our reunion - it all sold, amazingly! (Of course, my mom bought one of the sets! LOL)

Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I'll put up some new and exciting stuff soon, I promise.

Oh yeah - and the best news I've heard all day is that my wonderful friend Leslie is expecting her second child sometime around May!!!! Congrats to Scott, Leslie, and big brother Joshua! (Check out Leslie's blog on the right.)

instant gratification

What could be better? Our sidewalk has been moldy and gross looking for a long, long time. (Welcome to Florida's humidity.) And with it being so hot, I couldn't stand the thought of doing anything about it. BUT - now that it's getting cooler, I rented a pressure washer from Home Depot tonight and B and I pressure washed the sidewalk, the front porch, parts of the house, and part of the driveway. I could have stayed out there all night - it's SO GRATIFYING! The difference is unbelievable!
After I FINALLY relinquished the pressure washer to Brian and let him try it for awhile (I just love it so much!), I ran to get my camera and took these pics. Oh, did I mention it was raining? We pressure washed in the rain, it's true. I am a fiend with the pressure washer when it's making the sidewalk look that good! Can you even believe that??

Brian's comment: "I could just see every OCD bone in your body light up like a Christmas tree!"

77 degrees

Aahh - it was 77 degrees as I drove in to work this morning. It feels great outside! I'm SO GLAD it's cooling down a bit!

We've got a big weekend ahead of us - Brian's parents are coming to visit! They haven't been to our house yet, so we're really excited to show them around the big metropolis of Apopka. :-) We're taking them out to dinner at Disney on Friday night, and then we're going on the Illuminations cruise to see the Epcot fireworks! It will be a good time.

I've been doing quite a bit of jewelry making lately. I've been making things for the auction at my family reunion NEXT weekend. Today I'm headed to Mt. Dora after work to take a wire-loop/wire-wrap class. I'm excited to learn this since I only know basic stringing! Pictures to follow.

musings on an outdoor walk

This evening, I took my first outdoor walk since June. Oh boy, did I miss it! It was such a nice walk - probably one of the most pleasant walks I've ever had. I went 3 miles and there was such a nice little breeze - I hope the weather stays this way so I can continue to walk in the evenings!

Some things I noticed while I was walking:

*There are nine houses for sale in my neighborhood.
*Seven of them were for sale when I started walking in March. (!)
*The local high school marching band is playing Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry About A Thing" on the field this year! It sounds awesome! (the high school is RIGHT NEXT to my neighborhood - so close that I can hear the bell ring and the intercom announcements)
*At least one person in my neighborhood is putting in a new pool.
*One person has painted their house since I stopped walking outside in June.
*When I heard the marching band practicing, I was so overwhelmed with wonderful memories of my OWN high school band experience, I couldn't even concentrate on the book I was listening to.
*I LOVE walking outside; I hate the treadmill.
*My exercise clothes are getting too big for me - especially my shorts!

Brian and I saw a great movie with Tim and Christi on Sunday evening - "The Illusionist." I'll admit that I wasn't so excited to see it. It seemed like a "Brian" type of movie, so I went along just to humor him, all the while thinking, "Why don't we ever see movies I want to see?" But it ended up being a really great film. And there was no language (that I can remember). Plus, I've liked Edward Norton ever since I saw him in "Fight Club."

I calculated today that I have lost 17.6% of my body weight!

In other news, work is going great, Brian's work is going great, church is still awesome, and we're happy. We still miss New York. I may never stop missing New York. But we are enjoying it here more and more. Ooh! My best-friend-ever-in-the-whole-wide-world-since-birth, Jenni, along with her husband and adorable son, are coming to Disney in less than a month! And we get to go hang out with them! I can't WAIT to see them! :-)

I did my weight training today.

We're going to my family reunion later this month - we haven't gone in FIVE YEARS!!

I can't wait till tomorrow evening when I can walk OUTSIDE again!!!!

Is anyone else coming to Orlando anytime soon? If so, please let us know! We'll do dinner or something!

this is a hurricane?

OK, so they cancelled all the schools and a ton of businesses and other stuff for today. But they did it YESTERDAY!! And early in the day, too! What ever happened to waiting until the morning of to cancel? I left for work at 8:20 - it was drizzling. People called in and were surprised I was there! I said, "It's only a little rain!" Then it stopped raining and I haven't seen a drop since! In fact, the sun is out and kids are outside playing.

Then I heard that it was going to get really bad at 2:00. Well, it's after 3:00 and the sun is STILL out, kids are playing outside, and there is absolutely NO wind. You call this a hurricane?? I think not. Here's another crazy thing I've just discovered about Florida - when they're listing the school closings on the news, they're not in alphabetical order. They're just random, sometimes by county, but the counties aren't even alphabetical. FL needs to take a lesson from NY when it comes to cancelling school! LOL!

I remembered what I was going to say the other day! I got my hair cut off last Friday. No, it's not pixie short (yet), but I have a feeling I'm headed that way soon! :-) I just can't stand it long. It takes too long to fix, it gets in my eyes, and it gets all fuzzy in the humidity. Anyway, I'll post a picture one of these days.

34 pounds

I weighed myself yesterday and I was down another 5 pounds! That makes a total of 34 pounds lost! I'm so happy and also in a little disbelief about it! I've never lost this much weight before. (Of course, I also had never weighed that much before!) And I still have more to go, about 25 pounds to be exact, to get to my goal. When I get to that number, it will be the first time in about 11 years that I've weighed that little!

I have a picture to post (not that it's that much different from the LAST picture I posted...) but we're having Internet problems. I'm using the neighbor's signal to post this from the laptop - but the pics are on my PC and I can't get online on that right now. Well, it seems like I had a lot more to say, but I can't think of anything! We're just cruising along, having a good time, trying to be healthy.

ten pairs of jeans

Wednesday was movie night and we went to see "Accepted," which I personally thought was hilarious! It was way funnier than I thought it was going to be! And it's always fun to hang out with our friends from n-Space.

Something strange happened when I was getting ready to go to Downtown Disney for the movie. I remembered that last time we were there it was really cold in the theater, so I decided to wear jeans. Well, I haven't had jeans on since March. It's WAAAAYYYYYY too hot. Anyway, there were ten pairs of jeans hanging in my closet. (This is a result of gaining weight and buying new jeans but keeping the "skinny" jeans "just in case.") Anyway, there was one pair I already knew was too big, and two more pairs I was wearing comfortably in March and before.

Well, both of those pairs were too big. Of the remaining seven pairs, one pair fit comfortably and two pairs fit snugly, and the other four pairs (pairs that I haven't been able to wear for a few years!) were too BIG! This is SO not a problem that I usually have! And now when I put on most of my tops, I look like I'm wearing a tent. :-) I'm not complaining! I'm almost back in my skinniest of skinny jeans! :-D

Yesterday I taught my first piano lessons since May of 2005!! It was really awesome!! I started two new students who just happen to be Brian's boss' sons. They were just the sweetest, funniest, nicest boys. I had REALLY missed having kids in and out of the house! And I had really missed teaching, I didn't realize how much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNI! It was Wednesday (the 23rd), but I did remember to call and sing on her voicemail. Jen, hope you had an awesome day! I wish my scanner worked - I would post the picture of us when we were 4 and 5 in our matching dresses and Snoopy purses, with you in cute black patent leather shoes and me in my horrendous brown BOOTS! (I don't think my mom could get them off of me!!) I haven't forgotten about October - I can't WAIT to see you guys!

Last night I got a pedicure. Again. I like pedicures and all, but you sure have to keep on top of them when you live in Florida and wear sandals practically every day of the year!! It's been well over a year since my toes have been without polish for more than about 5 minutes.

another busy weekend

Busy = Happy for me. I've finally realized that at the ripe old age of 33. For the first time in my life, I don't HAVE to work - I WANT to work! I've been bored for awhile - I mean, there's only so much stuff you can do to the house! And I've been scrapping a ton, which I love. My job has been to get healthy, and that's great - and I'm still going to leave myself plenty of time to scrap, exercise, cook, do stuff around the house, and build relationships with friends. I'm not going to work full time. I like taking care of our household and our health!

I'm starting three piano students this week. I'm just so excited to be sharing music again. I can't wait to build relationships with these students and watch them progress. It does make me miss my students from NY though.

Not much else to say - we're just enjoying life and taking things as they come.

contentment

Ahhh - as I prepare for sleep, I'm just overwhelmed by the blessings I've received lately. Life in Florida is getting better and better, and although I miss New York and especially my friends and students there, I'm starting to feel at home in this blistering state. Have I told you how much I love our church? LOL It seems like every week, God blesses our services and blesses Brian and I with new friends.

Today, one of the girls who sings on the praise team came all the way up here to my house! I've been getting to know all the girls on the praise team pretty well, especially since almost all of them were at the crop at church a few weeks ago! I didn't even know they scrapped! :-) But anyway, Heather came up today and we had a great time just talking and laughing. We had planned to go shopping, but we couldn't shut up long enough to get in the car! (Imagine that!) We finally went out and had dinner and shopped a little before she had to head back down south. She is just so much fun and she's a talented decorator, so she gave me some ideas for my house. It was awesome!

I'm really enjoying my new (temporary) job! It's just busy work, but it's fun for me and it's nice to have a schedule. We're eating at more normal times - before I was having lunch sometimes at 3 or 4:00 and dinner at 9 or 10! Brian is getting up with me and going in to work earlier, which means he gets to leave earlier. Soon it will be cool enough to walk outside together in the evenings and I'm looking forward to that. While I'm LEARNING to enjoy exercise (can you feel the sarcasm), the treadmill is really starting to bore me. Walking outside is MUCH MUCH better for me, personally - it keeps my eyes occupied and that helps pass the time. So I can't wait for it to cool off - even if it was in the 80's it would feel downright cold!

Only seven more articles for me to write, and then my writing project will be complete. I'll miss it, but I hope to still do some freelancing now and then. Now that I have some experience at it, I feel more confident about pitching ideas. Normally you pitch an idea to a publication, and they hire you to write what you've pitched. In other words, they buy the article BEFORE you write it. (The writing job I've worked on most recently buys the articles before you write them, but assigns topics.) Brian has been doing some writing too, and I definitely expect to see some of his stuff in print someday.

I'm rambling. I didn't really have a lot to say tonight, but I just feel content and wanted to share it. I wish I had time to communicate with all of my friends from everywhere more often. Some of my fab college friends are reading this blog and I'm so glad for the Internet that keeps us better in touch. I know my NY girls are reading - I miss you guys so much, I know you know that.

To the Farinaccis - you have no idea how much I miss you. I've started several times to write you a note, but it makes me sad. I miss you most on Mondays! I also have a package I've been meaning to send you - maybe someday I'll actually make it to the Post Office. Susie, thanks for your words of encouragement this past winter. I love you guys! I'm sorry I haven't been in better touch. Oh, and I planted some Salvia Farinacea in my garden in honor of you! (I couldn't believe it when I saw that plant!)

endings and beginnings

First of all, thanks to everyone who posted comments on my last entry. You made me feel so good! I'm going to keep losing weight so people will keep saying nice things to me! :-D

Well, my freelance writing career is approaching its end. On August 24, the project we are working on will be complete and no other projects have been lined up. While I'll miss working from the couch in my pajamas, it will be good for me to move on to something different.

Tomorrow I start my "job" as fill-in church secretary. I'll be training with the regular secretary three days this week and three days next week, and then the following week she'll be gone and I'll be working 5 days a week till the end of October. I'm really excited at the prospect of a ROUTINE. And I found another piano student, so that makes three - building my studio one student at a time. I'm also really excited to start teaching again - I miss having kids in and out of the house, crazy as that sounds!

Today I checked my BMI. I had forgotten to check it the last time I weighed in. Up until this past weigh in, I had been in the "obese" category. (When your Body Mass Index is 30 or higher, you're considered obese.) Well, I'm happy to say that I'm no longer obese, I'm just overweight! My BMI is 29. I'm really trying to get to that "normal" BMI of 18-25. Wanna check your BMI? Click here.

We had a great service at church yesterday and the band ROCKED as usual. I just enjoy it more and more - the 70 minute drive seems to fly by now. Someday I'll figure out how to put songs on here so my many readers (ha!) can hear our awesome band. It's an amazing occurrence, really, as all of the players are paid professionals, but everyone is doing it for the right reasons - that is, worship instead of performance. It's awesome. Everyone works together so well and when Chris gets an idea, he just communicates it and the band just DOES it! No writing out of parts, no transposing of keys, it's just immediate. I can honestly say that I've never been so musically fulfilled - and to think that the heart of this collaboration is to worship....well, it's just beyond words. I'm so thankful to be a part of it.

a variety of pictures

OK, as promised, here it is. Brian took this picture last night. It's a little blurry, but you get the idea. (Thought I'd also post a picture from this past March so you can see where I was when I started. It was taken at Universal Studios.) Both pictures are clickable. It's kind of hard to compare the two pics since I'm in different poses, but you'll at least see the huge spare tire I had! Notice I said HAD!!!! :-D












Since I'm posting pictures, I thought I'd show you what a crazy scrapper I have been lately. I like things to be neat and clean, and it especially makes me happy when my scraproom is clean. (Yes, I have a scrapbook room.) I clean up pretty much after every project and never leave my desk messy. Anyway, here is what my scrap desk looks like every day:


And here is what it looked like after this weekend:


Don't worry, it's all clean again now. :-) OK, one more. Here is my favorite page from the weekend:


It's the sweet Baby B, trying to get the camera while my mom was attempting to take his picture. He was probably going to put it in his mouth. LOL I love it.

three sizes and a new job

It's been forever. I've been a scrapbooking fiend for the last week or so, culminating in the completion of 12 layouts and 9 cards over this past weekend. I'll be posting some of my stuff this week, because Braden is so cute I just can't resist! Oh, he called me and said "Aunt Sis" over the phone!! And then he roared like a lion. I LOVE IT!

On Saturday, my neighbor came over and we scrapped together all day! She had never scrapped before. She's a stamper and she wanted to get into scrapbooking - so I told her to come right over and I'd share all my stuff. It was a blast! She got so crazy about scrapping - I saw her today and she FINISHED HER ALBUM over the weekend! Stayed up till 3am! A woman after my own heart!

This morning I got a new job! It's nothing exciting, and I'm over-qualified, but it's going to be great for me to get into a routine! And get out of the house! And talk to people! I'll be filling in for the secretary at a local church here in Apopka. She's going on vacation for about 2 months and they needed someone to fill in - a wonderful grandmotherly-type lady that I know from the gym asked if I'd be interested and I'm so excited to be doing something! LOL I'll work 4 hours a day M-F starting in a few weeks and going to the end of October. (Don't worry Jenni, I'll still hang with you guys at Disney! I'll be off by 12:30 every day! Can't wait to see you! Hurry up and get here!)

I also have a few piano students getting ready to start lessons. I'm a little nervous since I haven't taught in over a YEAR! But I'm REALLY looking forward to having music in the house again.

Lately I've been noticing that I can't keep most of my pants up! I don't mind this problem at all! But I really need some new clothes, so I headed out this afternoon to do some shopping. At first I went around as usual, picking up clothes that were the size I thought I might be (one size smaller than what I was when I started my healthy life). I got ONE pair of pants that were two sizes smaller and brought them to the dressing room too, thinking, "Now if I can't wear these, I won't be too upset because I've still got some weight to lose." Well, that pair fit fine! I was shocked! I put on a kind of fitted top and was surprised that it actually looked okay!

Then I noticed that the pants seemed kind of loose and roomy in the front. Dare I get the NEXT size down? No way I'll be able to wear them! But guess what - I tried them on and they fit perfectly! Grinning like a crazy person, I put my regular clothes back on and went all around the store again looking at all the clothes with new eyes. I picked out tons of stuff I bypassed the first time, and I got stuff in my NEW size - THREE SIZES SMALLER THAN WHEN I STARTED!!!! It feels great, I have to say. Not only am I out of plus sizes, I'm FAR AWAY from plus sizes and I never want to go back! Brian took a picture of me in a new outfit tonight - it's amazing how different you look when your clothes FIT! I'll post the picture tomorrow, right now I'm in bed and I'm not getting back up!

I guess that's about all I have to share - things at church are going GREAT - Brian is LOVING his job more than ever - we are blessed with new friends, friends with whom we have a lot in common - we're happy and healthy and in love - life is good. God is good.

I want to give a quick shout out to my dad whose birthday was August 2! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! KEEP AMERICA SINGING! :-)

a quick layout share

I'll post about the weekend later, but right now I want to quickly share another Braden page I did at the crop on Friday night. :-) It's clickable.

a little get-together

Tonight we had some people over from Brian's work. It was really really fun! It was the first time we've had a group of people over since we've lived here. We had a cookout and I made my famous crockpot macaroni and cheese (I thought of you, JASE!), thanks to Brian's mom for the recipe! All in all, I believe it was a success. This little group has been hanging out together a lot lately - we've been going to movies and such. They are all such fun people! We're so thankful for good friends!

Last night was movie night with this same group - we went to Downtown Disney and had a blast. :-) The guys do a podcast every week and review whatever movie we saw on Wednesday. I'll have to remember to link up to it at some point.

Tomorrow I'm going to church to SCRAPBOOK! It's so cool - my church has a crop once a month and I've never gone. I'm very excited! Brian is headed to Jacksonville to visit his friend Glenn and I'm just going to stay in Winter Haven for the weekend and hang out with my friends from church. It's going to be a lot of fun! Brian and I will meet back at home on Sunday afternoon for some quiet time together before the work week begins again. It's gonna be a great weekend!

six more pounds!

I weighed in today at the doctor's office (they think I'm crazy because I come in just to use their scale) and I have lost six more pounds! That makes a grand total of 29 pounds lost in almost 4 months. I can't even believe it! I've slacked a bit on the exercise over the last month because it's so horribly hot, so I didn't really expect to lose any. In fact, I was afraid I'd gained! But now I'm right around the same weight I was when I got married. That's a good feeling. To be in the weight range for my height, I need to lose another 29 pounds. It seems like this is the year it's going to happen, finally, once and for all!

Now I can get back into my capri overalls, which is my favorite piece of clothing. :-) The skirt I wore to church yesterday I can pull on and off without unzipping it. It's about time to make a trip to the Goodwill to donate my "fat" clothes, and maybe have some of my skirts taken in. That's a good feeling, too! I guess I'll need to go shopping before too long!

i'm a night owl

It's 12:43 am and I'm raring to go! I swear, around 10:30 at night, I just come alive! I told Brian I need to get a job somewhere working midnights. I'd be great at it!

Anyway, here's a page of Braden I scrapped tonight, just finished it. How CUTE is he??!! I called Brad tonight to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yes, folks, my little brother is 28 today) and he told me that Braden's latest word is "okay" - but he pronounces it, "doh-tay!" So adorable.

I guess I should try to go to bed. My husband's eyes are closing, LOL. Click on the picture to see it bigger. :-)

a new exercise program (and other stuff)

Sometimes I'll be driving along and think, "I need to put THIS in my blog!" But then I'll forget what it was. Therefore, days go by with no posts from me! (Sorry, Leslie!) haha!

Although, my aunt Linda and uncle Gene and cousin Kay came to visit this past weekend. We had a ball. (My cousin Chris came too, but he's here often.) We ate out, lounged around, told funny stories, discussed books, and laughed and laughed. Then they sang in the first service at church on Sunday morning. They are always so much fun to be around!

We've been hanging out with Tim and Christi some more. They are a lot of fun too, and we have a LOT in common! Tim has a podcast on which he reviews movies, and Brian is on there, too. He says about 4 words each time, haha! Someday I'll remember to link up to Tim's podcast on here.

As it's gotten continually hotter, I've been walking continually less. I really love walking every day, but it was getting so horribly hot, I couldn't get my breath! Then my neighbor told me I should come and exercise at the rehab center at the hospital (she works there). Since my doctor smiles on exercise, he signed the release papers and off I went. It's great! I get to chat with her and the people there and exercise away in the air conditioning! It feels wonderful to get back into it a little more again. P.S. - I got into 3 more old pairs of pants! Now I'm having to wear my belt on the third hole, and not long ago I could barely get it fastened into the FIRST hole! :-) I'll weigh in again tomorrow or Monday.

My writing career seems to be coming to an end at the end of August. The project we were working on (www.beginnersguide.com) ended at the end of June, but there was another project lined up. So we jumped right into that one, but it only lasts for July and August. And there's nothing lined up after that. :-( This project has rewards, though! When you get to a certain number, you get gift cards to various places. I'm going to try for 150 articles in August, so I can get the grand prize of a basket full of gift cards!

BUT - Brian's company got a new building that's really nice and new, and it's literally across the parking lot from the old building. They had an open house last Friday night and I met some potential piano students! I've been missing teaching, so I'm ready to get back into it! I also got to meet more of Brian's coworkers and their wives and families. It was really fun! And since then, we've gotten together with some of them! Yay, more friends!!!!

I guess that's about it! Not too much happening around here, just trying to stay cool! Y'all come and visit, we LOVE having people over! But you might want to wait till summer is over - maybe around the middle of November or so??!!

pirates and other stuff

Well, there's not much to report around here. Life is just progressing as usual, which I guess is good. Brian's company paid for everyone to go see Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday, and I thought it was great! Afterward, we hung out and talked to a couple from Brian's work, Tim and Christi. Brian and Tim are good friends and Christi and I just met last week, but we hit it off. We ended up having dinner with them and it was a great time! It's good to have new friends.

I've noticed lately that there are TONS of weeds in my garden. This does not make me happy. I keep going out there and trying to weed, but we have fire ants and they're EVERYWHERE! You can't even stand on the sidewalk without some swarming around your feet. So Brian went to the trusty Home Depot this afternoon and got some fire ant killer. He spread it this evening and we both watched in amazement as millions of ants picked up the little yellow pellets and carried them back to the ant hills. They should be dead by tomorrow night, and then I can weed. FINALLY! Plus, they ate one of my pentas!!!! >:-(

This weekend, my aunt and uncle and cousin are coming! They're going to stay with us on Friday night and then we're all headed down to Winter Haven on Saturday, then they're singing in the first service at church on Sunday. I can't wait to see them! It'll definitely be a good time.

We watched "The Family Stone" this evening - I thought it was great. Heart-wrenching. Loved it! That's my review. :-) Hope everyone had a great weekend, feel free to leave some comments!!!!

back to life

Well, Brian's back at work. I really loved having him home with me for four days in a row!!!! I've been scrapping all weekend. From Saturday to Tuesday, I did 20 layouts and 8 cards!! I might share a few of them over the next few days.

On Monday night we played cosmic mini golf with some friends and it was a ton of fun! (Cosmic mini golf is when the course is black with a bunch of stuff all around painted in fluorescent paint, and there are black lights only.) I got 2 holes in one! (For me, that's unheard of!) Then last night we went downtown and watched some fireworks with more friends - from where we were we could see the Seaworld, Disney, and Universal fireworks. Universal had the coolest and prettiest ones.

Mostly, B and I just spent a lot of time together over the holiday. It was great. It was especially great because I was gone to Vegas, and when I came back he was on deadline at work, so I didn't see him much for a week!

On Friday night, we went to Chili's for my birthday dinner and I had chips and salsa for the first time in months. Yum! Chili's has the best salsa in the world, in my opinion. Then we went to Bruster's for ice cream - haven't had ice cream in months, either! I got birthday cake ice cream and it had icing in it and it was delish! But it was pretty sweet - I couldn't eat it all at once. :-)

Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday when I was getting dressed to go to the fireworks, I put on a pair of shorts that had been pretty tight before. They were so loose that I could easily pull them on and off while they were buttoned and zipped!! :-D I think I'm done with plus sizes - hopefully FOREVER!!!!

Here's one of my favorite pages I did yesterday. It's me and Sammy taking our Nazarene nap on a Sunday afternoon when we still lived in NY. (You can tell it's NY from all the blankets!)
And here's one I did on Saturday of Braden on his first Halloween!

lena horne, david alan grier, fantasia, and me

What do we all have in common? We share the same birthday - and it's today.

It hasn't been a real exciting day, to tell the truth. My writing deadline is tonight at midnight, so I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing up my articles. Then later in the afternoon I went shopping, just for a few necessities we needed around the house. Now I'm home and anxiously awaiting Brian's arrival - he has the next four days OFF, and that's the best birthday present I could ask for! I've hardly seen him this week. They had a deadline today at work, so they've been working late every night this week. They made it though, and he just called a little bit ago to say he was on his way home. :-)

We don't have a lot of plans for the long weekend, and I like it that way. :-) We're hoping to play cosmic mini golf with some friends, we might go see Superman, and Brian wants to go watch the shuttle launch. That could be fun - yesterday, they said on the news that there was a 60% chance that weather would prevent the launch, so we'll have to see.

I've been thinking a lot about marriage and relationships lately. Over the past several years, I've become more of a person who closely watches others and how they handle themselves in their relationships. It's an interesting thing to pay attention to. Probably Brian's influence on me has caused me to look a little closer at people. And I'll tell you one thing that I'm sure of - we have a solid, happy, loving marriage. We've learned how to be married to each other and it's wonderful. I just don't feel whole when he's not around. I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is kind and gentle in every single area of his life. He doesn't raise his voice, he treats everyone with kindness and respect, and he is wise about people. I've learned a lot from him.

I love you, B. You're my favorite. :-*

thoughts on vegas

I'm back. The very first thing I want to say about Vegas is that it's hot. No, I mean literally - it never got below 100 degrees and on Sunday it got to 115! It hovered pretty much around 110 the whole time, and I seriously thought I was gonna burst into flames! I will never go back there in the summer!

I will go back again, though. We had a great time! It was nice to meet some fellow scrappers who are now my new friends. All the girls were so nice! I got a lot of scrapping done (12 12x12 pages and 10 cards!) and we got to see a few sights. We went to the strip on Friday night, but we only saw 2 hotels and a few gift shops and the M&Ms World store. (We have an M&Ms World here in Orlando, so I wasn't too impressed.) I really wanted to see the fountains at the Bellagio, but we didn't get there. There were like 12 or 13 of us, and the one girl who lived there was trying to keep us all together, but it just didn't work. Some people wanted to gamble, some wanted to shop, and some wanted to see the sights. But instead of splitting into groups, we stayed in one big group and waited on people while they did their thing. I was a little disappointed that we saw so little of the town, but I didn't let it ruin my trip. Brian and I will go back sometime. In the WINTER.

Here's my overall impression of Vegas: it was a gigantic smoldering cigarette butt with a mountainous backdrop. LOL Seriously, there was so much smoke inside the casinos that I couldn't breathe! And yes, I played the slots! I lost $8 on the quarter slots on Friday night. Then at the airport yesterday morning, I played another $3 on the nickel slots. And I won $12!! So I came back $1 richer! :-)

The flight over there was pretty cool - when it was almost over, we had been flying over deserts and canyons and mountains for awhile. That part of the country is so different from what I see all the time and it's just beautiful. Then suddenly, we flew over this one mountain and there was Vegas and it was HUGE. It was like sudden civilization. Very cool.

The best part of the trip for me was getting home and spending some time with my sweet husband. I missed him in a big way! My car was at Denise's, so when we got to her house from the airport, I drove over to see Brian at work. We talked & snuggled for about 30 minutes and then I headed home. He had to work late (he's on deadline this week and the Nintendo bigwigs are there) so it gave me time to get unpacked and check email and get stuff done at home. I was exhausted and jet lagged, so when he got home around 8:00, we ordered a pizza and a movie - "Rumor Has It." It was good and we enjoyed hanging out together and relaxing on the couch.

I've gotten some of my articles done, and I have nine more to finish by Friday. It won't be a problem and I'll have some extra time to scrap and hopefully meet a new friend for lunch sometime this week. Brian kept the house in pretty good shape while I was gone (he was hardly here!) so there's not a lot to do around here, which is nice!

AND we found out that Marc Broussard will be in Atlanta in August, so we might just plan a quick trip. ;-)

boy can SANG!

OK, if you haven't heard Marc Broussard, you must rush to iTunes and download his records. Right now. This is one of the most talented singers I've ever heard. And he's 24!! The concert on Monday night was excellent. It ranked right up there (if not even better) than the Harry Connick concert! I know it's shocking for me to say that. While Harry is dripping with talent, he's suave and controlled. Marc is just overflowing with soul. I mean, he feels every word he sings! He's just amazing. I'm definitely a huge fan now.

If you go to his site, click on "launch music player" over on the right and you'll be able to sample some of his stuff. His music is a mix of blues, soul, R&B, and funk. It's awesome. A few months ago, Brian and I were about to go to sleep and I was flipping channels in bed. I saw this guy singing on VH1, so I hit "info" and it was the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction show. Solomon Burke, Leela James, and this white kid were singing "Mustang Sally," and this kid was blowing both of them out of the water! I was IMMEDIATELY in love with his voice. It was Marc Broussard. Check him out!

Here's a pic of Brian and I waiting in line for the concert. It was starting to blow up a little rain. :-)I'm going to Vegas TOMORROW! I'm nearly finished getting everything together, and now I just have to put it in the suitcase. I'm off to do that now so that when Brian gets home I can hang out with him!

twenty three

I weighed in at the doctor on Friday morning, and I'd lost 5 more pounds. That makes 23 total since March 28, when I started this health kick! I figured out that this is the most weight I've ever lost at one time. When we first got married and lived in GA, I lost 18 pounds on Weight Watchers. (That was spring of 2001.) I now have 7 more pounds to lose before I'll be back where I STARTED that time! So, that means that when I lose 25 more pounds, I'll be where I was at my lowest weight in GA. Whew! Can you believe I had gained 48 pounds since the spring of 2001? What was I thinking? No wonder my blood pressure and cholesterol were up!!!!

Friday afternoon, I went to Denise's and we scrapped. Rather, she scrapped, and I fought with my adhesive for about an hour! It got stuck and by the time I figured out how to fix it, I had adhesive all over me, Denise's table, and the adhesive dispenser. Ugh! But I did manage to get one 2-page spread done.

Then around 8:00 or so, Denise and I went over to her friend's house and played Bunco. Have you ever played Bunco? It's a dice game that is SO! FUN! I had a blast. You can imagine the wildness of 16 crazy ladies throwing dice as fast as they can and occasionally screaming "BUNCO!" It was way too much fun.

Yesterday we did nothing (well, we walked, of course) and then I went to rehearsal at church. Today, we had a great service. Even though we're driving over an hour to church, it's totally worth it. The Pastor and his family are just wonderful. And the band just sounds so professional! Seriously! Well, they're all paid players, but what great guys they are. It's an honor to play with them, and now I'm singing too, since the girl who sang alto left. (She moved to Memphis.) All in all, I praise God that we've found such a wonderful church.

Tomorrow, we're going to see Marc Broussard at the House of Blues. He just has the most incredible voice, I can't wait! My cousin Chris is going with us, and so is our drummer from church and his wife. It'll be a great time.

minestrone

Before I post this recipe, I'd just like to say that today when I was getting dressed, I was standing in my closet looking at my clothes, wondering what to wear. I spied a pair of capris I haven't been able to wear in awhile, so I tried them on. And they fit! I danced all around the house in them and examined myself in the full length mirror. But it's way too hot to wear capris, so I decided I'd try on a pair of shorts from 2004, just to see. I tried them about a month ago and couldn't quite get them buttoned. And guess what! THEY FIT AND I'M WEARING THEM RIGHT NOW!!!! :-)

No, I don't know if I've lost any more weight. I haven't been to the doctor and I don't have a scale here that works. I'm going to call the doctor and see if I can run in and weigh myself sometime next week. All I know for now is that I've been feeling great. I've slacked slightly on the exercise due to extreme heat! It's just unbearable out there most of the time! Yesterday I did the Biggest Loser DVD (it's hard!) and about 20 minutes of Dance Dance Revolution. DDR has a workout mode and I haven't played it in awhile, at least a year and a half. You enter your weight and it tells you how many calories you're burning. I was pleased to see that my weight now is 10 pounds less than the last time I played! I enjoy walking outside most, though, so I've been trying to do it earlier in the day or after dark, when it's slightly cooler. Which means my tan is fading a little. :-(

OK, so I'm addicted to Olive Garden's minestrone soup. It's YUMMY. I can't get enough of it. I could eat it every day and not get tired of it. And I've tried many recipes for minestrone, trying to replicate OG's recipe. I've never gotten near it. I even tried a "copycat" recipe that wasn't that good. Brian and I have actually sat at the OG, staring at our soup and trying to identify everything in it. All to no avail.

Well, a few weeks ago, I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that looked pretty good. I doctored it up a bit and changed a few things, and it turned out pretty good. It's no OG, but it's a delicious and hearty (and very healthy!) soup, so I thought I'd share it.

Kerri's minestrone

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, chopped (I used Vidalia)
2 large carrots, sliced (or 12 baby carrots, sliced)
2 cans chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
2 cans Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can green beans, drained
2 cans water (use one of the empty cans)
1 zucchini, sliced
1/4 tsp. dried parsley flakes
pinch of dried basil
pinch of dried oregano
pinch of Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves (take them out before serving, DO NOT eat them)
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
12-16 oz. pasta (I used rotini)

In large saucepan (4-5 qt.) or stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Mix in garlic, onion, and carrots; saute 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, beans, broth, water, and zucchini. Add seasonings. Stir well. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 min. While soup is simmering, cook pasta as directed on box. Drain, rinse, and add to soup (after it has simmered for 20 min.) Simmer all together for another 10 min.

Serve with fresh parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and a crusty bread (whole grain at my house). Enjoy! Makes about 6-8 servings, maybe more.

Mmmm, now that I've posted this, I'm gonna make it this weekend! :-) It's great left over, too.

pillow talk

Night before last, Brian and I were laying in bed watching TV. When I was ready to go to sleep, I kissed him and said, "Good night." Then I turned over to go to sleep. He said, "Love you," and I said, "Love you too."

Then I heard him say, "OK, talk to you later!"

As if we were on the phone! HA! I guess he's just used to saying that on the phone! So I started giggling, and we laughed and laughed until we cried! It's good to laugh, and that was extra hilarious!

Since I'm finally back in the scrapping mood, I thought I'd post my latest page. (click on it for a larger view) These pictures were taken over the last several months, so they're not at all the latest pictures of Baby B. But they sure are cute ones, aren't they?


We FINALLY got some rain! It rained all day yesterday due to Hurricane Alberto! And we sure needed it! My flowers look a little brighter today. But don't worry about us - we're supposed to get a little wind and rain today, but it's not gonna hit here. Some famous meteorologist said on the news that even though this season is supposed to be bad, there's only an 8% chance of us (Central Florida) getting hit.

Go figure - right now the sun is shining!

happy 40th mom and dad! happy birthday mom!

Friday was my parents' 40th anniversary! It was also my mom's birthday, but I'm not going to tell you how old she is. She might not like that. Anyway, it was good for me to reflect on my parents and their marriage. While no marriage is ever perfect, they have shown each other love and respect and support through the years, even when times weren't so great. As a result, I feel like Brad and I have a great example to follow when it comes to marriage. I'm so thankful for Mom & Dad and I'm proud to be their daughter!

In other news, my scrapping drought is OVER! I actually scrapped a little tonight after spending this whole past week revamping, cleaning, purging, and organizing my scraproom. Of course, one of my main inspirations is SCRAPFEST! Yes, folks, it's time again for Scrapfest at Lifetime Moments. I LOVE Scrapfest! And this time, Denise is doing it too, so we can talk about it and scrap together. Anyone else want to join us? NY girls? Sera? Jenn? Meg? Come on, you know you want to!

I've also got a Scrapbook Retreat coming up in a little over a week. Get this: it's in Vegas! I've never been to Vegas! I've been to Reno....anyway, Denise and I are flying out and I think we're staying like 4 nights. It's gonna be a blast! Oh yeah, and a week from tomorrow, Brian and I are going to see Marc Broussard at the House of Blues here in Orlando. I can't wait!

We're finally supposed to get a little rain this week! I never thought I'd be so happy to see rain in the forecast! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the sun, but my flowers are really suffering! My hibiscus and my pentas are incredibly droopy! We REALLY need rain! I wouldn't even mind a thunderstorm or two. But no hurricanes, please.

i am not my hair

Have you heard this song by India.Arie? First of all, I love her. I think she's ultra-talented and a lot of her songs have a very positive message. Lately I've been hearing a lot about looks and how important they are. Sometimes when I'm watching TV I'm just amazed at how skinny some of the celebrities are. I told Brian the other day, "She's so small, it doesn't seem like there would be room for her insides!"

I wish our society didn't put such an emphasis on looks. I wish I could go out in shorts and a t-shirt with no makeup and be treated the same as I'm treated when I have on a nice outfit and my makeup is done. But the reality is, how I look is directly related to how I'm treated. It's interesting. But sad. Anyway, here are some of the lyrics to India's new song:

I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am a soul that lives within.

Does the way I wear my hair make me a better person?
Does the way I wear my hair make me a better friend?
Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity?
I am expressing my creativity.

Cool, huh? This is the same girl who, a few years back, sang:

Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don't
Sometimes I'll comb my hair and sometimes I won't
Depending how the wind blows I might even paint my toes
It really just depends on whatever feels good in my soul.

I'm not the average girl from your video
And I ain't built like a supermodel
But I learned to love myself unconditionally because I am a queen.
I'm not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be India Arie.

When I look in the mirror the only one there is me
Every freckle on my face is where it's supposed to be
And I know my creator didn't make no mistakes on me
My feet, my thighs, my lips, my eyes, I'm lovin' what I see.

Once again, awesome lyrics. We need more of this these days. Especially our little girls, who are growing up and learning that the most important thing is to be pretty and skinny.

Give India a listen.