I am a lover of lists. I make one almost every single day. There's the list of things I need to do, places I need to go, stuff I need to buy.
I also love reading other people's lists. That's why I love, love, love the end of the year. There is a list for everything. Funniest quotes, worst hair, best dressed, most days in rehab. I also love those videos set to music showcasing all the biggest happenings over the past year. There is inevitably some cataclysmic event I forgot even happened and at least 2 celebrity deaths that I completely missed. Just yesterday I was watching a recap of 2007 and I became mesmerized by all that one year held. The immigration debate, the Iraq war, the bridge collapse, the Anna Nicole Smith fiasco, the Virginia Tech massacre, the disappearance of Madeline Mccann. They didn't even include the really important stuff.....like Lindsey, Paris or Britney. They probably had a separate show for that. I kept wondering when they would get to the good stuff. The feel good moments. I was in need of some happy thoughts so I decided to make my own list.
One of my favorite things about this year has been this blog. It was a great tool for making my list because I was able to go back through and read the events in sequence that I felt were noteworthy. There was a mixture of happy and sad, frustration and disappointment. There were a lot of things I didn't blog about. For instance, this year has been a tough one for our family. Grieving Rebekah was a part of it but not entirely. Most of you know that Dave is a self-employed home builder and times have been pretty tough. Financially it's a scary time and if you listen to the news it's not going to get better anytime soon. We are holding tight to the hope that 2008 is going to be better. After all, the past two have been less than stellar, if you know what I mean.
So, what will I remember about 2007?
A cabin in Gatlinburg, pink t-shirts and a chocolate fountain. Andrea and the fruit bowl. Camping in the living room. Pepsi the purple ball. Molly the Chiweenie. Piano lessons and dance recitals. Rob singing "Love Me Tender". Robyn in the Priscilla wig and crutches. Trips to the lake. Trips to the beach. Trips to pool. The Davis party barge. Dave's ear infection. Extreme Home Makeover: Lydia's Room Edition. Nicole's surprise. Ashley, Angela & Robyn during the "Aerobic Challenge". Brian and Angela ending up with the singing toilet. Shelly trying to kill me at the lake....again. Hannah Montana tickets. Little Ocho. Play days and girl's night. Sunday dinner and the DCC. Jenny Carlisle. Jody Caraway. Copeland Farley. Eliza's welcome home party. Rhonda's wedding. Abigail's commercial. Rebekah's Rainbow.
If such a rotten year could produce such great memories, I can't wait to see what a good year looks like.
Since I made my own list I also decided to make my own video. And so I leave you with The Wood Life recap. Here's to a Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Operation Send-A-Box
I have been asked by my friend Nancy French to be an area coordinator for Operation Send-A-Box. She has taken on this very ambitious project to make sure that every soldier in David's unit receives a care package. You can go here to learn more.
As a coordinator, I am responsible for getting 25 packages sent to Camp Caldwell in Iraq. The boxes will be distributed by the chaplain and soldiers who have never received mail, beginning with the lowest ranked, will be the first to receive a box. If you would be willing to help, please email me or leave me a comment. It will be a very easy way to make a big impact on the men serving our country so faithfully and sacrificially.
If you are involved in a church group, neighborhood organization, school, sports team or you would just like to take this on as a family project, please visit the link and find out how to help.
If you are in my area, I will have boxes and packaging materials to distribute. If you're not nearby, you can request the materials at your local post office.
This is an amazing opportunity to extend the love of Christ to those who are in desperate need of encouragement and hope. I have been blessed to receive email updates from Nancy about David's experiences. Reading first-hand accounts on what is taking place over there is sobering and encouraging. In one email he asked us to read Psalm 91. It is called the Solider's Psalm and reading it with that in mind gave me a fresh perspective. Take time and read it today and remember our soliders and their families. I'll leave you with words from Captain David French in his last update:
A few nights ago, several of us were talking after a pretty intense night - our guys had to make a tough shoot/don’t shoot decision with limited information. There was quite a bit frustration. One of my friends asked me if I thought I was making a difference by being here. The question made me think.
Honestly, I don’t know if I am. This is a big conflict, and I’m just one low-ranking lawyer supporting the guys who are doing the real fighting. I don’t know if I’m making a difference, but I do know that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing.
As one great (and godly) general once said: “Man has duties. God controls the consequences.” I remind myself of that every day. Please pray that I do my duty well.
CPT French---
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Tradition
We are very blessed to have all of our family so close during the holidays. Every Christmas since we've been married we have kept the same schedule; Christmas Eve is spent with The Woods and Christmas Day with the Masseys. Because there's not a lot of "at home" time, we have designated the day before Christmas Eve as our family day. There are three things that MUST happen on this day or the entire holiday season is put in extreme jeopardy.
First is the baking of Christmas cookies. Lydia and I break out the rolling pin and the cookie cutters and get down to business:
After they have baked and cooled Dave joins us at the table for some meticulous decorating. I have to say that the man is very skilled with the icing:
and Lydia as made drastic improvements. She prefers the "smear it with my fingers and get it all over my face and hair" method:
This year my cookies took on a rather distinctive motif. Dave said they looked like gingerbread boyz from the hood:
After the cookies are done we pile in the car for our Christmas lights tour. We spent about 3 hours last night riding around Nashville. Here are a few of our favorite spots.
This is the most beautiful nativity scene I have ever seen up close:
I am a sucker for the Peanuts gang:
This family has around 150,000 lights and invite you to get out and walk up their driveway. It is spectactular:
Once our tour is complete we head home to put on our PJ's. We tuck Lydia into bed and Dave & I settle in for our annual viewing of Christmas Vacation. The holiday can't officially begin until I hear Aunt Bethany sing The Star Spangled Banner. As Ellen so eloquently puts it, "I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas and we're all in misery."
I hope your family has a blessed holiday filled with tradition, love and laughter.
First is the baking of Christmas cookies. Lydia and I break out the rolling pin and the cookie cutters and get down to business:
After they have baked and cooled Dave joins us at the table for some meticulous decorating. I have to say that the man is very skilled with the icing:
and Lydia as made drastic improvements. She prefers the "smear it with my fingers and get it all over my face and hair" method:
This year my cookies took on a rather distinctive motif. Dave said they looked like gingerbread boyz from the hood:
After the cookies are done we pile in the car for our Christmas lights tour. We spent about 3 hours last night riding around Nashville. Here are a few of our favorite spots.
This is the most beautiful nativity scene I have ever seen up close:
I am a sucker for the Peanuts gang:
This family has around 150,000 lights and invite you to get out and walk up their driveway. It is spectactular:
Once our tour is complete we head home to put on our PJ's. We tuck Lydia into bed and Dave & I settle in for our annual viewing of Christmas Vacation. The holiday can't officially begin until I hear Aunt Bethany sing The Star Spangled Banner. As Ellen so eloquently puts it, "I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas and we're all in misery."
I hope your family has a blessed holiday filled with tradition, love and laughter.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Tis the season to go retro
The words "Christmas party" tend to conjure up similar and often stale thoughts in most people's minds. Someone usually brings a ham, someone else supplies the green bean casserole. Most of the women show up in red sweaters and the guys end up gathered in a room talking about sports. There's usually pumpkin pie, apple cider and a jazz rendition of Winter Wonderful playing softly in the background. Yeah. Been there. Done that. Not this year. This year it was pizza and chips. It was big hair and neon colors. It was Bon Jovi and Run DMC. Like, totally.
I've been desperate to host an 80's party for my gang for years and since the proper opportunity never seemed to present itself I decided to throw conventional wisdom out the window and seize the day. I gave my peeps a heads up a couple of months ago and began my planning. Everyone was instructed to head to goodwill and start coordinating their outfits. After several weeks of gathering memorabilia from my mom, printing pictures of 80's icons off the internet and downloading songs from ITunes I was in 80's heaven. Even if my friends hated the party, I had already had enough fun to last a lifetime.
I have to give my buds credit. They are not afraid to embarrass themselves for the sake of winning a silly prize at a party. They went all out. I myself put the hot rollers and Aqua Net to great use and my bangs saw a height that they has not been realized since 1988. Some shopped for their attire and some wore authentic pieces from their youth. I can't tell you how proud I was to see the variety of fashion choices parade through my living room. My girls had the hair goin on and the fashion was gnarly. We had a pink prom dress, a green taffeta suit, twist-a-beads, stirrup pants, off-the-shoulder sweaters, ankle boots, scrunchies, a fluorescent ski suit, banana clips, leggings and leg warmers. The guys didn't do so bad either. One wore his high school basketball jersey along with some rather authentic looking shorts. It was a scary but courageous choice. We had a couple of mullet wigs and an AC/DC t-shirt. My hubby was especially proud that his pieces were all authentic. He actually still has so many of his skinny ties that he periodically changed throughout the night and still had about 6 that he never put on. Also, his multi-colored parachute pants were a big hit.
I do not profess to be crafty in any sense of the word so you can imagine how proud I was to display my backdrop which I hand made for picture taking purposes. I hung some of my favorite records from the light fixtures and made LP bowls filled with VHS tapes like "Pretty in Pink" and "Back to the Future" as well as candy from the era. There were pop rocks, bottle caps, candy cigarettes, chicklets.....ahhh the memories. The soundtrack, of course, was my favorite part. We cleared out our living room and made a dance floor where we rocked out to the sounds of Prince, Michael Jackson, Olivia Newton-John and Duran Duran and even had a slow dance to "Hard Habit to Break".
My gang tends to be a little competitive so I knew I had to provide activities that would allow them to turn on each other and lose all their religion. I came up with a little something I like to call the 80's Olympics. We divided into three teams which competed against each other in the following categories: The Rubix Cube race, the aerobics challenge (complete with leg warmers and headbands), the moonwalk race, the Reese's Pieces eating/Tab drinking contest (I could write an entire blog about my search for Tab) and the all important Dance Contest. Team 3 won the coveted "Kool and the Gang" award for teamwork but it was under suspicious circumstances. Later we played guys vs. girls in a "guess the TV theme song" game and ended up, thankfully, in a tie. Sitting there singing the theme to "Growing Pains" and "The Greatest American Hero" totally put me in the holiday mood. OK. Not really. But it made me happy. So happy.
I must tell you that the only thing about our party that had even a hint of holiday spirit was a round of Dirty Santa. I can not and will not discuss what went on during that game. Those details are on a need-to-know basis and my mother reads this blog so.....enough said.
I hope everyone who attended had a good time. I know I did. It was fun to relive the decade of my youth. It was especially fun to relive it as a popular, semi-cool person that I totally wasn't back then. We even talked about how funny it was that most of us, had we known each other back in the day would probably never have been friends.
The cold hard truth is this. In high school I was never invited to a party, never went to a dance and never talked to the girls who wore taffetta dresses. Last night, my teenage dreams finally came true. The coolest party in town was at my house, I slow danced with the cutest boy and I got to sit at the cool table. It was like, Totally Awesome!
Now for your view pleasure I present the following:
Me and my date:
The guys:
The cool table:
I had the time of my. Yes I swear. It's the truth. And I owe it all to you.
Deck the Hall & Oates with films by Molly (Ringwald) Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Goodbye.
Somebody stop me.
I've been desperate to host an 80's party for my gang for years and since the proper opportunity never seemed to present itself I decided to throw conventional wisdom out the window and seize the day. I gave my peeps a heads up a couple of months ago and began my planning. Everyone was instructed to head to goodwill and start coordinating their outfits. After several weeks of gathering memorabilia from my mom, printing pictures of 80's icons off the internet and downloading songs from ITunes I was in 80's heaven. Even if my friends hated the party, I had already had enough fun to last a lifetime.
I have to give my buds credit. They are not afraid to embarrass themselves for the sake of winning a silly prize at a party. They went all out. I myself put the hot rollers and Aqua Net to great use and my bangs saw a height that they has not been realized since 1988. Some shopped for their attire and some wore authentic pieces from their youth. I can't tell you how proud I was to see the variety of fashion choices parade through my living room. My girls had the hair goin on and the fashion was gnarly. We had a pink prom dress, a green taffeta suit, twist-a-beads, stirrup pants, off-the-shoulder sweaters, ankle boots, scrunchies, a fluorescent ski suit, banana clips, leggings and leg warmers. The guys didn't do so bad either. One wore his high school basketball jersey along with some rather authentic looking shorts. It was a scary but courageous choice. We had a couple of mullet wigs and an AC/DC t-shirt. My hubby was especially proud that his pieces were all authentic. He actually still has so many of his skinny ties that he periodically changed throughout the night and still had about 6 that he never put on. Also, his multi-colored parachute pants were a big hit.
I do not profess to be crafty in any sense of the word so you can imagine how proud I was to display my backdrop which I hand made for picture taking purposes. I hung some of my favorite records from the light fixtures and made LP bowls filled with VHS tapes like "Pretty in Pink" and "Back to the Future" as well as candy from the era. There were pop rocks, bottle caps, candy cigarettes, chicklets.....ahhh the memories. The soundtrack, of course, was my favorite part. We cleared out our living room and made a dance floor where we rocked out to the sounds of Prince, Michael Jackson, Olivia Newton-John and Duran Duran and even had a slow dance to "Hard Habit to Break".
My gang tends to be a little competitive so I knew I had to provide activities that would allow them to turn on each other and lose all their religion. I came up with a little something I like to call the 80's Olympics. We divided into three teams which competed against each other in the following categories: The Rubix Cube race, the aerobics challenge (complete with leg warmers and headbands), the moonwalk race, the Reese's Pieces eating/Tab drinking contest (I could write an entire blog about my search for Tab) and the all important Dance Contest. Team 3 won the coveted "Kool and the Gang" award for teamwork but it was under suspicious circumstances. Later we played guys vs. girls in a "guess the TV theme song" game and ended up, thankfully, in a tie. Sitting there singing the theme to "Growing Pains" and "The Greatest American Hero" totally put me in the holiday mood. OK. Not really. But it made me happy. So happy.
I must tell you that the only thing about our party that had even a hint of holiday spirit was a round of Dirty Santa. I can not and will not discuss what went on during that game. Those details are on a need-to-know basis and my mother reads this blog so.....enough said.
I hope everyone who attended had a good time. I know I did. It was fun to relive the decade of my youth. It was especially fun to relive it as a popular, semi-cool person that I totally wasn't back then. We even talked about how funny it was that most of us, had we known each other back in the day would probably never have been friends.
The cold hard truth is this. In high school I was never invited to a party, never went to a dance and never talked to the girls who wore taffetta dresses. Last night, my teenage dreams finally came true. The coolest party in town was at my house, I slow danced with the cutest boy and I got to sit at the cool table. It was like, Totally Awesome!
Now for your view pleasure I present the following:
Me and my date:
The guys:
The cool table:
I had the time of my. Yes I swear. It's the truth. And I owe it all to you.
Deck the Hall & Oates with films by Molly (Ringwald) Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Goodbye.
Somebody stop me.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I've been tagged
There appears to be a game in blogworld that I knew nothing about until this morning. I was informed while reading my friend Tammy's blog that I have to share 5 little known facts about myself and then tag someone else. This is riveting stuff so brace yourselves.
1. I only had three boyfriends before David. They were named Bart, Sage & Giovanni. No. I am not kidding.
2. I was a card carrying member of the Bionic Woman fan club.
3. I can identify every single Brady Bunch episode in the first 30 seconds of viewing.
4. I learned to spell the word friend by singing a song from Mr. Rogers. I still to this day find myself humming it if I have to write the word down.
5. When I was a senior at Selma High School a teacher found a dead body in the basement during final exams. And people wonder why I decided to move to Tennessee.
So, now you know the rest of the story. I know these were lame and perhaps a bit disturbing. Sorry about that. I now choose to tag Angela. Mostly because it will force her to update her blog.
1. I only had three boyfriends before David. They were named Bart, Sage & Giovanni. No. I am not kidding.
2. I was a card carrying member of the Bionic Woman fan club.
3. I can identify every single Brady Bunch episode in the first 30 seconds of viewing.
4. I learned to spell the word friend by singing a song from Mr. Rogers. I still to this day find myself humming it if I have to write the word down.
5. When I was a senior at Selma High School a teacher found a dead body in the basement during final exams. And people wonder why I decided to move to Tennessee.
So, now you know the rest of the story. I know these were lame and perhaps a bit disturbing. Sorry about that. I now choose to tag Angela. Mostly because it will force her to update her blog.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Much Merriment
Here we are just 5 days away from Christmas and I am soaking up the holiday cheer.
This past Sunday night Dave and I sang in our choir concert. It was a standing-room-only crowd and the music was phenomenal. I can't tell you how much I love singing in our choir. There is a spirit of worship that I have never experienced anywhere else. We have some amazingly talented people but most of us are just average singers with a love for music and for Jesus. But let me just say this. On concert night, we raise the roof. This year was no exception. We had a full orchestra, Travis Cottrell's compositions and arrangements and a fog machine. The only weak moment was this one particular song. There's this poor girl in our choir who begs for solos and out of the goodness of our choir director's heart, he gives them to her. It's so sad to hear her struggle through. This year, she sang a song called "You Came". Poor thing. She tries. I'm sure Jesus enjoys it even if no one else does. (OK. That was sarcasm at it's finest and I only typed it to see if Melissa Radke was reading this. If she is, she will leave an equally sarcastic comment, I promise you that. In truth she is one of the best singers I've ever heard. The begging for solos part though.....totally true.)
Last night was Fruit Bowl night. We always draw names in November and spend our last girl's night out of the year going out to dinner and exchanging gifts. After dining at PF Changs we headed out to Shelly's palatial estate to enjoy sweet treats and hot beverages. This year Nicole drew my name. I have to admit I was excited because, of all the Fruits, we probably spend the most time together and she knows my gift wish list better than most. She did not disappoint. Here is what I found lurking in my gift bag:
First were these:
That's right. They're not just Milano cookies. They are CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY Milano cookies. Who knew there was such a thing? I will just channel my inner Boomama and say that it is my belief that the combination of chocolate and raspberry is an indisputable sign of God's love and richest blessings.
Next I found this:
First of all, I apologize for the annoying flash in the middle of the picture. I do not profess to be a professional photographer. I do, however, confess to being an Office fanatic which brings us back to the calendar. This will bring assurance that I will in fact smile at least once every month from staring at the faces of the fictional people that I have grown so fond of. Each month has a picture of a different character in the form of one of the motivational posters you see in offices. All kinds of awesome.
And last but not least was this:
Best. Gift. Ever. Seriously, my favorite T-shirt was my Office shirt. It is now a very close second. That's how much I love this shirt.
Since we girls tend to go on and on and on and on when we're together, I got home a little late. This was only a problem because I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to prepare food for Lydia's school party today. I would say that is was worth it because the kids had a blast but since I spent the better part of two hours wiping up spilled paint, glue, fruit punch and hot chocolate while listening to the boys have a belching contest, I will not deceive you. It was not so much fun for me. The highlight of the party was the Christmas Tree relay race. Lydia was chosen to be the tree (probably because of her remarkable performance as the number 8). Each child had to put a decoration on her. She l-o-v-e-d that as you can imagine. Here was the final result:
While at the party I got to spend time with my buds Nancy and Mary Beth:
They are commonly referred to on this blog as Nancy French and Mrs. Wahlman. (By the way Fruit Bowl, Nancy informed me that she too was at PF Changs last night at 6:30 with her girlfriends! I was sooooo disappointed that I didn't know. It would have been a hoot to introduce all of you at once to her.)
Can you stand all the merriment I've crammed into this week so far? And wait...there's more to come. Tonight is our choir party and Friday night is the moment I've been waiting for all year. Dave and I host an annual Christmas party for our whole gang and every year we have a different theme. I will not reveal what this year's theme is. You will just have to wait for Saturday's blog. I will just say that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas and I've had more fun planning it than you can imagine.
I hope everyone is having a fun, festive holiday season so far. Until next time....
This past Sunday night Dave and I sang in our choir concert. It was a standing-room-only crowd and the music was phenomenal. I can't tell you how much I love singing in our choir. There is a spirit of worship that I have never experienced anywhere else. We have some amazingly talented people but most of us are just average singers with a love for music and for Jesus. But let me just say this. On concert night, we raise the roof. This year was no exception. We had a full orchestra, Travis Cottrell's compositions and arrangements and a fog machine. The only weak moment was this one particular song. There's this poor girl in our choir who begs for solos and out of the goodness of our choir director's heart, he gives them to her. It's so sad to hear her struggle through. This year, she sang a song called "You Came". Poor thing. She tries. I'm sure Jesus enjoys it even if no one else does. (OK. That was sarcasm at it's finest and I only typed it to see if Melissa Radke was reading this. If she is, she will leave an equally sarcastic comment, I promise you that. In truth she is one of the best singers I've ever heard. The begging for solos part though.....totally true.)
Last night was Fruit Bowl night. We always draw names in November and spend our last girl's night out of the year going out to dinner and exchanging gifts. After dining at PF Changs we headed out to Shelly's palatial estate to enjoy sweet treats and hot beverages. This year Nicole drew my name. I have to admit I was excited because, of all the Fruits, we probably spend the most time together and she knows my gift wish list better than most. She did not disappoint. Here is what I found lurking in my gift bag:
First were these:
That's right. They're not just Milano cookies. They are CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY Milano cookies. Who knew there was such a thing? I will just channel my inner Boomama and say that it is my belief that the combination of chocolate and raspberry is an indisputable sign of God's love and richest blessings.
Next I found this:
First of all, I apologize for the annoying flash in the middle of the picture. I do not profess to be a professional photographer. I do, however, confess to being an Office fanatic which brings us back to the calendar. This will bring assurance that I will in fact smile at least once every month from staring at the faces of the fictional people that I have grown so fond of. Each month has a picture of a different character in the form of one of the motivational posters you see in offices. All kinds of awesome.
And last but not least was this:
Best. Gift. Ever. Seriously, my favorite T-shirt was my Office shirt. It is now a very close second. That's how much I love this shirt.
Since we girls tend to go on and on and on and on when we're together, I got home a little late. This was only a problem because I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to prepare food for Lydia's school party today. I would say that is was worth it because the kids had a blast but since I spent the better part of two hours wiping up spilled paint, glue, fruit punch and hot chocolate while listening to the boys have a belching contest, I will not deceive you. It was not so much fun for me. The highlight of the party was the Christmas Tree relay race. Lydia was chosen to be the tree (probably because of her remarkable performance as the number 8). Each child had to put a decoration on her. She l-o-v-e-d that as you can imagine. Here was the final result:
While at the party I got to spend time with my buds Nancy and Mary Beth:
They are commonly referred to on this blog as Nancy French and Mrs. Wahlman. (By the way Fruit Bowl, Nancy informed me that she too was at PF Changs last night at 6:30 with her girlfriends! I was sooooo disappointed that I didn't know. It would have been a hoot to introduce all of you at once to her.)
Can you stand all the merriment I've crammed into this week so far? And wait...there's more to come. Tonight is our choir party and Friday night is the moment I've been waiting for all year. Dave and I host an annual Christmas party for our whole gang and every year we have a different theme. I will not reveal what this year's theme is. You will just have to wait for Saturday's blog. I will just say that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas and I've had more fun planning it than you can imagine.
I hope everyone is having a fun, festive holiday season so far. Until next time....
Friday, December 14, 2007
Little Ocho
Tuesday night the entourage gathered for Lydia's school program at Zion. She brought home a sheet a few weeks ago outlining the parts various students had been given and beside her name were the words "Sign Holder". Although I have been in church my whole life, I admit I was unfamiliar with the sign holder in the nativity story. My bad.
Once I was informed that being the parent of a "sign holder" meant I wasn't required to craft together some sort of costume, I was all about it. I figured there would be a point in the play where she would have to hold up a sign that had narrative significance like "No Room In The Inn" or "Call His Name Jesus" or "Six Geese A Laying". Something like that. I was wrong. There were 10 sign holders, each with a number printed on their respective signs. Our daughter drew the distinction of being number 8. They wove a countdown into different parts of the program and each time the children counted, the sign holders were to flip their number over. Sounds easy enough.
Dave and I sat with Nancy French during the performance. Big mistake. Her son was a shepherd. He did well enough I suppose but with all due respect, he walked out with his staff and headdress for one song. Number 8 had to be on call through every single scene. Sure, she might have gotten distracted a time or two and the number 8 might have been mysteriously absent on 3 of the 7 musical numbers. It's a lot of pressure being the number 8. I realize the parent of a shepherd might not be fully versed in all that being a sign holder entails. I guess I can't fault her for that. However, she started trash-talking me about the shepherds being better than the sign holders. She's lucky I was too busy laughing at my own child to take offense.
Seriously, all three of us sat on pins and needles every time they started to count. When she forgot, we giggled quietly. When she remembered, we wanted to bust out in applause. I was a proud mama. She was helped by the fact that number 7 started holding her number upside down halfway through. That boosted number 8's credibility tremendously.
On the way home, Dave crowned Lydia with the new moniker "Little Ocho". She was, and continues to be, very annoyed by it. That hasn't stopped either of us from calling her that. If you see her, you should try it out. You may think we're mean parents but really, we're just strengthening her resolve. Yep. It's all about character building around here.
Here she is. Our little ocho.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
A mother's worst nightmare
You may recall my disastrous attempt at finding my celebrity look-alike a few months back. Well, I found something new on that particular website that looked interesting so I gave it a shot. You simply upload a photo and it will not only provide your celebrity look-alike but morph your picture into theirs. I didn't dare upload a photo of myself. Don't need to see my face turn into Roseanne Barr's thank you very much. That will all come in due time.
I decided instead to use a photo of my beautiful daughter. I received horrifying results. Take a look:
I'm always joking that Lydia will grow up to be Jessica Simpson given her lack of....how shall I say this?????......common sense. I was secretly hoping a picture of Jess would pop up. That would have been blog worthy goodness at its finest. Instead, I was met with Miss Spears. Great. Just Great. Images of my sweet girl marrying some thug back up dancer and driving around with her baby on her lap while not wearing underwear flashed through my mind. It completely freaked me out so......
I decided to try another photo and was met with much better results:
Whew. That was a relief.
I will admit that I did eventually upload a picture of myself (and a few friends...hee hee.) I'll keep those results to myself until a later date. If you'd like to give it a try click here. It's free and provides hours worth of mindless entertainment. Unless you morph your child into Paris Hilton.
I decided instead to use a photo of my beautiful daughter. I received horrifying results. Take a look:
I'm always joking that Lydia will grow up to be Jessica Simpson given her lack of....how shall I say this?????......common sense. I was secretly hoping a picture of Jess would pop up. That would have been blog worthy goodness at its finest. Instead, I was met with Miss Spears. Great. Just Great. Images of my sweet girl marrying some thug back up dancer and driving around with her baby on her lap while not wearing underwear flashed through my mind. It completely freaked me out so......
I decided to try another photo and was met with much better results:
Whew. That was a relief.
I will admit that I did eventually upload a picture of myself (and a few friends...hee hee.) I'll keep those results to myself until a later date. If you'd like to give it a try click here. It's free and provides hours worth of mindless entertainment. Unless you morph your child into Paris Hilton.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Sick and Tired
This will be a brief update because I am sick....and tired. And tired always follows sick. OK. That was a Bill Cosby Himself reference and purely for my friend Tammy. I'm sure she giggled even if nobody else did. So, back to me being sick and tired. My daughter has had a recurring cold for the last couple of months and it finally recurred all over me. I woke up yesterday feeling just dandy but by mid-day I was a mess. This morning I woke up with a lovely sinus headache and I know I've set some sort of world record for most consecutive sneezes. Dave was a sweetheart and took Lydia to school for me and also picked her up. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. About 30 minutes after being home this afternoon, he announced he too was catching it. The next couple of days should be a blast at the old Wood hacienda, don't ya think?
Anyway, I thought I would update on my last couple of posts. First of all, I'm sure many are wondering what we ended up with in our Dirty Santa game Saturday night. Well wonder no more. Just as I predicted, my husband had his eye on the most obnoxious gift available to be stolen and, you guessed it....We are now the proud owners of 2 German crafted antique tribal masks. They're lovely. Just lovely. Later, in the evening I realized I had gotten lucky after all when this poor guy unwrapped a pair of longhorns. You know, like the kind Boss Hogg had on the front of his car. You can be sure if he had been given the chance, those bad boys would be on display somewhere over my fireplace mantel. I ended up with a fruitcake but, darn the luck, I misplaced it behind a pillow in our host's home.
Lydia's choir program went great on Sunday night. I'm told she was singing her heart out. I wouldn't know because I was busy directing our soloists at the front of the stage and our camera was acting up so Dave didn't get any pictures. I know she was excited to be on the big stage, but even more so because she ended up standing next to her best bud Selah. Pretty remarkable considering their were over 130 kids on the stage. I hope her mom got some pictures (hint, hint Nicole).
Tomorrow our Christmas festivities continue with a Christmas Tea at Lydia's school. It something special the 1st grade teachers do for the moms. I hope my cold is better so I don't make a sneezing spectacle of myself.
I'm going to lay down and be pitiful now. Ahhhhhhhhh choooooooooooo! (I actually did just sneeze so I thought it was appropriate to add it in. Enjoy!)
Anyway, I thought I would update on my last couple of posts. First of all, I'm sure many are wondering what we ended up with in our Dirty Santa game Saturday night. Well wonder no more. Just as I predicted, my husband had his eye on the most obnoxious gift available to be stolen and, you guessed it....We are now the proud owners of 2 German crafted antique tribal masks. They're lovely. Just lovely. Later, in the evening I realized I had gotten lucky after all when this poor guy unwrapped a pair of longhorns. You know, like the kind Boss Hogg had on the front of his car. You can be sure if he had been given the chance, those bad boys would be on display somewhere over my fireplace mantel. I ended up with a fruitcake but, darn the luck, I misplaced it behind a pillow in our host's home.
Lydia's choir program went great on Sunday night. I'm told she was singing her heart out. I wouldn't know because I was busy directing our soloists at the front of the stage and our camera was acting up so Dave didn't get any pictures. I know she was excited to be on the big stage, but even more so because she ended up standing next to her best bud Selah. Pretty remarkable considering their were over 130 kids on the stage. I hope her mom got some pictures (hint, hint Nicole).
Tomorrow our Christmas festivities continue with a Christmas Tea at Lydia's school. It something special the 1st grade teachers do for the moms. I hope my cold is better so I don't make a sneezing spectacle of myself.
I'm going to lay down and be pitiful now. Ahhhhhhhhh choooooooooooo! (I actually did just sneeze so I thought it was appropriate to add it in. Enjoy!)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
It's December 1st and the Woods are in total holiday mode. The tree is up, the decorations are out, the outdoor lights are on, a few presents have been purchased and my Christmas CD collection is rockin on ready. This morning, to officially kick off the festivities, I made breakfast while wearing my Santa hat. Lydia and Dave promptly donned there's as well and we had a merry time eating our eggs and bacon. Afterwards everybody got ready and we headed to the mall for our annual visit with Santa. Lydia was 5th in line and ready with her list. We only allow her to ask for 3 things and this year she requested the following: A Barbie dream house, a diary and a red-eyed tree frog Webkinz. Yes, that's correct. Not a unicorn or a horse or a puppy. A red-eyed tree frog. That is the dichotomy that is my daughter. Santa assured her he has been watching her all year and that she had been a very good girl. He promised her a few "surprises". I just love Santa for that.
This year we decided not to buy the obscenely overpriced mall pictures and instead opted for the "take it yourself for free" package. I think we made the right decision. Now we can take the money we saved and buy her a new wardrobe or something. Here is Photography by Dave:
When we were done, we headed home for lunch before packing Lydia up for a trip to Grandmommy's house. She'll be spending the night there while Dave & I officially kick off the party season with the first of 4 parties we'll be attending in the next four weeks. Starting things off tonight will be our Sunday School class party. We'll be playing Dirty Santa which is always fun....unless your married to a man who actually tries to steal the worst gifts. Case in point, last year we came home with a very realistic looking raccoon puppet. I awakened the next morning to find it resting on my pillow staring at me with it's disgusting little beady eyes. Nothing says Christmas like a raccoon.
Tomorrow night will be Lydia's children's choir performance. It's her first year on the "big kid stage" and she is beyond excited. Since I'm one of the choir teachers, I'll be busy working but hopefully Dave can get some pictures for me to share.
As busy as we get, I love this time of year. With all the parties, musicals, decorations and shopping it's easy to get distracted. Fortunately, I just started a new devotional book, Beth Moore's "90 Days with Jesus the One and Only". This first week, of course, has been all about Gabriel's visit to Mary, her reaction to her calling and the birth of Christ. As the pressure of the season seems to be mounting, I've loved having that time in the morning to put everything into perspective. Every year I say it and every year it seems harder to do, but I really don't want to miss the reason for the season. I don't want to lose sight that it was a choice God didn't have to make.
I love Christmas for a lot of reasons; the music, the traditions, the food, the time with family and friends and the wonder in my daughter's eyes. It's my prayer that this year I can love it simply for Jesus.
This year we decided not to buy the obscenely overpriced mall pictures and instead opted for the "take it yourself for free" package. I think we made the right decision. Now we can take the money we saved and buy her a new wardrobe or something. Here is Photography by Dave:
When we were done, we headed home for lunch before packing Lydia up for a trip to Grandmommy's house. She'll be spending the night there while Dave & I officially kick off the party season with the first of 4 parties we'll be attending in the next four weeks. Starting things off tonight will be our Sunday School class party. We'll be playing Dirty Santa which is always fun....unless your married to a man who actually tries to steal the worst gifts. Case in point, last year we came home with a very realistic looking raccoon puppet. I awakened the next morning to find it resting on my pillow staring at me with it's disgusting little beady eyes. Nothing says Christmas like a raccoon.
Tomorrow night will be Lydia's children's choir performance. It's her first year on the "big kid stage" and she is beyond excited. Since I'm one of the choir teachers, I'll be busy working but hopefully Dave can get some pictures for me to share.
As busy as we get, I love this time of year. With all the parties, musicals, decorations and shopping it's easy to get distracted. Fortunately, I just started a new devotional book, Beth Moore's "90 Days with Jesus the One and Only". This first week, of course, has been all about Gabriel's visit to Mary, her reaction to her calling and the birth of Christ. As the pressure of the season seems to be mounting, I've loved having that time in the morning to put everything into perspective. Every year I say it and every year it seems harder to do, but I really don't want to miss the reason for the season. I don't want to lose sight that it was a choice God didn't have to make.
I love Christmas for a lot of reasons; the music, the traditions, the food, the time with family and friends and the wonder in my daughter's eyes. It's my prayer that this year I can love it simply for Jesus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
