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Monday, December 28, 2009

Sweet n' Spicy

Sweet and spicy is one of my favorite food combinations. Over the past couple of years, I've been really digging chocolate with a kick.

For instances, my favorite chocolate is Vosages's Red Fire bar.
Dark chocolate. Ancho and chipotle peppers. Cinnamon. It is heavenly.

And just last week, Chad brought home Ciao Bella Chocolate Jalapeno Gelato.


Ridiculously amazing.

So if you ever see chocolate and pepper combined together - don't fret. It just might be your new favorite too!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!


I hope no one checks this blog on December 25th because you are so busy spending time with your loved ones.

I love Christmas. Everything about it. Mostly - I love what this day celebrates. I'll try not to get all church-y on you... but suffice it to say, the real meaning of this holiday is never lost on me. Tomorrow we'll get to celebrate the birth of our great Savior. And if nothing else - just take a few minutes between the crazy of Christmas day to reflect on it. Give Him some alone time and thank Him. He'll show Himself to you - I promise.

So now... let me lay it out for you!

My Top Ten Favorite Things of Christmas:

10) Hassling Chad for the week before Christmas to let us open our presents to each other early. Okay, fine just one of the little ones. Really? Not even a stocking present?! Sheesh.

9) Getting Christmas cards in the mail. For those friends you don't get to see often, it's just a nice reminder that they care about you and are thinking about you.

8) Hearing a Christmas carol for the first time on the radio! Unfortunately, I think I heard one on Nov. 1st. If they could just wait until the day after Thanksgiving, I'd be a happy woman.

7) Wrapping presents. I loooove wrapping presents.

6) Finding that perfect gift that you know someone will love. There is nothing worse than buying something and saying, "Eh. This will work."

5) Giving back to someone less fortunate. It sounds silly - but honestly, I have no doubt Chad and I had more fun shopping for our Operation Christmas Children and our Angel Child than we did shopping for anyone else.

4) Singing "O Holy Night" or "Silent Night" at the candlelit Christmas eve service. I cry every time.

3) Mom's dinner of homemade ravioli. It is the absolute best.

2) Spending time with my family - laughing, telling stories, and just being together and thankful for what we have.

1) The inevitable moment when you look around the table at all the people you love, and just stop for a minute and feel overwhelmed in gratitude. I wait for that feeling every Christmas.

So I hope you all have a very, very Merry Christmas full of blessings!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Today, I'm sharing with you a super yummy recipe that would be a great complement to your holiday meals!

This is a dish my m-i-l makes. We had an early Christmas this past weekend with Chad's out of town relatives, and I got to make this dish for the first time. It comes out of this old Baptist cookbook. Personally, I think church cookbooks ROCK. And... well... if you know Baptists... them people mean business when it comes to home cookin'.

So here you are:

Cranberry Apple Crisp


Ingredients:
3 cups chopped apples (peeled)
2 cups whole fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
Topping
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups oatmeal (the old fashioned kind - uncooked)
1/2 cup pecans

Directions:
1. Mix together apples, cranberries and white sugar and place in buttered casserole dish (9x11).

2. Combine butter, brown sugar and oatmeal with a pastry blender. Add in pecans. Spread evenly on top of apple mixture.

3. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. If the topping starts getting brown, you might want to cover with aluminum foil.

Enjoy. It is delicious... and super easy to make!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Mondays with Ms. Molly - errr Tuesday edition

Obviously I was too busy venting yesterday to be on time with the MWMM post.

So without further adieu - I present to you:
I hope that you all enjoyed reading about Charlie last week! Since I'm tracked out for the next four weeks, I decided to do another post on one specific child since I'm low on content being away from the kids. So, meet Amanda. Amanda is a spunky, southern, African American little girl who will melt your heart. I'll look over every once in a while and find her laughing to herself (she looks like she's an adult when she does this). She also talks to herself pretty frequently and loves riding the tricycle outside up into every "cove" that has a door so she can admire her beautiful self in the reflection. She is an absolute angel in the classroom...very cooperative, flexible, sweet and takes a long nap every single day :)

Here are a few of her best one-liners:

First week of school in the cafeteria, she turns to see lines of trash and recycling bins and says, "Oh snap! Look at all them blue trash cans!"

In the same moment, she turned to her neighbor and taught her something she had seen on TV. Moving her hands up in down she would say "Say what, say what! F-f-f-f-f-f-fresh!" over and over until the other little girl finally got the hang of it.

Amanda also gives us plenty of stories from the home front. A funny recent one happened one day when we read a book that included a character who snored. We made the snoring noise together and talked about snoring for a few minutes. Then Amanda laughed and said, "My daddy be doin' that when he be drinkin' beer."

And this is one of the best, most recent Amanda one-liners...one day in circle time she announces with a smile: "Me and my brother was jumpin' on the bed and he knocked the bacon right outta my head!"

Until next time... :)

Monday, December 21, 2009

Just let me vent...

If you know me, you know that I l.o.v.e. babies and children.

If I could have gotten pregnant during our honeymoon I would have... but alas, Chad told me we need to spend time together "just the two of us" before entering a child into the equation. So I agreed - and we waited.

Now, when we decided to start trying to start our own family - I assumed it would be easy. My mom has five children so getting pregnant was obvi not a problem for her. I assumed it'd be the same case for me.

NOT.

NOT NOT NOT.

My body hates me. So finally, after nine months, I have gone and talked to my doctor about fertility options.

It just seemed so... odd. Going home with a big packet of info about infertility. Me... at the bright young age of 26... having to read about infertility.

I just never would have thought it. It seems that every time I open Facebook I see some other nitwit saying "La la la... guess what... we're EXPECTING!!!!!"
No freaking way. You and every other woman on God's green earth - EXCEPT ME. And then we go out to dinner with friends, and all of a sudden someone stands up and says, "Wellllll.... we have an exciting announcement to make..." At which time I just grab Chad's knee under the table until my knucles turn white, and I put on my best "I'm soooo happy for you" (which, of course I am... but doesn't mean it's easy) face, and pray that I can make it to the car before I burst out crying. I usually barely make it out the door.

So why am I sharing this - presumably - private matter with you? Because when you're going through it... it seems like you're the only person in the world that is dealing with that feeling. That ache. And if one more person tells you, "Awh. It will happen when it's supposed to." you're going to punch them in the ovaries. Just kidding- kinda. But it is hard. Everyone tries to be super sympathetic to your plight - but unless they went through it, they don't really understand. I'm lucky to have a friend that is going through the same thing that I am... and we went to lunch together a few months ago and it was SO good to just vent to each other and to have someone else validate you by saying, "I completely understand." And knowing they mean it. And I have known women - including my mother-in-law, that dealt with it for YEARS. I can't even imagine.

So if you're reading this - and you're going through that same "Why can these 15 year old skanks on MTV get pregnant and I - responsible, married, financially secure - can't!?!?" - just know that I know the feeling. I know what it feels like to have taken about dozens of pregnancy tests only to see the dreaded single line... again. I know what it feels like to completely avoid baby sections at the department store. I know what it feels like to be walking through the grocery store and marvel to your husband "Have you noticed every FREAKING woman in this store is pregnant right now?."

I just know. You're not alone. It sucks.

So anyway, this week I start on my first round of fertility treatment (calm down - this isn't the type that will cause me to have a litter of children.) Supposedly the medicine they are putting me on will make me batshit crazy. I know Chad is soooo excited about that. Just what he wanted for Christmas - an irrational wife! That's the thirteenth day of Christmas. I'd say I'll keep you posted on my progress... but I won't. I'll bow out of the baby talk until I have something to report. Just be praying for me and Chad. We need it!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Christmas Baking

Tomorrow is "Christmas Baking Day" for me and my mom. It's our annual tradition where she bakes tons of things and smacks my hands to keep me from eating raw cookie dough. Just kidding... kinda. As I've gotten older, I've become more of an active participant in baking day... and it's something I look forward to most during the Christmas season.

What does baking day entail, say you?


About 50 sticks of butter.

About 4 dozen eggs.
A big hoking amount of flour and sugar...and spice... and everything nice.
Vanilla and almond extract.

And a variety of chocolates, nuts and dried fruit.
A KitchenAid mixer. (this year I'm considering bringing mine and then we can have deuling KitchenAids.)
Christmas music.
Wine. And not for cooking.
About a billion pots, pans, sheets and tins.
At least one freak out in which we say "Why did we say we'd make all this?!?!"
Mom.

Me.
And Kevin for unwrapping Hersey Kisses. It's his job every year.

And what are we baking this year?
Oh yeah. Christmassy Chocolate Bark. It was awesome.

And this:
Who doesn't like Peanut Butter Hersey Kiss Cookies?!? Terrorists probably.

This:

Cranberry Orange Scones. Wowee wow wow.

And this.Almond Snowball Cookies. I usually wait for Kelly's mom (Kel and her mom have a Christmas Baking Day too) to make me my cookie tin and add extra snowballs for me and Chad. But since Kel's mom has moved out of state (noooooo), I might have to make some of my own!

Oh, and this.

Chocolate Oreo Truffles. Baby Jesus said so.

This:
Because Kevin asked for it and mom usually gives in to his requests. Who am I kidding... mom will NOT deny any of her children Christmas cookie requests. Oh, hi fudge. You look pretty today.

And probably this too:Homemade toffee. This is usually the recipe that while we're making it something will look wrong and we'll call our neighbor Alice (whose recipe it is and who I like to call my NC Grandma) and we won't even get the full question out before she says "I'll be right there!!!" and will run three houses down to rescue us from destroying her toffee.

And we'll make my absolute favorite Italian walnut cookies that I've never seen anyone else make other than my mom and grandma. And every year my mom says she refuses to make them again next year because they are so time intensive and you work for hours and only have this teeny tiny tray of cookies to show for it. But they are our favorite and she'll end up making them anyway. BTW - There are no pictures of this cookies because they are really that elusive. Sorry. They will just have an air of mystique on this blog.

So that will be my weekend. I will try to chronicle the end result with pictures. But that will require me to remember to bring my camera - and I make no promises.

PS: Sorry for making you hungry. Here's to hoping you find an old piece of chocolate in the back of your desk that will get you through the morning!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Platonic Friendships

It's the age old question. Can men and women really just be friends. My answer to this questions has definitely changed over time.During my high school and college days, I would say it was pretty evenly split with male and female friends. And I definitely thought opposite sex friendships were great! However, I learned the hard way in certain situations that opposite sex friendships only really work well within a group context. One-on-one male/female friendships get complicated because ultimately one person wants it to be something more. Eek. And then you're stuck with, "Well, do we end the friendship since we obviously want different things?" Sometimes you can just eliminate the one-on-one part of the friendship and maintain the friendship among a group of other people. Other times the friendship fizzles completely.

Other times you both end up wanting the same thing (i.e.: relationship) and then you go get married, fuss at each other about Christmas decorations and live your lives happily every after. A la: me and Chad.

So once you're married, the male/female friendship question has to be readdressed as a couple. If you were to ask me now if men
and women can have a close platonic friendship, I would cautiously say yes... but only under these particular circumstances.

1) You are allowed to be good friends with your spouse's best friends. Fringe friends may or may not apply... depending on trustworthiness of said friend. But husband's closest friends - in the clear. For instance, two of Chad's best friends are David (Annabelle's daddy) and Stephen. He's grown up with them. My close friendship with them is actually encouraged - since it means Chad will get to hang out with them more often. Likewise, Chad is absolutely allowed to hang out and be friends with my girlfriends like Hannah and Kelly.

S
ummation: Spouse's best friends = Green Light for Friendship.

2) Y
ou are allowed to be good friends with your best friends' spouses. For instance, it would be approved for me to be friends with Hannah's husband Jack or Kelly's boyfriend Ian. A-okay. Likewise, Chad is permitted to be friends with David's wife Jamie, etc. Once again, the reason this works is because the friendship is 99% of the time within a group context.

Summation: Best friend's spouse = Green Light for Friendship.

3) You are allowed to meet a new friend of the opposite sex independently, so long as the other spouse completely approves of said-friend, and you don't keep any get-togethers, phone calls, emails, etc. secret from spouse. Example - at my old agency, I became very good friends with this yankee Sean. Mainly the war-zone like atmosphere we worked in caused us to bond like army brothers in order to make it through the day in one piece. Sean and I early on set up double dates with our respective spouses, and to be honest, I like Sean's wife Heather more than I even like Sean, and likewise I'm sure Sean likes Chad much more than he likes me. However, if either Heather did not care for me or Chad did not particularly like Sean, friendship would be broken. But we are all one big lovey friend group - so opposite sex friendship can proceed. Interesting fact: these types of friendships are the ones that most likely arise through work situations.

Summation: New friendships (usually work-related) = Yellow Light for Friendship. Proceed with Caution: aka - spouse approval.

And here are my no-no's for opposite-sex friendships, post-marriage:

1) Keeping secrets from spouse on the new friendship. If you have to lie about it - there is something fishy going on whether you want to admit it or not.

2) You tell opposite sex friend details about your marital relationship that should be private.

3) You talk to opposite sex friend about things you wouldn't talk to your spouse about.

4) You start to wonder in respect to new opposite sex friend: "Hmm... what if I wasn't married."

5) Being friends with an ex - unless it was your boy/girlfriend when you were in elementary school. Sorry. It just doesn't work.

5) If for ANY reason... even if you think it's stupid... your spouse feels uncomfortable about a friendship you are in with a person of the opposite sex, you MUST end it immediately. No questions asked.

So there you go! My little bit on platonic friendships. Agree? Disagree? Leave it in the comments!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Not-swine flu


So I just went and did the right thing by going and getting my not-swine flu shot.

Why do I call it not-swine flu, you say? Well after they told everyone to stop calling it swine flu and start calling it H1N1, I decided to just call it the not-swine flu.

Anyway, just got the shot.

Snickered at all those weak humans from the line when they closed their eyes and winced during the shot. Weak. I get the seasonal flu shot every year. NBD. (No Big Deal)

Well I don't know if my nurse was the devil, or if she has colored Christmas lights and read my blog, or what - but my arm is freaking KILLING ME.

Like I can barely move my arm to type right now. Was it the shot or the nurse? Did anyone else get the shot yet and have a similar experience.

I'm about to go lay on my office floor and whimper until some of my colleagues rush to give me the attention I deserve.

My house has doors!!


And windows!

It is looking like a real house now! They should finish putting all the hardiplank up this week... and then will probably keep it covered until closer to move-in time, when they'll paint it.

So the outside will be done pretty soon. Right now they are working on plumbing and electrical. Chad and his dad are going to do some speaker wiring in the house on Saturday. I'm glad my husband is handy. And his dad is super-handy. Those two can do most anything!

We were excited to learn that the large storage space off the bonus room runs along the length of the back of the house. Chad + father are planning on finishing it sooner than later which will give us an extra 300 square feet of finished space. Sweet!

So far, this really has been a pretty painless process (crossing my fingers). Our designer and superintendent on the job have been very responsive and are willing to work with us. I'm think drywall will go in before the New Year, and at that time they'll be able to give us a good estimate on when our little house should be completed. I'm hoping sometime in March!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Whatcha doin? Breaking bricks.

Those of you who know and love me know that I heart my BlackBerry. I've had it for more than 2 years - despite nearly succumbing to the temptation of the iPhone. Dude - there is a freaking app to tell you when to take bathroom breaks while watching a movie at the theater (i.e.: boring parts that don't matter if you miss). I need that in my life.

But alas, I've stayed true to my BlackBerry.

Mainly for two reasons.

1) BlackBerry Messenger beats text messaging hands down. In fact, I almost get angry when I'm forced to text a non-BB user. Ugh. Get with the program. And no, your iPhone P
ing doesn't count. Sorry.

2) BrickFreakingBreaker.
I am a Brickbreaker phenom. I truly think you could enroll me in a Brickbreaker competition and I'd be battling for the trophy. In fact, I'd wager a guess that no one reading this blog has beaten my high score.

My last high score - which would have continued to grow even higher if my phone didn't shut off accidentally and erase my game was:

Beat the game 54 times in a row.
Had 167 lives and counting.
And my total points were more than 996,000.

I think the Brickbreaker gods knew my intention of purposely losing all my lives once I passed the 1 million mark - so it decided to revolt against me and delete my game.

This has happened to me a few times before - once when I had beaten the game about 24 times in a row, and the other after like 12. Since I have decided I'm destined to never submit my high score and make others feel terrible about how the suck at Brickbreaker compared to me, I decided I would never play Brickbreaker again.

I lasted about four minutes.

Monday, December 14, 2009

MWMM: Meet Charlie

Due to Parent Conferences, I've been totally swamped lately. We're down to the last few days of school until Ms. Molly gets a nice loooooong vacation. Thank goodness for year-round schools!

For today, I don't exactly have a "funny story," but more of a fun description or collection of stories about one child. We'll call him Charlie.

Charlie is the cutest little guy ever. I have to admit that I am so in love with him. It has to be his quirky personality (or quite possibly his accent) that makes me so drawn to him. He is bilingual, but he mostly speaks English at school. His voice is a mix of Spanish & a thick African accent. Ah, I just love it! Another reason I think I am so drawn to him is his slightly obsessive tendencies that in many ways I can relate to (he likes everything to be perfect!).

For instance, while most kids come barreling into my room every morning, Charlie takes his time. He stands inside the door for a good minute or two just checking everything out. I believe he likes to transition himself from home to school in this way and make sure he knows what to expect (i.e. if centers have changed, we have a new VIP, etc.) He needs lots of coaching to take his bookbag to his cubby, sign in and get settled.

From there, one of our morning rituals is to "put your happy heart in the bin." The kids came up with four classroom promises (some would call them rules) that we keep everyday. Putting their "happy heart" (it's a heart with their picture in the middle) into the bin symbolizes their willingness to keep our promises. The hearts stack up on top of each other and we talk about it in the circle time that morning. Charlie doesn't dig the fact that people can put their happy hearts in after him. I have to remind him to put it in (although I know he's scheming to keep it out) and then I watch him because when someone else puts theirs in, he RUNS over and moves his back on top. I frequently remind him that "he can handle it" and we let other people put theirs on top. I've started shaking up the box in the circle and his face is priceless. He'll say "oh no!" and just stare at it like it's the worst thing ever.

Another thing Charlie loves is the color green. More than anything. Green markers, green pegs, green paper, green paint...whatever! We had done some patterning at the "Math and More" table one day with these colored people (red, blue, green, and yellow). One of my TAs announced, "Ms. Molly...all of the green men are missing from Math & More." Sure enough, I knew where to find them. Charlie had them stashed away with him at another center. I've also found him in the bathroom with a green peg in his pocket or one morning he came to school with one of our green pegs in his lunchbox. Anything green he likes! One day he colored an entire piece of paper green and someone took an orange crayon and put a big mark on it. Big problem! He said (do this in your best accent)... "Miiiiiiiisss Molly, looooooooook!" He got through it, but it was traumatic!

During naptime, Charlie has another quirky trick he's done a few times. His towel that he naps on is a "Diego" towel. On the towel, Diego is like swinging from a tree with his arms and legs spread out. When Charlie takes a nap, he likes to line up his entire body with Diego's. It has to be perfect. This only happens after he has spread and re-spread his towel on his cot perfectly for at least 10 minutes.

Ok, last thing. Charlie has a semi-crush on this other little girl (we'll call her Suzy). Charlie likes to follow her around and we've been working a lot on using our words and asking her or inviting her to play instead of just standing beside her (this doesn't go over well with Suzy). If he asks her, she will definitely play with him, but it doesn't work when he follows her around. The other day outside, this is the conversation I overheard (remember, folks...ACCENT):

Charlie: "You like transformers?"
Suzy: "No"
Charlie: "You like spidaman?"
Suzy: "No"
Charlie: "You like ionman?" (this should read ironman but he leaves out the "r")
Suzy: "No"
Charlie: "You like cars?"
Suzy: "No"
Charlie: "You like pink?"
Suzy (smiles): "Yes"

Phew - Charlie figured that one out. Who knows, maybe pink will be his new favorite color ;)

Oh Christmas Lights, Oh Christmas Lights

WARNING! WARNING! I WILL OFFEND PEOPLE WITH THIS POST.

I'm sorry. But part of writing this blog is putting "me" out there. And sometimes people don't agree with me. And that's okay! Who says I'm right anyway? Well... other than me. So if you don't agree with what I wrote - don't get all huffy and stop reading. Instead send this blog to 10 friends and talk about how crazy this woman is that is soooo wrong about fill in the ________.

Okay, so onward and upward.

Chad and I decided on Friday evening to cruise through our soon-to-be new neighborhood so I could check out the Christmas decorations at nighttime (i.e.: scope out next year's competition). Now, I love me some Christmas. Every part of it - sights, smells, songs... you name it, I'm feeling it.

Minus two major things.

1) Colored lights. Yes - that means any color other than white. And yes - I like vanilla ice cream too. DEAL WITH IT. You say boring... I say traditional.
2) Inflatable Christmas decorations.


Do you know what Santa says to that? "No! No! No!" (Get it... like Ho! Ho! Ho!. Come on guys. If I have to explain the joke my blog loses steam.)

Okay maybe there are a few other things. I hate when people put lights around like one random bush or tree... nothing anywhere else. Really people? You only had time/money/energy to put lights on ONE tree? Wack.

I hate when you put the cute little candles in all your windows ( plus+), but don't put a beautiful wreath on your door. Weak.

I hate when you do have beautiful decorations on your house but don't put some spotlighting to illuminate your beautiful decorations. Don't you realize there are freaks like me that drive around peoples neighborhoods at night to critique your decorations. If I can't see yours...well... you are opening yourself up to criticism.

So back to last Friday's cruise through the 'hood. For the most part - I'm extremely pleased with my soon-to-be neighbors commitment to decorating a beautiful house. Though, whenever I passed a non-decorated house, I would say "Jewish" which Chad finds highly offensive... but I, of course, don't mean anything by it other than they obvi don't decorate for Christmas, duh. Of course I could say "Atheists" which perhaps may be more P.C., so I might start trying that.

Okay, stop calling me names. My dear friend Baby Liza is Jewish... and when we lived together she was super pumped to go buy a Christmas tree and decorate it (her first), and we made things even by having her put up a menorah and putting some dreidels on a table. I'm an Equal Opportunity Celebrator.

My sister told me this weekend that Jewish people put blue lights up on their house to celebrate Hanukkah. I have seen maybe one house with blue lights on it in the last several years, and I know there are a lot more Jewish people than that, so I reject her theory. (Any Jewish readers, please feel free to set me straight on your holiday decorating by leaving comments below!)

Okay, so back to Christmas lights and people getting angry with me. I really, really don't like colored lights. Doesn't matter if they are solid green, red or multicolored. Just.don't.like.them.

Chad yelled at me for this too saying, "You are NO fun. What if our CHILDREN want colored lights and inflatables?! Are you really going to deprive them of that because you're a snob?"

He said this with the utmost disdain in his voice making me wonder if I am even fit to be a parent. I told him, "I will teach my children that pretty white lights, with pretty white candles in windows, with pretty wreaths are what they should expect and look forward to at Christmastime. Or if they really want colored lights, that will be their only Christmas present."

Ha!

So I tried to find a picture online of some pretty houses that meet my approval - and I obviously cannot find the right key words. I'm finding a-plenty ugly decorations - but no luck on pretty ones. So as a commitment to this blog, I will see if I can pull Chad out of the house tonight to drive around with me to find some I like and I'll post them.

And, if you'd like to send me pictures of your house decorations - I'd be happy to give them an honest critique... which may or may not be posted to my blog. If they are, I'll make sure to ask permission first! Send to: myprettylittlethoughts@gmail.com.

Please come back tomorrow. I promise I'm not a horrible person. xo

Friday, December 11, 2009

Menu

My ladies Bible study group is having a Christmas party tomorrow.

I'm making this:


Christmassy Chocolate Bark

And this:


Dried Cherry, Pecan and Rosemary Brie en Croute

Delicious and festive! I'll let you know how it turns out. Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Kiss my face

Truth: I am obsessed with skincare.

I am blessed to have pretty good genes when it comes to my skin. 99.9% of the time, my complexion is pretty flawless.


Don't hate. Trust me I have plenty of other things that aren't so wonderful. Let me have my skin.

So I really love skincare. I wash and moisturize twice a day. I use toner once a day. I use anti-wrinkle serum around my eyes daily. I do a refining mask or microdermabrasion on
ce a week. It's my thing.

However, for some reason - literally for the first time in my lif
e - my skin has been rebelling against me. I'm not handling it well. Whining and crying to Chad about how horrible my skin looks - to which he gives me the look that shows when he has a face swollen the size of a basketball he could really care less about how my "skin looks." And I feel a little guilty - because it's not really bad... it's just a few little bumps here and there. Regardless, I ain't happy about it.

So when my lover Amy over at Little Fish.Big Pond.
said she was about to start using Origins Checks and Balances frothy face wash because she heard such great things about it, I figured "why not."

So I bought myself two 5 oz bottles of it.

And I'm torn. I obvi want it to work really well so my skin can go b
ack to being madly in love with me. But I'm afraid if I decide it's the best thing since sliced Great Harvest Bread Company's japeleno cheese bread, than my grandmother - Ms. Mary Kay herself - will disown me.

My gma has been with Mary Kay for more 30 years, and she's some national senior sales director of the world. The woman has won her share of pink cadillacs - yes they exsist, and yes she's won them... more than once. Her basement studio - Mary Kay pink of course - is like something out of a little girl's dream.

Here is just one of her MK closets.

So you get the pic. My gma wants all her decendants to wear MK, but sometimes I feel guilty calling being like - yo gma, can you please send me some more full coverage foundation, sunny spice blush and some timewise mostiurizer pronto? Especially since she refuses our money for it. So when that happens, I usually just buy some other brands which I'll not name because I'm afraid if my gma sees this she'll drive down from Annapolis, smack me upside my head, and then drive back.

So I try to keep these devil brands away from her watchful eye when we visit. Unforunately, I almost got caught a couple years ago. We were up for Christmas I believe, and I left my make-up bag there on accident. My gma calls my mom to say, "I think one of the girls left their make-up bags here- but it must have been Molly since there wasn't much Mary Kay in there." Even though my mom knew it was mine, she understood the dilhema and quickly said, "Oh yes, it was Molly's. Just mail it here."

Note: I already apologized to Mol for throwing her under the bus... but I can't get on gma's bad side. She understood.

So that said - I'm giving Origins a try to woo me. If anything, I'll just see if this face wash can get me past the horrible time in the life of my skin, and then I'll return to my gma's good graces in earnest.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Another great article by Rick Reilly

If you are even remotely interested in sports, I suggest you follow Rick Reilly's weekly columns. This guy is really great. As a writer, I greatly respect his wit and style.

You can find a link to it here, or if you're lazy, I've pasted it below for you reading enjoyment. As a publicist by trade, I think he's offering some good advice to Tiger and I'd second it.

An image-rehab plan for Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods is the first person in history to run his car into a hydrant and set himself on fire.

His wife reportedly has left him. His reputation is shredded. His once-perfect name has been dragged through more mud than a Nantucket clam digger's boots. A once-spotless life is now an episode of "Cops."

So what now?

First, Oprah Winfrey.

"It has to be Oprah," says the king of Las Vegas publicity men, Dave Kirvin. "If you did a poll on who's most disgusted by this whole mess, it would be women. To win over those women, you need to win over Oprah. You win over Oprah, you win over America."

Once he's on Oprah's couch, he says this:

"To my wife, to my kids, to my family, to my friends, to my fans, I am so sorry. You believed in me. You looked up to me. You thought I was different, and I let you down. I'm ashamed of myself. My mom is ashamed of me. I'm sure my dad would be ashamed of me. I'm an idiot." Then he has to go full Tebow: "From this day forward, you will never see somebody work harder, 24 hours a day, to win back your trust."

It has to be next week and no later, because every day the British tabloids have him sleeping with everybody but the Page 3 girl. "The sooner he makes his public act of contrition, the sooner he takes the oxygen out of the story," Kirvin says.

Second, he needs to shut down his public life.

He needs to skip San Diego, skip the Masters, maybe even skip the U.S. Open. When your house is rubble, you don't go play the Buick Open. Tiger needs to prove to his wife, Elin, sponsors and fans that morality is more important than majors.

Third, he needs to clean house. If he wants to keep his wife, he has to get a new agent, a new caddie and some new friends. It's hard to believe all this went on without their help or knowledge. How can she see them as anything but enablers?

Fourth, he needs to freeze his corporate sponsors before they freeze him. He needs to tell them, "I'm not doing any ads or taking any payment until I can again prove myself worthy of your products. I'm sorry I've let you down. It won't happen again."

Fifth, he needs to write his Tiger Woods Learning Center a check for $5 million with a note that says, "Keep studying hard. I'll be back to help you fundraise in 2011."

He needs sincerity and commitment and honor now because he might have just ruined a lot of lives, maybe even his own. He needs transparency.

Let us into your life a little. Do the "A week on the road with Tiger" story. Give a home interview once in a while. Let people check in the closets and under the bed. Prove to the world you've changed. Because "no comment" and three security guards are only going to make people suspicious.

Sixth, a few manners wouldn't kill him. No more terrible-twos temper. No more swearing. No more throwing clubs. And instead of pulling his signature blow-by move on the hundreds of autograph seekers waiting for him after every round, stop and sign for 15 minutes. Hasn't hurt Phil Mickelson any.

This fall is straight out of the Book of Wallenda. Not so much because his bottom was so low, but because his top was so high. His image, his likability, his hero factor were in the clouds. He was the kid with the 10,000-watt smile from the public golf course -- he brought golf to people of color all over the world. He was the great black hope of the game who made good.

A golfer? With two young kids at home? Alleged to have had affairs with as many as 10 women? The best swinger becoming the biggest swinger? Overnight? Unthinkable!

Seventh, he has to return to the Tour and take the ridicule he has coming. He'll feel as though he's being paraded down Main Street, naked, in a glass box. Women will be wearing TIGER, YOU FORGOT ME T-shirts. Guys will be holding ELIN OVERCLUBBED signs. Babes will be hollering, "Hey, Tiger! I took my name off my voice mail like you said!"

He can shoot 42 over par; he just has to get through it. Then he has to play in a major, maybe the British at St. Andrews, where he won last time. And then he has to start winning again.

"There's four steps to getting past this in the public eye," Kirvin says. "First tournament. First major. First tournament victory. First major victory. Only then will the media let us get over this. The public will forgive him. They won't ever forget, but they'll forgive."

He'll come out of this as an even better player, if that's possible. The golf course will be the one place where he can go to forget, and he will want to forget constantly. Where he once spent six hours on the range, he will spend eight. Where he once had the will of 10 men, he will have the will of 100. He will win again -- win huge -- and people will call it a comeback.

But it won't be a comeback. He never lost his game. He lost only his mind.

It's the little things

I sometimes feel guilty that Chad does so much around the house. He keeps up with car issues, pays the bills, does laundry, helps clean, etc. Sometimes I feel like my "list" isn't as long as his. But yesterday it kind of dawned on me that there are certain things that come up throughout the year that it's my job to do... or else it most likely wouldn't get job.

These things are work too!

For instance, in the madness of house stuff, doctor's visits and surgery, I about had a heart attack Monday night seeing that it was already December 7th!!! Less than 20 days to Christmas. Not only had I not gotten a single present (except one for Chad), but I hadn't even started to think about Christmas cards.

Christmas Cards = Major Chore.

Because it's more than selecting a silly card. It's sitting down and writing out my Christmas card list (since my one from last year I was planning on simply modifying has vanished). It's choosing a picture. It's figuring out shipping, getting Christmas-y stamps, addressing all 75+ cards, etc. With the time crunch, I made it easy on myself this year and ordered photocards. In the past, I would get actual cards and actually hand write notes to each person. So this year - generic card is just going to have to do!

My Christmas cards aren't even supposed to get here until December 20th. Bad news. That means I'll have like a day to get them all addressed and out in the mail so they're not late.

Another job that usually falls on the woman is gifts. Not just Christmas but birthdays, anniversarys, weddings, etc. Online shopping makes my life much easier on this account. I have my little spreadsheet with my list of Christmas gifts - the ones I've gotten and the ones I need to get.

And beyond the gift itself - gift WRAPPING is definitely a girl job.

Last year, Chad went upstairs to my "wrapping room" to wrap my Christmas gifts. I could hear him all the way downstairs heeing and hawing over it. You'd have thought someone was sticking needles in him with all the complaints.

Lucky for Chad, I'm a fabulous gift wrapper. I not only have a knack for wrapping, but also picking the most beautiful papers and ribbons (wire-only please) and gifttags. Only problem with this is I have about 20 rolls of wrapping paper under our bed right now at Chad's parents house and I'm afraid if he sticks his head down there he'll never let me buy another roll again. It's a complusion for me. I can't see pretty wrapping paper without buying it. We were at Swoozie's a few weeks ago and I had two rolls in my hand, but Chad give me the look so I put them back. Glad I did, because went I went home and checked I already had 3 very similar rolls that haven't even been touched yet. Oops.

Anyways, I heart wrapping. I actually thought about starting a small business during the holiday season where people (let's face it --- men) could drop their gifts off at my house, and for a small fee I'd wrap an equisite present fit for a king... or queen. I'd include the cost of all the wrapping and they could choose from basic (just paper), classic (paper and beautiful bow) and fancy (paper, bow, pretty adorned ornament, etc.).

Maybe I'll hassle Chad's single guy friends to see if I could entice them with such an offer. Probably not though, because most guys (until they are married) could care less about the power of beautiful wrapping. So maybe I should market this to a woman on-the-go. Wrapping she could pass as her own.

I'm going to keep thinking about this.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Why, hello soapbox. I've missed you.

I've been asked my thoughts on the top story of the past week:

Tiger Wood's alleged infidelities.

Since I could go on for awhile on the topic - I'll try to keep it brief.

I'd just like to propose that everyone that is wanting to tar and feather Tiger should maybe suspend their judgment at least until the end of this post.

Of course, I think what he did was horrible - and will cause all sorts of damage to his family. For that, he'll have to make amends and try to heal those broken relationships. Or if his wife chooses not to accept that apology, he'll have to accept his poor decisions led to a broken family.

Tough any way you look at it.

But before anyone goes on about what a horrible human being he is, remember for just one second that there are millions of people all over the world that make this exact same mistake. They are just lucky enough to not have it splashed all over every media outlet. And they make the mistake without being a person in the spotlight with presumably thousands of women throwing themselves at you. Reading about Tiger's infidelity reminded me of some comments made by Eddie George, a friend and former teammate of Steve McNair (former Tennessee Titan who was killed by his mistress in August). This was from the transcription of his interview with NBC's Lester Holt:

Eddie George: You literally go from-- depending on your background, not having anything to overnight having anything you want. You walk into a situation where you have millions of-- millions of dollars and it's guaranteed--

Lester Holt: How do people treat you? Friends, strangers?

Eddie George: Oh, you're their best friend. (laughs) I mean you go from bein' a funny lookin' guy to bein' the best lookin' guy on-- in the world. You know?

Lester Holt: What's not to like?

Eddie George: I mean it's-- it's a great lifestyle. But the flip side of it, it-- it's a mean business. And you can be taken advantage of very easily.

Lester Holt: We all face struggles. But as a professional athlete it just seems like the temptation just must be rollin' in front of you all the time?

Eddie George: Oh yeah. I mean you walk in the clubs and-- and people recognize you. And it's like flies. You know? They're attracted to-- to the light.

This interview really stuck with me and made me think of these celebrities and athletes in a different way. Yes, they presumably chose this path. And yes they get billions of dollars for it. But is all that money worth the cost of never really knowing who likes you for you, or who just wants to be with you for money or fame? Is it worth not really knowing if your wife or best friends really loves the real you? Or if they're only around for the limelight. How horrible would that be?

Look at Tiger! He has billions of dollars. Gets paid to do something he loves to do. Gorgeous home. Even more gorgeous wife. Beautiful kids. "Easy street" you would think. But instead of just being able to enjoy all that he has, he goes out and carries on all sorts of lewd relationships with women that we can only assume he knows don't really care much about him - but just want to be with him for who he is. THE Tiger Woods. It's crazy to even think about. The pressure of "having it all" is almost more pressure than having nothing at all. It's like something happens in their subconscious that makes them self destruct. To want to push the people who supposedly love them away to see if they'll stick with them through the rough times.

And then you hear stories that Tiger's lawyers are trying to now draw up some paperwork to give Elin millions of dollars for staying with him just a few more years. Whether or not Tiger himself has anything to do with this - I don't know. But if he doesn't, imagine not knowing if your wife wants to try to "work things out" and really mend the realtionship because she loves your despite your shortcomings, or if she really just wants the payout that will come at the end of it.

I guess all this is just my point of saying, listen - 99.9% of us will never understand the situation they are in. Even if we were, no one understands their unique relationship and all the dynamics involved. So leave that poor family alone to deal with the aftermath of some really, really destructive decision making. Yes, he has a lot of apologizing to do. But not to us - to his family.


Don't hate me

I'm back. I know you didn't know what to do with yourself without new posts for 5 days!

So here is the lowdown on Chad's surgery. I couldn't live blog from the hospital room with funny things Chad said after surgery, because...

there was absolutely NOTHING funny about that surgery.

It was horrible, horrible, horrible. I broke down in tears quite a few times over the last few days. My poor little baby. He's been absolutely miserable. I think the surgery was a lot worse than either of us expected.

But he's doing "great" according to his doctors. The surgery went well and he's healing the way he should be. He's just still very swollen and in some pain. Hopefully he'll turn the corner in the next couple of days.

But thanks for the calls.

And texts.

And BlackBerry messages.

And Facebook posts and messages.

I've read each one out to Chad to let him know how many people love him and are thinking about him. Though he can't really talk - or even crack a smile - I know it means so much to him that people care about him and want him to get well soon.

And thanks
for the ridiculously delicious homemade pudding and potatoes (my mom ROCKS)!

I almost want to break my jaw just so I have an excuse to eat that pudding and potatoes all day every day.

NOT.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I cursed myself...

After making it quite apparent in my Black Friday post that I detest waking up early, I just got word what time we have to be at UNC Hospital tomorrow for Chad's surgery.

6:30 IN THE MORNING


Which means I'll likely be getting up around 4 a.m. to make sure I have time to shower and pack our stuff. I'm groaning and complaining now, but no doubt I won't be able to sleep tonight. And since I'm staying the night in a hospital room tomorrow night, I probably won't be sleeping for two nights in a row.

I'm more nervous than Chad is! I keep asking him if he's worried or nervous about the surgery... which he responds, "I'm not UNTIL YOU START ASKING THAT!"

So I'm trying to keep my mouth shut (pun intended... jaw surgery, remember?).

So keep Chad and his caregivers in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow! And be patient with my lack of blogging for the next couple of days, as I don't think there will be wireless internet access in the hospital...

...and yes, I asked Chad that question. To which I got a snarky, "It's not a hotel."

Granite and Tile and Accents, oh my!

Y'all would have been so proud of us! Chad and I were able to come to an agreement on several big decisions.

So here are some big things:

After some debate, we both agreed that we just weren't feeling any of the level one granite options. I knew there was a chance this would happen. My dad used to joke that even as a little girl I could go to a restaurant and pick out the most expensive thing on the menu. Call it a gift... or a curse. Depending on if you're my best friend... or my husband. There were some level ones that were nice enough - but weren't exactly what I was looking for.

Then I saw it - Colonial Gold.

Ooooh.
Aaaah.

Chad agreed. I had read that finding your granite is like finding your wedding dress. Once you see "the one" you'll know. I thought those people were idiots. But I now see what they mean. You get excited when you find what you're looking for. Colonial Gold will look great - its a nice creamy white with some caramels, golds and bronze running through it. It's definitely more veins than speckles...which I prefer. We're still waiting to find out the cost of the upgrade. If it is absolutely ridiculous we'll have to rethink things... but I'm crossing my fingers for now.

For the master bathroom - we were allowed to choose from any level granite, since you don't need a full slab so you can pick whatever remnant in the granite yard you find. We picked River White.



Ooooh.


Aaaah.

River white is a great natural white with some silvers, blacks and a few specks of merlot. I think it will look fab with our black cabinets.


On a side note - I've learned more about granite in the past 2 weeks than I've ever cared to know. So if you go shopping for granite - I'm happy to pass along my insight.

On to the tile store. Here is where Chad and I began to butt heads a
bit.

We began with the master bathroom. Here is what we ended up choosing:

The tile on the floor and shower stall will be that nice cream colored tile. We'll use the blue-green glass tile (which Chad loves... and I'll explain later how this became an issue) as the accent in the shower stall (a row of three that will go around the stall at eye level), as well as a row of three on the floor when you cross over the threshold into the bathroom, and again into the master closet (which is off the bathroom). The nice little pebble matting with be on the shower floor... so it'll be like having your own little foot massage in the bathroom.

Fancy. I know. If you're super sweet to me - maybe I'll let you come use our shower one day. Maybe.

I'm planning on painting the master bathroom Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage to match the master bedroom. I think it will be a nice relaxing color.
We were on the same page for the bathroom - for the most part. Things got a little tricky in the kitchen.

For the tile backsplash in the kitchen, I had looked into various options.
Glass tile, subway tile, etc. I ended up wanting to do a neutral ceramic tile in various shades of cream and white. Chad was cool with that. However, problems arose when choosing a detailing for behind the range. Chad wanted to do the blue glass tiles - like in the bathroom. I didn't. At all. I tried to explain that the blue glass worked well for the bathroom because it was a cooler color. But I wanted to kitchen to be warmer - with my yellows and cream. Chad did not understand the concept of cool vs. warm as it pertains to a color palette. He's a scientist... not an artist.

However I convinced him (more like he gave up) to do a rectangular detail around the center of the range in this nice scroll ceramic:
We also chose tile for the laundry room and buddy bath - but that would take too much time and the bathroom/kitchen is more of the highlight anyway.

Then there were decisions like this...

...for the kitchen faucet.


...and this one...


....for the downstairs and master bathroom.

This for the lavatory.



This for the doors...



...and this for door knobs.

And on, and on. So it was a very good, happy, productive day. We have our framing walk-thru next Monday - and then they'll be rolling on interior stuff. Halfway there, friends!