Sunshiny day!

And I'm stuck inside! I want to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather!

Wah wah wah!

Walk at Home

My co-workers are always talking about these Leslie Sansone walking videos. I finally decided to try it and bought one at Sam's. It was only $8.88 and it comes with a year's subscription of Fitness magazine, but if you don't want the magazine offer, you can send it in for a $7.00 refund. So it's not a bad deal. I just tried it this evening and it was actually pretty fun. I got the 5 Day Slim Down, and for someone who is busy, this is definitely a good one. It's set up to do a mile a day or you can do multiple miles if you like.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to try, and I repeat TRY to do one while Diamond is getting ready for school. I'm not a morning person so we'll see how this works out.

Officially 9!

Although Diamond celebrated with her birthday party yesterday, today marks her official last single digit birthday! We had her party last night at the skating rink. I was a little nervous about it at first because I know how crazy that place can be and I wasn't really sure how many of her friends could skate. But each and every one of them tried and they pretty much caught onto it by the end of the night. I was really amazed at how well her friends knew her. She really liked everything they gave her. Although some of the kids already left by the time this picture was taken, I think you can tell, they were all having a good time.
After the night was over, one of her friends stayed the night and she spent the day with us. We went shopping, played at the park and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

Diamond, I pray you continue to grow into a beautiful woman of God. You are surrounded by people who love you and are so excited to see your life every step of the way. I have been blessed with a wonderful child and am very thankful you were brought into my life. Happy birthday, baby!

Happy day you were born day daddy!

It seems not too long ago that I wrote a post about this - but yes, a year has already passed. We started off the morning with breakfast and his presents. I think he really liked everything he got. Then we celebrated by taking him to the movies (not of his choice though since it had to be family friendly.) We ended up watching Paul Blart Mall Cop, which although it was a little corny, still made us laugh. Then we took him out to eat at Cafe Italia. He wanted to go there because he has never been and Diamond and I talk about how delicious it is. And it didn't fail us, it was all very delicious...

But after that, we spent the rest of the day preparing for Diamond's birthday party, which I will post about later.

But dad, although your birthday sometimes gets washed away by Diamond's, a grandbaby was almost my birthday present to you. Thank you for everthing you have done for us and I pray this year doors will open and fill your life with many new blessings - because I know you deserve it. Happy birthday, dad!

My attempt at singing...

Like I said in the post below, I am not a singer. I could not carry a tune to save my life. But tonight, after a bad day, Diamond wanted me to lay down next to her and sing her a song before bed. First we talked, then she said she was ready for music. I guess no matter how out of tune your mama is, she always sounds good enough to your ears to put you to sleep. I sang her one of my favorites, Chris Tomlin's "How Can I Keep From Singing." Then after a couple verses, I heard the sweet sound sound of my baby's deep sleep breaths - her soft sighs of relaxation and peaceful slumber. These sounds were so much more beautiful than the singing which preceded it. But still, these are the times I cherish. These are the times that have a special place in my heart. These are the times where we can look back and laugh at how silly life was at that particular moment.

Thank you, God for blessing me with an amazing daughter. Although growing times are learning times, I'm so happy to have her in my life. I would not trade it for anything.

Family TV

One show my entire family agrees on is American Idol, which started off Season 8 tonight. We have become fans of this show, although none of us have been gifted the wonderful talent of singing. But I love it. It's great family bonding time for us because we actually all sit around together laughing and making great memories. Even during the commercial break, we all worked with Diamond with math facts flash cards and since my mom thought that was so fun, she wanted to test herself to see how much she still knew. This doesn't work out too well on Wednesday nights, but now, every Tuesday, I have something to look forward to.

Morning Meetings

Every first Wednesday of the month, we have all-staff meetings at work. We recently hired a new training coordinator who has made these way more exciting than they were before. One meeting, we even got to see VP's and other employees compete in Guitar Hero.

Yesterday, the e-mail reminder goes out. It was followed by another e-mail from a generous employee who offered to provide donuts for everyone. How very kind of her. Everybody loves donuts!

This morning, I get to the meeting, grab my yummy chocolate covered donut and coffee, and find my seat. As I bite into my donut, our speaker arrives dressed in a work out suit and tennis shoes and announces "Today we will be talking about health and fitness and how exercising more and eating less can help save us in health costs." So, what do I do with the donut? Eat it anyway!

The things you find when you clean up

In the process of throwing out old things, I came across this;
And then it clicked... Holy guacamole! Next year, we will be planning a 10 year reunion!!!

Relaxing in my Christmas presents

I just finished AND put away three loads of laundry. In between all this laundy, I also managed to iron mine and Diamond's clothes for the week. For any of you who know me well enough, this is a very rare thing for me. I hate ironing. I love clothes you can wash, throw in the dryer, and then come out wrinkle free. That's my kind of thing. But I realized how much better slacks, jeans, and even simple t-shirts look when ironed. I'm going to try to be consistent with this on a weekly basis.

I also managed to partially reorganize Diamond's closet by making it like mine and dividing her clothes by type, color, and sleeve length. Sounds like I had a lot of time on my hands today, huh? But our main purpose for this was to sort out clothes that are much too small for her. This child grew a lot in the past year so she has about 3 large boxes full of undersized clothing. We actually even found something which was a size 6X. Now, fitting into clothes in almost the smallest junior sizes, I have a huge pile of baby hangers on the floor and I think I'll have to finish the rest tomorrow. I can only trip over those hangers so many more times before they become a true hazard.

So why the title of the blog with the Christmas presents? My parents got me some new high thread count sheets with a down comforter and I'm snuggled in with my laptop writing this blog during this soon to be cold night. It feels so nice! The sheets and comforter are so soft that I'm not even sure if I'll be able to get out of them in the morning!

Unordinary day in January

I don't know about you, but January weather is not supposed to be almost 80 degrees. I want to wear my jacket or all the sweaters I bought for the winter season. I've only worn a winter coat maybe twice this season.

So to take advantage of the beautiful day, my family decided to take us to the zoo in Abilene. It's a small place, but it's good enough for a day trip. The weather was perfect and the animals were somewhat active. I think we enjoyed the feeding of the gigantic fish in their little lake over there. The fish had mouths the size of your fist it seemed and they all fought over those silly rye crackers.

After the zoo, we had a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. Delicious! I always enjoy going into those restuarants because you can look around in their little shop filled with cute knick knacks. I wish we would have one of those here, but since we don't have a major highway coming through here, it probably won't be likely.

Then we decided to head over to Kohl's. I absolutely love that store! I finally got to return the pair of shoes I bought Diamond that were both left feet. Unfortunately, someone must've bought the two right feet because we couldn't find those either. The shoe department was probably my biggest disappointment though. Shoes were all over the place, out of boxes, sizes not matching, and just a big mess. Maybe the two right pairs were there, we just couldn't find them in all the clutter. So anyway, Diamond and I came out of there each with 5 pieces of clothing and a pair of shoes for under $60, including tax! I must say we did pretty good. I enjoy shopping with her now. She doesn't get bored and she's old enough to tell me the truth about what looks nice and what doesn't.

We had a nice little day away from home. Even though I like the winter weather, I really do prefer perfect weather days like today, especially when you get to be outside to enjoy them. But Monday it's back to school and we must get back to routine.

Happy New Year!

2009 is here... I'm looking forward to the new year.

2008 was filled with so many unforgettable events. Whether is was really good friends moving away, a fun family vacation to Disney World, or even celebrating history with the presidential election, this year was one to remember. Happy times, crying times, fun times, times of celebration - God has been there through it all.

So now we move on. Diamond wanted us to all announce our "New Year's Revolutions" (according to her) last night. I was really happy to hear hers was to read her entire Bible this year. She's going to get started tonight before bed. This year, she also celebrates her last single digit birthday! Aaaaahhh!!!!

Off to bed I go already. I have to work tomorrow!