tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-122032812024-03-06T21:00:23.705-08:00Chasing ContentmentChelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.comBlogger668125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-89748176163835206822008-04-13T11:15:00.000-07:002008-04-13T11:17:03.400-07:00For my birthday, my friend, Aleece, completely redesigned my blog and moved it over to WordPress. You're not going to believe how beautiful the new design is! If you've got me bookmarked, you'll need to change the addy. You can find me over here now.Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-5548930934550994532008-04-08T14:29:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:00.474-08:00Happy birthday to me. It's been just lovely. Mike gave me the funniest gift this morning... I love the smell of fresh Play-doh, just opened, never touched. And he got me a Demeter fragrance (some of my favorites anyway) that smells like Play-doh. Really!They surprised me at work with a Food Day, and several sweet folks dropped off gifts. I was SO surprised!! I honestly hadn't expected anything atChelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-41923856608225763492008-04-07T17:05:00.001-07:002008-12-08T16:09:00.829-08:00I never post three times in a day. It's been an usual day, I suppose. I'm just all birthday excited. Mandy's gift for me came in the mail today, and it's fabulous. A big yummy jumble of random. I do love random stuff.And this is some of my favorite random stuff... pajama pants in a groovy yellow floral print, a Starbucks card, an iTunes card, and a Buffy music card. (For those of you new to me & Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-9170386696306840362008-04-07T14:31:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:00.978-08:00Happy Birthday, Mandy!Yay, Mandy. We love you. And all the way over here in Florida, we're celebrating your day. You are one of the strongest women I know. Your mom, of course, would also make my top five. You have a strong and earnest sense of right and wrong, and I've yet to find an underdog cause or person that you didn't defend. You embrace the peculiar and odd and encourage the wonderful Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-90136092309755072182008-04-07T06:38:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:01.182-08:00Okay, it's our first week of our April Dinner Experiment. I'm using Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie for some planning help, and I'm listing our week of dinners here. Thirty days of not eating out is quite a challenge for us! Here's the plan...Sunday - Sami Meatpies (biscuit dough rolled out with each person's favorite cheese/sandwich meat tucked inside)Monday - Homemade waffles with strawberry Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-49620150449864249162008-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:01.664-08:00I love birthdays... all birthdays, but especially my birthday. I've already started getting groovy gifts & I had to share. Chuck, Stacy and the kids gave me this great bag of random stuff. I LOVE random stuff! It's got note cards with my name on them and bath goodies and fuzzy slippers and Moose Munch. No, you can't see the MM in the picture. Mike and I ate it right away.And my folks bought me Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-41720017981870287532008-04-05T18:10:00.000-07:002008-04-05T18:26:43.130-07:00This month, with the exception of my birthday, we are doing an experiment here in our house. Inspired by an article in the latest issue of Cookie magazine (the only parenting magazine that doesn't make me feel like a mama failure), we're going to try to go an entire month without eating out.Now, for us, that's a HUGE challenge. We eat out a LOT. But I'm ready for us to eat healthier and to try Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-75535870788139580842008-04-05T18:05:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:01.844-08:00Remember the big scary birds at work? They had a baby. How can something so cute come from birds so scary?!Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-77884787322388807212008-04-04T16:33:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:01.946-08:00The kids are with Chuck and Stacy for the weekend, and Mike and I are boiling shrimp for dinner. I can hardly wait. It's my birthday weekend, so I get to call the shots. I love that. As we were driving to run some errands this evening, it was raining, and we saw a rainbow. We see lots and lots of rainbows here in Florida... more than I can ever remember seeing anywhere else. I'll post more soon, Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-13045584726057723122008-04-03T18:44:00.000-07:002008-04-03T18:45:49.630-07:00It's been a good week with my folks... they'll leave for Arkansas tomorrow morning. We've been very blessed to have had a good visit with them.Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-64600108760660298432008-03-31T19:39:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:02.223-08:00My folks took the kids to the beach today... Griff and Eliza are both burned today, but they'll be all tanned and gorgeous by tomorrow. And they had so much fun that Eliza went to bed ON HER OWN by 7:45 this evening. Of course, I should really go to sleep soon instead of watching the Astros opening night with Mike since she'll probably be in here wide awake at 3 a.m. Eliza swimming in the Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-17040579612487973912008-03-30T18:41:00.001-07:002008-12-08T16:09:02.355-08:00Two days down, doing pretty good with the parent visit. Mom and Dad are taking the kids to the beach tomorrow (I'm going to be so jealous while I'm at work!), so that'll be fun for them all.My mom brought a cd of photos from my late maternal grandparents, and it was such fun going through them. My Meemaw also sent some photos, and there were several of me as a child. The surprising thing was justChelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-88634431090070251512008-03-29T07:43:00.000-07:002008-03-29T07:45:35.475-07:00My parents are coming to visit today... for almost a week... sleeping here in my house. I'm trying some deep breathing techniques to cut down on the stress. Some visits with them have been really amazing (the last one), while some have not (pretty much the ones before the last one). I'm hoping this one goes well.Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-81334254161749217202008-03-26T19:04:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:02.507-08:00Tonight,my friend, Jodie, was doing my nails, and there was this huge boom. Really huge. We said, "huh," and kept going. Turns out, it was the sonic boom from the space shuttle landing. Now, I hate space stuff, but it is kinda cool that we live close enough to have heard that. (AP photo/P. Kizzle)Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-60902455383883515772008-03-26T09:55:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:02.896-08:00I came home for lunch today because I had a fabulous idea for Aleece's birthday present (more later...), and when I put my keys up and walked to get the laptop, I noticed all of the half-eaten chocolate bunnies lying around. It's like a bunny battlefield in here! Half a bunny on the newspaper Mike brought home (the man brings home all manner of papers!)...Little bunny tushie next to my brush in Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-18981280305441031192008-03-22T17:33:00.001-07:002008-03-24T16:13:28.405-07:00One of the blogs that I found during the Ultimate Blog Party is written by Jessie, who, as it turns out, lives in a town about 30 minutes away from us. Now that the crazy busy Easter season is past, she and I are going to get together in real life. How exciting is that?!Anyway, she tagged me for a fun game, so I'm going to play along. 1. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.2. Each Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-74170471371507112882008-03-22T06:12:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:03.366-08:00It's Spring Training weekend here in our house! We're going today to Kissimmiee to meet Chuck, Stacy, and the kids to see the Astros play Cinci. Everyone's got clean Astros shirts & we're all excited. I'll take lots of photos. Until then, here are a couple from last year...Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-46784331813674416912008-03-19T16:49:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:03.792-08:00I like to post birthday wishes to special people on their special days. Unfortunately, I have six special people in the first 10 days of March, and I worked non-stop during those days. I managed to get Stacy's post up, but after that, all of my good intentions didn't add up to much.So here's my much-belated birthday wishes to some really fabulous people... in a very particular order.Donna (or Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-54039076463252015662008-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:002008-03-17T18:21:55.206-07:00Last week was exhausting. I worked 55 plus hours at work and then came home to try to hang out with Mike and the kids, plus trying to get through the 1500 or so blog posts at the Ultimate Blog Party (it's been great, and I'll let you know when I finally make it through them all). So here's a quick update on us...** I'm behind at work, but I'm catching up. And I'm proud of my efforts. And despite Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-85696002836556616942008-03-09T17:31:00.000-07:002008-12-08T16:09:04.332-08:00Hi, ya'll! Welcome to the party! I loved last year's Ultimate Blog Party, so I had to play again this year.So, come on in... step over the clutter. I know that since it's the Ultimate Blog Party, I should have picked up a bit, but who has the time? We had the cousins this weekend, so the house looks a bit like... well, like there were four kids here all weekend. Mine are the dark-headed ones. Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-38071835726787056962008-03-08T19:00:00.001-08:002008-12-08T16:09:04.505-08:00Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-53686517466504522382008-03-06T15:32:00.000-08:002008-12-08T16:09:04.654-08:00Today, Mike checked Griff out of school early (despite being in not so swell shape in two of his classes and having an upper respiratory infection) for their annual Spring Training Skip Day.The two of them drove to Kissimmee and watched an Astros game together. While they were standing in line to buy tickets, an older gentleman approached Mike and asked if they needed tickets. Mike said yes but Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-45312650375346174072008-03-04T18:30:00.000-08:002008-03-04T18:32:34.114-08:00I'm thinking the ortho might have told me yesterday that my shoulder, arm and hand would hurt like heck today after that cortizone shot. I ended up staying home from work today, which will hurt my dependability, but I could hardly move my arm this morning. My range of motion in that arm is much better today, but still remarkably painful. Dangit.Best I can tell, getting old bites.Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-11448948666879661872008-03-03T17:45:00.000-08:002008-12-08T16:09:04.848-08:00I worked overtime again yesterday, and in doing so, I forgot to post a Happy Birthday wish to my sister-in-law, Stacy.So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY a day late.I have always liked Stacy, but since we moved to Florida, I love Stacy. She was my first - and for way too long, only - girlfriend here, and I have been soooo grateful to have her. She's been so very many things to me, and I will forever be thankful Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12203281.post-29191360223216202562008-03-03T15:53:00.000-08:002008-03-03T17:59:36.992-08:00I went to the ortho today, and he says I have an inflamed rotator cuff and bursistis. Which, of course, makes me a 70-year-old baseball player. The ortho did assure me that I was oddly young to have bursitis. And my general practitioner says that young women typically get this in their right arms because they drive with their left hand while reaching around with an awkward motion to get to the Chelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17391305754770198069noreply@blogger.com1