Overdoing It

I would not say that I have an obsessive-compulsive personality in the least, but there are times when I get on a kick and then I overdo it. Case in point: when I have gotten on the elliptical/pilates/small weights kick, I realize I may have overdone it when I wake up the next morning and I must not, I repeat, MUST not move my neck or shoulders or else I know that pain will follow. This is not fun. And not conducive to keeping with the exercise kick that I have been doing so well at for the past two weeks. It may be the result of making a motivating workout playlist on my iPod…it just made me keep going last night. Or it may be the result of doing pilates moves in the wrong form…which is most likely it. I dedicated a blog entry long ago to sing the praises of pilates, and I want to revisit my love affair with this wonderful body toning program. I love how strong it makes you feel, plus so many side benefits…for all my married female friends out there that read SELF magazine, pg 102 illustrates them nicely.

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Christmas Recap

Christmas was wonderful…my parents and brother Brad in from Philadelphia and San Diego, and spending the holiday at the Rosebroughs was just like home and couldn’t have been better. God is so good…amazing how He provides family through close friends. We have been spending the holidays with the Rosebroughs for about 10 years now, and now we celebrate every holiday with them. Easter usually includes an aggressive hunt for Easter eggs, though this past year was turned into a scavenger hunt due to lack of participants…truthfully I prefer going for blood while searching for plastic eggs that may or may not have money in them! Thanksgiving is a big dinner and Christmas is usually having Christmas Eve dinner together, exchanging gifts, playing a few rounds of catch phrase, which the men usually detest, packing into the cars and going to midnight service at Johnson Ferry Baptist while hoping that Mark Cottingham will be singing “O Holy Night.” The only difference this year was that Daddy was too sick to join us Christmas Eve, but he was in great shape for Christmas Day, powering up the video camera for the traditional Christmas morning video. What great blackmail material from the past 25 years…I have learned to get semi-presentable before heading down the stairs to see what Santa brought. This year I got a wonderful crockpot…YAY! Yes, I have already been mocked for my excitement over this gift, but hey, I love to cook, and cooking in large quantities usually means that I have friends coming over for dinner, and this only aids in that endeavor. 🙂 I’ve included the photos from the family celebrations…

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Baby Mama

I love, love, LUV having a close friend that is pregnant…no boundaries…I can hug on her, rub the baby belly and ask all sorts of questions that I would never embarrass anyone else with. Can’t wait till the little guy is here! Tammy is 5 months along…and looking like a beautiful baby’s mama!

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Latest Update

Nothing new to update in terms of my Dad’s health, other than he is at his weakest physically right now and is hoping to see some improvement in his overall condition. He and Mom are driving down for Christmas on the 23rd, so please pray that they are able to make the 14-15 hr drive in relative ease. They are doing it in one day on a busy travel time, so safety and endurance are specific requests. We won’t know until late Jan-Feb what the outcome of the treatment is…something that I think is at the back of all our minds, but we don’t want to discuss it with each other. It just seems that if you have to go through treatment like this that the outcome should automatically be miraculous results. We will know then if it has been eradicated, stayed static, or spread further…obviously we want the first outcome…but at the same time we are trying to prepare for anything, I think we all took the initial news as a devastating blow because we had convinced ourselves that nothing could possibly be wrong. We will all be together at Christmas, so that is a big blessing in itself.

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Throwdown at the Terrace

A few pics from another fabulous party at the Terrace….thank you for being the wonderful hostess that you are Bets.

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Sleepless in Atlanta

Sleep is something that usually comes easily to me, but occasionally I have the unusual event of turning out the light, snuggling beneath my down blanket (I know it’s not really that cold, but then I do have the ceiling fan running at hurricane strength) saying a few last prayers, and then patiently waiting to drift off into dreamland, and then….nothing…I’m awake with a million and one thoughts running through my head at light speed, counting to 100 is not helping, switching to the cool side of the pillow is not bringing the usual comfort, and praying to be delivered into sleep is not working. When I was little my grandmother would have me drink a cup of warm milk to help me fall asleep – who knows, but I wasn’t going that far last night. So after an hour+ of this (have you ever been more aggravated at a little clock than the one at your bedside right then?) I’m throwing off the covers, picking up my phone and dialing friends on the West Coast…and, of course, none of them are available. It is too cold, dark, unsafe to go take a long walk to make me sleepy, and I’ve already turned the computer off…so I climb back in bed and start reading. Finally, feeling sleep creep up on me, I’m able to get cozy and the next thing I know it’s morning, and it’s a glorious morning!!! It is beautiful this morning with bright blue skies. Psalm 19:1!!! The best recovery after a restless night is to wake up to beauty, to a windchime tinkling in the breeze, bright pansies outside on my porch, good music (Coldplay’s Clocks on my iPod), a good day ahead with fun plans, and talking with God. So happy it’s morning…

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Adventures in Babysitting

This afternoon I had a frantic neighbor ask me if I would babysit his 4 year old daughter since they were going to his company Christmas party and needed help in a pinch…therein begins the adventure of my evening. It has been a while since I was completely responsible for entertaining, feeding and protecting a child from every sharp object in my apt (for which she seemed to be the magnectic opposite pole!) This child was sweet…but imagine my heart attack when she decides to go after my dog who has hidden under the table in the furthest corner…all I could think was “I’m sorry Mrs So-in-so, but your daughter’s face was ripped off by my 10 lb shih-poo, but it was only 30 odd stitches…” This dog has not been tested for her child friendliness in a controlled environment – thankfully she turned out to be a wimp and basically wanted to be at the furthest point away from this whirling, squealing creature. It turns out she knew my DVD player better than I did, and it is a good darn thing that I have a copy of “The Incredibles” I’ll just pretend that I have that for emergency purposes like this one, not because I loved it that much… My apt is not made or ready for children…this is good since I am single, 25 and no where near producing them myself, but this made for a nervous evening…especially when she insisted on changing into her jammies alone in my bathroom. That was fine until I heard the click of the lock turning (read here: potential hazards that could be swallowed, injested and lead to death and all my bobbypins for picking the lock were in there) emergency avoided as I used my powers of persuasion (m&m’s) to get her to unlock the door and not create a moment where I am breaking down the door with a hammer (the only thing in my tool set that would do the job, short on axes around here). Of course this lead to the problem of sugar intake which her mother had advised me against letting me know that if she had any she would be J-A-C-K-E-D U-P. Does any other non-parent out there take an extra few seconds for comprehnsion around these people who constantly seem to be in a spelling bee? I understand the purpose…but I do have the nasty habit of piecing the letters together, saying the word aloud since I am proud that I have figured out the puzzle and then it’s all for nothing anyway. Maybe I’m the only one with this problem.

Overall not bad, had to play a few rounds of Scooby Doo matching game, braid a few babydoll’s hair and color in a princess coloring book, at the least very out of my norm and reminded me of the endless summers of babysitting I did once. I would recommend this to all single people who are not content in their singleness right now. There will come a time when we wish to have all of our free time back, when our lives are filled with cartoons, bad board games and constant questions of why and how, and we will love it I know, but there are things to be thankful for right now…

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Must See for Me

Typical for this time of year, there are a lot of good movies out…five that are on my short list…

Walk the Line
http://www.walkthelinethemovie.com/

MUNICH
http://www.munichmovie.com/main.html

Memiors of a Geisha
http://www.memiorsofageisha.com/

Good Night, and Good Luck
http://wip.warnerbros.com/goodnightgoodluck/

Jarhead
http://www.jarheadmovie.com/welcometothesuck.html

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East Andrews Party

I was so impressed with how great everyone looked last Saturday…here are a few pics of our fantastic evening!

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It’s A BOY!!!

IT’S A BOY!
Ok, so he’s not here YET, but my wonderful friends Tammy and BJ found out yesterday that they are having a little baby boy!!! We were all betting on him being a girl since he had managed to make her not only sick in the morning, but all day sick…so much for old wive’s tales. She is due in April, and I am in huge anticipation of being Aunt Melissa! Of course when I told my mother that I was going to be an aunt, she about hung up the phone since my only sibling (Brad) is not married. 🙂 Don’t worry, I haven’t designated myself as an aunt, Tammy has bestowed the priviledge on me. This is BIG…my first friend to have a baby…AND she lives here in Atlanta, so I can hug, snuggle and love on that little creature to my heart’s content. If I could scan in a clear pic of the sonogram, I would post it for all of y’all’s delight…or maybe just mine 😉

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