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12.18.2012

WHAT WAS THAT?!!!

SP and I found ourselves asking this question to each other, very abruptly at 4 this morning!  The both of us practically froze stiff, scared out of our minds.  We were so asleep, and were woken so quickly to a sound in the kitchen!

See this cup...


When SP said, "What the hell was that?", I knew it was a plastic cup hitting the floor.  But, why now-who's there?!  He grabbed his maglite (b/c it works as both weapon & light!) and headed towards the kitchen, & me, still completely frozen in the bed, staring very intently into the kitchen.   At that hour of the night, a cup falling just doesn't seem right.  So he searched around and finally saw this cup had fallen off the bar!  But the tricky part is that it landed straight up!  So not only did it fall from bar height, in the middle of the night, but it landed STRAIGHT UP!  Like this...


Completely baffled and fully awake at this point (but still frozen in the bed of course!) I notice the heat was on.  The only thing I can think of, shy of a ghost or someone was in our house, is that the heat kicking on blew it in just the most inappropriate way to where it caused it to fall.  Of course, we played around with lightly tapping it off the counter this morning to see if we could make it stand up like this.  No such luck.  Why did we even try!

It took us FOREVER go to back to sleep.  By about 4:45am I began to hear the big FedEx planes flying over head and I started dreaming of all the Christmas presents they were delivering and where they all might have come from.

We will NEVER leave an empty plastic cup up there, that close to the edge again!!  Man it completely freaked us out!  And, it's not our cup!  I had it there to give back to my neighbor!  HOLLIE!!!!  Come get your haunted cup :))

12.17.2012

Happy 63rd Birthday, Dad!

December 14th is my Dad's birthday!  This past week, my mom came up with the idea for the 3 of us to make a little video for my dad.  They were getting together at his favorite restaurant in Bentonville with their group of friends.  She had the idea for us to each record a video message to him as a surprise to play for him at their gathering.

Sean and I had a little, ok who am I kidding...A LOT of fun with this!  We have watched this 10 times and crack up at ourselves every time.

Oh, and please excuse my double chin, ha!


Happy Happy Birthday, Dad!  I love you so much and love that my husband does, too :)

It's Almost Christmas!

I can't believe this is the week before Christmas already!  Where does the time go?!  This I will never know.  I can remember being a little girl and thinking Christmas was never going to get here, and now...I can't slow it down enough!  By the time we actually get our tree up and gifts wrapped, it's practically time to take it down.  If only we could figure out a way to stop time, just sometimes :)

I haven't blogged in a while b/c we have been busy with getting news about my dad, holiday parties, shopping for gifts, and even relaxing a little :)

These past few weeks, we've...

1.  Hosted my parents for several nights as a pit stop to and from Houston.  We had lots of fun and one night they helped decorate our Christmas tree :)  My dad also decided SP and I needed a fire pit (I mentioned wanting one) so he got us one for Christmas.  It came to our house while they were still staying here, so they were able to put it together!


2.  Were guests at a holiday dinner party with a few couples that SP works with.  We had cocktails and appetizers at The Cotton's house first, then headed to Pappadeaux's for some yummy seafood!

3.  Attended a Christmas party with the Chicago Bears football watching crew.  Every Sunday during football season, SP, Jack and I head up to Dublin Square to cheer on the Bears.  One couple, Nick and Stephanie, always have a huge holiday party at their house.  It is one we typically have way.too.much. fun at.  Needless to say, this year was no different.  We didn't make it home until four a.m.  Yes.  You read that correctly, 4am.  We had a great time and even, somehow, made it to the Bears game at noon the next day!

4.  Spent a week recovering from the above party.

5.  Made pepper jelly from the peppers out of our garden!

6.  Got ELFED!  It's a fun little neighborhood game.  Our neighbors elfed us, which means they leave you a small gift, a note, and an elf.  You are supposed to in return do the same for 2 new people, and also place your elf somewhere to be seen so you don't get elfed again!  So fun to figure out who might have elfed you :)



7.  Had SPs Ebby Halliday Christmas party at the Trophy Club Country Club.

8.  Made our Christmas cards and got them in the mail :)

9.  Made homemade pizza.

10.  Wrapped lots of gifts.  I chose to wrap my gifts in newspaper.  I can remember my grandmother always wrapping our gifts in the Sunday comics.  I have to say, other than the black getting all over your hands, I think she was on to something.  It wraps so well.  The corners and everything turn out perfect!  Well done, Maw-Maw.


11.  Had Fire-pit Friday with the neighbors this past weekend.  We have coined this phrase for our neighborhood Friday nights :)  We sit out front, watch the kids play, drink holiday beverages, and warm up by the fire!!  It has become one of my favorite evenings.  This past Friday, we used our new fire-pit!  It looks so pretty all lit up.  And we made the best red beans and rice ever, followed by a few vodka shots w/ pickles :)  It was a lot of fun, the only downside is that we all still smell like that fire-pit smoke!

12.  Ever heard the term "...hair of the dog that bit me"?  That's exactly what we did on Saturday.  It was a perfect day outside!  We cooked a yummy, proper Saturday breakfast of eggs over easy and hash browns.  Then, we refused to let those vodka shots keep us indoors, so...we grabbed a beer (hair of the dog!), some tunes, and enjoyed our afternoon in the sunshine planting plants and hanging out with a few neighbors again :)

13.  Sunday...you guessed it...BEARS GAME!  We woke up Sunday feeling great!  Had an amazing, lazy, Sunday morning.  Then made it to the bar for the game by noon!  We stayed until SEVEN!  Oh my!  It was another perfect day full of football, beer, friends, and corn-hole :)



14.  Today, is Monday.  Can I go back to bed :)

We leave for Arkansas on Friday.  Always look forward to another trip to the mountain :)  Hope you have a perfect holiday!

xx
C

12.06.2012

Bikram Yoga - Columbia, SC

My dear friend from grad school contacted me a few months ago about starting her own Bikram Yoga studio in Columbia, SC.  She asked if I could help design her logo for her new studio!  I jumped at the opportunity.  Lacy and I went back and forth no less than 10 million times over text and email to get her design exactly how she wanted it.  It was so much fun working with her!  I am so proud of her accomplishment and know she will go far doing what she loves best...sweaty, hot, Bikram Yoga!

This is her main logo



Business Card - front

Business Card - back

This was such a fun project.  She started showing me this design printed on all sorts of things from car decals, temporary tattoos, t-shirts.  Pretty cool to know my designs are being shown off all over my grad school town of Columbia :)  

Thanks Lacy for the support!
OH, and if you live in Columbia and want to try Bikram, go see Lacy!  She rocks!!!


12.05.2012

I've Got a Feeling...


The reason I'm so happy?  There is a PLAN!  We have a plan!  My dad has a plan!

Surgery will not be this Monday, but there is a plan and all signs are good!
Now on to a good nutritional plan to get him ready for his major surgery to get that tumor OUT OF HIS BODY!

God is good!

A Sign from God

One evening while in Arkansas (I just spent 2 weeks there), my parents had both gone to bed.  I was left sitting downstairs in a quiet, dark, fire lit living room.  I thought I was going to watch more TV, but when I glanced to my right, nestled down in a pile Christmas magazines was a little, leather bound, One-Minute Devotional book.

I decided I'd glance inside to see what it was all about.  The bookmark was already on the devotion for that particular day.  It went something like this...


That second paragraph.  The one that starts with "If we trust in the Lord completely,"...it struck a chord in me.  Probably because of all my family is currently dealing with through my dad having Pancreatic Cancer.  It spoke to me in a powerful way.  Then, when I got to the end and noticed there was a prayer to follow...that was such a blessing to me at that moment.

After reading it, I decided I should follow suit and head off to bed :)  The next morning, I told my mom that I loved her devotional book.  She expressed to me how she loved it too and even bought one for my Uncle Jim as a gift.

Later that afternoon, my mom and I found ourselves in the Christian bookstore.  We were looking for something special to give to my dad.  Something for a little extra spiritual guidance along his journey.

I found the devotional books and started looking for the exact copy of what my mom has.  She looked with me, and after quite a while, we decided they didn't have it.  We began walking away from the aisle, when my mom went in for one more grab on the shelf...only to find the ONLY copy left of this exact book!  It was a little ruffled, with a torn page.  It was not brand new looking.  We asked if they had another in the store.  They did not.  At that moment, my mom looked at me and said, "This is your copy.  You are meant to have it.  I think I have to buy this for you.  This book was left there for you."

It's these little moments that allow us to keep on believing, hoping, and trusting in Him through this unfortunate journey we are on with my dad's illness.


Keep on believing.  And always trust in Him.  He will carry my dad to good health, I just know it.