Pray for Julie

I got an email today from my college roommate Rachael. Her sister-in-law needs our prayers. She has had a stroke and brain surgery and currently has a blood clot in her brain. They can do nothing about the blood clot but pray that it doesn't move. Julie and Rachael's brother have a 13 year old son, 5 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and 3 month old son. They had to deliver the baby 8 weeks early because her blood pressure was such an issue. Please keep their family in your prayers. I will add updates as I get them.

Lifetime Member

As of last Tuesday, I am now a lifetime member with Weight Watchers. This means I have reached my Weight Watchers weight goal. It also means that I no longer have to pay to attend weekly meetings. I still want to lose a couple more pounds, but I am so happy with the success I've had on the Weight Watchers program. I would definitely recommend it. Here is a before WW picture (taken January 25, 2007) and an after picture (taken November 22, 2007). I don't really have many (if any) pictures of me alone so M is in these as well. Losing weight is kind of a weird thing. I have to look at these pictures to see the change. Since it has been gradual, it is hard to see a difference when I look in the mirror.

Maxhead

We have now had Max for 6 weeks. He was 15 weeks old on Friday. I took him to the vet for the third time for puppy shots and his rabies shot, and we are now finished with those for a year. I also had him microchipped on Friday. It doesn't cost very much and any place that finds him should be able to locate us with the microchip if he somehow loses his collar. That was the only "shot" that made him whimper a bit. At 9 weeks he weighed 18 pounds. At 12 weeks he weighed 25 pounds. At 15 weeks he tipped the scales at 36 pounds. He is not fat or pudgy...he is just growing. We call him Maxhead as a term of endearment. Somehow we started adding the word "head" to the end of things either before or after we got married. M wondered today if Max thinks his name is Maxhead. He comes to both so I guess we're okay.



Some fun facts about Max...

• He really enjoys running around in the snow...and eating the snow.
• He has mostly learned to stay away from the Christmas tree.
• He has learned to "sit", "lay down", "stay", and come when called.
• He enjoys laying on his back...especially when his belly is being rubbed.
• He also really enjoys walks. Well, actually he enjoys jogging rather than walking. That has been some good exercise for me.
• He barks at his reflection.
• He chases his tail all the time.
• He is quite the acrobat - mostly while chasing his tail. He does all kinds of somersaults.
• He is scared of the vacuum cleaner - even when it's not on. When he sees us pull out the vacuum, he runs the other direction and won't come back until we put it away.

We had more snow this weekend, and it has been really cold. We went out to shovel the driveway this afternoon because I wanted to. I roped M into doing it and because the driveway was so slick, he fell twice. Thankfully, he was not permanently damaged and we didn't have to make any trips to the ER. We also had our Sunday school Christmas party last night. We had a fun time fellowshipping with everyone. We ate dinner, sang Christmas carols, and exchanged ornaments. The roads were very slick, but we made it there and home safely.



I also watched two new to me holiday movies this weekend - "The Nativity Story" and "The Holiday". I think both movies came out last year around Christmas, but I had not seen either one yet. I thought they were both pretty good. As I am not a great historian or Bible scholar, I cannot tell you how accurate "The Nativity Story" was, but I know they got all the important things correct. I would recommend both if you are into holiday movies.

Christmas Favorites

I really enjoy this time of year. I like hearing Christmas music everywhere I go and seeing all the pretty decorations. I have been surprised with how many houses in our neighborhood have lights out. It is just fun to see.

I also really enjoy listening to Christmas music. I generally try to get at least one new cd of Christmas music each year. M has been making fun of me because I have 192 Christmas songs on my iPod. That is all I will listen to between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I could sit at home in the evenings listening to Christmas music - sitting in the dark with the lights on the Christmas tree turned on. It is all still magical to me - even though I'm 30 now. Some of my favorite songs right now are "We Are The Reason" by Avalon, "O Holy Night", "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" by Avalon, "For Unto Us" by Bebe and Cece Winans, and "Worthy Is The Lamb" from the New Young Messiah cd. I am sure I am forgetting many. I really love listening to this music!

I also enjoy Christmas movies. My favorites are "Miracle on 34th Street" (both the old and newer versions), "Elf" - this movie is hilarious and genius as far as I'm concerned, "White Christmas", and "While You Were Sleeping" (M says this counts because they celebrate Christmas in the movie).

I have many good memories of Christmas. And what is really neat to me is that the things I remember most are not the presents I thought I "had to have". I remember making yummy goodies with my Mom (fudge, tiger butter, cookies, etc), listening to Christmas music while sitting in the dark in the living room on my Dad's lap, watching all the Christmas specials with my Dad (like Charlie Brown's Christmas), driving around Bishop Hills to see all the Christmas lights with my parents, the Christmas Eve service at our church when we were home for Christmas, driving to Oklahoma to see our extended family, and being out of school for a couple of weeks.

What are your favorite things about Christmas?

Classic Migraines

Several years ago I was diagnosed with classic migraines. They are classic migraines because I see spots or "aura" before I get the migraine. According to the doctor who diagnosed me, I am "lucky" because I know the migraine is coming before my head actually starts hurting. This is helpful if you have medicine that will get rid of the headache before it starts, but it doesn't always work that way. I need to go to the doctor because I have run out of the medicine I had. My migraines are sporatic, and until Saturday, the last one I had was in June. I got one on Saturday mid-morning, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning. I have no idea what caused them. They are extremely painful and really take it out of me. After the actual headache is gone, my head is then sore for a day or two. My jaw also tingles when I eat. It is very weird. I sure hope I don't have anymore this week or for many months to come.

Christmas Party

We had a good time at the Christmas party. The club house was beautiful...with a lot of great food. It was fun to get all dressed up. And it was even more fun that I was able to wear a dress I last wore on our honeymoon 4 1/2 years ago. When we got home, we started decorating the tree. It looks beautiful. I'll post pictures of it later.

Saltimbanco and Christmas Tree

We have had a fun weekend so far. Friday night we went to another Cirque du Soleil performance. This time it was in our city. We saw Saltimbanco. Other than the show we went to in Vegas, this was the first show we have seen in an actual building rather than in a tent. It did not seem like they went all out for this show. We think they may be testing the waters in this city before they bring a bigger show in. This show was only here for a couple of days. We still enjoyed it though.

Yesterday we went to get our Christmas tree. We purchased it from a nursery not too far from our house. They had several really nice looking trees. Hopefully, this one will stay nice through Christmas. This is definitely the biggest Christmas tree I've ever had. It is huge! We had to cut several inches off the base so it would fit in our house. I think we'll have to buy some more lights. We have yet to decorate it, but that will happen early this week if not today. This picture of Max (now 14 weeks old) is one of very few that you can see his tongue. We just got back from a 30 minute walk/jog. That is the longest we have walked so far, and it wore him out. He is now passed out at my feet.

This evening is M's work Christmas party. It is generally at a very fancy hotel here on a Saturday evening. This year it is at a fancy club house in a development the company was a part of. Things have been scaled back quite a bit since the housing industry is slow here. For the past 15 years, the company has taken employees and their spouses to Mexico for 4 or 5 days. That is not going to happen this year either. But it should still be a fun time tonight, and we get to dress up which we don't do very often.