Random Tidbits

Bear with me on this one, ladies, it is going to be completely random!  

I want to start off by saying Yay!  Welcome new followers!  So glad that you stop by my little corner of the blogging universe.  :)

Prayers for Sweet Babies

There are so many sweet babies (and mommies & daddies) that need every prayer they can get right now.  Check out my sidebar for links to find out more about them, in case you haven't already.

(The Horror of) Eating Out

So sorry for depressing everyone with my last post!  Nothing depresses me more than realizing that I have been stuffing my tummy with all of this crap.  :(  Boo.  JPO had a great point about portion control - things aren't nearly so bad if you only eat 1/2!  My mom used to preach this to me constantly when I was growing up.  I have a girlfriend that eats 1/2 of her portion at restaurants and then dumps salt on it so that she won't eat it.  It's a little strange, but it saves the picking that I always do while waiting on someone to come steal my plate away.  I should also point out that there are some sensible (yet still yummy) things to eat if you have to do the drive-thru:  McDonald's 6 piece Chicken Nuggets have 17 grams of fat and 250 calories while Taco Bueno Chicken Taco Rollups only have 8 grams of fat and 210 calories.  

Local DFW Area Christmas Needs

While I know not all of my readers are in the DFW area, if you are one that does and feel so inclined, check out this story about Hope's Door.  They are a Plano women's shelter that caters to women and their children who are in need and have possibly (and probably) been a victim of domestic violence.  The charity who had committed to providing Christmas gifts for the women and children at the shelter refuse to do so without receiving the names of those living at Hope's Door.  It is against Hope's Door's policy to divulge this information, as it is a safety matter for everyone living there, not just the domestic violence victims.  You can read the news story here.  If you, or someone (or company) you know that is interesting in becoming a donor, contact information is available at the bottom of the story. 

Why do my children want the most obscure Christmas gifts?

Every year they just have to want the hardest-to-find items to come from the big man.  Seriously.  Last year it was the Zhu-Zhu pets, which my husband single-handedly tracked down via a combination of Craigslist and eBay.  This year it is the Zhu-Zhu princess collection (which I think were an eBay-only release as I have not seen them in any stores and the people at Target had no idea what I was talking about) and this beauty:

The Barbie 3-Story Dream Townhouse.  This thing is awesome.  I think I might want it for me more than the girls.  Just kidding.  I think.  Anyway, it is very cool and has all sorts of working lights, sounds, and overall jazziness that my 80's dream house didn't.  I did see a big stack of them at Toys'R'Us a few weeks ago, however, they were about $50 more at TRU than at Wal-Mart.  So, I foolishly decided to wait patiently for them to come back in stock at Wallyworld.com.  They are still out of stock with no signs of coming in anytime soon.  In the meantime, TRU is sold out, as is everyone else except Amazon.  Amazon, where they are priced $100ish more than they were at TRU.  Freaking ridiculous!  Husbie and I decided that the Barbie house would make a great Valentine gift.  About 10 minutes after this discussion, my assistant comes in to tell me that she has found it on Amazon for cheaper than the original TRU price.  Holy crap, she has redeemed herself!  *I should note here that I did not assign her with the task of finding it, she did it on her own.  Mainly b/c I think she would rather shop than work, but that is a whole different topic*  So, it is on its way here.  Hooray!  That was a huge item off the list.

The Best Laid Plans

My feelings toward TheLimited.com right now are not thoughts of sugarplums, they are thoughts of coal.  I ordered the adorable skirt from my Office Party WWW post on November 29.  It is still not here.  Husbie's office party is tomorrow night.  The skirt is supposed to be to me on Saturday.  NOT helpful.  The Limited never communicated that it would take over a week to get it out of their warehouse.  To make matters worse, it is coming via FedEx SmartPost, which I have learned is the shittiest (language, sorry) way to send a package.  It has gone from Ohio to Massachusetts to Dallas.  It is now sitting in a sort facility in Dallas and I cannot pick it up!!  SP packages are delivered by the post office, not FedEx.  I am hoping our post office can catch it and hold it tomorrow so I can pick it up.  Tonight I will be searching for an alternate skirt in case it doesn't.  Husbie's office environment is of the bureaucratic federal variety, so it is always difficult for me to find a cute outfit that is appropriate and doesn't make me look 20 years older than I am.  This was THE outfit!  Fingers crossed that all works out!

Tweet, Tweet!

Do you tweet?  I do!  My twitter username is @applesfalling.  My tweets are private, primarily because I don't like all of the spammers following me and there are certain individuals that I know IRL that I may or may not tweet frustrations about sometime.  So, please follow me!  I try to reply to some of y'all sometimes and you don't see it because I am private.

I'm a total space cadet.

Sooo, I posted about a really fun blog hop that I was doing here, and I never posted the responses I got.  Bad blog hop cruise director!  I'll be posting them later today, I promise.  

I hope everyone is having a great week!  It's almost the weekend!  :)

COHEN

A Day of Blogging Silence In Honor of Baby Cohen

Blue Eyed Bride posted today about a day of blogging silence in honor of sweet baby Cohen.  Most readers of my blog are probably familiar with the Marshall's story, but in case you aren't you can visit Megan's blog here and the Send Love to Cohen blog here to learn more about their story. 

Here are the details: 

What: Moment of Silence for Cohen

When: Thursday July 1st from midnight to 11:59 pm.

How: Bloggers participating will post the Cohen banner below or simply post Cohen’s name in large letters on their blog.

Why: July 1st Megan and Brent will be holding Cohen’s memorial service.  The moment of silence is an opportunity for Megan’s blog community to stand behind her and support her on this difficult day.  Linking up will give Megan a chance to see the support at a glance.

Participating bloggers can Link Up on July 1st at Send Love To Cohen. 

Will you join me?

Birthday Weekend Recap

This comes WAY late - but here's my birthday week recap!  Really, instead of birthday week it should be called food bender.  It kicked off Thursday (6/3) night with me coming home from work and husbie suggested we do my birthday dinner with his mom that night, since she was already at our house (and I suspect that he didn't want to cook dinner. Yes, I said 'he')  Anyway, I had a meeting scheduled with the Board VP I am replacing in my women's league at 7:30, so this meant our only option, pretty much, was Chili's.  I have never been a Chili's fan, but the one up by us had a good run for a year.  We keep remembering that one good year, which is why we keep going.  Then we had a horrible experience there on Easter Sunday, after which we swore we would never go back.  Well, we did.  Dumb.  Dumb.  Dumb.  They were so ssssssllllllllloooooooowwwww, food was not amazing (not to mention I can never find anything healthy there that I like, and the stuff that is bad for you is SO bad).  I had to leave early *note - we had been there for an hour at this point* to head to my meeting.  Good times.

I was off work on Friday and putted around the house with Ava, then headed up to Haley's last day of school party, like the good little room mom I am.  It was HOT.  We've decided next year's party theme should be an 'every event involves water' one.  The kiddos had a good time and after we headed over to Sonic to get Sparkling Lemonades.  If you haven't had one, go get one.  Now.  They are yummy!  Here's Haley's class at the party.  She's the one on the left in the white shorts.

Friday night I headed down to Northpark to have a dinner and movie date with my sister, her best friend and her daughter who, incidentally, is my age and her birthday is 4 days before mine.  I hadn't seen Rachel & Robin in forever, so it was fun to catch up.  We had dinner at Luna - MUCH better birthday dining choice.  Yummy margaritas, salsa, soup, etc.  We headed up to the movie theater and saw Sex & The City 2.  Movie was good, I liked that it was WAY less stressful than the first.  Carrie's first outfit out was amazing - my sis said she heard it was a $100K ensemble, by the time you added the Loubouton's, jewelry, etc.  And that diamond, don't get me started.  Gorgeous!  I actually gasped.  I would be perfectly fine toting that little baby around on my ring finger!

Saturday morning we lounged around and took the girlies to the pool.  My fav thing about our neighborhood is that we have an awesome pool!  The girls love it and we love it, mainly because there is an upper section that is shallow with lounge chairs in it.  We sit in the chairs, Ava swims around in front of us, and Haley swims in the big pool.  There are always a ton of Haley's friends there, too, so she doesn't have to stick around with A in the baby pool.  Saturday night we took them over to my mom's who kept them while we went to Benihana.  Yum yum yum!  I got the standard - hibachi fillet - and a peach sake sangria.  It was delish and I would almost go back to just sit at the bar and have a few of these little glasses of heaven.  *Note to self - I must learn how to make these!*  Here we are when I got my birthday ice cream and songs.  Yes, we are a little scorched from our earlier pool time. 

Sunday morning, we met the girls and my mom at church, then headed over to Mattito's for their brunch buffet.  This has become a favorite birthday tradition of mine.  Mimosas and all of the yummy Tex-Mex you can get.  Yes, please!  More swimming and a nap followed.

I took off work on Monday (my actual birthday) and headed over to the gym for my very favorite dance class.  Sadly, our teacher is moving to Austin at the end of the month and our last class is on the 28th.  :(  So, I'm trying to get in as many classes as I can between now and then!  Afterward, we took the girls swimming there, they have an enormous waterpark.  Here are the girls lounging in the kiddo area.  By the time Monday night rolled around, I was SO sick of eating out that husbie grilled some fillets and we picked up some ready-to-go twice-baked potatoes from the store.  He also got me a small cake and some ice cream.

Much of Monday, I spent thinking about this little guy.  He was born to Megan and Brent at 8:55AM on the 7th.  Lucky for him, he got the best birthday on the planet - shared with me, and Prince.  Lol!  He is such an amazing little fighter.  Prayers are still needed for him, though!  Check out the Send Love to Cohen blog and his facebook page to stay up-to-date and see what kinds of specific prayers are needed for his healing.

Lastly, I got a nook for my birthday!  I really love it.  I love to read but have been slacking off lately in lieu of pointless reality television.  I'm hoping this will help with it.  From now until the end of  June, Barnes & Noble is giving $50 gift cards with the purchase of a nook.  Basically, this pays for a cover (highly recommended) and a light (not mandatory, but a good idea).  They will let you split your transactions so that you can use your gift card at the same time as when you buy the nook.  I plan on doing some book reviews on my blog and should have one ready to go over the weekend.  I'm currently reading Best Friends Forever: A Novel.  The jury is still out on this one, so stay tuned.

All in all, it was a great way to spend my birthday weekend!  Lots of family time and WAY too much food.  :)

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Baby Cohen

I've been neglecting my blog this week - I have much to post about, but no words to use.  Everything seems so trivial compared to what another family, just miles away from here, is going through.  As many in the blogging world know, sweet baby Cohen came into the world on Monday, June 7, my birthday.  I feel so honored to share a birthday with this little fighter.  He has been through so much in his first week of life, as has his parents, Megan and Brent.  I do not know Megan personally, but I have kept up with her blog since I started mine and am constantly amazed by her grace and strength.  If you aren't familiar with the Marshall family, check out Megan's blog here, In This Wonderful Life...  You can also stay updated by clicking on the 'Send Love to Cohen' button on my sidebar, along with ways to help his family.

Everytime I see a blog, facebook post, or Tweet about baby Cohen and those praying for him, it makes me realize what a powerful thing this blogging world can be.  I know hundreds of people are praying for Cohen and his family.  I pray that God will hear our loud voices and heal Cohen and give peace to his family.  If you have a few moments, say a prayer or two for them...

O Holy St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints, your love for God and Charity for His creatures, made you worthy, when on earth, to possess miraculous powers. Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain healing for baby Cohen. O gentle and loving St. Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the ears of the sweet Infant Jesus, who loved to be folded in your arms; and the gratitude of my heart will ever be yours. Amen.