Handbook for 2009

This was posted on a message board I belong too. Great words to live by!

Handbook for 2009

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E’s—Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time for prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment....
13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip...
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least:
40. Give a copy of this to everyone you care about.

B's graduation

It's been a week since Brogan graduated Kindergarten. He was so excited and proud of himself. I can't believe he's about to be a first grader. :( Where does the time go? Even my baby baby, Caitlyn, will be in Pre-K this fall. Kids grow up way too fast.

no news really

In Sept, a "bff" of mine is getting married. Not only am I her Matron of Honor, but I'm making her cake as well! I must admit I'm super stoked about it. Kell and the kids will be going with me to Pittsburgh for the wedding. It will be a fun vacation.

Other than this upcoming cake, I have no other cake news to report. I've taken a short hiatis from the cake making. I got so busy with the move. Now that that's over with, I'm just uncomfy and too close to the end of my pregnancy to even be thinking about cakes. Afterall I'm busy baking my own little cupcake to think about other forms of cake. unless I'm eating it of course haha....

Speaking of my little cupcake...I now have 4 weeks left....30 days until the due date. which means crunch time. I have 3 nursing covers I need to make for myself. Yes technically I only need one but I fell in love with fabric..sue me. I better get on that because she'll be here before I know it.

updates

So many people are asking for updates. I'm assuming on the belly but I'm going to update all around. :)

Our movers will be here in 4 1/2 weeks. Ahh! I have so much to do before that happens. Once our stuff is gone we'll be staying in an extended stay hotel for 2 weeks. Hubby graduates April 17th and we say goodbye to Texas the next day. I can't believe how time has been flying. I'm excited to be near family again but so sad to leave my friends here. I am looking forward to being able to spend time with my husband again. :)

We have been going to church together as a family on Sundays and it's been wonderful. After church today the kids and I had fun doing things around the house while Kell went to the library to study.



Oh and what I'm sure most people want...22 week belly picture! Yes it's 22 weeks already! ahh.... Oh we do know what we are having, but we are keeping it a secret from family so I won't be posting it on my blog, but contact me if you want to know. :)

I think the shirt makes me look bigger lol. So here's a bare belly shot.


I want to share a couple of pictures. We have this weird bush/tree thing in our front yard that has these weird nut looking things hanging from it almost year round. Well once a year only for a week, the tree/bush blooms. And it's gorgeous! It has a strong very sweet smell that comes from it. While in bloom it is covered in butterflies, bees and ladybugs. I love it.

Happy Friday!

I really didn't want this blog to turn into a pregnancy blog. So I'll try and keep the preggo/belly updates to a minimum. But before I do that, here are my belly shots for 16 weeks.

2 seconds after this picture, Caitlyn put a necklace on my head. I purposely put on the jeans I wore in my last set of pictures in order to see my belly better.


after I changed back into my maternity jeans, which are still big but I'm wearing them today to be comfy. Here's a *gasp* bare belly picture. brace yourselves.



I feel so huge at 16 weeks, I don't remember being this big so soon with my last two. Trust me I know I'm not huge but it's still strange for me.

Ok now on to more interesting topics. I'm finally getting back into our routine after a nice long holiday break. PWOC started back up, which will keep me busy, playdates started back up, and yup it's time to spring soccer signups! Brogan's very excited to go back to his team although we are bummed he won't be able to finish out the season due to us moving. I do promise to take more pictures and do more blogs of his soccer this time.

Today is Friday so that means...Family night! The most treasured night for our family since time with Kell is precious. He has a half day today so we plan on soaking him up as much as we can.

I've also started a decluttering process of my home. Since we're moving in April, I'm on a time crunch cause I don't like to rush. So every weekend I work on decluttering one room. I will post before and after photos as I go along. I did however forget to take pictures from last weekend's success. Sorry!

Oh and I will report back on that dreamsicle cake! Have a great weekend!

dreamsicles

So far this pregnancy I can't seem to get enough of orange flavored stuff. I've been eating lots of oranges, orange sherbet, could easily have a sunkist a day (don't worry sunkist has way little caffeine in it, way under the amount I'm allowed to have daily, so don't get your panties in a wad over that one. and honestly I don't drink soda every day, only like once a week as a treat). I can't get enough of sour patch kids, especially the orange ones. I dream about orange dreamsicles. So I got to thinking, what would be more perfect then an orange dreamsicle cake! heck yeah cake! I went searching and found a couple of awesome recipes. I think I'm going to try this one first.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Orange-Dreamsicle-Cake-248487

Ingredients
3/4 cup Miracle Whip
18 1/2 ounces yellow cake mix
1 1/3 ounces Dream Whip topping mix (1 packet of Dream Whip)
3/4 cup orange juice
3 eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon multicolored candy sprinkles
Directions
1Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2Beat salad dressing, cake mix, whipped topping mix, juice, eggs and grated orange peel at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 10-inch bundt pan.

3Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool.

4Stir together powdered sugar and mil until smooth. Drizzle over cake, Decorate with sprinkles.

I think I'm going to try it this weekend. Although I'm not a fan that it starts from a box, I'll give it a chance. I'm still going to be on the search for a good moist dreamsicle cake completely from scratch. I do have some good yellow cake recipes from scratch so I'm sure I could work something out if I can't find something else.

Anyway I hope it's good cause my tongue needs to recover from all the orange sherbet I've been eating...I've frozen my tastebuds haha.

24

Today is my brother's birthday. He would have been 24. For those that don't know, my brother was born with Trisomy 18 and died at just 3 months old. I'm always sad on this day. To add to it, pregnancy hormones, and many online friends that have lost loved ones today and yesterday. I'm ready for this day to be over with. Or atleast till the kids go to bed so I can have a huge bowl of orange sherbet. Anyway remember to hug your family and friends today and everyday. always tell them you love them. Life is too short.