22 Years of Boycott...

...has come to an end.
Why?
Because I ate black eyed peas last night.

This might not sound like a feat to you, but it was quite a feat for me.
Why?
I'm gonna tell ya.
I was home-schooled when I was in grade school. So, the school hours were always a little different than usual. Alot of times my mom, brother and I were out running errands when my dad got home from work. And, if he got home before us, you could always guarantee that there would be a piping hot pot of black eyed peas and rice on the stove. It was bland and disgusting. And that was dinner. He was "helping" my mom by cooking dinner. But I remember this to have happened about 3 times a week for some time. Just the thought of that gives me the gag reflux.
Anyway, this time also coincided with my parent's Shaklee (Vitamins and health products) business and in that we learned how to consume handfuls of vitamins in one swallow.
Well, in my disdane for those nasty little black eyed peas, I figured if I could swallow vitamins, I could swallow those gross little morsels as well. I did this for some time, and my family was none the wiser. It was a coping mechanism :)
So, one night I got really sick. This was during flu season and the advice nurse said that I probably had a bad case of the flu. My mom said she watched my face turn green and that was the last straw. I was whisked off to the emergency room where they discovered a burst appendix. Hence, emergency surgery. So, afterwards the surgeon came out to talk to my parents and he said that he found a bean like thing lodged in my appendix.
To this day, I remind my brother that I "took one for the team" because we were never forced to consume that nasty meal ever again.

So, this brings me to last night. Last night, we had dinner at our pastor's house. He served us a down home southern meal with catfish (delicious), cornbread, and (yep you guessed it) black eyed peas and rice.
I took a very small helping of the beans and rice, looked at Ryan knowingly and dove in. It had flavor. Astounding. I went back for seconds. So, while I will probably never eat a pot of my dad's black eyed peas and rice ever again, I've officially (on a case by case basis) ended my 22 year boycott of the consumption of black eyed peas.

Yay, now I can try the Pioneer Woman's "Make Your Own Luck: Black Eyed Pea Salsa"

2009 Goals and Aspirations *Edited*

*Ok even though I went in and changed the font from webdings to arial it didn't change back. So, I had to delete all the pictures and redo the captions. Crazy!!! Are the posts below doing the same thing too? I can't tell, it's not showing up crazy on my weirdo computer, I can read it just fine.

It's only the 17th.

On the Friday after Christmas we went over to Ryan's Uncle Tom and Aunt Jackie's house for leftovers and dessert. (we usually do this on Christmas evening, but it got postponed due to the circumstances that came on Christmas)
Anyway, after dinner, we all sat down and watched some home videos that had been taken through the years of all the kids growing up. It was so much fun to watch those videos of the church Christmas programs, and the baptisms, and the Easters and the Christmases and the birthday parties of years past.
I started thinking that have these kiddos that are growing up together and are so cute together. I have scads of pictures. But hardly any video. So sitting right there on that couch I made my new year's resolution.

Take more home video.

I've been pretty good at doing it too. Now endurance is the key.

Asher

Carson & Doug

This picture makes me laugh...it's just so odd

Mama & Asher

Carson & Wyatt are checking out the gift from Aunt Nan & Uncle Doug

Grammy got a new sewing machine for Christmas

You have no idea how many pictures I have of this guy. The pictures are all the same, only the cameras have changed!

Aunt Nan's playing ball with the boys

A Christmas Story (Better Late Than Never) *Edited*

*apparently I had the picture captions in webdings, the funny thing is that I could read the captions on my crazy computer.

Our Christmas was pretty different this year. I felt like I wasn't prepared for it like I usually am. Most of that was because of my leg. Some of it was because of the weather, well maybe all of it was weather-related since the weather caused my leg accident in the first place. Anyhow, we spent Christmas Eve at my cousin's house. It's a tradition to get together with my side of the family for Christmas Eve and boy was it a treacherous drive. I still think about that drive as I am on the road that we took quite often. Something had happened to the Tahoe and it wasn't holding water. Incidentally the heater wasn't working and it didn't have water to cool the car. Hence, the Tahoe was un-drive-able. The Subaru does ok in the weather too, but it's AWD instead of 4WD which means you have to start slipping for it to kick in. Fun. It's also a lower profile vehicle so it does much worse in the foot deep ruts that we had going on.
So we made it, I managed to hobble up the driveway and they plopped me right down in front of all the hoursdevours, oh dear. We had a good night and another rousing gift exchange to end the evening.
Christmas morning we got up and I made breakfast and we waited for my mom, dad brother and grandma to trek through the snow to get to our house. When they arrived safe and sound, but road weary, we were able to start the festivities.
So we ate breakfast, I made overnight blueberry french toast and my parent's brought ham and my mom's homemade Christmas Stollen (YUMMY) .
We were all spoiled with lots of great gifts. When we were almost done, Ryan got a phone call that his dad had crashed his truck on the way to get his Grandma M. Ryan's mom told us not to come because it was too dangerous. It was snowing at the time, and cars were getting stuck trying to get up the hill to the highway anyway. He had to stay with his truck because it was sticking out in the road. AAA said that since he was less than 10 miles from his house it's not considered an emergency because he could walk home. 10 MILES? Are you kidding me? The man has Asthma. His car is sticking out in the road people. Sheesh. The police wouldn't send anyone, and his car was making a weird rattle so he couldn't keep it running. Hence, no heat. What a nightmare.
Well, since we weren't going anywhere anytime soon, I told my family that they could stay, wait out the snow, and hang out for awhile and relax. We turned on "It's a wonderful life", napped, looked at gifts and just generally relaxed. It was kind of nice to not be on the run, as usual on Christmas.

A couple of hours made all the difference, people were no longer getting stuck on the hill and traffic seemed to be moving much better. A Family Picture. The flash didn't go off, it was a really dark picture.

"Great Great Great Grandma 'Ford" - Wyatt and Great Grandma LaFord reading the
book I made for her.

Still reading!

My lumberjack husband (posing as a CAD drafter by day)

Uncle Nate kept going outside and throwing snowballs at the window. Wyatt
just loved that.

Playing with a fun gift from Gramma and Papa. Mommy and daddy like it too. It alters your voice.

Roughhousing with Uncle Nate

Gramma and Papa and the "project" that Wyatt and I did. Handprint
ornaments that to this day aren't finished yet because I couldn't get out
of the house to buy the stuff to finish before Christmas)

Naptime after the morning festivities

My family left in the late afternoon and Ryan and I decided to surprise his family and go to their house and spend the night in their trailer.
After a 5 and a half hour wait in his truck, Ryan's dad was finally picked up by a tow truck and we got there minutes after he got home. They were sure surprised too! Ryan's brother and girlfriend, Jared and Christi, came back and we were able to have a nice evening together on Christmas night. Not exactly as planned, but it was a wonderful evening all the same.

Christmas gift from Babu and Papa that Wyatt ended up being terrified of (that's a whole post in itself)
It got returned and replaced with a much less scary toy.

Babu and Wyatt opening the handprint ornament

Ryan's sister, Lisa

OOOH...Hot Wheels

The next morning, coloring with Uncle J.T.

Where do I start? *Edited Caption*

(This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I loved it and it was taken with my new lens)

It's been so long since I've updated that I haven't got the slightest idea of where to start.

* First - An update on my knee. I've went from just wishing they would have taken a saw to it, to a not so constant "wishing it would just get better already".
I'm in Physical Therapy 2 days a week right now. It seems to be helping. They start out the session with hooking me up to these electrodes that contract my thigh muscles and help to get them stronger, faster. I love the idea of this!! My muscles turned to mush in the week and a half that they were immobilized. Anyway, after the electrode session, we go out to the gym and do some pretty simple strengthening exercises. Honestly, I'm feeling pretty strong, it's the bending that is an issue still. As a mama, you don't realize how often you are on your knees, playing, changing diapers...etc. Till you can't anymore. It's odd to sit on the floor with my legs straight out, but whatever works I guess.
I'm just so thankful that it was my left knee. Oh my goodness, I would have been climbing the walls 10 times over now if I couldn't drive. What would I do? Stuck in "no man's land" without the use of my "pedal leg". I shutter just thinking about it. So, it could be worse. Alot worse!

*Our houses are still for sale with no lookers in over at least 2 months. We are thinking and praying about dropping the prices one more time.

*I am still couponing like crazy(I've grown out of my 2nd coupon box already). Got 4 free boxes of Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal yesterday. It makes all the hard work worth it, for a deal like that. I want to go back for some more deals before this week is over.

*Getting my hair cut on Saturday (Lynnann, you will be getting a 25% off referral discount next time you go to Toni & Guy and I get one too yay...thanks! ) I love Toni & Guy...mostly because they massage my neck when they shampoo my hair. delish.
I have no clue how I'm getting it cut. EEK!!!

I know there is more to update on, but I can't think of anything right now while I'm sitting here.
Stay tuned for Christmas and New Years posts next!

Too Funny!

Have any of you seen the following commercial?

This is how I fee sometimes after a particularly good "couponing" trip.
It just cracks me up!

On my to do list is.... UPDATE BLOG.
This doesn't count.
I really want to do a few posts soon.
But while you wait, enjoy this hilarious commercial.