Decorated for Christmas

I started decorating early for Christmas because I wanted Sydney to participate. She and I got some of it setup before she went to her Dad's for Thanksgiving. I finished the rest. Here are the pictures of my house. Still have the outside to get done and put the Santa with Palm Trees.

Gotta have the Angel!We are using the socking we made a few years ago with our names. I am glad that we made them.My homemade ceramics.

Sydney's Nativity Scene that her Gam-Mommy will be giving her another figurine this year. Thinking it will be one of those three Wisemen. I like how this sits on my Japanese shelf.
This year, I decided to decorate simpler. So, instead of the 15 piece ceramic Nativity Scene that I made only displaying Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.
The decorated Christmas Tree. It has my seashells and all of the yearly ornaments we have collected over the years. This year I had purchased Sydney's in the Fall but now I need to find her a different one because she has chosen to not play soccer at all and stick strong with swimming (Love she is enjoying swimming so much).This is a new addition to the decorations. When Aaron and Carrie moved back to Seattle, they gave me these Silver Trees. I had a silver angel and garnet candle that I could put together. It looks contemporary in my usually traditional decorations. But, I like the new touch!

Thanksgiving Day 2009

See what my pretty hands can make.....
I was asked to bring the Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Been/Asparagus Casserole, Pumpkin Pie and then I made a few extra things. Homemade Bread (White and Wheat), Cheese Straws, Heath Bar Cookies, Fried Peanuts and some green tomatoes (to make fried ones later in the weekend). Everything thing turned out very nice and I was pleased. It was great to have my Pampered Chef stoneware and Diana's Pampered Chef's party plates.My pretty smile as I headed with all my food in my car to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with Mom, Tudy, Mariwilla, David and Morgan. It was a very good meal and enjoyed being around my family on Thanksgiving Day.

Gold level (moving up)

Today Sydney swam in the Gold level swimming group. She started on the swim team in the summer at the Bronze level. Then when school started she moved was moved up to Silver level. Then on Monday she was asked if she wanted to try the Gold level. So she tried it out today. She liked it and Coach Gerry said she did well. So she will try on Friday. One additional activity is that now she is has land drills. The land drills are strength exercises.

I'm very proud of her and her swimming is helping her self esteem and getting her body the best type of exercise. She is getting tall too. She was 5 foot 1inch last month but I think she has hit another growth spell.

She will be swimming in AgeGroup very soon. Yahoo! This is exciting for me too. I wanted to swim on a team in HS but we didn't have a team. This activity is going to really help her to develop into a healthy teenager and then adult.

Sharing and defending

It's been a long time since I had to experience what I had to go through today. Sydney has a book report due on the 23rd that the report is turning the book into a game board. She's at her dad's house this weekend. They are working on her project today and I got a call from a little girl in tears.

She was calling for me to save her from her situation. She was told by here Dad and step mom to sit at the kitchen table and finish her work. That until she completed her work she couldn't get up and she couldn't go to swimming. It made me cry on the other line. But I needed hide my tears from her so I was strong.

Sydney takes everything so literally. She was crying about never going swimming again, having to use the restroom and wanted to be with me. I had to respond that she will go to swimming eventually but her dad has rules and those are the rules. Next, told her she better ask to use the restroom and they would let her. Then, wanting to come to my house wasn't an option, that she can't run from one house to another because she doesn't like the situation.

So, she did ask to use the restroom and we discussed the project. I went through ways to help her from a distance. Told her that she can do it! That by making a list of what needs to get done and working on the list will help project go smoothly. It's that type of moment that wrenches my heart! It's hard to calm someone down on the other line and a love one is even worst. It was so hard for me not to get her dad on the phone and have a discussion about his choice of discipline but I didn't. One thing we have worked hard to do with Sydney is NOT allow her to play each other. We support each others decisions. And to add to this we do it from a distance. None of this, "Go ask your dad" or "What did your mom say" stuff will work.

Its hard to do but we make it work. Tonight it just hurt my heart that she was in pain and that her rescuer was me but I had to teach her to learn to swim and gave her a life jacket for this situations, metaphorically. ..

Change your Story, from a Diet Coach

There are life coaches, career coaches and now diet coaches (DC). A friend of mine (BF for the story) is going to a Diet Coach. I'm really excited that BF is going to the DC and already see changes in BF's decisions of eating. I'm really glad to hear that she is taking control of her life and getting her diabetes under control and facing up to herself. It is so good to have a person work with you in life sometimes. We can get misdirected and they tell us what we need to do to get focused again. I have started to see every now and then we like to be told what to do. When I work my Child Safety Events, I have started to say, "Come on over here". I size up the person before I say and more often than not they come over. This can be like us in our lives too. When we get off our path there are people to help us get back in line. We all need a good "chewing out" or "kick in the pants" every now and then.

So when BF went to see the diet coach, she was given some "golden" advice. She hadn't lost any weight that week and in fact gained 1 1/2 pounds. BF gave an excuse, "I had a stressful week" to her DC. This is when the DC stepped onto her soap box. The DC told BF, that this excuse was not accepted in there anymore that she needed to "CHANGE her story". That we can't use things to be a crutch in our lives. That we all have weakness and need to turn them into our strengths. She was told to focus on changing her story. The next day, I went to a school for children with Dyslexia and on a wall it had a list of people who had ADD/ADHD and a list of people with Dyslexia. I read those list and saw where those people had taken a weakness and turned it into a strength. The best example on there was Jim Carrey, wow, he a wild one. He turned his ADD into a strength and is one of the great comedians of his time. Others were, Whoopi, JFK, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Elvis!, Hitchcock and to see more go here.

So if you are using excuses to hold you back look at these people and see what they have done with their problem by turning them into strength. My BF is taking a picture of a body she likes and putting her face on it. It is going to be a visual reminder to her.

NOW if you are using excuses for something in your life that is holding you back, then "Change your story".

Our Pumpkin Patch 2009

It was Fall and time to get our pumpkins. Every year we go to the Forest Hill United Methodist Church. Here are the pictures we took.