A New Beginning

So, it is almost that time again, you know what I mean...the time where we stuff ourselves like a turkey for two months and then "begin again" with empty promises of a year of healthy eating and exercise.



Well, I am going to try to minus the two months of gorging and start early with the resolve to be healthy. Don't get me wrong...I do plan to indulge this holiday season, but with moderation in mind. Please, for all you super disciplined folks out there that would love to scold me each time I reach for a goody, I ask you to be encouraging and not reprimand me. I have found in the past that this is very counter-productive for me.

As a means of achieving a healthier lifestyle, I have done some Internet research. I considered joining Weight Watchers, AGAIN, but just didn't want to find the time or energy for all that counting. I LOVE the program and have found it very successful in the past, but am going for simple and mindless and FREE at least to jump start things. I enjoy looking at Kraft Foods.com for easy recipe ideas and recently came across the "Healthy Living" tab. You can set up a personalized log in with your individualized stats (all those numbers we don't want anyone else to see). The site gives you individual weeks of full day menus that fit your caloric needs to be healthy. Oh, and you can even print out a shopping list that they have already put together for you and can make meal substitutions easily. The only thing is that the meal recipes are portioned for one, but I am just doubling the dinner recipes to include the hubby.

Here's the site: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/HealthyLiving/HealthyLivingLandingPage.aspx. Once there click on the "Meal and Fitness Planner." You can chart your progress and log exercise as well. I've never joined Weight Watchers online, but it seems like a free alternative to that. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow, so I will let you know if it is astronomical and if so I am back at square one. Would you like to join me? I would love the company on this little journey to healthy living!

Food for thought

I know this blog typically is pretty light hearted, or at least I purpose it to be, but today is going to be different.

I have been up since 4 AM thinking and praying. I've spent the last two years of my professional life wrapped up in the foster care system. Unfortunately, it has not always seemed to be focused on it's true purpose, protecting and nurturing abused and neglected children and providing them with a permanent home. Lately, that has made me jaded, as I'm sure earlier posts have reflected. Over the last couple of months God has begun to give me a fresh perspective that has brought me to consider the Body of Christ's roll in caring for abused and neglected children.

About a year ago Jeff and I did a small group study on James with some dear friends. Since that time God has continued to work on us in the manner James describes, which often includes difficult circumstances. James chapter 1 is dedicated to the work of trials in refining and humbling us. I never realized it before, but right at the end of the chapter is this verse:
"27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

There it is!! God calls us to develop compassion and humility through our own personal trials and then to utilize this in ministering to the most vulnerable among us, "orphans." I'm not sure how God is going to use these revelations, but am grateful for the fresh perspective! I hope you too are encouraged by this call to Christian service. Truly, if the church took this to heart, we'd have no need for a bureaucratic system of foster care because Christian families would open their homes to children in need. Just something to think about!

Baby Drew

I came home Saturday night from 3 days in the Dallas area celebrating the arrival of my brand new nephew! Drew was born on 10/23/08, weighs 9 pounds, and is 21.5 inches long. My parents and I were able to get there the day before as Drew was born via a scheduled C section. Drew spent two days in the NICU for some minor respiration issues, but is a very healthy baby boy. It was only the second time that Jeff and I have been apart for more than a day since we got married. I missed him terribly, but am so glad I got to make the trip!

Dr. Clayton and I waiting for baby Drew to be born


Drew was not so sure about his first check up or the chilly temperature of the room


The proud parents with their precious baby boy


Aunt B with the snugly little guy


Precious baby Drew being held by his mom and big brother


Brotherly love!


Poppa D and Gran with the bundle of joy

Random Facts

So, my sister tagged me a few days ago and I have been contemplating my 6 random facts since then. I even considered cheating and doing 3 for me and 3 for Jeff, but then I decided I would just go for the gusto and try to come up with 6 just about me.

Now, if you're tagged, here's what you do:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people
4. Please pass it on for fun...

1. I had several sets of tubes when I was a kid and hence have a lot of scar tissue in my ears. I realized a couple of years ago that this might be why I have trouble hearing so I often tell Jeff when he complains about repeating himself that it's not my fault...it's my scar tissue!

2. I have this sort of inate ability to get along with a diverse set of friends. I love it and it has been a wonderful way for me to become more culturally competent at work. I jokingly say, "I'm chocolate on the inside."

3. This brings me to my third random fact. I am great at one liners and often surprise myself with them in addition to everyone else. One of the girls in our Sunday School class claims that I am the funniest person she knows because I always catch her by surprise with my humor. I guess mostly because I am relatively reserved most of the time.

4. I find pleasure in the simplest of things. I can be feeling like everything around me is falling apart and if I get a Sonic drink, I am a happy camper again. I am actually known at work as the Sonic girl and my boss tells me every time she passes one, she thinks of me. When Jeff and I were getting to know each other, I wrote to him that "Sonic drinks make me happier than anything in a Styrofoam cup should!" And, he married me anyway...he told me he was glad I didn't have expensive taste!

5. I can find the positive side to most situations, although it takes me longer to find it sometimes.

6. I am very clumsy. I am notorious for tripping over my own feet! I even remember several occasions when I mortified myself by falling UP the stairs in school and another time in high school when I fell all the way down a stand of bleachers and into a pizza box, after pulling my friend down with me! So embarrassing! Now, I just laugh at myself when these things happen because I figure it gives me character.

There...I did it!
I am going to tag:
1. Libby, 2. Katie, 3. Lauren, 4. Wendy, 5. Lynn, 6. Daisy

What we've been doing...

Becca: Baking (from scratch!)


Jeff: Raking (from Ike)


Life is not quite back to "normal" for us, but we are much closer to it than most Houstonians and for that we are grateful! Other than long lines at gas stations and grocery stores and a down fence, life is pretty typical for us. Jeff started back to work on Tuesday, though most of his co-workers have not been at work this week. My office is still closed, but I am on call (24 hours a day), so I am still working. I have driven up to the office in the Galleria area yesterday, to pick up the on call phone and today, to pick up prescriptions for my kids. The office has some major damage and is still out of electricity. They have a generator, but it can only be used to supply a few lights, not a whole air conditioning system and computers. Our computer network is also down, so I can't access my email, even from home. The clients who live on site at the RTC (residentail treatment center) were moved to Richmond due to power outages, and were moved back to the central site late this week when some power was restored there. Most of the outlying office staff in Angleton and the Woodlands still don't have power, nor do any of their foster families. Thankfully, all of my caseload has power, though one of my families had a tree hit their house. They are currently staying with relatives. Everyone is in pretty good spirits otherwise.

My parents got electricity back on Wednesday and they called to tell us as we were pulling up to the Putt Putt place. Yes, Jeff and I went putt putting on Wednesday night. We both wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather so we played a round. It was so fun! It has been a while since I have experienced a "first" with Jeff and this was one. We had never played putt putt together. He won (even though he miscounted my strokes a couple of times ;)and actually is very good at it! I think it is because he is so precise and systematic.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll keep ya'll posted! Have a fantastic weekend!

Ike Menu

So, we have AC and we are SO grateful for that, but I selfishly am looking forward to getting some of the more unnecessary comforts of life back, like my Sonic drinks. For the last two days I beg Jeff to take me for a drive to see what is open, hoping my precious Diet Vanilla Cokes are available. So far, no such luck. On our quest yesterday we found an open Little Ceasers with a sign outside that said, "We're open but only DP and Cheese pizza." We found a few other places open yesterday, including a gas station at the Kroger that had fountain drinks, with I willingly accepted as a substitute for Sonic. The sign on the gas station said, "No bread, no milk, no ice, no lotto." I understand everything but the "no lotto." Weird.

In the evening we decided to try to have a "date night." This time we got smart and called places to see if they were open. After a couple tries, we found Hasta La Pasta. This restaurant is one we would actually choose and have in the past. It's yummy, has a nice atmosphere, and is right by the house. The location is nice due to curfew in Houston and a TON of cars on the roads. Well, Ike had also left his mark on Hasta La Pasta. It was VERY busy and everyone looked tired, unbathed, and hot. Parts of our area still don't have electricity and I'm sure most of these folks were taking a reprieve from a hot house. You could also hear some inpatient parents as I'm sure I would be in their situation. When we sat down at our table we were handed a one page paper menu instead of the several page regular menu. At the top it read, "Hasta La Past Ike Menu" and had very nice, but limited options. We were grateful that they had the ingredients to make two wonderful meals for us and we enjoyed each others company and even some dessert!

Hurricane Ike

Well, we made it through the storm unscathed. I wish I could say the same for our fence! We watched 24 hour hurricane coverage for a day and a half waiting for Ike to make landfall. We lost electricity at our house at 5 AM on Friday. There were loud bumps and Jeff said he heard sounds like our window was about to break on the left side of our house. This makes sense because that is the side were the fence was demolished. I slept on and off throughout the night, but Jeff was up most of the time. We left the house yesterday afternoon to drive around our neighborhood and see what was open and what damage was done. We saw that many people had fence damage and down tree limbs like us. Then we drove to my parents house to check on them. They also had a portion of their fence down and no electricity. There neighborhood has a lot of mature trees and many of the large branches were broken off and some were uprooted completely.

We returned back to our house, ate some cold left offers and hunkered down again for another night without electricity. At 8 PM we were surprised when the lights and air conditioner came on! We were SO excited, but very aware we were one of the only 115,000 people in the Houston area with power. We were even more aware when we called my parents and there's still was not restored. It still isn't and so it has been a day and a half since they have had air conditioning. My mom, as many of you know, is in a battery operated wheel chair and suffers from MS. MS patients can easily over heat and it can cause exasperations. We are waiting for them to come over here for some reprieve and to recharge my mom's chair, but are praying that their electricity is restored quickly. We simply don't have what she needs (ie: hospital bed and widened door ways) that she needs to stay here. Thanks for all of your continued prayers!