Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Snow in Texas!


IMAG0255
Originally uploaded by shelnew19

This is the first time Joelito has ever seen snow! <3

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Friday, January 16, 2009

For Mona: 25 things you may or may not know about me

1. I have 3 brothers and one sister, and 4 out of 5 of us have served in the military.

2. I am sarcastic to the point where it annoys my friends and family.

3. I am not tech savvy at all. I am always about a step away from using my DVD drive as a cup holder.

4. I love to cook.

5. I tend to be oversensitive.

6. I never wear makeup, ever.

7. I am a huge introvert. Huge.

8. My best friend is my mom.

9. I hate breakfast cereal and mac and cheese.

10. I refer to Google as "the Google".

11. I have an extremely short attention span.

12. I never go to the movies, I hate sitting still for 2 hours.

13. I could eat some form of potatoes for every meal, every day.

14. I still play Pac-Man.

15. I am never late.

16. I briefed an entire Army division command group in Kuwait. (A big deal for an E4)

17. I miss the Army, but I would never rejoin.

18. My mouth always gets me in trouble, I never know when to shut up.

19. Very loyal.

20. I am constantly resisting the urge to brightkite every place I go. Including gas stations, doctor's offices, rest areas. etc.

21. I am such a nerd that I have a "Momocrats" bumper sticker on my car.

22. I am seriously addicted to my BlackBerry, even though I barely know how to use it.

23. I can be a little too judgmental.

24. I can be a naive.

25. I can't believe how hard it was to make this list!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Book Review, "The Paper Bag Christmas"

The holidays can terribly stressful, with all of the shopping, the cooking and the planning. The stress makes it easy to lose sight of what is truly important during the holidays. Sometimes I even have to take a step back and recognize what is important, and why we celebrate. I took a short break this holiday season to read
"The Paper Bag Christmas" and it really put the whole thing into perspective.

The book centers around two young boys, Molar and Aaron, whom are forced by their parents to visit Santa at the local mall. The boys don't believe in Santa, but they begrudgingly go. The boys are given paper to make lists for Santa, which they fill with anything and everything. When they finally get to Santa, he looks at their list and tells them they are probably not going to get everything on their list, but he can give them a gift "better than everything they have ever written down." He asks the boys to meet him at a local address a couple days later.

When they arrive at the address, they see that they are at a children's hospital, and being asked to volunteer for the holidays. This begins a journey for the boys, and shows them the real meaning of Christmas.

I really enjoyed this book. It was heart warming and honest. The book really made me stop and think about the true meaning of Christmas and what really is important. One thing I particularly liked about this book is the fact that it is long enough to tell a great story, but not so long that I start and never go back to it.

I would suggest if anyone has a few free minutes to check out "The Paper Bag Christmas," especially if you are feeling down or are tired of the commercialization. It was a great book and I plan to read it every year at Christmas. You can read an excerpt of the book here.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving....


We had a very nice Thanksgiving, but it went by much faster than I would have liked. Joel and I ate meals out, gasp, at least three times. Joelito spent the entire trip attached to Abuelita's hip. Joel and I have become used to being chopped liver when the Abuelito's are around, and we are fine with it.

In other news, we have decided to drive to West Virginia to see my parents for Christmas. 18 hours. 18 hours. That is a ridiculously long time to be in the car with a 2 year old. I am going to try to muster as much patience as I possibly can for this trip. I think we are crazy, but we are going to do it anyway. I still do not know how we will entertain this child in a car for at least 18 hours. Does anyone have any ideas?