To New Years and New Beginnings

2009 has been quite the year.

I started it off with a bad case of bronchitis. Then we discovered a blood clot in my lung. Months later I was back at the hospital again for suspected anxiety attacks. Turns out it was my heart and I needed some cardiac help. Then when all was finally declared well with me my brother ended up in the hospital where sadly he still is today.

Yup. It's been quite the year.

So you'd think I'd be thrilled to see it gone. Truth is though that I see no point dwelling on the bad stuff. I'm o.k., I have free healthcare so my many many many visits to the hospital were covered, my brother's prognosis is good and both of us got a well deserved kick in the ass to take better care of ourselves. I haven't been doing so good at that. I'm going to do better.

2009 has had some pretty great things too though. I got to meet up with my ladies again, I got to get my favourite books signed by Sherrilyn Kenyon, my marriage improved, my relationship with my family has improved, we're financially better off than we've ever been and my parents have given us not one but two huge financial gifts.

It's been quite the year.

I'm hoping that 2010 will bring more off the good stuff and less of the bad. I'm hoping 2010 will see me working harder to be the person I need to be for myself, my husband, my kids and my friends. In 2010 I make this resolution.. that I will love myself.

Beck, one of the bloggers I read wrote about how her husband sought out every quality he respected and then made himself into the person he wanted to be. I have such huge respect and awe for that kind of work and sacrifice. I want to be a Julie I can be proud of, one that I will like as much as many of you like me, one who feels she deserves that love and admiration. I want to be someone who will feel that her husband and her children have the right to be proud of. I want to be a better me.

So bring it 2010. I'm ready for you. I have a feeling you're going to be quite the year.

All I Want For Christmas...

Is my brother home.

He's been hospitalized with heart issues and lungs half filled.

They'd managed to empty his lungs and are now assessing heart/liver/kidney damage.

The good news is that he is now out of ICU and off machines.

The bad news is that he is still in hospital (which is in all honesty the BEST place for him to be right now) and that he missed Christmas with his family.

Adam is THE Christmas guy and he was SOOOO missed. I truly hope he'll be home soon.

I appreciate all who have prayed for him and continue to keep him in your thoughts.

Here's hoping we get him home by the New Year.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I'm heading home for the holidays tomorrow and will be leaving my laptop here so let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Be safe, be happy and be spoiled rotten because I know I will be :)

See you Boxing Day!!!!

How to Master a DS Game when you're Almost 9

1. Have your sister lose ALL the DS pens in the house.

2. Cry and wail that you have the worst sister EVER!

3. Get on Mom's nerves until she find that last remaining undamaged DS pen.

4. Open game

5. Start Game.

6. Declare Game to be IMPOSSIBLE.

7. Ask Mom to find cheat codes online.

8. Cry when Mom can't find them.

9. Give game to Mom to try to figure it out.

10. Realize that in the DS world Mom is next to useless (with useless having a rather significant lead!)

11. Ask Dad to help.

12. Wonder what the heck Dad did in 3 seconds that Mom couldn't in 30 mins.

13. Leave game unattended for .0003 seconds

14. Discover sister has deleted your history and that you must now start all over.

15. Cry.

16. Start over.

17. Ask Mom for help though history has shown this to be rather pointless exercise.

18. Get stuck at same IMPOSSIBLE level.

19. Ask Mom if you can wake Dad up to "fix" it again.

20. Cry when Mom says no.

21. After much whining figure it out yourself.

22. Repeat for each and every freaking level of the game that isn't instantly solveable.

23. Block out Mom's angry outburst that she's never buying another freaking game until you learn that it's not going to be easy right from the start.

24. Add more games to your Christmas list.

25. Congratulate yourself on reaching the last level.... you DID it!

She

She wasn't like other little girls.

She didn't like dolls, didn't want to be princess.

Even when she was a very little girl she loved the black crayon and plastic dinosaurs.

You can't call her a tomboy because she doesn't like cars or sports either. She is just HERSELF.

She didn't like Barbie or Polly Pockets despite the fact that her mother loved both.

She didn't like Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid; she liked The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride.

She was never into iCarly or Hannah Montanna, she played with Pokemon and loved to watch Sushi Pack on YouTube.

She has her girly moments: she loves her long hair and dresses in pink though never in dresses unless her Mother makes her. She can do arts and crafts for hours on end and has a passion for stuffed animals that makes her mother shake her head in despair.

She finds the strangest things adorable. She's always loved bats despite other people's disgust. She loves Lego and Magnetix, Indiana Jones and Garfield.

She's a mystery to me some days but she is My Baby and I wouldn't change a thing.

She is my Sarah.

Christmas Cookies?

I'm considering doing some Christmas baking this year though I confess it's been AGES since I'd done so. So I'm looking for some good/easy recipes that preferably use all natural ingredients (that is ones that don't involved a box of brownie mix or Jell-O pudding).

Got any to share?

All I Want For Christmas...

"I must not have been very good this year - Santa only brought me little stuff."

These words were spoken by 7 year old Julie after having unwrapped the dozens and dozens of Barbie clothes her mother had chased down in store after store so that little Julie would have the huge Barbie wardrobe she had so coveted for months and months prior to Christmas.

Trust me when I say I will never forget speaking those words - my Mom reminds me every.single.year.

Yes I was one of those. The ungrateful spoilt self-centered child who really thought it was all about her and who didn't take one split second to enjoy all the things she had been given because it all felt hollow without the one prized coveted gift -- the Big Barbie Caravan.

I look at my children and at all the toys and gadgets and gizmos they have and I often wonder if they even remotely comprehend how lucky they are. And then I realize that they probably are no different than I was myself at 7 years old. They're kids and, while some kids are inherently generous empathetic loving creatures, mine are not.

Mine want everything. They are forever thinking about the next toy, the next outing, the next party, the next treat. Do I worry about this? you bet I do. Does it embarrass me? you bet it does. Do I plan on stripping them of their current lifestyle to show them how to appreciate what they've got? no, not really. I simply hope that some day they will learn the lesson that the young Julie (who did indeed get her Big Barbie Caravan for her birthday 3 days after Christmas) eventually did. That possessions are nothing, memories are everything and that making Christmas happy for others is far more enjoyable than worrying about how many presents under the tree are yours.

FTD makes good and the power of the blog!

So I got a phone call from an FTD representative who'd stumbled onto my blog about the flower disaster. She didn't start by apologizing which was most appreciated (I'd already been apologized to at least a dozen times and was quite sick of hearing "I'm Sorry") but she DID say the magic words "FULL refund will be transferred back to your account.)

So looks like my relationship with flowers will continue despite this memorable experience.

For the record FTD did not ask me to delete the original posts from my blog nor did they request that I post this piece about the refund. I took it upon myself to do so because both my Dad and my husband are business owners and I realize that sometimes these things do happen beyond our control. I do however appreciate it very much that they rectified the problem.

WTG FTD!