Amanda J Taylor

December... and Christmas!

2012-01-06T08:46:00.032-06:00

So I've been slacking lately on posting things and this is my attempt to catch up! Sorry.

As you can see in my last post, a big part of our Christmas this year had to do with Walt Disney World in Florida. However, here are some photos of other things we did in December.

Celeste's class took a field trip to watch the Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre group perform The Nutcracker at the University of Houston Clear Lake. It was a little chilly, so Celeste put on my UHCL sweatshirt to keep warm. I don't know what it is about wearing my sweatshirts, but she loves doing it. Here are some photos of her with some of the cast members before the performance:

As part of her treat from her teacher, Ms. Minchew, Celeste and the rest of her class were given little toy nutcracker ornaments.

The next day, I bought Celeste this cute little Fraser Fir from Lowe's and she decorated it all by herself!

Then I began decorating some of the rest of the house... with Aunt Cyndi's help!

This just cracks me up. It looked too blah without anything on top... but it provided tons of laughs for me and Aunt Cyndi after I did this to it. Probably not appropriate for blog posting...

This tiny poinsetta from Lowe's is so cute!

Some garland, ribbon and ornaments on the antique vanity. My favorite part of this was actually the 2 lotus votive holders that Eric bought for me from the Nutcracker Market!

We kept the outdoor decor simple this year...

And finally...'twas the night before Christmas...

...and all through the house...

...not a creature was stirring...

Finally, it was Christmas morning. I got the bike down from the attic, set it up, and went to wake my two sleepyheads.

After a few hard blinks, Celeste was wide awake and present time was ON!!!

All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Celeste loves her new bike.

Celeste tied her new robot dog (gift from Nana and PaPaw) to her new bike and they strolled through the house together like this.

She loves playing with Barbies, so we bought her a cute little Barbie house and she got some more Barbie dolls... and a Barbie car! So they're all set to live in my living room now, ha.

We had a great Christmas. I love this time of year, it's so beautiful and a bit romantic. The best part of it is watching Celeste's reactions to everything. It was awesome.

Disney!!!

2011-12-29T12:43:00.018-06:00

We had wanted to take Celeste to Disney World around Christmastime and some close friends of ours (whose son is Celeste's age and friend) were able to come too, making the trip even more fun.

We didn't tell Celeste about the planned trip to Disney World until the moment we picked her up from school after her Christmas party on Friday, December 16^th. We arrived with a newly purchase, hot pink furry "Rockstar" duffel bag, packed with lots of Disney things and activities to entertain her during our long drive ahead. And we told her where we were going, and here's a photo of her reaction!

We met the Baker family at Chic-fil-A and Celeste grabbed her new luggage and rode in their car for the first leg of our trip.

We had such an amazing week of vacation! Here are some of the photos from the trip.

Here's my favorite photo from the Nemo exhibit at Epcot.

Celeste was able to meet most every princess and several Disney characters. But her favorite princess is Rapunzel. Perhaps it's because of her long curls and how often the kids at school say she's like Rapunzel, but regardless, Rapunzel is her favorite. And on our final day at Magic Kingdom, Celeste got to meet Rapunzel and get her autograph and photo.

Some of our best photos are from Epcot.

We had so much fun, but were glad to be back home, whew! Just in time for Christmas. ;)

Black Friday Preparations!

2011-11-29T12:40:00.000-06:00

So every year, it has become tradition to go out and buy our Christmas gifts with all of the crazies on Black Friday. This year, my aunt and cousin were in line at Target, while my sister-in-law and and I were in the Kohl's line late Thursday evening. It was so much fun! We were totally crazy, yes, but people watching was hilarious.

Target has been putting out these hilarious commercials for the last couple of years about their Black Friday sale that crack me up. Here are a couple of my favorites from this year's.

So by the time Luwannah and I actually made it over to Target, we had to mimic some random parts from the Target commercials. We just couldn't find a red parachute to run down the aisle with though!

Oh, and yes, those are socks on Luwannah's feet...and flats on mine. The heels just weren't cutting it for the all-nighter.

This next photo was in the Victory Lakes shopping center in the JCPenney/Sports Authority area. Seriously, this was the security that night. We were laughing our tails off... no one was in the SUV. The policeman was in this lifted box thing. I can just imagine it now, "Thief! Stop! Freeze!! I'll be down in about 5 minutes!!" (humming/squeaky sounds start while the thing slowly lowers towards the ground and the criminals make their escape...)

I have to say, I did most of my shopping online before venturing out to people watch... so it was nice not having to stress about getting a certain gift for someone. Everything was so smooth and I even got my first little annual JCPenney snow globe!

Psalm 100

2011-11-22T15:54:00.003-06:00

So in preparation for Grandparents' Day at Celeste's school today, she has been learning to recite Psalm 100. It's so cute hearing a 5 year old say all of that by herself! I absolutely love her school!! Enjoy the video I took of her saying it in the car yesterday... after she played that afternoon in the school playground!

Taylor Family Christmas Photos

2011-11-21T12:50:00.017-06:00

Well, it's been 2 years since we've had our family pictures taken, and Celeste has grown up quite a lot since then. So last Saturday, we made it over to Portrait Innovations for our Christmas pictures. Here are some of the photos!

As part of the bribe to get Celeste to come and take photos with us, I told her that she could pick out anything she wanted from her clothes to wear and that we would take some special pictures of just her in that favorite outfit. Eric's eyebrows shot up when I told her that, and we both knew it would be interesting to see what she would come up with. She did a pretty good job, and it is totally her!

For this last pose, the photographer had been enamored with her hair and told her to turn around and face the camera. Well, he took about 3 shots of this same pose, and she turned around for each one. It was so cute.

Hard to believe how quickly time flies. Has it really been 5 ¹/₂ years since I had this little baby girl?

Progress

2011-11-09T10:21:00.005-06:00

A few months ago, I posted about improving my lifestyle a bit more to tone up. After four months of changing my habits, I'm proud to say that I've seen some awesome changes. But I didn't notice them until I went through some old photos yesterday, and I just had to share!

These two mug shots were taken exactly 2 years apart. You can see the changes in my face!

I'm finding that the clothes I use to wear fit me a lot differently now and while I'm certainly not perfect, I'm really enjoying the way I feel. Eric is also changing a lot! Although I'm not sure he would be okay with me posting his before and after photos on here. :) I really enjoy our new lifestyle and I hope we continue to live it for the rest of our lives.

Wings Over Houston

2011-10-18T12:28:00.018-05:00

This past Saturday, we went to the Wings Over Houston airshow at Ellington Field. This was Celeste's first airshow ever, and she was totally pumped about seeing all of those huge airplanes.

We woke up early, got ready and made a pit stop at Shipley's donuts. We arrived at the airshow at 9:00am and began touring the static display. Celeste absolutely loved the planes that were painted like "sharks," and had to pose by them for the camera. It was so cute!

One of the best parts about the show was the Heavy Metal Jet Team. Wow. They were incredible. I didn't get too many shots of them because there was hardly time to pick my jaw up off the ground! They were awesome!

Of course, like any kid, Celeste just had to have her own airplane toy from the airshow booths. So of course, like any normal parent wrapped around their kid's fingers, we bought her one (while I'm sure she thought, "Ha ha, Suckers!!") And she has been pretending she's flying it ever since.

We had a blast at the airshow! Can't wait for next year's!

She Sings

2011-10-09T14:59:00.002-05:00

Celeste sings, all the time, everywhere. She sometimes makes up her own songs, and at other times, she sings things she's learned at school or listens to otherwise.

Yesterday, we ended up running errands all day long after leaving the gym. She was singing "God of this City" over and over and over again in the car, and so I held my cell phone behind me while I was driving to catch her. So cute!

The Final Space Shuttle Mission

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

At the close of the STS-135 shuttle mission, I began to wonder how I would even begin to sum up my experience working on the Space Shuttle Program. It has been the most exciting, invigorating thing I could have imagined doing with my career, and I have been very, very blessed. Working at the TPS Imagery Coordinator console (TIC) in the Shuttle Mission Evaluation Room (MER) in Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC) has been the highlight of my career up to this point. I'm going to miss the on-orbit console support that we provided to the Space Shuttle Program during the next couple of years, but I'm excited about the things to come!

After writing multiple long paragraphs about my work that were way too in depth for this blog, I decided to scrap it all and just go with the pictures and videos from the last flight, STS-135. Enjoy!

This video is of the KSC Closeout Crew saying goodbye to the Space Shuttle Program (God Bless America!!):

My friend and coworker, Dave Melendrez, created this next video to commemorate the final Space Shuttle launch, ever. It's a long one (17 minutes), but good.

Leslie and I were very blessed to be able to make the trek to Florida's Space Coast to watch the April 2010 attempt of the last launch of Endeavor for STS-134. In this trip, we were able to see the final vehicle to take flight in the Space Shuttle Program, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, up close and personal as it was being prepped for it's final voyage in the Orbiter Processing Facility. So amazing!!

The final video I have is an incredibly reflective one about all the things we've accomplished in space. It's a great way to conclude this blog. If you don't watch the others, watch this one. What Kind of World Do You Want:

First Memory Verse: Check!

2011-08-19T23:04:00.005-05:00

So Celeste attends a private Christian school in League City. One of the things they do is teach the children verses of the Bible, by having them memorize them. Celeste's first memory verse (starts with an "A," they have one for every letter of the alphabet) is due one week from today. However, when I picked her up today from school, she was so elated about having already memorized her verse and being able to get a toy from the "Treasure Chest" for having done so. We took this little video for Daddy... enjoy!

Oh yeah, and in case you didn't notice, "God died so we don't have to..." Hahaha!!

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-08-16T09:14:00.024-05:00

It's done. We have just dropped off our one and only child for her very first day of school. And it wasn't easy.

Yesterday afternoon, Ms. Linda, Eric and I all had tears in our eyes as we said goodbye and picked up our school-age daughter from Ms. Linda's for the last time. Ms. Linda has been a blessing in so many ways to our little family. She has been the most reliable, dependable, caring and devoted provider for our daughter that I could have ever dreamed of finding. These last four years with Celeste in her care have given us peace of mind and we have grown very close to Ms. Linda and her family. It was hard choking back the tears yesterday, and I almost didn't make it. I can't say enough how much of a blessing Ms. Linda has been to us, and while it's a great thing for Celeste to begin her school years, it's also bittersweet.

Last night, I pressed Celeste's clothes, bleached a tiny rebellious chocolate milk stain out of her shirt, packed her lunch, worked with her on her first homework assignment, and then we all sat down and packed her very first backpack with all of the necessities of the first day of school.

Her first homework assignment was to decorate this cutout with all of her favorite things. She only wanted to color them, she didn't want to use beads or magazine clippings, and the said sandals, a book and a necklace and bracelet were her favorite things (she drew the necklace and bracelet later, in red).

Today began with Mommy and Daddy running around the house like headless chickens, hurriedly preparing Celeste a cooked breakfast while she slept and double and triple-checking the contents of her backpack. It's obvious we are so new to this! Then I picked up my 46-pound daughter out of our extremely tall bed (she sometimes crawls in while we're dead asleep), put her on my shoulder and took her into the living room where we played Rio and set her little table with chocolate milk, a small waffle and some scrambled eggs. After much encouraging, she ate most of the waffle, drank the chocolate milk and barely touched the eggs (much to my dismay). Daddy braided her hair while I blow-dried my own, and then we grabbed our things and ran out the door.

Eric's truck is in the shop, so he's driving an un-tinted car. I followed them in my car, and kept watching her little head bounce up and down excitedly the whole way to the school. It's hard to explain the wave of emotions that I felt this morning.

I remember when that baby girl was too tiny to fit inside her infant carrier without ample support. I remember how that little head needed extra rolled up blankets in the additional infant head support part to keep her head up in the weeks after she was born. All those beautiful white eyelet sundresses, matching hats and tiny sandals. Her cute, dimply and toothless smiles at us both, and her bountiful laughter would fill the house as a baby. I remember feeling soooooo scared the day she rolled herself right off the edge of our bed and onto the carpeted floor, and how angry I was at Eric for raising the bed (as if those 2-3 extra inches mattered) even though she was unharmed. Then there was the time I received a cell phone picture from my father-in-law of my 7-month-old with her tongue hanging out one side, standing on her tiptoes and stretching to get those tiny little fingers on the piano. It was a short week or two later that she began walking; people could hardly believe their eyes that this 7-8 month old was walking so well.

When she was 14 months old, I nervously dropped her off at Ms. Linda's for the first time. I remember crying on the way to work; I felt awful about leaving my baby at a place unfamiliar to her. But then she didn't want to go home when I picked her up, and I knew I'd found a keeper in Ms. Linda.

And now here I was, 4 years and 5 months after that first day at Ms. Linda's, watching my baby girl's curly head bounce up and down excitedly as we took her to her very first day of Kindergarten. Where has the time gone??

Of course, as every typical Mom does, I took photos of our baby as she made her way to her new school for the first time. Here they are... I can't wait to pick her up this afternoon and hear all about her day!!

She has 14 students in her class. It's an all-day kindergarten class, and her buddy, Jude, is in her class! So glad she already has a friend there with her. I think I'm more nervous for her than she is today.

I miss my baby girl today... where has the time gone???

Starting Her Out Young...

2011-08-13T20:14:00.003-05:00

Celeste loves going to the gym. She will even flex her muscles and show you how all her "hard work" in the Kid's Club has been paying off.

Today, she's been reading through my book, The New Rules of Lifting For Women. And she's been asking about the workouts in the book! Too cute.

Maybe I can teach her about being healthy now at her young age so that she'll have an even better, healthier lifestyle. Crossing my fingers...

Physical Update

2011-08-05T14:50:00.012-05:00

While most of you family members are waiting for me to put up a blog about the space stuff (I assure you, I will; it's going to be very image-intensive), I thought I'd update you with my working out status! (Haha yes Aunt Cyndi, one of these pics was taken at Boca!). ;)

So OMG, there is so much information out there. I started by going back to the gym, and I felt great about that. Then I started reading a lot online and talking with friends and family members who are intense and very knowledgeable, and I found that I was quite the dummy about my body and it's needs. I purchased The New Rules of Lifting for Women and began learning a lot more.

At first, it was completely overwhelming. I was more focused on working the last shuttle flight at the time I began learning more about what I was doing wrong and what I should be doing in the gym and in my eating habits.

I'm still learning. There's so much that I am finding out every day that I don't know. If I'm going to be losing fat and replacing that with muscle (not trying to look like her, her or her, if they can even be called female!!), then I need a higher protein, lower carb and fat diet.

So I went to Nutrition Depot and purchased some protein powder (yummm!!!!), some female vitamins and fish oil supplements (for Omega-3s). But the protein... oh my!! Apparently, I can't digest it very well... and ummm... that trait that Gabe has that everyone loves so much, well I found it in my genes, too.

(Dad: "Son, don't do that in the kitchen while we're eating!"
Gabe: Steps 2 feet back into the living room. Mission accomplished.
Dad: Rolls eyes as we all bust out laughing.)

Man, that was embarrassing!!! Well, I didn't actually have any embarrassing moments, but let's just say it was not pleasant to deal with. So I found this chewable papaya extract tablet that you can take after eating that really helps! (Can anyone guess what I'm getting Gabe for Christmas??) Yep, I'm excited about that right there.

So here are a couple of pics of my new little forming bicep. I'm kinda proud of this thing!

Working My Way to a Healthier Lifestyle

2011-06-29T09:45:00.009-05:00

Just over a year and a half ago now, I decided to get into shape. I'd gained umpteen pounds with my pregnancy, and hadn't shed them all. So I joined a gym and started eating healthier, and lost about 30 pounds in total while toning up. It was awesome.

Before ...

However I gave up my gym membership earlier this year, and my body has changed it's shape somewhat. For all of you ladies who are already thinking "Mandy, you're so skinny, puhleease!", you should know that while I don't really think I'm fat, I am most definitely out of shape.

So starting this week, we've been working out every day. And Celeste loves it. She thinks she is working out, too, and will flex her biceps and "show you her muscles" that she gets from "working out at the gym" (aka. Kid's Club).

While this post may bore you a bit, the point is now I've publicly said I'm getting in shape, so I have to stick to it. (Goodbye, chips and salsa; I will miss you.)

Summer Fun

2011-06-27T09:10:00.021-05:00

I love how my daughter runs at me, full speed when I open the door to her daycare at the end of each day. She throws her arms around my waist, almost knocking me down with sheer, rapid and intense inertia. Then she quickly grabs her things and proudly displays her craft of the day.

Recently, she's been into both a purple and heart phase. Here she is, proudly displaying her crafts from last week.

While there's absolutely no argument that having a child isn't stressful, pain-free and difficult, there are moments that make up for the rest. Here are just a couple from this weekend...

Friday, June 24, 2011:

While Celeste and Eric were watching Phineas & Ferb, I was doing housework and got in between Celeste and the movie. So she quickly shouted, "Mom!!!! Get out of the way!! I wanna see the kissing part!!!"
(Phineas and Ferb's older sister Candice and her crush, Jeremy)
Uh oh.

Saturday, June 25, 2011:

We were out on the jet ski on Clear Lake, going about 10mph with Celeste in the front letting out tons of high-pitched squeals.
"Daddy, go faster!"
Eric speeds up to 11mph.
"Okay! Okay! Okay! That is fast enough, Daddy!"
"Now go chase that big bird with the big beak!"

Sunday, June 26, 2011:

Two of her cousins were in the backseat of the car with her.
Celeste: "Guys, at my house, I have this great hiding spot on my bed, under the covers..."
Chelsey: "Celeste, your mom is listening!!"
Celeste: "Guys, you're NOT letting me FINISH!!! So there's this great hiding spot..."

Here are a few photos of my nieces and daughter. We went with my sister-in-law and her four girls to a favorite spot in midtown on Sunday afternoon, Sweet Lola's.

Girls Day

2011-06-24T21:46:00.004-05:00

Today after work, Celeste and I went with Aunt Alicia to get our nails done. Celeste kept the attention of everyone in the salon with the things she was saying and doing. I took this little video of her while she was getting her pedicure.

She is quite the spoiled little girl!

Can You Hear Me Now??

2011-06-19T23:54:00.009-05:00

My parents save up all of my junk mail and deliver it to me from time to time. Nope, I haven't lived in their house for over 6 years now, but I do still receive mail there.

Today they brought over my mail along with Eric's father's day card and gift, and I had a few laughs.

So apparently I, a 29-year-old, healthy female who can hear pretty well, ended up on the mailing distribution list for a hearing aid center in Webster. I'm confused. They have my maiden name, which is something I haven't had since I was 22 years old, and my parents' mailing address. Yet somehow, I'm on their list. I'm just wondering if they got it from the Friendswood High School yearbook pages?? Somehow? I don't know.

I think the important thing to mention here is that they're having a sale though. So maybe I should go! You think they come in hot pink or zebra prints?

And for those of you who're going to ask, this wasn't addressed to my baby boomer parents. Nope, it was addressed to yours truly, member of Generation Y.

They even have friendly, well-experienced staff members who are there to help me. That is, if I can even hear them...

Bountiful Blooms & Clean Rooms....Finally

2011-06-18T20:49:00.027-05:00

This weekend began on Friday afternoon with promises of no stress, relaxation, and a weekend where I could accomplish some things at home that needed to be tackled. It has turned out to be quite the interesting weekend.

After getting home yesterday afternoon, I went outside while Eric was starting up the grill, and wow, I saw the most beautiful bloom from one of the new hybrid hibiscus plants. So of course, I grabbed my cell phone and started taking pictures of plenty of blooms around the yard.

I love, love, love having color in the yard. It's awesome to open the windows and look at these beautiful flowers from inside the house throughout the day. They're simply gorgeous to me.

For mother's day, Eric and Celeste gave me this pink orchid (below). I'm not that great at orchids, in fact, I'm pretty awful with them. But the poor plant has managed to hang on until now, which is saying a lot. Not sure how much longer it'll be with us, but it's here now. And the blue orchid ... that one's amazing!

Saturday was completely full of cleaning the house. Dust, sweep, mop, clean, wash, repeat, etc. Whew. As anyone knows who has had small children, this is quite a feat with little ones in the house. Let me just elaborate for a minute on some of the episodes of the day....

Moved the couch to find melted Now and Laters on the wood floors. Scrub, soak, scrub, soak, ugh.
Me: "Celeste, what is that on the wall?"
Celeste: (very matter-of-factly) "Boogers."
No joke.
Fixed a broken leg on her toy box.
20 minutes later, she rocks the toy box and moves it until it breaks again.
Me: "Celeste, why are you writing in red markers on the tile floor??"
Celeste: "Sorry..."
Sweep and mop the floors.
10 minutes later, mounds of cake are everywhere on the floor.

...and the list goes on. I love my baby girl, don't get me wrong. But there are some days, when I just want to scream at the world in frustration. How is it possible to keep a clean house with ONE five-year-old inside???

One of the tasks today was to clean her room. We went through her toys and got rid of a huge 55-gallon sized bag full of them. Here are some before and after pictures of her room. The look on her face in the before photos is because she was embarrassed about her dirty room. (So stop keeping it dirty?)

Before...

After...

I wonder what it's going to look like tomorrow. Oh the fun joys of being a parent!

Wild, Crazy and Beautiful

2011-06-16T08:29:00.007-05:00

Last winter was hard on my yard. I lost some rare, hybridized hibiscus, all of my palms (except the huge Medjool in the front) experienced severe setbacks, and Bermuda grass took over the flower beds. As you may have read from one of my previous posts, I decided to tackle this early in the spring this year. Instead of dealing with each and every strip of Bermuda grass growing throughout my flowerbeds, I did a complete overhaul of them. Eric dug up the Pygmy in the front yard and the sago that had outgrown our small front flowerbed, and then I went to town cleaning everything out, putting in new plants, dirt and mulch.

After completing the front yard, I only got about halfway through with the backyard before life began to happen (shuttle mission support, final exams at school, etc.). In the backyard, I'd placed some white petunias around one of the sagos (and had planned on putting some matching ones around the other but haven't gotten to it yet), and some purple petunias with white stripes near two stacks of limestone rocks. Both were originally very tiny plants. In fact, the white ones were those teeny-tiny starters that are roughly $2 or so for a pack of 6? The purple-and-white striped ones were actually only one plant each, $4 each from Home Depot, and were in small 6" pots. They were planted in April, look at them now!

Granted, things look like a mess there around the tortured queen palm. There are reasons for that. I planted things temporarily around the queen when I ran out of time so that they would be alive when I found the time again, and my Excavator thought it would be a great idea to see how hard he could tug on the Queen Palm last winter. Thank goodness he lost interest before it snapped.

(Deep sigh...) I absolutely love a colorful yard. Hopefully, we'll get some rain soon so that my water bill can go down!

IIIMS Award

2011-06-15T08:38:00.011-05:00

One of the many fun parts of my job is developing websites. A few years ago, I helped design the TPS Imagery Inspection Management System (TIIMS) for the Space Shuttle Program. This website houses all of the inspection-related analysis of the orbiter's heat shield (Thermal Protection System).

With the closeout of the Space Shuttle Program rapidly approaching, one of my coworkers (Dan Smith) decided we should do something similar for the International Space Station, since our group also performs the same type of assessments of the ISS (potential handrail damage, MMOD strikes, etc.). So led by Rob Scharf (pictured below in the middle, back row), we pulled together a web-based system for the ISS program called ISS Imagery Inspection Management System (IIIMS).

Every quarter, our company has an award ceremony for quarterly awards across the contract. This time, our IIIMS Development Team was the recipient of the Superior Team award. And I'm proudly putting on my pocket protector for this one.

(L-R): Glenn Ellis (SARD Director), Jim Heslin, Dwight Osborne, Dan Labasse (Database Developer), Rob Scharf (ISAG Project Manager), Yours Truly (Web Developer), Joy and Lon (Jacobs).

Yep, I love my job.

How Many Hats

2011-06-08T15:24:00.020-05:00

The other day, Ms. Linda sent Celeste's artwork that she's done since last fall home with her. And of course, Celeste had to try on every single hat in there, and had to take pictures. So cute!

You may be wondering what's all that stuff on her face. Well, if I told you that we stopped by Ben & Jerry's for a special Mommy and Celeste time, and that she only ate a couple of bites, would you believe me? (It's true.)

My favorite..

Yesterday, I was able to take off work and spend some time with one of my friends who I've been close with since we were, well, smaller than Celeste is now. She brought her daughter and we took the kids to iT'Z. That place is a way better version of Chuck-E-Cheese; no looming furry and dusty mouse chasing your kids, no overhead crawl space full of all kinds of bacteria, but a miniature bowling alley, bumper cars, go karts and laser tag, plus all of the games that Chuck-E-Cheese offers. And their pizza is actually pretty good. It was a lot of fun, the girls really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed getting to see my friend!!

After our day together, we came home and had our usual time of chasing each other around the house. Here, she was grabbing onto my legs and laughing as I walked around with her in tow. Ha ha ha, she is a lot of fun, that's for sure!

To Be Five Again

2011-06-03T08:21:00.010-05:00

As this December creeps up, I'm quite scared of my looming 30^th birthday. I have 6 more months to actually be in my 20s, then I'm officially a dinosaur. At least in the eyes of my five-year-old, anyway.

I look at her simple life that she leads, and how anxious she is to grow up and be a big person, and I must say there's a tiny bit of irony. I mean, think about how tough it must be to have to come home, eat a meal that's prepared at your demands, watch "Wonder Pets," drink chocolate milk, play outside with a big fluffy dog that all the other kids are scared of, run around in the sprinklers with your swimsuit on, then take a bath in a magical spaceship filled with your favorite plastic toys (who can transform into anything), and end your evening by falling asleep atop a beautiful princess castle bed that has a slide attached? Whew, she must have it rough. Poor kid.

Hiding from Daddy in the Bathtub...

And who can forget the daily routine of roughhousing, tickling each other and getting smothered in Mommy kisses? What a hard life she leads...

If only I could be five again...

Little Rock Star in the Making

2011-06-01T14:58:00.012-05:00

Today, I've had the luxury of being able to take off from work. After making pancakes and eggs for Daddy and Celeste, Celeste and I began our day by hosting a salesman from All-Tex Exteriors. He gave us a quote on an outdoor patio cover that I'm contemplating putting up. It would be awesome to have some shade on the patio while outside with Celeste and Mikado, or while Eric grills, etc. So far, I've had four quotes (including All-Tex) and they range anywhere from $1,400 - $3,600. Basically, not everyone has the same products, so I have to do some more research before we make up our minds.

After the salesman left, I began doing my yearly chore of going through Celeste's closet and getting rid of the clothes and shoes that she can no longer wear. Why am I always amazed at how much this child has? It's so obvious that she's an only child, and she is so very spoiled. One of the outfits, for example, cost us over $150 last year and she wore it only once, Easter Sunday 2010. Seriously. That's a problem; a ridiculous one.

So while going through her clothes, Celeste decided she was going to dress herself in her favorite things. After moments of utter silence in the house (a heads-up for any mom) I found her in the restroom with a can of hairspray, my hairbrush, some bobby pins, several hair bows and ponytail holders. She quickly told me to get out, and that she was getting ready to "be a Rock Star."

The End Result...

And then, of course, she told me to sit down and record her giving a "Rock Star Concert." So cute!

If you didn't already know, Celeste is quite the imaginative little girl. One of the things that cracked me up was that she turned her toy golf club into a microphone by turning it upside down. Well of course it wouldn't stand on it's own, so she anxiously began trying to be innovative in finding a way to keep her microphone straight and steady during her rock star concert...

Obviously, I can't post all of the songs that she performed today (copyright infringement and such), but here are a few of my favorites. This first one is so cute because she actually mentions going to school in August, and that's something she absolutely cannot stop talking about.

She gets a little more creative with each song she comes up with...until she owns the stage.

Right before this one, I felt her stiff hair (in the front) and was shocked at how much hairspray was in there. Check out what she says when I asked her about it!

Like every rock star, she had to unwind a bit after performing her grueling concert...

If you want an autograph, I'm sure we can work something out. Please contact her manager at 5_GoingOn_17@Rockstar.com for further information.

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

2011-05-30T02:22:00.005-05:00

To celebrate Memorial Day weekend, my whole family went to Frankie Carter Randolph Park and had a little fun time together. Dad grilled chicken breasts, very spicy venison sausage, a few hamburger patties and a couple of hot dogs for the kiddos.

Celeste was sooooooo very excited to see my mom ("Nana") at the park. She ran up to her and I had to get this picture. What kid isn't happy about seeing the one who spoils them rotten?

I took these video of Celeste as she was playing right after we got to the park. In retrospect, I just realized that I've turned into one of those moms who is nerdily prompting her kid to answer questions from behind the camera. Oh man. I'm a minivan mom without the minivan.

In this next video, I asked Celeste about going to school in August, and her friend Jude. He's a cute little boy from church that she plays with a lot. They are pretty good little friends, and will be going to the same school in League City this August.

This next one is well ... my brother. It's Gabe ... need I say more??

STS-134 Launch & Ascent Imagery

2011-05-29T07:15:00.002-05:00

My friend from the console next to mine produces these videos every flight. This one is for the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavor, which launched on May 16, 2011, and is set to land in 3 days on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. This is also the launch that we were able to go and see in person. Yep, I was there. Ohhhh yeah!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Just a few more night shifts of console support and it's back to my regular job. Starbucks is going to miss me.

Geek Moment ...

2011-05-24T04:41:00.006-05:00

Every flight, the NASA JSC photographers come around and take our photos on console. It makes me nervous when I realize they are there, and I am never quite sure how to react.

This flight, when the photographer came around, I was right in the middle of working Focused Inspection procedures with other consoles, so I didn't notice him at first. So he got a photo of me really working!

Dwight & me at the TPS Imagery Coordinator console in the Shuttle Mission Evaluation Room in Houston's Mission Control Center

Normally I don't post these. However, there is only one more shuttle flight left, and then everything goes in the history books and off to museums. This is for my family, my parents and my daughter.

When I was a kid, in elementary school, I had decided to become an astronaut. I really wanted to go up in a space shuttle and orbit the earth. I used to imagine myself flying around up there, chasing food, marbles, etc. as they floated around in zero gravity (hey, I was a kid). While I gave up on that long ago, I certainly was blessed to come closer than I had ever dreamed possible. God has truly smiled on me.

I love my job; I really, really love my job.

Space Mania

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right! As I mentioned in my previous blog, Leslie and I had gone to Florida to watch the April 2011 launch attempt of STS-134, and the launch was scrubbed a few hours prior to liftoff. So this meant that Eric, Celeste and I were able to make a family trip last week to watch the launch at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Day 1: Friday, May 13

Eric had oral surgery the day before, which meant that the driving was all up to me (yikes!). We headed out as soon as his followup appointment was over that morning, and I drove all ... day ... long ... and then some.

I kept telling Celeste about the states that we were going through, and it was so cute to hear her say, "Lew-eeee-see-ann-a" and "MiSSiSSippi," etc. Somewhere between Pensacola and Tallahassee, Celeste got sick in the back of the car. Man, that's a pleasant smell! Poor baby though, she was pretty freaked out about it.

The drive was sooo incredible that I had to take these awesome pictures of these incredible places so people would know we've been here.

First, we were here...

Then we passed over this famous bridge...

At last, the scenery began to change...

Finally, we arrived at our resort a few hours after midnight. Boy, was that a welcome sight. The place was like an apartment, with all the amenities of home.

Day 2: Saturday, May 14

Saturday began with all three of us heading to a real, actual Krispy Kreme! It was just around the corner from our resort. Yum!

After we ate, I dropped Eric and Celeste off at Ron Jon's in Cocoa Beach and headed to KSC to pick up the car pass that Armando so kindly reserved for me. Just driving up to the VAB had me reminiscing of my trip a couple of weeks ago, and full of pride for the amazing work that we do.

Then after, I went back to my little family at Ron Jon's and we bought Celeste a "surf board" so she could do some "surfing" the next day. Boy, was she ever excited!

Day 3: Sunday, May 15

So we started our day, yet again, with a trip to Krispy Kreme. Celeste loves watching them make the donuts.

Then we headed down to Cocoa Beach and drove down the beach until we found a great spot to get in the water. These beaches are just stunning. The water is quite clear and blue, and the beaches are pretty clean. And the waves! WOW. They were crashing down on shore, right at the shoreline, and were quite huge. Many of them were easily as tall as Eric.

Day 4: Monday, May 16

Launch Day!!

We woke up at around 4:00am and quickly got ready to head to the Space Center. The launch was set for 8:56am Eastern, and may had told us that we should plan on getting there as soon as possible (4+ hours early). We didn't even wake Celeste; we just took her in her pajamas, brought her blanket and pillows, and she slept the whole way to KSC.

I had this great idea to head to KSC's gate 2 (by the visitor complex) by simply GPSing the KSC Visitor Complex. My GPS gave me the address of a location in Titusville, FL. I assumed this was right, since Titusville is so close to KSC. Let's just say that when I pulled into the tiny, overgrown ghost-town of a roach motel on Kennedy Drive, I knew something was up. Oh man, talk about funny. And no, that one absolutely cannot be blamed on my skills as a female driver. It's all on the GPS.

After moments of confusion, laughter, and minor paranoia, we found ourselves crawling in a loooooooong line of traffic near the real KSC Visitor Complex. Once we got through the gate and to our spot on the Causeway, we made a little pallet near the water and got ready for the launch.

We arrived 3+ hours before the launch, and it wasn't too crowded. It was pretty great, and the view wasn't bad either! Celeste kept excitedly asking when the "rocket ship" would go up. It was so cute!

I kept a close eye on my watch and when they entered the last countdown, our anticipation and excitement was built so extremely high that I'm not sure I can accurately describe it on here. Celeste was anxious; I was excited; Eric was excited.

Then it happened. First, there was this huge burst of smoky clouds as the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) were ignited. Not even seconds later, this magnificent vehicle, supported by it's 2 SRBs and External Tank were lifted off the ground with such a great force.

Randy, one of the KSC guys that we work with on-console during on-orbit inspection operations, had advised me to wear sunglasses when watching the launch because of the sheer vibrance of the flame. Unfortunately, I'd lost mine the day before in the Atlantic. But when that bad boy took off, I realized what he meant. It was like staring directly into the sun; so bright!

A few of my favorite photos from the launch...

Wow. I am truly blessed.

These next two photos were taken by a woman named Stephanie Gordon of Hoboken, NJ. She was on a plane from NJ to Palm Beach, FL, and took these photos looking out her airplane window.

After the launch, I caught a flight from Orlando back to Houston to begin working the Flight Day 2 TPS inspections from the TIC console in the MCC Shuttle Mission Evaluation Room; Eric and Celeste drove home. This is a long mission (16+0+2 days thus far), and it can certainly make anyone tired to support every day during on-orbit operations. However, it is certainly the most rewarding job I can imagine and I absolutely love it.

Amanda and Dan on console in the MCC for STS-134

Driving home from Florida

More Space

2011-05-22T01:20:00.008-05:00

I'm still meaning to pull together the photos that we took last week of our trip to Florida to watch the final launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor. It was absolutely amazing! I hope to have those photos posted in another day or two.

Okay, okay ... one photo for now ...

In the meantime, here's one of my most favorite ascent highlights videos I've ever seen. This was put together by my friend who sits at the console next to ours in the Mission Control Center for the launch of STS-133 (Space Shuttle Discovery's final flight). Crank up your speakers and enjoy!

Not Her Teeth!

2011-05-20T07:06:00.011-05:00

So as has been demonstrated, Celeste really enjoys playing rough. A couple of weeks ago, we had some very sweet friends over (from church) for dinner. During dinner, Celeste attempted to jump from the couch onto the floor. When she did, she landed mouth open on the wood floors.

Yes, there was much bleeding. She bit through her lower lip. However, we began to notice that her two front teeth started turning a grayish color.

Before ...

After ...

So of course, her pediatric dentist said that the teeth were perfectly healthy, and she doesn't recommend doing anything at this point. She also said that her teeth will most likely not return to their original color, as the gray color is caused from significant bruising in the teeth.

First thing on my mind? School starts in August!! Here very first year! And kids can tend to be so mean about little things. She brushes her teeth many times a day (she loves her automatic toothbrush), but kids are kids. And the dentist says that from Celeste's x-rays, she thinks Celeste has another 2-3 years before she begins losing those teeth. :/

Our options?

It would be purely cosmetic, but we could have 2 root canals performed on those front teeth, and then crowns put on (which could chip easily, they're not porcelain).
Just leave it and let nature run it's course.

For now, we're going with Option 2. But if it turns out to be hard on her at school, or if it affects her in any way, then we will go back and have Option 1 done. However, I've sat down with her and explained what the dentist said, and about what happened, and she seems to brush it off like it's no big deal. So maybe she's tougher than me!

Have I mentioned how much I love this little girl?

Chasing Celeste

2011-05-17T06:27:00.003-05:00

One of the things that Celeste and I do a lot is chase each other around the house. She loves to be tickled, she loves to hide and be found, and she loves wrestling around. So here's a little video I took with my phone of us playing in the house last week before we left for Florida. Enjoy!

Space Bumps - Trip to Kennedy Space Center

2011-05-01T23:44:00.074-05:00

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Seriously, wow.

After working at the NASA Johnson Space Center for 12.5 years now (much of which was strictly dedicated to supporting the Space Shuttle Program), I was finally blessed to be able to go to Florida to watch a launch in person. While the launch ended up being scrubbed for an amount of time that is still TBD, the experience was just simply breathtaking.

My coworker (and very close friend) Leslie and I caught a flight at 3:55pm on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 from Houston to Tampa Bay. Our excitement had been building for weeks prior to the trip, but I think it really hit once we got to the airport. We were giggling, giddy, pumped up, you name it! Leslie has been working here longer than I have, and I believe this was her first time to view a launch opportunity as well. And after a while, well ... things got a bit nutty ...

After we arrived and got our rental car, we had a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory there in Tampa. While I realize this isn't too touristy/unique, we both teased our spouses about the dinner we had! ;)

Day Before Launch Attempt: Thursday, April 28

Our coworker, Dan & his wife Sue, had graciously allowed Leslie and me to stay with Sue at their Florida home. It was the most beautiful house! The home backed up to the Banana River and faced the Atlantic. I couldn't imagine a more perfect arrangement. We were in awe when we arrived from our drive in from Tampa, but were more stunned the following morning by the gorgeous views from their backyard.

After our morning coffee, we made the drive over the causeway to Cocoa Beach & Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The first thing we noticed (even before reaching the center) was the towering Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Oh, wow! This thing is HUGE!! It is the largest single-story building in the world, and before modifications were made to prevent this, rain clouds used to form in the top of the VAB. How incredible.

Our sweet tour guide, Brooke, met us and took us first to the Thermal Protection System Facility (TPSF) where the parts that make up the orbiter's Thermal Protections System (TPS) are fabricated. This work was especially exciting to both Leslie and me because beginning ~16-18 hours after launch (every STS flight), we support the inspections of the vehicle's heat shield (TPS) from the TPS Imagery Coordinator (TIC) console in the NASA/JSC Mission Control Center's Mission Evaluation Room. This work continues in performing a variety of imagery inspection evaluations throughout the remainder of each flight, as needed. Each flight is unique and incredible.

Although we'd both seen tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of images of the various parts of the TPS, this was our first time to see the fabrication and related processes of/for each piece of the TPS first-hand.

One of the harsh realities is the reason that my group and all that we do to support the spaceflight program exists. The gravity of the Challenger and Columbia accidents still hits everyone at NASA pretty hard. In fact, some of the debris from these accidents still washes up on Florida's shores. Incredibly heart-wrenching. This below is a piece of debris that is believed to be from the first PEM I Trident II missile (which was deliberately destroyed).

After touring the TPSF, Brooke showed us one of her favorite spots to view the launch (the launch pad is the small gray triangular object in the background). She said this spot allows for incredible reverb once the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) ignite, and if we are able, it will be where we watch the launch someday.

On our way to tour the VAB, we snapped a few images of the Mobile Launching Platform (MLP). This bad boy is what transports the orbiter, fully stacked, to the launch pad at a rate of 2mph.

As I mentioned before, the VAB is just massive. At one point, Brooke took us up a few floors and let us look out over the rail to the floor below. Oh wow. Yikes. It was awe-inspiring, and we weren't even nearly halfway up.

This next slideshow is the longest, by far. But it is deservingly so, as it is impossible to fully describe the magnitude of our tour of the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF).

Once we walked into the OPF, I immediately recognized the "ceiling;" we were standing under the belly tiles of OV-104, Space Shuttle Atlantis. Wow. Atlantis is currently being prepped for the final space shuttle flight in history in the OPF, slated for June 28, and we were here to see it in person as it was processed pre-flight for the last time. In fact, this is the last of any pre-flight processing that any space shuttle will undergo. Amazing.

The last 8 images are of OV-103, Space Shuttle Discovery, as it was being processed post-flight and being made ready for delivery to it's final resting place at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum near Washington, D.C. This is the first of the 3 remaining orbiters that NASA will retire. Geek moment: Notice how the belly tiles of this orbiter are more brown than the first; this is due to the vast amount of heating the vehicle goes through upon re-entry into our atmosphere. And the bald tires? These were brand new prior to the flight and are bald from the one single landing.

The other two people on the tour of the OPF with us were part of the Air Force One Advance Team; the President and his family landed in Florida the following day and were given a tour of the OPF, as well.

After our long day of dropped jaws and amazement at KSC, Leslie and I made a pit stop at a couple of shops in Cocoa Beach. Everyone from JSC had told us numerous times that we had to go by Ron Jon's Surf Shop; apparently it's a tradition. So we stopped at a few stores near by, and then we went to Ron Jon's. We must have stopped to buy something from Ron Jon's at least 3 times during this trip.

Attempted Launch Day: Friday, April 29

Friday morning, Leslie and I woke up early, packed our bags, grabbed some water and headed out to KSC to watch the STS-134 launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor. The launch was planned for 3:47pm EST, and we made it to the center at around 11:30am EST.

It was a beautiful, cool and windy morning in Space Coast and it made for a perfect day for being outside. We passed many people parked alongside the highways on our way to the center.

After parking at our chosen spot onsite, Leslie and I made our way to the intersection near the VAB/LCC and OSB 1 to watch the astronaut procession as they were whisked by on their way to the launch pad. We got there just in time to see the crew van (a.k.a. "Astrovan") go by, pause, then turn around and head back. It was when they were paused that we got word that the launch had been scrubbed.

Afterward, Leslie and I went back to Ron Jon's, bought some beach towels, and headed for the sand and water. The Atlantic is chilly!!! We collected shells for our girls and had a great time.

While it would have been great to see the launch in person, I still cannot begin to put into words how incredible this trip was. The only word I can say to describe the whole experience is wow. Thank you to everyone who helped make this special!!

Note: If the slideshows aren't working, try back later. They're hosted on another site (www.slide.com).

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T03:04:00.012-05:00

I woke up Easter Sunday to the beautiful blooms from my Giant Iris plants. So pretty!

After getting ready, we headed off to church at First Church.

Celeste had colored a beautiful poster the week before, and all of the kids had a little parade where they walked in with their poster. She won first place for her beautiful poster! This is her first official ribbon/award for her artwork, and she is extremely excited!

After church was over, the three of us went to Landry's in Kemah and watched the boats while we ate. Celeste had to take pictures of her first ribbon, and she was beaming about it!

Loved this relaxing day.

SeaWorld

2011-04-25T01:00:00.027-05:00

This weekend, we made another trek to San Antonio to take Celeste to Sea World. Man, she loves that place. We had a lot of fun doing all kinds of neat things. Here are some pics.

Feeding the Bottlenose Dolphins

Playing with the Beluga Whales

Pouting at Azul Posing with Shamu

Feeding Sea Lions

Celeste was able to play with the Beluga whales while at Sea World. They were following her around the pool rather than watching anyone else. It was so cute! Here she is getting kissed from a Beluga whale.

We had such a great time!

Day with PaPaw & Nana

2011-04-22T13:35:00.002-05:00

Celeste is hanging out with my parents today, and she is totally milking Nana & PaPaw for all she can! My mom sent me this video from her iPhone of Celeste swinging in the park today; too cute.

I remember when she was the length of my forearm. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

She Loves Music

2011-04-21T09:55:00.003-05:00

So it's no news to all who know Celeste that she absolutely loves music. She doesn't like slow songs, there has to be a kickin' beat, some guitars, and it has to be played LOUD at all times.

Recently, she started this head banging thing that kind of cracks me up. She was doing it this morning on the way to Ms. Linda's, so I filmed it with my new phone.

Unfortunately, this was my first time filming anything with this phone and it didn't click that it would be filming sideways. Sorry! Until I rotate it some other way, this is the only viewing option I have. Still cute!

Rays of Sunshine

2011-04-06T17:52:00.004-05:00

I'd forgotten to post these photos of Celeste holding her chosen purple petunias when I posted the photos of the yardwork we've been doing. The morning after, she and I were on our way out the door when she ran up to the petunias, picked one, and asked me if I could put it in her hair and tuck it behind her ear "like a princess!" So of course I obliged! And she was just precious.

Yep, I love this little angel.

Moments to Ponder...or Not?

2011-04-05T12:50:00.003-05:00

So for lunch today, I ran by the local 888 Bistro on El Camino. I must mention that this place is delicious.

Today's trip, however, provided some extra, unusual entertainment. My fortune cookie's insert has me laughing at the writer's obvious attempt to be profound...yet with an end result of quite the alternative.

Stressed, YES!!

2011-04-05T00:36:00.002-05:00

So there have been a few who've commented about my lack of posting on Facebook lately. It makes me smile to know that people enjoy reading the little events that I post about Celeste on a daily basis, but I've just been swamped lately. This past week has been crammed with too few hours and too many tasks at home, work and school. I need more hours in the day.

Thank goodness this semester is nearly over. It's hard to believe that I'm almost there. Seems like just yesterday when I walked across the stage at Moody Gardens and received my diploma. I can't believe it's been nearly 12 years. Wow, I'm SO OLD!!

Without my family helping me through every single step along the way, I never would have made it thus far. And of course, I can't forget the One who pulls it all together. It's because of Him that I am able to face each new challenging task.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Spring Has Sprung!

2011-03-23T18:07:00.036-05:00

So the winter did a number on my tropical plants, once again. And my yard just looked ... well ... pitiful! These past few weeks, I decided to dig in and remove all the overgrown, messy and dead-looking things, and replace what I didn't end up just cutting back (such as my Ti plants). Here are some pictures of the progress.

Before...

During...

After... Sort-of...

Funny story about these purple petunias in the front; Celeste saw them at the store and just had to have them.

Close-ups of some of our new double hibiscus that I planted in the front bed along the sidewalk.

More Before and Afters...

And for the full frontal view...

More pics to come as the progress continues! I love this time of year!!!

A Day for Spoiling

2011-01-25T16:32:00.013-06:00

The morning began like any other January morning in Houston. It was cold. Wet. Windy. But my little girl was being a very well-behaved child that morning and it was only after I'd gotten a couple of miles down the road that I realized she'd found her sunglasses and was stylin' in the backseat.

A little later in the day, I decided to surprise Celeste by taking her for a little Mommy-Daughter time at Oasis Nails. And it was there, on Friday, January 21, 2011, that my 4-year-old daughter received her first pedicure. And was that interesting!

It started with Celeste getting a little afraid of the ladies and they're accents.

Then she decided she was not going to do it. So she hid behind the front counter so that the ladies couldn't see her.

Finally, after the lady took her cart away and I told Celeste it was too late, she worked her way into the chair. And she began asking if the lady would come back and do her feet as she swirled them in the water.

So she did, and Celeste got her pedicure.

Afterwards, Celeste kept telling me how much fun she'd had and how she is excited about getting another one. Oh no! Haha, but we had a great little bit of special Mommy-Daughter time. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Fairies in Wonderland

2011-01-11T15:51:00.005-06:00

This past weekend,our little family made the trek across Houston to Ikea to purchase some furniture. While we were there, Celeste found this beautiful little bedroom that she fell in love with and was playing in, so Eric took these cute photos.

I should also mention that Celeste loves fairy wings, and these were hers from her PawPaw and Grammy, and she just had to wear them to the store. She was absolutely adorable, and caught everyone's eye.

We really love our baby girl.

Christmas Day

2010-12-25T18:18:00.021-06:00

This morning began with Celeste bouncing excitedly at about 7:00 am, exclaiming that Santa Clause came over night and left her a bunch of presents! So, we got up to watch her open all 14 of her presents. And boy, was she excited! Here are a few photos of some of her gifts.

After having our little family Christmas this morning at our house, Eric, Celeste and I piled into Eric's truck and went to Danbury for his family Christmas. It was so much fun and there was lots of good food, of course! Celeste had a blast hanging out with her cousins (below).

Today was an amazing day. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Johnson Family Christmas

2010-12-25T11:50:00.013-06:00

For the second (?) year in a row now, we had the Johnson family Christmas at our house. It was so much fun! I took off Thursday afternoon to get some things cleaned up around the house the day before, and was so excited about the coming festivities.

One of the awesome things that I was pumped about are my new pillows that Mom gave me for my birthday just a few weeks ago! Have I mentioned that I absolutely love ruffles? And red? They're actually a very pretty, deep red, and not the orange that they kind of appear in this photo. (cell phones)

When Friday came, I made the Buttercrunch cookies and Eric helped me roll them. The only reason I don't make these more often is because they take lots of time and you have to work fast.

During all of the baking, Celeste was getting very whiny (she wanted to eat all the deserts and I was so mean for not letting her). Finally, at just after 2:30pm, Celeste finally fell asleep. Whew!

And I was able to do some more cooking, including these yummy green beans and red potatoes, and some sweet potato casserole.

Luwannah & Landon

Alicia

Mom & Dad

Gabe & Luwannah

Celeste & Landon

Todd and Gabe

More Christmas Lights!

2010-12-25T11:11:00.017-06:00

First of all, Merry Christmas! Things have been a little crazy around our house so I wasn't able to post these until today.

This past Thursday, December 23rd (Christmas Eve Eve), we took Celeste and drove up to Prestonwood Forest to look at their lights display. This neighborhood was amazing; the absolute best place to look at lights that I have seen in years. Nearly every house in this neighborhood was decorated, and the longer that the evening wore on, the longer the lines of cars became. Some streets had their own theme (Frosty, Texas Christmas, etc.), and man, the lights were amazing. We dove around through there for an hour and a half, and still didn't get to see everything. As you can almost see in one of the photos, one of the houses had a small band of 3 older teenagers playing Christmas carols out front. So neat! Here are some of the lights that we found interesting there.

Texas-Style Christmas Block in Prestonwood Forest:

There were so many amazing houses to see there. The residents there obviously put a lot of time and patience into the Christmas season. Man, wouldn't it be neat to live in a place like that? Of course, you'd have to get everything done for the day before 6:00pm, when the traffic begins! Lastly, here's on of my favorites:

Christmas Tidings

2010-12-22T16:18:00.030-06:00

While going through the vast amount of files on my BlackBerry that I've accumulated over this past week, I came across this adorable recording of Celeste singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I just had to share it, it's so adorable. I recorded this of her exactly one year ago today, when she was 3 years old.

So, since I'm not really sure where to begin, I guess I'll just pick out a few of the photos of the things we did this past week.

The Taylor family has a tradition; we have been going to the Olive Garden every single Sunday for lunch. Why, you ask? Because their soup is amazing! On Sunday, December 12th, we went with Steven & Sara and their adorable son Dylan. Dylan and Celeste are two peas in a pod, and here are the two of them posing for the camera.

This past Saturday, we went to Crazy Alan's Swamp Shack on the water in Kemah for lunch. It was so nice, with a casual atmosphere (including a dead skunk carcass hanging from the ceiling), good food and good prices. Here are a few pics of our view and the restaurant inhabitants.

Then Celeste and I had a little fun with the camera in my room one night...she was taking crazy photos of me and then would hide when I tried to take photos of her. It's nearly impossible to see her in the photos of her, isn't it?? (Super-stealth-hiding-mode)

Then, last Wednesday, Celeste decided that she wanted to dress herself in what she just knew would match. So she found her Christmas dress from when she was 2 years old, and put it with a jean skirt, ivory socks and brown shoes. Boy, was that girl proud of her outfit!!!!

This next photo requires a bit of explanation. After succeeding with being able to wear the outfit of her choosing the day before, Celeste chose this outfit to wear to Ms. Linda's on the day they had their Christmas party. Yep, it's a dressy spring dress and casual summer sandals. But try telling her that!

The guitar and sunglasses were her gift from Ms. Linda, and Celeste said, "Mommy, I'm a Rockety-Roll Girl!" And with her wild curls coming out of her ponytail, she kind of looks the part!

Last Saturday, we received Celeste's Christmas gift from her Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Tracie, cousins Hailey and Hope. Daddy let her open the present and she loved the shiny headband and pink striped sweater. She wore them the rest of that day around the house, and had to wear the headband to church the following day (pic below).

Lastly, but not least, this past Saturday we also had our Thomasson family Christmas party. Toward the end of the party, my brother Gabe was talking on the phone. So I sat on his lap (more like abs). Then Eric sat on mine. Then Alicia and Luwannah joined. We had to see how much weight a big boy like Gabe could really take.

Family Day

2010-12-12T00:19:00.017-06:00

Today began with us lounging around the house and running a few small errands. After washing the car, Eric took my car to get an oil change and the brakes fixed. And I took some time putting a few plants in the ground in the backyard. During all of this, Celeste came out in her pajamas and set up a little "tea party" for herself. It was too cute.

Then this evening, we went to the Friendswood Christmas in the Park celebration in Stevenson Park. They had a snow hill, Santa, a Christmas train, and more. We had such a blast!

Daddy & Celeste in the snow hill area.

Mommy & Celeste at the Christmas train.

After, we drove around through Falcon Ridge, Eagle Lakes, etc., and checked out the Christmas lights. It was very interesting.

One of my favorites that we saw tonight.

Ummmmm .... ??

I think Wal-Mart is now out of inflatables.

One of the amazing houses we saw tonight was in Falcon Ridge. So neat. Here are two small cell phone videos I took of it.

Oh, and another bonus from today - we now have our washer working again! Yay!

Christmas Cheer

2010-12-10T09:21:00.018-06:00

Today when I picked up Celeste from Ms. Linda's, she was so excited to see me that she must have hugged me 5 or 6 times, very tightly. She is such a sweetheart and of all of the surprises that life brings, she was definitely the best. You can't imagine how incredible it feels to have someone so tiny and innocent think that you are wonderful and awesome and is so full of love for you, unless you have a child of your own. It's an amazing responsibility, one that I hope I don't fail her on.

We were smiling and taking silly pictures for Daddy on the way home. Just for fun.

When we got home, I finally pulled out the wreath I made last year from storage, and hung it on the front door. (Man, I need to get a storm door and re-stain our front door.) Celeste kept saying, "Mommy, I like your wrooth!" instead of wreath, ha ha. So cute! That's what she called it last year when she was only 3 years old, and apparently she remembers that way and thinks that is the only way you say "wreath."

I remember being so excited last year about making this wreath. I looked for the right ribbon, the right picks and pieces, and the perfect little snowman, all of it took a while to put together (a month maybe?). I even purchased a pack of battery-operated mini LED lights and strung them on here. But I don't use them, they're the extremely bright-white (almost blue) color.

Lastly, an old coworker sent me an email today with the following picture in it. I thought it was cute; it reminded me of Celeste using our stool to decorate the Christmas tree a few weeks ago. Have I mentioned that I love this time of year?

Ramblings About Final Exams

2010-12-08T08:13:00.006-06:00

Venting some pent-up energy...

So this week began as a week full of stress. Final exams in all four of my classes were this week, with three of them being last night between 4pm and midnight.

As yesterday afternoon wore on, I got more and more anxious about my exams. I don't remember feeling this way at San Jac, but this is a bit more serious at UHCL. So the closer 4pm came, the more nervous and anxious I became.

At just after 3:00pm, I left work and made a much-needed pit stop at the Starbucks across from NASA (my favorite), and headed in for my Managerial Accounting final. Man, I've never had so much test anxiety in my life! When he handed out the exams, I had a huge panic moment. But everything worked out. I feel pretty confident about my grade, although when talking with my study group afterwards I realized I'd made one small error in the production forecasting question/problem and I wasn't too confident about an operating leverage question. After this exam was over, I took my Programming in Pascal final in the Delta building. Then went home and took my Management Theory & Practice final online. Three finals in one night was nuts! Now I have one remaining, Money & Banking, and that will be at the campus on Thursday morning.

It looks like our little study group of 4 girls has made a firm connection. We're taking classes together next semester and are planning on getting together to do something during the holidays. I'm excited! They're awesome to work with and I love how we each help each other.

I think I want to take off on Friday to just de-stress! Perhaps spend the day watching movies, shopping or doing something outdoors? A little personal celebration for closing out this past semester is in order!

Washer Woes

2010-12-06T16:11:00.013-06:00

So as some of you already know, we've had one insane time with our washer this year. Three years ago, we purchased a Fisher & Paykel Intuitive washer from Lowe's. With warranty and taxes, we spent just barely under $1,000. Yep. On one washer. (I think the washer was around $800, then we bought an additional warranty and taxes.) We chose this one because it had great reviews and the people at Lowe's recommended it. It's design is suppose to be better, more efficient and have fewer moving parts.

Our washer began having issues a few months ago when it began giving us an error code that the pump was clogged. We checked the pump, all looked okay. We called our warranty (serviced by A&E Factory Service), and the man that came out said a fuse had blown. So the fuse was in-line with something (I don't know the terms) and a new pump had to be ordered. In the meantime, we could use our washer as long as we didn't put it on the auto-sensing cycle, and that's how we got by.

After the part arrived, another service tech from A&E came out to install the part, and he decided not to do so. He stated that he was unable to replicate the original problem, so he was going to leave the part there for us in case we ever need it.

Well, sometimes I can make dumb decisions and this was one of them. I said, "Okay, thanks," and he left. When Eric found out, he wasn't too happy (he knows way more about this stuff than I do) and he called to have them come out again and replace the part.

Mind you, our washer was working this whole time.

So A&E sent a third guy out this past Saturday. We had plans with school and all, and he was suppose to arrive between 8 and 12 noon. At almost 1pm, Eric called and found out he was still at his last house call, and would be at our house shortly. The guy arrived around 1:30pm and spent almost an hour trying to find what "Error Code 130" meant on his laptop (the last guy found it in like 2 seconds by typing it into his computer). When he finally gave up, he said that he couldn't find what that error code meant but he would go ahead and start working on replacing the part. Good grief. By this time, I was beginning to realize why he'd been so late and was feeling sorry for those who were before us on his route that day.

Another hour and a half goes by. Still not done.

I finally gave up waiting and headed out to run my errands. On my way out, he mumbled something to me. I stopped and asked what he'd said, and he repeated, "I'm gonna hafta order you some new parts. Your washer isn't working."

I immediately got angry.

I said, "I don't understand; it was working just fine this morning as long as it wasn't in the auto-sensing mode."

Technician: "Well uh, when I was tyring to install the part, I had the hose open up here in the top and it got flooded. It fried all of your electronics. They're gone. It won't even turn on now."

OH ... MY ... GOD!!!!!

Anyway, long story short, he didn't know what he was doing and fried our washer. He placed an order for another $400 in parts for our washer and it is completely dead now. Our expensive washer was totally messed up by a warranty repair man from A&E Factory Service. So I called them as soon as I left the house and made a complaint with the "Escalations Department," and I've been informed they're suppose to be calling me back about this today. Still no call yet, but I'm waiting.

After what they've done, I'm demanding a brand new washer. This is insane. I can't believe they hire people like this.

In the meantime, all family members might want to stay away. We are going Adam and Eve style. Unannounced visits might make the visitors feel uncomfortable. (Hahahaha...)

Studying & School

2010-12-05T00:11:00.005-06:00

As referenced in a previous post, I have the best group of girls to study with for my Managerial Accounting class. Every weekend before an exam (since just after the first one), we meet at Starbucks and study together for our coming exam. Doing this has raised our exam grades significantly. Each person in the group usually grasps a different aspect of what was taught, and we pull it all together. Jacqueline and Maricela are here with me in this photo taken this past Friday night; Sheila was unable to come. I love these ladies! We got together to study for our final this coming Tuesday night.

On Saturday, December 4th I was inducted into Sigma Alpha Pi at the university. I worked hard on it all semester, so I was pretty excited about being inducted. The society has many neat benefits to it and I get to wear these great-looking cords when I graduate now, too. :) Yes, I'm a nerd. But hey, it suits me and I make no apologies!

Celeste Funnies & Birthday Surprise

2010-12-01T21:27:00.011-06:00

A couple of days ago while I was bathing Celeste, she was holing her head up just above the water, using her abs. She commented, "Look at me! I'm holding my head up!" And I said, "You're using your abs, that's great." Then very matter-of-factly, she said, "Yeah, it'th cuz I work out. At the gym. Every day. And my musclth are strong." Hahahaha.

Tonight when I walked in, Celeste came running up to me with these amazingly wild flowers. The bouquet had a few protea and the petals look like feathers. Amazing. Wouldn't it be great if they would grow here? She and Eric had picked them out and they look great! And he surprised me with some gorgeous shoes that I've had my eye on for a while.

The semester is coming to an end, with finals beginning Saturday. I literally can't believe the time has flown by. Yikes.

Even More Christmas

2010-11-28T22:16:00.007-06:00

Today after the morning service, we came home and started back up on the yard. I immediately threw on tacky old clothes and mowed and edged the yard. Then came in for lunch and went back out to work on the Christmas decorations. Man, I still have some work to do on the weeds in the flower beds. Groan. But otherwise, all looks good! Even better when the sun is hiding. ;)

Believe it or not, I still have a few more things to do. I need to bring out the wreath, add a few things to the new garland around the front door, and then of course the much-needed weed pulling in the flowers beds. Then I'll be done!

More Christmas Prep

2010-11-27T23:33:00.023-06:00

This morning, Eric let me sleep in to catch up on my lost sleep from the last few nights. When I woke up around 10:00am, this is what I found in the living room. This is what happens when you leave the men in charge!

This evening, we began putting up our lights outside the house. It's going to be one of those 2-day projects, since we're only halfway done. However, instead of putting up the white icicle lights that we've done every year, we went with red C9 bulbs. Still debating on adding the icicles, but I'm thinking we shouldn't. We still need to bring out the snowmen, wreath, red mini lights to stripe the front column like a candy cane, and I need to rework the decoration around the door. But hey, it's a start.

After we were too frozen from putting the lights up outside, Eric came in the house and made some fresh homemade hot cocoa. He puts vanilla and almond extract in his recipe, and it's awesome! So we had some of this and I could feel my fingers again!

I added some fresh clippings that I picked up today at Lowe's to some of the decorations in the guest bathroom. Eric went with me to Hobby Lobby and he found these great bells for the bathroom. Yeah, I said he. I never would have thought, "Hmmm, those huge metal looking bells would look great in the bathroom." But they do!

I love this bathroom. The pine cones are scented with cinnamon and the fresh clippings smell amazing. I'm loving it. It's like a cute little rustic haven with precious touches of Celeste's handiwork.

This next photo is of the tired, pleased face of a girl who finally got a few things accomplished this week! And yes, I earned every one of those bags under my eyes. Worked hard for them. ;)

Thanksgiving Week

2010-11-26T18:38:00.028-06:00

Where in the world do I begin? This week has been absolutely full of interesting days and events.

As I stated in my previous post, Celeste was sent home from daycare on Tuesday due to a high fever. I ended up keeping her at home on Wednesday as well, for the same fever. She had no other symptoms, until late Wednesday afternoon when she told me that her throat hurt when she tried to swallow. So we took her to the UTMB after hours clinic in League City, and found out that she has strep.

Ugh, strep. The night before Thanksgiving. And we had to keep her away from family for 24 hours, so we spent Thanksgiving Day at home, in our pajamas.

It was fun to lounge around all day and look at ads for Black Friday. I'd pulled out the laptop and was planning my day on Friday, with Celeste and Eric helping. The kitchen table was covered in ads.

While we were going through the ads, Celeste drew this beautiful picture of a Christmas tree.

Black Friday:
I was able to purchase the Toys-R-Us items online Thursday evening, and finally made it to bed around 10:30pm. Three hours later, at 1:30am, I barely rolled out of bed and dragged my drowsy self into the shower to get ready for the annual early morning trek. Roughly an hour later, I pulled into the parking lot at Fry's and text my Aunt Cyndi (who was making her way to Target).

At first, I couldn't find the line. I was surprised that at 2:30am, with the doors opening in just a short two and a half hours, there was no line. Then I saw it. There were tents. Several of them, lining the front right perimeter of Fry's. And I'm not talking about the tiny ones that could only possibly hold one toddler; there were huge, 3-room tents as well. Seriously. Now that's a bit insane.

This photo is of one of the tents that didn't pack up. The line moved right past him/her.

Funny thing though is, all of these people camped out overnight, and although I was probably the 150th person in line, I was the absolute very first to check out. And when I exited Fry's, my purchase in tow, the line was still going into the building and I was the recipient of many scared shopper stares as they watched me leaving with a purchase before they'd even entered (bwa-ha-ha).

The day then resumed with a trip to Baybrook Mall (Macy's and some aimless window shopping), then Starbucks, followed by Carter's in Pearland and a meandering trip through the Pearland Town Center.

After a while, I met up with Eric and Celeste and we went out to do some more shopping together. Celeste was feeling much better, was no longer contagious and ready to get out of the house. And I must say, she was adorable.

It was a gorgeous, cold and sunny day. And it was amazing.

Gettin Sum Edumakashun

2010-11-23T22:53:00.004-06:00

So this evening, I'm screaming inside with excitement and just have to let it out. Facebook isn't quite appropriate for this, and since this is mainly only read by my family and a few close friends, here goes.

My Day:
Ms. Linda called today just about lunch time to inform me that Celeste was running a 102.0 fever. So I left work and picked her up, and set her up on our bed with all the Netflix kid's movies she wanted to watch at her fingertips, some juice and medicine. Believe it or not, my normally on-the-go daughter stayed in bed for the remainder of the day, burning up. I think it's just one of those 24-Hour bugs that kids seem to get, so I'm going to wait it out and see how things are in the morning before taking her to the doctor.

Being Thanksgiving week, most of the classes at school have let out for the week. However, one of my classes was still having our weekly session at 4:00pm, and after Eric came home I made a mad dash up to the campus.

Managerial Accounting:
So I have this great group of girls that I study with in my Managerial Accounting class. They are awesome. We studied hard together for the last couple of tests because we all knew we had to do something after our first exam. And the study group worked; it has really paid off. I made a C on the first exam (the class average was a low 60, a D), and then an A on the next two (last week's included).

Now, the big news. At the beginning of the class, while I was still at home with Celeste, Maricela (one of the girls) had text me and let me know what my grade was on last week's exam. She asked me the last four digits of my student ID, and I waited...

...and waited

...all the while staring at my phone, just waiting for it to light up showing her response. And finally, after much anticipation, it came.

A 100!! I was the only one in the class to make a perfect score!! I'm so ecstatic! And the class average on this exam was a 66!

I'm just still in shock. The professor isn't counting our first exam grade at all, it's been thrown out. So in a class that freaked me out after the first exam, I'm now passing with an A+ average.

It may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me! I'm loving it!

After School:
And then after class, I came home to find my sweetheart snuggled up in our bed, thumb in mouth and blanket in her other hand. She was still warm but still sat straight up in bed just to give me a tight hug and tell me how much she missed my being gone. She warms my heart.

Christmas Weekend

2010-11-21T23:34:00.012-06:00

This weekend began with another Thomasson family tradition, the Friendswood Christmas Homes Tour. We met at one of the houses shortly after 1:00pm on Saturday and "Ooohed" and "Awwwed" over the decorations, and there were a few stunned gasps. After the first house (which had a Christmas tree decorated like a Santa Claus), we made the trek to Starbucks and spent a little family time drinking the warm drinks of the season. Then we visited the remaining three houses. I love the tour. It's so much fun every year.

Our day ended with bringing down the Christmas decorations in the Taylor household from the attic. Man, do we have a lot! Celeste was ecstatic about putting up the tree and the train that we have that goes underneath, so we began decorating the house. While we were getting the decorations sorted out, Celeste was playing with her little nativity figurines that were handed down to her from my cousin, Emily. Emily played with this set when she was Celeste's age, or a little younger. Now that she's in college, Emily's graduated to a different type of decorating interest and has graciously shared these little guys with Celeste. Celeste's first thing she said this year when I gave her the little set was, "Mom! Where's the other Jesus?!" As if there were suppose to be two. Ha!

While we were putting together the tree (I somehow forgot to take any pictures of the tree), Celeste was filming us. Of course, this was after she'd given up on hanging ornaments on it herself.

And then I began working on the guest bathroom. It's Celeste's bathroom, really, and I think I'm going to go with a theme more about her this year where I can. In the bathroom, I've hung up a cute little foam wreath that she glued together in Christmas 2008 (she was two), and also a Christmas tree made of her hand prints that she created at Ms. Linda's last year, in 2009 (she was three).

I still need to bring out the garland, and there's a but more to do in here. But for now, it is slowly starting to come together.

Okay, I didn't have these present things meant for the dining table, but Eric likes them so they're staying. I need to work on this a bit more if it's going to stay this way as well. I'm thinking some ribbons? Maybe some picks, I don't know. We'll see!

Celeste is so excited about Christmas. Now that we have the tree up, she keeps asking me if it's Christmas time yet. Thanksgiving hasn't even come yet!

Family Outing

2010-11-19T21:28:00.004-06:00

With the work week behind us, we took a little time to relax as a family this evening at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants, 888 Bistro. Here are a few photos from the evening.

One of the many perks about 888 Bistro are the little treats they bring you when you've finished your meal. The oranges are sliced and topped with cherries. Yummy!

Just a Few Years Ago...

2010-11-18T14:34:00.005-06:00

Three years ago this month, I captured this sweet little video of Celeste playing on our kitchen table. The table was tiny, the flooring still our original builder's carpet, but I wouldn't trade anything for these moments we had with our baby. She was climbing all over the table, saying, "Oooooh, Daddy!" and just being adorable. I miss those precious nearly two-year-old moments!

November 2007

One Little Indian

2010-11-17T21:20:00.004-06:00

This evening, as I was walking up to Ms. Linda's house to pick up Celeste, she came running towards me with this cute little hat she'd made flopping behind her. My little indian. She kept singing that she was a girl indian and she had made her little indian feather hat.

I had this huge craving for soup (it's one of those cravings that I can't seem to satisfy, so we made a pit stop at the awesome HEB in Friendswood. Everyone we passed smiled at Celeste and her indian feathers.

The soup ended up being delicious. I threw a lot of things together, and it was packed full of chicken. SO YUM! Okay, time to go to bed. Night all.

Six Years

2010-11-14T22:27:00.010-06:00

Yesterday marked the sixth year that we've been married. I didn't know what we were going to do, but Eric had told me that he had something special planned for us. The day began with a quick Christmas ritual - a trip with my Aunt Cyndi to Jackie's private show in El Lago.

Then that afternoon, we took Celeste to my mom's and we went for a nice little trip to Starbucks in Baybrook and walked the mall a bit. And after, we drove up to the Spindletop restaurant at the Hyatt Regency for an amazing dinner and a wonderful time.

Dinner began with the Spindletop's Signature Avocado Dome, and Eric had the Blackened Red Snapper while I had the Filet Mignon. We were stuffed, and weren't planning on doing dessert there because we'd decided on going to The Chocolate Bar afterwards. However, our waiter brought us a Chocolate Souffle and wow, it was incredibly delicious.

Those are rose petals on our table.

Afterwards, we went to the Chocolate Bar anyway, and purchased something small for Celeste, and then we drove back to our part of town and saw "Megamind." Yep, a kid's movie. But man, was it funny!

The day turned out to be quite wonderful, and I really enjoyed it. And the weather was so nice!!! These six years have really flown by fast.

Chocolate Heaven & Randomness

2010-11-12T11:08:00.014-06:00

So tomorrow is our big day. At shortly after 2:00pm tomorrow afternoon, Eric and I will have been married for 6 years. It's hard to believe, the time has flown by. More about that tomorrow.

About a year and a half ago, I decided I was fed up with my weight and shape and decided to do something about it. Along the way, I lost about 30 pounds, went from a size 12 to a 4/6 and began working out 4-5 days/week. It was great when Eric began working out with me, too. We'd meet at the gym at the end of our work days and motivate each other. But slowly, things in life have happened to where we don't really do that much anymore. To be truthful, it's 1-2 times/week that we go now, and I wish it was more. This week, I've been sick and those of you who workout know that when you're sick, it feels like you can't do anything when you're working out, or that your have horrible workouts. But last week, we were just busy or too tired. I really miss going to the gym every day!

Why did I say all of that at the beginning of a blog called "Chocolate Heaven?" Here's why. One of my guilty pleasures is chocolate. I love it. If it's in the house, I'll eat it. One of the things I had to change about my eating habits was to make sure we didn't keep any chocolate in the house.

So my dear, sweet husband brought me home a surprise the other evening. He walked in with this bag, and I knew. The purple bag carried the gold metallic logo of one of my favorite dessert places, ever, The Chocolate Bar.

What laid there in waiting were four layers of chocolate cake, each held together by difference types of chocolate filling, and a rich chocolate icing on the top and side, with a smattering of toffee bits on the top. There isn't much about food that really excites me, but this ... is ... amazing! And it's huge, larger than my palm completely spread out.

As I indulged in every bite (of course I shared it, couldn't put this away by myself), I closed my eyes and just focused on the delicious chocolate symphony in my mouth. It was divine. It wasn't until I neared bite 9 or 10 that I thought, "Oh my God, the calories I'm putting away!!" and I stopped. But those bites were heavenly. And yes, my husband is a sweetheart for being so thoughtful.

Poser

2010-11-11T22:44:00.018-06:00

So today, Celeste and I had the luxury of staying home while Daddy went to work. We played, giggled, watched movies, made messes, drew pictures, grabbed Chinese food for lunch and had a fabulous day.

One of the things she and I do together involves making funny faces, lots of tickling and running around the house. This afternoon, she and I were on my bed, watching "The Velveteen Rabbit" together on our new wall-mounted TV (that only cost us $44). We started making our funny faces, and hers were so cute! We took pictures and sent them to Daddy while he was working.

She is quite adorable, if I do say so myself.

Special Book

2010-11-10T20:49:00.008-06:00

When she walked in the door this afternoon, Celeste was bouncing with excitement about her book that she made at Ms. Linda's. She showed me the cover first, and slowly read through what was printed on it, "This book be-longs to Celeste!" Then she asked me to sit down and she flipped through every page for me, proudly displaying her handiwork. Ms. Linda had given her lots of magazines, etc. full of pictures which Celeste had carefully selected and cut out, then glued onto each page.

(And yes, for all of you who will notice, I'm wearing my Deer Park sweatshirt! Haha)

Sweet Prayers

2010-11-10T09:39:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, I was in my Managerial Accounting class at UHCL when I missed a phone call from Ms. Linda, Celeste's daycare provider. So I stepped out of class and found a spot in the atrium where I could get signal, and returned the call.

Imagine, Ms. Linda does not usually call unless something is wrong. So my heart was racing. Millions of thoughts were rushing through my mind. So when she answered, the first thing Ms. Linda said was, "You know that area in the daycare where I keep the foam blocks? Next to the metal shelves?"

Panic. My heart began pounding. "Yes?" I said.

"Well, your daughter was over there playing and she cut herself. It was a very tiny cut on her finger, but she did the cutest thing!"

Relief. A tiny cut, whew! No trips to the ER tonight.

Then Ms. Linda continued, "She said, I have to go pray for this, and she went and knelt behind the little cubby and literally prayed for her tiny cut!"

I can just imagine her now, eyes closed, hands clasped and asking Jesus to take care of her little tiny cut. So cute!

When I asked her this morning to show me how she had prayed for her cut (I'd wanted to take a picture of her pose), she said very matter-of-factly, "I can't remember what I said."

I love her. With all of my heart.

Ribbons and Bows and Tea Parties

2010-11-07T17:35:00.013-06:00

This evening finds me sitting in bed, surrounded by a mound of pillows and an array of textbooks, laptop in hand. School work isn't easy when you have a family and a career, but it's important so here I am (writing a blog, haha).

Celeste came in here while Eric was out getting something for us to eat, and in her extremely excited way, she shouted, "Mommy! Mommy!! Come here and see what I made!" Then she took off running, her little feet making that soft pitter-patter sound on our wood floors. I followed her to her bathroom, where she had arranged some of her tea set on the side of the bathtub, and had placed her hair ribbons and bows carefully on each piece. She was so excited about her handiwork that I had to take a photo and share it.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day at a Leadership Training Conference at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. It's part of my requirement, and the best part of the conference was hearing Troy Stende. He was a great speaker and was very motivational. One of the things that he said that has really stuck with me was "The things that we say affect us on a cellular level," and he showed how positive words are very empowering. He handed all of us these blue ribbons that said, "Who I Am Makes A Difference," and today, I gave one to Celeste. I sat her down, had both of her tiny little hands in mine and I told her how special she is to me, and how much I love her and adore her. She's the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen and has the best smile and personality, and I made sure that she knew that today. I would say that I wish you could have seen her smile, but she kept that same smile all day; she was shining from the inside out. And she has not taken off her little blue ribbon.

She is the most beautiful person and I hope that I never forget to let her know that every single day for the rest of her life.

Sweetheart

2010-11-05T23:42:00.004-05:00

Celeste was posing for the camera tonight while playing on our bed, and I had to post these.

Then I walked in and found her in the bathroom, playing with my curlers and saying, "I look like Mommy!" Moments like these make me smile.

Morning Surprises

2010-11-04T11:47:00.002-05:00

This morning was not a good morning for me. Without going into the unnecessary details, it was just a rough start to the day.

I made it to work and was on the phone when I looked up to see my husband walking in. It totally caught me off guard. He stood there at the edge of my desk with a Pumpkin Spice Latte in one hand and a Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffin in the other. Forget calorie counting today (or forget lunch). But this one simple gesture, completely unanticipated, made me smile; completely, genuinely, and off guard.

Thank you, Eric. You changed my day.

I'm a Big Girl Now

2010-11-01T21:39:00.006-05:00

Right after we got home from the gym, Celeste put on her daddy's gym shoes. And of course she was too cute for me not to take any pics.

Then when she was getting ready for bed, she had to pick out and put on her own pajamas; all by herself. Then she came bouncing into the room, proudly displaying her handiwork at buttoning her own pajamas (and completely doing them lopsided). I brought out the camera and she began posing.

I'm torn when looking at these photos. I still see the 6 pound, 3 ounce baby girl in her, but also the changing features of my baby girl rapidly growing up into a beautiful young lady.

Ode to Starbucks

2010-11-01T14:48:00.003-05:00

You know that time, everyone knows it. It's the time in the afternoon where your metabolism slows to less than a crawl and the only thing keeping you from removing the tape on your eyelids is the boss sitting outside your door or cubicle. It hits us all like a ton of bricks. And most of us have found the solution.

This afternoon found me making a quick trip to the Starbucks across the street from the office to remedy the mid-afternoon hump. While in the drive-thru line, the barista asked how my Halloween went, what costume I wore (as if), and how my daughter enjoyed it.

Then she said it; she sees me just about every day in the drive-thru or in the store. I had to smile. Yes, it's probably an addiction. But hey, ever since they've brought out the Pumpkin Spice Latte this season, I haven't been able to say no!

October Princess

2010-10-31T21:44:00.008-05:00

This year for her Halloween party at her daycare, Celeste was a princess. Here are a few pictures from her party.

She is my beautiful lilttle princess. And boys, back off; she already has a boyfriend!

Ballunarfest 2010

2010-10-31T16:17:00.032-05:00

Yesterday morning found us hurriedly bundling up in layers and rushing to catch the sunrise at the Johnson Space Center where the 2010 Ballunar Festival was to take place.

Celeste was extremely excited when she saw the first balloon appear on the horizon. As more appeared and they began to compete with the hula toss and such before landing, her excitement was very high.

The pink and yellow balloon on the above right is Celeste's favorite. She was ecstatic about this pink balloon, and even wanted to see the photos that I took of it as I was preparing this blog. The funny thing is, this pink and yellow, girl's favorite of a balloon was provided by the Precinct 8 Constable's department.

And yes, she chose this outfit out all by herself. Every peice matches in her opinion.

Black Friday Preparations

2010-10-29T14:24:00.009-05:00

So as most of you know, I'm a Black Friday addict. The second year we were married, I spent half the amount that I'd spent on Christmas gifts the year before, and ended up with better gifts. So I'm hooked. Each year, I spend Thanksgiving Day scouring the ads and planning routes, then get a few hours of sleep that night and wake up at about 2am to go stand in line at the place I want to get to the most.

Last year, my Aunt Cyndi showed me this website where she gets these comical shirts to wear during her shopping adventures on Black Friday. She sent me a link to one today that got me started. And now I thought I'd share these shirts that are making me chuckle.

A Little Therapy...

2010-10-28T14:05:00.004-05:00

One of my sweet coworkers brings me and my coworker, Sara, little Dove chocolates every now and then. I enjoy reading the sayings on the inside of the foil wrapper, and today's made me chuckle.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Gift From Spain

2010-10-27T13:27:00.006-05:00

So when I arrived into work this morning, I received the following email from a coworker:

Hi Amanda,

Sorry I missed you on Tuesday. I left a small presie in your top drawer of your desk – in thanks for all your help and patience in working on my EXO proposal. It is from a small village in the high Pyrenees of Spain. Hope you enjoy it – and thanks again!

Dorothy

I'm so excited! Chocolate con leche y avellanas = chocolate with milk and hazelnuts. From Spain!!

From My Daughter's Eyes

2010-10-26T09:35:00.016-05:00

This past Sunday we met my sister, brother and his girlfriend, and her parents at Kelley's in League City for lunch. It was our first time to meet Luwannah's family, and we had a nice time.

One of Celeste's favorite past times in restaurants (other than checking out every single bathroom every time we enter one) is to take pictures of her surroundings with my cell phone. This time was no different, and I thought I would post these photos that she's so proud of for everyone else to see.

And then Mommy had to take a picture of Celeste "hiding."

Crocodile Tears

2010-10-25T12:12:00.003-05:00

This Friday, when I picked up Celeste from daycare, she was asking me how old she is. While driving, I told her she's 4 years old. Immediately, she began crying. I mean, heart-wrenching sobs that let you know you've really just hurt her feelings. When I asked her why she was crying, she said, "But Mommy, Ms. Susan said I'm 45 pounds! I'm not 4, I'm 5!"

So then I had to explain to her that our age isn't necessarily what we weigh (thank God).

Ruffles and Red

2010-10-22T13:57:00.006-05:00

So today for lunch, I met my sister, Alicia, at Cafe Express. After, we went shopping at Kirkland's and I found these amazing pillows that would look wonderful on our couches! The ones I have right now are getting old and a bit worn looking with our toddler. best of all, these are covered in ruffles!! I love them!

But when I text Eric to ask him about purchasing them, his reply was simply this:

I guess that's a good thing. He helps keep my spending in line. Ha ha!

Blooms of Fall

2010-10-22T09:50:00.030-05:00

Fall has arrived to southern Texas, bringing it's cool evenings and mid 80s afternoon highs. The bees have been busily working and the blooms are becoming abundant in my backyard. I love opening the blinds and gazing at all of the beautiful colors in the backyard when I'm home.

One of the drawbacks of being in school full-time through the spring, summer and fall is that I haven't been able to devote the amount of time needed to my back beds. By the time I got around to getting rid of the weeds brought on by last winter, and removing the plants that were killed by the winter frosts and chilling breezes that we were blessed with last year, my Coral Vine had gone wild and was sporting full flushes of blooms. This isn't a bad thing, however it hosts hundreds of bees every day, working dilligently around the whole vine. (Yes, I have TONS of seeds and will have many more seedlings this next spring.) While pouring mulch in a nearby flowerbed, I made several bees angry and did get chased a few times. So that flowerbed is off limits to my gardening hands until the vine dies back in the winter.

The Coral Vine was a gift from my sweet Aunt Cyndi. I'd received it as a seedling from her one year, and it took off and makes the bakyard absolutely gorgeous every year from Spring through Fall. Because I haven't been able to keep it trimmed back this year however, it has grown into 3 of my neighbor's backyards, including one's very tall tree. Yikes. I hope they don't mind!

The long yellow and orange flowers that are hanging in these photos are from some of my Angel Trumpet plants (Brugmansia). These grow pretty tall like trees, and have beautiful blooms. They respond very well to lots of general fertilizer, but I haven't been doing that this year. They still look stunning to me!

One of my evergreen favorites is this Tangerine Beauty Crossvine. It's full of dark green leaves year-round, and has massive flushes of blooms in the Spring. It also helps hide some of the car wash next door from our view in the backyard. One of these days, I may have to cut this one back significantly (if we ever need to get a new fence); but for now, this one is quite stunning and really does the job.

And I can't leave out one of Celeste's favorites, the Ruellia brittoniana (aka. Katie Blue). This one grows in small clusters and was also a gift from my sweet Aunt Cyndi.

Here's to each of you and your families; I hope you have a wonderful Fall!

Hay, Animals and Germ-X

2010-10-18T09:54:00.062-05:00

This past Saturday we went to the Brazoria County Fair Association's Annual Fair Parade, a Taylor family tradition ever since Celeste was born. We woke her up early in the morning, grabbed donuts and kolaches (ugh, I know, horrible!!), and made the long drive down to Angleton to get our spots near the beginning. Celeste was so excited!!

She was especially thrilled when she found out her cousins were coming to join her. She knows how to say Katelyn's name the right way, but refuses to do so. So we kept hearing, "Guys, when is Klay-klyn going to be here? Is she close yet?" She was so full of excitement, and when all the girls arrived the parade had just begun. The firetrucks were coming by, blaring their syrens (and scaring me to death), and every float that was giving out candy always made their way to Chelsey (who shared her treasures with the others very sweetly). The girls were loaded with candy and had a blast watching all of the floats go by. Us parents, however, were getting quite warm as the morning wore on (but hey, I'm not complaining, it was a lot of fun and I got to take pics).

Their favorite part of the parade, hands down, were the horses. There was one part that had "dancing horses," and they loved those. Not as neat as the ones in the Friendswood July 4th parade, but still pretty cool! It seemed there were more horses this year than in years past.

After the parade, we took the girls to the BCFA fair and wore them out some more. We like to try to get pictures of all the girls together when we can (which is difficult with so many; I'm sure you can imagine).

Celeste really enjoyed "milking the cow" in this little area that they had set up for the kids. She did a great job!

Then she was able to actually pet a real cow that I think was getting ready for judging, and she loved that! Can you see the amazed look on her face?

Afterwards, I had to send Luwannah a photo of this delicious homemade fudge that we bought at the fair. She was at the gym and doing cardio in preparation for her show this coming Saturday (2010 NPC Texas State & IFBB Houston Pro in Stafford). It was delicious!!

Beautiful Colors

2010-10-15T10:40:00.009-05:00

So the other day, I wasn't feeling very well. I'd left work early to go home and rest, and did so most all of the afternoon. I woke up to find Celeste in the dining room, sitting at our table and coloring these beautiful pictures of flowers that she'd drawn for me. It was the sweetest thing. Her curls were once again going crazy all around her face, and she was diligently coloring with all of her efforts. At first, she didn't even notice me standing there. So I was able to snap a few pictures of her with my cell phone while she was coloring.

As you can see, she was so intense! She sticks her tongue out of her mouth when she's focusing really hard on something. So cute! I love the way she looks here. And then there's that winning smile. That beautiful, dimpled smile with those dancing eyes and the chipped tooth. She was so excited to take a photo with me showing her artwork. I am not ready for her to grow up. I'm not ready to be the "Mom" who doesn't know anything about anything. I still want her to be my tiny little baby girl.

Pigtails, Thumbs, Blankets and School

2010-10-14T09:51:00.012-05:00

As the first half of the Fall semester wraps up, Eric and I frequently find ourselves discussing Celeste's education. What are we going to do? We are both in school and work full-time, and a move would just add to our already stressed lives. Neither of us wants our child to go to public school in Alvin either.

We have been blessed with the best daycare provider in the world, Ms. Linda. I'd highly recommend her to anyone looking for quality care for their child. Celeste has known her ABC's since just before she was 2, and at her age of 4 now, she can spell her name, write it out, and spell out words. She's also writing words and sounding them out, and hasn't even been to Kindergarten nor any Pre-K program. Ms. Linda does not use the TV as a babysitter; she's amazing. After being so spoiled, how are we going to find an educational program that will encourage our daughter to excel? So the search is on.

One of the things I'm not looking forward to when she does start school next year is dealing with her having to say goodbye to her pink satin blanket. She's had the blanket since she was born; I used to wrap her in it tightly like a burrito and she would play with the satin and rub it in between her tiny fingers. Then it quickly became the blanket in her left hand, and her right thumb in her mouth. (Yes, braces are in our future for sure.) We've slowly began taking the blanket away for small durations of time, but need to be more proactive about doing that often.

I walked into the dining area yesterday to find her in her usual spot; feet tucked under, blanket in left hand (can't see in the picture), right thumb in mouth and watching a movie on her laptop. For a moment, I just stared at her. This beautiful angel has been entrusted to me. The thought is overwhelming, and I really want to make her proud.

Cupcake Madness

2010-10-10T23:17:00.025-05:00

I don't know why, but I get this incredible urge to fill the house with the savory smells of baking around this time of the year. Well, it started again this past Saturday. And I had a little helper this time.

By the time it was all said and done, we'd made over 50 cupcakes; half were strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing and the other half were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing.

Afterwards, I had a LOT of icing left and to much chagrin, I tossed the remains out. It was so hard to do!!! And of course, I've given away about half of them so far.

Then this morning, while getting Celeste ready for church, she couldn't resist licking the icing (after being told not to because she hadn't had anything healthy yet and was refusing to eat anything healthy). So I came in and found those dancing blue eyes staring up at me with the "deer in headlights" look. When I asked her what happened to those two cupcakes, she immediately began searching for a plausible explanation. After many "Uuuuumm's" and "Uhhhhhh's," I finally got the following:

"Mommy, I think my finger must have done it. Yeah, and I think it was an accident, so it's okay."

There are certain moments in a mother's life when you just can't keep a straight face.

Amazing Fall

2010-10-08T13:43:00.004-05:00

So in an attempt to succumb to the "soccer mom" enigma with which I've been labeled (thanks, Alicia), this is my attempt to join the craze of blogging moms.

While going through some old photos today, I came across one of Celeste when she was just about a year old, perhaps a few months past. As you can see, she has her hands in the dirt with those wispy blond curls wrapping around her porcelain cheeks and her long eyelashes cover her piercing blue eyes as she intensely focuses all of her efforts on helping me "pull weeds" (aka Liriope). I remember this day very well. It was a beautiful afternoon, one of those perfect ones that just screams at you to throw your hands in the dirt. As I was on my way out the back door, Celeste saw me and hurriedly grabbed her Dora clogs and rushed outside to be with me. How I miss those days!

This morning was another one of those amazing mornings that we've been having. The kind where it's chilly enough to need a light coat for the ride to work, but full of bright sunshine and the smell of Fall. I must say, Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons of the year. There's something about them that just screams, "Amazing!" I can't wait to get back out in the yard with my Little Gardener.