Quote Of The Day...

“He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”
- Francisco de Quevedo

Goodbye Christmas...

We had a great Christmas and I hope all of you did too. We were able to see almost all of both of our huge families but we were on the road a lot. I really didn't get bogged down with all the rush of the season that makes some people hate Christmas... I had my shopping done way in advance and everything was pretty relaxed. I must have been extra nice this year because I got way more presents than I needed. My husband especially spoiled me rotten and also used one of his days off work to take care of me while I had a 12-hour stomach virus. My Christmas tree and all the other Christmas decorations are still up, but hopefully I'll get them down before New Year's.

Quote of The Day...

"You cannot find love where it does not truly exist, and you can't hide it where it truly does." -Kissing A Fool

Quote of The Day...

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us"

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Quote of The Day...

"No matter what you do or where you go, or even what you try to achieve or master- whatever you accomplish will not amount to anything without love."

Quote of The Day...

"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I send out almost 100 Christmas cards every year, but only about 35 of them get Christmas pictures.... here are the pictures in case you didn't get one.... and if you didn't get a card from me then send me your address! I have a stack that I didn't get addresses for but are stamped and ready to mail.

The Gift Of The Magi...

My grandfather Bayless loved this story and always told it around Christmas time. He had a way of telling this story that caused the lesson of the story to touch the listener much more than O. Henry's full version. In fact, O. Henry's version sucks compared to my grandfather's. I would give anything to have him here this Christmas to tell me this story again.

----------------------------------------------------------

The Gift Of The Magi

By: O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young.

"The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade."

Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand."

Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically."

If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him."Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor."

Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously."You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table."

Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

Lyrics of The Day...

Teenage girl much too young
Unprepared for what's to come
A baby changes everything

Not a ring on her hand
All her dreams and all her plans
A baby changes everything

The man she loves she's never touched
How will she keep his trust
A baby changes everything

..She has to leave, go far away
Heaven knows she can't stay
A baby changes everything

She can feel it's coming soon
There's no place there's no room
A baby changes

Shepherds all gather 'round
Up above the star shines down
A baby changes everything

Choir of angels sing
Glory to the newborn king
A baby changes everything

...My whole life has turned around
I was lost, but now I'm found
A baby changes everything, yeah
A baby changes everything

-Faith Hill

Quote of The Day...

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle."

-Albert Einstein

Quote of The Day...

"Love is one of the greatest natural phenomenons in the world that all people should have blind faith in... Love is trust and certitude in the unknown."

Quote Of The Day...

“Life gives way into death and then death turns around and gives way into life”
- Secret Life of Bees

The Love Dare...

...is the book from the movie Fireproof. It was given to me by my bestest friend for Christmas and Ben and I are on "Day 8" at the moment. If you don't know already, here is the book's description from the back cover:

"The Love Dare is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It's time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. "

Each day has a Bible verse, a short lesson on the common marriage issue covered that day, and then a homework assignment. The next day you follow up on your homework assignment and then go on to the next lesson. Some of them are simple to complete, some are difficult. Like I said, I am only at "Day 8" and am not going to read ahead to see if this book turns out to be what I hope it will, but so far I definitely recommend it to everyone! If nothing else, it forces you really think about your relationship and how you both handle it.

Maybe I will update you guys later on....

Lyrics Of The Day...

I'll be true, I'll be useful, I'll be cavalier,

I'll be yours my dear

And I'll belong to you

If you just let me through


This is easy as lovers go

So don't complicate it by hesitating

This is wonderful as loving goes

This is tailor made,

What's the sense in waiting?



I said, "I've got to be honest,

I've been waiting for you all of my life."



-Dashboard Confessional

"As Lovers Go"

What Is Love?

My aunt sent this to me in an email today and it was so adorable that I had to share!

--------------------------------------------

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love..' Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that.. They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.' Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night..' Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.' Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor,the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.'

Quote of The Day...

"A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself."

- Josh Billings

Up Early & Crying...

Maybe it's really so funny that laughing so hard that I cry when I read it makes sense, or maybe I am a little delirious from being up for so long. Either way, check out this post at Cake Wrecks!

Quote Of The Day...

“A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other…Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever”

Poem of The Day...

Unless we take a chance or two
in order to begin,
there's nothing we can hope to gain,
no prize that we can win.
We must accept uncertainty,
must set our doubts aside,
be brave enough to take a loss
or set back to our pride.
We should not be afraid of change,
nor be afraid to dare-
if we just take a chance
life holds rewards beyond compare.
-Emily Matthews

Quote of The Day...

"What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows."

Photo Sneak Peak :)

My sister Sarah took our Christmas card picture for us this weekend, and I'll post the pictures that we used later. It was anything but easy getting all 4 of us to look at the camera (with everyone's mouth closed!) and look presentable for a Christmas card picture!! For now, here are the pictures of our little photo shoot that show the difficulty of that day!

Quote of The Day...

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more."

-Erica Jong

Watch Out For Recliners In the Highway!

Last night we went to a Christmas party and then went bowling with some other friends and didn't make it home until almost 2 a.m. That was the latest we have stayed out in a looooong time, and we were so tired after Sunday School this morning that we ate lunch and then went home and slept until 3:30 p.m.! The long nap was great but now Ben and I aren't going to be able to sleep tonight, so don't be surprised if I post a late night blog... late at night is about the only time I get in the "blogging mood" anyway.



Okay, now to my very important point...

Besides other vehicles, pedestrians, pieces of tires, and animals, apparently you also have to look out for pieces of furniture in the highway while driving. I didn't know this, so the other night I ramped a recliner in my Acura TL! As you may have guessed, this was very unexpected and quite traumatic while it happened, but immediately afterwards was fun! Ben and I pulled over to assess the damage, and the truck which spilled the furniture didn't pull over to check on us. So of course, Ben jumps into the back seat (why the back seat? your guess is as good as mine.) and starts yelling, "GO! GO! Catch him!". So I race down the highway (in the rain), weave through traffic, and drive faster than I ever have to catch up to the truck and get his tag number while Ben is cheering me on from the backseat. Exhilarating!

**UPDATE**
Yes, we caught the guy and no, I never got a police report because the police never showed up! But, the guy turned out to be a pretty good person and filed a claim for me on his insurance anyway, and hopefully my car will be ready this week!

Quote of The Day...

"Never be afraid to try something new; remember, amaterurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic."

Quote of The Day...

"Love is a state in which man see things most decidedly as they are not."

Quote of The Day...

"I return to my sin like a dog to his vomit."

-Johnathan Edwards

Quote of The Day...

"Scalded cats fear even cold water."

- Thomas Fuller

...I was in 9th grade when I found this quote (another one that I got out of my quote book that I started years and years ago) and at the time didn't understand the significance of it. Now it is one of my favorites.

SNOW!!

Christmas Picture Posing= Early Presents?

....these two were sure hoping so!

Samson and Delilah KNOW there are gifts for them under the tree. They nudge and sniff the correct packages every evening. When I finally called them into the dining room by the tree, they got so excited.... "Is it present time?" is what I could tell they were asking! I had to tell them no, it is only picture time :(

They so eagerly followed my instructions for picture posing. I did not let them open anything early, but they did get treats!

Quote of The Day...

"At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet."

-Plato

Lyrics Of The Day...

Take me as I am, take my life.
I would give it all, I would sacrifice.
Don't tell me it's not worth fighting for,
I can't help it, there's nothing I want more.

-Bryan Adams
"(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"

Fun Fact: This song went to #1 in 30 countries and

won a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically

For A Motion Picture Or For Television in 1992.

Need A Laugh??

... then PLEASE go check out these Naked Mohawk Carrot Jockey's over at Cake Wrecks!!!!!!!!!!!

This post may be her funniest ever! :)

Quote of The Day...

"Love is something that no one person can fix the limits of, because it is as infinite and mysterious as the stars that it's written on."

Quote Of The Day...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

This Week....

I've been in Dallas at our National Sales Conference, and here are some pictures from the trip! Sam, here is the picture of the dress that you asked for :)

Quote Of The Day...

"Moments like these are the ones time saves."

-Rick Neal

Quote Of The Day...

I know I've already posted one section of this song for the quote for another day, but I love this entire song, so I want to give you guys all the lyrics...

"A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last.
I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving
Oh the days go by so fast


And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think that I could be forgiven, I wish you would


The smell of hospitals in winter,
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl


And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think you might come to California, I think you should


Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after 2 a.m.
And talked a little while about the year.
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her


And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last.
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass


And it's one more day up in the canyon
And it's one more night in Hollywood
It's been so long since I've seen the ocean, I guess I should"


-Counting Crows
"A Long December"

Quote of The Day...

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one."

-Henry Ward Beecher