Christmas Lights

We FINALLY did a Christmas activity as a family tonight! I was feeling pretty decent so we decided to head over to Thanksgiving Point and see their light show that you drive through. We picked up some yummy sandwiches from Kneaders and ate as we drove around. Colton loved pointing everything out, especially the candy canes and Santa. Those are his favorites.

This is the end result of giving a 2-year a sandwich, sugar cookie and chocolate milk with no supervision. Very messy!!

Friday Randoms 12/17/10

• I think I skipped doing this last week, but not much is happening around here unless you want to know the amount of TV watching that is happening daily and the details of my puke. =)
• Colton had a huge breakthrough yesterday....he pooped on the toilet!! I'm not really focusing on potty training at all right now and don't plan on it until I feel less pukey, so I'm happy that he's doing all this on his own. Big boy Colton!!
• Colton's also climbing out of his crib, a lot. I really wanted to wait until he turned three to move him to a bed, but it's looking like it will be happening sooner. He's also wanting me to rock him to sleep, which is very out of the ordinary. Is that normal for a toddler to regress with his sleep habits?
• I still haven't done a thing for Christmas, except buy presents for extended family. Nothing is wrapped, sent off, etc. I don't even have a tree up....it's pretty lame around here! But luckily Colton doesn't know any different so he's not feeling like a deprived child.
  

MIA

Why I've been MIA lately. And will be for awhile....
Yes, I'm super pukey just like I was with Colton. Although I must say that it's MUCH better to be pukey at home than at work every day. And I'm so grateful for wonderful neighbors, friends, and family who entertain Colton for me. If it weren't for them, he'd be laying in bed with me watching 12 hours of cartoons and movies every day.

We are so blessed and excited for the new addition!! Baby #2 is due right around Colton's birthday, so they'll be almost exactly 3 years apart (which is nice for my sanity). It took us awhile to get pregnant and I had a miscarriage this spring, so we're happy that things are working out better this time around.

So needless to say, I'm not going to be blogging a ton. I can't sit at the computer for too long before feeling really sick. Oh, and I also have no energy to do Christmas cards, neighbor gifts, or pretty much anything else but know that I love you and am thinking of you!!

Book Review - Decision Points

Summary: Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.

In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family.

My Thoughts: Because I love reading autobiographies/biographies and was highly interested in what President Bush had to say about his time in office, I ended up really like this book. It gave me a whole new view on Bush as a person, why he made certain decisions, and learned about positive things he did while he was in office that I had never heard about before. The media plays such a huge part in defining someone that it's nice to let them have a say and learn why certain things were done and said. I wish that every President would write a book like this after their term so we can understand things better. I would recommend this book to people who like autobiographies, who are President Bush fans, or would like to know why he made some of the decisions he made.

Friday Randoms 12/3/10

• My computer is finally fixed! Hallelujah!!! So much to catch up on.....
  
• Last week Colton got a skull fracture, which I mentioned before. Here are the details - he was sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen and fell off onto the tile floor. I hurried and picked him up and rocked him in a chair for about 30 minutes and he was acting a little out of it. He began throwing up which I know means you have a concussion so I took him straight to the ER. He got a CAT scan and there's a small fracture on the back of his head. The doctors observed him for 4 hours and then released us. Two hours after getting home he started throwing up bad again. So we call that ER and they told us to take him to Primary Children's Hospital for a specialist to check him out. We were there for 2 hours and they ran some neurological tests and was fine. The concussion was making him throw up a lot. So when we finally got home around 4am, we all slept in until 10am and then just took it easy. We've had a lot of movie days around here!! It takes about a month for skull fractures to heal and we're pretty much supposed to not let him rough house and that's all. Sounds simple, right?
• Over Thanksgiving we got sick. I started throwing up, then Joe, and then eventually my mom. Needless to say, there was no Black Friday shopping. But on an up note, we didn't overeat and gain weight! The opposite happened.
  
• Joe's car died Monday night on I15 during rush hour. And it was about 2 degrees outside. He finally got it back Wednesday after a belt needed to be replaced. But that pretty much went our Christmas budget! Between Colton's two ER visits, fixing my computer, and fixing Joe's car, we used up all our Christmas money. It's ok though, we'll just make homemade gifts and focus more on the true meaning of Christmas!
• Today Colton got to go on a train ride at the mall for going pee pee on the potty 12 times and then he met Santa for his first time. He would only get on his lap if I sat next to Santa. But then Colton warmed up a bit and gave Santa a hug as well as told him all about his train ride. His favorite part of this experience was the candy cane at the end. None of the pictures they took were cute at all, so no Santa pics this year!

Book Review - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Summary: In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

My Thoughts: I've wanted to read this book for a long time and I'm kinda surprised I never had to in any business class I took. I've actually even been to the Covey house (beautiful!!) because I went to a party his son threw when I was in college. And my mom had a crush on Stephen when he was her professor. So lots of connections, but never got around to reading the book. I really enjoyed it and felt that there are great principles in there that everyone either needs to learn or just remember on a regular basis. The principles are be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw. I didn't think any of these were brand new concepts but they were all great reminders of how to be a better person..

Here are some quotes that I highlighted (via Kindle):

• "Our character, basically is a composite of our habits. Habits are powerful factors in our lives. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character and produce our effectiveness....or ineffectiveness."
• "We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. We are not even our thoughts."
• "Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. Whether is rains or shines makes no difference to them. They are value drive."
• "Reactive people are also affected by their social environment. When people treat them well, they feel well; when people don't, the become defensive or protective. Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering their weaknesses of other people to control them."
• "If feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so. Proactive people subordinate feelings to values."
• "The power to make and keep commitments to ourselves is the essence of developing the basic habits of effectiveness. Knowledge, skill and desire are all well within our control."
  
• "To begin with the end in mind means to approach my role as a parent with my values and directions clear. It also means to begin each day with those values firmly in mind. Then as the challenges come, I can make my decisions based on those values. I can act with integrity. I don't have to react to the emotion, the circumstance. I can be truly proactive, value driven, because my values are clear."
• "In Viktor Frankl's words, 'Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life....Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it."
• "The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are."
• "When parents see their children's problems as opportunities to build the relationship instead of as a negative, burdensome irritations, it totally changes the nature of the parent-child interaction. Parents become more willing, even excited, about deeply understanding and helping their children. Their paradigm is, 'Here is a great opportunity for me to really help my child and to invest in our relationship.'"
• "First, see the problem from the other point of view. Really seek to understand and to give expression to the needs and concerns of the other party as well as or better than they can themselves."
• "Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This principle is the key to effective interpersonal communication."
• "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They're either speaking or preparing to speak."
• "The person who doesn't read is no better off than the person who can't read."
• "Goethe taught, 'Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.'"