Looking Back

19 years ago (today) I married this guy…

You can see why I was totally smitten.

We have navigated many seasons together.  

There have been celebrations … both of us graduating from college, Avery’s birth, opening our practice.

There have been tears … Danny’s needle stick, my brother’s death, crushing disappointments. 

If I could go back to that 19 year old young woman, I would tell her that marrying him is one of the best decision you will ever make.  The next 10 years will be the hardest you have ever known.  Anything worth having requires hard work.  That is what gives it value. I would tell her to be patient and savor these early years, they go by so quickly. 

This is a snapshot taken at our reception    

Finally, I would tell her, even though you can’t imagine it, you will love him more in 19 years than you do on this day.

January 2013

Danny - I would marry you again in a heartbeat.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 

Two of my Trader Joe Favs

I love it when someone shows me a food product they love.  So today I want to introduce you to two of my favorite foods I get at Trader Joe's.  Now, I don't know that these would qualify as the healthiest options but hey, it's the weekend.

Warning: The following items may become addictive. 

God created chocolate because he loves us so much, I just know it.  These morsels were introduced to me by a friend while traveling (thank you Melanie) and I’ve been hooked ever since.  The combination of sweet and salty make me want to scream, “hallelujah!”.  You may need to resist the urge to consume the above by the handful.

This second item is just as delicious and worth your purchase.  Typically, I do not enjoy fruit as part of my dessert but in this circumstance it works …

This was suggested to me by Lisa, my yoga buddy.  Holy Cow!  Bananas and chocolate go together just like peanut butter and chocolate, caramel and chocolate, pretzels and chocolate...  you get the idea.

What are your favorites at Trader Joe's?

Two Weeks and Counting ...

The weather has been really mild where we live and this girl needs some snow.  Every year we look forward to ski season.  I am trying to hold on because in two weeks we leave to go on vacation with our friends.  This is our fourth year and we are headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Wahoo! 

Last Saturday was Danny’s birthday and I was so excited.  I came up with a great idea, to give him some accessories to go with his gopro camera.  Taking ski videos has always been so much fun on our trips.  He was thrilled.  Though right after he opened his gifts he asked if this was something Kit (his BFF) had suggested.  Should I be offended? 

Here he is ... in all his glory after a brutal ski run at Alta last year! 

As with all families, there is nothing more precious after vacation then the photos and videos.  Danny has started making a book after each trip with the pics.  Here is one of my favorite videos from last year...

 

Wasn’t that gorgeous?  I will admit I'm partial because Alta is where we fell in love with skiing.  There's something about being out in fresh snow.  What a gift.  Let the count down begin!

The Promise of a New Year!!!

Can you believe that 2012 is over and gone?  Many are glad to see it go but for our family it was a sweet year.  No particular reason, just the joy of being together with our family and friends. 

Skiing this year in Alta, Utah

Speaking of being together, we spent the day organizing and packing up Christmas.  Not fun.  My house always seems to be so plain when we put away the holiday décor.  We talked about just leaving it out all year but decided to consider doing that next year. Ha!

Ladies and Gentlemen the Future of our Family

When I sat down to write this post I looked back at my New Year post for 2012 to see if I had accomplished any of my goals (You can see the full post here).   One of my goals was to stop putting things off and well, I don’t know if you noticed but I am posting on January 1 and we put our Christmas things away today.  Not too shabby.  Another goal was to take more pictures which I have done judging by the amount of space on my hard drive. Hooray !  Finally I wanted to be more flexible in 2012 and … so far so good.  I’ve been doing Yoga consistently for the last 4 months and I think it’s really helping me.  I’m certainly not even close to being a model student but hey, progress baby! 

Can you believe this woman ate approximately 3lbs of pimento cheese from the Mouse Trap in Landsdowne over the Christmas holiday?  Gasp! (go ahead ... talk amongst yourselves)  It made those forward fold moves in yoga that much more challenging.

Goals for 2013?  I thought you would never ask…

Blog more – Why is this so hard?  I just get caught up in other things and don’t take the time to organize my thoughts, though I take such pleasure in sharing with you guys.  We have a lot of traveling coming up this year and I would love for you to come along.

Take more chances – I am not a fan of risk.  I’ve noticed the older I get the more I crave a good solid routine.  While this can be a good thing, I am finding that I need to push myself more.   Maybe that is why I haven’t blogged a lot.  Kinda scary putting yourself out there.  That may have just been a light bulb moment. 

2012 Repeat - be more flexible – This goes hand in hand with my previous goals.  

So as we jump into 2013 with our hearts wide open remember that life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Namaste

Self-Portrait 2012

Well … it was a rough day at my house.  It started out innocently enough.  Avery wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home from school.  After a trip to the pharmacy she was medicated and on her way to feeling better.  She wasn’t really up for going anywhere so I took the opportunity to work on a project I’ve been putting off, my annual self-portrait.

For the last five years I have taken a picture of myself, usually in the summer, but this year has been so unusual that it's already November and I have no picture.  So this morning I decided it was meant to be.  I dug out some of my photography equipment.  Set myself up and due to user error technical difficulties what should have taken 2 hours at the most ended up taking 6.  Everything that could go wrong did; camera battery low (check), light meter screwed up (check), remote misbehaving (oh, yes) and to top it all off I’m supposed to host a dinner party tomorrow night.  You may be wondering, “Is she prepared?”.  NO – not even alittle. 

 

This is how I felt when my equipment actually worked!

 

This girl said … “Dinner party tomorrow night? Bring it on!”

 

This was one of my personal favs... "Pamela's GF Chocolate Cookies? I'll take two"

 

Danny thought this looked the most "natural". Photography tip - To get rid of fine lines and wrinkles, over expose your image. Did I mention my equipment was not working properly?

 

Well, I am still deciding which one is the ONE.  Do you think it would be weird to serve peanut butter and jelly at a dinner party?

Three things I am trying to teach Avery

Being a woman these days ain’t easy.  I remember when they came out with size zero clothing.  I couldn’t believe it.  My first thought was, “Do they want us to disappear?”.  In about the third grade I probably could have worn a zero.  Once puberty started the curves appeared along with the awkward stages.  Spending hours working on my bangs in the morning was the norm along with trying to apply make- up and pinch rolling my jeans.  Ahhh … the joys of adolescence!

Avery is starting her preteen phase.  What an exciting time in life for  both of us.  I remember the other day the two of us laughing at a joke with a nuance that a “kid” would not understand. There was a leap in my heart as I realized that my little girl is growing up. 

With this in mind I sat down to think about what I would like to communicate to her by word and example and these are three of the many things I want her to know and understand.  Honestly, it has taken me 37 years to understand a couple of these. 

True Friends / your future spouse should be in your life to motivate and inspire you.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there are seasons in every relationship.  There are times when you are the giver and times when you are the taker but for the most part the underlying themes of any relationship should be love and growth.  If these two things are not present, it may be time to reevaluate the relationship.

These are a couple of my friends (and sister) who motive and inspire me.
We were on a a ski trip to Crested Butte, CO 2011.    

Be okay / accept the awkward phases.  This is a tough one.  Think - braces, pimples and hair dye.  I had braces as an adult, still fighting acne and just had the grey in my hair colored.  No one wants to be in transition.  As a woman today, your “value” is often tied to your appearance.  This is not right or fair but true.  The way I look today is the result of countless awkward stages.  In fact, I may be in the middle of one right now.  I'm attempting to incorporate more color in my wardrobe and I'm not sure it's working out for me.

Curves are a good thing.  I’m not talking about the exercise franchise, I am talking about the softness of a woman both physically and emotionally.  These are the characteristics that make us women.  It was about a year ago that I realized that being stick / model thin is kinda gross.  Who wants to snuggle up to a skeleton?  It was the actress Christina Hendricks on the show Mad Men that helped me to understand that beauty is often more shapely than angular.   We need to embrace these features instead of always trying to be thinner. 

All that said - what I want to communicate to her most, is that no matter what I am ALWAYS your biggest fan!

Hello ~ My Name is Anna Lee ... yes - a double name

What is it about a name?  When I was pregnant we spent a lot of time deciding what to name Avery.  In fact, we chose her name before we know if we were having a boy or a girl.  It wasn’t until later (when we found out we were having a girl) that we decided on her first name.  Names are powerful.  They often come with strong meanings or attachments.  Just ask Chad Johnson or Ochocinco or Chad Johnson ... you get my drift. 

Personally, I really like my name.  Don’t be mistaken, I haven’t always liked it.  When I was younger it was a hassle.  I would introduce myself and they would reply, “Emily?”  I'm sure I was talking too fast.  Since then, I have slowed down and taken the time to say, “Anna Lee - yes, a double name…” I decided it’s worth the effort. 

How did I get my name? I was named after my mother's mother.  Her first name is Anna and all her grandchildren call her Nana.  My mother combined Anna with Lee and decided that was perfect.   I remember attempting to go by just Anna and my mother gave me a lecture that she named me Anna Lee and that was what I was to be called.  Oh the power of mothers!

This last Sunday (9^th) was my Nana’s 90^th birthday.  Yes, 9-0.  Holy Cow!  She spoke at her church and a story about  yours truly was included in the introduction.  Here is the link.  I will warn you this isn’t her first speaking engagement.  She is very endearing. 

Nana – I hope I’ve made you proud and thank you for sharing your name with me.