My Favorite Things

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

There are some things in life that you just love. They are typically material things and not necessarily things that are “needed” for you to go on in life. Come on, be honest, you know there are a few things that you just could not live without, materialistic or not…they are things you absolutely love. Well, here is a list of some of my favorite things in life…

1) SUGAR LYCHEE perfume by Fresh

I love this scent, I wear it everyday and don’t know what I did before I started wearing it. I found this perfume through The Pioneer Woman. She had a post about how much she loved it so I figured I better go see what all the hype is about, I fell in love with it the second I smelled it.

“Sugar Lychee is a luscious scent ripe with luminous lychee, bright grapefruit, and transparent lotus flower notes. Warm undertones of tonka bean and amber make this sweet scent sensual yet sophisticated.”

2) I got this several years ago from Vicki for Christmas and absolutely love it! It is my most favorite Christmas decoration, I wish I could leave it out all year. I probably could, but people may think I’m a little odd to have a candy cane looking, big ornament like thing sitting around in the middle of July.

3) My iPhone 3G

I got this for my birthday a year and a half ago and haven’t gone a day without it. I use it for everything, not only a phone. I use it for email, banking, social sites like facebook and twitter, play games like bejeweled and words with friends, medical apps for work, etc. I’m still not sure if I’ll try to get the iPhone 4 for my birthday in April or not, ahh who am I kidding, I’m sure I’ll at least ask for it 😉

4) My princess mug

I actually bought this mug several years ago at the gift shop at work. Sometimes hospital gift shops have some great goods and that mixed with a low patient load isn’t good…we would always find ourselves in the gift shop window shopping. Now I am ready for the colder weather to get here so I can have some hot chocolate in my awesome mug!

5) My ring

Mine is on the right. This was my grandmothers wedding ring (minus the wedding band attached to it) and I have always loved it. When she passed away my mom got it and when I got married I got. I have recently “retired” my ring until after I have the boys because it is kind of a snug fit and I don’t want to get it stuck on my finger.

I Would Die For That

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

I was surfing the internet today (what else is there to do) and found this video on a blog I found. I have never heard of this song before and it hits home on so many levels for me and any other woman that has gone through infertility. It’s a beautiful song but for some of you girls out there that I know (you know who you are) might want a box of kleenex with you when you watch it.

The artist is Kellie Coffey and you can read her story about becoming a mom here.

Enjoy!

An update on our 20 week appointment coming next…

Mmmmm….

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Laurie Blundell

Candy corn…a yummy treat that you only get once a year. Candy corn reminds me of all things fall; the leaves changing, the cooler air, and little kids dressed up in halloween costumes. But do you know the history of candy corn, yes it has to do with actual corn.

It was first created in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company, the three colors of candy corn are meant to symbolize actual corn. Each piece is approximately the size of a whole kernel of corn, as if it fell off a ripe or dried ear of corn. Candy corn is made primarily from sugar, corn syrup and honey. Working by hand, the original manufacturers first combined sugar, corn syrup and water and cooked them into a slurry. Fondant was added for texture, and marshmallows provided a soft bite. The final mixture was then heated and poured into shaped molds. Three passes were required during the pouring process, one for each colored section. Few changes have been made to the process or recipe, with machines now performing the tasks formerly done by people.

As you can see, its really healthy for you as well! I mean, what’s not to love, it’s got sugar, corn syrup and honey!! Have you tried the carmel apple candy corn? It’s simply amazing, a sweet carmely (is that word) taste of candy apples…MMmmmmm I need to go find some of those now! Happy fall ya’ll!

The holidays…

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Laurie Blundell

ARE OVER!! Not that I’m happy about that but life can finally calm down now and get back to normal. What did we do for the holidays you ask…well, here is a look at what all we did the last few weeks/months. Over the last month I have taken several family photos. There were the Treadaways, our pastor and his family…

…And then Jalyn, our friends Josh and Shalyn’s baby…

…then there were the Nash’s. Gracelyn, who is 2, didn’t really want any part of taking photos so it made for a difficult day, along with my camera that was acting up…that’s a whole other story…

We went with a group of our friends from church to see Bethlehem Revisited in Waxahachie…

Our holiday festivities with family started on Dec 21 when we held our annual Turner-Medlin Family Christmas/Jake’s Birthday party. We all went to the Medlin’s and had some yummy chili and all the “kids” (we’re too old to be called kids) did a white elephant gift exchange and then Jake opened up his birthday presents. Jake turned 8 this year and I can’t believe he’s getting so old. I remember the day he was born…anyway, we had fun time together and couldn’t wait to do it all over again on New Years Day, when we celebrate my dad and Bob’s birthday…more on that later in the post.

On the 23rd we had all of Jonathan’s family over to our house for dinner and games. We all had a great time and always look forward to seeing everyone. (to see any of these collages bigger, simply click on it and viola)

Christmas Eve we went to our parents church for a candlelight service and then back to my parents house for dinner. After dinner we headed over to my aunts house to spend some time with her and my cousins and their kids. Had a good time seeing all of them and about 10:00pm my cousin’s son, Bryce, announced that “there was good news and bad news…the good news is that santa is in Texas, the bad news is that santa is in Texas and I’m not in bed!” So with that we all headed home.

Christmas morning Jonathan and I opened gifts at our house, well some of them…I made Jonathan go on a scavenger hunt for his gift. He started out at our house and then headed to the park which sent him to our pastors house where they slipped the present in their mailbox for me. I think he enjoyed it but maybe not as much as his present which was two tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.

After that we went to my padres house for Christmas with my familia and ate a great lunch and opened gifts. And as always, we let the kids go first which only takes about 10 minutes total because they rip through them all at warp speed. After lunch and presents we decided to play a game of family feud…that was a lot of fun, except my dad kept forgetting the rules! My niece got a doll house and my nephew got a new Wii so they were both preoccupied with those the majority of the afternoon and that was a gift to all of us!!! That’s the only way we were able to play family feud.
Later that afternoon we headed over to Jonathan’s parents and hung out there a while. Tim and Kara got rock band for the wii so we played that for a while and then Jonathan’s dad made a great ham for dinner so we ate and opened some gifts. Over all, we had a wonderful Christmas and are blessed by our family and friends that spent it with us!

Then for about a week our lives were back to semi normalcy…I went back to work but Jonathan had the week off. New Years Eve we spent over at Richard and Amber’s house playing games and eating some yummy mexican food. Then for the countdown to bring in the new year we lit some sparklers–that’s always fun!

And finally, Welcome 2009! We have entered into yet another new year. We slept in new years day because lets face it, we were up late partying the night before!! You know us, we’re such the partiers-HA! Then later that afternoon my family and the Medlins came over to our house and we grilled some fajitas and celebrated our dad’s birthdays! Honestly I can’t remember how old they both are–somewhere in the early 60’s! yikes, sorry guys, I love you, but that’s old!

We always have fun getting together but don’t do it as often as I would like. The Medlin’s have always been a second family to us, Bob and Vicki were like our “other parents” and Ty and Tami were like siblings growing up. It’s so much fun now that we are all grown up and adults…We’ve all grown up together and shared special occasions together as we each get married, have kids and watch each of us, or them, become parents for the first time…it’s been fun!! A great way to start a new year. I’ve been told that how you spend your New Year’s Day sets the stage for that year…we’re off to a great start!

Because we had so much fun on New Year’s Day, you get two collages.

Tonight Jonathan and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert for his Christmas gift and had a blast. This is my 5 year to go to the concert and I have loved every year. It’s a Christmas tradition that I had and then when Jonathan and I started dating we decided to make it our tradition. We are going on a cruise in February so we decided that we just wouldn’t be able to spring for tickets to TSO this year and the cruise. We were both bummed about not getting to go, Jonathan was pretty bummed so I decided to surprise him with tickets for Christmas. He tried many times to get me to agree to get tickets and it was hard to tell him “No, I just don’t think we can this year” when I had already bought 2 tickets. Anyway, we went to the concert and love it! The camera police are usually out making sure you don’t take any pictures of the concert but I was able to sneak some with my camera phone–gotta love them! So here are some illegal pictures from the TSO concert:

After the concert we met Jen and Jed for dinner at Patrizio’s in Highland Park Village….let me tell you, they have some amazing italian food! I’ve been there before and have always wanted to take Jonathan so I figured why not now! We had a good time with Jen and Jed and then decided to get some Italian Gelato at Paciugo’s to go with our Italian food.

And that concludes our holiday festivities! I hope everyone had a good time with their family and friends over the holidays and here’s to a wonderful new year!

Palin speech

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

Not sure how many of you watched Sarah Palin give her speech at the RNC the other night but here is a word cloud of her speech and the most popular words spoken throughout it. Anyway, here is the word cloud for Sarah Palin’s speech and the video if you missed it… pretty interesting.

I was looking at all the speeches today and there is a HUGE difference between the democrats’ and republicans’ speeches. Republicans are all about loving our country and what we can do for it, while democrats are all for change and promises…kind of funny. Here is another interesting thing I found about the differences in speeches.

Coincidence?

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

Have you ever heard of something called laminin? Here is how Wikipedia describes them :”Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.” Laminins are what hold us together….LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. With my science background I knew all this already, what I didn’t know is what laminin looked like.
Below is what the structure of laminin looks like. Keep in mind that this is NOT a ‘Christian portrayal’ of it. If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see:
laminin
Now tell me that our God is not Amazing!
The ‘glue’ that holds us together…ALL of us…is in the shape of the cross.

Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.
‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER.’ Colossians 1:15-17

Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together…one cell to another…by the cross.

You would never convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin ‘glue’ would look like long before Adam even breathed his first breath!! To some people this is nothing more than a simple coincidence but for those of us who have Faith in the Lord we know it is soo much more than that! It’s just another way our God shows us He is there and real. He is our creator and is behind every little molecule and chromosome that makes us who we are.
We praise YOU, Lord!

My Love List

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

This is what’s called my love list. I tend to go through phases where I feel like all I do is complain, or focus on what’s wrong, instead of what’s right. So I’m copying someone who has already done this. This is a list of things that you love, the only things is that you can’t include a single person you know on your list. No “I love the way my husband laughs”. This is about stripping away everyone who defines you and figuring out what you (not his partner; not their mother/daughter/sister/friend) love. So here it is:

I love:
The first cool mornings in fall. I love fresh cut grass. I love a lush green lawn. I love a big bowl of cereal. I love spending time with family and friends. I love playing with my dog. I love taking a walk. I love going to the park. I love the beginning of spring. I love warm (not hot) days in spring. I love colorful flowers in bloom. I love going to the arboretum. I love snowboarding. snow. I love the mountains. I love shopping by my onsie so I can take my time. I love shopping with a good friend, it’s bonding. I love shopping for expensive handbags or shoes I’ll never own. I love writing a to do list just to cross them off when I’m done. I love working on the yard. I love getting a new haircut. I love having a clean house. I love vacuuming. I love a nice hot white chocolate mocha. I love a big glass of ice tea. I love listening to a new album for the first time. I love listening to a favorite album that you haven’t heard in a while. I love getting mail that’s not junk mail or bills. I love pulling in the driveway to see a package on the front porch. I love sleeping in on a Saturday morning. I love Mosaic tables or vases. I love planting fresh flowers. I love tulips. I love spending time sitting on the porch with a good drink(non-alcoholic) and the sun shinning on you to keep you warm. I love learning new things. dressing up or just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I love a good belly laugh. I love when my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. I love the color orange. I love sleeping in when it’s pouring rain outside. I love having no plans and a day where I can just do what I want. I love sticking my feet in warm, white sand. I love a good hamburger. I love grilling outside with friends. I love playing boardgames. I love Mint chocolate chip ice cream. I love slurpees from 7 eleven. I love driving around and looking at houses–so I can get ideas for my own. I love Looking inside model homes. I love driving down a winding road with overgrown trees covering the street. I love animals (big or small). I love people who are real and are comfortable in their own skin. I love country music. I love watching squirrels run up and around a tree. I love people watching. I love going to Target–even if it’s just to browse. I love window shopping. I love browsing vintage shops. I love home improvement. I love taking something old and making it new. I love the smile on the face of someone you helped out. I love being able to help someone. I love the abilities God gave me. I love the faults God gave me–they are faults, but their mine from God to make me a stronger person. I love simply listening. I love birds chirping on a sunny afternoon. I love Friday afternoons. I love fresh, clean clothes. I love warm sheets directly from the dryer. I love the smell of fresh linen. I love having all the windows in the house open with a nice breeze. I love the smell of coffee. I love the sound of trickling water in a creek. I love the sound of a childs laugh–it’s 100% real. I love shopping for the perfect gift for someone I love. I love good manners. I love generosity, thoughtfulness and appreciation. I love hearing about other people’s success stories and seeing an underdog win in any competition. I love organization and the sense of accomplishment after a full day’s work. I love viewing baby pictures. I love photography. I love finding laughter in everyday situations and having enough conviction to explode into a cackle or snort, without feeling embarrassed. I love a gorgeous sunset. I love walking or sitting on the beach after a day of fun in the sun. I love simple, guilty pleasures to indulge my senses in. I love the smell of autumn winds and the sounds of leaves rustling on the trees.
I love the fact that this is my life, good and bad, as complicated or complex as life can be sometimes, its my life and I make it what it is–simply put, I’m surrounded by loving people who make me who I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world, this is my life and I love it.

at home again!

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

it’s going on 2.5 days at home from work. I left early Wednesday and came home and got in bed…stayed home yesterday and went to the doctor and I’m home again today because I can’t get rid of this stupid headache and ear pain. Lovely sinus infections! I usually get one once a year and this is my time this year I guess, although very very mild compared to the ones I normally get. Anyway, while I was lying in bed earlier there was a knock on the door, and of course Presley went crazy as always but I just stayed put. Well, I got up later and it was the UPS man–my camera flash arrived–YEAH.

I was supprised because it wasn’t supposed to get here until Monday. Well, of course I tried it out so here are some with and without the new flash pictures so you can see what a difference using an external flash makes. And I used my trusty subject yet again–you got it…Presley

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Without Flash:

With Flash:

There are subtle differences that just make the picture so much better…what do you think?

Huckabee for president

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

Jonathan and I went to the Huckabee rally in Plano tonight and believe it or not, I actually had a good time. I’m not one for politics or anything but I do like Mike Huckabee and like what he stands for and what he can do for this country. Anyway, we got to hear him speak, meet him and shake his and Janet’s hands–it was pretty fun. We were able to snap some photos while we were there–like we wouldn’t take a camera, really! If you want to see the rest of our photos just click on the flickr link to the right and look all you want. Anyway, don’t forget to vote on March 4, or you could do the early voting–and vote for HUCKABEE!! Vote and vote often!

Insomnia?

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Laurie Blundell

Are you having trouble falling asleep at night? Your cell phone may be to blame. A new study shows that using your mobile phone just before you go to bed can make it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Study participants exposed to the radiation equivalent of a mobile phone took longer to get to the deeper stages of sleep and spent less time in the deepest one than those who were not. This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don’t have your mobile by your bedside table. The study showed that it may also cut our amount of deep sleep – interfering with the body’s ability to refresh itself. Researcher Professor Bengt Arnetz said: “The study strongly suggests that mobile phone use is associated with specific changes in the areas of the brain responsible for activating and coordinating the stress system.” Another theory is that radiation may disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body’s internal rhythms. It was also said that “It is really one small piece in a very large scientific jigsaw. It is a very small effect, one researcher likened it to less than the effect you would see from a cup of coffee.”