Just close your eyes

Obviously I am changing the format of my blog...AGAIN. So, for the next few days I will be messing around with it. Ignore the picture of me that looks like my face is melting. Photoshop is the devil!

Also, all of the blogs I read have disappeared, but fear not. I will find you and return you to my sidebar!

Also ,beware..I got the instagram app and I plan to be instagramming all my photos. This one is the last night  with my beautiful Christmas tree. *sigh*

Now on to the Valentines Day decorations!!!

Lori Ann

So live your life

I think I write about my New Years Resolutions every January. 

I like to make plans, so New Years goals suit me really well. 

This year; instead of my usual 3 million goals, I have only a few. But they are kind of intense.

Without further ado..my Goals/Resolutions for 2012

1. Go vegetarian for all of 2012. This one has been on my Bucket List for 10 years. It's not really about animal rights for me (although I do believe animals deserve better treatment). It's more about being conscience of what I am eating and sacrificing. Today is day two. Only 363 more day to go!

2. Get off Facebook for 2012. I deactivated my account a few hours ago. I could never completely erase it. It's the only form of contact I have with some important people. Mission companions, cousins I never see, etc. I'll be back in 2013. It's just...facebook; for me, is too much like pretending to live. This year, I want to live. Like Walden Pond live. 

3. Go to Therapy. The longer I am a therapist the more wrong it feels that I have never been to therapy. I need to learn more empathy for my clients and maybe work on my anxiety or something.

4. Write my book. Even if it's never published, read by anyone but my family (oh yeah..don't try to get out of that, family. I'll be printing you all copies), I want to write. It's just something I need to do.

5. Volunteer. I haven't been very charitable for a while. I have been blessed in so many ways and I need to do good for others. 

And Last But Most Important...

EMBRACE THE AWKWARDNESS. 

I want to live the rest of my life so that; when I am 80, and I look back, I won't regret too much. So, I want to do things that are hard, or awkward, or daring. Like talking to people in elevators. And going hiking.  And being more real, even on this blog. More honest. 

I don't know. I guess what I really mean is that I want to LIVE MY LIFE, you know?

Lori Ann

That glorious song of old

Here are my Christmas Highlights. It just got real in here, yo. 

The English dinner at Jack and Danielle's. Jack made Beef Wellington and Yorkshire Pudding. And treacle tart. I normally avoid pie like creations like the plague, but my loyalty to all things Harry Potter forced me to try it. It was actually really good:)

Christmas at Milford Branch. I always forget how much I love singing Christmas Hymns.

The amazing gift from my parents. (I don't have pictures for some reason)

An incredible Christmas dinner and quality time with 'crazy Danielle'. I LOVE crazy Danielle.

24 hours with the 4 craziest kids on Earth. We made more than one anniversary cake. We barked like puppies in the Walmart parking lot. We laid on the grass and looked up at the stars. It was...amazing.

Watching another hour of 'Jane Eyre' with my brother. We have made it through 2 of 4 hours. I had to explain AGAIN what a governess does. At which point he said " I am watching Jane Eyre, but I don't have to understand it". Oh Junior. 

An untold number of hours at my parents; watching low quality TV, wrapped up in a blanket, drinking hot chocolate and feeling completely at peace. 

Lori Ann

Bells will be ringing

It's almost time for me to go home for Christmas! 

Of course, I was home last weekend, so it's not exactly a call to roll out the red carpet:)

My dad's making steak and shrimp on Christmas day, we are opening presents after church and probably spending a fairly crazy day with the kids. Everyone will be home. 

Only one thing will be missing. 

Erin.

Christmas isn't anywhere near the same without Eri. 

She listens to me, does projects with Danielle, and always makes plans with Junior. 

She brings light and happiness to our home. 

Spending one day with Erin gives me the feeling of having taken a two week vacation. 

She is Christmas magic. 

I wish you could be home, Eri. 

Merry Christmas. 

Lor

5 Things

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

1. I've lived in 8 different states. Pennsylvania the longest, Colorado the shortest. 

2. I'm really good at memorizing things. But only if they are obscure and pointless. Like movie dialogue and weird facts.

3. I can always predict that it's going to rain, but not with any degree of certainty as to exactly when. So, yeah..not so useful.

4. I truly believe that there is an episode of Seinfeld about every life situation.

5. I am completely honest when I say that I would love to marry a gay man:)

5 Things I'm Knowledgeable About

1. Axis 1 mental health diagnoses

2. Harry Potter.

3.  The Philadelphia Eagles and football in general.

4.  Historical Romance novels and their Authors. My favorite is Lisa Kleypas. 

5.  The Poems of Emily Dickinson. I've read every single one. Two words: Nature, Death.

5 Things I Know Nothing About

1.  Oliver Cromwell. I guess he's important but I can't ever remember for what.

2.  Stocks and Wall Street. My dad tries to explain it to me, but I'm like "wait..so, can I go buy a stock? And then they send it to me? How does it work again?"

3.  Fashion. I like it, but I don't understand it. And 7 seasons of Project Runway have brought me no closer.

4.  Mechanics. I don't know a transmission from a tire iron.

5.  Entertaining. I want to entertain but I can't figure out how to do it. Finger foods or a meal? What will people talk about? What time should the party be?? AHHHH!!!

5 Things I Believe

1.  I believe that everyone would benefit from therapy.

2.  I believe that blond haired and blue eyed babies are the cutest.

3.  I believe that when you become a pet owner it creates a bit of a social disconnect. Kind of like having kids. No, I don't want to hear about your puppy again, thanks.

4.  I believe so strongly that everyone should read the Harry Potter books. It's one of my strongest held beliefs.

5. I believe that God loves you where you are.

Lori Ann

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

My weekend in pictures

My uncle got my parents cats some catnip for Christmas. Thomas (aka "Lord Tubbington" and "the fat one") stood at the bottom of the stairs for I-kid-you-not FIVE minutes, staring blankly. Merry Christmas, indeed.

   
 I got to complete my goal of doing something crazy and Christmassy with the kids. We made hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses. And according to some we made a "mess". Whatever. We let our haters be our motivators! 

 

My sister Erin sent our nieces Christmas dresses. I don't think my nieces really needed any further confirmation of their princesses status, but if they did, these dresses gave it to them. They LOVED them and twirled and twirled. They looked like Christmas angels. 

I watched A Christmas Story with my parents and Junior. It never ceases to make me laugh. 

Thanks to a certain blogger friend,(you know how you are), my Post Secret app addiction continues. This secret (if you can call it that) was my favorite today. 

I've been making Christmas trees. The one white is a bit avante-garde, eh? 

It's Christmas Week, people!! I hope you have the MERRIEST week ever!! 

Lori Ann

p.s.- On a strangely serious note-  I can't express how much joy it brings me to spend the holidays with my family. I feel closer to God when I am with them and I hope they know how much I appreciate their love and support. 

Tell Lori that I love her

I've told the story of my name countless times. How my parents didn't decide until I was born, and how they choose my name from a soap opera. 

Today,  for some reason, I was filled with an inexplicable curiosity about exactly WHO I was named after. 

I can't say for 100% sure, but the girl in the big picture on this Soap Opera Digest, she played a character named Lori Brooks, on the Young and the Restless in 1979.

So...there she is. The girl I was named after. 

Now..back to making these!! These are the most fun Christmas crafts I have made in years!!

Lori Ann