Very Sad End to 2007

My grandmother gave up the fight last night. She passed away shortly after 11:30pm from respiratory failure. I am in complete shock. It doesn't compute in my mind, and I know that this is typically the first stage of grief, and I'm trying to steady myself for the remaining ones. My grandmother has been a huge part of my life since my birth, and I cannot believe that she's gone.

The last two months were rough for her. She went from Emory Hospital, to a nursing home, back to another Emory geriatric hospital between October 25 and yesterday. The one thing that truly worries me is how my mom will cope with this as time moves forward. Right now we're in the hectic phase of planning the funeral service. An announcement will be written in tomorrow's AJC announcing her death. There is so much to say about my grandmother. I am who I am because of her. I will post more on her a little later.

RIP, my beautiful, precious Ma. You remain a huge part of this family and I thank you for all of your love and sacrifices you've made for us.

Zooey Deschanel...

...has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard! I've watched this movie about 10 times. When the in store shower scene comes up, I always wonder whether the character Jovie (played by Deschanel) is actually singing or just lip synching to the original version of the song. Tonight, while watching "Elf" on Sci-Fi, I decided to check the soundtrack listing to determine whose actually singing. I discovered that Zooey does all of her own singing in this movie. I'm VERY impressed with her voice, and I'm pretty annoyed that I have never heard of her until now.

Here is the clip from "Elf":

My Hubby's Blog

My husband created a blog a few months back. Since he is in law school, he just doesn't actually have time for extra stuff outside of studying and court during the week. Therefore, he doesn't ever find the time to post entries.

Last night while we were unwinding from such a busy few days, I noticed him posting an entry to his blog. After he finished, I scrolled down his blog and noticed a previous entry already there. It was an obituary my husband wrote for our dog Sheba who passed away back on October 31. The date of his post was November 1, the very next day. I didn't even realize that he had written anything about Sheba. He had finished the entry, but was waiting to publish it after he had the chance to add some more pictures of Sheba. He never found the time to go digging for the pictures due to the aforementioned business of school. After I brought up the entry to him last night, he grabbed a few pictures I had on my laptop, and uploaded them along with a couple of extra sentences.

Here is my husband's post entitled "Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend".

Aaliyah: "What Child Is This"

I found this video clip on Mes Deux Cents blog earlier this morning. Aaliyah sang "What Child Is This" live for the White House holiday concert during the Clinton's presidency in 1997. It was said that Bill Clinton specifically asked for her to perform, as she was his favorite artist at the time. I never saw a clip of him saying that or anything, but that's the standing rumor.

In any case, this was 10 years ago. And as most everyone has heard by now, Aaliyah died tragically 4 years later (2 weeks before 9-11) in a small plane crash in Abaco, Bahamas. Here is the video of her singing at the holiday concert.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wishing you and yours a Merry,
Merry Christmas. I hope that you will all be at peace today and be able to put the stress of life's cares behind you as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. Parents, hug your kids a little tighter. Kids, tell your parents how much you appreciate them and all they have tried to do for you. God Bless you all! Happy Birthday, my precious Jesus!

Georgia woman temporarily lives in Walmart

This story cracks me up; you'll just have to read it for yourself. On a side note, my home is quite chaotic these days. So much so, that living in the Walmart doesn't sound like a bad idea right about now, actually. Looks like someone been watching a little too much "Where The Heart Is". :-)

Story here

The Saturday Before Christmas

The hubby, kids and I... went out to Golden Corral for breakfast this morning. The kids were REALLY well-behaved. Much more so than normal. I want to attribute this to my consistency as of late as a firm mom. I've continued to be nurturing, but I've been adding a lot of tough love lately. You may have noticed from previous posts that it's been brought to my attention lately that I suck as a mom. Okay that's kind of harsh, but I definitely have to do a much better job of implementing a balance of love and discipline with the kids.

Also, the hubby and I... finally got all of the Christmas shopping for the kids finished. The kids are getting SO much stuff this year, that Chris and I had to bag up and ship to Goodwill almost 3/4 of the toys they already have just to make room for what we bought them today. (Never mind what they still have to open from other family members)

I haven't updated... on my grandmother in a long time. I think I mentioned in a previous post that she was finally released from the hospital and admitted to a rehabilitation facility until she was well enough to resume living with my mom. She was admitted to a geriatric hospital on Friday (yesterday) morning due to complications from severe chest congestion which appeared to be pneumonia. By yesterday evening, the doctor at the hospital said that the x-ray came back and showed no signs that my grandmother had pneumonia. This is the second time in less than two months that my grandmother has entered a hospital and been diagnosed with pneumonia only to be told hours later that she didn't have it. The whole thing is really frustrating...everytime things begin looking up for my grandmother, there's another setback to her health and progress. It almost feels like she will be dealing with this for the rest of her life. But I know my Father better than to even begin to have a lack of hope like this and to accept such negativity.

I just finished watching... "Dorothy Dandrige: An American Beauty". What a tragedy. Much is made of the impact the 1940's - 60's racist America had on Dorothy's troubled life and lack of deserved success. Even though this is very much the case, I was personally more troubled by her horrible family life. Did you know that Dorothy's mother abandoned their father, and took Dorothy and her sister Vivian with her? She began a lesbian relationship with a woman who would ultimately physically, sexually, and emotionally victimize Dorothy for all of her childhood. I often hear people remark on the fact that Dorothy never had luck in her love life as she became an adult and even throughout her entire career. Well of course she didn't! Life is hard enough when you have a stable upbringing. I can't imagine trying to make decisions and cope with adversity when your own home is essentially a prison.

This is probably TMI... (too much info), but I have had a pain in my lower abdominal area for the past 36 hours or so. I'm not sure what is contributing to this. It's not a throbbing or dull pain or anything like that. More of a feeling of pressure that ranges from minor to slightly intense. For you women who have had kids, it reminds me of the way it felt when I was pregnant and the baby was sitting on my bladder. My hubby reminded me that I spent Thursday morning doing my own version of full cardio hour via my iPod and a bunch of dance moves that I haven't tried since earlier this year when I was in perfect shape. I probably pulled an ab muscle. I must note that I called my OB/GYN doctor tonight to see if he could diagnose the problem, and he sounded very bored with me.

I guess I'll try to rest now and hopefully I'll get over this very uncomfortable abdominal issue. I've got a ton of gifs to wrap tomorrow!

What makes you happy?

I dare you not to cry

The three things on video that will always make me cry, in no particular order:

1)Children
2)Animals
3)Soldiers

Once you start combining them you're really messing me up pretty badly.

CNN.com has video here

Latest Developments in the Stacey Peterson case

Not sure if you have been keeping up with this or not, but Greta has been spending a lot of time discussing it during her 10PM Fox News show "On The Record". I usually find Greta's show to be a snooze, but I like her in general. She's an attorney by trade, and a pretty sharp one at that. Actually saying someone is a "sharp" attorney is like saying that someone is a "smart" mathematician. Kind of comes with the territory, huh? :-)

Well apparently we need to be watching "On the Record with Greta Van Sustren" this evening. She spends a lot of time getting information from former cop, Mark "I'm so racist that I framed a guilty black man named O.J." Furhman. According to Greta, Furhman has come across some information that no one else has thought of, or mentioned, at least. She doesn't want to "steal his thunder" so she won't disclose what this piece of information is.

Mark Furhman with "new" information. Sounds familiar...

Small tribute to Sheba

I have so many pictures of my dog Sheba from over the past 10 years. I lost a bunch of pictures that I took in between 2002 - 2005 because I had them stored on the company laptop of my former place of employment. Even though the Network Engineer ripped all of the pics off of the laptop at my request, and stored them on DVDs for me, I ended up misplacing the friggin' DVDs at some point over the past year and a half. I mentioned this in a previous post. I hate to think about it, but I'm sure there were dozens of pics of Sheba from that time period. I have a bunch of hard copies from her first 4 years (1997 - 2001) in photo albums that I'm going to scan to my memory card when we get a little cash in the beginning of the year. A proper tribute to my beloved pup is long overdue. It'll most likely be in the form of a special keepsake photo album, but this short and sweet online slideshow will tide me over until then.

I still have a few rough nights from time to time when I think about her never being with us again. It's not the same type of loss as you feel when a person is gone, but you really can't compare the two. This is definitely its own unique type of pain that is difficult to describe unless you've ever had a pet you've loved with all of your heart that was a part of the family. Enjoy the photos.

"Inconceivable!"

Reason #2543 NOT to eat fast food.

A pretty disgusting story has developed about an experience at a Vermont Burger King. A 24 year old gentleman alleges that while biting into his BK Burger recently, he realized that was also biting into an unwrapped condom hidden under a piece of lettuce. Scrumptious. And yes, I can do without additional details on whether the condom was used or not; I think I will live my life with a lot more peace if I can avoid more information about this story than has already been given.

Story here.

However, I have spent the last 5 minutes doubled over in laughter at the Digg readers comments related to this story. Cracking.Me.Up!!!! [Digg.com]

In the name of Jesus

You must watch this video. A 92 year old would be mugging victim shows us Christians, young and old, what we are called to do. Even in the most dire, potentially tragic circumstances she was calm and completely at peace because she knew that her Savior would never leave her, as He promises us in His word. Thank you, Lord, for letting this story get out to the public. Many people will be touched by this.

Click here to watch video.

Prominent attorney missing since Wednesday found alive!

I didn't even hear about this story until this morning. An attorney from Toledo, Ohio has been missing since this past Wednesday. Karyn McConnell-Hancock never picked up her son from daycare on Wednesday prompting her husband to file a missing person report with the police department. Thankfully, she was found just this morning about 12 minutes from my house near Six Flags Over Georgia.

More here.

Greta's been on the story for a couple of days as well.

New mom

If a Motherhood 101 class actually existed yours truly would be the first person who would need to sign up. Today was not good. I needed it though, but it has become clear to me that I don't have a clue how to raise my children properly.

My son had a field trip yesterday morning to The Center for Puppetry Arts. Things went from bad to worse throughout the morning. His behavior was simply deplorable. Yes, he's only 3, but his behavior was bad even for a 3-year old in my opinion.

I won't get into details, but I will say that yesterday was a major turning point for me. The way that my children behave is a direct reflection of how I raise them. At some point in the future I will hopefully look back upon yesterday with a slight chuckle and think to myself, "I had no idea what I was doing back then!"

Things are gonna change around here. :-)

Quite possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen

Jenna Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, was on the Ellen DeGeneres show today. I really love this family.

Cheese Eggs and Kyra Phillips

I made two wonderful discoveries on this beautiful, yet chilly Wednesday morning here at CNN. I know that you're anxious to hear them, so details are directly below :-)

First: I have started having an order of scrambled eggs w/cheese in the mornings for breakfast. I either whip them up at home before getting the kids ready, or I order them from Great Wraps here in the CNN Center. I don't particularly like ordering them from Great Wraps. I always seem to detect a feeling of slight annoyance coming from the cashier/owner because that is the ONLY thing that I order from there. I've noticed that most other people in line with me order bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches with grits, stuff like that, so they more than make up for my little order of eggs. Besides that, I don't even like their eggs! They cook them over such high heat that they taste hard and are always slightly brown (which I hate!). They charge $1.31 for these hard, brown scrambled eggs, which I forgot to mention, have American cheese. AMERICAN? No cheddar! Yuck. :-(

So this morning, I decide to go and see what the CNN Diner (which is for CNN employees only) has to offer for breakfast. I walk in and a wonderful, "breakfasty" smell hits me. I walk over to the Made-to-Order counter and see a price list. Scrambled eggs: $0.69; Scrambled eggs w/cheese ($0.89). What?! I figure that they can't taste any worse than Great Wraps, so I order them. I also throw in an order of Turkey Sausage, since that's supposedly pretty good for you, and an extra source of great protein. Total price? $1.50, including tax! The eggs and sausage were DIVINE! I'm going to tell everyone who works here that I know eats breakfast from Great Wraps what they are missing out on. They even used cheddar/jack cheese on my eggs without me even having to ask!! Mmmmm.

Secondly: While I was in line at the CNN Diner waiting for my order, I saw someone enter out of the corner of my eye. I don't usually make direct eye contact with people unless they are addressing me or I need them for some reason. But something made me take notice...the way they walked in just felt like a breath of fresh air had entered. I hear "Good Morniiiiing! How are my girls doing this morning?!" My first thought, "My GIRLS?" (Just in case you didn't get the memo , black women over the age of 30 don't take too kindly to being called girl by white women under the age of 70; history and such) So this triggers me to look directly at the woman...it was Kyra Phillips, CNN News Anchor. (She is even more beautiful in person, if that's possible) The women working in the diner appear to range in age from 30 to 65. They are ALL black, so I just brace myself for their reaction. They all looked immediately cheered up! She walked up to the counter with a big smile on her face and began asking one of the women in particular about some personal discussion that they had obviously had the day before. They got into a lively, pleasant discussion, which included the women in the diner talking to Kira about things going on in her life that they had obviously discussed with her as well. I got my eggs and went to pay for them. As I was handing over my money, Kyra walked up behind me in line to pay for her food. The cashier's eyes lit up. The cashier hurries me out of the way, and Kyra steps up to her and they start gabbing about something or another in hushed tones. They giggle about different things here and there.

As I leave the diner and walk back to my desk, I begin to think about the fact that I was ready to be typical judgmental Tami about the fact that I heard a young white woman using the word "Girl" to refer to these women old enough to be her mother. Fact is, clearly Kira has actually taken the time to get to know these women not only by name, but cares about them and what's going on in their lives. They ALL looked so happy to see her, and she looked just as happy to see them, which says all that needs to be said. I still stand by the fact that if she wasn't friends with them, I would still view this situation negatively. Calling a group of grown women that you don't know very well "girls" is just offensive and condescending, in general. But when you are "girlfriends" or have an actual relationship with someone, you have an understanding with one another that shouldn't matter to anyone else, in my humble opinion.

Loving me some Kyra..

Weight Management: Figuring It All Out - UPDATE 2

Eureka, I've finally figured it all out! I've determined where I keep crossing the line from fit to fat. I weighed myself a few weeks ago, right before Thanksgiving - I weighed in at 152. I ate like a pig from Thanksgiving Day up until a day or two ago. Today, I finally made it back to the gym. I weighed myself...156. So here's what happens:

When I weighed in at 152, I started feeling EXTREMELY cocky. Since I hadn't made it to the gym the days leading up to that moment I weighed in at 152, it was as if the weight just fell off on it's on for no reason. So here's how my brain files away this 3 or 4lb drop in weight: "Losing weight is easy! Just keep doing what you're doing!" That, my friends, is where I keep messing up.

My hubby explained something very important to me that I think everyone needs to remember (especially me): It takes your body approximately 6 weeks to catch up to your current behavior and food-intake. Since my metabolism is higher than most women my age, it only takes me about 4 weeks. Remember back in mid-October when I began getting super stressed? Sheba passed away a few weeks later, and I was catapulted into a slight depression for a while there. I spent about 4 weeks just not really eating anything. After I came out of my depression, I had a welcome treat...I was back in my size 8's. I noticed that I even fit into a couple of size 6's that run a little small, and are probably just skinny 8's. But still...I was filling up my size 10's just weeks earlier, so this surprised me.

Well, I've just spent 2 weeks eating everything I've wanted, and I haven't been drinking any water at all. I worked out today, and if I do the same tomorrow, and Friday while drinking tons of water and eating light, I will probably be back down to about 152 or 153lbs by the end of this week. If I keep it up for a least the next two weeks, I will have saved myself from jumping back up in the 160's.

I hope this post makes sense. I need sleep now, and will edit tomorrow if this seems unclear when I read this again. :-)

Best First Dance EVER!

This might be one of the cutest things I've ever seen. They will be together forever. :-)

glumbert - Best wedding first dance ever