Tuesday, January 26, 2010

random thoughts

Just some random thoughts ...

I think I need to join the 20th century and get a smart phone! Missed my second invite to happy hour...

"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton is a fantastic book. One of my top favorites and highly recommended!!

Find a wedding florist is very difficult. Probably should have starting looking for a florist when I booked the venue.

Love JCrew bridesmaid dresses!! We even got them on sale (less then $100!!), because the color is out of season.

Found a day-of-coordinator! I think she will be wonderful.

Love my sample invitation from Earthly Affair. 100% recycled paper and they carbon offset their shipping! Yeah for a green wedding.
www.earthlyaffair.com

I hope this weekends snow doesn't affect air travel...

-ELT

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

mom-blogs

I read a few "mom-blogs" because I enjoy the wit and humor of these women. One of the blogs I read regularly announced today that they are pregnant with their 5th child. Congratulations!! Having a child is a wonderful and amazing thing (the jury is still out on using my womb - I like the idea of being an awesome/super cool Aunt!)

They have been married for ~5 years and have 4 children (the oldest just turned 5 and the youngest is a year old.) What frustrates/angers/annoys me about the announcement is that their youngest child just recovered from a serious heart condition that threaten his life, that she whole-heartedly believes was caused and solved by their unending faith in God.
Not once in any of her posts (and she is very forth coming) is the acknowledgement that maybe it wasn't God who was testing their strength but her body saying "Hello, stop having so many children. Give me a few months of vacation to recover/renew/rebuild/refresh, before trying for baby #4." The mom-blog relates every daily thing back to God. I think that is crap!


From the mom-blog -
"MckMuffin is our 1 year old miracle son Stellan. When I was 22 weeks pregnant with him, he was in heart failure. He had SVT, Hydrops fetalis and heart block. At 24 weeks we were told there was no hope for our son, whose heart would not respond to medication. Stellan would be stillborn. We embarked on a journey of faith like nothing we could have ever imagined.
God blew us away with Stellan's miraculous recovery. He was born alive, healthy and with no sign of SVT! His doctors were sure he had outgrown it and we took him home.
When Stellan was 4 months old, he began to suffer from SVT again. Our faith walk deepened as we clung to God. Stellan was hospitalized for 6 weeks and had a risky, unsuccessful ablation performed in Boston. Between then and when he turned one, Stellan had a hospitalization in the ICU every single month.
When Stellan's SVT got so bad that we nearly lost him a few times, once when he coded on the table mere days after he turned 1, he had another emergency ablation. Although the outlook was grim and the hope for complete success was slim, we put our son in God's hands again.
Why God chose to heal our son on earth is something we cannot fathom. But He did. Stellan's second ablation was a rip roaring success and he has been free from SVT since November 9, 2009 with no permanent damage to his heart.
Stellan is the light of our lives. A dimpled darling, he loves to cuddle, giggle and be doted on by his three older siblings. We have vowed to never stop praising God for the miracle that Stellan is."


I was baptised and raised ELCA Lutheran (Catholic-lite is what GAH calls it). I believe in God and that there is an after life, but I have a difficult time believing that God impacts my daily life.
I abruptly woke up this morning before my alarm, thinking I had forgotten/lost something very important (in fact it was in a safe place - where I always keep it!), did God wake me up or was it just me being neurotic? Mostly likely neurotic!

In the news you read/hear about so many bad things that are happening, I just can't believe that an almighty Lord would allow so many mean, evil, daily things (ex. the pre-teen in Florida who was set on fire by boys his age that were mad about $40. The boys now face murder charges. Fortunately, the burnt boy is doing well and from the reports is make great progress with his recovery.) Would a daily, helping you make decisions God allow those boys to set someone on fire??

On the grand scale of things, yes I believe that God is there and has an impact. I don't believe that God caused the heart defect in the mom-blog's unborn child. I believe it was her body rejecting the forth pregnancy in five years. I do believe that the mom-blog's family found strength in God and allowed her family the ability to deal with and over come the illness. I believe that the mom-blog has listened to her body for her current pregnancy (probably because she was too busy worrying and providing for her ill son,) I just wonder if she listened long enough and what will happen with this newest addition.....I guess I'll have to keep reading:)


-ELT

Monday, January 11, 2010

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister's 25th birthday!! And a dear family friend just had their second child today at 11am - its a girl!!

Like all siblings, we have had our ups and downs and as we get older our friendship grows. One of my earlest childhood memories is of the birth of my sister.

It was dark out and my dad packed me and my yellow Triaminic couch syrup in the car, heading to a family friend's house to spend the night. They would take me to day care the next day. The next morning, while at day care, I was told I had a phone call in the lobby. How exciting!! A Phone Call!! It was my dad calling to say I had a baby sister. It was all very exciting! I don't remember going to the hospital or seeing her for the first time, but I remember the phone call. Strange what we remember.
Since my mom knew my sister would be born shortly after Christmas, she decided to keep up all the decorations until she was born. We maintain that tradition still. And I even keep all my Christmas stuff up. (I will be taking it down this weekend.)

I love family traditions!
Happy Birthday Sister!!
-ELT

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy 2010!

September - December 2010 books read and listened to.

Gourmet Rhapsody by Barbery, Muriel - second book by Barbery, not as good as the first.

My Life in France by Child, Julia - great book! Highly recommended.

The Secret of Lost Things by Hay, Sheridan - strange book. So so on the recommendation.

Mary Mrs. A. Lincoln by Newman, Janis Cooke - historical fiction about Mary Todd Lincoln. Highly recommended - my 2nd book of 2010 is going to be the biography of Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Todd Lincoln by Baker, Jean H).

Alex Cross Trial by Patterson, James - so so book, written with second author - I think the books written with another author are not as good as the books James Patterson writes alone. This book isn't really about Alex Cross, so it is not a must read.

Keeping Faith by Picoult, Jodi - an older Picoult book. Pretty good.

Bridge of Sighs by Russo, Richard - another long book by Russo, but very good. I listened to this and That Old Cape Magic (read by the same person). Highly recommended.

That Old Cape Magic by Russo, Richard - a short Russo book! Also Highly recommended.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by Sedaris, David - listened to this on my Thanksgiving drive - terribly funny. Sedaris read the book. Highly recommended!

The Miracle at Speedy Motors:#9 by Smith, Alexander McCall - a continuation in The #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The series is a very good read.

A Summons to Memphis by Taylor, Peter - Pulitzer Prize fiction winner. Unless you want to read all the PP fiction winners, you can skip this one.

I have a feeling I will be reading lots of books this year... lots of plane trips to do wedding planning!
Enjoy!
ELT