Gesundheit!

Today I am thankful for my health.



I have been blessed in this life with a pretty healthy body.

My mother prayed for all of us before we were born to have my dad's metabolism, and my siblings and I have always been a healthy weight.

I have an irregular heartbeat that I went to get checked shortly after I graduated from college. The cardiologist did an EKG and ultrasound on my heart. He confirmed that I did have an irregular heartbeat, but there was nothing else showing as being wrong with it. He told me "if you get dizzy or pass out, come back and see me. Otherwise, you should be fine." I've never had to go back.

I've had my share of injuries. I broke my ankle in two places when I was in fourth grade. The ER doctor set my foot incorrectly, so it didn't heal straight. But that doesn't even affect my running much.

I get colds usually once a year during either the fall or spring weather change. But doesn't everyone?

When I was pregnant, during the second prenatal appointment when the doctor was going over the results of the blood tests, she commented that I was the first healthy patient she had seen all day. And my appointment was at 4:30pm!

I've never had to have surgery. I've never been diagnosed with a major illness or disease. When I have allowed the doctors to take my blood to check my cholesterol and other things, everything has been normal.

My body has definitely changed since the pregnancy, but I am thankful that I have a healthy body that is capable of exercising and eating right to keep it that way.


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I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream...

Today I am thankful for ice cream.



Ice cream is my all time favorite food. And don't tell me it's not a food and that it can't go on my top five favorite foods list. If I wouldn't become malnourished, I could eat ice cream for every meal.

I have a favorite flavor of almost every brand of ice cream. My all time favorite flavor of ice cream is Brusters' chocolate raspberry truffle. For those of you who have not had it, it is chocolate ice cream with raspberry jam and chocolate chips mixed in. It is so amazingly tasty! And, thanks to my sister, getting it on a waffle cone is my favorite treat.

If Ben and Jerry's is on the menu, Phish Food is the best. Phish Food (named after the band Phish, I think) is sort of like heavenly hash. It has chocolate ice cream with carmel and marshmellow goo swirls and chocolate fish-shaped chips. Delish! Ben and Jerry's used to have Bovinity Divinity, which I adored. It was white chocolate and milk chocolate ice cream mixed together with chocolate cow-shaped chips.

Mayfield has Extreme Moose Tracks ice cream. Regular moose tracks has peanut butter cups, but I do not like peanut butter. So Mayfield did it right by making extreme moose tracks and exchanging the peanut butter cups for fudge-filled cups. It is chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge swirls and fudge-filled cups.

Kroger makes a great generic ice cream that my father-in-law has gotten me into. It is called Deluxe Churned French Silk and it is "light" ice cream. It is chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and vanilla cream swirled into it.

Maggie Moos has great strawberry ice cream, so when I go there, I get the strawberry ice cream with strawberries, Oreo cookies, and fudge mixed in. I think it's called Strawberry Skydive.

When I go to Coldstone, I get the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream. It is mint ice cream with chocolate chips, brownies, and chocolate syrup. Quite the tasty treat.

At Dairy Queen, the Choco Cherry Love blizzard is my fav. I discovered it a few years ago in February when they had that as their Blizzard of the Month. It is their soft serve vanilla ice cream with cherries and chocolate chunks mixed together. It is delicious!

I'm sure I could go on forever. So, what is your favorite ice cream? I'm open to suggestions. :)


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V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N...In the Summer Sun

Today I am thankful for vacations.


New England vacation with Sweta - fall 2006


Hawaii vacation with the girls (Sweta, Sherry, and Gita [not pictured]) - December 2006


Prague vacation with Sherry - February 2007


Honeymoon Cruise - June 2008


Disneyworld with Robby, Sweta, and Blake - January 2009


Oregon vacation - June 2009


Daytona Beach vacation with the siblings - June 2010

Anyone that really knows me knows that I LOVE vacations! Every year I trade some of my salary for extra vacation days. Time away from work is invaluable to me.

I also love traveling, at least in the United States. I wanted to visit every state before I turned 30, but other more important things (like getting married) prevented that from happening. So now, I plan to visit every state when I run a marathon in it.

Traveling outside of the United States isn't as fun to me, because it stresses me out. If I don't know the language or have the proper currency, I get a little stressed. I did take a vacation to Prague once, and I have gone to China and Costa Rica for work, but I'd rather stay within the North American continent than go outside of it.

I love the beach. I don't care much for going in the water at the beach, but the fact that it is hot when I go to the beach makes the trip one to long for. I love running on the beach and doing other beach-related activities (like sand volleyball).

I am thankful that we can afford to take annual vacations. I'm thankful that, although my husband doesn't like to take off work, he goes with me and shares most of the vacation experiences with me. I can't wait until Alan is old enough to enjoy them also.


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Inalienable Rights

Today I am thankful for liberty and those that fought to ensure that we have it.




On this Veterans' Day, I am thankful for all those men and women who risked their lives to protect our country. I am thankful that they were able to do so and return to their families.

I am thankful for all those men and women who gave their lives and weren't able to return to their families. I'm thankful for those families who were willing to give up one of their loved ones for our freedoms.

We still have those freedoms, so far. The current administration seems to want to slowly take away some of those freedoms that were fought for and sacrificed for, but as of now we still have them.

I am thankful that I was born in and grew up in a country as wonderful as the United States of America. There is pain and suffering all over the world, including in the U.S., but we are so blessed with our freedoms and the ability to pursue our dreams. We have an abundance of resources at our fingertips. If we work for it, there isn't much we cannot accomplish.


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Boss Man

Today I am thankful for my boss.



I posted the other day about how I'm thankful for my job. Not only am I thankful for a job, but I'm thankful for a wonderful boss.

My boss is a family man who genuinely cares about the people who work for him. When he found out I was pregnant, he allowed me the flexibility to decrease or eliminate my travel. He allowed me to work from home the last week of pregnancy. He allows me to work from home one day a week now, so that Alan doesn't have to go to daycare full time.

My boss is a mentor. He sees potential in his people, and has helped me to grow in my career. He gives me career advice that he learned over the years. He once said that I remind him of him when he was just starting out in his career. He gives me opportunities to present my programs to the CFO and Chief Compliance Officer. He nominated me to attend a Leadership training that only selected individuals in our company were allowed to attend. He believes in me so much that he has said that I could have his job (VP of Global Security) when he is ready to retire.

While my ultimate career goal of becoming a Chief Ethics Officer may not be recognized at Kimberly-Clark, my boss has helped me to gain experience that will lead me in the right direction to meet that goal.

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Shelter from the Storm

Today I am thankful for my house, a roof over my head.



I owned a house back in 2003 when I lived in Raleigh, but since I moved to Atlanta later that year, I had been living in apartments. I actually liked living in an apartment because it was cheaper, and I had no need for a house at the time.

This time last year, Robby and I were thinking about moving to Tampa. It had been a cold winter, and if you know me at all you know that I HATE cold weather. If I could live at the equator, I probably would. I looked up the Tampa weather nearly every day and commented on how much better it would be to live down there. We looked at houses online and found some really nice ones, mainly because of the down economy and people selling their second homes down in Florida. We were ready to go.

Then a month later, we found out I was pregnant. Moving to Florida didn't seem like the best idea anymore, because our family is in Georgia. Not moving down there was probably one of the best decisions we made. Having family close makes raising an infant so much easier! So we started looking in the Duluth area - close to Robby's parents and closer to my mom then I was in Dunwoody.

We bought our house in February of this year. The cost of owning a house is definitely much more than an apartment. Not just the rent/mortgage cost increase, but the utilities and home repairs have really taken a hit on our budget. We used to have much more discretionary income. Now our discretionary income is next to none, but we have a comfortable place to raise our son.

This house has a special meaning after August 17th. Alan was born at home, on the bathroom floor. He started his life here, and hopefully he will grow up here.

I am thankful that we are able to afford this comfortable house and that it has become a home to my new family.

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Lead the World in Essentials for a Better Life

Today I am thankful for my job.



Over the past two or so years, many people have been out of jobs. K-C laid off 1,000 people in the U.S. last year. The economy continues to struggle, and unemployment is at the highest it's been in my lifetime.

But I am blessed to be gainfully employed during this tough economic time. And not only am I employed, but my job allows me the flexibility to have a good work-life balance.

So, in order to keep me employed, everyone reading this should by Huggies, Kleenex, Kotex, Cottonelle, Scott, Viva, Poise, Depends, etc :)

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