My First Find

I experienced my first geocaching find yesterday! I’ve wanted to start this game for almost a month now and I finally got to find something. Many, many thanks to my parents for giving me the ability with my new hand held gps receiver – my Garmin eTrex Summit HC – that they gave me for Christmas.

The Find
Listing: Beans & Rice
Coordinates: N 32◦ 49.450, W 097◦ 11.118
Team: Me and my mom

My mom and I spent about 2 hours looking for more caches around the area. We found 7 out of the 11 we were searching for. Not too shabby for the first time out!

I’ve already plotted out more to find… it’s so much fun.

A Simple Gift

Today I was approached by the head of our Human Resources department. He asked me if we were going to do something for Maria, our office cleaning lady. I hadn’t heard of anything that was planned but I told him we could work on something.

He then gave me some cash and told me, because she’s considered part-time, that she isn’t eligible for a yearly bonus. I took the “seed money” and went office to office of those that are here and asked if they wanted to donate to Maria’s Christmas bonus.

I was amazed, for the second time, at how many people wanted to help her.
At 3 p.m., three of us met Maria in the fishbowl – a glass conference room in our office – and presented her with her “bonus.” She was so appreciative, said Merry Christmas, and wished that God would repay us ten-fold for helping her and her family.

You may be wondering why we care so much about Maria. Like many people, she hasn’t had an easy life, but her story touched our office.

A little over a year ago, her husband tragically passed away and was left to raise four young children on her own. Due to the nature of his passing, she no longer wanted to live in their home and decided to move her family in with her in-laws. Shortly after moving in, her father-in-law passed away.

The majority of the Rangers staff didn’t know all of this had happened until six months later. Three of us banded together and started asking for donations from within the company and local businesses. In June, we presented her with a huge package of cash and gifts to help her and her family. This was the first time I was amazed by my fellow employee’s willingness to give so much to someone. Everyone went above and beyond to help her and we were able to give her something many people wish for but never receive.

It’s a nice feeling to be apart of something so selfless and to see that selflessness spreading to others. It truly is moving and rewarding.

Just the other day I blogged about how I wasn’t feeling in the Christmas spirit. It wasn’t until we put up our Christmas tree that I felt something for the season. It has hit me in the face today that I don’t need a tree, or lights, or gifts, or anything to connect me with God’s spirit. His spirit is within me and I can feel it when I help others. Not just at Christmas, but always.

I can’t wait for the next opportunity to help someone.

Counting Down – 2 days

The girls with our tree

New addition to this year’s tree, the snowman family ornament. There’s a snowman for each of us. Craig is the tall snowman, I’m the one with the red gloves, and Maddie and Monkey are together (Maddie is the taller of the two that are together.)

Counting Down

Only three days left until we celebrate Jesus’ birthday.

I’ve had this snowman on my desk counting down the days until Christmas. I put him up right after Thanksgiving and, at the time, December was just starting and I wasn’t ready for Christmas to come. It meant more time by myself with Craig at work and longer days for him closing his store at 10 p.m.

I had all the time in the world to decide what we were going to give people, time to get all the presents, time to wrap them, and place them neatly under our tree.

Flash forward to yesterday…

I spent most of my day finishing up last minute Christmas shopping. With my new car, I naturally park as far out as I can to avoid door dings… but yesterday, in the cold wind; I was parking miles from the door of any store I visited. I can’t complain too much, I have two working legs that God blessed me with.

That wasn’t the issue, it was the fact I let it get to within four days of Christmas to finish everything up. Then it was on to wrapping. When you wrap a few packages at a time and then wrap more days later, this job isn’t so bad. If I had started my shopping sooner, I wouldn’t have had to wrap the majority of our packages all in one day! Curses to me for that one…

The worst part of all this, we hadn’t set up our Christmas tree. I know the tree isn’t “the reason for the season” but it made me feel like a bad Christian not to have some outward sign of my faith in my own home. Don’t even get me started on the fact we don’t have any decorations in our yard or on our house…

We had times set aside to set up the tree, but other things seemed to come first. Last night, we made the time. That one simple act of putting up a tree and turning on the lights made me feel much better about the Christmas season.

The tree is decorated and we have pretty packages underneath. Christmas is three days away… and now I can’t wait for His birthday to come.

All I want to do…

… is complete my first geocaching find.

If you haven’t heard of Geocaching you should look it up. It’s like treasuring hunting, only there isn’t really a prize involved, in most cases. I did find one posted online where you get the prize that’s in the box, but you have to be the first to find it. Unfortunately, it was already found by the time I came across it.

You find coordinates online and use your GPS to find the hidden item, sign your name to a book, and then post online that you found it.

I’ve asked for a hand held GPS for Christmas. I hope I get it so I can complete my first mission!

Terrible Two’s

Do dogs go through this stage in life? I hope not… because Maddie turned two yesterday!

Craig and I surprised Maddie with a special dog birthday cake made out of canned dog food. If you would like the recipe for your dog, here goes:

Open a can of wet dog food, put it in a bowl, and top with the candle of your choice. Viola! Watch your dog go crazy over you with the excitement of their very own “cake.”

Beware, dogs may be too excited to eat the food to notice the burning candle… whiskers may be burned in the process!

Enjoy the additional pictures.

Maddie waiting for her cake...

Dog cake essentials.

The cake.

Maddie scoping it out.

Maddie says, "Thanks, it was good. Do we have more?"

Cheese Whiz

Have you ever wondered why cheese tastes so good?

I mean seriously, it’s probably my favorite food. Just think about it for a moment. If you put cheese on some foods that you absolutely don’t like, the cheese suddenly makes it bearable to eat. For example, I hate cooked spinach. I thought it was because my mom made me eat it as a kid, but I tried it again a few months back, and yep, I still hate it. But when you add cheese to it, like in spinach artichoke dip, suddenly, it tastes so good I almost don’t want to share.

Think about the last time you were at a party where there wasn’t a cheese tray. Can’t think of one can you? My company holiday party was just a few weeks ago. One of the main things I love about our holiday party is that there is always a cheese table full of fun cheeses I wouldn’t think to purchase in the store. This year’s party didn’t disappoint! There was a huge table stacked with three levels full of fun and exciting cheeses just waiting to be devoured!

Cheese table at the Rangers holiday party









Then the next night was Craig’s holiday party. But of course there would be the standard cheese plate, but they didn’t stop there. Oh no, they had a special cheese cutting board with horseradish flavored cheese. Talk about yumm-o. Then someone else brought a cheese spread that had been shipped in from Wisconsin, the cheese head capitol! I immediately fit in with Craig’s new employees.
If they love cheese, I love them!

So many foods include cheese, some of best foods, if you ask me. I mean, who can resist:
Nachos
Tacos/Taco Salad
Enchiladas (especially cheese enchiladas)
Queso and chips
Chicken Tortilla Soup

And I’m not just talking about Tex-Mex, either:
Lasagna
Ravioli
Tortellini
Pizza (and you know I love the cheese pizza)
Mac ‘n cheese (the quintessential of all foods with cheese)
Grilled cheese

But forget all the cooked dishes with cheese, you can put it right on top of veggies and they are suddenly scarfed down by hungry, cheese loving, people.

Most salads (two of my favorites - greek (feta), caesar (parmesan))
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Potatoes
Tomatoes
I even put feta in my green beans with some red onions

You can even find cheese in deserts, too. Who doesn’t like cheese cake after a nice meal?

Want something for a quick appetizer? Put some cream cheese on plate and cover it with:
Salsa and eat it with corn chips
Jalapeno jelly and eat it with wheat thins
Chipotle raspberry sauce and eat it with wheat thins

Talk about some good crudités!

All this talk about cheese has made me hungry… is it time for lunch yet? Not quite, but I think I’ll eat my string cheese now!

Snowy Weather

Don’t you just love winter weather in North Texas? If you’re not from here, please replace “winter weather” with “patchy, freezing drizzle which will turn to ice on overpasses and elevated surfaces.”

Schools and businesses shut down and people drive really slow. It took me almost 45 minutes to get to work this morning… it typically only takes me 25 minutes with minimal traffic.

Even with all the slowness, I love the cold. It’s a time to brew a splendid cup of hot mocha, wrap up in a blanket on the sofa in front of a fire (or fake fireplace like at my house), and read a good book. Monkey will curl up with me and Maddie will sleep on the floor in front of the fire.

You may ask where Craig is during all of this lazy warmth at home. Well, as he said this morning, that’s the life of retail, “You must go in if the mall is open.” I happen to know that the city of Allen, Plano, and their respective ISD’s are closed today… but Christmas shopping must go on!

Okay, I’m not at home either… I braved the icy bridges to make it into to work this morning.

I snapped a few pictures of the snowy… uh, I mean icy field that I can see from the balcony.


But it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I love snow, at least not for those of you that have seen my office during Christmas. I have an over infatuation with snowmen. I just think they are too cute. My office is decked out with them this time of year. (16 snowmen on my credenza, 4 on the wall, and 2 on my desk.)

I’ll be making my own snowman in 20 days during our ski trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado with our friends Allen & Michelle McCarty. Bring on the cold weather!

My First Blog

So, I’ve never really blogged before, but I guess you can tell that by the title of this one. I feel like there is nothing really exciting in my life to share. But I read a good friends blog the other day that really made me want to try… so here goes.

My life is simple. I have a wonderful husband, Craig, and two fur kids, Monkey (really a cat) and Maddie (our dog). I work for the Texas Rangers Baseball Club as the marketing manager and Craig works for Bailey, Banks, and Biddle as the store manager of the Shops and Willow Bend location.

This time of year is always stressful for us. Not only because it’s Christmas time but because Craig’s in retail and works ungodly hours. This year seems to be a tad harder than what I remember, 1. because he works in freaking Plano – 45 minutes away from our home and 2. the economy is hitting people pretty hard and they aren’t buying luxury items – like jewelry from Baileys. Things will pick up, or at least I’m praying they will.

For my job, it’s pretty slow this time of year. For those of you that think we do nothing during the offseason, you’re wrong! A few weeks after the season ends, we start preparing for the next season. I’ve already cranked out several brochures for 2009 already! I feel a head of the game!

By the way 113 days until the Rangers home opener on Monday, April 6!