Beyond Inspiring

One of my girlfriends told me about a blog and shared the link with me. Upon reading I found myself in tears. Stephanie and her husband Christian (who is a pilot) found themselves in a terrible plane crash and suffered multiple injuries and severe burns. They are both receving ongoing surgeries for the scars. She started the blog well before the crash. So there are many before and after pictures of them. Absolutely beautiful before and after. It's a very emotional story. The crash was in Fall of last year and she continued her story even though it was more and more difficult for her type. Many of the entries until recently have no pictures because she has difficulty lifting the camera. Within the past two months she posted pictures of her currently. She is inspiring. This truly speaks to beauty inside and out. I wanted to share her blog with those who read blogs. She goes by Nie Nie.

Gallery | Chick-fil-A milestone | ajc.com

Gallery | Chick-fil-A milestone | ajc.com

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Random Thoughts

A friend of mine e-mailed this to me today and I was cracking up. Wanted to share, Enjoy!

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can
think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell
my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves
me.

Nothing stinks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you're wrong.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're
going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to
be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to
yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're
crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This
recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never
be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't
work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all
know how to fix the problem? There were no internet or message boards
or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually
becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting
90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's
laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little
bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the
only one who really, really gets it.

How in the world are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than
take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron
test is absolutely petrifying.

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all
I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod
and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up
to prevent a someone from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in'
examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete
idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and
said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm....Goonies"

What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and
Instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I
know how to get out of my neighborhood.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the
shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,
and you can wear them forever.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their
profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got
the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if
I do!

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would
probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go
around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly
nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be
a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you've made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything
productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't
want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are
going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me
if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I
swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching
TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge
me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching
this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the
room. Will we still be friends after this?'

While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China
and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that
when Chinese athletes don’t win, they are executed.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?)
but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and
goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone
and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing
anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she
hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light
internet stalking.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle,
then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,
but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not
know what time it is..

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

A little boy asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen
if you ran over a ninja?" How do you respond to that?

It really aggravates me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the
link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get mad at the fact that everyone they
drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw
they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words,
someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think
about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people
eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by
myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fatty
before dinner.

Resistance Bands and Giblets

After Bootcamp this morning I would like to say, "Death to Resistance Bands!"

I thought we were home free this morning towards the end of class and then Boom Boom Pow came on and he got this extreme burst of energy and had us pick em up!! I never quit but my legs were shaking like they were in ice water!!

Sunday night I decided to use my wonderful crock pot again. I had a whole chicken in the freezer that I pulled out to thaw. After about 5 hours of thawing I take it out of the bag and begin examining. For some reason I was unaware I was going to have to pull the giblets out...Ew. Chad was of minimal help, my mom was on the way back from Florida, and my wonderful Father-in-law, Joey was roped into helping me from his house. So between my mom laughing and Chad saying, I'm not eating that, I was calling Joey for help. I was so confused because I couldn't pull it out. I had to put it in the bowl to continue the thawing process. At one point, I was so confused with trying to explain what I was seeing to Joey I took pictures and emailed them to him. I have watched my mom many times pull giblets out I have just never actually done it myself...I got Chad to hold the chicken up out of the bowl for me to take pictures...

That is what I was supposed to pull out...Rather gross but I did it and invented my first crock pot meal that I will share:)

1/2 onion

2-3 stalks of celery

1 chicken

1-1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white cooking wine

3-4 red potatoes

1 bag of baby carrots

1 tsp rosemary

Cut up the onion and celery and lay in the bottom. Then dry the chicken with paper towels, season with salt and pepper and lay breast side down in the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 8 hours. The meat fell right of the bone:) I meant to take a final picture but I forgot...Believe me it was beautiful and yummy!

Wipeout

The television show, Wipeout, brings a lot of laughter into our home. Chad and I watch this show when it is on because we find it hilarious. Granted, it is completely mindless television, we enjoy it thoroughly. I watch it for pure entertainment. However, last night Chad was the one that had me laughing harder than the show. I want to know if my husband is the only one that thinks he would dominate on this show.

This has been going on the last few weeks and it dawned on me last night, “He really thinks he would tear this show up.” As soon as the show starts and someone makes a mistake Chad is critiquing them and tells me how he would have done it differently. Throughout the entire show, he states that none of it is difficult.

I have to admit it may look easy sitting at the house but there is one obstacle that I have seen two people complete and that would be those, Infamous Big Red Balls. Honestly, I don’t know who could come up with something so cruel. If I did those I am most certain I would like the folks on the television show. But, not Chad. He thinks in his competitive mind that he would complete those and move on in about 30 seconds. I just laugh.

Last night was entertaining, they have this challenge called the dizzy dummy, I think. They spin you around while you are tied to this spinning contraption. Then it stops and you are to run and climb up another spinning thing and then climb across these balls that are floating on the water. It is absolutely ridiculous. Of course the poor folks were having a hard time. They do it 4 different times!! But of course Chad just doesn’t think that it looks that hard.

Then there is the obstacle course at the end. Chad dissects every challenge and tells me what he would do. Last night the catapulted into the water in kayaks. Then they climb up this water slide where a large amount of water is released at a random time and most of the time the folks go flying all the way back down. Not Chad, He would brace himself to the slide and wouldn’t go anywhere but up. The other parts of the course are difficult to describe but you get my point. Chad gets so upset when they give up or mess up. He’s like, “There is $50,000 dollars on the line!!” The winner last night finished I think a little over 4 minutes. Chad would finish in a minute and 30 seconds tops.

Why doesn’t Chad go on the show you ask? He’s looked into it. You have to be a resident of California to compete on the show. I wish he would so he can either prove or disprove all of those hilarious claims!! I personally think most of the folks on that show are very strange and are lacking something called common sense. Last night was an entertaining evening for me and I was curious as to how many others are experiencing the same thing???

The Hubby

1. What is his name? Chad Thomas Reichert. Goes by Chad or Chadsta:)
2. Who eats more? That’s a toss up! Depends on what we are eating. If it’s Mexican I have him by a long shot. But typically it’s him.
3. Who said “I love you” first? I did. About 2 months into us dating, I told him.
4. Who is taller? The Chadsta.
5. Who is smarter? When it comes to Math and Science that is all Chad. I was not made with that part of my brain. I was built with the reading/writing/history part of my brain. All in all I think we compliment each other.
6. Who is more sensitive? Definitely me. My feelings get hurt very easily. I didn’t used to be that way. I think it’s been a process since I graduated from college. Weird. Nothing used to bother me but now I take things way to close to heart. I am working on it though.
7. Who does the laundry? For the most part me but Chad does help and he will start loads. I think he quit when we got back from the Honeymoon and decided to do some laundry when he got home from work. There are just some things that I hang up. I don’t put everything in the dryer. I came home to find my brand new bathing suit in the dryer and I remained calm. I started using little garment bags. If there is anything in the bags, Hang it up:)
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you are on the bed I sleep on the right. Mainly due to the fact that we have one end table and I stay up a tad bit later then him to watch tv or read.
9. Who pays the bills? That is all Chad. I could do it I had to but for the most part he takes care of it.
10. Who cooks? Me- I love cooking:) I love trying new recipes. Cooking is my time to de-stress myself from the work day. It helps me relax.
11. Who is more stubborn? I think we are both pretty even on this one. We can both be a little stubborn at times.
12. Who is first to admit they are wrong? Me. Chad will be the first to try and make up after a disagreement or something but he won’t really admit that he was wrong. I don’t think I have ever heard him admit he was wrong; maybe once or twice.
13. Who has more siblings? Chad does; Brother Clay and Sister Cassie; both younger.
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Split evenly. I don’t want to be “the wife” that tells him what to do all the time. But Good Lord sometimes I feel like I have to say little things to help nudge him;)
15. What do you like to do together? We love to laugh and have fun together!! We have so much fun in the evenings just making each other laugh. We like to watch funny movies, spend time with family and friends, go to the lake (tubing), we enjoy going to our Sunday school class, and yes, we like to wrestle around and play fight…strange? Maybe, but we find it fun.
16. Who eats more sweets? If you define sweets by, a big glass of milk and too many chocolate chip cookies than Chad has that in the bag. However, on the other side brownies are my weakness.
17. Who asked out whom first? Chad asked me out by making a bet. At the time being a GA Tech fan he bet me that if UGA won I would have to go out on a date with him. If Tech won he said he would leave me alone. By that point I had made up my mind that I was ready to go on a date and of course UGA was going to win. Best date (hands down) I had ever been on. Dinner and ice skating=Happily Ever After.
18. How did you meet? We met through mutual friends at Chad’s 21’st Birthday Party.
19. Who kissed who first? Pretty sure that was me ;)
20. Who proposed? Chad proposed on Easter of 08’. It was so incredibly sweet and the fact that both of our families were there and I have it on tape means the world to me. I always said he would never get me. That I would always know when he was going to do it but he definitely got me that day!
21. His best features? He is so incredibly handsome and HOTT to me!! His laugh is contagious and he is always laughing and smiling.
22. What is his greatest quality? I don’t really know where to begin. He is so incredibly sweet and has such a soft heart. He is self-less when it comes to helping others. He likes to have fun and make others laugh. Chad is my perfect soul mate. He makes me a better person. This was a hard question because I can’t really narrow it down to a list.
23. Tag? Tina and Amber:)

Rockin' the "Self-Propelled" Lawn Mower?

Sunday night I was so proud of myself!! I used my crock pot for the first time! Needless to say dinner was ready when I got home last night:) How wonderful! Walked in to the house and all I had to do was heat it up...Whoo-hoo!! I have many recipes to try out so when I find some really good ones I will share;)

Since we were through with dinner pretty early last night Chad asked me the question I had been dreading to hear since getting married. "Do you want to go cut the grass?" In my head, "Is that a rhetorical question? Is he serious?" I smiled and said, "Sure! Why not?" I get changed and put on loads of bug spray, hair in a cute little ponytail, I am good to go! Chad is going to do the backyard with the riding lawn mower while I do the front yard with the "self-propelled" mower. Anybody see anything wrong with that picture??? I started on the yard and about 5 minutes into it I am dripping sweat from every inch of my body. I have convinced myself that there is nothing self propelled about this lawn mower. Chad's grandfather gave it to us and I think the (Propeller?) is broke! If you have seen or been to our house you know that have some pretty steep hills on the sides of the house. I consider myself to be pretty strong and was out to prove myself last night. I start getting to the steep parts and I am literally trying to get a running start and barely make it up this hill. At one point I was completely stopped and digging my shoes into the ground. I thought after I did that last night I was pretty sure that I burned about 2500 calories:) haha...

All of this to say...I accomplished my goal of mowing our front yard!! Go me!! I will post a picture of the "mountains" in our yard so you will feel my pain. As soon as I finished I called my Mom and Dad to boast about my accomplishment!! Mom's response; "You cut the grass?" Granted I hate yard work and always did as a child the hard thing for me was pulling the cord to get it started. I recall hating yard work so much as a child this always comes to mind. My mom and dad used to bribe us to pick up pine cones by giving us a nickle for each one we picked up...

What's funny about that? Even that didn't work. Making the effort to pick up the pine cones and place them into the garbage bag or bucket was just to much for us girls. We would pick up the ones in the front yard and throw them over the fence into the back yard....then when we got to the back we would throw them back into the front yard. Accomplishing absolutely nothing! Jenn and I thought we were so clever and our parents had no clue...no really...Turns out they are much smarter than we thought as kids!!

Writing that story makes me smile :)