Thankful.

For everyone who is reading this I'm thankful. We are so blessed to have every person who is in our lives. For the final installment of the things we're thankful for, here we go:
Erin: I'm thankful for my health as well as my 2 health babes. I am thankful for good friends (like ones that bring you food and a great read just because:)).
Austyn: The Jones boys and Gracyn (not to be confused with the Jonas Brothers :)) and family, not just our family, other families too (her words exactly!)
Wes:Pumpkin Pie and whipped cream

Happy Thanksgiving, love you all!

Thanksgiving post continued... part 2

Okay, so I didn't get my post done yesterday, so we will all choose at least 2 things to put down today!
Erin: A roof over my head, food in my tummy and love in my heart :)
Austyn: Lots and lots of friends, baking with mommy(we just made chocolate chip cookies) :)
Wes: Chocolate chip cookies and turkey, pumpkin pie and ice cream
I guess we've all got food on our mind tonight! LOL :)

Thanksgiving week, Part 1

Since it's Thanksgiving week, I have decided to pass along what everyone in my family is thankful for. Everyday leading up to Turkey day, I will ask Wes and Austyn what they are thankful for and post their (and my) responses. Here we go:
Sunday:
Erin: I am most thankful for my amazing family. Wes, Austyn and Peyton as well as all of my extended family and Wes' family. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such loving and supportive people all of the time.
Austyn: Food, school and family... she could've gone on forever, but I had to remind her that we were doing this for 5 days :o)
Wes: Family and Friends... (he's my man of few words :o) )

New Adventures

With a few minutes of quiet while there are 3 sleeping babies, I wanted to update all of my close friends on what I am doing so that there aren't any awkward conversations later on. I have decided to become a vegetarian, both for my own health reasons as well as environmental and animal cruelty reasons. I have a tendency to be quite lazy in the way that I eat and fall back on easy junk food when I am tired and hungry. I have been preparing myself for this for the last few weeks, cutting out different types of meat a week at a time and I have already started losing the weight that I have been struggling to get off since Peyton was born. I have decided that I will still eat eggs and maybe occasionally fish, but otherwise I am going to focus on fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. I need to take control of my health and I see this as being a way to jump start that. In addition to the health benefits, I am also doing it as a way to live a bit more "green". I have researched a lot of information about the amount of energy it takes to eat meat, both by losing natural resources (grass, land, water) to "fatten up" cattle to eat as well as the horrible practices that go on in slaughter houses. I'm not by any means an animal rights activist, but I have taken on a stance that I want to know what goes into the food that I am eating. Please know that this is completely a personal decision and that I will in no way preach what I am doing to anyone else. I don't promote it, I just think that it's the right thing for me at this time. Let me know what you think and if anyone would like to talk to me about it, please feel free! I'm not afraid of criticism, I've already received plenty of it from Wes about the veggie issue :)

Soap Box

I don't want to turn this into a political blog. But for just a minute I can't help but to get something off of my chest. I can't understand where some people feel that they have the right to judge others. With all of the different laws in other states that were up for vote a few weeks ago, I was extremely sad about the place where the world is headed. I don't understand how people can come up with a definition of love that is supposed to apply to everyone without understanding other points of view. We are given the right to vote for the greater good of the people and too many people vote without education. When you walk into a voting booth, too many people vote based on what party they are associated with or the ideals they were raised with. I'm not saying that is wrong, but I want to challenge everyone to look outside of the box and DO RESEARCH about what you are voting for. Think about the "what if's". Say you are one of the people that is opposed to gay marriage and/or gays and lesbians adopting children. "What if" you have a son or daughter who is born as a homosexual (yes I believe it is not something that you can choose, but that is MY opinion). How are you going to feel when you never have the opportunity to attend their wedding or spend time with your grandchildren. Who are you to say that 2 men or 2 women can't raise a child in a loving, stable home? Yes, there are challenges that will inevitably be presented, but aren't there challenges in every type of household? As many of you know, this topic hits very close to my heart. Not only b/c my mother, after 35 years finally felt that she could be true to herself and the person that she was born as, but because I have friends and other family members that this directly impacts. Why should they not be able to "love out loud"? There are only 2 people that I believe you have to answer to and that is God and yourself. There is no way that I can say what is best for someone else. I can only open my heart up to everyone allowing them to make their own decisions and give everyone equal opportunities. I have done a lot of research into the law of attraction and practice it in my own life. I truly believe in karma and that god will use what you are passionate about to teach you lessons. I hope that everyone can be blessed with a situation that allows them the opportunity to be open minded. I firmly believe that you can accept people and allow them to be what makes them happy without fully supporting all that comes along with it. I challenge everyone that reads this to be a little bit more open minded today, think about the hardships that other people have that are directly contributed to a decision that you made. Think about the difference that you could make in someone's life just by accepting and embracing them and what they choose in their life. If they aren't hurting anyone, then where is it anyone's place to judge them?

Quote for the day:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk…
Martin walked so Obama could run…
Obama is running so our children can FLY!

Thank God we are all lucky enough to live in a country as great this one. We are so blessed to have the freedom to vote and I am proud of our country today.

Do you accept the challenge :)

My friend Laura has a blog which I like to keep up with. This is from her blog, so I'm accepting the challenge in hopes that my readers will get to know a little bit more about me. I would like to tag the blogs that I read regularly... Nicole, Anne, and Casie to fill this out on their blogs and to extend the first part of the challenge to all of my readers without their own blogs: Mom, Amanda... everyone else who reads but doesn't leave me comments :)
Enjoy :)

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends.

This is my rule (I changed them from the email): Anyone who reads this blog must start their own and make this their first post. They must also send me a link to their new blog in my comments section. :) Harsh, I know. Anyone who already has a blog is also welcome to fill out this survey. I tag you all!

1. What is your occupation right now? Daycare provider, mom, chauffeur, chef, personal shopper, housekeeper... :)

2. What color are your socks right now? None, anyone who knows me knows I live in flip flops, even when its cold!

3. What are you listening to right now? 2 babies chattering to each other and playing and one snoring... the greatest sound in the world!

4. What was the last thing that you ate? fish sticks for lunch, healthy, I know :)

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Wes tried to teach me once, but that was a long time ago!

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Grandma Siegle

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, shes a great friend!

8. How old are you today? 25 years, 4 months and 18 days

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Football, College or pro

10. Favorite drink? Diet coke

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Blond highlights

12. Favorite food? hmmm.... so many to choose from! Probably southwest chicken wraps from houlihan's at the moment. Maybe just because that's what I've been wanting for the last week :)

13. What is the last movie you watched? We rented Leatherheads the other night... not very good tho.

14. Favorite day of the year? Everyday when I'm with my favorite people!

15. How do you vent anger? Clean house.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies and my jump it thing... those are the 2 things that pop into my mind anyway

17. What is your favorite season? Fall... I love the leaves changing and cool temperatures... Football weather!

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? I hope the people that have blogs with post at least!

20. Who is the most likely to respond? Not sure... Hopefully everyone!

21. Who is least likely to respond? Probably mom... since she doesn't know how to start a blog :) Love you mom

22. Living arrangements? Happy family... mom, dad, sweet daughter, fun baby brother. No pets tho... too much work :)

23. When was the last time you cried? Watching yesterdays Oprah this morning... I'm a sap :)

24. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Don't know. I'm not sure who all reads this.

25. What did you do last night? Went to bed at 10, woke up at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and watched tv and cleaned.

26. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheeseburgers

27. Favorite dog breed? I would like to have a boxer and a boston terrier when we get a house and the kids are older.

28. Favorite day of the week? Weekends when I get to spend the whole day with my favorite people.

29. How many states have you lived in? Just 1, Kansas

30. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

31. What is your favorite flower? Gerbera Daisies