Life in the Middle Age Lane

December sucks for birthday, receiving birthday gifts in Christmas wrapping, getting only one gift, no one able to make your parties because family is in or company parties.  BUT on the upside,  you realize quickly who your true friends are because they actually make the time for you. Like the lovely couple you see here.  They were determined to celebrate my day.  I chose to have dinner and drinks at Hotel Zaza followed by an evening meandering through the Houston zoo admiring the Christmas lights. John ordered the tickets online so there was no waiting in line to get in.  Note to self, do not go on Saturdays, it was packed!! The line was all the way to the train station!! (for those without tickets) We actually had 2 extra tickets and I passed them on to a young couple waiting in line.  They just looked at me like "are you serious?"  I think I made their night,  they also received free carrousel ride tickets. My husband just had to ...

This past year had been a very somber and difficult year.  I said goodbye to five beautiful ladies this year,  ran my second 5K,  joined Crossfit in February,  and packed up my youngest for college. Some of the things I did for the first time this year was to tailgate at a college football game. Attended our first marriage retreat, which sounds nicer then it was, but it's a good healthy check up for our 20 year relationship.  Realized I need to get more organized at home because the only person I would be helping is me.  And God knows, I need the help.  Definitely a retrospective year. The blessings this past year felt over shadowed by the obstacles we encountered but looking back those blessings are enormous......see for yourself. . My goddaughter's son Lucas.  He is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. Friends have been constant and I have felt loved all year long.. I forget to count that blessing at times. Friends from Pen...

Wearing my mother's day gift from John a J.McLaughlin scarf May has come and gone. All my graduation responsibilities completed more or less.  Did I mention that after going to all the trouble of getting our parents up to Dallas to watch Shelby graduate we did not get ONE picture of them with her!!! I was so mad with myself. Anyway back to me.  I started Crossfit in February with my good friend Paige and her husband Jimmy. The first month I told myself this is the last month, since I already paid for it but I would not renew in March.  It was so scary pushing myself to do all these exercises that for sure were going to kill me. I started by going three times a week, every other day.  Every day I would show up in fear mode about what the WOD would be.  WOD is work out of the day.  Though it should stand for Wish On Death, for some workouts but not all.  I had a brutal one on Monday and still having a hard time squating...for girls this sucks, i...

What a whirlwind weekend.  I have been working on a wedding of 180 plus guests for the past year. Saturday was the wedding which ended at 11:00 pm and I didn't fall asleep until about midnight. Then I had to meet for my 5K run with the Lupus Foundation at 7:30 am. All in all I had about 3.5 hours of sleep last night and I feel exhausted. I am proud to report that I had set a goal of $1000 and with the support of very generous friends  and one who by the threat of "unfriending" of Facebook made her pledge.  All in jest of course.   Steel Magnolias was the name of our team started by my lovely niece (Happy Birthday Andrea!!) whose mother Tabatha died in January at a very young age, approximately 43.   My good neighbor and friends, Paige and Jimmy were kind enough to sign up with me and ran the whole way. Paige got the best time and has done amazing with her Crossfit.  More on that on a later blog when things slow down a bit around her. oh...

January started with a beautiful fairytale dance and ended with heartache and sorrow.  It has been a month full of ups and downs.  People that we care for have gone through the loss of a young life and the same week we experienced the loss of one of our family members. Two funerals, days apart and then the phone call from a friend about our old neighbor and my old walking partner, who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Needless to say, my heart has been full of sorrow and heartache for most of January.   With all this emotional dejection all I needed was health issues:  I caught the flu, my mom was in the hospital and I stopped exercising. I need to learn to stop asking "What know?" Because God does have a sense a humor. With all this going on I forgot to tell you about our weekend at the deer lease. In times of sorrow you need to think of the good things in our lives because in reality they do outnumber the tragic. We did get to do a li...

Senior Presentation Class of 2014 Photo by Cecilia Sheeren This fairy tale started six years ago......back when Shelby had braces, was finishing up the 6th grade and lived a life full of sleep overs, girl scout camp outs and the love and security of a two parent home. A pretty good and "normal" life by any standards.  A real suburban dream, however, there is not much growth in a bubble and as we all know our circumstances are not shared by all. This is were  National Charity League, Inc.  comes into play.  I wanted to make sure that my children knew how fortunate they were and to appreciate what they have.  I always think of the Spiderman movie where the uncle tells Peter Parker, "With great power, comes great responsibility".  Our power is to be able to love without worry, to be compassionate to others. 7th grade, the start of NCL Shelby and I have ... babysat special needs children at Keep Pace delivered meals on wheels collected scho...