2009 December

Peace & Joy

December 24, 2009 By Heather 9 Comments

I know I have been scarce this week. A scare with my step dad in the hospital had me spending time with mom and prepping for the big day tomorrow.

And also getting our house insulated…but more on that another day-all I can say now is thank goodness for the warmth and I never thought 66 would be considered warm, but hello…no drafts=warmth!

I will admit that a couple of times this week I had to take a deep breath and just tell myself to relax and to enjoy.

Like for instance, when the tree sat in the garage for over a week. Or the painting of the living room took longer than I thought so when I hosted the annual Christmas luncheon for my one group of friends there really weren’t any Christmas decorations out.

But The Chicken and I brought the tree in. I strung my new (and OMG BRIGHT) LED lights that I got two years ago after Christmas on the tree and then let the girls decorate it.

I have always liked the angel on top of the tree. It was Jeremy’s grandma’s and has special meaning to us as she LOVED Christmas, but with my new red walls and the addition of a blue LED light violating her (but in a totally good way). It just gives me so much peace.

Here are some of the ornaments that adorn the tree. Most of them are the girls’ ornaments as each year I get them a new one so that when they finally leave the nest and have a tree of their own they will have lots of ornaments to adorn it with.

(Can you tell we love Snowmen?)

And now all of it together…

Thank you so much for making these past two years wonderful for me. You all are so dear to me and give me such peace. You really have made me see that there are really great people out there.

May you & yours have a blessed day rejoicing in Love, Peace, and Life.

Merry Christmas & A very Happy New Year!

Filed Under: christmas traditions, the tree that gives me peace

You Capture-Holiday Decorations

December 17, 2009 By Heather 7 Comments

This week over at Beth’s place the You Capture theme is Holiday Decorations.

Normally by this time of December I would have something up, but instead I am painting my living room so that I can put up the tree that we cut down on Sunday and decorate. Life, just sucked the life out of my photography this week. Between being sick and my husband’s emergency oral surgery, (he’s fine, no worries) the camera, let alone the decorations, didn’t make an appearance.

I do love this photo and since Beth hosts You Capture to get us to think outside of the box, I thought it fit.

Our tree that will be in our house until after the new year sat on that stump.

The boots I had on were purchased knowing full well that they would be out on the hunt for the said tree that will decorate the inside of our house this holiday season.

So while you may see a stump and some dead pine needles.

I see Christmas morning, lights twinkling and ornaments gleaming.

I see myself at peace.

Please visit You Capture to see all the Holiday Decorations from others.

Filed Under: christmas traditions, peace near a tree stump, you capture

Wordless Wednesday-Christmas Photo Outtakes

December 16, 2009 By Heather 5 Comments

Taking photos this past weekend of my brother’s little ones & all our kids together.

It was made even more fun because I had a case of laringitis & there were about 6 other people in the room trying to get the kids to cooperate.

Rest assured…I got the shots I needed in the end.

For more wordless Wedsnesday please go here

Filed Under: cousins, heather durdil photography, taking photos of 4 kids no matter what the age span is can be tricky especially if they are your own, Wordless Wednesday

Our wish to you….

December 15, 2009 By Heather 16 Comments

Please feel free to join in with your holiday card or greetings at your place. And don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect photo, just take snippets from the year….its like a visual holiday letter. Just don’t forget to link up at Meghan’s place. If you click on the button below it will take you there.

Don’t forget about the giveaway in which you can receive $50 of brownies from Cheryl & Co-a perfect holiday gift for someone on your list

Filed Under: fun times involving family, great bloggy holiday card exchange

Weekly Winners-The Cheryl & Co Edition plus a giveaway!

December 13, 2009 By Heather 13 Comments

Congrats to Greis on winning the Cheryl & Co Giveaway! Don’t fret…I will have another giveaway coming up real soon!

This past Tuesday I was one of many Ohio bloggers invited to come to Columbus to tour Cheryl & Co’s facilities and learn all about the way they make their famous cookies and now brownies for National Brownie Day.

Now I will admit up until this past June I did not even know that Cheryl & Co existed at all, if it wasn’t for a trip to the mall in Columbus with my friend, Christina, taking me into one of their retail locations and encouraging me to sample some of their famous buttercream. I had the Orange Spice Buttercream and oh my tasty goodness! Let’s just say I am glad that I don’t live closer to a Cheryl & Co retail location for I have no self control when it comes to those little beauties.

So Tuesday morning, I got up and traveled the 2 hours and 20 minutes down to Cheryl & Co to learn all about the cookie making process. I was not disapointed.

All photos were taken using my Canon Rebel xsi and my 50 mm 1.8 lens
To view more weekly winners please go to Sarcastic Mom’s site
To view more photos from this day and others please view my flickr stream

The day started with us checking in & signing release forms so that they could film & photograph us during the event

After a lovely lunch and some presentations by the executives of Cheryl & Co and 1800 Flowers we doned our aprons and put on our hair nets to ~~channel our inner lunch lady~~ take a tour of the production area of Cheryl & Co.
Here is Jenna with her requested green hair net.

Most of the cookies that they make have a very short shelf life, but these variety of crispy cookies last up to six months once packaged up.

Did you know that they frost all their cookies by hand?!!? A machine puts a squirt of frosting on each cookie but there were a couple ladies that just spread frosting all day long.

The sprinkles, however, were done by machine.

After the tour we were whisked off to the test kitchen (sorry couldn’t resist the pun there) to see some of the tasty treats Elisabeth had whipped up to show us

Elisabeth explained to us the test kitchen process and encouraged us to decorate the brownies with some buttercream frosting. Sadly not the buttercream frosting.
Here is Christina decorating her brownie.

While this would probably be frowned upon on the main kitchen floor, we were encouraged to sample the treats in whatever way we saw fit……right Jenna?

All in all it was a GREAT day! I learned so much about what goes into making the cookies and many other treats at Cheryl & Co. I learned that Cheryl & Co gives back to the local community by donating cookies to the Mid Ohio Food Bank. I also learned that Cheryl & Co wants to give to YOU too!

I have one Cheryl & Co Ultimate Brownie Assortment up for grabs. This includes 18 individually wrapped Cheryl & Co brownies including their NEW buttercream frosted peanut butter, classic vanilla and hot fudge. There is also some customer favorites included like the toffee crunch, classic fudge, blondie and oatmeal scotchie varieties included.

What you need to do to enter (And guess what Canadians….you are INCLUDED in this one they ship to all of North America) go to the Cheryl & Co website and tell me what your favorite treat is.

For additional entries you can
1. Follow me on twitter @DExtraordinaire and leave a comment letting me know that you are doing so
2. Follow Cheryl & Co on twitter (@Cherylandco) and leave me another comment letting me know you are following them
3. You can tweet about this giveaway, just copy & paste this to your twitter stream and come back and leave me the URL of your tweet in another comment
I want some win some brownies from @cherylandco and @DExtraordinaire do you? Head here http://ow.ly/Lxrw to enter
4. Write a blog post about this giveaway and leave me another comment with the link.

I will post the winner by random drawing in next week’s weekly winner’s post, but if you can’t wait that long to get your brownies you can always go to Cheryl & Co and use the coupon code BRN10 until 1-31-10 for $10 off any purchase.

FTC Disclosure-I was not paid for this post. I was only provided with a really great day with some friends touring a cookie factory, although I don’t think the lunch was made by the said cookie company but it was FAB! I did receive some treats for my family as a thank you for driving the 2 plus hours down to tour said cookie company.

Filed Under: blogging friends, cookies, did I mention yummy cookies, fun things I get to do because I have a blog, weekly winners

And then you turned fifteen

December 9, 2009 By Heather 5 Comments

I have no idea why, but when I type out the word fifteen it just seems like you aren’t as old as when I punch those numbers 1 & 5.

I am sure that I will cherish fifteen more, say when you are sixteen.

You have grown up right before our eyes. When going through all the photos of the past fifteen years it was just amazing to me how far you have come. Especially in the last few years. One day you were a little kid and then you turned into this beautiful young woman in front of me.

Alexis, you my love, will always have a special place in my heart. Not only did you make me a mother and show me what it was like to love someone more than you thought was possible with out your heart bursting, but you helped to make an otherwise depressing day, the second anniversary of my Grandma’s death, for me a really great anniversary of your birth.

I have to think that, or I might not forgive you for those long five and a half weeks past your due date that you decided to just hang out and gestate.

Funny how when you write out five and a half weeks it doesn’t seem any shorter than it was.

You gave me strength to do things I never thought I could do. Because of your lateness, your dad went off to bootcamp, so I delivered you alone. Sure, Grandma & Grandpa were with me, but it just wasn’t the same. But I do admit that when you met your dad six and a half weeks later that it made it that much more sweet to see him. I moved all over the country far away from my family & out of the small town that I grew up in so that we could be a family. I endured months at a time with your father away from us, single parenting it, sometimes to a new place where I knew no one at all.

You forced me to step off the wall & find some friends so I could let you be sociable. I really thank you for that.

I could write and write all the ways that you have changed my life, but I won’t. Not today.

I want to get upstairs and enjoy the evening with you~~because you are watching all our DVR’d episodes of Desparate Housewives without me~~.

Just remember that all fifteen year olds don’t start off their birthday with school getting cancelled due to a power outage. I doubt that sixteen will start off the same way.

I love you honey-thank you for fifteen great years……here’s to many, many more!

Year Fifteen from Heather Durdil on Vimeo.

Filed Under: birthdays, Giggles, I'm not old enough to have a kid this old at least that's what all my friends are telling me

And today you are Fifteen

December 9, 2009 By Heather Leave a Comment

I don’t know why, but typing out the word fifteen opposed to punching the number 1 & 5 make you seem less older, but it does. So I’m sticking with it.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Weekly Winners-Photos that make me Smile Edition

December 7, 2009 By Heather 3 Comments

This past week left me taking few photos again, due mostly to not getting out too much.

Shorter days equals less time driving for me. I still get out and drive at night, but I not as much as I used to.

This week’s shots are not many, but they do make me smile….so enjoy!

This shot is straight out of the camera.

A full moon lured me down this side road,

but these colors nearly took my breath away.

The moon across the street from the above shot-it was so full and bright.

My only regret was that I only had my 50mm with me.

Enjoying the many voices singing to her for her birthday.

Another friend’s baby-she is so sweet and I just love her in stripes!

To view more of my photos check out my flickr stream.

To view more weekly winner greatness check out Lotus’s place.

Filed Under: photographry, weekly winners

Browns Town

December 3, 2009 By Heather 3 Comments

We take our Football serious here in Brown’s Town.

Case in point, we were winning at the time of that photo being taken.

When people see that I cheer for the Brown’s week after week, they often wonder why.

I openly admit, I wonder that myself sometimes. It seems no matter what our Brownies just can’t seem to catch a break (well one that doesn’t put someone on the injured reserve list) But whether at home or at the stadium….seats are always filled (unless you stand up to get a photo of it)

Mangini, I know you have a win in you. I see how livid you were last week on that last call before halftime. I think my love for you may have grown a bit when you made the ref jump because your screaming startled him so. My husband and I cheered when one of your coordinators had to pull you away lest you get ejected from the game or something (do they even do that)

I love my team, it helps that my husband does as well. Week after week we DVR the game so we can watch it ~~commerical free~~ together when he gets home from work.

I have to say my love for the Browns isn’t unlike my love for my girls. I don’t always like what they do, but I love them none the less. Do I wish that I could pull poor Brady aside and give him some one on one confidence building time like I do with The Chicken when she is struggling with her math? Sure I do….but I’m not his mother, so that isn’t going to happen. But Brady, if you are reading this…You CAN do it. Just concentrate. Sure, you are young, but you have something special. Use your talent and don’t worry about what others are thinking, especially those opinated fans who couldn’t catch a football if you tossed it 2 feet from them and put glue on their hands.

So don’t let me down, boys, for I have won once in the BFL this year, but sadly you weren’t even on the roster that week. Give it your all….for me, for us, but especially for you!

My picks for the week are in orange
Thursday
NY Jets @ Buffalo

Sunday
Houston @ Jacksonville
Philadelphia @ Atlanta
Tampa Bay @ Carolina
St. Louis @ Chicago
Detroit @ Cincinnati
Tennessee @ Indianapolis
Denver @ Kansas City
New England @ Miami
Oakland @ Pittsburgh
New Orleans @ Washington
San Diego @ Cleveland
Dallas @ NY Giants
San Francisco @ Seattle
Minnesota @ Arizona

Monday Night
Baltimore @ Green Bay
Combined MNF Score =39

For more BFL fun please head over to Greis’s place to play along.

Filed Under: a pep talk to a team that will probably never ever know I existed, BFL, having fun with my bloggity friends

Tomorrow I’m Blogging it Forward

December 2, 2009 By Heather 5 Comments

Tomorrow, Thursday December 3rd I am going to do a couple of things.

I am going to take my husband to the dentist (okay okay he is taking himself, I am just going along for the ride so I can see where our new dentist’s office is-he claims its tucked away)

I will be going over our benefits for next year because the Open Enrollment period ends tomorrow at midnight. (And we won’t talk about how I totally forgot to do it last year but luckily I didn’t end up screwing us over in the benefits department-they defaulted to what we had…thankfully)

I will be getting the girls pizza for dinner.

I will be taking my husband to downtown Cleveland to meet up at Greenhouse Tavern for a great benefit to help out Anissa and her family. I will be meeting with other bloggers and their friends & significant others to enjoy some great food and go out on a date (but don’t tell my husband its a date or he won’t go, he thinks that married people shouldn’t go on dates and when I asked him if we could call it marriage enrichment nights he walked away)

All proceeds from the happy hour will go to Anissa Mayhew and her family. You can read updates on how Anissa is doing here, her husband, Peter, is doing a fantastic job keeping us updated. I am so thankful for that.

So if you are in the CLE area and would love to get together with us-no need to reserve a table Chef’s Widow will have a section by the bar for us. And if you are planning on coming could you let me know so I know to look for you?