What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate...

My husband and son go on a feeding frenzy late at night. They are seriously locusts. I never witness this horrific act, but I do get to pick up the wrappers and containers that they leave in their wake. Now, for Christmas, my wonderful mother bought me a bag of Moose Munch. Harry and David Moose Munch. My mommy did this for me because she knows that I cannot eat all the other treats of Christmas due to gluten. That means, no brownies,pie, cookies, cake for me. But I can have popcorn with the occasional chocolate dipped piece of popcorn heaven in a bag from HARRY and DAVID!!!!
This morning I found the ripped open bag and literally a few kernels of Moose Munch left on the counter. Grrrr. Them There Rat Bastards ate my Moose Munch! Someone is going down. They picked through the other desserts all around them that they can eat and inhaled my food. Apparently, my gleeful hugging of the Moose Munch bag did not get communicate the message to them that I was happy and actually anticipating eating some of it (tiny amounts at a time via Weight Watchers) not just holding the bag to my chest. Grrrrrrrrr!!!! Someone gonna drive to Harry and David in Tuscola or order on line Moose Munch for Mommy pronto or someone is going to get a frying pan applied to the top of the head.

Post Christmas Report

Hi. We had a great day yesterday and I did use up all my stored flex points for my Weight Watchers program. That is the way it is supposed to be, right?

Anyway, I am still psyched. I love my mom so much. She has worked so hard all of her life. Hours on her feet, either in the candy factory years ago or cooking at the Red Fox and later at the Sullivan Country Club. She helped Dad build our house. She put all those hours in to buy our land and build our home. She never spent a dime on herself and she still would give her last penny away to someone who needed it. We didn't do many vacations at all as kids, we just didn't have the money to do so. I didn't miss out though, we had a great childhood...riding our friend's horses, tire swings, bike rides, swimming. If we did go somewhere, we went to see family. I still remember the 5 of us and a dog jammed into a Honda civic driving to Pennsylvannia. Still it would have been fun to do more traveling. My trip to France to the World Congress meeting to present on Food Chaining was wonderful because I took my mom with me. We had a great time. I decided to do more of that, especially after the series at church, Live Like You Were Dying. So this year, I surprised her with the gift of a trip to San Diego with me in April. We will have another vacation together. I am so happy to be able to do this for her. I can't wait.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It is about 4:24am and I am up drinking coffee and waiting for this wonderful holiday to start. We had Christmas Eve here last night. Randy's mom Hazel and my parents, Ruth and Jerry, came over. Thankfully the weather did not stop our plans. Roads were not bad. I made Italian Beef, Italian chicken, hash brown casserole, Sally Green's wonderful Orange Walnut salad with a bit of a twist... mandarin oranges, strawberries, golden raisins and pecans, green beans, appetizers and a variety of desserts. We didn't even make a dent in the food. Hazel brought her bingo cards and we played Christmas bingo. Luke was the big winner. He loves this and we have done it for years at all the Christmas Eve celebrations in Sullivan. Today we will open our gifts to one another and then hit the road to Mom and Dad's for Christmas dinner. I am very excited to give my gift to Mom and I hope Randy and Luke like what I have for them.

I was very moved thinking yesterday about the abundance of blessings God has given our family. Just being able to prepare a huge meal for your family is a blessing these days. So many people are out of work and fearful about the future. Laura had a little patient at Koke Mill tell her several weeks ago that mommy said there was not enough money for Christmas this year. It broke her heart. Now, one thing I truly love about Laura and I see over and over, is that she likes to fix things and will go above and beyond to make everything all right. She sometimes does too much above and beyond, but this time, my dearest friend got everything right. She started by talking to our wonderful boss Jane and we did our own version of the angel tree. Now Laura already gave gifts for our church angel tree too and she sponsors a child in need through our business Preemietalk. This isn't just at Christmas for her, she is always on the look out for a obstacle to overcome for someone else. So for this little guy, Laura and Jane sent out an email to all our staff. Our wonderful team at Koke Mill came through with gifts for this little boy and his two siblings. Laura had a growing pile of gifts under her desk each day and I know it really made her Christmas. I am so glad to call her my friend (and occasionally my wife...hee hee...that is a different story about her marrying me on Facebook by mistake this year).

I know that no matter what gift waits for her under the tree that nothing will give her more joy than thinking of that little boy and his family opening presents this morning. The magic of giving and developing a heart for others in need is what Christmas is all about. God gives us a little spark inside of His loving spirit and we just need to let it become a flame. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Almost Here!

What am I going to do once Christmas is over? I have had such holiday fever this year. I love Christmas and I am very excited. I have had such a great time decorating and getting ready, I did more today too. I am happy about making dinner tomorrow and it will be great fun. I am making Italian chicken, Italian beef sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, dinner theater salad, triple berry pie, brownies, Rice Krispie treats and I have veggie trays, shrimp and meatballs ready to go too. What a blessing that we can have a wonderful holiday like this. I just hope the weather doesn't get too treacherous. I am praying that God sends snow and keeps the ice for another day.
I hope my boys like their gifts. I don't want them to be disappointed. I really don't even want anything. I am just glad to be able to do things for my family. I have Luke and Randy, that is all I need anyway.
I am really, really excited about my mom's gift. I will tell you more later. It is a secret!!!
Merry Christmas!!!!

My Quest for a Hat...A possible solution!

If you read my blogs or know me well, you know that I have an enormous watermelon sized head. Now, I also have a ton of hair, maybe two or three times what normal people have on their heads, but believe me, it isn't all hair at fault here. Mega-sized cranium too. I have struggled to find hats that fit me from my days in marching band at BHS and later at EIU and all through my childhood, during dinner theater, at parties all through my adult life. Laura and I have searched for 10 and 1/2 gallon hats in Texas that, on me, looked like I was wearing a Mr Potato Head Hat. We decided there was no Santa hat to fit me for Christmas parties at work and instead opted for a tree skirt.
Well, the solution may have come this week at work. I was in my treatment room at Koke Mill. It used to be a storage/hydro-room. It is big and has lots of windows, so no complaints from me about that. It has a huge old, tall ice machine in it. The ice machine is very, very loud. Still not complaining. I was getting my room ready for my next patient and we were going to cook. I reached up to the large basket of cooking stuff on top of the ice machine. Inside this basket is a Magic Bullet, an electric skillet, a George Foreman grill and a variety of cooking utensils and sprays. As I started pulling it toward me, off the edge of the ice machine, an avalanche occurred. It all started sliding and falling out toward my upturned face. Now, as I still have reflexes like a cat, I tucked my chin and prepared for impact. The lid of the electric skillet flipped in the air and landed right on my head...like a hat. There was, as a recall, also a loud "gong" like noise. I set everything else down, still wearing my electric skillet lid-hat and praying that no one had witnessed this through the window in my door or from the outside. I also prayed that no one came in needing ice to see me with a lid on top of my head. I removed it with no witnesses to my latest debacle.

But as I thought about it a bit more, it did fit. It would protect me from both rain and snow/sleet and any other hazards from falling objects. They might come in pretty colors. I might be on to something here. I may, after all these years, have found a multi-purpose hat that works for me. Laura and I are planning on taking photos, so stay tuned for later postings.

Ramblings of a Middle Aged Chick

Hi. Do you ever wonder what happens, my fellow blogger friends, when someone lands on your blog by mistake? Do they look it over for a bit and stick around a while or do they read a few lines and take off to the next site. I often wonder, when I write, do I ever really have anything worth saying? Let alone, worth reading? Who knows if this blog about hair color disasters, spiders, booby traps, adventures traveling the globe, stories about my dog, my family (not in the that order...he is just snoring at my feet...oh, the dog, not Randy), friends, giggling through my days and my love for life appeals to anyone but me? So if it is total crap, sorry about that. If you get a kick out of it once in a while, good, I am glad.

I do have a few observations this week. I was a sick pup this week and had a headache for two days straight. Luke now has the cold symptom side of this. I hope he snaps out of it. I am trying to avoid any physicians office full of sick people. He needs to heal on his own, now. Today we will see how he feels. Why don't they have a drive up window for throat cultures and ear checks? Then we are not exposed to Jungle Fever and Hunga Munga. Because if I take him in, he will be ok, nothing antibiotic worthy and the trip will simply expose me to the equivalent of the Bird Flu. I will be a sick pup on the holiday. Grrr. Randy is rarely sick, maybe he will take the kid in for me. I will keep you posted on the Boy.

What else is going on? Well, why is it that off my diet I can eat about 4000 calories in a day of holiday gluttony and gain not one pound... but on weight watchers, eating only my points and no flex points, I can look at a piece of fudge and gain weight? I would like to formally complain here. I am now reaching plateau land and I need to exercise more. So I loaded a lot of songs on my iPod and I will start to dance again. Yes, dance. I have dusted off Core Rhythms and Yoga Booty Ballet...I may also Tae Bo to break things up. I will turn the sound off on these DVD's and listen to my own mix of music that makes me want to dance. I can't remember, but the other day in Walgreens they had something blasting that made me want to boogie in the aisles right there. I suppressed the urge briefly, but then thought, "Why not?" Hee hee. I want to be 80+ and "getting down" in the Denture Care and Depends aisle. Life is short-Dance!

Next, my phone, my obsession. I love my Blackberry Storm. It is so cool. I love Bluetooth. I loved it even more when I figured out how to wear it the right way so people could hear me. My mom commented that it sounded like I was in a cave. Ooops. That there receiver works best when pointed at your mouth instead of the back of your head. Duh! Anyway, I digress, I love that it tells me what to do every day and I can rely on it instead of my rapidly fading memory. Appointment in 2010? No problem! The Storm will remember and chime at me so I will not forget. Need to check calories/points while waiting for my meal at LaFiesta? No problem. The Storm will give me the number of points and keep me on track. This will be great when I am traveling too. I even did edits on the research paper on my Storm.

Christmas...oh I love Christmas. I love lights and gift giving and party food and celebrating. I am so excited that we have had snow. I am so thankful the world around us was not covered in 2 inches of ice too. I just have a few things to pick up and a few things that need to arrive on time and I will be happy. There is one exception to my holiday bliss, however, and that is...wrapping presents. The gift bag was created for those like me. I finished "wrapping" yesterday. Now one needs to know that I am, without a doubt, "wrapping impaired". Really. I wrap the ugliest gifts in the world. They do not require name tags as all anyone in the family needs to do is look to know the gift is from yours truly. I think "wadding" is a better term than "wrapping" for me. I wad paper up around the gift and stick tape everywhere. I can't cut in a straight line and all my scissors are so dull that it is all ragged on the edges. I have tried, but I am bored stiff while wrapping and wish to get it over with. My other holiday challenge is carving a turkey. Erma Bombeck wrote about this once, she said she and the bird go into the kitchen and only one of them comes back out. She too could not carve. My carving actually makes my wrapping look good. My turkey looks like it was attacked by a cat or a pack of cats. Pretty soon, I just drop the knife and rip it off the bird with my hands and fling it on to the plates. But my method does result in less chewing required for guests that way. My knives are dull too. I think everyone is afraid I will kill myself with sharp utensils of any kind. I sat and watched my father in amazement this Thanksgiving as he carved the turkey perfectly. He had all the razor sharp tools he needed, he turned the bird in different directions (what a novel thought!) and he had lovely slices of turkey, worthy of Martha Stewart's holiday table. I did pick up some techniques for my next Turkey vs Chen wrestling match. I may even go buy one and have it after the holidays when the pressure is off and there are no horrified guests watching the poultry massacre.

Well I think that is it for now. I am excited that it is a new day and I can eat again. I am trying to decide whether or not to work out and then weigh myself and then eat. Or eat and scrap the rest of it. I am trying to determine if this post has had anything in it worth reading to anyone but me. Who knows...probably not. But for now, it has been fun. Isn't that all that really matters?

Where Have I Been?

You may have noticed less frequent posts lately. So, where have I been? On Facebook with my friends way too often but also traveling the globe with Laura. These past weeks besides traveling and teaching, I have been chained to my computer finishing our research paper with Dr. Fishbein. It always comes down to this at the end, he and I are the only ones left standing, feverishly working back and forth, editing, revising, ripping it to shreds and starting over to hammer out something that satisfies both of us. Tall order there. I didn't move Friday out of my chair. I just wasn't happy with it and with his permission, I re-arranged most of the article. We emailed each other, called each other and finally it worked. Then he revised my revisions to pretty it up. I sent it to trusted friends/colleagues to edit. It is almost, and I stress almost, done. Praise the Lord. We are submitting it to medical journals this week. Keep your fingers crossed.

So Wassup with Chen?
I am only 4 days away from being on vacation for two weeks. There are no words to describe how badly I need a, as Luke used to say, bacation. I am very excited about it too.

I am on Weight Watchers and making progress. I made more progress than my tracker shows because I lied to WW about my initial weight. I just could not type those numbers. I can't go back and reset it or it clears my history. Darn it all. I know lying always gets you. My goal is to be 30 lbs Less Me without using amputation. Hee hee, I am horribly flawed but God loves me anyway. Oh well, look at my Driver's License if you really want to see a whopper.

I am going to teach a Sunday School adult learning class starting January 11th at RCC. I am excited about that. Somedays I want to quit being Cheri Fraker: Speech Pathologist and be Cheri Fraker: Missionary and Preacher Girl. What do you think? I could be Sister Cheri!

I am getting ready for Christmas and just really enjoying the lights, the crowds (for a short time prior to going into full sensory overload), the periodic snow showers and the joy of this season. I tell everyone Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays, by the way. I always will too.

I have a new Blackberry Storm and that is so much fun. I am learning to be a real tech girl. I also got it for 99.00 so I am very happy.

I think that is all the updates for now. I have to go clean my house!

Atlanta...

Finished our last presentation for 2008 in beautiful Atlanta-ish. We were actually outside Atlanta, but we did drive by it at 100 mph in the limo.

Oh the adventures when Chen and Lala Go Bye Bye...

First of all, we drove to Bloomington and discussed our plans for eating our way to Atlanta. All travels are planned out by the upcoming eating events. My gluten issues and weight watchers program somewhat limit us but we get by and we had lunch. It was a sunny day but the roads and sidewalks were snow covered and icy. I cannot walk on dry pavement without falling down. If I do fall down, we have a problem. I won't be able to get up and Laura collapses helpless into the giggles and then wets her pants from laughing. So to avoid this less than flattering display, we decided to drop the old lady at the door and let Laura park the car. Good call for many reasons as it was 9 degrees with the wind chill and I had on girly shoes and a thin jacket.

So thinking all was well we went through security and waited to board the plane. I don't like flying. I am scared while flying. I am much better than I used to be but am in constant contact with God all the way through. I used to tear up on planes, but not now. I am a big girl and world traveler and try to keep others from knowing that I am seconds from running up and down the aisles shrieking. So airports are never fun. I thought about all of this as I waited for my cold friend to enter the airport. Laura then told me she forgot to look where she parked the car. Oh well, nothing major. I mean, isn't that really the true purpose of the remote panic button? She then touched the side of her neck and discovered that she had not put on her airsickness patch. Now not only had she not put it on, she did not have one. Oh boy!!! That qualifies as Major. We started nervous laughing and looking at each other with true concern and wide eyes several times. She started singing "hold the pickle, hold the lettuce" as we considered that we might see her lunch again soon. Now, I did offer to stick a postage stamp on her neck for the placebo effect, but opted for tough love and reverse psychology when I told her it was all psychological(to get her all riled up and make her decide not to hurl) and I also told her that she had treated her vestibular system by flying so much. I told her she was not going to toss her cookies and cry (she is the most pathetic vomiter I have ever seen) her way to Atlanta. I said this was a great opportunity to prove that she could fly drug free, while in my head I calculated how to quietly ask to be re-seated and not let her know.

When we arrived in Atlanta it was raining. The pilot told us that we would be CIRCLING while we waited to land. Oh my. Then we had the bumps on the way down and the wind. Laura was a rather odd color of green, white and gray...but she did not use her airsickness bag. While clutching my hands together, I turned to Laura as we approached the landing and asked her if she had noticed that we were hurtling toward the ground at a very high rate of speed. She had. I started praying and simultaneously quoting Yosemite Sam, "whoa, mule, whoa." As we bounced and skidded on landing (followed by a major shift in luggage and passengers) I was preparing my first comments to make to my Lord and Saviour. The plane finally stopped and we were off to meet our driver who would pick us up and take us to Atlanta-ish. Usually we bounce around on a shuttle for hours, so this was going to be a real treat.

He was right on time and very nice, but he must had a secret desire to be a race car driver or one of the Dukes of Hazard because we literally flew through the city on our way to the hotel. At one point I think we were airborne, but I couldn't not tell from the cloud of his cologne in the car. We got out and Art, dear sweet Art, was there to meet us. Like two stressed, tired children our first words to him were, "We're hungry!" As Art knows us so well, he had food waiting. He is so good to us. We are a family. Sugar Daddy didn't let us down.

The course was great, it was so fun and such an honor to present with Marsha. She is so funny and it all blended together so well. It really was a great time. We went to Ray's on the River for dinner and had a really nice time. We did not get enough time with Sugar Daddy as he had three courses going on. We took pictures with Marsha and will post them. That is a story in itself about Laura and I in photos with our enormous heads, wild hair, googly eyes, bubble butts and signs of aging...but that will have to wait for another day.