What I have Been Reading...

I feel like I have not read very much the last couple months- I guess I have been super busy at work and lots of holiday stuff going on- I am always sad when my reading has to be put on the back burner. I can tell I am a more relaxed person when I am reading often. But no worries, I did find some time to finish and start a couple books...

Recently I have started to listen to books on CD while on my commute. Why I have not started this like 2 years ago, I do not know- maybe I just like holding the book in my hand (or reading it on my Kindle!) when I am reading. I found this Mary Higgins Clark book on CD at 1/2 Price Books for a buck- can't beat that! It was entertaining and provided me with many hours of good listening.

As you may remember a coupe months ago I read Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox. On a visit in October, my sweet mother gave me his second book, The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. I love both. I have already lent my copy to a friend. If you like a good memoir (which I do!)- this is a good pick.
Steve and I were at 1/2 Price Books last month and I found this little treasure- A Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. Living simply is something both Steve and I try to do- and this is rather challenging for me at times. I have enjoyed picking through this book, not only because it gives great ideas of minimizing and simplifying, but it also is realistic- I like and need that!

I read The Pact over Christmas holiday at my parents house. Probably not the best choice due to the fact it is based around a teen suicide and rather depressing, but like most Jodi Picoult books, once I started I could not put the dang book down! I think she is fabulous writer- but be warned, all the books I have read of hers are rather depressing, but I like them. What does that say about me?!

So, since I read a real downer last book, I am reading about as much fluff as you can get right now. Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella is light and brainless reading- I read a book like this about every 4th book, keeps things interesting. I am only a couple chapters in, I started it on the plane ride home from Midland. I should be finished rather quickly, easy reading- love it!

And here is the book I would like to start very soon. I do not have it at this moment, but I hope to soon. In my stocking this year, Santa brought me a $50 gift card to Amazon. I have been on Amazon every day this week and I start to panic each time I think I have decided to make my purchase- I LOVE books (if you could not tell) and I am having a hard time deciding which ones to get- but Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom is always on the list (right now Amazon is selling it for $11)!! I have read all his other books and LOVE them, in fact I have used many of them in the counseling room. Can't get much better then Tuesdays With Morrie when it comes to death and dying or life's lessons kind of stuff.

So there you have it- what I have currently been reading. Another reason I am so excited about books right now is due to the fact I have been working on our study all week. It is painted, a couple pieces of new furniture have been put together and placed, and I am about ready to start filling it with books and make it an inviting place to curl up with a blanket, cup of joe, and a good book. Pictures will come soon... happy mid-week!!

And the Fletcher Family Grows...

My sister Catherine became engaged Sunday afternoon to Justin Thompson. I will have a new brother in law mid- August!! I had to wait a couple days to make my announcement- I wanted her to be able to tell all she wanted to first. She made it public last night on Facebook, so I guess that means the world now knows. Congratulations Catherine and Justin- we are so excited for you!!

Christmas Fletcher Style...

We celebrated Christmas with my family this year in Midland- it was a great week. We flew in Wednesday night to rain and COLD weather. Nothing like West Texas wind ripping through you as you run through the rain, with your luggage, to the car. It was good to be home. My mom had a great dinner ready for us when we walked in the door and it was good to share a meal with my family. We also got to meet Catherine's boyfriend, Justin, I had heard a lot about him, glad to finally meet him.

After dinner we decorated cookies. Below you will find the naked sugar cookies waiting to be frosted...

My dad's cookies ended up being just blobs of cookie with icing on them- he did not win the creativity award, but they tasted good!
Catherine and Justin decorating their cookies in Texas Tech colors...

Steve and I decorating..

And here is our final products- Steve's had a black body and mine has HUGE eyes- pretty, right?! The rest of the evening was dedicated to eating the cookies, playing Chicken Foot, and sitting in the hot tub- great way to start the holidays!

Christmas Eve we ran around town and relaxed around the house. I got to eat Rosa's- yes- and went to see my Granddad and went to my favorite used book store. That night we made a dinner of all our favorite Christmas snack foods and then opened all our gifts- yes we open all our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve.

Steve got some cool Eagle Creek Luggage...

Catherine passing out the Christmas loot...

Every year we get Christmas PJ's from my mom- here we are decked out in the PJ's...
My sisters stole my camera and took crazy pictures on it without me knowing. So since they took them, I will post them. I think this one is very becoming of them both...

Christmas morning we got up to full stockings. Stockings are a big deal in my family, some of the best stuff is then there!

Steve going through his findings...

We had a big Christmas lunch around 1pm and ate way too much- I love my mom's cooking! Around 4pm we headed out to the movies and went to see the Sherlock Holmes movie- it was great and very entertaining. I highly recommend it. Christmas night we played Uno, ate some more, and did some more hot tub sitting.

Saturday morning Steve and I got up early and hit a couple after Christmas sales- I love the Target sale and I got some cute boots from Kohls. We flew out of Midland that afternoon and before we left I went to see my Granddad. Above you will see me teaching him to play a game on my iPhone- he was pretty good at Skee Ball. I think he wants one now! It was a short visit, but oh so good to be home for the holiday!

Today I painted our study a gorgeous blue- no more Kermit green. My goals this week is to paint, re-decorate, and complete our study. It has been a blank canvas for almost a year. And since I am not working this week I have plenty of time to get all my creative juices flowing and finish the project.

Also, Steve and I will be celebrating 5 years of marital bliss January the 1st, hence the blog change. More on that later and stay tuned, I have a pretty exciting announcement next blog post...

SWC Teen Christmas Party...

We have had a whirl wind of a week. In the last six days we have had six events- all fun, Christmasy things. One of them was the teen Christmas party and this year we got to host it at our house- we finally have a place big enough to have large groups of people over! We had a blast eating pizza, playing games, opening gifts, and eating yummy desserts.

The big game we played was hilarious to watch. We divided all the kids in groups and all the members of the group were blind folded. Then we gave them a Christmas tree with decoration and they had to decorate the tree- blindfolded. As you can see from the above picture it was pretty entertaining- and boy were the tress beautiful at the end!
Guys and girls played a game against each other- they had to match Christmas carols with descriptive clues- the girls won, of course!
Above you will see a picture of our kids drawing a Christmas scene that Steve was describing. They could not look at the drawing, then I got to judge the best picture- again, funny and entertaining to watch.
Over all it was a great night. Many thanks to M and L for helping out and I think all the teens enjoyed themselves. Saturday night we went out with friends and saw a Fertile Christmas and Sunday night we hosted our small group Christmas party at our house, although I did not take any pictures of those two events.

Last night Steve and I celebrated out own little Christmas. Every year we celebrate a couple days before we head out to families houses. We went to Pappasitos and shared a fajita plate- so yummy. At the restaurant Steve suggested we take a picture together to remember the date. When I reached into my purse to pull out my old, not-very-clear-picutres-taking camera, I was stunned to find a brand new Cannon Elph camera. I am sure the lady taking our picture thought I was weird. I pulled it out and tried not to make a scene, but I was so surprised and excited.

And it is pink! When we got home we exchange our 'giving gifts.' This year we decided to give each other gifts that went else were. I gave Steve Lifestraws and he gave me a Grove of Trees. Click on the highlighted words and go check them out. I have put the Plant with Purpose blog on my site- they are really neat! Steve also got 2 tickets to the Shell Houston PGA tour in April and Bocce Ball- a new, fun game he learned about this summer. After playing with our gifts for awhile we had dessert and watched the Taking of Pelham 123- entertaining, but not Oscar quality.

It was a good evening. Now we are getting ready to fly out to Midland for Christmas with my family. Merry Christmas....

Sargent Family Christmas Card 2009...

Below you will find our Christmas card for 2009. Merry Christmas from the Sargent's!

How can 2009 almost be finished? Feels like we were just sending out our last Christmas card! And remember 10 years ago and the Y2K panic? It seemed like just yesterday…until recently when we were asking the youth of our church if they remembered Y2K. They proceeded to remind us that they were all between the ages of 3 and 6! Time and life is indeed precious and beautiful, as we continued to learn this year. Joy and sorrow blended together to create a most fascinating year.

We can still be found in Houston, TX enjoying all this great city has to offer. We began the year – just like every year! – celebrating our anniversary. How did we commemorate the date, you may wonder? By moving to a new house! We bid a fond farewell to our old house with its non-insulated walls and raccoon infested attic, and ventured to a new locale a few blocks over. We’re very grateful for our new place – feels more like a home than a house.

Steve continues his work at SWCC. The building our church gathers in continues to recover from Ike, and that has been a messy mess trying to move back in. We continue to love on the youth of the church: family retreat, camp, bowling, service, picking up stranded youth late at night – you know, the “normal” type stuff. Steve finished 3 more classes towards his MDIV, and has only 4 more to go. Chelsie is now in her third year at Shield Bearer Counseling Center and loves her work. She reached a big professional goal this year by losing an ‘I’ – the intern part of her license – to became a fully licensed professional counselor. She received certification to be an anger resolution therapist and is regularly asked to speak to high school students all around Houston. Hope continues to go to work with Chelsie – sometimes it is hard to tell if the clients come to see her or the pet therapy dog!

We were able to do much traveling this year. March brought us to Surprise, Arizona and Texas Rangers spring training, with a trips to the Grand Canyon and Tombstone. August sent us to an Austin B&B and the musical “Wicked” (sung those songs for weeks). October presented our highly-anticipated New England B&B tour – 2 days in Boston, then up through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine (including a great hike up Sargent Mountain in Acadia Nation Park). So much to say – so little space…so read Chels’ blog for more!

We love you all. Thanks for being special parts of our lives.

Steve and Chelsie

Favorite Things Friday...

Yeah, it is FRIDAY!!! Let the weekend begin (as soon as I finish my work day, of course...). We have a busy weekend ahead of us- monthly dinner group last night, youth Christmas party tonight at our house, RMT tomorrow night with friends, and our small group Christmas party at our house Sunday night. It should be a great weekend.

Today's edition of 'Favorite Things' I thought I would share some food/snack items I have been enjoying recently:

First, Stretch Island Fruit Company makes these delightful snacks called fruit leather. I am particularly fond of the raspberry flavored leather. They are 100% real fruit and a very healthy snack to have throughout the day. I keep a stash in my drawer at work and when I need a quick pick me up between clients I will consume one. I get mine at our local Central Market, but I am sure you can find them at your local health food store.

My second favorite food/snack right now is The Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges. Again, I pick these up at Central Market, but I have seen them in just about every grocery store I have been to. They only have 35 calories per wedge and they are oh so yummy. I have been taking two wedges to work and spreading them on some crackers and along with my Honeycrisp apple, I have a great lunch. In fact, that is exactly what I will be eating today for lunch!

So there you have it, my favorite things Friday. Enjoy the weekend ahead of you....

SING-OFF....

I have been watching Sing-Off the last two nights on NBC and I am LOVING it! NBC auditioned groups in September from 4 different cities and then took the 8 best a cappella groups to compete in this 4 day competition- it can be found on NBC starting at 7pm and goes until 9pm.

There are two main reasons I am digging this show. One, hello, Church of Christ singing. If there is one thing CofC does well, it is harmonizing. I am not at all against instruments, but I love being able to hear voices and have a four part harmony- it is just in my blood. And second, ACU Sing Song. As the show plays, every now and then Steve and I will look at each other and say 'hey, I did that in sing song'... good memories. Plus we are Ben Folds fans and he has been a very pleasant judge to have on the show- smart, witty, and really knows his stuff.

Right now I am currently favoring the 'Beelzebubs'. They are a group from Tufts University. They are a bunch a silly college guys and boy can they sing, plus they have a theatrical element to their performances- very entertaining to watch.

So if you are not already enjoying this a cappella goodness and you would like to, you can watch past episodes here. Now this is getting me excited for American Idol which will start next month... and now you know some of my guilt pleasures! Happy mid week....

Tis The Season...

I love this time of the year- the decorations, the music, the parties, the cooler weather, the time with family and friends, the FOOD, and I guess you get the general idea- I love Christmas time. In the next seven days I have three Christmas parties, a night at a Christmas play (Fertile Family!!), and our monthly dinner group- Christmas style. So I guess you could say I will be pretty busy, but in a good way.

Work right now is B-U-S-Y. Last year at this time I felt like I was twiddling my thumbs, this year I have full days of clients- which is good, but tiring. I have had the opportunity to speak to a couple groups recently (one being my church!) and I am again reminded how alive I feel when I am in front of a crowd talking about my passion- mental health/better living/current topics effecting out teens. Tomorrow I am speaking to a group of pregnant teens (most involved in gangs) on the topic of dating violence- I am pumped and honored to be able to hang out with that group in the morning. I still can't believe I have this job at times...

Below you will find a YouTube clip from Mad TV. It totally pokes fun of mental health professions and is politically incorrect, but it made me laugh. I usually get a kick out of stuff like this and any cartoons about mental health stuff- I have quite a funny collection:

Favorite Things Friday...

Okay Ashley, I am in!! My good friend Ashley has been doing a post each Friday about her favorite things and now I am going to jump on the bandwagon (I love things like this)!

Steve and I got 10 year journals at the beginning of 2008. Since then we both write in them each night and now that we are entering into 2010, we are going on 3 years of recorded goodness. Each day just has a couple of lines, so not much in necessary. Look into them if you are a journaler.

I LOVE Toms Shoes. In fact, I have this gold pair above and then I have a pink and brown pock-a-dot pair. They are so comfy and cute. Plus when you buy a pair, they give a pair to a kid who does not have shoes. They have tons of colors and patterns- go check then out.

So there you have it- my first Favorite Things Friday! Enjoy your weekend...

A Sargent Tradition...

Steve and I got married on New Years Day in 2005 and we chose to honeymoon in New York City. It was a perfect week to go to NY- all the people had already left after the holidays and they city was still decorated for Christmas. On our second day there we were walking through one of the many touristy stores and we came across an 'I Love NY' ornament. As we were standing there I remember saying, "wouldn't it be neat if we got an ornament each time we traveled," thus a new tradition was born. Since then we get an ornament to remind us of the travels we had over the year. It is so neat each year when we put up our tree to reminisce over all the trips we have taken as a couple. So I thought I would take you on a tour of our travel ornaments...

Our first ornament together- New York City, Jan. 2005.

In May of 2005 we were blessed to be able to take our first cruise out of Galveston. We went to Mexico, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman- we got this ornament on the our ship- The Rapsody of the Seas.

2006 was a pretty sad year when it make to traveling- we were only able to take a one night stay to a bed and breakfast in Brownwood, TX. Let's just say we were paying for school and taking a lot of school!

In Feb. 2007, my parents took Steve and I on an all expense paid trip to Disney World to celebrate me graduating from graduate school- great memory.

March of 2007 Steve and I took full advantage of our last Spring Break as students. We took a week long trip through Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. We did not know where we going each day and just let the trip bring whatever. To remember that trip we got a Branson ornament.
After Steve worked his first summer in Houston, we took a long weekend vacation to Galveston in August 2007. It was my first time to spend a good amount of time there and I can honestly say, I really like Galveston.

We celebrated our third anniversary in Austin in 2008 and we took a tour of the State Capital. We also took a trip to San Antonio to celebrate an anniversary(2007), but I can not find that ornament at the moment, but I do remember putting it on the tree last week....

The spring of 2008 we did not travel too much, but we did take a long weekend to explore Nacogdoches, TX and stay in a delightful bed and breakfast.

To celebrate Steve coming home from a two week class in Croatia (longest we have been apart as a married couple), we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Kemah- great, fun place.

May 2008 my parents bought a cabin in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Steve and I spent the fourth of July weekend there with my dad- wish we lived closer to that sanctuary in the mountains!!

We took a Hawaiian cruise October 2008- wonderful way to see all the islands!

March 2009 we went to Arizona and spent some time exploring the state- and or course went to the Grand Canyon.

And most recently- our October 2009 trip to New England. We had this one personalized for us while we were in Boston.

Such a great tradition, I can't wait to see what ornaments we will add this next year!!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

So, as many of you know, it is SNOWING in Houston, TX. And when I say snow, I mean it started snowing at our house around 7:30 this morning and it is still snowing as I type. It just keeps coming and it is actually sticking to the ground. Here are some shots of the back yard:

And of course Hope has kept herself very warm- I found her under this blanket this morning. All this snow is big news around Houston. This is the earliest snow ever recorded, in fact, we are actually getting this weather in the fall- Dec. 21st will mark the beginning of winter.

So... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The West Wing...

Monday night Steve and I finished the complete seven seasons of The West Wing. We started the series in the spring of 2008, so this is has been a part of our entertainment lives for almost two years. Steve and do not have dish network or anything like that. We just have the bunny ears and honestly, that is more than enough for us. We are not big TV watches and the episodes (The Office and Grey's Anatomy) we do want to catch can be found on the internet. But we do enjoy going through TV series via DVD. We have watched Lost, Alias, and are currently trekking through Frasier.

It was bitter sweet watching the last episode Monday night. As corny as this sounds, I had grown to love each of the characters. I believe the creators of this series did an outstanding job creating a creative, witty show. If you are looking for series to get lost in- this one is a great one! There are some pretty powerful scenes. Some that will make you think, some that will make you laugh, some that will make you cry, and others that are just plan brilliant.

So now we are looking for a new series to tackle- any suggestions?