Channie turns 22

My younger sister Chandra turned 22 today. My mom, my sisters Kristin and Laura and I celebrated by taking Chandra out to lunch this morning. We went to Red Lobster. I can't remember the last time I've been there (it's been at least seven years since I haven't been there since my accident). We got there right as the restaurant was opening, so it wasn't busy at all, which is just the way I like it! We had a fun time together and it was nice to have four of the seven sisters in my family together. (Plus Mom!)

Chandra is going out with her friends tonight, so we had her family birthday dinner last night. We had chicken enchiladas and my sister Kristin made her a three layer chocolate truffle cake with a bittersweet chocolate filling between the three layers and a chocolate ganache on the top and sides. Here are a few pictures from last night:

Tis the season

This past weekend my sister Kristin made more of her holiday cupcakes. (She has several different cupcakes for different holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) Over the past several years she's e-mailed me in-depth descriptions of her different cupcakes and treats, but now it's finally nice to be able to see them in person and taste them! She makes the best chocolate cake (that's what the cupcake is made out of) and it's so fun to eat them when they are decorated so cutely!

Here are some pictures of Kristin's snowman cupcakes: This is another festive dessert that Kristin recently made for my book club treat.It's a holiday peppermint cheesecake with a bittersweet chocolate ganache on top. It was amazing! The bittersweet chocolate complemented the peppermint cheesecake really well. Kristin always goes above and beyond to make her desserts visually pleasing as well as palette pleasing and cutting a piece and putting it on a plate is never enough for her! This time Kristin made little white chocolate snowflakes to put in the dollop of cool whip frosting on top of the cheesecake and finished it off by sprinkling some peppermint baking bits on top. It truly was a masterpiece and looked too good to eat, but I still managed, as hard as it was! :)

My new toy

Yesterday I bought myself a new toy -- a new camera. I've been wanting a new camera for quite a while because I've been becoming increasingly more dissatisfied with my camera over the past year. I feel like taking pictures, blogging and documenting my life is my "job" so I want a really nice camera to help me be able to achieve this.

I've been reading a lot about different cameras on the internet for the past several weeks and I just wish I knew more about cameras because I don't want to make a mistake and buy something that I'll ultimately be disappointed with. I think I've made a great choice, though, and I can't wait for my new camera to arrive!

Needless to say, cameras have my mind a lot for the past several weeks as I've been researching them and contemplating what I want. I've even been dreaming about them! A few nights ago I had a dream that my dad was alive again and I was showing him my new camera. (I often have dreams where my dad is back from the dead and I'm showing him all of the things that have been invented since his death.)

It would actually be really nice if my dad were here to help me choose the right camera for me and teach me how to use it. Anyone who knew my dad knows how into technology he was (like computers and cameras, etc.). I often wish he were here not only to help me with my computer problems, but to also be able to witness the leaps and bounds technology has taken in the past 10 years that he's been gone. I think he would be astounded with the digital photography that is available today.

My dad used film cameras all his life, but I actually do remember my dad using a digital camera (it must've been 1997 or 1998) and how frustrating it was because you had to hold the camera so still! Anyway, I'm hopeful that I will be able to channel some of my dad's energy as I learn about my new camera!

Caramel apple afternoon

On Halloween afternoon my sister Kristin made homemade caramel apples. I've never had a homemade caramel apple before, so it was fun to watch the whole operation. My friend Nate was over while Kristin was making her apples and he happened to have his new camera was him, so he was able to get some great shots to document the afternoon. (The caramel apples were amazing, by the way!)

Here are some pictures of the caramel apples coming together, and some more of us hanging out:

Best Halloween EVER!

I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, even when I was a kid. I never had good costumes since I came from a large family and we didn't have extra money to go out and buy new costumes each year. I've known people over the years where Halloween is their absolute favorite holiday, and I've never been able to understand how someone could love Halloween so much, especially when there are other awesome holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. This year has changed everything, though, and I now have a new-found appreciation for Halloween and now know how fun it can be. Now that my sister Kristin is living here, I found myself feeling excited for Halloween this year since my nephews were around to celebrate with.

On Friday evening my family and I went to my church's Halloween social. This is something that I haven't done in at least 10 years (probably more), but it was actually fun since my nephews wanted to dress up and go. On Saturday we had a scavenger hunt around the house for the boys, and then we carved pumpkins as a family that evening. On Sunday afternoon we played several rounds of Halloween bingo and had such a fun time hanging out together as a family.

Here are some pictures of my nephews in their Halloween costumes. Jared and Kaleb dressed up as Super Mario and Super Luigi (from the Nintendo game) and Ethan was Superman. Kristin decided that Aaron should be "Super Baby" to fit in with the "super" theme, so she made him his very own costume.
Here are some pictures of the pumpkins we carved on Saturday evening. It was so much fun for all of us!

Family visit

I wrote in my last post about how my sister Sharon from Mississippi was in town this past weekend. Sharon's friend Shellie (who is originally from Louisiana) came with her and she cooked us a cajun/creole dinner on Friday night. We had red beans and rice, jambalaya, cheese grits and shrimp, and beignets (similar to a doughnut, but not as sweet) for dessert.

We all went grocery shopping Friday morning to get the things we needed for our dinner, and I was even able to persuade my sisters to go to Cold Stone for lunch. ;) We spent the afternoon cooking, and the kitchen smelled amazing! I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when it came to the food, but I tried everything and surprisingly, I liked it all! (I only say surprisingly because I'm pretty picky when it comes to food.)

I love hanging out with my family so much, and I'm always so thankful for the time we get to spend together. Here are some pictures from our fun day:

Cousins

Since my sister Sharon was in town this past weekend we were able to get a few pics of her kids with our sister Kristin's kids. It was so sweet to see five little boys all dressed up for church on Sunday morning in their white shirts and ties, so we couldn't resist taking a few pictures.

The first picture is of Kristin's four boys, Kaleb, Ethan, Jared and Aaron, along with Sharon's seven-month-old son, Matthew. Then, Sharon's daughter Sarah got in on the boy's group shot. The four other pictures are 1) Kaleb and Aaron 2) Sarah 3) Ethan and Matt and 4) Rachel.

It's always wonderful when the cousins can be together. When I was growing up, my sisters and I rarely had the opportunity to be around our cousins since they lived hundreds of miles away, so I really value the times when my nieces and nephews can spend time together. Hopefully they will be able to spend more time with each other over the years than I was able to spend with mine!

It takes courage

This past Friday I did something that I really didn't want to do -- I went to talk to a class of first year nursing students. My friend Lacee (that I went to nursing school with) teachers nursing school at Meramec Community College, and she thought her students would benefit from hearing a "professional patient" talk about their experiences with nurses, hospitals and other healthcare related issues.

Most people are terrified of public speaking. This actually isn't a problem for me because I actually enjoy speaking publicly. I think I'm good at it, as I'm good at clearly conveying my thoughts, etc. MY problem is that I can't speak very loudly, and it's hard for me to project my voice, especially when I'm in a large room. When Lacee told me that I would be addressing her students in a large lecture hall, I was filled with nervous dread! When I get nervous sometimes my body does things that I can't control, like muscle spasms, for example, and I don't like anything else drawing attention to me since I'm obviously physically "different."

Needless to say, I was very nervous on Friday when I was about to leave my house to go to the college, but I wasn't going to let Lacee down, especially since she's been such a wonderful, loyal friend to me since my accident. My nervousness melted away once I got into the lecture hall and started talking. (I had a little microphone attached to my shirt, and it actually worked really well and I know everyone could hear me.)

As I said, public speaking is something that I enjoy and I was glad that I could talk to these students. My mom told me that there's a good chance that I said something to the students that will impact them and that they will remember for years to come. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but any nervousness or discomfort that I felt was well served if I can help teach future nurses things about compassion and how to be better and nurses.

All in all, it was a great experience and I'm sure I will be doing it again in the future.... especially if Lacee has anything to do with it! ;)

Botanical Gardens

On Saturday I went to the Botanical Gardens with my mom, my sister Kristin and two of her boys. It was a hot day, especially for October (in the upper 80's), but I like warm weather, so I enjoyed it. I went to the Botanical Gardens this past May with my sister Sharon and her family, and there was a definite difference in the flowers and plants from then to now. There weren't as many flowers, and the flowers that were alive right now weren't as pretty as the ones that were alive a few months ago. Still, it was fun to go and we all had a nice time together. We stopped for dinner at Pizza Hut (Kaleb's choice) on the way home, so that was a fun and tasty way to end the day. We weren't able to get very many good pictures, but here are a few of the best ones that we got: