Sharing a part of me...

This may be kinda a silly post but I wanted to share a speech that I gave for my graduation. The silly part is how it came about. You see I was taking the bus to school and I had this amazing sense of emotion about graduating, I think all of us would. So I decided to whip out my PDA and keyboard and put the words down. I was totally bawling as I wrote these words:

Kristin Ghbeish

Speech Submission-Dec 19 2003

Faculty, graduates, family members and friends. We welcome you all here
tonight for our celebration.

As we go forth into our future after achieving a great accomplishment we
should never fail to look back and remember how we got here today. For some of
us it was expected, some of us had to fight, and some of us totally
shocked our families that we wanted to take on this great task of getting
our degree.

Class of Dec 2003, go forth and celebrate our great accomplishment
because no one can take it a way from us. In time this piece of paper
can fade or become a victim of a natural disaster, but nothing can take away
your accomplishment of getting a degree.

This degree was earned, not given to us. We have all had the sleepless
nights to prove it and our family members can remember the phone calls from us
students in hysterics asking "Why are we doing this to ourselves?" We
did it for our own self worth and a passion for a better us.

Class of 2003, WE DID IT. Today we celebrate; tomorrow we work for a
better place for the future. Graduates--dreams and goals in life may change, but never forget to live life with passion. Because w/out passion we will forget why we had our dreams and goals in the first place.

Congratulations graduates.

Then in my mind I remembered that we could submit a speech or basically volunteer to be the "Student Speaker" at our department ceremony. So after auguring with myself for a few minutes I dared myself to submit it. I did, and thank goodness for weeks I heard nothing, I was grateful! So when I went into the office I was greeted with a, "Hey Student Speaker!!!!", I swear my heart went to my toes, I thought I had escaped this challenge, uh NO! My Mom was with me at the time and I hadn't told her about the submission, heck it took me two weeks to get up the nerve to tell my own husband! You see I don't do well speaking in front of people, in grade school I had to sing the Star Spangled Banner by myself in front of the class. Yeah well I did it w/my eyes closed. My wedding? Oh that was bad, I could only get out about three words at a time before choking up, not from emotions of love, it was pure hard fear of speaking while "people were looking at me"!

But I digress, here I was being told I was going to speak to a huge crowd of people. I couldn't back out because they had just given my name to the printers. All the time of this news was sinking in my mother was laughing up a storm, it's always important to have support during a crisis-thanks Mom! Crap I was stuck giving the speech! I made my mother and my husband promise not to tell anyone. I didn't want anyone to feel obligated to attend, I wanted the people there that would truly support me and they did.

The good news was that I got two rounds of applause during my short speech and it was over quickly, but I did it. I faced my fears and pulled it off. Go me!

Live, Laugh, Love,

Kristin

The Paula Deen Drinking Game

I know that some people hate her some love her, I am in the "love her" camp.

When spending time w/my Korean twin sister we were chatting about our favorite Food Network people. We both loved Paula, and she started talking about the "Paula Deen Drinking Game" that came to her and some friends. So I can't even really admit to creating this game only putting down some guidelines to it.

It's based on the "quarters game" that's played at parties that we shouldn't have been drinking at. So every time Paula says these specific ingredients you take a shot...just for the record we did try to keep the list short or you would be needing a liver transplant by the first commercial break...yes we know that it's only a 30 minute show but these ingredients are used many times over.

You drink for these foods only:
Butter (well dur here people)
Bacon
Mayonnaise
Sour Cream
Avocado


That's it, have fun people and please don't drink and cook. If you do take pictures for a good laugh in the ER later.

Food Byte:
If your re-heating up pizza use a non-stick skillet w/just a few drops of oil and low heat. It's best if you can use a lid on the skillet too. If you pizza is thick you may need to pop it in the microwave for about 35 seconds and then in the skillet. You will have a nice crispy crust and a hot melted pizza. No soggy crust for me thank you!!!

Live Laugh Love,
Kristin

How and Why I Fell In Love w/My Husband

This story may sound so sappy and nuts but what the heck, I am nuts anyway.

You know that when you see someone across the room and you get total tunnel vision, well that's what exactly happened to me when I saw Tarik for the first time. Then I politely said to my friend, "I want that for Christmas". Later that day he was walking around sharing some chocolate covered blueberries, I had never tasted anything so wonderful in my life. Coming from a back ground of not eating at all (I was anorexic mostly in my teens) and now I was working for a flavor company I was teaching myself what flavor was and how much I loved it. Here I was learning to like flavor but I hated food, and here was this amazing man that took me on a flavor journey that was amazing.

While we were dating we plan out dinner all day long, going from store to store like a treasure hunt. Because he was so passionate about many things of course not only did I gained a good 20lbs but I fell in love. My Sister-In-Law calls it "happy fat", well hell I gained so much I could throw my own ticker tape parade!

All these new flavors I was introduced to really helped me at my job too. I would work w/our flavor chemist when she would try to duplicate things and even helped me get the job of QC for the company.

There were a few draw backs to my new refined palate, my friends hated going wine tasting with me. I could find all these different flavors that they couldn't! I loved chatting w/the people at the wineries but they were mad that they couldn't find the flavors in the food and wines.

So I can easily say that falling in love really effected so many aspects of my life, it put me on this footpath to what I am now and who I am now. Welcome to my crazy life.

Live Laugh Love,
Kristin

Warm and Fuzzy

Today was an amazing day! I got my DVD work out done (yeah yeah only 20 minutes climb off!) but I did get a great 45 minute power walk w/Amirah and Grandma.

Then things turned crazy trying to get back home and cleaned up and then to the school. I think it would be much easier to heard a bunch of cats than to rush a toddler to get anyplace! In the end we made it.

I was quickly taken to my seat were I found a "shadow picture" of Amirah, a card that had glued flowers on it and her signature inside, and a tissue paper flower that she made for me! Right away all the kids came out to sing some cute little song, I was snapping pictures and crying I couldn't tell you for the life of me what they were singing. They could have be singing the praises of eating dirt and poo mixed together I would have thought it just lovely.

Right after that the kids were all hauled away so we could have an adult lunch!!! I almost forgot what those were like. I sat next to a "working outside the home Mommy", she was super sweet and worked at a company I would KILL to work at. So it's great to have contacts when companies actually hire people.

So that's what a good "Mommy Day" was.

Live Laugh and Love,
Kristin

I Haven't Forsaken You All

I wanted to apologize for not posting for so long. I started to get tunnel vision about doing my work outs. You know finding a schedule that works w/being a mom and the loss of an amazing human, my Mother-In-Law. It's just been nuts!

I have been a little off a bit, but I want to get back to the grind in my kitchen and make amazing food for my family. It also goes w/o saying along w/good food comes the working out everyday, for health reasons I need to lose 15lbs. So now I try to do 20 to 30 minutes of a cardio work out DVD. Yeah, let's be real here people, it's more like the 20 minutes. But I have been adding a 1 hour walk. Trust me this is no sissy walk! I do this walk pushing a 30lb stroller w/usually at least one kid, sometimes two! I am so just waiting around for this weight to melt off...not happening CRAP!

So I am going to try something a little different here. I am thinking about doing that "couch to 5k" training. Yes, running. Now usually I only run if Satan himself is chasing me, not his minions, Satan himself. While I really don't see myself running in any form of public race, I need the training to get healthy.

So you say, "Kristin, well sweetie that's just well, NUTSO". I beg to differ, I want to live by example for my kids. I have taught Amirah (almost 3) that we have certain things in moderation. Take juice for example, a little is good for you, a lot is just a sugar dump in your system. You may offer her some juice and she will look at you and say holding up her fingers, "Only a little because too much isn't healthy and I want to be healthy like my Mommy". I love that little girl to death.

Right now I know I am not inspiring w/my "mommy pouch" hanging down but I am almost 40 and I want to feel fabulous when I do turn 40. Anyone care to join me?

I promise to post more often...about how my body is fighting me by hearing the words, "Don't go running, there is ice cream in the freezer that loves you."

Live Laugh Love,
Kristin