New Beginings!

Happy New Year!  I know, I know I am a bit late but I have been busy.  If you are someone like me who works out at the gym on a regular basis I did not have to tell you it is a new year.  There is absolutely no mistaking it.  The treadmill you have used every morning at 7 AM for months now has someone you haven't seen before on it and there are no available treadmills.  Your spot in the fitness class is also occupied by an unfamiliar face and the room is packed!  Welcome to the New Year!!  The second part of this New Year's crowd that you know for sure if you have been faithfully working out is this; by Valentine's day most of these new faces will have disappeared and you will once again gain residency on "your treadmill".  Resolutions to get fit fail and the population gets heavier.  Next year and the next year it repeats.

I was once one of those newbies at the gym taking up someone elses treadmill but there is a difference.  I didn't make a resolution to get fit or even to lose weight.  I set a GOAL!  I believe there is a difference.  A resolution is a wish or a desire while a goal is specific and measurable.  A goal has a deadline!  So I got on someone's treadmill and I walked and each day I came back and walked some more and I joined Weight Watchers and I followed the program and set a goal to lose five pounds, and I did.  Then I set another goal to lose five pounds and I did.  And then yet another five pounds and each time I set a new goal I shared it with my husband and I reached it.  Sometimes losing five pounds took a week but most times it took a month.  Once in a while it took much longer than that but I NEVER took my eyes off my goal.  I became fitter and fitter walking on that treadmill and eventually began a step class, then weight lifting and watched as I transformed my body, slowly, but successfully.  I walked a half marathon (13.1 miles) and then another.  Eventually I lost more than fifty percent of my body weight and was able to stand in front of my friends in Weight Watchers and earn my Lifetime membership.

New Beginnings the first morning I walked into the gym and got on the treadmill and again as I reached my weight goal with Weight Watchers and became a Lifetime member.  New beginnings when I became a Weight Watchers leader and lead my first group meeting.  Scary, exhilarating, so worth the journey!

Weight Watchers has begun a new advertising campaign and I am so proud of it.  Have you seen it?  Jennifer Hudson before and after her weight loss transformation with giant red letters spelling out the word BELIEVE.  That is the most powerful word I know!  In order to be successful at whatever you start you must believe in yourself.  I had to learn to believe I was worth the effort.  I had to learn to believe. 

                                                                 

Christmas trees and memories

It was a gray Ohio day that day so long ago when my dad got me out of school early so we could go and pick out a Christmas tree.  I was so excited to be spending the day with him, just the two of us!  He knew I had high standards for Christmas trees and he also understood the temperament of a fifteen year old girl.  He had unending patience.

We went from Christmas tree lot to Christmas tree lot looking for the perfect tree.  It had to be tall enough, full enough and good on three sides.  Tree lot after tree lot left me disappointed.  I am sure my dad was getting frustrated.   There were certainly several trees we had seen that were fine but I remained steadfast in my quest to find the perfect tree.  It was getting later, colder, and darker when my dad finally uttered the words I knew were coming; "This is our last stop, find your tree."  I wandered around the lot several times and did finally settle on a tree but to be honest there had been several others at previous tree lots that would have been far better than the tree I finally picked.  I pouted the whole way home and did not say a word to Dad.

The tree was placed in the stand and set up in front of the large picture window in the living room.  It was tall enough and fat enough but there were some noticeable holes on one of the sides.  Dad never said a word but went straight to work.  He cut off some branches in the back and set them aside.  He took his drill and drilled holes in the trunk of the tree where the holes were and then stuck the branches he had cut off the back into the holes.  He wired some branches to hold them in better position.  The lights went on next, all blue, and finally the decorations.  I continued to pout not having anything to do with the tree of the decorating.  When the tree was finished I was called into the living room.  It was dark outside.  The living room lights were off but the tree was on.  I stared in disbelief at the Christmas tree in front of me!  It was beautiful!  I didn't look at my Mom or my Dad.  I don't know if my three brothers were in the living room with me but I was certain of one thing;  that tree, my tree, was the most beautiful and perfect tree I had ever seen!

Forty one years later this is the tree I remember.  This is the tree I will ALWAYS remember.

Thank you Dad for having the love and the patience to give your daughter such loving and lasting memories and the gift of your time!  I miss you!  Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Rerun!

Two thousand years ago in a stable in Bethlehem a woman named Mary gave birth to a baby boy and named him Jesus.  A star shined brightly over the stable leading the way for the travelers who came bringing gifts for the baby, the Savior, the Christ Child whose birth they had been told about by the angels.  Two thousand years later we still celebrate His birth.

December 25, 1980 at Saint Ann's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio I gave birth to a baby girl and named her Megan Elizabeth.  I was warm and well cared for. There was a room for me in the hospital and one for Megan.   Megan's birth had been planned for, prepared for and was waited on with joyful anticipation.  It was also celebrated by visitors bringing gifts.  As it nears Christmas day we prepare to celebrate her thirtieth birthday. 

Allow me to tell you about our trip to the hospital that night and the subsequent question we have been asked numerous times since her birth.  Christmas Eve, 1980, was cold and snowy.  The temperature was in the teens as we headed across town to the hospital.  The sky was brilliant and filled with beautiful stars and I  could not help but to reflect on Mary and the birth of the Christ Child that night so many years before.  Snow flakes dropped silently and the radio played softly as we listened to Christmas carols.  We arrived safely at the hospital and as we prepared to get out of the car I was aware that the carol that was playing was Silent Night.  What did you hear Mary on that special night?

The Nuns greeted us and we were settled in the Lamaze room.  My every need was taken care of.  Were your needs cared for Mary?  Were you comfortable and warm?  The night stretched on and labor progressed until it became evident it was time for the doctor to be called.  Dr. Cliff Raymond told us he raced across town almost spinning out on the freeway getting to the hospital in time to deliver our Christmas baby.  Megan Elizabeth was born at 6:40 AM Christmas morning.  She weighed 8 pounds 1 1/2 ounces and was 20 inches long.  The nurses wrapped her up in warm blankets and took her off to the newborn nursery to be bathed and checked thoroughly.  When she was brought into my room she was tucked inside a big red Christmas stocking!

He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and layed in the manger. 

I can't imagine a more perfect day to give birth than a day where people all over the world are celebrating Jesus' birth, love abounds and joy fills the air yet Megan and I continue to be asked if she feels cheated sharing  her birthday with Christmas.  Erma Bomback wrote a beautiful piece asking the same question.  I saw her column shortly after Megan was born and cut it out, had it laminated and saved it for her.

Here it is:


2-for-1 HOLIDAY OFFER: CHRISTMAS BIRTHDAYS



Happy Birthday, Jesus - and Aunt Martha and my cousin Dede, and everyone else that was born on this day.


The savior excepted, I think I know what the rest of you birthday babies are thinking.


All your gifts are wrapped in Christmas paper - as usual.


Most of the family has already whispered in your ear, "I bought you one BIG gift for both occasions."


Your Christmas cards have a P.S. on them: "Happy Birthday."


Your favorite cake is chocolate but you will get a white one with white icing, trimmed in red.


If you hear one more person say, "What a bummer to be born on Christmas," you'll slap him.


There are never any balloons on this day, only reindeer and pointsettias.


You are rarely surrounded by your friends at a party because they are at home celebrating Christmas.


My gift to you is a birthday column that is for people born on this day.


Why do you suppose you were chosen to share the most celebrated birthday in the history of Christianity?


There are 364 other days to choose from, but you were chosen to enter the world on a day when peace and joy reign. It's the best time to enter a world. Truces are sometimes called during wars - old prejudices and hatreds are put aside - and people who have never done so before reach out to one another.


No one could plan a bigger celebration of your birth. The streets are lined with Christmas greenery. Houses glow in the light of a million candles, and the anticipation of the day is almost more than a child can stand.


Whenever I hear of a person born on Christmas, he becomes special to me. Babies are always gifts, but to have an infant placed in your arms on this anniversary cannot help but invite memories of Mary holding her newborn for the first time with no less wonderment.


I think Christmas babies feel it too. Their birthday culminates in a season of magic. There has been no Bozo the clown doing magic tricks, no catered party complete with noisemakers, no planes in the sky spelling out their names in smoke. It is a day when the world turns kind.


I share a birthday in February with Rue McClanahan and Tyne Daly. It doesn't get a whole lot of attention...but then Silent Night, Holy Night is not our birthday song.

-Erma Bomback

Happy Birthday Megan!  You were and will always be the most perfect Christmas gift.  My wish for you is that you always know the love and joy that fills the world as people everywhere celebrate the other special birthday that day! 

It has been a year since I posted this blog and in that time my Christmas baby has given birth to her own little girl.  This Christmas as Megan celebrates her birthday she will have some idea of the joy we experienced on that very special Christmas morning as she and Judson celebrate their first Christmas as parents.

Birthdays and Butterflies

There was a beautiful yellow butterfly, floating around in the garden at the church as we prepared to scatter my Dad's ashes.  When the minster began speaking the butterfly settled as if to listen to what was being said and stayed on that flower until the service was done.  When the service concluded off he flew to places unknown but we all had seen it.  A year later my daughter is preparing for the birth of her first child, my first Grandchild and we are in New York with her as she waits out those final days.  I was sitting on her porch when I first saw it.  It was floating around the flowers near the steps, lighting for just a second and then moving on.  I looked again just to be sure of what I was seeing and there it was, a single white butterfly dancing on the flowers.  It was as if it was waiting for something, as if it knew something special was about to happen.  The next time I saw it I said, "Hi Dad!  I knew you would be around."  The butterfly landed and stayed.

The anniversary of Dad's death came but the baby didn't.  The butterfly still flitted around the house.  There was a beautiful double rainbow that evening.  "Hi Dad!  Megan is OK.  We miss you!"  Erika was born three days later.  Jay and I had to head home before Erika came home but I suspect there was still a butterfly near the front door welcoming her home.

October 26th was my mom's eightieth birthday and Jay and I were taking her out for dinner to celebrate.  I had ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate icing to take down to her and had only asked that Happy Birthday Mom be put on the cake and that the colors be soft.  When I opened the box to take a peak at the cake it took my breath away!  There on top of the cake was an artificial yellow butterfly.  When I gave the cake to my Mom she was thrilled.  I told her Dad must have just wanted to say Happy Birthday!  When I asked the baker what prompted her to put the butterfly on the cake she said she just thought it would look pretty.  I told her the story about the butterfly and she was touched.

As a teenager my Dad gave me a beautiful book called, "Hope for the Flowers" by Trina Paulus.  It is a great book about change and love and growth.  My dad loved this book!  You won't be surprised when you look at the cover, yep a butterfly.

Hi Dad!  I miss you!  Erika has your nose.  Thanks for letting us know you are fine.

                                                                     

Nanna

On Friday, September 30th at 12:42 AM I was blessed to become a grandmother.  My first child, my beautiful baby girl gave birth to the most perfect, beautiful, baby girl I have ever seen.   She has ten very long, slender fingers and ten pudgy little toes.  She has her Papa Jim's nose and the sweetest mouth you have ever seen.  Her eyes are big and blue with the tiniest blond eyelashes.  She weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long.  Perfect, beautiful, exquisite!

My husband and I were fortunate to be invited to be at the hospital for her birth.  We watched our daughter, our baby girl, experience labor, remembering our own experience.  When it was time to push we waited just down the hall and listened to the sounds of our daughter pushing and finally there was the sound of a baby crying, our grand-daughter crying, and we rejoiced.

I have a friend who gave me the most wonderful grandchild gift- a book called "The gifts of being Grand" by Marianne Richmond.  I sat and read it last night and smiled as I turned the pages.  Marianne wrote a wonderful book which is beautifully illustrated.  Here is just a sample of the wording that touched my heart last night:

"Welcome," you whisper and know more than maybe you're head over heels in love with this baby"

Welcome Erika Jean!  I am your Nanna and I love you!

I am looking in the mirror and I am smiling!

The message in the mirror! (click this link!!)

No explanation necessary!  I am joining the cause, will you help me?  Think of all the people we could reach if we all joined together.

Go to OperationBeautiful.com to read the latest notes.  You will be glad you did.

Watch out for Witches and Flying Monkeys!!

Last night was the night I lead my Weight Watcher's meeting.  The topic was supposed to be all about getting restarted, starting over, hit the restart button...  I thought those were great lead ins but I wanted to make the meeting more interactive, different, perhaps even exciting and so in my meeting last night I presented, "Weight Watcher's visits The Wizard of Oz.  Finding YOUR way to the Emerald City".  I had fun and I hope the members who attended last night did too.  I began with the house landing on the witch and asked the members to think about what brought them in the door that first night; what was their house moment.  They shared, everyone understood and I believe the members felt they had others who heard them and understood.  We found a plan (follow the yellow brick road) Weight Watchers Points Plus program.  We met Glenda the good witch (the leader- me) asked Glenda and the Munchins (other members) for further help and direction and moved on down the yellow brick road sticking to our plan.  We met up with the usual characters (Lion, Tin Man and Scare Crow) and realized each of us also needed to identify what we were looking for and that some of us had all that we needed but had gotten lost in the haunted forest.  We even battled off the Wicked Witch and her Flying Monkeys (temptation, loss of goals, losing track of basics) and yet we kept on going.  When we reached our own personal Emerald City we celebrated and realized while each of us may take a different road to get there each and everyone of us wants some of the same things.  We have everything we need in our WW plan and meeting and if we get lost we simply need to find the yellow brick road again and ask for directions.  We move forward with the knowledge we have friends and Good Witches who understand.

The Weight Watchers Points Plus Program we have all been following this year is awesome and it works!!  In case you have any question about how things have changed here is a blog entry from fellow blogger, Mimi, whose blog is called:  1972:  The Retro WW Experiment   After I read her blog I am pretty sure I would not have been successful presenting last night's meeting the way I did.  Read her post and let her (and me) know what you think.  Oh, and let me know which program you would rather be doing now; 1972 or Points Plus!!

1972: The Retro WW Experiment