<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' version='2.0'><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:35:07 +0000</lastBuildDate><title>Sweet Nothings</title><description></description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>56</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-9203784869261208351</guid><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 04:27:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-05-20T21:44:50.905-07:00</atom:updated><title>Trusting</title><description>Hello dear blogging world!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm just popping in to say a few things about this evening's women's Biblestudy. I must say it was rather wonderful, not to mention it really made you think, which I love!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We're still studying Isaiah and it's amazing how much there is in that one book. Every chapter teaches you something new and shows you something that you need to dwell on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This evening's study really focused on trusting God and learning that no matter what happens nothing else in our lives can help us or give us the strength that we need besides the Creator God. I think so often we all forget to trust in God for all things. Little things happen that are a concern to us but we almost have this attitude that God wouldn't care about that so we shouldn't come to Him about it. What a mistake to be thinking like that! Coming to our Lord with things that seem small is what takes away our burdens and helps us find the solutions to our problems. What a comfort right?!&lt;br /&gt; I think people can take this the wrong way though too. Some have the attitude that they should just throw up their hands, sit back, and let God take care of it all because they're "trusting in Him." That's not what trusting in Him means. God gives us what we need to live. We need to be grateful for all that He has provided for us and use those things to always glorify Him and carry out His will. There are so many people out there who try to tell us how to think and how to live and often it sounds really good, but we have got to stay grounded in our faith. Our minds cannot be swept around with ever false wind that blows about. God gave us His Word through the Bible and that is where we need to stay grounded. Looking to Scripture  should be our first response during times of trouble and joy. God is so easily taken for granted and I don't ever want to do that. Would we ever find any comfort without Him? I know I wouldn't.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was definitely an interesting discussion tonight and one that really made you pause and take a step back to look at yourself. It made you ask, "what could I be doing to make sure my faith doesn't waver?"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyways I just thought it was really good and wanted to share it with all of you.&lt;br /&gt;Have a wonderful night and tomorrow!&lt;br /&gt;Hugs and kisses&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-9203784869261208351?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/05/trusting.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-5516742406823412516</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-04-28T12:12:09.578-07:00</atom:updated><title>Song of the moment</title><description>I don't know if any of you have ever listened to The Weepies, but I love them. They're very folksie and relaxing. One of their songs, Citywide Rodeo, is one of my favorites right now. It's so beautiful and I love the words. I would definitely recommend looking it up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Citywide rodeo, you set on the stage &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Where all the clowns will go when they feel their age &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I know that you think you're not good for anything&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The world makes you feel so small&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get on your wooden horse&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is a ride, not a fight&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;No need to save face, say goodnight, Grace&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Good night, Grace." &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;There's dust on the stadium seats, there's dust in your hair&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;You wonder how fast you'll go when you hit the air&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;And oh, isn't it strange how things can change you? &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;And oh, isn't it plain that some things unname you&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;So don't ask anybody else. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Citywide rodeo, step into your car&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Look up at the indigo and pick out your star."&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photobucket.com/images/the%20weepies" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="The Weepies Pictures, Images and Photos" src="http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k84/wercho/music5.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-5516742406823412516?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/04/song-of-moment.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-9031501507477778970</guid><pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:08:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-04-24T15:13:37.257-07:00</atom:updated><title>It's me</title><description>&lt;div&gt;Ok so I'm finally doing this! and I promise I didn't cheat, it just took me awhile to get around to it. =)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here are the rules!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;Take a picture of yourself right now.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;No primping or preparing.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;Just snap a picture.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;Load the picture onto your blog.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tag some people to play along.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328383787967351058" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SfI40vy-iRI/AAAAAAAAAgw/m7av9OakvhY/s400/at+work.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now to tag some people,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I tag &lt;a href="http://onebiteblog.blogspot.com/"&gt;Ashlei&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://cpasu.blogspot.com/"&gt;Susan,&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;and &lt;a href="http://rachelsewcute.blogspot.com/"&gt;Rachel.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have fun ladies! Can't wait to see your gorgeous faces!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-9031501507477778970?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/04/its-me.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SfI40vy-iRI/AAAAAAAAAgw/m7av9OakvhY/s72-c/at+work.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-6737450580043638122</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:26:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-04-15T13:05:09.999-07:00</atom:updated><title>One of those days</title><description>So yesterday I was kind of in a bad mood. I didn't really have a reason to be, but all the same I was easily irritated and annoyed with so many things and people. When I finally got home from work and had dinner I went to my room with a cup of coffe and tried to give myself an attitude adjustment.&lt;br /&gt;I was sitting there at my desk and I looked and saw my Bible. I automatically picked it up and started just flipping pages waiting for something to pop out at me. One verse that caught my eye was Psalm 55:22&lt;br /&gt;"Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of my favorites that I read again is from Matthew 6.&lt;br /&gt;"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I read these verses my stressed and troubled attitude seemed to slip away. I was reminded of the day in the park with Talia and Jessica. They had both had stressful days and we simply sat on a blanket and read scripture and that was enough to calm their spirits. Isn't it beautiful?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The birds verse will always remind me of Ashlei. She was the one who first really brought it to my attention and it has been a comfort to me ever since.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I will end with this verse form Proverbs 27.&lt;br /&gt;"Ointment and perfume delight the heart and the sweetness of a friend gives delight by hearty counsel."&lt;br /&gt;That is oh so true.&lt;br /&gt;It was so relaxing and wonderful to be sitting there in the quiet and being able to read the scripture without interruption. I don't do it near enough.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-6737450580043638122?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-of-those-days.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-6604094004211628591</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:49:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-04-03T11:05:09.216-07:00</atom:updated><title>California Dreamin'</title><description>I have been the queen of bad bloggers lately and I don't have an excuse, but this blog is filled with wonderful things so hopefully you all will let me off the hook. =)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A week ago today I was still in California. At this exact time a week ago I was sitting in the library with Ashlei reading a book about ghosts and hauntings. It was quite wonderful.&lt;br /&gt;My entire trip can be described with the word wonderful and many other adjectives that all stem from that word.&lt;br /&gt;I arrived on a Thursday night. Jeremy was there to pick me up from the airport and it took us about two hours to get back to the house where Talia and Emma were waiting up for us. Now I had dyed my hair red the night before I came and I wasn't quite sure about it yet and according to Talia, neither was Emma. This is what she had to say about it. "Mommy I'm really excited to see Auntie Lydia but I'm kind of scared of her hair." Well I am happy to say that once she actually saw it she wasn't scared of it and actually liked it. haha&lt;br /&gt;You have no idea how excited and happy I was to see Talia again! I always miss our sister time and having two weeks ahead of us filled with nothing but sister time was glorious.&lt;br /&gt;The next day I was woken up by two little girls with crazy hair and big smiles. Annabelle was on top of me in a moment showering me with kisses. Oh how lovely! I spent that first morning getting to be an Auntie, which is always delightful!&lt;br /&gt;A little bit later Ashlei came to get me! She had just gotten back from the beach so she looked beachy and beautiful. She took me out to lunch at Chilis and we went and saw Twilight at the dollar theater. After that we went to Starbucks, which was just one of many trips to be taken there.&lt;br /&gt;That was my first full day in California and it was great! Don't you think so?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320510467910179810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdZAFM-Im-I/AAAAAAAAAgo/8H-YZNrBApg/s400/cali10.jpg" border="0" /&gt;The lovely Ashlei and myself&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320510273178711570" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_53iiNhI/AAAAAAAAAgg/pOstc9bpWxA/s400/cali35.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Talia and I also went to starbucks, along with renting movies. Some filled with fairies for the girls, ghosts for Jeremy, and Johnny Depp for us.&lt;br /&gt;My days were filled with chats, playing princess, drinking coffee, watching supernatural, and just having a good time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One very special even that happened while I was there was the birth of Rosalie Hope!! I was so blessed to be able to be apart of this! Rosalie is gorgeous and Talia is once again a beautiful new mother. Nothing beats snuggling with a tiny baby and Rosalie is such a good little cuddler. She loves snuggling against your neck.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_wdUOUQI/AAAAAAAAAgY/SngzI5eqWN0/s1600-h/cali17.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320510111520542978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_wdUOUQI/AAAAAAAAAgY/SngzI5eqWN0/s400/cali17.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Me with Rosalie on her very first day in the world!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_reJrcrI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/d8qUSQqeJB0/s1600-h/cali13.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320510025845404338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_reJrcrI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/d8qUSQqeJB0/s400/cali13.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Hanging with my girls at the marketplace! aren't they lovely?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Another very special thing that happened was that Ashlei took me to Disneyland! It was her surprise to me and as it was my very first time, you can imagine that I was pretty excited! Disneyland is amazing. You can't help but feel like a child when you're there. I was so excited about everything and it's so beautiful there. I was able to experience everything, from the lagoons in Pirates to flying over London in Peter Pan's Flight. We talked to Crush from Finding Nemo and were almost hit by a giant rolling rock in Indiana Jones. We experienced Snow White's Scary Adventures and the Wild Ride of Mr. Toad. We fell down the rabbit hole with Alice in Wonderland and were face to face with ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. It was fabulous being there with Ashlei! Thank you so much!!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The rest of my trip was spent holding my new niece, playing with the girls, talking with Talia, being a silly sister, reading scripture in the park, watching the trees blossom, sipping tea, and many many other lovely things. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Spending time with Talia is always so wonderful. Anyone who knows her knows how sweet and thoughtful she is. She's encouraging and beautiful. I loved every minute with her.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;And getting to see Ashlei again was amazing. I needed my best friend time and no time ever seems long enough, but i'm so grateful for the time we got. There's no better person to grab a coffee with and share old memories. We did everything from watch the gorgeous Dean Winchester to get yelled at by boys who obviously never had mothers. It was all lovely, absolutely lovely. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I got my sister time.....&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i236/lydster90/?action=view&amp;amp;current=cali33.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i236/lydster90/cali33.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My best friend time...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i236/lydster90/?action=view&amp;amp;current=ashlei-1.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i236/lydster90/?action=view&amp;amp;current=meandash.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i236/lydster90/meandash.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;And even some brother-in-law time....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_jEmi8vI/AAAAAAAAAgI/2gzegslUcz8/s1600-h/cali41.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320509881548206834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_jEmi8vI/AAAAAAAAAgI/2gzegslUcz8/s400/cali41.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Don't ask...lol&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And of course some auntie time!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_E5UF5WI/AAAAAAAAAgA/m_dj694TiK8/s1600-h/cali25.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320509363121939810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdY_E5UF5WI/AAAAAAAAAgA/m_dj694TiK8/s400/cali25.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I loved it all! Thanks you guys for making it so special! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-6604094004211628591?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/04/california-dreamin.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SdZAFM-Im-I/AAAAAAAAAgo/8H-YZNrBApg/s72-c/cali10.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-8130587619459194442</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:53:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-03-04T09:10:09.544-08:00</atom:updated><title>No, I didn't die...</title><description>I just haven't felt like blogging lately, but I'm here now!&lt;br /&gt;Well not too too much has been going on. I've been busy working and all that good stuff but two weeks ago a friend from South Dakota flew in and she along with three other friends came to visit Jerusha and I! It was so fun! In the morning we hung out at Starbucks and went to Wendys for an early lunch. Jerusha and I then had to work, but later that evening we all went to Olive Garden which as you know is always delicious!&lt;br /&gt;I thought I would share some pictures with you because that's just what I do. =)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378373056573122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zgAAtrsI/AAAAAAAAAf4/kILWCeZ94ps/s400/funtimes.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Anna, Liz, and I hanging out at the office.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378315740272818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zcqfcWLI/AAAAAAAAAfw/j_CW0VBbAmo/s400/funtimes2.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Anna and Liz were very skilled at building with the blocks. HAHA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378243915159890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zYe7AGVI/AAAAAAAAAfo/zKRNuyrx3Rc/s400/funtimes3.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Christian, Liz, and I squished in the backseat of Anna's car. It's supposed to be only three people. but we fit four cuz we're cool. =)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zUwg2PHI/AAAAAAAAAfg/EQo-OR236J8/s1600-h/funtimes4.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378179917823090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zUwg2PHI/AAAAAAAAAfg/EQo-OR236J8/s400/funtimes4.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Me with the lovely Anna at Wendys!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zPZ5osDI/AAAAAAAAAfY/k6ueEcZwNk0/s1600-h/funtimes5.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378087948431410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zPZ5osDI/AAAAAAAAAfY/k6ueEcZwNk0/s400/funtimes5.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Liz and Jerusha workin it at Starbucks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zK6Onq8I/AAAAAAAAAfQ/dd3clhQlRlo/s1600-h/funtimes6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309378010727033794" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zK6Onq8I/AAAAAAAAAfQ/dd3clhQlRlo/s400/funtimes6.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Yes I was sitting on her lap in public and we were having a great time! lol&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zHdPCiPI/AAAAAAAAAfI/XClj4UxizdE/s1600-h/funtimes7.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309377951404558578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zHdPCiPI/AAAAAAAAAfI/XClj4UxizdE/s400/funtimes7.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I love my Liz!!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;You know what? I get to see her again, along with Jenna, Aaron, and Christian tomorrow morning!! I am seriously so excited!! Good times shall be had I'm sure. You'll be seeing pictures of that day as well. How can I resist sharing them with you all?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;On other news...9 days till California!!!! No words can describe how excited I am for this! Technically it's 8 days because I leave a week from tomorrow, btu I thought I would count the actual day I leave because I won't get to Talia's till probably like 11 at night. Anyways YAY!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;So how are all of you?? &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Have a great Wednesday everyone! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-8130587619459194442?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-i-didnt-die.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/Sa6zgAAtrsI/AAAAAAAAAf4/kILWCeZ94ps/s72-c/funtimes.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-1275209218298057708</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-13T09:46:39.878-08:00</atom:updated><title>Books I have read and books I have yet to read</title><description>I've been quite the reader lately and I thought I would share some of my favorites with you!&lt;br /&gt;One of my all time favorites is &lt;em&gt;Dracula&lt;/em&gt; by Bram Stoker. Seriously some of the best writing I have ever seen. (ok so I got these pictures form amazon.com and that is why alot of these have that stupid "look inside" thing at the top. =))&lt;br /&gt;I would recommend this, but I also know alot of people who don't like it. They think it's hard to read or they just think it's too dark, but I love it. So you cna pick if you want to read it or not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302333064676921442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWr1FDgUGI/AAAAAAAAAfA/azNOu88JvGQ/s400/dracula.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Another amazing read is &lt;em&gt;The Picture Of Dorian Gray&lt;/em&gt; by Oscar Wilde. This book is so mysterious and it kept me enthralled until the end!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrwlNpUXI/AAAAAAAAAe4/mAPdEnyTZxE/s1600-h/dorian+gray.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332987410043250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrwlNpUXI/AAAAAAAAAe4/mAPdEnyTZxE/s400/dorian+gray.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everyone loves &lt;em&gt;Jane Eyre &lt;/em&gt;by Charlotte Bronte right? I think it's fabulous and if you haven't read it yet, you definitely should!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrr4bCRrI/AAAAAAAAAew/8ctUKzkxUio/s1600-h/jane+eyre.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332906667132594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrr4bCRrI/AAAAAAAAAew/8ctUKzkxUio/s400/jane+eyre.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Currently I have been going through the entire collection of &lt;em&gt;Sherlock Holmes &lt;/em&gt;by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's a pretty big undertaking actually. There are so many different stories and a few novels thrown in there too. I have to say that I'm very fond of my Mr. Holmes. I love getting up and reading his mysteries with breakfast! Definitely another collection I would recommend to you all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrnkcqWRI/AAAAAAAAAeo/nRnzIksi_7g/s1600-h/sherlock.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332832585767186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrnkcqWRI/AAAAAAAAAeo/nRnzIksi_7g/s400/sherlock.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also have a reading list. The following books are the ones I still have to read. At the top is &lt;em&gt;Frankenstein&lt;/em&gt; by Mary Shelley. I'm very excited to read this because it's one of Ashlei's favorite books and she's recommended it many times to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrgdh-npI/AAAAAAAAAeg/VPCefJMse6c/s1600-h/frankenstein.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332710469934738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrgdh-npI/AAAAAAAAAeg/VPCefJMse6c/s400/frankenstein.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another one on the list is &lt;em&gt;The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde&lt;/em&gt; by Robert Louis Stevenson. I've heard this is also a good one so I'm excited for this one as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrdfB3EeI/AAAAAAAAAeY/srn_teC4CWc/s1600-h/Dr.+Jekyll.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332659332485602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrdfB3EeI/AAAAAAAAAeY/srn_teC4CWc/s400/Dr.+Jekyll.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And last but not least is the complete collections of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. My dad gave me this beautiful, huge, hardback book for christmas that has all of their stories. How great is that?! I'm really looking forward to getting started on that!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrMzMevTI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/WcltReOmhEI/s1600-h/bronte.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302332372687961394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWrMzMevTI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/WcltReOmhEI/s400/bronte.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As you can see I really love the classics! I'm open to anything though. Do any of you have any recommendations? I would love to hear what your favorites are!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I hope all of you had a great week and have a great weekend!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;xoxoxo&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-1275209218298057708?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/02/books-i-have-read-and-books-i-have-yet.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SZWr1FDgUGI/AAAAAAAAAfA/azNOu88JvGQ/s72-c/dracula.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-7594922194078726147</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:49:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-06T09:28:57.382-08:00</atom:updated><title>More Music</title><description>&lt;div&gt;I have been such a bad blogger and I apologize. I just have not been inspired to write anything as of late and this one might be a little disappointing considering I'm just talking about music once again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My new purchase is the Gavin Degraw, Chariot cd. It's pretty cool because it consists of two cds with the same songs on it but one cd is the stripped versions of all the songs. I love it!&lt;br /&gt;I would definitely recommend it if you're into him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299727749827971618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SYxqTy7GyiI/AAAAAAAAAeA/uaoEk8K1Jpw/s320/CoverGavinDegraw-chariot.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;On a different note, I am soon to buy my plane ticket to California! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299737135960777330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 123px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SYxy2I_jYnI/AAAAAAAAAeI/87Oxfs2JcCY/s400/california.png" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;I'll be going sometime in March so that I'll be there when little Rosalie Hope is born! You have no idea how excited I am to see everybody! I'll get my sister time with &lt;a href="http://joyouslittlewife.blogspot.com/"&gt;Talia&lt;/a&gt;, my best friend time with &lt;a href="http://onebiteblog.blogspot.com/"&gt;Ashlei&lt;/a&gt;, some brother-in-law time with &lt;a href="http://jeremybridgman.blogspot.com/"&gt;Jeremy&lt;/a&gt;, and auntie time with Emma, Annabelle, and soon Rosalie!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;So yeah that's the new excitement in my life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;How are all of you?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;xoxoxo&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-7594922194078726147?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-music.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SYxqTy7GyiI/AAAAAAAAAeA/uaoEk8K1Jpw/s72-c/CoverGavinDegraw-chariot.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-1008652466177455042</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-27T15:42:44.564-08:00</atom:updated><title>Lift Me Up</title><description>&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SX-bePxFn4I/AAAAAAAAAdw/jq-rZDh9jOQ/s1600-h/Kate_Voegele.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296122630741794690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SX-bePxFn4I/AAAAAAAAAdw/jq-rZDh9jOQ/s400/Kate_Voegele.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Kate Voegele's new song "Lift Me Up" was introduced to me by &lt;a href="http://onebiteblog.blogspot.com/"&gt;Ashlei&lt;/a&gt; and I have got to say, I love it! I seriously listen to it like four times a day.&lt;br /&gt;You must listen to it!&lt;br /&gt;It's beautiful and I love the lyrics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://free.napster.com/player/?play_id=24459416&amp;amp;type=track"&gt;http://free.napster.com/player/?play_id=24459416&amp;amp;type=track&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-1008652466177455042?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/lift-me-up.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SX-bePxFn4I/AAAAAAAAAdw/jq-rZDh9jOQ/s72-c/Kate_Voegele.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-3380559885222033741</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-22T09:30:18.293-08:00</atom:updated><title>Fabulousness</title><description>Fabulousness is a word which should be in every girl's vocabulary. At least I think so. =)&lt;br /&gt;Anyways I've made some pretty fabulous purchases as of late and I thought I would share them with you!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This first one I did not actually buy. It was sent to me by the wonderful &lt;a href="http://onebiteblog.blogspot.com/"&gt;Ashlei&lt;/a&gt; and I absolutely love it! I would highly recommend it to all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166610351796706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioe3_AseI/AAAAAAAAAdg/C7ziivGiGz8/s400/blog1.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok so for months now I've been looking for sweater boots because I love them and I had never had any success. So sad. Well Jerusha and I were at Walmart the other day and we were just walking around in the shoe section and there they were!! I practically screamed. what's really cool about them is that they really have two looks. You can have them tall with big buttons along the side or you can fold them down for a shorter look and have little buttons along the side. See..look.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166550293604162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXiobYQBZ0I/AAAAAAAAAdY/1I0_WK-QvRM/s400/blog2.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJeRjFtI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/Q6AQi8lCD-o/s1600-h/blog3.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166242672973522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJeRjFtI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/Q6AQi8lCD-o/s400/blog3.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I had also been looking for a new wallet just because I wanted one. =) I went into Forever 21(the best store ever!) and was looking through their bins of things and I saw this one! I loved everything about it! Purple is fantastic don't you think?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJMCSnCI/AAAAAAAAAdI/Zu2qZAw_lH0/s1600-h/blog4.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166237777140770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJMCSnCI/AAAAAAAAAdI/Zu2qZAw_lH0/s400/blog4.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJJcQcMI/AAAAAAAAAdA/2Zjmdi3zDh4/s1600-h/blog5.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166237080744130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioJJcQcMI/AAAAAAAAAdA/2Zjmdi3zDh4/s400/blog5.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh and I can't say no to pretty much any bright color of nail polish. It makes me happy. Hot pink is especially a favorite. So of course when I saw this, I had to have it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioIpLgvrI/AAAAAAAAAc4/0tDedBXLmPI/s1600-h/blog6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166228420574898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioIpLgvrI/AAAAAAAAAc4/0tDedBXLmPI/s400/blog6.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last but not least, my new zebra print hoops. Jerusha actually bought these for me because she's so nice! I love love love them!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioIYnVmYI/AAAAAAAAAcw/m4zsBJsgK1Y/s1600-h/blog7.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294166223973882242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioIYnVmYI/AAAAAAAAAcw/m4zsBJsgK1Y/s400/blog7.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pure fabulousness right?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-3380559885222033741?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/fabulousness.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SXioe3_AseI/AAAAAAAAAdg/C7ziivGiGz8/s72-c/blog1.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-5425649413976504986</guid><pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2009 04:12:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-17T20:18:29.438-08:00</atom:updated><title>Tonight...</title><description>I am feeling restless. Do you ever get that feeling? I don't know what to do. Usually I head straight to my Sherlock Holmes book and curl up on a chair somewhere and read, but tonight even that doesn't sound good. It's like I can't be calm. I don't understand it.&lt;br /&gt;I'm sitting here drinking tea on my bed with the laptop and you would think that would make me feel peaceful, but it doesn't.&lt;br /&gt;Thriving Ivory is doing what they can to help as they come out of my computer speakers, and that does help a bit.&lt;br /&gt;I want to have someone here with me to just talk and be restless with me. At the same time I almost want to be alone. I mean I chose to come in here by myself and leave everyone else out in the living room, but still, some sort of company would be nice. I swear I'm crazy. I don't know what it is. I guess it's just one of those nights.&lt;br /&gt;Any tips on how to calm down and find some peace?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-5425649413976504986?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/tonight.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-6638037820282821684</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-14T14:40:15.372-08:00</atom:updated><title>Office Moments</title><description>The chiropractic office can be pretty boring but it definitely has it's entertaining moments. I thought I would share a few of them with you because they made me laugh. =)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have a patient who often pays us with alot of one dollar bills and that always cracks me up, so one morning as he handed over the cash I said, "you know I'm a little worried about what your occupation is." He looked at me and then said ,"well that's just my job. I'm a waiter, I get tips in one dollar bills....and a little stripping on the side." He was so serious about it that it made me laugh!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's this other guy who comes in who tells us that he has to be careful what he wears when he comes because he feels Jerusha and I are always critiquing his clothing choices. I'll admit that's sometimes true. hehe But he usually comes in with either sweat pants on and a beer t-shirt or basketball shorts and a sweatshirt. We made fun of him for that for awhile and then one day he walked in and was wearing dressy jeans, a button-up shirt, and a leather jacket. "Now you can't pick on me," he said as he walked in. haha that's funny.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today there's this guy here who is fixing one of the printers and it's so hilarious because he randomly just yells stuff out and he is almost always talking to himself(loud enough that I can hear). I hear him sya these weirds things and it's seriously really hard to not bust out laughing. One time I did laugh at something and he came out to the front room to ask if I was crying. haha he said he figured I must have been laughing instead. Just a little bit ago he came out to throw is gum away and he looks at me and says, "that gum is officially holy." I gave him a questioning look and he went on to say, "because I chewed the hell out of it." Talk about random. Well he thought he was funny anyways. Oh and apparently our bathroom is pretty fascinating. He came out of it and yelled all the way to the front desk, "that's so cool!! the light and the fan comes on when you open the door!" Pure excitement right there folks. I'm so glad we could show him just how high tech we really are.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyways thats just a few of the things that go on here. Hope you enjoyed that!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-6638037820282821684?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/office-moments.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-7480839217642573475</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:58:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-12T22:09:41.769-08:00</atom:updated><title>My New Obsession</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWwuIYTlxnI/AAAAAAAAAco/RmrCigg_w7Q/s1600-h/ivory"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 293px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWwuIYTlxnI/AAAAAAAAAco/RmrCigg_w7Q/s400/ivory" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290654383751939698" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Thriving Ivory. This band is absolutely wonderful. You have no idea. I am in love with their music, their lyrics, and Mr. Stoope's voice. Check &lt;a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&amp;amp;friendID=3495300"&gt;them&lt;/a&gt; out if you've never heard them before!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Late again&lt;br /&gt;Guilt free in the middle of the pouring rain&lt;br /&gt;Hair's a mess she said&lt;br /&gt;Would you mind if I spent the night alone?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3am she's up said&lt;br /&gt;It's not you and it never was&lt;br /&gt;Packs her things she's gone where?&lt;br /&gt;That place I'll never know&lt;br /&gt;Somewhere in the middle of the pouring rain&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wake up late&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes I wish I never woke up at all&lt;br /&gt;And I contemplate&lt;br /&gt;I guess maybe I'm better off alone&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm gonna leave this place&lt;br /&gt;I guess winter got the best of us this year&lt;br /&gt;And the sky's a mess&lt;br /&gt;I'll run out in the middle of the pouring rain&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When the day is done and you're not here again&lt;br /&gt;When the day is done and you're not here again&lt;br /&gt;When the day is done and you're not here again&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'll run out in the middle of the pouring rain&lt;br /&gt;God speed in the middle of the pouring rain&lt;br /&gt;I'll find love in the middle of the pouring rain" - Day of Rain&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-7480839217642573475?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-new-obsession.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWwuIYTlxnI/AAAAAAAAAco/RmrCigg_w7Q/s72-c/ivory' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-6975308836285883594</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-07T10:27:43.568-08:00</atom:updated><title>Time Spent With Family</title><description>It's been quite a while since I've blogged but I have the excuse that all of my family was here and that makes for quite the hectic time!&lt;br /&gt;But I'm here now and you get to hear and see some of the good times we had when they were all here!&lt;br /&gt;Talia, Jeremy, the girls, and Elijah arrived first on Sunday evening. I was at the airport with my parents and my excitement was seriously intense as I waited for them to get in! They finally all did arrive and we packed up into the vehicle and drove home..the good times then commenced!&lt;br /&gt;I told Jerusha that she could do a more detailed blog of all that we did since I would using lots of the pictures so I'm not going to be saying a whole lot.&lt;br /&gt;I will say that there was so much joy, fun, silliness, and just good family times this past week that I was almost bursting with it! It was absolutely fabulous.&lt;br /&gt;One low point of the week was that I got the flu while they were all here, but it lasted for a relatively short time so I suppose it could have been worse.&lt;br /&gt;Now, on to the pictures!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288617008428828434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTxJhx9RxI/AAAAAAAAAa4/t8kj2i6Cavk/s400/visit4.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Precious Annabelle!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288617006465965826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTxJad-XwI/AAAAAAAAAaw/Ns8XX42kvW4/s400/visit2.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Miss Emma Joy!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTxJIieFUI/AAAAAAAAAao/q-Gweaj4G-s/s1600-h/visit14.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288617001652983106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTxJIieFUI/AAAAAAAAAao/q-Gweaj4G-s/s400/visit14.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw8OgwcLI/AAAAAAAAAag/-qkXwEXKB7k/s1600-h/visit3.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616779918110898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw8OgwcLI/AAAAAAAAAag/-qkXwEXKB7k/s400/visit3.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; =) who knows&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7_MMzmI/AAAAAAAAAaY/ZJpsmhFwkUs/s1600-h/visit5.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616775805357666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7_MMzmI/AAAAAAAAAaY/ZJpsmhFwkUs/s400/visit5.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw71FeuUI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/HjWLPIv_p-U/s1600-h/visit6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616773092817218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw71FeuUI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/HjWLPIv_p-U/s400/visit6.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7umH8XI/AAAAAAAAAaI/jhhGsXOdlT8/s1600-h/visit11.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616771350688114" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7umH8XI/AAAAAAAAAaI/jhhGsXOdlT8/s400/visit11.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Yes, we really are that weird.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7aJw4II/AAAAAAAAAaA/xfucZUJDRX0/s1600-h/visit13.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616765863026818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTw7aJw4II/AAAAAAAAAaA/xfucZUJDRX0/s400/visit13.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; My brother!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwUjlycHI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/i3EJJauDUNM/s1600-h/visit17.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616098381590642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwUjlycHI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/i3EJJauDUNM/s400/visit17.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Sexy can I&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwUEAg87I/AAAAAAAAAZw/yjOyz2y7QeQ/s1600-h/visit18.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616089903756210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwUEAg87I/AAAAAAAAAZw/yjOyz2y7QeQ/s400/visit18.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwT4N-8xI/AAAAAAAAAZo/vdKRMuvgIww/s1600-h/visit19.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616086739022610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwT4N-8xI/AAAAAAAAAZo/vdKRMuvgIww/s400/visit19.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Happy New Years! Time for champagne!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwTpsRboI/AAAAAAAAAZg/0goHvUeGTwQ/s1600-h/visit21.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616082839531138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwTpsRboI/AAAAAAAAAZg/0goHvUeGTwQ/s400/visit21.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwTY9NQ4I/AAAAAAAAAZY/0qV78JuNMwg/s1600-h/visit23.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288616078347158402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTwTY9NQ4I/AAAAAAAAAZY/0qV78JuNMwg/s400/visit23.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv9xOW9lI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/66etND3514Q/s1600-h/visit25.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615706904426066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv9xOW9lI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/66etND3514Q/s400/visit25.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv9DXY5PI/AAAAAAAAAZI/uReFwFLBXTw/s1600-h/visit26.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615694594270450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv9DXY5PI/AAAAAAAAAZI/uReFwFLBXTw/s400/visit26.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8-_y3UI/AAAAAAAAAZA/27GM_7yU3Vo/s1600-h/visit27.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615693421567298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8-_y3UI/AAAAAAAAAZA/27GM_7yU3Vo/s400/visit27.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8w4uhMI/AAAAAAAAAY4/8dvwuwiokm4/s1600-h/visit28.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615689633825986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8w4uhMI/AAAAAAAAAY4/8dvwuwiokm4/s400/visit28.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Aren't they adorable??&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8jV6-BI/AAAAAAAAAYw/b-bR7yZ3nko/s1600-h/visit29.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615685998180370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTv8jV6-BI/AAAAAAAAAYw/b-bR7yZ3nko/s400/visit29.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvh5S4SXI/AAAAAAAAAYo/r-TnJr0toq8/s1600-h/visit31.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615228034533746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 235px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvh5S4SXI/AAAAAAAAAYo/r-TnJr0toq8/s400/visit31.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Mirror shot!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvhZAjLNI/AAAAAAAAAYg/epjHRohordc/s1600-h/visit34.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615219367718098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvhZAjLNI/AAAAAAAAAYg/epjHRohordc/s400/visit34.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Baby Brayden!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvhLqYLQI/AAAAAAAAAYY/RC_xiQZA_ss/s1600-h/visit35.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615215785061634" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvhLqYLQI/AAAAAAAAAYY/RC_xiQZA_ss/s400/visit35.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I love my sister!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvgofW5gI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/belnIz5EVr4/s1600-h/visit38.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615206343599618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvgofW5gI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/belnIz5EVr4/s400/visit38.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; She's cute&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvfZdRi5I/AAAAAAAAAYI/ofn9c2UTMws/s1600-h/visit40.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288615185128459154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTvfZdRi5I/AAAAAAAAAYI/ofn9c2UTMws/s400/visit40.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Can you say happy?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;So those are some of the pictures, I might be putting some of my dad's up later! I was surprised at how few pictures I actually took, but I guess the camera is sometimes just forgotten when you're busy being with family. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Anyways I hope you enjoyed! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;How was everyone's New Year's? Did anyone make any resolutions? I know I have a couple. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Later bloggers! XOXO&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-6975308836285883594?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2009/01/time-spent-with-family.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SWTxJhx9RxI/AAAAAAAAAa4/t8kj2i6Cavk/s72-c/visit4.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-326023613551168682</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-26T13:43:39.365-08:00</atom:updated><title>Scenery</title><description>The sun is out, but you can still feel the slight chill to the air. Looking out across the street there is a line of trees all lit with strands of lights that, when it gets dark, glow and make me feel warm and happy. The wind picks up slightly and you can see the trees sway. If you look towards the west, the mountains are capped with fresh, white snow. eveything feels crisp and clean. It's one of those days where you want to throw on a scarf and go walking. Not a purposeful walk, but a walk where you can take your time and just let your surroundings have your full attention. Maybe it's days like these where people walk and come up wiht brilliant ideas. It just seems like to me that if it is this peaceful and you're out in all that glorious wonder then you should have no trouble thinking of something spectacular. I would willing let my face bask in the sun and pull my coat closer as the wind swirled around me, but for know I must be in the office.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How was everyone's Christmas?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a side note...I dyed my hair. It's a draker brown and I like it alot!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-326023613551168682?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/scenery.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-4496681383365207307</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:44:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-25T16:46:52.540-08:00</atom:updated><title>Merry Merry Christmas!</title><description>&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SVQpSW3W2tI/AAAAAAAAAYA/GRT4joIP8KQ/s1600-h/vintage.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283893658164583122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 259px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SVQpSW3W2tI/AAAAAAAAAYA/GRT4joIP8KQ/s400/vintage.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SVQpNl0cZ3I/AAAAAAAAAX4/80wG2OIyHB4/s1600-h/vintage.gif"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Merry Christmas to you all!! I hope you're having a blessed day filled with family, friends, and good food!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Much love and kisses! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-4496681383365207307?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-merry-christmas.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SVQpSW3W2tI/AAAAAAAAAYA/GRT4joIP8KQ/s72-c/vintage.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-5172122262428069519</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:05:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-22T09:29:40.960-08:00</atom:updated><title>Sing His Praises</title><description>I have a busy week ahead of me, but it's gonna be a great week!&lt;br /&gt;I work today, Tuesday, and only for two hours on Wednesday, and then that Wednesday afternoon and evening we are having a Christmas Eve Open House! It's going to be so fun! I'm super excited. Then of course Thursday is Christmas..we aren't actually doing a whole lot on Christmas day but that's only because we are waiting for the rest of the family to get here. We do have a service in the morning and all the church is getting together for some fellowship. Cinnamon rolls, eggnog, and coffee! It should be really nice!&lt;br /&gt;After Thursday it's just waiting for Sunday to roll around when everyone gets here! YAY!&lt;br /&gt;You know sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the hectic things of life and stress out because we feel like we can't handle it, but I think we really need to practice just stopping and thinking about all the wonderful things we have. We are all so blessed in so many ways. As for me, I have an amazing family, the best friends a girl could ask for, I was raised in a Christian home, and I have a great God. Yesterday in Biblestudy in our study of Isaiah we learned about standing firm in our faith. Everyone should remember that. No matter what is going on in your life, never forget your faith and God who is always watching over us and granting us so many blessings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh  and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" -Ephesians 6:10-18&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These verses aren't exactly what I was talking about, but I've always loved them because they show what we need. They teach us how to stand firm in our faith.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have a fantastic Monday.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-5172122262428069519?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/sing-his-praises.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-1361330362511691874</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-18T22:51:38.452-08:00</atom:updated><title>talking it out</title><description>something was on my mind. It felt like a weight, but i wasn't sure if I was just overreacting or if it was something I should talk about. Then, as if an answer to a prayer, she told me to tell her what was on my mind. The gate was opened. I poured it all out to her. I spoke about what had been bothering and then I asked for advice. She willingly gave it and once again my snow white had come through for me and I felt completely relieved. it's a blessing to know someone is there to talk. Just talk.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm on the phone...boy troubles. I need my older sister. I call and the phone is answered. I vent and maybe even whine a little, but she doesn't care. she talks me though it and I relax and calm down. once again, a blessing.&lt;br /&gt;Talk it out. Find someone who's there for you. It is an immense relief.&lt;br /&gt;Thank you princess, and thank you seester.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-1361330362511691874?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/talking-it-out.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-1209862719405657320</guid><pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:50:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-16T09:53:51.606-08:00</atom:updated><title>Family Gathering!</title><description>&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SUfqma6EcVI/AAAAAAAAAXw/-pKsysPTazc/s1600-h/wedding.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;In just about two weeks all of my family will be together to celebrate christmas and new years!! All 14 of us! It will be two years in February since we have all been together. That is just way too long! I tried to find a picture of all of us to put on here, but those are pretty rare it seems like just because we don't get to see each other all that much. But let me tell you, I am soooo excited!! Talia, Jeremy, and the girls will be arriving on the 28th, as will Elijah. Then Tyra and his family will be getting here a few days later. I cannot wait. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-1209862719405657320?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/family-gathering.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-8874944702726985026</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-12T12:19:08.989-08:00</atom:updated><title>Going Home</title><description>I was a little nervous about posting this because I've never really written anything before that I've allowed other people to read, but I thought I would give it a go.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She walked down the road but she wasn't focused on her destination. It seemed like only yesterday that she had been sipping coffee on the balcony of the beach house with her three friends. Her mind couldn't comprehend how much had changed in a few short months. How had she gotten to this point? Why couldn't she have been content with the way things were before? Here she was working some dead end job at a hotel, all because she had thought her life wasn't good enough. Looking back now she realized how good her life had really been. Her family was amazing, her friends were always there for her, and her boyfriend had been entirely devoted to her. What had made her decide that she needed something different? She remembered the night she had stormed out of her parent's house yelling that she would never again set foot in that house again. So far she had kept her promise. It had been four months and she doubted that her parents even knew where she was. Why was she so stubborn? She missed everybody back home like crazy and knew that if she went back her parents would probably be there with open arms, but something kept stopping her from jumping in her car and heading back west. Why did she choose to escape to Nevada? There was nothing here but desert that stretched on for miles and miles. She longed for the ocean, the smell of the salt, the waves breaking against her feet. She had thought she had left because no one understood her but now she realized it was because she didn't understand herself. her thoughts were confused and she was more lonely then she had ever been. She wondered if her friends would ever forgive her for just walking away and then her thoughts strayed to Miles. He was the perfect guy and he had loved her. She had loved him back, or at least she had thought she did. Over the past weeks she questioned whether it would have been so easy to leave if she had really loved him. She didn't even say goodbye. what kind of person does that? lately it felt as though everything was collapsing around her. Life could be so unfair. But wait..she had done this. She couldn't blame anyone or anything for what had happened. Those months before she exploded and left were hard. She had felt like she was in a trap but she didn't know why. even now she couldn't put a finger on what had gone wrong.  Mayve something was wrong with her. She missed Miles the most. It had been a long time since she had been single and she realized now that she had taken Miles for granted. A guy like that isn't easily found and she had been lucky to have him. Why was she only realizing this now? Maybe if she had thought things through before she left she would have come up with all of this, but now it was too late. Or was it? Why oculdn't she just pick up her phone and call her parents or Miles, or even one of her friends? The thought was appealing to her, but she also wondered if she could handle the disappointment she would hear in their voices. Just the thought made her want to weep. How much had she hurt them?Doubt filled her as she thought about what they would think of her. What if they didn't even want to see or hear from her? The idea of her parents rejecting her pierced her heart and thinking about Miles not wanting to see her was even worse. How could she have left? Not until this moment did she realize how much she needed them all. she was slowly falling apart. It was as if she was being ripped apart from the inside out. she didn't knwo if she could take it anymore. She left work early with the excuse that she wasn't feeling well. This wasn't a lie considering she felt as though a million weights were being pressed upon her from all directions. She had thought she would find solace in her apartment, but looking at her scantily furnished living room, it only made her realize how alone she really was. She curled up on the couch and wept. It felt as though she was drifting away. Her tears and trembling brought weariness and she slowly drifted to sleep. while she slept, she dreamed. They were filled with her family and the happy times they all used to have together. the ringing of the phone jolted her awake. She wasn't sure who would be calling because only her work had that number. she reached for the phone and answered wiht a curious, "hello?" The voice that replied was like an answer to a prayer. all it said was, "lacey?"  she took a few calming breaths and then, "mom?! how did you get this number?" "we tracked it down, oh baby we've been so worried!" They had been worried...suddenly things didn't seem so bad. "I thought you would never want to talk to me again." "We never gave up on you." Those words were all it took. Lacey was going home.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-8874944702726985026?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/going-home.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>9</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-2199748166427234503</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:03:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-10T09:43:22.219-08:00</atom:updated><title>Christmas Season</title><description>&lt;span style="color:#999999;"&gt;I told&lt;a href="http://onebiteblog.blogspot.com/"&gt; Ashlei &lt;/a&gt;that I would write a blog about the parade of lights that we attended on Saturday night so I will now do that now.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#999999;"&gt;This is our second year attending and I still like it just as much as I did last year.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#999999;"&gt;We got off of the lightrail and slowly followed the crowd down the street to where the parade would be taking place. There was excitement in the air. Apparently it was not just me that thrilled to see the sparkling lights and feel that chill in the air which could mean nothing other then that Christmas was coming. As we searched for a good place to stand, we were jostled by the crowd, but I don't think anyone minded. We found a fence that was unoccupied and we quickly claimed it. The anticipation grew as we waited for the first sound of music and the shimmering lights to start moving up the street. It finally came. Our ears were greeted with a song that filled all of us with joy. Nothing beats the sounds and sights of the Christmas season. Some may think the parade a little cheesy but everytime I see it all I think about it magic. I love the lights, the music, the look on everyone's faces, and just knowing that this is such a special time of year. I was texting Ashlei during the parade and I told her how much I wanted her there to share it with me. I was trying to desribe what it felt like to be there and I couldn't really do it so I just said it was like magic. Her response was, "I can't even imagine."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#999999;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Now it's time for a little christmas cheer with the survey everybody seems to be doing!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#999999;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Egg nog or hot chocolate?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;I would have to say hot chocolate. I do love eggnog, but I would still much rather be sipping my coco.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Well in all the movies I've seen, when santa leaves a present under the tree it is most definitely wrapped. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Do you hang mistletoe? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I don't think we ever have actually. I think mistletoe is pretty fun but it could also make things pretty awkward. =)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;When do you put your decorations up? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Right after Thanksgiving! That's when the christmas season starts in our house. I'm with the Ashlei, no christmas music until after thanksgiving has passed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Favorite holiday memory as a child?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I think my favorite is when we put up our christmas tree. When all of us still lived at the house we would excitedly put the first christmas music and joyously put up the tree. There was nothing better! Sometimes mom would even be making cookies and we could take breaks form the tree to decorate sugar cookies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I never believed in Santa Claus so I guess I always knew the truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;How do you decorate your Christmas tree? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We decorate it with both colored and white lights. Then we simply put all the ornaments we've been collecting through the years on it. It's beautiful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Snow! Love it or dread it? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I do love snow! I'll admit that it does get pretty annoying, but I still think there's something magical and gorgeous about it. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Do you remember your favorite gift?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wow that's pretty hard. I've had so many good ones. I would have to say that my digital camera from my dad is up there though. where would I be without that??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Celebrating the brith of my Lord. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;What is your favorite holiday dessert?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;Mmmm fudge puddles!! So delicious.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;What is your favorite holiday tradition?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I like that when we open presents we go one by one and not all at once. I think it makes it more special. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;What tops your tree?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I don't think anything tops our tree actually. The tree is too tall, there's no room.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I love both! The looks on people's faces when they open your gift is priceless, but hey what girl doesn't like to receive presents?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;What is your favorite Christmas song? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would have to agree with many people and say O Holy Night. It's actually on right now!! Another favorite is I'll Be Home For Christmas , oh and Thankful by Josh Groban. (see previous post)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Candy canes? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Duh! I love them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#009900;"&gt;Favorite Christmas movie? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I really like How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey and you can't go wrong with It's A Wonderful Life. I have been told that I really need to see Elf. Can you believe I haven't yet? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;XOXOXO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-2199748166427234503?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-season.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-8218600126113592219</guid><pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-12-05T09:05:04.682-08:00</atom:updated><title>Thankful</title><description>There is a song that at this moment I am in love with. The music is absolutely gorgeous and the words are fantastic. You might have heard it. It's 'Thankful" by the wonderful Josh Groban.&lt;br /&gt;I'm not smart enough to figure out how to put a video on here but I'll give you a link to where you can listen to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ZeNXqEuTQ"&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ZeNXqEuTQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And of course I have to put my favorite lyrics from it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"So for tonight we pray for what we know can be. And on this day we hope for what we still can't see. It's up to us to be the change And even though we all can still do more there's so much to be thankful for."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Beautiful&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-8218600126113592219?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/12/thankful.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-879815500063737018</guid><pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:02:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-30T20:24:47.919-08:00</atom:updated><title>It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas</title><description>It really is beginning to look alot like christmas...inside and out.&lt;br /&gt;I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy my winter wonderland.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274672299358241602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNmgoXXQ0I/AAAAAAAAAXg/nEeYD2g1i64/s400/100_2107.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNmge6JMWI/AAAAAAAAAXY/b9McvRTVuhQ/s1600-h/100_2108.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274672296819765602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNmge6JMWI/AAAAAAAAAXY/b9McvRTVuhQ/s400/100_2108.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNl77RHrtI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/DCXynxOeyjE/s1600-h/100_2109.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274671668777168594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNl77RHrtI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/DCXynxOeyjE/s400/100_2109.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNlmvxb71I/AAAAAAAAAXI/xbsNwe_Rd8Q/s1600-h/100_2110.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274671304914235218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNlmvxb71I/AAAAAAAAAXI/xbsNwe_Rd8Q/s400/100_2110.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNlRNTiDmI/AAAAAAAAAXA/01f_Fb5pvCk/s1600-h/100_2115.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274670934884748898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNlRNTiDmI/AAAAAAAAAXA/01f_Fb5pvCk/s400/100_2115.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNk-H5AnTI/AAAAAAAAAW4/BcqcS6BXUPQ/s1600-h/100_2118.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274670607013813554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNk-H5AnTI/AAAAAAAAAW4/BcqcS6BXUPQ/s400/100_2118.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNkiPrhMiI/AAAAAAAAAWw/9wzkdPVA874/s1600-h/100_2123.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274670128068375074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNkiPrhMiI/AAAAAAAAAWw/9wzkdPVA874/s400/100_2123.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNkNmvKe5I/AAAAAAAAAWo/dd53eqMXd7E/s1600-h/100_2124.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274669773480426386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNkNmvKe5I/AAAAAAAAAWo/dd53eqMXd7E/s400/100_2124.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNj6y32DWI/AAAAAAAAAWg/J0J9MQMI-6s/s1600-h/100_2126.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274669450320547170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNj6y32DWI/AAAAAAAAAWg/J0J9MQMI-6s/s400/100_2126.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNjazFqXWI/AAAAAAAAAWY/8WFkQz1By3Y/s1600-h/100_2134.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274668900622687586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNjazFqXWI/AAAAAAAAAWY/8WFkQz1By3Y/s400/100_2134.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNjFSOrWFI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/1TBREz6jpdk/s1600-h/100_2150.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274668531024877650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNjFSOrWFI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/1TBREz6jpdk/s400/100_2150.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNi0LFdQiI/AAAAAAAAAWI/FGV29Wh8azc/s1600-h/100_2136.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274668237049381410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNi0LFdQiI/AAAAAAAAAWI/FGV29Wh8azc/s400/100_2136.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNikT-9BmI/AAAAAAAAAWA/njHxJ50xuX8/s1600-h/100_2140.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274667964560115298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNikT-9BmI/AAAAAAAAAWA/njHxJ50xuX8/s400/100_2140.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNiVMvtp0I/AAAAAAAAAV4/XzPsaz7LR9U/s1600-h/100_2144.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274667704919107394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNiVMvtp0I/AAAAAAAAAV4/XzPsaz7LR9U/s400/100_2144.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-879815500063737018?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-beginning-to-look-alot-like.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/STNmgoXXQ0I/AAAAAAAAAXg/nEeYD2g1i64/s72-c/100_2107.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-7125253748194321856</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-26T10:01:42.832-08:00</atom:updated><title>A 13 Hour Car Ride and David Cook</title><description>Hello Lovely Bloggers!&lt;br /&gt;Once again it's been a little while since I last blogged but I'm making up for that now!&lt;br /&gt;This past weekend my family and I took the thirteen hour trip to Phoenix, Arizona for a chiropractic seminar. Trust me that's a very long time in a car, especially when there are three people in the backseat. The thing that my family always does when we go on road trips is listen to music. I mean we blast it and sing along! =) We had recently bought the premier David Cook cd because we had taken a liking to him when he was on American Idol. I have to say that his cd is pretty fantastic. I love it! His cd and many others definitely makes the ride go easier. We got funny looks when we would walk into a gas station and be singing out loud. HAHA such things as "I'm not gonna come down, down off of these clouds. Heros come and go but you're still standing. You teach me to rise up, to open my eyes up!" Song two off the David Cook cd. =)&lt;br /&gt;Anyways when we finally made it to our destination it was already pretty late so we just got to the hotel room and crashed so that we would be ready for an early start the next day. The seminar was on Saturday from 8-5 and then on Sunday from 8-3. I have to say it was a really good seminar. We learned alot and it will hopefully give our clinic the explosion it needs. Keep praying for that please!&lt;br /&gt;Phoenix has some interesting scenery and me, being camera obsessed as I am, definitely took some pictures. Here are some for you now!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273024297849578962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LqUVT5dI/AAAAAAAAAVw/2MsKnTgHz7M/s400/phoenix14.jpg" border="0" /&gt; Our Signature car picture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273024237400006034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LmzJAnZI/AAAAAAAAAVo/gH7_HFdI2H0/s400/phoenix13.jpg" border="0" /&gt;The sun was doing really cool things to Jerusha's hair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273024171341678130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2Li9DehjI/AAAAAAAAAVg/a6pFvPOu5oI/s400/phoenix12.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Where the seminar took place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273024105079466466" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LfGNVaeI/AAAAAAAAAVY/MuRc-0KRLno/s400/phoenix11.jpg" border="0" /&gt;A pretty sunset!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273024040177606210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LbUbhnkI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/52pV8m64UkQ/s400/phoenix10.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023968901455778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LXK5936I/AAAAAAAAAVI/OWmZMPX12TY/s400/phoenix9.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Jerusha and I enjoyed the pool!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023902431142722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LTTSNY0I/AAAAAAAAAVA/_E6ZY_O27Bw/s400/phoenix8.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023810952474770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LN-f_sJI/AAAAAAAAAU4/272rPL-ly5U/s400/phoenix7.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023713619987970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LIT6HzgI/AAAAAAAAAUw/6Ou-5p4g0Vs/s400/phoenix6.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Dad being a goof. haha&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023646679316994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LEaiOOgI/AAAAAAAAAUo/_XQSHbT4QnU/s400/phoenix5.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Those cacti are crazy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023582480764290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LArYGDYI/AAAAAAAAAUg/qvfiBiaw-Eg/s400/phoenix4.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023511096611730" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2K8hcyU5I/AAAAAAAAAUY/aSxMzDDyLc4/s400/phoenix3.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023424220666514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2K3dz8mpI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/gHp3yWpRe84/s400/phoenix2.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;We also got to stop at some relatives home and spend an evening with them! They had this gorgeous cat and he of course got to be photographed!!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273023223848180258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2KrzXbGiI/AAAAAAAAAUI/IQ0cpSGT4Ag/s400/phoenix1.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Well that pretty much sums it up!! We're back now and I'm getting excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow!! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are all of your plans to celebrate??&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-7125253748194321856?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/11/13-hour-car-ride-and-david-cook.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SS2LqUVT5dI/AAAAAAAAAVw/2MsKnTgHz7M/s72-c/phoenix14.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024683551562405845.post-2200684257721930864</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:40:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-20T06:50:35.074-08:00</atom:updated><title>On This Cold Morning....</title><description>Ok ok I know I've been really bad about blogging lately. I'm sorry about that. The sad thing is i don't even really have an excuse.&lt;br /&gt;So my blogs are probably looking a little bi-polar. I have one about snow and then I'm complaining it's too hot and this one is about a cold morning. =) The weather here is crazy.&lt;br /&gt;This morning it is only 25 degrees. It's not snowing but the sky gets this look strange color when it looks like it might snow. It looks kind of white and almost lights up the world even though it's still dark outside. Kind of like this...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SSV3qwaSDoI/AAAAAAAAATQ/H5cI5726TE0/s1600-h/winter+sky.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SSV3qwaSDoI/AAAAAAAAATQ/H5cI5726TE0/s320/winter+sky.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270750515340381826" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Well on a cold morning like this I didn't really feel like having cereal with ice cold milk. Brrr! Instead I'm making myself a wonderfully warm bowl of oatmeal!! Yum!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SSV4vvqirSI/AAAAAAAAATY/uWR-Pzs17S8/s1600-h/Oatmeal_bowl_apples280.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 280px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SSV4vvqirSI/AAAAAAAAATY/uWR-Pzs17S8/s400/Oatmeal_bowl_apples280.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270751700551118114" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;How are all of you today? What's your weather like? Have a fabulous morning and day everyone!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7024683551562405845-2200684257721930864?l=brattina.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://brattina.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-this-cold-morning.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Lydia)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNpM-uFxRBU/SSV3qwaSDoI/AAAAAAAAATQ/H5cI5726TE0/s72-c/winter+sky.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>3</thr:total></item></channel></rss>