Missing you

This weekend will be the one year anniversary of my grandmother passing away. In some ways I can't believe it's already been that long.Or maybe it is that I don't want it to have been that long.
I think the only reason the time bothers me is because I dont want it to have been a whole year already! And if it has been an entire year why does my voice still catch when I talk about her? Why can I still feel her hands in mine? Why does it still hurt in my gut of guts?

You know that I'm a Christian so it's not that I'm thinking I'm never going to see her again. I'm just sad I have to go so long missing her. And I'm sad she's not here for some of the other life experiences I have yet to go through.

But God has been faithful and will be faithful and these wounds will heal. I'm just glad He blessed my family with someone so worth missing!

 So let's dry up these tears and do something positive with our heartbreak. If you'll join me - I'd like to do a little tribute to my grandmother, the woman who changed my life.

Thank you for being so proud of us. All of the time.




 

Thank you for being so strong all the time.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thank you for teaching us values like kindness and love

She was always so smiley with her sister Georgie. They bring out the best in one another

So sweet

Thank you for teaching us the importance of family and our heritage.

At a family reunion - she just loved them!

Thank you for being so full of life

I love this smile. She looks sooo happy

Thank you for being my best friend. I miss you and I love you always.

The Fever of all Fevers

News Headline :
Zimmerman Contracts Baby Fever.
Symptoms not likely to subside soon.

I've caught it and can't break free!

It's funny how when I was younger (as in a few short years ago) I used to think about the ways that pregnancy would ruin my body, or how gross I thought breast feeding was, or how aged I thought mothers looked.
Then one day, I just wake up and BAM! I want a baby and preferably sooner rather than later. Not like I'm considering kidnapping one, but you get the gist. I no longer think of the superficial things, I dream about the tiny feet and hands, the sweet moments as they sleep in my arms. The extra large coffee on my way to work because I've been up all night with a sick child but it's totally worth it because we were making memories. The fear that our kid will realize that their dad is MUCH cooler than their mom. The play dates, the art on the refrigerator, the reading story books at night.

I just plain want one.

Of course visiting my sister this weekend didn't help to squelch my desire. Emily is in that fantastically lovable stage where she can smile and sit up and laugh. Pretty soon she'll be reaching for us with those cute stubby arms and then my heart will really melt.

Another thing adding to my "condition" : My friend LeeAnna is having a baby any day now and I've gotten to ride out this adventure with her. Sitting next to her (literally - we work together and sit 5 yards from one another) has been such an awesome experience, but it has really increased the temperature of my fever, if you will. And now that I've learned some tricks of the trade from her, I'm pretty sure I'm ready to do this whole pregnancy thing for myself.

Is it getting hot in here or is it just my baby fever?  : )

Now really, please know that for the first time in my life I actually do have my patience panties on. I'm happy to report I haven't had any freakouts or meltdowns - this is me just shooting the breeze with you and letting you know what's rattling around in my tiny brain. I promise I've got it under control. Sort of.

Pics from this past weekend: You can see why this trip was just like adding fuel to a fire.

Ladies and Gentleman - we have a thumb sucker!

Loved this picture of Noah playing with his daddy

friggatriskaidekaphobia

It's Friday the13th - are you worried?

We've never been the superstitious types. Like at all. I will carry a black cat under a ladder whilst breaking a mirror. Take that superstitions! No really, I understand that superstitions are very real for some people (cough, cough, my father-in-law). So I can sympathize and be understanding - but it's not something I even really have cross my mind very often.
But as I was getting ready this morning and watching my usual news station, I found out some interesting facts about Friday the 13th. I haven't been very inspired to write anything personal lately so instead I'm choosing to fill your head with useless knowledge. Hooray for Fridays!

Keep in mind all these facts have been completely hijacked off the Internet and are in no way my own.

So here is the back story (which I think is pretty cool) :

There are different theories on how Friday the 13th came to be, but the prevailing one is linked to The Last Supper. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th person to arrive at dinner, making 13 an unlucky number on any day of the week. Add to that the fact that Jesus died on a Friday, and Friday the 13th gets its bad rap.

Turns out, this is a very real fear for some people :

Although people are far less superstitious now than they were in the past, the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina estimates that 17 to 21 million people in the U.S. have a diagnosable phobia of Friday the 13th. The illness Is called friggatriskaidekaphobia

Have a fantastic Weekend and stay warm. It's been very cold her in College Station lately. We've been having stew for soup and enjoying our fireplace at night - all the things a January should bring!

Two Thousand and Twelve

From the desk of Kristi Jean Zimmerman

Happy 2012! Here's a quick re-cap of what we've been up to lately:

New Years Eve was great and we kept it pretty in control. I'm guess when you get past 25, most of your New Year Celebrations will be "in control". Long gone are the days that our bodies can stay out until 4am celebrating. OK, Let's be real - for me those days never really existed. But you get the point.
To start off the evening we went to a friends house for heavy  hors d'oeuvres and some Catch Phrase. (Another sign of aging - including board games as your 'pre-party') Then we loaded up and went to Northgate to countdown to 2012. I love the festivities of New Years - the glitter, the guys dressed up, the streamers and hats. It's a good way to "come down" off of Christmas.

Five, Four, Three, Two, One!

Now here we are. Five days in and so far, so good.  : )

As a bonus, both of our banks let us off for Monday, the 2nd. I'll start my year off with a 3-day weekend anytime! On a sad note, we did take the Christmas decorations down. On a happy note, we did manage to fit the fake tree back in its original box. Success!

So here's the real reason I'm writing this post. In order to keep myself honest, I'm telling everyone my New Year's Resolution. I'm not sure if I like accountability, but I'll give it a try. So here it is:

Kristi's New Year Resolution:
Read through the entire Bible.

It just seems ridiculous that I haven't done that yet. Don't know if you've heard but there is some tasty nuggets of knowledge in there. And I plan to eat them all! (Figuratively, of course)

If I can tear through 4 books of Twilight without blinking an eye, I can read the instruction manual that God left for us, right?

Wish me luck!

2,011 Things we have done

One last post for the year. And the only thing that seems appropriate is to re-cap the last 12 months.

So, Start your engines....Here we go! You are about to get the full recap - The highs, the lows, the trips, the blessings,the laughter. The highlights of our year. As we like to call it : Zimmerman's Traveling Circus 2K11



New Year's Eve 2011

January - We aren't going to sugar coat it. The year got off to a bumpy start. Mom and Dad closed the restaurant in December and my grandmother passed away in January. Man that's hard to write even now. But, you know what ?  Now that God has given us the blessing of time and reflection, we have been healed.  Alice Tilton died surrounded by family on January 28th - just 10 days before her 97th birthday. We miss her so very much but we know she is having a blast fishing in heaven with my grandad. I can just see her in the boat now.

February - Casey surprised me with an impromptu trip to Chicago for Valentine's day weekend. After our January, we needed to "get away" for sure! His idea was  genius. This was our first "big city" trip and it was AWESOME. Definitely wet our appetite for more traveling, as you will see.

Chicago

 March - MORE traveling. We spent 4 days in New York and 3 Days in Boston. We were by each others side for 7 days straight and we didn't even kill each other! No really, traveling together is one of our favorite things! These two cities were on our "must do" list and we enjoyed every second. (except when we thought we would get mugged on a New York subway, but that's another story)

From on top of the Empire State Building

Fenway Park in Boston

April - A few crawfish boils, baby showers and wedding showers. All good reasons to see friends

May - Casey is on the board of March of Dimes and we had their annual Fundraising Walk the first weekend of May. Great turnout for a great cause. Visited Winnsboro. Participated in a Washer Tournemant. Casey went to Vegas for a buddy's bachelor party. Wahoo!

We sad goodbye to an old friend, my 2002 Honda Civic. She hadn't quite bit the dust yet, but it was certainly time to get a bigger vehicle. I had driven that car since highschool so we had certainly gotten our money's worth out of her. We decided on a Hyundia Sante Fe and have been rocking it out since then. We've already racked up 13,000 miles on it - told you we've been traveling alot!

June - We celebrated our 2nd year of marriage. We made the big decision to start trying for kids, so I guess we both agreed this whole marriage thing was working out and we'd like to stick with each other a little longer.  :)

By the way: This is still a work in process for us so keep us in your prayers. Looking forward to 2012 being the year we get preggers and have a little kiddo!

July - Emily Marie White was born on July 22nd. She sailed into this world with a whopping 17 minute delivery and has kept us running ever since then. She added her name to the list of family members who celebrate their birthay in July. My dad, both of us, my brother and now Emily will all be able to have the same birthday cake if we wanted!



Emily's Birth Announcement Picture



August - My great friend Kelly got married, we tried our hand at hosting a garage sale (big mistake) and started our first season participating in a fantasy football league. We also started a blog.... enjoyed it more than I thought I would and now you can't get me to shut up!

The big event of the month was our nieces came to visit for their annual weekend at Aunt Kristi and Uncle Casey's. Those girls are always such a blast!

Callie, Carley and Paige

 September - Visited our friends in Bridgeport and Grapevine,had Casey's 10 year highschool reunion, and baptized Ms. Emily.

Before the 10 year reunion

Emily's Baptism morning

October - Started the month off right with a winery trip in honor of my friend Nichole's Birthday. Then we boarded another plane and flew to Washington, D.C. History buffs that we are, we walked our little selves ragged all over our nation's capital.

White House - Duh

November - Turkey Month! We celebrated with each family and our waist lines can prove it!

December - Jesus' Birthday Month! We had a WONDERFUL month full of Christmas parties and family visits.

Emily and Liz opening Christmas gifts

Now that is one excited little boy!

Paige and Kennedy posing infront of all the loot

Just horsing around

The girls got new TV's for their rooms. I think Uncle Casey was as excited as they were!

One of the women who influenced Casey growing up passed away the week before Christmas and her Christian faith was so strong that when we heard she had passed away we were estatic for her. She missed her husband so badly after he passed away a couple of years ago and she always talked about getting to see him again in heaven. We were glad she got to spend Christmas with her husband and Jesus this year. What an inspiration! I want to go out like that!




Hazel Cross

 

Thanks for being a part of our year! We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for everyone!

Merry Christmas!

IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!

The moment we've been preparing for is upon us.

Twas the eve before Christmas eve and all through the land, people were scrambling to to get to their families....

Wait, that's not how that goes... but all I can think about is getting to our families. Tonight we head to Pflugerville to my sister's house. Tomorrow morning will be our Tilton-family "Christmas morning" and we'll do our gift exchange then we hit the road for Winnsboro. Should arrive there by dinner and then BAM! It's Christmas Eve and Christmas.

To get our heads straight and minds focused, I've prepared a little guide for us all. Enjoy!

Top things to remember over the next few days:

• People are trying their best to provide a great Christmas for their families. Give them a break. Yes, there are too many people on the road, and the parking lots are jam packed and people have a frantic look in their eye but it's all for a good purpose. Be gentle with one another. People will be back to normal by Tuesday - hopefully.
• Be grateful. Take a look around and just be grateful.
• Do not eat yellow snow. We won't be around any snow, but I just thought I would throw that out there for those of you NOT in South Texas.
• Drive Careful. In our household. this means that Casey drives. I've got lots of skills, but being the best driver is not one of them. I am a total "woman" driver. I personally enforce that stereo-type everyday.
• Cookies on Christmas are not calorie-free. I've learned from years past that my scale has no idea it was Christmas and keeps operating as business as usual. 5,000 calories WILL rear its ugly head at some point in the very near future.
• If you are going to be around any children, just know that you are being cemented into their memories from childhood. Be fun and gleeful. They will remember it and you might be part of their stories when they get older. "When I was little we used to always________ at Christmas"
• For all those weary parents : you only have to move the Elf on the Shelf one more time this year! Hooray! No more having to be super creative on the drop of a hat.

And Last but not Least :

• God sent his Son to Earth to save a destroyed humanity. We did not deserve it, yet Jesus was born with the sole purpose to save our souls and pay for our sins. God loves us. How can we ever forget that when remember this very special birthday. The birth of our Savior. Happy Birthday Jesus! Thank you for everything.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight!

Love, The Zimmermans


From our Tacky Christmas sweater we went to in the big 'ol town of Dimebox, Texas.



Christmas-Zimmerman Style

The 3 Zimmerman brothers. L to R : Tim, Billy and Jeff. These bandits are the reason we all get together. It's their kids and grandkids that compose the 24 people we had gathered in Georgetown this weekend. There is usually some cousins strewn in there too which makes our count about 30 or so. This year was relatively small

The brothers and their wives sitting around and visiting. Swapping stories that probably weren't true if I had to guess

Billy had the great idea to have a Limbo contest for the kids. It was hillarious! We even had the Beach Boys playing for the IPod dock.

There was also a hoola-hoop contest. This is Kennedy and her cousin Ella trying to figure out how to hoola hoop. Precious

Casey and Jeremy strumming the guitars. The guitars always come out, I think most of the men can play so we always have a good variety of songs.

My man is just so handsome

Susie and Cindy (I think these two were in the kitchen most of the afternoon - they deserve alot of thanks!). Cindy is such a calm hostess... I should take some lessons from her

The famed tree. This was always at Casey's Nanny's house when they celebrated Christmas at her house. It is now rotated from house to house each year. Lots of sentimental value in this foil tree

Another Zimmerman family tradition - wrestling in the living room. You never know what is going to start it - a stolen chair, a playful joke... all you really DO know is at some point there will be perfectly intelligent adults scrambling on the floor like fools. Ahhhh, I love my family.

Since you probably don't have "fighting" at your family Christmas, I thought I should show you it is all in fun. Here are Kevin, Kim and Casey all laughing after a little brawl. Their red faces tell me they are getting a little too old for this horseplay  : )