The End

"For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands." Psalm 92:4

Click HERE to see our year in Photos

and click on "2010 in Review- Chambers Style"

This was the fist calendar year that I had a full-time job the entire year. I was an employee for 2010. I earned a paycheck and got vacation and even a holiday bonus!

Speaking of, in July a great friend started working alongside me. Literally, we work side by side eight hours a day. It's such a blessing. Love her. Love my job. Love it!

I got a massive tattoo & another not so massive tattoo...

My sister was hospitalized, again, which broke my heart and left me and my family crushed. But God is faithful and she (and we...) are working through it. Day by day.

I got my second piece published in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I turned the big Three Oh!!! It was uneventful, well I cried. And felt old. I've felt really old this year. I guess that whole immortality thing has sort of set in, along with the ticking of the biological clock. Noticeable wrinkles. Gray hairs. Extra skin. And the girls that my husband does double takes at look like they are nineteen. They are no longer in the same "age bracket" as me. I'm not 19-24 or 25-29. I'm 30-40 which is such a big bracket!

Speaking of, I'm off birth control for the first time in eleven years. Yikes!

Tried yoga for the first time ever & signed up for six months. (Now it is too cold to schlep through ice, snow, wind and rain, so it's back on the treadmill.)

Helped encourage, support, feed and love a friend who's baby was born four months early. I actually got to see him before his mother did.

Skied for the second time in my life- Lake Tahoe. I felt like it was a success.

Visited Texas three times to see my family and my closest friends- The Stockhammers. AND...

Lora made it to NYC to visit me! (Yes, this makes the highlights of the year list!!)

Posed as a hair model in a women's magazine.

Ran my first half marathon- and started running for enjoyment/ exercise/ an outlet

Cooked sea scollop, lobster, and mussels for the first time-- (okay, so that was more Chris's initiative than mine, but still.)

"I will reflect on all you have done and meditate on your actions. God, your way is holy. What god is like God? You are the God who works wonders, you reveal your strength among the peoples." Psalm 77:12-14

The Big One

Crossing Park Avenue the day after the big blizzard hit, Dec. 26th.

It was sort of a big free for all. No cars in sight. Well, except that one.

Saint Bart's

One of the many bulldozers around Rockefeller Center

Chris in front of massive mound of bulldozed snow.

It was really cold. I couldn't feel my toes!

Wrapping Up 2010

I realized it's been quite some time since I've written so, I just wanted to check in. I find myself with nothing but time & nothing to fill it with right now.

I'm working on December 23rd and it is, as expected, quiet around here. I've read two book excerpts this morning, which I had been saving for such an opportunity as this. Two non-fiction pieces including: the first two chapters of Girlbomb and a short story from David Sedaris's book Santaland Diaries. Nothing like reading some great non-fiction to get me in the writing mood.

I've listened to my Elf Soundtrack and have now moved on to Harry Connick Jr.s' When My Heart Finds Christmas. I've even played a few rounds of Angry Birds, which I'm sad to admit I've slowly become addicted to. However, I have not been successful at beating the current level I'm stuck on this morning. And since I've discovered Angry Birds Seasons... forget about it. I have been staying up late into the night playing this game. Not reading. Not engrossed in a movie, but playing this silly game on my android phone. Chris has told me that Angry Birds is not a real video game, (Whew... I was worried!). And he's also threatened to take the game off my phone if I blurted out, "Die! Die!" one more time. I can see his point.

While seeking to avoid the mounds of holiday treats that continue to spill into our office daily from vendors, contractors and clients- I've been thinking about what I want to set out to accomplish in 2011. While I'm competitive, hard headed, reliable, dedicated and an overachiever- sometimes I'm not so great at setting goals. If I set a goal I have to be honest with myself about where I'm at currently. I have to admit to myself that in order to get to Point B, or even Point C--- that I am only at Point A.

For example, it took me years to come up with a simple plan for my finances. I had accumulated a little debt, but because I never wanted to be honest with myself and I wasn't proud of where I was, I just ignored it. I didn't want to face the truth - even though without being transparent I could never set a plan in place, much less be free of the burden. I just remained ignorant and didn't have to deal with it.

Same thing with writing. Or journaling. Or reading. These are things I love to do, but don't set aside time to do. So, in 2011 I'm going to be honest with myself so that where I need to change I will.

For instance, I want to read ALOT more in 2011. So, I've collected three books from the library to spend some time with next week while I'm off work and I've requested one more. Exciting NY life I lead, I know!

In addition to reading, I want to get a few other things done over the Dec. 24- Jan. 2 break that Chris and I will have.

1. I want to cut my hair. Or trim it. Or color it. But people says, "No. It looks fine." But I'm bored, and everyone else is always doing things to their hair! So, a lady at work tells me, "Wear pink lipstick instead of red. Viola. Change! Your a beautiful girl, don't mess with your hair." Gee Whiz.

2. Do some winter "getting rid of stuff." I read on a friends blog that her goal was to purge 100 items from her home during her Christmas break. I like the idea. I may not have 100 items like a typical East Texas home might, but I can find 50 things that I don't need, right?

3. Spend LESS time in the kitchen! As much as I love to cook, I want to spend less time in there over the next ten days. A culinary sabbatical if you will. I'm sure Chris and I will bake some fish or make a huge breakfast one morning, but overall, I want to not be cooking all break. (But I do love to cook!) Speaking of, I got my recipes all in order in a beautiful binder my mom gave me when I was in Texas for Thanksgiving. And then, my sister spent countless hours typing up all mom's recipes and emailed them to me. So, after I organized, sorted and rearranged, I have all my childhood recipes and favorites all in one place. It makes me so happy because I've wanted something like this for quite some time.

4. Go buy Chris a new reversible belt and some new Tommy Hilfiger boxers (it's a long story-- a blog in itself really, the story of Chris and his underwear, but I'll spare you the details now). Chris and Tommy Hilfiger have been together longer than Chris and Stefani. And trust me-- he'll only wear Tommy, I've tried.

5. Go see a movie. (If you know me, you know, this is HUGE) I really want to see Black Swan, so I think I will just go see it.

6. Finally decide on a photo to send into Canvas on Demand to utilize my gift card!

7. And possibly... give painting a whirl. My sister recently started painting- although both of my sisters are much better artists than I am. They paint, draw, sketch beautifully. I can't do that, so I write. BUT, my youngest sister has done two really nice pieces that I got to see over Thanksgiving, and after talking with her, I think I will see just what I can do. I'm too intimidated and afraid I'll mess up- which I've got to get over!

I hope to be posting over the holiday break- but Merry Christmas to you all! (As Liz Lemon says on 30 Rock- "We don't say Happy Holidays. That is what terrorist say.") Actually, I'm just Christian, from the South, and little ignorant and alot proud so I say, Merry Christmas. Like I did on the phone this morning to a client I'm 100% sure is a practicing Jew. (True Story. Whoops!)

XO

Three Little Monkeys

So, I''m just a little late in posting pictures from my Thanksgiving trip back to Texas, but here is the cutest kid the world, Miss Tessa.

Isn't she adorable?! I loved getting to spend an entire day with her playing, reading, swinging, dancing & jumping on the bed. My friend Lora, her mom, was at work so Tessa probably got away with stuff that she may no normally.

Like jumping on the bed. I'm not really sure if this is "no-no" or not, but we loved it. And I immediately remembered the lively jumping on the bed tune, "Three little monkeys jumping on the bed..." It's weird how things like that just come back to you. I've often been afraid that I've forgotten all the words to all the childhood nursery rhymes and songs that I sang as a child. This is NOT the case. They came right back to me when I needed them most. Which is reassuring to know.

Anyway, Tessa and I played in makeup, jumped on the bed and somehow allowed Heidi, the ten-year old cocker spaniel, to eat a red Crayola. Whoops!

Anyway, isn't she the cutest thing ever? She is one sassy gal.

Tessa Sophie

Thanksgiving in Texas

stef & jonathan - my 13 year-old brother

Me & My Sisters

Stalker

While digging around in the photo folders on my computer- organizing, rearranging and moving- I found this image I captured in Austria almost two years ago while visiting our dear friends the Stockhammers. I filed this one in the Stalking the Locals folder.

While I tend to be more of a scenes and images and inanimate objects type of photographer, I love getting photos of people who don't know that I'm photographing them. Is that creepy? Well, it's what I do, and realize that it is a little stalker-like.

I love nuns. In high school we did a One Act Play, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? and I played a nameless nun, you know, like Sister #2. I had so few lines there was no need to even name the character that I was portraying. This was the year before I was given no part at all, but the role of lighting or stage manager or something that I did not want, so I quite before the first rehearsal. I was a Senior and I was not going to being pulling the curtain or striking a set for fifteen and sixteen year-olds who got all the main roles.

That's the thing with being human. I am not always in control. I can not make anyone do anything- even if it is the right thing. Even if it is just being nice or playing by the rules or following truth. It doesn't matter. AND- although me NOT getting the role I wanted has nothing to do with absolute truth or rule following- it was not what I saw as fair so I bowed out and blamed it on a terrible director, a ruined love affair between two teachers, and the fact that the Drama teacher's daughter and all her friends were Sophomores, therefore they got cast in all the main roles.

As much as I'd like to think that I've learned something in the past thirteen years, I am not sure that I react much differently today when I don't get my way. I know that I can only control my behavior and reactions and not the mean woman behind the counter at the USPS on a Saturday morning. I can not change other peoples attitudes or perceptions or bad days, but only cling to what I know is right and true, even when giving someone a taste of their own medicine might sound more enjoyable in the moment.

I've been reading Ecclesiastes and how all things are futile, passing, here today- gone tomorrow. It can seem a bit depressing at first; a bit overwhelming and leave one feeling oppressed with indifference and grief at the fact that, "Hello! I'm not in control. As a matter of fact I'm out of control!" But the fact that we don't have to worry or stress and can give it all to God should be freeing and an enjoyable place to be in. Not scary.

I think that the idea of not being in control, not being god, not getting to persuade God into doing what we think is best worries us because it is hard to say, "I don't know." And we live in a broken world where it is really really really hard for us to wrap our minds around the fact that there is so much more to life than this little part that we can see.

My (insert outrageously insaine number here) step skin care regimen

Last night as I crawled into bed at 10:45-ish I asked Chris to guess how many products I had just used in my night time, getting ready for bed routine.

"Seven," he said aloud, just to play along as he rolled over taking the covers with him.

When I asked I didn't even know how many it was, myself, but I did know seven was an extremely low guess.

I was thinking more like ten.

You want to know how many products I used in between 10:40 and 10:45 last night:

1. Washed hands with Fresh Linen scented Bath and Body works hand soap
2. Took off contacts with Renu contact solution
3. Took of waterproof eye make-up with Neutrogena eye makeup remover
4. Washed face with Aveno face wash
5. Followed by: Neutrogena alcohol free toner
6. Moisturized with Clinique Moisture surge face lotion
7. Spritzed with Clinique Moisture surge face spray
8. Olay eye cream
9. Spot treated that zit on my temple with Clearasil
10. Brushed teeth
11. Flossed teeth
12. Listerine
13. Bath and Body works Jasmine Vanilla Sensual lotion on my dry itchy legs
(now, once in the bed...)
14. Vasaline hand cream on my hands
15. Say YES to carrots lip balm on my cracked lips
16. Lavendar pillow spray...

so,I can finally lay my head down and relax!
Obsessed? I would hardly call it that. I just have a routine!