The real useful guide to wine

My sister was in Australia for this Christmas but we got gifts from her and one in particular that made me smile. I got this book from her called "The really useful guide to wine" and a bottle of Australia's finest. Now there is a story behind this...

I gave my sister a glass of some Merlot last summer that had been sitting out for a few months..sorry and my sister said it tasted like pure vinegar. I defended my 10$ bottle from Winco saying she didn't know what good wine tasted like. So that was the reason for the book and the bottle. BTW, the bottle she sent was excellent. Blew my cheapy stuff out the window. I guess wine can't be cheaper then milk.

I started reading it and boy I had no idea how many categories of wine there are! and brands and types of grapes! Unfortunately this book references many brands that are made in Europe like German Riesling, French Grand cru, or some northern Italy wine that I can't pronounce. Bummer. Do you think I could find any of those at our local cheap grocery store? probably not.

My husband was browsing through the book and pointed out a paragraph to me:

"With all light dry whites, try to track down a winemaker who uses low-yielding vines (for more concentration in the grapes) rather then fertile high-cropping ones." HMMMM I know I've heard that before, particularly this last fall :)

good times

Christmas was good. Our family had a good time and we had alot of chilling time which was nice. Andy and I decided to go to Sacramento on 12/26 to break up the routine and show our daughter the zoo. Since she is making mooo sounds at every large animal.

We got to the zoo and where there about 10 mins when we couldn't find our camera and Andy rushed back to the last place a picture was taken which was only 5 min past. Alas the camera was gone :( That was a bummer and my poor hubby spent the next hour running around to the lost and found and searching under every possible conceivable place for a camera to fall. So the trip to the zoo was a bit bummed but we tried to not let it cause the whole trip to go bad. The next morning outside of our hotel the street was closed and lined with a whole bunch I mean a whole bunch of police cars.

It turned out a police man was shot down the previous week and it was the funeral. Every single police person in the whole city was out in full uniform. We stopped to watch the casket drive by and Morgan thought it was soo funny and was clapping and laughing...my explanation that this was a serious event fell on happy ears. At least someone was having a good time. It was a good trip all in all.

Proud of Hubby

It's Saturday morning, and as I'm typing this I'm sitting on the heater cause it's freezing!

Just wanted to give a shout out to my hubby in writing to tell him he's a great guy.

Currently, as I type, he is helping a friend of ours move. Now mind you, this is not a normal weekend occurrence. Out of the 2 of us, I'm the one usually volunteering our time and giving away our furniture to the dismay of my husband! I'm trying to be better. This little moving task was my husbands own volunteering, that's why I'm proud of him. His love language is not acts of service and when he told me that he offered to help this friend move on Saturday, I said 'gosh that sounds like something I would do, proud of you, babe, to help this guy out.'

It's not easy for my husband to give up his weekend free time so this act of service moves my heart

Go Andy!
and p.s. please don't hurt your back while lifting furniture!

thoughts

This coming Sunday will be my first time to church in 2 weeks. I've missed the last 2 Sundays cause someone schedule me for the last 2 Sundays to work(pathetically, that someone was me..why did I do that!). Anyways, my hubby went last Sunday and I asked him about all the things I love about church. He did pretty good :)...

On that note, the last Sunday, several of my co-workers started talking in the aisle. In a room full of cubicles, it's hard not to eavesdrop even when your NOT trying. These 2 co-workers are a few of those nurses that are into Buddhism and some other form of meditation. It's a group of them, they haven't gone recruiting or anything, but their conversations are interesting to listen to..Seriously, wasn't trying!

They 'want to embrace life' and discover the potential in themselves through the opening of the mind and embracing pain and to achieve enlightment...I remember these quotes from a calendar in one of the nurses cubicles. Funny, both of these nurses really agree and think what I say about life and enjoying life is right on. I just smile inside knowing my point of reference is the good Word, brother! :) I haven't told them directly that I'm a Christian and I am hesitatnt to do so for this reason.

It seems with some people the moment you mention you go to church or are a Christian a wall comes up. Like instantly and everything you say is now through a 'religious filter' and they can no longer take what you say without all those biases coming into their minds. I think I will wait for a moment where she asks 'where do you learn this stuff!' and I will get up the courage to say, I've learned it through Jesus' example..

Walking in the Truth

Two Directors ago at my current place of employment, we had a director that held a meeting for all the nurses due to high frusteration regarding the computer systems and all the changes. She was sympathetic to the nurses who were 'advanced in years' ;) and shared how the new computer terms were like sometimes talking in Greek, especially to those advanced in years. Like, reboot the computer. "does that mean kick the computer w/ a boot?" You get my point

I think Christians do the same thing w/ our list of 'Christian' terms. Sometimes I don't even know how to apply terms or words that have become common to me. I've been struggling with the term-how to walk in the truth. How does one walk in the truth? It brings to mind a picture of the book Pilgrims progress...or maybe Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz following the yellow brick road. How do you walk in the truth? I guess truth is in God's Word, therefore walking in the truth means actually following God's word. I think it is following God's word mentally, in our thoughts. Not choosing to go down those mental negative paths and redirecting one's thoughts to what Gods truths are.

Maybe a more accurate phrase would be thinking the truth. Just a guess

My Ideal Christmas with family

My husband showed me this and I couldn't stop laughing...if only that could happen!

That time of year

I have never been a huge fan of Christmas. I'm not a Scrooge but I guess my one
sore thought when it comes to the whole holidays is the craziness that one can get
caught up in. You know traffic lines, beeping horns, crazed shoppers and long
check out lines. We haven't been married to long so are still working through
what type of traditions our family (Andy and Erica Jones) will have. That has
created some waves, but I'm happy to say that our resolving of the issues
don't tinge the whole weekend with sourness like before. We are even able to add some humor to it.
For example, my husband and I were trying to figure out how all the
extended family that came into town for Thanksgiving were going to see us
(for boundary people, I'm sure your thinking...not your responsibility ;).

As our voices rose toward each other, my husband suddenly breaks out in song
right on tune....
"it's the most wonderful time of the year!" Ahh yes. Well it worked out.

I did get to hold my new nephew last week, (my brother's baby). Amazing
how babies grow.

My sister is touring the areas in South New Zealand where they filmed Lord of Rings.
That is so cool! She borrowed my sleeping bag, so that will be my souvenir when
I get it back in a few weeks. Maybe I'll hang it on the wall as I think that will be
the closest I ever get to New Zealand