Christmas...

Sorry I've been quiet lately...things have been rather busy with the holidays.

I had a wonderful Christmas. My dad came down from upstate New York on Christmas Eve. He was able to visit some old friends, then we had dinner and headed to church. It was a nice day to just hang out. On Christmas day Kyle (my brother) and his girlfriend came over to my place for the day. We had a nice brunch and hung out. We opened gifts, watched The Polar Express, had some dinner. I made ham (the smallest one I could find was 7lbs!) some really good potatoes, green beans and salad. I'm intrigued by a gift from Kyle. It's a membership to Wine of the Month club! He remembered me saying a while ago that I don't know anything about wine but it is something I would like to learn more about. So I will be learning about wine this year! :)

On Friday my dad headed out to see some more friends and I went off to my mom's. She said that we were going to have lunch together and open gifts. When I got there everyone had a really late breakfast, so no one was hungry. I on the other hand hadn't eaten anything so I was starving. My mom asked where my ham was because that was what she was going to serve for lunch. Well, since she never told me that, I didn't bring it! Strange.
Anyway, I had a sandwich and then we opened gifts. We stack each person's gifts in front of them and go around and open them. My mom stacked mine in front of me and pointed to one box and said "Do not open this yet!" When it was my turn to open a gift she handed me a long and heavy box. I opened it and it was the Wii Fit. I was a little confused because I didn't have a Wii, and I knew that Kyle got my mom Wii Fit for Christmas. My mom was upset because she had given me the wrong box first, so she pointed to another box. I started to open it, but it was Uggs...not a Wii. Finally we got to the correct box and I got a Wii!!! It was something I was very surprised to get! I had never asked for one, but I'm so excited to have it!!
I got my mom and her husband Salsa Dancing lessons. My mom is so hard to shop for but she had been talking about wanting to go Salsa Dancing. She was so excited, though her husband wasn't so much. He told me that he would get me back from this. haha!
Friday evening I was able to introduce the Wii to my dad (he had never seen one before). We had fun playing, though he kept accusing me of cheating since I kept beating him. It not my fault he was horrible at it! :)
Anyway...it was a great Christmas. Fun times with family. I hope you had a Merry Christmas too!

Knitting...Sleepover...and Jokes

S, O, and I had a sleepover last night and we had a lot of fun!

Yesterday afternoon the boys mom called me to "warn me about what I was walking into." S was determined to learn how to knit while he was here. It was perfect timing when she called because I was at the craft store, so I was able to pick up some knitting needles and yarn.

We started the night off watching The Polar Express...my favorite Christmas story. We turned it off because it was a little scary. Instead we watched Charlie Brown Christmas, and the knitting lessons began. S is holding his own. O is all over the place, but I expected that. We'll see if we ever get a completed scarf. We had popcorn and hot chocolate and watch the first drive of the Ravens/Cowboys game (GO RAVENS!!!)

The boys got into their jammies and we read The Polar Express since we didn't finish the movie. The boys slept on the floor in my room. Once I put them down O came out and said we had this conversation:

O:"S keeps blowing his nose and all the music won't come out."
Me:"Music?"
We both thought for a moment
Me: "You mean mucus?"
O: "Oh yeah, that's what I meant"

This morning we got up and headed to church. The boys were excited to see some of my friends that they both adore. I took O to his class, but S really wanted to stay with me for the high school service, so I let him. After church we went to Qdoba with Amy, Christopher and Hannah. The boys were telling each other jokes. The favorite seemed to be:

"What did the man say to the turtle?"
"HEY did you just shush me?!" 

A little later I heard
"What did Willis McGahee say to Todd Heap?"
"HEY did you just shush me?!"

I don't know where that joke came from, but at least these boys have been taught well to know their Ravens players!!

It was a fun weekend. I wish I had pictures to post, but my hands were tied up in yarn...but here are some great ones from the other week that I never posted. S and O's dad is a Redskins fan so I bought them Ravens jerseys for the Redskins/Ravens game! :)

No wonder we have low self esteem...

I love that Dove is taking time to show real women for who they are...and really working on the self esteem of women today. The media makes it out that you have to be a toothpick with the perfect body, hair and skin...but there isn't anyone out there that is perfect...its all about retouching!

Here is a very interesting video...




Thanks Dove!

There are no words...

This evening I was looking up Christmas gift ideas. I googled "gift ideas for grandma" and one of the sites had this:

Herpes Plush Doll

$7.95 from Giantmicrobes, Inc. - Breaking out is hard to do. Learn the facts.

(Click the link to see all the other venereals you can get!)

WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?!

There really are no words!!!!!

And honestly...who would EVER buy those for anyone...especially Grandma!!!

And who would think it was a good idea to even make them?!?!?!

O Christmas Tree...O Christmas Tree

This past Saturday I went with some friends to get my Christmas tree. We went to a little tree farm near my friends' house. We weren't sure what we would find...but we were pleasantly surprised! We cut them down ourselves...and it was only $20!!!

Here are some pictures...

Mary and I were really excited!

Mike cutting down my tree...

Dragging to the car...

Loading it on top of the car...

Last year my once my tree was wrapped in netting it fit nicely inside my car. We didn't have any netting this year, but we decided to put it inside anyway. Wolf was pushing it while Mary and I were in the front seats trying to pull it in. The tree was a bit bigger than we thought!

It looked much smaller on the tree lot!

All decorated and ready for Christmas!

One last thanksgiving treat...

I can't believe that I forgot to post this! O was excited to share the new sing he learned in school. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!




Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Thankfulness

Today I turned on the Detroit football game in time to her the National Anthem. I stood there and tears streamed down my face as I thought about what that Anthem means. To think about how I'm free because of the men and women that fight for it...my loved ones...and others loved ones. How thankful I am to those who sacfrice their lives so we can live in freedom.

As I reflect on other things I am thankful for a long list came to mind including:

- A loving God and Savior who gave His life for me, and loves me exactly the way I am

- My father. He has always been there for me and has always supported me in whatever it is I'm doing even if he doesn't understand it. As long as I'm happy, he is happy for me.

- My brother. We are extremely different, but I am glad that we are so close.

- My mom. She has taught me a lot about how to be a strong woman.

- Wii. I know you are thinking this is strange, but it is something that my mom and I have a lot of fun doing together, and I like having fun with my mom.

- My friends. I have amazing friends and I couldn't imagine my life without them. Some of them I can't even imagine going 1 day without texting or talking to them! They are the ones I can cry with, laugh with, and they aren't afraid to kick my butt when I need it!  

- S and O's family. They have become family to me, helping me through some rough times and celebrating with me in the good times.

- My job. I love that I have the privledge to work with high school students, and I love my boss. I have known him since I was in high school, I have a lot of respect for him, and he has taught me so much

I know that there are many many more things for me to be thankful for...but this is the beginning of the list.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Disappointment

For my birthday my friend Amy gave me the first two books in the Twilight Series. I had heard about the books, but really a story of a girl who fall in love with a vampire didn't appeal to me. I started to read the books and became OBSESSED! I'm not a huge reader, though as I get older I'm enjoying it more and more. I LOVE them!! I devoured the books! I couldn't get enough of them, and once I finished the 4th book I felt like I was saying goodbye to some good friends on mine (sad, I know).

I have been excited to see the Twilight movie, even though I thought the trailer looked horrible. I figured the movie would still be ok, though I still had low expectations. I went to see it tonight. I was extremely disappointed. I feel like I would've been very confused if I hadn't read the books. They barely developed Bella and Edward's relationship. I'm sad that I spent money and a Friday night on that...though luckily I had discounted tickets and fun friends to see it with!

I do have to admit that as much as I disliked this movie...I'm sure I'll see the other 3 because of my love for the books.

Lofty Goals...

My friend Ed posted this today and it made me very happy!!!

Some of you might be wondering what's the big deal...but to me it is!

When I was three years old I had 3 goals in life.

1. To be able to turn the tv on and off by myself
2. To be able to cross my legs
3. To be SMURFETTE!!!

Yes...I wanted to be a small blonde blue-skinned creature...I don't think it will ever happen...(Though some of my friends are determined to have a costume party with the sole purpose for me to dress up as Smurfette)

But I'm pretty proud that I was able to accomplish 2 of my 3 goals!

Friends and Football kind of Weekend...

This past weekend I took a mini road trip to see friends and the end result was supposed to be the Ravens/Giants Football Game...but that didn't happen.

My dad, Kyle (my brother) and I are all huge football fans. My dad and Kyle are Giants fans, and I'm a Ravens fan. Back in June I started talking to Kyle about our dad's birthday in August and suggested getting tickets to the Ravens/Giants game in November. That was the plan...and I told him that he was in charge of getting the tickets since I was going to be out of the country. Well...the short answer to a long story is that we never got tickets...GRRRR. But we still decided to get together in NYC to watch the game...which I turned into a mini road trip.

Saturday morning I left and headed about an hour north to visit my friends Lori and Dan from college, and meet their adorable 7 month old son. It was great to catch up with them, see their beautiful house and play with the baby. He is teething so his bottom lip is MIA from him sucking on it so much! :) Here is a picture from our time together...

After spending the afternoon with Lori and Dan I headed to the Jersey Shore to spend the night at Gina's house. Her husband was away for the weekend, so we were able to have a girls night! My 2 and a half hour drive turned into 4 hours due to the pouring down rain. I hydroplaned many times too! Not a fun drive! Gina had made dinner and we spent the evening talking and catching up. I was really glad to see her since I missed her baby shower a few weeks ago because of our high school retreat.

At one point Gina opened the front door for some reason and there was a little slug on the screen door. Gina started freaking out and even called her husband about it! Before we went to bed I decided to open the door and see where the slug was...and it was gone! Gina freaked out even more, afraid that it had come into the house, but I found it...it went back outside. Here is the little slimy thing...

Gina made breakfast in the morning, we took some pictures...

I'm still half asleep here

Gina is so cute with her baby bump! I can't wait to meet little Gracie!

Off to NYC I went! The drive was much better in the daylight and no rain! I do have to admit that I was very impressed with myself driving through the city. I'm always surprised by how easy I'm able to get around there. Here's the skyline on my drive in...

I met my dad and Kyle in front of Kyle's apartment...and we found 2 parking places in front of his place!! That is unheard of!!! We walked several blocks to a sports bar to watch the game. Oddly the bar was packed with Broncos fans! Who would've thought?!?!

Sadly, the Ravens lost...though I still think they played well. There was one guy in the bar who was an obnoxious Giants fan (and no, I'm not talking about my dad!) When the Ravens scored their touchdown I started cheering and he started mocking me. Then he started mocking my dad...who was cheering for the same team as he was! Anyway, once the game was over my dad tried to get me out of there quickly because all the Steelers fans were coming in and he wasn't sure if I had enough self control! hahaha!

We headed to a museum that had a Grant and Lee exhibit about the Civil War. It was interesting and neat to see. My dad is a huge history buff so he loved it. We headed back to Kyle's apartment, and my dad and I took off. Kyle's roommate left and took all the furniture a few weeks ago and Kyle has been stressed trying to find a new place, so we decided to let him work on that. Here's the 3 of us...and of course Kyle isn't smiling...

Other than the scary drive Saturday evening and the Ravens losing it was a great weekend! Especially since I got home in time to see the Redskins lose!!! :)

It's been a while...

It's been a while, I know. I've enjoyed the fact that my life has slowed down a little bit. I worked over 100 hours the past pay period so working a "normal week" feels like a vacation almost! (Ok...not really but its nice...and I don't think there is really a normal week at the church!)

Some things that I am working on and will post hopefully soon are Godspell pictures. I've sorted through the 1,335 pictures I took and gotten it down to 907! I need to touch up a few of them (mostly lighten). Once I choose the best of pictures I'll post them on here.

Last Friday night we had a girls night and painted pottery. It was fun to get out, and I love my platter...though I still haven't finished it. That is on the to-do list...hopefully next week.

I've been getting back to the gym, which is great! I have put a gym schedule together and hopefully I'll stick to it!

Oh...I have another quirk that I can't believe I forgot...

I DESPISE GLITTER!!!! It gets EVERYWHERE...there is nothing you can do to get rid of it! I think my dancing days with the glitter filled costumes brought on this hatred. I heard a comedian say once "Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. Once you have it you can't get rid of it!" And that my friends, is the TRUTH!

Anyway, now I have that out in the open I feel much better.

I have a jam-packed fun-filled weekend planned which I will share all about next week and hopefully have some fun pictures!

Wow...re-reading this I have a lot of "hopefully" things to do! I give you permission to harass me if they don't get done! Give me some time about the Godspell pics though...there are a lot of them!

Enjoy the new layout! :)

Quirkiness...

Amy tagged me to list 7 quirky things about myself.

Here we go...

1. I hate am repulsed by pickles. The smell, the taste, EVERYTHING about them is disgusting! Mary gave me the best shirt ever for my birthday...it says "Pickles...cucumbers soaked in evil." SO TRUE!

2. I say "Bless You" when people burp. It just comes naturally, like when people sneeze. I still say bless you to people who sneeze. I never knew where this came from until one day I was with my dad and brother. Someone burped and my dad said "Bless You" so I guess this is a hereditary quirk :)

3. When I'm eating M&Ms or another candy that has multiple colors I like to eat the colors evenly. I will eat the stragglers first, and then I will eat the other colors evenly until they are all gone.

4. I am a perfectionist, sometimes to a fault. I am no where near perfect, but when I am doing something I try for perfection. An example is when preparing for a retreat, if someone adds or drops last minute I cannot just write their name on the list or cross them out, I need to reprint the entire list(s). I need to clear my desk before I leave work each day. Also if possible, I want to do everything right the first time I do it. If someone else knows better than I, I will ask many questions until I fully understand how to do it; even if its silly things that don't really matter.

5. I have always been a picky eater since I was young. I am leaps and bounds above where I used to be. I have mastered eating around things that I don't like...like tomatoes or peppers.

6. I have to put lotion on my feet before I go to bed. If I don't it will take me longer to fall asleep, or I will wake up in the middle of the night because my feet are really dry.

7. There is one word I literally shiver at whenever I hear it. The word disgusts me and I blame on the awkward girl that lived next door to me my freshman year of college. We had a community bathroom for the floor and I had just gotten out of the shower. I was walking back to my room in my towel when she walked up to me and said "Well, aren't you looking rather moist today?!" WHO IN THE WORLD SAYS THAT! Apparently she does...but still...EWWWWWW! Anyway, if you didn't guess it, the word is moist. Ugh...I shuddered just typing it!

It took me a while to come up with these...but I know that there have to be many more...let me know if you think of anymore quirks of mine! When S and O were asked to say a quirk of mine they said "Sometimes her hair is straight and sometimes its curly." haha

I tag Mary and Terry...I'm sure both of them can list more than 7...especially Mary! :)

Knock Knock....Rock!

Tonight I went to the mall with Amy and her kids. It was a fun evening, especially the ride home. Christopher is into saying knock knock jokes. His favorite one tonight was:

"Knock, Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Rock"
"Rock Who?"
"Rockin on the Roll!"

We were on the way home and Christopher kept telling us this joke over and over. I decided to give him a hard time joke with him so Christopher would ask "Knock, Knock" and I responded with "Rock!" This went on several times and Christopher was trying to tell me I was wrong but all Amy and I could do was laugh. I could hardly get the word Rock out the 4th or 5th time from the laughter. As Christopher was explaining that after he said "Knock, Knock" I was supposed to say "Who's there?" I kept saying "ROCK!" after he said who's there. Again, laughter erupted from Amy and I.

I decided to tell Christopher a knock knock joke:

Me: "Knock, Knock"
C: "Who's there?"
Me: "Orange...no wait I mean banana"
C: "Orange you glad I didn't say banana"

Apparently I really messed that one up and Christopher already knew it!
We went back to the "Knock, Knock" "Rock" jokes again until Christopher finally gave up and decided to make the joke be just "Knock Knock!"

Gotta love Knock Knock jokes! :)

Dental Hygiene and Sound of Music

The other night I had dinner at my friend Amy's house. I love hanging out with her and her family. After we ate Christopher disappeared upstairs. Amy went to see what was going on. To her discovery he was flossing! He came downstairs and told us how it tasted like peppermint candy, and offered everyone a taste. We all differed except for Hannah.

Christopher disappeared upstairs again, and came back down asking "Anybody want some?" He had climbed up to the top shelf of the medicine cabinet to get the whole container of floss. He was trying to give us all s piece. Its nice to know he is worried about our dental hygiene!
 

Meanwhile Hannah sat in Amy's lap asking her to sing the last verse of "So long, Farewell" and pretended to fall asleep.

 "The sun has gone to bed and so must I...Goodnight"

Tie Dying Central!

I added up that since June I have tie dyed somewhere around 75 shirts. Our church high school group did their rendition of Godspell this past weekend, so my boss had asked for me to tie dye some shirts for the kids. I also made a tie dye shirt for each member of the Hungary team.

I really don't mind doing it at all, actually I kind of enjoy it! I've done this for a long time...back when I worked camp at the Y, and I'm sure even times before that! One thing that I haven't tried is tie dying black shirts, until now. I asked a friend of mine who is helping with the Godspell if he would like me to make him a shirt. He asked if I could make a black one, and the challenge intrigued me. After a few trials and errors I finally figured it out!

Here's how:
Materials:
Tie Dye (I like the kits since they come with squirt bottles)
Rubberbands
Rubber gloves
bleach
water
plastic (to protect your counter tops)

Step 1: Wet the shirt and lay it out flat.

Step 2: Grab the center of the shirt and twist the shirt to create a spiral

 Step 3: Place rubber bands tightly around the shirt to keep the spiral shape.

 

Step 4: Using bleach in one of the squirt bottles add bleach to the shirt. Be sure to get it in between the layers. I like to put bleach on every other section of the shirt. 

  

Step 5: Let the bleach sit until the bleached areas change from "rust" to a "yellowish white" 

  

Step 6: Once the shirt has changed, cut the rubber bands and wash the shirt as usual in the washing machine. 

  

Step 7: Lay the shirt out flat and with the tie dye kit put various colors where you would like them. Try to follow each spiral to be one color. 

Step 8: Allow the dye to sit on the shirt. The longer it sits the better (I try at least 24 hours)

  

Step 9: Rinse the dye out of the shirt until the water runs clear.  

 

Step 10: Allow the shirt to air dry. Wear and enjoy! 

 

 

This really turned out better than I thought it would! 

 

Coming soon...Godspell pictures...but I have to sift through the 1,335 that I took and pick which ones I want to post! 

Picture Walk

On Friday O and I decided to go on some picture walks. I love fall (if I haven't said that enough yet) and I love photography...so why not capture the things of fall that I love?!

I gave O my little point and shoot camera while I used my digital SLR. We walked around his school's campus and took a picture of the beautiful chapel there. We also walked around his neighborhood taking pictures. Here are some of the pictures...the first is a few of O's pictures, and the second are mine. Enjoy! :)

Stayin Alive...

I heard this on the radio the other day...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/16/disco.song.health.ap/index.html

Transition...

tran·si·tion –noun

1.	movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change

The thought of transition has been on my mind the past few weeks. Fall is my absolute favorite season, the beauty of the leaves changing, the hot muggy air moving to cool crisp breeze. Putting away the shorts for sweatpants...and football jerseys. I. LOVE. FALL.

Looking at the definition I like the thought of passage. We pass through all things of life. Sometimes we stop and stay for a long while, and others its a short trip. God uses each stop to mold us and change us, but I think that He uses the actual passage and transition to grow us even more. Transitioning can be from something bad to something good, or something good to something better. Being the maximizer I am, I always try to think of ways to do things better, but sometimes that means I need to admit to the failures of what came before the new ideas. That isn't always easy.

I think the hardest part of transition is the ending. We should strive to end things well. Whether its the end of an era, a job, or a relationship we should strive to do everything in our power to make sure we can't do anything to make the end better. Sadly, even if we do accomplish that the ending can still be messy.

Ever since I was little I have always been horrible with goodbyes, so having to end relationships is the absolute worst for me! Looking back at the some relationship passages I've been though I see some that were very difficult to end, but now that I have come through the passage and I'm on the other end I see why it needed to happen.

I think about the leaves changing and how beautiful they are...and it makes me wonder why God makes the death of the leaves something so captivating. I think that it might be a way for Him to show us the importance of having a good ending. If you view the leaves as the transitions or passages of our lives the ending is when the leaves change color and fall to the ground, then the winter season of the barren tree is a neutral zone to pray and try to figure out what we can learn from the past, and look to what lies ahead. Finally spring comes and the leaves grow anew and it is time to grow and learn from the new beginning. The transition is complete.

This year I have had a few transitions to grow through, and I know that there are many more to come. Here are to great endings and even better beginnings!!!

8...7...6...5...4

8...7...6...5...4 are the ages of all the kids I had in the mini-van on Friday on our way to a birthday party! S and O's family is very close with another family who's mom had to be somewhere at the exact time of the party and asked if I could take her 3 oldest kids. So I packed R, J, S, T, and O all in the van and away we went! The party was at Pump It Up, a place filled with moonbounces and other inflatable apparatuses for the kids to play on. I was very impressed with the staff there, they gave the kids free time, but also engaged the kids in activities.

Here are some fun pictures from the party! 

 O climbing up and hopping over! 

S was too fast for me to get once he jumped over! 

J sliding away! 

 

I tried to get all 5 of the kids to hold hands for a picture...they did it...but sadly S and O didn't make it in the pic! This is really cute of R, J, and T though!  

What do you do in your Staff Meetings?!

We have an all staff meeting the second Thursday of each month. We come and share a meal together, and discuss various things that are going on within the church. We always share some laughs...and today we shared a ton of them! Here is a glimpse of our staff meeting today...



Yes, That's right! We built our own Marshmallow Launchers and shot each other with marshmallows! It was a blast!

What did you do at work today?! :)

Phone Drama Continues...

This morning I woke up and went to text someone. I wrote the text and hit send. I got a message saying TEXT FAILED (NETWORK PROBLEM). I tried a few more times...and continued to get the same message. On my way to work I called Verizon Customer Service. They tried sending me a message and saw that I wasn't receiving any messages either. Since I was on my phone at the time I had to wait until I got to work and call them back on the land line.

After calling them back and being on the phone with them for 40 minutes...we didn't get anywhere. I tried to call someone with it and realized that I COULDN'T MAKE ANY CALLS! So I drove to verizon and told them the problem and that I wanted the env2. I read a few reviews and they all agreed that the env2 was better.

The woman told me that it wasn't the phone, it actually was the network. They were having a problem with people who have just activated phones. I still stuck with the env2.

Its not as fun as the glyde, but its seems sturdier and I like it. The best part...I can download free ringtones from myxer.com!!!! Something I couldn't do on my old phone! yippeeee! :)

(And now Amy B and I have the same phone!)

Gone Swimming...

Yep, swim...or should I say drown is what my cell phone did this afternoon. I was laying on the couch extremely content reading my amazing book when my cell phone slid off my lap and landed IN MY GLASS OF WATER!!!! What are the chances?! I immediately grabbed it, took out the battery and grabbed a towel and my hair dryer. I dried it the best I could and then blasted it with the hair dryer, on the cool setting because I didn't think the heat would be a good thing. Once I thought it was as dry as I could get it I put it back together...I saw the verizon logo...but then blackness. I went online to see what they said about saving a wet phone and all the sites said DO NOT USE A HAIRDRYER...oops.

What was my next thought?! I should call...oh wait...my phone is DEAD I can't all ANYONE! So I drove to my friend Amy's house to show her. We decided I should take it to Verizon and see what they say.
To make a long story short, the woman at verizon said I could either pay $50 to get the same phone (which I hated) replaced or do my upgrade early where I would get the sale price on any phone, but I would lose the $50 rebate they give you. So basically I would be out $50 either way. I decided to go look for a new phone.

I was torn between the Samsung Glyde and the LG enV2...but I let money make my decision and I now have the Samsung Glyde. Its a touch screen with a full QWERTY keyboard...2 things that I have never had in a phone. The enV2 doesn't have the touch screen...but it has the QWERTY keyboard. Right now I don't know how I feel about the touch screen. I like it, but I have also gotten very frustrated with it today...and accidentally started calling people! OOPS! I have 30 days to return the phone if I don't like it...in which case I will save the few extra bucks and get the enV2.
Here is a picture of the Samsung Glyde:

And the LG enV2:

If you have either of these phones and have some knowledge on which to stick with...I would love to hear it!

Lesson learned today: Don't drink water and have a cell phone near by!