Family Christmas Pictures

Not Me Monday #11

This week's Not Me Monday will be fairly short and sweet...here goes...

I did not finish up making our Christmas presents Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.

John did not forget to confirm our Christmas functions with his family until Christmas Eve.

John did not take a personal day from work on Friday to spend the day with me to play with our Christmas presents.

Both John and I did not have wayyyyy too much fun playing our new Mario Kart game for our Wii.

John did not forget to write his performance reviews for work and did not end up doing them the evening of the day they were due.

I did not have to turn around after leaving for work this morning to go get my employee badge from the kitchen table. Worse yet, I had not already picked up a coworker who was carpooling with me to work.

The service engine soon light did not come on in my car about 2 blocks from home tonight.

I am not totally frustrated with Blogger and uploading pictures after trying to fix my Christmas Band post.

I did not originally think that I wouldn't have anything good for this week's post....silly me!!

The Gennrich Christmas Band

Back at Thanksgiving we brought up the idea of having a "band" at the Gennrich Christmas. Since Christmas would be at my parents' house there would be a lot more room than at my Grandparents' apartment, we wouldn't have to keep quiet for any other residents and it would give everyone an excuse to dust off the instruments. Between all of the Gennrichs and Petersons we have quite a few musicians in the family. I volunteered to get the music together for all of the instruments. I didn't get too creative this year - just the standard 4-part carols (sorry Rach, but thanks for improvising!).

Here are the 8 carols we played:

• Angels We Have Heard on High
• Deck the Halls
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Up On the Housetop
• Jingle Bells
• O Christmas Tree
• Silent Night
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Enjoy the following pictures of the 1st annual Gennrich/Peterson/Lewis Christmas Band:

(Me and John)

(uncle Jon and John)

(Me and Mom)

(sister Rachel and cousin Aaron)

(cousin Marta and brother Kevin)

(The Percussion Section...cousin Tim, Dad, and cousin Greta)

This was the first year for having the "band" and we plan to do it again every year and probably incorporate more and more pieces every year. Let me know if you have special requests and I'll try to accomodate.

To watch a video of three of the pieces we played, click here:

Not Me Monday #10

Just to warn you, not much exciting has happened in the past week. I'm excited that it's almost Christmas, just to get rid of all the stress that comes with the Holiday. Don't get me wrong, I also want to spend time with my family and relax (and the days off of work that come with it are a nice bonus!). Since John and I got the majority of our shopping done the weekend before last I just had to wrap everything and finish up on a few last minute things.

I did not bake more cookies yesterday even though the garage is full of freshly baked goodies.

I did not get told by my sister that she feels sorry for me every week when reading these posts.

I did not go the entire weekend without doing my hair or touching any bit of makeup.

I was not the first person at work last week to realize that all the answers to the "Guess Who's the Baby" contest were in order. (For those of you who I didn't talk to...We were invited to bring in Christmas pictures from our childhood to hang on the Christmas tree at work. Each picture was numbered. We were given a sheet with 16 blanks and 16 names to match up. The names were left in order so it was a good test to see how well we could copy names from one section of the paper to the other.) The other sad part is that I did not think about how funny it would be if she left the answers in order while I was laying in bed the night before.

Some of the only questions I knew the answers to from the Christmas Trivia contest at work were not from...you guessed it...A Christmas Carol...go figure.

Someone from the Chaska School of Music did not call me today at work to tell me that the entire studio was under 1-1/2 inches of water. I did not remember that I have a whole bunch of music lined up on the floor.

I did not wait until 4 days before Christmas to start reworking on wedding pictures for the CDs I'm putting together.

The weather outside is frightful, but since we've no place to go....

....we'll bake cookies of course. And that is just what my mom and I did last Sunday. It was warm and rained the day before and they were predicting bad weather for Sunday. If it had been colder on Saturday I'm sure the early drive to church last week would not have been very fun. My dad had to go to a funeral at church that Sunday but my mom was able to come right after church. After we cleaned the kitchen we could finally start in. My dad was able to come late in the afternoon to help with the pretzel cookies and John came home from work just in time to start sampling!

Here's a sampling of our work:


Our assortment consists of: Gingerbread Cookies, Mini Turtles, Tea Cakes, Pretzel Hugs, Oreo Balls, Wheat Thins, and Peanut Butter Surprise Balls.

I still have a couple more recipes I want to try this Christmas so we'll see what time allows.

Winter...

....It's that time of year again when...
The garage doubles as a 2nd refrigerator (or freezer).
You need to start your car half-way through work to make sure it starts when it's time to go home.
You can't leave a glass of water in your car to drink on the way home from work.
It takes a lot longer to drive anywhere and you relearn the meaning of the word "patience".
You can't go to the mall because there isn't a parking spot left in the parking lot.
Your coat crunches as soon as you step outside.
Glasses-wearers wish for either contact lenses or lasik eye surgery.
You don't leave the house if you don't absolutely have to.
You wait in line to make a purchase longer than it actually takes to pick out a gift.
One of your favorite outside activity is kicking off the snow that collects behind the tires of your car.

In the middle of all the stress of trying to get everything done, don't forget the real meaning of Christmas and enjoy the Christmas/Holiday season where...
You can sing along to Christmas music on the radio.
Cuddling up in the blankets never felt so good.
You feel like a kid again.
Old friends reunite.
Families are drawn close together.
You are reminded that it's better to give than to receive.
You get to enjoy treats like hot apple cider and fresh Christmas cookies.
Heaven came down to Earth.

Happy 1st day of winter and have a wonderful Christmas Holiday week! May you remember the real meaning of Christmas in spite of all the Holiday stress.

Not Me Monday #9

I know it's a little late...but better late than never...

I am not writing this "Not Me Monday" post on Tuesday.

I did not stuff, label, and stamp my Christmas cards last night in the time I allow to normally write my "Not Me Monday" posts.

There is not a desk chair in our downstairs bathroom for lack of a better place to put it right now and to get it out of the hallway.

The swiffer did not melt because it was leaning against something hot in the furnace room.

I did not freak out on Friday after work when I thought I lost the recipes I copied from a co-worker several weeks ago. I did not try to find most of the recipes online that night since I was going to be cookie baking with my mom on Sunday. I did not find them the next morning in the paper recycling sack.

I was not totally disorganized for cookie baking and my mom didn't have to step in and help me wash the dishes before we could start.

John and I are not broke after Christmas shopping all day on Saturday. (At least we've got the majority of it done and hooray to super good sales! Yay Kohls!)

I did not have to stand in line for 15 minutes at the post office during my lunch break today just to buy 7 stamps for the rest of the Christmas cards.

I did not use the garage as a 2nd refrigerator for my chili. The chili did not freeze preventing me from bringing it for lunch today.

I did not have to clean snow off of my car 4 times today.

Not Me Monday - A Christmas Carol special edition

For those of you who have ever played in a pit orchestra you know that something always goes wrong, or simply not as planned. This was one of the toughest shows to get synced up with the actors. We had many, many laughs (while trying to play this 90 minute non-stop music show) and I thought you'd like to laugh along with me and the rest of the pit.

I did not use the same bassoon reed for all 7 shows. Not me, a good double reed player always alternates between at least 2 reeds.

We were not one viola player short for the Thursday matinee. He apparantly did not know we had a morning show.

After a really, really loud opening clock chime on Thursday night (opening night) we did not have to have a "chime check" before every show to test the volume.

While the pianist was changing the keyboard setting from the clock chime sound back to the regular piano, she did not hit one of the demo buttons which did not made the keyboard start playing a heavy drum beat. (Luckily the director was able to turn the volume down quickly!)

After the clock had chimed, our director did not have to hold up two fingers to let Scrooge know exactly what time it was. (I think he started his line before the clock had finished chiming. "When the clock...........strikes......two...)

The same keyboard player as above hit two keys at once when playing the clock chimes which did not make for a pretty bad sounding clock chime. It was not supposed to be two o'clock and it did not take her forever to play the second chime even after we were all practically screaming for her to hit it again!

The soloists did not constantly come in early and we did not have to skip measures to catch up to them.

One soloist did not always come in late and after we figured out a measure to vamp until he was ready he did not all of a sudden start coming in right!

The trumpet players did not totally overpower all other players in the pit. (Especially the one that blared really loud!)

The snowflakes that fell at the end of the show were not the size of golf balls on certain nights.

The fog did not billow into the pit so heavily that our pit director couldn't see the actors.

We (meaning the pit as a whole) did not suffer from a really bad case of intonation. We did not adapt the motto "tuning is a waste of time".

I did not start erasing the pencil marks in my music during the first show on Saturday. On Sunday I did not find out that we didn't have to erase our music at all!

The snowy weather did not delay most of our start times. We did not try to play faster to make up the extra time so the show would still end after 90 minutes.

John did not send me Vikings score updates throughout the show.

I did not write all of the ideas for this blog during my random measures of rest.

I did not just agree to play for Sound of Music which will run for three weekends and is it is not one of my least favorite shows. (It's good music, I just think it's overdone.)

Other quotes from the show:
Will Tiny Tim Live? Not of we can help it!
Link by Link - also titled Kay by Kay - Kay Link was one of our flautists.
Jeremy, play all the glisses as abnoxiously as you can.
Vortex? What?!?!?
We had so much room in the pit but no time to goof around.
Elves or Elks?
Sounds as written
About a 1/4 measure that was supposed to be vamped: "Why isn't it just a 2/4 measure?"

Not Me Monday #8

I am not typing this blog while watching Kung Fu Panda.

I still did not have A Christmas Carol songs in my head the entire work day even though show ended yesterday.

I did not have seven Christmas Carol shows and a piano recital all in 4 days.

I was not told that I could not use a $2 internet coupon for cereal at Rainbow. No, not me, master coupon shopper....Heaven forbid I get a box of cereal for free.

It did not take me three days to clean the bathroom...Thursday, Friday, and Saturday...No, not me, I am much more efficient than that.

While cleaning the bathroom, I did not decide to wash the lightbulbs which did not make three of the eight bulbs burn out. Two of the lightbulbs were not already burned out.

John bought new lightbulbs and while I was carrying them inside, I did not drop one package, shattering one of the four lightbulbs in the package.

While getting into the Explorer to go to work on Friday I did not drop my two pieces of toast. One did not land on the passenger seat and one did not land on the snow covered driveway.

I did not eat the piece of toast that landed in the snow.

John did not have bad luck while trying to start the Explorer when we going to ride together to work on Friday and did not have to take the Saturn.

While getting into the Saturn, I did not drop the other piece of toast again.

I was not so flustered by time I got to work on Friday morning that I couldn't remember what I had done the day before on my day off when asked by a coworker.

John and I both did not always end up behind slow drivers to and from Chaska last weekend.

The Explorer did not refuse to start again Sunday night which did not prevent John from coming to my piano recital.

We did not try to push the Explorer into the garage from the inclined driveway.

A Christmas Carol

One of the main reasons for me not posting in such a long while is my involvement in A Christmas Carol. It is the Broadway musical version of the famous Charles Dickens' tale. I have been playing in the pit orchestra of CVFT's (Chaska Valley Family Theater) shows since 2003. Here are the past performances I have played in:

2003: West Side Story
2005: Jesus Christ Superstar & State Fair
2006: Fiddler on the Roof & Once Upon a Mattress (played trumpet)
2007: Camelot
2008: A Christmas Carol

Every musical has its own challenge and A Christmas Carol was no exception. Our books for this show were the usual handwritten parts. This musical was written maybe 10 years ago and each year edits are made to the score. The catch is that they don't rewrite each individual part, just make edits and white out measures. This has made it extremely challenging to read and learn the parts, especially as a pit and coordinating with the singers. Each book seemed to have been edited differently. For instance, in my book measures 72-83 had been whited out or removed, however, in the trumpet's books they were still there and they had to cross them out. Little things like occurred through the entire score and were very frustrating at first.

The show opened last Thursday night, December 4th, and we have seven shows between Thursday and Sunday night - wow!! The show is short, 90 minutes in length, but it is all music. no dialogue breaks like other shows. it will be interesting to see how we all hold up on Sunday when we have two shows back to back. Good luck, lips! The music is tough and hard to coordinate with the singers. By the last show we should all have it down!

Last night, Friday, John and both sets of our parents came to the show. We purchased tickets for our parents as birthday presents since three out of the four had birthdays last week. It was nice to sit in the pit and know that I was playing for my family out in the audience. For what they told me, they all enjoyed the show. My dad commented that it was the first time he understood the storyline for A Christmas Carol. I think that CVFT did a great job with this show (like usual). Unfortunately, we are unable to see what is going on onstage since we don't have TV monitors in the pit to watch the show, but the costumes and set look phenomenal. Other things I'll remember about this show is the fog billowing into the pit and the gigantic snowflakes falling into the pit.

Not Me Monday #7

I didn't just realize the only posts I've done for the past few weeks have been Not Me Monday posts.

At the Lewis Thanksgiving dinner everyone did not take turns saying their own "not me" lines.

As I bent down to pick something off of the floor one day last week and was standing back up, my head did not come in contact with the edge of the kitchen table. I did not forget about it until I touched my head in the sore spot during pit rehearsal

It did not take me 3+ hours to fall asleep on Saturday night.

John and I did not arrive at church as the bell was ringing. It was not my fault that we were late...

I did not finish hand stiching the baby blanket just hours before the baby shower.

I didn't discover last night that most of the dishes I talked about in last Monday's post were still sitting on the countertop as we wrapped up the 4 day weekend.

I am not looking forward to the Christmas Carol getting done because I do not want to get back to my regularly scheduled life.

Not Me Monday #6

Here goes...

John did not run out of propane while cooking his lunch on Thursday.

The smallest turkey that I could find at Rainbow was not almost 18 pounds.

I did not have a bad cold on Friday.

We did not get two of the last five tickets to EPHS's performance of Joseph on Friday.

We did not eat sandwhiches at my work before going to Joseph to save money when we could have eaten at John's parents.

Sunday when we bought our Wii, we did not drive past 2 Targets to buy ours in EP without first checking the one in our own town.

I did not realize that we didn't have cloves or ground ginger when I tried to make a pumpkin pie at 9pm tonight.

I did not learn the importance of "blind-baking" a pie crust the hard way.

I did not let the dishes pile up in the kitchen again after promising myself I'd do the dishes every night.

John and I are not sore from playing the Wii on Sunday.

I did not discover several dings in our pretty hardwood floor as a result of a pad coming off of one of our new chairs :(

When I pulled my coat out of the dryer this morning, the zipper pull was not busted off. I did not replace the pull with a paper clip.

I did not get told by the man at FedEx that it would be $200 to ship a package international.

When John ordered our Chinese food tonight, he did not order online through the restaurant's shut-down website. He then did not have to talk to the restaurant owners and the website guy for 10 minutes trying to figure out what happened.

Not Me Monday #5

I did not wait until the final hours of Monday to write this Not Me Monday post.

I did not scrape the snow off of my car after work on Tuesday with a flip-flop.

The power did not go off Tuesday morning and leave me stranded in the power. This was not the first day that I realized the garage door also wouldn't work if the power went out.

While eating out of my bag of baby carrots I did not discover a baby carrot 5+ inches long! That was not a big baby carrot!

Since I got to work from home on Thursday afternoon, I did not let John nap until it was too late to meet his parents for dinner. I am not very sorry...

John did not just get a warning for driving 50 mph in a 40 mph zone coming into town.

While driving to rehearsal on Saturday morning, there was not a big buck walking across the street in a residential area.

I did not drive on the rumble strips just for fun on the way home from rehearsal tonight.

I am not regretting the lack of bassoon playing I have been doing lately. This musical is not proving to me that I have lost some of my bassoon "chops".

The apple bread story

Last night I made two loaves of apple bread, one to bring to work and one for John. This morning when he called me to sing me Happy Birthday we had the following conversation regarding the loaf of bread:

John: I had some of your apple bread for breakfast.
Me: Oh, how was it?
John: It was good. I had 3 pieces.
Me: How big were the pieces?
John: That's not important.

Not Me Monday #4

I did not start to ask myself why I started doing a 2-week cleanse only a few days into the process.

There was NOT snow on the ground Friday morning when I awoke.

I did not roll down my car window and try to take pictures of the beautiful trees on my way to work. Not me, that would be dangerous.

While eating my salad at Lakewinds I did not bite two tines off of my plastic fork. I did not have to then search for and pull out the two tiny tines from my salad so not to eat them by accident.

I did not accidentally discover where John hid my birthday presents on Friday night.

I did not sleep until noon on Saturday after being at a friend's house until 1:30am the night before. It did not feel wonderful to sleep that long.

I was not disappointed when the rice cooker didn't work for me last night. Not me, the rice cooker was not my favorite small appliance.

I did not let an entire load of laundry go through the complete cycle without adding the detergent.

John and I did not need to celebrate my birthday on Friday night since we wouldn't be seeing each other on Monday night.

I am a five-time survivor.

Today was a weird day from the very beginning. The weather looked dreary when I got up and for some reason at breakfast I thought we had juice in the refrigerator, but was wrong. I had to drink water. I got to work around 8:15 again this morning which seems to be my normal start time now. To get there any sooner would be pushing it a bit. I tried calling my mom a few times during work today (we work at the same company) but there was no answer. Then I got a phone call from one of her co-workers, which I thought was odd. She told me that my mom wanted to her to call me because I had probably heard rumors by now and would have started to wonder. The rumors were that we were in the middle of a layoff (this is now a total of 5 since I started only 2 years ago). I immediately thought my mom was on the list of 24 employees being cut. Nope, she was just driving someone else home who doesn't drive. I was relieved.

After going through this 5 times now you'd think I would be used to it. The truth is, it never is easy to see people you've worked closely with for years be told they no longer have a job. Everytime we go through this I wonder why I was kept and not them. I suppose working for the largest client at the company and being one of least paid people in AM helps a bit. I want to think that I'm doing a good job and people appreciate me but I still know that I need to step it up and buckle down. I'll buckle down tomorrow. Today I'm drained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a good note, today is the 7 month anniversary of John and my wedding. I love you, John!

I Voted

During dinner last night I wondered if election day would one day adapt to Apple's branding, making the oh-so-famous red and white "I VOTED" sticker read as "iVote". On second thought, that would take away from the seriousness of the matter, but I still think it's clever.
Since I was busy with work and piano lessons until the polls closed this evening I had to vote before work. John was nice enough to come with me and we stood in line about 15 minutes before reaching the table to check in. Once we got that far it moved very quick. Luckily, I registered to vote at the fair this summer. If I had to have a job at working at the election site I would definitely NOT want to have the job of telling everyone how to fill in the ovals and confirming that there are indeed pens at each station. I still have a couple more hours to wait before if I chose all of the right answers on today's quiz. I didn't study up on all of the politicians before voting like I'm sure some people do. Politics do not interest me that much and probably never will; I hadn't even heard of half of the people on the ballots. Despite all this, I couldn't help but feel rather proud as I cast my ballot this morning knowing that I was doing my civic duty by giving my vote for the next leaders of our area and country.

Trick-or-Treat

We only had 9 trick-or-treaters this Halloween. I'm sure the siding mess on the front lawn didn't help matters any. However, that didn't keep these trick-or-treaters away. By far, they were the best dressed! My dad wore his Lederhosen he wore over 20 years ago and my mom is in an outfit I brought back from China when I went during college.

My husband. My hero. Reason #89

Someone at work gave my mom a simple game which is simply a golf ball and golf tee in a globe, sort of like a snow globe. The trick is to get the golf ball to land on the tee. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! For months the whole family had been trying to get the ball to land on the tee. Many came close, but none successful. The entire time, my mom kept saying "John can do it. When John comes over he'll show us how it's done." Well, finally the time came when John went over to my parents' house and they confronted him with the globe. It only took about 15 minutes and HE DID IT!!!!!

Not Me Monday #3

I did not "forget" to do a Not Me Monday post last week in an attempt to avoid focusing on my goof-ups. To make up for it (and to please my public), I will now try to remember everything from the past two weeks.

I did not call the Walgreen's rebate call center pretending to be my mother-in-law to have them reissue the $4.99 rebate check that I had her submit for me in her name (since I already had one in my name) after it didn't come in the mail the first time.

I did not take advantage of a co-worker's yummy homemade salsa at work one day partly to avoid my big t0-do list at work.

While going to pit practice a couple Saturday's ago (already late as usual), I did not miss my exit off of the highway. After getting onto 212, there was not a truck pulling a boat in the right lane slow which I wanted to avoid, so I moved into the left lane and missed my exit. The next exit off of the highway did not come 2 miles later.

When putting our new ironing board cover on to the ironing board my grandma got at a garage sale for us, I did not only disicover one but two covered up covers. That means there were not 3 gross ironing board covers on our ironing board! No wonder it smelled bad!

Last Saturday, when John asked the men working on our siding if they were coming back the next day, he did not get told "Uh, I don't speak English".

I have not been kicking nails off of the driveway for the past week. Do the siding guys think I want a flat tire or something?

We did not only get 7 trick-or-treaters for Halloween. 9 if you count my parents!

John did not put some of last year's candy into the Halloween candy bowl because he really liked the assortment of this year's candy bars.

I have not made multiple trips to fabric stores getting material for a quilt I want to make without even knowing the size or pattern.

I did not discover Friday that my new favorite Asian grocery store, which happens to be right by my work, is going out of business.

I do not regret asking my 2nd grade piano student what he was for Halloween. Especially after he described to me that he wasn't the real Indiana Jones because he had a black whip and not a brown whip.

I was not almost in bed at 9 pm on Sunday night before I realized that none of the clocks I had been looking at all evening had been switched back an hour for daylight saving's time.

John did not take pictures of two backed-up toilets on his camera phone just to convince someone to have them cleaned out. (The bathrooms are being remodeled so everyone is using a portable bathroom outside the front of the store.)

Finding peace midst a random act of vandalance.

This post is a bit overdue, but better late than never... A couple Saturdays ago we became a statistic in a juvenile area prank. John and I were still talking about the fun we had with Michael and Becca at ValleyScare as we turned into our driveway around 12:30 a.m.Sunday morning. Right away I noticed that our Explorer parked in the driveway was leaning one way a little and that we must have a flat. The roof of our townhouse was just replaced a few months ago and we are still finding nails around our patio area so I wouldn't have been surprised if one of those had been in the tire, creating a flat. However, when we went closer to the vehicle we noticed that BOTH of the tires on the right-hand were flat. I don't think that even with the perfect alignment of the stars could the coincidence of having I two roofing nails in two different tires make two flats. It turned out that the valve stems had been cut off of the tires. Very strange, we had not done anything to anyone (that we know of) and the vehicle was parked nicely in our driveway.

We went to bed because we were too tired to do anything that night and we had to get up early since we had an early bell performance in church the next day. While still annoyed upon waking up on Sunday morning, it was then that I found the peace. While driving to church that morning (with a sleeping husband beside me) I sang along to every word of every song on KTIS that morning. It was as if God was opening up my heart to hear his Word. We heard a wonderful sermon at church by Pastor Tim about peace and Jim accompanied the congregation to the awesome hymn It is Well With My Soul. I remember learning about this hymn earlier in my life, how it was written by Horatio Spafford after losing almost everything in his life, including all his children. After everything that had happened to him, he still had enough faith to praise God for who He is! Pastor Tim preached about how dull our lives would be if we never were anxious about anything, but God gives us a prescription for peace. God does not want us to worry and he never gives us more than we can handle.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9

Here is a picture of our sad Explorer after the flats were removed. Time to go to Sears and get them fixed!

I truly, truly believe that bad things happen so that our eyes will be opened to much better things around us. This incident helped us meet our neighbors. Our neighbor Roger offered to pump up our tires for us (before he realized the valve stems were cut). We met another couple at Sears that fell victim to this prank. But the biggest thing that came out of this is that John and I were faced with a challenge and were were able to work through it together. Yes, we called on the help of family, but we overcame what God put before us.

For further reading on the vandalism and related activities visit:

http://www.co.carver.mn.us/county_government/docs/Vandalism.pdf

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=527711

http://www.startribune.com/local/33212109.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Not Me Monday #2

I did not remember that Discover Card changed the payment due dates two days after my payment was due and then accidentally change the due date to another week earlier. Not me, I would never do that.

I did not get disappointed when we received a wedding card 6 months late and the only thing inside the card was the couple's signature.

I did not leave my car parked in the driveway Thursday night with the driver's side window half-down (or was it half-up?) to find that it was raining on Friday morning. Luckily the seat wasn't too wet for my morning commute!

I did not forget to bring my nasal spray along to Michael & Becca's. Yay for pet allergies.

I did not have to follow an old couple just to get out of the CVS parking lot in Maple Grove, not me, I have a good sense of direction.

Halloween Haunt at ValleyScare

Halloween's coming....are you getting scared?

John and my third date, only two years ago last weekend, was a trip to ValleyScare at ValleyFair. We thought it was pretty fun with the rides, entertainment, Halloween decorations, and haunted houses. We decided not to go last year but we figured it was about time to go back. We invited John's brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Becca, to share the evening with us. The weather was exceptionally warm on Saturday when we went. It was only the 2nd weekend in October yet the high was about 73 degrees! We were even more excited about this because we froze when we went two years ago.

We arrived at the park around 6:30 p.m. just as the sun was starting to go down. After a quick ride on the Antique Cars and the Corkscrew we were bummed to find out that due to a small amount of lightning in the area (maybe 15 miles away) most of the rides that hadn't already been shut down for the summer were being stopped until the storm past. It wasn't that we didn't want to go through the haunted houses or ride the rides that were still open, it was the fact that those things were the only thing for anyone to do. We waited in a couple of the longest lines I've EVER seen at Valleyfair for the haunted houses and went to Dr. DeMented's magic show. It was maybe only an hour and a half that the rides were down but it seemed like a lot longer. The fact that it was such a nice evening and still not being able to go on the rides made the wait even harder.

During the long lines I couldn't help but start to wonder if we weren't getting too old for this type attraction. I couldn't even start to count the number of little teenage girl clicks. You know, the ones where every girl looks the same (super skinny, tight clothes, glued to their cell phones...)

I think that ValleyScare did a great job with all of the haunted houses and decorations. It's just too bad we couldn't see more of the details. I couldn't help but wonder ValleyScare bought all of the fog machines after they went on clearance last year. We had to poke our way through the houses and park just to see if there was anyone in front of us that we might run into.

My biggest thrill of the evening was going on the Power Tower for my first time. The long line was definitely worth the wait. Thanks, Becca, for tricking - oops, I mean convincing - me to go on this ride! But where were the screams?!?!

Here is a picture of John and me together in front of the same Ogre type monster that we got solo pictures in front of two years ago...

We stopped for a few more pictures as we were leaving the park.....

Not Me Monday #1

A friend of mine started publishing "not me Monday" posts and it looks like fun. I couldn't help but think of all the dumb stuff that I do - so why not have some fun with it! Here goes...

I did not putz around the house last Monday morning (like usual) to soon realize I had to be at work on time for once since I had an 8 a.m. meeting to attend. I did not drive 212 to work for the sole reason that I could go 70 mph in hopes to reach my 8 a.m. goal. When I arrived (at 8 a.m. on the dot, thank you very much!) I certainly did not ask my co-workers if there wasn't a meeting to which they did not reply back to me "it got moved to 9 a.m"!

On Wednesday night I did not take Tylenol PM because I didn't feel well and couldn't sleep (and the aquarium was too noisy). I most definitely did not take it at 10:45 pm. Because of this bad judgment call, I did not wake up abruptly at 8:15 (mind you, I am supposed to be at work at 8). Then, I did not ask John what day it was hoping I might get lucky and it would be Saturday but it was still Thursday. :(

After Bells on Thursday night I did not accidentally hit the trunk unlock button of my car without realizing and then did not drive 2 miles down the road with the thing bouncing up and down before I could pull over to slam it shut.

A good fall day

It was Friday today, which ALWAYS means it will be a good day. But to make the day even better, John was able to work the same hours as me, 8-5. We were able to save a few bucks by carpooling in to work since we only work miles apart. For lunch John picked up Arby's, then picked up me and we had lunch together at a park near my work. It was a gorgeous fall day today and I am looking forward to a wonderful weekend with my husband!

6 months and counting...

But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

This was one of the scripture verses read at our April 5th wedding, now more than 6 months ago. I can't begin to describe how fast these months have gone. While I admit that it hasn't been all fun all the time, I know our love for each other is strengthened with every day we are together.

While John may not be perfect (and let's face it, who is?), he is perfect for me. He is patient with me while I am stressing out about the amount of work I need to get done and lack of free time. He is understanding of my special diet I insist on sticking to and makes sure I am always thought of. He tolerates my always icy-cold feet that always seem to gravitate towards his oh-so-warm legs in bed at night (yes, they're still cold even in the summer). He has made a valiant attempt at re-using his bath towel in my attempt at cutting down on the laundry load. And he lovingly looks past the mess I make in my bathroom sink and vanity area.

While we will continue to have our share of arguments and disagreements, it is working through our differences that can only make us stronger as a couple. I thank God every day for bringing John into my life and am so excited for all the other surprises and plans he has for our lives. I do not think it was an accident that we met only 2 years ago (and counting...), it was in God's plan that we meet and unite our hearts and our souls and become a family.

Updates on Updates

A lot of changes are being made at John's townhouse as we quickly approach the April 5th wedding date. It is exciting to see these changes take place and turn the house into a home for John and myself. Late November we ordered the new flooring for the upstairs and downstairs and finally the last of it will be installed in the next few days. After the boys left on Thanksgiving our first action was to paint the office a wonderful toffee color. Last weekend I finished making the curtains that inspired the paint color choice (pictures of them to follow). John's mom, Valerie, came over to help paint while his dad and brother, John and Michael, came to help rip out the carpet on the upper level of the house and stairs.

The carpet is great but we are even more excited for the hardwood floor to be installed tomorrow. John has been dreaming of hardwood for a while and, although it was a lot of work to rip out the carpet and move all the furniture out of the first floor, it will definitely be worth it. My dad came over this afternoon to help move the rest of the furniture out of the downstairs. You'd never believe the places they found to move things...Hutch on the landing, big screen TV in the hallway between the bathroom and laundry area and the refrigerator right next to that.

Where, you might ask, did we get of all the carpet that came out of the house? Well, conveniently the association decided all the houses needed new shingles the beginning of January... Let's just say we took advantage of the huge dumpster parked in our driveway for a week and a half.

I did take more of the mess that was created in packing and moving everything downstairs, but I think that in all the chaos the camera got left on the dryer and is now blocked by the refrigerator and TV. I will post more after things get more situated.

John is happy the hardwood is coming tomorrow!!!