Christmas time!

Well, we had a great Christmas. James and Steph were here for a good amount of time, Sunday-Thursday so we had some great hanging out time, especially for a good 4 hours or so of waiting for a tow truck and then in the car fixing place (which after all that they claimed nothing was wrong even though it started doing the same thing the next day and today). We had some good food, James and Steph made some delicious jambalya and I was mostly in charge of desserts. I made some funfetti cookies and the chocolate peppermint ice cream cake which was a hit. Nelson got me a new camera, a Cannon Elph. It is sweet. We had made the deal that we were not going to get each other big presents but then Nelson did anyway because he knew it would be such a big surprise and he loves to surprise me. It worked, I was totally surprised. I got a new case for it yesterday and a new memory card is coming in the mail (much cheaper to order those on line rather than buying them in the store). We watched lots of the Office, played some great games (the best line of that evening was during catch phrase when my brother had the work "paycheck." His clue was "what Nelson gets every two weeks but is never enough" my dad immediately blurts out "Pedicures!" The only reason Nelson knows what a pedicure is is because I get them, not because he has ever gotten one, let alone one every two weeks and that that would be not enough, like he needs to get them more often or get manicures too!! What was my dad thinking?!?! Nonetheless, it was a classic line!) We even enjoyed a sweet time at Jos. A. Banks getting James a new suit. It is a little difficult to describe the craziness that went on there but some classic quotes from that adventure include things like "Those pleats are so big you can park a car in them" and James to the tailor as he was putting the tape measure around his chest, waist, etc "you have probably hugged me more today then my father has all year!" and "would you like a cuff on both of your pant legs?" I am pretty sure that store will not be the same after we were there. All in all, Christmas was great, we had a great time, got some great presents, and really enjoyed being with the fam. Here are a few pics from it all!


a sweet Dallas Cowboys ornament


Steph is so excited about her teapot and loves it so much


James and his new watch


Go Big Bill


Really cool pic from James and Steph (it says our names, covenant college, august 6th, love, st. louis, dallas-see if you can find it all!)

Friends and Facials!

Last night we had a great night of dinner, light looking, and movie watching with some friends. Then this morning was my facial. It was unbelievable! The lady gave me a skin consultation, apparently I have some dry skin that was clogging my pores so I need to use an exfoliating wash more often. But then she did a massage, steam, masks, lots of cleansing and toning and moisturizing. And she massaged my arms and feet. It was just so relaxing I was about to fall asleep. I about to fall asleep now just thinking about it. It was totally worth it and a nice reward to finishing fieldwork! My skin feels so soft and clean now, I am afraid to put on make up or anything that might make it dirty. But I am going to get some exfoliating scrub at the store so hopefully that will help with my pores. She wanted me to buy the stuff from them but it was $25! So I said no way and I will go to Target to get a much better deal! To anyone who is contemplating getting a facial, I say go for it! you won't regret it!

last day of fieldwork!

Tomorrow is my last day of fieldwork! Today I got my final grade (I passed, don't worry) and so that means that I officially have my master's degree now. It is really weird to think about, weird that I won't be a student anymore, weird that I have a master's degree, weird that I am kinda a grown up, weird to be making money, all of it is just kinda weird. I was even thinking it will be weird to say to people when I am meeting them and you exchange hellos, find out what they do, etc and I will say "I am an occupational therapist" not "I am a student" which I have said for my whole life. that makes me sound all grown up. but I guarantee, I definitely am not!

snow and bagels!

Well it snowed about 6 inches this weekend! it is great! I love snow and I love that it stuck and looks so pretty. The roads are good now, last night they were a little treacherous. We were going to run a few errands before we had realized how much it has snowed. We headed out of our subdivision but after fishtailing a few times and seeing a car turned, facing sideways and stuck in the road, we decided the errands weren't that important and headed back home. Then I decided to make some bagels. Here they are!

We had to turn on our heater

So for the past two winters, we have managed to not turn on our heater. We always stayed warm with our little space heater and from the guy below us-we always said "Mike kept us so warm" which is weird when you first hear that, but really, he did. See, our theory is that all the heat from his apt rose up into ours and since there is a flat roof (no attic or anything) on our building the heat just stayed in our apt. So we were nice and warm. But unfortunately for us, Mike moved out this year, I think it was some lame excuse like he got a post-doc fellowship for his biomedical engineering at Stanford, I mean come on, what is more important- that or keeping us warm? Anyway-he moved out and now there is no one under us. So no more hot air to rise up. After a few miserable weeks and three blown fuzes (we bought another space heater to try to keep things warm but instead it just blew the circuit all the time) we thought, we should just suck it up, turn on the heater, and pay our gas bill. Although to put it in perspective of how inefficient our furnace is, our heating bill is about the same as my parents, only my parents live in a two story, couple thousand square foot home and we live in about a six hundred square foot apartment. thus, we really liked not having to turn on our heater. but we dislike being cold more so we turned it on. but it is so warm and toasty in here, it is totally worth it and we don't have to sleep with two pairs of pajama pants, three long sleeved shirts, a fleece jacket, two pairs of socks, and five blankets to stay warm (that really is no exaggeration, that is what I was sleeping in during some really cold nights).

The Cake was a Hit!

So the cake was good, here are some pics of the inside!

Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

Tonight we have a Christmas concert at church and we are going and then some friends are coming over for dessert afterwards. So I thought we needed a very Christmasy dessert. So I made this Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake. Here it is! We will see in a few hours if it tastes good!

It's Snowing/Sleeting!

Today when I left work, there was snow on my car!! yeah!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!! I do love a snow. And I love that it is snowing outside, toasty in our apt, and I can watch a new Grey's Anatomy while drinking some hot chai. What a perfect evening! and I just booked a facial for the day after I get done with fieldwork. I have never had one before so I am really excited. I am going to the Face and the Body and getting a Signature Spa Facial. They say it is good for first time facial go-ers. Nelson gave it to me for my birthday so I am quite excited to use it!!!

A Little Christmas Project

I decided that Nelson and I needed some stockings to go by our Christmas tree so I made some! It was great fun! Check them out!

Christmas Time is Here!

Today we got a nice wreath in the mail from Nelson's sister Ginny! Well, she didn't just send it to us, we bought it from her for a fundraiser for her senior trip next year. Anyway, it was just what we need for our door! It looks great! We are getting ready to do some decorating and put up our christmas tree! I made this little stocking on my machine and I am hoping to make a few more decorations, like those cool trees from Steph's blog. I also want to make stockings for Nelson and me, but I am not sure if I am capable of that!

Sewing Machine!

So here is my new sewing machine! I have really enjoyed trying it out but have not exactly had the best of luck so far. Well, I have made one pillow and that went pretty well. But I have a problem with cutting the fabric straight and sewing the stitch straight once I am going. I am going to go sewing class starting in January so that should be very helpful. I think I was feeling a little over confident the other night when I wanted to try a pillow with some piping around the edge. I got the piping and was putting it in but I couldn't really get the seam close enough to the edge of the piping. I didn't think it was too bad but then I went to sew the back to the front and I got half way around the pillow when I noticed that the last edge was about two inches too short! They were the right size to begin with but somewhere in all my sewing, I got the edges messed up! I gave up that pillow for the day, partially because I was sick and I couldn't think any more and partially because I was mad that I couldn't do it right. But I think I just need to take my lessons and then things will be better! and like my Steph was telling me, you gotta start somewhere and it is good to make mistakes and learn from them! So that is what I am going to be doing, a lot of learning from my mistakes.

Some Tasty Cupcakes!

Last week, we had a baby shower at work for one of the therapists who is due in early January. I was going to make a cake but someone else already volunteered to bring the cake but then fell and broke her arm and then we weren't sure if she was coming and bringing a cake so I decided to make cupcakes just in case she did come and bring a cake. So I needed a cupcake recipe! My sister-in-law came through for me, as she always does, with a great recipe, Billy's Vanilla Vanilla. They turned out pretty well and people seemed to really like them. I wanted to do a cute baby thing on top of the icing but couldn't think of what to do and didn't really have time to look into it so I just decided to dye the icing pink!

Thanksgiving

Well it has been awhile since I have written, things have been fairly busy around here. But right now I am in Dallas enjoying a great Thanksgiving break. We flew in Wednesday night after a day of work for Nelson and a day of hanging out with my mom for me. We were delayed an hour because of weather but the airport really wasn't bad at all. We have been doing a lot of hanging out, spending time with all the siblings and just having fun being together. Nelson's grandfather was here for a few days and it was great to be with him. Yesterday I got a sewing machine and Winsor, Ginny, and I have been trying our hand at making lots of things. It has been so fun! I am going to make some pillows when I get home and I am getting sewing classes for Christmas from my parents. I was so bummed because the store where we got my sewing machine in Dallas offers free lessons for all machine owners but since I don't live here, I don't get to take advantage of the great deal. Ginny says that that is all the more reason why we need to move to Dallas, but until then, they said I can call any time I am in town and they will give me some free tutorials! Today we celebrated Nelson's birthday a day early with a delicious dinner of pot roast and bosom beans. Bosom beans you may ask? Well, they are really green beans but when Nelson's mom was cooking them, she used a pork thing to give them a salty flavor. Well, that pork thing had a nipple still on it! So by process of reasoning, we decided that in fact, it was a bosom flavoring our beans! So we lovingly called them bosom beans! We had some funfetti birthday cake and Nelson opened some presents from his folks. Then John got surprised with an early birthday present since he will be at school for his birthday (in a few weeks). It was quite the surprise- an X Box 360! Now he and Nelson can play on line together all the time! We have also had a great time hanging out with the puppy additions to the Somerville and Vanderhill families. Jack and Riley are brother and sister and Jack is the Somervilles and Riley is the Vanderhill's. They are cavalier king charles spaniels, pretty much the cutest dogs ever! It is so fun to watch them tussle about and play fight together. The Somerville's other dog, Callie, is also a Cavalier and so she loves having friends around to play with. Tomorrow we have to go back to the Lou and back to reality again :( But I only have three weeks of fieldwork left and then I will become a working woman! This Thanksgiving has been an amazing time to reflect at God's provisions and blessings in my life. I would not be anywhere without Him and His grace in my life. Praise him for the wonderful things he has done!

My Dad's big race!

My dad ran a marathon this weekend and pretty much kicked butt, if I do say so myself. My sister-in-law documented the race in her blog so I will just let that speak for itself!

Every Kiss begins with Kay

just when you think you've learned it all, something totally new hits you right smack dab in the middle of your face! So tonight we were watching some TV, a commercial came on for Kay jewelers. I made the comment that it seems like all the Kay commercials come on just at the holiday times. So I started making fun of the commercial, singing the little tag line "every kiss begins with kay." I was about to sing it again and I was trying to think of how I could change it to make fun of it even more. So I thought, I know! Instead of saying Kay at the end, I will say whatever letter kiss starts with. Then it hit me!!!!! The whole point of the little song is that the word "kiss" really does begin with the letter "k!!!!!" Imagine that! And this whole time I just thought it meant that if you give someone something from Kay they will kiss you. I never put two and two together. Now I no longer make fun of the commercial but wait in eager anticipation of when the next one will come on so I can embrace it in a whole new way!!!

I think it is time for a new post but not a lot is coming to my mind. I think it is because I had a fever the past few days and so my brain cells are a little burnt, but I think they are recovering and I should be good as new in a few days. Well, we had a good weekend last weekend, we helped at a retreat for my parents' church, watching the little kiddies. It was a great time, we really enjoyed it. It was a little intense at times when the kids didn't want to listen, but overall, it was good. We were able to play some putt-putt and go paddleboating in our free time so that was fun. We also had a rousing game of basketball with my parents which is always good. On Sunday night we had a friend over who made a very momentous purchase- her first digital camera!!! She needed a tutorial on how to use it because it had been sitting in the box for about a month before we were able to intervene and teach her the ways of the digital world! Hopefully it went well and we didn't inundate her with too much information. Monday was good until the afternoon when I started feeling really sick. The sad part was that my brother was in town and we were having our belated birthday celebration with my mom (the three of us have the same birthday). We had our party anyway, I got some great presents, but I was not really feeling the greatest. Then on Tuesday, I still didn't feel so good but when I called my client for that day to cancel, he was like, oh no, come anyway, we don't care if you are sick, no big deal. I was thinking "I care that I am sick and do not feel like putting on clothes and driving to see you." but after a few attempts to reschedule, I realized he wasn't budging, so I went anyway. I spent the rest of the day asleep in bed so that was good. Today I feel better, not 100% but a good 90%. So tomorrow should be better.
That is about all the happenings for now. We are going this weekend to Big Bill's marathon in Chattanooga, so we are pumped about that! Go Big Bill!

sweet justice

this morning started off not being so great. I knew when I woke up and it was light outside that there was a problem. when I looked at my alarm clock to see the time, there definitely was a problem. I overslept by an hour and a half! I remember my alarm going off but I guess I turned it off instead of hitting snooze. I woke at the time that I am supposed to be at work by, so I quickly jumped in the shower and got ready in about 12 minutes. It would have been shorter except when I was putting on my mascara, I accidentally poked myself in the eye, my eye started watering and all that mascara I just put on of course was then pouring down my face. So I had to wash my face again and reapply my make up. Luckily I have my lunch leftover from yesterday since I went out to lunch then so I didn't need to make a lunch. I grabbed Pop-Tart (it was definitely a pop tart kind of morning) and headed out the door with soaking wet hair to find that my car was all frozen over with frost. So I quickly scrapped a few visible spots on my windshield and was on my way. I was driving to work and I was pretty much obeying the speed limit because the road I take has so many stop lights that speeding wouldn't get me there any faster. But this dude behind me was totally riding my butts (as Nelson calls it) and then finally got the chance to get around me and flew past me. I pretty much dismissed him from my memory until a few minutes later I saw some flashing lights in front of me. That annoying butt-riding dude had gotten pulled over!!!! I was so excited and felt this wave of justice sweep over me. Then I knew that all was right in this world and that the morning was going to be ok.

monograms, decorative soap and time zones

So tonight while we were enjoying some games with some friends, we came up with some ideas for my blog. The first one was on the topic of monograms. I really love monogrammed things. If everything could be monogrammed, I would monogram it. Shirts, bags, blankets, towels, soap, etc. If it were up to me, I would probably mow my initials in the yard every week or at least sculpt the hedges in a nice EKS (or eSk depending on the type of monogram). But since we live in an apartment, I don't have control over those things so for now I am content with monogramming things inside. I am not sure where this love came from but it is here and it looks like it is here to stay. One of the things I have monogrammed is my soap. However, this soap is not really meant to be used. I do have three bars of this monogrammed soap but I just can't bring myself to use it because then eventually we would get down to the part that isn't monogrammed any more. and then it would just be a bar of unmonogrammed, boring soap. so for now, it is just decorative soap. And one more thing, who knew that Canada has the same time zones at the United States? I certainly didn't. Not knowing this almost caused some embarrassing times for me today. Luckily someone who did know about Canadian times zones was able to fill me in on how they work before I emailed someone from Canada wondering how we would ever set up a phone conference when we would both be at work at the same time? I mean, I didn't know if I was going to have to come in really early or stay really late-it almost didn't work out. But then I looked at a map and saw that Canada does in fact use the same time zones as the U.S. and it would all work out. So we have our phone conference set up and I will probably take notes on some monogrammed paper.

funny people

I am not quite sure what it is, but I have managed to have some strange interactions with people during the past few days. After the weird conversation with all the sprint people yesterday, I got cussed out by an old lady today! I really didn't do anything wrong though, I promise. See, I went to see a client and she lived in condo. So I drove up, parked my car, and went inside to do my thing. Well, when I came out, I found two older ladies standing by my car. I wasn't sure why they were standing there, I thought, maybe I have a flat tire or maybe my car is just that cool that people congregate around it. but then I realized they were not happy. and the yelling began "IS THIS YOUR *&$% CAR???" "why yes, it does happen to be my car" "WELL, WHY THE $%#% DID YOU PARK YOUR CAR THERE???" "well the spot was open" (there were lots of open spots) "YOU #$%@#$ IDIOT, YOU CAN'T PARK YOUR CAR THERE, YOU ARE A VISITOR, YOU MUST PARK OVER THERE" (there were no signs or anything alerting me to this fact) "ok, I am sorry, I will not let it happen again" "WELL I HAVE SPENT THE PAST TWO HOURS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHOSE $#@$# CAR THAT IS" (I was only there for 45 minutes) "I am really sorry, I didn't know" I thought that was the end of it but I turned to get into my car and I noticed there was a huge piece of paper taped to the window with some not so friendly words written on it. "THAT'S YOUR #$&*#@ TICKET YOUNG LADY" "yes ma'am, I am sorry" I mutter under my breath as I rip this paper off my window and try to peel of the tape that is pretty much frozen to it. So after that ordeal was over and I peeled out of my parking space. Then I went to the grocery store. I really love the grocery store and I always look forward to going there. This particular trip lived up to my expectations except one small incident (it really was pretty small). Well, first there was a really cute old guy wearing a hoodie but it was tucked into his pants which were pulled up really high. So that was awesome but then I proceeded down the canned soup, beans, etc aisle. There was a man there that started talking to me about how hard it is to go to the grocery store and buy things that are low in sodium. I didn't want to tell him that it really is not that hard but then he started going off on how the heck was he supposed to keep to his low sodium diet when there are 800 mg of sodium in this can of chili??? I really didn't feel like talking so I just told him that maybe he needed to choose something else instead. I quickly finished on that aisle and proceeded through the rest of the store. The rest of the trip was uneventful but I am really just wondering why do people always go so crazy with me?

a frustrating afternoon

today I spent over two hours on the phone with the Sprint PCS people trying to troubleshoot a stupid broadband wireless card. First I was talking to one lady, who after about an hour of talking about her granddaughter who is living with her and is carving a pumpkin for halloween which looks like it needs braces, stated that she really didn't know what was going on and that the error codes I was giving her were not on her "list" of questions she could answer, she transferred me to tech support (shouldn't I have been talking with tech support all along, not this random lady who was pretending like she could fix things??). then during tech support all the help I basically got was demeaning questions like "what kind of computer do you have? is it old?" (it happens to be brand new), encouraging statements like "you just need to be patient," and totally weird questions like "did you live in st. louis during the flood of '93?" After that didn't work, I got transferred to "advanced" tech support. I am not really sure what that means except that probably this guy was tired of talking to me so he passed me on the next lucky guy. somewhere during that transferring process to advance tech support with nice elevator music, my computer froze, someone came in to talk to me about where I wanted my shelves that were being installed 12 or 16 inches apart, I got so frustrated with the fact that I had just wasted two hours of my life, that I just said I had to go and hung up the phone. the sad thing is tomorrow I will probably have to start over at square one since, as Nelson so gently informed me, I didn't get any sort of service reference number or phone number to call the advanced tech support man back. I think it will be a great day tomorrow. good thing it's friday.

after that last picture, I knew it was time to stop and let Nelson get back to his peaceful times

what happens when I get a hold of a camera

we decided to take some pictures. actually, let me rephrase that. I was bored and Nelson was perfectly content watching a football game. So I do what I usually do when I get bored- bother Nelson. This particular day called for use of the camera. The following pictures are just a glimpse into the events that transpired.

one of my favorite kinds of days

Today is one of my favorite kinds of day (minus the fact that it is Monday). It is cold and rainy fall day. To some, this sounds like a terrible day. But to me, it is great. I love the cold and I love the rain. I like the cold because I can get all bundled up, snuggle up to Nelson under a sweatshirt blanket and not ruin the moment by starting to sweat. I like rainy because there is something refreshing about it. It also just evokes this feeling in me of needing to be close to someone. and I get to be close to Nelson so that works out perfectly. and I like fall because i love the crispness, the smell of fires in the fireplace, the fact that I can wear hoodies, and the beautiful fall leaves. So basically this is my kind of day. It would be really good if I would have planned ahead and had some chili cooking for tonight, but I did mention it was a Monday, so planning ahead like that is virtually impossible.

one more thing to say today!

The other day I was at Wal-Mart. I usually try to avoid Wal-Mart but it was early in the morning and I needed something and it was the only place that was open. So I went. It was almost the usual excruciating trip (our Wal-Mart smells exceptionally bad, always has the strangest people there, and they are usually having "team" meetings and doing a cheer like "give me a W, give me an A, give me a L, etc) it did have one very redeeming part to it: Diet Dr. Thunder. You see, I really like Diet Dr. Pepper. I would be content to drink it morning, noon, and night. But then I ran across this Diet Dr. Thunder. At only $1.98 for a 12 pack, I thought "i will give this a try, if it is terrible, at least I have only spent $1.98" So I bought some. Then I drank it. It changed my life. It is fantastic. And such a good deal. The only problem is that now I will have to go back to Wal-Mart to get some more. I knew it had to be too good to be true.

and I thought I wouldn't have anything to say!

So my birthday is in a week. I really like birthdays but I do not like surprises. When I was growing up, I really liked to look for all my presents. It was so much better that way. I also do not like to wait until the actual day to celebrate. So if I get a card or present in the mail prior to the day, I will open it. However, Nelson does not agree with me on these points. He loves to be surprised and loves to wait until the day before any celebrating begins. Last year for Christmas, Nelson got me some presents and did a good job at hiding them but did not exactly hide the receipts. I was dusting one day and came across the receipts. It was one of the biggest temptations I have ever encountered. I really really wanted to look. I knew Nelson would be very disappointed if I did. So I didn't. It was very hard. One of the hardest things I have ever done. But I think that Nelson has learned a lesson. See, I asked him this morning if he had gotten me any birthday presents yet. He said no and that he might need to go on some "top secret" errands this week. While at first I was a little disappointed that he hadn't gotten me anything yet (I have already gotten him presents and his birthday is in over a month) I figured he is doing this on purpose. If there are no presents around, there are no presents for me to find. If there are no presents for me to find, I can't "ruin" any surprises. So I guess I will just have to wait till my birthday this year to actually find out what I am getting. I don't know about that. . .

I do have something to say!

So the other night at Kingdom Group, we were discussing what "flavors" our marriages are. There are three options, the first one is vanilla. Vanilla is your pretty even-keel, steady couple. They get along great, don't ever seem to disagree, and things are always seeming to go pretty well for them. There is also chocolate. Chocolate is for a more fiesty couple that tends to fight a little more, be more vocal about disagreements, things just tend to be a little more sparky with them. And then there is strawberry which is the sweet, lovey-dovey couple who always get along and are always saying nice things and doing nice things for each other. So Nelson and I decided we are a Steak N Shake side-by-side milkshake of vanilla and strawberry. This is pretty funny because it is the usual milkshake that Nelson gets whenever we go to Steak N Shake. So I guess the flavor categories really are pretty accurate.

New to the Blogging World

I was having a discussion with someone the other day about how I don't think I would ever have a blog. But after looking at my sister-in-law's cool blog, I thought I would give it a try. But I generally do not have anything important, funny, or interesting to say. We will see how it goes. If I don't like it, I will just delete it!