Michigan Happenings

New/Noteworthy: Grampa passed away this weekend

Interesting Activity: traveled to Michigan on Thanksgiving.  Packed, overfull flight from SFO to Detroit, and totally empty flight from Detroit to Grand Rapids.

What I Learned: Not so much learned, but decided on my own.  It's cheaper to carry on and buy some toiletries in your destination city than to pay to check a bag.  It's also easier than dealing with baggage claim.  

Where I went: Grand Rapids

Biggest Accomplishment: bought a last minute ticket to Michigan and made it here in a span of 36 hours.

Weekend Plans: Yesterday was the funeral and family hangout time at Aunt Jo's; today is brunch at Grandma's and then maybe shopping or something else fun.

Fun Photos:

12 cousins on the stairs

12 cousins in a pyramid

more photos of the weekend can be seen here and here.

Thankful Thursday

This week's Thankful Thursday is a day early because I will be traveling tomorrow.

I'm thankful for family, holiday airfaire, bereavement leave, and an understanding boss.

I'll see you Lengers tomorrow.

Weekly Happenings - 10/21/08

New/Noteworthy: Our marriage certificate arrived! YAY!!! I can legally change my name now. I also started tutoring a HS student in chemistry. I'm working with a tutoring agency, so I could get more students.

Interesting Activity: Kymberly made honor roll; last night was her honor roll thing at school. Today she gets a pizza party.

What I learned: The location of the DMV nearest my house

Where I went: Honor Roll night for Kymberly.

Biggest Accomplishment: Paid bills last Friday night. And we didn't fight or anything. ;)

Weekend Plans: go through Christmas decorations to see what we need to buy, wash the cars, build a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.

Fun Photo:
Kym's Honor Roll Night.

Thankful Thursday

Today's Thankful Thursday edition goes out to Sarah. Sarah is one of my best friends. She and I Have known each other since 6th grade, and have been friends since 7th. We were in band together in middle school and high school. I had a crush on her brother. We went to youth group together. We dated brothers. We were in bible club together through high school. We both majored in biology in college (although at different colleges). We are both Trekkies and Sci Fi Geeks (she more than me though). Our passions are very much the same, even though they've led us down different paths in life.

Today is Sarah's 29th Birthday. Happy Birthday Sarah. I miss you and wish we could see each other more often.

Throughout middle school and high school, I bought Sarah Star Trek Calendars for her birthday. It started as a cool gift, then became a joke, and then tradition.

Your bday present is late this year, but it'll be there eventually. I promise!

things that make me go HUH????

I just don't understand why people talk on the phone while going to the bathroom. It seems rude to the person on the other line. Not to mention un-sanitary. And isn't that the kind of activity you want privacy for??? I was just subject to a woman's Thanksgiving plans and who's parents they are going to and what preparations they need to make.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse.......

Happy Birthday to you!

He is 80 year's old today.

Maturity ... please

So I just walked into the lunchroom to get my mid-morning snack. I opened up my lunchbag and it felt a little light. When I looked inside all I saw were my 2 snacks and my leftover fixings from breakfast. My lunch was GONE!!!!

WHAT!?!?!? OK. I must've left it at my desk. Nope. Not there. Looked thoroughly. OK. Did I leave it on the counter this morning? Maybe. Went back to the lunchroom and looked on the counter and in the cupboards and on the racks and in the trash and all throughout the fridge. My lunch was nowhere to be found.

OK. If I left it out. My bad. Please put it away for me. But I am 99.99999% sure I put it away with the rest of my food for the day (I double checked the counter after making my breakfast to ensure I cleaned up my mess).

Which leads me to believe that someone took my pizza out of my lunchbag in the fridge and ate it.

I'm astonished. I know it's only leftover homemade pizza, but it was MY LUNCH!!! And now I have to go get something to eat today. I don't exactly have leftover money to be supplying 2 lunches a day.

I now remember why I usually leave my lunchbag at my desk.

Weekly Happenings - Nov 14

New/Noteworthy: My new insurance cards arrived. Now when we get our marriage certificate I can change my insurance again and go on with Josh.

Interesting activity: urgent care on Sunday morning. Had to get an antibiotic. I'm better now, but blech.

What I learned: How to do my hair without it looking weird.

Where I went: Urgent Care, Christmas shopping for Josh

Biggest Accomplishment: roasted coffee on Saturday morning without setting off the smoke-detectors.

No photo this week.

Memorandum: PAY ATTENTION!

For those of you who walk: When exiting a room into a hallway, please watch where you are going. Do not look behind you as you are walking forward. Just like driving, you have to watch where you are going!

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for a good night's sleep. That does not mean that I'll stay awake all day, but the chances are greater.

I'm also thankful for a mostly safe and happy football season for Andrew. Tonight is his last game. Except for a mild concussion that occurred during practice, he escaped the season injury free. And he had a good time this year. Already talking about playing again next year.

List of Annoyances

List of Annoyances
I don't do this often, but there are some things that have really been bugging me lately and I just have to get them off my chest.

*People who speak grammatically incorrect, but think they are speaking correctly
*Consistent noises in an otherwise quiet room ... throat clearing, quiet monotone voices, etc
*Using words that don't exist ... literately, irregardless
*Diet advice from the overweight who eat junk and have a big bowl of candy on their desk
*Getting told why my thoughts, feelings, beliefs, etc are wrong
*People who stop in an intersection when stuck in traffic
*Co-workers not thinking for themselves
*People not reading a full e-mail or message board post before responding
*INTERNET EXPLORER!
*Automated e-mails that don't go through
*Everybody KNOWING what's best for me

Cliche

While I can't stop reading opinions about it, I just can't help but think that all political talk and commentary has become cliche.

Without putting my own two cents in, I just keep hearing the same comments over and over again; and both parties are guilty of it.

The election is over. Let's move on.

Stop analyzing what went wrong in the election.

Stop blaming the state for the passing of a proposition. If it were an illegal proposition, it never would've made it on the ballot. The state has twice now voted for this sort of thing ... perhaps it really is desired by the people. And don't blame the voters for not knowing what we're voting for. Now you just insult your people.

I could go on, but I shouldn't.

Book Review: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Blindness by José Saramago

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book as a "I need a book to read" book and really enjoyed it. I couldn't put it down. It was one of those stories that made me think, "What if this really happened?"


An eye doctor, his wife, a man and his wife, a young woman with dark glasses, a boy with a squint, an old man with an eye-patch and a woman with insomnia tell the story.

A White Blindness (all that is seen is white, not black) becomes an epidemic. To try to contain the spread, the government created a quarantine in an old mental hospital for anyone who was blind or came in contact with someone who was blind.

There is no contact with the outside world. All chaos breaks loose and there is nobody to keep order.

One person can see and becomes their guide, but doesn't let on that she can see.

What struck me about this story was the writing. Saramago has an extensive vocabulary and a very unique writing style. The dialogue is not broken up by paragraphs or quoted. Instead, it's written as one long paragraph at a time. The paragraphs take on a page and a half or more. The characters don't have names, just descriptions. It adds to the mystery and the chaos and the unknown. The characters don't know anyone's name.

This book is not fluff. It is not horror. It is not light. It has no political agenda. It just tells a story. A story that made my brain think, "What if?" Is this realistic? Is this how life would be? How would I react?

This book won the Nobel Prize for Literature

View all my reviews.

The Goings On

New/Noteworthy: A member of the church we've been attending greeted us and said hello before the service started.  That's the first time that's happened since we started going periodically.  That was encouraging.

Interesting Activity: Josh and I did all the kids' Christmas shopping last weekend.  Feels good to be done with that.

Biggest Accomplishment:  Went to bed on time and woke up on time every day this week.  Felt mostly refreshed and rested for a new day.  That's a good feeling.

Fun Photos:

Me at 12 weeks!!!  It's VERY exciting.  My baby belly is starting to be present all the time, not just at the end of the day.

Andrew's football game last night the cheerleaders from both middle schools were present.  There were a lot of 12-14 year-old girls on the track.  It was fun to see that.  And Kymberly was totally excited that HER middle school cheers were there.  She and her friend went to an empty part of the bleachers and did all the cheers with the girls.    

Andrew's football team scored more points this week than any other game.  They still didn't win; but they did tie (again).  Final score 22-22.  It was the last home game.  He said he definitely wants to play again next year.  That's encouraging to hear from a kid who only played in 4 plays all season.

Thursday Thankfulness

It's Friday ... but I forgot to do this yesterday.

I'm thankful for closure and completion of an old chapter.

change

So all this talk of change with Obama and I woke up this morning with "Time to Change" by The Brady Bunch in my head.

When it's time to change,
You've got to rearrange......

sigh........

7 Random Things

I guess technically I was tagged by Di.

So ... 7 Random Things about Myself.

1. I'm a closet neat-freak, but have no energy to keep up the neatness.  Closets, drawers, and hidden things are higher on the list of needing to be organized and cleaned than the rest of the house.

2. I want to be a stay-at-home-mom and career student.  Neither of which I can afford to do.

3. I really dislike living in California.

4. I love to cook and bake.

5. I'm a list person.  I keep lists for everything.  I feel lost if I don't have a list.  This is true in nearly all aspects of my life.

6. I love social situations only because they FORCE me to meet new people and get connected with others, with whom I normally wouldn't talk.

7. If it weren't for Josh, I would never be on time anywhere.

Consider yourself tagged if you read this.