The Real Thing

For those of my readers that I went to church with back in Albuquerque, you might remember the night that Grant wore a fake mustache to a Bible study, I think. Well last week, when it was time for Grant to shave his holiday beard, he decided to leave a mustache. It's pretty much the worst thing I've ever seen, and it was hard for me to even look at him. The fact that he's smiling greasily in this picture doesn't help.

By the way, he no longer has the mustache. He only kept it for that night. I made him an offer he couldn't refuse - if he didn't shave it, I wouldn't shave my legs for a month.

'Nother one

Thanks to Tink, I have yet another cool blog header to add to my collection. I think this one is my fave. Thanks, Tinky-Winky!

Free Willy!

This wonderfully-written song is just a glimpse of what they're teaching over at my beloved alma mater. *End sarcasm*

Now, I'm guessing the majority of my regular readers (that's you, Providence Presbyterianers) will get a big kick out of this song. But whether you're arminian or calvinistic, you can at least appreciate the cheesiness of this song.

Auld Lang Syne

I had so many pictures from our recent escapades...it was extremely hard for me to pick a few to include in my blog. I probably changed my mind at least 5 times!

Anyway, the wedding went well - I saw many, many college friends, and Grant made some new friends. After the wedding, left for St. Joe, home of Mrs. J!

When we arrived, Mrs. J's mom (Mrs. T) had dinner all ready for us (a fantastic wild-rice soup). We met the family, ate, talked, and the boys played Mario Kart.
We eventually went to bed, and got up for church the next morning. After church, another fabulous meal - a bruch prepared by Mrs. T, with ham, eggs, homemade granola, yogurt, peaches...you name it, we had it.

We had a quick picture time, then it was time for us to say good-bye and make our way to Chicago.

Here's Mrs. J's sister, Kendall with her baby boy, Jaxson. Mr. and Mrs. J with Mrs. J's other sister, "Boo."
Thanks to the entire "T" family for making us feel so welcome!

A couple hours later, we arrived in the Windy City! We were very happy to see very little traffic on the roads. We found our hotel, checked in, then off we went to explore Chi-town.

We needed to catch the L, and unlike NYC, you can't use a credit card to buy transit passes. So, here we all are in CVS Pharmacy, breaking our $20's so we can buy tickets.
The J's wanted to us to get some real Chicago pizza during our short visit, so they suggested Gino's East. We got a 4-meat deep-dish that was fantastic! Unfortunately, the J's weren't to thrilled with the salami.
After pizza, we went to the Green Mill Jazz Club to enjoy some great music.
Then it was time to head for the fireworks, which were taking place just a short distance from our hotel. I danced to NSYNC, we had champagne, we lit sparklers, we took some pictures, we had fun!

We were so happy to be able to spend time with great friends, even if it was just a short time. Hopefully, they arrived safely in Albuquerque, where they had just had a crazy snow storm!

Happy New Year (early)

Well, Grant and I got back into Ohio last night (the 26th), and later this morning, we'll be heading out to Waterford, Michigan for lots of pre-wedding festivities (my friend, Kellie, is getting married on the 30th).

After the wedding, it's off to St. Joe, Michigan, where we will meet up with Mr. and Mrs. J! We'll be spending New Years Eve with them in Chicago! We are excited to see our dear friends from Albuquerque - we've missed them so!

White Christmas

I won't rub it in too much, because according to Pinky's blog, Albuquerque's getting a different kind of white Christmas, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...



I found my picture that I want to blow up to poster-size! This was kind of an accidental picture, but I think it turned out perfectly! Notice the little bird in the lower left-hand corner.

Greetings, from Sunny Florida!

Well, we're home. And it's beautiful. And warm (75!). And sunny. And we're so happy to be here! I haven't made it out to the beach yet, but I'm hoping to go tomorrow to take some pictures. I really want to take a picture of the beach, blow it up to poster size, and hang it in my cubicle at work. So for now, I "stole" this picture off the internet.
I typed in "Perdido Key pictures" on a search engine and this one popped up. Perdido Key is one of the many beautiful beaches in the Pensacola area. My parents had a condo there for a while (not one of these big, commercial-type of condos, but a small, mom-and-pop one), and I even lived at that condo for one glorious summer after I graduated from college. The condo is no longer there, thanks to Hurricane Ivan, but the beaches are still beautiful.

Talk About Classic!

I loved Mrs. J's post the other day about the Charlie Brown Christmas Special being such a classic.

While I was at the post office today, sending off some last minute packages, I saw they had a special edition Charlie Brown Christmas CD, for $10, so you know I had to pick it up. I love it!

P.S. Hey, Mrs. J, I deleted your comment that you wanted me to.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys....Whatcha Gonna Do

I completely forgot to blog about this totally blog-worthy moment that happened a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of our Pastor's 5-year-old son. So, thanks to Grant for reminding me.

So we were invited to someone's house for dinner after church on Sunday a couple weeks ago. The pastor and his family were also there. Well, while we were waiting for dinner to be served, the pastor was telling us about how his son-in-law. Well, the pastor's son (5 years old) thought it would be good for us to know what his uncle did for work. So, as the pastor was in the middle of telling us about his son-in-law, his song blurted out, "Yeah, he's a drug dealer."

I, for one, was hoping there was a good explanation why the guy that married our pastor's daughter is a drug dealer! Well it turns out that he's actually a pharmaceutical salesmen, and at one time he joked to the family that he was a drug dealer.

This just goes to show you, you have to be careful what you say in front of kids.

New Project

As many projects as I have on my plate right now, I've added one more. But this one, if it works out, will be a great experience, I think.

I realized the other day, that it's been almost 10 years since Grant and I graduated from high school. We still keep in touch with several people from our class, but we've lost touch with most. So last night, I sent out an email to everyone that graduated with us, who I have email addresses for (which wasn't very many), and suggested a reunion in March of 08. The reason I picked March is because that's when Grant graduates from AFIT, and we'll be heading out to So Cal. So I figured we could stop in P'cola on our way (well, not really on our way, but whatever) to LA, and have this little reunion. I figured if people know about it now, they can start planning for it.

So far, I've gotten 2 responses, and they've both been positive! So, I'm very excited about this. It will be fun to organize and plan for something like this. Now I need to drag out my yearbook, and figure out how to get in touch with some of these people.

You talkin' to me?

The WEIRDEST thing happened to Grant and I yesterday after church. We were going to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Well, when we turned into the parking lot, I noticed that someone was crossing the lot to go into the store. Not so strange, right? Well, I noticed that even though he was already walking pretty slowly, he slowed down even more when he saw us. The whole time he's walking, he has his eyes on us.

Well, Grant saw this guy pretty much right when we turned into the parking lot. So, he was driving pretty slow as he approached the guy. Normally, when someone is as far away as this guy was from us, the driver wouldn't have to stop. Slowing down to let the person walk would be sufficient.

Well, I guess this guy wanted us to stop for him, even though he purposefully slowed down his pace when he saw us coming. When we got close to him, he stopped right in front of us, had this terribly mean, bitter expression on his face, then took one of his fingers and pointed at us, just stood there for a second (for emphasis?), then walked in the store, staring at us the whole time. Grant and I both laughed out of shock, and put our hands up like, "What?" We were puzzled the rest of the afternoon about the whole situation. That has never happened to either of us before, and it was definitely the weirdest thing that's happened to us in a long time!

So this is winter...

Well, Grant and I were wrong. Dayton is not just a little bit colder than Albuquerque...it's A LOT colder! We had our first official winter storm yesterday, and let me tell you, it was not fun (or warm)!

It took me an hour to get to work, when it normally takes about 20 minutes. And I had it easy! Some people had a 2+ hour commute. Grant tried to make it to school, but with the stop-and-go traffic (because of all the accidents, and the cars skidding everywhere), his little Mustang couldn't make it up a hill. He had to come back home and put some weight in the back. By the time he tried again, the roads were already cleared. This was a common sight around town yesterday (taken from the Dayton Daily News website).



And did I mention how frickin' cold it was? I already knew that I was a warm weather type of person, but this past week has just confirmed it. My co-workers laughed at me the other day when I asked if it would get much colder than this. I was watching the Weather Channel the other morning before work, and we were actually colder than Alaska! Now, I'm thinking that Alaska was probably having pretty "warm" temperatures to be above us, but still...that should never happen! Right now, at 6:17 in the morning, it's 10 degress, and feels like 2.

So, all this time, I thought I had experienced a "real" winter in Albuquerque. Boy, was I wrong!

PS - Tink, I know y'all have it WAY worse than we do, but for a Florida girl, this is pretty bad!

Movie

Check out Megan's brother-in-law's blog and trailer to his new movie, The Road to Pecumsecah. Megan's husband, Andy, helped his brother make this movie this past summer in Philadelphia. Pretty cool!

Walgreens

I just wanted to take a second and rant about Walgreens photo department. First of all, let me say that our Walgreens in Albuquerque was great. Not only was it in walking distance from our house (although I don't know that I ever actually walked there), but they had a great photo department. However, here in lovely Ohio, things at Walgreens...not so great.

Last year, I made all of my Christmas cards that I sent out. This year, I knew that wasn't going to happen because, unlike last year, I'm working full-time. So, I decided to do one of those picture cards. Well, I picked one out that I liked on Walgreens website. Ordered them, and the next day they were ready for me to pick up.

So, after work, I went to Walgreens. First of all, I waited at the counter for about 5 minutes before anyone came to help me. The cashier even made an announcement pretty soon after I walked up that someone needed to go to the photo department. Five minutes. Then, the guy comes up, I tell him I'm picking up an order, and give him my last name.

He then looks through the "S" bin, and moves aside a big envelope, which I was pretty sure was mine, because it was a pretty big order. But he moves it to the side, and keeps looking. I tell him that I ordered Christmas cards, so it would be a pretty big package. He tells me he can't find it. I lean over the counter, look at the first big envelope that he pushed to the side, and there was my name. So I tell him, and he gets it.

While I was waiting those wonderful five minutes to be helped, I noticed an advertisement on the counter that said if you order your photo Christmas cards through them, you get a free pen that writes on photos, while supplies last. So when he hands me my order, I ask him about the pen. He looks at the ad like he's never seen it before. Reads it very carefully, then tells me that he's never heard of that before, but he'll look anyway. Well, he looks quickly, then says that they don't have them. So that's that.

I went on to my yoga class, then home. It hit me in the car on my way home that I bet he didn't give me the envelopes that were supposed to come with my order. So I get home, open up the envelope, and sure enough, no envelopes. I called and talked to the same guy, and he immediately realizes that, yes, he forgot to put the envelopes in there. I asked if I could pick them up the next day, and he says yes, and apologizes.

So, the next day, after work, I go to pick up the envelopes. This time, I probably only waited about 3 minutes before the same guy came to the counter. He recognized me, so he gives me my envelopes.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to address the envelopes. In the back of my head, I was kind of thinking, "What if these aren't the right size envelopes?" But then discounting it, because, surely, he would've checked the size of the cards I ordered, and put the right sized envelopes in there. Well, he didn't. I got the wrong sized envelopes. But whatever...I'm just going to trim off the white edges of the photo card, and use these envelopes, and never go back to that Walgreens again.

The Old New Jersey Shore

Has anyone ever seen the movie, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken? Well, when Grant's Aunt and Uncle took us to the Jersey shore, I couldn't stop singing that part of the song that I made the title for the post. Except Sonora was singing it when she went to Atlantic City, and we didn't actually go to Atlantic City, but whatever.

Anyway, that's what we did the day after Thanksgiving. That's right...no shopping for me, even though we were about an hour away from a city that would have everything that I could ever want to buy! But we had a great time. It was an incredibly beautiful day, which made up for the not-so-great weather we had the day before.

We drove from their town all the way down the shore to Ocean Grove. We saw some incredibly beautiful houses, one of which was Bon Jovi's. We eventually made our way to Ott's, Uncle Lee and Aunt Liz's favorite restaurant on the Shore. We had a fantastic view from the window at our table! For people who used to live near the beach, and now live very far away from any beach, this was perfect!
Then we took a walk along the boardwalk.


It was a great day...nice and relaxing in between 2 very busy days. But I'll get to the Saturday after Thanksgiving later.

How's that for a cliff hanger?

Check it out!

Check out my new header, courtesy of Tink. Cool, huh?!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! We took off Wednesday afternoon for New Jersey, which ended up being an 11-hour drive (which meant we arrived at the house at 1am). When we woke up on Thanksgiving (at 6am), we took off with Grant's Uncle Lee for the City to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you watched the parade on TV, you'll know that it was a very cold, wet day. We were soaking wet, but we were troopers, and made it through the whole thing. It was an amazing experience!

Blogger did let me upload photos this time, but didn't put them in the order I wanted. So, to save myself some frustration, I'll leave them, and just explain as I go.

This one needs no explanation. It's Snoopy in all of his enormous glory!
Here we all are (technically the day after Thanksgiving, but the meal was just as big as the actual Thanksgiving dinner the day before. The picture's blurry, but that's Uncle Lee and Aunt Liz at either end of the table. To the right of Uncle Lee is his son, Russell, his daughter, Lisa, Lisa's son, Tommy, Aunt Liz, Lisa's husband Angelo, me, and Rusell's wife, Corinne. Got all that? Good. There will be a quiz later. There are some kids missing in this picture, but that's the best picture we have. This is Grant and Russell, playing Polly Pocket with Russell's daughter, Alethia (who is the cutest, sweetest 2nd cousin anyone could ever have!).
Here I am in Times Square, right after the parade finished. Oh, it rained pretty much through the whole parade, but stopped when the parade was over...go figure!
Here we are trying to keep dry, without much success, during the parade.

I'll post more pictures later of our other adventures, so stay tuned.

My favorite subject: FOOD!

I've been eating alot of good food lately, so I thought I'd share...

Favorite ice cream: Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide. Megan, in my opinion, it beats Breyers! Although, you (strangely) don't like chocolate, so you probably won't like it. It's Irish cream liquer ice cream with chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, and a coffee fudge swirl. I'm not a coffee lover, so I can say that the coffee flavor in this ice cream is not at all overpowering...it's just the right amount.

Favorite side dish: Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries. Grant and I have had these 3 times in the last week. Delicious and healthy - what more can you ask for?

Favorite pizza: Pepperoni and Feta Cheese from Ha Ha's Pizza. I went to this pizza place the other day for lunch, and they had the best toppings for pizza, and the best lunch deal - A slice of pizza with 2 toppings + a fantastic all-you-can-eat salad bar (with some of the freshest ingredients I've ever seen on a salad bar) for $5. It was awesome.

Favorite breakfast dish: Blueberry French Toast. I had this at my friend's shower a couple of weeks ago, and it was the most delicious french toast I've ever had! If you want the recipe, let me know. It's different than regular french toast because it's baked in a casserole dish. I prepared it last night, and we'll eat it this morning. I'm hoping it turns out as good as the time I had it!

You know you went to PCC when...

Found this list on myspace. I know most of the people who read my blog don't know too much about PCC, except for what I've told them, but I get a huge kick out of this list. Specifically, the ones I've bolded.

1. The term "prayer closet" has a negative connotation.

2. You think an evening of bowling and miniature golf is a good date.

3. The coolest thing in the world is wearing jeans on a Saturday morning.

4. You know that the worst way to end a semester isby hitch-hiking home.

5. You always wondered where really bad white basketball players went when they died.

6. You hate pilgrim outfits.

7. A suit + three church services + 100 degree heat =spring break

8. You catch yourself trying to wear a tie with a flannel shirt to work.

9. You cut your grass three times a week.

10. You think something special is about to happen when your church sings "Blessed be the Tie."

11. You will not take the elevator to your third floor office.

12. You know how to hide your car in any situation.

13. Two words: "Presidential prerogative."

14. You still get to church 30 minutes early.

15. You know that story of the "Banana-man."

16. you actually wanted your younger brother in the same room as you.

17. you are the only straight person who goes out of their way to get to a gay beach.

18. you are still afraid to record anything funny on your answering machine.

19. you have ever been severly punished for watching television.

20. you expect a day off of work after each big project.

21. you still take only one of everything.

22. you have ever paid 25 dollars to suffer severe muscle cramps from rowing a canoe for 6 hours.

23. you have a phobia about stickers on your vehicle, and you hate Crown Victorias.

24. You feel slightly violated each time you get on an elevator with a member of the opposite sex.

25. Your vacuum cleaner has a name.

26. Your neighbors have observed you closing all the blinds in your house about the same time every night.

27. You have ever borrowed a roll of toilet paper from your next door neighbor.

28. Your umbrella has a name and phone number (not necessarilyyours) permanently written in marker.

29. You have something in your home that you bought at a lost and found sale.

30. Your heart still skips a beat when your pastor tells the congregation to shake hands while the choir sings.

31. You find yourself standing in front of a vending machine with three quarters and you can't figure out what to do with them.

32. You are in bed by ten each night and wonder why you everthought lights out was too early.

33. You have a button on your car radio programmed to 89.5 FM.

34. You still place any name tag you're asked to wear"high and right."

35. You know what happens when you mix honey and coffee creamer.

36. You still buy your butter in little packets.

37. The letters DHA, DC, CPO, and PH mean something to you.

38. The word "socialed" still carries with it a bad connotation.

39. Before moving out of your first apartment, you asked your landlord for a"pre-check."

40. You know exactly how long a gallon of milk will stayfresh on ice.

41. You still abbreviate Thursday with the letter "R."

42. To this day, whenever you walk by a fountain, you have to fight an uncontrollable urge to dump a box of Tide into it.

43. You know exactly how many days there are between Labor Day and Christmas.

44. You still limit all local calls to 30 minutes.

45. You can say that you have stood in line for half an hour for a corn dog and a moon pie.

46. You have no idea what the words to the college hymn are, but you know exactly how many verses it has.

47. You have been told you cannot take a final exam because of an outstanding fifty cent library fee.

48. You know how to operate a Macintosh computer.

49. You know that the stairs in the DHA are called monumental because they are the only stairs that men and women use at the same time.

50. You know the slang term for the fountain outside of the Commons.

51. You still consider getting mail a social event.

52. You know the location of every restaurant in western Florida that has an all-you-can-eat special.

53. You yawn at the mere mention of the word "vespers."

54. You sing nearly all congregational hymns faster than the rest of your church.

55. You go to a church single's function and ask "When do we play the hand-holding games."

56. You know what the Greek word "logos" means.

57. You know who Sally, Bill, and Russ are.

58. You think it would be fun to make the new guy at work eat a goldfish.

59. You think that Bob Jones was a false prophet.

60. You have seen a preacher use a cow's tongue as a sermonillustration.

Feeling Proud

I have a tendency of not following-through with alot of things that I set out to do. But, I'm proud to say, that since I've been here (3 months today), I have completely read 3 500+ page books (the last 2 being over 600 pages)! This is a huge accomplishment for me.

It's all because of this book club.

Now, the books haven't been the greatest (although I really did like The Historian), but that's beside the point. I finished them. And this most recent one (The Other Boleyn Girl), I actually finished on time for the book club. We meet tonight, and I finished it this morning.

I don't say this very often, but I am, indeed, proud of myself.

Picture

This is the picture that I wanted to attach with my previous post.

Chuck Norris writes about Chuck Norris facts.

**I have the PERFECT picture for this post, but it's not letting me upload it right now. So, keep checking back for it - I'll keep trying.**

Someone from my Myspace posted a link to this article, and I thought I should post it here, since our "group" back in Albuquerque was so obsessed with all the Chuck Norris facts. I was going to just send out an email to the people who I thought would be interested, but it gives me something to blog about, since I haven't blogged in a week, and I have nothing else to write about.

I noticed he didn't mention anything about fearing Grant's guns...that one must be true.

This article can be found here.

*****

Have you heard of the "Chuck Norris Facts"?
There are more than 50,000 jokes making their way around the Internet that purport to be "facts" all playing off my movie roles as a "tough guy" and my history as a martial arts champion. But they aren't "jokes" to those who spread them – they're "facts."
Here are a few of my favorites:
"When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris."
"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."
"Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris."
These "facts" have become a phenomenon – a fad spread mainly by young people of high school and college age. It's hard to explain why these things happen – how they take on a life of their own.
Naturally, over the past couple years as this wildfire has been raging, people have asked me, "What do you think of all this?"
My answer is always the same: Some are funny. Some are pretty far out. And, thankfully, most are just promoting harmless fun. (But be careful if you go searching for "Chuck Norris Facts" on the Internet, because some are just not appropriate for kids.)
Being more a student of the Wild West than the wild world of the Internet, I'm not quite sure what to make of the craze of "Chuck Norris Facts." It's quite surprising. I do know that boys will be boys, and I neither take offense nor take these things too seriously. I'm so grateful for my fans. Who knows, maybe these one liners will prompt some one to seek out the real facts about me and the beliefs that have shaped my life and my career.
While I have as much fun as anyone else reading and quoting them, let's face it, most "Chuck Norris Facts" describe someone with supernatural, superhuman powers. They're describing a superman character. And in the history of this planet, there has only been one real Superman. It's not me.
Let me illustrate using a few of the claims being made about me in the various lists of "Chuck Norris Facts":
Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... yes, these are some of Chuck Norris' warm-up exercises."
I've got a bulletin for you, folks. I am no superman. I realize that now, but I didn't always. As six-time world karate champion and then a movie star, I put too much trust in who I was, what I could do and what I acquired. I forgot how much I needed others and especially God. Whether we are famous or not, we all need God. We also need other people.
If your whole life is spent trying to make money and you neglect the people important in your life, you will create an emptiness deep in your heart and soul. I know. I fell into that trap. I dedicated my whole life to fame and fortune. I had a huge hole in my heart and was miserable until I met my wife, Gena, who brought me back to the Lord.
Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live." It's funny. It's cute. But here's what I really think about the theory of evolution: It's not real. It is not the way we got here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations of random chance. We are not accidents. There is a God, a Creator, who made you and me. We were made in His image, which separates us from all other creatures.
By the way, without him, I don't have any power. But with Him, the Bible tells me, I really can do all things – and so can you.
Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries. Ever."
There was a man whose tears could cure cancer or any other disease, including the real cause of all diseases – sin. His blood did. His name was Jesus, not Chuck Norris.
If your soul needs healing, the prescription you need is not Chuck Norris' tears, it's Jesus' blood.
Again, I'm flattered and amazed by the way I've become a fascinating public figure for a whole new generation of young people around the world. But I am not the characters I play. And even the toughest characters I have played could never measure up to the real power in this universe.

House news

Well, I just got a call from our Realtor, but let me fill you in on what happened regarding the house since I wrote last:

1. Potential buyers low-balled us, big time
2. We counter-offered $7,000 higher than their original offer
3. They countered $2,000 less than our counter
4. We stood our ground at our counter
5. They didn't take it

So, now we're officially landlords, I guess. We had another possible renter that contacted us while all this offer/counter-offer stuff was going on. He was ready to move in ASAP. Hopefully he hasn't already found something else. If he did, then there's the first people who contacted us about renting.

I would have been very happy to sell, but this is what Grant wanted after he did quite a bit of thinking about it. In fact, just last night he was saying that he wished we would've just told the buyers that we decided not to sell after all.

Either way, I'm glad that we know, and I hope we can get all this renting stuff finalized soon.

Hoosier Country, Here I Come!

Well, I'm off to Indiana (the South Bend area) for the weekend after work today. My friend, Kellie, is having another shower, and it gives me an excuse to go see her again. I'll get back Sunday afternoon. It looks like I'll probably be seeing some snow when I go up there. Hopefully, it will hold off until I get there tonight.

In the meantime, if you're looking for some funny blogs to read, I recommend the latest entry from Megan, about the funny things that happen with new parents.

Also, the most recent entry from Haley, about the trials of a Southerner living in the Southwest. I feel your pain, Haley! I get okra from the commissary, but it's just not the same.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Halloween!

Well, another Halloween has come and gone, and I have to say, we truly love handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters, and seeing all their cute costumes. There were definitely alot more kids this year, since we're living in the Air Force neighborhood, where there's at least 1 kid to almost every house.

And Grant truly loves dressing up. Last year, he was a Slim Jim, this year, he was (fittingly) a Woopie Cushion. I bought this costume for him last year right after Halloween. I didn't realize how excited he was to wear it - when I proposed having a small Halloween party (which we ended up not having), where everyone would have to dress as a couple, he told me that I would have to find something to go along with a Woopie Cushion, because that's what he'd be wearing.
And Watley really loves dressing up, too. Okay, not really. He hated wearing his Superman costume. And it didn't really fit him (he was too skinny for it!), so he kept coming out of it. And I was supposed to be Lois Lane, but I don't really think I pulled it off. After taking the picture, I ended up changing because the skirt was so uncomfortable.And once again, Grant shows his skills at pumpkin carving - carving 2 pumpkins this year! One is a spooky mansion, and the other I think speaks for itself.

All in God's timing

Since we've been trying to sell the house now for, oh, 5 months or so, we've begun to realize that while we might have a timeline in our heads, that doesn't really matter, because it's definitely going to happen in God's timing.

We've gotten a property manager now, and put our house up for rent, since the buying season is pretty much over now that the holidays are basically here. We already have someone interested in renting, which is great news!

Well, last night when I got home, we had 3 messages (no one ever calls us, so I was definitely excited about getting these messages) - 2 were from our realtor, and 1 was from the property manager. Our realtor informed us that we got an offer on the house, and he would be emailing it over to us later. The property manager was giving us advice as to how to handle renting out the house, now that we had a possible renter.

Obviously, if we can sell the house, we want to. But, the potential buyer low-balled us pretty big, so we're going to counter-offer. Here comes the tricky part. We have to counter-offer so as to not scare away the buyer, but we also don't want to scare away the possible renter, either, in case the buyer doesn't want to take our offer.

This comes as quite a shock to us both! We really thought that now since it's basically November, our chances of selling were gone. On the other hand, we thought we wouldn't have any problems selling it back in May or June. While we realize that it still might not sell, it teaches us that we definitely have no control in this situation.

We'll see what happens....

This is when you know you've made it...

I was doing some searching on the internet for work. I was looking to see if we had the right contact information for a company. I was having trouble finding the company, so I typed in the contact name I had. When I hit enter it said, "Did you mean: William Hung." The last name of the person I was looking for was one letter off from Hung.

It took me a second to recognize the name.

Imagine, a little asian guy who couldn't sing or dance, sings "She Bangs" terribly one time on TV, and now comes up in a search engine as a "did you mean."

America...if you can't make it here....

Michigan Getaway

*I just realized after typing the title, that it could be interpreted that I want the state of Michigan to get away from me. Instead, it's supposed to mean that I had a get-away in Michigan. But I'm leaving the title, cause I think it's funny. I really do hate coming up with titles for my posts.*

So, this past weekend, I was able to go up to Michigan for my friend, Kellie's, wedding shower. I'm less than 4 hours away, and I was very happy to be close enough to go.

I had a great time of catching up with my girls, and talking wedding stuff with Kellie. She lives in Indiana now, and I think I might go there for her next shower in a couple of weeks. I really feel I need to take advantage of living so close to my friends, because in LA, we won't be close to anyone!!

Here's me with Kellie,on the left, and her sister Jenny, in the middle. I was in Jenny's wedding in Michigan back in July.
The future bride!

I knew that I knew that guy from somewhere!

Many of my readers know who Jesse and Joanna are. Joanna is the niece of my pastor in Albuquerque, and she just got married to Jesse last month, who is the interim pastor at another church in Albuquerque. Well, the day before the movers came to pack up our stuff in ABQ, we had J & J over for dinner. During the conversation, it came up that Jesse had gone to Summit around (possibly at) the same time that Grant did - the summer of 97. Grant had always said that Jesse looked familiar to him, and when this whole Summit thing came up, he was convinced that they did, in fact, attend the same week of the summer, and that's why he recognized him.

Well, it just so happened that Grant's mom had the video that was made during the week that Grant went to Summit. So of course he had to ask her to send it to us!

Within the first minute of the video we saw him. After watching it some more, we came across this shot... (Jesse's in the blue, Grant's next to him in the white {probably Florida State} t-shirt.)



Now, you'll have to ignore the guy behind them who's trying to hog the spotlight, but there they are, shoulder to shoulder, back in 1997. So Grant did indeed recognize Jesse. How random is that?

I'm on a roll...

Three posts in a row...that has to be a new record for me!

Anyways, I just wanted to say that after living in Albuquerque for over 3 years, I really became accustomed to the drought conditions. Really, I mean, having about 340 days (actually, it's probably more than that) out of the year that are sunny is not too shabby!

It has now been raining in Dayton for at least 13 hours - straight (that I can tell)! Poor little Watley barely wants to go outside. And when he does, it's so pathetic...he kind of scrunches up his body, hangs his head really low, does his business, then sprints back to the house to be let in.

We were having some really beautiful weather here. Grant it, I could only admire the outside through the windows of my office building, but it was still beautiful. I knew it wouldn't last.

I just noticed that I really like to use exclamation marks!!

New Blogs!

I just wanted to take a minute and give a shout out (I love giving those) to a couple of new blogs. Megan (There's Treasure Everywhere) is a new blogger (we've been working on her for a while to get one started), who is almost about to have her first baby - her due date is in less than a week! Megan and her husband, Andy, moved from Albuquerque about a month after Grant and I did, which means that the church (and Albuquerque, for that matter) lost 2 of the coolest couples, EVER! Our prayers are with them as they move into this new phase of their lives.

The next blog is not new at all, but it's new for us. It's our neighbors, Jesse and Catie, along with their 2 cuties Tori and AJ. As soon as we mentioned that we knew someone in Albuquerque that had a Detroit Tigers cornhole set, Jesse immediately knew who it was (Bob!). Jesse and Catie were supposed to be moving to LA when Jesse graduates this coming March, which would've been awesome, because we'd be there a year after they got there. But, Jesse applied to get out of the Air Force, and he got it, which is great news! So now they have the big decision to figure out where Jesse should apply for a job. Our prayers are with y'all, too!

Busy, Busy!

Well, it's been another busy week here in Dayton! Let's see...

Tuesday: I went to work. My parents came into town late that night.

Wednesday: I went to work, but my parents met me for lunch in Yellow Springs. We found a totally cool restaurant (The Sunrise Cafe), with great food. I had the Greek gyro, and it was delicious! Later that night, I had a Tastefully Simple party at my house.

Thursday: I went to work, but had a 2-hour lunch, in which my parents and Grant came to meet me in Yellow Springs. We were able to walk around the town, go in all sorts of cute little shops, and then take a drive in the country to look at fall colors. We got our first snow that day! Grant and I were not very thrilled with that at all, but my mom was loving it. Later that night, we went to the newly opened Cheesecake Factory, to celebrate my dad's birthday, which was October 9.

Friday: I went to work (are you seeing a trend here? No time off work...but I won't go there right now), but was able to get off at 3 in the afternoon. I had been working on making a purse. I won't go into all the details, because it would take way too long, but I'd been dying to make a ribbon purse. I got all my materials in before my parents came (I ordered the green ribbon and fabric for the lining on ebay), and I wanted my mom to help me with the sewing part, since I do NOT sew. Well, to make a long story short, my little sewing machine that I already had (Pinky got A & C one just like mine), didn't want to do the job. So, I went to a store that sold used sewing machines, got a fantastic deal on a 3-year old machine, and prayed that it worked. And it did! I was able to completely finish my purse in one night. It's not the best craftsmanship in the world, but it was my first try, so I can't be too hard on myself. I want HONEST opinions about the purse, though, since I am thinking about making more of these for gifts. I've been trying to upload the other picture I have of it, with a view of the lining, but blogspot is being weird right now. Does anyone else have uploading problems with them?

Saturday: We took my parents to the 2nd Street Market, which was a lot of fun! There were all sorts of booths set up, with food, drinks, and doo-dads galore. When we were done there, we took a drive through the Oregon District, which is an old neighborhood, with very cool, very old, very unique houses. Then, it was off to the airport so that my parents could fly back to Pensacola. I'm so glad they were able to make it up here, and that my mom was able to see some beautiful fall colors, which was the main reason she wanted to come here this time of year.

Another great weekend

Well, like I said, we were planning on going pumpkin picking this weekend with our neighbors. We did, but I have to say, I wasn't that impressed with the patch. Maybe it was because it was the last weekend they were having this thing, but the pumpkin patch was pretty pathetic.
We had fun, anyway, and we each found our own, perfect pumpkin. Mine had a little dimple in it, that I like to call it's belly button.

After the pumpkins, we each went our own way, and Grant and I decided to walk around Yellow Springs (this is where I work, and also where the dairy farm is that we got our pumpkins from).
Yellow Springs is our own little Santa Fe - kinda quirky, with alot of hippies, and other types of "unusual" people. But we loved Santa Fe, and so far, we love Yellow Springs.

Later that night, we had another front yard campfire, where we had Grant's made-from-scratch pumpkin pie (which was fantastic!), and Daiquiri's (one of our neighbors) homemade apple cider.

You just can't make this stuff up

So apparently, the person who was so interested in our house, well, he got arrested. Seriously. I'm thinking his jail time will conflict with putting an offer on the house. Go figure!

The Latest

I had my second ever book club meeting tonight. This time, it was really cool, because the author of the book that we picked to read was in town. The book was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a historical fiction book about Dracula. I know, it sounds really dark and evil, but it's actually a great book! It's long, though - 642 pages. But if I can get through it, anyone can. Actually, I still have about 40 pages to go, but I plan on finishing it tonight or tomorrow. The book is already in the works to be turned into a movie, which would be really amazing to see it on screen. In the book, they visit at least seven European countries. I know there's more, but that's all I could think of right away. I would seriously work for free on the set of that movie, just to be able to travel to all those countries. It was exciting to meet the author and ask her questions and have her sign my copy of her fantastic piece of work! Really, the research that she put into the book is incredible. It took her 10 years to write it! If you like history, then you will like this book, whether you're interested in Dracula or not.

When I got home, I was telling Grant all about the experience at the bookstore. Then, the phone rang, and we realized it was our realtor. I knew it had to be something, because we JUST talked to him, and we normally only talk to him about once a week, at the most. Well, it was indeed good news! Someone is seriously interested in the house, and will be making us an offer in the next day or so!! We've been waiting for this to happen for so long, I can't even believe it's happening! Now, it doesn't mean it will go through, but this is definitely progress. You can believe there will be some serious praying going on in our little family within the next few days. Specifically, for the price. We've already lowered the price $20,000 than we originally put it up for (which was already reasonably priced). So, we're pretty much non-negotiable in that area, since it's way lower than most of the houses in our neighborhood.

So, if you all could keep us in your prayers, we'd greatly appreciate it!

A Jolly Good Weekend

On Friday night our neighbors, Logan and Leslie, had a few of us from the "hood" over for a weinee roast over their fire pit in the front yard. We must've been having a good time getting to know our neighbors better, because we ended up staying there until about 11 pm. Watley was repeatedly teased for his Florida State sweatshirt, but he definitely needed it on that night. For us, it was pretty cold. If it gets too much colder than that, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I know it will, so I better just get used to it.

Saturday, Grant and I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Waynesville. Most of our entertainment came from just watching some of the people that were attending it, completely dressed up in their medieval garb. Why people even own medieval garb, I'll never know. But they do, and they were out in full force at the Ren Fest. We saw booths that sold medieval weapons, elf ears (I already have my own God-given elf ears, thank you very much), fairy wings, chain maille bikinis, and so much more! We even watched a real-life joust, and saw a medieval wedding.

Then Sunday, we attended church (we decided on Covenant OPC for those who are wondering), came home, had some gourmet bleu cheese burgers, thanks to Grant, and took a nap. All in all, a fantastic weekend! Next weekend, we're planning to go pumpkin picking, so more to come on that.