After a much needed and quite luxuriously uneventful weekend, I woke up to a Monday Writer’s Block. I don’t recall setting our Tivo to record that program.

In an effort to fulfill my promise to keep this blog fresh and sprouting with new ideas, I rewinded the last 48 hours in my head looking for inspiration, and recited everything we DID NOT do:

- socialize

- play Bingo, Backgammon, Cranium, or Monopoly; not even Truth Or Dare

- go shark back riding

- stop global warming (instead we added to it with the multiple trips to local coffee shops)

- fly a monkey

- teach Cosmo to roll over, though he was so, so close

- get kidnapped by an Alien

- learn to speak Urdu, or Spanish (a tad more practical in Baja)

- buy a turkey, eat a turkey, nor visited Turkey

- make out with a dolphin

- solve a single math problem

- patch the four holes in our ceiling before the mice that I’m convinced live in the cracks of our building find out about the openings and decide to come visit

- climb the Mount Everest, nor any other hill, not even a road hump.

None of that happened this past weekend.

Looking further for topics I could write about, I browsed through the thousands of photos we took over the last year and a half, to finally stop at the images of Jason’s nephews, Conor and Dylon, which I found highly inspiring… to procreate rather than to bluntly tap at a keyboard with two fingers.

It sounds like a whole lot of NOTHING. Let’s get one thing straight: an uneventful weekend does not mean a weekend free of events. (Wait, huh?) I did some squats around the coffee table during meal times in an attempt to tighten that rump. There was some folding and scrubbing going on as well as a whole lot of licking. Cosmo cleaned both of his front paws after a thorough and urgently needed bath (because what do the humans know about a god bath), while Jason licked his wounds after brutal couple of weeks at work.

One task I managed to complete was a Thanksgiving menu, and that was not a trivial accomplishment. I’m Polish, hence for me this holiday represents a day off, empty streets, and limited access to candy shops and movie theaters since everything closes early. Nonetheless, I wanted Jason to experience the same traditions he grew up with despite living away from his family – the turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, with a spoonful of cranberry sauce on a side and a wedge of pumpkin pie.

Therefore, I’ll be cooking up a storm and making him a Thanksgiving meal that will take him back the memory lane: pork loin with honey-mustard sauce and wrapped in bacon, mashed rutabaga with cauliflower and caramelized onions, blanched green beans with roasted garlic, and chocolate and orange brownie pie. I’ll be sure to snap a photo of each and every dish, and report back to you with recipes and about five extra pounds hung around my hips. I wish they would settle in my boobs instead. Sigh.

In the meantime, let’s keep it light and healthy. I’ll be BAHK with a fresh salad idea before the Turkey Bell rings.

]]> http://shaerenee1.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/loss-of-a-loved-one/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:39:20 +0000 shaerenee1 http://shaerenee1.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/loss-of-a-loved-one/

“There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.” ~ Kate DiCamillo

This quote couldn’t be more true. 

 I recently lost a long time friend to suicide.  This was very painful for many of us who knew him.  There’s soo many feelings that come with death, especially if it is from that person taking their own life.  I was soo angry and sad, as were many others.  This was only last month.  I know the saying is “death comes in 3’s”.  What is scary about this saying, is that it seems to ring true. 

My dad called me about 2 hours ago.  My Uncle Denny was fighting cancer and passed away on Saturday.  He died from a heart attack.  His heart couldn’t take the chemo any longer.  He was fighting to live!   The funeral is Wednesday in Ohio and I won’t be able to go. 

Soo many things don’t make sense in this world, even though I know God has a plan.  I am soo very sad.  I can actually feel my heart hurting.  The Holiday season is already hard this year without loosing someone.  I know I will be fine.  The Lord is always there to help me. 

 I feel for everyone who looses someone close to them around the Holiday season.  The loss never seems to go away.  It gets better, but it’s always there each season.  

I lost a friend that was like a sister to me when I was 17 yrs. old.  The doctor’s  never did figure out why her lungs filled up with fluid.  The funeral was on Christmas Eve that year.  I think about her every Christmas Eve.  A part of her still lives on that is now a part of my family.  She had a daughter, obviously at a young age.  My Aunt and Uncle adopted her daughter as a baby. Rachel is now 22 yrs. old and I see Cathy in her often.  It makes me sad and happy at the same time.  Every Christmas Rachel asks me to tell her about her mom.  I tell her the same stories she has heard for the past few years, but she loves to hear them and it keeps her memory alive.  I guess I am fortunate enough to have her daughter (my cousin)  to tell them to. 

Remember to cherish your family and friends.  You never know when and why they won’t be there to say your name. 

Wishing everyone a Blessed, Happy and Safe Holiday this week.

Busy weekend:  I visited an optician and ordered a new pair of glasses; we stopped by Scott & Melissa’s new home and encountered the security guys installing stuff; Kristen arrived on Saturday afternoon; dinner at our place (Melinda and I had a duel re: fowl preparation); worship on Sunday; Sunday lunch with the kids; online Christmas shopping; relaxing evening.

Life is good!

By the way, I signed the Manhattan Declaration.  Have you?  Check it out.

Terug van kort weggeweest: we waren drie dagen de hond en onszelf aan het uitlaten op Schiermonnikoog. De hond vond het heerlijk en wij ook….

Terug ook van iets langer weggeweest op dit blog. Het ritme was er even uit maar de inspiratie is er weer volop.

Om te beginnen zal hier meer en meer te lezen gaan worden over de aanloop naar de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen hier in Zeist. Ik heb tenslotte besloten mij verkiesbaar te stellen op de lijst van D66.
In het voorjaar vond ik het tijd om kleur te kiezen en meldde mij aan als lid. En daarmee was de stap van het passieve actieve kiesrecht naar actief passief kiesrecht maar klein. Hier in Den Dolder gaan veel maatregelen en plannen van het huidige gemeentebestuur ten koste van het karakter en de leefbaarheid van ons dorp. Grote nieuwbouwplannen in het groen, het afsluiten van de spoorwegovergang, weinig to geen visie op verkeersproblematiek en dat alles met weinig to geen echte inspraak van de bewoners. Genoeg reden voor mij om actiever te worden.
De gemeente Zeist is natuurlijk groter dan alleen Den Dolder en op het gebied van ouderenbeleid, verkeer en maatschappelijk cohesie zie ik ook nog heel wat mogelijkheden voor verbetering.

Als relatieve nieuwkomer, ik woon hier nu ruim vijf jaar, hoop ik met die relatief frisse blik een positieve bijdrage te kunnen leveren aan een (nog) mooier en (nog) leefbaarder Zeist.
De leden kunnen nu stemmen op de lijstvolgorde, de sluitingsdatum is 7 december. Het verkiezingsprogramma is bijna rond, de wijkenquetes zijn in volle gang, laat de campagne maar komen!

Surprisingly for us, it was really relaxing!!  In the midst of end of semester projects and exams, we just took a time out and spent good quality time together.  On Friday, we went to the movies to finally watch “Precious”.  We didn’t get to see it last week, the website I checked mistakenly had the wrong date up (I was so upset lol).  It was a great movie, I’m reading the book “Push” by Sapphire now to fill in all the missing parts that Yin informed me that the movie missed.

 On Saturday, we relaxed in bed until early afternoon when I had a hair appointment at the salon in the mall.  Yin decided to go shopping while I was getting my hair done.  She ended up in Old Navy and picked us up some cute winter scarves, gloves, and hats on SALE!!  She also got us these cute New York t-shirts since we absolutely fell in love with NYC after our trip over Labor Day weekend.  We miss NYC!  After the mall, we went home and relaxed some more, spent the rest of the day watching TV together and having good convos.  Saturday night, we learned something new about Yin (that I won’t share ) but she’s part of a special club that only 10-40% of women have this experience…EVER.  That was very exciting to find out, that kept us up all night! LOL.

 On Sunday, we lounged around in bed again, watching the marathon of Snapped episodes on the Oxygen channel.  Once we watch one, we’re hooked until the last episode!  Yin spoke with her family that day about Thanksgiving plans, her mother and sister are coming over to our apartment, her mom is going to do most of the cooking :)  Yin is making her famous crockpot mac n cheese (it sounds weird, but it’s absolutely delicious!  Maybe I can get her to post the recipe on here, I don’t know, she might want to keep it to herself lol)  For Christmas, my mother and my little 5 year old cousin (who she has custody of, so she’s kinda like my little sister) are coming down from Jacksonville.  We got Twinkie (my cousin’s nickname) some clothes and a lot of little girly things that she’ll love!  I’m looking forward to seeing her, I miss her a lot since I basically took care of her when she was a baby until I moved.  Anyway, Sunday afternoon/evening included a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and things for around the house, a load of laundry, and a few homework assignments being done.

 All in all, this past weekend was the most relaxing weekend it seems like we’ve had in a long time!  I just really enjoyed spending quality time with the wife without running around like a chicken with its head cut off getting assignments done!  Am I looking forward to the holidays???  Um…I don’t know, I’m pretty indifferent this year.  As long as Yin is by my side, it doesn’t really matter what else is going on

 Okay, we’ll let you know how our Thanksgiving goes, hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!!  Don’t eat too much turkey…and make sure to ration your pumpkins…there’s a shortage lol.

 -The Yang

I’m so bummed it’s Monday already. But at least it’s a short week! My weekend was good- how was yours?

• Dinner and New Moon with friends! -Yes! It was so good, minus the screaming teenagers
  
• Take the pups to the vet -Yes, and unfortunately he fractured a tooth! He’s getting it removed tomorrow, poor buddy
  
• Work out at least once -Yep. Went to the gym for a run Saturday morning before the vet.
  
• Put something together for week 2 of the Dare to DIY party -Huge fail. But I might do this tonight, we’ll see…
  
• Check out the new REI that is opening this weekend -Easy peazy, lemon squeezy. Both Matt & I got new water bottles for our gym workouts. I don’t know how we resisting buying more goodies, though
  
• Figure out what we’re taking to Thanksgiving next week (!) -Technically I got this taken care of today, but at least it’s done. I’ll be baking a pecan pie and picking up a bottle of wine.
  
• Relax! -Big yes here. And it was glorious!

Here’s to wishing that this week (until Thursday, that is) flies by!

Darryl Harper playing smooth tunes onstage at Creative Alliance

Let’s see….did something I’ve never done before Friday night. Went to a jazz concert at the Creative Alliance, just east of Patterson Park on Eastern Avenue, to see jazz clarinetist Darryl Harper. What a talent he is….he had gathered some great local jazz guys in for a concert and the music was smooth, smokey…very blues. Darryl’s latest album is Stories in Real Time….you can hear  some selection by clicking here…and the Creative Alliance has many unique offerings… for music lovers, film lovers, classes for adults and children, including a 4 week Saturday session of running away to join the circus…”Admit it–your child is amazingly gifted and you’ve dreamt of creating a circus act together. Now’s your chance! Aerial superstar Lizzie Lyra introduces parents and kids to the circus arts: acrobatics, partner balancing, hooping, trapeze.” Come on people! You don’t see that everyday….

OK…saw Twilight…I’m in…all in.  And now I’m ready for New Moon….maybe over the holiday weekend. But I also want to see Precious….I’ve heard it is simply amazing….and Blind Side….also supposed to be just wonderful. It could be a good movie marathon weekend!  I love doing double features with a snack in between. Time to get my movie on. 

Oh, and I made some mean pork belly for dinner one night..(which is the new foie gras, or some people say). Not that I was  foie gras eater…I wasn’t, but I do love properly prepared pork belly. I used a variation of  Jamie Oliver recipe that I found on someone else’s blog….thank you very much….and it was luscious. Just absolutely fantastic. Still have some leftover in the frig. Wait for me…no matter where you are, I will find you!

At church yesterday, we were reading a verse from Psalm 15; but then I continued to look down and read this verse:

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
Apart from You, I have no good thing.”
Psalm 16:2

How lovely is that verse? I don’t know why it popped out at me, but it’s very true.

On the lookout for a peacoat and a new purse. I started my search today at Marshall’s; I saw a cute bag for $20, that was originally $70. I might go back and get that. I did not see anything good for peacoats. That made me sad.

I’m on the local mall’s website and H&M has a 25% off sale on Friday, from opening (5am) to 10am. Umm, I might just have to go now with the sisters. I do appreciate that store – I just like to get my money’s worth as well.

Might be in the mood to go to DC on Saturday; a bunch of my friends are back in town for break so that might just happen. I would love to walk around, enjoy the fresh air and take some nice pictures. We’ll see….

xoxo

Happy Monday all! Who else is TOTALLY stoked for another short work week!?

Yes, that’s what I thought…all of you! I’ve been keepin myself busy at work today getting all sorts of odds n ends wrapped up, which feels GREAT, considering how many projects I was working on over the past two weeks. Ahhhh the joy of not running around like a….well, y’know…

Maybe you read my tweets but I seem to have misplaced my camera, and since I can’t really go another week with no post, I’m going to do my best to sum up the weekend with photos that are not mine, thus the title I know, seriously I SHOULD take up a second job in comedy…har har har.

Friday I got into work, acting all superwoman like, but our MD in the office took one look at me and IMMEDIATELY sent me home. No doubt about it, peeps, I totally had a case of viral conjunctivitis. I stopped off at a rite-aid, picked up one of these, and high tailed it home.

PS, this stuff was a total rip off. $10 bucks and provided NO relief of redness or swelling. HMPH.

So I spent the majority of Friday snoozing on the couch with the pups, emailing “dad” pictures to make him jealous he wasn’t home too…

Yeah, they are TOTALLY spoiled rotten by ‘Mom’

Friday night we headed over the Brent & Ashleys house to begin our Star Wars marathon! We sat & chatted for a bit, having a drink & some snacks-

MOST fav white wine everrrrr!!

Chips n Salsaaaa 

Buffalo chicken dip (!! SO GOOD !!)

And for our entree:

 AGHHHH hubba hubba! LOVED him in the first 2 movies…we won’t talk about my disappointment during the third

So we made it through 2 movies officially, and we were all pretty much down for the count.

Something like that

Saturday morning, rise n shine at the gorgeous hour of 6:30!! Seriously. TJ had his first scrimmage of the season (he coaches 7th grade boys basketball, I KNOW, its adorable) so off he went, and I headed home to feed the pups & run out some of their energy. I drank one of these to try and get rid of my raging wine hangover-

but instead, it just left me feeling queasy & nauseas. UGH. So I numbed my brain with a couple episodes of this:

Ahhhh much better. I was almost feeling like myself again by the time Coach came home with his teams first victory under his belt! We went out to celebrate like so:

Hot wings & Beer. Budlight for him, Shock top for me. Go big or go home, right?! We headed back over the star wars casa to continue on the marathon.

I nursed a couple of these:

Old bottle- no blue mountains!

And for our intermissions during episodes 3 & 4 we had more snacks-

Chili cheese dip- low fat cream cheese, turkey chili & more cheese baked at 400 for 20 minutes. No brainer!

crock pot sloppy joes (I wish all MY pics were this great!! AHEM, I WANT A DSLR, COUGH-COUGH)

And, to get some veggies in, broccoli soup that ash beefed up (ironic, no??) with an entire bag of broccoli. LOVED it.

Fast forward 8 hours later, we finally made it through 3&4. Yeah, we took a lot of breaks. Dinner was FABBBBB FABulous! Homemade Lasagna & garlic bread OMG it was the BEST lasagna I have EVER tasted (sorry mom!!). I seriously didn’t want my piece to ever end. Paired with this red, it was one of the best saturday night dinners EVER!!!! No lie!

Sunday we headed back over for day THREE of the marathon & some football. I know it sounds like I did a LOT of sitting around this weekend, but I am so completely exhausted!

Time to get back to work, its an early day for me…gotta make it to my man’s first official game of the season! Go Lakers!!! Hope your Monday flies by as well!

Until next time folks….!

That one is for you, teej

On Friday after work, I had planned to run, but I had some stuff to finish at work and quickly lost my window of light [on a side note, my getting to work early and running while there is still light in the afternoon is working out pretty well- except for days like this]. After work, we were going to go to a beer tasting event at Blue Palms, but ended up just going for drinks at Lola’s instead. Then we decided it was finally time we tried Oki Dog, a hot dog stand on Fairfax near us. And it was exactly as expected, haha.

On Saturday morning, we hiked Solstice Canyon [6 miles or so]. We found ourselves reminiscing about Boston on the trail, and then we randomly ran into someone that G went to high school with- It’s a small world sometimes. Anyway, it is probably one of the most interesting hiking trails I’ve been on in LA. There are ruins of an abandoned house tucked into the canyon that was mostly consumed by fire in 1982, but you can still see many parts of it- the fireplaces, oven, some walls. It’s definitely fun to imagine what the floor plan was based on the ruins- it kind of felt like stepping into Pompeii again. The best part was the waterfall that ran through the site, and a perfectly-intact Virgin Mary statue. We probably spent about an hour there exploring before hiking back out. The rest of Saturday was pretty lazy- watched the thrilling Oregon game [go ducks!], worked on a gift, tried to do some online xmas/birthday shopping [unsuccessfully].

On Sunday, I went to the farmers market for some Thanksgiving shopping, then came home and planned the menu with Jackie. Note to self: do not plan a Thanksgiving menu while hungry. Ha! Our problem this year was that we didn’t want to give up on the dishes we loved from last year, but still wanted to make new dishes, too. Which means that we ended up with an even bigger menu than last year! [George and Nathan started to make some comments from the couch but then decided better of it.]

After that I went to Michael Levine, a huge fabric store in the fashion district downtown. Unfortunately I was really hoping to go to the Loft store above it [which sells fabric by the pound] but I found out they aren’t open on Sundays. So I ended up in the main store instead… so huge and amazing, I could spend hours in there. Since they close early, I ended up not having enough time to pick buttons and snaps AND fabric, but I got a few yards to start some projects and will definitely be going back. They have good yarn too, ah!

Came home and made a shopping list for the rest of Thanksgiving, then went to the store. Between the two of us dividing the list and tag teaming, we hammered it out in less than 30 minutes. Just need a few items from WF, but we’re mostly ready to go. After making some dinner/lunch, I sewed on the buttons/knitted button holes for my mom’s cowl. I was initially going to seam it together and just make the buttons decorative, but then I realized my mom would hate to put it over her head and decided to make them functional. I’m totally pleased with the result, especially for such an on-the-fly quick knit- I’ll show you photos soon! [Photo editing/posting is one thing I did not do this weekend... I at least wanted to get through the rest of my Seattle batch!]

Looking forward to two four-day weeks coming up… though I definitely wish they were shorter.

generally, my weekend went well..

..apart from the row i had with my dad about how closed away i was from my family.. and not counting the constant thoughts about how sick a person could make me.

if you can list 3 reasons for why you shouldn’t like him, don’t like him.

ah.. never mind.

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

so, the weekend..

saturday was boring, but on sunday, as i said, i went to this attraction park called tivoli world with maria (my best friend ) and both our families to see my sister dance at this one show. after the show, we had some fun on the rides.

after tivoli world, we all went to mcdonalds! for lunch. i had a cheeseburger, a medium french fries thingy, 3 mcnuggets, a large sprite and a kitkat ice-cream cone. mm.. yum yum.

there was a funny text written on the sprite cup :

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

i’ve nearly finished twilight. and i realized one thing.

the book is great. it’s the 5th time i read it and i’m still enjoying it just as much, especially the edward-bella relationship at the start-ish.

but catherine hardwicke fucked up everything. she cut out half the main characters’ relationship and she chose the wrong actors, or at least she gave them the wrong roles and characters to play. bella was too dull to be bella. edward was too human and girly to be edward. jacob was too grown-up-looking and well-built to be jacob.

hopefully, the new director has done all they could to fix things up a little. because new moon was a very enjoyable book and i’m going to re-read it this week before going to the cinema to finally watch the movie. and it better not be fucked up. because i want to get it on dvd later, just like i have twilight.

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

i bit off two of my nails on saturday :L

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

can’t wait for friday.

i’m going to miramar, the shopping centre, with maria and then i’m gonna watch new moon with her and i’m also planning to buy myself an agenda-diary for 2010 and possibly a folder for some personal stuff.

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

man.. just as i was writing, i got a phone call from my dad who went to drop my sister at flamenco lessons that they had had a car crash, a really bad one. O_O i got shit scared then. he told me they were totally fine, though they really did fuck up the car loads, and they crashed with another car (though i don’t YET know whose fault it was.. though probably my dad’s :S) and the police was there..

hopefully everything turns out fine.. :S

well.. although at least they came out unscathed. thank god for that at least.

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

do to this week:

• to finish reading twilight
• to read all of new moon
• to go to miramar with maria on friday
• to buy the agenda i really wanted in bookworld españa
• to watch new moon
• to criticise new moon and post my opinion of it on my blog
• to take some cool photos and post them up on photoblog
• to do all of my homework this week

as for now..

byebye

xx

PS.. i’m gonna upload some pics and videos a little later.. have no time atm.

awesome giveaway at miss heather’s

morning y’all. been quite some time since we chatted, well my face is all numb…its interesting ha

current state...bahahahah

so i was going to hit you up with a nice before and after, but my before looked sadder than this embarrassing pic. so i have taken up residence on our big leather chair, i’ve watched ellen, the view, and now i’m onto paula’s best dishes…last weeks grey’s and private practice are in the queue. and so far my only complaint is the stupid gauze shoved in my cheeks, awkward.

let’s see, how bout i recap my weekend—

friday: went to the doctor, went down to UC, picked up a lease for an apartment, stopped and nordstrom and trader joe’s (pear sauce!! & apple cranberry butter!!), went to a fake purse party with my mother…got some beaded earrings (i’m not much of a fake purse person)

saturday: saw new moon with my baby sister, failed at stovetop oats for a snack

don't let the looks deceive you, i had to pop these stovetop oats in the microwave because i was much to impatient

sunday: ran errands, took the dog on a walk

yes somehow i have ended up at the grocery store every day since i’ve been home, hello my name is emily and i am addicted to grocery stores. && my doctor’s appointment went well, i got some blood taken and an EKG both were normal, my random bruises are nothing to be worried about, he said it probably just stress that is throwing me out of whack….all i’ve got to do is stress less, ah much easier said than done (i’ll practice this week)

now i’m just chilling out relaxing acting all cool (fresh prince anyone??) i had some honey oikos for the first time & i love love love

now enough about me, what’s new with you??

and now i want to take a moment to send out blog world love. you women amaze me every single day.

If you want to be happy, be.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Apparrently, i’m not there and have no interest in going unless it’s a personal invite from Miley.

My lady is dissappearing at the weekend for various reasons so i’ll be all alone, what do i do for entertainment now . Give’s my a chance to wrap her Xmas presents though, really good gifts, unmatchable you could say.

Was asked by a friend to code him a temporary webpage, I’ve done so quite succesfully making me a fully fledged Freelance Web Developer After my January Exams i’m thinking of taking it up more, sort a little examples site out and develop PHP knowledge.

What do i do without my lady with me?

WHEW! What a whirlwind of a weekend that was! I’m back, completely exhausted, my ears are still a little ringy and my throat is still a little sore from all the screaming, but it was definitely one for the books. I’ll be making sure that this coming holiday weekend is a much more relaxed one.

As I posted the other day, Friday night I caught the BOSS (that’s Bruce Springsteen) live in concert. It was the first time he had played in Charm City since 1973. Can you believe it? And I could tell that everyone in the arena was a die-hard fan. The fact that he is (very attractive at) 60 years old didn’t stop him or his INCREDIBLE E Street Band from playing a high energy set that lasted nearly 3 and a half hours. I have been to quite a few concerts in my day and have never seen a performer that engaged the audience as much as Bruce did. He crowd surfed (while singing the whole time), took requests by pulling handmade signs from people in the audience, and ran around the stage with more energy then even I can muster up sometimes. His voice was perfect and every song was awesome; among other favorites he played the Born to Run album from start to finish. Simply amazing. Here is the view from our seats!

So. Friggin. Sweet.

Normally I wouldn’t be jealous of people on the floor, but because there was so much audience interaction down there, I was green with envy. Maybe one day I will be lucky enough to see him live again. If you have the opportunity to do so, DO IT. I promise you you won’t be disappointed.

Dork alert!

I had just recovered from the Springsteen experience when Sunday morning rolled around and it was time for me to don my Ravens Santa hat to watch us take on the Indianapolis Colts! The Colts are a very good team this year – undefeated going into yesterdays game – so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a big win.

What I got was a HUGELY fun time at our hospitality tent sponsored by my wonderful job before the game. 2 hours of ah-may-zing food (think mini filet mignon, crab cakes, crab soup, unlimited beer, etc.) and fun stuff like visits from the mascot Poe, the cheerleaders, Rise and Conquer (our two REAL Ravens), and a performance by the team’s band, the Marching Ravens. The weather was absolutely perfect for a day of football; temps in the low 60’s and lots of sunshine.

As you can see, I was having a blast. That’s my awesome friend S by the way.

What a view!

Pretty bird!

After 2 hours of much mayhem and tossing back drinks at the tent with 30 of my best coworkers, we made our way through the gates to find out seats. WOW did we get HOOKED UP! By far these were the best seats that I’ve ever had in this stadium. It would have been even sweeter if we had actually won the game, but we did put up a great fight and I was proud of my guys. The final score was 17-15 and for a little while there, I actually thought we might have had it in the bag. Our new kicker, Billy Cundiff gave a pretty good performance too…one missed field goal, but 5 completions, tying our old kicker, Matt Stover’s team record for most kicks in a game. MUCH better than that joker we were dealing with before!

Either way, I wasn’t expecting us to do that well and I refuse to be upset over it. My least favorite team – who shall remain nameless – ended up having a rough day yesterday also, that took some of the sting out.

I arrived home last night after the game headachey, hoarse, and tired, but happy all the same. 9 hours of sleep and a giant skim peppermint mocha hasn’t done much to wake me up today, but I wouldn’t have done the weekend any differently.

Although I cannot wait to go to bed nice and early tonight and will surely be taking it easy the rest of the week.

UPDATE (for Cheryl): Here’s a photo I took of the Marching Ravens as they played past us. They were awesome!

The Marching Ravens!

I had several others, but this was my fave. I have a thing for tubas.

As you may have noticed I don’t usually get to blog on the weekends. Not unless Principe is either working or I wrestled the computer out of his hands and promise him some silence during his soccer game whilst I rapidly blog something out before he asked for it back in order to make a bet on the game. Yes, he bets. We can get into that later….

If I had blogged on Friday before or during spending 3 hours in the ER with Queenie the tone of my blog post would have been a bit depressing, yet still optamistic. If I had blogged after the ER visit it would have been tired and I would have spent much of my time complaining about the long wait since there were only 7 kids in the pediatric waiting room while raving about the good organization of Gregorio Maranon in making a separate waiting room for possible Swine flu patients. I might also have mentioned a small worry that I caught something anyway in the 90 degree waiting room since my throat was scratchy. If I had blogged on Saturday morning I would have been optamistic. Until around 12 o’clock when the 3 vanilla cake came out of the oven and immediately fell to about 1 centimeter thick. The post at that moment would have been blotched with tears. Saturday night I wouldn’t have blogged since I would partying with my two year old daughter and one year old niece along with 7 other children who brought with them their two parents. A grea time was had by all. And the cake ended up working out. Quite a success even if it wasn’t what I had envisioned from the beginning. But with a lot of frosting people will eat anything!  See the picture? Yeah, I’m great, I know. But what you don’t know is that Friday afternoon I had spent 6 hours with a whiny child trying to make the bottom and top layer of the cake. The chocolate, strangely enough, turned out light and fluffy and wonderful. The vanilla, the recipe I spoke of before that takes forever and a day to make, fell flat. So I made another one from a tried and true recipe. It finished just as we decided to take Queenie to the hospital for an ear infection. When we came home it was about a centimeter thick also. I almost throw a knife through the gallery door. Instead I contented myself  on slamming the dishwasher door a few times since it wasn’t working either and ate  my Cherrios in dissapointed silence. Principe convinced me to go to bed and make another one in the morning. It was 2 am by that time.

We all woke up at 9 am after a very bad night of sleep and I immediately set off to make another cake. I had just enough ingredients left and was excited that THIS TIME IT WAS GOING TO WORK. Why I didn’t think of just making another chocolate I will never know. Stubborn, bull-headed grandma in me.

And the cake fell flat. I cried. And cried. And tried desperately not to smash a glass into the floor. And cried a little more. Queenie saw me and hugged my legs. Principe hugged me and said he was sure I would make it work and where was the grocery list of the things we need for the party?

I made it work. And only served the chocolate part to the guest. The decoration was the hit, really, and the frosting since Spanairds don’t use frosting. All four pregnant ladies at the party were delighted. But this pregnant lady is now stuck eating half-raw cake that is chewy and too toasted on the bottom to be called cake really, but tastes like vanilla so it is sort of okay. But I am stuck doing this for another 2 cakes since Queenie won’t touch it and Principe claims he is on a diet as he finished off his second beer of the night. If only I could throw food away…..instead I eat it and get fat and then complain about how two of the pregnant ladies at the party were in their 38th week and looked amazing! Really, one had only gained 13 pounds and the other had gained 16. I smiled and complemented them, but really jsut wanted to scream and dunk their heads into toilet water. But the music at the party (oldies from our childhoods) made my temperment a bit more controlled and sweeter than it would have been after the trying day. On the other hand, the party was a hit. Did I say that already?

Of course, then there was Sunday. The morning was filled with us wiping Queenie’s snot leaking nose and putting together her tricycle. Many swear words were screamed by Principe as he is not a tinkering sort of guy and has a hard time putting things together that require tools. But it was finally together and the water main was turned back on (did I mention it was turned off for 3 hours without warning? Awesome.) and we hauled ourselved outside to take our sick child for a walk. She rode her tricycle to the park but had to walk home. We lied and told her grandparents she rode it all the way there and all the way back.

Sunday evening was spent with my SIL and niece while the brothers played padel. I was promised up and down by Principe that he would take care of Queenie while I went to the gym, but since she wasn’t feeling well by 8pm he asked me to stay and put her to bed. By 10pm she was sleeping. The gym closed at 10.

And today my throat hurts. But really, besides all of this the party was so much fun. So many people came and it went on for about 4 hours. The kids all got sugar highs from eating too much Nutella and cake and suckers. Queenie didn’t eat anything except for the green sucker next to the lion on the cake. Wouldn’t touch her cupcake. And it had to be the green one next to the lion. What a strange child. After the party she ate a plain scrambled egg and drank a glass of water. Wouldn’t even touch the potato chips at the party. Antibiotics do strange things to my daughter.

My Sunday was a total loss. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. in a cold sweat and my head feeling as if it were on the verge of exploding. I’ve never had a migraine before, and if this wasn’t one, it had to have come close. The pain was so severe I grew short of breath. It hurt to lie down. It hurt to sit up. I went in search of a cold pack, thinking it might help. Before I could find one, I took some Tylenol, then ended up in the bathroom where the Tylenol promptly came back up.

It took a while for me to finally get back to sleep, and I only woke up later when Mark came to check on me at 11:30. I thought I should get out of bed and do something with what was left of the day. But after sitting and talking with Mark and the kids a bit, I still felt a dull pain and ended up sneaking back to bed for another couple of hours. I finally felt human again around 2:00. I showered and dressed, did a couple loads of laundry, and then…parked myself in the recliner with a blanket and pillow…and slept some more. I never left the house at all yesterday. I just felt as if I’d been put through a wringer. I have a new appreciation for people who suffer migraines on a regular basis. I don’t know how you do it!

Since I wasn’t my usual entertaining self, Mark and Jake spent the afternoon stringing Christmas lights on all the pine trees behind our house. The trees are behind the privacy fence, so we won’t even be able to see them, but they’ll be very visible to all the traffic on our road, which is a lot. Late in the day, Mark turned the lights on and reported that they looked great. Kacey has strong opinions about the appropriateness of Christmas decorations too early in the season. Her response was a disgusted, “I can’t believe we’re one of those houses with Christmas lights lit before Thanksgiving!”

I’d have been inclined to agree with her, but I was too wiped out to care. Thankfully, I feel much better today.

It’s been fairly hectic over the last few days, I disappeared to the mobile receptionless depths of east Sussex for our church’s Alpha weekend away.

It was largely a really positive time, God was clearly doing some exciting things in people’s lives and that was a real pleasure to see. On occasions though, I found it a little hard being a leader, it sometimes seemed I was slightly disconnected from what God was doing. Making sure other people were being prayed with and continuing my role of providing a little extra rhythm to the worship, left me feeling a little distant from just receiving from God. But a wise friend said that God sometimes seems to afford us a little extra ‘clarity’ when we’re in the role of ministering, so that we can keep an eye out and be alert. After events later that day, I think this proved to be true.

We made it home from the weekend in time for the evening service and I’m glad I didn’t bail in favour of an evening in front of Top Gear.

I came to a place of feeling quite empty during the service, but a truth dawned on me, I’ve been shopping at other Supermarkets. Obscure, yes, but hang in there. I began to realise that I had been lost in idol worship over the last few weeks, going to the telly, or a friend, or food for comfort and re-energising, rather than coming to JC Maxx. Yes, friends, telly and food are good things, but they aren’t the total solution and can never fully satisfy, God really is the best resource and when I finally realised that I’d been shopping elsewhere, He totally met me last night and it was rather inspirational.

Very exciting.

On a  side note, James Bond’s ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ is really much more amusing than you ever remembered. Innundated with innuendo I can’t quite believe this slipped under the radar for general PG viewing, but watched with a symbiotic comedy partner and with the freedom to add your own commentry, this film can definitely provide a hilarious night in.