Overachieving Icicle and Fingerpainting

I was driving out of the parking lot this morning and happened to look up in time to see this. I don't know if I've ever seen an icicle this big!
I think I might have posted pictures from my Thanksgiving trip of John finger painting. When my mom went back to Georgia at New Year's she brought this masterpiece home with her.

This is a picture of the top left hand corner of the painting. It's my favorite part of the painting. I think it looks like a bird perched on a stick with eyelashes. At least that's my interpretation of the picture!

A quote

"The third stage of grief is making piles."

Cryptic, I know, but funny in context and all I've got for you today!

Out of the mouth of babes

In the course of a conversation with a client today I informed him that I had taken yesterday off of work. He said, "Why would you take the day off? Isn't it more fun at work?" Spoken like a child who can't wait to grow up!

Mexico, Hawaii, Washburn

I was going to play the game, Which of These Do Not Belong, but I decided that would be too easy.

The new game is, What is the Similarity Among These Three?

If you guessed "Places Teresa and her coworkers will be travelling this week" you won the Grand Prize! Jill left Friday for Mexico. Stephanie left today for Hawaii. Teresa is travelling to the warm, tropical climate of Washburn on Tuesday and Thursday! Woo-hoo! (For my non-Peorian readers, Washburn is a grand total of 30 miles away!)

Oompa Loompa

I got my haircut on Friday. I really like the cut, but I can't help but think of this style, minus the hat of course, when I think of my hair cut! :)

Sniffle, Sniffle

It's another snowy day outside. A very unexpected one. I didn't think it was supposed to snow until Tuesday. But much to my surprise, it snowed and recovered the ground just as everything was starting to melt.

You know that feeling right before you're about to sneeze BIG? Your eyes get all watery, your nose starts to itch, there's a little bit of pressure in your nose. That has been my life the last two days. Except the feeling only produces an actual sneeze one out of four times.

I managed to avoid the stomach flu that was being passed around among friends but came down with another head cold. Kari and I were debating the pros and cons of each and which we would prefer. Do you prefer the stomach flu that will only last a day and half and then be done, or do you prefer a head cold that has the potential to linger for a couple of weeks? I went with the head cold just because I can still function in day to day stuff if I need to. Kari went with the flu. I don't want to ever throw up again in my life, though, which was the other consideration!

Sorry for the boringness and grossness of this post.

Still waiting for that sneeze...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Okay, so many of you may be wondering, how can this girl possibly be celebrating another birthday??? Well, today I turned 11! 11 years as a child of God. Last year I celebrated big because I had been a believer for 10 years. This year I celebrated very quietly, with just a special prayer time between me and God thanking Him for allowing me into His family. What an awesome God we serve that He would want me as His own, adopt me into His family, and rejoice over me! I am so undeserving. I do so many things wrong. And yet He considers me precious in His sight. I love that about my Lord! Click here to read my full testimony that I shared last year or you can click the link I added in my sidebar.

The things you learn when you actually watch Inauguration coverage

Apparently, I would be invited to the Youth Inauguration Ball, not the Commander-in-Chief Ball. Afterall, I am a youth until I'm 35 (according to the age range of the Youth Inauguration Ball). I'm not sure what I think about this...

Lessons I Learned from Growing A Prince

Sorry the last of the prince pictures took so long to get on here. I took a slight hiatus from the blogging world, mine included. Sometimes I just feel like I need some distance from things that I seem to get addicted to. I DON'T have to read 10 blogs a day to fill my time. There are plenty of other things I can be doing. Just a lesson I need to keep learning! : )



Here are the last of the pictures: Day 3. 7:45am. You can definitely tell he has grown since the night before. His pants are now above the pink line.6:18pm. Officially 2 hours before the 72 hour mark. I can't tell if he grew any more that day or if I took the picture at a slightly different angle.

7:43am the day after. I left him in the water for an extra 12 hours than I was supposed to. Officially, because I was too lazy to empty the water. Unofficially because I wanted to give him every opportunity to reach his full potential! : )

So, here are the things I learned while growing a prince:

*The process was much different than I had expected. Do you know he doesn't come out of the egg he grew in?!

*My prince is rubber. Never thought I would have a rubber prince.

*He didn't grow quite as large as I had anticipated "fully grown" to be.

*I never expected him to become "real." (that's just in anticipation of someone thinking I was trying to replace God's timing in bringing me a man into my life in the future!)

*I enjoyed the process. I liked checking on his growth every morning when I woke up and every evening when I got home from work. And I liked being able to document for you guys the entire process.

All that being said, this was a very fun and unique Christmas gift. Thanks Kari for thinking of me!

48 Hours

8:39am. 36 hours into the process. He definitely grew overnight.

9:12pm. 49 hours. I think he grew a little more, but it could just be the angle of the picture.

Yet Another Snow Day

Here are some pictures of all the fun snow that we got. I decided to do before and after the sun came out!

And here is how I found my car this morning! The snow was very light and fluffy so it actually came off the car very easily!

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

At least that's what I think the snow outside my window is saying. The beautiful, white, untouched snow! I like snow. Definitely better than all that ice we've been getting. Some pictures later!

Day Two (or the first 24 hours)

Here are some high quality pictures from the first 24 hours of the growing of a prince (maybe I should write a book). Here's Prince Charming at 7:25am. He's a little shy, so he keeps hiding in the murkiness of the water.

9:25pm. 25 hours and 10 minutes into the 72 hour process. This growing of a prince is a tough business!

Let the Games Begin/Day One of Prince Growing

My little project of growing a prince started at precisely 8:16pm on January 12, 2009.

Here is the very beginning stages of the frog turning into a prince, just one minute after the water was added.

8:25pm. The water is looking very murky.

8:27pm. I decided to rinse the poor guy off. He's no longer green.

8:36pm. A freaky picture, bu if you look closely, the frogs eyes are hollow.

8:52pm. I found the prince! Another rinse of the water revealed the cute little guy. Now for the growth to begin!
10:20pm. Last picture before bed and uploading. He doesn't seem to have grown at all since his big reveal! Maybe he's a little shy.

If a castle fell on your car would your insurance cover it?

So, today (you'll soon see a theme that I did not get much done at work!) at work I was going into the front office to get a file (notice how I was attempting to work). The first thing I noticed was that Todd was standing in front of my file cabinet. The second thing I noticed was that he and Carol were staring out the window at something. Being the curious person I am, I had to check things out!

Here's the side note story (let's face it, I haven't included one of these in a while) We have had this two story play castle in our parking lot since the spring. Somehow it got donated to the office and then because of strict regulations we couldn't do anything with the castle. Now, don't get me wrong, the castle is really cool if it's not taking up two prime parking spaces and is actually being used. Here is a similar castle but not an exact representation:

So, Todd and Carol were watching some guy and his son load the castle onto their truck to take it into sweet oblivion. But as I came on the scene, the castle was tipping precariously toward the car that was in the next parking spot, which happened to be Sharon's car. No catastrophes happened, but when Sharon came into the office, we told her about the precarious state of her vehicle for the five minutes it took to load the castle. She said, "Oh, I would have been on the phone to my insurance company." And I said, "What would you have said, 'A castle just fell on my car!'?" And then I said, "Does your car insurance cover castle damage?"

Really, the moral of this story is that I'm super excited to have two additional parking spaces again!

Snow Globe

This afternoon around 2:00 it starting POURING beautiful big, fat snowflakes! I ran to the front office at work because my coworker and I like to point out the obvious to each other and I said "Doesn't it look beautiful," as I stared out the window. Apparently she had not looked outside in the last minute so she was very surprised to discover the snow. But her comment made me feel warm and fuzzy. She said, "It makes me feel like I'm inside a snow globe." Aww...warm and fuzzy.

Two Analogies, About Cars Nonetheless!

So, for discipleship right now I am reading Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges. Side note, I would highly recommend the book, even though it is kicking me in the behind on many occasions!

The chapter I am currently reading is on obeying the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Mr. Bridges is really breaking that down to talk about what it really means. He gave two analogies of cruise-control obedience and race car obedience. First he describes the purpose of cruise control on a car: to maintain your speed while allowing you to sit back and relax a little. You don't have to constantly watch the speedometer so you don't get pulled over for speeding and you don't have the fatigue that comes from constantly pushing the accelerator. Now, in looking at our walk with the Lord, Bridges says we tend to obey God in the same way. We press the accelerator of obedience until we have it up to a certain level or "speed" and then we cruise. He says that "the level is most often determined by the behavior standard of other Christians around us. We don't want to lag behind them because we want to be as spiritual as they are. At the same time, we're not eager to forge ahead of them because we wouldn't want to be different. We want to just comfortably blend in with the level of obedience of those around us...Our particular Christian culture then takes over and keeps us going at the accepted level of conduct...we certainly don't have to experience the fatigue that comes with seeking to obey Him with all our heart, soul, and mind." He then describes a race car driver as one who pushes all the limits and uses his understanding of the track, his car, and the other drivers to do the best he can to win the race. In Scripture we are often admonished to "make every effort" much like the race car driver does.

I can honestly say that in most instances of my faith, I have fallen into the cruise control obedience. I want to obey, but why should I obey any more than the other believers around me? Because God has called me to HIS standards, not their standards.

Surgery

John had to have surgery on Thursday. Tubes put in his ears. These are just some cute pictures from before the surgery. Surgery went well, according to the updates I have gotten.

Just a Thought

I have decided that 5 minutes with a 4 year old should be a mandatory part of any day! They are hilarious. One of my coworkers left the agency to get married, so I took over several of her cases. I met with the 4 year old today. He had me cracking up because he just speaks whatever is on his mind. We were doing a puzzle together. Every time I would stop to give him a chance to get a few pieces in he would say in a know it all voice, "Teresa, don't you even know how to do a puzzle?!" I would laugh and say, "Didn't you just see me put that piece in?!" Writing down the things he said don't do them justice because a lot of it is in the way he said them. Just take my word for it, he is one cute kid!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

I just spent over an hour reading through old blog posts. What an interesting read. Sometimes I am really boring and surprised that anyone reads my blog! Sometimes I am really funny and could still laugh at myself!

It all started because of my half-birthday post from yesterday. I vaguely remember posting the same thing last year. I did post something similar. So, from reading past blogs I realized that I have short term memory. I almost posted a blog about my car turning 2. Good thing I didn't because I apparently had the same idea last year!

Guess What Today Is....

Happy Half-Birthday to ME!
Happy Half-Birthday to ME!
Happy Half-Birthday Dear Teresa!
Happy Half-Birthday to ME!!!

Let the countdown begin....

Someday My Prince Will Come

Here is one of my Christmas presents that I can't wait to try out! And I have been given specific instructions to catalog the events of this present. Drum roll please.....




That's right, it's a prince in a box! : )

It starts off as this lovely looking frog....

The good news is there is no kissing required!

So, when I get around to starting the process, I'll get my very own full grown prince in 72 hours! I'm so excited! I'm thinking I might have time next weekend and be around to document the event, so everyone's just going to have to wait along with me!