Wednesday Randomness

I had several things that I wanted to put on Facebook tonight, so I realized I would have to put the overflow on here! :)

I feel like I'm having sympathy pains for people with braces. The inside of my cheek is scraped up just like when I wore braces. Which I don't anymore, so I don't know what happened. I'm thinking that maybe I bit it, but I'm not sure.

On the way home from my mom's house on Saturday, I broke out the Christmas music. I started with Straight No Chaser's version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Look it up on YouTube if you've never heard it.

Two of the radio stations in our area play all Christmas music until Christmas. I can never decide if I like this or not. I think it depends on the song. For example, I'm pretty sure that "Jingle Bell Rock" is the worst song ever, but it is the favorite song to play on the radio. Just FYI if any of the radio people are reading this: I immediately change the station when this song comes on. It's a version of "You had me at hello..." It's called "You lost me at rockin' around the Christmas tree..."

I'm Thinking of an Ornament...

Here are the new ornaments I added to the tree this year. This is my 2010 ornament from my mom. :) I wonder what 2011 will look like?

This is one I bought at Tanners when Mom and my aunts were in town.

This is one I bought in Arizona last year while I was there for Christmas.

Another one from Tanners. I can never pick just one.

Another one from Arizona. Again, I couldn't decide on just one.

And the title of today's post comes from a game we played as kids. Kind of like "I Spy" but finding ornaments on the tree. Now you just have to say, "I'm thinking of an ornament..." and people groan. I think I liked the game a little too much as a kid! Actually now sometimes the game goes:

Me: I'm thinking of an ornament.

My brother: That one right there (without even looking at the tree).

Me: Yes! How did you guess that! (with exaggerated enthusiasm)

Good times.

Christmas Decorating Extravaganza!

Emily and I decided that even though we love lots of lights on a tree, they are also the necessary evil to decorating for the holidays. Kind of like the edges to a puzzle. You know you have to do it, so you just get through it because you want to get on to doing the puzzle. That being said, putting lights on the tree was not without its drama again this year. But what Christmas experience wouldn't be worth telling about if it wasn't for the drama. Right? Please tell me I'm right. I mean, are memories don't survive the "perfect" year of decorating. But we sure can remember the years there was drama.
This is how far we got with the lights before Emily had to run to the store. This was technically her second trip because the first was to get extension cords and a power strip. But officially we have the same amount of lights on the tree as we did last year. But two of the strands didn't work, so we had to replace them.

While I was waiting I took some pictures of the process of decorating. Here is the organized box of all my ornaments.

Another box of goodies.

All my ornaments laid out and waiting to go on the tree.

Some of Emily's chaos. We stopped to eat and realized there was not a single piece of furniture that we could sit on (even the table was covered) so we ate on the floor!

The final strand of lights! Hip Hip Hooray.

I look so happy. This was after my one and only meltdown. Where all but the bottom two row of branches went out. Lots of trial and error later, and one threat to not put any lights on the tree, we figured out we had blown a fuse in the extension cord. Who knew you could do such a thing! :)
Emily hanging some ornaments. Isn't the backlight pretty!
Me hanging an ornament. Ignore the lounge clothes. As I told Emily, you don't decorate yourself to decorate a Christmas tree!
The finished product! :)
We turned off all the lights. Two things we decided:

1. We don't really need any other lights on in the apartment to see with!

2. We might not need to turn the heat on until January because, while it doesn't feel like the tree puts off heat, it seems much warmer in the apartment! :)

Cable Coma

I don't have cable at home, for good reason. When I come to visit my mom, I feel like I go into a cable coma. I sit and flip through the endless channels because I can. And I watch things that I don't need to watch. Today I was in cable heaven: NCIS marathon and Bones marathon at the same time! And I did just what I hate my father to do. I flipped back and forth between episodes during commercial breaks!

The moral of the story: I would never get anything done if I had cable!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

I am currently reading through the book of Jeremiah, and as I was reading this morning, I was praying that, in the midst of the consequences that Israel was facing, God would reveal to me the continuity of His word and how, even in the midst of these consequences, there is reason to praise. And in chapter 26, I found that God, in the midst of his prophesying through Jeremiah, was still willing to relent if the people would turn back to Him. What a gracious God we serve!

Today I was thinking through the things I have to be thankful for. And there were so many. And it was so fun to read through Facebook posts of the things my friends and family are thankful for. Thank you Lord for a day to think about what we are thankful for!

I'm a Nerd / This is my 700th POST!

So, I have a friend who uses the sticky notes on her computer. For those of you who don't know, they are a post-it note that is on your desktop. You can even change the colors. I made fun of her for using this when I first saw it. However, a few months ago, I created one with the start of my Christmas list. And then about a month ago, I started another one for a list of what I want to buy everyone for Christmas (luckily, none of my family lives close by to accidentally see what they are getting for Christmas!). The nerdy part: last week I figured out the way to line through the items as I buy them. It's a high-tech to-do list! And I have to say, I take back making fun of my friend. It is a good reminder. Although it does sometimes bother me, so I have to hide it from view.

And for my 700th post, I will let you in on 7 things you might not know about me:
1. I could live in a hoodie sweatshirt all winter if I was allowed.
2. I bought the same Bible twice because the other one started loosing pages but I didn't want to "break in" a new Bible. At least this way, I knew where certain things were based on their location on the page in the old and new Bible. I have a visual memory. Even if I can't remember chapter and verse, I can remember left hand side, first column, near the top.
3. Most of the time, I would rather go back for seconds on fruits and vegetables then get dessert.
4. Every spare surface in my living room and bedroom is filled with picture frames. Which is why I don't like to dust.
5. I only really obsess about Chick-fil-a because I don't have one close by. Once it comes to Peoria, you won't hear me talk about it that much.
6. Holding a baby is one of the quickest ways to cheer me up. I've been known to call friends with babies and invite myself over when I've had a particularly bad day.
7. I used to love flying but now it's kind of a nuisance. A necessary nuisance when your family and friends are scattered across 3 different states, but still a nuisance.

Happy 4th Birthday John! :)

This was what I found on Facebook this morning. John's birthday present from his mom and dad. Hopefully he opened my books and puzzles first! :)

While he lives far away and I don't get to see him very often, just seeing pictures of him brings me joy! I love that little boy smile and those dimples. And his enthusiasm. I can't believe it's been four years. And I can only say for 3 more months that he's my favorite nephew! Then I'll have two favorite nephews.

Thanks Chris and Ann for adding such a blessing to the family!
It's hard to believe he was once this small!
Happy Birthday John!

Another first

I posted a while back about seeing an ATM filled for the first time and the rarity of seeing a billboard being changed. Today I saw a free-standing mailbox being emptied and I thought, "Have I ever seen this?" I couldn't recall a time, so I think it was another first. Sometimes when I mail things in those mailboxes, I think about not seeing them get emptied. Will my mail actually get where it is supposed to go? But it always does, so apparently they do get emptied when they say they will, even if I rarely see it happen.

Statute of Limitations

Is there a statute of limitations on dream content? Because I have had some pretty weird dreams this month. And they've included some memories that I would think would not surface anymore in my dreams. Like, I haven't worked at LifeWay in almost 6 years, but I still have dreams about the store every couple of months. Or how I had a dream about my high school boyfriend. The details of that one are kind of funny, except that it was just weird. I dated him 15 years ago. But, I'll share, because I laughed this morning at the weirdness of the dream. Apparently I was talking to my mom on the phone and she was trying to talk me out of marrying him today. Like, he showed up and I was just going to marry him or something. So, I agreed with her. And then Emily and I were watching NCIS and there was a knock on the door and I asked her to let him in and he came in and made himself at home and we were about to start watching NCIS again and I just plain as day told him that we couldn't get married yet. And he said okay. But then I guess we still wanted to get married fairly quickly because I told him I was worried because Kari and I had been talking about weddings in general and she said that she couldn't book another wedding until the spring (more because she was tired of them, not because there were no days available) and I didn't want to make her do one more wedding if she didn't want to. And then I think I woke up. So, all in all, a very strange dream. Except the part where Emily and I were watching NCIS. That was perfectly normal :). But really, of all the guys I have known or now know, why would I dream about someone I haven't even seen in at least 13 years? All that to say, I definitely believe there should be a statute of limitations on what is allowed into my subconscious!

Happiness in a cup!

One of my favorite things is hot chocolate. I recently discovered the peppermint hot chocolate at McDonalds and have already invested quite a bit of money in said hot chocolate. They use cool whip and chocolate syrup. So I thought I would recreate some of the greatness at home. You can't see it, but I also have marshmallows under there. With some caramel hot chocolate. Hopefully I won't be bouncing off the walls instead of sleeping. I might have something else to say later about whether its still happy. :)

Bon. Fire.

I have a friend who recently bought a house with some land and he had everyone over for a bonfire last night. This was part of the email he sent out, "I'll be lighting the bonfire @ 7:15 and you probably don't want to miss that, if you now the kind of stuff I like doing!" So, I knew the bonfire would be big. But I didn't know it would be explosive. We all stood ample distance from the huge pile of brush, because we really do know the kind of things he likes to do. He lit part of it and then he stood back a ways. Turns out he had a gun and a propane tank. A couple shots later, we had quite the toasty fire going! A friend took these pictures. We just kept thinking that it looked like she had zoomed in really close, so she finally got a few people to stand in front of the fire. And the pictures still do not do it justice. It was a fun evening. I don't know if I've ever seen a fire quite that big before!

Kari looks like she is doing a fire dance but she was really saying, "It's really hot right here!"

F as in Frank

I have one of those last names where spelling it over the phone is almost impossible if you want it spelled correctly because the letters sound similar to other letters. So, I've adopted my own phonetic alphabet. Here is how you spell my last name: F as in Frank, O, R, S as is Sam, B as in Boy, E, R, G. Most people can get that right. But it got me curious about the military phonetic alphabet. Here is how you would spell my name. Foxtrot Oscar Romeo Sierra Bravo Echo Romeo Golf. And then, of course, I was looking at all the other letters and some of them just seem odd. Hotel. India. Kilo. Lima. November. Uniform. Whiskey. I kind of wish I could have been a fly on the wall for the discussion when they came up with which words to use for each letter! If there were women involved, it probably took weeks. If there were men involved, it was probably just the first word they associated with each letter. Either way, some of the choices are just...interesting.

I love me these cats!

One thing I miss almost as much as Dad, Amy, Daynah, and Josh not being in Peoria, is Samson, Isabell, and Sophie not being in Peoria. I enjoyed my snuggle time with the cats while I was in Arizona. Samson was being camera shy and wouldn't look at me. Or even acknowledge that I was calling him.
He had also just finished eating and was licking his chops :) This is the entrance to Josh's bedroom. Samson likes to hang out here.
Sophie surprised me when I walked by the laundry room (or closet). But who can resist some freshly washed towels!
I love this picture because she is sitting on the Ticket to Ride box. I would have to do some digging, but I think I have a picture of Isabell sitting on the same box. If I find it, I'll let you know.
This is one of Isabell's favorite places to lay. Crammed into the corner of the desk right beside Amy's computer. And she would lay like this for hours. Because that's exactly how I want to spend hours of my time, especially when there are beds and pillows and couches all over the place!

Sorry for the absence

Unless you didn't miss me. Then I'm not sorry at all. :)

I've been without Internet for 4 1/2 days. But it felt like an eternity. It stresses me out because I don't have access to my email at work. So I feel like people are trying to get in touch with me and I don't know it. The sad thing. 4 1/2 days, not one personal email. Apparently, no one missed me in the email/Facebook realm. But I'll pretend I was missed.

You should probably be glad my Internet was out on Thursday, because my plan was to come home and have a complete meltdown on my blog. Complete with crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was a bad week. But now I'm over it and you don't have to hear about it! Aren't you lucky. If you still want to hear the gory details, just call me or send me an email. I can tell you some good, albeit whiny, stories.

But the one thing I discovered through it all is that McDonald's makes an AMAZING peppermint hot chocolate. Okay, probably not over-the-top amazing, but enough that I've had to refrain from going there and getting some every day. Because I love me some peppermint hot chocolate!

Next I shall blog about all the fun stuff I've gotten to do over the last two weekends. Last week, up until losing Internet, I was too busy to blog. Then when I had time, I had no Internet. So I haven't been able to fill you in on the fun happenings of my life.

And now I shall go find some dinner. :)