The Important Things in Life (well, at work anyway)

Every Tuesday at work we have "small" team meetings. My program is a part of a larger division, but on Tuesdays it is just the five of us in FBI that meet. Today, we got a little bit accomplished. But than we laughed. A lot. I can't really remember what all we laughed at. But it made me think that I am truly blessed to work with a team of people that I respect and get along with so well. One of our team is leaving at the end of March. So, we were discussing the person who would replace him. Faye, our supervisor, had said that she has received one internal application. We asked if we could guess who it was and she didn't say no. We finally gave up and asked if she would just tell us. But than Jill piped in and stated that maybe we needed to play 2o questions. She was just joking and started throwing out questions, which Faye than started answering. We eventually guessed.

But than we started discussing the important things Faye should be asking applicants. Like, does the person bake? Is the person willing to do crafty things like go to Fired Up? Are they willing to take joking and sarcasm about their height, age, gender, marital status, etc? Oh, and maybe they should be a good therapist, too. :) Like I said, it's the important things in life that we are concerned about!

And all of this made me think of the advertisement for a nanny from Mary Poppins:
Jane: [reading advertisement for a new nanny] "Wanted: a nanny for two adorable children."
George Banks: Adorable. Well that's debatable, I must say.
Jane: If you want this choice position, have a cheery disposition...
George Banks: Jane, I don't...
Jane: ...Rosy cheeks, no warts...
Michael: That's the part I put in!
Jane: Play games, all sorts. You must be kind, you must be witty, very sweet, and fairly pretty...
George Banks: Well of all the ridiculous...!
Mrs. Banks: George, please!
Jane: Take us on outings, give us treats, sing songs, bring sweets. Never be cross or cruel. Never give us castor oil or gruel. Love us as a son and daughter, and never smell of barley water.
Michael: I put that in, too!
Jane: If you won't scold and dominate us, we will never give you cause to hate us. We won't hide your spectacles so you can't see, put toads in your bed, or pepper in your tea. Hurry, Nanny! Many thanks! Sincerely-...
Jane, Michael: Jane and Michael Banks!

Phooey on Artificial

Whoever said that artificial Christmas trees are cleaner than real Christmas trees has not met our artificial Christmas tree. We are still finding "needles" from the tree all over the apartment. Like, sometimes in my bed or in my bathroom...or in the laundry room. We have vacuumed since then but they are stubborn and don't like to be sucked up by the vacuum. Granted, it was a new tree this year, but I still did not expect it to shed that much. Maybe next year will be better. Or we will still have needles on the ground when we put the tree up next year, not sure which.

Musical?

I am not a musical person in that I can sing well or know how to read music or have a wide-range of musical tastes, but I do love to listen to music. I don't like silence, so I often have music playing in my apartment or in my car. I keep my iPod with me so that I can listen to it at work.

I've blogged before about how songs remind me of people and places. I realized today when I had iTunes on shuffle, that my memory for music is interesting. Can you think of CDs that you wore out? You had all the words to every song memorized? I had that come up today because a song from one of those CDs was playing and, as it ended, I immediately started singing the next song on the CD. Only I wasn't listening to the CD, I had my songs on shuffle, so a different artist started singing. But this happens to me often with music I know well and have listened to a lot. Sometimes it makes me want to turn off shuffle and find the next song as I feel it should be played! :) Just random thoughts on this Monday evening...

OHHHH NOOOOO!!!!!!!

All my beautiful, untouched snow was destroyed today. I guess the maintenance guys don't believe in untouched snow, only in shoveled sidewalks. Sigh. I think the other reason I don't like touched snow is it just looks chaotic. My view out my window is no longer peaceful to me. It's chaotic and a little stressful. But that's okay, because I'm going to choose to be thankful that I didn't have to shovel it myself (technically they used a snow blower, but I would not have had one of those.

7 Pages

That's how many pages I had left of my book last week when it was time to leave for House to House.

That's how many pages I had left of my book this week when it was time to leave for House to House.

I think the Lord is trying to test what is more important to me. Finishing my book or fellowshiping with other believers and being on time to events. Good thing I put the book down both weeks! :)

But now it is off to get ready for bed and finish those 7 pages!

Resa's Ramblings

I've thought about retitling my blog again and calling it Resa's Ramblings. No one calls me Resa anymore, and the only person who ever has was 3. When I first moved in to Chris and Sarah's house, Graham called me Miss Resa. The only time he said Teresa was if he wanted to get my attention by elongating in a sing-song voice "Ohhhhh, Missssssss Taaaaaaaaaaareeeeeeeeeesssssaaaaaaaaaaa!" But, I haven't had a strong desire to do a redesign of the blog, which I feel like would be required if I renamed it again (this would be my third name for the blog).

I took Daynah to the airport last night. She was SO ready to go home. I felt equal parts bad and amused all week that she was here for the BLIZZARD instead of in Arizona. One minute I would think, "poor Daynah, the whole reason she was in Illinois was to go to Life Change Week at the school and she missed 3 days of school." But as soon as I had that thought I would laugh because of the irony of her being here for the biggest snow storm we've had in a really long time! I'm such a horrible person!

Today was a great day of worship in church. In Sunday School we had Care Group Sunday which we do once a month. We get together in established groups and share prayer requests, praises, and pray for one another. It is a great time to catch up with each other. Then it was on to the worship service. The choir took the month of January off, so it was great to have them back up front to lead us in worship. During the offertory they sang a great version of "And Can it Be" which is one of my favorite hymns. The only down side was that it was not a congregational song. And then during communion we sang "How Deep the Father's Love" which is another one of my favorites. Pastor Ritch continued his sermon series on the life of Elijah (he had taken the month of January off to preach on some other topics) where we learned that we cannot let circumstances rule our lives, but must trust in the Lord and lean on His strength. "For the joy of the Lord will be my strength." What a great reminder!

It's a HEAT WAVE!

I went to the grocery store today in my standard winter attire--jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt. When I left the apartment I debated whether to wear my coat. It was supposed to be about 30 today, so would I really need it? I opted to wear it, but when I got to Kroger, I decided I should leave it in the car. I forgot to do that. So, about a third of the way through my shopping I got really hot. Took off the coat. Pushed up the sleeves. I never recovered from the really hot and was contemplating taking the sweatshirt off (don't worry, I had a t-shirt underneath) but never did that. Needless to say, I drove with the windows partially down on the way home and than have spent the rest of the day in a t-shirt and no socks. It's funny how 30 degrees always feels like a heat wave to me after colder weather and snow!

All Things Snow!

I'm sure everyone is done hearing about the snow, but I still like it :) and therefore am going to give you some of my snow insights on this beautiful, sunny Friday! I have a friend who has a list of her favorite things. If I had a written list, untouched snow would be near the top. There is nothing more beautiful than the sun shining on untouched snow. This, again, is the view outside of our patio window. Emily and I were both curious how tall the snow is outside the patio, but I forbid her from going outside our door (okay, forbid might be a little strong!). I didn't want to have to look at touched snow until it melts. This picture would be so much better without the air conditioning units in it, but I have no photo editing software.

I took my camera with me to work today just in case I had the opportunity to take snow pictures. I drove out to a rural town and so, I got to see fields of untouched snow. Here is a good contrast. Untouched snow in the background. Touched snow where the plows went through at the forefront.

This is the view of the touched snow out my bedroom window. Made both from our next door neighbors and the balcony above them. I watched as the people on the balcony cleaned the snow and it would plop down. It gave me the idea of jumping off the balcony into the snow. Luckily, we don't know our upstairs neighbors, so I didn't act on that thought!

Here is another cool picture from my drive. In the country, snow drifts. This, though was a result of the plows. It was almost like driving through a tunnel! The snow was piled way above my car! And how cool that I got the side mirror in my picture, all while actually watching the road while I drove.

Here are more pictures from Wednesday...

This is the big pile of snow up the hill from our apartment building. I put the dumpster in the picture for a little perspective.

Emily beginning the tedious process of digging out her car. Doesn't she look like she's having fun?!

I decided to tackle mine a little later in the day. I wandered around and took pictures instead!

Productivity is for non-snow days

I have been home for two days now. It is sad to see the second day coming to a close with the prospect of having to brave the snow and cold tomorrow and be an adult. Even though all the schools are closing again. I had a list of things to do (like dust and clean my bathroom) that just stayed on the list!

I have been semi-productive, but not to the extent that I had expected. I mean, how can two days fly so fast. Emily and I didn't get half the lounging around stuff done that we wanted to do! :)

Emily went into work yesterday morning, so while she was gone I exercised, spent some time in the Word, and read. Then she got home and our day consisted of watching The Lost Valentine (the Hallmark movie that was on last Sunday), playing some Wii bowling (thanks to some friends who have not asked for the Wii back yet), and watching several episodes of NCIS (including the new one, which only served to confuse us today when we were trying to figure out what episode we were on of season 2). We both went to bed fairly early considering we knew we weren't going to have to get up today. Actually, I was so tired I think I went to bed earlier than I do on a normal work night. Apparently, sitting around and watching it snow for hours really takes its toll on a person!

Than, this morning I woke up at 7:30. I wanted to see what it looked like outside, so I knew once I got up, I would not be able to fall back to sleep. Emily was already up too. Once we watched the news for a few minutes and exclaimed over all the snow, Emily started doing some work from home and I exercised. Than, same routine as yesterday, I showered and spent some time with the Lord. Than I did the paperwork for work that I had been avoiding for two days! Emily and I had planned to be unproductive starting at noon :) but she decided she would go dig her car out. I went out and took pictures but left my car just the way it was. We eventually got around to watching New in Town and an episode of NCIS. Then we went and dug my car out. Yes, Emily helped, even though I told her she didn't have to. We are about to sit down and watch another movie. I recently bought a $4 movie that contains 4 Hallmark channel movies. That's only a dollar a movie! :)

The one thing I can say for sure is that I have to get out of the house soon because all I have wanted to do the last two days is munch, munch, munch. And I am normally not much of a snacker. I made brownies on Monday night and we have managed to eat more than half of them in the past two days. I'm not even a huge fan of brownies (I tend to enjoy the brownie batter much more)! I keep trying to supplement with some fruit. Eat a banana, eat a brownie. Eat an orange, eat a brownie. But I think I've snuck in a few brownies without fruit, and I don't think it really works that way!

Anyway, I guess it's back to reality tomorrow. Although I'm not super-confident that I will be venturing out to see any clients tomorrow. We'll see what happens...

I can't NOT post about the blizzard

I'm kind of bummed the snow stopped early. I think the news said we got about 15 inches. I was really hoping for 2 feet! :) Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. On Facebook, others have similar pictures and it seems like some people got a lot more snow than we did, but I think it's all in how the snow drifted. This is Emily's car, with part of mine to the right. I'm glad we are not going to have to clear 15 inches of snow off of our cars. The wind didn't allow it to stay on the car. However, my favorite is how things did drift. Can you see Emily's driver side door. The snow did that, not us. It looks like someone cut it off because it is so boxy! :)

The stairs up to the "outside world." The amazing thing is it is covered from overhead, which means this is all stuff that drifted down the stairs from outside, not from above.

Emily and I ventured out for a few minutes last night. I couldn't even see the snow when I was out there so this picture was funny to me because you can't see what I'm trying to take a picture of.

This is my foot in my boots for a little representation of the depth of the snow. This is on the sidewalk outside of our apartment.

Last night, without the flash from outside my bedroom window.

Some of my non-Illinois friends were asking me yesterday if we would be out and about in this. They were surprised to hear that we get snow-bound too. I was cracking up watching TV last night with all the closings being posted. I thought it would have been easier to post what WAS going to be open. I kept stating things like, "Oh, I guess I can't go get a massage at the spa." after something would be posted. When all was said and done here are the things I would not be able to do today--go to work (even my work shut down for today), the bank, to get my haircut, to the gym, bowling, to the mall. I mean, what am I supposed to do with my day? :) Just kidding. I am perfectly happy to sit and do nothing all day (well, now that I finally buckled down and got the paperwork I hadn't completed on Monday done). As a matter of fact, Emily and I are about to watch a movie now...