here comes the rain again!

What started out as a little dinnertime prayer walk resulted in a run for cover! I'm trying to dry off a little bit before I have to go back out to the reference desk. Too bad I'm at work or I would have stayed out in the downpour. It's 60 degrees here... one day of a break before we go back to snow, snow, and more snow. I look like a wet poodle right about now.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Luckily I was feeling better and managed to cook a turkey, stuffing, corn casserole, garlic rosemary mashed potatoes, fruit cup, apple crisp... and Justin pitched in with his famous gourmet green bean casserole. Jerri brought over some homemade rolls, pumpkin pie from scratch, and her family's traditional macaroni salad. There were nine of us... me, Justin, Kevin, Tim, Jerri, Jerri's friend Jean who was visiting from Oregon, Peng and Xiaolei, and Carrie who unfortunately couldn't stay for dinner. I'm afraid that my inner Martha (as in Stewart, not Mary And) comes out at holidays. I love cooking, and I love setting the table. I was giggling like a little girl at the though of using my great grandmother's china and her cute little teacups. It was a bit frightening. I'm not sure if I'll ever understand my love of dishes, but such things are sometimes best left as a mystery!

Gretchen and I went Christmas shopping on Friday and I managed to get 90% of it done. It's a good thing we didn't go early... there were rumors of fist fights and carjacking at Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing like the Christmas spirit I tell you!

Friday night Jerri's friend Jean had us over for a party. It was nice for me to be somewhere where girls were in the majority for once. :-) It was fun to catch up with Jeff & Kim and to get to know Jean and Xiaolei better. It was Jerri's birthday too, so Jeff and Tim came out of hiding in the back room for a few minutes to eat cake, then disappeared into the virtual world of Tiger Woods Golf again. Random whooping was about all we heard from them most of the night.

Saturday night Justin and I attended our first murder mystery party. It was a 50's theme; Justin had to dress up as a greasy mechanic and I was a chick named "Barby Q." (pic here!) If I get any pictures I will put them up. The highlight of the evening was Andy's impersonation of a drunken Russian rocket scientist, followed by a stellar karaoke performance a la Britney Spears. Just when you think you know Andy... he never fails to surprise! Speaking of karaoke, it took a few hours but we were finally treated to a number by Justin. His heartfelt rendition of that unfogettable classic Christian hair-metal hit, Stryper's "To Hell With The Devil," was something that words can't really describe. Even better was when Denise misread Stryper as "Stripper."

sniff

'Tis the time of year for sniffles and congestion, unfortunately. I was laid up for most of the weekend with a cold, but we still managed to get some stuff done. Went to see the latest Harry Potter movie on Friday, opening night, with Justin and Marie. It was cool to see the book portrayed on film but unfortunately it wasn't nearly as well-done as the third movie. The visuals and the feeling of being "right there" just didn't come close. Oh well. I'll still go see it again just for the pure fun of it!

I don't think I mentioned that no one showed up to my instruction session last week! I had eight people registered initially, the it was revised down to five... and then none of those five showed! Oh well, at least I have the material prepared and I've been able to help a lot of people with similar needs since preparing.

Today I got to have lunch with Justin, Matt and Tina. It was good to see her and catch up. We had lunch in a local shopping center here and I am starting to get the Christmas shopping bug. Usually I'm at least halfway done with my shopping by now but I haven't even started yet!

Preparing for Tim's bachelor party...

schneit es

We had our first snow last night. Just a dusting, but enough to make the ground white and make me realize that the only outdoor winter footwear I own are hiking boots and big blue and white moon boots, both of which look incredibly hot with gaucho pants. I ended up wearing my Birkenstock rubber garden clogs to work this morning, and let me tell you what a fashion plate I was! I haven't had so many disdaining stares at my feet since I used to wear those clear plastic Doc Martens in high school! God puts us in really interesting situations sometimes... I am right smack in the middle of my first one-paycheck-per-month cycle and there is no way I can buy new boots... I guess I'm needing to learn some sacrifice and humility right about now.

We had a fantastic turnout at our churchwide Thanksgiving dinner last night. There must have been over 100 people there. The dinner is the only thing that some members' families will come to, and it was great not knowing nearly 2/3 of the people there. I met friends, kids, grandkids, you name it. The food is always fabulous too... the best thing about having so many Southern folks around is that they can all cook a mean pot of turnip greens. I'd never had greens before coming to Immanuel, and now I can't get enough! It's my one saving grace if Justin wants to eat at Cracker Barrel!

This afternoon I have to teach my first instructional class here at the library. It's on "Finding Company and Industry Information." If any of you are interested at all in what I'm doing at my job, you can see my powerpoint here. I also updated our research guide here. Don't worry, I don't expect any of you to actually look at it! It's all pretty boring library nerd stuff!

We are having several guests for Thanksgiving dinner next week. So far we have Tim and Jerri, Kevin, and my co-librarian Peng and his wife Xiaolei who just arrived from China a few weeks ago. Peng loves taking photos and has a Flickr site here. I have already promised Kevin a big ol' batch of garlic rosemary mashed potatoes.

snow is coming...

We had a really nice long fall here, stretching into November... then one day it was windy and it was over. And now- our first snow is supposed to fly tomorrow! Tim, the skier, is quite excited- however, Justin is prophesying gloom and doom. He's never quite gotten used to the cold, gray monotony of a Michigan winter.

We got to see Amy this weekend as she regaled us with tales of her new Office Space-like cube farm and her company choir. Luckily she missed the Indiana tornado by about 40 miles.

Speaking of tornadoes, did you SEE that video taken by that crazy guy in Iowa standing outside as the tornado was yards from him? Here is the link if you missed it. What a nutcase!

FINALLY a video for you!

OK, here it is! Click the picture to watch the movie. It may take quite a while to download but it's worth it. Make sure your volume is turned on so you can hear them scream like girls! :-) Also make sure you watch through to the end to see them get drenched.

Kevin, thanks so much for your help in taking and uploading this video!

For those of you who are just tuning in, the video is of Justin, Matt, and Kevin at Lake Michigan last month (October) during a thunderstorm. They got a little wetter and colder than anticipated!

csi pawcatuck

The excitement never ends in my hometown. Apparently my neighbor's yard was invaded this morning by wandering cows. Forget robbery, assault, homicide... these cows are ruthless! I am wondering if the crime lab had to take samples of "evidence" left at the scene. Photos courtesy of Mom.

kosher hot dog

Our music video night on Friday was a whole lot of fun as you can tell from Scrappy's pose. I'm not sure who decided to put the yarmulke on him but I think it was Matt who pulled it out of our random costume and clothing item box. As soon as Tim downloads his pictures I will have some more to share.

We had one major mishap. The video camera somehow recorded double... so we didn't catch most of the music videos. We did have fun making them however.

extreme girliness

Denise, being considerate as always, thought that we should surprise Kathy with a "stress-relieving massage" from the student salon here in town. So, last night we all trouped out to EL and lost ourselves in the girly universe for a while. Denise got a manicure and I got a haircut while Kathy was having her treatment. I think Kathy was a little confused when we turned into the salon... she had a "what on earth are we doing HERE?" look on her face. It was pretty funny. Wish I had thought to get a photo. The scary thing was that I kept thinking how much the guys would enjoy getting either a massage or a pedicure. I had this picture in my head of them all lined up in the la-z-boys getting their feet pampered. I really need to stop letting my imagination run away like that!

Catching Up

I really miss my blog with this crazy new schedule! Let's see, where did I leave off...

This past weekend was pretty eventful. Friday I had my wisdom tooth out with no problems, thank goodness. It was nice to have a day at home. Saturday I cooked jamablaya in the crock pot and Mike came over for dinner. Sunday we had a TON of visitors at church, it was so exciting! We went out to lunch afterwards and almost half of us there were new people.

Sunday afternoon I got the privilege of spending some time with Mary, one of our new visitors. She is going through a lot and needs prayer. It is really obvious that God is working in her life and drawing her to Himself. If you get a chance please pray for her that she'll make the decision to give her life to Him. She is pretty much face to face with that decision now.

I have to brag on our church for a minute... it's boasting in Christ because of the Christlike attitude our members have been showing, and I am so proud of everyone. Mary said to me on Sunday that our church was the first one she felt comfortable at and she knew she wouldn't be judged. I was so happy to hear that - we try so hard to accept people as God has accepted us and it was nice to hear that it has helped someone.

Last night (Tuesday) was a bit of an extravaganza. The last Star Wars movie came out on DVD and the basement filled up with fans pretty quickly to watch Annakin turn into Darth Vader. We really are a bunch of nerds! :-)