Merry Christmas!

We here at Chez Miller wish you a very Merry Christmas. Justin and I are leaving for Oklahoma on Christmas afternoon, and I will post as I find internet connections in Muskogee. :-) Our plans are to stay with the family until New Years and then head over to Oklahoma City for the "eve" to see our friends. We're attending the Life Imapct conference also in OKC during the week and will be back to Michigan on the evening of Jan 6th. Chelsea is excited for Jack, her favorite dog-sitter, to come and stay! I think he's the only one that can actually tire her out!

Everyone have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Matt. 1:21 - "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

congratulations tim and jerri!

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

Wild Weekend Part II - The Rest

So that was just Friday... Saturday we got up and went over to the golf course to set up the room for our Christmas party. Denise and Bambi came over to help, Denise being the woman of the year by getting us the room for free. After setting up I sent Blessy off to the mall with the treat of driving Green Gertrude, my trusty 1990 Volvo wagon. Not exactly her old sporty blue Camaro. :-) As she was tearing up the mall, Justin and I went over to Cornerstone to provide music and prayer for the Puralewski nuptials. It was a nice, cozy wedding with just family and two witnesses. The big one will come in Hawaii in August. Jerri looked absolutely beautiful and I was all choked up!

After the wedding we ran home to start the meatballs cooking and get everything together for the party. After a hectic car-packing we made it over with plenty of time to spare. The party went really well… I scored a pooping cow keychain from the white elephant gift exchange, thanks to Gretchen! The Wolfes brought over their karaoke machine and we had a particularly rousing version of “YMCA” with most of us wearing various parts of Matt’s fire gear. It was so nice to have so many of our friends in one place; it’s very rare we get to do that.

Sunday we had the kids’ Christmas pageant at church. It went over really well with no major mishaps. They all did a great job and it was nice to see so many of them up there. Joey didn’t seem to like being an angel too much but he was so cute no one cared when he yanked his halo off! I’m surprised no one got him to yell “Lottie Moon” in the middle of the program!

After church we picked up Blessy and Larry at Cornerstone and had lunch, then hit Steve & Barry’s so Blessy could get some MSU gear. During church, Matt proved that he can drum one-handed after managing to break his hand this weekend after being pulled in a sled behind a truck… don’t ask! We took him out for a birthday dinner after church, went back home, and thus followed the thoroughly worthwhile staying up till 3 AM. Phew.

Maybe I’ll get some sleep tonight! I’d better before we leave for Oklahoma on Sunday!

Wild Weekend Part I - The Bachelor

You know you’re getting old when it takes you a whole week to recover from one night with three hours of sleep. It was time well spent however as I haven’t gotten to talk to Blessy face to face in ages. Sometimes you just need to stay up till 3AM. I can’t believe I regularly was up till 2 in college, but then again I didn’t have to get up three hours later.

I’m still catching my breath from the weekend. Blessy came in late Friday afternoon and no sooner did we get home then we were off to meet Jerri and Kim to take Jerri out for a nice low key bachelorette dinner. I can’t remember the last time I went out to eat with just the girls, it was so nice! Jerri even got to wear her tiara and a flashing “bride-to-be” button that Kim found. We went back to Kim’s and watched a major chick flick (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and had some ice cream cake and snacks. Meanwhile, poor Tim was getting the now infamous bachelor party treatment from the guys. These parties have taken on a life of their own, and the guys start planning them years before one of them even has a marriage prospect! They have cryptic “themes” that the bachelor can know ahead of time… but no details. Tim’s was “Fear Factor,” a nod to his love of extreme stunts. I have promised not to post pictures on the blog, but I’m sure you can imagine the size 18 x-tall aqua chiffon bridesmaid’s dress that Jeffrey purchased on e-bay. Tim sported this lovely gown most of the evening while climbing the rock wall at Dick’s Sporting Goods store, walking around the mall and getting “accessorized” at Claire’s, sitting in the parking garage in East Lansing and playing his guitar to earn 5 bucks, and buying people food at BW3’s… the very popular campus sports bar & grill. There is a great picture of Tim playing his guitar in the dress… good thing he was wearing shorts underneath it because he was sitting in a VERY unladylike manner! J The guys finished off the evening by bringing Tim back to the church and making him ride a tricycle (Tim is 6’5”) through an obstacle course and then bobbing for a bottle of Beano in a vat filled with 9 gallons of pork’n’beans. I’m not sure that I’ll ever understand this “guy” way of saying “I love you” to one another but I do recognize it, even if it’s in the form of beans, ugly dresses, and elaborate plans. Don’t worry, they were very nice to Tim at the end by encouraging him, praying for him, and giving him a nice big TV that they all pitched in for.

To Be Continued...

ghetto fabulous

... the name of our new HGTV show, for the home makeover where all you can afford is paint. Also known as "Re-arranging Furninture 101." I could shoot myself for not taking a picture of Tim's room before he moved out so I could do a before/after comparison. We intended just to clean it out and set up our antique bed for Blessy's visit, but of course it turned into a full scale room makeover. It's now our "Early Americana" room... just right for our future New England colonial house. That is a fun thing about being married to Justin... you never know when a room is about to get dismantled, overhauled, rearranged, repainted... it's like impulse Trading Spaces. I'm not sure how many people at church realize that the parsonage living room has been painted "Hellfire Red" for the last three years. :-) I will put a pic of the new room up soon.

murder mystery pic

Kathy sent along this photo of the murder mystery party. (See here). The description of my character was something like a "blond divorcee who had it all... " basically it meant a pretty snotty money/guy chaser! That was fun for an evening. :-) Thanks Kathy for the pic.

it's cold outside!

Here is the front of our house last night, icing up nicely in preparation for Blessy's visit from Florida. Welcome back to the frozen north!

Justin and I scrubbed the floor and painted the ceiling in the room formerly known as Tim's last night. Of course now the walls look dingy and are screaming for new paint too. Funny how that works. It was weird not having Tim come home by the time we went to bed last night. It was so quiet with only me, Justin, and Matt. Even Scrappy and Chelsea were relatively noise-free. It helped that Chelsea had a new toy to work at also, thanks to Evette. Yesterday Justin filled out a "dog behavior" questionnaire that he picked up at the vet's office and our wonder pup scored an "F!" The description for this category was "Owners are desperate, have considered euthanasia." I'm not sure if they were referring to the dog or the owners for that one. I think at certain times we've considered both! :-) Chelsea is so smart, she knows EXACTLY when she is misbehaving and even "punishes" herself by going into her kennel... Justin and I have concluded that we should have looked for the dumbest, laziest dog possible! Chelsea is definitely a handful, but a sweet, lovey one... with chocolate breath...

gr jaunt

It's been quite the driving weekend. After getting back from Bronner's, we turned right around yesterday morning and set off in the opposite direction to Grand Rapids. We got to spend the day with Steve and Laurie... and to meet Wrigley, the newest member of the Talbot family. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of him. When we got there I asked Laurie where the dog was and she said "in the shower with Steve." Wrigley's a very special dog. :-)

Anyhow we went to Mars Hill for church. It's a huge church that meets in a former shopping mall. It's very cool. The pastor had a great message on prayer - one of the things he said that I liked was that when you get to a point where you're no longer being "polite" with God, then you're actually praying.

We all met up with Julie, her husband, and some of their friends from church at the in-Famous Dave's Barbecue. We're still trying to convince one another to move to Lansing/GR. I think we're all pretty much settled where we are at this point!

Steve and Laurie took us to see the new house that they're building. It's exciting to see it taking shape. They should be able to move in by the end of January. It has a nice big garage to store all of Steve's future Christmas light collection!

More Thanksgiving photos

Here are some of the great photos Peng took at Thanksgiving. Click here to see them at my Flickr site. Jean is particularly photogenic!

whey-ing in

It wouldn't be Christmas without an annual trip to Frankenmuth to visit Bronner's (the world's largest Christmas store... it's seriously out of control) and to walk around the distinctly Bavarian-themed village. Here is Kevin being his cheesy self in front of the aptly named Haus.

Justin, Nelia, Matt, Kevin, and I took Stephanie, Robert, and Jolee for a fun day of shopping. The adults (loosely defined) split off to visit Bronner's and the village while the "younger" set hit the outlet malls. I had to break down and buy a generous hunk of gorgonzola and and a block of their famous chocolate cheese.

At Bronner's, Justin and I finally settled on a beautiful blown glass ball for our annual ornament purchase- after vetoing ornaments in the form of disco balls, a garlic clove, pickles, firetrucks, and even an octopus.

Tonight we went to see the Chronicles of Narnia. I was SO glad that they left the story intact. I was bawling like a baby of course. The effects weren't that great but the story was very true to the original, and that is what gives it heart. The girl who played Lucy was absolutely precious. I can't wait to own this one on DVD.

and the oscar goes to...

The 2005 Best Display of Nerdiness to Sara Miller... wow, I even out-nerded myself yesterday when I was the only one in a room of all librarians to know the answer to a trivia question... who was MSU's first librarian and where was the original library located? That is what happens to people who read plaques on the wall in their dorms and remember the useless content for the rest of their lives. (answer for you OTHER nerds who want to know: Linda E. Landon and Linton Hall.) I wish I could remember where I put my keys instead of something I read while wasting time in my undergrad dorm!

I had another scary work moment today. A prof asked me to come and give a lecture on library resources to his class in the spring. Yikes. He is an expert on the main database that I'm going to talk about too. There is no longer any doubt in my mind as to what I'm going to be studying over Christmas break!

Looking forward to the weekend - a visit to Grand Rapids and some shopping at Great Lakes Crossing. That is, if this snowstorm that we are supposed to get tonight doesn't immobilize us. They should have it cleared by Saturday I hope.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

My shopping list is almost wrapped up, except for a few stocking stuffers. I was browsing the dollar store for that purpose the other day and I saw this lovely toy... for that non-malignant girl in your life. (Click for a bigger view.)

This weekend was another busy one. On Friday night we went to the annual pastors' associational Christmas dinner. Saturday was Jerri's wedding shower. I finally got to meet Tim's mom. We always tease him that we don't think his family exists because we have known him for over 7 years and have never laid eyes on them. By a freak chance I actually got to see Tim's brother last spring, and then finally his mom yesterday. His dad is still in the realm of the mythical as far as I am concerned! Anyhow, it was a nice shower and nearly all the girls there had gone on Focus trips or overseas in some way so it was cool to talk about all the places we'd been. I was going to give Jerri some Febreeze and Beano, but I was good!

Saturday afternoon and evening we got our Christmas tree. Matt's fire station sells trees every year so we got a nice fir from them. It smells delectable. I know the picture is small but for some reason it wouldn't show any bigger... it's me in their shiny new engine. Matt even let me honk the airhorn. :-) Speaking of Matt, he had his testing for his hazmat training this weekend and scored the top in his class, getting a 50 out of 50 on his written exam. Since he got the best grade, he got to be the incident commander for their practical exam. Needless to say we are all very proud! He is busy using his extensive knowledge to concoct new ways to combine dangerous chemicals to clean out our downstairs bathroom. :-)

Justin and I also bought our tickets to Oklahoma today. We'll be gone from Christmas afternoon until the evening of Jan 6th. We have some time planned with the family, New Years' in OKC, and the Life Impact conference after that. We're really looking forward to it, especially getting to see Ruby and Granny June who we haven't seen in at least 2 years.

too cute

Today was really busy with meetings, a funeral, and a new to-do list from my boss. The more I have to do at work the more excited I get about it... it's still such a strange phenomenon for to me to enjoy work. I am loving the challenge.

I got to have lunch with Denise today at a cute little restauant in cute little downtown Mason. After lunch we went to the cute little five-and-dime next door. For those of you who don't know, Mason is a little town just south of Lansing that has an incredibly well-preserved old-time downtown. There is a huge, beautiful old courthouse (see pic and click for original site) in the middle of the square surrounded by all the aforementioned cute little shops. Mason is so cute, in fact, that they sent a crew from the show "Three Wishes" to do an episode there becuase it is such a "perfect" representation of small-town America. Denise has it on good authority from her mom's hairdresser (like I said, small town...) that Mason may be on their Christmas Special and possibly be visited in the spring... In the meantime, there are plenty of cool old houses there for Justin and I to drool over.

By the way, Peng has put some pictures up of Thanksgiving. You can see them here. Peng assured me that the captions don't say "This was the worst food I ever tasted!" in Chinese!

where's waldo?

I think we finally found out who the boogeyman is.