Friday, December 28, 2007

Reflections on 2007

2007. What a year!
I did a lot of traveling:
Living in Connecticut, going to NYC every chance I got, Philadelphia, home to Michigan quite a bit, Boston, New Hampshire a few times, Washington DC, the New Jersey coast, Florida, many trips to Chicago.
I saw some famous people:
Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Toby Keith, Chris Daughtry, Martina McBride, Josh Turner
Some NHL action:
Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, NY Rangers, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins
Weddings!
Bob and Maria, (Holly and Josh, Carmen and Brent -- I couldn't make it to those two), Martha and Brad (what a beautiful beach wedding!), Mary and Steve, Melissa and Eric
Family news:
Kristin and Jason moved back up north, and they're going to have a baby!! I'm (finally!) going to be an aunt! and some sad family news: my auntie Sharon died.
Some times that tested my character or patience:
airplanes/airports! ahhhh! the trip back from Washington, DC, trying to sleep in a tent on a beach while an insane storm raged overhead, a memorable 2-hour traffic jam at the GWB, Macy's fourth of July fireworks, being without a cellphone and away from home for 3 weeks
Some highlights (besides some things listed above):
My birthday with my sister and friends in the city, the frrrrrrrrozen hot chocolate from Serendipity, the things I received before I moved home, Tamara and Sarah came home with me for a week, fall adventures, teaching math!, assisting with taking wedding photos

Whew! That's all for now!
Once again,
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!

Merry Holidays!

What a busy week it has been!! Thanks to a nice week-long vacation, every day has felt like the weekend. We've had some great Christmas parties and fun family nights, too. On Christmas Eve, we were going to make a gingerbread house, but only two of my sisters wanted to do it with me. Everyone else was busy doing something else. SO instead of making the gingerbread house, we used all of the materials for a food fight. :) Yeah, as in frosting all over the face and hair, candy everywhere, etc. That kind of food fight. I can't say I've ever had one at home before, but it sure was fun! So I have to say, we enjoyed "making the gingerbread house." (although it never did get made.)
One really cool thing I got was a calendar for 2008 of NYC. My sister used my photos from the past year and made the calendar for me. What a surprise!! I love looking at it!
Congratulations again to DAVID on some awesome hockey games! He's so modest, he doesn't know how to take praise. But he sure is impressive out there!!
That's all for now ~~ I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and have a safe and happy New Year!!

Friday, December 21, 2007

This 'n That

I wore my (ugly) Christmas sweater to school on Monday... and did I ever get some looks!! Students were just staring at me! Especially when I would walk around and the bells would ring. My brother's girlfriend walked in and burst out laughing. She couldn't even look at me without laughing, and she asked if everyone had the same reaction. No one else said anything so I'm thinking maybe they thought I was serious. :) It was a fun day in the sweater!

Leanne's gone home for Christmas, and Marcia's on her way home! Sally will be in a couple of days. It feels good to not have the stress of traveling this holiday season. I had quite the experience last year, so I feel for anyone who has to put up with airports and bad weather trying to get home this year. GOOD LUCK!

I'm on break! That's one great thing about working in education. There's still such thing as "Christmas (or Holiday) Break" (along with Spring Break and Summer Vacation). No work until January 2nd! and then it's only 17 days until another vacation -- in the Caribbean. :)

Happy Shortest Day of the Year! The best part about it -- the days are getting longer!! The darkest day of winter will be gone soon -- tomorrow, to be exact.

Tamara and Ellen are getting together this weekend. LUCKY girls!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sights of the season

So yesterday I went shopping with a few girls. Shopping here usually means 1.5 to 2 hours at the most. Well, somehow we ended up shopping for about 6 hours. and I only got a few things. We went to a bunch of outdoors/sporting goods stores and browsed and dreamed... looking at things like new skiis and snowboards. My sister found a sweet deal on snowpants -- she was so excited about them, she called her friends and they played in the snow last night. Reminded me of when she was 6 or 7 years old, calling her friends to go and play in the snow.

We saw some cool things yesterday. One little boy was walking around with his mom, insisting there was no Santa. She just kept saying "I have no idea what you're talking about!" :)
At one Salvation Army kettle, there were some jugglers. They were juggling bowling pins dressed up like reindeers!
One woman was wearing a head-to-toe fur coat. I didn't realize those things were still out there. :S

We finally put our tree up today. I think this is the latest we've waited to decorate for Christmas. We have a puppy, though, and we are hoping he doesn't get confused about part of the outside being in the house. He got a haircut the other day. and doesn't resemble the puppy we all said goodbye to in the morning. It'll grow back, right?

The SURVIVOR: CHINA finale is tonight!! I'm hoping Todd doesn't win.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Here's to you, Ellen!

I've mentioned this before, but here goes again. Ellen's leaving on Saturday. Mind you, I haven't seen her since I left in July. But still. She's leaving. She's been in Connecticut since last February -- and this whole time I've been home, I know she's over there, doing her thing in CT. That if only I hopped on a couple of planes for a couple of hours, I could see her. Now she's going to be gone, back to Europe, to the Netherlands, to her town with 7 (?) houses. Actually, I think it's a few more -- like 12 or 13. I know how you're feeling, Ellen. To be so excited to go home. To be sad to leave everyone behind. To be anxious to just get back to your family and friends from home. To wonder if you'll ever see some people again. To be nostalgic about all of the adventures you had. To think about living in your own home again. To wonder if you'll ever have the excitement again that you had discovering all of the sweet new things on the East Coast.

So, this one's for you, ELLEN!
* I met you for the first time at your house -- Tamara, Katharina, and I came over to visit for a bit.
* Going to the beach at the Cove
* Fireworks!! at your house
* My first impression of you: you look like Michelle Williams
* We're both old! :)
* Laughing on the streets of Philadelphia
* You remind me of me :)
* When we were all leaving in the summer, you still had so much to look forward to: going to Canada, your parents coming, the changing seasons, then going home for Christmas
* Lots of movies remind me of you -- especially Pirates
* I saw a monster when we slept at Katharina's. hmmmmmmm...
* My last Thursday night coffee night. We were going to wear our matching shirts and get a picture together to see how much we really looked like each other. Neither of us wore the shirt, and I looked at the picture the other day. I don't think we look like each other.

I miss you, honey! I'm also so excited that you get to go home to your family and friends -- and jealous that you get to see Tamara soon.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Christmas party

Picture this: Jingle bells, bows, silk flowers, flashing lights, yards and yards of yarn, beads, ornaments, bright red yarn, lots of black yarn, throw some green in, too.

If you are picturing a bunch of Christmas sweaters, YOU'RE RIGHT! :) My friends and I had an ugly sweater party last night, and I can hardly believe some of the creations that are out there. I uploaded one photo for your viewing enjoyment.... seriously, enjoy it! :) They look especially hideous in the photos... after awhile we got used to them at the party, but the sweaters didn't escape the camera. Lots and lots of laughs!!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Unexpected

The University I graduated from publishes a magazine four times each year and sends it to their alumni to let them know what is going on at the University. I always enjoy skimming through it, checking out what has been going on since I graduated. Well, the winter edition came today, and I picked it up, anxious to see the latest big things.

The first thing I saw hit me unexpectedly. It was a photo and short message with the title
2005 Alumnus Dies in Afghanistan. It wasn't the headline that grabbed me -- rather it was the photo. It's a student I went to school with -- he was in my orientation group on my very first day of college, and we had various courses together throughout the four years we were both there. I knew him.

I read the short article, and saw that he died at the end of July. There were few details, only a couple of quotes from faculty/staff members at the University who knew him and memorial services for him were held at Arlington National Cemetary.

Some days we kind of forget that the war is still going on. Or it's waaaaay in the back of our minds. Unless someone we love is there. I feel guilty for not being a more active citizen when it comes to supporting our troops.
Opening the magazine and seeing his photo brought back so many memories. I cannot imagine what his family is feeling -- especially with the holidays fast approaching.
Take a moment in your busy life this holiday season and say a prayer for all of the soldiers and their families. We really are lucky to be Americans!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

ooooh yeah!!

Congratulations DAVID on your two goals and being PLAYER OF THE GAME tonight!! yahooo!!

and the snow keeps coming!
all night at work tonight, some things kept going through my head:
here they are, just "a few of my favorite things..."

* Red PowerAde
* NYC
* Lake Superior!
* Snorkeling
* Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI
* Reading
* Scrapbooks/crafts
* watching sports (in person, on tv -- I don't care!)
* text messages

Ellen is leaving CT in 11 days. She's going home to The Netherlands after 10 months in the States. She is part of so many of my best memories from life on the East Coast. Happy Trails, Ellen! :)

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Whew!

What an absolutely exhausting weekend!! Wow! I need a couple of days to recover!! quite the snowstorms, too! That's one of the reasons it was so exhausting. We had a birthday party yesterday evening for two friends: Sally will be 26! and Heather turned 20! Well, the snowstorm prevented us from making it all the way home. So we ended up staying at my sister's house for the night. Or rather for a few hours. I slept on a chair. mmmm, comfy! but actually we really appreciated having somewhere to stay so we didn't have to worry about staying the night in the ditch, or some side road, or the hospital. So THANKS HSH :)

I was going to say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but that'd be a lie. It straight up looks like Christmas! and I'm almost done shopping! I got gifts for my CT boys, so now I just have to send them...
Happy December!