Can they stay up until next year?

I thought that I really enjoyed putting Christmas lights up on my house. I was so proud of myself last year and have no recollection of it being a tiring, frustrating, or really cold experience. This year, however, has left me wondering what people would say about me if I left my Christmas lights up all year long.

I officially started decorating on Sunday. It was about 41 degrees, there was a light breeze, and some occasional rain. It was probably the worst time to put up lights ever, but for some reason, I really wanted to get it done. Today it warmed up to at least the low 60s so I thought this afternoon would be the perfect time to finish the job.

I started putting up the lights and really was hating the way they looked so I stopped and decided to switch the type of light. The only problem was, in order to get the lights to line up straight I was going to need to be much closer, and, I don't own a ladder. I did what any problem-solver would do, I decided to climb out of a second-story window onto the roof. I called my sister so someone would know what I was doing, just in case, then I did it. I have never, ever, been on a roof before so it was kind of exciting and totally terrifying all at the same time.

My sister came by a little while later to make sure I wasn't splattered on the ground. Thanks Ashleigh! She also took some pictures, because well, it's probably never going to happen again.

This is me, just chillin' on the roof-

This one looks like I'm about to fall off -

Here's a couple things I learned from climbing on the roof:

• Don't wear wind pants, they don't have any traction

• Make sure you have everything you need from down below before you go up

• Daylight is probably a good thing

• It might be a good idea to have someone there just in case you do fall or need something

Don't come look at my lights yet, I'm not quite finished. Think Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation," with class. :)

The Day After

I always spend part of Thanksgiving Day going through the ads in the paper. I also always say that I'm going to get up before the crack of dawn to go experience the craziness that is Black Friday, I never do. Rumor has it that back when I was in high school I did actually get up one year. However, it has been many years since then. This history of mine made me a little nervous when I committed to going shopping with my friend Kristy this year. But, I made it. I arrived at the Walmart at 4:45 am. I couldn't help but laugh as I saw people standing guard at various pallets throughout the store. Black Friday shopping, it's serious business!

I prefer to do my Christmas shopping at the last minute (probably because I prefer to do most things at the last minute), so there really wasn't anything that I had to have. In roughly 9 hours of shopping I was able to mark one person off my shopping list. The sad thing is, I really thought I'd found a deal. Apparently, Kohl's just marks up the prices on things and then sells them for 50% off so you think you are getting a great deal. I'd tell you what I bought, but I wouldn't want my 2-year-old nephew to get on here and read about it! :)

Even though I have very little to show for it, I had a great day. There was much fun and much laughter, and that made it all worth it!

Thanksgiving and The Rolls

I had a really great Thanksgiving on Thursday. I spent the day hanging out with the family, watching a little football, and eating great food!

For as long as I can remember there has been one part of Thanksgiving that I enjoy far above anything else. The Rolls. I don't know when homemade rolls made their first appearance at our Thanksgiving table, but I know they are a must. For the past several years my sister and I have volunteered to make the rolls, because if we don't, nobody will. Usually "we" volunteer but Ashleigh is the one making the magic happen. Not this year, my friends, not this year. I definitely put in a little elbow grease to make the rolls happen this year. And they did happen, even if someone only put in half the yeast. I'm not going to name names, but it wasn't me! :) I'd share "The Rolls" recipe, but let's be honest, making them is way too much work. Here are some pictures of the experience.

This is the "roll bowl." See, I told you we've been making them for awhile, they have their own bowl.


This is the warm water and the yeast dissolving, just half the yeast, mind you.


This is usually the point that I get bored and give up. Here I am taking a little break. I did persevere though.


This is the dough once about half the flour has been added. Look at me stirring furiously.


Here I am kneading the dough.


Here I am with proof that I was working hard. I even have flour on my face. :)


And here's the finished product, before being baked and after.




As if "The Rolls" weren't excitement enough for one day, it also snowed! It was a very cold Thanksgiving, but it was pretty cool to see the snow falling as we ate. Since this is Texas, I bet I'll be wearing shorts at some point later this week.

Thankful

I've mentioned a time or two on this blog that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I just think it's so great that our entire country takes a day to stop our busy lives, spend time with family and friends, and just be thankful. Really the only downside to Thanksgiving is that someone has to die, the turkey. I digress. For me, Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without thinking through some of the hundreds of things I have to be especially thankful for this year. Since this is the place where I think out loud, here are some of my thankful thoughts...

My family will hopefully always be at the top of my list.

My Mom and Dad: I'm thankful for their encouragement, their generousity, their wisdom, their love, their friendship, their godly example. I am especially thankful that tomorrow my Dad is going to come over and beat up some wasps for me and maybe change some batteries in my smoke detectors! And, I'm thankful that my Mom is going to go through the trouble of making Stove Top Stuffing for me because she knows that's what I like best.

My brother, Josh: I'm thankful for his sense of humor, his intelligence, and I'm really, really thankful for his family! Kelley has been a wonderful addition to our family, I can't believe they've been married for 5 years already. And, I think my love for Will and Allie is well-documented here. The four of them, they make my life really fun, and I'm thankful for that.

My sister, Ashleigh: I'm thankful for her honesty, her teaching wisdom, her listening ear, and her ability to forgive me when I drive her crazy! :)

My Grandmas: I can't think of two better people to be the foundation of our family. Both of my Grandmas would do absolutely anything for any one of us. They are kind, they are generous, they are constant. They have taught me the value of being thankful. I'm so very thankful to have the influence of two very wise and very loving Grandmas on my life. You guys are the best!!

These are some people that I haven't known that long, but this year, I'm just down-right grateful for them:


Apparently, God likes to use kids to change my life, because last year these four did just that. Two of them were in my class last year and the other two were just a bonus! In a crazy way that I would have never imagined these four kids and their families have become some of my closest friends. I'm thankful for their encouragment, their time, their wisdom, their laughter. I'm just thankful for everything about them. They make my life so much more fun, more exciting, and a lot fuller!

I could probably go on for a long time about everything that I'm thankful for...all my other friends, Diet Coke, Peanut M&Ms, flying insect spray, my house, my car...but I don't want to bore you.

I'll close with the thing that I'm most thankful for this year. I'm thankful for my Savior. I'm thankful that He's a good God who loves me, who cares about me, who has every little detail of my life figured out. I'm thankful that He continually offers grace and mercy to me. It is a grace that is a mystery to me, but beckons me to live, to not take any day or any opportunity for granted.

I have so very much to be thankful for. If I never experience another blessing, I think the overflow of thankfulness my heart is experiencing right now could get me through. I am blessed indeed.

I love pictures

I sort of have a thing for pictures. I really like looking at pictures and I love taking pictures. A couple years ago I believed so strongly in my love for taking pictures that I bought a crazy nice digital camera. At the time, it had an unheard of amount of megapixels and was more camera than I would ever know how to use. And sadly, I rarely use it. Today I decided that should change. I was granted the priviledge of watching Will and Allie today and I decided to have my fancy camera handy just in case something happens that is worthy of taking a picture. A quick trip to the park provided just the opportunity. I took about 100 pictures and there are really only about 2 that I think are "good."

This is a picture of Allie on the swing. She loved it. She would just laugh and laugh every time I pushed her. I really like her a lot.


And here is one of Will. Most of the pictures I took of him were of the back of his head, he just moves too fast! I'm not sure what he is thinking about, but it looks serious.


Last night I was looking at my desk and I noticed this picture:

This picture has been sitting on my desk for about three years now and I see it all the time. I guess I am just so used to seeing it that I don't notice it. This is a picture of Tyre, Demontrey, and Kedarion. Three brothers that I met while I was in college. More than anything else I experienced during my four years at Baylor, these kids changed my life. Waco is an interesting town, the wealthiest people literally live across the street from the poorest. There really aren't many "nice" parts of town and you can easily find yourself somewhere you shouldn't be. My freshmen year I ended up at an apartment complex that definitely qualifies for the "somewhere you shouldn't be especially if you're a Baylor student" category.

While scared out of my mind, I was there on purpose. Myself and a couple other naive, nice-looking, Baylor students had descended on this apartment complex in hopes of putting together some sort of Backyard Bible Club kind of thing. We thought that maybe, just maybe there was something we could teach the kids that lived there. In reality, they taught us. They taught us what it's like to be 3, 5, and 7 years old and have to take care of yourself. They taught us what it looks like to live next door to a drug dealer. They taught us what gun shots sounded like. They taught us how to cope with never seeing one parent and never knowing the other. They taught us what a priviledge it is to have a car. They taught us how joyful an experience a Baylor football game should be. They taught us how exciting it is to get to go to McDonalds. They taught us so many things.

Somehow throughout four years of college, my roommate and I became particularly attached to Tyre, Demontrey, and Kedarion. We started bringing them to church with us. You should have seen some of the looks we got! The kids obviously dressed themselves, in clothes that hadn't been washed, maybe ever. I also wish you could have seen the way their faces lit up every time they learned a Bible verse. I remember one Sunday we were driving home from church and Tyre had been working so hard on Luke 1:37, "Nothing is impossible with God." He was sure he was ready to say it and this is what came out (I can still hear his voice), "Nothing is important to God. Lukus 1:37." After a brief explanation that EVERYTHING is important to God and congratulating him for being so close, he tried again. And, he got it.

Just looking at that picture last night I was reminded of the impact they made on me. I was reminded that I want to approach life with their joy, their energy, and with their belief that they could accomplish anything. I was challenged to stand up for injustice and to live out Matthew 25:31-40. That picture reminded me to be Jesus to the people God brings my way. Pictures, they can be powerful.

The Terminator (I mean exterminator)

Today is the first day of a lovely week for me! I get the whole week off of school and it's Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. While I don't have any super exciting plans I just know it's going to be a great week! I started the week by catching up on my sleep and according to my calculations, I slept for about 14 hours last night! Crazy!!

All was going well this morning until I realized I had some house guests; wasps. That's right, I woke up this morning to 5 big, ugly, red wasps flying around my house. To say that I'm not a fan of bugs would be a huge understatement. And now I've got a whole family of mean, stinging bugs living in my house. I left the house a couple hours ago in hopes that when I return they will somehow all magically disappear. Just in case that's wishful thinking, I stopped at Home Depot to get some "flying insect" killer. As soon as I find a gas mask, a parka, and some very thick gloves I'm going in. I'll let you know how it turns out.

It could've been Ed McMahon

We had a little excitement today at Camp Learnalot. I was right in the middle of teaching Social Studies to one of my classes. I was very passionately convincing my students that they too could leave an impact on the world like Christopher Columbus. And maybe, just maybe 500 years from now kids would be reading about them in a history book. It really blows their minds to know that Columbus discovered North America by mistake!! So, anyway I'm teaching this truly life-changing lesson and we begin to hear bells out in the hallway, and they kept getting louder and louder. We seriously thought Santa had come a few weeks early. My door is thrown open and the bell-ringing people pile into my classroom. These aren't the kind of people that you normally have in your classroom; the Superintendent, school board members, important business people, the Principal, Assistant Principal. To say that I was a little nervous and shaking a little bit would be an understatement, hopefully I covered it well. They were there to tell me that I was receiving a grant that I applied for about a month ago. They had balloons, bells, and a very big check. It was pretty cool, the kids all thought I'd won millions for my own personal use and maybe even a car to go along with it. In reality, it was $283.65 to spend on a new Science project.

My friend Shellee came to school to eat lunch with her daughter Abbee today, and she (who is in a class right next door) convinced Shellee that the Publisher's Clearing House people came to school to give me a bunch of money. It was pretty funny. While this money means that I've created a bit more work for myself, it made for a very exciting day. Even if Ed McMahon and the Publisher's Clearing House people had shown up with a check for Ten Million Dollars, after taxes I probably would have ended up with about $283.65. So really it's just as great!

I really feel bad for them

Is anyone else worried that Hollywood is going to shut down and we won't get to enjoy new episodes of our favorite TV shows? I know I just feel terrible for those poor writers. I'm really glad that all the actors are getting in the act and walking the picket lines too, what solidarity!

It's a shame that there are people in this world who work really hard and don't get paid what they think they should. I heard the other night on Entertainment Tonight that TV show writers make about $250,000 a year and their just looking for a fair deal. I know my heart just aches for them. Nevermind the fact that thousands of children, in the United States alone, are homeless and malnourished, or the countless families that have been bankrupted by unexpected medical bills, or the single-parents working two or three jobs just to keep the lights on. These writers, they deserve so much more.

It kind of reminds me of the great Major League Baseball strike a couple years ago, or even more recently the NHL strike. Whatever happened to going to work and working hard because you are doing something you enjoy? I'm sure this will all get settled soon, I just heard that Bill Clinton has offered to be a mediator for the situation. Maybe while they are working out a new deal that will give writers a few more cents a month they can finally nail down a definition of "is."

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go ahead and step off my soapbox now. :)

I'm not good at bowling

My life is really just a journey towards authenticity. So in an effort to be as authentic and transparent as I can, I will confess my shortcomings in the sport of bowling. That's right, I got the opportunity to be a substitute bowler again this week. It didn't go so well. I feel particularly bad because the person I was subbing for really is a great bowler.

Even though I'm not going to be joining the Professional Bowler Association of Whatever, I did have a very fun time. I think I bowled my lowest score ever in my life and the really sad part was that I really was trying. Sometimes things just don't go our way. I'm so embarrassed by my score that I'm not even going to put it on here, although I'm sure someone who reads this will be happy to leave it for everyone in the comments section. I will say this, my score has a digital root of 4. I'm hoping there aren't any mathematicians out there working hard on their calculators. :) For those of you who don't know, a digital root of 4 could include the following possibilities: 202, 121, 49, 211, 94, 103, 22, or even 112. The possibilities are really endless.

During the third game Kelly, Deneise, and I made a bet that the loser has to buy Slurpees for the other two. I thought a little wager was all I would need to get my game in gear. It happened quite the opposite. Those two are so particular about their Slurpees that they drew me picture of exactly how to create one to their specifications. And, here it is:


In other news, only 8 school days until Thanksgiving Break! Eight days and I get a whole week off. I'm quite excited about it even though I have no particularly fun plans, as of yet. :)

Seriously??

I had the great privilege of going to Walmart this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by a cute little snowman instead of the spooky looking mummy that has been at the door for the last month or so! Yesterday was Halloween, and I guess I failed to realize that Christmas is the next holiday!! It seriously looks like they had little elves working all night to transform Walmart into a Christmas wonderland. It kind of makes me sad because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!

For any of you who haven't heard yet, there are 54 days until Christmas. I'm really running out of time so, if you need me this weekend, I'll be in my yard putting up the Christmas lights!