Guess who I saw Monday night?

Jason and I took "the kids" to a movie on Monday and on our way from getting a thousand snacks to the actual theater, I saw a couple ahead of us. They were getting candy from the candy machines. I wasn't positive of who the gentleman was, but I was pretty sure, but I turned around to ask Jason. He took a look and then confirmed that yes, it was in fact Mr. Ali and his wife!
The camera in my purse was burning a hole, but we just let him be and walked right by him with that feeling of awe and respect!
It was so cool! Just to have seen him!
I knew he lived in the area, but have never seen him before...
I didn't realize how many people have seen him before, until I started telling everyone about it!
When Jason was little, Mr. Ali came over and started chatting with him and his brother one morning at McDonald's. While it may be just a small part of a memory and Mr. Ali may not even remember that moment. But to two young boys, it was a highlight of their childhood!
Missy, a close friend of mine, told me she used to see him a lot when she was in high school. And yet another friend/co-worker told me that she was friends with one of his nephews once, and went over to his house and watched movies and that Mr. Ali would come downstairs and tell them jokes!
How exciting is that?
Well... I just had to share with you all!

Happy New Year to everyone!

A few Christmas pictures

I had a great Christmas this year! Jason and I opened our presents on Christmas Eve and then headed to our friends house and watched Notre Dame win (and win BIG!) their first bowl game in Hawaii (the first in about 14 years!).
Christmas morning I got up early and made an awesome spicy egg casserole dish and took it over to Rachael's house for brunch, also starring home-made cinnamon rolls, muffins, cheesy grits, and potatoes (yum-yummy!).As usual, Tony was his smiling self and looks more like Lori everyday! Tony has such cute jammies!Katya loved her new neck warmer!What a little sweetheart Jack is!!!

Ben, Jack, and Jason all scored Chicago Bears shirts this year!

Ben's tough man look!

Thanks everyone for my awesome presents!

And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!

Me and Jay on Christmas Day!

The day was almost gone and me and Jason hadn't gotten one picture of us on Christmas, so I pulled my camera out and snapped a few photos!

Hodge-Podge!

I've been meaning to blog about a few things, but for some reason have been so busy lately, so I'm taking my lunch break to post and write about what's been going on lately!Last week at work, we had these "Reindeer Games" and contests throughout the entire week. One of the days, we had a food eating contest/relay. I started with a cup of marshmallows... it was terrible! They kept sticking to the inside of my mouth! I ended up stuffing my mouth three times and then drinking water and they squished down my throat. Gross. I know. But it was worse actually doing it! The next guy had to drink a huge cup of egg-nog. Then came the lady above, Tammy. She had to eat an entire half of a fruit cake! GROSS! She ended up drinking almost 3 bottles of water during that time, trying to get it all down! The next guy had to eat an entire frozen pint of ice cream and it ended with 5 saltine crackers and a half a cup of peanut butter. We lost. But it was pretty fun!On Friday, we had the snowman decorating contest. This is our teams snow-woman. AND WE FINALLY WON! I think it was mostly the fact that it was in 3-D... But also for the fact that we had a box of white stuffing and this sign!

Oh, the other day I was looking for Christmas presents for Jason and was at Kohl's. They had a rack of NFL Team Apparel for the Lions and the Bears right next to each other with this sign. At first, I was really excited about the 50% off sale! But upon closer inspection, noticed that it was for the Lion's stuff only! Ha-ha! Way too funny to not take a picture... I hope my brother-in-law sees this picture! (That would be Adam!)

Last weekend, Rachael, Katya, and I headed to Chicago and ate some awesome food, (and I mean, this was the best food! Thanks, Rach!) then we headed to the American Girl store. Man, was it cold out! While we were walking, we came across a few signs like this! "Falling Ice"! I took a quick peak above me and noticed that we were walking below some mighty giant and tall buildings! Wow, would that hurt!We then headed to one of Rachael's friends house for a get-together for kids to make ginger bread houses! With Katya's creative mind and my assistance, she came up with a really cool house with a snow-woman with a pink skirt, a yellow neck warmer and two pink wrist warmers, as well as the forest of trees surrounding the place! Great job!!!

I'm almost done... don't worry! This morning I came to work and found this cute little set of boxes on my desk! I was about to open it, but took a quick picture first. It had all kinds of yummy goodness inside like chocolate covered stuff and pretzels and some other delicious candy's! I opened the card and saw that it was from three of my cube-friends that work just a little ways away, but are not on our team. I went over there to say thanks, and they told me that they gave it to me because I'm always including them with our gatherings and events and saying hi and stuff! Isn't that just so sweet! It just made my day! Thanks Lisa, Candy, and Gina!!!

Oh, I almost forgot! I tried out for this musical "Ragtime" and got the call last night from the director that he wants me to be in the play! I'm not an actor, but I can sing, and he mentioned that he absolutely loves my voice! I'm not sure what role I'll be playing (not one of the major ones) but I'm sure excited! The play is in April sometime... I'll keep y'all posted!

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but aren't these so cute?

I don't think you can really tell, but these are two cranberry red neck warmers. The larger one is for Katya's Christmas present and the smaller one is for one of her American Girl Dolls!

Now, I just have to make one more for her second American Girl Doll and it will be complete! Hopefully, I'll get a good picture of all the "girls" wearing their neck warmers!

What does it look like when it's in single digits?

This is a picture outside my window looking at the cute houses below. I've never seen it like this before, where the snow blows through the screen and there's no in between the screen and the window! Here you can tell there's about 10 inches or so of snow from the bottom of the window (the roof on the front porch is just outside this window). It's kinda cool, actually! And I've been keeping my house mighty toasty!!!
Here's a picture of a stop sign while I was on my way to work... so, does this mean that I wouldn't get a ticket if I didn't stop at this sign, since technically it cannot be viewed???
Okay, so I did slow down, but didn't quite stop (on purpose) because for some reason, if I actually stop and then had to go, I'd slide all over, but since no one was coming, I just kinda did that "California" stop that I learned so well when I lived there! Ha-ha!!! Yesterday it was -2 degrees outside, but with the windchill it was about -19 degrees... no wonder it felt so cold outside! I had to run to Michael's to get some yarn for some neck-warmer presents, and when I made it home, I stayed there!

This is a picture of a tree in the courtyard in the middle of my work building. There's so much snow!

Looks kinda cool! As long as I don't have to drive in the stuff!

The how-to on Santa Cookies!

By popular demand, here is the link to the awesome Santa cookies!

As suggested by my mother (who was told by another person) I used coconut for the beard and miniature M&M's for the eyes and nose. Also, remember to leave out a few of the white chocolate chips for the pom-pom on the hat!

Super Cute Santa Cookies! Thanks, Mom!

I found out tonight that my great Aunt's Christmas Party is tomorrow night! Prepared to make these really cute Santa cookies for work, I decided to make them for the party! My mom had just sent me the recipe and how to make them last night and they are so cute!

I spent about two hours making these Santa cookies (okay, so I was making chocolate chip cookies at the same time, too...) but it did take me quite some time! But they were so worth it! I just sat down to watch TV after putting all these cookies away and cleaning up the mess when Rachael called to tell me the party was called off!

I was so bummed about making these cute things and not being able to make them for the party! I must have sounded really, really bummed because Rachael had a great idea for these cookies! Save her some time tonight and give them to her for Kristen to take to school tomorrow for food day!

Well, they are really super cute... and unfortunately for me, Rachael is a really cool sister and is very persuasive, so I said okay.

Of course I had to take some quick pictures and blog about it before she could, or she might accidentally forget to mention that I was the one that made them!

Ha-ha!

Parson Brown?

I'm sure all of you have heard of the famous Christmas song "Winter Wonderland". I've heard that song so many times in my lifetime. I really like that song, too!

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town.
Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland."

Well, just the other day, I had it stuck in my head at work... and when I got to this part: "In the meadow we can build a snowman, then pretend that he is Parson Brown." I was then thinking about it and I always figured the singer wanted to pretend the snowman is this "parson brown" because I always figured it was a "skin" color and then they could get married... or something like that. So, I asked my local cube-mates at work what color "Parson Brown" really was, because I'd never seen it on a crayon or to describe any other brown color. It was then that I found out the truth.

"Parson" is a noun. A name for a minister or pastor. Used back when the lyricist, Richard B. Smith wrote it and published it in 1934. And "Brown" just happens to be the last name of this pastor guy/snowman!

So, here I am, 28 years old, finally finding out that the song I've been singing for practically 28 years, has to do with this snowman that they want to pretend is a pastor!

Please, somebody, tell me that I'm not the only person that did not know this!!!

Neck warmers

I found some really neat looking neck warmers on etsy and thought I'd try it out! I made one on Thursday and this one on Friday, then made one for Natalie and yet another one this weekend!

I love this huge button! Isn't it cute? I already have a few orders from co-workers! They are pretty simple and really cute! I also found a bunch of yarn that was on sale for a dollar when they are usually $6.99! A HUGE insentive! In fact, this pink scarf was only $1 for the yarn, but the button was $5, so I used my 40% coupon for the button. So about a $4 scarf! What a deal!

Pictures of kids and snow

Kristen, Jack, and Ben were outside playing in the snow and I thought it'd be a good idea to go get pictures of the kids. I asked Katya if she would go out and she said only if I would let her have a handful of mini chocolate cookies. I figured that was okay, so I told her that I'd give her some when we were done, but only a small handful.

Katya, Jack, Kristen, and Ben

They look so cute!

Such sweet little kids!

Weekend in pictures

This weekend was pretty fun! I hung out with the sisters and the kids. I also got a lot of things done, such as make 3 neck warmers (I'll take pictures later and show you) and worked on many cool ornaments (I'll take pictures of those later too). I also got to take pictures of the kids! So, this isn't really a post with pictures of the weekend, but more like a post and then pictures of the kids.

Jack and Ben: they can be so cute! They're really into picture taking, as long as they can do at least one "crazy" picture or one "sad" picture where they put on a crazy or sad looking face and I take a picture (then delete later), but I've got it down so that if I want a picture and they demand one of THOSE pictures, then I ask that I have a nice/sweet/cute picture first and then they can pose as they wish! And it works!Ben, Jack, and Katya Somehow I conned Ben into taking a few pictures with me.

Then, he wanted me to take pictures of him and his silly faces.... This is the "Sad-Ben" face.

" Scary - Ben" face

Jack didn't want to be left out so he decided to do a "Scary-Jack" face.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

This morning I woke up with with the news and one of those bars on the bottom of the TV screen showing which schools were closed and which were delayed. I figured I better hurry up and get ready for work and go there early, just in case. We got almost a foot! I couldn't pass up taking this picture just outside my door this morning.

This is the snow-covered wall of ivy growing next to my garage.

Here you can see how deep the snow looked from the view inside my garage. If I didn't have to drive in the stuff, I'd think it was mighty pretty!

This is the view from inside my car of how high the snow was - level with my car door jamb.

Here's the view of my street from inside my car, while I was driving to work. Again, if I didn't have to drive in it, it'd look a LOT prettier!

The "Magic" of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper

Premise:
The department I work in is unique. For some reason, no matter what the criteria is, 8.5 x 11 in. forms are printed out for any and every event and/or class you can think of, to show accomplishment. Oh, and then everyone posts them, inside a clear hard plastic cover, all over their cubicles.
I have zero.

Story:
Today, I had a two hour Effective Presentation class I was able to attend today at work. Everyone had to give a 3-5 minute presentation on any city or famous person of our choosing. This class is strictly educational on how to give a Power Point presentation. There were very interesting and entertaining presentations given today including the founder of the House of David, the inventor of windshield wipers, Dwight Shrute III, and my presentation on Stephenie Meyer.
Just before the end of the class session, the instructor asked us if we had any questions.
I had one.
"Are we going to get any paper awards for coming to this class?"
Followed by a chorus of laughter, of course. I was laughing too, but then told them that I was kind of serious and went on to explain that everyone has them but me. I'm new and haven't attended any kind of course of any kind, until now, and I told them that the person next to me had a whole wall full of these random "awards" showing every-single-event that she has attended to in the last two years!
It was all light-hearted and pretty funny, and the instructor told me that I could come over to his department afterwards and he'd print one out for me. I thought that was really sweet, but was just a little embarrassed (even though I really did want it!) so I told him, "No, I better go back to work."
I then went back to work and was on a call when the guy showed up with a few other people and an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper in his hand! I quickly got off the phone and he handed me the form. Now, I don't know what it all said, but it was colorful, had my name on it, and looked very official! Soon, almost the entire department were standing up and watching the 'spectacle' that was going on. And then, the funniest thing happened... THEY ALL STARTED CLAPPING!
Ha-ha!!!
It was so hilarious! (And I was so embarrassed!) And just to make the moment even better, I held up my "award" above my head and did a full circle so everyone could see! Then my boss came over and shook my hand, then her boss came over and shook my hand! Once all the fuss had died down a bit, one of my co-workers came over and gave me an "official" clear hard plastic cover. Placed my "award" inside, and then hung it on my wall!
It was the funniest thing ever! But let me tell you, it was great!
Now, I feel like a "real" employee!

Twilight = Amazing!

If you don't want to spend an entire week, reading a series of four books, then stop reading, now! My sister, Rachael, told me about this book series by Stephenie Meyer. She told me that I would love these books and she had all four of the books which combined probably totals about 2,500 or so pages. I have read many of her suggested books in the past and have not been disappointed, I just didn't realize that I would be sucked in as much as I was! I started the first book and ended the fourth book of the series in about 8 days. I couldn't put them down! It was an obsession of some kind. I got up early to read. I brought my book to work to read on my breaks and whenever I had spare time. I didn't want to eat, sleep, or watch TV or movies so I could read these books. A few times I even chose the books to read over spending time with Jason! (Sorry, Jay!)
Stephenie is such a phenomenal writer. She's amazing at setting the tone, describing the characters, and telling a story.
I'm not going to tell you about the books, because you probably know already that the movie on the first book comes out in 9 days, and I can't wait!
If you haven't already, pick up this first book and read it. I went through the entire four-book series knowing only a few things about them and it made for an incredible week!
If you want to find out more, check out this website!

Farewell to Michael Crichton

I just heard this morning that Michael Crichton has passed away. I'm not the best person to write about what he meant to me in my past reading experience, but I do know that it has me saddened. My sister, Rachael, has given me a number of good Crichton books since I was a teenager and I am currently in the middle of one of his first books "A Case of Need".

I remember reading Congo and watching movies such as Jurassic Park and other thrillers...

I also remember being 13 or 14, sitting in on the floor in my living room in Amarillo, Texas watching the first episode of ER and thinking that this was going to be a great series!

So, raise your glasses, my friends, and say farewell to the man behind the books we love and the movies and TV shows we watch that he created!

Where were you when you found out who won the election last night?

It was a spontaneous decision to travel to Chicago last night for the huge Obama Rally. I know what question must be on your mind. Why did Betsy and I vote for McCain, yet go to an Obama rally in the same day?
Answer? History.
Whatever happened last night was going to be historical on many levels, and being less than two hours away, and having a friend who wanted to go so bad, made it quite an easy decision.
My friend, Betsy, and I headed to the city around 7:30 p.m. our time, arrived to the O'Hare parking lot, in order to take a train into the city (parking was not allowed in the city unless you lived there, apparently). We met her friend, Johnny, at the train station and we all three rode in together (Don't worry, Mom, we made it home safe!).

This was just some random train rider guy that decided he wanted to be in the picture too.

After we arrived, we took potty breaks, got coffee, then followed the crowds.
It was absolutely amazing. The amount of people there. The crowds. Such a diverse group. So much excitement in the air. The energy was overwhelming!

In this picture, you can see the mass of people on our way to one of the many parks with huge screens showing the election coverage on CNN Live. You can see one of those screens in this picture. I'm not sure how many screens they had in the park, but it seemed as though the main tent where Obama's speech was given was surrounded by an incredible amount of people watching one of the screens.

We also met Johnny's friend, Fred, who had flown in from France for this rally! Actually all four of us there all went to the same University here in town! What a small world, huh? We continued to stop on the way there to take pictures and chat with people. I decided that being in the heart of the city and around so many supporters, that it would be smart to blend in. So, Betsy and I wore those pins that said "I was there!" "Senator Barack Obama" "Election Night Rally" "Grant Park, Chicago" "4 November 2008".
Yes, I know. I should have shown my support to the person I voted for, but figured I better blend in, just in case riots broke out or something, ya know? And don't worry, I heard that throughout the entire city, there was not one reported fight or argument!
This Texan Obama supporting dog was like a Great Dane/Dalmatian mix and was so big, I couldn't help but take a picture, mostly for Natalie to compare the size to Walter!

Betsy and I standing in the crowded park, ready to find out the election results as they came in.

Here's a picture of Oprah in the crowd on the TV.

We had earlier discussed that I thought I had heard that whoever won Ohio was the basically the president, and had heard that it was Virginia that was the deciding state. So, of course we heard that Ohio was projected as an Obama win, I sure hoped I was wrong and Betsy was right, because that would mean we still had hope.

But then, they showed the Virginia results. That's when we, and everyone around us, knew. There were cheers and shouts and chants surrounding us, as we stood there. I think we both knew what was going to happen, but just not ready for it to actually happen. My eyes filled with tears. Such an emotional moment in history, on ALL accounts and just SO many levels!

This video is of the chanting after he was named President elect.

This is a portion of the McCain speech. You will hear the reaction of the Chicago crowd over the Arizona crowd, mostly. And I know that most of you saw this on TV last night, but when he got on that stage and conceded, it was so final. A very bittersweet moment, I felt.

I'm not sure who sang this song, but I didn't notice until I got to work and a few of my co-workers mentioned the odd ending note on this song... take a listen and you'll see. One of them said it was probably because she wanted to end on a high note! Ha-ha!

To be fair, Obama's speech was incredible. He is a phenomenal speaker and whoever wrote this speech has talent! I have just a couple clips on this.

Beginning of when Obama came out on the stage...

This is a bit more of his speech... I don't know if I captured it or not, but it was really funny when the lady on the bottom right of the screen was signing, she would put her hands up to each side of her and shake her hands in the air to show "applause" and it was cracking us up!

Following the speech we all headed out of the park and down the street. There were so many mass people it was incredible that we didn't get lost from each other!
There was so much patriotism there last night. It was so surreal!
Here you can see that the police were out there in force! They literally lined the streets!
Here's our small group of people. Johnny is the one on the top left, then Fred next to him. Other than me and Betsy, I can't remember, for the life of me, the names of the others, but we all had a good time!
Here's one of many mass crowd pictures!

There were many moments last night that are worth mentioning:

-There were three ladies just singing the national anthem over and over in the middle of the road (most of all the roads were closed for foot traffic!) And it just felt amazing to hear the harmony and the echo against the tall Chicago buildings!

-One guy in the thick massive crowd kept giving everyone hugs and telling them that he loved them! I stayed away! Ha-ha!

-At one point, we cut through an alley, that we normally wouldn't even think about going down, but for the fact that there were about 100 of us passing through that alley to go to the other street. It smelled of urine, but was pretty clean otherwise. Near the end of the alley, we saw this homeless man. He started to tell us something that was so funny. "Wow, I've lived here for almost 6-months now and haven't had THIS many visitors before!"

I guess there were about 150,000 people there, but it felt more like a million! And honestly, it would have been cool to tell people that I was "one in a million"! Ha-ha! Pun intended!