Christmas Pictures

Here are just a few pictures of our Christmas decorations in our new house. There are more still on the camera so maybe I'll add those later.

The front door

Our Christmas Tree placed in front of the window in the dining room -which was thoroughly investigated by the cats

(I know the chandelier is really dusty but I'm not touching it until I am 100% certain that it is insured.)

With lights!

(Notice the small table in the corner... Will made it! Isn't it beautiful!!!??)

My 1st White Christmas!

We also placed candle lights in the windows that looked beautiful at night.

Another Scare

Will and I came home from celebrating Christmas with his family to find that Maddie had done a very, very bad thing. We had been gone about 6-7 hours and while we were out, she decided to help herself to a snack. We walked in the kitchen door to find empty bags of Reese's cups and York Peppermint Patty's and an empty box of Whoppers. She had gotten into our stocking and eaten most of our Christmas candy. (The Whoppers were Will's and the rest was mine. WAS being the key word.) She ate ALL of it! Wrappers and all.

Of course we panicked knowing that chocolate is poisonous to dogs. I sent Will out to Walgreen's to get some hydrogen peroxide to make Maddie throw up. (I learned about using hydrogen peroxide when my former roommate's dog got into my wedding M&Ms.) We gave Maddie several tablespoons of it but it was not working. Her pupils appeared dilated and so we called an emergency vet clinic. The receptionist spoke with the doctor and the doctor said that, due to Maddie's size and weight, she should be fine. She will probably just have the "big D" for a couple days. We were very relieved.

Well, the doctor was right...she was ok AND she did have the "big D".... all over our living room. (Thanks, Will, for cleaning that up!)

And if that wasn't bad enough... On Saturday, she tore into a bag of Christmas presents from Will's family and ate 2 chocolate suckers that were in the bag.

I don't think she's learned her lesson yet.

She really is a good dog. She just likes her chocolate!

New Vocabulary

Working with teenage boys has been very educational for me in many ways. One thing that has been especially interesting for me is their vocabulary. I remember when I was a young teenager and I started using the expressions "cool" and "whatever." (May have been pre-teen for those.) Things change over time and I am reminded every day that it has been a while since I was a teenager.

I learned a new word last week. Well, its an old word with a new meaning. The word is "fire." I think it is starting to replace the word "tight." Both "fire" and "tight" are forms of my old "cool." I was introduced to "fire" when a young man said to me: "Ms. Cheryl, that scarf is fire! Let me have it." If I hadn't spent much time around this young man, I could've believed that my scarf was actually on fire. But, needless to say, it wasn't. He just really liked it and wanted one for himself.
Another expression that I'm sure most of you have heard by now is "hella." I think it's short for "hell-of-a" and it seems to mean "very" or "really." "Hella" is a hard one for me because I'm not sure if it is a cuss word or not. Do I get on to them when they use it or just let it go?

I don't know who decides which expressions are cool to use. I guess I show my age when I respond to kids using "cool" and "neat." I think they would be shocked if I ever used "fire." I did use "tight" one time jokingly and the girl laughed and said,"Oh, my god."

I hope everyone has a hella Merry Christmas and that all of your presents are fire! :)

Lights on....almost

Tonight and tomorrow I will be putting the finishing touches on 4 (maybe 5) newly wired circuits in the house. I wired two receptacle and three and a half lighting circuits over this past week. It is always a good feeling to finish things like this and get to the point where lights come on when they're supposed to.... I know Cheryl can't wait to get back to flipping switches that work!

Dinner Party

Last night I hosted the very first dinner party in our new house. I had 5 dear girl friends from seminary and church over for taco soup. It didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped but it was still a lot of fun.
The night started off with me getting off of work late. I left work about 30 minutes later than I had planned and still needed to go to the grocery store. I made the big mistake of going to Shop N Save on "No coupon Thursday" (where you get $10 off a $50 purchase) and that took for-eh-ver!!! I arrived home 15 minutes before my guests arrived!
To make a short story long, I...

• Started the soup after everyone arrived
• Broke a wine glass
• Swept and vacuumed the floor to clean it up
• Had to put Maddie's shoes on her and feed her
• Emptied the dishwasher
• Continuously sprayed the cats with a water bottle to keep them off the table and out of the Christmas tree

This is probably a great list of things a hostess shouldn't do :)

In spite of all of that, the company, conversation and food were all wonderful and I really enjoyed being able to invite my friends into my house (and my mess.) Thanks Amanda, Anne, Jackie, Jen and Katie (alphabetical order so no feelings are hurt... jk) for a great time!

Unfortunately, several of my guests received parking tickets. Thanks a lot, Webster PD! Now I can be certain that my friends will never come over again.

AND I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES!!! GRRR!!!
maybe i can just get a redo?

Picasa albums updated

I added quite a few new photos to the Picasa albums today, so go and browse around!

How to spot a christian in a coffee shop

They're usually the loud ones, the annoyingly loud ones. C'mon people, acting normal isn't that difficult.

This is life

As the job hunt continues, as the house work continues, as struggling to make sense of school versus graduation continues...it has been really easy to let those things become life. Consequently, it is easy to imagine that 1) getting a better job (not saying much) or 2) completing the house under budget or ahead of schedule or 3) making sense of myself will make my life what I want it to be. Now, any of those things would be seriously contributory toward that goal, but there are a few things I've forgotten abut doing in the mean time that I really want to get back into doing again: photography, woodworking and flyfishing. As I've said before many times, when I am doing any of those three things, life seems to have no choice but to make sense. So I'm going to try to commit to doing at least one of these things at least twice a week for at least a little bit, but hopefully more.

P.S. This is like my camera, those who know me really well know mine is a little more special. :)

Worth Listening

Why my wife is the greatest

Cheryl and I have been married for almost 2 years and 7 months now, and I have learned a lot about her since May 11th, 2007. Most people don't get to see a lot of just how great she is, and no one gets to see as much of that as I do--so I thought I'd take a few minutes to spread the news.

Since she graduated from Covenant Seminary, she did 3 long years of social work in extremely difficult areas with extremely difficult families...and never stopped caring about them or her role in their lives. Even though she hates paperwork, is not a social worker, and that job took a LOT out of her every day, she did it anyway. She made it possible for us to pay our bills, for me to get through my MDiv, and for her to complete her counseling licensure. Pretty amazing.

Now she works as a therapist at a childrens home, as more of a counselor than a social worker, but still not doing totally full-fledged counseling. She works with more extremely difficult kids, most of whom do not want to be in therapy with her, talk to her, or respect her one bit. She goes every day though, and has not lost an ounce of care or commitment for her clients or purpose there. Her supervisor loves her and regularly shows that what Cheryl is doing goes above and beyond others at the home. Pretty amazing.

Since we bought the house, Cheryl has tackled a lot of projects that required all kinds of strength. I'm always amazed at just how strong she is--she can handle the other end of a big dresser or table with no problem. She can fix windows, paint like a pro, and put up with the dust and chaos of demolition and reconstruction as well as anyone I know. She has enough patience and vision for the both of us while we restore this house, and there have been many times where I'm too frustrated or tired to really want to finish a job or start a new one...and she'll say "The house will be great" and I know I can believe her. Pretty amazing.

Since we have accumulated 2 cats and our very big dog, she's had to put up with a lot from them. Normally I don't wake up when Maddie barks at 1am to go out, but she does and she lets her out and back in...while I sleep. She cleans up Gidget's poop off the baseboard (don't ask...we have no idea) and let's Rory sleep right on top of her head every night. Pretty amazing.

But the mot amazing thing of all is that she has put up with ME for almost 3 years! She has really encouraged me to grow in a lot of different ways, and is always there to back me up. She really is the greatest wife. Just because she doesn't toot her own horn doesn't mean she doesn't have a big horn to toot. She's way to humble to let everyone know how amazing she is; don't let her fool ya. :)