a little hodgepodge

okay ... making this fast ...

- house is almost ready. floors and bathrom need done ... everything else all set.

- jammies are done. still have 5 more sewing projects to finish. only 3 of those have to be done tonight. (the other 2 have to be done by Christmas)

- our friends that are in ukraine adopting have been posting a lot this week. it's been really encouraging, exciting, and uplifting to read all of their updates and experiences. if you want to read all about life in ukraine, click on the 'trevor' link on the side of my blog. and go back on their blog till you hit around the 12th or so ... that's about when they left ohio.

- moms are coming. mine around 1. tyler's around ... when she gets here ... her drive is much longer than my mom's ...

- still have one piece of a gift for the family exchange tomorrow to finish up. i'll really try to do that before it's dark outside. (i wouldn't hold my breath it i were you ... i certainly am not going to.)

- i had probably the most restless, freaky, scary, uncool, and all out disturbingly haunting last night. i was only in bed last night for 5 hours ... and now i'm exhausted.

- work today till 1. then picking up miss sophie from school at 2:30.

- this whole not capitalizing and speaking in fragments doesn't really bother me today. huh ... must be because i'm so tired ...

- in case i forget or don't get online in the next couple of days ... merry christmas!

- must go shower now ... have to leave for work in an hour.

In Review

Okay ... quick post of my week in review. I need to be getting ready for work ... but oh well ...

Temp assignment is going well. I had a good day at work on Friday. I did a lot by myself ... and that was nice and peaceful. I'm looking forward to being able to work my whole shift without having to rely on someone to tell my what to do and how to do it.

House is all decorated. I know it has been for a while now. But now there's pretty packages under the tree. We still have a couple of things that need wrapped ... and we need to get on that so that the wrapping stuff can be cleaned up.

The office is almost all cleaned out and the closet emptied. We need to get some of our clothing out of there. I've been through almost all of my stuff ... but Tyler needs to get through his. Then the closet will be ready for Kayla to come next month. We need to get the furniture moved around and the bed put up for our moms this weekend.

I had dinner with a friend on Friday night. Thanks Becky. I had a really good time. I also thoroughly enjoyed the lights tour and mini Findlay history lesson.

Saturday night Tyler and I had dinner in Lima with Alex and Rachel. It was good. I think we needed a night out. Thanks for taking us guys! We hope you had as nice a time as we did. Then we were out till around 1 am running around shopping (groceries, and Donna's gift for the family exchange). Even after we split from Alex and Rachel, Tyler and I still had a really good time. It's amazing how much fun you can really have running around Wal-Mart in the middle of the night.

Progress on the Christmas jammies is slow but steady. I need to get through them by the time I leave Becky's tomorrow. that means that I have a whole set today and a whole set tomorrow. We'll see ... I'll keep my fingers crossed. I am pleased with how they're turning out though.

Okay ... I have to leave for work in 45 mins and I haven't eaten yet and am still sitting here in my jammies. I really should get motivated and moving .... huh? ...

Request

So I don't usually do this ... but it really hit me what it said ... so I'm going to pass it on.

This is quoted from a high school friend's xanga site:

"Please pray for my friend Jess. Both her parents passed in a car accident on December 11. She's 18."

So ... even though we don't know her or who she is ... she sure needs prayer right now. And for a long time to come ...

Carmel Apple Strudel Pancake Bunt Cake Squares

Sound good. And I wish I knew if they were or not. But I've never acctually eaten any ... or seen any for that matter ...

So Thursday night we didn't have our traditional Small Group. It was just myself and my husand and one other couple - the pastor and his wife. Now, here it would be good to say that thanks to many reasons, Terry and Caddie are more like friends and older role models than they are like our pastor and his wife. And for that I am regularly thankful. Anywhoo ... Thursday night they took us to dinner and a movie. And, for the first time in a long time, Small Group was acctually open and chatty and centered like I think it should be more often. So we went to see The Nativity Story. Pretty good movie. The directors did a good job painting the background and the oppression that the Jews felt under Roman rule. Some things weren't Biblically consistent (as in they were out of order ... or just plain in contradiction to Luke ...). But all in all ... a good movie. And a very enjoyable evening. Both Tyler and I were in despirate need of a "normal" activity. Now, so don't get me wrong here ... this time of not being able to go out to eat or pay to see movies or shows has been really good for us. We've both grown incredibly. But, for a while now, I've been so ready to be able to do those sorts of things again with eachother and with our friends. And so ... knowing that ... and being so uber wonderful and all ... God has given us those opportunities recently. We went to Fort Findlay's show thanks to my costume production for them. We went out to dinner and a movie thanks to our small group. And Friday night we had some much needed socialization too ...

We went down to Ada for Kappa Phi's Sing-A-Thon. Now, when I was in school I never really looked forward to this particular service project. My sisterhood did some other things that I liked much better. But, when I was in school ... no one wrote and preformed a rock opera. And Carmel Apple Strudel Pancake Bunt Cake Squares was indeed the title of one of the songs. It was fabulous. Thank you Seth and Quinn for sharing your crazy world and mad talents with the rest of us. It was amazing. Way better than I could have imagined. And I loved the fight scene. (Yes, that's right ... there were actors and scenes and costumes AND all new original music.) Tyler and I thought we'd go down for they're hour (7-8 pm) and then take off. But we hung around chatting till about 11:30. Not only did we get the chance to hang out with really super cool people that we just don't get to see anymore, but there were plenty of alumni like us, and even sweet new pledgies there. Tyler had a chance to hang out with a couple of the STE pledges. I know that was enjoyable for him ... and he's double bonus points on their interview sheets (b/c he's an alum and a national officer). I even got the chance to do a couple of KP pledgie interviews. (So in both STE and KP all of the pledges have to interview all of the brothers/sisters while they're still pledges. We, KP, won't let the pledge class through till all of the interview sheets are turned in. ... or at least that's how it used to be.) I too am bonus points ... ahh ... to be old ... (And AliP ... call me ... Maria's Tacos awaits us :P)

Okay ... I need to get ready for work ...

Oh yeah ... and Tyler has a job. He starts for Aflac on Tuesday.

O-H. I-O. Go Gators!

... becuase that Florida win was bad for Michigan. And now ... Florida is number 2 in the coaches' poll. Oh yeah ... :)

In other news -

After much work around here yesterday, the house is Christmas-ed out for the season ... all but the tree is finished. Tyler and I will work on that after Journey tonight ... or at least that's the plan. The rest of our house looks really nice this year. I'm pleased.

We have NO clean dishes. Nor do we have any space in the dishwasher. It's definately time to run that ... yet another thing on the list for after Journey.

My sewinging machine is broken. Major bummer there ... the family Christmas presents for the year aren't done yet ... I NEED my machine back. But ... it's $60 for the tech to look at it ... and I don't know that we have that. Hmm ... have to find some way around that one.

Tyler's not feeling good. His throat hurts ... hmm ...

The Browns won today :) ... Woo-Hoo 4 games this season! :)

We have yet to set up the office for Kayla's stay in January. However, there's a large TV box in there (Gramma's Christmas present from her kids). We do however need to get on that in the next couple of weeks because ....

Tyler's mom will also be up here for Christmas. We're trying to talk her into coming up and leaving with my mom ... so she'd carpool up from Columbus on Friday and then back down on Monday. That would cut her drives in half ... and it's really long a boring to drive all the way from here to WV in a day. Hopefully our suggestion will stick. Anywhoo ... with the full house going on, we'll need the airbed AND the couch for the Christmas weekend.

Oh and finally, what is up with that dancing/jumping robot on the side of the football ins and outs on FOx? Seriously? ... That's like the most retarded thing ... EVER ... (okay, maybe not ever ... but it's up there ... )

Okay ... let's see if I can manage to be productive in the next 10 mins before we leave for Journey. Wish me luck ... I'll need it today.