christmas is over, but this was fun, check it

I love "A Charlie Brown Christmas"... and I found this fun little quiz about the show through another blog... I scored 60%... not terrible... atleast better than half. :)

click the picture >><< to take it yourself...

how'd YOU do?

Don't dis the JuJu- episode 21/season two

I admit it, I'm obsessed. consumed. hooked. immersed in. addicted... to Grey's Anatomy. Yes, I confess here and now that I have a problem. Is it that much of a problem? Well, I'm not having dreams about McDreamy yet, but when I rent a disc from Blockbuster I definitely can't stop watching after just two episodes. It has to be atleast three, and it's hard to quit after that.

I'm so glad that I've been able to watch the second season on dvd while we're waiting for new episodes to return in the current season.

Anyone else ready to admit to their obsessions? :) For some it's alcohol, and others cigarette's... me: Grey's Anatomy.

---
In other news.. I never updated about my "final" last friday! :) It went exceptionally well... no big deal, I just didn't give any of my opinion. And, this week I found out that the client wanted to get rid of the current logo that was created by someone else and let me change it. Sometimes if you do what they say, even if you don't like it, they'll see it for themselves and decide that maybe, just maybe you were right. :)

--
One last tid-bit... all this week I thought how great it would be if I could take friday off, but at the same time figured it wouldn't be a hard day and I'd have work to do so why not? Well, this afternoon my boss came into my office and said "I want you to take the day off tomorrow"..
Perfect! If he is telling me I should, who am I to do anything different! :) yay... a day to catch up!
So... the moral of the story is.... "don't dis the juju"
haha

peace- and Happy New Year if I don't get on here again before!

CHristmaS Meme...

Okay Erin... I of course, cannot resist the "meme"
here's the definition for all who are curious... i had to look it up:
meme: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

1. Egg nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate! Egg Nog just sounds nasty

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa only brings the stocking stuffers...

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Currently green and red on tree... none on the house

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Naw... i never got into that... nobody to kiss anyways :)

5. When do you put your decorations up?
very soon after Turkey day

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
hmm... it's always different.. this year it's a ham from the Honey Baked Ham Co.- my dad got a GC for one... i suppose it'll be good, but I'm not a huge ham fan in general

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child.
hmm... i don't now if it's absolutely favorite, but one I remember vividly... I asked for ice skates (i knew we were friends for a reason E! :), but I got new ones... sorry) for christmas one year and the next morning before going to my grandma's house, I was determined to try out my new skates. My parents were so great... they brought me to an ice rink even though it was closed and helped me get my skates on in the car so I could go and try them out. I believe it was close to 0° out, too! So, needless to say the skating didn't last very long!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Santa was "old saint nick", a real person, but a story from long ago, I was told by my parents early on. I was probably one of the oblivious kids who didn't realize my friends REALLY believed in Santa, and broke their little hearts.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas eve?
I open ALL of them on Christmas eve... we used to do christmas with mom's side on the eve and dad's side on day... but you know, family feud and all that, so the eliminated the day celebration.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
being a single gal, i don't have many ornaments... i haven't asked for my christmas ornaments from my parents because I felt like I should wait until I have my own family. Just makes more sense on their tree right now.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
As you may have read... I posted in the middle of my work day today JUST to report the snow that FINALLY fell! It was ABOUT TIME! Yes, I love it... I was actually getting depressed from the brown-ness.

12. Can you ice skate?
I got new Ice Skates two years ago, or maybe even three now.. wow! but I haven't had a chance to use them in a couple years. :(... that is one of my goals for the year.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? (hold on, this one's long)
oh gosh... this is a funny/heartwarming story :)... it's mostly my favorite because of the story..
so, in middle school i was pretty obsessed with Elmo (i know you know where this is going). And, of course when the Tickle Me Elmo came out EVERYONE had to have one, but I really never remember asking for one outright... Everyone remembers the mobs and people stealing them out of customers hands, etc. It was insane and I couldn't imagine why it was SOO important to have it for Christmas. OKAY... so I open most of my gifts and then get to one from my grandma, open it, and yes, it's "Tickle Me Elmo"... I was shocked! She told me that she went to Target and got a RainCheck (because they were obviously out), not thinking it would come before Christmas and would just wrap a picture of it or something. Target called her a few days before Christmas, so she was able to pick it up for me. I remember her saying something like she was a bit frightened that someone would see her carrying one out of the store. I just LOVE my grandma! Not because I got something, but because of the heart behind it... she knew without me asking, and didn't worry about having to give it on Christmas... "it's the thought that counts" is her moto.

14. What is the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Family. (i'll second that!)

15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert?
mmm... Grandma's special creme wafer cookies... they're indescribable!

16. What is your favorite Holiday tradition?
a newer tradition is having Mike and Lois(our "adopted" aunt and uncle) over for gift giving and dessert on christmas day (although this year will be slightly different because of schedules... owell)

17. What tops your tree?
nothing... couldn't find one I liked that lit up

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
i gotta be honest i like both equally... especially receiving a creative gift... it tells you about the person who is giving them... like last year, my sister burned three different compilation cds for me... fun songs, worship songs, and quiet songs.... the fun songs was so awesome... a bunch of oldies that we used to dance around the house to... how fun!


19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
oo, i have a few... The Little Drummer Boy (i loved the rup a pum pum parts as a kid), Carol of the Bells, and that song from ELF that Will Ferrell sings with that girl in the bathroom to... something like... oh yeah, Baby, it's Cold Outside :)

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
i could take 'em or leave 'em... i haven't had one in a long while actually

well... as the definition of "meme" is spreads from person to person, whoever reads this is supposed to do the same thing... so maybe David or Linda could do this, since Erin already did it... i'm pretty sure there are only three of you who frequent my blog anyways! anybody wanna prove me wrong?

winter wonderland!

YAY! It'S SnOWinG!!!!!

i'm sure it is causing problems which is bad... but I'm so happy!! :)

a few more short stories

It has been awhile since my last post (for me atleast)... and since Erin nudged me by asking WHERE I was... well... here's some facts of the month :)

1. i've been using my creative juices on a fun christmas postcard and some other creative endeavors on my computer

2. been christmas shopping and painting... painting things for gifts

3. been having some trouble with pains in my arms, wrists, hands

4. just plain stressed

Because of numeral 3, I am keeping this short, especially since I already blogged one long story today.
I did want to share about a sweet gift I got at our office christmas party..

Every year we do a Secret Santa gift exchange.. Angela(my roomie) laughed because there are only 5 of us... what a nerd, it's still secret even though the quantity of us is low! :) k... anyways... You never quite know what you'll get.. we do just one gift (some do it throughout december... we don't, just a $10-15 gift) anyhoo, why am I explaining all of these details...
My boss's son, Dave had my name and got me the new "U218 VIDEOS" being a big u2 fan- it was perfect. I popped it in while writing my last blog, and I had to stop so many times and watch. This is a DEFINITE must for any u2 fan... well, in my opinion atleast.
I'm sure they've had other DVDs or music video colaborations, so I don't have anything to compare it with, but it's cool because there are videos from '84, and ranges in between until now. I know you'll probably never read this Dave... but thanks again! :)

I think there was more I wanted to write... but I forget and I better stop before I have those pains I was talkin' about.

later blogland..

p.s. man, i was all excited to switch to the new blogger, but I guess you have to be "chosen" to switch... lame.

Wish me luck!

I thought I was done with finals when I finished school...

One of the things I'm working on right now is a presskit for a musician (a promotional tool to send to radio stations, etc.). This particular musician and I are having a creative conundrum(sp?).. I don't know one word to describe it, but basically I keep thinking I understand what she wants, and then somehow I totally miss the mark. This usually doesn't happen very often, and I believe I'm starting to get it now, but the test or "final" so-to-speak is friday at 3pm.
Guy talked to her and decided it would be good if she came in and sat down with me to work on it together. I'm sure it is a good idea too, but it's a designers worst nightmare... having someone sit and watch you create.. i'm getting the jitters just thinking about it... it's like having someone look over your shoulder while reading a good book, or writing a letter. An eagle on a perch, watching its prey. They get to see each and every move you make.. no matter how fast or slow. Talk about pressure...
I decided it would be good to ask Georgia about the subject since she had our "favorite" client for so long perched at her side for hours and days. The advice she gave me was this... You have to ignore the need to please them every second and not worry about how long it takes to get a concept out. That's the paraphrased version. I think it's true and good advice, but it might be easier said than done. I think she has this skill mastered... me on the other hand, these things come up few and far between.
The other small piece to this story is that I feel like I might have offended this person at one point in the process. I was trying to let them know that I just didn't think the concept they were explaining would work well. I may have said, it just wouldn't look good... with a little too much emphasis on the "just" and "good." I can't really remember, but I remember that I heard some slight frustration in reply to my comment. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my communication skills are lacking, and this was one of those times. How do you recover from that, especially if you don't know for sure if it really affected them or not. Part of me wants to say, "okay, so let's just start over, pretend you've never talked to me before." Or, I could just say... "I'm sorry for all this miscommunication on your design concept.. I believe we can still make this partnership work"- okay, so I'd never be that formal... but you know something along those lines.

I praying it goes well... that I'll be able to relax and be creative. no pressure lisa, no pressure! :)

twenty six

Twenty Six years ago today, at this moment (5:00) my mom had just gotten to the hospital and was in labor with me.
When I was a kid, my dear great grandmother always told me the story of how she rushed my mom to the hospital as she was in labor. (and made it sound like she saved the day, -insert misty eyes- she was the coolest old lady, how i miss her!).

As my mother wrote in my baby book...

"Gr. Grandma Dorothy took mommy down to the hospital at 4:30pm. It was cold and windy out, started snowing later that night. Met Terry (daddy) :) as I got out of the car. Went to admitting, a nurse from OB came and got me. Went to the birthing room, Terry came up shortly. Labor lasted five hours, Lisa came out sideways."
(may that explains my sideways thinking! :)haha)

I was born at 8:00pm.. and the other memory or story I know is that "Little House on the Prairie" was on tv when I was born, as my mother always told me. :)
___

I took the day off today and it was very nice... I'm off to go shopping now and to hang with some friends... but here is another song that I really love the lyrics to... somewhat appropriate to this day as well...

Better Days
(John Rzeznik- goo goo dolls)

And you asked me what I want this year
And I'll try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe
We'll find better days

'Cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
Designer love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe
We'll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
'Cause tonight's the night
The world begins again

I need someplace simple where we could live
And something only you could give
And that's faith and trust and peace while we're
Alive

And the one poor child who saved this world
There's 10 million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just a chance that maybe we'll
Find better days

twenty four

I've always loved the switchfoot song "twenty four"
here is an artistic expression with an excerpt of the song..

Passion

Tonight's Kare11 Extra touched me... in many ways..

In short, it was about an artist who paints portraits of fallen soldiers, and gives them to the families. She doesn't charge the them, she does it because she is passionate about it.. that's what I heard from her story atleast. This is the blurb that Kare11 wrote up about it:

"The artist, Kaziah Hancock, is not political, she doesn't want anything in return, just the satisfaction of knowing that in some small way, she's helping heal the pain some American families are left to bear after losing a loved one in war."

It hit at my very soul.. not because it's such an amazing thing to do (though it DEFINITELY IS) for free, or because she is so talented and I love art (course, it didn't hurt), it's because of the very passion that exuded from her. If I am able to live long and old, I hope in my older days I get to do what I love with that kind of passion. If you didn't catch the story, click on the link for a preview of what they showed. (It doesn't do it any justice, I though that it was going to be the whole segment, I don't think it will be and there may be a short commercial first)

The Art of Compassion

i voted!

You can all rest assured that I put my annoyances behind me and voted today! I don't think I really would have not voted, but I wish we could vote on a new way of getting the information to people. Whatever happened to the truth? Why can't politics be explained better without having to do so much research to make sure you know what your voting will get you.

Maybe it is laziness on my part. I should make sure I'm more informed, instead of just voting along party lines, but atleast I did my civic duty. No matter how the election turns out, I'm glad I know that ultimately God is the final vote when I leave this place in the dust!

Thus ends my political banter and blogging. I hope you've enjoyed my non-researched views on DECISION 2006! (tee hee)

This was a great show!

Is it Nov. 8th yet???

I am so sick of this political season... I honestly cannot wait until it is over. I am not into politics AT ALL. I'm especially sick of the "unknown" calls I keep getting on my phone from the Republican party who doesn't even let you get a word in edge-wise. I've gotten two calls so far, you'd think I'd learn to not pick those calls up, but calls from the church also show up as "unknown." It's enough to make me just not want to vote... the only thing I'm interested in voting for is the "VOTE YES" License Amendment or whatever you call it. Unless there are some hidden bad things they're not saying about this... I'm all for our tab tax money going to make the roads better or wherever it's coming from. See, I can't even keep all the specifics down.
I'm not even sure where I'm supposed to vote and haven't receieved anything in the mail, maybe I would've if I changed my address on my license already. But, Angela hasn't received anything either, so I don't think that is the ticket. Who knows... all I know is that, as I said before, I'm ready for it to be next wednesday.. then I can watch my favorite shows like Grey's Anatomy in peace, without politcal basher ads.

Well... that's it for now... I think I might actually go to bed early tonight. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

here's a funny picture from a few weeks ago when i went apple picking with the senior girls. there were a couple of llama's and goats in a little pen. How cute! I was thinking of that story book, "are you my mother?" when i wrote the caption. :)
Llama for Govenor!

Birds and Spiders

Two "random" stories for you from today...

Numeral Uno-
As I look out the window by my desk there is an old house directly to my right. It's actually the backyard of a house that used to have two older ladies inhabit it, who were keen on feeding stray cats, various birds, and really any other creature that needed a home. This house was often a bit of entertainment in our computer sucked day.
Recently we've noticed that the ladies are in the process of moving out, but it has been in stages. There are no longer any dog/cat houses or bird baths in the backyard, nor has there been any laundry hung out to dry (as there had been in the past).
However, the birds were definitely present today, and apparently very consumed with the berries on the Juniper tree that stands about 5-10feet from my window. I think they had some halucinigens(sp?) in them, because in the time between about 11:30 until 4:00 7 birds proceeded to fly into our windows. It was quite the entertainment, and EVERY time, caught me by surprise! I was pretty close to losing it after awhile... not to mention my day was pretty hectic to begin with, must have been something in the air. As we say around the office... it was a Thursday.. (if anything ever goes wrong, it's THURSday!). I took a picture for some proof of these wako birds... the last one hit so hard, it left a feather on the window.. excuse the blurriness, I couldn't get the macro focus to work.


Numeral Dos-
Tonight, after watching my Thursday night line up.. I decided to catch up on some emails, etc. As I was minding my own business typing away I looked to my left and in the corner of the wall by my desk were two ugly spiders. They looked like two different types... one was like a mini-daddy long legs and the other just an ugly spider with a large body and not as long of legs as the other. I've developed this fear of spyders... not so much that I'll start freaking out and crying, but freaking out and yelling curses at them. I frantically found the RAID and sprayed them while squirmishly hoping they wouldn't fall off the wall and go crawling into a hole. I was lucky, they stuck to the wall and I promptly grabbed a napkin to squish their ugly little bodies. (iihhllll blech) I was again typing away when Ang yells, "EEWW, there's a BIG spider over here, help".. I came over with the RAID and squirmed and again yelled curses at it... I HATE HATE HATE them! How have I done missions all these years you may ask? I just suck it up and occassionly have to do the same thing... and sometimes loose sleep over wondering if a spyder is going to crawl up my leg and who knows where else... blaaaclkloaklkiosh*&#)_!
Getting back to Angela's incident... so I came with the RAID and couldn't bring myself to spray it because it was big and I didn't want it to jump off the wall after spraying it and touch me. I kept trying and then Ang grabbed the bottle from me and sprayed it... the spider then fell to the floor and Ang sprayed it a few more times and once it was dead in a heap she sprayed it once more for good measure. Ang tried to tease me, but I reminded her who yelled for help 3mins prior to that moment. I went to call our management to tell them AGAIN that we found spiders. Plunkett's came out and sprayed about a month and a half ago.. you'd think that should last, but I guess with the weather and all, they're looking for warm places... I DESPISE SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God help me if I find another spider tonight, I might just break down and start crying... MIGHT... only might.
So, here's a pic of that bigger spider all balled up and grimacing... okay maybe not grimacing... i put a pen cap there so you can tell the size better :).

The Search is OVER! (WARNING: this post may be long!)

I am now the proud owner of a Black '98 Chevy Malibu. Yesterday at this time, if you would've told me that, I would've laughed in your face. You see, for the last week and a half I have been diligently looking for a Honda/Acura/something foriegn car. Why? Well, most people know that Honda's have an impecable reputation in quality and endurance. Or, shall I say, they last forever! So, I knew going into my search I wouldn't find any that were much newer than a 96/97... actually I was surprised to find those years in my price range.
I let a decent Accord slip through my fingers on Tuesday night... 95 with all the features I was looking for plus a couple extras.. my standards were power locks/windows/cruise... not a very hard order to fill. That Accord had leather interior and moon roof... and it was in solid working order, but my dad wasn't back quite soon enough and I didn't feel comfortable buying without him. SHOOT...

Having my dad back yesterday was comforting, but I was still kicking myself about that other car... I was anxious all day yesterday, but trying my hardest to trust that God had something else in mind. It was the first night of youth group last night and before I went, my dad and I looked at a silver 97 Accord, but we found out WHY it was in my price range. Something was making noise whenever we turned the wheels right or left.. we got back to the guy's house and he said, "yeah, it's about a $250 fix"... well, that would've been nice to know BEFORE we test drove it, be honest atleast before someone takes it out. Atleast we could know that and not feel like you're covering it up. anyways... I was not in a good mood when I got to church and on top of that I was really hungry and there was only over-cooked frozen pizza left over. I vented to a few people and then decided I needed to try and stop thinking about it and think about the night. Worship was at the end of the night, and it really helped me to focus on what really matters and truly trust that God has my best in mind.
It was hard falling asleep last night, I almost came and posted, but eventually fell asleep. I couldn't get my mind off the fact that my car was going to be taken away and I had nothing to fill its spot. (hey E- no apostrophe after it, right?! :)) I prayed myself to sleep because I got myself all worked up again and anxious again, it's all I could do to get it off my mind.
The drive to work was surreal, realizing it was the last time driving that car to work, or anywhere for that matter! You can read my previous post for more details on how it felt to give up my car.
Okay, so I'll jump ahead to tonight. My dad had called on a couple more Honda's and a couple VW's (one Golf, one Passat). One of the Honda's was in New Hope, so we swung by there and gave it a wirl, decent good driving car with not bad miles.. just really scaled back no power anything, not even a cd player and no cruise. Good car if all came to worse... so, then it was off to Jim Lupient's Bargain Lot. My parents have bought 3 cars there in the past 15-20 years and they've always been good, so we checked their stock. As we walked through, I noticed a 97 Acura Integra with leather interior and just a bit above my price range, but possibly negotiable. I started getting excited, but when we took her out for a spin noticed again, why it was priced lower. No AC working and a couple other little things that would all add up to atleast 500=1,000, so we passed on that. Next was the car I am driving now, which is funny because I wasn't too interested in it when he first suggested it, but when we looked closer it had everything I was wanting PLUS more. The drive was really nice and I was pleasantly surprised. We got back to Lupient's and asked about the CD plate because it wasn't in the car, so we tested it out and it sounded really good. There was one other Honda that my dad thought we should maybe look at, more for me because he didn't want me to always "wonder" or have a "what if." The only downfall was that it was located in Woodbury/Maplewood(can't remember which)... he was willing if I really wanted to go, so we were on our way and as I kept thinking, the Honda was a 94 with 150k miles and only 2door... it just didn't make sense for us to go all the way out there. I had this peace about just saying, you know I think I should just take that Malibu... so we exited the 394 exits into Downtown Mpls, turned around and headed back. Just for the sake of it, we went to look at the Passat at Westside VW, and I knew that was definitely not for me.. older and really boxy.. no like.

So, there's another whole story as to what happened after we left the VW dealership and buying my car at Lupient, but I'll spare you that tonight. If you're interested in a funny story, ask me another time :). Here's the cool thing about this search. I kept praying about not getting my hopes up, or having high standards about this car that I'm not sure how long I'll keep. Knowing it was going to get me buy for only a year or two, I didn't want to be picky. The thing is, he knew what I really wanted and knew that I would be okay without having those things, but I got all of my requireds and more. Here's the details... cruise- check, power locks- check, power windows- check, cd player- check (nice one, plus a cassette deck?! funny), moon roof- sweet, power mirrors both sides- double sweet, key-less entry- nice, LEATHER- rockin'...
The only possible downer is that it might need new roaters or pads, but my bro-in-law can do those for less than $50!
As I drove my new car home I had this thought as I was praying over my car for it to last me... it was this... My God takes care of me, and why NOT ask for what you really want because he really does care about the little things. This whole journey of finding a car really parrallels with finding the man I want to marry. Don't take this wrong... the whole "trying out" and those details are not what I'm saying... what I'm saying is this: I was worried and anxious about finding the car.. thinking I turned in my old one too soon... nope. He had one waiting for me... it wasn't exactly the "model" I was looking for but it had all I wanted and more. That sounds a little strange to me, but it just resonated.
One more little thing.. I've never named my cars before.. never... and this may be odd especially to post it on the world wide web, but owell... for some strange reason I had the word "prince" pop into my head, so I think I'm going to "dub" my car a male and call him my prince! :) It's cheesy, but then again, I laugh at cheesy jokes... and I can be cheesy.. so there. The End.

over a car!!

Farewell my sweet, Sunfire!
You will be missed...

If you've ever seen the movie "As Good As It Gets" you may remember the part where Jack Nicholson is in his condo playing the piano... saddened because his neighbor just took back his dog that Jack was watching. I'm feeling just a bit like him right now, as the Insurance Salvage people took my car away... sniff, sniff...

Over a CAR... A stupid Car
(just picture Jack Nicholson saying it) :)

I never thought I'd be attached to a car, but as i was lying in my bed trying to fall asleep, i realized that it's because I bought that car and paid it off... it's the one I've had the longest. I actually owned something of significant value. I know I'll own my next car too... but all that dedication to the payments, etc... (sigh) It'll be okay... once I finally get a new (to me) one!

Hail Damages

Both physically and emotionally!

On August 24th, around 1:00pm, the sky opened up and poured forth rain and hail. This is my story.
I was working at my computer and looked out my window to watch the rain for a moment and noticed some hail. I've seen hail before, but I had yet to take a lunch, so I went out to the front doors and watched the hail fall from the sky. While watching it was aparent that this was not your normal 30 second hail burst. It kept getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger... and last, and last, and last. Is it possible to call this phenomenal, without giving the sense that it was good, because it was the opposite of anything positive. Except that I was in awe of the scene and I couldn't move, adrenaline was rushing through me. gluing my eyes to the scene. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and eventually HEARING on the rooftops. Everyone else in the building also eventually came out to the front and we stood together just stunned... watching our cars getting dented.
About 10 or 15mins went by and as we watched the hail grow from ping pong size to tennis ball size, we grew worried about our well being. From time to time we'd hear it hit our office windows, but just when we were worried if our office windows would blow in, we saw the back windows of cars being busted. I was so shocked and nervous, my response was to laugh... it was not a laughing matter, but it was seriously like watching a movie. I couldn't believe it.
It finally finished and we all went out to assess the damage. Three broken windows (only out of 8 cars) and atleast 6/7 cracked windshields (mine included), and too many dents to even count. Large dents, large enough that PDR (paintless dent repair) may not even fix.
My car only suffered a cracked window, but MANY large dents everywhere. I figured it was going to be a hassel to get fixed, but wasn't too worried because my deductible wasn't too high. Well, I brought it to the adjusters last Tuesday and they had another story for me... it's considered a "total loss" because the value of my car is less than it would cost to fix. WHAT? I sat in my car waiting for the adjuster to come back with a copy of the papers and couldn't believe it. I had just finished payments on my car.. it's mine and I'm not ready to get rid of it, even if it never had any special features... power locks/windows, etc. I don't want a car payment! Tears burned my cheeks, LORD, this was NOT my plan, now what? ...pause... no answer... well... maybe i could find a car that has more features.. maybe... but i still like my car with my Belize and Haiti oval stickers on the back...
and the song... "letting go" runs through my head... okay okay... (not to over-spiritualize, tho... those were just rambling thoughts of mine)

anyways..
They said I could keep it, but we figured out it really wouldn't benefit me. Car shopping SUCKS! Especially when you don't haev a lot of options or time. The timing was awful too, because my dad went out of town on business the day after I found out. How convenient... just another reason it'd be nice to have a man around... OWELL.. another learning experience that must be done as a single woman... I guess it makes me more assertive and tough... or just more annoyed that life is just life sometimes and you have no control.


SO... that's the latest... my time lately has been spent on autotrader.com and carsoup.com... i just got the tip to go on Kraig's List, Perfect! another site to waste time on... :)

at some point i may get some pics of my dented car up here...

Blogger beta?!

Just curious if any of you have switched to the new "blogger beta" version... I haven't had time to read much about it, but all I know is that it's annoying because now my "default" username and password picks up my Google mail account info. I didn't have my Blogger account info memorized, it usually came up automatically so I had to search for that info, what a pain. So, now I know what I have to do, but what do you guys think... have you switched to the "beta" version...

just curious... when i have time i guess i'll check up on it myself... always good to have others thoughts though...

well, i haven't updated in awhile... i should do that soon... until then,
asta la vista

photoshop fun

i've decided i need to do my own fun once in awhile with photoshop... instead of always doing what other people want... here's my first fun... i hope Ms. Dyson doesn't mind me using apart of her poem... i just googled "flying poem" and it got me to her. This is the same picture that is below in my "chi-town" post.

Woah, this is truly wild... the original color scheme is a bunch of blue tones and the color behind the text is black. However, when I uploaded it to blogger, the colors changed to what you are seeing. I actually love the colors, except I'm not sold on the green/grey color behind the text. I can't get over the fact that it changed on me... maybe because I didn't convert it to RGB before making it a jpeg, but still I've never seen this happen... okay... i'm done. enjoy

chi-town

another fun excersion to chicago was had this past sun-tues. it was actually rather un-expected. i hadn't planned on going this year. mostly because i didn't really have vacation days and didn't want to borrow them from next year, like i did last year. (that was a mouthful) But, Scott bargained with me, and it was a good offer so I took it and was in! it's always a great trip, aside from sleeping on the floor with an air mattress that looses air during the night. AND this year we had the pleasure of a few girls feeling the need to gab and giggle until 2am... i was the lucky one who couldn't fall asleep! oh, the joys of leading the youth.... tee hee...
seriously though... i LOVE Six Flags... I think I described the two best rides EVER last year in my account of this trip, so if you'd like another explanation here's a link to that post.

A couple fun stories are as follows...

Every year we make an annual stop at Gino's East pizza... it's the pizza with the sauce on the top and cheese on the inside. They have a fun environment for a group of highschoolers... they encourage writing on walls, chairs, table cloths and whatever else you find to write on.
Just after we got our pizza, Dan (another leader) asked for some of that pizza pepper stuff, so I grabbed one off the next table and gave it to him. I was looking for the Parmesean cheese when I heard laughing, I turned around and the WHOLE jar of pepper junk was ALL OVER his plate. It looked like someone had douced it with red/orange/yellow confetti! I laughed so hard as he tried to play it cool and say he'd still eat it... He ended up not eating it, realizing he could probably get really sick with all of that in his stomach. Instead, he dared another kid, Sean, to put a bunch in his mouth for 30seconds... but then spit it out. That was less funny, but still entertaining... those guys will do anything for attention! :)
I so wish I had a picture of that pizza, it still makes me laugh!

The next story comes from our day at Six Flags. It was about mid-day/afternoon and most of the group I was with wanted to go to the waterpark. Diane and I didn't bring our suits in, and had to wait until the bus came back at around 5 to get them, so we went on Superman. It didn't take too long to get through the line, and I had already been on the rides I was really excited for, so we walked leisurely through the park to kill some time. While walking, Diane mentioned that she wondered why we were really needed on the trip in times like these. I agreed that sometimes leaders on this senior high trip seem pointless during the day. Just a few minutes later we found a girl who had "lost" her group or they lost her, unfortunately I'm still not sure which is more true. Let's just say, she's got a lot of energy... and tagged along with us for pretty much the rest of the day. We did end up hooking up with Scott and a few others to mix things up a bit for the evening. It was just so funny the timing of Diane's comment and our little friend joining up with us.

Before we left the Chicago area on Tuesday, we took a jaunt into the city and camped out at Navy Pier. In years past, the tradition has been to walk the shops of Michigan Ave., but we thought it would be fun to shake things up and go to the pier instead. In my opinion, it was a great change and felt more relaxing. (though i'm sure we would've walked just as much, if we had gone to Mich. Ave.) Here are a couple pix from Navy Pier... one is of the Ferris Wheel that I opted not to spend $5 on, and another pic of water jumping fountains in the arboretum.

Excerpt from my journal, one month ago.

Wed. June 21st

Had a better night sleep, work up just before the alarm. Went to breakfast and had a quick pow-wow with Scott, G and Leah. Decided who was going where, then we had a short devo- Scott told us a "story" to put ourselves in- asked us, what burdens we need to let go of, to give to God.
I had a hard time pin-pointing mine - kind of knowing one, but not knowing how to let it go fully. So, it's something I'm sitting in and asking God to reveal how/what etc.
I took a group of kids, Em, Kristen, Blake and Shireen to ARiola's. Talked to Vicky for a short time and then went back with Blake to find Scott. He was going to send a couple of people with me to make visits to a couple of the older people in the village. We got back and Scott was a bit discouraged about not having jobs for everyone to do right away. But eventually Herdie came and they went into Dangriga to buy paint and start painting the church there. Blake, Josh, Sarah, and I chilled ate lunch and waited for Em, Kristen and Shireen to come, but then Josh, Sarah and I decided to walk down to make sure they were coming back or that Vicky hadn't forgotten to wake up from her nap. :) She did, but Shireen(the school teacher, not team member) got there, so that's when they left.
We hung around the beach until about 4:00 beacuse we thought ght kids didn't get out of school till then, but we were wrong. So at 4pm we took all the clay buckets and went to the "shed" which is like a big long hut with no walls. It was a bit chaotic at first, bu tthen we just started having fun and making animals/ cars and planes for them all. It was really a blast! But, dinner came sooner than later and we had to quit a little pre-maturely.
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(excerpts copied as written at the time... you can see my shortened and not so eloquent way I journal)