Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving At Our House.

Nat and I hosted my family for Thanksgiving on Wednesday with an Italian menu. Wow, talk about being anti-tradition;o). We didn't want to "turkey" everyone out since my brothers/sister were all going to their in-laws on Thursday, plus we had received as a wedding gift a gift certificate to a local Italian catering place, so we chose to use it on Wednesday. Our apartment is small, but we fit 12 people in just fine and had lots of fun in the process:o).

If you look on the wall to the left, you'll see a bunch of pictures in a wall hanging. My brother laughed when he first came in, because every single picture in that hanging is of Nat's family (minus one of Nat and I). I jokingly told my brother it's because my family is all local and we see them often enough not to need their photos on the wall;). I actually have to just go find a frame that will look just right, but I haven't found one yet.

My husband loves to help and jumped right in to help with the meal... what a guy;).

Chatting and hanging out

These two willingly offered to do the dishes... yay! I think I caught my brother off guard though:).

Within 5 minutes of coming in, my niece managed to get candy juice all over her outfit... hence the onesie!

Ethan playing Apples to Apples - toddler version;o).

My sister-in-law Ann playing Apples to Apples the real way!

Apparently something was funny to Tom...:)

All in all, we had a marvelous time with my family. I'm so glad that we could work out schedules to visit with my family on Wednesday and Nat's extended family on Thursday... yummy times!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Off.

All week long I was holding my breath just waiting for that question to be asked: could you work Saturday? It came oh-so-close yesterday, but it was never asked!

My sweetie and I are enjoying a quiet Saturday together with no program, major plans, or (and this is the best part) work schedules! It's rare that we're both off on the same day since I work just about every Saturday and he works every Tuesday and Thursday (my days off) so we started this day off by sleeping in... which we actually accomplished! Now at 10:30, we're ready to start the day - IKEA here we come!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Confession.

Apparently confession is good for the soul, but I think that might have more to do with some church of old being steeped in tradition. Regardless of the origin of that statement, I shall do a little confessing on this blog of mine!

  • Vacations are horrible, horrible, horrible in one area: weight. I'm so sorry to admit this, but both Nat and I gained weight on our little vacation to the mid-west. We're chalking it up to too much junk food and not enough veggies and exercise. We are very glad to be home now and I have stocked my fridge full of yummy fruits and vegetables. Now if I could just get rid of the chips, pretzels, and chocolate that found their way into our kitchen.
  • Ironically enough, I did enjoy three little chocolate-covered black licorice bites that were simply delish! For our engagement anniversary, my husband bought two 1-pound bags of chocolate-covered pretzels (in a word: fabulous!) and a pound bag of those licorice bites that are too tasty. I'm going to have to have some family or friends over to finish them off!
  • When the Kohls envelope comes in the mail, Nat and I play a little game of who has the bigger discount. He won yesterday by scoring 30% off (compared to my measly 15% off), but I think I actually won today by finding some boots on sale at Kohls! Teamed up with his discount coupon, I was very satisfied with my shopping. I also bought him a package of dress socks to celebrate our 4-month wedding anniversary because I'm romantic like that;o).
  • I promised pictures of our apartment but was waiting on some curtains for our bathroom to be hemmed (yet another confession: I don't sew. GASP!) Amanda finished the curtains (thank you muchly, Amanda!), but I haven't taken pictures yet. I don't remember why now, but it sure was a good excuse this afternoon:o).
I better stop there because the little orange light is blinking so I think that means my battery is going to cease to exist soon. 'Night!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

*The* Story.

When people asked me where we were going on vacation, I always managed to confuse people with the answer: Indiana, Wisconsin, and Texas. Most people followed the whole Indiana/Wisconsin concept, but Texas normally brought about a "whaaa?" moment. Naturally:o).

My in-laws live in Texas as well as some good friends of ours, so we decided to go now to do our holiday visiting, rather than during the actual holidays. Working at a bakery doesn't allow a lot of wiggle room for trips in the midst of the busiest time of the year!

We chose to make the 11 hour drive to Indiana to spend time with my brother and his family, drove the 3 hours to Wisconsin to spend the day with Nat's brother and his wife and also a college friend of mine, drove back to Indiana, and then flew to Texas. We were going to take our car to the airport, but then decided my brother or his wife could use it while we were gone so we left it at their house. My sweet sister-in-law dutifully drove the hour to Chicago Midway Airport to drop us off and wished us a happy time in Texas. At least I think she did. Since this took place at the crazy hour of 7 AM, I was barely functioning:o).

We did have a happy time in Texas (for those of you who were wondering) and we were finishing out our trip with a missionary friend of ours in Fort Worth when we got a phone call. My brother very nonchalantly asked me when our flight returned to Chicago and then asked me if I wanted to talk to my sister-in-law. When she got on the phone, her voice was raspy and muddled. She proceeded to tell me she just had a surgery because there was an accident, but I must admit the first thing I said was, "No way! You're joking with me... quit it!" She tends to be a prankster:o).

She actually wasn't though (surprise!) and when my brother got back on the phone, I asked him what in the world happened. He replied, "it's complicated... there was a car accident in the driveway. I'll tell you tomorrow." Uh-oh. I got off the phone and told Nat I just had this feeling our car was involved with her accident.

When *the* story finally came out, it was quite *the* story. Now my brother has to be the most laid-back man in the world, because he didn't seem fazed at all. I know that's not really true deep down inside, but there wasn't a frazzled reaction on the outside at all! But back to *the* story. My sister-in-law had used our car Wednesday morning, but left a light on so that drained the battery. That afternoon she was going to take her son out to eat but had to first jump our car with her car (which my niece had to use to get to work). Since the battery in her car is in the back, she told her son to back her car up to our car to jump it. Meanwhile she spotted something in the backseat of our car and went to quick grab it. As she leaned half-way into the car (with the door open), my nephew backed up her car and hit our car door. The car door closed in on her leg, but of course he had no idea. All he was thinking was, "Oh man, I'm in big trouble" so he just sat there. That whole time the car door was on her leg and she was praying for him to pull forward. After 15 seconds he finally did, much to her relief!

Her leg instantly swelled up into what looked like a drumstick around her calf to her ankle. If it had been any higher, it would've severed it off (details I'm sure you're glad I'm sharing!) or even cut off the main artery that would've killed her. As it was, she went through surgery on her leg, hoping to relieve a big chunk of pressure. There was still the possibility of amputation if infection set in, but we are so grateful that was not the case!

The doctor is giving her a 3-month recovery period, which is a long time to not walk. But that's a better option compared to not being able to walk ever again!

Obviously our main concern was making sure she was going to be alright. Once we were fairly certain she was, we looked into fixing our door. While not the biggest deal at the moment, it would've made the 11 hour trip home windy, to say the least! The bottom part was bent at a weird angle (thank you leg), so Nat got on the phone to see if he could find a replacement door. He knew the salvage place here in PA didn't have any parts for our car, but the Lord directed him to the right salvage place out in Indiana who had a matching door! Saturday morning Nat and my nephew spent a couple of hours putting the door on and we left soon after to return to Pennsylvania, minus the wind blowing through:o). Isn't God good???

Soon after my brother told us about the accident, Nat and I had a couple of minutes to ourselves. He instantly said it was no use playing the "what if....?" game ("what if we had taken our car to the airport?"). Instead we started to pray. Pray for those involved and for issues that God was dealing with. Would I choose to have this situation play out again? If God would get the glory, then yes! We serve such a mighty God Who knows all things and I'm excited to see what He is going to do through this situation!!!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

HOME!

Well, hello there!

In case you haven't noticed, *ahem* I've been gone for a little bit... or actually a while. My husband and I were traipsing around the USA, or so my brother thinks! In reality, we were gone for 12 days and visited 4 states. I seriously DOUBT that would be considered a cross-country tour, but I suppose it is to someone who never travels:o).

This trip included lots of family time.... and adventures..... and some "huh?" moments, but all in all we made it safely home! I leave for work in a little bit, but I have quite the story to share - tomorrow!