11th Anniversary

Today Russ and I are celebrating our 11th anniversary. Time goes unbelievably fast. I was looking through pictures to add to this blog and I couldn't believe how young we looked when we first met. (This picture sits on my nightstand. It's at our first week of camp)

Russ and I met at Bible Camp the summer of 1994. I had just graduated HS and was 2 weeks away from starting at the University of Iowa. I had a HS boyfriend of over 2 years and was following him and my best friend to U of I. But Russ quickly interrupted my plans.

I was a counselor to a group of 10 and 11 year old girls. I remember setting up my bunk when these 2 little girls kept asking me if I knew their Uncle Russ. I had no idea who he was, but they kept insisting that I meet him when he got there.

I had on a blue hooded jacket, and a baseball cap. I had extremely short hair, so I looked a little like a boy. Russ came up and pulled my hood onto my head and said, "so you are counselor Michelle." I said, "so you're Uncle Russ".

I wanted to spend every minute with him. And by the 4th day of knowing him, I knew I was going to marry him. I went home from camp, broke up with my boyfriend, and told all of my friends that I met the man I was going to marry. Only my friend, Carrie, believed me. But I just knew it. I felt it in my gut. I don't know if I really believe in love at first sight, but this was pretty darn close.

So even though I was at U of I and he was in grad school at OU, we "dated" for a semester. Then he broke my heart by breaking up with me. He said I was too young and too far away. I needed to date more. ( He actually had met another girl he wanted to date!)

My sophomore year, I transferred to Harding. I think it bothered him a little that I was going to date, so then he started pursuing me again. He then convinced me that if we were ever going to date, we had to live in the same state. So site unseen, I transferred to OC in Jan. of my sophomore year.

Russ proposed to me that August (at camp) and we were married in December. Sometimes I regret that I didn't have a "college experience" like other people. But I have never regretted the time I have been with Russ. I knew at 19 years old and I know at 32 that this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. We were blessed to have 5 1/2 years of marriage before Maddie was born. We have been blessed with countless trips to all over. I love spending time with Russ. And I can truly say he is my best friend.

The bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy. On top of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland. We traversed through the Jungle in Jamaica.

Christmas Program

It was great! The kids were wonderful and everything went off fairly well. No big bumps anyway.

Well, unless you count my husband. I would post pictures here of how cute everyone was in their p.j.'s, but he didn't take any. I couldn't because I was running all over the church. From the back to the front and from aisle to aisle. Oh, I would post a video here, but he didn't push the button until about 2/3's of the way through the program. He thought the green light meant record instead of a red light.

I love him dearly, I truly do. But boy, was he in the doghouse last night. I even got over the fact that the entire show was not recorded, but we don't even have Becca singing her song. She walked up to the microphone to sing. It was so darn cute. But I've got nothin'.

So if any of you have cute pictures from last night, I will be happy to pay you for a copy of them.
I should say, Russ will be happy to pay you for a copy of them.

Plastic surgery?

At 10:45 yesterday morning, I got a call from Maddie's school. My stomach sank a little when I saw the school on the caller ID. I thought, "oh this can't be good." It wasn't. Maddie fell going up the ladder of the slide and slipped. She busted her lip open. The teacher that called me said she would probably need stitches.

(This picture is from my camera phone, so not real clear)

So I rushed up to school and couldn't believe the gash I saw when I got her. I took her to the urgent care center, where Russ met us. The doctor there was great. He said, if it was his daughter, he would take her to a plastic surgeon. He said he could do the stitches but since it goes in to her bottom lip, he would rather a specialist do it. He called a plastic surgeon, and we were told to be there in an hour.

We got there, and this doctor was a little different. (lots of botox in his face! weird) But he was very good. They gave Maddie a shot that put her in a twilight sleep. Her eyes were open the whole time, but she was way out of it. He gave her lots of numbing shots and then starting sewing. It was the teeny tiniest needle I had ever seen. She had either 7 or 8 stitches from her bottom lip down. I felt so bad for her, but she was tough.

Maddie was hilarious when coming out of the twilight sleep. She put her hands in front of her face and wiggled her fingers, like, "what the heck are these?". She kept reaching up and touching our faces and kept wanting to give us hugs. She probably told me that I had 4 eyes about 5 different times. But the funniest was when she put her arms up in the air and started twirling them around. She said, "my arms are really dizzy". We waited around about 30-45 minutes after the procedure to give her time to wake up a little. She said she was ready to go and sat up in bed, then fell flat on her face in bed. That cracked us up. It was just like you'd see in a movie. So Russ had to carry her out. She couldn't even sit up straight her in car seat. She kept sliding down and her head just bobbed all over.

But she is doing fine today. She was nervous about going to school, but excited to show her friends her "scar". Hopefully it won't be too bad of a scar. At least she'll be able to cover it with make-up someday!

Ice Storm Damage

This past week was a really bad ice storm. It was weird though, because the roads never got bad. The ice just coated our cars, houses, grass and trees. Oh, the trees. It is so sad what ice can do. We lost electricity on Monday night and it didn't come back on until Wed. night. Two nights of being on an air mattress at John and Janet's. Thank goodness we had somewhere to go though. So many people didn't. We are so blessed to have family who will share their home with us. I wanted to share some pictures so my out-of-state friends and family could see what kind of damage it did.

Oh, the Christmas program got postponed. Our church didn't get power back on until Friday afternoon, so we're having practice and setting up the stage tomorrow and the program will be on Wednesday. So wish us luck! We lost a big part of our tree.

The ice was 1/2" thick!




Look how the wind blew the ice as it formed. From the other side.

This leaf looks like it is stuck in an ice hand. Freaky!


Our little tree's top ended up touching the ground, but it bounced back.


It was like each blade of grass was surrounded by ice.

This is John and Janet's neighbor. Their tree fell on their house.

Up the street from John and Janet. It's like a giant bowling ball fell on these trees and splintered them all.

These giant limbs fell in John and Janet's backyard.

Christmas Program

I'm working on our church Christmas program this year. I've been excited about it since last year's Christmas. I came up with the concept by listening to Todd Agnew's Christmas CD, "Do you see what I see?"

It lays out the entire story of Jesus' birth in song. I love it. We're using one of his songs, "God with Us" in the program. My extremely talented friend, Joan arranged it to be acappella and it is gorgeous! She also arranged a Stephen Curtis Chapman song for the program. Not only does it have the typical soprano, alto, tenor, bass parts, she has the kids singing with us and a small group singing in it too. She is so good! It's going to be our grande finale song! I can't wait for everyone else to hear them!

The program is going to be so awesome. We start out with the kids on stage (in their p.j's) decorating the tree, cutting out snowflakes, wrapping presents, etc. They start talking about what their favorite part of Christmas is. "This is what Christmas is all about- getting and giving presents!" Ms. Odra is going to come in and sit in a big chair and open a "book" (aka- the Bible)and tell the kids what Christmas is REALLY about. So she starts to tell the story, when pregnant Mary and Joseph come walking down the isle while the adults choir sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem". We have some kids that are just actors in the manger scene. I wanted to involve the kids who can't sing, or don't like to.

I won't type out the entire program here, but did I say it's going to be great? We will go between Ms. Odra, a narrator, and the stable (while songs are being sung). I am very excited about it, but a little nervous too. I feel like Joan, Odra and I have worked really hard on this and I want it to be great and everyone to love it as much as we do.

But, I've all ready heard complaints. We haven't even had the program yet and people are complaining. Why is it such human nature to find something wrong and point it out to everyone you run in to? Why do people feel like they have the right to complain about something, when they had nothing to do with it in the first place? Now, I know I'm not completely innocent of this, but that's why I want to get more involved with things. If you're not happy about it, don't whine and complain, do something about it! Get involved!

Now I know that there are just a few complaints out there. Most people haven't said a word (or at least they are reserving their judgement until AFTER the program) So I'm honestly not letting it bother me. I can't. I have too many things to do between now and the 16th.

So if you are worried about the program (or about me! ;), please feel free to help us. There is no way I can do this on my own. I thank everyone who has all ready volunteered to help by being on stage in your pj's with the kids, crowd controlling, singing, bringing snacks, setting up the stage, getting costumes ready, and the list goes on.

Even if there are a few little imperfections in the program, no one is perfect, right? Except Jesus Christ, who this program is really about. Not the kids, not the singers, not me, Joan, or Odra. But Jesus. That's where our focus needs to be during the program. The Real story of Christmas is NOT about presents, or snow, or food, or decorating the tree. It's about God who came to earth to be with us. He came as an innocent baby. He was born in a barn. Imagine how His mother, Mary felt. She knew who He was, but did she know the impact this little baby would have on the entire world thousands of years after His birth? This is amazing to me. He loved us that much. He came knowing He would die on a cross for us, rise from the dead and return to earth someday. Not as a baby, but as our Lord from Heaven who has come for us. Now that is an amazing story that I want to tell over and over again. Even if someone does complain in "how" it's told.

Haircuts

I took the girls to a kids haircutting place today. It was cute. They could watch a movie while getting their hair cut. Maddie blew bubbles while Becca was getting her's done and vice versa. It is a really cute place. I just had to share pictures. Maddie's hair was getting really long. But with all of her curls, it is a pain in the neck to fix it every day. So until she can do her own hair, it is going to stay short. Daddy was a little sad when we left, but he loves it now. He really likes the layers. It makes the curls really bounce. Becca had a mullet. Business in front, party in the back. So I wanted her to look a little less redneck. She has a cute little bob now. Besides getting her bangs cut, this was her first real hair cut. It's so cute! And they both loved it. Maddie can't wait to go back!

Before:

During: After:




Before: During:



After:


No more mullet!!

Neat Links

Notice under my list of friend's blogs, I have a new section called Neat Links. These are some of the websites I use a lot for different types of information. Some are really cool.

Movie Database is one of my favorites. It has solved a lot of arguments between Russ and I. If you ever need to know the name of a movie, or who was in that movie, then go here. We use it a lot to see what year a movie was made, or how old a certain actor is.

Rotten Tomatoes rates movies. So before we go rent a movie, we check it out on Rotten Tomatoes. It gives a score like 85% Fresh. Or 27% rotten. So far, they have been right on with our taste in movies.

Woot is just funny. They sell something everyday. It can be anything from really nice stereo speakers to a bag of crap. Not literally- just a bunch of junk for $.01. It is fun to read their description of stuff. I bought cool headphones on 2 for Tuesday.

Creative Memories. Well, the name says it all.

K-Love. I listen to them a lot. I love looking up artists and their songs. I also look to see who is coming in concert.

My Coke Rewards. Russ drinks a lot of Diet Coke. So we started saving the lids and the boxes. I opened an account and go and type in the code on the lids. I am now up to 700-something points. You can get all kinds of stuff with your points. I'm shooting for 8,000 points so I can get a trip.

The Scrappin' Pad is where my friends and I go for a scrapbooking weekend retreat. It is awesome!

Web MD. Russ calls me a hypochondriac. So I can go look up my "symptoms" and see what new disease I have. :)

Soap Opera Fan. Ok, so I watch Days of Our Lives. I have since I was 8. I blame that on Mama Pat. I even scheduled my classes around it my freshman year of college. So I go to this website to get a sneak peak of what is coming up in the next couple of weeks.

E-plans. An addictive site. This is one of the sites I go to, to look for house plans. It's fun. You type in your square footage, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, garages, etc. and they show you plans. Try doing a really big house. It is crazy to see the layouts on some of them!

I hope you all try some of these. And let me know if you have any cool sites you go to on a regular basis.

Black Friday

People are crazy!! I had never gotten up on Black Friday before (and never will again), so I thought I would try it. There were about 5 things in the Toys R Us ad that I wanted to get the girls for Christmas. So why not try? But I was too tired to get up at 5:00 am. Big mistake. I got up at 6:00, brushed my teeth and threw on some clothes. I got to Toys R Us by 6:20. I found a girl to help me find the 5 things on my list. But they ALL were gone. One hour and 20 minutes after they opened. Wow. The line was ridiculous! It went from the checkout stands, straight back to the back, across the back, back down to the front of the store, wrapped around and went back towards the back and across the back again- going the other way. That was the line. It had to be at LEAST 45 minutes-hour wait. CRAZY!!

So I left there with nothing and went to Bed Bath and Beyond. It was much better. Everything was 20% off. I liked that! Then off to Wal-Mart. Another crazy place! Don't even try having a cart in the electronics or toys section. Then Best Buy. So many people!

The craziest I saw was at Target. I was not crazy enough to go there myself, but in driving there, I could see the parking lot. The cars were backed up all the way down the road leading to Target. They were all parked in the grassy area next to Target because there were no more places to park. I even overheard two people at Wal-Mart talking about it. They said it was so crowded you could barely move. They said they will never go there again on Black Friday.

I just heard that Russ' nieces, in Iowa, went shopping at an outlet mall. Now, let me say, it is a GREAT outlet (Williamsburg). We go there almost every time we go home. It's awesome. But the funny thing is, they opened their doors at 12:01 am. CRAZY! So our nieces shopped from midnight-6 am. Nutty girls! I almost think shopping at midnight would be easier for me than getting up at 5:00 (or 4:00 like at JcPenney)

But I now know, I will never waste 2 hours of sleep again, just to save $20.

Reality TV

I admit it. I love reality tv. The last two days has been awesome!

Dancing with the Stars- oh my goodness! I can't believe Marie is still there! I don't think she was better than Jennie. I am cheering for Mel and Max now. It is all so exciting to watch!

The Bachelor. What the heck was Brad thinking? He didn't choose either girl in the end! They were completely in love with him! Why didn't he just say, "let's continue to date outside of this fantasy world and see where it takes us?" But nope. He dumped them both. I didn't like DeAnna a whole lot. And it looked like he would have chosen DeAnna over Jenny!

The Biggest Loser. I LOVE this show. It's so inspiring! I can't believe I had never really watched it until this season. It completely changes peoples lives, and I love watching that. Kaye went home last night. I would have voted her out too. She was such a threat to everyone else. I am cheering for Hollie. I really like her, Neil and Bill. (or is it Jim?- whichever twin is left) And Isabeau is going to be a knockout when she loses more weight. Just 4 more weeks of this show. Then we get to see all of the kicked off contestants and how much weight they've lost. How awesome! I need to sign up for the Biggest Loser Club online. Maybe that will motivate my big 'ol booty!

I can't wait for Survivor on Thursday. Will they get rid of anorexic Courtney all ready? She really bugs me.

Well, off to my reality world of cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning! Not as much fun as dancing, going on fantasy dates, or fun survivor challenges. But I think it might be tied with working out!

Update

So I have been going between 161-164. Back and forth I do this dance. It doesn't seem to matter what I eat or how much I exercise. I don't know what is going on. But I had to buy another pair of jeans because I was so tired of wearing the same two all of the time. But I bought jeans with NO stretch. So if they start to get tight, I'll know to run more.

I obviously haven't been working out like I should be. But we've had a lot happen since fall break.

Becca fell and hurt her head. Maddie had pneumonia. She was home from school for a week. Becca had an ear infection. Becca ran a fever and then had a sinus infection.

I watched my friend, Cindy's baby, Evan. I had to go to the Pumpkin Patch for a field trip with Maddie's class. This was one of the days I was watching Evan. Do I really want 3 kids? A LOT of work!

I had a dentist appt., a few meetings and was running the girls to the doctor for all kinds of things. I ran a fever and was worn out from everything. I had a sinus thing. It started in my head (major headache) and worked it's way down to my chest (lots of coughing). I even lost my voice for two days. These two days just happened to be two days of my scrapbook retreat. Which was awesome by the way! I got sooo much done! I can't wait to go back in June! Oh, and then Becca fell on her face at school. She bruised her gums and the inside of her top lip. It was so swollen. I didn't know your gums could swell like that! She might end up losing one of her teeth, but it's a wait and see game with that.

So needless to say, through all of this, I haven't been to the Y but maybe twice. Yesterday was one of those days. But I ran a mile and walked a mile and a half. I thought that wasn't too bad for not doing much of anything for nearly a month! And here I sit today, because I have too much stuff to do to "waste my time" working out! I'll get back to it next week. At least Monday and Tuesday since IT IS Thanksgiving and all.

Addicted

I have an addiction. It is a recent one. I am addicted to looking at houses online. I go to our local area and look at open houses. I look at every room in the house. I get decorating ideas, and I get ideas for if we ever build a new house. I also love looking at house plans. This has become an obsession. I have even taken a plan and changed a few things, making my own "perfect house". I've had this plan for about a year and a half now.

Click on the house to see the layout. (I would have a study instead of a dining room. I'd put a closet inside the study and one on the outside of the study wall for a coat closet. And the fireplace would be on the window wall because we need a huge wall for our huge entertainment center. And on the back of that wall would be all storage. Blankets, games, etc. )

But this "obsession" escalated 2 weeks ago when looking at an open house. We ran into a realtor who is great. We really liked her. So we told her what we were wanting and she started looking. So even though we are not ready to move, we have been looking at houses. Why do we do this to ourselves? I blame it on Terry and Carla. They are building a new house. It is going to be beautiful. So I'm a little jealous. Excited for them, but just a wee bit jealous.

Goodness, I'm only 32. I can't expect to have EVERYTHING I want right now, can I? What would I have to look forward to? I need to learn to be patient. We have a great house. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful house. We built this house 8 1/2 years ago. I was only 23 when we moved in. My taste and style has changed a LOT since then. Back then, I wanted a big fluffy denim couch with a big plaid chair. Thank you Russ for not letting me get that.

So if I'm patient and just wait, then in time, we'll have a new house. There's no rush. Until then, I'll keep looking at houses and house plans. If any of you are wanting to find a house, just tell me what you want and I'll be more than happy to look for it!