I Made a Quilt

I just wanted to show off the quilt that I made today for our friends Adam and Erin and their soon to arrive baby. I got a sewing machine for Christmas from my parents and decided that the first thing I want to make was a baby quilt. My mom is an excellent seamstress and has made several things for me including my wedding dress. She taught me how to sew and helped me sew several projects (many of them were extremely challenging and I don't know if I could ever do those types of projects again without my mom's help). But, I have never made a quilt before. So, with some good instructions in hand and confidence in my ability to sew straight seams I started sewing the quilt. It was actually pretty easy but I wasn't always precise enough in my cutting for every square to match up. I didn't cut every square individually but followed some really easy instructions and then just tied it together with yarn to avoid the actual time consuming quilting part.

Merry Christmas!

This is a picture or our house in the snow we got about a week before Christmas. Although it was all melted by Christmas day, it was pretty while it lasted.

Her we are in front of our Christmas tree. The tree is crowded back behind the table and we took the picture with the camera timer so it's not great. But, you get the idea:)

One of the highlights of this Christmas was driving (Matt's dad and brother drove) on some slick and snowy roads in Wisconsin. Matt's parents claimed the weather was the worst it has ever been in the 30 years they've been traveling up there for Christmas.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. We had a ton of fun celebrating our first Christmas together. I got to experience my first Christmas in Wisconsin with Matt's extended family, we spent MANY hours in the car, and now I'm trying to figure out where to put all of our presents. (Thanks to our families who gave great gifts and to God who has blessed us with the resources to give.)

Math and Art

Ah....9:50am and I just got out of the shower after getting up 30 min. ago and going to bed 11 hours before that. 11 hours of sleep, yes read it and weep. I am now on Christmas break and plan on enjoying many nights of > 9 hours of sleep. Something happens to me the minute school lets out for Christmas, my body just crashes and wants to sleep and lay on the couch A LOT. Anyway, on to the point of this post. I am going to tell a school story so here it goes....

The last couple of days I have been giving final exams in my classes at school. A few days prior to the final exam I give all of my students a take home final/review that really helps them study for the final. I also stress that this review is worth 10% of the final exam grade, so get it done!!! It is only a completion grade so it is easy to get those points. Most of my students finished and turned the review assignment in, but a few didn't quite get it done. Some of those kids are lazy, going to fail anyway, didn't really need the points to earn the grade they want in my class. But, one of my students who didn't turn in her review is notorious for turning around to get a paper out of her bag and then never looking for it because she forgot what she was doing. So I went and asked her about it while she was working on her final and she said, "I did it, but it is not with me. I have a really good reason, but I don't want to talk to you about it with other students around. I'll talk to you after class."

After class came and up to my desk came the student. This is what she said. "So, I really enjoyed the review assignment. I think it helped me a lot. I did the whole thing and it really helped me a lot. It was great that you gave it to us. But, the thing is I left it at home. I was using it in an art project and I really need it for that." I didn't even know how to respond. I think I just smiled and said, "Have a great Christmas break!"

My Week Of Cilantro

I ramble:

Last week started with a Monday morning trip to the Meijer to get groceries. I was armed with a list created by Anne and a desire to be as efficient as possible. Very soon into my trip at Meijer, I started to look over the grocery list and I realized that efficiency would not be attainable. Here were the items that stumped me:

• Tilapia filets -- there were no fresh filets available, only frozen ones. Is that what Anne wanted? I was pretty sure she said she wanted fresh filets, but there aren't any available.
• Hot pepper sauce -- does this mean a jar of peppers or hot sauce or something in-between?
• Chicken tenders -- this one was frustrating because recently Anne had asked me to get chicken breast tenderloin, so this one had me stumped for a while. Did she want breaded chicken tenders (the frozen kind) or chicken breast tenderloin?
• Cilantro -- what the heck is cilantro? Does it come in a bottle, a bag, or is it in the produce section?

After going through the list and making a tour of the Meijer, I actually found myself stressed out due to my inability to figure out those four items. Seriously, I was experiencing stress. However, I was able to calm myself and make good decisions. And for the record, cilantro is a vegetable that can be found in the produce section.

Well, my week continued and it wasn't a week to be remembered. I wasn't really excited about my job due to a new role that I was given; the weather was turning cold and icy; I found myself becoming lazy in my relationship with God; I weighed myself on our scale at one point in the week and set a career high. All in all, I was ready for the weekend.

My weekend started with a Friday night feast. In celebration of a friend's birthday, Anne and I ventured to a local Mexican restaurant, Dos Reales. I was hungry after a long day and I ordered a meal of chicken tacos with chorizo and rice and beans. After my meal arrived, I noticed an inordinate amount of green stuff on my tacos. It wasn't lettuce, but it still was green so I knew I didn't like it on my taco. Upon closer review, I realized the green substance was none other than cilantro. Apparently, cilantro is a normal addition to the meal I ordered, however I failed to order the tacos without cilantro. Grumpily, I ate my tacos with cilantro scattered all about.

It's amazing how a little vegetable can ruin my week. Cilantro kicked off my Monday with some stressful moments in the Meijer, and ruined my feast on Friday. But the truth is that cilantro didn't ruin my week; I ruined my week by letting the little things in life get to me. Seriously, my life is freakin' awesome. I've got a job that pays me to do things I enjoy (for the most part), I've got a great wife and home, quality friends and family, a solid church, and a God who loves me. But I let cilantro (and other stupid things) ruin my week. The details of life sometimes take the headlines when the priorities sit in the shadows. But it's my fault. And I'm making the choice to not go near cilantro this week. My life's too good for that.

I'm glad I married Matt

This morning I was really glad that I got married. Last night we got about 2-4 inches of snow and the driveway needed to be shoveled so Matt jumped out of bed this morning and shoveled it before I had to leave for school. There are about 3 million other reasons I'm glad to be married to Matt but that one really put me over the top this morning.

On the 4th Day of Christmas

I love Christmas shopping. I love getting a good deal or picking out a present that I know the person getting the gift will love. In the past I have done a lot of my shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving but this year I have done most of my shopping online. I will say I did get Matt to go shopping with me on Friday this year but it was at about 6 pm not 6 am. Anyway, back to online shopping. It really does make sense. You can shop at almost any store and get deals on shipping, you can buy items that you might not be able to get at you local store, and you never have to leave your house to fight traffic or crowds. Matt's family even makes wish lists on Amazon which is very convenient for shopping. I heard on the radio that 70 million Americans will do some Christmas shopping online (up from 60 million last year).

But what about the security concerns and other issues. I encountered one myself today but it's more funny and a hassle than a threat to my bank account. On Sat. I was shopping for an item online (I will call it a printer from Office Depot to protect the identity of the gift but also give you an idea of the size and weight of the gift I purchased). I had visited the local "Office Depot" and they did not have the printer I wanted so I went online to order the printer (actually 2 of them because I want to give two people a printer). I also had to order a few other things to get my free shipping. WARNING: Don't do this, that's how they get you to spend more money. After almost completing my order I received an error message that my cart was empty. So, I waited about 4 hours and never received an email confirming my order so I assumed it was safe to order again. And I did. This time with different items to get my free shipping because I forgot what I chose before. Clearly I didn't really need those items from the first order if I couldn't even remember what they were 4 hours later. I received an order confirmation email within 5 minutes of placing the order. But, today I received 2 emails telling me my order shipped. I thought it was curious that "Office Depot" emailed me twice so I looked closely at the emails and found there were 2 printers in each shipment but different odds and ends. So low and behold it is confirmed, 4 printers will be arriving at my doorstep this week plus $40 worth of stuff to get free shipping. I hope "Office Depot" in town will let me return 3 of the printers without shipping them back. Why 3, I found out one of the people I ordered a printer for doesn't think she will ever use it anyway!! But, here's the thing, I still LOVE shopping online.

WHAT?

As I opened my browser at work about a week ago I said WHAT after I read on YAHOO! that the Santas in Sydney, Australia will be no longer encouraged to say "ho, ho, ho" like Santa has historically exclaimed to adults and children for centuries (well I really don't know how long but centuries seems right). Here is a quote from one article I read... "SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday. Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported." After reading a few more articles it seems like the Santas of Sydney find this as absurd and worthy of a WHAT? as I do. So, to any Australian Santas out there...Don't give in to this maddness, keep saying "ho ho ho".