Thursday, February 18, 2010

c3

We're smack in the middle of c3! I'm sooo thankful to be here! Details to come next week...

Friday, February 12, 2010

my yard






Meet Jack & Annie. One is on board with the snow while the other has figured a way around the whole thing. Annie noticed the edge of the house has no snow thanks to the roof so whenever she goes outside, she stays as close to the house as possible. Jack on the other paw (oh don't you love a good pun on a friday...no? ok no more puns!), just plows through it. He looks as happy as can be in the snow.




The view from my front and backyard of snow...and a shot of my $12 plastic boots I bought yesterday.

Snowy Chris Rocks Friday

Yesterday as Chris was leaving work, he called to say goodbye. Typically he stops in my office to say goodnight but due to the amount of errands I ran yesterday, he assumed I was out picking up something with Marty. When he called he was pushing snow off of the car so he hadn't left yet. I ran outside to hug him. After a quick goodbye kiss, I ran back into the office. On my way a snowball came flying my way. It was off to the left by quite a bit (no way this thing could have hit me). I turned back and Chris stood there with an enormous grin.

When he threw the snowball at me yesterday, I immediately thought about our Christmas snow fight. I love how this man will sometimes surprise me. I love how he takes the time to be playful. I love how he doesn't take himself too seriously. I love him!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

SNOW!

I was remiss to not take out my camera on this record breaking day. Today in the Dallas/Fort Worth area we received 9 inches of snow (pending on where you live it could have been more or less but in my burb it's a solid 9 inches). On a day full of errands, I thought I would see the snow stop at some point. It's close to midnight and the snow is still gently falling outside.

This surprising Thursday was full of unexpected blessings: I bought a bright orange pair of rubber boots (they look like imitation doc martens circa 97) for a mere $12 that kept my feet dry all day, had a great day shopping for conference items with my pal Marty and am still amazed by Ikea, drank a lot of coffee, made a lovely mock up of our center pieces, drove home safely, didn't stay stuck in the drive way, and had a REAL snow cone.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow to post in addition to the Chris Rocks Friday post.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Santino Effect

Did you ever see season 2 of Project Runway? It was, in my opinion, the best season of the show. It had a lot of creative challenges, talented and quirky designers, and a little thing called the Santino Effect. Santino Rice was one of the top three finalists. He was extremely creative. He was very blunt. He did a Tim Gunn impersonation that was hilarious. Love him or hate him, if you watched the season, you knew Santino and what he was about.

However Santino had a downfall: he wouldn't stop 'touching' his designs. Santino would finish a breath taking stunner of an outfit but then he'd add just a dab more of fabric here...and maybe a button there...and then before you knew it, Santino had taken his beautiful creation and made it into some odd, ugly thing.

Yesterday the Santino Effect hit me upside the head hard! I was typing up the vision of my room for our conference next week. I could talk about my job for days. I could tell you how to implement a similar program in your church. I could tell you the benefits of it until I am blue in the face. But when it came to putting it all on paper to give to conference attendees...well....

Santino Effect. I couldn't stop rewording. I couldn't stop editing. I couldn't stop adding. I couldn't stop touching the information. I worked on this all day. ALL DAY! I had a break down around 9:20 pm....I seriously couldn't figure out a way to convey this burning passion to the world.

That's when I finally realized that I couldn't leave it alone because to me it was the most important information I could give the attendees. It was so important for them to understand the value of pouring into the children of volunteers and staff. I had to make them see that we have to help kids love church not resent it or their parents for serving.

So after a panicked call to Chris, his patient kindness reassuring me that it was ok, I stopped touching it. I stripped away some of the ridiculous things I had added, looked at it, and smiled. I love what I get to do. I love it. I get to share all of this in less than a week with hundreds of children's pastors. What a blessing!

Here's hoping I don't let the Santino Effect hit me again with any more of the conference prep.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Day Late...

With conference just around the corner and my precious Grandma in the hospital, my blog has really fallen by the wayside. Not that I was ever a consistent blogger...or even took the time to put thought provoking thoughts up that often. So here we go with a double dose of Chris Rocks Fridays on a Saturday morning.

Yesterday I saw Grandma. I brought her a goodie bag that I hoped would brighten her day. One of the items included a coffee mug with hearts on it that had a stuffed frog holding a heart declaring, 'Be Mine'. It's the type of gift I would receive when I was teaching in the public school system. I was surprised at how much that little green frog made her smile. She named it Christopher after my Chris. This lead to a discussion about him.

She was thrilled when I reminded her that he also worked at the church. I am thrilled whenever he talks about work. His face lights up. He absolutely loves his job. He is passionate about making an excellent curriculum so that children will love God and love church.

During different times of the year we work longer hours. I don't have to explain to him why I need to be at the church for 14 hours or why on my day off I check my email. He gets it. He supports it. He is just as much of a work dork as I am. I love it!

Last night we had our date night. We went to Joe's Crab Shack, a place I had never been. I had no idea they had a random dance party during certain times. This thrilled my soul! I also had no idea that their were so many different ways to cook crab. Afterwords we went to see a movie. We didn't know which movie to watch but had narrowed it down to two choices: an Oscar nominated film or a movie that I had talked about possibly being the worst movie made in the last three years. With movies at both ends of the spectrum, we decided to choose whichever movie started first. I was hoping for the Oscar contender but it was, of course, the horrendous movie.

Chris didn't hold me to our bargain but I told him as long as I was allowed to make fun of the movie, we could watch it. We watched the awful movie with a handful of other patrons. It was even worse than I had imagined. The plus side of seeing the movie? We now have a new set of inside jokes that I know he will use to make me laugh on tough days.

Chris rocks because he is a work dork who encourages my odd sense of humor. I love him.

AND...P.S. Grandma is looking really good & was able to turn herself over yesterday! This is a huge praise as before she wasn't strong enough. YAY!!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

make-up

Fabulous Whitney posted what she uses for make-up and thought it would be fun for everyone to share. So here's my make-up routine:


Yikes! The before.

It all starts with a lovely face wash & some moisturizer. I tried this out a couple of months ago (splurge item at Sephora) and LOVED it!


Next we have the one and only bareMinerals. I love the new matte formula due to the amazing new package!I don't know if you can see the shimmer in the mineral veil but I like it a lot.

Next up eyemake-up!Notice a theme? I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Urban Decay!!!


With colors like Polyester Bride, what's not to love? Fun names and great colors!
Seriously look at these colors! Today I opted for some YDK and Midnight Cowboy Rides Again to compliment the lovely Polyester Bride.
Adding a little bit of the magic potion definitely helps my eye make-up stay all day long. Oh Urban Decay you are so good to me!A little bit of lipstick courtesy of Lancome....

A little bit of gloss thanks to the happiest store in the world: Sephora.


And the final result....nothing too fancy on this Monday.

doppelganger on facebook

Facebook profile pictures have been a funny as of late (way back week, celebrity doppelganger week). This is my celebrity look-a-like: the one and only Molly Shannon. It makes sense--especially if you've spent more than five minutes around me (similar mannerism and everything...plus my unexplained love of 'Kath & Kim' makes me think that maybe i'm her daughter she gave up because she was much too young to be a parent...).


I don't even know who this guy is but he apparently is my Chris' doppelganger.

This week I am adding to my to-do list two very important items:
  1. stockpile as much mountain dew throwback as possible
  2. take pictures with Chris as our doppelgangers

broken record

Grandma is still in the hospital and will receive two more units of blood today. On the positive, her internal bleeding has slowed down. Lord willing, I will go to Oklahoma and spend all day Friday with her. Please keep Tura Lou in your prayers--she is even more precious than her unique name denotes.

I missed the segment of Chris Rocks Friday this week. :-( He still rocks & I love him very much. I was just a wee bit of a mess on Friday. Thursday night I was driving home from work and started crying....and just couldn't stop. I was so sad thinking about what it would be like to lose my Grandma.

I realized how incredibly proud I am to be her granddaughter. I thought about how she is such a remarkable example of grace. I thought about how very hospitable she is and how she makes each person feel loved, special, and important. I thought about how much I've learned about the character of Christ through her everyday actions. I am so thankful for her.

Thank you for praying for her & for your encouragement. I will keep you updated on her...and will probably post some of the funny quips she's had in the hospital (like when she couldn't turn herself in the bed saying that she must have the heaviest butt in the world...)

This week we'll have 2 Chris Rocks Friday segments...so stay tuned!