A Wonderful Christmas

Well, tomorrow morning I head back to Orlando. I'm sad to have to leave my family, but I'm also ready to head back to some warmer weather. I need to head to the airport around 5am. At midnight, I can print my boarding pass, so I'm trying to kill some time by updating my blog.

Once again, I had a really nice Christmas. I arrived in Detroit Metro Airport around 1am (an hour later than I was scheduled). I went to bed as soon as I got home.

When I woke up Christmas Eve morning, I was thrilled to see about 4-6 inches of crisp, clean, white snow on the ground in the backyard. It sparkled in the morning sunshine (yes, the sun was actually shining). I spent most of the day wrapping all of my Christmas gifts. Mike & Sonia arrived around 5:00. At 7, we went to church. It was a very beautiful service. After church, we went next door to Grandpa's house for the annual Cook Family Christmas. All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. My cousin Ryan got me a really nice red leather mini backpack style purse. I scored points with Joel by getting him something that he actually liked and wanted (a book on how to draw superheroes). Mike, the comedian of the family, was on once again with his witty remarks. One such example (you really needed to be there to get the full effect): Ryan walked into the room with a trash bag for all the wrapping paper. Mike remarked, "now all you need is an orange jumpsuit and cornrolls." Like I said, you really needed to be there.

On Christmas morning, we opened presents with my immediate family. Sam & Kristie gave me a camel colored purse and inside was a scarf and a pair of sunglasses. Mike & Sonia got me Season 7 of "Friends" DVDs. Mom & Dad got me the game "Scene It: Disney Edition." And from "Santa" (aka Mom & Dad), I got a Bose Wave Radio and a portable DVD player. Sam & Kristie got Mike & Sonia the regular edition of "Scene It." Mike is the trivia master. His brain is just a sponge for useless knowledge. It took a team of four people to bring him down. Later that day, the Schroeders (minus Heidi & her family) came over for dinner. We also continued our Christmas tradition of watching "Claymation Christmas." For those of you that don't know, it is a half-hour clay animated special that we had taped off the tv many years ago. A while back, we lost that tape and it no longer aired on tv. We went several years without watching it until a few years ago when Andy found it on VHS. Now we watch it every Christmas.

On sunday, I didn't exactly make it to church (even though I was supposed drive Grandpa). I had forgotten that there was only once service and that it was earlier than normal. Mom & Dad weren't around because Dad had a dr. appointement. When I did get up, we all met at the Cracker Barrel for brunch. Later that day, my mom & I went with Pam Schroeder to see "Spanglish." This was a very good film and I highly reccommend it. It is definitely a good mother-daughter movie.

I didn't do a whole lot on Monday. My mom & I went to to post office to ship my Bose radio (it wouldn't fit in my bags) and my birthday present (which I'm not allowed to open until my actual birthday - which is a week from today). In the evening, Mom, Dad, and I went over to Sam's place. Dad helped him hang crown molding on his kitchen cabinets while my mom and I sat in his newly finished basement and watched tv. I also picked up some champagne for my New Year's Eve party this weekend. When Sam & Dad finished, we went to Applebee's for dinner. I chipped in with a gift card that I had received (last Christmas).

Today, the Kushnirs came up for a visit. I made some tacos for lunch (it's one of the few things that I know how to make). It was so nice to see them especially since nowadays, I only see them once, maybe twice, a year. My half brothers and sister have grown so much. Paul is getting married! Michelle is driving! Christopher has just grown like a tree and I barely recognized him! This means that I'm getting older, too. I'm going to be 26 years old in a week. I can hardly believe it. After the Kushnirs left, we went to Dundee, to watch Ryan play basketball. It was so much fun (even though they lost). I hadn't seen Ryan play since grade school. He had 16 assists. After the game, we all went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Since I had tacos for lunch, I wasn't really in the mood for Mexican food again, but I had a really good bowl of chili con carne (that's "chili with meat"). It had the perfect amount of spiciness with lots of cheese.

Now we are to the present. I still have 20 minutes until midnight. I'm just going to have to surf the web until I can check in for my flight.

A Prayer For Sam & Krisite

Our family received some rather sad news yesterday. Sam & Kristie went to the doctor for a routine ultrasound, only to find out that they lost the baby. Please pray for them as they recover from their loss. I can only imagine what they must be going through. I love them ever so dearly and I want them to believe and understand that somehow, this is all part of God's Plan. Even though it is hard to see what that plan is at the moment or ever. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, good and bad, happy and sad. Sam, Kristie, I love you and will continue to keep you in my prayers.

BTW, I made it home safe and sound. I was about an hour late because we were waiting on a flight attendant to come in on another flight. But I made it. I'm happy to be home and to have a nice Christmas with my family.

P.S. The snow is so pretty!!!!

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas

It looks lilke my dreams are going to come true! The forcast is calling for 6-10 inches of snow for southeast Michigan. Woohoo! I love snow (I just hate cold). I just hope that this winter storm won't mess up my travel plans tomorrow (like at Thanksgiving). I finished up all my Christmas shopping last night. I just have to pack everything up tonight then I'll be ready to leave tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow should be an easy day at work. First of all, I'm taking a half day. At noon, we have our monthly State of the Company meeting. Also, I will be having my annual review in the morning (I was supposed to have it today, but it was postponed). I'm not really looking forward to my review. Not because it will be bad (everyone loves me here), but because I just don't like them. The only reason that I look forward to my reviews is because they tell me how much more money I'll be making! I'm not expecting a big raise or anything, but every little bit is nice.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!!!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Yes, Christmas is just around the corner. I have a short week this week (3-1/2 days). Then it's home I go for Christmas. I had another good weekend. Friday I went to Happy Hour with some coworkers for my boss' birthday. It was fun and very interesting. You know, there are some things you'd rather just not know about your coworkers. Saturday I actually got up early and went to a yoga class. I made a deal with one of my friends that I would go to her yoga class if she came with me to my dance class tonight. Sat. night I went with some more friends (Kristin, Jen, and Jeff) to the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT. Kristin, who works at Disney, got us in. The Candlelight Processional is a show where a celebrity (Sat. was Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman) reads the Christmas story and there is a 50 member choir made up of Disney employees and various high school choirs from around the country. It was really neat. The choirs sounded great. I sang along during the Hallelujah Chorus. Sunday I had to sing in late service. I went to see a movie (National Treasure) later in the day.

I can't wait to come home on Thursday. I hope that the weather won't be a problem like at Thanksgiving.

Baby It's Cold Outside

BBRRR!!! It has turned cold here in Florida. It's 55 degrees right now. This morning, it was in the mid 30s. I guess compared to what it's like back up north, I shouldn't complain. It is December after all, but I'm not used to it anymore. This is Florida for goodness sake. It's supposed to be warm and sunny (well it is sunny).

Dance, Baby, Dance

Last night, I took my first dance class in like 20 years. It was a hip hop/urban dance class. It was fun, but quite a work out. I haven't exercised that hard in quite a while (but I needed it). It was a half hour of warm up and stretching (btw, I hate situps and leg lifts) followed by a half hour of coreographed dancing. Many of the steps were quite complex, and everything is so fast paced. But I think I did pretty good for my first class and not knowing ANY of the steps. There were about a dozen girls in the class. I could tell that many of them had been practicing for weeks. I wasn't perfect, but I just kept dancing. Atleast the teacher didn't pick on me. She picked on this one girl because when she messed up, she just stopped dancing. If I missed a step or two or three or four, I just kept going and picked up the next ones. I'm looking forward to going again next week.

It's Monday...Again

Wasn't it just monday like a week ago?! Oh, yeah, I guess it was. I guess I could say that it was a pretty good weekend. I spent all day Saturday with my friend Bryan. We went to see "Ocean's 12." It was good, but not as good as the original (sequals rarely are - except for a few). But I liked it. They seemed to hint towards a 3rd film. After the movie, we walked around Downtown Disney (which is where we saw the movie). Then we went back to his house and watched more movies (one on DVD and the end of 3 other movies on tv). Sunday, I went to church in the morning and then did some much needed Christmas shopping. I didn't get it all done, but I made a good size dent in my list.

Sunday was also cousin Ryan's 18th birthday! I can't believe he's 18 and a high school senior! That means I'm getting old (26 in less than a month). But the biggest news of all (sorry Ryan) is that I am going to be an aunt! Congratulations Sam & Kristie!!!!!!

What A Week

What a week and it's not even over yet. The biggest issue revolves around Mike & Sonia's wedding. On monday I ordered my bridesmaid's dress. I had no problems with the ordering process and got a great deal on the dress. Wednesday, I come to find out that some of the other bridesmaids had trouble ordering their dresses. The dress has been discontinued. Therefore, we are giong to be getting a different dress. The problem is that since my order already went through to the manufacturer, I can't cancel the order. So now I have to buy 2 dresses. I am really not happy about this. Amy King also already ordered her dress, but she is able to get credit at the store she bought it from. So now I don't know what I'm going to do. Why couldn't I have just waited until this weekend like I had originally planned? No, I had to be impatient and go after work on Monday. Now I've bought a $150 dress that I will probably never wear and who know how much the new dress will cost. Sonia's picking out a new dress this weekend.

OK, enough venting. In other news:

Tuesday I had a nice lunch with Becky. She's helping me plan my New Year's Eve party. Tuesday afternoon, our whole team went on a site visit. I love site visits. It's so nice to get out of the office (especially when the weather is absolutely perfect). I wish I would have known that we were going. I was a little overdressed by wearing a skirt. But I could definitely say that I was the best dressed person there! It was a good visit. They let me make an executive decision (and it's not even MY project). I had to choose a grout color for the masonry facade. I hope it will turn out OK. I'm sure it will. Out of the choices I was given, it looked the best. Last night was the kid's Christmas program at church as well as choir rehearsal. Tonight I'm playing wallyball with the same people with whom I play sand volleyball. We may be doing this as an alternative to playing volleyball on the weekends. I'd rather play during the week and keep my weekends free. It's too dark to play volleyball during the week (until April). Oh, for those of you who don't know what wallyball is, it is playing volleyball in a raquetball court (and you can play the ball off the walls). It should be fun.

I've got to do some major Christmas shopping this weekend. I just don't know what to get anyone.

Another Monday

Yes, it's monday again. I actually have to work a full week this week. I had a good weekend. Saturday night was our company's Christmas Party. It was pretty good. It was held at the Orlando Science Center. It was more of a family oriented party with face painters, baloon artists, and Santa, but I still had fun. On Sunday, I was supposed to sing in early service. I didn't quite make it. My alarm went off at 6:30 and I was going to sleep for an extra half-hour. When I woke up again, it was 9:10. Oops. I went to late service instead. Afterwards, I went to brunch with Becky & Jon. It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't have gone had I went to early service. I spent the rest of the day making my Christmas cards. I got them all finished, I had painstakingly fit them into the envelopes, sealed the envelopes (with just a sticker), then realized that I didn't sign the cards. So I had to open them up, take them out (some were a pretty tight fit in the envelope), sign them, put them back in the envelope, then seal them again. That's one more thing I can check off my list.

An Update Long Overdue

Ok, Ok. I hear you. So you want an update, huh? A.) I've been sick, and B.) I've been busy catching up on work that I missed during vacation (and being sick). Ok, here it goes:

Wed., Nov. 24
I arrived at the airport around 2:00 pm for my 4:20 pm flight. I wanted to get there early for fear that security would be busy. There was absolutely no line at security. I came to the conclusion that there were more tourists coming in than residents going out. Anywho, now the real travel adventure begins. First my plane arrived about a half-hour late. When it arrived, people got off, people got on, we left the gate and sat on the tarmack for about 45 minutes because Chicago Midway wouldn't let us take off due to the bad weather up there. No problem. I had a long layover anyways, so I didn't have to worry about missing a connection. Finally, we're able to take off. The skies were a little rough over Georgia due to some thunderstorms. The flight smoothed out, until it was time to land in Chicago. I looked out of the window at the heavily falling snow. The landing was really rough. Due to the high winds, the plane kept moving side to side, and up and down, skidded along the runway. It was one of the very few times I actually feared for my life on a plane. I arrived in Chicago around 7:30. My plane was originally scheduled to leave around 10:00pm, but when I checked the monitor's, it had been delayed 'til 11:00 (no real surprise there). The airport was packed with delayed holiday travelers, but the crowd gradually thinned as the hours passed. My flight was one of the last to leave. We took off around 11:30 for a quick up then down and touched down around 1:30 am (1 hour time difference). By the time we taxied to the gate, walked through the terminal, and finally got home, it was after 2:00 am (only 2 hours later than when I was supposed to get there).

Thurs., Nov. 25 - Turkey Day
"Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good, and His Mercy endureth forever."
I started off my thanksgiving day by sleeping in. Sam & Krisite and Grandpa came over for lunch. Mom deep fried a turkey. After lunch it was nap time/Lion's game/other tv watching (as we didn't enjoy watching the Lions losing). Then it was over to Uncle Ron & Aunt Diane's for dinner. Dinner was delicious. There was so much food. Mike & Sonia joined us in time for dessert. Later we went to the movies to see, "Christmas With the Kranks." It was alright. Not my favorite movie by far, but not too bad either.

Fri., Nov. 26
Slept in (I love vacation)! Mom, Sonia, Kristie, her sister Becky, and I went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. We ate lunch at the Michigan Cafe and walked around for a while. For dinner, Mom & Dad, Mike & Sonia, and I went to La Fiesta. After dinner, we drove the few extra miles to Toledo to do a little shopping (although I don't think anyone bought anything).

Sat., Nov. 27
Sonia & I got our hair highlighted and cut at Marshall Field's in Southland Mall. Later we all drove accross the Ambassedor Bridge to Canada for dinner. Here was another small adventure. First, we had a little trouble getting accross the border. None of us had our birth certificates or passports (we didn't know we needed them). Then they asked for voter registration cards. Only Mike, Sonia, and I had them (thanks to it being an election year). The lady said there was no way that we could go to dinner if we all didn't have one of the 3 pieces of identification (but she let us go anyways). We planned on going to the Little Italy section of Windsor for dinner. Once we actually found it, nothing was open (this was to be an early dinner). Therefore we decided to go to this Irish pub that my parents had been to on the waterfront. It was very good food. We decided to take the tunnel back to Detroit and the United States. We didn't have trouble getting back in our home country, but the Homeland Security guy did ask about Sonia's birthplace. She answered correctly. We took a stroll through the streets of Detroit. Mom wanted to see the Christmas tree and ice skating rink in the new Campus Martius part of town. Someone had said that the rink was to be bigger than the one at Rockefeller Center in NYC (not the case - not even close).

Sun., Nov. 28
Went to church at St. John's. After church, Sam & Kristie came over for lunch (sloppy joe's). Mike and Sonia left for the airport around 2:00. Later that evening, Mom, Dad, and I went to good ol' MONroe. Went to Frenchtown Mall and to the movies. We saw "The Incredibles." Yes, this was the second time that I saw it, but I love that movie. I think it was better the second time. My parents were just, "it was good." After the movie, we stopped at Ron & Diane's because mom had left her glasses there on Thanksgiving.

Mon., Nov. 29
Left for the airport at 5:30 am. My flight was quite uneventful (just the way I like it). Everything was on time. I arrived back in Orlando around noon. I spent the afternoon (since I had the whole day off work) getting out all my Christmas decorations. I was doing fine until about 7:00 that night. All of a sudden I got really tired (I thought it was just because I had been up so early). Then I got sick to my stomach. I was throwing up all night (until about 2 am). I thought it might have been food poisoning (I had some Chinese food for lunch). My stomach eventually settled down (and there was nothing left to come up).

Tue., Nov. 30
I debated whether or not to go into work this day. I was feeling really weak. I had no energy. Everytime I stood up, I started to feel dizzy. But I had already taken off work for vacation and knew that I would have a lot of work to do. I eventually decided to go in, but after being there for only a couple hours (and I wasn't getting any work done) I thought it best to just go home. When I got home, I crashed in my bed. I took my temperature and had a fever of 102! You don't get a fever with food poisoning so it must have been some sort of bug. Later in the evening I started to feel a bit better. My fever went down and I was able to get out of bed and walk around a bit. I called my mom. Before I could even get out a hello, she asked if I was sick. I thought she must had been psychic. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had been sick. Mom & Mike were also sick.

Wed., Dec. 1
I went in to work, not 100%, but better than Tuesday. I was actually able to get some work done. Wednesday night included an Advent service and choir practice.

Now it is finally the weekend. Yay! I'm definitely taking it easy this weekend as I am still recovering.

Oh, one other highlight of the week is that I received a bonus check for about $160!