4 Days!!

Yay! I can't wait until Thursday! Actually, I can't wait until Wednesday night! Justin and I are driving down to Irvine on Wednesday night to stay at the Marriott near the Orange County Airport (thanks to my brother for the hookup!). Then, Thursday morning we are flying to Denver, CO to spend Thanksgiving with the Clark's! I can't wait to see everyone and to meet our niece for the first time!

We also booked our plane tickets this weekend for our Christmas trip- we are going to be in Iowa for 10 full days! Yippee! I can't believe it is only one month until we go home- time is flying by right now!

In completely unrelated news- I am a new fan of the show Alias. My friend Marissa loaned the first season to me when I was recovering from surgery and I am almost done with it. I'm going to be sad when it is over! It is REALLY good! Justin laughs at me because everytime the theme song plays I do a dance and make my "dance face" which he's not fond of (he can be heard saying "don't make the face!") apparently it's not flattering. What can I say- that's my face when I'm being moved by the music. :)

Survey Says:

1. Any nickname ? My parents and brother call me "Sis" or "Sissy" or "Sissywissy" (as in sister, b/c my brother used to call me that when he was little). Some of my friends from college call me "B" as in Brummer- my maiden name.

2. Mother's name? Cheri- pronounced "Sherry"

3. Favorite drink? Diet Dr. Pepper

4. Body Piercing? Just the ears- my dad pierced them for me!

5. How much do you love your job? I don't love it but I'm learning to like it! :)

6. Birthplace? Iowa City, IA

7. Favorite vacation spot? Hmmm- well anytime I have "vacation" I go back to Iowa City- my favorite place! But as far as a real vacation I would have to go with a cabin on a lake- maybe northern Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan in the summer?

8. Ever been to Africa? Nope

9. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Yes. And breakfast. More times for breakfast than dinner- because cookies are quick!

10. Ever been on TV? I don't think so...

11. Ever steal any traffic signs?? No

12. Ever been in a car accident? Yes, but nothing serious and nothing since I was 16. My husband on the other hand...

13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Always 4 door.

14. Favorite pie? Not a huge pie-lover. I mean, I'll EAT pie, I just don't really have a favorite. I really like Key Lime and French Silk though.

15. Favorite number? 5

16. Favorite movie? Hard to choose but the first one that comes to mind is The Fugitive. Oh, and A Chorus Line...and The Sound of Music..

17. Favorite holiday? Probably Halloween? I sometimes get depressed around Christmas (I think the songs sound sad and decorations make me depressed when I'm not home with my family) and I eat too much on Thanksgiving. And Valentine's day is totally commercial.

18. Favorite dessert? Well, I'm not at ALL picky- I do like Ben and Jerry's "Chubby Hubby"

19. Favorite food? Baked macaroni and cheese with Frank's Red Hot Sauce....or maybe brie and crackers w/ a glass of wine...or chicken caeser pitas from Chili's.. or breakfast burritos! Man, I like food. A combination of exercise and my husband is all that is keeping me from weighing 400 pounds!

20. Favorite day of the week? Friday for sure. Fitness Friday at work- two hour lunch to play sports- and then Friday night!

21. Favorite brand of body wash? Seriously?

22. Favorite toothpaste? Crest all the way. Justin likes Colgate- too bad for him.

23. Favorite smell? Fresh laundry (between the washer and the dryer)

24. How do you relax? A glass of wine works well!

25. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Hopefully raising kids somewhere in the midwest with my professor husband- Dr. Clark! :) **But hopefully sooner than 10 years**

26. Furthest place you will send this message? I'm not going to send it- I'm going to blog it!

27. Who will respond to this the fastest? Well I'm guessing Megan will be the first to comment... or maybe my mom?

28. Favorite time of day? Depends on the day, but whenever I'm finally able to stop and relax!

Weekend

Friday night we went and heard a reunion show of a band that some friend's of ours used to play in. The band is a Christian rock band called "She Said No" and they played at a club downtown called "Velvet Jones". Here are some pictures:

Here's Kim- rocking out:

Justin and I:


JoAnn, myself and Katherine:



Then on Saturday night we went to a party for Kim's 40th birthday. It was an 80's theme and I'm not ashamed to say that I won a prize for the best 80's costume!

Sweet scrunci, right? The funny thing is that I looked like an 80's pre-teen. But I think it's fitting since I was just born in 1980 after all!

You KNOW You're Getting Older When....

So if you know Justin at all you know he is a basketball player. He's been playing basketball forever- starting out against his older brother in the backyard games, through highschool, and then as a favorite pass-time in college. He hasn't slowed down a BIT in this area. When we lived in Michigan he played in tournaments with an AWESOME team of guys that he met there, but it's funny how each time we move he has to get the lay of the land and figure out where the good games are and sort of "prove" himself on the circuit.

So this year he's starting to get the pattern down- when people are playing, where the good games are etc. There are a few undergraduate kids that he's been playing with who didn't realize that he was a grad student and 28 years old. They were fairly shocked by the fact that he is 28, married, and....

wait for it....

...DOESN'T HAVE A CELL PHONE.

I think the cell phone thing is what makes them think of him as "older". Incidentally, this week when they were playing he was knocking down three-pointers and after he hit a 3rd one in a row one of them shouts "Old Man River does it again!" Nice.

SLOOOOWWWW DOWN

It's funny that my last post - 12 days ago- was about being so busy. That night I woke up in pain at 11:00 and was sick all through the night. When I still couldn't keep any food down or relax at ALL because of the pain the next morning, I decided to head to urgent care to get some advice. Their advice was to go to the emergency room! I ended up having surgery that evening (an appendectomy) and staying the night in the hospital! Nothing slows you down like having surgery!

I am so thankful for my wonderful family and friends! Justin was awesome- he was with me the whole time and missed a lot of school and work time (between Thursday and Friday) but he did a great job of taking care of me. Then my mom flew out on Saturday to help out- mainly to keep me company while I was resting and recovering. It was amazing to see her- I feel so blessed to have such an awesome mom that would fly across the country to be with her daughter after having her appendix out! Trust me- I know I'm BLESSED beyond my wildest dreams!

I also had amazing friends here in Santa Barbara that came and visited me in the hospital, brought us dinner, sent us flowers, books, and movies and blessed us with their prayers. Justin and I are so thankful that we have that kind of support so far from home.

Anyways, I finally got to go back to work on Thursday and I would say I am 85% at this point- still sore and I have to take it a bit slower than usual but I can tell that every day is better. I'm just thankful that they figured out what is was and took it out before it became more serious.

So, that's why I haven't blogged much lately- I've sort of been out of commission and then trying to catch back up with life- which incidentally does NOT stop just because you have surgery. We had a crazy busy weekend that I'll blog about soon...

Phew! Busy week! I have to say I was VERY glad to gain that extra hour on Sunday- it enabled me to grocery shop, do laundry, go to volleyball practice AND Sunday school and Church! The downside is that it's nearly dark at the end of my work day which makes me very sleepy!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week so far- volleyball Monday and elections yesterday (we went to an election party to watch election coverage) and then we have homegroup tonight, a Young Life dinner tomorrow and a 5th/6th youth event at church on Friday (wow, I just realized that we have something EVERY night this week- yikes.) I like being busy to a point but this is crazy hectic! Looking forward to some downtime this weekend!

Lately I've been missing our time in Michigan more- oddly enough (sorry Michiganders!). I mean, before I was missing the people that we knew there, but now I'm sort of longing for the Michigan days when I was teaching and when we weren't so busy and got more time together (Justin and I that is). Don't get me wrong, I love all of the activities that we're involved with here, it just gets a little nutty sometimes!

Dorothy's!

Thanks for the pictures, Double! The first one is of Hannah and I- both Dorothy's. The second is of Rebecca and I. Rebecca was much more interested in having her picture taken that evening for some reason- she kept suggesting it to me which I found to be very cute! It's all about the Dorothy costume....

Pumpkin Mania

Ok, so anyone who has read my blog for over a year now might remember the elaborate pumpkin contest that takes place at my work. This year was NO exception. I present for you the winners of "Best Use of Pumpkin", "Scariest/Most Humorous", "Best Overall" and "Honorable Mention" (because it got the most total votes but they were spread out in each category).

First we have Diane's pumpkin-gumball machine. I think the coolest thing about this is that when you put in a penny and turned the crank it dispened pumpkin seeds! So cute!

This next one was Christine's. I'm not sure what was scary/humorous about it- I think there was just a consensus that it deserved a prize. This picture is really good considering this whole scene took place inside a big cardboard box- you had to look through a hole in the box to see the scene. Very cool.Next we have Ray's. Never one to disappoint Ray did another movie theme (if you remember, last year his pumpkin was the boulder in a scene from Indiana Jones- it had a MOTOR for pete's sake!) but this year was Jaws. Again, complete with soundtrack. Do you wonder why I didn't make an entry? Intimidating!

This next one was Melanie's. A very cool dragon- the pumpkin is the head. What you can't tell from the picture is that it was hooked up to a smoke machine and so smoke was coming out of the dragon's mouth! The funny part is that Melanie dropped the smoke machine on her way in and it wasn't working- so Troy (IT pro) was in the process of fixing it (seriously, they can fix ANYTHING!) and accidentally set off the smoke alarms! Good times. The good news is that he got it working and saved the day for Mel who had put so much work into it.

I think it's worth showing Nathan's as well- he didn't win any awards but his was interactive and I was hearing cheers from his office all day as people played his "pumpkin bowling" entry. Very impressive:

Like I said, I didn't submit an entry (I couldn't think of anything creative- I mean, these people are SERIOUS!) but I DID dress up in a costume all day, so that should count for something, right? And yes, Megan, I DID have ruby slippers. I'll post pics of the costume when I get them!