Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas!

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2:1-20


Happy birthday Jesus!!! thank you for being born :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Stress

Tuesday was our last small group. We had snacks, shared our high/lows, did a white elephant gift exchange, and ended the night with blessings. We shared with our small group leader (who is also one of the church pastors)something that we wanted for 2012, and then he prayed a blessing into each of our lives. One of mine was joy. And to trust God more. I do feel that I am more of a Debbie Downer, or as I prefer to think of it, Rachel Realist. But I think it would be better if I were more cheerful and optimistic.

Christmas is in 3 days. Usually at this time I'm excited and 'in the holiday spirit', but lately I've just been feeling stressed. Sometimes I think it's really hard being married during the holidays.

Both of our families want to do Christmas things at exactly the same time. I can't be in two places at once people! And even if it's staggered a bit, I hate leaving my family when they're just about to play a game or something to head off for another dinner. And compromising hasn't been so great in our household lately. We didn't see my family at all on Thanksgiving... mostly because my parents went out of state, and my brother and sister are gone now too, so we saw Hubb's family the whole day. It's not that I didn't like that, but now that it's Christmas you'd think we might be able to see my family a bit more. But no. We are seeing one side of his family on Christmas Eve day, and the other side of his family on Christmas. And squeezing in a few hours on Christmas day for my family. It stinks. I love his parents, I love his family, but they seriously all live in a 10 mile radius and get together a lot. My family is spread over Michigan and beyond so when we do get together- I want to be there. And I haven't seen any of my mom's side of our family since our wedding over a year ago.

Hence the stress.

I hate to air our dirty laundry online, but otherwise I've been turning into a sad sack by just keeping it in. So thanks for listening blog :)

Friday, December 16, 2011

Feeling Lucky

While my baby is having a rough car day, my week has been surprizingly lucky. The girl who has never won anything in her life won 2 things this week!

The first was a gift card to amazon I won for entering a online survey about the system my school uses, and the second, I just found out I won a new GPS! That one I had entered an essay contest writing about the fact that phones are now equipped with GPS tracking devices that could potentially be used to track the user. You had to pick pro or con. I picked con, typed up a quick essay, and won!

I am so excited. I have a Garmin, but something is wrong with the wiring and so it is CONSTANTLY losing it's electricalness and telling me that it's going to shut off. So annoying. Many a time I have wanted to hurl it out the window, and now I can :)

Except I won't... that's littering... but I will try to sell it on craigslist for maybe someone who wants to tinker with it. I am moving on to greener pastures.

Who knows, maybe I should go pick up a lottery ticket while I'm on a roll :)

Stranded

My poor baby was stranded by the side of the road this morning. About a mile from his work. His car died and he sat there about 20 minutes, then it started again and then died right in front of his work. He felt bad because another person had taken the day off so they were short staffed. By the time I woke up, got ready, turned my phone on and got his message he'd been sitting there for an hour just waiting for the tow truck to come while he could have walked inside and been working!

This month is going to be an expensive car month for us. Two weeks ago my car wouldn't start as we were trying to leave for church. We ended up carpooling to work for a few days while mine got towed to the shop and repaired. Stupid thing is, it ended up just needing a "tune up" and I was charged almost $300 for 2 hours of "labor" to replace spark plugs... um, why can I do that myself in under and hour and it takes you guys 2 hours?? Rrrr.... miss having my dad closer in these situations. I can help him fix stuff, but I can't diagnose car problems. A very useful skill. Anyway, last time we go to the "Christian" car repair shop!

Hubbs got his brakes fixed the month before and they charged him $400. He fixed the other ones with his friend last weekend for under $50. It is rediculous how car shops rip people off.

For awhile I wanted to start a father and daughter car repair, but my dad wasn't all that excited, I thought it would be great!

My one favorite car guy, a retired engineer from Saturn got too busy to help with my car and then my second favorite car guy moved to Arizona for a job. So now I'm stuck with whoever is closest when my car breaks down.

While I think we still save money because we don't have a monthly car payment, it stinks because those breakdowns always occur at such horrible times. And you never know how much they'll set you back.

Dear Santa, please bring us two new cars :)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Night Fights

Last night I was woken up in the early morning hours by a swift elbow to the neck. I, of course, woke up and said "OW!!" then I elbowed Andrew's back till he woke up and told him that he'd hit me. He said he was sorry and rolled over. This morning he kissed me goodbye and I grumpily ignored him. Then later sent an apology text and said I guess I was just mad still about the elbowing. He said he didn't even remember. Thanks!

As I was getting ready to leave I did remember this other time he told me where he was dreaming that a rat was on his side so he hit it with his elbow over and over. As he was doing this, he started waking up, and realizing that it was me he was repeatedly hitting. Somehow I slept through that one, but I always laugh when I think of when he told me about it, and his impression of him "killing the rat", "YA!, YA!, YA!" with each elbow. So funny.

It could be worse. His brother's wife told me she's been woken up by being punched, kicked, having handfuls of her hair being pulled. Ouch!

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Two work parties for Hubbs and mine on Saturday night. But should be fun!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Very Small Group

The other night was small group. We started with around 14 people, and there were 5 of us on Tuesday. One couple had school, one guy was working, one couple has a 4 month old baby, one couple has a 5 week old baby, and sadly, the last couple just lost their unborn baby. So it was a meeting that was more sorrowful than usual. My heart hurts for them, and we prayed that they would come together stronger than before in this time.

I feel like I know so many women who have had miscarriages. I just got a call from another friend that she had one around Thanksgiving. So sad. It seems more common that one would think. I think I remember learning it's actually 1 in 3, but some of those include women who didn't even know yet they were pregnant.

I can't imagine how terrible it would be. God give them strength and peace!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Cleaning and Concerts

This weekend was a good one. Hubbs and I finally cleaned our nasty apartment. You know it's been too long when you reach for something on your bathroom counter and your nail scrapes the counter and gets a crusty toothpaste glob under it. EW! So we cleaned one night and brought out the down comforter for the bed.


On Saturday night we went to a friend's house for our annual Elf party. Pretty much just a chance for the ol' college gang to get together, have potluck dinner together, and talk and laugh while Elf is playing in the background. There were a lot of babies this year! But it was great to get together and catch up on everyones lives. Good times!

Two elves


And then Sunday we picked up my grandparents and went to my parents Christmas choir concert.



Afterwards we went to their house and had snacky stuff and talked with my parents friends, it was really a good fun time. They have some funny friends. My favorite is this one lady who told me once that God made her using all the leftover parts. She described it as if God was standing in front of an assembly line... "small, squinty eyes", "check", "big nose", "check", "big boobs", "check", it was hilarious. I really like her.

The not so cool part of this weekend was my car wouldn't start on Sunday. And of course no one is open then either. So Monday I had to have it towed somewhere and worked on while I had to be dropped off super early at work, and get picked up late, because Hubbs and I had to carpool. Anyway, now I'm feeling dumb because it ended up being like a $300 dollar "tune-up", for something like spark plugs that I know how to do myself. Oh well, I'm not a good car diagnoser, and that's half the battle, plus cold outdoor car repair is another serious deterrent.

Anyway, I need to google some 'natural snore remedies'. The last 2 nights I've been woken up by the Hubbs, and then am later subsequently tired and grumpy. I know it's just because he somehow gets on his back and then snores away. Once I read to sew a tennis ball on the back of a shirt because then they will unconsciously not lay on their back- but I can't sew a ball onto his skin. So I just end up waking up and trying to roll him over. Oh well, comes with the territory I guess.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Bathroom Chats

Wow. I can’t believe it’s the first of December already. And I am 30 and 1/3. Geez, time flies.

Yesterday I was in the bathroom at work and I could overhear these women talking about their love for chips. It was amusing.

Lady 1: I love chips
Lady 2: Me too, I could live on them. Although it wouldn’t be healthy.
Lady 1: Have you ever had chip cookies?
Lady 2: No, but I want the recipe.
Lady 1: I like the folded ones.
Lady 2: I like plain.
Lady 1: I love all chips.
Lady 1: Except Better Made chips.
Lady 2: They are a poor excuse for chips.
Lady 1: They don’t even count as chips.

I was in my stall stifling a laugh. It just went on and on! But I totally agree on the dislike for Better Made chips, sorry Detroit, not your best.

Speaking of the bathroom, the other day on the door of the office bathroom stall this poem appeared:

“If you sprinkle when you tinkle, get to your feet and wipe the seat.”

Catchy, no? But something about it bugs me. I also hate coming into the bathroom and having stuff on the seat – although in random person’s defense – sometimes it’s just toilet flushing spray water. Anyway, I kept thinking about a response poem, like “If you don’t like cleaning up after slobs, maybe it’s time to look for other jobs…” I laughed, but I think it’s kind of mean, so I didn’t write anything. Someone’s just trying to make their job easier!

Last night Hubb’s grandpa had a couple minor strokes. Today he is in the hospital for tests. I felt like a listening/supportive failure because that stupid health side of me is just instantly thinking about the health part- and not the emotional part. So I start to ask a question, and then instantly say “nevermind”. But of course, that doesn’t fly in our house, so he kept asking me what I was going to say and I have to ask: “isn’t stroke one of the 3 leading causes of death?” Um… sorry about that. Luckily it was just us, and my husband in the medical field and is real about things, but that would not have been good to say in front of anyone else. And he knows I do care, I’m just awkward. I don’t understand why I can be so cold and factual about that stuff – I do care!!

Anyway, we are hoping and praying for good test results today for grandpa.