Cuteness overload warning

It has been a wonderful, happy Christmas. I don't have much to write about, just a lot of happy inside of me, so here are a few pictures of the cuteness i've been surrounded by:

I hope your Christmas was just as merry as mine.

Ha

Nut House

I don't do alone well.

I've talked to myself these past few days more than I probably ever have. One time I realized that I was talking, out loud, to me and then I said, out loud, to me "shut up, you're crazy!"

I hope you don't judge me for my craziness.

I also hope I never have to live alone. I honestly don't think I could do it.

Without my roommates here I'm not motivated to cook, or sometimes even eat. Tonight I had potato chips and a few too many powdered donuts for dinner.

I went to target this evening just to walk around, and hear people talking. I tried on a couple things for fun. A pregnant lady walked into the dressing room before me, her husband and little boy were outside the dressing room area waiting for her. She apparently was trying on a extra small and small work out pants. (I just realized how creepy this story is sounding, but I swear I was just minding my own business trying on sweaters. This lady was just LOUD). Anyway, she said to herself in the dressing room "YESSS I fit into the extra small!!" (See, at least I'm not the only crazy who talks to themselves). She went out to get her husbands approval. She said "Hun, what do you think?" husbands response: "oh wow, those are tight." wife: "what??? look, babe" (I imagine her turning to the side or striking a sexy pose). husband: "yeah, wow, way too tight. and a little too short." wife: "well, alright, thanks." husband: "sure, sweetie. those pants really show how big you are! that's kinda fun." wife: silence.

I was literally holding in the laughter with a balled up sweater over my mouth. I think I actually drooled a little on one of them...sorry target.

I am being much to talkative, and honest. Onto things that at least kind of matter instead of long, useless target stalker stories...

Tomorrow is my last day of pleasurably serving chicken. I have told myself for the past three days (probably out loud) that I am going to clean the house before Christmas, so after work tomorrow I'll do that, and pack up for Christmas adventures!

Sorry you got a huge dose of crazy this post.

If I don't type again before then...Merry Christmas! I hope you are filled with the joy, grace, and love of Jesus.

Two days left of smelling like chicken.

Today was SO crazy at the mall. The line didn't die down once. Poor Jose, my whistling co-worker, only whistled "the little drummer boy" once today. (It's usually whistled AT LEAST 132 times).

I'm feeling much better today so that made working all day less painful.

I guess I don't really have anything else to say.

Sorry for the slightly meaningless post.

4 days until Christmas!

Saturday Love: Allie

Ohhh Alz.

This hilarious roommate of mine makes me soooo happy. I'm not sure when, where, or how we met. Maybe at church? Maybe at the red house? Maybe somewhere else? I'm not sure when we started being friends either. I think it might have been one of those things that I knew who she was, and I thought she was really awesome, and I wished we were friends, but we didn't really know each other, so I just imagined we were friends. However it happened, it happened. And now we live together and she makes me laugh every day. Whether she's saying "that's racist and makes me uncomfortable." to everything I say, or yelling in that high pitched old lady voice, she always knows how to make me chuckle. She also loves the Mavs just as much, if not more than me, and I love that.

Favorite memory together: Recently, as in a week ago, Allie was leaving for Christmas break. I was sitting on the back of our couch (still not sure why), but I put my arms out for a goodbye hug. Allie came over to "hug me" and I leaned back to fully embrace this goodbye. She moved out of the way just as I was leaning back and I busted it big time off the couch onto the ground. Allie tried to catch me, but when I looked up from the ground she was holding my ankle...lots of help.

I don't know if that's a great favorite memory or not. I think the NyQuil is going to my brain a little, and making it impossible to think of past events.

Still, just because I'm on NyQuil doesn't mean that the glory should be taken away from Allie on her very special Saturday love post. She really is fantastic. I'm really pushing the fact that she's really funny, because she is. But she also has so many other great qualities. She is so smart, she loves to read- I love hearing her talk about books, and movies. She's SUPER talented- an awesome photographer, charcoal(ist)?, and painter. She is not only talented in those areas, but she uses her talent to bring glory to God. She loves the Lord so much, and if you spent any time at all with her, you would be able to tell. She's an all around awesome person, and I feel privileged to live with her, and be her pal.

So, here's to you, Allie. Thanks for being your awesome self.

Love you!

barking dogs

Working 10 hours straight at a fast food, um, excuse me, quick service restaurant is brutal. Especially when you're not exactly feeling up to par.

I'm not sure how the heck I am sick again. I seriously JUST got over this same thing (nose, head, ear congestion, and sore throat) about 2 weeks ago. I think my immune system has some explainin' to do.

One week until I'm done with work for a while, and enjoying Christmas.

I'm excited.

Today when I was leaving work I passed by a salvation army guy ringing his bell. It reminded me of when I worked at cotton patch, this time 2 years ago, and was walking into work when a teenager who was texting hit me with her car. It knocked me down, but I was fine, just had a HUGE bruise on my hip the next day. The salvation army guy, however, was not fine. He yelled at that girl, and threw his lil bell on the ground. The poor girl, bawled her eyes out, and apologized 45 times, while the salvation army guy was yelling "THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T USE THOSE DANG CELL PHONES WHILE YOU DRIVE! GAH KIDS TODAY!" I told her I was fine and limped inside to Cotton Patch, where every single person eating asked if I was okay.

Alright, that's my random holiday story for the day.

Saturday (or Sunday) Love: Julie

I forgot about Saturday love again, until now, and it's Sunday.

So, here's the Sunday version of Saturday love:

Jules, Ju, JuJu Bear, Momma, Julie. All the nicknames mean love. I don't know if I would have survived this summer without my Julie. Our friendship started out as an interesting one. You see, Julie has this way about her, somehow even though she is so sweet and kind, she made me think she didn't like me. Until one day when I was walking out of choir rehearsal and she asked me if I wanted to swing on the bench swing with her. I was delighted, and even though I had to be at work in 30 minutes, I sat with her and talked until Leah was done with her meeting. The rest is history. We live together now, and hopefully will continue to...if SOMEONE doesn't choose grad school over me ;).

Favorite memory together: There are lots, considering half of my memories these days have her in them. But one time that I will always look back on and smile is when we were driving back from Holland after bible study (Julie and I lead bible study together this summer, if you remember my posts about those hilarious middle schoolers). I had ALWAYS wanted to pick an ear of corn from the side of the road. Julie (being the great momma she is) repeatedly told me that this was stealing, and wrong. I pushed her enough on the subject and she finally agreed to pull over. Colton and I jumped out of the car, Julie yelled "go, go, go!" and we tried to grab a couple ears of corn. Well, one of us, I'm still not sure who, ripped up an entire stock and threw it in the car. We laughed so hard we were crying and Ju nearly peed her pants. The corn was nasty when we cooked it, but it was still worth it.

Jules, I'm so grateful for you. I love climbing in your big comfy bed with all the other roomies and talking, keeping you up past your grown up bed time. Please don't go to grad school and leave me. Unless you really want to, then I'll just be all alone. Whatever. I'm glad you decided to like me and invite me to swing with you.

Love you.

Couch day

I'm not working today, so I slept in. It felt great. I caught up on most of the tv I missed being busy this week.

Ohmygoodness Glee was awesome! That show really does fill me with glee.

It's cloudy and gloomy outside. What a perfect day to have off. I'm babysitting tonight, so today won't be a complete waste of time.

My roommates and I have almost successfully gone through 2 bags of peppermint hershey's kisses in one week. Kelsey and I figured out that there are about 80 pieces in each bag. We were shocked, because I'm pretty sure we went through probably 15 bags last Christmas. That is approximately 1,200 chocolates. What can we say? They are a once a year treat...you have to enjoy them while you can!

I'm going to make another pot of coffee and watch the office and 30Rock.

working a full time job is hard.

i'm so so so glad to have it right now.

but my feet hurt.

Other than my feet hurting, life is good. I'm working 48 hours this week, and babysitting twice, and just last week I was worried about not being able to make rent this month. Pretty great.

Not much else is going on.

13 more days of work, then a exciting break spent hanging out with some people i really enjoy.

Yule

Last night my roommates and I celebrated Christmas together.

I love them. We have so so much fun together. It's amazing how 5 girls can live together and totally enjoy each other all the time. All of our personalities, though different, seem to mesh so well. I'm grateful for the family I have in them.

Here are some of our family pics:

Merry Christmas from the Raindance women!

All our scarves from our 2nd annual scarf exchange

Blora. Kelsey LOVED the 10 Lords-a-leaping.

Love them.

Saturday love revisited

Shoot! 

I cannot believe how long it has been since I've said I love someone on here. Chelsea reminded me about it last week when we were hanging out and she said "i really liked it when you did that Saturday love thing on your blog." 

I have gotten so caught up in nursing school, I've forgotten about something that is (obviously) much more important than my future career. 

So, here it is. For the first time in months...my Saturday love:

Sweet, sweet Natalie. When I say sweet, I really mean it. Natalie is the sweetest person I know. I bet if you licked her she would taste like sugar! I'm not going to try anytime soon, but really only because I can't. You see, she lives in Hawaii. If not for that though, I might lick her...maybe. Anyway, she's sweet, you get the point. Natalie and I met sometime two years ago, my freshman year in college. I'm not positive on when exactly it was, but I'm sure if I could remember it, it would be memorable. Since then, we've been buds. 

Favorite memory together: Cooking this yummy Santa Fe Pizza together for everyone one night. I love cooking with Natalie. She always keeps a dish towel on her shoulder when she cooks, and I just think that's one of the most precious things ever. We had so much fun deciding on what to cook, going to walmart to get the stuff, then cooking and laughing together. We also made this yummy dessert that I can't find the recipe for. It was a good night. 

Nat, I love being your friend. I get excited when I get a goofy video on my facebook wall from you, or when a little invite to ichat pops up on my computer. I'm so proud of what you're doing in Hawaii. I know you're going to bless those old folks so much with your sweet, sweet, sweet heart, spirit, smile and love. I love you! (and can't wait to see you in January!)

My Pleasure

I'm a working woman again! 

Hooray for God's provisions.

While I was babysitting last night I started reading Donald Miller's book To Own a Dragon, Reflections on growing up without a father (after the kids were asleep, to all of my mom friends I babysit for, I don't read while your children are destroying your house). It got me pondering on a lot of different things. I hope to finish it soon, gather my thoughts, and maybe write a little about it some day. All that to say, so far, it's a good read. A lot of interesting perspectives...even if you have/had a dad. 

So, the next few weeks are now going to be filled with work, which I am SO SO grateful for. 

I'm done with school, which is amazing and strange at the same time. I got this weird, guilty like feeling in my stomach tonight for not reading my books, or thinking about nursing today then I remembered that I have NOTHING to think about. Pretty sweet.

I'm excited to have a break from the norm. It's going to be nice. 

Almost there

One more exam left, and this semester is over.

One.

ONE! 

Crazy. 

Awesome. 

Wonderful. 

17 months until I'm a nurse.

So, this whole no job thing does give me a lot of time to do nothing, which consequently leads to blogging. Hence 2 blog posts in one day. If you missed my favorite picture ever, please do scroll down and check it out. I like that guy (Andrew. and Abe, I guess). 

Last night was the UMHB choir's Christmas concert. Boy, did it get me in the Christmas spirit. The singing was lovely and the words of the songs were even more lovely. Today, to encourage my Christmas spirit even more I've been listening to Andrew Peterson's Christmas album, Behold the Lamb of God. I really like it. 

I read a few blogs of Moms who practice the Advent season with their kids, it has inspired me to focus more on the season. It sounds a bit cliche and cheesy to me to walk around saying "JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!" But, genuinely, I desire to live this season believing that. 

I closed my eyes last night while the choir sang, sat there, let the notes and beautiful words of worship surround me, took a breath in, and felt so much comfort and joy. Christ was born, Christ died so that we may live. I'm just beginning to be able to wrap my mind around a love like that. So awesome.

"Gather round, ye children, come listen to the old story of the power of death undone by an infant born of glory. Son of God, son of man. Sing out with joy for the brave little boy who was God, but he made himself nothing. He gave up his pride and he came here to die like a man. Therefore God exalted him to the place of highest praises, and he gave him a name above every name, the very name of Jesus." -Andrew Peterson, Gather 'Round, Ye Children, Come

Best picture in the history of the world

The country version of the Abe Lincoln memorial. 

See?