homelife

there's no place like home...

and i really wish i could get home.

home as in my parents' house where i grew up and lived for so many years.

i have a few days this week to try, so here's to hoping that the weather cooperates this time. unlike last week with the massive xmas winter storms.

cause i would like to get back. primarily to get a short break.

and the other homelife update:

the day after christmas my family spent the day in hospital waiting rooms (my parents and a couple of my siblings) or on phones (most of the rest of the family, including me) being updated about my grandpa. his appendix had burst, didn't get taken care of soon enough to prevent gangrene, and even led to a minor heart attack today.

so now he's on his way to the heart hospital in sioux falls. well, by now he should already be there.

let it snow...

we still have some flurries going on here, but from what i understand, the bulk of what snow we are going to get has already fallen to the ground.

this is the first place i've ever lived where the snow simply falls and stays where it fell.

i grew up in south dakota, which is one of those glorious states notorious for wind.

which meant the christmas blizzard of 09 was a blizzard back in south dakota and a few other areas in the midwest, whereas we just had a dumping of snow in bemidji, minnesota since up north in the woods there is not as much wind.

these were taken last evening (it looks really late since it gets dark ridiculously early but it actually was just a little after 5). i love how much the branches are bowed because of the weight of the snow:

and this morning i ventured outside to take some measurements of the snow.

i walked out on my deck.

very far indeed.

and i took a ruler with me. after taking measurements, i realized that my selected ruler has an extra blank spot before the ruler starts. an inch of blank plastic, to be precise.

here are the pictures from my deck:

and i really like how the snow was able to hang over the actual edge. pretty much an awesome sight:

and so, there was still  about 7 inches on the railing

       

and there was variable amounts on the floor of the deck (minor drifts and some fell down through the cracks to the ground below) so it says about 9 inches, which is actually 10 due to the awesome extra inch on the end of the plastic (see above picture for proof of the extra):

and last but not least, the amount sitting on my little table (also 10 inches):

and so, due to my amazing reasoning skills, i estimate a minimum of 10 inches (and i'm willing to bet that it's more like a foot) that fell at my house. of course, a little bit more fell in the front lawn than on the deck on the back of my house since the back is a bit sheltered.

however, i cannot really measure exact amounts since the driveway was cleared off when there was roughly 4 inches when i cleared it off on christmas eve in the afternoon. but i can inform you that another 8 inches fell from shoveling on christmas eve through this afternoon.

and just so everyone knows, that is a lot of snow to shovel off.

oh, and i totally made a snow angel. and learned that it is difficult to move around 12 inches of snow in order to make a recognizable snow angel.

i'm dreaming of a white christmas...

oh, wait. it's a reality. so perhaps it should be "i'm looking at a white christmas"

as i sit here on christmas morning, i am watching snow continue to fall. on top of the several inches already on the ground. i cannot deny that it looks gorgeous.

and here is a picture from my front stoop of what i got to see when i woke up this morning (and yesterday as well):

other highlights/lowlights of the day:

1. waking up all alone in a large house on christmas morning. of course, santa went to the house i was supposed to be at but due to the weather am not able to drive back. also, i noticed that it was weird to not have kids (aka my little sisters the youngest of whom is now 18) being super-excited to open presents that are under the tree. btw: this is a lowlight.

2. calling germany. i finally called my host family after a few months of promising to do so. talked to my host parents, oma and an aunt. always nice to hear from people. highlight.

3. white christmas. the trees are gorgeous. the only times i like trees are during autumn with the changing colors and during winter with the snow on trees. highlight

4. since we had a few inches fall overnight, i decided to check and make sure that my inflatable nativity will be able to be displayed tonight. so i turned it on and this is how it got stuck. so i had to traipse through the snow nad free the sheep, mary and jesus from the confines of a weighty snow. well, primarily the garland attached to the star since that was the main culprit. highlight.

presents!!!!!

since my family is spread out for this season due to the winter storms wreaking havoc across the midwest, we decided to exchange our gifts in a different way. we unwrapped the secret santa presents that we had each purchased and wrapped for the person whose name we had drawn. then we took pictures with our lovely camera phones and sent picture messages to the recipient of our present.


so i unwrapped the present i had purchased for my sister kendra. of course, i like to wrap things so that they are near to impossible to open. she got hot chocolate and ziploc baggies. inside jokes are so much fun!

my dad had my name, and i was stoked to get some new clothes and three angels. when i called mom, she informed me that the angels are ornaments my dad made from a tree i had planted when i was in kindegarten. so cool to have homemade ornaments created from my tree.

i got some presents from people at church: a new scarf, large carton of goldfish crackers, and a nice candle holder.

yesterday was a good day. kept busy with the xmas eve services (two of 'em at bethel), about an hour spent outside shoveling my driveway off (i really needed some time outside being active), a trip to kfc with the kindems as part of the xmas tradition, opening presents with the kindems, watching the first 40 min of LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. of course, since one of the services started at 10, i didn't get out of church until 11:30 pm. late night.


pictures are to come

screaming on the inside

so yeah, not the most uplifting title for a post, but that is basically how i feel today.

this week is crazy. the first 3 1/2 months of internship flew by without any funerals. now we have two this week at church.

and of course, this week also happens to be christmas.

i'm okay with being busy, but what saddens me most right now is that my xmas plans are changing.

let me elaborate.

i decided last week that i was going to leave early friday morning, aka christmas day, to drive home to my parents house so i could see my family, get out of minnesota, retreat to the south, and play with cats. then spend a total of 24 hours in parkston before traipsing back north to bemidji on saturday evening so that i would be back for sunday services.

and i was getting really excited.

but that does not seem like i will be able to do any such trip.

cause the weather predictions are not friendly.

according to the national weather service and meteorologists across the midwest, snow is very, very, very, very likely for christmas.

but not just a nice, pretty dusting.

oh, no.

this morning, predictions for snowfall in bemidji until saturday, december 26: 5-8 inches. as of just a few minutes ago, that estimate was bumped up to 8-12 inches of snow. and the farther south i would drive, the more snow predicted. such as the 12-16 inches for much of eastern south dakota. or the 16+ for the south eastern south central part of south dakota, aka the part between i-90 and nebraska and between the missouri river and 1-29. the exact part of the state in which parkston is located.

that's right. predictions of roughly a foot and a half of snow for my hometown while i would have to traipse through a foot of snow the entire way home.

which means that if these weather people are right with their predictions, there is no way i'm going to be able to travel home on christmas.

which is why i'm screaming in disappointment on the inside (i'm too midwestern to let my emotions show up in vocalized outbursts)

it's been awhile

so yeah, the last couple weeks have included both highlights and lowlights.

nothing quite like freezing to death due to days where the high is below zero. gotta love nothern minnesota (partially sarcasm since it was absolutely cold but at the same time i prefer cold). i was totally jealous of those folks who got the ridiculous amounts of snow while we just got cold. yes, we have some snow on the ground. but only about 2 inches or so.

the really cold temps would have been much better to handle if i were not sick during the cold front. 

being sick was horrible. needing to sleep all the time yet having stuff that needed to be done. spent one day on my couch after waking up at noon with the box of kleenex right by me. never seen so much snot in my life.

then top it all off with coughing attacks that helped me to lose my voice, which is still not fully back.

but i survived.

and that was with two overnights at church when i got little or no sleep. literally little (3 hours on a friday night) or no (0 on a sunday night). and of course such sleep disturbances do not help when getting sick. takes several days to get back to a sleeping rhythm when you have another night to make life difficult.

this past weekend was much better. my dad showed up to help me prepare for an open house i had yesterday. it was fun. i think about 20 or so people from church stopped by for goodies and a chance to chat.

and i still have lots of goodies leftover from it. so i will be munching on caramel corn, toffee, truffles, turtles, chex mix, nacho dip and ham salad for some time.

unless i give it all away.

today was our christmas music and program at church. to sum up my favorite part: kids are funny.

cuttin time

I ordered a full set of knives the other day from Pampered Chef. It cost a pretty penny, but they better be high quality and last my entire life. Of course, all the knives came in their own special individual boxes. Which means a lot of unwrapping for me. But it will be worth it since I like to cook.

Now the only regret I have is that I could have bought a Wii for the same price...

Christmas time is near...

i can just hear the song from charlie brown. and hymns. cause i love the good hymns we only sing at christmas time.

last friday i traveled with a crew from bethel lutheran in bemidji (which, just as a subtle reminder, is the church i work at) to concordia college in moorhead, mn for the christmas concert there. was really good.

and i don't even like choir concerts that much.

my favorite song was the first one. which was performed by their orchestra. a variation of 'o come o come emmanuel.' one of the best hymns for the advent season.

my other favorite was performed by the all-men choir: 'we three kings'. i've always thought that song needed to be sung only by men since i, as a female, cannot be a king. another really good song was sung in an african language (i think nigerian) by the same men.

i'm sensing a theme in my faves. did i mention that i love instrumental music as well as men's voices?

i am really getting into the waiting impatiently for xmas mode.

especially as i watch holiday movies on tv (oh, how i love being spoiled with cable and not fighting over the remote with anyone).

and as i look at my christmas tree. which finally has the ornaments up. like my angel ornament collection courtesy of my godparents (uncle bruce and aunt mary) who sent me angels every year for quite some time. and the ornaments made by my great-grandmother for my parents their first christmas together. and a few others like the new shiny ones i bought this year to finish out the "look".

i have christmas presents wrapped under it since the bottom branches sit about 15 inches above the ground and it looked funny. i think it looks pretty darn good. now if i could just remember to take a picture of it all prettyified so y'all can see it.

some of the boxes i wrapped aren't presents at all.

for example, one box is literally a kleenex box with two jingle bells and some paper. another is all the decorations i took down in order to make room for christmas decorations.

and on the windows, i spent time making pretty ribbon bows to hang and look pretty.

now i just have to figure out what to do in some other rooms. and it may involve boxing up the excess on top of bookshelves or dressers to make some more awesome presents for my tree. :)

which if you stop by my open house on dec 19 in the afternoon, you can view everything with your own eyes...

giggle giggle

Well, this has been a fun week. Fun in both senses of the word, as in both the good and the sarcastic use.

Why am I capitalizing? this must stop now.

sunday morning: church. i was there bright and early for once. which obviously never happens since i hate getting up in the morning, driving over and sitting around with nothing to do. which is what happened.

sunday was a big day. i'm not sure who all knew, but there once was an elderly woman way back in my first week here who told me that she was going to introduce me to her cute, nice grandson. let me be perfectly honest. he's a hottie. and was nice enough to suffer being introduced to me. no matter how awkward it was since his grandma as well as my parents and baby sister were right by us. hovering as good family members do.

after church, my parents and sister had to take off cause kiana had homework to do and it was already going to be a late night for them with the 7.5 hour drive ahead.

monday. a blur since i cannot remember anything i did that. hm. not a good sign. i know i worked and went to band. which reminds me that i need to find an all-black outfit for the concert on monday...

tuesday. work and a concert. middle school band concert that is. i learned that kids dont learn to play musical instruments until 6th grade here. which meant that 6th graders were playing the same music (or at least very similar) to what i played in 4th. and this band o 6th graders had about 120 kids. ginormous.

other highlights of the concert: sleeping through the 7th graders' part of the program (not technically a highlight since i was completely out), freaking out when waking up to the jazz band that was listed last in the program since i was there with the pastor's family cause their son plays in the 8th grade band and i thought i slept right through that only to realize that the jazz band was actually playing before the 8th graders which meant that i had only slept through about 5 total songs, and listening to the 8th graders play quite well. overall a nice concert without too much that would make me cringe.

snow and ice arrived once again. granted, it was the first day of december which meant that there was really no snow at all in november despite the freak snows in october. anyway, the snow arrived and melted on top of the ground and my car then froze cause it was cold. so i actually had to scrape windows and drive on ice. unhighlight (what is the opposite of a good highlight, anyway?) of the evening was driving back from the chruch where my car was parked back home. along said path is a small hill on a short road covered in ice and snow. and of course, my brakes decided to lock up or something and not help me slow down on this lovely patch of ice going downhill. fortunately no one was coming on the road i was turning onto, so i just avoided stopping and instead turned right onto the street i needed to turn onto. no one died. no car accident. success!

wednesday.work. lead second installment of my version of harlots and heroines. the bible study this week covered women through sarai/sarah, although we have yet to finish up sarah's story. next week. advent service. short service of the word with a few songs and message. soup and sandwich lunch. yummy. i like food. confirmation night. set up an obstacle course for them to go through. one with a heavy backpack to symbolize the heavy burdens that need to be lifted through forgiveness.

and i was in a good mood all day. boo-yah!

and now it's thursday and i'm somewhat bored at work. i think i'm going to start cataloging the church's library as a way to avoid working on my 3-month eval of how internship is going. just cause i dont want to think right now.

so i'm not gonna.