Mmmm, Donuts

I am sitting here, listening to the on-line radio, and there is a guy who called in and is bashing Krispy Kreme donuts. Dude, don't go there. I had to turn off the sound. I couldn't take it. Who in their right, sugary mind, doesn't like a fresh, hot Krispy Kreme donut? Maybe someone who is a diabetic, or someone who is health conscience. But hello? They are heaven. They melt in your mouth, they're sugary decadence! Come on people!!!!

Headless Chicken

How typical. Everytime I plan something, five other things happen at the same time. I haven't been around to blog. This last weekend I went to visit my parents. On Saturday, I went with my mom to a Women's Day Away retreat, held at their church. It was great. The pastor used a part of a book written by Mother Teresa. God's Simple Path. Sunday, I left earlier then planned to beat the snow storm that was headed this way. By the time I got to Grand Rapids, it had just started to snow (it rained the entire drive). So I made it just in time!

This week is very hectic. Meetings, some are the usual, some are not. This Sunday, I leave with the college group from church to go to Chicago for their Spring Break mission trip. We don't know where we'll be volunteering, yet. I'm pretty excited to go! Yes, I'm a "chaperone". We'll return Wednesday, so don't expect any blogs from me at the beginning of next week! Hopefully, I'll have pictures to share when I get back.

If I get a chance before I leave, I will try to post more. But for now, this may be it for an entire week! I just get a little stressed out when I have so much going on. I know if I take a deep breath and relax everything will be just fine. But try telling that to my brain!

"Silence leads to Prayer. Prayer leads to Faith. Faith leads to Love. Love leads to Service. Service leads to Peace. Peace leads to Prayer." -Mother Teresa
[Peace leads to Silence]

Feel free to laugh out loud

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door. When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10." Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked."

"A cheerful heart is good medicine" (Prov. 17:22)

Monopoly

Bill and I played Simpsons Tree House of Horrors Monopoly. We started our game Monday night, and continued it last night. First of all, it is not his favorite game because he loses with startling regularity. I like it, but I like playing a shortened version. This game is fun, the pieces glow in the dark! I was Alien Maggie and Bill was Count Burns.

Well, let's just say that when it came down to it, Bill won. He beat me. He had the "Park Place" and "Boardwalk" squares, and built "hotels" on them as soon as he could. Rent was $2000. I got hammered. Eventually, with all his expensive properties, I lost when I couldn't pay the $1400 rent. :( But we both had a good time!

Tuesday

This is one of my favorite sculptures. It changes from every angle and the way the light hits it... (see below). Also, to explain the entire sculpture, each piece is independantly suspended, no two "pipes" are touching each other. Like a game of pick-up- sticks, dropped and stopped in time, suspended, hanging, not hitting the ground.

I had hoped to get over to the Gardens while there was snow on the ground, but I haven't made it over there yet. I cannot wait for the spring time to see all the wildflowers blooming all around the sculptures. These pictures were taken back in November.



I had to lay down, on the ground, under this sculpture to get this shot. But I love it. It is one of my favorite pictures. The brilliant blue sky behind the shiny silver. The sunlight reflecting off, the reflection of the ground and the sky. I cannot explain what draws me to it. It's just a bunch of wires and pipes, criss-crossing. But I love the lines, the angles, and again, the colors and reflections. And how it changes from every angle.

100!

I won't be disillusioned into thinking that 107 individual people have visited my blog, but hitting 100 seems pretty exciting to me! TV shows celebrate when they hit their "100th" episode, so I decided I'd have a little party too! :) Root beer floats, and hmm, well that's all we have. So it's byot (treat) and you can join me in my little barty (blog + party)! Or partog?

Anyway, thank you to the five people who do visit my site whether it's stalker fashion like Adriane, or daily like Connie and Greg. I invite more of you to blog and post comments. You don't know what you're missing! Or maybe you're just too busy to have time to write...?

Chat with you soon!

Friday

It's Friday! I am getting to know my ipod.

I finally decided to put a picture of myself on my blog! This is one of my favorites. My friend Julie and I were at Meijer Gardens, and took silly pictures of each other "holding up" this gigantic arch! So here I am with a pained look on my face, it's heavy!

Not much else is going on in Emoly's space.

Juliette loves cheese. Anytime Bill or I get out a package of cheese, she comes running. She'll beg for it and she loves it. She likes sharp Canadian cheddar the best. She's a weird cat.

"Closed"

Hello world! My own little world. Where no one responds. I'm sad. We had such a good time that first week. What happened bloggers? Where are my friends? Where are the crazy comments?

Hey, there's no snow falling here! For now :)

How was everyone's V-day? I know Sami and I are sad, we received word that the school (which the after school program was made for) is closing. That's very sad for the students and teachers. How can that happen? A school is closing. Not only is this America but it's the 21st century and we as people haven't figured out how important education is? One of my favorite sayings is, "you learn something new every day." So how can a school close? We can put astronauts in space, but we can't keep a school open. If that trend continues, there won't be many astronauts. It is very sad. Where does education stand?

Valentine's Day

It's all about love today. I love Bill. I love my friends, I love my family and I love Juliette and Felix. I also love coffee, but they haven't come up with an excuse to celebrate that, yet.

Today shouldn't be ignored. We should each embrace loving our neighbor and go out of our way today, to show love to someone who might not be loved everyday.

Love...

day 62

Tonight is popcorn night and Gilmore Girls. I told Bill I have my little routine for Tuesday night (he's been working most of them since the first of the year), I may have made him feel a little bad, I hope not! Don't be sad Bill, we both agree we need our alone time. You get Wednesday nights, I get Tuesdays. See it all works out in the end!



In case you were wondering, yes, we're supposed to get more snow today! But not as much as they're going to get to the south of us. It'll come our way.


I am baking sugar cookies today, for the after school program tomorrow. I got a call to make some extras, but I had to say no. Why? Because I don't have enough sugar to make any other kind of cookie. Unless someone has a sugar-less cookie recipe. But if you do, keep it to yourself please! I am not a sugar-less cookie kind of girl! :) Unless it's amazing, in that case, you can send it along.


Of course the cookies I'll be baking today will be cutout in heart shapes! I know, it's sappy. I know I'm not alone in thinking that Valentine's Day has become way too commercialized. Any takers? It is always a struggle to come up with a decent present for Bill. And I know he struggles to find something to give me. This year it will be simple. As it should be every year, for everyone.

One week later...

I do believe I'm getting the hang of this. I'm interested to see that the mac & cheese post has the most comments, most of which have nothing to do with the mac & cheese. :) That's okay. Are the rest of my posts boring my readers?

Going back to being cold: the house is now warmer thanks to a frozen toilet. Yes, the toilet wasn't working because it had frozen pipes. Bill and I spent most of Friday trying to determine which pipe leads to the toilet, and couldn't find it. So we turned the heat up, and put the blow dryer on the pipes, and early Saturday morning, out of the blue, the toilet started filling back up with water! So the house is now warmer and I'm not a frozen popsicle while I work.

It's snowing. Dude, no one prepared me for this much snow. I mean I knew it snowed a lot on this side of the state.... I remember living in Niles and having lots of snow.... but I was also two feet tall, a lot of snow to me was six inches. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have all of this snow. Especially because I don't have to drive in it! It is beautiful. Every day I sit in my office and when I glance out of the window it is like I'm looking or living in a snow globe. And because it keeps snowing, the roads aren't gross. The new snow keeps covering up the ugly slush.

My Art

My new hobby is taking pictures, now that we have a digital camera again. I have a small collection of photographs that include landscape, sculpture and nature. This one in particular is from Meijer Gardens (as most of them will be). The day that I took this picture was a gorgeous, chilly November day.

Red Team/Team Red

Last night, I was biting into a piece of pizza when the phone rang. Caller id showed me that it wasn't Coldwell Banker (which would have made the fourth solicitation that day). It was Heather O. calling to ask me for a favor. Of course I said yes!

I got to drive the Red Team around G.R. for the FUMC Jr. High Amazing Race. What fun! One of the members got to climb a rock wall. They got to order a yummy cinnamon drink for their driver (me) from a "starry" coffee house. They had to climb an impossible hill covered in snow (with a broken sled), and at the end they had to find three puzzle pieces and truely ended up in a tie, but came in 2nd place (after being last at all the other stops). It was fun!

the next day

Today, I am listening to Juliette run around the carpet like a crazed lunatic. I wonder if she got into some catnip. Oh! No, she's just playing with a wash cloth that I threw down on the floor. She says, " Mew". Oh, now it's bath time. Would anyone call the men in white coats if I created a blog for her? Probably. Okay, I won't go that far.

The highlight of my morning so far, has been filling the paper tray. Wow! How exciting. What exciting things have you done today?

Later in the day...
I talked to my friend Julie! She's supposed to be stopping by to check this thing out!? We'll see if she makes it here. She could be a frozen popsicle.

Juliette calmed down and is now napping on my lap. The exciting life of a cat.

Did I mention it's snowing again?

every day

I decided that everyday I will change this post. I will use it to write what is going on, or other random thoughts. Like right now (like most every day) I've had too much coffee! But my friend suggested I drink hot chocolate to stay warm. Usually, while I'm working, my hands get very cold. I am looking for ideas on how to stay warm, or rather how to keep my fingers warm. I was also told to buy those gloves/mittens to wear, I will probably be shopping for a pair of those on Friday! I am wrapped up in a blanket, that helps my legs, but not my frozen digits! Back to the hot chocolate, I only have one packet left... don't worry, it's on the grocery list! Another shopping trip for Friday. Bill is thrilled. He gets to spend his day off shopping. He shouldn't be too disappointed, one of the trips will be to Lowe's. Of course it's to buy new toilet innerds. Our powder room toilet gave up the fight. We aren't sure what happened, but there's no water in the tank. It's not frozen, the sink still works, and the pipes are wrapped in insulation. I'm hoping that the trip to Lowe's will help ease the agony of the other shopping we will be doing. Hey, it's my weekly outing! My last outing was last Friday, to the grocery store. yeah! If it weren't for that weekly outing to the grocery store and Wednesday night Disciple classes, I fear I would be a hermit! At least in the winter. That's my day so far.

Macaroni & Cheese Incident of '06

This is what happened after I shook, what I thought was a little, paprika onto my mac & cheese. I guess the lid wasn't on tight. oops. I managed to scrape off the top "layer" and salvage what was underneath the pile o' paprika. I haven't had mac & cheese since.

After the Blizzard

That bush is buried in about two feet of snow.

I like how the snow is draped over the railing on our deck.

Catnap

Am I the only one who thinks this is adorable? Come on, visitors, you can't tell me this isn't cute? She's sleeping on my lap. Bill took the photo. Her little paws are crossed, she was sound asleep, so I tucked her in. Snug as a bug in a rug.

Harry Potter

July 21st. I cannot wait. I refuse to believe that J.K. Rowling would kill off Harry, however, I am preparing myself for the end of the series. I highly recommend visiting her website. It is full of information and easter eggs. I am addicted.

My Beginning

I am beginning something new. I've had a lot of new beginnings, and this one is different then any other. Is it a big deal? No. I just feel like the last person to create my own space. So many of my friends are on websites where they can post their life happenings, and I'm still stuck in 2005, sending e-mails with pictures attached. My hope is that this way I can share with my friends all over the world, what is going on in my life.