Does anyone want to attend the broadway shows in Salisbury with me???

Okay, so here is the deal.  I was to go see Cats and Riverdance.  I don't really care about Mamma Mia and Young Frankenstein, but since tickets are cheaper in sets of three or four and I wouldn't mind seeing either of them, I am thinking of buying a set of three tickets (you could convince me to go to all four, if you are going with me).  Jared does not like Broadway. :(  And he does not want to go to any of these shows (I mean, even Riverdance...?!? What?!?).  So, who wants to go to 2 or 3 or 4 shows with me?  Sarah, I wish you were here.  I hear the Civic Center is a terrible place to watch a Broadway play. Is it even worth it?  I don't have to drive two hours...  which saves a lot on gas...   

I have posted the schedule below.   Thoughts? 

 

2011-2012 Broadway in Salisbury Shows
Mamma Mia!             Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 5:00pm
CATS                        Monday, March 5, 2012 at 7:30pm
Young Frankenstein    Monday, May 14, 2012 at 7:30pm
Riverdance                 Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 7:30pm

Chinook Visit

Photos at the Daily Times of the Chinook visit at our plant!!!  The back of me is in some of the photos. And the back of me made the front page of the Daily Times.  Ha ha.  Article here.

reading... c.s. lewis

Two quotes from C.S. Lewis that from things I have been reading lately.  When you are sick you have the chance to read more books than normal.  :)  That may be one of the only good things about being sick.  Everything seems to slow down and there is more quiet time to enjoy. 

"The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast.  We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy.  It is not hard to see why.  The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose as obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or football match, have no such tendency.  Our father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasent inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

I agree.   I am very thankful for all the wonderful things that God has blessed me with on this earth.  He is good.  Spending time with friends or family, enjoying music, and seeing beauty outside in nature is wonderful.   But this quote is so true, without the pain of sickness and not having everything that we think we desire, we would not long for heaven.  Praise God for sickness because it points us even more towards him.   Which brings me to my other C.S Lewis quote for the day, from the Last Battle.  It is from the end of the Last Battle.  I do love the Chronicles of Narnia so much (not those dumb movies that they have made about them... not to get off topic or anything, but I watched the Voyage of the Dawn Treader while I was sick... they ruined the whole book, the book is a 1000 times better... sorry, I just had to rant).  One reason I love the books is because I fondly remember my mother reading them to us as we went on camping trips.  :)

"Then Aslan turned to them and said: '...you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead.  The term is over: the holidays have begun, The dream is ended: this is the morning...'
And for us thsi is the end of all the stories, and we can most truely say that they all lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

Love Love Love!!  This description makes so much sense to me.  That is all I have for tonight.  I have to finish up a presentation for tomorrow at work.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will see all my family!!!  YAY!!!  They make me happy, even when they make fun of me.  I love them all very much. 

Pictures from life (stolen from facebook)

First I just wanted to say that being sick is getting REALLY REALLY boring.  Go away fever, go away!!   Second, I really enjoyed both my sister-in-laws random posts today and I tried to write my own, but being sick also makes you really really non creative.  So instead I offer you a random photo blog.  Photos are worth more than words. 

 Hope danced at the Salisbury Festival.  She is really good.  I ate kettle corn.   Anna had a bridal shower afterwards with lots of good food.  Yum yum yum. 

 Chicago sunset.  From April when I traveled out there.

 My spacious Hyatt Hotel room that has spoiled me forever.  <3 <3 <3 And the food was INCREDIBLE!!!!

 I just can't stay away from toys and engineering things.  How cool is the massive Ferris wheel built from Connects?  I saw this in Chicago.  It actually spun around tool.  Wow wow wow.

 Chicago.

 Proof that I was actually there.

Chicago.

Hope and I went to go see Toby Mac and Brandon Heath in concert.  Toby Mac is old.  But he still puts on a good show.  I enjoyed being there with Hope.  Hope is such a great kid.  I just thought I would tell you, in case you hadn't realized that.  You should spend some time with her.

 Aw, my beautiful sister and me.  Here we are front and center.  I taught her the skills of getting a close standing spot.  My Dad says I have a good worming technique to getting good spots.  Spread your elbows... That is the big secret.  No one likes bumping into elbows.  Second, if they give an inch, take two inches.  Make them uncomfortable.  They will move over more and you will soon be in their spot.  :)   

 Stained glass in Chicago.

 For Mama Cindy, here are all the Shelton/Wingo people in the New York Public Library.  The library is a little bit crazy. 

Oh, and here is a picture of Mike Huckabee and us.  What fun.

Sunday afternoon I was sitting on the couch reading a book, while Jared was taking a nap (I just don't get naps - they make me more tired), and I thought to myself, "I am really cold; I should put on a jacket. I bet Jared has turned the ac really low." So, I put on a sweatshirt and huddled under a blanket on the couch and kept reading my book.  When Jared woke up and saw me he asked if I was sick because he had actually made it warmer in the house than it normally is.  Yikes.  I took my temperature and it was 101.7.  Yikes again.  I took medicine, felt better, was really cold again, was really hot, and tossed and turned all night.

Monday, Independence day, we ran by the Shelton's early in the day to pick up some fabric for a Christmas quilt that we are making.  Jared treated me to a coffee smoothie at Rise Up because I thought it would perk me up.  I was feeling so tired and hot.  We came home and cut all the pieces out for out quilt.  Preview below.  Jared wants to change the light blue color to something else... And we might replace the yellow to all match.  The reds are scraps from Anna's quilt.  The quilt is based on a wooden puzzle that I have, called a Colorado puzzle.  We picked up the orange, dark green, and dark blue from Mrs. Shelton's collection.  The blue actually had a print on it, but it looks solid in that photo above. 

Christmas Quilt

Colorado Puzzle

Jared went outside to cut the grass and I started to read again.   Then because I was feeling particularly lousy, I went upstairs and watched tv.  I was hoping it would lull me to sleep.  Once again, I started freezing.  I had sweatpants, socks, and a sweatshirt on and I was bundled up under two blankets.  I checked my temperature again and it was 103.5.  I took 3 Motrin and sat on the couch in my delirious state until Jared came in from washing my car and told me that I needed to go to the doctor.  We went to Your Doc's In, but they told me I was a mystery.  My lungs were perfectly clear, my tonsils were great, my lymph nodes weren't swollen, but I was radiating heat.  I was so hot.  We stopped by my parents house to drop off some gifts for Sarah, that people at church had given me on Sunday.  Mom and Dad fed me English's chicken and sweet potato biscuits.  Last night again I tossed and turned all night, cold one minute and hot the next. I am sorry, Jared. 

Anyhow, that is how I spend my day off.  It wasn't the best holiday, but it could have been worse.  I could be throwing up or in pain.  I don't mind being cold.  Hopefully whatever this is will pass before Sarah's wedding. 

Happy wedding week, Sarah!!! 
I love you.

A few thoughts...

Yesterday when I went home for lunch, I brought my newspaper in, created my lunch, and sat down to read my paper in peace.  Normally I read the Wall Street Journal during lunch (thank you , Hannah) every day.  I look forward to it because it is relaxing.  However, I opened the paper bag and it was the Baltimore Sun.  What?!?  It was so disappointing.  I realized that I was so used to good writing.  I started thinking that I am really glad that my Mom taught me not only to read, but also to love reading. 

Thanks to Mom for teaching me to read. 

Thanks to Hannah for the Wall Street Journal.

 

Last Tuesday was my birthday.  It was one of the best working birthdays that I have had.  My office (3 interns, 2 full-time employees, and me) all went out of lunch.  We have so much fun together; more fun than should be allowed in an office.  Have I mentioned that I love my job?  I am very thankful for my employees.  I had countless meetings also that day, but they all went really smoothly (that is a huge blessing).  That night my Mom made me favorite foods and a dessert.  Yum yum yum.  Thanks again to Mom.  And on Thursday the engineering department took me out to lunch.  Yay.  Finally, on the weekend, we went to visit Jared's grandmother and go clothes shopping for me.  Jared took me to Georgia House for dinner that night.  It was a great birthday week.  :)

Thanks to my office, engineering, and Jared.

 

My job continues to go well.  I run around all day and never finish everything that I need to do, but I really enjoy what I am doing.  I even have started to enjoy working with some of the people around the plant.  Several of my projects have started to actually make money.  :)  That is always a good thing.  People are starting to work together instead of resist change.  That is another good thing.  This is a job that I never dreamed that I would have the chance to do; if a job could be perfectly designed for me, this would be it. 

 

Have a great holiday weekend.  I am looking forward to relaxing and actually cooking some meals.  Baking is about the only thing that I have had time for recently.  The grill is being used this weekend!  YAY!

New York, New York.

Jared was invited to sing on the Huckabee show this weekend (with Matt and their little band).  They treated us to a free hotel room right around the corner from Time Square. 

1.  After two minutes in a city I am ready to get back to the country (except maybe DC because the buildings are shorter and it seems cleaner AND the museums are FREE!!).  Okay, now I will make positive comments.  :)

2.  We walked from our hotel (Stay), through Central Park, to the Met museum of art (only $20 admission), to the Guggenheim museum (picture below - it cost $79 to view the art inside - WHAT?!?!  We just walked around the gift shop), and all the way back (6.5 miles according to google maps).  I would like to stop and say here, that I really am glad that Jared likes to do free things with me.  :)  Yay, for just walking around and looking at things.  It rained (and thundered - yes, mom, I was walking through the trees while it was storming, but there were talk buildings all around), but I like summer rain.  It makes me happy.  I only had one blister one my little toe after all that walking.  Yay.

3.  Mike Huckabee is super nice.

4. My favorite part of NYC is Central Park.  I don't think anything compares. 

5.  Dinner at B. Smith (go look at the menu) was incredible!  I had the fried Chicken.  Yum yum yum.  It was delicious.  The bread pudding was the most amazing bread pudding Jared and I had ever heard.  Jared really enjoyed his catfish too.   The broccoli was undercooked and had garlic butter drizzled on it that combined with my sweet potatoes for a very strange combination.  The sweet potatoes had too much seasoning in them (I think it was all spice... all I could taste of the seasonings and not the potatoes).   They also forgot Jared's corn bread and our server was a little scatterbrained.  Otherwise, we had a great experience. 

Happy Father's day, Dad!  I'm headed home now to wash clothes and clean my shoes.

Thanks to Sarah and Mom and Dad for all the blueberries!!!  What a great birthday present. :)

A favorite igrace song!

1. Poor sinner, dejected with fear,

Unbosom thy mind to the Lamb;

No wrath on His brow He does wear,

Nor will He poor mourners condemn;

His arm of omnipotent grace

Is able and willing to save;

A sweet and a permanent peace

He’ll freely and faithfully give.



2. Come just as thou art, with thy woe,

Fall down at the feet of the Lamb;

He will not, He cannot say, “Go”,

But surely will take out thy stain

A fountain is opened for sin,

And thousands its virtues have proved

He’ll take thee, and plunge thee therein,

And wash thee from filth in His blood.



3. The soul that on Jesus relies,

He’ll never, no never deceive;

He freely and faithfully gives

More blessings than we can conceive;

Yea, down to old age He will keep,

Nor will He forsake us at last;

He knows and is known by His sheep;

They’re His, and He will hold them fast.



*** I am hoping to get Jared to sing this with me someday... :)
It has been so encouraging to me over the pass year or so.  It is funny how hymns mean more to you at certain times in your life.  I love a bunch of hymns (probably hundreds - seriously). This is just one that I have been listening to often (I love the igrace version of this song).  Anyone want to play the accordian for me?!?  The music for this song is gorgeous too.  Praise God for his steadfast love and grace.

What my weeks have looked like recently...

Sunday - Church, lunch somewhere (lunch at parents or VBS planning), Evening church

Monday - Work, Gym, Grocery shopping, other odd errands

Tuesday - Work, gym, cooking for the week, cleaning kitchen

Wednesday - Work, dinner, VBS decorating

Thursday - Work, a few more errands and groceries

Friday - Work, gym, somewhere (not home)

Saturday - gym, finish up a few things for work, clean the house, a wedding, wedding shower, or VBS planning

 

*Work has been crazy.  I love it.  I have 6 people working for me right now.  So, I do a lot of planning what other people are going to do, answering emails and phone calls, teleconference meetings, and presenting to management on our progress and the support that we need.  I am also helping 7 other people with projects (that I am sort of in charge of, but they are supposed to be doing the leg work).  My office is more of a workshop then an office most days.  Today there are half made signs all over the place (organized of course, by color and size), four plywood boards with pictures of tools pasted to them (waiting on said signs to be attached to the top and then to be taken over and hung up), paper cutout of tools strewn across the intern's table and John's desk (mixed in with 1100 pages of data that they are entering in to the computer for one of my projects), boxes that were just delivered today that need to be organized and put away on the shelves, 1 bag of twizlers, 2 information towers (waiting on posters to e attached to them - so, they have information on them), and 3 energy drinks (interns love them - bleh).

 

I am really looking forward to August 14th.  I am planning a vacation as soon as it becomes less hot.  I have all my vacation days still.  :)  Hopefully, I can take most of those in the fall.  I love the fall. 

Yes, I am super busy between work and planning VBS.  I will blog again when I have time.  :)  I have been reading some interesting books (The Shallows (really interesting), Harry Truman (still...)) and listening to NPR (I look forward to listening to Fresh Air each day on my lunch break).  

Pi Day!

Happy Pi day!! 

 

Should I go home and make shepherd's pie or deep dish pizza? 

&

This looks so simple to make.   I saw it while browsing Etsy today (Etsy is highly inspirational). I think I might try my hand at making it.  I love ampersands!!  Also, I think I should try to make one out of Jared's sheet metal scraps. 

"I'm gonna move on up a little higher..."

 

- Thank you, Jared for making this be stuck in my head for the last two weeks.  I'm not complaining, but it is really weird how this song has kept all other songs out of my head. 

 

I requested a lot of books from the library this last week (isn't reading lovely?), but they still didn't have four of the books that I wanted.  Boo.  Also, "As Time Goes By" was checked out of the library.  What?!?  Who else is out there watching it? 

FrWWWWWWWWWeeee Chick-fil-A!!!

Just a quick blog post for all my Chick-fil-A loving people.  If you click this link below (and I will copy the link in the bottom of the blog in case the link doesn't work), you can reserve your free chick-fil-a biscuit for this weekend.   Jared and I are going after the gym on Saturday.  FYI: each request has to be at a different email address.  I had the spicy biscuit once before (because it was the free calendar item - thanks parents!!).  It is okay.  Jared liked it; I thought it was predictable (I felt like I could have ordered it anywhere).   It was good, but not Chick-fil-A good.  But free is free to me.  :)   Sign up and get your free biscuit today and let me know how you feel about it.  Do you enjoy it or is the regular so much better?  :) 

 

CFA

 

http://www.getspicychicken.com/?source=email

Merry Christmas!!

I helped decorate my parents house last night (until 10:30) and went home and made three trays of mini cinnamon buns (about 80 - 90... I didn't count), and then came to work this morning.  We decided that the few of us that were here would all bring in Christmasy foods today since we had to be here all morning (and no one else is here).  The other cinnamon buns went to Jared to take to his company Christmas breakfast. 

 

I was just informed, by text message, that I bought Jared three ties for Christmas.  Really?  I bet I have good taste and have picked out ties that are perfect for Jared.  ha ha. 

 

I am pretty sure that after Christmas I am not going to want to bake anything or see sweet things for a long time.  I am really craving some fresh veggies and fruits!!  Come on summer!!  My favorite season comes after Summer.  YAY, Autumn! 

 

Oh, Jared bought me an early Christmas present.  He bought me a little 3 foot tree for my kitchen table.  I have really been wanting one.  It is so adorable.  I was going to decorate it all cute and pretty with little ornaments, but Jared got to it first and has decked it out with all sorts of random ornaments that aren't good enough for our real tree.  hmmm.  It is ugly cute.  Anyhow, it adds cheer to my kitchen and that is what I wanted (not that trays and trays of christmas cookies and chocolate covered pretzels don't add any cheer). 

 

Merry Christmas!! 

I'm dreaming...

... of a white Christmas!! 

snow

It is snowing.  That makes me happy. 

I will see Michelle tomorrow.  That makes me happy too. 

It is almost Christmastime!!  This also makes me happy.

 

*insert picture of snow*

Please, use your imagination.  :)

 

Oh, and my darling husband put the turkey in the oven for me yesterday and so it was finished by the time I came home from work.  I picked the whole turkey clean and taught Jared how to make gravy.  He is really a big help in the kitchen.  Then we had open face turkey sandwiches for dinner.  yum yum yum.  Guess what I am having for lunch today? 

I finished one of my quilting projects last night!!  Yay!!  While Jared was at the library and choir I quilted the whole thing, trimmed it, and started the binding.  I finished about half the binding last night.  I will finish it tonight right after I go grocery shopping.  We are out of milk.  This is the largest amount of fabric that I have ever quilted before.  It was a beast to quilt, especially in the middle.  I never think of the sewing machine as being little until I try to quilt; when I quilt there is never enough room, even for small jobs.  There was only one minor flaw that I had to seam rip out (twice).  This one area on the back wanted to keep scrunching up even though I pinned it many times. Seam ripping in a quilt takes forever because of the amount of stitches that are laid down.  I hope to take a picture soon and post it, but I have said that before and failed.  It is so hard to upload photos when your labtop is broken.   I don't think SU wants me loading pictures on to their computers... Whenever I have kids I am going to need to purchase a laptop (or desktop) simply for photos. 

 

Last night I made pizza again.  Tonight we are having Turkey (thanks to Harvard/Labinal/Safron/Labinal Salisbury).  I am trying to decide on the sides... sweet potatoes and green beans and maybe biscuits and/or stuffing too.  I really want to have open face hot turkey sandwiches.  YUM!!  Those remind me of my Dad.  He and I would eat them together with the leftovers.  I don't think the others in my house like them.  I need to make some bread.

 

Do you have any ideas what I should bring to my office Christmas party?  I have been asked to bring chili again by some people, but I really want to make something else.  What else is one pot and easy to keep warm?   I was really thinking of making rolls or cookies this year.  But if you have any suggestions... I might change my mind. 

This weekend I opened up one of my birthday presents that I have been hoarding since June.  It was just as delicious and incredible as I dreamed it would be.  Anna gave me two jars of Grotto's pasta/pizza sauce and I have not wanted to open them (because then they would be gone).  I finally convinced myself to open a jar telling myself that I still would have one jar left to look forward to.  The sauce was supposed to make it on to the pizza, which it did, but I was also eating the sauce out of the jar with a spoon last night while I waited for Jared to come home from the library. Is that bad? Even though Grotto Pizza doesn't use mozzarella cheese, I was dunking chunks of that into the sauce as well.  I love that everything on the ingredient list is something that I recognize.  I love the flavor.  It is wonderful.  I just need to figure out their pizza crust flavor and I will be set for life (well, maybe a pizza oven and a few other things would be helpful...). 

 

I am planning on making spaghetti with the extra sauce this weekend (if I don't eat it all with a spoon before then). We are having pizza again tonight.  :)   Yay! 

 

I might try to make my deep dish pizza again soon because it turned out incredible last time.  I loved the crunchy, crispy edges. 

 

Today during lunch I ran/drove over to Hancock Fabric (were the grumpy people work) and bought needles for my sewing machine.  After fighting with it for a long time last night, I read the instruction manual because I had tried everything I could think of and my machine was still skipping stitches. This was taking place at 10:30 last night.  It reminded me of life.  For the most part I try to solve problems on my own, but if I just look at the instructions it would be so much easier.  :)  God knows how to solve every problem and has blessed us with his word to read.  I just have to do it.   In the end, I think I figured out the problem (thank you frequently asked questions).  I read the whole instructions book last night.  I have never done that before.  I learned a lot.  Tonight my sewing machine will be taken care of in ways that it has not been ever taken care of.  It is going to be oiled, shined, and cleaned out.  I do clean it out, but tonight I am going to really clean it out.   How am I expecting it to keep working if I don't take good care of it?  Again, just like life, I need to take care of my relationship to God or life doesn't go as smoothly.  My thread will keep skipping spots.  :)   In case you are curious, I was using the wrong size needle for quilting (hopefully).  I will find out tonight when I give it another go.

 

Do you ever learn lessons from little things like a sewing machine? 

I signed up for all my new health benefits today.  I am pretty excited because I will be visiting my eye doctor this year.  :)  YAY!  You don't understand how happy this makes me, yes, I have perfect vision right now (thanks to my parents paying for lasik), but my eye doctor is the sweetest person on the planet.  I am also hoping she can write me a prescription for glasses to wear some of the day while I stare at this dumb computer.  It has been giving me dull headaches recently.  Grr.  I have frames that I really like.  I bought them two years ago when all I could wear was glasses (because my eyes reacted to contacts). 

 

This weekend I am hoping to do a lot of resting.  I feel like I have been running a marathon for the last two weeks.  It will be so nice to relax.  Jared and I made chocolate covered pretzels last night (for the second time this year).  I made checkerboard cookies Tuesday night (as a trial run for this Saturday for the Christmas shop) and took them to work.  They were amazing!! Last weekend I made over 400 gingerbread cookies and 7 dozen gingersnaps.  Also, Anna came over and cooked for us last Friday and we watched a Christmas movie!!  YAY!! 

 

I really want to make a jelly roll.  That is one my list of next things to make from my 1930s cookbook.  I love that cookbook.  I spend most of Wednesday night while Jared was at school reading through it cover to cover yet again!!  There are some really great recipes in there for basic things (I mean, there are over 1400 pages to the book -- how can there not be some goodness in there?).  There are also some really disgusting things, such as, squirrel and possum, and a sandwich loaf smothered in cream cheese (made to look like a cake, I am assured that it looks extremely elegant).  Egg salad, bread, chicken salad, all pressed together and spread over by cream cheese does not sound good!!

 

P.S. Spell check is wonderful.

 

Do you have any exciting plans this weekend?  I hope to head over to my parents house this weekend for some good food. Otherwise, it is all about resting this weekend.