The Dead, The Wicked, and Hell

Kinda morbid sounding, eh? Well, it's not what you might think!!

This past weekend, Joe and I went had a much-needed date day in The Cities. And our first stop? The Dead Sea Scrolls...

When we heard that the Dead Sea Scrolls were visiting the Science Museum, we knew we had to go see them! I mean...this is the chance of a lifetime! So, after locating a coupon that saved us $16 (Go me!), we visited the Science Museum to get a peek at the scrolls. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed (to protect the Scrolls from deteriorating too quickly), but we did get to read plenty about the caves they were found in, see lots of artifacts from those same caves, and read more about the history of the Scrolls themselves. I wish we had been able to stay longer - we were slightly rushed to get to the next thing on our agenda - but I'm glad I had the chance to see them.

After finishing up at the Science Museum, we made a mad dash to the Orpheum Theater where we had tickets to see....

"Wicked" is a musical that I've known about since college, and have been dying to see! We tried to go one other time with my parents about a year ago, but the tickets were super expensive, and our seats wouldn't have been that stellar. Joe surprised me a month ago by buying us tickets to FINALLY get to see it LIVE! I was on cloud nine, and believe me, it lived up to everything I'd dreamed it would be! The music was phenomenal and the performance was as stellar as anything on Broadway (not that I've ever seen anything on Broadway... ;) )

Here's a shot of one of the stage decorations:

It would move and the eyes would light up periodically.

Creepy.

And here's us waiting for the show to start!

(I'm not sure why Joe has the deer-in-the-headlights look...)

After the show, we began walking to our dinner reservation, but I had chosen fashion over function earlier in the day, and I was wearing heels.

Oops.

So....after a few blocks of walking (and frantically trying to hold down my skirt as the wind whipped by) and complaining, I talked Joe into stopping at the Target located downtown (How cool is that?). And so I got myself some pretty, yet functional shoes:

See how sparkly they are? :)

It was much better, let me tell ya.

Soon, we arrived at our dinner reservation - Hell's Kitchen (my apologies for the language on the sign...) 

I had heard of this place, but never been there before, and Joe was excited about it so we checked it out -- plus it had live music in the evening, so I was totally game! It has quite interesting decor (kind of on the dark and goofy side) and the food is great! We got BBQ pork nachos which come with pickles and coleslaw on top -- might sound strange, but they were addictive!! Joe got a penne pasta with lots of cheese and garlic on it that he loved and I got the BBQ pork sandwhich, though it ended up being a bit too spicy for my taste. And then we got strawberry-vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert.....yumm....

It was a fabulous day, and so special to have that much time to just have fun with my hubby. :)

It's Not Delivery...It's DiGiorno

When I read Fiddledeedee's DiGiorno giveaway post, it made me think of a little mishap we had with one of our DiGiorno pizza's a few months ago...

Before I begin, you must know that my husband's absolute favorite food in the whole entire world is pizza. He could literally eat it every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and one of his favorite brands of pizza is DiGiorno.

So...we had decided to have a pizza for dinner. A DiGiorno pizza, since it was a special night, eating at home and all. :) Anywho...I offered to pop it in the pizza oven so we could get to eating our "nutritious" meal.

So....I set the pizza oven timer* to the normal length of time, 13 minutes or so, and went about checking my email and whatnot waiting for dinner to be ready.
*(Before I go on, let me note that I always use a timer when baking or doing laundry. In fact, Joe mocks me often for this tendency and can't understand why I don't "just remember it". Ha! This was a good learning lesson for him... )

After the timer ding-ed, I checked on it, and the cheese wasn't even melted completely, let alone golden brown. So I reset the timer for another 7-10 minutes, thinking I would check it half-way through just in case.

Well. Remember when I said that I can't "just remember"?? ;)

So...when the timer ding-ed the second time, I went to retrieve the pizza and it was....black. Burnt to a crisp.

I gasped. And prayed that my husband wouldn't smell the burning cheese.

I did finally tell him.....quite sheepishly, and he indeed was upset. "You burnt a DiGiorno pizza?!?!?? A DiGiorno pizza??!! Those are the best!!!"

*Sigh* At least we had more in the freezer...

Impulsive Provision

Let me preface this post with an apology to my mother -- Sorry this is so late Mom!! I didn't get the final pictures loaded onto my computer until today...so I went as quickly as I could!!

Ahem.

This past weekend, Joe and I went to go get our Christmas Tree! Unbeknownst to us, it was part one of a trilogy of impulsive decisiveness for us! And a glimpse of God's provision. :) Here's the story...

Part I
On the day after Thanksgiving, Lovey and I went to go pick out and chop down our Christmas tree. This is normally a grueling ordeal. When one of us isn't picky, the other one is. (Remember this post of my Mom's??

That one's too fat. That one's too thin. That one's bald on one side. That one has too many dead branches. I just don't like that one.

And the list goes on and on. We were getting a late start, and had a lot left to do on that particular Saturday afternoon, so I braced myself for a long trek around the tree farm, searching for "THE perfect tree".

As we pulled into the Frasier Fir section, we commented on how sparse that particular field looked. But we went on in anyway. And as Joe drove up to the first tree on the right, he commented, "That one looks good."

I glanced over at it. It did look good. Hm. We glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, and proceeded to get out of our car. To our shock and relief, after circling it several times, we concluded that it was indeed "THE perfect tree". Amazed, we chopped it down and loaded it up and went on home to set it up.

"No way, the FIRST one we saw??"

"ALLLRIIIGHHHTT!!!!!"

THE Perfect Tree :)

Part II
Let me backtrack for a minute. Before we went to get our tree, we had made an impromptu visit to our local flea market to see if there was a handy bookshelf there by any chance. Since our current bookshelf is smashed full of books going every which way, and we still have some in piles looking for a home! (What can I say, we love books!!) The photo below doesn't even begin to do this justice, as I had already tidied it up a bit, but it will give you a very small idea of how serious our book addiction and problem really is.

So...at the flea market, we didn't find anything. But decided we would walk down to the Amish Furniture store, a block down from our house later that afternoon "just in case" there was anything there we wanted.

*Background fact: Since we've been married, we have said that we would buy a piece of Amish furniture/wood item every year for our anniversary, resulting in us having a beautifully furnished home. However, we have never found anything we liked and that we could afford. Who knew the Amish were so spendy?? ;)

After we set up the Christmas tree, and went about trying to rearrange furniture and find a home for all our books so that I could set up the Christmas decorations, we found ourselves in a pickle. Our house was a mess. And we didn't have anywhere to put all this STUFF!!! (See photo evidence below)

This was the living room mid-sorting.

Joe's attempt at organizing movies.

Just a FEW of the books still looking for a home.

Our sad looking kitchen with loads of Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE.

What a mess!!

So finally I threw my hands up in the air, and insisted that we walk down to the Amish furniture store. "Just in case". And so we went.

If you know me or my husband, you know that we are just a tad bit indecisive. Ok, I exaggerate. We're probably the most indecisive people known to mankind! We rarely can make a decision at any given time. We usually have to mull it over and agonize over everything for a few hours (minimum) before we can make up our minds.

So you'll understand why this next part of the story is so amazing!

As we walked into the Amish furniture store, we commented on how if we couldn't find a bookshelf, maybe we could at least find a coffee table. Surprisingly, as we walked up to the group of coffee tables, I commented, "Hm. I actually like this one!" Joe agreed. We didn't think much of it but kept looking for our bookshelf. After not finding our bookshelf, we came back to the little coffee table and glanced at the price tag.

Hm. It's actually affordable. We glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. "Should we do it?" I asked. Joe agreed. And before I knew it, there we were at the counter paying for a new coffee table. Totally awesome!

But now our house looked even MORE cluttered!

Part III
After setting the surprise-buy-coffee table on our kitchen floor, one of us (I don't remember which) commented: "Maybe we SHOULD go somewhere else to look for a bookshelf. With our luck today, we'll walk into a place and buy the first bookshelf we see because it will be the perfect fit and the right price!"

And so we did what any other couple in our shoes would do. We headed off to another discount market on a quest for the bookshelf we knew must be waiting for us.

Our first stop was a dud. They had something decent...but not quite what we were looking for - a short bookshelf (to fit under the chimney) that might or might not have a door, was on the narrow side, and fit our budget.

So we went on to the next town, another 20 minutes away. As we drove, we tried to think of where we could look, and all we could remember was an antique furniture store that we knew would be terribly expensive, but the only other options were Target or Wal-Mart, so we thought we'd give it a try.

As pulled into the town, we noticed a furniture store neither of us had remembered. Approaching the door, we noticed that it closed at 5, and it was currently 4:45, so we both ran like crazy people through the front door, gasping and apologizing for walking in so late. (We must have looked like lunatics!!)

We explained to the kind sales lady what we were looking for: a short book shelf. (Really descriptive, eh? ;) She kindly led us all the way upstairs, turning back on all the lights they had turned off in anticipation of closing. Rounding the corner, she pointed to a collection of bookshelves in the corner.

We were floored.

They had one the right height! AND the right price!!! What a break!

The sales lady was probably as shocked as we were! Once again, glancing at each other with raised eyebrows for the third time that day, we simultaneously nodded our heads, agreeing that it was the right fit and just what we were looking for. And it was even on sale!!

Upon arriving home, we added one more item to the mess of our kitchen, resulting in the shot below:

But now we had to make it all fit together!!! Thankfully, my husband is a master at puzzles, so he can make furniture fit in a room like no one else can. And after some trial and error, I finally got my Christmas decorations to stop looking so tacky...so here is the finished work! Enjoy!!

Our lovely Amish coffee table. :)

Another view of the living room -- with a CLEAN FLOOR!! :)

Our new bookshelf (on the left). Though none of it matches exactly, it fits our need.
I'm having a hard time getting used to seeing all those books in one area...it still looks a bit cluttered to me, but it'll get us through Christmas until we can rearrange again!

Our lovely, decorated Christmas tree.
I wanted to name him, but Joe laughed at me. :)

My beautiful Christmas plate collection (thanks to my Mom!) and other "deshorakins" :)

The tidied up kitchen!

How do YOU eat YOUR nuggets?

Do you line your chicken nuggets up like this??


Well...my Lovey does!
Can we say Obsessive Compulsive?? ;)
Love you, Sweets!! :)

Sleep & Me

Well. It's been 2 months since my last post. Sorry guys. Life has truly been a whirlwind...and no, I'm not pregnant, if any of you were wondering if that contributed to my silence. :)

Anywho....perhaps I'll do a bit of a "ketchup" post soon (get it? "ketchup"? "catch up" tee hee), but for now, you'll have to survive with a story about me and my sleep.

In case you didn't know, I am an avid sleep talker. Terribly chatty. Just ask my husband. The poor fellow suffers from lack of sleep due to my random yelling and raving in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, I rarely remember what happened or what I said, so I have to find humor in the stories my hubby tells me. Here's what happened last night...

**My husband will be referred to as "Lovey" throughout the rest of the story.


Apparently Lovey couldn't sleep, so he was downstairs getting a midnight snack or watching a show, I'm not really sure, but that's not the point anyway.

Ahem.

He was downstairs, minding his own quiet, middle-of-the-night business when he began to hear yelling from upstairs. My yelling, mind you. I guess it went something like this:

"Get out of here!! Get out of here!! What are you doing in here?? Why did you let them in here?!?!?!"

This is not normal (even for me) in the middle of the night at our house, so Lovey called upstairs, "Liz,Are you ok?"

More yelling ensued.

By now, Lovey is getting a little concerned about my welfare, so he went to the foot of the stairs and looked up. And there I was, in all my middle-of-the-night glory, standing at the top of the stairs and looking ticked.

My eyes were open, and since I've been known to yell at Lovey when he tries to convince me I'm asleep, he knew that approach would not go over too well. So...he took the next most logical step and asked me, "Who's up there?"

I replied indignantly, "You let them in." Shooting daggers out of my eyes.

Lovey: There's no one up there.

Me: Yes there is!

Lovey: No there's not. No one's here. And even if they are here, they're up there with you and you don't need to worry about it. It's ok.

(Side note: Really, hon, "they're up there with you"?? Like that's encouraging to a crazed sleeping person...)

After a bit more arguing, I guess I did finally go back to bed - much to Lovey's relief. :) But what's really startling about this whole story is...when did I begin sleep walking? And what if I had fallen down the stairs?!?!

Proud as a Peacock

I've been a bit lax in my posting lately...I have thoughts bumping around in my head that I want to share, but I need to get them organized first!

However, to provide some kind of blog fodder, I will say that I was SO PROUD of my husband last night...really and truly proud. He was in the process of making a Bible Pictionary based on the chapters we've been studying out of Isaiah for Bible Study. He has spent HOURS choosing words, deciding on whether or not to make pictionary cards or not, and finalizing the layout (after accidentally deleting his entire project in Word -- he had to get creative with the pages he had printed out and make it work! Yet another reason I was proud of him. :) ). Last night, while cutting out the cards and atempting to laminate them in our handy dandy little laminater, the page got stuck. And I mean STUCK. No pulling or prodding could loosen the little bugger.

Now, if I had been in that situation, I would have been raving mad. I guess it's the red-headed temper in me. I would have been yelling and stomping and declaring how dumb this whole idea was anyway and WHY did I ever waste so much time on this...no one will even appreciate it...yada yada yada. But you know what he did? He remained calm. The ENTIRE time. Hardly even complained or banged things around. In fact, he even FIXED the darn thing.

I was amazed. I told him how proud I was of him...but I don't think he came even close to understanding how much my heart welled up with love and pride for him in that moment...so I thought I'd share it with all of you, so you can be proud too!

(I had wanted to share photographic evidence...but my lovey isn't too keen on that sort of thing. Although I think I could have gotten away with it...but I didn't want to irritate him -- especially after all that he'd gone through!!)