SNOW, SNOW GO AWAY!!!!!

I'm so sick of the snow already! Why can't it be spring?? Just last week I was driving with my windows down because it was so nice ... and now I have temporarily  killed my car because of the snow! Poor car :( I was trying to stop at a red light in East Lansing, and my poor car slid across two empty lanes of traffic (a one way road) into a parking lot, hit the unlucky car parked there, and kept slidding to the sidewalk on the crossroad, where my car died. Praise God! I only bumped the other car doing minimal damage to him, I ended up in the hospital parking lot so security filed the report and no ticket was necessary, and Dad was working nearby so he could come help my car.

Okay I think I'm done ranting about snow for now ;)

Long Time

Wow it's been a long time since I last posted. I just don't ever have anything to say.

Not much has happened; I started work at Dairy Queen again, not getting a lot of hours yet. Still working at MSU too. It's still disgustingly white with snow outside. I hate driving in it, but there's not much I can do about that, because I have to work.

Only "new" thing is my phone ... Mom randomly decided to upgrade our phones, and somehow convinced Dad to get unlimited texting on the plan ... something I've been asking for for oh about 4 years ...

and Mom gets it in a random visit to the Sprint store.

That's really all ... so now you know why I haven't posted ... my life is boring :)

Holiday Season

I just love this season!!! All the family-time, relax-time, doing-nothing-time, it's the greatest! We have our traditions (just like everyone else) Christmas is split into 3 "parties" ... the Bishop Party Christmas Eve night --Family who tends to only show their lovely faces at this time of year -- BLTs (oddly enough this is about the only time of the year that I eat BLTs ... I ate 2 this year! -- Aunt Jill's Lemon Poppyseed Bread, the Winebrenner/Norton (immediate family)Party Christmas morning -- Orange Cinnamon rolls (I set off the smoke alarm while baking them this year) -- Opening presents in order of age Willie-Mom one at a time (actually Willie, Stevie & Tommy opened their without the "rotation" kinda hard to make a 2-yr-old wait til its his turn again),  the Winebrenner Party whenever it fits into the majority's schedule (this year it was the day after C-mas) We missed out this year due to sickness ... usually its a lot of sitting around doing nothing,  not being talked to (fun ... not)--  We take up an "offering" for a family in need, it's really a great idea. -- Aunt Sally's cheesy potatoes.
New Year's Eve/Day -- we rent a bunch of movies usually all featuring the same actor/actress (kids, chick-flick, drama, thriller) and watch them way into New Year's morning. Of course we take a break right before midnight to watch the ball drop in NY. This year we chose to watch Robert Downey Jr movies, but then switched to Sandra Bullock on New Year's Eve when we went to rent the videos ... but we couldn't find a thriller or kids movie with her so we really only had 2 with our "feature actress".

Blessings from God

Two weeks ago was my last day of work for the season at Dairy Queen. I was prepared to be without a job for the next two months of "Dairy Queen Winter Break", with the way the economy is I just didn't expect to find anything to fill the gap. But last week I was called for an interview for a clerical position at MSU. It's really amazing to see God working sometimes! I recieved my final Dairy Queen check on Friday, and I started my new job today! Just thought I'd share my little blessing with all of you :)

Christmas Decorating

I love Christmas Season! Mostly for the meaning behind the celebration, but also because I get to use my talents most during this time of year. I love the decorating part, making the house look pretty! Our first Christmas living w/ G-ma and G-pa we kinda over did the lights ... hahaha! This year we went for classic, simple.

When we all "grew up" I told Mom it was time to quit using all of the nasty, falling apart, school craft ornaments. Of course we saved them, because they are memories, but we quit putting them up. That year I bought Mom a set of new decorations, which I have added to every year since. Tommy and Stevie helped decorate the tree this year, so most of the ornaments are on the bottom :) They have colds, so the look sad, but they had so much fun helping.

 

Usually there aren't presents under the tree until maybe the week of Christmas. Mom is a slacker! HAHA! But I did my shopping before December this year, so there are a few there ... and amazingly Mom has a few wrapped already too!

The wonderful photographer for this was of course Valerie, she's amazing! I will probably be adding more pictures as we decorate more in the next few weeks.

Christmas 'Round the Town Prep

Mom does a community craft show every year, called Christmas 'Round the Town. It's fun except for the week before. The week before is utter chaos, literally! Mom tends to save the bulk of her projects until then. This year is better though, it is her 8th year though.
Every year we go rosehip hunting. Rosehips are the seed pods on wild rose bushes, the thorns on these bushes are evil - kinda like a fish hook. Mom, of course, makes us all wear bright colors because if we don't the hunters will think we are a deer and shoot us ...

This is Susie looking conspicuous so she isn't mistaken for a deer

While searching for proper, thick rosehipping gloves, I found a roll of electrical tape and a roll of orange trail marking ribbon and decided they were needed to complete our hunting ensembles.

Thanks to our "trip photographer", Valerie, we have pictures of this year's adventure. Now we have to suffer all the other prep work this week.

Coffee

Coffee is an addiction for me :) Maybe not literally, but I do have at least 1 cup of it almost every day. My cousin Rachelle and I have agreed that one day we will travel the country and stop at a quaint coffee shop in every state. One such quaint shop we found in East Tawas, MI it is called A Different Blend; I got a wonderful Iced Peppermint Mocha, but Shell only got Iced Tea (crazy girl)!

At another coffee shop in Oscoda, MI, I had another wonderful latte. I don't remember the name of this shop.

There are two coffee shops where I live that I like to frequent when I can; they are The Sunfield Coffee Co. in Sunfield, MI and State Grounds in Hastings, MI. And of course there is always Starbucks, but the closest one is 40 minutes away :'(
So here ends my "ode" to my coffee addiction. Hope you enjoyed it ;)