The communication issues we had with the lady at the greenhouse were astounding. Honestly, there are few things in life more frustrating than someone who does not even attempt to speak on the same wavelength as you. It was like there was a time delay in every response. If we asked a question, the answer came two responses later...every time. It's one type of example of times when I get fascinated at the idea of figuring out why people have certain behaviors, learned over time by many different situations.
The wreaths outside and crimping table inside reminded me of church youth group years ago. The fam spent alot of hours putting together real Christmas wreaths in the basement of our church to sell and raise money for youth trips. I wasn't allowed to use the crimper back then, so I was a little tempted to try it out. Don't worry, I still have all my fingers.
Did you know that when you put a clamp on something, it squishes BOTH sides of the object you are clamping? Ya it does.
Oh MAN! There was TOTALLY some room left over by the white meat. Some waldorf salad would have easily fit in there! Mom wised up a little bit this year. For the last few years (ish...I don't recall how many) Mom has been preparing the entire Thanksgiving meal herself. Since they haven't been large family hooplas, it's not a big deal, but it's still alot of things to prepare at one time. She finally decided to delegate a couple things to Eric and me. 
Bro brought the deviled eggs and I made a dessert. JUST a dessert you say? HO no. Million Dollar Oats'n Honey Granola Pie! Yes I saw it on Oprah - no I don't want to talk about it.
Marc recently discovered that I had an interest in shooting, and contacted me shortly before the end of the workday on Wednesday to see if I'd like take the gun for a spin at his parent's place. I'm not sure what he was doing all day, but I don't think it was work. The best answer I've gotten out of him about what he's up to these days is "I'm a hobo".
Sorry LaVerne
Because of the extra long meeting, I missed the vast majority of Salsa Rueda 101 at Joanne/Nicole/Amanda's dance studio (garage), but was able to enjoy what I did learn in that half hour more than the eight weeks of swing in a formal class setting two years ago. It was great to see new and old faces in a new setting. Matt (hooded sweatshirt) did a fantastic job leading the lessons, and everyone pitched in to help me catch up when I arrived. Only stepped on Becky's foot one time! Not sure I'll become a dancing fool like Becks, but the comfort zone exit was definitely worth it.
After practice, choir folk, bandies and several others checked out a semi-new place in town called the Chili Works Cafe. No surprises from Sarah, but from the look on her face, she was thinking about it. Three out of five Sarahs in the same place at the same time. Kinda scary, but just like the president and the next few in line for command, we don't allow all five Sarah's to be in the same place at the same time.
Later that day, I attended our Church's Adoption Ministry open house. Sounds weird, I know. But I knew most of the families there, and was invited by the family hosting it. Good times. Met some new folks, learned more about the current situations some of them were in, and got to pet the puppy! Several adoptions have gone through or nearly completed this year in families that I had already been friends with. 
There are still alot of adoptions within our church kicking off right now, but I don't know them very well, and many of them belong to our sister church in Washington. The family hosting the event brought home Nathan this past June from Guatemala, and I had the joy of being there for my first adoption homecoming. Here are links to some of the families who have or will be finishing adoptions soon, Lord willing.
As you can see, Josh is a very cheery fellow. He's often able to stay positive even on a crazy busy and stressful day. A jovial chap with a witty remark on hand at all times. We knew each other from Highschool track, choir and MST3K nights with a couple of people from my class. Today's MST3K can be found now at RiffTrax (not sure every clip is appropriate).
The instructions were all in ounces, so Josh had a heck of a time converting to cups and teaspoons. Eventually, we found that a miscalculation was made, and everything except that one ingredient had to be increased by 3/4. This is how I measured 3/4 of the original amount of Crisco. I'm a genius. We could have just increased that one ingredient by a fraction, and doubled everything else, but nooooo, don't listen to Kevin. It's nice having a roomie that doesn't read the blog :-) Don't worry ladies, we are a couple of eligible bachelors who know how to resolve conflict. Not peacefully, but resolved none the less :-)
Despite our meticulous measuring, the final biscuit batter did not turn out correctly We lost 50% of it sticking to the wax paper and Josh's hands. Very sad, but at the end of the two hour ordeal, we did have some excellent biscuits and gravy. Thanks Josh!
Ex-rommie Jed gave the talk at the Rescue mission Monday, prepping the men of the mission for this Christmas season from Matthew 2. Mr. Saunders spends alot of time serving the mission and pouring love out on these guys. He played piano for us which is a huge relief for me leading the singing. If the men pick a hymn that is difficult for me to sing, I can still count on him being able to play anything they throw at us. The mission guys sing pretty loud, which I like because it covers up my poor singing. However, it was this week that we found out someone in the front lobby listens to the microphone feed from the service and gets to hear every bad note from my mouth very clearly. For crying out loud! He wasn't complaining when Linda sang though. She can SANG!
Noah and I decided to crash Amanda's B-day party after discipleship. We were either too late or she was just too embarrassed to admit that no one showed up except her roomie Joanne :-) Happy Birthday Amanda. I can't give a birthday wish to all my friends on here, but I'll let you have one just this once. Great cake Nichole!
For the hundredth time, I like new things. So we took a new (to me) route toward Chicago to make it to Sawyer, Michigan. Jerelyn's home town of Gridley has two gas stations, an AC church and some large farm buildings. But there are signs of booming growth in the local economy...a brand new car wash.
Mike and I called dibs on Trey so that Kari couldn't use the "I'm holding a baby" excuse for not dancing, like usual. She was just left with "I don't wanna" like the rest of us. Trey learned all kinds of things being around uncle Mike and Kevin. How to pick a wine and pick on a girl.
The Deutch man is a dancing fool. At Rodney's wedding, it made me so frustrated to see that he could make dorky dancing cool. It's still just dorky when I do it. After crazy time with the kids, Momma had to break in.
