Surprise!

Probably, the most exciting thing that occurred in my recent history. I was so excited, the camera was shaking a lot. Angie came home from Africa a week earlier than any of her family expected. I drove her up to Cedar Falls to surprise her family.




Angie's mom called her Grandma to come over so Ang could surprise Grandma too. I wasn't standing in the right spot, but listen close and you'll hear Grandma B's reaction.

I have...

I love surveys and just about any ridiculous quizzes you could find. This does not have the same questions as the one I did about a month ago... well, most are different. Things I have done are BOLD.

1. Started your own blog (Since 2005!)
2. Slept under the stars (in Door County and Burkina Faso)
3. Played in a band (does 5th grade count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (to missions- for sure)
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (does on a boat in Green Bay count? Cause YES!)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (most of my craftiness)
15. Adopted a child (someday, Lord willing!)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (in third grade. They gave us special cards to look through)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (Marcus & I's first kiss was in the rain!)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (jess's - I even smoked for the role... I'm hardcore about my craft.)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (i think my toe cause I stub them so much)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (someday)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible - not all at once. but I have read every book.
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Muscatine Runner of the Year... Noel Spencer!

Well, I feel a little guilty about not posting, but no one reads this anyway, so who cares. Thought I might take a moment to brag about my husband though. He is Muscatine Runner of the Year! It is divided by age group and he beat every male in the 15-29 age group! How cool. He loves running so much, and he's getting pretty fast. The cool thing about the presentation day was that whoever guessed closest to their actual time for a 3 mile race, won a turkey. Noel was only 4 seconds off his time! They didn't tell people their exact times but he must have run it in 21:56 or 22:04. Crazy. Teri is one of the runners and she is fabulous about taking pictures and documenting all the races. She is a sweet woman, and truly generous. In fact, the only reason Noel has a scrapbook is because she takes pictures, prints them, and shares them with us! Here are some of her wonderful photos.

All of the Runners who were present to accept their awards.

Noel's BFFFF Joe. (Best Friend Forever FireFighter). His favorite co-worker and the man who got him into running.

Joe rarely smiles in Pictures. This is a good picture of both of them. This was the 1st RotY win for both of them as well!

Noel with his plaque. He was pretty excited. He also won me a turkey, which is not present in these photos... but I can't wait to learn how to cook a free bird! Yay! Congrats! Noel and Joe, and the rest of the Muscatine Running Friends Club. It was a great season!

I will totally admit it.

Not only are the leaves starting to change color, but the weather is getting cooler too! Frost is possible tonight! I love fall and winter and the change and the seasons and the holidays. And Christmas! I love Christmas. Although, I did pause and shudder yesterday driving home, thanking God for the awesome cooler temp, but remembering the only thing I hate about winter is the wind! Brr. When it's cold, it's always the wind. When it's 95 degrees and very humid, can I get a breeze through my apt? Of course not, but I can always count on the wind chill. Oh and I got a new duvet cover for my birthday in May, so now it's cool enough at night to keep it on the bed! Yay! Love cold sleeping weather. Love the fall. Welcome fall. Entertain me with your beauty.

Another thing I love about fall is that new TV shows come back. I'm pretty annoyed by those people that claim to not watch TV and then proceed to list off 3 or more shows that they love "but I don't really watch TV." I think it's become trendy in our generation to not be TV watchers. But, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker. Having not had cable about every other year for the last six years, I pretty much went without. I did just fine, I read some books, I crocheted a lot(even finishing an afghan...) but now, while I crochet, I can watch some great entertainment. Plus, you have to remember that my husband works 24hour shifts, which means I'm home alone 1/3 of my life and I can't play chess solo, or labyrinth for that matter. Who am I kidding. I can't play chess at all. And no, I'm not even interested in learning how.

Anyway, we don't pay for cable, the HDTV just picks up the HD channels, whether or not the cable company is aware of this, I am not sure, but I will surely not be telling them. We only have the major networks, TBS, Food Network and NatGeo- let me take this opportunity to inform you I can school you on all on any bloods and crips trivia. Word. Unfortunately, this set up does not allow me to watch one of my new favorite shows on FX. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Love this show. The tagline is "it's like Seinfeld on Crack", ha totally. Hilarious. Four friends and Danny Devito in a Irish pub in Philly. They get into all sorts of trouble and instead of helping each other out, they turn on each other and hilarity ensues. Best. show. on. TV. period. It is the one show that has even come close to replacing one of my favorite shows of all time... Arrested Development and if you're that excited about reliving some awesome Arrested Development moments, get excited for this Highlight of 2009!


I have a few other time wasters... Mondays, check out How I Met your Mother on CBS and Catch Warren Sapp(ex-NFL player) on Dancing with the Stars, which is on ABC.

Besides the Dancing with the Stars results show, Tuesdays are dead to me.

Wednesdays on the other hand. So great! At 8(ABC) it's Private Practice, which is the spin off of Grey's anatomy. I prefer it over grey's. I think it's more grown up and a little more mature. I also don't think they'll make the same mistakes with the back and forth, back and forth character twists as grey's. Grey's was boring for awhile. We'll see. I have high hopes. Plus Tim Daly, the guy from Wings is in it. I heart him. I hearted wings.

My favorite sophomore show, (watch me wax technical) is Dirty Sexy Money on Wednesdays at 9(ABC). Peter Krause-originally from Six Feet Under, Donald Sutherland, Lucy Lui, one of the Baldwins = Hit show! Basically, it boils down to "are these people too rich for their own good, or are they evil too?"

And of course, Grey's Anatomy which is on Thursdays at 8, the same time as dun dun duh... The Office. The greatest invention is high speed Internet and broadcasting corporations deciding to air full episodes online. ABC has a much better online player with Mozilla, my browser of choice, so I usually catch up on Grey's when Noel is at work, and we watch The Office live.

Now you know whats on my agenda, you can come out of the closet and admit you watch too. I watch a whole bunch. Silly me. But I sure do love me some sitcoms.

I love Empire Records, Even all growsed up.

One of the best teen angst movies of the 90's for sure, is Empire Records. Meg and I went to see this at the McHenry Theatre. I don't remember what grade we were in, but I remember wearing the plaid mini-skirts and thigh highs with big clunky shoes. Meg, Ang and I actually had a photo shoot at my house too. (There will not be pictures to prove it). Anyway, AJ was probably my first, "he's sooo cute" actor. I did not have pictures of him all over my walls, but there was a definite dreaminess to him. What's really funny is that as I've gotten older the artsy AJ is no longer my main Empire Records man. It's Lucas. His take chargeness is very becoming, we won't talk about the fact that he stole his boss/guardian's life savings and lost it gambling in Atlantic City. He was just trying to do what was right, albeit going about it the wrong way. He seemed to have an inate sense of what was really happening with his friends. His attention is just kinda dreamy.

Okay, anyway the point of me telling this story is that I can still see them after all these years. As first picture states, this is AJ.

AJ. "What's with you today?"

Lucas. "What's with today, today?"

(You might also recognize Lucas -real name Rory Cochrane- from Dazed and Confused.)

So in my sophomore year of college I was sitting in my dorm room flipping channels when I found the new CSI: Miami. Guess who was now starring in CSI:Miami? Yep, Lucas. All grown up. He's still pretty dreamy. He's no longer on the show, and being without cable tv every other year for the past 6 years, I don't know what happened to the character.
I was pretty bored last night because Noel was working so I turned on CSI:Miami while I cleaned the living room. Guess who was on CSI:Miami? Yep, AJ. His real name is Johnny Whitworth and he was playing an undercover government agent. He was pretty scruffy but still dreamy.

I am pretty much over the CSI series but I enjoy being the memories that it's brought me. I might have to watch some Empire Records now, and remember these guys in their former glory.

Off the table.

Thursday night, Noel and I enjoyed a dinner out at Texas Roadhouse complimentary of my mystery shopping ventures. It was wonderful as usual and we had a good time and some good conversation. Mostly we talked about Crystal Lake and their riduculous demand that he prematurely quit his job. (Noel spoke with the Chief last week who told Noel he would need to live in IL and be ready to work on Oct. 2- which was three weeks from that day, and without even a formal offer or medical exam, which is totally shady!) We talked about how that was not a smart move and weighed the comments of my uncle, who said it's "not a great place to work, but a stepping stone." Yeah, we got home from dinner and I got the mail. There was a letter from Crystal Lake, having gone through this process for the last 3 years, we know a phone call is good, letter is bad. So he opened the letter and we were right, Crystal Lake decided not to consider him for final employment. This is actually the first rejection letter that brought us sweet relief. One great thing, make that the ONLY great thing about a testing/hiring process is that you really get a feel for the company/department you could be working for. Being a paid FF, has given Noel the experience to know what separates the good from the bad. Crystal Lake, was a bad... In terms of good departments to work for, Noel is pretty sure that Naperville, IL and Denver, CO are the most solid departments. They both happen to still be options. Naperville is more of a stretch but Denver will likely make a decision in the next 3 weeks. We're so thankful that God shut the door to Crystal Lake. As great as it would be to live closer to my family, we don't want to be stuck in a town/job that isn't a good fit for us. Instead, we both have a peace that Crystal Lake was not where we were meant to be and it's wonderful to not stress out about that option. Here's to hoping that this is the week for Denver to make offers.