BA

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I'm a bookaholic.

Hi, Sarah.

My addiction started at a young age. Picture books, Dr. Seuss, anything I could get my hands on. Then I graduated to chapter books and things really got bad.

Currently, I have a bit of a problem. Five days ago, I had two books sitting on my nightstand. Before I knew it, my nightstand had turned into this:

See, Christmas came and I got a new book from my in-laws, plus the complete Sherlock Holmes from my wonderful enabler husband. Then I went to the library to return some items and pick up a book a friend recommended and accidentally came home with four books (none of which were the recommendation; it's on hold for me along with one other...). Then after dinner with my dad tonight, I went home with two more books.

Oops.

Good thing I'm on vacation.

Watch and Learn

A couple weeks ago, a faculty member in my department lost his wife to cancer. It all happened quite quickly and was a shock. Through it all, this faculty member has been the picture of grace and contentment. I've watched him walk through our hallways, stopping to accept a hug or a kind word, always giving thanks for the warm thoughts and prayers offered.

I attended the funeral, though I didn't know his wife well, I felt that it was important to be there and support his family just in presence. One of the liturgies chosen for the service was from Psalm 103:

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits--
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases...

I stop there because that's where I had to stop, tears welling up in my eyes as I thought of my mother and the cancer eating away at her body. And I realized then that the disease our Lord heals is the worst of all cancers, attacking the soul instead of the body, but that our sin has already been healed.

I mourn for my friend, but I am also grateful to him. His strength and dependence on the Lord during this difficult time in his life is beautiful to watch, and I'm thankful to him for the lessons he is able to pass along to me, whether he's aware of them or not.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

A Few of My Favorite Things

A Christmas tree is a big tradition in our family. We always had a real tree at my mom's house. We would go out together, the day after Thanksgiving, and cut down a tree (ah hem, I would cut down the tree).

Then we would spend hours putting lights on and decorating, Christmas music blaring.

When Kent and I got married, we switched to a fake tree. It's really more sensible, plus, we live in a condo on the second floor, so it would be even more of a pain to drag a real tree through the common area, up the stairs, etc.

But I still love my ornaments. When I moved out, my mom gave me a big box of ornaments and I love seeing them every year as we decorate our tree.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Homemade ornament circa 1987. This is from Sunday school at Fellowship church, and has always been a favorite of mine. Check out the collar, the black Mary Janes, and the pink and turquoise plaid!

My sister gave me this ornament when we were in college, I think. This is Bob the tomato from Veggie Tales. Kate and I have a fond place in our hearts for Veggie Tales, and this always makes me think of my sister, dancing to Celine Dion Christmas music, and her just being a general awesome sister and pain in the patootie.


This is a new favorite for me. My friend Megan (one of the Fab 5) gave this to me this year. It's a clear ornament with some favorite lines from one of our favorite books. Megan and I watch BBC miniseries together and Cranford is one of our favorites. Hence, the Cranford ornament. Brilliant!

Do you have favorite ornaments? Anyone else have a green felt ornament from Fellowship? :-)

Oh, So THIS is What It Feels Like.

My entire life I've had curly hair. It's a blessing and a curse. A blessing because most of my friends paid big bucks for people to perm their hair or make it curly for up-dos. A curse because it's always frizzy and I can't do things that most people do. Like run my hands through my hair. Or use a brush without fear that it will get stuck and the handle will break off when I try to wrench it out of my hair.

For my sister-in-law's wedding, I wanted to maybe try a straight up-do. I thought it might be fun to try something different for a change. So last night, my friends Leslie and Aletha straightened my hair for me as a practice run.

Here's Aletha not wanting her picture taken, me in my bridesmaid dress with straight hair, and Leslie really excited.


Here's a close-up I took later that night (ugh, my eyes look so tired).


I think it looks a little dry, and the ends obviously need a trim. But the weirdest thing? I BRUSHED my hair this morning. And I can run my fingers through my hair. It feels soft and smooth and not curly.

Weird.

The Office Recap Friday

Merry Christmas, Dunder Mifflin!

Last night's episode was good, not great. Any Christmas episode has great moments (like the gift exchange), but I think I could have done without the "will we all lose our jobs" drama.

The Office promised to be recession-relevant, so it makes sense. Lots of families right now worry about losing a job, especially around our consumer-driven Christmas. But I could have gotten on board with a Christmas-only episode.

Why? All the best parts had to do with Christmas!

1. Dwight and the "Rock Center" tree lighting. "I don't know, maybe I'm just depressed." Followed by the "exuberant" declaration that the tree reveal was a success.

2. The gift exchange. Kelly getting an Edward Cullen poster, Toby getting a kite. And of course, Dwight and his nut-cracker. Lol. How perfect! I was so proud of Michael.

Oh! I almost forgot about Andy's twelve days of Christmas. This guy has got it BAD for Erin, and I really do hope it works out. Andy rockin' out to the twelve drummers drumming was awesome.

3. The warehouse workers. We rarely see them anymore, so the party was a great opportunity to see them again (plus newcomer Matt).

4. Karaoke. I can't tell you how much I love it when The Office does karaoke. Cracks me up every time.

5. Phyllis as Santa, Michael as Santa/Jesus. Nuff said.

Well, what did y'all think? Did you like the Christmas episode this year? Did it stack up to Christmases past?

Christmas-filled Weekend!

I had a long list of things to do this weekend. It was awesome. I love lists (I am my father's daughter).

Friday, I stopped by to see my friends Allison and Travis and their two-week old baby, Lina (adorable). Then I went to Target and Meijer to get groceries.

Saturday, Kent and I put up our Christmas tree, then had dinner with friend. It was great to catch up, play games, laugh, and eat. :-)

Here's our beautiful tree:


And one of my favorite ornaments:


Then on Sunday, my mom came over and helped Kent and I make and decorate lots and lots of Christmas cookies. Some to eat, some to take to a party I'm going to on Tuesday.


I crossed lots of things off my list, but mostly, I enjoyed getting into the holiday spirit and getting things accomplished!

The Office Recap Friday OR Dwight's Diabolical Plan

Good Friday morning, blog readers. I am in a great mood this morning after working out with my friend Leslie last night, hopping in the tanning bed* for 8 minutes, and then watching The Office last night!

Last night's episode: I definitely enjoyed watching it. Michael's promise to those kids was so painful to watch. Hey Mr. Scott, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do, make our dreams come true! Ugh.

The only thing that saved Michael for me was the fact that he actually participated in these kids lives. I mean, he apparently has gone to concerts and sporting events for these kids over the last ten years. And maybe it's true. Maybe just the dream and the promise was enough to keep these kids hopeful for the future. Meh. It's a draw.

By the way, I am enjoying this new Michael/Erin relationship. I wonder if it eventually gets complicated when Andy and Erin finally go on a date. Will Michael suddenly develop feelings for our new receptionist?

Next. Dwight's Diabolical Plan. I'm so excited for this. I loved his little "By six o'clock, Jim will be fired" and "Five minutes ahead of schedule, so I'm right on schedule" lines. I actually believed it would work. I was almost a little disappointed when he listened to his pen recording and found out David Wallace still loves Jim. I'm hoping for a little fired/rehired action like when Dwight went to Staples.

And when Ryan came over at the end and joined forces with Dwight? I knew the closet office would come back to bite Jim.

Pam was super cute in this episode. Her pregnant belly is looking lovely and she was probably my favorite talking head after Andy accused her of going from two sales to four. "YUP." Awesome.

Favorite character of the night? Stanley. Both in his laughter/explanation of Michael's promise and in Dwight's impersonation of him on the phone to Wallace.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode and I'm hoping we get an awesome Christmas episode soon!

Happy Friday!

*I am actually not a big fan of the practice of tanning, but (a) I'm wearing a black dress for my sister-in-law's wedding in Jan and don't want to look like an Addams family member and (b) being surrounded by sunshine (even fake sunshine) in this depressing climate does feel amazing.