Christmas Favorites

As I was driving home from work I was thinking about blogging (cause it's been a while) and as I cranked my Christmas music two notches higher, it came to me. Christmas music favorites of course. I mean, everyone has them in some form or another. Of course, a list of just favorites wouldn't do, so I broke it down into more categories.

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Songs
1. White Christmas - as sung by Bing, how could that not make everyone's list
2. Do you Hear what I Hear - I love all versions.
3. The Little Drummer Boy - ditto
4. Winter Wonderland - love the visual picture I get (would rather not feel it though).
5. I'll be Home for Christmas - Just gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Hymns
1. Far, Far, Away on Judeah's Plains - Instant classic in my book
2. Behold a New Star - It's on the Kingdom Quartet cd and I love it
3. What Child is This - But with the right words! (child of MARY)
4. Glory to God in the Highest - I love the power behind this song.
5. As with Gladness Men of Old - I think this is because it is to the tune of For the Beauty of the Earth.

Top 5 Newer Christmas Songs (for lack of a better term)
1. Joseph's Song - Michael Card's ultimate song, I have loved it since I first heard it.
2. Grown-Up Christmas Wish - powerful lyrics from Amy Grant
3. The Kid in Me - A Phillips, Craig, & Dean song which fits me perfect
4. We were the Reason - I am not sure who originally wrote it but the lyrics are amazing.
5. A Strange Way to save the World - Another one with lyrics that intrigue me.

Top 5 Christmas Songs I DON'T LIKE (yes, there are some)
1. Chesnuts Roasting on an Open fire (It started out because of the jokes with the name and now I just really can't stand this song).
2. Feliz Navidad - can any song repeat more than this one. Drives me bananas.
3. Grandma Got ran over by a Reindeer - When I was a kid I thought it was funny, now I think it is slightly sick.
4. All I want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth - Again, it just plain annoys me.
5. I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause - Just a weird and twisted song in my book.

Books I wish they’d turn into movies (or at least better movies).

1. Northanger Abbey – One of my favorite Jane Austen books and the only movie version of it is bad.
2. Ella Enchanted – The movie version of it was so off from the book I can’t even get myself to like it. Someone please do the book justice.
3. The Hobbit – Now that the trilogy is done, let’s go back and do the prequel.
4. Robin Jones Gunn’s Glenbrooke Series – I just think they’d make good romantic comedies.
5. Dee Henderson’s O’Malley series – good suspense stories with loveable characters.
6. Wicked – Basically I want a movie version of the stage show rather than the book, the book is a little too twisted. Same original cast is vital.
7. A Junie B. Jones movie – combine aspects of the books and you have a very funny kids movie.

Any to add?

Evil Snow

As I was seeing out one of my kids at the door and explaining to her older brothers why she managed to get green crayon on her jeans, I suddenly hear screaming, running, and jumping behind me. Silly me thinks "gee, we've had two shootings outside of school recently, what are the chances this is number 3." Nope that wasn't it.

My kids saw snowflakes. Snow has come.

That evil four letter word.

I made up this poem on the way home.

Snow is evil
Snow is vile
I wish snow would go away for a long, long, while.

I guess this explains why my kids were horrid today.

On the way out to our cars, three of us agreed that their is only one decent 4 letter word in the English language.

JUNE!

Internet Woes

I have come to the conclusion today that I am way too dependent on my internet connection. It hasn't been working right for the past month or so and then for the past 3 days, has hardly worked at all. It's been driving me mad. For some reason I go on the computer for almost 30 minutes every morning when I wake up and the fact that I keep missing that is driving me crazy. I have had no e-mail or blogging for several days in a row and I find myself strangely bored whenever that happens. I think I need to take a class. "Hello, my name is Janelle and I have an internet addiction."

Speaking of which, when Adam got it to work tonight after my multiple attempts I immediately dropped all the house work I was doing and starting reading blogs.

I am a sick puppy.

Please someone order me some therapy.

As if once wasn't enough...

As if getting our school shot at once this week wasn't enough.

Today round two.

This time at the back door of the building.

Anyone know of any teaching jobs available away from Saginaw?

My hair if offically turning white.

Witty Wishes

As I am frantically making my way through 3 seasons of Gilmore Girls before Kayleen returns them to Arizona, I have had several depressing moments where I have wanted to be more like fictional characters. Here are a couple of my wishes.

1. I wish I had the Gilmore wit - sometimes they just seem to say the right thing at the right time. I realize it is the script writers, but I would love to have that talent. Usually what I say doesn't come out right the first time, especially if I am upset or confused.

2. I wish I could make references like the Gilmore Girls - It cracks me up the literature, movies, music, and people that they insert into every episode. Again, I know it is the writers but hey, when they mentioned the movie THEM I about died. I was forced to watch that movie in 7th grade science class and have had nightmares of giant ants overtaking the world ever since.

3. I wish I could live in Stars Hollow - Yeah, love the small time life. Have a local diner to go to every day, know everybody, a comfy life. And they are only 30 minutes from a big city when they actually miss it. If anyone knows where a real town like Stars Hollow is, I would love to know.

4. I need a Dean - okay, this is a totally childish wish and I know he is not even on the series anymore, but I like Dean. He is like a Mr. Knightly for me. I am depressed to think he is not in the series anymore. I need a Dean. (Maryann, you can keep Jess he hasn't grown on me yet).

Okay, my whining is over. As Bob & Larry say "God made you special and he loves you very much!" Sometimes it's fun to dream though.

Various Babbles for the last 24 hours

First off, I had one of those scary life flashing before my eyes moments yesterday when the kindergarten teacher came running to my door at school to tell me to pull the shades and shut/lock my door because their were gunshots fired in front of the school. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Needless to say, the rest of the day went by in a weird haze. The outcome of all this - the guys got away, the cops got the shell casings, and the school district tired not to advertise it too much. It wasn't aimed at the school, it was just a cars shooting at each others case that happened to take place in front of the school. Needless to say, I am rethinking the idea of needing to transfer to a new building.

I went right from school to the hospital where I was until 8:30 at night with my dad while he had surgery. He is doing okay now, just a long recovery ahead. I got home (actually mom & dads, but I still call it home) and played phone tag with 3 people while finishing my sub plans for today. Still, I managed to save enough time for 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls (finally on Season 2) before I went to bed.

Today, I have the fun task of spending the day with my niece. That has been an adventure. I love her dearly but I have learned from this that I am really not ready to be a full time mom any time soon. It would drive me mad. Here is why...

1. It is very embarrassing that a child that always behaves perfectly well for her grandmother at library story hour would scream her head off when her Aunt Janelle takes her.

2. I don't find it entertaining to chase a kid through Living Waters asking her to return a fish key chain to a shelf.

3. Having coughing contests during lunch makes for a dull conversation (I never knew that fake coughing could be so laughable).

4. I am sick of any Kidsongs, Ms. Patty Cake, or any other kid video that she begs to watch.

5. Lack of conversation in general - okay I realize she is only 1.5 years old but I was going out of my mind today. I was talking to myself just to make conversation. It makes for a long day.

On a side note - my current favorite Gilmore Girl moment is in the episode where we meet Jess for the first time and while he is walking with Luke, Luke just shoves him in the lake. That made my day.

Second side note - The spell check wanted to change the word gunshots to sunsets. Yeah, that would really be the same kind of thing! Good grief!

Why I will never win a hanging pictures award...

This weekend, I took it upon myself to finally get the pictures laying all over my house up on the walls. While doing this, I reached the conclusion that no one in their right mind would ever give me an award for hanging pictures. Here is why...

I started with the hallway, entryway, kitchen and Adam's room first as a warm up, thinking I would improve to be at the top of my game for the living room and my room where the most pictures were going. Take a wild stab at which two rooms turned out the worse. I wasted a lot of my day trying to get it right and failed miserably.

Even with a measuring tape, I still couldn't manage to get pictures lined up with each other. Case and point my living room. On one wall I have 4 5'7'' pictures of Ireland, 2 on each side of my window. After carefully measuring and planning it out, the pictures on one side of the window are about 2'' higher than the ones on the other side.

It took me three tries to line up the two colleges on the wall by my computer so that they were even with each other. Again, I was measuring.

My bedroom was another mess entirely. I forgot what pictures were planned where so I made a few adjustments. I didn't like how three pictures with different frames looked together on a wall, so I traded out frames until they matched.

All in all after a long Saturday of too much time taken up, the job is done. Hopefully it will be deemed tolerable when someone comes to see it. Adam wouldn't notice so I need a live human body to come and check.

Prison vs. Work

I ran across this not too long ago. Very appropriate for my time spent at Dow!

IN PRISON you spend the majority of your time in an 8x10 cell.
AT WORK you spend most of your time in a 6x8 cubicle.

IN PRISON you get three meals a day.
AT WORK you only get a break for 1 meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON you get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.

IN PRISON a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.

IN PRISON you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON you get your own toilet.
AT WORK you have to share.

IN PRISON they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK you cannot even speak to your family and friends.

IN PRISON all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out. AT WORK you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

IN PRISON there are wardens who are often sadistic.
AT WORK they are called managers.

Upcoming Pride & Prejudice

There are finally some clips on line of the new Pride and Prejudice opening in a week or so. My thoughts so far...kind of mixed. I am still trying to get used to Keira Knightley as Elizabeth. She is almost too over the top for me in the clips that I have seen. I like the new Darcy though, he seems good. It is obvious that this new version will deviate from the book but hopefully it will be amusing anyways. Go watch the clips and add your two cents worth.

I love Michigan in the fall!

If there was one seson in Michigan that I wish would last longer is the fall. The weather has been perfect for the past week (in the 60s). The leaves are beautiful right now! This is the time of year I love. I wish I could bottle it up and save it up for the dreary 7 months of winter that will be coming soon. I wish this weather could stay forever.

This seems like an appropriate time to discuss...

You might be from Michigan if...

• You consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 8 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by
• Your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March
• You instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of the year
• Your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead.
• You have worn shorts and a parka at the same time
• Your town has an equal number of bars and churches
• "Vacation" means going up north past US-75 for the weekend.
• You measure distance in hours.
• You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
• You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.
• You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
• You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).
• You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
• You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
• You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.
• You can identify a southern or eastern accent. (or a Pinconning one)
• Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.
• You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.
• Down South to you means Indiana.
• A brat is something you eat.
• Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.
• You go out to fish fry every Friday.
• Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
• You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
• You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."
• You actually understand these jokes