and the winner is....

So the poll was great fun and I loved all the comments that were made and IM'd me about the options. :) What I found to be most amusing is two of the most vocal and opinionated voices were males (both happened to vote for this case as well) and I got a kick out of their reasoning. It was also interesting to note how many friends voted for this saying it was "just me" when this was actually a completely last minute addition. Apparently France has already become part of my identity. I'm watching the site to see if iPhone cases will go on sale within the next couple of weeks because I also have a $10 coupon and I'd like to combine if possible. I will post a picture as soon as I get the case. :)

While on the subject of France, I have submitted my passport for renewal and we are trying to learn exactly what documents we need to have for my visa. It's kind of confusing (wow apparently government bureaucracy is the same no matter what country you are dealing with!) exactly what they want but we're working on it. I will be so glad to have that part figured out and done!!

decisions, decisions

I am notorious in my family for my lack of decision making ability. The more that hangs on the line for the decision the longer it takes me to decide on something. So this time when I couldn't make up my mind I thought maybe I could make a game of it! This is the kind of thing people expect from a blog anyway right? So I found a bunch of really cute iPhone cases on a site called Zazzle.com and want to get one but I can't pick which one to get. Below are the choices with a number below each and to the right column side just beneath the "About Me" section close to the top is the poll. You have one week (or less) to vote for your favorite. They are all customizeable so if you see one YOU like just click on the picture to be taken to the site so you can see what it looks like with your name or initials instead of mine. :)

Conversations with Joel

The funny thing about Joel these days is 75% of his conversation consists of the following two phrases: "Huh?" and "How you know?". This can be very frustrating but also highly amusing.

Joel spots me with a box of cheezits and holds out his hand for one
me (handing him one): "They're spicy."
Joel: "How you know?"
me: "Because I ate one."
Joel: "Huh?"

Today however my favorite conversation went something like this:

Joel: "Going to the beach?"
me: "Yes."
Joel: "Can I go too?"
me: "Yup."
Joel: "What's a beach?"
me: "It's um...sand and water."
Joel misinterprets this as being sand IN water and babbles something about getting the water dirty.
Joel: "Can you swim it?"
me: "Yes, you can swim in it."
Joel: "Will you swim too?"
me: "Yes."
Joel (thinking of the pool in our backyard): "Is there a ladder at the beach?"
me: "No there's no ladder you can just walk into it."
Joel: "Huh??"

Conversations with Emma

(on our way home from VBS)
Emma: "Did you know that in Australia they call suckers 'lollies'?"
Me: "Like short for lollipop."
Emma: "Yeah."
Me: (singing) "Lollipop, lollipop, lifesaver, lollipop"
Emma: (obviously impressed) "You know a song for EVERYTHING!"

Luke's non-virtuousness

Just to set the scene--Mom and Savanna were at Walmart past 9 and we usually start devotions at 8. She asked if Micah could read the Bible and we could start singing until she got home. This is the conversation that ensued.

Micah: Which scripture should I read?
Me: Just read the Psalm of the day. 14
Micah: Maybe I should add 30 or 60 to that?
Me: Do whatever the spirit leads you to do, I trust your godliness and virtuousness
Luke: Your virtuousness is better than rubies or something.
Micah: FAR above rubies. You are NOT virtuous because you can't even quote the verse right.
Luke: I own a bass guitar so I can't be virtuous anyway.
Me: You are definitely not a virtuous woman.
Micah: And your price is not far above rubies!

You Are the Music In Me

Micah and I had the opportunity to sing karaoke-style at my dear friends' wedding this weekend. I told Micah it was his big debut and I expect him to sing with me at church now. :-) The audio quality is not the best but for what it's worth, here is the video of us.

For everyone set up to receive my posts jerry-rigged into their emails if you actually click through to the site there is a video embedded in this post. :-)

Joel-isms

*The kids are all in the livingroom playing Warhawk.*
Joel: "Don't kill me! I don't want to die!"
Me: "Baby that's the point of the game. If you don't want to get killed don't play the game."
Joel: "I don't want to be the point of the game!"


*Joel is messing with the laptop Mom was working on but left for a minute unattended*
Me: "Stop messing with Mom's work."
Joel: "Why mom's working?"
Me: *mumbles something I don't remember what*
Joel: "Buys the food and water and soda?"
Me: "Yup buys the food and water and soda."
Joel: "I like soda."

Joel

Random quotes from Joel today:

"My nose is running out!"

"Oh it's the Muffits!" (Muppets)

"It's not lipskip it's makeup." (lipstick)

This cracked me up

kids say the darndest things

During prayer time lately Joel and Reuben have begun praying for each person by name. While cute and sweet this has sometimes been slightly annoying as they don't do any rhyme or reason to it and forget who they have prayed for and who they haven't. Tonight after Joel did his Reuben had a slightly different prayer than normal.
"Thank you God. I pray for Micah the stinkiest." Snickers went all around as we had just been giving Micah a hard time about not putting on enough deoderant.
"Luke the awesome one." Elbow jabs and more snickers.
"Megan the prettiest. Haley the not prettiest." Some of the kids were laughing by this point. "Josh the meanie head." More chuckles and Reuben is definitely feeding off the crowd. He walks around pointing to each person as he prays for them.
"Emma the lamest. Joel the coolest. Mom the prettiest. Josiah the coolest."
I was hiding my face and trying to not let him see me but he wasn't quite through. "Reuben the awesome one." At this point we all erupted in fits of laughter. I'm sure we will be in for more of the same since got a good reaction out of us. This is the kind of thing that makes me so enjoy living in a house of little kids, they just say the darndest things. :-)

Christmas cookies!

This afternoon Emma, Josh and I made cookies. I had found a few recipes I wanted to try from the latest Taste of Home issue. We set up sort of a little assembly line where I mixed up the dough, they placed it on the trays and then I covered some with the icing for the top. During the whole thing they were also busy working on their memory verses for the nursing home ministry next week. There were several interesting conversations throughout the afternoon.

Josh: "But Mary kept all this things and pandered them in her heart."
Me: "Pondered, Joshua, pondered."

Me: "Here is the dough in this bowl so I can wash this one and mix up the next round."
Emma: "You're making MORE?"
Me: "Yes."
Emma: "Why are you making all these cookies? Are we going to a party or something?"
Me: "We ARE the party."

Josiah: "But Mary kept all this things and pond-red them in her heart."
Me: "PONDERED."

Emma: "Josh you're making them too messy. They should be nice and round so they look nice for the party."
Josh: "What party?"
Emma: "The party we're having. Megan said we were having a party."
Me: "That's not what I said!"
Emma: "Yes you did."
Me: "No I didn't!! What did I say?"
Emma: "You said were a party."
Me: "I said we ARE the party."
*Emma looks confused and not at all convinced*

*a few minutes later*
Josiah: "Can I have one of these cookies?"
Josh: "No you can't we're taking them to the nursing home."
Me: "NO WE'RE NOT. These are for US."
Josh: "I thought you said--"
Me: "I give up."

Mocha Nut Balls

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Ten HOLIDAY EATING TIPS!

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat step #3.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by:
'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a hand crafted beverage in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO what a ride!'

Fun Names

My sister Haley posted this and it looked hilarious so I had to do it. :-D

1. Your name:

Megan

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letter of real name plus izzle)

Megizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)

Purple Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and the street you live
on)

Brianni Woodchurch

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2
letters of your first)

Creme (what the heck!!)

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME:( your second fav color and fav drink)

Pink Dr Pepper

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name,3rd letter of your
last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms
maiden name, 3rd letter of your dads middle name, first letter of your
sibilings name(s), and last letter of your moms
middle name)

Eebrwhsmljjerjn (props to anyone who can pronounce that)

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle
names)

Kristen Howard

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your
pets)

Black Angel

Starbucks' Gingersnap Latte

Note to friends and enemies--when ordering the Gingersnap Latte at Starbucks you should seriously consider requesting they leave off the ginger chunks. Seriously. I don't know who fell asleep at the wheel and thought "ohhh chunks of ginger in coffee is great!" and decided to not WARN people that this was going to be in there. Oh my GOSH. I really thought I was going to be sick the first time. And the second time. A little Googling came up with the answer to the mysterious waxy chunks floating in the bottom. Gross.

The following is a real conversation that took place in the other room just now between two unnamed siblings.

Sibling #1: "Obama is our new president? What happened to the old one?"
Sibling #2: "I don't know. I think maybe he died or something."
Older wiser Sibling: "No he didn't we elect new presidents every four years."
Sibling #1: "We have to wait four years for a new president??"

:-D

Most accurate forecast model for Hurricane Ike

Hurricane party @ my house on Friday & Saturday! :-)

Well as we have watched today it just seems that Ike is getting closer and closer to coming straight through my back yard. I have a hard time balancing my multiple personality self about it. For several years, I would guess from when I was 8 to age 14 I diligently listened to my weather radio for every update and plugged the coordinates into the simple computer program I had. Then for awhile I used a computer program that would simply download the coordinates for me and I'd watch the animation as it plotted the storm across the ocean. I had such a great time studying storms of all kinds and even went to Weather Camp at the Weather Museum in Houston. Seeing the complexity of the storms always amazed me at God's handiwork and yet I have a healthy respect for what these things can do. I've always wanted to be a meteorologist and a storm chaser, following storm systems and observing them and yet keeping a healthy distance. I think one of the things that I love about storms is that they are predictable and yet unpredictable all at the same time.

As I think about the hurricane coming one side of me is excited to actually live through one, to experience it first hand (to completely fulfill this dream I would like to stand outside in the middle of the eye and watch the sun shine down and see the eye wall coming). And yet knowing the power that could be packed into this one, knowing of the destruction that would be caused I feel almost dread at what could be around the corner for many people I love. Storms are part of God's creation just as the flowers, a mountain, even a volcano. In a storm you can see God's power and glory that he could create such an intricate thing that seems to almost have life, to even 'breathe' and respond to the forces around it. So while I am concerned I am excited that I will possibly have a front row seat to one of God's most amazing creations.