#floristproblems

Okay, so I just thought that was an amusing hashtag, but out of curiosity I did check - and yes, it's on twitter. There's not that many. But still. It's there. That's hysterical.

The funny thing about jobs to me is hearing the stories that happen behind the scenes. The things you never think about happening because all you see is the finished product. Like hearing that house staff clean the seats at an outdoor stadium before every game. Seriously? Someone has to do that? I figured at an outdoor game, I'd just have to take my chances with the dust! That actually gets done?

Likewise, I never thought I'd come home at the end of the day and say "Y'know what? My thumbs feel like they're on fire."
Since I was on corsage work all day long for Mother's Day & the last prom of the season, my thumbs got a lot of repetitive use. And then I stabbed one of the them on a sharp wire and blood gushed out.
I did not know blood could gush out of your thumb. But I can now assure you - it can. It was pretty funny. Sort of.
Also, I have glue stuck under my fingernails. And somehow on my jeans. 

But it was all good. I was actually really pleased with my corsage work today (oo, maybe I could snatch a pic or two tomorrow!) which is really the first time I've come off a load of them feeling that way. I'm pleased. I didn't even really do a high quantity of them - at all- but the few I had were very time consuming and specific.
But while Mother's Day has been going on - and I do need to get the final, official count on this - I'm pretty sure we've taken a dozen family pieces this week. Eleven of which were made or will be made before the week is technically up. Crazy. Good crazy.
Or sort of. Wait. I mean. Um. I like making casket pieces? It's good for business? See? This never sounds good. I can never say "I get joy out of making casket pieces" without that sounding terrible.
You guys get it though. You love me. (Right? Right?)

Meanwhile, I've recently discovered a blog (thanks Dave!) entitled The Introverted Church which is pretty great.  I'm not really crazy about the introvert-power movement that seems to be trying to happen (and is pretty funny when you think about that) but I do like reading through a lot of their thoughts and opinions on the subject in general. Its amusing to see kindred spirits who can say things like But I like spending hours in total solitude. Also, I do struggle with a lot of this at church, so it's not only nice to see others talk about the issue, but relate to it as well. 
Out of curiosity, a few months back I decided to retake the Keirsey Temperament Sorter to see if I had changed any as an adult. I was just wondering if anything had shifted. But nope, I'm still happily an Idealist/Counselor, an INFJ. (Excepting maybe the whole "prophetic seer, psychic" thing. Hm.)

Anyway. Speaking of being an introvert - and one who really does like watching quietly, and not just by how I gain energy - I visited my first charismatic church last Sunday! (No worries, I have no plans to leave my church.) I shall blog about that soon.

Images from Easter

While I did wish this year that we would've done something a little extra for Easter at church, simply to help me remember the true celebration behind the season, it was a very lovely Easter.

(Not that Hilltop didn't have a nice Easter morning service and not that they didn't focus on Christ. Just that I was a little hungry for a little more....weightiness. Does that even make sense? Something to snap me into the reality of what we were celebrating.) 

But we did take the Lords Supper, which is a bit rarer for us and therefore brought to mind more of the occasion, and I was certainly much more aware of The Reason this year than I have been in years past.
I'm in Numbers right now, working my way through the Old Testament, and I really loved seeing the sermons leading up to Easter we've been receiving side by side with the stories of the Old Testament. This year when Gary read the phrase: "We have no king but Caesar" it suddenly reeled in my mind how truly awful (and really blasphemous) that was since I'm also concurrently reading about how God is their Head & their King in the Old. It was shocking - as it should have been - and seeing moments like this lined up beside each other continue to help me have a better grasp of the bigger picture at the cross. Anyone else have specific memories of moments like that?

Anyway. Easter has this way of bringing out joy in another fashion: super cute kiddos.

Unfortunately, I failed miserably at getting photos of the Plumb celebration (Shannon, I'm looking at you. I saw that camera flashing. ;) ) But I did manage to get quite a few when the Kime's & McBride's came down on Easter Sunday.

I know most of them feature *ahem* me, but I was so thrilled to have updated photos with these kiddos, that I'm certainly putting them in anyway. :)

 Awwww..... look at that face. My darling Lexie Lou!

I haven't had as many pics of Brighton to feature in general, so she shows up often here. :) Plus, it was her very first Easter!

Gorgeous see-sters... (this was the "two cookie" bribe picture.)

 

I adore these faces. Can you believe they're so grown up? I can't.

Oh, I adore Lexie's face too. :)

(Please note the confetti in my hair. Story forthcoming.)

 And of course, baby Bright's as well. :)

 Picture perfect. :)

Seriously, how precious are these kids?  The amount of cuteness here is staggering.

 Ooooooh..... the confetti. Jeff & Brittany brought these eggs down called Confetti Eggs and they were awesome.  You crack the egg open (preferably by smashing them over someone's head, which appeared to be our method) and all this beautiful confetti comes flying out. But not the sticky kind, just pretty small bits of colorful paper. They brought a dozen. Next year I'm convinced they need to bring a dozen for the adults and then another dozen for the kids. :)

You see, by the end of it I was the only one that hadn't been confetti'd and all the eggs were gone. But then they found one that had still been hidden in the backyard. So while I avoided Jeff like the plague (who was whistling innocently nearby), unbeknownst to me he had swapped with my oldest kiddo and she NAILED me on the back of the head. There was a traitor in my midst! :)

Anyway, moral of story: go buy confetti eggs. They're fun. They're colorful. Buy plenty for each age group to play. :)

Last photo op.

 Priceless. :)

A Fresh Breath of Christmas

There's a reason I've only posted three times this month so far. Honestly, I've just been enjoying the season so much. I haven't given hardly any thought to blogging - or even checking blogger since so many have been out - or most other types of social media. I've been pretty consumed with the entirety of Christmas and that's been awesome since it's the first time in over a decade I've been so wonderfully wrapped up in all the cheer.

I've wanted to see Christmas lights, watch Christmas specials, hang decorations everywhere, send Christmas cards, wrap gifts...  And while there have been times in the past I've wanted to do those things as well this is the first season there has been no doubt, no dark cloud of grief, nothing that usually at least tempers my holiday spirit. It is purely incredible to me and incredibly lovely as well. I'm fully aware this could only be a gift from God's own hand and I'm left speechless by it. And this is a very precious gift as I've been praying and praying for complete healing and restoration and love and not just the feeling of getting by. I've been praying for wholeness and while I'm certain this isn't the end of it it's a beautiful breath of fresh air in between.

However! I do certainly plan on wrapping the year up in review within the next few days. My family has headed back home, and things are settling down post-holiday, so it looks like a return to normal. Nevertheless, this is a Christmas season I pray I never forget.

I hope yours was as beautiful as mine and that your Christmas spirit continues well into the new year. Love to all.

We built this city....aw, now I have it stuck in my head.

Sporadic thoughts:

I am incredibly excited for Christmas this year. Incredibly.

The shop is doing well, we're just about perfect on our poinsettia count which is phenomenal considering we always have to throw out quite a few. We've also sold out of grave blankets, which is also unusual. While its true we have cut back on both, we've also just been selling well too so we're pretty happy.


I'm finally on the final season of LOST and.... oy. First episode, you were rough. I'm just really confused and I'm not sure how you're gonna drag it out a whole season, because right now you really only have one thing going for you anymore. Though Sawyer's line "Did we get captured by the Others again?" made me laugh a lot.

So.... the Rock of Ages trailer came out tonight.
What? There's a movie?
Yeah. Don't worry, I forgot too. Someone else needs to watch that though and tell me what they think. The musical has always sounded completely preposterous to me and I think its ridiculous to be chosen for a movie. And after reading the full synopsis of the musical, it sounds even more...ridiculous. (I do realize most of the silliness is intentional and all in fun and that's a good thing. I'm not knocking that.)
I actually can't decide if it looks awful or like a lot of fun. I don't really like aspects of it. And I suspect this may be one where the trailer is better than the movie, due to some of the scenes they flip through. (Catherine Zeta Jones leading a dance charge down the church aisle to We're Not Gonna Take It made me laugh, and I can't decide if I was supposed to.) I do like the smash up of We're Not Gonna Take It with We Built this City, but honestly I don't really care for the arrangement snippets we hear of the other classic songs.
 Anyway, it comes out summer 2012 if anyone's interested. The trailer bizarrely fails to mention that (or I just kept missing it?)

I haven't really had a lot to blog about recently, truthfully. Did I ever tell you I saw the Muppets? I saw the Muppets and it was really well done. You should go see it. But if you're planning to you might want to avoid spoilers! Just go and have a good time. It's very fun. :)

Eh, I need to talk about something besides movie junk....

I plan on doing a countdown to New Years with my end of the year list. I love end of the year lists! I wanted to wrap up 2011 with a one. So we'll see if that happens.

Hit me with a hot note....

I am rocking Christmas shopping. Yes, I am.

And I am covered in glitter from the shop. I feel like the Christmas fairy!

Hey, my tree is decorated! (Mmf, these pictures are pretty rough. My camera and I.... not friends.)

 

Oooo....aaaaahh....

Ta-da! Please note the awesome penguin statue in the background as well.

Hm. I promise it doesn't look quite that naked without a tree topper in real life. I haven't had any inspiration for what to use up there.

Also, it leans. But that's okay. I think all leaning Christmas trees always look like a swamp monster, so somehow it fits.

I've found I really, really like hiding in my room with all the lights off except the tree lights. Tree, you're very soothing. Good work. 

Quite by accident, I ended up with more of a rich fuschia/burgandy shade of bulbs rather than the hot pink I originally intended. In the store they looked so different. However, I think I'm much more pleased with this - it still provides a lot of color (and breaks up the blue & silver), but doesn't scream HI.I'MCOLORANDILOVEYOU.



This is my favorite ornament on the tree. It's also one of the oldest. It was originally on our tree when I was kid - in fact, I can't remember not having it and it has always been my favorite.  The one I always wanted to be sure and place. At least that's how I remember it.

I love the sand dollar and I love the way the Nativity scene is drawn. Also, it used to play Silent Night whenever you pressed the button on the back. Now, so many years later, it doesn't play but its still in great shape and makes me smile. It stands front & center on the tree.

I actually watched this movie for the first time in years the other day. It's still pretty cute. I still have to catch Charlie Brown Christmas sometime soon.

Good night, folks. That's all I have for tonight. 

Because the status is NOT quo.

Poinsettias? Check.
Grave blankets? Check.
Christmas shopping started? Check.

YAY! Christmas, Christmas time is here....

But first! Thanksgiving!

That's actually a pretty good sample of what my Thanksgiving looked like. :) It was full of kids, and that was awesome. I snagged a few pictures with some of them because I hate my camera and have very few new ones. So here's a flurry of Thanksgiving shots with the McBrides:

Seriously, can you believe that's Kylie? She's so grown up! What a beauty. 

Khloe loves to play with the iPad, so we got several shots in a row similar to these. Look at that smile. 
 

Awww....my boy!! So handsome. So sweet. I love this guy.

So we were sitting down to eat Thanksgiving lunch with the McBrides & Kimes, when suddenly I realized I was not at the kids table and that was sad. I don't think I've ever NOT eaten at the kids table (which, this year, was a picnic on the floor.) And then I realized there wasn't enough chairs for the adults so YAY! KIDS TABLE! 

While we were eating suddenly Kaden asked me if I could rap. And I said no. But would he rap for me?

I really wished I had filmed what happened next.
Not only did he rap, and pretty darn well I might add, but when he finished Khloe decided to join in. With a rap about zombies. And THEN two-year-old Lexie purposely stood up, grinned, and and made beat boxing noises while dancing. TWO YEARS OLD.

This is why you sit at the kids table. To help prevent duels to the death over deviled eggs and listen to impromptu rap sessions.

Sadly, I don't have Lexie & Brighton pictures this time around. But wait! I have to share their cuteness somehow!

Oooooooh! Those eyes! That baby face! They're so freaking cute! (Seriously, aren't those gorgeous pictures?) Lexie is so full of spunk & happiness. Love it.

Okay, one parting shot:

My cousin Sam, Kylie, & Khloe bug

And bedtime for me. I hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, friends and food and all the lovely laughter you could hope for. Mine sure was. :)

Only Three More Months....

Do you know what three months from today is?

Think about it.... thiiiink about iiiiit....

Christmas!

Actually, I hadn't put that together at all. Grandma was the one who pointed it out to me earlier.

That's going to go by so quick.

So I've decided to officially begin Christmas shopping October 1st. After last year's debacle of starting too late (halfway through November) I'm not repeating that again. And sure, I should have gone ahead and started in September, but for some reason that just seems so early... That's barely even fall. And then half the time I worry I'll forget where I've put them that early on anyway. October, however, that's kind of the kickoff to the holiday season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... I can do that.

Has anyone else started yet? Or do you work better at the last minute?

Fourth of July huzzah! Time with Family

Grandma and I had a lovely time this afternoon spending it with the Kime's & the McBride's. It can be tough to get everyone together anymore, with all our schedules, so time spent is sweet. I'm lucky to be close to my cousins on both sides, especially when you consider how large that number has grown over the years (including kids & spouses: 23.)

I did manage to snag more than one picture, but unfortunately they're not uploading right now. (I'm so bemused by my router. I no longer understand how it works at all.)

However, one was emailed to me, so for now it'll do.

I promise, Lexie is not crying. She was actually giggling. I promise.

Although with that scary man in the background, it might cause one to wonder. ;)

The Return of Internet Access

I am, to a degree, back.

My computer appears to be dead. :( Blue Screen of Death and all.

I am currently typing away on a laptop kindly lent from Brad who has been at the center of this computer ordeal with me. I'm very grateful for the return of internet access. I'm also glad to be borrowing a laptop specifically - its potentially what I'll be buying next, instead of a desktop. I've never owned a laptop. And I'm not really that crazy about laptops. So this is a good way of seeing what I think of it.

Currently, I don't care for the keyboard, but I'm sure I could adjust to that.

In other news, its the Fourth of July weekend. Grandma and I don't get too into the holiday - fireworks worry me even in the best of conditions. With this years drought, I'm much less inclined to be around them. Maybe if we feel crazy we'll go watch the ones at the casino.

All that being said though, I'm always excited about a three day weekend. Yaaaaay.

Any computer advice?

Easter weekend.

Last night I tried to write a post about how awesome I thought it was that the drought was finally broken over Easter weekend. But the words weren't coming out right and I eventually gave up. Nonetheless, I still think that's pretty cool. Listening to the rolling thunder and pounding rain during Sunday morning services wrapped it all up together for me. A shadow, a mirror, a reminder of the resurrection in a sense. New life. New growth. Things that were once dying, or struggling along, salvaged. A double blessing: the celebration of life, the celebration for rain. Jubilation for both falling hand in hand. And in the back of my mind the whisper:
I feel the thunder in the sky, I see the sky about to rain, and I hear the prairies calling out Your Name...

I had a beautiful Easter playing with my kids. The Kime's & McBrides came down Saturday and Sunday and I soaked up some lovely family time. Unfortunately, the storm cut the time short, but I still had a chance to spend time with all of them. They enjoyed their Easter baskets. It was really nice.

The next two weeks at work are potentially heavy. This week is Administrative Professionals week, but that's been slow these past few years so I'm not expecting much there. The local prom is this weekend. Two weddings this weekend, one major and one minor. The following week is Mother's Day week. Caskets are beginning to stack.
I'm actually pumped about the weddings. One of them is going to be quite different from anything we've done before, with lots of fun tropicals and unusual touches. Also, its a setup, which we haven't had in awhile. I may not be a part of that particular team, but I should be flying out there anyway to take pics. It'll be a nice change of pace. Any pretty pics, I'll be sure to share.

Did you know the baby elephant was born at the Zoo? (Thanks Travis!) I'm so excited! (Go to the link, you can vote for her name.) They won't be on display for awhile, but once they are I'm so ready to finally see their new home and see the new calf. In the meantime, there's a live elephant cam, but I haven't been able to catch them on that yet either. I love elephants!

"We never said our designers could add.

Only that they could make it look good."
- My boss, after a phone call revealed one of the 35+ sets of dozen roses I made only had ten. Hey, after about 30, you start to fade in and out a bit. :) (Also, my favorite quote from the day.)

I did survive Valentine's. I also survived today, which is crucial in Valentine's Day survival. Sometimes the day after is worse than the holiday. But even though we spent the first half of the morning terrified to answer the phone, it was all good. No angry customers today.

It went well, we think. More kind people this year (to us). More people genuinely happy to send their loved ones gifts, which is always nice.

A random puppy that wandered into the shop. Lovely customers and twitch-worthy customers. I was sinus sick (but felt awesome for V-day). Still sickish. Only two missed deliveries - they just weren't home - some sort of a record. Only one irritatingly angry customer - a record. Giant stuffed animals. Red, pink & white everywhere. Roses. Lilies. Roses. Lilies.

The lovely customers make it all worth it. Even though the rest of the day makes us crazy - the lovely customers make it worth it.

But I'm still glad it won't come around again for another 363 days. (Is that right? Can I subtract?)

The Oregon Visit

May be edited later as I recall more details. I use a lot of 'amazing,' 'awesome' and 'wonderful' and that's only because, well, it was.

Tuesday
We flew out Tuesday evening and despite a delayed beginning we dashed to our Houston gate just as they began boarding. (Will, I waved to you from the plane.) We hurried around corner after corner, up and down escalators and through entire sections of the airport. There's a man out there that gave us a ride on a cart the last ten minutes walk. Man on the cart, I love you.

The flight to Oregon felt loooong. It was four and a half hours which, a few years ago, would have been nothing. But I haven't flown in so long it felt forever. The good news though is that I finished Wizard of Earthsea on the flight, and that was highly enjoyable, so it certainly helped me finish the flight (favorite character: Ogion).

Grandma and & I arrived in Portland around 11:35 that night to a balmy 19 degrees. After many hugs and while we were waiting on baggage Amanda informed us that the slider door on their van was stuck. Open. The door was not entirely closed, but the ice was holding the door together and they couldn't get the ice broken. It made me smile - you are never without an adventure when you visit the Wojahns. :)

"The other day I saw the sweetest turkey hat." - Amanda

Wednesday
I was so glad we had arrived on Tuesday night and had a nights sleep before diving into the the week. It really gave us a whole extra day there which was awesome. Wednesday we opened the day with eating at a fantastic local restaurant which only serves fresh fish (delicious). We followed it up with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (Snickers cheesecake) and then the play A Christmas Story that evening which had this amazing set.

Thursday
Thursday was Turkey day! Grandma and I joined the gold goblet club that evening as we dined on Diane's delicious meal. Amanda, Brian & I spent most of the day(s) playing Super Mario Bros. Wii (which is amaaaazing. all the nostalgia and fun of the old games all refreshed.) When I left Saturday we were at World 6.

We sat down that evening for the meal, listened to Christmas carols in the background and enjoyed each others company. Cell phones were off. Just each other and wonderful food. It was nice. They have a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition.

That evening Amanda was looking for more Wii games and noticed the local mall would be open (including Gamestop) so Brent, her and I went and got in line at 11:30 for the midnight opening. We arrived just in time before the huge rush of people hit, but unfortunately the deals there weren't as good as we were hoping. Nonetheless, I'm glad I went out with her.

Friday
Friday morning my Uncle Brent and I went wandering in flower wholesalers! I had looked for an open market (wanting to see the differences of flowers there), but was unable to locate one. Being a photographer he knows all these great places, so we went to a string of wholesalers he had previously been to. But you should really have a wholesale license, so I was a little timid at our first venture especially since it was such a small wholesaler and it was obvious we were new. While it was a no big deal if we weren't buying, I was just a little unsure. But the next one we went into was huge and people wandered freely so I enjoyed looking amongst all their fresh and silk. And as we were walking out I noticed the wholesaler next door was a company we order from in the city, so I happily perused through their store as well. I saw fresh fiddleleaf ferns (veeeery popular in wedding work right now and none of our wholesalers in the city had even heard of them), Sahara roses (which would have been all wrong in a wedding we had considered earlier), beautiful cosmos, peonies out-of-season, greenery that looked like crushed velvet in royal purple.... It was a lot of fun for me. And it was reassuring seeing the trends there for the holidays are ones we're using in our shop here. :)

Then we swung by with the whole family to rescue Diane from evil Black Friday retail work and celebrated with Baskin Robbins (it is not a trip to Oregon without Baskin Robbins). We watched football, booed the Oregon Ducks and eventually had to switch the game off the tv and onto the radio because WE WENT TO ZOOLIGHTS. ZOOLIGHTS, I LOVE YOU. ZOOLIGHTS YOU'RE AWESOME. ZOOLIGHTS. ZOOLIGHTS. (An actual rendition of my internal monologue the whole time I was there.)

Zoolights is held at the Oregon Zoo every year where the entire park is covered in thousands of Christmas lights. Christmas lights everywhere. Lights on trees, lights outlining the carousel, lights in animal shapes... You don't mind that all the animals are sleeping, because the lights are too beautiful.
Of course, not all the animals were sleeping.
We saw two exhibits. As we wandered into the polar bear exhibit suddenly we realized there were no polar bears. PENGUINS. We saw ELEPHANTS and PENGUINS. And LIGHTS. And LIVE BIG BAND JAZZ. At the ZOO. And I was in love. We rode the train. We shared holographic glasses amongst the group. One pair made all the lights look like snowflakes, the entire Santa heads.

We drove home trying to decide if we could eat or not. But we decided sure, we could and stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory where I learned there are spinach pasta shells (Spinach Tortellini, deliiicious) and also had spumoni for the first time (pistachio/chocolate/strawberry, deliiiicious). And then utterly, utterly stuffed we drove on home for the night.

"Whoa! I gotta drive with these things! Look, blinking Santa heads! Santa heads everywhere!" - Brian


Saturday
Saturday was it. We were to fly home in the afternoon. :(

As a final lunch we ate at Five Guys, a hamburger chain that is apparently really, really well known for their hamburgers. And they were indeed really good, but man, they're fries were the best. And off to the airport... We arrived early, but it gave us time to roam the shops where a Powells was located. Grandma and I needed books for the flight home, so it worked out perfect. I glanced through the Science Fiction section, since they had obviously paired it with Fantasy. Nothing caught my eye until I saw Ender's Game, highly admired and discussed by my friends and one I knew I did need to read. I almost didn't - I was never a fan of reading sci fi, but wow I'm so glad I did. I had no idea what to expect but I was suddenly completely consumed by the story and actually concerned for the characters well-being throughout the whole flight. Due to lack of sleep, I was able to finish it last night. I'm so glad I read it. An immediate jump to top ten books ever and will probably edge out Perelandra.

"What do you mean, 'do I want to leave the beaver hat on'?!" - Amanda

And now we're home. Portland, honestly, feels like my second home. I love it there. There's mountains, ocean, forest, city...all within hours of each other. I love staying there. It's almost a refuge and its perfect.

So my Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had the opportunity to see family we don't often get to see, at a holiday we've never had a chance to celebrate with them before. We loved each others company and had the time to take in some awesome places and events. Indeed, it was perfect.