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| So the other day, I was going to make some spaghetti. I grabbed the box from an upper shelf and tried to grab some noodles. However, after some thought, I realized the box must not be yet open. So, I made a movement to prop the box into a vertical postion. However, apparently the other side had been opened, as hard spaghetti noodles poured out of the box...and into my pants. Yes, you read that correctly-down my pants. And you know what? It really hurts to have uncooked spaghetti noodles in your pants! The next day, while showering, I noticed my skin looked as though it had been mauled by an overly enthusiastic cat. As I don't own a cat, I quickly concluded that these cuts had all been the result of my "spaghetti incident". Becca now calls me spaghetti pants. I wonder, does this kind of stuff happen to anybody else?? | | |
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In Memory Grandma Elizabeth "Betty" Brouwer October 18, 1924-April 3, 2008 Mourning the loss, celebrating her life, living in her legacy. Until we meet again...I love you | | |
| I have come to the conclusion that frisbee was a sport invented by unathletic people with the distinct goal of making normally athletic people look particularly unathletic. Frisbee is, I suppose, the ultimate sport equalizer. When a person (me) who is not particularly overly athletic, but can still manage most sports on an average level, takes to the "green" to play frisbee, all hand-eye coordination vanishes. Suddenly, I cannot throw, I cannot catch, and I cannot judge whether I should run forwards, backwards, jump or dive. At least, not until the very last moment, when the frisbee judges where you are (with some sort of sick radar system, I'm convinced) and thusly heads in the opposite direction you were anticipating. So you are jumping down, diving up, and running a tight right-left, amongst other oxymoron formations, only to have the disc hit your hands and fall to the ground. Blast! Once it's in your hands, you should just be able to grasp it, but I believe your body is so confused at that point, that it releases when it is supposed to grasp and grasps when it is supposed to release. Then you get to the throwing part. Admittingly, I am a little better at this game. I grew up throwing frisbees at my dog. Most of the time, the frisbee lasted a couple of minutes before it was bitten and slobbered beyond recognition. Needless to say, then, I grew accustomed to having excellent throws for the first 5 minutes-10 max. After that, all sense of release and wrist twist vanishes and I'm trying to side arm the frisbee as if it were some sort of creature that will not let go of my hand. Incredibly, I have become the master of turning the ordinary disc frisbee into a sort of boomerang, which will either float back to the exact middle of everyone present, or will arch beautifully into the nearest tree, pond, or bystander. So like I said, frisbee is the great equalizer of athletic and nonathletic. Because, in the midst of all this flailing of arms and frustrating "dead ducks" and painful body maneuvers, great fun is had by all. The generally unathletic people look surprisingly graceful and the generally athletic people look surprisingly cumbersome. So all in all, you gotta hand it to the geniouses behind the frisbee. Yesterday, when I played, there were 3 distinct frisbee abilities in the group (me being the worst) but 1 final conclusion: That was fun! Not to mention, I cannot wait to play it again... | | |
| So home came and went, and I indeed did lots of laughing and some crying. In the short 4 days that I was home, I managed to celebrate Christmas, babysit my nephew and niece, sing in church with my brother and sister, get fitted for a bridesmaid dress for Mary's wedding, visit both grandmas, ride along with my dad in his new tractor and go sledding all afternoon, and hang out with my buddy Ephron. It was a whirlwind of a time, but all in all I had a good time at home. Do you ever experience wonderful days that make sense in totally nonsensical ways? Well, Becca and I just recently had one of those days. It's hard to explain the randomness of the events and their significance, so please just bear with me as I attempt to let you in on our excellent and weird day: 1. We both had the day off on Saturday, which has not happened since I got a job several months ago, so we decided to start the day off by sleeping in. Very nice. 2. We then went to the park and fed geese and ducks. It is something that we had wanted to do for a very long time (so we had lots of stale bread saved up), but when we tried before, the geese would fly away from us. Not this time. In fact, they followed Becca around the park and a I very nearly got both a duck and a goose to eat a piece of bread straight from my hand. I particularly enjoyed watching the fowl waddle. It was a great start to our day. 3. We then took off for Ft. Collins. For those of you who don't know, Ft Collins requires you to drive towards the mountains. It was a clear day, so we had a good view of the range on our drive. We also saw lots of geese flying and changing patterns above us. It was all very beautiful and poetic. 4. When we got to Ft. Collins, we decided to spend some time in historic downtown. So, we parked the car. Like I said, it was a beautiful day, which includes sun, so after crossing our first street, Becca decides she wants her sunglasses. We head back to her car (across the street) to get said sunglasses, only to discover that Becca had locked her keys in her car. Me, being the good supportive friend that I am helped her find a phone book and a locksmith to call for assistance. They say they should be able to arrive in about 2 hours. Kind of ridiculous considering they were only a few blocks away. However, we had not done our shopping yet, so we could deal with it. 5. We wander around for about 3 hours. As evening encrouches, it is getting a little colder. The locksmith still has not called, so Becca calls him. He says it will still be 40 more minutes. Becca and I now start to walk into stores just to warm up. It had been a nice day, but we are in mountain country in January-it still gets cold when the sun goes down! We head into Good Will for our last half hour stretch. I try on random crazy dresses and Becca buys some pants. We also buy a chair to sit on while waiting for the locksmith. I guess you could say we bought our own bench. We're granola like that. 6. It is now fully dark and fully cold. I set up the chair beside Becca's car and we sit on it and huddle for warmth. Still no locksmith. In one last cry for desperation, Becca attempts to open her back door. It opens. Apparently, it had never been locked! She called the locksmith who didn't seem to be coming in the near future anyway, and we were again on our way. Next stop, non profit coffee shop. We drove the wrong way down a one way street to get there. 7. Everyday Joes is probably the coolest coffee shop I have ever been in. Well, maybe not the coolest, but definitely up there. Anyway, we had heard that there is live poetry and music there on wkends. We asked the worker, and he said it would start at 7. That gave us a half hour. We wander around the shop looking at the art and the bookshelf full of philosphers, when I look at who is performing that night. It was a guy named Tim Coons. He is my worship team leader at Fellowship Church! Of all nights and of all coffee shops! So, we decided to stay to watch him. 8. However, we also wanted to watch a movie in the cheap theater, so we checked out the timings and what was playing and decided on August Rush. It wasn't starting for 2 hours, so we headed back to Everyday Joes to watch Tim. I wrote poetry while Becca doodled. Nothing out of the ordinary there. After Tim's performance (which was very good), Becca and I bought his cd and headed to the movie theater. Two boys took our picture while we were driving out of the parking lot. I felt like I was a celebrity being photographed by the paparrazi. It was both flattering and creepy. 9. August Rush was very good-all about the hidden language of music. We both enjoyed ourselves and headed back to Greeley, where we joined our friends in playing games until the wee hours of the morning. So, all those stories combined made for a very strange and wonderful day. It was a great way to spend a day off from work. I would show you pictures, but unfortunatley I am on the library computers which don't allow for that sort of thing. So, I will post them some other time. I hope that you all had one of these kinds of wonderful days lately as well. | | |
| Right now (well, not right, right now, but you know what I mean), I am reading "Irrisistable Revolution". You all should read it too, if you haven't already. It makes me rethink how I am living my life and makes me excited to be a disciple of Christ. On a somewhat similar note, Becca and I played the card game "Authors" the other night. It was fun, as I taught Becca one of my favorite family past times. Basically, it is like Go Fish, only you have sets of 4 books by classic authors. So instead of saying, "Go Fish" you can say "Go, Read". It promotes literacy. That game may have attributed to my love and knowledge of the classic authors. Yay for smart games! I am also going home soon. Very, very soon. (!) I havne't been home since August. Yes, that means I was not home for such "family holidays" as Thanksgiving and Christmas (or New Years, but is that really a "family holiday" for most people?). I was also not home for my sister's engagement, the purchase of her wedding dress, and the birth and baptism of my first neice. It seems life at home moves merrily on with or without me. However, soon I will be participating in a whirlwind of activities and catching up and hugging and holiday celebrating, and gushing over wedding details and doting over Jacob and Hannah. I'm sure tears will be involved. But not all tears are sad. So, I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and I will be sure to enjoy mine soon, too. | | |
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