A tree, a book, and an empty house

Wow, over a week--I need to get on the ball with this thing!

So Craig left for Florida yesterday and I already miss him a whole lot :( I'll survive, but it's hard not to be sad. I know I won't have a problem keeping busy...keeping occupied is one way to keep myself from thinking and being sad, but it's also a good way to burn myself out. So, let's try not to revert back to my "old ways" of stuffing my life so full of activity that I don't ever rest and get any down time. These two weeks of temporary singleness will be over before I know it.

Last night Adrienne came over and helped me put up the tree and decorate the house. The downstairs is all lit and festive (I wanted to post a picture of it, but our camera battery is finally officially dead, and the charger is still at the house in Traverse City. Bummer!). This is Mika's first Christmas tree, and she's been very curious and exploratory. Let's hope it stays standing...

Ooh ooh, I have a new book to recommend: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Excellent so far! I was wary of reading it, because everyone talked about it like it was so disturbing and creepy, but that's a bunch of baloney. Yeah, it's about a girl who gets murdered, but it's not as dark and depressing as everyone made it sound. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult were both 10x more depressing/disturbing, so if you have a morbid fascination with those kinds of books, read them! Good books, but dark.

GO BUCKS!!!

Fight the team across the field

Show them Ohio's here

(We've got the team why don't we)

Set the Earth reverberating

With a mighty cheer

RAH! RAH! RAH!

Hit them hard and see how they fall

Never let that team get the ball

Hail! Hail! The gang's all here

So let's beat that Michigan now!

I just realized Shannon's McGraw-Hill ID badge is showing in that picture--haha!!!

Bichons

Here, ShanNON. Is this one better?

Happy hour...

...is just not the same without the rest of the bichons.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Is it the weekend yet? I'm going crazy. I know it's not TWE's fault that
things are sucking so much lately, but it's hard not to hate it anyway,
sometimes. I. can't. wait. until. this. project. is. over. I actually
had someone walk out of a meeting today, she was so frustrated. Just got
up and walked out. I wish I could do that with this project sometimes.

But Thanksgiving is next week--yay! I'm super excited about that.
However, Craig's leaving for Orlando the weekend after Thanksgiving, and
then I'll be all alone for two weeks :( I'm going to be so bored, so
beware--I'll probably be calling and begging some of you to hang out
with me!

[Untitled]

My unfaithful heart
mourns the loss of its idols,
feeling them ripped from my skin
(like Achan—did the gold burn under his stolen robe?
When his clothes were stripped away with his lies,
did it sear his skin to have to give it up?)
Approval…validation…admiration
torn away
scorn, contempt
left in their place,
like sulfur in a wound split open.
Is this Your wound?
Do You break that you may heal?
Or will You leave me this way,
naked and alone?
But I know You better than that.
Still I accuse You of cruelty,
sobbing behind my bloody hands,
raw from where they held the stolen treasure
held it so close and so tightly,
it felt like part of me;
raw from where it had become part of me,
connected and vital,
(torn away)
giving and taking life
Or was it only taking?
Stealing from me?
How could I have thought it was good?
How could it have been bad when it felt…
Why do I feel cut in two,
and You say it’s for my good?
Why?
I look down at my aching hands
bleeding wrists
clean hands
clean hands?
Wrists circled and wounded,
raw
not from a treasure that served me
but from chains that held me
bound me
the chains that had become a part of my skin,
tearing it away when you cut them off,
cut me free

Desperate Housewives--OMG

Did anyone else see it? I wanted to cry at the end. If you're a DH fan, I want to know what you think.

1. Will Mike forgive Susan?

2. Will Bree find out the truth about George and how her husband died?

3. Will Lynette be able to handle the working world for the whole season, or will she be back at home with her kids by the end?

4. Gabrielle--who is her baby daddy?

Oh, and you can take the Desperate Housewives Quiz to find out which character you are.

Update

Time to get back into consistent updates of this thing. So what's been new lately?

• We painted our livingroom. Well, almost. The new furniture was not going with the blue very well, so we switched to an olive green-ish color. Craig got most of it done Monday on his day off, but the front wall is still splotchy. One spot is still mostly blue, but with a big green blob in the middle. We talked about taking some brown left over from the basement and painting a trunk, so we'd have a little tree on the wall...the blue and green make it look very nature-y. (just kidding. obviously.)
• I finally saw "Serenity" after having 3 different coworkers tell me it was awesome. It's very good, if you like sci-fi....which I don't, necessarily...but I still liked it.
• We got free Funny Bone tickets again, and we're going this weekend. Fun!! I love the Funny Bone. Especially when it's free.

I guess that's about it...not a whole lot of excitement. I can't believe it's November already. November! And it's supposed to be 70 today :) The weekend is here!