A bit of tea?

Thanksgiving in NYC

2009-01-05T14:12:00.006-06:00

Thanksgiving in New York City was wonderful! It was great to spend time with the whole Weichbrodt clan who were so loving and generous to us. And now we can't wait till we get to go back again!

Lest anyone think that nothing exciting happens in my life...

2007-07-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

So I bet all of y’all thought it would never happen, but it’s true—I, Corinne Chapell, like a boy—yup! And the cool part of it is, he likes me too! AND on top of all that…we’re actually dating!
So how did all this happen? Well, it’s a bit of a story.

3 years ago a brand spankin’ new freshman girl showed up at Covenant College; her name was Corinne. After a crazy first semester getting to know people and getting in all sorts of trouble, she and some of her friends decided to play a prank on some new found guy friends who happened to be out of town. One TP/rolling job, 2 empty bathrooms, and 4 missing mattresses later, these girls were sealed in as friends with those guys. Which is where a boy named Josh comes in.

Josh was sitting around (ok, maybe actually being really busy being an RA and living life) getting into his own trouble with his own friends, and slowly started to get to know Corinne and thought she was kind of cool. Corinne slowly started to get to know Josh, and thought he was kind of cool, but both Corinne and Josh were just friends—really truly.

Two years went by in this friendship, and Josh graduated; although he came from paradise (otherwise known as Hawaii) he decided he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to become a Georgia resident, and became an assistant RD for Covenant College. The summer before starting his new job, Josh occasionally kept up with his friend, Corinne, who was living in England, and they were both excited to hang out again when school started especially since Corinne was going to be back at Covenant as an RA (which meant Josh would be not only her friend but her boss). Oh yeah, and maybe at this point Corinne thought a little more of Josh than before, but in the name of friendship Corinne decided that she was not going to like Josh and would take personal measures to tuck those feelings away.

So the year started, and after a few months, a massive ball-pit, 17 hours of driving, countless mike and ikes, some drama, and a lot of laughter and fun later—a little something-something started to happen … and it turns out that Corinne and Josh both like each other. Oh gracious.

Here enters problem: Josh is ARD (staff) + Corinne is RA (student)= Against Covenant rules.

So despite their feelings, Josh and Corinne decide together to honor the commitments made, and for the next 5 months (yes, F-I-V-E MONTHS) Corinne and Josh remained friends despite a whole lot of awkward situations and questions.

UNTIL on May 1st, the powers-at-be (wonderful people that they are) decided things could begin to happen, and thus Corinne and Josh went on their first date, and began to sort out the confusion of having 2 possible dates for everything—What was their anniversary? When was their first movie, first drive, first…well…just about anything?

But despite the confusion, Josh and Corinne sorted it out in their own way, and 1 Die Hard movie, 2 tickets to Hawaii, almost 3 months, and a lot of cell phone minutes later—Josh and Corinne are going strong and just waiting till they will actually be in the same city together for the school year again!

In the words of a famous 3Cer, Amen.

The Spinning Beach Ball of Death returns...again

2007-07-18T13:31:00.001-05:00

So for any Mac users, you know what I’m talking about…rare though it may be, when your computer is about to freeze up/ crash/ possibly-die-forever you see this little buddy pop up…but don’t be deceived by its bright colors or happy spinning—you’re computer is about to be very mad at you.

This little spinning ball and I have become good friends apparently, because as much as I love my gadgets, they apparently seem to hate me...all my tech stuff one-by-one suddenly and unexpectantly dies, thus the frequent appearance of the BBOD.

But this has also made me and the Geniuses at the Apple store good friends as well…last year after the fourth time that they’d completely replaced the innards of my computer (all for free), they decided to just give me a brand new computer (also for free), and in the most recent turn of events, I now have a brand new ipod (also for free).

Morals of the story…(1) don’t let any of your computers, ipods, mp3 players, or anything else like that too near me or else it too will probably die. (2) become friends with the Mac Geniuses and they’ll always take care of you! (3) if you see the BBOD, run far, far away!

"I'm just trying to keep up with the social life of a 13-year-old!"

2007-07-21T02:39:00.000-05:00

So tonight I became one of those people—yes, those people—who waited in line for far too long into the night to get one of the coveted Harry Potter books….but I have a very good excuse…I’m just trying to keep up with my sister, whose 13 birthday is today. Although I’m in college and thought I had my own fairly social life, since I’ve been home for the summer I’ve realized that my own ‘baby’ sister, now teenage sister, is far more popular than me—she even double booked me and had to cancel our date for Ratatouille!

But tonight was my chance to redeem myself and become cool enough to hang out with a 13 year old again, and I think I may have achieved my goal.

At 11pm, Katy and I left our warm beds and comfortable house to go sit in line for 3 hours at Borders so that she too could be one of the cool kids with the new Harry Potter book (ok, granted she absolutely loves Harry and couldn’t care less if anyone else in the world even reads the books!) and so I could be cool enough to hang with her. We prepared ourselves to meet some interesting people (as seen above), and took the plunge. Now, at 2:30am we are home again, but triumphant with book in hand. The following pictures chronicle the joys, pains, and emotional rollercoaster of those three ½ hours:

The sheet of paper they gave us for our place in line says number 22!!! We'll be the 22nd people to get the book!

realizing that '22' actually means we're in the 22nd group of 20 to get in line to buy the book...in other words, there's over 400 people ahead of us, and they won't even let us in the line until 300 of those people are gone from the store!
realizing just how long we're going to be here...

...and we're at the 1:30 mark...

Coming up with all sorts of schemes to cause trouble

We almost get to join the line!
it's ours, all ours
but you know what, maybe we just love each other because we're sisters...forget Harry Potter!

Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?

2007-07-24T00:03:00.000-05:00

So today I was reminded yet one more time how sweet my boyfriend is...then again, he’s pretty good at reminding me of that all the time, but today he was especially good at it.

In the midst of my normal work routine at the Seminary receptionist desk, a flower delivery guy comes in. Now being one of the front desk receptionists, it’s not all that uncommon to see some flowers pass through the doors. But today—today was different. Instead of telling some other girl how sweet her guy was to send her flowers, today the tables were turned and for the first time in my life I was the one answering the questions about my sweet guy who sent me flowers…that’s right, I got a basket full of daisies…which also happen to be my favorite flower! (for those of you who watch the chick flicks here’s the scene running through your head just to help you out! you've-got-mail). So as much as I blushed the minute I found out they were for me, you can imagine how many times I blushed throughout the day as each new person asked me about my flowers--I think I might permanently be a shade redder. So Josh, as all my co-workers said today…you did good…real good.

Corinne's in Charge Now

2007-08-03T00:35:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I got the chance to play grown-up, because there’s no way someone could actually think I would count as one legitimately just yet! But in any case, one of my sister’s friend’s parents thought I was close enough, and I had the opportunity to hang with JD and Annie, two of the most awesome kids ever for 3 days! They even let me play with their x-box on their 8 foot tv/ home theatre system…although I failed miserably.
On Saturday, it was Annie’s turn to pick what we would do for the day, and as it turned out, she wanted to take advantage of their family’s season passes to Six Flags, which meant I was the ‘adult’ chaperone for Annie and her friend, Emily; now I personally thought their parents were crazy to have me be the only grown up for these two 13 year olds at this massive theme park!
But in any case, we went, and had an absolute blast! (What does it say about my maturity level if I had such a good time hanging out all day with two 13 year-olds at a theme park I haven’t been to since I was in eighth grade???). We braved the roller coasters (which is another sign that I was trying to be ‘grown up’ because I hated heights as a kid and wouldn’t go on a roller coaster until I was 14! They’ve grown on me a bit since then, though!).
But the best part of the day, for the girls at least, was when we walked past Dragon Wings (if you don’t know what this is, basically they hook you to a harness/bungie cord thing, pull you up to 160 feet, and then let you free-fall to within about 6 feet of the ground…fun, huh?) and they decided they wanted to try. So after calling for permission from their ‘rents, they got hoisted up, and then did the drop. See that spot to the right of the metal V--that's Annie and Emily...oh boy.
Yes, this is what we do when Corinne’s in charge!

A Bit of Nostalgia

2007-08-04T17:21:00.001-05:00

So for the past week or so, I have been the only one in my house who’s not on vacation. My mom is off till Sunday, Katy’s still got 2 weeks of summer break, Leah’s packing up to go to NYC, and even my Dad is off for 3 weeks! So they’ve all up and left me, to go out to our cabin for a little vacation.

Now this cabin is not just any cabin. When I was in first grade, my dad had the privilege of taking a year sabbatical to write his book In the Grip of Grace, during which time we all moved to the cabin in the middle of the woods. We home schooled (which my mom did an amazing job at…she even taught me to read!), but most of the time us kids just roamed the woods and got into trouble. We'd go out into the woods as soon as school was done, with hatchets and blow horns (...so i had a tendency to get lost) in hand and get back just in time for dinner.

ANYWAY, yesterday I went out to the cabin for the day to be with my family on their little vacation, and that’s right, as I drove out there I definitely got lost in a bit of nostalgia. So here for your viewing pleasure, a few small pictures with a lot of memories behind them!

Things I love about living off campus:

2007-09-05T22:04:00.000-05:00

So this year some friends and I decided to live off campus...having now been in the house for a total of three weeks, I feel this has been a positive decision. I do miss the hall and all the girls up there, but there are some definite benefits to being here...a few of those are as follows:

1. The "No School at Home" rule...when at home, school does not exist. This means actually attempting to be efficient when at school (my SIP carrel is becoming my greatest ally), thus leaving time for me to enjoy my housemates!
2. Having the space, stove, and kitchen table to cook whatever i want, whenever i want, for whoever i want....I always wanted to have people over all the time, and now i can actually do it (though i'm still working on the actual cooking part of this social engagement!)
3. Still being at school everyday long enough to see my friends and former hall-mates, but when I come home, there's only 4 of us girls--not 27 of us. Don't get me wrong, i love every one of those 27 girls and miss them, but that is a whole lot of estrogen in one place.
4. Having a bedroom....and a tv/hangout room...and a kitchen....and a dining room....and a porch...oh wait, make that 2 porches........so, you mean most people don't combine all of those into one 15' x 10' dorm room???
5. McDonald's is now a whole lot closer to me...yes, i'm feeding the addiction.

Exploring My Town...and hanging with a boy

2007-09-05T22:15:00.001-05:00

Since I've now been here for three and a half years, I figure it's high time that I actually explore the town of Chattanooga--true, it's no St. Louis, but it definitely has some cool spots of its own. The other night Josh and I went to Foodworks...this restaurant that I've wanted to go to since I came to Covenant and yet never made it.

But we finally went, and it definitely made the cut. It's an old warehouse so it's got different levels for seating, a cool layout, but above all--really good food...and, I definitely got the added bonus of being there with a cool guy.

Impulse Buy...totally worth it

2007-09-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

So for any of y'all that remember this show, you know what I'm talking about! Back in middle school, Macgyver was pretty much my first love, and when I saw MacGyver: The Complete First Season at McKay's (a used book and DVD store) I just had to give in and buy it. Yes, despite all my griping over other series tv shows (like the so-called great 24) I loved this show.
But I think one of the best parts was that even as I picked it up off the shelf, three other girls next to me looked over, saw it, and immediately said, "Oh my Gosh, MacGyver is so hot! (slight editing by the way) Were you in love with him too?" But all this to say, I am now the proud owner of the first season...and you're all welcome to join me in watching this high-quality, explosive, slightly (ok, really) 90's style tv flick!

Come on, can't you see the similarity?

2007-09-13T20:02:00.001-05:00

(Josh Mather) (Ned Nickerson
in the most recent Nancy Drew movie)

So, if you've been keeping up with me, you know that I'm currently writing my senior paper on none other than Nancy Drew. For those of you who read Nancy Drew back in the third grade, you know that she has a certain boyfriend...Ned Nickerson (quite the name, heh?) and it got me thinking that maybe there are some similarities...notice for example, the very established and legit. smiles in their pictures!
Ok, so maybe they don't actually look or act a bit alike, but there are a few more similarities between Nancy and myself maybe...

-Nancy likes to get in her car and drive...this happens to be one of my favorite past times

-Nancy has "intuitions" that start her thinking, sometimes a little too much...hmm, sound familiar?

-Nancy is like one of those little terrier dogs that thinks she's actually a great dane and consequently will do just about anything; because of this she gets into some very interesting situations...that would be me sometimes (i.e. having a total stranger offer me a goat to live in my dorm room, or watching a police take-down on the Walking Bridge, or deciding for no particular reason to move to England for 3 months...just for a few examples)

-Before meeting Ned, Nancy had a myriad of boy problems, but in this quality kid, she finally found a guy who could make her "blush right down to her fingertips" and it be completely worth it. (from Nancy Drew mystery #7--The Sign of the Twisted Candle) (and hopefully Josh will still be talking to Corinne after this far too embarrassing post!)

She Came!!!

2007-09-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

So this past weekend instead of going to Kilter or any of that stuff with the rest of Covenant (and everyone else in Chattanooga apparently!) Liz Watts, a friend of mine who transferred from Covenant to go to Bellhaven came to visit!
It's always wonderful to catch up with old friends, share some good laughs, and eat some great food (at one of our favorite restaurants--Blue Plate). So here's to you, Liz, and you better come back soon!

"Daddy, do plants like sprite?"

2007-09-30T19:45:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Josh and I got the chance to go visit Colin and Heather, my brother and his wife, in their new house in Birmingham. (yes, both my brothers, Colin and Jordan, are now proud home-owners, so it's time for me to make the rounds and see the new cribs.) It was a quick weekend, but wonderful to get to see at least a quick bit of their new home (and visit another friend too--Emily!) and spend some quality time catching up.

We saw the Birmingham Botanical Gardens while we were there, which weren't quite up to STL par just yet (but then what is?), but I think one of my favorite moments was when we walked by a little kid and his dad...it was fairly hot day, and the boy's dad had treated him to a sprite while they walked...and in the true spirit of what my Covenant ed. prof's call a "life-long-learner," he asked his dad, "daddy, do plants like sprite?" Sadly, I don't think they do, but given how much this kid wanted to help, I would water an entire garden with sprite just to give it a go.

A little catch-up in the house...

2007-10-20T23:41:00.000-05:00

So, as my friends Emily and Carin were quick to remind me, I've been a little remiss in keeping up with my blog...so here are a few updates about what's been going on in our beautiful Chattavegas home...
1. We have 3 new housemates...
Nico, Chaco, and...well...i don't know the other's name.

2. After two hours plus of cleaning and rearranging with the aid of our artist/moving man/designer--Timmy-- (shown below) we finally had a clean house (and yes, I'm using the past tense purposefully).3. and...we've decided that there's no need for a river, or even a body of water, if you already have a boat waiting in the back yard for you...and contract hasn't started yet.hmmm. So nothing significant at all, but then again, sometimes those nothingness times are the best times!

So every once in a while, a girl's got to get all dressed up...

2007-10-22T23:16:00.000-05:00

...make sure her guy does the same......

...and head to the Cleveland Speedway.

Okay, so maybe not what you'd expect, but this weekend Josh and I went with some kids to watch the cars do their thing on the track. Just imagine, 20+ cars going somewhere about 60mph around a dirt race track...you can't get much better, right? How about some great crashes, one car almost going over the wall into the general parking area (exactly where my own car was conveniently parked)...and on top of all that, add some incredible mullets, our own 'get-ups' for the event (I mean, we didn't want to stick out too much...and Josh definitely did better than me...), and air that smells like some putrid combination of dirt, exhaust fumes, and deep-fry. This would be--the Cleveland Speedway.
Worth it--heck yes!

"Pitching and mooning?"

2007-11-17T14:14:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid, I always thought all the girly mumbo-jumbo was highly over-rated...in fact, I would even venture to say that for the first ten years or so of my life, I wanted to be a boy so I could be cool enough to follow my brothers around--which I would also venture to say they thought quite annoying at the time.
But because of that phase in my life, some of the girly things in life--dressing up, cooking, chick-flicks and such--are new to me. But there was alway one thing that passed through the radar of my attempted tomboyishness, and it's only gotten better with age--Anne of Green Gables.
Today the girls and I at the house decided it was time for a good old girl day, so we've broken it out, and we're watching Anne in one sit--all 7.15 hours of her!
I mean, who could turn down lines like this:

ANNE: Well he certainly isn't the wild, dashing young man Diana used to want to marry. Fred is extremely good.
MARILLA: That is exactly what he should be. Would you want to marry a wicked man?
ANNE: Well, I wouldn't marry anyone who was really wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't.

...or what about that final scene--I mean, every girl knows that final scene on the bridge, the leaves, the suit, that look he always gives Anne (need I go on?)...

ANNE: I went looking for my ideals outside myself and discovered it's not what the world holds for you, but what you bring to it. The dreams dearest to my heart are right here.
GILBERT: Well, I hope you keep on dreaming. It will be three years before I finish medical school, and even then there won't be any diamond sunbursts or marble halls...
ANNE: I don't want sunbursts or marble halls. I just want... you.

So, yes, it's true--I am a girl, and apparently a pretty girly one at that.

So there are a few things to catch up on…

2007-12-05T23:37:00.000-06:00

I’m back from the hiatus from my blogging duties at last, but since I’ve last written, there are a few things to catch up on! Here are some of the major things that have happened in the past few weeks…
1. In the past three days, I have written and/or compiled 203 pages (over 156 of these being single-spaced.) in Times New Roman, 12 point font or smaller. For those of you who are wondering how Nancy and my relationship’s doing, we’ve resolved our differences and are once again friends…although distance has been good for us now that Nancy is spending all her time with my SIP readers instead of me!
2. After 3 years of going to the championship game and coming up empty handed, my flag football team (yes, I’m on a girls flag football team) finally won the championship! Heck yes, 3C!
3. Several fun visitors have come! The weekend before Thanksgiving, my friend from back home, Johanna, was able to come by and visit for a few days on her way to Atlanta. The couple of weekends before that my parents were able to come visit twice—one of these times being to lead a marriage conference at LMPC. Yeah, no jokes about Josh and me there! And let me tell you, the Hunter museum has taken on a new meaning!
4. Today, December 5, 2007, was the last class of my college career. Need I say more?
5. As of November 1, Josh and I have been together 6 months!!!! (now, this is where it’s quite obvious how bad I’ve been with blogging, since by now it’s actually been 7 months…whoops!) But in any case, it’s 6 months with an absolutely incredible man…I still have no idea how in the world I caught him, but I’m not going anywhere without him from here on out—everyday is something beautiful and wonderful with him, and I’m truly blessed to be with him.

thXmas

2007-12-05T23:46:00.001-06:00

This year will be the first time that none of us ‘Big-Kids,’ as my mom likes to call us, will be at home for Christmas. Now, for those of y’all that don’t know, Christmas is quite possibly the biggest holiday for my family, because it is my mom’s absolute favorite holiday. She usually starts her “Christmas” shopping in June or July, and quite often is finished by September. By November my mom has purchased the newest Hallmark singing snowman or bear or whatever is on the market that year, and December is filled with my mom excitedly holding it over our heads that she’s got these wonderful presents that she’s already picturing us opening!

But this year, my brothers and I will all be MIA, (just Katy and the parentals will be home) so we simply turned Thanksgiving (when we were all in town…including Josh) into Thanks-Christmas, complete with Christmas tree…and it was definitely a successful affair. We took our annual stairwell shot (also a major part of Christmas mornings), and what Christmas would be complete without a massive nerf gun battle? Josh met the whole family, and my grandma especially thought he was wonderful. On top of that, we also got to hang out with Josh’s sister and brother-in-law who also live in St. Louis. Overall a wonderful, relaxing time with old and new family.

I HAVE A PRETTY LITTLE RING ON MY FINGER

2007-12-05T23:48:00.000-06:00

It’s official! Josh and I are engaged!!!!!

I wish I even knew where to begin with this one, but I’ll be honest, I’m still reveling in the fact that I get to spend the rest of my life with this man, and now everyone can see it—although they might be a bit blinded by the bling-bling on my finger! How wonderful that Josh is now my fiance and in two weeks when I meet Josh’s mom and brothers, I’ll not just be her son’s girlfriend, but her son’s fiance’—her future daughter!
So how did all this happen? (Here’s the long story for those hopeless romantics out there…for the rest of you, the important part is that we’re engaged and you can just skim through my ramblings!)
For all Josh’s plan-ahead, measured, think-through-everything history of decision-making, spontaneity has finally won out! Unbeknownst to me, over Thanksgiving Josh had the ring in his pocket and officially asked my Dad. He also, despite craftily convincing me of otherwise, was planning on asking me right before we left for Christmas in a couple weeks, but fortunate for me, he decided he couldn’t wait. So on Wedneday, November 28, at 5:45 pm Josh decided he didn’t want to wait any longer, and that he was going to propose…that night…at roughly 6:30. Oh yes, he did.
So, since we were already going to hang out at 6, Josh texted and asked me if I could come a few minutes late because he was finishing up some stuff. When I did come, though, Josh asked if we could go to Walmart…it had been a long day he said, and he needed to get off the mountain…but this was all a lie—a lie to get us going down the backside of the mountain. But as we drive, Josh pulls into the Catholic church on the mountain—which is a beautiful spot for us—one of those places that means so much to both of us because of a conversation we had on the stairs to the church months ago. At this point I think to myself, “could it be…NO. There’s no way.”
Then we pull over, and Josh tells me to leave my phone in the car so we could sit on the stairs again for a bit. At this point I’m thinking, “Oh my word! I think he’s….surely not?” As we get out of the car, Josh sneaks out a vase…my vase from my room in St. Louis! (While we were in St. Louis over Thanksgiving, Josh had snuck into my room and ‘stolen’ this vase I had of dried flowers from different bouquets he’d sent me over the summer.) At this point I realize, without a doubt, yes, this is it.
As we sit there, Josh gives me an envelope…when I open it, I find the beautiful letter that Josh had sent my parents back in OCTOBER to tell them that he wanted to marry me and explaining why and how he loved me. Mmm, yup…at this point enter tears by Corinne.
After reading this, Josh tells me there’s something else in the envelope. Now you’ll need a little background here. Last year, when Josh and I were all ‘scandalous’ and liked each other even though we couldn’t date each other (you know, those no staff-student dating type rules that are totally appropriate…most of the time!), we both ended up at Taco Bell at the same time, with other friends…so accordingly we sat on opposite sides of the restaurant so as to avoid suspicion. I was there with my roommate, who the entire time, was tossing the sauce packets (you know the hot sauce packets that have all kinds of phrases on them like: “the feeling’s mutual”). Jokingly, she picks up the one that says, “will you marry me?” and says that someday Josh should use this one. Ironically enough, at the same time, Josh, not having any idea what’s going on between Anna and I, picks up the exact same sauce packet, thinks to himself that this could be handy someday, and stows it away in his pocket….that same packet which now makes an entrance into our engagement story.
As I pull this silly little sauce packet out, Josh gets down on his knee, and asks me to be his wife. OH MY WORD!!!! At this point I’m completely speechless…crying some in true form…and before I can even manage to stutter out ‘yes,’ there’s a ring on my finger, and the man I love sitting right in front of me with that big ol’ grin that I can’t get enough of.
What’s even more beautiful, is that this was not just any ring—this is the same ring that Josh’s Dad used to propose to Josh’s mom years ago…I have never felt so honored as to have this family that I’m just starting to become a part of, through Josh, offering me this amazing gift of themselves to me, and in such a tangible way as this very important ring. I really am amazed and so honored beyond words.
Josh wanted to propose with this ring, because of the meaning behind it; however, he also wanted to make it a ring that really fit me and him, so while he proposed with the original ring in it’s original setting, he already had a new setting picked out for us, just waiting for the original diamond to be put into it. And now, a few days later, I have a new setting of the ring that I can’t stop looking at (and thus Josh is endlessly making fun of me!) that is so beautiful and even more importantly has so much meaning--this diamond has already signified so much to Josh’s family, and now too for Josh and I as we become a family together. (don't worry, I'll post pictures of the rings...original and new setting as soon as I find the cord to load them to my computer!)
Looking back to a year ago, it’s unbelievable to see where Josh and I have come…and it still blows me away…I still lose my breath every time he walks in the room, and I still can’t believe that through all the complications, God knew exactly what he was doing, and has given me an incredible man who in a few months I will have the honor of calling my husband.
Oh yeah, and y’all better be planning for a road trip to St. Louis in June!

"America does not like me right now"

2007-12-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, this is a quote from my African housemate (the lump of layers on the left) in reference to our amazingly cold American house. Though weather.com says the high for the day is 60, our house is a chilled 12. Why do we not turn up the heat you ask...who really knows.

Before and After

2007-12-10T23:31:00.000-06:00

So I've decided that pictures of hands are really awkward, but here they are anyway! A few pictures of the original setting (above) and a couple of the new one too (below)!

mele kalikimaka!

2008-01-02T01:31:00.000-06:00

Christmas in Hawaii was AMAZING! Great guy, great place, great new relationships with new family and friends! I'll post more soon, but here are a couple pics as teasers for you!

Warm fuzzy feelings...

2008-01-24T20:31:00.000-06:00

Bug: (from The Sixth Graders Dictionary to LIfe)

2008-02-01T15:36:00.000-06:00

1. Bug: noun
Pronunciation: \ˈbəg\
Etymology:: Middle English bugge hobgoblin; probably akin to Low German bögge goblin
Definition: an insect or other creeping or crawling invertebrate; any of an order (Hemiptera
and especially its suborder Heteroptera) of insects that have sucking mouthparts,
forewings thickened at the base, and incomplete metamorphosis and are often economic
pests

2. Bug: noun
Pronunciation: \ˈfē-vər\
Etymology: From the cultures of preteens weak immune systems; most currently present in the similarly weakened immune system of Corinne.
Definition: A virus consisting of runny nose, scratchy throat, itchy eyes, and fever resulting from close proximity to younger members of the human race with lower hygienic habits; most commonly passed from student to teacher.

3. Bug: noun (most commonly referred to as a "hornet")
Pronunciation: \ˈho'r-nət\
Etymology: From the modern usage of Class Periods 1, 2, 3, & 5, originating at *** Middle School.
Definition: An index card torn and folded along specific planes according to directions, as passed on by the oral tradition of middle school males, intended to be used in correlation with a rubber band as a projectile; for the purpose of disrupting class and earning an In-School-Suspension for its user.

See Also: You-Tube instructional video "How to Make a Paper Hornet": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP06J6bo3GA

So everyone knows I want a dog...

2008-02-25T13:44:00.005-06:00

While Josh and I are very excited to stay at Covenant another year, there are one or two downsides...the first being, it's not St. Louis and the Cardinals don't ever come to Chattanooga....the second downside being I have to put off getting a dog for at least one more year.
But in the meantime, I've been noticing the dogs in our neighborhood--I figure, why not use this intermediate period of time to start picking out a dog, right? Well, this is the dog that just showed up in our neighbors' yard--next to the massive black German shepherd that also lives there--

--Is it a miniature poodle? Yes
--Is it bright pink? Yes
--Is this Corinne's dream dog? Oh thank goodness it's NOT!!!