For Fun

My Deal with a 5-year-old Pt 2

Quick update and Allison’s dream to be a flower girl…

Two of my most amazing friends, Brad and Leah (who happen to be getting married in January) had already planned on asking Allison to be their flower girl!  So when they read the post below, of course they knew it was going to make her day!  Yesterday was the big day for them to ask and with wide eyes…she said, "Yeah!" 

They talked with her about it and they all agreed that they would still pray for me, even though Allie was going to have her dream fulfilled.  My intercessory prayer team is growing!! 😉

**As a side note, I hear that Allison said if Miss Katie was still alive when she (Allison) got married, that she wants her to be a bridesmaid. 🙂

My Deal with a 5-year-old

Tonight I was hanging out with a few of my favorite Sullivans…okay, all of them…and the smallest oneFlower_girl
shared a dream of hers.

I forget that while I’m dreaming of someday being a bride, there are little girls dreaming of being flower girls.  My 5-year-old friend, Allison, shared with me that she really wants to be a flower girl someday.  And as I feel like the closer I get to being 30, the less chance I have of getting married, Allison seems to feel like the closer she gets to being 7, the less chance she has of being a flower girl.  Men and boys don’t understand that these are the fears that plague women and little girls. 

Knowing that Allie is a girl of faith, I asked her to make a deal with me.  I said, "Allie, if you will find me a man-a good man-to marry (and soon), then I will have you as my flower girl."  In her Allison-sort-of-way (and facial expression) she said, "Well, I don’t know where I’m going to find you a man."  (and if you know her, that face that you’re thinking of…yep, that’s the face she made;) 

So I replied, "What if I just ask you to promise to pray for me everyday to find the right man?  That can be part of the deal!  And you can still be my flower girl."  She agreed that was a deal, and we shook on it.

So I’m set!  I’ve got my young friends, Brianna Bradshaw and Allison Sullivan praying for me everyday!  Kids know no boundaries in their faith.  My faith is being built:)

I am Jim

You are Jim. You are personable, easy-going, and always socially aware.
Your great sense of humor and impishness soften the blow of what might
otherwise be a dark, cutting cynicism.

This is how I was described after I took "The Office" personality test.  Jim Halpert is the man of my dreams…well, kind of:)  First of all, he’s fictional.  Second of all, I don’t mind a guy with not-so-short hair, but he just doesn’t keep it neat…  But when it comes down to it, I really am like Jim.  No one makes me laugh like Jim does on that show.  He cracks me up…hmmm…and since I think I’m the funniest person in the world, I also crack myself up!  I even find myself looking for a camera, pressing my mouth in a funny way and raising my eyebrows (you need to see the show to understand).

You can watch episodes of the show for free here…but you have to try a couple of the different links because they don’t all work. 🙂

Duck Health

A friend and I went for a walk a couple weeks ago at a pond in Birmingham.  It was a nice little neighborhood and I think I’ll return for another walk soon!  As with any pond, there were ducks.  The friend I was with told me about the time that she once stole one of the baby ducks from that pond, and took it home under her shirt.  Needless to say, her mom made her return it.

I noticed this sign, although I might have ignored it, since I’ve never met a duck that didn’t enjoy diving into a nice piece of stale bread.  The thing I noticed was reason number 1…check it out.Berkley_dream_cruise103

I guess it struck me as funny because the city of Birmingham is most concerned about the weight of the birds, over everything else. 

Bowling the Interns Goodbye:(

Can you believe that I’ve lived in the Detroit area for over 5 years now, and until today, had never been to Canada?  It’s 20 minutes away!  Well today I ventured over the border with a few friends, to spend one last moment in time with two spectacular interns.  D.J., also known as

David, leaves tomorrow, and Sarah leaves the next day.  Sad!  😦

Here we are with Anne Marie and Carrie, 5 pin bowling at Playdium in Canada…where David was friends with the owner before we even got there!  He won twice (although we think Carrie let him win that second time).  Sarah almost kicked butt during the first game, but her rocky start didn’t help her much.

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As for me, I came in last both times, but I didn’t seem to care much (as I danced up to the line to toss my ball:)  Here you can see that for one moment in the second game I was in second place, and had more points than DJ, aka Rocky.  Sarahdj014

Carrie is definitely a superstar sportin’ her sexxy, almost up-the-calf-high socks, with capris…

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5 Pin bowling is harder than 10 pin bowling is, and apparently you can only do it in Canada.  As you can tell by my stats of losing twice, my skill was definitely lacking.  Looks like I’ll have to check into visiting Windsor a little bit more often to perfect my form!

10:45pm

Okay, 10:45pm may not be that late to some people, but for two teachers who have been working at their school way too much lately…10:45pm was the magic time.

My friend, Dana, and I have worked together for several years now.  She’s become a great friend of mine.  We’ve spent the last two days working into the night at Hanley and each night we hit a really defining moment of silliness that could not be contained. 

Think hard about the last time you had a deep, belly laugh, where you’re making funny noises, your body is jolting, you can’t speak legible words, you cry and your jaw hurts.  That was us!  It was uncontrollable!  Everything made us laugh…everything! 

So I said to Dana, "I really want to pull a prank on somebody…what could we do?"  Browsing around the office, I saw a pair of boots on the shelf (why are there boots on the shelf?) and I had a flashback (a couple, actually) of times when I would grab a balloon and make a body with clothes and other things on a chair in an office or a dorm room.  We improvised and got:

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We called her "The Board" and I’m not even going to try to explain why…it will never make sense to anyone else.

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This is us with The Board:

They (someone) says that laughter is the best medicine…and for stressed folks like us, it’s fantastic!  I feel great today!

And here’s an excerpt from the email that Candice sent out this morning, in regards to our new friend, who was sitting in her chair when she arrived this morning:


Do you realize you are surrounded by Hanley Masterminds?!!

Everyday these minds are stirring and full of juice to fill our thirsty
hearts with laughter and joy!!! Not to mention nurturing the minds of
Children from all over the world, Bosnia, Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia and
MORE!!   Well take a look at these pictures attached to see why I am so
flabbergasted.

This looks like the work of "Kimpossible & Kricky Krick".Don’t miss more
"Brick and Curton" featured presentations at Crystal Mountain.   I
wonder what will they come up with NEXT?

  **NO FOLKS THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON!!!

YEAH So it scared the crap out of me.ThanksJ

Have a fun-filled day at work!  And if you need help thinking of creative ways to make your own new staff person, just ask!  🙂

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Kay, the beautiful goddess statue

Meet Kay.  She’s my beautiful goddess statue.Dsc03369_2

A few years ago when I was at my grandma’s house (the one that passed away in January), I commented on
her statue.  I said that I liked it and I asked her if I could have it someday.  She said that she would make sure I got it.  Well, she moved out of her apartment about two years ago, so the statue had been at my parents’ place, hiding out in the upstairs closet.  This past weekend I drove to Philly to be with my parents and I brought Kay home with me. 

Why "Kay"?  My grandma’s name was Katherine (like a wonderful writer/friend I know;), but she went by Kay.  So now I have her in my apartment.  She doesn’t match one thing that I own, but Kay will always have a place where I live, somehow and somewhere.

Make Herr’s Yours

If you don’t know this about me yet, you can take the girl outta Philly, but you can’t take the Philly outta the girl.  One thing I love about visiting home are the things that Philadelphians tend to take for granted. 

You’ve got the pizza (which I posted about here ); you’ve got the steaks (which I posted about here ); you’ve got TastyKakes; you’ve got the soft pretzel that you buy for a quarter on the side of the road from the guy who probably doesn’t wash his hands-on which you slather French’s or Gulden’s mustard on…yum!; and then you’ve these two things that I’ve experienced these last few days.

Side note:  I went to see my friends, Mike and Christina (and their daughter, Clara), in Ohio this weekend.  Mike and I go back to Jr High-so he’s from Philly too-and Christina and I go back 10 years to when we first went to North Central together.  It was such a good time hangin’ with them…I’ll post about them later.

Mike was so excited to tell me that Dayton just got its first…RITA’S WATER ICE!!!  (Be cool, go toRitas Rita’s!)
Water ice is very hard to explain, for some reason, and every Philadelphias/East Coaster will agree.  We’ve tried, again and again, to no avail.  It is not simply crushed ice with flavored juice, like a snow cone.  Nor is it like a slushy or a slurpee, like at 7-11.  Its flavor supercedes these things to levels that no man can truly describe.  My favorite flavor, for a long time, was banana…oh the frozen chunks of banana :0P  But since high school, I usually go for a gelati (not to be confused with the italian ice cream, "gelato").  A gelati is a combination of water ice (pronounced "wooder ice") and frozen custard.  I like mango water ice and chocolate custard.  My moutDsc03298h salivates.

That was Friday night.  Now to today.  It was lunch time and of course I didn’t bring a lunch.  I headed over to the vending machine to find, none other than, a Pennsylvanian brand of chips…Herr’s!  I’m not even a huge chip fan, but I did visit the Herr’s potato chip factory when I worked a Y-Day Camp 6 years
ago…I had fresh, hot potato chips and they were stinkin’ good.  They don’t sell Herr’s around here, so I was completely shocked.  And, to top it off, the flavor (which surprisingly tasted fabulous) was Philly Cheesesteak!  I even took a picture to commemorate the moment.