Christmas Surprises

Christmas Eve was a normal work day for me. Dan was on vacation and was able to meet me for lunch, and as we were finishing our meal, he suggested that I ditch work so that we could do something together. That, of course, wasn't possible, and so Dan resigned himself to head home and wait for me to finish my day.

Dan dropped me off at the office and my phone was ringing even as I was walking back to my desk. I took the call, which ended up being rather lengthy, and nearing its completion, I swivelled my chair to look out my ground-floor window that faces the building's parking lot, only to nearly jump out of my skin at the smiling face peering in at me:


While on the phone, someone special built me a snowman to keep me company. It was darned near the sweetest simple thing ever. Never mind that I nearly had a heart attack each time I turned around, having forgotten about my new friend.


With our warm spell, Mr. Snowman was all melted when I returned to work on Monday. It's funny though -- you can totally see the hair, arms, and eyes on the ground outside of the window!

Odie and the Snow

I know, I know -- lots of new posts all at once. I've been a little neglectful with the blog, and am on a roll, plus there was a lot of picture-taking this weekend.

Odie loves the snow, today was a sunny day, and I wanted to use my newest lens some more. Add all of those together, plus loop Dan in to participating, and you end up with the below shots:

Found a stick; never mind the snow up the nose:



Series -- backing up (a command he's recently mastered) so that we can throw stuff to him, and the delicate nature of a snowball, as opposed to his tennis ball:

















Can you see the snowball in the shot? It's at 11 o'clock

"HEY! Whuh happnd?" (Mighty Wind shout-out) Ah well, maybe next time.

Making Headway

A lot of folks have been asking about our plans with housing after the wedding. Dan and I are each proud homeowners, yet our purchases were each starter houses that really wouldn't fit a family.

Dan has been working furiously on his house in the hopes that we can sell it in the near future and then only have one starter home to worry about. We were both quite amused by one of the messier tasks, which rather left Dan looking like Casper when he was through.

Shirt:


Right arm:


Left arm:


TA-DA!:


Thankfully drywall is almost through!

Noel Night Detroit 2008

On Saturday my church's Bell Choir took part in the 36Th Annual Noel Night in Downtown Detroit's cultural center. This free December event hosted over 70 performance groups who dotted themselves in/around the cultural corridor of Detroit making music and entertaining the attendees, all in the spirit of the Season.

Despite the bitter cold and snow, the evening was a lot of fun and I think the crowd really enjoyed our Christmas themed pieces, including the famed (and frustrating-to- play) Carol of the Bells. I think my ringing of A-flat, A-natural, B-flat and B-natural was pretty darn good considering, and was really touched that my sister Deborah and my brother Joel were each able to stop by during one our three performances that evening.



We'll be performing again on the streets of downtown Royal Oak on Thursday 12/11 at 6pm, in case you want to try and catch a show this year, yourselves!

Finally 3!

This past Thursday we were delighted to learn that Andrea & Kirk welcomed their third child into the world. No-so-little Mason Kent arrived on Thursday evening, weighing in at 9 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring an impressive 23.5" ! All of womankind's hat is off to you, Andrea for delivering this child naturally!

I couldn't wait to get to see this newest addition, and Dan and I were able to go down to the hospital on Saturday morning to congratulate Mom and Dad in person -- and to get to hold that adorable little baby.

Can't wait to teach this little guy how to say 'Aunt Becca,' too.

The Great Debate Continues

Today Dan presented me with what he called a "surprise gift."

He went shopping today and encountered a seasonal blend that is now on sale at many local stores.

Part A of the gift was this:


And I immediately knew what part B of the gift was going to be, especially based on a the "AHA, I know I'm right" look all over Daniel's face.

So I encountered a bag full of these:


And more specifically one particular kind of 'nut' ---> which Dan declared to be AN ACORN purchased from Kroger and from their nut-medley barrel:


Ah, yes! The ever popular assortment of Brazil Nuts, Almonds, and ACORNS!

Upon closer inspection:


So we cracked it open and ate the contents, which Dan declared tasted acorn'y good and as acorns should.

I found this item to have the taste of Nutella or Frangelico -- BECAUSE THIS IS CLEARLY A HAZELNUT, FOLKS.
NOT AN ACORN!!

Dan continues to proclaim success in proving me wrong, and is satisfied with his previous assertion, made in Houghton Lake at the playscape.

I'm pretty confident as to who the crazy person is in this disagreement.

:-)

I have to pay tribute to likely the most distant viewers of this blog: HELLO TO AKIKO AND TETSU!! Akiko is a hometown friend whose family lived in the United States for a number of years after her father got transferred from their native Japan to Michigan. Akiko and I met nearly 15 years ago and formed a wonderful friendship that remains to this day. Communication is done intermittently over email due to Akiko's return to Japan after we graduated from high school, but we still manage to catch up on each other's lives despite the distance.

One of the coolest trips I've taken in my life was to Japan for Akiko's college graduation. Andrea and I made the trip together, and met Akiko's now husband Tetsu, who was kind enough to put us up in his apartment during our stay, and drive us all over Hiroshima and surrounding areas to show us Japan.

Akiko, Andrea, and myself in Japan in 2002:


Akiko and Tetsu are the proud parents of two beautiful little girls. Momoka is 4-years old and Yuna is 3-months. While we realize a trip to the States for our wedding is probably impossible, we do hope to someday reconnect either here or there!

Tetsu & Akiko at their wedding:


Tetsu, Yuna, and Momoka:


SAYONARA!

More Fall Fun

This weekend we were invited to lovely Montrose, Michigan for pumpkin carving (sorry Jordans -- we cheated on you!), birthday celebration, and great company. Odie got to make the trip too, but alas Donnie the Chihuahua was not at all amused by his presence.

We headed to the local pumpkin patch where we each selected the perfect pumpkin (or pumpkins in some peoples' case), and then headed home to start the carving. Ciera had some fancy powered carving tools, and we all labored in the chilly fall air for quite some time. We waited for it to get dark before we had the official lighting/unveiling, and passed the time by eating a delicious dinner of lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and RING BOLOGNA plus a yummy chocolate-carmel-coolwhip-heath dessert creation.

Finally, when it was dark enough, we headed outside to view our art and were not disappointed:

Heidi's handiwork:


Dan's double-pumpkin -- witch & her cauldron viewed through a window with an owl/ frog:


My carving, also a double pumpkin -- the little guy is in jail!:


Sara's pumpkin -- she represented Switzerland well:


I owe a HUGE apology to Ciera, as all the pics of her princess pumpkin were blurry (I think my camera froze by then). So in its place, here's shout-out to the Renaissance Festival and Dan's favorite hand-held food of all time -- The Turkey Leg. Ciera showed she could hang by getting one with Dan, and she actually did a pretty good job of eating that thing. GO CIERA!:


Thank you friends!! It was a wonderful day!

Birthday!

This past weekend we celebrated my 29th birthday. Many thanks to everyone for their calls and well wishes -- it was a wonderful day!

This year Dan did some planning and surprised me with 'hidden' messages on the bathroom mirrors. They only appeared after I took a shower and steamed up the bathroom (it was quite challenging getting the lens of the camera NOT to fog):


I got spoiled at work with gifts and lunch, plus a Dairy Queen cake (thank you Erin), and flowers from my mom:



When I arrived home Dan surprised me with some presents, and we then headed out to dinner at J. Alexanders and had arguably the best prime rib either one of us has ever eaten. When we got home, Dan locked me in the bathroom while he readied the final item, and then serenaded me with "Happy Birthday" and a Banana Cream Pie ice-cream cake -- YUM!!

Dan and I, ready to go out for dinner:


My surprise/glee after being let out of the bathroom & seeing the cake/hearing Dan's song:


YUM!


By far my favorite part of the evening is when Dan proclaimed: "This is the last birthday you're going to celebrate as Rebecca Moses!"

Indeed. And I cannot wait for next year when we celebrate as Mrs. Dan Geppert.

Houghton Lake

This past weekend we went up to Houghton Lake with Kirk & Andrea and the boys. We haven't been up there since Memorial Day weekend, and were very much looking forward to the trip. It was a quiet and peaceful weekend with beautiful weather and gorgeous fall colors. The drive up was awful, and it made for a long Friday after a full day's work, but the good night's sleep that one can only experience up north, made it all worth it. We got to go swimming in the world's coldest pool and most lukewarm hot tub, and also perused all the new snowmobiles at Spicer's (Kirk could barely resist buying one). We ate ice cream and pizza and celebrated a birthday complete with candles, a song, and a Sanders Bumpy cake!

On Sunday morning we visited the community play scape (Dan immediately proclaimed that he was going to build a similar structure for his kids one day). I set about trying to capture some shots with the tricky telephoto lens Dan got me, and managed to get some pretty neat pictures.

Dan at the top of the play scape (I struggled with the shadows/sun light):


Caden and Logan on the tire swing -- and lovin' every minute of it:


My favorite picture of the day: Caden (it looks like it could be a print ad for Ralph Lauren or something):


Group shot -- it took forever because it's nearly impossible to do a timer-shot with a telephoto lens and NO tripod; a precarious balancing act!:


One curiosity of this play scape was all of the little resident chipmunks running around everywhere. They were surprisingly calm and even froze long enough to get some fun shots:



Another amusement at the play scape was when Dan declared that acorns were most certainly edible and delicious right off the tree, and that Andrea and I were crazy for insisting that they were NOT part of cocktail mixes or nut medleys sold in retail stores. Dan decided to prove us wrong by locating one, cracking it open and then eating it. He cannot say that we didn't warn him or try to stop him (plus my research has revealed that many varieties of raw acorns contain unhealthful amounts of tannin, which make them very bitter, and that one must actually take some steps to make them edible).

Dan cracking open an acorn with his bashing stick:


Voila -- ACORN!


After a hearty chomp into the meat of the acorn, Dan immediately made an acrid face and then spit the contents out onto the ground as quickly as he could. His face remained much like this for the duration:


Afterwards, Dan insisted that the acorns had to be roasted. We questioned that perhaps he was thinking about chestnuts, but he claimed not -- acorns are edible if you just roast them.

I then turned around to see Logan 'gathering.' His pockets were FULL of acorns, but he knew that human don't eat them, despite Dan's assertions!


Goodbye Houghton Lake -- see you for Tip Up Town!