Creatures' Greetings

Did you know there are different animals and things that live here in Mississippi than Grand Rapids???? It's true. Sometimes, they show up in places you don't want them to. I came home from work at the bagel shop the other day and this was on my bedroom wall...


I texted this picture to my friend and her child determined it was a wall lizard.
"Ahhh, there's a lizard on my wall in my bedroom!"
My kids would love to help you.
"I wish they were here"
My son says it's a wall lizard
"Does he have a suggestion on how to remove it without touching it?"
Do you have a butterfly net?

"No, I didn't happen to bring one with me. I have a cup or a bowl or a broom. I'm guessing the creature would like to live so I'm thinking more of the catch and release method than the smack and flush."
He suggests holding a trash bag under the lizard and then gently nudge it with the broom.
"Ok, he may just have to live on my wall til after ballet tonight when a roommate is home to help me. If he's gone by then, I'll assume he found a way outside...oh wait, then maybe he'll climb on me when I'm sleeping, EEEWWWWW! Well, I'll try it by myself. Thanks for the suggestion. I hope it doesn't jump on me."
"Will it bite me if it touches me????"
Probably not. If you grab it and hold onto it, then it might bite. But just brushing against you shouldn't make it bite you. It won't hurt if it does bite and lizards aren't venemous.
"ok, I'll try and get it then. I most definitely will not be grabbing onto it, so it should be good. If it fals it will land in my bed. I sure hope I get it."
You can use a towel or something between it and your hand. It's worth a try. If it disappears you's know it's still somewhere in your room.
"yeah, that's the scary part. I don't want it somewhere in my room, I'd rather him just stick to the wall...it'd help if I wasn't so short., grrr"
12 minutes later...
"I win! He fell off the wall and started climbing on my bike and then I trapped him in the bathroom and chased him around for a while and directed him into a bag. Now he's in the bag outside, he hasn't come out yet so I'm just leaving him there and he'll come out eventually. *Shudder* I did not like that"
Way to go! 

I went to ballet and he was still in the bag. So, I left him there. When I got back from ballet, I was talking to the same person on the phone. I reached out my hand to grab the doorknob to get inside and there was a huge spider right about where I was going to reach! I did not have so much mercy on the ginormous spider. Then there was a spider crawling on my floor!!!! You have to understand, all spiders are gross, but these are especially unpleasing to look at or crawl on your floor for that matter.

Thanksgiving

Plans were all set. I was heading to North Carolina with my roommate. We were leaving at 5am, I believe. That is very early. Since I had been on the morning shift all week, I was used to being up around that time so we decided that I would be the first driver. We get into Squirt's car and I start backing out, we've got 14 hours ahead of us. I look at her car and there is no input for an ipod. No big deal, we'll just use some CDs. Just kidding, no CD slot either and I most certainly didn't bring tapes because I don't think my car has a tape player. But that wasn't too much of an issue, we could use the radio or just not listen to anything and talk.
I got over the no music thing very quickly and easily. We start going and I'm driving on the freeway and go to set the car on cruise control...there isn't one. So now we've got 14 hours of pushing the gas pedal.
It ended up working out just fine. Out of 28 hours of driving, we spent about 30 minutes listening to music (both of our ipods have speakers).
Now, of course, this is Squirt and I, so we didn't really know where we'd be passing through or anything. But eventually we got to Lexington, South Carolina. I texted my friend from Alaska because she used to go to school there and just said that I was thinking of her cause I was driving through there and eating my halfway treat :) She immediately called me and was like, I'M HERE!!!! I haven't seen her since being in her wedding and no plans to fly up to Alaska, so we were able to have lunch on the way back home and that was really nice.
The break in North Carolina was great. I got to meet my roommates' family and that was very enjoyable. It was fun to see where she grew up and to meet a lot of the people she loves and cares about and talks about. We especially had a great time hanging out with her little sister, Katie. I also got to meet some of her friends. We had Thanksgiving meal at her Grandma's and they basically have the same types of things we have in the north. We mostly just hung out with the family and that was really fun!
On the way home, we mostly just talked the whole time. Squirt slept some, but I couldn't really sleep. I rested a bit, but sleep was not my friend that day. So we talked and talked and talked and it was super great. Then she sang to me...I will always love you. Haha, she's very funny.

The Long Awaited....

UPDATE! After getting such a nice compliment on how well I was doing on updating my blog from my friend, Becca Willis, I seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. It's been nearly a month since I've posted (since "losing my mind" doesn't really count). But, no worries, I'm still here. We're almost through November and you have no idea what's been going on. So, I am here to inform you of all the recent happenings so you will experience withdrawal no more.

Ok, let's take a brief visit back to October. I asked all of you to pray because I was working at 6am every day. Well, we all know how Andrea does on a lack of sleep, so low and behold, I got sick. I spent the next two weeks sick and working at 6am, but I still did ballet. I've requested to not be on the 6am shift anymore, but so far that wish has not been granted, so a few adjustments may need to be made when I return after the holidays. Yes, so the sickness and early morning working kinda got the best of me the first two weeks of November. But, never fear, a little sleep and health is restored to me.

Me and my buddy, Bethany

Hair clinic - I was the dummy

Chanbriandrebeff plus friends

Ballet has been going well. I am still very much enjoying it. Everything is still good, nothing is broken. I do have a couple more aches than when I started, but that goes with the territory. Someday my body will be fully restored and I am looking forward to that. Feel free to continue to pray for my body, specifically for my shins if you think about it. We are having a great time though. We have such a good group of girls in our companies. We all went out to eat last week and had tons of fun! All of our dances are coming together nicely, also. It's very fun to be dancing and learning choreography!!!! Some of us are going to do a Christmas performance in a nearby city so we had to learn how to do have for some little kids coming with us. I have become the hair guru at ballet. It's fun cause I get to try lots of things on peoples' hair and that's enjoyable. Apparently, hair and nails are my thing. I always just liked to mess around with that stuff on myself, but other people are enjoying having me do it for them too and that's very fun for me! 

Guess what's in the present?

Some of you have been asking, but I will not be coming home for Thanksgiving this year. It's too short of a break to make the trip all by myself and so I was never planning on being able to come back for Thanksgiving. I will be going to North Carolina with one of my roommates, so that should be fun. I'm sure it will be different being in the south, but I'm excited to go with her and meet her family. I did make it back home for a very short weekend and I was able to bring my friend, Rachel, with me. (And Daniel, but he lives there so it wasn't anything new for him). We had a great time, but we were there less than 48 hours. I was able to introduce Rachel to Robinettes and a few people we were able to surprise because no one knew I was coming. I came back for a couple of birthday surprises. I will be home for Christmas which is a longer break and so I am looking forward to catching up with more of you then! The video of the surprise is posted on my facebook so you should check it out!

Losing my Mind!

I was thinking this was no big deal, just life. But things keep happening, so I have to write to you about it because I really don't know what's going on in my head. Well, for one thing, I must have poorly slow reflexes because I have to take some pills every day...like calcium and stuff...and there are about 11 per day that I take. I always, almost without fail, eat one of them from off the ground. I drop at least one per day and I don't know how I manage to do that every day. One time I dropped the entire bottle on the ground and they scattered every where all over the kitchen.
In addition to eating pills off the ground, I am losing things!!!!!! The problem is that they aren't actually lost, but I swear they disappear while I'm looking and then suddenly reappear when I don't need them anymore. This first started when I bought castor oil (for my legs, I'm not having digestive issues). I had it and some other things and I could find everything but the castor oil. I kept looking and looking and finally broke down and bought new stuff since I figured I must've thrown it out. The day after I opened the new one, I found the original, lost one.
I bought some clear nailpolish at target the other day and I painted my nails and used it. I was going on a trip and wanted to bring it with me (that same day I used it) and it was no where to be found. I searched all over my room cause I had just used it ten minutes ago and I gave up and left without it.
So, I went on a trip this weekend and I brought my face wash. Except, I went over to someone elses' house after ballet to shower because we were leaving right from there. So, I used my face wash at her house and then I could not find it the whole rest of the trip. I figured I just left it at her house. WRONG, I opened up my bag to unpack it and there it was, right in my bag the whole time. I had been using hers all weekend cause mine was missing when it really wasn't, I just didn't know that.
My cell phone charger is still MIA, but I am confident it will also re-appear when I least expect it.

What's Shakin' at the Beagle Bagel

I thought my "funny" things from working at beagle bagel were going to be coming from customers, but for the most part, it's been from people I work with. They are all trying to convince me that I am not white. They're like, "you can't be that color and be a white person, you have to be something else" and so I say, "nope I'm as white as they come, sorry" and they say, "I don't believe you, you have to be hispanic or something, but you're not white." Ummm, last time I checked, I most definitely was white. It's all good natured teasing so it's funny. Someday, maybe, they'll believe me.
This week was a bit hard. I got plenty of hours in, but I got called at 6:15am one morning saying someone had quit and I needed to go in if I could. I needed hours, so I went. Then I was asked to work at 6am the next day. Usually, I can plan better if I know ahead of time, but I'm really supposed to be a lunch person.
If you think of it, pray for me this week because I am on the schedule at 6am every day this week and that will be extremely difficult for me especially because I don't get home from ballet until 8 or 8:15pm and I need to go to bed by 8 or 8:30 to be ok to get up that early. But, I can't go to bed right after ballet so I'm unsure what I'm going to do. Hopefully it's just like this this week until they hire someone new.

MYB Debut

I have to figure out where I last left off. It's been a little while and I'm sure lots of things have happened. I can assure you that last week I was not able to be in three places at once so I ended up performing...since that was the required thing, and I really wanted to. We had a fun time, but it was a little weird because only part of the senior company got to perform and so it was different not having everyone there. But we had a good time. The performance went well and it felt really good to be dancing on a stage again. Here are a couple of pictures from our evening...

My friend, Bethany, putting in my hairpiece into my favorite hairstyle ever - the slicked back bun. Please note the greenery growing out of my ear. PS - Bethany and I are the same age, such a wonderful friend.

Most of MYB senior company with our teacher, Ms Tracey, and our red lipstick. I know, I don't need to point it out because it's kind of obvious.

Me with Bria and Chandler, just hanging out and waiting backstage, I'M the white one...can't you tell.

Massage train!!!!!!! I know, super flattering picture of myself, but I thought the overall picture was cute.

Look at what I can do!!!!

We really are very focused when it's necessary, but other than that, we really enjoy each others company and have a great time together. It was really fun to perform and I am so blessed to be a part of this group. It's such a wonderful group of girls of all ages and I'm so glad I was invited to join the company!!! God was really with us in this performance because one of my friends had a three ring binder prong go through her foot the night before and was not able to walk Saturday morning, but she was able to do the performance. My shin hurt, but not to the point where I couldn't do stuff and he was working in other ways too. It was just a fun time to share the stage with these girls and see what can happen when you trust God. One of my roommates and a few of my friends were also in a different dance so it was really fun to be able to watch them do their dance. I'm so thankful for this opportunity.

Have you ever wanted to be three places at once??? That's me today. There are so many spectacular things happening this very day and I only get to do one of them because I have this problem called a body and it only allows me to be in one location at a time. Anyone else like that? Ok, that's rhetorical cause I know the answer.
Well, tonight is my debut with Magnificat! Youth Ballet. I'm so excited. Yesterday, we had ballet class, then we went to dinner at a really good restaurant. We headed over to the theater to touch up our make up, put on our RED lipstick and get our costumes on. We warmed up and then did a very quick dress rehearsal. It went well other than the fact that the floor was really slippery, but we will fix that problem today. Yes, I am very excited about this, about performing with all of my friends from my class and then also some of my friends who are trainees are performing as well. It should be fun!
The other place I'd like to be is in Houston, Texas. It's my sister's birthday today and so I'd like to celebrate with her. But, I suppose I'll have to celebrate from afar. But, they're doing all sorts of fun stuff and it'd be awesome to see her. But, that will have to wait for another time and maybe we can have a party just cause I'm there, who knows?
I would also like to be in Rockford, Michigan right now. It is homecoming in Rockford and some of my favorites are going to their first homecoming dance ever! I so wish I could be there to do their hair and help serve them dinner, drive them to the dance and most importantly of all, TAKE PICTURES! I'm really sad I'm missing it and there won't be another "first" homecoming. They have all promised me pictures though, so we'll see what I get. The last time they said they'd take pictures for me, this is what I got...

 

 This was when I left them in charge of the camera, though. Hopefully the parents will do a better job about taking some nice photos. I mean, I love these and it shows who they really are, but it'd be nice to have some "organized" photos. Which, if only you could see my albums you would be able to see all of the poses and stuff I put them through. BUT, now we have the pictures and they made me this beautiful photo album before I came to Mississippi and I just looked through today. Now, I'm so glad I made them take all those pictures :) So, girls, have tons of fun tonight! I miss you and love you and can't wait to see you in not too much longer.

Pray for my team and our performance tonight. We are prepared and very excited!!!! But, we definitely need God's help. My leg hurts a lot (not different than the usual stuff, but it's just pretty intense right now) and there are a couple of other things that we could just use some prayer for. Thanks!!!! Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pictures of us in our costumes :)