Beware the Cold!

Last night, I experienced the worst cold I have ever had. Well, I have had it for a few days and I thought I was over the worst of it because I have had a few not-so-stellar nights, but this night took the cake by a mile. Normally, when I get colds they run me down a little and it might take me an extra few minutes to fall asleep due to coughing or switchage (a term coined by my friend referring to how one nostril gets blocked and then you switch sides you are sleeping on and the one side clears and the other side becomes blocked). After trying to sleep for 3 hours, which was, mind you, after taking a sleeping aid (which is usually a rare occurrence for me and I have multiple reasons for doing so now), I broke down like a little baby. I just started crying in bed. My eyes were stinging from the fatigue since I'd only gotten about 5 hours of sleep the previous night and I could barely breathe from the post-nasal drip I was experiencing (I know you all love the detail). It's interesting because last evening my friend and I were talking about her daughter being up all hours of the night since she has, I would assume, the same thing I do. She said her daughter was very dramatic about the whole thing, and now, I can honestly say, I was probably just as dramatic and totally can empathize. It was complete misery. I had no idea a little cold could get me down like that. Luckily, I did finally get to sleep and only woke a few times and was able to go back to sleep in fairly short order. However, this is a cold not soon to be forgotten. I don't wish it upon any of you.

College bowl pick'em

I'm sure this is surprising to most of you, but I rarely do well when asked to fill out a bracket for March madness. Some how my mother-in-law, who rarely watches any college basketball and has doesn't know anything about most of the teams, often picks at least as well if not better than me. (No hard feelings Judy). This year Sabrina's brother invited us to participate in ESPN's college bowl mania. At the last second Sabrina talked me into joining their group and I filled out my bracket. Well, unsurprisingly both Sabrina's mom and grandma did quite well at the beginning. Much to my surprise, however, I was doing well also. In fact, I kept doing well. So well in fact, that I not only won our group, but ended up in the 99.5 percentile at number 1660 out of 323,081. I normally don't feel inclined to brag about my luck. Since I'm usually awful at doing these things, I thought I'd just take a moment and let you know that if you fill out enough of these things, soon or later you too can have a lucky day and pick well.

Mullet Man

Over Christmas break my brother dubbed Chase "mullet man", probably for good reason. The kid needs a haircut. However, if we give him one, we won't be able to capture pictures like these. I think I'll kind of miss it when it's gone.

Well, probably not that much.

Random Thought

There are lots of things that change as you get older, not the least of which is how your clothes wear out. Growing up, it was rare that my jeans made it through a whole school year without me growing out of them. Even then, they were often worn out in the knees. Sometimes they'd have holes ripped open in various places from playing in fields, climbing fences, and falling off bikes and out of trees. Holes often meant great stories to tell, particularly if they were the non-knee variety.

As I got older, I stopped growing so much and so my jeans started lasting longer. However, I would usually use the older pairs as work clothes when I did construction and so in the end, they too were full of holes in the knees and random other places.

Now that I'm older and have a full time job, my pants only wear out from doing one thing, sitting on my butt all day long. It's always embarrassing to be at work and realize that it's time once again to retire another pair of pants.

"This Christmas"

I know I've put up way too many videos lately. It's quick and keeps my blog alive until I can get back to posting about my family (who is still wonderful, by the way). This is a fabulous new Christmas song by a super talented band, Fictionist. I might just know some of the band members personally, but I am not posting it because I know them. I just think they are seriously really good and this song is simple, short and sweet. Enjoy!



If you like this song, get the mp3 free here: http://www.facebook.com/fictionistnoise

Serving As Christ Would

My friend just sent this video to me. It inspired me. As you would know if you read my long ramble a week or so ago, I struggle to know how much to sacrifice in order to serve those who are needy around us. We aren't rich by any US standard, although quite comfortable. However, compared to many in the world, we live as well as royalty. I don't know how much to give up in order to help those in need. I don't even know where to begin really, besides the occasional donation, humanitarian aid project, or sub-for-santa. I realize we all have different missions in life and are placed where we are for a reason. I don't want to throw everything out or be ungrateful, but I do know where much is given, much is required. I am always inspired by people who give up so much to help out the destitute. The man in this short video clip is such a wonderful demonstration of that. I don't think he is even Christian but I believe he is serving the way Christ would.

Random Act of Culture

This video already has almost 6 million views so I might just be late joining the bandwagon, but I totally LOVED this and want to echo a comment posted about the video, "Why can't this happen at my mall?"



Handel's Messiah is by far my all-time favorite music in the whole world. That's saying something too because I am very opinionated about music.