...and i'm done working for 2007.

today was a long day. i told eric i would be working late because i had to wrap a lot of things up. i told him at 5pm that i would probably work until 6pm. i finally left the office at 8:30 pm. i hate that i told eric that i'd be an extra hour at work and ended up being an extra three and a half. he was wonderfully understanding, so i am thankful for that. i am sad, though that isaiah and ethan were already asleep when i got home. i hate that a day can go by without me seeing them. the good news is that we have the next two weeks together...eric and i are both off until after the new year.

i still can't get over how strange (and great) it is to wake up and want to go to work. even stranger is when your bosses understand that having a life outside of work is just as important to your productivity as is the time you spend actually working. i appreciate that. my quality of life is increased.

we spent last weekend helping gary out with a retreat for his high-schoolers at bethany house. the topic: theology of the body - heavy stuff. gary and the other youth director did a great job presenting the content on a level that the kids could understand. free total faithful fruitful. they gave us silicon bracelets with those words printed on it. it reminds me that that is the kind of love we are meant to give and to receive. we helped out at this high school retreat last year, too...i love that we ended the year serving together as a bible study.

just like that...2007 is just about gone.

there is LOTS to do before the holidays. i'm hoping to be able to take off the last two weeks in December because i have 9 vacation days to burn before the year ends. i'm not really sure when i'm going to be able to take them. i've never had this problem before. it's an odd feeling. i'm going to have to bust my ass to get everything done because i really really really don't want to have to work when eric is off.

30 weeks and counting. owen will be here before we know it.

i want to say that 85% of our christmas shopping is done. all those presents are wrapped and under the tree. i have never before been this prepared with christmas gifts. all i know is that i accept that i am one of those crazy people that shops at 4am on black friday. however, i am not one of those mean and crazy people. there's a difference. i played the pregnant card to this woman who was being particularly nasty to me about not being able to get by in the aisle i was in at the super packed kohls. i never do that. but she was NOT nice at all, and i was not in the mood to deal with someone so rude and incosiderate at 4am. especially someone that was trying to push me over into a bunch of people. anyway.

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

it has been 4 days since alvin and jenny got married.

gorgeous. elegant. lovely.

all the things that alvin and jenny are...their wedding echoed them. i'm not even going to try to describe it. i'll just say this: what. a kick ass. party. :D (oh, and i think i'm still full from all of the food i ate over the weekend.)

i couldn't help thinking when i saw alvin walk down the aisle, that this was really it...we were really letting him go. this was basically the last thing he's doing in michigan before heading off to the east coast. i mean, he's been in d.c. for almost a year now, but now he and jenny are married. one. starting a brand new life together. to me, it was like the wedding made his move official. i'm so excited for everything they have ahead of them. i love how perfect they are together, and i love how well they compliment each other and how much they love each other. i miss my friend being in michigan, but more than that i am thrilled that he and his perfect mate get to be together forever! it sounds so corny, but a relationship like theirs really has to be celebrated these days.

so congratulations, alvin and jenny! i love you both to a million pieces! muah!

i'm so overwhelmed. work is so so so so so so so so busy. life is so so so so so busy. i couldn't possibly fit anything more into my days. i worked until 9pm last night and started my day today at 5:15am. the good part is that the work madness just lights a fire under me and makes me want to work really hard so that i can get home. i feel that if this was any other job, i would just want to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers.

i need to find time to clean out the office closet so we can clean out the guest bedroom closet so kimmie can start moving her stuff in.

i need to find time to hang out with my mom. i haven't spent quality time with her since she got back from the philippines last friday. i miss my mom.

i need to find time to go with my mom to pick out her wedding flowers and look at her wedding dress.

i can't believe my mom is getting married next week.

i can't believe alvin and jenny are finally getting married this week. my mom wasn't able to get them barongs in the philippines (they ran out). so tuxedo t-shirts for isaiah and matthew it is!

i need to find time to play with isaiah and ethan. i need to be able to spend some quality one on one time with them. it breaks my heart when isaiah asks me to read to him and i have to tell him no because i have to go to work. i can't tell you how many times i've been late to work because ethan and isaiah pop awake and just want to play and cuddle.

i dare say that i am 95% caught up with laundry. laundry is the constant dark cloud lingering over my head (and pile sitting in the basement) reminding me that i suck at housework.

24 weeks and 2 days along...more than halfway there. february 6th is coming fast!

dot is my car. i think porta named her. she has been through a lot with me. i love my car. she's so fun to drive. so much fun, that i think that i will forever favor manual cars.

when i bought dot, i threw all practicality out the window. she wasn't the most affordable. she wasn't going to be able to fit a ton of people in her comfortably. she wasn't the safest. she wasn't going to drive well in the snow. she wasn't domestic. i think the only thing that she had going for her was her gas mileage. i think the only thing i cared about was 1) if i liked how it looked and how it drove and 2) if my snowboard would fit inside. i knew that this was probably going to be the last fun car i owned before kids and family dictated my vehicle. i knew that after this car, i'd probably be buying gm. gm - the auto maker that makes cars that look like they were made for older men. but how could i - in good conscience - not buy gm with eric working so hard for them?

i was right. the time is now. in preparation for the third baby boy agustin, eric and i have no choice but to both get new cars. my car is here. despite having to give up my very fun and cute car, i am pretty excited about the new one. the saturn outlook. in cocoa. lots of fun extras. i'm thrilled that there is a gm car out there that i can be happy to own. in fact, we both like the car so much that we're his and hers outlooks. awww.

i think it's time to get behind gm...so i am. if i can do it, so can anyone. so just do it. eric and connie work really hard. it's fun to support them. and they can get you a discount. buy gm. yay!

labor day weekend brain dump:

it started on my birthday, which was spent mostly in a meeting at our headquarters in lansing. fast forward to a quick stop home to finish packing and then to my mom's. she's so cute. she tried calling me several times that day, and when she finally got a hold of me, she asked if i was going to eat pancit. (it's tradition to eat pancit or long noodles on your birthday....the long noodles translate into a long life apparently.) i told her no, so she told me she'd make me some. thanks, mommy! it was really important to her that i ate pancit on my birthday. i think it makes my mom happy that she can still take care of me in that way.

8/29/07, 10pm - leave for chicago, 3 hrs later than the planned time of departure.

the boys were so good the entire weekend. i thought they would be a little crazy from being in the car for so long. turns out leaving around their bedtime was pure genius on our part. they weren't thrown off their schedule one bit.

* * *

got to spend time with donna - a lot of that time was just attempting to go to the shedd aquarium. for future reference: do not attempt to go to shedd aquarium the day of a chicago bears tailgate/game unless you want to pay $40 to park. we didn't, so we went to navy pier and the children't museum. i missed out on lazo's tacos because i was celebrating kelly's bachelorette-hood on the chicago odyssey. great food, fun times, gorgeous view...and the best part: entirely free!

* * *

construction traffic in chicago is terrible. i really hate traffic, and i kind of turn into an angry monster when i have to sit in it for a very long time. it is just ridiculous when it takes an hour to move a mile.

* * *

kelly and ariel's wedding was wonderful. the church was beautiful, kelly and ariel looked beautiful, the trolley was a fun time. i love weddings...especially now that i'm married. there's something so awesome about uniting one's life with another and making that vow to constantly choose to love someone with one's whole self. it's so hard, but so worth it a thousand times over.

for the most part, i was able to control the tears...except for when kelly asked me to lead the prayer right before she walked down the aisle. and except for when they were signing their marriage license. i was thinking how cool it was that they signed their license during the ceremony, and i heard the choir singing.

wherever you go, i will go
wherever you live, i'll be with you
wherever you lie, i'll be there beside you
wherever you go, i'll be there...

so beautiful. how could you not cry? so congrats (again), ariel and kelly! SO excited that you'll be in michigan together!!

* * *

we spent some time with steen and phil on sunday. i love them (and their little dog, yoshi, who might be the best dog in the whole world - and that says a lot, being that i am so not a dog person). i really miss spending time with steen...we used to be inseperable before college. and then we both kind of did our own thing for a few years. it's nice to be able to reconnect after all that time. our 10-year high school reunion is at the end of the month...should be very interesting.

* * *

completely unrelated to labor day weekend: my mom is having me and my brother give her away at her wedding in october. doesn't that make you want to cry?

for the first time ever, i am taking a sick day that i don't want to take. i figured that my co-workers would not appreciate me coughing all over them and infecting them with my germs. i'm so mad at myself for not taking my computer home with me.

these are exciting times...

congrats to dinner buddy on finishing your thesis and having a stellar defense. from now on, you will be known as master chrissy.

new job, same organization. promotion and management responsibilities (i get my own admin assistant!)...all because God has a plan to take care of my family. i could write pages of how things have *just happened* to have fallen into place. instead, you should ask me. it's a good story, i promise.

speaking of family, stay tuned for baby agustin #3 in february 2008! let's hope ethan and isaiah get a baby sister!

i brought the new harry potter book into the office today.

my co-worker reserved the large board room for lunch so a bunch of us could have a quiet place to read.

i am a useless employee today.

i am spoiled by air conditioning.

in 2005, my whole family, including my mom's brothers and sister and spouses, went to boracay on vacation. we had an awesome time. except for the ride in the van on the way back to the airport. we were wet to our hips from having to wade to shore from the boat. it was hot. like 100 degrees hot. it was humid. we were stuffed in a van with no a/c. we were cranky. very cranky.

i had a scare on sunday and thought the a/c in my car busted. thankfully, i turned my car on monday morning and my a/c was working perfectly. there's just something about driving with the windows down on the freeway and walking into the office smelling like the outside that's not very appealing to me.

on a completely separate note: ethan is going to be one in 9 days. he was supposed to be born one year ago today.

yay! benda and rosie are married! congrats!

highlights:

• eric and i getting to spend an evening as a young hip couple (sans parental duties)
• boogie-ing with my mom (that woman can lead a mean boogie!)
• the grapes
• lyrical dancing by ryan and...phil pompa (??!!) - this statement does absolutely no justice to what actually transpired
• ryan and phil on the cordless mics

i think that all of the moths in michigan got together last week and decided to bombard my garage and driveway, and then follow me to the state capitol building in lansing.

now i know that moths aren't dangerous and that i shouldn't be afraid of them. however, i have a problem with 4-inch bugs constantly flying at my head. i have a HUGE problem with 4-inch bugs flying at my head while i'm in the car. *shudder* yuck! i hate bugs!

even worse, i'm driving in my car and i hear this *click click click* on my sunroof. *click click click. click click click* an enormous (yes, enormous! the legs were 2-inches long!) RED spider is on the inside of my sunroof! EWWW!! getoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetout, i said, as i openeed up my sunroof so the spider could exit without falling into my car (read: on ME). eeeee. it looks like the red hardy spider. google it. it's scary looking.

but no worries, i am safe (because i know that you're worried. you are definitely not thinking that my fear of bugs is totally ridiculous). i didn't get in any crazy car accidents despite bugs basically attacking ;) me in transit.

my co-worker had to make a call today to a company called "athletic support."

heh heh.

*EXHALE*

it is really important to have an insanely supportive husband when working 30 days straight (including three 30+ hour shifts). eric's the bomb. he watched our two very active boys for three weekends in a row and did not complain once.

wanna know the count for my three events?

• dollars raised: $184,000+
• # participants: 890
• # luminaria lit to honor/remember a loved one who has faced cancer: 1,578
• # survivors celebrated: 111
• # times cried in the last three weekend: countless
• total hours slept in the last three saturdays: 4.5
• being completely done with all of my events: priceless

i cannot even say how much it meant to me if you came out to my event (or were part of a team - hi, j, kelly and ariel!). i loooooved seeing my friends and family. real people i didn't have to please or coddle. plus it's just nice that the people you love can see what the heck you've been doing that you had to be away from them for so many nights.

it goes without saying that i'm exhausted. physically, mentally, emotionally. i think my heart broke a thousand times because of all of the personal accounts that have been shared with me as to why someone participates in Relay For Life. at my first event, i glanced over at the survivor registration area and saw two small kids in purple survivor t-shirts. turns out, they are brother and sister and both under the age of six. i hate cancer. i hate that those kids have to go through cancer. i hate that their mother has to watch her kids suffer. one of my oxford team captains died 8 days before my last relay. he had been diagnosed with brain cancer not 3 weeks ago. his family still came to the relay with t-shirts that said "laps for luke." another woman came to the oxford relay to buy a luminaria bag for her husband that had died the day before. i am continually amazed at what Relay For Life does for people. it gives people hope and a place to be emotionally vulnerable with others in the same situation.

anyway...we're working really hard for you (yes, you!) so that you won't get cancer, and if you do get cancer, we're working really hard to make the cancer experience as comfortable and short as possible. so please: practice sun safety. quit smoking. get your cancer screenings. practice early detection methods. i don't ever want to have to light a luminaria bag for you.

hell week. it's what we called the week before the high school play. crunch time before the big show. a series of hell weeks are about to commence for me. i'd love it if you'd send up a prayer or send some good thoughts my way. i'm stressed, mildly scared, very excited. i have been very blessed to have so many great (and not so great) volunteers to help me make these events happen.

it made me happy to see so many of my friends yesterday. soccer & grilling on a perfect spring day. awesome. it's like my gift before i fall off the face of the earth....

right...

now.

2 (looong) meetings with volunteers
+ 3 hours in starbucks
+ 2 big coffees
+ 1 iced tea
+ 0 meals
good idea
jittery and sick to my stomach

i've been to three pistons game this season:

1.17.07 chris webber debuts as a piston. lose to utah. strike one.

2.14.07 get stomped by the spurs. that sucked. strike two.

3.20.07 eric gets free tickets to the denver game. score. we take the boys.

1.5 seconds left in the game. down 95-98. we don't have the ball. all of a sudden, i just see the ball sailing across the court and bank in. AAAHHHH!!!!! a lucky shot leads to a victory in overtime.

the point of my blog: it is SO not my fault that the pistons lose when i attend home games. let me tell ya, it's a relief!

been up since 4am packing. accidentally fell asleep when putting isaiah to sleep. drive to lansing. go to training. drive home. pack up car. drive to connie's. drive to dtw. go go go...

park city, here we come!

points points points.

points for wearing sweats. more points if they match. even more points if they are not name brand. even more if they cuff at the ankle. super star points for wearing hyper color. points for beating ariel at eating white castle. points for every shot in le club de centuree. points for knowing more pop culture/celebrity gossip than lorie. points for beating eric at two-minute chess. points for hugging isaiah and ethan. points for catching the spy.

96 candles on an 8" birthday cake was not enough. happy 30ish birthday party to you, ariel, eric, j, and lorie! thanks for giving us a reason to party like it was 1999!

head on. i've heard the commercials are obnoxious. i've never seen them. all i know is that it works freakishly well. i don't really care to know how...all i know is that my headache disappears when i use it.

i've never been a headache person. i never understood people that constantly had a headache. how could you ALWAYS have a headache? i never got them (except when i had the flu), so i couldn't understand it.

i have a fun job. most of the time. (we'll focus on the positive.) i get to have meetings with volunteers to talk about what we need to do next to plan our big event. i get to meet some remarkable people. i get to meet corporate execs and township officials to tell them that my organization can provide your company free health and wellness programs to reduce your health care costs and improve productivity. i get to share with people that 1 in 3 americans will be diagnosed with cancer and how it doesn't have to be that way...that 2/3 of all cancers are preventable and that there are things you can do so that you and your children and their children won't have to die from cancer. but all the planning and the deadlines have created this incredible amount of stress that i have never before experienced. i don't let myself get super stressed out. i may actually be super stressed out, but that never manifests itself into anything more than me forgetting to eat lunch or go to the bathroom. this whole new level of stress from my job is crazy. i may or may not want to cry because of all the work that needs to be done in one of my communities. this crazy stress...it gives me headaches. the kind that sit right at the bottom of your forehead making your eyes feel like they will fall out of your head. yuck. which brings me back to head on. use it. love it. i do.

TGIF!

i miss being able to randomly im people during the work day. sometimes it's the only time you get to catch up with people.

if i could have im'ed you last week i would have told you that every time someone asks me how my boys are doing, they reciprocate with stories about their dogs. my co-workers love their dogs. none of them have children.

if i could have im'ed this week i would have told you that relay for life events with an elvis impersonator are 20% more likely to reach their goals. random.

if i could have im'ed you yesterday, i would have shared my excitement at being able to see chris webber's pistons debut. too bad we lost - it was the first pistons game that i have attended in 4 years that we lost. i blame alvin's absence. just kidding. well, half kidding.

there is a teeny tiny possibility that i could get sick of drinking coffee all the time. we'll see how that goes...

two weeks into 2007 already. happy new year, everybody!

i started off the new year in florida. spent new years day at discovery cove in the water all day. isaiah looked very cool in a wetsuit. ethan was so cute in the little swimming vest. we swam with a ridiculous number of fish and ENORMOUS manta rays. i like swimming with the fish, but i don't like getting swarmed by them. i'd rather just look and say "ooh" and "ahh" - no need to be touched by the fish, thank you very much. my favorite part of that day was eric and the shark tank. "is there glass???!" that day ended sucky because of the horrible michigan performance in the rose bowl. ugh.

i signed up for the discovery health national body challenge. it's an 8-week program to help you start better eating and exercising habits. at work, we offer free health and wellness programs to worksites to promote the same thing. those programs are 10 weeks because studies have shown that that's how long it takes to form a habit. does that mean that the national body challenge won't work? i guess we shall see....