Thanksgiving & Mr. Monk

You wouldn't believe the weather we're having right now. Yesterday, the temps dropped 30-40 degrees (it went from long-sleeve t-shirt weather to coat and hat weather within a matter of a few short hours!). This morning I didn't even know if I'd be able to get to work at all. Since we don't have a garage, both of our cars were completely coated in a 1/4 inch of ice. It took Nick and I (though mostly Nick) over half an hour just to get the car doors open! Until we could get the doors open, we didn't know how to "thaw out" the car. We both thought to use a blow dryer... but to use that we would have needed an extention cord. And the extention cord is in our crawl space which is deadbolted and the lock was frozen over. Then we thought to use warm water and then take a scraper to the windshield. Luckily, it worked. I later found out that you're never supposed to do that because the contrast in temperature can cause the windows to explode! Yikes... thank heavens, that wasn't our case. Anyways, I was able to get to work and I ended up getting off an hour early this afternoon on account of the sleet and snow. They're predicting as much as a foot of snowfall overnight, as well. I'm doubting I'll be able to get to work tomorrow, which is okay by me. I love snow days; it will give me a much needed opportunity to tidy up at home and work on some home projects. Nick on the other hand is a bit wracked up about his school and work situation--- we've been watching the advisories all evening and OCC is the only school in the entire region planning on having school tomorrow. With his course load he really needs to be in class, but I can't imagine that he'd be able to get out with the weather like it is. Not to mention, brrrr!!!!

Hey, hope you guys all had a great Turkey Day. We both enjoyed having almost a full week off. On Tuesday we ended up leaving half a day early. My dad called to let us know that my grandpa was doing really poorly and the family all drove out to Hutchinson to see him. He's been hospitalized for over a month because he had been put on a heart medication longer than necessary and it caused his liver to shut down (and soon after, everything else was falling apart as well). It was definitely good to see him and the rest of the family. We prayed over him as a family and it's so awesome to see how God answered our prayer. The next day he was sitting up and even wanted to eat (something he hadn't been able to do for quite some time). On Wednesday, we headed up to KC for holiday plans. We got to see Nick's side of the family on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Midway through Thanksgiving, we drove up to St. Joe to celebrate the holiday with my family. All of the cousins and Nick and I decided the weather was so nice, it would be a great time to play a football game. So we drove down to St. Joe Christian and played a game for a couple of hours on their practice field. It was definitely nice to burn off the turkey, plus we had a ton of fun. McKenzie even brought black makeup, so we both put streaks under our eyes to look "tough". Ha! Later in the week we drove back and forth around Kansas City, hitting up other family members. On Friday, we spent the day shopping at Oak Park Mall with the gals from Nick's family. On Saturday, we went over to my grandparents' house to help decorate for Christmas. And on Sunday, we went over to Mark & Lisa's to hang out with them and the kids. We had a blast learning how to play Mexican dominos.

And then they introduced us to Monk.

I have to be honest. I don't do TV shows. Because when I do, I really get into them and then when someone says, "Hey, you want to do something on Tuesday night?" I have to tell them I have plans (which, of course, consist of watching my show). This fall, my crutch was Dancing with the Stars. Don't ask me why because I really wasn't into it the two seasons before. But it's been kind of a relief now that Dancing with the Stars ended. Phew! TV free. Or so I thought.

But now I'm addicted to Monk. And so is Nick. Mark and Lisa were adament that we just "had" to watch this show called Monk when we were over. So, we watched an episode, they sent us home with two seasons on DVD... and now we're hooked! We've already gone through two DVD's in just a few nights. It's kind of like CSI without all the gore (and kind of the old school mystery of Matlock or Murder She Wrote). Mix that with A Beautiful Mind, but then throw in some quirky humor and it equals one of the best series I've ever seen. Add to that, the theme song is the most addictive song you'll ever hear. Nick has been whistling it around the house to no avail and I found myself humming it a few times today at work! So, if you've got some time on your hands (say, you're snowed in and have no where to go), watch a Monk episode. I think you'll be in for a pleasant surprise!