Countdown to our first anniversary!

After three years of marriage we're finally looking forward to our first anniversary next year. ("Wait, what?") We got married on leap day in 2008. We knew we'd only have an anniversary every four years so we thought we'd have a big celebration every four years.

We now have 365 days left to plan that celebration. The problem is that we're a little stuck. Here's the problems we're running up against:

1. Leap day is on a Wednesday next year, which means it's on a school night.
2. Which means that Jason will probably have class that day and the next day.
3. To throw a proper party we need to pay for it. Dinner for 50 people at $20/person is $1,000. 
4. If we throw a party that costs us $20/person, will our guest feel obligated to bring gifts? (We don't want gifts.) 
5. We're not sure where to have it. At a restaurant? Rent a hall and have a catered dinner? 
6. We're not sure what we want the celebration to look like. We've thought about having dinner and a band with dancing. Or maybe just dinner and then heading out for live music or karaoke afterward.
7. Our families from out of town will most likely not be able to make it. So then the question is who are we having this party for? 

So what do you think? Should we just ask those who can make it meet us for dinner someplace? Should we try to do something more organized and private? (I love planning parties.)

Where do you think we should have it? I'm leaning towards the Oregon District. There's many restaurants there and several places that would have live entertainment. Or we could all go hang out at Press after dinner, the new coffee place on Wayne.

Karaoke at our wedding reception

When should we have it? The date is of course 2/29/12 (save the date), but should it be at 5:30 or 6:00 pm, right after work? Or should it be later in the evening like 7:00 or 7:30 pm so people have time to get ready after work?

The reason I'm asking all of you is because I'm hoping many of our family and friends can make it, so that requires us planning this around what our family and friends would like to do. (And when and where.) So please feel free to share your opinion. :)

Thank you!

Old blogs are so much fun!

I decided to jump in on one of those class action law suits against Vonage. I needed to know some specific details about when I requested to disconnect my service and how much they charged me after this. This happened in June of 2007, so the details are foggy. Thankfully I blogged this specific information due to my frustration with dealing with them. I actually printed my blog post as "proof" of the information I submitted. I can send them my link directly from myspace too so they can see that I didn't just create the blog post.

You know what else happened in June of 2007? I had just started dating Jason! I've been enjoying reading through some posts before and after we started dating. They're not part of this blog, so I decided I need to move them over. To view all these past-due blog posts, click on this link: http://jc-parsons.blogspot.com/search/label/myspace

(Disclaimer: a few pictures didn't show up due to the current blog layout. Hoping to change this soon, but it won't be tonight. My apologies. I'll repost a picture below to pique your interest though...)

Compassion for the Children

Tonight I went to the Rock & Worship Road Show at the Nutter Center (at Wright State, my alma mater). So we're talking some loud, rockin' music by The Afters, Thousand Foot Krutch, Matt Maher, Jars of Clay and Mercy Me. Amazingly it was only $10 to get in, so you can imagine the huge groups of teenagers that were there. The energy was amazing and the woofers (speakers, not dogs) were thumping out of control. We're all going to be deaf and hoarse tomorrow. But that's the fun part about loud concerts. ;)

However, I wasn't there for the music. (Though that was definitely a perk!) I was asked to work at the Compassion International table. (Their website is www.compassion.com.) I'm a sponsor of 11 year old Ana Melissa in Honduras. I've really enjoyed the letters we've exchanged and getting pictures from her that she's drawn. I look forward to developing a relationship with Ana and hopefully one day will meet her.

So this evening I got to help people pick out children to sponsor and fill out forms. It got a little overwhelming at one point - not because of the number of people asking questions or needing help, but because so many children who have been waiting for sponsors now have sponsors. It was like when you're watching Extreme Home Makeover and you get a bit choked up when you realize how much their lives will be changed.

Of course the cherry on top of this awesome evening was getting to see Jars of Clay perform Flood and Dead Man (Carry Me) live. We didn't stay for Mercy Me though, my feet were killing me and we had been gone all evening. Btw, Jason loved Thousand Foot Krutch and we'll be buying their newest CD soon so we can kill our ear drums while listening to it in the car. (It's loud, which is why he liked it.) ;)

I have to tell you two random things that happened while we were there.

First, a man came up to the table and wanted to sponsor a child in Honduras. Long story short, he's a Youth Pastor who takes groups down to Honduras with Heart to Honduras (the same group we travel with). Then we tell him we go to the Vineyard and he asks which campus. (Seriously, how many people know there are two campuses?) We tell him we were attending the Dayton campus, but we're part of the church plant in Huber Heights now. So he says he was at a party for a friend at the Dayton campus - Jeanne Lowe. I couldn't believe it, I was part of the planning for that party. I told him "oh hey, I was the one with the microphone who got everyone to sing Happy Birthday!" His response was "no wonder you look familiar!" Dayton is so so so small town!!

Second, while waiting for the elevator to go to the back parking lot of the Nutter Center (where the pep band would park) a couple of guys behind me started singing a Jars of Clay song. They hit a high note and didn't hit it very well. They explained to me that they're in a battle of the bands but they only do Jars of Clay cover songs. I asked where this battle of the bands was (in Dayton???) and they explained that they were roadies for one of the bands and all the roadies have this battle of the bands. Whomever wins gets to perform at the last concert. How cool is that? About that time the elevator stopped and we were getting off, so I had to tell them good luck and keep practicing. They laughed, thankfully.

It was just that kind of night. :)

THE RESULTS!! What is Izzy...

Drum roll please...

Izzy is between 37-74% Yorkshire Terrier

 

and between 20-36% Papillon

 and between 10-19% Collie

and less than 10% Greyhound

And probably a lot other breeds, but these are the four that stood out on the DNA test. Now we have to figure out what you call a Yorkie/Papillon/Collie/Greyhound. Yorpicolhound?

So what do you think? Can you see any of these in Izzy? Honestly, I can see the Greyhound in the way she sprints around the house, her ears are kinda like a Papillon, but the others... not so sure. (Did you know that a Greyhound mix is called a Lurcher?)

I decided to search some different combinations of these breeds and see if any of them resembled our little dog. 

Yorkie-Papillon mix

Greyhound-Terrier mix

Collie-Greyhound mix

Papillon-Greyhound mix

(Yes, a lot of Greyhound mixes but for some reason they're easier to find than the others.) 

So I'm seeing a few that kinda resemble Izzy but I think the Greyhound should be higher than the Collie - which I don't see in her at all. I wonder what breeds may have come from the Collie or the Grayhound that maybe they don't test for. What do you think? Was the DNA test accurate or do you think they're completely off?

As for the contest, there was only ONE person who guessed even one of the breeds. MaryR guessed Greyhound, so her little Yorkie-mix, Holly, will get a package of chewies (which she doesn't have to share when Izzy comes visits in a few weeks). :)

Btw, I want to thank my mom for getting the DNA test for us for Christmas. People are constantly asking us what kind of dog she is because she is really unique and quite a sweetie. It's been fun trying to figure out what she is and now the mystery is over. We have a Yorpicolhound! :)

CONTEST!! What is Izzy?

 Yes, yes, she's a dog. But what kind of dog?

We just got her DNA test back and we were surprised! I was guessing Chiweenie (Chihuahua and Dachshund), and Jason thought she was a designer dog, but not sure what. However we now know she is neither of these. She is a combination of four different kinds of breeds (and possibly more but they weren't on the test). None of these breeds were more than 60% dominant.

So here's the contest: Guess the breed!

Post in the comments below what breeds you think came up on Izzy's DNA test. Please list no more than 4 breeds, and list the breeds from greatest percentage to the lowest. (This will be used in case of a tie.) The contest ends Monday night at 10pm when the DNA results and the winner are announced.

The person who guesses the closest wins a package of chewies. If you are not a dog owner, the chewies (or the monetary equivalent) will be donated to the pet shelter of your choice.

I've posted some pictures of our precious pup to help you out. She weighs approximately 15 pounds and is about 2 years old. If you have any questions you'd like to ask regarding her personality or temperament, please ask in the comments below.

Have fun and good luck!! :)

The ice storm of 2011

I'm looking at the title and really hoping it's the ONLY ice storm in 2011, but after this winter you never know. So maybe I should clarify...

The ice storm of 1/31/11 - 2/2/11

Monday night Jason and I headed out to Elder Beermans to find Jason a new interview outfit. (After losing 45 pounds last fall, the old interview suit is too big.) On the way there it started sprinkling and we knew the promised ice storm(s) had begun. I don't think the actual ice started coming down until after 10pm though.

Tuesday morning we woke up with about a quarter inch of ice on everything. No snow, no sleet, just ice. My office opened at 10am, so we had plenty of time to get ready and de-ice the car. (Clarification - I got ready, Jason de-iced the car.) A lot of schools and businesses were closed but I knew our office wouldn't close. Even with the next storm coming before the office would close at 5:00 pm.

We tried to figure out if I should drive and park in the Schuster Center's covered parking garage (at $9/day) and keep all additional ice (and whatever else falls from the sky) off the car. Or should I let Jason drive me in and therefore keeping him from having to de-ice our other car. Jason ended up driving me to work. This really is a wonderful thing because then I don't have to walk on the ice covered sidewalks and I'm not freezing and stressed out when I get to work.

The roads weren't too bad but we did see an accident of sorts. There's a lot of construction on Wayne just past Wilmington (going north). There was a car in the construction area, facing the wrong way, that apparently hit a back hoe. As we passed the accident scene we realized that the back window had been broken by a large part sticking out from the back hoe. If the car hadn't turned around that would have been the windshield and much more dangerous for the driver. Thankfully it looked like the driver was alright.

Jason dropped me off and headed back to the house. Shortly after this he sent me the following email.

We made it home with no problems.  The neighbors were still out cleaning their cars off.  Izzy went down to say hi and got excited when they spoke to her and she started to run.  It didn't work our too well, she kept sliding and falling down.  It was hilarious.

Why do moments like this always happen when you don't have a video camera handy??? I would have loved to have seen that.

Around 4:00 pm the ice started coming down again. The attorneys were walking around telling their secretaries to go home before the roads got bad. I left a few minutes before 5:00 and it was definitely coming down again. It really seemed like this ice storm was going to be worse than the previous one.

(Side note - when we got home the same neighbor was just getting home and Izzers ran to go see her again. So I DID get to see a replay of Izzy running down the sidewalk and not really getting anywhere. I just love this little dog!)

All evening I watched facebook, reading my friends' posts about their lights flickering or their electricity going out. I kept looking out the window watching the tree limbs grow heavy with the ice. The limb above our Pontiac is normally several feet above the car. With all the ice that limb was hanging all the way down to the bumper.

As a precaution I lit some candles and made sure my cell phone (and lap top) was fully charged. I wonder if Izzy could sense something was wrong, she kept wanting to go outside. (Though I think she was more concerned about one of her chewies that was frozen to the sidewalk.)

Around 10:00 pm the ice had turned to rain; unusual when it's 29 degrees outside! I decided to head outside and get some pictures of the ice that was covering everything. I had this idea of using the street light in front of our house to backlight the beautiful ice-covered trees. Then there was a flash and then something that sounded like an explosion, and the street lights were out. (Dangit.) Thankfully those were the only lights that had gone out.

So I walked around using the flash on my little camera to capture the following pictures.

I also crunched down the grass so Izzy could have some traction when she went outside. By the time I came back inside the temperature outside had gone up to 31 degrees. What crazy weather we were having!

Although there was now rain coming down (and not turning to ice) the wind was starting to pick up. The new concern was the wind causing tree limbs to come down especially with the extra weight they were carrying. The damage the wind storms from Hurricane Ike caused is still fresh in our minds. The worst part was going days, and some went weeks, without electricity. (We went 6 days without electricity but it was much nicer weather out.)

We started hearing noises that sounded like someone trying to open our mail box door (it comes into the house) and then there was a thud. We both went out on the front porch expecting to see a limb from the neighbor's tree on our porch - and there was nothing! We realized it was the ice from the tree coming down. A wind gust proved this to Jason (who was further out on the porch) as he got pelted with ice bits.

The rest of the evening we listened to ice hitting our front window and reading posts on facebook of things getting worse. I'm not really sure how to describe how I was feeling other than I felt like a character in a horror movie where you were waiting for the Big Scary Thing to happen. It was unnerving to say the least.

We started reading reports online that 60,000 people were without power (I think it topped out at 75,000). The Beavercreek campus of our church (the big one) was activated as a Red Cross shelter. (After the wind storm two years ago, people at our church were trained as Red Cross volunteers and our church was approved as a shelter.)

 And then I heard another explosion. I looked outside and the neighbors across the street were without power, the entire block. I was trying not to worry but I started assuming we were next to lose power. We ended up going to bed around midnight, with our power still on.

Around 3:30 am I woke up and checked outside and the neighbors had their electricity back on. I let Izzy outside and with one gust of wind she was back at the door wanting inside. I let her in but the way she was acting I knew she needed to go back outside. So I put some shoes on and my coat and headed back out with her. It wasn't raining anymore, but the wind was howling. Izzy did her business and came quickly back inside. Poor baby.

I got the call again at 6:00 am that our office was going to open late at 10:00 am. This time I took the opportunity and slept in an hour. This time the trip to work was a little more treacherous. Just getting to the car took awhile. The sidewalks looked like there was broken glass everywhere from the ice that had fallen from the trees. (I REALLY wish I had gotten a picture of it!) The broken pieces were frozen to the layer of ice so they offered some traction.

We had to slide down the ice covered grass to get to the car. The strip of grass between the sidewalk and road is only three feet wide, but it's pretty steep. So the strategy was to put my arms out, take a step, and then fall into the car. Jason's arms aren't as long as mine, so his landing wasn't as graceful. (Yes, falling into a car can be graceful. Ha.)

On the drive downtown we saw broken tree limbs everywhere. Some trees were split in half. It looked a lot like it did the day after the wind storm. We lost so many old trees in East Dayton, I'm wondering how many we'll lose this time around.

No accidents on the way to work but we did get stuck behind a guy on a bike who wouldn't get out of the middle of the road. I understand when the road is covered in ice that riding in the tire tracks is easier, but really, should you even be riding your bike when there's a level 2 snow (ice) emergency? Thankfully he pulled over at Boston Stoker, I guess he has his priorities straight.

There were even less people at work today, but that meant it was a catch-up day for me. I heard we were supposed to get another inch of snow, and indeed we did. By the time Jason came to get me there was a layer of snow everywhere. It's currently 20 degrees and the high tomorrow is 26 degrees, but it's supposed to be sunny so I'm looking forward to that! However I heard rumors that we're getting more snow next week.

Ugh.

The one good thing is that we were supposed to be busy busy busy last night and tonight and instead we've gotten a chance to get a few things done, hang out with Izzy and I've definitely enjoyed Jason's cooking the last two nights. That's one thing about snow days, they definitely force you to slow down and stay inside. A couple days of that is nice, any more than a couple days and I'm going crazy.

So glad life is getting back to normal tomorrow. For now.

Was Jesus a late bloomer?

I was listening to klove the other day and heard them read a verse about Mary, Jesus' mom...

“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”(from Luke 1)

First, how great would that be to have an angel announce you're going to get pregnant. I mean maybe that takes away from the surprise, but at this point I'd love an angel to come tell me I'm going to get pregnant. But that's not what this blog is about.

So Mary hears from an angel that she's going to have a son who is going to be a king. Wow, that's a lot for a mom to take in, but Mary knew that God was going to send a king to save them, she just found out that SHE was going to be the mother of this king. How exciting would that be!

Fast forward 33 years and he's still not a king. That was middle-age back in those days. I think that would be like having a son today who is in his 40's and still living at home. I wonder if Mary questioned if that angel experience really happened. Did she wonder if the message was meant for someone else? Or maybe God changed his mind? Or did she have complete faith that in time, God's timing, her son would be the king God promised he would be.

I can't forget about Jesus' first miracle. You might remember that this was when he turned water into wine at a wedding. What you may not know is that Mary was there and when the wedding ran out of wine, it was Mary's idea for Jesus to do something about it.

¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
   ⁴ “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
 ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
 ⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
 ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
 ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
   They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.
(From John 2)

I've heard some different explanations about this passage, but how I understand it is that Mary knew Jesus could perform a miracle (though the Bible says this was his first - see verse 11), so she basically asked him to help the newlyweds so their party wouldn't end badly. He said "it's not my time yet" which I think means that it wasn't time for him to start revealing who he was. But when his mom told the servants to do whatever he said, well I guess he didn't have a choice. (Mom's are good at that.) I'd also like to mention that he didn't just turn the water into wine, he turned it into the best wine (see verse 10).

Now I understand moms always hope the best for their children, so maybe she never gave up hope that Jesus would become the promised king. (I have mental image of Mary saying "now?" and Jesus saying "my hour has not yet come" and Mary smiling at him.) But I wonder if her family and friends were skeptical, maybe even doubtful. It's just that when you hear a promise you don't normally expect it to take 33 years.

Did you feel like God promised something and he hasn't delivered in the timing you were hoping for? Maybe you read something in the Bible that made you hope for something that hasn't happened yet. Just know that God's timing is perfect, and he knows best.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8