This should be a good weekend.

So, we had to cancel our trip to Vegas. We just didn't plan things out like we should have. I was really bummed at first, but I am fine now. Then we planned on going to the Cabin with my fam, but realized that we would have to take Gordon's truck since we have chains for it. That was fine until we figured out that his tire is going flat and probably wouldn't make the 4 hour drive and we really don't have the extra cash to replace it. So now we are going to Anaheim to spend the weekend down there with family. I am really excited. I love our friends there and I have missed hanging out with them. As soon as G gets home from work, we are off to the O.C.!


Happy New Year everyone!

Welcome to the family, Allie!!

Well, this past weekend, my brother and his beautiful Fiance, Allie, got married in a private family ceremony (Their big wedding is in February in Tahoe!). It was beautiful and I am so happy to have Allie as my new sister! God has blessed me with wonderful Sisters-in-law! :) Welcome to the family, Allie!

Allie at her Bridal shower!

My beautiful sisters!

Christmas Recap!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to post some pictures from Christmas! :)

The Hendricksons:

Lizzy and I on Christmas day

Our 12903393th attempt at getting our men to take a normal picture! It finally worked:

The goofy boys:

Gordon and his BFF

Christmas Morning stockings!

Gordon's enormous stocking!

My beautiful sisters!

The Men!

Steele Fam on Christmas Eve:

Merry Christmas!

Next year's Christmas card?

I just wanted to write to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

I am so excited for mine and Gordon's first Christmas! :) We started a tradition where we stuff each other's stockings with gag gifts! I cannot wait to see what he got me tomorrow!

I hope that everyone has a blessed and safe Christmas and I pray that we can all take time to reflect on the incarnation of Christ, which is the true meaning of Christmas! God Bless!



S

Life in this crazy Christmas season

Life is crazy as of late. I feel like I should update about my life on my blog! I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping lately and I am finally done... and we are broke! (Ok, we aren't really broke, but it sure feels like it!). But I am so glad to be done because I couldn't bear to hit up the stores this week. Every time I drive by the mall or Target, they are so crowded.
I have been rehearsing for a while to sing at the church Christmas services this week. I am part of a small ensemble of singers and I have a solo in one of our songs. If you want to come out and see us, the services are on December 23rd at 7:00pm and December 24th at 4:00pm at Heart of the Canyons Church. Our ensemble led worship this morning and I got to practice my solo, so I'm not feeling nearly as nervous about the Christmas services as I was.
This week is going to be so eventful, but so fun! Tuesday and Wednesday are the Christmas services. Christmas eve morning, my mom and I are making and delivering a ton of cinnamon rolls! After the Christmas Eve service, we are heading off to my Grandparent's house for the BIG family thing! About 35 of us get together for dinner and a gift exchange! So fun! After that, we are going to my parents to have presents with them and my brothers. After THAT, we are heading to my brother and sister-in-law's for our annual Christmas eve beer!
Christmas day, we are celebrating our first Christmas together by having breakfast and opening presents. Then we are heading down to Orange County to spend the day with the Hendricksons!

On the 26th, we have a big family event! :) Then, on the 27th, we have Allie's bridal shower and bachelorette party! The 29th is Alex and Jeremiah's wedding and the 31st we are off to celebrate new year's eve! Whew! Its going to be a long and fun holiday!

Gordon's parents came up here today and went to church with us and we took some christmas pictures by our christmas tree!

Us with Gordon's parents:

siblings:

Me and Gordon by our tree:

Our first Christmas tree:

Anyway, I hope everyone has a very blessed Christmas and I pray that we never forget why we celebrate this very special holiday!

Sales People at Christmastime, Part Two....

As promised, here is another tale of my run-ins with the odd sales people working the holiday season.

My mom and I were out shopping for an outfit for me to wear at the Christmas service at church that I am singing at next week, and we decided to hit up Express. We were browsing through some cute sweaters and this tiny, upbeat girl comes up and introduces herself. She asks my name and if she can help me with anything. I tell her no and that I am just looking. Seems normal, right?

Wrong. You would assume that when a customer tells you that she does not need any help, that you would leave that person to shop. But, no. This girl started handing me stuff left and right and telling me how cute it would look on me and to try it on. The only problem was that as she was handing me stuff, I kept saying, "eh. I don't like that" and instead of putting it back, she would say "WHAT??? Why not???!!! ITS SO CUTE! I'm going to put it in the dressing room for you anyway."

So at this point my mom and I are slightly annoyed, but I figure she can just put it in the dressing room and I just won't try it on and no one will ever know. The girl proceeds to follow us around and keeps handing me clothes that I would never wear. She kept trying to get me to try on a strapless, red mini-dress. I repeatedly told her that I was singing at church and it was practically freezing outside, making that dress completely inappropriate, but she didn't seem to get it.

I finally get to the dressing room and I would really just like to try on my clothes (the ones I picked out) and show them to my mom, but every time I would come out of the dressing room, she would be standing there saying, "OH MY GOSH!!! THAT IS SO CUTE!!! YOU HAVE TO BUY IT!" I replied by saying, "I don't like it. Its not my style." To which she would say, "REALLY? I WOULD TOTALLY WEAR IT. YOU NEED TO GET IT!!"

Ok. Now my mom and I are REALLY annoyed. My mom decides to go look for more stuff while I keep trying on. While my mom is gone, the girl says "Oh my gosh... I think your mom, like, totally hates me. She seems really annoyed with me. I don't know what I did wrong!!!"

I chose not to reply to this because I can't figure out why the sales girl is SO concerned with whether or not my mom likes her. Finally, we got out of there with a cute sweater, but it was no easy task.

sales people at christmas time, Part one.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this before, but people who work in retail at Christmastime are NUTS. Maybe its the long lines (and they are LONG), maybe its their desperate need for money in this economy, or maybe its just those crazy seasonal employees. I have had several run-ins with these crazy salespeople and would like to begin a series about these adventures:

The first run-in was at Macy's. I was out shopping for a gift for my brother-in-law's girlfriend (I found her a really cute gift, btw). I finally found it and get in line behind 6 other people. Gordon and I stand in line for 10 minutes (no exaggerations) and the line does not move at all. At this point, I am kind of annoyed (along with the line which now wraps around to the end of the department). I tell Gordon to hold our place while I go scope out what is going on (seriously, NO transaction should take this long). As it turns out, the woman at the front of the line has a bunch of clothing items and she is apparently unsure of how it would look because SHE WAS MAKING THE ONLY TRY ON EACH ONE OF HER CLOTHING ITEMS!
As I walked up, I see the cashier modeling a leather jacket while the woman at the front of the line asks the cashier, "hmm... I don't know. My daughter is a little bit bigger than you. Do you think it will be too tight on her?"
"No... I still have some room to move. She should be fine. This is SOOOOO cute. I would totally wear it" said the cashier, who is apparently completely oblivious to the fact that there are now a million people in line (okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration).
I went back to our spot in line, which remains unchanged, to report this ridiculousness to Gordon. As I am telling him, I realize that people around me in line are getting irritated too. I think enough people began to chatter and complain and finally they got the point and moved on.
I seriously just could not believe that this cashier was trying on clothes for the woman! I didn't think salespeople did that normally, much less when it is christmas shopping season and there is a long line.


And thus begins my adventures in dealing with salespeople at christmastime. I don't feel much like writing more, although there are way more stories, so keep reading! And feel free to comment and share similar stories!

Yesterday's tazer...

So, Gordon came home from work yesterday and he was fine. He wasn't even in a bad mood. Apparently, being tazered isn't that bad. He said it hurts like hell for the 5 seconds they do it and then you are dazed for a minute and then you are fine.

I know I promised I would write more about it, but apparently it was anti-climactic. Sorry to let you down.

My Poor Husband....

.... Is getting tazered today. OUCH! I will write more about it when he gets home!

To My Long Lost Friend.

I usually try to keep my blogs light and just update about my life and throw in some humor (well, in my opinion at least), but recently something has been weighing heavy in my heart.

Earlier in the year, I had a falling out with one of my oldest and dearest friends. I'm not going to write what it was about, but more how I have been feeling about it recently. I have tried to contact her, but she doesn't really want to speak with me anymore. She knows who she is (I'm pretty sure almost everyone does since I haven't had falling outs with many other people in my life). I don't know if she reads my blog, but if I could talk to her right now, I would say this:

Hey,

I miss you. I was going through old pictures from high school and thinking back on all the crazy/weird/fun/hilarious things we used to do and all the adventures we went on, and I just want you to know that I look back on our friendship with nothing but fond memories. Even when I speak about you to other friends, I am always talking about the fun stuff we used to do.

I also want you to know that I would be your friend again in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself. I know you are probably thinking that saying that sounds totally desperate, and I don't mean it that way. I just mean that I harbor no hard feelings towards you and would be willing to reconcile.

I am sorry for the way that everything happened. I take full responsibility for the hurtful, selfish, and insensitive things that I said to you. If I could do it over again, I would have done it differently. I pray nothing but blessings on your life. You are so beautiful and have such an awesome personality. I know that your passion for life and your hard work will pay off and I know you will achieve great things.

I want you to know that if you are ever in need of a friend, you could call me anytime and I would be there for you in a heartbeat. I haven't forgotten you, and I never will.

Love,

Sarah

Things I do not Understand: Dec. 13, 2008

Today's Topic:

CLOSE TALKERS.

Come on, you all know who I am talking about. Close talkers are those people who do not respect personal space. I am under the personal belief that there should be AT LEAST a foot or two between you and the person you are having a conversation with. There is no need to creep up an inch in front of someones face to talk to her. I'm not sure if people are close talkers because they are insecure that no one can hear them or because they are strangely unaware of the personal space bubble. I am not going to name any names, but I recently encountered one of these. I swear, she must have either thought I was deaf or really wanted me to compliment her on her "Minty" (Aka. Nasty) breath.

So please, the next time you want to talk to someone (aka. ME) please respect the one to two foot rule... unless you want me to offer you a breath mint and make fun of you when I get home.

Home from the hospital!

Well, they finally released me from the hospital today! The surgeon said I should heal up nicely. Gordon has been absolutely wonderful. They let him take 2 days off work to take care of me. He has been doing everything for me and not once has even complained at all. I do not know what I would have done without him. It is at times like these when I realized what an incredible man that I married. He has been such a servant and I am overwhelmed and humbled by his love and kindness to me. :)

I'm hoping I will start feeling better soon... for now, I am still in pain and my stomach is swollen and I look like I'm pregnant. I hope that goes away soon!


S

Appendicitis

So yesterday I was not feeling well. I thought I had the flu, but my side hurt so bad that I could barely move. My mom reccommended that I go to the doctor to have it looked at.... so the next thing I know, they are telling me that i have appendicitis and they have to do emergency surgery. I was just so glad they caught it in time and were able to remove it laproscopically so i wont have much scarring.
So anyway, that was my random, unexpected surgery day yesterday. I am currently still at Henry Mayo hospital and should be going home tomorrow. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has shown me so much support! Thank you for calling, texting, visiting, bringing gifts, and most of all, praying. I have felt overwhelmed with love and support by my family and friends! love you all!
I would write more but the keyboard on the computer is touch screen and hard to use!



S

Things I Do Not Understand: Dec. 7, 2008

This week I want to talk about something that I am sure we all have experienced. I was driving to San Diego yesterday to visit a friend (had a blast, btw). I was on the freeway and there was a MAJOR accident and pretty much all lanes were moving at zero miles per hour.

So I am sitting there, listening to the radio (103.5.... I LOVE their constant Christmas music!) when all of the sudden, some jerk yanks his car out of the current lane (non-moving) and totally cuts me off so he can get in to my lane (ALSO non-moving). Then, about 2 minutes later, he gets back into his old lane (still not moving). After that, he moves over to some other lane (Did I mention that NONE of these lanes are moving??).

Honestly, I do NOT understand. I mean, if traffic is moving and you are weaving through the lanes, you may be an idiot, but at least (it appears) you will get where you are going faster. When ALL LANES of traffic are not moving, what is the point of switching 10 times? You aren't moving! I do NOT understand.



S

Extra pay check

December is one of those weird months where there are 3 paydays instead of two. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but it means we have a lot of extra money. We did our budget and after we pay our bills, buy Christmas stuff, etc, we still have $1800 left over.

So then we had to figure out what we would like to do with that money. We decided to do what any responsible adults would do....


WE'RE GOING TO VEGAS!


Gordon has a 4 day weekend around New Year's Day. So we are going to spend it in Las Vegas. I have never been before and I am so excited!

Crazy Love

I heard our wedding song this morning and it made me really happy, especially since Gordon was the one who picked our song. :)


Crazy Love
by Van Morrison


I can hear her heart beat for a thousand miles
And the heavens open every time she smiles
And when I come to her thats where I belong
Yet Im running to her like a rivers song

Chorus:
She give me love, love, love, love, crazy love
She give me love, love, love, love, crazy love

Shes got a fine sense of humor when Im feeling low down
And when I come to her when the sun goes down
Take away my trouble, take away my grief
Take away my heartache, in the night like a thief

Chorus:
Yes I need her in the daytime
Yes I need her in the night
Yes I want to throw my arms around her
Kiss her hug her kiss her hug her tight

And when Im returning from so far away
She gives me some sweet lovin brighten up my day
Yes it makes me righteous, yes it makes me feel whole
Yes it makes me mellow down in to my soul