I love the tattooed neck man.

Today is an oh so glorious day. Something happened that makes me want to post again! We received our flight information a little over a week ago for our trip to Amsterdam/Paris (which we leave a week from Monday). And we found that our flight lands in Chicago at 5:19, and our Amsterdam flight leaves at 6:04. That leaves us 45 minutes to taxi, deboard, run through O'Hare, and pray that the gates aren't closed for an international flight which usually close 30 minutes before takeoff. AND that is saying that there is no weather delays. Over a foot of snow last night alone. High of -2 tomorrow. Cedar Rapids to O'Hare on United, riiiggghhhttt no possibility of delays at all. Our tour company said 45 minutes is the least amount of time legal for a layover. Thanks guys, give us the least amount of time possible. The company said that there was nothing they could do to help us and that that was plenty of time. UNLESS we want to pay $350 a ticket and then they can change our flight. So we tried our next option, calling United, who at first said no, then said yes, then said no again. So that was out. (All of this so far took about a week and no less than 20 phone calls). We looked up all the flights that day, and the only one with seats left out of Cedar Rapids was the 6am. So we planned on waking up at the crack of dawn (or earlier) to try and go stand by from 6am and hope that we got on a flight before our proposed 4pm one.

And then! Another Christmas Miracle! (see my dentist post for CM#1) My mom decides that since she was snowed out of Chicago this weekend, they were going to go shopping down in Cedar Rapids today, invited us to go along. Tim had the brilliant idea of trying to go to the airport and talk to United in person. Alas, WE CAME OUT VICTORIOUS! He stood in line for some bitchy mean lady who rudely (but thankfully) directed him in the direction of a guy our age, with a tattoo on his neck. After he explained our plight, the guy basically said that it was ridiculous that we had that short of a layover, and without any fee, any questions, any doubt, he changed us to the 1:30pm flight. AMAZING. I am beyond thrilled. We will arrive at 2:40 leaving us a little over three hours to relax at O'Hare before boarding a plane for nine hours.

WOOOOOHOOO!!!!!

DPP20: Salt and Light

The entire family went out to eat tonight. Always a good time. Tonight involved my mother and I talking about Bravo's Real Housewives series, and my father pretending to be Hiro Nakamura from Heros, squeezing and clenching to travel back in time...
But at I played artsy fartsy and got these pictures....and cheese bread:



Sorry for such a boring post, but we are headed south to do some shopping today, who knows, maybe I shall have another post for tonight! Because my family is insane!

DPP 19: Snowy Seduction

Normally. I am a blogger of far too many words and only one picture. Tonight, a little past midnight on Day 19, I am switching it up! Here in the midwest we have quite the blizzard going on. So here's a few night time views of the fluffy white stuff!
Gotta prep for the midnight rendevous!

I just love how aglow it is...


Winter Wonderland Forest


Its a MUST to document the experience!

The snow was pretty much just pelting me...


Now let's just hope it gets me out of work tomorrow....

DPP18: Dentist Torture.

This image to me is probably one of the most anxiety ridden images I ever see. The dentist office. I start to get what I would assume is close to a panic attack about a week before I go. The day before is always the worst. I make sure to schedule the appointment first thing in the morning so I dont go insane waiting.

I didnt used to have this intense fear. Its not even really fear, its just aggrivation and a nice cocktail of other negative emotions. It really started only a few years ago. Well, maybe more than a few, probably high school. My dentist visits tend to last around two hours, which I have been told is not normal. Plus, it usually involves unpleasant amounts of pain, and always ends up me having to go back, not for cavities, but for other things like "dents" whatever that means. It's miserable.

So today was that day for me. I tried to ignore the anxiety, and did a little better than usual, but to no avail, still atrocious feelings coming my direction. But I lived through it. Like always. And I am counting it as a quasi Christmas Miracle that I was only there for an hour today! And while I will be returning in a month, its not for the usual suspects.

Since forever, I have had a gap in my front teeth. The only way of fixing it is braces, but I would pretty much have to wear a retainer for life. Not a huge fan. I go through stages of loving and hating it. But recently, it's grown on me. Madonna's got one, Lawrence Fishbourne rocks his. So imagine my surprise when my dentist asks me today if I want him to close it up. My shock must have been all over, cause he went on to explain that the bond in my front tooth (taboggoning accident at age 7, a WHOLE other story) should be replaced with some new material that didn't even exist back then, and while they do that, they can just close up the gap. Easy peasy. Takes half an hour. No pain (which I found amusing that he pointed it out specifically).

At first, I was like, OF COURSE! SIGN ME UP! But then I immediately wonder how much it will change my face. I think it will almost be surprising how much it changes everything. The wonder must have read across my face because he went on to tell me that it is reversible, in fact, David Letterman got his reversed a number of years back, because they found that without the gap, people found him less funny.

So we shall see. I plan on going through with it. And if it's just not me. Back comes the gap with all its glory and wonder!

DPP17: Comics Cunundrum

This weekend I thought to myself, am I really so lazy that I am ignoring the comics with too many words in them? And the answer was, Yes, Yes I am...

DPP16: Little Bit of Me.

With twelve minutes to spare of today, I have been organizing the pictures I have been taking. I have so many I would love to share. So many things I have seen and done. It's so hard to pick, so many images captured just in a day alone. So I figured I might simplify things just a little bit today and give you just a little bit of me.

DPP 15: Done.

So. Today is the accumulation of why I am not always a fan of the winter season.

1) Its freezing here in Iowa. 4 degrees this morning, not including the killer windchill. That's cold. PLUS, we used to have snow on the ground, several inches of pretty fluffy white stuff. And after this past weekend of brief warmth, its down to rock hard frozen slush. No pretty. No fluffy. Only ice. And cold. Ick.

2) Christmas season brings extra stresses. Getting the Christmas cards out, decorating to the most gloriest level of holidayness, starting your car 15 minutes before you leave the house, getting the perfect gifts for everyone, scheduling whos bring what to every single holiday event, what events to go to and what to skip, gaining all the pounds from the extra holiday food, super long lines at EVERY possible store you go into, and all of that. Now, I know thats not what the season is about and we shouldn't dwell on it, but let's be honest, we still enjoy these things enough to bring those stresses upon ourselves (minus the whole car starting jazz).

3) People around me are getting sick all the time. One gets better, a new one is sick. It worries me. When will it be my turn? I would rather it be sooner than later, I leave two weeks from today for Europe, and that is not my ideal locale to be sick.

I feel this picture rather sums up these feelings quite nicely.

Now don't get me wrong. I was depressed like none other the years that I didn't get to spend the Christmas season in the proper climate. It's just not the same. Some days, it's just a lot easier than others!

DPP 14: Stinky Madre.

I took some artsy pictures for today's post, and when I started flipping through all of them, I had a hard time picking. And then I came across this one. It might not be the most classic, the most classy, or even very exciting to most of you, but I love it. It speaks a lot about the Nordyke family. Completely and utterly crazy.

We went to help my mom out preparing the college dinner at church tonight. Her group was replacing another group that couldn't make it, and they were short handed as it was, and with dad sicker than a dog, they needed even more help! It was not a very good experience, but that is beside the point. We did our part, we prepared the foodness, and I got this crazy picture of my mom. She loves onions. She puts them on EVERYTHING. As she was cutting them, she would pry the pieces apart with her fingers, so her hands will smell like onions for days now, and she will love every second of it. Such an odd odd duck. Gotta love her.

That was a bad blurb for today. Sorry kids. But I am watching Survivor finale.