Emily's Thursday Thoughts

So on my drive home I was thinking about what to post and this is what I came up with...Emily's Thursday Thoughts. So let's go...

1) Do even good football players do their own grocery shopping?

-Thought came after seeing Curtis Painter grocery shopping this week at Target. Just wondered if Peyton Manning does his own grocery shopping. How much cooler it would have been to see him instead. Is it sad that we noticed Curtis Painter based on his nasty, long, blondish hair?!?

2) Are all people as clueless as adults as they are as students?

-Thought came after a student seriously asked me the following questions 'Does Christmas or Christmas Eve come first? How do you know? Does Christmas always come on the 25th? Do we have to go to school on Christmas this year?'

3) How often should you replace your contacts?

-I know that the packaging on my contacts said 2 weeks but I have worn some for up to 6 months at at time. Partially because they feel fine and partially because I didn't have vision insurance until this August and didn't want to pay full price. After going to the eye doctor this week, he informed me nicely I need to change them more often, gave me a new kind, and now my eyes are very bloodshot and hurt. Was my idea of not changing them so bad after all?!?

4) If "It's a Wonderful Life" is such a great Christmas movie, why did we never watch it growing up and it isn't playing anywhere on television until Christmas Eve?

-I've been wanting to watch this movie for quite some time but when I searched for it on the tv guide to DVR it, it isn't on anywhere until Christmas Eve...seriously?!?

5) Can everyone else take what people say or what you hear and just start quoting a movie or is it just a Gray thing?

-Sometimes I think my brothers have rubbed off on my a little too much growing up because everything relates back to a movie quote. Are Zach and my students right in thinking I'm a bit strange?!?

Last thought for this week (that I'm going to post at least)

6) What would the world be like if everyone professed their love for Jesus Christ like Tim Tebow said in an interview--(I'm paraphrasing so don't quote this word for word) 'Do you just tell your wife that you love them the day you get married or do you tell them everyday? It is the same with God. You should tell Him everyday how much you love Him and thank Him for everything He has done for you.'

-How awesome of an example is that to everyone out there--especially children--who look up to the professional athletes! I wish there could be more outspoken, courageous Christian athletes!

Thanks for reading Emily's Thursday Thoughts...and in the words of Sue Slyvester off of 'Glee'--"and this is how Sue (Emily) sees it".

Babysitting "The Boys"

"The boys" are getting so big and grown-up. We wanted to give Kristoffer and Dana a chance for a day away without their "balls of energy". We had the pleasure of watching the boys today. They still like to rough house and be boys, but enjoy the occasional book reading. We did a lot of both today.

We also did an art project that is now on our upstair's wall. Looks like a good wallpaper to me.

These boys are so cute and so much fun. They are truly a blessing in our lives to be able to spend a day with them. Don't their smiles just melt your heart...

11-11-11

11-11-11 was an eventful day for the "new" Whaley couple. Zach's dad, Steve, was getting married on the 11th green of a golf course to Peggy to commemorate the day. Zach was Steve's best man and it was an exciting day for these two as they officially professed their love and commitment to each other for the rest of their lives. Here are a few pictures from the day.

The groom and best man together before the ceremony. Looking good in their golf wear!

Steve and Peggy--during the ceremony.

You may kiss the bride!

Zach and Emily after the ceremony.

Steve with his siblings (Teresa, Mary Jo, Chuck, Mark, Kris, and Rita--Jan is missing).

After the Friday ceremony, we went and had a small reception/Thanksgiving dinner at the Chase Center so that Zach's grandma Emogene could be there and celebrate with the family. The "old" Whaley...meet the "new" Whaley!

On Saturday, the real reception took place with a meal, cake, and dancing. Here is the newly wed couple sharing their first bite of cake together. Don't think they're being too nice...haha.

Let the dancing begin!

Congrats Steve and Peggy Whaley! May you two have a long life of happiness and love together. We love you!

Flashlight Photo Fun

We are boring and never do exciting things...therefore, we never post. Well nothing has changed, but we are starting to feel bad that we never update you with our exciting lives. This is what we do on a Saturday night. We play around with our camera and a flashlight.

A smiley face
An IU symbol
A heart
A star
A kitten
A Pi Symbol
Infinity
The Cross

We are boring and have nothing to post about, but as you can see...we have a great time on a Saturday night.

Zach's Prep Work

First of all, sorry for being behind on posting (for our faithful followers) and second, read at your own risk. It is a little too much information about Zach and don't read if you don't want the specifics.

Lately Zach has had some minor medical issues...cysts to be specific. He has now had 3 but the second one was concerning to us because of the location. I'm not going to go into specific detail but lets just say it was located very close to an orifice that food escapes when processed and was a very painful cyst. It erupted a few weeks ago which sent Zach to the doctor for a closer exam.

When he went to the doctor to get it checked out they ordered a colonoscopy...something that doesn't usually need to be done until you are 50+ years old. I'll be the first to tell you that Zach is not excited about this, but also wants to make sure nothing more severe is behind this specific cyst.

When I got home a few weeks ago Zach told me when he scheduled the appointment so I can be there and showed me the paper that has his directions. Lets just say I feel sorry for Zach as he has to go through the prep work.

So yesterday Zach and I headed to Target for our weekly shopping trip and to pick up his supplies for Tuesday. First of all, he can't eat anything solid so he is restricted to broth, jello, or popsicles but nothing red (which we all know those are the best kind of jello and popsicles). Second of all, I didn't think I would have to visit this aisle for a long time (and for the record Zach was a little embarrassed I was taking these pictures).

Welcome to Target..haha!

But as we entered and started finding what we needed I noticed a God moment. EVERYTHING we needed from medicine to food was on sale. It was meant to be. Starting at 3:00pm the day before he has to take 3 laxative pills and a 14 day supply of laxative powder taken with 64 oz of gatorade/propel. Zach doesn't have the firmest stool to begin with (TMI) and I can only imagine what Tuesday afternoon/evening will be like for him. So it was a blessing to see things were on sale to make light of the situation as much as possible.

Not only were they on sale...they were on sale AS ADVERTISED. Now my question is, how many people are going to go out and buy these items? There are A LOT of options and plenty to choose from so I'm guessing not many. Also, we had to buy 25 laxative pills and Zach only needs 3 so if anyone needs any please let us know and we can help you out!

Zach is not really looking forward to this procedure but I think he is dreading the "prep work" the most!

Target Tantrum

We have now lived in the Fishers, IN area for 6 weeks and our local store of choice for shopping has become Target. We are finally near a nice Super Target and we are familiar with its set-up. We love their deals and Emily wanted a few things before heading back to school tomorrow, so we made a special trip. It was a wonderful trip until we went to checkout.

I want to preface the next portion of this post with an apology to anyone who may take offense to mild rule breaking...

We got into line "Express Lane: 10 items or less". As the picture below details, we did have 13 items. We both discussed the situation once we realized we were slightly over the limit, but agreed it should not be a big deal to anyone. We could have split the transaction and paid separately, but felt that would actually be slower than just the 13 item stretch of the limit.

The cashier was completely fine with the size of our order...it did fit nicely into a single bag, except the delightful woman behind us did not agree with our transaction. She felt the strong compulsion to point out we had more than the allotted 10 items, and proceeded to insult our ability to count and expressed her distain for us for breaking this "serious item limit crime".

This woman was quite displeased that we would do such a thing when she was in such a hurry. She huffed and puffed and complained. She glared and name called. By any definition, her performance would be one of an oscar quality tantrum.

tan-trum: (or temper tantrum or tirade or hissy fit)is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotion distress.

She tried to make us feel bad for slowing her down and breaking the firm "10 item or less law", but actually it made me sad. It makes me sad because she appeared happy with herself and that she smiled victoriously at us as she left the parking lot because she said something to correct a wrong in the world. I pray that she one day understands that there are far more important things in life than being upset at the grocery store.

Saturday at the Zoo

Zach knows that I LOVE the zoo! I'm not a huge cuddly animal kind of fan, but I love admiring God's creation. It just shows how perfect God is because who else could produce such different and interesting creatures.

Anyways...back to the zoo. The past two summers Zach has taken me to the Fort Wayne Zoo (which is an awesome children's zoo), but on Friday night he mentioned that he had a plan for Saturday morning--to go to the Indianapolis Zoo. Needless to say I was excited since I hadn't been there since college!

I kept asking Zach if we could go to the dolphin show (and he agreed) and it was our first stop. He took lots of pictures but since the lighting was off we didn't get great ones, but I like this one below.

The trainers can get these creatures to do crazy stuff!

Next up was the "desert" area which consists of you walking through an area with lizards and tortoises and birds (not my favorite).

Next up was the "plains" area. This is by far one of the bests because I love African animals. They are HUGE and so remarkable. I'd love to go on a safari someday (hint, hint Zach :-) )

Good pic of the giraffe! Every time we see a giraffe, I am reminded it has a black tongue. Very interesting fact in case you didn't know.

Very huge and filthy rhino. It just grossed me out how it would roll around in the mud!

New exhibit at the zoo (I think it was put in last year) is the cheetah area. Very lazy animals, but wouldn't you be if you were in a zoo and someone just brought you your food and you didn't have to hunt?!?

My fav picture...an elephant eating some grass.

Second bear picture in 2 weeks but this one was WAY lazier. Such a pretty animal!

Amanda the Red Panda is sleeping, but still taught us that "God listens to you"..."Thank you God". (Thought I'd throw in some Pandamania.)

After the zoo we headed to Keystone to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and along the way we drove through a rough part of town and saw this guy. I just couldn't resist taking a picture and he didn't seem to mind either.

I did notice a couple of things after our trip to the zoo:

1) Everyone looks at you strangely if you are at the zoo without children

2) The Indianapolis Zoo seemed so much larger as a 6 year old than it does as a 26 year old.

Overall it was a great Saturday morning with my favorite guy!

Great Smokies

This weekend we took a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains at Cades Cove in Tennessee. Cades Cove is a 20 mile driving loop in the foothills with multiple stops and several hiking trails. Emily and I decided to go on a hike and had heard that the Abrams trail was very nice. It is a 5.0 mile trail that is rated as a moderate difficulty. We both felt that we could manage the hike, but I have to say it wore me out. I was tired from the hike, but the sites we saw were well worth the sweat...you will see what I mean in a few pictures.

These hiking pictures were taken early on the trail because if they were taken later, we wouldn't have been smiling so much.

Like I said...if you look closely, I was sweating quite a bit. I am pretty sure I did not bring enough water for the hike.

They had quite a few steep hills, which apparently means biking down them can be dangerous to your health.

My favorite part of the trip was finding a black bear. Emily told me that the park we were at had a large black bear population (approx. 2 bears per square mile). Since we only saw one set of bears the whole trip, I have to assume that it is not as many bears as it sounds.

The pinnacle of our trip was this waterfall. At the halfway point of the hike was this beautiful fresh water lake and waterfall. The water was cool and refreshing...just what a sweaty group of hikers could ask for.

Following the hike, we were both tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel so I suggested taking a "shortcut" road. The map showed a road called "Big Mountain Rd" and lead out of the park towards our final destination. On paper this looked like the perfect answer to getting back quickly. It turned out the road was a one lane gravel road that was extremely winding and 12 miles long. Our top speed was 7 mph in a subcompact car climbing huge inclines. I guess I should have known better when the sign said that the road is normally closed in the winter and is named "Big Mountain". Not my best decision for routes.

The road did provide us with one last great view of the park...high from atop the mountains.

Start Your Engines (Indy 500)

I can now say I have been to the Indianapolis 500, "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing", and I have to say it sure does kick the little 5 bike race's backside. I actually had a very good time, and that coming from a guy who hates being in large crowds (~300,000) and excessive noise. The weather was beautiful and we (Kristoffer and I) had amazing seats for the race. I had to bring the camera to mark this day because it was the 100 year anniversary after all.

Prior to the race they had set up a giant full sized hot wheels ramp with an actual driver performing the jump. I guess he set a new world record in jump distance, but that was just the opening act.

At the start of the race they are going 3 wide and gradually build speed until the green flag. I thought it was kind of cool, but it is more exciting on restarts when they are 2 wide and are fighting for position.

Early in the race the "sparks were flying", something I never knew that actually happened. And the noise of the track was amazing, loud enough to make you feel the action.

The Target Duo lead most of the day and were my fan favorite from the start, just because I recognized both of the drivers names. They by far had the fastest cars of the day, but could not pull out the win this year.

The "Venom" car was my favorite looking and was driven by an Andretti, so I respected the car and mildly cheered for him to do well.

From our seats we could see both turns 3 and 4. Turn 3 I was told is generally the spot of most crashes because of the tight turn, but it turned out that turn 4 and the straight away got most drivers.

I really did enjoy the race. I am not going to call myself a racing fan by any means, but I do have a bit more respect for what these men and women do out there. I know I would love to drive 230 mph, but not in a circle. The day as a whole had its ups and downs, but all around it was a good day at the race track.

Here is a bonus question for you... Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture?

The answer is...he is missing a rear tire. He lost the tire coming out of pit road because it was never secured down. Yes, I think that guy will be fired by the time you read this post. The driver of the car was named "Will Power" (best name in racing) and he started the race is the second row, but this one mistake took him entirely out of contention.