Cure for Flu: Wal-Mart Laps

After being down and out with the stomach flu for two and a half days, I was really ready for a breath of fresh air last night. Tony has made it his personal goal to show me extra gentleness while I’ve been sick, so he’s tried really hard to be compassionate through my misery. Last night, as I was starting to feel better, we both decided that fresh air and exercise were just what I needed to bounce back to health. It was FREEZING cold and very windy, so I quickly ruled out the idea of a walk outside. We bundled up, hopped in the car and headed to the Wal-Mart Super Center.

I always used to laugh at the little old ladies who would do their power walking in the mall during the winter, but now I completely understand. Tony and I did some serious power walking through the Wal-Mart aisles last night. We may have had a few strange stares, but the Washington Wal-Mart is usually pretty quiet once it’s dark, so there weren’t many onlookers. We made a plan as we walked in…two full laps before we stopped to pick up the stuff on our list. It felt so good to move! I think one of the worst things about the flu is laying/sitting around for extended periods of time. I’d recommend Wal-Mart laps to anyone with the flu…I’m finally feeling better today!

Sporty

While many husbands may say that high heels and mini skirts are their favorite clothing items to see on their wife, my husband thinks quite the opposite. He constantly reminds me that nothing looks better on me than a pair of sweats, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes...he's totally into comfort. Don't misunderstand - that's definitely intended to be a compliment. :) My wardrobe was made up of very few of these items before marrying Tony. Since marrying Tony, I unwrap presents and presents of athletic gear every holiday. This Christmas my presents from Tony included a new pair of running shoes, sweatpants, and a couple of sweatshirts (to name a few). I LOVE them all. In fact, we opened our presents to each other less than a week ago and I think I've already worn the sweatpants and tennis shoes 3 days.

Every year I can't help but laugh at Tony's sigh of relief as I open presents from my parents...sweaters, jewelry, boots, lotions. He looks at my Mom every year and says "I'm so thankful you buy Cari stuff like this. You know she loves it and I never buy her any of it." We always have to laugh. Of course I love everything from Tony and from my parents. In fact, I ‘m overwhelmed at the generosity of my parents, in-laws, and husband; and I love every single gift tremendously because each time I use it I’m reminded of the gift-giver.

I have blogged an awful lot about Christmas presents, and hope that does not come across as a skewed understanding of our Christmas celebrations. We love giving gifts, but our constant hope and prayer is that our Christmas celebrations are focused on the best gift of all – Jesus Christ. We rejoice in our salvation from Jesus and the perfect gifts of salvation, love, joy, and peace that He continues to pour into our lives each day. We recognize that the only reason we can have the joy of giving is because we’ve received the gift of Jesus. He is our JOY!

$25 Target Challenge

The $25 Target Challenge is by far our favorite Christmas tradition. Tony dreampt this one up the first year we were married and we just finished our 4th challenge! It seems to get more fun every year. It's a perfect activity for a "day off."

We didn't really take a day off last week, but we felt refreshed after moving our offices from the church to a fireside table at Caribou in Coralville all last Thursday. Every once in awhile it seems to benefit our creativity levels to pack up our laptops and do our dreaming and planning from a new location that offers lots of caffeine and sugary pastries. It was a fun day of bouncing ideas off of each other and pounding out some planning and writing.

When we began feeling as if we'd worn out our welcome at Caribou, we headed over to Target for the $25 Challenge. The challenge is simple: We each get $25 and 25 minutes at Target to buy Christmas gifts for each other. The $50 we spend comes from Tony's "sock drawer money," so it doesn't really factor in to what we'll be spending on each other for Christmas...it's just for fun! When we got married, Tony had saved up a stack of cash he calls "sock drawer money." Whenever we head out for coffee together or sometimes when we go out for a nice dinner, Tony funds the trip with sock drawer money. He started saving in college because he wanted to make sure we always had money to date. How cool is that?!? Of course we realize these dollars won't miraculously replenish themselves, but it's been so fun to treat ourselves once in awhile without thought to the cost. Plus, the sock drawer money funds the Target Challenge which makes our Christmas extra fun.

I had a new strategy for the challenge this year. I had Tony walk around the store with me first to look at some things we needed to get for other people, and then I tried to be super sly and point out things I liked. Then, when I had things for him in my cart, I would cover them up with stuff for our house that I like, so in case he saw me he would either 1.) Be afraid I'm buying him boring house stuff for him or 2.) Think to himself "I bet she picked that up to show me and see what I think, I should go buy it for her." Sneaky, eh?

We crack ourselves up as we creep around the store trying to be super stealth so we don't accidentally see what we'll be getting. I can't tell you what I picked out for Tony until after Christmas, but I'll give you this clue - I always head straight to the Toys and Sports aisles. I didn't peak at what he got me (yet...just kiddin!), but I'm fairly confident my gift will include at least one pair of $1 ankle socks and 1 pair of mittens....those are staples for the challenge.

If you're interested in doing a $25 challenge, let me give you a few pointers.
1.) Target is a really good store for the challenge. We experimented with a $10 Wal-Mart challenge last year - not worth it. (Tony, if you're reading this, I'm sure I loved whatever you got me there. I'm just trying to help people out).
2.) Setting a time limit is critical. It adds to the thrill of the game and keeps you from waiting an hour for your indecisive wife.
3.) Make sure the store you choose has shopping bags or dark colored plastic bags. This, of course, prevents your spouse from being a dirty, rotten cheater and peaking through the bag. Target has those extra large red ones that work perfectly!

We'd love to hear about your goofy traditions too! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Presents

Creating Christmas traditions with Tony is so much fun! Bringing together two sets of family traditions and memories of Christmas can make for an interesting challenge, but we really enjoy putting pieces of each of our childhood memories together as we create new ones.

Tony loves buying Christmas gifts. He also loves wrapping them. Is that just plain strange, or am I strange for thinking that wrapping gifts is a tedious task that should be put off until the last possible moment? It's a good thing we have two Christmas trees because both of them are already nearly full of presents and it's December 12th. Growing up, there was never a present under our tree until Christmas Eve, so this whole tree full of presents in the middle of December thing sort of throws me off...and makes me feel really behind...until I remember I still have 13 whole days to wrap gifts. Ask me how I'm doing on that in 12 days.

Anyways, I love Tony's love for presents. He spoils me every holiday with incredible gifts! I will say, while he definitely values the quality of gifts, he may value the quantity of gifts even more. I can't fault him for that. There is something lovely about an enormous pile of presents stacked under the tree. Tony makes sure that whoever he's buying for receives lots of gifts, not just one big gift - that would only be one thing to wrap...BORING!

Lots and lots of presents and wrapping means we need lots and lots of boxes to wrap things in. If you were to open my pantry during the month of December, you'd find that it has been raided for any possible box. Cereal bags have been removed from their boxes, granola bars are in a pile, crackers are now in rubbermaid containers, frozen foods have been transferred to freezer bags. Tony is very resourceful when it comes to wrapping gifts. I never would have thought to use food boxes to wrap gifts, thank goodness I married a genius. By the way....are less and less stores giving boxes for wrapping nowadays? Sure seems like it, what a bummer!

Christmas is a beautiful time of year. We are blessed to be able to give gifts to those we love and to those around us who need to know the love of Jesus this Christmas. I'm teaching on the virtue of Joy this month for the children in our church. It's been such a blessing to me. While presents and traditions are fun and bring momentary happiness, the reason Tony and I can rejoice this Christmas is because we have surrendered our lives to a God who loves us, sent His Son to come to Earth, die on the cross for our sins and bring us forgiveness and salvation. Through Him we have an inexplicable hope and inexpressible joy. The last year has been tremendously heart-breaking for us in many ways. Christmas causes us to reflect on our recent heartache, but also allows us to rejoice in a God who holds our lives in the palm of His hand, who will never leave us, and who will allow us to be safe in His arms for all of eternity!

Part Time Game Tester

Part Time Game Tester. That's one of my job titles. It goes along with being married to a YP I guess. At least once a week Tony will come into my office with an assortment of strange objects and make me test a game idea with him. He's constantly thinking of new ideas for games or on the hunt for great ideas other people have come up with. (Thank goodness for Minute to Win It!) He tries to test every game before he attempts it at Youth Group...it gives him a little better idea of whether or not it will be a flop. There are the few times that games have been complete failures even after we’ve tested them and thought they were sweet, but we think we’re pretty good at predicting the likability of a game.

Just this week I was at my computer working on an agenda for a meeting when Tony comes in, places a glass right in front of my keyboard, and starts throwing pencils at my desk to try and get them to bounce off the eraser and into the cup. Thank goodness I have cat-like reflexes, or I might be down to one eye. I put an end to that game pretty quickly. No pencils were landing in the cup.

If you were at the church late last night, you would have found Tony and I standing on the youth room stage, at the edge of a ping pong table top. We were bouncing ping pong balls off the table top and onto a table full of whip cream containers set up like tic tac toe. I was the first to get three in a row! That game’s a keeper!

Another day we were standing side by side by a microphone stand set up with two rolls of toilet paper on it, racing to see who could unroll their TP the fastest. That turned into the TP 500 – a new youth group favorite.

I must admit, Part Time Game Tester is a title I just don’t mind keeping. Send game ideas my way if you’ve got any worth trying!

Cheers and Tears

Last week we worked through Thursday and took Friday off to head to the UNI dome and watch our WACO Warriors compete in the State High School football tourney. We're so proud of those guys and we love getting to watch them play. We sat down front, close to the sidelines, and ended up in front of the spot the cheerleaders were for most of the game.

The whole experience proved it all over again - my husband is the greatest guy ever. The cheerleaders were cheering their hearts out throughout the game, but the fans around us were soooo quiet. The silence didn't phase Tony for a second. Every time those cheerleaders asked for crowd participation, he was on his feet cheering at the top of his lungs. Of course I joined him. Later that week, even some of the football players commented that even when no one else was cheering along, they could hear Tony's voice. Cool, huh?

After spending over three years with some of these guys and girls, we really have grown to love and admire them so much. When the senior boys went forward to receive their trophy, I looked up at Tony and his eyes were all filled up with tears. (Thankfully he's not one of my avid readers because he may be embarrassed I shared that :)). I thought it was awesome. He really does love those guys and love his job.

The Coffee Shop

We spend a lot of time (and a good deal of dollars) at our local coffee shop - the Coffee Corner. We love the owner, Gina. We love the lattes (Cari) and coffee (Tony), and we love the conversation. Many of you have heard me say that I was not particularly pleased when the Lord called Tony and I to small-town Iowa. Over time, however, he has molded our hearts and given us a deep love for the people of our community. One thing I have come to appreciate about our small town is the guarantee that wherever you're headed, whether the grocery store or the coffee shop or the YMCA, you're bound to see a familiar face. (Yes, there are days when this falls on my list of things I don't like so much, but usually it's a positive.)

I've blogged about the old men at the coffee shop before and I must bring them up again. Each time we go in, there's a table full of anywhere from 5-12 gray-haired men in the back corner sipping on coffee. Tony always heads straight back to greet them, and they smile as they see him coming (who wouldn't?!?). Then they start in with their questions about when we'll be having a baby (or some other topic to harass Tony). I always end up laughing while listening to the boisterous sound this crew makes as they laugh so hard at themselves they about roll off their chairs.

This morning it went a little something like this..."So Tony, do you have the nursery painted yet? Is it blue or pink? Doesn't your wife want to start a family?" Each question with hysterical laughter in between. Tony laughs along as he passes out a hand shake to each one of these great guys. It's a blessing to get to know people from different generations. We learn much from their experience...and their humor. :)