The Blanket of Ice

January 15, 2007

Over this past weekend, there has been a winter storm system moving through the state of Oklahoma. Being that I am located about 5280 feet from the Oklahoma border, we got hit with the east side of the system that came in the wintry-mix form. The end result was a thick blanket of ice on all of the trees causing many limbs to snap off and a loss of power for some. But through all the frustration that weather of this type can bring (especially to people in the south who aren't accustom to it), words cannot express the beauty of it all. The ordinary things that barely get your attention in the normal every day life, suddenly mesmerize you.

I did my best to capture what I am trying to say, but even the camera has trouble really grasping all that the eye can take in.

Character Building

December 31, 2006 .....

To bring in the New Year this year, I jumped on a plane in Michigan and landed in Indiana. I went to college in Indiana and a few of my friends from school still live in the area. If you are new to the Westbrook Times, I have had many adventures in Indiana with my roommate in college, Lynette (the same person that was up visiting in Michigan before Christmas). Anyway, Lynette just recently bought a house; a pretty sweet house I must say. It has so much character. But as we all know, all character can be improved; so that is what we did.

In the beginning, the only project was going to be to paint Lynette’s room. The reason is clear when you look at this picture…..need I say more?

I say “in the beginning” because there is also another part of the house that is equally hideous as her bedroom wall. But this section covers a bit more wall space and is covered in some pretty vile wallpaper. Let me express the extremely strong feelings I have against wallpaper. All the people involved in this process will never put wallpaper on their walls. It is the biggest pain to remove. Some just paint over it, but if you are going to do something you have to do it right.

So the ripping down of wallpaper began in the front entrance, climbed the stairway upstairs, and ended in the rather large upstairs landing. Fortunately, a lot of it came off in big sheets; but we ran into many stubborn areas.

After many hours of tearing, steaming, and scraping; all of the wallpaper was removed and the painting process began. I wasn’t there long enough to see everything finished. Lynette’s room and the front entrance were completed and look fabulous!

I wish I could say that I have some great before and after shots, but I don’t. But here are some that were taken during the process. Pictured on the left is Lynette's room almost finished.

Sheen helping with the primer ->

Lynette and Kristi scrapping the wallpaper glue off with the stick clip. Creative. ->

.....January 1, 2007

For those sharp, observant readers out there; you might have noticed the gate in one of the above pictures. No Lynette doesn't have any toddlers running around the house. She has two dogs, Yetti and an 8 week old pup named Kiwi. Being on vacation, I wasn't to impressed by Kiwi when she decided to do a 6am wake up call. But it is hard to stay mad at a dog that is so cute! She was lucky she had that going for her.

Oh and you can't start the New Year right without a family picture in front of the fireplace. Happy 2007!

L to R, B to F: Nicolas, Bekah, Jana, Crystal, Kristi, Heather, Sarah, Lynette, Kiwi, and Yetti

okay one more...

L toR, B to F: Kristi, Crystal, Heather, Lynette, Sheena, Rachel, Yetti, and Kiwi

Christmas Photo Finish

Here are a few more photos from this years Christmas Extravaganza....

Afternoon at the Lake

Lynette's twisted-maple- jaked-full-of-carb-goodness

Bowling with the Adams, Watsons, and Drummonds

Mark celebrates getting yet another strike ->

<- Matt picks up the spare and some serious creative bowling points.

Mindy didn't do so well on this bowl because the flash from the camera was a bit of a distraction Whoops, my bad->

Makenzy (below) showing her bowlin' skilz and letting us know about it with her little strike dance

The Port Huron Flags Hokey Game

Guys night out but Lynette and I got to go as well. Great seats, right behind the boards. A wild puck about hit my Uncle Tom right between the eyes.

Joe and the Flag's Mascot Slapshot

Merry Christmas Cracker

December 25, 2006

As you might have already figured out, I have a thing for traditions. I think traditions make all the wild and crazy things that happened throughout the year melt away. The familiar always has a way of being so comforting.

This Christmas was no different in the ritual sense. I got the whole house up before the sun even thought of rising (actually it was a little later than normal this year due to the guests in the house). We opened gifts one by one. And then headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house for the Studaker Christmas.

A few new traditions have been added since Mark was added to the family. He had to bring a few of his English traditions along with him. One of those traditions is the Christmas Cracker. A cracker consists of a piece of cardboard wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversize sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip. Inside the cracker is always a paper crown, a toy or trinket, and a joke.

This year Hilary and Mark brought with them the luxury Christmas Crackers. What makes a luxury Christmas Cracker different from the ordinary Christmas Cracker? Well instead of a thin, colored paper crown, you get a nice shinny, gold paper crown. Instead of a bad joke on a scrap piece of paper, you get a bad joke that has a border around it. And finally, instead of a useless toy like a fake plastic finger tip complete with a long red finger nail; you get the ever coveted, strong, durable, red shoe horn. Every girls dream, let me tell you!














Family Introductions~
From L to R: My cousin Kaitlin, Aunt Debbie (mom's sister), Uncle Tom, Aunt Lynda, Uncle Tim (mom's brother), Hilary, Mark, and me.









Nathan (my cousin) and his wife Olivia

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2006

Christmas Eve day we headed to my hometown church in the morning to see our church family. It was great to see all of those wonderful, familiar faces, but there were a few faces that took me a minute to recognize. The main reason: the last time I interacted with them was when I was babysitting them. Now most of them are in high school on the verge of graduating. For others I can recall the day they were born or remember changing their diaper and now they are in grade school.














Prime example. The Budde kids, Alyssa and Aaron (pictured here with Hilary and Mark). Hilary and I were at the hospital the day Alyssa was born. She is now in the 4th grade.

Christmas Eve service was no different. I saw many others that I didn't see in the morning. Extended family members that are my age and are now married and have children. So that whole experience made me feel old, but all the warm hugs made the experience well worth it.

The Regular Suspects

The Case of the Smashed Flowers:

Crime: Along the driveway of the Westbrook residence, a beautiful bed of flowers that Mrs. Westbrook put so much time and effort into was smashed.

Evidence: Tire tracks on either side of the flowers matching the vehicle rented to aid in the transport of these 5 suspects over their Christmas Holiday. The crime was most likely committed after sundown.

Motive: Yet to be determined

The Line up:













Suspect #1 (the girl in Pink): 5'3" Born and raised in the United States. Lived in the Westbrook residence for 18 years; coming and going for the past 7 years. Valid US drivers license.

Suspect #2 (the other girl): 4'11 9/16" Born and raised in the United States. Lived in the Westbrook residence for 19 years; coming and going for the past 8 years although less frequently than suspect #1. Has lived in the UK for the past 3 and half years. Valid US drivers license. Hasn't driven since the last time is the US. Sister of Suspect #1

Suspect #3 (the guy in the middle) 5'10" Born and raised in England. Has been to the Westbrook residence a grand total of 6-7 times. Has a valid UK drivers licence but is accustom to driving on the other side of the road. Has driven in the US before. Husband to Suspect #2

Suspect #4 (the next in line) 5'5" From England. First time to the US and the Westbrook residence. Has a valid UK licence but like suspect #3 is accustom to driving on the other side of the road. Claims "They always make me sit in the back because they think I fit better in small spaces". Good friends with Suspect #3

Suspect #5 (the guy in white) 5'8"From England. First time to the US and the Westbrook residence. Has a valid UK licence but like suspect #3 and # 4 is accustom to driving on the other side of the road. Unlike his brother (suspect #4) he was not always made to sit in the back. Admits to calling Shotgun several times but claims to have never driven the vehicle.

More Evidence: After reading the rental car agreement, it was discovered that suspects #1, #2, and #3 all received permission to drive the vehicle. Also, upon further questioning of suspects #4 and #5 it was discovered that suspect #3 had a previous incident where in efforts to back out of the Westbrook residence driveway he manage to maneuver onto the grass for a major portion of the driveway.

Conclusion

After going through the evidence and looking at this case from every angle, I believe I know which one is the guilty party. Most guilty suspects have a tendency of displaying angelic type qualities during a line up. (i.e. the innocent look on his/her face, a halo like ring of light around the head, etc.) Fortunately for this case, those tendencies rang loud and clear.

Luckly, the guilty suspect faced no charges on the grounds of being the wonderful son-in-law

Things You Do in a Small Town

Croswell, MI is a town of just over 2000 people, so when it comes to entertainment you have to be pretty creative. Within this small town is a swinging bridge that is over the river that runs through town. The boys (Mark, by brother-in-law; Joe and Matt, his two friends from England; and my Dad) decided to have a little fun on the bridge. Here is a little video clip of what they did. Now if you don't have sound the video really isn't all that great. Mark laughing in the background is the best thing about it.



Also in Croswell, MI is the Pioneer Sugar Factory. Instead of being made from sugar cane, this sugar is made from sugar beets. So we went on a tour of the sugar factory. It is amazing how something so sweet and tasty can come out of place that smells so horrible.


















Pictured L to R: Lynette, Joe, me, my dad, and Matt standing in front of a pile of sugar beets.

Why I Love Coming Home

December 17, 2006

#5. The things that make a small town a small town never change. I can walk into Ben Franklins knowing that I will have same experience that I had when I was a kid. The same store layout; the same thick, old wood floors that creek when you walk on them; and the same ladies that have work there for as long as I can remember.

#4. It always feels like I have never left. I have seen people that I haven’t seen since the last time I was home. The minute I reunite with them, we just pick up where we left off. The time away from them has just made me appreciate the way they are even more every time I see them.

#3. I get to cuddle. My family is full of people that love to cuddle. When my brother-in-law joined our family, he became the leader of the pack. Not a day goes by when we all haven’t had a time to cuddle.

#2. Cuddling with my sister brings me to my next reason: whenever I see her she always tells me how small I am. She is so used to hugging a bigger person that she always comments how she can fit her arms around me.

And the #1 reason I love coming home is…..I feel so tall! It is a great accomplishment for me, at 5 ft. 3 inches, to be around adults and feel tall. It never fails, the minute I walk in to my house I feel tall. Both my older sister and my mom are shorter than me and a few of the rooms in our house have lower ceilings. It was like a beautiful melody hitting my ears when were decorating the tree and my mom said, “Heather, could you put the tree topper on? I can’t quite reach it.”

Oh how beautiful it is to come home!

Boys Night Out, Ladies Night In

December 17, 2006

Boys night out: A Detroit Pistons game. From what the guys told me when they returned, it was a real nail bighter. The Pistons being slightly behind for most of the game only to come back and win it is the 4th quarter.















Ladies night in: putting up the Christmas tree. A Westbrook ladies tradition. Usually what ends up happening is Hilary and I sit on the couch and watch my mom decorate the tree. Of course we always offer words of affirmation and praise when she starts to notice that we aren't helping. This year we did our best to try and follow tradition but my mom found ways to get us to assist.

Christmas Surprises

The Christmas party. At the festive time of year it is custom for a company, similar to the one I work in, to have a Christmas party. Well, the Soderquist Center is a little different than most companies due to the fact that we have two Christmas parties; one for the whole team and one for each individual business unit.

As is tradition, the Christmas party for the whole team met at Andy’s (the CEO) house. The food was good. We had some fun fellowship, but this year was a little different.

Surprise #1:

Let me introduce you to Frank. Frank works on the lovely grounds at Greystone with Rex. Frank is a very outgoing guy that loves to joke around with people. A while back, Frank lost his work keys. He searched high and low for those keys checking all of his pockets. But they were not to be found….. or were they?

After dinner on that afternoon at the team Christmas party, Andy had a special announcement. Frank’s keys were found, but where they were found was the interesting. Upstairs in the Greystone Estate, there is a sitting room that has a couch that you just sink into. A cushion of that couch was lift and Frank’s keys magically appeared.

When Rex handed Frank his keys, Andy stated an interesting observation. “Nothing really falls out of your pocket when you sit down, it usually only happens when you lay down. So Frank, what exactly were you doing?”

Surprise #2:

Lynette, my roommate from college who currently has my boss’ old job, sent me a picture that she found in her file of Gary when he first started working at Indiana Wesleyan University. The pictures are so priceless that it was important to reveal them at the right time and in the perfect way.
Well that perfect way came this Christmas. I rounded up a few accomplices to help with the special project. Each had the assignment to get a picture of the rest of the directors that had the same priceless quality that the picture of Gary possessed.
I must say that I picked the right people to do the job because they came through with flying colors.
The final product was a Christmas card that had all of their pictures on the inside top of the card so when the card was opened it had the element of surprise that would only produce a great reaction.
After all of the staff signed a card for their head director, the cards were presented to the directors as the lined up in the front of the room. All the effort was worth it as they opened the card and a wave of expressions swept over their faces. It was so great!










Surprise # 3:

Showguns Japanese Restaurant was were the Experiential Learning team and the Leadership Development team went for our business unit Christmas party. Our chefs did a fine job of entertaining us but the highlight was the awards ceremony. Many of the staff didn’t know about this portion of our event so it was a great surprise.
Some of the best awards:
Bob received the #1 OCD (#1 obsessive compulsive driller) award. When you put a drill in that boy’s hands that has a 36 in bit on it, he just starts drilling holes in things that don’t need a hole drilled in it.
Dusty was awarded the Chick Magnet award included a little black book which is the prefect place to write all of the numbers from his adoring young, female fans.

Winter Found Arkansas

December 1, 2006

















Winter finally arrived in Arkansas. Although it seems that it wants to leave as quickly as it came. Wednesday, all was well. A little windy but a nice 68 degrees. By Wednesday evening, the temperature dropped 30 degrees and the rains came. Through the night the temperature continued to drop causing a wintry mix for most of Thursday. Thursday night all that precipitation turned to ice and snow began to fall. Naturally this southern town shutdown. Many schools were closed today. I walked to work enjoying the inch and a half of snow that was on the ground. Here are some shots of what I saw this morning on my way to work. I took advantage of the opportunity because as I look out my window, there isn't much snow left. Hopefully this won't be the last I see of winter.