A Season Of Prayer

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

I know those words are true. But lately my prayers have felt urgent. Almost desperate. I have been praying for two medical situations and unfortunately, neither of them is going as well as it could.

I have two friends, a husband and wife, who spent three years trying to get pregnant. Not long after they decided to adopt, she became pregnant. We were thrilled! She was healthy throughout the pregnancy, but the baby came ten weeks early. She was small, but in the beginning, she was healthy! Well that was a few months ago. The baby went into the hospital two weeks and three days ago. She can't breath. Not on her own anyway. So I have been praying for God to teach this sweet little baby to breath and as each day passes, I think about my two friends and how they must be feeling and I grow more and more desperate. In the beginning I was praying for this baby to be strong. Now I am praying for life. Still praying. God is good and he is capable of all things. But I am praying for understanding as I think of this suffering family.

The other situation is a good friend of the first couple. She found out last week that her mother had some tumors in her intestine. She got out of surgery an hour or so ago and the doctor said the tumors were cancer. It could not all be removed and she will need to undergo chemotherapy. People survive this every day. I know that. But still my prayers feel sad.

I'm also praying for my husband who is being attacked by bitter people. I love him so much. He is so strong and so brave, but even the strongest people eventually shake a little when they are beaten on continually.

Grr. Those prayers do not feel desperate. They feel angry. I am angry at the people that are bothering him.

But I am praying for patience and understanding. For a time of renewal and rest in our lives. We are both taking the day off on Friday. I hope that it is a good weekend.

I love you Lord. Teach me to love you better.

Quick Confession

I can't believe I'm saying this. I like the new Miley Cyrus song. It's the "noddin' my head like 'yeah' " that gets me. Because I'm noddin' the heck out of my head every time it comes on!

I may be making a little iTunes purchase this week.

hehe

Dinner Divas!

So. Remember when I said a few weeks ago that I wanted to make some Non New Years Resolutions? Well I still haven't formalized a list, but the first thing that I thought of was my friends. Okay, first I thought of health. But I'm still stumped in that area, so I quickly moved on to friends. I want to spend more time with my friends. Actually, friends and family. I have so many people in my life that are important to me. I started dating Brett in November of 2005. So I spent 3 years and 4 months basically on the road to our wedding. We were friends for a year and a half or so before we started dating but as soon as our friendship transformed into something more, we knew right away that this was IT. We were in it all the way.

Dating is tricky! Anyone who has been in a serious relationship knows that. I don't think that it was wrong that my life for those three and half years centered around this transformation - what I have referred to before as "Becoming the Bacons". It was a great time in our life. But now that it is over, we both breath much easier! Like I said, dating is tricky. I'm not going to pretend that marriage isn't a lot of work, but honestly, right now, when we have only been married for 6 months, we are still enjoying the newness and the peace that comes from being THROUGH DATING! Being TOGETHER! Every day. Rain or shine. So far, this is much easier!

I didn't completely ignore my friends and family during the dating years, but now that I am married, I feel like I have the freedom and ability to be intentional about sharing my time with people other than my husband. Before, I had to work so hard to find time to be with Brett. It was easy to see my family because I was living at home. (I moved home when we realized we were ready to get married. I thought I would pay off all my debt before the wedding. Ha!) But I had to work to see Brett. Now it is easy to see Brett because we live together. If I want to see my friends and family, I have to work for it. That time is not a given. It takes an extra effort.

I say all that to say that I have every intention of staying connected to the people that I love. Brett and his two best friends from college are AMAZING! It's been years... I mean well over a decade, since they've lived in the same city. But they are so good at staying in touch. They call each other and they play online together, and whenever possible, which is usually twice a year, we go to see them.

I love my friends. And watching Brett with his friends has really encouraged me and shown me that it is possible to stay in touch with people that you love, even when life takes you in different directions.

My family has decided to have a monthly dinner at our parent's house. I meet Jennifer for coffee every other week. I'm hoping to set up something regular with Jenina the next time I see her. We are planning a trip to Houston to see Brett's friends, and as soon as we get back we will start planning a trip to Oklahoma to see Jeff. I go to dinner with my mom every Thursday of the month EXCEPT for one Thursday a month... which leads me to the point of this post. The Dinner Divas =-)

Once a month, my three college roommates and I (3 out of the 5 that I had in my college years) will be getting together for a dinner party. We will be trading locations between each others homes and enjoying an evening of food and fellowship. It's the perfect way for us to stay in touch and involved in each other's life!

Last Thursday, Jenn, Jage and Krista came over for our first dinner! I spent days getting ready! Not because I did anything elaborate, but because I wanted things to be clean and presentable. It was their first time to see our apartment. (hehe... I'm getting excited just TELLING the story because I'm remembering how excited I was last week!) So I cleaned and shopped last weekend. Then Wednesday night I did the bit of cooking that could be done beforehand, which was the main course. I made spinach stuffed shells. It's basically a spinach lasagna stuffed inside shells. Really tasty and really easy! It's the Better Homes and Gardens recipe, of course, and I really like it, but it's not Brett's favorite because of the spinach. So I prepped that Wednesday night so that all I would have to do Thursday is pop it in the oven.

Thursday morning I made a fruit dip which I only sort of liked when I made it, but it was SO good Thursday night after sitting in the fridge all day! I ran home at lunch time and chopped the veggies for the salad and also laid out the rolls. We bought some yeast rolls that, unbeknownst to us at the time, have to sit out on a pan covered at room temperature for 2-5 hours to rise. I am attaching a picture of the rolls at the bottom just because I was AMAZED by how they changed! At 12:30 when I put them on the pan, they were about the size of a walnut. When I got home at 5, they were a little bigger than my fist. So cool!

When I got home I popped the rolls in the oven. Then I mixed a coffee cake for our dessert. When the rolls came out, the pasta went in and while the pasta was cooking I mixed some mimosas and chopped the fruit. The girls all arrived a few minutes before the pasta was done cooking so we munched on some fruit and sipped mimosas while we waited for the pasta. And then when the pasta came out, the coffee cake went in and we moved to the table!

Dinner was great! The food was fine but the conversation was phenomenal! I LOVE these girls! Jenn got married a few months before I did and Krista and Jage both had new men to tell us about. It was GREAT! We laughed and laughed. That is without a doubt the best thing about the time with my friends... the laughter. I love being silly with them.

We scheduled an October dinner and next month we will be eating at Jenn and Jage's place in McKinney. I'm excited already =-)

I have a few pics... I wish I had taken a picture of the whole meal and not just the rolls! But I was too involved in serving. haha. Next month I will have a few more.

I deflated

a few on

accident.

Oops!

I was cuter

before all

the cooking.

This is

Jage, Jenn,

Krista and Me!

Pre-Post

I have lots of fun things to post after my night with my Dinner Divas last night! But I had zero energy after cleaning up last night (the wine MAY have had something to do with that...) and today I don't think I could do it justice. But tomorrow, get ready for some gushing!

Tonight I am going to a bachelorette party. Brett is going to it's counterpart tomorrow. We were supposed to meet for lunch today since we won't see each other until late tonight, but he got stuck at work =-( Chipotle was still good, just not as enjoyable without my love.

When I leave work I need to book it to the store to get a gift for Becky and then head to On The Border in Lewisville for the fun to begin! I will try to take a few pictures. I've been convicted lately by my lack of pics on this blog. Not by a court of law or anything... but, ya know. By ME! So I will try to remember to take pictures so I can post them and give you visuals to my riveting tales ;-)

Hope everyone had a good week!

Dinner Party Countdown!

Tomorrow night 3 of my college roommates are coming over for dinner. We have decided to meet once a month for dinner at each other's casa's so we can stay in touch. I LOVE THESE GIRLS! They live so close... how much longer will that be the case? I'm done missing them. I want them IN my life! So we are beginning the dinner parties.

Tomorrow's dinner is at our apartment. I did a good cleaning this weekend. Hopefully I will vacuum tonight and it's time to put away all of my crafting things. (Don't worry, I will get them back out after they leave tomorrow.) Other than that, I think that the apartment is as good as it's going to get. I am serving stuffed shells tomorrow and those can be made up to 24 hours in advance, so guess what I am doing tonight?! Woohoo! Then when I get off work tomorrow I will run home and make sure everything is straight, put the dinner in the oven, chop some fruit, make some fruit dip, slice some salad fixins, mix the cocktail and make a dessert! Buttermilk coffee cake! I've never made it before, but short of burning it, it seems like a recipe that I can't mess up. hehe.

I'm SO excited! I fully intend on having a good serving of food for the tummy AND food for the soul tomorrow! I will try to take a few pics too!

The New TV - Two Thumbs Up!

So I think that I've mentioned that two weekends ago we bought a small TV. I can't remember now if it is 22 or 26 inches and I am way too lazy to go and find out, so I will say it is 26 inches. I am pretty sure that is the case.

We bought it to be Brett's new computer monitor. His old one was working just fine, but it was HUGE and clunky. And actually, he had 2. One for his computer and one for hooking up a couple of old gaming systems to for occasional classic game time. Well, we really wanted to have a permanent home for those two old systems. (A Sega Saturn and a Dreamcast... I think.) But they wouldn't fit into our home entertainment system. Already too many peas in that pod. So we started talking about maybe buying a small TV that he could use as a computer monitor, but also have those two systems hooked into full time. We thought that if we found the right TV, it could also be something that we occasionally bring into the bedroom to watch a movie or something. Neither of us really want a TV in the bedroom full time, but we like the idea of being able to lay down and watch a movie at the end of a long day.

Well yesterday was a LONG day! Actually, we've had a string of 'em! So I suggested maybe taking the TV (which, if I haven't mentioned before, we found two weekends ago for a really great price at Best Buy, so we nabbed it!) into the bedroom and watching something easy. Man oh man. What a great ending to a crazy day. It was super easy to bring the TV into the bedroom and at 8:00 we laid down to enjoy Grumpier Old Men. A truly great film.

So I say all that to say: new TV... two thumbs up! I'm extremely grateful that it worked out for us to get it because yesterday, it was just what the doctor ordered.

Fun With Fire

We had Pei Wei for dinner last night. A new addition to my food places of choice. I love fried rice. I know it's not healthy, and I usually try to avoid it because it's also one of those foods that I ALWAYS eat too much of. But we went to Pei Wei a couple of weeks ago just to go somewhere different and, oh dear. I loved me that fried rice!

Yesterday was a rough day so we decided to pick up a semi-cheap dinner. We ordered it to go and sat at the counter to watch them cook while we waited. WHAT!?! Those flames are unreal! Just a big wall of flames that they put pots on to cook food! CRAZY! And so cool. I needed Alton Brown to commentate, but even not knowing exactly what was going on, I had to mention it because it was pretty impressive.

Good times!

Ten Year Reunion

Well, it's over. And I have to say... it wasn't bad. In fact, I think that our class officers did a great job planning and running the event. To tell you the truth, I didn't really see anyone helping our class President... he seemed to have a LOT to do. But I'm sure there were other people who worked on it also and deserve some props, so there you go. Props to you.

I only took a few pictures, none of them fancy, and... don't judge me... I'm pretty sure we were the first to leave both nights. Not because we weren't enjoying the events! But Friday ended up being kind of a tough day at work for Brett and it came at the end of what seemed like an exceptionally long week for both of us. We both had a couple of nights where we didn't sleep very well and by Friday night, we were really feeling it! It was so sweet of Brett to come with me, and he didn't complain at all in the weeks leading up to the reunion. But honestly, he and I both occasionally suffer from a bit of social anxiety, and it's hard for him to be in a crowd for too long. He was a real champ this weekend and I love him more and more for the sacrifices that he makes for me =-)

Friday night was a tailgate party followed by the football game. We tailgated, but did not game. We got there right at 6 when it started and it was really great! First of all, the weather was perfect. Nice and cool, and though you could tell it had been raining (the chairs sunk into the grass a bit when you sat for too long) it wasn't muddy or uncomfortable. Spring Creek catered, yumm, there was a good turn out, yeah, and teachers were invited, which was really neat! I got to talk to my best science teacher of all time, Mrs. Jordan and one of my top five teachers period, Mrs. Winters (the former Ms. Marcellus). It was really great. We spent a lot of time talking to Daniel and Nicole who had brought there GORGEOUS daughter, Jordan, and even though it's only been six months since we saw them, it was really nice to catch up.

I said hello to a lot of old friends but there were a lot of people that I didn't make it around to. Honestly... there are people that you grow apart from after high school, but there are some that grow apart from IN high school. It's great to catch up with people that you lost in the college years, but on Friday night, it was mostly the others for me. People that I knew, but wasn't exactly friends with in high school. I think that everyone felt a little nervous and awkward. We stayed until we were done, and then we left. It was 8:00 and the game was about to start, so it was an okay time to leave.

Saturday, I had a lot of fun. It was a fajita dinner at Mattito's in Dallas. We sat with Daniel and Nicole again but we all mingled quite a bit. There were AT LEAST 100 people there which made the room VERY loud and for whatever reason, I was much more comfortable in that setting. I think because it was crowded, I felt like if I wasn't talking to someone every single second, it was less likely that someone would notice and think "what's wrong with her?", ya know?. It was so good to see so many friendly faces. I said hello to a few that I missed on Friday, but still didn't make it around to everyone. The best part was seeing Kim. Kim is one of my oldest friends. I have known her my entire life. She is the reason people call me Kimmy. We were best friends and had the same name, so to make it easier on people, in the fourth grade she started going by Kimbo and I started going by Kimmy. I haven't seen her is ten years, and it warmed my heart to see her sweet smile. She is so vibrant!

I am really glad that we went.

A few people I wish had been there: Jenina, Jeff T, Ele P., Dustin G., Jalyn B., Rena J., Mr. Glenn and Mr. Rushing. That would have totally changed my experience. To have more of "my people" there.

Overall, two thumbs up! Thank you for your hard work Jeff. It was great!

Mattito's

Me & Ruthie

Also one of

my oldest

friends.

I should have

had a pic of

she, Kim and I,

because we were

a threesome!

But it didn't

work out...

Me & Kim.

Isn't she

gorgeous!?

Mr. President

Me & Jeff

Reunion Jitters

I've been trying not to talk about it because I get nervous when I think about it, but I need to get some jitters out. Tonight is my ten year high school reunion.

Oh dear. Why am I so nervous? I honestly don't know. Thinking about being around people that I knew when I was 16 brings to mind all of the insecurities that I had then. The awkwardness, both socially and physically, the out of control emotions and, let's be honest, the acne! Adolescent girls. Man. We live tough lives! And I'm not sure that those insecurities ever really go away. Maybe some of them are overcome, but I think most of the time, we just learn to cope with it. Like walking with a limp. You get used to it eventually. But deep down, we all just wish we could turn invisible at will...

Ugh. I feel sort of sick just thinking about it. Why? I have no idea. I mean, sure, I wish I were thinner and prettier. But I don't care that we aren't rich. I'm married to the love of my life, and we don't live glamorous lives, but we are very happy. So what's the deal? What am I afraid of?

One of my BFFs Jeff is in charge of it. If he weren't, we might not go... I'm not sure it's worth the stress. PROBABLY it will be fun. PROBABLY we'll have a good time and think back and laugh about how nervous I felt. Probably.

I'll let you know tomorrow night when it is all over!

Go Tigers.

Much Better

I've said it before. A good friend is like good medicine. And last night I got to spend time with two of my best friends! My husband and Jennifer!

My day did NOT get better yesterday, but it's over now, and the confusion and madness which took place shall not be spoken of again. I let it go. Deep breath!

But last night things started to improve as soon as I was home. I was not feeling chatty but Brett was happy to tell me about his day and his new game and let me just listen. I had to do dishes before I could start dinner, but dishes are a calming chore for me. I like loading the dishwasher. It reminds me of loading the kiln in my pottery classes.

Then... drum roll... I finally didn't overcook our pork chops! TADA! We have 4 or 5 meals that we pretty much visit twice a month, and pork chops is one of them. We bread them in stuffing and bake them in the oven. They are good even when I let them cook too long, but last night. Ah! They were so juicy and not tough at all! I was pretty pleased.

After dinner I headed to Starbucks for a pumpkin latte (with a rice crispy treat, which as the cashier said, is truly a smile bringer - especially when they are made with Fruity Pebbles!) and a nice chat with Jennifer. Poor Brett probably gets tired of hearing me vent about work and other crazy things in my life. And he can only say so much about it. It's good to able to talk to another person. Get another perspective. And it was SO good to hear that she is liking her new position in the school district! Jennifer was an amazing teacher, but in her new position she gets to do technology stuff (which she is REALLY good at, by the way) and library stuff which means that she gets to interact with EVERY teacher and EVERY student AND play with fun books! Hello! Who would not want this job? I am so happy for her!

And to top it all off there was a nice soft rain. Really soft, like a heavy sprinkle. It was nice and cool outside... I even drove with my window cracked a couple of inches to let some fresh air in. I turned up the volume on my new Coconut Records album, which I am liking more and more every day, and I just let my mind decompress. It came just in time. I was ready to explode. Sigh.

I had just enough time to run into Target when I was done. I didn't really find what I was looking for, but I found a sufficient substitute. I need storage for my new crafting goodies! What I found didn't solve the problem completely, but it made a big improvement to my crafting area, A.K.A. our dining room table. Now if I can just get the embellishments out of my fruit bowl. They are freaking out the apples...

Off to start another day! This one is already an improvement over the last!

Simpsons Quote of the Day - 9.16.09

Homer: I thought this might happen. So, I bought the best weapon to operate while drugged. A cross bow.

Bad Day Already?

Some days my mornings are quite lovely and the day kind of falls to pieces. Maybe since I am having a rough morning, it will turn into a good day?

They are having a tail gating party at Brett's work today. He woke up early so he decided to get a jump start on cooking. I wasn't even done making my breakfast before I got scooted out of the kitchen =-( Luckily I still have one frozen meal in the freezer here at work. I did manage to grab my baggie of grapes and a granola bar, so hopefully that will be good food for the day.

Attitude check, Kim! It won't be a good day if you keep this mood! Sigh.

Ain't That A Shame

You may remember, if you've been paying attention, that I scheduled a massage for this evening. My first ever deep tissue, to rid my back of the painful knots that I just can't get to go away.

Well I didn't plan very well. $50 (35 for massage and 15 for tip) would have been totally attainable if I had planned it out. But August sort of flew by. I realized last week that the massage was just around the corner, but we had a million bills to pay last weekend. I could have worked it out, but not without asking Brett to sacrifice a bit of comfort this week, and I just wasn't okay with that. I haven't done anything to deserve this treat, and I didn't want to reward myself for poor planning. And honestly, Brett needed a bit of extra comfort this weekend. He's been sort of glum... so we bought him something fun that was also for the apartment, and much to the chagrin of my shoulder blades, I cancelled the massage. Sigh.

Maybe I can start planning now and schedule myself a day of fun in October. The weather should be nice and cool by then! And Whip It comes out October 2. That would be a great day! Movie and massage!

New Trailer For New Moon!!!

I have mentioned before that I am excited about New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. Well the full trailer is out now and OH DEAR! There is just no doubt that his movie will be better than the first. I am really eager to see it! It is months away though. Sigh.

The only part of the trailer that I didn't love was an added fight scene. This part of the book was NOT lacking in tension... I guess you have to have a fight scene in a vampire movie, but... I'm always a little sensitive about changes =-)

So check out the trailer!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/summit/newmoon/

Graceful, She Ain't!

Graceful is one of those adjectives that I aspire towards having tagged to my name! Whenever I hear someone describe another woman as graceful, a little sense of longing wells up inside me and I sit up a little straighter. You know. In case the Grace Brigade is scanning the room looking for someone to add to their ranks.

Well this morning, I felt like such a klutz! Brett was sick, so I went to church alone. It was my first time to be at FBCI by myself and I am happy to report that I did not feel awkward, which is amazing because I had a string of events in a ten minute window where you would think I had never been in public before!

First of all, it was raining. If you are a Dallasite, you know that it has been raining all weekend. I mean really raining! Rain like we haven't had in months. It's been great!

Well, I don't have an umbrella. Most of the time, I don't really care, but today, sitting down in my seat and realizing that I had a spotted shirt to go along with my rapidly frizzing hair made me admit that it is time to invest in one.

So that's ungraceful aspect number one.

Number 2:

Have you ever been singing a song with a group and come in too early? Like when the trendy singer adds an 8 count of strumming before singing the chorus? You know you've done it! Well I did that today. And it is one of those big finish type of choruses! The verse builds and builds and then you burst into a heartfelt chorus. Well today I had a one word solo. It was actually only half of a word, and it probably lasted half of a second. But I can't deny it. It was me. That loud burst of sound. Me.

Number 3:

I banged the collection plate on the empty seat in front of me when I was getting up to take the plate to the lady at the other end of my row. Not too loud, but the people behind/beside me couldn't miss it.

Number 4:

I tripped coming back to my seat =-) Not a falling on the ice kind of trip, but a cheap flip-flop curled under my foot kind of trip. I sat down feeling a bit defeated. I was glad that I was sitting in church and not in a kitchen because I probably would have dropped my knife and ended up one finger short!

I don't mind mornings like that though. It is good to be reminded that on my own, I am utterly hopeless. I am undeniably flawed. And it's no secret! But I can never outspend God's grace. He knows my faults, and when I am a mess, he washes me clean. Again and again.

God is so good =-)

I saw some fun sites today! On the way to church, when I passed our park (the park where Brett and I got married, which I get to drive past every Sunday on my way to church) I saw a mother duck leading a dozen ducklings through the rain. It was SO sweet!

And then after church when I went to pick up lunch for Brett I saw a bird doing the funniest thing! I probably can't describe it right, but he was looking for food in the crack at the bottom of the building. The way that he was bending down and peaking into the crack was not like anything I had ever seen a bird do before and it was very entertaining!

I also got to hang out with my family today, minus Jenna and Dad. Melanie hosted a Premier Jewelry party. So fun! I didn't have any money to spend, but it was really fun to see all of the pretty beads. Loved it! Laura is going to host one in a few weeks and I plan on having money to buy a Christmas present for Brett's mom. It will be our first one of the year. Woohoo! Can we get the tree out so I can have a place to put the gift? Pretty please?

Brett is feeling much better, the rain has lightened up a bit, and I feel ready for a new week. I love my husband and I am so thankful for God's love which he makes no effort to hide in my life. I hope your week gets off to a good start!

The Newlywed Game

One of the hard things about being a newlywed is that sometimes you feel like a total failure... BECAUSE YOU ARE! I don't know how to be married. Why? Because I've never done it before. I love Brett and I always want to consider his feelings and well being with every decision that I make. But I'm not perfect. And I'm not used to being in this kind of partnership. Sometimes I make the wrong decision because I am selfish. Or just ignorant. Or overwhelmed. But I am learning. I hope!

I never intend on making the same mistake twice because I HATE the regret I feel when I realize I have made the wrong decision. But life still happens. If you're not making mistakes then you're not working hard enough. Learning comes from trial and error. I hate the error. But I love the learning. Blah.

I read on someone else's blog this week a few thoughts on trust. He said something along the lines of "trusting someone does not mean that they will never fail you or hurt you. It just means that they won't do it intentionally or in the same way over and over."

I am sure that 20 years from now I will still have days when I feel like a lousy wife. I guess I should say that I HOPE that I will still have those days. I hope that we are still learning and growing together in 20 years. But for today, I'm just ready to be home and in my husbands loving, forgiving arms.

A Nice Night

Actually, it was a pretty nice day all together. Work was boring, but we got a lot done. We had 4 books to assemble. We aren't completely finished and there was a bit of stitcher trouble today, but hopefully it will finish up smoothly tomorrow.

I had fun at Hobby Lobby on my lunch break! Then after work, I went to my parents house to get some of my crafting supplies that I still have there and found some great things! Then I met my mom for dinner at On The Border. Yummy soup! We took our leftovers to my grandmother and it was really nice to see her. She enjoyed the soup as much as we did! Then my mom and I ran to Wal-mart. I was looking for a circle cutter and cutting mat and she needed creamer for the coffee club at school. How cute is that! And she bought my supplies! What a sweetie!

I stopped at Starbucks on my way home for a tasty pumpkin spice latte. SO GOOD! One of my top ten favorite things about fall! Now I am going to sort through/re-organize my crafting area, A.K.A. our dining room table, and maybe work on a card tonight.

Let's here it for blessed Thursdays! I hope that I have a good attitude tomorrow and that the day passes peacefully!

Hobby Lobby - You Conquer Me!

I went to Hobby Lobby on my lunch break to look for some holiday accents for my cards for the Holiday Open House. I spent $10 more than I wanted to and now I am eager to get home and look through the bag and remind myself that I made good choices!

Oh dear. That store. I wish that we had one in Irving, and at the same time, it's probably better that we don't. (Actually, I am secretly hoping that the empty store down the street from me that used to be an Old Navy and is now being worked on for a new store again, is actually a HOBBY LOBBY!)

I told myself that I wouldn't spend more than $100 on the HOH. I have already spent $75. It adds up fast! But I feel pretty good about what I have. I need cutters and stamps to go on sale.

FUN!!!

A Sequel

Is everyone else as excited as I am that they are filming the Sex In The City sequel?

I know, I know... not exactly a show that jives with all of my core values. But every girl loves a story about friendship, and at it's core, that's exactly what this show is.

I love you girls!

Beatles Rockband

You may not know this about me. I am a Beatles fan. Not a know-every-piece-of-trivia kind of fan, but a grew-up-on-it-and-still-love-it fan. So I, similar to thousands of Americans across this great nation, was really looking forward to the release of Beatles Rockband today. And I am happy to say, it did not disappoint. Brett and I played through almost the entire story mode! I got tired, so we are saving the rest for tomorrow, but it is a really great game. The artwork, the video clips, the photos and facts... it's all just great.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Catching Up

I am way behind on blogging! A huge benefit of blogging, or writing in general, is the way that it helps you organize your thoughts. Talk (you know what I mean) through things. But I need time to do that! Brett and I had some nice down time this weekend, but my "my" time didn't include my computer.

I've got LOTS on my mind, as usual =-)

I have to say how thrilled I am that we joined First Baptist Irving. I just know that God is going to do amazing things in our life while we are there and I am excited to see how things unfold. That is the perfect word – excited. I am so eager about all of the new opportunities! New faces, new classes, new lessons. Newness... it's so refreshing!

I also have to confess. After several weeks of making good food choices, I fell off the wagon. I had 11.5 days of bad choices. That's the only way to put it. Bad food choices, bad portion choices, and lots of them! I tend to make all good choices or all bad. If some lady brings a cake to work and I decide to have a small piece, then the rest of my day will be indulgences, and not the more healthy things that I had planned. And one day often turns into two, or three, or in this case, 11.5. They were not good days. I felt horrible and I was very disappointed in myself. But yesterday was a good day. And today is a work in progress.

What I need is BALANCE! A lifestyle that is mostly good choices, but when a less wise option, such as Marble Slab, slips into my food plan, I need to eat it and be DONE! Not let it live on in further bad choices. Old habits die hard. And some of my habits are practically as old as I am.

Why do I daydream about taking walks and exercising SO MUCH MORE than I actually do it? Seriously. What's the deal?

I want to change. I want to change a lot of things in my life. A blog that I follow declared some Non New Years Resolutions over the weekend. I think I would like to do the same. Be an active thinker and exercise some control over my choices.

I want to live, ya know? Not live a life that is just a slow death.

I want to spend more time with my girl friends. Heck, once a month would be an improvement right now. I get lonely =-( I love my husband, but everyone needs some same-sex relationships.

Resolutions to come! I will do some thinking =-)

But while I am here, I should mention: we had a good Labor Day weekend. We ended up spending half of the day on Monday with Brett's mom. Not bad, but unexpected. But Brett made ribs and grilled corn for dinner Monday and it was great! I did some crafting... I took pictures of the 4 cards I made but the pics are kind of blurry. I will try again tonight!

Holiday Open House - Take 2

It was probably sometime around this time last year that I first posted about the Holiday Open House. A friend of a friend was opening her home to 20 or so vendors that she happened to know to give them an opportunity to sell product to some early Christmas shoppers. For a first time, I would say it was semi-successful. Not a ton of people came and hardly anyone bought. I don't think that people really knew what to expect. Or maybe it just wasn't close enough to Christmas for people to be shopping for gifts. But I learned a TON!

This year it is being hosted by Jenina, so it will be in Irving, and I am going to participate again. Last year I made pre-assembled Christmas scrapbooks and handmade Christmas ornaments. I thought that they were adorable but I left with almost as much inventory as I showed up with and I lost money on it.

This year I am going a different route. I woke thinking about paper crafts and spent some time today going through my supplies and a crafting magazine. I think I am going to go for hand made cards and possibly some hand made ornaments. I will probably buy a few stamps and maybe some punchers, but my goal is to spend as little as possible and make as much as possible. Obviously.

I am excited already! I hope to make some cards on Monday! Maybe I will post some pics. Maybe. =-)

And by the way, I must say that the first day of our 3 day weekend was quite nice =-) Wish it had been cooler, but here's hoping for a cooler next couple of days? Pretty please?

Be safe out there!

New Moon

It is no secret that I like the Twilight books. Correction. I REALLY like the Twilight books. They were a fun read. But I have also made no secret of the fact that, despite buying the movie so that I could watch it a few times and try to get past the faults, I did not enjoy the first film. I thought that the effects were cheap, the makeup was terrible and the acting was just plain bad. Not all of it 100% of the time, but, try as I might, it just makes me cringe.

I have to admit though, I am looking forward to New Moon. I am cautiously optimistic that this will be a better film. It has a bigger budget, some more seasoned actors, and the actors that I didn't enjoy so much in the first film aren't in this one very much.

I saw a nice little Jacob montage this morning, and it was exciting!

So here's hoping!

Sometimes I Cry...

...for no reason. At least, not for any one specific reason. I just cried through the last hour of High School Musical 3. You heard me. Was it because I was devastated by the inevitable separating of Troy and Gabriella? Maybe for about 3 seconds. But after that, the tears were flowing strong and had no intention of stopping.

Crying can be such a RELEASE! I feel bad when I cry like this around Brett because he doesn't understand how I can pour out tears like I was just diagnosed with a terminal illness, over... nothing. (He isn't here tonight, so I let loose and cried me a river!)

It's not nothing, but it's too much to put into words. That's why I cry instead. haha. It's the thousand little things that I manage from day to day. It's the letting go of the ones that have become too heavy to carry. It's the adjusting. To a new way of life. It's the acceptance. Of failures that I didn't intend. It is what it is. And Marie says it's okay!

I think that NP said it best in the greatness of Garden State. "I look forward to a good cry now and then. It feels pretty good."

PS - High School Musical? Holla! Those kids are outrageous! They rock my socks! The kid who plays Ryan Evans. Super star! Two thumbs up all around. I'm glad that I finally finished the trifecta!

No Way!

That makes me so mad! I totally just got a scam text message! It said something about my account being frozen and to call an 888 number to get it reactivated. I called the number and the first thing it did was ask me for my "card number" to reactivate my account. WHAT A SCAM! I can't believe there are people who do that! Just take people's information and RUIN LIVES! That really makes me mad. I wish there was someone I could report it to, but I don't know WHO did it.

Jerks!

Labor Day Blahs

I am super excited that September is here. That means that October is closer and I LOVE October. I love the cooler weather, I LOVE driving with my window down (most of the year it's too hot for that in Texas) and I love the beginning of the holiday season. One of my Facebook friends complained yesterday about his random play on iTunes playing a Christmas song. I LOVE when I get a Christmas song! Any time of year!

I should be excited about the 3 day weekend, but right now... it's just not there. We wish that we were going to The Woodlands to see our Houston friends, but if we went this weekend they wouldn't be there because they have Labor Day plans. But not us. We will probably sit at home and play video games and watch tv like we always do. I wish we had something fun to do!

I plan on working out our budget though. That should be interesting. I want us to buy a new bigger bed by the end of this year so that when January gets here we can start saving for our anniversary trip to Santa Fe. We are SUPER excited about that!

The best that I can hope for this weekend is that we catch up on rest and enjoy each other. I hope that we don't drive each other crazy going stir crazy!

There's not even a new movie we could go see!

I Heart Lord of the Rings

Have I even mentioned that I sometimes listen to movies on my iTunes at work? It started last summer when I was hear for hours on end by myself. It may sound weird, but honestly, listening to something that I am familiar with SERIOUSLY focuses my mind from straying to too many random thoughts. It has to be a movie that I really know though. Last summer, it was a lot of Sleepless in Seattle, Moonstruck, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Jerry MacGuire because they were all on Hulu. Not much luck on the Hulu front lately though. So this summer I purchased a few movies. The 2nd and 4th Harry Potters at the beginning of the summer, and last week, Lord of the Rings. The first one.

Is it overkill that I am listening to the movie once a day AND reading the book? Maybe. Do I regret it? No.

On a completely unrelated note, it IS overkill that I am currently eating a small piece of Italian Creme Cake for the second day in a row. Oh dear.