pleased to meet you..

Josh and I had the opportunity to meet Gene Hackman last night at the Nashville Public Library. Mr Hackman has been in tons of movies, but what I remember him most for is Hoosiers. Last night was his book signing with Daniel Lenihan for their new civil war novel, Escape from Andersonville.

my comfort

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I am finding that on those bad days, and even the coasting days, I am comforted by this promise.

classic funny

If you were to tell me that you have never seen the works of Abbott and Costello, first I would be very surprised, then I would do everything in my power to get you to experience this classic....


Who´s On First - These bloopers are hilarious


Abbott and Costello Prove 13x7=28 - More bloopers are a click away

i want one!

Oh. My. Gosh. Seriously, I want one of these. Heck, I want all of them...

some places that i love

I have had the opportunity to travel to a few different places. Some I have just traveled through, some I have stayed a while. Of those places, that I can think of, are Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Mexico, Amsterdam, Austria, Albania. I don't know if I'm forgetting any, but those are the ones that come to mind. Out of that list are a few places that I have been more than a couple times, and that I will hopefully be able to go back to again and again....


This is a shot of a Pennsylvania farm. I don't know where this is exactly, but it looks very much like the land where I grew up. I don't think that I could have grown up in any other place. It suited me. I was a country girl, that's for sure, and I love going back to visit!



This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland. I met Josh at Washington Bible College, and we got engaged two days before my graduation...on this beach...that's the bay bridge in the background.

In the four and a half years I spent living on the eastern shore, I've fallen in love with it and am often a little homesick for it now that I live here in Nashville...which brings me to another cool place I love...


Nashville, TN!!


Winter Park, Colorado. Along with becoming part of Josh's family I have found that I like to ski! We have gone to Winter Park two times now and I just can't say enough about the beautiful, fluffy whiteness! The mountains are just breathtaking.

welcome to my mind (yikes!)

A few things on my mind right now:


1.

Oh sweet sassy, this can't come fast enough! Josh and I are taking a week to travel to Merry Land and Pennsyltucky to visit our families! It's been around six months since we've seen them...for some it's been longer. It's been fun to keep this count down on the dry erase board in the kitchen. As you can see, we have 21 days until we leave...and of course a note to myself for the proper equivalent of dry to cooked rice when I make white rice in my rice cooker....mmmm....white rice...and kimchee! Man, I'm hungry....okay, sorry for that trail, although, this is a blog about what's on my mind right now, so I can type anything! =) Just kidding..next!


2. GO rent this movie. Right now. Are you going? You can finish reading this when you get back. Trust me, it's worth it.


I just LOVE the concept that is all through this movie about hearing music in everything if we just listen and acknowledging how that within music we can find a deep communication. Freddie Highmore is a great little actor as well. You can watch the trailer here.


3. Most disappointing movie of the year so far...


Josh and I are both HUGE fans of M. Night Shyamalan, so anytime he has a new movie coming out we both drool over the previews until opening night. Well, this time we waited for a matinee to save a few bucks, and man, what a let-down!! The story was okay, but the acting was horrible! I'm so sorry, Mark Wahlberg, you know I love you, but the action flicks suit you better! We've decided that this won't deter us from seeing more M.Night movies, since this is the first one we haven't liked of his.

4. Small accomplishment - I've lost 11 pounds! It may not seem like much, but I'm working my butt off at the Y 5 days a week, and will soon start implementing some things I'm learning in this book...

It just has some very simple and sensible advise. I've also been following a running plan. One of the biggest things I've learned so far since I've gotten back into running, is the importance of listening to your body and then acting accordingly. I haven't been very active since high school/college and so it's been an adjustment realizing that the way I was then is not the way I am now, and I'm not just talking about being bigger and fatter. I'm talking about the communication between mind and body. When I was younger, pushing myself had no limits. I'm realizing that now that I'm older I can't just push myself as far as my mind wants me to go. For example, I tried to follow this running schedule for "beginners" several months ago. It started out okay. I was tired, but completing the steps, so I felt accomplishment. Then, week three rolled around and I noticed that I not only found I couldn't keep up with the increasing intensity on the schedule, but I was also starting to steadily decline in what I was able to do. I wasn't just tired, I was exhausted and felt like I was hit by a truck 15 minutes into it. My joints started aching. I felt like I was old. This inevitably caused me to get discouraged, and made it easy to start missing workouts. What I found is that this is a common mistake with recreational runners: too much too soon. I'm also reading this book...

...which is where I read about the importance of listening to your body. Now, I am still following the beginner's running schedule, but if the workouts are still kickin my batooshkie at the end of the week, I don't worry about advancing and repeat that week over. I'm finding that it's done amazing things for my drive, too. I don't get discouraged. Oh, and as you can see, Yahtzee is thinking about taking up running as well. I just snapped this about 2 minutes ago...



5. Money stinks. You can't live without it, and it's so hard to manage! At least for me. Josh and I have started a new budget suggested by Dave Ramsey. We are in the second half of the first month and so far it's working out pretty good. We would love to be able to become debt-free and never use credit cards ever again. We are really hoping our house will help us out in this area. Speaking of the house, nothing new has happened for a while due to said new budget plan, but I will definitely update as we do things! Okay, that's about all that's on my mind right now. Relieved? I am, this laptop is hot on my legs. I think I'll go sit in front of the fan....

reality check

My cat. His name is Yahtzee. He is very unique. While he does have some cat-like qualities, he has many quirky things about him that just sort of make me slip over to the crazy side and think, Maybe he's part human! Here, let me show you....

He likes to hang out.



Sometimes hanging out is exhausting.



He helps with laundry.



He watches TV.



He folds the sheets.



He likes to cuddle.



He likes to cuddle while napping.


More chillin out. He likes to be draped over the couch.



He takes family portraits.



He likes camping.



He wears ties.



He plays hide and seek.



He sleeps on his back.



He looks at magazines (he says he likes them for the articles).



He plays the piano.



He plays bass.



And THEN, right on the tail end of that thought, Maybe he is part human! He does something like THIS

and I am reminded that he is, absolutely, positively, completely and totally all CAT!

happy national doughnut day, er donut day, uh....

How do you spell donut, anyway? Either way, I think it's a wonderful, amazing thing to have a National Doughnut Day. You can read about it here. My wedding cake was a Krispe Kreme donut cake, and it was A M A Z I N G. This wasn't mine in particular as none of my wedding pictures are online, but this was the one I found that looks the closest to what we had. Doesn't this just make your mouth water?



I guess if you don't like donuts this won't make your mouth water. I, however, cannot imagine not liking donuts. Hey! Someone just walked into the office with a box of donuts! Excuse me.