Dancing with the Stars

So, tonight I finally got to watch one episode of Dancing with the Stars all the way through and NOT on the computer. I must say that as much as the Tony Award winning girl (I can't remember her name) can dance well, she herself is a bit irritating. Never been a big fan of Shannon Elizabeth, but she can dance!! And Jason.....very nice. And I loved the joke Adam Carolla made. Not sure who I want to win (maybe someday I'll actually watch it in time to vote. tonight I had to share the TV with someone that HAD to watch the Angels game....sigh....) but I'm excited for tomorrow nights show and to see Kylie Minogue.

Entertaining

So, a few of my friends that read my blog but don't comment or can't figure out how have said how they have loved hearing about my basketball games. I thought I would give you a little update: My left knee hurts and has been hurting since I played. Either it was all the running, the stress that it wasn't used to or something, but it still hurts. I think there is a group of women that is getting together to play basketball on Saturday mornings, but if my knee keeps hurting, I don't think I'll go. I kind of need it to get around. So, I'll give it some time to heal and we'll see if it stops. Matt says that I should take glucosamine, and maybe I should, but I don't think it will take the pain away in my knee. And the two inch high wedges I wore yesterday to church probably didn't help it much either. But I sure looked good in them!!!

My attempt at decorating

My Grandma Belliston bought these prints in Paris in the 60's, when she and her sister went traveling together. When she died, she had two sets as her sister had bought the same ones. My grandma had not ever framed them, but her sister had. I got the ones that weren't framed, and I've had them for years. I've been wanting to hang them in my home for the longest time. I finally got them framed (all of them for only $114) and then it took a while to get them up. I love them! I love sitting in my living room and looking at them. I'm not a great decorator. And I can't paint the walls because we're going to move by next Christmas, so white walls it is. But I think they look good there. I'll be posting more of what I have on my walls later today.

Before Church

This is them right before church this morning. My entry area is kind of embarrassing, but oh well. Most of the stuff is Matt's anyway. :) I love Lucy's dress. It is slightly too big, so I hope she can wear it for a while. I love brown....

My new cleaning stuff

A week or so ago I was reading O Happy Day and she was talking about a company called Mrs. Meyers Clean Day. And she said how awesome it was. As I have been trying to use more earth friendly products I was interested. I went to the website and saw that it was a little expensive. I thought about ordering some online, and then I looked to see if any stores in my area carried it. I got lucky and my local Linens and Things carried it. I got to go by myself on Thursday, the only problem was that day I could not taste or smell. I bought several of the Geranium scent (mostly because I don't like lavender scent or lemon verbena and those were the only other scents they had) and I hoped that it smelled good. I asked the lady that rang me up to smell it and she said it smelled really good. Friday I woke up and my smell and taste were back. I LOVE my new cleaning stuff. Yeah, it's expensive. But my vinegar cleaning stuff was not going well. The smell about did me in every time I used it, even with the fan on. I guess I could get used to it, but I really wasn't willing to do that. So now my house will smell like geraniums. And I stocked up because it didn't look like that store had too much. I'm hoping what I have will last me for a while. I highly recommend it as it is not bad for our earth, smells great, and cleans well. Now I just have to find a mop that I like to replace my swiffer (those pads have got to be as bad as diapers being thrown into our landfills) so that I can have geranium scented floors.

Girls night

Yesterday afternoon after Matt had left with Andrew to go on the camp out, a friend came to pick up Lucy and I to go to the park at the library here on post. We met some other friends there. All of our husbands were either at the camp out or deployed, so we decided to go out to dinner to Quizno's. Then after that we went to DQ. Afterwards we met back at my house to watch a movie. We had the kids back in the kids room with a movie of their own to watch complete with popcorn. My two new friends here decided to play fairy godmother to me and totally cleaned up my kitchen counters. (I've had a bit of a hard week and my counters were not even their normal slightly cluttery but still clean state. They were completely totally cluttery and even a little dirty) They were using my new cleaning stuff that I will post about later, so my kitchen smelled fabulous!! The movie we watched was called The Namesake. I LOVED it. And it was a book before it was a movie. I am excited to read the book because now I have a better visual as I read it. For books that are of a different culture, I always like to have a decent visual so that I can better understand the book. But I'll have to wait to buy it because I have at least ten books that I haven't read yet. And I have a ton of things to blog about, but this week was not conducive to blogging. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to post about all the things I want to talk about.

First

Right now my husband is packing for his first camp out with the boys at church and he will be taking Andrew with him! Andrew is very excited, as most boys are at the prospect of sleeping in a sleeping bag, inside a tent, being outside, being with their dad, and being able to see lots of stars!! Andrew will have his own small backpack with just pj's and a change of clothes and maybe a small blanket and his small pillow. And maybe a few snacks because I am such an overly prepared person when it comes to camping and traveling. Matt is bringing MRE's for he and Andrew to eat, and I just can't imagine Andrew not eating anything between leaving for camping and dinner time at the campsite. I've drilled him on the rules of going camping. Luckily no campfire, so I don't have to worry about that. And to not leave daddy. I am going to slip our old camera in with his stuff. I just might have some fun pictures to post Saturday.

In other news, I am suffering from the worst allergies I have ever had. I cannot taste or smell a darn thing. I happen to like to smell and taste. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Basketball recap

So, I ended up playing all three games in those two days. I am woefully out of shape, but at least I had been doing some exercising before hand, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I really had a ton of fun doing it. I was the tallest (but not largest) person on court. There were many women who had no clue about how to play and would whine and complain about people touching them. One girl I was guarding yelled out at the refs "look, she's still touching me!!!!!" Big whiner. If she doesn't have the ball and I'm not swatting at her, I can touch her all freaking day!!! There was another woman that would whine too. She really got on my nerves. I actually scored several times which was very gratifying. I played the majority of all the games, and there were several times that I thought I was going to die. But I didn't. One girl even groaned when I boxed her out. Not my fault my booty gets her right in her tummy.....the blessing of having really long legs. (as you can tell I get a little feisty when I'm playing basketball)

My body was in lots of pain the next day. But it was a good pain. I was glad I did it. They are going to try and get a small group together to play weekly or something. Don't know if I'll go, but it is nice to have that option!! I even went out and bought a basketball so that I would have one. Matt has one, but it is a nice one that he really likes and I wouldn't want it to get stolen/lost at the church.

I took some pictures yesterday and today that I want to post tonight. My blog has been a bit boring of late. I guess that's what happens when my life starts to get busy.

Explosion!!!

I read this story late last night, and decided to call my grandma who literally lives minutes from LAX. So I gave her a call and see if she heard it. Turns out it was about 7 miles away from her, and she didn't even hear it. I just find it so interesting how when I read it the first time it said "Explosion Rocks LA". Yeah, I'm sure most of LA didn't even hear it. And probably compared to the huge guns we hear all the time it wasn't anything. Sometimes I really miss living in Southern California. But my reasons for not wanting to live there outweigh the ones why I would want to live there. I'll be back later today with some actually interesting stuff to post about. At least I hope. We'll see how my day goes.....

They are trying to kill us

So, I did go to the game this morning. We were just our own team rather than combined like we were last night. And we're playing again in a little over an hour. I am almost 30 years old! I haven't played basketball like this for YEARS!! My inner thighs are screaming at me and so are my lungs. My skinny little arms are telling me that there isn't enough muscle in them to do what I want them to do. The positive thing is that compared to many on the court, I actually have some skills!! Which is utterly amazing for me. But kind of fun. And they need me too. Which is nice. So, my exercise for today and for several days I'm getting all in a few hours. Hopefully I don't get too beat up under the basket today. And I hope my legs don't collapse on me halfway through....

But I'm having fun. And I have missed having this kind of fun.

Almost Dead

I played basketball tonight. Like a real game, with refs and everything. I started, and they made me do the jump ball. Just because I'm tall doesn't mean I can jump!!!! Anyway, two twenty minute halves later, we lost. But at the half, I had half of our points. Which is freaking amazing for the skills I have. I haven't played an actual game of basketball for YEARS!!! I was huffing and puffing up and down the court. My body will be hurting tomorrow. And they want us to be back at 0800 tomorrow morning. Funny, very funny. We'll see if I can even get out of bed. Actually, Matt always goes on a bike ride Saturday mornings, and tomorrow we have a quick choir practice. So we'll see if I go. But you know, I had fun. I miss playing. That is how Matt and I got to know each other. By playing basketball two times a week. Hopefully, I'll be able to walk tomorrow.....

I went to the commissary tonight, and my bagger called me 'miss' as he walked me and my groceries out to the car. It just made me smile as I am not really a 'miss' anymore. :)

What happened?

Somehow I forgot that last night was the first show of this seasons Dancing with the Stars. I think I've been so busy (which I am not usually) that I forgot all about it. I just finished watching last nights episode on the computer. The men aren't too bad. Since I missed tonight's show, I will have to wait until tomorrow to watch it!! So sad. Rest assured, I will not be missing any more episodes. I will be setting my DVR so that it doesn't happen again. I might actually vote this season.

And I bought Enchanted today. It is always really cheap (well, cheaper than other places) at the PX the first week of release. I got it for $13.99. Lucy and I will be watching it tomorrow I'm sure.

I had bookclub tonight also. It is a church group. The first books we're reading are The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have read them both, but the last one I haven't read since high school. Not sure if I will read it, but we'll see. I have several books that I need to read. I just started The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Haven't been reading too much lately, but I have a feeling once I get into it I will like it. I have just been busy. And I don't like being so busy because I feel like I have so much to do here at home. I'm hoping the rest of the week will be more at home and less going so many places.....

Basketball

So, about 16 years ago I started to play basketball. I was on the freshman team, and of course the tallest. But not terribly coordinated. I played all four years of high school. I thought I would liven up this post with a few pictures from a long time ago.

There I am in all my basketball glory. And good old Charter Oak High School.

This is me my senior year. What is really sad is I still have those shoes. They have a little pump in them. I need to send them to one of those recycling shoes places, where they grind them up for use for the really nice tracks for schools.
Well, they are having a tournament for all age groups at church this weekend. There is a small group of women (including me) that have been getting together at a neighborhood center (I'll explain that one later) to shoot around and get used to playing basketball. We had a little "practice" this morning, and it was interesting. The good thing: these women know the rules and mostly understand the game. The bad thing: one of them can get really mean. So, we'll see how it goes. It was great cardio for me as I haven't played any basketball for years. I still remember a lot of stuff, and I can still do what I was trained to do, and it was actually kind of fun. If I can get anyone to take pictures this weekend I will post them. Even if I look retarded in them. And I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories....

Look what I got

I had asked my brother to send me some treats from France. I gave him very specific directions, and a few weeks ago, he said that he had bought it, but wasn't sure when it would be sent.

Friday, there was a ring at the doorbell, and this is what I signed for:

A HUGE package full of these treats.
Cote D'or Lait Amandes caramlisees avec un point du sel

(milk chocolat with carmelized almonds with a pinch of salt)

Carambars parfum caramel

(carmel carambars)

Suchard Rochers Noir

(dark chocolat rochers)

All of these are only in France. You can get them online but they cost way more. I am so excited!! Matt was just trying to cut back on his candy too. Oh well. These treats are to eat!!! And lest you think I'm exploiting a missionary, I am paying for all of this. We have it all set up. Next thing I want is a cd of the Prince of Egypt. Of course in French. That was how I learned it, and how I prefer it. It is almost as good as being there. But not really.....

Don't you all wish you lived closer so you could have some??? :)

I hate this

So again, tonight, we had another Tornado Warning/Watch/Severe Thunderstorm fabulous time. I hate the anxiety that comes with that. My stomach gets all funny, I have to use the bathroom really often. Tonight it also manifested itself with me starting to put things into our bathroom. Why you ask? Because that is the only room of the house without windows. So, I got a few snacks together. Then I put my purse in there. I put extra towels. I was even going to fill up some water bottles to put in there. I had my huge box of candles ready with the matches right next to it just in case the electricity went out. I am a total freak. I have no idea why I'm this way, but I just am. And I have several more exciting things to post about, but I'm not because I can't focus on anything else right now. Maybe later, when I've calmed down more (and believe it or not, I'm calmer now that I was 45 minutes ago) I can take the pictures I've been meaning to take, upload them and write. Hopefully there will be no more of these "I'm a paranoid anxiety freak that has issues and can't calm down because my heart is pounding and I have to go to the bathroom" posts. Give me another hour or so.....

Someone please remind me to not eat raw broccoli ever again.

Spring and Chocolat

I love spring. For several reasons...

1. Weather is nice
2. My birthday comes
3. The sun comes out
4. I don't have to wear pants anymore
5. Cadbury mini eggs and Cadbury cream eggs appear on store shelves
6. My skin goes from pasty white to nice tan.
7. We live at the park (hence the nice tan)
8. I like being warm
9. Nice huge tax return. (it pays to be poor sometimes)

I am actually eating a few mini eggs right now. I will be buying a bag every time I go to the store until they are gone. That way I have a little stock pile that I can slowly work on for a few months. This country really needs to have more Cadbury chocolat around. Much better than hersheys. My dream is to go to the factory. Can't remember if it is in Scotland or England, but it doesn't matter. One day I will go. And swim in crunchie bars........

This is crazy

I saw this story this morning on the news. Seriously, what is wrong with this woman??

And in other (well, to me) craziness, one of my companions from my mission just had a baby boy and named him Andrek. Now, we had a zone leader who was named this, and she just really liked the name. (for the record, I did not like this zone leader. so, therefore, anything remotely associated with him I don't like, including his name) I had to call her and tell her that I would have to call her son something else. I wrote her husband and asked him how he could let her name their son that!! They have a Josh and a Max. Why ruin it with Andrek???? Oh well. I'll probably call him Andy. I had another friend that had an odd name for her baby too. She named her daughter Kaya Mirabelle. What??? People and strange names......I just have had an odd name oh, my entire life. And so I cringe when people try and be "creative" for originality's sake. Or try and spell it all strange just to throw the rest of us off. Not a fan of that. My kids will all have normally spelled non-made up names that everyone can pronounce. Well, possibly a little french spelling....we'll have to see what I come up with for our next kid. (no this is not a hint. just my ramblings about names and all my opinions about them.)

Target Deprivation

So, yesterday Lucy and I head out to find the Target around here. I had found it online before, but really hadn't had a good reason, or my car and the time, to go and look for it. We found it today. Here is the weird part. The next closest Target is 40 miles away. 40 miles!!! What is that? How do people function with only one Target? Perhaps I've been spoiled most of my life and I should be grateful to even have one!! In San Antonio I had four within 20 minutes in four different directions. In California where I live, I can't even tell you how many there are. And this one here wasn't even a SuperTarget!!! It was very nice to finally be in a Target after really months of not going. The clearance racks were very bare. At least for the kids clothes. I was hoping for more options, but there were not. I'm starting to miss all my Targets in Texas. Lucy and I had a good time, and we still made it back in time to pick up Andrew from school. Thank goodness we will only be in the Only One Target In The Entire City city for one year. And if we ever come back, they better have a few more to choose from.

No more plastic bags

Last night I had to run to the commissary because I needed to get some white paper plates for Andrews class at school. I finally saw where they sell the reusable grocery bags!! They were 70 cents each, and I bought four. The next time I'll buy four more, and bring the four I have. I am very excited about these. I'm almost thinking about giving reusable grocery bags as Christmas presents. Matt makes fun of me, but with all the recycling I do, and the more earth friendly soaps that I've been buying, and that I'm using vinegar to clean (really need more essential oils for me to really get into using it) I have cut down the amount of trash we use. There are still some things that I use that are not earth friendly, but I haven't found any good substitutes for them yet. I did find a farmers market place on the way to church, and it said it would open this month. I am going to go and check it out this week. I'm probably not making a huge dent in any landfill or making our water that much cleaner, but I feel like I am doing my part. And even Matt puts things in our recycle bag. He never would have if I hadn't started doing it.....:)

Piano

Today I had my first piano lesson. It was a little girl, 8 years old, with down syndrome. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had told her mom that I would get all the toys of our the living room, keep the kids in their room, and get as many distractions out of there as possible. I didn't think that the sound of the washing machine would be a distraction. And although the kids did pretty good, she could still hear them from their room. We're going to give it about 3 lessons total to see how she does. It might be too much for her, or it might be great! Half an hour seems a little long for the lesson. I'm going to have to see what I can do to help her focus. This is such new territory for me. I have never taught anyone with any sort of developmental disability. I had one that had behavior issues, and it took a while to work with her. So, this will be an adventure!! We'll see how next week goes....

We're not the only ones

My sister called me last night with an interesting experience she had. She has been in the Young Women's program at church for several years. There is a girl that is about 13. She has a younger sister, not too much younger than her, and she absolutely hates her. This girls mother is kind of rude, and in your face about things. Not terribly nice. The 13 year old is very social, has lots of friends. The one just younger than her is pretty smart, and could be in her older sisters math class next year. The dad passed away about a year or so ago, and from what my sister tells me, it sounds like he was a laid back, easy going kind of a guy.


So, if you've known me since I was oh, 12 (I think there's only one of you) as you are reading, you would think you were reading about me. I hated my sister for years. Really hated her. My mother is rude, not terribly nice, and get in peoples faces pretty easily. I was very social, my younger sister was better in school than I was. I still have my dad, but my dad is exactly that. Easy going, laid back.


What occurred to my sister is that there is a pattern. That we are not the only ones. There are others in the same sort of situation that we were in. And sometimes knowing that there are others that have gone through and will go through my situation help me to get through it. Gives me a little hope.

Best Cookies Ever

Sour Cream cookies

1 cup butter or margarine

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour cream

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt (i never put salt in cookies)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour cream. I usually add the baking soda and powder right after I do all that. Add flour, one cup at a time. Dough will be pretty soft. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. (I never grease it, but it depends on your cookie sheet). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes (depends on your oven) or until edges are lightly brown. Makes a ton!!!

These cookies disappear so fast when I make them!! Sometimes people think they are snicker doodles. Um, no. Cannot stand snicker doodles. These are soft, almost like eating a small cake. Depending on your humidity level where you live, you can keep them covered or uncovered. Or, they might get eaten up so fast you don't have to worry about it.

Books and Tornado watches

A few people have invited me to GoodReads lately. So, tonight, to keep me from freaking out about this crazy storm we had (read Tornado watch) I decided I would finally add some books to my little profile. And as I was doing it, my book list just seemed so small. I am sure that I'm missing several. I feel like I need to get on the book wagon and get going!! Maybe I'll update it more tomorrow when it isn't late, and my anxiety level is getting too high. But the storm has mostly past, and no more tornado scarey things now. Hopefully. But I do feel better, and I think I can sleep now. I'll have to get to reading more this week.....

Stupid Stupid

As much as I love where I was born and raised, things like this almost put me over the edge. Crappy part is that who knows when and if these guys will even be held responsible. I guess what bothers me the most was that this kid was doing his best to get out of that place. In Germany, there was a guy in Matts unit from Compton. He was over one day and said that he doesn't like to go home. He joined the army because it was either that or end up in a gang. And he knows that if he goes home, he could be easily pulled back into that life. When he has gone home, he just stays in the house and doesn't see anyone but his family for that reason. It just sucks that it has to be this way.

Yummy

This last weekend I had a friend from San Antonio come and visit. Well, she really wasn't visiting me. Her husband, who has been deployed, is coming home, and before he gets to San Antonio, he had to come here to do some stuff. So, since she has five kids, and as soon as he gets back they are doing some major family trips, she came out to have a weekend with him without anyone else. She spent the first night here, and then went and picked him up the next day. I had told her that her payment for staying with me, she would have to bring me some tomato basil soup from La Madeleine. I love this restaurant in San Antonio and in Fayetteville, there is little diversity. I'm still looking for some decent Mexican!! Anyway, the bottles I remembered seeing were much smaller than the ones she brought. And she brought me these chocolat truffle things they make!!!!! I've had to say a few times, "those are mommys!!" or to my husband, "don't touch my chocolat!!"

Yesterday for lunch, Lucy and I had grilled cheese sandwiches with the soup. That stuff is so rich, but SO good. I have found a recipe for it, but I haven't tried it yet. I don't think I'm going to be sharing my soup either. They won't appreciate like I would!!! I was going to take pictures of my grilled cheese and soup, but I didn't put it in or on anything really pretty (like my pottery for example) so I didn't take a picture. A plastic plate and bowl just isn't very picture worthy. If you live near one of these restaurants, you must go!! It isn't as expensive as it sounds.

So mean

Yesterday sitting in the back of Primary, the senior kids were behaving so badly. The woman giving sharing time was nervous as it was her first time doing it. I could see pretty much everything that the kids were doing. I was so irritated!! And it wasn't as if the teachers were ignoring it either. They were doing their best. So, when I got up there, I was pretty mad. I told them that if they couldn't behave during sharing time and/or singing time, that the ones that were behaving badly would have to come up and sing a solo. You could have heard a pin drop in that room. They learned the first verse to the new song of the month, and then I had promised to teach them a song in French. So we learned a few lines to "I am a child of God." They behaved much better, and I think they all realize that I mean business. I admit, I don't really like to be mean, but it sure feels good sometimes to give some deserving people a good kick in the rear.

edited: after talking to the primary president today, she shared that there are a few in primary that would misbehave to sing a solo just to get the attention. so, i guess i will have to come up with another option. my favorite so far is to sit quietly (as in the entire senior primary) for one minute. and if someone makes a vocal noise, the minute starts over. or instead of that, making them sit quietly for all of singing time. not sure what i'll do, but i'll come up with something.

My Daffodils

So, they were daffodils!!! I'm no photographer, but I thought I did a good job of taking a few pics of them. I have many more out there now and I want to take more pictures, but it has just been so cold here!!! Is there anything else more happy to look at than daffodils??? Love them!!