Always, Sometimes, Never

Saw this on a few people's blogs and thought it was cute. I can't resist lists or talking about myself. :)

I always . . .

• drink coffee in the morning.
• finish a book if I start it.
• take a nap on Sunday afternoon.
• check my e-mail at least twice a day.
  

I sometimes . . .

• wait until Darby's with me to get gas, so he'll have to pump it :)
• eat chocolate chips straight from the bag, even when I'm not baking.
• wonder if I should go back to school.
• forget to bring my workout clothes to work and am secretly happy
  

I never . . .

• forget to eat a meal.
• stay up all night.
• drink diet soda.
• watch scary movies.
  

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

The Office Season 6 starts tomorrow night!! I am so excited. I can't wait to pick up where we left off with Jim and Pam's storyline. They are by far my favorite television couple ever. Darby and I are so close to getting Season 5 on DVD. It came out a couple of weeks ago, but we decided to wait until we each received one more $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks. That way, we won't have to pay for much of it out of pocket. It was a good decision, but it's so hard to wait! I'm sure once we get it, we will go through the whole season and all of the deleted scenes in a week or less. That's our style.

Routine

This week, we went back to our normal schedule at work (8 to 4:30, rather than 7 to 3), which means I'm back to my normal morning routine: I get up and take a shower while Darby makes the coffee; I fix my cereal, and Darby pours my coffee (I'm a little spoiled). We sit on the couch and watch the last 15 minutes of Saved by the Bell and the first 15 minutes of the Today Show while we eat. (I usually also check my e-mail, facebook, etc. What can I say? I'm a multi-tasker.)

I didn't realize just how much I had missed that routine until we started doing it again. During the summer, my mornings were so depressing. I'd get up, get ready very quietly, quickly eat my breakfast, and take my coffee to go. Right before I left, I'd wake Darby up, so we barely got to say good morning before I was out the door (usually running late).

Now, I love my mornings. I get just enough news that I know generally what's going on in the world, but not so much that I start getting angry and/or depressed. And I get to spend a little time with Darby. The only downside is that, since I drink my coffee at home now, I don't get to use my super-cute Hello Kitty thermos that Darby made (yes, made) for me last Christmas.

See you next summer, HK!

We had so much fun with my parents this weekend. I feel like a real adult having my parents come visit me at my own house. (Of course, I still enjoy the perks of being a kid, like having my parents pay for meals and take me shopping for clothes!)

On Saturday, we drove to Springfield to see some of the Abraham Lincoln sites. We went to Lincon's house, his law office, his tomb, and the Lincoln museum. All were very neat (except the law office, which was pretty much ruined by a hilariously clueless tour guide).

Of course, we enjoyed yummy food. We ate at Dos Reales and Za's, and I cooked grilled chicken skewers and chicken taquitos and made an ice cream pie (which involves layering bananas, hot fudge, and three types of ice cream in an Oreo crust; I used low-fat and fat-free ice cream, so it was healthy, right?)

The rest of the time was spent talking, playing games, and napping. I feel very blessed to have the parents I have. I miss them a lot, and I'm so glad they are willing to come up and visit regularly. Darby and I are counting down the days until we get to see both of our families at Thanksgiving!

Blah Blog

Sorry for my kind of blah blog lately. I have not been inspired to post. And I'm sure you all just wait on the edge of your seats for my next post. ;) I've thought about posting several times in the past week, but then decided against it, either because what I had in mind was too boring or short. Well, no greater inspiration hit, so without further ado, here are all the things I've mentally composed a blog about:

• My enjoyment of food is inversely proportional to the time I spend preparing it. I still love to cook, but things always taste better to me as leftovers. It's very strange . . .
• I wish I could go back in time and tell my teenager self not to worry so much. That in just a few short years I'll feel like high school was so long ago, that I won't remember the situations I found so embarrassing at the time. I think that's got to be one of the most challenging things about being a parent—knowing that your kid could be saved a lot of heartache if he/she would just realize that most of their day-to-day worries don't matter in the long run, but also knowing that there's no way you can convince them of that at the time. It also makes me think: When I'm 40, what will I wish I could have told myself now?
• I do not buy into the "Just do a little bit each day" theory of housework. I'd rather do nothing for two (okay, three) weeks, then spend several hours one night cleaning and lamenting how I always let things get so bad. That way, the majority of my days are spent having fun and only one day is completely miserable, rather than all the days just being so-so.
• I have been very amused by this hoopla surrounding the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia. (He wrote a thesis for Regent University 20 years ago that, among other things, lists feminism as one of the greatest enemies of the American family.) I could go on and on about frustrating it is to try to convince people that Christians aren't completely out of touch in light of comments like these, but that's a topic for another blog post (one I am too afraid to write lest I provoke controversy; I have become tamer in my old age). However, the thing that amused me is that a commentator on NPR seized on the candidate's belief in "covenant marriage." She asked her guest (a Richmond, VA, reporter), "What does that mean?" He said, "It is 'I really do' marriage. It's where a couple agrees beforehand to take extraordinary measures to avoid divorce if their marriage hits rocky shoals." Both the commentator and the reporter seemed incredulous at this notion. I don't know if they thought covenant marriage was some kind of cult or what. It sounds like just "marriage" to me. Out of all the things that were supposedly written in that thesis, it is sad to me that a belief in marriage for life was singled out as especially weird.

Next week, I should have a more interesting update. My mom and dad are coming into town for the weekend. Yippee!

School Lunches

All the advertisements and articles lately about back-to-school, particularly stocking up for school lunches, has gotten me feeling nostalgic for the foods of my childhood. I still pack a lunch everyday, but I've graduated to leftovers or sandwiches and fruit or yogurt. No expensive single-serving snacks for me. Sigh. Here were some of my favorites:

• Dunk-a-roos. Little graham cracker sticks with a tub of chocolate frosting to dip them in. What's not to like?
• Goldfish. A girl at work brought Goldfish for lunch the other day, and it just took me back. Goldfish = childhood.
• Chewy Chips Ahoy. Mmmm. The softest packaged cookies ever. If you heat them in the microwave a few seconds they're even better.
• Juice boxes. Why, oh why, did I have to grow up and find out that most fruit juices are pure sugar and actually not very good for you?
• Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies. These were actually more of a high-school obsession, but I'm counting them because I still often packed a lunch in high school. They are more like fudge than a brownie. And at Christmas time, they come in the shape of Christmas trees.
  

Then there are those foods that I look back on and think, "How could I eat that?" For example:

• Lunchables. All of them. These are vile, but the worst offenders are the pizza ones. Sickeningly sweet sauce and rubbery cheese product shreds on top of a communion wafer? No thanks. Also, they are a huge waste of money. You could buy a box of Ritz crackers, a package of cold cuts, and a package of sliced cheese and make about 10 Lunchables for under $10. Not to mention, it would taste about a thousand times better. But as a kid I loved these! Lunchables has some kind of amazing marketing strategy. I don't think Mom let me have these all the time (smart woman), but I do remember being so happy when I got them.
• Handi-Snacks Cheese and Crackers. These are similar in theory to Dunk-a-Roos, but much grosser. Remember the cardboard breadsticks that you dip in the alarmingly yellow "cheese" spread? Just thinking about that taste makes me gag.
  

Thanks, Mom, for packing hundreds of lunches for me throughout the years. (And, for the record, my mom made me sandwiches and packed fruit for me; I didn't only eat junk!) It is so much less fun now that I pack my own lunch.

What about you? What were your favorite childhood foods?

What I've Been Up To

• Watching Mad Men—A girl at work loaned me Seasons 1 & 2. It's great! Kind of depressing (just because the characters' lives are so meaningless), but very well done. It's like a less embarrassing Desperate Housewives. Darby and I went through both seasons in about 2 weeks. Do you think we need a life?
• Playing Dr. Mario—For a wedding gift, Darby gave me Dr. Mario for Nintendo because he knew how much I loved it. When we got the Wii, though, we got rid of our Nintendo. We've thought about buying the game for the Wii, but just kept putting it off. The other night I said something about wanting to play, and Darby went and downloaded it right then! It was only $10; I don't know why we waited so long. Part of the reason I love the game so much is that I (almost) always beat Darby. I don't know how! It doesn't seem like a game I'd be good at.
• Reading Twilight—Meh. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I can excuse the fact that it's not well-written (hello, Baby-Sitters Club?). But, what I can't excuse is the fact that the plot is completely unbelievable, and the characters are totally unrelatable. The first 2/3 of the book is simply Bella pining away after Edward, even though he is rude to her and tells her to stay away from him for her own good. (Her excuse for not staying away: "He's so dreamy.") Bella is one of the lamest heroines I've ever seen; she is helpless, whiny, and has no self-preservation instinct. There are so many other YA books that are better written and have a better message. Ok. Rant over. I just don't understand how this book got so popular.

BFFs

I love these girls. We are alike in so many ways. We all love to talk, especially about controversial issues (women's roles, politics, religion, to name a few). We love reading, talking about reading, cooking, talking about cooking, eating (as evidenced by the cheesecake picture below), and you guessed it, talking about eating.

But we're also different enough to keep things interesting. Both Kalyn and Brittany are nicer than I am; I'm the one who gets on to everyone in our group for not responding to e-mails or letters quickly enough. :) Kalyn's the absent-minded, artsy type, while Brittany and I are Type-A personalities (oldest children v. youngest child, I guess).

We have so much fun hanging out together. Pretty much because we're all boring. Even in college, we spent most of our time together sitting around talking. When you all enjoy being boring, you're never bored. It's great! Last weekend, we had the best time hanging out in the pool, watching Julie & Julia, eating Kalyn's yummy cooking, and talking, talking, talking. Wish we still lived in the same town (or state!)

I'm tweeting

This weekend, I went to Kentucky to visit my friend Kalyn. Our friend Brittany flew up from Texas. We all lived together sophomore year of college, so it was a "roomie reunion." We had a great time! I'll share more later when I get a few pictures from Brittany. As always, I am mooching off others for pictures.

One result of the weekend (besides the 5 lbs. I gained from eating 1/4 of a cheesecake in three days) is that I was convinced to join this Twitter thing. I've always maintained that I don't "get" Twitter. What do you write? Why do I care where my friends are every second of the day? But, then I found out that Brittany, Kalyn, and Erin all "tweet," and that I was missing out on a lot. Turns out I do care where my friends are every second of the day. :) If this blog isn't enough for you, now you can follow me on Twitter. My tweets are "protected," so you will have to sign up for an account and ask to follow me (kjahewitt) in order to see them. It will be all Kayla, all the time. Woo-hoo!

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies

This week, I made two very good recipes, both healthy because they contain fruits and veggies. (And some butter and sugar and cheese and tortilla chips, respectively.) But the produce definitely makes up for that, I'm sure of it.

This squash casserole is definitely the way to eat squash. It's based on King Ranch Chicken casserole. I omitted the cilantro and used fewer tortilla chips than called for, and it still tasted great.

And these blueberry crumb bars are so delicious and come together so easily. The taste reminds me of the blueberry coffee cake at Starbucks. I love that stuff!

So enjoy and be proud of yourself for getting one step closer to your recommended 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. :)

Summer Goal Update

This is so hard to say, but summer's almost over. (I guess it doesn't really matter to me since I work year-round, but summer just seems more fun.) So, here's an update on my goal progress:

• Go on a picnic. Well, we haven't done this, but we did have a cookout where we ate outside, and we went to the church picnic, so I'm going to call this one accomplished.
  
• Play badminton. We've done this a few times, but usually it's too windy (or I'm too lazy). This might be a fail.
  
• Finish my wedding scrapbook. Ummm...I've gotten a little closer. I'm not giving up yet. I still have a few weeks left. My friend Megan came over on Saturday, so we could scrapbook together. I made cards that night because most of my wedding scrapbook stuff required the printer, and it wasn't in the same room. We had so much fun! I think we're going to make it a monthly tradition, so I should get a lot more scrapbooking/cardmaking accomplished.
  
• Make homemade ice cream. I have made three batches of homemade ice cream, all pretty successful. My favorite was chocolate chip cookie dough. Yum, yum! And eating the leftover cookie dough afterwards wasn't too bad, either.
  
• Take a trip with Darby to either Nashville or St. Louis. We went to Nashville with our friends Dylan and Andrea. Darby and I both agreed that it was the highlight of our summer. We're going to try to take a trip together annually.

All in all, it's been a great summer. We've gotten to see a lot of friends and family, but we've also had a lot of down time. I'll miss seeing Darby all the time when he starts back to school in two weeks. But...the beginning of school does mean we are getting closer to Christmas. And I love Christmas!

An elegy*

This week, I had to say goodbye to some good friends. We had only known each other a year, but during that time, we had seen each other almost daily. We had a lot of fun together, but the cost of our friendship was high—both financially and in wasted time. After many discussions and hours spent looking at our options, Darby and I decided we should let them go.

The Comcast man came on Monday and took them away unceremoniously. I waved goodbye as he loaded that beautiful box and the remote with a million buttons in his van and drove away. Farewell Bravo, TLC, HGTV, ExerciseTV, Style, and Food Network. I hardly knew ye.

*Obviously, I'm being a little over-dramatic. I'm actually fairly excited about going back to a cable-less life. When we don't have cable, I hardly miss it, but when we do, I just can't stop watching. It will be good for me to get back to my other hobbies, like reading and scrapbooking. And we do still have basic cable, which includes TBS, so I can still get my Friends, Seinfeld, and Everybody Loves Raymond fixes. I mean, a girl can't read all the time. :)

Today marks one year that we have lived in Champaign/Urbana. In some ways, it's hard to believe we've been here that long. But in other ways it really does feel like our home. Despite the frigid winters, there are a lot of great things about Champaign/Urbana.

10 Favorite Things about Living in CU

1. Our house. We really lucked out getting this house. We were searching for one- or two-bedroom apartments, and this just fell into our laps. I still sometimes look around and think, "I can't believe we live here." I think having a real house helped a lot in making this city feel like home.
   
2. Our church. We would not have survived without Philo Road. Those first few weeks when we didn't know anyone within 400 miles, Darby and I would get so excited about going to church so that we could see people. Everyone made us feel so welcome, and within a few weeks, we felt like we had some close friends.
   
3. Spring and Autumn. I had never experienced these seasons before this year. They are wonderful, and I think they might make up for the winter. We'll see if I'm still saying that in January.
   
4. The scenery. There are so many parks here, and they are all landscaped beautifully. Everything stays green and beautiful, and there are so many trees. If we end up moving back to Abilene after this (not Plan A), it will be very difficult to adjust to the ugliness.
   
5. Meijer. I love this grocery store. Their prices are cheaper than Wal-Mart (because they have better sales), and they have a much better atmosphere. A new Meijer went up by our house a couple of months after we moved here, and I am so thankful for it!
   
6. Student discounts at movies. Abilene did not have any, which was crazy! Of course, only Darby gets the discount. (Usually. I don't lie about being a student, but if they just assume I am, I don't argue.) But I am in the "Frequent Moviegoer Club," which means that after a movie has been out for a couple of weeks I can see it for cheaper than student price.
7. Custard Cup. I've written about my love of this place before. Seriously, Best. Ice cream. Ever.
8. The restaurants. Champaign/Urbana has so many great, locally-owned restaurants. Darby and I don't get to visit as many as we'd like to, but it's nice to have so many options for birthdays and other special occasions.
9. The location. It's perfectly positioned about halfway between St. Louis and Chicago, and only an hour and a half from Indianapolis. So far, we've only taken advantage of the proximity to Chicago, but I know we'll visit the other cities soon.
10. Sidewalks. The city is much more pedestrian/cyclist friendly than Texas. It's nice to be able to take walks in our neighborhood without being in the middle of the street.
    

I never thought I'd be living in Illinois, but overall, it's been pretty good so far. Of course, we miss our family and friends, which is why we probably won't stay here after Darby graduates. But I don't think we could have asked for a better temporary home.

Thankful

Today, I realized just how thankful I am for my car. Darby had to go up to a lab near Chicago, so he needed our car. He was able to drop me off at work before he left, but I had to take the bus home. I got off work at 3, and made it home at 4:30! And that's in a city that has a great bus system! It really is a blessing to be able to drive wherever you want whenever you want. That's a luxury that many, many people don't have. It's nice to be reminded of that. I'm also thankful to have a husband who's willing to take the bus to and from school every day, so that I can have our car. I married a good one!

Movies

Thanks, everyone, for all your helpful comments on my last post. I think the general consensus is that I need to chill out. (Ha! Imagine that.)

I went with two friends to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. It was good, but I was disappointed because they cut some of my favorite parts of the book and made the ending much less dramatic. I know they can't possibly include everything in a 2 1/2 hour movie, but I just feel sorry for the people who only see the movie instead of reading the book. They don't know what they're missing!

There are two movies coming out in August that I'm dying to see (which is really strange, because usually I don't get too excited about movies). The first is Julie and Julia. I've read both My Life in France and Julie and Julia, and of course the movie combines three of my favorite things: cooking, books, and blogging! (Although, having read Julie and Julia, I think casting Amy Adams as Julia was a terrible choice. I love Amy Adams, but she's going to have to really tone down her adorable perkiness to pull off this part.)

I am also so excited about The Time Traveler's Wife. I seriously get chills and choke up every time I see the preview. That is one of my favorite books ever. A movie has been in the works for several years, and originally there was a rumor that Brad Pitt would play the male lead, Henry. I'm so glad they chose Eric Bana instead. Henry is a librarian in the book. Brad Pitt as a librarian? I don't think so.

By the way, what do you think of my new blog look? Before now, I didn't know how to get a cute-looking header without paying someone to design it. But, thanks to "Sneaky Momma Blog Design," I learned how to create one using Scrapblog, which is a free electronic scrapbooking site. (As a side note, no offense to anyone, but after I have kids, if I ever refer to myself in the third person as "Momma," unless I am speaking directly to my children, please slap me.)

How Does Martha Do It?

Last night, Darby and I had the college group from church over for a cookout. It was my first "big" use of the grill, and I learned an important lesson: Keep the heat on LOW when cooking burgers. We created a lot of smoke, not to mention a couple of charred burgers.

I love cooking for people and having people over, but here's my problem: I don't really enjoy myself when I'm the host. I feel like I'm running around constantly trying to make sure there's enough food; that silverware is out; that cups are filled with ice, etc. I'm not sure why I seem to have so much trouble with this. I am a fairly organized person, and I always try to get as much done ahead of time as possible. I also try to know my limits and not take on more than I can handle. (For example, I made homemade ice cream for last night, but I did not do any sides; people just brought chips.) But somehow I always end up feeling more than a little harried. And I don't get to sit down and really enjoy being with my guests.

Part of the problem might be the size of my kitchen. There's just not enough counter space to keep everything I need out, so I have to tell people where stuff is. Also, my personality is not what one would call "laid-back" in any situation.

But, I want to be that person who makes entertaining seem effortless. I've been to people's houses where it's like that. Are they just putting on a good act? Or do they really not get stressed out?

I'm hoping that with more practice, I'll get better at striking a balance between making sure everyone is taken care of and actually relaxing and having fun as well. If you are a good host, give me some tips. If you get stressed out like me, let me know, so I don't feel so bad. :)

Misc.

Today we had our church picnic. I was wearing jeans and a SWEATSHIRT at NOON!! Are you kidding me? I guess temperatures in the 50s and 60s are better than the 100s, but it just doesn't feel like summer if you are wearing a jacket. Supposedly this is an unseasonably cool year, but they said that last year when we moved here and it was cool in August, so I don't know if I believe them. (Mom, you should really move up here . . . you belong here.)

Darby and I have now watched all 10 seasons of Friends and the first four seasons of the Office. What show should we watch now?

Can anyone figure out a way to mail Blue Bell ice cream from Texas to Illinois? I miss it.

They now make Cherry Dr. Pepper. Woo-hoo! I'm not sure I like it as much as Cherry Coke, but the jury's still out.

And, finally, Darby's mom spotted my dream car while they were traveling through Illinois. (It's even an Escape, like mine!) Check it out:

Amy's Wedding Weekend

My lovely frousin (friend + cousin) Amy got married this weekend. She was beautiful, of course, and even more beautiful because of her undeniable happiness. We love her new husband, Matthew. He will make a great frousin-in-law. It was a fabulous weekend that included:

Hanging out with all the frousins (minus John, who's in Taiwan).
Rob, Darby, Matthew (Amy's husband), Matt (my brother), James
Me, Hannah, Amy, Faith

A bridesmaids' luncheon at Mimi's cafe - yum!

Dancing the night away at the reception.

And playing with sweet Gavin (my cousin Faith's baby).

Despite the triple-digit temperatures in Texas, I did NOT want to come back. Time with family is just too short now!

In all the busyness of the past few weeks, I forgot to post about Darby's parents' visit. After Darby's cousin's wedding, they started a long road trip, part of which involved coming up to see us. Darby's mom hadn't been here since right after we moved in, so it was nice that she got to see the house all set up. We ate a lot of good food, went to see UP (which is GREAT; I cried!), and rented paddleboats at the park. (Sidenote: Why are they called paddleboats and not pedalboats? I mean, you pedal them, so that makes more sense.)

I have never ridden a paddleboat before, and I've always wanted to. Darby and I were going to rent one at a park in Toronto on our honeymoon, but we got there too late. It's been a longstanding joke between us since then that our honeymoon was ruined because I didn't get to ride a paddleboat.

Well, my dream finally came true. It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit I liked canoeing better.

John and Debby

Darb and Me

I'm so glad Darby's parents were able to stay with us for a while. And tonight we got a fun surprise. John and Debby were on their way back from Wisconsin and were driving through Champaign, so they stopped and took us to dinner. (Yes, if you're counting they've been on the road over three weeks, and they won't be back home for another week. They take crazy road trips!) Seeing them three times in a month was a nice change from seeing them once every six months!

Two Years

I love this picture. It totally captures how happy I was on our wedding day. The day was perfect. I really can't think of a thing I would change about it. But, I wouldn't want to go back and experience it again. On that day, I knew my love for Darby would continue to grow, but I couldn't imagine how. Now I know.

Today, I love Darby more than I did that day. Today, we are more of a team than we were then; we understand each other better than we did then; we are better friends than we were then; we love each other more selflessly than we did then.

I have even more excitement about our future than I did that day. Because now I know how much a marriage can deepen in just a couple of years. And we have (God willing) dozens of years ahead of us! I cannot wait to see what those years bring.

Fabulous 4th

Darby and I went to Nashville this weekend to meet up with some friends from ACU. Dylan and Andrea live in Georgia now, so Nashville is a great meeting spot, plus, it's a fun city.

We had SO MUCH FUN! On Friday, we met at our hotel (the Millenium Maxwell House), ate great Mexican food, and walked around downtown for a while. Friday night, we ate at a Mafia-themed Italian restaurant. Then, we went on a "ghost tour." A guide dressed in 19th-century clothes led us to different spots in Nashville and told us stories about the ghosts associated with those places. It was pretty cheesy, but interesting. Afterwards, we were going to go to a blues club, but we looked in and it looked a little shady. So we got ice cream, and went back to the hotel to play Rummikub. Pretty crazy, huh?

Saturday, we went out to Cheekwood, which is a restored mansion and botanical gardens. It was beautiful.

Darby and Me

Dylan and Andrea

Then, we went to Opryland. We ate lunch at the Gaylord Opry, peeked in on an Irish-dancing competition (long story), went to the Opry museum, and shopped a little bit at Opry Mills mall. They had an Ann Taylor factory store, so I was in heaven. :)

We thought the fireworks were going to start at 9:30 or 10 (like in Texas). So, we went to dinner around 7 and were planning on driving downtown afterwards. It had been raining off and on, so we weren't even sure the fireworks were going to happen. We left the restaurant around 8:30 (after having the most amazing dessert--cookie dough eggrolls, oh yes!) As we were driving toward downtown, we saw the fireworks start. I'm not sure if they were supposed to start that early or if they were trying to avoid the rain. Traffic was almost at a standstill, so we had a perfect view from our car. It started pouring, but they were still shooting off the fireworks. I felt sorry for everyone standing outside getting soaked. I can't believe how well it worked out for us. We were nice and dry in the car, and we had a fantastic view. The fireworks were incredible! The finale was insane. I'm so glad they weren't canceled.

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast at Panera, went swimming, and checked out. It was a perfect weekend. I have always loved the 4th of July, and this was definitely one of my favorites. We all agreed that we will have to make an annual tradition of taking a trip together.

Happy Birthday, D!

This is Darby with his laser. He's a nerd, but I love him!

Today the love of my life turns 24. (Yes, I married a "younger man." Ha!) Interestingly enough, Darby was supposed to be older than me. I was born two weeks early, and he was born almost three weeks late.

I made him a key lime pie on Monday. (We're going out of town this weekend, so I wanted him to have time to eat all of it.) I think he chose key lime pie because it's one of the few desserts I don't like. He wanted it all to himself! Tonight, we're going out to eat at a burger place that's supposed to be really good.

I love you, Darby! I feel so blessed to be with you on your birthday and every day. You are definitely worth celebrating!

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard on the radio that, according to a study conducted by Clairol (maybe not the most reliable source), women are on average the happiest and most confident at age 28. Two things struck me about this:

1. Thank goodness I'm not supposed to be my happiest and most confident yet. I mean, I do feel pretty happy, but I think I have a long way to go in the confidence area.
2. 28? Really? That still seems so young. Is it all downhill from there? I think that there will hopefully be a lot more reasons to be happy and confident when I'm 50 or 60 than at age 28—children, grandchildren, a decades-long marriage, more career experience, a closer relationship with God.

If anyone's reading this who's over 28, what do you think? Were you most happy and confident in your 20s or later in life?

Kitchen Fail

There is this hilarious blog I discovered called Craft Fail, where, as the name implies, people post pictures and stories of their failed craft projects. It's always good for a laugh, and it usually makes me feel better about myself, as most all crafts I attempt are "fails."

I think there should be a kitchen fail blog. (Maybe there is one that I don't know about.) Until I find one, I'll just post my own story here. My mom once told me that she enjoys hearing about my kitchen mess-ups, since, according to her, I don't mess up enough (with my cooking...she didn't specify other areas). This one is not as bad as my sausage-ball incident, but it probably is the most number of mistakes I've ever made in one recipe. Feel free to add any of your own kitchen mishaps in the comments; it'll make me feel better.

In preparing for Darby's parents to come, I decided I should probably offer them something for breakfast besides dry cereal. I've been wanting to make this coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen for quite some time. It seemed simple enough, and I was super excited to use my new kitchen scale to precisely measure the flour.

I had already decided to substitute blueberries for rhubarb, and light brown sugar for dark brown sugar. Little did I know that those changes were just the tip of the iceberg.

I dole out 1 3/4 cup flour, mix the dry ingredients together, and get ready to mix the wet ingredients. Uh-oh. The recipe calls for one egg and one egg yolk. I only have one egg. After some Googling, I decide that I can substitute 1/4 c. applesauce for the egg yolk.

I mix the wet and dry ingredients together and notice that the mixture seems a little dry. So, I go back and re-read the direction. Uh-oh again. The 1 3/4 c. flour was for the crumb topping. The cake was only supposed to have 1 c. flour. So I add a little milk.

As I'm making the crumb topping, I realize that I put an extra 2 tbsp. of butter in the cake batter, which is why it only seemed a little dry, not super dry, I guess. Hmmm...now I have no idea how my ratio of wet/dry ingredients compares to the actual recipe. Uh-0h #3. I decide to just go with it.

I stir together the flour, sugar, and spices for the crumb topping. I'm about to pour in the melted butter, when I read that I was supposed to mix the sugar and butter together, then stir in the flour. Uh-oh #4. I go ahead and pour the butter in. The topping is supposed to come together like a solid dough, which you then break apart. It doesn't. At this point, I'm afraid to add more butter. Also, I'm lazy and just want to be done. So I just sprinkle the topping over the cake and put it in the oven.

Amazingly, after all of that, the cake was still edible, although a little dry. I feel like I have to make the cake again, though, since I pretty much have no idea what the actual recipe would taste like. I also feel like I should perhaps learn how to read recipes. :)

Adventures in Arkansas

Well, we are back from the land of slow drawls, big hair, and 100-degree heat. :)

It was a beautiful wedding and reception, and it was nice to get to see all of Darby's family.

I realized while we were there what an "Illinoisan" I'm becoming. I used to not notice Southern accents, but now it's all I can think about whenever I hear them. (People tell Darby and me all the time that we do not sound like Texans; I'm not sure how we managed to escape the telltale accent.)

I also realized that I definitely fit in more appearance-wise with midwesterners. Women up here prefer a more, shall we say, "natural" look. When I walked into the wedding reception, I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had been in the presence of so much make-up, hairspray, and fake tan all in one room. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb (a very pale thumb). If and when we do move back to Texas, that will be hard to get used to. Here, I usually feel like I look pretty good. There, I feel like a 12-year-old girl stuck in a room full of Miss America finalists.

We had a little adventure getting to Arkansas on Friday. We were driving down the Interstate, about to cross the border from Illinois into Missouri, and everything was going smoothly. Darby noticed the gas light come on. We had just passed a BP station, but we didn't want to have to turn around, so we decided we'd just stop at the next station we saw. Well, I think you can see where this is headed. We didn't see another gas station for about 30 miles, so we ran out of gas. Darby pulled off on the shoulder, got out, and flagged someone down. Thankfully, a man stopped right away and offered to drive Darby to the next gas station (about 7 miles down the road). He only had room in his car for one person, so I stayed with our car. I realized about 5 minutes too late that I probably should have written down the guy's license plate number. If Darby never came back, I'd have virtually no information to give to the police. Fortunately, he made it back about 30 minutes later.

The guy who picked him up had an interesting story. He had been in and out of jail already that day (for driving with a suspended license). Glad he didn't get pulled over again! But, it just goes to show that not everyone in jail is a bad person. This guy stopped for us when lots of other cars passed on by. (Kind of a modern-day Good Samaritan story). It's funny...I usually find an excuse not to stop when I see someone on the side of the road (even when Darby is with me), but when you're in that situation, you are just praying that someone will come along who is nicer than you and will stop. I'm going to try to be better about that from now on.

Here I am entertaining myself and trying not to think of all of the terrible things that could happen to Darby.

All in all, we only lost about an hour and then we were on our way. The funniest part is on the way back, we saw a gas station about 5 miles down the road from the BP station. Don't know how we missed it!!

Early Birthday

My actual birthday is today, but Darby and I are at his cousin's wedding in Arkansas, so we celebrated Thursday night. I told Darby that I wanted my gift from him to be going out to eat at a nice restaurant.

After deliberating for several weeks (I am not exaggerating), I finally settled on The Great Impasta, a nice Italian place in downtown Urbana. It was delicious. I had ravioli alfredo (you only thought there couldn't be a pasta dish unhealthier than fettuccine alfredo...think again!)

This next part of the story is going to sound pretty lame, but oh well, I guess my lameness is no big secret. I baked my own birthday cake. Is that sad? Darby would have gladly bought me one, but I'm always looking for an excuse to bake, and I think homemade cakes taste better than most storebought ones anyway.

I deliberated over the type of cake for a long time, as well. (My decision-making abilities seem to be deteriorating with age; you would think it would be the opposite.) I finally settled on a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese frosting was never up for debate; that's a must!

I think it turned out fairly well. It was yummy, not too sweet and very moist.

I'll write more about our adventures getting to Arkansas and more of my birthday celebrations when we get back.

Surprise Flowers

When we moved in last August, there was only one flowering plant in our flowerbeds. It was very beautiful and bloomed all the way through October, I think. This bush looked reaallly bad in March. We thought it was dead. Darby started cutting off all the branches to make it easier to dig up. When he got to the bottom, he realized that it was still alive. We left it and within a few weeks it had grown back and started blooming. All it needed was to be deadheaded. Oops! I am definitely not a green thumb.

This spring, it was so fun to see what bloomed in April and May. We had beautiful little purple and white flowers on the bushes lining the edges of our flowerbeds, and some brilliant hot pink flowers bloomed on a couple of plants that I had thought about digging up they were so ugly. I'm glad I didn't. I didn't think to get pictures of those flowers, but we enjoyed them for several weeks.

However, the biggest surprise came a couple of weeks ago when this huge grassy plant all of the sudden exploded with yellow buds. The flowers are so pretty. I'm not sure what kind they are, but I love them! What a fun surprise!

Row, row, row your boat

Tonight for our "date night," Darby and I went to Kickapoo state park (about 20 mins. away) and rented a canoe. It was so fun!! We found out about it because there was a coupon for $3 off canoe rental on the back of one of our receipts at the grocery store. I'm so glad we saw it.

Don't look up Darby's shorts. Hee-hee!

This picture was kind of staged. I didn't do much rowing. :) It kinda hurt my shoulder. Plus, Darby seemed to be handling it just fine.

We saw a deer! It let us get really close without running away.

There was hardly anyone else out tonight. It was very peaceful. We're going to go back sometime and canoe on the river instead of the lake (a little more exciting, although I'll actually have to do my part of the rowing), and we're going to rent a paddleboat! It was a great date night, which we capped off with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Yum!

One summer goal down

This weekend, Darby and I set up our badminton net and played a couple of times. I'm improving little by little. I told Darby that maybe by the end of the summer I'll be good enough that we can actually keep score. :)

So far, the summer has been nice and lazy, as summer should be. The weather here is wonderful! The high has been in the 70s most days. We've been able to take a lot of walks. On Saturday morning, we went to the downtown farmer's market. I would love to be able to buy all of our produce there, but it is just sooo much more expensive than the supermarket. (I know it's better quality, but still.) We don't have a lot of produce available here yet, but I did get some strawberries and a couple of tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes are just so amazing!

During the summer, I don't do as much cooking as I normally do. Even though our house stays much cooler than our apartment in Abilene did, it still gets pretty hot with the oven on. So we've been eating a lot of sandwiches and getting the occasional $5 pizza from Little Caesar's. I had clipped a recipe for pasta salad from Taste of Home a year ago or so, and I finally made it the other night. It is sooo good! I'm not big on mayonnaise or other heavy dressings, so a lot of pasta salads don't appeal to me. This one was wonderful, though. It has a very light but flavorful dressing, and the salami and pepperoni give it even more flavor. Don't be afraid of the red wine vinegar. It smells pretty strong, but there's so little of it compared to the size of the salad that it's not overpowering. Try it out for an easy, oven-free lunch or dinner. (We ate sandwiches with ours, but it could easily be a meal in itself.)

Salami Pasta Salad
From: Taste of Home

2 cups uncooked small pasta shells
3/4 c. chopped green pepper (I omitted this because Darby doesn't like peppers very much.)
3/4 c. chopped fresh tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, halved.)
1/2 c. chopped pepperoni
1/2 c. cubed hard salami
1/2 c. whole black olives, quartered
2 oz. provolone cheese, cubed (Chunk provolone cheese is pretty expensive, so I just bought slices and tore them into little bits.)
1/3 c. chopped onion (I omitted this, as well)

Dressing
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt (You could probably cut back on this as pepperoni, salami, and olives are all very salty.)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Cook pasta. Drain and rinse in cold water. Place in large bowl and add other salad ingredients.

In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the dressing ingredients; shake well. (The dressing will be bright pink, but it doesn't tint the pasta. I was a little afraid at first.) Pour over pasta mixture; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate.

Eight years ago, I had no idea...

Eight years ago today Darby and I went on our first date. We saw A Knight's Tale (his parents drove us, as we were both just shy of 16!) Afterward, his parents took us to eat at McAllister's Deli. I wish I could say our first date was "magical," but honestly, it was a little awkward. We both went home and thought, "That's not gonna work." Obviously that wasn't the end of the story.

I do not believe in soulmates. I don't think there's just one perfect person for everyone out there and that if you don't meet him/her, you'll never be in love. I believe there are several people you could fall in love with, and that if your love leads you to marriage, you make the conscious decision to continue loving that person. The problem with soulmates is that if you marry someone and then meet your true "soulmate," what are you supposed to do? Leave the person you're with?

That being said, I do believe that God can lead you to a certain person at a certain time. And I definitely do believe that there was something guiding mine and Darby's relationship besides just our feelings. Eight years ago, it was not "love at first sight." (Actually, that would have had to occur 12 years ago when we met for the first time.) We didn't just "get" each other immediately, and I don't believe we've ever stayed up all night talking. (I'm not really an all-nighter kind of gal.) Don't get me wrong, we have always had a wonderful friendship, a strong attraction, and we've both experienced the "butterflies." But it used to bother me that our relationship wasn't as "romantic" as what you see in the movies or read about in books. I've even had friends whose relationships were more like that than mine. But I'm realizing more and more that our story is special, too. God brought us together again and again, and we've chosen each other again and again. There was never a sense of inevitability, a feeling that we were "made for each other," but there was an undeniable connection that got us through those awkward first dates, one year of separation, and two break-ups.

I am so glad Darby asked me to the movies eight years ago. Sometimes I'm amazed that we actually made it to where we are today. Then I remember that God helped us connect the dots from June 6, 2001 to July 7, 2007 (and beyond). I don't know that Darby is my "soulmate," but he is my lifemate, and I couldn't be happier.

Last night, Darby and I watched Jay Leno's last night as host of The Tonight Show. I have always loved Leno, even though most people my age prefer Letterman (or Conan O'Brien). I just don't get those two. I don't enjoy "random" humor. I like the scripted, sort of cheesy stuff. Plus, Jay just seems like a really good guy. He's been doing free shows for people who have lost their jobs, and, he's still married to his wife. Last night he said, "The best thing about leaving is that I'm leaving with the same girl I came with," and then he pointed to his wife in the audience who was beaming and waving. So sweet!

We don't watch Jay every night, but we do usually watch Headlines on Mondays. That tradition started long before we got married, though. My mom and I would stay up on Mondays when I was in high school to watch (well, I would stay up; she would have been awake anyway). It was a fun tradition. Plus, Mom would always give me a backrub while we watched. I enjoy watching with Darby, but I don't get the guaranteed backrub!

Jay's going to have a new show in the fall, and he's still going to do the Headlines segment! Darby and I are both glad that it's on earlier so we don't have to stay up to watch anymore. (Guess I'm not the only old one in this relationship!)

Splurges for the Ultra-Frugal

I pride myself on being very frugal. Some might say I'm obsessed with it. But I am beginning to realize that there are some things I'm going to have to resign myself to spending more money on (i.e., not always buying the cheapest version I can find) or I'll go crazy. Here's some items I'm willing to splurge on. (And, obviously, my definition of a splurge is pretty loose.)

1. Glad or Saran wrap. The generic DOES NOT work. I don't understand how they're allowed to sell that stuff. It doesn't even stick to itself.

2. Dove deodorant. Jessica introduced me to this back in high school, and I haven't switched since. It smells so good! I can't stand perfume-y or baby powder smells. Dove just smells really fresh and clean. It's worth the expense.

3. Tomatoes, all year long, even in winter when they're like $4 a pound. It's so worth it!

4. Good bras. Sorry if you're a guy reading this; I hope that's not TMI. My last bra cost $80. I have to admit I cried a little after I bought it. But, I've now resigned myself to the fact that I will spend more on my undergarments than I will ever spend on a shirt, jeans, and maybe even shoes. That's my life.

5. Disinfecting wipes (like Clorox). This is the only way I will clean with any sort of regularity. But they have to be a reputable brand. I bought the store brand once, and they are so thin. It's terrible!

6. Coffee. We're coffee snobs. (Darby more than me, but I'm coming around.) If you think you don't like coffee and all you've tried is Folgers, please try something else. We get our beans from a local roastery, but Starbucks and Seattle's Best both have really good blends.

Is it sad that almost all of my "splurges" are things you can buy at the grocery store? I mean, I really do spend money on restaurants, entertainment, and travel, just not very often. So, I have to have some little day-to-day things that make me happy. Trying to strike a balance between budget-consciousness and obsessiveness is kind of hard for me. Do any of you have that problem? I've started getting kind of panicked when I can't find any cereal I like on sale at the store. I'll just wander the aisle for 10 minutes thinking about what to do. I need help. :)

Thanks for all the salsa recipes! I made the one I had bookmarked this weekend since I already had the stuff for it. It was good, but a little too spicy for my taste. I can't wait to try all of the recipes people left in the comments.

I called Norma to get clarification on the chocolate cream pie recipe, and it worked out great! There wasn't a step missing in the recipe. It was just a case of someone who knows the recipe backward and forward writing it down for someone who has no idea how to do it. It wasn't super-detailed. :)

Darby and I had a nice, lazy Memorial Day weekend. We've been steadily collecting all 10 seasons of Friends for the past few years. We finally got the one season we had been missing (Season 8) last week. So, we've been watching pretty much non-stop. We started at Season 1 about a month ago and are now on Season 8. We'll sit down to watch "one episode" and end up watching a whole disc. We're pretty much bums.

Now, I'm watching the Jon and Kate Plus Eight season premiere and getting really ticked. There have been all these rumors about Jon having an affair. I'm not sure whether any of those are true or not. (Jon's denying it.) But, Jon has said he doesn't want to do the show anymore. Kate, of course, still wants to. I'm sure there are lots of other issues, but if she really wants to salvage their marriage like she says, then the first step would be STOP FILMING THE SHOW! I can't imagine Darby ever telling me he really didn't want to do something and me insisting that he do it. Whether she thinks his feelings are justified or not, she should respect them. Then she's all like, "Poor me. The paparazzi are following me everywhere." Gee, I wonder if they might stop if you didn't have your own T.V. show? (Why do I watch these shows that make me angry? There must be some sort of psychological study about that.) Anyway, rant over. Just had to get that out of my system.

In need of recipes

Okay, I need some help. Does anyone have a really good recipe for chocolate cream pie and/or homemade salsa?

The story behind needing a chocolate cream pie recipe is kinda funny. A friend of ours invited Darby and me over for a cookout on Memorial Day. I asked him if I could bring anything, and he said, "Yeah...a chocolate cream pie." It kind of surprised me. Usually people say, "Oh, a dessert or something." But, he knew he wanted a chocolate cream pie. I'm happy to oblige, and I've actually been looking for an excuse to make one. Norma (for those of you who know her) gave me her recipe a while ago. But when I started looking at it, it seemed to be missing a step or two. I might just use the steps of another recipe and the ingredients from Norma's, but I'm nervous. Anyone made one?

I've been going through A LOT of storebought salsa lately, and it's pretty expensive. I think I can make it for less at home, especially if I make a big batch and freeze some of it. (I'm not ready to get into canning yet. I'm afraid I might poison myself or something.) I found what looks like a good recipe online here, but any suggestions are welcome.

Summer's here!

You can't really tell by the weather, though. (It got down to 39 on Sunday night!!) It seems to be warming up some, although I had to laugh when the weatherman said that tomorrow's going to be a "scorcher." The high? 82. Ha!

Summer is absolutely my favorite time of year. Even though, I'm not in school any more, it always feels like I have so much more free time. And, I guess I do have a little more free time this summer. Starting June 1, we are switching to "summer hours" at work, which means we work 7 to 3, rather than 8 to 4:30. It'll be really nice to be done at 3, but getting to work at 7 might be rough for a while!

The best thing about summer is that Darby doesn't have homework, so I can spend my evenings with him, rather than watching dumb TLC shows. Yay! I decided that every Tuesday night this summer should be date night. Every week, we switch off who plans our date. It's so nice to have something to look forward to during the week. I mean, we spend every night together anyway, but on Tuesdays we have to actually do something besides watch TV or play Wii. :)

I have a tradition of setting goals for myself for the summer (fun goals, nothing like losing weight or anything). So, here are a few things I'd like to do before September 1:

• Go on a picnic. When I graduated from high school, Darby gave me a picnic basket full of really cute melanine dishes and plastic silverware. I love it, but sadly, I've only used it two or three times.
• Play badminton. My mom gave Darby a badminton set for his birthday last year. We played a few times after we moved here, but then our yard was covered with snow for four months, so we got out of the habit.
• Finish my wedding scrapbook. (For real this time...haha!) I am soooo close. Why is it so hard for me to do the last ten percent?
• Make homemade ice cream. I have an ice cream maker that I've used about three times. The ice cream tastes so good, but it's kind of a pain to add all the ice and salt. I really would like one of those ice cream makers that doesn't require ice (you just freeze the bowl or something), but I don't want to spend money on one unless I know I'll use it. So to prove to myself that a new one would be worth it, I have to use my lame ice cream maker several times this summer.
• Take a trip with Darby to either Nashville or St. Louis.

I'll probably add a few more to this list, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head.

3 crazy things I saw on my way to/from work today

1. On my way to work, a woman was stopped at a stop sign across from me and not going when it was her turn. There was a huge line of cars backed up behind her. As I drove by, I looked in her car to make sure she was okay. She was texting!!
   
2. On the way home, there was a car stopped in the righthand lane near a light. The cars in front of her had already gone, and she wasn't moving. I looked in, and, yep, she was texting! It wasn't the same woman, either.
3. On my way home, I saw a girl walking down the sidewalk in a T-shirt, what appeared to be her underwear, and leg warmers that came up past her knee. So her entire thigh was exposed. I almost hit the car in front of me staring at her. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that maybe she was going to dance class and was wearing her leotard. But, really, if you're going to put on leg warmers, why not just throw on some sweatpants? It looks a lot less weird.
   

We had a great time in Abilene; it was just way too short. We got in Friday night and went to Chili's for dinner. Friday was my mom's 50th birthday, so we went over to my aunt's house for a little party with all of the family that had come into town. I put together a book of letters for her from friends and family. I think it turned out really well. I am so glad I was able to be there for my mom's birthday. She is awesome!

Mom reading her book

The guy "frousins" looking tough

Hannah graduated on Saturday morning. Afterwards, we ate at Lytle Land and Cattle and then went back to Aunt Lea's house for more cake and presents. Darby and I were able to talk to our old preacher (the one who married us) for a little bit after graduation, which was great.

All of the current and former ACUers with Willie the Wildcat. Yeah, we're that cool.

Me and Darby...just because we never have pictures together. You can ignore my blindingly-white legs. That's what happens when a naturally pale person moves to Illinois and keeps her legs covered for 6 months. It's not pretty.

We stayed with Darby's old roommate Nathan and his wife Jesiree. It was nice to get to visit with them some and see their precious house.

We left this morning at 11 a.m. We were so bummed that we weren't able to go to church at Westgate. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to go back and stay a little longer once I have vacation from work. I am so happy we were able to be in Texas for mom's birthday, Hannah's graduation, and Mother's Day all in one weekend. And it was great to see so much of our extended family. I can't wait until July when we see everyone again at Amy's wedding.

My first roommate

My sister is graduating from ACU tomorrow! And I will be there! I am so excited for her. I know she is going to be a fabulous teacher. I don't think anyone loves children more than Hannah.

All of this has made me nostalgic for my ACU days (not that they were that long ago!) In a lot of ways the past 2 1/2 years have flown by, but it also seems like it's been a long time since I was living with Brittany, taking exams, working the free movies for CAB.

And it feels like FOREVER ago that I was graduating high school and getting ready to go to ACU. I was so excited but quite a bit nervous. I was especially anxious to find out who my roommate was. I waited and waited and finally got the card in the mail that said I would be living in Gardner Hall with Jeanine Wilson from Tahoka, TX. I nervously dialed the phone number on the card, and it had been disconnected! I was freaking out, thinking, "Oh no! I'm not going to be able to get a hold of her and she's going to think I don't want to room with her and then she's going to find a new roommate and I'm going to have to live alone." (I feel like I've mellowed some since then, at least I hope I have.)

Well, I think my mom and I, with a little Internet research, were able to find her number online (guess where my stalker tendencies come from?) I called and left a message. When she called back, I was at work and wasn't going to be home until late, so I couldn't call her until the next day. I fretted that whole time wondering if she thought I just didn't want to talk to her. (I am sometimes amazed that I have not had a heart attack due to all my worrying.) I finally was able to talk to her, and much to my relief, she seemed very nice, smart, and normal. We exchanged pictures (it's kind of like online dating, ha!), and she was really cute with short strawberry blonde hair and freckles.

The only disappointment was that she had already gotten her bedding. I really wanted us to have matching bedding, but I thought, "Well, maybe I'll just get something that coordinates with hers." So I asked her what hers looked like, and she said, "It's a black comforter with red and black Asian-inspired throw pillows." Oh, no! That totally did not coordinate with the Crazy Daisy set I had been wanting! But, I got it anyway.

I wish I had asked Jeanine what she thought that first day when she walked into our room and saw my blindingly bright comforter, my Hello Kitty alarm clock, and my abundance of clothes. She was a little bit on the tomboy side, and had a much more "Zen" style. I'm sure she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

But, we got along pretty well. Of course, we had some of the normal roommate tension. And we didn't hang out together all the time. But, I think I got really lucky for a random drawing. Jeanine was sweet and fun; she kept the room clean; she didn't make fun of me for going to bed early; she was serious about her faith. I'm not sure what she's doing now. Last I heard she was in Mexico for a short-term mission.

You could not pay me to go back and share that little room and use a community bathroom. But, at the time, I thought it was great. Some of my fondest college memories are from freshman year, living with 200 other silly girls, thinking we were "adults." I am so happy I went to ACU. I'm sure I would have enjoyed anywhere I went, but I really liked being at a small school, having to live in the dorms, actually getting to know my professors. I won't say it was the best four years of my life; being married to Darby is definitely better. But it was for sure the most fun four years of my life.

Hope you aren't bored to tears by my reminiscing. I love having my blog because I can look back and see what was going on in my life a year or two ago. But, I didn't have a blog in high school or college, so I'm trying to record some of my memories before I lose the details.

Motivated eater

I was reading an article in SELF magazine (I got a free subscription), and I found a term that totally describes my relationship with food: motivated eater. You see, normal people will only eat bad stuff when they have it around. Motivated eaters, on the other hand, will go out at midnight in a blizzard to get some ice cream. Yep, that's me. So, it doesn't matter if motivated eaters get rid of all of their junk food. (Well, I guess it can't hurt, but it definitely doesn't solve the problem.)

Case(s) in point: I do not keep packaged dessert items in the house. But, I have been known to whip up a chocolate cake from scratch just so I can eat something sweet. A few weeks ago, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I thought I'd be smart and freeze half of the dough so that I wasn't tempted to eat all of the cookies at once. Well, guess what happened to that dough? It got eaten, bit by bit by bit. If only cookie dough didn't thaw so quickly!

I don't remember what suggestions SELF had to remedy this problem. Should I get rid of all my flour and sugar? Move 30 miles from the nearest Dairy Queen? I think maybe the solution is to become a motivated exerciser. That's a little harder to get motivated about. :)

April showers bring May flowers (I hope!)

It rains A LOT here. At least once a week. This week, it has rained every day except yesterday. In some ways, it's nice because everything is very green, but how can you enjoy the green when it's raining all the time? Also, there aren't any wildflowers here. I miss the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and buttercups; here, we have dandelions. TONS of them! Our entire yard pretty much consists of dandelions and clover; I'm not joking. There are a few patches of actual grass. Darby spread some "Weed and Feed" yesterday, so we're hoping for the best. We can't pull the dandelions because we read that you have to dig them up to make sure you get the entire root. Ummm, no; if we did that, we'd have no yard. We did go out and snip all the heads off so that they don't go to seed and spread their seeds for next year. Ha! Within 12 hours, the heads had grown back. They are mocking us.
The one place we do have quite a bit of grass is in our flower beds. Go figure. It is embarrassing how awful our front yard looks. I am going to attempt to plant some things in the beds this weekend to spruce it up a little. Any gardeners out there got ideas for relatively cheap, low-maintenance, fast-growing perennials that like full sun? (On the days when it is sunny, our yard gets full sun; I'm hoping we have more sunny days soon!)

I'm happy because...

• I'm wearing flip-flops for the first time since November! (Well, not including after I had my toe surgery. That doesn't count, though, because my feet were freezing!) The high today is 81!
• This morning I got 10 Swagbucks. Have you heard of this site? You win prizes just for using them as your search engine. At first, I thought it was a scam, but then I heard about more and more people using it. So I signed up. The site is powered by Google, so the searches are actually pretty good. Sometimes, you'll do a search and get nothing, but other times you'll get one, five, or ten Swagbucks. (One is the most common, of course.) You use your bucks to get prizes. When I get 45, I'm going to get a $5 Amazon gift card. I've been doing it for about a week, and I already have 21! If you're interested, go here to sign up. If you use that link, I'll win Swagbucks when you do. (Of course, if you don't really like me, you can always just go to http://www.swagbucks.com/ and sign up without my referral)
• We're going with a couple from church to Custard Cup tonight. And, if that weren't good enough, they are picking us up in their street-legal dune buggy. How awesome is that?!
• Michael and Pam got re-hired on The Office! Okay, I know it's kind of lame to be happy about something that happened on TV, but I really liked last night's episode.
• I get to see my family in two weeks!! We're flying to Abilene for Hannah's graduation. I think this is the longest I've gone without seeing at least one member of my family (over 4 months). It's too long!

Like a train wreck

TLC has done it again. They've sucked me in with a show that is so repulsive, so extreme that it is irresistible. First it was Toddlers and Tiaras. Now, it's I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. Has anyone seen this show? It's insane. It features women (and evidently there are a lot...I saw 12 last night alone) who didn't know they were pregnant until they delivered their babies. They interview the women and also have a dramatic re-enactment of the scene (ewww!). I'm just having a hard time believing that someone could not know they were pregnant. The first few women I saw delivered about two months early. Seven months is pretty far along, but I conceded, "Well, okay, maybe there is a slight possibility they didn't know." Then, I saw women who delivered at 38 weeks! One woman's baby weighed over 8 pounds! And one woman didn't realize she was pregnant with TWINS! You have got to be kidding me. Now, I know I've never been pregnant, but I have seen my fair share of pregnant women. I just do not understand how you could not know. Evidently, it's more common than I thought. I was just sitting on the couch going, "This is crazy! I don't believe this." Darby said, "Why don't you just watch something else?" But I couldn't. That show has some kind of hold on me. It's dangerous.

I am old

It is a long-running joke between Darby and me that I am a grandma. (Actually, a lot of grandmas are cooler than me!) I go to bed early; I'm stuck in my ways; I don't take risks. More recently, my ambivalent attitude towards technology has added fuel to Darby's fire. I'm always complaining about "kids these days and their texting." And the other day, Darby and I heard a commercial on the radio for a vibrating mascara wand. This is how the conversation unfolded:

Me: That's stupid. Why would you need vibrating mascara?
Darby: I'm guessing it mimics the repetitive motion people use when they apply mascara.
Me: Yeah, but it's not that hard. Why do you need technology for it?
Darby: Well, if the technology's out there, don't you think they should make the improvement?
Me: No. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Darby: I can't believe you just said that, grandma.
Me: Well, it just makes me mad that scientists could be spending their time researching a cure for cancer and instead they're inventing vibrating mascara wands.
Darby: You are so old.
Me: If being old means you have some sense, then yes, I am old.
Darby: (dying laughing)

I've always thought of the "old" thing as kind of a joke. I mean, for the most part, I still feel young. But today, I realized that maybe it's not a joke. They were playing a game on the radio where the caller had to guess what a bunch of text message abbreviations mean. I was thinking, "Oh, I bet I'll know these. This will be easy. They'll say j/k, lol, stuff like that." Well, I was wrong. I only knew one of the six! Am I that out of touch? Do people even say lol anymore? Is that like saying "nifty"? I don't know what to think.

For the past month, I've been filling in as a teacher for Cradle Roll at church on Wednesday nights. I'm a regular teacher on Sunday mornings, but we never have any babies on Sundays. :(

So, I go from work where I spend all day editing reference lists that have no rhyme or reason, deliberating over the exact placement of commas, trying to locate information the author left out online, filling in 1000-line Excel spreadsheets, etc. to singing: "See the daddy bunny hop, hop, hop. See the mommy bunny hop, hop, hop. See the baby bunny hop, hop, hop. All the bunnies go hop, hop, hop."

It's marvelous. Now, don't get me wrong, caring for babies is very hard work. And I know I'd get tired of talking "baby talk" all day. But it's a lovely one-hour break. If only I could get those songs out of my head!

Is it really that bad...

• To load your washing machine so full it rattles the whole house and threatens to break loose from the wall?
• To thaw and refreeze meat, vegetables, well, practically everything two or three times?
  
• To accidentally leave your mug warmer on all day almost every day?
  
• To sometimes not recycle because you're too lazy to wash out the container?
• To eat movie theater popcorn and a Dairy Queen Blizzard for dinner?

I hope not.

Happy Easter!

I had kind of a hard week this week, and I was driving to work on Friday feeling sorry for myself. Then, I thought about how it was Good Friday, and I started thinking about the sacrifice Christ made for me on the cross and the hope I have because of his resurrection. I started feeling pretty silly for worrying about such insignificant things when I should be full of joy, peace, and hope. I'm glad we have this time of year to draw our focus back to what is truly important; I pray that we may all live our lives daily as ones who are saved by the grace of God through the power of Christ.

I want to share with you my favorite passage of Scripture about the resurrection:

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body....

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 50-57

Cooking up a storm

On Saturday night, Darby and I had our preacher and his wife over for dinner. Their daughter is our friend Katy. She came, too; her husband was working, so he couldn't come. They invite us over for dinner with their family all the time, so I was glad we could return the favor at least once.

Now, whenever we have company, I go a little crazy with the prospect of cooking for more than just two people. After deliberating for HOURS over the menu, I finally settled on poppyseed chicken, squash gratin, and homemade crescent rolls (my mother-in-law's recipe). For dessert, I knew I wanted to bake a layer cake. I usually take desserts to other people's houses, so I have to make things that can be easily transported. Layer cakes don't fit the bill. So, I decided this would be the night for a layer cake. I made a marbled lemon blueberry cake with lemon buttercream frosting.

Now, I thought I had made homemade buttercream before, but apparently I hadn't done it the "right" way. The right way involves boiling sugar and water, and gently pouring that mixture into eggs. You then beat that mixture for 20 minutes. (Thank goodness for my Kitchen-Aid!) Then, with the mixer running, you add 3 (yes, 3!) sticks of butter 2 tablespoons at a time. I added lemon juice at the end. When I tasted the frosting, it tasted pretty much like butter. So I added more sugar and some vanilla. It was still a little too buttery for my taste, but everyone else liked it. I think I'll stick to the normal butter/powdered sugar/vanilla buttercream from now on. It was a little too much work, and didn't come out very smooth. I don't think I softened the butter enough.

But, if I can brag on myself a little, my cake turned out beautiful! The layers all came out even and stacked perfectly. I forgot to get a picture before it was almost gone, but here's the remains:

Not professional quality, but pretty good for me!

My rolls turned out pretty well, but not as good as Debby's. I still need practice! It was a very fun day of cooking, and we enjoyed eating and playing games with our friends.

On Thursday, I'm cooking dinner for our college group (about 15 people). This is the largest dinner I've ever cooked, so I'm excited and nervous. I feel like this is kind of a test of whether I could even consider doing catering.

All grown up

As I was getting ready for bed the other night, I was considering skipping brushing my teeth. That's probably unthinkable to some of you, but I really don't like brushing my teeth, especially at night, when I just want to get in bed as quickly as possible. But, I went ahead and did it.

When I was younger, I used to skip brushing my teeth all the time. So I asked myself, "Why won't I let myself skip anymore?" Then I realized, "Because I'm a grown-up now." The realization was a little startling. I truly am a grown-up. It's hard to believe that, and I think the main reason is that being a grown-up is nothing like I thought it would be when I was a kid. When I was younger, these were the things I thought I would most enjoy about being an adult:

• Going to the grocery store whenever I wanted and not having to wait for mom's scheduled trip. Ha! I would love it if Mom still did my grocery shopping for me. And I have a weekly trip. If I run out of something before then, I often just do without.


• Buying whatever I wanted. Well, I guess technically I can, but I don't because I don't have the money.


• Eating out whenever I wanted. See above.


• Skipping church if I was really tired. I've never skipped on a Sunday morning and have very rarely skipped Wednesday (now, Thursday) nights.

It just seemed funny to me that most of the things I thought I would do when I was an adult (spending money, skipping church, etc.), I don't do because I am an adult. Being an adult involves a lot of doing stuff you don't want to do! (Not that I don't enjoy church; it's just that there are times when I would really like to stay home but I go anyway.) Now, don't get me wrong, I like my life, and I do plenty of things that I enjoy. Overall, I think being an adult is pretty fun. But being a kid was super fun; I don't think I appreciated that enough.