Immagination with a capital "I"

A conversation between my sister and I tonight:

Me: (after I talked to my nephew on the phone)"What's Riley (my 7 year old niece) doing?"
Dot: "She's in the kitchen making a drink"
Me: "What kind of drink?"
Dot: "A drink to whiten my teeth"
Me: (through my laughter) "She's doing WHAT?!"
Dot: "She's making a drink to whiten teeth. She started out with some water, added toothpaste and now she is incorporating kiwi."

Our conversation ended with Riley asking her mom how to work the blender.

I cannot wait to have kids!!

Life-less and Style-less

If you have read my past posts, you know that one of my favorite guilty pleasures is reading Life & Style magazines. Until now....
I have officially given up Life & Styles, along with all of the other Hollywood gossip magazines- OK, US Weekly, In Touch..... I haven't read one (with exception of quick glances at the covers while standing in line at the grocery store) in almost 3 weeks. I gave the magazines up for another application for my small group. We were discussing the media and the negative influence we allow it to have on our lives. Sometimes we may not even realize the media is a negative influence. I gave up the magazines because I believe the make me want my body to look a certain way, dress a certain way, have certain accessories. Basically I have realized that the magazines influence me to place too much emphasis on physical apprearance. The Bible tells me to do exactly the opposite and place emphasis on character. I want to strive for integrity, compassion, mercy, honesty, love; not a perfect body and a great wardrobe.

Plus, I'm reading the Firstborn series by Karen Kingsbury. One of her characters is a famous actor and the book deals alot with how the paparrazi affect his every day life. Reading about the paparrazi and gossip magazines from an actor's (although he is fictional) point of view really puts a different spin on it. I had always thought "well, that's the price you pay for fame". The more I think about it, it saddens me. I don't really want to help keep these paparrazi in a job.

So, I am sure it will take me awhile to break the addiction. I have no idea what is going on with Britney since she got out of rehab, I heard that Angelina and Brad adopted another child, but I am not sure if it's true, and Tom and Katie could have split up for all I know. But, I do know that this lack of knowledge has not affected me whatsoever. I guess Life-less and Style-less isn't so Life-less after all.

The lure of adverstising

My husband likes QT gas stations. As a matter of fact, he goes out of his way to get gas at a QT. We will pass 10 other gas stations to get to a QT. We will go 3 miles in the opposite direction of our destination to get gas at a QT. This drives me nuts.

We live off of 55 South. QT has now posted a big ole billboard with a picture of a gas pump. The billboard reads "It's ok to be a gas snob."
Great, now his strange obsession is validated.

Frustrations...

I don't know what has happened. I am not able to post pictures or change my font type or color.
WHAT DO I DO?!?!
HELP!

And I call myself a book lover......

I found this on Val's blog awhile ago.... I always considered myself to be an avid reader, but you would never know it by looking at my list. There are a lot of books listed that I have never even heard of! I'd like to see Mutant Message from Down Under, On The Road, Leaves of Grass, Night, and Winesburg,Ohio on the list, to name a few.....
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Take the list below, paste it into your own blog, put READ next to those you’ve read, WANT TO next to those you are interested in, and leave blank those you don’t care to read.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) WANT TO
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) READ
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) WANT TO
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) HAVE ON MY SHELF, BUT HAVEN'T STARTED
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) READ
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) READ
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) READ
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) READ
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) READ
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) READ AND LOVED IT!
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) READ
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) WANT TO
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) STARTED
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) WANT TO
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) READ
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell) WANT TO
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) STARTED
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) READ and again, loved it!
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) WANT TO
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) STARTED
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) READ
45. The Bible READ MOST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, NOT A WHOLE LOT OF THE OLD
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) WANT TO, BUT SCARED TO START
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) WANT TO
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) HAVE ON MY SHELF, BUT HAVEN'T STARTED
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb) READ
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) WANT TO
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) STARTED
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) READ
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) WANT TO
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) STARTED
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) WANT TO
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) READ (and highly recommend!)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) READ
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding) READ
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) WANT TO
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) WANT TO
76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) WANT TO
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) READ
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) READ
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) STARTED
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) READ
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) WANT TO
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) WANT TO
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch) STARTED
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) WANT TO
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

The dreaded spoon

Ok, this is a total random post- don't ask me why.....

We have this spoon that I cannot stand. It isn't from our set of silverware and come to think of it, I don't know where this spoon came from. It doesn't belong and I don't like it. I hate to use it and I will even wash a dirty spoon before using this dreaded spoon.

Well, I have the best husband in the world. The mornings are a whirlwind for me and I leave for work before he does. Keith always makes my morning coffee, breakfast and packs my lunch. Every once in awhile, I will sit down for lunch at work and see "the spoon" tucked away in my lunchbox. He knows I can't stand this spoon and I know he thinks he is funny when he goes out of his way to pack it for me.

What I don't understand is why I keep the spoon around. If I don't like it, shouldn't I just throw it away? For some reason I can't bring myself to.

**I tried to post a picture of the spoon, but for some reason am not able to load pictures to my blog right now. I will try again tomorrow.**

Keith's First Day of School

First off, how have I let so much time go by since my last blog?!?!?


Secondly, my husband started his Master's program today. Actually, he is in class right now, as I am typing. He was accepted into McKendree's Teaching in Transistion program. It is an intense, fast paced program to get his masters in education. He will be in a school teaching this fall, if you can believe that. So, as you can see, when I said it's an intense program, I meant it.

I am so proud of him. I have toyed with the idea of going back for my masters, but something has always held me back. Keith is doing it, he is pursuing his dream. He is doing what he knows will be best for us and our future family. (Right now his hours are long and late, not ideal for the two of us, much less when we would have kids). I know that he has a passion for helping others. I see him come alive when he is educating his clients on exercise or nutrition (have I mentioned he is a personal trainer/fitness specialist?). He will make an awesome high school teacher. I know that he has so much to offer youth, especially youth attending high needs schools, where he will be teaching.

The next few months will be hard for the both of us. It will be hard for Keith because his days will be long, juggling his two jobs, plus a full time school schedule. He works full time, was already taking 2 undergrad courses, and is now adding class on Tuesday and Thursday from 5:00-10:00pm. This schedule will last 6 weeks, then it gets even more intense. McKendree told him it will be very hard to work during the summer portion of the program, because it is so intense and they have so much to do in so little time.
It will be hard for me because I will see my husband even less than I do now. Basically I will not see him at all Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. He will be home on Wednesday nights around 8:45, so I'll see him for an hour or so before bed. I will be living for the weekends. Thank goodness it will only be until August. I will have to hang on to the fact that in August he will have a regular work schedule! He'll even be able to be home before I am. That has never happened. That will keep me going......

I know I just wrote it, but I am going to write it again- I am so proud of my husband. He is simply amazing. Maybe in the fall he will let me help decorate his classroom..... Hmmmmmm........