fall preview

pumpkin carving:





what our jewel will NOT be wearing for halloween:
a cute beanie baby, but it's going to be warm tonight ... and she was scared to put the head on. i had to do some serious coaxing just to take the picture...

depth

yes, i'm a straight shooter.
yes, i want depth.
yes, i want people to be real.

but in this day in age, why is that so hard? i was at a gathering the other night with people i didn't know very well. it was a pleasant night but it never got past the "hello, my name is... and i do this for a living and have x number of kids" we talked about home decorating stuff (the hostess just had her house painted). don't get me wrong, i LOVE talking about home decor. but 4 1/2 hours later as i walked home, i thought to myself that i don't know these ladies. i didn't have a substantive conversation w/ anyone. not ONE. OK. i know what some of you are thinking. it takes time. it's the small talk first. build the trust and then the deeper stuff comes later. while i agree in a sense that sometimes, we need to just suck it up and give it time, i don't believe it always has to be that way. i think it has to do with this culture and society that we live in. that says, we should put on a mask that says "i'm ok". as long as i'm telling you what i DO during the day, you'll think i've got my act together. but quite honestly, i don't really care what you DO. i want to know who you ARE. put aside the pretense for a while. drop the mask. pull up a chair and a cup of joe and let's be real.


on a post script, i was so hungry for real conversation, when i got home, i woke my man up at midnight and shared w/ him what i learned in nahum in my bible study that morning. that book is really rich.

here's my quick nahum-in-a-nutshell:

nahum was a hebrew who lived in judah. he had a vision from God about Nineveh and he spoke the oracle of nineveh to the people of judah. nahum is about 100 years after jonah's evangelistic efforts to ninevah. (remember jonah and the whale)? so nineveh repented after jonah went to them. but we see that 100 years later, they resorted back to their ways. they were known for their barbaric ways and the surrounding countries didn't like them. nineveh was thriving. they were strong and seemed invincible. but nahum talks about their destruction. and destruction came for this city as prophesied. in fact, the remains of nineveh were only found about 40 years ago, when some historians discovered some books. so what does this all say? 1. i was reminded of the sovereignty of God. God is the ultimate judge and in the end He will judge all. watch out world! 2. parts of the book kind of read like God is building up a case - reminds me of micah. 6. and i pondered on how in God's courtroom absolute Truth always prevails. unlike the junk that you see going on in the courtrooms today. sometimes, people just suck. but God is good and He is just. Enter his courtroom. take your case to God. There are no unjust scales there. Truth will always rule in His courts.

fitness all around

saturday i helped a friend run a 5K. was such fun - although i know she didn't think it was fun during the race. it was such a joy to see someone do something (s)he didn't think (s)he could do. it was also secretly fun because i wasn't the one running the race. races are funny. it's not life or death (in most cases) and at this point in my life, it's not a grade thing, or an award thing. but it still gets my blood pumping, my butterflies fluttering, and my stomach all topsy turvy. i love the accomplishment of it, but all of the rest of the stuff that accompanies it - the training, the night leading up to it, etc... it's all stressful.

yesterday was field day at our jewel's school. i headed it up this year. it was a lot of fun but it was time consuming planning, organizing, and instructing these kids. the morning was set aside for PK 3 through 1st grade. after lunch i had the 2nd through 12th graders come out. i LOVED working w/ the boys. they're so competitive and they really got into it. i was surprised that some of the girls got into it too (esp given their usual response to gym class). all in all, i have to say that i have more respect for the teachers of the younger kids. some of these kids lacked self discipline and were so easily distracted, it was so hard to give instructions on a game. really, they're just being kids, but wow! having 10 kids all stand in a single line all at the same time! now that's an accomplishment!

while it was fun, i'm glad that i can get back into my own workout schedule. yesterday's field day threw me off and you know how i am when i don't get in my workout!

i was doing so well...

i was so proud of myself tonight. it was 9pm and the only thing i had eaten after 7pm was an apple. not bad. UNTIL 9:54. that's when the conversations about hunger and food really kicked in and by 9:58 we had placed our order of XL pizza, wings, and cheesesticks to papa johns. so 1 1/2 hours later, my stomach is nicely rounded out from the food and there's a sweet feeling of contentment but i'm not so proud of myself anymore :(
tis what happens with no will power :(

cleaning house

the fall weather has become more than just a freak thing once in a while, (except for the 75 degree weather this week), so we went through our jewel's closet to get it winter ready. She's outgrown her 4T stuff and even some of her 5T's (those silly clothing brands need to come to a consensus of what is considered 4T). i didn't really think about it until i went to organize all of her boxes by size. when i stood back, i could not believe how much clothes she has! seriously, she has 3 overflowing rubbermaids jammed packed with 3T clothes and 1 large trash bag of 3Ts. did i tell you that this girl goes to a private school where uniforms are strictly enforced? did i tell you that i rarely buy her any clothes? golly. we live in such a blessed area. when i think of the poverty in the majority of the world, it just blows me away what a stark contrast we're in.

granola-clean-out-your-pantry-bars

saw a recipe for granola bars from allrecipes.com

* 3 cups quick-cooking oats
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 2 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1 cup flaked coconut
* 1 cup sliced almonds
* 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.

i love the versatility of it. it's basically 3C of quick oats, 1 can of the condensed sweet milk, 2 TBL of butter and then 3-4 cups of whatever you want. i added wheat germ, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips. while i'm not a fan of the canned milk, my need to clean out these small bags of nuts, etc... overrode my need to be healthy. ha ha ha.

it's good but a little crumbly, not sure if it's because i probably put in 4 1/2C of stuff and the nuts are too heavy or because i didn't let it cool before i took my bite :)

our go to place of refuge

on the spur of the moment, we decided to head out of town. to go somewhere. anywhere. we looked everywhere in a 3 hour radius (well, anywhere that was reasonably a place to go) but in the end, we circled back to our ol' fav:


we ended up spending the weekend just hopping from one restaurant to another. we went to our favorite spot:


i don't think we've ever been disappointed! but i did learn that i don't really care for gnocchi and it reaffirmed my aversion to goat cheese - but my dish was still excellently prepared and the flavors blended so nicely (even though i liked my man's beef tenderloin better).

did i tell you that before that we went to our favorite bagel shop?


and before that we had high tea at our place of stay.
it's a wonder i could eat!

i think we found our new favorite place to stay:


for the price of a room, we got a suite in a courtyard! it was so nice! the gym wasn't anything to write home about, but other than that - it was grand. and they had a continental breakfast buffet. hello?!

sunday, we spent the day walking around here:

talking about the olden days and sad over how some things have changed but so much of the cville landmarks are still the same.

all in all, it was a nice walk down memory lane.

college appetites in old age

do you think we're the only ones out there eating like college kids? you know what i mean, junk food at midnight w/ a beer on the side. and then going right to bed afterward? my man and i just finished a breakfast burrito. it was sooo yum! all i needed was a mimosa but since i already had my night cap and i'm trying to cut back, i thought that two would be overkill and plus, i didn't have OJ. ha ha ha.

Weekend wanderings

the last two weekends, the weather has been nice, but i've been sick and oh so tired. so i've lounged around the house, sleeping the day away. but today, i got myself out of pjs and took our jewel apple picking and pumpkin picking. (yes, we went to two different farms for this).

consumerism

why do we feel the NEED to buy?

yesterday, while i "took the morning off", my man took our jewel to run a few errands. he said that while they were at best buy, our jewel went around pointing at random stuff and saying "i want that" or "can i have this?" when he would ask "what is it?" our jewel said, "i don't know". my man: "then why do you want it?" our jewel: "because it's pink" or "i don't know, i just do".

lazy saturday

don't know if it's because i jumped the gun and ran on thrusday when my body was still getting over my cold or what but today i'm soo tired and i can barely get my butt movin'. i forced myself out of bed (my man graciously took our jewel to swim class) at 10. i forced myself to fold laundry. i forced myself to vacuum. all i really wanted to do was crawl back into bed and nap, but i didn't want my man to come home to a mess - even though i know he wouldn't have cared. i thought it was the least i could do since he pulled the morning shift today.

kudos for my man, who even did the dishes and made me tea AND told me to go back to bed and take a nap. i'm still debating the last one.

back in

after a week off for being sick, i ran 8 miles yesterday and it was a sad sad sight. even my man commented on my muscle loss :(

sickness

today is day 4 of no gym, no running, no nothing. i've been SICK and it's the pits! my head feels like it weighs a ton, my skin is mighty sensitive - seriously give me a head's up before you touch me, my nose is running more than i am, and i'm just so weak. meanwhile, my muscles are going to flab. ughhhhhh.

who said decluttering is a good thing

ok, so i had a big box of ribbons that laid around the house probably for the last 10/15 years. and you know the rule on decluttering... if you haven't used it in the last few years, chances are you probably won't. so what did i do? i freecycled it. then i had a box of wedding stuff left over and since that hadn't been used in the last 6 years, i freecycled that. fast forward a year later, i'm hunting around the whole house, hoping i didn't freecycle the box of ribbons or the box of wedding stuff. i was hoping my memory was wrong. but i can't find it anywhere. ugh... what said decluttering is a good thing?! NO MORE DECLUTTERING FOR ME!

reflections on a first concert

saw U2 last night in cville and being that it was my first real concert, i thought i should probably share a few thoughts. but i'm debating if i should make this negative or positive...

1. there was a bit of a parking fiasco for about 24 hours before we got there. in the end, they gave us a complimentary handicap parking spot, but we had to pick up the ticket before 5pm. we got there around 7:30 - you do the math.
in the end, my brother in law drove us in the vicinity and we walked about a mile. wasn't too bad.

2. it was mighty chilly. i was cold during the concert and sweaty when i was running. more on that later.

3. i was surprised that some of the songs were u2 - all this time, i never knew! ha ha ha... can you tell i dont' really listen to them often?

4. they had an amazing stage set up.

5. i enjoyed this drunk guy on the way over to the concert. my man was in the street and the guy would get in front of incoming traffic so that my man wouldn't get run over. hummmmm, oooookkkkkkkaaaaaayyyy. and he offered me a beer. thought that was rather friendly of him.

6. after the concert, my brother in law couldn't pick us up. so my man and i walked about a mile - maybe 1 1/2 miles and then he stayed behind while i ran to go pick up our car. my man couldn't continue because there was no sidewalk, no lights, on a main road, and oh by this time it was midnight. my man called me every 3-4 minutes to make sure i was still alive. it was only another mile or 1 1/2 miles further to get to the car so it wasn't a big deal except for the fact that i had to go to the bathroom really bad. can i just tell you that running and having to pee isn't a great combo? but man! did my retired adrenaline's save me!

6a. jeans and running do not mix!

7. it took about an hour to get out of cville and we got home around 3:30am.

8. my man slept 2 hours and then went to work. today (the next day) he led small group, which i think proves that we're not old yet :)

9. they expanded scott stadium and made other improvements but sitting there took me back. i could see my first year dorm where i would lean over the railing and try to get a glimpse of the football game. it's always nice going back there.