#13 on my list, Loose 30lbs (#3)

Ladies and Gentlemen it is official. . .I am now under 200lbs. Which I haven't been for quite some time. Anyway, that's 8 pounds gone now and hopefully forever (or at least until I get married and have a baby). What a way to close off the month of March! April here I come:)

#14 on my list, Meet 30 new people (#4 & 5)

Last night I met 2 new visitors out at church. Their names are Vanessa and John, both were out visiting from the Navy base. They seemed nice. It's always nice to have people visit us, especially on a Wednesday.

#13 on my list, Loose 30lbs (#2)

Just wanted to say that there's 1 more pound gone!

#7 on my list, Have 30 girls nights (#2)

So yeah it's really soon since my last post, but last night was another girls night, and it was so much fun.

Once again Kali, Nicki, Maggie, Christin, and I found ourselves watching a movie, Enchanted. For those of you that haven't seen it yet let me just tell you it is so good! It's got everything that a good chick flick should have, including Patrick Dempsey. YAY, for him!!!. Anyway, the musical numbers in it are fabulous I can't wait to learn all the songs so I can sing them as I'm cleaning, along with my other musicals. The premise of the movie has a fictional cartoon princess that is sent into the real world, circa NYC 2008. In it she thinks she has all of lifes answers wrapped up in her one "true love", that she's known for a day (hey things happen fast in fairy tales), and has her waiting for her true loves kiss. However, because the sweethearts have been torn apart by the princes wicked step mother, she is forced to find a way to adapt to her new surroundings, while she waits for her true love to rescue her. However, throughout her adventures and with the help of her new friend (Patrick, sigh), she learns that there is more to love than she thought and that even though she envisioned things for her life in a certain way, just because they don't happen "the way they should" doesn't make that life any less special, or magical, and, the thing that I think makes the movie even more fun is that she does this, and comes to these conclusions, all without loosing her sweetness and innocent outlook on life and her ideals. She still believes in her one true love, and that love conquers all.

It really is a great movie, I'm totally gonna buy it, but I can't help but think that her story is not unlike most girls stories, at least the ones who want to get married. Traditionally we grow up knowing all the fairy tales and waiting for our true love to come into our lives. Then we grow up and realize that "real life" is far different than a fairy tale. However, that being said, it doesn't mean that the lives that we now lead, albeit still waiting for our true love (or twu wuv, as the Princess Bride would have it), are no less special, or magical, just because things haven't happened the way that we planned them to.

This thought, spurned by me, was thrown out last night as well. Wouldn't it be great if life were just one big musical?! There would definitely have to be rules involved though, because in today's day and age we'd probably end up with some horrible music if people were allowed to create their own tunes (sorry people death metal and gangsta rap don't belong in musicals). I suppose the rules would include:
1. No cursing
2. The songs must have a melody
3. The songs must be uplifting and have a positive/moral message to them
(if you're reading this and can think of any other rules you want to come up with please feel free to leave to leave a comment)

Anyway, it was just a silly thought that I had, and thought I'd throw out there, as I have always been a big, BIG fan of musicals and am usually given over to breaking out into song while I'm cleaning or working on something (it drives my coworkers nuts, LOL). But those of you that know me know that I love to sing. The girls got a kick out of it for sure and played right along with me (thanks Kali)! It was hilarious!

Of course we had to see Christins wedding pictures, as she and her husband has been married for a year, they are such a cute couple, which only egged me and Kali on with our own future wedding plans. The only part of the evening that wasn't fun was when I got stabbed in the leg by the claws of Christins cat. I'm allergic to cats, so when she wanted to try and jump on me I sat up to move, but before I could her cat let it's claws out as to have something to grip onto. OUCH! Anyway, that was at the beginning ofthe evening. Everything got better from there. Weddings, and Musicals, and Friends! Oh, my! It was a fun evening for sure.

#14 on my list, Meet 30 new people (#3)

Yes that's right people I'm on #3. I know, I know it's not really fair because I am an outgoing person and I meet people pretty easily but here you have it.

3. Christin, she and her husband joined Bible Baptist Church a while ago, but I didn't really get to meet her until this weekend. She's definitely a nice girl. She wanted to know tonight what sort of snacks I could eat when we go over to her house to watch Enchated tomorrow. I told her not to worry about it because I could bring some of my own things and that I wouldn't feel left out if the girls were eating something different. It was very sweet of her, I definitely think that's a gift of hospitality showing.

#7 on my list, Have 30 girls nights (#1)

So this item on my list is always gonna be really fun! The girls that I'm friends with are a great bunch of people, anyone would be so lucky to call them their friends and the fact that the Lord put them in my life just adds to the enjoyment in my life. Anyway, there are only a coule things that qualify our get togethers as a girls night: 1) It must be all girls 2) Though it doesn't have to be any one set of girls, in order for it to count on my list, I definitely have to be there. Most of them will probably be an impromtu venture, as the funnest, and funniest, things happen without pretense (and trust me we're funny).

So the one that I will count as my #1 actually happend on Sunday nigt after church. Nicki, Kali, Maggie, Christin, and I all ended up over at the Waldron's house after evening service to watch "Becoming Jane", which I had already seen but the girls hadn't. Nicki ordered pizza (which unfortunately I was not able to eat because of my Celiacs disease, that's info for another post), but that didn't stop me from ordering hot wings! The girls were sweet though because they were afraid of hurting my feelings, by ordering the pizza, thinking that I would feel left out. But I told them that they were ebing silly. I've accepted my condition and those that can eat one of the greatest foods invented should not feel the need to deprive themselves on my account. That's the last reason I would want to be a "Captain Killjoy".

So we didn't end up starting the movie until almost 9 and so it didn't get over until almost 11, which is way to late for a school night (I can tell I'm showing my age when those things start popping out of me, but I come from a long line of night owls so who knows what's going on). The movie is OK, but I think that there was way to much content as far as inuedo was concerned. The writers could have written the character of John as a cad without trying to push the sex envelope. There is definitely a scene that should be fast forwarded through as the men decide to go swimming in the buff, having already seen it I was able to FF for my friends sake, even though I did miss a couple others, much to my shagrin.

Jane Austen was a woman ahead of her time and aquainted with the ways or the world in her day and time (if she wern't she would never have been able to write the Wickham and Willoughby characters so well) however, even with that fact, I'm hardly sure that the real Jane would approve of the screen writers interpreatation of her life. But it was interesting to she learn about a little known part of the writers life, especially since she's had no real documentatin of her life outside of her novels. Oh there are things and facts that are documented about her, but she was intensely private and to see another part of her girlhood, prior to her becoming an author, was interesting. I completely have my step mom to thank for exposing me to Jane Austen, I love her writing and as "antiquated" as some of the habits and customs are her documentation on her obervations of human behavior is still just as relevant as ever, for human behavior is the one thing that doesn't change.

OK, getting back to girls night, after the movie Christin left, but I stayed and we stayed up laughing and talking about the movie until almost midnight. It was fun to compare the times we live in now, to the times back then and the choices that Jane made in order to seek her own happiness outside of the confines, and limitations, that life outside of marriage offered to women at that time. I forget what it was that I said exactly or if I was immitating a character, but I had the girls in stitches, to which we had to break up the fun due to the fact that we were getting a little loud and there were people in the house that needed to work in the morning, and so did I so when I did get home to hit the hay I conked right out.

So there it is girls night #1. No. 2 is happening tomorrow. We're going over to Chrisitns to watch Enchanted, YAY!!!! Finally!!! I wanted to see at Thanksgiving when it came out, but couldn't talk my Dad into it. Nor could he talk me into seeing No Country For Old men, so we're even there. Although I still think we owe each other a movie date when I get home for Christmas. Anyway, stay tuned.

It really is the thought that counts. . .

This story caught my attention this morning. You gotta give the guy points for trying though because it really is the thought that counts!

It is the one moment every man wants to get
right -- and which London floor-fitter Lefkos Hajji could hardly have got more wrong.
The luckless 28 year-old's dreams of giving his sweetheart, Leanne, 26, the ultimate proposal have literally vanished into thin air.

Hajji, of Hackney, east London, had concealed a 6,000-pound engagement ring inside a helium balloon. The idea was that she would pop the balloon as he popped the question.
But as he left the shop, a gust of wind pulled the balloon from his hand and he watched the ring -- and quite possibly the affections of his girlfriend -- sailing away over the rooftops.
"I couldn't believe it," he told The Sun newspaper.
"I just watched as it went further and further into the air.
"I felt like such a plonker. It cost a fortune and I knew my girlfriend would kill me."
Hajji spent two hours in his car trying to chase and find the balloon, without success.
"I thought I would give Leanne a pin so I could literally pop the question," he said.
"But I had to tell her the story -- she went absolutely mad. Now she is refusing to speak to me until I get her a new ring."
He is hoping the ring will still turn up.
"It would be amazing if someone found it," he added.

#3 on my list, Decorate my room

YAY!!! I won my bid on eBay for a bedding set that I had wanted, and it was a total steal. It's a complete king size bedding set (including the shams, the sheets, and the bed skirt) for $15 with shipping at $22, for a grand total of $37. That even better than Walmart! So that's one huge step in the process of decorating my room. Anyway, the pic is below. Once my room is finished I'll share that too!

#19 on my list, Read 15 new books (#1)

Number 19 on my list has me reading 15 new books this year. I plan on having it be an eclectic list, some books that I'll learn something from and others will just be fun for fun. Some will focus on health and others will focus on the heart.

So with that disclaimer I'd like to let you all know that I finished my first one last night! It's called, For Women Only, written by Shaunti Feldhann. It's about the things that men wish we new about them, and how they really feel about us (as women), but more specifically their wives. Now as most of you out there may know, I am not a wife, yet (I still hold out hope), however, when I read books like this it's always with that expectation in mind, and more specifically, because I am an observer of people, I usually draw on past experiences and behavior that I have witnessed in order to understand why I do the things that I do, and feel the way that I feel about certain things. It's a short read, only 9 chapters (if I had more time I could have probably finished it in a day, but then again I don't know if I would have gotten all that I did out of it), and those 9 chapters are chock full of things that most women don't know.

For better, or worse, I have been in the company of men for a good part of my life. They were always my closest friends growing up, I'm close with my Dad, I have 4 brothers (I am the only girl), and I was in the Navy for 5 years, so a lot of the information I had already been told, and was there for not new to me. What was new to me, and never dispensed in my direction, was HOW important some of these things are to men and how some of those aspects have affected my own life and the company I have kept with men.

The 9 chapters include the following:

1. Light bulb On!,How I Woke Up to What I Didn’t Know About Men
2. Your Love Is Not Enough, Why Your Respect Means More to Him than Even Your Affection
3. The Performance of a Lifetime, Why Your Mr. Smooth Looks So Impressive but Feels Like an Impostor
4. The Loneliest Burden, How His Need to Provide Weighs Your Man Down, and Why He
Likes It That Way
5. Sex Changes Everything, Why Sex Unlocks a Man’s Emotions (Guess Who Holds the Key?)
6. Keeper of the Visual Rolodex, Why It’s So Natural for Him to Look and So Hard to Forget What He’s Seen
7. Chocolate, Flowers, Bait Fishing, Why the Reluctant Clod You Know Really Does Want Romance
8. The Truth About the Way You Look, Why What’s on the Outside Matters to Him on the Inside
9. Words for Your Heart, What Your Man Most Wishes You Knew About Him

So I won't give a synopsis of what I thought about all the chapters, but chapters 2, 4, 7, and 8 resonated for me the most. Mostly because of the general lack of respect that I've seen women give to men, and all of those chapters set a tone for how we, as women choose to, and can show our respect to men. Reading it I could see how a great many things that my Dad did for me, like teaching me to play golf or how to understand football, and to enjoy fishing and camping, could be looked at as attempts to cultivate a sense of what men like to take part in so that I can share in those things with my future husband, and not just demand the typical "girly" type dates (although those will be nice too). But I truly do like to do those things and that sense of play, that chapter 7 talks about will be very important. As a matter of fact I know that it already is for me because any boyfriend that I've ever had, hasn't lasted very long if he didn't want to do anything. I love my Dad very much and I'm so glad that he is who he is, and has helped to make me into the person that I am today.

Anyway, I could continue to go on with my opinions on the topics of the book, however the bottom line is that I definitely recommend this book for all women no matter what their station is married, or single, or even if they just want to know a little bit more about what makes people, men in this instance, tick. True we'll never fully know or be able to understand them, but it's nice to at least break away a little of the barrier that exists between the sexes.

If you're interested I've put a link to the website on my fave links list (it still looks like they're trying to put it together, but it still gives a synopsis of the surveys that were taken for the book that you can see if you submit a free registration). There are also a few other books of her's that she has written along the same lines, For Men Only (obviously that's about us and written for them), and there is also, For Young Women Only and For Young Men Only.

So my adoring public, that is 1 book down and 14 more to go!

Bible Fun

So one of my favorite things to do as I am reading my Bible is to make note in the margins, based on something that the Holy Spirit shows me, or when I learn something new. Something that I've recently started doing is marking a "P" or a "C" next to a promise, or a commandment that I read about. It's something that will keep me occupied for quite a while as the Bible has quite a lot. Anyway, I've decided to add a new feature to the right of my blog called, Promises and Commandments. I'll update it every so often and sometime the promises and commandments will be together, and sometimes it will just be one or the other. In any case I hope you all enjoy!

List change

So I changed and item on my list from spending only $30 on Christmas presents, to complete 1 new cross stitch pattern. Cross stitching is something that I like to do, but haven't had the time for, and I have some great patterns that I'd like to try so since it's something that I haven't enjoyed in a while I thought it would be appropriate, since part of the goal in completing my list to to learn to appreciate the things I enjoy in life again.

#14 on my list, Meet 30 new people (#2)

OK all, I've already met my #2 out of my 30 people. Here it goes. . .

2. His name is Daniel, and he's the brother of one of the larger families on our church. I think I mentioned him in my last blog, about the dinner I cooked for Chris and Selena. Anyway, he seems to be enjoying the fellowship at church and has been attending faithfully for the last few weeks (it's nice to see some new people have been attending lately).

There you have it 2 down and only 28 to go. YAY!!!

#2 on my list, Cook 15 new dishes (#1)

OK originally #1 was to cook 30 new dishes. However, I only have 14 months until I turn 30 and that would mean that I would have to cook 2 new dishes a month. With my schedule though that is pretty near impossible, so I scaled it back to about half that. Challenges are always fun, but in this case I had to choose to do something more practical. All that being said tonight I got to make my first new meal for a group of friends.

So after work tonight I went over to my friends house and made this awesome chicken dinner. Chris and Selena are kind enough to let me come over from time to time and cook dinner for them, as I find new recipes that I want to try out, and tonight's dish was Chicken Thighs in a Plum Reduction sauce. I know it sounds really fancy, but it was super simple. Not exactly a 30 minute meal (sorry Rachel Ray), but it was still easy to make. Is serves about 4 people, if each person has 2 thighs, Chris had 3 and Daniel had 4 (which as any cook knows is a total compliment, so I was very happy that the guys ate seconds and thirds), while Selena, her daughter Lily and I each had 1. The side dishes were a salad, provided by Chris and Selena, and SUPER SIMPLE roasted potatoes. The recipe is below for those that are interested in what I made.

After dinner Chris, Selena, Daniel and I sat around talking and laughing about the excitement offered to us by playing old video game systems, and the enjoyment of watching old Saturday morning cartoons and Dukes of Hazard (side note: The General Lee is the coolest car ever). Lily made me read to her as the guys started talking about guy stuff (it was oddly reminiscent of my own childhood as I did much the same thing to the friends of my parents when I was 3 as well). Much to my chagrin I read one of the books wrong. Instead of reading the book, I should have been singing the book to the tune of 'Skip to my Lou', and of course leave it to a 3 year old (and her parents) to make sure I read it correctly. Chris showed me and sang it first, which Daniel and I found extremely enjoyable, LOL! Then Chris reminded me that I was in the choir and technically more capable of singing the book myself. So I did. Let me just say that it's way easier to sing in a choir in front of a congregation of people, rather than on your own in front of 3 people. It's very intimidating, and this is coming from a person that is a total ham. Lily, also told her Dad, that she liked having me over at there house and that she liked me, which was very cute in and of itself, and means a lot as my family does not live close by. It's always nice to be needed, even by a 3 year old. All in all, the dinner was a success and it was a fun time hanging out with everyone and sharing in some Christian fellowship.


Chicken Thighs in a Plum Reduction Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 1/4lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs (if you can't find boneless, bone in will be fine)

1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice powder (make sure all pieces have some distributed to it)

3 green onions (or more to taste)

Olive oil

1/2c. chicken broth

1/2c. plum jam/preserves

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar


1. In bowl, toss thighs with 5 spice powder and 1/2 tsp. of salt. From dark green end of onion, finely chop enough to equal 2 Tbsp; reserve for garnish. Cut remainder of onions into 1" pieces; set aside.

2. In 12" skillet, heat olive oil on medium high until hot. Ad thighs and cook on each side (turning once)until meat is no longer pink, and browned; approx 10-15 min. Transfer chicken to plate and cover to keep warm.

3. In drippings from skillet saute onions until light brown. Stir in broth, jam, and vinegar; heat to boiling then reduce to a simmer (med heat) until sauce is syrupy. Return thighs to skillet and coat with sauce. Return thighs to plate, or serving dish. If extra sauce exists poor over chicken for extra flavor. Serve with your choice of sides.


Roasted Potatoes:

Ingredients:

2lbs. of red potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450 deg.

2. Chop potatoes into quartered pieces (if small). If potatoes are larger make sure that they are cut into bite size pieces.

3. Coat generously with Olive Oil, and Salt & Pepper to taste.

4. Put potatoes into roasting pan and cook for 40 min.

#13 on my list, Loose 30lbs (#1)

YAY!!! I'm currently down 6 pounds, and that's not with a lot of exercize either. Basically just trying to stick to my strict diet at this point and not eat at night. 6 pounds down, only 24 to go.

# 4 on my list, Get Flowers for 30 people (#1)

OK, so I know that when you say get flowers that usually means that you spend $60, call a florist, and have the delivered to someone. However, the novel idea came to me as a friend was upset today, and so I sent her flowers via the internet. I simply went on google, found a pic of some pretty ones, did some Photoshop adjustments, and voila! She was even able to put them on her desk, by puting the flowers as her wallpaper on her PC. It just goes to prove that sometimes the best things in life really are free. So 1 down and 29 more to go!

1. Sarah