Category Archives: Life

Day 857 – Great New Recipe

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Tonight I made a new recipe…from the back of the jar of gravy. It looked pretty good, so I tried it out. I didn’t follow it completely. I’m not too good at the “1/2 cup of this,” “1 tsp of that.” I’m a pour and judge and taste and go from there. But basically, it’s chicken, rice, veggies, gravy and cheese. Then a little more cheese on top before you bake it. It’s baking now and I CAN’T wait to eat it! We both took a bite before I did….because I had heated everything up already….(casseroles are weird)…and boy it was tasty.

Now, for some reason, I decided to double it….why, I’m not sure…..there was no way it was going to fit in the pan it was supposed to….so I mixed everything up in a big bowl and split it between two dishes. This is what I ended up with.

Now for the sake of scale, here’s a cup to help you see….it’s a smaller cup, but still!!

Day 856 – Coffee Disaster

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So I had been working on print orders and editing all day and finally hit the “ahhhh, must get away from the computer!” moment. Sometimes this takes a few hours, sometimes it takes a few minutes. Anyways. I was about to sit down and do my devotions and I wanted a cup of coffee…this is always helpful when I’m reading.

I needed to grind some more beans, so I did….cleaned up the spilled grinds afterwards…..as I put the lid back on the tupperware container I use for storing coffee in the freezer, my hand slipped a little and I spilled a bit…thankfully, not a lot at all. I hit the button and sit down to start while it’s brewing. Then I hear the “I’m all done sound” (lol, I know my coffee pot really well at this point)…and I think, wait, that wasn’t long enough to brew….DOH! No water! So, I go to pour in the water and being the blonde that I am (Yea, I’ll admit it), I poured it right in…steam and coffee grinds EVERYWHERE! ::sigh:: So I cleaned up the counter….again. 😦

Day 852 – 236th Birthday of the Marines Corps

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Today marks the 236th birthday of the Marines Corps. This is special for me for several reasons. First, my husband is a former Marine. We first met about 4 months before he was deployed to Iraq and started dating 2 weeks before he left. I am grateful for that deployment because it caused me to fully trust God…about everything really. And it also grew my love for this guy who I met in a bar (the Marines also started in a bar, by the way) and it was, um, not your normal “blind date.” But THAT story is for another day. Today’s story is a few weeks after Bret arrived back in California from Iraq. I went out to visit. He also had gotten tickets for us to go to the Marine Corps Ball in Vegas! I was SOOOO excited!

It’s the day of the Ball. We left a little later than we’d like, but we still had time to get there. As we drove over the mountains and through the desert, we stopped several times to take pictures. It was just too beautiful!

About an hour outside of Vegas, Bret realizes he may have forgotten something for his uniform. Now, this is a big deal, you get a room full of Marines who know what is supposed to be on your uniform….you really can’t get away with going without! So we pull over, he looks at his uniform and, yep…it’s not all there. He only needs one piece actually, which I think made it even worse! So he calls a friend to see if he had an extra….nope….he also asks the friend what time the Ball starts….up to this point (and the rest of the time) we kept getting several different answers. I think this is because there are several things that happen (cocktail hour, cake cutting, dinner, ceremony, etc)….so, we decide to go on…and try and find a store.

We arrive at a gas station on the outside of the strip and look through the phone book and call various places that might have this piece that we need. We finally find one and head over. (this was all without a GPS mind you!) He runs in while I try to fix my makeup and hair. Runs back out, hallelujah, praise the Lord! OK, so now we have to stop to get his haircut! Yes, he needed a haircut. This is another thing that he would get called on. Understand that my poor boyfriend had just gotten back from Iraq and was on leave…so he wasn’t really around barbers that knew how to do the “military haircut” and he was on leave! So, we find one barber, walk in and there’s a 30 minute wait! Sorry, no time for that! Drive around some more and find one, and the hair stylist was really great! I think I remember she was pretty funny.

Ok! We’re almost set! We drive over to the casino where the Ball is taking place. While we’re driving, I change into my dress…the old “pull it over your head and yank your clothes from underneath”…the best part was that Bret didn’t even notice! He did one of those look overs and say, “when did you do that?!?!” Hilarious!

We get to the parking lot between the Tropicana and the Hooters casino. Only two more things! Bret has to get our tickets from his friend….in the 20th+ story of the Hooters casino! So Bret leaves me in the truck to put on his piece, which has to be at a VERY precise spot! I kept saying, you’ll just have to change it when you get back, but ok! It probably took Bret a good 20 minutes to get in and get the tickets, talk to his friends and come back. He fixes the piece, changes, and we take a look at each other and say, whew! Ok! We’re ready! But, we still don’t know the official start time! So, he calls a friend and asks if he’s at the Ball….”Oh yea man! It just ended!”

After all that, we missed it. ::sigh:: But I looked at him and said, I am dressed up nice, you’re dressed up nice, let’s go walk the strip or something! So we ended up in the MGM, grabbed a beer and walked through the casino. It’s still so funny to me that people just walk around with drinks over there! We found a sushi place and had a very nice time. The nice server (or another customer, I can’t remember now) offered to take our picture.

So, even though we didn’t make it to the Ball, it is still one of my favorite memories with Bret. I felt like we were in some slap stick comedy movie where everything that can go wrong, does. I love that even now, we can be in really crazy/bad situations and we can have fun with them. Sometimes the laughing at the situation is after, but still.

Day 850 – My Awesome Action Figures

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I was struggling to find something to post about today. I spent most of my day running around between bible study in Joppatown, Timonium to get our iPod, Towson to give Bret the iPod, Timonium to check our mail and send a CD to the Schroen’s, then to the bank, then home. During the running around, Kristi texted to see if I wanted to run….in about an hour of the text….at this point in the day I hadn’t eaten yet…so I went home, had some chili (perfect running food, eh?), rested for about 20 minutes, and then met up with her to run! We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so we chatted for a bit after the run. Then I met up with Shawna in Towson to pick up some memory cards. Back home again. During the commute, I got a hold of Bridget and we chatted for a little while about our businesses. She confirmed a REALLY awesome event we’ll be a part of in a few months! But it’s not my event, so I can’t share details yet! It’s going to be pretty amazing though. Whew!

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I started reading a TON of marketing things. Books, articles, etc. So…all that wasn’t too interesting. I put on my “thinking cap” (anyone else ever call it that??)….and headed over to the “Holidays For Everyday” website and check out the November list. I was really bummed to see that I missed Peanut Butter Lover’s Day on Friday, National Donut day on Saturday, I Love Nachos Day on Sunday, and even Hug-a-bear Day yesterday. All of those days would have made REALLY neat (and tasty….minus the bear) pictures! Then I noticed that today is Dunce Day and thought, you know, that fits! So, what do you do to a dunce? You put them in a corner of course! And that’s exactly what I did with my rings. The whole time I was shooting, I was thinking “bad rings, you know what you did”….”sit there and think about what you did”….it was actually rather amusing…I was home alone at the time, so it made it even worse.

I was looking at the pictures I had taken and thought…ugh…this really isn’t that interesting…who wants to look at a picture of a stool with my rings on it? So, what did I do? I turned around and took pictures of my toys!

I have been collecting toys for years now. I have some really neat Star Wars Unleashed figures. I LOVE those the most! Here’s a nice wide shot of some of my toys. (I have a collection of McDonald’s toys on a lower shelf, but we’ll save those for next year’s dunce day.)

Then I had to put my ring on my all time favorite character…Darth Maul. ::swoon::

I guess I like the evil characters….because The Emperor was my next choice…

Day 848 – Jurassic Park and The Baltimore Ravens

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Today we hung out at my parents’ house all day. I pretty much sat in front of the TV all day. Watching the first two Jurassic Park movies and some bits and pieces of football games….and eating up the battery on my dad’s iPad by playing games and checking my Facebook. 🙂

But the main reason we were there was to watch the Ravens/Steelers game. I hated that it was a later game, because it’s always tough getting up in the morning….but I LOVED that I got to watch it! What a great game!!! I’m always on the edge of my seat when I watch them play the Steelers….I think there’s some kind of rivalry…. 😉

I didn’t take my camera, so I didn’t get a shot of my utter laziness during the day….but I did find this picture of my sister and our friend Marcy at a Raven’s game in 2007.