Wednesday Ramblings...

I actually had planned on posting this one yesterday, but by the time I got home, started my laundry, and cooked supper, it was time for LOST (I'm a big fan of the show LOST- only 6 episodes left until the series finale- SO MANY QUESTIONS ARE LEFT UNANSWERED RIGHT NOW!!)

Anyways, back to my scheduled rambling. A friend and I were reminiscing the other day about our childhood and some of our favorite (and not so favorite) memories of the 80s. There are tons of "You Might Be A Child of the 80's" lists floating around the Internet (feel free to Google them if you want). Here are a few that I feel applied to me and I felt the need to share them with you.

How to Know You Are a Child of the 80's:

-You had a crush on one of the New Kids on the Block members.



 


 My favorite one was Joey. He was the youngest of the group.
(L) Me at age 12, wearing my NKOTB shirt (and holding my nephew James).
(R) A grown up Joey McIntyre (age 37 now)

-You owned a doll with 'Xavier Roberts' signed on its butt.

I did own a Cabbage Patch Doll. Her name was Patricia! She looked very similar to this one. I wonder what ever happened to that doll...I bet it would be worth something on Ebay today!

-You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off."

(L) The Karate Kid (I own the triology on DVD.) The first one is the best. "Sweep the leg Johnny!" I never liked the second one and the third one is almost painful to sit through. But I'll watch it, just to see Ralph. **sigh**

(R) Ralph Macchio all grown up. Oh yah- he'll be FIFTY next year. I'm not lying. He was 24 when he made The Karate Kid. Still looking good Ralph!

- You hold a special place in your heart for Back to the Future.

I remember that it ended with "To Be Continued..." and it took four years for the sequel to come out! And then a year after that, they released the third one. Again, the first one in this trilogy is the best one (in my opinion).

- You wanted to be a Goonie.

"Goonies never say die."

"Do the Truffle Shuffle!"

"Heyyyyy yooooou guuuuyyyys..."

- You've heard of Garbage Pail Kids.









Oh yes, I remember these two in particular making my elementary school days miserable!

- You remember Pong.

My brother and I were just talking about Pong this past weekend. My nephew was playing a video game and we were explaining that when we were younger (yes, we used the dreaded "back when I was your age" phrase), we didn't have fancy video games. We had Pong. And it kept us entertained for hours!

- You own any of the Care Bear Glass collection from Pizza Hut.

I believe we had the whole set (I think there were four). We also had the Flintstone kids and ET set.

- Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away.

I remember thinking I was going to be sooooo old in 1999 (21). Oh, to be 21 again!!

- You ever mismatched your clothes in a vain attempt to emulate Punky Brewster.

Sadly, I don't think I was trying to mismatch my clothes on purpose. I just had no sense of style (I still don't!) ;)
(L) Me in my kindergarten class picture. I obviously dressed myself that morning. Like how I tried to "roll" my pants? And they had an elastic waist band. Awesome!
(R) Punky Brewster-yeah, she looked WAY cooler with her mismatched clothes!

- You remember when it stopped being fashionable to pull your socks up to your knees.

Holy high socks Batman! Sadly, yes, I did go out in public like that. WHAT WAS I THINKING?? Better yet, what were my parents thinking?

- Two words: Lite Brite.

Again, we had hours of fun with a Lite-Brite! I remember making my own designs after I used up all the pattern sheets that were provided.

 - You watched She-Ra and He-Man.

 

"By the power of Grayskull...I have the power!" Am I the only one who remembers they were brother and sister? I was talking to a friend about this just recently and he didn't realize that.

- You watched Kids, Inc. and had a crush on Ryan

Well, DUH, he was the cutest guy on the show! If you watched Kids Inc., you might also remember Fergie from Black Eyed Peas was on it (as Stacey) as well as Jennifer Love Hewitt (as Love). Oh yes, I'm a "well" of useless information!

- You remember when Saturday mornings were NOT all Disney TV shows.







Absolutely! My Saturday mornings consisted of The Incredible Hulk (the real live version, not the cartoon version), Muppet Babies, and Fraggle Rock.

  
- You remember watching the ultimate 80's movie: ET

I remember being 4 years old and crying my eyes out in the theater when I thought ET had died. Oh, and to this day, I still **heart** Henry Thomas! : )


- You had a crush on Zack Morris or A.C. Slater.

Team Zack all the way baby! Last year Mark-Paul Gosselaar went on the Jimmy Fallon Show AS Zack Morris. The man looks just the same! **sigh**

- You read the Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High books when they first came out.

Oh yes, I read them all. I even started my own "Babysitters Club". I think it's funny that the Babysitter's Club started when I was in fourth grade, and the girls were "so much older" and in the 8th grade. When the series finally ended when I was in college, they were still in the 8th grade. Poor girls, they never got to high school! Oh, and I remember the one book of Sweet Valley High where one of the twins started dating a college guy- and he had a mustache! (I know, it was soooo scandalous!!) : )

 - You walked like an Egyptian.

I remember always hearing this at the roller skating rink and trying to "walk like an Egyptian" while on roller skates. Not something a clumsy person such as myself should try!! :)

- You had a crush on Kirk Cameron.

What do you mean had?? :)

(L) An 80s picture of Kirk Cameron during his Growing Pains days

(R) A picture of me from last May after receiving Kirk Cameron's autograph at a Christian conference. Oh yes, my friend and I sat out in the rain for 8 hours that day. We even braved two possible tornadoes. Fun times!

- You can still sing the Toys-R-Us song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJJ-ZLdrTwY

It won't let me embed the video here, you have to click on the link to see the video. "I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid...". If you look at :25 of the video, I think it's the guy that played Urkel!

If you have a favorite memory from the 80s, feel free to leave them in the comments, I know there are a TON more out there!!

Be blessed!!

Monday, Monday....

Today has been a "Monday". This is all I have to say about it:

Here's hoping that tomorrow is better!!

Happy birthday Momma!

I wanted to dedicate my post to wishing my mom a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I can't be there today, but I'm going "home" next Thursday for Easter weekend (hooray for a long weekend!!)

Me and my folks at Christmas last year

For those who don't know my family, my parents were blessed to have five children. Then, twenty years after their first child was born, they were blessed even more by having a sixth child, me, or as I like to be called, the favorite (yay, if my siblings read this post I can only imagine what their comments will be!) :) Before you say anything, I prefer the term "bonus baby". I would like to think that I've kept my parents feeling young (although they tell me they didn't have gray hair until I came along).

My mom is amazing. She is a God-fearing woman who loves the Lord, her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren. I can only hope to be half the wonderful woman that my mom is. Love you mom!! 

Some of my mom's school pictures

For the record, this is the ONLY picture of me in a bikini that you will ever see!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! LOVE YOU!!

Thursday Thirteen....

I found this idea on the Thursday Thirteen website.

iPod Confessions: 13 "Guilty Pleasure" Songs on My iPod.

13. Ride With Me- Nelly
12. My Happy Ending- Avril Lavigne
11. Womanizer- Britney Spears
10. Sexy Back- Justin Timberlake



9. Jump Around- House of Pain
8. Beautiful Soul- Jesse McCartney



7. Tootsie Roll-69 Boyz
6. Summer Girls- LFO
5. Shoop- Salt-n-Pepa
4. Tik Tok- Ke$ha
3. Wannabe- Spice Girls
2. Livin’ La Vida Loca- Ricky Martin



1. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You-NSYNC (I know, I'm hanging my head in shame as I type this!!)

Wednesday Ramblings

I know, I used that same title last week, but who knows, it might become a "weekly" thing.

First of all, I want to wish a very happy, happy, happy 37th birthday to my favorite nerd, Jim Parsons. Well, he plays a nerd on TV. My fellow watchers of The Big Bang Theory know him as Dr. Sheldon Cooper. It's a hilarious show. It comes on CBS on Monday nights. I so love him. He's my nerd crush. Oh yes, I'm very serious about that! I **heart** you Jim!

I have to post a few video clips of him from the show.  

This is quite possibly my favorite scene (so far) of The Big Bang Theory.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

For my fellow sports fans, I'm sure you have heard by now that Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer has agreed to an 8 year, $184 million contract extension. Yes, you read that correctly.

I'm a sports fan. I love watching sports. I love my sports athletes. But don't get me started on how much they are overpaid, I like keeping this a family friendly blog! : ) Anyway, so back to Joe. His contract is the fourth largest in Major League history.

ESPN has a website where you can put in your yearly salary and it will tell you how many years you would have to work to make what he does. It also tells you how long it takes him to earn what you make in a year. It's kinda depressing but if you want to check it out, you can click HERE. It would take me over 500 years to make what he does. Also, it  takes him less than half of ONE game to make what I make in a year. There is an option to pick another athlete and find out the same information.

And lastly, a friend sent me an article yesterday that made me laugh out loud. The second installment of the movies, New Moon, came out on DVD this past weekend. It seems that a screening of the movie was recently shown to a pack of wolves at Longleat Safari Park, which is located in Wiltshire, England. No, I'm not kidding. I don't want to repost the story without permission, so click HERE to read the story. It's really quite funny. There is also a video, which I've posted below. My favorite line was when the guy said "they are not Team Edward, they are definitely Team Jacob." HA HA HA! Okay, maybe I'm the only one who finds that funny!

We are half-way through the week, make it a good one!!

What Books Have You Read?

As you might have noticed, I love to read. I found this list online (I think it was once passed around as a "note" on Facebook). I've tried to find the source behind it, but all I found were other people reposting it. So, I can't swear this is absolutely true, but, supposedly the BBC has this list of 100 books and feels the "average" person has only read 6 of the books on the list. Don't ask me how one is classified as "average". I'm sure I have friends who have read the majority of the books on the list and I probably have friends who haven't read any. And I wouldn't dare call any of my friends "average". :)
I'll be honest. There were books on here I had never heard of. And people who know me well enough will probably figure out which books I read on my own and which ones were assignments for Junior High and High School English classes.

I put my own personal comments out to the side on some of them.

Just so you don't have to count, I've read 28 on the list and have at least tried to read 8 others. And there are only a handful that I probably will make an attempt to read in the future. According to the BBC, I'm well above average. :) Now, if they had listed any books by Kay Hooper, Nevada Barr, Heather Graham (not the actress), Stephenie Meyer or Allison Brennan, I would have done a lot better!!

Instructions:
1) Bold those you have read.
2) Star the ones you loved.*
3) Italicize those you plan on reading.
4) Underline those you have partially read or gave the OCT (Old College Try)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I didn't mind Wishbone's version of it, it was short and to the point). I do plan on reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies though.

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien  (Couldn't get through the book series, loved the movies though!)

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte  (I've been trying to read it since 1994, one day maybe I'll finish it!)

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee* (one of the few instances where I love the book AND the movie!)

6 The Bible* (if you haven't noticed, I do quote this one a lot on my blog!) :)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (Alfred Hitchcock did a movie based on this book, I might read it to compare)

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (I plan to read it, just to see what all the fuss is/was about!)

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger  (I read this about a year or so ago. It's not the type of book I normally read, but I enjoyed it! The movie is pretty good, but it's a little different than the book).

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (but I do have a copy on my bookshelf. Maybe I'll get to it one day!)

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis*

34 Emma - Jane Austen 

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis* (I don't know why they don't include this one with The Chronicles of Narnia. This is probably my favorite of the series, although I haven't read any of them in a number of years.)

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (I loved the miniseries made of this one back in the 1980's. A few years ago I got to meet the guy who played Gilbert!)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (I saw a movie version of this on TV not too long ago that had a young Dean Stockwell in it. All my Quantum Leap friends will remember his as Al). :)

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce 

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White 

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams -

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Do everything without complaining or arguing....

My friend Kelly sent me this quote today. I can SO relate to this!!

Do you ever feel like that? That you just have so much going on that you can't handle it all? If you know me, I'm the Queen of having "too much going on". A lot of it I put on myself, I'll admit that. But there are some aspects of my life where I'm just like, "Okay God, seriously. What do you want from me? Where am I going? Why don't I...Why can't I...blah blah blah." I honestly think that during our talks God is just staring down at me, smiling and nodding while thinking, "You have no idea what AWESOME things I have planned for you. I wish you would quit complaining and enjoy what I have given you right now." Ouch. Okay, okay, I hear ya God. I know, you said it loud and clear in Philippians 2:14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." Why is it so easy for me to sit here and type this, KNOWING that is what I should do, yet, I don't? Does anyone else have this same problem, or am I the only one not getting it??