Five Question Friday

1. Groceries are high right now, what is the easiest way you have found to cut back?

I've gone to the "generic" brands for many items. The Kroger brand spaghetti sauce is JUST as good as Ragú (and it's at least $2 cheaper). Same with cereal (although Corn Pops were on sale last week and were actually cheaper than the generic brand. I keep my eye out for sales). I WON'T give up my Jif peanut butter though, I can't handle the imitation brands. I splurge for that! :)

2. What are the top 3 things on your bucket list?

I don't think my bucket list is in any particular order, but here are three things on it. 

1. Going to all of the MLB ballparks and stadiums in North America.

2. Sitting next to Nolan Ryan (in the owner's box) at a Rangers game (I don't see this ever happening, but it's on my list!) BTW, if I EVER get that opportunity, I'm taking my Bubba with me, so don't even ask. Sorry, but he introduced me to baseball, he gets to go! :)

3. Visiting at least some part of Europe.

All the MLB Ballparks. Photo courtesy Baseballpilgrimages.com

3. Would you rather give up the AC or heater?

I live in Texas- I'm going with giving up the heater. We use the AC probably 300 days out of the year (there are rare occasions where we don't have to use either the AC or heater). I use the heater MAYBE 14-20 days (not necessarily in a row) during the winter. I can "layer up" if I get too cold! :)

This was last summer. One day the high only reached 90 and it was like a cold front!

4. What is your favorite cocktail?

I don't drink cocktails, so I'll go with the movie Cocktail as my favorite! :)

Ah, 1988- when Tom Cruise was young, not crazy, and taller than me! ;)

5. What was your first job and how old were you?

Not counting the babysitting jobs I had starting at age 11, I guess it was when I was 14. I was an assistant at a church's childcare center. I was basically a childcare worker, but since I was under 16, I had to be an "assistant" (not sure if there was really a difference except in the title and the pay). When I was 16, I became an official childcare worker (and got a $1.50 raise from the $4.25/hr I was making- yeah, that was minimum wage in 1994). I worked during the summers and on Friday nights (except during football season- I was a band nerd- I had to be at the games).

Have a great weekend everyone!
XOXO!

Hallelujah! A cold front is headed our way!

Yesterday the Dallas area tied an all time record high of 107 degrees (some stations reported it was 109, but the "official temperature" was recorded at only 107. Yes, I said "at only". : ) According to local weathermen, a cold front is headed our way this evening. And when I say "cold front", I mean that tomorrow our high is supposed to be only 91. Yes, "only" 91. The lows are supposed to be in the low 70s. For the past few weeks, I've been leaving my apartment at 7 a.m. and the temperature is 85 degrees. 

 

Greg Fields, greatest meteorologist in the DFW area! My friend Bekah will agree! He's hilarious! Here is his 7 day forecast for this week.

Trust me friends, after almost a month of 100 plus temperatures, this is going to feel like fall to us!!

Well, it's been a while since I've talked about the Rangers. I know deep down y'all have missed it! I went to the game last night (shocker, I know). But this was the first Rangers game I've been to this month. The last time they played at home, I was in Atlanta. After the way they've been playing the past week on the road, it was obvious they needed some lovin' from the home crowd! It was a great game (despite it being 100 degrees at the start of the game at 7:00. Yes, I have an obsession with weather, I can't help it!) :) 

Our view last night

The Rangers pitching staff only gave up one hit (and that didn't happen until the 9th inning- so close to a no hitter). It was the first of four Rangers games I'm attending this week. I'm going tonight because I won tickets to sit in my company's suite at The Ballpark. Then I'm going again on Thursday for my friend's birthday (she had free tickets). And then I'm going on Saturday because Mercy Me (one of my favorite Christian bands), is giving a pre-game concert (I've had these tickets since the beginning of the season). I know, it's a crazy, busy week!! Thankfully I'm just 10 days away from a four day weekend (I'm taking the Friday before Labor Day off work so I can go visit my folks!) A little rest and relaxation! Nothing like going home to fix that!! :) While I'm talking about my folks, if you think about it, please remember my mom in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow morning. She is having shoulder surgery (I think it's from picking up all the chubby babies in my family!!)

Have a great day friends!
:)

Fall, where are you?

For anyone who doesn't believe that we are hitting triple digit highs this week, I did a screen print of the weather app on my iPhone:

 

Oh yeah, you read that right. 101. And that seems to be the coolest "high" of the week (and supposedly we haven't reached the "high" for today yet). It's times like this that I'm so THANKFUL my office has an UNDERGROUND parking garage. 

If you are from Texas (or have ever been in Texas during the summer months), you can appreciate these.

You know you are from Texas when:

-You can say 110 degrees without fainting...
-You can make instant sun tea...
-You learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron...
-The temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly...
-You discover that in August it takes only 2 fingers to drive your car...
-You discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window...(we call it a "Rush Hour Tan")
-You notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance...(so true...)
-You actually burn your hand opening the car door...
-You break a sweat the instant you step outside...at 7:30 a.m. before work...(don't laugh, it's between 80-85 degrees when I leave at 7 a.m. for work!)
-Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"

-You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, Still summer, and Christmas...

Thursday Thirteen

For my Thursday Thirteen I thought I would list some of my favorite, "You Know You're From Texas When" sayings.

1. You can say 110 degrees without fainting.

2. You discover that in July it takes only two fingers to drive your car. 

3. You know the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance. 

4. You break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m. before work.

5. It's so hot the birds have to use pot holders to pull worms out of the ground.

6. You've been trick-or-treating when it was 90 degrees outside. 

7. People grumble about Noah letting coyotes on the ark.

8. When it rains, everyone is smiling.
 

9. People wonder when Jesus fed the 5,000, whether the two fish were bass or catfish.

10. It's a common misconception that everything is twice as big in Texas. Really, everything is 1.965 times bigger, but we round up. 

11. It's a common misconception that the women have big hair. In fact this was outlawed in July 1977. There is a task force and they are doing their best to reach every last woman. Bear with us. 

12. It's a common misconception that J.R. Ewing still lives here. That was a TV show people! Come on! Chuck Norris, on the other hand, is a real, karate-choppin' Texas Ranger. 

13. It's a common misconception that everyone speaks with a Texas accent. Y'all just don't know what y'all are talkin' about! :)

Thursday Thirteen

Here is my weekly Thursday Thirteen! I hope you enjoy!!

13 Random Things About My Week (in no particular order)

1. At 5pm last night they finally fixed the AC in my apartment (despite telling me it was done at 9am yesterday morning. I'm letting it slide, this time. Next time I will unleash the wrath of Rachel!) It took a few hours for it to finally feel comfortable. I went to Subway for almost 2 hours and read while it was cooling down. It was 90 degrees in there when I got home. This morning it was finally about 75.

 Sorry so blurry. The left is when I got home yesterday. The right is when I left this morning.

2. The past few weeks (okay, maybe a month or two) I've been having that feeling of, "Are you there God? It's me, Rachel?" again. I got this email from my sister yesterday. It was one of those, "Oh good gosh, I so needed to read that!" And yes, I just said "good gosh"! ;) Why do I ever doubt God? Why do I ever question His ways? One of these days I'll learn.

3. I'm very excited that Michael Young of the Texas Rangers got his 1,748th hit last night. He passed Pudge Rodriguez's record of 1,747 hits as a Texas Ranger. Young is now the All Time Hit Leader for the Rangers. And the best part about the hit is that it scored two runs, helping the Rangers with a 6-3 win over the Marlins. That is four wins in a row (on the road) for the Rangers.

Michael Young's at bat (photo courtesy of the AP)

Michael Young in a post game interview (courtesy of Fox 4 Dallas)

4. My sweet friends Steve and Linda gave me my birthday present this past week. It was a "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock" shirt.

The game has been around for a while, but we learned about it on the CBS show, The Big Bang Theory.

5. I started re-reading Eclipse this week (that's the third book in the Twilight series). It's been well over a year and a half since I read it, and with the movie coming out June 30, I want it to be fresh in my mind. I know, I'm a nerd. I can already tell by some of the previews that that they have changed it up a bit.

6. I just realized I haven't been to Chick Fil A in almost 2 weeks. I think that is a new record. I might have to go there today. I'm starting to go through withdrawals! I can feel my eye twitching as I type this!!

Chick Fil-A milkshake: Manna from heaven

7. I got my dad a really cool Father's Day gift. Since he sometimes reads my blog, I won't post about it until after Sunday. I'm excited about going to my folks tomorrow and seeing my family. It will be the last time I get to go "home" for a while. July and August are pretty busy months for me at work and I can't get away.

8. I won tickets for my company's suite at The Ballpark. The suite is nice. There is all you can eat hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn and soda. There is an inside section that is air conditioned and there is an outside section too. 

9. I started watching Season 1 of Chuck this week on DVD. So far I like it (I have a newly found love admiration nerd crush on Zachary Levi). He is absolutely adorable, especially in interviews. And he has that goofy, dorky quality that I seem to like in guys! ;)

10. As I've posted before, I played soccer in high school. Now, I haven't been watching every single game for the FIFA World Cup 2010, but I am looking forward to the final match-up. I'll be honest, the soccer playoff system confuses the snot out of me. The point system, the groups, etc, I don't understand it. But, I found this really cute picture I wanted to share it! Everyone has World Cup fever!

11. I just saw on my uncle's Facebook page that Blue Bell ice cream is on sale at Kroger. Pints are $1 each!! That just made my week a little bit better! 

12. I finally drove by where Texas Stadium used to be (I know, it's been gone a while, but I haven't had any reason to go over there until this past week).  

Yes, I took this out my truck window. But I was watching the road and just aiming my phone (one reason it's kinda off centered).

13. After a four month hiatus, I finally started working out again. I didn't go to my office gym,  but I worked out in the "mini" gym we have at my complex. I was very frustrated about my AC situation when I got home yesterday, so I used that energy to work out (probably not the smartest move to get even hotter when my AC was broken). But after a 45 minute workout, I went to Subway, had a turkey sandwich and read Eclipse for almost two hours. Not a bad way to spend my evening.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help...

Happy Friday friends!!

Welcome to all of those visiting today!!

Well, it's the Friday that my friend John has been anxiously waiting on for months now. The remake of the 80's classic TV show The A-Team hits theaters today. While I might not be AS excited as John is, I am looking forward to seeing it. As a "child of the 80's", I remember watching the TV show when I was younger. Granted, it won't be the same without the original cast, but hey, Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper are not poor substitutes in my opinion! ;)

So, in honor of the movie (and for my friend John), here is the intro to the original The A-Team TV show. It does have a catchy theme song!!

Moving on...it's 5 Question Friday! I kinda cheated a little with it today. I've only participated a couple of times and so instead of taking all the 5 Questions for today, I "cherry picked" questions from previous Fridays as well.

1. What song are you embarrassed to know the lyrics to?
Wow, I probably have a few that I would rather not admit that I know (but obviously I'm going to). Like the Walker, Texas Ranger theme song. And most of the songs from the first High School Musical movie.  I also know all the lyrics to Salt N Pepa's song Shoop (yah, picture a white girl trying to sing/rap this one, it's funny/an embarrassment to white people everywhere). Sorry, no video of that will EVER be posted online!




2. Did you ever go to summer camp?
I went to a church camp each summer, which was a week long. I was a member of Girls In Action (commonly called GA's). The best way to describe it is that its a Baptist version of the Girl Scouts. So anyways, I went to GA camp every year until I was like 12 or 13. When I finally got older (14) I became an Acteen. When I was 16, I was old enough to go to camp as an Acteen staffer (every GA dreams of the day she is old enough to be an Acteen staffer). We were basically camp counselors. I know, nerdy, but it was still fun!


3. Have you ever had a celebrity sighting?
Besides baseball players? Yes, I have. I go to a bunch of musicals in Dallas and sometimes famous people are touring with the show. A few years ago I got to meet Richard Thomas (best known as "John-Boy" in the TV show The Waltons) after his performance in 12 Angry Men. Yes, I like The Waltons. If you are familiar with my blog, this shouldn't surprise you!! :) And yes, I own them on DVD. I also met Tom Wopat, better known as Luke Duke from the TV show  The Dukes of Hazzard, a few years ago when he was in town touring with the musical Chicago. I didn't tell him I was a bigger fan of Bo Duke. ;)

Me and Richard Thomas

Me and my friend Mel with Tom Wopat

4. What is your favorite theme park? 

Well, seeing that the majority of the ones I've been to are 6 Flags related (I've been to the one in Arlington, San Antonio, Houston and Georgia), I guess I'll go with 6 Flags. Wait, I went to Opryland once when I was 12. But I'll still stick with 6 Flags. The best thing about living close to it is that I can get a season pass and just go for a few hours at a time (usually in the evenings when it's not 110 degrees). Remember those days when you would spend 12 hours at a theme park? After about 3 hours, I'm usually ready to leave. My body doesn't handle roller coasters as well as it used to (hello getting older)! Last year I took my nephew James to 6 Flags  when he came to visit 4th of July weekend (we went during the afternoon, then headed across the street for the Rangers game that night). We were there less than three hours and were ready to leave. Thankfully it wasn't too crowded so we got to ride about 6 or 7 rides (that's pretty good). Also since it was so hot (103 Fahrenheit to be exact), 6 Flags was giving out free ice water at all concession locations (which is something I think ALL places should do, especially in Texas where the temperature can easily be in the triple digits for weeks at a time).

My nephew James. I'm a responsible aunt, I made sure he was tall enough to ride the roller coaster!

Getting ready for the first drop on the Runaway Mine Train

Chillaxing with Bugs Bunny!

  

5. If you could be on a game show, which one would you choose?

I'm not a fan of game shows, and do my best to avoid them if I can. I think it has something to do with the fact that when I was little, my mother watched game shows all the time. The Price is Right, The $25,000 Pyramid, Press Your Luck (the "no whammy" show as I called it), and The Wheel of Fortune. To this day, I start twitching when I hear The Wheel of Fortune theme song. 

Have a great weekend y'all!!