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??

Miracle Pre-Game Speech

I know this video has been floating around YouTube for a while now, but a friend of mine had never seen it, so I wanted to post it here. I love this video!! This little 4 year old boy is reciting the speech given by Team USA coach Herb Brooks (played by Kurt Russell in the movie Miracle) before the game against the Soviet Union in 1980 (the "do you believe in miracles" game). He had seen the movie so many times that he memorized it. If you have never seen this movie, I highly recommend it (yes, it's a "feel good" true life story from Disney). :)

The First Day of Spring...

You would think on the first day of spring I would be posting pictures of wildflowers (like our beautiful state flower the bluebonnet).

Or scenic pictures from a motorcycle ride (which, by the way, I took last weekend with a friend of mine). FYI, I was not driving. And yes mom, I wore a helmet! :)

But here I am posting pictures of the view outside my door at this very moment.

                        

Oh yes, that is snow. I think this is the fifth or sixth snow that we've had this season. Again, for anyone not from Texas reading this, bear with me. We just aren't used to this kind of cold and snowy winter. Well, technically it's spring now. But still, the fact that it's almost April and I'm fighting the urge to turn on my heater, that is just crazy. I'm very grateful my parents got me a Snuggie for Christmas. I've been wrapped up in it all evening watching a movie (yes, the movie that came out today. Yes, I went and bought it. Don't judge! :)

A quick note...

I know a lot of my friends out there have had a rough week. TGIF!! The weekend is here!! I meant to post something earlier today, but I got lazy and just logged on a few minutes ago. It's late and my lack of sleep is catching up with me, so I'm going to be brief.

I had a friend send me this Scripture today. She KNEW I needed to read it. Well, God knew I needed to read it. Thank you Lord for the reminder!! I leave you tonight with a few verses out of Psalm. Be blessed!!

Almost Friday!!

I'm on a mission to put up at least some kind of post every day this week (so far so good)!As I've mentioned before, this month my "half" day at work falls on Friday, so all day I've kept repeating, "I only work 3 1/2 hours tomorrow, I only work 3 1/2 hours tomorrow." Of course, that has made today go by SO SLOW!

Have you ever noticed that sometimes time just seems to CRAWL by?? I mean, an hour ALWAYS takes 60 minutes, but when you are wanting that hour to be up, it seems to take forever! Have you noticed if you wake up an hour before your alarm goes off, the next hour seems to go by so fast??

Anyways, for once, I don't have HUGE plans this weekend. I have a party on Sunday afternoon after church, but besides that, nothing. And honestly, I'm looking forward to kicking back and relaxing tomorrow and Saturday. Well, I might possibly go out and buy a movie that is coming out on DVD this weekend, but only if I can find it on sale. I'm really in no rush to get it. I had a friend email me today asking if we could meet for lunch on Saturday and for once, I didn't have to look at my calendar. I told him just to let me know when he wanted to go (I'm sure he was shocked as well!)

Anyways, I was looking forward to a beautiful weekend. It has been beautiful the past few weeks (minus a rain shower or two), but the temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s. Well, tomorrow is going to be sunny with a high in the 70s (perfect for sitting on my balcony and finishing the Kay Hooper book I'm reading), but Saturday and Sunday is a different story. Winter has decided to make a final encore before letting Spring take center stage. See below for our five day forecast:

I know we need the rain (so the bluebonnets can grow), but could it at least stay in the 60s or 70s? The news this morning said that parts of north Texas might even see snow flurries. It's not the first time that Spring has been booted off stage in the middle of a performance. A few years ago we had snow storms the first week in April. I had never had a White Christmas, but I had a White Easter that year! The funniest part about that weekend is that they were holding a huge Global Warming rally in downtown Dallas. It got snowed out. Come on, you have to admit that is funny!! :)

Anyways, besides complaining that the temperature is going to drop 23 degrees tomorrow night, that is really all I have for now. Until next time....

Wednesday Ramblings...

So many things I could write about today, so little time to organize them. So, I give you a "smorgasbord" post. I hope you can keep up!

First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For those wanting a little history on the holiday, go here. It's interesting to note that the first St. Patrick's Day parade didn't take place in Ireland, but in the United States. And also, the original color associated with Saint Patrick was blue. I'm part Irish (on my mother's side), so I wanted to post this Irish Blessing I found online (I don't know if it's a real Irish Blessing, but it sounded good, so I'm posting it):

On another note: For all my fellow NCAA basketball fans, you know that tomorrow kicks off...

If you are clueless at what that is, please go here (thank you Wikipedia!)

If you are interested in filling out a March Madness bracket, you still have time (the first games start tomorrow, the 18th). For a printable bracket, go here.

Since I don't really follow college basketball until March Madness, I'm terrible at filling these out (although one year I somehow managed to pick the teams in the final four round). I use the old reliable "eeny, meeny, miny, mo" method of picking my teams! : )

As faithful as I am to my home state (Texas, our Texas, all hail the mighty state), I don't see our teams going far this year (of course, I could be wrong-I would love to be wrong about that). I haven't been too impressed with the Longhorns towards the end of this season, and I don't see the Aggies getting past the second round (I do predict they will beat Utah State on Friday, but I have them bowing out in the next round). I think our best chance of making it out of the second round comes from Baylor (now that is scary!) You never know with college basketball. I personally love the Cinderella stories (the ones where the "underdog" comes back and wins it all). Those make for great Disney movies based on a true life story! Okay, I really need to stop confessing that I watch Disney movies. : )

On yet another note: With the regular hockey season winding down (and baseball season just 19 days away), I wanted to post this comic that a friend sent me. It's from the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis. It ALWAYS makes me laugh!! Check out Stephen's blog here.

 

 Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis

That concludes my ramblings for today. As always, thanks for reading!! :)

Favorite scriptures...

I felt the need to post some of my favorite scriptures today. It has been a long week (and it's only Tuesday). Also, I know I have friends facing challenges right now. If they are reading this, hopefully these verses will help them!

God bless!
  

 

 

  

 

Yes, another new layout...

So, I decided to change up my blog a bit and redid the design once again. I hope you enjoy it!

I leave you today with a clip I found on YouTube. Dick Van Dyke made a guest appearane in the stage performance of Mary Poppins a few months ago in Los Angeles (oh, how I wish I could have been in that crowd). Here is Entertainment Tonight's review of it...

Cutest kid ever!!

A friend sent me this video!! This little boy is so stinkin' adorable!!!

The songs are Boots On and Anything Goes by Randy Houser! Rockin' it country style, I love it!!!

A post for Marta...

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just don't want to be at work (I know, you are shocked, I'm sure I'm the only one who ever feels like that!) Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my job. I work for a great company and have made some wonderful friends here. But there are some days I just would rather not be here. Like today. One: I'm not feeling all that great. I've had a cough for the past few days (it's more annoying than anything) and I am just exhausted (although that is probably because I went to a sneak preview of a new movie last night and didn't get home until late. Shout out to Monica for the free passes and Antonio for buying our refreshments at Studio Movie Grill.) :) Second: it is absolutely GORGEOUS outside today. The sun is shining, there are no clouds and it's almost 80 degrees. **sigh** Can adults have a skip day? Remember those in school? When you didn't want to be in class so you just left? Wait-not that I EVER did that. I just heard about them!

I do have a point. Bear with me. So while I was having my little "pity party" today about not wanting to be at work, I passed by one of our housekeeping staff in the hallway. I smiled and said hello and continued walking. On the way back to my desk, something stopped me. I realized, I've said hi to this person for the past two years and I don't know her name. So I asked her. Her name is Marta.

Now I'm not telling this story so you will go, "oh, what a great person you are. You asked her name." That is not my point at all. But it got me thinking. How many "Martas" do you pass by every day? Someone who might be "taken for granted" but in reality has a very important contribution to your company/school or just your every day life. I don't know about you, but I personally would not want to clean for a living. Especially public bathrooms. I don't like cleaning my bathroom. But you know what, every day that I see Marta she is cheerful and smiling. EVERY DAY. I'm sure she is on her feet most of the day. I work in a big building. I know there is constant cleaning going on. I'm sure there are days she's not feeling 100% and would rather be home (or she would rather be outside enjoying the sunshine), but she is here, smiling and working hard.

Most of my work day I'm in my corner office (okay, so it's a corner cubicle, but it's a big cubicle and I'm right by a bunch of windows), sitting at a desk (unless I'm on the warpath tracking down someone who is late on a project and is ignoring my emails/voicemails) listening to music on Pandora. During my lunch break, I can play games on my iPhone, check up on my favorite sports teams on ESPN, update my blog, or laugh at pictures uploaded to People of Wal-mart dot com (if you need a laugh and want to check it out, click here).

Looking at it like that, it definitely made me rethink my pity party today.

I would like to say thanks to all the "Martas" out there for all they do. We appreciate all your hard work!! Now, I'm not saying you need to go out and ask every stranger their name, but a simple, "hello", "thank you" or even a smile can go a long way. Just something to think about as you go out today.

Be blessed!

If I Had My Life To Live Over...

After receiving this in an email today, I wanted to share it with you. It was written by Erma Bombeck (February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996). **I have found this posted on numerous other websites so I'm sure I can legally post this (seeing that I'm giving full credit to Mrs. Bombeck).** This can be found in her book, Eat Less Cottage Cheese And More Ice Cream. I LOVE the title of that book!! And in honor of Mrs. Bombeck, I shall eat some Blue Bell ice cream later today!

Some of my friends might know that I am a fan of Mrs. Bombeck. She was a humorist who wrote a column for many decades, and also published numerous books. For my Speech Performance final in college (which had to be performed in front of an audience of 250 people), I did my monologue on Erma Bombeck (this was the first and last time I ever appeared on a public stage speaking. We'll discuss my stage fright issue another day).

If I need a good laugh, I'll read one of her books. But, she also knew how to make a person think about life. I'm posting this today as a reminder to look at what are really the most important things in life. I'm guilty of sometimes "sweating the small stuff", and not paying attention to what is more important. I hope you take time to read her words and think about them!

If I Had My Life To Live Over
by Erma Bombeck

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television-and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realised that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's." More "I'm sorry's" ...But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.

Stop sweating the small stuff. Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what.

Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.

Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually.

Life is too short to let it pass you by. We only have one shot at this and then it's gone. I hope you all have a blessed day.

Thanks for the reminder Erma! You are still missed even today!

For more info on Erma Bombeck, go here.

Spread the Word to End the Word...

My sweet niece Stephanie told me about this a few weeks ago. Today is "End the R-word Day". I agree 100% with this organization and I myself have signed the pledge (available online).

For more information about this, please go to the official website here.