TV Rundown

Here's some shows I love right now...

1. Survivor - Mark got me hooked last season. I have no idea why I love to watch them stab each other in the back...but I do.
2. Mythbusters - it taps into my science side without all the boring research school required.
3. COPS - I only watch it to listen to Mark narrate what the cops are actually thinking... :)
4. Wings - gotta love Nick at Nite.
5. The Closer - hands down my favorite show on television. If you get TNT you have gotta check it out. You'll love it as much as I do.
6. Criminal Minds - seriously creepy sometimes. We have to Tivo this one and watch it on a night when Mark doesn't leave me in bed at 4 am.
7. Clean House - I have had thoughts of junking up my house just so I can get a makeover. Sick, I know.
8. Almost anything on HGTV.

Messin' with the template on my blog... I gave up last night when I got really tired. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to finish tonight!

Green Dinosaur?

I had an interesting conversation with Lance this evening. It went a little something like this:

"Jeanne, is that a cross on your shirt?"

"Yup. It sure is."

"Jesus died on the cross but now He's alive. Right?"

"That's right, Lance."

"Where does Jesus live?"

"Jesus lives up in heaven."

"The green dinosaur lives in heaven, too."

And then he walked away. I have no idea who the green dinosaur is. I must admit...I am curious.

Tagged!

Ok, Tina. Here goes!

Got this by email, but thought I'd post it here.. The way the game goes is if you read it, you must post it on your blog... Answer in 4s please..

WHAT WAS I DOING TEN YEARS AGO?

16 years old and getting my driver's license, playing in the band, singing in the choir, NOT paying a mortgage!

WHERE HAVE I LIVED?

Shoreham, Vermont; Washington, IL; Manchester, New Hampshire; Carson City, Nevada

WHAT SNACKS DO I ENJOY?

yogurt and berries, brownies, any little debbie snack cake, vanilla wafers

WHAT JOBS HAVE I HAD?

office cleaner, job coach for disabled adults, junior high history teacher, music director

IF I HAD A BILLION DOLLARS I WOULD?

pay off our house and LANDSCAPE.

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY..

laundry, vacuum, weed front yard, clean kitchen and dinner with friends

4 THINGS YOU"D BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT ME

I was the runner up for Prom Queen Senior year of high school, I hate the sound of a bathroom fan, I really want to be a dancer

MY FAVORITE THINGS TO DO ARE:

spend time with family, travel, be outdoors

O.K., YOUR TURN...

AAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Seriously. I am so excited right now I could just pee my pants.

I have had a long and frustrating history with Sprint PCS Wireless. My contract is up on July 5th and we were planning to make our escape then to AT&T (unfortunately having to pay Mark's early termination fee).

We get unbelievably sketchy and stinky cell coverage at our house. AND to top it off the screen on my phone broke so I can no longer use the PDA or see who is calling me. Really frustrating. Especially for someone who likes to know who is on the other end of the phone before she answers.

Cell phone companies make you sign a contract for a reason: They want your money. I totally understand that. But I thought it couldn't hurt to try and reason with them see if they would release me from my contract a little early. So Thursday Mark and I went into the local Sprint store. I pleaded my case. They told me to pound sand.

Ok, I expected that. Mark expected that.

But I still thought I could maybe reason with someone who would take pity. So today I called Sprint Customer Service. After a very rude encounter with the first representative I spoke to I was transfered to Account Services.

I pleaded my case. She actually listened. She tried to sell me a new phone. I thanked her and gently reminded her that a new phone would not solve the issue of coverage at my home. And you know what I found out?? Our home is OUT OF SPRINT COVERAGE.

Ha! I say, Ha! Mark and I are not crazy. We really don't get cell coverage at our home!

It also means that after I fax some documents verifying that we actually do reside at our house we get RELEASED from our Sprint contracts with NO PENALTY.

I know you can't see me right now...but I am doing a very fun and very crazy HAPPY DANCE!!!

This is the best day ever!!!!!!!

Yeah, but...

I have many flaws. Some of them small...some of them not so small.

One big flaw is my tendency to criticize my husband for what he doesn't do instead of appreciating the things that he does. I'll say "thank you" in one breath and add a " but you didn't..." in the next.

Example: Mark is extremely good about taking the full kitchen trash bag out to the trash can. He's not so good about remembering to replace the bag in the kitchen. Yet I am ashamed to admit that more often than not instead of thanking him for taking the trash out I am criticizing him for not replacing the bag.

So I am working on just saying, "Thank you" for taking out the trash and simply replacing the bag myself.

Or he'll do laundry and stop short of folding it. My gut reaction is to be annoyed that he didn't finish the job. But is it really a big deal that I have to fold the clean laundry? He washed it, afterall.

How about, "Thanks for washing the laundry. I appreciate it." And leave it at that.

We are less than a month away from our one year anniversary. The farther we get into marriage the more I realize how important every word I speak to him is. Careless words can wound where careful words can bring life.

How bout it? How often do you affirm or thank the people around you without tacking something you feel they did wrong to the end of it?

The Block has been blocked...

Read this and check out what my cute husband has been up to at work...read the whole article! I'm so proud of him :)

He's back...

I convinced Mark to join the blogging world again. His new blog address is www.warning-humor-ahead.blogspot.com. Check him out! He should be working on it in the days ahead!

Resurrection

Here I am at the end. I'm in need of resurrection.
Only You can take this empty shell and raise it from the dead.
What I've lost to the world, what seems far beyond redemption.
You can take the pieces in Your hand and make me whole again.

I've been thinking a lot about these lyrics since I first heard them a couple of months ago. Something about them strikes a chord with me.

Probably because I feel as though I too have lost a lot to the world in the last few months.

Time.
Health.
A baby.
Hope.

Trying to navigate the waters of this season have been no easy task. The water is rough and the waves at times, enormous. Hard going when there are days you feel like you are trying to make it in a battered rowboat instead of a cruise ship.

It's easy to try and tell God He's made mistakes in your life when you are trying to bail water out of your dilapidated little boat. "Sure God. Drown me. Super plan." Blame is no doubt the easier way to feel better temporarily. But I heard my pastor say something the other night - He said God will always use two things to grow you to spiritual maturity: suffering and obedience.

Crud.

Suffering and obedience.

The worst part is it doesn't explain anything. It doesn't make it hurt less. It doesn't change my circumstances. It just means that He who began a good work in me will see it through to completion.

Here I am at the end. I'm in need of resurrection.
Only You can take this empty shell and raise it from the dead.
What I've lost to the world, what seems far beyond redemption.
You can take the pieces in Your hand and make me whole again.

It means what I've lost to the world only God can redeem.

Buffalo Burgers and Grocery Shopping

Because of our schedules, Mark and I NEVER get a full day off together where it is just the two of us. One of us is either working or we have kids.

But not this week! I had the last couple of days off, and at the last minute Mark was able to get them off too. Short of us being out of state together, this was the FIRST time in almost a year of marriage that we'd had one full day off together alone - let alone two in a row! I almost didn't know what to do!

Thursday we decided to make the trek up to Reno to check out the new Cabella's . It's Mark's most favorite store and it was fun to see him excited about finally getting to go. They have a small but really good cafeteria in the store where we decided to eat lunch. They sell all sorts of game like elk sandwhiches, buffalo burgers, etc. I opted for a safe cheeseburger, but Mark ordered the Buffalo Burger. Turns out it doesn't really taste much different than regular beef. After we ate we wandered around the store and took pictures like we were tourists!
It was a blast! Even if you aren't a big hunter/fisherman/outdoorsman it is a cool store to wander around for a while.

Friday we didn't have any big plans other than just getting to hang out together. We went grocery shopping (yippee...) and spent the rest of the day at home. We've been talking for a while about moving the kids to the bigger bedroom and decided it was a good day to do it. It took us almost all day - sorting through junk, moving furniture and cleaning. It still isn't all the way finished but it feels good to have gotten so much accomplished.

The two days were really a gift of time that we are really grateful for!

December's almost gone - which is really strange since I swear it was just last weekend that we did our Imagine Christmas production. But the calendar tells me it was actually quite a number of weeks ago; and the calender doesn't lie.

The month is a blur. A crazy, exhausting, emotional, joyful, rollercoster blur. Truthfully, I am kinda glad it is almost over.

I thought I would share a random story from my day: I am driving to church this morning with the children in the backseat, talking to Mark on the phone. Lance and Tyler keep trying to get my attention, but I am trying to finish my conversation with Mark. They get more insistent, so I pause my conversation to see what they need. They promptly inform me that the guy in the car next to us was on America's Most Wanted last night and we need to call the hotline to turn him in.

Ah. It was the best part of my day.

You're a kid of the 90's if...

You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

And im blue da ba de da ba die!!! aka im in need of a guy!

You remember watching:
-Doug.
-Ren & Stimpy.
-Pinky and the Brain.
-AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!
-Rockos modern Life.
-RUGRATS =]


You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west philidelphia born and raised . . ."

You remember:
-Full house.
-Step by Step.
-Family Matters!!!
-Dinosaurs.
-Boy Meets World!!!!
-Double Dare.


You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

when everyhting was settled by:
-rock paper scissors or
-bubble gum bubble gum in a dish or
-daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.
-skunk in the barn yard
-ms. mary mack
-big mac a tea a tea


when cops and robbers was a daily activity.

when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.

when we used to obey our parents

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

You remember watching:
-The Magic School Bus.
-Wishbone.
-Reading Rainbow.
-and Ghostwriter on PBS.


You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.

You remember those Where's Waldo books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching:
-the 1st Batman
-Aladdin
-Ninja Turtles
-Animporphs
-ghost busters


You remember Ring Pops.

You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.

Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them.

You played and/or collected "Pogs" :)

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

one word. . . . . . . . Furbies.

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 95 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.

Michael Jordan was a king.

YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Carebears

Gak was the coolest stuff invented.

Lambchop's song never ended.

The old dollar bills.

Silver dollars, which were cool to have.

Everyone watched the WB and yelled at people who interupted them.

You collected all the Troll dolls

If you even know what an original walkman is.

if you still have one.

You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.

You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.

Before the MySpace frenzy . . .

Before the Internet & text messaging . . .

Before Sidekicks & iPods . . .

Before MIKE JONES . . .

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .

Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkman.

When checking out drawing books and that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.

You had slap bracelets!

Way back.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

Super taster???

his lecture and learned some very interesting tOur friend Lucas is working on his graduate degree in Neuro-Science at UC Davis in Northern California - so he came over to our house to spend Thanksgiving with Mark and me this year. He is a TA for a professor there and is giving a lecture on Tuesday about taste. (I got a preview ofhings about my tastebuds.)
Lucas became convinced that I was a "supertaster," meaning that I have an above-average number of tastebuds in my mouth. To prove his theory we coated my tongue in blue food coloring. Apparently, blue food coloring will dye your whole tongue blue except your tastebuds - allowing you to count them.

Here's a picture of my blue tongue:Unfortunately, Lucas could not determine from that test if I was a supertaster or not. But he did take some pictures of my tongue for his research.

It was fun...it an odd sort of neuro-science way.

Illinois Bliss

Mark and me on the Peoria riverfront.
Mark and me in front of the bonfire my Dad built Tuesday night.
Me and my friend Laura on the field at the Whitesox stadium.
Me, Mark, Suzanne, Peter, Laura and Dad in the stands at the Whitesox Stadium.
Mark and a gorilla at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

We all had a great time. Lots of treasured memories.

Synopsis

Much has happened in a short time. Here's a synopsis:

Went to Illinois. Had a great time.
Came home and went to UNR/Hawaii game.
Car was burglarized while at the game.
Purse/keys/laptop stolen. Window smashed.
Very angry/annoyed/inconvenienced.
Window fixed. Bank accounts a mess.
Had a super Thanksgiving.
Back to work.

A Delicious Moment

Warning: If the November 1st episode of Survivor: China is still in your TiVo not yet watched...I am going to spoil the ending.

I'm sorry - but could there have been a better way for Jamie to have been sent home? The entire episode I was dying to know if she was going to be ridiculous enough to play the fake immunity idol. I will admit that I was yelling at the TV hoping it was going to be so.

And it was so. Perhaps I should have more compassion on her in light of her humiliation. I highly doubt she will ever live down Jeff Probst throwing her fake idol in the fire. But reveled in the moment and did a little dance when her fire was extinguished.

Now to vote off her counterpart, Phee-Gee.

At long last....

Just like Steve posted a few days ago...A picture is worth a thousand words.

Road trip

So last Monday Mark and I took a little road trip to Hope Valley and Markleville to see some fall colors. We were about a week late to see anything good in Hope Valley. Most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees. But we stopped in several places in Markleville and got some really pretty pictures. Here is a little photo journey....

It was the best day I have had in a long time. :)

Lessons learned

How much do you look like Jesus? My three year old step-son Lance got me to thinking about that question today.

This weekend we had a powerful drama in our services in which Jesus was portrayed in the traditional first century garb.

He saw the drama during rehearsal this morning and only had one question for me: "Why is Jesus here at church?" Tyler, my six year old stepson had the answer - "It's not really Jesus. Just some guy that looks like him."

Just some guy that looks like him. It got me to thinking. How many people were present this weekend that looked like Jesus? How much do I look like Jesus?

Ya think we were tired?

My husband and I had dinner plans last night. Too bad we both fell asleep on the couch at 6:30 and didn't wake up until 10:00 pm. We just scratched dinner altogether and crawled into bed. Unfortunately Mark had to get up and go to work at dark-thirty - but I was blissfully asleep until 9:00 am this morning.

Ah, sleep.