1. I got back from Walt Disney World about a month ago. It was awesome, but it was HOT. As in we were in the park that has the least amount of shade on a 92 degree day with 92% humidity. Yeah. Luckily, my husband has finally agreed that we’re never going down for our anniversary again AND that he promised to never complain about the cold in Jan/Feb when we’re in Florida.

2. My husband has taken to a liberal use of powder (all kinds- baby powder, athlete’s foot powder, Gold Bond medicated… you name it, he uses it) in our master half bath. When I commented on the now white floor, his response was “Yes, I like to call it my…(yes, he really paused for dramatic effect) powder room.”

3. I can now be called a card carrying health nut. I’ve switched to coconut oil for almost all of my frying needs, with the only exception being when I really think butter or bacon fat is just too perfect. I am now drinking raw (unpasteurized) whole milk, and even enjoying it when it starts to go sour. I’m tossing all of my table salt and replacing it all with sea salt (if you get the right kind, it even tastes better), using my cast iron skillet as much as possible, and have just this week soaked grains and sprouted pinto beans to reduce the phytic acid in both. I’ve managed to find high fructose corn syrup and soy free tortillas, and despite the huge list of preservatives, consider that a major victory. I’ve found a local farmer’s market that sells grass fed/pastured meats, raw milk, high heat/short time pasteurized unhomogenized milk, and farm fresh eggs.  And I spend much time every day reading Kelly the Kitchen Kop because, well, it’s interesting and she’s nice and there’s a lot of good information that’s easy to understand on it. I’ve been wanting to give her a quality back link, but I can’t think of any terms that she might be trying for… And, as usual, when I went to her site to get an idea, I got sucked into more interesting posts. So, check out her politically incorrect nutrition blog, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you about getting sucked in for hours on end!

4. I had the misfortune of seeing one of my co-workers doing the Macarena. *shudder*

5. I really need to post more often!

6. Oh, and about that whole coconut oil/full fat milk thing? Yeah, I lost 13lbs in about 2 weeks.

Hubs and I are sick of renting. Sick of having to call in the maintenance guy to fix the crappy equipment that comes with the place, sick of the horribly drafty doors and windows, the literally hollow baseboards and trim (I kid you not, what wethought was solid wood was in fact rotted out leaving the form of the original wood in the paint so that it looked totally normal until we accidentally pushed too hard on it and it caved in), the mysterious leak from somewhere around the tub that leaks through the ceiling in the kitchen and INTO the ceiling light’s cover. The kitchen faucet that can only be turned off by pushing down on the center of the thing rather than the actual handle, and now we just had to have a part replaced in one of the toilets to stop the jackhammer noise that woke me from a dead sleep 2 hours after I went to bed after a long day. I’ve already talked (at length) about the neighbors, and now the CO2 alarm goes off every time I make chicken or turkey broth.  I’d mention more, but I don’t like to complain. (insert tongue into cheek here)

So hubs and I found a cute little end of unit townhome in an awesome location. New community, immaculate exterior and yard, ditto for all the neighbors. Only problem is that it was a 2 bedroom 1 bath, and for all of its shortcomings, our current home is 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath plus an additional toilet (weird set up). So, we sat on it for a few days, unsure whether we should apply for a mortgage, set up a viewing, etc. A few days later, we looked at the listing again and it was under agreement.

No big deal. We really liked the house from the outside, but really? were we ready?

We’re still not sure. But after this weekend’s incident with the jackhammering toilet, we’re a little more ready than we were. My friend wrote a post on waterproofing basement walls which is a good reminder that not all is rosy in the home owning world. I would hope that a home we buy would be in better condition than this place, but at least the fix is free when you rent!

In the meantime, my internet marketing income as well as the posts like the one just before this is starting to creep up. It’s not enough to make the difference between home ownership and renting yet, but it’s getting closer. I just need to keep hammering away at my sites, and eventually we should be able to start looking at homes that are in the slums and actually have all the amenities we require. I hope.

However, in the last week I’ve received two books to review, one of which is the second in a series that I haven’t read, so I have to read the first book as well. That review is set for the middle of August. I’ve also been given the chance to endorse a new book by one of my favorite authors, which means that I have to read it first- and that’s due approximately a week later at the latest. And it would be just rude to make the other book review wait more than a month or so, since that one was sent directly from the author who wanted me to review it on my Christian Fantasy Squidoo lens.

I absolutely do not regret agreeing to any of these, but it does mean that I’m going to have to put the mouse away and start reading instead of farming.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another book to finish reviewing, so that I can send it out to a friend tomorrow!

Consider cars that backfire, and yet when you look outside, there’s no vehicle on the street? I believe that I have solved this mystery.

It’s the Knight Bus from Harry Potter’s wizarding world. Remember how it goes crack and jumps to another area of Britain altogether? Well, I’ve decided that the Knight Bus doesn’t just deliver silly wizards to various places in Britain, but all over the world. And those non-existant cars that backfire? Well, that’s just the Knight Bus apparating and disapparating.

Ta-da! Mystery solved.

Anyone who’s known me for 5 seconds can guess that I’m not a sports fan.  Seriously? I could give a rat’s…. tail.

But my husband asked if I wanted to go to the Hershey Bears VS Wilkesbarre-Scranton Penguins game, and thinking of research for my novel, I agreed. And to be honest, I really didn’t get into it, but mostly because my brain kept wandering off into what my MC would be thinking as she watched the game.

But there were some amusing moments during the game.

I’m not sure what it is with sports having stupid things during the intermissions, but they had some people come out wearing sumo wrestler outfits to hit some pucks into the net. I don’t know what they won, but the other sumo ended up flat on his back on the ice and couldn’t get up without help. Which I thought was funny.

The cool thing is, there was a fist fight in the first 2 minutes of the game. I thought that was awesome, but I was so busy taking pix of the fight, that I forgot to pull out my Flip and video it. I spent the rest of the game clutching my digital camera in one hand, and my Flip in the other waiting for another fight. It never came. This made me sad. Which annoyed my companions because I spent the rest of the game and the 45 minute ride home complaining about the lack of fights.

And for you sports nuts- that’s Cocoa posing with the Stanley Cup. I’m assuming that’s something important or special? My husband made me take the picture.

The Hershey Bears seem to be a pretty decent team, and won 3-2. On the other hand, they managed to not only miss a penalty shot, but took two shots at an unguarded net- and missed both.

The Penguins, however, seem to prefer slamming people into walls and sliding across the ice on their stomachs instead of their skates to actually making shots. Does this make them a bad team? Not necessarily. They may just have different goals than every other hockey team in the known world. I’m just sayin’.

Thing is, the only pickles we have in the house are those sandwich stackers, right? And they’re just not the same. So I decided to make a grilled cheese and pickle sandwich for breakfast. And then I remembered that I had crumbled bacon for my salads….

So I thought “What a great opportunity to practice my video editing skillz!”. What I really should have thought is “What a great opportunity to practice my filming skillz!” But I didn’t.

So, even though I had the tripod attached to my Flip, I still held it by hand and gave you guys plenty of time to study my husband’s egg pan instead of the pan I was actually using. Aren’t I just so thoughtful?

1. I wasn’t going to do this, because I couldn’t even think of 1 thing that most people don’t know about me after all the memes I’ve participated in.

2. Until Jersey Girl mentioned having a crush on Kevin Smith (Silent Bob of Jay and Silent Bob). I’ve had a crush on him for years as well, so there ya go.

3. And then I remembered that I haven’t seen Airplane yet. Husband bought it for me for Christmas, but I promised a friend of mine that I wouldn’t watch it until we see it together.

4. It took me something like a month to figure out how to use Twitter. Now it’s taking me longer to figure out how NOT to use it.

5. I’ve only read two books by Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park), but own 3 movies (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion).

6. I was humiliated in the 6th grade when despite having the highest reading comprehension in the class (well, in the top 3), and regularly enjoying books written around, oh, 1900, I failed miserably to comprehend Sense and Sensibility and gave up after 20 pages. And then was further humiliated by 3 other girls in my class “loving” the book.

7. Gurinder Chadha wrote, directed, and produced the original movie Bend It Like Beckham, one of my all time favorite movies. It’s my dream to work with this woman. However, she also wrote, directed, and produced Bride and Prejudice- a modern Indian version of Pride and Prejudice, and I hated it! This, despite the fact that I’m a devoted Bridget Jones fan. Then again, Bridget Jones had Colin Firth, so, yanno…

8. I consider Space Balls to be high art.

9. I got my mother hooked on listening to sermons online- and introduced her to one she’d never heard of before. She now calls me almost every day to tell me what she heard, and how awesome it was, and to be ecstatic over having something to do while daddy watches the news ALL DAY LONG.

10. I actually WANT to go to church, like, all the time now. That’s sooo different from how it used to be.

Now, I’m supposed to pick out several more people to tag, but I won’t.  Partially because the one that I’d like to tag the most, a brilliant writer,  has just lost his house in a fire. Somehow, I don’t think fulfilling memes will be at the top of his list right now.

more animals

That right there just explains so much about me, doesn’t it? I like squirrels so much that I own the domain NuttySquirrelBottom.com. Disturbed yet?

Btw- I’m going to be doing a series of posts with my affiliate links in them for easy reference for my mother and friends who want to give me a kick back with their purchases. So, if you see posts with normal titles like “Food and Drink”- go ahead and read through, but don’t feel pressured.

The thing is, I’ve just come out of a hard place, or am coming out of it now. Hard to tell depending on what time of day it is. Anyway, I’ve rediscovered my faith, and while it’s still a rough time, I just felt that it was very important to talk about this.

There are a handful of celebrities who have been on my heart lately. Blame it on Lynn Spears’ Through The Storm or what you will. I had the thought to start a positive celebrity blog, but I’m really not sure that’s what God has for me.  But I do know that while I’m praying for someone very important in my life, there are a few others that I need to lift up in prayer.

Britney Spears is one- though that may be because of her mother’s book. But also the Jonas Brothers who are professing Christians and are wearing purity rings. They’ve taken a LOT of flack in the media for that. And Christian or not, there is nothing wrong with abstaining until marriage. If they change their minds, I don’t want it to be because of peer pressure! And Miley Cyrus since she’s still essentially a good kid, but is starting to become affected by the limelight.

I started looking for a celebrity prayer list and found instead a rather strong gossip site. I know a lot of people love the celeb gossip sites, but I’ve turned my back on them (hold me accountable if I slip up!). Eventually, though, I found one site that either assigns you a celebrity to pray for or lets you pick one from their list. That sounded a bit controlling to me, though I’m sure that wasn’t the intention.

However, after a little more searching, I found Celebrity Prayer Network. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it’s close. While I have it on my heart to pray for all celebs whether they’re believers or not, this site focuses on those who seem to be most in need. Like I said, Christian celebrities need to be supported as much or more than other celebs to keep them from caving into the media machine. But it’s a good starting off point if you don’t have special celebs on your heart.

The other one would be Barack Obama. He’s about to take the highest office in our land, to be one of the most powerful men in the world. He definitely needs prayer. Whether you voted for him or not, he’s ours for the time being, and anyone needs prayer- a leader most of all.

So, I’m sorry to any of you who find this highly offensive, but the whole point of the blogosphere is to put ourselves out there, isn’t it? So that’s what I’m doing. This site is the “all of me” personal blog. I may not share my hurts in so public a forum, but there ya go.

Bet you never thought of that when you voted, huh? Poor thing, her best schtick….

*am doing an excellent job procrastinating on NaNo, thank you!*