It’s good, seriously. Kevin will even drink it. This is saying a lot because I always have him test my drinks to make sure they are sugar-free (since I am no longer capable of telling the difference) and he always cringes and says “yes” except for with this, he’ll drink it.

Oh, and Mom or any other family that is still looking for gift ideas for me (people are not happy that I’m saying “get me something from my wedding registry”)–I WANT THIS:

Yes, an AeroGarden. Go ahead and laugh if you want, but when you have a belly full of my delicious food you will be glad you bought it.

Yesterday, I put up my little white tree.

She knows she’s gorgeous.

This weekend has really been one of thanksgiving. There are a lot of reasons to be thankful, but one in particular for me was getting a letter in the mail on Wednesday that I wasn’t expecting for another month. It was from the Oklahoma State Department of Education and it was my acceptance letter into the Alternative Teacher Certification program. Basically what that means is that I already have a regular degree and that I will be working toward finishing a few courses and exams so that I will have full certification to teach in Oklahoma. I cannot tell you what a blessing it was to get this news in the mail on that day. I am struggling in some areas and that is just what I needed to hear.

And on that note I would also like to say that if you don’t have something positive or supportive to say about me teaching, shut your face. I heard enough of it this weekend from someone and I am done with that.

Now, some links for this Sunday!

• I hope to have a household like this someday.
• “Next we’ll find out that Martha Wayne, Bruce’s mom, didn’t die either, and she sent herself forward in time to become Selina Kyle, the Catwoman. On the other hand, forget I said that. Morrison may go back to writing the title someday and it now seems likely he wouldn’t understand it’s a joke.”
• iProd: The kind of fun country kids have with PawPaw’s cattle prod. You didn’t hear that from me.
• Kevin! Look! Chicken coop!
• If you weren’t already aware, most people are jerks.
• “There’s the belief*, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell…That’s just not part of my religious makeup.” - Barack H. Obama. Good to know.
• He isn’t running a country, he’s hiding in a closet.
• Fried pies, yum. Next to donuts, that would be the first thing I’d go for on a high-carb day.

*Romans 10:13 & 14 - for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

Last night after dinner, I put a CD in that I realized was best kept a secret until after Kevin had proposed to me.

It’s that time of year. Today I did the Black Friday thing, nothing crazy though. Just a few stops for gifts around Penn Square Mall in OKC. I link to that because it has a PHENOMENAL gift featured there: a Remote Control Tarantula. I have seen one of these things in action and you cannot go wrong. Myself, I’m hoping for an iPod Touch. I should probably tell my mom that since she doesn’t read this very often. There was a Christmas a few years ago where it seemed like Mom and Dad bought a lot of iPods. Now most of us are making enough money to buy our own. That won’t stop me from asking for one so that I don’t have to part with my cash though!

Now, more gift ideas!

• Yankee Candles, especially their festive scents. I love having a home that smells of fir trees, cider, and firewood. Feels like life in the country.
• Twilight - You know for the tweens you cannot go wrong with this book…as much as I hate to say it. But it’s likely you’re too late and they like, already have all of them and have seen the movie, have the posters and soundtrack, yada yada.
• Neti Pot - Is it inappropriate to get someone a neti pot? Because I’m thinking I’d like one.
• A one-year subscription to Real Simple.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Here’s a favorite clip from my favorite move EVER–You’ve Got Mail. (It was what I wrote my final paper over in my capstone class. I know. It made me hate the movie for a while.)

“Gobba, gobba!”

Tonight, Kevin and I journeyed into the bowels of H–okay, Mathis Brothers, and bought a sofa.

I love it!

Thanks to Elizabeth Diefenderfer for her wonderful work on these. I can’t wait to see how the ones from the wedding turn out!

These, along with a few others that will be uploaded in the next few days, are only available to a few people on my Flickr. FRIENDS AND FAMILY - If you would like to view these photos, please comment on this post or email me and I will set up a guest pass for you on our engagement album.

Hope you enjoy my little link roundup here. Still working on my Pumpkin Spice blend coffee. I love low-carbing. Why? Two words: WHIPPED. CREAM.

Kevin and I are off to look at couches this evening at *cue organ music that makes you think of death and hades* Mathis Brothers. I have a reason for the music and I will tell you later. Suffice to say the ONLY reason I am going back is because I harassed no less than 15 people at that store until I got a $100 gift card.

THEN. We’re going to the mall and I’m going to spend a Sephora gift card. And honestly? Probably another hundred dollars of my own. Gah. I’m hopeless in there. And THEN we’re eating at The Cheesecake Factory for my belated birthday date.

And somewhere in there we’re picking up our engagement photos!

• This is a hilarious idea for a wedding. And only slightly creepy for my brother who was always scared to death by my dad whenever he made a change to his facial hair. Now, myself, I was scared of Granny’s wise men in the living room. The one with the black beard and crazy eyes freaked me out.
• I don’t about you, but that’s what I did on my birthday.
• My hometown (Elmore City, Oklahoma) has been experiencing a rash in cattle shootings. That raises some concern for me, but, I’m sorry, not quite as much as when the local devil worshipers were cutting one leg off a cow and leaving it to bleed to death. I dunno. Something about that doesn’t set well with me.
• Speaking of sawed off limbs…”7th Human Foot Washes Ashore on Canadian Coast.” I have watched enough crime dramas on TV to know that you have to study the tides before throwing stuff like that in the ocean. Seriously. So either this dude (statistics say it’s probably a dude*) knows what he’s doing and wants people to find these feet OR he’s an idiot.
• Please press charges. She could be your grandmother, folks.
• Note to self: hold your breath when you visit California. But seriously, there’s probably more than one reason to do that.
• “Rino Season Is Now Open“–Obey the spirit of the wild. I think (if it’s still on the air) Ted Nugent’s show on the Outdoor Network (?) is probably the only one my dad refuses to watch. It doesn’t matter how entertaining it may be, Dad can spot crazy from a mile away. Through a Leupold scope, most likely.
• If you aren’t listening to The Grizzly Bear Egg Cafe, you should be. I’m not sure why I tune in, since I know next to nothing about comic books, wrestling, and half the stuff they talk about…but it’s great.
• Uhh…this is funny. “Yeah, I know gays have been treated like crap over the years - but they were never slaves - unless it was requested in a Craigslist ad.” *ducks behind couch*
• Kevin and I have already discussed this and we are going to have one in our own home whenever we have children. Thank you, Redneck Diva!
• Go buy some Christmas gifts! I link to this because it features something that makes me laugh, too: the “Nuddle” or “Snuggie” whatever you want to call it. The blanket with sleeves that makes you look like a monk.>
• The Friar looks to the future and tells us what the next four years will be like.
• You know what I have to say? Get over it. Like I told Nume over at Kick the Anthill, “I watched my dad bleed and clean turkeys hanging from my swingset outside my bedroom window by the light of the November moon.” And look how I turned out.
• Picking this up the next time I’m at the newstand! Yay, French Toast Girl!
• Oh my goodness…yes.
  

  Everytime I hear about the Twilight series it makes me want to edit the Wikipedia page on vampires and remove the word “blood”.

  “Although many different cultures have been found to have myths of vampirism, it seems one defining factor is that all vampires suck blood”

  But I am trying to have grace since some of my loved ones are OBSESSED. Sigh. This holiday season could be really difficult. Forget not talking politics, let’s not talk Twilight.

• It’s sweater weather!
• “It’s simple, really: the real purpose of this mass gathering is not to witness history–but to pick up co-eds. The fact is, there has never been a better wing man on the planet than Obama. With his amazing ability to unify everyone under a feel-good notion that you’re totally awesome and everything’s going to be peachy keen – he’s like a human version of an ecstasy pill. If you’re for Obama, suddenly making out with someone else whose for Obama is totally okay!”
• At least there is someone who is standing firm and not swaying like a reed. Good for you, Fr. Jay Scott Newman.
• Brits at their best–what the stones don’t say. Thank you to those who have gone before us.

*Statistics produced by my brain.

This is my friend Jolene and I, getting ready for the GodlyGals podcast. We decided to do a little recording before the show.

Subjects include: why we love Friday Night Lights, our nerdiness, high school, and a disgusting trip to the vet. Click through to hear our shenanigans.

(more…)

It occurred to me this morning that I am on a mission every Saturday (since my weekdays are really out of my control) the best day it can be. My body will no longer allow me to sleep in past eight o’clock in the morning, and most Saturdays I am awake before then unless I’m feeling under the weather.

This day is no different. I woke up, sufficiently rested after my average of 3 rollovers during the hour before I really wake up. I sleep like a dead person all through the night and then in the morning I have to change my position as I fight to stay asleep.

When I turned over this morning to get up, the clock glared at me with its wide, red eyes:

7:38

Are you kidding me?

He wasn’t, so I tossed the covers back and got out of bed. It’s always interesting to me to watch how people wake up and what they do. Not that I’ve had the opportunity to see many people in their waking up stage of the day. My immediate family, sure, my grandparents, some of my cousins (including the one who can’t keep her elbow out of my side), and a few friends and roommates. Not really Kevin, but kinda, since he spent Christmas with my family last year and someone woke him up about 2 hours before he was ready. Sorry, dude. That’s how we roll.

But it is interesting to see people as they shrug off sleep and open up to the morning. Some are quiet, some are moody, some, like myself, are pretty awake immediately and once I get around I am ready to go for the day. Coffee helps, of course, but I’m generally a pleasant person in the morning. Three o’clock in the afternoon is a different story because by then I need a nap. Bad.

I let puppy out of her crate in the garage and open the door that leads into the backyard.

“Go pee pee,” I say two or three times. She finally gets it, but she would rather play and we spend some time at the door with her slapping at my pink Croc, a shoe that does not offer the necessary amount of coverage a person needs on this sort of morning.

After she is fed and medicated I come back inside to check my email and get the day going. Something is calling me from the kitchen though and, surprise, it’s not coffee this morning. No, today I head to the fridge and pull out a pint of heavy cream, a measuring cup and spoon, cocoa from the cabinet, along with some cayenne pepper, Splenda, and some canned whipped cream. That, my friends, is a recipe for some tasty low-carb (high fat, high calorie, sugar-free, artery clogging) hot chocolate that cannot be beat. I admit that the cayenne does sound a little crazy and it’s not in the recipe, but I like the added spice. Ever seen Chocolat? Well, me neither, at least not the whole thing (I’ve never made it to the part where Johnny Depp appears…I think I must have been watching it on Pay-Per-View at my parents’ house and of course we didn’t buy it, so it got cut off in the middle somewhere) but I know she added spice to her chocolate.

This morning (and the past few) I am enjoying:
♥ hot chocolate
♥ the quiet
♥ the warmth of this house
♥ sunlight streaming in through a pair of white french doors
♥ the possibility of the day
♥ “brand new, with no mistakes in it”
♥ indentity by milan kundera
♥ wreck this journal by keri smith (and now, me)
♥ Friday Night Lights
♥ knowing next week exists and will be here soon
♥ the winter here’s cold…and bitter, it’s chilled us to the bone