Comfort Food

It’s that time of year. The cozy cool air pushes in, department stores mark up the “pumpkin, cinnamon, cider, latte, hazelnut, pine needle, harvest” candles, and we as human beings enjoy being inside cuddled up on our couches. With cozy cuddling comes comfort food. My most recent comfort food craze is Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but some classics include…Ramon Noodles, pizza, and Macaroni and Cheese.

SO

I want to know, what are your comfort foods???

* I must say this blog comes at a most inopportune time being that I am running in a race this Sunday. Maybe I should start comfort food eating on Monday. CRUNCH. Oh I’m sorry I just couldn’t resist…race shmace.

First facial...and last facial.

INTRO:

So if any of you guys know my most recent hobby, it is my soccer team. (Enter shameless plug: BCSSL and our team is the Macropods). Anyway, this new hobby isn’t really all that new, I have been playing soccer since I could walk. I never joined a club league because my parents wanted me to have a more balanced life. But I play in a league with some random people now, and I love it!


ACTUAL STORY:

In two separate soccer games my poor big toes were trampled. Both big toes, in separate games, turned purple. I am a huge pedicure girl, so you know this is a shot to the heart…or the toe. Both of them were damaged enough that they started to grow out…yes this is getting nasty. I have been walking around just wondering when they would totally fall off.

WELL, today I went to get a facial, which a friend gave me as a gift, so it was my first time to go to this place. My facialist begins to lean me back in the facial chair (Those of you that haven’t had a facial, they tuck your arms in real tight under a blanket) and as she is leaning me back, my left foot just barely taps my right toe and two seconds later I hear what you can imagine, my toe nail falling onto the floor. THERE I WAS, tucked into the facial bed completely immobilized and my big toe nail was lying on the floor. I immediately gasp and my facialist (whom I just met) asked what was wrong. In utter embarrassment I told her what had happened. So the poor lady had to retrieve the toenail!!! It was a little hard to relax after that. The facialist probably thought that the facial creams were burning my face, but really it was just the embarrassment.

My dad can beat up your dad!

To: Big Bear

I've been reading in Matthew lately, it is my favorite gospel. I came across a passage that reminded me of my dad. It’s Matthew 7:7-11. The basic idea of the passage is, “Ask. And it will be given”. As I was reading I immediately thought of the way that my dad has always loved me.

It was about 6 years ago, I had just finished my freshmen year of college and I worked that summer at a camp (Insert my shout out to Texoma Lutheran Camp, RIP). At camp I played around with some of my friend’s guitars and I wanted to learn how to play. So that semester, being that my parents wouldn’t let me work, I asked my dad if I, they, could buy me a guitar. I didn’t really know how to play yet, so my dad said no. I was so upset because my thought was, if I don’t have a guitar, I will never learn how to play to prove myself, therefore I would never be able to get a guitar…oh the tragedy. A little upset about it, I went along my way. However, I think that my dad knows me better than I do. Bound and determined that spring, I suckered somebody into loaning me her guitar for 2 months. It was one of those old Ovation guitars, with a round back and strings as hard as diamonds and as rough as sandpaper. My fingers did not love that thing.

Anyway, to the sacrifice of my roommates at the time, I learned to play the guitar in that two-month period. I practiced all summer and for my birthday, my dad bought me a guitar. It took me almost a year to get that guitar, but I wonder, if my dad had just bought me the guitar when I first asked, would I have actually learned how to play?

My dad always encourages me when I play, even though I’m not that great. But I truly don’t think he sees/hears any fault in my playing. This is the very way that the Lord looks at all of us that are covered by our Savior’s blood. Faultless. What a true reflection of our relationship with God, and the way that He loves us. Thanks Dad!

From: Running Deer

Losing Face

Do you ever feel like you do all of the stupid things that you do in front of the same people. Like at school, when I trip it always seems to be in front of the same colleague. Or how about this…the other day I went to open a door and walk in and I PULLED. Who does that? And of course it was in front of that same colleague. Maybe subconsciously I have decided that it is better to really “lose face” in front of one person and get all of my stupidity out, and then for everybody else, they can just continue to think that I am a completely normal, high functioning member of society.

The Day We Chanted

For some reason I come up with a great deal of my blog topics in church, The Work Laugh, came straight from Sunday morning. I know it’s bad but I always write the topic down and go straight back to paying attention.

Anyway, this whole thought came out of something that we don’t normally do at my church, but last Sunday was a different story. It could be referred to as chanting, repeating, or reading as a whole. Whatever you call it, it involves speaking out loud as a group. This makes my skin crawl. One of the reasons I go to my church is because we don’t chant or repeat as a congregation. (Not really, I chose my church because God called me there and if they want me to chant I will chant).

So why does this bother me so much? I mean I am the annoying girl sitting by herself, singing at the top of her lungs, because I love to sing. But when it comes to repeating as a whole I just can’t do it. BUT STOP! I make my students chant!!! I am a chanting hypocrite!!! I make them say things like. “Of means MULTIPLY” and we don’t line up decimals when we multiply because, and they say, “Math teachers are lazy!”

In conclusion, I promise to stop making my kids chant and if you see me at church during a chant I am probably putting on lip gloss or pretending like I am looking for a friend…and by the way, thanks to the family a couple of weeks ago that asked me if I wanted to sit with them, maybe they are non chanters, and we can start a whole non chanting row, and let it spread. Then one day when they want us to chant nobody will chant!! It’s the overthrow of the chant!!!

The Work Laugh

A dedication before I begin: To all my beloved colleagues, you know I love you guys and really think you are all funny, I just had to parallel my thoughts with a Friends episode. The work laugh can be used in many situations. And you know you have done it too!

I don’t know if anybody remembers the Friends episode where Monica discovers that Chandler has a horribly annoying work laugh and she tries to convince him that he doesn’t need it. But after a terribly awkward situation Monica realizes that it is just better to have a fake work laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agb8h0fGlVw

In the essence of drawing parallels, my current life situation complements this Friends episode quite nicely. See the problem is, that people make jokes and I don’t think they are funny. When people say something that is not funny, doesn’t make sense, or isn’t relevant I just don’t laugh. It’s not funny, and it doesn’t need my laugh. My thought was that hopefully the absence of laughter would help mold their humor. * I am not saying that my opinion on funny/not funny is the end all. We all know I have told me fair share of bad stories, jokes, and one-liners.

However, my plan has backfired. It turns out that this is a rather pompous attitude and I am just coming off as a stick in the mud; with no sense of humor…go figure. Either that or nobody that I work with is funny. So I talked to a good friend that told me I might just need to get a work laugh. She said her work laugh was…”ha, that’s funny”. So I have been practicing work laughs and I think I have a good one. Here’s how it goes…I do a quick closed mouthed “ha ha” and then calmly move my head back then to the side and then point my finger at the person, and give them the YOU RASCAL look. So my new plan is to test it out and let you guys know how it goes. Let me know if you have a good work laugh that I could try.

Man/Women crushes

Before I get started I must state that this is a joke and nobody in this story actually has a crush on anybody.

So a couple of years ago I was dating a guy that was really into wakeboarding. He had a nice wakeboarding boat and we would go to the lake a lot. One time we met a guy on the dock that had a wakeboard, but no boat and he asked my boyfriend if he could have a quick ride. So we took the guy for a ride. It turns out he was a professional wakeboarded and my boyfriend was completely ecstatic the he was driving him. After the ride was over my boyfriend had forgotten, in my opinion, that I even existed. He must have asked the poor guy about a hundred questions. After the whole event I told my boyfriend that he had a man crush on the guy. My boyfriend didn’t like that, but I couldn’t resist. (Note to self: you probably don’t currently have a boyfriend because of reasons as such).

On a more current note, due to a similar situation, the idea of man crushes came up in a group discussion, and the question was thrown to the girls, “Do any of ya’ll have women crushes?” I immediately informed the group….“phhh NO”. BUT Later that night I was headed to bed and all of a sudden I realized that I have a women crush and I was surprising okay with it!!! Even to the point, where I told my women crush that I had a women crush on her. Oddly enough it was, whoI refer to as, “my math boss”. (Note to self: don’t tell my boss I have a crush on her). It’s a wonder I make it through life…