Dinner Party

I've now had my first official dinner party at my new house. I invited my parents, sister and two friends over for a homemade dinner.

I made steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade italian bread, italian salad.

For dessert was angel food cake with strawberries.

Apparently, I've got the steak and potatoes dinner down to a tee. Now it's time to try making something new....... Off to the cookbooks I go.

Oh yeah....

Tonight, we had a redneck dinner. Corndogs and mac-n-cheez. Note the "mis-spelling." That's because it wasn't even Kraft, it was Dierberg's. Although, we didn't notice enough of a taste difference to go back to buying Kraft. So 2 for $1 it is.

Then, Ben asked if he could go play with Justin, and of course I said yes. How can I say no to my sweetie-kins (God, I'm disgusting....)? So I drew a bath, lit some candles, and turned on Delilah. Finished the night off with painting my toenails.

Life is good.

By the way, have you heard about "The Secret?"

Show Me Your Mamma!

FlipFlop Mamma just set a "challenge" of Show Me Your Mamma! In case you're wondering, I've added FlipFlop Mamma's blog link to the right. I read her blog regularly, and I want to share her with the world. She's awesome. But I digress..... So here's my mom... and my dad and my brother and my sister-in-law. My dad reminds me of Henry Winkler and Alan Alda. Don't ask me why, but he always has. And that is my mom's NATURAL color. Her nickname isn't Red for no reason.

BTW, I'm so proud of my brother. He's just made Specialist grade in the Army!! Go Army! And my sis-in-law is preggers!!! She's due a couple weeks after my 30th birthday. Can't wait!! I'll be a "real" aunt. Technically, I'm already an aunt like 17 times over, but I inherited them all at my wedding.

Ghost Rider

Went and saw Ghost Rider last night with friends. Good movie. Nic Cage wasn't bad at all. Some Elvis like looks during that movie, tho. Kinda funny. Eva Mendes, eh. Not bad, not great. Donal Logue rocked like always. Love them funny redheads. Peter Fonda was really good. I'd recommend this movie.

BTW, Happy President's Day. I sure hope you have tomorrow off like me!! :) (Sorry Morgan...)

Do You Believe?

Today while catching up on laundry and relaxing, I watched an Oprah show about psychics and mediums. Her central question was "Do You Believe?" I cannot honestly say that I believe one way or the other. I've been having a bit of a spiritual crisis for a few years now. With me being a scientific minded person, I find it hard to believe in God. Part of me thinks that perhaps there must have been a God that started our whole universe, but now mostly stands on the outside looking in.

Because of my Christian upbringing, I find it hard to deny God as well. Part of me fears that in not fully believing, that will damn me to hell if/when I die. But another part of me feels that a God would not want people to just blindly follow, but come to their faith through careful and thorough consideration. Faith should be a journey, I suppose. I'm just walking that line between belief and disbelief.

As for the psychic and "otherside" beliefs... hmmm... once again, I don't know. The scientific part of me says that once those electrical impulses stop passing through your body, that's it. You're gone. No other side. Life is over for you. The more spiritual side of me feels that physical life is over, the the soul continues on. That part of me believes that souls do keep watch over their loved ones.

I've had two experiences that make me feel more like "life" continues after death. The first one happened when I was in college. There was a ghost story of a young lady who had been killed in the 1970's. Supposedly, her ghost continued to look over the college kids in our dorm where she had been the head Residential Adviser at her death. One day, as I walked into my room, the radio on my clock radio began playing. I checked it, and it was set to "Off." The alarm was not set, and in fact the volume was set low, yet it was REALLY loud. A little freaked out, I went to my suitemate's room, and her boyfriend told me to go back in the room and tell Joan (the ghost) to not do that, it scared me. So feeling a little silly, I returned to my room and told her to not do that, it scares me. The radio turned off at that moment. I later found out that a more sensitive friend of mine had seen Joan's apparition in my room the previous semester. To my knowledge, Joan had not lived in the room I was in. But I often heard odd noises, like marbles dropping on linoleum floor in the room above me, but when I'd pass that room to go to a friend's place, that room had carpet. It was weird.

The other experience I've had is that there have been times when I have felt my late grandmother with me. Out of nowhere, I get thoughts, feelings that she is with me. It's weird. And comforting.

What about you...do YOU believe?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here is a beautiful photo of a rose for all my readers. Have a sweet day!

P.S. While searching for a nice pic, apparently Google Images believes that Viagra photos make for good "Valentine's Day images." Try it. It's fun finding out what people/software lists as an appropriate image....

Ksdk

So this morning's Question of the Day on Today in St. Louis (our early morning NBC news show) was "what are your favorite childhood memories of snow?" So I wrote in about my time in North Dakota as a kid. My letter made it on the air!! I'll have to have my hubby make a video of it and help me post it. I've now been on KSDK like four times (not including re-runs of Show-Me St. Louis)!!

Here is a link I found (with the help of my friend Bob):
Jennie on KSDK

Now, that isn't video, I'll still have to make a video.... but that's the article with all the submissions that got sent in. Mine was one of two read on the air. Woo hoo!!

Four Things

Four things you may not have known about me....

A) Four jobs I have had in my life.

1. McDonald's worker
2. Food Service provider at Panda Express
3. Camp counselor
4. Camp Director

B) Four movies I would watch over and over.

1. Just about any Disney movie (except Pocahontas, that one sucked)

2. RENT
3. Steel Magnolias
4. Spaceballs

C) Four places I have lived

1. Waterbury CT
2. Belleville, IL
3. Minot AFB, ND
4. West Harwich, MA ( we lived on Cape Cod with my grandparents for three months while my parents tried to find a house in Maine)

D) Four TV shows I love to watch

1. Heroes
2. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
3. My Name is Earl

4. The Office

E) Four places I have been on vacation

1. St. Maarten (Dutch/French Virgin Island)
2. DisneyWorld
3. Yellowstone (while it was burning)
4. Houston TX


F) Four of my favorite foods

1. Steak
2. Chinese
3. Ice Cream
4. My mom's cooking

G) Four places I would like to be right now:

1. on a cruise ship
2. on a beach
3. Paris France
4. Space Camp (which I get to go to this summer!!)

H) Four people I think will respond

1. Jessica
2. Morgan
3. Katie
4. Bob

No pressure y'all... just e-mail your responses to me, or blog them.

Laptop is fixed!!

Go Ben!! My honey is the BEST!! Seriously, all my female friends who check this on a regular basis have nice husbands/significant others, but my husband is the best. He was able to switch out the hard drive and configure the whole thing within a few days.

So now I'll try and blog more regularly again.....

I hope that you've all missed me.... I've missed you!

P.S. Note that I've added a Bloglines subscription button on my sidebar to help you all add me to your bloglines list! If you don't have one, you should. It helps me keep up with all my friends' and family blogs (winks out to Morganarama, MellyvStomach, Lackadaisacal Motivation, Bobbio, and the FlipFlop Mamma!)

Sorry for the long wait...

Laptop crashed.... using my sister's 'puter to let you know. Hopefully will be up and running by the weekend.