Trip through the summer.

The summer of trips is in full swing. It all started on Memorial Day weekend when I went with the girls to the Stonewall Resort in West VA. The resort (more like a lodge) was great, but the real fun took place on the road to WVA. Our first stop was in Harper’s Ferry where we opted for the 2 mile hike into town in our sandals and flip flops. The park ranger took one look at our outfits and suggested we take the shuttle, but we had none of that.

We walked around, had lunch, checked out some shops, got some rock candy, and a stamp on my passport and headed off to Antietam where I got another stamp. Yay! Post-Antietam is where the fun really began, and by fun I mean Wal-Mart. We went to Wal-Mart twice!!! And look what we got!

Kandi found 4 white sequined tube tops that cost only $1 each!! We couldn’t pass these up so we bought them without hesitation. Within minutes of arriving at the hotel, we were all sporting the tube tops and looking mighty sassy, I must say. And yes, there are pictures but I will not be posting them. All those sequins might burn your eyes. Then Rachel had the brilliant idea that the tube tops could double as mini skirts. We quickly did a switch-a-roo and came out (she in her Barbie and the Rockers t-shirt and me in my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups t-shirt) with the white sequined mini skirts. Again, no posting of the pictures, but man were they great!

I forgot to mention the glorious deliciousness we stumbled upon before we arrived at the hotel. It’s called the Dairy Crème Corner, but I like to refer to it as the Dream Crème Corner because if I could pick something to dream about, it might very well be funnel cakes. We got off the exit to stop at a Wendy’s or some such fast food joint and saw this:

Whoa! Stop the car, do a U-turn and let’s get us some funnel cakes!! But it gets so much better. They had a whole assortment of fried things. The fried Cauliflower was amazing!! We didn't even get any dairy products at the Dairy Crème Corner. Just loaded up on fried greasiness and went on our merry way.

We got even more adventurous the next day and went kayaking. And it was great. Definitely something I would do again and again. I dubbed us the kayak-tresses. I think Lyndsay put it best when she said this pictures resembles what Broadway might look like if they ever did a show in kayaks. Liza with a kayak, anyone??

Well, that about sums up the Memorial Weekend trip. Last week I went to Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine and Fort Myers. Another good trip which I will post more about later. This weekend Liz and I are headed down to Charlotte and then we're off on the big road trip 07: New England! 3 more states will be crossed off the list. Woohoo!

This is the day that the Lord has made.

I'm rethinking the Pilates for Jesus thing. I don't want to look back twenty years from now and see something like this.

Help! I'm a Deacon's Wife!

This was one of the many great books my small group stumbled upon last night during an outing to the Christian bookstore. Unfortunately, I could not find a picture of the cover of this marvelous book but I will do my best to descibe it. Picture your typical Southern Baptist deacon's wife: shoulder length brown hair, bangs, red shirt with shoulder pads, (or you could picture any of the lovely ladies from the old school videos for the Beth Moore, A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place study) but then slap on some bright pink blush, fuscia lipstick, throw your hands up in the air and put a look of shock on your face and there you have it - the look of a woman who has found herself in a state of despair and confusion because she has no idea how to be a deacon's wife. I dread that I too may one day face this awful situation should I marry a man who God calls to be a deacon in the church. I can only pray that an updated version is published: Help! I'm a 21st Century Deacon's Wife!


On another Christian bookstore note, for those of you who have men in your lives, you may want to pick up one of these:

I have a new favorite movie.

Well let’s be honest. If you know me, you know I use the word “favorite” pretty loosely, and I have about 37 favorite movies, but this movie has certainly made it close to the top of the list. And the movie is…. Drop Dead Gorgeous! Loved it. Why?? Well, it had four of my favorite things: Liza, Jesus, quotes from other random movies, and former SNL cast members.

The Liza references were so great and so unexpected! The best line comes when Brittany Murphy decides to drop of out the pageant and says “Let’s be honest. A family only needs one Liza.” This is so true. I am my family’s Liza.

The random movie quote is “Soylent Green is people.” My Dad loves the movie Soylent Green. Whenever you are eating something and you’re not sure what’s in it, just say, “Soylent Green is people.” :)

The former SNL cast member is Nora Dunn who plays one of the state pageant officials in the movie. She starred in my very favorite series of SNL skits as Liz Sweeney of the Sweeney Sisters. I love the Sweeney Sisters. I wanted to be a Sweeney Sister. I dreamed that Lorne Michaels would call me and ask me to fill in or play the long lost sister. Well, it turns out there was a long lost sister, Audrey, who showed up in one skit and was played by the one and only Mary Tyler Moore. I have that entire Sweeney Sisters’ show memorized and am willing to perform it for anyone who asks.

Jesus is all over this movie, because the people of Mount Rose are good Christian people. When asked, "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" Becky Ann Leeman replies, “I'd have good strong roots in a town like Mount Rose, a solid Christian trunk, and long, leafy branches to provide shade for handicapped kids on a hot day.” Ok - that's pretty funny, but you just can't beat her performance during the talent portion of the pageant.



And there you have it. I love this movie!!

Lost in a Dream

Last weekend me and the mom and the bro went to Jamestown for the 400th anniversary celebration. It was a fun trip. We saw James Earl Jones, Ricky Scaggs, Bruce Hornsby, Chaka Khan, and Governor Kaine (although I’m more a fan of his wife Anne - partly because of her name and partly because she has a great dad who I have been singing about since I could sing). Anyway, the day at Jamestown was great! We lucked out and got VIP passes to the Hornsby concert which totally rocked.

But the greatest moment came later on that night. We’re cruising back to the 757 in the Hoopty Van (that’s the name I bestowed on my mom’s minivan when I was in high school. She has a new van now, but the name has carried forward). So we’re rolling along and it’s pretty quiet in the van when all of the sudden I hear from the back seat… "Straight up now tell me do you really wanna love me forever, oh oh ohhh. or am I caught in a hit and run?"

I just about died. It was my 26 year old brother bustin' out the Paul Abdul. For no reason. Except that he's awesome.

We sang Paula all the way home.

Accounting conferences are boring.

This was the big conclusion of the day. It was halfway through a discussion on FAS 157 that I decided it was time to get out of the financial world and open Sweet Anne's or the PFJ Studio. That would be Pilates for Jesus. I'll teach pilates and we'll play worship music in the background. Wouldn't that be a great combination?

Also, since I almost fell out of my chair due to extreme boredom and exhaustion during the conference yesterday afternoon, I decided I would take some preventative measures and drink some caffeine today to keep me awake. So for the first time in my life I drank a diet coke. And I almost drank the whole thing!! Boomama and Sarah would be proud, I'm sure. I usually stick to water since caffeine after 3pm tends to keep me up til all hours of the night. I love the taste of coke, but since I'm trying to lose a pound or seven I decided to go for the diet. And it tasted pretty good! Now we just have to wait and see if I can sleep tonight (I stopped drinking it around 1:45 so hopefully I'll be ok).

Random Stats about my life.

Yes, I’m a freak and I like to keep all kinds of random data on my life (actually it’s mostly all financial data, but by tracking how much I spend in different areas, I can also track the number of times I frequent certain places). So here goes:

Grocery Stores:

Last year I purchased groceries 121 times, which means I visited the grocery store (on average) once every 2.3 days. This makes me very happy because the grocery store is number 3 on my list of favorite buildings to walk into (church is 1, the library 2, mall 4, fdic 5). Giant came in first place with 48 visits and Safeway was a close second with 44. Harris Teeter took the bronze with 23.

Gas Stations:

Exxon came in first with 35 visits. Shell and Sheetz came in second and third with 13 and 10 visits respectively. If anyone is curious, I spent $1130.38 on gas last year. To be honest, this really doesn’t seem all that high considering how expensive gas was (and now is again) and that I went on an almost 6,000 mile road trip.

Shopping:

I made purchases at the AT and ATL a total of 17 times. I won’t tell you how much I spent :)

I only went to Wal-Mart twice which kind of makes me sad. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a fan.

I made 11 purchases at Amazon.com.

Dining Out:

I ate out at least 139 times. This is difficult to track because sometimes I’m forced to use cash when eating out with a large group. My restaurant of choice for 2006 was Subway. I went there 29 times. So far this year I have only eaten there once. I’m over the sweet onion chicken teriyaki and have moved on to Quizno’s roasted chicken honey mustard flat bread salad. Yum.

Travel:

I purchased three plane tickets in 2006 (Jamaica, Seattle/Alaska, and Italy)
I purchased four train tickets (Seattle to Vancouver, and tickets between Rome/Assisi/Florence)
I stayed in 15 different hotels.

Entertainment:

I purchased music from iTunes 27 times.

I saw 14 movies in the theater last year. I think I can name them all. They are: Rocky Balboa, the Queen, the Departed (ahhh, why did I sit through that movie???), Thank You for Smoking, Little Miss Sunshine, Talladega Nights, Stranger than Fiction (you know I love me some Will Ferrell), A Prairie Home Companion, A Good Woman, Curious George, Failure to Launch, The Benchwarmers, Akeelah and the Bee, and The Devil Wears Prada. I did not see Snakes on a Plane.

So there you have it. I'm a freak. But as Boy George says "if you knew what I knew, you'd be a freak too."

100 Hours*

That's how long it has been since I last applied chapstick to my lips. And for those of you who know me, you know that this is a miracle that has only occurred by the grace of God. I am a major chapstick addict. I apply it approximately 3 times an hour, and I've been known to hyperventilate when I don't have any within arms length.

According to my friend Janelle, it will take 3 weeks for my lips to heal themselves. Right now they are dry and red and cracked and downright funky, but I'm still alive and that's what matters. The first two days were pretty painful, but since yesterday, I haven't been thinking about it much. I keep listening to the Lincoln Brewster song "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord." Call me crazy, but just singing that chorus in my head instead of thinking about chapstick has really helped. Yay God!

I wonder if the Salvation Army takes unused tubes of chapstick? If I really break free of this addiction, I've got about 10 unopened tubes that will need a new home.

*I had too many titles to choose from for this post. I almost called it "Revive our Lips"; a play on Nancy Leigh DeMoss' Revive our Hearts ministry but didn't know if anyone would get it :)

Funchester

This weekend me and some friends headed to Winchester for the Apple Blossom festival. Wayne Newton was the grand marshal and Cissie Graham (Billy's grandaughter) was the queen, but the star of the show was my dad and his tractor (IMO). Here are some pictures.

And here's a little video of dad in the parade. Ignore the last few seconds when some women runs into me :)

Jesus called again.

Or someone who wants me to love Him.



Yes, this is the call log on my phone at work. You will imagine my surprise when I came back from lunch and saw "Love Christ" at the top of my phone. I told my secretary about it and she was just beside herself with how amazing it was. It was a great afternoon of remembering how awesome Christ is and of showing everyone else in the office that Jesus really does exist because he just called me. So there, you non-believing co-worker peeps (no I didn’t really say that).

At first I saw it as a reminder that Jesus loves me, like he had just left me a message and signed it "Love, Christ," but it was also a reminder for me to love Christ above all the other crap I tend to focus my heart and mind on. God is always working to turn my heart back to Him - even through random phone calls.

Well, a couple of days ago the secretary came running down the hall saying "Guess who called?, guess who called?" I'd forgotten about the whole "Love Christ" thing until she yelled out "Jesus!!" Man was she excited that he'd finally called her! I've been praying that God would do some work in my office and it looks like this is a start! So I'd like to thank Him for putting Mr. Love in this job, and I would like to thank this guy's mother for naming him Christopher Love, and finally I'd like to thank my place of employment for truncating names in the call log after 10 characters.