reverie

The beginning of November marked 4 years since I moved to Texas.  Were it not for my nieces' and nephews' unwavering and increasingly successful quest to best my height, it would seem nearly unfathomable for that much time to have passed. Just before I left Los Angeles, I had the delightful opportunity to see Flyleaf in concert for a third time.  I finished my last day at my job, took an unknown but efficient route to the airport to pick up my youngest brother who was going to help me drive to Texas, and then we headed to the concert.  We parked in the parking garage and headed down the elevator toward the venue.  Somewhere along the line I dropped one of our tickets, but luckily it was found as we retraced our steps.  Phew!  We met up with a couple of my friends, one of them the dear friend who introduced me to Flyleaf in the first place.  Flyleaf put on an amazing show as always.  Afterward we headed to Pink's for the best hot dogs in the world.  It was the perfect way

I heart Trader Joe's. I also heart bacon. So you can probably imagine how much I really love Trader Joe's bacon.  Their uncured applewood smoked bacon is the best ever.  I'm fairly certain it could bring about world peace, you know if everyone in the world was allowed to eat bacon under their religion. The bacon duct tape above was part of my sister's birthday present to me.  It's particularly fantastic because as I was planning my birthday dinner I thought, how many bacon items would be too many?  I ended up going with 2 only because there weren't enough people to warrant an abundance of bacony goodness.  In case you're curious about the correct answer, though, there's no such thing as too many bacon items.

I believe in love letters and birthday cards and notes just because.  I believe that there are few things more thoughtful, more personal, more caring than a handwritten letter, note, or card.  I believe in snail mail.  I have been horrible about putting this belief into practice over the last several years, and I am working to rectify that now. Awhile back I bought supplies for an address book.  To most people this would mean a little book labeled "Addresses" with alphabetized sections and lines on which to write friends' and family's information.  Being me, I had to do things my own way.  After a significant amount of contemplation, I decided the supplies I needed for an address book were a 3-ring binder, photo binder pages, 3x5 index cards, sheet protectors, and Sharpie pens. I am not a paid spokesperson for Office Depot.  I have been a long-time Sharpie fan, and I was ecstatic when they came out with pens a few years ago.  The pens do not disappoint.  I kee

Step 1: Purchase delicious and nutritious coconut oil from Trader Joe's. Step 2: Consume the entire contents of the jar--probably not all at once.  I recommend making scrambled eggs, eggs over easy, roasting vegetables, and making pie crust.  Coconut oil is a fantastic 1:1 replacement for shortening, just make sure to refrigerate the coconut oil long enough for it to solidify.  You can also put a tablespoon of coconut oil in your morning tea or coffee for an energy and brain boost.  I know it sounds weird, but just try it.  It'll make your lips nice & soft too.  My sister and I also discovered on Sunday that you can apply a generous amount of coconut oil to corn tortillas to make them pliable enough for homemade taquitos.  The taquitos were delicious, not greasy, and did not taste coconutty. Step 3: Once you've used every bit of coconut oil you possibly can, soak the jar in hot water for about an hour.  The hot water and any remaining bits of coconut oil will hel

In my nearly 9 years of blogging, I have only missed my first day of February post once.  If you're new around here, first of all welcome and thank you for stopping by!  Secondly, February is a cherished and beloved month for many reasons, but primarily because it's my birthday month!  :)  Some other cool people I know have birthdays in February too.  I just started to list them, and then I realized it's actually a lot of people.  Woohoo February birthdays! I love celebrating and birthdays are no exception.  Life is a gift and our days are numbered, so what possible reason would I have not to enjoy it? Here are a few other things I'm stoked about this month. Psych FINALLY returns!  This is one of my very favorite shows.  It had a doozy of a season finale last April.  Yes, that's right last April.  Nearly an entire season of baseball, the postseason, winter meetings, and the start of spring training will have taken place before Psych returns from hiatus.  That

I have a Women of the Bible devotional that I recently started re-reading.  When I bought it several years ago, I sort of skipped around and did more of a topical study and never completed the whole book.  This week the book caught my attention and I decided that I would go through it in order this time. Naturally, the book begins with a study of Eve.  Last night the reading was on the fall of man.  Having grown up going to church, I've heard this story about a million times.  It's easy to assume you already know everything there is to know about a Bible story when you've heard it more than once before.  Of course, that's a bad assumption because God can always reveal something new to you in scripture, no matter how many times you've heard or read a certain passage. Last night I was really struck by Genesis 3:21.  "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."  In context, this is right after God explains what being cursed