Successful recipe #2

Pizza Spaghetti Casserole. This one was very good. And it was pretty quick and easy too...(assuming that you already have aluminum foil on hand and don't have to send your husband out to get some halfway thru preparation. And that while your husband is gone you can actually open the jar of pasta sauce so that you can have it all ready to go into the oven as soon as he gets back. =) Here's the link:

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/easy-one-dish-dinner-recipes-00400000045298/page10.html

Watched Return of the Jedi tonight w/Matt and Sarah. We've decided that after we finish Star Wars, we need to keep up our movie nights. The guys are threatening that Star Trek is next. I think that one might take a year or so to get thru at this pace. lol. The new movie that just came out was really good. I liked it a lot. But I'm sure a lot of you Heroes fans will understand when I say that I couldn't get over Zachary Quinto being Spock. All I saw was a sociopathic serial killer named Sylar. lol.

Well, I'm gonna go now. Micah is getting impatient to have his computer back so he can play some WoW before going to bed.

I must admit...

...I make a mean chicken chimichanga. My first new recipe was a success. I was full after 2...Micah liked them so much he ate 4. lol. The recipe was really simple. I got it online from Southern Living. Here's the link if you wanna check it out. Micah recommends it. =)

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/whats-for-supper-chicken-dishes-00400000052554/page27.html

My first day of vacation was pretty uneventful. Slept til 9 or so. Got up and went to the grocery store. Micah and I watched a few more episodes of Heroes online. We're trying to catch up on season 3 so that we can watch season 4 on tv. After that, I cooked supper, and now Micah and I are watching tv.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Casey is coming over around 11 and we're going to watch Evita. It's a musical based on a true story about Eva Peron, who was a very loved political figure in Argentina in the 40's and early 50's. She started off as the illegitimate child of some big shot (I don't remember exactly who he was...politician or something) and worked her way (albeit with questionable methods) to the top and married Colonel Juan Peron who eventually became president of Argentina. This is one of those movies that almost everyone has heard of, they just don't know they've heard of it. =) This is the movie with the song "Don't cry for me, Argentina!" Great song. I first saw the movie in drama class in high school, and I'm really excited about watching it again. It took forever to find though! I looked at 4 rental places in Henderson: Movie Gallery, Movie World, Freed's AV Library, and the Chester Co. Public Library. I was even going to try to buy it if I could find it, but alas, no one in the area keeps it in stock. Luckily, a friend had it and let us borrow it. (Janet is my hero!) So our movie date is back on.

Tomorrow night, we're having another movie night. It's installment #3 of our Star-Wars-culture-Val-nights. And I'm trying another new recipe. But I can't tell you what it is because it's a surprise! Teeheehee. =) I'll post the recipe tomorrow night, assuming it's a success. One part of the meal that I can tell you about is the honeybun cake I'm making for dessert. Be jealous. Be very jealous. =)

Roll Tide!

So I got told by a 4-year-old today at church that we couldn't be friends anymore because I'm not a Tennessee fan. lol. His dad has already brainwashed him. Poor kid. His dad, Shane said that Levi (that's the kid's name) got in the car and was like: "Dad! Me and Mrs. Valerie can't be buddies anymore! She's not a Tennessee fan!" I think he had probably sat with us in church that day and he was coloring with an orange marker and he told me that orange was TN colors. So I told him that red was better because that was Alabama colors. He was like: "But why do you like Alabama and not Tennessee?" So I told him that I used to live in Alabama and he was like, "oh ok." I can't get him to say Roll Tide though.

Levi and his little sister Lauren are our little buddies at church. Levi is 4 and Lauren is almost 3. A month or so ago, their parents, Shane and Kara, invited us over for supper, and ever since then, we've been a little attached to the kids, and they've been pretty attached to us. Lauren has a little crush on "Mithter Micah" and likes to come sit with us. It's adorable. I have a Drawing Pad on my phone with the touch screen, and they love to draw on it. It's hilarious though because I always give them a mechanical pencil w/out the lead in it to draw on it, just for them to have something pointy to use. But they both think that the color actually comes out of the pencil, even though they know how to change the colors and stuff in the settings on the phone. Lauren will be drawing and will stop and look at the end of the pencil after she changes colors like she's checking to see where it comes from. One time Levi wanted to draw on real paper, so I just got the same pencil and clicked the lead out so that he could draw. He was like, "This draws on real paper too?!" He was so impressed. lol. Then he wanted me to make the pencil draw blue. I was like, "uhh.....it only does one color on real paper..." lol.

I'm super excited about not having to go to work tomorrow. It's gonna be amazing. So far the plan is to get up around 8 (which is sleeping in pretty good for me. that's at least 2 extra hours), work out, put together a grocery list, go to town to the grocery store....not sure what I'm going to do all afternoon. But tomorrow night I think Joel and Tansy are coming over. The new season of Heroes premiered last week, so we're going to catch up and then watch the next episode tomorrow night. I'm kinda bummed though because House also shows Monday nights at the same time Heroes does. So if this becomes a weekly thing w/J&T, I'll have to go back and watch House online later.

Well, I guess that's all. I'll probably be heading to bed soon. Even though I don't have to get up early tomorrow, I'll still probably be crashing soon. I can't stay up late anymore like I used to in college. I guess that's just a sign that I'm getting old. =) TTFN! (I've already had to explain to my uncultured husband what TTFN stands for. For the rest of you uncultured people out there, it's from Winnie the Pooh. Tigger says it all the time. It stands for Ta-Ta For Now.)

Been a productive day.

Today was a very productive Saturday. I even got to sleep in. =) Micah and I went to the library at school to work on some of his homework. We got a lot of stuff accomplished, which was awesome.

Then we went to Jackson and ate a late lunch/early supper at Zaxby's. We decided to go shopping a little and hit up some clearance sales to try and get Micah some clothes. He's been needing some jeans and shorts really bad. Most of his have torn or something. We did surprisingly well! I was so excited! Micah is extremely hard to fit. He needs a 34 length jeans, and he can wear anything from a 30-32 in the waist. If you've been shopping for men's jeans lately, you know that they just don't make that size! (I was about to say none of you have any idea how difficult that is, but I'm pretty sure some of you do. Between my dad, my granddad, and my brother-in-law, he's not the only tall lanky one in the family. My poor kids don't stand a chance. lol) Well, we hit the jackpot at Old Navy. We found a pair of jeans (on clearance!) that were 31-34s. It's a miracle. He can actually wear them without a belt! All of the jeans he has now, we had to get them bigger in the waist to get them long enough to fit his long ole legs. So, if he doesn't have a belt on, his pants will quite literally fall off. We also found a pair of shorts at Old Navy on clearance, and a pair at Target for $4.98! Jackpot!

Now we're back home, watching Heroes. This show is crazy! You think you've got it figured out, and then they throw you for another loop! So I should probably be paying attention b/c if I miss something, I'll be lost for the rest of the series. TTFN!

Free at last, free at last!

Today starts my 9 days of vacation! I'm really excited. I need a vacation so bad. It was funny b/c it was really easy to get out of bed this morning, and I was productive and in a good mood all day today at work. It was like I was already getting re-energized just anticipating my vacation. =)

So what am I going to do with all my extra free time??
-Tonight we've got a movie night planned with a couple from church. They're on a mission to culture me. (I usually talk about Micah being the uncultured one, but this time it's me.) I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies, so we're on Star Wars movie night #2. I blame it on my parents. They never watched/liked Star Wars. I had to marry a geek before I became even remotely interested. lol. (And I'm not being mean...Micah will admit that he is a geek. And I'm a nerd. We've come to terms with it. lol)
-Tomorrow, I'm going to the library with Micah to help him on some projects for school. Although I might have to ditch him for a little while to go watch the Bama/Arkansas game. (Roll Tide!) =)
-Other than that, I'm going to sleep in, read a lot, probably watch some TV series that I need to catch up on (we're almost done with season 3 of Heroes. and I'm borrowing the last 3 seasons of Friends from someone at church so we can finish those finally), organize the house a little, work on my lessons for ladies' Bible class at church, try out some new recipes, and whatever else I want to do.

I'll probably be posting something next week about the class I'm about to start teaching at church to get some feedback on. The book we're covering is about good and bad attitudes that we should/shouldn't have.

Now it's time to go get in the shower and then clean up the house a little bit before movie night. TTFN =)

Story time!

This post is a tribute to someone very special to me. This is the story of how it all happened.

It was my freshman year of college and I had joined the University Chorale. I didn't really know anyone in the group except for the cute guy that was in my Interface group. (That didn't have any influence on me joining, I promise....=) I didn't know either of the girls who stood on either side of me in the (awesome) alto section. A few of my friends from my Interface group were planning on coming home with me to Big Spring Jam in Huntsville. (For those of you who don't know, it's a huge concert w/tons of different bands there and it's lots of fun.) One of those friends happened to be another cute Minnesota guy from my Interface group. (He will come back into the story later.) I happened to mention it for whatever reason to the girl standing next to me in rehearsal. I kept thinking that her name was Nicole for whatever reason, but I knew that wasn't right. I just couldn't remember what it actually was. Well, when I told her about my plans for that weekend, she said something to the effect of:: "That sounds like fun. I want to come too!" So I said sure! The more the merrier, right? Turns out her name was Lauren.

That weekend was definitely one of the most memorable of my college career. That Friday night I got pulled over for the first time. We laughed so hard about the whole incident. We goofed off and all piled up on (and nearly broke) my bed. Lauren and I shared a bed, and the whole weekend we "argued" about whether I liked Ryan (the cute Minnesotan) or not, and whether I should date him. Because Lauren had kinda started thinking that she might like him, but didn't want to intrude if I had already claimed him.

After another month of denial, Ryan and I finally dated. It was one of those situations where we were best friends, so it could have either ended really really good, or really really bad. It turned out to be the latter. And the whole time, Lauren, my new-found friend, was there for me. She is one of the few people here who has seen me really cry. She's one of the few people who understood that I didn't want to talk, I just wanted her to sit there. The rest of that semester was one of the most trying times of my life. I wasn't sure what I wanted. The only person at school that was constant in my life was my Lauren.

The next semester, things got a little interesting. Ryan and I finally got to where we could be around each other again, and the main reason for that is because of Lauren. We were both close with her, so therefore we had to deal with each other. I dated another guy for a little while, but it was never meant to last. Upon the ending of that relationship, Lauren invited me to church with her. She had told me about a guy that went to church with her who was pretty cute, but she wasn't sure if she liked him or not. When we got there, this certain guy wanted an introduction to "Lauren's cute friend," so he threw a paper wad to get her attention. Well, he missed Lauren and hit the "cute friend," AKA:: me. And that was how I met Micah. But that's another story for another day. =)

Shortly after that fateful night, Lauren and I were walking across campus. She looked over and said in her mischeivous little tone that she has: "Val, can I ask you something?" Before she could even ask the question, I answered: "Yes, you can date him." She and Ryan had grown pretty close over the past few months.

So to make a long story short, I married Micah and she married Ryan. And the weird thing is...it's never been weird at all. A friendship like ours is the only one that could survive something like that. I mean really. Who else lets their best friend date and marry their ex, and still remains best friends? It doesn't happen much. And that's how I know that our friendship is unique. I'm not sure if I'll ever find something like it ever again. She's awesome. And I have no idea what I'd do without her.

I am telling you this story now because 4 years ago today, Lauren, Ryan, and I (along with a couple of others) all loaded up in my car and drove down to Huntsville for that Big Spring Jam weekend.

This next part is for La. It's a bunch of memories and inside jokes from the last 4 years::

Chi Beta Banquet from Hades, getting our ears pierced together, Tishomingo, poor Willard, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins, Gweedo and Fillmore, our signature funny face, dying our hair, purple hair, chorale dance team, Ralph and Charlie, the love octagon, cream cheese danish, pen fights, history class comic strips, chorale spring tour, Chow Wagon, cattle battle, midget slides, anybody wanna peanut?, invisible grenades, and I can't think of any more at the moment. I hope you know you're one of the best things to ever happen to me and my life would be incomplete without you in it. Love you, girl.

Thought for the day

"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."

I saw this on a random sheet of quotes on our memo board at home and it just reminded me of the blog I posted yesterday. I guess that's something that has just been on my mind a lot lately, so I see it in everything.

What direction are you moving in today? My direction probably wasn't the most positive one, at least for the first half of the day. I think I'm really really needing a vacation from work, and because of it, my attitude is definitely suffering. (Good thing I'm on vacation next week then, huh?) Hopefully the break will be enough to help me keep a more positive attitude at work.
After I got home from work tho, my day was more constructive. I worked out (P90X kicks my butt!), took a shower, started watching the season premiere of House online, ate at Los Portales w/Micah, came home, finished the season premiere (I'm so excited about this season!), and now I'm writing to you while Micah studies for his 2 test tomorrow. So maybe I didn't take any concrete steps toward Brazil like I was talking about yesterday. Not yet at least. Maybe now that I've admitted to being a slacker it'll motivate me to actually get up and do something about it. =) Talvez, eu preciso practicar meu portuguese. (That says "Maybe I need to practice my Portuguese.) And there's probably something wrong w/that sentence structure or something, which means I REALLY need to practice. lol.

That's all I have for today. I'm really liking this blogging thing so far. It's nice to just get my thoughts down on paper (ok, not real paper, but you get the idea) so I can organize them a little. In my head they're just all kinda jumbled up. **Nostalgic story real quick, then I'm done for real:: Saying my thoughts were all jumbled up reminded me. Micah used to ask me what I was thinking a lot when we were dating. Most times, I couldn't really pinpoint anything in particular b/c my thoughts jump all over the place, so I would explain to him that my thoughts were like bubbles. They hung around for just a little bit, then another would run into it and pop it...then that one would float away...and so on and so forth. So eventually instead of asking me what I was thinking, he would just tell me to pick a bubble.** Ok, nostalgic story over. Good night!

UP!

Hello all! Val here! So we have decided to start all over with our blogging. We weren't too successful at it when we first started it, so we're going to try again. Most of our family lives a few hours away, and it's hard to keep everyone updated on what is going on in our lives day to day. So! If you want to keep track of what we're up to, subscribe to our blog!

Another reason we wanted to start a blog now is that we want to get into the habit now, before we're REALLY far away from everyone. The plan is to move back down to Brazil here in the next few years, and we want to keep everyone updated while we're down there too. This will be our tool for letting everyone know what is going on when we can't talk on the phone everyday. We can post pictures and tell stories that you might not hear in a 30-minute phone conversation.

Here are some things you might find in our blog:
~School. (Micah is finishing up his Bachelor's degree in Missions right now.)
~Work.
~Movie reviews. Both of us LOVE to watch movies.
~Funny happenings.
~Family events.
~Random thoughts.
~Quotes.
~Devotional thoughts.
~Sounding board for us to bounce ideas off of.
~And anything else we might come up with!!

So here's the thought for the day:
Tonight we went to campus and watched the new Disney/Pixar movie UP. Extremely cute movie. Hilarious. I laughed soooo hard. It was also a little different from other Pixar movies. There were a lot of sad parts in the movie. Pixar isn't exactly known for putting out tearjerkers, but this one definitely was. And very thought-provoking as well. Hence the blog posting. =)

Here's a quick summary of the movie (no spoilers! don't worry!). There is a young boy and girl who love the idea of exploring. They nearly idolize a famous explorer, and dream of one day going to Paradise Falls, a place in South America that this explorer discovered. They grow up and get married. Life happens. Their savings fund for Paradise Falls soon has to go towards new tires, medical bills, etc. Before they realize it, they are both old and have still not realized their dreams of moving to Paradise Falls. The husband goes and buys plane tickets, but just before he surprises his wife with them, she gets sick and dies. (Told you it was sad!) And that's just the beginning of the movie. So don't worry, I didn't ruin anything. That was mainly just backstory.

As funny as the movie was, it made me think about a lot of things. It is so easy to let life get in the way of our dreams. We plan on something, and then life happens, and our plans get pushed back. And then something else comes along, and they get pushed back more. And sooner or later, we've completely forgotten that we had plans to do it in the first place. For us personally, this means that our plans to go to Brazil need to be in front of us everyday. Every single day, we need to be taking action to make that happen. If it becomes a passive thing in the back of our minds, it gets forgotten, and it never happens. Or it happens years later than we had originally planned. So what are the steps we're taking right now? Well, for one, Micah has gone back to school to finish his Bachelor's degree in Missions. I am (sporadically) working on my Portuguese. I'm hoping to get the Rosetta Stone software soon to help speed that process up. And both of us are starting to get involved at church. We are both still trying to find our niche. I am about to start teaching the Ladies' Class on Wednesday nights. I am also leading a teenage girl's Bible study with another girl about my age. And we both plan on getting involved with the Lads to Leaders program that the congregation is trying to start. Micah participates in worship in many roles, and is hoping to start working on his speaking skills more as well.

Who knew that a Disney movie could provoke so much deep thought? I guess I've rambled long enough. If you've stuck with me this long, I appreciate it. Remember to subscribe to our blog!

Love you all,
Val