This and That

~Sophie now thinks her name is "Awww!" We say it so many times around her (because she's always doing something cute) that she now responds to "Awww" more than she does to "Sophie."

~Once again, despite the fact that I live 10-15 minutes from a huge, international airport (Dulles), I have to drive Amanda all the way to BWI instead in order for her to fly to my mom's for a visit. My mom lives in Virginia Beach so it's only a 20 minute flight. If we want her to fly out of Dulles, the cost will be in the $400's. Versus $100 something from BWI. Which really sucks because it is going to be a loooooong drive.



~My Tivo has failed to record the last FOUR...count 'em....FOUR episodes of Big Brother. How do I live after something like that? And I'm on dial-up, so I can't go to CBS to see the shows. The first time, it aired at around 1 in the morning because of basketball (bleh). But it actually aired at like 1:55 so I only got five minutes of it.

Then, it didn't record three shows and I thought it was because it wasn't on. I thought that they were taking a break while basketball was on. Only my husband informed me that there were no games the days that it aired. Crap.

So I made sure it was taping this Sunday. I saw the little red record light on my Playlist along with the name "Big Brother" and thought all was well. Until I went to watch it. And the first 30 minutes was "60 minutes"(ha!). So I settled in to watch the first half of the show for the last thirty minutes of the taping (are you following me?).

But, about five minutes into that, despite the fact there was no rain or wind or any other possible cause, our satellite went crazy and it was all garbled and broken up. I couldn't hear or see anything at all for the entire thirty minutes.

I will go insane if it does not record it tommorrow. And to have missed four episodes of my favorite show? Totally sucks!!!!



~That is the cutest baby ever, little Miss Emma, whose mommy is my best friend from middle school, Shannon. Shannon is the first "real life" friend I've told about this blog (just recently).

~Almost every reality show this season has my kids' names on them: Matthew, Natalie and Amanda. Big Brother has all three, Surivor has Amanda and Natalie, and The Bachelor is Matt with two Amandas vying for his affection. Weird!

I'm Now Officially a Bunny Murderer

We made it to my MIL's for dinner this evening and we had a wonderful time. We watched a home video of the kids when they were little and "Mark" was on them. It was bittersweet. It was so good to hear his voice, but so hard at the same time.

So on the drive home, I was already feeling a little down. Suddenly, a sweet, little bunny jumped out in front of my van. I tried to swerve one way just at the same time the bunny tried to dodge my van. Meaning we both went the same way.

And. I. Killed. The. Bunny. I ran right over him and you could hear him hit the bottom of my van.

On. Easter.

Who kills a friggin bunny rabbit on Easter?!!!!! I feel like I killed the Easter bunny.

I've never hit an animal on the road before. I've always been able to swerve and avoid them. But not this time. Of all times.

I sobbed hysterically all the way home while my husband tried to convince me that "maybe he survived it somehow" which only gave me visions of him wounded and suffering in the woods somewhere.

I wanted to go back and find him and hug him and tell him I'm sorry and bury him. But my family wouldn't let me, which is probably a good thing, because only a crazy person would do that. But I felt SO awful. And I can't stop thinking about the poor, little guy. :(

Happy Easter!

To all my friends who celebrate, a happy Easter to you!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. - 1 Peter 1:3

Good Friday

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

In honor of Christ's sacrifice for us, it is a tradition for Catholics on Good Friday to make prayers and acts of reparation to Christ. The intention is to repair any acts of blasphemy and insults against our Saviour in this day, in rememberance of the hatred, mocking, and insults he suffered during The Passion.

Here is one such prayer (Even though this is a Catholic tradition and prayer, I believe all who love Christ can show their devotion in this way...you can simply change up some of the words in the prayer to suit your faith):

O Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer, Son of the living God, behold, we kneel before Thee and offer Thee our reparation; we would make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against Thy holy name, for all the injuries done to Thee in the Blessed Sacrament, for all the irreverence shown toward Thine immaculate Virgin Mother, for all the calumnies and slanders spoken against Thy spouse, the holy Catholic and Roman Church.

O Jesus, who hast said: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you," we pray and beseech Thee for all our brethren who are in danger of sin; shield them from every temptation to fall away from the true faith; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss; to all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity!

For this do we pray, most merciful Jesus, in Thy name, unto God the Father, with whom Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen

Peace to all on this holy day.

Holy Thursday

Today is Holy Thursday.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice
for they shall be satisfied
Blessed are the merciful
for they shall obtain mercy
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God
Blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called children of God
Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven
Blessed are you when men reproach you, and
persecute you, and
speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you,
for my sake.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)

Be blessed.

Coming out of the Dark Age

This is me sporting my new Ipod:



(Note: No one is ever around to take photos of me...how selfish are they? I couldn't back the camera up enough to get my face AND the IPod in the shot...not that anyone probably cares, lol)

How could I have spent so much time living in the dark ages? My gosh I am love with this thing! (Thanks again, Avi!) My favorite songs right now? Well, anything Timbaland, whom I worship. I exercised yesterday to:

~Elevator (Flo Rida and Timbaland)
~Low (Flo Rida)
~Umbrella (Rhianna)
~Hips Don't Lie (Shakira)
~Give it to Me (Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado)
~Obsession (Animotion)
~Break the Ice (Britney Spears)
~The Way I Are (Timbaland and some chic)
~Say it Right (Nelly Furtado)
~Piece of Me (Britney Spears)
~Gimme More (Britney Spears)
~Crazy On You (Heart)
~Magic Man (Heart)
~Promiscuous (Timbaland and Nelly Furtado)
And then I cool down to:
~Let's Get it On
~Sexual Healing
~Kiss You All Over
~The Pina Colada Song

Now I just need to figure out how to get my newer songs onto CD from Itunes (instead of the other way around...I figured that out fast...yay me!) so Amanda and I can dance to them.

Dancing is my favorite way to exercise. You totally don't even notice the time go by. *love*

My Grandma - The Snake Killer

This is my grandma:



She is 87. Her knees are really bad and she can barely get around anymore.

Having said that, when I talked to her on the phone the other day, she related this story to me (read with the sweetest old lady voice you can):

"There was a BIG black snake in the yard and I tried to chop him up with a hoe, but it didn't do anything to him!"

Hahahahahaha!!! I have this image of my little, sweet grandma hacking away at a big ass snake! First of all, I would've run the other way!

But not my grandma. She went after it with a friggin' hoe!!! But either it was too dull or she was too weak because it didn't put a dent in it, rofl!!! So there she is chopping at it while it's just squirming all over the place like, "WTF lady?!!"

My grandma so rocks!

Blonde's Favorite Things

Before I go into this post, can you believe the news about Patrick Swayze? So sad.
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Note: How big are the photos in this post? Geez! And I am NOT going through the trouble of loading them all again on Blogger so just bear with me.

I figured I'd pull an Oprah and have a favorite things "show" here. (This is NOT a paid or sponsored post, btw). If only I could REALLY be like Oprah and give you all of my favorite things. THAT would be fun.

Okay, ready? Favorite things #1:



The best smelling perfumes, evah!



From the Victoria's Secret Dream Angels collection, Heavenly is by far the best. And look:




It sparkles and glitters! What more could a girly-girl ask for? Then there's this:



Japanese Cherry Blossom from Bath and Body Works. It's smells soooo delish! I even bought a set of Wallflower plug-ins in this scent.

Okay, now for a drink that I found that I can't get enough of:





IZZE sparkling juice....in sparkling blackberry. It's all natural fruit juices mixed with sparkling water, and I could live on this stuff 24/7 it's so good.

Now for my favorite photo and my favorite LOL Dog:



How cute is that? And one of the comments on the post was even cuter. It was, "Doan come no closer. I kute you to def!" Awwww!

Now, I haven't even gotten this one yet, but this will soon become one my favorite things:



That, mah friends, is one fine lookin' Ipod Shuffle. And it will soon be mine, thanks to Avitable. I won this puppy on his blog just yesterday. Yay me!!! I can't wait to exercise to all my sexay music. Thanks, Avi! I will worship you forever and I will think about you every time I'm sweating on my treadmill. :)
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Now a couple of plugs for a couple of my favorite friends. First, my friend Heather McElhatton, author of one of my favorite books ever, Pretty Little Mistakes:



Her book is up for an award over at The Minnesota Book Awards. So go and give her your vote. She totally deserves it!

And my friend Flip, from The Flip Flop Mamma, has a wonderful Etsy store with wonderful goodies. My favorite being:



her homemade chai tea. Mmmmm! It looks so yummy!

She's having a giveaway to promote her store, so head on over and enter.

Oh, and have you checked out my store yet? *grin*