Finished with my Experiment

Yesterday was the last day of my Flat Belly Diet experiment. I'm very happy with the results both in terms of  my size 4 jeans fitting like they should again and my GI issues are not acting up nearly as much as they used to (as long as I carefully watch my diet).

If you want to see my final measurements for proof that it actually works (even without exercise), check out my latest post on my Journey to a Size 4 blog.

Hubby & I are going to stay committed to the program as much as possible because we feel great on it and love the results (he lost at least 10 pounds - from where I don't know because he was trim to start). I'll make a "regular" meal about once a week and we'll try to eat out only once every other week or special occasions, but for the most part we're going to stick with it.

In other news, it's been CRAZY lately (thus the lack of blogging). I'm still working on the giveaway and hope to have something shortly. I'm also finishing up my nephew's birthday gift and will post that soon as well. I made some flop Valentine's cookies over the weekend - I'll spare you the details of those. And, I'm trying to watch all the Olympics I can but I'm a day behind so I try to avoid the news at all costs to avoid spoiling any events. But, wasn't that so sad about the Georgian luge guy? Heartbreaking. This Thursday hubby's taking me to a Broadway show and dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant for a belated birthday celebration. Friday we're supposed to close on the land. Never a dull moment in our house!

I'll try to be back soon with more consistent posting again.

Bought the Farm (almost)

I think I mentioned briefly that hubby and I are trying to purchase 94 acres of farm, woods and wetlands located around the corner from where he grew up, but connected to the hay fields that we currently hay. This property was bought by a commercial developer who subdivided it into 8 building lots. Hubby & I want to buy it all and put it in farmland preservation and then build a guest house over the garage that we’ll live in while we build the main house. Once the main house is built, we’ll give the guest house to his parents to use when they’re not out travelling and enjoying retirement or loan it out to people like missionaries and stuff who need a free temporary place to stay.

We got the good news a couple weeks ago that the bank approved the financing and we got news this past week that it looks like the investor for the down payment is going to come through. The Lord is good and provides in perfect time! It’s going to be a struggle to pay three mortgages each month until the farmland preservation goes through in about a year, but once we get that, it should completely pay for the 94 acres with enough left over to pretty much pay for the guest house.

Eventually we’d like to sell the other house we purchased a couple years ago, but we have to put the kitchen back in that before that’s likely. We’ve also talked with hubby’s parents about subdividing their 5 acre farm and selling that (the third mortgage we pay each month). In addition we can continue to lease the 94 acres to the farmer who currently raises corn and soybeans on it, or the hunters who hunt deer on it, and we’d use all this money to pay the mortgage until the farmland preservation comes through and/or build the main house.

It’s big dreams right now, but we know if this is where the Lord wants us, He’ll provide in due time.

Here are some pictures from a couple Saturdays ago when hubby & I were out walking the land and praying over it.

*HURRY* Excellent Valentine's Gift Idea

One of my friend's just posted in their Facebook status update that they got $100 worth of gift certificates from restaurant.com for $6.60. Seems that TODAY ONLY restaurant.com is giving everyone 80% off their entire purchase if they enter coupon code HEART at checkout.

I had to check this out myself and sure enough I just bought $145 worth of certificates for $13.90! This will be excellent gifts for hubby, my in-laws and my parents for Valentine's Day this Sunday.

Check it out now because it's TODAY ONLY! And, don't forget to enter HEART at checkout to get the deal!

Bananas Foster

When my brother & his girlfriend were visiting, hubby made us a delicious treat of one of his favorite desserts of all times – bananas foster. (Obviously this was before we started our FBD experiment!)

The handsome chef playing with fire after adding all the rum to his bananas.

He used some puff pastry dough that I had in the freezer and cut it into rectangles before baking. When they were done, we split them in half, placed a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and then topped with the delicious bananas foster. It was heaven on a plate.

 

The only thing hubby said he’d do differently next time would be to add a little less rum because it was a little strong tasting.

BANANAS FOSTER
from Southern Living

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 bananas, quartered
1/3 cup banana liqueur (if you don’t have, recipe says to double the rum)
1/3 cup dark rum
1 pint vanilla ice cream

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add brown sugar and next 3 ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes or until bananas are tender. Remove from heat. Pour rum into a small long-handled saucepan; heat just until warm. Remove from heat. Ignite with a long match and pour over bananas. Baste bananas with sauce until flames die down. Server over ice cream. Serves: 4

NOTE: We didn’t have banana liqueur and so we had to double the rum. I think next time I’ll make sure to get the banana liqueur.

Me vs. Toaster Oven

Yesterday I made delicious banana pancakes with walnut-honey "syrup" for breakfast. This morning I was heating up the leftovers in the toaster oven while trying to get the rest of our meals packed for the day.

I got in a little bit of a rush and instead of grabbing an oven mitt to pull the tray out, I figured I'd just reach in and grab the pancakes with my hands.

Have I mentioned before that I'm a klutz? I mean there was the time where I fried my fingers with my flat iron or the more recent event of flushing the handle down the toilet at work, but I'm still not 100% convinced that I'm a klutz.

Well, the toaster oven won the battle of hand versus hot burner coils. Never have I seen skin react so instantaneously to a burn. I'll spare you the details, but it was bad. It doesn't cover a huge area...just the middle knuckle on my left hand...but the size of the bandage would make you think I burned my whole hand. Have you ever tried to get a band-aid to stick to the back of a knuckle? It's nearly impossible...especially when one has to do a lot of typing for their blog job.

Here's a photo of the lovely patch I'll be sporting the next couple days until it heals.

I have to admit, though, that the 2nd Skin I picked up at the drugstore on my way to work eliminates all pain from the burn.

Lessons learned:

1. Always use an oven mitt to pull the tray out of the toaster oven instead of reaching to the back with your bare hand.
2. 2nd Skin is a necessary product to have on hand
3. A wound on a knuckle is very hard to keep covered
4. Banana pancakes still taste delicious once they've cooled off while one tends to their burn

Philly & Valley Forge with Brock & Leah

My brother and his girlfriend came out for a visit a few weeks ago and hubs and I had a great time touring Philadelphia and Valley Forge with them. It was freezing cold, but we kept reminding ourselves that we had more clothes on our backs than the soldiers did who were living there at the time. I didn’t have my camera with me so here are some photos I stole off Leah’s Facebook page:

Brock & Leah with the Liberty Bell

Brock & Leah with the LOVE sign…we were all expecting it to be a lot bigger

 

Brock & I at Elfreth’s Alley – the oldest continuously lived on street in America. I look about 10 pounds heavier than normal because I had leggings on under my jeans and a bulky sweater under my coat because it was so cold!

A replica of the huts the soldiers lived in at Valley Forge. It was very informative.

One thing I really love about living in this part of the country is all the neat history that is in this area. Definitely don’t have things like this in Colorado.

My Mom’s Birthday Gift

My beautiful mother celebrated her birthday on January 4th. For her birthday she requested a handmade lanyard for her work badge. She works as a flight attendant for Frontier Airlines and the company colors are purple, black and white. They’re required to wear a lanyard, but that lanyard must be able to break away if someone tried to grab it so that they don’t get choked.

I had a very hard time finding a magnetic clasp that was strong enough to hold the weight of her badge and everything else she has to carry on the lanyard, but that would also break away easily if pulled. The best solution I came up with was to use the clever clasp. It’s a magnet that also has two twists. If pulled hard enough, it will come apart, but under normal use, it should be strong enough to hold.

Here are some photos of the finished product:
 

She received it this past week and really liked it. If you need a custom lanyard for anything, drop me a line at divinecreations4u (at) gmail (dot) com.

Snow Day!

I’m sure you’ve heard about the storm that is hitting the East Coast hard right now. There’s nothing better than being snowed in with a roaring fire and loved ones. To top it all off, I’m going to make FBD approved brownies for later. Hopefully they’ll taste good.

Here are some photos I took about an hour ago. After I took them, I noticed one of the garage doors was open so I just went out to close it and looks like we have about 18” so far and it’s still coming down!

I think one of the most beautiful things is a landscape with freshly fallen snow.

Only one of our cows was out braving the storm at the time. Looks like the mamas and babies are hunkered down in the back barn.

It’s Grown On Me

I was going to post the other day that the sign I made last weekend has grown on me finally. I actually really like it now and am proud of the affordable art I made for our family to enjoy.

Well, imagine my surprise yesterday when I was checking out Kimba's blog and saw that I was the winner of the $40 store credit to The Rusted Chain! How exciting!! I really like these items:

Create Dream Inspire - $23.00

Loved By - $29.00

ANNA earrings - $15.00

All I Need - $23.00

We’re getting whalloped with snow this weekend and I have an incredibly cute nephew who turns one in a few weeks so I plan to craft his birthday gifts this weekend and will post photos soon.

Valentine’s Decor

Our mantle has been bare ever since I took the Christmas stuff down the beginning of January. I was waiting for inspiration to strike and strike it did this weekend.

Not having a lot of money, I came up with the idea to use wedding photos from my hubby’s side of the family – us, his parents, his siblings and his grandparents – as well as a custom art piece and candles. I wanted some sort of red item to make things “pop” so I was so excited when I found these red berry plants on Christmas clearance for 90% off! I paid a whopping .40 cents for each of them! A coat of white paint on their pots was all the needed to blend in with my idea.

You can see the beginning stages of the art I made behind the freshly painted pot.

I wanted to make a piece that I could use at times of the year besides Valentine’s Day. The quote I decided to use is by Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.” I thought it was perfect to accompany family photos.

First I made a file in Publisher that was the size of my board and arranged the fonts just how I wanted them. Then I printed it out and taped the pages together and taped them on my board.

 
Next I traced over each of the letters while pushing hard to transfer their outlines to the wood. Then I filled in each letter with the corresponding paint. In hindsight, I should have left it at this stage:

Unfortunately, I decided to try and antique it a little. First, I used my sanding block on the edges and gently across the face of it. I loved this and wish I had a photo at that stage. But, I took it a step further and used some Ralph Lauren glaze I picked up at Home Depot hoping to antique the white letters even more. The result?

 
I HATE it! The glaze went on so blotchy and no matter what I tried it just made it worse. Now I’m tempted to make my own glaze by watering down some black paint and hoping it will darken it up a little bit again. Any advice?

Which version do you like better:

Before “antiquing”

or

After “antiquing”?

One thing I do know…I will be making art like this again because it is great impact for very little money. The final cost for this 18” x 21.5” art and mantle makeover?

Wood: Free from work scraps
Frames & Photos: Free from shopping the house
Berries & Vases: $1.20 for three
Jar Lantern Tea light holders: $3.38 for two
Paint & Brush: $3 because I was out of black and wanted a larger foam brush

TOTAL: $7.58

(Note: I also paid $15 for the stupid glaze that I didn’t consider in this cost because I used a gift card hoping I’d be able to use it on many house projects to come. After this, I’m not so sure it was a good buy.)

I’m linking this up to Thrifty Decor Chick’s Before & After Party today and to Kimba’s DIY Day on Tuesday.

Creative Storage Solutions

Growing up I really enjoyed playing board games with my siblings. I have to admit that my favorite game was one called Bargain Hunter. I think my parents picked it up at a garage sale. It was kinda like Price is Right in board game fashion.

Hubby doesn't really like to play games, so hopefully my nephews or future children will so I'll have someone to play with. If that's the case, I'm definitely going to need some creative storage solutions.

I recently found this blog and was looking through some back posts and came across this great idea for storage/art using board games. I thought it was brilliant!

Some Delicious Meals on the Way

My friend Shelly who blogs at Frugal is the New Sexy had an awesome giveaway this past week. She was giving away three prizes, but the one I really wanted was this:

I've made a couple of Ree's recipes and they've been downright tasty for the most part. I can only imagine how much deliciousness this book contains.

Boy was I surprised when I clicked over to see who the winners were. Lo and behold there was my name right next to the PW cookbook! Yeah! Hopefully I can find some FBD friendly meals in there. If not, there's always time for a "cheat nite" now and then.

And, speaking of giveaways, I haven't forgotten about the one I promised. I'm hoping to settle on something this weekend and will let you know what I come up with next week.

If you haven't checked out Frugal is the New Sexy, I highly recommend you check it out now. I've already taken advantage of many of the great deals Shelly tells us about. Even my hubby has gotten hooked on checking out this site daily.

2 Days in a Row? Seriously?

I give up on being able to use the toilet at work anymore.

We recently split our building in half and my nice private bathroom (thanks to the fact I was the only female here) stayed on the half that's now rented out. That means I now have to share a bathroom with men. Dirty, smelly men.

I finally convinced the boss to let me buy some seat covers (or a** gaskets as his son referred to them...I have to admit that gave me a good chuckle because I never heard them called that) only to realize yesterday that it clogged the toilet when I went to flush it. Bring on embarrassing situation #1.

"Yum, excuse me boss. Do we have a plunger anywhere?"

That's one question I never hoped to have to ask at work.

Well, remember that nice private bathroom I used to have? Turns out our one and only plunger must have somehow got put in there when we split the building. Bring on embarrassing situation #2 - drive down the road to the plumbing supply store where a bunch of men work and ask them if they carry plungers and if so can I purchase one.

I didn't possibly think it could get any worse. Boy, was I wrong.

Braving use of the bathroom again today, I proceeded to flush only to have the problematic handle which is known to fall off from time to time fly up in the air and land smack dab in the toilet right as everything finishes flushing down the drain. Down goes the toilet paper. Down goes the seat cover. Down goes the handle.

"Yum, boss. Know that handle that falls off from time to time? Well, it fell into the toilet right as it was flushing and it kinda went down the drain."

Provided I still have a job tomorrow after messing with the toilet two days in a row, I'm never using the bathroom at work again.

Thankfully my boss has already pretty much told me I could do whatever I want and he doesn't care. He might reconsider after this, though!

UPDATE: Boss just came in to report that he's going to have to take the whole toilet off because the handle is not in the trap. Hopefully we don't have to bust up the concrete floor that the pipe runs under. Why does stuff like this happen to me?

I Will Still Love Him

NOTE: I intended to write this post before I just read a friend's announcement on Facebook.

Over the weekend hubby and I watched Facing the Giants again with his parents. This time, their struggle of starting their family really struck me, especially one line spoken by Grant to his wife that basically asked her if the Lord never gives them a baby, would she still love Him? (Him being God).

I know I mentioned on my bucket list for 2010 to "start a family". What I haven't mentioned before is that we've been trying to get pregnant for a year now with no success.

I'm not going to lie. I experience very mixed emotions when I hear about others who are expecting...especially when they weren't wanting to start a family yet, or they got married or started trying after we did, or it's their 2nd or 3rd child, or they're choosing to adopt before they start a biological family.

I've dealt with these emotions when I learned my sister was pregnant with number 2 (whom she conceived while on the pill; same with number 1). I've dealt with these emotions when I learned friends who got married after us are already unexpectedly expecting. I've dealt with these emotions as some of my friends are praising another friend for choosing to adopt before starting a biological family. I've dealt with these emotions as many good friends have had 2nd or 3rd babies before I've been able to get pregant with my 1st. I've dealt with these emotions every time someone asks or jokes that it's about time we had a baby.

On the outside, I try to appear happy for those friends who are expecting because I know deep down inside I really am happy for them. But it's hard. It's very, very hard.

It's hard because I know most people's response is "you can always adopt." Don't get me wrong. Adoption is a great thing and maybe someday it will be a road I walk. But choosing to adopt and having adoption as your only option of how to grow a family are two very different things.

This post is not intended to be a "poor me" post. It's not intended to belittle the joy and excitment of those I know who are expecting. This post is to hopefully explain to some friends why I may not seem overly excited for them. This post is to request prayer that the Lord will bless us with a biological baby, and that if that's not His will that He'll open our hearts to adoption. This post is to say that no matter what, I will still love Him.

Bang Hack Job

One lesson I learned this morning:

DON'T ATTEMPT TO QUICKLY TRIM YOUR BANGS WHEN YOU'RE LATE HEADING OUT THE DOOR.

If one ignores this rule, the result will be bangs that look like they were cute by a two year old wearing a blindfold. They'll be long where you wanted them short and short where you wanted them long. All a result of rushing and not double-checking your angle before snipping.

Lesson learned.

Looks like I'll be investing in some bobby-pins or hats for the next couple days until they grow out a little to correct my trim.

Insider Recipes

Earlier this week a friend of mine sent me a digital cookbook containing the BEST recipes. This book is full of recipes for various items from a variety of restaurants, recipes to make your own name brand condiments or candy bars, and much more.

I already know what recipe I’m going to be trying out for my birthday…Outback’s Alice Springs Chicken. I order this every time we go to Outback and it is so good. I’m anxious to see if this recipe really is as good as the original. Of course, I’ll have to wait two weeks to celebrate my birthday so that I’m finished with my Flat Belly Diet experiment.

I’m also going to have to try the recipe for Butterfingers.

Of course I couldn’t keep all these recipes to myself. If you want the book, click here to open up a .pdf file containing over 450 pages of delicious “insider” recipes. It may take a little bit to open, but it should work. If not, e-mail me at brieblogs (at) optonline (dot) net and I’ll send you the file as an attachment.

*FREE* Family Circle Magazine

Thanks to Frugal Is the New Sexy for making me aware of this great freebie going on right now. If you want to get 3 FREE issues to Family Circle magazine, click here. Don’t know how long this offer will last, so go now!

I Love My Followers & Commenters

Just wanted to send a big thank you to those of you who follow this blog and take the time to leave comments. There have been so many times where I wanted to reply to your comments, but there are a few things that have often prohibited this.

The first matter is this is a “semi-anonymous” blog in which, per my hubby’s request, I don’t use my last name and just post the general area of the country where I live. In fact, it was only recently that my hubby give me permission to no longer block his face out of photos.

There’s one tiny problem, though. The only e-mail addresses I have are linked to where I work (which would reveal where I live) or have my full name in them (which would obviously reveal my last name). I know you can easily set up other e-mail addresses, but I need to get the password info from my hubby to add another e-mail account that would not have my last name in it and would work seamlessly with my Outlook. I just received my laptop back with a full upgrade so hopefully this weekend, this issue will be resolved and I’ll have a “semi-anonymous” e-mail address.

The second matter is that often I want to reply directly to a particular commenter, but there is no e-mail address associated with their blogger profile. Personally, I don’t go back and check the comment section of a blog once I leave a comment, so if the author was to respond there, I would never see it and thus I don’t like to respond via the comment area. Plus, I like e-mail because then it’s possible to carry on the conversation further if interested.

So, if you’d like to start receiving replies to your comments (which I would love to be able to do!), please either leave an e-mail address where I can reach you in your comment (you can use (at) instead of @ and (dot) instead of . to cut down on spammers) or go to your blogger profile and under the “Privacy” section, check the box that says “show my email address”. This way, when you leave a comment, instead of saying “no-reply@blogger.com” it should show me your e-mail address.

Also, I currently only have time to read blogs in my downtime at work, but now that I have my laptop back, I’m going to try to make a more concerted effort to visit all of your blogs at least once a week.

Lastly, as a way to thank all of my followers/commenters, I’ll be having a giveaway shortly. Nothing grand, but something as a way to say thank you for joining me in this journey called life.

Nothing like a little temptation

Today is the first day of my experiment to cure my GI issues on my own with the side benefit of my size 4 pants once again fitting like they should. If you want to read more about that, visit my other blog called My Journey to a Size 4.

And, what better way to start a “diet”/exercise regime than tempting oneself with a delicious Lemon Poppy seed Cake with Lemon Curd Sauce?

Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to eat the cake today, I was tearing the cupboards apart calmly looking through all the cupboards to see if I had any cupcake liners so I could make cupcakes instead of one cake. I didn’t think the birthday boy at work would like it too much if I brought his cake in with a giant slice missing already!

My search for cupcake liners was unsuccessful, but I was successful in convincing hubby to take me out to Chili’s after I picked him up from his meeting at 9pm for some Kickin’ Jack Nachos, frozen strawberry margarita, and a Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie. I really didn’t have to twist his harm too hard, though!

This morning I quickly realized the error of eating all these items past 9pm when I awoke to a stomach three times its normal size. Lovely! What a great time to have to take my measurements!

Anyway…back to the cake.

Today someone at work was turning 60 and thus a cake was in order. The only thing in my cupboards was a box of white cake mix. Can you say B.O.R.I.N.G?

Here’s what I did to jazz it up:

LEMON POPPYSEED CAKE

To 1 box white cake mix (mixed according to directions on box) add 1 palmful of poppy seeds, Lemon extract (or lemon juice) to taste, and the freshly grated zest from 1 lemon. Mix together and bake according to box directions.

I ran out of time to make the lemon sauce last night because I was gorging myself at Chili’s picking up some important books from the library so I made it this morning with hopes it would taste okay without being able to sample it.

The recipe I used came from my Southern Living cookbook.

LEMON SAUCE
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (I just used the spirals I made the night before)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (I used the stuff from the bottle)

Stir together first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium  heat 5 minutes or until thickened (and it turns into a translucent gel consistency). Remove from heat and stir in butter, zest and lemon juice. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.

P.S. My apologies for not being able to show you the sauce drizzled nicely over a slice of cake. But, my buttocks and thighs will be thanking me in a couple weeks that I didn’t indulge in this cake!

Tomorrow's the Day

When all my GI issues will begin to be no more hopefully. Want to follow along? Perhaps you just want to see a really embarrassing photo of me in a bathing suit?

Click here to join me in my journey. I'm going to need all the encouragement I can get!

Help Victims of the Haitian Earthquake

I'm sure you've all heard by now about the earthquake in Haiti.

One of my good friends from highschool was adopted from Haiti so I know this country is near and dear to her heart as she has many biological family members who live there.

My friend who's wedding we went to in Italy last April is also in Haiti right now while her hubby is deployed to the Middle East. She's been there for about a month and thankfully is safe.

If you're looking for a way to assist those in desparate need at this time, one organization I always trust is World Vision. Click here if you're interested in making a donation.

Special Agent Oso Invitation

My youngest nephew turns one the end of February and I was commissioned to design his party invite.

Supposedly, he’s a HUGE fan of Special Agent Oso. I had never heard of this show before, but a quick little internet search provided some needed details such as color scheme, characters and special phrases the show uses.

I guess Special Agent Oso is a type of James Bond show for kids that teaches them how to do things in “3 Special Steps” because after all, “It’s all part of the plan!”

Here is the invite I designed for my nephew (click on the picture for a larger view):

Hopefully he has fun at his party. Wish I could be there to join him.

I’m linking this project up to Kimba’s DIY day. Click here for more projects and don’t forget to enter one of your own for a chance to win a gift certificate from here.

I Think You Have the Wrong House

Just after hubby & I had settled in front of the fire tonight -- he to enjoy some poorly made ‘80s movie and me to reload all my programs on my freshly repaired laptop -- I saw the motion sensor lights in the driveway go off.

There was a car that was slowly backing up into our driveway and then proceeded to park and wait there.

My father-in-law went out to investigate only to open the door to two cops who thought that the truck sitting in our driveway was stolen. Thankfully they quickly realized this was not the stolen truck they were looking for.

I don’t know if it was the hay all over it, the mismatched truck topper or the fact that my father-in-law pointed out to them that they were at the mayor’s house that made them come to the realization.

Needless to say, I think the two cops from out of town were slightly embarrassed.

Just another interesting night on the farm!

Vetoed Values

I've been working on this huge presentation for work and one of the slides contains our value statement.

Being tired of boring lists, I spent the past hour developing a contemporary image containing the words that compose the values we hold dear as a company.

I just showed it to my boss to be told, "I think we should just list them."

Personally, I like the "art" version better, but gotta do what the boss says.

Here's the artsy version:

What do you think?

Thank Heaven for AAA

My brother and his girlfriend are visiting for a little bit before they start their last semester of college. They spent yesterday touring NYC and attending tapings of Good Morning America and The Late Show with David Letterman. They also got to see and speak with Chuck in the NBC Studio store in Rockefeller Center.

After work, I took my car for an oil change and met hubby at Chili's (thanks to my bro for the gift card for Christmas) and as we finished eating Brock called to say they were on the train and heading our way. Hubby and I had separate cars and instead of him heading home and me heading to the train, he opted to drop his car closer to home but along the way and ride with me.

We made it to the train station about 5 minutes before their train arrived and turned the car off to save on gas. Brock and Leah get in the car and I go to turn it on only to learn it is completely DEAD. No lights are coming on even. DEAD.

Never have I been so happy to have hubby with me because not having any jumper cables, the only option was to call AAA. The AAA is only in hubby's name. Thankfully, the guy was there in 15 minutes and ran some tests on the battery. He said he'd be able to charge it enough to get us back home, but that we'd have to get a new one anyway. We decided to save the hassle and have him install the new battery then so Brock and Leah wouldn't have issues when they used my car today.

It'd sure have been nice if there was some way the guys who performed the oil change I had just gotten on my way to dinner would have been able to tell my battery was going to be dying in less than 3 hours. Then again they probably would have charged me more than the AAA guy did.

Hopefully now that my car has four brand new tires and a brand new battery it won't need anymore expensive work done before we're ready to get rid of it in a few years!

From My Bookshelf

There were so many books I read in 2009 that I never got a chance to post about here. Many of them were fabulous reads so as I get the chance I'm going to try to post about them.

In the meanwhile, here's the latest book I'm reading:

This book was a Christmas gift from some friends and I'm really enjoying it so far. I know Sarah Palin is a polarizing figure - you either love her or hate her. Personally, I'm a big fan. Afterall, I don't hide the fact that I'm a conservative Republican. Her book is proving to be a great read and I look forward to learning even more about Sarah and her strong desire to serve our great country.

The next book I want to read is one I heard about on a friend's Facebook page:

Unfortunately our county library system doesn't carry this book (maybe it has something to do with the fact that there are few Christians in the area where we live) so I'm going to have to order it here. The subtitle of this book is: "Have we tamed the Son of God to Fit our Lifestyle". I think it will be an interesting discourse on Christianity in America and how we seem to have removed ourselves from the fact that many Christians throughout history the worldover have faced serious persecution for their faith and in America we tend to think if we're a follower of Christ our lives should be filled with only good things.

It struck me last night driving home how much of a blessing it is to live in America. At any moment, that blessing can be taken from us whether it be via politicians who put things into law with which we disagree or war or who knows what. The important thing is to remember God has blessed us as Americans in an immense way and we are to be incredibly grateful for that. At the same time we need to remember "to whom much has been given, much will be required." (Luke 12:48)

P.S. If you want to order any of these books to read yourself, click on the desired image.