#24

Quoting my husband while watching a[n ESPN] Sportscenter segment on the World Baseball Classic:

"Bet our defense would be a heck of a lot better if Derek Jeter wasn't our starting shortstop."

Ha!  Love Jas :)

#23

Fact: I do not like colds.

In a selfish moment, one always found in the middle of throes and woes of a cold, from time to time I find myself thinking, "If given the chance to choose between finding a cure for the common cold and a cure for cancer I think I might have to go with the common cold."

Then again, I have never had cancer.

#22

I love everything about these pictures.

My good friend Brendo at Alki Beach in West Seattle.

This one leaves me speechless.

My sexy husband and I holding hands (bummer about his heat rash on his thumb, though... 'tis from the gloves he wears while heaving boxes at UPS).

My sexy husband practicing his best MLB pitcher move, this time at Golden Gardens (in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle).

#21

OSCAR SPOILER ALERT.

I am beyond thrilled that Slumdog Millionaire won best picture (among the numerous other awards).  Such a great movie.  I don't really have words... just see it.  Amazing film.

#20

I'll be blunt:

The existence of dark chocolate and the gift of multiple orgasms has convinced me that God really loves women.

I serve a pretty great God.

#19

My pastor rules.

Reason #1: Sex is a spiritual discipline.

Reason #2: He was on DL Hughley's CNN show this weekend and was forthright with the gospel while being kind, compassionate, and genuine.  I'm honored to be a member of Mars Hill Church .

#18

Poop.  So funny and yet so horribly not funny all at once.

This was our bathroom this morning.

Yeah, all that brown is liquefied raw sewage.  Poo spewed on the walls.  Lovely.

Laugh?  Cry?  Maybe a bit of both. Bring it.

#17

The one nice thing about vomiting violently is that it makes one not want to eat anything at all ever again.

#16

Ah, sweet sixteen.  My most beloved of all numbers.

The Fray's entire new album, self titled by the way, is AMAZING.  Better than I hoped, and my hopes were terribly high.

#15

My husband is playing a video game but he is so tired that he literally jerks his entire body awake every few seconds.

Seriously, who does that?

#14

I quite enjoy having a home that smells really lovely and wonderful, so today I cajoled my darling husband into allowing the purchase of this swell new Airwick Freshmatic deal.  We set it to spritz a lovely bit of smelly goodness every 36 minutes.

The house was silent and I was checking my e-mail post busy errands day, and when the auto dispenser let out the first spritz it scared the jolly good crap out of me and I just about upended our dining table.

It was really rather funny, to be honest.

#13

I don't believe in luck, so post #13 doesn't scare me one bit.

Suck it, superstition.

#12

I think the first track on The Fray's new album (I bought it!  Woo-hoo!), Syndicate, sounds a lot like Switchfoot from the days when they made really great music.  That is, everything from New Way To Be Human to The Beautiful Letdown.

I quite like it.

College friends would remember me as the girl rather OBSESSED with Switchfoot.  I already loved The Fray but this earns them some points.

Oooh, and the second track, Absolute, is also early Switchfoot-esque while definitively The Fray.  Nice.

#11

It is my pet peeve to have the dishwasher filled haphazardly.

I believe in two things: try to keep similar items together for ease in unloading (example: if you have small and large plates, start the large plates from one end of the row and the small plates from the other end so that you can easily grab multiple plates at a time) and fill from the back to the front.  This way, when the front fills up, it's obvious that the d/w is full and it's time to run it.  Filling from front to back means that, inevitably, someone will open the dishwasher to put something in and it will be full.

Annoying.

Sure, the person to put in the last fitting dish should run it, but filling from back to front is still a grand idea.

#10

I find Ashton Kutcher as a person- not a celebrity, but a person- rather intriguing.  His tweeting is quite interesting and I appreciate that he's being real and not living behind the facade of celebdom like so many do.

#9

I'm quite perplexed by the show True Beauty. 

While I agree that beauty is inside and out the idea is that you'll find the most beautiful person, inside and out, via challenges that seem only based on outer beauty while secretly filming to catch the beauties being bad or not.  The thing is, you could be a total dbag / bizzo and win every challenge by being beautiful on the outside and then never be in the bottom two where your elimination is based on your inner beauty / lack thereof.  So it's not really TRUE beauty if "true beauty comes from within" as is the tagline every week.

Case in point: Joel is gorgeous- seriously, it's almost unfair that God makes some people look like him and then others look so the opposite of him.  I recognize that my bias is because I live in a culture that deifies physical beauty, but the point is that Joel is incredibly physically attractive.  That said... he's a complete dbag!  Anytime I feel drawn to him based on his outer beauty his consistent tendency to be completely self-absorbed, critical, and downright rude to other people repulses me.  His "macho" persona is the opposite of attractive- it's bona fide ugly.

Yet... he stayed on the show because he kept his anger in check and curtly said something like "It's ok, bro" when "accidentally" sprayed by a gardener (it was staged and secretly taped for those who don't watch the show).  He's been so rude on so many occasions and while Chelsea has also had her moments she has been honest and tried to be real about who she is.

In sum, I see that, while it's an interesting concept, the fact is that we are all sinners and have a lot of ugliness inside of us.  Some of us keep it in check better than others, but the idea that some magical humans are just wonderful people with no ugliness inside (or at least very little) is a dirty lie straight from Satan.  It perpetuates the idea that if we're nice and kind then we really matter (and, of course, on this show you have to be hot as well) but the truth is we're all ugly inside and only Jesus is beautiful and only Jesus shining through us is beautiful.

This is long, so 'nuff said.

#8

I just found out that Drew Carey is a part owner in our (Seattle's) new MLS (Major League Soccer) team.  Crazy.

#7

I am rather dedicated to Arrested Development, but it's #2 on my list.

I'm putting it out there:

The Office is the GREATEST.  TV.  SHOW.  EVER.

EVER.

#6

I'm not sure if I am more disappointed to see the Cardinals lose or the Steelers win.  I really, really don't like Pittsburgh- the city, their sports teams, blech.  And the Steelers... they are right there with the Yankees as the only two teams that I ALWAYS cheer against.

That said, I will not remember this as another year where I have to see the team I despise win the Superbowl.  I will remember it as an amazing time with my husband, doing the "Superbowl dance" after the safety and jumping up and down in his arms in absolute exuberance when Larry "Cyborg" Fitzgerald scored the most amazing touchdown I have seen in a LOOOOONG time.  I'll remember hand slaps with so much excitement that my hand throbbed for the next five minutes and the almost-bloody-nose when Jas dove across our (quite large) ottoman to jump around and scream.

Bummer that the Cards lost, but such is life.  Glad that it's now time to watch The Office and forget all about the Ste[a]lers winning not one but TWO Superbowls in my very precious twenties.  At least the Patriots still have three rings in my twenties, and I still have two more left until I hit 30.  Maybe- just maybe- the Seahawks will miraculously win one!!

Regardless of anything that happens with football, I'm grateful to celebrate games with the love of my life... my teams may win or lose a game, but thanks to Jesus I get to be married to Jason and I win at life :)

#5

Speaking of sleep...

I know many of my friends with kids find it dreamy and/or annoying that I can sleep basically for as long as I desire on weekends.  Some try to make me feel bad about it, like if I only had kids I would understand, and it's their one-up on me in maturity.  I have never said this to anyone doing that, but the truth is that I want a baby so much that it is palpable and every time my PMS symptoms are weird or my period is just a day late I begin to get really hopeful that despite us not being financially ready (and me being too fat) maybe God has decided it's time and He'll work out the details.

I figure that if we're being careful not to get pregnant and God allows us to anyway then He knows what He's doing... and then my period comes or my PMS symptoms hit me full-on and my spirit is again crushed, knowing that it's not time.  This becomes more difficult as I become one of the only married women I know not pregnant / with kids.  I feel like the only young married woman I know who isn't either pregnant or who has had a baby in the last year.  I can literally name 15 women who are in my closer / closest circles of friends who have done one or the other, and it's a test of faith for me to trust God and not be either envious or self-pitying or all out bitter.

So, that said, I am going to sleep in as much as I want to and make the most of the few positives there are not having any babies yet.

#4

I meant to be in bed by midnight.  My husband went to bed just after midnight, but I wasn't tired.  Now it's almost 2 am and I'm kicking myself because I have to be up at nine.

Normally we go to the 5pm service at church, but being that it's Superbowl Sunday we decided to go to the 11am instead, which means I can't just sleep until I wake up.  Lame, but worth it.

I loves me some football!

#3

I am really annoyed with iTunes.  I finally convinced my miser wise-with-money husband to let me pre-order The Fray's new album (aptly titled The Fray, though it is their sophomore release) so I did this afternoon.  I got a message saying that I would be charged upon release of the album (Tues., Feb. 3) and that it would download then... and then an error message saying there was a problem with the iTunes store and to try back later popped up.

So I did try back later.  At least four or five times.  I was supposed to automatically get one acoustic bonus track, so being that I didn't get the track (as in, it never said it was available because according to iTunes I have not pre-ordered the album) I'm hoping I didn't spend $16.99+tax four or five times.

I even re-entered our debit card info, and bought a different song (just a simple .99 center, called Everything by Stereo Fuse... sweet Pandora discovery) to see if it was on our end.  I was able to get that song just fine, so I am super annoyed!  I wants me some The Fray, dang it!

#2

I was supposed to baby-sit for neighbors from 5:30 to 9-ish tonight.  The mom has to be downtown (Seattle) and the dad was in Portland.  However, the dad's meeting was canceled so he'll be home and they don't need me to watch their sweet daughter.  This is how amazing they are- she bundled up the baby (she's 7 mos) to come over and tell me in person that they don't need me (because she doesn't have my phone number- we set up baby-sitting dates via e-mail), and she gave me $25 because she felt bad for canceling.

Amazing.

When she left I said to my husband, "They are such incredibly sweet and generous people!".  His reply was poignant, and kind of sad-- he said, "Doesn't it break your heart when people like that aren't Christians and so many who claim to be Christians are the opposite?".

Yes, yes it does.

#1

Right now Creed is playing on my favorite radio station  (during the '90s Five... 30 minutes of '90s classics.  Makes me feel old.  The '90s were my coming of age decade.) and I have had a sudden realization:  I really hate Creed, particularly Scott Stapp's voice and cheesy-attempts-at-inspirational lyrics.