A List Because It's Thursday

Um, this is an entire post that I wrote (in 2008) and didn't post. No idea why. But here it is for you because I have nothing original to say since it's VBS and I spend most afternoons napping and then staring mindlessly at the television. Or working out. Yeah, that's it. Working out...

Here's the post from 2008:

I'm watching a movie (because that's all I do nowadays), and it's got one of my all-time favorite movie kisses in it. And, because my summertime boss and I were talking about movies today and he mentioned that his wife's favorite movie has the perfect kiss in it, I thought I'd make a list of great movie kisses. Now, mind you, these are movies I've seen and loved, so these are really just my favorite movie kisses, but here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Where the Heart Is- when Forney says "there's nothing better than you" and kisses her. Mmmm.

2. A Lot Like Love- the NYE party when the clock strikes midnight and she's staring at her ex and he comes from across the room and grabs her and kisses her.

3. Serendipity- Boss' wife is right...a great movie kiss

4. 10 Things I Hate About You- playing around in the paintball court and grass- kisses should be surprising and fun like that

5. 50 First Dates- "Nothing beats a first kiss"

6. Saved- love love love this movie and Patrick Fugit is adorable...and their little outside of the limo kiss...

7. Love Actually- many different options to choose from here...particularly like Colin Firth's kiss in the end

8. Penelope- when he discovers it's her and he rushes up and kisses her.

9. With Honors- Monte and Courtney... she says "What are you doing?" he says "Ending the friendship." I say "Have mercy..."

10. And, my all-time-favorie movie: "Say Anything" When they're in the park and it's misting and they're kissing...swoon....

And one non-movie kiss I just seriously swoon over: Jim and Pam, end of season 2. Mmmm.

Of course, as I'm making this list, I am thinking of all of the almost-kisses in the movies I love, and could (and may) someday make a list of those as well...

Moving is SUPER-FUN!

Well, the move is done, and I have been to IKEA (twice), and I am far from settled in my new place, but at least my stuff is all there, if not all over the place. Here are a few highlights of the move, in one little post lest I bore you with the zillion posts about moving I could have written:

Things I have bought at IKEA:
· fixa
· fanby
· fenomen
· fniss
· prompt
· kavalkad
· halsted
· lingo
· viren
· slom
· flyt
· plastic bag
(aside from the last one, you'd never be able to guess the things I bought. I love IKEA!)

Things I did not know I owned:
· a toaster
· coasters
· purple glittery tiara
· two tennis rackets and can of balls (apparently I play tennis)

Things I found that I thought I'd lost forever:
· Dad's Christmas present 2003
· Sister's Christmas present 2002
· LOST season 1 DVDs (ironic, isn't it?!)

Things found in one single box:
· key holder
· unopened notepad
· wind chimes (?)
· bag of 18 Chinese yo-yos
· bath travel kit
· markers, crayons, tape
· bag of blue balloons
· bag of orange balloons (wonder why I have those colors)
· clothespins
· thank you notes
(I have some random packing skills)

And finally, WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY BOOKS?!?!?

A Special List For A Special Day

There are eight things I love about you:

1. I love the way I can hear you laughing from another room.
2. I love the way that you will not take no for an answer (but only when used on your dad).
3. I love it that you sing so loud and so off key.
4. I love it that you want to be the center of attention.
5. I love most of the phrases that come out of your mouth. Most of them.
6. I love it that nothing phases you, unless you get your feelings hurt.
7. I love it that you have never met a stranger, yet you're worried about making friends at your new school.
8. I love you so much. So so much.

Happy day Kells Bells. Happy Day!

Things I Am Doing Over the Next Few Days

Alternate titles:
* Proof I Am On The Slippery Slope to Insanity
* Reasons Why I'm On the Couch In Fetal Position Whimpering
* I Am Not Really a Grown-Up Because Really, What Grown Up Would Subject Themselves to This?

So, this week, I am moving. Yes, you read that right. Moving. Yes, I know I just had surgery one week ago today. Yes, I know that when my doctor said I could get back to regular, light activity this is probably not what he had in mind. Now you understand why I said that it would be more convenient for me to move two weeks ago. But now I'm moving the day after tomorrow. Yikes doesn't even begin to describe it. This is way more of a holy guacamole moment. So, here's my to do list of things to be accomplished as soon as humanly possible, or really as soon as inhumanly possible:

1. Pack up entire contents of Guest Room. This will involve boxes, tape, rest, and cursing (sorry to my church friends that read this. It's true. I curse when stressed.)
2. Rest some and read a magazine because I've way overdone it.
3. Pack some more.
4. Sign new lease at new apartment and get over the feeling that I'm signing away a year of my life. Will probably involve a little cursing.
5. Go to Target, Wal-mart, etc. etc. etc. Spend lots of money. Curse a little more.
6. Rest some and read a magazine because, again, I've overdone it.
7. Come up with new title for blog, as life will no longer be lived in said guest room. I came up with a title that I thought was creative and new, but it sat too long and now I realize it was stupid and even worse, trite. Gasp! Curse!
7(a). Curse at blogger because it is not letting me publish this cursing post.
8. Stop trying to redesign blog because hello stupid, you should be packing and moving and what do you think you're doing sitting at a stupid laptop while there is still miscellaneous crap everywhere?!
9. Pack some more.
10. Wait around for movers to come and move stuff from messy and unorganized storage unit (curse!) to new apartment. Write large check for movers. Curse.
11. Wish I had gotten a backbone and told parents that I didn't need their help but instead I'm standing around with parents mentally cursing in mind and occasionally outloud as I get pinched by mother for having a foul mouth.
12. Hair appointment. Because, ya'll, hair is important to a Southern girl.
13. After the dust is settled, sit and look at 8,000,007 boxes and swear never to do it again.
14. Rest and read a magazine because this time, holy guacamole have I overdone it.

Let the panic commence!

Things That Make Me Feel Better

When I am "sick." I'm not sick enough to go to the doctor, but still feel pretty yucky.
So, things that make me feel better:
1. Homemade Vanilla Blue Bell for my sore throat (and for lunch )
2. Advil Cold and Sinus Liquigels
3. Mt. Dew
4. Being enough ahead at work to take the afternoon off
5. Cleaning up the kitchen and living room so the mess doesn't make me feel worse
6. Opening a package of new embellishments and organizing them
7. Napping with the dogs
8. Sitting in the favorite chair with the favorite blanket finishing a book
9. Kleenex
10. Finding my favoritest movie of all time on tv! (I told her I loved her and all she gave me was a pen)

Yeah, I'm starting to feel better already...

Ten Things

Camp was a great week.
As always, here's my ten things list from camp:
1. When 6th grade boys go flying by your cabin door, followed by 6th grade girls, it's not a good sign, and it more than likely involves a frog.
2. Sixth grade boys (and girls) need a little direction when pulling off a prank so that it does not involve nudity.
3. For your first time to blob, it is not wise to have Mr. Tim as the blobber...
4. Three bottles of water, four Advil, a Mt. Dew, and a Kit-Kat are a sure fire way to head off early morning dehydration.
5. Sixth graders cannot herd goats.
6. I am not a good mailman, photographer, or keeper of earrings.
7. It's Luigi and Guido, not Freedo, which I apparently cannot pronounce.
8. On day 4, at 12:30 in the morning, nothing is funnier than the words "Pit Stop."
9. No one is more excited to see you home than the three dogs, and it takes approximately thrity-five seconds to wind up covered in happy scratches and bulldog hair.
10. This new guy is good stuff, and he's going to take our children's ministry a long way, to some very good places.

Thursday Thirteen #4- Opr-ee Calls It Multi-tasking

If you can tell me what movie that quote is from, you will earn approximately 13 cool points.

Today holds another two-fer treat.

Thirteen Things I Should Be Doing Right Now Because I Leave For Camp In Three Days:
1. Packing (um, yeah...)
2. Doing laundry.
3. Putting away my scrapbooking stuff.
4. Getting KellsBells and Katybug's goodie bags together for camp.
5. Purchasing something for my aunt's goodie bag.
6. Finding things for one more goodie bag I need to do for camp.
7. Packing (did I mention that?)
8. Fixing the polish on my toenails.
9. Cleaning my room.
10. Training my dog.
11. Helping cook dinner.
12. Preparing all of the miscellaneous items I will need for camp.
13. Packing.

Thirteen Things I Am Doing Instead of All Of Those Things:
1. Writing this post.
2. Finding out movie times for tonight...maybe I'll go catch a flick.
3. Smelling how yummy dinner smells.
4. Checking my email (again.)
5. Fighting the urge to take a nap.
6. Contemplating my next creative project.
7. Looking up a friend's baby registry for ideas on said creative project.
8. Wondering if a different friend is going to have her baby before I go to camp.
9. Listening to songs on iTunes.
10. Googling a new (to-me) band.
11. Thinking about going out and buying their cd.
12. Watching a TV movie that I've already seen.
13. Going to Best Buy for that cd...

Summer (Updated)

I leave for camp in less than five days.
Am I packing? No.
Am I doing laundry in lieu of packing? No.
Am I looking over last-minute plans? No.
Am I even cleaning out my purse, the #1 thing on my to do list? No.
I am purchasing songs on iTunes. But I did put the finishing touches on my summer playlist, and it is now complete:
* Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Tees
* Today by Smashing Pumpkins
* Everlasting God by Lincoln Brewster
* You Never Let Go by Matt Redmoan
* New Shoes by Paulo Nutini
* Last Request by Paulo Nutini
* Shine On by Needtobreathe
* Fantastic Voyage by Coolio (I want this to be the recessional song for my wedding- don't think I'll get it approved by the powers that be, though)
* Island in the Sun by Weezer
* Just Like a Pill by P!nk
* Fourth of July by Shooter Jennings
* Holding Out for a Hero by Frou Frou
* Southern Cross by Jimmy Buffett (an exceptional cover)
* Face Down (acoustic) by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
* Home by Daughtry
* Everything by Michael Buble
* Stolen by Dashboard Confessional
* Brighter Than Sunshine by Aqualung
It's going to be a good summer.

Thursday Thirteen #2- Today

I haven't done a Thursday Thirteen in so long, I had to go find a banner because I had deleted the others I had saved. But I may try this again, if for nothing else than the creativity it encourages. So, here goes!

Today, I have…

…marker on the side of my hand, as always
…a football, deck of cards, a mountain dew, and my sunglasses on my desk, and various other if-I-see-that-again-it-belongs-to-me items in a special desk drawer
…a pencil in my hair to keep it out of my face
…sensible shoes on my feet- Because I am only 30, and because I work at a very casual school, sensible shoes are called flip flops
…brown paint on my white skirt, from a painting project gone bad
…about a million papers to grade by noon tomorrow
…a headache
…had to dry several sets of tears today, including those of my coworkers
…dealt with 38 emails
…made 8,000,007 copies (okay, maybe not that many, but it sure feels like it)
…said the phrases “I’m sorry to hear that” and “oh, I’m sure it will feel better in a little bit” roughly 8,000,007 times
…had to stop this post roughly thirteen times to attend to my princes and princesses, and once to break up a fight
…had to save this to a Word document to be ‘published’ later because my silly school filters my websites and won’t let me publish to my blog during the day- What? Do they think I have other things to be doing?

Eleven Things I Love About You

A special list in honor of a special day
1. I love it that you have a smile like Wendy in Peter Pan.
2. I love it that you refuse to let me take your picture.
3. I love it that you are obsessed with monkeys.
4. I love it that you make sure you play with your dog when mine is clearly much cuter.
5. I love it that you hate getting out of bed. It reminds me so much of me.
6. I love the other things that you do that remind me of me, that I sometimes think you're making me pay for my childhood.
7. I love it that you're left-handed. That is SO cool.
8. I love it that you love to dance.
9. I love it (or, I'm just jealous) that you have gorgeous eyelashes and skin.
10. I love it that you come and crawl in bed and snuggle with me.
11. I just love YOU.

Happy Day little girl...happy day.

Ten Things I Hate (Not About You)

I was going to think of something brilliant to blog about tonight, instead of doing work like I need to. But then, just now, I got the hiccups. I hate the hiccups. So, since brilliance didn't come to me but the hiccups did, I thought I'd list off some things that I hate.

1. the hiccups
2. the fact that I don't know what's going on on Lost (and I've seen every episode this season)
3. that I don't get to marry John Cusak
4. or Michael Buble (the boy can sing)
5. that papers don't grade themselves
6. generic ringtones (and the fact that I can't decide on one I like for my new phone)
7. that my mother is trying to set me up with someone
8. and will only refer to him as "cutie pie"
9. that Lucky Charms is not all marshmallows (who really enjoys the oats?)
10. that I still have the hiccups

What do you hate?

Ten Things That Were Delightful About This Weekend

I love lists. I love top ten lists, except on Thursdays, in which I love top thirteen lists. So, without further ado, here is my list of ten things that were delightful about Revo "Lost" weekend at my church.

1. I had ten delightful girls at a delightful house with delightful host parents.
2. We watched High School Musical at midnight on Friday night. I love it that my girls really were so innocent that things like this are still their favorites...well, most of them.
3. The hand motions that go along with "Timmy's" promise to create skits so good they will rock my face off.
4. The pink pig that I got in my leader survival kit.
5. The bright yellow blanket also included in my survival kit.
6. When pranks were verboten, and A still had a six-pack of toilet paper, M became a "sleeping" target.
7. JonMarc Shillington. Delightful. Purely delightful. I heart him!
8. Playing dodgeball with someone I never even thought was aware dodgeball existed.
9. The sight of all of the adults (myself included) involved in a mass exodus when the Christian rap artist took the stage. I turn into a bobblehead doll when I hear that kind of music...or Kevin James from Hitch.
10. The BEST of all: I haven't seen my Swan in about two weeks, which is highly unusual for both of us. When he mentioned that, I made some sort of faux "you wanna do something about it" gesture, and he said "Hug it out." LOVE IT! He's started watching The Office. I heart him, too!

Thirteen Things I Love

1. The feel of my toes after taking off the sneakers I've been wearing for 15+ hours
2. Being barefoot in general...especially at school, where it's secretly taboo
3. Bubbly Thursday, where we crack open a bottle of wine and watch "The Office"
4. Jim Halpert, and John Kraszinski
5. Moscato d' Asti wine....mmmm...
6.This random and free shirt my mom gave me that she got from her company...long-sleeved, black, perfect softness...if I could wear it every night I could
7. Waking up in the morning and finding Daisy's head on my pillow and her body tucked under the covers. She always looks at me as if to say "what?!"
8. The sound of Elvis drinking water. My uncle says it resembles an out-board motor or some other boating term, and he's pretty much right.
9. My friend Craig, who makes these hilariously keen observations, that are so dead-on and funny that you secretly wish you had made them. He's also a great dad and a great husband, and a good big-brother figure to me. And he can hold his own in a building full of women. Not an easy task.
10. White-chocolate mochas and an afternoon in a cushy chair at Starbucks with nothing but my Bible, journal, and iPod to keep me company
11. The song "Want to" by Sugarland and the song "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor and the song "If We Were a Movie" by Hannah Montana...all three get stuck in my head for hours on end.
12. When Kellie Bellie gets bored at night and draws a face on her belly and uses it to talk until the marker wears off...flippin' hilarious!
13. When my princes and princesses use old school phrases that I used when I was their age (and still do)...some of the phrases I've actually heard in my classroom this year are: "you're not the boss of me!" "say it don't spray it", and a personal favorite: "I'm rubber, you're glue!"

Six Things

Some people make lists of 30 before 30, which are thirty things they want to do before they turn 30. Well, for starters, I am not good at getting things on lists accomplished. Luckily, I get so many other things accomplished that it makes my life a very lived one.

The other thing is that I turn 30 exactly six months from today. So, in honor of that, I'm going to create a six things in six months sort of list. I could make a list of thirty that would be puffed up with things like "take a trip" when I full well know I'm going to Chicago in less than a month. I could also put things like "get a pedicure" or other obscure things that I'm more than likely going to do.

Instead, I want to make a list of six very meaningful things that I want to accomplish in the next six months. I also want to look at the year ahead and see what I have already planned in my life and what kinds of things I will have to look forward to in the next six months.

Six things in six months:
1. Have another night like tonight, which involved several youth students, CiCi's pizza, trying to qualify for the "pizza-eating" team, and so much fun and love that it qualifies as worshipful.

2. Do something very out-of-character and totally unlike me. This past summer, I died my hair pink. It was the neatest thing ever. I tapped into parts of my personality that rarely surface. I learned alot about people and myself. And I want to do it again.

3. Still feel this way about my life. If I lose this, I might as well start calling myself old.

4. Really figure out how I feel about my church. I've had mixed feelings over the last few weeks, and I know more now, and I have to really really figure out where I am and how I stand about where and how and what I worship. This is going to be the tough one.

5. . Fall in love. I wouldn't be a girl if I didn't put this on the list. I'm not being specific. There are so many things/people/places to fall in love with. I've fallen in love with my princes and princesses. Now I just can't wait to see what I fall in love with next. Of course, if I get this, it wouldn't be that bad either.

6. Whatever may come, my goal for the next six months is to be all there.
"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." -Jim Elliot

Here goes nothing...

One (More) Time...At (Student) Church Camp

Got back at 5 today and then headed off to an evening at the ballpark. I didn't really realize what a crazy schedule I lead...Camp this week was such an experience...to borrow a quote from Beth Moore...My heart cannot bear the joy of it...

This year, Ash caught me making my list, and helped me with it. So, without further ado, here are....

Ten Things I Learned at Student Camp:
1. How many hair dryers, curling irons and straightening irons it takes to blow every fuse in our cabin.
2. Rock, Paper, Scissors will solve any disagreement.
3. If you find yourself engaged in snuggery, work around it.
4. Where the Mets play and how to spell it.
5. Where the Big Dog sign was hidden and by whom.
6. Taking a shower at camp is a 12-step process, and if you want to have hot water, it needs to be done between the hours of midnight and 6am.
7. How to recover from an imaginary blow dart to the neck.
8. If you run to the concession stand with a bag of about a bazillion glowsticks, you will be attacked by a swarm of Asians.
9. How to get a wallet out of a tree using a flashlight, a rock (bad idea), and finally, a sophomore's shoe.
10. Christianity is in good hands.

One Time...At Church Camp...

Ten Things I Learned at Church Camp:
1. Never underestimate your laziness when a golf cart is at your complete disposal. I discovered that no matter how small the distance, I will take the golf cart.
2. It's a wonder I've never gotten seriously injured on said golf cart.
3. There is such a thing as a golf cart tan.
4. You don't actually have to play paintball to get a welt from a paintball or covered in paint.
5. It takes me 6 minutes to blow up 30 water balloons.
6. After blowing up 1000+ water balloons, your hands may never be the same.
7. In theory, on paper it looks good, but...
8. You may have a "Big Mama," but I just sent in "Big Daddy."
9. No one is good at or even willing to play the "what movie is that from?" game
10. There's no place like home to make everything better.

Things I Love

I was in the grocery store this morning, and one of my favorite songs came on. It made me smile. Now, I have two cd's with this song on it, and my cell phone even plays this song when it rings. It was still such a sweet treat when I heard it at the grocery store. It got me thinking about things I love.

1. A just-made bed
2. Izze Pear from Starbucks and Cherry Cream Slushes from Sonic
3. The book "A Wrinkle in Time"
4. The color pink.
5. Accidentally being called Mom by my students
6. Hugs from students
7. The Florida Gators
8. Jack Johnson's, Daniel Powter's, and Howie Day's new CD's
9. the movie "Say Anything"
10. Target
11. sleeping late on Saturdays
12. my iPod
13. driving with the windows down (and for that matter...automatic windows)