christmas in nebraska

My family always spends Christmas with my grandma in Kansas. Always. I can't remember ever spending Christmas Day at home, though we may have when I was very young. This year, though, we had no choice but to stay in Nebraska, due to a blizzard. That's right, a blizzard. I can't remember seeing snow this bad before.My brother and sister-in-law came...

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my day, facebook style

Beckycan't believe it's morning.wishes she didn't have to scrape her car.remembers more US history than she expected and probably would have gotten at least an 80% on the juniors' final!is thankful for friends she can vent to.hates the computer in her classroom.wishes the yearbook deadline wasn't on Wednesday.hopes the predicted blizzard doesn't come!really could use a latte.doesn't enjoy tomato chunks in her tomato sauce :-('s brain feels like mush.is...

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and now, a word from our sponsors

Okay, not really, but I do feel like I've been plugging Straight No Chaser enough lately that they should start paying me! If you're not on the SNC bandwagon yet (and if not, why not?), maybe this will help. Click here. It will take you to the SNC Advent Calendar. Count over to Day 18, click on the window, and then follow the link to get a free download of their version of "Auld Lang Syne." The calendar has other free stuff too, but nothing as cool...

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remy zero said it best ...

... when they sang "Somebody save me!"That's how I've felt over the last two days--like I needed someone to save me from the insanity that surrounds this last week of school. If I had made a "to do" list yesterday, it would have looked a little something like this:write ESL finaldo powerpoint for Awana Christmas programenter gradesproof/edit yearbook pagesread Saving Cicadas (my book review blogger book--I really want to finish it because they now...

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the highlight of mom's year

At least, that's the way it seemed.As I've mentioned before, my mom and I are big fans of Straight No Chaser. When I found out they were going on tour this Christmas, I checked out the tour dates and saw the closest they'd be was Junction City, Kansas. Then I got the brilliant idea to buy tickets and take Mom as her Christmas present. So that's what...

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snow day #2

I don't know if I've ever had two snow days in a row before. I suppose it may have happened back in the day, but I certainly don't remember it. And, as a nice little bonus, we also have a late start tomorrow!I woke up this morning to the smell of gasoline. My sleep-addled brain finally determined that the smell was coming through my heat ducts. I opened...

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lesson learned on a snow day

I learned a powerful lesson today. Sometimes I can be a little dense, and it takes a while for me to catch on to whatever God is trying to teach me. Today, though, it was impossible to miss.While cleaning my bedroom, I decided to open the curtains and blinds to let the sunshine in. I should mention that I rarely open the curtains as I'm basically only in the bedroom to sleep. Soon, I noticed one of my neighbors digging out his car. Then I noticed...

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snow day #1

Ah, snow days--one of the benefits of working in education! Today, we had our first snow day of the year. Tomorrow, we'll have our second! I spent a rather lazy day at home, and it was fabulous. I'll have to get some actual work done tomorrow :-)I woke up at 11:30. 11:30! When I went to bed last night, I initially set my alarm for 9, but then I decided...

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cornhusker excitement

I've never really talked about Nebraska football on this blog before. In fact, a search of the terms "Nebraska football" will turn up one post, and that was more about politics than football.I guess the reason I never mentioned football is that there was nothing incredibly blog-worthy about the program ... at least nothing interesting enough that my readers who aren't already Nebraska fanatics would care about. By the time I started blogging on Blogger,...

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catching up

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I feel like I have my life back. Sort of. I'm no longer tied to my laptop for hours a day, but December brings its own craziness. So here are some little snippets I've been wanting to tell you but haven't taken the time to yet:Amazon is once again offering a free Christmas mp3 every day of the month through Christmas. Of...

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month of insanity, day twenty-seven

I win!!!!!!!!!!At 9:38 p.m., my phone rang. When I hung up a few minutes later, I looked down at my word count and saw that it said 50,008. I immediately called Stubes. Then I sat down to wrap up my novel. At 10:45, I uploaded a scrambled version to the NaNoWriMo website, and this is what I saw:The official NaNo word count is 50,718.Yippee!!!!!!!Tonight,...

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month of insanity, day twenty-three

I'M CAUGHT UP IN MY WORD COUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!Finally! I've discovered that 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. is my optimal writing time. I can crank out words like nobody's business during that two hour time period. Unfortunately, I also require sleep, but I'm not getting too much of that during the week.I just looked at the word count meter on the left side of my blog. I'm more than 75% of the way there. That's so crazy!I'd planned to cover a year in my novel. At...

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month of insanity, day seventeen

Things I've learned in the last seventeen days:Watching my word count meter go up on the NaNoWriMo website is addicting. I have to fight the compulsion to update my word count every five minutes.My dishes won't magically do themselves. Yet I continue to hope they will.Most of my television viewing is extraneous. When I have to decide between watching a TV show or writing, I almost always pick writing ... and I don't miss the TV. I am keeping up with...

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month of insanity, day fourteen

By now, you all know that I'm writing a novel. In a month. The title of my Word document is "Insanity," which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with my mental state when I decided to do this! As I write this, I'm at 12,967 words--just over a quarter of the way there. However, this is the 14th of November, so I should be approaching 25,000 words! I have managed to write every day except yesterday, when I didn't get home...

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my continuing countrification

For a limited time, Amazon is offering a free mp3 download of a song by a CMA nominee. The promotion runs through November 22, and there are hundreds of songs to choose from. I know. I spent far too long previewing songs last night! Of course, it helped that I knew that I should be writing, thus making listening to 30-second clips of songs I'd never...

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month of insanity, day seven

This is so ...

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month of insanity, day three

It's day three, and I'm still in it, but I'm struggling.Yesterday, I basically started over. I kept what I had already written, but I totally changed the way the story was headed.Today, I had great intentions. In the nearly six hours since I left work, I ...got a haircutate supperwatched NCIS with Valsang through all of my Singing Christmas Tree songs ... some more than oncedownloaded a free mp3 album from Amazonwatched the first half of V (I quit...

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christmas can-can

In case you were too lazy to click over to the Straight No Chaser website to watch the Christmas Can-Can video the other day, here it is. Enj...

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month of insanity, day one

NaNoWriMo began today. I started at 12:01 a.m., and I wrote 787 words before I went to bed. At this point, I think my novel is headed towards being really, really terrible. But the point isn't to write a good novel! (I didn't know what I was going to write until I actually started writing. I'm now questioning the wisdom of going with that idea, but...

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speak before the silence

NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. During the month of November, you probably won't be hearing from me too much--unless I'm procrastinating. Then you might be hearing from me a lot!Some things to say before I go silent:My incredible cousin Nate, who joined us on our awesome road trip to Oregon, has been selected to the All State band for the second year in...

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monkey see, monkey do

My uncle is the king of reading. My mom's side of the family is known for its readers, and he just may top all of them. Not only does he love to read, but he loves to share the things he's read with my family. My parents have received, well, probably hundreds of books from him throughout the years. And, of course, you can't forget the numerous magazines...

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warm and wonderful weekend

So the Huskers lost (and, frankly, looked like they wouldn't have been able to hang onto the ball if their lives depended on it). But other than that, I had a delightful weekend!FridayMade breakfast for supper with Blendy and enjoyed eating with the fam.Looked at a house with Val. She has the opportunity to move into a furnished house for not very...

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writing, reading, and browsing

I'm going to do it. At least I'm going to try. After starting and never finishing a multitude of stories, I'm going to write a novel. Next month. It will probably be terrible, but that's OK. I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as "NaNoWriMo." My sisters and I have talked about doing this for a while, and last year I even joined a writing group organized by my friend Jen's brother ... and I got all of 1600 words down...

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sleep? who needs it!

I should be sleeping. In fact, an hour ago I was dozing on the couch. But then I got up to get a drink, and now I'm completely awake!At what point does a fever become a fever? If I'm at, say, 98.9, should I stay home, even though I feel fine? My normal temp is 97.9 (at least according to my digital thermometer). With the flu going around, is one degree...

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christmas is coming!

Yes, I know it's only the second week of October, but for me, the Christmas season starts when we start practicing for the Singing Christmas Tree. Our first practice was this afternoon. It's nice to be doing it for the second consecutive year--when I went back last year after being away for several years, I recognized a few people, but not too many. But this year, I remembered so many of the altos, and they remembered me! In a church of our size,...

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statement about reviews & recommendations

Due to the FTC's new blogger guidelines, I thought I should make a statement about the reviews and recommendations I provide on this site.I am a member of Thomas Nelson's book review blogger team. This means that I receive free books from Thomas Nelson in exchange for reviewing them. Thomas Nelson urges us to be honest in our reviews, and I am. If I loved a book, I let you know, and if I didn't love it, I let you know that, too. All of my Thomas...

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musical musing

"Storybook Love" from The Princess Bride came on the radio during Classics by Request this afternoon. When I heard the first strains of the music, I got a little chill. Then I thought, "That's dumb. I just listened to the entire soundtrack yesterday!" So why is it that I get so much more excited when hear a song I love on the radio than I do when it's on my iPod? Maybe it's because it seems so much more coincidental and unexpected when it's on the...

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guess what? i still haven't met you yet!

The other day, I posted the promo video for Michael Bublé's single "Haven't Met You Yet." Since then, he's released the official music video. I thought it was really odd at first, but by the end, it had grown on ...

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what to do on a completely free day

These things I've done:sleep inwatch Thursday's FlashForward. rewatch the middle 20 minutes of FlashForward because I was distracted.watch Thursday's The Office.retake the Strong Life Test that goes along with my book review book. Get yet another result for my lead and supporting roles.finish my review of Find Your Strongest Life. Per Thomas Nelson...

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my new "favorite" song

Every once in a while, a song will grab me. I get überexcited whenever I hear it on the radio. I sing it at the top of my lungs. I download it and play it incessantly. During the summer, that song was "Don't Stop Believing" by the Glee cast. I am absolutely positive that Blendy could happily go the rest of her life without hearing it again. I think both my sisters will be thrilled to know that I've now landed on a new favorite (of the moment)...

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there is no place like nebraska

Check this out--it makes me proud of my team and my state! http://www.1011now.com/nreport/headlines/62583072.h...

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what a weekend!

As I write this post, I'm sitting on my couch, covered by the throw I knitted a couple years ago, sipping Bella coffee, and watching Charade, the next installment in my great movie rewatch. I have the day off, as I used incredible foresight to realize that after last weekend, I'd need a day off to recuperate!Friday--I rushed home from work at 4:30, packed up, and headed over to my parents' house to pick up Val. After making two trips back to my apartment...

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i've had the time of my life

Just saw on imdb that Patrick Swayze died today. Unlike many girls in my generation, I wasn't a Dirty Dancing fan (probably due to the fact that the first and only time I watched it was at a party with my then 11-year-old sister. I spent the majority of the movie with my hands over her eyes!). I did like Swayze, though, and I had a crazy affection for "She's Like The Wind," which he co-wrote and recorded for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.One of the...

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i'm excited about ...

my next book review blogger book: Green by Ted Dekker! I would have bought the book anyway ... but now I get it for free!taking my yearbook staff to the fall yearbook conference in Kearney tomorrow.Homecoming Week, during which I get to wear jeans to work every day. (I usually have to stretch things a bit in order to make jeans fit into each day's theme--for crazy footwear day a couple years ago, I pinned socks to my jean capris--but this year, each...

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wanna buy a movie???

I've gotta say, the great dvd rewatch experiment is going well. Not only am I enjoying watching the movies--for the most part--but I'm also successfully selling the movies I've decided to get rid of. True, I'm only making a fraction of what I initially paid, but any money is better than having the unwanted dvd's take up space on my shelf!Now if someone would just buy Bailey's Billions ...

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can you believe we still use this?

This is my parents' camper. They bought it when I was a preteen, and it was quite old then.This picture gives you the overall effect. The hole in the screen was caused by mice. Val & I sleep in the bed on that side, and we couldn't open the window for fear of mosquitoes coming in.Check out the duct tape!Seriously, though, I'm thankful that my parents...

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seagulls on the radio?

For years ... as in since the 8th grade ... one of my radio presets has been set to 107.7 KSYZ. Back when I started listening, it was called "Sunny 108" and played hits from the 70's, 80's, and 90's (and maybe 60's ... I can't remember anymore). Shortly after I started listening, the "Sunny 108" moniker disappeared, and it just became known as 107.7 KSYZ. Also, at some point--maybe around the turn of the century?--the 70's music disappeared, and...

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cinematic survey

I recently came to the realization that I have too many movies. If I watched one of my movies every night, it would take me more than five months to get through them all! So I decided to try an experiment: I'm going to watch each of my movies in alphabetical order, jot down my reactions, and then decide whether to keep or sell the movie. I began a couple weeks ago and have made it through the numbers and partway through the A's. I've started a blog...

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habla ingles?

I realized last night that I haven't talked about tutoring in a while. The girl I had been tutoring had to quit because of her schedule, so then I was matched with Walter. We've met nine times now, and I can see a definite improvement in his English. It's fun to work with him because he wants to become fluent in English, not just learn enough to get...

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going on a voyage?

This has me scared. My favorite Narnia book is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I loved the BBC adaptation. As for the Hollywood movies, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was bearable, but Prince Caspian showed little resemblance to the story, and I'm nervous about what they'll do to Voyage. Go here to read my thoughts on Prince Caspian after I saw it the first--and only--ti...

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today i . . .

got up earlier than I have in months. Thanks, school.drank delicious French Vanilla coffee sent to us by Val's roommates.drank delicious Vietnamese coffee brought in by the principal.met with our new yearbook rep. He introduced me to an online design program that could make my life a whole lot simpler.googled a phrase I thought was from a Bible verse. Nope! It was from a song we sang at CCC!went to a Student Council meeting. Yup, the girl who never...

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