looking for a chick flick?

I am the queen of chick flicks. I absolutely love them, and I'll watch just about any chick flick set in front of me--even those incredibly cheesy Hallmark movies! It's gotten harder to recommend chick flicks in recent years, though ... gone are the days of the first kiss coming at the end of the movie (a la While You Were Sleeping). Instead, it usually...

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k max is the only one left

It's official: I've now seen 2/3 of dc Talk.On Wednesday I got a text from one of my friends asking if I wanted to go to the Newsboys concert. Sounds great, right? Well, the catch is that the concert was Thursday in a town nearly two hours away. Here was the deciding factor for me: Michael Tait, formerly of dc Talk, is now the Newsboys' lead singer. Sold.I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I would pay big money to see dc Talk live. And while...

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a picture's worth ...

They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Since I haven't been writing much lately, I thought I'd throw up a few pictures to catch you up with my life!I got Mom tickets to Straight No Chaser's Omaha concert for her birthday. As you can see, we were quite happy to be there! My favorite part was, surprisingly, this Lady Gaga medley.In early October,...

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a fairy tale

Once upon a time, I married Shane West. I suddenly remembered this while watching a recent episode of Nikita, my new "guilty pleasure" show. He was on screen, and I literally shouted, "I MARRIED HIM!" Fortunately, I was alone at the time.Of course, I didn't actually marry West. Rather, I married him in my obituary. In my college news writing class, one of the assignments was to write our own obituaries. I had fun with mine, and it became even better...

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leavin' on a coach bus

Early tomorrow morning, I and 45 or so others will climb onto a bus, where we'll remain until we arrive in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, early Tuesday morning. From there, we'll continue on to Washington, D.C. I'm going along as a sponsor for my school's annual sophomore trip. If you think of me in the next week, pray for me: bus rides and I are not friends, as I have an extremely difficult time sleeping while traveling. Bus ride aside, I'm very excited...

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sometimes, the answer comes sooner

I've come to expect answers to prayer (at least answers in the affirmative) to come slowly. I've been praying for a husband for the last 11 years. Still waiting on that one. I've been praying for a friend's salvation (though not as consistently as I should) for six years. About a year ago, she told me she had been reading the Bible I gave her, but as far as I know, she hasn't become a Christian. I've been praying about a health insurance issue for...

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really, really cheap music

Consider this a public service announcement: iTunes now has lots of songs for $.69! I'm sure Amazon will jump on the bandwagon soon enough, but for now, they only have about 12 songs that cheap. I just bought Breakfast at Tiffany's (a high school favorite of mine) and Crusin' ... and I'd certainly consider lots more if I wasn't trying to restrict my spendi...

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a quick update

Life has been so busy lately! I keep thinking of things to write about, but then I don't get around to it. So, here's another of my famous "bullet" updates:Mom and I are seeing Straight No Chaser in Omaha tomorrow night! I bought the tickets for her birthday--in May--and it's crazy to think the day is almost here. I'm sure I'll have more to say after...

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my new place

This post is long overdue ...In late July, I learned of an opportunity to move out of the apartment I'd lived in for the last four years and into a (rather large) house. The house belongs to an elderly woman who, when she lived in Central City, attended the church I grew up in. This woman and her children had decided it was time to sell the house,...

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a great deal!

Several weeks ago, I told you about Born Again, the new album from the Newsboys. It still is one of my favorite albums, and I recently learned you can get it from Amazon for $5! What a deal! You can preview 30-second snippets of each song and buy the album here! Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”...

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in other long-forgotten band news ...

Continuing on my theme of "bands that made me happy back in the day," I have some sad news: the lead singer of LFO passed away recently. Who's LFO, you ask? The Lyght Funkie Ones are best known for their summer hit "Summer Girls" (If you listened to radio in the late 90's, you probably know it: "New Kids On The block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food...

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thanks, brittany!

Well over a year ago, I wrote about a concert I attended in Hastings. (Read about it here.) In my post, I reminisced about other concerts I attended at that same venue. The long-forgotten Christian group Church of Rhythm was at one of those concerts. While hanging out with my cousin Brittany on our Labor Day camping trip (post about that to follow later), I looked through her insanely large stack of cd's, many of which used to belong to her older...

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things i love about my new place

the dishwashertwo huge windows in the living roomthe washer/dryer set. They're old, but they do the trick!the gas stovethe ceiling fansthe storage space in the kitchenthe garagethe yardthe proximity to my workplacePictures to come so...

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how "lost" should have ended

Maybe someday I'll actually stop talking about Lost. I came across this video today, and I had to share. If you didn't watch the show, though, it probably won't make much sen...

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concert time!

My sister and I just got home from seeing Lifehouse at the Nebraska State Fair. It was awesome! Lifehouse has been my favorite band ever since my brother gave me a copy of No Name Face in 2001, so I was absolutely ecstatic when I learned they'd be playing at the fair. To top it off, the concert was free with a paid gate admission. We got early bird...

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once things settle down ...

I'll start blogging again. I promise. I never finished blogging about our big pricelining trip, I have a book review to write, and I need to tell you all about my birthday weekend. But all that will have to come later, as I'm in the middle of moving! I'll tell you all about the house once I'm moved in, of course. And school started today, so I'll have things to say about that. For now, though, know that I'm still out there, and I'll be back to the...

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i can't stop listening

So the Newsboys released their new album last month. I liked them back in the day, but I was never a super fan. Take Me To Your Leader came out my freshman year of high school, and while I enjoyed the album (especially "Breakfast" and the title track), I can't even remember what most of the songs sound like. I did buy--and liked--Adoration, but I never...

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pricelining: days 3 & 4

We were without internet access at our last hotel, so I wrote this on Friday but didn't have the opportunity to post until tonight. For what we did on day three, see Blendy’s blog!This morning, we got up at 9 and readied ourselves to leave. I booked our hotel—$48 for a room at the Extended Stay America in Copley, Ohio. This was our worst deal yet,...

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pricelining: day 2

"Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan." While You Were SleepingToday certainly didn't turn out the way I planned. First of all, I didn't get up on time ... a fact that Blendy so kindly recorded on her blog. Then I had a few issues reserving our hotel room. Namely, I didn't want to pay what it was going to cost to stay in Canada ... so we changed...

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pricelining: day 1

Blendy and I are Pricelining our way out East. What that means is we're reserving all our hotels using Priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" feature. Today's deal: $35 for a room at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Regular price: $84.15. Our trip began at 8 a.m. with a stop at our local coffee shop. It was all smooth sailing until we were about 40 miles from Kalamazoo. Then I glanced down and saw the low tire light was on ......

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looking for love in all the wrong places

I'll admit it: I watch The Bachelorette. Though I don't follow it nearly as closely as I have in the past, I still follow it. And I eagerly anticipated watching last night's train wreck, which Reality Steve (a fountain of all things spoilerific) promised would turn Frank into "the most hated contestant in franchise history."Really, Steve? Because the way I see it, Frank did the honorable thing. He bowed out once he figured his stuff out. Perhaps...

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tweet tweet

Well, I've done it. I've joined Twitter. I still don't really get how it works ... and I have no idea how much I'll use it. But if you want to, you can follow me at twitter.com/beckyrit...

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with this ring ...

I had the pleasure and honor of being in my college roommate Jen's wedding last weekend. I drove out to Indiana on Thursday (Blendy came along to help me drive) and returned home on Monday. It was a crazy, busy weekend, and I loved every minute of it! (Well, I didn't love the minutes in stop-and-go traffic near Chicago ... )Sarah, another dear friend...

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find us on facebook!

I spent the majority of my workday doing something that just a few years ago I would have found unfathomable ... I created a facebook page for my workplace! I had lots of fun adding old pictures and getting things set up. There's still a lot to do--as of now, we have virtually no pictures from the '80s and '90s because I still need to scan them in--but...

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father's day

Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love y...

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insomnia musings

For the past three weeks, I've consumed very little caffeine. In the past--back when I downed three or four diet colas a day, often topped off with a cup or two of coffee--I never had to worry about being kept up by caffeine. It didn't matter if I drank a cup of coffee 20 minutes before bed; I'd be asleep within 30 minutes. Not so today. My sister came over to watch the NBA Finals game, and she brought iced coffee with her. I drank two glasses--the...

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rub-a-dub-dub

Three men in a tub ... I had to look up the rest of the nursery rhyme, and I find I didn't really know it at all. No matter, though! I think it was in one of my childhood books; at least I have a picture in my head of a drawing that had three guys in a bathtub on the ocean.Crazy as it sounds, that picture describes what I did last weekend! No, I didn't get lost at sea in a bathtub ... I went tanking!Seven friends and I went up to the Calamus River,...

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my radical experiment

A few weeks ago, I read and reviewed Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream. In my review, I said I thought Radical would ultimately change me. It's already beginning, as I have embarked on my own version of "The Radical Experiment."I began on May 18. Because I know how easy it would be for me to quit at some point, I want to make public what commitments I've made so you can help keep me accountable! Each commitment, which is taken...

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