Chipmunk Love

Who said that Chipmunks are ugly, smell like poop and eat all your rosebushes? If that's the case I guess these are lab-munks or something. posted by Ben.

Bizarre Halloween

Well... just down the road from "Country Stonehenge" I noticed some very interesting Halloween decorations. Here we have a giant spider and a guillotine in the front yard. I mean, who puts a guillotine in their front yard? What you don't see is that they also have a coffin with feet coming out of it and other such decor to their front yard.









Here's a close up.

Thoughts

These past few weeks have been very interesting and very full of change for me. I found out my due date... May 31st. This is one of those times in life when you just have to say "have thine own way Lord" and trust Him. (there are many in life I think) There are always things to worry about, but just knowing God is in control is a huge comfort. I heard that hymn this morning and it really did speak to me. Here are the lyrics.

Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way.
Search me and try me, Master, today.
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
as in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way.
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray.
Power, all power surely is Thine.
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way.
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit
till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Kansas City Chorale

This is a video Ben took of my choir tonight at our concert. Check out the church we sang in... beautiful! This is the first part of a beautiful song called "If Music Be the Food of Love" by Jean Belmont. She lives in Kansas City and we've all met her. If only I could write songs like this.

More Adventures with Rusty

So I'm beginning to understand why so many of the videos on America's Funniest Home Videos are with animals... your life is certainly never boring with them.

Yesterday it was raining TORRENTIALLY outside with huge long rolling thunder booms right outside our house. And of course, the dog had to be walked. So I prepared for the worst, putting one of my parents old sailing jackets, swimming trunks and beach sandals. The photo to the left will give you an idea of what I looked like (notice the beautiful snot-colored rain helmet that comes with the sailing coat).

Now All I need is a whaling harpoon to complete the outfit!








So I began to jog up the road with Rusty tearing madly at his leash. It was really pouring out so I started to encourage myself by shouting "don't you LOVE this rusty? This is GREAT isn't it? I LOVE the rain! I LOVE THE RAIN! I LOVE THE RAIN!!!!" (getting progressively louder of course).

I was no more than 50 yards up the road, shouting as I jogged, when I looked up and one of our neighbors was staring at me. He was standing in his garage wearing a suit waiting for a break in the rain before heading out to work I guess. He gave me an apprehensive wave hello, as if to say "hi, how are you? (you're really weird and please don't come over here)".

Ahhh, the sweet bliss of unashamed dog walking. (posted by Ben)

Here's another entertaining Rusty moment:

Honda "Cog" Commercial

When I first saw this movie I thought - wow those are really amazing computer graphics. Then I looked it up on snopes.com which is where you can go to find out the truth about any of those chain emails about viruses (they are almost always fakes). So I was extremely surprised to find out that this commercial is REAL and doesn't use any computer graphics! Absolutely amazing! Here's the snopes link. Enjoy! (posted by Ben)

Stressed Out Pig

Click on the pig's nose to stress him out!

Deer Spotting at Lake Jacomo

Lake Jacomo is up the road and it has a great nature area surrounding it. We saw 5 turkeys, 2 groundhogs and about 15 deer scattered in 4 different places. Pretty exciting! Hope you enjoy the pictures. (posted by Ben)














We live at the south of this map between Langsford and Hwy 50.

This is the extremely rare "demon-possessed deer" that you may have seen on nature programs. Click on the photo to see the freaky eyes better!














More deer!

















Even More Deer!

A Little Humor

Hillbilly. Get it? I could not help but share this one.

Great Expectations

In case you haven't heard Ben and I are expecting our first little one. I know many people don't share this news until later on, but Ben has told practically everyone in the universe now, so I thought I'd go ahead and blog about it. Please keep us in your prayers. These are the tests that prove it. I have kept them to look at and remind myself that this is not a hoax. We are both very excited.

Old People + Wii Bowling = WWF Smackdown

As many of you know, we are Nintendo Wii fanatics. But this next video takes Wii bowling to an unprecedented level. It almost makes me wanna be old! My favorite quote is when the 8 ball guy says "You got served" about halfway through. Absolutely priceless! posted by Ben

Kansas City Royals

Tonight Pam, Ben and I went to a Kansas City Royals game. They were playing the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City won 4 to 3. I'd never been to a major league game before, but the weather was great and we had a good time.

Here's Ben acting silly with some peanuts. He thought we all were very smart for bringing out own peanuts via his mother's purse rather than buying some there.









I found out that it's ok to put the peanut shells on the ground there. It took some convincing.














I also found out that you can be an individual in Missouri. Check out the shoes of they guy sitting next to us.















Here's Pam and I in the beautiful stadium. I must have asked three times if that was real grass. I also want to find out about the organ player that plays throughout the game.













We won the game! We are truly soaking up the Midwestern culture now!

New Car

Yesterday we got a new car. Well, it's actually used, but it's new to us. Ben and I had been talking about it for a few weeks now because I'm running around quite a bit now and it's getting a little too cold for Ben to ride the scooter. So we decided on this Chrysler Seabring. Ben got a great deal, so he took it.

Right before taking this first picture Ben said, "this is kind of dorky."







Here is Ben wearing his "Midwest is best" t-shirt.
















Here it is! Very adult looking don't you think? I told Ben it is really fancy and he said, "no, it's really not Meredith." I told him any car that has a keyless entry is fancy in my book.

Country Charm and City Sights

These first two photos are in Missouri. I have to prove to the masses out there that there are very interesting things to behold in Missouri. I call this house "Country Stonehenge" because it is a trailer with all sorts of large rocks set up all around. Interesting!









You can't see this picture very well, but this is also in the yard of Country Stonehenge. Yes, people, this wagon with oversized butterflies on it is yard decoration.















This past week Ben and I went down to Miami. Ben went on business, and I went along for pleasure. I know, my life is so difficult. Here is a view of Miami from the plane. You can see the water glistening in the sun.











This is a photo I took of the boardwalk in Coconut Grove when we went to a restaurant called "Scotty's". It was beautiful.
























Here I am.

















Here's my handsome husband. By the way, he won an award for being a hard worker from his company this week. Only 10 out of 200 people got the award. That shows you just HOW wonderful this guy is!



















Another one from the pier at Scotty's.

















Another great thing about visiting Miami is that I was able to visit with friends. This is a picture from inside a tea room where my friend Leah had her baby shower. It was very nice.

I did go to my school I used to teach at and went to mass with the teachers. When I got there everyone was surprised to see me and they started hugging me. One lady said "why is everyone hugging you?" and then she said "oh, I just realized you're not working here anymore." She really missed me for sure! I thought it was funny. Although Kansas City doesn't entirely feel like home yet, and Miami isn't exactly our home anymore either, we're glad to be back where all of our "stuff" is, even if it is all in boxes. :)

The Adventures of Rusty

For the last few days I've been going to a park nearby to do some exercising. It is so nice out that I talked Ben into going along tonight after dinner. I subbed today for the first time, so I didn't go in the morning. (before you ask- 3 &4 year olds... let's just say it was quite a ride) Anyway, to help out Ben's mom we took Rusty along. Ben wanted to let him off the leash and he asked me what I thought. I cautioned him and told him that I didn't think it was a good idea. He decided to let him off the leash to see what would happen.

We watched Rusty jump through the tall grass. He was having the time of his life. Then we lost him. We looked all over and called out his name. It was getting dark so I was really starting to get worried. We drove around the neighborhood and called Ben's mom, Pam. She came and helped us look and we also recruited two teenagers to help. Finally, after calling and looking for what seemed like an hour, we heard his tags jingling. He was running after something. We assumed it was a rabbit... but no, it was 4 full grown deer! We saw them and they almost ran us over. Besides having a thorn in his foot, Rusty was fine. It turns out that one of the teenagers that helped us find him was a vet tech and she pulled the thorn out. What are the chances? Here's a picture of Rusty the dog all worn out from his adventure. Needless to say, we will NEVER let him off the leash again.

When God Paints

I can't wait!

Cooking in September

I thought this recipe was very good. I love the taste of rosemary. It is a close second as my favorite spice. My first favorite is tellicherry pepper! I got this out of the "Taste of Home" magazine in the library. This recipe originally used ground veal, but I found out from the meat man at the store that veal is expensive and bland tasting. He said if it were him he would use turkey instead. So that's what I did. He hasn't steered me wrong before. He's the one who told me to cook salmon with the skin still on 'cause that's where all the nutrients are. Hum.... interesting.

Rosemary Turkey Meatballs and Yogurt dipping sauce

Sauce:
1 C (8oz) plain yogurt
1 jar (4 1/2 oz) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (I left these out cause I don't like artichokes)
2 T Italian salad dressing
1 garlic clove, minced

Meatballs:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 C soft bread crumbs
1/2 C golden raisins, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 Pound ground turkey

1/4 C vegetable oil to brown meatballs in

In small bowl, combine yogurt, artichokes, salad dressing and garlic, cover and refrig.

In a large bowl- Combine eggs, bread crumbs, raisins, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls. In large skillet, brown meatballs in oil in small batches.

Here's a close up for your enjoyment.

Another Scooter Contest

I've entered another (yes another) scooter contest. You may remember that contest last year that I entered and was robbed by some puny little kid that won the dang scooter. My therapist keeps telling me to put that in the past. We'll see.

Well it's that time of year again and this time I put my Labor Day efforts into a scooter video on VespaUsa.com. Please, please, please check it out and vote 5 out of 5 for me! Here's the link to the Vespa site. You'll have to register on the site to vote. They compressed the final video so the font is a little grainy, but there you go.

Here are the official judging criteria from the website:
Judging Criteria: The contest Judges will, among others, use the following judging criteria ("Judging Criteria") to evaluate each Video, to determine the grand prize, second and third place winners and runners-up as follows:

1. Ability to address key Vespanomics principles (as noted on the contest site) (25%)
1. Saving money on gas
2. Lowering carbon dioxide emissions
3. Decreasing traffic congestion
4. Being fashionable, yet classic
2. Originality (25%)
3. Creativity (25%)
4. Ratings by the Contest Site Viewers (25%)


Enjoy!

And send it to all your friends, relatives, enemies, and complete strangers!

Pavarotti

I found out this morning that Luciano Pavarotti died today. He was 71. I watched this video of him singing Nessun Dorma and it is amazing. What a voice God gave him. If you read about his life you will notice that he has some issues, which is typical of artists by the way, but you can't mistake the powerful voice in there. Strangely enough, my mom sent me an e-mail this morning letting me know the preacher James Kennedy also passed away. Can you imagine Pavarotti singing and James Kennedy preaching in heaven together? It made me smile.

Chariots of Fire - Scooter Version

So this weekend my new experiment arrived in the mail: "Tail Devils". These are for skateboarders to attach to the tail of their skateboard and create massive sparks when they do tricks and grinds. Well I had something better in mind. Last night I screwed the tail devils onto my tennis shoes (one to each foot). Unfortunately they broke off easily after grinding my feet for only a few seconds. So after a trip to Walgreens for industrial strength glue, I was able to securely attach the sparking widgets for good.

Check out the videos of my success below:

Ben's Birthday

Tomorrow is Ben's 29th birthday. Tonight we went out to a restaurant that I chose. It's called Lydia's and I saw Lydia a few times on PBS making pasta and found out she had a restaurant here in Kansas City. I thought it would be good... and we weren't disappointed.

Here's a picture of us. You can't tell, but we are in a garden and not trapped in a well.





Here's what I had. They came around with three different kinds of pasta. Fettuccine, Ravioli, and Penne. A lot of it came home with us.. just too much food!










Ben and dessert. It is a frozen chocolate mousse. Delicious.












Ben and his choice... gnocchi.













This year I told him he could choose his own present and he did. This helmet. He was getting ready to send a package to Beki in this picture.

Welcome to Therapy. My name is "Nutbar" and I will be your Guide.

This is the latest craze sweeping the Yoga industry. I don't know whether to laugh or buy myself a gun.

Lunar Eclipse

Today Ben and I got up at 5:15 to look at the lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses are very special to us because we had our first kiss while watching a lunar eclipse and surprisingly we got married on a day that had a lunar eclipse. Here's what it looks like... beautiful.

This is not a political post ... honest.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Today Ben and I went to the batting cages. Ben wanted to try this in his pursuit of a hobby and also because in Britain they don't have this stuff.

In this first picture you can see the ball flying toward Ben. The fast pitch machine was deadly!
















Here's the biggest dork in the universe. :)





















Handsome and smart.












The lovely bubble heads.

Amphibian Grins

Morris Snake

This is a snake that was on a tree at my mom's house. The neat thing is that you can see he had a little breakfast not too long ago! We think it's a chicken snake. Thankfully my parents don't have chickens anymore!

Human Tetris Game

More crazy Japanese gameshow mayhem - you'll have to see this to believe it. I'm sure they'd have to increase the size of those holes by about 200% if this gameshow was to ever make it in the US!

Tokyo Wave Pool Insanity

Can you spell "W-e-d-g-i-e"?

Cooking in August

For those of you that like Indian food or mildly spicy foods... this is a recipe for you. I got this out of a book from the library called "Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking- A Mennonite Community Cookbook". Since when do Mennonite people cook Indian food? I don't know. It was fantastic! Sorry... no pictures taken.

Rice and Curry

1 pound hamburger (I used two)
2 T fat (I used margarine)
2 large onions, diced
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
2 C strained tomatoes (I used canned died tomatoes with green chilies)
4 medium-sized potatoes, diced
1 1/2 C rice, uncooked
6 cups water (1 1/2 C for meat mixture, 4 1/2 for rice)
2 tsp salt

Brown hamburger and onions in the fat. You might want to drain off a bit of the grease if it is quite a bit. I did not drain it because I used very lean beef. Add tomatoes, diced potatoes, curry and salt. Add 1 1/2 C boiling water and cook slowly until potatoes are soft. Cook rice in salt water and drain. Serve curry mixture with the rice. This is good also with chicken instead of beef. Serves 6-8.

Julia Sweeney

You may remember this lady on Saturday Night Live. I thought this video was funny.

Nightclub for Bill Gates fans

This is in Sarajevo.