The Loganberry!!

While surfing the World Wide Web, I stumbled across this amazing discovery. I can only share this webpage with you. I hope you get a laugh out of it just like I did. It almost felt like I was reading my life horoscope!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loganberry

Pearls of Wisdom

A few weeks ago, Scot McKnight spoke at a Kairos event at Brentwood Baptist. He is an authority on the New Testament, Christianity, and the historical Jesus. That night at Kairos, Scot spoke about the Jesus Creed. He began with this story:

As a professor at North Park University (Chicago), he challenged his students to recite the Jesus Creed every morning, every evening, and anytime in between - whenever they felt the need to do so. After a 2 month period, he had several students come to him with some pretty amazing stories. One of those stories involved a male student, who walked past homeless people on his way to school every day. One day he decided to speak to the homeless people instead of just walking by. This became a ritual and he formed relationships with the homeless people on that block. One day, he and several other students decided to host a "sleep out"- for 24 hours they lived like homeless people. This event raised awareness of the homeless situation in that area. That male student was later asked to fill a position in Washington, D.C. to help raise awareness and look for solutions to the homeless situation in the U.S. It all began with the challenge of reciting the Jesus Creed and trying to live it out in practice.

Dr. McKnight had many more stories just like the one above. Makes me wonder what would happen if everyone began to recite the Jesus Creed morning, noon, and night. I want to accept Scot McKnight's challenge and I encourage you to as well.

The Jesus Creed

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." The second is this; "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these.

Where has the time gone?

Well alot's happened since the last time I was here. Another July 4th spent at Eagle Lake, a new roommate/new apartment, and a beach trip and D.C. trip somewhere in the middle. I find that this blogging thing is much like any other hobby we pick up. It's something we look forward to in the beginning, thinking to ourselves throughout the week- "Hey, that would make for a great story to blog about"- but as usual, our life gets busy (when is it ever not?) and we find ourselves choosing to do something else instead of blogging. Once you skip something for the first time, it just gets easier to skip it again. Next thing you know, you've "skipped" through 4 months! I have received comments from a few of you loyal readers that I need to start blogging again. It seems so much harder to pick it back up- knowing so much time has past/things have changed...I feel as though I would be blogging till sun up to cover everything in the detail I love so much. Obviously, I can't/won't stay up til sunrise to finish this post, so I've decided to just cover the highlights mentioned above and be done with it.

D.C. Trip
For Memorial Weekend, my group of friends from High School went to our nation's capital to crash our friend Valera's apartment for the weekend. We had the BEST time. We toured the White House (and shamelessly flirted with the Secret Service), got a private tour of the Capitol from Valera, toured the First Ladies' Dress Exhibit at the Smithsonian, attended the Memorial Concert on the Capitol Lawn (and were escorted out by Capitol police when it was over- we overstayed our welcome), enjoyed the nightlife of Georgetown (maybe a bit too much), and of course, made the rounds at Dupont Circle (see "The American President" with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening). I have to say it again, we had the BEST time. Looking forward to our next trip, girls!

Beach Trip/Moving/Fourth of July

I am an idiot. Who else would plan a beach vacation one weekend, move the following Friday, and drive 7 hours on that same Friday for a holiday spent with family? Me, apparently. Ok, so towards the end of June, I headed to St. Simons for a beach trip with some of my Phi Mu girls- Maggie, Nicole, Leslie, and Morgan. We had a blast just relaxing by the pool/ocean and we even spent an afternoon at a water park. (It was great being a kid again- blue sno cones and all!) When I returned from the beach, I had exactly 4 nights to pack everything up for the move.

I hired professional movers to move my furniture on Friday morning. Thursday after work, my friend Megen helped me take loads over to my new apartment. My new roommate is a girl I met in Sunday School at Brentwood Baptist and her name is Britney. I will give more detail on her and the new apartment later. Friday morning, Two Men and a Truck showed up at my door to move my stuff 3 streets over. As luck would have it, one of those men was CUTE! Naturally, I ended up paying for an extra hour because we frequently chatted. Even Britney got in on the flirting- she offered them cookies! It was a great moving experience and I would recommend Two Men and a Truck to anyone!

So, the movers showed up at 8am and by 1pm I was on the road headed to Eagle Lake! I basically dumped all my stuff in the new place and hit the road. Everyone was at the lake house for the weekend- Dad, Mom, Ryan and Lacey, Liza, Nicholas, and the entire Strong family came up on Saturday. This was the first time our family was all together since Christmas!!! We did several family poses over the weekend (thanks mom) and enjoyed some faves of mine: boat riding, sitting on the dock, naps, and one word - DIPS.

Meeting lots of new people. Enjoying life. Missing family and friends.

Life is all about timing...the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable becomes available, the unattainable...attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It's all about timing. -Stacey Charter

Expanding My Horizons

If you've ever eaten a meal with me, you've probably figured out that I'm a picky eater. Yes, I'm one of "those people". I do my best to make life difficult- it would be no fun if it were easy all the time. hah. Since moving to Nashville, I have been slllooowwwlllyyy trying to spread my wings and be a bit more adventurous. I know for most of you reading this, you're probably thinking "ABOUT TIME". Not every flower blooms at the same time. My new friend Sepi introduced me to Indian food a few weeks ago. An Indian restaurant in Green Hills called "Shalimar" was the scene of my first Indian experience. I will be honest - the place didn't exactly look like your normal American restaurant. I mean, it was ETHNIC. With much trepidation, I put my faith in Sepi and opened the iron bar covered door (and the menu).

I decided to play it safe (I can see the irony- I know) and choose a chicken dish. And really, you can't go wrong with bread. No matter what country you are in, bread is bread. I ordered the Tandoori Chicken dish with Indian rice (it's not like the Chinese or Japanese or American rice). My bread order came out looking like a thick tortilla- not bad at all. Not being someone who likes spicy foods, I made sure to check with the waiter about the spicyness of the chicken. Apparently, their choices are Mild, Medium, Hot and AMERICAN Mild, Medium, Hot. Well I made sure to order the American Mild. It was still pretty spicy- thankfully, they left a pitcher of water on the table! Sepi ordered some appetizer that basically was potato and miscellaneous ingredients wrapped up in a dough type substance and fried. I tried it as well...not too bad. There were also a variety of sauces on the table. I tried 2 of the 3- the third once was a kind of minty green colored- you all know how I feel about green things.

All in all, my first experience eating Indian food was good. I don't think I will ever "crave" Indian food, but hey, it's all about trying new things....you never know until you try.

Asian Cuisine

On Tonight's Menu: Benihana's Japanese Fried Rice
From: America's Most Wanted Recipes From Your Favorite Restaurants


Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup uncooked short-grain Japanese white rice
soybean/vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup finely diced green onions
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 medium carrot, finely grated
4 teaspoons soy sauce
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Once done, empy into a mixing bowl.
2. In a large skillet, heat 2 teaspoons of oil. Scramble the eggs into small pieces until cooked. Empty the scrambled eggs into the bowl with the rice and stir together.
3. Using the same pan, add additional oil, the diced green onions, the peas, and the carrot. Let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
4. Add several sccops of the cooked rice and egg mixture to the skillet. Keep gradually adding a scoop at a time to the pan and stirring.
5. While mixing, slowly add the soy sauce until the fried rice is a golden brown color.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.



Enjoy! This meal gets a rating of 8 out of 10. It was easy/fast to make and tasted just like the restaurant's!!

Doppelganger Alert!

Today I spent most of my day Downtown in a conference room at Baker Donelson. During one of the breaks, I was standing in the door frame of the conference room facing the reception area when I noticed a man kinda staring at me. I was partially listening to the two men speaking in front of me, but it was definitely hard to focus once I noticed that man staring in our direction. He left the reception area only to return seconds later (still staring) and lean over the receptionist's desk and speak softly with the receptionist. I then noticed that the receptionist turned around to stare in our direction. I was getting really self conscious (thinking my pants were unzipped or something) but eventually the man left. The receptionist called me over and asked me if I noticed that man staring at me. (Duh. Yeah I kinda noticed.) She said he asked her if the firm was representing Jennifer Aniston!!! He thought I was Jennifer Aniston!! I don't know what that says for his optometrist, but I'll take it!! (I need to figure out how I was standing and put that on repeat for sure!)

I must say that this isn't the first time that I've been compared to Jennifer- the first time I met Nicole's Dad he said that I looked like Jennifer Aniston. (He's always been a favorite person on my list!) lol


It's a definite self-esteem booster and I will float on this cloud for quite a while!

Spring Time

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want- oh you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!- Mark Twain

In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head.- Emma Racine deFleur

Just wanted to share with you some spring time thoughts...I'm so ready for more sunshine!

I realize that New Year's Eve has long passed, but I've decided to now make my "New Year's Resolutions". With summer on the horizon- that means swimsuit season-(cringe)- I know it's time I begin the prep work for all that upcoming skin exposure. This means eating better and getting my butt off the couch and outside walking the streets. That's right, you heard me, it's time we all got out there and walked the streets. Work that street. Own that street.

And if you happen to run into a cute guy while walking the street, why that's just icing on the cake-- or should I say, fat free ranch on the salad!

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Just when you thought McDonald's couldn't get any better, they went out and improved on one of their best selling items. For all you BIG MAC lovers out there, check out the newest addition to the McDonald's menu- MAC SNACK WRAP. Everything you love about the Big Mac- cut in half and thrown into a tortilla. So let's all recite that famous song and go enjoy a MAC Snack Wrap!


"Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese,
pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!"

Nashville Happenings

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Here is a list of "firsts" for me since relocating to Nashville.

I worked my first weekend two weeks ago. I'm not complaining, but it sure puts a damper on things when you walk out to your car and see the back right tire is flat as a pancake! I spent the next 3 hours wandering in Wal-Mart waiting for my tire to be fixed. And by the way, it is SOO embarrassing to hear your name called out over the loudspeaker in Wal-Mart! When I heard my name, I glance around to make sure no one is looking at me...then casually make my way back to the Tire Center, fighting a blush the whole way!


Momma came up this weekend for an impromptu visit! We spent Saturday in Downtown Franklin. It's a super cute area with tons of shops and restaurants. We had been warned that Downtown Franklin was a hotspot for celebrities, so I came up with a 'plan' for how to respond to a celebrity sighting. It goes like this:

If you see a celebrity, DON'T act like you see a celebrity.
Calmly inform those in your party - "Hey, 3 o'clock".
Everyone can then casually glance around and see the celebrity.

Naturally, the plan fell apart when we saw a celebrity. Mom, Laurie, and I were in a store and Mom was chattering about the possible uses of this black wrought iron vase holder when Laurie caught my eye and nodded in a direction to my right. I turn around and see Carrie Underwood! Wearing some 'bedazzled' Victoria Secret sweatpants and green tinted sunglasses- not the best outfit a girl could put together. Anyway, Laurie and I are trying to unobtrusively watch Carrie while Mom is still chattering- oblivious to her surroundings. I finally interrupt her and tell her that she needs to look around. I whisper to her that Carrie Underwood is standing to her left side. Mom responds, "What happened to 3 o'clock??" So we spent the next 30 minutes bumping past Carrie Underwood in the small store before finally making our purchases (yes, the black iron vase holder has a new home on our kitchen table).

Anyway, I had the best time with Mom this past weekend- jam packed with eating, shopping, and movies!! Want to give a shout out to Nicholas- he is finally home from the hospital!

Busy season is about to get started...should be interesting!